u/Stevencepa

Hello! First off, I am completely new to the series and currently starting the first book, so please no story spoilers!

I am wondering how exactly the Pyramids work, how many there are (more than the 3 religion, military and government?), and so forth.

If my math is mathing, one Pyramid with one Princeps is around ~40k people. The three pyramids i know of so far are thus around ~120k people.

This seems like a very low number for what is afaik an entire continent spanning realm. So, are there simply more pyramids? Or are there only three pyramids but more people in them than i calculated? Is the Hierarchy simply incredibly small in population? Or is the far majority simply not part of the Pyramids?

Are the Prisoners part of the Pyramids, who do they cede their will too?

Whats the most important names, terms, expressions etc. i should know (going on a german vessel)

E.g. like Sagittarum Guard Squads and Venatari Custodians? Do Custodians rotate through such roles or do they stay as them for centuries? Also the Sagittarum guard squads seem pretty antithetical, being so close to space marines.

How do they fit into the grand scheme of the adeptus custodes in lore? how many of them are there?

Ammo is obviously a contentious issue even within Space Marines as their bolters have limited magazine size and they are rarely shown to have more than maybe a few extra mags, if at all. I realize in lore it is commonly said that they carry more in their backpacks or mag clamped to their armor, and that they dont need much as every round hits. Nevertheless, even in the usually short-term, high speed, high intensity combat that space marines are usually described to work in, this would quickly come to a limit, especially against horde armies aka greater numbers of enemies like orks, tyranids etc. And sure, they are immensely deadly even with their bear hands and often carry melee weapons as well, but that logic would mean they dont use their bolters much in the grand scheme, assuming that their ammo will run dry within any prolonged combat, especially if they operate outside of immediate resupply possibilities (think Vanguard Squads for one, but also just as soon as they are relatively isolated or shit hits the fan and their resupply possibilities like drop pods, allied forces or air supply gets somehow countered or pushed back by the enemy.

Thus, my question extends to custodes, which is basically that they have even lower ammo capacity in their Guardian Spears, which i estimate to be no more than a dozen rounds, or maybe 20 with some fluff handwavium, which means even if their armor is full with mag clamped magazines its really not that much.

Is the answer to this really just 1. they (both SM and Custodians) are simply never in combat so long that they run out of ammo or 2. they fire their ammo with 100% accuracy and then kill everything in melee after (if resupply isnt possible?)

How do you view this common paradigm in the lore and the clear and nigh-omnipresent false representation in both official and fan art of how much ammo both groups carry in ammunition?

What are the direct explanations in the lore (ideally beyond the potential answers which i have provided, or expanding upon them) you can recall?

Sure, generally bolt rounds kill most things below xenos champions or other such elites, but they still generally only kill 1 or maybe a few enemies per shot. If they dont want to get swarmed within a few minutes of an intense engagements, they will need more ammunition than they are generally depicted to carry.

Whats your explanations and opinions on this topic? 😄