Vox Stellarum: Hara Barazaiti

[Ryltar Thamior]

Two Vayomani Confederacy defenders for Ondlangr 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Managed another Adamanticore 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

It's been awhile. 

On the painting-table ... Techsorsists.

We had the Sigmarine half of some AoS box spare - you'll see what the Nighthaunt got turned into for this project, in due course.

Umbral worked his magic, and here they are .. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

been awhile since I've done an Adamanticore. Work in progress.

[Ryltar Thamior]

More truescale Adamanticores in progress

[Naryn]

Absolutely adore the latest set of Adamanticores, as well as the techsorsists from a few posts back. Lovely work, I always enjoy your posts!

[Ryltar Thamior]

This has been some *seriously* slow progress ... but that's in part because I defer on rapid completions so that things 'fall into place' with some of the half-completed builds. Of which there are now ... several more, not pictured here. 

I had a few layers of inspiration for this one - the posing came together in fits and starts, the head just seemed 'right', and then the idea for another KalAdharastine ... 

I am still parsing the relevant linguistics - I know what the figure and accouterments / panoply thereof keys to mythically, but you know how I am with such matters. So we'll save the characterization proper for when painting is complete. 

I also thought I'd try do something simple for a change - a relatively unconverted Adamanticore in standard-ish armour, minimal additional equipment. 









Now, this truescale I posted in partially-completed form ... good *grief* - a month ago and more ! It's taken me that long to make some additions, and choose some adornments to actually get him to a state I'm reasonable with. A large part of which being almost unnecessary twiddling around with how to get a combat knife or other such weapon on there. Another part being doing the rather laborious task of bulking out the back armour - and then in a flash of idea, using purity seals to cover over some of the sections' jagged cornering etc. It should look a lot less overt what I've done once paint's completed. Whole thing could be averted using greenstuff, but that is not my way. 













 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Two more Adamanticores 

[Ryltar Thamior]

The KalAdharastine Kirata - Nemesis Mrigaya Padani 

 

Amidst the many specialized sects and warrior-fraternities of both the Adamanticores and Old Adamantine folk-religion alike (for one was suitably indistinguishable from the other), the exaltation of Law was a common fixation. Yet whilst the 'Iron Masks' pursued the maintenance of civic order, and the Heshrpandits upheld the genomic excellence required for the Realm of Adamantia's fated purpose as Astartes fortress-womb ... the KalAdharastines (occasionally Gothicized as 'Kal-Adrastines') were different.

 

A grim-faced order of terrific killers, their name meant something akin to 'The Blade / Leading Edge / Hand of Kaal' - Kaal being an Old Adamantine theonym for a deity of both Time and Death and bearing the Black colouration of the Dark Night. With slight alteration of inflection, it could also be interpreted to mean 'The Skillful in the Craft', implicitly of Death; and when calqued into the Yavanite languages to Adamantia's West it became 'Kal-Adrastines': understood there as "The Inescapable Kal". 

 

Leaving aside that "Kal" could also mean 'Beauty' in those latter languages, the "Inescapable Kaal" conveyed the underlying sense to the KalAdharastas' self-designation. For just as with Time and Death, they were held to be implacable - seeming to be outright 'inevitable' in their pursuit and eventual taking of their prey. 

 

Whereas various of those other orders aforementioned focused upon combating generalized threats to the Order of Adamantia , the KalAdharastas took as their mission the targeting and elimination of specific and often highly individual opponents to same.

 

Each particular sub-order specialized in a different form of approach - some favouring the subtlety of stealth or the far-reaching grasp of long-range precision-kills as their particular forms of tribute to the All-Enfolding Death-That-Is-Night. Particularly adroit KalAdharastas would eventually begin to combine to their taste disciplines drawn from multiple of these traditions, becoming truly terrifying masters of the deadly administration of Justice's Harsh Hand. Demarcated from their fellows by bearing an ever-lengthening series of sobriquets alluding to the ways and means with which they could cast their sacred sanction upon Adamantia's foes. 

 

The specialization of the Kirata was that of the 'Hunter', taking as its inspiration the customs and symbolic iconography of certain groupings to be found upon the rough-and-ready 'barbaric' fringes of the Adamantine demesne [c.f / ref.: 'Sauromatriae' - and note the subtly reptilian, indeed fanged imagery of the Kirata's war-helm]; although with the name itself also perhaps intentionally resonant with the grim-visaged 'Karotika' skull-helms found elsewhere ... and the 'Koryos' term which came to inform latterly-prominent developments in the same region [crossref: via K => H sound-shift, SkandaVak 'Harja', whence Imperial High Gothic 'Harii', as seen in the 'Haunting Harii of Hvergelmir' spoken of in the folklore of worlds to Adamantia's immediate northwest - another clade of mythic warriors also noted for their serpentine iconographic associations]. 

 

Padani, meanwhile, derived from the Old Adamantine 'Pada' - i.e. 'Foot', or 'Step' - and connoted 'tracing the footsteps', 'following the tracks' of a quarry; whilst Mrigaya has invited multiple and thus far questionably satisfactory attempted interpolations as to its core etymology and meaning. A linkage to 'Mrga' - i.e. 'Deer', 'Animal' - seems likely; although whether 'Mrigaya' to refer to a hunt was due to this being the term for the target, or whether the word for the hunt instead gave its name to the archetypal form of prey is unknown. 

 

A more interesting proposition connects 'Mrigaya' to the 'Mer' which stands for 'Death' (as seen in Old Adamantine 'Mrt' - cognate with Imperial High Gothic 'Mortus'), although also cognizant of the somewhat broader meaning-field for this term, which conspicuously includes 'Darkness' and 'Disappearance'. In the person of the Kirata, such an appellation should therefore not only connote the bringing about of death for the quarry, but also their much-feared ability to strike without warning and both fade in and out from the darkness which lies all around. Indeed, to become the 'Darkness That Is Death', and its envelopment - in much the manner of the 'Kaal' that had given name to the entire Ordos of the  KalAdharastines themselves. 

 

Yet comparative linguistics can only illuminate so much, especially when devoid of proper context - and it is the fragmentary array of Adamantine mythic and religious attestations that have come down to us which more truly inform the nature and the character of the iron-masked predators of the darkness between the stars. 

 

There, we find not only the enjoinments that the Adamanticore "followest close the foe who lies in wait to conquer [him] / Even as a hunter who pursues the footsteps of the wounded game." But also more specialized invocations where the Hunter is accompanied by the force of 'Krityas' [literally - 'Actions'], and apparently employed along with these to dispatch invidious sorcerers, against whom they are apparently inured. To quote in translation:

 

"[sending-Lord], victorious in fight, subdue the armies of our foes! / Back on the sorcerer we cast his sorcery, and beat it home.

Thou who hast piercing weapons, pierce him who hath wrought it; conquer him. / We do not sharpen thee to slay the man who hath not practised it.

Go as a consequence follows his causation: bite as a trampled viper bites. / Fly 'gainst him like one unfettered of all bonds, the witchcraft-maker!

Let the Krityas chase down the perpetrator like terrified prey. / The coldly inevitabile result [of law's violation] falling upon its cause like the Manticore!"

 

Whilst no definitive proof can be extracted from extant historical records as to the truth of the matter, it has been postulated that this might suggest the Kirata may therefore have represented a specialized sub-order within the KalAdharastines, oriented toward the combatting of maleficarum-wielding threats against Adamantia and Her warriors - likely ranging ahead of the mainstay of Adamantine forces to seek out and eliminate such targets before they could truly threaten the domain. However, this proposal is controversial, as there is little in the above texts to specifically link them to the Kirata other than the brief flaring of serpentine imagery. The verses in question may also be in reference to the actual and archetypal deific expression (in theory an emanation of the God-Emperor - Old Adamantine: 'Ishvara') rather than being intended to speak of the Adamanticore KalAdharastine himself. As with so much else pertaining to the Adamantine Old Faith, and the ways of its fierce practitioners, it must remain a mystery for the ages. 

 

Other sections seem to refer to the Hunter and Krityas actually making use of 'magical' powers to fight the sorcery of the enemy - although whether this refers to advanced technology, or does indeed suggest the employment of (presumably sanctioned) psychic measures, is likewise uncertain. Given their context, it is held more likely to refer to another KalAdharastine sect attested elsewhere in the corpus; with the Kiratas' imperviousness toward the maleficarum of the enemy instead resulting from specialized anti-psyker countermeasures, perhaps contained within their cold-iron contoured stalker-helms. Inquiry on this front has particularly affixed itself upon the ridgeline of scaled protrusions along the helm's crest, due to its lack of other obvious function - however it may also simply have represented a cosmetic enhancement, with the true locus of the power (should it have even existed) being situated elsewhere via more obscure means. 

 

As befits the Kirata's role, they often appear to have been equipped with an extensive array of specialized ammunition, as well as tracking and 'wide-eye' scanning systems integrated into their armour. The latter are integrated with the dual vidyascreens upon the Kirata's vambraces, as well as running a direct feed into the left-side ocular of the helm from either the sight of his bolter or the scanner upon his back; the hunter switching effortlessly between these and a full field of view with but a thought. The former are supposed to have included seemingly non-lethal bolt-ammunition designed to wound a target and cause it to flee, whilst also 'marking' it for pathfinding back to its base or lair. Undoubtedly, other and more esoteric warheads would also have been carried by the warrior; utilized either via the artificer-crafted revolver carried on the Kirata's left hip, or the blue-cased boltgun carried in the huntsman's hand that appears to bear a significant resemblance to the Hesh or Artifex pattern bolters in-use amongst the Deathwatch. The metallic-blue casing is likely an intentional referencing of the colour's symbolic situation as that of Death in Adamantine folklore. 

 

For close assault, the Kirata supplements his traditional hunting knife (which may also be thrown - the force and accuracy of such an employment from the hand of an Astartes meaning that they are fully capable of bringing the proverbial knife to the gunfight and considerably outgunning the enemy) with a large chain-toothed curved Tulwar. While this might outwardly appear to be little more than a suitably ornate chainsabre, closer examination reveals the telltale signs of a power-weapon's disruption field emitters projecting upward from the hilt's motorization mechanism; it is also considered likely that the teeth of the weapon were comprised of some hypersharp and otherwise irresistible material perhaps broadly comparable to the 'frostblade' weapons of the Vlka Fenryka Astartes [this may also have been the case for the 'Teeth' of the fabled 'Chandrahas' - the 'Glinting Laughter/Smile of the Moon', the most illustrious sword's crescent shape simultaneously recalling a smiling mouth and the lunar crescent]. The lightning-bolts upon the outer casing would stand for Divine Justice, and its inescapable, far-ranging, and sudden-striking appearance. Attached to its pommel is a long knotted strand, likely of horse tail, and assumedly representing something akin to the Camara in-use in some Adamantine feudal baronies as one of the insignia of rulership, as well as for its practical function as a whip or fly-swat. It is likely to have fulfilled a protective function for the Kirata, presumably against those sorcerous powers aforementioned - at least in the warrior's own mind and belief-system.  

 

Upon the pauldrons we find a single predatory fang talisman on the right; while on the left there is an iron-coloured skull and radiating wheel of spikes. This would seem to resonate with the 'Wheel of Law' device encountered both on other KalAdharastas and in Adamantine iconography more generally. There, the Cog-Wheel device represents the inexorable, regular expression of the Law : the central wheel about which all else turns in motion as a result. And hence, once again, the inevitable cycle via which Night follows Day - and the KalAdharasta pursues his quarry til its dissolution. Declaring to would-be usurpers that they shall be ground down between the indefatigable gear-teeth of Order in recompense for their having sought to defy and oppose Reality Itself.  

 

However, whereas that escutcheon has tended to be represented as a twelve-toothed cog-wheel, the blazon here has sharp points (also numbering the dozen), as well as the obvious addition of the skull in its center. The coterminity of notions of Death (or Darkness) and Law within both the Old Adamantine linguistic and mytho-religious spheres is well-attested (indeed, the very co-identification of Adamantine 'Kaal' with the God-Emperor is similarly expressive of this - the Ishvara as the central point about which Humanity and the Imperium at large ultimately turn), although theories abound within those few clades of academia permitted access to the secondary material in question as to what these variations may have meant to their bearer. It is possible that the bladed, sharp protrusions represent the Law's hard-edged and piercing enforcement, perhaps recalling the arrowheads or speartips that would have been the equipment of a more archaically traditional huntsman. It is also possible that the design is intended to recall the radiant corona-flashes of a Star - the haloed Skull thus representing a 'Dead Star', perhaps - another feature made recurrent, if cryptic reference to in the Adamantine mythology and seemingly suggesting an afterworld realm of the dead. Certainly, the concept of a KalAdharasta as some vengeance-fulfilling netherworld spirit come to this plane to drag off some would-be worlds-breaker [note: certain terms for 'world' / 'plane' and 'law' are coterminous in the relevant languages - 'Kosmos', for instance, in the Yavanite tongues] to a no-longer evaded appointment with Death and the Judgement of the Underworld is a compelling one. 

 

History does not record with any great certainty what became of many of the KalAdharastas following the Fall of Adamantia. It is generally presumed that they, along with their Adamanticore brethren, died fighting 'gainst the forces which, with their own seeming inevitability of entropy, sought to lay the stellar domain of Adamantia low. What few remained must have, in a fitting bout of irony, have faded away into the dark obscuring mists of time - or else disappeared into the blackness which lingers betwixt the stars. 

 

However, some suggest that their influence lingers still. Analysis of several of the Adamantine Old Faith cults in operation over recent millennia suggest that these have gradually developed features of increasing resemblance to those of known KalAdharasta denominations. It should not take an unreasonably paranoid mind to postulate that these sects may be being actively 'guided' by the embodied Spirits of Vengeance whom they strive to emulate. The Past in Adamantia is seemingly so often the tapestry for what lies ahead; the arcs of shafts loosed long ago causing them to strike down from the heavens upon figures who felt they'd long-since outrun their previous deeds. 

 

Perhaps the figurative 'long arc of the Universe' is a Bow, held by an Archer with keen and all-piercing Eye. 

 

Perhaps the wheels remain in motion. And perhaps the return of Darkness is merely one bright day away.  

[Zebulon]

Nice!

 

It inspired me to pen this epigram, I hope you like it :tu:

 

All hail the Deathblades!

Striking from the shadows

They stalk wrongdoers without mercy

Glorying in their skill in the hunt!

[Ryltar Thamior]

working on another Adamanticore. 

 

Included rear shots because am attempting to streamline the process for bulking out the rear armour of my greenstuff-less approach to doing the torso. On the left, how I'd been doing things for the last few .. on the right .. sudden realization that a tartaros shoulderpad makes things *much* easier. 

 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Nice!

 

It inspired me to pen this epigram, I hope you like it

 

All hail the Deathblades!

Striking from the shadows

They stalk wrongdoers without mercy

Glorying in their skill in the hunt!

Nice epigram :D 

 

Reminds me slightly of this miniature, which i'd just been thinking about potentially doing an Adamanticore equivalent of somehow 

 

 

[Zebulon]

 

 

Nice!

 

It inspired me to pen this epigram, I hope you like it

 

All hail the Deathblades!

Striking from the shadows

They stalk wrongdoers without mercy

Glorying in their skill in the hunt!

Nice epigram :D

 

Reminds me slightly of this miniature, which i'd just been thinking about potentially doing an Adamanticore equivalent of somehow

 

…by which I presume you mean the Masked Man, as opposed to the Prisoner?

 

Having said that, my reading of that passage infers that the Prisoner is not necessarily guilty/wrong, but maybe that is just my hermeneutics? I tend to take a dim view of the Inquisition, a fact that would doubtless earn me a swift yet painful death in the far future, I am sure…

Edited July 29, 2021 by Zebulon

[Ryltar Thamior]

Huh, that's odd - I'd meant to link to the specific post (number 12) that had the Harii with the big sword [basically an almost stock assembly of the pointing arm and down-pointed sword from the Dark Angels Primaris sprue .. but with FW Alpha Legion helm, etc.]

It's the one with the big 

""Wield Truth like a Sword, and Scribe Reality Anew With The Blood-Threads Of Thine Prey"

" 

This chap - 



---

But yes, as applies the figures involved in Operation Psychopomp ..

I'm not sure I ever *quite* had a concrete idea in mind for who/what the Prisoner was and what he was supposed to have done - only that he was 'useful' in some way to a further unfolding design of the Masked Man. 

Although to let you in on .. what was going on - that particular story had an array of 'influences' which may be instructive. The Masked Man - we may also know via the relevant Old Norse. 'Grimnir' ... and, indeed, the picture I put at the end of a certain *iron* masked figure is referencing 'Jarngrimr' [literally 'Iron Mask[ed]']. 

You see, I'd had the Grimnismal in my head .. and these things just kind of happen. Except there's something curious in it because, of course, in the Grimnismal - Grimnir, that is to say, Odin ... is the prisoner (er "prisoner") of Geirroth [ and you'll note that the Inquisitor whose custody has just been escaped of in that story was an Inquisitor Geirroth ], and it is Agnar, a young princeling, that turns up a-visiting. 

[i also, as is my proclivity, made a few other .. alterations - and as it happens, the notion of 'Angels' .. well, there was a quote from Sunshine that has stuck with me that I was referencing 

."Are you an angel? Has the time come? I've been waiting so long."
"Who are you?"
"Who am I? At the end of time... ...a moment will come when just one man remains. Then the moment will pass. The man will be gone. There will be nothing to show as if we were ever here... ...but stardust. The last man, alone with God. Am I that man?"

but also, obviously, the Valkyrie notion [hence 'Valkjosandi] - I mean , 'Psychopomp', after all; and in addition to that, something from Terry Pratchett's 'Going Postal', wherein a conman is given a last chance after a deliberately faked death (so well faked, in fact, that the convict himself was rather surprised to wake up afterwards) by a powerful benefactor who invokes the idea of acting as the ne'er-do-well with useful skill's .. "angel". Oh and there's the Pulp Fiction reference in there as well (consider what happens with the relevant character and .. not-dying).

Of course, part of the overarching idea was that in a very real sense, the Prisoner was already, functionally, dead - a 'non-person', indeed 'un-personed' by the Inquisitor and now in a sort of limbo/hell of entirely terrestrial (well, realspace) situation. Hence, the deliverance from that by the Masked Man is 'life after death' in a greater cause and service, even though it's not really a resurrection per se, as the previous life cannot be returned to. There's another 'moving past death' reference if one looks closely at the sentry-post being numbered *Nine* in a Nordic language, but anyway ... in that case it's more Death [i.e. Kaal] moving past *it* - but I digress] 

As applies the Inquisition and feelings thereupon ... I mean, it's a big organization and everything is shades of grey, as we are so often reminded. There are definitely Inquisitors that are a "Necessary Evil", and some as well that remind us that even a "Necessary Evil" is still an "Evil". [There are also some bright-minded idealists, and i'm not sure how long they last - or how long it is before their "ends justify the means" means that they're functionally rather difficult to distinguish from the aforementioned here and there. And "bright-minded ideals", given the Imperium, may be a "let the pyres of burning heretics light your way" sort of deal.] 

The Inquisition as applies Adamantia - which the Harii and this bit were also linked - is also quite a mixed bag. Indeed, it's *several* bags, engaged in semi-overt but mostly covert warfare against each other, a lot of the time in the history. 

Like, part of the reason Adamantia etc. even exists is due to a Thorian cabal having some grand ideas ... and a *very large* part of the reason Adamantia *no longer* exists, is due to other Inquisitorial sorts being rather keen on *not* those ideas (and an array of other motivations for them). 

The Inquisitor featured in that brief story, of course, Inquisitor Geirroth, we can reasonably infer based around the resonancy with the mythic namesake, that he's somebody who's not only grasped the wrong end of the stick .. but done so quite enthusiastically, and heedless of the danger resultant from this to himself and what he ostensibly professes to proclaim. Maybe he's mislead (as Geirroth was), maybe he's just obstinate. Likely it's both. 

Whatever the truth of the matter - he's an obstacle to be overcome. And overcome, circumvented, he most assuredly is here. 

And then, in the epilogue ... well, we find briefest mention for an 'Ordo Mazdayanos' - I forget all the subtle references i may have crammed into *that* particular term (I really should keep better notes, and more accessible!); but the *direct* and obvious one should be unmistakable. And yes, quite very definitely posit a grouping of Inquisitors that - from the perspective of Adamantia and its inheritors and defenders, at least - was not comprised of protagonists (an understatement). 



 

[Zebulon]

Whoops! Well, at least that stirred some further opportunity for reflection. E.M. Forster would be proud of you - I mean that nicely, and regret that I cannot engage with more of it. I can say that I found that short story quite compelling - chapeau.

 

Don’t you think the Hunter with the massive sword is perhaps a little… unsubtle for your KalAdharastine? I find myself more thinking of a warrior who carries a sheaf of combat knives, maybe to pin his victim to the wall before delivering the coup de grace? Or to hamstring his wretched foe - as a cat toys with their prey, unwilling or uncaring to deliver the killing blow until they are bored.

 

On the matter of the Inquisition, granted I found myself drawn to the “radical” ones, but perhaps the genius of the organisation, whether intentional or otherwise, is in the balance between the radicals and the puritans… meanwhile of course I have become seduced by Chaos because perhaps wrongdoing or even “evil” seems somehow more acceptable when it is overt and unapologetic than when it is covert and seeks to justify itself?

[Ryltar Thamior]

Vrkana. A demon-haunted wasteland, say the Darians. Or, at least, that is what the words were understood to mean - before it had become inconvenient to recall so. By the mid-years of the 1st century of the Forty Second Millennium, 'Vrka' had been reduced down to 'Wolf' - and 'Wolf' had been turned into a mere symbol. A flourish of local character. A pseudo-heraldic holdover from a distant and more barbarous past. All gone now, banished via the lights of civilization and the extension of the Darians' Imperial-blessed suzerainty through this northern sphere of the Adamantine Spoil. 

To a point. 

In truth, what a man may term 'Civilization' rarely advances at the direct expense of disorder. Rather, it displaces the previously existing order - and often carelessly so, such that at prolonged probing it begins to sway and totter that the antecedent might become the dominant once again. 

In Vrkana, it had been no exception. As part of the Damyati Initiative, a new approach was embarked upon toward the Pacification of Adamantia's restive embers. Where previously, Darian satraps should bleed men and treasure on fruitless search-and-destroy counter-raiding efforts into the bleakly inhospitable Steppe of Stars to their immediate north and east - now, they would seek to drive back the frontiers of Barbarism by settling a cordon of worlds running from Kasya in the west through almost half way to Hara Barazaiti itself in the east. These would be turned into a network of fortified strongpoints, their lines of communication back to Behistus secured through 'in-filling' the systems behind them via rapid resettlement and colonization by Darian subjects drawn from elsewhere in their pocket-dominion. 

To facilitate this endeavour, a comprehensive 're-appraisal' of perceptions, records, and attitudes toward Vrkana amidst the Darian sphere of influence was engaged in. 

No longer would 'Vrka' continue to possess its earlier deliberate double-meaning of 'wolf' and 'adversary to the Darian order', 'dangerous, even outright demonic foe'. Instead, it would be reduced to a mere animal. A creature, indeed, endangered upon several of the worlds at issue - and which had evidently faithfully accompanied Mankind on his ascent through the stars from Terra all those aeons ago. 

The talk of 'demons' was delicately suppressed and redirected - instead being more directly affixed to the half-remembered folk-tales of Yavanite mercenaries speaking of the 'Daos' and 'Dhew'. Formerly deathly spirits of darkness, smoke, and draconic or lupine envisagement - these, too, were euhemerized down to the status of mere rebellious man, and pointedly located up far away on the other side of the Darians' soon-to-be-completed Wall. Indeed, even the name of the Wall project itself - Ghora-Ghan - effectively meant 'The Striking Down of Terror' (albeit with a subtle, hidden meaning of smiting out an Adamantine term for 'Rule').

Meanwhile, the encounters with 'Manyu' - fierce spirits of vengeance and fury in Old Adamantine folklore - as reported in Darian occupation forces' logs, were insistently recoded as 'Mairyas'. A term connoting troublesome, yet still definitely mortal 'youthful hooligans' in the Darians' own high language - here to be understood as mere human insurgents. In this, they likely could not have understood just how correct they inadvertently were - for the Manyu were, in truth, comprised of Old Adamantine zealots who had consciously donned demonic-featured War-Masks and other such accouterments in order to embody the mythic role. Yet the Darian leadership had never presented the matter as one of 'unmasking' nor 'demystifying' such a deliberate tactic of their enemy - instead, they simply asserted that previous accounts had been riven with typographical errors ... and that 'Manyu' had in fact been 'Mairya' all along. Wise NCOs whose after-action testimonies had been redacted in such a manner whilst they still drew breath in the field, prudently deigned not to push the point. Less politically astute soldiers who persisted with their insistence upon having personally seen the baelful bronze-and-iron hued grim-aces of their subjects' folk-legend ... were prone to rapidly finding themselves reassigned to 'specialist' units sent out into the wilderness where 'unexplained' "insurgent" appearances were most prone to occurring, the better to "make use of" their evident higher level of "skills". It was a duty which few returned from. 

Other changes were effected, too. Chandrapur, the former regional capital, was now Sadrakarta. Literally, 'Gold-made' (although 'Gold-gard' would also be an acceptable meaning) where once the Silver of the Moon had been its namesake. The subtle symbolism of this transition was lost on few - for the Darians, the 'Night' of the previous interregnum in the sphere had come to an end ... and now, the safety of the Daylight of Behistus should facilitate a corresponding flowing forth of wealth from the previously paganic worlds touched by same. 

It was an ambitious design, and with characteristic Darian hubris its grand sweep obscurated an array of smaller-scale difficulties which might have presented themselves to a less self-assured set of architects. 

For one thing, the northward extension of Darian direct administration did not merely push forward the borders of the Darians across an empty gulf of space - it also brought with it a suite of additional terrestrial territories with already-extant populations which required active occupation. Of similar ethnic stock and archaic beliefs as the rest of the post-Adamantine Spoil, the native Vrkanas were decidedly unenthused by these unasked for exercises in "Development". The Darian programme to secure supply-lines to its expanded northern frontier therefore wound up ensconcing those lines through effectively unfriendly territory; the same worlds whose enhanced economic output under Darian rule was envisaged to fund the exercise, proving instead to be a notable financial burden upon the Darians' treasury and military purse. 

For another, the redeployment of Darian forces to garrison both their newly acquired holdings and the Ghora-Ghan Line above it, depleted force concentrations elsewhere both within and beyond its borders, facilitating heightened insurgent and raiding activity elsewhere within its self-claimed demesne. The Darians sought to compensate through heavier reliance upon their powerful backers within the higher echelons of the Imperium, particularly for funding; the greater employment of Yavanite mercenaries to remedy troop shortfalls; and enhanced co-operation with other potential allies such as the relatively recently arrived Markhour. Each of these escalating entanglements served to render the Darians' collective crown that little more gilded and increasingly obviously less golden. As they had poured themselves into Vrkana, they found themselves bleeding out slowly as a result. 



[Pict-capture of Adamanticore bearing golden 'Vrka' shoulderpad iconography; undated - although presumed to be circa M38 and therefore pre-Fall, despite metadata indicating post-M41 image-file origination] 



 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Whoops! Well, at least that stirred some further opportunity for reflection. E.M. Forster would be proud of you - I mean that nicely, and regret that I cannot engage with more of it. I can say that I found that short story quite compelling - chapeau.

 

Don’t you think the Hunter with the massive sword is perhaps a little… unsubtle for your KalAdharastine? I find myself more thinking of a warrior who carries a sheaf of combat knives, maybe to pin his victim to the wall before delivering the coup de grace? Or to hamstring his wretched foe - as a cat toys with their prey, unwilling or uncaring to deliver the killing blow until they are bored.

 

On the matter of the Inquisition, granted I found myself drawn to the “radical” ones, but perhaps the genius of the organisation, whether intentional or otherwise, is in the balance between the radicals and the puritans… meanwhile of course I have become seduced by Chaos because perhaps wrongdoing or even “evil” seems somehow more acceptable when it is overt and unapologetic than when it is covert and seeks to justify itself?

I thank you for the kind words ; although not being familiar with Forster, the precise nuance of that remark may be, I fear, lost on me. 

 

As applies unsubtleness of large swords, that is a very fair point. Although the first one I'd done was, of course, that chap with the very large two-handed chainsword [the Bhairava Kapalika one] - in that case, it was a 'justice seen to be done' thing , and so less overtly stealthy than the more recent Kirata .. although I suppose that's precisely it : 'executioner' versus 'hunter'. 

 

Although speaking to your thought about knives ... as it happens, i've had this Harii on the desk part-assembled for .. many many months now. 

 

 

So perhaps something might come of it. 

 

As applies your reasoning viz. Chaos ... well, it comes down to a matter of taste. I think we've discussed before that the thin, two-dimensional 'moustache-twirling' evil-just-because may be rather limited in scope except as stock villains to be stockly dispensed with. However, 'self-justification', is still justification - so I sense that perhaps you meant justification not in the sense of a Chaos figure being able to say that he did what he did for his own advancement/edification/amusement (and often, of coures, turning out to having merely been a pawn for something larger, and potentially coming to a sticky end in the process when it turns out his power was not *quite* either as independent nor as far-reaching as it had at first seemed), but rather 'evil' that is presented as a more altruistic (in general terms) "necessary evil", or which is very definitely attempting to portray taht it is not evil at all. 

 

Certainly, in terms of 'acceptability' - we tend to like black-and-white; and the stuff where white turns out to have been so important as to encompass about itself a visual screeniing of 'black' to an exterior observer ... well, that and other such occasions where things get a bit 'mixed up' can often lead to off-balance feelings. Sometimes we really *do* just want the nice, easy simplicity of good and obvious evil - makes our own moral choices .. well, not really 'choices' at all, for the most part. They just *are*. Simple 'facts of life'. And yet even though therapeutic escapism is most definitely to be found in the retreat into such a binary world - if we are to speak of "facts of life", the complexity and inherent ambiguity of many humans and many deeds when situated within their surrounding context, is another one. 

 

Of course, the interesting thing about such a paradigm - wherein not-necessarily-bad people do things that are nevertheless bad (or which have potentially bad consequences) in no small part due to imperfect information or insistent personal biases ... well, it places one in the unenviable position of asking one's self "if I was there, would I have done any different?" 

 

And it is very easy to answer "of course" - from our own, rather more closely pseudo-omniscient point of view. Except then we start to layer (back) on, those various biases and blinders of (lack of/mis-)information , and all of a sudden "evil" fades to "extremist" fades to "well-intentioned extremist" fades to merely "well intentioned" ... and we realize that making the best (feasible) call in amidst a bad situation can look an *awful lot* like making a bad call quite deliberately.

 

Or, and that's anothre thing about 40k - we might realize that really, yeah, the objectively 'evil' action carried out by an Inquisitor of ordering an Exterminatus or consigning what *appears* to be an innocent and pious man to a gruesome torture and death .. might actually be justified, after all. [i'm not kidding about the last one - there was a thing in the fluff for iirc  Inquisitor  Karamazov wherein he literally did exactly that. Over the protests of ... a rather significant swathe of voices, up to and including the Ecclesiarch of the day, he tortured (for some six months) and then incinerated a lowly preacher who'd managed to inspire a world's populace to rise up against a corrupt(ed) cardinal. Turned out that yeah, there was a Chaotic undertow to the uprising and Karamazov (much to everybody's general annoyance) was vindicated (althoguh YMMV as to how much th Thorian interest in the figure at issue motivated Karamazov...)] [another example would be the Kryptman 'cordon' exercise - to a point, and based upon the information at hand at the time .. ] 

 

On a tangent, it's just occurred to me that the Functionalist vs Intentionalist debate may be semi-relevant - looking , as it does, at precisely the notion of evil as .. well, conscious, willed, human ; versus circumstance, inhumanity of institutions, and various points in between. 

 

But yeah uh, whenever we write villains or opponents , there's always a risk of heading too readily toward the banality of evil (not in the Arendtian sense); and that can leave less 'purchase' for the viewer/reader/whomever to actually meaningfully engage therewith. Aaron Dembski-Bowden's novels were well regarded in no small part because they managed to go down a different trajectory whihc, while making no bones (albeit plenty of corpses) about .. well .. evil being involved, nevertheless added enough human-ness (never to be confused with humaneness) and attempts at self-justification that it was rather more overtly engaging. Even, perhaps, for some it was empathizable with. And then, of course, in iirc Prince of Crows, he rather heavily deconstructed (or, perhaps, 'exposed') that with Sevatar's exchange with Curze pertaining to the latter's methods and just where the latter's attempts to justify things had gotten him.

[Zebulon]

The force of the Forster reference was chiefly to praise the inter-connectivity of all your oeuvre; it all seems so well thought-out, howsoever it may borrow from the skeins of real-world mythology and linguistics, yet still feel seamlessly at home within the 40K universe.

 

I definitely concur that the knife-wielding figure could be used as a basis for conveying your master of the hunt/assassin!

 

Your relativistic take on morality in the warhammer universe is well expressed and referenced (I should expect nothing less) and it does give me further cause for reflection. I suppose you are right in that for the Inquisition, the end always justifies the means. Meanwhile, as I think we discussed a little in relation to my Black Psalm, there is much narrative potential in the misguided Chaos worshippers who are in some way naïfs led astray by their scheming Masters. A lot of what appeals to me in the writing of Chaos is essentially the themes from much of the Greek tragic tradition (and thereby much of subsequent Western literature) whereby the hero by virtue of his hamartia (flaw) falls victim to hubris (usually specified in the commentaries as either overreach and/or arrogance towards the god) leading to their nemesis. So, in one sense it lacks nuance or originality, but hopefully is less 2D than the moustache-twirling strawman of yore.

 

It is also fair to say I was not familiar with the Functionalist/Intentionalist debate, nor had I put that level of thought into all…this. It bears consideration, I do accede.

 

There is however a point at which I find myself drawn into cliches, and we may have reached that. As you mention the exchange in Prince of Crows, all I can think about is with what materiel the Path to Hell is paved…!

[Ryltar Thamior]

*Finally* finished another truescale Adamanticore. This has been a very, very slow process to get to some semblance of completion. Not quite sure what I've been doing instead in the past ... gosh *month* since I last posted here. 

Not my best work by any stretch of the imagination - but it's a start. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Another Adamanticore



Now for this, I wanted to try and bring together several previous elements from the truescale Adamanticores I've done thus far - although I have to admit, the posing still feels rather touch-and-go.

I liked the idea of a Marine firing from the shoulder, which is rather difficult to do with my mechanism of truescaling due to the pronounced forwardness of a tartaros or cataphractii chestplate relative to the arms. So I compromised and instead went with something still viably firing but held forward more. I figured that an Astartes would be able to handle the recoil, and might be aiming surprisingly accurate snap fire as he advanced forward - that rather large scope directly feeding its perspective into his helmet's eye-lense.

There *was* a chainsword on his left thighplate, but it came off during undercoating and I never got around to reattaching it. It might have visually balanced things a bit better especially projecting out backwards and on a near 45 degree angle. 



In terms of 'previous elements' - other than the non-standard and evidently custom-outfitted bolter, these included things like the tassles & braid [previously seen on both shoulder pauldrons of the Warden of Dzungaria I did some time ago, where they were purple ... I'd initially contemplated doing this chap as another of the same unit], however here seen on the vambraces as well as one pad, and somewhat designed to recall the blue plumage of an axe-wielding champion in Mk.III from some time ago. I keep meaning to actually build more in the way of identifiable 'units', you understand. 



I figured that a reliquary and specialist ammunition were, by this point, also somewhat de jure for my Adamanticores veterans with bolters; a Crux Terminatus on the powerpack rather than shoulderpad making for a visual change of pace from the other veterans i've done / am doing at present, and a dangling golden Aquila always a nice touch. Meanwhile, the small golden skull on the rim also connects to the meltagun specialist I did recently; as, in a way, does the choice of helm with its golden detailing. 



I also wanted to get some of the 'ornate' going, even on less overtly 'character' looking models - after all, the Adamanticores are supposed to be a chapter with a noted predilection for artificery, meaning many Astartes have probably spent quite some time and effort either personally detailing and enhancing their panoply of war, or having other and more gifted fellows do likewise for them. That meant the Space Wolves helm was an obvious choice - done up in gold almost as something approaching a bit of a diadem, because it felt right for a bit of a Scythian esque influence re-injection. The Space Wolf pad with a fang attached as a dangling adornment was another strong include here - partially because of its non-standard looking rim, but also because it helps to re-emphasize that underlying savagery and fear which encountering an Astartes *should* muster in the onlooker. Insofar as the towering figure *may* be technologically outfitted in incredibly advanced armour and wielding an obviously futuristic weapon ... but is still very much a figure of far more archaic myth and mythic resonancy. "Both" rather than "Either". 



All up, even though it's a less 'dramatic' and 'artistic' posing than some of my previous efforts, I'm nevertheless pretty positive about it. That particular set of Tartaros legs ... it was always going to be difficult coming up with 'normal' firing posing with them - i.e. not walking forward with a bolter in one hand, as I've done a rather extensive amount of elsewhere. Things may look a bit odd from certain angles ... but then, they also look a lot better from certain angles, too. 

Now I suppose I need to do another few regular bolter-armed Adamanticores to round out the squad. We'll see how long *that* takes me :P 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Also managed to finish two further more human-sized denizens of Adamantia - another Manyu, and another Ash-Clad. 

Background for what these are can be found in the previous post ... gosh, from almost a year ago now. 

 

Now, there are some obvious differences between the two Ash-Clad. This initially occurred because I decided to try a different approach to applying the .. well .. the ash; instead of simply going direct to it as a skin layer - perhaps going for an actual flesh-tone first and then applying it over the top.

However, for some reason I instead chose to keep much of the initial face as it was, and just very lightly and somewhat unevenly do the relevant ash-cladding. I think in my head, the idea was to perhaps represent a younger and less 'renounced' [withdrawn from the world/life] sort at an earlier stage of his journey - and therefore, correspondingly, with rather less of the , well , ash [Vibhuti].

 

Meanwhile, as applies The Manyu - even though they've been completed at varying points up to almost a year apart, I think they look reasonable and cohesive as a group.



I am, once again, actually attempting to build up small .. units isn't quite the right word; but groups of these various cults and other sorts. Not necessarily to actually turn up all together, but at the very least because it helps to make the setting feel more 'lived in' when it's not just a significant preponderance of power armoured Astartes (who are, after all, supposed to be rare relics of a bygone age here), and instead where there's overt, identifiable coterminity going on linkable to human groups with cultures and customs that you can see replicated across a multitude instead of every miniature being its own contextless snowflake. 

We'll see how things go. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

The SRBH-108 (Sharabha) represented a characteristically Adamantine approach to armoured vehicle design - dispensing with long-held and largely unquestioned tenets of Imperial tradition in favour of a more purpose-oriented ethos. Many Imperial military and even Astartes vehicles are, in essence, longstanding conversions of explorator or even agricultural designs. This provides a useful ruggedness and versatility, at the expense of some limitations on just how adroit they may truly be made for any given combat role. An agricultural tractor's drive-train may be powerful, but it begins to strain under the weight of progressively heavier armouring - and transportation capacity suffers significantly from even a moderate up-gunning. 

 

Such shortcomings do not unduly trouble the forge-masters and Departmento Munitorum provost-procurator martiales. They are instead concerned merely with keeping up large-scale production quotients to outfit the Emperor's Armies on a sector, segmentum, or even galaxy-wide basis. Verisimilitude and ease of operation are their watchwords, with quantity held to possess a quality duly all its own. In this, they are perhaps not incorrect - however, for Adamantia it has ever proven not strictly the case. There, the unique conditions of the Adamanticores' stellar dominion fostered another approach: 'Accomplish More With Less', 'Design Fit For Doctrine', 'Organic Force-Element Integration', and the fine technoyajnic scholars of the Ribhus-clades pursued substantive innovation with this as their credo. With this in mind, they roduced wonders of artifice and even of mass-outputting. Wonders which, in other realms more closely under the auspices of Mars, should surely have seen their scions condemned to their own forge-pyers for the dreaded sin of harbouring the heretek amongst them. Indeed, scant centuries following the Sharabha's rolling out into the arsenals of the Adamantine Auxilia ... such a fate would indeed come to befall the sphere. Ensued by just such envious eyes from the masters of Mars and otherwise. But for a time, glory rather than ignominy rang out 'neath Adamantian skies. 

 

To speak to the Sharabha itself, nowhere is its divergence from the Imperial standard more abundantly clear than its armament. Many Imperial battle tanks and even heavy transports seek to overcome their opponents by simply outgunning them in the most crudely conventional sense possible for their chassis - adding not only seemingly unfeasibly large cannon to turrets, but hull weaponry easily fit for main armament on other vehicles, and often sponson-mounted support guns as well. This produces an overburdened and inelegant design which suffers from significant internal spacing and fire-control problems. An Astartes Predator is capable of mitigating these to some extent thanks to the superior qualities and servitor-supplementation of its superhuman crew; however, an ordinary Imperial Guard Leman Russ requires at least half a dozen men in order to man all of its weapons, and a disciplined commander with seeming cross-competency as a naval officer in order to truly direct its firepower to useful impact upon the battlefield. It has utility as a slow-moving pillbox designed to support the massed infantry operations for which the Astra Militarum is so justly renowned. Yet in true maneuver-based armoured warfare such as that practiced upon the steppes and expanses of various of Adamantia's border regions - it should find itself hopelessly outmatched by smaller, swifter opposition. 

 

Such was more-than-amply demonstrated via the sorry fate of the Jamahiriyan Faylaqs. The armed forces of one of the Imperium's many petty baronies, their ill-starred attempted-intervention in the brushfire war over Azour lead to the annihilation of virtually the entirety of their armoured command at the hands of theoretically much less well-equipped Azourian Strip defenders operating converted civilian Achilles Ridgerunners. Termed 'Technicals' due to the Ridgerunners' previous employment as technical support and surveying platforms, their impressive turn of speed enabled their wielders to not only outmaneuver the Jamahiriyan armour formations in the strategic sense. But also to carry out daring thrusts in tactical combat which enabled the Ridgerunners to attack the Jamahiriyan Leman Russes from their much weaker rear arcs. A position wherein the latter's sponson weaponry could not pivot to bring their quarries within feasible firing arcs, and where sluggish turret-traverses and firing-rates for main-weaponry seemed to fare little better. The abysmal top-speed of the Russ, a mere twenty one kilometers per hour under ideal off-road conditions, meant that the Azourians were ever in possession of the initiative and consistently able to choose at their leisure the when, where, and how they would take their sport hunting their heavily armoured prey. 

 

The Sharabha, however, was oriented around an entirely different operational philosophy. One which, most curiously, harkens back to the earliest days of the Imperium and its Great Crusade to unify the stars. Then, the Predator was a somewhat different vehicle to what it eventually became. In the modern era, it is a relatively swift and moderately armed tank - capable of moving nearly twice as fast as a Leman Russ (68 kilometers per hour on-road versus 35 kilometers per hour, respectively), although significantly less well armoured on the sides, and mounting weaponry which, whilst weaker, is nevertheless more conducive to maneuver warfare than the slow and grinding advances of the Imperial Guard. However, its initial employment in the ranks of the Emperor's forces was as something more complex. The rear bays of the Predator, which today house additional ammunition storage, formerly constituted a fighting compartment for an organically attached infantry contingent. In this, it perhaps mirrored the later adoption of the Land's Raider - a vehicle which combined the leading attributes of both a main battle tank and infantry fighting vehicle. That is to say, capability of providing serious threat to enemy armour with sufficient protection to do so in a stand-up fight, whilst also transporting its complement into combat and supporting infantry operations in the tactical sense. 

 

However, this archaic employment to the Predator was steadily phased out. The reasons can only be guessed at, but presumably have much to do with the redundancy for such capacities within the context of the Astartes' emergent doctrines of warfare. Space Marines themselves were already heavily armoured and capable of wielding significant anti-tank weaponry, even acting only as infantry. Utilizing Predators as infantry transports represented a split-competency - the tethering of the vehicle to the infantry component producing a notable reduction in their operational mobility in exchange for limited improvements in firepower or protection for the Astartes, and with speed which could successfully be sought elsewhere along with greater transportation capacity. A series of trade-offs which produced only diminished efficacy as compared to their prospective employment in a solely armour role. Post-Heresy, the deployment of the Razorback sought to partially resurrect the concept, however its significantly lighter armour in comparison to the Predator rendered it an uneasy fit for the role. Even within a few centuries of its successful rediscovery and authorization in M36, its limitations had already become glaringly apparent. Only the Land Raider preserved this original notion of a 'compromise' between main battle tank and infantry transport - and in that case, arguably significantly due to a lack of other options viable for the transportation of Terminators across the battlefield.

 

The Sharabha resurrects this archaic understanding for the Predator - seeking to work around the flaws of the original through custom-design rather than conversion of a pre-existing chassis to simultaneously suit multiple only semi-compatible combat roles. Its rear houses a substantial and even spacious fighting compartment by the standards of human infantry, able to convey both Adamantia Auxilia or Astartes with equal ease. Indeed, it was used with some frequency by combined combat elements which drew together both man and marine into the same squad, in-line with this feature's somewhat-saliency within the Adamanticores' preferred way of war. 

 

Its front half is, meanwhile, dominated by a truly huge engine of even grander size than that fitted to a Land Raider - and, in fact, closer in scope to that affixed to a Baneblade. While it might at first be concluded that such an impressively scaled engine is simply due to the large exterior size of the vehicle, a true consideration of its circumstances illuminates more wisely. Astartes fighting vehicles expected to act as troop transports generally either mount their power-plants in the side-hull or in the rear. In both cases, it is to maximize the interior room available for their superhumanly sized charges, and in the latter, to facilitate the operation of the Land Raider's rather unique forward assault ramp. Where the former approach is utilized, this has the happy side-effect of increasing protection for the crew and fighting compartment as compared to armoured plate alone - a successful shot must penetrate not only the armoured exterior hull, but also work its way right the way through the engine-blocks and transmission systems in order to afflict those embarked upon its interior. However, the relegation of these integral components to such limited physical confines produces a corresponding hard-limit on how large a Rhino chassis' engine can be - and therefore also upon its overarching power-to-weight ratio as a vehicle. The superiority of Astartes-grade engineering and techno-artifice works around these problems through incredible efficiency for the four independent power-plants thusly mounted, yet it still nevertheless hamstrings the potential for the chassis in other combat roles less requiring for transportation capacity. 

 

The resultant size for the Sharabha's engine is therefore a necessity - not simply because it is a seemingly large vehicle, but because it is a relatively heavily armoured vehicle, expected to bear a weighty payload, and one envisaged to be able to maneuver at truly impressive speed whilst doing so. Meanwhile, the prominent forward mounting for the engine-block also serves another purpose - greatly increasing protective capacity in a similar yet superior manner to the Rhino's side-mounted powerplants. After all - as uncommon a stance as it may via necessity be in the broader Imperium, for the Adamanticores even an advanced engine-suite is more easily replaced or repaired than an extensively trained and experienced Adamanticore veteran and his brethren. This is also a simple reflection of combat necessity. While successfully disabling a vehicle through killing its crew may indeed leave a recoverable hulk able to be refitted - this is only possible providing the battle is won. Meanwhile, a mobility-kill still leaves a viable area-denial asset provided that it remains manned and its weapons possess ammunition; and even a functional mission-kill still leaves both crew and transported complement capable to participate in combat - thus increasing the chances for victory and ensuing recovery for the disabled vehicle. 

 

To speak in terms of its other survivability features, the Sharabha also mounts an innovative armouring system - taking advantage of multiple independent layers of plate to frustrate incoming penetrator rounds, as well as facilitating swift repair and re-entry into the field. It is equipped with a much broader array of vision-blocks and external optical sensors, all wired into its on-board machine-spirit based crew augment; facilitating 360 degree visibility and machine-assisted peripheral awareness and threat-scanning. Additional situational protection is bestowed via the small cannister-launchers mounted on the front underside of the turret. On most Imperial vehicles, it would be simple enough to identify these as smoke launchers - and while the Sharabha's equivalent does indeed enable optical obscuration of this kind, the advanced alchymical composition of the cannisters' contents also serve to disrupt infrared and other detection measures when deployed. 

 

However, perhaps its most potent form of 'active defence' is provided via its offensive capability - designed to provide an array of responses to potential threats before they can become an issue. This might seem somewhat curious given the ostensibly limited suite of its main weaponry. The turret is, as standard, only outfitted with a twin-linked pair of Srka-pattern autocannons and a similarly doubled Asyati missile launcher system. This would seem, upon initial inspection, to place the Sharabha well under par with its potential competitors - the dual autocannon mount being somewhat ahead of the turret outfitting for a Predator Destructor, but the lack of hull and sponson weaponry placing it well behind either this or a Leman Russ Exterminator overall. However, a closer examination reveals a somewhat different picture. As with the Syrtis pattern autocannon mounted upon an Astartes Predator Destructor, the Srka pattern is notably improved in comparison to its Astra Militarum baseline equivalent. This is partially achieved through the utilization of an advanced autoloader to increase rate-of-fire, along with hardened and lengthened barrels and firing mechanism in comparison to the dismounted Imperial equivalent. The latter is of particular necessity due to the other form of augmentation deployed for the Srka - significantly improved ammunition, historically acknowledged as one of the more efficacious mechanisms via which to improve a weapon. 

 

In this, the Sharabha is once again recalling the outfitting of its forebears, with the Predators of the early Great Crusade noted to have utilized powerful rounds which shared almost as much in common with the heavy bolter munitions of today as their thinblooded autocannon shell descendants. Archaeo-artificer academics have long pondered in just which direction this indication ought be read in - whether it was intended to be understood as the shells of early M31 possessing a gyrojet or rocket-assisted propulsion boost, in perhaps the manner of a true Baneblade Cannon's shells. Or whether, instead, the heavy bolter comparison was to refer to the effects upon impact of a mass-reactive warhead to the foe. The Sharabha takes no side in this debate, its inceptors having effectively re-engineered from the ground-up the concept, and producing an array of munitions with which to play a role in a wide variety of encountered situations. In addition to enhanced equivalents for standard autocannon shells, these include hardened penetrator rounds, the aforementioned mass-reactive pattern oriented around penetration followed by detonation, cluster munitions for anti-infantry work, and the ever-useful conventional high explosive. Coupled with the more rapid cycling of the Srka-pattern autocanon's autoloader this versatility means that the Sharabha is at little, if any, disadvantage in comparison to sponsoned Imperial armour. 

 

The Asyati is similarly diverse in its potential applications, being capable of firing a range of missiles per the tactical demands of its situation. These are not limited to long-range guided "hunter-killer" patterns also capable of the arcening top-attack style of engagement, but also sizeable fragmentation warheads - the larger scale of both launcher and missile compared to infantry equivalents facilitating a larger and more powerful attached payload. More specialized munitions have also seen service, although are correspondingly more rarely encountered. These included hyper-velocity penetrators (wherein the lack of an explosive warhead enables much of the missile is given over to the fuel and mechanisms necessary to accelerate its ultra-hard solid-state tip to incredible speeds to act as a simple kinetic energy penetrator), thermobaric and incendiary warheads, anti-fortification devices optimized for demolishing plascrete through literally shaking it apart, radar-seeking and flakk designs, starshell battlefield illumination (also utilizable for anti-infantry operations, particularly where the targets are ensconced in enclosed cover), electromagnetic haywire, melta missiles, gravatic charges, plasma missiles, and even a pattern oriented toward the deployment of small proximity-fused bomblets. Needless to say, such curious and potentially downright esoteric developments were only feasible due to the size and strength of the Adamanticores' Forge, and corresponding toleration for the (re)discoveries of its local smith-priests. 

 

The major practical limitations upon the Asyati were that it housed a limited payload within the launcher itself, requiring exterior reloading by hand in order to maintain ongoing fire. This rendered it a somewhat poor weapon when considered only within the context of actions fought at standard engagement range for infantry or even armour, as reloading after the initial salvos should expose a crew-member to enemy fire. However, in light of the volatility of both missiles and their payloads, it was considered a necessary tradeoff due to the corresponding reduction in risk for a catastrophic chain reaction ensuing were the turret-mounted firing system hit. Research and development continued into potential ways to combine the launch-system's obvious potential with the necessity of an interior-carried and well-shielded magazine via an autoloader function; yet in the interim, the stopgap 'solution' of utilizing a power-armoured Adamanticore to clamber up onto the exterior and carry out the operation by hand was occasionally employed. 

 

However, considering it only within that limited scope would be to fundamentally misunderstand the purpose of both the weapon and the Sharabha as and when employing same. Its purpose was not to augment close- or even mid-range assault on a sustained basis. But rather, to be fired from standoff distance - utilizing the superior range of the Asyati's missiles to eliminate threats before they are able to close, to harass or suppress targets whilst maneuvering around them, and to carry out augmented fire in both charge and (feigned) retreat. In short, it replicated an array of battlefield employments for the feared bow-work of the Steppe nomads of Terra's far-distant early Iron Age past. This intended usage also mandates the advanced stabilization and fire-control mechanisms fitted to the Sharabha's turret-mounted weaponry. 

 

These are housed in the two prominent protrusions atop the Sharabha's turret - a small stalk in the center between the two crew hatches which might be taken for a somewhat unconventional close-range gunsight; and a much larger boxy device featuring armoured shutters situated on the turret's port side. Working in tandem, these are capable of providing a multispectral analysis of the battlefield and prospective target elements upon same. This information is then processed and utilized not only by the Sharabha itself - but also, via dedicated telemetry comms, to other Adamantine units including strike craft, artillery, conventional forces, and even naval assets high above. 

 

The Sharabha is, therefore, an emblematic ensign for the Adamantine way of war - acting in heavily organic co-ordination with a range of other military elements both Astartes and human, and utilizing its high technological advantage to support truly integrated, swift-moving warfare in a manner that the more orthodox armies of the Imperial Guard would usually have little use for. 

 

Following the Fall of Adamantia in early M38, available Imperial records do not detail any complete examples of the Sharabha as having been captured intact - although whether this is due to the immense scale of destruction entailed in the heavy fighting which eventually brought Adamantia low, or due to any such prizes proving irresistible to the covetous Mechanicus scions of Mars involved in the campaign to obscurate and spirit away, is a matter for historical conjecture. Unconfirmed reports place components plausibly sourced from Sharabha wrecks - or perhaps uncovered and thence looted jayanti-forges - amidst not only the armed forces of several groups who had participated in the Crusade, but also encountered amidst the post-Adamantine tribes which continued to inhabit the Adamantine Expanse for millennia afterward and up to the present day. These were not always properly understood nor employed in their originally intended function - a piece of ablative hull armour can just as easily be utilized for the shield of a traditional warrior, and the impressive flashing of the Sharabha's green lensed fire-control system can look like an all-seeing 'Eye of the Divine' to the primitive inheritors of Adamantia's lost glories 'midst the contemporary Spoil. 

 

This has contributed to a prominent problem for grey-market antiquities dealers looking to acquire various of the more useful Sharabha components (as with many other Adamantine artefacts) of having to pay considerable premiums to the unscrupulous archaeo-traders who go treasure-seeking in the Spoil. Officially, these are declared as the necessary expenses for inducing the local post-Adamantine tribes to part with trinkets they do not comprehend the true value of - and technically, this former part is true. It is just that in lieu of outright bribery or trade to give up artefacts they hold to be sacred, the sustained contributions in blood and firepower of additional men-at-arms are near-invariably required to "persuade" a tribe to surrender its venerated holy objects. 

 

The tenacity with which post-Adamantine tribals may tend to regard these elements as sacred has been put down by that small fraternity of anthropologists with specific knowledge of and interest in Adamantine affairs - to the sharing of the Sharabha's name with a particular 'Gryphonic' visage for the Spear-Lord, the Adamantine understanding of the Emperor. There are quite a diverse array of forms, aspects, and facings recorded for the Emperor in both Adamantine and post-Adamantine belief, including a number of evidently totemic animalistic figures - so the existence of a 'Sharabha' rendering for Him is unlikely to be surprising. What is perhaps more unexpected is that the mythology of that Sharabha in particular seems also to incorporate significant details around the smiting down of otherwise near-insurmountable foes, who had once been protectors and upholders of righteousness before being corrupted by some irrational force. This accords well with the generally observed mutual association of the general Gryphonic figures of Adamantine belief with the concepts of 'Vengeance', 'Guardianship' or 'Protection', and unstoppable mighty force. Whether the Gryphon preceded this Adamantine perception of a facing for The Emperor, or whether the Adamantine belief in the Emperor possessing a 'Sharabha' form came first, is a question lost to the ages. However, the apparent presence of traces of a potentially connected belief even well prior to the Adamanticores' Founding and stationing in the area would seemingly suggest that whatever it is that the major myth commemorates, it may have occurred (and then, potentially, re-occurred) earlier still in Imperial history. 

 

In terms of the relevant linguistics, there are two semi-exclusive propositions as to the original archaic meaning for the name. The first hinges around 'S(h)ara', as in 'Arrow', 'Shaft', 'Wound' (and with an intriguing potential ancillary sense around 'Law'); which could also be rendered via a slightly lengthened initial 'a' sound into a term for active injuring or the Wind. The 'Shara' of 'Sharabha' should therefore likely refer to both the Archer / Spear-Lord understanding for the relevant deific and the ability to strike unerringly from afar for Him; with an additional resonancy for the 'Sharp Beak' of the Sharabha, in much the similar manner to how 'Grypes' informs 'Gryphon'. Aptly, folk-etymology connects this 'Shara' with a root meaning 'To Destroy' - although another around 'Horn' has also been postulated on perhaps rather surer footing. 

 

The alternative possibility for Sharabha, although less likely, makes for interesting conjecture - a harder 'S' sound (i.e. not an 'Sh-'), would instead give a meaning-field oriented more directly around 'Motion' - particularly of liquid, yet idiomatically informing a 'stream of eloquence' in thought or speech and likewise coming to refer not only to the currents of the wind but also the flight of an arrow through the air. It had also attained the sense of a purgative liquid useful for cleansing and healing; and the 'chief component' - the latter sense arguably rather relevant for the Sharabha's battlefield employment when utilized as a Command/Control/Communications (C3) vehicle. The resonancy of this Sara, with again longer initial 'a' sound, to mean 'Iron' or other such hard metal - might be additionally fitting in light of the nature of its operators. More intriguingly still, the utilization of Sara in doubled form (i.e. 'Sarasara') appears as an occasionally encountered means of reference for shooting nomadic tribes and warbands of the Steppe - whose 'fluid' motion (and, indeed, motion-motion (i.e. Sara-Sara), 'hither-and-thither') in employing hit-and-run arrow-bombardment tactics, the Sharabha also would appear to emulate in a more highly sophisticated form. There is an additional treatise to be penned upon the curious mytholinguistic resonancy for this Sarasara concept with the storied Warrior-Sons of the Emperor that were supposed to have sprung from His Hair up in the Akasha (i.e. 'Space', the Astral Seas) as the tangible expressions and expressors of His Mighty Anger - however, that must await other developments and more immediately relevant subject-matter. 

[Brother Carpenter]

Nice tank conversion.

Was it an 1/35 BMP?

I absolute love your attention to detail in building this world!!

Edited September 17, 2021 by Brother Carpenter

[Ryltar Thamior]

Nice tank conversion.

Was it an 1/35 BMP?

I absolute love your attention to detail in building this world!!

Thanks on both counts :D Glad somebody's managing to make it through all the word-building [not a typo]; 

 

It's an interesting opportunity to combine what I do more generally [the linguistics and comparative Indo-European theology] with some stuff that's more of a hobby (by which I mean the militaria etc.).

 

And, at the same time, explore some additional 'realism' for some 40k - whilst also exploring why said realism is not, in fact, frequently encountered in 40k. 

 

There's something somewhere between 'interesting' and 'necessary' to things like that - exploring why, even though the Leman Russ is ... not an ideal vehicle, it's still en-masse employed ; and at the same time highlighting / underlining the various ways in which it's exactly that - not an ideal vehicle, I mean. 

 

Also nifty to be able to pull together somewhat obscure fluff that's official (the stuff around predator caapabilities for both transport and autocannon shells during the early Crusade era) and help add that aforementioned sense of 'realism' in the sense of 'ok, so we already have modern arms development and tactics that are built around these concepts ... where are they in the 41st millennium then'.

 

I'm often doing , as I say , linguistics and mythology stuff (well, it turns into 'history' here) ; but while my exploration into battle analysis/writeup didn't get quite the reception I'd hoped , if there's interest in the more 'technical' side of things around hardware , more of that can certainly be arranged. Probably an easier window into proceedings for many, anyway. After all - everybody knows what a Predator is, etc. 

 

The original kit was a 1:35 scale Bradley - I forget the manufacturer, but *probably* the Academy M2A2 one? The 40k-ification of it was relatively simple - just required hacking up a plastic Leman Russ Exterminator twin linked autocannon mounting to get it to fit on the partially assembled Bradley's own (also hacked up) gun housing. Followed by adding a few heraldic elements to represent unit iconography [which I should *also* get around to fleshing out] 

 

I did something vaguely similar with an M113 into a local pattern Rhino equivalent awhile back; and also an M20 for that matter (although neither got an extensive writeup)

 

A BMP would be rather cool as well, although probably somewhat harder to come by here. Although I *do* have a 1/35 BMPT that's been half-assembled for aaaaaages that was going into our semi-stalled Unification Wars project. 

 

And, in no particular order, a Stryker, a Panther, a Brummbar, a Merkava, an Sdkfz 250 and a 251 ... various of which are earmarked for Adamantine conversion.

 

Anyway, thank you again for the kind words. 

[BadgersinHills]

Wonderful models and writing. The lore is really well written as always. :)