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Brothers Penitent - Brothers Penitent: The Brothers Penitent is one of the Loyalist Space Marine Chapters founded as part of the Astartes Praeses -- one of the 20 Chapters of Astartes mentioned in the ancient tome known as the Mythos Angelica Mortis that was created to defend the regions surrounding the Eye of Terror in the Segmentum Obscurus from the Forces of Chaos. The Brothers Penitent are of an unknown Founding and origin. Though this Chapter works alongside those of the Astartes Praeses, it has a reputation for being insular in nature. |
Brothers Penitent - Chapter Colours: The Brothers Penitent's Chapter colours are not recorded in current Imperial records. |
Brothers Penitent - Chapter Badge: The Brothers Penitent's Chapter badge is not recorded in current Imperial records. |
Bruennhilde - Bruennhilde: The Bruennhilde is one of dozens of variants of the Land Crawler utility vehicle commonly found on Imperial Agri-Worlds. The Standard Template Construct (STC) templates for the manufacture of the Land Crawler, along with the Land Raider and Land Speeder were rediscovered at the beginning of the Age of the Imperium in the late 30th Millennium by Mechanicum Magos Arkhan Land, who discovered them deep within the Librarius Omnis on Mars. Unlike the Siegfried variant of the Land Crawler, which was developed on Krieg during that world's 500-year-long civil war, the Bruennhilde was used by the regiments of the Death Korps of Krieg before the war as a light armoured transport. The Bruennhilde is used at present by many siege regiments as an excellent substitute artillery piece tow vehicle when the Centaur is not available. The vehicle is only armed with a single Heavy Stubber and thus is extremely vulnerable to enemy attacks. |
Bruennhilde - Uses: During the 500-year-long civil war on Krieg the Bruennhilde was used to transport artillery weapons such as the Blitzen AA Gun, the Thudd Gun, Rapier Laser Destroyer, and the Gotterdammerung Howitzer to their places behind the lines. |
Brutalis Fist - Brutalis Fist: A Brutalis Fist is a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon employed by the melee-focused Brutalis Dreadnought. These Primaris Marine Dreadnoughts can be alternatively outfitted with Brutalis Fists rather than Brutalis Talons which hit with the force of a thunderbolt and come with built-in, wrist-mounted, twin-linked Bolt Rifles for added anti-infantry firepower. |
Brutalis Talon - Brutalis Talon: A Brutalis Talon is a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon employed by the melee-focused Brutalis Dreadnought. Those Primaris Marine Dreadnoughts fight with a pair of these terrifying talons, which can rip enemy tanks and infantry asunder or even tear the legs from a Chaos Knight. |
Brute Ram Ship - Brute Ram Ship: The Ork Brute Ram Ship is a curious vessel and possibly the single most characteristically Orkish spacecraft in existence.It is fitted with engines and manoeuvring thrusters that are far superior to the Orkish norm.But these engines are not intended to make the Brute better in a fight, but to allow it to line up with a victim vessel and then ram it.The Brute's armoured beak, festooned with rotary blades and drills, is a terrifying weapon when slammed into an enemy voidship at maximum thrust, allowing this escort-sized ship to badly damage even a much larger and more powerful capital ship.In combat, Brutes manoeuvre to try to reach a position where they can charge an enemy ship and burst it apart with a single impact. |
Brute Ram Ship - Dimensions: Hull: Approximately 1.1 kilometres long, 0.5 kilometeres wideClass: Ork "Ram Ship"Mass: Approximately 6.5 megatonnesCrew: UnknownAcceleration: 3-5 gravities acceleration |
Bryan Ansell - Bryan Ansell: Bryan Ansell is a founder of Citadel Miniatures and purchased Games Workshop in 1991. He was also an author for Games Workshop's Black Library imprint. |
Bryan Ansell - Dark Angels: Deathwing (Short Story) (1990, With William King, collected in Deathwing (Anthology) and The Book of the Lion (Anthology)) |
Brôkhfyre - Brôkhfyre: Brôkhfyre is a hold of the Orksbane Kindred of the Ymyr Conglomerate of the Leagues of Votann located beneath the heavily-irradiated Hold World of Tamâkh in the galactic core. Brôkhfyre is dug deep into Tamâkh's planetary mantle -- insulated against the exotic and deadly energy spectra that pour from that world's nearby star.What violent apotheosis the tortured star is undergoing, none can say, but for three Terran millennia now the Kin of the Orksbane Kindred have captured the energies of its raging solar flares using kilometres-high stellar vanes. These energies power their Forge, which is amongst the greatest in all the Leagues of Votann, renowned for the amazing weapons of war it can produce. |
Brôkhyr - Brôkhyr: The Brôkhyr are the engineers, craftsmen and artificers of the Leagues of Votann. They are amongst the most highly-skilled techno-artificers in the galaxy. Making full use of the incredible material bounty of the galactic core, coupled with the precious technical lore stored within the Votann, they craft technology and devices of superlative durability, reliability and power. In this way they are major contributors to the continued survival of their species.Every hold's Forge is unique, built and augmented over Terran centuries to specifications determined by Votannic wisdom and the personal preference of its Kindred. Yet in some respects they are uniform. All Forges are sleepless hubs of activity, lit by the molten fires and searing plasma arcs of advanced technological manufacture, and all are filled with mechanisms of arfifice ranging from each Brôkhyr's personal A.N-vyl workstations, to colossal auto-foundries.As well as overseeing the work of their COG robot-assistants, each Brôkhyr takes pride in constructing their own devices. They follow traditional schematics in deference to the wisdom of the Ancestors, yet there is also general recognition that -- to truly honour the Votann -- each Brôkhyr must humbly apply their own ingenuity, coupled with rigorous field tests, to improve upon traditional designs.Through this process, each Brôkhyr develops their own preferences and quirks, which become known as their signature style in the technologies they craft. The most efficacious signatures are adopted by fellow Brôkhyr so that, over time, many Kindreds -- or even entire leagues -- have adopted bespoke methods of crafting and manufacture. This slow but relentless iterative process of improving upon already understood technologies has helped the Kin develop the contents of the original Standard Template Constructs inherited from the Ancestors' ancient Long March mining fleets even further, leading to true innovations.Yet all Brôkhyr still prioritise certain principles when developing new technologies, including that their devices embody reliability, utility and efficiency over showy decoration or ideas of ritual significance. Kin technology and wargear is as rugged and pragmatic as the beings that wield it, and will be battered to destruction before it fails in its duty. |
Brôkhyr - Brôkhyr Thunderkyn: A Brôkhyr Thunderkyn is a combat engineering infantry unit used to provide heavy fire support and anti-armour support for the Oathbands of the Leagues of Votann.When a Brôkhyr hooks themselves into a powerful exo-frame, they become Thunderkyn. Adapted from the similar void-rigs used to maintain Kin voidcraft, these armoured exoskeletons exchange repair tools for massive heavy weapons. While not quite as scratch-resistant as the Einhyr Hearthguard's exo-armour, they can still weather considerable fire.The Thunderkyn are still powerful despite this, as their exo-frames allow them to heft the heaviest man-portable weapons the Leagues of Votann can muster with ease. Among them are Votannic Bolt Cannons, whose salvos of explosive bolts can slay hordes of enemies, Graviton Blast Cannons, and SP Conversion Beamers, whose unstoppable lances of directed energy can pierce their foes' heavy infantry. The Brôkhyr use these to lay down withering cover fire for their Oathbands and to pick off enemy armoured vehicles.Brôkhyr advanced engineering equipment also helps out, with their Omni-visors able to pick out the telltale signs of enemy units through dense terrain. |
Brôkhyr - Unit Composition: 3-6 Brôkhyr Thunderkyn |
Brôkhyr - Wargear: Thunderkyn Exo-frameVoid ArmourVotannic Bolt CannonGraviton Blast Cannon (As optional replacement for Votannic Bolt Cannon)SP Conversion Beamer (As optional replacement for Votannic Bolt Cannon)Omni-visorEye of the Ancestors |
Brôkhyr - Brôkhyr Iron-master: A Brôkhyr Iron-master is a highly skilled Brôkhyr engineer who is deployed with Kin Oathbands to service their vehicles.Iron-masters are usually the most accomplished Brôkhyrs of their Kindred. In battle, they take on the duty of maintaining and repairing damaged Kin war engines, often aided by Ironkin and robotic COG repair crews. These veteran Brôkhyrs also bring their most powerful personal weapon creations to war, taking satisfaction in unleashing them upon the foe. |
Brôkhyr - Unit Composition: 1 Brôkhyr Iron-master1 Ironkin Assistant3 E-COGs |
Brôkhyr - Wargear: Void ArmourGraviton RifleGraviton HammerMultispectral VisorLas-beam Cutter (Ironkin Assistant)Autoch Pattern Bolt Pistol (1 of the E-COGs)Plasma Torch (1 of the E-COGs)Manipulator Arms (1 of the E-COGs)Eye of the Ancestors |
Brôkhyr - Brôkhyr Forge-master: A Brôkhyr Forge-master is the highest-ranked and thus most skilled Brôkhyr within any given Kindred, and will always sit upon their Kindred's Votannic Council when that military command panel is gathered to face the greatest conflicts -- usually when the entire Kindred or their hold face direct and potentially existential peril.To become their Kindred's Forge-master, a Brôkhyr must prove not only their preeminence at the crafting of technological marvels, but also in overseeing their deployment. It is their duty o fashion the tools of war that will be wielded by their Kindred's greatest heroes in the coming conflict, themselves included.They must further embody the fury of the Forge upon the battlefield, providing wise counsel on everything from siegecraft to field-repair, even as they blast and bludgeon their enemies to ruin.A Forge-master is a true craftsman, and their experience executing battlefield repairs is second to none. Kin vehicle crews are much assured whrn this trusted old hand is on standby, even believing their touch will bestow good fortune. |
Brôkhyr - Notable Brôkhyr: Aktôl Vatyk - Aktôl Vatyk was a blind Brôkhyr of the Leagues of Votann, who created the relic called Aktôl's Fortress. It was painstakingly wrought by Vatyk and is considered to be the Brôkhyr's life's work. Crafted using conflicting harmonic abrasion fields rather than hammer blows, and shot through with a core of hyperdense stelanictite, this Armour Crest crest projects a complex gravitic repulsion field that can be directed by the bearer against their foes. Bludgeoned and restrained by the clashing grav-waves, the enemy is held at bay long enough for the crest's bearer and their comrades to press forward and lay them low. |
Brôkhyr - Trivia: The name "Brôkhyr" could be inspired by the skilled dwarf craftsman Brokkr from Norse mythology. "Brokkr" translates from Old Norse as "the one who works with metal fragments" or simply as "blacksmith." Brokkr worked the bellows of the forge while his brother Eitri fashioned magical items. The two dwarves together forged Mjölnir, the god Thor's famous warhammer. |
Brôkhyr - Sources: Codex: Leagues of Votann (9th Edition), pp. 21, 32, 43, 63-65Warhammer Community - Drop the Wrench and Pick Up the Cannon – The Brôkhyr Thunderkyn Are Marching to WarWarhammer Community - NOVA Open Reveal – The Leagues of Votann Unveiled |
Bubotic Axe - Bubotic Axe: A Bubotic Axe is a type of Chaos power weapon that is blessed by the Plague God Nurgle and is a favoured melee weapon of Blightlord Terminators and other Plague Marines. |
Bucephelus - Bucephelus: The Bucephelus was a golden Imperial battle barge or battleship of unknown class that served as the personal flagship of the Emperor during the early part of the Great Crusade.The Bucephelus maintained a garrison of the Legio Custodes and took part in the titanic Battle of Gyros-Thravian when the Emperor was forced to deploy the Custodians to reinforce the Space Marines of the Imperial Fists, Luna Wolves and Death Guard Legions in their fight against the Orks of Warboss Gharkul Blackfang.At some time during the Great Crusade, the Emperor moved His flag to the Imperator Somnium. |
Bucephelus - Trivia: Bucephalus was the name given to the beloved warhorse of Alexander the Great. |
Bulledin - Bulledin: Lord General Bulledin was one of the senior Imperial military commanders who served under both Warmasters Slaydo and Macaroth during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. |
Bulledin - History: Lord General Bulledin was a senior ranking and well-regarded Imperial Guard general officer who served during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and was instrumental in achieving several key victories during multiple campaigns. During the outset of the Crusade when the Imperial forces began Operation Newfound, Bulledin was present at the First Battle of Sverrin (757-758.M41). This world was held in the fierce grip of the Forces of Chaos who defended it with great tenacity. General Bulledin led an Imperial Guard force that assaulted the planet in 757.M41, routing the enemy forces and killing Magister Kuvelo in the initial landings. Circumstances quickly changed when the weather turned wet and the Imperial ground forces found themselves bogged down in the soft mud. Braving the inclement weather Bulledin drove his forces towards the city of Rammery, despite the Archenemy forces attempts to bog down their thrust forwards. Bulledin's forces encircled the city, which soon fell after a short siege.Nefr City proved to be much more difficult to subdue, as Bulledin lost 3,000 soldiers in return for only 2 kilometres of blood-soaked territory. Bulledin offered his resignation to Warmaster Slaydo for this calamitous failure, but it was refused. Slaydo sent back a simple despatch which read, "Do it again." Taking the Warmaster's orders to heart, Bulledin tried again and finally, on the 241st day of 758.M41, his forces and a single Warlord-class Titan managed to overrun the walls of Nefr City, storm the Upper Palace, and kill the Magister's second-in-command, Pater Bucher, when he resisted capture.In 760.M41, a fierce and bloody counterstrike ripped into the middle of the Crusade's advancing line. Led by the leader of the Forces of Chaos in the Sabbat Worlds, the Archon Nadzybar himself, the world of Sverren once again fell to the forces of the Archenemy. General Bulledin soon found himself in command of the Imperial forces on Sverren, as he had the most experience after leading the ground war on that contested world two years earlier. His fierce determination was instrumental in preserving the declining morale of Imperial forces, and he refused to let the cursed world defeat him twice. When relief convoys of Imperial troops arrived in 761.M41, they determined that the beleaguered general and his men had been fighting a war on two fronts, resisting both the Magister Sholen Skara and the hosts of Archon Nadzybar himself. The Chaotic forces were eventually driven into the tropical jungles of the Southern Continent of Sverren and were finally defeated after 16 intense months of fighting.During the Imperial assault on the Chaos-held world of Balhaut in 765.M41, Warmaster Slaydo died of mortal wounds received after facing and slaying Archon Nadzybar in personal combat. Before finally expiring, he appointed Marshal Macaroth as his rightful successor and the new Warmaster of the Crusade. During Macaroth's push into the Cabal System, General Bulledin found himself in command of the Crusade's 2nd Army. He was directed to move forward spinward of the main Crusade fleet to protect the line of Imperial reinforcements via the world of Urdesh.On Khan III, Lord General Bulledin found himself pitted against the forces of Magister Shebol Red-Hand, a notorious Chaotic warlord who left a trail of burning worlds in his savage wake. Fortunately for the Imperium, Red-Hand lacked organisation and discipline, a fact that Bulledin would take full advantage of when their forces clashed. Supported by two separate armoured brigades, Bulledin forced an opening in the Magister's lines, then sent companies of infantry from two Imperial Guard regiments to flank Red-Hand's forces. Panicking, the Magister drew his forces closer to him. A heavy tank battle ensued, and Bulledin quickly pressed in with three battalions of troopers with Titan support. Magister Shebol fled to the highlands of Khan III and found himself surrounded by an armoured brigade commanded by Bulledin himself. Though allegorical tales tell of how Bulledin met and slew Shebol in personal combat, many regard these tales as speculation and hearsay. What matters is that the vile Magister met his ultimate fate upon that high ground and was slain. Though Bulledin had achieved a major victory, enemy forces would continue to harass the forces of the Imperium for the next 22 months of intense fighting. Later, the Warmaster Macaroth placed Bulledin in overall command of the Monthax Theatre.It is known that Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt held the Lord General in high regard despite the fact that Bulledin had ordered the Inquisition to interrogate his adjutant as a suspected psyker. |
Bulwark - Bulwark: BulwarkDaemon WorldsHadex AnomalyChaosAchilus CrusadeJericho Reach |
Bulwark - History: Once a proud Fortress World, guarding the original sector capital planet of Verronus, Bulwark has been claimed by the worshippers of Khorne. Unlike on Venkrous, the Warp itself did not mutate the planet; instead all of the atrocities that were committed in the years following the appearance of the Anomaly were perpetrated by the citizens of Bulwark.Once, mighty bastions of adamantium and steel stood firm against the enemies of the Imperium. Now, these same structures have become charnel houses, the inhabitants constantly offering up sacrifices to the Blood God.Where Aquilas once stood proud over the buildings of the Adeptus Munitorum, now sit Flesh Hounds of Khorne, perched and waiting for the chance to satiate their eternal hunger with the blood of those that offend their master.Skulls, both Human and daemon, decorate every outcropping. Walls are lined with spikes, and the aqueducts pump a never-ending torrent of blood into the seas.While these crimes are despicable, the greatest atrocity was saved for the Grand Temple of the God-Emperor. The beautiful stained glass windows, once multi-coloured and depicting scenes of the Emperor's glory, now are stained only with the blood of those few priests who kept true to their faith in Bulwark's darkest hour.The skulls of the priesthood were taken from their bodies and placed in a mound in front of the altar. The altar itself, previously depicting a scene of Sebastian Thor being touched by the hand of the Emperor, has been twisted to show the saint slaying the Emperor with an axe.Behind the altar now sits a throne of bronze, stained red with the blood of those used to appease their patron, and upon it sits the lord of this planet, the Daemon Prince Krakiota.With a Juggernaut of Khorne to either side, Krakiota hears the pleas and supplications of his followers. Those that he deems to be worthy are offered the ultimate reward; their life's blood is taken from them and poured into a goblet made from the skull of the former Planetary Governor.This goblet is then blessed and offered directly to the Blood God himself, in hopes that he will bring victory and bloodshed to his warrior-worshippers. |
Burden of Duty (Audio Drama) - Burden of Duty (Audio Drama): Burden of Duty is the seventh audio drama for the Horus Heresy Series that was not originally released as part of an anthology or other release. Burden of Duty was released as an MP3 format download in October 2012 and was written by James Swallow. It was later re-released as an audio CD alongside the story Grey Angel, but can still be bought as a stand-alone audio drama MP3. The story was also published as part of the Garro main series anthology novel. |
Burden of Duty (Audio Drama) - Official Synopsis: As the Renegade forces of the Warmaster Horus storm across the galaxy, a very different kind of war rages in the shadows of the Imperium -- the Knights-Errant, chosen of Malcador the Sigillite himself, move quietly in the dark places where others cannot. Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro makes his way to the Imperial Fists' mighty starfort Phalanx, seeking out another kindred soul for his elite band of warriors. |
Burden of Duty (Audio Drama) - Knights-Errant Series: The following is the chronological order of the first Knights-Errant member Nathaniel Garro's story arc set within the Horus Heresy:Flight of the EisensteinGarro: Oath of MomentGarro: Legion of OneBurden of DutyGarro: Sword of TruthGarro: Shield of LiesGarro: Ashes of FealtyGarro: Vow of FaithNathaniel Garro and his Knights-Errant also make an appearance in the novel Vengeful Spirit. All of these stories, with the exception of Flight of the Eisenstein were later included within the main series anthology novel Garro. |
Burias Drak'Shal - Burias Drak'Shal: Burias Drak'Shal was a Daemon-possessed Chaos Champion and Icon Bearer of the 34th Host of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, serving under Dark Apostle Jarulek and later his successor Marduk, the new Dark Apostle of the 34th Host.Eventually, Burias grew resentful towards his blood-brother Marduk and his success in clambering up the ladder of the Legion's hierarchy, and he joined the secret cabal known as The Brotherhood that was created by the Legion's First Captain Kor Phaeron to cleanse another faction of the Word Bearers' leadership from within.When Burias revealed his treachery openly, he was cast down by Marduk and imprisoned within a cybernetic sarcophagus that was sealed within the shell of a crippled Chaos Dreadnought to suffer for all eternity. |
Burias Drak'Shal - History: Burias had been born and raised in the monastery-prisons of Colchis but only indoctrinated into the Legion during the first great influx of Colchisian Aspirants after the XVIIth Legion's Primarch had learned the truth about the existence of the Chaos Gods during the Pilgrimage of Lorgar and his remembrance of the Old Faith of Colchis.Burias fought under the command of the Dark Apostle Jarulek and later Marduk in the 34th Host, as he was the latter's blood-sworn brother and closest ally. During the Horus Heresy Burias fought at Calth against the Word Bearers' most hated rivals, the Ultramarines Legion. Burias came to be known as Burias Drak'Shal after he willingly joined his soul with that of a daemon named Drak'Shal and became a Daemonkin.Like the Gal Vorbak of old, Burias enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the daemon, appearing fully human and in control most of the time, only becoming a grotesquely mutated Possessed Chaos Space Marine at those times Drak'Shal was in control of their joint body.Eschewing the use of ranged weapons in battle, Burias revelled in the joy of close combat assault tactics which were greatly enhanced when he allowed Drak'Shal to fully manifest within his body. During numerous campaigns, Burias proved to be a great warrior, winning much glory for the 34th Host. When Marduk was elevated to the esteemed position of Dark Apostle of the 34th Host, Burias thought that he would be elevated as well, for he greatly coveted the position of the 34th Host's Coryphaus.Marduk had instead elevated the relatively new Battle-Brother Ashkanez to the position of First Acolyte of the Host. Bitter at what he viewed as a betrayal, Burias grew spiteful towards his former brother. Seeking to prey upon this bitterness to eliminate a rival, Ashkanez fuelled Burias' anger towards Marduk and secretly inducted him into the ranks of a hidden cabal known as The Brotherhood.This newest iteration of that ancient sect of the Legion was composed of Word Bearers primarily loyal to the Legion's Master of the Faith and First Captain, Kor Phaeron.Eventually, Burias revealed his betrayal to Marduk and was mortally wounded in a massive battle between the factions by Kol Badar, the 34th Host's Coryphaus. After the annihilation of Burias' co-conspirators, the traitorous former Icon Bearer was sent to the Basilica of Torments on Sicarus to suffer accordingly for his transgressions.Not satisfied that the pain and torture Burias endured was punishment enough, Marduk came up with an even more vile way of punishing his former brother. He had Burias entombed within a Chaos Dreadnought shell, encasing the traitor for all eternity within its adamantium shell.Marduk had the Dreadnought's limbs removed to slowly drive Burias insane, only rousing him in time of war. The rest of his time is spent in a fitful slumber, dreaming of an escape from the Basilica of Torments that never actually happens. |
Burias Drak'Shal - Appearance: Burias was known to move with a swordsman's grace. Gene-born in the last days of the Horus Heresy, Burias was a flamboyant, vicious warrior wholly dedicated to Chaos.His black hair was combed straight and hung to his waist, as he proudly bore the sacred three-metre-tall icon of the 34th Host in both hands.There was not a scar or blemish upon the Icon Bearer's cruelly handsome face, for Burias was one of the Possessed, and his powers of regeneration were impressive as a result of Drak'Shal's influence. |
Burna - Burna: A Burna is a stripped-down version of a typical Flamer Weapon utilised by the savage xenos race known as the Orks. Flame has an undeniable appeal to the Greenskin race. Their fascination with fire and the ignoble art of setting light to things sometimes gets so profound that an Ork will join the ranks of the Burna Boyz. Burna Boyz utilise long, stripped-down Flamers from which they take their name. These "Burnas" are able to spray great gouts of oily flame, and are linked to a sloshing tank of volatile Promethium slung over their shoulder. Ork Boyz can modify their Burnas with special nozzles and valves that can be switched to force out a fierce blue tongue of fire instead of a cloud of orange flame. This "cuttin' flame" is powerful enough to slice through any material up to and including a metal bulkhead. In battle, Burnas prove extremely useful, as they can be utilised to flush out enemies hiding in ruined buildings and woods. When facing heavily armoured opponents such as Space Marines, Burna Boyz can simply switch to their cuttin' flames and use their Burnas to slice apart the foe. |
Burna - Burna Components: Burna - A Burna Boyz' main armament, the Burna, is a heavy-duty combination cutting torch and flamethrower, alternating between the two functions with a simple twist of the spigot and altering the Promethium fuel pressure. Burnas themselves, like most examples of Orkish engineering, are designed to sustain the worst sort of battering and are very robust. They have to be, as more than one Burna Boy has been reduced to using it as a bludgeon after getting over-enthusiastic with his fuel supply.Blast Mask and Harness - Almost as important to a Burna Boy as his weapon and fuel is the heavy hide war-harness and webbing used to support it and the drop down mask that prevents the Ork blinding himself or burning his own face off in the flame backwash. This harness takes some of the weapon's weight, making it easier for the Ork to wield in a fight and most Burna Boyz also use them as a convenient place to hang a few armour plates and Ork glyphs. The glyphs invariably brag about their various kills or former campaigns the Burna Boy has fought in.Promethium Tank - Vital to the Burna Boy is his ammunition supply. In this case it is a volatile mix of pressurised Squig-oil and Promethium. Each Mek that manufactures the toxic liquid swears by his own special "burnin' brew." Burna Boyz generally do their best to carry as large a tank of fuel as they can, so they can flame as much as possible on the battlefield. Of course, this has its own dangers, as the canister tanks risk premature and spectacularly lethal detonation from stray rounds. |
Burna Boy - Burna Boy: A Burna Boy (pl. Burna Boyz) is an Ork who cannot stop setting things on fire. These pyromaniac Orks are dedicated arsonists all, advancing on the foe amid gouts of billowing flame. They love nothing more than burning other peoples' stuff, and the owners too if they can get them. These lunatics will set light to anything or anyone for the simple joy of watching them "do the burny dance". They can prove utterly lethal to tightly packed or lightly armoured infantry, the roiling blasts of their Burnas flushing their victims out of cover amid the sizzle. |
Burna Boy - Role: Burna Boyz are those pyromaniacal Greenskins whose desire to burn and destroy grows to consume them entirely. Often they join forces with Mekboyz who they depend on to keep them supplied with Promethium fuel and the heavy blow torch/flamethrowers known as Burnas that give them their name. These dedicated arsonists take great delight in setting fire to the enemy (and anybody and anything else they can lay their hands on if no enemy is available) and it takes a strong Warboss or the blackmailing powers of the Meks to keep them in line. However, the benefits of these lunatics in any Ork warband just about outweigh the risks of getting anywhere near them. The Burna Boyz can be a powerful asset on the battlefield, whether in small team or large mobs; their mass incendiary firepower can prove devastating, particularly against enemy infantry, flushing out foes from defended positions and bringing down bestial creatures. Also, with their weapons turned to the searing hot point of a blowtorch flame, they can wield them to hack and slice up enemy armour and vehicles. They serve a vital secondary role in this regard, cutting up battlefield salvage for later use. |
Burna Boy - Wargear: Burna - A Burna Boy's main armament, the Burna, is a heavy duty combination of cutting torch and flamethrower, alternating between the two functions with a simple twist of the spigot and altering the Promethium fuel pressure. Burnas themselves, like most examples of Orkish engineering, are designed to sustain the worst sort of battering and are very robust. They have to be, as more than one Burna Boy has been reduced to using it as a bludgeon after getting over-enthusiastic with his fuel supply.Blast Mask and Harness - Almost as important to a Burna Boy as his weapon and fuel is the heavy hide war-harness and webbing used to support it and the drop down mask that prevents the Ork blinding himself or burning his own face off in the flame backwash. This harness takes some of the weapon's weight, making it easier for the Ork to wield in a fight and most Burna Boyz also use them as a convenient place to hang a few armour plates and glyphs. The glyphs invariably brag about their various kills or former campaigns the Burna Boyz has fought in.Stikkbombz - Stikkbomz are an anti-infantry fragmentation grenade commonly utilised by Ork forces. Ork grenades are much bigger and heftier than those used by other races, which makes good sense to an Ork because the bigger something is, the more dangerous it will be. Stikkbombz are made up of a can filled with crude explosives which is screwed onto a stick so that it can be used as an equally crude mace if necessary.Slugga - Most Burna Boyz are sensible enough to carry a back-up sidearm such as a Slugga, a high-calibre, semi-automatic, ballistic firearm. Suitably loud enough to be an Ork's weapon, and often crude in design, Sluggas have very limited accuracy but high damage thanks to the massive shot they fire and the dangerously large gunpowder charges that propel them. Misfires are common.Toolz - When Burna Boyz are a part of a Mek Warboss' warband the presence of such tools as a decent-sized spanner are carried on their person. It is not uncommon for Burna Boyz to be led in combat by fully-fledged Meks and Burna Boyz also form a core contingent of "Dread Mobs" and scavenger crews, slicing up armour and wrecks for the commanding Mek Boss. |
Burna Boy - Sources: Codex: Orks (7th Edition), pp. 23, 141-142Codex: Orks (4th Edition), pg. 45Codex: Orks (3rd Edition), pg. 12Imperial Armour Volume Eight - The Raid on Kastorel-Novem, pp. 32-33Orks Collectors' Guide, pg. 23Rogue Trader: Into the Storm (RPG), pg. 60Rogue Trader: Edge of the Abyss (RPG), pg. 68WAAAGH! Ghazghkull: A Codex Orks Supplement (7th Edition)Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (PC Game) |
Burning Blood - Burning Blood: Burning BloodSpace MarineChapterBlood AngelsFoundingDevastation of BaalCreated as they were from the Blood Angels' gene-seed, its Battle-Brothers carried the genetic Flaw inherited from Sanguinius, which made them susceptible to the afflictions known as the Black Rage and the Red Thirst.When a Battle-Brother fell to the throes of the Black Rage he was placed within the ranks of the Death Company. |
Burning Blood - Notable Campaigns: Devastation of Baal (ca. 999.M41) - During the Devastation of Baal, the Burning Blood was among the Successor Chapters that answered Dante's call for aid in the face of Hive Fleet Leviathan's assault on Baal. The entire Chapter answered the call of its progenitors, and was destroyed to the last Astartes during the fighting. |
Burning Blood - Chapter Colours: The Burning Blood's Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records. |
Burning Blood - Chapter Badge: The Burning Blood's Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records. |
Burning Chariot of Tzeentch - Burning Chariot of Tzeentch: The Burning Chariot of Tzeentch is a daemonic construct in the service of the Lord of Change, the Chaos God Tzeentch.Consisting of ornate Discs of Tzeentch, pulled by Screamers, a Burning Chariot blazes through the heavens of the mortal world and is often mistaken for a comet by mortal observers, a sight that is interpreted as in ancient times as an omen of terrible days to come.Burning Chariots are most commonly manned by an Exalted Flamer accompanied by a pack of Blue Horrors, but a particularly clever and tricky Herald of Tzeentch will sometimes claim a Burning Chariot as his own. |
Burning Chariot of Tzeentch - History: Burning Chariots of Tzeentch hurtle across the Realm of Chaos like incandescent meteors, bringing the Great Sorcerer's chosen emissaries to every corner of existence. As they blaze through the heavens, the Chariots of Tzeentch (usually mistaken for comets) are oft times interpreted as omens of great and terrible wars upon the superstitious worlds of the Imperium of Man.The Exalted Flamers who ride atop these Burning Chariots are able to channel magical flame to a far greater extent than their lesser brethren. They can conjure up great billowing sheets of Warp energy, or hurl bolts of sorcerous change that make the very air sizzle with their passing.The Discs and Screamers that make up the bizarre chariot are drawn to raw magic like moths to a flame, and therefore also to the Exalted Flamers, who exude tasty sorcery from every pore and wrinkle of their coruscating flesh.Sometimes, a Burning Chariot will even be accompanied by a handful of surly Blue Horrors, always ready to associate themselves with anyone other than the irritatingly cheerful Pink Horrors.The Burning Chariot acts as an excellent vehicle from which to sow their own particular brand of sullen mischief, whether in the form of crude insults, or simply throttling anyone who comes near.More unusual amongst the ranks of these outlandish flying chariots are those bound in service to Heralds of Tzeentch.These are normally acquired by trickery -- most Heralds have little patience for the training of Screamers and Discs, and consider "borrowing" a chariot from an Exalted Flamer to be an act in keeping with their high status amongst the daemonic pantheon. However, such a feat requires great cunning if the Herald in question wishes to escape the deprived Flamer's wrath.Indeed, many Heralds bear the eternal scars of past contests, and the most cunning among them will craft complex magical wards to forewarn them of the eventual, inevitable moment when their chariot's true owner will come to reclaim his property.Nonetheless, all these tribulations seem as naught once the Herald is free to swoop and dive across the battlefield on his new possession, cackling madly as he unleashes fearsome sorceries from his lofty perch. |
Burst Cannon - Burst Cannon: A Burst Cannon is a form of multi-barrelled T'au Pulse Weapon, and utilises the same plasma induction technologies found in a Pulse Rifle to fire micro-pulses of plasma accelerated to near-light speeds.With four rotating barrels to mitigate thermal stress, Burst Cannons are able to sustain ferocious rates of fire, albeit at the expense of the long ranges that many other Pulse Weapons possess.However, this drawback is usually offset by the Burst Cannon's portability, and the manoeuvrability of units commonly armed with them.The most common Burst Cannon design leaves the weapon's four barrels exposed to the environment, though certain Tau units make use of Burst Cannons that are fully enclosed with an armoured sheathing.The Burst Cannon finds use all across the T'au military, although it is primarily mounted on vehicles, T'au Battlesuits, and aircraft.With heavy mountings and large plasma coils powering the weapon, Burst Cannons are a degree more deadly than smaller Pulse Weapons, and are primarily deployed as anti-infantry weapons that can scythe through massed formations, and for heavy suppressive fire; their shots are able to punch straight through most infantry armour as if it was not there.Burst Cannons are also well-suited to combating lightly armoured vehicles, which cannot defend against their powerful hails of high-speed plasma. Combat walkers, armoured transports and recon vehicles that stray within range of a Burst Cannon risk having their thin armour plating torn from them bit by bit.Even many main battle tanks are not immune to the firepower of a Burst Cannon, as a sustained burst directed at the weaker side or rear armour of a vehicle is capable of rupturing an engine or setting off ammunition stores.Often slaved to drone controls, a Burst Cannon makes for an ideal point-defence weapon, keeping infantry and light vehicles away from a tank hunter like a Hammerhead, or giving a squad of Fire Warriors cover as they deploy from their Devilfish transport.This is where the Burst Cannon trades the range and accuracy of weapons like the Pulse Rifle for the ability to saturate an area with plasma fire.For this reason, Burst Cannons are used extensively as part of established defences. When guided by T'au Drones, they make effective sentry guns, silently tracking back and forth and scanning for threats.Enemies of the T'au Empire have developed a healthy respect for Burst Cannons. The weapon makes a distinctive sound when fired, the induction chamber crackling with energy as a stream of charged particles hisses across the battlefield.Imperial Guardsmen that come under fire from Burst Cannons often speak of the sound, each shot cleaving the air with a distinctive whiz-hum, not unlike the sound of solid bullets buzzing past their ear, but multiplied hundredfold as dozens of bursts are fired each second.Unlike the Heavy Bolters and Stubbers of the Imperium with their rhythmic thumping fire, a Burst Cannon makes a continuous tearing wail, with individual shots nearly indistinguishable from each other. |
Burst Cannon - Long-Barrelled Burst Cannon: A Long-Barrelled Burst Cannon is a variant of the standard Burst Cannon, and features extended barrels which give it greatly extended range.It is only ever mounted on certain T'au aircraft and vehicles.It is of note that the Hammerhead gunship’s Long-Barrelled Burst Cannon also fires with more power and armour penetration per shot when compared to the standard Burst Cannon. |
Burst Cannon - Notable Vehicles to Mount Burst Cannons: Devilfish – Devilfish transports are armed with a nose-mounted Burst Cannon as part of their standard armament. It is often used to provide suppressive covering fire for disembarking Fire WarriorsSkyray – Skyray gunships can be armed with twin-linked Burst Cannons mounted in forward recesses as secondary weapon systems.Hammerhead – Hammerhead gunships can be armed with twin-linked Burst Cannons mounted in forward recesses as secondary weapon systems. Hammerheads can also be armed with specialised twin-linked Long-Barrelled Burst Cannons as its primary turret weapon, which has roughly double the range of a normal Burst Cannon and more penetrating strength per shot.Swordfish – Swordfish are armed with a chin-mounted Burst Cannon as part of its standard primary armament.Piranha – Piranhas are armed with a chin-mounted Burst Cannon as its standard primary armament.XV15 Stealthsuit – XV15 Stealthsuits are armed with a Burst Cannon as standard weaponry, although its design features a fully enclosed armoured sheath.XV25 Stealthsuit – XV25 Stealthsuits are armed with a Burst Cannon as standard weaponry, although its design features a fully enclosed armoured sheath.XV22 Stealthsuit – Commander Shadowsun’s XV22 Stealthsuit was originally designed to be armed with two Burst Cannons, before circumstances forced her to switch to Fusion Blasters. Both Shas’O Kais and Shas’O Or’es’ka’s XV22 Stealthsuits were also originally designed to be armed with a single Burst Cannon, although upgrades have allowed them to replace it with more powerful primary weapon systems.XV46 Vanguard Void Battlesuit – XV46 Vanguard Void Battlesuits are armed with a Burst Cannon as part of their standard armament.XV8 Crisis Battlesuit – XV8 Crisis Battlesuits can take Burst Cannons weapon systems as part of their three system hardpoints, with each Burst Cannon filling a single hardpoint. XV8 Crisis Battlesuits can also take twin-linked Burst Cannons, in which case they count as a single weapon system that takes up two hardpointsXV9 Hazard Battlesuit – XV9 Hazard Battlesuits can take up to two twin-linked Burst Cannon weapon systems as their primary armament, although their design features fully enclosed armoured gun sheaths.KX139 Ta'unar Supremacy Armour - KX139 Ta'unar Supremacy Armour mounts a pair of twin-linked Burst Cannons as part of its Vigilance Defence System.Heavy Gun Drone – Heavy Gun Drones are armed with twin-linked Burst Cannons as standard weaponry.Recon Drone - Recon Drones are armed with a fold-away Burst Cannon as standard weaponry.Drone Sentry Turret – Drone Sentry Turrets can be armed with twin-linked Burst Cannons as their primary armament.Razorshark – Razorshark strike fighters are armed with a chin-mounted Burst Cannon as part of their armament.Barracuda – Barracuda air superiority fighters are armed with two turreted Drone-controlled Burst Cannons for anti-air defence and to back up their primary armamentTiger Shark – Tiger Shark Bombers are armed with two turreted Drone-controlled Burst Cannons for anti-air defence and to back up their primary armamentTiger Shark AX-1-0 – The Tiger Shark AX-1-0 is armed with two turreted Drone-controlled Burst Cannons for anti-air defence and to back up their primary armamentOrca – Orca dropships are armed with pilot-aimed twin-linked Long-Barrelled Burst Cannons in their ventral turrets for the purpose of clearing landing zones during their descent.Moray – Moray assault ships are armed with a set of twin-linked Burst Cannons as part of their armament.Manta – Manta missile destroyers are armed with 16 Drone-controlled Long-Barrelled Burst Cannon turrets positioned all around its hull for close defence whilst on the ground and as anti-aircraft weapons in flight. The turrets are positioned so that all angles of approach are covered by multiple Burst Cannons. |
Burst Cannon - Sources: Codex: Tau (3rd Edition), pp. 17, 25Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition), pp. 26, 35-36, 38, 41Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition), pp. 65, 67, 102Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 366Deathwatch: Ark of Lost Souls (RPG), pg. 123Imperial Armour Apocalypse 2 pg. 58Imperial Armour Volume Three – The Taros Campaign, pp. 159, 162-163, 166, 170, 174, 181,183-18-7, 189-190, 194, 201, 202, 207-208, 211Rogue Trader: Tau Character Guide (RPG), pg. 37Warhammer 40,000: Munitorum - Burst Cannons (Digital Edition)Forge World - KX139 Ta'unar Supremacy Armour Experimental Datasheet |
Butcher's Nails - Butcher's Nails: The Butcher's Nails, referred to in profane texts in the Hexarchion Vaults as the Cruciamen, were cybernetic cortical implants, a form of archeotech that dated to the Dark Age of Technology and were used extensively by the Space Marines of the World Eaters Legion, precipitating their fall to Chaos.The "butcher's nails" was also an expression used among the gladiators of the world of Nuceria for when, armed with no weapon except their bare hands, they would attack by stabbing their fingers at a victim's vulnerable points, such as the eyes or the meat of the throat.The implant technology originated on Nuceria where they were used by the ruling aristocracy on gladiatorial slaves to enhance their fighting abilities, turning their already formidable fighting stock into ravaging killers, barely controlled between each gladiatorial bout.These cortical implants were also used on the Primarch Angron when he was enslaved by the ruling Nucerian elite of the city-state of Desh'ea, turning him into a killer the likes of which they had never before seen. He became Angron Thal'kyr, Lord of the Red Sands, the greatest gladiator that world had ever known.This would prove to be the Nucerians' undoing, as Angron gathered his fellow slaves and instigated a violent insurrection, reaping a bloody swathe across the settlements and city-states of Nuceria.Ultimately, their slave revolt failed, for Angron was teleported away by the Emperor of Mankind on the eve of battle and Angron's brother and sister gladiators were slain to the last warrior. Knowing the effectiveness of these cybernetic implants in enhancing combat effectiveness, Angron eventually had his XIIth Legion's Techmarines and Apothecaries reverse-engineer the Butcher's Nails, using his own implants as a template.The resulting implantation of the Nails within the Legionaries of the World Eaters turned them into a Legion of savage killers and would lead to their eventual downfall and damnation as they reveled in the bloody worship of the Blood God Khorne. |
Butcher's Nails - Lord of the Red Sands: The archeotech devices known as the Butcher's Nails originated on the world of Nuceria, located on the outskirts of the Segmentum Ultima. A technologically advanced world, Nuceria was ruled over by a wealthy elite who lived in decadent opulence while the populace of their city-states dwelled in abject poverty in the slums that surrounded their walled palaces and villas.To distract the populace from their poverty, the oligarchic rulers of Nuceria held regular gladiatorial deathmatches in massive arenas, using cybernetically-enhanced gladiators who battled to the death to satisfy the endless bloodlust of the oppressed people.It was on this world that the Primarch Angron, later known as Angron Thal'kyr to the Nucerians, was eventually discovered, though little else about the circumstances of how he came to be there remains known.It was a matter of course that the slave masters used biochemical and cyber-surgical enhancements as well as relentless and brutal training to "improve" their fighting stock. Angron was no exception, although his transhuman primarch physiology resisted much of what the slavemasters attempted.But in one thing they were successful, for they were able to replace much of his brainstem with psycho-surgical augmetic devices intended to augment his aggression to inhuman levels and turn him into a superhuman beast, a killer the likes of which had never existed before.The young primarch was bound by the slavers and gladiatorial masters, first as a novelty expected to die, but soon as a favoured champion who rose swiftly to become the greatest gladiator the world of Nuceria had ever known. |
Butcher's Nails - War of the Gladiator-King: Little did his so-called "masters" know, or perhaps they did not care, secure as they were in their unmatched power and opulent palaces, of the bitter hatred and resentment that burned within Angron's heart for his captors. His only comradeship was with the gladiatorial warriors with whom he fought.Long had he plotted rebellion and vengeance, and soon he shattered his bonds and led a bloody revolt, staged amid the largest Death Games the arena of his home city of Desh'ea had seen in generations. With his gladiator kin rallying to him, they reaped a bloody swathe across the planet as city after city fell before their wrath.This gladiator army soon came to be known as the "Eaters of Cities," but despite snatching victory time and again against fearful odds and the superior ranged weaponry of the planet's elite, Angron knew his revolt was ultimately doomed to failure.Worn down by attrition and hunger, Angron and his brothers and sisters were determined to stand and die in honourable battle rather than being taken alive and re-enslaved. Far above in orbit, the Emperor of Mankind had watched with pride how Angron had led his outmatched revolt, but now chose to intervene, unwilling to accept His lost son's death in battle no matter how resolved and honourable the cause.Upon confronting Angron and making an offer of a place by His side, to His surprise He was refused and rejected. The Emperor would not accept this and on the eve before the final onslaught forcibly teleported the enraged primarch away from the slaughter that followed at the Battle of Deshe'lika Ridge, as the rebellious slaves were butchered to the last man and woman.Angron would never forgive the Emperor for this most dishonourable of deeds, which he believed forever after stained his honour. It was a stain of guilt and shame that would continue to fester into a deep soul-wound that would later be used to the Warmaster Horus' advantage, when he sought to turn his brother against the Emperor during the Horus Heresy. |
Butcher's Nails - Angron's Secret: After Angron was teleported away by the Emperor from Nuceria he was later examined aboard the War Hounds' flagship Adamant Resolve's Apothecarion by Vel-Kheredar, the archmagos veneratus of the XIIth Legion and a representative of Kelbor-Hal, the Fabricator-General of the Mechanicum of Mars.After ordering the XIIth Legion's Techmarines and Apothecaries away, the primarch was rendered somnolent by the psychic touch of Malcador the Sigillite.Vel-Kheredar examined the Nucerian archeotech neural implants hammered into the primarch's skull over the course of seven solar hours, all under the Sigillite's watchful eyes. The archmagos discovered that the Butcher's Nails had remapped Angron's brain after the device's implantation.When the Nails activated, they reduced the production of the neurotransmitter known as serotonin in the subject's brain to encourage instinctive aggression, just as they deadened emotional responses and electrical activity to any other portion of the brain save for that which regulated the flow of adrenaline.Unfortunately, the malignant archeotech device had not been designed for the biological complexity of a primarch's brain, as it eroded mental stability and slowly damaged the subject's capacity to reason.The implants also impinged on higher brain function by rewriting emotional responses. To make matters worse, removing the Butcher's Nails would only result in the death of the primarch by destroying his central nervous system.Over time, the Butcher's Nails would cause rapid cortical degeneration and eventually kill the primarch. This was a certainty, though Angron's transhuman physiology would continue to try to heal the damage as the Nails bit deeper.Vel-Kheredar did not know how long it would take the Nails to kill the primarch based on the little data available but he made an educated estimate.The archmagos reported these findings to the Emperor, and soon received a marked and sealed scroll with the Palatine Aquila upon it, handed to him by the Sigillite himself.It was a message from the Emperor's own hand. He ordered the archmagos to sequester his findings and to remain silent about what he had discovered.At this time, the XIIth Legion was in terrible shape, as they had been one of the last of the Legiones Astartes to find their gene-sire. The Legion's morale was low.It was bad enough that they were burdened with the only primarch to fail in conquering his homeworld. If they discovered he was doomed to die before the Great Crusade's end, it would annihilate what little morale remained amongst the Space Marine Legion then still known as the War Hounds.At a later point following the rediscovery of Angron, the famous Mechanicum technoarchaeologist, Arkhan Land, was brought to Terra and sequestered in one of the Emperor's secret, sacred laboratories at the heart of an inactive volcano in a region of extensive tundra.The Master of Mankind required Land's expertise in aiding His continued investigation of Angron's cortical implants while the primarch lay in an induced unconscious state. Land had gained previous experience with this archeotech device, known as a Cruciamen, during his expedition into the Hexarchion Vaults on Mars.The lore that had been contained within had represented a moral threat to Mankind, including knowledge that would allow a potential perversion of Human cognition. The Hexarchion Vaults had been resealed by the Emperor's own decree, ratified by Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal and all Land's findings within had gone unrecorded.Land had seen the name of this ancient device within the profane texts in the Hexarchion Vaults, but had never actually seen one implanted and made operational, and never one of the specific pattern and intensity implanted in the primarch's brain in either stasis or storage.The devices similar to the Butcher's Nails in the sealed vault on Mars were more crude than the Nucerian construct.With the alterations made by the Nucerian device to Angron's limbic lobe and insular cortex, the Nucerian psychic-surgeons had impaired the primarch's ability to regulate any emotion at all. Furthermore, the Butcher's Nails had rewired Angron's brain so that he no longer had capacity to take pleasure in anything but the sensation of anger.Only neurochemicals and electrical signals related to rage and anger flowed freely through, and from, Angron's brain. All else was either dulled to nothingness or rewired to inspire a supreme degree of agony.It was a testament to the durability imparted to the creations of the Emperor's Primarch Project that Angron had managed to survive as long as he had.Because of these neurological changes, everything caused the primarch pain. Thinking. Feeling. Even breathing. The only respite Angron had was in the pleasure he now received from the neurotransmitters which carried anger and aggression.This rewriting of his neurophysiology certainly hindered Angron's higher brain functions, for the device had been cunningly wrought for a technology so crude.Land inquired of the Emperor whether He could remove the device from Angron, and the Master of Mankind replied that it was possible. However, the tendrils of the Nails bit deep, and had taken root in the meat of the primarch's brain, threaded through the central nervous system, and now passed in roughly serpentine coils down around the spinal column.Even worse, Angron's limbic lobe and insular cortex had been more than just savaged by the device's insertion; they had been surgically removed even before the technology's implantation.The device hammered into Angron's skull hadn't ruined those sections of his brain -- it had replaced them outright. In truth, those sections of the implant had effectively replaced those essential portions of the primarch's brain and were now the only things keeping Angron alive.Though the primarch's lifespan and tactical acuity had been reduced by the implant, the Butcher's Nails amplified his combat effectiveness in other ways to compensate.Since the primarch was thus still able to lead warriors in combat, the Emperor decided that He would return Angron to his Legion. Despite what had been done to him, a compromised primarch was still a primarch, and the Master of Mankind believed that Angron would still be able to fulfill his purpose as one of the Emperor's generals. |
Butcher's Nails - World Eaters: Upon taking control of the XIIth Legion, the bloody-handed primarch enacted many changes.Knowing how successful his own cortical implants were at boosting a warrior's prowess in battle, Angron ordered his Apothecarion to insert the Butcher's Nails implants within every Astartes of the World Eaters Legion to enhance aggression and pain tolerance far beyond that which even the gene-engineered flesh of a member of the Space Marine Legions was capable.This posed difficulties, however, as Angron's implants were relics of a long-lost technology, little understood even by their makers, while removing them from Angron for close study would have proven fatal to the primarch.The Legion's Techmarines and Apothecaries attempted to duplicate the process using the primarch's own implants as templates to reverse-engineer the devices.Early attempts to duplicate these implants were far from successful, and resulted in high rates of mortality and irrecoverable homicidal frenzy on test recruits.However, as time progressed, a viable form of the cortical implant technology was replicated and steadily improved by the Dominus Nutritor and Master of Inductii Gahlan Surlak, although it was never fully stable or produced consistent effects between subjects.In the wake of the Ghenna Massacre during the Great Crusade, entire newly-formed companies of recruits were implanted, as well as large numbers of existing World Eaters who volunteered for the dangerous operation.The majority of these Astartes were absorbed back into the XIIth Legion's line units, while those deemed perhaps too unstable for such tasks joined a growing number of near-berzerker assault units known as Rampager Squads, and even within these units, those too far gone to be anything but restrained as savages between battles became known as the Caedere or the "Butchers," a frightening portent of what was soon to come for the entirety of the XIIth Legion.In those earliest days, the Butcher's Nails were considered a virtue. None of the Astartes of the newly-renamed World Eaters Legion would face the fact their primarch carried a curse from the years on his homeworld.They focused on his prowess, on the strength and speed gifted to him by the archeotech implants, and when the primarch demanded his sons lie under the Techmarines' claws and the Apothecaries' knives, few resisted the chance to share the same virtuous pain as their noble primarch.Everything changed with the hammering of the Butcher's Nails into the skulls of the Astartes of the XIIth Legion. The World Eaters, once known for their brotherhood, became known first and foremost across the nascent Imperium for their savagery and bloodlust.Reports began filtering back of excessive Legion casualties in tactic-less displays of horde warfare, and Imperial Army forces pleading for assistance from other Legions when the World Eaters were the ones to answer their call for Astartes support. Entire planets surrendered rather than face the XIIth Legion in battle, but not all who surrendered were spared the war.The Butcher's Nails dulled all other pleasures, until the heady bite of adrenaline unleashed through the stress of combat was the only certain way for a recipient of the implants to experience anything but the dimmest memory of emotion. Their rewired minds allowed no other pleasure beyond battle and slaughter.The rot had started to corrode the XIIth Legion as soon as they had rescued their primarch from his backwater world, yet the World Eaters could still have refused to receive the Nails. They chose instead to emulate their gene-father, despite all it would cost. They chose to mutilate themselves and to tear open their skulls and let the poison of the Nails be placed inside.Though Angron had ordered the implantation of the Nails, even he could not have truly forced a hundred thousand transhuman warriors to bend to his will if they had refused the mutilation of their minds. Deep in their hearts, the Legionaries of the XIIth Legion knew that Angron had been broken long before he ever reached them. That was why they had allowed him to have the Butcher's Nails implanted in their heads.The World Eaters had hoped that by breaking themselves upon the same anvil, they might finally feel unity, a sense of kinship, with their damaged gene-father. But this weakness only bred corruption, and the World Eaters eventually found themselves cursed to spend an eternity in bloody slaughter in the name of the Blood God.In the aftermath of the betrayal of the Isstvan III Atrocity, the World Eaters Legion, under their savage Primarch Angron, became ever more insular as a Legion and uncontrollable on the battlefield, proving a double-edged sword even to their allies.The psycho-surgery rife within the Legion became even more widespread and extreme in its use, and the neophytes inducted with ever-increasing pace into the World Eaters' ranks to replace the fallen were cerebrally mutilated with the Butcher's Nails implants as a matter of course.All-out infantry assaults supported by fast moving armour, with the aim of immediately closing into bloody melee with the foe, had always been a hallmark of the Legion, and now became often their goal; carnage for its own sake beyond any strategic objective to the contrary. |
Butcher's Nails - Function: The cortical implants known as the Butcher's Nails greatly boosted a warrior's adrenaline, resulting in greater strength and aggression in battle. Under the perverse influence of the implants, killing proved exhilarating in a way nothing else could be, and the Nails played a neurochemical game to make it so.When the Nails activated, they stunted the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the Human brain to encourage instinctive aggression, just as they deadened all other forms of emotional response and neuroelectrical activity to all parts of the brain save for that which regulated the flow of adrenaline.In essence, any person implanted with the Butcher's Nails could only feel pleasure when engaged in acts of violence and murder.Any attempt to remove the implants would prove fatal, as the brain became entirely dependent upon this regulation of its neurotransmitters in only a short time and the implants replaced much of the central nervous system in a way that could not be replaced without killing the bearer.Amongst the archeotechnological whims of the Butcher's Nails, these were the effects the XIIth Legion had detailed most extensively in their long-abandoned studies. Of course, that cold and considered knowledge meant little to those afflicted with the implants.The pain engine implanted in the skulls of the World Eaters forced them to enjoy killing above everything else. Even the comfort of brotherhood paled -- one of life's few remaining pleasures for the World Eaters outside of battle. |
Butcher's Nails - Flaws: The World Eaters' version of the Butcher's Nails implants were in fact but primitive copies of the malignant original lodged in the brain of their primarch. They eroded mental stability and damaged the subjects' capacity to reason. They impinged on higher brain function by rewriting emotional responses.However, they were not fatal as the original implant would prove to Angron -- they were not degenerative in the terminal sense. The most important aspect of the implantation that the Astartes of the World Eaters shared with the original Butcher's Nails was that they could not be removed without killing the host, or -- at best -- inflicting severe and irreparable brain damage.The Nails were not true cybernetic implants as Remembrancers and archeotechnicians understood the concept. The implants added nothing to a World Eater's brain. Instead, they stole from it.They bleached a warrior's mind of all reason, all caution, all the instincts of mortality. The Nails rewarded rage with spurts of electrochemical pleasure, tingling synapses and deadening enjoyment of everything else. No better device for the creation of berserk, psychopathic killers had ever been created by the Human mind.But the depths of the flaws inherent to the use of the implants became truly obvious when the World Eaters Librarians gifted with the Butcher's Nails lost the ability to control their psychic talents in battle.One of them, a warrior attached to the 100th Company, had been lost to the madness created by the devices in his very first battle after implantation, and immolated three squads of the 100th Company when he could not cease projecting witch-lightning from his eyes.Several other implanted World Eaters Librarians had just...burst. They had combusted in pyres of flaming gore. More and more died -- none right away, but they never survived for long. In a single solar month, almost every World Eaters Librarian had been fitted with the Butcher's Nails. Mere solar weeks later, they all started dying.Optimism, albeit cautious, had reigned for a while. After the first deaths, the psychically trained Legionaries had sought to master the implants, to balance their sixth sense with the bionics now altering their brains' biochemistry.It was all just a matter of willpower they had said, and their battle-brothers had pretended not to notice the desperation in their eyes.It was all a matter of willpower -- yet the Librarians kept dying. The Librarians died in battle, in storms of fire or lightning, or -- in several incidents -- by pulsing hateful pain directed through the implants of nearby World Eaters warriors that forced their non-psychic kindred to suffer cerebrovascular blockages. Entire squads died of brain haemorrhages and strokes at their own codiciers' boots.Angron ultimately gave his psychic sons a choice between execution or the removal of their Butcher's Nails implants. The XIIth Legion learned, in those early years after their primarch's rediscovery, that they had mutilated themselves in the image of a man without mercy.The Butcher's Nails could not be safely removed; every World Eater knew it, for the Emperor's own techno-mages had failed to remove the primarch's implants after his recovery from Nuceria. Even so, most Librarians submitted themselves for the attempt. Every one of them died, without exception.With their rewired brains misfiring and enslaved to altered impulses, none of them died easily, and none of them died well. Soon enough, the last Librarians of the XIIth Legion were those who had not yet received the Butcher's Nails in a Legion now defined by the implants.The Librarians of the XIIth Legion came to eke out an isolated existence in the near-empty halls of their Librarius aboard the World Eaters' flagship Conqueror.One by one these Librarians, too, began to die. Not from malfunction or misuse, but because they were World Eaters, and all World Eaters lived brief, violent lives. A hundred remained. Then fifty. Then twenty. No one in their Legion mourned them.In a Legion that prized the bonds of front-line brotherhood above all else, the silent, psychic battle-brothers died alone -- never forgotten, but always ignored. Their gene-seed rotted with their bodies, unharvested in case their genetic legacy resulted in the same psychic curse infecting a second generation.Vorias, the eldest of the remaining Librarian coven and Lectio Primus of the XIIth Legion's Librarius Division had worked with the World Eaters Apothecarion and their senior attached Mechanicum archmagos in trying to determine just why the Butcher's Nails reacted so poorly in the presence of psychic minds, but the line of research was abandoned when they had come to realise the context of their work: no one in the Legion cared.No one but those cursed with a sixth sense. Besides, their efforts had always ended in vain, and killed too many "loyal" World Eaters who were unfortunate enough to be near the unstable Librarians.The very presence of psykers caused their non-psychic battle-brothers with the implants pain, and the XIIth Legion had no need of their psychic gifts. The XIIth Legion had moved on and left their psychic brothers behind to rot away within their ever-diminishing coven.By the beginning of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium, there were only 19 Librarians left within the entirety of the XIIth Legion. They considered themselves War Hounds rather than World Eaters on account of their lack of the Butcher's Nails.But their fate was sealed upon the homeworld of Angron's youth, Nuceria, during the Shadow Crusade where they were brutally murdered by their own primarch after his apotheosis to become a Daemon Prince of Khorne, removing their psychic taint from the World Eaters forever and sealing their bloody pact with the Blood God as his loyal servants. |
Butcher's Nails (Audio Drama) - Butcher's Nails (Audio Drama): Butcher's Nails is the fifth audio drama for the Horus Heresy Series that was not originally released as part of an anthology or other release. Butcher's Nails was released in both compact disc and MP3 formats and was written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, narrated by Sean Barrett, and performed by Rupert Degas, Charlotte Page, Chris Fairbank and David Timson. It was later re-released in an enhanced audio edition, but can still be bought as a stand-alone audio drama. This story was first re-published in prose format as part of the Angron anthology collection. The story was also published as part of the Legacies of Betrayal main series anthology novel. |
Butcher's Nails (Audio Drama) - Official Synopsis: The Primarch Angron: gladiator-king and Horus' lunatic attack dog. Never having hidden his resentment for his brothers, he now carves a bloody swathe through the galaxy in the Warmaster's name, with the Heresy providing a convenient excuse to indulge his love of brutal warfare. When they are tasked with a secretive mission alongside the Word Bearers Legion, the World Eaters' violent tendencies soon attract the attention of xenos raiders, troubled by the portents surrounding the Primarch's berserk fury and his ultimate destiny as the "Blood God's son"... |
Butcher Cannon - Butcher Cannon: A Butcher Cannon is a heavy calibre, rapid-firing rotary gun used by the Forces of Chaos. The Butcher Cannon is commonly found on Chaos combat walkers such as the Decimator Daemon Engine and Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts. The shells fired by the Butcher Cannon are bound with sorcerous Chaos runes of anathema and bloodletting. When used by Chaos walkers, the Butcher Cannon usually features a large blade that is attached beneath the weapon's twin barrels; this allows the walker to engage enemy forces in close combat if they get too close for it to effectively use the weapon at range.It is not recorded in Imperial records if any other Chaos walkers such as Chaos Dreadnoughts or Helbrutes, Daemon Engines such as Defilers or Soul Grinders, or Chaos Space Marine tanks such as the Predator or Land Raider are able to be armed with a Butcher Cannon, although it is presumed to be possible. |
Butcher Cannon - Sources: Decimator Butcher Cannon - Forge WorldDecimator Daemon Engine - Forge WorldDecimator Experimental Rules V.1 Chaos Decimator Experimental Rules V.1Decimator Experimental Rules V.2 Chaos Decimator Experimental Rules V.2Imperial Armour Apocalypse (Second Edition), pp. 106-107 |
Butcherhorde - Butcherhorde: The Butcherhorde is a large warband of Chaos Space Marines comprised of a coalition of multiple World Eaters Traitor Legion warbands. Led by the infamous Khârn the Betrayer, the Butcherhorde was formed originally from the frenzied Khornate Berserkers who followed The Betrayer. Over time, as Khârn has slaughtered his way across the galaxy, the warband has grown to encompass all manner of Khornate devotees. These include ordinary Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Cultists, Daemon Princes, and Daemon Engines. |
Butcherhorde - Warband History: The Khornate horde known as the Butcherhorde is a ragged and fractious alliance of bloodthirsty lunatics, held together by the unbreakable will of Khârn the Betrayer. During the invasion of the world of Amethal located in the Diamor System, where they fought the valiant Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter, they were separated from the invasion force led by Chaos Lord Xorphas. Khârn's Butcherhorde nonetheless furthered the will of the Black Legion thanks to the machinations of Abaddon the Despoiler. Khârn the Betrayer led his monstrous Butcherhorde to Amethal with but a single goal. He sought to take the heads of the most worthy Blood Angels heroes, to hack their skulls from their necks and place them at the foot of Khorne's great throne.Khârn had not set out with the intention of forging a vast army of conquest to aid him in his quest. Indeed, to Khârn's mind, those who needed others to fight their battles were weaklings undeserving of victory. Rather, the Betrayer's brutal deeds had spread through reality like ripples upon the surface of a bloody pool. So spectacular was the carnage he wrought, so monstrous the butchery of his passing, that Khorne's faithful were drawn in his wake. At first, Khârn fought alone, then at the head of a warband of Khorne Berserkers.After slaughtering his way across the Sundered Reach, the Betrayer had found himself the master of a murderous army. By the time he had exterminated all life in the Pandoric Colonies, a whole fleet of spike-prowed warships were his to command, their holds crammed with maniacs, murderers, and hellish war engines. It was not power that Khârn had sought, but neither did he cast it aside. Like any true servant of Khorne, the Betrayer knew a deadly weapon when he saw one. If it was the Blood God's will that he wield that mighty implement of death, then who was he to question it?So was the Butcherhorde forged, and a terrifying engine of war it was. Great masses of Khorne Berserkers formed its thundering heart, the warriors from dozens of disparate warbands drawn together in the name of unholy murder. Only the overriding will of the Betrayer kept this psychotic horde of killers from ripping each other to pieces, and even then, blood was spilled daily between them. Khârn cared nothing for the lives of his followers, and so did nothing to intercede. So long as they wrought fit slaughter upon the foe when the time came, it mattered nothing to him if the weak were weeded out by the strong in the meantime. Every warrior slain was another skull for Khorne.Though the Berserkers of Khârn's horde followed him as an avatar of their bloody god's will, many amongst their ranks saw him as both a hated rival and the ultimate skull to claim in order to win Khorne's favour. Such is the way of the Blood God's servants. It was a rare day that the Betrayer did not have to strike down a handful of his own followers as a result of their frenzied attempts on his life. Many more servants of the Blood God followed in Khârn's wake, lending their strength and numbers to the Butcherhorde. Seething masses of Chaos Cultists screamed praise to Khorne as they followed their demigods of slaughter into battle. Looming Daemon Princes led their own bands of followers to war in the Betrayer's name, bringing with them rumbling battle-tanks and deranged Helbrutes that lent the horde heavy firepower.Most terrifying of all were the massed Daemon Engines of the Butcherhorde. Amongst the packs of prowling Maulerfiends and Defilers towered super-heavy abominations such as the scuttling Brass Scorpions and the Lords of Skulls. Driven by the caged fury of Khorne’s most powerful daemons, these engines of annihilation were nearly as deadly as the Betrayer himself. |
Butcherhorde - Notable Campaigns: Bloodtorrent War (Unknown Date) - The Bloodtorrent War was a campaign fought by Khârn and his Butcherhorde amongst the factorums of the Imperial world of Ulsa. During the conflict, his mighty Chainaxe Gorechild became jammed in the hull of an Adeptus Mechanicus war machine and his Plasma Pistol fractured from overuse. The Betrayer turned the sharp edges and hard surfaces of the factorum to his own violent ends, impaling screaming Imperial Guardsmen on grinding gears or flaying the skin from their faces by pressing them on howling conveyers. Such was the carnage that the vast manufactorum ground to a halt, its workings clogged with the mangled remains of over a thousand pulverised corpses.Diamor Campaign (999.M41) - The Diamor Campaign took place during Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade within the Diamor System. Initially led by the Chaos Lord Kranon the Relentless, his Renegade Chapter, known as the Crimson Slaughter, spearheaded the attack on the Imperial world of Amethal, on behalf of Abaddon in order to obtain something the Despoiler desired. Due to the madness and unpredictability of Kranon, the execution of the invasion instead fell upon the Black Legion's Chaos Lord Xorphas. Leading his monstrous Butcherhorde, Khârn the Betrayer descended upon Amethal with but a single goal -- to take the heads of the most worthy and mightiest of the heroes of the defending Blood Angels. The resultant slaughter weakened the barrier between the Immaterium and the material realm to such an extent that the Blood Angels were forced to call for aid from the daemon-hunting Grey Knights Chapter. |
Butcherhorde - Notable Members of the Butcherhorde: Khârn the Betrayer - Khârn the Betrayer is a member of the World Eaters Traitor Legion of Chaos Space Marines, and the greatest mortal Champion of Khorne.Korbadash - A Berserker Lord of the Butcherhorde.Vrakha - A Berserker Lord of the Butcherhorde. |
Butcherhorde - Warband Colours: The Butcherhorde's colours are typically blood red with gold or brass trim. Those warriors who worship Khorne are anarchic individuals, their armies little more than ragged coalitions of rival warbands ready to turn upon one another at the slightest provocation. Only the leadership of a truly mighty individual can hold such a force together for long. So it was with the Butcherhorde, whose numbers included many former World Eaters fighting alongside dozens of minor cults and reavers. |
Butcherhorde - Warband Badge: The Butcherhorde's badge is the distinctive symbol of the former World Eaters Legion which depicts a planet being devoured by a monstrous maw. |
Butcherhorde - Sources: Black Crusade: Traitor's Hate (7th Edition), pp. 56-63 |
By the Lion's Command (Short Story) - By the Lion's Command (Short Story): By the Lion's Command is a short story published in the The Horus Heresy series. By the Lion's Command was originally published as part of the limited-release anthology novel The Imperial Truth, and it was later released as a stand-alone e-book. It is now also included in the War Without End anthology novel. |
By the Lion's Command (Short Story) - Synopsis: Following the splitting of the Dark Angels fleet in the aftermath of Perditus, Seneschal Corswain continues to hunt down the Death Guard forces under the command of the infamous Typhon. Now, a tense standoff erupts in the heavens over the supposedly independent world of Terra Nullius, and Corswain must either bend the local population to his own cause or make an example of them to other worlds that might secede from the Imperium. In this war, there can be no innocent bystanders. |
C'tan - C'tan: The C'tan (pronounced ker-TAN) or Star Gods, called Yngir in the Aeldari Lexicon, are said to be the oldest intelligent beings in existence in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is said that they were created at the very beginning of the universe, incorporeal entities spawned from swirling gases and enormous amounts of energy, and as such are etheric creatures by nature.In their natural form they are vast beings of pure energy who spread themselves over the surface of a star, absorbing its solar energy to feed themselves. After a time, they learned to use diaphanous wings created from the universe's lines of electromagnetic force to travel to other stars to continue their consumption when their host star died. The matter of planets and nebulae around them was so insignificant that it did not register on their voracious appetite.They are able to interact with the physical world thanks to the technology of the Necrontyr which transferred their consciousnesses into robotic bodies that resembled those of the Necrontyr culture's ancient deities that were made of the living metal called necrodermis. The C'tan used the hatred of the Necrontyr towards the ancient species called the Old Ones to help them gather the more appetizing energy emitted by living beings that they came to crave.The C'tan hate the Warp and its psychic energies (even as they crave the living energies of organic beings) and had the Necrons construct a series of blackstone pylons on the world of Cadia and other planets across several sectors in the Segmentum Obscurus. When completed, these constructs were intended to close off the Warp from the material universe entirely, utterly destroying any living creatures with a soul, leaving all other life in the galaxy as nourishment for the C'tan.It was the C'tan who designed the process of biotransference for the Necrontyr, transferring their proteges' consciousnesses wholesale into undying mechanical bodies similar to their own that were also composed of necrodermis. However, the biotransference process also transformed the Necrontyr into the Necrons, soulless beings who have difficulty taking pleasure in anything and who can never truly enjoy their immortality.After the end of the War in Heaven against their ancient foes the Old Ones, the Necrons, led by the Silent King Szarekh, successfully rebelled against their C'tan Star Gods. Those C'tan who survived the revolt were broken into fragments known as C'tan Shards that were more easily contained and imprisoned within arcane Necron devices called Tesseract Labyrinths.At present, since the majority of the Necrons began to awaken from the Great Sleep in the 41st Millennium, these C'tan Shards are deployed when needed as the Necron Dynasties' greatest weapons on the battlefield.However, there always exists the possibility that the imprisoned C'tan will escape their captors. Then they will wreak a terrible vengeance upon their captors and the innocent alike...Quick Answers Who are the C'tan and what is their significance in the Milky Way Galaxy? The C'tan, also referred to as Star Gods, are in their natural form vast beings of pure energy who spread themselves over the surface of a star, absorbing its solar energy to feed themselves. After a time, they learned to use diaphanous wings created from the universe's lines of electromagnetic force to travel to other stars to continue their consumption when their host star died. The matter of planets and nebulae around them was so insignificant that it did not register on their voracious appetite. They are able to interact with the physical world thanks to the technology of the Necrontyr which transferred their consciousnesses into robotic bodies that resembled those of the Necrontyr culture's ancient deities that were made of the living metal called necrodermis. The C'tan used the hatred of the Necrontyr towards the ancient species called the Old Ones to help them gather the more appetizing energy emitted by living beings that they came to crave. Provided by: Community What is the meaning of 'transcendent C'tan' in the context of the character? A Transcendent C'tan is a powerful entity, an aggregation of 12 to 100 lesser C'tan Shards. Their power significantly surpasses the combined strength of their parts. They are restrained by energy shackles, rather than the more common Tesseract Labyrinths, which have been crafted by the Necron artificer Svarokh. These beings can manifest two Ascendant Powers, unleashing them with devastating effect in battle. Provided by: Community Why are the C'tan also known as the 'Star Gods'? The C'tan, or 'Star Gods', emerged at the moment of Creation, formed from the immense energies of that event. As stars came into being, so did the C'tan. Their near god-like powers led the Necrontyr to worship them as Star Gods. The C'tan, who fed on suns and life energies, reveled in this worship. Provided by: Fandom Who are some notable C'tan characters like Mephet'ran the Deceiver and Aza'gorod the Nightbringer? Prominent C'tan, also known as Star Gods, include Mephet'ran the Deceiver, Aza'gorod the Nightbringer, and Iash'uddra the Endless Swarm. Mephet'ran is the C'tan of trickery and deception, while Aza'gorod, often associated with the grim reaper, has left a significant impact on the younger races. Provided by: Fandom What is the relationship between the C'tan and the Silent Kings? Unaware of the C'tan's true nature, the Silent King engaged with one known as the Deceiver. This C'tan spoke of a lost war against the Old Ones and their subsequent hiding. They assumed the forms of the Necrontyr's forgotten gods, concealing their intentions. Later, the Silent King aimed to dismantle the C'tan, breaking them into smaller, weaker fragments. 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C'tan - Star Gods: The birth of the entities 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, 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, 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 on the diaphanous wings 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. |
C'tan - 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 Terra. Assailed at every moment by ionising solar winds and intense radiation storms, the flesh and blood 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 enduring in the shadow of the vast sepulchres and tombs of their ancestors.Likewise, the Necrontyr's ruling dynasties were founded on the anticipation of demise, 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' potential free from the lethal energies of their birth star.Unable to find peace on their own world, the Necrontyr blindly groped outward into the universe to explore other stars. 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 Necrontyr monarchs or "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 expansion, the Necrontyr encountered an ancient, intelligent species far older than any other in existence in the known galaxy. Collectively, these beings were known as 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 of the Old Ones had been immeasurably swifter and more expansive than that of the Necrontyr because of their Warp Gates and mastery of the psychic power 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 their physical cancers consumed their bodies. The Necrontyr were astonished to learn that another advanced, 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 of the Necrontyr 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 interstellar territory grew ever wider and more diverse, the unity that had made them strong was eroded, and bitter wars were waged as entire Necrontyr realms fought to win independence. Ultimately, the Triach -- the ruling council of the Necrontyr Empire -- realised that the only hope of unity lay in conflict with an external enemy, but there were few who could prove a credible threat.Only the Old Ones, the first of all the galaxy's known sentient species, 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 did the Triarch declare war on the Old Ones. At the same time, they offered amnesty to any secessionist dynasties who willingly returned to the fold. Thus lured by the spoils of victory and the promise of immortality, the separatist Necrontyr realms abandoned their Wars of Secession and the War in Heaven began.It was the last of the Silent Kings who headed the Triarch of the Necrontyr Empire, Szarekh, who formulated the plan that would change everything forever and have consequences that would echo through history for countless millions of Terran years. In a typically bitter act of jealousy and resentment for the Necrontyr race, it was the Silent King who used the Old Ones' refusal to share the secret of immortality as a pretext for war, forcibly uniting the entire Necrontyr species beneath the rule of the Triarch against their common foe.War erupted across the stars, yet while the Silent King succeeded in uniting his hateful people, it was a war the Necrontyr could not win. Not on their own. |
C'tan - 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 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 Black Library's innermost sanctum, tells rather that the raw hatred that the Necrontyr held as a race 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 Terran 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 a sentience 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 of pure energy that they believed were the progeny of the death-god they 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 shapes of the Necrontyr's half-forgotten gods, hiding their own 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 its own kind, this C'tan was known as the "Deceiver," for it was willfully treacherous. Yet the Silent King knew not the 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 he 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 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, 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 race.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 worship of the Necrontyr and feasted upon the life energies of countless mortal slaves. |
C'tan - 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 and Dolmen Gate 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 race 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. Colossal bio-furnaces built by Necrontyr artifice roared day and night, consuming weak-bodied flesh and replacing it with enduring machine forms of living metal, much like the C'tan themselves. As the cyclopean machines clamoured, the C'tan swarmed about the biotransference sites, drinking in the torrent of cast-off life energy and growing ever stronger.Whether the Necrontyr actually realised the price they would actually pay for accepting this pact with the C'tan is not known. The immortality the C'tan promised would be delivered unto the Necrontyr by way of the arcane and terrible process of biotransference. Into the vast bio-furnaces the Silent King's people 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 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 detritus of an entire species.It was only when the Silent King himself emerged from the bio-transference 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 effluvial 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 solar 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 an 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 radiation could little erode their new mechanical bodies, and only the most terrible of injuries could destroy them utterly.Likewise, the Necrons now enjoyed a unity that the Necrontyr had never known, though it was achieved through tyranny and the complete loss of individuality and emotion rather than by consent. The biotransference process had embedded command protocols in every robotic 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 that had consumed the Necrontyr Empire in recent years. However, as time wore on he 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.Thus the Necrontyr became the Necrons, cursed to the eternal servitude of their Star Gods. The C'tan feasted upon the entire Necrontyr race's life energies even as they made the transfers, leaving behind only the ghostly echoes of the Necrontyr's consciousnesses. Only a few of the most strong-willed Necrontyr 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.Yet many of the Necrons who retained their minds 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. Nevertheless, the Necrontyr species was now united as never before as the new command protocols allowed the Silent King to rule over them with an iron hand. The entire species was his to command, and so it fell upon the Necrons to honour their side of their terrible bargain.Renewed by their devouring of the souls of an entire species, the C'tan were unstoppable, and with the 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. |
C'tan - 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 now capable of unleashing 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 races 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 boundaries. Through a series of living stone portals known as 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 race 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 races they had once nurtured became cattle for the obscene hunger of the C'tan. To the younger sentient 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.The C'tan were figures of terror who demanded their 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 as they unleashed destructive forces beyond mortal comprehension.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, fratricidal war for ascendancy. In the course of the C'tan's struggle against one another, whole planets were razed, stars were extinguished and 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 races, 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. Millennia passed as the Old Ones' creations finally bore fruit and the C'tan and their Necron servants continued to extinguish life across the galaxy. |
C'tan - The Tide Turns: The Old Ones' psychically-empowered servant races spread across the galaxy, battling the advanced Necron technology with the psychic power of their Warp-spawned sorcery. 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 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 local region of 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 blackstone pylons that littered the surface of that world in intricate networks and created 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 and the greatest work of the C'tan was begun. But before it 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 races 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 psychic 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 hellish dimension later called the Realm of Chaos. |
C'tan - Enslaver Plague: The denizens of the Warp 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 more new genetically-engineered warrior races 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' interstellar 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. The Old Ones' greatest works and places of power were soon overrun by the horrors their own creations had unleashed.The most terrifying of these horrors were the Enslavers, Warp-dwelling entities whose ability to dominate the minds of the younger races and create their own portals into the material realm using transmuted, 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 races 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 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. |
C'tan - Silent King's Betrayal: Throughout the final stages of the War in Heaven, the Silent King Szarekh bided his time, waiting for the moment in which the C'tan would prove vulnerable. Though the entire Necron race was now his to command, he 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 allies 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. And so, when the C'tan finally won their great war, their triumph proved 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 against their C'tan masters.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 removed the knowledge of the dreadful weapons that had been employed from his warriors' minds 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 fragments with a similar energy signature. Yet this 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 of these "C'tan Shards" was bound within a multidimensional Tesseract Labyrinth, as trammelled and secured as a Terran djinn trapped in a bottle.Though the cost of victory was high -- millions of Necrons had been destroyed as a consequence of the 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. |
C'tan - C'tan Shards: A C'tan Shard is all that remains of the once mighty Star Gods of Necron antiquity. They are now only echoes of their former selves, splinters of energy that survived their Necron servants' ancient betrayal and were enslaved in turn. Most now languish in unbreakable servitude to their former vassals, utterly incapable of acting without commission.Should a C'tan Shard rebel, or a fault develop in its control relays, then fail-safe mechanisms automatically activate, whisking the creature back to its tomb, there to languish for long Terran centuries until times are dire enough that the Necrons must call upon its services again.Even with these precautions, the Necrons are wary of employing C'tan Shards in battle. Though the chance of escape is remote, the possibility remains, so the day must be dark indeed for the Necron cause before the Tesseract Labyrinths are opened and the C'tan unleashed upon the galaxy once again. In the 41st Millennium, the foes of the Necrons have so far only encountered two types of C'tan Shard, those of Aza'gorod the Nightbringer and Mephet'ran the Deceiver.Even now in their reduced and wholly fettered state, C'tan Shards are beings of near-unlimited power. They can manifest energy blasts, control the minds of lesser beings, manipulate the flow of time, and banish foes to alternate dimensions. Indeed, a C'tan Shard's abilities are limited only by two things: its imagination -- which is immense -- and glimmering memories of the being from which it was severed.Whilst no individual C'tan Shard has full recall of the omnipotent being it once was, each carries the personality and hubris of that vaster and more puissant being. Though a C'tan Shard has the power to reduce a tank to molten slag with but a gesture, it might simply not occur to it to do so, as its gestalt primogenitor would have tackled the situation through other means, such as by devolving the crew into primordial ooze, or deceiving them into attacking their own allies.The only hope of defeating a C'tan is to breach its necrodermis shell -- the living metal form that cages its energetic essence. If the necrodermis is compromised, the C'tan Shard explodes in a pulse of blinding energy, its being scattered to the galactic solar winds.Whilst it is true that many C'tan Shards are now indentured to Necron service, this by no means accounts for the entire pantheon of C'tan. Rumours of C'tan-like beings can be found across the galaxy, though many are merely entities that exhibit inexplicable, reality-warping powers.Indeed, any such being -- whether Warp-spawned Daemon, energy-based life form or an alien with advanced technology -- can be mistaken for a C'tan if the observer is primitive, credulous or simply ill-informed enough. This discrepant information causes great confusion concerning the exact number and nature of the surviving C'tan, even among the Aeldari.Records held in the Black Library contradict those maintained on Ulthwé, which are again at odds with the archives held on Alaitoc. There might be four C'tan at present in the galaxy, four thousand or any number in between.However, all Aeldari agree that the splinters of knowledge held by the Imperium of Man are so flawed and confused that they, if anything, move further from the truth with each fresh discovery made. Any who go looking for proof of a C'tan's existence can easily uncover it, but this speaks more to the mindset of the searcher than it does to any value of the "evidence." |
C'tan - Transcendent C'tan: Transcendent C'tan are the most dangerous of their kind amongst the C'tan Shards. Each is an aggregation of anywhere between a dozen and a hundred lesser C'tan Shards, and its power far surpasses the sum of its parts.Those few that are chained to Necron service are not contained by Tesseract Labyrinths, but by energy shackles designed aeons ago by the legendary Necron artificer Svarokh.Such devices are unstable, making the deployment of a Transcendent C'tan without the device known as a Tesseract Vault to contain it something of a risk, only undertaken in times of direst need. For this reason, when contained within a Tesseract Vault, a Transcendent C'tan is also kept within a special energy shield generated by a robotic Necron construct known as a Canoptek Sentinel.Canoptek Sentinels are used to control the raw elemental energies of a Transcendent C'tan. The Sentinel draws from the Transcendent C'tan's own power to generate a force shield strong enough to keep the C'tan shackled to the mechanisms of the Tesseract Vault.At the same time, constructs known as Canoptek Leeches arrayed and docked around the circumference of the vault and an army of Canoptek Scarabs move to constantly repair the damage done to the arcane prison.However, there are only so many Scarabs and Canoptek Leeches holding the Tesseract Vault together, and as the Transcendent C'tan bends reality and tears metal off the vault in its bids for freedom, the Canoptek automatons rebuild its prison using the debris in a cyclical process of destruction and reconstruction. |
C'tan - Powers of the C'tan: To the shards of the C'tan, reality is merely another weapon to be turned against their foes. It is within the prodigious powers of the god-fragments to summon forth storms of annihilating negative matter, shatter the foundation of a planet, or cast their enemies out of existence with but a thought.The abilities of C'tan Shards are many and varied, often harking back to those their far more powerful parent-entities enjoyed.A C'tan Shard is always capable of unleashing two of the following abilities, whose use has been previously recorded by Aeldari scholars. It is likely that this represents only a fraction of the reality-warping abilities available to a C'tan Shard.Antimatter Meteor - The C'tan Shard gathers an orb of roiling antimatter, before hurling the crackling projectile into the midst of the foe.Cosmic Fire - At the C'tan Shard's gestured command, a pillar of black fire streaks down from the heavens to consume the foe.Entropic Touch - Metal decays on contact with the C'tan Shard's rotten grasp.Gaze of Death - Eyes blazing with dark energy, the C'tan Shard drains the life from all in the vicinity.Grand Illusion - The C'tan Shard weaves a glamour of deception, preventing the foe from seeing the true disposition of the Necron forces.Lord of Fire - The C'tan Shard that wields this ability can become a creature of living flame, able to command the fires wielded by the enemy. This makes all Flamer weapons (as well as heat rays, Burnas, Skorchas, Inferno Cannons and any other weapon that uses flame or fire), as well as all Melta Weapons fired near the C'tan Shard explode at the C'tan's whim.Moulder of Worlds - Tortured rock buckles and heaves, showering the C'tan Shard's foes with boulders.Pyreshards - The C'tan Shard conjures specks of blazing black matter and directs them against its foes.Seismic Assault - Stone fractures and ores melt as the C'tan Shard drags up tides of magma from deep below a world's crust.Sky of Fallen Stars - Savagely beautiful orbs of coruscating light plummet from the cold depths of space, growing to roaring bale-stars as they approach.Sentient Singularity - The C'tan Shard's presence destabilizes all local gravitational forces, disrupting engines, teleport beams and Warp jumps.Swarm of Spirit Dust - A cloud of swirling darkness conceals the C'tan Shard from the gaze of its foes.Time's Arrow - Mutating the flow of causation and remoulding the temporal stream of the space-time continuum, the C'tan Shard casts its foe back into the darkness from before time was time, erasing them from existence as if they had never been.Transdimensional Thunderbolt - The C'tan Shard projects a bolt of crackling transdimensional energy from its outstretched palm, blasting its foe into oblivion.Writhing Worldscape - The natural world revolts at the C'tan Shard's presence, the very ground writhing and shaking as the physical laws of reality are undone. |
C'tan - Ascendant Powers: A Transcendent C'tan is a far more powerful entity than a standard C'tan Shard. As such, Transcendent C'tan are able to unleash these abilities when the Necrons deign to release them upon the battlefield. Every Transcendent C'tan must possess one of the following powers, though they cannot be unleashed when the C'tan is fully shackled within the confines of the Tesseract Vault:Storm of Heavenly Fire - The Transcendent C'tan unleashes a rain of fire from the heavens which explodes with a cataclysmic blast upon the battlefield. This power is extremely effective at destroying enemy tanks and armoured vehicles.Transliminal Stride - The Transcendent C'tan can move across the battlefield to a predetermined point, simply phasing through all obstacles or opponents in its path, weakening them as its passes through.Seismic Shockwave - When the Transcendent C'tan slams its necrodermis-clad foot down, it unleashes a seismic shockwave that causes the very ground to shake, blasting armoured vehicles and infantry alike into the air like unfortunate toys.A Transcendent C'tan is able to manifest two of the following Ascendant Powers, and can utilise them to devastating effect on the battlefield:Antimatter Meteor - The Transcendent C'tan is able to unleash a huge meteor composed of antimatter upon the battlefield, a furious assault from the sky that will annihilate all normal matter within range.Cosmic Fire - The Transcendent C'tan unleashes a wave of fire hotter than the interior of some suns upon the battlefield, incinerating everything in its path.Seismic Assault - The Transcendent C'tan causes rumbling earthquakes with a flick of its hand, crushing enemy units to pulp.Sky of Falling Stars - A rain of blazing meteorites falls from the sky to impact the foe at the whim of the Transcendent C'tan.Transdimensional Maelstrom - The Transcendent C'tan uses its command of transdimensional energies to unleash a swirling extradimensional vortex upon the battlefield that can banish all it touches to an alternate reality.Wave of Withering - The Transcendent C'tan can cause metal and flesh alike to wither at its command. |
C'tan - Active C'tan: Those C'tan who are known to still exist include:Aza'gorod the Nightbringer - Aza'gorod the Nightbringer has impressed its image as that of the grim reaper itself on the psyche of the younger races, apart from the Orks (since they do not fear death). Upon entering stasis it was almost destroyed and starved but was released by Kashmir De Valtos, a corrupt planetary administrator in the Imperium of Man in the 41st Millennium, which caused the Necrons to begin to awaken from their ancient sleep.Mephet'ran the Deceiver - Mephet'ran the Deceiver came out of stasis an unknown time ago and has been weaving plots ever since, including the destruction of the ancient Old Ones weapons the Aeldari call the Talismans of Vaul and the Imperium knows as the Blackstone Fortresses which were designed to destroy the C'tan on their emergence.Mag'ladroth the Void Dragon - Mag'ladroth the Void Dragon is the most powerful C'tan and still resides in stasis, theorised to be located beneath Mars in the Noctis Labyrinthus. The Void Dragon is believed by some Tech-priests to be the actual Machine God venerated by the Cult of the Machine of the Adeptus Mechanicus. A master of the material realm, this particular C'tan was a figure of oblivion, devastation and wanton destruction and its created warriors were nigh invincible. No C'tan Shard of this C'tan has yet been encountered, and it is possible that the Void Dragon has remained whole through the eons and its essence was never captured within the Tesseract Labyrinths. This is a truly terrifying prospect for the galaxy if this entity were to awaken.N'phoran the Spiral Flame - The C'tan Shard of N'phoran was unleashed by the Nemesor Yhardusz in a battle between the Necrons and the Tyranids.Nyadra'zatha the Burning One - It was the C'tan known as Nyadra'zatha, the Burning One, who had long desired to carry his eldritch fires into the Webway and beyond, who enabled the Necrons to gain access to the Labyrinth Dimension, showing the Necrons how to breach its boundaries. Through a series of living stone portals known as Dolmen Gates, the Necrons have finally been able to turn the Old Ones' greatest weapon to their own purpose. As a race bereft of psykers, the Necrons are 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 isolation within the galaxy.Zarhulash the Potentate - A shard of Zarhulash the Potentate was used to power one of the eight Necron Warp beacons known as the Pharos on the world of Sotha in the Ultima Segmentum. The Pharos was built of blackstone, and the array of Pharos devices was originally intended by the Necrons to provide a way for them to achieve rapid interstellar communications and FTL travel. The birth of the Great Rift that bisected the galaxy at the start of the Era Indomitus reactivated the Pharos. This was discovered by the Scythes of the Emperor Chapter, who still guarded the world after its destruction by a Genestealer Cult infestation and Hive Fleet Kraken during the Second Tyrannic War. Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl led an expedition to Sotha with the aid of the Ultramarines and the remaining Firstborn Space Marines of the Scythes of the Emperor to study and perhaps use the Pharos' technology to close the Great Rift and defeat Chaos. The expedition came under assault by Genestealer Cultists who had infiltrated the Chapter serfs of the Scythes of the Emperor. Ultimately all of that Chapter's remaining Firstborn Marines were slain alongside their Chapter Master Thracius in combat with the Genestealer Patriarch whose cult had first called Hive Fleet Kraken to destroy Sotha. After reaching the Pharos, Cawl discovered that a shard of Zarhulash had provided the power source for the ancient Pharos. He forged a deal with the alien star god, in which Zarhulash agreed to destroy the device by removing its heart, creating a miniature singularity. In exchange, Cawl agreed to remove the shackles of necrodermis that kept the C'tan Shard captive and create a portal with the Pharos to allow him to finally escape from Sotha. Cawl seemingly agreed, but this was only a ruse as he actually teleported Zarhulash to a far-off region of the galaxy where the C'tan Shard was surrounded by hostile Necron Tomb Worlds. Zarhulash swore revenge on Cawl for this betrayal. |
C'tan - Inactive or Unknown Status: The names of several other C'tan are known to the Imperium of Man and the Aeldari, though they have not yet been encountered as active C'tan Shards and it remains unknown whether they still exist in Necron captivity like their brethren or have ceased to exist.Iash'uddra the Endless Swarm - Nothing is currently known about this C'tan, other than that it exists.Kalugura - Kalugura is a C'tan who was captured and transformed into a C'tan Shard. Kalugura was once a horrific engine of destruction. This particular C'tan Shard was entombed on the world of Kalugura aeons ago, at the command of the Silent King Szarekh, then the supreme overlord of the Necron race's ruling Triarch. The reason why this Shard was imprisoned and is no longer deployed by the Necrons is unknown.Llandu'gor, the Flayer - When the Necrons finally turned against the C'tan in the last days of the War in Heaven, the Flayer was not simply splintered as were his brothers, but utterly obliterated. In his dying moments, the Star God inflicted a terrible curse upon the Necrons, tainting them with an echo of the fathomless hunger of its essence. The victims of this terrible madness are the Flayed Ones.Og'driada, the Arisen - Nothing is currently known about this C'tan, other than that it exists.Tsara'noga the Outsider - Tsara'noga the Outsider became insane due to its consumption of other C'tan, a trick played on it by Cegorach, the Aeldari Laughing God. It developed a hellish presence, causing madness in all who came close, and many killed themselves rather than have to face the Outsider. The Outsider shares some similarities with the Nightbringer, in that it is said that to look upon it would cause terror, much like the Nightbringer's infusion of terror in the younger races produced by the Old Ones. Furthermore, one of the Harlequins' many dances depicts the moment when the Laughing God tricked the C'tan into consuming each other, except that the C'tan depicted is the Nightbringer, rather than the Outsider. The Outsider is currently imprisoned in a Dyson Sphere located beneath the galactic plane. The Harlequins whisper that "one dark night, it shall return."Yggra'nya, the World Shaper - Yggra'nya is also known as the "World Shaper," the "Moulder of Worlds" and the "Worldmaker." The World Shaper's thoughts can break apart planets and reshape them into forms more pleasing to itself. A shard of this C'tan powered the planetoid-sized mobile Necron Tomb World called Borsis, the "World Engine." Prior to the Silent King Szarekh's betrayal of the C'tan during the closing days of the War in Heaven, Yggra'nya was the patron deity of Borsis, the World Engine. During the days when it still ruled Borsis it had manifested as a being with skin of multi-coloured flame. Its form then possessed several pairs of arms, each carrying a symbol of rulership: a sceptre, an orb, a sword, and the jaw of a spacefaring beast. Topping its three-eyed face was a headdress of gold and deep blue. Borsis was one of many worlds Yggra'nya controlled when the C'tan ruled the Necrontyr as their star gods. Like other C'tan, it was shattered into C'tan Shards when the Silent King betrayed the star gods in the closing days of the War in Heaven. In 912.M41, the Nephrekh Dynasty Necron Lords Turakhin and Heqiroth overthrew the Magadha Dynasty Necron Overlord who ruled the crownworld of Borsis and activated the World Engine. The World Engine, powered by a great shard of Yggra'nya, made its way to Mars, destroying any Imperial worlds in its path, with the intent of awakening the the C'tan known as the Void Dragon. Heqiroth had also stolen the living metal skin of Yggra'nya, declaring himself a god. During this time, the shard of Yggra'nya mentally contacted Brother Ghazin of the Astral Knights, who were desperately battling the World Engine alongside other Space Marine Chapters. Yggra'nya and Turakhin both assisted the Astral Knights in return for their freedom and to bring down the now-mad Heqiroth, respectively. Yggra'nya appeared in a vision to the Astral Knights' Chief Librarian Hyalhi. It took on an emaciated form composed of grey matter, wearing a tattered headdress of gold, dull oval eyes of crackled amber, and an empty mounting for missing gemstones. It raged against the betrayal of the Necrons, believing there was no fault in what the C'tan had offered to the Necrontyr when they had traded their souls for their undying necrodermis bodies in the biotransference process. Yggra'nya offered to destroy Borsis in exchange for assistance from the Imperials in freeing it from its prison. It claimed that it would simply leave the galaxy afterwards to find a new home whose inhabitants would prove more appreciative of its gifts. After destroying Borsis, it fulfilled its promise to disappear, but Inquisitor Lord Quilven Rhaye had made his own pledge to Chief Librarian Hyalhi to find and destroy Yggra'nya. In 999.M41, during the Second Battle of Damnos, another shard of Yggra'nya was deployed by the Necons against the assaulting Imperial forces. After the Ultramarines under the command of Chapter Master Marneus Calgar reached a stalemate with the Necrons on Damnos, a psychic communication from Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius informed Calgar of the nature of the Tesseract Vault that was being used to attack the Imperial positions. Calgar ordered his forces to focus their fire upon the Tesseract Vault, which when destroyed release a C'tan Shard of Yggra'nya. The shard of the World Shaper proceeded to wreak havoc upon the Necrons, the Imperials, and the world of Damnos itself. This shard of Yggra'nya opened vast subterranean chasms across the planet, destroying most of the Necron and Imperial forces. With the tide turned against the Necrons, the Ultramarines 2nd Company Captain Cato Sicarius hurled a Vortex Grenade at the shard of the World Shaper. Turning its horned head to leer at Sicarius, the C'tan shard summoned a giant fist shaped of bedrock from the ground to grasp the Ultramarine captain. Just as the fist began to close upon Sicarius to crush him, the vortex grenade detonated, sucking the C'tan Shard into the Warp. |
C'tan - Other C'tan Influences: The Imperial Inquisition employs elite Officio Assassinorum assassins, among whom the members of the Callidus Temple use a weapon called a C'tan Phase Sword. It is unknown what specific relation the weapon has with the C'tan themselves. The most likely explanation would be that the C'tan Phase Sword is made out of necrodermis, such as in one instance where a Callidus Assassin attacked an Imperial planetary governor, only to have her C'tan phase weapon absorbed into the "governor" and become a part of his body. This governor was most likely the C'tan called the Deceiver in another of its myriad disguises.The primary weakness of the C'tan is their inability to comprehend the Warp. It is speculated that they find it impossible to survive in it and are particularly susceptible as a result to Warp-spawned psychic powers and the psykers who wield them.It is also speculated that they worked with the Necrons to construct the networks of blackstone pylons on Cadia and elsewhere across the galaxy, with the likely intention of sealing off the local area of realspace (i.e. the galaxy) from the Immaterium. Whether these pylons have anything to do with the existence of the nearby Eye of Terror is unknown, but it is unlikely, as the Eye was not opened until long after the Necrons were already in their stasis tombs.There is also a Necron object of unknown purpose on the Hive World of Armageddon in the Equatorial Jungle regions of the planet. |
C'tan - Sources: Apocalypse (6th Edition), pg. 174Apocalypse: War Zone Damnos (6th Edition), pp. 20-21, 24, 35Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work (Novel) by Guy Haley, Chs. 8, 9, 23, 26Black Crusade: Hand of Corruption (RPG), pg. 136Codex: Eldar (2nd Edition), pg. 83Codex Imperialis (2nd Edition), pg. 90Codex: Necrons (3rd Edition), pp. 24-31Codex: Necrons (5th Edition), pp. 5-8, 40-41Codex: Necrons (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 8-9, 159-162, 178-179Codex: Necrons (8th Edition), pp. 69, 100, 113Imperial Armour Volume Twelve - The Fall of Orpheus, pg. 90The Lords of Borsis (Short Story) by L.J. GouldingThe World Engine (Novel) by Ben Counter, Chs. 3, 6, 9, 15White Dwarf 191 (UK), "The Necrons," pp. 49-53Mechanicum (Novel) by Graham McNeillThe Ultramarines Omnibus (Novel) by Graham McNeillWhite Dwarf 385 (UK), "Crafting Your C'tan," pg. 62White Dwarf 40 (December 2019), "Worlds of Warhammer" by Phil Kelly, pg. 11C'tan Shard of The Deceiver on Games Workshop WebsiteC'tan Shard of The Nightbringer on Games Workshop Website |
C'tan Phase Weapon - C'tan Phase Weapon: A C'tan Phase Weapon (also known as a Fractal Edged Weapon), is a sword-like melee weapon based around a metal blade of unknown composition that, through the use of highly advanced Necron physics, is capable of phasing through any object irrespective of its physical properties.Energy shields, armour and even daemonic bodies are of no defence against a Phase Weapon. However, as a C'tan's raw substance is made of the same necrodermis alloy and has the same properties, attacking a C'tan with a C'tan Phase Weapon disarms the attacker, as the metal becomes a part of the C'tan's body.In one instance, a Callidus Assassin attacked an Imperial planetary governor, only to have her C'tan Phase Weapon absorbed into the "governor" and become a part of his body. This planetary governor was most likely the C'tan Shard called the Deceiver in another of its myriad disguises.The most notable users of C'tan Phase Weapons are the elite Officio Assassinorum Assassins of the Callidus Temple in the employ of the Imperial Inquisition.The Deathwatch utilise a similar weapon, known as a Xenophase Blade, an ancient and barely understood artefact weapon who some believe has its origins amongst long-defeated xenos dynasties, though speaking of its history has long been forbidden on pain of excruciation. Whether this type of weapon is one and the same, is not currently known. |
C'tan Phase Weapon - C'tan Phase Sword: It is believed that the first Phase Sword was found on one of the long Dead Worlds of the C'tan. Excavations by the Adeptus Mechanicus uncovered numerous artefacts of extremely advanced technology, but of their makers, there was no evidence.Each individual phase sword utilised by a Callidus Assassin is optimised to reflect its user's favoured combat stance and personal strengths, but they all take the form of an elongated punch-dagger. These deadly blades are thought to utilise the lost xenos technology of the C'tan, though the Callidus Temple keeps their true nature a close secret.The blade of the Phase Sword is unusual in its ability to phase in and out of realspace by molecular realignment, allowing it to plunge clean through armour, flesh and bone as though they were not there at all. |
C'tan Phase Weapon - Cypher's Phase Knife: The elusive Fallen Angel known as Cypher is also known to have once carried a C'tan Phase Knife which was lost in battle with the C'tan Shard named the Deceiver during the 13th Black Crusade. Due to the fact that it was lost within the Warp, this seems to have caused a mysterious temporal loop which causes the knife to reappear at random times on Cypher's person. |
C.L. Werner - C.L. Werner: C.L. Werner is an author for Games Workshop's Black Library imprint. |
C.L. Werner - Genestealer Cults: Cult of the Warmason (2017, ISBN 1-78496-614-2) |
C.L. Werner - Space Marine Battles: The Siege of Castellax (2012, ISBN 1-84970-259-4) |
C.L. Werner - Others: Iron Inferno (Short Story) (Collected in Fear the Alien (Anthology))Black Dawn (Short Story) (Collected in Victories of the Space Marines (Anthology) and There is Only War (Anthology))Adeptus Mechanicus: The Enigma of Flesh (Short Story) (Collected in Servants of the Machine-God (Anthology)) |
C.S. Goto - C.S. Goto: C.S. Goto (Cassern Sebastian Goto) is an author for Games Workshop's Black Library imprint. |
C.S. Goto - Blood Angels: The Blood of Angels (Short Story) (Collected in The Book of Blood (Anthology)) |
C.S. Goto - Dawn of War: Blood Ravens: The Dawn of War Omnibus (2008, ISBN 1-84416-535-3) collects the following:Dawn of War (2004, ISBN 1-84416-152-8)Ascension (2005, ISBN 1-84416-285-0)Tempest (2006, ISBN 1-84416-399-7)The Trials of Isador (Short Story) |
C.S. Goto - Deathwatch: Warrior Brood (2005, ISBN 1-84416-234-6)Warrior Coven (2006, ISBN 1-84416-365-2) |
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