vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Great Cleaver of Khorne - Great Cleaver of Khorne: A Great Cleaver of Khorne is a Daemon Weapon in the form of a massive Chainaxe that is wielded by the Lord of Skulls Daemon Engine. Like the Lord of Skulls that wields it, the Great Cleaver of Khorne is festooned with the remains of its victims, their skulls forever trapped within. The weapon is large enough that the Lord of Skulls can make use of it as easily as if it was a normal-sized melee weapon, and is capable of tearing apart tanks as if they were human heads. The Great Cleaver is fully capable of cutting entire vehicles into pieces and taking out entire groups of infantry. It is a weapon forged from murder and rage -- and it delivers the very same to its victims.Many metres in length, the design of each Great Cleaver is barbaric, and it features a gargantuan imitation of a Chainaxe’s sharp-toothed blade. When activated, the Great Cleaver will erupt with eldritch power, the teeth rotating so fast as to become a blurred edge. Immensely large and heavy, no mere mortal can hope to lift a Great Cleaver, let alone take one to battle. Only a khornate Lord of Skulls is worthy enough, and powerful enough, to use it in combat. Once this enormous Daemon Engine has spent its cannon, or can no longer resist its sick desire to watch thick gouts of blood fill the air, the Lord of Skulls will rumble up close to its foe and begin using this weapon to devastating effect.Capable of causing severe damage to even the mightiest war engines, a Great Cleaver of Khorne will easily rip through body armour or crack the carapaces of monstrous bio-forms, and soft flesh underneath is instantly reduced to pulpy offerings for the God of Blood. The Lord of Skulls then grinds forward, ready to absorb the remains of the victims up into the enormous pressure tanks upon its back where it will augment the boiling blood of murderers already contained within.Around the barracks of many an Imperial Guard regiment, men talk of the effects of this cleaver on their own forces. As this weapon tears through the air to make contact with armour, it is said the sound it makes is not caused by the path of the blade itself, but rather the screams of the weapon’s trapped souls wailing for blood – a noise so loud it can be discerned over the sound of the mechanical edge. Very few have survived to speak of such matters though, and such rumours are quickly put down by the Commissariat.Great Cleavers of Khorne have also been witnessed on numerous occasions by loyalist Space Marine Chapters, who are little impressed by the feeble ramblings of shell-shocked Guardsmen. They have seen this brutal weapon wielded often enough to know of its capabilities. It has rent open the hulls of Land Raiders, slaughtering their crews, and it has ground the armoured panels of Dreadnoughts down to scrap. As a consequence, the most skilled tactician will prioritise the destruction of a Lord of Skulls as it rumbles across a battlefield on its brass tracks, lest his tanks or troops become fodder for the Great Cleaver’s grinding mechanical blade.
Great Cleaver of Khorne - Construction: It takes many vile sacrifices to complete the construction of a Great Cleaver of Khorne. The bitter spirits of murderers are forged within the blade and trapped forever within the fabric of its metal. To satisfy the corrupt expectations of a Lord of Skulls, he may personally select the victims himself. These sacrifices are hand-picked from amongst the most odious characters in the galaxy. Once taken, they are forced to fight in spike-walled pits so that the weakest are eliminated. The use of the most macabre, wretched souls will result in the manufacture of a great cleaver of significant potency; the stronger and more violent the captive; and the more humiliating their sacrifice, the more nightmarish the weapon will become.This enormous barbed, toothed and skull-encrusted weapon is not so much forged as birthed by an esoteric, violent and corrupt ritual conducted by a cabal of Warpsmiths. Within the sinister and vile citadels of the Dark Mechanicum, the chosen victims are impaled in isolation, but kept from the blissful relief of death for eight full days. Then, all the victims are slaughtered, though it is no merciful act. Their bodies are drained of blood and their souls are bound by eldritch chains until the master Warpsmith is ready for the final ritual.When that time comes, these captive, screeching souls are blended in arcane ways. Using the eight runes of undiluted wrath, and bathed in the blood of fallen champions, a corrupt, molten metal forms in the soul-furnaces of Khorne’s endless realm of bone. Skulls taken from the foot of Khorne’s throne are crammed within the cooling metalwork, and only then can this be hammered into the shape of a Great Cleaver of Khorne. A skilled Warpsmith will ensure that no tendrils of loathing or hatred are wasted during the process, because such bitter sentiments are an essential part of the fabric of the weapon. Finally, the blade is brought before the brass throne of Khorne for him to bless with vile utterances. The master Warpsmith who forged the weapon and offers it to Khorne is its first victim, and to die at its touch is considered a perverse honour.
Great Cleaver of Khorne - Sources: Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 13, 181-182, 257-259Warhammer 40,000: Munitorum - Great Cleavers of Khorne (Digital Edition), pp. 18-21White Dwarf 404 (AUS)
Great Crusade - Mars and the Adeptus Mechanicus: The Emperor's first obstacle to the reunification of Mankind was the existence of the Mechanicum empire of the Tech-priests of the Cult Mechanicus on Mars, who had historically been fiercely independent of Earth. Instead of an outright war, the Emperor used the threat of an assault by his Space Marines on Mars and the offer of new technologies to form an alliance in the 30th Millennium with the Tech-priests of what would later be called the Adeptus Mechanicus. This alliance formed the heart of the newborn Imperium of Man and was symbolised by the adoption of the two headed-eagle or Aquila that is still the primary icon of the Imperium.Despite his disdain for their reliance on religion and cybernetic augmentation of their bodies, the Emperor knew that He would need Mars' great manufactoria (factories), mechanical output and ancient technological knowledge to build the military force required to reunify humanity across the galaxy, and He incorporated them into the Imperium.The Tech-priests of Mars, likewise, saw the Emperor's extraordinary scientific knowledge and technological skill as proof that He was the Omnissiah, the living avatar of their Machine God in the material realm, who the creed of the Cult Mechanicus had promised would return one day to the Red Planet and offer the true way forward for humanity.
Great Crusade - Blood and Illumination: The Pax Imperialis: The Great Crusade brought peace to Mankind, ending wars between peoples and nations, binding all together in unity. It broke the chains of superstition and freed billions from the whims of tyrants and murderous xenos. Where before there had been strife and the cloud of ignorance, now there would be peace and truth. These were high ideals indeed, but ideals that came at a price. Mankind had to be dragged to illumination, and many tried to pull it back into the shadows, into the old ways of ignorance and discord.The Emperor had unified Terra not only through words and alliances, but also through force of arms. Illumination and peace had to be won by blood. This was the basic truth of the Pax Imperialis, and when the Great Crusade took to the stars, this truth went with it. But it was not only in open war that the blood price for universal peace had to be paid. The enemies of the Imperium were manifold, and even before Horus turned from the Emperor, there were those who nurtured treachery in their hearts, who mouthed words of loyalty whilst seeding discord. While the ideals of the Great Crusade saw warriors marching in open war, the truth was that there were other methods and other less noble battles fought to keep the peace.The Assassin Temples, the networks of informers and the Silent Agents of Malcador the Sigilite, the Annihilation Protocols, and the ancient and all but forbidden weapons wielded by a chosen few in the Legions, all these were the tools and warriors by which the Imperium enforced its ideals and, for a time, brought peace to the galaxy. For the Emperor, the end justified the means in the pursuit of His great dream, for He knew better than most, that His time was limited. Mankind must be united and ready to face the future before the Chaos Gods could unite to stop Him.
Great Crusade - Fractures in Loyalty: As the Imperium grew and the Great Crusade fractured into hundreds of different Expeditionary Fleets that could be separate from one another for solar decades of relative time, the Primarchs and their Emperor began to grow distant from each other. The Night Lords and World Eaters Legions grew infamous for their ever-greater atrocities during the conquest of new worlds, the Thousand Sons' pursuit of knowledge transformed into the use of sorcery through the temptations secretly offered by Tzeentch, and the Word Bearers' fanatical religious beliefs in the Emperor's divinity led to a rift between them and the Emperor when He dramatically rejected their attempts at worship in light of the atheistic nature of the Imperial Truth he sought to impress on all the worlds of the Imperium.The Imperial Army, composed almost entirely of normal human soldiers (some regiments such as the Geno Two-Five Chilliad were the products of selective breeding and genetic-engineering dating back to the Unification Wars to produce more capable soldiers or officers), provided much-needed manpower for garrison and support duties for the planets brought into Imperial Compliance by the Crusade.Freed from garrison duties, the Space Marines who comprised the core of each Expeditionary Fleet could conquer yet more worlds in a shorter space of time. Many Astartes and Imperial Army soldiers began speaking only of their loyalty to the Primarch that they served, and not to their Emperor. Owing to the isolation between the Legions and the Emperor after the Ullanor Crusade when the Emperor returned to Terra and left the Great Crusade in the hands of His favoured son Horus as the new Imperial Warmaster, this growing breach between the military and the people of the Imperium as represented by the Emperor essentially went unnoticed back on Terra.
Great Crusade - Chronology of the Final Years of the Great Crusade: Note: The following information was compiled by agents of Malcador the Sigillite following the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. As more information is uncovered, it will be added to the more in-depth chronology.DateEventParticipating Space Marine Legion(s)964.M30The Razing of MonarchiaWord Bearers, Ultramarines965.M30<ALL DATA REDACTED>Space Wolves966.M30Cadia is entered into the Carta Imperialis during the Pilgrimage of LorgarWord Bearers969.M30<ALL DATA REDACTED>Space Wolves972.M30The Farinatus ExterminationNight Lords, Raven Guard981.M30Alpharius assumes command of the XX LegionAlpha Legion984.M30The Destruction of NostramoNight Lords994.M30Istvaan System first brought to Imperial ComplianceRaven Guard999.M30The Pacification of Ark Reach SecundusWord Bearers, Space Wolves, Thousand Sons000.M31Triumph of UllanorAlpha Legion, Blood Angels, Death Guard, Emperor's Children, Imperial Fists, Luna Wolves, Thousand Sons, Ultramarines, White Scars, Word Bearers, World Eaters000.M31The Fall of Saran LuxorUnknown001.M31The Council of NikaeaBlood Angels, Dark Angels, Death Guard, Emperor's Children, Imperial Fists, Thousand Sons, Salamanders, Space Wolves, Thousand Sons, Ultramarines001-005.M31The Chondax CampaignWhite Scars002-003.M31The Kayvas Belt ExpeditionAlpha Legion, Blood Angels003.M31Contact lost with Istvaan System003.M31The Vespae IncidentUnknown003.M31The Luna Wolves are renamed the Sons of HorusSons of Horus004.M31Horus falls mortally wounded by Eugen Temba on Davin's Plague MoonSons of Horus004.M31The Destruction of OlympiaIron Warriors004-005.M31The Burning of ProsperoSpace Wolves, Thousand Sons005.M31The Blood Angels disappear en route to SignusBlood Angels005.M31The Ultramarines and elements of the Word Bearers muster at CalthUltramarines, Word Bearers005.M31The Battle of CalthUltramarines, Word Bearers005.M31The Istvaan III Atrocity - Horus Heresy formally beginsDeath Guard, Emperor's Children, Sons of Horus, World Eaters005-006.M31The Schism of Mars beginsMechanicum, Imperial Fists006.M31<ALL DATA REDACTED><ALL DATA REDACTED>566.006.M31The Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan VAlpha Legion, Death Guard, Emperor's Children, Night Lords, Sons of Horus, Word Bearers, World Eaters, Iron Hands, Raven Guard, Salamanders
Great Crusade Chronology - Great Crusade Chronology: Presented below is the Great Crusade Chronology, an exhaustive listing of notable campaigns that occurred during the nearly two standard-centuries-long Great Crusade that began in ca. 798.M30 and ended with the outbreak of the galaxy-wide Horus Heresy in the early years of the 31st Millennium.At its height, the great expansion of the newborn Imperium of Man consisted of 4,287 primary expedition fleets engaged upon the business of enforcing Imperial Compliance and extending the Imperial aegis across the galaxy, as well as 60,000+ secondary deployment groups involved in regulating Compliance or Imperial occupations.By no means is this list complete, as much of the information presented in various canon sources is often ambiguous and even at times contradictory. Therefore, this is merely a rough guide to the chronological order of the events of the Great Crusade as they occurred.While the below chronology is highly detailed, it should be noted that much of this information would be completely unknown to the average inhabitant of the Imperium of Man in the 41st Millennium. The Great Crusade occurred over ten thousand Terran years ago, a nearly unimaginable span of time; as a result, it has become nothing more than a collection of often distorted or misunderstood legends and mythology to the average Imperial citizen of the Era Indomitus.Therefore, this is merely a rough guide to the chronological order of the events during pivotal era of early Imperial history and no date should be taken as absolutely final should new evidence come to light.
Great Crusade Chronology - Chronology: Presented below is a chronological listing of the events of the Great Crusade. The following information was compiled by manifold and diverse hands at the order of the Emperor and the Acting Council of Terra.The reader should be aware that the dates listed in this chronological compilation are only approximations as Imperial records from this time are too fragmentary to be wholly reliable. As more information is uncovered in newly discovered Imperial records, it will be added to the chronology.
Great Game - The Divine Hierarchy: There exists a hierarchy of sorts within the ranks of the Ruinous Powers, though it ebbs and flows according to the vagaries of the Great Game. Currently, Khorne is held as the mightiest of all, for the practice of murder, war and blood sacrifice stretches to the dark beginnings of the universe.Though Khorne sees the use of sorcery as the refuge of cowards, his closest rival, Tzeentch, thrives on the raw stuff of Chaos and uses it to influence a million times a million plots, his devious mind always a step ahead of his opponents.Where Tzeentch would see hopes thrive and fortunes change, Nurgle, the Father of Plagues, revels in despair and hopelessness. In times of galactic pandemic, Nurgle's power can eclipse even that of his brothers in darkness.Last in the pantheon is Slaanesh, who knows well how to play on the obsessions of his rivals. Khorne's single-minded bloodlust, Nurgle's quest to infect every living thing, and Tzeentch's compulsion to dabble in the fates of mortals -- all are obsessions which the Lord of Excess can turn to his will with a whispered promise.While the Chaos Gods are all enemies in the Great Game, each bears a special enmity for one of their brothers in particular. Khorne most despises Slaanesh, whose earthly decadence and sensual lusts are at odds with the Blood God's martial pride and desire for indiscriminate slaughter; the Dark Prince finds Khorne's artless brutality dull, and takes a perverse delight in agitating him.Similarly, Tzeentch's desire to foster the corrupt ambitions and hopes of mortals is at odds with Nurgle's spreading of despair, and so a special rivalry exists between the two.
Great Knarloc - Great Knarloc: The Great Knarloc is a Kroot lifeform native to the jungles of the Kroot homeworld of Pech that is often domesticated for use as a beast of burden, assault weapon or combat mount by the Kroot warriors who serve the T'au Empire.The Great Knarloc is much larger than the more common standard Knarloc. Like the Krootox and the Kroot Hound, the Great Knarloc is a non-sentient, evolutionary dead-end of the broader Kroot species, but its sheer raw power and strength make it a powerful living weapon for the Kroot mercenaries who serve the T'au.The Knarloc makes an appearance in Dawn of War - Dark Crusade as the T'au's most powerful unit, requiring the ownership of a relic to field.
Great Knarloc - Anatomy and Physiology: Imperial studies by the Magos Biologis of the Adeptus Mechanicus have revealed that the jungle world of Pech is home to many creatures that are unusually close genetic relatives of the native Kroot.The Great Knarloc is an evolutionary strain of the Kroot species that developed into a large, solitary carnivorous predator. Its effectiveness in this ecological role would seem to be limited by its small eyes and the resulting poor vision, its small, almost vestigial forearms, its slow running speed and its unusually light skeletal structure, despite the beast's bulk.Yet the Great Knarloc has a few advantages, including excellent stamina for long-distance running, brief bursts of intense speed, aided by its well-developed Nymune Organ, a trait still retained by some of the Great Knarloc's smaller relatives, including the Kroot.While the Great Knarloc lacks any olfactory lobes, its long tendrils, concentrated at the back of its head, provide excellent sensory information to the beast's relatively small brain. Whilst its eyesight is poor, a Great Knarloc can effectively track prey by scent and sound, running it to ground over long distances.All of these adaptations indicate that the Great Knarloc is an animal which is a scavenger as well as a hunter. Whilst all carnivores are happy to eat dead flesh, they always prefer fresh meat.The Great Knarloc seems to be the same, hunting on occasion, but at other times proving quite happy to simply scavenge carcasses. It is also adept at foraging amongst jungle growth for fruit or using its long claws to seek insects or grubs. The Great Knarloc has evolved to hunt by one of two methods, either lurking in dense undergrowth to suddenly ambush passing prey or by using its sensory organs to detect prey at long distances and then run it to ground.Like the Krootox, the Great Knarloc is not predisposed to violence unless it is hungry, threatened or goaded. A Great Knarloc is a solitary creature, spending most of its time alone beneath the jungle canopy of Pech, foraging for foodstuffs and scavenging, exploding into extreme violence only should suitable prey be discovered.
Great Malagantine Purge - Great Malagantine Purge: The Great Malagantine Purge was an Imperial military operation carried out in the years 770-791.M38 by 5 Space Marine Chapters collectively termed the Manus Irae who unleashed the Emperor of Mankind's wrath upon the heretical Malagant Sector in the Segmentum Tempestus. The details of this operation have been kept secret from the Imperial Adepta, including the Inquisition, with the records of the campaign sealed deep within the Celarno Vaults on Terra. What is recorded in fragmentary Imperial records is that the Manus Irae were charged by the High Lords of Terra of that era to "spare none and set a bloody, fearful example to the realm of Mankind." The death toll unleashed by the Manus Irae during the course of this 21-year long campaign is believed to have been enormous and to have cost hundreds of billions of lives. Whole worlds were put to the sword by the Astartes or were wiped clean of all life by Exterminatus orders that unleashed a hideous, flesh-dissolving virus upon their inhabitants. In recognition of their successful participation in this campaign, the Fire Hawks Chapter was granted the Feudal World of Costeau XI as their demesne by the High Lords. However, due to their willingness to carry out such merciless exterminations of civilian populations whose guilt was not clear, the Fire Hawks would be shunned thereafter by many of their fellow Astartes Chapters.The Black Fragments of Cardinal Bloch the Reviled, one of the few remaining heretical sources which contain information concerning the Purge of Malagant, explains that the Manus Irae consisted of 5 Chapters, but listed only three by name, including the Fire Hawks, Silver Skulls and the Charnel Guard.
Great Rift - Great Rift: The Great Rift, also known as the Cicatrix Maledictum in High Gothic, is a tear in reality and a raging, galaxy-wide series of Warp Storms that has essentially rent the territory of the Imperium of Man in half after ca. 999.M41.Upon its opening the rift unleashed a tsunami of ferocious empyric energy and supernatural darkness that dimmed the psychic light of the Astronomican and is known to the Imperium as the Noctis Aeterna. This effect alone claimed countless worlds, fleets and armies.Though that shadow has receded as the Era Indomitus unfolds, still the rift roils and spreads, devouring entire species with its unnatural fury, and enhancing the number and powers of psykers and psychic phenomenon across the galaxy in an event known as the "Psychic Awakening" by some and as the "Age of Witches" by others.The rift is known by the other sentient cultures of the galaxy by various names, including the "Crimson Path" to the forces of Chaos, the "Mouth of Ruin," the "Warpscar," the "Dathedian" among the Aeldari, "Gork's Grin" to the Orks and a thousand other names besides weighted with dread and mythological symbolism.Even before the fall of Cadia, the Immaterium had been growing ever more turbulent in the final years of the 41st Millennium as originally counted by the Imperial Calendar. Travel and communication suffered increasing disturbances as the events of Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade unfolded in 999.M41.Eventually, the Materium could take no more, and a titanic Warp rift tore across the galaxy, spreading from the Eye of Terror in the galactic west to the Hadex Anomaly on the Eastern Fringe. To those on the Terran side of the rift, the so-called Imperium Sanctus, it is a tainted scar stretching across the sky. To those unfortunates on the far side, in the region now named the Imperium Nihilus, the "Dark Imperium," it is something much worse -- the very gates of Hell.With the coming of the Great Rift, the galaxy has been riven with Warp Storms of unprecedented fury. Some permanently circle the Great Rift, while others travel in an almost sentient fashion all over the galaxy, obeying no known rules of solar current or winds.Such storms cut worlds off from the light of the Emperor in the form of the Astronomican, and countless civilisations caught in their shadow have been terrorised, enslaved, or altogether destroyed by the Daemon legions, or otherwise suffer from mutation and corruption. There can be no doubt that a dark new era is dawning...
Great Rift - Gork's Grin: The vast majority of the Greenskin species knew nothing of the events leading up to the birth of the Great Rift, or its true cause in the struggle of the Imperium of Man against Chaos. All they saw was an almighty rent tearing across the vastness of space and consuming everything it touched.The Orks have only two gods: Gork, who is brutal but kunnin', and Mork, who is kunnin' but brutal. To the Greenskins, it was obvious that the Great Rift was in fact the leering gob of Gork, opening wide to swallow the stars.Admittedly, a prodigious number of Renegades, Daemons and other creatures of Chaos were issuing forth from this sprawling astronomical phenomenon, but as the smartest Orks of each tribe were quick to point out, Gork obviously did not want to swallow that sort of unnatural filth.Instead, he was vomiting up the Chaos worshippers so that the Orks could fight them and win. Equally, those Ork tribes whose worlds were consumed by the spreading of the rift bore their god no ill will. Clearly, Gork had decided that those tribes were "goin' a bit soft," and so had eaten their planets in order to propel them out into space and send them on the warpath.
Great Rift - Sources: Codex Adeptus Astartes - Deathwatch (8th Edition), pp. 22-23Codex Adeptus Astartes - Grey Knights (8th Edition), pp. 18-19Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 16-17Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus (8th Edition), pp. 12-13Codex: Astra Militarum (8th Edition), pp. 16-17Codex: Chaos Daemons (8th Edition), pp. 6-9, 26-27Codex: Chaos Knights (8th Edition), pp. 28-29Codex: Drukhari (8th Edition), pp. 42-43Codex: Genestealer Cults (8th Edition), pp. 34-35Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 20-21Codex Heretic Astartes - Death Guard (8th Edition), pp. 18-19Codex Heretic Astartes - Thousand Sons (8th Edition), pp. 24-25Codex: Imperial Knights (8th Edition), pp. 12-13Codex: Orks (8th Edition), pp. 7, 26-27Codex: Necrons (8th Edition), pp. 14-15Codex: Tyranids (8th Edition), pp. 40-41Imperium Nihilus - Vigilus Defiant (8th Edition), pg. 10Psychic Awakening: Phoenix Rising (8th Edition), pp. 8-9Warhammer 40,000: Core Book (9th Edition), pp. 23 (sidebar), 72-73Warhammer Community: The Indomitus Crusade & The Dark ImperiumWarhammer Community - New Warhammer 40,000: The Great RiftWarhammer Community - New Warhammer 40,000: The Galaxy MapWarhammer 40,000 Timeline - M41: The Gathering Storm
Great Scouring - Great Scouring: The Great Scouring, or simply The Scouring, was the Imperium of Man's great counter-offensive against the Traitor Legions and their allies in the service of Chaos who had occupied much of Imperial space during the Horus Heresy.It began immediately after the end of the Heresy following the death of the Warmaster Horus and the failure of his attempt to slay the Emperor of Mankind during the Siege of Terra in 014.M31 and lasted for an unknown period of time through the early 31st Millennium.It succeeded in driving the forces of Chaos from Imperial space into a permanent refuge in the Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror.The Great Scouring was followed by the period of Imperial history known as the "Time of Rebirth" which saw the Imperium stabilise under its new bureaucratic and military structure and even recover from some of the terrible losses and devastation of the Horus Heresy.
Great Unclean One - Great Unclean One: A Great Unclean One, also known as a "'Plague Lord," a "Fly Master," and a "Stench Lord," is a grotesquely corpulent Greater Daemon of the Plague God Nurgle, the Chaos God of disease, death and decay. These loathsome Daemons are the harbingers of the lord of rot and ruin, and amongst Grandfather Nurgle's greatest servants, bearers of his most sacred plagues and poxes.Their forms are squat and mountainous, covered in rotting flesh and open sores that weep foul rivulets of pus. Hot ropes of intestines dribble out of huge tears in their enormous, bloated and distended bellies. This horrific girth is supported by two impossibly small and atrophied-looking legs, and their inordinately large, bulbous heads are crowned by enormous stag-like antlers.To the mortal eye, a Greater Daemon of Nurgle is undoubtedly the foulest of all the daemonic servants of the Ruinous Powers. Each of these Great Unclean Ones is shaped in the fashion of Nurgle himself; flyblown, maggot-ridden innards spill into view through the tears and gashes in his swollen belly as he lumbers forwards.Clusters of pustules and weeping buboes erupt from his hide, birthing small swarms of giggling Nurglings. Noxious juices seep from dozens of infected sores, leaving a glistening trail of mucus in the Great Unclean One's wake. Few mortals have the stomach, let alone the will, to oppose such a being.Great Unclean Ones are Nurgle's lieutenants, the field generals of his Plague Legions. As monstrous and horrific as their appearance is, these Greater Daemons are possessed of a paternal affection at odds with this nightmarish form.Gregarious and sentimental, a Great Unclean One takes pride in the achievements of his followers and looks upon all the creatures in his legion as his "children," and his underlings look upon him as an embodiment of Grandfather Nurgle. Each Greater Daemon pays careful attention to all of his followers, and is noticeably proud of their appearance and endearing behaviour.A Great Unclean One takes delight in his minions' smallest boils, revelling in the variety and effulgence of their poxes and heaping praise upon them with vociferous proclamations. With a wave of his arms such a monstrosity sends forth his Tallybands, booming words of encouragement and gurgling guffaws across the battlefield.This boundless energy and drive is possessed by all Great Unclean Ones; constantly working to extend the process of rot and decay, they are heedless of their own comfort while parts of the galaxy still remain untouched by Nurgle's bounty.
Great Unclean One - Wargear: Plague FlailBileswordBileblade (Optional replacement for Plague Flail)Doomsday Bell (Optional replacement for Bilesword)Nurgling attendants' claws and teeth
Great Wolf - Great Wolf: The Great Wolf is the Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter's equivalent of a Chapter Master. Although he is one of the most powerful individuals in the Imperium, the Great Wolf considers himself only a steward of the Chapter rather than its true lord and master. The Space Wolves are utterly convinced that their Primarch Leman Russ will somehow fulfill his oath of returning to his Chapter, from death if necessary, to lead it in its final battle. Thus, the Great Wolf leads the Chapter only while Russ, the true leader of the Space Wolves, remains absent. The Great Wolf is chosen by acclamation from amongst the Chapter's Wolf Lords upon the death of his forebear, and he will remain the Great Wolf until his own death. The current Great Wolf is Logan Grimnar, who has lived for over 800 standard years, and has lead his Chapter for the better part of it.
Great Wolf - History: Epitomising the fury of the Fenrisian people, the Great Wolf is a figure of awe, not just upon the Death World of Fenris but across the breadth of the Imperium of Man. As the warrior-king of the Space Wolves, the Great Wolf is a wise and cunning leader of men. The valorous deeds and noble actions of these venerable warriors fills the vast archives of the Chapter's Librarium. In addition to the eleven Great Companies of the Chapter, there is also the Company of the Great Wolf. When the Great Wolf dies, the entire Chapter selects his successor from amongst the twelve Wolf Lords currently leading the Great Companies. This process is done by the casting of stones into the Dragon's Skull in the heart of The Aett. Each stone is enscribed with a name-rune; whichever Wolf Lord has the most runestones at the stroke of midnight is elected as the new Great Wolf. Though these votes are usually carried by a great margin in favour of one Wolf Lord or another, on the extremely rare occasions that two Wolf Lords accrue equal amount of stones, a duel is fought between the two prospective candidates upon the feasting table of the Great Hall, much in the manner of the duels between Leman Russ and the Emperor millennia ago. The victor, helping his opponent back to his feet with a smile, is roundly hailed as the new Great Wolf.The Company of the Great Wolf is effectively another company of the Chapter but it differs from the Great Companies in some important respects. This company is host to the Chapter's priesthood; its Wolf Priests, Iron Priests and Rune Priests. It is also where the Chapter's honoured Ancients, its Dreadnoughts, are kept in extended stasis to preserve their already prolonged lifespans. Unlike the emblems of the Great Companies, the Great Wolf's emblem is always the same. This is the Wolf That Stalks Between The Stars; the ancient badge of Leman Russ himself and the symbol proudly emblazoned on the Space Wolves' Chapter Banner.
Great Wolf - The Disappearance of Russ: The tradition of the Great Wolf hails to the bygone era immediately following the dark days of the Horus Heresy. After the Arch-Traitor Horus and his Traitor Legions had been defeated and the Space Wolves had successfully resisted being divided up into Successor Chapters, all of the Space Wolves and their Wolf Lords, including the Leman Russ himself, were gathered for a feast on Fenris. The holiday, known as the “Feast of the Emperor’s Ascension," commemorated the day the Emperor defeated Horus and "ascended" back into the Immaterium on the Golden Throne. On this occasion, Leman Russ quieted the great hall of his warriors to speak, but then froze in place as his eyes glazed over as if seeing a vision. The assembled Space Wolves looked on in horror as their Primarch fell to his knees and called for his Wolf Guard and closest retainers to attend him, all save the youngest, Bjorn the Fell-Handed. Giving his closest companions his instructions, Russ turned and left the Great Hall with his bodyguard in tow, leaving only Bjorn behind. The tale of his disappearance is retold every thousand years by the Venerable Dreadnought Bjorn the Fell-Handed, the oldest Astartes Dreadnought still in service in the entire Imperium. It is believed by some Astartes amongst the Space Wolves that Russ left Fenris and journeyed into the Eye of Terror to find the fabled Tree of Life, a font of uncorrupted Warp energy hidden somewhere within the Immaterium that bears fruit said to be able to heal the Emperor and restore him to full life.Every year after his disappearance, Russ' place was laid at the same feast. Every year his drinking horn was filled should he return. For seven long, painful years the Space Wolves waited patiently for their lost Wolf King to return to them, but when he failed to do so, Bjorn was elected the first Great Wolf and led the Chapter on their first Great Hunt to search for Russ. The Great Companies dispersed amongst the stars searching for their lord and Bjorn took his search into the Eye of Terror itself. There Bjorn was mortally wounded and entombed in a Dreadnought as the Space Wolves returned to Fenris.Over the various Great Hunts in the millennia since, many glorious victories have been won, each hunt beginning when Russ speaks through visions into the minds of the Chapter's Rune Priests, granting his sons his wisdom from time to time and sending them on new quests. None have succeeded in the final goal of recovering their gene-father, but Russ has assured his sons with his final words that he will return to them in time for the final battle of the Imperium against the Forces of Chaos, a period he called the "Wolftime." Bjorn's heroic career as Great Wolf ended during a raid against a fortress within the Eye of Terror in the late 31st Millennium, when he was so severely wounded and crippled that he was beyond the aid of the Chapter's Wolf Priests. To preserve Bjorn's life, his paralyzed body was transplanted within the Adamantium shell of a Dreadnought. Since that time, a new Great Wolf has been selected from amongst the Chapter's Wolf Lords.
Great Wolf - The Grand Annulus: When a new Wolf Lord chooses his badge from the ancient legends of Fenris, it is added to the Grand Annulus -- the great round, stone table where the 12 Wolf Lords gather at the centre of the Hall of the Great Wolf at the top of The Aett. It is a representation of the current organisation of the Space Wolves Chapter. Each outer segment is a separately carved stone slab which is as wide as a battle tank, taking a dozen of the strongest Space Wolves to lift just one. These carved stone slabs are inscribed with the sigil and runes of the Wolf Lord it represents. During great feasts in the hall, it is customary for the Wolf Lords and their Wolf Guard to be seated within the area of the hall thus indicated by their "name-stone." The central device, bearing the sign of the Wolf That Stalks Between the Stars, indicates the position of the current Great Wolf, rotated to show which of the Wolf Lords currently holds that honoured rank. As Wolf Lords die, their name-stones are removed from the Hall of the Great Wolf and taken to the Grove of Heroes, where they circle the oldest name-stone of all, that of Leman Russ himself. Here they lie for eternity in huge concentric rings, a reminder of the heroic leaders of the Space Wolves across the ages. Amongst these name-stones, there is a foreboding blank obsidian name-stone sent into the Grand Annulus that represents the lost 13th Great Company, known as the Wulfenkind. This name-stone has come to represent all of the Great Companies in the history of the Space Wolves who have been destroyed in battle, lost on campaign or recanted their oaths of fealty to the Emperor, and hence is the subject of many veiled comments and superstitions. Only a handful of outsiders have ever seen the stone or heard of its existence, and to suggest that a Great Company "walks the 13th Stone" is a grave accusation indeed.
Great Wolf - Current Great Wolf: Logan Grimnar - Logan Grimnar has been the Great Wolf of the Space Wolves for the better part of the 41st Millennium and he is over 800 standard years old, displaying the typical longevity of the Scions of Russ. Logan Grimnar remains one of the most highly respected and best-loved warriors in the entire galaxy. He is one of the most successful of all humanity's commanders, a true champion of the Imperium and an inspiration to man and Astartes alike.
Greater Daemon - Greater Daemon: Amongst the teeming Daemonic hordes of Chaos, a Greater Daemon is the most powerful. They are incarnations of their Chaos God, living embodiments of everything Chaos represents. They are the guardians of their god's realm and the executors of its will.Often the Greater Daemons lead incursions into the mortal world, and act as the heralds of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos to Champions of Chaos and Chaos Sorcerers. Yet, they still have their own ambitions and plans, each contributing a part to the greater consciousness that is the Dark Gods.In realspace, Greater Daemons manifest as huge, terrifying creatures capable of slaying scores of warriors and destroying even main battle tanks. They have strange, sorcerous powers drawn from the psychic energy of the Warp and are virtually impervious to mortal weapons.Summoning such a creature demands a high price, for it takes a tremendous amount of psychic energy for a Greater Daemon to achieve corporeality in the material universe. The price is always a sacrifice, the death or possession of a living being that acts as a gateway from the Immaterium into the material realm.The rampant energy of the Daemon passing through into the material universe inevitably destroys this host. As such, the sacrifice is not usually the one performing the summoning.
Greater Daemon - Great Unclean Ones: Great Unclean Ones are massive, bloated disease carriers, whose decaying flesh bulges with corpulent cancers who are the chief servants of Nurgle, the Lord of Plague. They usually carry a titanic rusted blade into battle.They generally act as the leaders and father figures for the other Daemons who serve the Lord of Decay, epitomizing Nurgle's joyful, paternal nature, but fly into terrifying rages if their "children" are threatened.Due to their bloated bodies, Great Unclean Ones are extremely hard to kill. They are so disgusting in form that many mortals cannot even bear to look upon them without feeling nauseous. It is from their bloated bodies that the Lesser Daemons called Nurglings are born.Great Unclean Ones can take enormous amounts of physical damage before being banished back to the Warp, making them perhaps the most difficult of the Greater Daemons to kill. Unlike the Greater Daemons of the other Chaos Gods, Great Unclean Ones are not just extensions of their patron god's will, but are actually less powerful avatars of Nurgle itself, having both the same physical form and personality as the Chaos God.Essentially, the Great Unclean Ones are Grandfather Nurgle and are often called such by Nurglite cultists who summon one of these entities. These Daemons share Nurgle's essentially paternal nature and display emotions like sentimentalism and gregariousness, especially towards their fellow Daemons, who are Nurgle's "children", and towards Nurgle's mortal servants like its Plague Marines and Chaos Cultists.
Greater Daemon - Keepers of Secrets: Keepers of Secrets, the hermaphroditic Greater Daemons of Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure, are huge and powerful creatures whose very presence is capable of bringing the bravest warrior to his knees in anguish and ecstasy.They typically have bovine faces, two female breasts and four arms: two which end with Human-like hands and two which end with large crab-like claws. However, a Keeper of Secrets' appearance ultimately depends on Slaanesh's mood when he created the Greater Daemon and can be more or less bestial in appearance as a result. A Keeper of Secrets is a very powerful foe in close combat.Keepers of Secrets love to use their sorcerous powers to invade the minds of their enemies with thought of pleasure. They love to play upon a mortals' innermost secret desires to stun them or lead them astray, perhaps even corrupting them to the service of Chaos. There are few mortals in the universe, particularly among the race of Mankind, who possess the mental self-discipline and fortitude to fend off the temptations of a Keeper of Secrets.A Keeper of Secrets is the emobodiment of sensation, both pleasure and pain, and they enjoy nothing less than providing both to mortals, especially noble men and women who believe themselves above the petty search for pleasure.For Slaanesh, all beings can be drawn to its service through the exploitation of their desire and it loves to see its Daemons feed off the nobler emotions like hope, valour and love and reshape them into their more selfish counterparts of despair, cowardice, self-regard and lust.
Greater Daemon - Lords of Change: Lords of Change are the Greater Daemons of Tzeentch, the Master of Change and Sorcery, and typically manifest as large, bird-like winged Daemons of vast intellect and mighty sorcerous power, which is combined with a surprisingly childlike personality to make a dangerous foe.Lords of Change are described as large winged bipedal creatures with snake-like necks and avian heads, although being Tzeentchian Daemons their form often alters drastically and without warning. The creatures are often multi-colored, especially their wings.Like their patron, Lords of Change are capable of limited foresight and so are very difficult to defeat, since they are always capable of planning several steps ahead of their enemies. Yet Tzeentch is a capricious god whose plans are so convoluted and secret that not even its own Daemonic servants truly understand the mind of the Lord of Change.As a result, these Greater Daemons can sometimes be defeated because their destruction represents just another cog in Tzeentch's eternal plotting.Lords of Change are the mightiest practitioners of psychic sorcery in the universe. They can destroy armoured vehicles and steal the souls of legions of troops with the merest whisper of a spell and love to appear to mortals as omniscient beings.Their greatest pleasure, like that of their patron, is to corrupt mortals to the service of Chaos and the Lord of Change by offering the knowledge and power of sorcery that can only be granted by Tzeentch. Many of the greatest Chaos Sorcerers among the forces of Chaos have been apprenticed at one time or another to a Lord of Change Daemon.Lords of Change enjoy weaving complex plots that are ultimately designed to rebound to the benefit of Tzeentch's labyrinthine schemes and they are the only known entities of Chaos who have sometimes actually aided the forces of the Emperor or the Asuryani outright in order to serve a more complex plot of their master.
Greater Daemon - Bloodthirsters: Bloodthirsters are the Greater Daemons of Khorne, the Blood God. Of all the Daemons, they bear the greatest resemblance to the stereotypical Judeo-Christian demons of ancient times, having a Human body, cloven hooves instead of feet, leathery bat-like wings and horned canine or humanoid heads.They wield a whip and a massive, double-bladed battleaxe simultaneously in battle. As the greatest Daemonic manifestation of the Blood God, the dreaded Bloodthirster is one of the most powerful warriors that can be found on the battlefields of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.Bloodthirsters' appetite for slaughter and bloodshed is beyond mortal comprehension. They are said to be masters of melee combat, and the only mortals capable of overpowering them one-on-one successfully in battle were the Human primarchs of ancient days.All Bloodthirsters are clad in the Brass Armour of Khorne and the mighty battle axes they wield were forged before the Skull Throne of Khorne by the heat of the god's eternal wrath. These terrible weapons then have the essence of another Greater Daemon bound into them.Bloodthirsters love to manifest in the material universe where the opportunities for the slaughter of mortals is so much more satisfying than killing the Daemons of the Warp who simply reform from the essence of their Chaos God not long after their "deaths."
Greater Good - Greater Good: The Greater Good, or Tau'va (literally the "Good Greater" in the T'au Lexicon), is the founding religio-philosophical principle of present T'au society which is utilitarian in the sense that it holds that all self-aware beings should strive to ensure the greatest good for the greatest number of other intelligent beings in the galaxy.The Tau'va is based on the T'au caste system and is designed to allow for the advancement of the entire T'au society towards a more successful, prosperous and peaceful existence in the future without the violent internecine conflict that marked earlier T'au history.The Greater Good was first introduced to the T'au during the Mont'au ("Death Age"), the long period of civil war fought between the different T'au cities and clans on their homeworld of T'au before the formation of the unified T'au Empire under the guidance of the Ethereal caste.It was during this time that the first Ethereals came to the other T'au and united the T'au tribes and castes with the philosophy of the Greater Good. This concept involves the pursuit of perfect societal harmony and combines the particular strengths of each T'au caste to counter the many weaknesses and divisions their culture once possessed.Within only a few Terran years after the Ethereals first revealed themselves, T'au culture was dominated by the pursuit of the Greater Good and the unified T'au Empire began its long march towards the development of advanced, starfaring technology.The philosophy of the Greater Good now guides the T'au in their attempts to conquer the rest of the galaxy and unite all of its intelligent species in pursuit of the Greater Good. This utilitarian philosophy forces the T'au to both desire to expand their empire for the Greater Good, and to absorb other intelligent races and their cultures into their own. However, this expansion could ultimately have disastrous effects upon their ability to actually keep their newborn interstellar empire united.The ideal of the Greater Good appeals to some of the other intelligent species of the galaxy, and certain units of the Astra Militarum stranded during the Damocles Gulf Crusade and other Imperial conflicts with the T'au are said to have surrendered themselves to the T'au. They now live in the T'au Empire, where such Humans are known as the Gue'vesa. These people are unsurprisingly considered Traitors and Heretics by the Imperium.During any conflict against other intelligent species, T'au Commanders often urge the enemy leaders to stop resisting the T'au Empire since they will be allowed to retain their own individual faiths and philosophical beliefs as long as they are compatible with the Greater Good.