What's your favorite piece of lore that's often forgotten?

[klisof]

I remember a piece from the 3rd ed rulebook vaguely about the imperial navy trying to invade a planet of an unknown Xenos species. They ended up getting their butts kicked so bad they had to withdraw and blockade that reason of space. I liked it because it was a nice change from the usual glorious victory by SM against Xenos with no real presence.

I think this is the story you are thinking of - all the old Solar Macharius stuff was worth reading

[Lord_Caerolion]

I love that. "They annihilated us as we were preparing to turn their planet into molten slag? What a baseless attack!"

[Skaorn]

That is indeed the one Klisof, thank you

[Lexington]

May the insane, horrifying, hilarious glory of the 3rd Ed rulebook never be forgotten.

[Gorgoff]

I remember a piece from the 3rd ed rulebook vaguely about the imperial navy trying to invade a planet of an unknown Xenos species. They ended up getting their butts kicked so bad they had to withdraw and blockade that reason of space. I liked it because it was a nice change from the usual glorious victory by SM against Xenos with no real presence.

I think this is the story you are thinking of - all the old Solar Macharius stuff was worth reading

Thank you for bringing back my childhood by posting that story. I loved those short snippeds of lore.

[Zuvassin]

Darn, I missed the discussion about Ork tech and their belief in things working. Two things I’d still like to add:

 

1. It always felt in RT/2nd that “red is fasta” wasn’t a literal truth, but an illustration of the Orks mindset for superstition, similar to how blue is a lucky color.

 

2. I always interpreted the “Ork stuff works because they believe it does” and variations on that as really being how the Mechanicum explained away how an “inferior” race like the Orks can produce weaponry either more easily (basic guns and vehicles) or tech that the Mechanicum can’t match (Ork telly-portas). Bad example, but say similar to a western doctor dismissing a native homeopathic cure as being the result of a placebo effect because prescientific people clearly can’t know how to cure diseases.

 

Anyways, I *love* the Solar Macharius stuff! I really wish there was more material related to him and his conquests.

[Leif Bearclaw]

 

Anyways, I *love* the Solar Macharius stuff! I really wish there was more material related to him and his conquests.

This just reminded me of the short quotes that started the Chapters in some of the Cain books. Two of the best being different character's take on 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'.

 

Inquisitor Quixos:

"The enemy of my enemy is a probelm for later. In the meantime, they may be useful,"

 

Macharius:

"The enemy of my enemy dies next!"

 

Always makes me chuckle.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Yeah I could be remembering things out of order, but I always thought that blurb about the middle ground tank was for the Vehicle Design Rules that came out around midway through 3rd. They really had a phase of pushing kitbashing and creativity for a while.

I found it! It was the Index Astartes article for the Predator release. The Techpriest who made the hunt for the new battle tank his life's work was the same one who discovered the Razorback STC.

[karden00]

 

Yeah I could be remembering things out of order, but I always thought that blurb about the middle ground tank was for the Vehicle Design Rules that came out around midway through 3rd. They really had a phase of pushing kitbashing and creativity for a while.

I found it! It was the Index Astartes article for the Predator release. The Techpriest who made the hunt for the new battle tank his life's work was the same one who discovered the Razorback STC.

 

I knew it! That used to be the reason that Razorbacks weren't into the Chaos inventory.

[Indefragable]

I can't remember where I read this, but just like Orkz think "red wunz go fasta" and the louder a gun is, the more powerful it is...and because of how the warp is driven off of beliefs and emotions and thus so many Orkz believing red ones go faster and louder guns are more powerful...they actually do become faster and more powerful...

 

...so there was anecdote about how some Kommandos believe painting themselves purple turns them invisible.

 

To which the civilized world laughs and thinks how ridiculous that is, until someone asks "ah...but have you ever seen a purple ork?"

[Willy Pete]

In one of the Space Marine codices, it is stated that not all Chapters use the Razorback, as it is considered 'unproven' technology, being only 5,000 years old. :)

 

Also, the Lightning fighter's STC patterns were recovered during the Saint-Saen Crusade by the Ad Mech and given to the Ad Mech lords of Cypra Mundi.  These ancient lords sat in judgment, took readings of the Emperor's Tarot and the advice of their oldest and wisest technicians before deciding that the omens were favorable, and they could begin work with the Machine God's favor.  It took over 500 years before the Lightning was finally issued for service.  Good thing they didn't need it any time soon.  

[Quantum]

My favourite piece of forgotten, but not necessarily lost, lore was that the Necrons were once a race of slaves of a group of awakaning lovecraftian horrors. Especially the backgroud story at the end of their 3rd edition codex was awesome, in which an Eldar Farseer had visions how humanity had become livestock to the four named C'Tan who had changed the universe in their personal hellscape. Try looking up the last scenes of the Nintendo game 'Eternal Darkness, Sanity's requiem'; there you get a glimpse of the world after the summoned Old One has taken over. Especially the Ulyath scene shows a techno-hell that captures the idea of the Soul-Forges very well.

 

I never did mind the 'newcrons', as their added personality and tomb kings/egyptian mummy characterisitcs gave them a more personalized feel, but I still miss the lovecraftian threat the C'tan posed.

 

Even since I've been trying to merge the two backgrounds in my mind; yes, the Necros rebelled against the C'Tan, but only emerged victorious because the Outsider had already devoured most of his bretheren after being tricked by the Lauging God. The Dyson spere below the Galaxy still exits, once it was the Necrontyr's greatest stronghold, used to wage war on the Old Ones, but now repurposed as a massive Tesseract Prison to (barely) contain a colossal C'Tan shard.

 

And the necrosn themselves, while they brood about rebuilding their dynasties and reclaiming the galaxy, are secretly terrified that their ancient masters will one day pull themselves back together and enslave the Necrons under their eternal and unchanging rule. Heck, I even like the idea that there are Necrons in the universe that actively work to bring back their ancient masters.

 

You know, perhaps I should write some fanfic about this...

[SickSix]

I was told there is a story from one of the Armeggedon Campaigns about the Silver Skulls. It seems pretty badass. Apparently they were fighting the orks at one of the space ports. The story goes they somehow infiltrated one of the Roks through teleportation anf planted exposives inside. The then teleported out and blew up the Rok.

 

If anyone recalls this and/or knows where I might find this story please let me know.

[Rogue]

Following on from some earlier conversations, I finally got round to unpacking some of my books, and came across Ian Watson's Inquisitor, which has this passage:

 

Now here at last was savage grandeur. Here was the Column of Glory itself.

Under a vaulted dome so lofty that clouds had formed, a slim tower of multi-hued metals rose half a kilometre high. The suits of Whitescar and Imperial Fist Marines, who had died defending this palace nine thousand years earlier, studded that column. Within those shattered suits their bones still hung. Their skulls still grinned from open faceplates.

...

Two Titans flanked the great archway that led onward, serving as columns, one blood-red, one purple. High over the archway, in obsidian, the wide winged emblem of the Imperium was mounted. The bowed carapaces of these giant fighting robots sustained golden mosiac roofing in which, as Jaq knew, were buried the heavy macro cannons and multi-launchers of the Titans, just as their great cleated feet were locked underfloor. Purity seals and devout banners dangled.

By each side of the archway sagged a powerful fist which could seize and crush to liquid any unpermitted interloper. The other jointed arm of each Titan terminated in a massive, poised defence laser. 

Inside the jutting armoured turtle-head of each Titan, rotas of warrior adepts of the Collegia Titanica had roosted on honour-guard during thousands of years. During thousands of years those two Titans had stood as columns, immobile, statuesque, awing all who approached. Yet in ultimate emergency their plasma generators could presumably power up rapidly from stand-by mode. Energy could flow through hydroplastics coupled to actuators. The electrically-motivated fibre bundles that served as muscles could tear their heaviest weapons free from the roof, bringing tonnes crashing down as a blockade. The robots could wrench their feet free. They could open fire devastatingly. During overhauls throughout the millennia, the appropriate maintenance litanies would have been chanted faithfully. 

Even on stand-by, Jaq suspected that those power fists might flex and pluck a body from the floor is the devotees in those turtle-heads saw fit...

 

(The opening paragraphs offer an explanation as to why those particular suits of power armour were used in the column rather than going back to their chapters - they're shattered, perhaps beyond repair.)

[Walter Payton]

The excerpt from Execution Hour in the 3.5 edition Codex: Chaos Space Marines was a fantastic introduction to Abaddon the Despoiler, and until the Dembski-Bowden series was probably the best thing about the Black Legion that GW has ever written.

 

[Lord_Caerolion]

I can't remember where I read this, but just like Orkz think "red wunz go fasta" and the louder a gun is, the more powerful it is...and because of how the warp is driven off of beliefs and emotions and thus so many Orkz believing red ones go faster and louder guns are more powerful...they actually do become faster and more powerful...

 

...so there was anecdote about how some Kommandos believe painting themselves purple turns them invisible.

 

To which the civilized world laughs and thinks how ridiculous that is, until someone asks "ah...but have you ever seen a purple ork?"

 

From memory that's just a fan-written joke, but don't hold me to that. I definitely remember reading something in Ork-speak about "you ain't nevva seen a purple Ork, 'ave ya?"

[klisof]

I was told there is a story from one of the Armeggedon Campaigns about the Silver Skulls. It seems pretty badass. Apparently they were fighting the orks at one of the space ports. The story goes they somehow infiltrated one of the Roks through teleportation anf planted exposives inside. The then teleported out and blew up the Rok.

If anyone recalls this and/or knows where I might find this story please let me know.

This is from the 2003 publication "The Battle for Armageddon - The Imperium's Struggle for Armageddon, in the words of those who fought and died there"

If you can track down a copy it's 210 pages of pure Fluff on the 3 wars. No rules, just background. The book layout is closer to Forgeworld fluff than GW.

Authors credit on the back is for Talima Fox if you want to search Amazon for a copy

Also I should probably check with any mods in this thread - as much as I'm enjoying an excuse to go though some old background books am I breaking any board rules putting pics of fluff from out of print publications up? If so I'll just type a summary if I find any more.

[Brother Casman]

Summaries would be better, I think.

 

At the very least, you'd be saving bandwidth.

[Guest Triszin]

That Kroot aren't technological savages. THere homeworld peck have, whats rumored to be, massive underground facilities, that not even the tau have managed to see.

 

Kroot will use tech, I wouldn't be too surprised if some kroot opt to use armor and tech against chaos and nids. ( things they cant eat)

[Panzer]

That Kroot aren't technological savages. THere homeworld peck have, whats rumored to be, massive underground facilities, that not even the tau have managed to see.

 

Kroot will use tech, I wouldn't be too surprised if some kroot opt to use armor and tech against chaos and nids. ( things they cant eat)

 

However due the amount of Ork dna they consumed they now intuitively aim for a low-tech society to strengthen their physical capabilities. Hence why their Warspheres are so rare these days. They do have massive underground facilities, but they don't get used as much as they used to anymore. Or rather not to produce such high-level technology.

[Skaorn]

 

That Kroot aren't technological savages. THere homeworld peck have, whats rumored to be, massive underground facilities, that not even the tau have managed to see.

 

Kroot will use tech, I wouldn't be too surprised if some kroot opt to use armor and tech against chaos and nids. ( things they cant eat)

 

 

However due the amount of Ork dna they consumed they now intuitively aim for a low-tech society to strengthen their physical capabilities. Hence why their Warspheres are so rare these days. They do have massive underground facilities, but they don't get used as much as they used to anymore. Or rather not to produce such high-level technology.

I might not be remembering this correctly and even then elements might have been retconed. I believe it was discussed in the Kroot Merc list why the Kroot actually chose to abandon high technology since being able to take units influenced by eating Orks was a thing. Essentially eating too many Orks was causing too many problems for Kroot society and was possibly leading them into an evolutionary dead end. They got bigger, tougher, and were able to access more advanced technology from the Ork DNA but they were also becoming more Ork like in other ways too. Eventually shapers got together and realized the problem and realized that they can't out Ork Orks so they went on an Ork diet to focus on bringing in other sources of DNA. I think it was also implied that Kroot turned their back on technology to some extent rather than just having access to Ork tech slip away, which makes sense as having Bob working on building bigger and better guns could be a sign that he has too much Ork DNA.

[Panzer]

Nah, eating Orks is fine for Kroot. Their three taboos are: Tyranids (because they slowly become part of the Hivemind), Chaos tainted beings (because they become chaos tainted that way too) and T'au (because they are such close allies).

[Interrogator-Chaplain Ezra]

Speaking of Roks and Armageddon, there was a story in a WD back during the campaign. Cometh The Hour I think was the title. One Rok was destroyed by an Imperial Titan walking up the loading ramp, firing as it went, and then detonating its reactor when inside the Rok.

 

Another good moment was an aide to Yarrick feeling pity for this old, broken, one-armed man having to fight. Then Yarrick went into his tent to have the power claw fitted, and when he came back out he was straight-backed, proud, and looked ready to take on the Ork horde on his own.

 

That whole story was fantastic.

[Skaorn]

Nah, eating Orks is fine for Kroot. Their three taboos are: Tyranids (because they slowly become part of the Hivemind), Chaos tainted beings (because they become chaos tainted that way too) and T'au (because they are such close allies).

This was from before the taboos and was more implying that they were becoming too stagnant by using the advancements they gained from Orks iirc. They still ate Orks as you could get Kroot units with +1 toughness as an adaption from Orks. The first time I saw Kroot eating Chaos as a problem was in DoW after you beat the Chaos HQ territory with the Tau, which came out several years after, so it could be something that was moved away from as they moved towards things like eating Chaos and Nids being bad.

[Panzer]

Yeah sounds like either you're remembering wrong or it simply being old fluff.