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So what are the lore reason for mainly using Bolter weapons after the Heresy instead of something like upscaled laser weapons?

Like why not give an Astartes a much larger Las weapon (like an upscaled/Astartes-grade Hellgun that is specifically designed to have the same amount of as a normal Lasgun)?

Was it just to distinguish regular Astartes from "mortal" troops, to not show them using the same kinds of weapons as "mortals" just bigger?

Or was it just the logistics of them already building Bolters to contend with other threats & didn't want to shift their production to something else... or it being "heresy to do so" or something?

Lately I have seen a few posts in the high cost of BL audiobooks, so I wanted to get the word out on an audible discount for the next 5 days.

I just noticed this morning that audible is running a site wide 85% off for members. I just bought like 10 audiobooks for under 5$ a piece. If you have been wanting to catch up on HH or Siege of Terra, now’s the time!

Have a good day!

The idea of “The Star Child” is an interesting case of how more modern Warhammer adapts old Warhammer lore.

In old lore (Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness, and Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned) as the Emperor was dying on his Throne, his soul was released from his body, and became worshipped by a secretive cult called “the Illuminati”, who hoped it would one day be reborn in some form. These “Illuminati” supposedly had champions who claimed to be the Emperor’s children, and were called “Sensei” (who went around the galaxy doing heroic things).

In Warhammer 3rd Edition it was revealed that the Inquisition had discovered and killed a “Cult of the Star Child” whose leaders were called “Sensei” and claimed to be the Emperor’s children.

Throne of Light confirmed the existence of a “Star Child Cult” and people having visions of a “a golden infant” as well as a “blindingly radiant being rising from a throne”.

More recently, “The End and the Death: Volume II” has the Emperor cast off a part of himself that contained “almost all of His hope, mercy, grace, loyalty, compassion and love“ before his fight with Horus. People have referred to this soul fragment as “the Star Child” in reference to old lore.

Realm of Chaos: the Lost and the Damned

THE LIVING DEATH

As the Emperor lay dying his psychic energy ebbed from his body. The immortality which had sustained him for so many centuries was no more, and the weight of age descended upon him. His body shrank and his bones cracked, his eyes sank into his skull and his skin darkened so all that remained inside his armour was a shrivelled mummy-like thing.

Released from his body, the Emperor’s psychic power, his soul, was cast adrift upon the tides of the warp, to be carried on the random undercurrents and eddies of the Sea of Souls until such time as it was ready to be reborn. Although the Powers of Chaos hunted tirelesly through the warp for the Emperor’s soul they could not find it. The warp is huge, and its energies dispersed and flowing. Like the shamans of ancient times, the Emperor was at one with the whole warp, so his soul melted easily into it and so remained hidden from the Chaos Powers.

THE STAR CHILD

As the spirit of the Emperor drifted through the warp it gradually dissolved into the flow of energy, returning to the cosmic force of the nature of the warp in its uncorrupted form.

Only a tiny core of the Emperor’s humanity remained whole, like a small child bobbing upon the tide of a colossal storm in a tiny reed boat.

Thus the soul of the Emperor was cast adrift into the warp. While the Emperor’s soul survived there was still hope for mankind. For just as the New Man had been born from the collective souls of the shamans of old, so the Emperor’s soul might be reborn one day. But that day would lie far in the future, when the cries for a new saviour would strengthen the core of the Emperor’s soul and rekindle it into new life.

Meanwhile the soul of the Emperor was a merely a potential, a child awaiting birth, the Star Child.

Only a few select individuals learned the secret over the following millennia, and they became the highly secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati. The Illuminati await the birth of the Star Child and the second coming of the New Man.

They know that their knowledge makes them dangerous heretics in the eyes of the Imperium, and consequently maintain a strict secrecy over their activities.

Then, from Throne of Light:

A few years after the crusade began, visions of a golden infant interspersed with those of a blindingly radiant being rising from a throne began to be reported across the astropathic network. Beginning in the Segmentum Solar, and confined at first to background noise, the sort of low-grade psychic interference churned up by the currents of the warp, these visions became clearer, and spread. Though their import was hotly debated, certain seers both loyal and traitor interpreted the visions as a possible sign of direct action by the God-Emperor, leading to a great outpouring of faith on the Imperial side that was matched only by the enemy’s dismay.

Among the most heretical interpretations were parallels made with the insidious belief in the ‘Star Child’, promulgated by a cult which had been destroyed some years before the Great Rift opened. The news of these visions was to cause great upheaval within the Imperium, as many of the mighty suspected them to be a trick of the enemy, while others insisted they were of divine origin. The factional nature of Imperial politics was complicated further as ideological lines were drawn, sometimes to be defended with violence.

And finally, from The End and the Death: Volume II:

The End and the Death: Volume II

My lord and friend has broken off a part of his soul. He has amputated that portion of himself that contains almost all of his hope, loyalty and compassion, for such things will become a hindrance when he faces the Lupercal. Those qualities might stay his hand, or make him hesitate if he is ultimately obliged to kill.

And if he is obliged to kill his son, then those qualities would afterwards, and inevitably, drive him to self-hatred and regret, and condemn him to the same, embittered path as Horus. He has excised those precious human aspects to further steel himself against the pain of what will come after, and the mandatory atrocities he will have to countenance in order to rebuild the Imperium. He has set those frail and cardinal virtues adrift on the tides of the empyrean so that they will not immobilise him. And in the hope that one day, he will be able to reclaim them, and be whole again.

I watch that jettisoned fragment as it drifts into the void, just one more spark from this world-bonfire. All his hope, his mercy, his grace, his love, cast into the lightless tracts of space and time. That fragile asterism will, as cosmic ages turn, slowly grow by a coalescence of emotion and belief, just as the powers of Chaos grow.

It luminesces briefly, just a speck of hermetic fire against the shrouded pinpricks of the Milky Way, like an infant sun or a child star, and then it is gone, and lost from view.

I like the way that some of the old lore (the Illuminati cult, with Sensei who were the Emperor’s children, and acted as good Daemon Princes) was recontextualized to be a mix of truth and misunderstandings.

The Sensei were not really the Emperor’s biological children and their descendants. They were not super powerful heroic beings. But there was an Illuminati cult, with Sensei as leaders. Old lore had the Sensei read from the Eldar library and work with the Eldar. New lore has the Illuminati cult killed partly because of cooperation with Xenos (the Eldar).

But new lore does actually keep the idea of the Star Child somewhat intact. The End and the Death Volume II gives a better origin to the metaphysical Star Child. And Throne of Light suggests that people are having visions of it, and miracles are being done in its name.

The whole situation is similar to how the Squats returned as the Leagues of Votann. Warhammer would rather try and find a way to adapt old lore into new cannon, than abandon it completely.

Tau battlesuits are single piloted suits of armour but do the larger ones such as the storm surge or taunar still have only 1 person piloting it? I noticed on the storm surge there's several 'heads' with the blue lenses besides the main head, and was wondering if those are just more cameras for the sole pilot to use or if they're secondary cockpits.

supposedly the storm surge and Taunar are medium knight sized and big knight sized in lore respectively, so they could be piloted by a lone guy like the knights, just wondering.

Volkite weapons are one of my favourite weapon types in 40k. I just love how they're stereotypical rayguns that you see in old sci-fi flicks. I know they are a type of thermal heat ray weapon, that deflagrates organic matter but im not entirely sure how to visualize or understand by that. I've searched for excerpts, but couldn't find any. Do Volkite weapons disinregrate enemies through sheer heat, like in steven spielbergs war of the worlds? Do they light stuff on fire? Do enemies explode? Or is it a combination of all three, or something else? Is it something that authors can't make up their minds on? Thanks in advance for the answers.

Does anyone else miss the regimental standard?

It was a website operated by games workshop. It hosted articles that acted as if they were from the 40k universe and whose intended audience were the imperial guard.

They had articles about spotting heretics, keeping a respectful distance away from space marines etc etc.

It also had a story arc about Orks taking over the printing offices releasing their own articles. Another story arc had alpha legionairres infiltrate their offices releasing their own stuff etc etc.

It was refunded to browse and read. The website doesn't appear to be up anymore. What happened??

Hey all! I'm still fairly new-ish to the lore and have taken to the Blood Angels as my favourite Chapter/faction and the death company are a really interesting group.

I was wondering what they do/what's done with them when they're not in battle? Are there any rituals that the Sanguinary priests and Blood Angels follow in how they treat the DC?

I'm talking about the Blood Angels specifically here and not their successors as such.

Thanks in advance!

G’day

Re: Anna Bequin book 2 (“Penitent”) :

A query about the above groups. I’m at the fight at the apartment between the aforementioned groups, which occurs in ch 22/23 of penitent.

Are there further explanations of each “side,” or have I missed a few key points? The descriptions during the fight beg a few impactful questions!

Listening to the novel as an audiobook, so I occasionally lose focus on the book in favour of (somewhat) safe driving 😂

I’m personally fine with spoilers (have only read a handful of HH books and some unrelated Big E/Custodes novellas), but yep an explainer would be appreciated!

Alternatively, just tell me to keep listening if I’ll get answers further on… 👌🏻

Cheers

Im looking for an excerpt that describes a couple of custodes having just finished off i think some word bearers and one of them takes a seat to have a rest and watches with comical indifference, the newly bi-sected space marine crawling along the floor. I read it a long time ago but for the life of me cant find it and wanted to know what book it came from.

Guys so I am writing an college admissions essay and I need a quote by the Lion or any other loyalist Primarch about motivation and overcoming struggles in life I found one “a mind without purpose will wander in dark places” and no where can I find who said that or even what media that comes from but honestly I would rather have some quotes from the loyalist Primarchs. And like lowkey the longer the better so I can get over the word count and also I am a good writer so i can pretty much work with anything

After reading a good few of the Tanith First books as well as some others, I'm left wondering what can actually get a guardsman released, the series and other books contain plenty of veterans, but at the same time the Ghosts lose limbs, eyes, appreciable portions of their vital organs, and for Kolya at least, a brain injury so bad he can barely function, but instead of being discharged they're always put back into service one way or another. The same seems to go for mental trauma, with troops being sent back in regardless of any damage they've suffered.

So with that in mind, what actually can get an imperial guard released? Are the Ghosts unique for being given so many prosthetics and being sent back, and if not what actually disqualifies you from staying in the guard?

So I am pretty much up an done with Horus Heresy, I am looking to start reading 40k side of things now, I am interested in the likes of Guillimans Return, Devestation Of Baal and Dark Imperium, but would like to read it in somewhat of an order (Because Heresy has lets say, not much of one) So whats the reading order in terms of Dark Imperium, Leviathan, Devestation, Gathering Storm, Cadia and Cadias Fall, Watchers Of The Throne and Dawn Of Fire, sorry if this is confusing, but so is the lore I guess.

The Marneus Calgar comic seems to imply they do. I guess I'm not supposed to post a screenshot, but there's a sequence of three images with the following captions:

[IMAGE 1]

The bolt thrusts itself from the barrel with the smaller charge, as if it were but a lesser weapon.

[IMAGE 2]

When in the air it shows its caliber. Its own propulsion bursts to life.

It accelerates.

Its diamantine tip would punch through ceramite plate.

[IMAGE 3]

The machine spirit pauses, giving a moment to burrow inside...

It detonates.

A heretic dies.

I think the natural interpretation is that each bolt has its own machine spirit. You might think 'the machine spirit' refers to the bolter's machine spirit, but that's not really how this reads, and images 2 and 3 don't show or refer to the bolter. Also it would seem to imply there was communication equipment inside the bolter and each bolt, which is pretty weird.

So the way I'm reading it, a squad of space marines is firing off thousands of machine spirits. Are they praying to each one? Do they have to persuade each bolt that it's a good idea to get fired out of a gun and blow up inside a heretic?

Obviously there's the wider argument that machine spirits (even the familiar ones in larger equipment and vehicles) 'aren't real'. And actually I think machine-spirits-in-bolts offers evidence for that, as it seems pretty implausible that there are really spirits in each one that are listening to prayers and being successfully persuaded always or almost always (bolters are very rugged and reliable, and don't tend to blow up like plasma weapons do). On this interpretation, saying prayers to the contact fuses in the bolts actually does nothing - its just ritual for its own sake. Though maybe this takes things a bit too far, as even 40k space marines should realize that it can't really work like that for each round of ammunition.

The other interpretation is that the comic is wrong. It does go a bit over the top with grimdark, like 'Until the recent disasters, the average human life expectancy even managed to reach the mid-thirties' in Ultramar. But it seems too much of a handwave to disregard what actual published material says just because it says surprising things (it's also a pretty good book IMO). It's probably better to say that it's describing the bolt from the perspective of someone in-universe (probably Marneus) rather than from some objective, factually correct perspective.

An interesting point of comparison is the Skitarii Rangers' Galvanic Rifle, which fires servitor bullets. Obviously this is quite a different case, with a more elaborate bullet and much lower rate volume of fire. But it does suggest that the idea of treating each round of ammunition as in some sense its own individual is known within the Imperium.

Or is it the brutality and ruthlessness that kees them away from softening up and helps them survive against literally everything in the universe? Would it really be bad if, for example, commissars toned down the random killing of guardsmen?

Plasteel is vastly used in armour and weapons, but whats it origin?

Considering it’s a narcotic from a certain plant that we don’t know of?

Given that Guilliman suggested the idea to Dante since well, why could a man not refuse the idea of serving Chaos if he lives in hell on his homeworld?

But don't Astartes like to recruit from deathworlds like Baal and Fenris since the recruits there would be of higher quality due to the harsh conditions there?

Was Guilliman right to float the idea of terraforming Baal?

Im fairly new to the lore but I thought he was still an honorable man and loved his brothers very dearly, especially sanguinius. They had a very deep bond so why did he let the demons desecrate his body after his death?

Why did he blow up his home planet? I read somewhere that he called the exterminatus on his own home planet but the reason was so bad we were never told. Do we have any hints? Who wrote this lore? Am i an idiot and that's not what happened? Any and all responses welcome!

Almost every Adeptus Mechanicus character that I have seen in the WH40K franchise seems to be exclusively committed to a mission on behalf of the Cult Mechanicus, or in some cases on behalf of another Imperium institution like the guard or the inquisition. None of the Adeptus Mechanicus members seem to have any motivation or goals of their own or do stuff outside what they are strictly commanded to do by a higher-up.

Even the high ranking members of Adeptus Mechanicus(Magos Dominus, etc) don't really seem to have any agenda or motivation of their own. They all seek to serve the Cult Mechanicus or the Imperium in some way using the limited resources and information that they have (which sometimes puts them at odds with each other).

Belisarius Cawl is the only exception i know however. Most of the highlights of his rise-to-power arc involve him doing things that he wasn't really commanded to do, or didn't directly or immediately benefit the cult or the imperium. Even before becoming becoming an Archmagos, he seems to have enjoyed a degree of "free time" and "mobility" to peruse his own objectives in a way that doesn't seem apparent in most depiction of Adeptus Mechanicus society.

In knight worlds, or hive worlds, even though nominally everyone is also committed to the goals of wider imperium, there almost always exist a degree of "freedom" when it comes to how people serve the imperium. There always seem to exist a small "middle-class" freemen population, whose main contributions to the imperium is mostly though taxes or tithing, and other than occasional mobilization periods, they aren't really expected to be full time employees of a higher ranking member.

So does Adeptus Mechanicus also have some sort of a freemen equivalent population? As in, members who mainly contribute by paying taxes or mostly allowed to do what they want when they aren't mobilized?

Or do I just need to get the little upstart assassinated?

We know the theoretical lifespan but do we know how long a SM is likely to live before being killed?

I understand the High Lords took a brutal purging, but I don't understand why the rest of the Imperium was okay with it.

Is it desperation?

Is it simply because of his aura?

Did the Emperor let the Custodes know that this is his will?

I can see Roboute is a loyal and trustworthy son, but I can imagine for sons of Dorn of sons of The Lion it might seem a bit presumptious to take control of the entire IoM after one visit.

(big guilliman fan btw, bro's essentially the main character of the Imperium right now, love the weight that's on his shoulders).

Exactly what the title says. Commissar relays the order to Exterminatus the Daemon World, genestealer guardsmen "already on it" Commissar looks puzzled. The Hive Fleet descends from the sky and swallows the chaos infected biosphere. No more chaos.

Interesting concept I think, only works on chaos as the Octarian Orks showed.

Grabbed a bunch of 40k audiobooks on sale and looking to see if any of these titles in particular are more enthralling than others. Don't worry about order.. so far I have read slaves to darkness/emperor of mankind/galaxy in flames/praetorian of dorn in that order.

Horus Heresy Books - Prospero Burns, Mark of Calth, Wolfsbane, Fear to Tread, Flight of the Eisenstein, Fulgrim.

Standalone - Red Tithe, Dante, Cadia Stands, Sigismund Eternal Crusader, The Lion: Son of the Forest, Sanguinius the Great Angel.

I remember reading about a location in the sol system, perhaps a moon of one of the outer planets, perhaps Titan itself, where the inquisition has a prison used to interrogate or otherwise imprison daemons and the possessed.

They may have even been forcing possession in order to then interrogate the daemon that would possess whoever was unlucky enough to be possessed. I remember mention of the prison being deep beneath the planetoid and being protected with countless wards against psychic/warp powers.

In every example of ork lore I’ve seen they always seem to be nomadic, just some good lads always looking for the next good scrap and shiny loot.

I’m working my way back through Horus Heresy books and they talk about The Crusade taking on Ork Empires, referencing the Ullanor Crusade specifically.

What does that even look like? Orks don’t seem the “set up a government” type. Do they have Empires panning planets and more? How does a Warboss manage to maintain order when his orders have to be “sit on this boring rock of a planet when all the scrappins done and wait fer someone to maybe show up and take it.”

Seems like a pretty tall order for your average ork boyz. What does this system look like?

Gav: The new models are nice. I’m glad that they clarified that not all Aspects have a Phoenix Lord because I personally saw the original six as the ‘authentic’ First Exarchs. If too many are added it starts to lose relevance. The Warp Spiders are a tricky one chronologically because their existence presupposes the creation of Infinity Circuits, which are a post-Fall phenomenon. And a Craftworld specific one at that, which means they arrived after the destruction of the First Shrine and the Asurya taking the Path out to the Craftworlds. I can just about fudge it in my head that ‘warp spiders’ as psychic defensive beasties existed in pre-Fall tech and language about Infinity Circuit is simply fitting them to a current version of the same tech.

from Gav thorpe discord.

Stocking up with the Audible sale and I usually break up my HH grind here and there but want to stock up.

I've read

• The Eisenhorn series

• Double Eagle

• Gaunt's Ghosts

• Titanicus

Looking for other great reads outside of the HH required reading** list.**

Bolts are basically small, hardened RPGs. This makes me think they have some armor-penetrating power against vehicles, at least lighter vehicles. Is this true?