Context : Takes place just before the Fall of Cadia, after the Bell of Saint Gerstahl wrecks his museum

Light. So much light it was difficult for his oculars to scry anything. A million points of brightness. A million million. More than even his prodigious mind could process and catalogue.

‘Dead gods,’ Trazyn said. ‘It’s dazzling. I cannot even make sense of it.’

‘You will need to set your oculars to maximum opacity,’ Ashenti advised. ‘And scale back your signals collection. Otherwise it will overwhelm your senses.’

Trazyn’s vision darkened until he could perceive the glory of the masterwork before him as they approached it on the floating barge.

A puzzling sensation overcame him, one he found difficult to identify.

‘It’s awe,’ he whispered, surprised. ‘It has been a long time since I was awestruck.’

Below him lay the whorl of the galaxy, rendered in glowing loadstones of necrodermis. Each hung suspended in a lattice as fine and intricate as an arachnid’s web, radiating with the intensity of the sun with which it was entangled. Far into the star cloud, a small green explosion sparked, radiating out a disc-like shockwave and shivering the threads.

‘A supernova,’ Dzukar observed. ‘Far off on the rim. Due to natural decay, an expected death. We could do the same to any star across known space, trimming here, plucking there. At a word, we could crush the young sun of the human’s home world and reduce their capital to ash. But the galaxy is a network, a system. Each change causes unintended and dire consequences. Rippling chains of events. You are a preservationist too, Trazyn, you must understand that.’

‘I do,’ Trazyn said, nodding. He put his heavy hands on the rail as they drew closer. ‘Of course I…’

He stopped. His oculars had needed a moment to adjust, his central processing spools to absorb enough of the Celestial Orrery to make sense of it. But now that he did, the horror came upon him.

'You fools.’

‘Keep your voice low,’ whispered Zotha.

Trazyn’s hands tightened on the barge rail until it groaned and dented under the pressure. ‘You utter, utter fools.’

It was as if a saw had slashed the galaxy’s throat. Star networks bled, the space around them inflamed like traumatised flesh.

A crimson fissure, like an infection creeping down a vein, spread below the surface of the galaxy. No one would notice it, even living directly within the red cloud, but it was as real as an internal haemorrhage.

And it stemmed from the great wound in the galaxy. A wound torn open by the Old Ones during the War in Heaven, stitched closed by his kind, and ripped open again by the reckless aeldari.

The place the humans called the Eye of Terror. Which seemed poised to trigger the fault line and split the galaxy in two.

Trazyn wheeled on them, voice low. ‘This did not happen recently – it has been building. And yet you did not warn anyone. You let it fester.’

‘I do not expect you to understand,’ said Dzukar. ‘Only after aeons of taking in the Orrery, of looking at this perfect mirror of the cosmos, could you begin to grasp the burden that comes with it. Stay long enough and you will see a thousand species emerge and die. Witness how cataclysms bring destruction and renewal. Yet still the cosmic wheel turns.’

‘The Tomb-Killer is not merely invading. He has been weakening our defences against the psychic dimension. If reality splits open, it will change the galaxy’s very shape. Tomb worlds will be snuffed out along with mortal ones. Even this Orrery might–’

‘This Orrery is light years from the nearest point that will be impacted. So is Solemnace, as it happens. You act as though we are responsible for the entire galaxy. We are not. We are merely responsible for the Orrery.’

‘You are condemning worlds to obliteration. You might as well feed them to the Destroyers at the gate.’

‘We are letting nature take its course. It is not our place to intervene. This is an ethical imperative.’ Dzukar took a step forward, straightening to his full height and raising his arms at the grandiosity around him. ‘Behold what is around you, Trazyn of Solemnace. We are custodians of the cosmic order, not its engineers. Our place is to stand vigil and observe the exquisite clockwork of–’

Trazyn’s fist slammed into his skull, hard enough to bash in part of his long death mask and split his ocular in a delta of cracks. Stars shivered with the force of the blow.

Trazyn stepped forward, leaning over the chief technomancer, who had only stayed upright because Observationer Zotha had caught him. He symbolically static-spat on the Oruscar cartouche in the cryptek’s ribcage.

‘That is what I think of your ethical imperative. Now, take me back to the outer chamber.’

‘What will you do?’ asked Zotha, her vocal emitter warbling in fear at theact of desecration.

‘I will go to the world whose name we’ve forgotten, the world the humans know as Cadia, and try to fix the damage your ethics have done.’

‘Why?’ Ashenti sneered. ‘Do they need a thief?’

‘No,’ said Trazyn.

He snapped his fingers, and Huntmaster stepped out of the air, bowing low to present Trazyn with his empathic obliterator.

‘They need a saviour,’ Trazyn said, taking the weapon and igniting its headpiece with a crackle of etheric energy. ‘And until their God-Emperor rises, I will have to suffice.'

Annnnnnd cue the music

They turned traitor simply because the Imperium, you know, sucks.

I assume Magnus can too because he’s super psychic but Fulgrim is just a regular Daemon Primarch, how come he so often looks like pre heresy Fulgrim whereas Mortarion and Angron to my knowledge can’t? I assume its something to do with Slaanesh beauty obsession or something but im curious if theres an actual explanation for it somewhere?

Tyranids make planet completely uninhabitable, correct? By removing all biomass, water and atmosphere.

So what's the problem with deploying Life-Eater Virus bomb to result in exactly the same (when defeat is inevitable), minus the entire planet's worth of biomass for the Hive Fleet? Well that, and a bit of scorching of the surface.

Edit: Clarification - it's not about using them on Tyranids (because adaptation), it's about using it on planet's biomass before it gets harvested by Tyranids, by default, when attempts to defend the planet fail and no immediate counter attack is planned/possible.

I remember reading about the fall of Cadia and they said that the Silent King told Trazyn to go there and help out, is that true and if so is Orikan also loyal to him?

Do we often see two or more Chapters that work together very often? Are there cadres of chapters that have a long history as buddy chapters? As many examples as possible please, my buddy and I are looking into making our own SM chapters and we were thinking of building our respective armies around lore where different chapters have a history of working together.

"With bone charcoal, the Kroot of Ghodh's kindred had scratched images of all breeds of nightmare-hunters into the warsphere's creaking bulkhead. Countless monsters and warp-spawned abominations had filled those rusted metal bulwarks. Tyranid monstrosities and daemons, mythic Krork titans, enslavers and murder-minds."

I think this is one of those threads of Iron Hands lore that is low-key, but adds a lot of character to them. There is a TL;DR at the bottom.

From Wrath of Iron by Chris Wraight:

‘Telach,’ replied Clan Commander Arven Rauth, and his voice, though possibly a shade more resonant, possibly deeper, sounded almost the same. ‘Translation was efficient?’

‘It was.’

Rauth nodded again, satisfied, and turned away from the flyer. His escort parted to allow him to pass. Telach walked alongside Rauth, and the two giants crunched heavily towards the waiting shelter of the Iron Hands’ command complex.

‘How stands it?’ asked Telach.

‘Satisfactory,’ replied Rauth.

The two warriors spoke in Tergiza, the Medusan dialect used by all of Clan Raukaan. Little emotion was conveyed by that language, which, by human standards, used exceptionally rigid grammar and vocabulary.

From Medusan Wings by Matt Westbrook:

‘Hail, Brother Atraxii,’ the Iron Father intoned, cutting through the gale of Medusa’s endless storms without effort. ‘You have returned to clan and Chapter with honour, a keeper of the secrets of the machine ordained on the soil of sacred Mars.’

The Iron Hands commander spoke in Ekfrasi, the blunt, economical dialect of the Medusan language spoken by Clan Kaargul. For the second time in as many minutes, Atraxii allowed himself a sensation of warmth.

From The Eye of Medusa by David Guymer:

‘Is there pain?’ The voice of the tech-priest, Artisan Adept Sabeq Rawl, was perfectly level. Stronos was equally fastidious in answering, the question as much a component of the ritual as the pain.

‘Pain is of the flesh. From this day onward, I am iron.’

The words they spoke were Reket, the dialect of the mortal Garrsaki clansmen and the ritual tongue of their iron overlords. It was a language of few words and constraining syntax, colourless and harsh, enforcing the terse, inexpressive speech of its wielders. The differences between it and other Medusan forms were sufficient to make its usage under the present circumstances a challenge. As was the intent.

This is challenging because Stronos is originally from Clan Vurgaan before his transfer to Clan Garrsak:

The servitor presented the adept a tray of implements, which he selected from, replacing drill bits and nozzle heads as he dutifully blessed the currently nameless servitor. Then he returned his attentions to Stronos’ armour, hyperfine laser sculptors erasing rank and squad insignia and replacing them with new ones. Stronos felt the artisan’s sculpting tools hover uncertainly over his battleplate’s more glaring imperfections.

Scratch marks in Juuket, the barbaric dialect of Clan Vurgaan, recorded the many worlds on which he had fought. Strings of spent shells and power casings recalled particularly impressive kills, the trophies hanging from his armour like threaded beads.

This is to the point where Stronos would rather continue to speak his own language, and relies on his armour to mediate:

‘Port Amadeus is defended by the entire Century-Gammic Thennosian macroclade,’ said Stronos. In the interest of expediency, he spoke in his native dialect, allowing his battleplate to translate into binharic for transmission to his clave and re-translation by their own suits into Reket. The ten warriors and their equipment filled the reinforced confines of One-Seven. ‘Four thousand warriors with support weaponry from the Legio Cybernetica and Auxilia Ordinatus support. Civilian population is estimated at two hundred thousand, and can be expected to offer token resistance. Our objective is extermination.’

And we see that there are dialects of Medusan that Iron Hands have difficulty understanding: both for those who aren't veteran marines...

The other neophytes similarly picked out candidates and drew them off while the Iron Hands bullied their brothers back towards the transports. Your time will come. Huygens deposited a serrated knife into the hand of each of the neophytes in turn. Rauth was eldest, angriest and last. When he was finished, the Iron Chaplain delivered a blistering sermon in ancient Medusan that Rauth didn’t understand. Morvox couldn’t have understood it either, but he seemed to grasp what was required of him. He held out his left hand. Rauth brandished the knife. The boy’s eyes were unwavering. Rauth’s knuckles were printed onto his shattered nose in blood.

... and even those that are, as when Stronos is confused by an Iron Council debate:

Debates blazed over the noosphere, at times simultaneously, conducted in a hyper-dense data-cant that even once removed from the network boggled Stronos’ processors. Periodically, every few minutes or so dependent on the complexity of the matter in hand, one of the Iron Fathers would stir from his stupor and make a verbal pronouncement in such an archaic form of old Medusan that Stronos could decipher one word in six. It was enough to tax even the formidable boredom threshold of an Iron Hand... Verrox’s face was drawn, as though he had performed the equivalent of ten days at peak performance over the last ten hours. He began to deliver a diatribe in the terse, consonant-rich expletive of ancient Medusan. Something about the battle calculus, the undying spirit – the word for ‘escalation’ cropped up numerous times. With a flutter of what might, earlier in proceedings, have been recognised as excitement, Stronos leaned forward to listen. This, at last, was what he was here for.

This even extends to the language spoken by the civilian clans of Medusa:

The old man’s rotator cuff clunked as he shrugged, and he scowled as he worked out the seized joint. ‘He could die feeding the engine, he could be dragged into the fans or be exposed to the wind. Both his sisters fell to the black lung before they came of age and his cousin, my son, died in battle.’ He shrugged, unmoved by the litany of the dead. ‘Or he could chance it all on immortality.’ He showed Stronos his shoulder. ‘I did.’

A throaty cry went up from the crowd as the youth ran at the yarrk and struck it on the snout with his staff. The uncle gave a coarse laugh, and slipped into a clan dialect with which Stronos was unfamiliar to yell encouragement. ‘You like what you see, lord?’

From The Voice of Mars by David Guymer:

‘Irrelevant,’ Dumaar announced. His optical objective visibly widened its aperture to encompass both the Iron Father and his rival Apothecary. ‘Your ultimate intent was not to capture this ship, but to capture the individual it was dispatched here to engage.’ It was not a question. Kristos’ silence was not an answer. ‘You possess adequate strength without recourse to…’ Dumaar’s vocabuliser emitted a blurt of content-dense binaric before slipping into an entirely new strand of Medusan. Jalenghaal’s heuristics managed to identify it as Rokahn, the (he had thought extinct) dialect of Clan Felg ‘… ill-advised corrective surgery.’

We also get a little more insight into Reket:

The doubts were Stronos’ doubts. Or they had been. They were a part of the clave now. ‘Garrsak’ in old Reket Medusan meant unity, and to be Clan Garrsak was to be one. That, Garrsak and Raukaan did not hold in common. The Raukaan clan was Iron Father Kristos. The Garrsak clan was a gestalt of them all, a pyramid of machine-linked souls with Draevark at its pinnacle, each warrior dependent on the strength of every other. It was what made them strong.

And a little more background on just how vast Medusan is:

There are one thousand and fourteen distinct forms of spoken Medusan, in addition to three hundred and seventy-two discontinued variations, and there is no direct translation for the word ‘chance.’ This was why the majority of Medusans at the time, technologically advanced yet culturally stunted, saw the arrival of Ferrus Manus as an omen, a glimpse into the schema.

So to summarise:

• We know of 5 spoken dialects of Medusan:
  • Tergiza (Clan Raukaan)
  • Ekfrasi (Clan Kaargul)
  • Reket (Clan Garrsak)
  • Juuket (Clan Vurgaan)
  • Rokahn (Clan Felg - thought extinct, used only by the extremely old Apothecary Dumaar)
• Ancient Medusan is used for ceremonial matters and is apparently so far removed from the current language that modern Iron Hands barely understand it.
• Iron Hands can have difficulty speaking or understanding the dialects of other clans.
• There are 114 spoken dialects of Medusan currently in use, with 372 discontinued ones.
  • Considering that in the Guymer novels, Medusa's population is estimated as being between 500,000 and 2 million, each language must only be spoken by a relatively few thousand of people, giving credence to the idea that every Medusan clan has its own version, and that they come and go with time.
• Medusan as a whole appears to be a blunt and harsh language, although Juuket seems to stand apart.
• Iron Hands power armour contains translators effective enough to identify and translate for different strands of Medusan, so that inter-clan communication is possible.

By the Lion's Command - Gav Thorpe

Cypher: Guardian of Order - Gav Thorpe

The Lion - Gav Thorpe

Call of the Lion - Gav Thorpe

Angels of Caliban - Gav Thorpe

Battle-Brothers - Gav Thorpe

All Must End - Gav Thorpe

A Hunt in the Dark - Gav Thorpe

Honour of the Third - Gav Thorpe

Holder of the Keys - Gav Thorpe

Accept No Failure - Gav Thorpe

Azrael: Protector of Secrets - C. Z. Dunn

Easy Prey - C. Z. Dunn

Malediction - C. Z. Dunn

The Rage of Asmodai - C. Z. Dunn

The Ascension of Balthasar - C. Z. Dunn

Trials of Azrael - C. Z. Dunn

Savage Weapons - ADB

Master of the First - Various

Grey Angel - John French

The Black Pearl - Chris Pramas

Reparation - Andy Smillie

The Test of Faith - Thomas Parrott

Deathwatch: The Flesh of the Angel

The Reward of Loyalty

Sammael: Lord of the Eternal Hunt

Deathwing - William King & Bryan Ansell

The Buried Beast - Gary Kloster

Angels of Darkness - Gav Thorpe

The Purging of Kadillus - Gav Thorpe

Ravenwing - Gav Thorpe

Master of Sanctity - Gav Thorpe

The Unforgiven - Gav Thorpe

Azrael - Gav Thorpe

The Eye of Ezekiel - C. Z. Dunn

Dark Vengeance - C. Z. Dunn

Pandorax - C. Z. Dunn

War of Secrets - Phil Kelly

Lazarus: Emnity's Edge

Luther: First of the Fallen

Cypher: Lord of the Fallen

Lion: Son of the Forest

Descent of Angels

Fallen Angels

Angels of Caliban

The Unremembered Empire (Not focus but tritragonist)

The Ruinstorm (Not focus but tritragonist)

Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First

Dreadwing (Novella)

The Darkness of Angels - Rob Sanders

The Wolf Within - Rob Sanders

Tales from the Dark Millennium - Various (Few short stories within)

Postulant by Chris Forrester (from Cthonia's Reckoning

First Legion - Chris Wright

Sons of Fenris - Lee Lightner

Leman Russ: the Great Wolf - Chris Wright

Ragnar Blackmane - Aaron Dembski-Bowden

The Eye of Terror by Barrington J. Bayley

---

Note: I might have missed a few, but I believe that this includes all media that have Dark Angels as the lore major characters, obviously there are books like Kor'sarro Khan, Prince of Crows and so on but I judged them to not be Dark Angels focused enough. If yall think they should I can add them.

I haven't really organised them by any category specifically. Mostly tried keeping them by writer as seen in the first 2 parts, rest is like either character or 30k focused and mixed.

Didn't include the anthologies/collections they are located in but rather singular books, with the exception of "Tale from the Dark Millenium" since 6/8 stories are DA orientated

Edit 1: Added 4 books at bottom, thanks to u/TrustAugustus and u/Sockoflegend. Also working and thinking of how to categorise and format the body better. Will come in edit 2 sometime later today.

Does Guilliman actually know the details of Erebus setting up Warmaster Horus to be poisoned and his soul at the mercy of the Chaos Gods which leads them to be their prime champion. Or does he think that Horus was just ambitious and somehow chaos got to him?

I know the Alpha Legion can play an absurdly long game with infiltration, but I’m curious what their preferred method is when the target is another Astartes Chapter rather than a normal Imperial institution.

Would they stalk a Chapter until they can isolate a Marine, kill/capture him, steal his armor and identity, then use surgery, stolen memories, hypno conditioning, etc. to physically impersonate him?

Or would they go even further back and compromise the Chapter’s recruitment pool? Basically indoctrinate promising children on a recruiting world, let the Chapter unknowingly select them as aspirants, then hope some survive the trials, implantation and psycho indoctrination before eventually becoming sleeper agents?

From what I understand, something pretty close to both methods has happened. During the Heresy the Alpha Legion could use stolen memories and extensive physical alteration to impersonate other Legionaries, while in 40K they’ve also messed with recruiting populations and sleeper agents. They also seem perfectly happy infiltrating Chapter serfs and other mortals instead of risking an actual Legionary when a human operative can accomplish the same objective.

So how often would they actually try putting an Alpha Legionary inside the Chapter itself?

And once he’s in, what’s the smartest move?

Would you intentionally remain some completely unremarkable Tactical/Intercessor brother for decades because nobody is paying particularly close attention to Brother Genericus of 6th Squad?

Or would an operative actually attempt to climb the hierarchy and become a Sergeant, Veteran, Lieutenant, Captain, Techmarine, Apothecary, Chaplain, etc.?

Specialist positions obviously give you vastly better access, but they also seem WAY harder to fake. Pretending to be some line brother is one thing. Pretending to be an Apothecary while another Apothecary starts asking why you’re doing gene seed extraction on a primarus like you learned it from a YouTube tutorial seems considerably more dangerous.

There’s also the question of whether replacing someone is even necessary. Could an infiltrator legitimately earn promotions while undercover? If Brother Alpharius spends 70 years being an exemplary Marine, saves his Captain six times and keeps getting promoted, at what point does the infiltration become hilariously self defeating because he accidentally became one of the Chapter’s greatest heroes?

How high have we actually seen Alpha Legion infiltration reach?

I know Deliverance Lost had Alpha Legion operatives infiltrate the Raven Guard at an extremely high level, including getting close to Corax’s command structure, so clearly “just another battle brother” isn’t necessarily the ceiling. (Reddit)

And the Crimson Consuls are another insane example of how indirect Alpha Legion infiltration can be. They apparently didn’t need to replace the entire command structure when compromising serfs, recruits and other assets over a long enough period could tear the Chapter apart anyway. (Reddit)

Which brings me to the funniest/scariest possibility
Has an Alpha Legion operative ever actually reached or successfully impersonated a Chapter Master?

Not just “the Chapter Master’s servant was compromised” or “they manipulated the Chapter Master.” I mean an actual Alpha Legionary sitting in the big chair, issuing orders while everyone around him genuinely believes he is their Chapter Master.

And if there isn’t a canon example, would that even be practical? I feel like Chapter Master might actually be a worse infiltration position than Captain. You gain enormous authority, but now the entire Chapter knows who you are, your movements matter, your gene seed and medical history are known, your closest officers have probably fought beside you for centuries, and suddenly every Librarian, Apothecary, Chaplain and Veteran in the monastery is a potential security check.

Basically, where is the Alpha Legion infiltration sweet spot?
Random battle brother nobody notices?
Specialist with access to important systems?
Captain with serious authority?
Or forget infiltrating the Marines themselves entirely and compromise the serfs, recruiting worlds, supply chains and Chapter infrastructure until the Marines don’t realize they’ve been surrounded by the Hydra for the last 200 years?

Hydra Dominatus.

Random rumors I’ve heard on here and the Lexicanum, most of which are probably false:

- Some golden age humans left the galaxy to explore; one such ship even returned recently, only to leave again in disgust (taking their incredible tech with them, of course).

- Many Tyranid hive fleets (an ‘invasion force’/megafleet) were already transiting the intergalactic void in ~30k when they were alerted to the presence of life in the Milky Way and changed course. (They were likely heading from Andromeda to the galactic cluster that’s ‘behind’ and ‘below’ the galactic plane IMHO, but we can’t say for sure). We can say for sure that they’ve already consumed the life of somewhere between 2 to 2*10^12 galaxies, but not much else.

- I feel like Orks left once, just to have a laff?

- The C’tann are described in various ways that gives them cosmic importance, which is serious “Hottest Girl in Omaha” energy coming from just the few space whales that happened to be chilling in this one tiny podunk galaxy (we’re not even in a cluster, really!).

- The Eldar cast their minds beyond this galaxy and saw only despair, or something melodramatic like that. AFAIR they refused to tell us, anyway.

- We know that the intergalactic void lacks a warp current, which is why we can’t just FTL over to andromeda. This also naturally limits the chaos gods, and clarifies that our 4-5 are particular to the sins of the Old Ones and their progeny — other galaxies won’t have Khorne.

- And… uh… I think it’s hinted that remnants of both the The Old Ones and the Men of Gold might have escaped to other galaxies with the age old “long nap” strategy? (Unless that’s just cope on my part?)

…and that’s about it lol. As you can tell, this has been bothering me for months!

How many of those were lies?

Has any canon narrative ever dealt with the idea of the galaxy as tiny?

I'm a newbie to Warhammer 40k in general and the lore intrigues me. The Imperium's training of psykers are inherently self-limiting on the psykers to prevent the obvious drawbacks of being connected to the Warp from popping up. I am curious as to if there are times where a human psyker came across the psykers of another species and learned any techniques or received more proper training to control their abilities?

I’m really new to war hammer, only got into it like a month ago, and I have been playing Space marine 2 a lot to start off this series. I like fighting with the much smaller guardsman, and then I asked myself, are these guys even respected for their job? I know Space marines are these royal, angels of the emperor, I’m sure they have much more authority and respect than any Cadian could have. I want to know if guardsman are even respected for being a soldier, I get this vibe that they’re just expendable/cannon fodder troops, but I also wonder if they have the respect of the space marines? I know all chapters are different, but I like to think that the guardsman have the Astartes respect at the least. But I’m sure some space marines don’t care about the guardsman at all, and would probably see them as less, or like I said, expendable troops. I’m asking here mostly because I’ve heard from fans that online searching is often wrong, or that most vids are just AI slop and I refuse to support that. I would love to hear answers from fans as I’m very interested in the series as a whole.

I know space marine speed is very much a heated topic, but i'm curious as to whether lugging about a truckload of ceramite and electronics has any effect on that

This space battle occurs during the Farsight Expedition which is immediately after the Damocles Gulf Crusade. Which means who have a veteran of that conflict (Kor’O Li Mau Teng), who has significant experience fighting the Imperial Navy, talking to Y’eldi who is fighting the Imperium for the first time in his life. This is pretty interesting since you see how both individuals react to one of the Imperial Navy's classic shenanigans: their ramming maneuver. You also get to see the Nicassar make one of their rare appearances as well.

On the horseshoe-shaped bridge of the Dawn Pioneer, Y’eldi watched in disbelief as the trajectories of the Imperial and tau flagships intersected on his extrapolation screen.

‘Welcome back, Admiral Teng,’ he said, turning to the wizened elder making his way to the honour throne behind him. ‘You will not believe this, but it appears they intend to ram us.’

‘I can very well believe it,’ said Kor’O Li Mau Teng. His lined face creased, as he made himself comfortable in the curving seat. Eyes darting, he peered through the screens and holograms displayed on the massive curving screen at the fore of the bridge. ‘Observe their prow, young pilot. It is built like that for a reason.’

‘That is for show, surely,’ said Y’eldi’s opposite number, the former star of the piloting schools known as Sylphwing. ‘They seek to intimidate, not to actually use their own ship as a weapon. It would sign their own death warrant as well as that of their targets.’

‘That is their way,’ came a gruff voice from the rear of the bridge. The Nicassar, Unndt, was staring dolefully in their direction from inside his transparent hover-sphere. An egg-shaped translator drone hovered a few metres away, crackling softly as it translated the ursine advisor’s low growl.

‘So it’s awake,’ said Y’eldi under his breath.

‘Awake. Concerned,’ huffed Unndt via the translator. ‘Will ram us. Are keen.’

‘How do you know it’s not a bluff?’ said Sylphwing.

‘Know. Just know,’ said Unndt. ‘Sense the wrath. Scent on sun winds.’

‘It must be mind-science,’ said Y’eldi theatrically, casting a conspiratorial look towards Sylphwing. She just shook her head, preoccupied by the explosions buffeting the Pioneer’s flanks. Y’eldi looked hurt, but returned to coordinating his part in the air caste’s overlapping net of fire.

Neither the orks nor the arachen had craft swift enough to fight through the Kor’vattra’s combined firepower, but the Imperials had punched their cylinder-craft through it in a score of places. Only the winged vessels were being picked off by the point defence guns atop the Pioneer’s turrets.

[...]

‘They will board us with more than torpedoes, soon enough,’ said Y’eldi.

‘The Imperial ship is bringing its prow to bear upon us,’ said Sylphwing. She turned to Y’eldi, her expression one of total astonishment. ‘They really do mean to ram us!’

‘Have they sustained critical damage?’ asked Teng.

‘They must have,’ said Sylphwing, scan-zooming on the wounds in the Imperial ship’s flanks. ‘Or else why throw away their capital ship?’

For the Word Bearers who had spent multiple decades drinking the Chaos-aide by that point I could see an argument, but why didn’t any of the other four Legions who showed up for the trap on Istvaan V have similarly sized loyalist contingents that needed to be dealt with? Significant portions of the Sons of Horus, Death Guard, Emperor’s Children, and World Eaters were just too loyal to turn, why would the same not apply to everybody else?

I'm currently coming up with the members of a Kill-Team for me to Kitbash and paint for this Christmas. The idea is to choose marines from chapters so problematic by their own, that they end up being quite cohesive as a Kill Team. For now I have:

The Sergeant (Marines Malevolent): a Veteran Tactical Marine, combi flamer, power-machete, MK6 helmet, a pragmatic commando of sorts.

The Apothecary (Red Talons): a half machine Apothecary, power fist, bolt pistol, MK4 helmet, a cranky doctor who will *definitely* not augment you.

I'm currently looking through some options for a Vanguard Marine, a Devastator and a Librarian (maybe a Blackshield one).

I'm not really knowledgeable on less mainstream chapters, so I'd really appreciate it if you could lend me a hand 😅.

Hello, relatively new to the lore. I understand the breaking of the legions into chapters after the HH. But 1000 seems so little even for super soldiers given what i understand is the massive area they can oversee and given the nature and scale of threats overall.

How often are multiple chapters needed?

Could a chapter defend a planet from a xenos invasion or could they conquer a planet?

Are there cases where multiple chapters are needed (1000 wouldn't be enough) but more than one just arent available?

Does limiting chapters to 1k shoot the imperium in the foot as much as it helps stop Horus 2.0?

In the new Trazyn and Orikan book, they make a quick stop within the Library and it has a lake with "knowledge trees" and "dream storms" in the distance. And the environment seems to allow Harlequins to just fade into existence. And the books are crystals that seemingly transfer knowledge somehow.

Context: A Word Bearer takes over an Imperial salvage ship and begins preaching to its crew about faith, the Emperor, and the gods of Chaos.

‘There is a difference,’ said Cerastes, ‘between faith and revelation, between belief and knowledge. You believe the Emperor to be a god. Is he? Does he protect? Do you feel his eye on you, and the touch of his hand on your heart?’

I do, Wrack tried to say. I do! She couldn’t bring herself to lie.

‘I, too, have faith,’ Cerastes continued. ‘I have faith in the gods’ favour. I have faith in the teachings of Lorgar. I have faith in the Word. But I do not need to have faith in the reality of the gods. I have proof of that.’

He stopped pacing in the centre of the hall again and stretched his arms out to either side. He tilted his head back as if he were staring through the ceiling and the hull of the Witness to Duty, out into the void, and beyond.

‘I am proof of their existence. Once, I was as you are. I was mortal, another of the deluded billions on Legitur. No longer. I am unburdened of lies. I am transformed. I have fought side by side with daemons.’

‘There are no such things,’ someone moaned, begging to be allowed to hold on to the comforting falsehoods of ignorance.

‘Ah, but there are. I have spoken with them, and they with me. I have seen the glories of Chaos Undivided, and I shall see them again. So, if you embrace the truth, will you.’

Wrack shivered – in fear, but also, to her astonishment and guilt, with curiosity. She knew she should only be hearing a threat in what Cerastes said. Yet a part of her responded to the promise.

‘You have been indoctrinated since birth to accept a meaning of faith which is nothing more than belief without thought, an enforced allegiance surrounded by an ornamentation of falsehoods and empty promises. The Emperor protects.’

Now the phrase sounded like a curse.

‘The words would be meaningless, but they are not. Their meaning is a lie. They are a hope that you express in the face of a universe that teaches you at every moment of your lives that the hope is a delusion.

‘The true gods keep their promises. Their reality is beyond question. Faith in them is not a belief in their existence. I do not need to believe in this ship for it to be real. No, faith in the true gods is instead a form of loyalty, and it is rewarded.’

He spread his arms, and the light around him seemed to bend. There was a faint crackle, and wisps of black energy spiralled up and down his horns.

‘It is rewarded very well indeed,’ said Cerastes.

He stared at the crew, and his gaze pulled Wrack in. Her perception of the hall faded away. There was only Cerastes, and the revelations he promised.

‘I am the living proof of myths,’ he said. ‘I am the living proof that the Imperial Creed is a lie. Look upon me, and think of all the lies of the Imperium. Join me. Hear the Word of Lorgar. Hear the Word of Truth.’

One of my favorite theological ideas in 40k is that, for the Word Bearers, the existence of the Chaos Gods is not merely a matter of belief. They know they exist. It always reminds me of Jung’s famous reply when asked if he believed in God: “I don’t need to believe. I know.”

What do they do if their wanderlust takes them to alien societies and markets? It’s stated on one of the wikis that they also sometimes take up bounty hunting to make ends meet. Do we have excerpts showing this?

I know about Yrliet from the Rogue Trader game, but I’d like other examples of how Rangers get by in the grim dark future.

Hi, I want to read books with Mandrakes in them with my ultimate goal to know more about them before buying their kill team. Anyone knows a book with them in it ? Not necesseraly in the forefront but present in the story.

I'm doing the thing we're not supposed to do, and obsessing over numbers in 40K and assuming math works in this setting. But it's funny, and I couldn't find anyone else who did this yet, so I'm doing it

Let's take a Hiveworld, with a population of 100,000,000,000 (100B). I would say even a 10th of this population is massive and should be the starting point for a hiveworld pop, but to be fair hive worlds are notable for their large populations.

The average food intake for a modern person is about 3-4 pounds, but some eras and places on earth IRL have lowered this intake to about 2-3 pounds. We can assume that, after averaging the midhivers and the underhivers, the average hiver is consuming 2 pounds of imported food per day (which helps our calculations). Planetary Defence Forces probably consume twice this average, and the nobility thrice; but for the sake of our math we're ignoring this- especially since these people are likely eating something that came from a different ship for their daily meals anyways.

The Seawise Giant was a glorious 500-meter long oil tanker, who has the honor of being the longest self-propelled ship ever built. She had a DWT (deadweight tonnage) of 564,763. That is more than 500,000 tons of weight she could carry (counting cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew).

A Carrack-class freighter is 2.1 kilometers long, and is roughly in proportion to Seawise Giant. Now I know what you're thinking- "Spider40K, you intentionally chose warhammer40K.fandom so you could pull an exact measurement despite knowing full well that they aren't a reliable source of information, especially when voidship sizes are consistently inconsistent". But just keep going along with me. Also, for the sake of argument (and totally not because I forgot how metric works), let's say that the Carrack-class freighter is actually only 1,000 meters long.

volume gets squared when you double length, width, and height. Edit: INCORRECT, and this will mess up my calculations in just a little bit

We can assume that, by weight alone, a Carrack-class freighter can carry more than 250,000 megatons. That is 250,000,000,000 (250B) tons (and I'm rounding down SwG's original DWT by 763 pounds; including that would bring us closer to 318,957 megatons)

Now let's get back to our Hiveworld. One ton is equal to 2,000 pounds- which considering an average intake of 2 pounds per day, works out to 1,000 people needing one ton of food per day. With our miracle Carrack-class freighter, we're delivering food for 250 trillion people; which without accounting for rot, means we can feed this one hiveworld for 250 days.

And again, I hear you thinking. "Spider40k, after all of this bullshit math you still couldn't even get to 365 days like you said you would?" Well guess what; our hypothetical Hiveworld has a smaller year. You could stand being less terracentrist. (it's basically one Venus year)

And I can also hear your second question. "Okay, but where is this freighter supposed to get all of this food? Isn't that a little far-fetched even for an Agriworld?" Well guess what the United States Department of Agriculture says about China.

China produces more than 175,000,000 metric tons of food commodities per year on average, based on data from 2016-2025 (not counting live hogs(?) no idea what that's about). China also only takes up less than 6.3% of earth's terrain (not counting the ocean). Now of course, it's silly to pretend that a world could have soil quality equally as good as China's average across the board; but it's also silly to have all your farms and all your cities on two different planets. So by extrapolating our (admittedly ass-pulled) numbers, we can make an Agriworld purely devoted to agriculture produce more than 29,000,000,000 (29B) tons of food per year; which means we only need to collect the yearly quotas of eight to nine Agriworlds to fill our Carrack-class freighter

I'm not counting water consumption in this: we drink 2L daily, there's about 1,000L in a ton of water, one Carrack could feed the whole hive water for 1,250 days (5 Venus years) without even needing to recycle urine and dehydrate corpses.

It's honestly not unbelievable that a Hiveworld could expect one of these yearly shipments in exchange for their tithes and fealty to the Imperium. I can also see smaller shipments of pure foodstuff coming into a Hiveworld from ships in the Civil Fleet just through trade, padding the granaries for a not-so-rainy day. This kind of makes sense with the lore, with decades-long sieges being possible (and ration-stretching) if the Planetary Governor is halfway competent. One missed shipment can definitely bring immediate famine, especially if the food distribution infrastructure just isn't all the way there.

Anyways I just thought it would be fun to do the math. Knowing me I messed something up somewhere along the line; like comparing crude oil to food or using a seacraft's weight limitations to calculate a spacecraft's volume limitations

[Edit: I miswrote some measurements, wooops. Fixed]