vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Lord of Battles - Lord of Battles: The Lord of Battles is a colossal Daemon Engine used by the forces of Chaos that is completely dedicated to the service of the Chaos God of war and bloodshed, Khorne. While Khorne despises the use of Warp-based psychic abilities and sorcery as weapons unfit for a true warrior, he does not only rely on the sword and axe to collect skulls -- technology and even sorcerous weapons are also sometimes utilised to increase the tally of the fallen.The Lord of Battles and other Khornate Daemon Engines are examples of this reality, the fearsome fusion of machine and Daemon-kind. The Lord of Battles is the greatest of the Daemon Engines in the service to Khorne, and possibly any of the other Chaos Gods. This Daemon-machine is the largest Daemon Engine known to the Imperium, and is comparable in size to a small Titan. The Lord of Battles is a towering construction of Warp-forged black iron and brass covered in defensive runes of the Blood God that protect it from psychic attack.A Greater Daemon of Khorne, a Bloodthirster, is the potent Daemonic spirit unwillingly bound into this construct for the greater glory of the Blood God. The Greater Daemon is bound to the Lord of Battle's mechanical chassis, allowing it full control of the construct's arms and upper body. The creature can be armed with several different Titan-class weapons, including a colossal, tank-sized Hellblade for close combat mounted on its right arm, and a Death Storm Cannon mounted on its left arm. The Daemon Engine is also armed with a large ballistic weapon known as a Bloodletter Battlehead which is a massive, Warp-forged cannon implanted within the construct's leering "head."The Lord of Battles is such a powerful Daemon Engine that if it is destroyed on the battlefield the resulting explosion as its possessing Daemon is expelled from realspace is catastrophic and may even tear a rent in the fabric of reality, opening a catastrophic Warp vortex that can ravage the area and pull the enemies of the Blood God into the Immaterium itself.
Lord of Battles - Sources: White Dwarf 148 (UK), "Space Marine - Daemon Engines of Khorne" by Andy Chambers & Rick Priestley, pp. 22, 25-28Lord of Battles Data Sheet - Games Workshop
Lord of Change - Lord of Change: A Lord of Change, also called a "Supreme Mutator," a "Feathered Lord," "The Watching'," and one of the "Eyes of Tzeentch," is an insidious Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of change and sorcery.Lords of Change are creatures born from some impossible nightmare, immense bird-like Daemons with shimmering skin, wicked curved beaks and multi-coloured, spectrum-shattering wings.Those who gaze upon these twisted prisms of pure magic begin to feel their sanity shred and reason slip away. Faced by a being of change incarnate, bedrock beliefs crumble and twist, and the mind seeks firm purchase in vain.Treachery, deceit, capriciousness: these are the hallmarks of the Lords of Change. Tzeentch's greatest servants weave scheme upon scheme, a dense tangle of intermingling threads, so convoluted and eon-spanning that none can grasp their true purpose.A confrontation with a Lord of Change is likely to occur when and where the creature wills it. Few have ever managed to get the drop on these servants of Tzeentch, for the Changer of Ways is the master of destiny itself, and his greatest servants possess a portion of that power.
Lord of Change - Role: Sorcery, deception and knowledge are particular delights for Tzeentch. His Greater Daemons, the Lords of Change, are the embodiments of all of these. They are the chief agents of the Architect of Fate and the most powerful of his Daemonic minions.Despite possessing a small fragment of the immeasurable wisdom of their master, even they are unwitting pawns in Tzeentch's great and unfathomable plan, a plot of limitless complexity that will come to fruition at the end of time.A Lord of Change's appearance is as bewildering as it is terrifying -- an ever-changing, multi-hued form that defies mortal reasoning or logic. However, its most haunting features are its eyes. Within their infinite depths lies the paradoxical wisdom of Tzeentch, and none can withstand the sustained scrutiny of a Lord of Change's gaze without losing their sanity.It is said that when a Lord of Change looks upon a man, that man's soul is opened like a book, revealing his hopes and dreams, as well as the truth of his ultimate failure or success.A Greater Daemon of Tzeentch is driven by the need to redirect the predictable course of history itself and to set it upon a new, unexpected path. Because of this, a Lord of Change revels in dashing the hopes of the ambitious upon the ground even while raising penniless nobodies to the pinnacle of power.A Lord of Change is blessed with multi-layered cunning and blazing intelligence, as well as a deep understanding of the causality that drives the galaxy in its well-worn rut. There is nothing a Lord of Change despises more than the entrapping comforts of stability and familiarity, and nothing that will please one more than to see worlds broken and made anew.A Greater Daemon of Tzeentch delights in bringing order to ruin so that all may be reshaped and directed to a new path, before that, too, is changed. His minions move throughout realspace, undertaking whatever task he has set them: the killing of a minor mortal, a whisper in a commander's ear, the stealing of a worthless artefact and a thousand other seemingly unrelated occurrences that are mistaken for happenstance. Yet each falls into the Greater Daemon's own devious plan and furthers his labyrinthine schemes.
Lord of Change - Combat Doctrine: Lords of Change tend to work behind the scenes, pulling puppet strings from the shadows. So subtle are these manipulations, and so skilled, that often the playthings of a Lord of Change remain unaware that they are in the thrall of a deadly Daemon. Secret Chaos Cults, heresies, revolutionaries, and even Imperial Planetary Governors have all fallen under the thrall of a Lord of Change at one point or another.Even Tzeentch's bitterest foes can be manipulated into fulfilling the Great Deceiver's ends -- under his most powerful daemons' careful guidance, brother can be turned against brother, friend against friend, and the most zealous of Inquisitors can stumble from the path of righteousness. To confront a Lord of Change is to wander through a fog-shrouded mire of lies, ever unsure that one’s actions are correct, one false step away from sinking irrevocably.In the rare instances that a Lord of Change is bested, its schemes sundered and its plans laid to ruin, it will fight like a cornered animal, drawing upon its incredible sorcerous powers to fell its foes directly where deceit and deception have failed. Lords of Change are the greatest Chaos Sorcerers in the galaxy, and their mastery of magic is without peer.The mightiest psychic powers and spells employed by feeble Human psykers and sorcerers are the idle cantrips of a Lord of Change, for a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch is a creature of undiluted Warp energy and the mortal world quakes at its touch. With the merest flick of an elegantly tapered claw, bodies mutate and writhe, buildings twist and melt, and beings of madness and horror spring forth, cackling, from running rivers of flesh.Nothing that is done cannot be undone; nothing that is made cannot be unmade. To prevail against a Lord of Change, one’s faith and convictions must be firmer than the foundations of the stars. The Emperor protects...but one's faith must be ironclad in the face of such horror.The constant appraisal of the galaxy and the interference in its progress is not always so subtle. Change can also be sudden and violent, and a Lord of Change will readily wage war to further their unknowable aims. Their most potent weapons are the magic that flows in their immortal veins and their masterful manipulation of mortals. Though these Greater Daemons prefer to remain uncommitted in battle, it is not through lack of courage or ferocity, but because they wish to direct its forces and control the ebb and flow of the fighting.However, Lords of Change are masters of magic, amongst the most powerful Sorcerers in the galaxy. With a flick of a finger, a Lord of Change can engulf a score of enemy warriors in flickering Warp flames, inflicting a fate that is as unpredictable as it is deadly. With a single word, it can transform a mighty hero into a gibbering pile of mutated Spawn-flesh. Blades and bullets are rendered worthless against such power.
Lord of Change - Appearance: In the realm of realspace, these Greater Daemons appear as towering beings with gangling limbs and are deceptively delicate-looking. Their long, spindly bodies are topped by a savage, cruel avian head, resting on a long, crooked neck.Their hunched shoulders are often draped with what looks like the robes of a high priest or a court wizard from ages long-past. Their bent, bird-like legs are scaly and end in vicious talons; their lank arms terminate in broad, clawed hands. Great feathered wings sprout from their shoulder blades, glittering and glinting with a thousand impossible colours.The bones of a Lord of Change are hollow, and despite their enormous size, they barely seem capable of supporting their own weight, often leaning upon immense staffs, etched with innumerable eldritch signs and sigils. Most Lords of Change carry long ceremonial staves, which they use to channel their considerable psychic power. These powerful daemonic servants of Tzeentch carry themselves with a regal grace, though when driven to action their savagery is remarkable.Their appearance, however, is yet another ruse: Lords of Change are fearsome fighters, serpent-quick with skin like iron. They are also lore-masters, and possess a thorough knowledge of the great feints and fighting techniques of the galaxy. To fence with a Lord of Change is to invite one’s own ruin; many overzealous warriors have been felled by their vicious claws, cruel curved beaks and terrible, reaping staves, disemboweled before they could even lift their blades.
Lord of Change - Lesser Daemon Allies: Though a Lord of Change boasts many Human slaves among its infernal retinue, it can also call upon a dreadful menagerie of Lesser Daemons when its back is up against the wall.The amorphous, spindle-limbed Pink and Blue Horrors writhe with the boundless, ever-shifting energy of unbridled Chaos, warping the world around them as they gibber and shriek.The tubular Flamers of Tzeentch resemble hideous living columns, studded with still-melting mouths and faces and festooned with long, spindly arms. The gouts of magical, multi-coloured fire they spew from their mouth-like hands burn, freeze, blister, mutate and vaporise their enemies.High above, drifting on the currents of the Aethyr, sail the manta-like Screamers of Tzeentch, twisted manta rays that trail slashing tendrils below their long, flat, strangely sinuous bodies. These tentacles are razor sharp, capable of flaying the flesh from even the most heavily-armoured foe.
Lord of Change - Wargear: Staff of TzeentchBaleful Sword (Optional)Rod of Sorcery (Optional)
Lord of Skulls - Lord of Skulls: The Lord of Skulls is a super-heavy Daemon Engine of Chaos that is dedicated to the service of the Chaos God Khorne. These massive Daemon Engines are created by the most ambitious and skilled of Warpsmiths deep within their black forges located within the Eye of Terror.Each Lord of Skulls is a grotesque battle construct armed with a multitude of powerful Daemonic weapons. The Lord of Skulls takes the form of the upper body of a great warrior of Khorne, mounted upon a set of large tracks. These monstrous machines are powered by steam from the boiling blood of murderers, which swills forth from immense pressure tanks located on the daemon construct's back.When the Lord of Skull's ire is raised to apoplectic levels, it vents great gouts of this fluid into the ranks of the enemy to boil them alive. The machine is festooned with the remains of its victims, their skulls forever trapped within the daemon machine's armour and weapons.The Lord of Skulls appears similar in construction to the Chaos Lord of Battles, another massive Daemon Engine of Khorne, and it is also powered by a Greater Daemon of the Blood God.
Lord of Skulls - Role: Grinding across the battlefield on rumbling tracks, the Lord of Skulls towers over its terrified foes. The very ground cracks apart in its wake, yawning chasms gaping wide to vomit skulls and fire onto the battlefield. Given life by the raging spirit of a Bloodthirster bound within its hull, and powered by the boiling blood of murderers, this unholy engine of war is death to all who stand before it.Its devastating guns reduce swathes of victims to ruin, drowning them in jets of red-hot gore or burying them under rains of gnashing skulls. As it ploughs through the enemy ranks, the Daemon Engine wields its roaring cleaver with a speed and skill that is horrifying in something so huge. Entire ranks of enemy warriors are swept away with a single swing, tanks and monstrous beasts swatted through the air like toys.Even towering war engines such as Ork Stompas or Titans are made to look clumsy and sluggish as the Lord of Skulls hacks off their limbs and tears open their armoured torsos amid blossoms of dirty flame. Few warriors can face the Lord of Skulls and live, for it is a machine of absolute destruction.Being the brazen vessels of Bloodthirsters, many Lords of Skulls are worshipped by the Khorne Daemonkin, and followed into battle as living altars of Khornate worship. Their track guards will be heaped with skulls and runic fetishes, offerings made by the warriors who charge to war in their shadow. Their every deed is met by howls of adulation from the blood-mad throng, the Daemonkin inspired to new heights of fanatical devotion by the Lord of Skulls' unstoppable rampage.The Renegades of The Wrath pay especial heed to rumours of a Lord of Skulls rampaging across the material dimension, seeking it out and fighting in its wake, the better to see one of Khorne's masterpieces in action.Most Warp entities rage against their incarceration in a Daemon Engine, but there are those few that see their cage as the perfect weapon. This is most common amongst Bloodthirsters of the eighth rank, some of whom see the Lord of Skulls as a suit of armour within which they may wage war on the denizens of realspace.
Lord of Skulls - Armament: The Lord of Skulls is armed with three main weapons, two on its arms and a single, potent ranged weapon mounted within its torso. The war machine always carries a Great Cleaver of Khorne in its right hand and a long-range weapon mounted upon its left arm.The arm-mounted weapon can be either an infantry-shredding Hades Gatling Gun or a Skull Hurler, an aptly named weapon that hurls burning skulls at the Lord of Skulls' foes.The daemon machine's hull-mounted weapons can include either a Gorestorm Cannon, a Daemongore Cannon, or an Ichor Cannon.
Lord of Skulls - Ordo Malleus Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications: The Ordo Malleus has not yet determined the technical specifications for this Daemon Engine.
Lord of Skulls - Sources: Codex: Khorne Daemonkin (7th Edition), pp. 27, 72, 82, 84, 138-139, 141, 208-209Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 79, 149Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 13, 181-182, 257-259White Dwarf 403 (UK), "New Release: Khorne Lord of Skulls", pp. 8-16Games Workshop Webstore: Khorne Lord of Skulls
Lord of the Red Sands (Short Story) - Lord of the Red Sands (Short Story): Lord of the Red Sands is the ninth short story published in the Horus Heresy that was not originally part of an anthology novel. It was first published as part of The Imperial Truth exclusive anthology novel and also released separately as an e-book. It is also included in Angron collection and in the War Without End anthology novel.
Lord of the Red Sands (Short Story) - Synopsis: Angron, gladiator-Primarch of the XII Legion, is renowned across the galaxy for his savagery and brutal martial code. But amidst the ruins of Isstvan III, even as he slaughters his own wayward sons, he finds a unique serenity in the carnage of warfare...no matter whose blood he spills. And for what does the Eater of Worlds hunger above all else? Nothing more than freedom.
Lord Skchalick's Elite - Lord Skchalick's Elite: Lord Skchalick's Elite are a warband of Chaos Space Marines drawn from the World Eaters Traitor Legion. The corrupted Astartes of the warband are all Khornate Berserkers. This warband is led by the infamous Chaos Lord Skchalick.
Lord Skchalick's Elite - Notable Campaigns: First War for Armageddon (444.M41) - The Daemon Primarch Angron, the favoured Champion of Khorne, unified his World Eaters after the Battle of Skalathrax, and led the XII Legion once again deep into the heart of the Imperium and invaded the Hive World of Armageddon in 444.M41, in a lesser known conflict that would come to be known as the First War for Armageddon. The Khornate Warband known as Lord Skchalick's Elite sent an entire company of Berserkers in support, carving a bloody trail of slaughter across the doomed planet. But in the end, victory was denied to the Forces of Chaos due to Angron's own foolish belief in his victory before completing a total conquest of the world and the successful intervention of the Grey Knights Chapter of Space Marines. The Grey Knights' assault banished Angron back to the Warp for one hundred standard years and led to the failure of the overall campaign. During the World Eaters' withdrawal a portion of the Foresworn warband was left behind on Armageddon.
Lord Skchalick's Elite - Notable Members of Lord Skchalick's Elite: Chaos Lord Skchalick - Skchalick is the Chaos Lord of the World Eaters Legion who commands and founded the warband called Lord Skchalick's Elite. He led his warband at Angron's side during the First War for Armageddon.
Lord Skchalick's Elite - Warband Colours: Lord Skchalick's Elite wear the colours of devotees of the Blood God; blood-red Power Armour with brass trim. These colours are identical to those used by their parent Traitor Legion, the World Eaters.
Lord Skchalick's Elite - Warband Badge: Lord Skchalick's Elite's badge is the same as that of their parent Traitor Legion, the World Eaters, which is a fanged maw engulfing a world. Some warriors wear a modified version of this symbol which omits the world, using only an open, large, fanged maw.
Lords Dragon - Lords Dragon: The Lords Dragon is the name given to a secret order of the Adeptus Mechanicus comprised of Tech-priests with the rank of archmagos.This cabal is responsible for monitoring all the members of the Mechanicus for Chaos corruption and tech-heresy and eliminating it where it exists.In many ways the Lords Dragon act as an Inquisition-like body just for the Adeptus Mechanicus, without involving that organisation in the Mechanicus' internal affairs.It is rumoured in the Calixis Sector that the Panopticon Orbital Station in the Lathe System is the headquarters of the Lords Dragon, given to them by order of the fabricator-general of Mars himself.
Lords of Decay - Lords of Decay: The Lords of Decay are a warband of Chaos Space Marines who were once a Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines known as the Lances of Pteros.They were corrupted after entering the Eye of Terror in 321.M37 as part of the Imperial Abyssal Crusade. At some point during their sojourn in the Eye, the Lances of Pteros were corrupted by Nurgle and later absorbed into the Death Guard Traitor Legion.The Death Guard has grown substantially larger in this way by recruiting members from other Traitor Legions and Renegade Space Marine Chapters who are dedicated to Nurgle.The Lords of Decay appear to function as an elite force within the Legion, known to even have been led for a time by the Daemon Primarch Mortarion himself. They were heavily involved in assisting the forces of Chaos during the terrible Siege of Vraks.
Lords of Decay - Notable Campaigns: Siege of Vraks (813-830.M41) - The Lords of Decay were one of the Chaos Space Marine warbands that answered the call of the Chaos Lord Arkos the Faithless of the Alpha Legion to support the defence of the Forces of Chaos entrenched on the Armoury World of Vraks from the assault of the Imperium of Man. After the Siege of Vraks ended with the fall of that benighted world to Imperial forces after a horrifically costly military campaign in 830.M41, the Lords of Decay fled off-world. Their last reported sighting was in the Mentieth Sector, where Imperial forces were in pursuit.
Lords of Decay - Warband Colours: The Lords of Decay's power armour is the same as that of the Death Guard, decayed and cracked plates of ceramite discoloured in sickly greens and browns.The Lords of Decay's Chaos Space Marines, like those of the Death Guard, often wear the antique Mark III "Iron" pattern of Power Armour.
Lords of Decay - Warband Badge: The Lords of Decay's badge is a red, modified version of the standard Mark of Nurgle on a field of of sickly greens and browns depending on the condition of the individual.
Lords of Decay - Sources: Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition), pg. 19Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pg. 21Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part Three, pg. 141Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost and the Damned by Andy Hoare with additional material by Alan Bligh & Neil Wylie, pg. 43
Lords of Desolation - Lords of Desolation: Lords of DesolationChaosWord BearersTraitor LegionSorcererX'hal UrusTraitoris MilitarumDaemonsImperium of ManTheir reign of terror finally came to an end on the world of Sepharis Ultra. As they launched their layest attack against that Imperial planet, they were caught by surprise when Drop Pods from the Black Templars Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes landed amongst them.In the ensuing battle, Urus was killed by the Emperor's Champion Reinhart, though the Word Bearer managed to kill the Black Templars Champion as well. With Urus' death, the Daemons allied with him lost their anchor to realspace and were banished back to the Warp, leaving the remaining mortal forces of the Lords of Desolation to be eliminated by the Black Templars.
Lords of Desolation - Warband Colours: The Lords of Desolation's colours are not listed in current Imperial records.
Lords of Desolation - Warband Badge: The Lords of Desolation's badge is not listed in current Imperial records.
Lords of Pain - Lords of Pain: The Lords of Pain is a warband of Chaos Space Marines that was once a Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines. This Renegade Space Marine Chapter fell to Chaos after the birth of the Great Rift in 999.M41 during the 13th Black Crusade. After their fall to the service of the Ruinous Powers, the Lords of Pain were among the Forces of Chaos to face Roboute Guilliman and his Indomitus Crusade as it sought to reconquer the galaxy in the Emperor's name. Little else is currently known about them in Imperial records.
Lords of Pain - Warband Badge: The Lords of Pain's badge is currently unknown in Imperial records.
Lords of Pain - Warband Colours: The Lords of Pain's warband colours are currently unknown in Imperial records.
Lords of Silence - Lords of Silence: The Lords of Silence is a powerful warband or vectorium of the Death Guard Traitor Legion. The Lords of Silence maintain a force of over 600 Heretic Astartes dedicated to the service of the Plague God Nurgle, as well as thousands of Chaos Cultists and Nurgle-warped mutants.Led by the Chaos Lord Vorx, the Lords of Silence are primarily known for carrying out raids across Imperial space, spreading their divine master's contagions as they go, but their might has grown to the point that they are easily capable of conquering new worlds for the Plague Lord.The most potent force available to the Lords of Silence is known as the "Kardainn," an elite unit of Blightlord Terminators commanded by Captain Garstag, the warband's second-in-command and constant rival for power with Vorx.
Lords of Silence - Warband History: The Lords of Silence is a Death Guard warband or vectorium that was formed at some point after the end of the Horus Heresy in the Eye of Terror by the Death Guard Lord Vorx, a Siegemaster of the Death Guard Legion who had originally been recruited on Barbarus during the Great Crusade.
Lords of Silence - Notable Campaigns: 13th Black Crusade (ca. 999.M41) - During the 13th Black Crusade, the Forge World of Agripinaa near the Cadian Gate came under assault by an enormous World Eaters army under the command of Kossolax the Foresworn, who sacrificed millions of its citizens over forty solar hours to summon a horde of Khornate Daemons, including a Bloodthirster. Eventually, however, thanks to the efforts of four companies of the Blood Angels, the World Eaters and their Daemonic allies were defeated and pushed off the devastated world. After Cadia fell to Abaddon the Despoiler, the Chaos forces launched another assault on Agripinaa, of which the Lords of Silence were one small part. Daemon Engines led by many Warpsmiths invaded the Forge World, diseases and maladies brought by the forces of Nurgle ravaged its surface, after the world was infected by space hulks that emerged from the Eye of Terror. Hordes of shambling Plague Zombies crawled from the vents and cog clusters of its forge cities. Later, the battle was joined by the fleets of the World Eaters, Night Lords, the Black Legion, the Thousand Sons and the Death Guard Traitor Legions under the command of the World Eaters Chaos Lord Kossolax once more. The Astra Militarum troops of the Cadian Diaspora -- those who had survived the fall of that world or been elsewhere at the time of its destruction -- proved decisive in the world's defence, and the forces of Chaos once again were repulsed.Fall of Sabatine (Unknown Date.M42) - In the aftermath of the Great Rift's birth, during the ongoing operations of the 13th Black Crusade, the world of Sabatine, the Chapter homeworld of the White Consuls Chapter, was left almost unprotected. It was defended only by the Astartes of the 4th Company of the White Consuls, regiments of the Astra Militarum's Praetorian Guard and the world's own Planetary Defence Forces. Blocked from the light of the Astronomican by the onset of the Noctis Aeterna and already under assault from Daemons emerging from the rift, Sabatine was attacked and overrun by several warbands of Heretic Astartes, including the Lords of Silence of the Death Guard and the Weeping Veil of the Word Bearers. The remnants of the White Consuls managed to escape before their world fell to the minions of the Dark Gods. After the victory, the Lords of Silence's Chaos Lord Vorx convinced Slert, one of his Biologus Putrifiers, to use his arcane science to convert the world's population into Plague Zombies and Poxwalkers rather than allow them to be used as sacrifices to the Chaos Gods to bring three Greater Daemons and their Daemonic legions to the world. Once this was done, the world was no longer of interest to the other Chaos Gods save Nurgle and so the Word Bearers warband withdrew in disgust to seek new avenues to expand the reach of Chaos in the Imperium. Sabatine then fell wholly under the control of the Lords of Silence, which was re-made into a Daemon World dedicated to Nurgle, and became almost a perfect copy of the Plague Planet itself.
Lords of Silence - Warband Fleet: Solace (Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser) - When this warship's hull was originally laid down in the 34th Millennium on the Forge World of Lashte, it was named Undying Valour. It entered service with Battlefleet Archon less than a Terran year after structure completion, commanded by an inexperienced captain named Lutrecia Prask. Its complement of more than thirty thousand ratings was largely drawn from Navis Imperialis levy stations strung out beyond the Mourn Ring, and was graded as competent by four subsequent inspection visits. Like all the original Corinus-class Grand Cruisers, it was heavily armed, with Lance and Macrocannon arrays out of proportion to its relatively underweight Void Shielding. It transpired that the class gradually fell out of favour with Imperial commanders, though the Undying Valour served with distinction for another five hundred Terran years, gaining a kill ratio marginally higher than its reputation indicated likely. Captain Prask died in an engagement less than twenty standard years after assuming command, and was replaced by a succession of captains promoted from the lower decks. A grand cruiser was a world of its own, and only the very greatest battleships regularly recruited senior officers from outside the hull -- most captains were born, raised and trained on the ship they would later command. The last of the line, Orthan Hemmo, was of this tradition, and was said to have loved the ship more than his own children, of which there were twenty before circumstances intervened to curtail his commendable contribution to the replenishment of Imperial numbers. Those circumstances came at the Battle of the Borghesh Channel, a vicious encounter in which the Imperium lost twenty vessels and had its grip loosened on three sub-sectors. By the time Navis Imperialis retribution fleets overwhelmed the region more than sixty standard years later, there was no sign of the Undying Valour at its last reported coordinates -- only a slowly spinning core of metal to which Captain Hemmo's deep-frozen corpse was, it was rumoured later, nailed on tight. In truth, the Undying Valour had been taken into the Eye of Terror and stayed there for five Terran millennia. It was renamed the Solace after it became corrupted by the power of Nurgle, which made the ship semi-sentient. It was eventually taken by the Chaos Lord Vorx, commander of the Death Guard's Lords of Silence vectorium, who ensured that the corrupted warship was placated with plenty of flesh and blood, in order to prevent the Solace from turning upon its own warriors. However this did not stop the Solace from occasionally growing tentacles in order to attack and devour members of the warband.
Lords of Silence - Warband Colours: The Lords of Silence's power armour is the same as that of the Death Guard, composed of decayed and cracked plates of ceramite in sickly greens and browns.
Lords of Silence - Warband Badge: The Lords of Silence's warband badge is a stylised icon of a person holding their index finger to their mouth in the universally-recognised Human gesture to be silent.
Lords of Valour - Lords of Valour: The Lords of Valour is a Blackshield Titan Legion that was active during the Horus Heresy.
Lords of Valour - Legion History: The Lords of Valour was a small Blackshield Legio of Reaver and Dire Wolf-class Titans that was formed during the Horus Heresy. Its existence was unconfirmed by the Imperium.However, rumours at the time claimed that the Lords of Valour were possibly Loyalists, who had somehow escaped the corruption and treachery of the Legio Interfector, which had also once possessed the cognomen of "Lords of Valour" before it turned to the service of the Warmaster Horus.The Lords of Valour were also rumoured to have operated within the star systems surrounding the Legio Interfector's home Forge World of Valeous II.
Lords of Valour - Legion Colours: The Lords of Valour's colours are unknown.
Lords of Valour - Legion Badge: The badge of the Lords of Valour is unknown.
Lords of Wrath - Lords of Wrath: The Lords of Wrath is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown origin and Founding.
Lords of Wrath - Notable Campaigns: Capture of Decius Mus (995.M41) - Lieutenant Hesprix of the Lords of Wrath, led a taskforce of Astartes in the pursuit and capture of Decius Mus, the Arch-heretic of Auscum, who had fled with his Traitor forces to the Xenthorp System. With assistance from the 23rd Bruttiam Regiment of the Imperial Guard, who garrisoned the system, Hesprix's task force was able to capture Decius Mus.
Lords of Wrath - Notable Lords of Wrath: Lieutenant Hesprix - Force Commander of the taskforce responsible for capturing Decius Mus, the Arch-heretic of Auscum.
Lords of Wrath - Chapter Colours: The Lords of Wrath's Chapter colours are not listed in Imperial records.
Lords of Wrath - Chapter Badge: The Lords of Wrath's Chapter badge is not listed in Imperial records.
Lorelei - Lorelei: Lorelei is a type of psychoactive crystal exclusively mined upon the Imperial Industrial World of Kalidar, which is why it is also referred to as "Kalidarian Lorelei" by specialists. As a psychoactive material, refined Lorelei may be used to fabricate tools and weapons that benefit the psykers of various Imperial organisations such as the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, the Inquisition or the Librarians of the Adeptus Astartes. As the Adeptus Mechanicus is currently unable to synthesize equivalent materials, the Imperium of Man relies on mining natural deposits of the crystals on Kalidar.
Lorelei - Fabrication: Lorelei occurs naturally both on the surface and deeper within Kalidar's mantle. Kalidarian Lorelei is believed to have been created through the extreme environmental conditions present on Kalidar. Located in the Kalidar System, the Desert World is constantly bombarded by the rays of its blue-white star due to its thin atmosphere. Kalidar's strong magnetosphere and absence of cloud-cover allow these rays to reach almost unhindered to the planet's surface.In the distant past, Kalidar was also hit by a sizable meteorite whose energy upon impact prompted an exothermic reaction. On Kalidar, Lorelei therefore comes in two forms: "newer" crystals that were spawned by the intense solar radiation and "older" crystals that form deposits and veins in Kalidar's rock and were affected by the meteorite impact. Both forms are mined on Kalidar, the latter through conventional mining operations, the former by sifting through the desert's sand with gigantic machines called "sand-haulers."After its harvest, the first step in refining the crystals is to smelt the Lorelei to get rid of other elements that reduce its purity. As Lorelei has a melting point of 1,137 degrees Celsius, this action requires a lot of energy, which requires its transportation to one of Kalidar's many processing plants. First through manual scraping, then after passage through a centrifuge, the molten Lorelei is progressively refined until it reaches a purity grade of more than 99%. Only once this level of purity has been attained can the Lorelei be processed any further.Like other ores and minerals, the liquid Lorelei is cast into pellets. A rapid cooling of the material allows the workers to disrupt the crystalline matrix of the Lorelei and thus render it safe for transport. This is a vital step as otherwise the Lorelei pellets would still possess their psychoreactive proprieties and this could lead to several disruptive incidents on the way to its next stage of refinement.Once the inert Lorelei pellets have arrived at their destination, they are remelted and psychically cleaned and purified before being cast in the desired shape. The liquid is then allowed to cool very slowly -- a process than can take up to two Terran years -- to allow the Lorelei to reform the psychoconductive crystalline matrix which will amplify the wielder's powers.Only once all the crystalline matrixes have reformed is the item checked, rechecked, blessed and sanctified before being used as a component in a new device by a particular Imperial organisation. Lorelei crystals are used to manufacture psychoreactive objects such as Force Weapons and Nemesis Force Weapons, as well as defensive gear like the Psychic Hoods often worn by Space Marine Librarians.
Lorelei - The Ghosts of Kalidar: While the psycho-conductive matrix of a Lorelei crystal considerably strengthens the power of a psyker, naturally-occurring Lorelei crystals also have an overt effect on non-psykers. In large quantities or over a prolonged period of exposure, the Lorelei begins to affect the subject's mind, a phenomenon locally known as "the Ghosts of Kalidar".In the first stage of the affliction, the subject experiences visions which often take the form of deceased relatives and friends. The primitive native population of Kalidar, the so-called sandscum, believe that these "ghosts" are exactly what they claim to be: the spirits of the departed that still roam the soil of Kalidar. The sandscum have also discovered an antidote to the affliction: bearing amulets of raw and properly charged Lorelei crystals which prevent the wearer from seeing the hallucinations.Without such precautions, the visions get increasingly worse. During the Kalidar War, several tank-crews fell prey to these visions, inadvertently maneuvering their war engines into patches of quickdust which claimed both their lives and their machines. In the most extreme cases, Lorelei can even induce poltergeist activity or outbursts of mass hysteria that can end in violence and death, as exemplified by the tragic fate of the Hive Kimeradon Constructor Team.
Lorelei - Trivia: The Loreley (or Lorelei, or Loreleï) is a notorious cliff of slate rock on the right bank of the Rhine River near the town of Sankt Goarshausen in Germany. The cliff marks one of the most dangerous portions of the Rhine where the river turns while simultaneously becoming more narrow. Plagued by sandbanks and strong currents that form strong swirls, the waters "murmur," a sound that is amplified by the sheer cliff, thus creating an echo.In the Middle Ages, local folklore had it that dwarves mined the Loreley or that some other spirits were responsible for the numerous shipwrecks. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that the Loreley was personified by the romantic German poet Clemens Brentano (1778-1842).In his ballad of 1801, the Lore Lay, the Loreley becomes a beautiful woman whose beauty is such that no man may resist her. Many of her suitors die trying to prove themselves to her or commit suicide after having been rejected by her. Because of this, Loreley is accused of witchcraft and put on trial by the local bishop.Since the only man she ever loved has abandoned her, Loreley begs the bishop to condemn her to the pyre, but being a man, the bishop cannot resist her charms. Enraptured by her beauty, the bishop commutes her death-sentence to a life of seclusion within a monastery.Desperate to escape life, Loreley tricks the three knights guarding her into leading her to the cliff from which she throws herself, drowning in the waters of the Rhine. In German literature, the Lore Lay is generally understood as a vulgarisation of the myth of the nymph Echo in the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Lorgar - Schism Wars: However, as Lorgar grew in standing amongst the people as their religious leader, the other members of the Covenant's ecclesiastical hierarchy began to grow jealous of his popularity. Lorgar's youth had been constantly plagued by visions of a mighty warrior in gleaming bronze armour coming to Colchis, a one-eyed giant in blue robes standing beside him. At one point, the visions reached such an intensity that Lorgar claimed that the prophesied return of Colchis' one, true god was soon to occur.He began to preach this news to the people of Colchis, causing disruptions to the theocratic rule of the Covenant as people converted to his dissident beliefs in the One God. Lorgar's enemies in the Covenant saw this as the opportunity they had been waiting for to remove the threat that Lorgar presented to the status quo, declaring him a heretic to the Old Ways.Those of the Covenant who came forward to arrest Lorgar were killed by his followers. The Covenant split into two factions, the followers of the Old Faith and the Godsworn, the Brotherhood of Lorgar, who continued to believe in The One, and a holy war of immense proportions erupted, eventually forcing the entire population of the world to choose a side.This conflict, called the "Schism Wars," lasted six standard years, ending when Lorgar and his supporters stormed the temple of the Covenant known as the Cathedral of Illumination in the heart of the capital of Vharadesh, at which the primarch had once trained. They killed the monks within and eliminated the heart of the Covenant's conservative religious resistance to his ideas concerning the One God. Possibly as part of this conflict, or after it, one-third of the people of Colchis were said to have turned against Lorgar, and the first Great Purge was conducted by the Brotherhood's fanatically loyal warrior-monks who had been hand-picked by Lorgar.Lorgar, now the ruling Archpriest of the reformed Covenant, promised the masses that their new god would arrive on Colchis no more than a local year after their victory and that they would know him only as "The Emperor." Kor Phaeron confessed to his adopted son that he remained a believer in the other four gods of the Old Faith, but that he also believed like Lorgar that the One God was the most powerful of their number.
Lorgar - Great Crusade: Lorgar led his Legion throughout the Great Crusade, as the Imperial Heralds sought to eliminate all blasphemy and heresy within the new Imperium of Man. Ancient texts and icons of other faiths were burned. The construction of vast monuments and cathedrals venerating the Emperor was supervised. The greatest Chaplains of the Imperial Heralds produced enormous works on the divinity and righteousness of the Emperor, and gave grand speeches and sermons to the masses.The progress of the Imperial Heralds was slow in bringing new worlds into Imperial Compliance, but domination of the defeated was complete.
Lorgar - Fires of Colchis: The change of the XVII Legion's soul took solar decades to complete. A large Legion even before it was reunited with its primarch, Lorgar was not fool enough to attempt such a project in one stage. The golden primarch had a genius for speaking to men's hearts, and his campaigns to win those hearts were as subtle and thorough as those fought by the likes of Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children and Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines on the battlefield. Bit by bit, the faith in the Emperor's divinity was spread from brother to brother.The Chaplains, Lorgar's new vanguard of faith later copied by all of the other Legions following the Council of Nikaea, subtly altered the counsel they gave their brothers. New structures of organisation sprang up beside the old military hierarchy; fraternities that seemed to have much in common with those of other Space Marine Legions but, in truth, were devices for the propagation of the faith through the ranks of the XVII Legion.The echo of this grand, yet slow, conversion can be seen in the steps by which Lorgar would later corrupt half of the other Legions, and pull the Imperium into the darkness from which he had once sought to raise it. It might seem strange that warriors like the Imperial Heralds who in the days before the return of Lorgar had fanatically fought to cast down gods would embrace those same beliefs, but this ignores the basic nature of the fanatic.At their core they need a cause around which to build their world. What that cause is can be always be easily changed, so long as the heart of its fire fills them. In their hearts the Astartes of the XVII Legion fell into the grasps of religion because part of them had always wanted to, part of them wanted there to be more to belief than mere rationality.The second factor which allowed Lorgar to convert his Legion to the belief in the Emperor's divinity was the nature of the Great Crusade itself. Across countless fronts the Legions fought, suffered casualties and recruited anew. As this attrition mixed the old with the new, so the blood of the mostly Terran-born Iconoclast Imperial Heralds was diluted with that of Colchis and then with dozens of worlds on the bloody edge of conquest. These were sons who had never seen the light of Sol, nor known the Legion as it had been. They accepted what was taught to them because it was the only truth offered. In the case of those recruited into the Legion from Colchis, the belief in the divine was already ingrained into their every thought from birth.When all was done, when the final Imperial Herald had embraced the faith and belief in the Emperor's divinity, when the last of the old Iconoclasts had died, then Lorgar added the final flourish of ritual to seal his victory. The Imperial Heralds would become known instead as the "Word Bearers." To the rest of the Imperium, still ignorant of the change wrought in the XVII Legion, the name reflected their part in bringing the Imperial Truth to all Humanity. To Lorgar it was an affirmation of his purpose: to give Humanity faith in the god at its pinnacle.
Lorgar - Eternity Gate: The Urizen found himself suddenly transported before the Eternity Gate located within the Emperor's Imperial Palace on Terra. This was the ultimate barrier that was the portal to the Emperor's innermost sanctum, where the Emperor kept his personal genetic laboratory sealed away from his sons and servants. Ingethel refused to explain how they had been transported through space and time to appear there. Some truths could not be contained by the mortal mind. She instructed Lorgar to look upon his surroundings with an immortal's sight.Shocked by the sudden revelation, Lorgar was granted a vision of the Siege of Terra. The primarch was surrounded by thousands of phantasmal Astartes fighting and dying at his feet. Foremost in the thick of the fighting were the yellow-armoured Astartes of Rogal Dorn's Imperial Fists Legion. They fought fiercely against an entire Legion unknown to Lorgar, clad in cardinal red.Lorgar finally recognised the crimson-clad Astartes for who they were -- his own Word Bearers, their slate-grey battle plate replaced by Power Armour the colour of fresh blood! Ingethel informed the primarch that he was correct. The Legion's old colours had been cast aside to herald the changes taking hold of humanity. They were no longer the Bearers of the Emperor's Word. They were the Bearers of Lorgar's.Lorgar continued to look on, witnessing a larger-than-normal Astartes transform in the midst of battle into a gargantuan Daemon-possessed Astartes. In this Daemonic form, it appeared quite powerful and was significantly larger and taller than the primarch. The vision showed the daemonically-possessed Astartes going on a bloody rampage through the ranks of an Imperial Fists squad before finally dying at the hands of the primarch Sanguinius at the threshold of the Eternity Gate. In disbelief, Ingethel informed Lorgar that this champion was none other than his most blessed son, Argel Tal, and that this was how he would die.
Lorgar - Skeins of Fate: As Lorgar attempted to step forward he suddenly found himself upon a nameless world. He had seen all that needed to be seen. Enraged, Lorgar tired of being led around by the nose into the Daemon's prepared lessons. Ingethel warned the primarch to watch his tone when addressing one of the Gods' Chosen. Lorgar replied that he was only there by his own choice and that he would leave there by the same virtue.Calming himself, Lorgar knew that he was there to learn the truth of the gods and that Ingethel was there to show it to him. He wanted to know why he had been summoned there and why he had been shaped since birth to be brought to this place. Ingethel replied that Lorgar had been summoned because his life had been engineered to ensure this moment happened. He was here, now, because the gods wished it.In the tangled skeins of time's web, Ingethel had seen innumerable possible futures where Lorgar had never come to them. But Lorgar wanted to known why was he brought there. Why not his brother Horus or Guilliman? They were the generals that he would never be. Why not Sanguinius or Rogal Dorn? Why not Magnus? Especially Magnus, for he was the most powerful of all the primarchs, without a shadow of a doubt.Ingethel replied that the Crimson King was already a servant of the Chaos Gods, whether he admitted it or not. He came to the Ruinous Powers without needing to be summoned, and without ever considering the notion of faith. He came for power, because that was why all things of flesh came to the powers of Chaos. And in five short solar decades, when the galaxy began to burn, Magnus would come to the Eye of Terror himself. With this revelation, Ingethel revealed one final vision, more than forty Terran years in the future.