What happens to dead LotD?

[Lord Kallozar]

Random question, but from what I’ve read I’ve never encountered a scenario where a legion of the damned member has been slain in combat. So what actually happens to them once they have been gunned down or hacked apart by an enemy? Do they simply just phase away in a puff of warp smoke or do they actually die like normal marines with blood and guts everywhere? Just a curious question as we all know the LotD are not normal human Astartes and more like daemons/undead.

 

Thanks.

[NovemberIX]

I'd have to go look for my copy of the Legion of the Damned novel to confirm, but from what I remember they don't even take damage, like shots just go through them. The fiction made them seem like some sort of ethereal/apparition type thing that can't be harmed via normal means.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

My guess? The "dead" Legionnaires of the Damned will return to the Emperor's side, and wait for the next moment His Immortal Majesty sends them into battle. From the Lexicanum article on the War Within the Webway:

The Emperor summoned an army of loyal Imperial dead including Ferrus Manus that took the form of blazing avatars to fight the Daemons.

With the Golden Throne boosting His psychic might, He should be able to re-summon the Legion of the Damned.

[Leif Bearclaw]

They fade away, like Necrons.

 

From WD223, when the LOTD were first introduced, back in 1998. Their introduction included a short story from the POV of a Chaos Marine who gets on the wrong side of the Legion. The salient bit is quoted below:

 

"Jursk was stunned to see that no enemy dead littered the floor. Confused, he fired the contents of a whole magazine into one of the advancing figures, sending shards of armour spinning away, knocking the Space Marine flat onto his back. When he looked again, there was no sign of the felled warrior."

[Jolemai]

They respawn, but have to wait in the lobby until the game ends. On the plus side, they get to watch the game in the viewing gallery or from an active member's viewpoint.

Then when the next matchup comes along, the Team Leaders sort them out in groups and they go again, appearing from their respawn point with a 30second invulnerability.

[Brother Tyler]

From White Dwarf 99, March 1988 "Index Astartes: Legion of the Damned":

...Then, on 3628987. M41, a patrol ship in the Maran sub-sector narrowly avoided a collision with a space-craft at the Cift jump-point. The patrol ship was entering the Cift system as the unidentified craft was leaving. Alerted by the close encounter, the patrol crew scanned the entire jump-area and discovered two long cylindrical objects within the intruder's projected flight-path. These were hauled aboard and proved to be standard space-coffins without identification markings.

 

The coffins were shipped back to earth and opened by the Adeptus Mechanicus. The coffins themselves were identified as belonging to the Absolute, one of the spacecraft from the vanished Fire Hawk fleet. Inside were the armoured remains of two Space Marines. The unconventional armour colours and unofficial insignia puzzled the investigators, but serial numbers tallied with equipment made by or issued to the Fire Hawks. The armoured suits were expected to house members of the lost chapter, and were carefully broken open. The bodies within were human, but further identification proved impossible due to their advanced state of decay.

 

...

 

From the data contained in the recorder the Administratum was able to determine exactly what had happened to the lost chapter. Following their warp-jump the entire fleet had been caught within a warp-storm of terrific intensity. Stunned by the power of the warp, the chapter was forced to endure the attacks of powerful warp entities. Ship after ship was destroyed and absorbed into the fabric of the warp. Soon only one craft remained. By a daring warp-exit manoeuvre the craft burst out of warp-space, emerging far in the galactic east, thousands of light years off-course and beyond even the psychic light of the Emperor.

 

The original survivors numbered two hundred brethren. All gene-seed had been lost, all initiates killed, and most of the chapter's masters were gone. None of the ordinary human staff have survived at all. To make matters worse the brethren had changed. This change became more obvious over the next few months. Skins began to blacken and blister, flesh began to fester and putrefy. Slowly they began to die. Within days of the transition into normal space it became obvious that the chapter had been exposed to some form of dangerous mutation or disease. It took many years to navigate a way back into the Imperium, during which time almost half the brethren succumbed to the malady. Those who remained were no longer sane. Pain and despair had driven even their hardened minds beyond the point of rationality. Doomed to agonising deaths, they gradually became obsessed with their fate. Now they only wanted to die. But they were still marines, still loyal to the Emperor and humanity. They would not die without a purpose.

 

So began the unstoppable war of the Legion of the Damned! The marines elected to remove all insignia from their armour. Instead their armour would be black, decorated by each brother with whatever emblems of death he chose (the accompanying illustrations show some typical variations). Most brothers employed a similar theme - skeletons, bones and skulls.

 

All ranks and companies were abolished, most of the chapter's officers were already dead and the remaining warriors were too few to make up a fully functioning chapter hierarchy. All brothers were to be equal before death - levelled by the certainty of their assured extinction. The warriors decided to expend their lives attacking enemies wherever they could be found. The disease had robbed them of their sanity, but not their loyalty! And their condition gave them powers - powers that endow them with incredible fighting abilities.

 

...

 

As the fatal malady takes a firm hold, the victim begins to degenerate and putrefy. However, even as his body decays, he grows in supernatural vigour. Even though the marine's limbs become rotten and twisted he gains strength far beyond that of a normal marine. These powers heighten as the disease rages through the victim's body. At the moment of death, each brother reaches a peak in power, at which point the raw energies of the warp transmute the death throes of the doomed marine into a berserk orgy of destruction. Make no mistake - the Legion of the Damned may be few in numbers, but their powers are awesome!

 

Just as their bodies are changed by contact with the warp, so their minds are hardened too. Brethren are completely immune to all forms of psychic attack or interference. They cannot be affected by the special psychic attacks of warp-creatures - although they may be harmed physically by physical attacks that such creatures may have. Astral spectres and other immaterial creatures cannot harm them in any way.

 

...

 

The marines are rapidly approaching the moment when they will be claimed by the warp contagion. No-one knows when this be. The rigours of combat tend to initiate the final stages of the disease, warping more and more raw energy into the marine during his final moments.

Note that GW has stepped away from the certainty of the original lore and has shifted to the more mysterious Warp spectres of modern lore. My main point is that the Legion of the Damned have been around since the late '80s and their exact nature has changed over time (including their apparent mortality).

[old git]

Can't remember the exact wording but my favourite is still the Fire Hawks original story where their ship was destroyed and the last survivors are trying to escape the ship. They all die and their spectral bodies shift from battle zone to battle zone, helping out their brother marines. The story goes on to say that when they 'die' their bodies go back to the moment on the ship immediately before they die. Thus they are constantly reliving the moment of their death from mission to mission.

[Jerethdatiger]

Cfrom what I've read in lotd and other stuff they are more like imperial deamons now as to die g they seem to vanish legion of the damed does a good job of explaining cit. Also they're affected by warp fluctuations same as celestine

 

And they've been seen before firehawks. So who knows

[War Angel]

I’ve never seen anything suggesting they are Deamons, just cursed/infected Marines. In legion of the damned they are invincible, with rounds phasing through them entirely, their own blades didn’t take on caporal form until after it had passed the chaos Marines armor. Great stuff.

[Moonreaper666]

I’ve never seen anything suggesting they are Deamons, just cursed/infected Marines. In legion of the damned they are invincible, with rounds phasing through them entirely, their own blades didn’t take on caporal form until after it had passed the chaos Marines armor. Great stuff.

They are affected by the same things that affects Living Saints and Daemons. When the Cadian Pylons were activated, they were weakened as well as Celestine

 

Have the Lotd ever fought Psykers?

[Volt]

 

I’ve never seen anything suggesting they are Deamons, just cursed/infected Marines. In legion of the damned they are invincible, with rounds phasing through them entirely, their own blades didn’t take on caporal form until after it had passed the chaos Marines armor. Great stuff.

They are affected by the same things that affects Living Saints and Daemons. When the Cadian Pylons were activated, they were weakened as well as Celestine

 

Have the Lotd ever fought Psykers?

 

They have, Eldar Warlocks were the only thing that seemed to have an effect on them.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Cfrom what I've read in lotd and other stuff they are more like imperial deamons now as to die g they seem to vanish legion of the damed does a good job of explaining cit. Also they're affected by warp fluctuations same as celestine

 

And they've been seen before firehawks. So who knows

When discussing anything Warp-ish, remember the line from Dr Who about time being wimbley-wombley.

[Trevak Dal]

I imagine it's something like this:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CuopFljokWQ

 

They just respawn from the aspect of the Emperor that spawns them.