How long would 40k last against the Powers Of Night?
How long would 40k last against the Powers Of Night?
Dominic Wood
Aaron Martinez
thats a good question, user. But unfortunately by the time the nameless hero is around in the story, the powers of night have mostly all been long paralyzed, so long that they don't really directly do much, so it's difficult to assess precisely how powerful they are. Other than statements implying that once they begin to move again, IT'S HAPPENING, it's hard to guess their power level, is what I'm saying.
All that being said, I believe that 40k could last against them, if 40k played it smart and avoid most direct confrontations with them.
Here is an interesting plot twist though; the powers of night are opposed by chaos, as well as imperium, few know why.
spoiler: the chaos gods fear the powers of night because where the chaos gods bring mayhem and destruction, the powers of night bring utter nonexistence, void, sterility, entropy, NOTHINGness.
Luis Nguyen
Irreverent. By the time the sun starts to fade as it's eaten by the Night the Imperium is already millions of years dead.
Now if the Powers of Night were to start showing up in the Imperium at an earlier date shit would get interesting. They are supersized Bio-titan Deamon Princes drawing their essence from somewhere hideous that whilst malevolent doesn't seem to be the Warp.
They are presumably resistant or outright immune to mundane weapons in some way as it seems unlikely that in the Days of the Red Sun mankind wouldn't have used everything they had.
Also the encroaching darkness is the stuff of reality itself breaking down in some way as the universe at a very fundamental level is devoured or at least drained. Imperium and others could hold out for a while by dispelling the symptoms like it does with any other assault both overt and covert (killing mutations, banishing deamons/Silent Ones, nuking Watchers and Things That Nod, setting up a prayer cordon and soaking in burning promethium manifestations of the House of Silence etc.) but eventually they are trying to bucket water out of a boat with more holes than a sieve and it all breaks down at once as resources are stretched too thin across too far.
This is assuming that the Powers of Night are attacking the entirety of the 40k universe equally and they have unlimited resources to draw upon.
Although every one of the half billion citizens of the Redoubt are psychic they aren't drawing on the Warp. Or they are drawing on a stable and relatively safe pocket of it around the Redoubt known as the Earth-Current. Either way we don't know how The Watchers, The Silent Ones, The House of Silence or The Giants will react if, as an example, the Apex Twins decide to pull their limbs off for fun.
We also don't know how they feel about space ships.
Ian Perez
If we include Awake In The Night Land, and similar such tales, then the Powers Of Night are a fullblown plague upon all of existence, and have already infested nearly every galaxy throughout the universe. The only reason why Earth managed to survive for as long as it did was both because of the Forces Of Good, the Earth-Current and the Master Word. Everywhere else, and every other race got eaten horribly or adjust straight up committed seppuku to avoid the same fate as those before them.
Jack Jackson
I'm not trying to start a canonicity war here but the only work that I consider valid is Hodgeson's own work, as far as my view goes (and it is my view only, you are entitled of course to your own view) the dream of X and every recent thing is invalid and not canon.
All that being said, what you're saying is essentially what I was saying, the powers of chaos bring mayhem, destruction, and nastiness, the powers of night appear only at the appointed time, and bring absolute nonexistence.
But now I'm wondering what would happen if the powers of night got blasted by real actual sunlight from a star. Would they shrivel up and be dead like a vampire? Explode? Get the measles? Hard to say.
Jaxson Howard
go back to your general, 40kids, and stop trying to compare good settings against your shit one.
Adrian Hill
Wasnt it implied even in the original story that the Dark Powers ate the stars and all light beyond what the Earth Current provides? I remember that being one of the various implications and theories posited in the original story as to why things were shrouded in constant blackness.
Austin Myers
I haven't read it is so long I honestly don't remember, but I can see that as a possibility. However I seem to remember that it wasn't actually completely totally absolutely utterly dark-dark, it was more just very, very veeeeery low light. Like less light than 1 birthday candle spread over each mile or something similar.
Jaxon Powell
Huh, so it's just "Extremely Advanced Darkness", instead of being pure "STYGIAN BLAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCKKK, ITS CRAWLING IN MY EYES" kinda dark? Interesting.
Jaxson Johnson
Imagine what the world would be like if the average amount of light per mile was somewhere between 1 lit match and one nearly-dead flashlight. that's how I picture it. It isn't so dark your eyes can't see the light, but it is very, very dark.
Isaiah Powell
>Powers Of Night are a fullblown plague upon all of existence
There's like half a dozen of those already in 40k. They still job to Space Marines. If fucking Chaos, Necrons, Tyranids and Enslavers lose to a couple of thousand awesome power armour dudes and their invulnerable protagonist fields then some third rate cosmic horror isn't going to do shit, especially with the fact they just got upgraded to be twice as wanky as before. The only force that will beat space marines is diversity-quota strong females, who are the only entities with even more fanatical author favouritism.
Jack Hernandez
Which probably makes seeing certain Pneumavores like the Black Masses a bitch znd a half, dince theyll just blend in near-perfectly. You could quite literally run right into a horrible soul-eating aberration and you wouldn't know until it was too late to do anything.
Joshua Harris
user, most Night Land related pieces nowadays literally feature the Dark Powers having infested every galaxy, every star, and every timeline throughout existence that even the core fundamentals of being are starting to break apart. If not even the Last Child (almost literally the Messiah) and Capital G God can do anything against even things like the Silent Ones and such, which are midtier evil powers at best, what makes you think Sphess Marines stand a better chance?
Owen Green
They're extremely ill defined, so about as well as you want them to.
In the first place, there's still plenty of stars and light to go around in 40k. And chaos is eternal.
Kevin Perez
Most likely the humans of the time period have night vision goggles. So it may not be as hard as all that.
Nicholas Green
The idea of Night vs Chaos is pretty fucking entertaining. On the one hand the Pneumavores eat souls but on the other hand Chaos probably not health food.
Two alternate universes, Chaos devouring from "beneath" and Night coming in from "above". Humanity in it's little enclaves digging the fuck in. If the war ends without them both achieving mutual destruction it's going to be a bad day but if the end of the war doesn't come they will die eventually regardless.
And there at the hear to it all, in the ruins of a cursed wasteland it lies The Redoubt. Outside the boundary walls, NIght Eternal. A cursed world. Inside the walls, a cursed city, stretching from Giant's Kiln to Red Smoke. An unbroken grey alloy landscape. 800 million people living in the ruin of the old world and the besieged structures of the new one. Mega blocks. Mega highways. Mega City One. Convulsing. Choking. Breaking under its own weight. Citizens in fear of the night. The Silent Ones. The Pneumavores. Only one thing fighting for salvation in the night: the men and women of the Hall of Justice. Juries. Executioners. Judges.
Dylan King
Ryan Taylor
at the end of time or whenever the nightlands happens? who knows, everyone is going to be dead by then
if they were to start appearing during? they become one more horror in a doomed galaxy, rivals to the C'tan or the four
Charles Parker
The original book was simply 'the unimaginably distant future', I don't think it was literally meant to be the END of time.
Lucas Nguyen
Depends, when does Sailor Moon show up to wipe the floor with both sides?
Isaiah Wilson
I don't think even Sailor Moon has what it takes to turn the tide against the Powers Of Night.
Samuel James
>I don't think even Sailor Moon has what it takes to turn the tide against the Powers Of Night
I don't usually agree with pic related, but this time he is right.
Isaiah Parker
If not just call in backup
Luke Evans
The Night Lands is basically 40k but with Nurgle winning the great game.
Angel Parker
Pfft id just steal the Powers of Night.
Dominic Sullivan
Jordan Mitchell
>Precure teams engage in combat with the Watching Things and their ilk, whilst the Senshi do battle with the Lifeless Tree and its armies, as Usagi herself squares off with the Silent Ones and the greater servants of darkness
>The IOM and the Redoubt work to hold back the tides of abhumans that surge forth at the behest of their dark masters, and run damage control
Would be cool in all honesty.
>Implying Carmen Sandiego isn't a Power Of Night herself
James Stewart
HeartCatch Precure could probably take most of whatever the Powers of Night throw at them
"The grand flower that blossoms throughout the universe! Infinite power... Infinite love... the starry-eyed Pretty Cure... Heartcatch Pretty Cure, Infinity Silhouette!”
Jayden James
Infinity Silhouette could likely take out everything barring the absolute highest manifestations of the Dark Powers. As in, the ones that just gulp down galaxies like sweet rolls.
Jeremiah Bennett
Possibly, but seeing as how Dune, an incredibly powerful entity that turns planets to deserts and was as big AS a planet, and Mugen Silhouette completely curb-stomped him without ANY effort, I imagine the highest manifestations would require her to actually fight. Precures are pretty much ideal for fighting any kind of "dark power" as their abilities are literally "purify/destroy evil"
Brayden Sanders
I believe I know a way to resolve this question. However, the first thing we need to do is create stat-blocks for the specific powers of night. In my interpretation of them, which is based on what I've read in the original Night Land and on what I've seen in art searches, the powers of night do not want to actually attack the redoubt until they are at absolute maximum power in the final era of total darkness, so during the lit night era, they don't move, at all. They don't even so much as lift a finger, focusing all thought on SAP THE EARTH CURRENT. They went so far with this that they even ALLOWED themselves to be paralyzed because they knew it wouldn't harm them, and they knew that it would sap the earth current even more. However, they are also beings of psychic abilities and true magic abilities (similar to reality bending), and as a result, they are steadily dissipating their power as forms of opponents, and steadily absorbing the earth current. These dissipating emissions take the forms of things like the dogs, the silent ones, ab-humans, pneumavores, etc. They do this by simply existing in physical forms, and it is not a conscious effort.
What they do not understand is that everyone, everything, is answerable to capital G God's plan(tm), even them, and that their method of attack always leads to their final defeat, when the kill switch in the redoubt is used at the final hour.
Kaboom
Juan James
>What they do not understand is that everyone, everything, is answerable to capital G God's plan(tm), even them, and that their method of attack always leads to their final defeat, when the kill switch in the redoubt is used at the final hour.
This is true actually, even in the works that followed the original. The Powers Of Night, whilst they can drain the Earth Current and slap the Forces Of Good around all day everyday, this inevitably makes them unfathomably arrogant and self-assured of their victory. It's the reason that at the very tail end of "Last Of All Suns" that they lose just as they're on the cusp of complete victory. They were so focused on infesting the new universe to be that they forgot to make sure that God couldn't respond to humanity's cries and come to the rescue.
Lincoln Gonzalez
I don't use the word epic very often but I just had an epic thought. Capital G God revives every sun in the universe just as the powers of night are striking in the last minutes of existence.
So the next thing to sort out, is what ARE the powers of night, and why do they desire the earth current? Do they even consider or foresee the possibility of their final ultimate and complete defeat? Do they even think thoughts or feel feelings, or are their actions mindless instincts and urges like those of the great old ones and outer gods? I don't use the word ultimate very often but here I'm going to, wouldn't it be the ultimate irony if the powers of night were utterly mindless beings who were doing this based purely on their ingrained needs and instincts?
John Hill
The original novel doesn't really expand on what the Powers Of Night WANT (aside from devouring every soul they can), but Awake In The Night Land amongst others, provides some decent "characterization" for them, and shows that they are quite capable of plotting and planning in the long term if they so choose.
In fact, the first tale in AWITNL shows that the Silent Ones are so horribly patient that they can and will literally wait uncountable thousands of years for a single human to step out of the Redoubt to try and locate a fallen bastion of man.
Nathaniel Thomas
Plot armor.
Carson Wilson
So, can someone tell me from where those "Power of Night" come?
Carter Clark
It is never explained.
Isaiah Hall
No, no I meant from what setting/game they are? I can't find anything by just searching on Google
Elijah Gonzalez
Oh okay, its from a book called 'The Night Land', it was published in 1912 by William Hope Hodgeson. There is a reprint of it called The Dream of X, as well.
Chase Butler
How long would 40k last against the Power of Love?
youtube.com
Jayden Ramirez
Ty my dude, but also fuck you for making me add another name to the list of books I have to read. It's neverending at this point and it keeps growing.
Ayden Evans
what is the power of the night? the only thing im familiar with is the song from critters.
youtube.com
is it just cthulu type stuff?
Austin Jones
See
Andrew Campbell
Different user. House on the Borderlands confirms it's a multidimensional deal and that the Powers of Darkness just consume one universe and move to the next.
Earth is still vaguely lit by volcanism all over so it's not pitch black but definitely low light with only the magma pouring out in various areas providing ambient light.
Oliver Hill
>is it just cthulu type stuff?
The Powers Of Night are the big, big, big baddies from the Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. And Night Land is basically the Ur-cosmic Horror Story, and it predates Lovecraft and his whole mythos by quite a bit.
Oliver Wood
I would say that Cthulhu is the ~sort~ of being the night powers are similar to, but that the night powers are the ultimate evolutionary form of beings like Cthulhu, and are infinitely more powerful, in every single way, than any great old one or outer god. Except possibly Azathoth or Yog-sothoth.
Jacob Russell
What about Yom-Kippur?
Luis Martin
OY GEYFLAVEN! ETHEL! GET DA TZIT-TZIT!
Josiah Walker
How long would 40k last against 40k?
Oliver Lee
>GRUD BLESS THIS HOUSE
Aiden Miller
It's available on the internet as a (rather long) audio book.
Leo Davis
About the extended lore. What is good enough to read? Just to set a meter, I read Awaken in the Nightland and overall it's a 5/10. Has some nice bits and concepts, but the writer is not very good, he butchered the lore and the style of the original book, i.e. sometimes he uses the word "score", others "twenty", and I don't know if he knows what "score" means (twenty or about). Also some of his lines are pure exposition, he could have deloped them a little more.
And I need to mention, this line made me pause for a long time
>How strange that, so many millions of years after it could not ever be found again, lovers still sought twilight
Mankind is indeed doomed.
Cameron Peterson
Start with this, and then when you're finished, I recommend Eater and other such things, along with one story called "Narcissus" (which I'll provide links to if you so need).
nightland.website
Austin Bell
Just going to point out, the powers of Night are basically c'tan, right down to eating sun's and souls. Glad to have another night lands setting though. Still.working on my setting. Decided to keep the earth blood fluid, and the primary weapons of the Dodmen is going to be sharp Bident 'tuning forks' that are energized and vibrate at the mathematic oscillation of the earth hymn (which is the tone AUM), both physically and magnetically.
Nathan Cooper
>fighting the darkness with ohm-sticks
I dig it.
Luis Campbell
Not sure that would work as you think it would, wouldn't the vibration of repeat hitting break the bident?
Xavier Powell
In real physics? Absolutely. I may just make it magnetic oscillation. But science fantasy doesn't have to make pure sense
Sebastian Scott
Perhaps it's like magic or something similar, you don't actually hit with it, you just bang the base against the ground and then it makes the sound and the sound is what actually harms things?
Thomas Lopez
Daniel Reed
No, I'll just go with the magnetic oscillation at that frequency. The weapons are charged as well. The actual sound can come from the Dodmens singing, as they'll be trained to chant the earth hymn (AUM) as a mind cleanser and protective charm
Landon Brown
No just out dated science from 1910.
Julian Fisher
It's not enough. We must go deeper.
The Last Redoubt is Minas Tirith in some hideous and distant future in which Morgoth has returned. Arda is lost but for one last spark of defiance under constant siege.
The Judges are a re-emergence of Númenórean bloodlines, possibly intentionally isolated and recreated in some forgotten past era before Ungoliant ate the sun but in the vast time after Aragorn of the Dúnedain reunited the kingdoms.
The Monstruwacans are the inheritors of the old White Council even it is rumoured to contain a few of the original members.
The direct mind destroying nature of the forces of Night are kept out of the Redoubt by the presence of the remaining Rings of Power, now slaved to the authority of Arkenstone. It is unknown how long the light within that rock will shine for. Once it is gone a bad time is going to be had by all.
The Judges patrol the inside of the Redoubt for corruption and darkness that has seeped in so that it does not fester and rot the defences from within, the great white mithril braced walls are manned by the soldiers in their bright polished silver.
A white tree grows at the heart of the largest cavern, sapling of an older tree that was in turn spawned from one before it in an unbroken line well beyond this dark age. There is no other like it and it's origin lost to time and unknown to all but the eldest of the eldest of the Monstruwacans.
Jace Ortiz
This is a very good way of interpreting Night Land stuff in a setting like LOTR. Especially the bit with Morgoth returning.
Thomas Ross
To be honest, the powers of the night don't seem any more powerful than the C'tan, and they were taken out by the crons. I suppose the crux of the question comes down to if the powers of the night can be sharded or something similar.
If so, then they're destroyed by the crons.
Logan Fisher
>40k could last against them, if 40k played it smart and
> if 40k played it smart
You and I both know thats not happening. This is the same Imperium that still insists on using ramming ships against Tyranid Swarms.
Dylan Reyes
About the science in the Nightland, I got the impression that those metal books are some kind of data slates. It's pretty neat for a book writen in 1912.
Gabriel Turner
40k has already destroyed itself.
Juan Ramirez
Also Judge Dredd the Last Redoubt is Minas Tirith + Mega-City 1
Sebastian Anderson
>Just going to point out, the powers of Night are basically c'tan, right down to eating sun's and souls.
Yep, which puts them two-tiers below space marines. Necrons beat the c'tan and SM beat necrons.
Just in case anyone is unfamilar with the sheer power of space marine plot wank:
>the ruinous powers of chaos are ultimate cosmic horror entities, literal gods, who have consumed countless universes
>they are described as having already won by GW writers, but still lose to space marines
>their only effective method for fighting space marines is to steal some space marines and turn them into chaos space marines
>chaos space marines still lose like chumps to loyalists all the time
>therefore adding the power of cosmic entities to space marines makes them weaker
Ryder Smith
bamp
Caleb Walker
It's not enough. It needs to go deeper.
The land underneath the great fortress Minas Tirith, home of the millions of the Free Peoples, is hollowed out greatly by the dwarves in ages long past. In part for their need for metals and space but also far from where many dwell a place at the end of winding tunnels.
A repository of all the strangeness discovered be men and elves and dwarves. Here it is the worst of it kept, the worst of it that has not escaped already.
The things deemed safe have been released for the good and proper use of the many, but not all of it can be safely used no matter how careful people are. The mad, the wise, the eccentric and insane that man this distant outpost have one mission
Secure
Contain
Protect
Christian Peterson
The Powers Of Night gulp down universes like smoothies user, all before moving onto the next to repeat the cycle ad infinitum. They're a fair bit higher on the powerscale than what the Crons dealt with in the C'tan to be honest.
Dominic Bailey
whats a power of night
Juan Thompson
The omnipresent and invidious force acting on everything and making everything shit.
It manifests overtly with things like The Silent Ones, The Watchers and The House of Silence but also more subtly with the gradual decaying of things like smothering the sun over millions of years and making fairy lights the lure people into the darkness to be consumed or twisted.
Jace Perry
Damn someone's mad people are fans of franchises that aren't his... You should be less silly, user
Grayson Mitchell
Charles Parker
Even deeper.
The Powers of Night are the Hundred from Second Apocalypse are the nightmares of the Amaranth.
Jack Russell
Heres a simple experiment you can do to see how you might feel in the night land.
Shut out or turn off every form of light you have in a room, get it as nearly completely dark as you can, then, light 1 birthday cake candle and put it dead center of the room.
That is about the amount of light that exists for each mile of ground.
Jaxson Sanchez
Gavin Sullivan
Correct me if I'm wrong here but weren't all the watchers paralyzed or otherwise immobilized?
Seem to remember some had some very slight movement capability.
Aiden Rogers
>Correct me if I'm wrong here but weren't all the watchers paralyzed or otherwise immobilized?
Yup. All of the Watchers were prevented from advancing towards the Redoubt by the Powers Of Good, who positioned themselves in ways that kept them from moving much, aside from things like their heads or such. The above pic is of the Southern Watcher I believe, that was blocked by a giant dome of light.
Noah Clark
Oh right, for some reason I thought the dome of light was surrounding the watcher like some form of aura. I haven't read the book in a very long time, must have just misremembered.
Jack Lewis
Wikipedia says The Dream of X is
>a much shorter version of
The Night Land.
Jeremiah Wood
Yeah it was 'cleaned up' to be 'easier to read'.
Alexander Campbell
>Irreverent.
Irrelevant?
Elijah Richardson
It also has changed, added, and removed bits.
Hunter Campbell
Hey look everybody! The Night Lands got mentioned in a semi-mainstream outlet:
youtube.com
Joseph King
Still not good enough to ever get us a Night Land game of any sort, but eh. It's a start I guess.
Brandon Foster
I head canon it as when the Dark Powers enter a universe they feed of the energy there, consuming the galaxies and stars until the build up of entropy makes them move on. Just as penumbravores are lesser beings than the Watchers the greater forces have already eaten their fill and moved on, leaving only scraps. We know they do this as Watchers will ignore small groups, staying fixated on the redoubt.
Brody Nguyen
Good job guys. Took two threads, but we got a fantasy Night Land.
Brody Anderson
Watchers ignore small groups because the redoubt is half a billion souls in one unmoving spot that will eventually be vulnerable and they move so slowly you'd have to watch them for a century or more to see progress. Stopping to go chase small bands of ultimately inconsequential humans isn't feasible.
Jonathan Sullivan
holy shit that's a terrifying idea
Jackson Barnes
Exactly. What ever larger mind bending horrors that ate the rest of the universe couldn't be bothered to go after the last crumbs when other untouched dimensions beckoned. But the lesser, skittering, Watchers hung around for sloppy seconds.
Aiden Hill
Are they slow or patiently waiting eons uncounted for the power to fail and mans last shelter to fall?
Logan Flores
Both. They're slow and all of them are also being actively slowed or halted by the Powers of Good in some way as well but the redoubts earth current has a millionish years before it fails so either way they have time to make the jaunt.
If you're going by the more "official" expanded lore and some of the hints of his previous stories like House on the Borderlands the watchers are essentially equal in power to basic bitch entities when compared to the actual overarching vague Evil which is more akin to a force of nature like entropy. Beyond that though its cyclical, they devour an entire universe THEN move on meanwhile the Powers of Good do their best to slow it down because they can't stop it.
If you're going by less official expanded lore than either this is the last universe, all universes are equally infested, or it's as you said and they're still just spreading out rather than covering.
Jackson Cook
So putting it all together we have
>Night Land is Future Arda
>Ungoliant ate the sun
>Morgoth has returned
>Minas Tirith is the origional site of The Last Redoubt
>Some time between then and now Osgiliath became Mega-City 1
>Judge Dredd, himself from a long line of Dredd clones all he way back to Fargo Dredd, and the rest of the Judges are a reemergence of Númenórean blood
>The Monstruwacans are a continuation of The White Council (with a few original members still hanging on)
>The strange future metal The Last Redoubt is made of is Mithril
>The shape of The Redoubt is still basic pyramid with a tower in the middle but looks more like Barad-dûr with a stepped pyramid around the base and a big defensive wall around the outer edges of the surrounding Mega-City
>Guardsmen in gleaming silver armour armed with laser rifles stand guard on the parapet shooting anything that makes it past the Air Clog
>The walls are enchanted but the enchantment has to be maintained at all times by efforts on the part of the wizards
>The Rings of Power keep the psychic whispers and spiritual corruption out of the city
>The Rings are now under the authority of the Arken Stone that is doing the job of a makeshift Silmaril and surrogate sun
>Deep underground in the largest light filled cavern is a white tree, a distant direct cutting of Nimloth
>In a place dug deep and far from the city itself is a repository known as The Foundation (presumably because of it's depth). They Secure, Contain and Protect all the weird shit discovered down the ages
>The SCP Foundation, on the basis that secrecy isn't a realistic option anymore, have released all the shit that can have a useful application in the Redoubt. They now just act as jailers for the actively malevolent shit that is inadvisable to try and destroy and the people you borrow magical artifact from under license
>It's possible that one of The Watchers is SCP 682 (that fucking lizard) frozen in place somehow
>Dr Bright has survived
Nathan Peterson
>Dr.Bright has survived
We're doomed.
Kayden Carter
>Dr Bright has survived
Now this is the greatest horror and indecency here.
Connor Jackson
Lord of the Rings/Arda does not mesh with Nightlands at all. Morgoth has already lost, will lose again, and is Eru's bitch. It's a complete reverse of Nightlands, it's fundamentally optimistic.
Joseph Morgan
>Lord of the Rings
>optimistic
Nope.
It ends optimistically but it was not a happy, happy fun ride. Gandalf even at one point comments on that they only had a fools hope by the time they left Rivendell because they should have set off a decade earlier. By the time they managed to get real lucky and manage to scrape a win half the continent was on fire, most of the armies were dead or injured and the other half exhausted, the world was irrevocably diminish and most of the magic was gone.
The Night Land is about as optimistic as Lord of the Rings but on a different timescale. In the end all lovers are reunited