vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Wych Cults - Wargear: Wychsuit - Wyches wear flexible bodysuits called Wychsuits that have been designed to protect one side of the body –- usually the side they habitually turn towards their opponents –- whilst not impeding movement at all.Splinter Pistol - Splinter Weapons like the Splinter Pistol fire shards of splintered crystal covered in incredibly potent toxins using a powerful magno-electric pulse.Drukhari Close Combat Weapon - A Wych can wield any number of favoured Drukhari close combat weapons. See Drukhari Wargear for more information.Plasma Grenades - The Asuryani and Drukhari use Plasma Grenades in place of the more crudely designed Frag Grenades used by the Imperium. Plasma Grenades use a small amount of exploding plasma to blind the enemy and prevent them from properly using their terrain to defend their position against advancing enemy forces.
Wych Cults - Sources: Codex: Dark Eldar (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pg. 9Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition), pg. 27Codex: Dark Eldar (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 15-16, 21, 49-55, 57, 61, 63, 65-70, 85, 93, 98, 115, 148-149, 161-162, 227Only War: Enemies of the Imperium (RPG), pg. 84Rogue Trader: The Soul Reaver (RPG), pp. 11-12, 121Lukas the Trickster (Novel) by Josh Reynolds, Ch. 7
Wyrdvane Psyker - Wyrdvane Psyker: A Wyrdvane Psyker is a human Sanctioned Psyker who does not have complete control of his or her powers but has been assigned for service to the regiments of the Astra Militarum. Wyrdvane Psykers transform the howling might of the Warp into a deadly weapon of Imperial supremacy.Wyrdvane Psyker squads are formed from those Scholastica Psykana inductees not able to control their burgeoning powers without guidance and aid. Some have not yet completed the gruelling training to become a Primaris Psyker.Others will never achieve that goal, introverted beyond rescue by the horrors of their own minds. As individuals, such psykers are unpredictable and unsafe. Yet in concert, these deadly mutants can be a valuable asset to an Imperial Guard unit on the battlefield.
Wyrdvane Psyker - Role: Eerily attuned to one another, Wyrdvane Psykers draw strength from communion, linking their thoughts to better slaughter the foes of Mankind. Corposant lightning crackles around them as they marshal their powers, moans and wails spill from their lips, tangled amid stringy ropes of vomited ectoplasm.Armoured battle tanks buckle inwards as the psykers focus their power, crumpling upon their horrified crews like a ration-pack in an Ogryn's fist. Heretics are incinerated amid billowing clouds of psychic flame, domes of protective telekinetic force enfold quivering allied Guardsmen, while pervasive many-voiced whispers talk warriors into madness or horrified self-destruction.Only once a choir of Wyrdvane Psykers have proven their ability to work as a controlled, cohesive whole will they be permitted to take to the field unsupervised. The psykers are formed into potential squads based on the omens of the Emperor's Tarot, and must endure numerous inhumane tests before they are declared battle-ready. They must demonstrate their ability to guard one another's minds, to stabilise their companions' more volatile powers and enhance those that flounder or fail.Many will not survive the trials to which they are subjected, and even those that do are still destined to be treated with fear, revulsion and mistrust by their fellow Guardsmen. Many commanders will leave a Commissar or two in close proximity to a group of Battle Psykers, just to be safe.Horror stories abound amongst the Astra Militarum of Wyrdvane Psykers bursting spontaneously into flame in the midst of battle, or else becoming possessed by terrible entities and slaughtering friend and foe alike. However, the Scholastica Psykana's screening stamps out many such potential disasters before they can occur, and for every uncontrolled explosion of Warp energy there are a dozen battles where the Wyrdvanes prove their worth.Insular in the extreme, squads of Wyrdvane Psykers are only too aware of their comrades' superstitious disgust. Yet for all this, they are loyal and dedicated soldiers of the Imperium, risking their very souls to fight in defence of the Emperor's realm.Indeed, while most officers would be loathe to admit it, a squad or two of Wyrdvane Psykers is often worth several times their number of "proper" Imperial Guardsmen, and as Humanity's psychic potential squirms ever closer to the surface, Wyrdvane Psykers have become an increasingly common presence in Astra Militarum regiments of the 41st Millennium.Indeed, as the hour darkens and Mankind's cause becomes ever more desperate, some whisper darkly that these dangerous mutants may one day replace good honest soldiers altogether.
Wyrdvane Psyker - Psychic Abilities: The psykers who accompany the soldiery of the Astra Militarum perform a variety of battlefield roles, but each one is a deadly tool of war. Whether channelling the energies of the Warp to protect and embolden their allies, or to confound and destroy the foe, each commands powers capable of turning the tide of battle.
Wyrdvane Psyker - Psykana Discipline: Terrifying Visions - The psyker fills his enemies' minds with nightmarish images and visions of torment, seeking to send them fleeing in terror.Gaze of the Emperor - The psyker cages the immense power of the Immaterium within his physical form, and his eyes blaze with the Emperor's vengeful fury, unleashing pure psychic energy to smite the Master of Mankind's foes.Psychic Barrier - The psyker weaves an aegis of pure psychic energy around his allies, against which enemy fire sparks and spatters harmlessly.Nightshroud - Calling upon the power of the Empyrean, the psyker cloaks his allies in a flowing curtain of shadow, concealing them from the enemy.Mental Fortitude - Drawing on boundless reserves of inner strength, the psyker shields his allies' minds from mortal fears and the threat of sorcerous assault, dramatically improving morale.Psychic Maelstrom - The psyker unleashes the full telekinetic might of his mind, summoning a roiling psychic tempest that envelops his enemy, lifting them from the ground and wrenching them about like a rag doll.
Wyrdvane Psyker - Biomancy Discipline: Biomancers specialise in manipulating biological energy and processes with the power of their minds. They are masters of the flesh, learning to shape and influence the physical forms of themselves, their allies or their enemies, according to their will.Smite - Lethal bolts of bio-lightning leap from the psyker's fingertips, tearing his foes apart.Iron Arm - By transmuting his flesh into living metal, the biomancer can wade through enemy fire unscathed and pulp skulls with his bare fists.Enfeeble - As the psyker channels his powers, tendrils of Warp energy lash over his victims, every caress sapping vitality from their bodies.Endurance - Reaching into the essence of his allies, the biomancer knits together bones, heals flesh and banishes fatigue so that they carry on the fight.Life Leech - With a twist of his gnarled hands, the wrathful psyker rips the life force from his enemy, hoarding the stolen essence and using it to reinvigorate and restore his own injured flesh.Warp Speed - The powers of the Immaterium flow into the psyker, heightening his speed to supernatural levels. A blur is he amongst his enemies, felling the unrighteous with blows too swift to see.Haemorrhage - Focussing his mutant mind, the psyker reaches forth and sets a fire within his victim's flesh. Within moments, the unfortunate foe's blood begins to boil in its own veins, tearing him asunder as it bursts from every pore.
Wyrdvane Psyker - Divination Discipline: Diviners seek to discern the hidden past of the galaxy and know the course of events yet to come. These abilities allow diviners to look into the twisting strands of the Immaterium in search of the answers they seek, and sometimes even influence the outcome of fate itself.Prescience - The psyker can effortlessly predict the paths of bullets and swords. By focussing his Warp-sight even more closely, he can guide his allies' aim, bringing a swift and merciless death to their foes.Foreboding - Thanks to his Warp-gifted insights, the psyker and his allies are aware that their foes are about to charge, even before the foes themselves have realised it.Misfortune - With a click of his fingers, the diviner twists fate so that his followers' blows punch through the weakest points in their opponents' armour.Perfect Timing - As soon as his consciousness pierces the veil of the Warp, a rush of images floods the diviner's mind, foretelling the actions of his enemies, down to the merest microsecond. Armed with this information, the diviner's allies can predict exactly when their foes will peer out from behind cover and expose themselves to a lethal head shot.Precognition - Having already witnessed the one true path to victory, the diviner strides across the battlefield like an avenging god of war. Whilst the premonitions run true, he is all but undefeatable, proof against bullet and bolt, blade and bombardment. However, should his self-wrought prophecies fade, or turn false, he will surely be doomed to ignominious defeat.Scrier's Gaze - The diviner can see the battlefield clearly in his mind's eye, with the vantage point of a hunting hawk and the precision of a laser. The to and fro of armies and war machines is but the scurrying of ants beneath his omniscient gaze. Thus can the diviner direct exactly when and where they are most needed, leaving no clue behind as to how this trickery was achieved.
Wyrdvane Psyker - Pyromancy Discipline: A pyromancer is a master of fire and flame, a psyker who is able to create searing infernos out of thin air. Pyromancy is one of the most spectacular and destructive forms of psychic ability, and those who face a pyromancer in combat are oft reduced to nought but a pile of charred bones.Flame Breath - A torrent of psychically-generated flames pour forth from the psyker's eyes and mouth, engulfing the target.Fiery Form - Bullets and shells pass straight through the pyromancer as he transforms into an incandescent being of living Warpfire, striking out at his foes and setting their souls ablaze.Fire Shield - With a sweep of his arms the psyker throws up a towering wall of flame to protect his allies.Spontaneous Combustion - Focussing his anger, the pyromancer can melt or incinerate his foes in a heartbeat. Yet when his rage boils over, the unfortunate victim's body explodes in a blast of ash and roaring flame. Who can say how many will fall victim to his wrath before it is sated?Sunburst - The psyker sings a wild song whose notes were old when the universe was young. As he does so, an incandescent aura appears about him, growing ever brighter and hotter with every refrain. Only when the song is ended does the aura explode, discharging its pent-up fury in a blinding, supernoval flash.Molten Beam - The pyromancer claps his hands together and turns them outward towards the foe. As he does so, a white-hot beam of blazing energy bursts from his palms. It melts armour to slag and vaporises flesh, leaving only ghastly shadows in its wake.
Wyrdvane Psyker - Telekinesis Discipline: Telekines are able to manipulate the material world with the power of their minds, translating sheer mental power into physical force. These psykers can lash their foes with psychic energy, erect invisible force shields to protect themselves and even rend apart the fabric of reality.Assail - Using nothing but the power of his mind, the psyker tears a boulder or rock from the ground and hurls it at the foe.Crush - By reaching out his arm and clenching his fist, the psyker entraps his foe in a choking and crushing mass of psychic force. Gritting his teeth, the psyker continues the assault until flesh, armour and bone alike are ground to powder.Gate of Infinity - The psyker punches a corridor through the roiling Immaterium, allowing him to cross great distances in the blink of an eye.Objuration Mechanicum - Weapons jam and engines seize up as the telekine uses his powers to wrench and twist the inner workings at the hearts of nearby machines.Shockwave - The psyker slams his palms together and the noise is magnified a hundredfold, releasing a shockwave that snaps bones and knocks foes off their feet.Telekine Dome - Bullets bounce off of thin air and are deflected alarmingly towards friendly forces as the psyker erects a barrier of shimmering psychic energy about himself.Vortex of Doom - The telekine opens a tear between the material realm and the howling destruction of the Warp, unleashing energies that utterly consume his foes.
Wyrdvane Psyker - Unit Composition: 3-9 Wyrdvane Psykers
Wyrdvane Psyker - Wargear: Flak ArmourLaspistolWyrdvane StaveChimera or Taurox as dedicated transport
Wyrms of the Ur-tendril - Wyrms of the Ur-tendril: The Wyrms of the Ur-tendril are a Genestealer Cult that was discovered to the horror of the Adeptus Custodes to be infesting the throneworld of the Imperium, Terra itself.
Wyrms of the Ur-tendril - History: In the days just before the birth of the Great Rift in the late 41st Millennium, a Genestealer Cult calling themselves the Wyrms of the Ur-tendril were discovered by Ordo Xenos agents, entrenched amongst the Nordafrik under-archives on Terra.Adeptus Custodes Captain-General Trajann Valoris refused a request by the Deathwatch to send Kill-teams against this threat, instead leading the purge in person at the head of a huge Adeptus Custodes Shield Host.The cult put up a brutal fight, their sheer numbers and fanaticism allowing them to drag down one Custodian after another and tear them limb from limb. Yet for every one of the Custodians that fell, hundreds upon hundreds of malformed cultists and Aberrants were slaughtered.At last, Valoris himself beheaded the monstrous Broodlord that ruled over the cult. He ordered the creature's disturbing inner sanctum burned despite the protests from the Ordo Xenos investigators -- Valoris refused to let anyone other than his comrades witness the foul mural that decorated the sanctum's back wall, of a nest of fanged tendrils emerging from the heart of Sol itself to devour Terra whole...
Wyvern - Wyvern: The Wyvern Suppression Tank, more often known simply as the Wyvern, is a short-range, self-propelled artillery piece of the Astra Militarum.The Wyvern is a variant of the Hydra Flak Tank, exchanging the Hydra's anti-aircraft Hydra Autocannons for a pair of twin-linked Stormshard Mortars.While it lacks the range and raw power of the Basilisk's Earthshaker Cannon, this ordnance tank was designed for the claustrophobic environment of urban warfare, its weapon system capable of raining down curtains of shrapnel upon enemy infantry without ever exposing itself to danger.The Wyvern uses a bastardised version of the Hydra's advanced auto-targeting system that constantly runs proximity sweeps of the area for concentrations of enemy infantry. The Machine Spirits (artificial intelligences) of these vehicles are renowned for their malicious nature, as they actively seek the most tightly-packed or vulnerable grouping of enemy infantry and strain to target them, sometimes even overriding the commands of their crews.When the artillery piece does fire, its Stormshard Mortars emit a distinctive roar as they spew clouds of shells high into the air. The sound of these weapons firing becomes the dread of enemy forces facing batteries of Wyverns in dense urban areas, for it is inevitably followed by the sound of those same shells descending with crackling booms as they detonate, and the harrowing scream of the maimed and dying left in their wake.In a galaxy where many of Mankind's enemies leave the soldiers of the Imperial Guard with a feeling of powerlessness and inadequacy, such a vindictive weapon is extremely popular amongst them.There are few things that can restore a Guardsman's faith like watching arrogant Aeldari or terrifying Daemons reduced to piles of bloody, frantic madness by the shelling of a Wyvern artillery battery.The Wyvern is worth its weight in gold for this spectacle alone, not only being devastating to the enemy's forces but improving morale by reducing them to a powerless, terrified mass as they die.The Wyvern is a very versatile artillery vehicle, as whole batteries of them can rain oblivion upon the foe or they can be attached in small numbers to other formations. A single Wyvern can provide an Imperial infantry platoon with close-range fire support, fending off wave after wave of enemy forces who might otherwise overrun the Guardsmen that it is supporting.When deployed with other formations, a Wyvern can keep enemy infantry from advancing upon vulnerable areas such as flanks and the rear. Even ultra-fast moving targets such as Aeldari Jetbikes can find themselves cut to pieces by experienced Wyvern crews.Each successful kill elicits a growl of satisfaction from the Wyvern's malicious and bloodthirsty Machine Spirit, even as its sensors hunt for its next victim.
Wyvern - Armament: The Wyvern is armed with a pair of turret-mounted, twin-linked Stormshard Mortars. Specialising in close-range saturation bombing, the Wyvern fills a very different battlefield role from other Imperial artillery vehicles like the long-range Basilisk or the heavy firepower of the Bombard.Although the Wyvern lacks the necessary firepower to effectively engage enemy armoured vehicles, they do excel at generating an all-consuming storm of shrapnel from which there is no escape.A battery of these tanks can fill a street from end to end with whistling, razor-edged death, relentlessly pounding enemy infantry until nothing remains but bloody mulch and drifting smoke. The shells from the Stormshard Mortars explode above their targets, ensuring their victims have nowhere to hide that their airbursting rounds cannot reach.The shrapnel from the Stormshard Mortar can tear undergrowth to shreds, flakboard and barricades are completely perforated, and craters and trenches are turned into deathtraps. The Wyvern can strike directly at concentrations of enemy infantry in order to clear paths for allied troops, or spread their fire out in an "area denial" bombardment that forces even the most tenacious defenders to abandon their posts or die.The Wyvern is also armed with a single, hull-mounted Heavy Bolter or Heavy Flamer for defence. The vehicle can be outfitted with a Searchlight, Smoke Launchers, an enclosed crew compartment, relic plating, a Dozer Blade, a recovery gear, Extra Armour Plating, fire barrels, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Camouflage Netting, and an Augur array.
Wyvern - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: Wyvern Suppression TankVehicle Name:WyvernMain Armament:Turret-mounted twin-linked Stormshard MortarsForge World of Origin:UnknownSecondary Armament:Hull-mounted Heavy BolterKnown Patterns:UnknownTraverse:360 degreesCrew:UnknownElevation:0 to 79 degreesPowerplant:Vulcanor 16 Twin-Coupled Multi-BurnMain Ammunition:UnknownWeight:38 Tonnes (Approx.)Secondary Ammunition:300 RoundsLength:5.29 metres (Approx.)Armour:Width:3.78 metres (Approx.)Height:5.10 metres (Approx.)Superstructure:100 millimetres (Approx.)Ground Clearance:0.45 metres (Approx.)Hull:150 millimetres (Approx.)Max Speed On-Road:50 kilometres per hour (Approx.)Gun Mantlet:N/AMax Speed Off-Road:35 kilometres per hour (Approx.)Vehicle Designation:UnknownTransport Capacity:N/AFiring Ports:N/AAccess Points:N/ATurret:N/A
Wyvern - Sources: Codex: Astra Militarum (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), "Wyverns," "Heavy Support-Wyvern Battery"Codex: Astra Militarum (8th Edition), pp. 46, 110Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard (Second Edition), pp. 9, 175-179, 262-263, 267 (Technical Specifications Same as Hydra)
Xana II - Xana II: Xana II is a Hell-Forge of the Dark Mechanicum that was once a powerful and isolated Forge World of the ancient Mechanicum, whose capable forges and facilities were unmatched in its region of the galaxy. Xana II is particularly known for supplying the Hell Blade and Hell Talon attack craft to the forces of Chaos.The Primaris-grade Forge World of Xana II was originally located in the Vicidax Thule Sector which lay on the very edge of the western galactic reach of the Segmentum Pacificus.Long the subject of sinister rumour concerning its finding and inclusion in the Imperium of Man during one of the darkest episodes of the Great Crusade's early history, Xana's masters were notoriously independent and politically long-estranged from Mars. Xana II's privilege was bought largely with the vast outpourings of its forges to fuel and arm the ongoing Great Crusade, and expediency was the mother of the pace which brought the Forge World into the Imperium by negotiation with the emissaries of the Emperor, rather than the full auspices of Mars.While the forges of distant Xana issued forth provender and munitions in vast quantities, it was largely left alone.During the First Rangdan Xenocide Imperial forces rallied at Xana before they moved to throw back the assault of the vicious xenos known as the Rangda.As the Horus Heresy suddenly and bloodily unfolded, Xana II's isolation only increased and it was a situation its ruling synod of magi, known as the Vodian Consistory, did little to attempt to outwardly alleviate. They chose initially neither faction to favour, avowing, at least publicly, that the matter was an "internal matter of the Great Crusade's military" in which they had no direct involvement.As the civil war went on with no clear avenue of victory in sight, both sides looked to the increasingly bellicose and active Forge World of Xana II with renewed interest.In their years of isolation following the war's outbreak, the forges of Xana had not been idle and evidence began to amass that a vast and well-guarded stockpile of munitions and war machines had been built up in the system, and readied as if for shipment to a client, but to what end or to whom remained unclear. Eventually, Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion and Praetorian of Terra, made an open proclamation declaring the Forge World of Xana II Traitoris Perdita and under sentence of death.At the same time, covert entreaties were made via intermediaries of Malcador the Sigillite for the remission of this sentence in return for absolute allegiance and the deliverance of stockpiles of war materiel immediately to the Loyalists' defensive build-up in the Segmentum Solar.The Warmaster Horus, however, was to offer a more subtle and honeyed bargain, which would inevitably lead to Xana II's downfall, and ultimately, they would become the first of the so-called Hell-Forges of the Warpsmiths of Chaos.
Xana II - The Feathered Messenger: The first ambassador sent by Horus to Xana after Rogal Dorn's judgement of it in rebellion was an unexpected one. Assessing perhaps correctly that an overt show of empty force would avail him nothing at this time and that a Priest of Mars would be even less welcome on Xana than one of his warlords, Horus had instead sent one of the lodge priests of Davin. Identified by Loyalist agents as one "Unvacar Noon," an individual bedecked in strange feathered raiment and the bones of the dead, he offered the Lords of Xana more than threats and intimidation; on behalf of his master, he offered power.Much as with Sarum and Cyclothrathe, other "Renegade" Forge Worlds distrustful of Mars that the Warmaster had enticed into his cause with the lure of petty empire-building and freedom of experimentation, he offered a new treaty of alliance whose accords Xana's ruling Vodian Consistory would find more to their liking than the old. By this new pact Xana would serve his "new Imperium" just as it had the old, but where they had been used and bled dry callously in the past by a master who cared nothing for their power or prosperity, under Horus they would flourish and be rewarded.Gone would be the petty restrictions of the Emperor's technological edicts -- blocks put in place to avert the spectre of the terrors of Old Night -- and gone would be the dead hand of Machine Cult dogma -- if they so desired, so long as they offered up their weapons and war machines to the Traitors' cause with abundance. The details would prove more torturous and elaborate to finalise, but in secret an agreement was reached, even while in false faith the Lords of Xana continued to equally secretly deal with Malcador the Sigillite's emissaries to the contrary. So the Archmagi of the Vodian Consistory sought to play one side against the other, right to the bitter end.
Xana II - Xana Incursion: In 009.M31 a desperate campaign, which came to be known as the Xana Incursion, was conducted by Legiones Astartes Blackshield irregular forces as well as a small force of Dark Angels against the recalcitrant Forge World of Xana II. Intelligence had reached Terra that the Renegade Forge World on the western fringe of the Imperium had reached an accord with the Traitor forces to supply the Warmaster's armies with vast output of arms and material. The bargain was to be sealed with the delivery by Xana of a number of newly-created powerful Ordinatus-class weapons undergoing final field tests.In what was effectively a suicide mission, a handpicked force of Astartes, including many Blackshields -- in this case Space Marines who had chosen to remain loyal despite their parent Legion's treachery -- was despatched under great secrecy to destroy the war machines and drive a wedge between Xana and the Traitors. Two Ordinatii were captured by the Loyalist force and evacuated from the surface of Xana-Tisiphone, to be maintained and utilised by Loyalist Tech-magi in latter campaigns of the Heresy.It is believed the Loyalists would use to the weapons to their own ends during the Titandeath and the Siege of Terra itself, although the true gains of this victory or whether they were worth the great cost it took to achieve them is a judgement none can now make. Of equal enigma was the means by which the victory was gained, and in particular the true nature of the "army of the fallen," which was used to such lethal effect in the seemingly suicidal attack on the Forge World itself.Ultimately, the alliance of Xana II with the Traitors' cause had not been thwarted, only delayed by years, and perhaps that was enough. The Xana which was rapidly rebuilt and re-fortified and finally began to supply the Traitors with a great perfusion of ever stranger and more savage war machines in the Horus Heresy's final years -- a true example of what became known as the Dark Mechanicum -- was hardly recognisable from what had gone before and charged a heavy price for its support.There are some who have gone so far as to opine that in toppling Xana's existing ruling synod, the Vodian Consistory being murderously deposed from within the Forge World's own ranks soon after the Loyalist incursion, caused a far darker and more dangerous order of masters to come forth. And that they took what was left on the battlefield and used it for their own infernal ends, meant it was the Imperium's own deceit and savage weapons that gave rise to the nightmare that was to come.
Xana II - Post-Heresy: When the Heresy failed during the final epic conclusion at the Siege of Terra, through unknown means, the Xanite Mechanicum somehow were able to flee the wrath of the Loyalists, and move their entire world into the hellish realms of the Eye of Terror.Fully corrupted by the Ruinous Powers, Xana II became one of the first Hell-Forges, wholly given over to Daemon Engines and infernal industries, where mills grind flesh and suffering to make the insane visions of its nightmarish masters real.The oldest reference to the Hell-Forge of Xana II appears in the introit to the final volume of the writings of the cursed Heretic archivist of the Gethsamane Reclusium, purporting to catalogue certain terrors that lurk within the Eye of Terror beyond the ken of mortal savant and beyond the reach of even the keenest of assassin's blades.Countless millions are enslaved to toil endlessly in a world-spanning network of labyrinthine forges, churning out an infinite supply of weapons and armaments for the Traitor Legions' Long War. The masters of Xana II, said to be half-daemon machines themselves, have long since left the shreds of their humanity behind and are beholden to no one, be they mortal or Chaos God.They are willing to sell or barter their unholy inventions and arms to the highest bidder, be they warlord, demagogue, Chaos Sorcerer or Daemon Prince without favour, and their coin of exchange is always the same: raw materials and the flesh of new slaves to feed Xana's endless hunger.Xana II seems to be the source of attack craft frequently utilised within the baleful energies of the Eye of Terror, as craft matching the descriptions of the Hell Blade and the Hell Talon have been sighted in war zones across the galaxy, suggesting that its masters -- themselves known to be singular hybrids of man, machine and Daemon -- have established bonds with Chaos factions across the void and are supplying them with weapons and materiel to their own ends. Xana II is also rumoured to be the source of the Idolator-class Raider.To date, the greatest concentration of Chaos attack craft Imperial forces have faced was at the infamous Siege of Vraks, but recent confessions extracted from captured Hereteks suggest a mustering of unprecedented scale beyond the Cadian Gate in preparation for Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade.
Xana II - Planetary Information (Pre-Heresy): Before its corruption by Chaos, Xana II was a Terrestrial-type world which despite its long-term inhabitation and exploitation by the Mechanicum [See addendum-record ref/ chronological dating anomaly of founding], had retained a viable, albeit reduced, biosphere and sustained native and transplanted life (including chthonic megafauna), although with high degrees of environmental toxicity.The planet's surface comprised approximately 52% high-salinity ocean, with the remaining land mass broken up into sixteen primary formations and numerous islands and archipelagos. The prevailing topography was varied, with swamp glades near the equatorial regions giving way to areas predominately of tundra and taiga towards the polar regions.The Mechanicum's presence on the world was notably dispersed, with only some 17% of the surface dominated by artificial structures, with the vast majority of the planet's forge-fanes, production, dormitory and storage facilities located under the planet's surface in both subterranean and sub-oceanic vaults. These distinctly located geographical forges, each of which operated under considerable autonomy, were linked by a vast sub-surface network of natural caverns, played-out mineworks and deliberately-created tunnels of unknown extent and complexity.As well as Xana's mass-manufacturing and technological capability, which was unmatched on the western fringe of the Imperium, it is also of note that thanks to its tenacious biosphere, which may evidence specific evolution or artificial adaptation to endure industrial toxicity, an ecology which included extensive subterranean flora, Xana, unlike most Forge Worlds, was fully self-sufficient in agricultural need.This sustaining factor, along with the inherently protected nature of its planetary infrastructure, made Xana II a remarkably independent and highly defensible example of a Forge World of its magnitude, although data harvested by the Carta Imperialis survey of the late 30th Millennium also suggested that most of the planet's resources had been exhausted and consumed, making its manufactoria dependent on off-world supply to sustain full output.
Xana II - Xana System Planets: Xana I - A macro-magnitude gas giant, which the Forge World of Xana II orbited. The Xanthine Mechanicum possessed extensive mobile sub-faculties in the form of void and gas-mining installations scattered throughout the debris belts and turbulent atmosphere of Xana I. The debris belt of Xana I also possessed potent and deadly macro-conveyers that could unleash fiery death upon any unwanted vessels that entered their proximity.Xana II - A potent and storied example of its kind, the Forge World of Xana II was located on the very far tip of the galactic arm of the western fringe, known as the "Occidentem Thule."Xana-Tisiphone - Another moon of Xana I that served as Xana II's proving grounds and penal colony and which had originally orbited the Xana-Vicidex star as Xana V before being moved to its present position as Xana I's satellite.
Xana II - Notable Locations: Escorial - One of Xana II's major forge-fanes, as well as a sister forge-fane of Tephra, Escorial suffered significant damage during the Xana Incursion of the Horus Heresy, but not to the extent that Tephra did. The damage was widely diffused, the enemy having spread to its tangled arteries of tunnel-way and gantry, and the last remnants of the invaders, though reduced to a mere handful of ruined bodies, had still managed to cause havoc in the depths.Tephra - One of Xana II's major forge-fanes, during the Xana Incursion, Tephra suffered greatly, with one of its mighty reactors breached and detonated, rending several square kilometres of its heart into radioactive slag at the cost of tens of thousands of lives lost and vast resources of machinery destroyed before the Loyalist invaders were finally overwhelmed through sheer weight of numbers.Setna - One of Xana II's three great forge-fanes. Of these three, during the Xana Incursion, Setna had come through its attack all but intact; the invaders having penetrated as far as the vast, sub-surface galleries before being met by Setna's most bellicose guardians, a contingent of Knights of House Malinax. Though nearly half of the Knights present had perished in countering the onslaught, the invaders had been burned and crushed in their hundreds, the fighting halting only when the last of the revenant Space Marines had been bodily broken beyond whatever bitter thread of life propelled it.
Xana II - Xana-Tisiphone: Xana-Tisiphone was a moon of Xana I that served as Xana II's proving grounds. The moon had originally been the planet Xana V but was artificially moved from its orbit around the Xana-Vicidex star to become a satellite of Xana I. It served both as a Mechanicum Research Station and a penal colony. Its weapons facilities were capable of constructing Ordinatus Ulator macro-engines, and the Sheaol penitentiary facility was imprisoned Anacharis Scoria and his Battle-Automata before their escape.During the Xana Incursion, matters on Xana-Tisiphone ended in a bloody state, as the prison-forge itself had fallen under the assault of the Loyalist Legiones Astartes under Endryd Haar's command and the firepower of the captured Ordinatus, the population descending to violent anarchy and revolt which further allowed Haar's forces to ransack the weapons-testing facility there before being suddenly and savagely beaten back by a counterattack from below by brazen-armoured Legio Cybernetica cohorts, of strange, hitherto unknown patterns whose almost diabolic appearance were at odds with any recorded Mechanicum pattern.These Battle-Automata drove back the Loyalist Legiones Astartes, killing many and forcing a retreat when all that the Loyalists had gained was soon endangered, the counterattack culminating when one of the prized Ordinatus, the Nepothax, was assaulted and destroyed in an attempt to recapture it. Reluctantly Haar's forces withdrew, taking their surviving prizes with them and departing the planet, their ship, the Tyrannis, herself sustaining heavy damage in her escape, barely outrunning the returning Xanite fleet.
Xana II - Notable Xanite Personnel: Anacharis Scoria - Known as the Xanophane Tyrant, the true history of Anacharis Scoria has been lost, but there exists fragmentary evidence that place him as a Magos Dominus in the service of Xana some thirty standard years before the outbreak of the wars of the Horus Heresy. It is believed he was gifted the rank and duties of the Vodian Magister -- the chief enforcer of Cult Mechanicus doctrine on his shadowed and secretive world, but some time after that he was cast down and removed from all records until the time of the Loyalist covert operation known as the Xana Incursion. In the aftermath of that disaster, Xana II's existing rulers were destroyed in a bloody coup far more powerful than before to slay those who had once judged Scoria. Evidence exists that Scoria had been held captive upon the prison-forge of Xana-Tisiphone, his dark genius put to use despite being maimed and caged by the very archmagi he once served. His release was an unintended consequence of the Loyalist attack, and it was he who took command and hurled the Loyalist invaders off the planetoid. If this is true, it is a dark irony indeed as it would be under the mastery of Scoria that Xana II would become the first of the so-called Hell-Forges of the Dark Mechanicum that would blight the galaxy in the centuries to come.
Xana Incursion - Xana Incursion: The Xana Incursion was a desperate covert campaign conducted by a Legiones Astartes Blackshield irregular force as well as a small force of Dark Angels against the recalcitrant Forge World of Xana II in 009.M31, during the galactic civil war known as the Horus Heresy.Intelligence had reached Terra that the Renegade Forge World on the western fringe of the Imperium had reached an accord with the Traitor forces to supply the Warmaster Horus' armies with vast output of arms and materiel. The bargain was to be sealed with the delivery by Xana II of a number of newly created powerful Ordinatus class weapons undergoing final field tests.In what was effectively a suicide mission, a handpicked force of Legiones Astartes, including many Blackshields -- in this case Space Marines who had chosen to remain loyal despite their parent Legion's treachery -- was despatched under great secrecy to destroy the war machines and drive a wedge between Xana II and the Traitors.Two Ordinatus were captured by the Loyalist force and evacuated from the surface of Xana-Tisiphone, to be maintained and utilised by Loyalist tech-magi in later campaigns of the Heresy.
Xana Incursion - History: Much of what is known to the record about the incident known as the Xana Incursion is a dossier assembled from diverse and incomplete secondary sources. These include the akashic archives of the Amphion recovered from her hulk after the Battle of Triton, the harvested data-looms of the Xanan exile-savant Mordifia Turul and the apocryphal appendix to the Tears of the Gorgon, an allegorical and now-prohibited treatise associated with the (redacted) Chapter of the 3rd Founding.The primary source file of the operation, held within the Seal and Office of the Sigillite and the Divisio Sicarii, was lost during the devastation of the Siege of Terra. It is also certain that during the wars of the Heresy, the operation was itself kept secret by the orders of Malcador the Sigillite even from Imperial High Command.As such, while there is good evidence to suggest that the real Traitor embassy had been somehow compromised, intercepted and replaced by covert Imperial forces that cannot be contested, it is also highly likely that the individual masquerading as Raxhal Koraddon was in fact Endryd Haar, an outcast not of the Sons of Horus but the World Eaters Legion, who remained loyal, but the provenance of at least 1,000 Legiones Astartes accompanying him remains a matter for some conjecture.It is the general consensus that this force, undertaking what was in effect a suicide mission with little hope of recovery or rescue even if success was achieved, was made up of veteran Legiones Astartes who, like Endryd Haar, had remained loyal, even though their parent Legions had turned Traitor.This desperate and damned force had little to lose, it can be argued, and nothing to gain save redemption in death. Just how Endryd Haar survived, and survive he did as his actions during the later Solar Wars are a matter of record, also remains unknown.Of equal enigma is the depth of the Dark Angels' involvement, but perhaps the most unknowable and disquieting mystery regarding the Xana Incursion is the horror which erupted on Xana II after the attack of the Dark Sovereign.
Xana Incursion - Dark Alliance: By the closing divisions of 009.M31, the bargain between Xana II and the Warmaster Horus' proxies was in its final stages of conclusion. It was, in the ancient manner, to be sealed with an exchange of gifts.Though the transfer of billions of tonnes of arms and armour would be part of Xana's fealty to Horus, these first gifts the Vodian Consistory would present would be unique and incomparable.They would be worthy of one who meant to be master of the galaxy entire; Xana II would gift Horus with the power of the Ordinatus.
Xana Incursion - Ulator: The Ordinatus classification held the most powerful and arcane mobile weapons platforms in the ancient Mechanicum's arsenal. Much like the Titans whose firepower they often outstripped, the Ordinatus varied in scale and potency: from the truly colossal, unique and unreplicable relics of the Age of Technology, the Ordinatus Primaris, such as the Ordinatus Mars and Ordinatus Endymion whose power was legendary, even compared to the god machines of the great Legio Titanicus, to the lesser but still gargantuan and deadly Ordinatus Minoris sub-classes.The Minoris were, at the height of the Great Crusade, within the reach of only the most potent Forge Worlds to construct, and even then only in the most limited numbers. Such were the gifts that Xana II offered; no less than three such terrifying weapons of the Ordinatus Ulator pattern, fully battle-ready and armed with devastating sonic destructor weapons.These were Titan-killers, slaughterers of armies, each powerful enough to turn the tide of a battle at a stroke, far beyond any super-heavy tank in potency and dwarfing the firepower of even the mighty Diamatine siege-guns that had fallen into the grasp of the Iron Warriors earlier in the Horus Heresy.These Ordinatus Ulator, named Mithrax, Nepothax and Ashurax after ancient Terran deities long-dead of worship, were first to be demonstrated before the Warmaster's chosen emissary at the Forge World's own proving grounds on the moon of Xana-Tisiphone; afterwards, their ceremonial handover would act as a symbolic sealing of Xana's loyalty to Horus.That this trio of mighty weapons would be given over to Horus himself to dispose of as he saw fit was both a potent asset to gift the Warmaster with, and also it might be seen as a coded barb thrust in the side of the Traitor Mechanicum Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal, who though he sat high in Horus' cause, but had never himself made such a direct gift, keeping those few Ordinatus he and his satraps had at their disposal firmly under Mechanicum control.By this act, Xana II's lords sought perhaps to set the groundwork to become Mars' rivals in the Traitors' cause, not simply another subordinate Mechanicum force.
Xana Incursion - Emissary of the Uncrowned King: The hand of the Warmaster in the final matter of the alliance with Xana II was to be no priest of Davin alone, but one of his own warlords, one of his own blood; Raxhal Koraddon -- a chieftain of the Reavers raised to captaincy for his bloody endeavours during the scouring of the Sons of Horus Legion of its Loyalists on the ash-strewn ruins of Isstvan III.Koraddon had in the standard years of war that followed Isstvan III gained a fierce reputation, first during the Drop Site Massacre and later in leading a score of Dark Compliance actions for his primarch across the northern reaches of the Segmentum Obscurus.Koraddon's ruthless and prideful reputation preceded him, as did knowledge that he was looked upon with favour by Horus, making him an honoured, if threatening choice to serve as the Warmaster's emissary in the matter. The vessel which bore him to the Xana System was no less a display of power; the Geryon-class Grand Cruiser Cicatrice Tyrannis, taken as a prize by the Traitors during the Battle of Port Maw earlier in the war, her once white and golden hull now scorched black and pitted by the fires of untold void battles since her fall from grace.With the Cicatrice came an escorting squadron of eight frigates of various types and four Isos-class fleet tenders. These latter vessels were small, armed, Warp-capable transport ships designed to ferry vital supplies to warships in frontline service, but who bore now a far stranger and more macabre cargo; the Warmaster's gift to the lords of Xana II.Carried within these ships were hundreds of locked and armoured cargo pods, within which travelled the wreckage of Isstvan, of Momed and of Autosarat, and other unknown battlefields where the Sons of Horus had met their brother Legiones Astartes in blood and triumphed. The legacy of the dead was to be the Warmaster's gift to Xana II.Sealed in these containers were the fallen of those Legions the Sons of Horus had fought, and along with them a ruin of broken tanks and sundered war machines, shattered arms and rent armour -- the charnel remains of a dozen Loyalist Space Marine Legions.This was a carrion feast of technology and gene-craft priceless to the lords of Xana; to them it was no mere detritus of battle, but a treasure store of lore and techno-arcana for those with the skill to decipher its secrets and who cared nothing for the writ of Mars, nor what the Emperor had forbidden them to study.
Xana Incursion - Wrath of the Betrayed: On the moon of Xana-Tisiphone, news of the blade in the dark was shock enough to call a sudden halt even to the contrived carnage of the Ordinatus' demonstration. The macro-munitions explosions of the dying transports in the debris field of the Xana I gas giant were potent enough to be clearly visible in the skies overhead. The Warmaster's prizes were dying in flames, and Xana II's void ships were simply too far away to prevent it.On the observation deck of the hulking Mechanicum crawler, Archmagos-Procurator Gilim Raijan turned to Unvacar Noon, perhaps to offer explanation or perhaps to entreat the Sons of Horus' own warship to attack the Dark Angels vessel, only to find Noon's features melting like wax before him. The emissary's arm flashed out, too fast even for the augmented reflexes of the archmagos to react against, and a gilded barb sunk into his body, a roaring electroshock surge shorting out his power systems and collapsing his personal defensive shield.Raijan fell back away from his attacker as his own guardian-servitors fell on the blurring, shifting, shadow-quick assassin, but behind himself, he found the armoured bulk of Koraddon looming over him as he staggered. The verdigris-armoured warlord reached down to the fallen archmagos and wordlessly tore off Gilim Raijan's head with his power fist in a shower of sparks and black fluids, and then pulverised his twitching metal body into scrap.