#great crusade | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sculptorofcrimson · 24 days

Text

Tyrant’s Lullaby

Once upon a time, there was a glorious, terrible man. He built horrors. He built wonders. He brought monsters up from the deep. He took a child from the arms of a horrified, weeping family, and raised him not as a boy but as a general. He took a child and ruined his future, He took a child and made him a king, a pet, a dog. He marched armies over the face of the ravaged earth, and trampled all that did not kneel before the weight of the storm. He burned tundras to ash and shook the mountains until they crumbled, He boiled the seas to mist and the skies to charcoal. And when the scouring was done, and the earth was entombed in ashes, He turned His dreaming, endless glare upon His own.

He strangled the thunder that had bore Him a throne, He sent the golden, the children stolen from their cradles, to plunge down long knives into turned backs raised so fervently before His regard. With their blood they had built Him a kingdom, and with their bones He crowned Himself a throne. And when Terra knelt, cowed, battered, in awe and in fear, He turned His gaze skywards.

And the stars felt His benevolent wrath.

He bore twenty sons, two of them sacrificed, and He unleashed them upon the earth, the skies, the stars. They hunted for Him, they loved Him, they adored Him, yet some had strayed too far from His light, some had gazed upon the man that would be a god with sullen, hungry eyes, doing His bidding, and knowing His wrath. They are those who were there when affection curdled to treachery.

There was no peace among the stars, no mercy, no rest, simply a slow, heartless drowning as the gold claimed them limb by limb, inch by inch, and swallowed them into the endless light.

And then war. Treachery, when the stars themselves were swallowed. When brother turned against brother, and father against son. When the Phoenix cleaved the Gorgon’s head from his shoulders, and the Immortal bashed in the Haunter with a hammer, when the Angel fell to the Traitor and He stained the Palace’s stones red with His son’s blood. When Horus burned, when the Angel shed his wings and the golden were shattered upon the anvil of betrayal, the Father fell to His son.

He was buried upon a rotting throne, screaming hollowly into the fading dark, the stars basking in His rage, His pity and His wrath. He was buried alive in a tomb made from gold, ashen bones ruling a decaying kingdom from the grave, dreaming forever of brighter days. Dreaming of His sons, and how He betrayed them first, how they betrayed Him, how they abandoned His bones. And finally could the golden rest, bathed in the heart of their greatest shame, enshrining the decaying dust of a master they had failed, in an empire He had forsaken.

That man was the Emperor. That corpse is the Emperor, golden, glorious, and decaying just like the slaves.

Do not think your bones different from a slave's. When you rot, your corpse will be indistinguishable from those of your servants.

62 notes · View notes

haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted · 6 months

Text

Tyranthikos Garaakos by arielscar_art

#Warhammer #40k #Pre-Heresy #Iron Warriors #Space Marine Legion #Imperium #Imperium of Man #Great Crusade #Sci-Fi #arielscar_art #Games Workshop

84 notes · View notes

eddiebreeg666 · 3 days

Text

So, I've just finished listening to The Ashes of Prospero and one of the things that surprised me was how the members of the Space Wolves 13th Great Company seemed to show regret at their actions on Prospero after they realized that Horus gave them the order to destroy Prospero and the Thousand Sons legion.

I know that the Emperor had originally ordered Russ to simply bring Magnus back to Terra and that it was Horus who changed the order to destroy the Thousand Sons, but I had thought that the Space Wolves dispised the Thousand Sons enough to not care about whether they exterminated them all or not or who the order came from, but this does not seem to be the case. Bulveye, the 13th Great Company leader even says that Thousand Sons could've been an ally to the loyalists during the Horus Heresy if it were not for Horus' orders.

18 notes · View notes

wh40kgallery · 1 month

Text

Leman Russ

by Mauro Belfiore

#primarch #leman russ #great crusade #space wolves #pre-imperial #animal #wolf #mauro belfiore #30k #40k

22 notes · View notes

warsmith-wolf · 6 months

Text

++ Legiones Aeronautica tactical inload: =[WINGS OF IRON]= ++

Steel thyself all ye wish. It shall not stop the Iron...

#xiphon interceptor #storm eagle gunship #aeronautica imperialis #legions imperialis #legiones astartes #iv legion #iron warriors #space marines #space marine legions #horus heresy #great crusade #age of darkness #warhammer 30k #warhammer 30000 #wh30k #wh30000 #wh 30k #30k

37 notes · View notes

wkakadrac · 7 months

Text

Crossposting some Night Lords musings

Some rambling in relation to 40K / 30K [Predominantly around the Night Lords Legion] below the cut-off.

Art from 3rd Edition Chaos Space Marines Codex / Index Astartes.

Something I have come to consider a disappointment of sorts is the missed potential when it comes to the Night Lords Legion.

On one hand, they fill a niche that is absolutely needed to drive home the horrors of the Imperium of Man. Even with the most generous interpretations of the Emperor and his Great Crusade, you have an unsightly blemish in the form of the Night Lords being a useful bunch of self-serving monsters that the Emperor tolerated / was willing to entertain a blindspot for as long as he could pretend Curze wasn't That Bad and they got results. And again that's with the most generous interpretations: The Emperor unintentionally making a Leopards Eating People's Faces While The People Are Still Alive Legion and and tolerating it out of pragmatism. The more common / neutral implication being that he absolutely knew what they were doing [wanted them doing it, no less!] and signed off on it because they shaved a couple years off the Crusade atrocities be damned. The worst that he didn't care whatsoever about it and the only reason the Night Lords were abnormal was that they merely didn't pretend to be what they aren't.

This is a vital niche to fill when it comes to displaying the fucked up society that is the IoM and how even in its "Golden Age" there was stinking shit beneath that veneer of gold. You just... don't get it, for most of the other Legions. Especially in newer lore. GW has spent a bunch of effort to try and make the other Legio more 'human' [despite them being post-human galactic conquerors]. Especially with GW reducing so many other baddies into "lol it was Chaos / possession / insanity". The IoM needs something to have been a terrible blemish that cannot be conveniently blamed on Chaos or One Bad Apple Spoiling The Rest [Curze, quite explicitly, hates his Legion, and in many cases the feeling's mutual outside a respect for his capacity to do and enabling of Horrible Things].

But on the other hand. On the other hand. It writes itself: Really? Really? We are supposed to take it at face value that Nostramans are just built different, pay no mind to the sheer coincidence the moment Curze ceded Nostramo to the Emperor's Great Crusade they slid immediately back into the same lopsided government he had overthrown, and that The Administratum Couldn't Do Anything About It the inequalities just rapidly reasserted themselves crime magically skyrocketed after the removal of one single person, and on top of this the Societal Undesirables just coincidentally kept filtering into the Legion?

You have a world - no, I apologize: Explicitly an entire system: Night Lord lore explicitly mentioned in the old Index Astartes how he found out from a system's prosperity soaring - that in the span of a singular generation had its inequalities removed by the removal of every single despot that Curze didn't think he could press his thumb down on hard enough to play nice in the new system, and with Curze's removal the Administratum... magically couldn't do the same job as one person to keep at least one star system from falling back into the same groups' hands? And for that matter practically everyone that system recruited after the first generation was a bunch of horrific baby-eating self-serving murdering societal rejects who had no concern for anyone beyond He Himself And Him?

While 40K absolutely needs somebody to show that the Great Crusade's shit stunk too, that it was an interstellar bunch of murderers and ne'erdowells draped in the legitimacy and glory of a gilded despot, there was just as much potential to use them as a stepping stone of "Gee. It sure is convenient that the Imperium Did Its Best but Some People Are Just So Bad that despite giving them everything they could have ever wanted they still bit the hand that fed them". Or, for that matter, to introduce Traitor Marines who are just. Like. People who grew up watching their star system abolish economic and social inequalities. Dared to buy into the hype of such spreading through the galaxy. And then watched everything crumble around them. With stark division between those whom this broke, those who in desperation [for better or worse] threw their lot in with the Chaotic Powers... and those who just keep the legend of the original Night Haunter alive. Astartes who prowl the edges of Imperial Space and just.... topple the Noble Houses. Convince planets to throw off the yoke of Imperial Rule, whether in good faith or even just to try and make ever more fires for the IoM to have to put out [and thus increasing the odds of something slipping through the cracks or the inadequacies of the system catching up with it].

Adding onto this with some musings from other posts I fully understand that Curze's brutality was brought about by excessive and violent terror. Even the most benign interpretations of his rule over Nostramo pitch him as a murderous vigilante prone to violent fits. But that's fine! There's layers to how somebody like Curze could still call out the Emperor and other Great Crusade's architects / 'greatest' participants precisely and accurately. How Corax seemingly [in newer lore] likewise abandoned their revolutionary leans and within a matter of generations was actively reinforcing Deliverance's former system of exploitation, the two really being mirrors / foils for one another. Works have already established that Curze hates what he and his Legion have become [that the feeling is mutual] and that whatever noble intentions he might have had at any one point he's just as deserving of an executioner's blade well before the Heresy.

I guess I'm just disappointed that the Night Lords were reduced to a singular, unironic and straight-faced hat while every other Legion is given kiddy gloves to go "And that's why Chaos ruined everything". It diminishes the horrors of the Great Crusade, goes uncomfortable places with the idea of Some People Are Just Born Criminal And It Can Be Measurably Tracked In The Genome, and removes the potential for several thematic hooks.

#Night Lords #40K #30K #Warhammer 40000 #Great Crusade #Ave Dominus Nox

24 notes · View notes

a-midnight-rest · 13 days

Text

A detail that makes me smile in the 40k universe.

The Age of Technology lasted 10 000 years, during which the Eldars were the most powerful empire in the galaxy. The details are sparse, but there is no denying humanity most bountiful times was when they were fragmented and technically under the rule of the Aeldari (who didn't give a shit).

By comparison, the Emperor lasted around 200 to 300 years. The Great Crusade, where the Emperor launched expeditions to reconquer every planets started in 29 798, and the Horus Heresy ended in the early 30 000.

I don't know how long GW is going to be able or willing to maintain the core message that fascism, territorialism, imperialism, dictatorship, and just about everything the Emperor stood for is evil, wrong, and ultimately self defeating, but this tid-bit of info always reassures me.

#warhammer 4000 #w40k #imperium #imperium of man #the emperor of mankind #age of technology #great crusade #the imperium is evil and suicidal #i really wish that idea would be more present in the mind of some #i don't get the appeal of it even though it undeniably appeal to many decent and fun people #but I'm talking about the fascist apologists who try to say that the Imperium is good actually

2 notes · View notes

transmhyra · 6 months

Text

I've been musing about different approaches in how to turn the Horus Heresy into a Series (not that that would happen in the forseeable future)

And what if, at least for the part of Horus Rising, you follow the remembrancers in terms on violence, until the Whisperhead Mountains you don't get to see the Astartes actually fight, only see their aftermath, perhaps dialogue during combat but what you get to see is greatly toned down, viewed through the lense of the average citizen getting a glimpse of the glorious Astartes.

But it is only at the Whisperhead Mountains you really see them fully unleashed, not through the lense of propaganda, similar to how the remembrancers present were previously held back from documenting combat and only there witnessed the terrible truth for the first time

#warhammer 40k #horus rising #horus heresy #great crusade

4 notes · View notes

drtomt18 · 10 months

Text

I've been outlining a warhammer 40k story about the Salamanders

It starts all the way back on Terra, before the Great Crusade even really began, when the Emperor was still mustering His forces. The proto-Salamanders, then called the Dragon Warriors, are assigned the task of breaking the final Fortress of the last remaining warlords on Terra whom the Emperor have not conquered.

https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Assault_of_the_Tempest_Galleries see details here

After that, only one thousand Marines are left standing from the 20,000 started.

The story follows Captain Vor'shar of the Dragon Warriors, shortly after the utter devastation of that Tempest Galleries. As the Emperor of Mankind offered each surviving Dragon Warrior a small boon as reward for their victory, Vor'Shar asked the Master of Mankind to join one of the Solar Auxilia regiments as part of the Rear Guard for the Great Crusade. The Emperor accepted, and Vor’shar and about 50 Dragon Warriors who opted to go with him set out.

The defensive fleet was dubbed the Dragonlance, and very quickly the Solar Auxilia found that they worked very, very well with the Dragon Warriors. To the degree that Vor'shar dubbed them as his brothers and sisters. They fought together, bled together, held their ground against impossible odds time and time again.

Eventually, the Dragonlance faced a fight so big that even they couldn't hold their ground. Even the menials of the Forge World took up arms beside the Skitarii, battle servitors, and Titans against an enormous space Hulk that controlled by an Abominable Intelligence. The Intelligence was once responsible for managing the space habitat that was the home to billions. It had been swallowed by the Warp when the Eye of Terror opened at the beginning of the age of Strife. A Greater Demon made its home inside the habitat, fusing with the AI to such a degree that they could never be separated. Their personalities melded into a single malicious entity that used the inhabitants of the habitats as play things. Turning them into mutant abominations.

Just when all was lost, Vulkan arrived with the rest of the Dragon Warriors, now dubbed the Salamanders, and unleashed the fury of Nocturne on the space Hulk. Vulkan himself and a squad of Terminators teleported aboard and fought their way through to the AIs core. Vulkan didn't know what the hell it was, assuming that it was just a crazed AI. Once it was destroyed, the Legion fleet fell upon the Hulk with everything it had, until it exploded in a ball of fire that utterly consumed it. The Legion turned its attention to the Forge World, quickly deploying via drop pod to reinforce the besieged defenders. The tide was already turning, with the loss of the demonic AI, the coordination of the host of cybernetic abominations quickly lost cohesion.

When the fighting finally ended, the Solar Auxilia and Dragon Warriors met with Vulkan. He welcomed both into the Salamanders as his sons (and daughters too!)

Vor'shar was invited by Vulkan to join the Pyre Guard. But Vor'shar politely declined the honor. He wanted to stay with his little brothers and sisters. What remained of the Auxilia were as much as family, and to be separated from them was unthinkable. Vulkan accepted this answer and told his Terran born son that he Dragonlance would be the shining example of what it meant to be a Salamander. To live and fight beside mortals as equals. Vor'shar, in turn, adopted the teachings of his father with great enthusiasm. Becoming even more fervent in his zeal, welcoming his Nocturne born brothers into the Dragonlance and showing them what the fury of the Salamanders was. To be utterly unrelenting towards the enemy, to stand against the tide when all others falter, and to protect those who can not protect themselves.

Vulkan gave Vor'shar a spear, one he has used during his time in Nocturne to fight off the mighty beasts of the desert (and Dark Eldar.) The Spear of Vulkan was presented to the Dragonlance as a symbol of their name sake, and a sign that Vulkan respected them greatly.

Vor'shar and the Dragonlance would fight beside Vulkan across the galaxy, bringing many worlds to compliance both with kindness and with fire. The Dragonlance being the first into the fray, and the last to leave.

I have more written bout what happened during the Horus Heresy n such but I tire. Maybe I'll post the whole doc later lmao. Hope someone reads this and likes it.

#warhammer40k #writing #creativity #fanfiction #spacemarines #40k #imperialguard #solar auxilia #salamanders #vulkan #great crusade #horus heresy

6 notes · View notes

cart00ni · 4 months

Text