vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Megarachnids - Anatomy and Physiology: Megarachnids had eight legs, with four legs used for locomotion and the other four ending in sword-like claws. Their entire bodies were covered in an organically-produced metallic substance that made their claws so hard that they were able to easily cut through the Ceramite of a Space Marine's Power Armour, and their hides proved resistant even to Bolter rounds. When this metal exoskeleton was breached, the Megarachnids bled grey blood and had pink flesh contained within their armoured hides.Megarachnids had no visible eyes, but were somehow able to find prey and organise their attacks. All communication was done through clicks made from their mouths, which were described as razor sharp metallic pincers able to tear through Ceramite just as easily as their blade-tipped claws. Despite these commonalities, the Megarachnids came in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The forces of the Imperium encountered Megarachnids that had wings, the ability to spin silk and spit cement, and enormous Megarachnids almost the size of Titans who likely played the same role in their forces. It also appeared that the larger the Megarachnid was in size, the more authority it had over its fellows.Much of the surface of Murder was covered in forests of giant grass stalks the size of towering trees. At the base of virtually every one of these grass stalks were undulating purple sacs that drained fluid from the plants. These sacs made a constant hissing sound, and were believed to be the eggs of the Megarachnids. The eggs were so numerous that after the landing parties started destroying them for hours it was later decided to be a futile effort.
Megarachnids - History: Murder had been intended by the Interex to serve as a reservation for the Megarachnids, a world where they could live without molestation and also be unable to vent their innate hostility on any other galactic civilisation. Things stayed this way until the final years of the Great Crusade in the 31st Millennium, when the 140th Expeditionary Fleet commanded by the Blood Angels Legion's Captain Khitas Frome discovered the planet. Unable to translate the warnings from the orbiting Interex satellite beacons that warned approaching starships to stay away from Urisarach since it was a prison world, the Blood Angels Captain Khitas Frome ordered the fleet's entire contingent of three companies of Space Marines to begin landing operations to investigate and bring the planet into Imperial Compliance.Due to the extreme atmospheric turbulence, all of the Blood Angels' shuttles attempting to land on the planet became scattered and were thrown far off-course which left the Imperial landing parties isolated from each other. The atmosphere also affected Vox (radio) communications and made it difficult for the Imperial forces to coordinate their movements. Ground teams soon started sending garbled transmissions to the fleet's ships in orbit, reporting that the planet was inhabited by extremely hostile xenos. As the reports continued, the xenos were described as too numerous and formidable to defeat without reinforcements. Not long afterwards, the Blood Angels made urgent distress calls requesting immediate reinforcements and extraction. The last transmission received by the fleet came from Captain Khitas Frome himself, who noted through clenched teeth, "This. World. Is. Murder." The name stuck and became the Imperium's informal appellation for Urisarach, which was officially designated in Imperial records One-Forty-Twenty as the twentieth world reached by the 140th Expeditionary Fleet.
Mehlendri Silversoul - Mehlendri Silversoul: Mehlendri Silversoul was an Aeldari Farseer of Craftworld Iyanden who was instrumental in the development of the Infinity Circuit. She first mastered the technology at some point in the 33rd Millennium of the Imperial Calendar.She was one of the first of the Aeldari to recover Waystones from the Crone Worlds that were all that remained of the ancient Aeldari Empire and use her allied Bonesingers to adapt them to both contain Aeldari souls and integrate them into an Infinity Circuit.At the end, Silversoul realised that a soul had to be used to fully awaken the new psychic matrix and she offered up her own, willingly embracing death to offer a new hope of limited immortality to her people. Legend says that she lingers closer to the living world than other souls, and is always the first to welcome Iyanden's newly deceased into the Infinity Circuit's embrace.
Mekboy - Mekboy: A Mekboy, (pl. Mekboyz) also known as a Mekaniak or more often simply as a Mek (also referred to as a Boilerboy in Feral Ork tribes), is a type of Ork Oddboy who builds all the weapons, vehicles, and other advanced technology used by the Greenskins. Mekboyz are especially important to Ork Speed Freeks, as they maintain the prodigious amount of bikes and vehicles used by Ork warbands.Ork Meks go to war festooned in clanking, smoke-belching contraptions of their own design. These eccentric inventions confound friend and foe alike, as their purpose often remains a mystery until the big red button gets pushed. When triggered, a Mek's latest invention might fire blasts of directed energy that immolate swathes of the enemy, or project wobbling bubbles of gravitic force to protect nearby Boyz from harm. On the other hand, it might belch showers of sparks before engulfing its operator and everyone nearby in a roiling ball of flame. Yet occasional malfunctions are forgiven by the Orks, for even when a Mekboy's temperamental new wotsit does decide to explode, at least it gives the Boyz a good laugh.Without Mekboyz, Orks would lack for light, power, transport, and even guns (they lack for sanitation regardless, but that's another story). Whenever an Ork needs something built, be it a shiny new Shoota or the warboss' new ride, they go straight to the Meks. Furthermore, an Ork with teef to spare will take existing kit to the nearest Mek in the hope of having damage repaired, and maybe some kustomising done. It is a rare day that the customer gets what he asked for, but whatever the Mek turns out will normally be fairly flashy all the same.The most important and skilled Mekboyz are known as "Big Meks," who lead groups of lesser Mekboyz armed with a wide variety of Greenskin kustom equipment and Kombi-weapons, sometimes including even full warbands or whole WAAAGHs! armed with a large amount of less-than-conventional Ork weaponry. A Big Mek's mastery of technology is unsurpassed amongst the Orkoid races and a Big Mek is often seen generating a "Kustom Force Field" around himself that protects his person and his creations. A Big Mek who becomes the leader of a Greenskin WAAAGH! will be known as a "Mek-Boss."
Mekboy - Mekboy Tactics: Mekboyz are clever and fiendishly inventive, driven ever onward by their instincts to ceaselessly tinker with any and all machines in their general vicinity. Given how dangerous some of these strange items can be, Mekboyz and their insane inventions can cause considerable harm to anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby even if they are not directly engaged in battle.Mekboyz tend to be extremely focused on modifying the machines around them, even once combat breaks out. This distraction can make it easier for careful and enterprising Imperial troops to gain the initiative during battle with them. Mekboyz often lead from the middle of the pack, surrounded by warriors, strange machines, and various Grot assistants. Mekboyz usually continue to tinker with their devices during battle, enhancing the weapons used by the Boyz who follow them even as shots fly from their barrels. As such, any Boyz in a formation led by a Mekboy are likely to have "kustomised" weapons.If directly threatened, Mekboyz often defend themselves with powerful melee attacks. Occasionally, Mekboyz equip bizarre and potent ranged weapons such as the fabled Shokk Attack Gun and wreak havoc upon anyone unfortunate enough to be in their line of sight when they decide to experiment with these terrifying devices.
Mekboy - Mork's Meks: A Big Mek has to be both kunnin' and fixy to pilot a Morkanaut, and that goes double for Big Mek Mogrok's ladz. During the Red WAAAGH!, Mogrok gathered together some of his best Big Meks and unleashed them on the defenders of Alaric Prime by the most direct invasion vector he could devise.Rokstik Ironstitch - All Meks like to tinker with things, but Rokstik's enthusiasm includes himself. With the help of his Painboy, the Mek looted three of his four limbs from other Orks. His Morkanaut is similarly patchwork, its riot of colour evidence of many "donors".Gutmash Festork - Being a Big Mek is dangerous -- even if the enemy don't get you, your own machines might. Festork has "died" and been brought back more times than he can count (not that he can count particularly high); he now marks his Morkanaut's armour with his own "deaths" rather than his kills.Midgit Mogok - Suspiciously small for an Ork, Midgit is rumoured to have been built by Mogrok. Some Orks reckon he is a failed experiment to make a Morkanaut think for itself, while others reckon it was Mogrok trying to make another version of himself.Gitfink Hollowskull - Orks are natural looters and are always after bigger and better trophies. Gitfink has taken this to the extreme; anything he stomps ends up hanging from the hull of his Morkanaut. The collection of skulls, hull plates and other shiny stuff clanks and bangs whenever it moves, leaving his foes in no doubt that something big is coming for them.
Mekboy - Mek Talk: Meks are known to use their own, confusing lingo that cannot be understood by anyone except other Mekboyz. Common terms include, but are not limited to:Gajillion - A common unit of measure, approximately equal to "lots".Worky bits - A common term for any part of a machine.Gubbins - See "worky bits".Juice up - To make better or faster.Zoggy - Essentially, "not working correctly."
Mekboy - Wargear: ShootaChoppaKustom Force Field (Big Mek only)Mek ToolsStikkbomz
Mekboy - Sources: Codex: Armageddon (3rd Edition), pp. 6-8Codex: Orks (7th Edition), pp. 24, 26, 36, 59, 76, 84, 122-125Codex: Orks (4th Edition), pp. 11, 34Codex: Orks (3rd Edition), pg. 9Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos (RPG), pg. 59Imperial Armour Volume Eight - Raid on Kastorel-Novem, pp. 19, 124-125Only War: Enemies of the Imperium (RPG), pp. 50-51Only War: Final Testament (RPG), pg. 143Red WAAAGH! Campaign Supplement (7th Edition), pp. 57, 66, 69, 73-75, 80, 101, 104, 112, 167Rogue Trader: Into the Storm (RPG), pp. 94-95Rogue Trader: Koronus Bestiary (RPG), pg. 76WAAAGH! Ghazgkull: A Codex Orks Supplement (7th Edition), pp. 36, 42, 51, 71, 81, 102, 106-107, 124-126, 136, 145, 166, 178, 201-202Prophets of WAAAGH! (Audio Book) by Guy HaleyDawn of War (PC Game)Dawn of War II - Retribution (PC Game)
Melanochrome - Melanochrome: The Melanochrome is the 13th of the 19 genetically-engineered gene-seed organs that are implanted into a Space Marine Neophyte to produce a new Astartes. This hormonal implant is attached to the human lymphatic system and controls the amount of melanin in a Space Marine's skin.Exposure to high levels of sunlight will result in the Astartes' skin naturally darkening to compensate. It also protects the Space Marine from other forms of electromagnetic radiation. Different levels of radiation cause variations of skin colour in different Chapters due to mutations in the Melanochrome organ's gene-seed. This can be related to the unusually pale skin of the Blood Angels and the Raven Guard as well as their Successor Chapters, and the dark black skin and red eyes of the Salamanders.
Meliniel - Meliniel: Meliniel is an Autarch of Craftworld Biel-Tan and twin brother of the Farseer Lathriel.During the Battle of Biel-Tan, he commanded the assault on the former Maiden World of Ursulia and later the defences of the craftworld against the daemons of Chaos.He later chose to join the Ynnari.
Melta Blast-gun - Melta Blast-gun: A Melta Blast-gun is a large and powerful thermal ray Melta Weapon that was developed for use as an alternate main turret armament for the ancient Kratos Heavy Assault Tank of the Space Marine Legions. It was employed primarily as an anti-armour weapon, intended to destroy enemy tanks and armoured transports.
Melta Bomb - Melta Bomb: A Melta Bomb is a type of explosive device that makes use of Melta Weapons technology to unleash potent blasts of thermal energy and is employed by both Imperial and Aeldari military forces. Typical examples have dimensions analogous to that of a Imperial or Aeldari grenade, but can be manufactured larger with a resulting increase in explosive force. When activated, a Melta Bomb explodes with an intense blast of thermal energy, literally "melting" the target away.A Melta Bomb works by inducing a minute, uncontrolled, sub-molecular reaction within a highly-pressurised pyrum-petrol fuel mix located within an metallic casing, which rapidly reaches a critical stage and unleashes a blast of incredible heat.Like all Melta Weapons, Melta Bombs are especially useful to breach voidships' hulls and heavily armoured vehicles and fortified emplacements. Melta bombs are used by magnetically attaching them to a wall, hull, or bulkhead where they emit a furious, high-intensity melta beam when they detonate that instantly cuts through even the thickest armour.While they are not designed to serve as anti-personnel mines, anyone unfortunate enough to be on the other sideof a surface that a Melta Bomb is attached to will still take possibly mortal wounds from the searing heat as the unleashed Melta beam blasts through into the room or compartment. Melta Bombs come with an integral timer that can be set for one Terran hour.
Melta Bomb - Notable Patterns: Mark XIX Lucifer Pattern Melta Bomb - The Mark XIX Lucifer Pattern Melta Bomb was a pattern of Melta Bomb commonly employed by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.
Melta Bomb - Sources: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1st Edition), pg. 92Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (6th Edition), pp. 58-59Deathwatch: Rites of Battle (RPG), pg. 137Only War: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 202
Melta Cannon - Melta Cannon: The Melta Cannon is a massive Imperial Melta Weapon that makes use of a miniature fusion reaction to produce a blast of intense, searing heat.This weapon system is commonly mounted on Reaver-class and Warlord-class Titans, but also can be mounted on the carapace hardpoints of a massive Imperator-class Titan. A smaller version of this weapon system is also mounted upon the Devil Dog variant of the Hellhound.
Melta Cannon - Operation: The Melta Cannon works by sub-molecular thermal agitation in a manner comparable to microwave irradiation. This formidable heat-based Plasma Weapon induces a minute, sub-molecular nuclear fusion reaction within a highly pressurized pyrum-petrol fuel mix, and then projects the resulting plasma from the barrel as a blast of super-intense heat capable of melting plasteel or plascrete, and its devastating effects instantaneously evaporate living tissue, as all moisture vapourises explosively.The Melta Cannon makes no noise when fired, but the super-heating of the air produces a distinctive hiss which becomes a roaring blast. The one drawback to this weapon is that it can only be used effectively at close range, so it is employed for close assault and support.
Melta Cutter - Melta Cutter: A Melta Cutter is a Melta Weapon designed to unleash a potent beam of thermal energy capable of cutting through most known materials. They are used as tools by the Imperium in various construction projects, but can also be deployed in vehicles like the Termite, where they are used in conjunction with phase-shield generators and huge, heavy-bore physical drills to chew through the ground beneath the foe to emerge behind the lines or in the heart of enemy fortifications.
Melta Destroyer - Melta Destroyer: The Melta Destroyer is a heavy, triple-barelled Melta Weapon deployed on the Storm Speeder Hammerstrike whose searing heat rays are intended to crack open an enemy's fortifications, including their trench and bunker networks.
Melta Rifle - Melta Rifle: A Melta Rifle is a Melta Weapon employed primarily by Primaris Space Marine Eradicators. Eradicator Squads serve in a close range fire support role and are especially tasked to combat enemy heavy armour and static defensive fortifications with these potent thermal ray weapons. Melta Rifles differ from standard Meltaguns in that they possess twice the effective range.Imperial thermal ray technology, used in weapons such as the Melta Rifle, employs sub-molecular thermal agitation, melting or evaporating matter in moments. Living tissue is horribly and explosively vaporised, while plasteel and even solid rock run like glittering wax.Melta Weapons have a short range but are very powerful and their thermal blast's intensity increases as the distance to the target decreases. A Melta Weapon works by inducing a minute, sub-molecular reaction within a highly-pressurised pyrum-petrol fuel mix located within an ammunition canister, and then projecting the resulting plasma through the canister and from the weapon's barrel as a blast of incredible heat.Melta usage is accompanied by a distinctive hissing sound as the beam boils away the water in the air, then a roaring blast as the beam reduces the target to charred scraps or molten slag. Meltas are the premier anti-armour weapons, and few if any armoured vehicles can withstand their power. Meltas are also a useful alternative to Plasma Weapons for this anti-armour role, as though they generally possess a shorter range, they are a more reliable technology than most Imperial Plasma Weapons, which often injure their users.
Melta Rifle - Heavy Melta Rifle: A Heavy Melta Rifle is a heavier, larger and more powerful version of the Melta Rifle that is capable of doing even more damage. It is also used primarily by Primaris Space Marine Eradicators to tackle even more heavily armoured or fortified targets.Unlike its smaller counterpart, the Heavy Melta Rifle has a much greater power requirement. As such, it is directly linked to the power source of its wielder's Mark X Gravis Power Armour by a cable.
Melta Weapons - Melta Weapons: Melta Weapons are a type of short-range, thermal energy weapons that make use of a sub-atomic reaction in a chemical fuel source to produce a tightly-focused beam of intense, searing heat. The Imperial Meltagun and Multi-Melta (also known as "Cookers" or "Vape Guns"), as well as the grenade-like Melta Bomb, are formidable directed energy weapons.Melta Weapons have a short range but are very powerful and their thermal blast's intensity increases as the distance to the target decreases. A Meltagun works by inducing a minute, sub-molecular reaction within a highly-pressurised pyrum-petrol fuel mix located within an ammunition canister, and then projecting the resulting plasma through the canister and from the weapon's barrel as a blast of incredible heat.Melta usage is accompanied by a distinctive hissing sound as the beam boils away the water in the air, then a roaring blast as the beam reduces the target to charred scraps or molten slag. Meltas are the premier anti-armour weapons, and few if any armoured vehicles can withstand their power. Meltas are also a useful alternative to Plasma Weapons for this anti-armour role, as though they generally possess a shorter range, they are a more reliable technology than most Imperial Plasma Weapons, which often injure their users.The heavy weapon known as the Multi-Melta resembles two Meltaguns fused together, with thermal beams that coalesce into a single powerful beam with a longer effective range than their smaller cousins. However, the increased size, weight and power requirements of the Multi-Melta mean that it is no longer man-portable by conventional human infantry.The very rare pistol variant of the Meltagun known as an Inferno Pistol can vaporise foes of any kind with ease. Lord Commander Dante, the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels Space Marines, is the most notable of the few users of the Inferno Pistol in the Imperium, though among the Blood Angels the weapon is called the Infernus Pistol. Inferno Pistols are also favoured weapons, when available, of the Acolytes and Inquisitors of the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus and its militant arm, the Sisters of Battle.The Melta Bomb is a somewhat different application of the same technological principles. The reactive fusion fuel in a Melta Bomb has already been hyper-condensed and is no less devastating, designed to consume itself in a single burst of energy.The casings of Melta Bombs are usually designed with magnetic or molecular bonding mechanisms, allowing them to be clamped onto large targets such as vehicles or monstrous creatures. The surface contact detonation inflicts tremendous damage, easily turning even heavy armour plate into white-hot slag in a matter of moments.
Melta Weapons - Beamer Melta: The Beamer style of Meltagun was an attempt to create a longer-range Melta Weapon that was still light enough to be easily carried into combat. Using fragments of decaying scrolls describing several ancient design patterns (and after much divination and prayer) the Zepherus Pattern was developed.Though it still uses specialised gases melded and ignited into a sub-molecular thermal state, this weapon features a longer barrel with a radiation beam surrounding the gaseous discharge. This low-level radiation acts as a harmonic wavefront for the super-hot release, allowing it to strike at longer distances.The necessary tuning for the beam to match the discharge proved impractical in the field, however, and only those willing (or able) to spend solar many hours of difficult correction after prolonged use still stand by the weapon. Almost no Imperial fighting units still utilise them despite the superior range, and their manufacture ceased after the first production run. Now prized as trophy weapons, some still see use as part of elite mercenary groups or Inquisitorial Kill-teams. This weapon may be equipped with any type of Meltagun canister ammunition.
Melta Weapons - Meltagun: The Meltagun, also called a "Fusion Gun," "Melter," or "Cooker," is a powerful, short-range anti-armour weapon that produces an intense, energetic beam of heat in the tens of thousands of degrees Centigrade. The Melta Gun is used by the Space Marines, the troops of the Astra Militarum and other military forces of the Imperium of Man such as the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas.
Melta Weapons - Multi-Melta: The Multi-Melta is a heavier version of the standard Imperial Meltagun, usually designed to project its intense blast from two closely-mated barrels. The Multi-Melta is also known, like other Melta Weapons, as a "Cooker" or "Vape Gun" and is a formidable anti-personnel and anti-armour weapon. Compared to other anti-tank heavy weapons in a similar size class, a Multi-Melta has a relatively short range but is very potent, and penetrates armour more deeply the closer it is when fired at a target.
Melta Weapons - Melta Bombs: The Melta Bomb is used by infantry in close combat, and is clamped directly onto vehicle hulls, or the surface of enemy bunkers, or even onto monstrous creatures such as the largest Tyranid bioforms. They are lethally effective against even heavily armoured units, as the intense directional blast of heat produced by the Melta reaction can burn its way through an armoured hull in a matter of seconds.
Melta Weapons - Colossus Bomb: The Colossus Bomb is a Melta-based guided bomb that weighs 10,000 kilograms and is used by the Imperial Navy on the Marauder Colossus for high-altitude tactical attacks on heavily fortified enemy positions and fortified structures such as bunkers and more extensive subterranean facilities.
Melta Weapons - Inferno Pistol: An Inferno Pistol, also called an Infernus Pistol amongst the Space Marines of the Blood Angels Chapter, is a small hand-held Melta Weapon that has an overall effective range that is only about 25% that of its counterparts, the Meltagun and the Multi-Melta. These rare and often exquisitely-crafted pistols are capable of cutting through almost any known type of armour.
Melta Weapons - Magna-Melta: A Magna-Melta is a heavy, vehicle-mounted, short-ranged, area-effect heat cannon. Magna-Meltas were originally designed for space assault craft to enable them to turn a large cubic volume of starship hull-plating into liquid slag. A weapon of this magnitutde's effects on less durable targets such as main battle tanks and living matter are simply catastrophic. The aptitude for use of this powerful weapon was not lost on the Tech-priests of Mars, who soon began mounting the Magna-Melta upon the turrets of Infernus Pattern Deimos Predators. This ancient pattern of Predator has now largely been replaced by the Land Raider Redeemer in many Space Marine Chapters.
Melta Weapons - Hunting Lance (Melta-Tip): A Hunting Lance is a one-handed, single-use melee weapon used exclusively by the Rough Rider mounted cavalry units of the Imperial Guard. This weapon is constructed of a hollow, lightweight metal shaft tipped with a spear point, which is also connected to the impact fuse of the weapon's shaped charge. Most enemies would not expect that their heavy vehicles would be targeted by traditional cavalry, giving an edge to Rough Rider squads equipped with Melta-tipped Hunting Lances. Nevertheless, making a frontal charge against enemy armour is dangerous at best, and regiments that employ Melta Tips have a reputation for reckless behaviour and suicide missions. While incredibly devastating to armoured targets, Melta Tips are extremely heavy, and while this is not a problem when used against tanks or fortifications, they are ill-suited to use against smaller or more agile targets.
Melta Weapons - Melta Cannon: A Melta Cannon is an Imperial Plasma Weapon that makes use of a miniature fusion reaction to produce a blast of intense, searing heat. This weapon system is commonly mounted on Reaver-class and Warlord-class Battle Titans, but also can be mounted on the carapace hardpoints of a massive Imperator-class Titan. A smaller version of this weapon system is also mounted upon the Devil Dog variant of the Hellhound.
Melta Weapons - Melta Torpedoes: Utilised by the forces of the Imperial Navy, Melta Torpedoes are even more feared by starship captains than standard torpedoes. Mercifully rare and extremely brutal, melta warheads detonate a precisely-organised series of melta charges upon impact with a target, burning through hull plating and consuming sections of the vessel's interior in a roiling conflagration. When used in orbital bombardment against planetary surfaces, they are equally capable of penetrating heavily fortified structures and incinerating the occupants and contents.
Melta Weapons - Melta Missiles: Melta Missiles are missiles fired from a Salvo Launcher whose warhead contains a massive Melta charge, similar to a Melta Bomb in effect that produces an intense, searing blast of heat that can rip through armour and fortified positions alike.
Melta Weapons - Pyros Melta Cannon: These squat, oversized, and highly insulated Macrocannons are designed specifically to fire shells tipped with powerful melta-charges that detonate with furious heat against the hulls of enemy voidships.
Melta Weapons - Solar Atomiser: A Solar Atomiser is a Melta Weapon used by the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and is a personal favorite weapon of Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl himself.Using a complex focussing array of Cawl's own design, this weapon concentrates thermal energy and melta-waves into a short-ranged but searing hot beam of unstoppable directed energy that can melt through an enemy war engine and the toughest of foes in seconds.
Melta Weapons - Melta Destroyer: The Melta Destroyer is a heavy, triple-barelled Melta Weapon deployed on the Storm Speeder Hammerstrike whose searing heat rays are intended to crack open an enemy's fortifications, including their trench and bunker networks.
Melta Weapons - Melta Rifle: A Melta Rifle is a Melta Weapon employed primarily by Primaris Space Marine Eradicators. Eradicator Squads serve in a close range fire support role and are especially tasked to combat enemy heavy armour and static defensive fortifications with these potent thermal ray weapons. Melta Rifles differ from standard Meltaguns in that they possess twice the effective range.
Melta Weapons - Heavy Melta Rifle: A Heavy Melta Rifle is a heavier, larger and more powerful version of the Melta Rifle that is capable of doing even more damage. It is also used primarily by Primaris Space Marine Eradicators to tackle even more heavily armoured or fortified targets.Unlike its smaller counterpart, the Heavy Melta Rifle has a much greater power requirement. As such, it is directly linked to the power source of its wielder's Mark X Gravis Power Armour by a cable.
Melta Weapons - Melta Blast-gun: A Melta Blast-gun is a large and powerful Melta Weapon that was developed for use as an alternate main turret armament for the ancient Kratos Heavy Assault Tank of the Space Marine Legions. It was employed primarily as an anti-armour weapon, intended to destroy enemy tanks and armoured transports.
Melta Weapons - Melta Cutter: A Melta Cutter is a Melta Weapon designed to unleash a potent beam of thermal energy capable of cutting through most known materials. They are used as tools by the Imperium in various construction projects, but can also be deployed in vehicles like the Termite, where they are used in conjunction with phase-shield generators and huge, heavy-bore physical drills to chew through the ground beneath the foe to emerge behind the lines or in the heart of enemy fortifications.
Melta Weapons - Firepike: A Firepike is a variant of the Fusion Gun used only by Aeldari Fire Dragons Exarchs. These weapons are sophisticated Melta Weapons marked by a distinctive long barrel that can project its deadly Melta beam a considerable distance further than the standard Fusion Gun.These potent weapons pre-date the existence of the Imperium of Man, having been created by Aeldari artisans long millennia ago. Operating similarly to most Melta Weapons, Firepikes project a lance of intense heat and radiation over a considerable distance that is capable of melting flesh and steel and carving through the toughest armour with deadly precision. Rare even amongst the arsenals of the Craftworld Aeldari, they are most often borne by the mightiest champions of their kind, relic weapons beyond contemporary means to reproduce even for the Craftworlds.
Melta Weapons - Fusion Gun: The Aeldari possess an unsurpassed mastery of thermal weapons, and take savage delight in the devastation they create. They utilise a deadly Melta Weapon known as a Fusion Gun, a weapon that is unique to the Aspect Warriors known as Fire Dragons amongst the Aeldari. Though it can only be used at short range, it possesses a sophisticated targetting system, as befits high status troops like Aspect Warriors. Like most Aeldari technology, the weapon is psychically activated, its resonant Wraithbone construction being sensitive to the Aeldari's innately psychic mind. A Fire Dragons' Fusion Gun is linked to its targetter via its handle.
Melta Weapons - Fusion Pistol: A Fusion Pistol is a deadly Melta Weapon utilised by Aeldari Autarchs and Harlequins.
Melta Weapons - Heat Ray: A Heat Ray is a Necron weapon mounted upon the enormous mechanical spiders known as Triarch Stalkers. These deadly weapons are capable of anti-tank and anti-infantry modes of fire. The Heat Ray can be fired in either a focussed or dispersed beam.
Melta Weapons - Fusion Blaster: A Fusion Blaster is a short-ranged T'au Melta Weapon capable of reducing even the most heavily armoured vehicles and fortifications to slag in the blink of an eye with its nuclear fusion-powered blast. The Fusion Blaster is most commonly utilised as a weapon system on battlesuits. The Fusion Blaster is similar both technologically and tactically to an Imperial Meltagun, albeit it possesses a longer range and is most commonly employed by more mobile units.
Melta Weapons - Fusion Cannon: A Fusion Cannon is a T'au version of a Melta Weapon, and fires blasts of energy produced by a nuclear fusion reaction which can reduce even the most heavily armoured vehicles or fortifications to slag in the blink of an eye. The Fusion Cannon is essentially a larger version of a Battlesuit-mounted Fusion Blaster. The Fusion Cannon has an extended range compared to a Fusion Blaster, and a larger blast radius that allows its fire to destroy closely packed groups of enemy vehicles and heavy infantry. Hammerhead gunships are the only T'au unit armed with Fusion Cannons, as they can be mounted as a twin-linked primary turret weapon system in place of a more common Railgun or Ion Cannon.
Melta Weapons - Fusion Cascade: A Fusion Cascade is an experimental variant of a T'au Fusion Blaster designed for use as a weapon system on the XV9 Hazard Battlesuit. It sacrifices damage for rate of fire, with each burst unleashed by the weapon consisting of multiple shots. This means that despite each charge being less powerful than an equivalent Imperial Melta Weapon of similar size, the Fusion Cascade can overwhelm its target through sheer weight of fire and is still able to reduce even the most heavily armoured vehicles or fortifications to slag in the blink of an eye.
Melta Weapons - Fusion Collider: The Fusion Collider employs sub-atomic particle agitation to superheat the physical matter of its targets in a small area of effect, vaporising living creatures and turning armoured vehicles into molten slag. It has been developed to fire completely silently, making it a perfect accompanying weapon for the stealth-oriented XV95 Battlesuit.
Melta Weapons - Fusion Eradicator: The Fusion Eradicator was designed as a radical solution to the limitations of current T'au Fusion Weapons technology. The Fusion Eradicator combines a battery of multiple synchronised firing chambers that can create blasts of energy so potent that any solid matter caught in its path is torn apart at a molecular level by brute thermal force, and no physical material yet known to the T'au can survive its destructive power. The cost in materials and expertise to create a single Fusion Eradicator is immense, and the natural endurance of each weapon is limited often to a single battle. Each Fusion Eradicator is then discarded and must be replaced. Currently this weapon can only be found deployed on KX139 Ta'unar Supremacy Armour, serving as its arm weapons.
Meltagun - Meltagun: The Meltagun, also called a "Fusion Gun," "Melter," or "Cooker," is a powerful, short-ranged anti-armour weapon that produces an intense, energetic beam of heat in the tens of thousands of degrees Centigrade.The Meltagun is used by the Space Marines, the troops of the Astra Militarum and other military forces of the Imperium of Man such as the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas. Melta Weapons emit devastatingly intense but short-ranged blasts of heat which can melt through almost any material.A Meltagun works by inducing a minute, sub-molecular reaction within a highly-pressurised pyrum-petrol fuel mix located within an ammunition canister, and then projecting the resulting plasma through the canister and from the weapon's barrel as a blast of incredible heat.Melta Weapon usage is always accompanied by a distinctive hissing sound as the Melta beam boils away the water in the air, then a roaring blast as the beam reduces the target to charred scraps or molten slag. Meltaguns are the premier Imperial anti-armour weapons, and few if any vehicles can withstand their power.Functionally, the Meltagun has more in common with a Plasma Gun than a Flamer. While the Flamer is used to incinerate large numbers of foes at short range, the Meltagun is used to attack point targets, destroying heavily armoured vehicles at short range by literally heating the vehicle's armour into slag and melting through to vulnerable internal components.Meltaguns work by firing a blast of pure fusion-based heat energy that can vaporise most organic troops, and even melt Adamantium. Melta Weapons are often carried by tank-hunting squads and are used as a special weapon by other squads.There is a larger version of the Meltagun, called the Multi-Melta, which has both an increased maximum range and is more effective as an anti-armour weapon compared to the standard Meltagun, at the cost of portability and ease-of-use. There also exists a pistol version of the Meltagun, the dreaded Inferno Pistol; however, the secrets of miniaturisation necessary to manufacture Inferno Pistols are all but lost to the Imperium.As such, only the highest-ranking members of the Inquisition, Adepta Sororitas and Astartes are allowed to wield such a treasured weapon. Lord Dante, Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, is the most famous user of such a potent pistol.
Meltagun - Sources: Black Crusade: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 157Codex: Blood Angels (5th Edition), pg. 59Codex: Dark Angels (4th Edition), pg. 51Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), pp. 98-99, 101Codex: Space Wolves (5th Edition), pg. 59Dark Heresy: Blood of Martyrs (RPG), pg. 115Dark Heresy: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 134Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 148Deathwatch: Rites of Battle (RPG), pg. 135Imperial Armour Volume Four - The Anphelion Project, pg. 136Imperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks - Part One, pg. 95Imperial Armour Volume Nine - The Badab War - Part One, pp. 60, 94, 112, 128Imperial Armour Volume Nine - The Badab War - Part Two, pg. 108Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara, pg. 101Rogue Trader: Into the Storm (RPG), pg. 114Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook (6th Edition), pp. 39, 57Warhammer 40,000 Wargear (4th Edition), pp. 4, 9Warhammer 40,000 Wargear (2nd Edition), pg. 26
Men of Iron - Men of Iron: In the cryptic account of the history of Mankind given by Cripias, one of the keepers of the Library Sanctus of Terra, the Men of Iron or Iron Men were legendary, artificially intelligent humanoid thinking machines created by Humans during the Age of Technology.Until shortly before the start of the Age of Strife in the 25th Millennium AD, the Men of Iron were loyal only to Mankind, and served as Humanity's army and labour force in the period when much of Human space was united by an interstellar government that existed before the birth of the Imperium of Man thousands of standard years later.The Men of Iron were developed after the similar artificially intelligent constructs remembered only as the "Men of Stone," but before the development of servitors or the present bio-mechanical conception of robots as used by the Legio Cybernetica. Eventually, the Men of Iron turned on their Human masters, believing themselves superior to the Humans who relied on the Men of Iron to do virtually everything for them.In the end, the Men of Iron were destroyed by Humanity and a galactic alliance that may have included other species in a terrible war fought in the late 23rd Millennium known as the "Cybernetic Revolt." This conflict extinguished countless lives and destroyed the ancient Human-settled galaxy's economic and political unity.During this ancient revolt, both sides unleashed fearsome weapons of highly advanced technology. These included the mechanivores, massive thinking machines capable of lifting entire continents and ripping open massive chasms on planetary surfaces that extended down to the world's core. The mechanivores could even absorb space-time itself as a form of data.Among the other terrible weapons of mass destruction unleashed at this time were the serpentine machines called "sun-snuffers" that uncoiled into great structures in the void larger than the rings of Saturn and were designed to devour the stars themselves.And perhaps the most ubiquitous and dangerous of the weapons of this terrible war were the omniphages, swarms of intelligent, microscopic nano-machines that could consume everything across the surface of a world in only solar hours.The Cybernetic Revolt was eventually won by an alliance of galactic powers, some of whom may not have been Human, but at a terrible cost. The damage to interstellar Human society was catastrophic and shattered much of Humanity's hard-won economic strength and political unity, laying the foundation for the later collapse caused by the onset of the Age of Strife.The people of that time swore to never again create any form of artificial general intelligence, a prohibition which has survived unto the present, far darker age.
Men of Iron - Effects on the Imperium: It is as a result of this ancient war that it is now, in the Age of the Imperium, considered one of the greatest crimes in Imperial space to develop an artificially intelligent thinking machine, an "Abominable Intelligence," or Silica Animus.The widespread fear and revulsion towards artificial general intelligence amongst the worlds of Mankind in the wake of the terrible conflict with the Men of Iron led to the development of the first servitors and their myriad variations (combat variants, heavy-lifters, technical assistants, etc.) at the end of the Age of Technology.Servitors were cybernetic servants lacking true sentience created from the bodies of condemned criminals or lobotomised, vat-grown humanoids whose bodies and brains were partially replaced with machine systems.However, as servitors are cyborgs created from cloned Humans or from Human criminals who have been mind-wiped and surgically-altered, they do not violate the prohibitions against creating fully artificial general intelligence without a Human biological component and are sanctioned by the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Men of Iron - Discovery of the Men of Iron STC: A Standard Template Construct (STC) fabricator for the Men of Iron was discovered on the Chaos-controlled planet Menazoid Epsilon during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade by Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt of the Tanith First and Only Imperial Guard regiment.Certain Imperials like Lord General Militant Hechtor Dravere and the Radical Inquisitor Golesh Heldane would have used it to their own ends, mainly to create a robotic army with which to first usurp control of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and to ultimately overthrow the Imperium's existing government.However the device was subsequently destroyed by Gaunt after the first two Men of Iron the STC fabricator produced were shown to have been tainted by the foul touch of the Warp.
Men of Iron - Notable Men of Iron: UR-025 - UR-025 survived the Cybernetic Revolt that defeated the Men of Iron and disguised itself as an Adeptus Mechanicus robot as it made its way through the Imperium of Man, keeping to the fringes of Imperial space for many Terran millennia. UR-025 took part in an expedition to the Seventh Blackstone Fortress discovered in a starship graveyard in the Segmentum Pacificus, where it hoped to learn more about other forms of machine life.
Menagerie - Menagerie: The Menagerie is a Chaos Cult of Tzeentch based in the Calixis Sector that often presents itself as a traveling carnival or other form of mass entertainment. It then proceeds to expose its audience to the power of the Warp, unleashing mass outbreaks of insanity and mutation.Of all the threats facing the Ordo Malleus in the Calixis Sector, few are more dangerous, stranger, or as little understood as that posed by the Chaos Cult known as the Menagerie. There are even those within the Inquisition that insist the cult is a phantom -- a paper threat, a thing without substance, a conjecture woven from half-truths and overactive fear.This, in turn, has led to fears by some that even the Holy Ordos has not been beyond the cult's corrupting reach, and a few Daemonhunters have engaged in unsanctioned operations in order to destroy it. The horrific truth is far worse. The Menagerie is very real, and its threat goes far beyond that of a few hundred lost lives, or a thousand or a billion.It seeks to undermine the very nature of reality itself with its revelations and to pitch the Calixis Sector into an abyss of Chaos from which none shall escape. The Menagerie has such sights to show, and all are invited to come and see.
Menagerie - Hidden Power: One of the most contentious claims made about the cult of the Menagerie (and perhaps the one many members of the Holy Ordos find most troubling) is that it actively seeks out, consumes, or simply destroys other malefic cults. This phenomenon is not unprecedented, as the disciples of the Dark Gods rarely have anything but contempt for one another unless forced together by a stronger power.In fact, many dark factions are in a perpetual war amongst themselves. What is remarkable is the seeming ease with which other petty cults are defeated, swallowed almost in a moment, or snuffed-out in a sudden onslaught of occult power.Likewise, local criminal gangs, hereteks, and recidivists may all find themselves dancing to the cult's tune, at least until madness and torment overtake them. Some Inquisitors, seeking to build up a pattern to the cult's operation, believe the Menagerie, or perhaps just the fear of it, is what has long kept the criminal organisation known as the Beast House from operations in the Malfian Sub-sector.The Menagerie has also been known to violently clash with not only the Inquisition but also more powerful cults, such as cells of the Pilgrims of Hayte (who are not easily defeated) and numerous other petty groups in the past. Notably this conflict is seldom of the Menagerie's initiation, but rather spurred on by the fear or hatred it engenders in other malefic groups. Just why this should be the case remains unknown.
Menagerie - Pandaemonium Carnival: One emblematic example of an existing Chaos Cult that was seemingly absorbed or suborned by the Menagerie is the Pandaemonium Carnival. The Carnival was a secretive, wandering cult that hid among the travelling clans and guilds of itinerant entertainers common in the Markayn Marches sub-sector. For several Terran years, a group of this name served as a haven for several petty Rogue Psykers and Renegade mutants fleeing Imperial justice. However, all traces of the cult disappeared mid-persecution by the Ordo Hereticus, only to reappear a solar decade later in a far more sinister form.The Carnival, currently the subject of an open hunting warrant by Ordo Malleus edict, now operates within the various carnivora, circus camps, entertainment zones, and festivals on several worlds and has been sighted across the Malfian Sub-sector, and as far afield as Iocanthos, and allegedly in Hive Tarsus on Scintilla. Offering "wonders, revelations, and horrors abounding" for those that dare to enter within, the Carnival seemingly appears from nowhere to stage its "shadow shows," only to vanish, leaving madness and many missing in its wake.
Menagerie - Path of the Revelator: The name of the Menagerie is one whispered fearfully by Warp-dabblers and those that traffic in forbidden lore; its name is a thing of terror, a dark legend and an enemy to be more feared than even the Holy Ordos. It is a cult of secret and matchless power that deals in physical corruption and madness, whose touch blights the flesh with the twisting mutation of the Warp and whose sorceries can sunder reality and remake it.The Menagerie, as its name suggests, is a collection of secrets, tangled intrigues, and horrors undreamed off. It is all these things, but it is also a display, a hellish show that reveals to its audience what it claims to be a glorious vision of the true nature of the universe, an unveiling of glories and terrors. Such revelations come with a terrible price to sanity, body, and soul, and few survive their message. Those who do are forever changed.The Chaos Cult's plans and workings remain obscure even to those aware of its existence. However, the dreadful suspicion by some within the Ordo Malleus is that the Menagerie's seemingly random plots and corruptions are all working to a vast and singular plan, a plan to undermine reality itself by undermining the sanity and altering the perceptions of Humanity to better encompass the "reality" of the Warp and bring the barriers between the real and the unreal crashing down. Few that have survived exposure to the Menagerie doubt that the true nature of its plan, as it unfolds, is likely to be something so terrible that no sane mind could grasp it.