vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Zombie Plague - Zombie Plague: The Zombie Plague, also called the Curse of Unbelief, is a deadly, Warp-spawned viral infection that is spread by the forces of Chaos, and leads to the creation of hordes of infectious, undead zombies. The Zombie Plague originally threatened billions of people on many Imperial worlds near the Eye of Terror in the Segmentum Obscurus before the 13th Black Crusade, but since the birth of the Great Rift the disease now represents a danger to worlds across the galaxy.The Zombie Plague is a supernatural Warp-based disease, and as such it does not follow the laws of biology or physics, for it can actually only infect those mortals consumed by despair, who have no hope or faith in their hearts. In the uncaring grind of Imperial life, the vast majority of the populace can be counted amongst that number. The unfortunate victims of this horrendous malady rot from the inside out, coughing themselves to death over a long, painful period. Yet that is merely the beginning of their suffering. Those that fall do not stay dead -- their bodies are reanimated by the uncanny psychic power of the arcane infection, and they lurch after the living, desperate to gnaw upon warm, supple flesh. Even a single bite can transfer the infection to a new host, and so the process begins anew.The Curse of Unbelief has appeared in the underhives of Necromunda and in Chaos-influenced regions of the Segmentum Obscurus near the Eye of Terror, with documented instances of undead fighting against the servants of the Emperor going all the way back to the final days of the Great Crusade before the Horus Heresy, such as during the Luna Wolves Legion's assault upon the feral moon of the world of Davin.The first recorded incidence of the Zombie Plague in the 41st Millennium came in 757.M41 on the world of Hydra Minoris. A quarantine was imposed by the Navis Imperialis, trapping 23 billion uninfected people alongside a rising tide of hungry and mindless undead.The Zombie Plague is an especially favoured tool of the Death Guard Sorcerers and other Chaos Sorcerers who serve Nurgle, the Chaos God of disease and decay, who are more likely to unleash it than all the other followers of Chaos.In the history of the Imperium, billions have died and been returned to undeath. Worse still, since the opening of the Great Rift after the 13th Black Crusade in the Era Indomitus, the proliferating energies of Chaos across the galaxy have mutated countless strains of the original Zombie Plague. Boasting infection vectors as esoteric as nightmares, groans of misery and the surrender to despair, they have created many new types of Plague Zombie to bedevil the Imperium, of which the most common by far are the leering, moaning Poxwalkers.
Zombie Plague - Biology: The Zombie Plague is a supernatural, Chaos-infused infection created through the use of Chaos sorcery blessed by the Plague Lord Nurgle to alter a biological virus. The resulting physical symptoms spread rapidly before Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade and was heralded by the invasion of the Plague Fleets of the Chaos Champion Typhus.This led to the rise of numerous Plague Zombies on Imperial worlds and also resulted in the formation of a new branch within the Inquisition known as the Ordo Sepulturum which was specifically tasked with dealing with the Zombie Plague and similar Chaos-infused biological threats to Humanity.The plague was a necrotic microorganism that physically degenerated those it infected, causing their skin and internal organs to rapidly rot until the moment of "death" at which time the Chaos energy within the virus reanimated the victim's corpse as a "zombie" whose only remaining drive was to feed on living flesh and so spread the infection.The Chaos energy in the Zombie Plague virus allows a small portion of the victim's life essence to be retained by their body even after physical death has occurred. However, every attempt at creating a stable "faith virus" that would allow wounded servants of the Imperium to live on as "good undead" like the Emperor or even allow the Emperor to be reborn in an undead form has led to mutation in the sample.The zombie victims of the plague are noted to have a psychic connection to each other created by the Chaos energy that exists within the virus and it has also been noted that psykers have the capacity to manipulate the pitiable decaying creatures that are spawned.A common theory among Inquisitors of the Puritan Thorian philosophical persuasion is that the plague is an offshoot of the technology used to modify the Golden Throne to support the Emperor of Mankind's life functions by the Adeptus Mechanicus ten millennia ago. It may have been created by the Dark Mechanicum Tech-priests that reside within the Eye of Terror with the Chaos Space Marines of the Traitor Legions.There have been numerous noted similarities between the Zombie Plague's ability to use the power of the Warp to reanimate a victim's corpse and the operation of the Golden Throne, which uses the power of the Warp to keep the Emperor of Mankind's body from completely dying.Increased study of the plague by Thorian Inquisitors has led them to believe that this research can help them understand the Emperor of Mankind's current state and how He might yet be reborn.
Zombie Plague - Disease Progression: Once infection has occurred, the Zombie Plague proceeds through four basic symptomatic stages:The first symptoms of the infection are hard to discern. The skin becomes pallid and sickly-looking. The infected is overwhelmed by nausea and sees spots in front of their eyes. Green-coloured scabs may start to appear all over the body. From this point forward, the victim is highly infectious, and the pathogen can be spread by exposure to an infected individual's bodily fluids, such as blood and saliva.In the second stage, the victim's skin begins to tighten and harden, causing the veins to stand out. The scalp begins to shed hair as the follicles die and the viridian scabbing spreads more noticeably across the skin as the cellular necrosis accelerates. At this stage of the infection the victim is beyond hope of a cure and becomes dangerous to others as his or her sanity begins to be overwhelmed by uncontrollable, abnormal cravings for healthy flesh.By the time the plague has progressed to its third stage, its effects are no longer capable of being overlooked. The divine perfection of the God-Emperor created Human face is now marred by sunken cheeks, thin lips, necrotic white skin, rotting teeth and large areas of the epidermis that have decayed into vast swathes of seeping, pus-filled cysts. The cellular necrosis reaches the point that large portions of the body can now effectively be considered dead tissue.The final stage of the plague is truly horrible. Now essentially a mindless, walking corpse after the termination of all life functions such as cellular metabolism and higher cognitive activities, the victim's advanced necrosis causes extremities to simply fall off, rotting veins bubble under parchment-thin dead skin, and final death through a shot to the head or dismemberment is the only release from the torment. Victims of the disease in this stage, colloquially known as "zombies," often congregate in large numbers as they seek out any lifeform that is not infected with the disease so that they can consume healthy flesh.
Zombie Plague - Notable Strains: Fydae Strain - Fydae Strain Plague Zombies, named for the outbreak of the disease that assaulted the mining settlemernt of Sutter's Rock in the Calixis Sector, first appear to be no more than gaunt, dead-eyed plague victims in soiled and blood-spattered clothing. However, this does little to dim the horror for friends and loved ones wracked with grief. As the outbreaks worsen and the Warp-spawned entities known as the Vile Savants themselves make an appearance, the Fydae Zombies decay at an unnaturally accelerated rate. They turn into horrific rotting husks of putrescent flesh, but are no less active or deadly for it.Poxwalkers - Poxwalkers are a form of Chaos-infected, mutant undead similar to Plague Zombies who have been cursed by one of the Chaos God Nurgle's Warp-derived maladies, the so-called "Walking Pox," so that they can serve as unliving weapons for the Death Guard Traitor Legion and other mortal servants of the Plague Lord. Some Inquisitors of the Ordo Sepulturum -- the new Ordo Minoris of the Inquisition dedicated to battling the undead -- claim that the Walking Pox is actually a variant of Nurgle's Rot, since unlike "standard" zombies encountered before the birth of the Great Rift, the victim's flesh often mutates even after physical death, growing horns, tentacles and spikes similar to those of Nurgle's victims who become the Lesser Daemons known as Plaguebearers.
Zombies - Zombies: Zombies, also known as Plague Zombies, are victims of a highly contagious and deadly viral infection known as the "Zombie Plague" or the "Curse of Unbelief", spread by the minions of the Chaos God Nurgle, the god of disease and despair. Not only do they die as the result of the disease, they are reanimated by the virus as undead, mindlessly devoted to adding their former comrades-in-arms to their number by infecting them with the Zombie Plague virus they carry in their saliva and blood.The Zombie Plague is a supernatural Warp-based disease, and as such it does not follow the laws of biology or physics, for it can actually only infect those mortals consumed by despair, who have no hope or faith in their hearts. In the uncaring grind of Imperial life in the 41st Millennium, the vast majority of the populace can be counted amongst that number. The unfortunate victims of this horrendous malady rot from the inside out, coughing themselves to death over a long, painful period. Yet that is merely the beginning of their suffering. Those that fall do not stay dead -- their bodies are reanimated by the uncanny psychic power of the arcane infection, and they lurch after the living, desperate to gnaw upon warm, supple flesh. Even a single bite can transfer the infection to a new host, and so the process begins anew.The Curse of Unbelief has appeared in the underhives of Necromunda and in Chaos-influenced regions of the Segmentum Obscurus near the Eye of Terror, with documented instances of undead fighting against the servants of the Emperor going all the way back to the final days of the Great Crusade before the Horus Heresy, such as during the Luna Wolves Legion's assault upon the feral moon of the world of Davin.The first recorded instance of the Zombie Plague in the 41st Millennium was on the world of Hydra Minoris in 757.M41. A quarantine was imposed by the Imperial Navy, trapping 23 billion uninfected people alongside a rising tide of hungry and mindless undead.The Curse of Unbelief is believed to be a spiritual as much as a physical contagion, hence its name, and the disease is held by the Ecclesiarchy to afflict only those lacking a pure faith in the Emperor. The disease is one of the multitudes of foul contagions spread by the Plague Fleets of Nurgle; most notably the warships of the Chaos Lord Typhus of the Death Guard Traitor Legion.Plague zombies act very much like the zombies in ancient films from Old Earth's Age of Progress; they are mindless, shambling and cannibalistic. The main thing about plague zombies (and zombies in general) is that they are hard to kill and require an accurate shot to the head or complete dismemberment to put them down for good.
Zombies - Notable Variants: Fydae Strain - Fydae Strain Plague Zombies, named for the outbreak of the disease that assaulted the mining settlemernt of Sutter's Rock in the Calixis Sector, first appear to be no more than gaunt, dead-eyed plague victims in soiled and blood-spattered clothing. However, this does little to dim the horror for friends and loved ones wracked with grief. As the outbreaks worsen and the Warp-spawned entities known as the Vile Savants themselves make an appearance, the Fydae Zombies decay at an unnaturally accelerated rate. They turn into horrific rotting husks of putrescent flesh, but are no less active or deadly for it.Poxwalkers - Poxwalkers are a form of Chaos-infected, mutant undead similar to Plague Zombies who have been cursed by one of the Chaos God Nurgle's Warp-derived maladies, the so-called "Walking Pox," so that they can serve as unliving weapons for the Death Guard Traitor Legion and other mortal servants of the Plague Lord. Some Inquisitors of the Ordo Sepulturum -- the new Ordo Minoris of the Inquisition dedicated to battling the undead -- claim that the Walking Pox is actually a variant of Nurgle's Rot, since unlike "standard" zombies encountered before the birth of the Great Rift, the victim's flesh often mutates even after physical death, growing horns, tentacles and spikes similar to those of Nurgle's victims who become the Lesser Daemons known as Plaguebearers.
Zone Mortalis - Zone Mortalis: The term Zone Mortalis -- the "fatal ground" in High Gothic -- was the term used by Imperial military forces of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras to refer to the most savage arenas of combat conceivable.The concept of the "Zone Mortalis" as a theatre of warfare dates to the era of the Great Crusade as referred to in the ancient Codex Tactica Imperialis. Such zones, be they the contested decks of a void warship, wall breaches, tangled mine works, lightless under-hives, the prison-vaults of sundered fortress citadels, labyrinthine industrial sewer systems and sacred catacombs, all have a confluence of factors in common such as close confinement, limited access for attack or escape routes, as well as treacherous environments, which make them murderous venues for warfare.It was an area in which the brute force of the ancient Legiones Astartes excelled, and much application of strategy evolved from this most deadly form of warfare. Zone Mortalis battles are often fatal and chaotic affairs, such as fighting in a collapsing hive city under mass artillery bombardment or on a burning star vessel in the middle of a pitched void battle.Some from Legions such as the Ultramarines and Iron Warriors saw victory in the Zone Mortalis as a precise application of tactics and equipment, while others such as the Blood Angels and World Eaters relied on courage and fury to carry the day, but without doubt the undisputed masters of the Zone Mortalis were the Death Guard Legion. In such warfare they were relentless, merciless and without peer.
Zone Mortalis - Encounter Missions: Encounter missions are a special Zone Mortalis mission where two hostile forces advanced through unknown ground where neither side had the advantage of foreknowledge or tactical control of the area.
Zone Mortalis - Search and Destroy: This mission represents the vicious struggle to control the Zone Mortalis through brute savagery and attrition, destroying the enemy's forces in detail.
Zone Mortalis - Capture Ground: This mission type occurred when two opposing forces fight to control the area of the Zone Mortalis and drive out the enemy.
Zone Mortalis - Invasion: This was a mission in which two opposing forces seek to fight their way into enemy-held territory, slaughtering as many of the foe as possible.
Zone Mortalis - Common Dangers of Zone Mortalis Operations: Deadly Ground- Fighting within Zone Mortalis terrain is a dangerous and treacherous affair, and one in which even light vehicles can flounder or damage themselves, unexpectedly crashing through buckled deck plating, getting crushed beneath falling rubble, or contacting exposed power conduits with deadly results.Firestorm and Shrapnel - The confined spaces of certain types of Zone Mortalis can prove to be death traps to the unwary and certain weapons have their effectiveness increased by the environment, while others become more unpredictable.Nowhere to Hide - Units that break and flee from combat within the confines of a Zone Mortalis are far more likely to be trapped in areas where their avenues of retreat are entirely cut off, and due to the confusion of corridors and passageways that may surround them, falling back may be a particularly deadly affair.Reaction Fire - The confined spaces of a Zone Mortalis make for deadly, close-range fire-fights, where a split second reaction may be enough to gun down an enemy rushing out from the darkness before death strikes a Space Marine down.Catastrophic Damage - One of the perils of battle underground or within a building in a warzone is the risk of bringing the roof down on the combatants and being buried alive or crushed under tonnes of earth or masonry.Enemy Unknown - Fighting in levels of low visibility over distance is nothing compared to the abyssal darkness of fighting deep underground or within the tortuous confines of a space hulk, where even the finest auguries and sensors may prove utterly useless.Outer Hulls - The expanse of a gigantic starship's outer hull can itself form a battlefield, and some of the most desperate and bloody boarding actions are fought simply to force a breach in a voidship's armoured flanks. In boarding actions of this kind, the outer surface of a voidship forms the battlefield for attacking forces, with them seeking either to force air locks open or damage vital structures on the hull's surface.Cold Void and Poisoned Air - Fighting in a Zone Mortalis aboard a vessel has many dangers in its own right, such as areas filled with poisonous gas, choking industrial fumes or extreme heat, as well as the effects of fighting in a depressurised area of a space vessel during a boarding action.
Zone Mortalis - Zone Mortalis Stratagems: Zone Mortalis stratagems are the unique and unusual tactics used by forces fighting within such regions, taking advantage of the terrain and equipment available to a Space Marine Legion force which would play an integral part in the successful completion of their mission.The use of such stratagems was neither compulsory nor, strictly speaking needed, but they could add a new dimension and a few nasty surprises to both attacking and defending forces on both sides.Tunnel Access - This is when forces gained access to the conduits and service tunnels in the area of the Zone Mortalis, providing a Space Marine commander with a significant advantage -- just as long as they didn't collapse first.Breacher Charges - Some Space Marines were equipped with a single breacher charge, a combat explosive device designed for breaking into bunkers and blasting apart bulkheads.Flanking Counter Assault - This particular stratagem was when a Space Marine commander has sent a portion of their forces off in an attempt to outflank the enemy in the hopes of cutting them off, enabling them to be isolated and destroyed.Lascutter (Gear) - Some Space Marines were equipped with lascutters, a powerful industrial tool that could be used for cutting through armoured bulkheads or as a makeshift but devastating close-quarter weapon.Spearhead Sentry Gun - Both attacking Zone Mortalis forces and defenders often deployed automated weapon systems to provide them with fire support, usually covering a vital area or important access chamber. This weapon was a light artillery mount equivalent to an Imperial Tarantula, heavy Gun Servitor or defence platform.
Zone Mortalis - Attacker Stratagems: Interdiction Assault - Either through the use of advanced phase-field generators to render the surrounding terrain temporarily out of sync with reality, or the rather more brute force approach of blasting out intervening ferrocrete and earth with seismic charges, the attacker could make a major breach in either the ceiling, floor or walls from which they would have troops poised to make a storm assault.Sustained Assault - When attacking forces greatly outnumbered those of defending forces, this allowed them to press on heedless of casualties with reinforcements close at hand.Fire Wasp - A Fire Wasp was a Mechanicum-produced combat drone used since the early years of the Great Crusade in Zone Mortalis actions to venture ahead of assault parties and help clear them a path. Sent in ahead of a squad and intended to trip mines and other booby traps, the Fire Wasp was an extremely robust device, if a poor fighter. Most standard patterns were equipped with a built-in Flamer weapon and Searchlight device for aid in their mission.
Zone Mortalis - Defender Stratagems: Defensive Strongpoint - After deployment areas were worked out but before any Space Marines were deployed, the defending forces would often times utilise an enclosed or semi-enclosed area of terrain to be their defensive strongpoint.Barricades - This was when defending forces has had enough time to get ahead of their attackers and meet them on prepared ground, utilising barricades and other barriers as protected positions and killing zones.Traps - The defending force has been able to seed the area with anti-personnel mines, tripwire-bombs, rad-fields and hidden deadfalls, making it a potential death-trap for attacking forces.
Zone Mortalis - General Stratagems: Void Hardened Armour - A single unit in a boarding assault strike force is equipped with specialised additional armour and life support systems.
Zone Mortalis - Attacker Stratagems: Shock and Awe - The assault force calls in a thunderous barrage of ship-to-ship fire, cluster grenades or even teleporter charges in an attempt to disorient and throw the defenders off-guard. However, such attacks are seldom as precise as the attacker would like.Phase Field Generator - A single Space Marine is equipped with a back pack-mounted Phase Field Generator which allows the individual and his squad to phase through a closed bulkhead door or through a single Zone Mortalis wall section. This is a very dangerous proposition as a phase field could flicker out of sync and trap a warrior within the stuff of the bulkhead, and slay his fellow squad members outright.Devastation Drone - Devastation drones are mobile demolition bombs armed with implosion charges designed to inflict maximum damage within a highly confined area (and thus reduce the risk to the voidship they are used on). They are compact, man-sized and quite sturdily constructed in order to resist enemy fire until they have reached their target zone. Many are often mounted on heavy track units to keep them mobile, although the best have anti-grav plates instead.
Zone Mortalis - Defender Stratagems: Security Airlocks and Bulkhead Doors - Vital access points controlled by defending forces during a boarding assault action can serve as internal chokepoints which dramatically increase the attackers' casualties.Murder Servitor Auto-Clade - The warship is equipped with chambers within which are sealed small numbers of skull-faced Murder Servitors, their hands replaced with grafted-on billhooks, spikes, axes and other equally crude but effective weapons. At the captain's command, every chamber is unsealed and the Murder Servitors are activated, tearing forth in a savage tide to scour the ship of boarders.Voidsmen Gangs - The defender is forced to press the voidship's crew into the defence of the vessel. Equipped with armoured void suits and emergency weapons, these crewmen are often far from the best-trained soldiers, but will be well-motivated, as nothing but death or slavery awaits them should their vessel be taken.
Zso Sahaal - Zso Sahaal: Zso Sahaal, also called the Talonmaster, was the First Captain of the Night Lords Traitor Legion both during and after the Horus Heresy and the heir to the artefact known as the Corona Nox.Captain Sahaal was designated by the Night Lords' Primarch Konrad Curze to serve as his successor as leader of the Legion just before his assassination on the world of Tsagualsa following the end of the Heresy in the early 31st Millennium.However, Sahaal lacked the artefact called the Corona Nox ("Crown of Night") that was required by Night Lords tradition to fully ascend to the position of leader of the Legion, and was forced to begin a ten-thousand-year-long odyssey to recover the artefact and learn the truth about his Legion's fall to Chaos.
Zso Sahaal - Early Life: When the Horus Heresy began in the early 31st Millennium, Captain Sahaal's loyalties lay entirely with his Primarch, Konrad Curze, also known as the "Night Haunter," rather than the Emperor of Mankind. Like so many of the Chaos Space Marines from this period, Sahaal willingly turned Traitor against the Emperor for the sake of his loyalty to his Primarch and served Curze well throughout the Night Lords' campaigns against the Imperium of Man.Sahaal believed devoutly in the Warmaster Horus' rationale that the Emperor of Mankind had betrayed Curze and the Night Lords by retreating from the Great Crusade to Terra to seek his own divinity and leaving civilian bureaucrats in control of the Imperium rather than one of the Primarchs who had won the galaxy for him. Before the Night Haunter's death, Sahaal was designated by the Primarch as his heir. However, the Callidus Assassin M'Shen took Sahaal's inheritance of the Corona Nox following her assassination of Curze before the Primarch could declare Sahaal his undisputed successor as the Legion's commander.Sahaal vowed to gain vengeance for his gene-father's death no matter the cost and pursued the Assassin off-world until the Aeldari ambushed his starship and attempted to take the dead Primarch's crown for themselves. It was during this altercation that Sahaal was trapped in a Warp Storm that lasted for 10,000 standard years in realspace, transporting him from the early 31st to the late 41st Millennium.
Zso Sahaal - Conflict with the Imperium and Night Lords: Thanks to the effects of Zso Sahaal's Sus-an Membrane, he was not slain when the Warp Storm ensnared him. Instead, ten millennia passed in realspace while Sahaal was trapped in the Immaterium and he awoke to discover that his starship had emerged from the Warp and crashed on the Hive World of Equixus. Even worse, the Corona Nox was once again missing from his possession. Sahaal began his quest for the Corona once more and began by killing the Equixus hive gangers who had stolen this precious item from his downed vessel while he still hibernated.He then discovered a kindred spirit amidst one of the gangs in the lower portions of the hive city of Equixus he had crashed upon, as these gangers reminded him of the people who had inhabited the Night Haunter's (and his own) homeworld of Nostramo.However, Sahaal was unlucky in that members of the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus, led by Inquisitor Kaustus, were investigating Equixus at this time for evidence of heresy. Sahaal's quest for the Corona Nox was further complicated by the presence of the psyker Mita Ashyn, a young Interrogator within Inquisitor Kaustus' retinue of Acolytes who could sense his presence and objectives, and so Sahaal led the hiver gang to war throughout the hive city on Equixus.Sahaal also continued to attempt to regain the Corona and eventually signaled his fellow Legionaries amongst the Night Lords Heretic Astartes now inhabiting a Daemon World within the Eye of Terror to come to Equixus and aid him in his task. He was, however, deeply disappointed when these Night Lords arrived and Sahaal learned that in his absence the Legion had forgot Konrad Curze's teachings of "fear through focus" and instead had devolved after ten thousand Terran years under the constant influence of Chaos into little more than super-powered, fear-craving psychopaths.The Night Lords were now led by the embodiment of corruption in Sahaal's eyes, a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided named Krieg Acerbus, known during the Heresy as the "Axemaster" who had once been Sahaal's greatest rival within the Legion.Sahaal succeeded in defeating all of his foes and reclaiming the Corona Nox, though at the price of a severely wounded arm. Sahaal eventually returned to the Eye of Terror to press his claim to rule over the Night Lords, but this attempt did not prove successful, as many members of the Night Lords now called Sahaal "The Betrayer" because he had fled from the 1st Company whilst they were still battling the Aeldari so that he could continue to hunt the Corona Nox.A discussion between Talos Soul Hunter of the 10th Company of the Night Lords and the Warmaster Abaddon later revealed that Sahaal's claim to the leadership of the Night Lords Legion had no more merit than any of the other supposed chosen successors to the Night Haunter who displayed other stolen relics that belonged to their Primarch and claimed to be his heir.
Zso Sahaal - Wargear: Artificer ArmourMordax Tenebrae - Zso Sahaal uses an ornate Bolter named Mordax Tenebrae, "the Dark's Bite". It had been hand-crafted within the hive city of Nostromo Quintus on the Legion's lightless homeworld of Nostramo and was priceless. It had a finely constructed stock, elaborately decorated chambers and a skull-mouthed barrel. The Bolter had been a gift from his Primarch for Sahaal's loyal, dedicated service.Unquis Raptus - The Talonmaster also makes use of archaic Lightning Claws which he named the Unguis Raptus, the "Raptor's Claws" -- and in so doing had coined the name of his command company. These too had been a gift from his master, whose generosity could be as unpredictable and spectacular as his moods. Sahaal had received them as gratefully as he had his Bolter, but had wielded them with far greater relish: finding in them weapons worthy of the precision and purity he craved. Before even the Horus Heresy his Raptors became justly feared, and in the name of first the Emperor, and then his Primarch alone, they had brought swift death from above to their foes. If his master had known where the gauntlets were constructed, or by whom, he had never revealed it. They were as much a part of Sahaal now as were his own limbs or the hate in his soul that drove him forwards.
Zula Hatiar - Zula Hatiar: Zula Hatiar was the Imperial Commander and planetary governor of the Mining World of Haephos in the Chalnath Expanse of the northern Segmentum Ultima in the Imperium Nihilus. It was she who led the Imperial defenders of the worlds gainst the Chaos Cults, a Genestealer Cult and the forces of the T'au Empire's Fifth Sphere Expansion that assaulted Haephos during the Haephos Containment, a part of the larger Chalnath Expanse Campaign fought during the Era Indomitus.
Zurcon - Zurcon: ZurconImperiumJericho SectorVerronusIn common with only a handful of other worlds in the Jericho Reach, Zurcon remained faithful to the Pax Imperium even after the last Imperial Navy warship abandoned the region to its fate and the sector's "Age of Shadow" plunged all into anarchy and bloodshed.When the T'au discovered Zurcon, Water Caste contact specialists knew immediately that they would not easily usurp the population's faith in their distant, yet still present God-Emperor, and so they concocted an ingenious plan.Over the course of a solar decade, T'au agents infiltrated the ruling class of Zurcon and insinuated their own proxies into its structure.By way of a series of all but invisible assassinations, painless re-educations, and subtle coups, T'au agents took over the planetary government without the populace ever knowing of it, or them.The average citizen is entirely unaware of both the T'au and the Achilus Crusade, and ignorant of the fact that his toils are all directed towards a war against his own people, the Imperium. The world is entirely in thrall to the T'au Empire, yet only the very highest placed in its government know of the fact.The Water Caste fully intend to slowly usurp the Imperial Creed, which has endured on Zurcon for many thousands of Terran years, yet they know they must do so slowly lest the people rise up in rebellion.To date, this program is only partly complete, and the T'au have gone to great lengths to ensure that the Imperium will not discover the world and upset their plans.The situation on Zurcon has been greatly complicated by the arrival of Hive Fleet Dagon. A vanguard fleet has recently launched a series of probing attacks into the system's outer regions and a number of T'au-crewed waystations have been lost.To date, the T'au have yet to decide whether Zurcon should be evacuated or its population mustered to fight the Tyranids. Either way, the edifice of lies which the T'au have built around Zurcon must surely soon come crashing down.
Æther Ray - Ordo Malleus Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications: The Ordo Malleus has not yet determined the technical specifications for this Daemon Engine, if such a thing is even possible.
Ûrvymm's Bulwark - Ûrvymm's Bulwark: Ûrvymm's Bulwark is a Hold World of the Greater Thurian League of the Leagues of Votann located in the galactic core. It is situated in the western region of Thurian space, and lies on a major Kin trade hub and is near multiple mining epicentres. Ûrvymm's Bulwark is famed among the Kin alongside its fellow Thurian Hold World Crimson Gulf further to the galactic east for its sheer size and nearly impenetrable defences.
Ûthar the Destined - Ûthar the Destined: Ûthar the Destined, often simply known as Ûthar, is perhaps the most skilled and most well-respected kâhl of the Greater Thurian League of the Leagues of Votann.As the most accomplished hero of the Greater Thurian league, Kâhl Ûthar is marked for greatness. Few can assess the foe as swiftly or mercilessly as Ûthar and -- once he has his enemies' measure -- he soon cuts them to pieces with the glowing plasma edge of the Blade of the Ancestors.Ûthar, who calls the Kindred of Vôrtun on the Hold World of Obsyd Gate his home, is the victor of the Deadstar Campaign and the slayer of Gorbrak the Iron Beast, yet it is said his greatest and most important deeds still lie ahead of him.After the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus, it was Ûthar who led the Thurian forces in the defence of their space from the Chaos-worshippers spilling from Warp Storm Örgvayr in the continuing conflict in the galactic core that has become known as the Battle of Örgvayr.
Ûthar the Destined - Origins: Ûthar was born to the Greater Thurian League's Kindred of Vôrtun in the hold of Obsyd Gate on a day of strange omens. In the Fane, the Grimnyr watched with wonder as the Votann put forth a spontaneous screed of prophecy. The information was muddled, printed in ancient datascripts few Kin now comprehend. Argument raged about its true meaning, but it seemed to imply that one amongst the day's newly cloned was meant for some great task.Meanwhile, the mechanisms of the hold's Forge swung into motion without any Brôkhyr's command and produced a magnificent plasma blade. At the same time, clues in the Votannic prophecy led the Grimnyr to the newborn Ûthar's crucible. Thus, by the end of his first bewildering day of life, Ûthar had been proclaimed as the Destined, and the miraculous Blade of the Ancestors was bestowed upon him. He has striven to live up to the expectations of the Ancestors ever since.Driven to prepare himslf for his enigmatic duty, he has explored, soldiered and endured hardships to make even a Cthonian Beserk wince. Through it all, Ûthar has dispalyed uncanny good fortune that some have attributed to the aid of the Ancestors, and others to some obscure cloneskein he possesses. Whatever the truth, this has certainly contributed to Ûthar's longevity and his many victories, yet so have his hard-won veteran abilities.If Ûthar's actions sometimes seem cruel, his comrades simply attribute this to the pressure of knowing that one day his great duty shall come upon him. Besides, Ûthar's ready gallows humour and down-to-earth persona help to cover up his colder side. They also conceal a hidden worm of doubt.This has gnawed at the Destined since his earliest days, forcing him to question if the prophecy was correctly understood by the Grimnyr and, if it was, whether he can ever be ready for such a momentous yet ineffable task. Ultimately, Ûthar is Kin, and thus able to push his fears aside in favour of duty. He swore long ago to himself that he would make his Ancestors proud.
Ûthar the Destined - Prelude: Ûthar's great destiny may finally have arrived with the emergence of the Great Rift that shook the Leagues of Votann to their foundations. Holds vanished amidst the roiling energies of the new born Warp storm belt. Trade routes were severed. Many Kindreds were compelled to relocate their holdings, abandoning territories held for thousands of Terran years and venturing out from the galactic core to seek more stable regions to settle.Both within the core and beyond its fringes, the rift's advent has driven the Kin into new conflicts, as well as stirring up old foes and setting them on a collision course with the Leagues.The Kin do not recognise or name the Great Rift as a single manifest phenomena. They believe that to do so would lend further superstitious menace to a threat that is already menacing enough. They choose instead to name the greatest of the component Warp storms that have opened within the galactic core, treating each as a separate peril to be weathered and overcome.One such raging empyric maelstrom opened upon the north-eastern fringe of Greater Thurian League space, and was soon named "Örgvayr" -- roughly translating into High Gothic as "the Ogre." The Void Strider Kindred and Lâkhryr's Kindred were swallowed up in the instant of its opening. Their pan spectral arrays gave some small forewarning, and so ragged flotillas of Kin refugee ships limped from the fringes of Warp Storm Örgvayr solar days after its emergence, their passangers telling of holds dissolved into raw madness or overrun by howling Daemons.Close on their heels came ravening Chaos Warfleets. Sailing the void in baroque warships and monstrous space hulks, they fell upon the Greater Thurian star systems bordering the storm zone. As more Chaos worshippers poured out of Örgvayr by the solar day, it became clear to the Greater Thurian League that a terrible new threat had been unleashed upon their holds.Those Kindreds whose holds lay directly in the invaders' path now faced a difficult choice -- to hold their ground against the onslaught, or to fall back in the face of growing enemy strength. Exchanging messages as best they could via hardened las-com relays, the Hearthspakes of the Deeprock Kindred, the Kindred of Vôrtun, Khâld's Star Breaker Kindred and Kindred Crimson-Two all elected to hold fast.The Grimnyr interfaced in their Fanes with the Greater Thurian Votann, asking that it communicate their plight to the wider league and begging its advice. Swift merchant craft and scout ships plunged into the Warp, bearing the same messsages to neighbouring Kindreds. Those facing the invasion would stand firm until the will of the Votann and the rest of the league could be made known, or until their defiance was judged too costly to maintain.Meanwhile, the ravening hordes of Chaos blazed a trail of havoc toward the Thurian Hold Worlds that lay in their path.
Ûthar the Destined - Counteroffensive at Törg: By a stroke of good fortune, Ûthar the Destined had recently returned to Obsyd Gate, the hold of his own Kindred of Vôrtun. Ever the dynamic hero of his people, Ûthar convinced the Kindred of Vôrtun Hearthspake that they could not afford to simply mass behind their defences and await the enemies' onslaught. To do so handed all strategic initiative and opportunity to the invaders and would abandon outlying facilities, resources and personnel to their murderous attentions.The voice of the Destined carried great weight amongst his Kindred, who were swiftly convinced by his arguments. Thus, their mustered Kinhost broke into a number of Oathbands; some would remain to garrison Obsyd Gate, while the rest would sally forth under the command of Ûthar and other prominent Thurian heroes, to launch counterattacks against the incoming Chaos invaders. Their role would be to slow the enemy wherever possible, to evacuate all strategic resources, Kin and Ironkin they could, and to destroy any facilities they could not rescue so as to deny their use to the foe.Ûthar the Destined's Oathband deployed to the outlying Kin World of Törg. Riven  by standard years of deep-core tectonic mining, Törg was a hostile mass of jagged stone, exposed magma veins, convulsing super-volcanoes and Kin harvester fortresses, wreathed in toxic fumes. Several immense Renegade warships had already settled in the vulnerable world's orbit and disgorged warbands of Heretic Astartes to the surface. Mutated Chaos Space Marines of The Purge and ferocious Khorne-worshipping World Eaters had overrun Törg's void docks and cut bands of Cthonian Guild miners off within their harvester fortresses. Swiftly casting the Eye of the Ancestors over the dire strategic situation, Ûthar formulated his battle plan and set his forces into motion without delay.
Ûthar the Destined - Void Battle: In the void above Törg, the warships of Ûthar's Oathband engaged the craft of the Chaos worshippers under the command of Voidmaster Hêmmyk. Their mighty Conversion Beam batteries and salvoes of Drill Torpedoes mauled the Chaos grand cruiser Abomination, and forced other Chaos warships to break off orbital bombardment in order to respond to the Kin assault.Hêmmyk coordinated her small but potent fleet with consummate skill, fending off each assault by the Chaos worshippers and handing out far worse punishments than her own warships suffered.
Ûthar the Destined - Battle for Törg: Nôkh's Hernkyn Pioneer bands, supported by light gunships and rugged Sagitaur ATVs, swept through the high passes of the Fumarok Range to attack the World Eaters from the rear. They launched swift hit-and-run strikes, using their pan spectral scanners to maintain a fix on their enemies amidst the toxic murk of Törg's surface. Goaded to action, many wrath-crazed Khornate Berserkers broke off their assault on Harvester Fortress Five and pursued Nôkh's band into the hazardous mountain passes.Separating into several smaller Oathbands, Ûthar the Destined's forces launched a massive drop offensive into the world's Shatterfields. Ûthar himself led an armoured spearhead against the World Eaters commanded by the Chaos Lord Hakatar. Kâhl Svêkh Thûrkann and her Oathband met The Purge head-on. As orbital fire from both sides rained down onto the planet's surface, the two swirling battles erupted into a storm of close-range firefights and brutal offensives.While the foe were engaged to the north, Grimnyr Khôhn led an elite force of Einhyr and Hearthkyn to evacuate the Cthonians at Harvester Fortresses Two, Three and Four. Guildkin and great quantities of raw materials were loaded aboard Hekaton Land Fortresses and the armoured carriages they drew behind them.Sensing their prey escaping, the Chaos Lord Urthak Skullripper led a massed teleport of World Eaters Chaos Terminators that cut the Grimnyr and her bodyguards off, even as the Kin forces were pulling out. Though many Cthonian Beserks turned back to hurl themselves into the fight, the Living Ancestor could not be rescued. The surviving Cthonians and many of the Hearthkyn have since formed the Grudgeband of Khôhn -- they will be avenged upon Urthak Skullripper or die trying.
Ûthar the Destined - Duel With Hakatar: Ûthar the Destined met the Chaos Lord Hakatar of the World Eaters upon the stone span bridging the Chasm of Embers. The two warlords battled back and forth along the crumbling expanse as their warriors fought and died around them and pillars of volcanic fire blasted up from below. Wounded but unbowed, Ûthar at last wrong-footed his foe, taking the World Eater's right leg off with a vicious sweep of the Blade of the Ancestors and pitching him, still howling with fury, into the flames below.
Ûthar the Destined - The Retreat: After several solar hours of rapid armoured warfare, and with the vast majority of Kin assets ferried successfully up to his waiting voidships, Kâhl Ûthar commanded a full retreat from Törg. Howled accusations of cowardice from the Khorne-worshippers followed the retreat. They meant nothing to the Kin; all that was worth extracting from the planet had been recovered and any remaining assets were deemed not worth the cost in lives to salvage.The Greater Thurian League Oathbands fell back in good order, Voidmaster Hêmmyk giving the enemy flotilla a last devastating volley to scatter their formations before commanding a plunge back into Warpspace. The tragic death of Grimnyr Khôhn aside, the Törg offensive had proved successful, but the wider war zone surrounding Warp Storm Örgvayr was becoming more fraught and violent by the solar hour.A great battle still lay before the Greater Thurian League and Ûthar the Destined would be needed elsewhere.
Ûthar the Destined - Wargear: Bastium Void ArmourRampart CrestVolkanite DisintegratorBlade of the Ancestors (Plasma Sword) - The Blade of the Ancestors is a legendary relic Plasma Blade wielded by one of the Greater Thurian League's greatest heroes, Kâhl Ûthar the Destined. Along with the relic Ancestral Warding Stave known as the Murmuring Stave, it is said to be one of only two weapons ever fashioned through immaculate forging by the Votann themselves, though prophecy speaks of a third still to be wrought.Eye of the Ancestors