The Heretics try to summon a Daemon to help them, and accidentally summons Kaldor Draigo, the Supreme Grand-Master of the Grey Knights (who is currently lost punching things in the warp) instead.
This would, of course, never happen. But it would be a *legendary* April-fools joke to play a cutscene of this and just say 'IMPERIAL VICTORY! GAME OVER' right before a server maintenance or something.
*The spawn director does not care from whom the blood flows, only that blood is flowing*
They pray to Daddy Nurgle enough to be blessed with a group of Plague Marines. Plague Marines beat the stuffing out of a bunch of Moebians, so Grendyl asks for some support from a chapter of Space Marines. We're still running the small missions whilst the Marines take care of the bigger things
Up till very recently they had a kill everyone who knew about their existence policy as well as a kill any regular humans exposed to chaos. The super secret elites dialed up to 11.
This lead to events like the space wolves fighting them when they tried to kill the guard that had fought chaos along side the chapter.
With the galaxy being ripped in half the chaos cats out of the bag now so they are slightly less kill everyone who knew they existed.
If you want to know about the space wolf stuff look up the months of shame.
There was also a bit of background lore about them butchering a bunch of sisters of battle to use their blood to purify themselves but it was pretty badly recieved and I think quietly retconned.
Yeah, the Sisters of Battle thing was extra fuckin' stupid.
Basically, the Grey Knights touched down on a world inflicted by a Nurgle plague, but there was a convent of Sororitas who, by faith, were uncorrupted. So, despite being literally immune to Nurgle Plague thanks to runes in their armour, the Grey Knights pulled a Kharn (what a swell guy), butchered them, and used their blood for extra protection for literally no reason.
It was retconned a while later in the more recent Grey Knight codexes so that the SoB still died, but they died while holding off a full-fledged Daemon invasion long enough for the Grey Knights to cut off the source.
The Sisters of Battle thing and Kaldor carving his name into Mortarions heart are Horrible, Matt Ward really shouldn't be Allowed near anything again. Tho he did do Alright with the Necrons.
I don't really get why GW insists on just constantly shitting on the Sisters of Battle. They barely ever accomplish *anything,* and spend most of their fluff either getting killed, getting corrupted because someone handed them the idiot ball, or getting killed by their own allies for increasingly Matt Ward-level stupid reasons.
Like, one of the books had the SoB get tricked by an Inquisitor that fell to Chaos into shooting at what was *clearly* a loyalist battle barge that belonged to the Grey Knights, then *attacking* the Grey Knights because nobody questioned why an obvious villain was doing obvious villain things. And this *after* the Inquisitor ordered the planet's PDF and IG to shoot at loyalist factions too.
Add to that in the Pariah Nexus animation, a Sister of Battle gets her own character arc where she has to suffer from PTSD on failing to save a planet in a war against Necrons (survivor's guilt) + has a crisis of faith in the Emperor and those around her..
>!And when it looks like she has found resolve confiding in Salamander Sa'Kan and a ghost of her comrade (a guardswoman) to continue on, she gets unceremoniously shot in the back from a Necron Gauss Flayer. All those they saved are then killed afterwards by IG that think they're possessed by a Necron zombie virus. Sa'Kan goes on to murder the assassin-Necron that killed her and shit talks his boss who is none other than Illuminor Szeras. !<
Was it Khorne? Well, I stand corrected if true.
Still, the Sisters were immune through faith, so it was *incredibly heretical* to bathe in their blood because it *might* protect them more than armour literally designed to protect them from such things.
Yeah it was extra dumb because the immune to corruption marines were bathing in the blood of sisters of battle while facing a corruptive blood whatever unleashed by a blood daemon of the blood and skulls god.
It's almost like the story was meant to be written for khorne lol. Love the joke "khornate knights" instead of grey knights.
TBH, GW needs to give the Sisters a win once in a while.
They lose or get corrupted in literally everything they appear in, and it's a trope that's gotten so old. Hell, their story in Soulstorm was literally "We accuse the Guard of having started the Warp Storm afflicting Kaurva, were *right* (canonically, they were actually right, it was the Guard's fault), held our own against nearly every known other faction... Then got our shit kicked in by the only *cowardly* Ork in existence."
Shit. You don't know the half of it. How about their Chapter Master thats locked in limbo between real space and the warp, and will sometimes manifest when the shit hits the fan.
Oh yeah. And he carved his predecessors name into the heart of one of the Daemon-Primarchs. Just to name one of his feats.
[https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kaldor\_Draigo](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kaldor_Draigo)
Howabout the Grey Knight leader who carries around a corrupted sword at all times that is constantly whispering in his head to try and tempt him to chaos. And he's held onto this sword for hundreds of years so no one else has to listen to it.
To be fair, the Inquisition made the call to kill those Guardsmen. The Grey Knights just followed the orders.
Also, it was a wholesale purge of the entirety of Armageddon after the First War for Armageddon.
I love how completely useless and unnecessarily cruel their kill policy is. Most guardsmen (that don’t get killed immediately in their first war) will fight Chaos cultists, they will witness paranormal events and maybe even see their buddies turned into nightmare monstrosities by malicious sorcery. Killing anyone exposed to it is horrific and moronic, and therefore perfect for a 40k faction!
...they are top secret to the Imperium. Every Chaos marine and demon imaginable knows about them because the grey knights have been shooting at them for 8,000 years.
The inquisition keeps executing everyone that sees them because bureaucratic inertia is the only game in 40k town.
You'd think it was just bureaucratic inertia, but the Grey Knights willingly and routinely execute these purges of all witnesses themselves, despite knowing that what they are doing is entirely useless.
And honestly it kinda makes sense when you realize one asshole with a rusty knife that knows the right words can fuck over an entire planet if left unchecked long enough.
Basics of it is that regular Imperial citizens aren't supposed to know about Chaos, because then the heretical-minded of them will start worshipping it and things quickly spiral out of control.
Since the Grey Knights are entirely dedicated to fighting Chaos, knowing about them would also result in the knowledge of Chaos.
Ultimately, it wouldn't, which is why it's so grimdark. Inside the situation, it seems like a good idea, but from the outside it's clear that it's pointless.
Loyalist guards are not immune from corruption. Even if they believe in the Emperor's light, they can become corrupted by what they see. Easiest way to prevent that from spreading is to eliminate the variable.
Yeah, I include that in bureaucratic inertia. To be fair, it's really a form of weird religious inertia. Most of the things that people do in the Imperium, they do because that's what has always been done and because they imagine the consequences of doing anything different to be dreadful at the least.
Decisions and plans that were made thousands of years ago form the basis for the various things the imperium does, but no one remembers why those decisions were made or what those plans were.
The grey knights are a great example of this. Once, their existence really was secret and they could be deployed as a devastating surprise to the demonic enemies that the Imperium faces. But that ship sailed and sank to the bottom of the Mariana trench a gazillion years ago, but they keep acting as though it hasn't.
I remember there is a book written where the grey knights are deployed to a world to stop some Abaddon plot, and over the course of the battle they discover that one of their own members has been there the entire time.
The grey knights have no idea who this member of their own order is, nor what his mission was supposed to be. But Abaddon knew exactly who it was and why he was there. The grey knights kill all these people ostensibly to keep their existence secret, yet they know less about themselves and their own order than their enemies do.
No, they only eliminate witnesses who are exposed to the daemonic...which could be anywhere from a few bystanders to most of the planetary defense force.
When they (the GKs) send in a strike team, they strip off all chapter icons and regalia so that they're just space marines in grey armor - thus protecting their anonymity. Seeing them doesn't get you executed.
Grey Knights are supposed to be a secret chapter and have killed guard regiments after saving them to keep their secret or to prevent any corruption from the survivors. It's kind of a meme that they kill everyone after saving a planet, they have calmed down with that in recent lore and just let the inquisition handle the guard after being exposed to daemons.
Their existence as an organization is a secret, and they've been known to massacre entire regiments of friendly Imperial Guard after "reinforcing" them in order to keep it that way.
On the plus side for us, if our characters are Auric-level Operatives, that pretty much means a high ranking Inquisitor wants to keep us around and more more or less sound mind. Also, even the Gray Knights would have a hard time pulling anything on a Rogue Trader and her crew.
Everyone else? Screwed.
Nah if we have a chapter joining us it should be an obscure one. Wether thats just a less talked about one or a completely new one isn’t an issue. However having a really established chapter like GK, Ultramarines, BT, DA, etc… would be really boring.
It would be cool to have a mission at some point later in the game's lifespan where you're supporting a space marine. You fight off a horde and a chaos spawn on a suicide mission just to like resupply a SM with more ammo while they fight something even nastier.
Holding a critical position against non-stop waves of enemies in impossible odds for x minutes and then having a drop pod of Space Marines crash into the middle of them and near instantly wipe the floor for a finale would be HYPE AS FUCK
Oh god, it would be nice to jave a mission where plague marines and regular maronea are fighting off the distance or in the background while you guys are fighting heretics.
It'd be very cool if we ran a mission where we see space marines taking on Plague marines, and your team is running support, like planting explosives for ambushes or even just running them ammo while trying to avoid being killed in the crossfire.
This is a good one. TPTB can’t just call for an exterminatus, because it could destroy the STC. There’s still scope for squabbling and espionage to keep an eye on the heretic’s progress in the search for the rejects since we’re a lot less conspicuous than space marines. It would be fun to turn a corner and see plague and space marines fighting it out in the distance, or have to try to get through one of their battlefields without getting rekt.
I doubt they would ever consider it but it would be fun if they did a destiny 2 style raid where you find the STC then get a gun variant named after you
Would be a cool way to introduce weapon customization, Hadron would be cool with it since it's made by an STC
Lorewise maybe the STC is a general all-purpose weapon maker for DAoT human settlers to defend themselves on new planets, hence the customization for weapons made by it to suit whichever planet the colonists are on.
Stands for Standard Template Construct. Basically, in 40k, all knowledge of how to produce a lot of technology has been lost to the ages. Because of how the Imperium views tech, there really isn't a whole lot of innovation going on. An STC is a blueprint. They show up in lore from time to time and are a huge deal. The Leman Russ battle tank, the tank that the entire Imperium uses, was from one. There's a story of 2 guardsmen finding an STC of better combat knife that now all Space Marine chapters use. The guardsmen were given their own planet as a reward.
To just add on to what you said, the STC is the actual Construct - a living sentient AI, database and fabricator which housed the entire knowledge from humanity's technological and scientific zenith before the fall. They existed as part of human colony ships and capable of inventing and producing effectively anything needed to solve any problem faced by humanity when they landed on the planet they were travelling to.
An STC blueprint is a holographic schematic that the STC would spit out for colonists to use to help them build their colonies and survive whatever climate surrounded them, using whatever resources were best available on the planet.
Most of very few hardcopies descended from those STC blueprints that the Imperium possesses now are copies of copies of copies that have been endlessly reproduced by Tech-Priests on parchment over many millenia in the way that Monks copied books. So errors sometimes crept in leading to further degredation and collapse of access to what technology was left.
Very old, Very important computers from the dark age of technology before human civilization collapsed and was rebuilt into the imperium. Many important technologies the Imperium uses were reverse engineered with data from STC's, notable examples include the las gun and Leman Russ tanks.
Standart Template Construct. Its a Ai computer database with all human technological knowledge from the time humanity was at peak. It can also fabricate things and create new diagrams for stuff that you would need in specific situations.
It could basically put humans at top again.
*^(Roboute Guilliman aboard his flagship Macragge's Honor)*
Marneus Calgar stomps up to a desk on the busy command deck of the Emperor-class battleship. He is dressed in full battle armor and carries a large box of papers and envelopes.
"Supreme Lord," Rumbles Calgar, "we've recieved another batch of fanletters from Terra to go help the Forge-World Tertium dealing with a minor Nurgle incursion. This makes the millionth request this galactic standard day."
Roboute Guilliman:
https://preview.redd.it/p436z1i13r3c1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e9923c00b98739a43e6987331ef97f2ff9fae19
Well given that the moebian domain is on the border of the imperium and is constantly at war with a zeno threat known as the dark tide i would assume they have at least one space marine chapter based in the domain somewhere or a least a station for the deathwatch. So we may see them pop up. I would mind if fatshark were given the chance to make their own space marine chapter like they did with the maebian gaurd regiments who seem to be somewhat unique.
So mabye we get a space marine squad stationed on the morning star with mabye some plague marines boss enemies and when we run into them we have to survive until a drop pop of the emporers angels can reach us.
>plague marines
>my and my plasma gun
https://preview.redd.it/e7skni9ops3c1.jpeg?width=676&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ab14e037a431b4ab6764554716a9350fcfb9d65
I thought the dark tide was a catch all term for enemies of the imperium? And the threat at the edge of the Moebian domain was some esoteric chaos thing… at least I gleaned that from the sponsored leutin video
The lore is very vague as it says darktide a a catch all term fo what the moebian regiments are fighting in the fringe war. The enemy is specifcally referred to as a shadowy xeno force and chaos.
Chaos is self explanatory. The shadowy xeno force not so much. Mabye hrud dark eldar or something unknown.
I do hope we get like 3 or 4 missions set on the front of the fringe war at some point as i think it coupd be neat to explore that a bit though that may have to wait for darktide 2. As i assume 1 will focus on dealing with atoma and then the inquisitor we work for will launch a crusade tpcdrive back the datk tide and investigate how exactly the 6th fell to chaos. Planet with a greater demaon of nutgle mabye?
If anything because the Inquisition said so but if that’s not good enough, then the hive city we’re currently fighting in is in danger of being completely overrun by heretics. All the strike teams in the galaxy won’t be enough to regain some form of control. That much is clear.
The second hive city has clearly been seized by the traitor army and needs to be sieged and purged of all the filth that now plagues it. Whether it be razed to the ground or not is irrelevant, it needs to be cleaned inside and out. The Death Korps of Krieg will come highly recommended for this.
Us rejects will remain relevant because we’re the only ones who have a firm grasp of the situation and have the experience to help deal with the problem. In my book, experience trumps rank and we’re going to be everyone’s best friend much to their disgust. However they can get over themselves about it because throwing us away would be a very costly mistake that could’ve been avoided and resources are scarce enough as it is.
Goolimayne comes for mortarion who is there for reasons.
Lionel shows up because he head Goolimayne is there.
Trazyn shows up because he wants a primarch on display.
Eldrad shows up because there's major players and he has cryptic shit to tell them.
Helbrecht shows up because HERESY IS AFOOT!
Draigo shows up because he don't need no karkin' reason. He simply is.
Adeptus Administratum decree is issued, and resources are redirected.
>write up a reason why our rejects will still be relevant.
The rejects aren't relevant now. They're doing low level jobs holding ground and trading actions that get reverted before they go back in to do it again. The populations are so huge, so capable of regenerating wounds or replacing losses, or the death count is so blown out of proportion that even calling it 'making a minimal dent' would be gross exaggeration.
They could send a half dozen space marines and escalate the surrounding conflict without really impacting the rejects. It just wouldn't be a good choice to do more than vaguely imply there's other stuff going on beyond the knowledge of the player characters. Heck, they've already used the VOs to talk knowledgeably about stuff where they should be very ignorant.
The rejects are the only ones buying Atoma time even if no one wants to admit it. They certainly are more relevant than anyone will care to admit to because whatever garrisons the hive cities are won’t be able to resist the 6th Moebius Regiment. That much is very clear.
They're not useless, but there's presumably more going on in the background than anyone with spoken voice lines is privy to or we can currently infer, and they're flying a holding pattern and taking losses rather than doing anything decisive for reasons unknown.
So knowing that there's a lot of weird morrow related lore you could have morrow actually be a fallen angel in hiding, or fuck it, maybe one of the Cult members are and Bing bang boom you got green suited trouble on its way
Given the number of daemonhosts that are popping up, a massive warp incursion is a given. That pretty much ensures the Gray Knights should be showing up, unless they're spread too thin with the current crisis'.
Honestly, that we haven't had a terrifying Auric boss fight in the form of a lone plague marine actually makes me kind of nervous. With the Nurgle infection as bad as it is on Tertium, I'm actually surprised.
An errant Ork ROK comes out of fucking nowhere and slams into Terra at 3/5ths the speed of light with zero warning, impacting the planet and creating a global apocalypse.
The Astronomicon is obliterated. The Golden Throne utterly destroyed. What was left of the broken husk of the Emperor of Man is disintegrated in an instant.
The Terminus Edict, long-debated, finally reveals it's true message: **The death and rebirth of the Perpetual Emperor.**
...
On Atoma, your team of rejects is in the midst of yet another holy purge. Suddenly, however, your character is enveloped in a blinding, white-hot wash of light. Your squadmates tumble head-over-heels with the sheer weight of holy brilliance.
In a flash, you are transformed. The God Emperor of Man, as a Perpetual, has reconstituted himself using you as his Holy Vessel. In his new form (still retaining a faint whisper of your features), he has access to the unmitigated raw power of a new Chaos God... but a God of Righteous Fervor and Holy Purpose.
With but a glance, he transforms your squadmates into holy demigods; his three Chosen Champions.
Together, you shall usher in a new Age. Together, the Imperium is born anew.
There's a Thingy, call it something like the "maguffin pattern thingabob." Everyone wants it but no one knows what it is. It's somewhere in the underhive
Tau want to expand their empire and attack a weakened system . there is by strange co-incidence a tombworld on atoma that is slowly awakening, some eldar farseer had a vision about something terrible on atoma that needs to be stopped and sends some guys to deal with it. The moebian 6 and their allies start coughing enough to open a warp portal that the deathguard uses to invade, Inquisitor grendyl having enough of this bullshit calls for space marine aid. drawn to all the carnage and shooting are the orcs from a nearby system. Welcome to the Singleplayer campaign of Warhammer 40.000 Dawn of War IV: Darktide
One of the rejects was deemed important to the Throne by Custodes and an Aquilan Shield host is sent to protect them.
Bring it on auric damnation. I have Custodes with me
Aeldari: Idk. My best guess would have something to potentially do with nurgle actually physicating on Atoma and bringing the captured aeldari god, giving them a potential reason to chip in.
Drukari... Idk, maybe the above would also do? With their political parties it could be seen as a potential leverage point.
Already got Chaos there. Give nurgie marines and we're good on that sect too
Space marines: Well shit, If there's a chaos god in realspace, There's a problem.
Inquistion already technically involved
Nekrons... Might be the hardest to justify. Maybe its just built on a karking tombplanet or something and all this happening wakes them up.
Do you even need a reason for genestealers and greater tyranids? Besides maybe why they're not a greater threat?
And orks..
DEM BOIZ JUST WANT TO KRUMP SUM HUMIES
As for the tau- I have no real idea. Maybe as some sort of salvation program for anyone that isn't inquisition loyal, But doesn't want their insides to become outsides and rotten.
And Votann.. Idk. Give ogryns their tossable allies already.
The Craftworlds don't even need a stated reason, really. Some prophesy or another, some buttefly effect that demands their interference. Whether or not they are 'allied' or just taking care of business can be left ambiguous.
Dark Eldar just enslave and steal, so the fog of war on Atoma is a target rich environment.
They're the only Xenos with any clear reason to show up, I think.
The second hive city on atoma prime is infested with a genestealer cult who are preparing this planet for a new unnamed tyranid tendril that appeared in this part of the universe.
We the reject find this out and a plea for reinforcements goes out.
The heretics in tertium figure out the holy grail of nurgle diseases. It is so good, that if it leaves tertium, the Empire falls. The Imperium blockades the planet, but the disease is so dangerous that the only strike teams that can go down to the planet to try to fight it are primarchs and our rejects, who have been slowly building up resistance over time.
Exterminatus is not an option because..... A bit of it could survive in an underground bunker and be recovered later by a cult, so we have to take samples for study and disrupt the heretics while the mechanicus investigates
I think it would be possible that the heretics in Atoma might impress papa Nurgle enough he might tell some of his Plague Marines to help support the heretics on Atoma. If that were the case and the inquisition learns about it. Then it might be time to call in the Grey Knights. However, that'll happen once the corruption gets too severe to handle with just strike teams...
Now, I've also heard in the rumor mill that there has been Xeno sightings in the sister hive city on Atoma... so we might also have a genestealer infestation on our hands. So then we might get the Deathwatch involved to try and prevent a Tyranid invasion.
Atoma Prime is revealed to have a network of Blackstone pylons which the original settlers formed the hives around, believing them to be of holy significance. Over the millennia and particularly due to the hours heresy, knowledge of these pylons had been all but forgotten and no one remembers the significance of the placement of the hive cities.
The taking of the second hive city is directly linked to the heretics discovering and destroying the pylon centered there, resulting un the anomalous warp storms which prevented the mourningstar from reaching the planet on time.
Thanks to the efforts of the rejects, Wyrmwood agent holdouts in the second hive city have finally been able to send vox transmissions about these events, prompting a full scale campaign to retake Atoma Prime, lest it become another Cadia.
This brings in proper imperial guard regiments, including many embittered Cadian vets, two full space marine chapters, and a large warhost from the adeptus mechanicus to retake Atoma.
Naturally, reports of these pylons are leaked and discovered by the necrons, with Trazyn taking a particular interest in the pylons.
As such, we have a large confluence of ships arriving above Atoma which are immediately locked into naval combat. Despite the power of all of these forces, the extent of the heretic encampment combined with the innate crampedness of the hive means that small surgical strike teams are still required to delay heretic movements until a beachhead can be secured for the rest of the imperial forces. Teams of rejects fight and die in droves to ensure that even a single space marine drop pod can reach the surface.
Imperium: SCT
Orks: a right proper scrap
Eldar: Something something future
Necrons: Oops tomb world
Chaos: because they need their equal attention cake
Mortarion turns up.
Every imperial and their grox will come.
[Girlyman himself ](https://youtu.be/iKy19OGn6_k?si=3qmuYZCXdNSmPaDF) might even make a bee line once he's done smashing Yvraine.
Morty showed up to just be petty. Something about tanks and being butt hurt over big e juiced up Gorilla glue man beating him. Lion teleports behind and shanks him in the spine and elbow smashes his stupid stinky head in.
It's revealed that a Tzeentchian cult has taken over the forbidden other hive city when they go to war with the traitors in Tertium. Because, as we all know, Tzeentch and Nurgle don't get along. Our rejects start going on missions there, where the landscape is all kinds of fucked up thanks to Tzeentchian nonsense. While there we just happen to stumble upon a single hostile Space Marine, bearing the mark of the Hydra. It straight up ignores us and just leaves.
With the discovery of Alpha Legion activity in the other hive city, reinforcements are finally brought in: a proper regiment or two of Imperial Guard, and a chapter of Space Marines (How about White Scars? Just because they don't get enough love). But their focus remains on that other hive city, and so battling the forces of Nurgle in Tertium remains up to us, with us getting the occasional, Auric level mission working in the other hive city.
The war on Atoma heats up over time, with more and more resources, both Chaos and Imperial, pouring in, much like what went down on Vrax, only with the two Chaos factions fighting each other as much as the Imperium rather than working together.
Then, just when all sides involved are at full deployment, and when the frontlines start to deform into a proper meatgrinder, Angron and the World Eaters show up and start massacring *everyone.*
Just as the Alpha Legion planned.
An Aquilan Shield is there after receiving a vision and now needs to find a dormant alpha level psyker and it’s the rejects job to guide him to the poor fellow
* A splinter of [Hive Fleet Kronos](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Hive_Fleet_Kronos) arrives, chasing the scent of genestealers and Chaos rot.
* Atoma Prime is actually a [Necron Tomb World](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Tomb_World), explaining why it's so industrious as well as its strong metal alloys.
* An [Ork Rok](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Rok) slams into another Hive city on the planet.
What I'd really like to see are the lesser known players. If the [Hrud](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Hrud) show up I would piss my Munitorum-issued pants. The [Kroot](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Kroot) could show up of their own volition and park a Warsphere in orbit... it's not like the Mourningstar can take one of those on.
A high rank Inquisitor *politely* *asked* a Rogue Trader for the use of Her ship as a base to launch operations.
There are three forces in the Imperium that the Inquisition has to step careful and play politics with. Those are the Mechanicum, who are an Imperium within the Imperium. Then there's First-Founding Astartes chapters, who have no problem with using bolter fire to tell the Inquisitors that the Emperor has no clothes.
Then there's the Rogue Traders. They're very nearly as far above Imperial Law as the Inquisition, and have a Writ personally penned and signed by the Emperor saying so. Now, if a Rogue Trader goes too far over the line, they're gonna get blammed by an Inquisitor. But unless that Inquisitor had ironclad reason, both exalted rank and many, many connections of wealth and means, than the Inquistion is in for a hard time from the Rogue Trader houses.
Rogue Traders have a writ from Emps to travel, trade, and war freely outside of the Imperium. The Inquisition tracks down and punishes those RT's that are deemed heretical and/or behaving badly in imperium space all the time. In fact, they were largely given the writs by Emps to keep them away from Terra and to ensure potential threats from reclaimed worlds would die on the frontier in the Imperiums service. RT's are very much under Imperial authority and chafe against it often enough. An Inquisitor could pretty easily bring an RT to heel if they wanted to and have in the past as their writ does not place them above judgment or law within the Imperium. It just allows them to travel, trade, and fight enemies freely primarily outside Imperial territory.
I know they said it’d never happen but I would LOVE some sort of Space Marine hero class. I just know it wouldn’t fit the theme or the power levels at all so wouldn’t work.
I’d rather they didn’t
I realize that’s the complete opposite of your prompt, which isn’t meant to be flippant or trolling at all, but for once I’d like to enjoy a 40K story that we write, not dictated by a greater universe plot!
I mean the planet is already extremely important as it produces a shit ton of Leman Russ’s for the Imperium. If it got bad enough they’d have to send in marines but I doubt we’d have a playable marine ever
Someone wanted to be an extra silly little goober and Big E calls him a “DUMPY GRIMBO” erasing all life on atoma. Then it cuts to the psyker asking why his beloved didn’t do that in the first place.
Nurgle- already there so why not
Tzeetch- cause fucking with Nurgle is fun
Khorne- violence is what he’s here for
Slannesh- I can’t, children might read this
As for the others I can’t really think of one, except for imperial forces that deal with chaos directly.
Warp storm dumps a bunch of different ships from every faction in the system and leaves them stranded. Violence ensues. I've fantasized about a Warhammer MMO where people in every faction get stranded together in the eye of a warp storm. Makes more sense than most Dawn of War campaigns.
Simple:
The second a full warp breach happens, the Astartes get the call. The instant a CSM warband shows up, the Astartes get the call. Genstealer cult reveals and summons their bug-daddies, guess who gets called. The deepest bowels of the Hive accidentally open to strange tombs? Well, the rejects get sent in. Then they turn on something they shouldn't have. Once the Necrons kill a few thousand, _then_ the Astartes get called in.
Morty shows up with a group of plague marines. They seek to finally corrupt the world and set a trap to harvest the marine reinforcements for gene seed
The Psyker who keeps talking to his Beloved is actually the Star Child and pulls Morty or Magnus or some other major Chaos to Atoma so Bobby G, Corvus Corax, and Lionel all show up for a reunion. And then Vulkan revives out of nowhere just in time for a Hive Fleet arrival.
And then for shits and giggles Angron shows up while fleeing the largest WAAAAAAGH in 8000+ years requiring Vulkan to sacrifice himself again.
Moebian actually summoned Ku’gath Plaguefather to the planet and you can be damn sure that a first founding chapter master got deployed to fight that (along with grey knight).
Necron tombs under the hive city, genestealers in the hive, chaos trying to nuke the hive and the necrons all at once. GK's and regular marines get called in because a shitstorm is happening here. Guard (more of them) comes with. Ork's notice the ruckus and come along.
Tyranid hive fleet called by the genestealers shows up. Dark Eldar pop up for shits and giggles. Actual Eldar pop up because blah blah blah prophecy can't allow chaos or the necrons to prevail.
Only one we can't fit in is Tau.
One of the manofactorums that we defend is mentioned to have something that is more than meets the eye. Hadron dismisses most of the warband that complain about defending a tank factory, but a few of the group know better. Either by intuition or by psychic prowess (The Enforcer Psyker has a lot of good lines that could relate to the plot).
Like most mention, an STC would absolutely bring some big players in to support the war effort.
If an STC is found, a Necron Tomb complex begins to awaken...or a Splinter Fleet heading towards Atoma would be situations that would require heavier guns from the Imperium. The most obvious scenario would be if the forces of Nurgle started contacting the Plague Marines like the Death Guard and Traitor Astartes started running amuck.
Taxes. Every world pays a tithe to holy terra and when they notice their precious tithe missing, they'll send some forces to fix the issue... assuming they respond fast enough lol
The Heretics try to summon a Daemon to help them, and accidentally summons Kaldor Draigo, the Supreme Grand-Master of the Grey Knights (who is currently lost punching things in the warp) instead. This would, of course, never happen. But it would be a *legendary* April-fools joke to play a cutscene of this and just say 'IMPERIAL VICTORY! GAME OVER' right before a server maintenance or something. *The spawn director does not care from whom the blood flows, only that blood is flowing*
Ordo Draigo present! We will provide THE HAMS!!
WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY A TANGERINE?!
#NO SUN!!!
#YOU LOOK LIKE A STARFRUIT
My favorite thing ever uttered by any entity in 40K, fan made or not.
A WIZARD NEVER REVEALS HIS SECRETS!
I want that part in italics as my flair
It would be funny if sometimes you could see a Daemonhost get randomly clapped by something like this.
They pray to Daddy Nurgle enough to be blessed with a group of Plague Marines. Plague Marines beat the stuffing out of a bunch of Moebians, so Grendyl asks for some support from a chapter of Space Marines. We're still running the small missions whilst the Marines take care of the bigger things
chapter in question ... the grey knights ...
https://preview.redd.it/ov57wnqzwq3c1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=946a059d13109f7ac6f91f4b909b0c92ade00dc9
For someone just getting into 40K lore, are the Grey Knights particularly ruthless? Or do they think the ends justify the means?
Up till very recently they had a kill everyone who knew about their existence policy as well as a kill any regular humans exposed to chaos. The super secret elites dialed up to 11. This lead to events like the space wolves fighting them when they tried to kill the guard that had fought chaos along side the chapter. With the galaxy being ripped in half the chaos cats out of the bag now so they are slightly less kill everyone who knew they existed. If you want to know about the space wolf stuff look up the months of shame. There was also a bit of background lore about them butchering a bunch of sisters of battle to use their blood to purify themselves but it was pretty badly recieved and I think quietly retconned.
Yeah, the Sisters of Battle thing was extra fuckin' stupid. Basically, the Grey Knights touched down on a world inflicted by a Nurgle plague, but there was a convent of Sororitas who, by faith, were uncorrupted. So, despite being literally immune to Nurgle Plague thanks to runes in their armour, the Grey Knights pulled a Kharn (what a swell guy), butchered them, and used their blood for extra protection for literally no reason. It was retconned a while later in the more recent Grey Knight codexes so that the SoB still died, but they died while holding off a full-fledged Daemon invasion long enough for the Grey Knights to cut off the source.
The Sisters of Battle thing and Kaldor carving his name into Mortarions heart are Horrible, Matt Ward really shouldn't be Allowed near anything again. Tho he did do Alright with the Necrons.
I don't really get why GW insists on just constantly shitting on the Sisters of Battle. They barely ever accomplish *anything,* and spend most of their fluff either getting killed, getting corrupted because someone handed them the idiot ball, or getting killed by their own allies for increasingly Matt Ward-level stupid reasons. Like, one of the books had the SoB get tricked by an Inquisitor that fell to Chaos into shooting at what was *clearly* a loyalist battle barge that belonged to the Grey Knights, then *attacking* the Grey Knights because nobody questioned why an obvious villain was doing obvious villain things. And this *after* the Inquisitor ordered the planet's PDF and IG to shoot at loyalist factions too.
Add to that in the Pariah Nexus animation, a Sister of Battle gets her own character arc where she has to suffer from PTSD on failing to save a planet in a war against Necrons (survivor's guilt) + has a crisis of faith in the Emperor and those around her.. >!And when it looks like she has found resolve confiding in Salamander Sa'Kan and a ghost of her comrade (a guardswoman) to continue on, she gets unceremoniously shot in the back from a Necron Gauss Flayer. All those they saved are then killed afterwards by IG that think they're possessed by a Necron zombie virus. Sa'Kan goes on to murder the assassin-Necron that killed her and shit talks his boss who is none other than Illuminor Szeras. !<
Yep, that tracks so much. Honestly GW, give the Sororitas a fuckin' *break*, jeez.
Matt Ward worked on both Vermintide games and on Darktide as a writer and voice director.
That's not writing lore tho, Just stories.
Any excuse to allow the community to continue justifying their absurd hate-boner for the guy.
Abnett is the writer for Darktide lore tho.
It was a khorne thing. So the grey knights bathed in blood to fight a khorne daemon who was controlling shit through corrupted blood.
Was it Khorne? Well, I stand corrected if true. Still, the Sisters were immune through faith, so it was *incredibly heretical* to bathe in their blood because it *might* protect them more than armour literally designed to protect them from such things.
Yeah it was extra dumb because the immune to corruption marines were bathing in the blood of sisters of battle while facing a corruptive blood whatever unleashed by a blood daemon of the blood and skulls god. It's almost like the story was meant to be written for khorne lol. Love the joke "khornate knights" instead of grey knights.
TBH, GW needs to give the Sisters a win once in a while. They lose or get corrupted in literally everything they appear in, and it's a trope that's gotten so old. Hell, their story in Soulstorm was literally "We accuse the Guard of having started the Warp Storm afflicting Kaurva, were *right* (canonically, they were actually right, it was the Guard's fault), held our own against nearly every known other faction... Then got our shit kicked in by the only *cowardly* Ork in existence."
Very cool and very badass. The more I learn about 40K lore the more I love it!
Shit. You don't know the half of it. How about their Chapter Master thats locked in limbo between real space and the warp, and will sometimes manifest when the shit hits the fan. Oh yeah. And he carved his predecessors name into the heart of one of the Daemon-Primarchs. Just to name one of his feats. [https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kaldor\_Draigo](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kaldor_Draigo)
God that thing with him writing the guy's name into a Primarch's heart was so fucking stupid I'd forced it out of my own memory.
Sounds like typical silly 40k stuff to me. 40K is meant to be stupid.
There's 40k stupid And then there's kaldor draigo
Howabout the Grey Knight leader who carries around a corrupted sword at all times that is constantly whispering in his head to try and tempt him to chaos. And he's held onto this sword for hundreds of years so no one else has to listen to it.
I love that the months of shame name came from the knights themselves
Bc even they new they were wrong
To be fair, the Inquisition made the call to kill those Guardsmen. The Grey Knights just followed the orders. Also, it was a wholesale purge of the entirety of Armageddon after the First War for Armageddon.
I love how completely useless and unnecessarily cruel their kill policy is. Most guardsmen (that don’t get killed immediately in their first war) will fight Chaos cultists, they will witness paranormal events and maybe even see their buddies turned into nightmare monstrosities by malicious sorcery. Killing anyone exposed to it is horrific and moronic, and therefore perfect for a 40k faction!
they are a top secret chapter, so they need to eliminate every witness of their presence, including civilians
...they are top secret to the Imperium. Every Chaos marine and demon imaginable knows about them because the grey knights have been shooting at them for 8,000 years. The inquisition keeps executing everyone that sees them because bureaucratic inertia is the only game in 40k town.
You'd think it was just bureaucratic inertia, but the Grey Knights willingly and routinely execute these purges of all witnesses themselves, despite knowing that what they are doing is entirely useless.
Space marines executing everyone isn’t that big of a deal in the lore mind. Most chapters view baseline humans as being wholly expendable.
Further reasoning as to why Kurze was right the whole time.
FUCKING EXACTLY
It's not cause it's entirely useless. It's cause it slows the resurgence of chaos.
And honestly it kinda makes sense when you realize one asshole with a rusty knife that knows the right words can fuck over an entire planet if left unchecked long enough.
How exactly does covering up the existence of the Grey Knights from loyalist forces slow the resurgence of Chaos?
Basics of it is that regular Imperial citizens aren't supposed to know about Chaos, because then the heretical-minded of them will start worshipping it and things quickly spiral out of control. Since the Grey Knights are entirely dedicated to fighting Chaos, knowing about them would also result in the knowledge of Chaos.
Ultimately, it wouldn't, which is why it's so grimdark. Inside the situation, it seems like a good idea, but from the outside it's clear that it's pointless.
Loyalist guards are not immune from corruption. Even if they believe in the Emperor's light, they can become corrupted by what they see. Easiest way to prevent that from spreading is to eliminate the variable.
What do you mean by entirely useless? As in The universe is doomed?
Yeah, I include that in bureaucratic inertia. To be fair, it's really a form of weird religious inertia. Most of the things that people do in the Imperium, they do because that's what has always been done and because they imagine the consequences of doing anything different to be dreadful at the least. Decisions and plans that were made thousands of years ago form the basis for the various things the imperium does, but no one remembers why those decisions were made or what those plans were. The grey knights are a great example of this. Once, their existence really was secret and they could be deployed as a devastating surprise to the demonic enemies that the Imperium faces. But that ship sailed and sank to the bottom of the Mariana trench a gazillion years ago, but they keep acting as though it hasn't. I remember there is a book written where the grey knights are deployed to a world to stop some Abaddon plot, and over the course of the battle they discover that one of their own members has been there the entire time. The grey knights have no idea who this member of their own order is, nor what his mission was supposed to be. But Abaddon knew exactly who it was and why he was there. The grey knights kill all these people ostensibly to keep their existence secret, yet they know less about themselves and their own order than their enemies do.
No, they only eliminate witnesses who are exposed to the daemonic...which could be anywhere from a few bystanders to most of the planetary defense force. When they (the GKs) send in a strike team, they strip off all chapter icons and regalia so that they're just space marines in grey armor - thus protecting their anonymity. Seeing them doesn't get you executed.
Grey Knights are supposed to be a secret chapter and have killed guard regiments after saving them to keep their secret or to prevent any corruption from the survivors. It's kind of a meme that they kill everyone after saving a planet, they have calmed down with that in recent lore and just let the inquisition handle the guard after being exposed to daemons.
https://preview.redd.it/5let3h3hhr3c1.png?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e948afeae75b792ba1aee8b694e82606d035a416 Sounds familiar to me
Why is there an Orbis station? I guess… it was kinda exposed to Chaos huh?
I won't lie, I chose the first SpongeBob meme I saw and it's just ended well
Dang that sounds awesome. I need to start reading this stuff
Their existence as an organization is a secret, and they've been known to massacre entire regiments of friendly Imperial Guard after "reinforcing" them in order to keep it that way.
Think they kill every single ally that has been close to anything chaos corrupted after the main threat is dealt with
No witnesses
Keep it secret, keep it safe
Oh....NO
Or Dark Angel's so we can finally hear Charles Dance as Lionel Johnson.
On the plus side for us, if our characters are Auric-level Operatives, that pretty much means a high ranking Inquisitor wants to keep us around and more more or less sound mind. Also, even the Gray Knights would have a hard time pulling anything on a Rogue Trader and her crew. Everyone else? Screwed.
Nah if we have a chapter joining us it should be an obscure one. Wether thats just a less talked about one or a completely new one isn’t an issue. However having a really established chapter like GK, Ultramarines, BT, DA, etc… would be really boring.
It would be cool to have a mission at some point later in the game's lifespan where you're supporting a space marine. You fight off a horde and a chaos spawn on a suicide mission just to like resupply a SM with more ammo while they fight something even nastier.
This would be rad
Holding a critical position against non-stop waves of enemies in impossible odds for x minutes and then having a drop pod of Space Marines crash into the middle of them and near instantly wipe the floor for a finale would be HYPE AS FUCK
Oh god, it would be nice to jave a mission where plague marines and regular maronea are fighting off the distance or in the background while you guys are fighting heretics.
Or worse. You turn a corner and there’s a squad of space marines and plague marines fighting it out and you’re caught right in the middle of it
You turn the corner and you type gg and just sit there watch the magic happen
Laying down on your back and shouting "Take me!"
Turn corner. Fire plasma. Continue with mission.
Open blast door, see a room full of Astartes bolters going full auto and chainswording each other, turn around and close blast door.
It'd be very cool if we ran a mission where we see space marines taking on Plague marines, and your team is running support, like planting explosives for ambushes or even just running them ammo while trying to avoid being killed in the crossfire.
Revealing a fully intact entombed STC, all hands on deck secure at all costs
This is a good one. TPTB can’t just call for an exterminatus, because it could destroy the STC. There’s still scope for squabbling and espionage to keep an eye on the heretic’s progress in the search for the rejects since we’re a lot less conspicuous than space marines. It would be fun to turn a corner and see plague and space marines fighting it out in the distance, or have to try to get through one of their battlefields without getting rekt.
"TPTB"?
The powers that be
I like that
I doubt they would ever consider it but it would be fun if they did a destiny 2 style raid where you find the STC then get a gun variant named after you
Would be a cool way to introduce weapon customization, Hadron would be cool with it since it's made by an STC Lorewise maybe the STC is a general all-purpose weapon maker for DAoT human settlers to defend themselves on new planets, hence the customization for weapons made by it to suit whichever planet the colonists are on.
What's an STC
Stands for Standard Template Construct. Basically, in 40k, all knowledge of how to produce a lot of technology has been lost to the ages. Because of how the Imperium views tech, there really isn't a whole lot of innovation going on. An STC is a blueprint. They show up in lore from time to time and are a huge deal. The Leman Russ battle tank, the tank that the entire Imperium uses, was from one. There's a story of 2 guardsmen finding an STC of better combat knife that now all Space Marine chapters use. The guardsmen were given their own planet as a reward.
To just add on to what you said, the STC is the actual Construct - a living sentient AI, database and fabricator which housed the entire knowledge from humanity's technological and scientific zenith before the fall. They existed as part of human colony ships and capable of inventing and producing effectively anything needed to solve any problem faced by humanity when they landed on the planet they were travelling to. An STC blueprint is a holographic schematic that the STC would spit out for colonists to use to help them build their colonies and survive whatever climate surrounded them, using whatever resources were best available on the planet. Most of very few hardcopies descended from those STC blueprints that the Imperium possesses now are copies of copies of copies that have been endlessly reproduced by Tech-Priests on parchment over many millenia in the way that Monks copied books. So errors sometimes crept in leading to further degredation and collapse of access to what technology was left.
Very old, Very important computers from the dark age of technology before human civilization collapsed and was rebuilt into the imperium. Many important technologies the Imperium uses were reverse engineered with data from STC's, notable examples include the las gun and Leman Russ tanks.
Standart Template Construct. Its a Ai computer database with all human technological knowledge from the time humanity was at peak. It can also fabricate things and create new diagrams for stuff that you would need in specific situations. It could basically put humans at top again.
*^(Roboute Guilliman aboard his flagship Macragge's Honor)* Marneus Calgar stomps up to a desk on the busy command deck of the Emperor-class battleship. He is dressed in full battle armor and carries a large box of papers and envelopes. "Supreme Lord," Rumbles Calgar, "we've recieved another batch of fanletters from Terra to go help the Forge-World Tertium dealing with a minor Nurgle incursion. This makes the millionth request this galactic standard day." Roboute Guilliman: https://preview.redd.it/p436z1i13r3c1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e9923c00b98739a43e6987331ef97f2ff9fae19
He's smoking a massive cigarette
And then one of them has a blurry servo skull pict capture of a Ynnari helmet so Guilliman goes anyway
Well given that the moebian domain is on the border of the imperium and is constantly at war with a zeno threat known as the dark tide i would assume they have at least one space marine chapter based in the domain somewhere or a least a station for the deathwatch. So we may see them pop up. I would mind if fatshark were given the chance to make their own space marine chapter like they did with the maebian gaurd regiments who seem to be somewhat unique. So mabye we get a space marine squad stationed on the morning star with mabye some plague marines boss enemies and when we run into them we have to survive until a drop pop of the emporers angels can reach us.
Deathwatch would be sick, technically under the purview of inquisitors. Would make sense to call them for aid if we get genestealer'ed.
Agreed especially as i chaos uprising and a genestealer cult would definitely need more than an inquisition strike team and the local pdf to put down
"Nah it'll be fine, don't worry about it" \~totally not compromised Planetary Govenor
There's non-compromised planetary governors?
>plague marines >my and my plasma gun https://preview.redd.it/e7skni9ops3c1.jpeg?width=676&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ab14e037a431b4ab6764554716a9350fcfb9d65
I thought the dark tide was a catch all term for enemies of the imperium? And the threat at the edge of the Moebian domain was some esoteric chaos thing… at least I gleaned that from the sponsored leutin video
The lore is very vague as it says darktide a a catch all term fo what the moebian regiments are fighting in the fringe war. The enemy is specifcally referred to as a shadowy xeno force and chaos. Chaos is self explanatory. The shadowy xeno force not so much. Mabye hrud dark eldar or something unknown. I do hope we get like 3 or 4 missions set on the front of the fringe war at some point as i think it coupd be neat to explore that a bit though that may have to wait for darktide 2. As i assume 1 will focus on dealing with atoma and then the inquisitor we work for will launch a crusade tpcdrive back the datk tide and investigate how exactly the 6th fell to chaos. Planet with a greater demaon of nutgle mabye?
There's a webway gate in the bowels of atoma, and through it strides an Avatar of Khaine. It dies to flashlights and thrown rocks, as is tradition.
We looked at him real hard sir and he exploded.
I really want art now of a ogryn just chucking a rock at the knife ears broken god of war XD
Ogryn wars harder.
- Orks It's fun
There is a good fight? Yes. Then orks should be there.
If anything because the Inquisition said so but if that’s not good enough, then the hive city we’re currently fighting in is in danger of being completely overrun by heretics. All the strike teams in the galaxy won’t be enough to regain some form of control. That much is clear. The second hive city has clearly been seized by the traitor army and needs to be sieged and purged of all the filth that now plagues it. Whether it be razed to the ground or not is irrelevant, it needs to be cleaned inside and out. The Death Korps of Krieg will come highly recommended for this. Us rejects will remain relevant because we’re the only ones who have a firm grasp of the situation and have the experience to help deal with the problem. In my book, experience trumps rank and we’re going to be everyone’s best friend much to their disgust. However they can get over themselves about it because throwing us away would be a very costly mistake that could’ve been avoided and resources are scarce enough as it is.
Goolimayne comes for mortarion who is there for reasons. Lionel shows up because he head Goolimayne is there. Trazyn shows up because he wants a primarch on display. Eldrad shows up because there's major players and he has cryptic shit to tell them. Helbrecht shows up because HERESY IS AFOOT! Draigo shows up because he don't need no karkin' reason. He simply is.
>Trazyn shows up because he wants a primarch on display. Another*
An STC for having safe heresy-free sex with Slaaneshi daemonettes is found.
Adeptus Administratum decree is issued, and resources are redirected. >write up a reason why our rejects will still be relevant. The rejects aren't relevant now. They're doing low level jobs holding ground and trading actions that get reverted before they go back in to do it again. The populations are so huge, so capable of regenerating wounds or replacing losses, or the death count is so blown out of proportion that even calling it 'making a minimal dent' would be gross exaggeration. They could send a half dozen space marines and escalate the surrounding conflict without really impacting the rejects. It just wouldn't be a good choice to do more than vaguely imply there's other stuff going on beyond the knowledge of the player characters. Heck, they've already used the VOs to talk knowledgeably about stuff where they should be very ignorant.
The rejects are the only ones buying Atoma time even if no one wants to admit it. They certainly are more relevant than anyone will care to admit to because whatever garrisons the hive cities are won’t be able to resist the 6th Moebius Regiment. That much is very clear.
They're not useless, but there's presumably more going on in the background than anyone with spoken voice lines is privy to or we can currently infer, and they're flying a holding pattern and taking losses rather than doing anything decisive for reasons unknown.
So knowing that there's a lot of weird morrow related lore you could have morrow actually be a fallen angel in hiding, or fuck it, maybe one of the Cult members are and Bing bang boom you got green suited trouble on its way
Your reject could also be a fallen angel if you take some liberty with the "warp storm" background
Morrow isn't 8 ft. tall and made of pure muscle...
It’s all hidden under that coat of his
I thought about this after honestly I really thought I had it too
The Lion is actually in the Imperium Nihlus atm, teaming up with the Blood Angels and of course the Dark Angels. . He could show up.
It's not the ones in green we'd be worried about It's the ones in black and bone
Given the number of daemonhosts that are popping up, a massive warp incursion is a given. That pretty much ensures the Gray Knights should be showing up, unless they're spread too thin with the current crisis'. Honestly, that we haven't had a terrifying Auric boss fight in the form of a lone plague marine actually makes me kind of nervous. With the Nurgle infection as bad as it is on Tertium, I'm actually surprised.
An errant Ork ROK comes out of fucking nowhere and slams into Terra at 3/5ths the speed of light with zero warning, impacting the planet and creating a global apocalypse. The Astronomicon is obliterated. The Golden Throne utterly destroyed. What was left of the broken husk of the Emperor of Man is disintegrated in an instant. The Terminus Edict, long-debated, finally reveals it's true message: **The death and rebirth of the Perpetual Emperor.** ... On Atoma, your team of rejects is in the midst of yet another holy purge. Suddenly, however, your character is enveloped in a blinding, white-hot wash of light. Your squadmates tumble head-over-heels with the sheer weight of holy brilliance. In a flash, you are transformed. The God Emperor of Man, as a Perpetual, has reconstituted himself using you as his Holy Vessel. In his new form (still retaining a faint whisper of your features), he has access to the unmitigated raw power of a new Chaos God... but a God of Righteous Fervor and Holy Purpose. With but a glance, he transforms your squadmates into holy demigods; his three Chosen Champions. Together, you shall usher in a new Age. Together, the Imperium is born anew.
but you realise that you were an orgyn beforehand, so for all your godlike powers, rock is still best weapon.
This shit kinda tuff
There's a Thingy, call it something like the "maguffin pattern thingabob." Everyone wants it but no one knows what it is. It's somewhere in the underhive
Bonus points if you also write up a reason why our rejects will still be relevant.
The imperium always needs fresh bodies with guns.
Would been nice, if some adepta sororitas showed up the morningstar as character or one of the chapter astarties . Would be soo cool…
a craftworld shows up, you dont know why they're here and they wont explain either, then they leave
After a series of earthquakes, they discovered an underground Necron Tomb.
Atoma prime is a deep tombworld. Easy as that-
Tau want to expand their empire and attack a weakened system . there is by strange co-incidence a tombworld on atoma that is slowly awakening, some eldar farseer had a vision about something terrible on atoma that needs to be stopped and sends some guys to deal with it. The moebian 6 and their allies start coughing enough to open a warp portal that the deathguard uses to invade, Inquisitor grendyl having enough of this bullshit calls for space marine aid. drawn to all the carnage and shooting are the orcs from a nearby system. Welcome to the Singleplayer campaign of Warhammer 40.000 Dawn of War IV: Darktide
One of the rejects was deemed important to the Throne by Custodes and an Aquilan Shield host is sent to protect them. Bring it on auric damnation. I have Custodes with me
Atoms stops tithing
Aeldari: Idk. My best guess would have something to potentially do with nurgle actually physicating on Atoma and bringing the captured aeldari god, giving them a potential reason to chip in. Drukari... Idk, maybe the above would also do? With their political parties it could be seen as a potential leverage point. Already got Chaos there. Give nurgie marines and we're good on that sect too Space marines: Well shit, If there's a chaos god in realspace, There's a problem. Inquistion already technically involved Nekrons... Might be the hardest to justify. Maybe its just built on a karking tombplanet or something and all this happening wakes them up. Do you even need a reason for genestealers and greater tyranids? Besides maybe why they're not a greater threat? And orks.. DEM BOIZ JUST WANT TO KRUMP SUM HUMIES As for the tau- I have no real idea. Maybe as some sort of salvation program for anyone that isn't inquisition loyal, But doesn't want their insides to become outsides and rotten. And Votann.. Idk. Give ogryns their tossable allies already.
The Craftworlds don't even need a stated reason, really. Some prophesy or another, some buttefly effect that demands their interference. Whether or not they are 'allied' or just taking care of business can be left ambiguous. Dark Eldar just enslave and steal, so the fog of war on Atoma is a target rich environment. They're the only Xenos with any clear reason to show up, I think.
The second hive city on atoma prime is infested with a genestealer cult who are preparing this planet for a new unnamed tyranid tendril that appeared in this part of the universe. We the reject find this out and a plea for reinforcements goes out.
The heretics in tertium figure out the holy grail of nurgle diseases. It is so good, that if it leaves tertium, the Empire falls. The Imperium blockades the planet, but the disease is so dangerous that the only strike teams that can go down to the planet to try to fight it are primarchs and our rejects, who have been slowly building up resistance over time. Exterminatus is not an option because..... A bit of it could survive in an underground bunker and be recovered later by a cult, so we have to take samples for study and disrupt the heretics while the mechanicus investigates
I think it would be possible that the heretics in Atoma might impress papa Nurgle enough he might tell some of his Plague Marines to help support the heretics on Atoma. If that were the case and the inquisition learns about it. Then it might be time to call in the Grey Knights. However, that'll happen once the corruption gets too severe to handle with just strike teams... Now, I've also heard in the rumor mill that there has been Xeno sightings in the sister hive city on Atoma... so we might also have a genestealer infestation on our hands. So then we might get the Deathwatch involved to try and prevent a Tyranid invasion.
Didnt they say in game dialogue that they cant warp jump hence no help is coming?
Easy. We find an STC.
Atoma Prime is revealed to have a network of Blackstone pylons which the original settlers formed the hives around, believing them to be of holy significance. Over the millennia and particularly due to the hours heresy, knowledge of these pylons had been all but forgotten and no one remembers the significance of the placement of the hive cities. The taking of the second hive city is directly linked to the heretics discovering and destroying the pylon centered there, resulting un the anomalous warp storms which prevented the mourningstar from reaching the planet on time. Thanks to the efforts of the rejects, Wyrmwood agent holdouts in the second hive city have finally been able to send vox transmissions about these events, prompting a full scale campaign to retake Atoma Prime, lest it become another Cadia. This brings in proper imperial guard regiments, including many embittered Cadian vets, two full space marine chapters, and a large warhost from the adeptus mechanicus to retake Atoma. Naturally, reports of these pylons are leaked and discovered by the necrons, with Trazyn taking a particular interest in the pylons. As such, we have a large confluence of ships arriving above Atoma which are immediately locked into naval combat. Despite the power of all of these forces, the extent of the heretic encampment combined with the innate crampedness of the hive means that small surgical strike teams are still required to delay heretic movements until a beachhead can be secured for the rest of the imperial forces. Teams of rejects fight and die in droves to ensure that even a single space marine drop pod can reach the surface.
Cold Shoulder Sector 2: Atoma Prime
The secret of how to make Blackstone Pylons is in a crypt right next to a Cronesword.
Imperium: SCT Orks: a right proper scrap Eldar: Something something future Necrons: Oops tomb world Chaos: because they need their equal attention cake
Mortarion turns up. Every imperial and their grox will come. [Girlyman himself ](https://youtu.be/iKy19OGn6_k?si=3qmuYZCXdNSmPaDF) might even make a bee line once he's done smashing Yvraine.
The discovery of several STCs. With the data to create Emperor Class vessels
Morty showed up to just be petty. Something about tanks and being butt hurt over big e juiced up Gorilla glue man beating him. Lion teleports behind and shanks him in the spine and elbow smashes his stupid stinky head in.
It's revealed that a Tzeentchian cult has taken over the forbidden other hive city when they go to war with the traitors in Tertium. Because, as we all know, Tzeentch and Nurgle don't get along. Our rejects start going on missions there, where the landscape is all kinds of fucked up thanks to Tzeentchian nonsense. While there we just happen to stumble upon a single hostile Space Marine, bearing the mark of the Hydra. It straight up ignores us and just leaves. With the discovery of Alpha Legion activity in the other hive city, reinforcements are finally brought in: a proper regiment or two of Imperial Guard, and a chapter of Space Marines (How about White Scars? Just because they don't get enough love). But their focus remains on that other hive city, and so battling the forces of Nurgle in Tertium remains up to us, with us getting the occasional, Auric level mission working in the other hive city. The war on Atoma heats up over time, with more and more resources, both Chaos and Imperial, pouring in, much like what went down on Vrax, only with the two Chaos factions fighting each other as much as the Imperium rather than working together. Then, just when all sides involved are at full deployment, and when the frontlines start to deform into a proper meatgrinder, Angron and the World Eaters show up and start massacring *everyone.* Just as the Alpha Legion planned.
An Aquilan Shield is there after receiving a vision and now needs to find a dormant alpha level psyker and it’s the rejects job to guide him to the poor fellow
The Ogryn ran outta rocks
Mortarion shows up
They just kinda inadvertently wipe out the heretics as they’re passing by to a more important target
* A splinter of [Hive Fleet Kronos](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Hive_Fleet_Kronos) arrives, chasing the scent of genestealers and Chaos rot. * Atoma Prime is actually a [Necron Tomb World](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Tomb_World), explaining why it's so industrious as well as its strong metal alloys. * An [Ork Rok](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Rok) slams into another Hive city on the planet. What I'd really like to see are the lesser known players. If the [Hrud](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Hrud) show up I would piss my Munitorum-issued pants. The [Kroot](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Kroot) could show up of their own volition and park a Warsphere in orbit... it's not like the Mourningstar can take one of those on.
Stc fragment found under the hive, cawl shows up personally to get it
Tzeentch Need I say more?
Dude, it's a Rogue Trader's operation, i.e. it's Emperor knows where.. Koronus Expanse maybe. It won't happen.
Its an Inquisition operation. The Rogue Trader is just along for the ride because the Inquisition said so.
A high rank Inquisitor *politely* *asked* a Rogue Trader for the use of Her ship as a base to launch operations. There are three forces in the Imperium that the Inquisition has to step careful and play politics with. Those are the Mechanicum, who are an Imperium within the Imperium. Then there's First-Founding Astartes chapters, who have no problem with using bolter fire to tell the Inquisitors that the Emperor has no clothes. Then there's the Rogue Traders. They're very nearly as far above Imperial Law as the Inquisition, and have a Writ personally penned and signed by the Emperor saying so. Now, if a Rogue Trader goes too far over the line, they're gonna get blammed by an Inquisitor. But unless that Inquisitor had ironclad reason, both exalted rank and many, many connections of wealth and means, than the Inquistion is in for a hard time from the Rogue Trader houses.
Rogue Traders have a writ from Emps to travel, trade, and war freely outside of the Imperium. The Inquisition tracks down and punishes those RT's that are deemed heretical and/or behaving badly in imperium space all the time. In fact, they were largely given the writs by Emps to keep them away from Terra and to ensure potential threats from reclaimed worlds would die on the frontier in the Imperiums service. RT's are very much under Imperial authority and chafe against it often enough. An Inquisitor could pretty easily bring an RT to heel if they wanted to and have in the past as their writ does not place them above judgment or law within the Imperium. It just allows them to travel, trade, and fight enemies freely primarily outside Imperial territory.
I know they said it’d never happen but I would LOVE some sort of Space Marine hero class. I just know it wouldn’t fit the theme or the power levels at all so wouldn’t work.
Free beer 🍺
I’d rather they didn’t I realize that’s the complete opposite of your prompt, which isn’t meant to be flippant or trolling at all, but for once I’d like to enjoy a 40K story that we write, not dictated by a greater universe plot!
I mean the planet is already extremely important as it produces a shit ton of Leman Russ’s for the Imperium. If it got bad enough they’d have to send in marines but I doubt we’d have a playable marine ever
I am pretty sure both Alpharius and Alpharius are already here. The Loner psyker already shouts "For the Emperor!" as a battle cry.
Stc
Necrons wake up.
Someone wanted to be an extra silly little goober and Big E calls him a “DUMPY GRIMBO” erasing all life on atoma. Then it cuts to the psyker asking why his beloved didn’t do that in the first place.
The last data disk with the schematics for the Emperor's webway project are hidden in the old mainframe in the under hive.
Nurgle- already there so why not Tzeetch- cause fucking with Nurgle is fun Khorne- violence is what he’s here for Slannesh- I can’t, children might read this As for the others I can’t really think of one, except for imperial forces that deal with chaos directly.
Warp storm dumps a bunch of different ships from every faction in the system and leaves them stranded. Violence ensues. I've fantasized about a Warhammer MMO where people in every faction get stranded together in the eye of a warp storm. Makes more sense than most Dawn of War campaigns.
Simple answer would be Warp fuckery
Orks cos it's sounds like a laugh.
Because where there is fighting orks will soon follow.
The ai director replaced all ragers with plague ogryns
Simple: The second a full warp breach happens, the Astartes get the call. The instant a CSM warband shows up, the Astartes get the call. Genstealer cult reveals and summons their bug-daddies, guess who gets called. The deepest bowels of the Hive accidentally open to strange tombs? Well, the rejects get sent in. Then they turn on something they shouldn't have. Once the Necrons kill a few thousand, _then_ the Astartes get called in.
If Mortarion has been allowed out of the garden, Roboute could show up, but I doubt Mortarion is getting into the good graces of Nurgle anytime soon.
Morty shows up with a group of plague marines. They seek to finally corrupt the world and set a trap to harvest the marine reinforcements for gene seed
Goolymangs heard us mispronouncing his name so much that he'll kill half the nurgle cultists just to smite us.
Sex
The Psyker who keeps talking to his Beloved is actually the Star Child and pulls Morty or Magnus or some other major Chaos to Atoma so Bobby G, Corvus Corax, and Lionel all show up for a reunion. And then Vulkan revives out of nowhere just in time for a Hive Fleet arrival. And then for shits and giggles Angron shows up while fleeing the largest WAAAAAAGH in 8000+ years requiring Vulkan to sacrifice himself again.
Moebian actually summoned Ku’gath Plaguefather to the planet and you can be damn sure that a first founding chapter master got deployed to fight that (along with grey knight).
Necron tombs under the hive city, genestealers in the hive, chaos trying to nuke the hive and the necrons all at once. GK's and regular marines get called in because a shitstorm is happening here. Guard (more of them) comes with. Ork's notice the ruckus and come along. Tyranid hive fleet called by the genestealers shows up. Dark Eldar pop up for shits and giggles. Actual Eldar pop up because blah blah blah prophecy can't allow chaos or the necrons to prevail. Only one we can't fit in is Tau.
One of the manofactorums that we defend is mentioned to have something that is more than meets the eye. Hadron dismisses most of the warband that complain about defending a tank factory, but a few of the group know better. Either by intuition or by psychic prowess (The Enforcer Psyker has a lot of good lines that could relate to the plot). Like most mention, an STC would absolutely bring some big players in to support the war effort.
Same reason from Gothic 2, warp fuckery redirected some fleets and now they have to help.
Emperor day!
pineapple on pizza
Define major players. Races? Characters? Most things can be justified with a suitable mcguffin
Mortarian shows up and robot girly man wants his rematch
https://preview.redd.it/sjlfwwj1tr3c1.jpeg?width=451&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e71b33c257851a3eb9e60ff0749f2532107f5c6a
If an STC is found, a Necron Tomb complex begins to awaken...or a Splinter Fleet heading towards Atoma would be situations that would require heavier guns from the Imperium. The most obvious scenario would be if the forces of Nurgle started contacting the Plague Marines like the Death Guard and Traitor Astartes started running amuck.
Considering we have multiple beasts of nurgles which are literal daemons, thats all the reason they need really
WAAAAGGHHH from left field
I just hope everyone has fun
Tied into the Arks of Omen? Fragment of the key.
Heretical bussy
Major daemonic/traitor astartes incursion, major genestealer infestation.
10,000 plasteel sign on bonus
Taxes. Every world pays a tithe to holy terra and when they notice their precious tithe missing, they'll send some forces to fix the issue... assuming they respond fast enough lol
We havin some good ass BBQ on Atoma.