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Violators - Notable Campaigns: Fall of Torvendis (Unknown Date.M41) - Four hundred Violators were stationed permanently on the Daemon World of Torvendis within the Eye of Terror under the banner of the Daemon Prince named Lady Charybdia. Led by Commander Demetrius, who was entombed in a Dreadnought, they fought in the defence of Charybdia Keep against the forces of their bitter rivals, the Blood God Khorne. The majority of the Violators stationed on this doomed world were either killed during the battle by the Khornate followers, their leader -- the Daemon Prince Ss'll Sh'Karr -- or the barbarian horde of Golgoth.13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - The 13th Black Crusade was a massive invasion of Imperial space by the Forces of Chaos led by the Warmaster Abaddon the Despoiler against the Imperial Fortress World of Cadia and the surrounding sectors. This was the largest mobilisation of both Imperial and Chaos forces seen since the bygone days of the Horus Heresy. Most of the actions by the Violators during this Black Crusade took place within the Cadian Sector. During the war they repeatedly took new recruits for the warband from the worst Imperial prisons.Assault on Saint Josmane's Hope (999.M41) - The first of the inner worlds of the Cadian System to fall to the forces of Chaos during the 13th Black Crusade was the penal world of Saint Josmane's Hope, whose inmates threw their lot in with the Chaos invaders in the vain hope of being granted freedom. They were granted only eternal damnation, for their liberators turned out to be the Heretic Astartes of the Violators warband, the devoted servants of Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure. Brutal, close-quarters fighting erupted all across the continent-sized prison and many of the guards kept a last bullet for themselves rather than allow themselves to be taken by the frenzied inmates. Welcoming the Traitor forces as liberators, the inmates were to be horrifyingly disabused of this notion as those allowed to live through the "pleasures" inflicted upon them by the Slaaneshi Heretic Astartes were instead taken as slaves for the Chaos warfleet or conscripted into its armies of Traitoris Militarum. Following a solar week of disastrous events upon the penal world, Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed issued an order that the world of Saint Josmane's Hope was to be subjected to Exterminatus and destroyed utterly. Unable to launch the necessary orbital strike due to the formidable orbital defences of the Chaos fleet, a special team known as Strike Force Herald composed of Astartes from various Chapters and other Imperial operatives landed covertly on the planet's surface. Carrying out their clandestine mission, the Imperial strike team was able to successfully overload the generatorium grid of the planet's main prison complex. The resulting explosion pierced the world's crust, causing a meltdown to "sink" through the planet's outer crust and into its mantle, causing the world to tear itself apart. It is not known how many Chaos Space Marines of the Violators warband survived this conflagration. |
Violators - Notable Violators: Commander Demetrius (KIA) - Demetrius was the Chaos Champion of Slaanesh who served as the commander of those Violators stationed on the Daemon World of Torvendis, under the patronage of the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince Lady Charybdia. Demetrius was entombed within the sarcophagus of a Chaos Dreadnought. At the centre of the Dreadnought's chest, where the cybernetic sarcophagus containing Demetrius' mortal remains was located, was a fleshy knot like an unopened flower, pale and dead but pulsing with the machine's heart. The sarcophagus could open to reveal Demetrius' shattered body, a scorched corpse with its arms and legs sheared off, the face rotten and drained. Fronds like the tendrils of some sea creature waved from his skin, which were his exposed and elongated nerve endings. These allowed him to feel the sensation of pain during his battles. Demetrius was killed in action by the Khornate Daemon Prince Sh'll Sh'Karr when the forces of the Blood God attacked Charybdia Keep on Torvendis. |
Violators - Warband Colours: The Violators wear dark blue power armour with silver trim. Their armour and banners are adorned with various silver and pink symbols of Chaos and Slaanesh. |
Violators - Warband Badge: The Violators' badge is a yellow lightning bolt crossed with a Slaaneshi curved dagger centred over a field of dark blue. |
Vior'la - Vior'la: Vior'la is a planet and Sept of the T'au Empire, which was first conquered by the T'au during the First Sphere Expansion.Vior'la is well known among the T'au and their allies for the Fire Warriors drawn from the members of its population's Fire Caste, because they are more aggressive than any other in the T'au military.Vior'la was also the home of O'Shovah, known to the Imperium as Commander Farsight, before he abandoned the empire to found the Farsight Enclaves, T'au colonies that exist outside the authority of the T'au Empire and its ruling caste of Ethereals. |
Viper-class Destroyer - Viper-class Destroyer: A Viper-class Destroyer is a variant Cobra-class Destroyer converted to carry Boarding Torpedoes. Some of these warships retained their torpedo armament, even after they were no longer needed. The Viper-class has been designated as a Missile Destroyer by the Imperial Navy and is usually organised into separate flotillas which are able to be brought to bear in massed torpedo attacks at critical moments during a battle. |
Viper-class Destroyer - History: During the Gareox Prerogative, many Cobra-class Destroyers were converted to carry Boarding Torpedoes as part of the Young School's obsession with ordnance. Their main weapon battery was removed and extra torpedo launch batteries added. The experiment was not a success; Destroyers could not carry large enough crews to man the torpedoes properly and still fight the ship. Most of these Destroyers were gradually converted back to the Cobra-class' standard armament but a number still retain the torpedo armament, even though they no longer use boarding torpedoes. These warships are now designated as Missile Destroyers and are organised into separate flotillas within an Imperial Navy fleet. They make poor convoy Escorts but have been surprisingly successful as fleet support flotillas. Massed torpedo attacks at critical moments during a battle have often turned the tide for Imperial fleets. The 204th Grey Sharks Flotilla caught the Ork Kroozer Fow-Masha in a devastating cross-fire which blasted the pulse engines off the back of the Terror ship, leaving it a helpless cripple. The 193rd Flotilla is credited with finishing off the crippled Heretic Battleship Pustulence with salvos of torpedoes fired at near maximum range. |
Viper-class Destroyer - Dimensions: Hull: EscortClass: - Viper-class Destroyer.Dimensions: - Approximately 1.5 kilometres long, 0.3 km abeam at fins.Mass: - Approximately 5.7 megatonnes.Crew: - Approximately 15,000 crew.Acceleration: 7.6 Gravities maximum sustainable acceleration. |
Viper-class Destroyer - Notable Viper-class Destroyer Flotillas: 59th Rat Runners - A notable flotilla of Battlefleet Bakka of the Segmentum Tempestus that gave excellent service during the Macraggan War.76th Silver Spears - A notable flotilla of Battlefleet Bakka of the Segmentum Tempestus that performed admirably in many battles during the Macraggan War. |
Viper-class Scout Sloop - Viper-class Scout Sloop: The Viper-class Sloop is a fast scout ship and the smallest Warp-capable vessel utilised by the Imperial Navy of Battlefleet Calixis. |
Viper-class Scout Sloop - History: The Viper is the smallest Warp-capable vessel used by the Battlefleet Calixis. The Viper is a fast scout ship, with immensely powerful realspace plasma engines. It is used for short-term spy missions aimed at specific hostile regions: unlike, for example, a Dauntless-class Light Cruiser, which will conduct broad patrols over a wide area, the Viper charges into hostile territory at high speed. There it uses powerful Auspex andAugur scanners to collate as much information as possible, before retreating to a safe Warp jump point while usually pursued by enemy ships.Given its specialist role, the Viper is unsurprisingly limited in many ways. It is a tiny starship, with very restricted space for additional components. Furthermore, it is not heavily armed, as extensive weapon batteries would draw vital power from the sensor arrays and engines. They are rare vessels in the Calixis Sectorand are not ideal vessels for Rogue Traders, given their highly specialised nature. However, more enterprising and wealthy Rogue Trader dynasties will often employ a Viper as part of a larger fleet, leapfrogging ahead of the main force to rapidly establish the nature of each planetary system encountered. |
Viper-class Scout Sloop - Dimensions: Hull: Raider.Class: Viper-class Scout Sloop.Dimensions: Approximately 0.95 kilometres long, 0.25 kilometres abeam at fins.Mass: Approximately 4.9 megatonnes.Crew: Approximately 7,500 crew.Acceleration: - 6 gravities max sustainable acceleration. |
Viper Legion - Viper Legion: Viper LegionSpace MarineChaptersAstartes PraesesMythos Angelica MortisEye of TerrorSegmentum ObscurusForces of ChaosFoundingImperial |
Viper Legion - Notable Campaigns: The Bifrost Uprising (Unknown Date.M41) - When Chaos-led insurgents succeeded in corrupting several regiments of Bifrost Huscarls, the Viper Legion deployed in limited numbers to Bifrost. To maximise its effectiveness, the Viper Legion placed some of its members at the head of smaller detachments of PDF and Astra Militarum regiments. The Viper Legion would be reinforced by the Minotaurs Chapter, whose intervention would ultimately lead to the Bifrost Incident. Having been awarded brevet command of a detachment of Loyalist Huscarls during the extermination of the Traitor 2-19th Regiment, Sergeant Augustine encountered a blood-covered and damaged Dreadnought he mistook for an engine dedicated to the Ruinous Powers. Opening fire on what he believed was the enemy, his target proved in fact to be Hecaton Aiakos, a Dreadnought of the Minotaurs Chapter. Thus provoked, Aiakos charged and massacred 37 Huscarls, a Leman Russ Tank and Augustine himself before being ordered to stop. |
Viper Legion - Notable Viper Legionaries: Sergeant Augustine (KIA) - The ill-fated Sergeant Augustine was killed by the Minotaurs Dreadnought Hecaton Aiakos during the Bifrost Uprising. |
Viper Legion - Chapter Colours: The Viper Legion's Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Viper Legion - Chapter Badge: The Viper Legion's Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Virtues of the Sons (Short Story) - Virtues of the Sons (Short Story): Virtues of the Sons is a short story published in the Horus Heresy Series. Virtues of the Sons was originally published simultaneously as a part of the anthology novella Death and Defiance and as a stand-alone E-Book. It was later released as an audiobook (MP3) along with its prequel Sins of the Father. It is now also included in the War Without End anthology novel. |
Virtues of the Sons (Short Story) - Synopsis: Nassir Amit, the "Flesh Tearer", a Captain of the Blood Angels, duels the vicious gladiator Khârn, and Azkaellon of the Sanguinary Guard faces Lucius, the Emperor's Children swordsman, as Sanguinius' chosen sons explore the twin aspects of their nature. |
Virus Bomb - Virus Bomb: A virus bomb is a potent Imperial biological weapon and weapon of mass destruction, commonly used to carry out Exterminatus actions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy periods of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia, most memorably during the Isstvan III Atrocity.They were largely replaced in Imperial arsenals by the more potent Cyclonic Torpedoes by the time of the 41st Millennium, but have still been deployed in recent memory, such as upon the Stalinvast Hive World in 273.M41 following a Genestealer infestation. |
Virus Bomb - Effect: Virus bombs deploy a hideous, genetically-engineered pathogen called the "Life-eater virus" intended to exterminate all forms of life in an inhabited planet's biosphere.The pathogen, once released in aerosol form from the virus bombs, is extraordinarily virulent, capable of infecting every living thing, including flora, fauna and even bacteria and fungi on an entire world in only solar minutes if 100% orbital dispersal is achieved. The pathogen can penetrate even sealed environment suits, including power armour.The virus is designed to violently lyse the living cells of any species, essentially causing infected organisms to "melt" into a contaminated soup of organic matter. Entire forests and other plant matter can be reduced to this sludge in a short period of time, and individual animals die excruciating deaths as their bodies rapidly decay around them.The incredibly rapid breakdown of organic matter results in the steady release of great volumes of highly flammable natural gas, much of it composed of methane. Eventually, as the contamination spreads across the surface of the world, a single spark, a single lightning strike, or an intentional incendiary event, will cause this gas to ignite, sweeping the planet with an apocalyptic, global firestorm.This intense heat will scour the world's surface back to bare rock as well as eradicate most of the remaining oxygen in the planet's atmosphere if it was habitable by Terran life.In some cases, the lifeless Dead Worlds that are all that remain of planets that have suffered a virus-bombing still prove valuable to the Adeptus Mechanicus after their violent death. These planets may be transformed into Mining Worlds or even prepared for a new round of terraforming to make them habitable for Imperial colonists once more. |
Virus Bomb - Second War for Armageddon: During the Second War for Armageddon in 941.M41, Armageddon's planetary governor, the Overlord Herman von Strab, maintained a secret stash of ancient virus bombs that had originally been collected millennia before when his family had first led the colonisation of the Hive World.Once unleashed on the invading Greenskins they took a terrible toll, but their extreme age had degraded the stocks of Life-eater pathogen within, and so the death rate among the Orks was nowhere near total.Even worse, like many biological and chemical weapons, the shifting winds caused some of the pathogen to infect many members of the Astra Militarum regiments leading the Imperial defence, ultimately leading to as many deaths among the defenders of Armageddon as among their foes. |
Virus Bomb - Inquisitor Mikhail Dinalt: On an undesignated frigid Feral World in the Segmentum Tempestus in 958.M41, Inquisitor Mikhail Dinalt of the Ordo Malleus ordered the planet to be virus-bombed from orbit.Two Terran years earlier, a member of his Inquisitorial entourage had become stranded on the planet after "falling from the sky", and was being worshipped as a goddess by the primitive natives.Dinalt judged the local tribes to be engaged in heresy and carried out an Exterminatus action upon the world using virus bombs. |
Visions of Heresy - War, Darkness, Treachery and Death (Omnibus) - Visions of Heresy - War, Darkness, Treachery and Death (Omnibus): Visions of Heresy is the sixth release in a series of artbooks in The Horus Heresy series, and was first released in a limited-edition format, and later as a general release hardback. Visions of Heresy is a re-release of the original The Horus Heresy: Collected Visions. This new book contains all the original contents of Collected Visions but with the addition of new artwork by Neil Roberts, and more background information written by Alan Merrett. The book's entire layout now mirrors the look of the Horus Heresy Black Books released by Forge World.Visions of Heresy contains all of the same content as the Collected Visions Omnibus including the four original books in the Visions series, Visions of War, Visions of Darkness, Visions of Treachery, and Visions of Death. These books contain both original artwork as well as images derived from the Horus Heresy Card Game.The volumes also collect edited, previously published Horus Heresy-related magazine articles, and select rulebook information; in addition, original annotations, information, and short stories. The text, along with the art, greatly expanded the background material available at the time on the Horus Heresy. The series outlines the entire Heresy, while providing additional background on it and the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe. The omnibus also contains an exclusive short story, The Kaban Project, which was later reprinted as a stand-alone e-book. At the time of its release, Visions of Heresy contains canon Horus Heresy information up to book 27, The Unremembered Empire. |
Visions of Heresy - War, Darkness, Treachery and Death (Omnibus) - Synopsis: From the ashes of the Great Crusade, treachery was born. Always first among the superhuman Primarchs, the newly dubbed Warmaster Horus Lupercal turned his back upon the Emperor and embraced the dark powers of Chaos. With fully half the military might of the fledgling Imperium at his command, he set his sights upon the throne of Terra and waged a war which would divide the galaxy forever...Visions of war, visions of darkness, of treachery and death –- all of this and more is contained within this heretical volume. Iconic depictions of the Space Marine Legions and the heroes that commanded them are presented alongside artwork from renowned artists Neil Roberts, as well as brand new historical notes on the Warhammer 40,000 universe by Alan Merrett. Witness the end of an era and the beginning of something far darker, as the Heresy continues to unfold. |
Visions of Heresy - War, Darkness, Treachery and Death (Omnibus) - Contents: Visions of Heresy contains the following:The Horus Heresy: Collected VisionsVisions of WarVisions of DarknessVisions of TreacheryVisions of DeathThe Kaban Project |
Vistenza Vyatt - Vistenza Vyatt: Vistenza Vyatt, formally Vistenza Janus Vyatt ab Aram af Koronus, is an Imperial noble and vassal of House von Valancius who serves as the planetary governor and Imperial Commander of the Agri-world of Janus of the von Valancius Protectorate in the Koronus Expanse of the Segmentum Obscurus.She was appointed to her position by Lord Captain Theodora von Valancius but came from an old Imperial noble family that had long served the von Valancius dynasty. |
Vistenza Vyatt - History: Vistenza Vyatt is a bright representative of the Imperial nobility, who serves the von Valancius Rogue Trader dynasty as the planetary governor of the Agri-world of Janus, the highly profitable jewel of House von Valancius' trade empire in the Koronus Expanse. She definitely knew how to make an impression upon her feudal lord, and under her eye, Janus' operations certainly functioned quite...efficiently. Perhaps too efficiently, as Vyatt's harsh treatment of the local farming population in an attempt to keep productivity and efficiency as high as possible resulted in the outbreak of a rebellion against von Valancius rule.The rebellion was ultimately put down by the new Rogue Trader of House von Valancius after they and their retinue arrived at Janus to reintegrate it fully into the von Valancius Protectorate's economy following a series of Warp storms that had disrupted Warp routes across the Koronus Expanse. It is unknown how the Rogue Trader resolved the rebellion, either turning against their tyrannical planetary governor and instituting reforms to make their labourers' lives better, or siding with Vyatt and suppressing the rebellion once and for all an an affront to the God-Emperor's divinely ordained regime.Vyatt employed the Craftworld Aeldari Ranger Yrliet Lanaevyss of Craftworld Crudarach as a sharpshooter against the rebels, claiming that she was an unusually attractive "mutant" so that she might be employed without running afoul of the strictures of the Imperial Creed that forbid all interaction with xenos species. Yrliet had come to Janus through the still-active Webway portal present on the world as she sought to discover the current location of her missing craftworld. The events on Janus would lead Yrliet to become part of the retinue of the von Valancius Rogue Trader. |
Vistenza Vyatt - Wargear: House Vyatt ab Aram Signet RingNeedle Pistol |
Vitria - Vitria: VitriaDesert WorldImperium of ManCryptus SystemSegmentum UltimaAstra MilitarumVitrian Dragoons |
Vitria - History: The planet of Vitria was once known as Silica VII, a Death World of howling sandstorms and desolate oases. The indigenous tusk-felids that roamed the dunes were so lethal the Adeptus Terra declared the planet unfit for habitation.However, in the latter years of 165.M40, a solar flare reached out from Vitria's sun and turned the planet's sandy wilderness into hard black glass. So dramatic was the transformation that the world was not only renamed, but also reclassified as habitable. Before the planet had even fully cooled, the Imperium had deleted Silica VII from its records and replaced it with Vitria, a Civilised World of igneous rock and glasscrete.Though at first glance Vitria's buildings look no different from those clustered throughout the rest of the Imperium, they conceal a lethal secret. The ruins, tumbled statues and splintered buildings that stud its cityscapes all have jagged edges as sharp as shattered glass. Because of this, Vitrian citizens are easily distinguished by their networks of scar tissue. Those few who make it to old age say that haste is the quickest way to suicide, and that the clumsy man soon loses his head. |
Vitrian Dragoons - Vitrian Dragoons: The Vitrian Dragoons are an Astra Militarum militarum regimento from the Desert World of Vitria. The Dragoons stem from a martial culture formed entirely around the Vitrian honour code, the Byhata, an ancient treatise on warfare.Every Vitrian Trooper carries their own copy of the Byhata on their person at all times, even into combat. Tradition states that the Byhata should be carried in a special pocket under the trooper's armour, directly over their heart.Every copy of the Byhata is fitted with a lock that is gene-coded to the owner, so that only they may open the book. In the Vitrian culture, it is a capital offense for anyone other than a Vitrian to gain access to or read the Byhata.The Dragoons are a heavy infantry regiment and have a Storm Trooper mentality, constantly firing their las weapons on the highest setting, as it states in the Byhata that one should always strive to make the first hit the last one.While this means that each shot is more likely to penetrate armour and inflict greater tissue damage on the target, it also means they deplete their las-clips far more quickly than other regiments with a more measured approach.Vitrian Dragoons wear specially fitted armor formed from the metallic glass that their homeworld is famous for. This glass armour gives the Vitrian Dragoons extraordinary protection, especially against directed energy weapons.At the flip of a switch on the waist, the glass pieces of the armour will rotate in place to present the much darker underside, providing the Vitrians with effective nighttime camoflauge.Regiments of Vitrian Dragoons have fought in many warzones across the Imperium, including several regiments fighting in the ongoing Sabbat Worlds Crusade. The regiment led by Colonel Zoren has fought alongside the Tanith First and Only on several occasions, and Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt considers Zoren to be a close friend.At the current time of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, this particular regiment of Vitrians has been on garrison rotation for several years, much to the envy of their Tanith friends. |
Vitrian Dragoons - Notable Events: After being saved in battle on Fortis Binary by the intervention of the Tanith 1st, the Vitrians, led by Colonel Zoren, repaid their debt on Menazoid Epsilon, by attacking the treacherous Jantine Patricians, who had been ordered to slaughter Gaunt's Ghosts from the rear.By flanking the Patricians and achieving total surprise, the Vitrians, despite suffering heavy casualties, annihilated the 700 or so Patricians.The Vitrian Dragoons also fought in the Solypsis Campaign, alongside the Volpone Bluebloods, against the treason of Governor Gideon.The 331st Vitrian Dragoons disappeared on Donoria Prime, alongside regiments of Kanak Skull Takers and Savlar Chem-Dogs, under mysterious circumstances after they were ordered there to wipe out an infestation of Donorian Fiends and close a Webway breach. |
Vivispectrum - Vivispectrum: A vivispectrum is a biomatter containment and analysis tool used by the Apothecaries Biologis of the Adeptus Astartes to analyse captured alien biomatter for anatomic and genetic weaknesses that can be used to defeat them.An Apothecary Biologis is a Primaris Apothecary who in the Era Indomitus has been specially trained to gain biological samples of xenos enemies on the battlefield. Understanding your enemy, no matter how vile, is the key to defeating them. Thanks to the protection of his mighty Mark X Gravis Power Armour, the Apothecary Biologis can advance through withering enemy fire to take samples of enemy biomatter with his vivispectrum, ultimately allowing the forces of the Imperium to turn their foes' biology against them.Apothecaries Biologis were particularly important in the Imperium's battles with Hive Fleet Leviathan after its invasion of the galactic west of the Imperium Sanctus during the Era Indomitus. They were able to acquire the genetic samples that provided Imperial strike forces with new and more potent ways to target the increasingly new Tyranid bioforms that the Hive Mind was constanty developing to counter Imperial defences. |
Vogen - Vogen: Vogen is an Imperial city on the world of Khai-Zhan. In 968.M41, Vogen became an important strategic point of the Khai-Zhan Uprising.Vogen's central point was the Palace of Peace, which had a cruciform shape and dominated the centre of the city. Nearby was Angel Square and Sniper's Alley.To the north of the city were the Mercantile and Pleasure Districts, while the south was home to the law courts and the Basilica Imperialis. Several hab blocks, a railhead, and the headquarters of the 122nd Cadian regiment of the Astra Militarum that served as a garrison were in the east, whilst the west contained administrative structures, the Vogen Theatre House, an execution square, trading facilities, and an Adeptus Arbites precinct.The whole city was fortified and had at least two gun emplacements. |
Void-master - Void-master: A Void-master (or Void-mistress) is the term used to describe one who has risen to master one or more of the mysterious arts of the running of a space-going vessel. They have generally served in a myriad of stations, and have been exceptionally fortunate in that their skills have been recognised and they have been allowed to progress through the ranks to the very top. A Void-master knows every inch of his vessel, and even the cold touch of the airless void presents little fear, for he has faced the terrors of space countless times and has lived to tell the tale. In character and attitude, they are as varied as the voidships on which they have served. Some are dour and proper officers -- the products of the finest naval bloodlines, while others are born traders and rakish rogues out of the mercantile Chartist ships. Others, still, are by inclination smugglers, scavengers, and even pirates. No matter their origins, however, one thing unites them all -- the consummate skill in doing what they do best, and the high price and respect their services can earn them. |
Void-master - Role: The Imperium of Mankind is an interstellar empire spanning much of the galaxy -- its worlds, star systems, and sectors linked by countless Warp routes and divided by unutterable gulfs and savage storms of unreality beyond. Vast fleets of military, mercantile, and exploratory spacecraft knit this great realm together, and some of these voidships are as large and densely packed with human life as many terrestrial cities, but even among those who spend their lives protected by steel-skinned ships out in the cold darkness, Void-masters are a rare breed. To become a Void-master, an individual must have risen above those around him and have distinguished himself by particular talent and ability. Regardless of background, whether his origins be bilge-scum or scion of a lauded hero, a Void-master must earn his title, for it marks a man or woman who can be trusted to hold the lives of many in his or her hands.The Void-master might be a helmsman, master gunner, or the warden of the ship's sensors, but whichever position he holds, he controls the vessel's systems as if they were an extension of his own body and, in a crisis, the ship's survival depends on his skills. While the average subject of the Imperium might be blissfully ignorant of or rampantly superstitious about space travel and the people that undertake it, those such as the Void-master quite often are equally puzzled by those who confine themselves to the worlds below them. Why, they ask, would any human being surrender himself to the servility and imprisonment of a planet-bound life, when the dark majesty of space awaits those with the courage to voyage upon its endless tides? |
Void Axes - Void Axes: Void AxesSpace MarineChapterFoundingTheir homeworld is Hasciar which lies in the Segmentum Ultima, in the depths of the Imperium Nihilus.The Chapter sent aid to the Night Sentinels' Chapter homeworld of Lychnos which was under assault, however contact with the relief force was lost before they reached Lychnos. |
Void Axes - Chapter Colours: The Void Axes' Chapter colours are not currently listed in Imperial records. |
Void Axes - Chapter Badge: The Void Axes' Chapter badge is not currently listed in Imperial records. |
Void Born - Void Born: The void born, also spelled voidborn, are not merely star travellers but the products of many generations passed living in the darkness between worlds. They are relatively few among the teeming multitudes of Humanity, but singular, and form a disparate and odd collection of misfits, strangers, and other ill-omened folk, perhaps birthed in the belly of a vessel that has spent standard centuries charting its course through the stars or aboard an ancient, orbital void station.The void born are often considered to be somehow touched by the taint of the Warp, or at least associated with the many and unfathomable dangers of the outer darkness by the common well of the Imperium of Man. Most consider them bringers of bad fortune and ill-tidings, secretive, and untrustworthy. |
Void Born - Life as a Void Born: The vast Imperial Fleet is a vital factor in the maintenance of the Imperium; without it, Human worlds would be isolated from each other and left unprotected. Without it, interstellar trade could not exist, weapons could not reach the Emperor's armies, and world after world would fall into the darkness.Space travel throughout the Imperium is dangerous and arduous. Most interstellar travel is undertaken using powerful, ancient Warp-Drive engines that push a vessel into the Immaterium, also known as the Empyrean or "the Warp." Once transitioned into the Warp from a star system's Mandeville Point, a starship can cover many thousands of light years within a relatively short time, dropping back into the Materium far beyond the ship's starting point. Some parts of the Warp, however, act as powerful vortices that drag helpless vessels to their doom. There is also a constant danger of turbulence, Warp storms, and temporal loops: starships can be thrown thousands of light years off course or trapped in stasis forever.In the Warp there is neither time nor distance -- only the constantly-flowing streams of psychic energy that comprise the Immaterium. On board a voidship in the Warp, a single solar month of time may pass, yet in the material realm anything from six solar months to several standard years may elapse. Fleets responding to distress calls and supply vessels on long voyages have been known to arrive solar months or even years too late.Those who live their lives on voidships become inured to some extent to the reality-altering process of Warp travel, and to living in low or zero-gravity environments and never knowing the feel of solid ground beneath their feet. Some vessels never make berth, their crews instead raising generations of families in the cold depths of space where gravitational variance, radiation exposure, genetic distortion, and Warp anomalies slowly take their toll.What true effect these taints have on individual void born Humans is both uncertain and varied, but there is quite evidently something strange about most of them. In many cases, their features are drawn and their skin pallid, and they may have minor deformities, or an oddness of speech, gait, or general appearance that sets them apart from others. Some, although outwardly normal, carry a strange air about them, a perceptible something "not quite right" about them that makes others uneasy.Some void born are raised on huge void station-asteroid mining installations, Battlefleet Calixis refit stations, or Machine Cult research platforms -- but the majority come from a variety of backgrounds aboard an active star vessel, be they the issue of the crew of merchant vessels or warships, miners, scavengers, prison guards (or prisoners), and even the servants of a Rogue Trader.The largest Imperial voidships are vast, city-sized spacecraft, many of which are thousands of Terran years old. On such huge star vessels, lobotomised servitors and Tech-adepts move about their mysterious business, whilst menial crew, passengers, and merchant guilders coexist in crowded vaults, lonely corridors, and cramped quarters.At the right hand of the ship's lord captain sits the Navigator, one of a strange and select breed of psykers who expertly guide vessels through the Immaterium following the psychic beacon of the Astronomican.Worst of all are the Black Ships of the Inquisition. These vessels are part of a large fleet travelling the Imperium in a huge circuit, visiting each Imperial world on their route once every hundred standard years or so. Their mission is to collect the psychic levy from each world -- hundreds of psykers rounded up and handed over to the authorities for some unknown fate on Terra.Only when the vast holds of these ships are full of psykers do they return to the Throneworld. Some may display the strength of will and potential to serve the Imperium, however most are sacrificed to the God-Emperor, their gruesome deaths ensuring the survival of the greater Imperium and the continued telepathic light of the Astronomican. Life aboard these vessels is particularly harsh, for the psykers themselves are packed into huge holding cells, treated little better than cattle.Those void born raised in the service of the Imperial Navy or amongst the crew of a Rogue Trader know firsthand the horrors of space and the sheer multitude of the Emperor's enemies. This knowledge often forces voidfarers of the lowdecks into insular crew brotherhoods, afraid to look outward from their duties or small societies for fear of what might be lurking in the void beyond the hull. |
Void Born - Families and Dynasties: That is not to say, however, that every crew-member aboard a starship -- save perhaps the captain -- is doomed to a slow death through privation and servitude (possibly interrupted by a very quick death through combat or fatal accident). Many crew, especially amongst those who are skilled enough to make themselves vital to the ship's smooth operations, adapt to their life amongst the stars, and even thrive. These void born learn to love the countless corridors and passageways of a starship, from Plasma Drive to pointed prow.It helps that most captains afford their trained crew a certain latitude not granted to the masses of ratings. In exchange for their specialised skills they are given larger quarters, better meals, the opportunity for shore leave at friendly ports, and even the dispensation to form relationships and raise families. Often, these families pass down duties -- and the knowledge to perform them -- from parent to child.On the Rogue Trader vessel Starweaver, for example, all of the launch bay door operators on the ship's starboard side belong to the Orell clan, a situation that has remained unchanged for three standard centuries. On a starship's gundecks, each macrocannon may be crewed by a different family, who might all be embroiled in a complex web of feuds, alliances, and unpleasant little wars with the other macroweapon clans. Often, a good crew chief or bosun is indispensable precisely because they can navigate the labyrinthine political webs woven amongst the thousands of ship's crew.The primary advantage to these void born dynasties, of course, is that the ship's crew essentially trains itself in many matters. Invaluable knowledge is passed down through generations, carefully preserved so that the families in turn may preserve their privileges and pride amongst the crew.That being said, there are certain risks as well. To protect their valued positions, these void born crew dynasties often make sure that their knowledge of how to operate their systems or perform their duties remains a secret known only within their clan. So long as they remain aboard their ship and at their posts, this is not a problem. However, should the status quo change, a ship could find itself in a precarious position.During one of its battles with a dangerous Yu'Vath remnant, the raider Cerberus lost nearly an entire crew family to a catastrophic decompression in the aft decks. This family had been responsible for regulating coolant lines to the ship's secondary Plasma Drives.Had the ship's seneschal not called for the clan's twelve-year-old son to serve as a message runner, not a living soul aboard the Cerberus would have known where the emergency purge valves were located, and the entire ship would likely have suffered catastrophic drive failure. |
Void Born - Darkholder: Just as with some worlds, there are certain spacefaring vessels both great and small with a dark reputation. Although all starships have their own histories, not all of them pleasant, and many have dark secrets and half-abandoned depths where things best left unseen sometimes crawl, certain vessels hold an infamy all their own.These ships, some of them ancient and legendary in their own right, ply the dark void between the stars but often hold a deeper darkness within, couched in stories of dire curses, ill-omens, bleak fortunes, baleful massacres, cannibalism, hauntings and worse. The void born call such ships "darkholds," and those that hail from them or can find a berth nowhere else have an equally shadowed reputation, shunned and considered to be unlucky and ill-fated by their eccentric kind.Although such distinctions are often lost on those outsiders who cannot tell the difference from one "spook" void born and another, those that spend much of their lives sealed between the hulls of a great ship fear the darkholds, mistrust those that call them home, and hold their protective talismans tight when they draw close. The Darkholders are a breed apart to those with the wisdom to see it, lean and hungry, with the cold black dancing in their eyes.The Calixis Sector has several notorious darkholds of its own, from the gargantuan and blood-drenched Bountiful Beast, to the blackly-storied far trader Blinded Saint whose seven-standard-year course takes it out into the reaches of the Hazeroth Abyss sub-sector, to the sinister grand mausoleum barge Pale Sepulchre and the infamous naval battlecruiser Chalice of Fire, recovered empty and adrift centuries ago and taken back into service by the Imperial Navy, said still to be haunted by the thousands of souls of her former crew, disappeared without trace. |
Void Crossed (Short Story) - Void Crossed (Short Story): Void Crossed by J.C. Stearns is a Warhammer 40,000 short story published in 2019 and collected in the anthology Nexus & Other Stories. |
Void Crossed (Short Story) - Synopsis: Once rulers of the galaxy, the Aeldari have fallen far, and their remnants have split. The venomous Drukhari launch raids from their Webway-trapped city of Commorragh in hedonistic attempts to salve their fading souls, while the craftworlders sail across the black void of space, chasing survival and a chance to rebuild.A craftworlder and a Drukhari bring the might of their respective militaries to bear, with the full weight of their personal history behind them. |
Void Daggers - Void Daggers: Void DaggersLoyalistSpace MarineChapterFounding |
Void Daggers - Chapter History: During the Era Indomitus the Void Daggers formed a coalition with the Emperor's Swords to assault the T'au Empire's Fifth Sphere of Expansion in the Imperium Nihilus. However, the Imperium's contact with this force has now been lost. |
Void Daggers - Chapter Colours: The Void Daggers' Chapter colours are not currently listed in Imperial records. |
Void Daggers - Chapter Badge: The Void Daggers' Chapter badge is not currently listed in Imperial records. |
Void Dragon - Void Dragon: The Void Dragon, sometimes referred to as The Dragon, though its proper name is Mag'ladroth, is one of the few remaining C'tan, one of the Necron's Star Gods, in the Milky Way Galaxy.The Void Dragon, or a large C'tan Shard of it, is believed by some Tech-priests to be the actual Machine God venerated by the Cult of the Machine of the Adeptus Mechanicus.There may be a connection between this being and the Dragon of Mars, an unknown entity which was imprisoned beneath the surface of Mars by the Perpetual who would become the Emperor of Mankind before the start of the Age of Strife.The Void Dragon, if it actually exists, is arguably the most powerful surviving C'tan, particularly after the banishment of the Nightbringer's Phase Scythe to the Warp by the Old Ones and their Aeldari servants during the War in Heaven millions of standard years ago, although the Nightbringer seems to have had a much more sinister effect on the galaxy as a whole. |
Void Dragon - History: Mag'ladroth is named "the Void-Dragon" in Aeldari Mythology, which portrays it as a figure of oblivion, wanton destruction and devastation. It was a master of the material realm and its warriors were practically invincible during the War in Heaven. While eating stars it takes the form of a cloud of dark light.In the Aeldari myths, the Void Dragon was only defeated when the legendary artefacts known as the "Talismans of Vaul" were placed about the Void Dragon's neck. At that moment, a light spilled forth that revealed its secret weakness. The C'tan was ultimately defeated by the Necrons it had once enslaved and was shattered into shards.In an Imperial transcript of a vox-communication between an Inquisitor named Horst and a Tech-priest named Alagos, the Void Dragon is described as the most powerful of all the ancient Star Gods, having once possessed the ability to create almost invincible warriors.According to the ancient Aeldari legends reviewed by Horst, these warriors could channel lightning into their foes, though these lightning attacks were ineffective against the "Iron Knights" that the Aeldari hastily created to battle against the ancient Necrons.Having gained a respite through the forging of the Iron Knights, the Aeldari god of the forge, Vaul, created the "Talismans of Vaul" (Blackstone Fortresses). These too were powered by the souls of Aeldari Farseers and were used by Vaul to attack the Void Dragon directly.Here the Aeldari legend ends, and there is little evidence as to the outcome of the legendary battle, other than the stated opinion of Inquisitor Horst, which was that the Aeldari attack had succeeded in stopping the Void Dragon's rampage, but ultimately had failed to destroy the Star God.In the final years of their Great War against the Old Ones, the C'tan were losing, overwhelmed by the psychic might of their foes.Using machineries and technologies conceived by the Void Dragon, the Necrons planned to turn the tide of the war by cutting off the Old Ones from the source of their psychic power: they would forever separate realspace from the Warp with an unbreakable barrier.Protected by massive warfleets, the Necrons began to construct Warp suppression pylons at key locations across the galaxy, such as Cadia in the Segmentum Obscurus and the Cerberus Shroud in the Segmentum Tempestus. This plan was interrupted, however, and the arcane mechanisms were never fully completed.Eventually, the Void Dragon was shattered into shards and imprisoned by the Necrons as the Silent King led his revolt against the C'tan.In 912.M41, the Necron Arotepk Dynasty was ravaged by the mindless rage of a C'tan Shard of the Void Dragon that had escaped from its imprisonment. Though only a faint shadow of the Void Dragon's true power, it proceeded to gorge itself on a dozen Necron worlds, expending its fury upon the living before the Arotepk Crypteks were able to force the creature back into its cage. |
Void Dragon - Dragon of Mars: While only speculation at best, it is believed by experts knowledgeable on this topic that the Void Dragon may actually be on Mars, likely in the Noctis Labyrinth, where it is known to the Adeptus Mechanicus as the entity called the "Dragon of Mars."This is believed because of the suicide rush in 998.M41 by five Necron Shroud-class light cruisers that succeeded in penetrating the planetary defences of Mars and then landing on the Red Planet near the Noctis Labrynthus in pursuit of an unknown objective.In addition, the Warmaster of Chaos, Abaddon the Despoiler, and one of his lieutenants have discovered, through their interactions with the Daemonic spirits of the Warp, that there is a "New Kind of Death" walking on Mars.The idea of the Void Dragon slumbering beneath Mars was also given credence during the Horus Heresy. At the outbreak of the Schism of Mars in the early 31st Millennium, it was known by the master adepts of the ancient Mechanicum who sided with Horus that the "Dragon of Mars," an ancient entity believed to have been defeated and captured by the man who would become the Emperor of Mankind before the Age of Strife, was hidden in the Noctis Labrynthus.A Guardian of the Dragon, a Terran girl named Dalia Cythera, was also transformed into a Perpetual and interred within the labyrinth to keep others away from the entity and to keep the creature secured there with her guardian, the Skitarii Protector Rho-Mu 31. |
Void Dragon - Abilities: The Void Dragon is remembered as the most technologically advanced and knowledgeable of the C'tan, even capable of harnessing the raw power of unrefined blackstone.It unleashes this potent force as an energy that ripples throughout the necrodermis bodies of its C'tan Shards, creating a constantly shifting, digitally pixelated appearance for its physical forms -- as if they exist in some sort of quantum state that is in flux between realities. |
Void Kraken - Void Kraken: A Void Kraken is a gargantuan, space-based xenos lifeform that is known to prey upon Imperial shipping.The physiology and nature of the Void Kraken are largely unknown, even to the most well-travelled explorers of the Koronus Expanse.This is doubtless the result of their rarity and difficulty to hunt and detect, but could also be that they represent more than a single species of void behemoth, several variations on the beast mistakenly considered a single race of creatures.Whatever the truth of the Void Kraken's origins, a number of facts are largely agreed upon by those who have come into contact with them. They are almost certainly some form of silicon-based creature, without blood, true bone, or fluid to keep them alive.Instead, it is believed by those few Imperial adepts to consider the beasts that the Void Kraken draw their sustenance from the very space debris they often resemble.Kraken appear to be solitary, asexual creatures that reproduce by dividing themselves, much in the same fashion as amoebas or single-celled organisms.A Kraken tears off a piece of itself and flings it at a world (ideally airless and devoid of life) to create a hatchling which then burrows into the surface of the planetoid, feeding off the rock for solar decades or even Terran centuries before emerging as a fledgling Kraken and flinging itself into space to hunt (another reason for choosing small asteroids or rocks with little gravity to overcome for the young).There is speculation that Kraken might mate, and some process of fertilisation is required for these hatchlings, but so far there has been no proof, or conceivable way to tell a male Kraken from a female Kraken, if such things do indeed exist.Void Kraken feed off minerals found in rock, which explains their interest in voidships. The hulls of most void-worthy vessels present a Kraken with a concentrated collection of metals, ores, and silicates for it to feed on, a tempting and tasty morsel for the beast.Small starships have the most to fear from the Kraken, as the beast's size and strength, especially when striking from ambush in an asteroid field or close to a world, can quickly overpower a ship and render it helpless to fight back.Even larger vessels are not immune, however, and Void Kraken attack things many times their own size, latching onto them like a limpet mine. Only ship-borne weaponry is any defence against a Kraken, and only then if the vessel detects the Kraken early enough and manages to drive it off with broadsides or Lance strikes.Once a Kraken has entangled a voidship, it only disengages when the ship has been consumed or (if the ship is much larger than the Kraken) once it has taken a substantial bite from its hull.This process of consumption is as ponderous as the Kraken itself, however, and it is possible for a particularly brave crew to venture out onto the hide of the beast while it is feeding and lay mines on it or try and cut away its tentacles.Such a task is fraught with danger and the Kraken often reacts quickly to such "parasites" on its hide by throwing up small fanged tentacles to rake back and forth, scouring its stony flesh clean.Sometimes a Kraken declines to consume a voidship straight away, or, if it has fed enough on its hull, it may leave the wreck alone.In these cases, Kraken have been known to drag lifeless ships from one system to another, gathering the hulks around remote worlds or in deep space, possibly to feed on at a later time. |
Void Mine - Void Mine: A Void Mine is a potent form of Drukhari darklight munition deployed on the Voidraven Bomber.A Void Mine is deployed from the Voidraven's ventral weapon nacelles. Delivered with pinpoint accuracy, the munition detonates not one but two warheads, one split second before the other. The first has no direct effect, for it merely establishes a sphere of force, a bubble in reality that protects everything outside and condemns everything within.The second contains a particle of purest "darklight," as the Drukhari refer to dark matter, released from its containment field by the primary detonation. The effects of introducing even a minuscule amount of darklight into realspace are catastrophic. If it were not for the force sphere established by the primary detonation the resultant implosion would engulf not only the enemy but also the Voidraven in the bargain. As it is, though, anything trapped inside the crackling sphere is eradicated. All that is left is a smoking, hemispherical crater scooped out of the ground and the contrails of the rapidly disappearing Voidraven high above. |
Void Prowler - Void Prowler: A Void Prowler is a light cruiser-analogue bio-ship found in Tyranid Hive Fleets. |
Void Prowler - Sources: Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 (PC Game) |
Void Shield - Void Shield: A Void Shield is a special form of energy field employed by the Imperium of Man's various military forces to protect voidships and super-heavy vehicles like Imperial Titans from enemy attacks.Void Shields use Imperial Warp-based technology to both power the shields and then displace ranged attacks by subtly distorting the localised space-time around the point of impact.It is unclear whether Void Shields neutralise the incoming projectile or directed energy beam in realspace through the manipulation of gravitic or other physical forces, transport it directly into the Warp, or whether some other method is deployed to displace the damaging force of a physical attack upon the vehicle or vessel.Void Shields seem to be able to be penetrated in some instances if an incoming projectile is moving below a certain minimum speed.Imperial Void Shields act in the same manner as Ork Kustom Force Fields, though Ork energy fields, like all Greenskin technology, are far less reliable and tend to be inoperable by other intelligent species without access to their gestalt WAAAGH! energy once downed.Inversely, Imperial Void Shields can be re-activated after being collapsed, even during battle. In combat, Void Shields do not protect from close combat assaults or other vehicles moving through them to then attack the shielded vehicle or vessel.Such shields are also used by Imperial military and civilian voidships to survive the hostile environment that is the vacuum of space. Shields form an invisible band of energy around the vessel, a variable layer of force that can absorb radiation, interstellar dust, and particle showers as well as weapon hits.Void Shields have a maximum tolerance and can be overloaded by sustained weapons fire or massive collisions, forcing the generators to shut down temporarily to vent the excess kinetic or directed energy, leaving the ship's unprotected hull open to attack.When used to protect ground forces, these shields are most commonly mounted on Imperial Titans for protection from ranged attacks, but they have also been employed on other super-heavy main battle tanks. On vehicles with multiple Void Shields, or Void Shield banks, it has been said that the Void Shields must be calibrated to overlap perfectly or "weak spots" can occur.These chinks in the shields appear to be undetectable to anything but direct visuals, and can cause catastrophic Void Shield bank failure when shot at by Titan-sized weapons. Void Shields are also said to whine audibly when active, and fizzle against one another when touching or overlapping. |
Void Shield - Notable Void Shield Variants: Triple Void Shield Array - The ancient grand cruisers occasionally still operated by the Imperial Navy and certain fabulously wealthy Rogue Trader dynasties possess titanic layered banks of antique Void Shields that fill cavernous field decks the size of small towns. These are hellish compartments, rank with the stench of ozone and prone to unpredictably deadly arcs of lightening from copper discharge points as the onion-layered Void Shields are pounded by enemy ordnance. Grand cruisers are capable of mounting triple layers of Void Shields, making them more durable than all but battleships.Voss "Glimmer" Pattern Void Shield Array - Void Shields are an ancient standby of Human defensive technology, an almost un-improvable design. Their only real flaw is the great power drain produced. The Voss Forge World attempted, more than six standard millennia ago, to lessen the power demand of Void Shield generation by reducing the phased shield pattern output. While more energy-efficient, this reduced the protective value of the shields. No longer manufactured by Voss, some of these designs are still in use in relatively safe regions where little opposition is expected.Reflex Shield - A Reflex Shield is an ancient variant of Void Shield technology that was used by the starships of the Raven Guard Legion as a cloaking device to protect them from detection by enemy sensors and even the naked eye. The Reflex Shield technology was deployed as a notable feature of the Shadow of the Emperor, the Raven Guard Legion's flagship during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. |
Void Shield Generator - Void Shield Generator: A Void Shield Generator is used by the military forces of the Imperium of Man to generate potent defensive force fields around ground-based military fortifications.Void Shields are normally localised protective force fields reserved for protecting the monolithic Titans of the Collegia Titanica and the Imperial Navy's great warships, but static generators can be erected to serve as an aegis for other targets of vital import.The largest Void Shield Generators can even project an invisible bubble of power across a large area of the battlefield, sheltering both troops and strategically vital battlefield locations by absorbing or deflecting the energy of incoming munitions and directed energy attacks.An especially powerful attack can temporarily overload a Void Shield, but so long as the building housing thegenerator itself remains intact, it is rarely long before back-up systems restore power and the shield flares into life once more.Particularly valuable targets are often protected by multiple layers of shielding, the spectrum of each Void Shield meticulously calculated to offer consecutive layers of defence. |
Void Stalker-class Battleship - Void Stalker-class Battleship: The Void Stalker is the pinnacle of Aeldari starship technology, and is the Craftworld Aeldari equivalent of an Imperial Navy battleship.Its speed and maneouverability make fighting a Void Stalker a tricky prospect in and of itself for any foe, but when combined with its weapons batteries, Pulsar Lances, and squadrons of attack craft like Darkstar Fighters and Eagle Bombers, the Void Stalker becomes a match for any starship that dares to face it in battle.Void Stalker-class vessels came as quite a shock to those fighting in the Gothic War when they first appeared. For almost the entire war, Aeldari pirate fleets had mostly consisted of escorts and a cruiser or two. However, when the Aeldari pirates allied with Lord Admiral Cornelius von Ravensburg in the wake of the Battle of Gethsemane, a new force arrived to roam the stars, hunting down everything from Chaos warfleets to an Ork space hulk.Other Void Stalkers during the Gothic War pursued personal vendettas while the whole region was in turmoil. One attacked the Orks of the Cyclops Cluster and was often seen bombarding Ork positions on planets alongside Imperial forces.Rumours abound that the ship was destroyed after single-handedly attempting to destroy a Space Hulk, later identified as the Misery of Platea. |
Void Stalker-class Battleship - Notable Void Stalkers: Notable Void Stalker-class Battleships include:Bright Star - The flagship of the Aeldari Executioners pirate band, the Bright Star was first seen in the Graildark Nebula during the Gothic War of the early 41st Millennium, but shortly thereafter was seen at the head of a sizable Aeldari fleet wiping out raiders in the Lysades sub-sector. The Bright Star also contributed greatly to the lifting of the Lethe blockade when it destroyed the Chaos grand cruiser Unstoppable Rage and several escorts, and crippled two other Chaos cruisers. It is claimed by the Craftworld Aeldari that before, during and after the Gothic War, the Bright Star has never been defeated in battle.Forge of Vaul - The Forge of Vaul was also active in the Gothic War, but did not amass nearly as sizable a roll of honor as that of the Bright Star. |
Void Strider Kindred - Void Strider Kindred: The Void Strider Kindred was a Kindred of the Greater Thurian League of the Leagues of Votann located in the galactic core. This Kindred was swallowed by Warp Storm Örgvayr when it was created in northeastern Thurian space with the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus.Its pan spectral arrays, alongside those of the equally doomed Thurian Lâkhryr's Kindred, gave some small forewarning of the Warp storm's eruption, and so ragged flotillas of Kin refugee ships limped from the fringes of Warp Storm Örgvayr solar days after its emergence, their passengers telling of holds dissolved into raw madness or overrun by howling Daemons. |
Void Tridents - Void Tridents: The Void Tridents is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter comprised entirely of Primaris Space Marines created from the lineage of the Ultramarines and raised during the Ultima Founding of ca. 999.M41.Recruited from the Ocean World of Talassar in the Realm of Ultramar. The Chapter's warrior culture is strongly tied to the naval traditions of that world, which translates in combat-doctrine terms to a mastery of void-ship to void-ship warfare, boarding actions against orbital fortifications, low-gravity warfare and drop invasions of enemy-held worlds.However, under the command of Lord Commodore Theodro Vethrus, the Void Tridents have also proven themselves to be expert at planetary assaults.The Void Tridents are one of the Chapters who have been assigned to protect the enlarged Realm of Ultramar in the wake of the Plague Wars by Lord Commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent Roboute Guilliman. |
Void Tridents - Notable Campaigns: Indomitus Crusade (ca. 999.M41-012.M42) - Under its Chapter Master, Lord Commodore Theodro Vethrus, the Void Tridents were the first Chapter to cross the Nachmund Gauntlet from the world of Sangua Terra to Vigilus. The Void Tridents outran the Daemon fleet of Warpsmith Tzungdan as they cut a path past Omis-Prion. Had it not been for the distress signals their Librarian picked up regarding Vigilus, they would have likely been able to outmanoeuvre Tzungdan and destroy his base. In the end, they diverted to Vigilus and fought a series of board-and-slay missions against the Ork cordon there instead.War of Beasts (Unknown Date.M42) - The Void Tridents sent three companies and one demi-company to help defend the strategically vital Sentinel World of Vigilus from xenos and Chaos assaults. |
Void Tridents - Notable Void Tridents: Lord Commodore Theodro Vethrus - Theodro Vethrus is the first and current Chapter Master, or "Lord Commodore," of the Void Tridents. The lord commodore was originally a noble-born native of Talassar who now serves as the ducal regent of Talassar due to the frequent absences of Captain Cato Sicarius of the Ultramarines, who serves as the Grand Duke of Talassar, from the world in service to the Emperor and Roboute Guilliman. With the Void Tridents maintaining an indefinite military presence on this world, Theodro Vethrus spends much of his time on his homeworld dealing with matters of state as much as those of his Chapter. |
Void Tridents - Chapter Colours: The Void Tridents wear the dark blue of the southern Talassarian oceans echoed in their Mark X Power Armour. The Aquila or Imperialis on the chest is copper, as is the shoulder pauldron trim and the helm. The inset of the right shoulder pauldron is white.The Chapter's colours are reminiscent of the strong naval traditions of its homeworld of Talassar -- the blue represents the sea, while the white and copper are both maritime colours, the white of a ship's sails and the copper of its fittings.A sergeant is designated by a white stripe on the helmet. A lieutenant is designated by a red and white stripe on the helmet.Chapter markings and unit designations are red. The red squad specialty symbol -- battleline, close support, fire support, Veteran or command -- is displayed on the right shoulder pauldron, while the inset of the left shoulder pauldron is red and proudly displays the Chapter's iconography.The company number is displayed as a red High Gothic numeral on the left knee plate and the squad number as a black High Gothic numeral placed in the centre of the squad specialty symbol on the right shoulder pauldron. |
Void Tridents - Chapter Badge: The Void Tridents' Chapter badge is a red trident pointed upward, centred on a field of white. |
Void Tridents - Source: Codex Supplement: Ultramarines (8th Edition), pg. 25Dark Imperium (Novel) by Guy Haley, Ch. 20Imperium Nihilus - Vigilus Defiant (8th Edition), pp. 75, 79, 89White Dwarf 5 (October 2017), "Eavy Metal - Create Your Own Chapter," pg. 118 |
Void Whale - Void Whale: A Void Whale is a gargantuan alien animal originally born in the currents of the Immaterium that also exists and "swims" through the vacuum of the open void in realspace.Nearly twelve thousand Terran kilometres long, these Warp-spawned entities are so large that their bodies both without and within become home to their own ecosystems made up of various other insidious creatures.Void Whales tend to swim across the blackness of space, and are also capable of navigating the unnatural tides of the Warp.In 877.M41, a hideously mutated Void Whale emerged from the Warp and was destroyed by a team of Space Wolves led by the Wolf Lord Engir Krakendoom. They landed on the Void Whale and fought their way through the vampiric bipedal creatures called Remora that called it home.Engir and his Astartes planted thermal charges deep within the creature's vital organs and escaped before it exploded. The Perillian Gas Belt was born out of its remains.The Orks are known to hunt Void Whales frequently, typically calling them "fishies." However, the Adeptus Mechanicus does not know why. Analysis of Void Whale remains by Mechanicus Genetors has proven that much of the flesh and internal organs of the Void Whales is naturally radioactive, making it indigestible even to Orks; only the Tyranids have been seen capable of consuming these creatures. |
Voidblade - Voidblade: A Voidblade is a form of Necron melee weapon, whose gleaming black edge flickers in and out of existence, causing molecular bonds to sever in any foe unfortunate enough to be struck and potentially causing a chain reaction of atomic disintegration. A Voidblade is capable of piercing any form of infantry armour when this occurs, and its strike has a similar effect to the entropic bite of a Canoptek Scarab upon infantry and vehicle armour.Voidblades are weapons found almost exclusively as part of the armouries of Necron royals like Necron Overlords, Necron Lords and Necron Destroyer Lords. However, Triarch Praetorians also often pair a Voidblade with a Particle Caster as an alternative armament to their usual two-handed Rod of Covenant, whilst Canoptek Acanthrites have Voidblades as tail-mounted close combat weapons. |
Voidblade - Sources: Black Crusade: The Tome of Fate (RPG), pp. 116-117Codex: Necrons (5th Edition), pp. 82-83, 89-90, 92Codex: Necrons (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pg. 204Imperial Armour Volume Twelve: The Fall of Orpheus, pg. 119 |
Voidbrood - Voidbrood: The Voidbrood is a Genestealer Cult whose genesis infestation occurred on the Frontier World of Hopefoster some time in the late 41st Millennium and eventually took over that planet completely.The Voidbrood later spread to many other Imperial worlds in the region. At some point after the opening of the Great Rift, it became an unusual ally of the Tyranid Hive Fleet that destroyed the Agri-world of Taurensi IX.This faction of the Voidbrood aided the Tyranids in consuming the rest of the Taurensi System, believing that they were aiding their long-awaited alien gods in their pursuit of divine ascension. They never realised that the Hive Mind saw them simply as useful pawns and potential extra bio-matter to be consumed if the Hive Fleet's reserves ran low. |
Voidbrood - History: In the late 41st Millennium, the wreckage of the Imperial freighter Pegasine, destroyed by the Lance strike of an Ordo Xenos corvette, spiralled through the skies of the Frontier World of Hopefoster. Most of the debris burned up on entry, but the largest section of the battered vessel landed more or less intact.After long solar weeks spent healing, a single Purestrain Genestealer survivor awakens in the wreckage. It becomes the Genestealer Patriarch of the Voidbrood, and after a Terran century of unfettered expansion, its cult rises up to overrun the planet entirely.After the opening of the Great Rift, in the midst of the worldwide invasion of the Agri-world of Taurensi IX, a vast swarm of Tyranids descended to annihilate the planet's Astra Militarum defenders, the Hive Mind's creatures begin to consume the planet -- but do not turn upon the Genestealer Cultists of the Voidbrood who helped prepare the way for their conquest.Perhaps the strange departure from the Tyranid consumption modus is due to a psychic imperative from the cult's Genestealer Patriarch, or perhaps it can be traced to a flaring of the Cicatrix Maledictum high above -- but to the cultists themselves, it is simply another aspect of their divine ascension. They take to the skies in bulk freighters alongside the vast, sky-spanning bio-ships of the Hive Fleet, and are ignored entirely by the Tyranids, much as the tiny scavenger-fish is ignored by the goreshark with which it shares a symbiotic bond.The rest of the Taurensi System is conquered by an invasion of zealous, frothing Genestealer Cultists and the trillions-strong swarms of the Tyranids that they think of as their allies -- when in truth, the synapse creatures of the Tyranid hordes see the cultists as little more than ambulatory biomass to be consumed whenever the need arises. |
Voidmaster (Leagues of Votann) - Voidmaster (Leagues of Votann): Voidmaster is the title given by the Leagues of Votann to their voidship captains. Kin voidmasters are skilled in every aspect of spacefaring and are often augmetically-enhanced to aid them in their duties. |
Voidraven Bomber - Voidraven Bomber: The Voidraven Bomber is a sleek, terrifying attack craft designed to provide heavy air support to Drukhari forces.Capable of supersonic speeds and mounting some of the most powerful weapons in the Drukhari arsenal, the Voidraven Bomber's Void Lances or Dark Scythes can crack fortifications and heavily armoured targets with frightening ease. Yet they pale against the stealthy aircraft's primary weapon -- the Void Mine. Once this arcane payload is deployed, the darklight implosion that ensues erases all caught within its blast. |
Voidraven Bomber - Role: Whilst the Drukhari consider the Voidraven Bomber to be the ultimate in heavy weapons deployment, it is still capable of outstripping even the agile fighter craft of the Imperium with ease. The Voidraven shares many similarities with the Razorwing Jetfighter. It features distinctive sickled wings and comparable aerodynamic design, but it carries a far larger and more deadly payload than its smaller cousin -- the dreaded Void Mine.Much like the Razorwing Jetfighter, a Voidraven Bomber's pilot is a veteran of the high-speed death races that girdle the tall spires of High Commorragh. Speed is in their blood, and they think nothing of the breakneck aerial manoeuvres that would kill a lesser steersman. It is not the pilot of the Voidraven Bomber that defines its role, however. It is the gunner at its front that is the true maestro in the symphony of destruction that the Drukhari inflict upon their prey.At the fore of each Voidraven is a crystal pod housing a saddle much like that upon a Reaver's jetbike, surrounded by targeting holographs and crosshair runes that flicker and dance over the gunner's unwitting prey. From this lavishly appointed cocoon the Voidraven's gunner will unleash searing fusillades from the aircraft's Void Lances.Unlike the Razorwing Jetfighter, whose pilots rejoice in the earsplitting crack-boom of its passage, the Voidraven Bomber mounts complex sonic dampers that completely obscure the sounds of its engines. Often the first an enemy emplacement will know of a Voidraven's presence is when twin beams of ruby-red light sear great scars into whatever defensive artillery they might have employed against it.And yet, as lethal as it is, the Void Lance is not the most feared of the Voidraven Bomber's weapons. Once the gunner has ensured that he can work without interruption, he will deploy the aircraft's Void Mine from the Voidraven's ventral weapon nacelles. The Void Mine, delivered with pinpoint accuracy, detonates not one but two warheads, one split second before the other. The first has no direct effect, for it merely establishes a sphere of force, a bubble in reality that protects everything outside and condemns everything within.The second contains a particle of purest "darklight," as the Drukhari refer to dark matter, released from its containment field by the primary detonation. The effects of introducing even a minuscule amount of darklight into realspace are catastrophic. If it were not for the force sphere established by the primary detonation the resultant implosion would engulf not only the enemy but also the Voidraven in the bargain. As it is, though, anything trapped inside the crackling sphere is eradicated. All that is left is a smoking, hemispherical crater scooped out of the ground and the contrails of the rapidly disappearing Voidraven high above. |
Voidraven Bomber - Wargear: 2 Void Lances (Wing-mounted)2 Dark Scythes (Wing-mounted, as replacement for 2 Void Lances)4 Voidraven Missiles of any of the following types:Implosion Missile - An Implosion Missile is a heavy and menacing-looking missile that emits a field of molecular dissonance. Those caught in its path implode, instantly collapsing in upon themselves and leaving nothing more than a scorched silhouette to mark their demise.Shatterfield Missile - A Shatterfield Missile possesses two, separate detonation chambers which explode one after the other. The first detonation of the missile sucks away all thermal energy in its area of effect, transforming the targeted foe into frozen statues covered in ice. The second detonation sends out a powerful force that shatters the now-brittle flesh and/or armour of the enemy into frozen shards.Void MineNight Shield |
Voidrippers - Voidrippers: The Voidrippers are a warband of Chaos Space Marines dedicated to the Blood God Khorne that plague the Caligari Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus.Led by the Chaos Lord Kairn Golgarth, the Voidrippers were originally members of the Loyalist Stormwatchers Space Marine Chapter, which serves as the Chamber Militant of the Caligari Conclave of the Inquisition. |
Voidrippers - Warband History: The Stormwatchers Astartes who originally formed the Voidrippers fell to Chaos and then turned on their Loyalist brethren on their homeworld of Ascalon. When the massacre was over, the Voidrippers believed that they had wiped the rest of the Stormwatchers from existence.The Voidrippers took up residence on a former Imperial star fort called the Fort of Echoes and used it as a base of operations to plague the Caligari Sector as they sought more skulls for Khorne's Skull Throne.But the Stormwatchers had not gone extinct. Instead, the survivors had retreated ever deeper into secrecy in an attempt to protect the surviving Loyalists from a further assault by the Voidrippers.This pushed the Stormwatchers closer into the embrace of the sector's conclave of Inquisitors, which used the Stormwatchers as their personal agents on classified Inquisitorial missions.Later, an Inquisitor, allied with Grand Master Godfrey Magnusson, one of the surviving Loyalist Stormwatchers, invaded the Fort of Echoes in an attempt to reduce the Voidrippers' depredations upon the sector. The mission succeeded in removing the star fort from realspace into the Immaterium. But this raid also revealed to their treacherous brethren that the Stormwatchers had not been entirely destroyed.Swearing vengeance in the name of Khorne, the Voidrippers under the command of the Chaos Lord Kairn Golgarth assembled an army comprised of Voidrippers, Khornate Chaos Cultists, mutated beasts, Bloodletters and Blood Slaughterers called the "Goreforged" to invade the Stormwatchers' homeworld of Ascalon.The surviving Stormwatchers proved equal to the task and defeated the Voidrippers' invasion with the aid of the Inquisitor who had led the mission upon the Fort of Echoes. Grand Master Magnusson personally slew Kairn Golgarth and banished the Herald of Khorne the Chaos Lord had summoned during their duel. |
Voidrippers - Notable Voidrippers: Chaos Lord Kairn Golgarth (KIA) - Kairn Golgarth was the commanding Chaos Lord of the Voidrippers. It was under his leadership that the Voidrippers gathered a significant army of the Khornate forces present in the Caligar Sector known as the Goreforged to launch an invasion of the Stormwatchers' Chapter homeworld of Ascalon. Golgarth met Grand Master Godfrey Magnusson of the Stormwatchers in a duel to the death and was slain by the grand master alongside the Herald of Khorne he had summoned into realspace. |
Voidrippers - Warband Colours: The Voidrippers wore the typical blood-red power armour preferred by Khornate Heretic Astartes with brass trim, both the sacred colours of the Blood God. |
Voidrippers - Warband Badge: The Voidrippers' warband badge is based on the original icon of the Stormwatchers, namely a stylised Power Fist. The Voidrippers have a downwards-facing Astartes gauntlet, fingers spread wide, with a red eye placed within the centre.The gauntlet lies at the centre of an eight-pointed Star of Chaos with the Eye of Horus beneath. |
Voidscale Cloak - Voidscale Cloak: A Voidscale Cloak was an advanced protective garment worn by the Sisters of Silence during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.Though they were similar in design to the sisters' Voidsheen Cloaks, Voidscale Cloaks utilised a denser and more efficient vitreous mesh. The larger, more refractive scales the cloaks employed were also capable of deflecting far greater kinetic force and absorbing even the most destructive forms of directed energy and radiation. |
Voidsheen Cloak - Voidsheen Cloak: A Voidsheen Cloak was a protective garment worn by the Oblivion Knights of the Sisters of Silence. It was made from micro-vitrious mesh designed to diffract and absorb kinetic and directed energy. |
Voidsheen Cloak - Enhanced Voidsheen Cloak: The Enhanced Voidsheen Cloaks worn by the commanders of the Silent Sisterhood like Jenetia Krole and the Oblivion Knights-Centura are further reinforced by refractor generators as a mark of their rank and office. |
Voidsmen - Voidsmen: Voidsmen (sing. Voidsman), known officially as Voidsmen-at-Arms and sometimes as Armsmen, are the dedicated infantry of the Imperial Navy, tasked primarily with the defence of Imperial warships from boarding assaults. |
Voidsmen - Role: The warships of the Imperium's vast navy are as varied as the shipmasters that command them, but inside their stout hulls, they all have one thing in common -- an armed military force ready and willing to respond to any threat. Known formally as "Voidsmen-at-Arms," these naval personnel range from common ratings to gun-commodores in charge of vast broadsides and master officers who command entire armies of lesser Voidsmen.Voidsmen-at-Arms are trained extensively in the use of the Lasgun -- the anti-personnel weapon that serves as the common armament of the Imperium's largest military force, the Astra Militarum. When grouped into a squad they are more than capable of laying down hails of las-fire capable of withering enemy ranks and keeping the foe at bay.Although trained in close combat and protected by baroque patterns of Flak Armour, it is standard Imperial Navy tactics to keep enemies at arm's length and punish them with massed ranged firepower. Yet battles do not often adhere to plans, and for close-ranged fighting -- such as that during boarding actions -- each Voidsman also carries a Laspistol.Crowded ship corridors, with their sudden turns and enclosed spaces, are also the perfect environment for the Voidsmen's concussion grenades. These hand-thrown bombs carry a charge that detonates with a resounding explosion, a burst that is even more dangerous within enclosed areas. Many a surging breakthrough attack has been halted with the judicious use of a few well-placed concussion grenades.To augment a Voidsmen squad's firepower, it is common practice for one member to carry a heavier armament. The standard choice is the Rotor Cannon. With its multiple barrels and high rate of fire, the weapon has earned a number of monikers -- the "whirgun," "deck-clearer," and the "Emperor's chainsaw," to name just a few.These naval soldiers are regularly drilled, both to keep themselves sharp during long voyages and also to ensure the indentured toiler-class of workers that service the many needs of the starship are kept in line. Voidsmen form the last line of protection should their ship be breached, but are not just defensive in nature. They are trained to conduct boarding exercises and act as escorts to naval officers or specialists should they decide to make planetfall.When a Voidsman-at-Arms is assigned to their host ship, there is no going back. From that day on they are part of that vessel, and that vessel is a part of them.They partake of the ship's vital fluids in a solemn ceremony, drinking incense-laced oil so that the craft's essence flows through their bloodstream, just as they move through the arterial corridors and passageways of their new home. Upon induction they swear an oath to slay, without hesitation, any force that threatens their ship, its crew or any Imperial dignitaries the craft might carry. This oath is held sacrosanct even when the Voidsman is on planetary leave or assigned to an expedition.Much like their Imperial Guardsmen counterparts, it is not uncommon for Voidsmen to be requisitioned by vital Imperial agents, such as Inquisitors or Rogue Traders, for other assignments. Their new duties might entail leaving their assigned voidship for solar months or even Terran years at a time, but their oath will still hold true -- they must defend their officers and fellows with steely determination, no matter the cost.In many ways the Voidsman's life is a simple one, shorn of moral ambiguity and the doubt that haunts the higher ranks of the Imperium. Their imperative is clear: the ship -- along with its crew, cargo and passengers -- must be protected against all enemies, be they Traitor forces, xenos pirates or even the daemons of the Warp. |
Voidsmen - Voidmasters: Voidsmen are typically led by experienced, non-commissioned officers promoted from within their ranks. These individuals are known as "Voidmasters," and are sometimes referred to in more archaic nautical terms as petty or warrant officers. It is the Voidmaster who barks out commands and ensures discipline is maintained, whether the squad is in combat or simply running through another gruelling training regimen.In place of a Lasgun, these officers carry an Artificer Shotgun -- a weapon that can be devastating in close quarters.Voidmasters are noted for their practicality and gruff personas, characterised by their stern dispositions and unwavering adherence to Imperial Navy codes of conduct. They uphold many of the traditions and rituals that have been in place since before the days of the Horus Heresy.Whether on weapon-cleaning duty, deck polishing or volley-fire practice -- woe to the Voidsman that fails to live up to a Voidmaster's expectations. |
Voidsmen - Wargear: Flak ArmourLasgunLaspistolConcussion GrenadesRotor Cannon (one Voidsman only, replacement for Lasgun)Artificer Shotgun (Voidmaster only, replacement for Lasgun) |
Voidweaver - Voidweaver: A Voidweaver is an open-topped, anti-gravitic gunship utilised exclusively by the mysterious Aeldari Harlequins. Sleek and sinister, Voidweavers swoop into battle with balletic grace. Boasting a veritable arsenal of heavy weaponry, these gunships leave flaming devastation in their wake. Their every salvo sees enemies punched off their feet in sprays of blood as storms of shuriken scream through the air.Armoured vehicles that catch the attention of the craft's gunner are vaporised in conflagrations of prismatic light, or suffer sudden catastrophic systems failure under a barrage of haywire energy. Even those enemies who avoid the violent fury of the Voidweaver's attack run are not safe, for its aft cannon lays down a withering hail of fire to butcher those left cowering in its wake. |
Voidweaver - Role: Harlequins straddle the line between Craftworld Aeldari and their dark kin of Commorragh, residing in that grey area between noble austerity and wicked depravity. As a result, their weapons and wargear often have different origins, some created by craftworld Bonesingers, some manufactured by Drukhari artisans and others a deadly combination of the two.The Starweavers and Voidweavers of the Harlequins are a prime example of this technological fusion, the sleek shape of the two grav-craft reminiscent of both the Craftworld Aeldari Vyper and the Drukhari Venom. The long nose and rib-like anti-grav plates are similar in design to the Craftworld Aeldari craft while the crew compartment shares much with the Drukhari one, the balustrades very similar to those on the Venom and the Raider. The wings are a combination of Drukhari Razorwing engine design and Craftworld Aeldari Hemlock Wraithfighter vanes and aerofoils. The result is two vehicles that, like their pilots and passengers, straddle the line between the darkness and the light.The same can be said about the primary weapons carried by the Voidweaver. While both are unique to the Harlequins, both echo familiar Aeldari weapon designs. The Haywire Cannon is the big brother of the Haywire Blaster used by the Drukhari while the Prismatic Cannon is the little sister of the Fire Prism's main gun. While the Haywire Cannon is uncannily similar to those carried by Scourges, the Prismatic Cannon has a different way of focusing its energy, the lasers surrounding the psychocrystal within focusing inwards or aiming outwards depending on the gunner's requirements. All Craftworld Aeldari and Drukhari vehicles feature large, curving armour panels, and those of the Harlequins are no exception.The howl of heavy weapons heralds the arrival of the Voidweavers, as enemy positions erupt into flames and confusion as the sleek gunships scream overhead. Cannons blazing, they plunge deep into the heart of the foe before blasting their way to freedom again amid welters of blood and showers of actinic sparks.Considering their lightweight build, Voidweavers carry an extremely heavy loadout of firepower. However, their lightweight psychoplastics and gravimetric weaves ensure that Voidweavers are in no way encumbered by their arsenal. Instead, the potent combination of versatile heavy weapons, hypervelocity attack runs and polychromatic camouflage make these streamlined vehicles exceptionally dangerous. A full squadron can easily rip apart an enemy heavy battle tank, or reduce a squad of the foe to smoking offal with a single volley. Operating as ambush hunters, they strike before the enemy realises their danger, and scream away before return fire can be brought to bear.An unusual feature of the Voidweaver is its rear-facing Shuriken Cannon, which can either be operated manually by the Harlequin gunner or left to follow reactive patterns under the guidance of its targeting matrix. The weapon's placement allows it to guard the Voidweaver's rear, laying down sawing arcs of fire against any foe foolish enough to pursue the gunship. More than one overconfident Land Speeder pilot or Ork Warbiker has discovered to their cost that, even unmanned, these hind-guns are lethal indeed.Even the location of the Voidweaver's aft weapon possesses a ritual significance for the Harlequins. The vehicle itself is named after the second of the Cosmic Serpent's brood. The legends tell that, ever in its elder brother's shadow, the Voidweaver became an ill-tempered, brooding creature. It would fight at the slightest provocation, and revelled in proving its superiority over others. Meanwhile, its caution was such that it sprouted a second head, looking always behind so that the Voidweaver would never be surprised by its foes.In the mythic stories, this serpent never allowed Cegorach to ride upon its back, but after the Laughing God bested it in a trial of cunning the Voidweaver lent its strength to Cegorach's own, acting as his sentry and accomplice on numerous occasions. Just as the serpent watched over Cegorach, so do Voidweaver crews lend their strength in support of their Harlequin comrades. Assuming the part of fanged huntsmen, they are cold and taciturn, yet their scowls turn to hungry grins when given the chance to shed the blood of their foes. |
Voidweaver - Unit Composition: 1 Voidweaver |
Voidweaver - Wargear: Haywire Cannon - Haywire Cannons can cripple armoured targets with electromagnetic blasts.2 Shuriken Cannons - Shuriken Weapons fire lethally sharpened discs at high velocities, cutting their targets to pieces.Holo-Fields - Harnessing kinetic energy to distort the vehicle's silhouette, Holo-Fields prevent the foe from targeting vulnerable areas.Mirage Launchers - These pods launch holo-grenades that veil Harlequin vehicles from sight, surrounding them in a confusion of light and colour. |
Voidweaver - Sources: Codex: Harlequins (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 12, 46-47, 63-64, 91-94, 140, 188-189White Dwarf Weekly Magazine 55 (14 Feb 2015), "Voidweaver," pp. 7-9 |
Volcano Cannon - Volcano Cannon: The Volcano Cannon is one of the most powerful ground vehicle-mounted laser weapons in the Imperium's arsenal.Developed long ago during the Age of Technology, the Volcano Cannon -- so named, it is generally thought, for its tendency to turn rock and stone into spraying magma where it strikes -- is an apocalyptically powerful laser weapon designed to level the most reinforced fortification and deal fatal blows to the most colossal of enemy war machines.Such targets include other Titan-sized opponents, such as Ork Gargants, reinforced strong points, and even minor hive cities. Imperial Warlord-class and Reaver-class Battle Titans can be equipped with two Volcano Cannons, one on each of their weapon arms, and the Imperator-class Titan can be equipped with up to a total of six on its carapace mounts.The Warhound-class Titan's plasma reactor is too small to effectively power a Volcano Cannon. Originally developed for use on numerous classes of Imperial Titans, Volcano Cannons were later adapted to be mounted upon the powerful Falchion super-heavy tank destroyer, as well as the Shadowsword super-heavy tank, albeit with a slightly shorter range.Of course, it is not only the Imperium's Titans that dominate the battlefield with such a weapon; those who have turned Traitor and fight alongside the forces of Chaos put it to more diabolical use, incinerating hive cities or burning entire Imperial regiments. Chaos Titans that are in service to the Dark Mechanicum can also be equipped with these powerful weapons if they are of the appropriate class, like their Loyalist counterparts.In the 41st Millennium, the Adeptus Mechanicus-sanctioned model of the Volcano Cannon is the Mark IV Phaeton Pattern, which was perfected by the mid-35th Millennium, and is denoted by the astonishing white light of the laser. In contrast, the Mark III Synne Pattern Volcano Cannon produces an orange-yellow laser akin to the solar flare of a dying star.The original Mark I variant generated a powerful red beam, truly like a river of lava in the night, though it proved almost as volatile as the unsuccessful Mark II Teracharge Volcano Cannon. This was said to be even more powerful than the current Mark IV, but was never used in service as it almost invariably destroyed the arms of the Titans and hulls of the super-heavy tanks that carried it.Once the current stable pattern had been perfected, it began to be manufactured in small numbers on just a handful of Forge Worlds in addition to Mars. These included Estaban III, Phaeton and Gryphonne IV, all of which are surrounded by formidable Imperial defences.Production was necessarily limited due to the complexities and inherent dangers involved in working with rare volatile crystals. Many within the Administratum preferred that knowledge of the weapon's construction be kept limited to safeguard it from the attentions of vile xenos and insidious Traitors.It is well known that a single blast from a Volcano Cannon is capable of crippling a Titan or reducing a tank to a pile of molten scrap. Because of such potency, before the weapon is fired on a Shadowsword, the vehicle's engine must be disengaged so power can be transferred accordingly.Likewise, the capacitors will be thoroughly drained as a result of expending vast amounts of energy, so must be recharged before the vehicle can move again. Such a sacrifice of mobility for using the Volcano Cannon means that a Shadowsword must be well-protected or skillfully maneuvered at all times.Among the crew of every Shadowsword is a Tech-priest Enginseer, who enacts the necessary binary prayers and technical processes while tending to the weapon's focussing crystal in order to fire the Volcano Cannon successfully.His cold, machine-like presence and weeping cybernetics ensure that he is never fully accepted by the rest of the crew, but his dedication to the Shadowsword's Machine Spirit keeps the vehicle firing in the heat of battle, so his loyalty will never be questioned. |
Volcano Cannon - Operation: The Volcano Cannon produces a highly volatile but condensed laser beam. Once the weapon's capacitors are fully charged, this beam passes through a flawless crystal, each of which is taken from a mineral vein that lies beneath lava rivers on Cinderus XI.It is said by the Magi Geologis that several thousand Heretic psykers were slaughtered and buried there for taking part in a traitorous plot to kill Cinderus' planetary governor. Their remains had been compressed unusually quickly by the shifting geological structures and combined with the natural elements present beneath the lava to form a unique crystalline mineral. It remains highly unstable, but its light-affecting properties were discovered to be useful to the servants of the Emperor.When the cannon's beam connects with an armoured target, it overwhelms it with energy, tearing away armour and reducing it to molten slag, then causing the target to overheat and explode within a fraction of a second. Any biomatter touched by the beam is instantly vaporised into a mist of superheated ions.Though it typically generates a concentrated mid-frequency drone upon firing, it is not uncommon for the surrounding air to be filled with a high-pitched crackling. This violent noise, clawing at the minds of those who serve frequently beside the vehicle, has been thought to induce insanity.Some even claim to hear the final screams of the dead psykers, though the tank or Titan crews themselves have never been reported to suffer from these ill effects.As a consequence of these claims, units of Astra Militarum infantry escorts for Shadowsword tanks are subject to periodic psychometric purges. The Imperium sees this as an acceptable price to pay for deploying such a potent weapon on the battlefield. |
Volcano Cannon - Belicosa Volcano Cannon: During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, the Belicosa Pattern Volcano Cannon was one of the most potent directed energy weapons produced by the forges of the ancient Mechanicum, short of the continent-razing guns mounted on the warships of the Imperialis Armada.It was a weapon so fearsome that only the plasma reactor of a mighty Warlord-class Titan could feed its ravenous appetite for power and make possible its destruction of the most terrible foes of Mankind. |
Volcano Cannon - Sources: Adeptus Titanicus: RulebookImperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy, pp. 91-98Imperial Armour Apocalypse, pp. 6, 124Imperial Armour, pp. 22-23, 37The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 241Warhammer 40,000: Munitorum - Volcano Cannons (Digital Edition)Forge World - Mars Pattern Warlord Titan Belicosa Pattern Volcano CannonForge World - Battle Titan Volcano Cannon |
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