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Vyper - Rune: The horned skysword rune is used to represent the Vyper. Horns often denote the hunter god, Kurnous. Here they reflect the Vyper's role as an airborne predator dealing death from above. |
Vôk - Vôk: Vôk is a hero and Grimnyr of the Greater Thurian League who through his deeds came to be known as the "Fire of the Votann" among his people. |
Vônyk's Hall of Hammers - Vônyk's Hall of Hammers: Vônyk's Hall of Hammerers is a hold of the Ymyr Conglomerate of the Leagues of Votann located in the galactic core. Its Forge is famed across Kin space for the skill of its Brôkhyr, who produce machines and other advanced technologies of sublime might. |
WAAAGH! - WAAAGH!: The WAAAGH! is the name given by the Orks themselves to the massive military campaigns they periodically unleash on the galaxy as part of their eternal desire to seek out combat and war. The term also applies to the key concept of Ork "kultur" around which the entire Greenskin society, if it can be called that, revolves.Barbaric and savage, the Greenskins spread across the galaxy like a viridian stain. They plague the battlefields of the 41st Millennium in great numbers, overrunning any who stand before them in a torrent of bloodshed and usually mindless violence.An Ork WAAAGH! is war on an apocalyptic scale. Orks beyond counting swarm from one world to the next. Whole civilisations are exterminated and defenders' armies laid to waste as the Orks plough ever onward in an unstoppable tide.Orks need battle just as humans need food and drink. Due to their warlike nature, they constantly fight amongst themselves, or launch piratical raids upon nearby enemies. Such conflicts tend to be small-scale or localised. They never really develop beyond random outbursts of violence and looting.However, Ork populations can reach a critical mass that leads to a full-scale planetary migration. This is known as a WAAAGH!, a crusade of pure aggression that crashes through star systems in an orgy of violence.Ork behaviour is dominated by the WAAAGH!, which is also the name given to the gestalt psychic field the Greenskins generate that affects the Ork psyche, which allows Orks to instinctively recognise who is "bigga", and therefore who is in charge, since might makes right in Ork society.All Orks generate this field, and it grows stronger as the Orks enjoy themselves, generally while fighting, and as more of them congregate together in one geographical area.The WAAAGH! helps give momentum to the Orks' planetary assault campaigns, which are also known as WAAAGH!s (the Orks like to call a lot of things WAAAGH!s). Such a WAAAGH! is a cross between a holy crusade and a pub brawl, with a bit of genocide thrown in for good measure.Thousands of Orks will gather together, drawn to the power of a single dominant Ork called a Warboss, or Warlord if the WAAAGH! is particularly massive, who is bigger and more intelligent than the Orks around him. Then the Orks will set off to find an enemy to fight and defeat.Ork WAAAGHs! will sweep whole planetary systems away and destroy armies and fleets in tides of bloodlust and carnage, and only once the Orks have killed every available enemy will they start to fight amongst themselves again.The Imperium of Man's Tech-priests have theorised that this gestalt psychic field also has a telekinetic or quantum probabilistic effect, allowing the seemingly ramshackle and poorly designed Ork technology to work as the Greenskins expect.It is believed that the reason this hypothesis came into existence is that the Imperium adopted the Adeptus Mechanicus' religious belief that aspects of a universal "Machine Spirit" inhabits all technology, and that this Machine Spirit serves Mankind at the command of the Machine God.If this is the case, without a Machine Spirit, Ork machines could not work, requiring some psychic cause to justify their often devastating effect. Furthermore, the Mechanicus Genetor Lukas Anzion has noted that many Ork-built weapons will not function at all unless wielded by an Orkoid, possibly supporting this hypothesis. |
WAAAGH! - Gathering the WAAAGH!: First and foremost amongst all of the Orkoid instincts is the literal need for an Ork to wage war. Orks need war just as a human or Aeldari needs food and water and over the long millennia of their existence the Greenskins have become very, very good at it.Due to their inherently aggressive nature, Orks constantly fight amongst themselves to prove who is the strongest, sharpening their in-born warrior skills and weeding out the weak, though this process usually poses little threat to the larger galaxy.However, Ork populations can reach a form of critical mass that can unleash a full-scale interstellar migration of Greenskins. This violent migration and the planetary assaults that result from it is what Imperial savants refer to as a WAAAGH!, a crusade of pure aggression that crashes through multiple star systems in an absolute orgy of fury and violence.A WAAAGH! usually starts small, perhaps even as small as a single Ork, who is visited by the Orkoid deities Gork and Mork with dreams of great carnage. He will impart this vision to others of his kind through repeated blows to the head, or, if he is of a more intellectual bent, he will build a great Ork war machine like a Gargant that is the very image of his savage gods. Rumours of the coming WAAAGH! will spread through the local Orkoid society and the Orks begin to unite. New warbands join the growing throng with every passing day.An Ork Warboss will fight his way to the top of the hierarchy of this growing Greenskin horde and earn the status of a Warlord, adding the armies of those klanz he conquers to his own horde. As news of his new position spreads, the trickle of Ork reinforcements will grow into a green flood. Ork Meks will begin to collaborate on more and more outlandish projects, building ever larger war machines and weapons for the WAAAGH! Smoke-belching mobile fortresses and titanic war engines are cobbled together out of nothing more than heaps of scrap metal and the always heavy-handed enthusiasm of the Greenskins, another side-effect of the growing gestalt psychic energy of a WAAAGH!With each victory, the new Warboss' legend grows, and more followers flock to his blood-soaked banner. As he fights to retain command of his ever-growing horde against a constant stream of challengers, he will subsume the armies of those he conquers into his own tribe. Gorkanauts and Morkanauts appear in growing numbers, their pilots seeking out the WAAAGH! with a feverish intensity. Whole mobs of Mekboyz raise towering scaffolds within which Stompas and even Gargants start to take shape, these mighty effigies igniting some primitive drive within the minds of the Orks who see them, causing the flow of WAAAGH! energy they subconsciously generate to reach fever pitch.At this stage there is still much rivalry between the various klanz and tribes, and each will strive to outdo all the others in terms of the sheer destruction that can be wrought by its war machines. Those Meks without the resources to construct Stompas and Gargants will instead create mobs of clanking Killa Kans and Deff Dreads, or Battlewagons from which the Warbosses can lead their armies to war.Soon the emergent WAAAGH! begins to span worlds instead of just continents. Entire native populations are forced into slavery merely to manufacture ammunition for the horde's guns. Crude factory-ships and war hulks are bashed into shape, the better to transport the Ork armies into battle. When the lure of imminent bloodshed can be resisted no more, the deadly fervour washing through the horde overflows. Teeming Ork armies mass and swell with a roar like savage oceans, and the skies fill with crude and bulky Ork space-faring vessels.Whilst these masterworks of destruction take form, even more Greenskins are drawn towards the horde by the impending promise of these massive war engines' use and the exciting carnage they will reap. Most of the Ork Boyz of the horde simply relish the chance to get into a really good fight. But those amongst their number who dream of becoming part of a truly awesome vista of destruction often choose the roles of crewmen and gunners on mobile Battle Fortresses and Stompas.There is always a great deal of continued rivalry between the klanz and tribes of a WAAAGH! and each strives to outdo all the others in the sheer "killyness" of their war machines. Those Meks without the resources to construct towering Stompas or Gargants, the Ork equivalents of Imperial Titans, instead create mobs of Killa Kans and Ork Dreadnoughts, banding their creations together to form armies of mechanical savages that dwarf the mobs they march beside in size and power. Others build the fleets of Fightas, Fighta-Bommerz and Bommerz that are laden with gunz and bombs that will assault their foes from the air once the battle begins.The grand musters that precede a full-scale Ork invasion are an awe-inspiring sight. As the Orks gather for battle, smoke from thousands of oily engines fills the sky. The ground trembles beneath great wheels, tracks and the thunderous strides of towering Gargants. Armies of Greenskins stretch across the horizon, raising their banners high to proclaim their reputations and allegiances, their warcries audible for Terran miles around. Looming Gorkanauts and Morkanauts, bizarre artillery pieces and force field generators chug, clank and buzz amidst the green throng.Armadas of rusty vehicles raise roiling thunderheads of dust into the atmosphere, whilst Dakkajets roar overhead leaving contrails of filthy smoke. Speed Freeks rev their engines, and the Boyz fire their guns into the air as a carpet of Gretchin spreads out in front of the army. Eventually, the battlefield is barely visible beneath the endless sea of green, each Ork warrior certain that the ground will soon be stained red. Here the power of the WAAAGH! is palpable as a wave of raw aggression, and the Orks believe Gork and Mork are gazing eagerly down from the Warp to see how their warriors will fare. Then as one, with an almighty bellow, the Orks surge forwards, and another world is plunged into unending war.Those Greenskins that do not aid in the construction of the WAAAGH!'s war machines seek out like-minded fellow Orks who fight in the manner that most appeals to them. The Orks call these groups "Kults," of which the vehicle-obsessed Kult of Speed is the most widespread and well-recognised in the Imperium, though by no means the only Kult that exists in Ork society. The Stormboyz and Flash Gitz also represent Kults, while those Orks who are unusually sensitive to the growing pool of gestalt psychic energy surrounding a gathering WAAAGH! may become Weirdboyz.Hundreds of other Ork Warbosses will add their own armies to the cause of a new WAAAGH! as the Greenskin assault begins to spread across whole star systems rather than just a single world. Entire native planetary populations are forced into slavery to their new Greenskin masters to manufacture ammunition for the horde's guns and other materiel that the WAAAGH! requires. Crude factory-ships and war hulks are bashed together to produce further transports for the horde, while a truly large WAAAGH! may ultimately infest a Space Hulk to move from world to world or even hollow out asteroids and create the massive spaceborne Ork fortresses known as Roks. When the lure of battle can no longer be resisted, the WAAAGH!'s savagery reaches a fever pitch that can no longer be contained save by the spilling of blood in vast quantities.The Orks who launch a WAAAGH! generally have little in the way of a coherent combat doctrine like the other major intelligent species of the galaxy. Their only goal is destruction and mayhem in as large a quantity as they can muster. The Orks are a plague upon the other civilisations of the universe, a race of genetically-engineered bioweapons whose true purpose was lost eons ago but who still carry on the fight -- against anyone, at anytime -- for no reason other than their own joy in destruction and slaughter. Once an Ork WAAAGH! has gathered, with one almighty bellow to the heavens from millions of Ork throats, another world will be plunged into unending war beneath a surging greenskinned tide. |
WAAAGH! - The Great WAAAGH!: It is generally thought within the Imperium that over the last century or so, the Orks have become even more aggressive and warlike than ever before, and the numbers of WAAAGH!s being recorded in all five Segmentums is increasing. The Imperium has long theorised that the Greenskin race possesses low-level background psychic abilities, a kind of gestalt Warp resonance. Orks, of course, neither know nor care about such things. Yet as Warpspace becomes more turbulent, so the Orks too are becoming ever more belligerent. This rise in new WAAAGH!s has been most notable around Warp space anomalies and regions plagued by Warp Storms, with hundreds of Greenskin invasion forces emerging from these areas every Terran year.Members of the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos have noticed a trend in the translations of glyph-sequences found in Ork camps, which speak increasingly of "da call of da gods," a phenomenon felt most keenly by the nomadic Gorkanaut and Morkanaut pilots. The emergence of Weirdboyz seems to be increasing exponentially also, with many claiming that they see visions sent by Gork and Mork. On thousands of worlds the ominous silhouettes of Gargants rise against the war-torn skies. The Orks' foes can only watch in horrified bewilderment as the phenomenon known as the Great WAAAGH! sees the Greenskins flooding across the galaxy in numbers never before witnessed, slaughtering everything in their path as they go. |
WAAAGH! - WAAAGH! Organisation: Orks gather into various levels of organisation. The first is the mob, a squad-level unit of Orks with similar ideas of how to act on the battlefield, generally led by a Nob (short for "noble," but pronounced "knob"). A number of mobs will gather together into a warband, which is roughly equivalent to an Astra Militarum company (although with a greater variation in size and strength), led by a Warboss. The largest Ork organisational unit is the tribe or the klan, a group of numerous warbands all under the command of a Warboss. Different tribes can be united by an unusually powerful Warboss known as a Warlord when he raises a WAAAGH! |
WAAAGH! - Notable WAAAGH!s: The following is a list of notable Ork WAAAGH!s and the Warbosses and Warlords who led them that have terrorised the galaxy since the start of the Age of the Imperium in the late 30th Millennium of the Imperial Calendar:NameWarbandSummaryArbutzz the IncredibleWAAAGH! ArbuttzEmerging from the wild and primitive worlds found on the galaxy's southwestern rim in 910.M40, the Warboss known as Arbuttz the Incredible led WAAAGH! Arbutzz across the Zypher Sub-sector and captured the Eldar Exodite world of Baran.Arrgard the DefilerWAAAGH! ArrgardIn M35, the Ork Warlord Arrgard led WAAAGH! Arrgard in overrunning and scouring the Imperial Forge World of Tigrus. This lost Forge World was where the Leman Russ Vanquisher main battle tank originated. Since the loss of Tigrus, the Vanquisher has become increasingly rare in the forces of the Imperial Guard.BadfangBlack Slayers TribeBadfang is an Ork Warboss who is currently aligned with the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon, he led his Black Slayers tribe, which consisted of 30 Ork warbands and 4 Gargants. The Black Slayers were fielded against the Imperial forces on the continent of Armageddon Prime."The Beast"Unnamed WAAAGH!Leading a massive Ork WAAAGH! of extraordinary size, the Warlord known only as "The Beast" nearly took over the galaxy in 544.M32 during the so-called War of the Beast. The Orks of this horde rampaged across the Imperium on a massive scale. The number of attacks grew until it became the greatest Greenskin invasion that the galaxy has ever known, eclipsing even the one defeated by Horus upon the world of Ullanor during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium, which earned him the title of Warmaster. Nothing was safe from the Orks' primal desire to conquer the galaxy, and their widespread advances were only halted when the Imperium resorted to the most extreme of measures, at great cost to the collected Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.Big SkorchaWAAAGH! Big SkorchaThe Ork Warlord Big Skorcha led three colossal Space Hulks in an assault on the Blood Angels Chapter's homeworld of Baal in 798.M41. Two of the Space Hulks were destroyed with much of the WAAAGH! on board. Before it too was destroyed, the final Space Hulk disgorged thousands of Orks, the Warlord Big Skorcha amongst them, onto the surface of Baal. Attacking the Chapter's fortress-monastery, the Blood Angels were not so easily outmanoeuvred. Inevitably, the attack failed, and those Orks who survived the initial assault were destroyed piecemeal by the arrival of Blood Angels reinforcements.BiglugWAAAGH! BiglugSometime during the 41st Millennium, the massive WAAAGH! Gragnatz devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector. Gragnatz's invasion force began as a few hundred thousand Orks besieging the Agri-World of Iornis. Rival Warbosses split off to launch their own WAAAGH!s with varying degrees of success. When WAAAGH! Biglug emerged from the dimensional gateway known as the Wyrm's Maw, their fleet was augmented by dimensional weaponry, which further enhanced Gragnatz's already formidable Grand Armada. By the time Gragnatz's grand armada reached the Vorsk Sub-sector its numbers were furthered swelled by other Big Bosses, forming a Greenskin onslaught capable of crushing several star systems at once.WAAAGH! Biglug also invaded the Chaos-owned Fortress World of Castellax, overrunning the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion's Third Grand Company under the command of Warsmith Andraaz. Their takeover of Castellax allowed them to acquire technology that allowed them to upgrade their fleet, as well as triple their ammunition stores.BlagrotBlagrot's Gargant Big MobBlagrot is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned with the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Gargant Big Mob, which consisted of an estimated 4 warbands and 3 Gargants, and which were deployed in support of the fighting in the Fire Wastes.BlaktoofWAAAGH! BlaktoofBlaktoof, the Overfiend of Octarius, finds his empire infested by the spoor of Tyranids. Preliminary skirmishes with Genestealers forces the Blood Axes' warlords to employ the services of Boss Zagstruk, whose Vulcha Boyz are employed to intercept and destroy the Genestealer infestation. They are successful, but not before Hive Fleet Leviathan bears down upon the Octarius System. Blaktoof launches a counter-invasion straight into the maw of the Tyranid Hive Fleet, unleashing the on-going Octarius War.BludcrumpaWAAAGH! BludcrumpaWarboss Bludcrumpa led his WAAAGH! in a decades-long siege on the Forge World of Ironhelm. In 901.M41, Lord Commander Dante led a Stormraven drop assault that finally broke the Ork WAAAGH! during the Battle of Stonehaven.Bogga-BoggaWAAAGH! Bogga-BoggaFollowing the success of Arbuttz the Incredible, who led WAAAGH! Arbutzz across the Zypher Sub-sector and captured the Eldar Exodite world of Baran in 910.M40, the bloated Warlord known as Bogga-Bogga led his own tribe and claimed the barrows that lay beneath the great sweeping hills of that planet. Within the greatest and most magnificent of the barrows lay the resting place of the ancient Exodite Kings of Baran. Enraged, the Autarch Mauryon led a warhost from Craftworld Biel-tan to reclaim the beleaguered world from the Greenskins. Bogga-Bogga was killed in an ambush by Striking Scorpions Aspect Warriors.BogsnikBogsnik's Blitz BrigadeBogsnik is an Ork Warlord that is currently aligned with the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Blitz Brigade, consisting of an estimated 8 warbands and 26 Battle Fortresses, which were deployed in support of the fighting in the Dead Lands.BonesmashaWAAAGH! BonesmashaBonesmasha was the formidable Ork Warlord who led a massive Ork WAAAGH! into the Aurelian Sub-sector during the First Aurelian Crusade.BrugWAAAGH! BrugThroughout the Segmentum Ultima, countless Ork invasions threaten to mass into a single colossal WAAAGH! The forces of the Imperium are stretched to their utmost to contain each individual war zone. Notable actions include Chapter Master Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines, who held out for a night and a day against the Greenskin hordes in the Siege of Zalathras and the 2nd Company's utter-devastation of Warboss Brug's planet stronghold.BurzurukBurzuruk's Gargant Big MobBurzuruk is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned with the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his War Horde, which consisted of an estimated 4 warbands and 9 Gargants, and which were deployed in support of the fighting on the continent of Armageddon Secundus.DregdakkaWAAAGH! DregdakkaIn 928.M41, Waaagh! Dregdakka ploughs headlong into the Adransa Cluster, causing untold devastation. On the planet of Thrassos a combined force of Space Marines from the Iron Knights and Liberators Chapters attempts to halt the Orks' steamroller advance. A horde of Orks including Dregdakka himself are lured onto a huge refinery platform before Techmarines destroy all bridges linking the platform to the mainland. Space Marine kill teams then deploy across the hulking structure, tasked with slaughtering the trapped greenskins and assassinating Dregdakka. Yet the Adeptus Astartes have woefully underestimated their foe, the greenskins digging in and fighting back with unexpected tenacity. Though they kill thousands of Orks, over three hundred Space Marines are slain and their comrades are overwhelmed as yet more Ork vessels pour into the system. His trophy poles rattling with freshly harvested Space Marine helmets, Warlord Dregdakka's position is now unassailable. His Waaagh! completely overruns the Adransa Cluster within the year.'EadcrumpaWAAAGH! 'EadcrumpaIn 799.M41, Big Mek 'Eadcrumpa led his WAAAGH! to the newly awakened Tomb World of Suranas. After initial skirmishes proved the still lethargic Necrons to be no match for the Orks, Lord Mepthk struck a pact with 'Eadcrumpa. In exchange for several dozen functioning Doomsday Cannons, 'Eadcrumpa agreed to leave Suranas and seek plunder elsewhere (whilst secretly resolving to return). The WAAAGH! then descended on the Agri-World of Eden Prime, but 'Eadcrumpa was unable to resist his urge to investigate the mysterious core of the Doomsday Cannons he had taken from Suranas and 'Eadcrumpa, his WAAAGH! and the planet Eden Prime were erased from existence when he accidentally breached one of the weapons' containment cores.Fragrak da PlanetsmashaWAAAGH! PlanetsmashaIn 977.M41, Death Skulls Big Mek Fragrak da Planetsmasha vows he will surpass all other Deathskulls by looting an entire world, jerry-rigging a combination of traktor beams, ramships and city-sized rokkit boosters to push the third moon of Taurabrax out of its orbit, directly onto a collision course with its parent world. The resultant catastrophe renders all life on the thriving Imperial hive world extinct, fracturing continents, boiling the oceans off into space and burning away the world's atmosphere, finally reducing Taurabrax to a drifting debris field. Satisfied with his work, Big Mek Planetsmasha takes his pick of the choicest of these asteroids, adding thrusters, forcefields and ordnance arrays to turn them into a fleet of Roks with which to spread even more mayhem across the system.GaraghakWAAAGH! GaraghakUnder their ambitious and power-hungry warlord, Garaghak, the self-proclaimed "Arch-Killa" and "Overfiend of Tallarax" gathered the usually ragged and independent Ork tribes, klanz and warbands of his region and united them. The Orks of WAAAGH! Garaghak invaded the Forsarr Sector in 952.M41, swiftly taking over the area and transforming the world of Kastorel-Novem into a manufacturing centre for all manner of Ork war-machines.Garshul the DestroyerWAAAGH! GarshulWhen Garshul led his WAAAGH! in the attack on a vitally important Adeptus Astronomica Warp station, Lord Commander Luis Dante of the Blood Angels Chapter dispatched an entire company of Space Marines, commanded by Captain Leonatos. To aid Captain Leonatos in this task, Lord Commander Dante presented him with the Blade Encarmine -- the legendary sword of Belarius, the revered first Chapter Master of the Blood Angels following the Second Founding, which had originally been awarded to Belarius by Sanguinius himself. During the brutal campaign, this sacred Chapter relic was lost. Only ten Astartes survived the brutal onslaught after five intense days of fighting. Leonatos was put on trial for the loss of the Blade. He was found guilty of dereliction of duty and was exiled from the Chapter and forced to undertake a "Blood Quest" until the Blade Encarmine was recovered. Leonatos and his small band of Exiles went deep into the Eye of Terror. When he next confronted the powerful Ork Warboss, Garshul revealed that he was in fact possessed by a powerful daemon, who nearly slew the Astartes Captain for his troubles. Though the relic was eventually recovered, Leonatos was lost to the malefic powers of the Warp. The Blade was returned to the Chapter by Sergeant Cloten and Scout Novice Lysander, but the pair of Exiles still felt honour-bound to find their missing Captain and save him from servitude to the Ruinous Powers, and so, they departed for the Eye of Terror on their own personal Blood Quest.GarskrakWAAAGH! GarskrakIn 600.M40, a massive Ork fleet invaded the Tau Empire's Vior'la Sept but was defeated by a masterful campaign of the Tau Fire Caste. Vior'la annually passed through a gap between its two stars, a time called the Trial by Fire. It caused deadly plasma storms to ravage the planet, whose inhabitants survive by closing protective domes around their cities. Ork Warlord Garskrak and his invading army were lured into this deadly storm where they were utterly destroyed by the raging plasma radiation from the binary stars.Garzulk the FacelessWAAAGH! GarzulkThe Ork Warlord Garzulk led his WAAAGH! on a massive campaign of destruction through the Pyrus Sector during an unknown point in history.GazbagWAAAGH! GazbagGazbag, a Speed Freek Warlord, noted for his tenacity if not his navigational skills, guided his WAAAGH! in 831.M41, toward a group of largely unprotected Eldar paradise worlds. Despite the lack of loot on the planets, Gazbag's Orks relieved their boredom by torching things and just generally messing up the place. The vengeful Eldar of Craftworld Biel-tan descended upon the invaders with destructive fury, but the gleeful Orks were numerous enough to prevent the Eldar encircling them. After a protracted and bloody campaign, the Eldar were forced to withdraw. Gazbag enslaved the indigenous Eldar population and burned all he found until the once-verdant worlds resembled wastelands that were more to his liking.GazgrimGazgrim's War HordeGazgrim, the Great Despot of Dregruk, is aligned with the infamous Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. In 998.M41, during the Third War for Armageddon, the forces of the Great Despot of Dregruk were one of the largest Ork armies on Armageddon and were fielded against the Imperial forces present on the continent of Armageddon Prime.Ghazghkull Mag Uruk ThrakaWAAAGH! GhazghkullGhazghkull Thraka is a formidable and infamous Ork Warlord who launched both the Second and Third War for Armageddon against the Imperium of Man in which he led the largest Ork WAAAGH!s ever seen by humanity to try to seize the Hive World of Armageddon during the final century of the 41st Millennium.Ghengiz GrimtoofWAAAGH! GrimtoofGhengiz Grimtoof the Git-Slaver is a formidable Ork Warboss who is currently leading a "Green Krusade" into the Calixis Sector along the Spinward Front. His WAAAGH! originated from a quadrant of Wilderness Space beyond the Periphery Sub-sector not known to host any such force, and so, the coming of WAAAGH! Grimtoof was a huge shock to the military forces of the Calixis Sector. Of the first worlds to have fallen to WAAAGH! Grimtoof, very little is known. The outermost is a dismal world named Deluge, which was host to a small community of mendicant ascetics thought to have settled there in the aftermath of the Angevin Crusade. Of the monks' fate nothing is known, but Deluge has been under the hobnailed heel of Grimtoof Git-Slaver for so long that it is unlikely any are still alive. The world of Porphyry was the second settled planet to fall to WAAAGH! Grimtoof, the Adeptus Mechanicus stripmining facility present on the planet making it a tempting target to the avaricious xenos. The fate of the servants of the Cult Mechanicus remains unknown. Several Imperial worlds the warlord's forces have captured have not been razed to ashes, nor their populations slaughtered for food or for sport. Rather, they have been taken largely intact and their populations have been enslaved in sprawling, forced labour camps and slave-foundries, forced at gunpoint to manufacture the crude arms and ammunition used by the barbarous Orks. This turn of events signals a failure on the part of the Imperium, for it means the Orks have been allowed to consolidate their gains to such an extent that their migration is becoming an occupation.GodstompaWAAAGH! GodstompaIn 739.M41, the titanic flagship of WAAAGH! Godstompa, the Space Hulk Starkrusha, burst from the depths of the Warp. The Space Wolves Chapter's Wolf Lord Finn Goresson, famously stubborn and ferocious, immediately diverted his meagre fleet's course to engage the hulk. Finn was victorious in his early engagements, at one point driving the armoured prow of his Strike Cruiser straight into the weak point of the Ork Superkrooza Longtoof and out the other side, breaking it in two. His ships were dwarfed by the Starkrusha, however, and sustained serious losses from its firepower. Finn ploughed on through the ectoplasmic cloud until the side of the Starkrusha loomed up ahead. He slammed his Strike Cruiser into the maw-like launch bays of the hulk and led his Great Company in a sustained boarding action against the Ork horde inside. The resultant war in the bowels of the Starkrusha lasted for the best part of six months, but nonetheless Finn eventually emerged triumphant, Godstompa's severed head hanging from his belt.GorbadWAAAGH! GorbadGorbad is an Ork Warlord of the Redskulls tribe who took part in the brutal "Green Krusade" of WAAAGH! Grax being conducted in the Ryza System, drawn to the fighting like moths to flame around 925.M41. Beginning in 990.M41, Gorbad conquered all of the neighbouring Greenskin tribes on Redwold, Tyr and Alacanth over a four year period, and soon after began building heavy armaments and invasion ships. By 994.M41, rumours abounded of two (or more) Space Hulks being sighted in the Redwold System and the Emperor's Tarot produced ever more dire portents of strife. Not long after, outer early warning beacons detected an alien fleet moving into the Kolchis System. Patrol ships were dispatched to investigate and Planetary Defence Forces were placed on full alert. The Ork fleet of WAAAGH! Gorbad breached the orbital defences as Ork attack ships and assault boats landed ground forces on the planet Kolchis. Early estimates placed the attacking ground forces at the equivalent of sixteen regiments, with 1 Space Hulk, 4 Cruisers, and 20 plus Attack Ships supporting from orbit. By early 995.M41, all of the world's outer defences were overrun. Orks were engaged in street fighting throughout the capital city of Kolchis. Supplies ran low and the Imperial fighting forces were shattered. Within six days, all resistance collapsed and the world of Kolchis was lost to the heavy tread of the Greenskins.GorbagWAAAGH! GorbagThe infamous Ork Warlord known as Overfiend Gorbag launched a two-pronged WAAAGH! into the Gothic Sector in 976.M41. Most of the critical battles in WAAAGH! Gorbag were fought in space. The sheer size of Gorbag's fleet, combined with his daring and predatory tactics, proved more than a match for the Imperial Navy. Gorbag's fleet overran an Imperial Dominator-class Cruiser and the captured voidcraft was later refitted as the Overfiend's flagship. The ship, now named Gorbag's Revenge, played a central role in the space battle for Armageddon in 998.M41, causing much devastation to the Imperial armada.GorfangWAAAGH! GorfangSometime during the 41st Millennium, the massive WAAAGH! Gragnatz devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector. Gragnatz's invasion force began as a few hundred thousand Orks besieging the Agri-World of Iornis. Rival Warbosses split off to launch their own WAAAGH!s with varying degrees of success. Meanwhile, the progress of Gragnatz's own WAAAGH! was slowed by the presence of the Warp rift "Hellfury," but emerged bolstered by the presence of WAAAGH! Kogtoof's warfleet, which was augmented by WAAAGH! Gorfang. By the time Gragnatz's grand armada reached the Vorsk Sub-sector its numbers were furthered swelled by other Big Bosses, forming a Greenskin onslaught capable of crushing several star systems at once.GorgardWAAAGH! GorgardBelle Alpha was besieged by an Ork force under the command of the Ork Warlord Gogard sometime in the 38th Millennium. The city walls were well built and halted the attack with minimal losses. The Orks regrouped and started to barrage the city with salvoes of fire from their Gargants. The bombardment continued for days but, just when it seemed that the walls could hold out no longer, reinforcements form the Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter landed to save the day. Gogard's army was trapped between the Space Marines on one side and the defenders on the other and suffered horrendous losses. The bulk of Gogard's army was destroyed in the first hours of fighting, and Gogard himself was slain leading a futile counter-attack.Gorgutz 'Ead 'UnterWAAAGH! GorgutzGorgutz 'Ead 'Unter is an Ork Warlord who was originally a Warboss of the Evil Sunz Clan, and was involved in three major campaigns against the military forces of the Imperium of Man and most of the other major intelligent species of the galaxy during the final century of the 41st Millennium. WAAAGH! Gorgutz eventually included elements from the Ork klanz known as the Head Crushaz, the Foot Stompaz, the Rokkit Rangaz, the Burna Boyz, the Kwikmeks and the Rok Clawz. Gorgutz first came to prominence during the battle for Lorn V, where he temporarily allied with (and then took the head of) Lord Crull, a World Eaters Traitor Legion Champion of Chaos who had contested the Orks and the Imperial Guard for control of a deactivated Imperator-class Battle Titan that lay partially buried on that world. After being defeated on Lorn V by the victorious Imperial Guard, he fled in an Ork Rok to the world of Kronus and built up his WAAAGH! once more, only to -- once again -- be defeated, this time by the forces of the Blood Ravens Chapter. Finding that retreat was the better part of valour once more, Gorgutz and the remains of his WAAAGH! arrived in the Kaurava System, settling his forces on the world of Kaurava II, where they successfully defeated the warring factions vying for control of the system. WAAAGH! Gorgutz later participated in the conflict for the Spear of Acheron against the Blood Ravens and the forces of Craftworld Biel-Tan.GorshagGorshag's Big GunzGorshag is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Big Gunz, consisting of 7 artillery warbands, who deployed on the continent of Armageddon Prime.Gorsnik MagashGreat Fiend Gorsnik Magash's War HordeGorsnik Magash, known as the Over-fiend of Octarius, is a formidable Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his War Horde, consisting of an estimated 250 warbands and 160 Battle Fortresses, who were deployed in support of the fighting in the Dead Lands.GraborkWAAAGH! GraborkIn 979.M41, Big Mek Grabork and his mob of Meks salvage the Space Hulk Perpetual Misery from the depths of the void. Acting on instinct, Grabork and his Boyz set about pulling it apart and putting it back together into a new configuration, linking up dozens of ship reactors and cannibalizing hundreds of macro cannons to create a gargantuan shokk attack gun. Eager to try out his new weapon, the Big Mek attacks the world of Fratarn, raining petrified snotlings down upon the planet from orbit. However, when the snotlings run out, Grabork starts hurling Orks into the machine. Not liking the way things are going, one of Grabork's Meks turns the gun into reverse, sucking the entire world up into the Perpetual Misery. The resulting explosion obliterates the hulk and planet, and creates an asteroid field a billion miles across.GragnatzWAAAGH! GragnatsSometime during the 41st Millennium, the massive WAAAGH! Gragnatz devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector. Gragnatz's invasion force began as a few hundred thousand Orks besieging the Agri-World of Iornis. Rival Warbosses split off to launch their own Waaaghs! with varying degrees of success. Meanwhile, the progress of Gragnatz's own WAAAGH! was slowed by the presence of the Warp rift "Hellfury," but emerged bolstered by the presence of WAAAGH! Kogtoof's warfleet, which was augmented by Waaagh! Gorfang. By the time Gragnatz's grand armada reached the Vorsk sub-sector its numbers were furthered swelled by other Big Bosses, forming a Greenskin onslaught capable of crushing several star systems at once.GraxWAAAGH! GraxGrax is the Ork Warlord who led WAAAGH! Grax in a brutal campaign of destruction in the Ryza System in 925.M41. Despite increased Imperial reinforcements, the Imperium continued to lose ground, and soon the expanding warzone was turned into a meat grinder which swallowed world after world in bloody conflict. As bitter fighting raged across a hundred fronts, many new Ork warbands and whole WAAAGH!s were drawn to Grax's banner. Led by Kommander Rarguts, the ragtag fleets of WAAAGH! Rarguts broke through the Imperial Navy's defensive blockade to once again threaten Ryza itself. WAAAGH! Gorbad is also believed to have joined the Greenskin assault on the Ryza System.Grazdakka Wur MekdakkaWAAAGH! GrazdakkaArch Skarlord General Grazdakka Wur Mekdakka, King of Hive Meradon, the Conqueror of Kalidar, was the Blood Axes Warlord who almost conquered the vital Industrial World of Kalidar in the Segmentum Pacificus. It is well known that the Blood Axes have the ability to learn from their foe and that they have adopted many of the Imperium's tactics. Grazdakka was the first Ork Warlord to understand the military potential of psykers and he sought to power up his Weirdboyz by further enhancing their powers through the Kalidar's unique resource, the psycho-reactive crystals called Lorelei. Grazdakka's most powerful Weirdboy, Greeneyes, is to date the most powerful Ork psyker ever enncountered by the Imperium. It is difficult to imagine the extent of the threat WAAAGH! Grazdakka would have posed had it not been vanquished and Grazdakka slain during the Kalidar War.GrimskullWAAAGH! GrimskullGrimskull was an Ork Warboss who led the massive Ork invasion of the Imperial Forge World of Graia by the million-Greenskin strong WAAAGH! Grimskull. The Orkish invasion met with great initial success and a force of Space Marines from the Ultramarines 2nd Company under the command of Captain Titus were sent to delay the Orks long enough to prevent them from seizing control of the strategically important Warlord-class Battle Titans built on the planet until a full Imperial liberation fleet arrived to secure the world.Grimtusk BloodboilaWAAAGH! BloodboilaIn 895.M41, WAAAGH! Bloodboila set out to consume the entire Athelaq Sector, but the Space Wolves Chapter's Great Company of Egil Iron Wolf stood in its path. A warhost of Eldar Aspect Warriors also fought hard to contain the Greenskin invasion in the northwest quadrant of the warzone, ultimately preventing the Space Wolves from becoming surrounded. Egil's tanks took a heavy toll on the Ork vanguard and, after weeks of bitter warfare, Warlord Grimtusk was killed and the WAAAGH! blunted. Later, when Autarch Elenduil visited the throne room of Egil Ironwolf in great ceremony, a parley over a parting gift turns sour and blades are drawn. Soon the sector descends into total war between the three factions.GrizgutzWAAAGH! GrizgutzThe Ork Warlord Grizgutz, a noted kleptomaniac, launches his WAAAGH! into the Morloq System in 978.M41. Whilst using Warp travel to reach their quarry, Grizgutz and his warband unwittingly travel through time and emerge from the shifting chaos of the Empyrean shortly before they set off. Grizgutz hunts down and kills his doppelganger, reasoning that this way he can have a spare of his favourite gun. The resultant confusion stops the WAAAGH! in its tracks.GroblonikWAAAGH! GroblonikThe Battle of Sularian Gate was a notable battle fought by the Orks of WAAAGH! Groblonik against the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter's 5th Company deployed alongside the massed regiments of Imperial Guard from the Mordian Iron Guard and the Vostroyan Firstborn as well as Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii legions. Groblonik had already successfully led his WAAAGH! in conquering a number of Imperial worlds and threatened a dozen more. Imperial forces mustered at Sularian Gate in an effort to halt the Greenskin tide once and for all. On the fourth day of the battle, the Dark Angels' Chief Librarian, Ezekiel was gravely wounded when he shot by a stray Ork bullet. Impatiently fitting a crude bionic after the remains of his eye and the bullet were removed, Ezekiel returned to the battle and rallied the 5th Company. He led a successful counter-attack that broke WAAAGH! Groblonik forever. Atop the ruins of the Sularian Gate, Ezekiel confronted the Ork Warlord and fought him in single combat. Ezekiel managed to emerge the victor, after blasting the Ork's mind with the powers of the Warp and decapitating the Warlord's head from its shoulders. He then threw the head into the howling mob of Orks below, who routed after seeing their leader slain.Grog IronteefWAAAGH! IronteefGrog Ironteef, known as the Warchief of Alsanta, fought a crusade of vengeance that extended deep into the Farsight Enclaves in 815.M41, into the territory of the renegade Tau Commander Farsight. Having already engaged the Kroot Warspheres drifting through the spacelanes of Dal'yth, Grog had found that these cunning xenos made excellent opponents. Just as the two races were settling in for a protracted campaign of head-bashing the Tau came to the aid of their Kroot allies. Furious, Grog declared war upon the Tau and launched the War of Dakka upon the Farsight Enclaves but was blunted by the Tau's formidable long-range firepower. Grog enlisted the aid of many Flash Gitz, Tankbustas and the dreaded Ork Pirate Kaptin Badrukk. In a cunning move that shocked the Tau high command to the core, Grog managed to outmanoeuvre and trap the Tau forces in a cunning ambush. The Warchief and his Boyz pursued the retreating Tau back to their base, burning it to the ground and looting as many Tau weapons as they could. With every bit of dakka they found, Grog's Boyz became more of a threat, and soon were tooled up with more high-powered Tau weaponry than even the greediest Flash Gitz could wish for. Since that day, many more warbands have flocked to the Warchief's banner, and Grog has taken three Tau Sept worlds in the space of a year, locked in a brutal war of attrition that the Tau can ill-afford. As of 998.M41, WAAAGH! Ironteef's growing might has attracted the attention of both the Ultramarines and one of their Successors, the Genesis Chapter, who are determined to put down the Warboss before he becomes a major threat to the security of the Imperium.GrughakhWAAAGH! GrughakhGrugakh is an Ork Warlord who led his Ork WAAAGH! in a campaign of conquest upon the Imperial world of Denkari Minor. The Greenskins fought Imperial forces comprised of the Imperial Guard's Tekarn 11th Heavy Tank Company.Grukk Face-rippaDa Red WAAAGH!Grukk Face-Rippa, known as the Butcher of Obstiria, the Bane of Eyrok and the Scourge of the Sanctus Reach, is a formidable Ork Warboss who led a massive WAAAGH! in 998.M41 that ravaged the densely-populated Sanctus Reach Sub-sector. The Obsidian Glaives Space Marine Chapter valiantly attempted to stall the Red WAAAGH!'s advance, upon their own homeworld of Obstiria, but are believed to have been wiped out by the overwhelming numbers of Grukk's horde. With Obstiria crushed and the Sanctus Reach aflame, only the Knight World of Alaric Prime remained defiant. The Imperium's defenders in the sub-sector chose to make a final stand upon that Feudal World. Warlord Grukk's brutal assault tactics took a heavy toll on the human defenders before the legendary Freeblade known as Gerantius joined the conflict, tipping the war into a desperate new phase.GulgrogWAAAGH! GulgrogSometime in the mid-40th Millennium, WAAAGH! Gulgrog smashed through the Maw and laid siege to Port Wander. Most of the Rogue Traders fled or avoided the conflict. The siege broke two standard years later, when Passage Watch 27-Est (also known tongue-in-cheek as Battlefleet Koronus) rendezvoused with reinforcements from Port Wrath and a fleet sent by the Adeptus Mechanicus from the Lathes. The combined forces successfully defeated the Orks, liberating the imperilled station.GutshreddaWAAAGH! GutshreddaIn 805.M41, WAAAGH! Gutshredda rampaged through the Forgoil System. Chapter Master Marneus Calgar led three companies from the Ultramarines Chapter to the assistance of the Forgoil Planetary Defence Forces. In a little more than three weeks, the Ultramarines destroyed the tellyporta ships and Stompa factories that provided WAAAGH! Gutshredda with much of its momentum. In the final battle of the war, Calgar and his Terminator-armoured retinue boarded and destroyed Gutshredda's flagship, Da Supadestructa.GutstompaWAAAGH! GutstompaGutstompa was an Ork Warlord who successfully led WAAAGH! Gutstompa in conquering the Forge World of Antax in the Vidar Sector. As one of the sector's principal Forge Worlds, Antax was an Ork Loota's wildest dream, packed from archeotech vault to orbital station with all manner of arcane technology and, of course, thousands of really big gunz. The fall of Antax was considered a disaster of monumental proportions. The supply lines for hundreds of Imperial Guard regiments and a dozen Space Marine Chapters were now cut, and those same weapons and tanks were certain to be used against their rightful recipients. Weary from their recent battle with the Necron World Engine, Captain Aphael of the Blood Angels Space Marine strike force was turned aside from its homeward path, and set course for the beleaguered Antax. During the vicious campaign that ensued, Gutstompa's Ork horde, which included his Meganobz, were overwhelmed by the frenzied assault of the Blood Angels' Death Company. During this assault, Gutstompa himself was ripped to shreds by the Death Company's Dreadnought Moriar the Chosen.HammafistWAAAGH! HammafistIn 985.M41, Archon Shyrrek of the Kabal of the Severed Hope seeks to turn the green hordes of Waaagh! Hammafist against the Tau Empire colony of Korvessa. Using hit and run attacks, Shyrrek's fleet lures the much larger Ork force toward Korvessa, but in their arrogance they underestimate the Orks completely. Using short range tellyporta drives, a number of Warlord Hammafist's kroozers leapfrog the Dark Eldar, leaving them surrounded and cut off from escape into the Webway. Archon Shyrrek's forces fight like devils to escape the tightening ring of Ork ships. However their resistance comes to an end when Hammafist and his Meganob retinue tellyport on board Shyrrek's flagship and slice the Archon to shreds with their roaring killsaws.Hruk TeefspintaWAAAGH! HrukThe noted Snakebites Warboss Hruk Teefspinta enslaved the entire human population of his old stomping grounds, the binary star system Corva in 855.M41. Forcing his captives to build him spacecraft with holds cavernous enough to accommodate his beloved mega-menagerie, Hruk sets off for the core worlds of the Imperium. He conquers the nine Shrine Worlds of Marlisanct and uses the Basilica Imperator Majoris as a breeding pen for his famously incontinent Squiggoths.IrongolWAAAGH! IrongolThe Raptors Space Marine Chapter fought in a thirty year campaign from 339-370.M39 against the Ork Warlord Irongol and the gathering power of WAAAGH! Irongol in the Sancta Angelis Cluster. During this campaign the Raptors engaged in a guerrilla war in the very heart of the Ork domains, striking against dozens of different klanz on a score of worlds. Thanks to the Chapter's raids, the ever-fractious leadership of the Orks began to further fragment, with the different klanz and Warbosses lashing out at each other. This division then enabled the Raptors taskforce to bring their concentrated strength to bear against Irongol himself in a pitched battle on the sulphur-oxide deserts of Bantax, slaying the Death Skulls Warboss and his hundred-strong Mega-Armoured bodyguard in a gruelling six-hour struggle. With Irongol and his under-bosses dead, the Orks of the Cluster quickly descended into a bloodbath of internecine warfare to establish dominance as is the Orks' want, effectively ending the WAAAGH!'s threat.Judrog IrontoofWAAAGH! IrontoofDuring the Third War for Armageddon, Ork Warlord Judrog Irontoof was allied to the infamous Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka. During the attack on the Ghattana Bay Water Processing Plant, in what would become known as the Battle for Gate IX, was recorded the largest Dreadnought versus Dreadnought confrontation in history. Ghattana Bay was a vital facility that provided valuable fresh water to the hive cities of the continent of Armageddon Prime, which would be especially important during the coming Fire Season. The Ork attack on the planet had stalled badly, and so Ork Warlord Judrog Irontoof committed every Dreadnought and Killa Kan in his force to a single attack. Following an Ork Kommando attack that weakened the Space Marine line, over 100 Ork war machines stomped forward in a densely packed phalanx. Though at first the Orks proved overwhelming in their advance, sweeping aside all Imperial resistance, this was not the case as they approached Gate IX. Nine Space Marine Dreadnoughts, led by Brother Damos of the Angels Porphyr stood ready. Despite the dire circumstances, Damos had faced a hundred such situations before and prevailed. Fitted with far superior long-range weaponry, the Imperial Dreadnoughts held their ground. The Orks' initial advance cost them 17 Dreadnoughts. Pulling back, the Imperial Dreadnoughts goaded the Orks into attacking Gate IX. Behind the gate, led by Brother Weylands of the Omega Marines, were nine more Dreadnoughts armed with power claws and a mixture of shorter ranged Assault Cannons, Multi-Meltas and Heavy Bolters. Behind them, Brother Damos and his Dreadnoughts stood on ramparts of earth and sundered rockcrete. Both ranks opened fire simultaneously into the tightly packed mass of Ork war engines. Then the front ranks ceased fire and thundered into close combat. It had been a bold attack by Judgrog's Dreadnoughts but the Ork force were quickly entangled, caught in a bottleneck, and the Space Marine Dreadnoughts cut into them. Unsupported and caught at a complete disadvantage, the Ork war machines were utterly devastated and the Ghattana Bay facility saved for the Imperium.KilldiggaWarpheadz Ork WarbandSometime during the 41st Millennium, the massive WAAAGH! Gragnatz devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector. Gragnatz's invasion force began as a few hundred thousand Orks besieging the Agri-World of Iornis. Rival Warbosses split off to launch their own WAAAGH!s with varying degrees of success. Meanwhile, the progress of Gragnatz's own WAAAGH! was slowed by the presence of the Warp rift "Hellfury," but emerged bolstered by the presence of WAAAGH! Kogtoof's warfleet, which was augmented by WAAAGH! Gorfang. Leading his own Ork warband, known as the "Warpheadz," Warboss Killdigga joined Gragnatz massive Grand Armada. By the time Gragnatz's grand armada reached the Vorsk Sub-sector its numbers were furthered swelled by other Big Bosses, forming a Greenskin onslaught capable of crushing several star systems at once.KillzkarWAAAGH! KillzkarDuring a year-long guerrilla war fought on the world of Dulma'lin in the subterranean depths of the cavern of the planet, a single regiment of Catachan Jungle Fighters, led by the bombastic Colonel Straken, earned a fearsome reputation amongst the Ork tribes. When the Catachan scouts located the centre of the Ork city in a massive underground cavern known as the Mommothian Vault, Straken personally led a handpicked team of demolitions experts and infiltrated the Ork settlement. On the third day of the operation the Catachans' presence was detected by a roving pack of Squig-hounds and in the ensuing fight Straken was seriously injured when he dragged Ork Warlord Killzkar into the path of a stampeding Squiggoth which trampled them both into the cavern floor. Straken survived his grievous injury, but the Ork Warboss was not so fortunate.KlawjawWAAAGH! BorkKlawjaw, known also as the Mighty Mangler of Bork by his followers, is an Ork Warboss renowned for being particularly pig-headed, but also is notable for a peculiar genius in the field of warfare. However, Warlord Klawjaw's true infamy stemmed not from his ferocity or even his ingenuity, but from his lunacy. Once known simply as Kog, this primitive thug of an Ork lived on the prosperous world of Bork. Though slow of wit, Kog grew to a formidable size through fighting and eating. Kog's meteoric rise would not be at all what his tribe expected. Possessed of strength and a fierce personality, he rose to unite the disparate tribes of Greenskins on his world, bashing his visions of conquest into his tribemates with a blunt instrument. The raving-mad tyrant resolved to shoot down the moon of Bork with an unfeasibly large gun known as Da Krater Maker before taking his WAAAGH! to the stars. His horde possesses a brigade of Battlewagons. Each vehicle is incredibly well-armoured, and the ground shakes when his brigade is on the move. To the dismay of the Imperial armies sent to intercept him, the Mighty Mangler lives up to his name. WAAAGH! Bork ultimately collapsed the defences of the Ghoul Stars and claimed a great area of the galactic fringe.KogtoofWAAAGH! KogtoofSometime during the 41st Millennium, the massive WAAAGH! Gragnatz devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector. Gragnatz's invasion force began as a few hundred thousand Orks besieging the Agri-World of Iornis. Rival Warbosses split off to launch their own WAAAGH!s with varying degrees of success. Meanwhile, the progress of Gragnatz's own WAAAGH! was slowed by the presence of the Warp rift "Hellfury," but emerged bolstered by the presence of WAAAGH! Kogtoof's warfleet, which was augmented by WAAAGH! Gorfang. By the time Gragnatz's grand armada reached the Vorsk Sub-sector its numbers were furthered swelled by other Big Bosses, forming a Greenskin onslaught capable of crushing several star systems at once.Gargash KorbulWAAAGH! KorbulGargash Korbul was an Ork Warboss who led his WAAAGH! during the Siege of Perlia in the 920's of the 41st Millennium. After uniting several disparate Ork tribes, Korbul declared a WAAAGH! against the Imperial worlds across the Perlian Sub-sector. WAAAGH! Korbul focused primarily on the world of Perlia itself, as it was the sub-sector's primary manufacturer of industrial materials. Korbul anticipated Imperial reinforcements, and stationed a small battlefleet on the outskirts of the system. A limited number of Weirdboyz utilised their strange psychic abilities and were able to pull the arriving Imperial reinforcements prematurely out of the Warp and right into Korbul's cunning trap. During the void battle, Commissar Ciaphas Cain and his aid, Ferik Jurgen, managed to eject from the troop ship and land on Perlia behind Ork lines. Marshalling a force of scattered Planetary Defence Forces, Imperial Guard troopers and various civilian refugees, this ad hoc force made its way towards the Imperial-held lines. Somehow, they managed to blunder unexpectedly onto a PDF supply cache being utilised by Warboss Korbul as his command post. Cain and Jurgen inadvertently found Korbul's quarters and were rushed by the enraged Warboss. Though no match for the speed and strength of the Mega-Armoured Warboss, Cain used this to his advantage, and managed to get in close enough to the massive Ork to fire his Laspistol at point-blank range into Korbul's eye socket, killing him instantly. His Nobz immediately fell to arguing and infighting amongst themselves. With Korbul and many of his largest Nobz dead, the threat of WAAAGH! Korbul was rendered null, as the Ork mob descended into anarchy.KroksnikKroksnik's Deth TraksKroksnik is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Gargant Big Mob, consisting of an estimated 6 Ork warbands and 7 Gargants, who were deployed in support of the Ork assault on the continent of Armageddon Secundus.MadbrakkaWAAAGH! MadbrakkaUtilising his powerful prescient abilities, Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius of the Ultramarines Chapter foretold the incursion of the WAAAGH! Madbrakka, and its ramshackled fleet was blasted to atoms as it emerged from the Warp.MorbadMorbad's Big GunzMorbad is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Big Gunz, consisting of an estimated 12 artillery warbands, who were deployed in support of the Ork assault on the continent of Armageddon Secundus.MorfangMorfang's Gargant Big MobMorfang is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Gargant Big Mob, consisting of an estimated 6 Ork warbands and 7 Gargants, who were deployed in support of the assault on the continent of Armageddon Secundus.Nazdreg Ug UrdgrubWAAAGH! NazdregNazdreg, a Bad Moons Warlord noted for his wealth and flair, bullies his Meks into performing ever more progressive and bizarre experiments. Despite some nasty "setbacks" ranging from spontaneous combustion to sporadic gravity reversal, Nazdreg's Meks perfect their Tellyporta designs in 979.M41. The Warlord barters his new technology with Ghazghkull in exchange for a permanent alliance on the road to the Third War for Armageddon in 998.M41.OrkamungusWAAAGH! OrkamungusOrkamungus was a powerful Ork Warboss who launched a WAAAGH! that invaded the Civilised World of Tartarus, which served as a cover for the attempt of a warband of Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines to recover a potent Chaotic artefact known as the Maledictum before the world was consumed by an oncoming Warp Storm. Orkamungus ultimately attracted the attention of the Blood Ravens Chapter's 3rd Company, and was killed when the Blood Ravens fell upon his base in force.OzdakkaWAAAGH! OzdakkaWAAAGH! Ozdakka rampages through the Helshrike Systems in 987.M41, comprised of millions of Orks led by the legendary Bad Moons Boss of Bosses Ozdakka. Such is the utter destruction wrought by the WAAAGH!, with entire worlds being smashed to scrap and dragged off into the stars by the unstoppable Orks, that the Adeptus Terra dispatches a Vindicare Assassin to take out Ozdakka and his most powerful Nobz. Brutally effective, the nameless assassin stalks the battlefields of Helshrike, sniping Orks from the shadows and taking a terrible toll on Ozdakka's bosses. In a fit of rage, the Warboss offers a hundred, hundred teef -- more than most Orks can comprehend -- for the head of the unseen killer. As word spreads of the bounty, even more Orks flock to Ozdakka's banner and his WAAAGH! swells until it is even larger than ever. However, the Warboss does not live to enjoy the destruction he has wrought upon the Helshrike Sector, the assassin's final shot taking Ozdakka's head from his shoulders before the Imperial agent is overwhelmed by a mob of Bad Moons intent on claiming the immense prize.RargutzWAAAGH! RargutzWhen WAAAGH! Grax carried out a brutal campaign of destruction in the Ryza System in 925.M41, the ever-expanding warzone was quickly turned into a meat grinder which swallowed world after world in bloody conflict. As bitter fighting raged across a hundred fronts, many new Warbands and whole WAAAGH!s were drawn to Grax's banner. Led by Kommander Rarguts, the ragtag fleets of WAAAGH! Rarguts broke through the Imperial Navy defensive blockade to once again threaten Ryza itself.RekkfistWAAAGH! RekkfistCraftworld Iyanden struggled to survive after its narrow victory over Hive Fleet Kraken, but was forced to defend itself once again when it was beset by WAAAGH!! Rekkfist. Though early engagements were successful in blunting the Greenskin attack, the Orks counterattacked in force. Just as all seemed lost, the Eldar of the Craftworld receive unexpected help from the Dark Eldar of the Kabal of the Wraithkind and the Wych Cult of the Flayed Hand, who burst forth from the Webway portal at the Craftworld's rear. Fighting alongside Iyanden's Aspect Warriors and their Ghost Warrior allies, the Dark Eldar drove off the Orks. When asked why they had come to the aid of their hated Craftworld brethren, the Dark Eldar replied that they found the Iyanden's anguish over the use of necromancy to defend their Craftworld to be highly amusing.RukglumRukglum's Big GunzRukglum is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Big Gunz, consisting of an estimated 11 artillery warbands, who were deployed in support of the fighting in the Fire Wastes.RukrippaWAAAGH! RukrippaRukrippa was a powerful Ork Warboss who in 533.M39 led a large WAAAGH! against the Osiris Sector of the Imperium, targeting the Cardinal World of Phaistos Osiris in particular. In the ensuing battle, known as the Fires of Phaistos, the entire Salamanders Chapter defeated his WAAAGH! and slew Rukrippa.RustbustasWAAAGH! RustbustasSometime during the 41st Millennium, the massive WAAAGH! Gragnatz devastated the Vorsk Sub-sector. Gragnatz's invasion force began as a few hundred thousand Orks besieging the Agri-World of Iornis. Rival Warbosses split off to launch their own Waaaghs! with varying degrees of success. The armoured Ork elite of WAAAGH! Rustbust took part in the campaign upon the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion's Fortress World of Castellax. During this protracted campaign, the surviving Orks of WAAAGH! Rustbustas were able to upgrade their fleet as well as tripling their ammunition supplies. They also took part in the eradication of all lifeforms on the Night World of Obetrus, before joining Granatz's massive WAAAGH! By the time Gragnatz's grand armada reached the Vorsk Sub-sector its numbers were furthered swelled by other Big Bosses, forming a Greenskin onslaught capable of crushing several star systems at once.SkarfangSkar FleetSkarfang was a dreaded Pirate-Warboss of the dreaded Skar Fleet, a mighty, if ramshackle, armada of Ork voidcraft that resided within the Ork Empire of Octarius. As Hive Fleet Leviathan continued to spread its tendrils into the Imperium, one man, Inquistor Lord Kryptman, took it upon himself to harness the power of the Tyranid swarm. Kryptman planned to use a tendril of Leviathan to eliminate the Ork Empire of Octarius, which had long been embroiled with the Imperium in an ever-escalating war in this volatile region of space. Utilising captured Tyranids, they were placed aboard a Space Hulk, the Perdition's Flame, which had emerged from Warpspace ahead of the approaching Hive Fleet. Changing the passing hulk's trajectory, the Tyranids soon descended upon the Orks within the Octarius System. They soon became embroiled with the Skarfang and his Skar Fleet in the infamous Octarian War. For the first time the Tyranids found themselves vastly outnumbered by their prey. In response, the Ghorala swarm adapted in order to survive. Over a long, protracted period the Tyranids slowly wore down the Orks through attrition, and their numbers started to swell. With Skarfang leading his forces, the Warboss was able to turn the tide, even when the Tyranids were on the cusp of victory. In response, the Tyranids created Lictors with the express purpose of eliminating Skarfang. Eluding the Tyranids, Skarfang was eventually separated from the bulk of his forces and lured into an ambush, in which he was torn apart by the stalking Lictors.Skargrim RuknarBurning Death Speed FreeksSkargrim Ruknar is the notorious Ork Warboss of the Burning Death Speed Freeks, and is currently aligned with the infamous Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. Skargrim's most notorious act was the immolation of the Imperial Library World of Shen. During the Third War for Armageddon, Skargrim's forces participated in the siege of Hive Infernus, destroying an Imperial Guard regiment of Savlar Chem-Dogs in the Ash Wastes when they attempted to break out from the hive. Skargrim and his Boyz are noted for their fondness for fire, and as a result they utilise a large number of Burnas and Skorchas in battle.SkragSkrag's Gargant Big MobSkrag is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Gargant Big Mob, consisting of an estimated 2 warbands and 3 Gargants, who were deployed in support of the fighting in the Fire Wastes.SkarfangSkarfang's Gargant Big MobSkarfang is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his War Horde, consisting of an estimated 3 warbands and 7 Gargants, who were deployed in support of the fighting on the continent of Armageddon Secundus.SkullkrakWAAAGH! SkullkrakSkullkrak was a powerful Ork Warlord who led WAAAGH! Skullkrak who first arose in notoriety when he invaded the Targus System in 862.M41. Amongst the Imperial forces that responded to the Greenskin threat was the Raven Guard Chapter's 3rd Company led by Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike. During their initial insertion, an artillery strike from the Orks shot down the 3rd Company's extraction Thunderhawk gunship, stranding the Raven Guard behind enemy lines. Shrike proceeded to lead his surviving men in a guerrilla campaign behind Ork lines for two standard years, striking with impunity at the Orks' weakest points. Pursuing rumours of ancient weaponry, Warboss Skullkrak led his Boyz to the ghost world of Fordris, hoping such tools could tip the balance in his campaign against the Raven Guard's 3rd Company. Skulltrak soon discovered that Fordris was far from lifeless nor uninhabited, as the first wave of Necron Warriors emerged from the acidic blood-red seas. After a violent struggle, the battle seemed to turn in the Orks' favour when the tide from the crimson ocean swept in, causing vital components of damaged Necrons to sweep out to sea and make their regeneration impossible. Those Necrons that were able to do so hid beneath the waves, striking at will at the Orks. Driving Skullkrak's horde back, the Greenskins were pressed against a cliff face, with the blood-red sea to their backs. Without warning, a Monolith heaved itself to the surface from deep beneath the waves. Utilising its large power matrix crystal mounted atop its pyramidal form, the crystal focused its alien energies, and unleashed devastating arcs of anti-matter lightning, obliterating the remaining Orks, including the Warboss himself.SnagrodWAAAGH! SnagrodThe Ork Empire of Charadon is the largest and most long standing of its kind. Controlled by a pyromaniac berserker, the Ork Warboss Snagrod, known as the Arch-Arsonist. Snagrod united the Ork factions in the Loki Sector under his rule. In 989.M41, the Imperial colony of Badlanding was destroyed despite a valiant defence at Krugerport. The intervention of the Crimson Fists Space Marines ensures that Snagrod's next target is the Astartes Chapter planet called Rynn's World. After a titanic battle in 989.M41, the Crimson Fists' fortress-monastery is atomised by a devastating explosion. The Orks are driven off-world in 991.M41 after a two-year-long siege, but it is a hollow victory, for the once-proud Crimson Fists Chapter is reduced to a tattered fragment of its former glory. The empire of Charadon has also been the bane of the Ultima Segmentum for countless centuries. The Space Marines of the Ultramarines Chapter, led by Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius, helped to prevent the Orks of Charadon from reaching critical mass and launching a full-scale WAAAGH! into Ultramar itself. But with the approach of the Tyranid menace encroaching upon the Realms of Ultramar, the Arch-Arsonist has seized upon the chance to invade the Ultramar System.SnagratoofWAAAGH! SnagratoofWhen Imotekh the Stormlord, Phaeron of the Sautekh Dynasty emerged from hibernation on the Tomb World of Mandragora, he ordered its Dolmen Gates reactivated, sending his Necron forces to seize the many coreworlds from the Ork hordes of Warboss Snagratoof. With the Orks driven off or destroyed, the reclaimed Tomb Worlds were then awoken, swelling Imotekh's forces further.Snagga-snaggaWAAAGH! Bogga-BoggaSnagga-snagga was an Ork Warboss. Originally a Feral Ork under the command of Warboss Bogga-Bogga during the Baran War, his master was slain during an ambush by Eldar Striking Scorpions Aspect Warriors. Snagga-snagga emerged as the principle Ork Warlord in the aftermath of Bogga-bogga's death and the rout of the remaining Ork forces on the planet. He organized the disparate Ork warbands into one massive WAAAGH! consisting of hundreds of thousands of Boyz. Snagga-snagga even oversaw the construction of two Ork Gargants. However, he would be defeated by a surprise Eldar attack led by Autarch Mauryon. The Eldar Autarch killed Snagga-snagga at the height of the battle, plunging his Power Spear through the Ork's chest.SnappaklawWAAAGH! SnappaklawWAAAGH! Snappaklaw descended upon the Ice World of Beroghast in 963.M41, swiftly overwhelming the defenders of many of the isolated factory complexes. The Grey Knights' 2nd Brotherhood aborted their return flight from the Xaea Campaigns to render assistance to the beleaguered world. Though the Grey Knights were outnumbered many times over by the Orkish horde, Brother-Captain Arno Trevan masterminded a series of decisive strikes that quickly left the WAAAGH! cut off from its supply lines. The final blow was delivered on the banks of the River Gandor, where Trevan and his closest warriors ambushed and slew Snappaklaw himself. Three days later, Fire Lords Space Marines under the command of the newly promoted Chapter Master Jaric Phoros arrived to discover the Orks in full retreat and the primitive locals full of tales of their unknown "Steel Saviours."ThogfangGargant Big MobThogfang is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Gargant Big Mob, consisting of 3 Ork warbands and 7 Gargants during the fighting that raged on Armageddon.ThugsnikThugsnik's Big GunzThugsnik is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Big Gunz, consisting of an estimated 6 artillery warbands, who were deployed in support of the Greenskin assault on the continent of Armageddon Secundus.Tuska the Daemon-KillaWAAAGH! TuskaTuska, who styled himself the Daemon-Killa, was a powerful Ork Warlord famous for his many battlefield trophies. Tuska liked nothing more than pitting his strength against something larger than he was. In 890.M41, Great Boss Tuska's flagship Gorejaw was invaded by a daemonic entity as it carved its path through the Warp. When Tuska learned that a towering many-headed nightmare was slaughtering its way through his crew, he strapped on his Power Klaw and sprinted towards the sounds of battle, bellowing his warcry. Meeting the beast head to head on the Gorejaw 's bridge, the resultant crash between Ork and daemon was titanic, but when the fighting was over Tuska had a new set of horns with which to adorn his trophy rack. Following his encounter with the Warp-beast, the Great Boss rounded up as many Weirdboyz as he could, and utilised them to help bypass the Imperial defences around Cadia in order to invade the Eye of Terror, in his search for more daemons to fight. Wandering aimlessly for many days across a number of Daemon Worlds, Tuska encountered a Daemon Prince of Khorne known as the Blood Prince. In a titanic battle, Tuska took a score of grievous wounds as his Boyz suffered severe losses. As the Blood Prince was about to finish off Tuska, his Weirdboyz distracted the Daemon with their psychic powers long enough for Tuska to impale the creature between its legs with his Power Klaw before being killed himself. Tuska's story didn't end here, however. With each new day on the Daemon World, the Warboss and his Boyz found themselves reanimated to once again do battle with the Blood Prince and his daemonic horde. Eventually, Khorne himself grew so impressed by the Orks' eternal bloodlust that he brought Tuska's WAAAGH! into his own domain in the Realm of Chaos, where every day they rise anew to fight on the ash-strewn plains before the Blood God's Brass Citadel. This fate suits Tuska just fine, for he has finally found a proper fight that will never end.Painboss ToofjawWAAAGH! DokThe Warboss at the heart of WAAAGH! Dok had once been a Painboy in the retinue of the Ork tyrant Drogbag. Over the years, Drogbag had failed to notice that every time he woke up from an operation on the Dok’s slab, the Painboy would grow a little more bulky and the Warboss a little less. By the time a mistreated Gretchin orderly tipped Drogbag off that Toofjaw was "taking a little off the top" each time, it was too late. Painboy Toofjaw literally took the Warboss apart in the ensuing leadership challenge, carving him to pieces with his twin killsaws and claiming rulership of the tribe in the process. Thus began a very unusual WAAAGH! indeed. In every clan or tribe that Toofjaw recruited to his cause, Painboys were treated like royalty. Every Ork was made to undergo at least a small amount of cybernetic modification, and in the process, both teeth and weapons would unaccountably go missing. With their apron-wearing Killa Kan orderlies to back them up should a patient get uppity, Painboss Toofjaw's Dok Mob slowly came to control almost all of the wealth and wargear of their warband. The Painboss’ influence spread across the system, and it was not long until WAAAGH! Dok had set sail into the sea of stars. Boarding captured asteroids hastily converted into crude warships, the Orks headed for the sprawling stellar stain they called Da Big Swirly Fing, hoping to invade and destroy whatever lay behind it. Through the Warp rift lay the world of Arkunasha, and a war that was to test their battlelust to the limit.UgblitzWAAAGH! UgblitzUgblitz was an Ork Warboss who led his WAAAGH! in an assault on the world of Saras VII, but was defeated and contained by the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment of Imperial Guard, led by General Myndoras Odon.Ugskraga da MightyWAAAGH! UgskragaUgskraga da Mighty is an Ork Warboss who began a campaign in 940.M40 to capture the Imperial World of Balle Prime. After suffering a decisive defeat at the Akhar Basin Massacre, Ugskraga continued his war effort for many more months until he was eventually defeated.UgulhardWAAAGH! GhazghkullWarlord Ugulhard was one of the most prominent underlings of Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka during the latter's first attempt at invading the Hive World of Armageddon. Leading the assault upon Hades Hive personally, Ugulhard faced off in single combat against Commissar Sebastian Yarrick. Ugulhard managed to sever his opponent's arm, but then committed the mistake of howling victory too soon instead of pressing his advantage. He was then beheaded in turn by his opponent. Ugulhard's Power Klaw was adapted as a bionic replacement arm by Commissar Yarrick.UngskarWAAAGH! UngskarUngskar is an Ork Warboss who launched three WAAAGH!s in the Mitre Gulf, each being defeated at the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion's Fortress World of Burjan's World.Urgok GrimskullGreat Slayer Grimskull's War HordeUrgok Grimskull, known as Urgok the Unstoppable and the Great Slayer, is a formidable Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his War Horde, consisting of an estimated 60 warbands and 8 Gargants, who were deployed in support of the fighting in the Fire Wastes.Urrlak UrrukOrk Empire of UllanorOverlord Urrlak Urruk was a powerful Ork Warboss who controlled a vast swathe of space within the Ullanor System during the late 30th Millennium. The capital world of this pocket empire, and the site of the final Imperial assault, lay in the Ullanor Sector. A massive Imperial campaign was launched on the Ork empire, which would culminate in one the nascent Imperium's greatest victories during the Great Crusade. The so-called Ullanor Crusade included the deployment of 100,000 Space Marines, 8,000,000 Imperial Army troops, and thousands of Imperial starships and their support personnel. The Luna Wolves Legion spearheaded the assault into the heart of Urlakk's fortress-palace. During the height of the assault, the Primarch Horus and a retinue of Luna Wolves Terminators from the elite 1st Company came face to face with the massive Ork Warlord and a retinue of 40 Ork Nobz. Horus charged into the Nobz, hacking them apart with his Lightning Claws until he finally faced the Ork Overlord himself. Urlakk was simply no match for the Primarch's skill and unnatural power. First crippling his enemy, Horus hefted Urlakk`s broken body out onto the roof of the Greenskin's palace and threw it screaming from the battlements to fall far below amongst the horde of Orks still assaulting the lower levels. Seeing their leader defeated sent a panic through the Greenskin forces, which started to fall back from the Terminators. But the fleeing mobs found they had nowhere to run, as the outer walls had been breached by the attacking Luna Wolves, and the day turned into a slaughter. In the Overlord's chamber, Horus found every Ork and Terminator dead, apart from the gore-drenched First Captain of the 1st Company, Ezekyle Abaddon, who was surrounded by crushed and Ork bodies. The Ullanor Crusade marked the high point of the Great Crusade's vast effort to reunite the scattered colony worlds of humanity. The Orks of Ullanor represented the largest concentration of Orks ever defeated by the military forces of the Imperium of Man before the Third War for Armageddon began during the late 41st Millennium.VargaVarga's Drop LegionVargo is an Ork Warlord who is currently aligned to the infamous Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. During the Third War for Armageddon he led his Drop Legion, consisting of an estimated 24 Ork warbands, who were deployed in support of the Greenskin assault on the continent of Armageddon Prime.ZagdakkaDa WeirdWAAAGH!Starting as a mere Weirdboy to another of the countless Ork Warlords leading his own WAAAGH!, Zagdakka's psychic powers became so great that he slew his own Warlord and personally took command of the latter's Greenskin horde. Fiercely intelligent and able to bring unusual discipline and focus to the Orks rallying under his banner, the self-stylised "Prophet of Mork" gathered a powerful retinue of Weirdboyz around him before invading the Forge World of Columnus in 249.M41. Powered by the single focus of Zagdakka's mind, the coordinated Ork attack smashed through Colomnus' orbital defences until only its three main forge-fanes stood against the horde. The rage of the Orks was so potent that Zagdakka's Zzap Guns could even penetrate the Void Shields of a Battle Titan as some God-engines of the Legio Ferrax soon discovered. After slaughtering an entire company of Raven Guard Space Marines, Zagdakka and his personal retinue were vaporised by the firepower unleashed by the Iron Hands of Clan Raukaan.ZanzagWAAAGH! ZanzagZanzag was an Ork Warboss who led a surging WAAAGH! primarily composed of the Orks of the Goff Clan in an assault on the Hive World of Black Reach in 855.M41, and to a lesser extent, its neighbouring planets Jede'ogh and Voldermach. By the time Captain Cato Sicarius and his Ultramarines taskforce arrived to help the beleaguered Imperial defenders, only 12 major hive cities had managed to hold out. All three planets in the Black Reach System were overcome by WAAAGH! Zanzag which burst into realspace through Jorgund's Eye, a wormhole thought to be connected to the Eldar Webway in the Vidar Sector. How the primitive Ork fleet pulled off such a feat of interstellar bravado is unknown, but the Greenskin forces descended upon the Black Reach System so quickly that such disturbing questions were put aside by the Ultramarines high command on Macragge in favour of readying for the coming battle. As an Imperial Hive World, Black Reach's massive hive cities were home to billions of Imperial citizens. Much of the planet's population was slain during the initial assault of WAAAGH! Zanzag, and the hive cities and surrounding territory of Black Reach's northern continent was completely ruined by the intensity of the fighting. After the defeat of Zanzag by the Imperial forces led by the Ultramarines 2nd Company and its valiant commander, Captain Sicarius, Black Reach's inhabitants still had to take back the rest of their world from the pockets of surviving Greenskins. One Terminator and 12 Space Marines from the 2nd Company were slain during the Ultramarines' operations on Black Reach.ZhardsnarkZhardsnark's Speed FreeksZhardsnark is an Evil Sunz Biker Boss. He is a grizzled veteran of numerous warzones and countless battles, not only against the Imperium, but other xenos races and his own kind. Zhardsnark was one of the more experienced and powerful Warbosses on Kastorel-Novem at the time of the raid by the Raven Guard, and his large Evil Sunz warband was in the thick of the fighting. For an Ork Warboss he is lightly armoured, a trait of the Evil Sunz bikers, who prefer speed and mobility over armoured protection. He is known for riding a fully customised, half-tracked Warbike of prodigious size, known as "da Beast." In battle he utilised a custom-built, gaunlet-mounted, armoured buzzsaw known as "da' Rippa."ZoggitWAAAGH! ZoggitZoggit was an Ork Warboss and Weirdboy, though he killed any who suggested that he might be one of the latter. In 227.M38, he led a WAAAGH! from the Ork World of Zogg-Dis into a Webway rift, eventually emerging in the Commorragh port of Darkblood. Battling the Dark Eldar, hundreds of thousands of Zoggit's Boyz managed to level entire districts of the Dark City before they were eventually isolated and destroyed piece by piece. Zoggit himself was killed during the battle. |
WAAAGH! Grimtoof - WAAAGH! Grimtoof: WAAAGH! Grimtoof is the Ork WAAAGH! under the control of the Ork Warlord Ghenghiz Grimtoof which slammed into the Periphery Sub-sector of the Segmentum Obscurus' Calixis Sector in 814.M41. The massive Ork assault forced the Sub-sector Governor Duke Severus XIII to request aid from the Sector Governor Marius Hax, who mobilised the Calixis Sector's military reserves to meet the Greenskin invasion. Even as the forces of the Imperial Guard poured into what the Departmento Munitorum soon designated as the Spinward Front, Severus XIII used the chaos caused by the invasion to secede from the Imperium, creating the independent pocket empire in the Periphery known as the Severan Dominate. At present, a three-way war is underway in the Spinward Front between the forces of the Imperium, the Severan Dominate and the Ork WAAAGH! |
WAAAGH! Grimtoof - Tale of House Severan: Almost two thousand standard years ago in the mid-39th Millennium, the Calixis Sector was hewn from the xenos-haunted depths of the unexplored region of the Segmentum Obscurus once known as the Calyx Expanse by the blood, sweat, and tears of the countless thousands of Imperial martyrs who prosecuted the Angevin Crusade. The endeavour was a mighty one and only made possible by the combined efforts of numerous arms of the Imperium’s military machine. Hundreds of regiments of the Imperial Guard fought across worlds boiling with xenos corruption, millions-strong advances spearheaded by the elite Adeptus Astartes. The skies were darkened by the massed fighter wings of the Imperial Navy while warships as numerous as the stars themselves burned across the void. The war machinesof the Adeptus Titanicus bestrode the battlefields like armoured gods while the private armies of the most ambitious of Rogue Trader houses fought in thehope of one day ruling those worlds wrested from the dead grip of nameless xenos fiends. It was one of these militant Rogue Trader princes that led some of the boldest thrusts into the region, so deep into the Calyx Expanse that he all but broke through into the Wilderness Zones beyond. That man was Duke Severus I, the bearer of a Warrant of Trade granted to his line by the High Lords of Terra themselves. Yet, his name is all but unknown in the Calixis Sector, while those of lesser men are celebrated across a hundred systems and more.The deeds of Severus I and his companions were so heroic that they should be known and celebrated across not just the Calixis Sector, but the entire Imperium. It wasDuke Severus who unlocked the Markayn Marches Sub-sector by plasma-boiling the hideous xenos spawning seas of Cantus Extremis, breaking a deadlock that had stalled the advance of three million Imperial troops. It was Severus who discovered and charted the Warp route between Dreah and Iocanthos, when the fleet-masters of the Imperial Navy were convinced the path spinward must surely lie between the Prol System and Fedrid. It is even said that a mighty Warp beast assailed the Duke’s flagship as he closed on Ganf Magna, the creature’s vast tentacles wrapping about the vessel so that when Severus ordered an emergency translation into realspace, the thing was dragged through too. Weakened by exposure to the laws of the material realm, the beast was eventually defeated. Butbefore it faded from existence, Duke Severus himself hacked out a single, crystalline eye several metres in diameter and worth the ransom of a High Lord of Terra.As great as his numerous victories were, it was the duke’s deeds in forging the Periphery Sub-sector that earned him true glory, for a short time at least. Of the Heretic and xenos fiends the duke’s fleet confronted as it ranged ahead of the main Angevin Crusade advance between Sepheris Secundus and Sinophia, the fewextant archives are all but silent -- the Inquisition and other bodies having determined such truths unfit for public dissemination. In most cases, only the names of otherwise unknown battles remain. The Scouring of Cyclopea Nine; the Kulth Landings; the Retreat from Avitohol, closely followed by the Avitohol Reprisals; the War of Ash, in which a thousand xenos vessels are said to have been sent plummeting through the upper atmosphere of Sisk, the survivors ruthlessly hunted down by vengeful human natives. It was at the Second Battle of Kulth that the duke’s greatest moment came, his armies counterattacked by a millions-strong horde of slavering xenos monstrosities. Little is known beyond a faded entry in a crumbling tome, locked in the stasis vaults beneath the Lucid Palace on Scintilla, stating that the duke rallied his armies in person, even as the xenos horde closed in on all quarters and all seemed lost. The unknown scribe goes on to claim that Duke Severus faced a xenos being of such monstrous nature that his greatest champions were struck down by madness, but that he was not, delivering the killing blow with his own hand and turning the battle and the entire campaign in an instant. The xenos hordes were put to rout and with them, those human-held worlds that had resisted the Imperium’s advance capitulated. The region that would one day become known as the Periphery Sub-sector was opened up and a Warp route discovered that connected the region to the distant Scarus Sector, ensuring its fortunes as shipping hubs sprung up along its length.Why then, are the deeds of Severus I unknown to the peoples of the Calixis Sector? The answer is simple and lies in that most basic of human flaws -- the sin of hubris. Duke Severus I had been promised much by the terms of his Warrant of Trade, but in truth the High Lords of Terra had never expected him to survive the terrors that lurked in the Calyx Expanse. Before being granted his title, the duke was a senior courtier of the Senatorum Imperialis on Terra and his political trajectory was carrying him towards a seat on that highest of councils. His numerous rivals found this greatly disconcerting, for they believed Severus to have murdered numerous of his compatriots during his rise to power. These rivals engineered the granting of the Warrant of Trade, forcing Severus to embark on a Crusade they hoped would end his ambitions, his career, and his life. Severus was fully aware of the High Lords’ intentions and when he succeeded in carving the Periphery from the darkness of the Calyx Expanse, he interpreted the terms of his warrant to justify him claiming it as his personal realm, exempt from the laws and demands placed on the rest of the Imperium. In essence, Severus installed himself as the exclusive ruler of his own private empire within the boundaries of the Imperium, which in his eyes he had earned by the spilling of his blood and that of countless thousands of his followers.In other circumstances, Severus I might have been allowed to realise his ambition, for the frontiers of the Imperium are often expanded by men with similar dreams of avarice and power, only to be absorbed into the greater mass of sectors generations later. This might have been the case with Severus, were it not for the simultaneous rise of a man who regarded him as a vainglorious and self-interested robber baroninterested only in expanding his own domains off of the blood, sweat, and tears of millions of the God-Emperor’s faithful servants. This man was Lord General Militant Drusus, the man who had succeeded Lord General Militant Golgenna Angevin as the leader of the Angevin Crusade that conquered the Calyx Expanse. While Severus had been conquering the Periphery for his own ends, Drusus had been leading the armies of the Imperial Guard in a series of victories every bit as glorious as those earned by the duke. While Severus set about consolidating his power after the Second Battle of Kulth, Drusus fought on, claiming untold worlds for the God-Emperor of Mankind. Following his apparent death at the hands of the agents of rivals (which may, or may not have included Severus) and subsequent resurrection, Drusus was beatified by the Ecclesiarchy as a Living Saint and is celebrated to this day as the patron Imperial saint of the Calixis Sector.Duke Severus was soon eclipsed by Saint Drusus and his plans to establish his own realm were cast to ashes. With every one of the leading lights of the Angevin Crusade openly worshipping Drusus as a paragon of the Emperor's justice, none would support Severus in his own ambitions. For a time, Severus turned his back upon his former peers amongst the Angevin Crusade, eventually only speaking with the famous Rogue Trader Sibylline Haarlock. What passed between the two remains unrecorded and some believe that Haarlock denounced Severus upon learning of his intentions to establish his own private realm. By the time Drusus was pronounced the first Lord Sector of Calixis, Severus was a broken man. He died in 417.M39, less than a month before Drusus himself passed away. To the last, he was a resentful, bitter man, turned by the cruelty of fate from a noble merchant-admiral to a paranoid recluse. |
WAAAGH! Grimtoof - A Fateful Deal: But Duke Severus I did not die the last of his line. Before he passed, he recounted his sad tale to his first-born son, and in the telling it must surely have been distilled into a hateful story of lesser men allying against one of whom they were jealous. The son passed the tale on to his son, and again the story was filtered in the telling until all that remained was a twisted kernel, only barely resembling the truth. Generation after generation of House Severus heard, and then repeated, this tale of doom, until in 779.M41 Duke Severus XIII assumed power over what little remained of his house. Unlike his predecessors, Severus the Thirteenth had managed to claw his way up the rungs of power in the Calixis Sector, drawing upon methods and means yet to be fully revealed. In 799.M41, he assumed the appointment to which he had worked his entire life, the position from which he might finally realise the dreams of his entire line. He ascended to the position of Lord Sub-Sector, the Adeptus Administratum prefect of the region his eponymous forebear had founded -- the Periphery.But in truth, Severus XIII could never have gained ascendancy over his peers to become the recognised Imperial governor of the Periphery without the aid of the Dark Eldar group known as the Children of Thorns. This outcast Dark Eldar Kabal, exiled from the Dark City of Commorragh, is made up of the dregs of Dark Eldar society -- escaped slaves, disgraced nobles, and defeated champions -- and its members are ever watchful for opportunities to gain weapons and slaves they can use to fuel their bid for a return to power in Commorragh. In aiding Severus XIII, the Children of Thorns Kabal has gained easy access to a region in which theImperium’s forces are unable to oppose their realspace raids. Thousands of men, women and children are dragged screaming back to the dark sub-reality sinks of the Dark City in the Labyrinthine Dimension of the Webway, yet there are those that question whether the kabal’s involvement in the wars of the Spinward Front might be more pernicious still. Some fear that the Dark Eldar might be working towards another agenda entirely -- one that can only bring more doom and disaster upon thewar-torn worlds of the Periphery and beyond.His ambitions echoing those of his progenitor, Severus XIII believed that the Periphery should be his, yet he knew that overtly declaring secession from the Imperium would cause the Sub-sector's Loyalist Planetary Governors to rise up against him and bring the force of the Imperium crashing down upon his head. Instead, he sought allies in the darkness spinward of the Periphery, his spies seeking out any who might lend him aid, no matter their price. Waiting in the darkness, his spies discovered the Dark Eldar of the outcast Children of Thorns Kabal, and vile pacts were made in exchange for the aliens’ lethal services.Severus XIII consigned entire Frontier Worlds to the Dark Eldar’s cruel mercies, ensuring that when realspace raids occurred, the sub-sector’s military reserves were always too distant to intervene. Xenos chattel-barques swollen with slaves delivered hundreds of thousands of human beings to their doom in the pits of Commorragh, while the court of Severus XIII gained a host of new veiled courtiers and black-eyed assassins.For over a standard decade, Severus and his cruel agent-allies worked tirelessly to cut the ties between the Periphery and the sector at large, one at a time, so that none even noticed as it was slowly transformed into his personal realm. PlanetaryGovernors resistant to corruption or subversion were quietly removed, but always the eight worlds closest to the border with the Malfian Sub-sector were maintained in a state of outward normality. The worlds spinward of them were entirely in the sway of the noble, who had at last attained his ancestor’s dream of an independent stellar empire of his own in all but name. |
WAAAGH! Grimtoof - The Green Tide: None can tell what might have come of Severus’ fiefdom had events continued unchecked. Perhaps he would have grown so bold as to risk openly declaring secession, or perhaps his shadowy allies would have turned upon him in his hubris.Instead, it was another xenos species that decided the matter. An Ork invasion under the Warlord Ghenghiz Grimtoof, the self-titled “Git-Slaver,” came crashing out of the darkness and fell upon the outermost fringes of Severus’ pocket empire, slaying millions in a few short months. The Planetary Defence Forces of these worlds were geared largely towards the suppression of their own populations, or else for blustering parades honouring their master in House Severus, and few were able to mount anything like a capable resistance. World after world slipped from Severus’ grasp as the Git-Slaver’s Orks rampaged all but unchecked through his realm. There was nothing either he or his sinister allies could do to halt them.Severus XIII brooded upon his granite throne as millions perished. His closest advisors counselled him to beseech the Imperium for aid, yet all were silenced by the executioner’s blow. At the last, his counsellors all dead or fled, Severus was left alone and his empire all but fallen. In a moment of grim revelation he saw they had all been correct. He dispatched his own kin to the court of the Calixian Lord Sector Marius Hax on Scintilla to beg for aid against the Ork invasion.Though most of the messengers were intercepted by unknown assassins or fell prey to other, equally deadly fates, one got through. Severus’ own granddaughter went before Sector Lord Hax and delivered the plea for aid. Hax simply laughed at her.The patrician Calixian Sector Governor had been watching the Periphery from afar for years and knew well the treachery of Severus XIII, though how much he was aware of its origins, he did not reveal. Later hearsay implied that some link between Severus and Hax, some dark tie, perhaps even a blood tie, stayed his hand as Severus built his own private realm. Yet, when the Orks attacked, it was to Hax’s own benefit, for it humbled Severus and forced him out of the wilderness in a very public manner. At length, Hax agreed that the Orks must be checked and the Calixis Sector’s military reserves were mobilised.Kulth, the capital of the Periphery Sub-sector, was relieved, though in truth the Imperium never committed sufficient force to truly turn the tide against the Orks. The worlds beyond the Periphery descended into a churning cauldron of total war, yet so many Calixian troops were being committed to the secret war in the Jericho Reach that to many in the highest Imperial circles of the sector the endeavour in the Periphery seemed to have little hope of success. Some whispered that those who prosecuted the distant Achilus Crusade had need of a war closer to home to mask the huge drain on resources, and so a deadlock in the Periphery was at best convenient, and at worst deliberately maintained. |
WAAAGH! Grimtoof - Only War: While the situation on Kulth was stabilised, the war beyond the Periphery was going badly for Severus XIII. While the Orks plundered the worlds of Deluge, KW-9, Pertinax, and a score of lesser star systems, a myriad of other threats rose up. Despite the pacts Severus believed he had secured with the DarkEldar, the pernicious children of Commorragh launched ever more audacious raids against those worlds of the Periphery on the verges of the war zone. Drawn by the near total collapse of the Imperium’s power in the region, the servants of Chaos, in particular the warband of Chaos Space Marines led by Sektoth the False Whisperer, launched a series of brutal assaults, pursuing their own blasphemous missions.Beset upon all quarters, Severus XIII announced his personal annexation of the chaotic zone of space beyond the Periphery into what he termed the “Severan Dominate” until the crisis had passed. Lord Sector Hax was incensed, declaring Severus a Secessionist and a Traitor, and the war escalated to a previously unseen pitch. The servants of Chaos now walk openly upon the war-torn worlds, doing theunknowable bidding of their masters, while the Dark Eldar raid where they will, their pact with Severus XIII all but torn up. The Orks have now entered the second phase of their WAAAGH!, the focus shifting from slaughter to enslavement. The OrkWarlord has established his own bastion world at Avitohol and enslaved its populace so that countless millions of tons of ramshackle war materiel are being churned out to feed the greenskinned species’ incessant hunger for weapons and munitions. The lines are drawn and the pressure on the front is increasing, and it is only the far more pressing needs of the Jericho Reach fronts that keep the Imperium from flooding the Spinward Front with so many regiments of the Imperial Guard that all resistance is crushed. Each year that the Severan Dominate is not brought to heel is another year it spends reinforcing its core worlds, and another year the Orks’ strength becomes ever more established. And all the while,the Forces of Chaos move unchecked through the region, and mad prophets whisper of an imminent manifestation of Komus, the dreaded Tyrant Star that has long afflicted the Calixis Sector. |
WAAAGH! Grimtoof - WAAAGH! Grimtoof Space: The green-skinned, barbarous Orks have plagued Mankind and the other star-faring species for as long as they have traversed space and it is probable they are Mankind’s oldest xenos foe. The Emperor Himself is said to have fought, and defeated, one of the species’ mightiest leaders during the Great Crusade, averting the rise of an Ork empire that might have grown so powerful as to threaten the Imperium’s manifest destiny to rule the stars. No sector of space is free of their anarchic presence, for they infest the entire galaxy. Ork society, such as it is, is focused on continuing strife, the process of powerful individuals rising to command their own stellar empires pushing the species ever onward. Through ceaseless conflict with themselves and with other species, the Orks spread across entire sectors of space. Once established, they are all but impossible to repulse and so the anarchic, ramshackle Greenskin empires expand across the void, staining vast tracts of the galaxy with their vile presence.The coming of WAAAGH! Grimtoof was a huge shock to the military of the Calixis Sector, for it came from a quadrant of Wilderness Space beyond the Periphery Sub-sector not known to host any such force. The star systems in that region wereonly partially catalogued and all-but unexplored, but the long range patrols of the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Calixis should have picked up any nascent threat. If these patrols did detect any such sign, then the intelligence was certainly not acted upon. The Periphery found itself the target of a massive Ork invasion and Severus XIII felt compelled to declare the secession of his worlds and the creation of his Severan Dominate. Some have whispered that the Calixian Lord Sector Marius Hax was, in fact, informed of the oncoming storm, yet chose to withhold the information from Severus, perhaps anticipating, or precipitating in, the Sub-sector prefect’s treachery. Whatever the truth of the matter, it is certain that when WAAAGH! Grimtoof smashed into the worlds beyond the Periphery’s spinward borders, none were in the slightest bit prepared or able to repulse them. Four entire star systems fell in as many months and over a dozen more are now in the grip of total war as the forces of humanity, whether loyal to the Imperium or to the beleaguered Severan Dominate, fight desperately to hold the anarchic xenos foe at bay.Of the first worlds to have fallen to WAAAGH! Grimtoof, very little is known and, while they were ostensibly within the borders of the Dominate, Severus XIII had little or no real power over them. Most exist as names or codes on the stellar charts of the Imperial Navy and may not have known the tread of outsiders for many millennia. The outermost is a dismal world named Deluge, which was host to a smallcommunity of mendicant Imperial aesthetes thought to have settled there in the aftermath of the Angevin Crusade. Of the monks’ fate nothing is known, but Deluge has been under the hobnailed heel of Grimtoof Git-Slaver for so long that it is unlikely any are still alive.The world of Porphyry was the second settled planet to fall to WAAAGH! Grimtoof, the Adeptus Mechanicus stripmining facility present there making it a tempting target to the avaricious xenos. The fate of the servants of the Cult Mechanicusremains unknown. Of late, Imperial Navy long range sweeps have detected stray Vox signals suggesting some remnant of the Adeptus Mechanicus forces still exist, though in what form none can say. Perhaps it is no more than an automated beacon cycling endlessly into the void, but perhaps it represents a small group that somehow continues to hold out.Between Porphyry and the leading edge of the Ork invasion lies a cluster of worlds linked by minor, barely known and highly unstable Warp routes. Even the largest ofthese are unexplored and as such have only astrocartographic identifiers, including KW-9 and XD-777. Closest to the border with the Severan Dominate is the world of Augury, a planet long shunned even by the pirates and outcasts that haunt such regions. The Orks took Augury six months into their invasion, but they seem unwilling to commit sufficient forces to keep hold of it and the Severan Dominate has retaken it on several occasions. Currently, Dominate forces have been compelled to vacate Augury by the need to bolster nearby Lukius, and so it nominally falls under those worlds in the thrall of Grimtoof Git-Slaver.Trailing Augury is a line of systems once claimed by the Severan Dominate but currently fighting desperately for their own survival in the face of the xenos invasion. The Imperium is largely unaware and uncaring of their fate and the Dominate is unable to project forces much further than Lukius and Augury. The worlds of Pertinax, Letum, Melqart, and Iris form a lost front, the peoples of each fighting alone to keep the Orks at bay.Several amongst the Spinward Front’s Imperial High Command have proposed sending Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy units to bolster the defence of these beleaguered worlds and in so doing draw Ork forces away from more valuable war zones. Such proposals have met with dogmatic intransigence, for the worlds lie beyond the effective rule of the Imperium. A number of missions have been launched to ascertain how effective such operations might be, but to date they have all met with such overwhelming Ork forces that none have returned with any useful intelligence. |
WAAAGH! Grimtoof - Under Greenskin Occupation: Those worlds that have suffered the presence of the Git-Slaver’s invasion fall into three types types. Those that fell in the opening phase of the invasion are now largely desolate wastes reduced to ashes by the unleashing of total war. Several of these have now spawned populations of Feral Orks, which are likely to be unaware that they were “seeded” by the passage of a mighty WAAAGH! Even now they are struggling to gain power and momentum of their own, so that the greatest of their leaders might launch their own migration.The second type is where the forces of humanity, whether the Imperium, Severan Dominate, or native, are holding on and all-consuming war now rages. Such planetary war zones are the scenes of epic battles of attrition consuming thousands of warriors of all sides each day. There are at least a dozen primary worlds of this type in the Spinward Front, and countless more planets and systems where war waxes and wanes as the embittered foes launch massive salients or counter-attacks.The last type is relatively new and its appearance heralds a new phase in Grimtoof Git-Slaver’s invasion. Several of those worlds the Warlord’s forces have captured have not been razed to ashes, nor their populations slaughtered for food or for sport. Rather, they have been taken largely intact and their populations have been enslaved in sprawling, forced labour camps and slave-foundries, forced at gunpoint to manufacture the crude arms and ammunition used by the barbarous Orks. This turn of events signals a failure on the part of the Imperium, for it means the Orks have been allowed to consolidate their gains to such an extent that their migration is becoming an occupation. Previous experience teaches that if the Orks are allowed to establish a new stellar empire, their inexorable pattern of strife and migration will make a new invasion inevitable. With the source just beyond the Calixis Sector’s borders it will prove a hundred times more challenging to halt. Some whisper that the Spinward Front High Command has been negligent in allowing this state of affairs to develop, for with a full commitment of forces, the Orks could have been defeated decades ago and the Severan Dominate would never have come into being. With the drain on resources by the Jericho Reach and the upheavals caused by the recent appearance of the Dei-Phage,however, it is hard to see how events could have proceeded differently. The situation is a perfect example of the perils that beset the Imperium at every turn, with entire star systems falling, or being ceded, as forces are deployed in other, more important regions despite the potential loss of millions of the Emperor’s loyal subjects. |
WAAAGH! Grimtoof - Avitohol: Th Feral World of Avitohol lies within the borders of the Periphery Sub-sector, and has been part of the region’s infrastructure since the founding of the Calixis Sector almost two thousand standard years ago. When the Angevin Crusade first made planetfall there under the command of Duke Severus I, they found a fertile, windswept land ruled by primitive and warlike human nomads. This barbaric culture lived and died by the possession of the great herds of gargantuan bovine creatures thought to have been genetically engineered from the yaks of Old Earth and brought to Avitohol at some point during the Dark Age of Technology. These beasts have such prodigious appetites that they must continually migrate across the endless plains and they are so massive and stubborn that all the nomad tribes could do was follow along in their wake or on their backs.This mode of existence led to the Imperium drawing upon the herds of Avitohol as a food source, but it also meant that the human tribes would never be able to settle and enjoy the fruits of their world’s integration into the greater empire of Man. Instead, the tribes maintained their aeons-old ways and the Chartist Captainsof the Calixis Sector came once each season to purchase a share of Avitohol’s mighty herds to feed the teeming masses on the distant Hive Worlds. This way of life continued almost without interruption until, one day, the skies turned black with the contrails of countless thousands of drop vessels and soon the grasslands were set alight in a raging inferno that swept from one horizon to the next. WAAAGH! Grimtoof had come to Avitohol and nothing would ever be the same again.On Avitohol, Ghenghiz Grimtoof Git-Slaver found a world teeming with humans and ripe for exploitation. Despite being fearsome warriors, the natives were tragically outgunned and, though the tribes came together for the first time in recorded history, they could not defeat the overwhelming numbers of bloodthirsty rampaging Orks. Within three standard months the steppes were reduced to a smoking, corpse-strewn wasteland. Those nomad warriors that could not flee to the deepest wilderness regions were enslaved. Grimtoof informed the captured natives that they would be allowed to live, so long as they worked to build what he believed would be his greatest work -- a world of foundries, ruled over by a palace as great,in his mind, as any the Imperium had ever built.The invasion of Avitohol caused great consternation within the ranks of the Spinward Front High Command, for no stable Warp route exists between it and the nearest Ork-held star system. This is not to say that a route could not be forged,but traversing the uncharted currents of the Warp in such a manner is generally beyond all but the most experienced or desperate Navigators. Not anticipating an assault from that vector, the Imperium had failed to reinforce Avitohol, and sowhen the Orks came they were unopposed. To make matters worse, Avitohol represents the apex of a new Greenskin salient, the tip of WAAAGH! Grimtoof plunged deep into the Periphery. When Avitohol fell, heads rolled amongst the general staff, several veteran commanders losing their stars or their lives as punishment for the unforgivable dereliction in duty.Its upper echelons drastically re-ordered, Spinward Front High Command ordered a hasty counter-attack on Avitohol before the Git-Slaver could fully consolidate his gains. The Imperium launched the largest planetstrike operation of the conflict with the Orks -- twenty entire Imperial Guard regiments landing in three successivewaves and striking out for Grimtoof ’s half-built “kapital.” The battles that followed have entered into the consciousness of the Spinward Front High Command staff corps, or at least those not executed for incompetence by the Commissariat following the massive Imperial defeat that ensued. Despite initial gains, the Imperial Guard soon found their advances surrounded on all sides by far larger numbers of Orks than any had prepared for. In days, the assault ground down into a bloody slog to win every metre, before stalling entirely and becoming a bitter war of attrition. Lord Marshal Ghanzorik was faced with the choice of committing still more resources to a battle it was clear to all he could not hope to win. Vowing to return to Avitohol at the head of an army ten times the size of that committed to the operation, Ghanzorik ordered those Imperial troops who could leave to do so. It is estimated that less than thirty per cent of the units on Avitohol when the withdrawal order was given made it off-world. The remainder either died glorious but unheralded deaths, refusing to surrender to impossible odds, or they were captured and set to work in Grimtoof ’s foundries.In the aftermath of the failed assault on Avitohol, Lord Marshal Ghanzorik unleashed a ferocious purge of his intelligence units, who he blamed for multiple failures. Not a single intelligence officer between the rank of General and Major is said to have survived Ghanzorik’s purge, further reinforcing his reputation and his nickname of “Old Steel and Blood.” In so doing, Ghanzorik became something of a folk hero amongst the Imperial Guard's rank-and-file, whose ire was shifted from the command corps to the intelligence advisors.With the decapitation of the Spinward Front’s intelligence infrastructure came another purge, one that could only be instigated with the express aid of the Inquisition's Ordos Calixis. Avitohol was declared a Forbidden World and all reference to what had occurred there was struck from the records. Lethal dataslayers were released into Cogitator networks across the entire sector and, while many physical or isolated records no doubt survive, almost all mention of the fate of Avitohol and its would-be liberators is now destroyed. So far as those that ply the Warp routes of the Calixis Sector are concerned, Avitohol is simply out of bounds, none having any notion that it is, in fact, the capital world of a nascent Ork empire on the very edges of the Calixis Sector, nor that millions of natives and captured Imperial Guardsmen labour there under the yoke of Ghenghiz Grimtoof the Git-Slaver’s despotic regime, forced to manufacture arms and ammunition for the Orks.Though the Imperium has withdrawn its forces from Avitohol, the world is far from free of war. Firstly, numerous Imperial Guardsmen escaped the initial encirclements that slaughtered so many of their fellows and even years later many of these still fight on, organised into ad hoc units and striking the Orks wherever they can. The object of these attacks is two-fold -- if sufficient damage can be done to the Orks’ war effort, then perhaps the Imperium will consider a return to Avitohol, butthey also hope to free as many as possible of the hundreds of thousands of their fellows captured during the withdrawal. Ork hunter-killer-eater mobs roam the blasted steppes in search of insurgents and, to many, it is as if war has never gone away. Some of the most organised of these guerrillas have made contact with those surviving nomad tribes of humans that still exist in the deepest wildernesses and have launched a number of highly effective joint attacks on the Greenskins' infrastructure. |
WAAAGH! Grimtoof - Ghenghiz Grimtoof the Git-Slaver's Iron Mountain: Several years after his invasion of Avitohol and the enslavement of its native peoples, Grimtoof Git-Slaver has constructed for himself a formidable Ork stellar empire. That empire has as its capital a structure now rivalling the average Imperial hive city in size, a teetering spire so tall its peak skewers the clouds and constructed from the scrap of an entire sub-sector at war. At the very summit of this grim, rusted edifice, which Grimtoof has dubbed Iron Mountain, is the lair of the Git-Slaver, a huge throne room with one face open to the skies, the walls bedecked with trophies from a hundred battlefields and more. Opposite the openwall is Grimtoof’s throne, a massive seat constructed from the weapons and armour of the greatest of his foes.Seated upon his throne, the Git-Slaver glowers out across the ashen steppes of Avitohol, brooding sullenly on the next stage of his conquest. By his side are his most trusted Nobz, those with more to gain in protecting his life than betrayinghim. About the dais are chained numerous captives, for Grimtoof delights in laying low the champions of his enemies in such a way. It is said that Imperial Guard Marshals have suffered such treatment, as well as aliens, including a Succubusof a Dark Eldar Wych Cult, though she escaped within days of her capture, leaving a trail of dead Nobz behind her. By day, the vast expanse of the chamber floor is filled with Orks of all stations, some receiving their orders to conquer distant worlds, others seeking some favour from their dread overlord. Several hundred of the diminutive Gretchin slave race scamper to and fro, running errands and attending to their master’s every need. On occasion, Grimtoof has even ordered the largest of his Gargants to attend his throne by crossing the steppes far below to stand before the Iron Mountain. From his throne, the Git-Slaver looks down at even the mightiest of his race’s creations, and with a grunt orders the destruction of countless foes.Yet, even though his nascent empire is by far the most powerful of its type in the region, perhaps even in the entire Segmentum Obscurus, Grimtoof the Git-Slaver is entirely unsatisfied. Like all successful Ork Warlords, he is prone to fits of violent rage, but of late, Grimtoof has been known to enter protracted periods of dour brooding. With no warning, he dismisses his entire court and sits alone upon his throne, his brow furrowed and his red eyes glowering out across the blasted steppes of Avitohol. What thoughts of doom and bloodshed cross his blunt consciousness none can say. Perhaps with his WAAAGH! entering its new stage, Grimtoof expects a challenger greater than any he has faced before to appear before him. Or perhaps he ponders the next stage of his endeavour, when his great work is complete and the entire Calixis Sector will tremble before him, his armies fuelled by the toil of scores of enslaved worlds. The Orkish mind is a tiny thing, capableof little more than thoughts of violence, yet the scope of that violence in the mind of one such as Ghenghiz Grimtoof the Git-Slaver must be limitless. |
Wall of Martyrs Vengeance Weapon Battery - Wall of Martyrs Vengeance Weapon Battery: A Wall of Martyrs Vengeance Weapon Battery is a heavily-armoured Imperial automated defence unit. Armed with powerful ballistic or directed energy cannons, they unleash deadly salvoes of fire on any enemies that approach them by air or ground.Countless billions of these batteries have been built over the course of the Imperium of Man's 10,000 Terran year history and they remain a common sight on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium. Each Vengeance Weapon Battery sports a powerful cannon in a rotating turret, which is controlled by a simple automated firing system which will fire on any enemy unit it can sense.The thick plascrete walls of the battery make it invulnerable to all but the most powerful of weapons. Such is their durability that a Vengeance Weapon Battery will often remain operational long after any flesh and blood defenders have been killed or fled the battlefield.The batteries are usually constructed forward of the main Imperial defence line, where their automated fire can serve as advance warning of an attack while driving the enemy into carefully pre-selected killing zones. They are also often used as automated weapon sentries to protect important locations, freeing up more mobile troops to be usedelsewhere.Vengeance Weapon Batteries are easy to construct and extremely robust, known to operate effectively for hundredsof standard years without requiring maintenance. They are usually armed with either a Battle Cannon, capable of taking on heavily armoured targets, a Punisher Gatling Cannon, capable of scything down entire units of infantry with a single volley, or a quad Icarus Pattern Lascannon, punching aircraft out of the skies with every salvo. |
War Bearers - War Bearers: War BearersChapterCodex AstartesSpace MarinesFoundingImperial |
War Bearers - Notable Campaigns: The Siege of Lakadamon (953.M33) - The Sons of Guilliman, alongside several Tekarn armoured regiments were besieged in the defence of the Hive World of Lakadamon by the hordes of the Ork Warboss Vorhgad Bloodfang. Despite vastly overwhelming odds, the Chapter successfully held the planet's defence for three years until the siege was broken by the combined forces of the War Bearers and the Night Reapers Chapters, fighting alongside a major taskforce from Battlefleet Tempestus to break the orbital blockade that encircled the beleaguered world.Second Abonian Genocide (688-698.M40) - Inquisitor Halan Jentz of the Ordo Hereticus declared the entire population of the Abonian sub-sector diabolos inculcatus and gathered together an Imperial Crusade army that included elements of the War Bearers, Red Hunters and Subjugators Chapters, as well as the Order of the Blue Robe and the Order of the Black Sepulchre of the Adepta Sororitas. The Crusade raged for a decade before the Inquisitor declared the sub-sector's crimes accounted for. |
War Bearers - Chapter Colours: The War Bearers wear olive-drab Power Armour. The Aquila or Imperialis on the chest is silver. The white squad specialty symbol -- Tactical, Assault, Devastator or Veteran -- is indicated on the right shoulder plate. A black Roman numeral centred on the squad specialty symbol indicates squad number. The colour of the helm stripe indicates company number in accordance with the Codex -- i.e. White (1st Company), Yellow (2nd Company), Red (3rd Company), etc. |
War Bearers - Chapter Badge: The War Bearers' Chapter badge is a pair of ebon, single-edged, crossed battle-axes centred on a field of olive drab. |
War Bearers - Sources: Adeptus Astartes: Successor Chapters (Limited Release Booklet) (7th Edition)Imperial Armour Volume Two - Space Marines and Forces of the Inquisition, pg. 65Imperial Armour Volume Two, Second Edition - War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes, pp. 17, 19Insignium Astartes, pg. 56 |
War Council - War Council: The War Council was the ancient military body convened by the Emperor of Mankind that aided the Emperor in guiding the course of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium after the end of the Unification Wars.It was eventually replaced by the Council of Terra, and after the Horus Heresy, by the Senatorum Imperialis of the High Lords of Terra. The Emperor sat at the head of the War Council while the rest of the body was composed of the burgeoning Imperium of Man's greatest generals, talented administrators and the Fabricator-General of the ancient Mechanicum of Mars.As the Great Crusade progressed and the lost Primarchs were reunited with their father, they too, were granted a seat on the council, as was the Captain-General of the Legio Custodes. As the Great Crusade drew to a close in the early 31st Millennium, all the Primarchs were reunited with their Space Marine Legions and were busy completing the military campaigns required to prosecute the Great Crusade to its end.After the monumental victory of the Ullanor Crusade, the Emperor announced that He would be withdrawing from the Great Crusade to pursue secret endeavours on Terra that would benefit all Mankind, initiating His secret project to build an Imperial extension into the Aeldari Webway.To direct the Great Crusade in the Emperor's absence, Horus Lupercal, first of the Primarchs and the most favoured son of the Emperor, was elevated to the esteemed rank of Imperial Warmaster. He was placed in charge of all the Emperor's military forces and charged with the completion of the Great Crusade.The War Council was dissolved not long before the start of the Horus Heresy and reformed as the Council of Terra, a civilian body without Primarch participation that was the precursor to the Senatorum Imperialis.The disbanding of the War Council in favour of the Council of Terra was one of the grievances that led several of the Primarchs to grow disenchanted with their father the Emperor, a grievance that would be exploited by Horus and the agents of the Chaos Gods to gain their allegiance to his attempt to overthrow the Emperor's rule. |
War Council - History: After the end of the Unification Wars that had brought all of Terra under His control, the Emperor of Mankind convened the War Council to manage the execution of the Great Crusade. The War Council effectively became the true ruling body of the Imperium during the early and middle years of the Great Crusade.The Emperor Himself sat at the head of the council; at his left hand was Malcador the Sigillite, perhaps the Emperor's greatest ally during the Wars of Unity and a psyker whose powers were matched only by those of the Emperor. The rest of the council was composed of talented administrators drawn from the great ruling aristocratic dynasties of Terra and the Segmentum Solar, and when the Emperor forged his alliance with the Mechanicum of Mars in the Treaty of Mars, the Fabricator-General of the Mechanicus also claimed his seat.The War Council was also attended by the Paternova of the Navigator Houses. Supporting the council was a team of Astropaths who provided communication between the members since it became increasingly impractical for the group to physically assemble given the size of the growing Imperium and the inherent difficulties of travel through the Warp. As the Emperor left the homeworld of Mankind to lead the Great Crusade into the stars, He left the legendary Malcador to act as the Regent of Terra in his stead.Newly Compliant worlds were given to the rule of Imperial Commanders who served as Planetary Governors, each of whom ruled, lived and died by the will of the Emperor and His War Council. Many of these new leaders were military men and women rewarded for their service by being given a planet to govern in the Emperor's name, while others were the indigenous rulers of worlds who had bent the knee to the Emperor willingly and had been rewarded for their wisdom.Imperial Commanders were masters of their worlds, but operated within the clearly defined strictures of Imperial law, and each possessed important responsibilities. First of all, they were to uphold and expand the sway of the atheistic, rationalist Imperial Truth upon the people of their new world, eradicating any vestiges of religious belief or superstition.Second, they were to supply troops and natural resources as called upon and provided shelter and succour for the Emperor's armies and fleets, enhancing the reach of the Great Crusade as it moved ever farther out into the galaxy. Importantly it was the responsibility of the Imperial Commanders to cleanse their population of grievous mutations -- specifically those individuals who were psykers.Each was told to expect great Black Ships to visit them and transport their psykers to Terra, and these ships were not to be denied access to the world's population of identified psykers upon pain of planetary extinction. This great endeavour was called the Imperial Tithe.As the Great Crusade progressed, the War Council grew, as an inevitably widening vortex of admirals and commanders, generals, sector governors and ministers of state were appended to its administrative apparatus. Below these luminaries were advocates and technocrats responsible for the Imperial control of far-flung administrative systems and world-regimes with chains of supply and distribution whose scale beggared belief.As the years became solar decades, each of the Primarchs were discovered and brought into the Imperial fold and were given a seat on the council, as was the Chief Custodian and Captain-General of the Legio Custodes, the Emperor's bodyguard. Yet, such men were creatures of war and not politics, and as some of the purely Human council members died in battle, or through simple old age or infirmity, they were replaced only irregularly.Malcador the Sigillite, unnaturally long-lived and razor-minded, proved the only individual capable of managing the minutiae of this vast Imperium, becoming over time both overseer of the Imperial Tithe as well as the master of the Imperial Administration.So it was that the Imperium was increasingly coming under the control of its transhuman military components rather than the mortal men and women that the Emperor had sought to lift up to a new Golden Age through the Imperium's creation.After the decisive victory during the Ullanor Crusade, when Mankind's re-ascension to predominance in the galaxy was no longer in doubt, the Emperor bestowed upon the Primarch Horus Lupercal the title of Imperial Warmaster and ceded to him control of all the Imperium's military forces in the Emperor's stead.The other Primarchs were then instructed to follow Horus and obey him and to complete the Great Crusade under his direction. There was, it is said, some disquiet among the Primarchs that the Emperor had decided to no longer fight alongside them, but the Emperor was as adamant as He was close-mouthed as to what He would do on his return to Terra.The Emperor then departed for the homeworld of Mankind and the dungeons deep beneath his great Imperial Palace to begin His great work under a veil of secrecy previously unknown in the Imperium. He drew to him certain advisors and retired to the private vaults of His city-fortress. While the Warmaster Horus directed the rest of the Primarchs in the resolution of the Great Crusade, the Emperor formed a new administrative body known as the Council of Terra.This formalised the role of the Emperor's previous advisors in the Imperial hierarchy and the council began with a half dozen members. Already, under the far-seeing eyes of Malcador, the Administratum had been born, a new civilian bureaucracy intended to govern the Imperium in place of military rule. It was a bright start for the new dawn of Mankind envisioned by the Emperor.This council, under the leadership of the Emperor, was to become the body of civilian government that would administrate the myriad bureaucratic tasks needed for the survival of the newly formed Human interstellar empire.The Emperor was determined that in His Imperium power would reside with those men and women who were governed by its apparatus and not with an artificial military elite composed of genetically-engineered beings who were so powerful that they already possessed only a very tenuous grip upon their own Humanity.The Primarchs and their Space Marines had been created to give life to the Emperor's dream of a united Human Imperium stretching across the galaxy and to defend it from Humanity's myriad foes. They were not to rule it as a hereditary caste of immortal warriors imposing their whims upon those they deemed mere "mortals" by brute force.In addition to the Council of Terra, the Primarchs, under the Warmaster, were to be a part of a separate Military Council, charged to lead the Imperium's military branches in the latter days of the Great Crusade and to spread the rule of the Imperium far across the galaxy. Yet the creation of the Council of Terra and a separate Military Council tasked solely with overseeing the Imperial military rather than the broader aspects of the Imperium became contentious.Some of the Primarchs took great exception to being ruled by those deemed less worthy of such honours than themselves. Many of the Primarchs felt that it was they and their Astartes who had suffered and sacrificed the most to build the Imperium and thus it was they who should have the greatest say in how it was ruled, not a council composed of effete Terran nobles and faceless bureaucrats.It is said that Horus himself was a staunch opponent of the Council of Terra's imposition of the Imperial Tithe, feeling that it would cause civil unrest and even outright rebellion in the more unstable areas of the Imperium as well as among some newly Compliant worlds. In time, this tension was one of the many growing resentments amongst the Imperial elite that allowed the Ruinous Powers to infect and corrupt several of the Primarchs, who had been dismayed that the Emperor would no longer be fighting at their side.Some, in their ignorance and hurt at the Emperor's refusal to reveal the nature of the secret project He had retired to Terra to complete, even whispered that they had been cast aside like tools whose usefulness had worn out.Such sources that survive from this ancient time, apocryphal as they are, claim that of all of the Primarchs, Angron of the World Eaters Legion was particularly bitter and most outspoken at this turn of events, not out of rancour for Horus' elevation above his brothers as the Warmaster, but rather as he counted this as the second time the Emperor had failed him, the first being when the Emperor had teleported him from his homeworld of Nuceria before he could lead his band of ex-gladiators in their final, hopeless battle against their oppressors.Following the calamities of the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's interment within the Golden Throne and the sacrifice of Malcador, the Emperor could no longer take an active hand in ruling His realm directly.The role of Imperial Regent and Lord Commander of the Imperium initially fell to Roboute Guilliman, the great Primarch of the Ultramarines Legion.It was he who set up the new ruling body for the Imperium based on the foundation of the Council of Terra, the Senatorum Imperialis, or as its members were more commonly called, the High Lords of Terra. |
War Council - Known Members of the War Council: Emperor of MankindThe 18 PrimarchsRegent of Terra: Malcador the SigilliteFabricator-General of the Martian Mechanicum: Kelbor-HalCaptain-General and Chief Custodian of the Legio Custodes: Constantin ValdorMaster of the Adeptus Astra TelepathicaMaster of the AdministratumPaternoval Envoy of the Navis Nobilite |
War Dog - War Dog: A War Dog is the designation given by the Imperium of Man to any Chaos Knight that was originally an Armiger Pattern Knight of any class. Several specialised variants of this class of combat walker found only among the forces of Chaos also exist.Loping forwards on powerful mechanical legs, War Dogs close upon their foes like bestial predators. With each stride the grating pant of their engines grows louder, and the shudder created by their metallic footfalls becomes more inescapable.As soon as they are in range of their prey the War Dogs open fire. Fusillades of solid shot from their War Dog Autocannons saw through lines of infantry, while those outfitted with Daemonbreath Spears unleash superheated blasts that vaporise flesh and reduce armoured targets to flaming wreckage.The most rapacious War Dogs then barrel towards their reeling enemies, massacring whoever is left standing with brutal swipes of their Reaper Chain-cleavers. |
War Dog - History: The smallest of the Knight chassis do not require their pilot to have bonded with a Throne Mechanicum in order to be operated. Instead, a device called a Helm Mechanicum is employed to integrate the synapses of its wearer to the servos of the Knight.A Helm Mechanicum also forcefully subserviates the Fallen Noble who dons it, leashing their conscious and subconscious thoughts to those of their bond-liege. The personal desires of the War Dog pilot can be replaced at any time by those of their master. It is this technology that allows the smaller Knights to serve as utterly loyal squires.As is the case with a Throne Mechanicum, only formidable warriors are able to link themselves to a Helm Mechanicum. Many of the techno-arcane mechanisms that protect Thrones from perversion are absent from Helms, and as such the smaller Knights have fallen to Chaos in greater numbers than their larger counterparts.Many of those that showed signs of warped deviance were exterminated by their own houses, the corrupted Knights hunted down and destroyed. Any Fallen Nobles that still lived were dragged from the wreckage of their suits, whereupon they were burned, impaled or drawn and quartered.All record of such treachery was typically stricken from the history of the Knight house. But in other cases, the corruption of several Helms Mechanicum led to the downfall of an entire Knight World. The connection that allows a bond-liege to command their squires served as the vector by which the Warp taint spread throughout the house, turning barons and baronesses, high kings and queens, into mad barbarians and unwitting servants of the Dark Gods. |
War Dog - Role: Like the Armiger Pattern Knights still loyal to the Imperium, War Dogs are piloted by warriors hailing from the lower strata of a Fallen Knight World's nobility. Their purpose is to be subservient, to carry out whatever orders they are given, and to fight and die at the behest of their liege.Before falling to Chaos, these warriors were renowned for carrying out their instructions with pride, dutifully adhering to the tenets of humility and compliance that had been instilled in them since birth.Now, however, corrupted by the Warp as they are, they have a ravenous desire for personal glory. This is accompanied by a deep loathing for the upper echelons of their Knightly household, those who lord their power over the lesser Nobles.But despite the burning resentment held by the War Dog pilots, they are still bound into service by their Helms Mechanicum. The arcane circuitry of the Helm causes personal impulses and desires to be summarily overwritten by the commands of their taskmaster, compelling the warriors into abject thralldom.Yet from the Warp-infused Helms Mechanicum there also comes a constant stream of whispers and daemonic ravings, extolling the pilot's incomparable strength and decrying the lowly position they hold in their household. This breeds thoughts of usurpation in the pilot's mind, and gives rise to dreams of the unfettered power they could wield if only they were to overthrow those who rule over them. It is this unattainable desire to be unshackled that fuels the War Dogs' insanity, and hones their fury.In battle, War Dogs are often deployed to eradicate those foes who are deemed beneath the notice of their despotic masters. Yet even the most ignominious task they carry out with savage fervour. The pain and suffering they inflict on others feeds their hatred, for through the dying screams of their enemies they are able to imagine the deaths of their own Fallen Noble overlords.Such grim musings do not go unnoticed by other Chaos Knights, but are tolerated nonetheless. After all, it is the hatred of their station that makes War Dogs so eager to prove their worth in battle. |
War Dog - Unit Composition: 1-3 War Dogs |
War Dog - Wargear: Diabolous Heavy StubberDaemonbreath SpearReaper Chain-cleaver2 War Dog Autocannons (As replacements for Daemonbreath Spear and Reaper Chain-cleaver)Daemonbreath Meltagun (As replacement for Heavy Stubber)Ion Shield |
War Dog - Variants: War Dog ExecutionerWar Dog StalkerWar Dog KarnivoreWar Dog BrigandWar Dog Huntsman |
War Dog - Ordo Malleus Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications: The technical specifications of the War Dog have not yet been obtained by the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition. |
War Dog Brigand - War Dog Brigand: A War Dog Brigand is a variant of the Armiger Pattern Knight known as a War Dog that serves the Chaos Knights as a ranged combat specialist.Between them, War Dog Brigands and their Fallen Noble pilots have become so enamoured of the skillful, ranged kill that they mostly disdain the chaos of close assaults. Some even swear dark pacts compelling them to slay potent foes with a certain level of elegance, or else to purge war zones of all life with sweeping contempt. |
War Dog Brigand - Unit Composition: 1-3 War Dog Brigands |
War Dog Brigand - Wargear: Havoc Multi-launcherAvenger ChaincannonDaemonbreath SpearDiabolus Heavy Stubber (As replacement for Havoc Multi-launcher)Ion Shield |
War Dog Executioner - War Dog Executioner: A War Dog Executioner is a variant of the Armiger Pattern Knight known as a War Dog that serves the Chaos Knights as a multi-role anti-infantry and anti-vehicle skirmisher.Nimble and responsive combat walkers, War Dog Chaos Knights act as hunting packs for their Dread Household. Stalking ahead of the terrible shadow cast by the larger Knights, the corrupt War Dogs guard flanks and devastate enemy scouts to keep their colossal masters from being surrounded, desperate to kill for the Ruinous Powers.Methodical and coldly emotionless killers, the Fallen Nobles who pilot War Dog Executioners employ long-barrelled, rapid-firing Autocannons to maximise their kills at a distance. They eviscerate throngs of the enemy and hammer the foes' war engines into submission, seeking to reap ever-greater murderous tallies than their peers. |
War Dog Executioner - Unit Composition: 1-3 War Dog Executioners |
War Dog Executioner - Wargear: Daemonbreath Meltagun2 War Dog AutocannonsDiabolus Heavy Stubber (As replacement for Daemonbreath Meltagun)Ion Shield |
War Dog Huntsman - War Dog Huntsman: A War Dog Huntsman is a variant of the Armiger Pattern Knight known as a War Dog that serves the Chaos Knights.Like hounds on the scent, War Dog Huntsmen often pursue hulking enemies, hunting them down as if they were prey. Their Daemonbreath Spear melts through the thickest enemy armour while Reaper Chaintalons are employed to drive deeply into gushing innards, tearing through organs or crewmen alike, depending on the nature of the foe. |
War Dog Huntsman - Unit Composition: 1-3 War Dog Huntsmen |
War Dog Huntsman - Wargear: Daemonbreath SpearReaper Chaintalon or Reaper Chain-cleaverDaemonbreath MeltagunDiabolus Heavy Stubber (As replacement for Daemonbreath Meltagun)Ion Shield |
War Dog Karnivore - War Dog Karnivore: A War Dog Karnivore is a variant of the Armiger Pattern Knight known as a War Dog that serves the Chaos Knights as a close combat specialist.Aggressive and bloodthirsty, the Fallen Nobles who pilot Karnivores eschew the more potent ranged weapons available to the War Dog chassis. They revel in causing bloody confusion and despair among their foes, seeking the visceral thrill that only close-quarters slaughter provides.As a result, many of their pilots fall to the open worship of one of the Chaos Gods. |
War Dog Karnivore - Unit Composition: 1-3 War Dog Karnivores |
War Dog Karnivore - Wargear: Havoc Multi-launcherReaper ChaintalonSlaughterclawDiabolus Heavy Stubber (As replacement for Havoc Multi-launcher)Ion Shield |
War Dog Stalker - War Dog Stalker: A War Dog Stalker is a variant of the Armiger Pattern Knight known as a War Dog that serves the Chaos Knights as multi-role skirmishers. Only the most strong-willed of minor Fallen Nobles have the mental fortitude to pilot a War Dog Stalker.Like pack alphas, they often lead other War Dogs in carefully planned attacks, harrying the foe's flanks, butchering reinforcements and hunting down lone threats. They unleash salvoes of fire at range or in the heart of combat with deadly claw strikes. |
War Dog Stalker - Unit Composition: 1-3 War Dog Stalkers |
War Dog Stalker - Wargear: Avenger ChaincannonSlaughterclawHavoc Multi-launcherDiabolus Heavy Stubber (As replacement for Havoc Multi-launcher)Reaper Chaintalon (As replacement for Reaper Slaughterclaw)Daemonbreath Spear (As replacement for Avenger Chaincannon)Ion Shield |
War for the Aberrus System - War for the Aberrus System: The War for the Aberrus System was fought between the forces of the Imperium and the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Kraken for control of the Aberrus System in the Grendl Stars region of the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy. |
War for the Aberrus System - History: A tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken slithered into the Aberrus System like a venomous serpent. Countless millions of scuttling horrors flooded the system's worlds, and monstrous Bio-Titans shook the ground with each thundering step. Four Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes responded to the threat.When the Iron Lords' ancillary scry-station on the world of Hedhan warned that Aberrus had come under attack, the Chapter responded immediately, pulling together a strike force under the command of Captain Nikeras of the 2nd Company which included elements of the 2nd, 8th and 10th Companies. If Aberrus fell, nothing would like between the Tyranids and the Grendl Stars.The Iron Lords could not allow the Great Devourer to consume the genetic material of the hyper-violent Barghesi species they had long kept quarantined within the Grendl Stars.Knowing the magnitude of the threat that opposed them, the Iron Lords called for allies. The Adeptus Astartes response came fron an unexpected quarter" the Lamenters Chapter. Having been ravaged by these Tyranids in the past and now reinforced with Primaris Marine brethren, they were eager for revenge, though the remained aloof from the Iron Lords, communicating only when necessary.When the distant allies reached Aberrus, it was already drowning in bestial Tyranid bioforms. The Mining World of Saint Vaux's Hope had already fallen. The Jungle World of Luann and the Ice World of Glacemaw were deluged with millions of savage xenos creatures.To the Space Marines' surprise, two other Chapters were already in-system. The Knights of the Raven continued their hit-and-run war of penance against Hive Fleet Kraken, and an all-Primaris Marine Battle Company of newly assigned Scythes of the Emperor desired nothing more than to spill xenos ichor.Their goals aligned, the Chapters set to cleanse the system of its all-consuming invaders. They first had to make safe Luann and Glacemaw, with the Iron Lords and Lamenters deploying to the former, and the Knights of the Raven and the Scythes of the Emperor racing for the latter.On Luann, the Lamenters swiftly broke through to the Four Towers -- a string of fortresses originally constructed to hold back the local carnivorous fauna -- which were each under siege. The Iron Lords made for the Hurac Mountains, observing that they could cause a colossal landslide that would sweep aside hordes of bio-constructs with well-placed and well-timed charges.On Glacemaw, the Knights of the Raven moved rapidly over the planet's sweeping tundras. Infantry scoured them for vanguard organisms while armoured forces rushed to relieve the Lashanos Bluffs.There the Astra Militarum's Vostroyan Firstborn 103rd Regiment were fighting alongside the 21st, 34th and 76th Glacemaw Ridgeguards, the 12th Truskan Snowhounds and several detachments of Anvarsian Ice Rangers against dozens of Bio-Titans.Yet the arrival of the Space Marine reinforcements came none too soon, as the Luann Lineholders' 81st and 935th Regiments deployed on the Hinnoq Delta Tribridge collapsed under the pressure and the Permaberg Citadel on Glacemaw was toppled by the Tyranid assault.The Tredi Forest on Glacemaw, viewed as impenetrable for millennia, was all but consumed -- only by the efforts of the Catachan Jungle Fighters LV Regiment, supported by the Knights of House Curtana and House Borgius and the Sisters of Battle of the Order of the Crimson Chalice, had the outer reaches been held.The Sanctuary of Saint Vilutia was sure to fall if the forest was lost. The ice fields of Kutris crawled with Tyranid bioforms rampaging towards Glation City, which was expected to be destroyed within three local days of a concerted attack by the Tyranids.But the arrival of the Space Marines brought a new momentum to the campaign to defend Aberrus, and Imperial forces throughout the system rallied. Though the outcome was far from certain, victory was not out of sight.Unfortunately, the Imperial forces were unaware that a second tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken was fast approaching the Aberrus System and was twice the size of the forces the system's defenders already face.The Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Shalisha Talaris had learned of this from her void watchers and had sent a desperate plea for aid to the Deathwatch's Indomitus Point Watch Fortress. She feared that if Aberrus fell to the Tyranids, they would sweep into the Grendl Stars and then the fate of the entire Eastern Fringe would hang in the balance. |
War for the Aberrus System - Adeptus Astartes Order of Battle: The Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes that sent warriors to the Aberrus System all had a deep history of conflict with the monstrosities of Hive Fleet Kraken.All had suffered greatly at its claws, and were eager to rip the tendril that coiled around Aberrus from the Kraken's main body.The following information is 88.93% accurate as of the principle battles on Luann and Glacemaw. Note that multiple units apparently bearing the same squad identification markings were identified. This indicates the Adeptus Astartes' propensity to alter wargear allocated to squad-size elements depending on battlefield conditions and available equipment.Further study indicates that squad monikers are frequently taken from the squad leader's name. The force disposition provided do not refer to command elements, ancillary vehicles, transports and other machina.All attempts to catalogue Tyranid forces present in the system resulted in catastrophic cogitation and bio-density calculation failure. Accumulated accounts from varied local sources suggest bioform numbers in the hundreds of millions. Visual analysis of pict feeds indicates presence of 457 known bioforms, with thirteen unknown others identified. |
War for the Aberrus System - Iron Lords: 2nd CompanyAsmund - battleline (Intercessor) squadBrecoa - battleline (Tactical) squadFyrenos - close support (Assault) squadHama - fire support (Devastator) squadCunnan - close support (Incursor) squad8th CompanyGrettix - fire support (Devastator) squadThunor - fire support (Hellblaster) squad10th CompanySyrcan - battleline (Infiltrator) squadMoerdan - Scout squadLothar - Scout squad |
War for the Aberrus System - Lamenters: Strike Force LetanzarGoriel - Veteran (Sternguard) squadVitrian - fire support (Suppressor) squadGallani - close support (Outrider) squadTyborel - close support (Inceptor) squadArteino - battleline (Tactical) squadBardella - battleline (Tactical) squad |
War for the Aberrus System - Knights of the Raven: Vanguard Strike Force TristyanAdhemar - battleline (Infiltrator) squadBardus - battleline (Infiltrator) squadDoran - close support (Reiver) squadArmoured Task Force CorarikusDestriers of the Raven - Predator squadronPurgers of the Field - Whirlwind squadronMight of Coralax - Repulsor Executioner |
War for the Aberrus System - Scythes of the Emperor: 3rd CompanyKamiol - battleline (Intercessor) squadHolokios - battleline (Intercessor) squadLukaen - battleline (Intercessor) squadFurica - battleline (Infiltrator) squadNesoi - battleline (Heavy Intercessor) squadLantos - battleline (Heavy Intercessor) squadEnkalados - close support (Invader ATV) squadThe Reapers - close support (Storm Speeder) squadronMacrinas - fire support (Aggressor) squadGordian - fire support (Eliminator) squadHerennian - fire support (Hellblaster) squad |
War Hounds - War Hounds: The War Hounds were the XIIth Space Marine Legion raised by the Emperor of Mankind on Terra at the dawn of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. After the Emperor discovered the Legion's Primarch Angron on the technologically advanced but violently decadent world of Nuceria, and gave him command of the War Hounds, Angron changed the name of the Legion to the "World Eaters" in honour of the gladiator force he had led in rebellion on his homeworld whose warriors came to be known as the "Eaters of Cities" for their wrath and violence. Angron expected that his Legion would become the "Eaters of Worlds". |
War Hounds - Legion History: The Emperor of Mankind sought to unite all of Humanity under one banner following the Long Night of the Age of Strife, and end inter-Human conflict. Once united, the Emperor intended to begin the next stage of His great plan to ensure Human domination of the Milky Way Galaxy, which He judged to be necessary if Humanity was to survive the never-ceasing threats to its existence embodied by Chaos, myriad xenos races and its own fragile Human nature. In time, when the Emperor's eye first began to fall beyond Terra, He began to raise new armies to fight His Great Crusade. He drew these new troops in part from the forces that had already unified Terra during the Unification Wars of the late 30th Millennium. To carry out the Great Crusade and reunite all the scattered colony worlds of Mankind beneath the single banner of the Imperium of Man, the Emperor created the genetically-enhanced superhuman warriors known as the Legiones Astartes, the Space Marine Legions. These elite forces would serve as the speartip of His Great Crusade, bringing the light of the secular Imperial Truth and enforcing Imperial Compliance with the new regime on every Human-settled world encountered.Such sources that survived the later Siege of Terra at the height of the Horus Heresy regarding the origins and formation of the XIIth Legion of the Legiones Astartes are fragmentary at best, and in compiling their record Imperial scholars were forced to rely on second-hand accounts from those who fought alongside them, and the apocryphal accounts handed down by those many who had cause to fear and resent this most feared of Space Marine Legions. It appears that the Terran origins of the XIIth Legion showed no particular bias as to the techno-barbarian tribe or city-state from which the initial influx of recruits were taken as there was in the case of the other Legions. There has been some circumstantial evidence that there may have been psychological screening used to single out the most inherently aggressive and competitive recruits in an experimental pre-selection program. Whether this came to pass is merely supposition, for it is apparent from such records that survived that the XIIth Legion were from the outset deemed a highly aggressive force, its warriors hot-blooded and savage. One of its most ferocious and promising candidates, Ibram Ghreer, rose quickly within the ranks of the nascent Legion, and eventually assumed command of the XIIth as its first Legion Master.During the Unification Wars the XIIth Legion's first recorded engagement was during the Sa'afrik Liberation where they served as a spearhead of shock troops, mounting direct annihilation assaults on enemy forces, both in open battle and fortified positions, and able to carry the attack despite their then relatively small numbers by sheer courage and the fury of the violence they could unleash. After its initial battles, however, the nascent Legion seems to have been largely held in reserve by the Emperor during the latter Unification Wars and right through the subsequent re-conquest of the Sol System. This may have been done in case of a sudden reversal of the fortunes of war, or as certain veiled evidence implies, as a weapon to be unleashed in case of disloyalty amongst the Emperor's own.During this time the XIIth Legion was kept in a state of constant readiness, relentlessly training and steadily growing in numbers. On the occasions when it was unleashed into battle, the Legion's Astartes performed with almost gleeful savagery, tearing apart whatever enemy they were given to fight without mercy or falter, heedless of the risk and uncaring of the Legion's own losses. It is believed that during this period that the Emperor Himself dubbed the XIIth Legion His "War Hounds" as a tribute to the savage and tenacious way they fought to pacify the narco-sprawls of the Cephic Hives, for the XIIth Legion reminded Him of the white war hounds the Yeshk warriors of the north of Terra had once used. In remembrance of this campaign and the Emperor's pride in them, the red hound became the XIIth Legion's new badge of war. |
War Hounds - The Great Crusade: As the early decades of the Great Crusade progressed after ca. 800.M30, and the first of the primarchs were discovered across the galaxy where they had been dispersed by the Ruinous Powers, the XIIth Legion was broken up temporarily into a number of independent sub-commands, each several thousand Space Marines strong. The largest of these, at some 8,000 War Hounds, along with dedicated assault and fleet support elements, was designated the 13th Expeditionary Fleet, or the "Bloody 13th" as it became quickly known. These detachments were sent as a mobile reserve where the fighting was fiercest on the Great Crusade's frontlines. There they served as frontline assault troops in glorious campaigns alongside the Space Wolves, Iron Warriors and Dark Angels Legions. Elsewhere they would often provide the killing-strike for larger Imperial Army formations in war zones where an impasse had been reached, breaking a strategic deadlock in a single furious attack which sent an enemy reeling.The War Hounds developed a reputation for victory, although at a cost, and it was said every assault they conducted ended in only one of two ways: victorious slaughter or simple slaughter, either of which left the foe in no condition to resist further. However effective the Legion was, there were many who fought alongside them who found them also to be unpredictable, intemperate and dangerous to anything that stood in their path, combatant, civilian or otherwise. Rumours soon began to circulate that the War Hounds would put to the sword human auxiliary regiments of the Imperial Army they saw as failing them in battle, and they kept a guarded distance from other Legions. It was noted by outsiders that the War Hounds' officers enforced an unusually harsh code of discipline in their ranks which was indeed needed, as the Astartes of this Legion often proved fractious, and bloodshed between Battle-Brothers was far from uncommon.The XIIth Legion was increasingly deemed by the Imperial War Council as being more suitable for use against targets where annihilation was the goal rather than Imperial Compliance or liberation, a task to which they seemed eminently suited. The War Hounds were brought together again under the banner of the "Bloody 13th" alongside a variety of units who, like the War Hounds, had gained a dark reputation for unrestrained violence rather than military discipline, or who were otherwise deemed as unusable for actions where collateral damage was to be kept to a minimum and liberation rather than destruction was the goal. They mustered on the harsh, volcanic world of Bodt which had been taken by the War Hounds as a training ground some years before, included regiments of Feral World head-hunters inducted into the Imperial Army and brute Abhumans on the edge of the Imperium's tolerated genetic deviance. To these were added units such as the Titans of the Legio Audax around whom a pall of suspicion had fallen ever since the Lorin Alpha Massacres, and the distrusted Numen Gun Clans -- nomadic techno-barbarians who had bitterly fought against Compliance for many standard years before their recent and grudging induction into the Imperium. |
War Hounds - The Primarch of Wrath: A very great deal about the finding of the Primarch Angron remains unknown to wider Imperial record. There is in fact evidence that this information, including the true name of the world he was found upon was known but was kept deliberately secret by command of the Emperor and those close to Him. That which is known is a dark tale of the primarch's brutal upbringing, murderous violence, and Angron's revolt against his cruel masters. How Angron came to be separated from the Emperor and Terra by the mysterious machinations of the Ruinous Powers and what planet they deposited him upon after he was stolen away as an infant through the Warp is unknown. Where this planet is located in the galaxy or if it even still exists is uncertain. Carpinus' Speculum Historiate tells of Angron's homeworld that it was technologically advanced and ruled over by a wealthy noble caste who lived in decadent opulence while the populations of their cities lived in abject poverty in the huge slums surrounding their palaces and villas. To distract the populace from their poverty, the oligarchic rulers of this planet held regular gladiatorial deathmatches in massive arenas, using cybernetically-enhanced gladiators who battled to satisfy the endless bloodlust of the oppressed people. It was on this world that the Primarch Angron was eventually discovered, though little else about the circumstances of how he came to be there remains known.What is known is that Angron was discovered by a slaver who chanced upon the battered and bleeding figure of the young primarch, surrounded by scores of alien corpses, high in the northern mountains of the world. History does not record what species these aliens belonged to, but many Imperial scholars believe them to have been Eldar who attempted to kill the primarch, due to some psychic foreknowledge of the plague upon the galaxy he would one day become. Angron had been badly wounded in the combat, but remained alive. Taken as a slave, Angron was nursed back to health and bio-neural cybernetic implants were surgically grafted to his cerebral cortex. Relic devices from the Dark Age of Technology, these implants would boost a warrior's adrenaline, resulting in greater strength and aggression in battle. Angron was taken to the planet's capital city where his obvious potential as a gladiator was soon made apparent and he was bought by the largest and most popular arena in the capital. The cells below the arena were home to several thousand of these cyborg gladiators and Angron took his place amongst them.After only a few months, Angron had become a proud warrior of fearsome skill and an even stronger sense of honour. He killed hundreds of other gladiators, but those who fought well he always spared. Although Angron seemed to enjoy the life of a gladiator and the adulation of the crowds, he secretly resented his slavery, and was always plotting to escape. He proved to be a troublesome champion, prone to attempt escaping whenever he saw an occasion, but such efforts always failed. Within a few standard years Angron's fame had spread to every corner of his homeworld. Under his training, the gladiators of his arena soon became the greatest their world had ever seen and none could stand against them. Yet Angron also learned, following a final failed escape attempt, that he would never succeed alone. His unbending warrior's code and sheer combat skill had made him a well-respected leader among the other gladiators and when the largest death games ever held on his world were announced, Angron planned his most daring escape attempt. For these new games, Angron was allowed to stage a vast combat that would involve every gladiator of his arena. As the crowd drowned out the sounds of battle, Angron's gladiators turned on their armed guards, butchering them and fighting their way to freedom. Against the guards armed with firearms, the gladiators' casualties were grievous, but nearly 2,000 survived to escape into the capital city, stealing what weapons and supplies they could before fleeing into the northern mountains where Angron had first been discovered. Over the next few years, the rulers of the world dispatched many armed forces to kill or recapture the rebel slaves, but all were destroyed in turn by Angron's leadership, martial skill and the cybernetically-enhanced fury of the gladiators.But attrition and hunger slowly took their toll on the slaves and eventually only 1,000 men and women remained, half the size of the original force of escapees. On a mountain named Fedan Mhor, Angron and his forces were finally surrounded by no less than five large armies. Not even the primarch could stand against such sheer numbers, yet it was at this time that the Emperor of Mankind came to this world, drawn by the psychic emanations of His gene-son the primarch. The Emperor had observed Angron secretly from orbit for many months and had watched with pride as he had led his freed slaves in battle against the forces of tyranny. The Emperor descended to the world's surface and after the shock of the august meeting had worn off on the primarch, the Emperor offered Angron the leadership of the XIIth Space Marines Legion, which had been created from Angron's own genetic material, and a place at His side in the Great Crusade. To the Emperor's disbelief, Angron refused, claiming that his place remained with his fellow slaves and he would die before deserting them. The Emperor retreated to His flagship, shocked at His son's refusal. Appraising the situation, the Emperor saw that for all of Angron's might as a primarch and a leader, he would die in the coming battle. Losing one of His irreplaceable sons to the assault of rabble on a backwater planet soon to be brought into Imperial Compliance was simply unacceptable. Bringing His flagship into low orbit over the world, the Emperor teleported Angron away from the mountain of Fedan Mhor. Without their leader, the morale of the gladiators was destroyed and the next day they were slaughtered to the last man by the armies of the world's rulers. This was a deed for which Angron would never forgive the Emperor, and a stain upon the primarch's honour that would never fade but fester into a soul-deep wound.The exact records of the Emperor's intervention and Angron's acceptance of his new situation is a matter of shadowed rumour and conjecture, but what can be said with certainty is that Angron's first reaction to his new situation was rage. It was said with certainty that for some time any War Hound who came before him was met with a grisly death for their efforts. It is certain that at this time the Legion Master of the War Hounds, Ibram Ghreer, a respected general who had commanded the XIIth Legion for nearly three decades, disappeared without explanation from any record of the time and no explanation was given by his taciturn Legion for his absence. Apparently some sort of accommodation was reached and Angron swiftly took charge of his Legion. Angron renamed his Legion the World Eaters after he assumed command. Angron did this in honour of the gladiator force he had led in rebellion on his homeworld whose warriors came to be known as the "Eaters of Cities" for their wrath and violence. He chose the new name for his Legion when Dreagher, a Terran-born War Hounds Astartes who served as captain of the Legion's 9th Company, promised Angron after meeting his primarch for the first time that under his leadership the War Hounds would become "...the eaters of worlds." |
War Hounds - Notable Campaigns: Sa'afrik Liberation (Unknown Date.M30) - The XIIth Legion's first recorded engagement was during the Sa'afrik Liberation of the Unification Wars where they served as a spearhead of shock troops, mounting direct annihilation assaults on enemy forces, both in open battle and fortified positions. They proved able to carry the attack despite their then-relatively small numbers by sheer courage and the fury of the violence they could unleash. After its initial battles in the conflict the nascent XIIth Legion seems to have been largely held in reserve by the Emperor during the later Unification Wars.Pacification of the Cephic Hives (Unknown Date.M30) - The Pacification of the Cephic Hives was another early campaign of the XIIth Legion during the latter days of the Unification Wars. The Emperor Himself dubbed the XIIth Legion His "War Hounds" at this time as a tribute to the savage and tenacious way they fought to pacify the narco-sprawls of the Cephic Hives.Cerberus Insurrection (Unknown Date.M30) - The newly dubbed War Hounds were tasked alongside the Terran XXIInd Dracos Regiment of the Imperial Army to subdue the asteroid prison colony of Cerberus which had risen up in anarchic revolt in a state of near continuous rioting and mob violence. Initial attempts to impose order by Terran troops had been thrown back in disarray as it became apparent that among the insurrectionists was a renegade cadre of outlawed Thunder Warriors, long believed dead, calling themselves the Dait'Tar. With many of the Space Marine Legions already assigned to the first Expeditionary Fleets of the Great Crusade and en route to the stars, the Emperor Himself dispatched His War Hounds to Cerberus with explicit instructions to reclaim Cerberus colony and carry the Emperor's wrath to those that had defied Him. Within five hours, a signal was received from Praetor-Commander Calyb Hax of the XIIth Legion that Cerberus-Primary had been returned to Imperial Compliance. When asked by the leader of the waiting second wave how many prisoners to expect to transfer into custody, Hax replied that he had not been ordered to take any. The second wave of Imperial Army troops were tasked with the bleak task of clear-up operations in the wake of the War Hounds' assault, hunting down any survivors hiding in the warren of tunnels and passageways, of which there proved to be precious few. There were multiple reports of more than once coming across the hulking carcass of an armoured Thunder Warrior, often with three or four of his number in Astartes dead around him, of choke-points and defence posts turned into blood-soaked charnel houses and of scores upon scores of insurgents cut down from behind while fleeing in blind panic, their weapons abandoned.Nove Shendak Campaign (World Eight-Two-Seventeen) (Unknown Date.M30) - Nove Shendak was a world of worms; giant creatures, intelligent. Hateful. Their weapons were filaments, metal feathers that they embedded in themselves to conduct energies out of their bodies. The surface would roil with the filaments before the worms broke out of it almost at the Imperial defenders' feet. Thick as a man, longer that a person was tall. They had three mouths in their faces, a dozen teeth in their mouths. They spoke through the mud in sonic screams and witch-whispers. Early in the Great Crusade, the War Hounds Legion had found three star systems under their thrall, burned them out of their colony nests and chased them home. But on their cradle-world the XIIth Legion had found Humans. Humans lost to Humanity for who knows how long, crawling on the land while the worms slithered in the marsh seas. Hunting the Humans, farming them. Killing them. The War Hounds, alongside their fellow Astartes Legion the Iron Warriors, and a large contingent of Imperial Army soldier were charged with exterminating the worms and liberating the Humans of this world. Fighting the worms was next to impossible as the lunar tides dragged the mud oceans to and fro across the jagged stone continents, making the ground very unstable. The Imperial forces had to use sentries with high-powered lasguns to read the movements of the mud to hear the worms moving through it towards them. Explosives were seeded around the earthworks and allowed to sink to where the worms burrowed. Perturabo had his Iron Warriors build earthworks. They built trenches and dykes, penned in the mud seas and drained them, drove the worms back, reclaimed land the wretched Humans could build on. And when the worms came out to fight the Imperials, they met the Emperor and His War Hounds. Though the casualties were horrendous, the War Hounds eventually emerged triumphant. |
War Hounds - Legion Organisation: At its creation, the XIIth Legion, like almost all the Space Marine Legions of the time, followed the so-called "Terran Pattern" of organisation as formulated by the Imperial Officio Militaris at the outset of the Great Crusade, but even in this earliest period the Legion's procurement and outfitting showed a considerable bias towards direct assault and operations within the close and deadly confines of the kinds of battlefields designated as "Zone Mortalis" in Imperial strategic doctrine. During Angron's transition of command, this would continue, and the Legion's organisational structures were kept largely intact but often further streamlined, with its echelons being biased in make-up towards line infantry formations. These formations were a hybrid of tactical/close assault troops for the main part, supported by dedicated heavy assault units such as Terminators and specialised units such as Land Speeder squadrons. This organisation lent itself well to a highly aggressive strategic posture and belligerent tactics, which while extremely costly in terms of casualties, were also highly effective. The rank structure of the World Eaters under Angron remained simple and direct, the primarch having little but scorn for the trappings of elites and pointless accolades and titles. It is said that Angron refused even to be addressed as "Lord" by his Astartes, but he did see the virtue of a reliable and transparent chain-of-command in war.The War Hounds Legion was also known for its harsh enforcement of internal discipline and the hot-blooded temper of its Legionaries. Command within the Legion was gained through a mixture of martial prowess on the battlefield and displays of leadership on the front line, with specialists singled out by aptitude early on. No rank or role within the Legion was exempt from the expectation that they would fight as hard as the rest, however, nor was the desire to grapple with the foe and cut them down by blade-stroke discouraged if the opportunity arose, be the Space Marine in question an Apothecary or Artillerist rather than a frontline fighter. Compared to many of the other Astartes Legions, order and discipline did not come as naturally to those of this gene-seed as might be expected. Tempers often seethed, slights perceived or real were met with anger and more often than not violence would result should a War Hounds' sense of honour be impugned. All officers of the Legion knew they were expected to back up their authority by force if needed, and the punishment of infractors by an officer's own hands was the Legion's way. To disobey an officer's order in battle was a death sentence to be carried out without delay. Trial by combat soon became the Legion's preferred route for settling disagreements within its ranks, and bloodletting by warriors in open discord was an honourable thing both in Angron's eyes and that of his Legion. Here also could one of higher rank be challenged for the right of command, although such rare contests were always to the death. |
War Hounds - Legion Combat Doctrine: Hand-to-hand combat was the XIIth Legion's preferred form of warfare, even before it took the Emperor-given name of the War Hounds for itself. This did not mean that the War Hounds lacked ability and competency in ranged engagements or armoured warfare and supporting artillery attack. Indeed, no lesser luminary in the arts of mechanised warfare than the Iron Hands' Primarch Ferrus Manus praised the War Hounds' armoured assault at Aldabaran Septus as the, "epitome of iron-clad rage given form", but for the War Hounds such things were a tactical means to an end. That end being successfully delivering the killing force of the Legion, its Space Marines, where they could inflict the most harm and come to grapple with their foe at close quarters. The War Hounds had a preponderance of close combat weaponry habitually carried by its rank-and-file. In addition to the use of the ubiquitous combat blades or gladius, even Legionaries attached to reconnaissance squads and vehicle crews commonly carried chainblades, flay-cutters and mono-serrated bayonets, back-up knives, hatchets and cleavers. In dedicated assault units this profusion of bloody killing tools was added to by a weapon that dated back to the techno-barbarian tribes of Terra, the broad-bladed Chainaxe. |
War Hounds - Legion Beliefs: Though the War Hounds had a reputation for ferocity in battle, they were also known to fight honourably and prided themselves on their fury and courage above all else. To the XIIth Legion, life itself was war, a conflict that never ended from cradle to grave and the Legiones Astartes was this concept in its purest form. Failure in battle was not tolerated, surrender was never countenanced and mercy was a quick death delivered to a foe that had fought with bravery. Cowards themselves deserved no more than savage butchery in reward for their fear. This simple but resolutely brutal code of war was the War Hounds' article of faith and they extended it to both their own number and their enemy. |
War Hounds - Notable War Hounds: Ibram Ghreer (Deceased) - Ibram Ghreer, a Terran-borne Astartes, was a respected general who commanded the XIIth Legion for nearly three standard decades until he disappeared without explanation from any record of the time and no explanation was given by his taciturn Legion for his absence. In truth, he was killed by Angron soon after his rediscovery by the Emperor so that the primarch could assert his rightful command over the XIIth Legion whose Astartes had been created from his own genetic material. |
War Hounds - Legion Colours: The War Hounds wore blue coloured Power Armour with white on the shoulder plates and parts of the power pack. The Astartes of this Legion often modified their armour by adding large spikes on the shoulder plates to not only evoke fear but also to turn the armour's surface into a weapon in its own right. A brazen coloured helm would denote Veteran status. |
War Hounds - Legion Badge: The original XIIth Legion badge of the War Hounds was that of a large red hound, rampant, centred on a field of white. This symbol was reminiscent of the epithet given to them by the Emperor Himself, for the XIIth Legion reminded Him of the white war hounds the Yeshk warriors in the north of Terra once used. |
War in Heaven (Aeldari) - War in Heaven (Aeldari): Not to be confused with the historical galactic conflict between the Old Ones and the Necrontyr which is also called the War in Heaven.The War in Heaven is an ancient Aeldari myth that tells the story of a war fought in the Immaterium and on the mortal plane between the gods of the Aeldari Pantheon that is the central defining conflict of the Aeldari Myth Cycles.It is an epic tale that laid the basis for the present-day cultures of all the Aeldari kindreds and may even contain hints of the truth concerning the Aeldari's origins in the conflict between the Old Ones and the Necrontyr that is the true War in Heaven. |
War in Heaven (Aeldari) - History: The following tale is an extract from The Threnody of Chains and Blood, being part of the Book of Heavens Torn. |
War in Heaven (Aeldari) - Creation of the Aeldari: The tale of the Aeldari people is one of woe that begins with a family's love for a newborn child. The mortal get of Isha the Healer, the goddess of fertility, the harvest and healing, and Kurnous, the god of the hunt, were the ancestors of all the Aeldari. Thus do the Aeldari believe they are all descended from the gods of the Aeldari Pantheon themselves.The first and greatest mortal Aeldari was Eldanesh, sword-brother, spear-carrier, hawk-friend, shield-bearer and ally of the Falcon. The world upon which he first lived was empty, and forlorn did he feel to gaze upon its expanse of nothingness. Isha shed a tear for him, wishing for his sadness to end. Where that tear fell, forests and oceans and skies sprang up, and the creatures of the lands and the airs and the seas were born to dwell in them. Countless were these things most wondrous, and boundless gratitude did Eldanesh feel for his mother's love.Love was not the only gift that Eldanesh received from the great Aeldari Pantheon. Many of the gods wished to dote upon the newborn mortal and the others of his kind. Kurnous, the father of the mortal Aeldari, gave the first Aeldari desire, so that they would advance and flourish thanks to all that they acquired. Asuryan, the Phoenix King, the eldest and most powerful of the gods and the elder brother of Khaine, the god of war, gave them wisdom and introspection, so that they might come to know themselves.Cegorach, the Laughing God, gave them irony, with which they could find humour in themselves and cast down each other's hubris. Morai-Heg, the goddess of fate, gifted them with foresight, so that they would know their place in the cosmos. Lileath, the daughter of Isha and the goddess of dreams and fortune, imparted to them joy -- always its own reward. Hoec, the Silent Wanderer, endowed them with adventurousness, with which to seek out the new and exhilarating, and in doing so expand their minds.Vaul, the god of smiths and artifice, the industrious master smith of the pantheon and uncle of Isha and Kurnous, gave the Aeldari inventiveness, so that whatever their minds could conceive they could create. Gia, consort of Asuryan and Khaine both, gave Eldanesh and his kin nothing, for understanding they were neither owed nor deserving of anything was as vital a lesson as any. Khaine, the god of murder, destruction and war, gave them anger -- with it, they would have the means to defend both their heavenly gifts and the greatness they would later achieve in the galaxy.Thus the gods, in giving the Aeldari the means by which they attained their ascension, also unknowingly laid the foundations for their terrible slide into ignominy and near-extinction. In this beauteous beginning was the War of Heaven's first ember ignited, for all families are fractious, and none more so than that of the Aeldari gods. Endless were their games of love, torment, treachery and ridicule. For them, the true curse of immortality was simply boredom. |
War in Heaven (Aeldari) - Forging the Barrier Between Gods and Mortals: Long before the glorious time of Eldanesh, Kurnous and Lileath were bound in courtship. Only Khaine among the gods resented their union, and by every method he could conceive he sought Lileath's hand, so charmed was he by her beauty and wit -- and so desirous to spite the Hunter.But he could not win her despite all his attempts. An eternity later, fair Lileath was spurned by Kurnous in favour of her mother Isha, the goddess of the harvest, fertility and healing and the Hunter soon got the Healer with his child. Through pretty smiles and pretty laughter Lileath hid her bitterness and jealousy. Then, when a dream came to her of Khaine being torn into pieces by a great army of mortals, a plan formed in her mind. In secret, she divulged this prophetic vision to the Lord of Murder, and he resolved to slaughter the Aeldari to prevent his death. Lileath was pleased, for the deaths of their mortal children would bring tremendous pain and grief to Isha and Kurnous.When Khaine enacted Lileath's terrible revenge by slaughtering the Aeldari by the thousands, Isha wept for her children. Her wails of grief echoed throughout the heavens, and the Phoenix King Asuryan, lord of the pantheon, heard them. He soon learned of all that had transpired, of Lileath's dream and Khaine's butchery. So did the Phoenix King choose to forge a spiritual barrier, impenetrable to gods and mortals alike, to forever shield the one from the other. In this way do the Aeldari believe that Creation was divided between the Materium and the Immaterium. Though her mortal children were now saved from the rampages of the Lord of War, Isha's tears only flowed faster, for now she could never communicate with her offspring directly.And so, in the dead of night, Isha and Kurnous did silently approach the forge of Vaul, the god of artifice, and beseech the Master Smith to aid them, for if any could undo the craft of Asuryan, their uncle could. They begged and they pleaded. Finally, Vaul agreed, unable to bear the heart-wrenching weeping of his bereaved niece. Carefully gathering her tears, the Great Craftsman forged them into Waystones that glittered like the stars. Through these gems, Isha could speak to her mortal children. And so she did.Isha and Kurnous taught much to the Aeldari, in greatest secrecy at first so that none of the others gods would ever learn of their proscribed contact with their mortal children. Yet as time passed, their confidence that they would never be discovered grew to arrogance, and in one careless moment Khaine overheard them discussing their interactions with the Aeldari. All that Khaine had learned he brought to Asuryan, and both anger and disappointment did the Phoenix King then feel; he had been disobeyed because of parents' love, but disobeyed nonetheless.With a heavy heart, Asuryan declared before all the assembled gods that Isha and Kurnous were no longer under his protection and that they were to be turned over to Khaine for him to do with as he saw fit. Thus was an example set. The god of war and destruction bound the Healer and the Hunter with bonds of flame and scorching iron, making them his prisoners. They endured fiery torments for countless years in a burning pit, out of sight of mortals and gods alike. |
War in Heaven (Aeldari) - Swords of Vaul: Only Vaul pleaded on the behalf of Kurnous and Isha. He had also partaken in the scheme that had seen them sentenced to torment, and thus he was determined to see them set free. The Great Craftsman bargained with Khaine, and an accord was reached. The Master Smith would forge a hundred divinely-crafted swords for the Lord of Murder, each mightier than the last, and in return Kurnous and Isha would be released.Khaine granted Vaul a single year to complete his appointed task, and every day and night Vaul laboured at his forge, fashioning blades of sunbronze, starmetal and the last cries of sundered nebulae. Each sword was a great prize and a unique masterpiece in its own right.Yet when a year had passed, one of the promised swords remained incomplete. To conceal his terrible failing -- which would have rendered his agreement with Khaine null and void -- Vaul hid amongst the newly forged weapons a mortal-crafted blade. Elated beyond words with his magnificent prizes, Khaine released his prisoners and only later discovered the smith god's betrayal, long after Vaul, Isha and Kurnous had fled far away. The Lord of Murder bellowed his rage upon the discovery of the errant blade. Branding Vaul a cheat and a liar, he demanded vengeance. Thus did the conflict remembered by the Aeldari as the "War in Heaven" begin. |
War in Heaven (Aeldari) - Divine Bloodshed: At the outset of the conflict between the gods of the Aeldari Pantheon, Asuryan approached Morai-Heg, the goddess of fate, seeking to know the destiny of the gods. The Crone read the wild skeins of destiny and followed every tangled thread. No matter where she gazed, every path led to death and fire and pain, and she could see no further. Perturbed but undeterred, she followed Khaine, and took from him without his knowing a single thimble of his fiery blood. She placed this burning liquid upon her scales, and against it delicately set the strand of fate belonging to the mortal Eldanesh, spear-carrier and ally of the Falcon.Their weight was equal. Now in possession of an answer to the Phoenix King's question, she took it to the lord of the pantheon. The Mistress of Fate informed Asuryan of what she had learned: the fate of the gods ultimately lay in the hands of their mortal worshippers. By mortal actions alone would the Aeldari gods live or die.Many gods and lesser beings of the heavens took sides and changed sides in the conflict, struck bargains and broke them -- as was their nature -- following their own agendas as much as they pretended to follow those of others. Heaven shook with the thunder of divine battle. Only Asuryan refused to align himself with any other, though he hated the damage that was wrought. No finer example of wisdom has there ever been, for despite all the treachery and fury, when swords were finally sheathed and the dead at last buried, Asuryan still remained the lord of Vaul and Khaine both.The final battle of this conflict was fought between its instigators, the Great Smith and the Lord of War. Vaul had forged a potent blade, the one hundredth weapon he had agreed to make for Khaine, and the greatest of all the hundred Swords of Vaul. He imbued it with all the art of his mastery, utilising every skill he had ever learned, and named it Anaris, the "Light of Dawn." For many hours did the two gods clash, and severe were the wounds both suffered at the hands of their opponent. For all the might of Anaris, the Great Craftsman was no match for the Lord of War's wrath. Khaine overpowered the smith god and cast him out of heaven. Such were the injuries Vaul had suffered that he was left forever after broken in body. Then Khaine shackled the lamed Great Smith to his own anvil, using chains Vaul himself had once forged.Khaine roared, glorifying in his final triumph. All he had left to accomplish was to claim Anaris as his own. As he reached to collect the fallen blade, however, Faolchú the Falcon, consort of the Great Hawk, swept the Light of Dawn up into his great talons, crossed the barrier between realms and dropped the divinely-crafted sword into the hands of the mortal Eldanesh. |
War in Heaven (Aeldari) - Murder of Eldanesh: Khaine's hatred for the mortal Eldanesh burned with all the blazing heat of his fiery blood. Long before the War in Heaven, they had once fought side-by-side. Many victories did the Lord of Murder give the mortal shield-bearer, on battlefield after battlefield. Together they struck down the Autochtinii, the Sraerkyn and the Ynk'irln. After one such glorious conquest, Khaine gave Eldanesh a wondrous vision -- in this the Aeldari champion was lord of the galaxy. None were more powerful than he. All Aeldari followed him as their greatest hero, and no enemy could stand against him and hope for anything but a swift demise. All that Khaine requested in exchange was Eldanesh's oath of fealty. But this Eldanesh refused.Even bearing mighty Anaris and filled with righteous desire to strike down the god who had gaoled and tortured his beloved divine parents, Eldanesh was feeble in comparison to the god of war, and Khaine simply tore him apart in the murderous clash that followed.As the gods declared Khaine's final victory over god and mortal alike, Anaris held firm in the hand still dripping with Eldanesh's gleaming blood, Faolchú and the Great HAwk bore the lifeless, blood-streaked corpse of Eldanesh into the air, and set it in the sky. There it became the Red Moon, which for aeons served as a constant reminder of the great champion's death. Until, that is, the Fall of the Aeldari, when that ancient race finally succumbed to its own arrogance and hubris, She Who Thirsts was born, and the ancient Aeldari Empire's homeworlds were consumed by the powers of Chaos. |
War in Heaven (Aeldari) - Curse of Khaine: At long last, the War in Heaven was over, with Khaine as the undisputed victor. But his merciless slaughter of Eldanesh was not the last act of this bitter conflict. Instead it was to the god of war's brother Asuryan that the final deed fell. So appalled was the Phoenix King by the slaying of the first lord of the Aeldari that Asuryan laid a curse upon his brother Khaine.The blood of Eldanesh that dripped from the Lord of Murder's hand would now do so eternally, reminding all of what he had done, of the unnecessary life he had taken in his unchecked wrath. Thus he has been known ever since by the Aeldari as Kaela Mensha Khaine -- "Khaine the Bloody-Handed" in the Aeldari Lexicon. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - War in Heaven (Necron): The War in Heaven was an ancient and devastating conflict fought between the humanoid Necrontyr xenos later known as the Necrons, their C'tan allies and the Old Ones. The war was fought over sixty million Terran years before the 41st Millennium.With the power granted by the C'tan, the Necrons ultimately proved victorious over their hated Old One adversaries, relegating that ancient species to extinction or to flight from the Milky Way Galaxy.But the suffering and destruction unleashed by the war cascaded through the Immaterium, ultimately destabilising it and unleashing the plague of Enslavers that almost destroyed all sentient life.At the same time, the ancient Aeldari -- a psychically powerful species created by the Old Ones during the war -- began their rise to galactic mastery.After overthrowing the rule of their C'tan masters, the Necrons chose to retire to their Tomb Worlds and enter the Great Sleep, waiting until the plague had passed, their own divisions and discord had faded into irrelevance and the Aeldari civilisation had passed its peak.Only then would the galaxy be ripe once more for conquest and their Great Awakening commence. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - Birth of the Star Gods: The birth of the entities called the C'tan and later known as the "Star Gods" occurred at the same time as the moment of Creation itself, as they formed from the vast, insensate energies first unleashed by that churning mass of cataclysmic force. In that anarchic interweaving of matter and energy, the sea of stars began to swirl into existence and for an eon the universe was nothing more than hot hydrogen gas and light elemental dust ruled over by the gravitic force of billions of newborn suns.Long before the first planets had formed and cooled, the very first truly self-aware beings emerged into the universe, their thoughts encased within the lines of force produced by the plasma and electromagnetic flares of the stars themselves. In later times, these entities would become known as the C'tan by the Necrons, but early in their existence they were nothing like the malevolent beings they would eventually become. They were little more than monstrous energy parasites that suckled upon the solar energies of the stars that had brought them into existence, shortening the lives of otherwise main-sequence stars by millions of standard years.In time, these star vampires learned to move along the lines of the universe's electromagnetic flux, leaving their birthplaces to drift through the cosmic ether to new stellar feeding grounds and begin their cycle of stellar destruction once more. Beings of pure energy, they paid no mind to the hunks of solid matter they passed in the vacuum of space, the blazing geothermal fires and weak geomagnetic fields of these nascent planets insufficient to be worth feeding even their ravenous hunger. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - Old Ones: Just as the stars gave birth to their children so the planets of the newborn Milky Way Galaxy eventually gave birth to lifeforms composed of matter which began the long evolutionary climb to self-awareness. The first intelligent beings of the galaxy known to have developed a civilisation technologically advanced enough to cross the stars was a reptilian species of beings later called the "Old Ones" by the Aeldari, who knew them best of all their creations.The Old Ones possessed a slow, cold-blooded, but still deep wisdom, having long studied the stars and raised astronomy and physics to such a level that their science and technology appear now to Humanity like an arcane art. Their understanding of the workings of the universe were such that they could manipulate alternate dimensions and undertake great works of psychic engineering.The Old Ones were potent psykers who routinely used the powers of the Warp for a wide variety of technological applications. This included the construction of a system of instantaneous faster-than-light portals through Warpspace. These portals connected all of the Old Ones' colony worlds, allowing them to cross the vast gulfs of space with only a single step through the myriad Warp Gates they built to connect the worlds of the galaxy. This was a vast interdimensional network much like the Webway of today which is its direct descendant, though on a much larger and more advanced scale.Through this network the Old Ones spread their spawn to many places in the galaxy, but they also knew that all life was precious. Where they passed, they seeded new intelligent species and reshaped thousands of worlds to make them their own according to their predetermined environmental and geographic criteria. It is believed by some in the Adeptus Mechanicus that even Terra felt the Old Ones' touch long before Humanity's rise to self-awareness, though this notion is considered heretical at best by the Ecclesiarchy, as the Imperial Creed teaches that Mankind was made in the image of the God-Emperor before His spirit was incarnated in physical flesh millennia ago.The Old Ones' civilisation reached its height in excess of 60 million standard years ago. The Old Ones were responsible for the creation or genetic advancement of most of the currently active intelligent species of the galaxy, including the Aeldari, the Krork (the Orks' precursors), the Slann and the Jokaero, though it is unknown if they played any direct role in the evolution of Humanity. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - The Necrontyr and the Wars of Secession: The humanoid species that would become the Necrons began their existence under a fearsome, scourging star in the far reaches of the galaxy known as the Halo Stars region, billions of standard years before Humanity evolved on Old Earth. Assailed at every moment by solar winds and intense radiation storms, the flesh and blood species known as the Necrontyr became a morbid people whose precarious life spans were riven by constant loss. What little information the Imperium of Man has recovered on the Necrontyr tells that their lives were short and uncertain, their bodies blighted and consumed at an early age by the terrible cancers and other illnesses linked to the high levels of ionising radiation given off by their sun.Necrontyr cities were built in anticipation of their inhabitants' early demise, as the living were only brief residents scratching their daily livelihoods in the shadow of the vast sepulchres and tombs of their ancestors. Likewise, their ruling dynasties were founded on the anticipation of an early death, and the living were thought of as no more than temporary residents hurrying through the more permanent and lasting structures raised to honour the dead. On the Necrontyr homeworld, the greatest monuments were always built for the dead, never the living.Driven by necessity, the Necrontyr escaped their crucible-prison and struck out for the stars, hopeful of carving out an empire in which they could realise their species' freedom from the lethal energies of their birth star. Using stasis crypts and slow-moving, antimatter-powered torch-ships that were clad in the living metal known as necrodermis to resist the millennia-long journeys through the void, the Necrontyr began to colonise distant worlds.Little by little, the Necrontyr dynasties spread ever further, until much of the ancient galaxy answered to their rule. From the earliest days, the rulers of individual Necrontyr dynasties were themselves governed by the Triarch, a council composed of three Necron dynasty monarchs known as phaerons. The head of the Triarch was known as the Silent King, for he addressed his subjects only through the other two phaerons who ruled alongside him. Nominally a hereditary position, the uncertain life spans of the Necrontyr ensured that the title of Silent King nonetheless passed from one royal dynasty to another many times. The final days of the Necrontyr Empire occurred in the reign of Szarekh, the last of the Silent Kings.Sometime during their slow interstellar expansion, the Necrontyr encountered an ancient species far older than any other in existence in the known galaxy. These beings were the Old Ones, and they were absolute masters of forms of energy the Necrontyr could not even conceive of, yet alone wield. The Old Ones had long ago conquered the secrets of immortality, yet they refused to share the gift of eternal life with the Necrontyr, who yet bore the genetic curse of the bitter star they had been born under.The colonisation of much of the galaxy by the reptilian mystics had been immeasurably swifter and more expansive than that of the Necrontyr because of their Warp Gates and mastery of the Immaterium. That, and the Old Ones' incredibly long, if not downright immortal lifespans, kindled a burning, jealous rage in the Necrontyr, which ate at their culture spiritually as much as physical cancers consumed their bodies. The Necrontyr were astonished to learn that another intelligent species enjoyed such long lives while their own were cut so brutally short.But as time wore on, further strife came to the Necrontyr. Each dynasty sought to claim its own destiny and soon the great houses were engaged in all-out conflicts known as the "Wars of Secession." Had circumstances remained as they were for but a generation more, it is possible that the Necrontyr would have wiped themselves out, as so many species had before them and shall do in the future. As their territory grew ever wider and more diverse, the unity that had made them strong was eroded, and bitter wars were waged as entire realms fought to win independence.Ultimately, the Triach realised that the only hope of unity for their people lay in conflict with an external enemy, but there were few who could prove a credible threat to the technologically advanced Necrontyr. Only the Old Ones were a prospective foe powerful enough to bind the feuding Necrontyr dynasties to a common cause. Such a war was simplicity itself to justify, for the Necrontyr had ever rankled at the Old Ones' refusal to share the secrets of eternal life.So it was that Szarekh, the last of the Silent Kings, in a typically bitter act of jealousy and resentment for the Necrontyr race, declared war on the Old Ones. At the same time, he offered amnesty to any secessionist Necrontyr dynasties who willingly returned to the fold of the Triarch. Thus lured by the spoils of victory and the promise of immortality, the separatist Necrontyr realms abandoned their Wars of Secession and what was later known as the "War in Heaven" began. A conflict unlike any fought before erupted across the stars, yet while the Silent King and the Triarch had succeeded in uniting their hateful people, it was a war the Necrontyr could not win. Not on their own. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - The War in Heaven: The terrible wars between the Old Ones and the Necrontyr that followed, known later in Aeldari myth as the "War in Heaven," would fill a library in their own right, but the Necrontyr could never win. Their superior technology was consistently outmanoeuvred by the Old Ones thanks to their mastery of the Webway portals and Warp Gates. The Necrontyr were pushed back until they were little more than an irritation to the Old Ones' dominance of the galaxy, a quiescent threat clinging to their irradiated world among the Halo Stars, exiled and forgotten. The Necrontyr's fury was cooled by their long millennia of imprisonment on their homeworld, slowly transforming into an utter hatred towards all other forms of intelligent life and an implacable determination to avenge themselves upon their seemingly invincible enemies.But in the face of defeat, the always fragile unity of the Necrontyr began to fracture once more. No longer did the prospect of a common enemy have any hold over the disparate dynasties. Scores of generations had now lived and died in the service of an unwinnable war, and many Necrontyr dynasties would have gladly sued for peace with the Old Ones if the ruling Triarch had permitted it.Thus began the second iteration of the Wars of Secession, more widespread and ruinous than any that had come before. So fractured had the Necrontyr dynasties become by then that, had the Old Ones been so inclined, they could have wiped out their foes with ease. Faced with the total collapse of their rule, the Triarch searched desperately for a means of restoring order. In this, their prayers were answered, though the price for their species would be incalculably high.It was during the reign of the Silent King Szarekh that the godlike energy beings known as the C'tan first blighted the Necrontyr. It is impossible to say for certain how the Necrontyr first made contact with the C'tan, though many misleading, contradictory and one-sided accounts of these events exist. The dusty archives of the Tomb World of Solemnace claim it was but an accident, a chance discovery made by a stellar probe during the investigation of a dying star. The Book of Mournful Night, held under close guard in the Aeldari Black Library's innermost sanctum, tells rather that the raw hatred that the Necrontyr held as a species for the Old Ones sang out across space, acting as a beacon that the C'tan could not ignore.Another account claims that from the earliest days of their civilisation, Necrontyr scientists had been deeply engaged in stellar studies to try to understand and protect themselves from their own sun's baleful energies. After long, bitter centuries of searching for some power to unleash upon the Old Ones, the Necrontyr researchers used stellar probes to discover unusual electrodynamic anomalies in the oldest, dying stars of the galaxy. In the complex skeins of the energetic plasma of these suns, the Necrontyr found an intelligence that was more ancient than that of any of the corporeal species in Creation, including the Old Ones, entities of pure energy that had spawned during the birth of the stars eons before.These entities had little conception of what the rest of the universe entailed when the Necrontyr first found them, feeding upon the solar flares and magnetic storms of these bloated red giants. Here was the weapon the Necrontyr had long sought to bring about the downfall of the Old Ones, beings they believed were the progeny of the death-god they had long worshipped. Howsoever first contact occurred, the shadow of the C'tan fell over the oldest Necrontyr dynasties first.The power of these star-born creatures was incredible, the raw energy of the stars made animate, and the Necrontyr called them the C'tan or "Star Gods" in their own tongue. The C'tan were dispersed across areas larger than whole planets, their consciousnesses too vast for humanoids to comprehend. How the Necrontyr ever managed to communicate with them is unknown to the Adeptus Mechanicus. Understanding that such diffuse minds could never perceive the material universe without manifesting themselves in a material form, some Necrontyr actively sought the C'tan's favour and oversaw the forging of physical shells for the C'tan to occupy, cast from the living metal called necrodermis that they had once used for their colony torch-ships.Fragmentary Aeldari legends tell of translucent streamers of electromagnetic force shifting across space as the star vampires coiled into their new bodies in the physical realm across an incorporeal bridge of starlight. Thus clad, the C'tan took the physical shapes of the Necrontyr's half-forgotten gods, hiding their own true desires beneath cloaks of obsequious subservience.Incomprehensible forces were compressed into the living metal of the necrodermis bodies which the Necrontyr had forged as the full power of the C'tan at last found form. As the C'tan focused their consciousnesses and became ever more aware of their new mode of existence, they came to appreciate the pleasures available to beings of matter and the other realities of corporeal life. The deliciously focused trickles of electromagnetic energy given off by the physical bodies of the Necrontyr all about them awakened a new hunger in the C'tan very unlike the one they had once sated using the nourishing but essentially tasteless energies of the stars.So it was that one of the C'tan came before the Silent King Szarekh, acting as forerunner to the coming of his brothers. Amongst his own kind, this C'tan was known as Mephet'ran, the "Deceiver," for he was willfully treacherous. Yet the Silent King did not know this C'tan's true nature, and instead granted the creature an audience. The Deceiver spoke of a war, fought long before the birth of the Necrontyr, between the C'tan and the Old Ones. It was a war, he said, that the C'tan had lost. In the aftermath, and fearing the vengeance of the Old Ones, he and his brothers had hidden themselves away, hoping one day to find allies with whom they could finally bring the Old Ones to account.In return for this aid, the Deceiver assured, he and his brothers would deliver everything that the Necrontyr craved. Unity could be theirs once again, and the immortality that they had sought for so long would finally be within their grasp. No price would there be for these great gifts, the Deceiver insisted, for they were but boons to be bestowed upon valued allies.Thus did the Deceiver speak, and who can say how much of his tale was truth? It is doubtful whether even the Deceiver knew, for trickery had become so much a part of his existence that even the C'tan could no longer divine its root. Yet his words held sway over Szarekh who, like his ancestors before him, despaired of the divisions that were once again tearing his people apart. For long solar months he debated the matter with the other two phaerons of the Triarch and the nobles of his Royal Court.Through it all, the only dissenting voice was that of Orikan, the court astrologer of the Triarch, who foretold that the alliance between the Necrontyr and the C'tan would bring about a renaissance of glory, but destroy forever the soul of the Necrontyr people. Yet desire and ambition swiftly overrode caution, and Orikan's prophecy was dismissed. A Necrontyr year after the Deceiver had presented his proposition, the Triarch agreed to the alliance, and so forever doomed their species.For their part, the Necrontyr soon fell into awe of their discoveries and the C'tan moved to take control over their benefactors. The powers of the C'tan manifested in the physical world were indeed almost god-like and it was not long before the C'tan were being worshiped as the Star Gods the Necrontyr had named them.Perhaps they had been tainted by the material universe they had become a part of, or perhaps this had always been their nature even when they were bound to the suns they fed upon, but the C'tan proved to be as cruel and capricious as the stars from which they had been born. They soon revelled in the religious worship of the Necrontyr and feasted upon the electromagnetic life energies of countless mortal slaves. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - Biotransference and the Rise of the Necrons: Armed with weapons of god-like power and starships that could cross the galaxy in the blink of an eye through the use of quantum phase technology, the Necrontyr stood ready to begin their war against the Old Ones anew. But the C'tan had another gift for their mortal subjects. They offered the Necrontyr a path to immortality and the physical stability their species had always craved. Their diseased flesh would be replaced with the living metal of necrodermis that made up their Star Gods' own physical forms. Their discarded organic husks would be consumed and their cold, metal forms would then be free to pursue their great vengeance against the Old Ones and the rest of a hateful universe, freed forever from the weaknesses of their hated flesh.With the pact between Necrontyr and C'tan sealed, the Star Gods revealed the form that immortality would take for the Necrontyr, and the great biotransference process began. Vast bio-foundries were constructed, and into these the Silent King's peoples marched according to the terms of the pact he had made with the C'tan. What blasphemous procedures the Necrontyr were subjected to within the raging bio-furnaces cannot be known, but certainly, each was stripped of flesh and of soul, their body replaced by a shell of living metal necrodermis much like the C'tan themselves animated by what remained of their guttering self.Above each furnace swooped and dove the ethereal true-forms of the C'tan as they glutted themselves on the spiritual and electromagnetic detritus of an entire species. It was only when the Silent King himself emerged from the biotransference process and looked upon what had become of his people that he saw the awful truth of the pact he had made. Though immortality and nigh-godlike strength and vigour were his, it had come at the cost of his soul, the aetheric remains of which had already been sucked down the gullet of a circling C'tan.As Szarekh watched the C'tan feast on the life essence of his people, he realised the terrible depth of his mistake. In many ways he felt better than he had in Necrontyr decades, the countless aches and uncertainties of organic life now behind him. His new machine body was far mightier than the frail form he had tolerated for so long, and his thoughts were swifter and clearer than they had ever been.Yet there was a terrible emptiness gnawing at his mind, an inexpressible hollowness of spirit that defied rational explanation. In that moment, he knew with cold certainty that the price of physical immortality had been the loss of his soul. With great sorrow the Silent King beheld the fate he had brought upon his people: the Necrontyr were now but a memory, and the soulless, undying Necrons had been reborn in their place.Yet if the price had been steep, biotransference had fulfilled all of the promises that the C'tan had made. Even the lowliest of the Necrontyr was now blessed with immortality -- age and hard ionising radiation could little erode their new mechanical bodies, and only the most terrible of injuries could destroy them utterly.The biotransference process had embedded engrammatic command protocols in every Necron mind, granting Szarekh the unswerving loyalty of his subjects. At first, the Silent King embraced this unanimity, for it was a welcome reprieve from the chaos and fractiousness that had consumed the Necrontyr Empire in recent years. The entire species was now his to command, and so it fell upon the Necrons to honour their side of their terrible bargain. However, as time wore on Szarekh grew weary of his burden but dared not sever the command protocols, lest his subjects turn on him seeking vengeance for the terrible curse he had visited upon them.Biotransference had left behind only the ghostly echoes of the Necrontyr's consciousnesses. Only a few of the most strong-willed Necrontyr among the nobility and the military retained their intellect and self-awareness and even they were but shadows of their former selves. They had been purged of so much of what had made them unique individuals. But unlike the Silent King, most of the Necrons at first cared not at all for their loss; all that mattered to them was that they would live forever without disease or death as their Star Gods had promised.Renewed and empowered as never before by their devouring of the souls of an entire species, the C'tan were now unstoppable, and with the undying legions of the Necrons marching in their wake, the Old Ones were doomed. Only one thing truly remained of the old Necrontyr -- their burning hatred for all the other living, intelligent species of the universe.Legions of the undying living metal warriors set out into the galaxy in their Tomb Ships and the stars burned in their wake. The Old Ones' mastery of the Warp was now countered by the C'tan's supremacy over the physical universe and the ancient enemies of the Necrons suffered greatly in the interstellar slaughter that followed. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - Necrons Ascendant: With the C'tan and the Necrons fighting as one, the Old Ones were now doomed to defeat. Glutted on the life force of the Necrontyr, the empowered C'tan were able to unleash forces beyond comprehension. Planets were razed, suns extinguished and whole star systems devoured by black holes called into being by the reality-warping powers of the Star Gods. Necron legions finally breached the Webway and assailed the Old Ones in every corner of the galaxy. They brought under siege the fortresses of the Old Ones' many allies amongst the younger intelligent species of the galaxy, harvesting the life force of the defenders to feed their voracious C'tan masters.In the closing years of the War in Heaven, one of the primary factors that led to the Necrons' ascendancy was their ability to finally gain access to the Old Ones' Webway. The C'tan known as Nyadra'zath, the Burning One, had long desired to carry his eldritch fires into that space beyond space, and so showed the Necrons how to breach its extradimensional boundaries. Through a series of living stone portals known as the Dolmen Gates, the Necrons were finally able to turn the Old Ones' greatest weapon against them, vastly accelerating the ultimate end of the War in Heaven.The portals offered by the Dolmen Gates are neither so stable, nor so controllable as the naturally occurring entrances to the Webway scattered across the galaxy. Indeed, in some curious fashion, the Webway can detect when its environs have been breached by a Dolmen Gate and its arcane mechanisms swiftly attempt to seal off the infected spur from the rest of the Labyrinth Dimension until the danger to its integrity has passed. Thus, Necrons entering the Webway must reach their intended destination through its shifting extradimensional corridors quickly, lest the network itself bring about their destruction.Of course, in the present age, aeons have passed since the Necrons used the Dolmen Gates to assault their archenemies. The Old Ones are gone, and the Webway itself has become a tangled and broken labyrinth. Many Dolmen Gates were lost or abandoned during the time of the Necrons' Great Sleep, and many more were destroyed by the Aeldari, the Old Ones' successors as the guardians of the Webway. Those that remain grant access to but a small portion of the immense maze that is the Webway, much of that voluntarily sealed off by the Aeldari to prevent further contamination.Yet the Webway is immeasurably vast, and even these sundered skeins allow the Necrons a mode of travel that far outpaces those of the younger races. It is well that this is so. As a species bereft of psykers as a result of the loss of their souls during the biotransference process, the Necrons are also incapable of Warp travel, and without access to the Webway, they would be forced to rely once more on slow-voyaging stasis-ships, dooming them to interstellar isolation.In the wake of these victories, the C'tan and their undying Necron servants now dominated the galaxy. The last planetary bastions of the Old Ones were besieged and the intelligent species they had once nurtured became cattle for the obscene hunger of the C'tan. To the younger intelligent species of the galaxy, the Necrons and their Star Gods were cruel masters, callously harvesting their populations at will to feed the C'tan's ceaseless hunger for life energies. The C'tan were figures of terror who demanded mortals' adoration and fear in equal measure.For unknown reasons, but probably because their individual hungers for mortal life energies knew no bounds, the C'tan ultimately began to fight amongst themselves for both sport and out of spite. Among the Aeldari, an ancient myth holds that their Laughing God tricked the C'tan known as "the Outsider" into turning on its brothers and beginning their long war for ascendancy.In the course of the C'tan's struggle against one another, whole planets were razed, stars were extinguished and entire solar systems were devoured by unleashed black holes. New cities were built by the efforts of millions and then smashed down once more. As the "red harvests" of the C'tan and their Necron servants grew thin, C'tan eventually devoured C'tan, until only a few were left in the universe and they competed amongst themselves for a long age.Eventually, even the Old Ones, who had once been defined by their patience and unstoppable will, became desperate in the face of the Necron assault. They used their great scientific skills to genetically engineer intelligent beings with an even stronger psychic link to the Warp, hoping to create servants with the capability of channeling psychic power to defend themselves.They nurtured many potential warrior species, among which are believed to be the earliest members of the Aeldari species and many other xenos races, including the Rashan, the K'nib, the Krork and many others. Terran millennia passed as the Old Ones' creations and experiments finally bore fruit even as the C'tan and their Necron servants continued to extinguish life across the galaxy. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - The Tide Turns: The Old Ones' psychically-empowered servant species spread across the galaxy, battling the advanced Necron technology with the psychic power of their Warp-spawned "magic." Facing this new onslaught, the C'tan's empire was shattered, as the psychic forces of the Immaterium were anathema to soulless entities whose existence was wholly contained within purely physical patterns of electromagnetic force. For all the destruction they could unleash, they were unable to stop the Old Ones and the younger races' relentless advance across the stars.The remaining C'tan, unified by this great threat for the first time in millions of Terran years, sought a way to defeat the soul-fuelled energies of the younger species. They initiated a great warding, a plan to forever defeat the psychic sorceries of the Old Ones by sealing off the material universe from the Warp, a plan whose first fruits could once be found on the Imperial Fortress World of Cadia in the form of the great pylons that littered the surface of that world in intricate networks and create the area of space-time stability near the Eye of Terror known as the Cadian Gate.With their god-like powers, it was only a matter of time until the C'tan succeeded. But before their great work was complete, the seeds of destruction the Old Ones had planted millennia before brought about an unforeseen cataclysm. The growing pains and collective psychic flaws of the younger species threw the untapped, psychically-reactive energies of the Immaterium into disorder.War, pain and destruction were mirrored in the bottomless depth of the Sea of Souls that was the Warp. The maelstrom of souls unleashed into the Immaterium by the carnage of the War in Heaven coalesced in the previously formless energies of the Warp. Older entities that had existed within the Immaterium transformed into terrifying psychic predators, tearing at the souls of vulnerable psykers as their own environment was torn apart and reforged into the Realm of Chaos. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - Enslaver Plague: The denizens of the Warp, stirred into a frenzy by the conflict in the Materium, clustered voraciously at the cracks between the Immaterium and the material universe, seeking new ways to enter the physical realm. The Old Ones brought forth new genetically-engineered warrior species to defend their last strongholds, including the technology-mimicking Jokaero and the formidable, green-skinned Krork who were the ancestors of the present day Orks, but it was already too late. The Old Ones' intergalactic Webway network was breached from the Immaterium and lost to them, several of their Warp Gates were destroyed by their own hands to prevent the entities of the Warp from spreading to uncorrupted worlds and the Old Ones' greatest works and places of power were overrun by the horrors their own creations had unleashed.The most terrifying of these horrors were the Enslavers, Warp entities whose ability to dominate the minds of the younger species and create their own portals into the material realm using mutated, possessed psykers brought them forth in ever greater numbers. For the Old Ones, this was the final disaster as the Enslavers took control of their servants. The Pandora's Box unleashed by the creation of the younger species finally scattered the last of the Old Ones and broke their power over the galaxy once and for all. Life had stood at the edge of an apocalypse during the War in Heaven between the Old Ones and the C'tan. Now as the Enslavers breached the Immaterium in epidemic proportions, the survivors looked doomed.Ultimately, beset by the implacable onset of the C'tan and the calamitous Warp-spawned perils they had themselves mistakenly unleashed, the Old Ones were defeated, scattered and finally destroyed. Whether the species went extinct or simply fled the galaxy to seek a new haven elsewhere is unknown. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - Silent King's Betrayal: Throughout the final stages of the War in Heaven, Szarekh bided his time, waiting for the moment in which the C'tan would prove most vulnerable.Though the entire Necron species was now his to command, the Silent King could not hope to oppose the C'tan at the height of their power, and even if he did and met with success, the Necrons would then have to finish the War in Heaven against the Old Ones and their increasingly potent allied species alone. No, the Old Ones had to be completely and utterly defeated before the C'tan could be brought to account for the horror they had wrought among the Necrontyr.And so, when the C'tan finally won their great war, their triumph was short-lived. With one hated enemy finally defeated, and the other spent from hard-fought victory, the Silent King at last led the Necrons in revolt. In their arrogance, the C'tan did not realise their danger until it was too late.The Necrons focused the unimaginable energies of the living universe into weapons, god-killing hypercannons devised by the finest Crypteks in the galaxy, too mighty for even the Star Gods to endure. Not even the great overlords of the Necron crownworlds well remember the battles against the Star Gods, for causality itself was damaged by the forces unleashed to dismember the C'tan, and the Silent King was wont to remove the knowledge of the dreadful weapons employed from his warriors after the fact in fear of what might later be done with them.Alas, the C'tan were immortal star-spawn, part of the fundamental fabric of reality and therefore nigh-impossible to destroy. So was each C'tan instead sundered into thousands of smaller and less powerful energetic fragments each with the personality of the whole entity, yet this outcome was sufficient to the Silent King's goals.Indeed, he had known the C'tan's ultimate destruction to be impossible and had drawn his plans accordingly; each newborn "C'tan Shard" was bound within a multidimensional Tesseract Labyrinth, as tramelled and secured as a legendary Terran djinn trapped in a bottle. Though the cost of victory was high -- millions of Necrons had been destroyed as a consequence of their rebellion, including all of the members of the Triarch save the Silent King himself -- the Necrons were once more in command of their own destiny. |
War in Heaven (Necron) - Great Sleep: The Necrons had been vindicated in their pursuit only of science and control over the material realm and certainly took pleasure in seeing the Old Ones' civilisation collapse as a result of their over-indulgence of psychic power and the end of the C'tan's domination over their species. Yet even with the defeat of the Old Ones and the C'tan alike, the Silent King saw that the time of the Necrons in the galaxy was over -- for the moment, at least. They would allow the Enslavers to take what was left of the intelligent life in the galaxy and let it become an interstellar wasteland; the psyker swarm would then die away and in time the galaxy would evolve new lifeforms who would be less sophisticated and easier to dominate.In addition, the Necrons understood that the mantle of galactic dominion was soon to pass to the Aeldari, one of the psychically-potent species that had fought alongside the Old Ones throughout the War in Heaven and had thus come to hate the Necrons and all their works with the burning passion that is the defining characteristic of that species. The Aeldari had survived where the Old Ones had not and the Necrons, weakened by their expenditure of lives and resources in overthrowing the rule of the C'tan, could not stand against them.Yet the Silent King knew that the time of the Aeldari would eventually pass, as it must pass for all those beings still cloaked in flesh. It would take millions of Terran years for the Aeldari's power to fade, but what mattered is that the Necrons would be there to take advantage of it.So it was that the Silent King ordered the remaining Necron cities to be transformed into great tomb complexes threaded with stasis-crypts. Let the Aeldari shape the galaxy for a time -- they were but ephemeral, whilst the Necrons were undying and eternal. The Silent King's final command to his people was that they must sleep for the equivalent of 60 million standard years but awake ready to rebuild all that they had lost, to restore the Necron dynasties to their former glory.This was the Silent King's final order, and as the last Tomb World sealed its subterranean vaults, Szarekh destroyed the engrammatic command protocols by which he had controlled his people for so long, for he had failed them utterly. Without a backward glance, Szarekh, the last of the Silent Kings of the Triarch, took ship into the starless void of intergalactic space, there to find whatever measure of solace or penance he could.Meanwhile, aeons passed and the Necrons slept on, their machine slaves and constructs guarding them while they slept on Tomb Worlds that had been purged of all life to keep the Enslavers from their door. This plan worked with an amazing degree of success until the Necrons were awakened by the forces of the Imperium of Man in the 41st Millennium to plague the galaxy once more. They discovered a new and unexpected age of interstellar civilisation and war much like the one they had left behind 60 million standard years before.The galaxy is blossoming with life once more but is still overrun with latent psykers and worshippers of the infernal Chaos Warp energies first unleashed during the War in Heaven. It will take time and a great many machinations for the Necron dynasties to regain their rightful place as the rulers of the galaxy; the agents of Chaos must be overthrown; the dangerous Aeldari, inheritors of the Old Ones' mantle, eliminated; Humanity subjugated and the great work cutting off the material universe from the Warp completed before a new age of Necron dominion can truly begin.But the Necrons are ageless and undying, their technology still unmatched by any of the younger starfaring species. And time is always on their side... |
War in the Labyrinth - War in the Labyrinth: The War in the Labyrinth is the name given to a battle between the Aeldari faction known as the Ynnari and a warband of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion, the Prodigal Sons, led by the infamous Chaos Sorcerer Ahzek Ahriman that was fought within the confines of the Webway.A council of Asuryani elders had gathered in the aftermath of Prince Yriel's resurrection following the Battle of Iyanden. Together they discussed the new doom that faced the galaxy as the Great Rift came into being.After long debate they came to the conclusion that only by giving the teeming masses of Humanity a fighting chance to hurl back the forces of the Ruinous Powers could they avert a doom that would see the Aeldari species suffer and die.The Ynnari, now bolstered by a large contingent from Craftworld Iyanden, braved the shattered spars of the Webway once more. After a fraught journey where they were forced to face the legendary Ahzek Ahriman and his Thousand Sons Rubric Marines, they reached the ice moon of Klaisus in the Cadian System, that frozen orb which had appeared large in the divinations of the Asuryani Seers.There the Ynnari rendezvoused with the surviving Imperial forces who had fled the fall of Cadia to Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade under the command of Saint Celestine, Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax and Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl.A pact was struck, and together the uneasy allies headed through the Webway to Macragge, the capital world of the Realm of Ultramar, there to resurrect the Primarch Roboute Guilliman who could lead Humanity in its darkest hour. |
War in the Labyrinth - Into the Webway: With a galactic cataclysm unfolding around them, the Ynnari made haste to the ghost halls as soon as the Iyanden Seer Council had reached its decision to aid Humanity in the struggle against Chaos as a way to save the Aeldari as well.Using her influence over the spirits of the dead, Yvraine worked every available moment to transfer the consciousness of ancient heroes from the Iyanden Infinity Circuit directly into the wraithbone bodies they had previously only controlled via the use of Spirit Stones. These Ghost Warriors were no longer trapped in what seemed a waking dream, but given new life by Yvraine and her kin, able to see, feel and hear the material world around them with all the clarity they had possessed as mortals.Though mute, their gratitude was obvious in their deference -- the stiffness and uncertainty of the typical wraith construct was replaced by a fluid grace as the statuesque spirit warriors adjusted to their new forms.Before long these newly realised Ghost Warriors had taken up the artefacts and heraldry of their mortal incarnations. They were truly Reborn. With their senses singing and their thirst for vengeance undiminished, the Ghost Warriors of Iyanden were more formidable than ever.In conjunction with Iyanna Arienal and her Spiritseer brethren, the High Priestess of Ynnead brought entire Ghost Halls to full wakefulness. The wraithbone constructs were filled with purpose -- they felt the presence of Ynnead calling them to war, for if any could command them from beyond the veil, it was the Aeldari god of the dead.Within a matter of solar days, the Ynnari made for the Webway once more. This time they went with not only elements of the Biel-Tani Swordwind, ghostly emissaries from Altansar and strike forces from the other craftworlds amongst their ranks, but also with a mighty host of Reborn Ghost Warriors.Many of the Iyandeni traditionalists objected vociferously to what they saw as a crippling blow to the world-ship's defences, but the newly realised constructs would not listen to even the most compelling argument, and would not allow themselves to be stopped.Few had the nerve to stand before the ancient heroes of the Eldar race and tell them to stand down in the name of passivity and caution. The future of their entire species was at stake, and the dead would do everything in their power to ensure that their living brethren were beyond the reach of She Who Thirsts.From the sternmost portal of Iyanden, the swollen ranks of the Reborn made for the depths of the Webway once more. To use those esoteric pathways often carries a cost -- even with the Harlequins of the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow to guide them, the Ynnari found their progress painfully slow.Fractal complexities haunted their peripheral vision, surreal dreams assailed their minds, and false turns confounded them every night. Half-real, half of the Warp, that twilit Labyrinth Dimension was in places as much the domain of the Dark Gods as that of the Aeldari -- or rather the Old Ones that had come before them.The Chaos-tainted wilderness of the Webway, long abandoned even by the Harlequins, had become the stalking grounds of Ahriman, Arch-Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons Legion.A devotee of Tzeentch, Ahriman had once been a mystical warrior of the Imperium, noble and just. In the millennia-long search to save his cursed Legion, he walked such dark paths he became consumed by ambition and revenge.Ahriman's former master, the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red, had wrought a great doom for the Space Wolves Chapter of Astartes, those executioners that had hounded his Legion to near-extinction at the dawn of the Horus Heresy 10,000 standard years before.In doing so he had not only brought utter devastation to the Fenris System, but also used the tremendous magical forces he had unleashed to force his own power base, the Daemon World known as the Planet of the Sorcerers, through the veil between the Warp and realspace.That cataclysmic act of metaphysical manipulation had seen a dozen new Warp Storms spiral into being across the galaxy. Empowered, the Legion of the Thousand Sons had risen again in power and prominence.The Thousand Sons were a force like no other. In the name of enlightenment, they had dabbled with the energies of the Warp so deeply that a flaw in their transhuman gene-seed had mutated out of control, with some of their number turned into fleshy monsters called Chaos Spawn who were robbed of all sanity. Ahriman had cast a great spell, the Rubric, to preserve what was left of his fellows, but in doing so had been too successful.He had turned his kin from mutable flesh to unliving dust sealed inside baroque suits of ancient Power Armour. Since that day, the Arch-Sorcerer had sought a way to rescue his fellows from their deathly and soulless half-life. He had needed little spurring to seek out the Ynnari. In their travails within the Webway, the Reborn had come to the notice of many a baleful eye.Through the whispered cant of daemons, word had reached Ahriman of a new force in the galaxy that could defy death -- and even resurrect those whose spirit still lingered. With all haste, he gathered his daemonic servants and sent them into the twilight between worlds to serve as his eyes and ears. Here was a chance to save his Legion in earnest, and possibly restore them body and soul.He had sent several thrallbands of his servants alongside Abaddon the Despoiler's Black Legion to the ice moon of Klaisus in the besieged Cadia System, for he had foreseen that planet as a nexus of fate in the greater schemes of Tzeentch. Yet that was a distraction from his own self-imposed mission -- a task he still considered selfless, but which was more truthfully yet another quest for personal power and vindication entwined.If his agents in the Webway spoke even a whisper of possible redemption for his Legion, he would snatch it up with both hands. Then, once he had wrung the Ynnari's secrets from their pain-wracked bodies, he would use their power over life and death as he saw fit.When they had first ventured into the Webway from Commorragh, the relatively small size of the Ynnari expedition had lent them stealth. They had evaded the notice of Ahriman's diminutive spies, for the Webway is impossibly convoluted and beyond the ken of all but Cegorach, the Laughing God himself.Yet bolstered by Asuryani warriors from Biel-Tan, Ulthwé, Iyanden, Altansar, and several other craftworlds that had been drawn to their banner during their travels, the Ynnari had become a force that could no longer hide.Ahriman, having stolen passages of the fabled Tome Labyrinthus from the Black Library and deciphered their mind-bending secrets, knew many of those shattered spars that had been claimed by Chaos.He had even learned to scry regions of the Webway at will, the better to catch his prey unawares. The sorcerer waited for his moment to strike with the attentiveness of a serpent; ten millennia of pursuing his arcane agendas had given him a terrible patience.When the Ynnari strayed into the Psychedelta, a many-tunnelled region where the walls of the Webway were thin, the Chaos Sorcerer conducted a great ritual of translocation, sacrificing nine hundred and ninety nine captives to the glory of Tzeentch.The Changer of the Ways was pleased, and a few moments later, Ahriman burst from the aether to attack the Ynnari with a host of Thousand Sons and gibbering daemons at his back.The battle that ensued scorched the still air of the Webway delta. It was a pyrotechnic display of raw Tzeentchian magic pitted against the expert skill and spiritual conjurations of the Reborn. Initially, the battle was fought on a narrow frontage, every Thousand Sons thrallband and daemonic host pushing with relentless, tireless strength into the ranks of the Ynnari.The Eldar reacted instinctively, flowing and darting around every push and thrust with the expertise of master duellists. Then, as the Ynnari were forced to give ground by the sheer power and suddenness of the Chaos assault, the battle flowed back to the neck of that section of the Webway, spreading into every one of the contributory capillaries of the Psychedelta.Before long, a half-dozen battles were being fought in parallel or in tunnels one atop another, each force giving everything it had to break past the other -- and in doing so, win a critical advantage by attacking on two fronts in the neighbouring engagement.High on a crystal bridge that seemed open to the void of space, a host of Iyanden's Guardians and Ghost Warriors were led into battle by the Wraithknight Soulseeker. A phalanx of Thousand Sons Chaos Terminators barred their path across the apex of the bridge, but the wraith-led host slowed not at the sight.Where they had once moved in ponderous strides, the blank-helmed constructs now ran with the easy grace of the living Eldar that loped behind them, their complex Warp-tech guns held tightly to their broad chests.Guardian heavy weapon platforms sent a steady hail of Shuriken Cannon fire into the ornately-armoured Terminators, the shredding discs shattering or ricocheting from ensorcelled ceramite without visible effect.The Scarab Occult returned fire, their Combi-bolters stitching thunderous explosions across the oncoming Eldar constructs, but in turn did little more than scorch their inviolable forms.The Thousand Sons swiftly switched targets, picking out the Guardians behind with uncanny marksmanship to take a gory toll. The sorcerers in their midst sent vivid helixes of light shooting out to trap the Wraithguard in cages of azure luminescence -- these then contracted to slice through wraithbone as if it were raw meat, until only chunks of ivory anatomy were left behind.Those Terminators armed with rotary Assault Cannons and Hellfyre Missile Racks poured in enough Warp-cursed firepower to dismember two of the leading ghost warriors. The irresistible force of the Thousand Sons' firepower had met the immovable object of the wraith host, and found their edge not in technology, but psychic magic.Soulseeker loomed over the front line, his flickering shield generator casting a pale aegis of light across the leading elements that prevented the worst of the magical storm from taking a greater toll.The Wraithguard, so protected from the Chaos Terminators' salvoes, seized the moment, running in close to open fire with their Distortion Cannons. Howling vortexes of Warp energy simply snatched away their heavily armoured targets as if they had been sucked from an open airlock into space.Soulseeker charged through the Thousand Sons ranks, braving salvoes of mutagenic fire that would have turned a mortal target inside out, and swept his immense Ghostblade across the span of the enemy battle line.The dolorous blow cut several of the Scarab Occult in half at the waist, breaking the Thousand Sons's cohesion. Suddenly, the Iyanden Wraithblades were in amongst them, fighting with grace and efficiency of movement as their axes hewed apart suits of Prosperine battle-plate.Tortured by so many arcane forces clashing at once, the crystal bridge shuddered, shook and cracked along its length. Some of the wraith constructs were fast enough to leap from one cracking floe of crystal to another until they reached the safety of the far side. Others were not so lucky, and tumbled away into nameless, fractal oblivion.Nearby, the daemon-choked tunnels of the Psychedelta's rightmost spar were lit brightly with Warpflame. Cackling Pink Horrors and Flamers drizzled fire with manic glee as they lurched and bounded towards their quarry.Amongst them were towering Lords of Change, each hurling their own devastating spells at the oncoming Eldar. The Biel-Tani spearhead that faced that flaming host suffered a thousand deaths in the space of a few terrifying solar minutes.Wherever the mutagenic flames touched an Eldar warrior, manifest insanity was left behind. A squad of Howling Banshees were turned to infants in outsized armour that looked at their blades in fascination. A trio of winged Swooping Hawks were transformed to a scintillating rain of scaled serpents.A shrine of Dire Avengers, having released a hurricane of razored shuriken, found their projectiles reversing course to attack them with the avidity of starving piranhas.Each inventive demise brought great merriment to the Horrors that massed around the Lords of Change. For a while, the Webway echoed with skirling hilarity.The laughter stopped when figures of legend strode forth, brought together once more by the mighty Jain Zar.Majestic as the Aeldari war god Khaine himself, the Phoenix Lords emerged from the darkness of the Webway one by one. It was not Asurmen at their fore, but his foremost student -- she who had taken Ynnead into herself, and found her way back to the Reborn.Baharroth dived low, blinding beams searing from his multi-barrelled rifle to burn the eyes from a Lord of Change as he passed. His sword took its head with contemptuous ease as he shot past in a sapphire blur. Faced with a horde of assailants, Jain Zar span, polearm blade carving a deadly spiral around her. Her Triskele shot outward; it cleaved pink-skinned daemons in twain on the way out, then slashed through their blue-skinned replicas on the way back as itreturned to her hand.The Brimstone Horrors that scattered the ground in their place shrieked at the sight of Fuegan, the Burning Lance, striding swathed in the heat of a thousand fiery deaths. They ran back howling to set fires amongst the Thousand Sons that came behind.Hissing in impatience, the Lord of Change Zarzapt the Ineffable strode forward to bathe Fuegan in Warpfire, but its mutagenic curse could not touch the Phoenix Lord's scaled armour. A moment later he blasted the creature into discorporating mist with a pinpoint beam from his Firepike.Asurmen ran a beaked Herald of Tzeentch through with the Blade of Asur, hoisting its wriggling body high so his Dire Avenger acolytes could shred it to nothingness with shuriken fire. Maugan Ra, standing legs braced atop a fallen Wraithknight, methodically shot every blade-winged Screamer from the sky with such impeccable skill that not a single one of the Maugetar's shuriken failed to hit its mark.His bio-explosive rounds he saved for the Burning Chariots trailing flame through the skies; each turned to a fiery meteor as they were sent crackling into the hordes below. The Greater Daemon Vexwing teleported into being behind him, stave raised to lay him low. Before the blow could land, Karandras struck from below, melting from the shadows to hack the avian horror into shimmering nothingness with biting blade and scorpion’s claw.The Phoenix Lords' skill at arms outmatched the daemon host to such a degree that not one of the Horrors or their flame-hurling, bestial brethren could lay a single claw upon them. Here, amongst the tight press of battle, the First Exarchs were lethality personified.In the next spar, at the foremost tip of the Ynnari advance, the warriors of Ulthwé raced to close quarters with the tightly packed Rubricae. The Black Guardians had felt the sting of the Thousand Sons' ensorcelled fusillades before. They knew from experience that a single inferno bolt could blast an Eldar limb from limb.Yet they faltered not, for they knew the god of the dead was watching over them. In rushing the enemy lines they invited decimation, and indeed many irreplaceable lives were lost. It would likely have been a massacre but for the presence of Eldrad Ulthran.The High Farseer cast the runes of war to lend uncanny fortune to his kin, whilst his close ally, Kysaduras the Anchorite, sent storms of crackling lightning within the ranks of the Thousand Sons to disrupt their firing lines.Ahriman parted the sea of his warriors with a wall of psychic force before replying with his own volley of psychic magic. Transmutive flames struck out, turning the elder Farseer Kysaduras into a crude wooden statue that was caught eternally in a pose of desperate anguish.With the Ulthwéans came the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow, their Shadowseer casting a veil of mist over the Dire Avengers that sprinted alongside them. Where a volley of blazing bolts roared in, the mists saw the fiery bolts pass through the Aspect Warriors as if they were made of no more than shadow.The blitzing attack had gained the Ulthwéan warhost a good deal of ground, however. As their Harlequin allies flipped and danced through the air around them,the Eldar hit the Thousand Sons line like a bladed tornado.The armoured automata suddenly found themselves hard-pressed. The heirloom blades and energised swords of the Reborn slashed open ancient Power Armour at the waist, the shoulder, and the neck, each blow aimed with pinpoint precision to ensure as telling a cut as possible.The tactic worked well, and for a triumphant few solar seconds the Eldar advanced over dismembered suits of battle-plate that lay gently steaming in the mist.Then Ahriman pointed his staff, and geysers of pink fire roared out to consume the Harlequins vaulting towards him. Three graceful warrior-dancers were caught mid-leap; they landed as scatterings of dust.At the same time, the ranks of beleaguered Thousand Sons seemed to wake from their dreamlike torpor and attack with sudden speed, shoulder-barging, punching and clubbing the Eldar to the ground with the stocks of their Bolters before stamping down to mangle flesh and crush bone.In a crackle of Warp-light, Eldrad materialised amongst the Thousand Sons, the glowing Staff of Ulthamar spinning to shatter their armour as if their ancient battle-plate were made of no more than fine china.The fight in the tunnel descended into anarchy around him as the Ulthwéans pressed in again and again, their morbid black and bone armour lit by the neon-bright, mind-searing hues of the raging psychic battle.In anarchy and mayhem, the forces of Tzeentch thrived.Riding upon aetheric winds came the Exiles, gathered over the millennia to Ahriman's side. Nine was their number, each a Sorcerer of incredible power who had, alongside their master, transformed the Thousand Sons to their unliving state. Some strode through the air itself, footsteps blazing in their wake; others came on bladed discs that soared through the air, or rode fiery chariots pulled by swift sky-ray daemons.The Triumvirate of Ynnead had been sighted on the front line, and the psychic signal had been sent -- the Reborn were fighting hard to break through the Thousand Sons ambush with Yvraine at their head. It was time to close the trap.The bird-headed Azhtar Manutec stretched his feathered fingers into claws, grabbing and ripping the air. Fifty metres distant, Incubi bladesmen were torn bodily apart by invisible forces. The skull-mantled biomancer, Naratt of the Broken Troth, stunned a knot of Eldar with a blast of kaleidoscopic light before casting knucklebones at their feet like a farmer scattering grain.Each osseous seed grew swiftly into a fleshless corpse, the unliving warriors clattering forward to lock bony fingers around the limbs of the nearest Eldar. Ahriman himself tied an invisible noose and pulled it taut, a score of those Eldar closest to him clutching at their throats as all breath was sucked from their bodies.Each new spell took a terrible toll. Here, so close to the Warp from which they drew their power, the millennia-old Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons could mould reality to their desires with the twitch of a finger.Towards them came Yvraine, her face twisted in a snarl. Her proud strut turned into a purposeful run, her expression that of a lioness who has seen her cubs cut down by a cruel assailant. Kha-vir, the Sword of Sorrows, sang at her side, the edge of its blade glowing white with psychic corposant. With her came the Visarch, his own Cronesword held poised to strike, and the Yncarne, howling with the voice of a thousand departed souls.Empowered by the psychic energies of death all around them, they moved faster than any mortal creatures should. Whispering potent curses, Yvraine cut the air with her fan, and six scalpel-sharp dirks flew on deathly winds to impale a chanting Sorcerer. Another found his spell cut short as the Visarch ran in close, the Sword of Silent Screams casting a pall of soundless twilight around him as the great blade sheared off the front half of the Exile's helmet -- and bisected his head with it.Nearby, the Yncarne rose high like a bird of prey on a hot thermal, only to swoop down forcefully. The quicksilver Sword of Souls flowed to become two daggers that slashed and stabbed at the Thousand Sons, each striking with a demigod's strength behind them.A circle of Rubricae turned their guns on the creature, but although their explosive salvo tore bloodless chunks from the Yncarne's torso, they could not shift the cruel smile from its face.A spiralling vortex of spiritual energy whirled out from the creature's opening maw, and the Thousand Sons froze like statues. The mystical animating forces within the undead Traitor Marines had been reduced to nothing more dangerous than echoes.Yvraine felt her hatred flare hot, her gyrinx growling at her side. There was their leader, commanding the throng from his perch on a disc of fiery metal.Casting aside her finery, she shot towards him like a living missile, her companions close on her heels. Calmly putting his staff aside, the Champion of Tzeentch cupped his hands as if trapping a winged insect, and hurled a handful of nothingness upwards with a roar.Along with the Visarch and the Yncarne, Yvraine suddenly found herself adrift -- not within the Webway, but without. They were stranded in a near-silent limbo, trapped on the top of the psychocrystal walls. The sounds of battle were muffled beneath them, and the cool void sucked in its breath at their backs.Yvraine did not look around, for she felt something there, in the darkness. A voice in her mind said should she do so, she would behold the Changer of the Ways himself, and learn the meaning of madness.That voice was not Eldar, but human; it belonged not to a salvaged soul, but to the Arch-Sorcerer below. Another joined it; that of Elierrogh the Sage, one of the Eldar spirit passengers within her. She had studied this one at length.A flash of insight struck Yvraine. "Ahzek Ahriman!" she shouted, "I have that which you seek. I can restore your brethren!"A stone's throw away, the Visarch cut at the Webway's exterior with the Sword of Silent Screams, but he could not scratch it. The Yncarne hissed in pain to her flank, trailers of purple mist unwinding from its body as it was dissolved by the aether behind."And why should I believe that?" came the sorcerous voice in Yvraine's head. "You have no power here, in my new domain." She felt white heat as something loomed behind, the fell gaze of godly eyes burning down upon her with terrible, inhuman focus."Open your eyes!" she cried, secretly praying to Ynnead that her desperate gambit would work. She pressed her hands upon the psychocrystal of the Webway's exterior, focussed on the armoured Legionaries within, and reversed the cycles of their existence.A dozen of the Thousand Sons Rubric Marines, previously levelling firepower into the Reborn with the emotionless efficiency of automatons, staggered backwards as if struck.They looked at one another, clutched their hearts, and fell back, rallying around Ahriman before taking up the defensive stances of the Emperor of Mankind's ancient Legiones Astartes. Yvraine could just make out their words as they frantically sought to make sense of their situation."Ahzek? Is that you, brother?""Where are the Athenaeans? These are Eldar we face this day!""In the name of Magnus, what is going on?"Ahriman shook his head as if stunned, his wide shoulders shaking uncontrollably with mirth, grief, or a mixture of the two. He brought his cupped hands together once more and yanked Ynnead's luminaries downward with a shout of pure exultation.A lurch of the stomach, and Yvraine suddenly found herself in the swirling tide of battle once more, the Visarch and the Yncarne quickly taking up positions behind her."Do it," she said to her companions, siphoning the rich reservoir of Eldar life force that flooded the tunnels into a single burst of invigorating energy. In a flash, the Iyandeni giant Soulseeker was there, trailing white flame as his Wraithblade carved a chasm through the crystal of the Webway's superstructure with an ear-splitting scream.Stepping to the edge of the fissure, the Yncarne opened its maw impossibly wide. It inhaled so mightily the resurrected Thousand Sons were drawn towards it, stumbling over the edge of the chasm to fall away into the void beneath. Ahriman screamed in denial, riding his disc after them on a trail of fire."The Whispering God gives new life," said Yvraine as her Reborn surged forward around her for the kill, "just as he takes life away." |
War in the Labyrinth - Clash on the Ice Moon of Klaisus: With Ahriman defeated and the majority of his Thousand Sons thrallbands trapped on the far side of a metaphysical chasm, the battle for the Psychedelta swiftly turned in favour of the Reborn. Yvraine and her fellows were initially forced to backtrack, joining their rearguard at the mouth of the Webway delta and taking the two spars that led to the relative safety of the arterial tunnels beyond.Though perhaps only half of the Ynnari's number had made it to the other side alive, those that had died had their Spirit Stones secured by the living. They would fight on, just as scores of departed Eldar already fought on within Yvraine. Of the Yncarne and the Phoenix Lords, there was no sign, but for a tunnel packed with the swiftly discorporating remains of a thousand daemons.The Harlequins of the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow once more took their place as guides for the greater mass of the Ynnari, following the laughter of Cegorach as a ship on the sea follows a lighthouse's beam. The Laughing God had been most amused by Yvraine's gambit, and was of a mind to help her to her destination.Twisting the fabric of fate to confound the Dark Gods had long been Cegorach's way, but he yearned for a brother-in-arms, for his fellow Eldar gods were long ago devoured by She Who Thirsts. Though awakened, Ynnead was sombre and sinister in comparison to Cegorach's riotous, colourful demeanour, yet any force in the galaxy that could deny Slaanesh was worth fighting for.To rebuild a trinity of Eldar deities, with Khaine as the fell-handed destroyer, Ynnead as the giver of life after death and the Laughing God to balance the two -- that was a truly worthy goal. Indeed, some amongst the Ynnari had already begun to talk of these Eldar gods as a small pantheon -- and even pay homage to them in thought, deed, and sumptuous regalia, becoming an echo of the ancient Aeldari in microcosm.One of the Spiritseers, upon seeing this, asked if the equivalent female trinity was to set Iyanna Arienal as the maiden, Yvraine as the mother and Lelith Hesperax as the crone -- though a sharp glance from a Crucibael Bloodbride cut short her mirth.With the Harlequins's divine patron guiding them out of the Webway, the Ynnari made good speed for the ice-locked moon of Klaisus. Orbiting the planet of Kasr Holn in the Cadia System, it was as pallid as a corpse's skin, its surface swirling with blizzards. Eldrad had seen the white orb clear in his visions. Indeed, he had been dreading its coming, for in his glimpses of the future he had seen its snows stained by blood.To the Eldar, such an omen was truly feared; it symbolised the spilt blood of Eldanesh at the hands of the war god Khaine, and a severing of thepeaceful accord between the Eldar and their deities.The High Farseer still had hopes that omen was inverted -- a sign of imminent disaster not for the Reborn Aeldari, but for their enemies. They approached a confluence of fate where they would join forces with Humanity, and in doing so strike a blow against the Dark Gods that could yet prevent the fabric of the universe from unravelling.Unbeknownst to Eldrad and the Ynnari, the omen spoke true for every kindred that set foot upon the cursed moon of Klaisus. The murderous hordes of Abaddon the Despoiler's Black Legion were already on the attack upon that ice-locked orb, waging war on the Imperials that followed the vision of the Living Saint, Celestine.As the Ynnari came to the spherical Webway portal that led to the Crone's Claw Mountains, they gathered one final time to commune in the name of Ynnead. A swathe of Aspect Warriors from Biel-Tan were the first to wholly entrust their souls to the Whispering God.Inspired, they finally found the inner steel to put aside their helms and their war personas, in doing so honouring not just Khaine in one of his aspects, but also Ynnead, trusting to an existence beyond the grave.Should they die, their souls would find salvation in those Ynnari nearby. In doing so the Reborn would deny Slaanesh her feast, join with Ynnead in the afterlife, and continue the fight against Chaos forever more.Massing for battle alongside Eldrad and the Black Guardians of Ulthwé was a faction from the Wych Cult of Strife. Lelith Hesperax had agents of her own; in hearing of Yvraine's intended destination from her Harlequin contacts, she had sent a force of skilled arena fighters to take up arms alongside the Ynnari.If these Wyches reported back that the Ynnari truly were able to allay the soul-curse that afflicted the Drukhari then Lelith herself would seek them out and fight for Ynnead's cause.Yvraine suspected that Lelith's motivations were purely selfish -- the belladonna of the Commorrite arenas would give almost anything for an immortality of adoration without having to pay a constant cost in souls.Still, with her forces badly depleted by Ahriman's strike, Yvraine welcomed her kin from the Dark City with open arms.Nearing the Webway gate, Yvraine traced lines of psychic fire around the tiny triggersphere that hung in mid-air before it, setting in motion the opening of the portal.A thin hint of icy wind became a gust, then a gale of freezing cold as the Webway gate unravelled the quantum barrier between the Labyrinth Dimension and the ice-locked mountaintop of the Crone's Claw in the Materium. The Ynnari plunged through the fractal portal, only to behold a vision of utter carnage.The precipice-ringed hollow of the portal's site was almost hemispherical, its lip ridged with sharp rocks. Beyond it was a wasteland stained with blood.A trail of corpses led for several Terran kilometres into the middle distance, many of the wounded and the dying pulling themselves through the gory slush in search of safety.Here were the Imperials that Eldrad had spoken of, their strength all but destroyed by the ravagers of Chaos. They had clearly been forced marching through the snow, assailed by the infamous Black Legion as they presumably sought the same Webway gate from which the Ynnari emerged.It was here they had decided to make their last stand, unaware of just how close they had come to the ancient xenos structure.Too stubborn or stupid to realise they had no chance of victory, the Imperials fought back with a desperate ferocity. A disarrayed assortment of Black Templars Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, Imperial Guardsmen and Adeptus Mechanicus forces fought at the feet of battle-ravaged Imperial Knights, guns barking as they gave their lives to defend three warriors in their midst -- Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax of the Ordo Hereticus, the Mechanicus Archmagos Dominus known as Belisarius Cawl, and the Living Saint herself, Celestine of the Order of the Martyred Lady.All of this the Ynnari took in at a glance, for the Eldar have senses so sharp even a howling blizzard is little hindrance to them. The Windriders of the Black Guardians were first into the fray, the Wyches of the Cult of Strife close on their heels.The Imperials, pushed beyond breaking point, could only stare in disbelief and wonderment as Ynnari warriors flowed like a river around them to crash against the Black Legion. The Chaos Space Marines had hounded their quarry across Klaisus, only to find themselves denied at the last.Now it was the blood of the Black Legion that turned the moon's snows crimson, the smoking corpses of mutant Traitors to Humanity that lay thick upon the ground.Seeing the large force of Eldar suddenly appear to repel his assault was enough to give even Abaddon pause, but he drove forward nonetheless. Twice he assailed the ridge of the Crone's Claw, and twice he was hurled back, his numbers sorely reduced.After the third time, he angrily ordered a tactical withdrawal. The bedraggled Imperials had reached safety -- of a sort. |
War in the Labyrinth - The Road to Salvation: In the dubious safety of the Crone's Claw, that natural bowl housing the Klaisus Wraithgate, humans and Eldar watched each other warily. The ragtag Imperial warriors were exhausted, wounded, or dying, barely a hundred of them huddled around the giant Triaros Conveyor that the Archmagos in their midst clearly valued more than life itself.Incredibly, the light of battle still burned in every warrior's eyes -- that, and the certainty of absolute faith. The Ynnari, knowing well the horrors that the Black Legion would have unleashed upon these hapless humans, took note of that determination, and looked with admiration upon the stubborn resolve of the survivors.To stand against the infamous Abaddon the Despoiler in person and remain unbowed ... it was a feat worthy of the Dark Muses. Though it ran against the grain of their souls, even the Wyches of the Cult of Strife felt a kind of respect.The Eldar, upon seeing the winged figure of the Living Saint, parted their ranks so a clear corridor led from the Ynnari leaders to Celestine. To her left stood Inquisitor Greyfax, as suspicious of the saint as she was of the xenos.To Celestine's right was the Priest of Mars; his servo-eyes followed a lithe figure -- the Shadowseer Sylandri Veilwalker -- who moved unnoticed into the ranks of the Eldar host before vanishing entirely from sight.First came Meliniel, Autarch of Biel-Tan, followed by Yvraine, the Visarch and Eldrad. Swathed in ethereal energies, the Eldar seemed like ancient monarchs stepping from the world of myth. As they approached, Greyfax's hand went to the hilt of her Power Sword.The Visarch mirrored the gesture, grasping the Cronesword Asu-var in a graceful motion. These small acts of aggression rippled outward to the warriors of each side, escalating as they did so until it seemed as if conflict were inevitable.Were it not for the strident words of Autarch Meliniel ringing out over the cries of alarm, perhaps the Imperium of Man would have lost its best chance to ride out the coming tempest, and perhaps the Eldar would have faded into obscurity forever.With Meliniel's entreaty delivered, he had bought a few valuable moments -- and in those seconds, chose to bow low before the Living Saint. His mastery of the human custom -- and of the Low Gothic tongue -- was impeccable. As Celestine moved forward to talk to him, she purposefully cleaned her silvered blade of blood and sheathed it behind her, motioning her Geminae Superia to hang back with Archmagos Cawl and his conveyor as she did so.The few remaining Astra Militarum still alive averted their aim, but did not stand at ease. As Inquisitor Greyfax stepped forward to join the negotiations, the Black Templars stood on a knife edge of action and inaction, casting baleful glances to one another as if daring their Battle-Brothers to make the first move.A brief binharic blurt of the Lingua Technis from Archmagos Cawl, and the Skitarii marksmen aiming their long-barrelled rifles from the mouth of the valley took aim at the Autarch striding confidently towards the Living Saint.Autarch Meliniel was the first to act. The Seers were known to the humans as manipulators and liars, and the Drukhari -- the "Dark Eldar" -- as evil incarnate. A warrior, however, they might just listen to."I know you feel hatred for our kind," the Biel-Tani commander said to the human leaders. "You have good reason for it. But just as your million far-flung worlds each has its own culture, we too are a fractured people. You look upon that element that would see Humanity and Eldar both escape their doom.""We look upon pampered peacocks and depraved fiends," spat Inquisitor Greyfax. Saint Celestine cast her a reprimanding glance, but the statement hung in the air, unretracted.Meliniel cast his gaze at the strange acolytes of Ynnead beside him before turning to regard Greyfax. "I thought so too, at first. My people have reason to fear the unknown more than most. But these visionaries are agents of destiny and hope.""Your saint and I share the same goals," said Yvraine. Her voice was quiet, but steady and sure. "Even if she is yet to fully understand exactly what they are.""We would see your pilgrimage to completion," agreed Meliniel."You Eldar twist fate," said Greyfax, "and only ever in your own selfish interests.""Perhaps," said Meliniel, nodding. "But there is only one thread that leads to salvation. And it is tenuous indeed. Our mutual enemies are in the ascendant as we speak. Look above you."None of the Imperials took their eyes from the Eldar."I know the sight well enough," said Celestine. "The Warp rift is an ugly and infected wound. We must prevent it growing any worse.""Enough of your riddles and platitudes," said Greyfax, her upper lip curled. "Why are you here, xenos?""Because your wish to deny the end of all things outweighs your unreasoning hatred," said Meliniel. "This is a crux point of fate. We believe that here, by casting a stone amongst the snows, we can start an avalanche that will quench the flames of Chaos.""The Dark Gods rise," said Yvraine sombrely. "We must rise higher, the better to cast them down. This lumpen thing," at this she gestured at the Triaros Conveyor, "this contains hope. The lord it belongs to will be a powerful symbol for your people; he will oppose the Ruinous Powers, and turn back the encroaching darkness."The Visarch stepped forward to stand at Yvraine's shoulder. "And he will not be alone in that fight.""You have won yourselves an hour," said Greyfax. "Convince us, or die."The first solar hour of the parley slid past, and then the second, and the third, the atmosphere thick with a sense of history in the making. By the time the cold light of Kasr Holn's sun disappeared behind the curling talons of the Crone's Claw Mountains, the Eldar and the humans had come as close to an understanding as their species had ever attained.After the Eldar had said their piece, the Imperial leaders had consulted amongst themselves. The Living Saint stressed that her visions had led her here, and that the xenos rescue could not have been happenstance. It was then Celestine chose to name where they must go next -- a place that struck a chord with every soul present.It was imperative, she said, that the cargo the Tech-priest carried reached its destination. Such was her conviction that she did not need to see Cawl nodding in confirmation to know the truth of her words. Given that the only route ahead was through a semi-mythical domain that the Eldar alone knew how to navigate, Celestine argued, they had little choice but to join forces.If the xenos had wished the Imperials dead, they had but to watch the Black Legion go about their red work, yet they had interceded in order to save the lives of human warriors.Greyfax counselled caution at all times, but agreed that their mutual task was more important than the immediate gratifcation of the kill -- the Eldar could always be put down once their mission was complete.Though he still suspected trickery, and vowed to remain vigilant at all times, even Marshal Amalrich of the Black Templars eventually sheathed his weapons, giving the order for his xenos-hating Battle-Brothers to do the same.It was agreed. The Imperials would accept the aid of the Eldar, placing themselves in their total trust -- in actuality, they had little option, for to stray into the endless maze of the Webway unguided is amongst the worst of follies.The Ynnari delegation had promised they would make good speed, outdistancing the Chaos Space Marines that pursued them and ensuring that Archmagos Dominus' precious ward remained intact.So the two crusades became one, crunching through fresh snow to reach the giant glittering orb of the fractal Webway gate. Their procession was lit by the swirling Warp Storms that blighted the heavens high above, the splitting seam that threatened to disgorge the riotous unreality of the Warp into the order of the material universe.The Eldar fled through first, rejoining their craftworlder kin on the far side with solemn nods. The Imperials ventured through last, every one of them shocked at the size of the Eldar warhost beyond, and looked upon a world of marvels.As incredible as the Webway's lambent architecture was, it was a mere precursor to the glory that would follow -- the vector by which the newfound allies would strike out for their true destination.The Realm of Ultramar, and the world of Macragge.The realm of hope... |
War in the Museum (Short Story) - War in the Museum (Short Story): War in the Museum by Robert Rath is a Warhammer 40,000 short story published in 2020 and collected in the anthology Nexus & Other Stories. |
War in the Museum (Short Story) - Synopsis: Dormant for millions of years and now reborn into bodies of living metal, the Necrons are among the galaxy's most ancient races.Of those Necrons who have retained traces of their former personalities, the most eccentric is Trazyn the Infinite, overlord and master of the Solemnace Galleries. He is a collector and historian, who has gathered countless living artefacts of the galaxy's history in his vast museum. In War in the Museum, Trazyn must capture a deadly alien predator that has escaped his collection. |
War of Faith - War of Faith: A War of Faith is a religiously-inspired military conflict engaged in by Imperial military forces that has been ordered and blessed by the Adeptus Ministorum, the state church of the Imperium of Man.Sometimes confused with the similar state-sanctioned military campaign known as an Imperial Crusade, a War of Faith differs in both who commands it and who participates in it.An Imperial Crusade is declared on the order of the secular rulers of the Imperium, the High Lords of Terra or the Lord Commander of the Imperium, and involves multiple branches of the Imperial military, including the Adeptus Astartes, the Astra Militarum, the Imperial Navy and administrative support provided by the rest of the Adeptus Terra and the Ministorum.A War of Faith, however, is declared on the sole spiritual and temporal authority of the reigning ecclesiarch of the Adeptus Ministorum and often includes only the military forces under the control of the Ministorum. These include the Frateris Templar before the Age of Apostasy and the Frateris Militia and the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas since the 36th Millennium.However, despite this distinction, Wars of Faith and Imperial Crusades often overlap in many ways and both will be employed to seek the conquest of new territory, retake worlds lost to enemies of the God-Emperor, purge rebels or Heretics to the Imperial Creed, and eradicate xenos and mutants who threaten Mankind.Wars of Faith have also sometimes been declared against factions within the Adeptus Ministorum itself who have been deemed heretical or too radical to be tolerated even by the relatively wide bounds of the Imperial church's theological orthodoxy.Wars of Faith have been declared concurrently with an Imperial Crusade and thus are also sometimes carried out by other Imperial armed forces outside of the Adeptus Ministorum, such as the regiments of the Astra Militarum. But when a War of Faith involves only the forces of the Ministorum, it is funded and directed solely by the resources of the Ecclesiarchy.Though a War of Faith is initiated and financed on the order of the ecclesiarch, he or she does not have total control over the course or direction of a War of Faith. If they so choose, the High Lords of Terra can intervene in a War of Faith, though they usually refrain from doing so with Wars of Faith that only concern internal matters of the Ministorum. |
War of Faith - History: The first War of Faith in Imperial history was called early in the 32nd Millennium against a rival religious faction to the Temple of the Saviour Emperor which was the predominant sect of the faith that believed the Emperor of Mankind to be a god and eventually evolved into the state-supported Adeptus Ministorum.That rival sect was known as the Confederation of Light, which had also emerged from the period after the Horus Heresy on the world of Dimmamar and worshiped the Emperor as a divinity.However, the Confederation believed that the Emperor's sacrifice after the Siege of Terra should serve as an example of true selflessness to everyone, and promulgated ideals of generosity, material frugality and humility towards one's fellow men and women.Such ideals directly contradicted the beliefs of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor and the later Ecclesiarchy, which instead taught that the Imperium represented Mankind's divinely-ordained dominion over the universe, and that as the representatives of the God-Emperor in the mortal realm, it was the Adeptus Ministorum and its agents which should hold ultimate secular AND spiritual power.In this view, the Emperor's sacrifice had been necessary to maintain Human domination of the galaxy, and talk of selflessness and generosity took a decided back seat to the Ministorum hierarchy's concerns about increasing its own wealth and political power within the broader structure of the post-Heresy Imperium.By early in the 32nd Millennium the power of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor as embodied within the newly recognised state church that was the Ministorum was absolute, and only the adherents of the Confederation of Light represented an alternative version of the Emperor's faith that still found purchase among the people of the Imperium.To curb this perceived threat to the Ministorum's popularity, and thus its political power, the ecclesiarch of that time managed to get a unanimous vote of the Senatorum Imperialis to approve what was the first War of Faith against their rivals.The Confederation of Light was declared an organisation of Heretics and on the order of the High Lord of Terra, the Astra Militarum and the Imperial Navy were dispatched to assault Dimmamar, still the nexus of the Confederation's activities, and eradicate this "spiritual threat" to the souls of the Emperor's faithful.Though some of its followers managed to escape or go underground on Dimmamar where they would eventually reemerge during the Reign of Blood of the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium to lead a Reformation of the Ecclesiarchy, the Confederation of Light ceased to exist as a powerful alternative force within the early Imperium. The political dominance of the Adeptus Ministorum of that period over the Emperor's realm was then absolute, essentially rendering the Imperium a theocracy.This first War of Faith would provide a template for the future, though as the Ministoum's power waxed over the next four standard millennia, it developed its own military forces and increasingly ignored the whims of the High Lords when declaring its own Wars of Faith -- as often directed at internal political enemies of the reigning ecclesiarch and cardinals as at true foes of the Emperor.Ironically, however, the number of Wars of Faith would reach their peak during the Age of Redemption in the 37th and 38th Millennia, after the Imperial church had been reformed by the reemergence of the Confederation of Light under Sebastian Thor and the restoration of its more humane ideals and the belief that the Ministorum should support the Imperium's secular authorities, not dominate them. |
War of Faith - Notable Wars of Faith: War of the BeastBenedictine WarWar of the ConfessorCataclysm of SoulsOrpheus RevoltPromethean WarWar for PietyDefence of DimmamarSecond Tyrannic WarDefence of San Leor |
War of the Beast - War of the Beast: The War of the Beast, also known as WAAAGH! The Beast, was a massive Ork WAAAGH! of extraordinary size that threatened Terra itself in the mid-32nd Millennium and brought an end to the prosperous period of Imperial history remembered as the "Time of Rebirth." It was led by the mysterious Warboss known only as "The Beast."The Orks of this horde rampaged across the Imperium on a massive scale beginning in 544.M32. The number of attacks grew until it became the greatest Greenskin invasion that the galaxy has ever known, eclipsing even the one defeated by Horus of the Luna Wolves upon the world of Ullanor during the Great Crusade, which earned the primarch the title of Warmaster.Nothing was safe from the Orks' primal desire to conquer the galaxy, and the War of the Beast was the largest conflict fought by the Imperium since the Horus Heresy.The Orks' widespread advance was only halted in 546.M32 when the Imperium resorted to the most extreme and desperate of measures to invade the Ork homeworld of Ullanor Prime and eliminate The Beast. The war incurred terrible costs upon the Space Marine Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes and the other military forces of the Imperium. However, the war also gave birth to the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition and the Deathwatch Chapter of Veteran Space Marines who were together tasked with making sure that no xenos threat to Human dominance of the galaxy ever grew so great again. |
War of the Beast - Battle of Ardamantua: During the middle centuries of the 32nd Millennium, the Imperium of Man was enjoying a period of relative peace and prosperity unheard of since before the Horus Heresy later known by Imperial historitors as the "Time of Rebirth." The Traitor Legions were still in exile within the Eye of Terror, licking their wounds and seething with rage for having failed to overthrow the Emperor and claim the Imperium as their own. The vast majority of xenos species had been relegated to the far-flung frontiers of Imperial space, and for the first time in over a Terran millennium, the worlds of Mankind enjoyed peace. The stagnation, superstition and religious zealotry that defined the Imperium of later millennia had not yet set in.With humanity having endured its greatest challenge, the Orks were no longer deemed a major threat. The Imperium believed they had been crushed by Horus' monumental victory over them during the Ullanor Crusade and had yet to recover. In truth, the Greenskins were severely underestimated by the Imperium's war savants and strategos. But with no major threats on the horizon, the vast majority of the Imperial Fleet had been dispatched to patrol the Imperium's borders far from Terra under the command of the powerful Lord High Admiral of the Navy Lansung.This underestimation of the Greenskin threat would ultimately prove disastrous. What would become known as the War of the Beast began on the world of Ardamantua in the Segmentum Solar during a routine action against another xenos species. The entire Shield Company of the Imperial Fists Chapter had been sent to Ardamantua, just six solar weeks Warp-travel from Terra, and charged with the extermination of the insectoid species known as the Chromes.It was a normal part of Imperial military operations in the centuries after the Heresy to eradicate such minor threats to the Imperial holdings near the Terran core worlds. Strategic surveys put the Chromes' numbers at something in the order of eighty-eight billion. More importantly, scans had indicated that the Chromes were in the midst of a great migration, as if they were fleeing something. Their path indicated that they would pass through the core worlds of the Segmentum Solar. This migration had to be stopped before the xenos became a threat to the Throneworld itself.Ardamantua was suddenly wracked by unexpected gravitational storms and geological disturbances as the Chromes made their final desperate assault upon the Imperial lines. The Imperial Fists contingent on the world was decimated, their fleet lost, and Chapter Master Cassus Mirhen himself was slain by the Chromes. The High Lords of Terra, realising that disaster now faced Terra itself if the insectoids continued their desperate flight, ordered the deployment of a rescue mission led by the Lord Commander Militant of the Astra Militarum Heth and the entire Imperial Fists Chapter to Ardamantua. This course was particularly endorsed by the Grand Master of Assassins, Drakan Vangorich.The source of the gravitational disturbances on Ardamantua soon became clear when a massive planetoid, an Ork Attack Moon, suddenly materialised in orbit above the world. It proceeded to attack the Imperial rescue fleet. Below, on the surface of Ardamantua, the entire Imperial Fist Chapter deployed under the command of First Captain Algerin, Second Captain Koorland and Captain Sauber, alongside a handful of Imperial Guardsmen. They soon waged a desperate fight for survival against the panicked Chromes and escalating gravitic anomalies. The anomalies were caused by the Greenskin planetoid, which continued to phase in and out of realspace as it drew closer to finally achieving full materialisation from an otherdimensional realm the Imperials would later dub "subspace."It was then that Ork troops of massive size began to make planetfall and slew the remaining Imperial forces and the panicked hordes of the Chromes. There were only four survivors of the entire Imperial Fists Chapter, three of whom died while under the ministrations of a team of Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priests. Only one Imperial Fist remained in the galaxy, Second Captain Koorland of the Daylight Wall Company, who now found himself the de facto Chapter Master.Things were little better in orbit. After transmitting a final astropathic message to Terra that the Imperium faced a threat like none Mankind had known before, Lord Commander Militant Heth's fleet was destroyed by the Attack Moon. Imperial strategos determined that the Attack Moon's next likely target was Terra itself. |
War of the Beast - Last Wall Protocol: Over the following solar months, it soon became apparent to the Imperium that more than one Ork Attack Moon was causing havoc, as the unstoppable tides of unusually large greenskins spread across the Segmentum Solar, swallowing up entire system. Soon entire sub-sectors faced inevitable defeat, and finally, whole sectors were overrun by the massive WAAAGH!, which saw billions upon billions of Imperial citizens perish on the conflagration. The chaos caused by the Ork Attack Moons saw powerful gravitational and psychic storms driving millions of citizens to madness, while others, driven to desperation, formed cults dedicated to the worship of the mighty Beast.Unfortunately, their foolish efforts availed them little, as they too, were slaughtered in the wake of the unstoppable greenskin tide. Faced with such an implacable enemy, the High Lords of Terra were rendered ineffective, as they continuously bickered amongst themselves of what appropriate course of action should be undertaken to defeat the Ork forces of The Beast. With no real leadership provided during this crisis, Lord High Admiral Lansun refused to cooperate with the Astra Militarum, and instead gathered his fleet at the Glaucasian Gulf. Meanwhile, as the Grand Master of Assassins, Drakan Vangorich, attempted to counter the Lord High Admiral's influence amongst their peers of the Senatorum Imperialis, he also made the troubling discovery that there were Adeptus Mechanicus forces hiding among the Ork WAAAGH! Their agenda was unknown to Vangorich, but the Grand Master of Assassins vowed to get to the bottom of this.Meanwhile, High Marshal (Chapter Master) Bohemond of the Black Templars Chapter, undertook a quest to help reunite the scattered Successor Chapters that hailed from the lineage of Rogal Dorn. Koorland, now known as the "Last Son of Dorn", took part in this clandestine meeting between several of their fellow Scions of Dorn in the Phall System, which included representatives from the Black Templars, Crimson Fists, Excoriators and Fists Exemplar. As sole remaining Imperial Fists representative, Koorland invoked the "Last Wall Protocol", a contingency established by Rogal Dorn himself, that was only to be enacted in the event Terra was under grave threat, or perhaps had even fallen. Then all the Successor Chapters of the Imperial Fists Legion would come together to deal with the matter as one. Even if the Imperial Fists Chapter itself were to be destroyed, the other Successor Chapters of the old VII Legion would assume its duties. The Iron Knights would also respond to this call-to-arms, while the Soul Drinkers Chapter could not be contact. |
War of the Beast - Battle of Port Sanctus: On Terra, tensions between the bickering High Lords of Terra threatened the stability of the Senatorum Imperialis and hampered the Imperium's war effort against the massive Ork WAAAGH! During this time, the Inquisitorial Representative Marguerethe Wienand, was forced to bring here considerable influence and might of the Ordos of the Inquisition to bear, forcing Lord High Admiral Lansung to take immediate action against the Orks. Utilising her Inquisitorial agents that had been secretly inserted into the Imperial Fleet, they were able to exploit the rivalry between Admirals Price and Crziel Acharya, convincing the latter to attempt to take his portion of Lansung's fleet anchored at Lepidus Prime and attempt to relieve the beleaguered Imperial forces that were being besieged by the greenskins at Port Sanctus. Exploiting Admiral Acharya's lust for glory, the Admiral agreed to the Inquisitorial agents' overtures. However, once the Lord High Admiral received word of what was transpiring amongst his senior officers, he did not wish to display an inability to command. Therefore, Lansung also departed with a large segment of Battlefleet Solar in order to personally lead the attack on the Orks at Port Sanctus. To compound matters, after the Lord High Admiral departed, the Puritan Lord Inquisitor Veritus launched a political coup within the Inquisition. He then forced Weinand to fake her death and go into hiding, effectively becoming the new Inquisitorial Representative. Veritus was determined to force the remaining High Lords into a subordinate role to the Inquisition, in order to successfully enact his plans. Despite the appearances of conflicting agenda between Veritus and Lord High Admiral Lansung, the astute Drakan Vangorich suspects that the two High Lords are somehow in league with one another.Upon the arrival of Lansung's fleet, the remaining elements, amounting to half a Segmentum fleet, that survived the greenskin onslaught, rallied around Lord High Admiral Lansung and Admirals Price and Acharya. The Imperial fleet then launches a desperate attack against the Ork Attack Moon and its accompanying greenskin fleet that were besieging the vitally important Imperial shipyards. After weeks of intense fighting between the two opposing fleets, it soon became readily apparent to the Imperial forces that they were outmatched would ultimately be defeated if they did not withdraw immediately. The Orks' surprising ability to have small raider-sized vessels rapidly teleport Ork warriors aboard Imperial vessels, despite having their void shields up, proved especially troublesome. But due to their overriding urge to fight in close melee assault, and perhaps a lack of discipline, the Ork fleet eventually began to dissipate in order to pursue individual elements of the remaining Imperial fleet. Sensing an opportunity, the Imperia fleet launched a desperate attack against the Attack Moon, or die in the attempt, in order to halt its destructive presence once and for all.Though the near-suicidal assault against the Ork Attack Moon proved costly to the Imperial fleet, the devastating barrage launched by the remaining Imperial Navy vessels degraded the Attack Moon's void shields, which allowed for the Imperial forces to combine their firepower in conjunction with a suicidal attack by smaller Imperial Attack Craft directly inside the massive artificial station. With the destruction of the Attack Moon's gravitic generators, the entire structure of the artificial sphere exploded spectacularly. Tragically, the resultant explosion took many of the surviving Imperial vessels along with it. The siege of Port Sanctus was finally lifted and the first of the Orks Attack Moons had been destroyed. Lord High Admiral Lansung returned to the Throneworld in triumph, as he was celebrated in a massive triumphant parade. But this premature victory celebration was short-lived, as another Ork Attack Moon materialised in orbit over the Throneworld itself. |
War of the Beast - The Proletarian Crusade: The ensuing conflict took a turn for the worst, as the Imperium seemed to be beset on all sides from the massive Ork expansion that was now on a galactic scale. All corners of the Imperium, in every Segmentum, saw heavy fighting against the seemingly unstoppable tide of the The Beast's greenskin tide. Both Imperial worlds of Prandium and Quintarn in the Realm of Ultramar were invaded, forcing the Ultramarines and several of their Successor Chapters to take a defensive role. This left them unable to assist the rest of the Imperium. Meanwhile, the Iron Hands sent three whole companies to assist Terra, while their fellow First Founding Chapters, which included - the Salamanders, Space Wolves and Raven Guard - to become bogged down fighting their own separate campaigns against the forces of The Beast, leaving them unable to come to the aid of Terra as well. However, the heroic and noble Blood Angels achieved some small victory, successfully destroying an Ork Attack Moon in the Baal System. The expansion of the Ork invasion was such, that it even spread beyond the borders of the Imperium, as the greenskins assailed the Iron Warriors-held world of Klostra, located near the Maelstrom warp rift.Back on Terra, the arrival of the Ork Attack Moon caused widespread panic amongst the population. The Adeptus Arbites struggled to contain the massive waves of riots that erupted across the Throneworld and in the anarchy and chaos, thousands of innocents died. The High Lords themselves, were barricaded within the secure areas of the Imperial Palace to ensure their safety and security. To make matters worse, all contact was lost with the Martian Priesthood on Mars, as Fabricator-General Kubik refused to send aid to Terra.With the majority of Battlefleet Solar deployed elsewhere or destroyed during the Battle of Port Sanctus, Terra was now left virtually defenceless. This left Lansung disgraced, as the former Lord High Admiral fell out of favour and lost position within the Senatorum Imperialis. It was at this moment, that a desperate plan emerged, concocted by Juskina Tull, the Speaker for the Chartis Captains and Ecclesiarch Mesring of the Ecclesiarchy. They proposed to launch a "Proletarian Crusade" comprised of millions of Frateris Militia forces and Imperial civilian volunteers in support of remaining Astra Militarum regiments and Adeptus Arbites. Though many notable High Lords, including Vangorish, Veritus and Lansung condemned the plane as sheer madness, they were overruled by the ascendant Speaker for the Chartist Captain and Ecclesiarch.The commencement of this Crusade took place shortly after its announcement. Thousands of civilian voidcraft of all types, were launched towards the Ork Attack Moon in Terra's orbit. Ork fighters and boarding parties sustained heavy casualties as millions of Imperial crusaders, Astra Militarum troopers and Adeptus Arbites forces, launched their desperate attack upon the Attack Moon. Due to immense size of the makeshift fleet, the Imperials were able to punch through the Ork's defences, and successfully landed millions of troops upon the surface of the Attack Moon. They were even able to land a few hundred Leman Russ Tanks as well as a number of Chimeras and Hellhounds in support. They were soon engaged in a vicious battle with a large force of attacking greenskins. The Imperials were able to drive back the Orks through their sheer numbers and brutal close assault fighting. However, at their moment of triumph, the Imperial forces were utterly annihilated when the Orks manipulated the planetoid's surface, crushing the invading Imperial forces by enclosing mountains.Following the disaster of the Proletarian Crusade, the Throneworld faced destruction at the hands of the encroaching Orks. Seemingly out of options, an unforeseen event took place when a surviving Crusade vessel landed upon Terra's surface. Three Orks, including an "ambassador" emerged from within. The Imperials identified these Orks as an entirely new sub-set of advanced-evolved "Beast" Orks, similar to their infamous Warlord. The ambassador, identifying himself as Bezhrak, amazingly spoke Gothic and managed to arrange a meeting with the Senatorum Imperialis thanks to the efforts of Vangorich. The Ork ambassador demanded that Terra surrender or face inevitable death. Left speechless, the High Lords were unable to give the Ork ambassador any kind of coherent response. Disgusted by the humans' cowardice and apparent lack of resolve, the Ork ambassador took his leave and departed Terra. Just as the Crusade vessel departed and Aeldari vessel appeared over the Imperial Palace. |
War of the Beast - Imperial Palace Incursion: Panic and disorder erupted within the Imperial Palace as a small Aledari strike force of seven Harlequins led by Shadowseer Lhaerial Rey, infiltrated the confines of the sprawling fortress of the Master of Mankind. Intent on delivering a message at the behest of Farseer Eldrad Ulthran, the Aeldari let none stand in their ways as they brushed past the elite Lucifer Blacks security and massacred any who attempted to impede their advance towards the Sanctum Imperialis. The Harlequins managed to reach the confines of the Inner Palace itself, where they encountered a large force of hundreds of furious Custodians of the Adeptus Custodes - the elite transhuman bodyguard of the Emperor Himself. Bound by oath and duty, the Custodians struck down the Aeldari strike force that attempted to breach Emperor's throne room. In the end, only Shadowseer Lhaerial Rey remained, grievously wounded and captured by the Custodians at the foot of the Eternity Gate. She claimed to be a messenger of "peace", but Captain-General Beyreuth refused to acknowledge the lying xenos and ordered her execution. It was at this moment, that both Grand Master of Assassins Vangorich and Inquisitorial Representative Veritus arrived on the scene. Intervening on the fallen Aeldari's behalf, they urged the Captain-General to not execute the Shadowseer and allow both of them to take the xenos into their custody so that she could be properly interrogated. Though reluctant, Beyreuth complied with the High Lords' wishes, and allowed the Aeldari to be taken away. After interrogating Lhaerial at the Inquisitorial Fortress, the Shadowseer revealed that she had been dispatched by the Farseer Eldrad Ulthran himself, in order to deliver a message to the Master of Mankind. To prove her intent that she was delivering a message of peace, she presented a tooth of a Nocturne drake that the Salamanders Primarch Vulkan has supposedly given to the Farseer Eldrad. Lhariel went on to state that through the efforts of Craftworld Ulthwé, they had managed to calm the Warp around the proximity of Terra in order to aid the Imperium's war effort against the greenskin menace. However, the true threat of Ruinous Powers was gathering. |
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