u/AdunaicLord

Excerpt from the final pages of the Lair of the Tyrant sourcebook.

>>> ORIGINATOR IDENTIFICATION: :ISOLATING SERVO-ENCRYPTION//

>>> VERMILLION-CLEARANCE VERIFIED // CHAPTER AUTHORISATIONS ACCESSED

>

>> CYCLIC EMPYRINC INTERFERENCE INHIBITING SPATIAL SIGNIFIER ///

>> DECRYPTED IDENTITY REFERENTS : CHAMBER CONCLAVE, NULL BASTION // VALIDATION INCOMPLETE

>Commander,

>Lord Guilliman has done it. It is as I have feared for so long, and you, my friend, foresaw all those years ago.

>The Warders are returning.

>There are many on the Throneworld who have abandoned me, but I still have my whispersmiths. Word has reached them of an order from the Lord Regent, one of forgiveness so cloying that its words sicken me.

>The Lord Regent has granted the Emperor's absolution to the Mantis Warriors, the Executioners and the Lamenters. Yes, my friend, all three. Those still undertaking penitential crusades are commanded to cease. Their Chapter Masters are ordered to regather their disparate forces and to ready them. This absolution carries but a single caveat. Their first deployment is to delve into the Maelstrom and take the head from its abominable tyrant: Huron Blackheart.

>That heretical monster deserves such a fate a thousandfold, of course, but the Warders! I might be inspired by such cyclical justice if I wasn't so galled by the threat of repeated treachery.

>I will not permit the Tyrant to reap another corruptive harvest of the Emperor's creations. We failed once to fully cauterise the stump of the Badab War, letting three tainted limbs continue to wield blades in the Emperor's name when they should have been severed from the Imperial body. I would see those Chapters extinct before I allow Badab to happen again.

>I beg you to instigate the contingency you and others have prepared against this fateful day. I have already begun to gather my followers, both the loyal and the unknowing. If those Chapters prove us wrong, we will be in a position to reinforce their noble efforts. Otherwise, we will have a weapon in place, ready to strike them down. A weapon the Imperium lacked at Badab.

>If this entreaty reaches you, wherever in the outer dark you may hunt, know that I have ensured termination fail safes to erase this message.

>Inquisitor Skaelen, Ordo Astartes.

>> AUTO-INCINERATION INITIALISED //

>> INSTIGATING SYSTEM REDUNDANCY / REF: 'MAELSTROM CONTINGENCY SECUNDAS'

Very interesting excerpt, and that raises some questions that we will probably not get an asnwer for in several years (or maybe at all).

Guilliman is, once again, angering Imperial authorities, and the Inquisition seems to have been developping counter-measures in case another Badab-level incident comes to place.

What intrigues me is the idea of a weapon. The 'Chapter authorisations' and the 'wherever in the outer dark you may hunt' makes me think the message was aimed at another Adeptus Astartes Chapter, probably the Space Sharks due to the latter, but the 'Commander' title does not seem to be a rank in the Chapter and the 'my friend' part seems like a weird way from an Inquisitor to refer to a Space Marine authority. Not to even mention that the Carcharodons do not seem like the type of Chapter to keep ties with the Inquisition in such a way.

Another possibility is that the Chapter is the Star Phantoms, which were granted domain over Badab, but the same problems apply as well.

Whatever the case, I hope we will see some interesting things coming from this.

A bit late to the party (almost a year), but after a re-read I thought it was interesting to see how Aeldari design has evolved, both lorewise and design-wise.

WD #510

Eldar were originally meant to be space pirates

>Originally, the Eldar were envisaged as space pirates, nomadic corsairs and mercenaries, so they needed advanced space suits to protect them from the rigours of spaceship combat, raiding settlements, and suchlike. Most of the other factions were developing their own armour styles by this point, and the Eldar needed something unique to distinguish them from Humans, Orks, Squats and the plate armour of the Space Marines.

>p, 46

Triangles have religious significance to the Aeldari

>Triangles, triads and triumvirates are a key component of Aeldari mythology with the gods Asuryan, Khaine and Vaul sitting at the top of the Aeldari pantheon. Consequently, triangles feature heavily in the design of the miniatures, most notably in unit and Aspect runes but also on a key part of nearly every model - the eye lenses on their helmets!

>p, 51

The Visarch as a proto-corsair

>Though not a Corsair, the Visarch was a an step towards creating aesthetic for them. His ornate, pre-Fall Aeldari armour shares a lot of baroque design cues with them.

>p, 52

The different types of runes of the Aeldari

>There are four styles of icons for the Asuryani: world runes, hierograms, runes and script. Craftworld symbols are complex images that tell a story. Hierograms can be circular, which indicates a noble house, or oval, which denotes a Bonesinger school. Runes are stylised forms of the runes used by seers for divination. They also are seen in small wraithbone tokens, Lastly, the Asuryani language is represented by curves and lines that form cursive characters.

>p, 53

The origins of Wraith constructs as 'Eldar Dreadnoughts'

>Wraith constructs are one of the defining features of the Asuryani and a unique sub-sect unlike anything found in any other faction. Their legacy goes right back to 1988, when the Eldar Dreadnought marched onto the scene. It was intended to be an Eldar war robot (it was even called a war robot in White Dwarf 101), but it quickly evolved to become so much more (about 50 pages later in the same mag!).

>The concept of the Eldar Dreadnought was simple — it had to evoke the imagery of the Eldar but in the form of a war machine. It had to be tall and graceful so it could stride effortlessly across the battlefield. It had to look more technologically advanced than the war machines of other factions, The Wraithlord has retained much of its original look, including its featureless head, shoulder-mounted weapon systems and wraithbone vanes protruding from its back. the result being that it looked smoother, plainer and more organic. The defining feature was the ominously blank teardrop- shaped head. Having no defined face on the model made it feel instantly more sinister, more alien and, above all, unique. The original idea was that the pilot inside the head controlled the construct psychically (hence no eyes or vision slit), but that quickly developed into the idea that the pilot was, in fact, very dead.

>p, 54.

WD #511

The Shrines of the Aspect Warrior kits

They represent:

• Howling Banshees - Morai-Heg
• Dark Reapers - Khaine as the destroyer
• Striking Scorpions - The anthropomorphised version of Murehk, the scorpion Khaine disguised as to sting Vaul and prevent him to complete the swords.
• Fire Dragons - A dragon, child of Saim, and whose chain represents the bind of souls with which Fuegan aims at binding the dragon during the Rhana Dandra.
• Swooping Hawks - The Great Hawk, husband to the Faolchú.
• Warp Spiders - Ahnakh-Yth, the Mother of Spiders and daughter of Morai-Heg.

Unfortunately the hawk-ish aspect shrine of the Dire Avengers is not named.