r/40kLore

Context: A task force of Space Marines, AdMech and Guardsmen led by an Inquisitor, are sent to investigate the reason behind the loss of all communications with a classified Imperial Research Facility. The true purpose of the facility was to investigate the Tyranid threat and they used captured live specimens to enact their testing. As you can expect, things got out of control and all hell broke loose. There's a conflict of goals between the astartes of the Red Scorpions and Inquisitor Lok, who believes he still has command over them.

After a Thunderhawk crash-lands carrying Chapter Master Culln, the dispersed Red Scorpions decide to abandon their initial goal to regroup and rescue their commander.

>“Odds are there will be no survivors from the crash. Sending more men out to look for them is condemning those men to death as well. It is a fool’s errand. I will not sanction any rescue mission. Our priority must be our survival until an evacuation can be effected. We must complete the mission.”

>Apothecary Rael glowered at the Inquisitor barring his way. “We will not leave our brothers to rot in this place. Dead or alive, they must return to the Chapter. The Chapter must have its dues,” the Space Marine growled his response, and before the Inquisitor could answer, snapped his helmet into place. “This mission is under my command. You, and your brothers, are under my authority. The power of the Emperor is vested in me. Dare you gainsay the word of an Inquisitor?” warned Lok.

>The Apothecary simply ignored him, flicking his comms channel open, “Squads Rael and Avna rendezvous on me.” He called his men to him, brushing past the Inquisitor as he left. The argument was over.

>Lok let the Space Marine go, but not without a final warning, “You and your Chapter have not heard the last of this insubordination!” The blast door slid shut behind the Space Marine as he stepped out into the darkness. Apothecary Rael’s men moved to their vehicles and marched onboard.

>The Thunderhawk’s locating beacon was giving off a weak signal, but it was enough for them to home-in on. Once all were onboard, the convoy of Razorbacks and Rhinos headed off into the jungle.

Afterwards, seeing that the entire mission has failed and they are about to be completely overrun by super evolved tyranids, Culln is ordered to evacuate the planet, but only with his marines:

>“My authority now supersedes yours, Lord Inquisitor.” Commander Culln stood upon the ramp of his Thunderhawk gunship. Behind him a Thunderhawk transporter was raising two Razorbacks on its loading claws, the last of the Red Scorpions strike force to be loaded.

>“My orders are to evacuate the moon’s surface. The situation here means my priorities have changed. My men are no longer at your command. We are not expendable assets,” Culln betrayed no emotions. He had received new orders and they would be followed. The Inquisitor’s anger at his decision to evacuate had not swayed him for a second. He felt no pity.

>Inquisitor Lok was furious. “This is treachery, commander. Your strike force still has a mission to complete. The authority of the Emperor is vested in me, I am a bearer of the Inquisitorial Mandate. The Conclave of Har will hear of this base treachery, and you and your Chapter will face the severest of retributions. In the name of Emperor, I command your men to stand fast.”

>“Your mission is irrelevant,” Culln declared and turned and walked up the ramp. Inside the Thunderhawk, his men were awaiting his order to launch. Powerless to intervene, Lok watched as the nose ramp slammed closed, and the gunship’s engine pitch rose. The Thunderhawk lifted off, the engines boomed and it rocketed skywards into the void. It was soon out of sight.

>Lok surveyed the base as the tired, wounded, sallow-eyed Guardsmen dug-in around his shrinking perimeter. He knew now that he had been betrayed, not just by the Red Scorpions, but also by some higher power still. His authority had been undermined, and now it seemed he was to be sacrificed on Beta Anphelion IV. He trudged back to the control centre, resigned to his fate. All that was left to do was make a final log entry although he doubted it would ever reach the Conclave’s Advocate Judge. The Shadow in the Warp was so dense now, Astropath Zarneck was unsure if anything was getting through. It was worth a last try, if only because the Conclave would at least learn of his fate and retribution could be taken against those who had plotted against him.

Abandoned to die, Inquisitor Lok makes one last stand with the surviving Cadians, who manage to kill a bio-titan, only for two more to emerge out of nowhere:

>Exhausted and in tremendous pain, Lok lay in the mud looking skywards. His beautiful, ornate armour was rent and torn; acid had burned clean through in places. His helmet had been torn off, and his body was ruined and broken. As Lok tried to pull himself up, two Cadians ran to his aid. With their help he staggered to his feet, coughing up blood, his face singed and melted. He looked down for his power sword. Lacking the strength to wield it, it might at least act as a prop. “Lord?” one Guardsman inquired. Lok looked up. Both men were looking past him, into the sky. He dared to hope. Was the rescue ship coming? Had reinforcements arrived? Would they survive?

>Painfully, the Inquisitor turned to look. Appearing through the fog he saw two more bio-titans approaching. Lok was amazed. The Hive Mind had evolved its forces so quickly. From just a few experimental samples the Tyranids had grown out of control, evolving and re-evolving into new forms it knew would defeat its foe. It had been a mistake to think the Hive Mind could ever be tamed. It would never submit like some whipped captive animal; it thirsted for prey, it needed to kill and consume. In those final moments, as the Tyranid swarms broke in and the last of his men died around him, Inquisitor Lok saw the full horror of the truth. The Tyranids could not be stopped. There could be no victory for the Imperium in this war. In his last moments, as the bio-killers closed in, Lok felt cold-hearted despair. This small force stood for all of Mankind, and like it they would inevitably be annihilated. Mankind would fight on regardless, but it was already doomed.

The last words he told Horus before erasing him from existence were "I wait for you and I forgive you"

When he saved Guilliman from Godblight he tells Mortarion "... you are as much a victim as a monster, Mortarion. Perhaps one day you might be saved. Until then, you must go back to the master you chose."

In his "conversation" with Konrad he says "Nothing ever dies. Death is a state of transition. You have my forgiveness, Konrad, whether you want it or not"

He (apparently) offered Magnus a new Legion and redemption

Why, why doesn't he despised them, after everything they did, after everything they have done, how they ruined his dream, how their actions trapped him in eternal agony. Where is his rage for what they once were his sons

Is dying to a Tyranid Invasion a get out of jail free card in terms of endless psychic torture by extra dimensional xenos?

Everyone who dies ends up having their soul torn apart by daemons in the sea of souls. You have a few exceptions, the astronomicon can dissolve your soul through burning pain, you can get sucked up into the machine spirit of a titan or titan analog, that's about it.

But if you die during a Tyranid Invasion, what happens then? Does your soul make it to the warp? How does it bypass all the "noise" ? Do we have any lore of this happening?

Exactly what the title says. When the Iron Hands do their whole amputation and augmentation deal, do they get anesthetized and have someone else add the bionic, or do they stay wide awake and tank the pain as another test of strength?

Secondary question: Would they add their augments to themselves or do they get assistance from other marines/tech priests?

One oft-ignored matter of human history prior to Old Night is the widespread emergence of psykers. According to the lore, recorded instances of people wielding psychic powers go back to M22. However, we know that psykers have existed long before then, as the Emperor was formed by Neolithic warp-wielders into an avatar of their souls tens of thousands of years before. This raises the following question: How did psykers only get discovered in M22 when they had existed for so long before then? The boring answer would be that there is no answer and that GW simply wrote itself into a narrative corner by establishing the existence of psykers in the far future as well as the far past. However, I believe that there is a real, in-universe answer, and it is that the Emperor's creation substantially delayed mankind's full psychic awakening.

First, we must establish the relationship between humanity and the Warp. All humans, by nature of being sentient organic creatures, have a soul and a resultant psychic charge. For most people, this charge is minimal. By contrast, psykers have a significant psychic charge, which can be either an acquired trait resulting from the random impact of the warp upon people in realspace (e.g. the M42 Psychic Awakening) or one inherited from parents. In the case of the latter scenario, their "psyker gene" increases the potency of their souls, allowing them to become a conduit for psychic energy.

Now, onto the Emperor. As previously stated, the man once known as Neoth was created after thousands of shamanic psykers committed ritual suicide in order to reincarnate in one form. This would've been an impressive feat of coordination as the human population in 8000 BC (around when he is said to be born) was a mere 5 million spread across the entire world. With this act of mass suicide, a significant number of psychically capable individuals were removed from the genepool. Remember when I said that significant psychic connection (that which separates psykers from everybody else) is genetic? If so many psykers in an era of such low global population didn’t have the chance to reproduce before killing themselves, that would've stunted the population growth of human psykers in such a way as to explain why it would not be until M22 that sufficiently noticeable numbers of psykers existed. However, I recognize one potential fault with my theory, so I will attempt to meet it head-on.

The counterargument which I came up with is this: How do I know that it was a significant proportion of psykers who killed themselves? After all, some of them may have had kids before forming the Emperor, and we know that Erda (a psyker perpetual) existed during the Bronze Age (though her age vis-a-vis the Emperor is unknown). Plus, there is no indication that every or even most psykers were involved in the plot. To this, I would like to draw your attention back to the population of Earth at that time. Even if we assume the "thousands" of psykers who make up the Emperor to be just 2000, that would mean that psykers made up approximately .04% of the 5 million humans who were alive around 8000 BC. That's much greater than the statistics in M41, which commonly state that 1 in every 1,000,000 people were born as psykers. I hypothesize that psyker births were far more common (about 400 times more common) in the Neolithic period than in M41, and that this decline was due to a massive reduction in their population around the same time caused by the Emperor's creation. For the effects to be this significant and long-lasting, the psykers involved would've had to represent almost every psyker alive at the time. While extreme, such an event is not without historical precedent. 900,000 years ago, for example, our ancestors are believed to have been reduced to a mere 1% of their former population after some catastrophic event. While clearly some psykers were left, they must've been so few in number that it would take until M22 for them to make up a noticeable share of the population again.

I'm sure somewhere in the lore there are places with heavenly living conditions, but for most Imperial citizens, life is incredibly miserable. No one cares about you, no one cares if you live or die, and no one cares about your family. Under these conditions, being loyal to the Imperium doesn't make you a good person; it just shows that you're an idiot. Why would an ordinary person say, "Oh, I should keep protecting this system that promises me nothing"? With Chaos, at least you have the hope of climbing the hierarchy, a chance to achieve some power, or if nothing else, the chance to take revenge on the people who condemned you to these conditions. It's like choosing between two buttons: one offers certain death, and the other offers certain death plus a cotton candy. Even if the reward is incredibly low, at least one of them promises something a little extra. I'm talking about ordinary people, not those at the top of the pyramid like the Space Marines or nobles.

Hello all. It's exactly what it says on the tin, I'm looking for recommendations for good 40k books. I've read the first five HH Books, the Eisenhorn omnibus, Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work, The Ahriman Omnibus and The Infinite and the Divine. Thank you in advance!

I know the iron halo’s are only given to chapter masters or marines that have proven themselves to great length. But every time I see a company or chapter all together it seems that they are low on marines.

Kinda new to the setting, but like I said is there a reason for not equipping the apothecary’s with as much survivability to ensure the geen seeds return?

I'm sure that even a Space Marine can be too wounded to recover entirely, or has seen one thing too many to be able to continue the fight.

What does the Imperium do with them? I doubt that there are hospitals for PTSD or handicapped Astartes, no?

**Welcome to another installment of the official "No stupid questions" thread.**

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Be nice everyone, we all started out not knowing anything about this wonderfully weird, dark (and sometimes derp) universe.

Just finished reading the Gods of Mars series, probably the best representations of the Mechanicus I’ve read thus far. Any recommendations for further reading? Such an interesting faction

So I’ve read some lore and yes tech priests seem more common than I initially thought but what would someone not in the cult of mars be comfortable and allowed to maintain. If I’m a citizen with their version of a 2012 corolla can I do the maintenance myself, or anything past a tire change I gotta take it to my local adeptus mechanicus shrine?

So, if the Ecclesarcy is able to keep popping out living saints… why have we not seen a ‘Mechanicus living saint’ yet? Cause I think THAT should have happened by now… yes I know living saints are RARE, even more than titans, but given how the cult Mechanicus is the second biggest faith in the imperium, you would THINK the warp would have reflected that and made a Mechanicus living saint…

I know perpetuals can come back from a single cell, and presumably they heal from mortal wounds, like a sliced throat or a gunshot wound.

But about from less "traumatic" methods of death. Like suffocation or starvation? Like John Grammaticus spaces himself at the end of Legion, whenever he revives, would he be in perfect health and then suffocate, or just wake up and die instantly?

Or if one died from starvation. Would they recover and be back at full strength, and then have to slowly starve to death again?

I heard somewhere that the Drukhari that are a part of the Ynnari are the less sadistic outcasts of Drukhari society. But the part that confused me is the fact that Ynnari Archons exist. Aren’t Archons the most depraved and sadistic among the Drukhari? I’m also curious on how exactly Drukhari change to fit into the Ynnari. I could have this wrong so feel free to correct me.

So I'm reading The Wolftime, and in conversation between Custodians Vykalan and Colquin (audiobook so spelling may be off), they are discussing the tension between Guilliman and Logan Grimnar.

"If Guilliman was to turn on the Emperor, then the Space Wolves would be one of his first opponents. The history of the Ten Thousand with the 11th Legion is a reminder of that. Why would Guilliman be so keen to arm and expand such an obstacle to his ambition?"

-Vykalan to Colquin

"...and as the history you refer to proves more than anything, loyalty to the emperor can be directed to ill ends by manipulation and lies."

-Colquin back to Vykalan.

I feel like passage narrows down a lot of the speculation I see about what happened to at least one of the lost legions. This makes me think the Cabal could have played a part in their erasure from the record, because this kind of reminds me of the Alpha Legion shenanigans in the Legion novel during the Heresy.

Thoughts?

Wanted to know how many Chapters that tend to be seen as outcasts by the Imperium but are still loyal? Chapters like the Lamenters who despite doing so much good work tend to be looked down by other chapters and hated by others. Or the Marines Malevolant who are so hated they don’t have Admech support and have to scvange. Any others that could be listed?

The meta level answer is clear - Asuriani are a dying people, and them coming back to life would run counter to this core concept.

But what is the lore reason?

Drukari can come back from the dead with relative ease. It may be reserved for the most influential of them, and require Homunculus mastery of life, but... Even if only Homunculi know how to do this, Asuriani had thousands of years to buy, steal, blackmail or otherwise gain this knowledge. And on the technical side, whatever their dark cousins can do, Asuriani can match, with enough effort.

Besides, they have an advantage of having the souls of their dead safely contained in the Soulstones - unlike Drukari who have to reconstruct souls from fragments. Seemingly, they can bring back a large portion of their dead. So why don't they?

I know that some pseudo plague marines and noise marines for showed up throughout the heresy but how far did the mutating get by the time of the siege?

How come the Imperial Fists in 30k get a lot more of the limelight than in 40k? It's something I've been wondering about for awhile. I've heard different reasons, ranging from yellow being a hard colour for beginners to paint to the Fists losing a lot of their identity to their successors (Sigismund, Rann, Pollux).

Curious if anyone knows why, I know the Ultramarines are the face of 40k but shouldn't the Fists be given a lot more attention?