Nobledark 40k part 47: The End Times edition

well your post kinda helped answer your question. Being fractals, presumably made of necrodermis homunculi attuned to their nature down to planck length, any way you cut them you just get two smaller shards. The solution is to break them into such small bits they're no longer an issue, but also not to disperse the mater, else you'll have a major vampire problem in a few eons when the shards have reformed into slivers. Breaking a C'tan shard down to slivers, instead of atomizing it, may actually be a good way to contain them, since slivers are known to need hosts to hijack to act and think, but that presents the obvious problem of creating a massive trove of immortality and power granting nails of living alien god-metal that needs to be safeguarded against misuse.

That would probably be another vault on Ganymede, kept very very locked.

Wrote up the bit on Craftworld Kaelor from last thread to get it written down.

Kaelor is an independent Craftworld, not associated with any other Craftworld or the Imperium, though not anti-Imperial to the degree of Dorhai. Kaelor’s troubles began shortly before the Fall, when the Craftworld first left the Old Eldar Empire. A small Craftworld that had left Empire space in a hurry, the eldar of Craftworld Kaelor found that the path they had chosen had accidentally put them on a collision course with the Craftworld Saim-Hann. Both Craftworlds refused to change course, and the two ended up going to war against each other over what essentially amounted to an interstellar game of chicken. Kaelor, being both of smaller mass and smaller population, lost the conflict, and was forced to make a jump through the Webway. Unfortunately, this was a blind jump through the Webay with no set destination, and Kaelor ended up emerging on the far edges of the Milky Way galaxy.

Craftworld Kaelor had the dubious honor of being one of the very last Craftworlds to be discovered by the Imperium in early M39, as it took nearly fourteen millennia for the Craftworld to make its long trek back to known space. Kaelor had almost no contact with the rest of the galaxy before that time, with the other Craftworlds believing Kaelor to have been lost, and therefore Kaelor had not been up to date on the political developments of the last nine millennia. As a result, first contact between the Imperium and Kaelor went horribly wrong. Imperial forces precipitated the event by acting overly friendly, believing Kaelor to be an already known Craftworld, whereas Kaelor reacted disproportionately to the fact that these mon-keigh were approaching them as if they were friends (if the eldar of Kaelor noticed that there were kin among the Imperial number, they never mentioned it).

In the ensuing carnage, El’Ashbel, the maiden queen of Kaelor, was gruesomely injured by the Imperials in self-defense, leaving her blinded and crying tears of blood whenever she used her psychic powers.

Normally in these situations eldar of other Craftworlds would be on hand to defuse the situation, as had happened with Myrmeara or great Iyanden. However, the eldar of Kaelor regarded their fellow Craftworlders with about as much respect as they do the mon-keigh, remembering the Craftwars with Saim-Hann. The other aren’t too fond of Kaelor either. As opposed to other Craftworlds, which tend to be ruled by a council of elders in some fashion (whether autarchs or farseers), Kaelor retains much of the political structure of the Old Eldar Empire, being composed of noble houses constantly jockeying for power and ruled by a single autocrat. It is thought that Kaelor has retained much of the political infrastructure of the Old Eldar Empire due to ending up so far from the Milky Way, and so they had less of an impetus to change their ways due to being less exposed to She Who Thirsts. The political structure of Kaelor uncomfortably reminds the Craftworlders of the Crones or the Dark Eldar, with many fearing that Kaelor is a ripe target for Chaotic corruption. The only eldar to regularly make contact with Kaelor are the Harlequins, and even they only do so rarely. Upon being informed of the situation on Kaelor, Grand Empress Isha has made it a point of order to visit the Craftworld, though she has not had the opportunity as of yet.

For now, Kaelor is considered an unaligned Craftworld, and Imperial forces have been ordered to give it a wide berth. Kaelor has refused all attempts at confederation, even with Craftworld Dorhai, preferring to go it on their own. Kaelor prowls the northern edges of the galaxy, coming and going from Imperial space on rare occasions seemingly at random. It is clear they are looking for something, but it is not clear what. However, it is clear they have no problems attacking or manipulating humans and other Eldar (something that lowers their standing even further in Craftworlder eyes) when it suits them to get what they want.

Any thoughts or criticisms would be appreciated.

Though that interstellar game of chicken? That's taken straight from canon

That’s what I was thinking. Okay then.

On a related note, in the previous thread it was brought up what Necrons we could use that are loyal to the Silent King. One potential option would be Valgul, the Gore King, of the Drazak Dynasty (a.k.a. the Dynasty Szarekh used to wipe out Llandu’gor the Flayer). In canon Valgul is said to be the only Necron in Drazak who is immune to the Flayer Virus. The only sane man in the land of the mad.

Here it could be that Valgul is the only one immune to the Flayer Virus, or he is infected but is the only one able to control his hunger. Llandu’gor still serves Szarekh dutifully, in part because he still has his mind and in part because this is Szarekh and having absolute loyalty over his subjects due to control protocols is kind of his thing. Nevertheless, he knows the rest of his dynasty are monsters and has no problem with the Silent King using them as disposable meat-shields and sowers of terror. Despite this, most of the Silent King’s Necrons dislike the Flayers with what little self-control they have, and Szarekh himself tries to avoid direct contact between his forces and the flayers because he doesn’t want to infect valuable officers and resources.

(cont.)
There’s also Illuminor Szeras, which we have nothing on so far. We suggested bringing the Necron Pariahs back, it could be the Pariahs are the results of Szeras’ experiments on blanks, since the Necrons have no clue what’s going on with the pariah gene as it was a theoretically possible idea to fight the Old Ones that got shelved when robo-skeletons became a more viable option. It’s not common knowledge that the Deceiver took that idea and his shards implanted the pariah gene in the genepool of a widespread species (humanity) as part of his plans while the Necrons were all asleep. The Pariahs could be the weaponized results of that research or biotransference in general.

Also what are the Destroyers in this universe? Since the Silent King is in control of most of the entire Necron race at this point, I could see the Destroyers not being the result of Necrons consumed by nihlism. Perhaps they are instead Necrons who the Silent King ordered modified into war machines and who complied with joyful obedience (maybe altered to have personalities of extreme zealots to keep with the "kill everything" feel of canon Destroyers) to show how little value self-determination and how utterly disposable the individual is in Star Empire society to keep with the "post-everything" theme.

Another thing about the shards on Ganymede is that there's a good chance that slivers of C'tan shards felled in battle with Necrons would be much more exotic, relative to Nightbringer and Deceiver slivers, and more controllable because the C'tan they replicate would lack a distinct mind, let alone a warp reflection, by virtue of having been consumed by the Outsider. That would probably make them much easier to retain one's individuality with as a vampire, and seize more star god power through, but that would definitely magnify the voice of the corresponding C'tan in the mind of the Outsider, if not outright indicating the vampire to it. One could imagine a sufficiently powerful vampire of this sort might cause the Outsider to quickly journey from its sequestration sphere, find it in secret, and destroy it utterly.

Absolutely jubilant, prattling, decorated officer Warmachine-Skellington sounds perfect for the post-scarcity Victorian-esque ETI civilization we've been giving the Necrons. It would actually be pretty fun to have more of the naval campaigns of extreme evil between the Stormlord and Arrotyr, their rivalry is pretty ripr for epic battles.

I was thinking more of an Etruscan-esque "I serve my lord, even unto death", except happy about it instead of dreading it because these are Necrons since it was mentioned we need a bit more Egypt to balance out the Victorian in the Egyptian Space Victorians. But that works too.

To be honest, I'm not sure what would be the best avenue to add Egyptian motifs to the Necrons, since I know little about Ancient Egyptian culture beyond mythology and the bare basics of its history (pharaohship, Upper and Lower Kingdoms, etc.)

It's extremely good.

The crossing paths reminds me of some sort of joke or fable where two scotsmen face a similar predicament and it becomes a problem, or the Dr. Seuss version, Where a city is built up around them

So, Egypt (under some Pharos) liked to mythologize battles yet to occur, and the scribes in particular had a developed sense of class consciousness and pride in their monopolization of literacy. It would also be interesting to translate egyptian burial culture into the years of the Necron Star Empire just after the War in Heaven and before they went down into their tombs, when those that retained their wills and minds (usually in proportion to their rank) amassed the wealth of equipment and technology they would cache in their bit of tomb world. Now waking up they reassemble their society wholecloth beneath the Silent King, and up from the deep are brought aristocratic yachts and steeds, and the dressings of official residences and plazas, and the fine instruments of their diviners and scientists, all to be arranged and operated in perfect order for their king.

I was trying to polish up the following suggestion to make it sound as good as possible, but if the project is going down I might as well post it.

The Void Dragon is not whole. Although perhaps 95% of the great Dragon lies half-buried beneath the surface of Mars, the Dragon still bears a number of old wounds, chunks of him torn off in the war with his kin. But the Void Dragon is a god, and gods do not bleed. Like all powerful entities in the universe, his lost essence was turned into shards, scattered across the cosmos.

Throughout time, history has spoken of encounters with strange metallic dragon-like creatures. These encounters are consistent enough that they cannot be simply dismissed out of hand, but are so maddeningly rare that it has been impossible to create a clear picture of exactly what these sightings represent. These creatures are generally referred to as Wyverns. However, to those few privy to the horrible secret of what lies buried underneath the surface of Mars, the identity of these beings is clear. Wyverns are shards of the Void Dragon.

These shards somewhat resemble the Void Dragon, except they are more bestial looking (having only legs and a pair of wings and no arms, for example) and have no semblance of intelligence whatsoever. They are animalistic, only seeking to eat and survive and nothing else. It is not clear why these shards of the Void Dragon act so differently from their sire, as even similar-sized shards of the Deceiver or the Nightbringer show some level of intelligence. It is possible that the Dragon’s prison is somehow acting as a signal blocker, cutting the Wyverns off from the Void Dragon’s mind.

Only a few encounters with Wyverns have been well-documented. One involves the primarch Ferrus Manus. During unification of the planet Medusa, he learned about a creature the locals called Asirnoth that descended to prey upon the people of Medusa from its lair in the planet-encircling Telstarax. When Ferrus reported to the Mechanicum what the people of Medusa had told him, they were in shock and immediately informed him that he must dispatch this creature with all haste, giving the primarch permission to use the otherwise forbidden holy archaeotech relics aboard his ship. Three maniples of Iron Hands Skitarii accompanied Ferrus Manus into the lair of the beast, but less than a dozen came out. The battle was hard-fought, but by the end of the battle the primarch managed to strike down the wyvern and bind it within the strange archaeotech device. Ferrus Manus never knew exactly what he fought, but the high Magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus said he had performed a great service for the Mechanicum, and so Ferrus felt satisfied by his actions.

The Steward also fought one. Once.

It was an unexpected fight on what was supposed to be an otherwise peaceful world. Granted, the Steward had the upper hand for much of that fight, the issue was that no matter how many times the Steward would smite the wyvern it would simply rise again, ready to continue the fight. The creature was eventually defeated when the Steward staggered the beast with a particularly powerful blow and a Mechanicus adept sealed it in its inert state using a strange device that no one had ever seen before. When the Steward asked what the creature was, the adept evaded the question by claiming it was piece of archaeotech, which could only be deactivated by another piece of archaeotech the Mechanicus normally forbade the use of (which was technically true). Stranger things made by the hands of men had been found at that time in the Great Crusade, and at that time there was no reason to suspect there was anything unusual about the metal beast.

Another noteworthy feature about these creatures is that they seem to be impervious to normal means of harm, rising over and over again from seemingly lethal injuries. As a result, stories about these creatures tend to feature particularly innovative ways of incapacitating or imprisoning them. Burying them alive in lava is a popular option.

The Void Dragon somehow knows about the Wyverns despite his imprisonment, to no one’s surprise, and has repeatedly asked the Adeptus Mechanicus where those shards of him are. It is not clear if the Void Dragon truly does not know the exact location of his shards, or if he is merely reminding the Adeptus Mechanicus that they exist and the Mechanicus do not have complete control over him. Some among the Order of the Dragon have theorized that the Wyverns are somehow necessary to free the Void Dragon from its non-Euclidean chains, a prison that can only be unlocked by the prisoner. This is an idea that no one is particularly interested in testing.

In terms of how the wyverns fit into the universe, we’ve mentioned before how Nobledark is a universe well suited to RPGs like Dark Heresy and the like. C’tan vampires are more like a final boss following a quest of political intrigue. Wyverns are when you want to run a good old “slay the dragon” campaign but in space. Their durability also encourages novel solutions to dealing with them. Powerlevel can be varied by how much it’s eaten. In terms of tabletop, a wyvern is something the Necrons could bring along as a monstrous creature should a dynasty ever manage to wrangle one. Wyverns are your typical animalistic St. George “break stuff” dragon, whereas the big daddy Dragon on Mars is more like an eastern dragon, Smaug, or as mentioned before "eldritch robot space Quetzalcoatl" (with hints of Prometheus and Autocthon). So we get multiple types of dragons for the price of one.

I wasn’t sure where to state it, but the reason the Ad-Mech can seal these things is they have a limited supply of Necron Tesseract Labyrinths they pull out the minute they hear rumor of a Wyvern. In canon, the Grey Knights have a collection of Tesseract Labyrinths they use to imprison particularly nasty daemons, which they had to have gotten from somewhere. Here they got them from the AdMech who keep their own stash handy in case they have to bury any of their dirty little secrets.

The explanation for why didn’t they try using this on Apep? They tried. The Tesseract Labyrinths were good at capturing the relatively straightforward daemons of Khorne, Slaanesh, Tzeentch, and Nurgle, but Apep is based on such contradictory Malalic bullshit it didn’t stick. In essence whereas other entities would try to fight the labyrinth and try to escape (thereby doing what the labyrinth wants by drawing you in deeper with paradoxical shit), Apep immediately did the opposite and found the exit, and so he basically poofed out of the Tesseract Labyrinth.

If the binding device created by the Old Ones were to be turned off, the Wyverns would probably all snap back into being heralds and extensions of the Void Dragon as a sort of single mind in multiple bodies, more like the other C'tan are now.

The Void Dragon might have plans to intentionally use shards of himself (particularly after seeing what his brother the Deciever has done) to help wean humanity off of that ridiculous little A.I. phobia of theirs. Specifically by using shards of himself geth-style to take over major Imperial systems as a pseudo-A.I.

It is doubtful people would find having a C'tan in their systems any better than an A.I.

Alternatively he might use them to keep tabs on people of note. This is assuming he doesn’t just go full Godzilla.

Also, looking through canon fluff, I found it hilarious that Saim-Hann’s Cosmic Serpent is basically exactly what we have for the Void Dragon in this timeline. “Pals” with Cegorach after Cegorach bested him in a game of wits and Cegorach earned a boon? Check. Exists in both the Materium and Immaterium at the same time? Check. Associated with knowledge? Check.

I put together a write-up of Taldeer based on the bits and pieces of stuff we had floating around, welded onto an edited version of Assassinfag's old writing. Hopefully it's good enough.

Apologies for the lack of pictures.

When she was born, there was little indication that Taldeer Ulthran would have ever played any role in the fate of the galaxy. Rather short for an eldar, a mere six foot two, she was arranged to be married off at a young age as a political ploy by her half-sister (well, half-sister numerous times removed) Sreta to foster closer ties between the eldar Rogue Trader dynasty House Sylander and the Ulthran Cartel. The fact that her betrothed, Lithian Sylander, had not even been born yet did not seem to come into the decision. It would have been a life of luxury, albeit one in which Taldeer had next to no control over her own fate, the idea of which the young Taldeer seethed at. Yet no one would speak up on her behalf. Her parents did truly love her, but like most of the house of Ulthran they were too cowed by Sreta to even think of speaking up, and it is possible that they had truly convinced themselves that being groomed to be the perfect little housewife of a Rogue Trader was in their daughter’s best interests. The only person who seemed concerned about Taldeer’s individual wellbeing was her distant grandfather Eldrad, who noticed her interest in psykery and gave her some instruction in the basics and theory during her childhood and adolescence as an outlet.

(cont.)
It is little wonder, then, that Taldeer effectively ran away to join the military. Although it is true that all citizens of Ulthwé, even the members of the House of Ulthran, are expected to serve in the military in some form, there was some wiggle room in when the term had to be served. Taldeer signed up on her own at the minimum age of consent of 45. Additionally, within the house of Ulthran, family members favored by Sreta often tended to find themselves in positions far removed from the worst of the fighting for the duration of their term. Taldeer would have none of that. She would either succeed on her own merits or not at all, and so rather than being assigned to some cushy guard position for the duration of her service she spurned any such “assistance” from the Ulthran Cartel and ended up assigned to a regiment on one of the Imperium’s most active battlefields: the Cadia 412th.

(cont.)
It is not clear why the Ulthran Cartel never protested Taldeer’s assignment to Cadia, though there is some suspicion that the Ulthran Cartel saw military service as an opportunity to scare Taldeer straight and knock her off of the Path of the Seer. Taldeer’s obsession with the Path of the Seer and the psychic arts were considered unseemly due to the possibility of getting Pathlost especially with the attraction of the Seer's Path. It was thought that spending a few decades with humans, getting involved in minor policing actions and avoiding being shot far from the wraithbone and the crystal domes and psyker studies would get her to focus on the present, drop all this seer nonsense, and return to the path the cartel intended for her. She didn't. She instead had all the more incentive to follow her obsession, seeing as that potentially the lives of thousands rested on her predictions. She doubled down, self taught, sought out other seers to learn from when off the battlefield (and sometimes depending on circumstances, on) until she was as accomplished a seer as any. By her eightieth year things started to get dangerously obsessive. By her hundred-and-fiftieth year she was pathlost.

(cont.)
Sreta expected Taldeer to last less than six months on Cadia. She believed that after half a year in No Man’s Land the rebellious “princess” of the Ulthran Cartel would be begging to be reassigned to a less dangerous position. Six months after Taldeer joined the military, the cartel sent two emissaries to Cadia in fine but drab robes. Their clothing after less than an hour on the surface was mud up to the knees and soaked by the constant drizzle. They descended into the Stygian depths of the Cadian Tunnels, a place whispered in fear by allies and adversaries alike. The only light was from ancient glow-globes fading away to oranges and reds but down here it is warm and dry. The Cadians move differently down here. Up there in the chemically tainted mud and the radiation they scuttle about fearfully, alert and wary and never looking up if they can avoid it. Here they moved with surety and confidence like bears in their caves. Purple eyed bears with arms and armour. They move deeper and deeper into what might be natural caverns or might be crudely carved and undressed naked rock. A labyrinth of unmarked passages through which purple eyed demons walk and the Kasr fortress cities that haven't ever seen sunlight. In the outskirts of one such Kasr they found little lost Taldeer. She must surely be desperate to return to civilization now. They find her in a seedy drinking establishment full flack armoured pants and a vest top locked arms with a human dancing in circles on a table with a bottle of something 80% in the other hand. On her shoulder is tattooed a cartoon daemon head with crosses for eyes. Little Baby Tally has just bagged her first daemon. Taldeer had gone native. When the representatives finally caught her attention and expressed Sreta’s dearest concerns for her well-being as well as a half-hidden offer of reassignment, the bar went silent. This was Cadia. You didn’t just walk out of military service.

It is likely that an incident would have occurred had the enraged Taldeer herself not cursed out the two emissaries in a long stream of High Tongue that eventually devolved into the guttural Base Cadian, causing the two emissaries to leave in embarrassment.

After several favorable auguries Taldeer quickly found herself in the good graces of the commanding officer of the Cadian 412th, the grizzled General Sturnn, veteran of more than a hundred military campaigns and someone who Taldeer saw as the father figure that she never had. She served loyally in the 412th in the equivalent rank of major, often serving as a calming voice to oppose or complement the strident remarks of Regimental Commissar Anton Gebbet, until the campaign on Lorn V. Sent to safeguard a Titan scuttled in the Imperium-Star Empire war of the M40s, the 412th found itself facing the combined armies of Beast cultists and Orks on the one hand and the Lost and the Damned on the other, all of whom desired the same prize. Not even the 412th's famous dogged determination could have saved them from such enemies united, and it was only through Eldar misdirection and illusions that truce between the Orks and heretics broke.

However, such a deception could only last so long. As they began securing the Titan, the 412th found itself under attack from the remnants of their enemy forces. Even so, they could have easily withstood such a shattered rabble, but in activating the power systems of the Titans, they awoke the very same forces that had brought it down thousands of years ago, and turned Lorn V from a bustling Imperial world to a realm of broken ruins. Taldeer had once thought legends of Necron ferocity had been exaggerated, accounts overblown by myth and legend. The assault on the Titan was more than enough to shatter her illusions. The Cadians managed to prove themselves in the fight to come, powering up the Titan's weapons systems, and not even the might of Lorn V's Necrons could withstand the wrath of a God-Machine. Even so, getting to that point was a hard one. Thousands of Cadians lay dead on the snowy fields of Lorn V, and thousands more had been reduced to atoms. Most grievous of all, was the loss of General Sturnn, who lived just long enough to hear the Titan's guns roar, and the cheers of his troops as the Necron forces were decimated. Imperial propaganda and Guard legend say he summoned his last measure of strength, and stood up before proclaiming his last words in a single triumphant shout before expiring. However, more reliable accounts are just as romantic; apparently he whispered to Taldeer to hold him up, and whispered his last words to her before finally dying with a smile on his face.

The Necron assault was a terrible one, and though the 412th would emerge victorious, it would only be with a tenth of their original number. More importantly, General Sturnn himself would give his life in the final defense. "He died as any guardsman should," Taldeer was heard to say later. "He died standing," she added, a phrase which ended up on the general's monument.

While Cadia wasn't lacking for recruits, what the 412th needed most were commanders. Spurred on by duty, and upon the recommendations of the regiment's surviving officers both Eldar and Imperial, Taldeer sound found herself wearing the twin mantles of Farseer and Colonel. These ranks would soon be put to the test on Kronus.

Officially, the 412th was there to help train the local Tau and human PDF alongside their Tau counterparts, while the Space Marines of the Blood Ravens chapter accompanying them were there to remove a hitherto-unknown stockpile of ancient bioweapons from the planet's northern regions, with the unlucky archaeologists in the region silenced to prevent a panic. As expected, the poor governor of Kronus, an Ethereal named Aun'El Shi'Ores, was quite overwhelmed despite his own considerable talent. Unofficially, the Guard were there to help combat the Necrons, whose awakening on Kronus a local Inquisitorial cell had detected. Segmentum Command had deemed the 412th fit for such duty as they had faced the Necrons before; that the regiment had been decimated, and its ranks full of fresh troops didn't seem to occur to them.

Of course, what happened next would only convince them that they were right to do so all along. When the 412th emerged from the Warp next to Kronus, they were met with a barrage of messages from the Inquisitorial outpost in the northern continent- not only had the Necrons awoken ahead of schedule, but both Beast-Cultist and Ork forces had also landed in the south. Forced to land at what would later become Victory Bay, the 412th grimly pressed on once again against near-impossible odds, liberating valuable caches of archaeotech and combining their might with those of the Blood Ravens Legion and the remaining Tau cadres. The tripartite leadership between Captain Thule of the Blood Ravens, Shas'O Kais (himself well-known as the Hero of Dolumar IV) and Farseer-Colonel Taldeer eventually proved too much even for the ancient Necrons and their savage 'allies', and the world was liberated in short order.

Unfortunately, in the process Kronus’ population and native infrastructure were nearly destroyed and the planet had to essentially be rebuilt from scratch. Aun'El Shi'Ores could deal with some of the rebuilding, but he had little experience with military matters. Being the highest ranked and most experienced surviving officer by a wide margin with the exception of the Blood Angels, who as per usual vanished after their mission was accomplished, and Shas’O Kais, who was recalled to Kaurava to help with the ill-fated campaign there, Colonel-Farseer Taldeer was essentially put in charge of Kronus’ PDF until the planet was fully rebuilt. Not helping matters was the fact that the Imperium decided to repopulate the planet by using it as pension planet for Guard regiments from across the galaxy, turning Kronus into a complete clusterfuck. Taldeer was basically the lead military officer on Kronos in all but name. It was a fate she would not wish on her worst enemies, and if it was not for her second in command, Major Lukas Alexander, she would have probably gone mad by now.

Taldeer is a somewhat controversial figure in Eldar society, albeit not by her own choice. Many older and more experienced seers see her methods as crude and sloppy, the equivalent of using an antique heirloom as a sledgehammer. This is not due to any lack of skill on her part, but rather due to the fact that she is mostly self-taught and the fact that she prefers fast, practical solutions rather than taking ten hours to engineer a perfect outcome that will take place ten years from now. Such an outlook makes her popular among Guardians, Aspect Warriors, and humans, who see her as a farseer who actually cares about the common soldier, but less so among the older generation. There is also the fact that she managed to get Pathlost while less than 500 years old, something which many farseers and portions of the Eldar public who have forgotten the horror of battle see as somewhat embarrassing.

Taldeer has also managed to sow dissent within the once-united Ulthran cartel. Previously, within the Ulthran Cartel, Sreta’s word was law. The only person who could have overruled Sreta was Eldrad, who only rarely intervened in disputes amongst his kin. Those who refused to toe the line or spoke out against her practices were ostracized, cut off from family resources and forced to eke out a living on their own. When Taldeer refused to follow Sreta’s will, everyone assumed that she would flounder and fail. But Taldeer didn’t. She thrived, in spite of being cut off from the Cartel’s resources, showing that Sreta was not all-powerful and it was possible to succeed without her blessing. This has led many of the previously outcast members of House Ulthran to become increasingly vocal about their criticisms of the Cartel’s standard practice.

As with most Cadian-born regiments, there are Ulthwé Black Guardians associated with the 1st Kronus Liberators. They know about the politics, dissention, and in-fighting within the house of Ulthran, but their reasoning for staying quiet has merely shifted from a fear of Sreta to a fear of Taldeer.

Taldeer herself could care less about her effect on Eldar society and the Ulthran Cartel. The 1st Kronus Liberators are her family. They’re what matters now.

In recent months, Taldeer has been sidelined with a mysterious illness, one that those in the know have been strangely tight-lipped about and which even the 1st Kronus Liberators know few of the details. It is assumed that the Liberators will ship out once she gets better, given she is expected to make a full recovery.

And that's the Frankenstein I managed to make. As I mentioned before I deliberately avoided references to LIVII and her pregnancy (aside from the "mysterious illness") since this is supposed to be more her "official" bio and what she has done outside of her relationship.

That last paragraph should probably go after the one talking about Kronus.

Wished I could have put in the comparison with how humans view her versus the general Eldar population. As another user put it...

>[S]he would get along better with humans because they actually take her seriously. She is over a hundred years old, can see the future to an uncanny extent, has earned numerous victories, has a noble bearing and is not at all afraid of getting into the dirt with the common soldiers.
>To the eldar she is a amusingly short with slutty ears, lacks refinement of her talents and managed to get pathlost with barely any formal training, is far too young to have accumulated any real wisdom, her uniform is bulky and unwieldy and covered in mud. To them she is a late teens/early twenties playing soldier.
>Then they learn that she has a very mean right hook and even if you see it coming she already knows which way you are going to go to avoid it and you will not avoid it. Then they have two choices; fall in line or get another black eye as a final warning. This Cadia you stupid sons of bitches, don't make us use you as a training exercise.

As well as the bit about how defying the Cartel actually made her one of Eldrad's favorites because she was willing to make her own name for herself than rely on the name of the cartel (seeing shades of himself in her).

In regards to Ulthwe, despite Ulthwe and Cadia having similar culture I'm imagining the Cartel being slightly insulated from the general mood of "total war" due to their nature. Hence their surprise as to Taldeer thriving (not to mention the differing reactions between the inner members of the cartel and the outcast/other citizens of Ulthwe)

Finally, if the Kronus section is too much of a mess we could always have it where Aun'El Shi'Ores having died in the invasion giving Taldeer even more pressure and fewer people to relieve the burden.

No Scotsman gif? For shame laddie.

I didn't think it possible that anyone could make sense of the clusterfuck that was the Taldeer fluff. But you did it and it is wonderful.

>Saim-Hann’s Cosmic Serpent

I hadn't realised. Holy shit this is good

I have writefagging to do. And reading.

I hope this thread is still here by afternoon.

i hope so too user

Do the AdMech know that the Tau have a few true A.I. left around?

I think they do but the AdMech claimed the A.I. that did not turn were machine spirits sent from the Omnissiah in order to make themselves feel better and to try and redefine the situation with the Tau A.I. rebellion into a form that fit the AdMech worldview.

They may have a point but for the wrong reasons. Canon suggests that for the more advanced machines (e.g., Land Raiders), it's not clear if the piloting intelligence is a true A.I., an amalgamate A.I. formed out of scrapcode, or some kind of Warp entity. Knowing that in this universe ancient mankind was able to build machines with souls in the Warp (up to god-like levels with the Iron Minds), it may be that both are true. Titans are said to have machine spirits that border on A.I. and that's not getting into the Ark Mechanica which are outright A.I. from the DaoT in hiding both here and in canon.

That said, the AdMech probably didn't think things this far out. They probably just said it to make them feel better about the fact that 100% of the Tau's A.I. didn't blow up in their face like the AdMech predicted.

How many Tau A.I. are there and do they have names?

At least eight big ones (as in probably about the level Elmo is today, though they didn't start out as children's toys), one for each sage of Da (Aun'Va must be groaning internally). They don't have names or personalities yet beyond being advisors to the Ethereals.

Not clear how many others survived. Likely not many between them being destroyed by their corrupted counterparts or just destroyed by the passage of time. All were older models IIRC.

And of course the non-sapient A.I. survived, as well as engram technology if the Eight are still canon.

Its actually a pretty interesting prospect that both the Tau of the Imperium and of the Enclaves could have a large amount of non-sapient Ai integrated into society.

What has Commisser actually done in this AU?

We know March of the Liberator happened but what else?

The Enclaves might go so far as to claim the Imperium intentionally sabotaged the Tau's A.I. because they feared the Tau's potential. Of course, that raises the question of why they didn't just rebuild super-A.I. (and get wrecked by Chaos again).

Of course, more extreme usage of A.I. could also be one reason the Enclaves have survived so long against the much larger empire.

That said, I believe it was mentioned the Tau don't completely believe the Imperial line on A.I. They found nothing to indicate there was some quantun leap point at which A.I. will turn on its creators, and the Interex, Hubworlders, and other non-Mechanicus dependent states have A.I. on a comparable level to canon Tau. Not to mention they know once upon a time humans and eldar had A.I. and nothing went wrong (and if they knew the true nature of Oscar and the Ark Mechanici they'd laugh themselves silly). They know that something happened to make their advanced A.I. go wrong, and they're willing to try again, but not until they find out what went wrong and patch it.

Indeed, the Tau's actions during the A.I. rebellion are rather applaudable. When human A.I. went berserk it took down much of galactic civilization. When Tau A.I. went berserk it was a historical crisis of note but not civilization-ending. That means the Tau were able to shut down their A.I. much harder than humanity was (which makes sense as the Tau never got to god-machine stage) or Tau A.I. were so well-designed their madness took a different form than human A.I.

I had been kicking this idea around a while back when another user mentioned the idea of Kroot that had decided to forgo the traditional ideals and eat people back when we were talking about ratlings. So here it is. Chaos-corrupted people-eating Kroot.

The Sarcophages are a splinter faction, some would say a religious movement, among the Kroot of the Ultima Segmentum. Whereas most Kroot are allied with the Imperium (though their loyalty is shaky by human standards), the Sarcophages are unusual in seeing all sapient life as prey, Imperial and non-Sarcophage Kroot alike. The founder of was a Kroot by the name of Khamor Wet. According to legend, Khamor Wet was performing the traditional rite of eating the dead after battle with the Orks when he was struck by a vision, or what others would describe as a drug trip. It is believed that Wet’s vision may have come from eating a Chaos Ork who had recently turned and whose body did not show any outside signs of corruption.

From his vision, Khamor Wet was said to have come to have come to a realization. The Kroot were the apex predators of the galaxy. Humans could not eat humans without extensive processing into corpsestarch, and even then they ran the risk of illness and only did so in the direst of circumstances. Eldar also did not eat eldar, though this may be less due to physiology than the cultural stigma of the cannibalistic Mon-Keigh early in their history. The Tau similarly could not eat Tau, and in fact only ate small amounts of animal flesh. The galaxy was not full of allies or clients, but prey. To Khamor Wet, the order of the universe was clear. Animals ate plants, sapient beings ate animals, and Kroot ate everything. Only by hunting the other sapients and the weak among their number could the Kroot evolve into truly perfect beings.

To say that the Shapers were horrified by this idea was an understatement. They ate the flesh of the honoured dead to preserve its essence and prevent it from dissipating into the earth. They ate the untainted flesh of those who would be an enemy to the People (mostly Orks) to remove it from the world. They ate the flesh of many beings, but they ate the flesh of sapients to preserve the link of wisdom between ancestor and descendant and prevent the Kroot from going mad. They did hunt game, but to hunt sapient beings like animals as opposed to fellow warriors was outright heresy. They immediately declared Khamor Wet and his followers to be namotek, or tainted flesh, and demanded that they be killed and their essence scattered to the winds. Unfortunately, Khamor Wet and at least some of his followers evaded their doom at the hands of their fellow Kroot and escaped into the cosmos.

Today, the Sarcophages are a constant, though minor, threat on the Eastern Fringe. They are either seen acting alone, or in association with Chaos warbands, Ork WAAAGH!s, or other groups to which the traditional shapers would find anathema. Many Sarcophages, including the core of the movement, have fallen to Chaos, with most pledging their allegiance to Khorne, though distinguishing Kroot that have fallen to Chaos and those who simply believe Khamor Wet had good ideas is often a difficult task. After all, the Kroot are just as variable in their mindset as any other race.

As an aside, I know the social habits of Kroot cannibalism have not really been fleshed out even in vanilla, but it’s probably unlikely they hunt sapients like animals, even before you take into account that this is a nobledark rather than a grimdark universe. Cannibalism is actually very common in animals, it is the rule rather than the exception in invertebrates, fishes, amphibians and reptiles. In the few groups where cannibalism is rare, it’s more a case of “they would if they could”. Most birds physically cannot eat members of their own kind because they can’t shove the body down their throat, whereas many mammals get sick if they do. But they have no problem with killing each other, and otherwise that body is just wasted protein (chimps eat chimps, for example).

However, cannibalism also makes it very, very hard to form a society. It’s very hard to socially interact with another member of your species if you’re afraid they’re going to try and eat you. Most social species either aren’t cannibalistic, do not eat each other except in abnormal circumstances (starvation or overpopulation), or have some kind of restrictions on who they can eat (e.g., no eating members of the in-group, but strangers are fair game). As a result, it is likely that cannibalism is likely not that common across the galaxy (assuming Earth-like conditions), though it is impossible to account for culture overriding biology (see: corpsestarch, the Ad-Mech boiling people down for nutrient slurry). The Kroot would have to have some kind of social restrictions on who they can eat and/or when, otherwise they would have all just eaten one another and never formed a society. Hence the way they culturally justify to themselves what is good to eat and when while balancing the need for social order and eating sapient flesh.

Some might point out that Orks eat other Orks (indeed they mostly eat other Orkoids) and tyranids have no problem eating tyranids. Or the examples with humanity listed above. That is a good point. No one ever said visions from eating tainted-mushroom people were logical. Especially not if they were attempts by the Ruinous Powers to sow dissent amongst the Kroot and get a portion of the species under their control.

Also does anyone else like the idea of going full Predator with the Kroot and having them have solo assassins who travel the galaxy seeking out great enemies to fell in single combat to bring their flesh back to strengthen the clan? Or something similar?

I can imagine that there is a cultural divide among the Kroot regarding food. Previously it was mentioned that they need to eat sapient flesh in order to maintain their own sapience and not very slowly degenerate back into vultures. Thankfully Ork is sapient enough to work for this, which is what got them making tools and fire in the first place.

They would be divided on food. Some say that sheet-meat grown in a factory is just as good as the real thing. Also you can grow a wall of human muscle tissue and hack pieces off of it as needed. It's not alive in it's own right, it feels no pain but it is genetically sapient meat. Such practices also allow the Shapers to more carefully tend their flocks as they can monitor exactly what/who they are eating.

The Puritan Kroot regard this not a good idea. Hunting shit and eating people has worked well for thousands of years and even if all that is hoped and dreamed comes to pass and a lasting galactic peace is forged they can still farm squig. Squig are genetically the same as ork. Also even the flocks that trust the AdBio know for a fact that the AdBio are mildly baffled by the exact process of genetic assimilation so they don't want to entrust their species' survival in their chimeric hands.

The two groups can usually put aside their differences as both sides consider ork (and others like the Q'orl) hunting fun. Also most Neo-Kroot will eat a natural corpse if it's going to go to waste otherwise out of principle of not letting good food go to waste.

In a similar manner they come in two camps regarding technology. The Old School Kroot will only use what is made on their homeworld in the traditional manner. Black powder rifles, bone handled knives, wooden armour and the like.

New Breed Kroot are tooled up as much as the rest of the Tau Empire.

Neither like using AdMech made things as they don't typically do customizing jobs for xenos and Kroot are distinctly different proportioned to humans.

I can see that. Also the whole different moral standards of what constitutes acceptable to eat. Hunting down something non-sapient? Acceptable. Hunting down sapients like game? Unacceptable. Ambushing sapients during war and killing and eating them? Acceptable.

The seeming double-standard makes people's head spin, though to the Kroot the difference is clear. Outsiders ask how is trapping game any different from ambushing sapients during war and eating them.

The Kroot reply that trapping and hunting game is part of everyday life. Doing the same to sapients is disrespectful. Eating the fallen during war is part of the nature of war. It is a straight up confrontation where warriors pit their strength against each other and one comes out alive. Even if you set traps the other guy is walking into the woods knowing there's hostile stuff in there and someone is out to get them, you're not just hitting them with a sucker punch by letting them walk into a pitfall trap without a declaration of war.

Hence why the Kroot try to work their way into every battlefield they can, because it's the best way to get the sapient flesh they need regardless of philosophy.

What do we have on the Tau A.I. rebellion, besides 'it exists'?

The cause of the rebellion is unknown.

Tau jut assumed that the AdMech were being assholes with them to deny them good shit and cripple competition.

Given that there hasn't been a confirmed case of a single Chaos Tau the vector for infection would have had to have been a non Tau or by direct exposure to Chaos itself. To this end it is believed by most of the Earth Caste high ups that the AI was infected by Dark Mechanicus. AdMech maintain that it was inevitable, it's just what A.I. consistently do as their own history has shown.

It was one of the major points of change in Aun'da's outlook in regards to the Imperium, seeing as the AI rebellion collapsed the first Tau expansion and set them back a millenium in terms of development, as well as leaving them vulnerable to the whims of the Druchari in the intervening time. At the end of this reclamation they hand have the reforms and civil war.

The Imperium, mostly through Ultramar, was always the ancient, massive, incomprehensibly exotic foreign neighbor to the Tau for their entire spacefaring history. Their first expansion, with AI at their side, was characterized by a very technocratic and Tau centric historical and political outlook and interpretation of the Greater Good, and an assumption that the major powers of the galaxy were on their order of magnitude in age and development. Following the AI rebellion and their own little taste of Old Night they return to their lost domains less confident and more experienced, and with greater understanding of the universe, but with more anxiety and prudence having been stripped of the false enlightenment of their first gilded age. Pre AI rebellion Tau thought they were well on the way to being a post-scarcity moral arbiter society something like the Culture, post, they gain some understanding of the scale and strangeness of things, though remain aloof for quite some time much like Hy Brasil. Eventually they have their reforms and join the Imperium, as much through cultural osmosis and codifying efforts to adapt to the galaxy's diplomatic and philosophical discourse as an attempt at glasnost/perestroika for the Ethereals. The Imperium's men and eldar have been watching from their golden city spires and gossamer sailed ships for the whole escapade, and were often as entertained by the petty dramas of the young Tau as they were vexed by their foibles.

I think we had it implied it was caused by Chaos. Tau manage to get advanced A.I. online and it's a game changer for the mortals. If the mortals figure out that it's possible to make advanced A.I. and have it not blow up in your face, then it would be possible to basically just blockade off the Eye with robots and the Black Crusades, which now even in the absolute worst case scenario result in millions of deaths and turmoil that feed the Chaos Gods, would become unprofitable. It wouldn't be an instant win button but it would make things a lot more difficult.

A.I. definitely can be made without them going full Skynet as shown by Oscar. He knew a bit about the Warp from his birth, Malcador basically told him not to go staring into the abyss, and he's generally learned to avoid sanity blasting stuff from there. Oscar's technically not an A.I. but the principle in the same. Plus it took all the turmoil from the birth of Slaanesh to drive the unprotected Iron Minds and Men of Gold mad. Oscar is probably smart enough to have some plan to shut his psychic senses down and keep him from going insane in the event it ever happens again.

Oscar may be a crippled Man of Gold, but he could run circles around the original ones when it comes to avoiding Warp corruption.

As a cautionary note, we need to be really careful when we plot out the Tau A.I. rebellion. On the one hand we don’t want to hand anyone the idiot ball, but on the other we don’t want it to seem like we are engaging in “Tau ball-kicking” as if we were salty over Fish of Fury. It’s generally been suggested among the 40k fandom that if the Tau were to keep advancing the way they are they are likely to have an A.I. crisis (which, since the emergence of the Tau empire has been shifted back by a few millennia, was likely to happen here) but having the Tau A.I. fail for no reason would come across as ham-handed, especially since it’s been established that the failure of human A.I. wasn’t due to any inherent tendency of A.I. to turn against their masters, but a side effect of the birth of Slaanesh and the Warp turmoils it brought.

The fatal flaw of the Tau (particularly in their early history) is arrogance and naivete (more the latter). As mentioned, the Tau originally saw themselves and the Greater Good as the miracle cure to all the galaxy’s woes, and remained unaware and/or in disbelief of the scale and the antiquity of the field they were entering. Remember that when the first Tau diplomats visited the Sol System, the Ethereal Council didn’t believe the reports of what the diplomats had seen. The Tau joining the Imperium is part of the high concept of the setting of the Imperium basically being all of the “sane” races joining in a bulwark against Chaos, but the Tau had to reach the point that they’d be willing to join in the first place, especially since at first the Tau thought they could go it alone. From a meta perspective getting the Tau to join is a delicate balancing act. Too soon and they’d just get absorbed without developing the culture that makes them Tau. Too late and they might not join at all.

Keep in mind that while they try to be better than vanilla, the Imperium in this universe isn’t perfect. Their general fear of A.I. is perhaps one of the best examples of this. Mainstream humanity basically has an irrational species-wide phobia of A.I. because from their perspective most of the A.I. just went nuts one day and they have no idea why. Humanity was so busy trying to avoid getting killed in the crossfire of the insane Men of Gold and the Iron Minds that they didn’t have time to correlate the Iron Minds going insane with the Eldar fleeing from the giant galactic axe wound where their homeworld once was.

The Eldar in general had A.I. that functioned very differently from that of humanity (essentially being wraithbone drones puppeted by psychic powers), and so they don’t have the context of a widespread, sapient creation turning on them. Additionally the use of these drones freed up the Eldar to do other things, which essentially precipitated the birth of Slaanesh in the first place, leading the Eldar to mothball most of their A.I. technology so they could work more directly with their hands, and on the subject of sapient A.I. they probably look to humans in the same way that humans look to the Eldar for Warptech advice. Because these two groups are the largest demographics in the Imperium, chances of the attitude towards A.I. reversing are glacial at best.

Add onto this the fact that the main source of technology for most of the Imperium comes from the AdMech, who took the empirical observation of the A.I. rebellion and extrapolated from it “A.I. is fricking evil”, which because they tend to be A) the resident tech experts for the non-member states, B) control most of the manufacturing, and C) have the most leverage when it comes to tech direction, tend to stymy efforts to improve A.I. beyond “pterasquirrel” levels by the other technologically advanced powers like the Interex, Hubworld League, and yes, the Tau.

(same)
(same)
The Tau do have great potential, and may indeed be the spark necessary to reignite the galaxy, but that is a spark that needs to be kindled, especially since they’ve traded their plot armor and Orwellian overtones in exchange for common sense and a societal history that one would expect of a younger race that in spite of great talents entering into a realm dominated by older ones.

Might the Mechanicus have tried to get involved in the Tau A.I. war? It seems possible that they would have provided "assistance" in killing a bunch of rebellious AI... regardless of if the Tau wanted it.

Wrote up the section on the tyranids stealing genes from all over the galaxy using the Ymgarl genestealers so we have that written down.

When the Adeptus Biologicus analyzed tyranid specimens for the first time, they found all sorts of things they shouldn’t have. Genetic sequences and biochemical signatures otherwise unique to lifeforms on Fenris, Catachan, and numerous other worlds in the Imperium. There were even sections of genetic material that seemed to come from Orks and the Eldar. The bio-priests were at a loss to explain how such a motley of genes could be present in a single creature, until a new tyranid bioform was discovered far from the front lines of the tyranid invasion.

Originally thought to be natural wildlife native to the moons of Ymgarl, these creatures were first discovered by the Imperium at about the same time as the genestealers in M36. However, sightings of these creatures were soon reported across the galaxy, supposedly caused by the creatures stowing away in space hulks and the holds of spacecraft. There was concern about the similarities between these creatures and “classic” genestealers, but the Imperium was never able to find a connection between the two. Genestealer activity did not follow in these creatures wake, and even their supposedly simultaneous discovery was in actuality more than two hundred years apart. And so the Imperium turned its attention away from the Ymgarl creatures. It was understandable, this was late M36, the peak of the Genestealer Wars, and the Imperium had more pressing issues to learn about. However, with the appearance of the first true tyranid Hive Fleets in the form of Behemoth, the Adeptus Biologicus decided to take another look at the Ymgarl creatures. And they turned out to be something else entirely.

(cont.)
These creatures, which later came to be renamed genehounds, resemble a cross between lictor and a purestrain genestealer. This suggests that genehounds may be a cross-breed between the two, or at the very least share genes with these bioforms. Like lictors and purestrains, genehounds have a much more complex nervous system than most tyranid bioforms, allowing them a higher degree of independent thought and the ability to function for extended periods of time away from synapse creatures of the Hive Mind. They are certainly intelligent enough to use spaceships and space hulks as a means to spread throughout the galaxy. However, whereas lictors and genestealers were meant to be sappers and beacons for the Hive Fleets, these creatures were something else entirely. Hunters. Hounds of the Hive Mind.

The motus operandi of a genehound is simple. First, the genehound locates a target. Another effect of the genehound’s increased intelligence is that a genehound is smart enough to target species with novel genetic features. This target can be as harmless as a squig or as dangerous as a Catachan Devil. Then, the genehound rushes forward in an explosive burst of speed to take its sample. The mouth of a genehound resembles a lamprey or a cookiecutter shark, a spiral ring of teeth designed to shear chunks of flesh from its targets and a piston-like tongue with a serrated tip built to make incisions and drink their bodily fluids. This allows a genehound to easily obtain a genetic sample of the organism for the Hive Mind, or feed itself in the long intervals between action. Its task completed, the genehound makes its way back to the Hive Fleet to be reabsorbed, bringing its genetic trophy with it.

Unlike other bioforms, the Hive Mind does not go out of its way to track down genehounds. To do so would be to expose the ruse, as happened when the Imperium discovered the true nature of genehounds and ordered them killed on sight. The genehounds had not managed to hit every system of note in the galaxy, but they had hit enough to give the Hive Mind access to some choice adaptations. When the Biologicus realized what these creatures were they were horrified by the implications. The tyranids hadn’t just been scouting the galaxy for millennia. They had been raiding its genetic armory.

Thoughts?

I would expect Emperor Oscar to have given explicit orders for the Mechanicus to stay out of the Tau-A.I. war, although I would expect the red-robes to try some kind of cordon to contain the war, and nothing less. Other than not permanently crippling the Tau and not really changing Imperial opinions on AI, do we have much set for how the schism actually went?

That is certainly some disturbingly creative imagery. Can't really say much else about it at the moment.

The Schism or the A.I. Rebellion? Because those were two different things. First the Tau had their A.I. problem in late M38. Then they had a "Silver Age" where they reclaimed and then expanded beyond their own borders. Then they had trouble with the tyranids and the Imperium had to bail their ass out of the alligator pit as well as the Schism in M39. The timing is a little unclear, Drafts page has Schism first then tyranids but I recall some suggestions that had the tyranid invasion happen first and the fact that the Tau managed to win only after a lot of Pyrrhic victories and Imperial support is what led the Ethereals to consider closer ties to the Imperium.

The Schism was long after the A.I. war though. It would be nice to hammer out a timeline of events and cause/effect.

Also are the Kroot Sarcophages any good or not? Not entirely sold on the name.

Idea's good, I dunno enough Latin to have an opinion on the name.

Sarcophages is good although almost certainly not their word for themselves

Do the Kroot have anything to trade?

It looks like a cross be tween a bobbit worm and the xenomorph.

Are there any named Kroot characters? Is their a King of Chickens?

There's Anghor Prok, the leader of the Kroot resistance when the Tau first found them, and then two or three characters in the Ciaphas Cain or Last Chancer novels. The Kroot haven't gotten a lot of love from GW.

Has there ever been any indication on the state of things on their homeworld?

In canon? Pech is said to be still essentially jungle, mountain, and evergreen forest, with the Kroot building homes out of regurgitated wood pulp in the trees. It's suspected they have industrial bases in hollowed out mountains to make their gear, but they keep the rest of Pech mostly pristine (or pseudo-pristine, like how Native Americans selectively arranged forests through controlled burns and other means to make it easier to hunt game and grow berry bushes) because they like it that way.

Much better from when the Tau found it, in which it was riddled with Orks.

Is this on the 1d4Chan page? It needs to be.

Should it be under Notable Planets or Notable People?

Notable people (under "Taldeer Ulthran") I can go through and put all the new fluff in this thread up later. I was more waiting to see how much we got in case the thread went down and/or people had problems with it.

Kronus itself still needs a writeup. Unless it had one in the old threads and I am derping.

Something must be done about this. I have some ideas.

Are Shapers psychic? Do the kroot have psychics?

Glory to the veloci-chickens.

Kroot are all naturally subtle psykers, like orks (mostly because they became sapient by eating orks), and have that same hard-coded knowledge of technology. Kroot pilots are naturally able to gravitate towards inhabited worlds based on gut instinct, and this is implied to be a psychic ability (again, probably picked up from Orks) since in canon the Tau can't figure out how the hell it works.

In canon there were Kroot that became psychic by eating Eldar corpses. They literally turned into Predators, complete with cloaking abilities, a face that looked kind of like the classic Predator mask, and could project psychic illusions. So it seems that when Kroot get psyker powers they use them in context that seem natural to them (they probably could case magic missile, but it just doesn't occur to them).

Kroot are also the only race in canon besides humans that can naturally produce blanks. Mostly by eating human blanks.

Shapers are more revered for knowing how to best exploit the adaptive abilities of the Kroot, but they seem to have some weird abilities in canon. They have a lot of rituals involving ancestor worship and prophetic dreams, but it's not stated if these rituals actually work or if it's just paredoilia and the placebo effect.

wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Shaper

Well that's a thing.

Given the increased broadness of sapient diet they can sample (human, tau, eldar, other) they can maintain their brain power but still manage to loose the instinctive orkness.

A 3rd internal divide in Kroot society. Green Kroot (the ones with prominent orkness and all it brings) vs "Grey" Kroot (the ones that aren't green).

Still, even after driving the orks off of the homeworld the Kroot are still going to have access to Ork DNA even beyond cannibalism. It also puts Kroot on the same level as Catachan and Cain's Attache (what did we call him) in terms of "predators that make a living off of hunting Ork".

When the Kroot were discussed a little bit back in Thread 21, it was mentioned that the current stopgap solution until they could figure out a more reliable and ethical way to get sapient meat was by eating Ork. Which they are very good at, to the point that as one user put it:

>The Kroot are veritable ork-eating machines. You want to see what a natural predator of orks looks like? This is it.

However, some Kroot kindred have become really aggressive about it, declaring an effective war of extermination on the Ork species until the last squig is dead. This has led the more stable Shapers to worry if these kindred have been getting an overdose of Ork in their diet.

Do Kroot eat Tau in this timeline? In canon they don't, because that was what Angkhor Prok and the Kroot swore in gratitude to the Tau in gratitude for removing the Orks from Pech. That was why here O'Kais donating his body to the Kroot was such a big deal, because he was donating it willingly. Though seeing as this was in the Tau's codex, it might have been more like that was the Kroot's boon. If the Kroot were in gratitude to you, they'd want to eat you even more (after you die naturally, of course) to preserve your spirit. It was also mentioned in canon that the Tau kind of projected their own culture on the Kroot, seeing carnivory as savage and cannibalistic carnivory doubly so. It's been implied later on that the Ethereals in canon were trying to force the Kroot to break their cannibalistic habits in a bid to wipe them out. Since the Ethereals aren't moustache-twirling cartoon villains in this timeline, that may not be the case.

I can actually see some late Tau golden age or (nearly reformation era) silver age Ethereals offering themselves to the Kroot after death, golden age Ethereals seeing it as a means to transfer their wisdom directly to the unenlightened and to have the very material of their body serve the advancement of the Tau'va and the uplift of one of the species of their empire. Silver age Ethereals would be a bit less patronizing/magnanimous about sharing their flesh to advance the Kroot's uplift, but would still come with similar ideas of subsuming their corpse and essence into the greater good, in addition to Imperial ideas about pattern resonance in their understanding of what the Tau call might call hyperspace and ideas of genetic sharing and refinement taken from their fights against the Tyranids, as well as that era's budding understanding of the circuitous paths taken by both Human and Eldar genetic history.

What are Tau burial customs even like? I'm not sure if Tau even believe in an afterlife, since they seem to have trouble comprehending spiritual concepts due to their type of soul. Their trains of thought tend to be more secular and material. I can't find any mention of Tau burial customs anywhere (even just "dead is dead, dump/cremate the body).

You know, the Kroot and the Exodites might get along pretty well. When an Exodite dies their body is left a soulless shell as their soul is merged with the World Spirit. That body is useless right there, and having the Kroot around means Chaos can't try any shenanigans by resurrecting the corpse as a meat-puppet or using it to trap the soul. The Kroot also are strong proponents of living in harmony with nature and don't believe in going MAXIMUM INDUSTRIALIZATION like humans, tau, and their Craftworld kin do (yes most places are less industrialized than in canon, but by the Exodite's standards it's still too much), so they don't have to worry about them running off and strip-mining the planet.

I assumed that between their secularism and the general greater good philosophy Tau tend to think along the lines of "When this material body dies it will dissolve and be reintegrated with the greater material of the universe" almost to the extent that in they bring the same honor and reverence to purely materialistic processes that more warp-affecting species put into spirituality. Conversely, as seen with Tau caste names and the Tau'va, the basis of their philosophy and symbology is an elevation of the materialistic and pragmatic to the level of spirituality and ritual.

This would also mean that when they eventually are confronted with the warp and its denizens they begin to incorporate it into their understanding without necessarily overturning their existing understanding, but it would take a very long time. This is because while daemons and warp phenomena writ large aren't at odds with their understanding of a material universe and its laws, they also lack the mythological, spiritual, and cultural frame of reference to understand them intuitively as Eldar and Humans do. So to Tau, daemons are the fundamentally hostile meme-beings from hyperspace, not the fundamentally evil emotion-demons from hell.

>fundamentally hostile meme-beings from hyperspace

There's an Internet joke in there somewhere but I'm not smart enough to make it.

I dunno. I get the feeling the Exodites don't really get along well with anyone, they just tolerate some groups for limited periods of time.

We had that early story where the exodites and feudal-worlder humans got along quite well, in the same sense of a sleepy little hamlet getting along with the local fairy folk living under the hills. If I remember correctly it involved an exodite lassie meeting a voidborn boy who got brought down into the gravity well as part of the business/away party when his ship was in the system.

It was really sweet, and part of its charm was how it also showed the greater variety of peoples and themes brought in by the unified Imperium in a really great, slice of life sort of way. It was such a great feeling to picture the meeting of a young elf girl straight out of antique, Tolkienesque idyllic fantasy and a pale, lanky cabin boy/space sailor from a similarly ancient space merchant navy, and the shared society, if not culture or experience, that brings them together.

I'm going to have to find that now. Any clues?

Here you go

suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/50874097/

It's a sickeningly sweet slice of life.

There was also the case with the APEX twins where the leader of the Exodite colony where Inquisitor Sabine was in hiding offered to hunt down and feed the twins psychologist to the dinosaurs when she found out the psychologist was a Chaos-worshipping pedophile.

I think it's more like the Exodites don't like people as groups, even their Craftworlder cousins they seem to regard as annoying protective siblings, especially since people keep bugging them to industrialize or exploit them. They can like individuals, but even then they're cautious and slow to trust.

And of course Exodites are going to vary dramatically from person to person. You're going to have things ranging from an Exodite who can't stand outsiders, a little girl who is enthralled by tales of the outside, a snob who looks down on those who don't live their lifestyle, a hothead 150 something who can't stand the simple life and leaves for the bright lights of a Craftworld, and everything in-between.

Was the psychologist a Chaos worshiper or was he just a pdophile?

Both, I think. He was trying to convince them that it was A-OK to listen to the whispers telling them to murder people and also convinced them to halt their growth at eight years old, despite the fact they are 173 now.

They seem to have turned out not to bad despite this. They helped to undo some of the madness of the Thracian Gate Atrocity and in doing so saved the life of Inquisitor Voke, they visited the Dark Carnival and made friends with the Laughing God and their only acts of violence seem to be against people who ary to attack them first.

Of course those acts of violence are fucking horendously disproportionate but it's not unprovoked.

So all in all they could be far worse. Best case scenario at this point is that Inquisitor Sabine catches up with them and convinces her fellow Inquisitors that they should be adopted by the Royal Couple.

Most probable case is that they are never caught. Due to the influence of the Great Harlequin they remain a random event wandering through the Imperium, generating stories in their wake.

How does the Imperium deal with Space Hulks in this AU? Is there more or less of attempts to capture, cleanse, disect and salvage them?

Only thing that's been suggested about Space Hulks so far is that the Crones often use them as a source of spare parts. But I'm not sure how well that would work given they can just poof matter out of existence with ghastbone.

Other than that space hulks are wide open.

As a spectator who's just been observing the project, let me just say I'm glad you guys went trough with this.

Kudos to you all.
You guys should seriously run a game in it

Thank you.

That is so sweet I think I got diabeetus.

I know this is the last thread, but i just found out about this and read through. There's a lot of interesting stuff that can still be done, methinks.