Are Chaos Dreadnoughts undead?

[Lord Kallozar]

Basically what the title says.... are chaos dreadnoughts essentially undead chaos space marines?

[Lay]

Helbrutes are driven insane to the point of being mindless but I'd say that makes them closer to Chaos Spawn. Chaos Contemptors and the like are probably not much different from loyalist Dreads.

[ElDuderino]

According to old fluff, they're mostly the same as loyalist dreads, except insane due to not having their bloodlust/decadence/other vices satiated.

 

The new helbrutes might be something else however, in guessing a daemon is thrown into the mix for good measure

[Panzer]

Any Dreadnought is more or less undead. They're extremely heavily wounded marines that couldn't function without the life support in a Dreadnought anymore and slowly lose their mind the longer they are active (faster for bigger Dreadnoughts variants).

 

So they're not undead in the classical sense like raised from the dead etc. but they share many traits of actual undeads.

[Arkaniss]

Nah, they're not undead. Kept alive by the technology of the Dreadnought Sarcophagus sure but they've not been raised or brought back from the dead. Some might have been saved from near-death but definitely not undead.

[ElDuderino]

But by all means, if you want yours to be undead just go for it, a sorcerer and a warpsmith might've collaborated to resurrect a champion or something. It's chaos after all:)

[Raven1]

The Thousand Sons has a great bit of Helbrute fluff. With trickery and sorcery and some poor aspiring sap.

[Scammel]

The Thousand Sons has a great bit of Helbrute fluff. With trickery and sorcery and some poor aspiring sap.

While that was a cool little piece told really well, it's a slight shame that it was basically plastering over the crack that is Thousand Sons Dreadnoughts, which de facto have to be either Rubric or sorcerous. If there's a single model that would really make the Sons range feel that little bit more complete, it would be a Rubric Dread.

[BitsHammer]

 

The Thousand Sons has a great bit of Helbrute fluff. With trickery and sorcery and some poor aspiring sap.

While that was a cool little piece told really well, it's a slight shame that it was basically plastering over the crack that is Thousand Sons Dreadnoughts, which de facto have to be either Rubric or sorcerous. If there's a single model that would really make the Sons range feel that little bit more complete, it would be a Rubric Dread.

 

While true, a Rubric Dread would be more FW's ticket to punch (like they did the Sonic Dread). I'd argue making the Helbrute some kind of psyker (with a unique power as he insanely screams into the warp or something) would have fit as you take Aspiring Sorcerors and cram them into a box and deny them their sorcery they once had.

 

That aside, I'd say Dreadnoughts are technically undead in the same sort of vein that the Emperor is: their body is basically non-functional at this point but it is given life by a machine that forces blood through their veins and basically forces life upon their corpse.

[Azekai]

That aside, I'd say Dreadnoughts are technically undead in the same sort of vein that the Emperor is: their body is basically non-functional at this point but it is given life by a machine that forces blood through their veins and basically forces life upon their corpse.

 

Being on life support =/= being undead. Dreadnoughts talk about 'serving even in death' and such a state could be likened to 'living death' in a poetic sense, but zombies they ain't. It's just rhetoric and/or misunderstanding of what the dreadnought sarcophagus actually does.

[Gederas]

Are they Nurgle Dreadnoughts? Then they're probably not undead. That's just my 2 cents :lol:

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Imagine a Sorcerer Helbrute though. I mean, the Blood Angels can do it so why not Chaos?

[BitsHammer]

 

 

That aside, I'd say Dreadnoughts are technically undead in the same sort of vein that the Emperor is: their body is basically non-functional at this point but it is given life by a machine that forces blood through their veins and basically forces life upon their corpse.

 

Being on life support =/= being undead. Dreadnoughts talk about 'serving even in death' and such a state could be likened to 'living death' in a poetic sense, but zombies they ain't. It's just rhetoric and/or misunderstanding of what the dreadnought sarcophagus actually does.

 

Not all undead are zombies. Some are vampires or ghouls. Or Robocop. :P

 

More seriously, I was trying to more make a point that there is nothing natural about them still being alive, their body is only animated by the apparatus that is keeping them alive rather than their physiology. They were so greviously wounded that there was no chance of recovery, and even being on the life support of the Dreadnought their rather robust physiology isn't working as it should (creating scar tissue to seal wounds for example) and their bodies are often described/shown as desiccated corpses wired into the sarcophagus, making their appearance not much better than a zombie (their body might even be slowly decaying).

 

That's not even getting into how the sarcophagus slowly burns out their body (likely wears out the neurons since the body is no longer self healing, making the interned Astartes little better than a zombie as they wear down and fall apart in much the same fashion).

 

So even if they aren't actual zombies (outside of Nurgle Dreadnoughts), they are pretty darn close to being like one in how the Astartes' body is failing and decaying inside of that metal box.

 

Imagine a Sorcerer Helbrute though. I mean, the Blood Angels can do it so why not Chaos?

I know, right? Heck, a completely bonkers psyker running around in a several ton metal exoskeleton would have been cool as heck!

 

I think GW missed an opportunity there.

[Gederas]

 

Imagine a Sorcerer Helbrute though. I mean, the Blood Angels can do it so why not Chaos?

I know, right? Heck, a completely bonkers psyker running around in a several ton metal exoskeleton would have been cool as heck!

 

I think GW missed an opportunity there.

I think it's more that the Thousand Sons Osirion Contemptor Dreadnought wasn't out at the time :lol: I get the feeling that thing will be added as a "Hellforged" option in a later Imperial Armour.

[BitsHammer]

 

 

Imagine a Sorcerer Helbrute though. I mean, the Blood Angels can do it so why not Chaos?

I know, right? Heck, a completely bonkers psyker running around in a several ton metal exoskeleton would have been cool as heck!

 

I think GW missed an opportunity there.

I think it's more that the Thousand Sons Osirion Contemptor Dreadnought wasn't out at the time I get the feeling that thing will be added as a "Hellforged" option in a later Imperial Armour.

 

I eagerly await adding it to my army in the future.