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Commander Longknife - Experimental Weaponry: Shas'O R'myr's personal XV8 Crisis Battlesuit is the very latest incarnation of the advanced Tau XV8 Crisis Battlesuit. It not only boasts the use of a unique experimental weapon, the Double-Barrelled Plasma Rifle, but also contains various modifications to the suit's defences such as a strengthened Shield Generator and a modified Tau Vehicle Flechette discharger built directly into the armour. R'myr is also often accompanied by a dedicated bodyguard in an experimental advanced XV-81, XV-84 or XV-89 variant of the Crisis Battlesuit.
Commander Shadowsun - Commander Shadowsun: Commander Shadowsun, known among her own people as Shas'O Shaserra, and also called the "Spearhead of the Greater Good," the "True Disciple of Commander Puretide" and "Heroine of the Third Sphere Expansion," was the commander of the T'au Fire Caste's military campaign that carried out the T'au Empire's Third Sphere Expansion.After the alleged betrayal of the Greater Good by Commander Farsight (known as Shas'O Shovah or simply O'Shovah in the T'au Lexicon), the T'au Empire's ruling Ethereal Supreme Aun'Va selected Commander Shadowsun as a more-steadfast replacement to conduct the Third Sphere Expansion of the T'au Empire.
Commander Shadowsun - History: O'Shaserra is a dynamic leader who rose to recent fame in the battles of the K'resh Expansion. There, she smashed the Ork menace, and her cadres suffered historically low casualties in return. All of Shadowsun's victories are marked by unrivalled efficiency, a trait not surprising from one of Commander Puretide's most promising pupils.Over 300 Terran years ago, O'Shaserra was a brilliant young warrior; her successes and matchless performances at the Fire Caste academies earned her recognition as one of the most able military minds in the T'au Empire. As such, she was granted the honour of studying personally under the ailing but legendary Commander Puretide. Despite being the youngest of all Puretide's proteges, O'Shaserra scored exceptionally well in all simulations, outstripping all others, save one -- the most highly favoured of all Puretide's students, Commander Farsight. From the start, theirs was a bitter rivalry, as the two most gifted T'au Commanders in the T'au Empire strove to gain their wizened master's approval.During the battle on the Dal'yth Sept World, where the Imperium's Damocles Gulf Crusade was finally halted, it was Commander Farsight's audacious counterattacks that drew the most attention; however, they would never have been possible without O'Shaserra's patient ploy to draw out and overextend the Imperial battle lines. She had laid multiple traps for the Imperial forces and throughout her time in combat had sought to engage the Imperial forces in secluded regions of the world to minimise civilian casualties.This ongoing competition between the two commanders was abruptly halted by the death of the venerable Commander Puretide. The Ethereal High Council was not fully convinced the mindcapture devices and holograms of the Earth Caste engineers would be able to recreate the teachings of their fabled mentor. So, to ensure Puretide's teachings were preserved for future generations, it was decided that several of his top students would be placed in stasis. Upon the orders of the Ethereal Council, a select few, including O'Shaserra, slept in frozen animation, unaging, until a time came when they would be most needed; a time of great expansion and furious battle.Although Aun'Va had planned to awaken Commander O'Shaserra at the dawn of the Third Sphere Expansion, the largest Ork invasion of the T'au Empire accelerated the Ethereal Supreme's meticulous calculations. Yet even this the sagacious Aun'Va turned into an advantage. Appearing in a time of great need, O'Shaserra has once more proven herself a patient huntress, meticulous in her planning, yet swift in action. Her ability to draw foes into well-conceived killing zones lured numerous Ork armies to merciless deaths during the fighting of what is now called the Great War of Confederation. Yet, as the situation dictated, O'Shaserra could be bold. In order to end the fierce fighting in the K'resh Expansion, she led a Stealth Cadre straight into the heart of the Ork encampment to deliver a killing stroke. Timing her strike to coincide with an artificial eclipse, the T'au forces used the Jetpacks of their XV25 Stealthsuits to deploy from low-swooping Orca dropships.Under the cover of the unnatural darkness, the Greenskins never knew what hit them. In an instant, their leaders were riddled by Burst Cannons before being finished off with searing shots from Fusion Blasters. It was O'Shaserra herself who personally sought out and targeted the Warlord bringing down the hulking alien with precision fire. As the alien hordes milled in confusion, the rest of O'Shaserra's cadres joined the fray. Without their bosses to lead them, most of the Orks panicked and fled, only to run into well-placed ambushes. By the time the sunlight burnt through the obscuring veil, the battle was over and a new Fire Castelegend was born.Aun'Va was quick to promote the dedicated Commander, for in her he saw embodied all that was noble about the Fire Caste's pursuit of the Greater Good. Here was a Tau Commander who would not shirk from duty, who would not forget her vows to her people or her loyalty to Aun'Va himself. When he declared the Third Sphere Expansion, Aun'Va also announced the warrior who would spearhead the most important of its attacks -- Commander O'Shaserra, now called Shadowsun in honour of (what was then) her greatest triumph.In her first speech as Supreme Commander, O'Shaserra made her address from the Mont'yr battle dome, the site where Farsight had famously trained. Arriving resplendent in her new prototype XV22 Stealthsuit, it was a sight to stir the martial hearts of all who viewed her. With the entire Fire Caste watching, Shadowsun began by firing her weapons at the statue of Farsight, obliterating it in a burst of white-hot desecration. As the dust settled, she outlined the new campaigns they would soon embark on. She spoke of honour, the sacred Code of Fire and the all-important law of the Tau'va. After this address, every Fire Warrior shouted in one voice, ready to follow their new Commander to any end.Within Terran days, the Third Sphere Expansion had begun, and under Shadowsun's leadership, the T'au Empire has proven unstoppable. With Imperial attention elsewhere, and the Tyranid and Ork menace temporarily contained, Fire Caste spearheads drove into the outlying systems of the Damocles Gulf, the Perdus Rift and even beyond, forming five new T'au colonies in a halo around the original Sept worlds. Leading from the front, Shadowsun seems to be everywhere at once and her assault on Agrellan, a Hive World of the Imperium, during what became known as the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay, has opened up the entire Dovar System.However it was at Mu'gulath Bay that Shadowsun encountered Kor'sarro Khan of the White Scars Space Marines, who inflicted horrendous casualties upon her command staff and drove the normally calm Tau Commander into a fury. In her rage and overconfidence, Shadowsun led an offensive that resulted in a stinging T'au defeat. Having barely escaped the Imperial ambush with her life, thanks only to the brave sacrifice of her personal retinue, Shadowsun swore to redouble her efforts in the campaigns of the Third Sphere Expansion.Though successful during the Prefectia Campaign which followed the first battle on Mu'gulath Bay, Shadowsun was surprised when the Imperium used the war as a distraction to strike at Mu'gulath Bay, the former Imperial world of Agrellan, once more. During this bloody Second Agrellan Campaign, Shadowsun led an effective T'au resistance but could not stop the destruction of Mu'gulath Bay or the death of the Ethereal Supreme Aun'va at the hands of the agents of the Officio Assassinorum. Shadowsun herself only survived the destruction of Mu'gulath Bay due to her earlier wounding at the hands of a Callidus Assassin, which forced her to recover aboard a T'au starship. Free from the restraints placed on her by Aun'va and grateful to O'Shovah for his aid during the battle, Shadowsun secretly leaked information to her former ally that the Ethereal High Council had ordered her to capture him.
Commander Shadowsun - Wargear: XV22 Stealthsuit - This experimental battlesuit, gifted to O'Shaserra, incorporates the latest advances in T'au cloaking technology, targeting systems and miniature shield generators.2 Fusion Blasters - Fusion Blasters are anti-tank weapons that reduce reinforced armour to molten slag in the blink of eye.Advanced Targeting System - This specialised target acquisition system enables the battlesuit to identify and pick out priority targets in the midst of battle.MV52 Shield Drone - Commander Shadowsun is often accompanied into battle by prototype drones.
Commander Shadowsun - Sources: Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition), pp. 58-59Codex: Tau Empire (7th Edition), pg. 38, "Commander Shadowsun"War Zone Damocles: Kauyon (7th Edition), pp. 6-7War Zone Damocles: Mont'ka (7th Edition), pp. 105-110Blades of Damocles (Novel) by Phil Kelly, pp. 122-128Games Workshop Catalogue - Commander Shadowsun
Commander Surestrike - Commander Surestrike: Commander Surestrike is a T'au Commander of the T'au Empire and one of the disciples of Commander Shadowsun. He commanded the disastrous Fourth Sphere Expansion, the events of which have left him embittered and highly suspicious of all non-T'au species.
Commander Surestrike - History: The T'au world of Mu'gulath Bay, previously the Imperial Hive World of Agrellan, was abandoned in the aftermath of an Exterminatus operation carried out by the Imperium that left only the city of Lo'vash'tau standing thanks to its use of a energy shield dome to protect itself from the orbital bombardment. Many of the T'au survivors decided to make their way to the Farsight Enclaves, the T'au colonies that were independent of Ethereal rule. Commander Surestrike followed an order given by the Ethereals to execute these survivors to prevent the Farsight Enclaves' strength from growing with the arrival of more T'au refugees.Surestrike was next recommended by Shadowsun to lead the Fourth Sphere Expansion of the T'au Empire. The new Sphere of Expansion utilised the experimental AL-38 Slipstream Drive that had been reverse-engineered by Fio'vre Ka'buto, a famed scientist of the Earth Caste, from captured Imperial Warp-Drive technology.Ka'buto warned the Ethereal Council that the Slipstream Drives present on the vessels of the Fourth Sphere Expansion should never all be activated simultaneously, but his warning was ignored. When activated by the T'au armada that had assembled at Numenar Point, the Slipstream Drives overloaded the local region of space-time and created a wormhole into the Immaterium that encompassed the entire T'au fleet, dragging it into the Warp.Within this alternate dimension, which was wholly unknown to the T'au, three-quarters of the T'au fleet were destroyed by the hungry Daemons waiting to assault their ships, leaving only the auxiliary forces fully intact. The remainder of the fleet was saved from destruction only by a multi-armed Warp entity later dubbed the Goddess T'au'va, created by the fierce belief in the Greater Good of the psychically-capable alien species among the T'au auxiliaries.Eventually, what was left of the Fourth Sphere Expansion fleet was rediscovered in the Chalnath Expanse and the wormhole, now a permanent fixture in space, has been dubbed the "Startide Nexus". Survivors of the Fourth Sphere Expansion now have a reputation for brutality and xenophobia previously uncharacteristic of their kind.In the mind of these T'au, their auxiliaries were to blame for what happened and the new Chaos deity that has been birthed within the Warp can only be destroyed by their extermination. There have since been massacres of Human prisoners and instances where T'au alien auxiliaries have been intentionally sacrificed in battle by the Fire Caste of the Fourth Sphere Expansion. After one such massacre and a subsequent Kroot uprising on the colony of Ky'san, the Ethereal Council proceeded to remove all alien auxiliaries from Fourth Sphere Expansion forces.After all that has transpired, much like his troops, Commander Surestrike has become bitter and jaded. He subtly criticises the Ethereals and now displays open racial animus towards all the alien species that comprise the T'au Auxiliaries, blaming them for the tragedy that befell the Fourth Sphere Expansion.During the Battle of the Startide Nexus in the Era Indomitus between T'au Empire forces and the Heretic Astartes of the Death Guard, Commander Surestrike frequently clashed with his non-T'au allies as well as Commander Shadowsun. After Shadowsun attempted to learn the truth of what had befallen the Fourth Sphere Expansion fleet, and was herself saved by the Goddess T'au'va, Suretide was briefly placed by Aun'la in Shadowsun's absence as the supreme commander of all T'au military forces. However, once Shadowsun was restored to realspace, took command of the T'au forces and achieved victory over the Death Guard, Surefire was placed back under Shadowsun's command by the Ethereal Council.
Commissar - Commissar: Commissar is the title used to designate a political officer of the elite Officio Prefectus who serves in the regiments of the Astra Militarum or aboard the voidships of the Navis Imperialis.Commissars are tasked with the duty to maintain the morale of the troops during their massive campaigns, often in the face of staggering casualties. The commissar is empowered to use any means necessary to ensure the loyalty and moral purity of his or her charges, including overriding or even executing a regiment's commanding officer if necessary, and so is regarded with a mixture of fear, loathing and admiration by rank-and-file guardsmen -- and not a few of their officers.Every Imperial citizen recognises the distinctive cap and greatcoat of the commissar, whether from hab-block propaganda frescoes or grainy Departmento Munitorum recruitment picts.To the masses of Humanity, these men and women are symbols of Imperial authority whose sole remit is to ensure that all do their duty in the Emperor's name. Yet the truth of these high-ranking officers is rather more complex.Commissars are recruited from amongst the students of the widespread Schola Progenium. While the majority of the Schola's wards go on to become adepts of the Adeptus Terra's various branches or join the Militarum Tempestus, only the best of the best will be recommended for service in the Officio Prefectus.Inductees must have absolute faith in the Imperium. They must display the proper levels of sincere totalitarian idealism. They must be able to fight as well as any hive-spire duellist while fulfilling the conflicting roles of merciless taskmaster and inspiring hero with equal ease.Commissars provide the link between regimental officers and the Departmento Munitorum. They are tough, ruthless individuals whose primary responsibilities are to preserve the courage, discipline and loyalty of the regiment.Commissars have the absolute authority to punish and execute any member of a regiment who fails in their duties. As commissars are not from the same world as the regiment they serve with, they are not coloured by that world's traditions and culture. Instead, a Commissar can provide an objective and unbiased viewpoint, one seen purely from the Imperium's perspective.It is further the duty of a commissar to learn the culture and customs of the regiment to which he is attached. He must command equal respect whether assigned to dutiful Vostroyans or hard-bitten, insular Catachans.Should discipline or morale falter, it is the task of the commissar to take whatever steps are necessary to restore order, and to do so in the absolute knowledge that his actions are just.Under the steely gaze of such an officer, Imperial Guardsmen are inspired to deeds they never believed possible. In extremis, a commissar must be prepared to execute wavering soldiers or incompetent officers without a moment's remorse.Few things enforce discipline better than a malcontent or coward being shot dead for their failings, and this message is all the stronger when a mass-reactive bolt sprays a Guardsman's brains across his horrified comrades in a shower of gore.Such an unflinching display of a commissar's authority ensures that the first soldier who tries to flee from battle is invariably the last.
Commissar - History: The Imperial Army of the Great Crusade was raised from the fighting men and women of the worlds liberated by the Space Marine Legions of the Emperor of Mankind in the late 30th Millennium.They were used almost exclusively for garrison and pacification roles on both their home and foreign worlds throughout the early stages of the crusade, but by the latter half, they were fighting offensive battles and supplementing the Space Marine Legions as the Astartes began to be stretched too thinly across the growing Imperium.The Imperial Army at this time was organised with no particular standardisation, and regimental makeups ranged from barbarians wielding Power Axes to advanced mechanised infantry armed with energy weapons whose designs have now been lost. During this time, the regiments were left almost exclusively to their own recognisance as long as they served faithfully, and conformed to the few restrictions placed on them.During the Great Crusade, some Imperial Army regiments utilised specialists known as "discipline masters." These stern task masters were responsible for maintaining discipline within the regiment to which they were assigned. They were also one of the few examples of outside Imperial officials that operated within the Imperialis Militia.The task of the discipline master was primarily to ensure that the principles of the Imperial Truth and the manifest destiny of Humanity to rule the stars were upheld.Chosen from war veterans from the regular Imperialis Auxilia regiments drawn from the more civilised and technologically advanced worlds of the Segmentum Solar, in the main, their job was to enforce order on the battlefield according to the writ of law, inspire courage and impose the Imperial Truth on often backward and insular native soldiers to whom the Imperium was a relatively new master.They embodied the rule of distant Terra and so far as the average militia warrior was concerned had the ear of the Emperor Himself. To falter in resolve within the sight of a discipline master in the heat of battle was to fail the Emperor of Mankind in person, a crime for which pain and ultimately death were judged to be fit rewards.They were known to utilise Familiars, in the form of hunting eagles, to help them track down those who attempted to shirk their soldierly responsibilities.Their fanatical dedication to the service of the Emperor overrode any feelings of compassion, mercy or Humanity when carrying out the summary executions of those found wanting, for which they employed a ceremonial Electro-scythe.The discipline masters served as the pre-cursor and model for the later Imperial Commissariat and its merciless commissars.During the Horus Heresy, an estimated 40-50% of the Imperial Army turned on the Emperor and joined the Traitor forces of the Warmaster Horus to make war on the Imperium. Most of these Traitor Army regiments eventually broke down into feudal and fragmented Chaos Cults, worshipping the various Chaos Gods, and causing great havoc amongst the civilian populations of thousands of worlds.With the added range of their regimental cruisers, the Traitor Army units spread quickly and left a bloody swathe of depopulated and dead worlds in their wake, many of which had once been their own responsibilities to defend or even their homeworlds.It is suspected that a number of Traitor Army regiments were used in the Siege of Terra, though the exact extent of the Traitor forces has never been properly calculated, and most Chaos-tainted Imperial Army regiments became indistinguishable from one another as their corruption deepened.With Horus' defeat in the early 31st Millennium, and the retreat of the forces of Chaos to the Eye of Terror, the remaining Loyalist regiments of the Imperial Army underwent massive changes, and became much more heavily standardised under the logistical aegis of the Adeptus Administratum's Departmento Munitorum.The Imperial Navy was separated from the Imperial Army and transformed into a separate service, whilst the Imperial Army's ground forces were renamed the Astra Militarum, or the Imperial Guard. During this time, the Commissariat was formed to be the Imperium's bulwark among the members of the Imperial Guard against the influence of Chaos.A commissar was given power to ensure his or her regiment's continuing loyalty, and was charged to do anything necessary to prevent the corruption or spread of Chaos among the guardsmen of that unit. Commissars were attached to every regiment, and were used extensively in the immediate wake of the Traitor forces' retreat to ensure that the population of planets that had been ravaged by Chaos were not subverted by Chaos splinter cells or sleeper Chaos Cults.Before the Imperium was fully re-forged under the leadership of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman during the Time of Rebirth, millions of people would be executed by the Commissariat as Traitors or Heretics. Eventually, this role was handed over to the Imperial Inquisition and its Ordo Malleus (and later the Ordo Hereticus after it was founded during the Age of Apostasy in the early 36th Millennium) which as investigative agencies were much more suited to rooting out internal threats to Mankind than the primarily military political officers of the Officio Prefectus.Over the last 10,000 Terran years, the Commissariat has remained an important facet of the Imperial Guard's command structure, and it is rare not to see at least one commissar attached to the command staff of a Regimental Officer or Lord Commander's staff.Several commissars have even attained Imperial commands of their own, including Commissar Yarrick, who took command of the Steel Legionnaires of Hades Hive during the Second War for Armageddon, and became overall commander of Imperial forces during the Third War for Armageddon.The only known commissars to have held and retained overall command of a full regiment included Commissar Ibram Gaunt, who became the only known colonel-commissar of the orphaned Tanith 1st Regiment, after receiving command of the Tanith 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regiments from Warmaster Slaydo during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, and losing the 2nd and 3rd when Tanith fell to Chaos.Commissar-General Delane Oktar also commanded the Hyrkan 8th Regiment and was Gaunt's personal tutor.Also, a ruthless individual named Lady Commissar-General Viktoria Balshin was charged with purging the perceived taint of Chaos from the Second Front of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.
Commissar - Commissar Training: Commissars are trained from a young age to be strict adherents and upholders of the Imperial Creed and its associated strictures by the Schola Progenium, which serves the purpose of education and military training centres for commissarial cadets, Grenadiers, and Storm Troopers for all Astra Militarum regiments, and also provides officers for some. Training in this respect is highly demanding, and is designed to weed out the weak as soon as possible so as to concentrate on the most skilled candidates.Training includes military exercises, weapons proficiency, hand-to-hand combat, religious studies, and is directed at ensuring the total dedication of the student, and developing the ability for them to deliver the Emperor's justice without hesitation or remorse.After attaining suitable age and education at one of the many Schola Progenium institutions, a potential commissar is assigned to a regiment in the Astra Militarum at the rank of commissar cadet (akin to the rank of private in the Imperial Guard), and under the tutelage of either the regiment's commanding officer, or another commissar.These young soldiers form their own units of ten to twenty cadets, led by a veteran commissar and armed with the ubiquitous lasgun like all other regular guardsmen.Astra Militarum commanders consider themselves fortunate when a commissar cadet unit joins their campaign, for the cadets fight with a ferocity and courage uncommon even in the elite units of the Astra Militarum.Some of this may be put down to the fact that they will be summarily executed if they falter or retreat on the field of battle, but most commissar cadets are so dedicated to the cause of Mankind that they will eventually go on to become fully ordained commissars if they do not die in combat. Other guardsmen usually see the commissar cadet units as a blessing from the Emperor Himself, and as an omen of certain victory.Promotion to full commissar status happens only when the commissar cadet unit's observer considers a cadet ready, and this can take any length of time depending on the commanding commissar in question.
Commissar - Commissar Rank Structure: The following ranks can be found among the commissars of the Officio Prefectus, listed from highest-ranked to lowest.Commissar-General - Commissar-General is the senior-most rank within the Commissariat. Besides their usual duties, these highly experienced commissars are also tasked with the additional responsibilities of assigning more junior commissars under their command to overwatch Astra Militarum officers and promoting commissar cadets to full-commissar status.PDF Commissar - The Commissariat has oversight authority over all branches of the Imperial military (with the exception of the Adeptus Astartes, Adepta Sororitas and Skitarii soldiers of the Adeptus Mechanicus), which includes local Planetary Defence Forces (PDFs). Commissars assigned to these thankless postings are usually advanced in age, or have been subjected to disciplinary action. In practice, only a single commissar would be assigned to the PDF of an entire world, or even several planets within a sub-sector, playing little to no role in the activities of such forces. Therefore, the majority of these local Planetary Defence Forces are ignorant of these commissars' existence. Some Planetary Defence Forces maintain their own local Commissariats. Tensions are often strained between these local Commissariats and the official Officio Prefectus, especially in the matters of jurisdiction. It has even been known for Imperial commissars to execute their local counterparts for overstepping their authority.Lord Commissar - Lord Commissars are senior-ranking commissars, promoted to this esteemed rank after displaying exemplary battlefield service over many solar decades of experience. The battlefield heroics of a lord commissar are often the stuff of legends to the average guardsman. See below for more information.Colonel-Commissar - Colonel-Commissar is a very rare rank, conferred upon a commissar only in unusual or extraordinary circumstances. This rank refers only to those commissars awarded regimental command rank, and charged with commanding an Astra Militarum regiment in addition to their normal commissarial duties. Though the award of such a rank occurred as recently as the Sabbat Worlds Crusade to Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt of the Tanith First and Only regiment following the destruction of Tanith, the inherent conflict between the performance of the dual roles of commissar and regimental commanding officer is normally seen as a threat to a regiment's discipline by the Commissariat.Commissar-Captain - Commissar-Captain is a rarely-seen rank that is an intermediary position between a full commissar and a commissar-general. Though the particular role of a commissar-captain is not easily defined, it has been observed that commissars who maintain this rank have been seen supervising at a regimental level.Commissar - Commissar is the standard rank of these political officers, at least one being assigned per regiment of the Astra Militarum or voidship of the Navis Imperialis. It is their duty to "encourage" the troops of an Astra Militarum regiment to fight, fighting alongside the regiment's officers and taking control when morale is flagging or the troops are not fighting with sufficient zeal. In such situations a commissar can take over command from an officer and summarily execute any trooper who tries to flee. Even a colonel of a regiment must be sure to display courage and zeal at all times when the regiment's commissar is watching them.Junior Commissar - Junior Commissars are subordinate to full commissars, performing the role as a junior aide in the oversight of the regiment or voidship assigned to the oversight of a full commissar. They primarily perform as adjutants and in an investigatory role as well as carrying out the usual commissarial duties, although they do not have permission to perform executions without prior consent from higher-ranked officers. Junior commissars often undertake their commissarial role with smaller formations such as an individual squad, platoon or company.Cadet Commissars - Cadet Commissars are commissars-in-training. Assigned to Commissar Training Squads, they are armed and equipped with the standard gear of a regular guardsman, although they maintain their usual commissar panoply; leather long coat, gloves, jack boots, and high-peaked caps. Their uniforms only differ slightly from a full commissar by featuring blue trim and a cadet-commissar emblem instead of the usual death's head emblem of a full commissar. Their training has no set duration, and a cadet-commissar will only be graduated to full commissar status upon being deemed worthy by their superiors in the Officio Prefectus. Those that fail in their duties, but have not shown cowardice or insubordination, are relieved of their status. Commissar cadets who fail in their training can often get a commission in a Penal Battalion. Others volunteer for service in a Rogue Trader entourage. Sometimes, their destiny will be decided by the commissar-general or commissar under whom the ex-cadet trained.
Commissar - Lords Commissar: Amongst the ranks of the Officio Prefectus there are many heroic individuals who have become legend through their deeds. Some of those paragons may achieve the rank of lord commissar. Where a commissar will be attached as an ancillary officer to an Astra Militarum regiment's company, fulfilling their charge under the tactical direction of the company commander, a lord commissar will often lead the soldiers they oversee into battle directly.In this role they are more than capable -- after solar decades of service within multiple regiments, a lord commissar has experienced first-hand the various ways in which the strengths of the Astra Militarum can be put to effective use. A lord commissar may be placed in command of soldiers about to enter a particularly nightmarish war zone. At other times, they will assume the position of senior officer after executing the standing company or regimental commander, whom they have judged and found wanting.A lord commissar is expected to exemplify everything the Imperium of Man strives toward, while still discharging their duties as a grim-faced arbiter of disciplinary retribution. Each is a fearsome warrior whose skill and experience in front-line combat makes them the match of heretical demagogues and xenos warlords on the battlefield.As military leaders, lords commissar can appraise the battle lines of the enemy as swiftly as they measure the mettle of their own troops, punishing any weakness they see with merciless expedience.
Commissar - Commissarial Duties and Powers: A commissar is empowered to ensure the moral purity and devotion of the men and women of his platoon, company, or regiment by any means necessary. It is therefore not uncommon to see a commissar executing any enlisted guardsman, non-commissioned officer or officer showing signs of breaking due to overwhelming odds, which serves the dual purpose of reminding the guardsmen of their greater fear for the commissar's Bolt Pistol than the encroaching foe, and "inspiring" adjacent units to avoid the same fate.Commissars attached to a unit will rarely see their unit break in combat, however, as their own presence is usually enough to ensure that only the weakest and the most stupid will attempt to flee. Commissars unable to demand the fear and respect of a broken unit however often find themselves killed by the deserting unit as they know the commissar would shoot them all before they let them retreat.Commissars have been known to assume leadership positions for brief periods (usually only one battle), after executing a leading officer, such as a sergeant or minor lieutenant, and lead their charges forward with zeal and confidence that other officers are rarely capable of even considering in the face of the enemy.Only a handful of commissars have ever obtained true leadership over large Imperial forces as a lord commander, or even a governor militant, such as Yarrick at Armageddon, and only a handful are known to have even retained full command of an entire regiment, such as Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt.Commissars are enabled to execute any officer they see fit, including regimental commanding officers, and can even execute lord generals and governors militant if they have sufficient evidence of incompetence or treachery.During planetary reclamation campaigns, in which the populace has been living for extended periods of time under alien domination, it is not an uncommon practice for the regimental Commissariat to set up information stations for the locals to give anonymous information detailing the activities of Human Traitors who aided the alien forces in their occupation of the planet. This is most common on worlds retaken from the T'au Empire, as most other alien races usually destroy the previous occupants of the world.When the activity of Chaos is suspected, however, it is usually common practice for the Commissariat to refer this to the Inquisition, though commissars are empowered to deal with the situation on their own if no Inquisitorial forces are available to answer the call.Extended campaigns often call for extra duties to ensure the morale of the troops is kept high. As such, commissars can requisition Administratum scribes to draft extensive propaganda pieces so long as their superior officer approves. This is a favoured tactic during siege campaigns, when Imperial forces can be cut off from reinforcements and supplies, and troop dedication becomes of the utmost priority.All commissars are trained as excellent orators, and often deliver stirring speeches to their regiment or company prior to battle. During battle, the commissar is almost always amongst the front lines, and roars a litany of battle cries and prayers to the Emperor to inspire their troops to battle. This often leads to friendly rivalries between the commissar and any priest of the Ecclesiarchy present, as both will constantly try to outdo each other with both stirring speeches and demonstrations of valour meant to motivate the troops.Another of the commissar's duties is to keep a watchful eye on any psyker under their care. Astropaths and Sanctioned Psykers attached to the Astra Militarum are trained to use their powers and are "in theory" capable of controlling them, but commissars are trained to watch out for any signs of possible Warp taint and Daemonic possession (gibbering, foaming, sleepwalking, revulsed eyes, etc.).Whenever this happens, the commissar will swiftly step in and execute the psyker with a point-blank shot to the head. While this policy has led to many unnecessary executions of the Astra Militarum's corps of Sanctioned Psykers, the commissar never hesitates; it is better to kill an "innocent" than to be faced with the fury of a newborn Daemonhost.
Commissar - Unit Composition: 1 Commissar or Lord Commissar
Commissar - Wargear: The commissar's standard uniform consists of the great coat, with identifying gold and red epaulets, and red lining on collar and cuffs, a peaked officer's cap, usually black with red lining, and bearing an Aquila, or skull motif that denotes a member of the Officio Prefectus, a black undercoat, with either red or gold finery, black combat pants, and combat boots.Many commissars, particularly those who take on active combat roles, wear breast plates, usually decorated with the same motifs as their caps. Many also carry devotional symbols such as Aquila pendants or copies of various Imperial Cult gospels or Imperial war manuals.Commissars are issued with a standard weapons complement of a Bolt Pistol and a chainsword, which is first presented at their commissioning ceremony as a full Commissar in their Schola Progenium's High Chapel.Commissar cadets are issued with a standard Imperial Guard Lasgun or an Autogun depending on their associated regiment, as well as any other kit their regiment may supply them with.Commissars attached to certain regiments sometimes adopt unique elements of that regiment's uniform, such as a gas mask or desert head scarfs, for the dual purpose of practicality and to make them seem more at home in the regimental culture.Commissars have access to an Imperial officer's armoury, and as such, can arm themselves with a variety of weapons. Commissars usually tend to stick with their standard load-out for sentimental reasons, until they lose an element of it or gain enough notoriety to request more powerful weapons. Plasma Pistols, due to their rarity, are usually reserved for high-ranking Astra Militarum officers and commissars, though many tend to stick with their Bolt Pistols, due to Plasma Weapons' tendency to overheat when used rapidly in the heat of battle.Some commissars prefer to replace their Bolt Pistol with a full-sized bolter. Power Weapons are easier to requisition, and are often requested to replace the standard-issue Chainsword.Commissars have been seen carrying anything from the classic Power Sword to the rarer Power Axe. Some commissars have been known to use Power Fists, though these are by far the rarest weapons used by the members of the Commissariat.Commissars have also been known to carry laser weapons, from Laspistols paired with a close combat weapon to their regiment's standard-issue Lasguns.This is usually attributed to a familiarity and fondness developed for the reliability of the less powerful but more stable laser weapons during their stints in the Imperial Guard as Commissar Cadets.
Commissar - Lord Commissar's Wargear: Commissar's GreatcoatPeaked Officio Prefectus CapFlak Armour BreastplateBolt PistolPower SwordBolter or Plasma Pistol (Optional replacements for Bolt Pistol)Power Fist (Optional replacement for Power Sword)
Commissar - Notable Commissars: Lady Commissar-General Viktoria Balshin - Commissar-General Viktoria Balshin was the senior-ranking commissar assigned to the Fifth Army Command Staff and thus its senior representative of Lord-General Barthol Van Voytz, the commander-in-chief of Warmaster Macaroth's Fifth Army forces, and supreme commander of the second front during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.Lord Commissar Vance Theren - The most senior commissar in the Orpheus Salient of the Achilus Crusade, Theren has presided over matters of military discipline since the first day of the salient's foundation. A veteran of many conflicts, Theren has served both on the ground alongside the Imperial Guard, and as a fleet commissar with the Imperial Navy, giving him valuable experience in a variety of theatres of war, and making him an ideal choice for such high authority. His oversight into all Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy activities within the salient is carried out through the means of thousands of lesser commissars stationed aboard starships and deployed within Imperial Guard regiments.Lord Commissar Dominic Seroff - Once close friend and brother-in-arms to the famed Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, Seroff became one of Yarrick's most bitter adversaries after the execution of their shared mentor, Simeon Rasp. Ultimately, Seroff's association with the planetary governor of Armageddon, Herman Von Strab, would damn a once promising career. While Yarrick was feted for his heroics in the siege of Hades Hive, Seroff was banished by the Officio Prefectus to the backwater planet of Eremus. Soon after, Eremus succumbed to a Warp-plague of horrific potency that left no survivors. The only clue to Seroff's ultimate fate can be found in the scattered rumours that the dreaded Death Guard warship Terminus Est was sighted above Eremus, the flagship of the Chaos Lord Typhus himself.Commissar-General Delane Oktar - A senior-ranking commissar that with the Hyrkan 8th, from the regiment's foundation to their victory on Balhaut, a world reclaimed by the Imperium during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. He is also notable for having mentored the young Junior-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, who gained full rank status of Commissar at Oktar's death-bed. He learned many important lessons from Oktar that taught him the resolve of serving as an effective commissar tempered with humility and concern for the troops under his charge. These key lessons would later play in Commissar Gaunt's development of the Tanith First and Only into a very successful and notable fighting regiment of the Imperial Guard.Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt - Commander of the Tanith 1st and Only regiment, and one of the few commissars known to have commanded a full Imperial Guard regiment in his own right. He is the main character in the Gaunt's Ghosts series of novels by Dan Abnett.Commissar Tomas Beije - Tomas Beije was an Imperial commissar who served with the Tallarn 229th Regiment during its deployment to Adumbria to defend it against the forces of Chaos in 937.M41. Beije was in the same Schola Progenium class as the famous Ciaphas Cain, and carried an intense hatred for the other commissar throughout their careers, though Cain did not return such feelings and never saw Beije as more than an annoying buffoon. Beije was filled with an assortment of emotions; moral outrage, bafflement and seething envy for his rival. Beije could not fathom how Cain managed to rise to become a celebrated Hero of the Imperium despite his irreverence and lack of proper respect for the Emperor, while he, always so determined to do exactly what he believed was expected of a commissar, had not.Commissar Ciaphas Cain - Ciaphas Cain was an Imperial commissar who was attached to the 597th Valhallan Regiment in the late 41st Millennium and who became lauded as one of the greatest heroes the Imperium had ever seen, a man held up as the pinnacle of achievement among the servants of the Emperor despite his own private memoirs which revealed that he thought of himself as a coward and a fraud. Cain was the main protagonist of the novels of Sandy Mitchell.Commissar Doran Farrier - Doran Farrier was the regimental commissar and second-in-command of the 252nd Kauravan Conservator Regiment, serving under the command of Lord General Vance Stubbs during the Kaurava Campaign. Unlike many commissars and their commanding officers, he proved to enjoy an amiable relationship with Stubbs, and Farrier served as a part of the lord general's honour guard for nearly the entirety of the campaign.Commissar Anton Gebbett - Regimental commissar of the 1st Kronus Liberators, and second-in-command of the Imperial Guard forces on the world of Kronus during the Dark Crusade of the 41st Millennium in the PC game Dawn of War - Dark Crusade. The commissar's role of maintaining morale is underlined in that if the Imperial Guard headquarters at Victory Bay is attacked, and Commissar Gebbet, placed in command of the regiment's 5th Company (whose loyalty and steadfastness is questionable), is killed, the morale and order of 5th Company deteriorates and they ally themselves with the enemy troops against the rest of the regiment. In game, he is rarely seen without his entourage of Ogryn Bone'eads, who act as his bodyguards during any assault on Victory Bay.Commissar Viktor Hark - Commissar assigned to the Tanith 1st and Only regiment by Lord General Lugo during the campaign on Hagia. Now promoted to regimental commissar by Ibram Gaunt.Commissar Holt - The player's advisor and second-in-command in the turn-based strategy computer game Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000. The only commissar to be portrayed in live-action full motion video by Larry Rew.Commissar Pius Kowle - Pius Kowle was an effective and ruthless commissar beyond reproach, but his actions were not tempered with humility or concern for the troops under his charge. After having a Guardsman flogged to death for wearing the wrong badge on his cap, Commissar Gaunt reported Kowle's heinous actions to Warmaster Slaydo, shortly before the climactic battle on Balhaut during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Kowle felt cheated and robbed of glory and never forgave Gaunt for this personal slight to his honour. Commissar Kowle was reassigned to the world of Verghast to the Vervun Primary Imperial Guard regiments, and took charge as the senior commander of the Vervun Primary Commissariat. This local Commissariat was theoretically subordinate to their parent organisation, the Imperial Commissariat, and possessed fewer powers over regular Imperial Guardsmen, but jurisdiction concerns arose during the Defence of Vervunhive during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Gaunt later placed Kowle under arrest, relieving the commissar of his weapon and his rank pins for various actions he had committed. Kowle then accompanied the small party that Gaunt led to confront Salvador Sondar and reactivate Vervunhive's defence shield. In a fight with a Chaos-corrupted servitor-beast in Sondar's chambers, Kowle killed it by thrusting a cluster of grenades down its jaws, losing both his arms. As he bled to death, he sneered that he had proven his point: that Gaunt was a weakling who didn't have the resolve needed to win. He cursed Gaunt for ruining his career and "robbing" the Crusade of a great leader. As a valediction, Gaunt returned Kowle's rank pins to him in the final moments of his life, and saluted him for "giving his best."Lord Commissar Auys Salieri - The son of senior Departmento Munitorum adepts lost to the Warp, Ayus Salieri was raised from infancy by the tutors and Drill Abbots of the Schola Progenium. After a brief period serving in the Storm Trooper companies, during which time he displayed a natural aptitude for leadership and a steely resolve, Salieri was inducted into the Commissariat. Salieri's career as an Imperial commissar is long and distinguished, and it has been said that he can turn the tide of battle with a single shot. Of course, the shot in question is typically directed at a cowardly or incompetent Imperial officer. Salieri's uncompromising skill, courage, and prowess have gained him the recognition and respect of his peers and superiors, and the fear of those under his command. As zealous and by the book as he is, however, Salieri is no fool, and realises that, occasionally, circumstances warrant subtler methods. In his heavy, black flak coat and peaked cap, emblazoned with a death's head, and the gleaming gas mask he has taken to wearing in Hervara's harsh environs, Salieri perfectly embodies the dread aspect of an Imperial commissar. Icons of his faith and devotion to the Imperium adorn Salieri's armour and uniform as fury and fanaticism are engraved indelibly in his iron mind.Commissar Sebastian Yarrick - Hailed as the greatest commissar in Imperial history, Yarrick was key to the defeat of the Ork invasions in both the Second and Third Wars for Armageddon.Junior Commissar Nahum Ludd - Nahum Ludd is a junior commissar assigned to the Tanith First and Only Imperial Guard regiment, assisting fellow Commissar Viktor Hark with disciplinary duties. Despite his combat experience, the young Ludd was still naive, which prompted the senior Commissar Hark to take the junior commissar under his wing, to teach him the finer points of performing his commissarial duties.Terrax Guard - The world of Terrax is the location of one of the Imperium's largest Schola Progenium facilities, and all the Terrax Guard Astra Militarum regiments raised there are sent through the facility, and trained using the commissarial training program. As such, a Terrax Guard regiment is essentially equivalent to a full regiment of Imperial commissars.
Commissar - Trivia: A commissar was a type of political officer of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union utilised primarily by the armed forces of the former Soviet Union and the present-day People's Republic of China, responsible for political education, control and organisation of the population and military.During the early 20th Century, the term commissar was associated with a number of Cheka (Emergency Committee) and military functions in Bolshevik and Soviet government military forces during the Russian Civil War.The voenkom, translated as "war commissar," was the head of a military commissariat -- a regional office that drafted men for military service, executed plans for military mobilisation and maintained records on military reserves. During the Second World War, these war commissars were the driving force of the Soviet Red Army, ruling with cunning and cold-bloodedness. They were also noted for being extremely strict and would often execute soldiers for retreating in the face of the enemy or for perceived cowardice.Astra Militarum HierarchyGeneral OfficersLord Commander Militant • Warmaster (Lord Solar) • Lord Commander • Lord General Militant • Lord General • GeneralOfficersColonel • Major • Captain • LieutenantNon-Commissioned Officers and EnlistedSergeant • Corporal • Trooper (Guardsman)SpecialistsInquisitor • Commissar • Priest • Tech-Priest • Enginseer • Sanctioned Psyker • Primaris Psyker • Wyrdvane Psyker
Commissar - Sources: Codex: Astra Militarum (6th Edition), pp. 15-16, 21, 28, 31, 53, 57-58, 71, 80-82, 91, 109, 151-153, 184, 200, 307-308Codex: Astra Militarum (8th Edition), pp. 10, 64, 90, 101Codex: Imperial Guard (2nd Edition) pp. 20, 78, 84Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 1st Codex), pp. 6, 13Codex: Imperial Guard (4th Edition), pp. 41, 52-53Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pp. 32, 63Codex ImperialisDark Heresy: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 260Dark Heresy: The Inquisitor's Handbook, pp. 18, 60-61Deathwatch: The Jericho Reach (RPG), pg. 137Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000 (PC Game)Horus Heresy: Collected Visions, pg. 121Only War: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 61Only War: Final Testament (RPG), pg. 136Warhammer 40,000 Compendium (1st Edition), pg. 151Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (3rd Edition), pg. 7White Dwarf 248 (US), "In Defence of Armageddon"White Dwarf 227 (US), "Chapter Approved - Imperial Guard, Commissar Yarrick"White Dwarf 152 (US), "Commissar Yarrick and Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka", pp. 14-22White Dwarf 115 (UK), "Commissar Training Squads," by Nigel Stillman & Sean Masterson, pp. 5-7White Dwarf 113 (UK), "The Pacification of Flotis III"Ciaphas Cain (Novel Series) by Sandy MitchellGaunt's Ghosts (Novel Series) by Dan AbnettRebel Winter (Novel) by Steve Parker, pg. 52Dawn of War - Dark Crusade (PC Game)Dawn of War - Soulstorm (PC Game)Imperial Creed (Novel) by David Annandale, Ch.1, EpilogueThe Pyres of Armageddon (Novel) by David Annandale, Ch.1The Last Ascension of Dominic Seroff (Short Story) by David Annandale
Commorragh - Commorragh: Commorragh, also called the "Dark City," is the massive city-state within the Webway that is the primary home of the Dark Eldar, or Drukhari, kindred of the Aeldari species. It is said to be impossible for outsiders to find, and anarchy and terrorism are a well-established way of life for its debased inhabitants. It is widely believed to be hidden deep within the inter-dimensional labyrinth known as the Webway, described by the Craftworld Aeldari as a "dark stain" growing within their holy pathways.Commorragh is no mere metropolis, for it is to the greatest cities of realspace as a soaring mountain is to a mound of termites. Its dimensions would be considered impossible if they could be read by conventional means, its population greater than that of whole star systems. If anything, Commorragh is more like a vast collection of satellite realms and cities linked by myriad portals and hidden pathways.Viewed from one perspective, Commorragh is a loose collection of far-flung nodes spread throughout the arteries of the Webway like a malevolent virus. Its clustered concentrations are in reality scattered across the galaxy, thousands of light-years apart in places. Yet these locations are linked together by shimmering dimensional shortcuts. Within the Webway, the immense distances between each sub-realm can be crossed with a single step.The Dark City is known to have "wandering shadows that tear apart the unwary" and is bathed in the crimson half-light of the Ilmaea, or "black suns," dying stars taken from realspace by the Aeldari at the height of their technological prowess and installed within their own sub-realms within the Webway to provide Commorragh with light and power.In the final weeks of the 13th Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler in ca. 999.M41, the Craftworld Aeldari collapsed several Webway portals leading to Commorragh, isolating it from much of the rest of the Webway. Given the mutable nature of the Webway, however, the Drukhari can still use artificial Webway portals which are a part of their technological base to create temporary tunnels through the Warp to reach realspace. As a result they remain largely unaffected by their craftworld cousins' actions.
Commorragh - History: Commorragh's origins date to the apex of the lost Aeldari Empire, Terran millennia before Mankind even knew of the Aeldari's existence. It does not exist in realspace, but in the Labyrinth Dimension of the Webway. Yet the Webway is not a true dimension of its own. It has been described instead as a complex network of glowing tunnels through the Warp, a mystic tapestry of hidden threads that breach the veil between the Immaterium and realspace.These analogies are only crude approximations of the reality that the Webway is a physical construct created to span the dimensions that underlie the material realm. The Webway sits between the material universe and the hyperdimensional, psychically-reactive reality that is the Warp, a nexus comparable to the surface of a mirror or a thin piece of fabric cast over something foul and dangerous.The ancient Aeldari discovered that it was possible to harness their advanced technology to exist within that reflective interdimensional surface and to move within the interlocking threads of that veil. The Aeldari mastered the original Webway network, though it has changed greatly in the long millennia since the end of the Aeldari Empire, reshaped by the disaster of the Fall that claimed so many Aeldari souls. Moving between the dimensions is an activity that is always fraught with danger, but such is the skill and technological prowess of the surviving Aeldari that they still choose to do so without hesitation.Though used by the Aeldari, the Webway was originally forged by the ancient and immensely powerful species known as the Old Ones. They created its vast network of tunnels through the Immaterium millions of Terran years ago to allow them to travel at will to the far-flung worlds across the galaxy that served as their colonies, seed planets and research projects. The Webway allowed the Old Ones to enjoy near-instantaneous interstellar travel without risking exposure to the dangers of the Warp.Since the Fall of the Aeldari, the Webway has become a shattered and extremely dangerous realm, its darkest corners infested by strange entities from the many different realities that comprise the Warp. Yet the Webway's myriad portals still allow the courageous and the malevolent to strike without warning at millions of locations in realspace throughout the galaxy.Commorragh was originally the greatest of the Webway's portal-cities before the Fall and was intended to be used to transport a fleet to any of the homeworlds of the Aeldari Empire. Because of the access it could grant to even the most far-flung corners of the galaxy in realspace, Commorragh was held by the ancient Aeldari to be the most important location within the entire Webway. Because of this intrinsic strategic value, it was not controlled by any of the dominant factions within the Aeldari Empire.Precisely because of its autonomy from the jurisdiction of the great Aeldari councils that governed the empire, the city-port soon became a magnet for all those inhabitants of the Aeldari civilisation who wished to hide from prying eyes. The realm of Commorragh rapidly expanded as all the wealth and influence of the great Aeldari Empire and its allies flowed into its coffers.It spread outward into the Webway's void, consuming the other port-cities, private estates and satellite realms of the Labyrinth Dimension, growing ever larger and even more impressive off the plunder of ten thousand worlds.
Commorragh - Satellite Realms: Beyond the runic wards that define the borders of Commorragh lie the tributary realms of the Drukhari, ancient vassal states of the Dark City dating back to the Fall of the Aeldari. These are the hidden domains in which the Drukhari enact their vile rites and Machiavellian schemes. To venture unheralded past these satellite realms is to invite destruction -- many large and territorial Kabals of Drukhari reside within their twisted geometries, deadly pirate bands of pitiless warriors who live only to inflict pain on others, and will suffer no intrusion on their realms.Worse things lurk in their crooked shadows, or swoop swiftly and silently through the air above in their never-ending hunt for prey. These are the hidden domains in which the Drukhari enact their vile rites and devilish schemes.Their origins lie in the tumultuous times that preceded the Fall: as the Aeldari Empire's hedonistic cults of excess began to thrive, the private realms they maintained within the Webway flourished unseen until the largest of their number grew large enough to pose a threat to Commorragh itself.Over the course of its long history, the Dark City has absorbed all of the vassal domains that it has not destroyed outright, linking one massive sub-realm to another using ancient Webway portals and gates. Within the gilded corridors and flesh-pits of these myriad satellite realms cavort those debauched Aeldari who are responsible for the fall of their own species. Despite all the terror and misery that has befallen the Aeldari since the Fall, these self-absorbed hedonists still laugh at the warnings of their sober Craftworld Aeldari counterparts.
Commorragh - Geography of the Dark City: In the deepest depths of the Webway lies Commorragh, the primary home of the Drukhari. It is often called the "Dark City" by those who fear even to speak its name. But Commorragh is no mere city as Humans think of the term, since it makes even the largest of Mankind's hive cities seem to be no more than a termite mound in comparison to its mountainous bulk.Its dimensions would be considered outright impossible if Commorragh existed within the confines of the physical universe rather than the Webway. Commorragh is more like a vast, interlinked network of satellite Webway realms and cities linked by innumerable portals and hidden interdimensional pathways.In reality, the Dark City is a loose collection of far-flung Drukhari habitation nodes spread across the arteries of the Webway like a malignant cancer. Its nodal clusters are scattered at various points across the entire galaxy, thousands of actual light years apart. Yet these locations are linked together by shimmering interdimensional portals. As such, from the perspective within the Webway's confines, the immense distances between each of the different sub-realms of Commorragh can be crossed with but a single step, using the Labyrinth Dimension's non-Euclidean physics to teleport seemingly instantaneously across the stars.Commorragh appears within the Webway to be a composite urban centre on an impossibly vast scale, a hazy, contradictory realm whose dimensions can overawe the sanity of any who approach it. Thousands of starships dock each day at its spires, for the Drukhari are a far more numerous species than the Imperium of Man or even their own Craftworld Aeldari kin fully suspect.Yet Commorragh plays host to more than just the Drukhari kindred of the Aeldari. Many diverse species of alien mercenaries, bounty hunters and renegades all risk their souls to do business in Commorragh, hoping to claim just some of the riches to be had in the Dark City. The reaches of the interdimensional space around Commorragh are filled with the light-trails of spacecraft that pass between the Dark City and the Webway portals that surround it.Some of these gateways into realspace are small and dim, while those above the largest city-states of the realm are massive and can accommodate an entire pirate fleet with ease. A profusion of thorny dock-spurs juts from every spire and starscraper, holding Drukhari and other strangely-shaped xenos spacecraft fast in crackling violet beams of electromagnetic force.At present, Commorragh is an almost-infinite nest of architectural impossibilities and spatial anomalies. Each of its estates has been overdeveloped to the point that their growth has been forced into the vertical plane, the various regions sprouting upwards like needle-plants fighting for sunlight.Each of the Dark City's spires and starscrapers is linked to its fellows by curved arches and gossamer-like buttresses. Its kilometres-tall aeries and palaces both reach upwards and downwards simultaneously, spiralling into the depths of the Webway's curved space-time. With every Terran year that passes, the hideous city seeks to spread out over more of the dimension that serves as its foundation.
Commorragh - Low Commorragh: Around the titanic central spires of the Dark City are the trading districts of the old Aeldari Empire. The lowliest of ports was once an architectural masterpiece millennia ago, but the ravages of civil war have not been kind. Low Commorragh now consists of a mixture of shattered ruins and scavenged former glories. Numerous dilapidated fortress complexes and barter-ports now spread out in every direction.The lesser Kabals riddle the extremities of the angular black spires with opportunistic growth. The labyrinthine depths of the outer zones are so congested that a traveller could travel for solar months on end without so much as a glimpse of one of the city's stolen suns. Many areas that have been twisted beyond recognition by the tremendous upheaval of the Fall of the Aeldari are haunted by scavengers and spectres. Within the pitch-black catacombs of Low Commorragh there lurks far larger and uglier creatures than the Drukhari, for they are prowled by the lost, and the feral thrive there.One could not possibly visit all the outer districts of Low Commorroagh in a single lifetime, for they are many and varied. Attempting to catalogue them would prove fatal, for the Drukhari are highly territorial and tend to kill intruders on sight.One such outer district is Hidden Blade, a crucially placed Kabalite stronghold that sticks out between Port Carmine and Nightsound Ghulen. Port Carmine is second only in violent reputation to the Port of Lost Souls, the largest port of the Dark City that is the principle spaceport from which slaves are brought into Commorragh and raiding parties despatched to bring further captives.Port Carmine is a violent realm, suffering from constant gang warfare between rival Kabals. The immensely tall spires of the starport sprout outward for kilometres, each host to a fleet of ornate spacecraft. Port Carmine's central docks play host to the spectacle of two major Kabalite fleets at full anchor, the Slashed Eye Kabal and the bloodthirsty Stolen Conscience, locked in a never-ending struggle for dominance.Around Port Carmine lay the war-torn ruins known as the Sprawls. Their bleak streets play host to the "Parched," cadaverous Drukhari that have fallen from grace and wound up on the fringes of their violent society. These wretches are drawn ravenously to a battle whenever one breaks out, vicariously experiencing the acts of extreme violence and drinking in the bloody spectacle to rejuvenate their wasted bodies. Occasionally they will drag an unfortunate soul who has been fatally wounded into the dark alleyways, where the Parched will fight one another over the scraps of the departing soul.The Sprawls eventually give way to a network of atriums and chambers through which flow the toxic acid-green waterway known as the River Khaïdes. This polluted waterway winds around and through the outer districts of central Corespur, shrouded in subterranean darkness and wreathed in mist. Above the toxic surface of the foul river drift thin grav-craft bedecked in faded grandeur. The sorry hosts of these craft earn what little they can by hooking corpses from the Khaïdes and selling them as slave-food. These corpse-fishers often fall prey to Jetbikes and sky-chariots which streak through the air above the river at dizzying velocity, slashing apart the unfortunate victims in merciless contests of speed.The mercenary district of Sec Maegra is found further coreward, and is more popularly known as "Null City;" a nation-sized shanty town permanently riven by civil war. The permanent smell of cordite hangs over the roofs of the shanties, and every few solar minutes fresh screams pierce the silence. The scorched streets resound with solid-shot gunfire and the crack-spit of Splinter Rifles at night, as negotiations and assassinations turn out badly. It is said that occasionally xenos mercenaries can be found stalking the streets of Null City. It is even rumoured that from time to time the most vicious of their number are called upon to serve the Kabals.
Commorragh - Inward to the Core: Within the inner rings that surround the Dark City's core can be found the oldest Drukhari noble houses. Descendants of the architects of the Fall of the Aeldari live in massive mansions that are crested by citadels full of proud aristocratic warriors. Sorrow Fell, the largest of these city-states, can trace its lineage to the ancient Aeldari.It surrounds a massive promontory that leads into the region known as Corespur. Thirteen screaming statues of Supreme Overlord Asdrubael Vect stand sentinel over Sorrow Fell, each representing one of the Foundations of Vengeance, serving as stark reminders that even the most powerful of the Drukhari noble houses was ultimately undone by the raw intellect of a Drukhari who was once a slave.Aelindrach is one of the Dark City's ancient city-states that has literally fallen into shadow, existing in more than one dimension at once. Here amongst the velvet domes the dreaded Mandrakes make their lairs, bathing in the darkness.The outskirts of Aelindrach give way to the Bone Middens of the Wych Cults, a district buried under mounds of calciferous matter. Here can be found a massive ossuary of millions of skeletons, representative of each self-aware species in existence, ranging in size from insects to massive colossi, positioned in grim tableaus and mock battles. They stand throughout the Middens as a testament to the Drukhari's status as the apex predator of the galaxy.Beneath these inner districts are ranged the weapon and food factories of the city that are massive in scale. They spread outward and down into the lower spires underneath the Old City. Each year these factories ravenously consume millions of workers and slaves; Humans, Orks, T'au and even other Drukhari are amongst their number.Divisions of cruel taskmasters watch over their charges, each of which is locked in a murderous rivalry with their peers. The world beneath the Old City puts out prodigious output of war materiel, allowing the Drukhari war machine to wage its ceaseless war against all intelligent species in realspace. Without such labour performed on such a massive scale, the Dark City would soon be forced to feed upon itself.
Commorragh - High Commorragh: The impossibly high structures of the Dark City's upper regions are the province of the Drukhari warrior elites. Thousand-foot idols of Kabalite Archons and Dracons stand incomplete amongst the spiralling starscrapers that vanish beyond sight. Blood continuously drips down from the highest spires in squalls of red raid. Slaves are forced to crawl across the facias of titanic buildings, suspended in near-invisible webs as they labour to carve titanic likenesses of their cruel masters.Further toward the core, the central mass of towers, statues and spires forms a close-packed threatre for inter-Kabalite war. Mercenaries and armoured bounty hunters clad in segmented Ghostplate move steathily under the vaulted arches, stalking those with a high price on their heads.The battleground that exists above the thickets of spires and towers plays host to the deadly world of the Scourges, terrifying aerial predators, as well as the lightning-fast Jetbike pilots who hunt them for sport. Though most of High Commorragh is controlled under the iron rule of the Kabalite masters, this volatile region is firmly under the control of these aerial apex predators.Those who dwell in the aeries of High Commorragh consider themselves blessed, and have little but contempt for those who fester in what they scornfully term, Ynnealidh, "the necropolis below," their term for the entire rest of the Dark City.Further down into the murk of Commorragh lies the Middle Darkness, an area plagued by Hellion gangs. These skyboard-riding rebels fly through the foul air in great swarms that attack on sight. Though these gangs are known to be feral and wild, they are not adverse to allying with the Kabals for the right price when a realspace raid is in the offing.
Commorragh - Arenas of the Wych Cults: The Wych Cults of the Drukhari stage displays of ultraviolence in the massive areans built into their lofty citadels and razor-edged ziggurats, allowing the citizens of High Commorragh to feed upon the acts of wanton murder and killing refined to the level of an art form. These multi-level structures are clustered with barbed stages upon which thousands of warriors and slaves meet a gruesome end. The arena's spectators observe from ornate thrones or from anti-gravitic pleasure-craft, drinking in the pain from a thrillingly unsafe distance.Wyches are paragons of physical perfection, and the Syrens and Succubi that rule over them are supernaturally adept at the art of dealing death. The ruling archons of the Kabals know that without the imaginative displays of killing put on in the Wych arenas, Drukhari society would soon collapse in order to slake its eternal thirst for suffering. This practice of feeding the populace of High Commorragh with regular displays of bloodletting is known amongst the archons as Lith'antu Khlavh, "the knife that stays the blade."Around the peaks of the Wych Houses are the toroid arenas, elaborately curved racetrack complexes famous for their death races. Cliques of elite Jetbike pilots known as Reavers take part in fighting battles at breakneck speeds around the curvilinear interior of each arena, hurtling past the ingenious traps and moving blades of each deathscape, careening into each other with their custom-bladed craft and mowing down those nearby with blasts from their sophisticated weaponry.
Commorragh - The Haemonculi - Dwellers Beneath: The underworld that lies beneath Commorragh is an exceptionally dangerous place. It is the domain of the Haemonculi, a twisted brotherhood of Drukhari torturers and monsters so ancient and thoroughly steeped in evil that their continued existence requires daily acts of indescribable torment.The seedy underside of Commorragh is host to almost as many edifices and spires as the top. Clustered together, these spires are often hollowed out by controlled acts of destruction in order to form cavernous lairs. Within these deadly complexes, the Haemonculi ply their trade, dealing body modification, fleshcrafting, drug distillation, and beauty elixirs.Often times, Haemonculi of similar bent are wont to form into "covens," which occupies a vast demesne of cells and laboratories under the core. Here they practise their vile experiments, torturing the unfortunates that fall into their clutches and savouring their endless torment and pain like a fine meal.Most Haemonculi covens dwell at the bottom of spiral-edged pits underneath the Core. At the heart of each spiralling labyrinth, the eldest and most vile Haemonculi dwell at the heart, revelling in epic depravities of their own invention.
Commorragh - Khaine's Gate: In the depths of Commorragh's central Undercore, in a region known only to a select few, stands a massive, circular metal door. This door -- known as Khaine's Gate -- is emblazoned with glowing runes of warding, bound shut with chains of superdense starsteel. For Terran millennia, since the time of the Fall of the Aeldari, it has remained this way.Beyond Khaine's Gate lies the madness of the Warp, a hideous rent in the otherwise smooth fabric of the Webway that can never be stitched shut or severed. The consequences for the Dark City would be dire indeed were Khaine's Gate ever to be breached, for Commorragh would be opened to the realm of the Warp and the hellish denizens within.The Daemons of the Empyrean would love to feast upon the souls of the Drukhari as readily as they would upon the galaxy's more benevolent peoples.
Commorragh - The Stolen Suns: Far above the glinting metallic peaks of Commorragh are the Ilmaea, or "black suns," dying stars ablaze with poisoned light that were captured and harnessed to serve as energy sources for Commorragh at the height of the lost Aeldari Empire. Though held in sub-realms of their own, these celestial phenomena provide a near-endless supply of energy to the Dark City.Their twilight hues glint from the hulls of grav-vehicles that swarm from spire to tower, from arena to battleground. Every now and then, a thin solar flare curls from a captive sun out into Commorragh, briefly illuminating the horrors below. Each such flare is reflected from a billion panes of crystal across the Dark City, and yet it will be barely heeded by the teeming citizens, for they know that the captured suns' claws were blunted long ago.Though a few solar cults still exist in Commorragh, most Drukhari view their tame stars with contempt; to them, they are but another resource to be mercilessly exploited. It is said that no starlight can shine upon the Drukhari without being harnessed, bled away and eventually snuffed out altogether.
Commorragh - A Realm Unbound: Described above is but a fraction of the surreal sights and landscapes scattered throughout dread Commorragh. Across the Rift of Dead Hope, pillars of bone reach up to form a makeshift bridge into the Pale Fortress.In the City of Titans, enormous statues enact historic assassinations and coups with terrible inevitability.Vitreous Heap is filled to capacity with piles of glassened body parts, sorted into a landscape of limbs, torsos and heads, and in the bleak wilds of Iron Thorn the choking gut-clouds of the red smog bring the corpses of the cursed back to life.Cyclopean gates of crackling jade fire link one realm of Commorragh to another, guarded by the most vigilant warriors, and in Devil's Orchard noisome hanging gardens of grave-lotus sprout from a mosaic of the dead.There is no end to the depths of the Dark City, just as there is no end to the chilling depravity of its occupants.
Commorragh - Life in Commorragh: Asdrubael Vect, Archon of the Kabal of the Black Heart and the present supreme overlord of the Dark City, once related to the Human torture slave, Gideon, how the Drukhari arose and how Commorragh came to exist. Vect made it clear that Commorragh exists within the Webway:"It seemed there was but one way of escaping Her (the Chaos God Slaanesh, known as "She Who Thirsts" to the Aeldari) and that was to flee our homes and leave the physical world behind forever. We came here, into the realm between worlds that we created to traverse the galaxy safe from harm. Here, the Great Enemy's grip is weakened, yet to our lord's horror it was not wholly broken. He had bought his people time, a little instant of time but nothing more. Others followed him, each choosing a place for themselves, building new shrines and around them great palaces. Here, where you sit now, is one of the chambers of the original Temple of the Black Heart. You are very privileged, you know. Not many survive to get this far. Most of them break before they even reach the second level."A quote from The Annals of Terror, penned by Lasko Pyre, posthumously pronounced a Heretic by the Inquisition, (but died by his own hand in 647.M34), describes Commorragh thusly:"What can one say of Commorragh, the Dark City of the Eldar? It is the embodiment of anarchy and terror. It is fear, hatred and desperation incarnate. How long I was enslaved in that timeless city, I cannot say. There is no day or night, just an eternal twilight, an ever-present ruddy glow that bathes all living things in blood light. The air is filled with screams and cruel laughter. When they put out my eyes, my ears alone still conveyed that omnipresent aura of dread and loathing.""They took great delight in telling us what tortures and agonies they had prepared, using dread-ridden anticipation as another means to increase our suffering. When the Masters deigned to speak to us, they bought arcane machines to translate their words; they would not sully their tongues with the language of others. Most of my fellow slaves fell beneath the blades and poisons of those tortures beyond compare; the Haemonculi. Sometimes a Succubus of the Wyches would come and take the fittest to battle against brutal creatures and skilled fighters in the death of arenas. Ten men at a time, great warriors amongst humanity, would face a lone gladiator. They stood no chance against the Wyches; who delighted in toying with their foe, slashing and cutting, darting to and fro, leaving a trickle of blood with every pass. No-one dies quickly in the Dark City.""They prey upon each other as much as their captives. The great Kabals may hold power, but in the twisting alleys and dusk-shrouding corridors, allegiance is secondary to martial skill. To stray into the wrong territory is tantamount to suicide, running battles are fought every day, blood is spilt constantly. The ghastly Mandrakes are the worst, one wizened old slave told us. They stalk the shadows at will, plucking their victims from their homes, ambushing the unwary and slicing them to death with their claws. We were never truly imprisoned in the slave quarters, but it was clear that if we left, we would be at the mercy of the Dark City -- a barrier more effective than any amount of walls, fences and razorwire.""They made no attempt to hide their deceitful ways, actually glorifying in treachery and betrayal. Assassination, murder and double-dealing are established ways of life to these decadents. Ownership of myself changed hands so many times that I was unsure who were my masters and who were their enemies. Some times I was stolen, other times I was traded for raw souls, given as a prize in the arena, or simply taken as a right of conquest.""Life is worthless in the Dark City, only pain, misery and death have value. Others I saw, humans amongst them, who took to this depraved life with natural empathy. They bowed down to the Eldar and treated them as lords, in return for favours. It is claimed that the most promising are taken as apprentices by the Haemonculi. Most end up as twisted creatures in permanent agony, but others survive and learn, to be let free again into the outside world to spread their corrupt ways.""The Hellions are a constant plague to all, they race through the winding streets, blades shimmering as they randomly lop off limbs and heads with wanton glee. They gather for insane races; goaded by each other they attempt death-defying feats of aerial skill. Many die, and when one of the Masters die others quickly gather to feed upon the escaping soul. They fight each other, bite and claw if they have no weapons, to partake of that precious essence.""My escape was miraculous; the Emperor must have rewarded my undying faith in those times. However, though I am physically free, my body bears the scars; the many, many scars. Every breath takes me to a new plane of agony, every heartbeat sets my jagged nerves with writhing pain. I cannot see. I cannot speak. Most horrid of all, I cannot forget. Nightmares and waking visions plague me, the drip of my own blood, the cries of anguish haunt me.""No-one escapes the Dark City."
Commune - Commune: A commune, or kavaal in the T'au Lexicon, also sometimes translated into Low Gothic as a "battle," is a large T'au Fire Caste military unit of organisation that is a temporary grouping of contingents and the highest level of Fire Caste military organisation thus far committed in the field by the T'au Empire.Communes are often formed by contingents drawn from different septs, and although rarely seen before the Damocles Gulf Crusade, they are now more regularly formed, most famously during the solar-decade-long campaign against the Orks known as the Great War of Confederation. Only the combined forces of many septs could have hoped to stop the gargantuan Ork WAAAGH! that threatened the empire, necessitating the widespread use of this level of organisation.
Company (Space Marine) - Company (Space Marine): A company is one of the standard organisational units within a Space Marine Chapter, normally comprised of 100 Astartes led by an officer with the rank of captain.It is the largest of such formations within a Chapter, and a single company of Astartes is still a potent force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, fully able to engage and destroy the enemies of Mankind without any external support.
Company (Space Marine) - History: The Space Marine Legions, also known as the Legiones Astartes in High Gothic, were the original unit formations of the Space Marines created during the First Founding by the Emperor of Mankind on Terra in the late 30th Millennium. A Space Marine Legion was a frontline force of shock-infantry comprising tens of thousands of Astartes warriors armed and equipped with the finest wargear the Imperium could supply.A Space Marine Legion, unlike the 1,000-warrior Chapters of the present-day Adeptus Astartes created after the Second Founding, could number anywhere from 10,000 to more than 250,000 Space Marines. The Legions were massive armies, and the size of each could vary tremendously. A precise, pre-set formation was never truly achieved or maintained. Even during the Great Crusade some Legions were very large, while others were not. The size of each Legion was fluid, with the numbers of combat-ready Astartes dependent on the number of new recruits, the inevitable battle-losses, the availability of potential recruits, and the administrative skills of the Legion's primarch and his officers.Much of the discipline and organisation of the early Astartes Legions owed greatly to the ancient and proven Terran patterns of strategy, hierarchy and functions as laid down in the revered texts of the Principia Belicosa of ancient Roma and the mid-M2 general Krom's fragmentary "New Model" army that had survived in the hands of the tyrants of Old Earth down the blood-stained generations of the Age of Strife.To these venerable treatises and their ilk the Emperor and His commanders had added their own genius and created a sturdy but adaptable strategic framework that spoke to the fundamental strengths and transhuman abilities of the Legionaries themselves. At the outset of the Great Crusade, in ca. 798.M30, many of these early Legions were organised along the so-called "Terran Pattern" of organisation as formulated by the Imperial Officio Militaris.By the time of the outbreak of inter-Legionary hostilities during the Isstvan III Atrocity, the command and organisational structure of a Space Marine Legion was often more a mirror of the character and preferences of its primarch and its abiding culture than formal writ. While certain formations and features were common as an outgrowth of practical manners such as deployment and logistics, their organisation and use was far from standardised.During the Great Crusade there were numerous terms for the internal constituent units of a Space Marine Legion, from largest to smallest: great companies, regiments, chapters, battalions, cohorts, demi-chapters, companies, squads and maniples. Most often, the practical reality of their disposition would vary still more as terminology used within different Legions for equivalent ranks and specialisations bore the mark of the Legion's character rather than the desires of the Imperium's central administrators for a common nomenclature. In some cases this discrepancy increased as local languages and dialects such as Fenrisian or Khal'd had come to replace Imperial Terran (the forerunner of High Gothic).
Company (Space Marine) - Pre-Heresy: The heart of most Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy was the company, which served as the Legion's principal military division. Made up of a grouping of squads under the leadership of an officer with the rank of captain, the company was the base currency of campaigns and battles. Within some Legions, such as the Sons of Horus, there was no fixed strength for a company. While other Legions codified and enforced strict limits on the size of similar formations, this was not the case amongst the Sons of Horus, which had begun in more regimented form, but had become increasingly ad hoc in structure and disposition over time.Company strengths as small as 36 and as large as 972 Astartes were recorded by datafactors during the XVIth Legion's action against the Dasim Patrimony, for example. The configuration of squad types within a company varied as widely as its strength. Some were comprised almost exclusively of Legion Tactical Squads with the addition of a few support squads such as Legion Heavy Support Squads and Legion Tactical Support Squads. Others were an eclectic mix based on the varied requirements of different campaigns and the will of their Primarch Horus.In other Space Marine Legions a company would form part of further layers of hierarchical military organisation, variously referred to as battalions, cohorts, chapters, regiments or by any number of other titles. Horus seems to have preferred to avoid this extra layer of fixed organisation, which eroded over time in the XVIth Legion and was largely academic by the time of their transition to become the Sons of Horus. Instead of a formal structure, Horus would group companies and individual units together as required for the execution of a particular campaign. The commander of such a formation would usually be a senior captain.If the formation was especially large, then other captains would take on the role of lieutenants to the overall force commander until the completion of the campaign. These formations rarely had formal titles, but the Sons of Horus commonly referred to formations intended to prosecute a rapid assault as "speartips."In eschewing formality and fixed structure above the basic level of the company, Horus demonstrated his pragmatism and his preference for waging war with careful precision. Within the Luna Wolves and the Sons of Horus, squads also commonly had their own honorific or epithetic titles rather than simple numerations: the Illuminators Prime, Death Makers, Jerrok's Reavers, the First Sons, and similar appellations, while some were named for the sergeant or chieftain that led them if their leader's own reputation was strong enough alone.Many of these titles betrayed the culture of Cthonian gang honours and the tradition of reputation and internecine warfare from which they had sprung. This culture had grown steadily stronger over the years within the rank-and-file of the XVIth Legion's intake of neophytes from Horus' homeworld rather than Terra.
Company (Space Marine) - Post-Heresy: In the wake of the calamity that was the Horus Heresy, the foundations of the present-day Imperium were laid down. The first High Lords of Terra established the structure by which the Adeptus Terra operated, and described the feudal responsibilities and duties of the planetary governors. One of the most important accomplishments was the reorganisation of the Imperium's military forces.This was undertaken almost single-handedly by the primarch of the Ultramarines Legion, Roboute Guilliman, named the lord commander of the Imperium and the Imperial Regent in the wake of the Siege of Terra, who with his characteristic speed and efficiency codified the structure of the Astra Militarum, the Navis Imperialis, and the newborn Adeptus Astartes.Of all of his works, the most influential is the Codex Astartes, the great prescriptive tome that lays down the basic organisational and tactical rules for a Space Marine Chapter. The Codex Astartes decreed that Space Marines would be created and trained over a relatively lengthy and controlled period of time, largely due to the fact that the easy corruption of so many Space Marines during the Heresy was believed to be the result of the accelerated means used to both create and train the Astartes of the late Great Crusade period.The Chapters that rigidly follow the word of the Codex Astartes are sometimes referred to as "Codex Chapters" or "Codex-compliant Chapters." These Space Marines adhere to the Codex as the model for their organisation, identification markings and tactical doctrine. Of all the Codex Chapters, the most famous is the Ultramarines, the Chapter of Roboute Guilliman himself. Most Chapters, however, do not adhere so rigidly to the Codex patterns laid down for organisation, tactical roles, or other processes. Many Chapters are organised largely according to the Codex, but are further shaped by the culture of their homeworld and the personality of their primarch. The Blood Angels and Dark Angels are prime examples of these.A small number of Chapters are vastly different from the Codex, and owe little or nothing to its prescriptions at all. The most famous of these non-Codex Chapters are the Space Wolves, whose strong-willed Primarch Leman Russ moulded his Chapter very much in his own image, irrespective of other influences. The Adeptus Terra has never decreed it necessary to enforce the Codex absolutely. Indeed, it is doubtful whether it could if it so chose.Each standard Codex Astartes-compliant Space Marine Chapter is composed of 10 companies: The 1st Company, which includes the Veteran Space Marines of the Chapter, the 4 Battle Companies (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) composed of already battle-hardened Astartes, 4 Reserve Companies (6th, 7th, 8th and 9th) grouping those battle-brothers who are still in some way learning to master all the tools of war, and the 10th Company containing all the Scout Marines who are still in the process of becoming full Astartes.In theory, each of the ten companies is self-sufficient in terms of personnel and materiel, and able to operate on its own. When faced with a call to war most Chapter Masters tend to assign a single Battle Company to deal with the problem and supplement that company with smaller elements from the 1st Company, Reserve Companies and/or Scout Company, depending on the foe they are facing. This way of waging war has proven its worth in countless engagements since the end of the Horus Heresy and the Second Founding reforms instigated by Roboute Guilliman.Each company has roughly 100 Space Marines plus support staff (except the Scout Company which has no pre-determined number of warriors or squads). Veteran Companies have 100 Veteran Astartes who can go to battle in either standard power armour or Terminator Armour. Thus, Veteran Companies can have up to 20 5-man Terminator Squads, 10 10-man Veteran Squads, or some combination of both.Battle Companies have 6 10-warrior Tactical Squads, 2 10-warrior Assault Squads, and 2 10-warrior Devastator Squads.Reserve Companies have ten 10-warrior squads, all of the same type. The first 2 Reserve Companies contain 10 10-warrior Tactical Squads. The third Reserve Company has 10 10-warrior Assault Squads. The fourth Reserve Company has 10 10-warrior Devastator Squads.Scout Companies have variable numbers of Scout Squads and squad sizes. Each company usually includes officers (captains, Chaplains, Apothecaries, and Ancients), as well as Dreadnoughts, Rhinos, Attack Bikes, Land Speeders, and Land Raiders.Other officers, such as Librarians, Techmarines, etc. and vehicles -- Predators, Whirlwinds, Vindicators, etc. -- are held by the company command, which is not an independent fighting unit. When its members and vehicles fight, they do so alongside those of the company.
Company (Space Marine) - Era Indomitus: The above scheme of Space Marine company organisation has been heavily revised in the years since the birth of the Great Rift at the dawn of the Era Indomitus, the alterations made to the Codex Astartes by the resurrected Primarch Roboute Guilliman and the introduction of the Primaris Space Marines into the Adeptus Astartes.As before, the organisation of a Space Marine Chapter in the wake of the Ultima Founding of the Primaris Marines comprises 1,000 battle-brothers.In comparison to the teeming multitudes of the Emperor's original Space Marine Legions this is few indeed, yet history has proven time and time again that such an elite gathering of martial strength can conquer star systems and even alter the fate of the galaxy itself.After the resurrection of Roboute Guilliman in ca. 999.M41 and his restoration as the ruling lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent, the Codex Astartes was revised for the new era of the Dark Imperium that began with the birth of the Great Rift and the demands of the Indomitus Crusade.Under the revised organisational scheme, each of the ten companies of a Chapter still boasts one hundred warriors, led by a captain -- a veteran of countless wars -- and now often two lieutenants as sub-company leaders. A company is still organised into ten squads of ten Space Marines, each led by a sergeant.The strategic deployment, disposition and leadership of these companies is regulated by the Chapter Command, while their armoured support requirements are fulfilled by the Armoury.However, the guidelines in Guilliman's updated Codex provide for up to twenty squads of five battle-brothers. Furthermore, recent precepts allow for each Battle Company to be reinforced with auxiliary warriors. These additional squads are reassigned from the Reserve Companies.
Company (Space Marine) - 1st Company: Of the ten companies, the 1st still consists of the Chapter's most experienced Veterans, and is therefore the most powerful. The Veterans of the 1st Company are still trained to fight in Terminator Armour. It is extremely rare for the Veteran Company to be deployed en masse -- its units normally take to the field alongside the Chapter's Battle Companies.Whether they be Primaris Marine Intercessors, Vanguard Marine jump troops or Terminator-armoured strike squads, they are often denoted as the Chapter's pre-eminent warriors by their white helms.
Company (Space Marine) - Battle Companies: The revised Codex Astartes decrees that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Companies are still designated as Battle Companies, each nominally broken into two demi-companies of roughly equal size and composition. These generally carry the weight of a Chapter's combat duties. Battle Companies consist of at least six battleline squads, two close support squads and two fire support squads.Battle Companies provide their commanding officers with a flexible force that can respond to rapidly shifting tactical objectives at a moment's notice.Squads within Battle Companies may be broken down and deployed across a variety of roles should it be required; for example, were six battle-brothers to take to the field as Aggressors, the remaining four warriors of their squad might find roles piloting Invictor warsuits, driving the strike force's Rhino APCs and the like. Or Assault Squads, a type of close support squad, may be deployed as Bike Squads or Land Speeder crews and, just as with their fire support brethren known as Devastators, may take to battle as Centurion warsuit pilots.Many Space Marine strike forces are constructed around squads drawn from a single Battle Company, heavily reinforced by elements of the Veteran, Scout and Reserve Companies.
Company (Space Marine) - Reserve Companies: The Reserve Companies are entirely composed of squads of the same designation. They normally act in support of the Battle Companies and provide a source of replacements for any casualties suffered by the frontline formations.Typically, the 6th and 7th Companies both comprise ten battleline squads, while the 8th Company consists entirely of close support squads and the 9th entirely fire support squads.Their main function is to reinforce the Battle Companies, providing a source of replacements for any casualties suffered on the front line and thus ensuring the Adeptus Astartes retain their effectiveness in protracted or bloody campaigns.Furthermore, the Codex now allows for each Battle Company to be bolstered with additional squads reassigned from the Reserve Companies; the presence of these warriors can take a company's numbers temporarily above the traditional limit of 100 Astartes, lending them the additional strength to overcome especially challenging foes.The 6th Company also trains in the use of Assault Bikes and may be deployed entirely as Bike Squads or Outrider Squads.Similarly, squads of the 7th Company are trained to fight with Land Speeders, Storm Speeders and Stormtalons, often acting as a light vehicle reserve formation.The 8th Company is the Close Support Company and is most often used in an invasion role, or wherever a strong, hand-to-hand fighting force is needed.The 9th Company is the Fire Support Company and is the most heavily equipped company in the Chapter, and its heavy cannon-toting Astartes provide unparalleled fire support to their more lightly-equipped comrades.It is also not uncommon for the Reserve Companies to form hard-hitting specialised forces in their own right. They may be deployed to seize or defend important objectives in larger conflicts, the concentrated firepower of so many fire support battle-brothers or the line-breaking fury of massed close support warriors proving the decisive factor in many such engagements.The specialised nature of each of the Reserve Companies sees them deployed in quite specific circumstances. The battleline warriors of the 6th and 7th Companies will often act as crews for large, independent formations of the various armoured vehicles deployed by the Chapter, allowing commanders to field entire companies of anti-grav skimmers, battle tanks or other swift assault vehicles.The highly mobile nature of the 8th Company's close support squads -- often equipped with Jump Packs or embarked aboard transport vehicles -- sees them used in a rapid assault role, as well as wherever a strong hand-to-hand fighting force is needed.The 9th Company, being the most heavily equipped in the Chapter, is used to bolster defensive lines and strongholds, as well as provide long-range support.In most Chapters, Space Marines progress through the Reserve Companies -- from the 9th through to the 6th. During his time in the Reserve Companies, a battle-brother will prove his mettle while learning new methods of warfare.
Company (Space Marine) - Scout Company: The Chapter's 10th Company is still its Scout Company. The majority of its members are neophyte Scout Marines -- those whose combat training, physical transformation and cultural indoctrination into the Chapter is still incomplete -- but the company now also contains a standing force of ten Vanguard Space Marine squads.These warriors can be called upon to conduct a variety of stealth operations behind enemy lines.The revised Codex Astartes dictates no formal size for a Scout Company as the rate of recruitment is not fixed, meaning that some Chapters will be able to field comparatively large 10th Company formations while others must husband their limited resources carefully.
Company (Space Marine) - Chapter Armoury: All companies, except the Scout Company, maintain a small fleet of Rhino, Razorback and Repulsor armoured transports. The Veteran 1st Company also has a permanent complement of Land Raiders of different patterns and Stormraven gunships for carrying Terminators into the heart of battle.A Chapter's other armoured vehicles form a pool, maintained by the Armoury, that company captains can draw upon. Many companies also include a number of Dreadnoughts of different patterns, including the Primaris Marines' Redemptor Dreadnought.Every company has its own Dreadnoughts; after being interred in the metal sarcophagus, it is customary for a fallen Space Marine to fall under the care and maintenance of the Chapter Armoury, but to remain a part of the company in which he served. Not only are these venerable and mighty warriors valuable battlefield assets for the devastation they can wreak upon the foe, but they are also the living embodiment of their company's history and traditions. Each Dreadnought has its battle honours inscribed into the very metal of its encasement by the Chapter's artificers to celebrate the many brave actions in which it took part.Whilst each company has a number of its own transport vehicles, the majority of vehicles in a Chapter are maintained by its Armoury. When the need arises these armoured fighting vehicles are deployed as massed spearheads -- wholly independent from the companies and commanded by a senior officer -- or requisitioned individually by a captain to support their company.In the latter case, the vehicles are given badges appropriate to the company they will serve and are assigned a simple numerical designator. This number is repeated on the crews' badges, if the vehicle is not manned by a Techmarine novitiate from the Armoury.Upon its creation, a Space Marine battle tank is given a name that reflects its role as a protector of the Chapter's brethren. From that point onwards, the vehicle is as much a part of the Chapter as the Space Marines themselves, and over the years its many deeds will be celebrated as greatly as those of the Chapter's flesh and blood heroes.
Company (Space Marine) - Chapter Headquarters/Command: A Chapter also includes a number of officers and specialists who exist outside of the formal organisation of the companies. These individuals are known as the headquarters or command staff, and they will often stride out to lead a strike force in battle, or provide essential battlefield support, spiritual leadership, psychic capability and destructive combat prowess.Included amongst their rarefied ranks are the psychically-empowered Librarians of the Librarius, the bellicose Chaplains of the Reclusiam, Apothecaries from the Apothecarion, standard-bearing Ancients and the mechanically adept Techmarines and their servitors.Although the Codex Astartes describes a number of ranks and responsibilities held by the headquarters staff, only those officers with an active martial role actually accompany the Chapter to war. There are relatively few senior officers with noncombatant roles -- such as recruiting and training new members or administrating the Chapter -- as most of these types of duties are performed by Human Chapter serfs.In addition to their rank, captains of the Chapter are still often assigned Space Marine Master titles which include other functional responsibilities. These include such positions as the Lord of the Household, the Chapter Master's Secretarius, the Master of the Fleet, the Chief Victualler, the Master of the Arsenal, the Master of Recruits and the Master of the Watch.Over all of these mighty warriors still presides the Chapter Master, elevated from the greatest of the Chapter's captains. He alone is responsible for the deeds of the Chapter, and answers directly to the Administratum.Chapter Masters may select an Honour Guard that are in addition to the company roll, although not all Chapter Masters choose to do so.
Company (Space Marine) - Vanguard Marines: Vanguard Space Marines are reconnaissance and infiltration experts, equipped to operate alone in enemy territory for extended periods of time and intensively trained in shadow warfare tactics and sabotage techniques. Vanguard strike forces are tasked with achieving full-spectrum superiority over the foe.Every facet of the opposition's war machine must be dismantled, from supply routes and infrastructure to communications and logistics. Morale must be utterly sapped through non-stop harassment by terror troops and assassination of key individuals. The ultimate goal of this relentless campaign is to leave the foe crippled and helpless before the advance of the main Space Marine battleline.Every newly recruited and created Primaris Space Marine spends time in the 10th Company learning the full range of Vanguard combat techniques, from the mobile fire support duties of the Suppressors and the expert sniper-combat of the Eliminators, to the terror raids of the Reivers and the point-blank gunfighting of the Incursors.The Primaris battle-brothers keep their Vanguard skills honed even after they move on to other companies, meaning that at a moment's notice they can don any of the various types of Mark X Phobos Power Armour and go to battle as Vanguard Space Marines. Even Veterans of the 1st Company can swiftly reprise such duties, combining the benefits of their vast wealth of combat experience with the specialised and wholly lethal infiltration-and-sabotage tools of the Vanguard.When a full-sized Vanguard force deploys into battle they often do so with armoured support from Invictor Tactical Warsuits and Impulsor transports, not to mention the leadership of captains, Librarians and the like also armed and armoured for stealth warfare.An elite, fast-moving, silent-striking force of this sort can secure victories through ambush, sabotage and assassination that a far larger army could never achieve through brute force alone.
Company (Space Marine) - Terminator Strike Forces: Individual squads of Terminators are most often deployed as ultra-elite support for the Battle Companies. However, there are times when a Chapter will mass the majority -- and in exceptionally rare cases, even the entirety -- of its Terminator-armoured brethren and send them into battle as an utterly devastating strike force.This occurs most commonly when an infantry assault is required against a confined and inimical location. Clearing xenos infestations out of vast space hulks, striking at the heart of heretical fortresses and staging boarding actions against super-heavy enemy war engines are all examples of duties that Terminator forces excel at.Equally, some Chapters may furnish their Terminator Squads with transport in the form of gunships and battle tanks, and field them as swift and utterly unstoppable assault forces. The risks involved in such an action are high, for every suit of Terminator battle-plate is an irreplaceable relic, and those who wear it to battle are scarcely less valuable -- should such a force suffer heavy losses or, worse, be annihilated, their Chapter may never truly recover.Yet it is a risk often worth taking; a hundred Terminator-armoured Space Marines supported by Land Raiders and Stormravens possess more than enough martial might to lay low the most monstrous of foes, or conquer an entire world in the Emperor's name.
Company (Space Marine) - Chapter Fleet: The Codex Astartes makes provision for every Space Marine Chapter to maintain its own combat-capable fleet. Indeed, some Chapters are entirely fleet-based, roaming the galaxy aboard armadas of voidcraft that between them serve the same functions as other Chapters' fortress-monasteries.The majority of each fleet comprises frigates and strike cruisers, well-armoured and heavily armed warships that excel in line-breaking, blockade-running and planetary drop-assault operations.Many Chapters, especially the older and more established amongst them, also retain a handful of battle barges; these potent voidcraft are every bit as formidable as Imperial Navy battleships, and often serve as the storied flagships of each Chapter's fleet.It is in the launch bays of such warships that the Chapter's Drop Pods and Boarding Torpedoes wait to bear the warriors of the Chapter into war. Their launch decks, meanwhile, house squadron after squadron of fightercraft and gunships ready to swarm out and defend their parent craft or support ground forces in battle.
Company Commander - Company Commander: A Company Commander is an officer of the Astra Militarum who commands a single company of an Imperial Guard regiment.Standing proud amid the blood and thunder of the front lines, the Company Commander sets an unfaltering example to the men he leads.The titles held by these officers are as wildly varying as the worlds from whence they hail; an Imperial army on campaign may contain companies led by majors, captains, hetmen, demiconsuls, knights militant, chieftains and dozens more.However their soldiers address them, Company Commanders all bear the same responsibilities.In the face of nightmarish foes, they must provide their men with a bulwark of unwavering courage and decisive leadership. Most are hard-bitten heroes, skilled combatants and pragmatic strategists whose first loyalty is to the Emperor of Mankind.Some rare officers of rank may be ineffective fops with commissions awarded through inheritance or politicking, but the hour is too dark for the Departmento Munitorum to now suffer fools for long.Those who cannot discharge their duties soon discover that being the Planetary Governor's son means little to a merciless commissar.
Company Commander - Astra Militarum Company Command Squads: Typically, each Astra Militarum Company Commander is escorted in battle by a retinue of battle-scarred Veterans who support their leader in the field. These squads are often provided with specialist equipment and additional training.Expert Voxmen relay the Company Commander's orders to the troops on the front lines.Talented Field Chirurgeons stand a tense vigil over their comrades, ready to staunch wounds or administer doses of whatever chemical stimulants are required.Should a rank-and-file trooper display exceptional valour and dedication, they may be given the honour of bearing the regimental standard. To earn such a position a man must have performed above and beyond the call of duty, such as gunning down a swathe of rampaging foes in defence of a field hospital or felling a ravening Daemon Engine with a well-placed grenade.Many Company Command Squads include grizzled special weapons operators or Veteran Heavy Weapons Teams. These soldiers are proven crack-shots to a man, and the presence of such potent weapons close at hand allows Company Commanders personally to oversee the destruction of vital targets, such as lumbering Heretic tanks or monstrous xenos beasts.Equally, should the situation deteriorate and the Company Command Squad find themselves threatened by bellowing mobs of Greenskins or a looming Traitor Helbrute, these same lethal firearms can mean the difference between life and death.Whether the Company Commander is a cynical career officer, a cold tactician, or a bellowing, barrel-chested Imperial hero, he and his Company Command Squad form the strategic nexus of the Astra Militarum army.The Company Commander's orders crackle across the vox network, bolstering the courage of his troops and ensuring that his army functions with precise coordination. By his authority soldiers are instructed to charge to their own deaths so that victory may be achieved, or ordered to hold the line against overwhelming odds.It is the duty of the Company Command Squad to protect their leader in battle, shielding him from incoming enemy assaults so that he may continue to exert his tactical acumen.They also form an offensive core around him, inspiring the rank-and-file troops with their skill and experience. Depending on the battle, they can either lead the charge into the enemy or form the immovable centre of the Astra Militarum line.
Company Commander - Unit Composition: 1 Company Commander4 Veterans as Company Command Squad
Company Commander - Company Commander: Flak ArmourLaspistolChainswordFrag GrenadeRefractor FieldPower Sword (Optional replacement for Chainsword)Power Fist (Optional replacement for Chainsword)Bolt Pistol (Optional replacement for Laspistol)Bolter (Optional replacement for Laspistol)Plasma Pistol (Optional replacement for Laspistol)
Company Commander - Company Command Squad: Flak ArmourLasgunFrag GrenadesLaspistol (Optional replacement for Lasgun)Chainsword (For any Veteran who also takes a Laspistol)Vox-caster (For one Veteran)Heavy Flamer (Optional replacement for 1 Veteran's Lasgun)Regimental Standard (For one Veteran)Medi-pack (For one Veteran)Mortar, Autocannon, Heavy Bolter, Missile Launcher, Lascannon (Any two Veterans can take one of these weapons and form a Heavy Weapons Team on the Command Squad)Sniper Rifle, Flamer, Grenade Launcher, Meltagun, Plasma Gun (One of these special weapons is an optional replacement for 1 Veteran's Lasgun)
Company of Misery - Company of Misery: The Company of Misery is a warband of Chaos Space Marines of unknown allegiance. Since the degradation of their gene-seed stocks in the 32nd Millennium, the formerly Loyalist Chapter known as the Desolate Brotherhood found themselves assigned to impossibly dangerous and undesirable duties, including assaults on Death Worlds, Space Hulks and quarantine zones.Each time the Brotherhood believed they had won a reprieve, they were sent on an even more hazardous mission, plunging them into a spiral of dissolution and despair. After a catastrophe in the acid swamps of the world of Misery, the Chapter took a new name and left their duties to the Emperor behind, forever becoming sworn enemies of the Imperium and the illusion of hope.The Company of Misery was first encountered by Imperial forces as servants of Chaos on the world of Maddean IV in the 37th Millennium. A recent search of Imperial records concerning this warband led to the discovery of connections in the data between the Company of Misery and the "Brethren of Mysery." The meaning of the latter term is ambiguous and whether this is another unit of Chaos Space Marines with some prior connection to the Company of Misery or some other formation is unknown at this time.
Company of Misery - Notable Campaigns: Campaign of Maddean IV (Unknown Date.M37) - It was during this campaign that the first known sighting of the Company of Misery after its corruption by Chaos was noted in Imperial records.The Death of the Witching Moon (013.M41) - The Forge Moon of Keziah, in the strategically vital Agathon System, fell into an unnatural eclipse when its population is driven to murder and madness in an endless night of horror. The dread forces of The Tenebrae and the Company of Misery reign as dark kings amid the nightmare, and the baleful light of the "Witching Moon" that Keziah has become spreads calamity and Warp-tainted phenomena wherever it now falls, threatening the entire star system. The first Imperial attacks by the Astra Militarum, squadrons from Battlefleet Ultima and the Inquisition are hurled back in tatters by the madness of the black light and the Warp-fuelled savagery of the defenders. It is only by the unexpected arrival of the Charnel Guard Chapter, accompanied by a sacred band from the Adepta Sororitas' Order of the Black Sepulchre bearing the holy relic known as the Book of Counted Tears before them, that the imminent loss of tens of billions of lives on Agathon Prime is prevented, and the insanity-inducing radiance of the Witching Moon is held back. The Charnel Guard lead a fresh assault as further Adeptus Astartes forces, including the Iron Hands, Storm Lords and Angels Porphyr, and Adeptus Mechanicus reinforcements arrive, fighting a brutal battle of tank and gunship clashes across the soaring metal canyons which crease the moon's surface and chamber-by-chamber Zone Mortalis actions to purge Keziah of the shadow that has befallen it. The Traitor Marines inflict fearful losses on their besiegers before they are driven into the deeper darkness of the Warp. In the wake of their retreat, all life is purged from Keziah before it is given back to the hands of the Machine Cult for tech-exorcism and eventual reclamation.The Invasion of Mnemosyne (Unknown Date.M41) - Fifty Chaos Space Marines of the Company of Misery invaded the Imperial world of Mnemosyne, quickly overrunning the planet's defences. However, they were unable to free the planet from the local Imperial presence. When Captain Akror of the Company of Misery attempted to destroy the Great Librarium of Mnemosyne, phantom enemies stood between him and the Librarium's scribes who were fleeing from his wrath. Those phantoms were none other than the Legion of the Damned. The Company of Misery fought a great battle against the Damned inside the Librarium's first floor, but could not prevail against the Warp-touched Space Marines. In the end, an unknown explosion took the lives of all the Traitor Marines present in the Librarium. Once the deed was done, the Loyalist Marines of the Legion of the Damned departed Mnemosyne in silence.Dysephamine Campaign (Unknown Date.M42) - The Dreadblade Chaos Knight Hatred of Krastellan aligned itself with the Company of Misery. Together they waged a harrowing campaign through the Dysephamine System, which culminated in them enslaving the populace of the world of Dyseph IX. The Company of Misery set about slaughtering every psyker on the planet, but not before a distress call was sent off-world. Yet this call for aid was not only anticipated but planned for by the Hatred of Krastellan. The Dreadblade's own message was added to the distress beacon -- a formal challenge to the Freeblade Sir Hekhtur and his Knight Canis Rex, the so-called "Chainbreaker." The Hatred of Krastellan then travelled to the sole moon of Dyseph IX, and on the barren surface awaited the coming of the renowned Freeblade.
Company of Misery - Notable Сompanions of Misery: Captain Akror (KIA) - Captain Akror led his company against the Imperial forces present on the world of Mnemosyne. The Planetary Defense Forces were no match for the Chaos Space Marines' might, as the Company of Misery killed all the forces that Mnemosyne could throw at them. After killing a great number of civilians inside the Cathedral of the planet's capital of Arkio, Akror and his men began to hunt the scribes who held the key to the Great Librarium of Mnemosyne. Fortunately for the Imperial local authority, their defence was bolstered by the mysterious Astartes of the Legion of the Damned. The ensuing fight proved to be fierce, and Akror was killed with his men whilst fighting the ghostly Space Marines.
Company of Misery - Warband Fleet: Herald of Anguish - A Gladius-class frigate that once bore the name of Grave Sentinel.
Company of Misery - Warband Colours: The Company of Misery wear predominately blood-red power armour with black trim and usually incorporate black flame patterns over half their armour.They also adorn their armour with the usual heretical Chaos symbols and fetishes, denoting their allegiance to the Dark Gods.
Company of Misery - Warband Badge: The Company of Misery's warband badge is a red-arrow pointed upwards encircled by a black flame on a red background. The exact meaning of this symbol is unclear.
Company of the Shadow - Company of the Shadow: The Company of the Shadow is a Renegade Chapter of Chaos Space Marines.They were a formerly Loyalist Space Marine Chapter known as the Death Falcons that were founded during the dawn of the 41st Millennium.
Company of the Shadow - Chapter History: The Renegade Chapter known as the Company of the Shadow can trace their origins to the dawn of the 41st Millennium.Originally, they were a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter known as the Death Falcons.They hailed from the night-shrouded world of Bastonbeil, which lay within the far reaches of the Eastern Fringe at the very limits of the Astronomican.This world was the primary recruiting ground for the Death Falcons. While the Chapter Master was away at the Conclave of Gathalamor, renewing his oaths of allegiance to the Emperor of Mankind, Bastonbeil fell.From the underhive of Bastonbeil's capital city of the Shadowhive, which also served as the Chapter's fortress-monastery, awoke an ancient and terrible creature of darkness which fed upon the souls of the living. Millions of souls were devoured by this mysterious entity, leaving only mindless zombies in its wake.Responding in force, the Death Falcons deployed the entire strength of their Chapter to bring their unfettered wrath down upon this force of evil. The Chapter destroyed the zombies left by the creature and began to hunt the beast in earnest.It is unknown what took place within the dark depths of the underhive, but after three solar months what emerged from the pits of blackness beneath the Shadowhive was no longer recognizable as the once-noble Death Falcons.Armoured Space Marines wearing grey power armour that writhed with the faces of the damned emerged like nightmarish spectres back into the light of day. This dark-clad brotherhood stormed the upper reaches of their world's capital hive city, eventually overthrowing Bastonbeil's Planetary Governor.The Death Falcons were no more; only the Chaos Space Marines now calling themselves the Company of the Shadow remained.Following the enslavement of Bastonbeil to the often savage whims of the Company of the Shadow, over the last 900 Terran years this Renegade Chapter has struck out from their dark homeworld and launched numerous bloody attacks against neighbouring Imperial star systems.
Company of the Shadow - Notable Campaigns: Assault on Mortain (920.M41) - The Company of the Shadow assaulted the Imperial Agri-World of Mortain, intending to perform a Chaotic ritual that would submerge the planet in the ethers of the Warp, transforming it into a Daemon World over which their dark master could extend his influence. These vile plans were halted by the intercession of a strike force of the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter led by Grand Master Vorth Mordrak and Inquisitor Kracen. The Company of the Shadow and their zombified thralls were swiftly defeated, and the survivors rode the winds of the Warp back to their homeworld of Bastonbeil to lick their wounds.
Company of the Shadow - Chapter Colours: The Company of Shadow wear grey power armour that writhes with the faces of the damned upon its surface.
Company of the Shadow - Chapter Badge: The Chapter badge of the Company of the Shadows is not currently available in Imperial records.
Conclave of Tears - Conclave of Tears: The Conclave of Tears is an alleged convergence of several different Aeldari factions, including the Asuryani and Drukhari.According to the Dead Cabal, the Conclave seeks to foment war within the Jericho Reach, and is in some unknown way tied to the Dark Pattern.
Conclave of Tears - History: The Jericho Reach is a region largely devoid of the presence of the xenos species known as the Aeldari. Though there exist a few small, scattered bands of Aeldari Corsairs, no craftworld is known to operate within several thousand light years, save the scout-soldiers of Craftworld Alaitoc who safeguard the world of Mackensee, and no extant Maiden Worlds have been conclusively identified.Even the cruel Drukhari rarely set foot within the region, not even to plunder its numerous worlds for slaves and other prey. There are plenty within the upper echelons of the Achilus Crusade who regard this fact as a rare blessing in a war that already involves three of the Imperium's bitterest foes.There are those within the Inquisition's Dead Cabal, however, who fear that it portends something very dire indeed. The Aeldari were once masters of a stellar empire that stood for countless aeons and faded traces of their former glory are to be found the length and breadth of the galaxy.Why then, do they apparently shun the Jericho Reach? This issue is one that has long been a grave concern for certain members of the Dead Cabal, for it seems to connect with so many other dread fears to be found in the war-torn Jericho Reach and beyond.For generations, individual Inquisitors, as well as certain Deathwatch battle-brothers, have maintained a close watch for any clue as to why the region is so anathema to the Aeldari and all their kin. Certainly, there are slumbering horrors deep beneath the worlds of the outer Jericho Reach that any sane species would avoid, and the depths of interstellar space are host to all manner of puissant terrors.But the same could be said for numerous other regions in the galaxy where the Aeldari are known to be active, from the cursed systems bordering the Eye of Terror to the haunted marches of the Ghoul Stars.Over the years, these hidden masters of the Dead Cabal have come to detect the presence of a very small number of Aeldari operating in a coordinated fashion in the Jericho Reach, but not in any manner that pernicious species is normally associated with.Ordinarily, Aeldari craftworlds dispatch war hosts far and wide to challenge or punish the impudent transgressions of what they regard as the "lesser races," while the outcast Corsair fleets strike without apparent rhyme or reason wherever they may.The Drukhari launch their terrible realspace raids according to their own dark drives, while the enigmatic Harlequins are known to focus their efforts upon those that serve the Ruinous Powers. In the Jericho Reach, none of these truths appear to hold, the Aeldari making their presence known in an entirely different manner.Instead of massing their forces according to their conventional martial traditions and values, those Aeldari operating in the Jericho Reach do so in very small numbers indeed. They appear to operate in small bands, sometimes consisting of several different strands of Aeldari culture.They do not pursue their typical objectives, military or otherwise, but instead follow a nigh-impenetrable strategy that, to some within the Dead Cabal, can only be related to the phenomenon known as the Dark Pattern.As unseen events converge and the stars move ponderously towards some as-yet undreamed-of alignment, the Dead Cabal is starting to glimpse something of the Aeldari's activities within the Jericho Reach. They have caught but a fleeting impression of a group that traces its roots to the end of the War in Heaven -- the so-called Conclave of Tears.
Conclave of Tears - The Hidden Hand: The Dead Cabal believes the Conclave of Tears to represent a convergence of several different factions within the Aeldari, including, so far as they can ascertain, representatives of at least one craftworld, a Corsair fleet and even a Drukhari Kabal.Though no direct evidence has been found to solidly confirm it, the Prognosticator Rennin Tri'el holds that the elusive Harlequins are actively allied with the Conclave of Tears. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no evidence of the reclusive Exodites having any part to play in the Conclave's activities has been found, and it is not anticipated that any will be.As war rages across the three salients of the Jericho Reach, the Conclave of Tears appears to concentrate its efforts upon the scattered systems of the region's Outer Reach, though it has on occasion operated elsewhere.By a tireless cataloging of those of the Conclave's activities they have detected, various members of the Dead Cabal have formulated a number of possible explanations as to their agenda.Collating the reports of Kill-teams returned from missions into the Outer Reach with those of certain precogs, savants, and seers in the Dead Cabal's service, a vague picture has started to emerge, and one that portends ever more doom and bloodshed for the forces of the Imperium as they forge deeper into the benighted depths of the Jericho Reach.
Conclave of Tears - The Crooked Path: The Dead Cabal has also long known of the presence of an Aeldari outcast known as Syndilian the Traveller in the Jericho Reach, though beyond this title and his connection to the Reach they have very few details about his identity.A number of seers in the service of the Dead Cabal have attempted to trace the deeds of this individual, believing at first that he must surely be an agent of the Conclave of Tears.Some reached the conclusion that the Traveller was attempting to close the Jericho-Maw Warp Gate, or at least working towards a distant time when this objective might be achieved.Others have come to the belief that the Traveller's aims are somehow at odds with those of the Conclave of Tears, raising the intriguing possibility that the two factions are either opposed, or simply unaware of the full extent of the other's activities.
Conclave of Tears - Activities in the Outer Reach: The Conclave of Tears appears not to be focusing its efforts on the main war-zones of the Jericho Reach, although its deeds in these regions are obviously far easier to detect than in those beyond the Imperium's control.The Dead Cabal has now amassed a significant body of evidence that points to the Conclave of Tears being every bit as active out amongst the dead stars of the Outer Reach, and potentially more so.The targets of these activities can only be guessed at, although they must surely include the resurgent Necrons. The effects of these actions are far harder to perceive or predict, for they rarely involve the forces of the Imperium directly.None of the Dead Cabal can easily say what effect the Conclave of Tears destabilising the orbit of the third moon of a nameless body in an unlisted system might have, for example, nor why they would go to the drastic lengths of diverting a lava stream ten kilometres wide to flow down an ancient ravine on a Dead World on the borders of the Slinnar Drift.On one occasion, the Conclave's agents are believed to have brought about the premature emergence from aeons-long hibernation of a nigh mythical creature known as a void-ray, which proceeded to feed ravenously upon a primordial world spinward of Polyphemnos.Regardless of the observable effects of these and more deeds, one thing is certain in the minds of the Dead Cabal's masters. The Conclave of Tears has been growing ever more active in recent years, as if working towards some end result which is rapidly approaching its culmination.What this end result might be none can tell, but none believe it can be anything beneficial to the Imperium, whose forces so often suffer from these machinations of the pernicious Aeldari.
Conclave of Tears - Deathwatch Operations: The Dead Cabal has passed on much of its more solid intelligence to the Deathwatch and the Ordo Xenos and, therefore, those that stand the Long Watch in the Jericho Reach are aware of the ongoing threat these xenos present.It is not uncommon for Deathwatch Kill-teams operating in the depths of the Outer Reach to be briefed on suspected Conclave of Tears activities, though in most cases even the information they received is little more than conjecture.In some regions, members of the Deathwatch are deployed under the standing order that any Aeldari encountered should be engaged as a matter of priority, though more often these sentries never encounter any of the enigmatic xenos.Far more often, Deathwatch vessels passing through the dark systems of the Outer Reach report back that it is they who are being observed or tracked, though it is rare for the Aeldari to launch attacks of opportunity.The masters of the Dead Cabal have reached the consensus that the Conclave of Tears only ever launches deliberate attacks against the Deathwatch when they have been long-planned and serve some grand strategy. Clearly, the Aeldari's numbers are too few and their agents too valuable to risk unnecessary attrition fighting the champions of Mankind.There have been many instances of the Deathwatch engaging in battle with small groups of Aeldari in the Outer Reach, but it is rare for the enemy to be conclusively identified by the masters of the Dead Cabal as members or agents of the Conclave of Tears.The Aeldari are regarded as amongst the most pernicious and wicked of alien species and they are all but impossible to catch unawares. Therefore, it must be concluded that each contact has some defined objective that the Aeldari are working towards.Even though the Deathwatch and the Aeldari of the Jericho Reach have shed one another's blood on plenty of occasions, the two parties have occasionally worked towards a common goal.In most instances, the cooperation has been spontaneous and unplanned, on the Space Marines' part at least, and little in the way of actual communication has passed between the two. More often, the Aeldari have appeared during a battle that is already raging, or at some key point during a mission, and performed some action that benefited both parties.Though few even within the organisation know it, the Aeldari have established a covert means of communicating with the masters of the Dead Cabal, though only at the very highest of levels and when faced with the most extreme of circumstances.None within the Dead Cabal, the Deathwatch, or Ordo Xenos at large are under any illusion that the Aeldari are pursuing anything other than their own interests, however, and they treat all contact and communication with extreme caution.A fact known only to the innermost echelons of the Dead Cabal is that over the years, a handful of Aeldari believed to be in the service of the Conclave of Tears have been captured and brought back alive to Watch Fortress Erioch.These have been subject to the most thorough of excoriations, the tender mercies of the Inquisition's most accomplished masters of interrogation lavished upon their frames.To date, none have rendered up any useful information whatsoever, and so almost all of the Dead Cabal's intelligence on the Conclave of Tears remains uncertain at best.
Conclave of Tears - Notable Members: Ailill Nuada, Harlequin ShadowseerEbahn Lauma, Asuryani CorsairErandel Voidsinger, Asuryani Farseer of Craftworld KaelorVakillar U'riss, Drukhari Haemonculus and Mistress of the Theatre of Pain
Concussion Gauntlet - Concussion Gauntlet: A Concussion Gauntlet is a type of Concussion Weapon wielded by the warriors of the Leagues of Votann.Like all Concussion Weapons, be they in the shape of warhammers, mauls or even just reinforced armoured gauntlets, the Concussion Gauntlet mounts so-called "mass driver" technology that magnifies the force of its impact to a colossal degree beyond the simple mass of the gauntlet itself. A Concussion Gauntlet produces the least powerful concussion wave of the Concussion Weapons.Twin Concussion Gauntlets are often wielded as alternative melee weapons by Cthonian Beserks, while a single Concussion Gauntlet is the primary melee weapon of the elite Einhyr Hearthguard.
Concussion Grenade - Concussion Grenade: A Concussion Grenade is a type of Imperial grenade that releases a powerful concussive blast. This small explosive, though available to all Imperial military forces, is a particular favorite of Imperial Navy voidsmen. Crowded voidship corridors, with their sudden turns and enclosed spaces, are the perfect environment for voidsmen's concussion grenades.These hand-thrown bombs carry a charge that detonates with a resounding explosion, a burst that is even more dangerous within enclosed areas. Many a surging breakthrough attack has been halted with the judicious use of a few well-placed concussion grenades.
Concussion Hammer - Concussion Hammer: A Concussion Hammer is a type of Concussion Weapon wielded by the warriors of the Leagues of Votann.Like all Concussion Weapons, be they in the shape of warhammers, mauls or even just reinforced armoured gauntlets, the Concussion Hammer mounts so-called "mass driver" technology that magnifies the force of its impact to a colossal degree, producing a wave of concussive force far greater than what would be created by the simple mass of the warhammer itself.Despite being wielded with but a single hand, the Concussion Hammer produces a concussion wave just as powerful as the two-handed Concussive Maul.Concussion Hammers are often wielded as alternative melee weapons by the hesyr who command squads of Einhyr Hearthguard.
Concussion Knuckles - Concussion Knuckles: Concussion Knuckles are a type of Leagues of Votann Concussion Weapon that take the form of a pair of brass knuckles.Like all Concussion Weapons, be they in the shape of warhammers, mauls or even just these brass knuckles, Concussion Knuckles mount so-called "mass driver" technology that magnifies the force of its impact to a colossal degree beyond the simple mass of the knuckles themselves.Concussion Knuckles are often wielded as melee weapons by Hearthkyn Salvager Dôzrs.
Concussion Maul - Concussion Maul: A Concussion Maul is a type of two-handed Concussion Weapon wielded by the warriors of the Leagues of Votann.Like all Concussion Weapons, be they in the shape of warhammers, mauls or even just reinforced armoured gauntlets, the Concussion Maul mounts so-called "mass driver" technology that magnifies the force of its impact to a colossal degree, producing a wave of concussive force far greater than what would be created by the simple mass of the maul itself.Concussion Mauls are often wielded as alternative melee weapons by Cthonian Beserks.
Concussion Weapons - Concussion Weapons: Concussion Weapons are powered melee weapons employed by the military forces of the Leagues of Votann. Be they in the shape of warhammers, mauls or even just reinforced armoured gauntlets, they mount so-called "mass driver" technology that magnifies the force of their impact to a colossal degree, producing a wave of concussive force far greater than what would be created by the simple mass of the weapon itself.
Concussion Weapons - Notable Concussion Weapons: Concussion GauntletConcussion HammerConcussion MaulConcussion Knuckles
Condemnor Bolter - Condemnor Bolter: A Condemnor Bolter, also called a Condemnor Boltgun, is an Imperial Combi-weapon that couples the iconic might of the Imperial Bolter with a secondary launcher in the form of a single-shot crossbow armature that fires blessed silver stakes engraved with sigils of disruption.These are particularly deadly to Chaos-corrupted psykers. A direct hit from the crossbow component of the Condemnor Bolter will therefore not only deal a severe physical wound to an enemy psyker, it will also send his or her power spiralling out of control, consuming the user in a storm of untramelled psychic energy.The Condemnor Bolter is the ultimate man-portable implement of judgement against those who wield the unclean energies of the Warp. It is a weapon favoured almost exclusively by the Witch Hunter Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus such as Katarinya Greyfax.
Condemnors - Condemnors: The Condemnors is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown Founding and origin. During the Indomitus Crusade, the Torchbearer Fleet Conqueror's Forge delivered the technology to create Primaris Space Marines to the Chapter.
Condemnors - Chapter Colours: The Condemnors' Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records.
Condemnors - Chapter Badge: The Condemnors' Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records.
Confessor - Confessor: A Confessor is a free-roaming zealot priest of the Adeptus Ministorum who uses their evangelical platform to agitate the crowds of Imperial citizenry that turn up to hear their preaching.Under the spell of a Confessor, swathes of citizens will rush forwards to confess their personal heresies, reveal their hideous mutations and betray their comrades as psykers or other untrustworthy deviants in the eyes of the God-Emperor.A Confessor might have ecclesiastical responsibility for a hive city or, if it is less populated, an entire world, or in frontier regions a star system or even an entire sub-sector.Just as not every cardinal leads an entire Ministorum diocese, many Confessors are not responsible for administering a specific geographic area. Some act autonomously, their duties taking them far and wide across the galaxy.Some find themselves attached to other Imperial institutions or Adepta. Often, an Astra Militarum general or Imperial Navy admiral might have as their most trusted confidante a senior Confessor, who advises them on spiritual matters and bolsters their resolve to enact the God-Emperor's will.
Confessor - Role: With the ever-present threat of heresy hiding in the souls of the weak-willed amongst Mankind, the Ecclesiarchy can take no chances that an apostate is able to fool those who seek to bring their transgressions to light. Arch-cardinals establish many training shrines within their sectors to prepare their clergy for service as Confessors.It is from these holy sites and institutions that many of the most talented Interrogators of the Inquisition hail. As hardened veterans of the Ecclesiarchy, Confessors know how to obtain the information they want in a timely manner.Many Inquisitors will recruit a Confessor to serve in his Acolyte cell. A Confessor's zeal for uncovering heresy is such that many Confessors who survive their tasks with any semblance of sanity eventually become Inquisitors in their own right.Filled with the power and fury of faith, legends of the Shrine Worlds tell of Confessors who have turned back armies with a word or incited entire cities to rebel against an apostate dictator. These individuals can be found on almost every world, commanding loyal servants of the God-Emperor to seek out foul Heretics and purge them. Astra Militarum and Planetary Defence Force commanders often retain a Confessor amongst their advisors, bringing their rhetoric and oratory to their soldiers on the eve of battle.Occasionally cardinals will despatch groups of fiery Confessors to lead regiments of the Frateris Militia on Wars of Faith against the enemies of the Emperor.Every Confessor has his or her own unique brand of oratory and interrogation. The two are not vastly dissimilar practices in the mind of a Confessor. While many use finely honed speeches that have been practiced to perfection, others might call out to the crowd for responses to questions, correcting and praising them.In the interrogation chamber these fearsome individuals would ask questions of the shriven, demanding that they incriminate themselves to gain absolution. Others whisper the correct words in the ears of Imperial commanders so that they might deliver their own sermons. In the confession chamber a whisper in the ear and a hot brand can be very persuasive, guiding the pliant subject to a clear conscious.
Confessor - Becoming a Confessor: The majority of Confessors are trained at one of the Adeptus Ministorum's special shrines. The process is not dissimilar to the training of an Adeptus Arbites Arbitrator or a standard Ecclesiarchy cleric, in that the Confessor is drilled with the doctrines of the Imperial Creed and the price of straying from it.Along with training in the arts of self-defence, the neophyte Confessors ply their newfound trade upon each other in an attempt to cleanse the weakness and sin from the group. Some keep the scars of this experience for life as a reminder of the pain they must deliver to others in order to offer them the oppotunity to become pure and whole in the eyes of the God-Emperor.While many Imperial clergy are selected to join the ranks of the Confessors directly from the Schola Progenium or other Ecclesiarchal recruiting grounds, there are many more who attend the training facilities at the behest of Adeptus Arbites Judges or Inquisitors. Those who are not educated at one of the approved Adeptus Ministorum sacred places are trained in private by experienced Confessors, often for a specific duty.
Confessor - Notable Confessors: Confessor Dolan Chirosius - During the Plague of Unbelief during the Age of Apostasy of the 36th Millennium, many false prophets appeared across the galaxy. Some were little more than madmen leading rebel armies, others spiritual demagogues who commanded the armies of entire worlds. The most powerful of these was the Apostate Cardinal of the world of Gathalamor, Bucharis, whose heresies reached such proportions they became known as the Plague of Unbelief. Despite controlling a vast swathe of worlds in a stellar pocket empire controlled by an iron fist, some planets began to revolt against Bucharis' heavy-handed rule. Multiple worlds successfully rebelled against the Apostate Cardinal's forces, as entire planetary populations rose up against their cruel overlords. Eventually, a score of worlds began to free themselves from Bucharis' oppressive regime. Soon Bucharis' coffers began to empty more rapidly than they could be filled. The Apostate Cardinal discovered the driving force behind these unexplained uprisings when he received a defiant messenger proclaiming that he was the envoy of Confessor Dolan Chirosius. The messenger told Bucharis that he was ordered to resign his position and throw himself on the mercy of the God-Emperor. Most importantly, he was to remove his heresies and apostate idea of self-deliverance. The messenger's remains were nailed to the gates of Bucharis' palace where the rats and crows feasted upon them. When the Confessor arrived on Gathalamor, Dolan was chained and driven through the streets. Soldiers from Bucharis' army whipped the Confessor with flails and hurled stones at him. They stuck hooks into his flesh and hung them with weights, driving him onwards with kicks and punches. The crowds, however, were not impressed. There were no cheers of approval, but there were no cries of condemnation either. Dolan was dragged across the entire continent in this manner for over six months. All the while, however, his fiery stare never diminished and he never bowed to the will of Bucharis despite the constant torment. Bucharis ordered a public trial for the Confessor, but it was a complete sham and intended from the start to find Dolan guilty. After five months, the prosecution rested its case and a thousand worlds waited for the results. Dolan represented himself and freely admitted to stirring up the people of all of the rebellious worlds to fight against Bucharis' rule. He used the time to appeal to the masses, although Bucharis did not understand this. It was Dolan's appeals to the masses that Bucharis allowed during the show trial that eventually led to his downfall. Following the conclusion of the show trial, Bucharis had Dolan tortured for eight months. When at last the Confessor died, his maimed body was flung from the walls of the Cardinal Palace of Gathalamor for the scavenging dogs and birds to feast upon. Despite the horrendous torments inflicted upon his body, Dolan's face exuded a calm serenity and peace that lay like an aura across his corpse. Those who saw it wept openly, even though any who exhibited such grief were themselves accused of heresy and put to death. The scavengers never had their meal: Dolan's body disappeared shortly after and was never found. Cardinal Bucharis' plan to shame the Confessor backfired horribly. By allowing Dolan to speak he had given him the ability to rally the masses on all of the worlds ruled by Bucharis. When Dolan's death was announced, the entire apostate empire erupted in rebellion. The populations of a thousand worlds overthrew their cruel overseers, almost at the same time. The men, women and children were inspired by the will of the Confessor and faced their enemies' guns with bare hands. Bucharis' Cardinal Palace was stormed as traitors from within his own ranks opened the gates. Bucharis fled the palace while a small handful of loyal warriors held back the tide of doom coming his way. He used tunnels to escape the palace and ran to the spaceport, giving up all he had worked for to save his own life. Just as he was boarding a shuttle, the inhabitants overran the electric fences by piling on them to make them short-circuit. He was captured by the screaming, enraged mob and his body was torn to pieces.Confessor Helmor Krass - Confessors are the burning heart of the Imperial Guardsman's faith, stirring him to great deeds and steadying him in the face of terrible odds. Many Confessors consequently have a very short life-span, leading from the front and being the first to charge into the fray, so it is not surprising that those who survive earn great reputations. One such devotee of the Imperial Creed is Confessor Helmor Krass, attached to the Cadian 212th Shock Infantry Division. Covered in scars of a hundred battles, Helmor's grizzled face can stop a man at his tracks with just a look. His vestment are as torn and tattered as his flesh, hanging in blood-stained rags about his powerful frame. The one thing that has not been diminished by his trials in combat is the fire of faith that burns brightly in his eyes and seems to radiate out from him. It is said that the mere presence of the Confessor on the battlefield can incite rage in Imperial Guardsmen, his deep disdain for the alien, heretic, and mutants are instantly infectious. Before he was attached to the 212, the tale goes that Helmore served with the Drusians in the first battle of the Achilus Crusade, against the dread forces of Chaos. Though his entire was destroyed, Helmor alone returned in the blood of his foes, the motor of his chainsword clogged with the gore of his enemies. Relocated to a new regiment, Helmor's fury not be abated. Such is his righteous hatred of the enemies of mankind, those who would profane all that the Emperor has built, that when faced with such foes, the Confessor loses all thought of survival or preservation. Confronted with the darkness of heresy or betrayal, Helmor's wrath is unmatched, his mercy is only offered in bloodletting.Arch-confessor Redemptor Kyrinov - Arch-confessor Redemptor Kyrinov has been the scourge of blasphemers and Heretics across a hundred worlds. He purged the Chaos legions of the Demagogue Lord of Valaan, accompanied the Valhallan Ice Warriors on the Crusade of Repentance and crushed the Jihad of Duke Selda. Kyrinov is known for unflinching adherence to his duties and his harsh treatment of those who deviate from his strict interpretations of the Imperial Cult's doctrine. Kyrinov often quotes from the scriptures of Confessor Dolan and strongly agrees with the Great Confessor's belief that no sacrifice is too great in the service of the God-Emperor. Though seen as a vocal, tyrannical figure, Kyrinov possesses a shrewd mind that often serves him better than any amount of sermonising and lambasting of the masses. The Arch-Confessor's fiery speeches, wild gestures and melodramatic acts of faith hide a very cold and logical approach to his work. A prime schemer and manipulator of people, Kyrinov is an impossible foe to out-think or placate.Saint Lucius of Agatha - A famed Confessor later canonised as an Imperial Saint from the world of Agatha, Saint Lucius is now best known as the author of the Book of Saint Lucius containing his sermons. This sacred tome is carried by many members of the Ecclesiarchy and the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas onto the battlefield. It is read aloud by members of the Adeptus Ministorum during combat to inspire those around them and to serve as a reminder of their solemn duty to the God-Emperor.Arch-confessor Quadicus - The Arch-confessor provides religious council to the senior officers in the Black Zone. He knows most of its stationed command staff (including the deceased) well, although it is his duty to hold their secrets in confidence. He firmly believes that the T'au will try to use the Imperial faith against its citizens, suggesting that the Imperium (including the Ministorum) has strayed from the Emperor. This belief inflames Quadicus' considerable temper and, as such, he passionately despises T'au sympathisers. He is, by nature, a reasonable man, but he believes strongly that the Tau are more of a moral threat than a military one. While he would like to see less collateral damage done to the Canis Salient’s loyal population, he believes the excessive deaths under Ebongrave are preferable to a weak rule that tolerates heresy.Confessor Von Schteil - The world of Veneris is well known for its massive statues of the Emperor and Imperial saints so large they dwarf nearby mountains. These colossi must be maintained with constant repairs to fend off the elements. The quarry, therefore, near the planet's southern pole is one of the most important locations on the planet. When the quarry was infected with recidivists who believed their toil too great, the mining of stone halted and demands were sent to the local Ecclesiarchal authorities. Confessor Von Schteil rallied a force of unknowable size from the pilgrims come to Veneris to weep. He whipped his Frateris Militia into a frenzy with sermons on the heresy of sloth and fuelled the hatred for those who would allow the monuments to die rather than perform their sacred duty. Over the course of three bloody days the Frateris Militia killed nearly half of the workers. Confessor Von Schteil accepted the confession of the leaders and they were put to death in front of an ocean of praying pilgrims.
Conflagration Cannon - Conflagration Cannon: The Conflagration Cannon is a massive Flamer that is one of the primary armaments of the Dominus-class Knight Valiant. The Conflagration Cannon is a magnificently unsubtle weapon, comprising three enormous, Knight-grade Flamers linked together and fed from armoured promethium reservoirs. When triggered, the Conflagration Cannon spews forth an inescapable firestorm that washes over everything in range and reduces all to blackened ash. So does the Knight Valiant burn the Emperor's enemies as the worthless Heretics they are.
Conqueror - Conqueror: The Conqueror was an Imperial Gloriana-class Battleship that served as the flagship of Angron, the primarch of the World Eaters Legion, during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.This flagship rode at the head of a flotilla of warships which comprised the XIIth Legion's 203rd Expeditionary Fleet. Before the primarch's ascension as master of the XIIth Legion, the ship had carried a different name.In those more innocent days it sailed as the Adamant Resolve, flagship of the War Hounds Legion. The XIIth Legion eventually became known as the "Eaters of Worlds," after Angron's ascendancy, and their flagship bore the new name Conqueror.It barely resembled the warship it had once been only a few years after Angron took control of it -- ridged by brutal armour plating, spiked by countless weapon batteries, the Conqueror had become a crude bastion under the command of its hate-filled master, beyond any other warship in Imperial space in its display of sheer physical pugnacity.The orbital shipyards at Angron's disposal did not hesitate to incorporate refits that optimised Imperial warships for the combat doctrine and fighting style of the XIIth Legion, favouring high speed and serrated ranks of close-ranged batteries that encouraged close-quarters battles over the speartip formations and ranged combat naval doctrines developed over the course of the Great Crusade by most of the other Legion fleets.
Conqueror - Golgothan Slaughter: Shortly after Angron was reunited with his Legion, whom he renamed the “Eaters of Worlds” or the World Eaters, the first known target to suffer the XIIth Legion's wrath under Angron's command was the stellar wasteland of the Golgothan Sector, situated in the galactic core near the Warp rift known simply as the Maelstrom.The breaking of the Siege of Sarum in the Golgothan Sector would quickly become a part of the World Eaters' legend and serve as a portent of the dark path yet to come. Sarum was a besieged Age of Strife Mechanicum outpost with whom shaky and intermittent contact had been maintained for nearly a standard century.Its masters, the Tech-priests of the Redjak Covenant, had remained nominally loyal to Mars down the centuries, but had been forced by fighting a relentless battle for survival alone to become something many within the wider Mechanicum suspected was a highly militant and schismatic sub-faith.Sarum was besieged by the Abhuman empire known as the Brotherhood of Ruin who wished to take the Mechanicum's technological secrets for themselves. But then, like the wrath of living gods of war, the World Eaters arrived and the Redjak Covenant quickly embraced them as their saviours and allies. The Covenant swore to Angron and his Legion directly many oaths of fealty and entered into pacts of mutual protection and support.For the World Eaters this provided the XIIth Legion and its Techmarines a ready source of resupply and rearmament far outside the Imperium's inner sphere. In the World Eaters, the Redjak Magi gained powerful protectors who shielded them from the scrutiny of their erstwhile brothers in the larger Mechanicum.This allowed, among other benefits, the reconstruction of the Legion's badly damaged flagship battle barge, the Adamant Resolve, into the heavily-armoured and renamed Conqueror.Once the retrofitting was completed it barely resembled the warship it had once been only a few years after Angron took control of it -- ridged by brutal armour plating, spiked by countless weapon batteries, the Conqueror had become a crude bastion under the command of its hate-filled master, beyond any other warship in Imperial space in its display of sheer physical pugnacity.The orbital shipyards of Sarum did not hesitate to incorporate refits that optimised Imperial warships for the combat doctrine and fighting style of the XIIth Legion, favouring high speed and serrated ranks of close-ranged batteries that encouraged close-quarters battles over the speartip formations and ranged combat naval doctrines developed over the course of the Great Crusade by most of the other Space Marine Legion fleets.With the Conqueror at the fore of their large warfleet, the campaign that was to follow would last 11 standard Terran years and see no fewer than 48 worlds and outposts ravaged and destroyed by the World Eaters, and 7 separate dangerous xenos species rendered extinct as the XIIth Legion's fleet cut a swathe of destruction through the wastes of Golgotha, and even ventured into the perilous fringes of the Maelstrom itself.
Conqueror - Horus Heresy: The Conqueror was known to have transported the World Eaters' contingent to the Triumph of Ullanor, where Horus was elevated to the esteemed rank of Warmaster by the Emperor Himself, in recognition of his numerous great deeds and outstanding leadership throughout the Great Crusade. The Conqueror was also present during many of the notorious events that occurred during the Horus Heresy which included the Istvaan Campaign.The Conqueror was one of the many warships that comprised the Traitor fleet that willfully turned upon their former brethren and virus-bombed the planet of Istvaan III on orders from the Warmaster, in order to wipe out Loyalist elements of the various Legions under Horus’ command during the Isstvan III Atrocity. The Conqueror was also present during the infamous Drop Site Massacre at Istvaan V that saw the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders Legions nearly wiped out, and rendered ineffective as fighting forces during the rest of the Horus Heresy.When the Horus Heresy erupted, Angron's XIIth Legion was at the very forefront of the bloodshed. The Conqueror was at the vanguard of the Red Angel's warfleet. Most notably, the World Eaters led the assault upon the walls of the Emperor’s Imperial Palace during the Siege of Terra, taking the breach with no regards to their own losses. By this point, the World Eaters had given full vent to their most destructive urges.While Angron had once been a great man possessed of a fearsome sense of martial pride and honour despite his brooding rage, now he was a frothing, blood-soaked berserker, as were his warriors. Any reason that had survived the process of inserting the cortical aggression implants used by all the World Eaters Astartes was driven from their minds, replaced with the will of Khorne, the Blood God.It is said that when the Emperor defeated Horus and the hordes of Chaos assaulting Terra were finally routed, the World Eaters were the last of their number to quit the field of battle. None can say how close the World Eaters came to destroying the Imperial Palace, or whether they would have come face to face with the Emperor had not Horus lowered the Void Shields of his battle-barge Vengeful Spirit, precipitating the final confrontation in orbit.
Conqueror - Post-Heresy: In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters descended to new depths of bloodlust and destruction, reaving across the already shattered space of the Imperium before plunging into the twisted depths of the Eye of Terror. None can say exactly what happened within the Eye, but it is apparent that the XIIth Legion all but consumed itself in a bitter internecine conflict that saw it fractured into countless smaller warbands of Chaos Space Marines. None could say what the ultimate fate of the Conqueror was, whether it was destroyed or still endured.For centuries the fate of the Conqueror remained a mystery, though scattered reports indicate that it was at the head of small flotillas or solitary raids on several occasions throughout the Segmentum Obscurus and the Northern Rim of the galaxy. When the World Eaters ceased to exist as a unified Legion, due to the actions of Khârn the Betrayer at the Battle of Skalathrax in 021.M31, the Conqueror likewise faded into obscurity.It was finally reported destroyed by a large Imperial formation in the 35th Millennium, but this proved to be incorrect when it again assailed itself upon the dominion of Mankind in a series of raids in 435.M37 ranging throughout the Segmentum Obscurus. Adorned with row upon row of white, leering skulls in dedication to the throne of Khorne, it is known to have changed hands several times, as the servants of the Blood God see their starships as little more than a means of transport from one opportunity to slaughter in Khorne's name to the next.The Conqueror figured prominently during Abaddon the Despoiler's 12th Black Crusade in the Gothic Sector, this time under the leadership of Warmaster Heinrich Bale at the head of a large Chaos warfleet. His warfleet in general, and his flagship in particular, proved to be a menacing foe that successfully maintained a blockade of Port Maw itself for more than three standard years and laid waste to many Imperial warships in the Port Maw Sub-sector.Bale's was one of the very last warfleets to withdraw in defeat in the closing stages of the Gothic War, only doing so while engaging in a titanic series of running battles during which many of the warships under his command were destroyed, usually only after engaging at close range and attempting to board their enemies rather than retreat. Once again the infamous vessel escaped and disappeared from the record, only to emerge at the head of a small warfleet during the 13th Black Crusade, this time as the flagship of Kossolax the Foresworn.
Conqueror - Ursus Claws: In battle, the Conqueror often employed a crude but unique weapon later called the "Ursus Claw" which enabled the massive vessel to get within close proximity of an enemy voidship in order to board it. From ridged battlements and armoured ports along the warship's hull, a tide of what looked like spears would burst out into the void. Each of these lances was the size of a smaller escort ship in its own right. Up to a dozen could be fired, either separately at multiple targets, or all at once, at much larger vessels.These massive lances would then puncture home into the hulls of enemy vessels. Once impaled, the immense spears became active, locking to their prey's ravaged insides with magnetic strength. But while they were effective against regular foes, alien vessels like those employed by the Aeldari were forged from synthetics beyond mere metal.Sometimes these vessels would manage to slide free, dragging their impaled carcasses away from the Imperial warship, but their cores would be holed right through and opened to space. They would prove to be the lucky ones. The other enemy vessels that were still impaled would shake, as they were dragged off course, stalling in the void. Their engines would burn in silent heat, but each of them would remain anchored in place.The spears driven through their bodies were more than mere projectiles, they were lances launched to cripple. They were harpoons fired to claim prey. With malicious slowness, the Conqueror would then recall its spears. The lances would begin to ratchet back towards the vessel that fired them, dragged home on massive chains one link at a time. Only the World Eaters had the audacity to deploy something so barbarous, so primitive on such a scale. And only the World Eaters were able to make such crude weaponry into something so efficient.Link by link, the Conqueror would drag the impaled enemy vessels closer, its massive engines straining against their stagnant thrust. Other enemy starships would often break away, finding it increasingly difficult to fire upon the Imperial warship, now using their own allied ships as barriers to protect itself. The Primarch Angron would then give the order to release the elite World Eater assault companies known as the Devourers upon their doomed enemies.Boarding parties would be spat from the Conqueror's hull, crossing the short distance in the blink of an eye and disgorging World Eaters warriors into the bowels of the impaled enemy ships. The Conqueror would then fully retract the Ursus Claws that failed to strike.Smaller-scale versions of these Ursus Claws would be created to arm the Warhound-class Titans of the Legio Audax that supported the XIIth Legion and for the World Eaters' assault Dreadnoughts.As the Shadow Crusade raged across Ultramar, the princeps of the Legio Audax adapted this idea from their World Eaters allies and turned it into a weapon for their favoured Warhound Scout Titans. Ursus Claws allowed them to engage larger enemy god-engines and bring them low. This tactic proved so effective that other Legios, Traitor and Loyalist alike, began equipping their Warhounds with this weapon.
Conqueror - Fighting Pits: Within the bowels of the Conqueror were the infamous fighting pits of the XIIth Legion, where both World Eaters and Astartes from the other Space Marine Legions would be invited to engage one another in vicious duels. Two combatants would enter the sand-filled fighting pit in their full suits of power armour, both helmetless.The World Eaters warriors would often bind their weapon (usually a chainaxe) to their arms so that they wouldn't lose it during the vicious bouts that would ensue. The use of such chains were a personal tradition of the XIIth Legion, spread amongst the other Legions after their popularity had escaped beyond the fighting pits of the World Eaters. Sigismund, First Captain of the Imperial Fists had taken to the custom with his usual zeal, binding his knightly weapons to his wrists on dense black chains.He had made an impressive name for himself in the bowels of the Conqueror dueling with the XIIth Legion's finest warriors late in the Great Crusade. The "Black Knight" the World Eaters had called him, in honour of his prowess, his nobility and his personal heraldry. The "Flesh Tearer," Nassir Amit, the Captain of the Blood Angels' 5th Company, was another to earn great glory in the World Eaters’ pits. Amit was known as the rare Blood Angel who fought with the same savagery and brutality as his hosts.
Conqueror - Audaxica: The Audaxica was the wide avenue that comprised the Conqueror's central spinal corridor. The Audaxica itself was a chamber of monumental scale, wide enough to walk a pack of Titans abreast and tall enough that the arched ceiling was a dark blue, with its millions of etchings and carvings too distant to make out unaided.Colossal ground elevators transported Titans from the Audaxica to the XIIth Legion's planetfall hangar below. The Audaxica was so named because it was where the Titans of the Legio Audax were housed. Every one of the Audax's Titans was a variant on the Warhound-class, made bulkier from additional armour plating and each bearing a stylised head of dark metal resembling a jackal or a wolf baring its teeth.
Conqueror - Notable Personnel: Captain Lotara Sarrin - Captain Sarrin served as the Shipmistress of the XIIth Legion warship Conqueror. Sarrin often had to ignore the frightening transhuman warriors around her, the very avatars of cold indifference. She always had other matters to deal with, such as the 300 bridge crewmen caught between avoiding Angron’s uncontrollable fury and the performance of their duties. An intelligent and calculating officer, Captain Sarrin always measured her words when conversing with the rage-fuelled Primarch. Sarrin knew the World Eaters well, for she had served aboard the flagship as a helm officer for years before her promotion to command rank. Captain Sarrin enjoyed taking risks as much as any warrior in the Legion she served.Ivar Tobin - First Officer of the XIIth Legion warship Conqueror.Feyd Hallerthan - A Bridge Officer of the Conqueror.Lehralla - Scrymistress of the Conqueror. Scrymistress Lehralla was a crippled thing, emaciated and legless, augmentically bound to the warship's central Auspex console. She had cables that were strung between her head and the ceiling machinery which gave her a sinister aspect, providing her with a makeshift crown of serpents, like the legendary Gorgon from the ancient Grekan mythos of Old Earth.Kejic - Voxmaster of the Conqueror.Nisha Andrasta - Scion of House Andrasta of the Navis Nobilite, Nisha Andrasta had been selected personally by the Emperor to become the Navigator of the Adamant Resolve, flagship of the War Hounds Legion and one of only twenty Gloriana-class Battleships to be commissioned at the shipyards of Mars at the launch of the Great Crusade. At the helm of the renamed Conqueror, Nisha Andrasta served the World Eaters Legion and her captain faithfully for many decades until the beginning of the Horus Heresy and the changing loyalties of her superiors. Still loyal to her Emperor she wished to protect by all means, Nisha Andrasta decided to take her own life while still in the Warp, causing tremendous damage to the Conqueror and thus disrupting the Shadow Crusade.
Conqueror Cannon - Conqueror Cannon: The Conqueror Cannon is the primary weapon of the Leman Russ Conqueror, an uncommon variant of the standard Imperial Leman Russ Tank.This lightweight alternative weapon is a smaller and less powerful version of the Battle Cannon used on the baseline Leman Russ, but the reduced size, smaller ammunition, lighter recoil and firepower allow the tank to move while firing and maintain a higher rate of fire.
Conqueror Cannon - History: Imperial records show that the Leman Russ Conqueror is currently only being produced in significant numbers on the Forge World of Gryphonne IV, where the original pattern STC schematics were rediscovered sometime in the 38th Millennium.Original fears that the smaller Conqueror Cannon would produce an excessive loss in firepower and result in poor battlefield performance were allayed when field-testing showed the reduced recoil from the gun's torsion bar counter-balance gave the tank better accuracy for firing on the move. This allows the Leman Russ Conqueror greater mobility and the smaller shell size allows loaders to keep up a high rate of fire. The tunnel space saved by smaller shells also allow for greater ammunition storage, meaning the Leman Russ Conqueror is less reliant on re-supplying during offensive operations.Sometime in the 39th Millennium, an attempt was made by Gryphonne IV's munition-adepts to increase the tank's firepower with the use of advanced "Augur" shells in an attempt to enhance the lighter Conqueror Cannon's performance when faced by heavy enemy armour or fortifications. It is another variation of the common high explosive round.The warhead consists of a soft explosive in a thin shell that is designed to open on impact, spreading the explosive over the target's surface for a short microsecond delay before the base-mounted fuse detonates it. This causes cratering and cracking on the outer armour. On the inside of the tank, however, the blast often causes some of the interior layers of armour to break off and ricochet around inside the vehicle (spalling).This will either kill or severely wound any occupants, and can also disable controls and instruments, making the vehicle inoperable. It was not regarded as a success and as a result, few Augur-type shells are currently produced. Production of this shell is no longer permitted by the Departmento Munitorum.
Conquest-class Star Galleon - Conquest-class Star Galleon: A Conquest-class Star Galleon is a rare, tremendously powerful armed star freighter that is rarely seen in the 41st Millennium. It is believed that this type of vessel was first commissioned by the Emperor Himself at the dawn of the Imperium of Man for the very first Rogue Traders granted their Warrants of Trade by the Emperor's hand.The Imperium swarms with transport vessels. Millions of these civilian voidcraft plough the space lanes, ferrying pilgrims, ore, fuel, foodstuffs, weapons, materiel, machine parts and luxury goods to untold billions of eager consumers across the galaxy.There are countless classes of transport vessel, and even the mightiest Rogue Trader dynasty, replete with fleets of ancient warships, requires humble transport craft to carry the spoils of their conquests back to Imperial space.
Conquest-class Star Galleon - History: Star Galleons are thought to be treasure ships from the very dawn of the Imperium, commissioned for the very first Rogue Traders Militant on the orders of the Emperor Himself. Whether this is true is completely unprovable, but those Star Galleons found in the Koronus Expanse are usually ancient vessels bearing design elements lost to present-day Imperial shipwrights. Specialist long-range exploration vessels, capable of voyaging for standard years at a time, they were conceived as heavily armed hybrids of cruiser and transport, with enough Lance firepower to defend themselves and carve apart Renegade star empires, yet also capable of safely transporting back the spoils of war by the megatonnne.Few of these ships now exist in the Koronus Expanse in the 41st Millennium. They are precious relics, priceless treasures from the legendary founding time of the Imperium. Only the most ancient and powerful Rogue Trader dynasties retain such heirloom vessels, and they guard them jealously. Generally regarded as fragile and undergunned for their size by present Imperial naval officers, such an appraisal misses the obvious fact that these are not warships; rather, they are tremendously powerful armed freighters.The Conquest-class is the archetypal Star Galleon, though ten thousand standard years of variation amongst the limited number of these voidships still active renders the concepts of a "class" somewhat moot. Every Conquest is a uniquely glamorous and beautiful vessel, a glittering city in the stars, laden with treasures from forbidden realms and lost empires. Physically as large as most Imperial cruisers, though not as well-armed or armoured, they are nevertheless a match for most threats that can be found in the Koronus Expanse.
Conquest-class Star Galleon - Dimensions: Hull: TransportClass: Conquest-class Star GalleonDimensions: Approximately 5.1 kilometres long, 0.7 kilometres abeam at finsMass: Approximately 30 megatonnesCrew: Approximately 65,000 crewAcceleration: 2.1 gravities maximum sustainable acceleration
Conquest of Uttu Prime - Conquest of Uttu Prime: The Conquest of Uttu Prime was a military campaign led by the Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Necron Sautekh Dynasty against the Imperial world of Uttu Prime in the Vidar Sector in the late 41st Millennium. Despite the intervention of a force of Space Marines drawn from the Imperial Fists Chapter, the world was lost to the Necrons and was integrated into the personal domain of Zahndrekh within the larger Sautekh Dynasty.

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