Nobledark 40k part 40: Skiing in Space Austria edition

Welcome to Nobledark Imperium: a relatively light fan rewrite of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, with a generous helping of competence and common sense.

PREVIOUS THREAD:
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/56059361/

Wiki (HELP NEEDED!):
1d4chan.org/wiki/Nobledark_Imperium
1d4chan.org/wiki/Category:Nobledark_Imperium
1d4chan.org/wiki/Nobledark_Imperium_Notes

LAST TIME ON NOBLEDARK IMPERIUM:
>So apparently Ornsworld is Space Austria now
>More High Lords! And more on Catachan!
>Space combat, Dr. Bile and the Dark Eldar, and more.

WHAT WE NEED:
>Write-ups of previous stuff. The Notes page is getting to a point where I think we're all having trouble keeping up with everything.

and, of course...
>More bugs
>More weebs
>More Nobledark battles

[Spoiler]Sorry for the shit header, it was the best I could come up with on short notice[/spoiler]

Other urls found in this thread:

1d4chan.org/wiki/Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_Planets#Krieg
1d4chan.org/wiki/Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_Planets#Mordia
wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ratling
youtu.be/srujv6YNPAg
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

Ornsworld was equal parts Austria and The Shire.

Was.

The population was exterminated to the last child in the 12th Black Crusade.

Now it's a lot of land reverting to wilderness, radioactive craters and stained alter stones next to body pits.

It's being resettled by those that were off-world at the time. The Halflings are out for blood.

I liked how some of the 12th Black Crusade stuff had deliberate parallels to the Scouring of the Shire.

By the way, this leads me to a question I had been wondering about. What insult do Chaos worshippers use to refer to the Imperium in this timeline? Normally they use "corpse worshippers" but in this timeline the Emperor isn't a corpse.

I'd imagine (and I think this is present in most of what's been written) that Crone Eldar probably use the omnipresent "mon-keigh" when referring to humans. And it's likely they'd probably use the "H word" when referring to their non-Chaos worshipping kin, seeing as the Crones see Chaos as the fruits of the Old Eldar Empire and therefore the Craftworlders, Exodites, and Dark Eldar are heretics for rejecting it. Especially since Vect's first act as lord of Commorragh was to kill or kick out all the Chaos sympathizers who wanted to open the gates of Khaine and let the daemons in.

But what do human worshippers of Chaos (Lost and Damned, Blood Pact) call Imperials? Especially humans?

Heathens, Lessers, Forsaken, Unbelievers and other insults.

Cadians call them "kneelers". Cadians do not kneel.

Eldar/Mon-keigh slaves. Chaos Eldar consider the false idol of Isha being subservient to the Emperor as a sign of any non-Chaos eldar being subservient to humans, and human Chaos worshippers consider the allowance of an eldar goddess in the highest halls of power as sure sign that the human Imperium has been subverted by those god damn pointy eared scum.

This can lead to some interesting arguments in mixed eldar/human chaos warbands.

Well, unless they're steadying themselves to take a shot at someone's head. But then they might say they were just squatting. Just don't say it in the vicinity of a Hubworlder or they'll go "What did ya just say ya varmint?"

Do the Blood Pact have different opinions than the rest of the Imperium? They were originally an Imperial sector corrupted with Urshi beliefs by Doombreed during the Great Crusade.

Eldar weren't a thing to the Imperium at the time they were fighting Ursh (with the exception of the Dark Eldar trying to raid the Afrique League), and we have no idea how assimilated the sector Doombreed corrupted was. They could be anywhere from "almost assimilated" to "barely influenced by Imperial culture". It's been implied it's closer to the latter, but all that's been said for sure is that it wasn't fully assimilated yet.

Did we ever do anything about the more grimdark Guard regiments, like Mordians or Death Korps?

Death Korps yes definitely. Not sure about the Mordians.

Did we change anything, or did we keep them close to canon?

Here:

1d4chan.org/wiki/Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_Planets#Krieg

1d4chan.org/wiki/Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_Planets#Mordia

Provides the basis. I'd give something more in depth than links, but I gotta run.

>I liked how some of the 12th Black Crusade stuff had deliberate parallels to the Scouring of the Shire.

Not quite. Dial it up another notch and then some.

Imagine if Samwise "Simply Walked Into Mordor" Gamgee came back to The Shire and found that rather then his people enslaved they had been exterminated. He looks around and finds only abandoned death camps. He can find some recognizable landmarks, the tree stump of the tree around which Old Bilbo had his birthday party, a few walls where the mill stood, the hill of Bagend but the burrow/house is now just a collapsed depression in the ground.

He can't identify the bodies. There are too many. He can't force himself to look at that twisted and mangled heap. Where is Rosie Cotton? Did she make it across the border before shit went really bad? Of course she didn't.

Now imagine if Samwise "Troll Slayer" Gamgee was 423rd in line to the throne of a planet now bumped up to Overthane (or whatever title) becasue everyone else on the long list is dead.

Can you imagine what that would be like? They would sing his praise to the end of time. The man who orchestrated the rebuilding. The man who taught them the ways of war. Chaos has taken the last of their innocence and violated the sanctum sanctorum of Ornsworld.

And then there is Governor Gamgee, last of his name, heir to a land of corpses and sorrow.

Those that come back? Ornsworld was an idyllic little slice of quaint paradise among the stars. Homely and comfy and always welcoming and generous. They are not anymore.

Chaos may have shot itself in the foot with this one. They saw they were small and simple folk and thought them weak but every Chaos Marine reaches all the way to the ground. Give a ratling/halfling a decent sniper rifle and a week to practice and he can take the left testicle off of a gnat at half a mile, no scope.

Ornsworld is rising again.

The Blood Pact at this point is a ten thousand year old regime founded on the principle of "fuck the Imperium" that's been smashed with the defeat of each Black Crusade and slowly rekindled with the return of Doombreed each time. Its hard for the Imperium to destroy without major effort because its on the other side of the Eye of Terror, and once whatever semblance of order over there has been smashed Doombreed is able to salvage the remnants of his old influence and turn it into his little Urshian star kingdom of hate.

Absolutely nothing to do with the thread, sorry.
But that portrait is from the board game Talisman, the Tavernmaid (one of my absolute favorite characters)

Does anyone here actually play Talisman? It's on steam.

Blood Pact could only potentially be as old as it's current incarnation if everyone or near as everyone dies. Doombreed could be resurrecting it nearly whole cloth every time.

Has there ever been an official map given of Catachan?

Something I've seen to notice is pretty much living in this AU is just "Is living in the Imperium that bad?" section from 1D4chan. Sure there are secret police along with censorship and mass surveillance, literally daemon outbreaks, evil aliens trying to control your elites, and brainwashing secret societies. But at least it isn't as bad as being eaten by Tyranids.

The big difference is between GrimDark and NobleDark is that not everybody is a shitter because the universe shits on you. Its more like the universe gives the heroes a pat on the back before shitting on them as the problem they solved only delayed the inevitable countdown on the Doomsday Clock.
Also would anybody mind if I work on the lore of Reri "The Bullied" Hesperax

I think also in the Nobledark the Imperium is a little less 'Ends Justify the Means.' The ends still justify the means, it's just that as a galactic governing policy, they take a hard look to see if there are any other, less exterminatus/servitorization/genocidal means first. Which also has the benefit that, because they give more of a damn about the process of which they receive tithes, victories, and loyalty, the corrupt and psychopathic can't thrive as well. Original GrimDark wouldn't care that Governor McPuppySodomizer has an infant grinder at the center of every city as long as his taxes are paid on time. Nobledark will take the effort to put a stop to this infant grinding, and hopefully will be able to put those otherwise ground up infants to better use.

Also I would love Reri.

So I was looking around on 1d4chan and I found out that there currently a Phoenix Lord series out that explores the background of the various Phoenix Lords in more detail and (in typical GW fashion) retconning the hell out of things. The changes to Jain Zar seem to be particularly controversial. I suggest that, like just about everything else with this project, we cherry-pick the best elements out of the old and new fluff and reinvent what we don’t need or find to be stupid. It also gave me a little bit of an idea of what to do with Jain Zar.

Although Asurmen was by far the grandmaster of the Shrine of Asur and the one in charge of the place, few who would argue that Jain Zar was second in command. Jain Zar was the first student of Asurmen, and acted as Asurmen’s right hand, constant companion, and closest confidant. It is even rumored that their relationship was more than simply platonic, but nothing has ever emerged to confirm this, and frankly after the both of them have been reborn so many times any such feelings are likely to have been muddled by the repeated reincarnation.

As in the new canon, long before the Fall, Asurmen was kind of a ditherer when it came to the Pleasure Cults. He wasn’t exactly a huge fan of them but at the same time he wasn’t an anti-pleasure cult zealot like his brother Tethesis, because hey, it’s a cult devoted to making people happy? What could be wrong with that? It might have helped that he was living on the far edges of the Empire and didn’t see how the Crone Worlds had devolved into “what cruel and unusual shit can we do for kicks today?” He did leave the Empire for the Exodite Worlds, but that was mostly because his brother was doing so and he wanted to support him. As the Exodite colony grew and the first generation of Eldar outside of the empire started being born, Asurmen was happy for his brother, but still thought going to live in the middle of nowhere was a bit of an overreaction.

That all changed when the Exodite world was ransacked for slaves by raiders from Commorragh. It should be noted that this was back in the days before Commorragh was seen as synonymous with treachery. Back then it was merely seen as an extralegal domain where Eldar aristocrats went to satisfy their perverse lusts that even the mainstream empire found distasteful. And here they were hunting down their own people like they were game animals. They even siphoned away the souls of the planet’s World Spirit for use back in Commorragh. Asurmen just barely managed to save his brother’s soul, but the rest were stolen.

This was the breaking point for Asurmen. It didn’t matter what one thought of the pleasure cults, this was simply wrong. He had caught a glimpse of the abyss into which the Empire was headed, and he didn’t like it. No longer would he stand by and watch his people slip away into madness. If there were Eldar who wanted to stand against the darkness, he would teach them how to fight it tooth and nail. It was this event that would put Asurmen on the path to being an eldar nobody to the kind of person who, by the time of the actual Fall, was respected enough that he could speak and get all of the Craftworlds to shut up and listen (if he hadn’t died in the immediate aftermath of the Fall, anyway).

As in canon, Asurmen may not be the guy’s original name in the first place, as it basically means “left hand of god”. This isn’t exactly uncommon for the Phoenix Lords, Jain Zar was originally named Faraethil even in the old fluff, and I’m damn sure Maugan Ra isn’t the guy’s original name (seeing as it means “harvester of souls”).

The only other Eldar to survive the Commorroghites’ raid on the Exodite World was Jain Zar. Jain Zar was the young daughter of a widowed Eldar woman who had been born on the planet. The two of them lived next to Tethesis and Asurmen and Tethesis had been in a relationship with the older of the two. Asurmen fought his way to his home to try to rescue his brother and his neighbors, but only found Jain Zar alive.

Unlike Asurmen, Jain Zar never grew up surrounded by the glories of the Eldar Empire. She never set foot on Shaa-Dome or seen the impossible geometries of Commorragh. All she thinks of when anyone mentions the Eldar Empire is how slavers from the Empire killed her entire family. Comparing her to the Crone or the Dark Eldar is kind of a sore spot for her. Vulkan called her a credit to her species in respect to the Crones and Commorraghites shortly before the Raid and got an earful for it.

As for the other Phoenix Lords, I didn't have much more of an idea than what we have already. Maugan Ra was the "surly, unpleasant" member of the Phoenix Lords, largely because he was one of the only survivors of the Fall of Altansar. Despite that, he was loyal to Asurmen, and was kind of insulted that the other Phoenix Lords thought he was the traitor when the Shrine of Asur burnt down. Unlike most of the other Phoenix Lords except maybe Baharroth, Ra is still on his first life but is never around when you need him.

As we suggested before, Arhra got PTSD from the Raid, burned down the Shrine of Asur, and disappeared after a massive battle between him and the other Phoenix Lords Oh who are we kidding, he's probably Drahzar.

This is the closest that seems to be out there. I know it's not very good.

It's all good. Plz moar

Are there any names ratlings?

If Catachan is meant to be a Greenhouse Hell with complete jungle cover then that just looks entirely wrong. There is either not enough surface water on the planet to sustain enough of a water cycle to keep it all green.

Assuming that is just one supercontinent and there is a fucking huge ocean on the other side then there should be mostly empty arid wasteland on the land side of the globe.

Also there should be ice at the poles or at least some indication of differing climate between extreme latitudes.

That picture makes me angrier than it should.

According to
wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ratling

Stumper Muckstart - An excellent sniper with a gambling problem.

Magogg - First ever confirmed Imperial kill of an Ethereal.

Manvolio - Head of a group of ratling snipers who held a bridge against a force of Tau + Kroot for an unexpectedly long time. Had to be fucked up by Stealth Suits before he would be persuaded to retreat.

Given that the Tau have been allies or actual members of the Imperium for a long time no in this AU they will either have been fighting historical battles and are now dead, a different enemy or Farsight Enclave.

Magogg could have been accredited with the first confirmed kill of a Chaos Eldar in the 12th Black Crusade.

Manvolio could have been fighting Kroot Extremists who wanted to hunt and eat actual people rather than the vat-grown meat. Or maybe Gene-stealer cultists and instead of Stealth Suits finally fucking his shit up it was Purestrains.

Stumper Muckstart can be left as is as a slightly delinquent but with a heart of goldish space hobbit fits this Imperium pretty well.

Would the first kill of a Crone in the Black Crusades be a big deal? I realize the Crones aren't as easy to kill as a Tau, but someone would have killed a Crone eventually in the 12th BC simply because it was the Crones who were invading. Aa opposed to an Ethereal who, even though it's a Tau, killing one is a big deal.

The confirmed presence of the Crones would make it officially a Black Crusade rather than just a bunch of Chaos Orks and Fallen getting restless.

Or if you want to make it a more notable kill it could be that he took out DOOMRIDER.

Other than being smol what other makes them different to regular people?

>Reri Hesperax
Illucis Grizvaldi, following his emergency Warp jump to escape Imperial forces, was stranded on an unknown planet within Ultima Segmentum when Lelith Hesperax found him. Or rather the Dark Eldar agents that found him. When approached by these agents to be commissioned for the creation of a living weapon or risk starving to death in the middle of nowhere, he refused to work for Lelith unless they allowed his remaining disciples be taken with him.

After coming to an agreement, the heretek along with his cult was taken back to Commorragh to being his finest creation. The treacherous Dark Eldar politics have caused the famous Succubus for an insurance along with a weapon for her own personal use outside of the city. It began with taking the embryo from Lelith to have it grow in a vat. Once the child was fully developed with accelerated aging to around 17, her ears and limbs were cut off. Citing the need to install cybernetics along with ridding of the typical hypersensitive Eldar weaknesses located on the feet, hands, and ears. Machines built for utility, enhanced movement and hunting were integrated into the girl's body over time, as she was trained while brainwashed into the blind obedience of Lelith.

Given the codename "Reri", she was made for tracking and assassination of all Lelith's rivals outside of Commorragh. Illucis whispered some unknown words to Lelith before leaving, those words would be the killswitch for the cybernetics on Reri if the machines ever picked up the vibrations of those words. Not to mention the explosives built into the limbs that would probably kill Reri. In the 41st Millenium however, Reri has gone on to kill some diverse targets that only a lucky few have survived against her. Not even the Emperor can truly defend himself from that Dark Eldar but Reri wasn't assigned to target the Imperial Family yet.

Without the ears, Reri could either install specialized equipment or synthetic ears for infiltration as an Abhuman. The limbs have also been heavily modified to always have motion sensors, vox comms, powerful magnetics, and survival tools like a knife or lockpicks. they can also be outfitted with built-in weapons and tracking instruments. This was all done while adding durability to have them be tougher than Eldar bone without sacrificing the mobility.

Some say that her appearance is eerily similar to that of a Human with the right limbs and ears, creating another conspiracy theory saying the Impossible Child was already built by the Dark Eldar. Although few subscribe to this theory, it has been given exposure following the assassination of an Inquisitor in Sol right after the 12th Black Crusade. There are also some within the Imperial government who suspect Reri interfered with Legienstrasse's death, although it is unknown how much she was involved. One thing was certain, however, Reri was tracking down Legienstrasse when the Imperials killed the renegade assassin. With increasingly erratic behavior after The Wedding, Lelith worries about sending Reri away as the chance of her going rogue also increase.

>What do you guys think about Reri Hesperax's backstory?
>youtu.be/srujv6YNPAg

It's all good but for two things.

Firstly the implication that she might be able to bother the royal couple should only be hoped by the Dark Eldar as an outside possibility. Isha and Oscar both operate on another level when compared to mere mortals. Even such exquisitely crafted ones.

Other thing is that Legienstrasse is very much alive and well and lives in the Ganymede facilities. She and Inquisitor Draco get along like a house on fire.

If Reri was to be involved with anything to do with Legienstrasse it would be with assisting her children. Her children and grand children and possible further descendants are all manner of fucked up being somewhere between Alex Mercer (Prototype) and The Thing.

Other than that it is good.

Fuck I forgot Ganymede was a thing. On the subject of the Imperial Family, I'm not saying Reri could actually kill them it's more so the Dark Eldar think she could kill Oscar.

What if I changed it to

>There are also some within the Imperial government who suspect Reri interfered with Legienstrasse's capture, although it is unknown how much she was involved. One thing was certain, however, Reri was tracking down Legienstrasse when the Imperials caught the renegade assassin.

It was said in the last thread that the common perception of Ratlings is that they are a race of promiscuous gluttons with slight hedonistic tendencies. They lived on an agri-world that was lush and rich inf food. That user also pointed out that becoming smaller is not what happens to a population with abundant food. Also if they had always been breeding like rabbits then they would have depleted the food supply long before the Imperium discovered them.

The multiplying, food rich environment was the result of the Imperium finding them just as an Ice Age came to a rather abrupt end and huge swathes of arable land became available on Ornsworld. Before that Ornsworld had been a very cold, very bleak place to live. Finding them in such a state resulted in the stereotype that endured for most of Imperial history despite their behavioral trends changing somewhat over the years.

Then the 12th Black Crusade and the Ornsworld Extermination.

It's been the better part of a millennium since then. Their numbers have recovered somewhat from the few thousands that were off-world.

But now they are not the happy jolly people that the older people of the Imperium remember them as. The tendency towards big families has returned and in truth the fondness for a few pints of ale never really went away but now Ornsworld is getting very famous for something other than the best cooks in the known galaxy.

It is known that they make excellent marksmen. They can also sneak like champions. All Ornsworld soldiers carry a spool of what looks like piano wire. It's silk from the giant domesticated spiders. They typically make pretty silver dresses and shirts out of it. If they can slip it under the helmet they can cut into an orks neck all the way to the bone with training and practice.

The Imperium demands a tithe from it's worlds. Ornsworld pays that in food surplus. The increasing numbers of soldiers it demands the Imperium take have the world paying almost three times what is asked of it.

Much like the Ophelia system and Cadia there has now been forced a restriction on how many can be allowed into the Guard so as to not bleed the world of needed hands in essential industries. Visitors to Ornsworld have seen the place running itself ragged, what pleasures there are on that world are the defiant good cheer of it's citizenry and the simple pleasures of life. Anything too extravagant has been sacrificed for the War Effort. Ornsworld was found weak and fat once, it will not be again.

Each hand has three fingers and two thumbs. The little finger has become larger and stronger and the middle now does the job of the index finger. The Index finger is now a second thumb.

Feet are noticeably larger than normal humans in proportion to the rest of the body. They are also somewhat hand like. The sole of the foot is slightly shorter proportionally but the toes are longer, robust the larger toe is opposable.

It has been observed that they can hang from the underside of branches with their feet, even managing to line up a medium to long distance kill shot whilst doing so. They also do not wear foot ware unless they absolutely have to.

They do not have especially hairy feet. No more than the average human has hairs on the backs of their hands, it's just more noticeable. Typically they can't grow beards although many of the man can grow sideburns.

Despite rumours they can not typically see better in the dark than baseline humans. They just prefer to attack at night because when you're under four foot tall you really need every advantage you can get.

bump

Do we even know what the fuck Doomrider is in this timeline? We know where Doombreed comes from. There was a suggestion a long time ago that Dechala the Denied One and N'kari are eldar and human Daemon Prince/sses that keep fighting and one-upping one another to try to show to Slaanesh that eldar/humans are better and because She Who Thirsts finds it hilarious.

The fuck is Doomrider? In canon he's a Slaaneshi Chaos Marine, but it's never really said how he got that way. Only that he's from the Emperor's Children and the White Scars really hate his guts.

Kind of reminds me of the Androids in Dragonball Z, specifically the "put a bomb in your cybernetics in case you decide to go rogue". This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

>Firstly the implication that she might be able to bother the royal couple should only be hoped by the Dark Eldar as an outside possibility. Isha and Oscar both operate on another level when compared to mere mortals. Even such exquisitely crafted ones.

This. Agree with the suggestion here (, yes I know it is the same person as the original writefag). Indeed, the idea that the Dark Eldar think Reri could kill Oscar or Isha fits well with their worldview of the Dark Eldar being supreme, being the only free beings with no need for gods or laws restraining them.

We don't really have a concrete story as to how Legienstrausse ended up in Ganymede. We know she's loyal, but beyond the fact that she submitted to Imperial custody and didn't try to kill everyone while all the other subjects of the experiment turned into monsters it's not clear how things went from point A to B.

God. They're like miniature Kriegers except that they chose this lifestyle instead of being born into it.

Bump.

I wouldn't say that the Ratlings are as badas Kriegers. They still have stuff outside of war.

++Thought for the Day: Let your first thought upon waking always be "What can I do for the Imperium today."++

Someone should collect this Nobledark Imperial Toughts and put them all togheter on 1d4chan. They are lovable

I'm with this guy here, Reri is nowhere near the Imperial Couple and shouldn't even be near Legienstrasse in power because that gives way too much importance to a minor fapbait character (I know she's written as a grimdark cyborg here, but come on, we all know where she came from). Legienstrasse in canon fought off Lysander, an Emperor's Champion, a squad of SM veterans, an Eversor, and like 2 grandmaster assassins, putting her solidly at around Greater Daemon power levels, and to put a minor character imported from Veeky Forums fluff on that tier is silly.

And if the DE truly believe for whatever reason she could take on Oscar, that simply puts them from extremely arrogant to extremely stupid. Current day Emps is beyond canon Chaos Horus at this point, and we've agreed that the only "mortal" being anywhere near being able to take on Emps 1v1 in this AU is Lady Malys, and in-universe she makes sure EVERYONE knows it.

Also let's not forget that Legienstrasse is a loyal imperial citizen and is voluntarily staying on Ganymede. Of course if she didn't stay voluntarily they would forcibly detain her but she is understanding of the situation and has made no attempt to escape (bar a few pranks with Inquisitor Draco and she came right back without a fight).

Reri, given what she now is in this AU, should be powerful. Take on a squad of Mandrakes on an even footing type powerful.

What would be a good title for the Governor of Ornsworld or are we just going to stick with the generic Governor?

How is this different from Brighthammer? I don't know jack shit about this project, so please explain.

Brighthammer had a galaxy full of high adventure where the world was wondrous and the people usually good.

Nobledark is that the galaxy is a steaming heap of malicious shit but the people are good.

Lord of the Rings could be described as Nobledark for example.

Sigma-Agrius was also a Ratling homeworld that tried to break away from the Imperium and had to be brought back into line via military action in Vanilla. Is that still the case here?

Would they be different to Orndworld Ratlings?

They could be a pre-extermination colony that set up and refused to pay tithe.

This was not taken well

Mordians I think are very much as they were minus the xenophobia.

>extremely arrogant to extremely stupid
Do you know that the Dark Eldar basically use shotguns when fighting against Space Marines?

They are very good shotguns

Ornsworld is the primary homeworld of the ratlings in this timeline. Because the Imperium isn't as concernes about muh Holy Human form, abhumans are allowed to set up colony worlds or immigrate to other planets instead of being confined on their honeworld. Both ratlings and felinids have colonies all across the Inperium (it's why Ornsworld wasn't a death sentence for the species after the 12th BC). Given the number of ratling colonies and the sheer scale of time, it is inevitable that at least one would rebel.

Ogryn and Beastmen are an exception, not because they are forbidden to immigrate, but because there are multiple centers of origin unlike ratlings or felinids.

Given that it's Austria + The Shire I'm inclined to go with Archduke. Thain was the title of the leaders of The Shire in Middle-Earth but Thane was about as low on the hierarchy as you could be in Saxon England and still be considered part of the nobility.

I'm also going to suggest that the title had fallen out of tradition of being a hereditary title by the time of the Extermination. By then they had elections, of a sort. You voted for the family you wanted to rule the Royal House rather than the individual.

The elected family would then distribute themselves around as administrators and such functionaries. The various nations operated on a similar principle in that there were votes on which family got to be the national royal family.

Ratlings were typically generous to a fault, tend not to be materialistic and feel great happiness in the giving of gifts. As such it was usual to have the richest family voted into power because they would spread all of the wealth that they could across their nation.

The Planetary Royal Family was usually elected for typically producing diligent, honest and thoughtful workers because nobody could be rich enough to give to a whole planet and it actually make a difference.

It didn't always work out that way but that was the intention of their system.

Needless to say this all went away in the aftermath of the Extermination if only because there weren't any families left that could trace their numbers big enough to form any sort of government. The only coherent force left were the regiments returning home.

Around those heartbroken regiments Ornsworld was rebuilt. It's a military dictatorship, but a very well meaning and competent one. Closer to Cadia than to Krieg.

The title of Archduke was originally a military title back in the half remembered days of Orn the Great in the early years of the Age of Strife. It's only been in the more pleasant years that the meaning was forgotten. Now it means again what it once did.

Didn't we have the name of whoever was in charge of Ornsworld in the fluff for the 12th Black Crusade?

I can't find one but It's late and I'm tired so I'm probably mission something.

I remember writing up the summary of the 12th BC where traitor Night Lords warband called Warp Hounds exterminated the fuck out of Ornsworld. Making a reference to the Biblical slaughtering by Israelites carried out on several cities. While Crone witches and herateks carried out experiments on the Eye of Night.

I just checked. There was no mention of who runs/ran Ornsworld. There was a mention of Ratling Lords, but no one elaborated on that so I think it was a throwaway mention.

On a related note, how do people feel about the idea of the Sapiens Supremis attack on Sreta Ulthran being correlated with Fyodor Karamazov's fit and the Inquisitorial "Civil War". Not as a direct consequence, but as a result of Fyodor stirring up shit and instigating people to action. I had an idea for something (not Sreta's assassination, but something else), and I was going to mention the Sapiens Supremis attack as a throwaway mention of the negative effects Fyodor's attempted coup had.

I was concerned it might be too much of "everything is connected", as well as its effect on the timeline. The Sapiens Supremis attack was considered "recent". We don't have an idea of how recent the coup was (though we know the timeline goes 12th BC -> Burning of Saint Salem -> Fyodor throwing a coup). However, "recent" for the Imperium has been used to refer to everything from the Badab War to the Battle of Ultramar and Dorhai upping the stakes. I'd wager that the Sapiens Supremis attack was closer to Dorhai's No Gothic and attacks on Jubbowski (which is like 700.M41) than the 12th BC (which IIRC was on New Years Eve of 001.M41).

++Thought for the Day: To defy barbarism, even in a hopeless situation, is its own point, its own end, and its own reward.++

Something about this thread makes me think of "the Culture explores 40k", have you guys ever read it?

I have. Parts of it were quite weak, but overall decent.

What are the extent of what Legienstrasse can do?

What is Eye of Night

I think we were trying to spread the events out more in this timeline rather than the Vanilla where despite having 10,000 years to play with they still crammed everything into the last half hour.

Change shape to a greater extent than polymorph drugs allow, get cells to swap type and form complex organ systems on the fly and heal like Wolverine.

Her children could form more bizarre organ systems and change their form to greater extents. Not out of any inherently better nature or anything but because Legienstrasse was born human and had to learn to do what she could do. Her children were born like that and it cam instinctive.

Her children were all monsters and so were her grand children.

The Eye of Night was a xenos artifact on Ornsworld that can emit beams of light which will drive machines mad.

Could be another piece of Old One junk.

I'm imagining that the storage facility on Ganymede is some distance away from the main complex. It fucks with the equipment so they don't want it fucking up the Containment Measures of the other "things".

The facilities are as low tech as you can make them and still survive the inhospitable environment of Ganymede. 0 automation, 0 computers and everything has to be done by hand. Can't even get a vehicle to it. It's a 3 day hike to the cave under the mountain from Vault 43.

You know you done fucked up somewhere when they give you the guard duty on that Vault.

Apparently, it was a xenos artifact from a race the Eldar Empire once fought before they exterminated them. The xenos was so vile that no Eldar record write their name or utter it. These artifacts were either hidden or lost to time after that war until the Imperium rediscovered them. The Imperium would then later lock them up on planets like Purgatory and Ornsworld.

Wouldn't it make more sense to stuff them in Ganymede? That's where all the other stuff that the Imperium wants to bury but can't or aren't able to destroy gets stuffed.

Also, didn't the Crones successfully get the Eye of Night?

Basically Alex Mercer or the Thing in 40k. She can eat people with just skin contact and absorb the DNA of whatever or whoever she eats, in addition to what was mentioned by .

Does anyone else think it might be a better idea to have the monsters the Imperium keeps Legienstrausse around to hunt down be the failed test subjects and their children rather than her own? I think in canon Legienstrausse had to do the whole Species thing to make babies, and the Imperium would immediately notice something is wrong when one of their assassins starts laying eggs. I mean, unless we can spin it better with plot.

It's possible that her child or children were born in the normal manner because she remains human shaped out of habit.

I think the failures either died or got cancer. The people responsible were "seen to" by the Inquisition.

>Wouldn't it make more sense to stuff them in Ganymede? That's where all the other stuff that the Imperium wants to bury but can't or aren't able to destroy gets stuffed.

Probably best not to stuff all the nightmare eggs in one basket, least one of them breaks the walls and lets everything else out as well.

The question is more how would the Inquisition not notice that they have a problem in that Legienstrausse keeps producing monsters. Heck, if Legienstrausse realized that she was doing it she would probably stop it.

Agreed. The only thing to keep in mind is that due to the extreme timescale it's difficult to have more than two significant figures interact with each other, even indirectly. Even with the Eldar characters. Yriel and Iyanna would have to be middle-aged for Eldar at least considering they were active when Kraken hit. Karamazov must have been one of the lucky ones with rejuvenants to have been the Inquisitorial Representative at the turn of the millenium and yet still up and causing trouble as of 999.M41 to the utter misfortune of the rest of the Imperium. And having him be yet another old soldier just barely making it into Ragnarok sounds a bit too much like Kryptman and Shadowsun.

But I mean it's not like it doesn't have a basis in canon Kyril Sindermann lived for at least two millennia after all.

>It's possible that her child or children were born in the normal manner because she remains human shaped out of habit

Somewhere on Ganymede: “ALRIGHT HOLD UP, WHICH ONE OF YOU IDIOTS BANGED THE SUPERWEAPON?”

presumably Lord Inquisitor Draco

It's possible and probable that it wasn't evident that her children were monsters until after they were mature. Until then maybe the Inquisition thought they had found a new and better type of Super Soldier.

Give that Legienstrausse was a good and loyal citizen they didn't appreciate how long they could be.

>long
*wrong

I dunno, I see Legienstrausse and Draco having more of a platonic relationship. Legienstrausse for all her power has been emphasized as normal psychologically. Draco would probably be two mililiters short of a flask of Amasec for her to be attracted to him. Also given his attention span she probably knows he wouldn't be able to sustain a relationship (and he knows she'd rip his dick off if he tried). So Ganymede-bros.

Also because any children would be Maerorus with potentially Alpha-psyker level powers.

This Freudian slip got Slaaneshi real quick.

Given that polymorphine can turn you into a fake purestrain genestealer in vanilla, that's pretty damn impressive.

Gene-stealer is still a more or less conventional lifeform in shape and function. One brain, eyes, torso with organs inside, limbs and so on.

Legienstrausse and the other Maerorus do not have those restrictions. Also you need training to not die using polymorphine and you can't just change shape on a whim, there is preparation and shit.

A Maerorus can just decide that it needs a tentacle with an eye on the end to see around that corner without having to stick it's head into danger and it has one immediately. Jumping out of an aeroplane? Now you got enough wings to, if not fly, at least slow down. Got to fall fast? That's fine. Just make cushioning around the brain and hit the ground, whatever is left attached after the splat can be rebuilt into a couple of limbs and a digestive system. Then it's just a matter of eating the broken limbs to regain the biomass and scuttling off before the bring out non-kinetic weapons.

Presumably the only really good weapons would be ones that burn and destroy the cells at the chemical level. Flamers, plasma, meltas, strong acids and the like.

Also the brain, or analogous organs. The tissue will grow back easy but the memories won't unless there is another brain or some such collection of grey matter acting as a back up.

Which raises the problem that they could make two brains, shift them to opposite ends of the body, split down the middle and multiply via mitosis. Although as an artificial predator they might not have the instincts to want to breed beyond safety in numbers and needing numbers. But not too much numbers and be noticed too quickly and also deplete the food source. People are delicious for some reason, possibly an engineered preference to encourage hunting.

Legienstrausse can't mitosis. It's too alien a concept to envisage and enact for a person born human.

What are the Dark Angels doing in the darkening days of 999M41?

The Dark Angles, Blood Angles, and Lamenters are getting fucked up in the 13th Black Crusade by my guess.

Asdrubael Vect. Of all the individuals that dwell within that wretched place, it is his name that is the most accursed, both by the general galaxy and those within its non-Euclidean walls. However, if one were to travel through time to Commorragh circa M25, just before the Fall, one would be surprised to find Asdrubael Vect was merely a simple porter to a wealthy Eldar family. Commorragh at that time was a retreat for the rich and famous, originally a Webway port turned into an extralegal domain where the aristocrats of the Eldar could indulge in their perverted whims away from the prying eyes of the Empire’s public. Vect was in Commorragh because he was a servant, rather than any sort of noble. When the Fall happened and most of the Eldar outside of the protection of the Webway were killed in an instant, Commorragh was thrown into chaos. Many of the nobility were borderline Chaos worshippers in the first place due to the hedonistic nature of the Eldar Empire, and the first thing they wanted to do was open the Gates of Khaine and let the Warp in. It was during this time that Vect took charge of the panicked masses and instigated a general purge of Commorragh, killing all those who were sympathetic to Chaos. By the time the dust had settled, Vect was in control and the seeds for the present-day hierarchy of Commorragh had been sown.

Many Dark Eldar, being Dark Eldar, are not happy with this turn of events. Some Kabals who know the truth of Vect’s origins take things even further, twisting fact into propaganda, claiming that Vect was originally a vatborn Eldar slave, and as such is not fit to rule over the Trueborn nobility of Commorragh. Vect allows these rumors to persist, for the simple reason that he knows that if the only thing the Kabals are the slings and arrows of scandal, then they don’t have any power to actually harm him. If the Kabals had anything to actually threaten him with he might actually be worried.

In restrospect, Vect shows all the traits of a leader who took power rather than being born into it. He enjoys luxury, but understands it is merely a pretense that can be thrown away as necessary. He also holds no pretenses to power because of birthright, divine right, or any other sort of nonsense, unlike many other Archons. Vect holds power because he holds power. Simple as that. And then there is the ruthlessness. Most Dark Eldar have lines even they would not cross, though this line is often drawn not out of any idea of morality but from the individual’s own desires. Most Dark Eldar would never think of using daemons to further their plans. Vect would. Most individuals would not think of breaching the containment fields of the Ilmaea to burn entire sections of the Dark City to the ground. Vect would.

Commorragh has but one rule: Don’t cross Vect. All other laws and decrees are secondary. Even Commorragh’s taboo against psychic powers and daemon summoning are more derived from a mutual desire for survival and the fear of crossing Vect than codified laws. A few Crone Eldar, who are suffered in Commorragh but generally treated as deluded proselytizers in thrall to their gods, have attempted to defy this edict and open up the Gates of Khaine, which would flood the Dark City (and likely the Webway) in daemons and hopefully elevate them to Daemon Princedom. All have failed. The lucky manage to escape with their hides back to the Eye of Terror, where they merely face the wrath of the Daemon Queen for trying to endanger her on-again, off-again lover. It is perhaps better not to think about happens to those that Vect manages to get his hands on.

It is said that Vect almost never takes to the field in person anymore, instead gaining the necessary slaves and victims necessary to maintain his youth and keep off the touch of She Who Thirsts through other means. Residence in Commorragh by any Kabal merely requires a simple payment to its landlord, a tithe of slaves and chattel to its resident overlord. If a Kabal refuses to pay this levy, then they are more than willing to find another place to practice their craft, something that would almost certainly be a death sentence given the vulnerability to predations both material and daemonic outside the protection of the Webway. Some Kabals have tried to flee to other Webway realms like Pandaimon, or tried to set up their own demesnes within the knots of the Webway. Almost all of these realms have been absorbed into Commorragh over the years. Vect tolerates no competitors.


Thoughts? I feel it's a little bare bones. Didn't add anything on Vect and Malys' relationship because I felt that could be added on later. Tried to really mix canon Vect's stuff with a bit of Machiavelli and the sort of two-faced Rapture-esque mindset that's been suggested for Commorragh. Heck, wouldn't be surprised if Vect ever said "I am Commorragh"

Actually this raises a question. What are Vect's long-term plans for Commorragh? If the Imperium falls it means a serious dearth of slaves, which the Dark Eldar kind of need. And it's doubtful the Chaos Gods would let the Dark Eldar exist unmolested.

It's a lovely story of rags to riches worthy of it's own Disney film.

Well he took the field and cooperated with Crones, possibly Malys prior to her ascension, to loot Cthonia at the end of the War of The Beast

If anything, this Imperium is the antithesis of The Culture but still have good intentions instilled in their governments. Whereas The Culture is a post-scarcity labor free socialist utopia, the Imperium of Civilization in contrast is an imperialist military-industrial monarchist hegemony. Even as a leftist I found The Culture too powerful, perfect, and unobtainable for me to like. The government here is pretty right-wing going so far as (I would think) to have the average Imperial citizen's role model be Catherine the Great or Oda Nobunaga. At least with this Imperium it's actually believable in showing the merciful to ruthlessness that all spacefaring lifeforms can have. I would rather live in this Imperium than be poor in Brazil.

>Some worlds not only have shortages due to a lack of efficient offloading technology, but have exploited their own resources beyond exhaustion.

>Most work in either agriculture or industry are usually for the state. It is to be used in feeding the infinitely expanding military just so they don't get killed by Orks or Tyranids.

>There is literally an Emperor and Empress ruling most of the galaxy while voidborn, navigators, and Rogue Traders are effectively the most widespread form of aristocrats.

>The Imperium exports civilization via convincing, coercing, or conquering worlds to secure its borders and gain assets.

On a scale of Anarchist Spain to Czarist Russia, the Imperium would be somewhere between Persian Empire and Imperial China.

>Which god give you the divine right to rule this Imperium?
So the Emperor answered, "All of them".

>Which god give you the divine right to rule this Imperium?

If the eldar asked this the answer would be

>yours, and I'm plowing her daily.

It's a damn good read and really brings out the notion that Vect is a creature you don't want to cross whilst still giving the impression of a statesman of sorts rather than just a rampaging monster. It could and should be used as the first instalment for a Vect section in the Notable People page of the 1d4chan.

Vect's long term plan for Commorragh seem to have already been more or less achieved already. He's made a place where the Dark Eldar are free to be and do as they please. Or as he pleases which mostly amounts to the same. But without having to ben a knee to anyone. He defies the gods and has and in surviving their predations places the Eldar people, his people, above them.

He is in his way, especially reading that, not unlike Oscar in his approach to rulership; "do as you please but pay your taxes and don't rock the boat".

Possibly the only thing left to do would be to refound the Eldar Empire with Commorragh as the capital and no petty gods above him. The Eldar Empire in his view how it should have been.

Draco licked the shadowlight for a dare but not even he is crazy enough to bonk Legienstrausse and Legienstrausse has standards.

Do the Night Lords fight alongside regular humans in this AU?

So Legienstrausse could look like Elizabeth Greene from Prototype when in a "rest" state?

I just need something to image. I want to write something about the shenanigans of Legienstrausse and Draco but I'm hitting a wall.

your pic fits perfectly to what I was picturing, and as to tone for the Ganymede adventures, something like the more free wheeling SCP tales, and the list of things Dr. Bright can no longer do, combined with Candide's style of Enlightenment era shenanigans. For Legienstrasse's powers and people's reaction to them, uncomprehending terror for those unfamiliar, and for her regular handlers, a mixed reception of "really fucking cool" concepts and "gristly, stomach churning, squishy disgust" when it comes to their use.

No, they keep at the edges of the empire or in dedicated trouble spots and only get called inward when things get dire. Similarly, the Carcharodons had kept to their hunting grounds as a far flung ship borne chapter until Isha tracked them down and set them on Karamazov.

I had a really, really shitty idea for an out-of-universe goofy moment where the cast circa 997.M41 sits down with their various groups to have a movie night watching an ancient historical relict from Earth. The movie? Aliens (or alternatively, each group is watching something different).

Legienstrausse and Draco are having movie night with the rest of the staff of Ganymede. You know how people often get frustrated with the sheer stupidity of people in horror movies and start MSTK3-ing them? Legienstrausse is doing the same but with the monster, snarking about how incompetent it is. One gets the impression that if she wasn't so nice she would have made a terrifyingly competent monster.

As for the rest of the Imperium...there's Nemesor Zahndrekh

>Sees facehugger
"Oh, you still have wraiths around do you? Jolly good. I used to have one of those as a pet when I was a boy. They're so affectionate..."
>Sees facehugger facerape someone
"I don't recall wraiths ever being able to do that..."

To elaborate on pic, this is what Isha hopes to turn the Carcharodons into with the right amount of societal manipulation and reinforcement. Her line of thought is something along the lines of "I put up with Khaine for sixty-five million years and he managed to evolve into slightly less of an asshole, I can do the same here". Whether or not she will succeed or if it's another pie in the sky goal is anyone's guess.

I mean Isha is the goddess of firtility so it wouldn't be too far off from canon.

How seriously do the eldar treat the whole All-Mother title? Is it seen as literally or figurative?

Because if they literally see her as the common ancestor and mother of their kind then Oscar has the ultimate come back even if he would be too polite to use it.

Does Zahndrekh ever leave his estate?

He's been mentioned to go on tyranid-hunting expeditions.

Has he ever visited any of the big Imperial worlds on state visits?