Nobledark 40k part 48: Not The End Times edition

Qah died for your sins subedition

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

PREVIOUS THREAD:
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/57265950/

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

LAST TIME ON NOBLEDARK IMPERIUM:
>Shut about your missing "waifu" Nurgle, you get the best stuff, a legion of psychotic space elf fangirls, and a moon.
>Make the Avatar of Khaine great again
>Taldeer gets a codex entry!
>So does the Indigo Crow, as well as Ymgarl genestealers and Kaelor

WHAT WE NEED:
>More writing and synthesis of the stuff on the Notes page. Any write-ups that get stuff off the Notes page or the suptg thread discussions and puts things in text would be appreciated.

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

So, this may be an in joke or something, but what the hell is the Hydra? I've seen it mentioned in relation to the Alpha Legion and the Illuminati and the Cthonia ringworld, but its really vague and sometimes contradictory. I've tried to look through the archives, but that isn't super helpful because it mostly comes up in totally oblique references and mentions of goals and relationships to other organizations that don't seem to be mentioned anywhere else.

The wiki pages seem intentionally uninformative.

For years, the Tau Empire has had problems with Dark Eldar. Every time the Tau Empire have had a problem, whether A.I. rebellion or tyranid invasion, the Dark Eldar are always there like the vultures they are ready to prey on the vulnerable and the helpless. The primary source of these problems is Archon Andross Klax of the Kabal of the Hand of Deft Spite. The Tau Empire is effectively “his” space, at least by the standards of Commorragh, and other Kabals had to treat with him if they wanted to privilege of raiding there.

The Tau were fed up with Klax. The bounty on his head was staggering. The Tau usually don’t believe in bounty hunting, feeling that if you do kill it should be for duty or defense or something a little more noble than simply selfish greed. With Klax they’ve just stopped caring, the Empire want him dead. Especially Aun’Va, who had to put up with Klax’s shit more than anyone else. Klax was enough to make Aun’Va wistful for the old days of the Mont’au, back when you wanted someone dead you raised an army to do it and told the troops to put the offender’s head on a stick to make sure they were gone.

In M39, after an invasion by a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan resulted in a series of pyrrhic victories that only ended with Imperial assistance, the Tau Empire was once again considering closer relations with the Imperium. This would have been a disaster for Klax, for whom Imperial support and resources would have meant an end to the easy raiding he had been enjoying for the last one and a half millennia. And so to preserve his hunting grounds Archon Klax hatched a cunning scheme.

In 876.M39, Klax created a false flag operation, making it seem like the Maiden World of Lilarsus was really a Dark Eldar and Klax’s base of operations. The Kabal of the Hand of Deft Spite planted chemical evidence in the atmosphere, making it seem like the planet was experiencing substantial industrialization and spaceship traffic despite its primordial veneer. Surface observations would have shown the planet’s population was mostly Eldar, which would hopefully damn Lilarsus further in the eyes of the Tau. To someone who wasn’t familiar with how the Exodites worked, it looked like a textbook pirate hideout. The hope was that the Tau would attack Lilarsus and provoke a Tau-Imperium skirmish, souring relationships between the Imperium and the Tau. At best, it was hoped the act would spark the Tau-Imperium war both the Dark Eldar and their more debauched Crone World kin had always desired.

The Tau, already incensed with the Kabal of the Hand of Deft Spite for their raid on the Sept of Kel’Shan shortly after the tyranid invasion, took the bait. The Ethereals ordered Lilarsus burned to the ground in order to wipe out the space pirate and his cronies once and for all. The Tau attack took the form of nuking the population centers from orbit and letting the fallout from the airburst kill the rest. It was cheap, quick, and effective, especially since this was back in the days when the Tau were only just developing more extensive and expensive methods of Exterminatus for scouring tyranid-infested worlds to the bedrock. Thousands died. Fortunately, because the bombardment was focused on population centers not every Exodite died in the bombardment and the World Tree wasn’t compromised in the attack. This one of the few things that kept the situation from escalating faster than it already did.

It was only after the bombardment that the Tau realized that Lilarsus wasn’t a Dark Eldar world. The Tau tried to apologized to Lilarsus’ patron Craftworld of Iyanden and offered to help repair the damage they had done, but found their offers icily ignored. However, for Iyanden it wasn’t enough. Klax would pay in time, but the Tau had offered them an insult that couldn’t go unanswered. In the months following the bombardment of Lilarsus several Ethereals were subject to assassination attempts by Iyanden rangers, and the commander of the ill-fated expedition was found impaled on a wraithbone spear along with his command staff.

These assassinations in spite of the Tau’s offers of weregild enraged the Ethereal council, and the Tau Empire mobilized to go to war. The response of Craftworld Iyanden, who had the largest space navy of any Craftworld, was in effect “bring it”, and the eldar began to assemble their own retaliatory fleet. The two fleets intercepted each other in a dead star system to the galactic west of the Damocles Gulf. However, as the Eldar and Tau fleets squared off, suddenly an unknown fleet translated into the system and the Eldar and Tau’s ships stalled. The Tau didn’t know what to make of this. It wasn’t like their ships had been hit by an EMP, as life support systems and artificial gravity were still on and they didn’t even know what an EMP would do to Eldar ships, it was like their ships were being…physically restrained.

Up until this point, the Tau had comforted themselves by believing that the border skirmishes they had fought with the Imperium in the past were evidence that their great and mighty fleets were capable of holding off the aggressive and might of the "whole Imperial war machine". The more knowledgeable among the Ethereals and Fire Caste knew that it was merely the navy of the Segmentum Ultima, but they still figured that was a sizeable portion of the Imperium’s military might, and liked their odds in the event of a confrontation.

That was until the Tau got a good look at the Bucephalus and its hangers-on translating into the system. Those weren’t any Segmentum Ultima navy ships they had ever seen before. Hell, they hadn’t seen most of those ship classes before. And perhaps more importantly, this new fleet not only outnumbered but outgunned both the Tau fleet and Eldar fleet put together. If people started shooting this new fleet would curbstomp both of them, only stopping to wipe the ship debris off its metaphorical boot.

And then the face of Oscar, Last of the Golden Men, Emperor of the Empty Throne, Servus Servorum Imperium, Emperor-Consort of the All-Mother and Defender of the Realms Uncounted appeared on the Tau’s communication array to request the presence of their leader at his next earliest convenience to discuss "recent events". The Tau were just as surprised at the appearance of the Emperor’s face on their screens as they were at the arrival of the Bucephalus, this being was clearly different from any gue’la they had ever seen. He told them they wouldn’t have to worry about Iyanden striking while they were distracted as his wife just told the other side to go home and tend their wounds and sure enough Iyanden, who seemed previously out for blood, was doing so and without hesitation or complaint to the surprise of the Tau commanders.

It would be at that moment, that exact moment, that every Fire Caste present would realize just deep the pit they are standing over really is, and the Tau Empire realized that the “tall tales” of Por’O M’arc visiting the Imperial capital were more than just tall tales.

Not entirely sure how to end it, the idea was that the Emperor and Isha talk both sides down, and Lilarsus is garrisoned by Iyanden Aspect Warriors/wraithguard and Tau battlesuits. Iyanden said the Tau didn't have to be there, but the Tau insisted in order to atone for their mistake. I thought I heard somewhere that some of the battlesuits do double duty as hazard suits and the Tau use the opportunity to scrub radiation from the major habitable zones to try and make the cleaning of the fallout go faster.

After the stand-off, Spiritseer-Admiral Iyanna Arienal, essentially the "face" of Iyanden's seer council, went off the grid for a few months. When asked where her only answer to where she was was "with Yriel". Not coincidentally, Klax was never heard from again.

That sounds like a pretty fitting end, and while you already do it well, I might encourage you to linger on/play up the deific quality of the Emperor and its odd contrast to his scholarly bearing and polite demeanor, and Isha as well though she isn't really present in the Tau side of the story. If I were the one writing I would probably get sucked into some sort of Catalogue Of Ships for the three fleets that appear because it would be a fun opportunity to go into the details and contrast the technology of the Eldar and Tau, then set both in contrast to the Traveling Court.

Also, I now really want to read the tall tales of Por'O M'arc's trip to sol, to the point that I might write them up myself if I ever finish my other projects. I welcome anybody else interested to beat me to it, because me getting around to it seems somewhat unlikely. I recall someone in a past thread saying something to the effect of the Emperor being in a way an inverse Chaos God, with a realm as vast and mighty as any of the big four, but for all their realms' incomprehensibility and madness his realm is civilized and set to order and rights, and for all the horror of their thrones, his is glorious. For somebody not accustomed to a galactic civilization, the heart of the Imperium could be as mind boggling as the horrors of the warp, and only less damaging because the truth that is revealed by looking upon it is not terrible.

Soon

Yeah, agreed with a lot of what had to say. Props for getting it written it up so fast, but I noticed bits of it were copy-pasted from the brainstorming posts from the last thread, so a bit of polish and elbow grease might be in order.

Did we agree that Yriel was active at this time? If so, he definitely should get a mention because he's not the type to let something like this go without fucking shit up. Also, I don't think Iyanden would accept with any Tau military presence on the world, it would be way too much of a sore point. At most, it would probably be a contingent of unfortunate Earth caste engineers that the Eldar hand a mop to and say, "you broke this shit, you fix it."

Lastly, minor thing: it really isn't the Empty Throne of Earth anymore is it? The vacancy got filled when Vandire was crowned Emperor, and Oscar took over the crown after the Civil War. Pretty sure it's just the Golden Throne now.

It is copy-pasted from the brainstorming posts in the last thread. I make no claims to the originality of any of it, just wanted to get it into a semi-decent form so it doesn't get lost on the Notes page like so much else.

It really does need more elbow grease and polish, and I agree about the appearance of the Emperor, as well as building up the contrast between the fleets of the Eldar, Tau, and the collection of guns and gold from at least two species that is the Traveling Court.

>Did we agree that Yriel was active at this time?
Yeah, that definitely needs mention. Had the bit about Yriel and Iyanna going Klax-hunting at the end of it, but he would definitely do something.

Could say he was off in the Segmentum Pacificus at the time and it took him that long to get back to Iyanden, but that seems like a cop out especially with the Webway.

>Tau on Lilarsus
The idea of the Tau on Lilarsus is a point in favor of the Tau. Iyanden probably didn't want them there at all but the Tau insisted as a matter of personal honor. The Tau made a mistake by bombing Lilarsus, they insist they make amends and help clean things up as an apology to Iyanden. The presence of Tau battlesuits isn't supposed to be a military presence but a bunch of hazard suits scrubbing radiation.

>Lastly, minor thing: it really isn't the Empty Throne of Earth anymore is it?
Shit you're right.

The question of Yriel was given a loud yes last thread, and the story seems to imply his targeting of Klax, which fits his character and is a fitting adventure. He may also have been involved in the original reprisals against the Tau, but it doesn’t seem like his style to get in formation with the battlefleet when it marshals for the escalating conflict.

Sneaking a bunch of Rangers into Tau territory and back without anyone being the wiser sounds exactly like something Yriel would do.

Also put the info on Shaa-Dome's moons on the Notes page. Just called them "the Cursed Moons" as a placeholder since we never figured out names (not to mention the Crones would call them something different). Did I get everything we talked about? I keep worrying that I'm not picking up everything of importance in the threads.

Was thinking of putting the bits on Arhra's thought process and the god's personalities too if that was okay.

What are you planning user? Some kind of hubworld adventure?

Hydra is the "in" group of Oscar's inner circle, the Alpha Legion is their Black Ops chapter. Versus the Illuminati which is a decentralized group, more of a networking group, of similarly mined higher ups who have their own ideas on how the Imperium should be run.

I destincly remember us going into much more detail some threads back. Idk if it ever got ported over to the wiki.

I don't think it was every defined that clearly, certainly note to the point where we established they're Oscar's buddies. The vague hints and suggestions we have probably communicate the idea of the Hydra better than anything we come up with as concrete fluff probably won't live up to the reputed mind-boggling complexity and secrecy they're supposed to have in-universe.

Broadly speaking, didn't we say the Hydra is a pro-Imperium conspiracy with connections to the Alpha Legion and Omega Marines, where as the Illuminati are those that realize Oscar is a Man of Gold and want to try to hijack his programming? (Having the AL be solely under the command of the Hydra seems wanky to me, I'm pretty sure we said they report directly to the High Lords / High Command of the Guard / whatever delegation of responsibility seems appropriate)

>Por’O M’arc

That is brilliant.

I might have to try and write up his journey to Earth at some point.

It would to the Tau read something like the Voyage of Saint Brendan the Navigator.

It contains a whole bunch of shit the Tau do not actually believe and assume to be either exaggeration or outright fabrication. They assume that Por’O M’arc has either had an elaborate and extended theatre played for him or that they Imperial Authorities have told him what to say. On the basis that he has been told what to say they don't push the issue so that Por’O M’arc can save face but just annotate the official report.

Old Earth has 64 orbital tethers and a railway encircling the globe at the geosynchronous height of the tether-top stations? Bullshit. Maybe it has one or two stations and tethers with adjacent facilities attached remotely. That’s more likely.

There is an irradiated world devoid of joy where the people use conventional war as a training exercise and the people have bar-codes and numbers but no name? Possibly some truth but obviously and exaggeration.

A world on the doorstep of Hell where the people all have purple eyes and have lived in nothing but a state of war for 10,000 years? Again probably an exaggeration. An extended period of war that extends beyond living memory (that’s like 70 -80 for humans, right?) and they live next to an anomaly.

Emperor is the same entity that founded the Imperium himself a relic of another era that can bend reality to his will. And is married to a literal goddess of the eldar people. Calling bullshit. Emperor politically married an eldar High Priestess (who are known to live for stupid long time), inherited name and rank form a predecessor and just happens to be an above average “psyker”. Everything else is clearly just media manipulation. Next you’ll be trying to claim Old Man Va is the First Disciple and other such tinfoil hattery.

Fleets that outnumber the stars, Craftworlds the size of large moons, the teeming numbers of the Hive Worlds, the vastness of the Imperium, the age of the Imperium, the number of member species of the Imperium, the lethality of it’s warrior elite and all the rest of it? All exaggerations at best. Oh don’t get me worng; Por’O M’arc is a well-respected member of the government whose character is beyond question but he is one man and he had Imperial guides who would want him to see only what they wanted him to see.

Then they finally see the Traveling Court and they realize that there may, only may mind you, be some more truth to what Por’O M’arc reported. It’s not until they join the Imperium proper that they get to send their missionaries and observers deeper into Imperial Space. They keep expecting to reach the other end of the Imeprium at some point, they had until fairly recently assumed that Vast and Ancient Ultramar was the core of the Imperium and all this talk of an ancient homeworld out there somewhere was just Atlantis myths to make themselves feel better. But the Imperium just keeps on going and going and going.

By the time they have started to get Tau in the Inquisition in capacities more than just hired help (950M41ish?) they are truly aware of the scale of the pond in which they are very, very small fish and they go over the original copy of the reports written by Por’O M’arc and start comparing it to the things being reported by multiple other sources and they come to a new conclusion; Por’O M’arc didn’t see even a fraction of the fucked up shit out there.

are we keeping admech the same or changing them?
A change that wouldn't drastically change admech could be keeping the legio cybernetica if the emperor decided to let them stay

AdMech are more or less the same. Maybe slightly less arseholeish, more internal factions and factions that get put under the AdMech umbrella by the Imperium at large but have officially told Mars to go fuck itself.

Legio Cybernetica are primarily used by the Hubworlders. Hubworld Engineer Brotherhoods loosely come under the AdMech umbrella but pre-date the Imperium and made it quite clear that they weren't swearing loyalty to the Olympus Mons Brotherhood.

Hubworlders are socialists have universal Longevity among it's citizenry. It's not brilliant. It's not as good as Rejuvinants. It doesn't make or keep you young and you will spend most of your life grey and old. Extremely healthy and spry but ultimately old. As a result of most of the population being old and the young being a small minority they can't afford to field as many soldiers due to the slow rate that their population replenished because of the lack of breeding pairs. To this end they invest heavily in the Legio Cybernetica.

It was described previously that most of the robots have the brain power somewhere between a well-trained dog and a cuttlefish. They don't break the First Commandment because they aren't intelligent enough to be A.I.

AdMech insist that degrees of heresy is still heresy. Hubworlders tell them to go fuck themselves. AdMech erroneously class the Hubworlders as Abhuman because they can be petty bastards.

>Dorf fortress (or something like it) is a training simulator for Hubworld officers.

Who is King of the Hubworlders?

Do they have one? Is it like on Discworld where every group has a king and there is one High/Low King that they all get a say in electing?

They don't have one. The colonies have a board of administrators with an elected head administrator, because although they're socialist space cowboys they know that they have to have some body of people in charge to make decisions. Also the Imperium needs at least one person to be responsible for things that come up and act as a liason (planetary governor), and they don't care if thos person is a king or elected representative or whatever. Hubworlders are a Survivor Civilization and get away with a lot, but they still need someone who nominally speaks for them.

The administrators serve the people, and they're very conscinenscious of that (usually, there are always exceptions). The whole system dates back to the days when the Hub was mainly mining operations run by corporations and colonies.

I don't know how Discworld dwarfs work. It could be that the nominal head of the Hubworld League is voted on by the heads of each hold, but what it really amounts to is who represents the League to the greater Imperium.

A High Foreman? High Representative of Worker's Unions?

They're based off a miner culture, right?

To be honest, I think a lot of us have no clue what's going on with the secret societies. The closest I remember is there's the Hydra, which is pro-Imperium and includes the Alpha Legion and their black ops division the Omega Marines, and then there's the Illuminati, which tend to be bored aristocrats and power-hungry adepts whose motivations range anywhere from benign (seeking knowledge for its own sake, but with a bad habit of poking Tomb Worlds) to dangerous (know Oscar is a Man of Gold and want to reprogram him because they don't like that a human creation is leading humanity).

I think it's not that the Alpha Legion reports to the Hydra, it's that the Hydra refers to Alpha Legion + non-Astartes agents (mostly humans), who technically report to the High Lords but do a lot of shady stuff off the books in the name of stability. A sword to the Inquisition's shield.

At least I think. I think at least some of it might be wrong. And it's possible for someone to play both sides.

This would explain Lusitan.

>Por’O M’arc didn’t see even a fraction of the fucked up shit out there
"To be honest, we didn't show you Savlar or Medusa, because well...they're kind of weird places".

>Next you’ll be trying to claim Old Man Va is the First Disciple and other such tinfoil hattery.
Pic related.

It could be that they have a House of Representatives that rules over them from which is chose an Emissary to speak on behalf of the House to the Imperium.

Emissary is a highly respected position given only to someone of immaculate character, whose voice speaks only truth and whose heart is sturdy as granite. It's just not a job that has any power or authority with it.

Would the Tau even notice the deific qualities of the Emperor? They'd notice the bling, but they're muted to the Warp and I'm not sure if they'd notice the psychic power.

Each colony having a board of administrators that handle local business, who send a representative to a House of Representatives who handle Hub-wide business, who in turn choose an Emissary whose main purpose is to speak on their behalf to the Imperium sounds good to me.

You tend to notice someone switching your ship off remotely.

They wouldn't understand much of what he was doing but the results are very observable.

well, he's an eight foot tall, serene, somewhat inhuman statesman with slightly metallic flesh and ancient golden eyes, and also a super advanced FTL communications transmitter/receiver. I can imagine even the Tau would feel something unnatural in his immediate presence, under his direct attention, and it would be all the more notable for its unfamiliarity. They may not have the frame of reference to know that they're only sensing a fraction of Oscar's psychic presence, and only feel the supernatural glory one could expect from a powerful psyker, but facing the Emperor they stand at the center of an enormous storm of immaterial power, one that even they should have some little sense of. It may not be over or clear to them, but it would probably be the force in their minds that makes them recognize intuitively that they were faced by the fabled 10,000 year old lord of men.

This is definitely true. The Tau would definitely notice this is not your normal gue'la (hell, he doesn't even look like any Space Marine they've seen).

Also thinking about the Croneworlders, would this be a good quote in relation to how the other factions view them?

"First rule of fighting Crones? Don't let 'em take you alive."
- Random Imperial Guardsmen

From the perspective of the average grunt, certainly. Oddball forces like the Daemon Breakers, Arteus’s Chosen, Alpha and Omega Legions, and some of the cadian based Void Wolf descendants might not hold the same view, if only because they have a chance at turnabout or gaining useful info.

Also, the Omega legion is the one that does Crone false flag operations and infiltrating the Fallen, so capture by Crones might occasionally figure into their plans.

Have the Hrud made it to Tau Space yet?

If so have the Tau found out yet?

Depends when now is, but even at the latest point they probably aren’t present in sufficient numbers to gain the notice of the Tau.

Has anyone kept track of our conversations about Macha’s fusion with Isha, Macha’s pre-Raid personality, and the nature of her connection with her goddess. I remember that there was some debate as to whether Isha ‘possessed’ Macha without her consent or if it was a matter of instant and natural compatibility of their beings.

Depends on where Hrudworld is too. In canon there are reports of Hrud on Saim-Hann in the Segmentum Pacificus and Haakoneth and Cinchare in the Segmentum Obscurus.

I think we never got a clear handle on it. The gist of it that I remember was that at the time of the Raid Macha was depressed. Like really, really depressed. She had once been her aggro self that people knew from vanilla, but that had been gradually overlain by despair as years passed since the Fall and it was clear the Eldar Empire was never coming back.

Macha went on the Raid with no expectations. She fully didn't care if she lived or died, heck perhaps if she did die her death would actually accomplish something. But then the Raid actually managed to free Isha and bring her back into realspace, and when they made it out of the Webway gate Macha fell to her knees and felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. Hope.

When Isha was brought through the Webway she stood in her full glory for a brief moment before letting out a peal of pure innocent laughter at finally being freed from that fat bastard before vanished in a flash of light. But then she appeared before Macha. Isha needed a host (she couldn't go back to the Immaterium), and Macha was the best person there in terms of her mindset and openness to the possibility of Isha returning. Macha agreed, and the two basically did a Phoenix Warrior-style fusion dance into the current Isha. This agreement being conducted purely by thought, it took place in the instant between the immaterial Isha vanishing and the new All-Mother arising.

At least that was what I could remember. I think there was something about Macha trying to fill the void by finding religion and becoming an Isha worshipper, which was another reason why Isha appeared before her.

The priesthood of Isha might tell the story of Macha as a morality tale of the importance of keeping faith and hope even in the darkest of hours.

That sounds like a lot of what we had, it would be cool to work that into a writeup somewhere.

Sounds about right, but we should note that only a significant fragment of Isha is in Macha, as no mortal vessel could handle containing the full power of a god. The rest is probably chilling in whatever corner of the Warp Ceggie hangs out in, communicating with and healing her followers through the World Trees and shrines and whatnot.

It's implied that both Ceggers and Isha have downsized in order to stay in the Materium. The mass they have had to loose, rather than just casting it away, is stored in their most devout followers.

In the case of Ceggers thats the Harlequins, Grey Seers and Keepers of the Black Library.

In the case of Isha it's her Handmaidens and Priestesses.

>Grey Seers
I think that may be a typo.

Isha needs a write-up, as does the Emperor and Cegorach, and this would definitely be something that would be worth going in there. I think everyone is generally leery about doing a writeup of the big players because the Emperor, Isha, etc. are such important parts of the setting and so are afraid of making something that doesn't sound right including me.

There was also a mention that Isha tends to limit how much power she channels through Macha because she doesn't want to overload her and burn her out. "Limit" is a bit misleading, because she's capable of channeling Emperor-level power and that's not considered "too much power".

There was a suggestion in an old thread that if Isha made daemons they would probably look like treekin from Warhammer Fantasy. Though this seems like something she would only do in the case of the Rhana Dandra (i.e., versus Nurgle, ecosystem versus ecosystem) or once it's safe to try things without getting instagibbed by Slaanesh. When downsizing/multitasking, the Eldar gods seem more of the mindset of supercharging their followers than making independent entities. Ceggers is implied to have only ever made a grand total of one daemon, and he's the only one crazy enough to consider the idea.

Was going to change the dates to make Krieg fit better with the timeline, when I noticed that Krieg was connected to a whole bunch of other things and pulling on one pulled on everything.

The Ulthran Cartel’s were said to be involved in the financial fiasco that led to Krieg being…Krieg. However Sreta, who founded the Cartel, is said to be only 2300 years old.

There’s also an issue with Yriel (and by proxy Iyanna)’s age. Based on their current birth date they are old for Eldar, right in the typical life expectancy. Eldar don’t get old like humans do (at least not until they reach Eldrad-tiers of age), but it still runs the risk of either of them keeling over at any moment.

The suggested changes are this
- Make Calamity of Krieg between 433.M38 and 616.M38 (maybe a little later). Initial insult that started the whole thing is Administratum putting a price ceiling on guns because of Behemoth because tyranids are now a thing since M37 and we need ALL THE GUNS. Only problem is it shortens Krieg war from 500 years to about 200.
- Make Sreta about 3900 years old. This would make her about late middle age for an eldar circa 999.M41. Sreta would have found her calling in business at about 300.M38, which would mean the Ulthran Cartel had about 130 years for her to come to power and become a Name in business.
- Move Yriel’s birth up 500-1000 years. Right now he’s 4750, which is putting him close to “average” life expectancy for Eldar. Moving him up a millennium would make him about 600-1100 when Kraken happens, which makes sense given that this was one of his first claims to fame. Yriel would be about 3750-4250 as of 999.M41 (and gives us Yriel drama about the eldar equivalent of going gray/midlife crisis [getting “wraithy”?]).
- Kraken hits at the very end of M38 (along with associated events like the Battle of Iyanden and the Tarellian Confederacy). Leviathan hits shortly after in M39, making it a one-two punch the Imperium reels from.

Keep in minf eldar rejuvenents.

So I know we've had several comments in the previous threads before on what the various factions (usually Tau, Necrons, Dark Eldar, and Chaos) have been up to and where they are compared to canon, so I put together a little primer on the 1d4chan on what each of the canon races have been doing as well as the general shape of the universe for people who are new to Nobledark Imperium.

Any thoughts or criticisms on it as well as areas it can be improved would seriously be welcome. I was going to post it here, but I feared it would take up too much space and it includes a lot of formatting. If people don't like it I will take it down.

I don't think I know enough to be able to give a satisfactory answer, but this seems like it should be fine provided it doesn't mess up a bunch of other things as well.

When did Yriel transport the Kriegers to Iyanden to stop the Tyranids? And does this affect any Tanith characters that we have?

Battle of Iyanden. The big one. Iyanna Arienal and the eldar of Iyanden pull all the stops out to beat Hive Fleet Kraken, including mass resurrections of wraithguard and the Avatar of Khaine getting in a fight with a dozen carnifexes. Then Yriel marches half a million Kriegers through the Webway as reinforcements and turns it into a two-front war. Breaks the back of Kraken and marks the turning point in the war.

Kriegers have minds like cold steel boxes. They don't think that much, so they're unlikely to damage the Webway, and you can tell them to just focus on where they're going and don't get distracted by the Webway and they'll do it. They're about the best army you could march through the Webway on short notice aside from the Tau. Yriel still got shit for it afterwards.

Tanith seems to be much later, in the first years of M41.

Only issue seems to be Yriel got his Writ of Trade for saving Tanith, so he was operating as an unlicensed Rogue Trader for at least two millennia beforehand.

>so he was operating as an unlicensed Rogue Trader for at least two millennia beforehand

Privateer Prince, get it right, and he had the approval of the Voidborn, somehow, and of various outcast mechanicus brotherhoods. Really it was all so very legitimate, officer. And might I ask if you have any interest in our goods from far off Stillness, or the exotic wastes of Savlar?

I think its pretty good, there are a number of typos in the teams section, but otherwise all pretty good. It might be good to add a section on Crone factions to make them a more apparent threat.

Pastebin is an option if you want to share something on the thread without making a dozen posts.

The entry seems pretty good but minor quibble regarding the bit about power levels: individual power levels at the top end are down a bit, but overall from a faction perspective they're up. Obviously we have a bunch of the major factions from canon combined into the Imperium, and Imperial tech is probably better than in canon because of cross species tech sharing and because old tech wasn't lost (because no HH). Like modern day humanity in this AU still has things that are gone in canon like volkite weapons and jetbikes, though they are expensive and uncommon.

On the enemy side, the Orks are better organized and all around scarier, the actual main hive fleets have hit for the Nids, there are more awakened Necrons and they're more unified because the Silent King has greater direct control, and the Chaos Gods seem to be more involved in realspace and less so in their Great Game warp shenanigans. So pretty much a big ol clusterfuck all around.

The raid was into the Realm of Chaos not the Eye of Terror.

Most of the Legions split in the lifetimes of their primarchs

Grey Seers in 40k are a secretive order of eldar who have somehow severed their connection to fate. They upset the other eldar by their presence.

They seem to be connected to the Black Library in some manner.

Is there still a penal legion and the Last Chancers?

What are the Vespid like in this AU? I'm assuming that the Tau didn't brain rape them this time around.

The only thing that's been said as of yet is they're one of the few races that joined the Tau Empire before the Imperium, due to their presence in the Tau cluster. I think it was mentioned they saw a lot of similarities between their philosophy and the Tau'va.

Hard to say. It was discussed a bit in previous threads but not much came out of it. One issue with penal legions from a logistical standpoint is they have no innate loyalty and don't want to be there. As was pointed out in another fan project, in a universe with a malevolent, corruptive force like Chaos it's really hard to keep the desperate in line because they have nothing to lose. If it's child's play to perform a ritual that results in daemons in your anus there is little you can do but try to avoid those situations, and authoritarianism is just going to make it worse (more desperation, less care the daemons will eat you too).

Any penal legion not composed of legit volunteers will try to jump chance they get and potentially join Chaos. Even a commissar can only do so much.

On the other hand, the Imperium is very utilitarian, and penal legions sounds like what they would do. Not to mention recruiting a rag-tag team of misfits and crooks is always a thing.

It's also the case that it isn't possession as such. Not the usual kind at least. More like two liquids being poured together.

Isha wasn't an Iron Matron previously. She is now. If she had been before as she is now she would have tried to kick Khaine in the bollock when he started killing eldar before going to the boss.

Presumably if Macha ever dies she will be just Isha again briefly before possessing the nearest suitable Handmaiden.

What is Hubworlder religion like?

There was some talk about it. The Mechanicus who escaped to the Hubworld League brought Omnissiah worship with them. Prometheanism is also popular because it fits naturally with the Hubworlder ideals of communal strength (and because the Hubworld League is within spitting distance of Nocturne). There is also, of course, traditional ancestor worship.

Exactly which, if any, was predominant was never agreed upon.

Part of it was also said to be intentional on Isha's part. Isha knew the galaxy has become a tougher place and she had to get tougher in response. Easiest way is to let more Macha traits in. However, Macha is basically just a few drops in a whole ocean of Isha, so Isha basically just absorbed her.

It may be something like with the Phoenix Lords. I don't know if we ever hammered out exactly how they work (besides reincarnating), but one suggestion is their personalities and memories subtly change with each host like Time Lords, which is why the Craftworlds can't just grill them for answers on what the Empire was like Pre-Fall (except Maugan Ra, but good luck with that). Jain Zar might remember being born on some Exodite world, but she also remembers being born on Alaitoc, and Biel-Tan, and Iyanden. Fuegan has two contradictory sets of memories where he both likes and hates ploins. Their broad personality is preserved but the details change. The idea being that the Rhana Dandra is when their memories will snap together into one cohesive whole (hence them "returning").

Working in the Taskmaster writeup, trying to create an interesting dynamic for the Slaaneshi order in Shaa-Dome and an interesting origin for the Taskmaster. I’m aware that the Taskmaster has a noted interest in industry and ships an an expression of slaaneshi excess, and is chosen from among the worshipers of Slaanesh to run the show so that the god/ess and inner circle can play. As opposed to how Arrotyr is obsessed with restoring the Old Empire and cleansing it, etc, the Slaaneshi faction insist they are the Old Empire, and that it never fell and goes on in glory. I need to decide if the Taskmaster is another prefall eldar or if it was born under the reign of the dark prince.

Also, which of the Crone forces are specifically slaaneshi? I remember the puppets/dolls and various flesh crafters, and slaughtermen and phalanx seem pretty slaaneshi, I’m trying to decide what forces the Taskmaster should be bossing around.

As opposed to how Arrotyr is obsessed with restoring the Old Empire and cleansing it, etc, the Slaaneshi faction insist they are the Old Empire, and that it never fell and goes on in glory.

>I need to decide if the Taskmaster is another prefall eldar or if it was born under the reign of the dark prince.
Arrotyr's fluff has the Taskmaster killstealing from Arrotyr when he attacked the Temple of Isha on Shaa-Dome. You could always say the Taskmaster has been killed and replaced, but IIRC, part of the charm of the four main followers of the Chaos Gods is that they hate each other on a personal level beyond simply worshipping different gods. As a previous user said...

>Arrotyr hates Slaaneshis in general for ruining the Old Empire, the Taskmaster in particular for defeating him in the Fall, Nimina for being an obnoxious Isha-loving slag that escaped him, and The Indigo Crow for being a Tzeentchian and a fuckup
>Nimina hates Arrontyr with a passion for burning the grand temple of Isha, despises Slaanesh but currys favor with the Taskmaster for ships and preaching grounds, and loathes the Indigo Crow for being the Tzeentchian lunatic fuckup that lost her her idol
>The Crow thinks Arrotyr is a small minded and dim impediment to the Old Empire, that the Taskmaster is an easily manipulated pawn that got lucky, and that Nimina is a pathetic liability to Nurgle that should be capitalized on

This could even be expanded for the few cases on which the hatred seems more religion-based than personal hatred.

(cont.)
>Also, which of the Crone forces are specifically slaaneshi?
Crone Chaos worship tends to be Slaaneshi in flavor even when it is based on Khorne, Tzeentch, or Nurgle (case in point, look at Nimina and Malaria). So a lot of them could be non-Slaaneshi. On the other hand most Crones are Slaaneshi or punchclock Chaos Undivided (worship all the gods, but don't actively try to court the blessings of all four).

The correct answer might technically be all of them. As you point out the Slaaneshis think they are the Old Empire, so they might try to boss everyone around. Whether or not they actually listen is another story (see: Arrotyr). Slaanesh is the god of excess after all.

Also, am I the only one who thinks the Taskmaster needs a whip, or is that too much of a Khorne thing?

Okay, added in all suggestions and fixed as many typos as I could find. Only question is a little clarification on what is meant by "add a section on Crone factions".

Ambassador Cyrus Kebede was not typically used to being summoned at such an unreasonable hour. No day in his opinion should contain more than one five o’clock. He knew it wasn’t the Por’s fault. The blue bastards had applied for a replacement Aun three years ago and were still waiting. Por’El Sana’ta Atha was doing the best he could with what he had. For one thing he was still and El when he should by all justice have been and O and that wasn’t making his job any easier, Acting O was a poor substitute for actual O. Especially with rival El’s on the register sheet. But truth be told O or not Tau biologically required less sleep than humans. Or at least less sleep than Ambassador Cyrus Kebede did, especially at the age he was with his grey hair and clicking knees.

Two lean and powerful Fire Caste stood before the door, splendid in their gear and menacing in their armaments as was proper. The inside of the room was… comfy Cyrus assumed. Or at least tried to be by Administratum style. Books around the walls, a desk, dark green leather chairs and carpet. He couldn’t be mad about it, not really. They got heir ideas of what was in style from what they saw on vids. Hw knew damn well that Tau had shot kneel-stools that they half knelt and half stat on and their desks were tables and much shorter.

The ornately decorated door parted and indeed he did see something that was of interest to him. The chair with it’s back to him was not as he had assumed as empty as it looked and a diminutive figure sat in it, covered in layers of old looking cloth.

“Oh” Cyrus said rather flatly. “Oh”.

“You have met them? Good, that’s going to save us all a lot of time” Por Atha said. Clearly he was happy or at least relieved about something.

Cyrus hesitantly walked around to the front of the chair and let out an involuntary groan. “It’s a Hrud. Late juvenile, young adult judging by the size”.

“Wonderful, you have familiarity!”

“Sadly”. Ambassador Cyrus turned towards the figure in the chair several sizes too big for it, it’s feet hidden by rags but presumably dangling above the floor. “how many are coming?”

The hood of the heavy layered robes turned towards him, he caught a glint of what might have been compound eye and a voice like something slithering over a tomb a thousand years dry “Me. Me my kin. Me my folk. Other folk. Time is now of travel, time is now of move. Me my kin, others. We move. Need come here, need scurry, have night here, have places of night always here. Me my kin we Linger here”.

“Can we persuade you not to?” Asked ambassador Cyrus who was fully expecting a weeks worth of duplicate form filling by this time tomorrow. Or actually later today.

“Hold on, hold on. This is a Tau world, I invited you her for your experience, not to claim authority in the matter” said the water caste. It wasn’t an angry statement, they had known each other too long.

“Maybe, Maybe for me my kin. Not for others. We not asking. Can’t stop. Mirror Devils, Mirror Devils awaken from long sleep. Long time. We hide now for now. Hide in the shadows of others. Linger. Once we once built such worlds as this, now no more. Now Linger. Hide. Scurry far from light. Stay safe. Linger. So our Lord tell us. So we do. Maybe me my kin, maybe we leave if asked. Not others. They not me my kin. They come. Can’t stop”. The figure reached a hand further than expected, slowly towards the tea tray on the desk and from the overlong sleeves fell a carved bone totem. The sleeve retracted with the jar of honey.

“Is this a Migration?” Asked the increasingly old feeling Kebede

“Maybe. Maybe more yes. More yes then no. Other come. The godly but godless they build places to hide. We linger there. We linger here. Need to linger and hide”.

“Atha, my friend, I would advise that you don’t try to stop them. You won’t be able to if you tried”.

“Why is th-“ started the grey skinned tau.

Cyrus hoped that what he saw was an optical illusion. He really did no creature should be able to survive being folded 270 degrees on a horizontal axis and then folded in on itself like a collapsing house of cards. The creature vanished and the quill fell from Por’El Sana’ta Atha’s hand as they both stared in horror at the place the chair and it’s occupant had been.

“How did he do that?”

“No idea.”

“Is it teleporting?”

“No”

“Then he is still here but hiding”

“No. He’s gone. The door isn’t air tight”

“It hasn’t opened since you came in, Cy”

“Doesn’t matter. It will have folded itself thin enough to get between the door and the frame or under the door maybe. We don’t know how they do it”.

“Then how can the Empire-“

“Listen, my good friend Atha, there is an old saying amongst my people; Better in here pissing out than out there pissing in. This applies to the Hrud. They are only dangerous if cornered and they don’t take what will be missed. They instinctively try to hide and so will try not to be noticed by you and you people. If they are here the only way to stop them getting to the rest of your Empire would be to quarantine this planet for the rest of time. I suspect that’s not an option”

“It is most certainly is not”

“Then the Tau Empire is going to get a Hrud colony. Don’t worry the rest of the Imperium has them, even the craftworlds”.

The bloody minded space fairy daemon cults lead by the lunatics mentioned here

I just realized something. If Be'lakor is the Last of the Old Ones, and the Navigators were made by splicing Old One DNA into humans, does that mean Be'lakor is known as the Three Eyed King in this timeline?

Also what kind of weapons does Be'lakor wield when he goes to war. As the Last of the Old Ones one would think he would have access to the good shit or know where it was buried. Or does he just snap his fingers and turn his enemies inside out?

Interesting. Like the tone of talking with a non-hostile xenos that clearly doesn't think in human terms.

He's a proto-Old One.

After he became a deamon-prince they continued to evolve. He's some stone age throw back compared to what they became.

Only thing he could know is where the Old One homeworld was, and that's probably not worth knowing. Be'lakor is a fuck up and a worthless relic with a court made of rejects. He has delusions of greatness because he thinks that Old = Important when old can just mean obsolete.

Here, have a pic of the original orks. How long would they last in M41?

I agree that compared to the Chaos Gods, C'tan, Gork and Mork, and the like he's small pickings, and he's nowhere near what he claims he is/wants to be, but he's still one of the big warlords of Chaos.

He probably doesn't have access to anything that can make the Chaos Gods sneeze, and he'd probably go down to the likes of Oscar, Isha, Lady Malys, and the Swarmlord, but just because he's obsolete by the standards of the Chaos Gods doesn't mean he wouldn't be a nightmare for say an Astartes chapter.

I mean the Tarellians dropped him down a chasm and he retaliated by steering Kraken right through their space.

>However, Macha is basically just a few drops in a whole ocean of Isha, so Isha basically just absorbed her.
Except that the nature of the prayers to her, the belief in her, that nature has changed and so she is slowly changing to follow that. She is totally unaware of this as it is slow and subtle, a change over the millennia. The changes that she has noticed she's put down to Macha, and that's not wrong as such, but it ain't the whole story.

Do we have anything in the notes about Tsar Doombreed's tinpot dictatorship beyond the eye? I remember there was some fun stuff about him exporting heldrakes and getting in fights with the commanders of the Fallen that Malys needs to arbitrate to preserve Black Crusades.

You've pretty much summed it up. Invented Helldrakes, which are made with regular plebs horribly fleshmelded into aerial machines to make Daemon Engines (when he was mortal they were "just" physically integrated into the plane like a dreadnaught), and is another important Chaos player if for no other reason than he runs the most organized group of the Lost and the Damned who actually have an industry base rather than relying on being raiders and doing temp work for the Dark Mechanicus.

Someone was writing up Doombreed's fight with the four primarchs (and hence the origins of the Blood Pact), but it never materialized.

I think was mentioned (and in hindsight it's pretty obvious) that the Blood Pact's heavily favors an interpretation of Chaos which puts Khorne as the dominant Chaos God and all other gods are subordinate to him (BLOOD KING OF THE GALAXY), seeing as Khorne is Doombreed's patron and saved him from dissipating in the Warp without getting his revenge.

So this is 200% non-canon and way too much of a “reference for the sake of reference” thing, but it’s something goofy I thought that others would just find fun to read.

He rushed through the door, the elevatus doors clicking shut behind him. Kais fell to his knees and breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the splat of Blue Horrors against the door behind him. It was only when he had a moment to catch his breath that Kais realized he was separated from his team. Alone. Again.

Kais wasn’t superstitious, but the number of times this happened was almost enough to make him believe this “Murphy” the others in the Gue’vash’vre’s retinue kept talking about really existed.

The Gue’vash’vre, the Inquisitor, had been investigating a trading company looking to exploit suspicious goods that had been obtained from a Rogue Trader. The goods, sure enough, had been artifacts tainted by the Warp, and when the Gue’vash’vre had tried to intervene things had of course Gone Horribly Wrong and the artifacts had summoned daemons.

Daemons. It always had to be daemons. Or cultists. Or genestealers. Why couldn’t the Gue’vash’vre ever uncover a conspiracy that was devoted to breeding fluffy gyrinxes or something.

The vox speaker in the elevatus suddenly crackled to life. Kais perked up. He didn’t know the vox systems were still working down here. If anything it would have to be one of the traders, who he had seen run deeper into the facility when the daemons attacked.

“I’m willing to take responsibility for the horrible events of the last twenty-four hours,” the raspy voice claimed, “but you must understand, our interest in the Warp was purely for the greater good…”

Greater good? What did this gue’la take him for, a Shas’Saal? Did he think that just by saying the name of the Tau’va it would miraculously make everything that had happened justified?

(cont.)
He couldn’t stand these kind of people. The ones who thought hyperspace and the things inside it were just a toy. He could understand it back home in the Empire, but here? They played with fire, but they weren’t the only ones to suffer the consequences when everyone else got burned.

“Everything has clearly gotten out of hand now…”

Kais stood and took a moment to examine the corpse sharing the elevatus with him. Ever since the events of Dolumnar IV he had become familiar with the sight of death at the hands of the Neverborn. Far too familiar. He only got a glance before he had to look away, but the image was burned into his brain. He wanted to tell himself that the gue’la had died in some other way, but he knew that wasn’t true.

The man had died screaming.

Kais felt a chill run down his spine. There it was again, the same feeling he had felt on Dolumnar IV. He tried to keep it locked up, and on most days he succeeded, but sometimes it couldn’t help but get out, especially when exposed to this…this injustice.

The people he had met across the galaxy called it many things. Righteous fury. The warrior’s madness. Kais knew all they were but flowery names for what it really was.

Anger.

“…but it was worth the risk, I assure you.”

Kais put his fist through the voxcaster.

Well, even if it's a bit heavy-handed with the references, it was indeed fun to read and the explanation is pretty plausible. And knowing the Imperium's luck, any fluffy gyrinx breeding program is likely corrupted by Slaaneshi magics or influenced by pain and suffering extracted from Dark Eldar/Mechanicus soul-sucking machinery.

In the name of the Imperium, this thread is bumped. The Emperor and Empress shall know of our efforts to hold back the sword above our heads that is known as autosaging!

In all seriousness, do we have title suggestions for this? It provides a nice little demonstration of how the Hrud are strange to other sapient species.

For some reason I can imagine "learning like a blue traveler" or "curious as a Tau" becoming sayings among Imperials after their induction, but the Tau themselves being a bit put off or patronized with how they're being seen as eager students

Nice. Someone's going to get fucked yp.

I will try my hand at some more writefaggatory if thread still up after work

New Neighbors?

I got the idea when I realized how easily Hayden's infamous speech could be tweaked into "the Greater Good", and if you said that in front of Kais he'd go "U wot m8?".

That sounds good.

>So this is 200% non-canon

Sadly. It's great and fits.

I hadn't gone on the 1d4chan page in a while so I took this as a chance to take a read through and I have a few thoughts:

1. Holy fuck our fluff is in depth, especially the notes page, which I guess is the inevitable result of a dedicated group of nerds sperging out for 2+ years now (and I mean this in the best way possible).
2. The Phoenix Lords need more fluff throughout Imperial history, as they're Primarch-tier figures and, as the Eldar smugly note, are still alive and kicking. Perhaps we graft them into some battles that have already been written, or do some more canon importing?
3. In the Notes page, Legienstrasse is mentioned to be one of hundreds of Maerorus assassins, the rest of which have gone rogue. Not sure I'm on board with this, as I don't think whoever wrote that considered the ridiculousness of having that many Maerorus running around. In canon Legie required Imperial Fist veterans, an Emperor's Champion, 2 grandmaster Assassins, an Eversor, and Darnath Motherfucking Lysander to take out, which in terms of power levels makes her one of the strongest figures in 40k and probably above a Bloodthirster. Hence it's probably a bit ridiculous of hundreds of them are running wild in this AU.

In terms of Legienstrasse the others are Maerorus but they are not assassins and never were. All the other test subjects were failures.

The rest of the Maerorus population are her children and grand children.

Also the Vanilla Legienstrasse was so hard to take down because the Imperium had no prior experience. They do now. Now they know that telekinesis and fire are good. Lift it off the ground and burn it, can't regenerate from ash.

>He knew damn well that Tau had shot kneel-stools that they half knelt and half stat on and their desks were tables and much shorter.

This raises the question. Do Eldar, who in terms of real-life culture are equal parts inspired by the Celts, Chinese, Japanese, Greek city-states pre- and post-Rome, etc. have tables? What do they look like? Do they have normal chairs and humans basically have to sit at one of those high bar seats or do they stand?

>Holy shit the fluff
And it's not even all there.

>Legienstrausse
There was a lot of debate over where the other Maerorus came from. Some say they are Legi's children, other point out letting your part kroot, part tyranid assassin whose capabilities are unknown breed naturally is Darwin Award level stupidity. Others suggested that a few other Maerorus survived, and it's them and their children that's the problem. I think the joke was that there were 10,000 candidates, hence they were legion. However, it was suggested only like 100 survived, and of those only Legi wasn't crazy.

>Phoenix Lords
Battle of Anaen needs fluff. Happened at same time as WotB and primarchs being awesome, Maugan Ra and Baharroth fighting back and back to save Baharroth's home (only managed to save some of the populace, but still).

He is on par with Doombreed in terms of actual ability.

The big difference is that Doombreed is happy to serve so long as he gets to rebuild Ursh v2.0, Be'Lakor dreams of being a god himself and not just that but over-god of all. He is an Old One, last of and therefore heir and once upon a time the gods were beneath his people on the pecking order and so he believes he should be above them.

Which of the Phoenix Lords would be most/least in favour of the Imperium?

>Be'lakor's power level.

This makes perfect sense. Be'lakor is dangerous, but he likes to hype himself up as a lot more dangerous than he actually is. He sees himself as a natural god when at best he is evil amphibian Neil Armstrong.

>Phoenix Lords in regards to the Imperium
Just going by the previous fluff.

Asurmen - Technically pro-Imperium. Extreme pragmatist, willing to throw old attitudes out the window if it meant the eldar survived (he agreed to the Raid, after all). Doesn't get as much shit over it compared to Eldrad because Eldrad is willing to publicly thumb his nose at the seer councils when he thinks they're being stupid whereas Asurmen tends to ignore politics. Asurmen and Eldrad butt heads sometimes, but they have the same goals.
Arhra - Liked the idea of Imperium as meatshields. Didn't like the idea of the Imperium and Eldar pissing off Cthulhu and friends.
Baharroth - Eldar's burden. Feels it's up to the children of Isha to save the rest of the galaxy from themselves.
Fuegan - Gets along with just about everyone.
Jain Zar - Most pro-Imperium out of any of the Phoenix Lords. Has no rosy memories of the Old Empire, seeing them as a bunch of hedonistic nutjobs, and sees Dark and Crone Eldar as an extension of their depravity.
Maugan Ra - Probably second-most pro-Imperium, potentially tied with Asuryan. Cynic who sees everyone (including himself) as an equally big fuck-up, so no point in anyone trying to put on airs (ironic for Baharroth's brother).
Karandas- Unknown.
Irillyth - Unknown. From Myrmeara which might affect things.
Drastanta - Unknown.
Lhykosidae - We don't even know if the guy exists. If he does he might be from Kaelor...

Am I remembering correctly that the Savlar Chem Dogs are technobarbarian mobile infantry with broken down relics of the Great and Bountiful Human Dominion preserved by the savlar brotherhood?

Basically yes.

Given the existence of Irillyth and Lhykosidae being from craftworlds that came late to the party it would seem that they must have developed independent of Asurmen.

I'm not sure, Savlar is on the 1d4chan page so it might say there.

A quick question. I'm working on an idea for the Croneworlders, and I'm wondering what the title would be for someone whose job it is to capture, create, and break the various abominations the Cronedar use in battle or sell to the Dark Eldar. I was going to call them "beastmasters", until I noticed that was already a Dark Eldar thing.

Then I thought about calling them "taskmasters", since it makes sense that in addition to "The" Taskmaster you would have lesser ones that keep the Crones on track, wrangle marionettes, etc. However, I noticed that those all seem to be separate ranks (marionettes are controlled by Masters, Crone Infantry are commanded by Subjugators), so whoever controls the warp beasts needs their own title.

Nightmare Herder

Handler

Neverborn Shepard

Summoner

Houndbinder

So what boundaries should I try to stick to writing a story about them on deployment? I'm trying to get a sense of the proportion I guess.

binder or summoner sound good, particularly if they tent to also call on daemons. They may even 'tame' their beasts by opening them to possession.

In what way?

Also Savlars or PLs?

>Nightmare Herder
Oh the irony.

Okay, here's the idea. One is a Cronedar unit the other is a Cronedar special character. Not sure how well the first is written, it's more to get the idea out there than anything else.

Nightmares are some of the most depraved of all Crone Eldar creations, living siege engines that lay waste to anything in their path. Nightmares are in effect perversions of spirit stone technology, the same technology that keeps the souls of Craftworlders from being eaten by She Who Thirsts upon their demise. Crone Eldar normally hate spirit stones, calling them “soul traps” and seeing them as barriers that keep eldar from being closer to their gods, but they are more than creative enough to turn this technology to their own needs. Although spirit stones are normally used to protect the recently dead, they can also be used as holding vessels for souls forcibly ripped out of their host bodies. Dark Eldar have used this to forcibly swap the souls of different races as part of their sick pleasures. Crone Eldar have taken this concept and weaponized it. And being on the Crone Worlds, the developed worlds of the Old Eldar Empire, the Crone Eldar have a lot of spirit stones to work with.

Nightmares are massive goliaths, made of hundreds of stolen souls linked together into wraithbone lattices and clothed in warp-tainted flesh often stolen from the bodies of slaves. The souls that compose a Nightmare are all aware of their situation and feel the sensation of their entire body, but are typically only able to control a small portion of their form. This decentralization makes Nightmares incredibly hard to kill, as they are able to ignore most forms of pain not specifically tailored to harm them by their masters and will keep fighting until they are too damaged to move. In order to impose some degree of control over the Nightmare, all of the souls composing the abomination are linked to a single empty spirit stone, which is able to coordinate the movements of the entire monstrosity despite each individual soul only able to control a small portion of the beast. Typically, the only way is to destroy this linking spirit stone, and sets the component souls of the Nighmare free (to where is unknown, but it is arguable that even oblivion is preferable to life as a component of a Nightmare).

Being living macabre works of “art”, no two Nightmares are the same, whether in the number of eyes, number of arms, number of heads, even the very souls that make up their being are often taken from a multitude of species. The only similarity is that all Nightmares fear the lashes of the Taskmasters that drive them into battle. The only pleasure they ever receive is the flood of endorphins remotby remote control at the end of each successful battle, which coincidentally sedate a Nightmare and make it possible for other Crone Eldar to wrangle it back into containment. On rare occasion, a particularly brave or foolish Crone Eldar will actuall be able to break an abomination and ride it into battle, typically those Eldar devoted to courting the favor of all four Chaos Gods simultaneously, seeing as they tend to not have much of a survival reflex in the first place.

In terms of appearance I was thinking a "generic" Nightmare looks somewhat apelike, maybe something like Sammael from the first Hellboy movie with a latticework of spirit stones covering it's body and a lizard-like tail.

Savlar, and I'm trying to decide how powerful the Chem Dogs and their weapons should be, and their general look. The far ends of what I'm picturing are the golden gun I posted versus the aesthetic of something like this pic. Then in terms of power, are they equivalent to other guard, Securitas, do they approach Astartes?

Savlar wasn't really a true survivor civilization and was only designated as one for political reasons, and thus had and probably still any significant interstellar ships, but their warriors could pe pretty powerful and mostly limited by scarcity.