vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Overlord-class Battlecruiser - Notable Overlord-class Battlecruisers: Cypra Probatii - The Cypra Probatii was completed partway through the Gothic War and arrived in the Gothic Sector only after a long and dangerous Warp journey from Cypra Mundi. It later had its point-defense turret array upgraded.Righteous Power - The Righteous Power fought in the Taros Campaign. It scored the killing blow on the Or'es El'leath (Custodian)-class Battleship A'Rho.Flame of Purity - The Flame of Purity fought in the Gothic War alongside the Sword of Retribution, protecting strategic star systems from the Chaos raiders that plagued the Gothic Sector. When the Warmaster of Chaos Abaddon faced a massive fleet of Imperial Navy, Space Marine, and Craftworld Aeldari starships in the Schindlegeist System, he attempted to use the Warp Cannons of the captured Blackstone I, Blackstone IV, and Blackstone VI Blackstone Fortresses to destroy his foes. Lord Admiral Cornelius von Ravensburg ordered all available ships to intercept the captured Blackstone Fortresses. The Flame of Purity was the only vessel close enough to attack, but the battlecruiser's weapons proved to have little effect. As they prepared to fire, Captain Abridal ordered all power to the void shields and rammed the Flame of Purity into the energy waves linking the Blackstone Fortresses as they prepared to fire on the fleet. The Imperial warship was destroyed almost instantly, but the detonation expended the power of the Warp Cannons, saving the rest of the allied fleet from instant annhilation.Sword of Retribution - Fought in the Gothic War alongside the Flame of Purity protecting important star systems from Chaos raiders.Niobe - The Niobe fought in the Damocles Crusade. It was destroyed in battle after its reactors went critical following a massive strike from T'au warships.Saint Aster - The Saint Aster, under the command of Commodore Eloise Athagey, served as the flagship for the Indomitus Crusade Fleet Tertius' Battle Group Saint Aster. The battlecruiser is named in honor of the Imperial Saint Aster and several statues depicting her were located within its interior. Before the Saint Aster began its service to the Indomitus Crusade, the battlecruiser was the command vessel of the Machorta Sector Battlefleet's Strike Group Saint Aster.
Overlord-class Battlecruiser - Dimensions: Hull: 5.3 kilometres, 0.85 kilometres abeam at fins approximatelyClass: Overlord-class BattlecruiserMass: Approximately 31 megatonnesCrew: Approximately 100,000 crewAcceleration: 2.4 gravities maximum sustainable acceleration
Overlord - Overlord: The Overlord is an Imperial aircraft that is used as the primary gunship and assault transport by the forces of the Primaris Space Marines. It was manufactured by the forges of Mars as one of the new designs of Adeptus Astartes vehicles and weapons created by Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl.It is unknown whether Cawl incorporated recently recovered ancient technology to produce the design, or whether it emerged from his own mind as part of his radical turn towards the former Adeptus Mechanicus heresy known as "innovation."The Overlord is intended to serve a role for the Primaris Space Marines similar to that of the earlier Astartes Stormbird or Thunderhawk, and is capable of powered flight in both the void and in-atmosphere.It seems to be an evolution of the Thunderhawk and possesses five powerful plasma engines and a twin hull resilient enough to permit an orbital insertion under fire with its precious cargo of Primaris Space Marines.The aircraft's cockpit sits between the two halves of the double fuselage.The Overlord also possesses a similarity to the Corvus Blackstar in that it maintains two large transport bays outfitted with assault doors intended to make it even easier for Primaris Astartes to rapidly exit the aircraft after it touches down under fire in a combat zone.Unlike its predecessors among Adeptus Astartes air assets, the Overlord makes use of considerably more advanced technology, including the ability to deploy its own Void Shields for enhanced protection.
Overlord - History: The Overlord is one of a number of new and more advanced patterns of Imperial military vehicles to have been created for deployment with the new Chapters of Primaris Space Marines raised by Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl during the Ultima Founding.These vehicles were created in preparation for the Indomitus Crusade begun by Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman in ca. 999.M41.
Overlord - Armament: The Overlord is armed with anti-munitions cannons intended to provide counterfire against incoming enemy assaults, has a nose-mounted Melta Cannon, Desolator Lascannons mounted on its wings and Heavy Bolters affixed on pylons beneath its wings.A variety of missiles can be mounted to the aircraft's wings, and the flanks of the Overlord are studded with crewed weapons bubbles containing  a variety of heavy weapons. The wings may be tipped with gatling lasers.
Overlord - Transport Capacity: The Overlord can transport at least 80 Primaris Space Marines or Firstborn Space Marines.During the Battle of Ardium of the Indomitus Crusade, a single Overlord was known to transport one Firstborn Astartes and 39 Primaris Space Marines, some of whom were also wearing the bulkier Mark X Gravis Power Armour.An Overlord attached to the Indomitus Crusade's Fleet Tertius carried forty Primaris Marines, fifteen of which were Aggressors in heavy Mark X Gravis battle-plate, in each of its twin holds during a boarding action.
Overlord - Notable Overlords: Adriaticus - Adriaticus is an Overlord deployed by the Ultramarines during the Indomitus Crusade.Jove - Jove is an Overlord deployed by the Ultramarines during the Indomitus Crusade.Scion of Ultramar - Scio of Ultramar is an Overlord deployed by the Ultramarines during the Indomitus Crusade.
Overlord - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: The technical specifications of the Overlord have not yet been made available by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Overseers - Overseers: The Overseers were a race of sentient machines encountered on the world of Dahinta by the Luna Wolves Space Marine Legion's 63rd Expeditionary Fleet during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. The Luna Wolves would go on to fight a brutal genocidal campaign against this machine race.One of the Emperor's longest-standing commands was that no sentient machines could be allowed to exist, for they had nearly caused the extinction of Mankind when they had rebelled against their human masters during the Dark Age of Technology. Despite heavy casualties amongst the Astartes, the thinking machines were ultimately wiped from the face of Dahinta by the savagery of the Space Marines.
Overseers - History: The Overseers were artificial sentients first encountered during the Great Crusade on the world of Dahinta by the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet under the command of then-Commander Horus and his XVI Legion. This race were quite beyond the limits of Imperial law, for machine life untempered by organic components had long been outlawed by both the Council of Terra at the direction of the Emperor and the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Overseers, commanded by a senior machine intelligence called the Archdroid, inhabited a series of derelict, crumbling and long-empty human cities on the world of Dahinta. These were cities decorated with fine mosaics that had once been very beautiful indeed, but extreme age and decay had faded them. The Overseers scuttled amongst the mouldering piles, fighting a losing battle of repair and refurbishment in a single-minded obsession to keep the neglected cities intact.The machines were eventually destroyed after a long and brutal campaign in which the technical skills of the Mechanicus had proven invaluable. Only then was the sad secret of this machine race's origins discovered -- the Overseers were the product of human ingenuity. Made thousands of Terran years before, perhaps even during the Age of Technology, Dahinta had once been a human colony, home to a lost branch of Humanity, where they had raised a great and marvellous culture of magnificent cities, making use of thinking machines to serve them. At some time, and in a manner unknown to the Imperials, the humans of Dahinta had become extinct. They had left behind their ancient cities, empty but for the deathless guardians they had made.
Ozkan the Codifier - Ozkan the Codifier: Ozkan the Codifier is a Necron Cryptek of the Suhbekhar Dynasty located within the Jericho Reach.Though loyal to his dynasty, he secretly works behind Overlord-Regent Ahhotekh's back to not only revive the Phaeron Ahmontekh, the so-called "Crimson Scythe," but house his ancient master in a body of flesh and bone.
Pain Bringers - Pain Bringers: The Pain Bringers is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown Founding and origin. Its most notable action occurred in 846.M38, on the third moon of Vida's World, where it engaged and defeated an Eldar army. As a result, the Pain Bringers recovered a nearly-intact Fire Prism grav tank. Almost nothing else is known about this Chapter in current Imperial records.
Pain Bringers - Notable Campaigns: Battle of Vida's World (263.846.M38) - The Pain Bringers fought against an Eldar army on the third moon of Vida's World. In the battle's aftermath, the Adeptus Mechanicus received word that a near-intact Eldar war machine had been secured -- a Fire Prism grav tank. The Eldar vehicle was found in a crater on the moon's dark side, during the post-battle cleansing operations. Its crew was killed in the crash after being brought down by the stalwart warriors of the Pain Bringers Chapter.
Pain Bringers - Notable Pain Bringers: Sergeant Gressil - Gressil commanded the Pain Bringers squad that brought down the crew of the Fire Prism grav tank.
Pain Bringers - Chapter Colours: The Pain Bringers' Chapter colours are not listed in current Imperial records.
Pain Bringers - Chapter Badge: The Pain Bringers' Chapter badge is not listed in current Imperial records.
Pain Glove - Pain Glove: The Pain Glove is a device of arcane technology used by the Imperial Fists Space Marine Chapter and their Successor Chapters as a tool for education, meditation, penance, punishment and even torture. Present in every Reclusiam and Chapel that the Imperial Fists maintain, this bulky machinery takes the form of a large cylinder in which hangs a body glove made of electro-fibres. The suit will cause pain to anyone who wears it by using electrical pulses to stimulate the nerve endings of their skin.
Pain Glove - History: Rogal Dorn, the Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, was a firm believer that pain helped scour both the body and the mind of impurities. He was not alone in that belief; Jaghatai Khan and his White Scars ritually scarified themselves, while Vulkan and his Salamanders ritually branded themselves as acts of devotion. However, Dorn was disinclined to damage his body needlessly and sought a way to inflict pain without harm. His first success was a contraption that delivered electrical discharges to his body through the neural interfaces of his Black Carapace implant.The Pain Glove is a refinement of Dorn's first device. Once the user enters the hatch in the flank of the cylinder, the machine animates and the body-glove wraps itself around him. The user will then find himself suspended in the middle of the cylinder, at a sufficient distance from its walls that he cannot touch them as he flails once the glove is active. The bodysuit itself is a flexible but resilient compound of electro-fibres that is studded with bio-monitors. The only hard surface is the neckpiece, a large collar equipped with more sensors and chemical injectors. The collar serves both as a neck brace, to prevent the user snapping his neck when his muscles spasm, and as an opiate-blocker to inject chemicals into the brain stem so as to prevent the user from passing out and ensuring that he remains conscious and lucid for the whole duration of the procedure.Once an operator stationed outside the cylinder, often a company Chaplain, starts the procedure, an electric current will flow through the suit and stimulate all of the user's nerve endings. This will often make him feel like he has been dipped in liquid flame. The bio-monitors will keep a vigil on the user's life signs as the machine operates, and stop the Glove immediately at the first sign of heart fibrillation. The readouts from the sensors can also be used by the operator to tailor the wave frequencies and intensity of the current to the user's tolerance to prevent the user's body from shutting out part of the pain. A skilled operator can maximise the pain inflicted, even at low power settings, thus lowering the risk of harm while keeping the efficiency of the procedure at a peak.
Pain Glove - Usage: The Pain Glove has various settings, each of them tailored for specific usage and users. They include:Educational - The lowest setting and the only one that can be safely used on unaugmented humans. A Chapter's Aspirants and Neophytes take turns in the Glove at this setting while the company Chaplain lectures them on their Chapter's history, values and faith. The younglings must learn to focus despite the pain, and absorb the teaching imparted.Meditational - A low to moderate setting, it is the equivalent of the educational setting for the transhuman physique of full-fledged Astartes. At this level, the pain often becomes unbearable and concentration often impossible. Battle-Brothers request time in the Pain Glove at this setting either as a mark of devotion, or when they want to meditate on a particularly vexing subject.Penance/Punishment - A moderate-high setting, that inflicts pain to an Astartes for the sake of inflicting it. Often, the Sergeants and officers of the Chapter will enforce stints in the Glove on those under their command as a punishment for small failures. Any Battle-Brother can, however, request a session at this setting from his company Chaplain whenever he believes he must atone for some event or personal failure.Torture - This is the highest setting of the Pain Glove and is only administered to captured Traitors, Heretics or xenos to break them and force them to confess or deliver information. This setting requires careful monitoring by an experienced interrogator, for it can quickly prove lethal even to an Astartes.
Painboy - Painboy: An Ork Painboy, also known as a Mad Dok or just a Dok, is a member of a special class of Ork Oddboyz who are responsible for fixing injuries even the highly regenerative Ork physiology cannot repair, such as severed limbs and brain damage. They use "Stabby Bits" as their medical tools.An Ork will only go to a Painboy when he has no other choice, as these Oddboyz are infamous for trying out experimental procedures (such as the greatly feared Squig brain transplant) on patients while they are under anesthesia (known as a "concussion" to other intelligent races).Painboyz are responsible for attaching crude bionics called "bioniks" to Ork patients that have been created by the Mekboyz, although sometimes they are not paying attention and replace the wrong part of the patient's body. This is often distressing to a patient who is the lucky recipient of an exploding leg, especially if it was his arm that needed attention.Yet Orks are surprisingly resilient and have had arms, legs and even heads swapped around and the Ork in question has survived to tell the tale!High-ranking Painboyz are called "Painbosses" and are known to be accompanied by Cybork bodyguards they usually have created themselves.
Painboy - Bad Doks: The eccentricity of the Painboy is as nothing compared to that of a Bad Dok. These Orks are outcasts from their tribes, and are most often found practising their dubious arts within Freebooter warbands.Amongst such company, no questions are asked and a Bad Dok's past is his own business. Besides, Freebooterz are just mean and desperate enough to accept the surgical aid of any Oddboy who offers it, even if the risks are considerable.Bad Doks intentionally practise deranged and disturbing surgeries upon their prey. Their patients can find themselves in possession of a set of mechanical lungs, sporting an extra head or limb, or even become victims of the aforementioned horror known as the Squig brain transplant. Though Bad Doks never ask for payment, the price of seeking them out is nevertheless high.
Painboy - Wargear: All Painboyz carry an enormous assortment of saws, knives, cutters, pincers and other tools they use to poke around in their fellow's bodies, which are collectively referred to as the "Stabby Bitz", and double as quite efficient close quarter melee weapons.Many Doks also carry an 'Urty Syringe, which is a huge syringe they use to inject some "medical" liquid into their victims, and also double up as a potent poisonous close quarter weapon.Also, some Painboyz brew Fighting Juice, a horrible concotion of combat stimulants and narcotics that can keep even a badly wounded Ork in the fight. Painboyz are quite often assisted by Gretchin assistants, who carry part of the Mad Dok's gear, and do their best to assist the Ork at his craft.Very enthusiastic, but catastrophically inept, these Gretchin assistants as often make things worse for the patient as they actually provide aid. The average Painboy is outfitted with:Power Klaw'Urty Syringe
Painboy - Notable Painboyz: Grotsnik - Grotsnik, also known as Mad Dok Grotsnik, was a typical Ork Painboy of the Deathskulls klan, obsessed with the performance of "surjery" and rooting around in other people's heads to see what he could find -- or alter. Mad Dok Grotsnik is an absolute terror, the most bloodthirsty and deranged of an unhinged breed. Once a Painboy of some skill, Grotsnik is now all but berserk with the desire to do harm to others. He rose to prominence when he became the personal Dok of the future Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka and Ghazghkull gave him credit for opening up his mind to the messages of the Ork Gods Gork and Mork that subsequently led Ghazghkull to lead the two greatest OrkWAAAGH!s in recent history during the Second and Third Wars for Armageddon.Painboy Fourklaw - A notorious Ork Painboy who possessed cybernetic limbs, Fourklaw served in Warlord Grukk Face-rippa's Red WAAAGH! that ravaged the Sanctus Reach sub-sector in the late 41st Millennium. He was known to be the best mate of the notorious Big Mek Mogrok.Painboy Kutrag - An Ork Painboy who serves Gashrakk, the Warboss of the Split-Grin Bad Moons klan. As the richest Ork of the wealthiest tribe in the Sanctus Reach Sub-sector, Gashrakk is the only Ork who can afford Kutrag's ridiculous rates, keeping the Painboy supplied with teef so he will fix up the Split-Grin Boyz. Often, "fixing" an Ork means making him better in some new and unusual way; Kutrag has a reputation for hacking off perfectly good limbs so he can replace them with something better.
Painboy - Sources: Codex: Orks (8th Edition), pp. 36, 93Codex: Orks (7th Edition), pp. 15, 24-25, 74, 76-77, 102, 127-130Codex: Orks (4th Edition), pp. 38, 43, 59Codex: Orks (3rd Edition), pp. 9, 42Codex: Orks (2nd Edition), pg. 24, 65Red WAAAGH! Campaign Supplement (7th Edition), pg. 69Rogue Trader: Koronus Bestiary (RPG), pg. 75WAAAGH! Ghazghkull: A Codex Ork Supplement (7th Edition), pg. 7Gorkamorka: Da Uvver Book (Specialist Game), pp. 78-79
Paladin (Dark Angels) - Paladin (Dark Angels): A Paladin, also called a "pure-blade," was an intermediate officer rank of the Dark Angels Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. The Ist Legion followed the general principles of the Principia Belicosa, dividing their Legion's strength into chapters, led by senior officers called Masters, and orders, which in turn were led by Paladins. These formations were further broken down into companies, commanded by captains.Each Paladin was an elite swordsman and master of close combat. They often served as a Company Champion for the Legion. For instance, the 9th Order of the Ist Legion was known to have at least fifty Paladins during the Great Crusade who also served as the honour guard of Primarch Lion El'Jonson.The rank of Paladin became defunct after the Second Founding and is no longer in use among the Dark Angels Chapter or its Unforgiven successors.
Paladin (Dark Angels) - Wargear: Power Armour (Any Firstborn pattern)BolterBolt PistolLong-bladed Power SwordBlast-ShieldKrak GrenadesFrag Grenades
Paladin (Dark Angels) - Optional Wargear: Cataphractii Pattern Terminator ArmourGrenade Harness
Paladin (Dark Angels) - Notable Paladins: Alajos - Master of the chapter containing the 9th Order of the Ist Legion and a former Paladin.Inardin - Paladin Commander of the 9th Order of the Ist Legion.Corswain - Paladin-Captain of the 9th Order and Champion of the Ist Legion.Xavis - Paladin of the 20th Order of the Ist Legion.Barzareon - Paladin of the 31st Order of the Ist Legion.Constantine - A Paladin and former voted-lieutenant of the Dark Angels' Dreadwing formation of the Hexagrammaton.Ennedreth - Ennedreth took part in the Battle of Perditus during the Horus Heresy under the command of Knight-Preceptor Vendrahel to secure archeotech weapons from the Mechanicum vaults of Umbral-51. He died while facing a force of Death Guard Traitor Legionaries.
Paladin (Dark Angels) - Notable Variants: Paladin of the Hekatonystika - Veiled in allegory and obscure symbolism, the orders of the Hekatonystika bore the heavy burden of keeping the most secret and dangerous knowledge acquired by the Dark Angels on the battlefield. Many of the of the Ist Legion's most veteran warriors were initiates of these orders and wore their colours with pride on the field of battle.
Palatine - Palatine: A palatine is a high-ranking officer of the various orders of the Adepta Sororitas who is often responsible for commanding a Sororitas Mission among the Orders Militant, or acting as a trusted second when an order's canonness takes to the field.Palatines wield considerable political influence within the Imperium of Man and often work side-by-side with Inquisitors and Astra Militarum generals to defend Humanity it its darkest hours.
Palatine - Role: Though well-versed in the scripture, the saints, and the daily devotions of the Imperial Cult, the palatine's purpose is to lead her fellow Adepta Sororitas. Many palatines remain predominantly militant and train both themselves and those in their charge as such.The transition to the rank among the sisters of the Orders Militant is generally straightforward. A talented battle-sister who has been tested on the field of battle is promoted through the ranks. Typically battle-sisters are chosen from the ranks of the sisters superior who are already beacons of faith for the other battle-sisters in her combat unit.As the leader within a Mission, a palatine must harness the fiery, passionate faith in the God-Emperor of her youth and cultivate that same flame in her charges. It is by virtue of their positions that many palatines find they must work alongside such odious company as Radical Inquisitors or even a xenos diplomat. It takes an unshakable faith in the God-Emperor to put such long-held hatred aside and then resummon such fury later when the palatine must bring holy condemnation to treasonous former "allies."In many ways, a palatine serving with an Inquisitor walks in two worlds: the world of her order and her faith, and the world she serves as a Throne Agent. It is a treacherous path to walk, as each foray into the field with the Inquisition risks exposing an entire Mission of Sororitas sisters to the heresies she has witnessed.As with others of similar station in the Imperial hierarchy, a palatine is defined largely by the company she keeps. The Orders Militant rarely move outside of the normal circles of the Departmento Munitorum, the Ecclesiarchy, and occasionally the Inquisition.The presence of the Sisterhood in these arenas has provided both the Astra Militarum and the Ecclesiarchy with valuable guidance and bolstered the spiritual health of the Imperium as a whole. It has also served as an important network of advisors and allies for the Inquisition, particularly the Ordo Hereticus, halting heretical activity before it spreads.When heresy rears its head, it is often the Sisterhood leading the way forward to fight it. Though the majority of her time is spent in preparing the next generation of Sororitas sisters, a palatine in battle is truly a sight to behold. Often carrying a holy relic of her order or the highest quality weaponry and armour the order can supply, she brings solar decades of combat experience and an intimate knowledge of Heretics to bear on the battlefield.Guiding her troops from the front line, she accepts that any battle could be her last and, should it be her fate, she will be commended to the Emperor's side.
Palatine Blades - Palatine Blades: The Palatine Blades, known officially as the Brotherhood of the Palatine Blades, was a warrior fraternity of the Emperor's Children Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the 30th and early 31st Millennia.Drawn from the finest swordsmen of the IIIrd Legion, the Palatine Blades were perhaps the most famous example of Emperor's Children specialist troops whose renown spread outside their own Legion.The Palatine Blades existed outside the rigid formations of the IIIrd Legion's standard military order. They were a duelling society to whose ranks many aspired and on whom the Primarch Fulgrim looked with particular favour.At the discretion of the lords of the Legion, members of the Palatine Blades without their own command fought together in battle as well, serving as a shining example to their battle-brothers of excellence and perfection in the arts of war, often seeking out the finest enemy warriors in the field against which to prove their superiority.These units were not permanent formations, but were formed for particular battles against foes deemed worthy, and whose membership existed outside of the usual rigid rank structure that characterised the IIIrd Legion.When such an enemy was encountered, the senior commanders would draw together the finest swordsmen from amongst the Emperor's Children forces present, a selection made easier by the relentless sparring and duelling that took place between battles to hone the Legion's skills.Armed with duelling blades, sabres and trophy weapons, the Brotherhoods would then seek out the finest warriors amongst the enemy on the field of battle. The number and quality of such squads depended on how many of the Emperor's Children were present in a given warzone and the quality of their foe.When twenty millennials (Chapters) of the Legion came together under Fulgrim to destroy the Golden Kings of the Moraeb Drifts, over a hundred of the Blade Brotherhood took to the field.Amongst them were warriors who had already writ a legend among their Legion; Lucius, Akurduana, Irmandus and Fulgrim himself led them against the bodyguards of the Heretek kings.
Palatine Blades - Swords of a Thousand Forges: The weapons the Emperor's Children Legion used to duel with were a key part of their martial culture, and spoke to their aesthetic appreciation. Many of the Emperor's Children bore swords crafted by the blade-smiths of a thousand worlds.Among these, the Charnabal Sabres of the Old Terran tradition were a particular mark of quality within the IIIrd Legion; forged to ancient rituals and alchemical formulae each blade was a unique product of a master sword maker.Examples of this regard could be seen in several well-recorded incidents, such as when the Primarch Fulgrim gave six Charnabal Sabres, forged by Yelena Mordant, to the survivors of the Cyberseer Insurrection as an award of valour. While Akurdana -- before his death reckoned to be the finest swordsman of the IIIrd Legion -- fought most often with paired Charnabal sabres, it was also well known that he possessed a personal collection of 360 swords taken from defeated foes.This habit of taking particularly fine weapons from defeated enemies was a strong characteristic of the wider Legion. If a renowned swordsman encountered a weapon of surpassing quality in the hands of an enemy he would take it as a trophy. The swordsman would then practice with the trophy weapon until he wielded it with more skill than its makers, this act representing an almost kabbalistic ritual absorbing and defeating the enemy in spirit.So it was that the champions of the Emperor's Children wielded Racathian glass glaives, friction axes from the Norvik Sinks, Aegisine "saintie," Tuonela mortuary swords, Terran Gladius and Martian-forged power swords to name but a few.No prohibition existed against weapons taken from aliens or cultures that were otherwise worthy only for destruction; all that mattered was the quality of the weapon itself.
Palatine Blades - Maru Skara: To the Emperor's Children, before their fall from grace, war was a matter of perfection incarnated in violence, intent and action. The Legion took great pride both in its excellence on any battlefield, and its ability to systematise and replicate any tactic or strategic deployment it needed, and execute them flawlessly on command.Of the innumerable such formations and tactics the Emperor's Children operated, one that found favour with the Legion's praetors looking to achieve faultless victory -- and thereby glory in the eyes of their peers and primarch -- was the Maru Skara or "Killing Cut."Named after one of the most difficult strikes in the lore of the Terran Pan-Europic duelling cults, it called for a precisely timed, rapid-moving feint designed to engage an opponent's guard so that a second, invariably fatal, blow could be dealt against it from which there could be no defence.
Palatine Blades - Composition: 4 Palatine Warriors (Squad Members)1 Palatine Prefector (Squad Leader)
Palatine Blades - Wargear: Mark IV Maximus Power Armour (By the time of the Horus Heresy)Artificer ArmourBolt PistolCharnabal Sabre - These elegant and deadly melee weapons relied on speed and dexterity rather than brute force for its lethality. These specially-forged blades were favoured by certain Space Marine Legion officers, most notably the elite Palatine Blades of the Emperor's Children Legion, who preferred these superbly crafted swords over the more "clumsy" Power Weapons.Frag GrenadesKrak Grenades
Palatine Blades - Optional Wargear (Palatine Squad): Power SwordPower LanceSonic ShriekersJump Packs
Palatine Blades - Optional Wargear (Palatine Prefector): Melta Bombs
Palatine Sentinels - Palatine Sentinels: The Palatine Sentinels are one of several psycho-conditioned Astra Militarum regiments who guard the Imperial Palace's outer walls on Terra.Unlike the Lucifer Blacks, who are famed within the Imperium at large, the white-robed Palatine Sentinels are not well-known outside of Terra itself.
Palatine Sentinels - Notable Palatine Sentinels Regiments: 156th Palatine Sentinels Regiment, "Tramman Standards" - The Palatine Sentinels' 156th Regiment defended the Imperial Palace during the 13th Black Crusade. They fought to protect the palace's walls from a horde of daemons during the chaotic aftermath of the Great Rift's creation.
Pale Spear - Pale Spear: The Pale Spear, also called the Sarrisanata, was one of a number of strange and esoteric weapons associated with Alpharius Omegon, the primarch of the Alpha Legion. The Pale Spear was rumoured to be a strange xenos artefact whose original forging predated even the rise of the Aeldari.This double-bladed spear flickered seemingly out of phase with the material universe when wielded, emitting an eerie and otherworldly howling, and was able to pierce any physical defence it encountered without impediment, ripping it apart at a molecular level. Against living matter, it inflicted hideously gaping, bloodless wounds as the flesh where it struck dissolved into oily smoke.According to an account given by Alpharius which is belieived to be one of his endless lies and attempts at misdirection, the Pale Spear was discovered by Omegon on the nameless, empty world he found himself on after the scattering of the primarchs in their gestation capsules from beneath the Imperial Palace.Alpharius wielded the spear when he confronted the Imperial Fists Primarch Rogal Dorn at the Hydra Moon Fortress during the Battle of Pluto. He had rebuilt the spear while leading the XXth Legion's forces on a rampage of destruction and terrorism through the Sol System in preparation for the final Traitor assault on Terra.In individual combat, Alpharius slew Dorn's Huscarls, his elite Terminator bodyguard, and was able to stab the Praetorian of Terra multiple times with the weapon.After Alpharius stabbed the spear into Dorn's chest, the other Primarch grabbed its haft and cut Alpharius' hands off with his own massive chainsword Storm's Teeth before stabbing Alpharius with the other end of the Pale Spear and then executing him with a slash of Storm's Teeth across the head.It is unknown what happened to the Pale Spear after the Battle of Pluto once it fell into Loyalist hands.In the Era Indomitus the Pale Spear was moved to an Ordo Malleus vault in the Psyphos Sub-sector by command of Inquisitor Kayzen Hart, in order to lure the Alpha Legion Harrowmaster Solomon Akurra into an ambush. While Solomon was able to retrieve the blades of the Pale Spear and use the legitimacy they provided to wrest back control of the Alpha Legion warbands operating in the Ultima Segmentum, the original haft of the Pale Spear remains in Inquisitor Hart's hands.It is unknown if the Pale Spear's power is reduced when only its components can be wielded, though the weapon's blades alone were still able to pierce Primaris Marine Mark X Gravis Power Armour and leave its unique bloodless wounds marked by dissolution of the flesh into oily smoke.
Pale Stars - Pale Stars: The Pale Stars is a collection of blue-white stars located within the Maelstrom Zone to the galactic southwest of the Warp rift known as the Maelstrom within the Ultima Segmentum. Since its founding as an Imperial sector during the early years of the Great Crusade, the Pale Stars have seen their fair share of strife and warfare on a monumental scale, most recently during the Badab War which was fought between 901-913.M41.
Pale Stars - History: Labelled on ancient void charts as the Sea of Pallid Stars and known to many simply as the Pale Stars, the sickly blue-white orbs of this region were all born of a common stellar nursery. They cast a wan, baleful light upon their satellites. These star systems were known by void-mariners to be rich in mineral resources, yet were regarded by some as ill-fortuned, as if birthed of some unfathomable cosmic woe. It was the 771st Expeditionary Fleet that first charted the region, encountering numerous devolved human cultures and several xenos strains, which the attached XIX Legion elements purged unto extinction. Later on in the Great Crusade, the World Eaters' "Bloody" 13th Expeditionary Fleet passed through the area, leaving a red wake behind it that would seed in much of the populace a deep and abiding fear of the Legiones Astartes. At the time of the outbreak of Mankind's galactic civil war in the early years of the 31st Millennium, the Pale Stars region had yet to ascend to the status of an Imperial sector, but its principal world -- Phargos Rex -- was host to a Terran Administration mission that was the de facto gubernatorial authority across several dozen developing and frontier sovereign domains.
Pale Stars - Eye of the Storm: One of countless shadow wars fought during the Horus Heresy which would only be known to history by the piecing together of scattered archival fragments, the war for the region to the galactic southwest of the Warp rift known as the Maelstrom was one fought far from the front lines and outside of the chain of command of either side. When word of the Horus Heresy reached the individual planetary rulers, most recoiled in horror at the Warmaster Horus' base betrayal of the Emperor, yet none dared declare openly against him for they dreaded the gaze of Horus and knew that should they provoke his wrath, he could crush them out of hand. Several lonely voices denounced such vacillation as craven and dishonourable, imploring the Imperial Commanders of the region to stand together in common defiance of the Traitors, yet these voices were few and quickly silenced.It was against this backdrop of dread and recrimination that the worlds of the region began to suffer a range of creeping horrors. It began with Astropaths reporting strange echoes upon the ætheric currents and quickly escalated as Navigators guiding merchant vessels along the region's outlying Warp routes perceived an oncoming Warp Storm front that would be the doom of any foolish enough to attempt to sail its currents. At that time, none could know of the great and terrible rite that the Traitor Primarch Lorgar had enacted at Calth, that in the sacrificial murder of the Veridia star he had brought the Ruinstorm into being, a tempest of such scale and ferocity that the Imperium would be sundered in twain. As the shock wave of the Ruinstorm struck the Pale Stars, terror and insanity erupted across the region's worlds. Entire choirs of Astropaths perished in hideous torment while dozens of vessels were lost to the Warp with thousands of souls cast to its hungry tides. The masses rose up in madness, either in blind anarchy or driven by ranting demagogues and wild-eyed preachers, who in retrospect must surely have bided their time for just such a moment. Religions, sects and cults cast down by the Imperial Truth solar decades before resurged in force and people whose grandsires had once prostrated themselves before heathen idols spontaneously resurrected the most terrible of practices.Thus, as the light of Terra was smothered by the oncoming Ruinstorm, so entire swathes of the galaxy fell silent to the masters of the Imperium. The loyalties of the worlds of the Pale Stars remained unknown to Terra, lost to the galaxy-wide clamour of all-consuming civil war. But for the coming of a great, yet unsung hero of the Imperium, the fate of the Pale Stars might have gone unremarked in the story of the great Horus Heresy; that warrior was Nathaniel Garro, formerly of the Death Guard Legion -- the so-called Agentia Primus of the Knights-Errant.
Pale Stars - Envoy of Terra: With the Ruinstorm surging across the galaxy, the War Council of Terra sought by any means to gauge the true scope of the unfolding calamity. Blinded as it was, the Council was desperate for other ways to measure the disposition of Horus' hosts and the allegiances of planetary rulers. Astratelepathic communication was by that point all but impossible, the Warp a howling cacophony that either drowned out their messages or corrupted their content in insidious ways. The only means of assaying the status and allegiance of the scattered worlds of the Imperium would be to despatch envoys and agents to do so in person, even though the War Council knew that such a hazardous mission would be the deaths of countless loyal and devoted servants of Terra. One amongst these was Lorn Orpheus, a minor scion of the celebrated Orpheus Dynasty of Rogue Traders Militant. Lorn was assigned the Pale Stars as his destination, having gained some knowledge of the region while serving in the pathfinder flotillas that ranged ahead of the 771st Expeditionary Fleet during the initial Imperial Compliance campaign. The assignment might have been regarded by many as a death sentence, but Lorn was possessed of an adventurer's spirit wedded to a fierce instinct for survival, and saw in it a sure means of rapidly ascending the ranks of the Orpheus Dynasty.
Pale Stars - The Storm Rises: With the coming of war to the Pale Stars, there soon followed yet another woe. The turbulence that had afflicted the Warp for so many solar months now flared into a raging tempest, fuelled, so it seems to us now given what we have learned of the Empyrean, by the shedding of so much blood among the Pale Stars. The planetary musters raised at the command of Strike Master Ijax had borne the brunt of the suffering, and the losses sustained by the Alpha Legion and Blackshields were insubstantial in comparison. As the deaths mounted in increments of many thousands, so the Warp grew ever more restive, immaterial tendrils groping in the darkness towards spilled blood like unseen predators about a drowning man. Later studies would conclude that this phenomenon had been brought about with deliberate intent, but others doubt that Strike Master Ijax was fully party to the fell wisdom possessed by Erebus of the Word Bearers and his peers.As ever more blood was shed, Dissolution, Phargos Rex, Mirdath and Larsa were subsumed in a seething mass of what Navigators once referred to as a Warp/realspace interface, but which now is known by far less mundane terminology as a Warp rift. With the Warp Storms came further waves of insurrection and insanity more intense than any before, and if but a fraction of extant accounts from this period are to be afforded any credulity, things born of the Abyss now walked amongst Mankind. Nightmares made flesh tore themselves from the shadows and fell upon the peoples of a dozen worlds, and it is said that the streets ran with torrents of blood. Worse still, great swathes of the population of Phargos Rex reportedly joined the unnamed creatures and turned upon their fellows, rendered by Warp-touched madness into atavistic cannibals and savage murderers.
Pale Stars - Witness: It was to this region of blood-stained space that Rogue Trader Militant Lorn Orpheus finally came. His flotilla had traversed the tumultuous Warp routes from Terra, through the outer marches of the Segmentum Solar and across the depths of the Orion-Crux void. Fewer than half of the flotilla survived the passage through the Khymaran Drift, for here they encountered the leading edge of the Ruinstorm as it surged across the galaxy. The flotilla that at last translated into realspace at Phargos Rex bore scant resemblance to that which had departed Terra solar months earlier. Those vessels that survived were visibly wounded, their hulls scorched black by immaterial fires and their armoured flanks rent and buckled as if they had been caught in the grasping talons of some god-daemon of ancient myth. Limping in-system, it was immediately apparent from the flood of signals, both electromagnetic and astrotelepathic, that the Pale Stars were in the grip of some terrible woe. Among the numerous names and images repeated throughout this torrent of Vox and psychic traffic was that of the Nemean, as if the peoples of the Pale Stars sought his protection and protection from him in equal measure.The envoy of the Council of Terra knew that not only had the ancient tales of the horrors of Old Night been true, but those very horrors had returned. Funeral pyres the size of cities burned across the darkness of Phargos Rex's night side, while a pall of dense smoke obscured the terrors being inflicted upon the surface of the day side. Orpheus, however, had come too far and risked too much to turn tail and retreat back to Terra, if indeed a return voyage was even possible given the ever-rising intensity of the Warp Storms and the woeful state of his flotilla. The envoy resolved to travel to the surface and to determine if anything remained of the planetary government or the Terran Administration mission that had been based there. But Orpheus was well aware of the risk he was taking, and so he prepared a message packet for Terra, to be carried through the Warp Storms upon the fastest vessel remaining to his flotilla.The message that Lorn Orpheus composed for the Council of Terra was as full an accounting of the horrors that had consumed the Pale Stars as he was able to compose. He described the Warp phenomena that had assailed his vessels as they braved the storms, of crewmen driven to rabid insanity and the bloodbath that had ensued. He spoke of the apparitions that had tormented them as they plied the turbulent Empyrean and which lingered still at the edges of vision even solar days after translation. He recounted something of the unfettered, impenetrable insanity that had drowned the Vox channels and the flood of pain and horror which the few surviving Astropaths were broadcasting far and wide. He concluded his message informing them that he intended to descend to the burning surface of Phargos Rex and to seek out any vestige of authority in an effort to fulfil his mission, and to learn the identity of the individual whose name and face appeared in so many communications -- the Nemean.
Pale Stars - Dark Compliance: It would be many solar weeks before Orpheus' message runner reached Terra, the fact that it survived the return voyage at all nothing short of a miracle. In the meantime the horrors that afflicted the Pale Stars intensified many times over. The void boiled as other-worldly energies burst across space, the skies above each planet ripped asunder in a livid display of seething insanity. The anarchy that Orpheus had encountered at Phargos Rex cascaded outwards and subsumed each and every world in the region, millions rising up and tearing down planetary governments before turning upon their own.Ruling bodies were compelled to flee the rioting hordes and abandon any pretence of control, and many Imperial Commanders found their authority entirely reliant upon the support of the Alpha Legion. Across the worlds of the Pale Stars, Ijax's subcommanders deployed Legion assets to defend the rulers from their own rebelling populations and, in short order, the Strike Master became the de facto power in the region, able to precipitate the downfall of entire planetary governments simply by withdrawing his forces and allowing the mobs to exact their bloodthirsty vengeance. Even those rulers not under siege by their own peoples were acutely aware that with their Planetary Defence Forces directly controlled by the Alpha Legion, they were entirely reliant on Ijax for protection from the Dark Brotherhood.At a stroke, the Pale Stars had fallen to the Traitor cause -- Dark Compliance to the Warmaster Horus' shadow empire had been achieved.
Pale Stars - One of Twenty: It might have been expected that the worlds of the Pale Stars would have been lost to the Imperium, as were so many other regions. The Ruinstorm now split the galaxy asunder and hundreds, even thousands of star systems were drowned in blood or brutally crushed beneath the heel of the Warmaster Horus, the Great Betrayer. Countless worlds were lost for all time, consumed in the raw stuff of the Warp, their names to be struck from the stellar cartographs and their approaches seeded with navigational warning buoys. Warp travel became all but suicidal and astrotelepathic communication nigh impossible.No doubt such a fate would indeed have befallen the Pale Stars were it not for the fact that not only did Orpheus' message runner somehow make it back to Terra, but one important detail in his message had caused it to be routed directly to the attention of Malcador the Sigillite, the Regent of Terra and the second highest authority in the entire Imperium. That detail was the naming of the leader of the Dark Brotherhood.The warrior dubbed the Nemean was already known to Malcador, for he was one of a score of Astartes identified by the former Luna Wolf and member of the Crusader Host, Severian. The Sigillite's intent was to gather each of those named by Severian and muster them into a cadre of warriors directly under his control, a band he would dub the Knights-Errant. It fell to the most senior of these, his Agentia Primus Nathaniel Garro, to go forth into the galaxy and recruit all twenty to his master's cause. And thus Garro was despatched to the Pale Stars, his mission to return with the leader of the Dark Brotherhood at his side that the Nemean might swear himself to the cause of Malcador the Sigillite.