Nobledark 40k XVIII: Perils of the Warp Edition

>have them fall somewhere between Plato's Republic, the Borg, and the culture, hopefully retaining their original flavor too

I really like where this is going.

There was a little bit written about Imotekh in a previous thread. The Silent King likes to use him as his enforcer. However, he has a sense of mercy and foul play, and is willing to spare a planet if their nominated champion can defeat him in single combat. He tends not to lose.

Anrakyr the Traveller was also mentioned. He's said to be travelling around waking up all the old Tomb Worlds so the Star Empire will be ready to go when the Silent Unlike many of the order. Unlike a lot of the Silent King's lords, he's perfectly friendly and willing to chat with the locals (because they are not part of his orders), unless he thinks they're standing in the way of him doing his job.

All of the Silent King's Necrons are like that. Many of the sentient Necron lords might act perfectly friendly to you, until you stand in the way of them completing their orders (or their orders change) and they bust out the gauss weaponry.

I think Orikan the Diviner is around, but like in canon is implied to have something to do with the C'tan (in this case, either a shard vamp, a C'tan shard in disguise, or something else entirely).

Had an idea for Szerakh. Szerakh came to the throne at a relatively young age for a Necrontyr, kind of like Tutankhamun, after his father was assasinated. Everyone assumed he would be a pushover. He ended up being the greatest leader in Necron history and the one to drag the gods from their thrones.

What major orks are there besides Ghazghull and the Beast?

IIRC, The Beast in this timeline was Urlakk Urg, a.k.a. the Ullanor ork, due to...revelations...in The Beast Arises series. Got his shit kicked in by the Imperium and swore bloody vengeance from whatever rock he escaped to. Chaos Gods smile, they know they've found the perfect pawn to get revenge on the Imperium. Unlike most of his successors, who are rather ambivalent about Chaos, and Ghazghull, who is all "fuck Chaos", the Beast was said to be the only major warboss was an outright Chaos worshipper, pledging his devotion to "gods who actually do something for their worshippers" and got a shitload of blessings in return.

Wazzdakka. Only ork to be able to into webway.

I'm down. I recall the Outsider was being set up as a self-aware entity predicated on the rejection of it's own self awareness, trying to again become a perfectly responsive robot. Szerakh could have probably played on its overt desire to follow orders and its deeper, suppressed intention to get rid of its own sentience to prompt its attack on the other C'tan. The Deceiver was described in the pantheon segment as entrenched in Necron high society before it lost favor and was eventually obliterated, and the Nightbringer was either less omnicidal before the long rest or kept on the Empire's periphery. The Void Dragon might have already been entombed during his reign, and now that he's returned VD might either ignore him or be deeply interested, or both just for the mixed messages.

there is a persistent argument in the academies of Tzeentch, scattered through the tattered web around the eye. Prominent Tzeentchian wyrds hold that Gork and Mork, apart or together, are bigger, meaner, and rougher than Khorne, while Crone witches and Sorcerers among the fallen hold the reverse true. In essence, it is a debate as to which godhead is a mote in the eye of which, and while few outsiders pay any mind, the implication for Chaos' use of orks is vast.

>More bugs
>More Nobledark battles

How about we kill two birds with one stone and make the Doom of Malantai more doom-y? Tyranids track down Malantai and send a fuck huge fleet there. The Eldar fight valiantly, and call in every ally that can respond, but eventually it is determined that while the Eldar were busy fighting the bioforms on the surface, the tyranids had sent other lifeforms below the Craftworld's surface and sucked the Infinity Circuit dry. No matter if the Eldar managed to clean the Craftworld of tyranids or not, the biggest thing of value on the Craftsworld was lost. Not sure if the Imperium would stay to fight for Craftworld while the tyranids leave, the biomass being exhausted, or if the Imperium would realize that they were fighting a battle in a war that had already been lost and leave (but Shadow in the Warp).

Void Dragon was taken out of commission early by Cegorach as a test run of getting the C'tan to kill each other off.

Nightbringer was the de facto leader of the C'tan in canon, and was one of the major powers ordering them around. In canon, Szerakh waited until the Nightbringer and Deciever were weakened after killing all the other C'tan (Outsider ran off crying), and then ordered the Necrons to shoot them before the two could countermand his orders. I don't remember or not if the C'tan gave Szarekh complete independence and control over the other Necrons as long as they weren't using them as some sick parody of gratitude, akin to Hohenheim being granted immortality by Homunculus at the cost of billions of people in FMA.

Szarekh wants to reverse the biotransference, which would conflict with the Outsider's goals, but it would be interesting to see him manipulating the C'tan to do his bidding.
"You'll lose Szarekh. We have a Star God on our side"
"What a coincidence. So do I."

With the inclusion of the Hub-World Engineers and the less unified nature of the Mechanicus are there more variations of Power armour?

I get that there would still be the Mk1 to Mk8 mainstream suits but would there it also be reasonable for there to be off shoot designs built by lesser forges?

The only issue is that the C'tan aren't robots, so to speak, as energy beings inhabiting robotic bodies. Void Dragon just has a technology and machinery fetish, as can be seen by the more organic-looking bodies of the Deciever and Nightbringer.

The Outsider could still work this way, though, being a C'tan who just wants to go back to being a sentient gas cloud floating around a star. But he just can't seem to make himself numb to higher thought, especially with the other C'tan in his head.

Outsider is basically wanting to die but can't kill himself. He has a godly soul and is therefore possibly immortal. Next best thing is to achieve eternal unconsciousness so as to no longer be self aware or really aware of anything.

Only way to do that is to stop fools from thinking about it. This requires now not just the death of anyone that has met the demented git which is not that many but also the removal of any data concerning it so that it becomes truly forgotten.

To this end it built a big Pokéball and and became an insufferable bitch hermit. But still people think about it indirectly. Mostly they think shit like "whats in the ball" or "what killed all those archeologists who were researching references to the ball". If nothing else the Dragon and the Nightbringer have souls now so even if all life was exterminated those two cunts would remember him for the rest of time and keep him pinned to being eternally awake.

Needless to say there are no Shard Vampires of the Outsider. He wants everything to die, last thing he needs is people to become immortal.

Presumably everyone forgot about him for vast amounts of time after the Necrontyr vs C'tan war or in the reign of the eldar empire because he doesn't seem to have been active. Possibly the Mechnicus, after discovering the Dragon and getting an idea of it's nature, started to look for more of it's kind and that lead them to investigate shit they shouldn't have in the old fairy tales of the eldar.

This time it wasn't prodding old ruins that unleashed the eons old monsters it was prodding old knowledge best left forgotten.

The moment that this happened the Outsider sparked back into self awareness and instantly hated it and wanted to go back into the non-self it had known. All attempts to get people to stop thinking about it just made them think about it more and as of ~750M39 has decided that the only way for long term death is to kill absolutely fucking everything.

To this end it is willing to form temporary allegiances with Chaos or just about anything else if it means more genocide.

It is also like the Deceiver in that there is no main shard. Unless it's still in the Dyson Pokéball holding a pillow over its head and screaming.

Alliances with Chaos and the Outsider never last very long as Chaos is very loud and Chaos is usually smart enough to not want everything everywhere ever to die because they need that shit to live. It does have "Necrons" sort of. They are basically empty necron bodies with a bit of programing in them. They have no personality, sapience, sentience or soul and remain only killing tools.

It is unsure if Outsider built the Dyson Sphere. Possibly he built it as a refuge and possibly the Old Ones built it as a prison.

Outsider was never shattered. In vanilla fluff, he went into hiding before the Silent King ordered the shattering of the C'tan, and escaped intact.

It was mentioned in a previous thread that the Void Dragon doesn't know his sibling still exists, because he only knows what he can get from spying on the Mechanicus and not many people know the Outsider exists. The Lyrixian mega-structure has been discovered, but it's seen as just another weird xenos ruin and no one knows how significant it really is. That's why the Void Dragon keeps referring to itself as the last of the C'tan. Of course, he could be thinking of his sibling in the past tense, which could be bad enough. Nightbringer knows Outsider is still out there somewhere too. Just those two alone with their warp signature would be like floodlights in the Outsider's face.

One question, how to we distinguish between the Outsider and Nightbringer? I get that their goals are different but it seems like the only difference between their methods is "kill everybody" versus "kill almost everybody".

Nightbringer wants to build a world in his image, himself the one true god, the adoration and fear of the masses and his rule eternal.

Outsider wants everyone to STFU.

I'm going to suggest that that is a picture of the Colchis PDF

I thought it was more an alliance of convenience, and the Chaos gods dumped buffs on him because he was the best shot they had at bringing down the Imperium?

Perhaps, but probably not to a huge extent given the logistical benefits of having a few simple, interchangeable versions. Going by the fact that old suits of power armor hundreds or thousands of years old can be salvaged and mix and matched with new armor, it seems Imperial design philosophy centers very much on simplicity and compatibility. Which makes sense, can you imagine if every planet had its own kind of electrical outlet?

Probably browner than green. Colchis is supposed to be a semi-arid to desert world. Of course, it could be on the coast where things are greener like Australia.

I've been thinking of the Nightbringer's personality as Alucard stripped of redeeming qualities, and possibly surrounded by a light year diameter warp aura of elevated fatality. He and his warp reflection are in pretty perfect sync, and the sire is not so much a shard as the Nightbringer himself, battered enough to be restrained. He is unabashedly sentient, takes pleasure in his infamy, and seeks to enhance it through the seeding of scaled down slivers of his own fractal-machine flesh in amusing opponents. Nosferatu are all made this way, and as they or their subsequent progeny wax they take on the appearance and persona of their sire. Through this likeness and their sliver they feed their master's shadow with their deeds and devoured soul-stuff, and in turn become more able to express this shadow's presence. Over time this has dispersed the Nightbringer's (or at least its reflection's) appetite, and he has become just a bit more arrogant as he has emerged as chief among contenders for the title "God of Death". His endgame involves enough resistance left in a galaxy firmly in his grip to still make good sport, and maybe even a pantheon of petty gods beneath him to provide real amusement, but his sadistic, violent, neutral/lawful evil is just as horrific a prospect as Khorne becoming king of the galaxy. Another apt comparison to describe his personality is if a T-800 were to slowly be taken over by Skeletor, over centuries, until it eventually realized that it had been mechanically cackling for the last three decades and just shredded an entire solar system, star included, with a shipping grade teleporter array and a scythe.

I think that was supposed to be what was so weird about it. The Beast got the Orks in bed with Chaos long-term, even though the vast majority of them give zero shits about it.

It's likely that in the scenario that the Beast successfully destroyed Old Earth and the Steward, the Orks would have turned on him due to him turning his back on the Gorkamorka (or, at the very least, accepting the gifts of something other than Gork and Mork). The adrenaline rush of going to war with the Imperium and the fact that the Beast died before he had to deal with the consequences means it never came up.

All of the later interactions between the Orks and Chaos have been alliances of convenience, increasingly less so once the Brain Boys showed up and the Orks have started to become more brutally cunnin'.

In canon, it's said that even being in the presence of Nightbringer brings visions of death and extinction.

Indeed, one could argue the Nightbringer is even more undead than your average undead cybernetic space god because he's mostly shattered and exists through his warp reflection being tethered to the husk of his regenerating physical form.

On the other hand, the Outsider loathes the feeling of self-awareness, and seems to be either fundamentally at odds with its warp reflection's nature or inherently self erasing. It's been described as trying to return to a state of perfect automation or complete responsiveness. I'm not sure what this really amounts to as a concept, and reckon its naturally an unattainable state for a sentient being, but I'm sure it bars anything like shard vampires made in its own image. The Outsider actively suppresses its imprint on the warp, but is itself so leery of willfulness that it will not plan or intrigue to achieve this goal if it can help it, and is in denial that it has a self-appointed goal in the first place. If anything, the Outsider is distinct because it would be a nonentity if it had its way, and as its minor warp reflection grows and shrinks it might drift between being an invincible faction of one and dedicated to becoming an invincible faction of zero, and trying to subsume its will in the execution of the orders of recognized authority figures. In any case, on the rare occasion the outsider leaves the sphere it's warp presence has become too influential to ignore and the imprint must be expunged, and it will be intent on a short, precise mission to efficiently do that and return without anyone knowing anything. On the way out it's heightened willfulness also might lead it to single-mindedly obliterate some fools that were thinking about that weird thing that just flew by, and get into a loop of making more people vanish to extinguish awareness of the void its made. In such a mood it might even single out other C'tan or vamps. On the way back it can usually return to the sphere without incident, having reduced itself to fairly abstract prime directives unperturbed by its warp reflection, but if anybody with enough necrodermis and no soul tracks it down and gives it orders it is prone to obey.

The few that could utilize the Outsider this way, a handful of Phaerons and an even shorter list of extremely tricky Strigoi, are well enough informed as to the Outsider's nature to take great pains to conceal the knowledge and limit the scope of the tasks they might give it. The latter point is of great importance, because while the Outsider is ridiculously capable, any mission that expands its warp influence above a nebulous threshold will see it resume its mission to expunge all knowledge of it, starting with its most recent commander. In theory one could tell it directly to go anywhere, get anything, or kill anyone short of a warp god, and it will likely succeed at the task before re-realizing its own consciousness, but using the Outsider to shake the galaxy invariably means you wake it. Anything that touches the upper levels of its physical power, like teleporting to and assaulting Oscar in the imperial palace or personally holding the Cadian gate against a Black Crusade are so significant to the galaxy's collective unconscious they might irrevocably awaken the Outsider as an actor on the galactic stage, and turn the slightly conspicuous void left by its self excision into a full portfolio of warp power as the Outsider reconciles its conquest of the other C'tan with the agency projected onto it by warp affecting beings.

So how does it deal with the fact that the other C'tan shards that it ate are in its body, still conscious, aware of the Outsider, and still screaming in its brain? That's a lot of beings aware of its existence.

Reminder that he saved Iyanden by leading half a million Kriegers through the Webway. It was ridiculously risky for so many reasons, and part of the reason he received the Writ of Trade was to get him away from places where he could do more damage.

Something to address the concept of having BC with multiple oobjectives. Each phase of the Long War is planned to weaken the Imperium in some manner permanently. Every phase has 3 BC to achieve an overarching goal. They are all done to prepare to topple the Imperium in the 13th BC or at least allow others to do it.
>Phase 1 is to sow the seeds of decay and prevent the Imperium from being at their apex. Testing Imperial strength while poisoning the enemy. Just so happen to have worrying amounts of cults and vampires.
>Phase 2 is to weaken the Imperial Army by stretching them across the Imperium using raids and elongated campaigns in the soft under bellies. Just so happen to occur around the Great Civil War Era. Cults are curbed by Ordo Securitas and vampires hunted by Ordo Xenos.
>Phase 3 is to send offensive campaigns to maximize Imperial losses while targeting enemy industry. Shadow Wars are also used to have the Imperials struggle to deal with Chaos. Just so happens to see separatist are on the rise. Imperium recovers from the civil war.
>Phase 4 is to drown the Imperium worth enemies both internal and external. Both the military and economy will be stressed beyond belief. Imperial Army now becomes very good at killing separatist.
13th BC is the final gamble proposed by Lady Malys to topple the Imperium. Being the largest and deadliest BC of all, it is made to roll to Terra then decapitate the government, kill Oscar, and recapture Ishe. For if the Imperium falls, civilization falls along with it to bring about another Age of Strife longer than before or worst, all life dies.

Might be a good idea to call them something other than vampires to distinguish them from the C'tan ones. Like necromancers or liches or something? Something that commands the dead while already being dead?

It might have just killed them fucking dead, and not eaten them. That seems much more in character for our Outsider, just as eating them is in character for canon. Canon Outsider seems just nebulously, violently insane, hence the cannibalism and subsequent eternal remorse, nobledark Outsider seems to be a more remorseless, untheatrical threat, tragic in that it's in constant turmoil trying to negate its nature, but unrepentant and monomaniacal. It might have obliterated the C'tan for the Silent King and formed its own motive in the act from the reception of its sudden, unprompted attack, achieving acute self awareness only as it's essentially autonomous material-self clashed with the warp reflection, drawn from its perceived intention to become the only C'tan. If not, it freely decided to wipe all of its ilk from the Galaxy as a function of its fundamental nature, and having done that in coincidence with the desires of the Necrotyr shifted the agency to them and elsewhere due to a fundamental denial of its own, and then of its own will constructed a dyson sphere to brood in, adrift and still in denial.

Speaking of xenos, here's something I had been working on for the Diasporex.

pastebin.com/nXvTpqYB

Wait, are we actually changing the fluff for the War in Heaven? As in actually changing it, not just filling in the huge gaps that are left vague in vanilla?

As a compromise between the background lore and the high concept of "an idea trying to delete itself", how about the following:

Outsider goes on his binge-eating spree like in canon. Runs off to his Dyson sphere where he spends the next few million years calming himself and getting the C'tan shards stuck inside him to act as a cohesive whole. After a while gets to the point where the energy released from the turmoil is about as notable as the galactic background radiation.

Thing is, he's really unstable. So unstable, that just about anything is likely to set him off. Like too many people thinking about him at once, or another galaxy-wide war, or heaven forbid, someone actually finding his dyson sphere and opening it up. Like what's about to happen now.

Outsider wants to calm his mind by becoming so inactive and zen he becomes one with the universe. No problem with multiple people in your mind if your mind ceases to exist. Problem is people keep coming by and WAKING HIM UP. FUCK.

So in the case of this Nobledark AU where the Imperium is alot ore civilized and less barbaric than in canon, let me ask this.

How would the Nobledark Imperium deal with human worlds, settlements and colonies in that are not part of the Imperium of Man? As in independent worlds or colonial systems with their own governing bodies? And what if said independent worlds would choose to remain in their own sovereignty and choose to not join the imperium and its eldar allies.

>Formal letter/message from an independent human world to an Imperium Expeditionary Force

And how'd it turn out?:

>"Attention Imperial emissaries/envoys, this is a message from the Felicity Colonial Systems. We have considered your offer in joining your 'Imperium of Man' but we formally decline your offer of assimilation. The Felicity Colonial System has its own independent governing body, but we can still, however, continue any fair trade between our governing bodies including tourism if needed be. So please consider honoring our decision of remaining independent from your rule. If however you do not honor our decision for us to remain in own sovereignty and independence and that you will initiate acts of hostility to take us over. We will be prepared to and are willing to defend our homes, planets, territories, sovereignty and independence at all costs. Again we wish to remain in good terms for trade deals and to also welcome you as foreign guests. So please do consider."
>Signed: -Jeremy Johnson, Councilor of the Felicity Colonial Systems

###
Also is it me or is Veeky Forums having trouble uploading photos right now?

I don't know phantoms or wight lords might be different names. I just stole wight lords from WH Fantasy Things that should be dead are reanimated to command undead armies that shouldn't be able to move, much less fight. Yet they can move and fight thanks to Nurgle's gift. Using a small sliver of power being them back to the almost living.

When I say vampire, I do mean C'tan vampires. At least other than Nosferatu can have the possibility to gain the super secret power over the undead. You might be thinking "But vampires don't use magic" true, for them the bodies are made to function by biological and gravitational manipulation. This is rather draining on a vampire who has to constently control every movement of the undead.

Compared to the witchs and sorcerers who take the easier path by magical manipulation. With magic and psyker power, mortal necromancer have a less tiring time commanding undead armies. Wights are just conduits for Nurgle's will and use his strength as such. These skeleton generals may have something resembling a mind but all their motivations are fabrications of the plague father.

If the world is worthless, the Imperium will keep asking if they want to join the Imperium but that's it. Normally the Imperium shows off military muscles and trading deals for certain goods that only exist within the Imperium to convince the worlds it's a good idea to join. If the world is in a strategic location or have rich assets, Terra would have no qualms subverting the world's government to intall a pro-Imperial puppet. When the world is a threat or about to fall to the enemies of the Imperium, the Imperial Army would launch a preemptive strike to annex it.

>the Imperial Army would launch a preemptive strike to annex it.
Seems more likely to me that they would wait for the attack to be well underway, then show up to rescue it. More in line with the 'noble' part of 'nobledark', and less likely to generate resentment and revolution if the Army just... doesn't leave, as opposed to outright invasion.

>Nobledark 40k
Isn't this basically the direction that official 40K's going at the moment?

Imperium would not trade with them. Part of the whole thing about the Imperium is free internal trade but you have to join to get it.

I have a question.

Ceggers, Isha and Khine are the surviving eldar gods. All three are currently hiding in the mortal world. Ceggers has his traveling party, Isha went into politics and Khine sleeps in his temples waiting for the next good fight.

Are they or were they ever true warp gods? Or were the eldar gods always walking amongst their followers?

This one is actually explained in canon. Asuryan, the head Eldar god, forbid any physical interaction between the gods and their followers after Khaine started being a team-killing asshole from a combination of Lileath and the Nightbringer.

Asuryan ain't around to make the rules anymore. Also, I'm not sure if Ceggers permanently manifests. Isha does because she has a permanent avatar, and Khaine though shattered into shards, has an avatar in the form of either the Young King or the stone statue (it's kind of ambiguous as to which).

>generate resentment and revolution if the Army just... doesn't leave

(pic related)

Then it's also possible that they are still upholding the great divide. They don't tread across the divide between the two worlds.

All three of them ended up here through no desire of their own.

Ceggers was hounded here.

Khine was dead and his pieces landed here.

Isha was carried here by mortals.

Since then they have never returned. The law is unbroken.

9th page bump

So what's Cherubael doing this time around?

Given his apparent Undivided leanings I'm going to suggest that he's one of Be'lakor's dipshits.

Either that or a Tzneetchian renegade.

back when 40k was good

I would say shit like daemonhost are totally banned by the Imperium and only radical Inquisitors or renegades use them. If he was actually Chaos Undivided, he wouldn't be working for Be'lakor at least not anymore. Most likely either working for Luther or Malys because they don't believe in worshipping any one god.

Tyranids can't nom souls, only biomass. Even if they could nom souls they wouldn't because metaphysical energy can't be used to make 'gaunts

wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Doom_of_Malan'tai

Slaaneshii 'Nids when?

Seems a little grim, didn't we say joining is very much voluntary? Otherwise the Tau had rich worlds and the Imperium could have stomped them back in M37 or whenever first contact was. I think trade with outsiders would be fine as well, membership in the Imperium just removes cross border restrictions, and more importantly brings you under the aegis of the massive Imperial war machine for when the next waaagh or hive fleet rolls around. In fact there are probably quite a few petty confederations lobbying for entry at any point in time.

Yeah, we actually joked about this AU losing its reason for existence when the Gorillaman revival was announced, but this started early summer last year so it's been around before that.

Or they use "prophets" (discounting Macha-Isha) to let things be known.
We do know that plenty of humans worship Isha.
I can't help but wonder... Would Eldar convert to human religions in this au?

I can't think of a reason why not.

Yeah, tyranids eating an Infinity Circuit (actually an Infinity Circuit and a World Spirit or two) is actually canon in vanilla. 'Nids can't use souls metaphysically but they can use them as an energy source.

The only difference with this proposal is you'd get a nobledark battle (fighting valiantly despite ultimately losing) and you'd keep the tyranids as faceless rather than having one super snowflake zoanthrope.

Unfortunately, the sheer strength of the Hive Mind's presence prevents daemons from possessing tyranids. In order to do so you would have to pull an All Guardsmen Party and get a live zoanthrope far enough away from the Hive Mind for a daemon to find it.

Be'lakor is Chaos Undivided. In the thread where we talked about the major "mortal" players (or at least some of them) of Chaos it was said that Be'lakor set up shop in the Chaos Wastes and most of his followers tend to be Chaos Undivided and also comparatively stable.

Remember that our Slaanesh is extra thirsty for eldar souls and obsessed with realspace power on a level the older gods aren't, so there might be impetus in the crone eldar camp to experiment on tyranids hopped up on a devoured infinity circuit.

>part of the reason he received the Writ of Trade was to get him away from places where he could do more damage.

There is no such place.

I'm thinking about writing up Prince Yriel properly. It will be tomorrow afternoon though because it's late and Have work.

Any advice or things that should be in it beyond the rather sad little bit on the 1d4chan page and the bit at the top of this thread?

Hats will be included, obviously.

>There is no such place.
Shhh. Just let them cling to their little bit of hope, user.

The only reason would be the Eldar know their gods exist, as opposed to other religions that

It has been mentioned repeatedly that trade outside Imperial borders is highly restricted with the intent to get outside empires to want to join the Imperium and prevent Imperial worlds from accidentally getting infected by gene-stealers or Chaos. Trade across international borders requires express permission from the Imperial government itself and is the exception rather than the rule. The only people who get to freely trade across international borders are Rogue Traders.

For the Imperium to consider outright annexing a world, it has to be pretty damn important in terms of resources or strategic position. Like Cadia or "the only world that can reliably allow passage between two sectors" important. AdMech might be a more hawkish (if not outright moving independently) if they think a world has STCs.

>wight lords
Sounds pretty cool. And of course, when in doubt, steal liberally from Fantasy.

>be Fallen Dark Angle
>comes back to the Imperium after 2,000 years
>didn't leave the Eye of Terror since fleeing there
>see Eldar helping humans
what.jpg
>see other xenos join the Imperium
WUT.jpg
>some humans even worship Isha
[autistic screeching]
(pic related)

You seriously didn't know about the Watchers in the Dark, brother? I swear, was your head in a bucket on the Rock the whole time?

Guy who wrote the Diasporex stuff in this post here.

I also did a brief write up of the kinebrach from the stuff mentioned in the previous thread (was the one who did the Drach'nyen thing). Wrote this up as a base we can add more ideas to if people come up with more.

pastebin.com/d08tXeZ7

Bump

Are there still Jokaero?

Is this the end?

In the kinebrach write-up I was going to suggest that there was some debate as so whether the jokaero and kinebrach were related, given that both were ape-like and Horus Rising has kinebrach weapons that look a lot like digital weapons, but realized that would conflict with the fluff of the jokaero being Old One creations and kinebrach being only a few thousand years older than humanity.

Maybe?

Also they look at least as different from each other as we do from them. It could be an in-universe folk belief among humans and eldar that they are both from the same tree.

A common kinebrach belief is that humans are an eldar sub-species.

I'm still around, but will be a week or so again before I can finish my primarch. Also still down to draw stuff if I can ever make time.

>A common kinebrach belief is that humans are an eldar sub-species.
See related pic for my reaction for ants, I'm sorry

On another note, does anyone have any thoughts on the kinebrach and Diasporex thing? Yea, nay, or meh? Was kind of worried they seem to be floating in limbo now.

It's pretty good.

This raises the question, in this timeline, is Inquisitor Coteaz Torquemada's retinue composed of a bunch of kinebrach with masterwork power swords and raygun gothic lazweapons?

Absolutely. Also a often seen with a few Jokaero messing with their gear.

The Jokaero go where they want as they want and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Inquisitor Torquemada always has a crate of fresh fruit to ensure that he always has at least one or two of them around.

On one hand the Kinebrach do not like the Jokaero because they mess with their gear and that shit is taken very seriously. On the other hand they do very good, if unpredictable, work.

The story of prince Yriel begins in the dockyards of Craftworld Iyanden in 248M37. This is not to say that that wads the day or the place of his birth or, as many detractors have claimed, that his mother was a whore who spent her nights with dock worker. It is merely that this is the first time he appeared on any official records. His craftworld of origin has never been reliably determined but given the possession of a soulstone it is probable that he has one.

Despite intentionally covering his tracks "Prince" Yriel claims to be a descendant of the folk hero Ulthanash and thus permited to take his aristocratic title. The authenticity of this claim is dubious at best.

Circumstances that led him to Iyanden in that year, how he obtained the aptly named ship Hoec's Grace or the origins of his motley crew is also unknown.

What is known is that since that day the mad bastard has cut a swathe of mayhem a light year wide down the millennia from one end of the Imperium to the other. His name is spoken with detestation by dockyard official on a hundred thousand worlds and reverence on at least as many others. His antics have been a bane to the Imperium down the ages saved from disgrace and condemnation only by the times his antics have been a boon to the Imperium. All he claims in search of the snazziest hat, as befits the heir of Ulthanash.

Of all his deeds the most brazen and greatest was the supply of aid in the defense Iyanden during the war of the Great Kraken. It was he who marched at the head of a half million strong host of Krieger soldiery, each eager to stick a bayonet in his back and held in safety only by an official commissars hat and a document form the Emperor himself with a genuinely forged signature upon it.

Best not to mention that he may or may not have had something to do with the agri-futures fiasco of the Ulthran Cartel.

I’ve been putting anything human-related on the backburner so we can try to focus on this “Xeno Week, no humies allowed” theme we have going for this thread and develop the non-human parts of the galaxy more.

Speaking of which, a while back it was asked what the Phoenix Lords are doing and how the non-Eldar parts of the Imperium view them. I wasn’t able to say anything because the thread crashed before I could respond. But after doing research on the Phoenix Lords, I can say the following. How the human inhabitants of the Imperium see the Phoenix Lords is simple: they are the Eldar equivalent of Primarchs. Eldar see the Primarchs as the human’s Phoenix Lords, although unlike the Phoenix Lords the primarchs can’t reincarnate, which the Eldar see as a point in their favor.

Are we keeping the canon origin of “Asurmen brought together the most talented students from across the Craftworlds to train at the Shrine of Asur” for the Phoenix Lords? Such an origin of “students from across the galaxy who trained in the same dojo” would provide a good compare and contrast with the origin of the primarchs in this timeline as well as reinforce some of eastern themes in Eldar culture as to how the origin of their “primarchs” differ from the human ones.

During the Raid on Nurgle’s Mansion, all of the Phoenix Lords except Asurmen were in their original bodies. As of M41, all of the Phoenix Lords have either died in combat or gone missing, just like the primarchs. Jain Zar, Karandas, and Drastana have all died. Maugan Ra disappeared into the Webway (though he’s probably still around, given that every once in a while there are reports of a super-Dark Reaper showing up and kicking ass then disappearing). I was going to suggest Irilyth got flung into the future like was suggested on 1d4chan, but I think the fluff on Myrmeara has him dying. Thankfully, with the exception of the few who have gone missing, their armor is still around.

Of the Prince himself little is known. Rumors abound that he maintains a harem of the most exiting beauties upon Hoec's Grace, now flagship of the Eldritch Raiders "Trader" fleet. Some say that his holds are stuffed to the rafters with rare metals, or bound and tortured captives, a small pocket dimension of Necrontyr manufacture, the preserved and still living brain of a Tyranid hive ship and a hundred other somehow even less plausible things. The one about a surviving member of the original Ordo Chronos admittedly turned out to be true, but only by complete coincidence.

Actual witnesses who have seen, for whatever reason, the inside of his ship tell a very different story. They tell of meticulous order, neatness and professional conduct that would seem no out of place in the old Void Born Navy families and completely at odds with the character of the Prince. Every item in the hold accounted for and noted, ever speck of dirt expunged and every crew member busy and happy about their duties. Possibly this is more in part to do with Kasahkrv the First Mate. He is of the demiurg people and they are known to love orderly conduct. How or why he is present on the Hoec's Grace is unknown, maybe it was a penance.

The other incident that lands squarely at the feet of the Prince is the loss of the planet Tanith.

In the harrowing time of the 12th Black Crusade great fleets and armies were mobilized and war was done on a scale seldom seen. What is remembered less are the more insidious assaults upon the Imperium. The words and deeds that slipped in sideways with smiles upon their friendly faces that infected worlds and stole the souls of the people from the light of civility and lead them down the paths of barbarity and selfish indulgence. On of the worlds afflicted was Tanith, that strange and verdant paradise.

The exact events leading up to the loss of the world are not easy to decipher and many accounts are contradictory in nature. When a world is on fire and neighbors turn on friends and kin in cannibalistic abandon documentation of social and political trends tends to be less of a priority than staying alive.

What was known is that the election of the Governor was called into question and numerous claimants arose although it is unknown who many if any were unclean. A strange new fad for very modest habits arose in the population, primarily at Tanith Magna and spreading out wards from there, a fashion among the aristocracy of wearing as little as possible became evident and then what appeared to be a military coup happened. Society more or less broke down at that point. When it became clear beyond reasonable doubt that the military was not marching to the same drum as the rest of the Imperium a not insignificant chunk of it broke away and mostly hunted down in the forests one unit at a time.

Into this shitstorm came the Eldritch Raiders "Trader" fleet. It was clear from the radio transmissions, encoded with subliminal (to baseline humans) Dark Hymnal Choirs as they were, that something was a little off. Also the fleet of warships in orbit bearing the blasphemous Marks.

Eldritch Raiders were officially a trader fleet and as such any identification broadcasts automatically sent out from the fleet would have identified them as such and been completely genuine. Which is not to say that they were entirely true. At least half the ships in the fleet, Hoec's Grace among them, were armed to the teeth. As pirate deterrents they would often claim. Hoec's Grace tore from the ranks of the fleet at full burn, shield up and glowing red, weapons crash charged and a fleet of almost equally mad ships trailing behind it. Prince Yriel, never the most stable of creatures, was out for blood.

This reckless course of action was questioned by his demiurg First Mate and long time accomplice/friend as this was well outside what he deemed wisdom;

"WISDOM! We have gone well beyond the bounds of wisdom! I say no more. They attack and we hold the line. They invade and we fall back. They take whole sectors and we fall back. Their type took our whole [untranslatable profanity] Empire and we fell back. No more! No more. Here I am drawing [untranslatable profanity] line in the stars! Here, I say! Here! No Further!"

Hoec's Grace slammed into the lead ship at a truly excessive relative velocity, all weapons firing at any available target and it's armored prow plowed through the marauder ship and emerged from the inferno dragging hellfire behind it. Still firing, still killing, scarp and flame and bodies coating it's hull, boarders on half the decks, the control room knee deep in dead chaos... creatures and The Prince himself down to one good eye and more tragically having to resort to only his second snazziest hat.

For what it was worth the attack on the marauder fleet was never meant to destroy them, though it effectively broke their backs, so much as it was a diversion.

The cargo haulers had slipped round the other side of the planet and with the help of mercenary warlocks were scanning the surface for pockets of corrupted people. Using the extremely rare (and unlicensed) imperial telelporters a little over fifteen thousand of the helpless were snatched from certain death. By the time what was left of the Marauder fleet realized what was happening it was too late, the hauler fleet was already too far away and accelerating to the systems edge, all they could do was scatter before the boot of The Prince got shoved even further up their collective arse.

But of Tanith there was nothing more that could be done. Nuclear warheads were detonated in sequence to cause vast firestorms that scoured the planet clean of the taint of Chaos. Sadly also of most complex life. They say, the men in robes or reds and of dark greens, they say that one day it may bloom again. The Great Nalwood trees might be resurrected to wander again. Tanith Magna might be rebuilt in all it's glory. The children might return home. One day.

The surviving Tanith, such a ragged bunch as they were, were ferried to the unsettled maiden world known is the High Speech as Lileath's Briar Patch but soon became known as New Tanith. The world had been the property of the Biel-tan, who had been intending to start colonization any century soon and had been for at least five thousand years. Their complaints were met with a curt response that boiled down to; It's a big planet. It's a small number of humans. Find another island.

There were a few soldiers that were saved, slightly more than a regiments worth. The nearest they had to a commanding officer was Commissar Gaunt, later Colonel-Commissar. From the remnants of the military of a dead world enough were left behind to form a PDF adequate to the meager population and an undersized regiment that could be used as the core upon which to build with offworld recruits and taught the Tanith way of war. Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt never forgot what Prince Yriel had done for his adopted people and swore an eternal oath to the Corsair Prince. An oath the Corsair Prince was mostly indifferent to.

For this service to the Imperium Prince Yriel received an official Writ of Trade, hand signed by the Emperor himself and presented to him by a senior priestess of Isha. What more, they gave him a new hat and it was a good day.

Any better?

I like the concept of the Phoenix lords being the eldar equivalent of the primarchs.

But one question. Why not have them be lost and dead like the primarchs? The current crop of Aspect warriors could be running on their old teachings, unsure if they fit into the changing galaxy but keeping the faith all the same. Their armour is inherited by the next top Exarch but their souls now reside in the Infinity Circuit.

They are lost and dead. They can "reincarnate" the same way as canon, but it's not the same as having alive and around.

To clarify (am ), as to why they just aren't dead and in the Infinity Circuit? Eldar can commune with the spirits in the Infinity Circuit. And they can also pull souls out of it to make wraithguards. If the Phoenix Lords were in the Infinity Circuit, you can bet your ass the Eldar would be dialing them up all the time for advice and the first thing they would do would probably be to build some super-wraithguard bodies to stick them in. The Phoenix Lords themselves might insist on it if they were anything as driven as Asurmen.

With the soulstones in the armor, the only people who ever get to talk to the Phoenix Lords are the ones who wear the armor itself (which is kind of a moot point), which has the same effect of cutting them off from most of their disciples as dying does for the primarchs. You might get the Phoenix Lords sticking around until the day is saved, but you never really get the chance to sit down with them and pump them for info.

Or possibly, since we are adding a sense of groundedness and reduced powerlevels in this timeline (Oscar being a Man of Gold instead of Super Shaman, primarchs being extraordinary humans instead of demigods, etc.) in exchange for common sense which I kind of like about this timeline, gives it a different feel, you could have the creation of a new Phoenix Lord be something like the regeneration of a new Doctor on Doctor Who. Yeah you have *a* Phoenix Lord around, and they have a good deal of the memories of the original, but they're never quite the same as they use the soul of the autarch as the base, and none quite match up to the originals. The Rhana Dandra in this case could be the prophecy where the original Phoenix Lords come back in the Eldar's darkest hour for one last battle.

Seems good so far. The only thing is that in the original writeup Tanith was being outright attacked by a splinter fleet of the Black Crusade. Here it sounds like the world was just corrupted by Chaos in general, which sounds particularly less impressive, though perhaps I am reading that wrong.

Part of the reason Yriel's actions were so ballsy is that he charged the Chaos fleet despite being heavily outnumbered in order to distract them from him vacuuming up civilians. Like a mad honey badger charging at a pride of lions.

I've been thinking about how to describe the different feel you mention. One apt seeming way to put it would be increasing the ratio of Dune to Judge Dredd that composes the base Imperium. Another part is the core conflict is more nuanced and coherent. As opposed to canon's really blunt, almost farcical Order vs Chaos with two orbiting flavors of impending doom, we have what seems like an idealized post-enlightenment, classical-esque empire in opposition against an antithetical ideal of a declined, decadent empire in the style of Requiem Vampire Knight (crones, with their ork auxiliaries). So while the Imperium is noble in dark times, the Crone eldar are grimbright at their best, gladly doing fucked up shit in the name of the glorious transcendent future of fucked up shit. Necrons and Tyranids coming in as respective double negatives to the first pair. Necrons are, from their own perspective, an empire of perfect accord and unerring comprehension, of such refinement and vision as to be the preeminent civilization in the galaxy. The hivemind is bloated, metamorphosing, bloody, endless appetite, but a few posts have gotten at its odd naivety, possibly being no more extraordinary than a predator of enormous scale, or a pack of such, descending on a burrow. Admittedly, a few of these have been me, but I just really like the idea of the tyranids as massive, clever, but still sensical predators within an intergalactic ecosystem, which means hunting can be risky. Hell, warp active galaxies might be massive camouflage predators that eat tyranids.

I'll change it when it gets to the 1d4chan page.

Unless someone beats me to it.

>. Hell, warp active galaxies might be massive camouflage predators that eat tyranids.

I think it's more like that Chaos itself is more of an ambush predator and they are fighting over food.

I was going for showing the more infections nature of Chaos. Evidently I didn't do it well.

Why do the necrons keep kidnapping eldar children?

>"These space elf shotas are worth alot of money to be sold to lonely adult women. That there is why we of ten acquire them."

...

>I don't remember or not if the C'tan gave Szarekh complete independence and control over the other Necrons as long as they weren't using them as some sick parody of gratitude, akin to Hohenheim being granted immortality by Homunculus at the cost of billions of people in FMA.

You know, thinking about this, maybe we should make this canon for this AU even if it turns out it's not present in vanilla so long as it doesn't conflict with the general War in Heaven fluff. It was mentioned in previous threads that one possible difference from canon is Szarekh might not know or want to cut off the command protocols (or at least not until he's cleaned up the mess the Necrons made) and this could be one reason why.

Quick question, should the Black Crusades be moved to under 'Forces of Chaos' or get it's own page but maybe not moving it at all. If we decide to write every single Black Crusade then the Draft page is going to be expanded by at least 24 paragraphs. With the amount of 2 paragraphs or more per Crusade, it will definitely slow down the Draft page. Just a thought.

I think that all of the important historical events, such as the Unification Wars, War of the Beast, Black Crusade, etc., along with important sociology things like Remembering Old Earth should probably get their own page under history, and the main page focuses more on the state of the galaxy in M41.

I mean, even back when the Drafts page was a bloated mess, we had two major sections; Imperium: Then (referring to U-Wars and history) and Imperium: Now (which was everything else).

So, quick question. Was Yriel always calling himself "Prince" even before he became a corsair/unofficial Rogue Trader?

One thing I noticed though, how does Yriel get the Kriegers to even hear him out before shanking him. On the other hand, tricking a bunch of xenophobic Kriegers to do his bidding is 100% pure undistillated Yriel.

Maybe the Imperium was planning a response, but Yriel thought they were too slow, decided "fuck that", decided to take more...dramatic action. Krieg knew they might get deployed, and that they might have to go through the Webway to do it. When Yriel showed up with his forged signature the Kriegers shrugged and grumbled "let's get this over with".

He wore the right sort of that, had documents, transmitted the right codes and never actually set foot on that irradiated mud ball.

Presumably the Kriegers were being deployed and he merely diverted them to a faster road.

>He wore the right sort of that

Right sort of hat.

Not sure what happened there.

Unfortunately I don't know enough of any of the non human races of 40k to actually contribute. Something about GW not releasing very much info on their culture.
On the other hand, this might be the perfect time to talk about Rommel.
I was looking at some changes to his origin.
So, home world was a colony world. Tau needed more settlers to get a new world up to self-sufficiency, Mymeara and humans responded with a lot of people. This was mid to late m39. Settlers discovered an archeocultural database from the original human settlers of the planet, circa m19. A large effort was dedicated to translating and understanding it, because when you have a database of ancient human culture (later discovered to be a reconstruction of a few human cultures from m1-2), you might as well play it up and snag the tourists, and watch as your kids start taking it seriously (thus making their culture a reinterpreted reconstruction of a reconstruction of an idealized cultural fusion that never existed).
This is what the Eldar who would later be known as Rommel was born to: a jointly settled tourist trap that took itself seriously and actually never had that many tourists to begin with.