vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Navis Imperialis - The Imperial Navy and the Inquisition: Inquisitors are less likely to make demands of the Imperial Navy than they are of the Astra Militarum, but nonetheless, there are certain circumstances where this might come about.The most obvious instance is transport. The Imperium is a vast realm, and travel between planets, even those in the same star system, is far from common. Should an Inquisitor require transport at short notice, they may find it necessary to requisition the services of the Imperial Navy.In most cases, the vessel in question is likely to be one of the smallest of warship classes, such as a Frigate, for the larger capital vessels are dependent upon so many supporting arms that they are rarely able to respond to a request in sufficient time. A small Escort vessel might be made ready to make way within a solar hour of the Inquisitor demanding its services, while a Battleship could take many solar days to make ready and get underway.An Inquisitor may not requisition the services of an Imperial Navy vessel on the basis of mere convenience. They might also require the presence that even the smallest of vessels can bring to bear on the worlds of the Imperium. Even a Frigate is equipped with substantial firepower, and is able to bring it into play against any target on the surface of a world. Such support is extremely useful for an Inquisitorial cadre on the ground.As with the Imperial Guard, sometimes a secondment becomes a permanent arrangement. This might be the case with Inquisitors whose investigations take them to many different planets. The Inquisitors of the Ordos Calixis in the Calixis Sector rarely need to requisition Imperial Navy vessels on such a basis, for the region has reasonably well-developed trade routes, served by a multitude of Imperial shipping concerns, on which an Inquisitor can rely for transport. However, there are those Inquisitors who prefer to maintain a certain independence, and these, much to the chagrin of Battlefleet Calixis, utilise vessels and crews once of that body.Imperial Navy commanders are far less likely to renounce their oaths than their "mud-wallower" fellows of the Astra Militarum. This is not a sign of greater loyalty, more one of circumstance, for while Imperial Navy vessels are capable of sustained independent operations, they must eventually put in for refuelling and maintenance, and in doing so utilise the services of not just the Imperial Navy but the Adeptus Mechanicus and many other arms of the Imperium.Unless a Renegade crew can locate an illegal facility, or can maintain a façade of loyalty out amongst worlds that know no better, they eventually run out of options. Despite this, some vessels and their crews do turn Renegade, joining the fleets of corsairs and privateers. Such cases are normally dealt with by the Imperial Navy, but often the Inquisition becomes involved in the hunt, and then the Renegades are doomed indeed.
Navis Nobilite - Navis Nobilite: The Navis Nobilite is an ancient organisation of mutant Terran nobility predating even the creation of the Imperium of Man by several thousand standard years. It is comprised of noble families who are all Human mutants called Navigators who have the unique psychic ability to navigate voidcraft through long distances in the chaotic transdimensional eddies of the Warp.The Great Houses of the Navis Nobilite are some of the wealthiest and most politically powerful collections of nobles in the Imperium.
Navis Nobilite - Minor Houses: House Andrasta - This house was active during the Great Crusade.House BarthusHouse BromHouse CastanaHouse Cedd (Shrouded House) - This disgraced Navigator dynasty is based in the Calixis Sector. Considered a pauper house by the more powerful houses in the sector, House Cedd is known to barter the services of its Navigators to the highest bidder with few questions asked.House DorelHouse D'Kark (Renegade) - House D'Kark suffered a pogrom at the hands of the Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus.House Emed-Useli - For thousands of standard years the scions of House Emed-Useli have maintained a mercenary contract with the Imperial governors of Draconis Prime. Every five standard years the house pays the governor a fortune to recruit half the Planetary Defence Force into their private army.House Gazmati (Renegade)House Jo'SinHouse KrassimalHouse NomikosHouse Omincara - The ancient and esteemed Navigator Lady Octavia Omincara accompanied Rogue Trader Jakel Varonius in his quest to save the Gilead System. This renowned Navigator house also maintained representatives on the world of Gilead Primus.House Orsellio - House Orsellio maintained a presence on the Eurac V void station in Winterscale's Realm in the Koronus Expanse. Cassia Orsellio, the Navigator of the Rogue Trader House von Valancius' flagship, was a member of this house and expected to one day rise to become its novator.House Su-Nen - For eons, House Su-Nen has provided the once powerful Rogue Trader dynasty of the von Castellans with Navigators for their voidships.House Taliandru - The Taliandru Navigator bloodline was active in the Gilead System and maintained a presence on the world of Gilead Primus.House Term'L (Nomadic House)House Teshar - One of the many Navigator Houses oathbound to the powerful Battlefleet Bakka. Following an incident involving a voidship piloted by one of their scions, House Teshar has recently come to the attention of Inquisitor Covenant.House Vor'cle (Magisterial House)House Yimora
Navis Nobilite - Novators: The Novator is a patriarch or matriarch that rules over a Navigator house, the figurative -- and often biological -- father or mother of the family. It is the role of the Novator to hold the family together and manage their fortunes, fostering new contracts and contacts for the house and jealously guarding those already in its possession. Above the scores of Novators stands the Paternova, head of all the Imperium's Navigator houses.From his throne on ancient Terra in the Palace of the Navigators, he or she guides the destiny of the houses, ensuring their continued place of power within the Human-settled galaxy. While the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Great Houses are collectively known as Novators, each house may choose its own name for the nobleman or woman who leads its endeavours.The Novators of Navigator Houses are usually chosen from a family's ruling branch, elected based on merits or rights of inheritance by a council of elders from the bloodline.While the Novator is responsible for ruling the clan's affairs and making important decisions and alliances, it is the elders who subtly guide the bloodline and ultimately must choose a new Novator -- although these ancient Navigators are consigned to a life of luxurious isolation due to their gruesome and unsightly mutations, their sheer age and experience grant them great influence in critical moments of decision for the clan.To ensure the internal stability of the Navis Nobilite, the Novators of most great houses have direct communication access to each other, both in times of peace and during trade wars. Using a special encrypted communications chamber called the Novator Cortex, the patriarchs and matriarchs of Navigator houses can directly contact each other at a moment's notice so long as the network allows in a given star system or sector.In this way they can negotiate and settle disputes, discuss betrothals and otherwise cooperate to ensure any issues or problems are handled with civility.
Navis Nobilite - Traditions: Each Navis Nobilite house has their own unique traditions and positions within the house's hierarchy dependent upon their own histories and culture. For instance, House Belisarius is led by an individual Novator referred to as the "Celestarch" and has its own standing military trained by the Astartes of the Space Wolves Chapter.The Space Wolves long ago concluded a special alliance with House Belisarius to provide its Celestarch with a small force of Space Wolves known as the Wolfblade to serve him or her as a personal honour guard.A nobleman or noblewoman known as a Novator serves as the matriarch or patriarch of a Navigator house. A Novator can either be the figurative parent or a biological parent of the other members of the family, but always serves as the house's legal and titular leader. A Novator is expected to manage their household's fortunes and to keep their kin united in fostering the house's political and economic agenda. These duties include fostering trade contracts for the house whilst jealously guarding those profitable enterprises the house already holds in its possession.The strict controls a Novator imposes along with the Imperium's legal Navigator codes prevents devastating economic and even outright military conflict from erupting between the Navigator houses.Ranked above the many Novators of the different houses in the hierarchy of the Navigators sits the powerful noble known as the Paternova, who oversees the fortunes of the Navigators as an Imperial elite.
Navis Nobilite - Trade Wars: The most common conflict involving the Navis Nobilite are the conflicts between the various Navigator houses. Each Navigator family's power and wealth is based on the trade it can control, its contracts and pledges to various Imperial mercantile organisations, and the courses that its Navigators can plot. All these matters are areas of fierce competition between the different Navigator Houses and often the focus of campaigns of espionage, violence, and assassination.Such conflicts can cause huge amounts of damage to the infrastructure of the Imperium, often occurring without the direct knowledge of the other Human nobility or the Imperial authorities until it is too late.Traditionally, this damage has been controlled by the formal declaration of a "trade war" under the terms of the ancient Navigator Convention. A trade war, once declared, allows all Navigator houses involved to act against their rivals using military and covert means. According to the terms of a trade war, those outside of the Navigator houses involved should not be affected or harmed by its progress. However, in reality, subsidiaries, allies, and associates of the Navigator houses immersed in a trade war are usually dragged into the conflict whether they want to be or not.While a trade war is meant to control and contain competition between the Navigator houses, many houses act outside of the constraints of a declared trade war. Such illegal actions usually involve intermediaries, assassination guilds, or mercenary armies for hire -- sometimes even using xenos like Orks or Kroot.
Navy Intelligence - Navy Intelligence: Navy Intelligence is the branch of the Navis Imperialis that operates as that service's intelligence and strategic analysis agency, including the collection and analysis of signals, Human (or xenos) and image-derived intelligence. Its operatives sometimes act in ways intended to carry out their own agenda in pursuit of what they believe to be the greater good of the Imperium regardless of the wishes of their often self-interested or fractious superior officers.For instance, during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, operatives of Navy Intelligence present in the fleets serving with that Imperial Crusade discerned a plot by Lord General Militant Hechtor Dravere to advance his career in the Crusade High Command in the hopes of eventually being appointed the crusade's new warmaster in a way that not only threatened the position of Warmaster Macaroth, but which aimed to use certain morally dubious methods to achieve this advancement. Navy Intelligence put an end to this plot by activating primary and secondary operatives embedded within the Sabbat Worlds Crusade forces, who then acted on their own initiative to prevent the plot from advancing by interfering with or outright eliminating Dravere's pawns.
Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub - Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub: Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub is a large and cunning Ork Warlord of the Bad Moons Klan. He is an overweight and greedy Greenskin who is also extremely rich in teef, as well as gaudy and over-indulgent. When his personal Space Hulk crash-landed on the Imperial world of Medusa V, Urdgrub played a major role in the Fall of Medusa V campaign and managed to escape that doomed planet to trouble the Imperium again.
Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub - Origins: As with most Orks, Nazdreg's past is largely unknown to Imperial records. What is recorded is that he is a member of the super-wealthy Bad Moons klan, and he is widely and infamously renowned as an Ork pirate and general threat to Imperial shipping. Typical of Bad Moons Warlords, Nazdreg is rich, ostentatious and over-indulgent. He loves nothing better than to take his warband raiding both to garner extra wealth and prove how well-equipped his Boyz are. In one way, however, Nazdreg is anything but ordinary, for he is easily the most cunning and intelligent battlefield commander the Bad Moons have ever had. An exception amongst the brutish Orks, Nazdreg demonstrates a measure of both intelligence and patience, as he speaks excellent Imperial Gothic and understands the "carrot and stick" approach of rewards and punishments utilised by Ork Runtherdz to boost the productivity of his hapless human and Gretchin slaves.Fortunately for the Imperium, Nazdreg is only interested in wealth, for if he chose to work up the energy to lead a WAAAGH!, there is no doubt that he would be an adversary every bit as dangerous as Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. But at times he has proven to show his initiative by bullying his Meks into performing ever more progressive and bizarre experiments. In the year 997.M41 Ghazghkull allied with this most infamous Bad Moon Warlord. The two leaders field-tested innovative "Tellyporta" technology -- the ability to send mobs of Boyz, vehicles, and ultimately, even the mountainous Gargants from a far distant Space Hulk down onto a planet. Despite some nasty "setbacks" ranging from spontaneous combustion to sporadic gravity reversal, Nazdreg's Meks perfected their tellyporta designs. This new technology was tested on the Imperial planet of Piscina IV. Only the Dark Angels Chapter saved that world from being overrun, but victory there was not Ghazghkull's real goal. His preparations were now over -- he was ready to unleash his full force upon the Imperium, exercising a plan fifty Terran years in the making -- the Third War for Armageddon. During the final epic battle, Nazdreg's huge Space Hulk, code-named Scylla, was supposedly destroyed by the Imperial defenders. But in truth, Nazdreg had managed to flee unnoticed into the Immaterium.
Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub - Abisus Sector: In 998.M41, Imperial investigations into events within the Abisus Sector confirmed the reports that the Ork Warlord Nazdreg was operating in that area of space. Certain numbers of the citizens liberated from the Ork slave-world of Charakis eleven months earlier reported seeing a huge and well-fleshed Ork leader in black and yellow armour directing the Orks there. By their account this leader spoke excellent Imperial Low Gothic and used reward as well as punishment to ensure increased production of munitions and armaments. The citizens involved were subsequently placed into penal servitude for their betrayal of the Emperor in allowing themselves to be captured. A number of officers and soldiers at Hellaspont believed that Nazdreg's warband participated in the sacking of that planet, bringing the total number of Imperial worlds which this beast had assailed to eighteen.
Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub - Medusa V: Despite the apparent destruction of Nazdreg's Hulk in orbital battles around Piscina IV, it appeared that he somehow affected his escape and left the system. As it would turn out, the Scylla was not destroyed. Given Nazdreg's skill for raiding and piracy, he continued to remain elusive. Following the assault on Piscina it eventually emerged from the Warp and crash-landed on the planet of Medusa V. Nazdreg ordered his Boyz to go out and gather as much scrap material as possible from the surrounding Imperial settlements so that his Mekboyz could repair the Hulk as quickly as possible, as his Weirdboyz had warned him that the world they had landed upon was soon to be consumed by a massive Warp Storm. Nazdreg had no intention of still being on the planet when that happened, but true to his Ork nature, he still desired to get in all the combat he could while his forces were present on Medusa V.
Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub - Surviving Medusa V: Even though the battle on Medusa V ultimately led to another defeat for his Orks, Nazdreg and many of his Boyz managed to get off the planet alive. After learning that the Imperial forces had damaged his Space Hulk beyond any hope of repair, Nazdreg came up with a (by Orkish standards) truly brilliant escape plan. The Orks commandeered a slightly damaged Imperial transport, the Minnow, and managed to get it into orbit. Nazdreg left several captured humans alive to fly the Minnow and transmit a false distress call. The orbiting Imperial Battleship Terra’s Defiance received the communication and came to the transport's assistance only to be boarded and taken over by the Orks. Although the disappearance of the Terra's Defiance was noticed by the Imperial Navy, Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub managed to escape with many of his Boyz against all odds. It is likely that he will eventually turn up elsewhere in the galaxy to trouble the servants of the Emperor once more, now with an Imperial Battleship (suitably modified to Orkish tastes) at his disposal.
Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub - The Scylla: Nazdreg's base of operations is a huge Space Hulk named Ognazdreg Gargdurslagulk in the native Ork tongue (designated the Scylla by Imperial tacticians). Nazdreg's Meks have perfected their "Tellyporta" technology, enabling the Scylla to outmanoeuvre and escape pursuing Imperial fleets time and again. This would certainly seem to imply that more than mere chance and the "luck of the Warp" were involved.
Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub - Wargear: Mega ArmourKustom Shoota (Blasta-X) - A large plasma weapon with a built-in long-range that is wielded by Nazdred with unusual accuracy for an Ork.Power Klaw
ND0/K4 - ND0/K4: ND0/K4 is a gas giant located in the Golgenna Reach sub-sector of the Calixis Sector whose atmosphere is rich in hydrogen, helium, and ethane, chemicals all used in various manufacturing and industrial processes. The large refinery platforms, which are balanced in a delicate very low orbit, are dangerous, claustrophobic mazes of access tunnels, processing centres, and power plants. Each is a crumbling relic, ripe for sabotage which could cripple industry across the sector.The economic and social imbalance between the ruling tech-priests and the workers, coupled with a small population and relative isolation has the potential to spark into rebellion against the oppressive cult of the Machine God. Tension between the Adeptus Ministorum and the Cult Mechanicus lead to further instability.Finally, the largest moon of ND0/K4 remains a tantalizing enigma, rumours circulating of haunted tunnels and ancient relics buried under its surface. Who knows what the tech-priests have found in those tunnels or what happened to the ones that never returned, for they guard the information with the utmost secrecy.
Nebula-class Starship - Nebula-class Starship: The Nebula-class Starship was a colossal voidcraft utilised by the Leagues of Votann. One such vessel was merged into a space hulk that was designated "Rôkh 8-8-V" and was later salvaged by a team of Hearthkyn Salvagers led by Theyn Dêki Ânhad. The Nebula-class was known to maintain large armouries of Kin wargear and vehicles.
Nebuloscope - Nebuloscope: A Nebuloscope is an arcane Necron device that is only equipped by Necron Tomb Blade pilots, who can use it to track their prey through seven different dimensions, allowing for far more accurate shots to be fired from their Jetbike’s powerful weapons.
Necrodermis - Necrodermis: Necrodermis is the xenos material created over sixty million standard years ago by the Necrontyr species that is often described as "living metal." It was originally used by the Necrontyr to construct their massive sub-light starships that explored and settled the Milky Way Galaxy millions of standard years ago.It was later adapted to create the robotic bodies possessed by the C'tan and inhabited by the Necrontyr after they agreed to have their consciousnesses transferred from their short-lived organic forms. This process transformed the Necrontyr into the undying Necrons.Necrodermis is a material of unknown origin and chemical or molecular structure that possesses the extraordinary ability to regenerate almost all damage instantaneously, "flowing" back together as if it were a liquid while closing bullet holes, mending gashes and tears, or even reattaching severed pieces with little delay.The material is also adaptive in some unknown fashion and can learn to repair itself given enough time from nearly any form of damage, even a blast powerful enough to reduce it to its constituent molecules or atoms. In addition to the bodies of the C'tan and the Necrons themselves, all Necron vehicles and starships are made from necrodermis.
Necrodermis - C'tan: The Necron Star Gods, the C'tan, are entities of pure energy that can only interact with the physical universe through the possession of robotic bodies crafted for them by the ancient Necrontyr from necrodermis. The shape of their necrodermis body can be modified at will by its possessing C'tan, or C'tan Shard as they currently exist, and so each Star God looks very different from its fellows.C'tan Shards can also shape powerful slashing or cutting blades from their bodies at will or shapeshift in such a way that they can appear to be a member of almost any species. If a C'tan Shard's necrodermis body is breached, the C'tan essence is released with a powerful explosion of energy that can damage nearby individuals or structures.But the C'tan Shard is not slain, but instead now free to act according to its own whims without having to obey its Necron masters. Most commonly its first act would be to take revenge on its previous captors.
Necrodermis - C'tan Phase Weapons: The C'tan Phase Weapons used by the Imperium's Callidus Assassins are also made of necrodermis. These weapons were adapted from the remains of Necron technology discovered to lie buried dormant under Mars by the Adeptus Mechanicus many millennia ago.Their blades can move out of phase with the space-time continuum much like the Necrons themselves do and so cannot be blocked by any defence save for another weapon crafted from necrodermis.
Necrodermis - Asirnoth: It has been hypothesized by some Imperial savants after the Imperium of Man made first contact with the Necrons that Asirnoth, the strange Silver Wyrm that the primarch of the Iron Hands Legion, Ferrus Manus, battled on the volcanic world of Medusa over 10,000 Terran years ago may have been a Necron construct created from necrodermis.When Manus' hands were coated with a silvery metal that melted from the Silver Wyrm's body, that material was absorbed into his skin and became a part of his body rather than injuring him. This would accord with the way necrodermis has been observed to act by Imperial scholars, though this remains only conjecture.
Necrodermis - Necron Vehicle Armour: The war machines of the Necrons are things of impossible science and countless arcane technologies. To the young species of the galaxy, the energies and weaponry of these strange engines of destruction are more akin to magic than anything recognisable as physical engineering.The Living Metal composite is a perfect example of this kind of advanced technology -- a substance that defies harm by literally healing itself before the eyes of its attacker. Though the means can vary between Necron dynasties and the skills of the Crypteks that serve them, this miracle is often the result of billions-strong swarms of nanoscarabs crawling under the necrodermis skin of the war machine.Like the living cells of biological creatures they will seek out damaged areas and cluster around them, mouths the size of atoms chewing up matter and forging it back together. However, as with most of the Necrons' arcane techno-sciences, there are almost as many ways to manipulate matter as there are Crypteks.Captive phase-gates, subatomic infusers and temporal loop shrouds can all exhibit similar effects to nanoscarab swarms. To a Necron Overlord, how these abilities work is of little concern, as long as they do.
Necromunda (Game) - Necromunda (Game): This article refers to the game. For information on the planet, see Necromunda (Planet)Necromunda is a tabletop skirmish war game produced by Specialist Games (a division of Games Workshop). In Necromunda, players control rival gangs battling each other in the Underhive, a place of anarchy and violence in the depths below a major Hive City of the Imperial Hive World of Necromunda, known as Hive Primus.As in its parent game Warhammer 40,000, play uses 28 mm miniatures (approximately 1:65) and terrain (in this case a heavily polluted cityscape). Being a skirmish game gangs are usually limited to around a dozen models, but as a result game play can become more detailed.Unlike Warhammer 40,000, Necromunda also allows players to develop their gangs between battles, gaining experience, adding new members or equipment, according to a set of rules. Gangs which frequently win games acquire more Necromundan credits (money) and less injuries and so are able to grow throughout a campaign. In terms of rules, the game draws heavily from the 2nd Edition of Warhammer 40,000, and the ruleset is commonly considered to be better-suited for the type of skirmish games Necromunda encourages.Necromunda also stands out from most other games by Games Workshop by having a more 3 dimensional table layout, with buildings generally having multiple floors, interconnecting walkways and bridges. The terrain is constructed to simulate a hive city on the planet Necromunda, a dystopian futuristic city resembling a termite mound many kilometres high.Games Workshop's Specialist Games division occasionally publishes new rules on their website. They also recently published the full rules for the game for download (as a PDF file), referred to as the Necromunda Living Rulebook. As is implicit in the name, this document is often updated and rewritten, based largely on the work of avid volunteers and playtesters in the official Specialist Games forums.
Necromunda (Game) - Cawdor: House Cawdor is the stronghold of the Cult of Redemption. For this reason all of the gangers wear masks in public to hide their faces from the 'infidels' of the other houses. They are known to hunt mutants and heretics to the point of fanaticism (part of the redemptionist influence) which bring them into conflict with gangs who would utilize them.
Necromunda (Game) - Delaque: Other hivers are justifiably suspicious of House Delaque, who specialise in spying and assassination. The gangers often wear large trench coats, with large internal pockets for concealing weapons and other large items. Most are bald and extremely pale. Many wear visors, goggles or have light filters implanted into their eyes, a sensitivity to light being a common Delaque weakness. Delaque territory is even more dimly lit than the rest of the hive, fitting for a people who are shrouded in mystery.
Necromunda (Game) - Escher: Strikingly different from the other houses, the Escher population is almost entirely made up of women. The few men that are there are shrivelled and imbecilic and play no part in the normal affairs of the Escher. Men are held in contempt and pitied by the Escher, especially those of House Goliath who are seen as simple, brutish and unsophisticated.
Necromunda (Game) - Goliath: Size and physical strength are everything in House Goliath. Their territory is situated in some of the harshest areas of the Hive City. Their gangers favour mohawks, piercings, thick chains and spiked metal bracers.
Necromunda (Game) - Orlock: Also known as the House Iron, these hivers mine ferrous slag pits deep in the hive. Orlock gangers often wear sleeveless jackets and headbands. Recent events have brought them into direct opposition with the Delaques, involving the sabotage of Delaque facilities and an assassination of Lord Hagan Orlock.
Necromunda (Game) - Van Saar: The Van Saar are known for the extremely high quality of its technical produce. Nobles in the Spire will pay handsomely for Van Saar goods, making them the wealthiest of the houses. The Van Saar are marked out by their tight fitting body-gloves which help to sustain the wearer in the harsh hive environment. Older gangers are often seen sporting a neatly trimmed beard. The Imperial Guard often recruit regiments from the Van Saar.
Necromunda (Game) - Enforcers: The Enforcers are the chief source of law enforcement in the underhive of Necromunda. Modelled closely after the Adeptus Arbites, the Enforcers apply the laws set down by the High Lords of Terra with an iron fist. Equipped with heavy armour and sophisticated weapons and equipment, Enforcer patrol teams quell riots, suppress inter-gang warfare as much as possible, and monitor mercantile trade to ensure compliance with imperial law.It is important to note that the Enforcers, while maintaining an organizational structure similar to that of the Adeptus Arbites, is in fact a separate force. The Adeptus Arbites enforce Imperial law on a galactic scale, whereas the Enforcers maintain order within the confines of Hive Primus.
Necromunda (Game) - The Cult of the Emperor's Redemption: A nod to Laserburn the 15mm tabletop game Warhammer 40,000 shares some ancestry with. The Redemptionists have an extreme hatred of mutants and deviants from the Imperial creed. The most dedicated take up arms and hunt the deviants. They often wear red robes decorated with flame motifs and have a fondness of incendiary weaponry. House Cawdor lends much support to the cult of Redemption and have gone so far as to adopt it as their official Religion.
Necromunda (Game) - Pit Slaves: Slaves of the Guilders with appendages replaced by industrial tools such as giant saws and drills. When a group of slaves escapes, they already have weapons to help them survive along with experience gained in gladiator style combat they are often pressed into.
Necromunda (Game) - Ratskins: The Ratskin tribes have lived within the underhive for millennia and treat it as a god, generous in its bounty and merciless in its vengeance. They have little to do with the hivers and are rarely encountered, preferring to steer clear of the heathens who desecrate their sacred hive by poisoning its sacred places.
Necromunda (Game) - Scavvies: Scavvies are humans with mutations too obvious to hide, banished from normal settlements. In Scavvie gangs, the very dregs of society scrape out an existence robbing guilder caravans, raiding isolated settlements and just generally scavenging whatever they can to survive. Their bands often include a stable sub-species of mutant, the giant reptilian Scalies.
Necromunda (Game) - Spyre Hunters: Young nobles from the Spire come down to hunt underhive gangers and thereby prove their worth in a world of ruthless politics, plotting and assassination. Spyre gangs are few in number, and equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry. It is reported that they get at least some of their technology from doing deals with the Tau Empire.
Necromunda (Game) - Alternative gangs: In addition to the gang types supported by the rulebooks, various Games Workshop publications have introduced new groups, sometimes supported by mail-order only model ranges, including Ash Waste Gangers and Squat Miners.
Necromunda (Game) - Origins as Confrontation: Necromunda was a spin off from a previous attempt of Games Workshop to popularize a set of rules for low-key skirmish battles in a hive world setting. White Dwarf published such a ruleset between fall and winter 1990-91 dubbing it "Confrontation". It was set on the hive world of Necromunda but made no reference to houses and such, instead concentrating itself on the various 'types' of gangs: clan warriors from the spires, brat 'poseurs' from the upper levels which went 'down' to experience the thrills of lowlife, undercity mutants, diseased scavengers from the toxic wastes and the Adeptus Arbites ever-ready to deal swift and summary Judge Dredd-like justice.The miniatures released for this game were designed by John Blanche and were highly praised and regarded. The game background also included some elements later re-used in Necromunda, such as the 'spook' psychic drug, and some which were disregarded, such as the 'caryatids', largely unexplained blue skinned cherubs which were presented as unique and integral to necromundan life.Compared to the current Necromunda, Confrontation had a more complex system for resolving combat, particularly firing - portions of which were similar in style to Laserburn, a miniatures game which had influenced WH40K.
Necromunda (Planet) - Necromunda (Planet): Necromunda, originally known as Araneus Prime, is a Hive World in the Imperium of Man's Segmentum Solar, and a major producer of weapons and munitions for the Astra Militarum.Necromunda's great hive city-based manufactoria produce lasguns, autoguns, shotguns and bolters, among other weapons important for the Imperial armed forces. The planet also levies huge numbers of troops for the Astra Militarum, most notably the regiments of the Necromundan Guard, as well as other crucial supplies.Necromunda is one of the worlds from which the Space Marines of the Imperial Fists Chapter recruits new neophytes, often from the vicious criminal gangs that riddle the lower levels of the planet's hive cities. The Imperial Fists maintain a recruitment-keep on the world in one of its hive clusters.Necromunda is typical of most large, Imperial Hive Worlds, in that the lower portions of its hive cities are rife with powerful gangs.The world is also the setting for the original Necromunda and Necromunda: Underhive tabletop skirmish war games, as well as multiple video games.
Necromunda (Planet) - The Hives: Necromunda is very similar to many other Hive Worlds of the Imperium. It is a planet devoid of any remnant of its original natural beauty, its surface reduced to a wasteland of windblown ash and accumulated industrial waste. Throughout this wasteland lie the hive cities which give such planets their distinctive character and their collective name of Hive Worlds.The hives are grouped into clusters comprising up to a dozen or so individual hive cities all linked by a network of overground travel tubes and subterranean passages.These clusters are scattered over the cloud-strewn surface on the planet. From the top of any hive city it is possible to see the tips of distant hive clusters projecting from the seas of poison mists like far-flung islands.Hive clusters are connected together by roads across the wastes and transportation tubes supported on pylons and suspended from cables. With its forest of towering hive interconnected in a network of tubes, the landscape resembles a petrified forest entangled in the web of some enormous spider. Indeed, the spider and the spider's web are very powerful symbols to the inhabitants of Necromunda.The hive cities are the result of thousands of Terran years of constant demolition and rebuilding. The original cities of Necromunda lie beneath the hives, many hundreds of metres below the current surface of the planet's ash wastes.Dark, forbidding ruins, often crushed by the weight of the hives above them, these old cities preserve the layered history of Necromunda. It is a popular tale that the lowest layers of some hives are built from the original transport barges which brought Humanity to Necromunda all those millennia ago.Each hive takes the form of many huge spires which rise from the base of the city. From a distance, a hive city resembles a mass of stalagmites rising from the cloud strewn wastes.Each hive covers an approximately circular area some fifty to a hundred miles in diameter. The tops of the spires can rise to a dozen or more Terran miles above the ground surface, piercing the festering clouds that surround the lower levels of the hive.The spires usually merge into each other at their bases, and smaller spires will sometimes grow out and upwards from just above the base, branching like a cactus and forming multiple spires.The spires are only the top part of the hive, comprising the upper hab zones with factory layers on or above the current ground surface. The older and partially ruined factory and hab layers still exist, although they are buried beneath the Ash Wastes. Though they are hidden, factories and habs are rarely abandoned until they are utterly derelict or polluted beyond use even by Necromundan standards.
Necromunda (Planet) - Notable Hives of Necromunda: The hive cities of Necromunda retain the ancient names of the original cities and settlements from which they grew. Each spire within a hive is also known by a local name.There are several thousand hives on the planet, some massive and populated by billions while others are desolate and inhabited only by the dead. There are approximately a thousand hive clusters on Necromunda; each cluster a group of up to a dozen or so individual hive cities, all linked by a network of overground travel tubes and subterranean passages.A Necromundan hive city may reach up to 12 Terran miles vertically into the Necromundan atmosphere and possess a roughly circular, above surface circumference of approximately 30 miles. As well as the visible surface part of the hive city, each hive will have extensive underground warrens and tunnels stretching down 4 miles deep into the world's crust.A few of the most important hive cities and some typical examples of the various kinds and other notable locations are described below:
Necromunda (Planet) - The Palatine Hive (Hive Primus): The largest and oldest surviving hive city on Necromunda is the dynastic home of Lord Gerontius Helmawr, Imperial Commander of Necromunda, known across the planet as "The Palatine." The hive cluster it belongs to is known as the "Palatine Cluster." The central and tallest spire of the Palatine hive city forms the palace of Lord Helmawr. The Palatine boasts some of the most grandiose and magnificent architecture on Necromunda, and also has the only shipyard and landing field large enough to take orbital carriers. It is thus the planet's only spaceport, a physical expression of House Helmawr's monopoly on off-planet trade.The fortress-monastery of the Adeptus Astartes contingent and the headquarters of the Adeptus Arbites on Necromunda are also located in the Palatine Hive. The hive city, the largest on Necromunda, is enormous in size, reaching from the surface to some 10 Terran miles into the air, and from surface level to roughly 2.8 miles underground (although only the first 1.3 miles are habitable by Humans), and possesses a population greater than some of the other Human-settled worlds in the Imperium.On the edge of the hive is a special spire set aside for the aliens and Abhumans who come to Necromunda from time to time in order to trade. Both Squats and Aeldari are among these visitors and they are housed on separate levels of this spire. The Palatine is thus by far the most cosmopolitan of all the hive cities of Necromunda.As the Palatine is the seat of House Helmawr's power, the hive's noble houses are in a constant, byzantine power struggle to gain control of the hive, and thus of the entire planet. The lower portions of Hive Primus are ruled by the so-called "Clan Houses" or "Ganger Houses," criminal syndicates of gangers which ape the organisation and style of the true Necromundan nobility and which also have some influence within the higher levels of the hive.The activities of the Ganger Houses can even affect the outcomes of the true noble Great Houses' constant struggle for power and advancement within Hive Primus. The balance of power in Hive Primus is strictly maintained and any attempt to destabilise it is shut down with brutal force. Thus, the Imperial House rules with an iron fist, while the Great Houses and the lesser Clan Houses all hold such power that no one house dominates the others.
Necromunda (Planet) - Hive Trazior: Trazior means "Three Sisters" in the local Necromundan dialect of Low Gothic. Hive Trazior is so-called because it has three huge spires which can be seen from a long way off by any traveller coming across the Ash Wastes from the south.Trazior is located on the edge of the Great Equatorial Waste and is the southernmost "frontier" hive city of the great Palatine Cluster. Many important merchant clans are based in this hive and it is the main trading depot for convoys going to or arriving from the southern hive clusters. The nomads who live out in the Ash Wastes and raid the merchant convoys are a constant source of annoyance to its inhabitants.Trazior was also the scene of one the most prolonged and vicious gang wars in the recent history of Necromunda. The manufacturing base of Hive Trazior is dominated by the sub-clans of House Orlock, but House Goliath has a substantial and increasing presence in its furnace sectors.The up-hive spires are infamous for the many so-called "Brat" gangs -- the restless scions of the true nobility who take a cruel delight in engaging in gang warfare with the "commoners" of the underhive. They are particularly well-known for the brightly painted and incredibly rare Jetbikes they race through the thoroughfares and transit tubes, inflicting mischief and mayhem wherever they pass.
Necromunda (Planet) - Acropolis Hive: The Acropolis Hive is another old and elaborate hive city in the central Palatine Cluster. It is located at a very important intersection of several great road tunnels and has always been a major centre of trade on Necromunda.The Acropolis Hive is home territory for some of the most powerful merchant clans, whose widespread trading network extends across many of the hives of Necromunda. Desperate to share in this wealth, the Acropolis Hive attracts a number of large and sprawling shanties which cluster around its base like a festering sore.The Great Houses all have a presence in the Acropolis Hive, but each is generally content to support the status quo. Nonetheless, House Delaque is known to ply a rich trade in information and intrigue there, profiting immensely from the merchants' numerous internecine wars.
Necromunda (Planet) - The Temenos: The Temenos is another hive city in the central Palatine Cluster. One spire forms the headquarters of the Ecclesiarchy on Necromunda, while another spire serves as the Temple of the Emperor Deified. Colleges, libraries and chapels occupy parts of the other spires. A priory of the Adepta Sororitas is located in one of the outer spires. This spire is often called the "Sisters Tower" as a consequence.The population of Temenos hive are among the most pious and devout followers of the Imperial Cult. Many of the resident clans manufacture ritual items for the priesthood while others work in the scriptorium, translating the wisdom of the priesthood into the many dialects of Necromunda.The Temple of the Emperor Deified spire is an architectural wonder, and its interior is a warren of naves, chapels and crypts, vaulted ceilings and pillared halls. The diffused light is stained by refraction through crystal. Incense and the sound of chanting drift across the chambers. Here and there statues and holograms of the Emperor reside in secluded shrines. From here Confessors and missionaries are sent off to Frontier Worlds in the nearby star systems.Hive Temenos is a major powerbase for House Cawdor, whose subservient gangs scour the lower levels for Heretics cast out from above and make constant war upon any rivals whose vision of the Imperial faith differs even slightly from their own.
Necromunda (Planet) - Quinspirus Cluster: The Quinspirus Cluster is situated on the edge of a virtually solidified sludge sea called the Worldsump Ocean. At one time, when the sea was still navigable, the area included vast dockyards. These now remain buried deep within the undercity of the centrally located Quinspirus Hive.This hive city has five great spires -- hence its name, which means "five towers" in the local dialect of Low Gothic and which gives its name to the whole hive cluster in the region.The cavernous warehouses of the ancient waterfronts have been the scene of many savage gang wars, in particular between gangs subservient to Houses Orlock and Delaque.
Necromunda (Planet) - The Skull: This derelict hive city is the largest of a cluster of three remote ruined hives. It is pierced by great holes and from a distance looks like a great skull lying in the Ash Wastes. It is a famous landmark and perhaps even worshipped by the local nomads.These three gigantic ruins are all that remains of the hives that were captured and occupied for a time by Ork raiders. All contact with the cluster was lost for several Terran years before the rest of Necromunda realised what had happened and a campaign was mounted to clear them. This was the original reason for the despatching of a Space Marine contingent to Necromunda, which has since become a permanent establishment on the Hive World.The hives were besieged and destroyed during the campaign. Now the tops have caved in and they lie abandoned and choked with dust. No one knows what fearful things have made their home amid the ruins of the Skull, and even the nomads and scawies fear to go near them.
Necromunda (Planet) - Eye of Selene: Locked in geo-stationary orbit one hundred kilometres directly above Hive Primus is one of the busiest orbital trading depots in the Segmentum Solar -- the so-called "Ring of Selene." The ring serves as the sole, interstellar shipping nexus for the planet below, and it is the only means by which goods are authorised to be shipped to or from Necromunda, ensuring the Imperial House Helmawr always receives its due in import and export taxes.Victuals are shipped down to Hive Primus and then sent out by land to the other hive cities in return for manufactured goods heading the other way. Many a visiting merchant or Administratum tithe-factor has observed the seeming inefficiency of this system, but none would question its efficacy in maintaining the unquestionable power of House Helmawr. The heart of the Ring of Selene is a great void station called the "Eye of Selene."
Necromunda (Planet) - Hive Secundus: There was a time when Hive Secundus was, as its name indicates, the second greatest hive city on all Necromunda. This was to change just over a Terran century ago, however, when Secundus fell victim to a Genestealer infestation that was subsequently found to have been the result of unsanctioned research by the rogue Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priest and Magos Biologis Hermiatus, whose research went so disastrously awry that agents of the Inquisition were forced to intervene at terrible cost.In the destruction that followed, Hive Secundus was submitted to such punishment at the hands of Necromunda's own planetary defence batteries that its central spire was toppled, crashing down to rest as a shattered, fallen column across ten kilometres of the Ash Wastes. As overpowering as this response was, it failed to rid Necromunda of the curse of the Genestealer, and the ruins were subsequently found to be overrun by the xenos creatures and their infected Human kin among the feared Genestealer Cults. This cult was called the "Scions of the Needle."The planetary defence batteries dangerously depleted, a ring of trenches and redoubts was thrown up all about the ruined hive, and this has grown ever denser with each passing Terran year, manned by conscripts and penal troops from across the world.It is said that nothing can escape that ring of steel, but that it takes relentless and constant watchfulness to ensure it does not. The xenos creatures continue to this day to breed within the shattered hive, engaged in a constant war of survival with the descendants of the Human survivors who now exist as feral savages long ago abandoned by their fellow Necromundans.