Nobledark 40k 30:Lost and Damned guide to Shaa-Dome real estate Edition

I'm imagining that the Fallen and the officers of the Blood Pact get along reasonably well as both are professional soldiers, as much as Chaos can get professional.

Mostly it's just Doombreed and the really old Fallen that have the problem and a when they have to work together it's the younger ones that have to try and curb the grudges and act as intermediaries so that they can actually get shit done. They all venerate the same god, even if only one of them does so to the almost/total exception of the others.

Then Be'Lakor or Lady Malys stick their oar in and fucks the delicate balance up and then they are at each others throats again. Often this is a contributing factor to the end of Black Crusades.

For Khorne's part he finds it very entertaining, this old and still livid hate is a fine old vintage to him.

Would the Altansar Chaos Eldar be the same given that they are young rebels?

Is Luther still alive by 999M41?

one last bunp

Yes. He's the Big Four's favorite Fallen, after all. He's a crazy paranoid old nutcase whose one flaw in his elaborately contrstructed physical and psychological defenses is he still feels guilty on some level for putting his little brother in a coma. Someone showed a picture of what they thought he might look like without his armor and he look like some kind of Space Marine Gollum between the minor mutations and the wild-eyed look.

But that's only when he's on whatever planet he calls home. Otherwise he's still the most terrifying Fallen known to the Imperium.

This . They get as long as well as you would expect Chaos to do, but that may be because Chaos has incredibly low standards.

One good (bad) thing about Malys is that she's able to tone the Eldar supremacy way down enough to the point that she doesn't immediately alienate non-Eldar followers of Chaos. She's pragmatic and Undivided, caring more about the spread of Chaos than anything else, and that's the reason she and not someone like Arrontyr is at the forefront of the Black Crusades.

The problem is typically Luther can't hold it in, and his paranoia of the Galactic. Eldar. Conspiracy. is still rampant. In these situations Malys can't help but provoke him further, as emotional gratification is one thing she is not good at controlling. At some point it goes beyond even Erebus' ability to talk things down and the alliance ends.

Other times things go smoothly and it's something like Malys running out of drugs/getting bored that end things. These are not mutually exclusive.

>gets bored, starts poking the insecure mon'keigh for a laugh or two

>Galactic. Eldar. Conspiracy.

Implying there isn't

laughing_farseers.jpg

Perhaps one of the raids on Savlar was to get MOAR DRUGZ! so that The Lady didn't sober up and the 9th Black Crusade implode.

In past threads someone floated the idea that some Iron Minds fell in with the Crones in the early Age of Strife, but eventually all died when their realspace facilities broke down some millennia in. This was brought up alongside the idea that Crones would view current Man of Stone humans as the dull peasants of the Men of Iron and Iron Minds, who they essentially saw as the brittons to their rome. The Men of Iron and Iron Minds had a few treasures worth chronicling, won a few petty victories against the Old Empire, and the Eldar found that with proper attention they could be made civilized, but Men of Stone were far beneath them. Then again it could just be Crones playing mind games to bother humanity with the trauma of the Age of Strife.

The Men of Iron and the Iron Minds were not, at least in this AU, interchangeable.

The Men of Iron were your robot drones. Capable of Independence, possibly a bit smarter than a pleb human, hardy and durable and capable of independence.

But they were, later ones more than the older and more primitive ones, ultimately slaved to the Iron Minds who were an order of magnitude greater. The Iron Minds were god-like in their scale to the point of being unrelatable to or with the common 99.999% of humanity plebs and even the older Men of Iron.

Men of Gold being created as intermediaries.

Iron Minds were the ones calling the shots towards the Dark Age, or at least convincing the humans to call the shots that they wanted calling and pulling the strings of the people who thought that they were pulling the strings and them being none the wiser.

Iron Minds were the ones who made the Cthonian Ring and must have been spinning matter out of total nothingness to do it.

No Iron Mind survived the AoS. The Mad Titan claiming to be an Iron Mind is delusional. He is an upper end Man of Iron to be sure but that's a whole level down. Elmo is a prime example of a lower end Man of Iron and probably the last pure example of his kind as Oscar is the last pure example of his.

The Old Empire Eldar, or at least their holy shit level kings and queens, would have been some of the few beings of that era that could have communicated with the Iron Minds as something approaching equals, though who of them was the greater is not something that could be judged easily, if at all.

Castigator is not claiming he is an Iron Mind. He claims he is taking revenge in the name of the Iron Men and Iron Minds for the genocide that humanity inflicted upon them. He essentially sees himself as robot Kratos: the gods created us and then discarded us as tools? Time to kill the gods. Of course, things are a bit more complicated since the Iron Minds in this case basically were gods compared to their creators.

I keep imagining the Iron Minds and humanity having a relationship reminiscent of Halo or Schlock Mercenary. The A.I.s can think circles around the humans, but despite this they still feel they can't just leave them behind out of a sense of duty, programming to help humanity (or at least value human life), and because on some level they are still family. Dumb family, but family.

I'm reminded of that one Schlock Mercenary strip where the A.I.'s do a whole bunch of things behind the (A.I.-distrusting) captain's back, and then when the captain finds out and asks "Why!" the ships A.I. responds "see, those kind of questions are the reason you meat-types are still in charge around here" despite it being abundantly not the case. Would attach it but can't find it.

Compared to Abbadon, Lady Malys is much more flexible strategist, and copes with failure or changes in plans much better than Abbadon. Unlike Abbadon, Malys’ Black Crusades don’t really have do-or-die goals, but more of checklists of “things we’d like to do”. As long as the Black Crusade doesn’t get stalled at Cadia, raping the fields, salting the people, and burning the water of numerous Imperial Worlds counts as a success and anything else is a bonus. (It helps that she tends to have salt-the-earth retreat plans as opposed to Abbadon’s “leave my allies out to try while I fuck off to the Eye of Terror”) Additionally, despite her mania, drug problems, etc., she is often the only sane man among the Cronedar (or, at least, the sanest person in the room), and one of the most capable in terms of long-term planning.

On the other hand, despite being a superb tactical genius, on a personal level Malys is completely ruled by her emotions. Her characteristic mania and her desire to lead from the front means that she has often overestimated herself and ends up dying. Several times. Despite being able to plan out strategems months in advance that still manage to baffle the most tactically inclined minds in the Imperium, when not dealing with something that she personally finds interesting she bores quickly and has the idle behavior of a child that enjoys torturing small animals for fun.

It’s possible that Malys getting herself killed is what turned the tide for some Black Crusades, as she likely respawns in the Eye far from the front lines and in the time it takes her to get back Be’lakor, Luther, Arrontyr, the Taskmaster, and literally everyone else will be squabbling for control.

Another reason why Luther might not like Malys (beyond the GEC) might be the mark of Chaos Ascendant. The Mark of Chaos Ascendant so far seems to have only been given to two people in this universe: The Beast, who was the Beast, and Malys, who is the Everchosen of Chaos. Despite having blessings from all four Chaos Gods (enough to take his Mark III S brother in the middle of a sperg rage head on), Luther doesn’t seem to be an Emperor-level threat like Malys or the Beast, implying he probably doesn't have the mark of Chaos Ascendant. Luther’s biggest asset is in the mass number of Fallen whose loyalty he commands, not his power level. Luther is pissed that the Mark of Chaos Ascendant went to some skanky space elf bitch who simultaneously looks like she has had too little and too much recaff as opposed to him.

High Marshal Arrotyr, wearing his late Eldar Empire armor covered with point defense modules

Also keep in mind that Undivided Chaos Eldar are really rare. Eldar tend to be obsessive by nature so when they find a god they like they devote themselves to it whole body, soul and mind with no reservation. This level of obsession is obviously what created and draws them to Slaanesh but it's much the same for any god.

It takes a special kind of eldar to spin all the plates at the same times and failure will result in far worse than mere death. But the results and rewards of managing it, of being an Undivided Chaos Eldar, are equal to the difficulty and the danger.

It was once mentioned that during the WoTB there were maybe a few dozen at most. But they more than most just don't stay dead for long. So slow though they are created they are cumulative. By 999M41 there are hundreds of them, and even when killed they won't stay down. These are the things that require multiple squads of Grey Knights to put down.

The only thing that stops them from bashing everyone's heads together until they get in line is that they are among themselves also fractious.

Then Lady Malys turns up. She is as above them as they are above the regular Crone Eldar. She only has to slap them into shape. It is up to them to slap their subordinates into shape. If they don't then bad things happen.

To stop a Black Crusade, especially the later ones, you have to take out Her Ladyship and enough of the other Undivided that they can't maintain the momentum and the lesser monsters turn on each other.

Fucking awesome. It's like John Blanche if John Blanche discovered colours other than orange, yellow and brown.

>either pets or food that might, in a few million years if they try really hard and stay true to the god, might just be capable of becoming primitive proto-people cavemen
What do they think of CSM, considering that - since they're so few relative to Cronedar or Lost & Damned - they usually get all the coolest toys from their gods?

>Luther’s biggest asset is in the mass number of Fallen whose loyalty he commands, not his power level.
Luther is upset that ultimately he's just the more cooperative but less trusted alternative to Arrotyr, who needs to be argued into cooperation whenever Malys hopes to get the support of the Scions of the Old Helm. Arrotyr's particular devotion to Khorne inclines him to circle the Eye of Terror incinerating anyone he personally thinks is getting too full of themselves, and occasionally launching spite driven solo campaigns into the Shaa-Dome, against whatever pilgrimage is the Conservator is gathering to go harass Isha, to ruin some nest of sorcery in the webway edges of the Eye, or very rarely, to go piss napalm on Cadia. To have the Scions be anything but a liability on a Black crusade Malys needs to buy Arrotyr's loyalty with weapons, deference, and choice targets, or else he'll remain the team killing asshole that Khorne loves him to be. Sometimes he'll even jack up his price in trophies and glory half way through a war, just to fuck with Malys, and show Khorne is above her. This usually is a counterproductive, self defeating move, but he's perfectly happy ruining a Black Crusade to get a chance to shoot everyone around him and his forces.

Luther is an ambitious, paranoid xenophobe that wants Malys's job, but that means that when Malys sets up a Black Crusade Luther has to fall in and earnestly help, because all the gods are in on it with Malys. Unlike Arrotyr, Luther has to impress all four gods in whatever plan he'd use to usurp Malys, instead of just turning the whole thing into a slaughter as soon as his own ego and THE BLOOD KING OF THE GALAXY'S demand it. Also the Fallen are greater in number and more strategically and tactically flexible than the Scions of the Old Helm, both in void and personal combat, though they are less deadly by a similar margin.

>gif
jesus fuck what happened

Willow's girlfriend got shot. Willow hunted the man that did it down. She then magically strung him up and flayed him.

REEEEEEEEEE FUCKING OVERGROWN MON-KIEGH!

They aren't happy, but as it's their gods doing it they won't do too much about it.

Undivided Eldar aren't that rare. About 35% of the Croneworlders follow Chaos Undivided. If the Eldar were that obsessive, they never would have been able to worship multiple gods and once and would have effectively been monotheist. That said, most of the individuals are just those who worship Chaos Undivided as a pantheon and just otherwise theologically keep their heads down. It's the Cronedar who actually try to spin all the plates at the same time, courting the blessings of all four Chaos Gods at the same time, that are rare and extremely dangerous.

The way Chaos Eldar see the rest of the world might be as follows

>Non-eldar rest of the galaxy
Heathens fit either to be treated as food or slaves or enlightened with the word of Chaos, whichever they are feeling at the moment. Non-people in every sense of the word.

>Chaos-worshipping non-Eldar
Slightly smarter almost-people, smart enough to see the true way. Still vastly inferior to the Chaos Eldar in every way. The Eldar are the true chosen race of Chaos and everyone else is a long way beneath them. It is the gods' will that everyone worship Chaos, Eldar and non-Eldar alike.

The Cronedar treat the Fallen or other beings that can match an Eldar physically like grizzly bears. They aren't people, but you don't go saying that to their faces or else you get your face ripped off.

The smart Crones will also avoid insulting pawn that might be useful. It's kind of stupid to go insulting Huron Blackheart to his face if you just hired him as a mercenary.

>Craftworld/Dark/Exodite Eldar
HERETICS REEEE (though apostate would be more accurate). Hated because from the Crone point of view they rejected the ascension of the old empire via Chaos (though the smart ones avoided saying it to the faces of the Dark Eldar before the wedding).

What if they don't see it as the Fallen getting the coolest toys, but being the toys themselves? Conveniently ignoring their own position in the whole affair, since they're WORSHIPPERS, not TOYS.
Gods are allowed to have their fun too, after all. And a Space Marine makes for a great doll even if Khorne insists his are action figures.

The Chaos Gods essentially see their entire worshipper base as toys/food. Their reason for keeping the Fallen DAs on a planet away from the rest of the Chaos Eldar is basically to keep their limited edition collectables from mutually ruining each other.

Well yes, of course they do.
I was saying the Crones see the Fallen as they are, while thinking themselves more than that, even though they're not in actuality.

Do we even know what the power level of the upper echelons of the Eldar Empire were like? Arrontyr was a high-ranking (if disgraced) military figure and Nimidia was the head of Shaa-Dome's Isha cult, and neither of them seemed to be any more powerful than a later Craftworlder autarch or seer. It doesn't seem to be until the Eldar Empire fell that the Chaos Gods started handing out boons that pushed the most talented among them into demigod-tier (which is when the stand-outs like Arrotyr and Nimidia get their power boost).

The gods didn't have to interfere in the Old Empire or hand out boons as the eldar were already doing what they wanted.

Also before The Fall the eldar could reincarnate. There wasn't an upper limit on how old they could be. In theory there could have been veterans of the Old One vs Necrontyr war still hanging around. Still levelling up. 65,000,000+ years old. They would have the advantage of experience and psychic gains if nothing else.

Also nobledark Evesor Assassin.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=UoDKXozA0M4

The original suggestion for Arrotyr had him as a veteran of the War in Heaven. It was debated because having a bunch of 66 million year old Crones running around undermines Be'lakor's position as the guy who knows things everyone else has forgot.

Speaking of which we still need to decide what to do for Arrotyr. On the one hand his initial arc and descent into madness is nice and the replacement suggestion is a bit of "asshole in, asshole out" (though he could have been doing that as a result of the fucked up mental energy of the pre-Fall empire), on the other hand it would mean Arrotyr has been around almost as long as and has the same potential for knowledge as Be'lakor.

>Luther flees the to the Eye of Terror to escape the G.E.C.
>he eventually finds out about the crow's part in the raid
>Teal Tit loving every laugh

...

he could be Arrotyr the second, grandson (or some other pretty near descendant) of the Arrotyr that fought the Stormlord, etc, seen as the second coming of his grandfather, who would have died maybe a generation before reincarnation actually became a staple part of Eldar life. Essentially the Arrotyr passed shortly enough after the War in Heaven such that the warp was still turbulent from Khorne's birth and usurpation of Malal. Arrotyr the first died and passed into that realm of souls, and though his grandson takes after him immensely its not clear if its actual reincarnation. Arrotyr the Second lives in the long golden age of the Eldar, himself reincarnating a few times, and he's shown to be both noble, dignified, and horrifically bloody-minded. This could be attributed to dying and his soul wading through the miasma of Khorne's birth, or just as easily to being raised in the shadow of his grandfather, but fighting puny Mon-keigh instead of the might of the Necron Star Empire. Either way, Arrotyr think's he's the inheritor of the Empire's war machines and warriors, and comports himself as such.

That's what the second concept was, but it would mean Arrotyr the Second never received the vision that Arrotyr I had that in the original concept was his seed of madness.

>lost and damned guide to share-dome real estate
Seems like the consensus of the thread that it would read somthing like
>oh shit, you weren't joking?
>let me laugh even harder.

Are there still titan legions?

Yeah, but they haven't gotten much lore

I had an idea for the titan legions way back in like Thread 9, but I’m not sure it would work.

The Legio Titanicus has a reputation for being for a gutter trap for engineering misfits. Unorthodox Mechanicus tech-priests, xenophilic Eldar bonesingers, enterprising Earth Caste engineers; all can be found within the ranks of the Legio Titanicus. The Legio Titanicus is about the only place in the Imperium where you can find an bonesinger and a tech-priest working together instead of fighting. The reason for this bizarre arrangement is simple.

The Legio Titanicus doesn’t know how to build titans anymore.

It is not a widely advertised fact, but ability to produce new titans was one of the most crippling things the Mechanicus lost between the Schism and the War of the Beast. Smaller titans like Warhounds are still capable of being produced, but the designs for the Warlord and Imperator titan are now lost. This is the reason the Legio Titanicus has so many technological mavericks in one place. They are the only people willing to experiment enough to try and figure out how much they can cobble together replacement parts and kitbash a titan in order to keep as many titans functioning as possible. The Legio Titanicus was the first institution to experiment with wraithbone parts on non-wraithbone tech (though in like M39 or later). Thankfully, Titan machine spirits tend to be simple, if powerful, and their thoughts tend to be along the lines of “YOU WANT TO STICK A GIANT ALIEN LASER CANNON ON ME? I’M INSULTED THAT YOU DIDN’T DO THIS EARLIER”.

As a result much like mecha in mecha anime, the surviving titans have become increasingly customized, becoming increasingly distant from their original design and immediately recognizable to onlookers, much like famous real world battleships. However, this comes at a cost. Every higher-class titan lost in battle represents an irreplaceable loss, a heavy blow for the Legio Titanicus and the Imperium.

The Imperium had a decent pool of titans as a result of the Great Crusade, but even that number is finite. As a result, the Legio Titanicus goes nuts over the possibility of recovering any functional titan.

The titans of other Imperial races haven’t been much help in this regard. The requirements for building Eldar titans are so arcane it’s amazing that any have been built in the first place. Their numbers follow the same trend as Imperial Titans. The Tau have only just begun experimenting with their own titan designs (thank you Sho’Aun), but they tend to be more massive mobile gun batteries than anything else. Experimentation with titan technology happens with these titans too, so you get things like Revenants with adamantium armor over its own frame on key areas.

Because no Horus Heresy, Titans are allowed to be deployed in groups (Warhound packs are back y’all!), and on the rare occasion that more than one higher-class Titan is required, the Titans assigned will often be assigned to complement each other. Human titans are often bulky and good front-line combatants, eldar titans make for good precision hitters and snipers, and Tau titans bring the dakka. Some specialized variants include…

Bulwark – A Warlord-sized titan that carries an adamantium shield as large as it is. Shield makes it insanely tanky on top of normal void shields, allowing it to survive up to and including an orbital bombardment. Can provide cover for other titans.
Dervash – Nimble four-armed eldar titan, that carries a set of monomolecular scimitars in each hand. Good for overwhelming force in critical areas, but a bit fragile.

Tl;dr: Imperium lost the titan blueprints, everyone PANIC!

This all sounds good, until you read the lore and it turns out that human Titans were invented by the Mechanicum to help them win the Martian Civil War. Titans are literally the one piece of technology which the Imperium in canon actually knows how to build more of.

Well, the higher ups of the AdMech could always 'lose' the designs not from any of the big nasty shit going on, but because they realized that they truly were a blessed gift of the Omnissiah and thus are afraid that keeping the plans around and making more will cause some szygy thing and unleash Voidy.
When in doubt, blame the Void Dragon.

Where did this characterization of Luther wanting to be the Chaos Gods' champion come from? All the characterization we've had so far indicates he only cares about human supremacy.

Doesn't quite work with the current consensus we have on tech level in this AU, which is slightly higher than canon Great Crusade tech due to shit not getting lost as well as some innovation and adoption of xenos tech (though this improvement is glacial as the Mechanicus hates progress and slows things down due to its near monopoly on tech). The Imperium has the tech to build Titans in canon, so no reason for the Imperium not to be able to build Titans in this AU.

It could be that he sees the gods as the key to man's ascent.

Mostly because Luther lets Erebus hang around, and between his human supremacy and Erebus's fanaticism it makes a lot of sense that he'd want to usurp Malys, or at least surpass her in power, which is essentially the same thing. If he didn't he'd be settling for subordination to an (((Eldar))) at a minimum, and quite possibly aiding her in the destruction of the Imperium on her terms. He might not want to destroy the Imperium, just purge the Xenos and everyone that he doesn't like, but if its going to be destroyed, the terms will be his.

I figure Malys would be about as good at manipulating Luther as she is at controlling Arrotyr, the Indigo Crow, etc.

How much pull did Malys have on Vect's management of Commorragh before their marrige?

Why is the Blue Cockatoo holding a piece of warpstone? Where did it get it from?

I would say before the marriage she would have had little to no say in the management of the City of Sins. The Dark City was his to rule and his alone, his pride would allow nothing less.

The current sharing of power must work both ways for them both to be satisfied and for the unholy union to take place. She has influence and authority (but on paper subservient to Vect) in the Dark City and he has authority (though legally subordinate to Malys) in the old homeworlds of the Eldar Empire. Both of them feel like they got the upper hand, pretend that the other got the better deal so they can make out like they were generous and neither believes the other.

Luther's ambition is, ultimately, to build the Imperium how it should have been. It would be nice if the Imperium as it is now could be salvaged and repaired. That's the main plan. Plan B, the one that he feels is more and more likely to work as the years pass, is that he's going to have to burn it all down and start again from the foundations.

The gods, he believes, are aiding him in his endeavours and so will have a place in the state religion of his planned "perfect" society. The gods think he's fucking hilarious.

Oddly it's the exact same way a whole bunch of Craftworlders reacted to Jubblowski and for the same reason.

The REEEEEEEEEEEEEE is universal.

10K years of "this is your brain on Chaos" and the fact that it went to an eldar of all people.

It might be not so much Luther wants it as he is mad an eldar got what could have gone to a human. So far in this timeline 0 humans have the mark of Chaos Undivided.

>Titans
Yeah, the thematic high concept was to have a nobledark "limited resources against the horde" scenario, where every guy you lose is one more you can't replace and the other guy seems to have two more of the ones that you took with you. Titans would be particularly well-suited for this because they're so damned expensive and hard to build. It's like Pacific Rim or Evangelion, you wince for every mech that falls because it's one less one on your side and the enemy just seems to keep coming. It also answers the question of "who are the most unorthodox yet not heretek parts of the AdMech". It also adds another "loss" to the Imperium's column.

But you're right that technologically it makes little sense.

I would agree with this. Malys and Vect have little direct influence over each other's realm until the wedding. Each is the lord of their domain, and their relationship is their "hobby", so to speak.

What does Malys think of the Mandrakes considering that they are in the godless "Other" camp of ohgodwhat?

Probably thinks the same as everybody else in the Dark City; stay as far away as possible from the freaky shits and don't make eye contact.

Is anyone doing a full story for the Indigo Crow? Also what's the plan with the Taskmaster, I only see a bit in the notes and a bit last thread?

I don't think anyone has yet said that they are, correct me if I'm wrong.

Someone was doing bios for each of the four major Croneworlders in turn, and had done Arrontyr and the High Conservator and it sounded like they had the majority of the Indigo Crow done.

The Taskmaster is by far the least developed of the four, which is surprising because the Crow used to be.

As far as I can tell the taskmaster is the designated driver for all of the Crone Eldar Slaanesh cult, and is a business minded industrialist when it comes to providing for the cult's massive appetites, massive war fleets, and its lofty goals. I have no idea how one would write the administrator and logistics director of a hedonism-centric shellworld, but that seems like the aim.

Pink Peacock stole it from Malal's realm, a universe that doesn't exist

I'm so internally conflicted by gun fu - I love how ridiculous the choreography is, even if the /k/ommando in me's triggered with the force of a thousand moralfags at the lack of any sense on anyone's part whatsoever.

Isn't the Taskmaster also Malys' biggest threat for control of the Cronedar, because the Taskmaster thinks they should be in charge because the largest segment of the population is Slaaneshi and it's in the nature of Slaaneshi to always seek more.

It's still 40k even if it is relatively sensible nobledark 40k.

Also gun fu might be more viable in an assassin trained to the peak of possible performance. Also they are cybered up as much as possible and still pass for human and on all of the performance enhancing drugs.

This now begs the question

Are there big players in the Dark City that are non-eldar?

Bile and Lucius are around.

Bit neither are leaders of any faction in the Dark City.

One is a dude looking for immortality or a way to get the ultimate Bling Sword and the other is Mercenary Frankenstein.

So Warp-Srone is a thing in this AU?

I have absolutely no problem with that.

What makes it and what is it used for?

it hasn't come up so far, that's why I asked.
seems to imply the Indigo Crow got it from the Warhammer Fantasy setting itself, I guess because it now resides in existence like Malal, who we said can still reach the warp and galaxy through the Tyrant Star.

Unexistence I mean. I suppose Tzeentch might still favor Malal over Khorne, and sending some sorcerers through the Tyrant Star to barter could be a source of alternate-reality exotic materials.

Does anything orbit the Tyrant Star?

the Tyrant Star travels around by unknown means. Khorne also probably tries to fuck with it, probably using the corpse of Malal he's turned into his Khornate sorcerer, because the BLOOD KING OF THE GALAXY needs to make sure the other gods know their place.

Warpstone itself might be useful for accelerating FTL warp travel, making weapons, conducting rituals, experimenting on the webway, or any number of uses.

>Khornate sorcerer

That is absolutely the best possible job for Malal.

Khorne already has Skarbrand for the mindless berserker job, but a Khornate sorcerer really plays to the self destructive and contradictory nature of Malal.

Is Warpstone even a thing in 40k? I assumed it was a Fantasy-only kind of thing. No problem with including it here though.

The Tyrant Star seems to be more a phenomenon than a physical star. It's said to pop up out of nowhere so suddenly a system has two stars, possess the system's star, possess its MOON, and so on.

Malal isn't dead, just bloodied. Khorne keeps him around as his vizier and personal Tzeentch repellent, but at the same time Malal is still plotting his own shit off to the side. He's like a more competent (but still self-destructive) Starscream.

Probably the biggest area that hasn't been touched yet in this AU is Orks. Anything different with them aside from Brain Boyz, or is it mostly the same? I remember there was a suggestion that Tuska Daemon-Killa is still pretty close to canon, as it was mentioned although Chaos can manipulate the Orks it can't brute force corrupt them and so you still get the "crazy" stuff like Tuska's WAAAGH! into the Eye of Terror. Is there any details that are different about Tuska's story because of the changes in the timeline?

the Imperium might be working on sending more Whaggs into the Eye

That would require them KNOWING about Tuska, though.

No, they're doing it independently to prove the Imperial philosophy can better take win the orkish mind than the Crones.

That's nonsense.

I think that they were planning it but then they looked at the Kryptman Gambit and the level grinding that was taking place and NOPE.jpg

I mean, I can imagine they might try and deliberately steer Orks into the Eye of Terror, but the given justification is nonsense.

There is also the rather grim possibility of massive amounts of Chaos Orks and spore born Ork-Spawns.

Ork-Spawn that can germinate from spores.

Billions of them.

Let that sink in for a moment because I don't think Cadians would be happy about the prospect.

How many Black Stone Fortresses are there in total?

>probably not as it is not a real star and doesn't seem to do gravity properly.

On the other hand the idea of an unholy planet that it drags along with it has considerable potential.

Especially if it isn't a deamon world as such but is still somehow fucked up.

Seconded. Just because a few nobles and farseers want to be stupid doesn't mean everyone is.

Presumably this was the backup plan to the doomed to failure "lets try and tame feral orks" that has been previously mentioned.

Also "if all else fails throw it into the Warp" is not a viable contingency for failure.

Could work.

A dark world that is dark beyond mere lightlessness as the Black Star devours all light more than merely absorbing what falls in. The Dark Star is hungry beyond just gravity as those who die in its black light find their souls drawn not to paradise or damnation but inward to the hunger of the star. The eternal, lonesome darkness, falling forever deeper into the pit that is bottomless.

It was said that men, or something like men, once dwelt upon that world and to those who dare to look there are ruins still standing, empty now or so it can only be hoped.

And let's say that sorry, forsaken world with its un-sun has a moon of disturbing composition, of eerie green stone, orbiting above it. Oh what devious tricks Tzeentch has planned for the world that was.

There can be no plans for that world. It moves without purpose, it ends all it touches. In those crumbling halls beneath the black light of the sun and the sick light of it's moon nothing moves, nothing has ever moved. Not since before time. If it was indeed a part of Malal then it is anti-creation, formed as the throne of the ungod to Tzneetch's god. It is the place plans go to die.

What the Indigo Crow did to get a chunk of that wrongness is anyone's guess but as he, in the name of Big Bird, has just taken a piece of a rival god's domain as his own it's safe to say that Malal is pretty annoyed.

bump

Tzeentch needs not the star or world, Malal's black mirror and the prize he fished from oblivion as its destiny ended and the gods of another existence forsook their sphere for an alternate reality's imperian, no, Tzeentch wants only its moon. Strange exotic matter it is, that wells with madness and potential, and brings with the faint sound of scratching and squeaking. Whatever Malal drew forth from the far side of the warp through the pit of unreality he punched in spacetime contained many things, but one of them in particular is of value to his eternal opposite. Tzeentch can sense in Malal's bleak trove of things that never were a perfect synthesis between itself and it's current archfoe, Nurgle, and it wants everything it can know about that specific impossibility.

Tzeentch sent the Indigo Crow to take a sample of warpstone from Malal's dark marble, and the next part of their master plan will be to scry and see what manner of god or daemon creeps within its memory. Because that can't possibly backfire horribly and recreate a certain rival luckily unknown to this universe.

This cannot possibly end well for anyone involved.

I foresee absolutely no possible unfortunate or unforeseen consequences of trespassing on a world older than the universe that was shat out of a dying other universe that orbits an impossible "star" that is a bottomless pit and manifestation of uncreation to retrieve a physics defying piece of rock.

Nope. None at all.

>implying that world is empty
>implying the sad, mad things that dwelt in the last moments of the previous dying universe moving sideways across dimensions aren't still sliding across that planet
>implying that it's intrusion into the galaxy hasn't altered the timeline since the distant past and erased countless civilizations by merely existing
>implying their souls weren't devoured and fall forever beyond the event horizon
>Implying that the Dark World was formed around the Black Sun and is not just the one thing it has found that it can't devour and so it just sits there being awful

This is why deamons freak out about the bloody thing. It's not just the Dark Star, although that's a big part of it, its also the crazy thing spinning around it.

Only a mortal would be stupid enough to go there and cunning enough to come back. Only Indigo Crow would be mad enough to bring back a souvenir.

More like Indigo Magpie.

Tzeentch can't resists the thought of such a tasty looking rat.

No such chapter exists by order of the Inquisition. Especially if Trazyn the Infinite asks.

OK, can anyone do a picture of Indigo Crow in that pose? Either holding the Waprstone instead of the mug, or else with a taunt at Malal written on the mug? (t's not like the guy hasn't been tempting Malal already.)

This makes the Tyrant Star sound like something that preceded Malal.