Land Raider - History: The history of the Land Raider is a long and complicated tale. The original designs for both the armour used in the Land Raider and the anti-gravitic technology used by the Land Speeder were discovered during an expedition deep into the Librarius Omnis on Mars by technoarcheologist Arkhan Land, after whom the vehicles were named.The main aim of Land's expedition into the labyrinth catacombs sited deep beneath the surface of the Red Planet was to find functioning STC databases. In this he failed, but two discoveries were made which revolutionised machine lore for millennia to come. The first was a near-complete dataslab imprint of STC information describing a heavily armoured assault tank.The second was the unearthing of data on rare anti-gravitic plates and theories on their use, which eventually led to the construction of the first Land's Speeder. Arkhan Land would later vanish during a subsequent expedition, some claiming he was the victim of a psychic entity that destroyed his entire party. What secrets of the Dark Age of Technology were lost with him remains a mystery.The Land Raider first entered service during the Great Crusade at the dawning of the Age of the Imperium. The vehicle's formidable combination of weaponry and armour, and its ability to carry the shock troops of the Great Crusade through the most perilous environments were the deciding factors in countless struggles to liberate Mankind from the tyranny of the Age of Strife.With this awesome war machine at their command, Imperial forces conquered world after world until the Emperor's Imperium of Man bestrode the galaxy. Such was the demand for the Land Raider during the Great Crusade that an entire Forge World was founded just to manufacture them. Anvilus IX supplied thousands upon thousands of the vehicles to Mankind's forces, but the Great Crusade ended in disaster as the Warmaster Horus rebelled against the Emperor and bloody civil war engulfed the Imperium.At the time of the Great Betrayal, the Warmaster and his allies plotted against Anvilus IX to ensure it quickly fell to the rogue Dark Mechanicus Tech-Priests bound to his service. This had the dual effect of at once denying the Loyalists access to these important weapons, while ensuring their continued supply to the Traitors. With Horus in control of this vitally important Forge World, several nearby worlds seceded from the Imperium rather than fight against the Traitors, and overnight the Imperium's supply of Land Raiders was severely curtailed.It was a terrible blow, for the Land Raider was one of the few commonly available vehicles which could, when deployed with skill and in sufficient numbers, threaten enemy Titans. Though ultimately the Warmaster's grip on Anvilus IX would be broken, during this time it produced large numbers of Land Raiders for the Traitor Legions, and when they were eventually forced from the Forge World, the worlds of the system were left shattered in their wake, the enemy taking the knowledge of the secret arts of the Land Raider's construction with them.With Traitor forces advancing on Terra itself and Loyalist forces facing total defeat, the Emperor decreed that all remaining Land Raiders still in loyal service should be recalled and that the Legiones Astartes, His favoured Space Marines, who stood at the forefront of Terra's defence, be given exclusive use of these powerful war machines. The Imperium was saved during the Siege of Terra when the Emperor defeated Horus in single combat but, terribly wounded, He was interred within the Golden Throne, never to speak again.After His ascension, none dared to change the Emperor's decree and the Land Raider has therefore remained a vehicle almost exclusive to the Space Marine Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes for the past 10,000 standard years. The few exceptions are those allocated to Inquisitors, the Adeptus Custodes, and especially influential Rogue Traders who utilise them in their private armies, both groups vested with unusual freedom in this and many other regards.