Welcome to Nobledark Imperium: a relatively light fan rewrite of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, with a generous helping of competence and common sense.
>WHAT WE NEED So, everyone, it looks like this AU is getting to be on its last legs. At the same time we still have a lot of unfinished writing out there, like Fulgrim, Angron, and the Slaugth. So this is in part a last call to post writing, or at least figure out what to do when this thread goes down.
and, of course... >More bugs >More weebs >More Nobledark battles
Also, what's the likelihood of Eldar joining the Inquisition?
Noah Sanders
Eldar Inquisitors exist. Also numerous Inquisitors have things like junior seers or Warlocks in their retinue.
Aiden Edwards
The Rangdan Xenocides were by far the most costly conflict ever fought during the Great Crusade. The campaign included the involvement of three Space Marine legions (the Dark Angels, Space Wolves, and the Ultramarines), several Titan legions, and significant numbers of the Solar Auxilla; needed the assistance of the Eldar to gain a foothold; and required the direct intervention of the Steward himself to finally turn the tide.
The opposing forces of the Rangdan Xenocides were the Slaugth. The Slaugth were colonial organisms resembling masses of maggots (though pedantic AdBio members would point out they also showed similarities to Terran leeches and earthworms) linked together in a mucosal sheath into a humanoid shape. The constant psychic contact between the individual worms in the colony, combined with the completely horrific and alien mindset of the Slaugth by the standards of nearly every other race in the galaxy, made them revolting to directly touch with psychic powers. Psychic contact with a Slaugth was not like the mental communion of matter and anti-matter of a blank, but described more like sticking one’s arms up to the shoulder in maggots. “Only a daemon would want a Slaugth’s soul”, an old Crusade-era saying goes.
Easton Barnes
(cont.) The Slaugth themselves had an entirely self-centered mindset and only cared about themselves and their desires, to the detriment of the rest of the universe. Although they were able to scrape together some semblance of social order, the Slaugth saw everyone and everything, even members of their own kind, as little more than tools or slaves to fulfill their needs. For the most part, the most prominent of those needs was hunger. Although the Slaugth were naturally detritivores and could survive on any flesh, they most preferred to feed on brains (the larger and more complex, the better), and had developed a system to feed this gluttony. Humans, eldar, and other sapients were farmed like cattle, their brains extracted, and the waste meats fed back to the livestock and Slaugth bio-constructs like Osseivores. The Slaugth did not eat the brains of other sapients solely for their nutritional value. Absorbing nutriends from a brain would cause an individual Slaugth worm to be overwhelmed by neurotransmitters, producing a euphoric effect similar to a chemical high.
Lincoln Fisher
(cont.) Indeed, just about the only reason the Slaugth didn’t readily turn on each other is that Slaugth couldn’t really eat other Slaugth. If one Slaugth colony tried to eat another Slaugth, the two would simply merge into a single giant Slaugth colony twice as large and twice as hungry as its constituents. Even if a Slaugth did manage to completely kill all the component individuals of a fellow Slaugth colony before eating it, Slaugth flesh simply tasted foul to their own kind. And this is assuming that a Slaugth could kill another Slaugth in the first place. Being composed of hundreds if not thousands of individual organisms, Slaugth lacked vital organs or a centralized nervous system and were notably hard to kill. For this reason, Slaugth tended to prefer necrotic weaponry, which rotted the tissues of their foes from the inside-out and was one of the few ways (aside from fire, plasma, or radiation) to make sure another Slaugth was reliably dead. The fact that it also worked well on the bio-constructs that Slaugth technology was largely based around just made it even more attractive.
Given this entirely self-centered mindset, it is difficult to imagine how a species like the Slaugth could have ever developed a civilization, let alone space travel. However, what little historical records remain show the Slaugth arose long after the end of the Old Ones in the War in Heaven and long before humanity developed widespread genetic engineering or spread out into the stars. Current hypotheses suggest that the Old Eldar Empire, or at least someone like them, was responsible for the uplift of the Slaugth from what were essentially fire and tool-using ants into a starfaring species, as well as their adoption of a humanoid form.
Austin Russell
(cont.) By the time the Imperium encountered the Rangda, the Slaugth were being ruled by an Iron Mind. A minor Iron Mind, to be sure, but even a minor Iron Mind was still dangerous. The Slaugth and the Iron Mind had formed a kind of symbiosis, or as close to one as the Slaugth were capable of. The Iron Mind handled the long term planning of the Rangdan Empire, which the Slaugth naturally didn’t have the wherewithal or inclination to run, and the Slaugth indulged it in its god complex and protected its physical body while its artificial soul ran with daemons in the Warp. When the Imperium fought the Slaugth the Iron Mind was able to coordinate the movement of its forces with uncanny accuracy. Companies would advance only to be met with forces that already predicted their arrival. However, when the Imperium finally made a beachhead on Rangda, the Steward took to the field and struck down the Iron Mind with an ancient archaeotech device of unknown purpose from the vaults of Ganymede. With the Iron Mind destroyed, the cohesion of the Slaugth was broken, and the remaining factions were run down and killed by the Imperium and Eldar.
Adam Baker
(cont.) It was during the Rangdan Xenocides that the Dark Angels, who were previously tied for the status of “most numerous legion” with the Ultramarines, became the largest standing legion by a wide margin. Although the Ultramarines were well-trained and highly-skilled, the Slaugth were an outside context problem for them and they suffered grievous casualties. Still others became infested through some unknown means and had to be mercy killed, their eyes begging for death and their limbs moved to butcher their comrades in the name of their xenos master. By contrast, the Dark Angels had been traveling the void and dealing with anomalous phenomena for far longer, and knew how to deal with the unexpected. While the Ultramarines immediately moved to free the Slaugth chattel, the Dark Angels held back and waited. Although this seemed callous at the time, the Dark Angels knew that the Slaugth would use the prisoners as bait for an ambush, and that by focusing their efforts on the Slaugth or restricting any rescue operations to the cover of darkness they could save a lot more prisoners than otherwise possible. The rise of the Dark Angels as the undisputable largest legion set the stage for Luther’s actions during the War of the Beast, and made the betrayal of the Fallen that much more devastating.
Austin Diaz
(cont.) Imperial and Eldar forces rescued numerous humans and Eldar from Rangda and the surrounding worlds of the Slaugth Empire. Eldar rescuees, due to the longer generational gaps, were not as mentally damaged and were herded off to the nearest Craftworlds where they could be given some semblance of a normal life. Although these slaves were physically normal, mentally, it would be more accurate to describe them as livestock than anything else. They had spent at least a few thousand years being bred for servile, docile natures and to be just strong enough to not need looking after much but too weak to pose any sort of threat. The Imperium tried to uplift them in a similar manner to the ogryn, but had variable success. In the end, the human survivors of Rangda were largely adopted by the various Legions. They were docile but they were dutiful, they also had inhuman patience and didn't get bored by repetitive tasks. Their tainted bloodline has by 999.M41 faded away though many in the Imperium, even some Space Marines, could claim to have at least one ancestor in the "serf families" as they became known.
Logan Price
(cont.) Today across most of the galaxy the Slaugth are considered to be harmless boogeymen, an extinct xenos species whose only modern function is to scare children into eating their vegetables. There are others who know better. Not every Slaugth was killed in the aftermath of the Rangdan Xenocides. Some escaped the destruction of their species, hiding amongst the flesh of the dead in places beneath notice. Today the Slaugth exist in the shadows, multiplying in the places out of sight ready to emerge wherever weakness or rot presents itself. Slaugth have been sighted in the xenos districts of Low Commorragh, trading technological abominations to the Dark Eldar in exchange for slaves. Some have even suggested that the abundance of Slaugth in the Calixis Sector is not a coincidence, speaking in hushed tones of bargains struck between the maggot men and the separatist Emperor Severan of the Severan Dominate.
The surviving Slaugth seem surprisingly unconcerned with the loss of their empire. They resent it, but they are not devastated by it in the way that a human, eldar, or tau would be. Indeed, the Slaugth seem to see the destruction of their empire and near-extinction of their species as “not their problem”. And given that the Slaugth are colonial organisms, who can reproduce asexually or with minor contact with other colonies, it could be argued that the death of the rest of their race really was “not their problem”. Indeed, the empire at Rangda was in effect the normal Slaugth modus operandi on a large scale. The similarities are evident; a large number of thralls and bio-constructs lorded over by a Slaugth elite, resembling a feedlot or a parasitic infestation more than what one would think of as civilization. It’s possible that while the Slaugth might on some level desire retribution for the destruction of their empire, given their mindset they might just consider vengeance another flavor of eating.
(And it's done. Stupid character limit.)
Adam Hughes
Man, I like this a lot. The recent writefagging has been moving towards character-driven pieces, so it's nice to get back to the historical codex style.
Mason Rogers
(cont.) In terms of time period, I was thinking Rangda took place some time before the Raid. The Eldar and humanity teamed up with one another in a manner that at this point would be considered more an alliance of convenience than anything else. The Slaugth threatened the Eldar as much as they did humanity, and the Eldar were satisfied with showing up, fighting the Slaugth, rescuing the Eldar captives, and leaving without turning on humanity. It was this event that showed the Steward that the Eldar were somewhat reliable, or at least reliably acting on their own self-interest enough that they would keep their word if it benefited them, that he went with Eldrad's proposal to do the Raid.
Jace Clark
all sounds great. Its really interesting to see out AU's equivalent to the vanilla standard of "purge the Xenos". I was thinking that this defeat for the Ultramarines actually sounds like a similar dynamic as the one we've described for the Terra's Children vs Chaos Orks/Iron Cage scenario, and the Rangdan Xenocides might be the point where Robute started the work that would become the Codex Astartes, to codify the lessons the Xenocides taught about interstellar war.
Joseph Lee
Hm, I thought the timeline for initial Eldar integration was something like this: 1. On and off contact and some intel sharing between Steward and Eldrad, mostly staying out of each other's way 2. Discussion between them of a true alliance 3. Council of Nikaea where Steward proposes the idea of the alliance and the Primarchs vote 4. The Raid
I think is more in character for the Eldar: ask the Imperium for a huge, incredibly risk upfront investment for a vague future help while minimizing risk to yourself for a huge potential payoff. Luckily both sides got along surprisingly well, and things were peachy until the Beast came around. The Rangdan Xenocides would come after the Raid this sequence of events, it would probably be easier to fight horrible worm monsters if you're not looking over your shoulder at the suspicious space elves.
Benjamin James
I promised to do some writing but by the time I got home from work thread was dead. I won't be doing it tonight as I feel dead. Tomorrow is a half day so if thread survives I do intend to write up some serious Yarrick.
Josiah Baker
I think the timeline is like this, which is mostly like what you said.
1. Imperium expands out from Sol system. Has initial brief encounters with Exodite/Craftworld Eldar, some bad, some good, but overall minor enough that the two aren't in constant contact and neither group is on the other's shit list. Eldar primarily want to be left alone and are willing to actually talk, which makes them leagues better than many of the Xenos species encountered. To Eldar, humans are no better or worse than Tarellians, etc. 2. Imperium encounters Interex, who tell them that, "no, all these psychotic human and xenos civilizations with similar pantheons you've been encountering are not a coincidence, there are real things living in the Warp and they are not nice". 3. Steward goes to Eldar (specifically Eldrad) for independent confirmation because they're the most Warp-knowledgeable and reasonable outside expert they know of. Eldrad confirms what Interex say is true. Discussion between them of a true alliance 4. Council of Nikaea where Steward proposes the idea of the alliance and the Primarchs vote 5. The Raid 6. Eldar and humans mostly go separate ways on relatively good terms, until War of the Beast where Eldrad has to step in to keep things from going ploin-shaped.
The only issue is how much time passed between the Raid and the WotB. I think we said the WotB was six years after Ullanor (maybe longer, but it wasn't that long). Raid was sometime in the latter half of the Great Crusade, when the Imperium was a big enough power that it was worth noticing by the Eldar. Great Crusade overall was...three hundred to five hundred years instead of two (it's in the old threads somewhere)because Steward more interested in quality of life and stabilizing gains (and doesn't have a "unify all the things NOW before shit goes south" attitude of vanilla!Emps).
You make a good point that alliance-wise Rangda sounds more like a post-Raid "on good terms but not allies yet".
Benjamin Jones
As to whether they were allies after The Raid depends on when Isha and Oscar get married. I assumed it was immediately after the Raid. Eldrad encouraged her to formalize the alliance quick as possible for reasons stated in the Eldrad story to do with fate, predictions of behaviour and safety in numbers.
Alliance is a formal thing but in those early days still contested by elements on both sides. Most notably wary craftworlders who still remembered the pride of the Old Empire and Vulkan who fucking hated eldar.
Years pass and the alliance becomes an accepted fixture. WoTB happens and humans and eldar risk and sacrifice for each other as brothers in arms. Craftworlds in the aftermath are subsumed willingly into Imperium as member states.
Asher Collins
The marriage actually comes immediately after the Battle of Terra. Oscar promises Eldrad one unconditional favor for their help and Eldrad immediately goes, "Well our mother-goddess has been single for a few millennia..."
Jaxson Moore
It's not necessarily that they were fully allies after the Raid, it's more like if they happened to be on the battlefield pursuing similar goals (wiping out a group of xenos which threatened both, for example), they would cooperate. The only difference at this point between this timeline and canon is the two groups weren't actively plotting to stab the other in the back as soon as it was convenient because it's a fight neither side needs and having good street cred with a reasonable xenos species gives you more options in the future.
As said the official alliance only happened after Oscar promised Eldrad a favor after he saved his life.
I'm wondering how Aghoru and the Elohim went down in this timeline. The Elohim were all but stated to be Eldar who got stranded on Agorhu and their Webway Gate broke down, letting daemons onto the planet that they had to seal. I was going to suggest back in an old thread that Magnus' visit to Agorhu was an encounter with a regressed Exodite-esque colony of Eldar and one of the first unofficial first contacts between humans and Eldar, but then I noticed the Elohim were supposed to be extinct and Agorhu solely human-inhabited (that doesn't mean things could be different in this timeline).
Brody Mitchell
Finally productive again, I’m gonna post what I’ve got when I’m back from the doctor’s office. I’m now working on the purge of Laeran and fall of Lucius (also fabious) and Fulgrim’s role in the siege of terra, and someday I will get to the iron cage. If that means reviving these threads another year down the line, that’s what I’ll do.
In the meantime, I’m tempted to make Laeran flying cities fusion candles, and possibly Laeran a gas giant with watery moons instead of a water world. In general the Laeran Conquest is gonna be a war between Fulgrim’s aesthetic transhumanism and theirs.
I’m happy to hear what people would be interested in seeing.
Sebastian Walker
Fulgrim's many inquiries into future endeavors by the Warlord, for potential avenues of research, for examination of technologies, continued all through the last years of unification, and he always seemed to give them precedence to the interim Merikan government run by him and Lucius. Lucious in particular, but Fulgrim as well, both showed a keen interest in the overtures the Imperium extended Hy Braseal, though they had the deference not to take part. It was worth noting in Oscar's mind that they had more or less copied the councils under which he'd arrayed the leaders of the lands of Europa and the remains of Ursh to assemble and represent the various Merikan provinces north of the isthmus and south of Dorn's restored Kalbi, all without coaching on his part, but had made some focused and major alterations in some places. There were provisions for continued cooperation with the Alpha Legion nominally to ensure full and thorough reform and removal of entrenched corruption, and others to continue the Doe program, with the added practice of optimizing the babies after random sample combination, which Fulgrim had already started, and further provisions for eminent domain over all samples of neutronium in their government's remit. For his part, Lucius was reordering the Merikan military and its many arms foundries around the support of the Terra's Children, and glad handing and encouraging as much of the old officer class to go on on grand world tours to enjoy the new Imperium, while Fulgrim was overseeing the expansion of the proud legion of nearly three hundred that had overtaken the Merikan war machine.
Oliver Turner
The Futurist got his conclusive answer shortly after Oscar became Steward of the Empty Throne, named him Primarch of Terra's Children, and began the next stage of unification, that of Sol, with his oath before all assembled. With naught but some hasty organization of the new Council of Merikan Foremen, Fulgrim convened his legion in Moton. Before his force of three hundred Astartes of his own selection, bearing his modifications, their backing of seven hundred Merikanized Skitarii, and with his blades, his mechanists, and Lucius arrayed at his sides, Fulgrim drew up in illustrious words his vision of the era before Old Night, one that the this new Imperium of unification would reclaim, with the Children of Terra at the fore to realize its mighty promise. He spoke of ships fleet and unstoppable, pillar cities vaster and more grand than any gilded Urshian ziggurat or Merikan pyramid-bunker, and of the great bridges indestructible, the Neutronium lines that tied worlds to the sea of heaven, and thus to each-other. He envisioned his legion as the mighty “New Men” of this Imperium, more virtuous, more beautiful, more effective than any officer class or knightly order of the old provincial nations, the great poet warriors that would realize this Imperium’s truth.
Furris’ new position on the council of twenty, the Primarchs, Malcador, and Oscar Steward, ensured he was now privy to the grand strategy of the Solar Unification without needing to trade favors with Ames and Ozzy. Already the pale, eerie, yet charming trade lord of the inner system had seized the initiative and taken up the Unification’s banner as its master of ships, and the famed Knight of Franj and the Lion ascendant were bound on a mission of pacification to the outer system aboard his flotilla. With some prodding a contingent of Terra’s Children best military virtuosos followed close behind, led by Lucius in a gold, purple, and white fleet of a half dozen restored Merikan warships.
John Flores
In the same period of manic consolidation and activity, Fulgrim fell in with the esteemed King of Empty Space, Horus, and the iron fisted Antarctican Skitarii mastermind, Ferrus Mannus, on their mission of diplomacy to Mars. While the Steward knew the holy man, Lorgar, to be the better diplomat than the preening Phoenician, treating with the dogmatic and hegemonic Brotherhood of Olympus Mons was a task ill suited to the earnest preacher, and thus it was Fulgrim that bore the Standard of the Aquila to the red priests for that first time. It proved a wise choice, and between the guns of Empty Space encircling, the mercenary charms of Horus and guileful Fulgrim, and the proud imperatives of the Antarctic Brotherhood’s iron fist, the ruddy neighbor of Old Earth was drawn into the fold.
Fulgrim hardly returned to Merika after this, and instead dwelt with Horus at the dockyards of the Lagrange supervising the building of the dreadnoughts that would lead the coming interstellar crusade, and on Mars, aiding the designs of the Iron Fist he had long idolized from the stories of his Mechanists. One could hardly tell if his fondness for Horus was surpassed by his love for Horus’s ships, and though his obsession with the mighty Ferrus Manus was clear, it took many efforts and trials to prove the worth of his works, and thus himself, to the machine-man.
Mason Butler
Fulgrim was often said by the remembrancers to be the more worldly mirror image of Blessed Sanguineous, created haphazardly, a happy accident that perfected himself, and grew imperious and mighty by his own ambition, who flew by roaring jet instead of graceful wing, but likewise pale and fair, refined and elegant. Indeed this was very compelling, the Terra’s Children’s fine armor was unmarred and unbloodied even through Fulgrim’s brutal raids and engagements, he struck where he pleased and retreated when it was advantageous, whose blade was drawn in pride when Sanguineous drew his in duty. For all their contrast, the aesthete and the prince were on good terms, so long as military matters were not broached between them. Likewise he was compared to Guilliman, great strategos of Europea, as the Phoenician conducted great overarching campaigns in sector after sector, indomitable purple Astartes at the vanguard and unbreakable supply lines guarded by his shining cyborgs, advancing through the galactic west apace with the vaunted Ultramarines in the east. Though it had to be said that Guilliman never leaned so heavily on the techniques of economic sabotage and poxy war that Fulgrim brought with him, following on the heels of the shadowy Alpha Legionnaires he still held close since the Merikan Coup. For all appearances Fulgrim was as deft a diplomat as Lorgar, Vulcan, Horus, and Robute, but for the fact that when he paraded his regal Astartes before the people of a world and charmed its leaders at Imperial hosted galas he was often hard at work cutting down their dissenting elements and special forces just beneath that pleasant veneer of peace.
Parker Sanchez
It was in this time he finally endeared himself to Ferrus Mannus, and an unusual friendship bloomed in the life of the Iron Fist, be it from their similar childhoods, shared archaic fantasy of the Great and Bountiful Human Dominion, or merely Fulgrim’s persistence. In Fulgrim, Ferrus saw a fitting disregard for the limitations of biology, in Ferrus Fulgrim found an exemplar for the advancement of the holy human form and appreciation of its mighty heritage. It was in the forges under Olympus Mons, after the Gorgon had established his might over the heads of the resident Archmagos, that they held their famed contest of smiths. Among the great cogs and reactors of the forges in the heart of the red mountain the cold Iron Hand was making demonstration of his mastery of artifice before the many venerable smiths of that ancient foundry. While the Gorgon beat cascades of sparks from adamant at the forge, another unfamiliar host of robed and augmented figures drew around the mighty Skitarii. At its head was Fulgrim, and about him were the Archeotechnological Diviners and War-smiths of the Terrawatt Clan that he had been asked to herald to the Martian Brotherhood, and with them came the Genesmiths of the Deutch Jemanik, the Gene-Hippes of the mountain enclaves, mighty weapon-wrights and siege engineers of Macedonia and Achemedinia, and Furris’ own mechanists, who had already found favor among the martians that held with the more creative interpretations of the Strictures Cybernetica.
Wyatt Stewart
It was in the midst of this gathering of the great masters of the forges, the Brotherhood of Olympus Mons that had in few years brought Mars to heel, who dared say they were the keepers of the Noctis Labyrinth, and the vast treasury of knowledge and art that were the assets of the Imperial Court, possessed of so many esoteric and mighty secrets and specializations they could not be rightly remembered hence their passing, that Fulgrim and Ferrus proposed to settle the budding rivalry between Old Earth and Holy Mars. In the spirit of their great blessed adventure to come, their Crusade of Interstellar Unification, Fulgrim proposed the tourney would last seven days, and in that time all present would strive to see the arsenal of Man filled with wonders to match the weapons of old. It was Ferrus that added the terms that each master of his own forge should work for himself upon his craft, and that any that shrunk from the task to let servitors or adepts dither in their work would show their lack of art. It was then that Ferrus Manus shed his robes and bore down upon the forge like a tempest with his vast silver arms, and bid the adepts about him bring schematics and material. Furris Doe likewise seized a forge, and with his Mechanists set about the recalibration of tools and selection of designs, and all around Siege Masters and Genesmiths and Armorers rushed to heat Adamant and prepare the manufacture of fine mechanical filagree.
Thomas Hall
At the contest’s end, the forges and laboratories grew still and quiet, and many gleaming wonders were brought forth to be seen by all. Kelbor Hal, esteemed host to those assembled, so humbly presented a bright adamant power-javelin he named the Windlance, that flew unerring by means of grav-lifts in its shaft, and he received much acclaim, until Vie Braur, Master of the Genesmiths, came forward with a pair of golden armbands that would in a matter of minutes regrow a arm on which it was worn if it was severed, and this was followed by a cybernetic eye that saw across the spectrum and could glare a hail of lasfire as effectively as a heavy rifle, presented by Arton Luron of the Order Cybernetica, and from the Gene-Hippes, a poison gland from which a modified creature could spit streams of strong corrosive marking agent, and put forth by the Skitarii armorers, a beautiful brassy jezail of ancient design and thunderous power, an ingenious system of actuated tread claws that would let superheavy tanks scale sheer inclines was produced by the Macedonian envoy, and gleaming the gift of the Terrawatt engineers a reconstruction of an ancient tactical awareness computer, a golden pedestal that held an ethereally projected globe, then set to show much of the infrastructure and troop placement on Mars. Between all of these treasures and wonders, any one of them fit for royalty of the previous forsaken era, still none could rightly see its creator named champion, until together Fulgrim bore up a great black hammer, and Ferrus Manus unsheathed a burning golden blade.
Jonathan Torres
The black hammer, Forgebreaker, glowered with un-light, cut as it was from a shred of neutronium Fulgrim salvaged from one of earth's many equatorial scars, and he had struck upon a way to shape it only in the heat of the tourney. Though in the past Fulgrim had failed endlessly to work neutronium whatsoever, the modest lump of exotic matter was now a weapon to scatter the mass of mountains. The eye-searing sword thrust aloft by the Gorgon was simply named Fireblade, and it burned with unreal white flame that enveloped its narrow golden edges at solar temperatures, forged as the unification of many of the ancient subsystem fragments and schematics Ferrus Manus' brothers of the Antarctic Enclaves had brought from Earth, now possible to construct and piece together in the vast facilities of the Martian Brotherhood. The whole assembly of priests and artificers conceded the glory of these weapons above all the others, but between them none could decide the better. Fulgrim was certain it was the Gorgon's that was the mightiest, he loved the sword from his first sight of it, and its swift and biting form taken from the ancient glory of man far surpassed the bleak, crude weapon he had been able to carve from the strange matter. Ferrus Manus was already transfixed by the very notion of working neutronium even on such a small scale, far better than misassembling an archeotech hunting knife, it was a step towards the rediscovery of one of mankind's greatest arts. No decision could be reached, and the mastery of artifice could be given neither to Old Earth nor Holy Mars, and the budding of that rivalry continued. But the tourney beneath the red mountain did fill the arsenal of the unification of Sol, and the long and glorious Great Crusade after, and much joy and mirth resounded in the forges of mars on that seventh day, one that would be remembered as the unofficial, popular unification of Earth and Mars.
Jayden Baker
forgot to include the actual exchange of the weapons.
The tournament itself was said to end when the two Primarchs gave each other their own creation as prize, and the countless adepts, apprentices, magos, forgemasters, and artificers present saw fit to rejoice their work and the coming years of war and production. As the Primarch inventors exchanged notes on their works of the past seven days the huge convention of Imperial technological orders and leaders did much of the same, establishing much of the early relationship between the Mechanicus Orders and the myriad of other technological orders that The Throne would come to retain over the coming Millennia. Fulgrim would never part with the Fireblade after this, taking it with him into the unification of the galaxy, and bearing it back to Sol to strike at the back of the Beast when all that bright dreaming civilization shuddered and collapsed, and Forth again in vengeance and beautiful rebirth. Ferrus Manus would never forsake the Forgebreaker, and even when the Gorgon finally fell on the fields of Armageddon, millennia after his weapon's maker, that same hammer had smote the ruin of many dozens of Meks and Bosses across the battlefield, and left is final enemy naught but broken atoms in the ground.
So, next I'm gonna work on the conquest of Laeran, the Laer are gonna be hedonistic transsnakemanist, bioengineering, Slaanesh worshiping lunatics as a counterpoint to Fulgrim's aestheticized transhumanist vision for humanity's golden age, their capital world is gonna be a moving Gas giant with fusion candle cities and water world moons unless someone stops me, Fulgrim is never gonna bother with the blade of Laer, Lucius will carry it briefly in the Crusade before consigning it to Ganymede, and Fabulous Bill is gonna make the New Men project by combining the old Doe population project method and Laer bioengineering principles and tech. Lucius will be going to join Luther when Fulgrim doesn't make him Immortal.
Adrian Jones
bump for opinions
Anthony Evans
I like it. Your writing style has also really improved as well.
I like that the forge-off happened under Olympus Mons. Seems much more dramatic and apropos to the story than Uralia.
>Laer Glad I'm not the only one who seemed to notice the Laer seem to be snake people first who seem to have Daemonette-like crustacean parts mutated on later. I think in canon it's implied the Sslyth were Laer who decided they wanted nothing of what the homeworld was doing.
As the guy who wrote the Diasporex I was almost going to imply the Sslyth were the ones who founded the Diasporex, but then I realized it would be too similar to the Eldar (divided between Chaos-worshippers on the homeworld, ascetic nomads, and dark kin on Commorragh).
What exactly is stopping Fulgrim from picking up the cursed blade? I don't know exactly why he picked it up in canon, but what's keeping him from doing that beyond common sense? If it's pre-Interex, Imperium may only know that Chaos and the Warp is bad in general rather than Chaos can corrupt you like radiation poisoning.
How much of a xenophile is Fulgrim? This version seems to be into all things culture and archaeotech, and even canon Fulgrim seemed to be a bit into xenos culture based on what he knew about Eldar stuff (even though much of it was bullshit). However, at the same time Fulgrim seems to be heavily into reclaiming the lost glories of humanity here. So it could be just human stuff. Although since Nobledark isn't as relentlessly xenophobic he could have an appreciation for both.
Anthony Turner
(cont.) Also, I had been trying to avoid this because this always seems to come up in AUs and we're trying to avoid the timeline revolving entirely around the primarchs, but I had been thinking about how the voting for the Council of Nikaea had gone down.
Fulgrim, the xenophile (assuming he is a xenophile), voted Yes Alpharius and Omegon (who agreed to count as one vote for the purposes of fairness), to everyone's surprise, voted Yes Because Cabal, either directly or through the intel grapevine if they are from the Illuminati or something Magnus, who may have met Eldrad before with the Steward and whose first encounter with the Eldar was probably the world of Agorhu (not to mention potential sympathies because psyker), voted Yes Lorgar voted Yes because Fuck Chaos Sangy voted Yes, as previously established Dorn voted No. He wasn't against the Eldar personally, but it was a pretty big risk and the Imperium didn't even know the Eldar that well in the first place.
Vulkan thinking back to the raids on the Afrik League, voted No, but said if the Imperium wanted to pursue this course of action he wouldn't throw a ruckus about it.
Lion, torn between conflicting desires of "there's a fair maiden in trouble" and "dude, they're Eldar, they're creepy" hesitantly voted No. It's possible his hesitance was due to conflicting information from the Watchers.
With the majority of his generals voting yes and the fact that the ones who voted no were not going to throw a hissy fit if they did not get their way, the Steward agreed to Eldrad's proposal.
Brody Morales
my plan is that he's both really attached to the fireblade, and is more reliant on Lucius than in canon, as he has been for his entire backstory. It may go something like having Lucius storm the temple on the water moon while Fulgrim destroys the fusion candle fortress/fabricators on the gas giant, and afterwards the blade of Laer is just something that Lucius has as a trophy. It would eventually show to be a deamon, and Lucius would consign it to Ganymede before his subsequent fall and efforts to reclaim it. I'm also perfectly amenable to suggestions.
Easton Reed
>More attached to the fireblade Makes sense. Was also open to the idea that Eldrad got to Fulgrim before Laer happened and said "by the way, when you go to the planet of the snake people, watch out for corrupted swords".
Eldrad might have contacted Fulgrim because he knew that in a short period of time the Steward would be asking for Fulgrim to make contact with the Eldar (if for no other reason than Fulgrim was the closest to one of the major Craftworlds), and would have told Fulgrim as much. And sure enough, within hours Fulgrim recieves an astropathic message from the Steward, saying there's been a major change in plans due to meeting the Interex and he needs to get in contact with the Eldar as soon as possible. The fact that Eldrad knew beforehand that the Steward would want to meet before the Steward even said anything leaves a serious impression on Oscar.
Oscar gets his comeuppance when they actually open the portal into the Warp. Oscar, being a portable Gellar Field generator when he puts his mind to it, goes first and when he steps into the Warp the Warp seems to recoil and stabilize just by him being there. Then he turns back to look at the stunned hosts of humanity and Eldar like "you coming?" And that's when it sinks in for Eldrad that while Oscar may lack his finesse, he is not someone you want to fuck with.
It's kind of like that scene in the DCAU where Batman and Superman each get a one-up on each other in rapid succession when they discover each other's secret identities, which sets the stage for the mutual respect between the two later on.
Damn, I agree with what this user said , your writing really has improved by leaps and bounds. Now if you could add a few paragraph breaks for my poor eyes...
I like the way the relationship between Fulgrim and Ferrus is shaping up. How would Ferrus react when Fulgrim dies?
The animated Justice League was so good. How the fuck does Zack Snyder still have a job?
Justin Wood
any preferences for where I go with Laeran?
Colton Morales
It was a wonderful read.
Lincoln Baker
Freaky gas-giant moons sound good.
Alexander Wright
>Lion, torn between conflicting desires of "there's a fair maiden in trouble"
Laughing_eldar.holo
>maiden >implying
Adrian Young
Bumpan before bed
Carter Wright
I get the feeling that this AU Fulgrim is a high culture and sophistication enthusiast regardless of source. Much as Dr Bile becomes interested in the mad biological sciences of the Dark City Fulgrim would love the erudite nature of the Craftworlds and the refined tastes they would offer.
Adrian Baker
So what has happened to Fulgrim's pimp sword by 999M41?
Joshua Torres
We don't have how Fulgrim dies yet, so that's probably going to be a big factor in where the sword ends up.
Parker Watson
>56718836 Considering thar with that configuration you can end up as a geuinne threat all is good.
Joshua Peterson
Also wanted to put this down in writing. My plan for Fulgrim in the fall is gonna be suppressing the Martian Schism while Manus is out securing the many forgeworlds in the WoTB's path. This will be the section following Laer, and will both be another step of pride for Fulgrim to be taken down in the Iron Cage, and the point over which Lucius will betray him, if not the time at which he does it. Fulgrim will fall into the iron cage pursuing Lucius, and eventually need to get the Ultramarines to help bail him out.
Nicholas Foster
I'm also thinking that since this project has grown so far out of hand, I'm gonna use it as a spot to actually display various parts of our 30-31k setting, and will probably include decent chunks of Ferus and others as well.
Jeremiah Allen
bump
Kayden Anderson
Question: Can I still be a good-guy space nazi in this alternate setting of yours?
Justin Morgan
Looking forward to it. Also Fulgrim fighting to supress the Mechanicus Schism makes sense.
Did the Mechanicus Schism happen durin g the WotB? I can't remember. I thought we had it slightly after, but it would make sense the Chaos gods would try during the WotB because of the "Use all the leverage" mindset they had going on.
Nathan White
This would make most sense
Oliver Cruz
Hey Fulgrimfag, the new Fulgrim stuff is uploaded to 1d4chan. You might want to make sure we have everything prior to the Crusade-era stuff here (I think we either do, or Fulgrim's recruitment is in the archived threads still. I couldn't tell).
Jason Hill
It sounds great and i look forward to reading it.
Michael King
bump
Hunter Davis
Any more thoughts for Orks/Chaos Orks? Here was that one post from last thread.
>Here's a list of canon Warbosses. >wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/List_of_Ork_Warbosses >Garshul the Destroyer was possessed by a daemon in canon, not sure what the details of that were (it was in Bloodquest). >Killdagga leads a band called the "Warpheads" (little on the nose there). >Cadia has two major Ork empires, Dregruk and Gathrog, just to the north of the Eye. The two hate each other and have been fighting each other for decades to the benefit of Cadia. Dregruk in canon is aligned with Ghazzy (suggesting Gathrog could be Chaos Orks). >I can't think of many named Warbosses that have done notable things on my part other than Ghazzy, the Beast, Tuska Daemonkilla, and Gorgutz (and Makari and Orkimedes, but they're not Warbosses). >Charadon is a really big empire that hasn't been touched (though Snagrod has been mentioned in Rynn's World). In canon it's basically just east of Tau space, northeast of Ultramar, and southeast of the Sautekh Dynasty. It's supposedly lasted since the Horus Heresy, but that's mostly because the vanilla Imperium would rather use them as a buffer state. Given that the Tau have expanded to the point that they and Ultramar share a border, if Charadon exists in this timeline it could cause problems.
There was a suggestion that the Gathrog Ork Empire is Khornate. I would suggest that maybe the head warboss is Khornate but not the whole thing, because the Blood Pact are right in that same area and they are also Khornate above all other Chaos Gods. Garshul might make a better Khornate Ork given the context of which he existed and the fact that in canon he fought the Blood Angels, which Khorne seems majorly tsundere for.
Also why are the threads falling so fast? It used to be they would stay up for a while now it seems like they have to be bumped once an hour or they fall off the board like the last two.
Carson Edwards
I'd be curious where these treasures ended up.
William Watson
no, but maybe a space prussian
David Anderson
Space Prussian with a bit of Imperial China and Persia. People have pointed out that Imperial philosophy has strong elements of utilitarianism, "don't be an asshole", and "don't rock the boat".
This is largely due to the sheer scale of the threats facing the Imperium. This is because unlike Fantasy, where Chaos is mostly bottled up at the poles and predominantly deals with Kislev/Cathay, Chaos is a much larger threat here (as it is in vanilla) and can show up anywhere. Sowing disunity to the point that it breaks the fellowship is basically an open invitation for the OG rape elves to come in. This has only become worse since tyranids, Brain Boyz, and the Star Empire have become things. They've built the seawalls so high that trying to take them down would let the ocean in.
On the other hand, there's always Krieg. Though Krieg wasn't always a shithole, at some point it was merely known for big guns and weird art. The Codex entry has it at M40 but shifting it to an earlier date has been suggested because it would explain why pre-Kalamity Krieg has been all but forgotten and "modern" Kriegers showed up for the Battle of Iyanden with Leviathan.
Isaiah Adams
Yeah, I've noticed that as well, not sure if Veeky Forums is more active than usual or what.
Angel Baker
He could be a Slaanesh/Khorne hybrid.
Ethan Cox
There are still High Lords to do
Hunter Flores
That could work. It's indicated that in this AU at least there is more cooperation between the gods and their followers. In the Legi and Draco story they raided a Tzneetch + Slaanesh temple.
No reason there wouldn't be an ork Warboss dedicated to two gods. God of hitting hard and god of going fast, two great tastes that taste great together.
Brody Lopez
I thing that the Great Crusade went on in this AU for ~350 years. It had to be longer than the Vanilla due to being more methodical and less slapdash in it's approach as well as a lot more emphasis put on finding diplomatic solutions.
Oliver Perez
The laat time this happened 8th edition was just announced. Nothing this time that I can tell.
Would Khorne and Slaanesh cooperate that much? Tzeentch and Slaanesh I could see, but Khorne's personal dislike of Slaanesh in vanilla is well known. Plus I don't think Slaanesh usurping the other three gods would be an acceptable idea to THE BLOOD KING OF THE GALAXY.
Nolan Wright
It's orks. It doesn't need to make perfect sense given how batshit orks can be.
Also Slaanesh and Khorne, like all the gods, do have some overlap.
Nathan Anderson
That is good to read. Thank you.
Daniel Wright
>Nothing this time that I can tell. Bunch of stupid short threads. Topics all over the place too.
Jaxon Rogers
How old should Yarrick by by the 5th War?
Also what should be the time between them?
Grayson Bailey
I would argue not that old. We already have a lot of events piling up at the millennium mark (12th Black Crusade, the Dark Wedding, Space Cambodia) and a lot piling up about 300 years before present day (Dorhai being dicks, Battle of Ultramar, Swarmlord shows up for first time). It would be nice to spread some events out. And we're starting to get a lot of individuals who are probably just reaching the end of their lifeline by 999.M41.
4th Armageddon War was also Ghazzy's first appearance, so the timing depends on how long humans live and how long Orks live.
It's not clear how long Orks live. Official lore is ridiculously contradictory on the matter. Gorkamorka claims that Orks only live until their thirties and can die of old age. Rynn's World has a Warboss that is over a thousand years old. Ghazghull is at least a century old, if not more. The Beast is not a good example in either timeline, because in vanilla he'd have to be born post-Crusade at earliest because there's no way the Emperor wouldn't notice him and take him out, whereas in this timeline the Beast got huge because of mad Chaos buffs and the size increase that comes from beating up the Warbosses of every major Ork WAAAGH! of note until they recognized his authority.
And because Orks growth is completely unrelated to age, size is not a good indicator. An Ork that's plateaued could theoretically live for centuries bouncing from win to loss assuming he doesn't sustain a lethal injury. On the other hand an Ork that's won a huge number of victories in a row can outstrip the former in size in a few years.
Easton Perez
(cont.) One major issue with anything in 40k, this universe or otherwise is that simply the travel time involved in doing anything. I think we said in a previous thread that it takes about 5-6 realspace years to go from one end of the galaxy to the other. That means by the time the Imperium musters the forces to do anything and send them where they need to be a significant amount of time has passed. The Imperium's only way to resolve conflicts immediately is the Webway, and they're limited in the amount of forces they can deploy that way. And if the Webway Gate in a particular system happens to be destroyed, well, they're fucked. This makes it hard for any characters to interact unless they are literally on the same planet all the time.
That’s one of the less selfish reasons why the Administratum employs seers, after all. With seers, they are able to look into the future to see if their orders get filled out, cutting down on cases of “Planet X got sent 2000 units of military-grade weaponry instead of food to relieve a famine”. Of course, this only reduces it, not eliminates it, because resources are still limited and the galaxy is just so damn huge.
Connor Murphy
Back in thread 21 it was said that Cain's current assistant (the Alfred-like figure, not Jurgen, who's currently travelling with Amberly Vail) fought in Helsreach Hive in the last War for Armageddon and "never received" the order to withdraw after things got to manageable levels and kept killing things in the sewers for years until people realized he was down there.
Being that he was just a Stormtrooper, he probably doesn't have access to good rejuvenants, so he can't be that old (though he is described as being an older individual).
Sebastian Thompson
He might have gotten some bottom end rejuvenants as part of his job being an assistant to Ambassador Cain.
Assuming he was in his late 40s to mid 50s when he was dragged out of Hades Underhive, a veteran who had made up with experience what he had lost to age. The "economy value" rejuvenants might have slowed the aging process down to a little less than half speed. He looks like he is a spry 65 but he could be as much as approaching his first century.
He accompanies Ambassador Cain on his misadventures and escapades.
It's such an endearing character idea. All prim and proper and overly fond of etiquette, well versed in the tedium of high society, insists on the importance of keeping up appearances and the maintaining of standards. Has a fussy little mustache.
And then, if he knows you well enough, he might share a story of his misspent youth or his inglorious career in the Inquisition. On parades you might see the ork trigger finger bones he wears a jewelry. He will tell you that it started out as a necklace but by the time the PDF dragged his broken body back into the light he was wearing it as a bandoleer.
Cain looks younger than him but is, by 999M41, about 20 - 30 years older. They have both seen some shit. Alfred merely tolerated the last Ambassador, in Cain he feels he has found a kindred spirit. This does not reassure Cain because Cain can't tell if Alfred is blinded by his reputation and views the Hero Cain as kindred or has seen through to the bastard beneath and considers that like himself.
Luke Long
Good point, don't rejuvenants kind of work by freezing you at the age you are at (so to speak). Which is why Lorgar was a fifties-ish Bruce Willis-esque Space Buddha and Guilliman looked old but was fit for an old man (though he wouldn't have been as close to the front lines as Corax or Lorgar, who were younger when they started).
Also Hubworlders tend to get the whole "age without youth" treatment, so they look like spry old folks like Dresden File wizards, but that could be because their rejuvenants work different and don't have compatibility issues.
Also does Cain's batman have a name yet?
Lincoln Williams
I keep sitting down to do the Yarrick. I have a vague idea for the shape of it. But I can't get the dates of it to add up.
Need help but right now I need sleep.
Got about as far as appointment to head of his first regiment and the orks landing in mass for the first time in his lifetime and the start of Hades Hive Siege.
Also different people react differently.
Guilliman's grandson for example suffered from Rejuvenent Rejection and died at the tender age of 156.
I think it was mentioned previously that the best way to take that shit is small doses at regular intervals, also there may be differences in quality of product. Presumably Alfred (or whatever name we settle on) just got a big does of the cheap stuff the moment he got his new job on the principle that anything is better than nothing.
Hubworlders are very much socialists. They all are on the cheapest of cheap because it can be given to all.
Matthew Allen
5-6 years seems like it would be too long to have a viable empire with any sort of centralization, didn't we agree that it was a year to get from one side of the Milky Way to the other, give or take Warp shenanigans? If I remember correctly, for the Roman Empire it took about 2 months to march from Rome to the Germanic border, and even then they always had problems with keeping the garrisons supplied and reinforced and the barbarians out.
For the Imperium, I think for the 3 smaller Segmenta response times would be several weeks and for the Ultima Segmentum it could be over a month towards the outer rim. Reinforcements from other Segmenta would vary but would generally be several months, depending on where the conflict is, logistical circumstances, and other such factors. Any longer and the Black Crusades are going to be over before the Imperium even mobilizes.
Ryan Mitchell
That's what I was trying to find. I think you may be right, the only thing I've been able to see is one year.
Fluff is not very helpful. I've seen estimates of everything from one year to six years on average. E.g., there is an example of a vanilla!Sister in the Necron codex who made a pilgrimage to Terra that took ~300 days subjective time, 6 years realspace time. But one could always argue that those examples are due to unfavorable Warp currents and whatnot.
What were travel times like during the Age of Sail? How long did it take to sail from, say, Peru to Spain pre-Panama Canal? Of course, I'm not sure you can call colonial empires any kind of centralized, because you frequently had the locals rebelling, there was little centralization, and the people in charge often had a lot of autonomy.
Jordan Murphy
Bump
Andrew Flores
Which High Lords are left?
Grayson Rodriguez
The Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Astronomican, Schola Psykana and the Black Ships
Grand Headmaster of Rhetor Imperia and Schola Progenium
Spokesman for the Collective Synod of the Imperium
Evan Cox
From Spain to Peru would take at least 9 months under favorable conditions, if not realistically 12 months or more. That’s why I would say under the best Warp currents, a voidship can navigate from the galactic edge of Segmentum Pacificus to the edge of Segmentum Ultima in at least 1 year realspace. But things like Warp storms and just plain bad luck would send a ship spitting back out into realspace because of disturbances within the Warp. They would then have to make smaller minor Warp jumps to go around whatever in realspace that was effecting the Warp, before going on a long distance jump. Worst, they might have to wait until the Warp settles down before entering it again, or else face random daemons boarding the ship.
Lincoln Turner
Also keep in mind that the Imperium is very decen and has much faster communications than travel
Mason Sanchez
>decen
*decentralised
wtf phone?
Gavin Murphy
Communication works faster so integrity is helped to be maintained by that.
Also given that the actual high governance of the Imperium is extremely hands off and rarely gives direct orders to anyone and imposes almost no actual laws beyond the tithe and policies of "don't rock the boat" the outlying provinces don't have any serious reason to want to leave whilst still having reasons to stay. Most notable reason to want to stay is that in times of ohgodwat they get the benefit of the tithe.
The tithe is only in theory paid to the Imperium via Old Earth. In practice it is paid to the neighbours of the worlds paying with the process overseen by a representative of Old Earth to make sure it's done honestly.
To the majority of the worlds under the Old Earth Aegis the distant rule of Old Earth is nothing more than a collective idea rather than a physical place that they all hold to and abide by because for 10,000+ years it has been beneficial and given the direction the galaxy is going in now will be soon be not only beneficial but also critical for survival as it has been in the past.
And then you have the Survivor Civs who can be considered singular mega-nations in their own right under the Aquila. They see themselves as partner nations culturally and socially rather than subjects and the Imperium is happy to go along with this because having the Interex, Inwit and Ultramar happy is worth being polite.
Brayden Phillips
Alfred is beating up superman.
Wtf is going on?
Grayson King
The Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Astronomican, Schola Psykana and the Black Ships should probably be someone like the 0 fucks given Dumbeldore. Someone who will listen carefully to your concerns and then tell you to kindly fuck off and mind your own business.
Sticking point before the thread died was that we couldn't think of a name and it would require at least some minor fleshing out of the Catachan gods of Blood and Wood.
All we have is that the people of Catachan live in defiance/at the sufferance of their gods rather than with their blessing, religious services usually consist of yelling at the alter and although the priesthood consider it of vital importance that all Catachans are faithful they don't really feel the need to prosthelytize off-world.
Brayden Kelly
Looks good for something to build on.
Levi Ross
what irritates me is that you don't even understand why this is a bad idea.
Samuel Green
can you elaborate? we've been at it for over a year now.
Dylan Cook
I'm 99% certain that's a just a troll, ignore 'em.
James Campbell
What did he mean by this?
Sebastian Morgan
Do Catachans have a naming theme going on? I am trying to think of famous ones beyond Straken and Sly Marbo (who is an obvious Rambo reference).
Dominic Morgan
I've heard there's a Dutch ring to some of the named characters, but a french one might also work with their vietnam theme and the fact that the Dark Angels lead the vanguard of the great crusade.
Isaiah Thompson
If we are going for Dutch names then the Spokesman for the Collective Synod i suggest be Walden Van Aaldenberg for no other reason than I think it means Forested Valley of the Old Mountain. I think. I can't into Dutch for shit so I only have Google to hel me.
Liam White
Well the Dark Angels didn't discover every world on the Great Crusade. They were just the first ones out to get sent out to get a foot in the door and make sure there wasn't some horrible xenos empire two solar systems over that no one knew about.
That said I like this name.
Ryder Peterson
From what world would Space Dumbeldore be from?
Angel Martinez
Walden of the Aaldenbergs started his ecclesiastical vocation as the acolyte of Hahn of the Aaldenbergs, priest of the old gods, slayer of orks, caller of lightning, forger of blades and all over aging and highly accomplished strong man of the tribe. He was a mere twelve standard years old when he decided that this was what he wanted to do with his life although that his two older brothers had already been earmarked for future leader of Old Mountain tribe and sent off to the army it could be argued that there wasn't much else besides the priesthood for the third son of village chief to do. Not that he resented his lot in life, not by a long way.
He was possessed even in early age of a powerful intellect that suffered only slightly from overly straight line thinking and somewhat Dornian bluntness. As he grew up in the teachings of the faith he learned deep of the gods of blood and wood and bone and ash. He learned the names of the spirits of the deep forest where not even orks would grow and at the tender age of 15 survived the trip from the wooded foothills into the sunless heartlands by the rivers where the trees grow a mile tall. There he met the gods, he claims, though he will not say what they said to him. The gods of catachan can impart wisdom and purpose and those that would speak with them might return changed for the better or driven mad or not at all.
Young Walden came back more driven than ever, a thing old Hahn approved of greatly.
But the place of a mere village priest was not, he felt, the place where he was needed most. Catachan's children were abroad among the stars and far from home as they were they needed a priest to keep them from becoming lost. It was with heavy hearts that the old chief and his family said fare well to their son and with some annoyance mingling with the pride that Hahn would look for another apprentice.
Walden was no a Chaplain of the Imperial Army attached to the Catachan "Green Specters" 943rd.
Hunter Miller
There he stayed for a very long time, tending the spiritual needs of his militant and inter-tribal congregation, his crozier was six foot of thornbirch with a stylized shock-maul built into the end and his vestments were a cassock made of kevlar. His regiment were known for their discretion, for the art of killing without being seen; he was not.
His followers found him of much use for the drawing of fire and attention and flushing out of targets that they could then claim. How, some would ask, would he survive more than a few missions? His gods had shown him where and to approximately when he would die in the natural course of things. Although it didn't make him invulnerable and he was never foolish enough to put them to the test outright it did allow him to move with a degree of confidence unmatched by his peers. To the Catachan, from his highest officers to the lowliest of grunts, he was inspirational.
He was also shrewd and it was for this that he started to come to the attention of higher authorities.
By the time his hair was turning grey he was attached as an advisor to Lady General Heilwig of the Uhulis Sector after the events of Velgagrad defense from the Space Hulk Da Iron Wurm and it's cargo of murderous orks. Although he was reluctant to leave his position, as the spiritual health of his fellow countrymen would be at risk until a replacement arrived, he could also see the greeter need that Lady General Heilwig had of her. The Lady General was of Krieg with all the problems that it brings with it. She was brilliant in her way and one of the few in ten millennium to achieve such rank from her world but she was still deeply flawed as a human being, her saving grace being that she knew how flawed she was. She needed someone capable of understanding the human needs and wants of those under her command and blunt enough to communicate it to her effectively. It also helped that Priest Walden was also versed in numerous languages including base-orkish
Ryder White
At this point Walden of the increasingly distant but not forgotten Aaldenbergs started on the rejuvenants and his apparent physical age stopped in mid forties, though in vitality and capability he regained some lost ground. It was in the following years that he truly showed his worth to the Imperium and his powerful and direct intellect was truly allowed to show.
In an empire as broad as the Imperium with a million worlds and a hundred times that many religious faiths and distinct cultures conflicts were inevitable. As a mediator between these factions Walden was peerless. He was a priestly man but he was also a soldier, he was scholar but he was also a man of the trenches, he was an officer but he was also not. Also his gods did not encourage or forbid much strictly and were so unheard of outside of the Catachans that nobody had a grievance with them. Where once had been division he brought a wary unity.
It's hard to say if he became friends with Lady General Heilwig. As a Krieger and one who had seen some horrific things she was maybe too damaged to make friends. It is known that she valued the strange Catachan man greatly. There was nobody she enjoyed arguing with more and nobody she listened to closer.
He served in this capacity for nearly seventy years until a Mandrake killed his Lady General and took her severed head. After that he felt he couldn't serve another, the pain of it was too close. He also felt by then that he had forgotten his roots somewhat and needed to be a priest again rather than a generals assistant. He didn't know what gods, if any, lived on Krieg but he gave her the Catachan burial rites and fuck any god that objected.
