WH40KAmalgam Universe Posts on Reddit
A collection of the reddit posts that make up the most refined collection of the M79 lore for the Timeline.
I thought up a lot of new material as I answered the questions of interested WH40k fans on the imaginarywarhammer subreddit under the alias of Loose-Concern-9786. The following are (pertaining to explaining the lore) the most noteworthy comments and the immediate questions they address. Also included below are links to the posts/threads on their respective Reddit pages.
"...who can say as to what the soldiers in my charge might have been thinking during those long moments as we saw our immortal lord cradle the dying form of the beast that had unleashed the forces of hell itself upon the Novitium. In those same moments, could the ancient Master of Macragge have forseen what would befall us in the coming decades as enemies, known and unknown, eagerly capitalized on the damage the Angered One's offensive had done us? I have been told by several who have known him long enough to be certain that he did, but in that moment you could not have guessed it, the usual urgency and uncaring stoicism was gone out of him, despite the grevious wound he would carry to this day he held that daemon in his arms until its form dissolved into nothingness.
Those of us in the guard who witnessed the Protector of Mankind pay such tender honors to that thing of evil and fear were forever sworn to secrecy on pain of death by the Ultramarshalls present. I was never one to question our master's motives or actions before that day, but to see him give such...attention...to the architect of our demise, as Ultramar and the wider Novitium burned filled me with a disgust and dare I say, anger, that has seethed within me ever since."
--Alran Manitobus, disgraced former High Commandant of the Cragian Defense, Memories of the War of Blood and Skulls (originally published and subsequently banned circa 3rd Century M60)
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"...Poetic vengeance, then? I doubt it. That the most rabid servant of the rabid god struck out for Ultramar rather than us or Lorgar and his ancient Terran priest? He simply wanted the biggest fight he could find and at last bit off more than he could chew. Guilliman's empire before Angron's war was the strongest even you had ever seen, was it not?"
"Hard to say, the Imperium of Man that existed before my slumber had something of a viscous, desperate fortitude I have yet to see truly equaled in sheer callousness, but in the end it matters little, the heavens opened and Guilliman's tidy galaxy burned anew. However, you do touch on one question that has always been on my mind in reference to the Khornate Wars. When he began his final offensive across the stars towards Ultramar in particular, was Angron aware that his brother was in possession of one of the only weapons in existence that could potentially kill a Daemon Prince? Or did he begin his final offensive because he was?"
--Jerimyn Darkheart and Fenix of the Orphan Legion on the fate of the Pre-Olympian Novitium
"...none can say, Navis. I have lived as a Scion of the Ravenants for nearly five-hundred annums, and ever have I wished for a visitation as in the days of yore. To experience him and the void-black as the ancients knew him? Why I...what's that? No. Re-sheathe your weapon, friend! We'll find no daemon-threat here, not in these parts of the Warp. But think not that I recommend ye slacken! For we had best quicken our pace. In time immemorial was this realm gifted to the void-father, and close come we to the borders of his most solemn stellar-waters." --Scion Pallen of the Ravenants, circa M78
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"Another dream, more insanities! By the beyond, is there anything more I can do for my quiet little girl? Her mother nor I could get so much as a word out of her since her illness and yet I hear her speak such strange things in the dead of night, but when I rush to her she can only point and laugh at different parts of her room. Despite her frailty she simply...appeared before us in the market yesterday, we were miles from home! It was all I could to keep her out of sight of the guard standing watch, we had to have been seen! And...her hand... Granna always said that there was something, something beyond this world that the Consecrants have kept from us. Mareth is obstinate, and dares suggest we just, give her to them! Our family... Illneth's condition has been hard on all of us but by the three, what is happening!?" --Accursed Ramblings Discovered in the Search of the Warum Manor 897E'enstar, recorded in the tome of heresy, then consigned to the flames.
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"He stands yet no one sees,
he speaks yet one can hear,
he lives yet all else dies,
the man with obsidian eyes."
--Ancient Rhyme attributed to the Void-Witches of Bruvahl
"...I'm saying we are renewed, apostate! The dark angel has returned, the lion of our lord that will tear out the hearts of the unfaithful and set right all that we have lost!"*
"And what have you lost, lunatic?"
"Our place! Our right! You know this! Our kind was more, once, than a chattel race to the alien! But now, we are restored! Our blessed god has heard our prayers and sent his angel to deliver us! I have witnessed him with my eye, and there will be none to deliver* you*!"* --Transcript from the interrogation of the leader of the Homus Reditus Pyrian Cult circa 087M79
The Lion’s awakening In mid-M42 was received with raucous aplomb. For over 500 years, Roboute had struggled to keep one half of a dying Imperium from being consumed by the myriad threats that faced mankind in that grimly dark age, unable to tend to the needs of the lost half of the Imperium. The Lion wasted no time in rallying the Dark Angels and their descendant chapters to the aid of the rapidly deteriorating Imperium Nihilus and it’s terribly strained forces.
The Lion faced an impossible task, and though a Primarch’s capacities far outstrip that of even the most legendary Astartes, the Lion and his Dark Angels could only maintain what little remained of Imperium Nihilus, and few conquests would be launched to reclaim lost territory, so grave was the situation. Even when Rogal Dorn returned in M43, he and Roboute remained focused on preserving Imperium Sanctus and preparing it for the Astronomican’s inevitable failure, leaving their brother’s situation to devolve until in M45 when the Lion was forced to make his way through the impossibly hazardous maelstrom to arrive at Terra and seek aid. What he found was the cradle of man beset on all sides by it’s foes and his two brothers nowhere to be found. The Lion’s physical form would perish on Terra during the Emperor's ascension, but would, in his remaking, take the place of his lost brother as the new ‘Daemon’ Primarch of Pyrius, commander of the Tyrant God’s forces in the immaterium.
The Lion would spend tens of thousands of years fighting his father’s wars in the warp, while the remainder of his sons, relatively isolated and hidden away on the former capitol of Imperium Nihilus, would work to preserve his legacy as the long ages passed by.
In the relative peace in the immaterium following the Tyranid wars, which markedly reduced the psychic activity of the galaxy and weakened the Chaos Gods, The Lion of Pyrius has once again returned to the materium only to find the faith in or even knowledge of his father practically nonexistent, his brothers each having gone after their own unique treasons, and his sons clinging to a half remembered hope in his eventual return.
The Pyrian Lion has returned, and all of humanity and it’s false shepherds that have strayed from the will of the God of Order will feel the wrath of his Dark Angel.
Wait wait wait, hold up hold up hold up, the Imperium as a whole is gone?
Yup! It has been tens of thousands of years by this point, and the galactic powers have shifted a number of times since M41.
I wasn't able to portray this in the illustration, but one of Lion's warp abilities is the ability to transform into a chimeric beast entity that makes the creatures of Caliban look pitiful.
Great work as always, it makes a lot of sense that the First would follow his father into divinity! One thing that I'm curious about is how things went with Luther/The Fallen in your timeline? A reunification or destruction, or perhaps his wayward sons are still out there even now?
Luther was liberated by Chaos forces from the Rock, so I was thinking that that could be one of the few real-space scores-to-settle that Lion would be able to continue in the Immaterium. Luther and Lion definitely meet in the immaterium on opposing sides and Lion is able to finally permanently slay his traitorous father-figure, but at the tail end of many millennia of struggle between the two as warp entities.
The repentant Fallen however were more or less redeemed by Cypher who is credited by many branches of the Pyrian faith as the liberator responsible for freeing the Star God from his 'prison of flesh'.
I was gonna joke about him being the kind of angel that, rather than saying "Be not afraid," would say something like "Be very afraid," but honestly he's probably more likely to just get right to the slaughter the instant he lands on a battlefield.
To prevent total annihilation, Guilliman had made a number of allies in the dark days of the Tyranid Wars, many of them Xenos. Whereas war and rational distrust had pitted them against each other in millennia past, the unimaginable horrors of the Devouring Age had made unlikely allies and the unprecedented struggle to rebuild in the entire age following had made strong friendships of once-hesitant alliances. Gone was the age of Imperium Nova, and in it’s place was the even larger Constantium, a loose unification of Human and Xeno Civilizations dedicated to preserving that the same unity that brought about the end of the Tyranid threat. The Constantium is by no means a paradise, bogged down by unimaginable bureaucracy and corruption that is unavoidable when dealing with the intermixing of so many alien cultures and desires, all tenuously held together by the belief and desperation of a Demigod.
The advantages presented by the Xenos allegiances Roboute had developed were essential to keeping the realms of men from being overcome by the superior Technological forces of Perturabo, or the ancient, eldritch powers of the Prosperian Domain. Roboute had lost three brothers to the Tyrannids, and the dominance he had enjoyed over the galaxy for so many millennia had been forever crippled. The only hope for the hundreds of thousands of worlds in Roboute's domain against the very human forces of his own brothers was to double down on the one advantage he had over them, a decision that would drive the last of his brothers forever from his side.
Yup! But the 'spinoff' Empires of Man predate the Constantium by quite a while, and were some of the greatest threats to the Brother's Council throughout the late M50s and M60s. Guilliman's position is now far more precarious than in ages past, as no other faction was hit as hard as Imperium Nova by the Devourer, having been the dominant power in the galaxy at the time.
The seventh deca-millennium has been pretty much hell for Guilliman, watching the Empire he had fostered for over 20 millennia be ravaged beyond recognition, rebuilding what he could amid the constant pressure of Perty and the Triumvirate expanding their territories amid the vacuum and taking countless human worlds into their own empires, and now desperately clinging to the one advantage he has left.
The 'Tyranid War' is written in the master file as 'the Age of the Great Devourer'. It is dated (with hindsight) from the first contact with the Tyranids in late M70 after a galactic absence of over 35 Millennia (that's it's own story). It was a shock that they had returned but nothing Roboute hadn't experienced (albeit long, long) before. The difference was the frequency and the amount of them exponentially increased over the early centuries of M71 until it had erupted into an unceasing tide of wars of annihilation that wreaked unfathomable damage. The last of the Tyranid host was defeated in mid M73, but the Galaxy was utterly ravaged and would never be the same. All in all the Wars spanned M70-73.
The Sol System was sucked into the Warp during Pyrius' birth cry and is now the glorious abode of the Tyrant God, serving (given the Order God's nature) as the new, far brighter Astronomican; an entire solar system within the warp shining like a radiant sun. After losing mars, the Mechanicum was effectively crippled, and could only replace rather than reclaim all they had lost after millennia, even with peak Guiliman at their back. the descendant faction of the Dark Mechanicum, on the other hand, is loving their lot as the subjects of Perty, to whom they fled en mass when the Tech Emperor Revealed himself to the galaxy.
Maybe not dead, but certainly not deified this time around.
Big E ascended to godhood in M45 at the climax of the Last War of Terra, he now continues his eternal wars against Chaos as the 'new' Chaos God: Pyrius.
Everything you could have expected in the M50s, and there is a little shpeel on it in the comments of the first Portrait I did. But oceans of time and Guiliman's unwillingness to preserve the faith in any way have rendered the Pyrian Cult a fading vestige passed down by tradition in the most zealous or untouched corners of humanity's diaspora.
But the faith is not without it's champions, even in M79, who refuse to let the Galaxy forget the very power that keeps the Ruinous Powers (relatively) at bay:
A nigh immortal strain of powerful human psykers have been at the core of the Pyrian faith for a looong time, and will not let the glory of their anscestor-god be anything but reverently remembered for all time.
Guiliman is easily the most revered figure among the Aeldari in M79, but the Aeldari themselves are but a shadow of the shadow they were, the promising position they had been in as a species, and all the progress they had made towards salvation practically undone by the Tyranids. Though Imperium Nova may have lost more, the Aeldari were driven to near extinction, with only three craftworlds remaining and numbering just over one billion by M73.
Guiliman is truly the hope of the Aeldari, and what was once an aloof and sparse attitude of cooperation in millennia past has evolved into complete trust and dependence upon the Constantine Lord for their continued protection and survival.
The galaxy is no more kind to the Asuryani than it once was. Perturabo, calculating that the time of the Eldar will be over within several millennia, actively hunts those that remain, seeking their technology (as he did to many of the surviving Drukhari covens that fled unknowingly into the Ghoul Stars following Commoragh's destruction), while the threat of Fulgrim ever looms over the race as a whole.
The Aeldari's connections to the knowledge, histories, and ancestors of their race are their most treasured asset remaining to them, and the fact that they would have trusted anyone, even Roboute, with so valuable and powerful an artifact shows just how desperate they truly are.
A treasured gift from the Ynnarian Death Lords.
All of the surviving Primarchs have long since returned to the galactic scene.
The ones who already had a beef with him were pretty pissed to find out about the Constantium's existence once the galactic dust had settled. The Lion with his expanded autonomy in the post 'nid galaxy actively attacks Contantium forces wherever he can.
The age of horrors that spanned M71-73 ranks among the most horrific in the Galaxy's history. The resurgent Aeldari, the greatness of Imperium Nova and it's diaspora, the Warp domain and it's ancient secrets and power, the mechanical might of the Tech Empire, and the disparate forces of the galaxy in their teeming multitudes, none were prepared for what was coming.
After millennia of absence, the devourer gradually returned to the galaxy with the full might of it's teeming hordes of Hive fleets culminating in a war of extermination unlike anything even the most ancient beings of the galaxy had ever seen. After centuries of suffering and death as the hive fleets ravaged the galaxy, it's inhabitants were forced to cooperate to save all that remained, and in the end, the Wars of the Great Devourer ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the denizens of the galaxy in the truest sense of the phrase.
The hundredth part of the sufferings, heroisms, and sacrifices of this era could fill volumes, but unique among them was the peculiar tragedy that befell the people of Chogoris and their Primarch-Ancestor, Jaghatai the Great Khan.
In the opening days of M73, nearing the end of this devastating period, Mundus Planus fell at last to a monstrous Hive Superfleet, and the proud people and world of Chogoris, including the vast majority of the gene-sons of the great Khan, as well as the Great Khan himself, were devoured by the Hive fleet. But the spirit of an ancient Primarch would prove to be too much for the Monstrous enemy.
Decades later, the Khan would emerge from the ruined world of his long-distant childhood as a new kind of being, able to recommit and shape biomass at will as the aliens had, and having entirely shed the last of the scars he had carried with him from his long torment in Commoragh.
Knowing he could never be accepted back as he was by the galaxy, or even any of his brothers, Jaghatai would go into a self imposed exile, from which even the few who know of his current state could not say.
That's what I have so far. The Tyranid wars are relatively recent in my timeline so Jaghatai's still kickin' somewhere, unlike many others...the casualty list for M71-73 is a doozy.
Thx, Tump! I'll have you know I'm currently working on rowboat :) And of course he is, granted he needs a lot of time to practice and access them, but the whole of the Tyranid species' genetic abilities are his to command and hone, so the same way they would move through space at such high speeds using only organic processes are his to access as well XD.
Super good question, almost as good as your username, and a fun one to answer.
Guiliman's reeling Imperium which is hammered from all sides by the forces of Perturabo's tech empire and the Prosperian Domain of the Warp, ruled by the Primarch Triumvirate. The always mobile Null Fleet of Rogal Dorn, including the warriors of the Stalwart Fists and the Daughters of Dorn, protect the extensive diaspora of man within the oft abandoned sections of Guiliman's former empires. The rebuilding Chapter-Legions of Guiliman's Astartes, the Ynnarian Lords of the Eldari Death Worlds, the Three Remaining Craft Worlds, the awoken Necrons that remain in the galaxy. The Independent Tau Supremacy. The Iron Lords Legions, the Tech Mechanicum of the Ghoul Stars, the Orphan Legion commanded by Fenix. The Cults of the Undivided and the Servants of the Dead Gods who do not bend to the Triumvirate, Perturabo's Olympian Fleet. The resurgent Pyrian cult now ruled by the 'True Sons'. The Orks are still kicking.
I didn't get into the Warp Domain and the forces of the three brothers because it gets more complicated. But that's a run down of what I have so far for the M79 period, Mr. Alexander!
This is some of what I have on the difference in the Galaxy between M69 and the middle of M73:
◦ Countless Xenos races extinct,
◦ Scores of thousands of worlds devastated,
◦ the Imperium’s military might reduced by ~70%,
◦ Most known awoken Necron dynasties destroyed or withdrawn (the Necrons carried the galaxy in the wars)
◦ 70% of all Space Marine chapter-legions rendered extinct including:
◦ 50% of the Loyalist Iron Hands chapter legion, the Speaker would be charged by Guiliman, brother to brother, with the defense of the Imperium from Perturabo, alongside the Mechanicus.
◦ Jaghatai Khan and the vast majority of his sons.
◦ >90% of the hermit Salamanders and Vulkan, who would not fully regenerate from his grievous wounds for many millennia to come. Vulkan’s body, along with his artifacts, would rest in a sacred Tomb on Nocturne, around which the new fortress monastery of the chapter would be erected, guarded at all times by the Salamanders’ First Company.
◦ 2/3 of all Ultramarine successor chapters.
◦ All Imperial Fist Successor chapters Chapters save for only around 8 chapters with remaining numbers in the single digits.
◦ 60% of all Dark Angels
◦ 40% of the Sigmarines legion
◦ 95% of all Blood Angels Marines. Guilliman gives his brother’s sons an unprecedented charge following this second devastation by the tyranids to rebuild themselves into six chapters of their choice and protect the Baal Sector forevermore, stating famously, “Only in death, and for the Sons of Sanguinius, honor, does duty end.”
◦ Perturabo’s Empire, with it’s great tech advantage and peripheral location is the most unscathed of all the galaxy’s powers, and he and his orphan legion wreak havoc upon the galaxy throughout the Recovery era, greatly expanding his empires’ territory, and would slay and steal the technology of the Aeldari wherever they could find them knowing their species’ time was near to ending.
◦ The Warp Domain is split on how to handle the crisis, with Corvus willing to help the Imperium and his brothers being unwilling to render aid beyond their own subjects in the thousands of worlds within the Warp Domain. Corvus and his great host would help many worlds but the Raven Guard would lose many members, which would take Corvus many centuries to repair, having retained his knowledge of gene-craft from his days studying his father’s work for the Raptor Project.
◦ The Aeldari are left with only three remaining craft-worlds and fewer than 1 billion of their species remaining in number.
◦ The majority of Chaos’ forces left to regenerate in the warp, and the war leaves the Chaos Gods far weaker with the reduced psychic activity in the galaxy.
◦ The Death of the last shard of Khaine at the hands of Kharn, the blood god’s champion would absorb his rivals power and obtain power sufficient to become the new and greatest Daemon Prince of War
◦ Estimated population of the Imperium reduced by nearly 3/5
◦ The Galaxy’s Ork hordes, having just built their numbers to prime-Waagh! levels are again decimated.
Re-seeding the worlds left barren by the Nids is a dear desire of Roboute, who has yet to find the time, resources, and peace to pursue this goal to the extent that he wishes.
Most of them are still asleep, Trayzn is still kicking and currently allied with Perty, and the awakened Necrons of M70-73 were ironically the saviors of the galaxy, basically carrying team-milky-way against the Tyranid host.
The large majority of them, however, are still napping. It's been millions of years, I assume that crisis can be put off a bit longer.
To make a pretty long explanation short, long after his return, Corvus was slowly driven out of Imperium Nova as he and his new sons became increasingly warp-like, emulating their gene-fathers new abilities born of his long ages in the warp.
Magnus experienced extreme validation watching his brother endure what he had so long ago and, after saving Kiavahr, invited Corvus to rule over Magnus' own Imperial Project, the Prosperian Warp Domain, alongside him. Corvus was kinda just done at this point and agreed. So Corvus rules with his brothers as the third and most distant member of the Prosperian Triumvirate.
In M79 the galaxy has been recovering from the disastrous wars with the Tyranids for millennia but has yet to fully recover. With the Tyranids having ended the gridlock that had more or less persisted throughout the M60s between the Three great powers of the galaxy, the Primarch-ruled "Three Imperiums" have been fighting to expand their territories during the long recovery period, greatly slowing the progress.
The Chaos Gods are far more absentee in their control than in ages past entirely due to the nature and exploits of their newest member: the Tyrant God, Pyrius. Though Khornate, Tzeentchian, Nurglite, and Pyrian powers, servants, and daemonic minions/incursions are not in any way uncommon, the new 4 are at far greater risk than before should they turn their attention away from the Great Game as things have truly heated up in the immaterium.
The Orks have deteriorated further, and it takes an uncommonly powerful waagh just for them to achieve interstellar travel, but doesn't stop them from being a menace on the planets they inhabit, especially on planets where the might of the three powers simply has yet to extend, and the inhabitants, if any, must fend for themselves.
Despite the destruction of Slaanesh in the late M40s, the Eldar are more desperate and reclusive than ever, where once there was truly hope for their species to make a return, the Aeldari population now sits at under one Billion. And Fulgrim, the minor god of perfection and pleasure, delights in taking their dwindling souls where he can find them.
The center of the Tau Polity consist of the ancient Farsight enclaves, the absolute center of Tau culture. With many of their cousins having long since entirely assimilated to Imperial rule and culture, the Tau Polity's pride in their species' culture and history has prevented them from engaging too heavily in the Imperium. In days long past, the Tau Polity was a sovereign state under the protection of Guiliman's old Imperium Nova. Now, with their pride and the diminished resources of Guiliman's forces having fully frayed their union, the now-Tau Enclave is once again on it's own, a small empire clinging to it's own in a Galaxy ruled by living gods.
So yeah, it's not all doom and gloom and ending, but it remains very Grim-Dark. And despite the almost uncontested human dominance of M79, peace continually eludes the Galaxy.
thx a bundle, Eklatea! I loved the possibilities that the Five Daemon Primarchs represented, and wanted to give each of them a different outcome, from being straight up dead, to supplanting their master, to being in more or less the same place, to achieving independence and going it on their own. Magnus is loving life as the latter.
Other than Jaghatai's I don't have many set stories within M70-73. I do however have an ongoing list of the casualties of the Age of the Great Devourer.
I'm not that good of a storyteller, but I love creating settings and situations where good writers would be able to have a field-day. Having some fan-fic writers start making stories set within the myriad settings of this alt-timeline would be a great honor that I would have zero issue with.
Pretty much, but the Emperor has been a 'chaos' god for a looong time by this point, the Pyrian cults still exist but nowhere near to the same extent as in the millennia following his ascension, as the only 'god-emperors' that generations upon generations have known for millennia shepherding mankind are Guilliman and Dorn. Whether Jaghatai still fights for the Emperor's original vision, on behalf of Guiliman's new Imperial Standard, or for his own ends is anyone's guess. But he most certainly is fighting.
The White Scars under the banner of Guiliman's imperium are nearing extinction, definitely. They were hit hard (obviously) by the nids and despite having an entire, new system given to them by Guiliman for their recuperation their numbers continued to mysteriously dwindle, whether they are sought out by (or discover) and recruited by their mutant gene-father or fall to some other unknown is....unknown.
Well, I can do the closest thing to that that I can and make some art of your neat Skele-steed Idea.
That's a super good idea: Isolated or even loosely Imperium-aligned human worlds that beat back or survived the Tyranids utilizing their remains as artifacts/weapons or even worshipping them as gods.
XD. ikr?
In M42 a gravely wounded Dante's forces were aided by the awoken Lion, and the wounded Angel was carried from his last battlefield by the Sanguinor after being relieved of command by the stoic Primarch. Given that he became the new Sanguinor, he 'technically' lived to see M45 and the ascension of Pyrius following his gene-fathers brief ascension as the heraldic angel of Pyrius.
So his gene-father did indeed 'take him with him', but it was not to the afterlife that he had desired, just a higher state of responsibility. lel. That might be the darkest thing in my canon…
I've revealed a good amount of it in the comments of these Primarch Portraits. I've been holding off on posting the full timeline that I have as there would be a few spoilers I'd like to save for the end. I'd be happy to answer any questions in the interim though.
But, srsly, thank you for your interest, it keeps me going. The full thing will definitely be available once all the Primarch portraits are done. Some of the users on here have been giving me some advice on where to put it all.
My fan-canon is more optimistic in the long term than a lot of other, better fan-fics I've seen, the Tyranids returning is probably the lowest point in my timeline so far. Things were going pretty well right before M70, the necessary authoritarianism of Imperium Nova was a thing of the distant past as Perturabo's empire provided an uncomfortable foil for Guiliman's own rule that he didn't want to emulate, and so things loosened up, which came back to bite him eventually.
From his vessel (from which he has not stirred for many millennia), Perturabo commands his legions of Iron Warriors and the vast Olympian fleet.
Perturabo may not have physically moved for ages, but he sees and hears all through his connections with his legions of mechanical and servitor host bodies which he controls by the will of his peerless intellect, able to be in thousands of places and make his voice heard on countless worlds all at the same time.
The unparalleled coordination this connection affords has proven nigh impossible to overcome by the rival Empires of Man, and none dare attempt an assault upon the Tech Emperor's person, for there is no planet more heavily defended in all the galaxy.
XD, seriously, literally 'technically’ do stuff. There isn't a being in the galaxy who sees, hears, or does more than Perturabo.
Yeah, it's an intriguing idea that, as the singular exception to the mechanicum's beliefs (who hail perty as the newest incarnation of Omnissiah), the flesh of Perty's body will outlast any machinery built around it.
No, it's in there with him, he just doesn't have much reason to use it.
Yeah, I tried to give him a distant look, but it's kinda hard with all the machinery warping his face.
Excerpts from my fan-canon timeline:
M32:
M40:
Note 1: Konrad’s vision of his brother’s fate had ended on the Sword of Sacrilege because the Night Haunter’s psychic powers of precognition had been unable to scry the fate of Dorn past the point of his becoming such a powerful null.
Note 2: My personal take on the nature of blanks/nulls is that, considering they come in varying degrees of power, it would suggest that the trait is an inversion of psychic activity rather than the absence of it. I understand a lot of fans taking issue with making a primarch a blank, but hey, it's a fan-canon that works with this interpretation of blanks and how they relate to the warp. And I thought it was a sick explanation for his long absence that Dorn becomes this planet's taciturn protector for so long, physically unable to rejoin the imperium.
Note 3: I would have liked to have included some vestiges and cultural references to the planet of Rogal's isolation in his armor, but that thought came up a little too late in the design. It's a bad excuse, I know. I have yet to flesh out this planet's culture in my fanon.
Russ has some sort of psychic howl that disrupts psykers, and I think there's some sort of implied anti-psyker ability that Dorn has? It's unclear. He certainly greatly dislikes psykers, partially because he's near autistically incapable of comprehending warp-craft. I've also seen it suggested he has a warp-power that enhances the discipline and focus of those around him. However, I like the idea that if he really put his mind to accepting his warp-nature, he'd develop Blank powers.
Yeah, it was kind of like a traumatic 'planeswalker spark' moment, but, as much as I appreciate the idea of him being 100% dead, it's rogal dorn. To extend the timeline this far and have some familiar elements, I felt that Guiliman would need someone even more unchanging than him to be something of a consul to his Roman Dictator. It was also a neat best-case scenario for the denizens of the galaxy that the two empire-building primarchs would end up ruling together.
But yeah, not a typo. It's literally been upwards of 39,000 years since the dark days of M41, the Primarchs have ruled the galaxy in one form or another for tens of millennia, and by this point the Emperor's sons are nearing his own age at the time of his ascension.
Thx a ton! I'm a bit of a stickler for that.
If you're interested, Every Primarch so far, save for Fenix (clone-grim) has had a shoulder width of 4 1/2 heads, literally twice the average person's but I felt it was far enough within the realm of believability that they wouldn't enter uncanny valley the moment they were drawn out of their armor. Belfiore's much better Primarch portraits were a big inspiration to keeping the primarchs believably proportioned, which you'd expect from the paragons of humanity. Thanks for noticing!
A very good question. A couple things:
- In my headcanon the primaris marines were not introduced until much later, it was still an order from Guilliman, but we're talking well into Imperium Nova's golden age that the necessary time and resources were rendered to the Astartes to introduce the primaris and fully phase out the originals.
- By this point Primaris armor could be seen as a kind of anciently patterned artificer armor worn by a select few.
- The massive changes in culture that occur over time could be slightly negated by the presence of two immortal beings having presided over different forms of the same regime for millennia.
- There have been two practically galaxy spanning apocalyptic-level conflicts in the interim between M54 (when the Primaris were finally totally phased in) and M79, and the desperate times throughout the days of the 7th deca-millennium may have necessitated a return to more archaic gear from the astartes.
- It's something that deserves a lot more time for me to brainstorm a worthy successor to something as iconic as the astartes armor for even something as trivial as a personal headcanon, so I decided to go with what would be obvious to any viewer as to what the guy on the left was.
It's no picnic, but it's not as screwed as it was in the 41st.
The Descendant orders of the Dark Mechanicum currently exist in a far more powerful state than their cousins of the Mechanicus (which still retains its name after all this time thanks to the long memories of the Two Primarchs ruling the New Imperium). When Perturabo revealed his vast star empire to the galaxy in the late M50s, many diasporic members of the original Mechanicum, among others, flocked to his figurative banner as the most Tech minded of the Primarchs. The Tech Empire of the Ghoul stars is much more technically advanced than that of Imperium Nova.
The Adeptus Mechanicus was forced to rebuild itself entirely from its diasporic elements after the sol system was pulled into the warp during Pyrius' birth cry, and even after all these ages of time, they have only been able to replace, not recover, all that was lost on Mars.
With the advent of a Chaos God that seeks naught but the other three's destruction, they have less time for dabbling in the materium. So Chaos incursions are rarer than in ages past but certainly not rare. The great game has changed, and with it, the Primarchs have found time to come into their own as the great powers of the galaxy.
(I had to go look up 'jobbing' on urban dict.) Um, certainly some jobbing.
Exactly! Basically, the head-canon so far goes:
In the tens of millennia since 40k, The power landscape of the Galaxy has changed a great deal.
In my headcanon, Perty never become a daemon, and is the only non-choas traitor Primarch still alive, and currently the Emperor of the 'Tech Empire of the Ghoul Stars', to which the Dark Mechanicum and many of the Iron Hands fled to in the millennia following Perty's creation of his peripheral Imperium.
Some time in the late M60's, Trayzn gifted Clone-grim to Perturabo as a sign of goodwill to the Tech Empire, and Perty put Clone grim in command of the 'Orphan Legion'. Naming himself, Fenix, the Only Perfect Primarch Clone goes about the monumental task of organizing this legion of former marauders and Renegades and getting them to accept him as their leader.
After a lot of struggles that could fill books, including the grafting of one of Ferrus' original arms onto his own, Fenix becomes the beloved surrogate father primarch of this band made up of Astartes descended primarily from the Night Lord, Alpha (Corvus had killed Omegon in millennia past), and especially Iron Hands legions.
By this point in the chronology, Fenix is an avenging angel with over 11 Millennia of experience, eagerly awaiting the day he can kill his original template and at last redeem his name and honor in the eyes of the galaxy, and with Slaanesh having perished to Ynnead in the cataclysmic Second War in Heaven of ages past, Fulgrim has since ascended to thrive on the same immaterial activity as his predecessor, as the newest minor god of Chaos.
This is the first of a number of character sketches I've planned for each Primarch yet remaining in this timeline of mine, and the myriad states they're in at this point in the distant future of 79k.
During the time of ending, Cawl had approved the use of machines that bordered on the heretical to combat the Orks and Tyrannids, the mechanicum's 'Servitor Voidships' were highly armed battle-vessels run entirely by Stationary Servitor skulls controlling all aspects of the ship's function, all commanded by an ancient Mechanicus priest, made up of almost no organic material by that point.
These ships worked a charm, and Cawl succeeded in containing the Ork race to a series of systems that he had positioned dangerously close to Tau space, like an a-hole.
In the Reclamation age of M48-50, following the Second strife, Guiliman and Dorn's forces had found the tattered remains of the Tau empire, which had suffered catastrophic losses from repeated Ork waaghs and Daemonic incursions in such a trying age, the remaining Tau almost unanimously jumped at the salvation being part of Imperium Nova represented to them.
Later on in the Reclamation, the Crusade encountered the Farsight enclaves, isolated and battered from 2 millennia of apocalyptic eldritch ravages, but still very much intact, and to this day the Farsight Tau Polity remains a proud and somewhat distant and distrusting vassal of Imperium Nova.
That's what I have so far, I'm interested to know what you think or would have changed as a Tau fan?
Thx a ton!
Indeed, the practically independent Farsight Polity (who still retain a proud identity as Tau rather than totally assimilating into the Imperium Nova like their cousins) recognize that they're pretty small fry in the Age of the Three Imperiums, and value the protection of Imperium Nova almost as much as their own independence and culture.
So, in my 79k headcanon, the moment the Golden Throne failed in M45, the Emperor 'died' and ascended to become Pyrius, the chaos god of Order and Tyranny, pulling the entirety of Segmentum Solar into the warp as the new god's seat.
Ynnead had been waiting for this moment to really begin his offensive against the 4, seeing as he now had an ally as powerful as any one of them, he rallied the remains of the Aeldari Pantheon and laid into an attack against the ruinous powers, this civil war in the immaterium would cause an apocalyptic 'Second Strife' that Guiliman and Dorn had been preparing the Imperium of Man for since the close of the Indomitus Crusades (Imperium Nihilus was commanded by the Lion at that point and had little contact with the main Imperium).
Once Slaanesh had been killed by Ynnead at great cost to the Aeldari Pantheon (Isha was dead, but that's another story), the New Chaos Gods settled into a certain equilibrium once more. And the warp became safe to travel again, the Reclamation crusades were launched by Guiliman from McCragge, the seat of Guiliman's new 'Imperium Nova', against a much weaker and weary galaxy, Guiliman's crusades did not have quite the task ahead of him that his father's had, it was more a series of reunions than conquests. By M50, the Imperium Nova had been established as the primary power in the galaxy, with the majority of the former Imperium's worlds having been reunited.
This is all paraphrasing a bunch of stuff, so I'm sorry if it feels a little contrived, but there is a decent amount I left out that you might feel better explains it.
From what little I've shared, yes.
(would that mean Ultramar essentially took over the Imperium?)
In a way, yeah, it becomes a big point of conflict between Guiliman and his brothers, even Dorn, eventually.
The Eye of Terra, as this one becomes called, becomes a point of pilgrimage for many zealous faithful of the imperium seeking to add themselves to their God's forces, it becomes such a big problem that Guiliman has to blockade the eye of Terra and only let a certain quota in at a time, Pyrius' territories in the warp are totally safe for warp travel, so it is very much in Imperium Nova's interests to add to his ascended father's forces.
Yeah, it's a big pain to Guilliman who, by the beginning of the second strife, had kinda gotten the imperium back on track with the whole imperial truth thing, but 2 millennia (much more for some planets, especially those near Terra), of total isolation with nothing but faith in the Star God to keep many planets going basically put guilliman back at square one, and he couldn’t change the minds of the people without censoring an insane amount of information, b/c by all accounts, the Emperor is literally a god now.
It has it's ups and downs, but you're right it is absolutely more positive than Slaanesh.
Pyrius, being the gestalt consciousness of the billions of psykers with the emperor at it's core and feeding off the warp activity of all sentients who desire to be in control of things and others, seeks to destroy the 4 chaos gods, seeing them as antithetical to his being. He hates them with the same fervor Tzeentch hates Nurgle or Khorne hates Slaanesh, all four of them are the opposite of him.
Pyrius got a massive power boost as well in the interim since the second strife (which could also be called 'the Warp War that occurred between the 4 chaos gods and Pyrius + the Eldari Pantheon'), as the galaxy experienced an order and relative peace not seen since before the first age of strife when Dorn and Guilliman first assembled Imperium Nova.
Pyrius, even with Ynnead's backing, was a strong newcomer but didn't have the power to instantly defeat all of the chaos gods, and a new equilibrium has been established in the great game since the second strife.
Oh yeah. And with the Lion's present position, he's uniquely suited to cause Guiliman problems where he wants to.
(This explanation describes the state of the Galaxy in the M50s) Yup! The psychic activity of all sentients who wish to exert their will to bring their own order to objects, nature, or other sentients that exists in the immaterium now has an avatar in Pyrius. Pyrius' need to order and control coupled with the nature of the immaterium makes him the ultimate enemy of all the chaos gods despite ironically being one.
And yeah, the cataclysmic initial battles following Pyrius' birth were the direct cause of the second strife, as the four raged against Pyrius and the new Aeldari Pantheon. As things eventually settled into a new equilibrium, it became possible to use the warp again, but this was nearly 3 millennia before Guilliman's astropaths declared it safe enough to begin his Reclamation Crusade.
So 3 millennium of isolation and literal proof of the Emperor's divinity every time one uses the warp near the eye of Terra basically meant that for many millennia during the early days of Imperium Nova, the 'Pyrian Cult' was a monumental faith among many Imperial worlds and citizens including many psykers, astropaths that Guiliman and Dorn simply could not stamp out, even after Jaghatai ,Corvus, and the Iron Hands' shard-rep joined them on what became known as the 'brother's council'
That would be a cool idea, but no, the imperiums are all offshoots of man. In my 79k headcanon, while the Necrons and Eldar certainly still exist, the three imperiums are:
(bear in mind there is a lot of backstory to how things ended up this way)
The Imperium Nova: Ruled by Grand Commander Guilliman and Grand Imperator Dorn containing (among others) the following factions: the Pyrian Cult, the Last Descendants, The Adeptus Mechanicus, The Adeptus Astartes Chapter Legions, The Tau Polity
The Tech Empire of the Ghoul Stars: Ruled by Perturabo, containing (among others) the following factions: The Iron Warriors Legion, The Tech Mechanicum, The Orphan Legion, The Olympian Fleet, The Disaffected
The Prosperian Domain: Ruled by Triumvirate Magus: Magnus the Red, Triumvirate Pious: Lorgar Aurelian, and Triumvirate Umbra: Corvus Corax, containing (among others) the following factions:
The Cult of the Undivided, Cult of the Dead Gods, The Raven Guard/ the Ravenants / the Outsiders, The Prosperian Order, The Red Sons legion, The Word Bearers Legion, The Sons of Horus
By M50, Corvus had succeeded in killing Omegon and shattering the Alpha Legion, avenging his sons in the Raptor project so many thousands of years prior. But despite millennia of hunting, Lorgar had retreaded far beyond his reach, deep within the warp. The Lord of Shadow eventually concluded that he would need support to root out Aurelian and at last fulfill his oath to his fallen sons. In early M51, Corvus Corax would 'publicly' return to Imperium Nova by infiltrating The Regium Novum on Macragge and surprising his brothers at council. Guilliman held a raucous return for the Raven, much to the latter's chagrin, and officially recognized him once more as the head of his Chapter and lord of Kiavahr, with the Reclamation of a Brother that Guiliman had once thought lost forever, the Lord of Macragge declared the Reclamation age at an end.
Over the near 4 Millennia of Relative Prosperity and steady expansion that ensued, the Raven Lord served as a tacit and reserved voice on the Brother’s Council of the Primarchs, which proved.…
you know what? It's a long story, so I'll just summarize.
There was a huge offensive by Khorne within Ultramar that shattered the relative peace of the New Imperium which many other galactic powers took advantage of, including Perty's empire that lasted a while and devastated much of the galaxy.
In the following centuries the fear and paranoia of ages past would return to the peoples of imperium nova that would manifest as a renewed hatred of psykers and all things having to do with the warp (kinda tragi-funny considering Khorne hates magic) that would bleed into the very upper echelons of the battered imperium.
Corvus (and all the gene sons he had sired since) had been changed by his long exposure to the warp, and all had become powerful psykers with unique abilities focused through their Primarch's character. Also, over time, the Raven Guard would grow ever more eldritch in their rituals and dealings among themselves. It was definitely a slow burn that took centuries to reach a fever pitch, but eventually the call came for the Raven Guard to be censured.
Guiliman, who had actively endorsed his version of the emperor's secular philosophy throughout the long history of his Imperium, found his love for a brother clashing with his role as leader (you know classic drama stuff). And with Dorn (a rival to Corvus ever since he returned having changed so much) as easily the second greatest figure of the imperium, and with the strongest Influence over the Chapter Legions...
okay, yeah this is too long, I'll summarize it even more.
The Raven Guard ended up being censured who didn't take kindly to that, the Kiavahr system was laid under seige by Dorn's forces, Corvus stood to lose everything, only for the entire system to be pulled into the warp by Magnus, who had experienced such divine schadenfreude to see one of his brothers go through what he had once suffered. Corvus was kinda broken by this point, Magnus was building an Imperium of his own that merged the warp and the materium, and was eager to have another brother as a part of it (tons of personal validation for Magnus as well).
Magnus was worried about his two brothers meeting at last, but when they did, Lorgar, for one reason or another, begged the Raven Lord for forgiveness for his ancient sins against his legion, citing their Tyrant father, the incident at monarchia, their mutual understanding of the warp, and appealing to Corvus' own recent sufferings at the hand of his brothers, Corvus responded with one word, to which the Word Bearer Primarch responded with fervent affirmation, and left.
So while they rule the Warp Domain beside the enthusiastic Magnus, it's really anyone's guess as to Corvus' feelings on the matter, what his plans are, if any, and what the future holds for the Primarch Triumvirate of the Warp Domain.
sorry for the book.
To briefly describe what has occured to the main Aeldari branches:
The Razing (I use a different word for the title of what happened but I don't think reddit would like it) of Commoragh took place in M43, where Slaaneshi forces led by Lucius finally broke through Khaine's gate and in an unimaginable war and slaughter (eventually) overcame the forces of the Deldar. Multiple factions were involved in this but it was mostly Slaanesh. With Commoragh destroyed the Eldar were forced to seal off more of the webway to stave off the hordes (this really pissed off the Eldar and made all but the ynnari more hostile to non-eldar). Keep in mind that this was only the end of Commorragh, not the Deldar as a people.
As a side note, the Imperiums forces that dared to brave the unimaginable scene discovered a terribly tortured and mutilated Jaghatai Khan (it gets a lot better, promise, you're going to love his 79k sketch), who was returned to his brothers, and healed as best he could be by his brothers and the Mechanicus.
The Craftworlders continue their vigilance, with Slaanesh (the greatest consequence of their race's sins) now dead, Fulgrim has taken what he could of the power vacuum as a minor chaos god, who delights in feasting on Aeldari souls (but does not immediately obtain them as slaanesh could). Now far bolder, the craftworlders are focused on reclaiming certain ancient Aeldari worlds, but the greatly weakened reproductive cycle of the Eldar stands as the biggest hinderance to their becoming the dominant power once more, and he may be no Slaanesh, but Fulgrim is a huge threat.
The Ynnari are an incredibly influential power in the galaxy, with the closest ties to the Imperium Nova
You're absolutely right about the necrons, but most of them are still asleep, 50+ million years asleep I figured their full awakening could be put off for a few more deca-millennia, but they are a big issue wherever they awake.
Sanguinius is known millennia after his final death in the Pyrian faith as both the sacrificial and heraldic angel of Pyrius. Many different plots, threads, and plans all came together in M45 to lead to the absolute cluster fest that was the last war of Terra and the ascension of the Emperor.
In short Dante was indeed taken from his last battle by the Sanguinor, after he passed control of the dark imperium to the lion, to make up the final piece of the Angel Trinitas, or the Angel's Echo. Dante had really struggled with the continuation of his burden but seeing his father give the final life he had to give for humanity to bring about the ascension of his father instilled in him a new and unstoppable will to carry on, and thus he continued (albeit as a powerful practically warp-based entity given his/their ludicrous power as a psyker) well beyond even the second strife as the Angelic Lord of Baal Integrum and the Sons of the Blood.
Random question not related to this post but to your canon as a whole. Since Pyrius is now a chaos god, does he now have the ability to create and command daemons? And what would Pyrian daemons look like? I imagine since he’s a god of order they would maybe look like Stormcast Eternals or maybe like eagles/griffons (though that may infringe on Tzeentch’s copyright on bird demons). What does the chaos realm of Pyrius look like?
I wanted to operate by the established rules of the universe when I considered these questions myself. I considered the following:
In short, Pyrius' realm, while very gold, ornate, and glorious, is as eldritch as any of the other gods, as it is a realm and god that is constantly at war with what it is, order in a realm of unending disorder. While the power of the golden god always tries to keep itself and that of its realm and servant-slave 'daemons' anthro-centric and angelic, their features on a micro or even macro level are commonly in a state of 'flux', and in some cases it fails altogether with many pyrian 'neverborns' appearing as chimeric beasts (like the eagles/gryffons and such you mentioned) from Terran legends and myths or even what could only be described as biblically accurate angels.
Your stormcast eternals reference is a very good analogy to both the look and state of how his low and even mid-level formerly human 'daemons' are, as those at the bottom of the Pyrian heirarchy have the least free will (and unironically the least humanity) of all his servants, with untold volumes of souls performing their duties almost exactly as Pyrius would have it. Only the more powerful Pyrian 'daemons' have a good amount of autonomy and many of the most powerful ones (such as the members of the former 300) are so already tied to his will that you couldn't tell.
Perhaps Pyrius will find a balance or even master his attempts to control the very state of the immaterium that makes up his existence, but whereas Slaanesh was chaotic from the get go, Pyrius is unique among them all in his eternal war to make everything as it should be.
Since this place takes place in the far, far future, what happened to the xenos and chaos?
Gulliman aligns with xenos during the Tyranid Wars, and the other Primarch turn away in disgust. OP implied Peter Turbo and Magnus have real space realms as well.
OP's been posting bits of his fanon's lore with every picture. From what I've seen
Peter Turbo has a technologically advanced human empire
Magnus' psyker Imperium from the current setting expanded to a real Imperium
And Gulliman started siding with Xenos for mutual defense during the Tryanid Wars, when they Hives finally arrived.
Haven't caught when and where the Primarchs came from, but Dorn's disgusted and self exiled, Khan wears Tyranid armor and might be a Genestealer(?) hybrid, and Danta "ascended" by giving himself (and Mephiston?) up to the Sanguiniur after Sanguinius' soul gave itself to the Emperor's final ascension.
You mean the imperium has allied with Xenos?
I think it started splitting when Primarchs left again, but yes. It looks like the Lion is Daemon Primarch (of Big E) in the Imperium Nihilus' remnants with the Dark Angels, so as an Imperium fan I'm looking forward to that being expanded on. I'm having a blast digging through OP's submissions, you might too homie.
Ever since I watched 40k Theories' video on the Angels Vermillion, I wanted to explore the logical conclusion of their continued slide into chaos.
And given that I was kinda writing a 40k fan-fiction, I could!
This is a quick-ish (it takes me a long time to make anything look presentable) sketch-depiction I did a few days ago in between M79 Primarch sketches to kinda visually explore this alt-verse further.
Sounds like my kind of legion...
From what I learned in that video, the Angels Vermillion engage in the ritual slaughter of Imperial citizens and the drinking of their blood to account for their impressive relative lack of Black rage incidents. However, according to the renegades who assisted in protecting Baal, their indulgences and rituals are growing ever worse.
So in true 40k fashion, it would seem that their attempt at salvation has proven their damnation.