vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Hive Tyrant - Hive Tyrant: A Hive Tyrant (Tyranicus praefactor) is the massive Tyranid bioform that serves as the main battlefield commander of a Tyranid swarm, a synapse creature that stands above the rank and file Tyranids.They wield potent psychic powers but are unaffected by the Daemons of the Warp, a condition that would indicate a lack of a soul at the individual level for most Tyranids.However, the species' gestalt consciousness brings into being a truly potent psychic presence in the Immaterium called the Tyranid "Shadow in the Warp" which is produced by the collective Tyranid Hive Mind.Hive Tyrants serve as the commanders of all the Tyranid forces deployed on a given battlefield, for they share a special synaptic link to the Hive Mind. This link makes a Hive Tyrant one of the most important of the Tyranid synapse creatures.
Hive Tyrant - Notable Hive Tyrants: Nephilim King - The creature known as the Nephilim King is a particularly notorious Hive Tyrant specimen. This beast leads a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Behemoth, and fights at the head of a group of synapse creatures and gigantic Bio-Titans. This so-called "Court of the Nephilim King" relies not on sheer numbers, but on the ferocity and intelligence of the most advanced Tyranid bioforms, forming a twisted mirror of a knightly brotherhood. Countless foes have sought to slay the Nephilim King, but the monster has thus far turned the tables on all its would-be hunters, swiftly turning them from predator to prey.
Hive Tyrant - Biomorphs: Heavy Venom Cannon - The Heavy Venom Cannon is a large, heavy bio-weapon that fires out salvos of deadly corrosive crystals. Most of its victims die from the impact or from the toxins carried by the poisonous crystalline fragments. The plating of some armored vehicles may also be punctured, with the splinters destroying the interior equipment and killing the crew members inside.Stranglethorn Cannon - Stranglethorn cannons are larger versions of the Tyranid Barbed Strangler. This heavier version fires a larger, more aggressive seed pod. The tendrils grow at alarming rates, choking infantry. Sometimes a Stranglethorn cannon will take out lightly armoured vehicles by damaging the crew or weapons.Bonesword - Boneswords are blades of living chitin that wear away and grow back. They crackle with psychic energy and are very effective against armoured units.Lashwip - Lashwips are lethal upgrades that can be added to Hive Tyrants. They are long, deadly tentacles that have a mind of their own, and are useful for engaging more than one enemy at once.
Hive Tyrant - Ordo Xenos Departmento Analyticus Data: Ordo Xenos Departmento Analyticus RecordDesignationHive TyrantMain Weaponry4 Scything ClawsCommon TitleOverfiendSpecies NameTyranicus praefactorSecondary WeaponryFangs and ClawsAverage Height6.1 metresAverage Weight6 tonnes/Winged Strains 4.9 tonnesTertiary WeaponryNoneFirst encounteredTyranRoleBattlefield CommanderThreat evaluationVery high
Hive Tyrant - Sources: Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition)Codex: Tyranids (8th Edition), pp. 62, 85Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 369Imperial Armoury Volume Four - The Anphelion Project
Hive World - Life on a Hive World: Hive cities are ancient constructions, each Terran century slowly growing wider across the barren ground and higher into the polluted air. They dominate worlds where the local environment has all but collapsed from long standard years of mining, harvesting, and waste-dumping. These are nearly sealed ecosystems, where billions of people live stacked on top of each other in the close confines of what is in essence a great metal tomb.A hive worlder lives out their life never seeing the sky, never knowing what the surface of their world looks like, and often never even leaving the city level on which they were born. Most Hive Worlds have scores of these constructs, each existing in isolation from each other, rising up from the toxic fog and cursed earth of most Hive Worlds like monuments to its demise.Hive worlders are often born into a house or family with their vocation already decided before they were born. Thus they work endlessly at their task in the manufactoria and industrial habs of their hive city, producing goods to be shipped off-world, or maintaining the many systems of the hive so that its population might continue to survive and another generation be born to take their place.Nearly everything within a hive city is recycled and reused, and few things are ever wasted. The air a hive worlder breathes, the water they drink, and the food they eat likely all has once passed through the bodies of countless others, endlessly restored to be consumed once again. Even when a hive worlder dies their duty to the hive and house are not done, and most hives reconstitute their dead for the resources, such as corpse starch, that they can provide. All of a hive worlder's possessions, from the hab room in which they live to the clothes on their back, likewise come from those before them, the dead gifting the living with what little they have in a continuation of the cycle of hive city life.Even in a system where the bulk of hive city residents must subsist on what meagre resources can be divided among a billion hungry mouths and shivering bodies, there remains a definite division of class. From the spires of the hive top, where the Highborn enjoy all the wealth the Imperium has to offer, down through the heads of the guilds and houses that can still hope to live in relative comfort, to the workers and dregs, where resources become less abundant. The lower in a hive city one goes, the more decayed and dangerous it becomes, the detritus of billions drifting down to rest among the filth far below. The rule of law breaks down in the depths of the Underhive, where there is no system to govern what pitiful resources remain.These are wild and deadly domains where some hivers come to escape the rigid structure of their lives, but usually find only death and despair among the mutants and violent gangs that lurk in these dark worlds below.
Hive World - Riot, Revolt and Calamity: That any Human civilisation is "three missed meals away from anarchy" is an adage that has held true since long before the Imperium existed and applies doubly in the case of a Hive World. In any given hive city, millions must live together in jostling proximity, utterly dependent on a complex and gargantuan infrastructure for the mere basics of daily life such as food, power, light and even clean air.If widespread rioting, unrest or serious disorder is allowed to ferment, it is possible that the threads binding the hive city together may be broken and millions may suffer as a result. It is said by some that this is one reason why the phenomena of the "Underhive" is allowed to exist in some form or another on most Hive Worlds, as a vital sinkhole for the city's Human malice, sin and discord.Despite unceasing vigilance and near-totalitarian control, catastrophic unrest does sometimes occur in even the most tightly ordered of hives, and the history, for example, of the Calixis Sector is littered with such calamities: Fenksworld's infamous Tyburn food-tax riots saw the neighboring hive city of Volg's population almost double inside a standard year (before natural attrition reduced it again in the following few solar months), while the two-solar-decade long period of petty revolts and near civil anarchy caused by the misrule of House Koba on Malfi left near a billion dead and saw the final ruination of what had been one of the most powerful noble families in the sector.In more recent times even the mighty and prosperous Hive Sibellus, the greatest hive city of Scintilla, the capital world of the Calixis Sector, has not proved to be immune. When heavy-handed tactics by the world's local law enforcers, the Magistratum, stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble during what came to be known as the "Reinholt Blackouts," open warfare broke out between the Magistratum and the hive's criminal gangs, spilling over from the slums and no-go zones into the hive's primary infrastructure. Power was cut to several dozen middle-hive districts for solar days -- fear and anarchy took hold and tens of thousands died, with whole regions gutted by raging fires. Many sections of the hive city, damaged by the blackouts, remain as burnt-out ruins, collapsing into the Underhive; they are now the haunt of dregs and worse. As a consequence of the rioting and thanks to their loss of face and perceived failure, the Sibellus Magistratum has become even more brutal in the execution of their duties.
Hive Worlder - Hive Worlder: A hive worlder, also called a "hiver," is a native of the Imperium's Hive Worlds, planets dominated by vast, self-contained arcologies known as "hive cities" that reach kilometres into the sky from the wasted surface of toxic, hostile environments, ruined through many Terran centuries of ceaseless industry. Sealed off from the planet outside, they live stacked on hundreds of levels, each one packed with millions of souls working, eating, and dying without ever venturing beyond the steel caverns of their birth.To be a hive worlder is to have grown up among overpopulation and artifice, where the sun is only a myth. Unfortunates know only a desperate existence, barely surviving in the dank depths far below the surface, in underworlds where the very air cannot be counted on from one day to the next. For a hive worlder, their life is but one cog in a gigantic citymachine, living and dying in the same few cubic kilometres in which they were born.
Hivecult - Hivecult: The Hivecult is a Genestealer Cult that can be found across many worlds in Imperial space, though it originated on the Hive World of New Gidlam. It has spread across the Segmentum Solar in recent solar decades. Its leaders are particularly interested in infiltrating Imperial military units to make their expected uprisings much easier.The Hivecult are militant, organised and hierarchical. They infiltrate not only the criminal underworlds and hive city gangs of their host planets, but also the Astra Militarum regiments that recruit from them. To the Hivecult, it is a divine duty to be armed and dangerous.Unusually warlike and overt in their practices, the Hivecult combine the fanaticism of the broodkin with the destructive might and martial training of the conventional Imperial military. The result is a force of unrelenting destruction and conquest. Who knows how many worlds the Hivecult have already claimed in the name of the Star Children, or how many more will fall to their onslaught?The brothers and sisters of the Hivecult are no strangers lo war. They fight in tight-knit units, whether they hail from hive ganger cultures or the military organisations of the Imperium. Each is well-drilled in the use of sidearms as well as repurposed industrial tools, and in battle they attack with an uncanny discipline that sees them triumph against the odds.
Hivecult - Vockor's Talisman: This talisman drives the wielder to acts of great bloodshed. It is said to contain the departed spirit of Vockor Mai, known as the White Creeper, the scourge of New Gidlam's aristocracy. When Vockor Mai's charismatic allure proved ineffective against the hivelord Thorne due to a protective artefact, Mai crept into the man's bathhouse and slashed his throat with the razored edge of this metallic wyrm-form. In the legends of the Hivecult, the talisman harbours some of that malevolent and murderous intent to this day, and glows hot in the presence of those who have earned the cult's ire.
Hivecult - Cult Psychic Discipline: Synaptic Blast - When the forces of the Hivecult fight, their residual psychic energy is palpable to their psykers, who allow its immense power to flow through them before unleashing it upon the enemy in a devastating blast.
Hivecult - Sources: Codex: Genestealer Cults (7th Edition), pp. 46-47Codex: Genestealer Cults (8th Edition), pp. 22-23Codex: Genestealer Cults (9th Edition), pp. 31, 57
Hivewyrm - Hivewyrm: The Hivewyrm was a Genestealer Cult which infested the Shrine World of Saint's Halt in the Chalnath Expanse of the northern Segmentum Ultima in the Imperium Nihilus. It came into conflict with the Deathwatch Space Marines of the watch fortress of Mortguard during the Chalnath Expanse Campaign of the Era Indomitus.
Hivewyrm - History: The Chalnath Expanse Shrine World of Saint's Halt was home to billions of people that came under assault by the forces of the T'au Empire's Fifth Sphere Expansion. They crowded into cramped coastal cities that were squeezed between acidic seas and inland plateaux dominated by continental reliquary palaces. The Deathwatch strike cruiser Void Sentinel, sent by the Deathwatch of Mortguard, upon translation into the system found the world already under siege by the forces of the T'au Empire. Native Planetary Defence Force infantry regiments of the Saint's Tidecasters fought alongside the battle-sisters of the Order of the Blue Robe, and Astra Militarum forces from the Riatov and Pennutsk Systems that had breached the T'au orbital blockade to reach the surface.From Void Sentinel's command throne, Watch Master Agathon conducted Mortguard's global campaign against both T'au cadres and Genestealer Cult uprisings. Hive Tor Saev burned, illuminating the southern pole. At Hive Delina, the Absolutis Arch was hung with bloody Loyalist corpses as their Genestealer cultist murderers defended the city from T'au bombardment. Vast battle lines had opened up around every major hive city; Agathon concentrated his strikes against three.At Leonis Hive, the watch master directed kill-teams to sabotage a Shield Generator protecting the T'au flank from Riatov artillery companies. To Gedronis, he dispatched waves of Storm Speeders to cut off the xenos grav-tanks attacking the Gate of the Emperor's Vengeance, hoping to allow the Adepta Sororitas trapped there to break out. Mortguard's Watch Company Quintus in its entirety smashed into the T'au offensive outside the planetary capital city, Boran Prime. In a storm of special-issue bolter ammunition, cleaving blades and psychic scourges, the T'au buckled. The Deathwatch drove them back into the claws of xenophile cultists who declared themselves to be the Hivewyrm, forcing the two breeds of xenos to turn on each other.In orbit, Deathwatch reserves awaited the ambushes Agathon knew both faithless xenos species were capable of initiating. When the next one struck, he would be ready, as the war for the Chalnath Expanse ground on.
Hoec - Hoec: Hoec is one of the gods of the Aeldari, and a member of the Aeldari pantheon, though his role within it is unknown. Little is known of Hoec in the fragments of Aeldari Mythology available to the savants of the Imperium of Man, save that he is a mysterious wanderer who is said to be one with the Webway and has walked the paths between worlds since the stars themselves were young.Some amongst the greatest of the Aeldari Rangers who walk the Path of the Outcast, the Pathfinders, revere Hoec as their divine exemplar and patron. This is especially true for the Pathfinders from Craftworld Alaitoc.Like all the Aeldari deities save for Isha, Cegorach, and Khaela Mensha Khaine, Hoec is believed to have been devoured by the Chaos God Slaanesh within the Warp shortly after its awakening in the 30th Millennium of the Imperial Calendar.
Hol Beloth - Hol Beloth: Hol Beloth was a prominent and very ambitious captain and field commander of the Word Bearers Legion, serving as the master of the Graven Star Chapter during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy in the 30th and early 31st Millennia.Hol Beloth was a skilled battlefield tactician and a charismatic war leader within his Legion. He favoured direct, overwhelming assaults which counted on the faith and fervour of his Word Bearers to carry the field against any odds.Freshly incised on his skin before the Battle of Calth by the diabolic ministrations of his Dark Apostle Maloq Kartho, Hol Beloth believed that this ward granted him the protection of the entities of the Warp over his life. Little did he know the ultimate price such ministrations would come to cost him.
Hol Beloth - Wargear: Artificer ArmourIron HaloMaster-crafted Power FistTainted Weapon (Chaos-tained melee weapon)Shard of ErebusPlasma PistolFrag GrenadesKrak Grenades
Hold - Hold: A hold is the term used by the Leagues of Votann for any major, fortified dwelling of the Kin, whether it be a city, void station, voidship, industrial outpost or even an entire planet. All Kin live, train and toil within their home hold when not abroad amongst the stars for trade, scouting, mineral prospecting or war.The Kin habitually load apparently simple terms such as "hold" with nuanced meaning, being disinclined to even waste words. Thus, while the term is used throughout the Leagues of Votann, it can refer to wildly different structures and locations. Some holds are fusions of fortification, city, industrial complex and strip mine, the largest of which may sprawl across -- or honeycomb beneath -- much of a so-called "Hold World"'s surface. Others may be heavily armed void stations, chains of domes scattered through asteroid belts, nomadic harvesting fleets of voidships, mobile matter-energy syphoning plants riding the fringes of black holes to harvest their accretion discs, or even stranger marvels of the Kin's advanced technology.Each Kindred -- the basic political unit of one of the Kin's leagues equivalent to a clan or nation-state -- may possess one or more holds in their territory, depending on the population of the Kindred. A Kindred's hold may boast bustling cityscapes, industrial and military powerhouses, and many of the Kin's massive voidships.Every hold generally possesses four crucial components -- crucibles where new generations of Kin are cloned and gestated; a Forge where the engineers and artificers of the Kin known as the Brôkhyr craft the weapons, equipment, tools, vehicles and technologies required to sustain them; a Hearth that is the power source that provides energy to the hold; and a Fane, the device or node used by the Grimnyr or "Living Ancestors" to interface with the Votann, the self-aware machine intelligences that govern the Leagues.
Hold Silver Six - Hold Silver Six: Hold Silver Six is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League of the Leagues of Votann located in the galactic core. It is situated in the central region of Thurian space, close to Crimson Gulf, and lies on a major Kin trade hub near an important Thurian mining epicentre.
Hold World - Hold World: A Hold World is any Kin World that is home to a hold, or dwelling place, of a Kindred of the Leagues of Votann. Most Hold Worlds are located in the galactic core.A hold is any major, fortified dwelling of the Kin, whether it be a city, void station, industrial outpost or even an entire planet. All Kin live, train and toil within their home hold when not abroad amongst the stars for trade, scouting, mineral prospecting or war.The Kin habitually load apparently simple terms such as "hold" with nuanced meaning, being disinclined to even waste words. Thus, while the term is used throughout the Leagues of Votann, it can refer to wildly different structures and locations. Some holds are fusions of fortification, city, industrial complex and strip mine, the largest of which may sprawl across -- or honeycomb beneath -- much of a so-called "Hold World"'s surface. Others may be heavily armed void stations, chains of domes scattered through asteroid belts, nomadic harvesting fleets, mobile matter-energy syphoning plants riding the fringes of black holes to harvest their accretion discs, or even stranger marvels of the Kin's advanced technology.Each Kindred -- the basic political unit of one of the Kin's leagues equivalent to a clan or nation-state -- may possess one or more holds in their territory, depending on the population of the Kindred. A Kindred's hold may boast bustling cityscapes, industrial and military powerhouses, and many of the Kin's massive voidships.Every hold generally possesses four crucial components -- crucibles where new generations of Kin are cloned and gestated; a Forge where the engineers and artificers of the Kin known as the Brôkhyr craft the weapons, equipment, tools, vehicles and technologies required to sustain them; a Hearth that is the power source that provides energy to the hold; and a Fane, the device or node used by the Grimnyr or "Living Ancestors" to interface with the Votann, the self-aware machine intelligences that govern the Leagues.
Hold World - Notable Hold Worlds: Broken Triplets - The Broken Triplets is a Hold World of the Trans-Hyperian Alliance. The Broken Triplets are actually a trio of worlds found in the galactic core where the three planets were smashed together during some ancient catastrophe, and the colossal quantities of debris from their demise still whirls and ricochets in a vast cloud to this day, trapped by the gravitic anomaly that caused the disaster. The Broken Triplets is home to the hold of Sunder Stair, a void station that exists precariously yet safely at the heart of the three shattered worlds through the use of overlapping force fields.Crimson Gulf - Crimson Gulf is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League. It is famed for its sheer size and nearly impentrable defences, much like its western Thurian neighbour, Ûrvymm's Bulwark.Cynder Span - Cynder Span is a Hold World of the Ymyr Conglomerate.Delvegard - Delvegard is a Hold World of the Ghulo Industrial Complex.Demmâk's Haven - Demmåk's Haven is a Hold World.Grandhall - Grandhall is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.Hyvôk's Kindred - Hyvôk's Kindred is a Hold World of the Leagues of Votann. Its people were once saved from destruction by the famed Hernkyn adventurer Sîmmka Farstryd and in thanks, a unique void suit called the Wayfarer's Grace was crafted for her.Hold Silver Six - Hold Silver Six is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.Jâluk - Jâluk was a Hold World of the Ymyr Conglomerate that was claimed by a Warp Storm. The only remnant of its people is the Ymyr relic armour crest known as the Last Crest of Jâluk.Obsyd Gate - Obsyd Gate is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League.Tamâkh - Tamâkh is a Hold World of the Ymyr Conglomerate. The hold of Brôkhfyre is dug deep into Tamâkh's planetary mantle -- insulated against the exotic and deadly energy spectra that pour from the world's nearby star. What violent apotheosis the tortured star is undergoing, none can say, but for three Terran millennia now the Kin of the Orksbane Kindred have captured the energies of its raging solar flares using kilometres-high stellar vanes. These energies power their Forge, which is amongst the greatest in all the Leagues of Votann, renowned for the amazing weapons of war it can produce.Ûrvymm's Bulwark - Ûrvymm's Bulwark is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League. It is famed for its sheer size and nearly impentrable defences, much like its eastern Thurian neighbour, Crimson Gulf.
Holdfast - Holdfast: The Holdfast was the fortress-monastery of the White Templars Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, located on their Chapter planet of Sanctum in the Formidyre System of the Segmentum Pacificus.
Holdfast - History: During the Fourth Tyrannic War, Sanctum came under assault by Hive Fleet Grendyllus, a tendril of the larger Hive Fleet Leviathan. With the aid of Lord Commander Solar Arcadian Leontus and the forces of the Astra Militarum he commanded who were using Sanctum as base to face the Great Devourer in the galactic west, the White Templars were able to defeat the assault of the Tyranids even as it crashed against the walls of their fortress-monastery of Holdfast, despite the fact that much of the Chapter was not present as they were away on an Imperial Crusade to determine the truth of their genetic origin.The White Templars' Chapter Master Kruxor Stavro served as the co-commander of the Imperial forces tasked with defending Holdfast. The other was Lord Solar Leontus, who acted as the heart and mind of the fortress-monastery's defence. Stavro served as the defence's blade-wielding fist and led each punishing counter-attack that drove the invading Tyranids back from Holdfast and ensured any breaches the xenos made in the fortress-monastery's walls were sealed.The Imperial Fists and formations from several other Space Marine Chapters had also arrived in orbit of Sanctum in their great mobile fortress-monastery Phalanx to aid the defence of the White Templars homeworld alongside a great battlefleet of the Navis Imperialis intended to hold the xenos enemy at bay for as long as possible.
Hollow Sun - Hollow Sun: Hollow SuncrownworldNecronSuhbekhar DynastyJericho ReachLike many Necron capital worlds, it is a marvel of arcane super-science the likes of which has not been seen in the galaxy for countless millennia.No two crownworlds are alike, each reflecting something of the idiosyncrasies of those it was built to inter, but the Hollow Sun is no mere affectation of a monarch intent upon slumbering away the aeons in gaudy splendour.Rather, it reflects the erstwhile genius of the now-insane Phaeron Ahmontekh, who upon commissioning its construction knew he was ordering his masons to build the impossible. And the impossible they gave him.The Hollow Sun crownworld is, exactly as its name suggests, constructed deep within the raging, nucleonic furnace of a star.The star in question lies at the heart of the Slinnar Drift region of the outer Jericho Reach and bears no outward sign of being any more or less unusual than any of the other countless stars in that vast stellar cluster.
Holo-Field - Holo-Field: A Holo-Field is an integral part of the defensive military technology employed by the starships and vehicles of the Craftworld Aeldari. Unlike the Imperium of Man, which makes use of Warp-powered energy deflectors known as Void Shields to protect its warships and large vehicles like Titans, the Aeldari have chosen to maximise their advantages in speed, stealth and deception when protecting their vehicles and warships.The Aeldari integrate Holo-field emitters into the structure of every one of their vehicles and starships. A Holo-field is a three-dimensional photonic projection created by a computer-controlled network of special laser projectors that create a field of visual distortion around a vehicle or starship.This distortion makes it extremely difficult to target the vehicle or vessel so protected either by using computer-assisted targeting or by eye, since the projection distorts both electronic and physical perception of the actual location of the object generating the Holo-field.Holo-fields are used by the Aeldari at all levels, from the individual Dathedi suits worn by Harlequins, to the shimmering holo-fields of the Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors, to the massive Holo-field emitters protecting their largest starships and ground-based fortifications.Unlike the Imperium's defensive Void Shield technology, a Holo-field is not a true protective force field and only serves to confound targetting sensors. This means that Aeldari personnel and war machines are still vulnerable to fortunate stray shots.While Holo-fields are extremely effective when combined with the hit-and-run tactics favoured by the Aeldari, they are much less so in any protacted engagement. This is because a cunning opponent will quickly resort to barraging the general area of the Aeldari force with artillery and saturating the zone with weapons fire so as to make sure that at least some of the shots strike their elusive targets.
Holo-Suit - Holo-Suit: A Holo-Suit or dathedi (meaning "between colours" in the Aeldari Lexicon) is the trademark psychically activated bodysuit worn exclusively by the enigmatic Aeldari Harlequins in place of the thick armour plates used by less advanced races.In battle, these Holo-Suits transform the Harlequins into dazzling blurs, their outlines exploding into blizzards of light that leave the foe's aim confounded and their thoughts bewildered.The device incorporates a programmable Holo-Field that breaks down the wearer's profile into a fractal lightstorm as they move; the faster they travel, the more pronounced the effect.So it is that a charging Harlequin appears as nothing more than an indistinct, prismatic storm that is nigh-on impossible to hit, allowing them to simply avoid blows that would otherwise lay them low.When a Harlequin Player stops moving his image coalesces back together into a solid image like the pieces of a jigsaw. It is for this reason that Holo-Suits are also known as a "jigsaw" or "domino fields". When the Harlequin stops moving the suit mimics the nearby terrain so that he seems to phase out of view.
Holy Orb of Antioch - Holy Orb of Antioch: An Antioch Orb, known also as a Holy Orb of Antioch, are individually master-crafted, custom grenades empowered with the holy wrath of the Emperor and filled with sacred unguents that burn the faithless with their purity. A Holy Orb of Antioch is among the rarest weapons sacred to the Black Templars Space Marine Chapter. First created several thousand years before by Techmarine Antioch of the Black Templars, they are -- by any measure -- many magnitudes more lethal than the standard grenades available to other Chapters among the Adeptus Astartes. Consecrated oils and sacred acids are blended with compacted explosives, making each incendiary a personal masterpiece, inscribed with its own damnations, blessing and High Gothic mandalas. A grenade will kill the righteous and unrighteous alike, but an Antioch orb will ensure the blasphemous burn in agony as they meet their end. These lethal weapons are proof against the impure and wicked servants of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and the daemons of the Warp.
Holy Orb of Antioch - Trivia: The Holy Orb of Antioch is a weapon that is based upon the visual satire of a type of royal regalia known as the Sovereign's Orb of the United Kingdom. The Sovereign's Orb similarly has a band of jewels running along the centre, and a half-band on the top hemisphere, with a cruciform at the crest. This humorous prop was used by the questing knights in the classic British comedy film, "Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail".
Holy Synod - Holy Synod: The Holy Synod, also  called the Holy Synod of Terra, is the ruling council of the Adeptus Ministorum, also known as the Ecclesiarchy. The Holy Synod is currently based within the Ecclesiarchal Palace on Holy Terra, but at various times in the Imperium's long and tumultuous history has also been based on Ophelia VII, a world in the Segmentum Tempestus, and one of the richest in the Imperium after Terra and Mars.The Holy Synod is led by the ecclesiarch, the high priest of the Imperial Cult, and is comprised of all the cardinals of the Ministorum, each of whom governs a diocese of the Imperium of Man which can vary greatly in size and astrogeographic scope.The Holy Synod not only acts as the governing body of the Adeptus Ministorum, but it is also the final authority in all matters of religious doctrine for the faith of the Imperial Cult. The Holy Synod was created by the reforming Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor in the early 36th Millennium to serve as a check upon the power of the Ecclesiarch.This was needed due to the actions of the renegade High Lord of Terra Goge Vandire, who as Master of the Administratum and ecclesiarch had manipulated the religious faith of the Imperium to achieve political ends in the early 36th Millennium during the period of civil strife in the Age of Apostasy known as the Reign of Blood.The existence of the Holy Synod and its subsidiary organisation, the Synod Ministra, ensures that never again will a High Lord or an Ecclesiarch have total power over the Ecclesiarchy and the powerful state religion of the Imperium.The Holy Synod periodically holds Ecclesiastical Conclaves in which cardinals from all over the Imperium journey to Terra and discuss those issues of the day currently most important to the Ecclesiarchy.As the Holy Synod determines religious policy in the Imperium it is extremely influential in the Imperial government and one or more of the cardinals sitting on the Holy Synod may represent the synod on the Senatorum Imperialis alongside the Ecclesiarch at different times in Imperial history, especially when the reigning ecclesiarch is politically weak.
Holy Synod - Synod Ministra: Alongside the Holy Synod based on Terra, another Ecclesiarchy ruling body known as the Synod Ministra exists on the Cardinal World of Ophelia VII.Although the Holy Synod on Terra remains the supreme governing body of the Ecclesiarchy and the primary authority on the spiritual doctrines of the Imperial Cult, the Synod Ministra acts as a secondary governing body and an alternative source of political power.Located further from Terra, the Synod Ministra relays and disseminates the dictates of the Holy Synod, enforcing the religious laws of the Ecclesiarchy and the Imperium.Secondly, the Synod Ministra provides a defence against the political manipulation of the Ecclesiarchy by other Imperial adepta based on Terra such as the Administratum or even a single individual within the ranks of the Adeptus Ministorum itself.In this way, the existence of the Synod Ministra and the division of Ecclesiarchy power between Holy Terra and Ophelia VII aims to prevent the state church of the Imperium from being used to create a new tyranny in contravention of the Emperor's will like that of Goge Vandire during the Age of Apostasy.
Homing Beacon - Homing Beacon: A Homing Beacon is a multi-spectrum T'au homing device that, when placed and activated, allows a Hunter Cadre’s T'au Battlesuit reinforcements to deploy with pinpoint precision in the immediate area.Homing Beacons are usually only issued to XV25 Stealthsuit pilots with the rank of Shas’vre, Ethereals, and Recon Drones.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Honour Badges (Space Marines): The Honour Badges of the Space Marines are awarded for all manner of heroic deed or worthy action. The principal of awarding badges for honours won in battle has always placed a major role amongst the various fighting forces of the Imperium of Man.Within the Adeptus Astartes such distinctions have become vital in reinforcing the bonds of kinship and common purpose displayed by a Chapter's Battle-Brothers.Some honours are simply painted directly onto the recipient's Power Armour, while others take the form of elaborate carvings inscribed into the armour's ceramite plating.Whatever the form, all are highly regarded by the recipient and his fellow Astartes. Each Space Marine Chapter has its own variations of awards, ennoblements and honour badges, according to its history and traditions. The badges displayed below are amongst the most common accolades and see use in almost all Chapters.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Service Studs: Service Studs are small metallic rivets that are attached directly to an Astartes' cranium to record his years of service to his Chapter. A single stud records, 10, 50 or 100 years of service depending on its design and the Chapter traditions. The awarding of service studs is described in the Codex Astartes but is not set out as an official requirement or regulation of the Chapter. In recent centuries the awarding of service studs has been on the decline and fewer Chapters continue the practice.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Tattoos: Tattoos are not official Chapter honours but traditional markings derived from the Chapter's ancient practices. Some tattoos may even be vestiges of pre-Space Marine tribal markings or gang affiliations.Space Marines are recruited from hundreds of different human cultures so it is no surprise to see this reflected in some Astartes retaining the tattoos, scarification or warpaint of their homeworld culture.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Army Campaign Badges: Space Marines often find themselves going into battle alongside other Imperial forces. The massed ranks of the Astra Militarum form the major portion of any allied contingent of Imperial forces and include huge tank divisions as well as enormous numbers of foot soldiers.When an army of the Imperium goes to war it is standard practice for the Imperial Commander or general to choose a symbol to act as a campaign badge in accordance with the regulations set down in the Codex Astartes.This "field sign" is known as the Army Badge and serves to identify all the troops and equipment that are operating under a single command for a single campaign and helps with recognition of friendly units on the field of battle.The Army Badge is painted on Space Marine Power Armour and Astra Militarum vehicles alike. Each time a Space Marine applies the badge the recipient receives a blessing from the company Chaplain or from an attached member of the Imperial Ecclesiarchy if serving alongside one of the other Imperial armed forces.The Army Badge is deliberately designed to be quite straightforward and is an instantly recognisable symbol that functions as a battlefield identification. Space Marines generally apply the Army Badge to their right leg greave.The Army Badge is generally used for the duration of a single campaign and is removed or replaced at the successful conclusion of the campaign. If a squad, regiment or indeed an individual warrior has performed exceptionally in the campaign, the Army Badge may be incorporated onto their armour, uniform or heraldry as a permanent honour.This is particularly true of banners and standards and many of the lavish designs seen on Chapter, company and individual Astartes banners are, in part, derived from the Army Badges of previous campaigns.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Individual Chapter Honour Badges: Within the various Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, there exists a diverse assortment of honour badges, icons, titles and fetishes that are used to recognise Battle-Brothers of a specific Chapter. Below are just a few of these drawn from a wide variety of Chapters of every lineage.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Blood Drop Pendants: These ornaments are representations of the Blood Angels' Chapter symbol and the blood of Sanguinius that runs through their collective veins.Some are literally filled with the Battle-Brother's own precious blood, while others are jewelled or crystalline representations. They are most often, but not always, worn around the neck.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Death Mask: Fashioned from the likenesses of the fallen, Blood Angel heroes wear Death Masks both to honour the dead and strike terror into their foes. There can be no denying their power when one sees the coruscating golden energy arcing across the mask's surface and the baleful light shining from its eyes.A Death Mask is worn over a Battle-Brother's helmet and provides no additional protection. These same death masks are also worn by members of the Sanguinary Guard which crackle terrifying haloes of golden light. The Machine Spirit of each mask bonds closely with its wearer, its loyalty to him absolute.When a Sanguinary Guard falls in battle, his death mask is removed with much ceremony and placed within the "Sarcophagus of Sorrows" on Baal. The mask is left in its dark tomb for seven solar days and seven nights, by the end of which it will have taken on the stylised features of its former wearer.These transformations are claimed by the Blood Angels to be miracles, and none has ever proven otherwise.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Glaives Encarmine: Glaives Encarmine are broad two-handed blades wielded by the Sanguinary Guard. Each Glaive Encarmine is a Chapter relic in its own right. Indeed, some of these venerable weapons have been in service since before the Horus Heresy.Crafted long ago by using forgotten methods and techniques, few weapons in the Blood Angels armouries approach the elegance and mastery of manufacture embodied in the Glaives Encarmine.Forged from an alloy known as "angelsteel," whose secrets are known only to the artificers of the Blood Angels, these blades never scratch, warp or break, no matter what violence they are subjected to.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Golden Icons: Blood Angels frequently hang sacred gilded icons on their armour or from their belts. The exact form of these items varies, but they are considered a display of devotion as well as serving as a focus for spiritual meditation.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Blades of Caliban: The Blades of Caliban are Dark Angels Chapter relics and each has its own honourable heritage. Only the Champions of each company, having performed heroic and faultless duty, earn the right to wield one of these unique Power Swords.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Ceremonial Swords: Dark Angels frequently carry mundane swords with winged hilts in the ancient Calibanite style in echo of their Chapter badge. These weapons are used more for ceremony than in combat, but they are perfectly functional weapons should the Battle-Brother have reason to draw one.They are carried either in addition to, or in lieu of, a Combat Knife depending on the individual's preferences.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Weapon Charms: Among the elite Deathwing, Veteran Battle-Brothers sometimes adorn their weapons with fetishes, bird feathers and charms, in respect for their ancient ancestors and the roots of their brotherhood.These fetishes seem to appease the Machine Spirits of their weapons and connect them more strongly to the Battle-Brother, making them as reliable and unrelenting as the Deathwing themselves.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Chronicles of the Death-Speakers: An into the Chapter's archives is considered a high honour in this Chapter.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Order of Martyrdom: Awarded for an extreme act of sacrifice on behalf of one's fellow battle-brothers.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Enemy of Valour: This is the only known honour to be granted to enemy combatants by a Space Marine Chapter.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Medallion Immolatus: The purpose of this award is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Ossific Relics: Many Imperial Fists bear small tokens of lost Battle-Brothers, engraving their bones with descriptions of their deeds so that they may never be forgotten and will live on forever.Ossific Relics take the form of small bones, normally finger or hand bones, carried in a small pouch near the Battle-Brother's heart, or sometimes on a chain around his neck or wrist.Far from grisly or barbaric, this practice is the ultimate act of remembrance for an Imperial Fist, and the relics of his fallen brethren are his most valued possessions.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Artificer Bionics: The Iron Hands are masters of bionics and often replace undamaged limbs with cybernetics to enhance themselves with greater strength, speed, or endurance.Artificer Bionics represent the height of this craft and the greatest examples of cybernetics available to the forces of the Imperium.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Eusippus: A Eusippus is a copper urn that contains the cremated remains of a slain Battle-Brother. When the Iron Snakes Chapter returns to their homeworld of Ithaka, the senior-most Battle-Brother in the squad of the deceased performs the sacred duty of unscrewing the lids and the gray ash is shaken out. The fallen's remains are sieved away into the wind and returned like the water to the sea.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Lifewater Flask: Lifewater Flasks are small copper flasks that contain the lifewater of the Chapter's homeworld of Ithaka, carried by every memeber of the Chapter to anoint every planet that they step foot on in a ritual ceremony. When they return to their homeworld, the remaining water in these vials is given back to the oceans.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Scrolls of Merit: A Scroll of Merit is a scroll of paper with prepared statements carried by a fallen Iron Snakes Astartes' squad leader that contain the written account about the valiant dead's life, actions and death. These are sealed and ready to be placed within the archives of the Chapter House.Often these scrolls also contain full orders of merit laying out the full details and particulars of an Iron Snakes battle-brother's service with the Chapter as well as all of the commendations and decorations he has earned.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Writ Sanguinatus Mori: The purpose of this honour is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Sigil of Prophecy: The purpose of this honour is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Order of the Sundering Star: The purpose of this honour is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Bloody Mantle: The purpose of this honour is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Red Hand: The purpose of this honour is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Novamarines: Order of GuillimanThe purpose of this honour is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Tenebrae Astra: The purpose of this honour is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Corvia: As a form of meditation or spirit quest, during their initiation all Raven Guard neophytes are tasked with hunting the tiny ravens native to the forests of Kiavahr. It takes solar months of training and practice for recruits to sneak up on the small and alert birds, grabbing them in their bare hands and snapping their necks.The skulls of these birds are then worn as small totems hanging from a Battle-Brother's belt on small chains. These totems are known as Corvia in High Gothic and represent a warrior's honour.Should a Battle-Brother fall, one of his surviving comrades will recover his Corvia and proudly carry it, and thus the fallen warrior's honour, into battle until he can return it to Kiavahr and bury the small skulls in the soil of their Chapter's homeworld.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Salamander's Mantle: The earliest Imperial records speak of durable cloaks crafted from the skins of the lava salamanders native to Nocturne. Known as a Salamander's Mantle, these scaled cloaks are worn by heroes of the Salamanders Chapter.In addition to the status granted by wearing such a mantle, the scales of the Nocturnean salamanders also provide unrivalled protection against fire. Later this technology spread in the form of Adamantine Mantles to many other Space Marine Chapters.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Citation of Fortitude: The purpose of this honour for the Sons of Medusa is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Belts of Russ: Each Space Wolves Great Company has in its Armoury a single Belt of Russ. These are powerful girdles incorporating potent gravitic force fields that protect the wearer.Forged by the master Iron Priest Stef Blacksoul after the disappearance of Russ, these belts are important relics of the Chapter.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Great Wolf Pelt: Among the wargear of the Space Wolves are wolf pelts from some of the greatest Fenrisian Wolves that have served the Chapter. Some of these pelts are large even for a Space Marine, trailing behind them and hanging over their armour like a tide of fur.A Battle-Brother wearing such a pelt honours the memory of the wolf by carrying it once more into battle.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Runic Totems: |The Space Wolves have many traditions that are unique to their Chapter, and at the heart of Fenrisian mysticism stand the Rune Priests.Using their arcane arts they craft rune totems to call upon the powers of Fenris' mythic beasts, and Space Wolves fiercely believe that these talismans can lend the bearer power from the spirit whose name is inscribed upon it.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Wolf Pelt: Fenrisian Wolves are renowned across the galaxy for their viciousness. They are respected creatures, and greatly entwined with Space Wolf beliefs.Unarmed hunting rituals exist on Fenris to prove a warrior's prowess. Should a Battle-Brother succeed on such a hunt, he typically displays the pelt of the animal thereafter.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Wolf Tooth Necklace: Created from the teeth of Fenrisian Wolves, a Wolf Tooth Necklace is reputed to grant the wearer strength and ferocity in combat like that of the wolf it was taken from.Whether or not there is any true power in such tokens (like those talismans crafted by the Chapter's Rune Priests), the effects on a Space Wolves Battle-Brother's morale and ferocity cannot be denied.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Laurel of Endurance: The purpose of this honour is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Pennant Specularis: The purpose of this honour is unknown.
Honour Badges (Space Marines) - Aquila: The Aquila is an honour badge proclaiming great wisdom among the Ultramarines. This badge is a miniature representation of the Emperor's own Imperial double-headed eagle.