Nobledark 40k Part 23: Return of the Thread Numbering edition

WHY DOES SHE WEAR THE MASK

So this is tts 40k?

If she removed it she would be very beautiful.

I think that would be a good history for the Palatine on necromunda. Also, I have no idea how it would work lore wise, but your description of Khine makes it sound like its shards could be the source of that third kindred of vampires. I assume they'd be the weakest and the most prone to dithering about to minimal effect, but they might exist, for some measure of worth.

The Necrodermis infection Khine got in the War in Heaven might be transferable to those already deep in his service.

If so it could be a replacement for the sacrifices he isn't getting in this AU.

Each avatar is already just a "shard" of what Khine should be in much the same way hat the C'tan shards are fragments of what they were and for maybe the same reason. It could be that each Khine avatar takes a single Exarch, usually the most prominent member of the warrior path most favoured by the avatar's home craftworld.

The new supplicant is accompanied by other Exarchs to the avatar shrine, for preference with at least one Phoenix Lord to actually conduct the ceremony. At the final hour of the ceremony the supplicant is stripped of their armour and stands naked and unmoving as senior Exarchs ritually scar them. Then they walk into the darkness of the shrine and the door closes.

The rest of the Aspect Warriors, and maybe some guests of sufficient renown, then go and have something to eat and maybe a drink or ten. Eventually the doors to the shrine reopen and the new High Priest of Khine walks out. The ritual cuts have healed a metallic silver, their eyes are like pools of mercury and their teeth have a rather predatory look to them. They may never again wear Exarch armour or be dedicated to one path of war. They are now murder made flesh and a living bridge to the great murderer himself.

It is their job to rouse the Bloody Handed Menace in times of desperation and act in his stead in the mortal world as their broken god slumbers.

for me? :3

They have a much lower level cap than any other breed of Vampire and there can be only one per avatar. Their speed, strength, endurance, stamina and rate of recovery are all boosted to some degree but they generally cap out at Grey Knight level. Except for the speed of healing which is fast enough to be visible and perceptible to the unaugmented eye. Impressive but nothing compared to a late stage Vampire of other breeds.

On the positive side they don't go crazy and don't fall apart in ultraviolet and beyond light/radiation.

They do require blood to survive. And not just any blood, they need eldar blood. But due to the fact that they aren't insufferable cunts like the other vampires they generally don't kill to get it. Typically they are fed in a once every "sunset" ritual that ultimately involves either someone bleeding into a bowl or someone holding out an arm.

High Priests of Khine are held in reverence by the craftworlders but are also considered more than a bit weird

Are there any Eldar High Lords? I know that we have many seers acting in advisory positions to the High Lords of Terra, but are there any Eldar high lords themselves? The reason I say this is it was mentioned in a previous thread that the Eldar make up a decent chunk of the Imperial Population (something like 8%?). The High Lords of Terra essentially run the Administratum, which essentially runs the Imperium. It would be extremely weird for a sizeable chunk of the Imperial population to not have any official say in Imperial government.

I can see why the Tau and the like might not have a seat, because the Imperium only started officially allowing non-human, non-eldar races into the Imperium in the last 4,000 years or so, but it’s harder to say why for the Eldar. Heck, the Fabricator-General gets a seat on the High Lords of Terra, and I’m almost sure that there are fewer tech-priests than there are Eldar (including Craftworlders, Exodites, enclaves, etc.)

The other question is if there is a High Lord who speaks for the Eldar, who are they and where do they come from? The Eldar Craftworlds don’t seem to be able to agree on what to put on a pizza, much less elect an official. The only reason they seem to regard Earth as the capital of the Imperium is because that’s where Isha is and if one Craftworlds proclaimed they were the capital of the Eldar the others would all throw a fit. Earth was picked because while it was a decision that nobody really liked, it was the least divisive of all the possible options.

The other thing is that it seems that a lot of Eldar politics seems to be an extended power struggle between Ulthwé and Biel-Tan. The two seem to have the biggest influence on the other Craftworlds out of all of the non-isolationist ones, but have very different ideas on policy. Iyanden with its huge population could have easily formed the backbone of a third faction pre-Kraken, but they wanted as little as possible to do with the Imperium.

TTS 40k but without the daddy issues, the pre-existing grimdark, the insanity of the Inquisition/Marines/Everyone - and most importantly, without the stale 1d4chan yeems that are suddenly fucking hilarious now they've been given a new lease of life

Seriously, I'd never properly lost my sides to the warp at a Boreale yeem until Thunder's DoW review. Good shit.

I don't think the Dark Eldar even worship the old gods. In their mind the gods deserved what they got because they were weak.

Do like the idea about Khaine being fought over by Khorne and Slaanesh being due to how he is worshipped differently by different people.

Little iffy about the idea of the Avatars being Nightbringer necrodermis. It sounds a lot like the "everything is C'tan" problem that 3rd edition had.

One question is how do we distinguish these guys from the Phoenix Lords? I know there was some suggestion of making the PLs demi-gods of Khaine or something, but I don't remember what happened to it.

It's a good point.

It has been stated previously that there are no Eldar High Lords. Is it fair? Probably not. But then eldar live a long as fucking time and if you have one you are stuck with them forever. They would eventually dominate the High Lord Council and as they make up less than a 10th of the Imperium humanity would start to feel that they are being ruled by a "foreign" power. A "them" and "us" mentality starts to deepen between the HLoT and the rest of the population that can't be healed and in the fullness of time leads to a civil war.

The Farseers can all see this and so can numerous adepts of other institutions. It is therefore prudent for human and eldar that no eldar ever gets that high office.

Instead they limit their power to an advisory capacity. Every High Lord and numerous senior figures beneath them all have at least one Farseer on the payroll giving them advise and imparting wisdom. Also Emperor has his Empress so in the minds of the common eldar their people are already represented above rank of the HLoT.

Also the Fabricator-General is a prominent member of the Religio Mechanicum/Faith of the Omnissiah. There might be by numbers less ordained tech-priests than Imperium than eldar but that's just the clergy. The congregation who worship the Omnissiah are represented on almost every Imperial planet. They are probably the largest religious/cultural/political group in the Imperium.

Iyanden with it's fuck hueg population and fuck hueg navy and XBAWKZ HUEJ population of the living dead is vying for prominence as the new cultural heart of the eldar people. Ulthwé with exception of Sreta generally gives no shit beyond the fortification of the Gate-World and any cultural dominance they have they are indifferent to so long as the requisitioned supplies turn up on time. Biel-Tan are salty about it because they don't think Iyanden is aggressive enough and there is a rivalry forming.

Time for the obligatory once-per-thread reminder that we're trying to stick somewhat close to canon if there's no reason to change.

And I agree with this user , this weird Khaine vampire thing doesn't really have a narrative niche that's not already filled, either by the Avatar of Khaine or the PLs.

Interestingly enough, Exodites may well be the most politically active, if disunited eldar culture in the Imperium. Exodite communities, after having it patiently explained to them that no, they really should stop killing intruders on sight, face a challenge. Their goal is to live simple, free of frivolity, and protect the worlds they inhabit. However, despite the influence of Biel-Tan and Isha, there is incredible pressure to make the most of what is becoming rapidly crowded civilized space.

At the height of the Segmentum Obscurus famine, the Careful Gardeners were the first to open their world (Sharvan's Tear, regrettably lost to the tyranids in 311M39) to general habitation, after a series of meetings with House Ulthran representative intermediaries. Any who wanted to colonize however, were subjected to incredibly strict controls, enforced brutally by Exodite rangers. Despite the frank and open promise of repression for those that would seek to colonize Sharvan's Tear, they were thronged with millions of refugees, and rapidly became a much needed agriworld and repository for those lost or seeking opportunity. Reluctantly, other exodite worlds followed suit, opening their metaphorical doors to settlers in exchange for strict rules. Far from most, but enough to ease refugee crises and famines across the imperium.

After a few generations of the exodite thaw, sector lords began to uncomfortably realize that billions of their inhabitants were, technically, without representation. The exodites running the worlds didn't seem to care so long as they had free hand to run the worlds their way, but some inhabitants were agitated about the lack of usual imperial amenities, such as access to the astropathic network or Adeptus Arbites law enforcement.

Thus far, only two of the one hundred and seven 'open' exodite worlds has elected a planetary governor to represent themselves in any sector councils. A sleeping giant.

Ulthwé for a long time was the craftworld that was doing the most to work with the humans, organizing the Craftworlds, and bring them together, in part due to Eldrad. Biel-Tan has the second largest population after pre-Kraken Iyanden. Both are willing to work with a variety of groups within the Imperium (humans, isolationist Craftworlds, Exodites) but have completely opposed political philosophies. Ulthwé puts a heavy emphasis on seers and integration. Biel-Tan is more about soldiers, is about as Eldar supremacist as you can without getting into Dorhai territory (they're described as liking humans but frustrated that we can't keep up with them and are being asked to slow the pace of rebuilding the New Eldar Empire, I head the term "Space Noldor" used once)

The issue is not whether all of the High Lord positions are open to Eldar, but whether there is a High Lord position that speaks for the Eldar. A Representative for the Craftworlds and Colonies or something. Humans see "advisor" as different from "representative" (specifically, you can disregard an advisor, at your own peril). A representative can draw a line in the sand. A representative can also hear the decisions of the other High Lords firsthand (like if they are thinking of doing something stupid that might affect the Eldar).

Also, it's not like many of the other seats could be occupied by the Eldar. There's no Eldar Navigators. There's no Eldar tech-priests. The only position which could easily have an Eldar representative is the Inquisition, and even then it was mentioned last thread that the Inquisition probably rotates representatives out.

Iyanden had a fuck hueg population pre-Kraken. They had 90% casualties in the war which wrecked them. Their numbers have obviously rebounded a bit since Kraken was several millenia ago, but it's nowhere near what it was given Eldar generation time.

Aren't the Exodite worlds different from the Maiden Worlds that the Eldar have started settling on? Although I agree that there is probably a lot of refugees flooding Exodite worlds, especially in the post-tyranid, post-necron era.

The Exodite/Maiden World thing from several threads ago needs to go on the Notes page.

its a good point that Isha is already a permanent fixture of imperial government, and only less prominent as a sovereign because she plays on an even longer timescale than her relatively young ten thousand year old husband. The difference in timescale for Eldar and Human denizens of the imperium might even mean that while the human side of politics see the High Lords as the executive body in the government of their dear laissez-faire enlightened despot, the Eldar see them as only slightly more notable than functionaries of the sovereign's guiding will.

Did we ever actually settle on anything for the avatar?

Not this time it wasn't. Horrible casualties were projected and shit loads of the dead were risen from their sleep.

Then Prince Yriel comes marching through the webway with a snazzy military looking hat and half a million Kriegers. They hold out long enough for the rest of the Imperium to turn up using more conventional means of transportation.

Iyanden now even huger because the risen dead hit the social tipping point and now every dead citizen of Iyanden wants to be a wraithguard.

Also High Lords don't represent a specific people or patch of worlds. They represent Imperium wide institutions that are at least in theory supposed to apply to all citizens regardless of species. In theory.

It doesn't need blood sacrifices anymore.

Because on some spiritual level the whole Imperium is the Eldar Empire Reborn it doesn't need a soul to kick start it. It can get it's serious nark on from the low level background rumble of quadrillions of humans in times of great war. It sleeps lightly now.

Something needs to actually wake it up but it's less of a blood offering and more of someone yelling loudly.

On at least one occasion Khine has been roused by Marneus Augustus Calgar. Calgar and Khine were friends or as near to friends as Khine can get. It's possible that from the point of view of the soul he couldn't actually tell that Calgar wasn't an Exarch. All avatars are just independent limbs of the same entity so it was always the same Khine that he woke up. That Calgar is now beaten to a near death coma has only added more fuel to his hate.

We decided that it exists, at the very least.

Iyanden still went through horrible, grievous casualties. Yes Yriel came riding to the rescue, but the casualties were still bad. Wraithguards were said to outnumber living Eldar by 10 to 1. The population has bounced back somewhat and Iyanded had to be expanded to accomodate both the living and the dead, but it isn't the 100 trillion powerhouse of living Eldar that it was in the past.

>Also High Lords don't represent a specific people or patch of worlds.

In theory, but then you have the Fabricator-General of Mars, the Paternoval Envoy of the Navigators, etc. The issue is at some point the Eldar would notice that the High Lords could make some completely anti-Eldar order behind closed doors (e.g., mess with the maiden worlds) and they would have limited power to deal with it without resorting to open war.

This is particularly an issue before Isha became the official Empress. Or worse during Vandire's reign where there was no Eldar goddess married to the head of state, both of which were unaccounted for.

Fabricator-General of Mars represents the entire Mechanicum when they can be persuaded to listen to him.

Navigators are an Imperium wide thing that just have their breeding ground in the Jovian Orbitals.

And it's not supposed to be a completely perfect system because there is no perfect system that everyone would be happy with.

Eldar make up less than a 1/10 of the population. More power and the humans will throw an increased number of salty bitch fits. Less and the eldar get salty. This way everyone is merely mildly briny.

It's also worth noting that currently, technically speaking there is a fairly heavy divide between craftworlds and the imperium. With Isha at the head of the Imperium, technically speaking it'd be a theocracy for the eldar to get involved any closer with Isha. For a race that had such a traumatic occurrence as the Fall happen, it may well be that there is a concern about getting so close to the divine again. And a suspicion that any eldar that get too close to Isha should be separated from greater eldar society for the benefit of both sides.

The only other parallels are Cegorach and Khaela Mensha Khaine. Any who follow Cegorach become their own thing, joining up with the harlequin troupes, leaving their craftworld (Or exodite world, or dark eldar kabal, maybe even crones?) behind. Harlequins are considered close allies, but not part of craftworld society.

Then we have Khaine. The closest thing to a central figure in eldar society, all aspect warriors give him homage. But the closer you get, the further you get from the society at large, culminating, again, in leaving your craftworld/roots/identity as an individual behind to become a phoenix warrior.

Due to the path system, eldar psychology might just not allow any high level integration in the Imperium.

Harlequins do not recruit from or visit the Croneworlds. So far as they and their god are concerned the denizens of those worlds aren't eldar any more.

They used to visit and recruit from the Dark City but stopped visiting and recruitment when Vect got married to Malys. Now they consider it a Chaos Eldar city.

Every craftworld and settlement has at least one temple or even just a shrine to Isha. She is their collective mother. But yes. The closer you get to any of the eldar gods the more you have to let go of the particular society that you hail from and serve all the faithful without fear or favour. A priestess of Isha is as at home on Saim-Hann as she is in the xeno district of Necromunda. They serve Isha, not any nation.

Of the 3 surviving eldar gods she has the largest following if for no other reason than every eldar mother is in some small way touched by her and every eldar with a soulstone is grateful to her.

Hence the difficulty of having an eldar work that that closely to Isha (Relatively speaking) AND represent the craftworlds.

It's everyone touched by something greater than themselves that this happens to. Not just eldar.

Would it be too much for crone world eldar to be colloquially referred to as goblins?

We have gretchins for goblins. Don't want that confusion. Still, a better term for the crone worlders would be welcome. Fair Folk? Sidhe? Unseelie?

At once, I really dislike Jubblowski for the blatant fetish bait nature of her, while also simultaneously liking it for being an uncomfortable display of Isha's less...Conventional aspects of being a fertility goddess. The uncomfortable tension of such a highly placed holy prostitute/living idol in an otherwise secular society is honestly a fairly interesting bit of tension. In character discomfort with this bit of imperial society adds a bit of a break from the 'war war always war' aspect of the setting.

But that's just me.

I have to agree that having cultural tension and variety that goes beyond differences in martial tradition is one of the high points of this AU, in that case and others. Hell, its honestly one of the main things that separates this from vanilla, inasmuch as this Imperium would be aghast at the canon "Only WAR" mentality because it reaches the point of essentially extinguishing actual civilization. In an actual civilization matters of taste, gossip, and cultural frivolity are everyone's bread and butter, be they pro or con for any of those things, be they benevolent or malicious, be the state at war or peace. Even faced with an existential threat, if time cannot be made to exist outside of war one can hardly be called civilized.

Fair Folk could work as called by humans.

The thing I love about the Croneworlders is they're essentially the Unseelie/Wild Hunt up to eleven on cocaine. Even moreso than the Dark Eldar, who at least have a modus operandi. The Cronedar are just nuts, their goals being whatever they think will please the gods that day. Just like the Eldar in this timeline play up the Tolkien roots a bit more, the Croneworlders play to the other side of elven mythology.

Think of the Eldar in canon. The people who are absolutely terrified of using anything warp-related, for fear of getting nommed by a daemon. Got it? Now look at the Cronedar, who climb over each other to get daemonically possessed because they think it will bring them closer to their gods. Who waltz through the warp relatively unmolested (well, about as much as CSM in canon) because the daemons know the Cronedar will provide them with more souls by feeding on the carnage in their wake and then nomming them if they die than just outright eating them.

Lack of cultural tension and variety outside of total war also means that some of the best reasons why war does happen in real life simply can't happen in vanilla 40k outside of civil war. All of the crazy historical things that happen due to diplomatic incidents, or botched negotiations of surrender, or weird shit on the battlefield. War of the type the vanilla!Imperium wages means everything boils down to you shoot them, they die, which reduces possible conflict. It's something I've really noticed when reading up on old Warhammer Fantasy lore and comparing it to 40k.

Feel the same. To the average human (and reader), Jubblowski is kind of weird, but at the same time the thought process is familiar enough that the reader can see why the Eldar think this way, even though it's kind of discomforting.

>On at least one occasion Khine has been roused by Marneus Augustus Calgar. Calgar and Khine were friends or as near to friends as Khine can get. It's possible that from the point of view of the soul he couldn't actually tell that Calgar wasn't an Exarch. All avatars are just independent limbs of the same entity so it was always the same Khine that he woke up. That Calgar is now beaten to a near death coma has only added more fuel to his hate.

This might be a little too much. I know we have Khaine being on good terms with Calgar (by Khaine standards), but he's still an Eldar god formed from the Eldar psyche.

Alternatively, it could be that instead of being woken up by Marneus Calgar the Avatar merely fought alongside him and Khaine likes the cut of his jib. Khaine primarily has grievances with the Eldar for two reasons.

1) The whole "prophecies about killing him", which are kind of a non-issue now
2) The whole "Muh moral issues over killing" thing

Space Marines have neither of those problems, and Khaine might like it that the Eldar have stopped being pussies and started hanging out with people he approves of. Of course this is still freaking Kaela Mensha Khaine, so an endorsement from him is not necessarily a good thing.

Also, if we need to grim up the Avatar a bit to justify why the Eldar aren't pulling it out every battle, it could be that Khaine isn't very gentle with his hosts (or however the Young King interacts with the Avatar), either overclocking their bodies or having a high chance of leaving them with brain damage. Just a possible suggestion.

An additional idea for the Tarellians regarding weaponry. I was trying to make this into basically a polearm-tomahawk to fit with the Tarellian's Native American theme (with the mahukultarr being like the microblades of a whole bunch of cultures and the macuahuitl of the Saurus in Fantasy), but I think this might be too close to the kroot's scythe-bayonet staves. What does everyone else thing?

Perhaps the most distinctive weapon of the Tarellians, aside from their disruption weaponry, is the kultarr. The melee weapon of choice for Tarellians, kultarrs resemble a cross between a polearm, a pickaxe, and a hatchet. The kultarr was originally thought to have started out as a simple hand tool repurposed for war, until it developed into the weapon known today. At the far end of the kultarr is a simple spike. The main purpose of this spike is to blunt cavalry or infantry charges, or finish off a downed foe. Just behind this spike is a recurved spike, which is the main armament of the kultarr. Typically, a kultarr is swung downwards like a tomahawk to brain a foe or impale them and allow them to be dragged closer. The spike can also be used as a hook to drag cavalry from their mounts or pull an opponent off balance (their more traditional use, seeing as the Tarellians did not have cavalry until the Industrial Era).

(cont.)
The military success of the kultarr has led the Tarelians to produce numerous derivations on the design, most prominently the mahukultarr. Instead of a single recurved spike, a mahukultarr has several backwards slanting blades appressed together to form a massive cutting edge. The purpose of a mahukultarr is to leave large, jagged wounds that bleed readily and are difficult to easily close. Although resembling a broadsword, the weight of a mahukultarr means that it is wielded more like an axe or a club. The cutting edge is composed of numerous smaller blades, rather than one complex piece of metal, in order to prevent breakage and make it easier to replace blades that are broken. However, the sheer weight of a mahukultarr means that it is almost impossible for a Tarellian soldier to carry both one of these weapons and a rifle at the same time. As a result, mahukultarr wielding-soldiers are relatively rare.

>WOOP WOOP POTENTIAL STUPID IDEA ALERT WOOP WOOP

Biel Tan hasn't deployed an Avatar of Khaine for neaerly one hundred years. This wouldn't be surprising for a lesser craftworld, or a craftworld that is peacable, but this is Biel Tan. The most well known, influential, and martially famous craftworld. That Khaela Mensha Khaine hasn't made an appearance in a year, much less a near century would provoke suspicion.

However, among the eldar, it's considered a bit of a faux pas to ask about this. The inquisition is another matter entirely though, and they already know the answer.

Biel Tan's avatar has been awake this entire time. Biel Tan summoned the avatar for the ghoul campaign, to help a desperate sword wind against a siege of orks with daemon support. The avatar of war led the survivors, many wounded, to victory against the orks, culminating in the avatar decapitating the bloodthirster Yel'Grazruk shattering the spirit of the enemy. The sword wind rejoiced.

Then they noticed the avatar wasn't gone. It had followed the fleeing enemy, and was killing as many as it could reach. The next day, the avatar was still killing. On the fifteenth day, it ran out of enemies to kill, and came back, planted its sword at the center of the biel tan fortification, and waited.

After the twentieth day, the biel tan forces found themselves very worried indeed. The burning avatar still smoldered, glaring out at the horizon. In the face of their persistent god, finally they attempted to psychically contact the avatar, a hazardous venture for even the most skilled warlock.

After the warlock stopped chanting in a dead language, she managed to sputter out "Khaine waits for his chariot." No one knew what that referred to. But when the autarch ordered the sword wind back to Biel Tan, the avatar followed, marched through the craftworld, and returned to his temple, still burning.

The avatar has sat there since, waiting for his chariot.

>I KNOW I HID THE GALAXY'S FASTEST STARSHIP AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE
>IT WAS THAT LONG SILVER ONE WITH THE CRESCENT SHAPED KEEL
>ACTIVATE THE DRIVE AND IT JUST GOES
>WHAM
>GOT IT OFF THE GALAXY'S BEST KILLER
>WELL, SECOND BEST
>THE CHARIOT GOES WITH THE TITLE
>IT'S MINE NOW
>WHEREVER IT IS

That's what the bloody-handed one gets when he tries using space-Uber.

Random thought: our Primarchs in this AU are a pretty diverse bunch compared to vanilla where it's 16 white guys, an asian guy and a black guy (I guess Magnus is technically red). Assuming that ethnicities correspond roughly geographically to modern day despite 40,000 years of intermingling and genetic drift, we have:

Vulkan - African
Angron - North African/Mediterranean
Corax - Chinese
Curze - Japanese
Khan - Mongolian/Central Asian
Lorgar - Indonesian
Perturabo - Greek/Macedonian
Magnus - maybe Himalayan?

Doesn't really pertain to anything, just thought it was interesting. Looks like only South America lacks a Primarch.

>Looks like only South America lacks a Primarch.
We wrote up a whole thing for Ursh, seeing as a ton of primarchs were involved in its fall. Hy Braseal only really shows up with Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus, but it lasts until the War of The Beast with a fleet of about a dozen star ships and a nation's count of men. Malcador dies in a galaxy where the great crusade is pushing the across the stars, but Old Earth is still officially "the birthplace of humanity, Capital and domain of the Imperium of Mankind, excepting Hy Braseal". Hy Braseal was one of the few pre-unification powers that the Imperium ceded the moral authority to refuse unification, and unlike the rest of the planet's few sane occupants, they fucking did, not just when the Imperium was a new world government, but when it unified the powers of the solar system, and when it started its empire of stars, and after the initial Eldar signed on. They passed, each and every time an occasion came up to join the imperium, and each time is could be said to be on a footing of increased prestige since the last. They decided that the Imperium wasn't shit and they'd hold the fucking line against the Orks, whatever the hell Orks were, and you know what? They nearly all died. But when the war was over they were still leery about accepting the gold warlord's bargain.

Magnus is non applicable.

His mother could have come from anywhere and his father was a Navigator.

Ethnicity isn't usually a thing worth noting as far as the Imperium cares.

The Primarchs were not appointed on some idiot Affirmative Action/Race Quota scheme. They were appointed their lofty rank because they were the cream of the global crop.

Also Angron originated from Timbuk rather than Nord Afrika and only ended up in the fighting pits of Tunisia because he was taken in a slave raid.

Also you can't ascribe a normal ethnic group to Magnus. His mother was called Ada and variations of that are found across three continents and his father wan't fully human.

Still remembering someone saying and or mentioning that in any warhammer 40k AU, there'll always be Love Can Bloom.

Plus another pic for LCB.

I like that. It's metal as fuck.

Dude is supposed to be a limited time attack powered by hate and the need to murder, burns brightly, burns briefly then goes cold once more.

Now he just waits for his chariot to arrive. What is his chariot, how does he know it's on it's way, how far off is it? Who even fucking knows.

Possibly the Scythe of the Nightlord was the flagship he lost when it got sucked down a warp hole during the War in Heaven. Possibly in the same battle that saw Khine infected with the blood of the Nightbringer.

If that is the case then Khine may have taken it as a trophy assuming he was victorious.

At some point soon the Scythe is going to come out of the warp somewhere in the manner of a Space Hulk and Death and Murder are going to battle over it.

By that time maybe Biel-Tan Khine will have gotten the Blade of Vaul back off of Farsight..

Whatever happens it's just one more indication that Rhana Dandra is coming. Judgement Day approaches.

Oh shit the sweetness just gave me diabeetus.

Fabricator-General of Mars also has varying degrees of influence over 85 - 90% of all industry in the Imperium.

Oh god the Cute! It burns!

>I don't think the Dark Eldar even worship the old gods. In their mind the gods deserved what they got because they were weak.

More so the pre-Fall Eldar degenerates want any excuse to conduct blood orgies. Saying things like "Oh this murder fucking? We are just a Khaine cult... yea... faithful followers." After the Fall, the Dark Eldar being mostly not insane also say things like "Oh this torture? We were just feeding ourselves... yea... fending off the She-Who-Thirst."

I think that it's only the old monsters that claim the torture is for medicinal needs. The youngsters just do it for fun and even if Slaanesh was killed would carry on regardless.

Bump

Who should be next?
>Indigo Crow
>High Conservator of Nurgle
>Slaanesh's Taskmaster

I'd like to see the High Conservator.

And who is that young man or boy trying to court Lofn? Doesn't look like an imperial judging by those flower or rose emblems and insigna.

Also Colonel Taldeer Ulthwe does not seem to approve while Livvi is hesitant.

If I was to guess I would say some navy man in parade uniform or part of a diplomatic team.

Either way they aren't Ulthwé and they aren't Cadian. Taldeer disapproves.

censor that lewd shit

No.

Hide your children, this thread belongs to Slaanesh now

It is censored, though.

absolutely shameless

MODS MODS MODS

My vote is for Indigo Crow.
Also, the rivalry between Luther's Fallen and the Scions to be the go-to heavies in the Eye seems ripe for story ideas.
Looking at the notes for this, the atendants seem to fill the role of word bearers, except for being undivided.

>pic is Luther by m41

Call to your false gods, there is nothing but lewds here now.

Is Luther still alive by M41? I was under the impression that Lion cut him down.

Alive or not, someone has to keep Vect satisfied when Malys is pining for (a chance to violently rape the body of) Oscar.

Other way around I think, during the fight Lion held back out of love for his bro just like Emps did with Horus (or is that not the case any more? No idea with the new HH books). The Chaos juice was enough for Luther to overcome Lion's Mk III S buffs and boink him on the head into a coma.

Though this raises the point, we should finish up Lion. Who was the writefag that wrote up the stuff we bashed out in the threads? It was a good summary, come back and help us finish user.

Chaos needs to bring the gang back together for one last Black Crusade, aka the 13th Black Crusade. I thought Luther won the fight against Lion which caused him to fall into the coma.

13th Black Crusade still happens in 999.M41 right?

>13th Black Crusade still happens in 999.M41 right?
Oh yes it is. And it's going to be a big one because the Dark Eldar have bred an army worthy of hyper-Mordor. As of the stroke of midnight on the last day of 999M41 the skies of Cadia are darkened. The stars are blocked out.

The Queen of Deamons has come. They say that this is the last days of Cadia. The Lord Castellan disagrees. The armies of Chaos have come to Cadia to die, it shall be their finest hour.

If Lion is comatose then there could be a King Arthur going on if his sword is still in the possession of the Dark Angels on their flagship. There is a sleeping old king ready to come back, his sword lies in a bed Rock and this is surely the Imperiums time of need. Either that or Russ is going to come back, an old warrior king needs a worthy sword.

That sword is a Kinebrach blade. It was handed over in the ceremony to finalize the alliance between the young Imperium and the Interex. It was the last blade made by the venerable master Mez-Go-Bur. It is said and witnessed that he used no forge or hammer and the metal was taken from the hide of a fallen Cybernetica robot. He struck the metal with his fists and it started to heat up and become pliant and into that metal he beat all his sorrows (which were many) and his wroth (which was considerable). That cherry red blade was quenched in a barrel of ceremonial oil mingled with his own blood and on that blood he placed binding words. Deamons had made his life a misery, his blade would cut them and leave them maimed and that pain would follow them to their Hell and no matter if they healed they would never stop hurting as he would never stop hurting. But where he would die they remain immortal and would go on hurting for ever and ever and ever.

He smiled when the sword was handed over to Lion el Jonson. He died not long later.

damn. I get the best sort of silmarillion vibes from your description of the forging, reminds me of the origins of Eol's black swords. Even the abiding thirst for the blood of kinslayers/crones matches up.

There are many Kinebrach blades in circulation in the Imperium and the art of making them is in no danger of ever being lost but few are as vindictive as the ones made by Mez-Go-Bur and that was his last creation and believed to be his best.

It has been idle for too long now. Too many summers under a shroud of dust despite it blade being razor sharp. There was a legend among the people of Franj; if an implement is left for more more than a year and day it will hunger for blood. If such stories are true then the Lion Sword is somewhat thirsty. It would take a man of iron will to tame that blade now.

>an army worth of hyper-Mordor
>the skies of Cadia are darkened
>The stars are blocked out
laughingbugs.bmp

>not knowing the vampires are trying to combine the C'tan shards
>by M41 they actually started doing this
>trying to bring back War in Haven 2.0
awaken_my_masters.mp3

Yeah, that's what happened. Lion held back in the fight because he thought Luther could be redeemed, Luther said he did all this for Franj, Lion flips out because Franj is a radioactive wasteland due to Luther and goes to town on him. Chaos Buffs were enough to allow Luther to go toe to toe with Lion "shredding machine" El'Jonson. Lion injures Luther (though I think Erebus is the one with no arms now, due to revised Sangy fluff), but Luther puts Lion in a coma and survives thanks to Chaos Gods not wanting such an amusing pawn to die (shades of Arthur and Mordred's mutual kill at Camlann).

Could be split into two parts. Lion holds back for round one during the WotB, when Luther hadn't gone nuts yet, round 2 Luther has chaos buffs out the wazoo and has gone nuts due to Lion revealing what his actions did to Franj.

Am the guy who wrote up Lion. Couldn't figure out how to best implement Lion's battles with Luther and Luther's ideas of the Galactic Eldar Conspiracy. Brain is mush. Can't write battles for shit.

>Lion sword
Me gusta.

One of the guys who archives stuff here. So, looking over the previous thread, the following things need to go on the wiki or the Notes page.
Necron Stalkers
Gutsmek Wazdakka
Tarellian culture
Arrotyr, Lord of Fire and Marshall of the Scion of the Broken Helm
Apep and Malal in general (just spitballing, goes in notes)

However, there are a couple things to account for before they can go up:

Tarellians, are they Old One-related or not? The poster said they weren’t too keen on the idea, since it makes the universe more closed-off and the Old Ones have been said to be amphibian-like as opposed to reptilian, but there’s also the correlation with the Cahokian/Puebloan thing they’ve got going. Maybe just make them another race that had to rebuild from a Dark Age of Technology height like the kinebrach?

What to do about the presence of Isha in Arrotyr’s backstory. It was mentioned that removing Isha from Arrotyr's backstory was a good idea, since the Eldar gods were still in the Materium prior to the birth of the Slaanesh. The question is what do we put in its place to lead Arrotyr to win the favor of Khorne?

Where do the Stalkers go? Right now we don’t have a page for any of the Necron Star Empire stuff. Just put it on the Notes for now despite the entry being done?

Any other concerns?

Fulgrimfag dumped a bunch of barely edited writing a few threads back that have yet to reach the wiki, but wrapped up the unification war, on earth at least.

This may well be the most unneeded thing for this AU, but I'm tempted to do a write up for Ronahn. Any objections/pointers?

Literally who?

Okay yeah bad idea.

>Ronahn is an Eldar Pathfinder who aided Farseer Idranel and later Autarch Kayleth during the Aurelian Crusades.

Also, Taldeer's brother.

Huh, that makes sense, I only ever played the orginal DOW, not DOW II.

Don't me dissuade you, fresh OC is always welcome, I just had no idea who you were referring to.

I edited it, gonna post it and see if people have any further suggestions before it goes on the wiki

Fulgrim himself was attempting to engineer a coup. Having seen the Imperium in his advance raids and having equated it with the empire of old he deramed of, Fulgrim planned to cut down the old leadership of his nation while it seemed within his power and steer it into his bright vision. He had surpassed even Lucius as a swordsman during his adventures in the New Atlantis campaign, and now Fulgrim planned to use his charm, fame, and the lure of technological enhancement to access necessary targets, and to ingratiate his cadre of enhanced officers in the matters of succession before decapitation. Though his early plan went well Fulgrim overestimated his own and his agents' ability to manipulate a government in the mounting chaos of total war with the Imperium, and it was not long before the self styled superhuman was at the mercy of Merikan secret police. He was saved by two plainly dressed men that introduced themselves as Ames and Ozzy, and bore the sigil of a hydra.
Following the aegis of these two Hydra contacts the Doe cadre continued Fulgrim's strategy to build support in the mass produced populations of the manufactories further back from the coast, but Fulgrim himself was made to concede direct control over the operations in the capital. Fulgrim's laboratories in the capital became the futurist's edifice to a pheonician Merika, to the wonderment of the officer class, and Lucius built up the manufactories of Moton into an advanced fortress city on the near edge of the Kalbi territories. Fulgrim had little contact with either project. These power bases were tended by the Doe Cadre's inner circle under the direction of the Hydra and Major Lucius respectively, and while Furris visited his old home when it was under the major's command his work took him yet further from the center of the Doe conspiracy.

Under the cover of another exploratory mission to the bunkers and cracks of the western mountain line, Fulgrim and his mechanists traveled the length of the rocky spine and loosely governed western territories beyond. It was true they again delved the chains of fortresses and redoubts and sunken chambers under those lands for new relics of the golden age, but only least of these fruits ever reached Merikan high command. The rest became assets of the conspiracy, and some even found their way across the wastes of Beringia to the Imperium. More than this, Fulgrim secured the support of the enclaves whose knowledge had driven his successes years prior, and in the druidic labs of the Geno-hippes (an ancient title) Fulgrim and his proto-Alpha legion contacts established forward positions from which to build Astarte forces. The work done in these installations unified Fulgrim and the Geno-hippes' cybernetically and biologically upgraded "Doe" MkII Astarte with the Deutch-Jemanic genesmiths' MkIII pattern.

By Fulgrim's promises and intrigues much of the western territory would come to favor his succession, and for his technological efforts on their behalf they held him in better regard than high command. The collaboration of the Geno-hippes allowed state of the art super soldier forces to be built in the mountain enclaves stretching even into the heart of governor Dorn's beleaguered territory. Less than a year since it nearly died with its indiscreet leader, Fulgrim's conspiracy was at its zenith.

The destruction and capture of the Merikan airbases on New Atlantis saw the top admirals and generals returned to the capital to prepare a counterattack to keep the theater of war on the artificial continent, as well as the fortification of the atlantic coast. Lucius had made dramatic use of the Doe combat cyborgs Fulgrim had premiered in Europe to aid the hapless commander tasked with the re-conquest of Dorn's dominion entrenched in west and northern Kalbi. These showy hunts by air-cav and drop-troop had done more to lionize the cyber-soldiers as they strode about in gleaming gold and purple than they could ever have hoped to have done to Dorn’s defense.
In weeks the guns of the Imperium were turned squarely to Merika. Massive Skandian naval forces and the air forces of Europa and the quadruple alliance gathered at New Atlantis. The ancient Merikan voidships that hung in orbit over the continent were moved in a careful dance to deny space superiority to the heirloom fleet the Imperium brought to bear, though it was ever vigilant above the panama fortresses for movement from Hy Braseal as well. Fulgrim returned to the capital as plans were being drawn up to leap back to New Atlantis and charge from Europa to Uralia with Doe cyborgs leading the way. Others were being conceived to quickly stamp out Governor Dorn's decades long rebellion and annihilate it to the last, with the field marshal already engaged in the north backed by masses of advanced weapons deployed from Moton. Neither plan would ever see action.

As Fulgrim made to announce promises of support from western military governors with all due fanfare he was accompanied by a brigade of what seemed to all a new generation of cyborg soldiers, fair as their inventor and clad in bright ceremonial armor. Days after he arrived Merika and the Imperium were fighting in and above the atlantic, all west of the artificial continent. Air Forces clashed above the naval blockades and the coasts, and orbital assets made firing lines hundreds of kilometers long. Orders began to issue to Moton to begin operation in Kalbi, and soon Doe designed and Doe piloted gunships and drop troops were buzzing northwest towards the Merikan position. Impenetrable havoc erupted in the Merikan capital and the first company of Terra's Sons, led by Fulgrim the Futurist, fortified the Doe laboratories and began conducting brutal raids on enemy factions within the Merikan command structure and officer class also entrenched in the capital. In the first hours of fighting the citadel of the high command had been raided by teleporter insertion of un-blazoned power-armored commandos. Subsequent fighting over the building saw it bombed to rubble by Merikan air assets. Fulgrim officially seized dictatorial emergency powers, and with a company drawn from his long honed circle of mechanists he corrected his rivals in the capital, making great show of the advanced forces those same officers and ministry heads had counted on in their grand strategies. The Futurist took Merika's reigns, and with the nation’s purple and white still flying high, cowed the fractious military houses in the wake of what he called an opportunistic Hy-Brasealian attack, and his enemies attributed to him, and the Imperium.

Prior to the decapitation of the Merikan military the Kalbi expeditionary force had embarked on a hard offensive against Dorn, counting on support from Moton's special forces as they drove for the pacific. Lucius lead the second company of Terra's Sons and cybernetic Moton drop brigades to smash the expeditionary force against Dorn's built up battle lines. The Merikan ship above Kalbi was quick to react with the the bombardment of the Moton citadel, and its few volleys were devastating before it was crippled by boarding forces of Merikanized skitarii and mechanists. In the capital there was stalemate between Fulgrim and the remains of the high command, with most of the lower officers sided with the futurist or removed, but the campaigns in the north were fast concluded and Lucius advanced southeast ahead of some of Dorn's own forces.
The Merikan Orbital Brigades and Navy were old institutions staunchly opposed to Fulgrim, and supported ground forces throughout the gulf coast and around the panama fortifications. As Merikan reserves were mobilized by the panicking high command the Astartes forces in the rockies swept east across the continent at the head of the western governors' military forces and made rapid progress securing the Merikan heartland despite orbital bombardment from opposing factions. The machine-stubber, rocketeer, and armored fighting carriage battalions that had been the Merikan Junta's unbeatable scourge were hardly sufficient against their own colonial forces backed by Astartes and Skitarii. In the week of the stalemate in the capital the Merikan navy and space brigade retreated and shortened the blockade so they could both bombard the capital and keep imperial forces from doing the same.

Fulgrim and Terra's Sons first company continued the fight for the capital under heavy shelling and the highest rate of lance strikes the capital's guarding geostationary starship could muster. They were supported by most of the remaining officer corps against the remaining high command holdouts, themselves reinforced by Merikan marines and loyalist military regiments. Fireteams of Astartes in Imperial livery moved openly in the south and west. Imperial soldiers landed in Newfoundland and the gulf to be met by the advanced guard of the forces that started from the rockies or Moton. Lucius and Dorn's forces and the Terra's Sons third company that led the midlands campaign marched on the eastern seaboard and pacified or simply co-opted the remaining ground forces, nearly all of which remained unclear on the state of affairs for the duration.

Merikan Space Brigade was forced to retreat from the battle for the capital by subsequent attacks. They abandoned the Merikan Navy to regroup with Merika’s remaining voidships over the Panama defenses, which had become the last stronghold of the high command. In short order the Merikan blockade was broken by the Imperials and the Merikan Navy suffered mutiny and folded. The Imperial Navy and Air Forces accompanied the battered Merikan Navy into the harbor of the capital, and the cratered slopes of its anti-fallout pyramid bunker-citadels were lined with Merikan officers and civilians as Imperial engineers and officials of every land and discipline piled off amidst the columns of proud soldiers in the livery of Franj, Gredbritton, Achemedinia, and Europia. The Imperial delegation was marched to the Doe complex by the Futurist's own soldiers, equal in stature and clad in purple with emblems of raptors, well known to the capital from the past weeks. The Imperials had hardly arrived at what had become the de facto seat of government for a day before those same engineers and Furris's mechanists were seen together drafting plans for reconstruction.

trying the last bit over.
The battered merikans that remained in the capital had seen among the Imperial delegation the gold giant that had been the subject of much propaganda, and the Skandian warrior at his side, his tattooed sorcerer, his towering iron-fisted automaton, his cadre of princes, the vassal warriors he’d taken from Ursh and the PPL, and so on, and on, as they had disembarked. The transcripts of the meetings within the Doe laboratories were sealed with the mark of a hydra, and vanished after some select members of the office corps were pointedly denied a chance to read them. In the eventual announcement from the grandstand on the capital’s debris strewn parade ground made by Esteemed Dictator Furris Doe and ‘Warmaster’ Oscar the former waxed poetic about the wonders of history and the wings of the Aquila, and the latter made a kurt and businesslike statement sketching out the terms of Merika’s stake in the imperium, which had already been decided. This was all much in keeping with Merikan custom. The general impression among the Merikan Junta’s officers and people was that Fulgrim had brokered an alliance and won them an entry on the footing of equals. In truth Fulgrim met the Warlord in Sibar for the Astartes III hybridization project, long before the operation began, and the conference was in many ways a formality, though Furris took it as an opportunity to lobby for his future projects.

The remains of the Space Brigade took aboard much of the Panama garrison and its war material, but lingering between the changed Merikan regime and Hy Braseal was not a longterm option. What remained of the Merikan Space Brigade never reconvened after that regrouping at Panama. The bulk of the small fleet dove for deep space, and vanished from common histories, while about half their number mobilized to attack the Imperial ships above the eastern seaboard, of which two were disabled and one compelled to surrender. The six that remained over Panama held for two months, and subsequently defected to Hy-Braseal. Of those ships, one is recorded to have been used by Hy Braseal in the War of The Beast, further cementing their victory over their long term rival. They were too the “winners” of the unification war, and the last holdout on earth centuries into the Imperium.

guess the character count just won't let me be happy

>This is how I imagine short range psyker messaging works for those that speak same Low Gothic variant

Back on Manchuguo Upper Archives, a 30-something-year-old psyker was asleep drooling on the desk next to her psylock station. From nowhere, her mind felt like a hammer was hitting it to grab attention. “I’m awake, I’m awake!” said the psyker then wiping clean her face after she shot up in her seat. The old adept man next to her took out his paper to start typing. The psyker started to hear the message from Isha’s Poison with ‘Inquisitorial code...’ which caught the attention of a Securitas Sister who was reading a book near them. When she got up to the cubical, the rest of the message was heard by her as the psyker spoke it out loud while the old man typed down everything. “Inquisitors,” said the Sister with annoyance flowing out of her mouth. The adept handed the paper to the Sister after tearing it off from his roll, “Don’t worry, I’ll vox this over to my Sister Superior, you just go back to sleep.” His afternoon nap was back on schedule and his psyker coworker resume creating a spit puddle.

CSMs, you say?

Every Legion had its black sheep in the War of the Beast. Luther, of course, for the Dark Angels. Sigismund of the Imperial Fists. And for the Iron Warriors, Captain Varkand.

Captain Vandro was in command of the Astartes of the 144th Unification Fleet on the outbreak of the war. Ambitious, aggressive, and dour, he wasted no time assuming overall command when the Sky Marshal and his second-in-command were both killed when the flagship hit a vortex mine. Likewise, finding himself cut off and behind enemy lines, he wasted no time in ordering a series of raids and counter-attacks, trying to cut enemy supply lines and throw the drive towards Terra into disarray.

Some historians suggest that he deliberately arranged for the death of his superiors so that he could seize control of the 144th, but there is no evidence of this. By every account, he served with honor, courage, ability, and loyalty through the Great Crusade and the early stages of the War of the Beast. He would have been remembered as one of the heroes of the war, except for what happened next.

Vandro, an Iron Warrior to the core, grew increasingly dissatisfied with the raids he was making and the damage he was doing. The Crone-Worlders and their various puppets had erected a great fortress out of the hollowed-out ruins of the sector capital hive, Riskail; as long as that fortress still stood, he became convinced, the Croneworlders could never be driven out. He resolved to lay siege to it, crack it open, and kill every last enemy of the Imperium in the place.