What is the most horrific faction/range in the game?

[Scribe]

And...

 

Why is it Sisters of Battle?

 

Nurgle Daemons/Death Guard have a valid claim to the title.

Genestealer Cults, probably have a claim.

Dark Eldar, can have a claim.

Even Ad Mech, could have a claim.

 

However when you look at it from a external to the universe perspective, is there actually anything more horrific than looking at a 'loyal' and 'faithful' army of Sisters of Battle, and right along side of them are marching Arco-Flagellants and Penitent Engines?

 

Consider what these units represent, especially when juxtaposed with the very clean lines of the Sisters.

 

I dont know if its the lock down getting to me, but I think when looked at as a whole, from the range, and the lore and the psychology and tropes at play, is anything more horrific than the Sisters of Battle?

 

Freaks me right out.

[andes]

I think the servitor part of the Sydonian Dragoon is one of the most horrific things in the game. I imagine an enemy looking at that and thinking, "They do that to *themselves*..."

[Scribe]

Yes, very much so. There is some stuff in the Admech line that is absolutely wild when you deconstruct it, but then you take a step further back and look at the Ad Mech as a whole, and even the base trooper is already a mutilated cyborg, so you lose a lot of that 'Look at her, clean lines, noble in thought and pure in purpose.' and then 'Look at THAT withered man, his arms amputated and replaced with lashing cables, his mind flooded with chemicals....'

 

It's monsterous.

 

Heck, the Repentia squad itself almost accomplishes this, but I've been reading the fiction, saturated in this setting for decades, and nothing actually makes me think like the Sister vs Flagellant. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Scribe

[MegaVolt87]

Yes, very much so. There is some stuff in the Admech line that is absolutely wild when you deconstruct it, but then you take a step further back and look at the Ad Mech as a whole, and even the base trooper is already a mutilated cyborg, so you lose a lot of that 'Look at her, clean lines, noble in thought and pure in purpose.' and then 'Look at THAT withered man, his arms amputated and replaced with lashing cables, his mind flooded with chemicals....'

 

It's monsterous.

*Laughs in Iron Hands.*

[ThatOneMarshal]

I think the servitor part of the Sydonian Dragoon is one of the most horrific things in the game. I imagine an enemy looking at that and thinking, "They do that to *themselves*..."

When I first read your post I thought you meant the rider and I thought that couldn’t be right.

 

I took another look at the model and just noticed what’s connected to the head of the strider. Oh my emperor that thing looks creepy *shudders*

Edited May 8, 2020 by ThatOneMarshal

[Panzer]

Sisters of Battle are religious lunatics. I don't find those horrific at all since we had and partially still have that in real life. I'm not religious and don't want to turn this into a debate about religion but I find such behaviour mostly laughable and sad. Not saying I hate that faction or anything though. It's part of the setting I love after all.

 

In fact, personally I don't think any of the factions are particularly horrific because they all are inspired by stuff I've seen over and over for years in various forms of media. I'm pretty blunted when it comes to such things in fiction by now I guess.

If I had to name some I'd probably go with Nurgle worship because of their whole bodyhorror and forced happiness the more they fall to Nurgle (unless they just become grumpy) and Dark Eldar because of the whole abduction, extreme body modification and slavery thing.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Panzer

[Xin Ceithan]

Hard to say how to judge "most" here

 

AdMech is downright creepy.... the Onager pilots are basically consumed by their tanks as a sort of living battery.

 

All the Chaos stuff is, in some way. The scenes in Spears of the Emperor when the Geller field comes down....

 

To join a Homunculus Coven, you have to allow some deranged madmen to cut you up and serve as a drone and lab rat for the chance to do that to yourselves and others in return...

 

The Imperium is ruled by the wreck of a man who refused to die, kept on the brink of death by the sacrifice of millions of souls and while he endures / is forced to endure this, he is worshipped as a god in a mockery of all he attempted to achieve...

 

 

That may be why the BL "horror" line often seems to me not be as "horror" but more as just more direct in approach the "normal" BL line. The 40k Universe is pretty much a "horror" setting to begin with...

[Magos Takatus]

It's probably for the best that we never see what is beneath the robes of an Adeptus Mechanicus Tech Priest. The lengths they go to to stay alive make conventional juvenat treatments look like a day at the health spa.

 

Andes raises an interesting point that I'd never considered though. The Adeptus Mechanicus makes use of vat grown people to make their servitors and replacement organic parts. Did they even have sentience, a soul or were those bodies somehow hollow from the start? I'm not sure what would be worse... at least if they are soulless husks there is no chance they could remember who they were prior to getting used for whatever purpose they are destined for. The whole experience makes me think of the song "One" by Metallica, being trapped in one's body for the duration of their service to the machine god. The lucky ones are the ones where the memory suppression/lobotomy processes are successful I suppose.

 

Even being a standard Skitarii Vanguard must be pretty horrific. Sure, you go through the awful "upgrade" process to become a soldier for the Omnissiah but imagine watching your comrades slowly withering away over time as your own bodies succumb to the very weapons that keep you alive, your hair and teeth falling out as you waste away and having your instincts overwritten by the Tech Priests as they flood your mind with Doctrina Imperatives, instead of being a violation, this is seen as being touched by the Omnissiah.

 

The Admech are one of the best "Fridge Logic" factions. Then you consider the Dark Mechanicum that are almost the same but they are probably less picky about their servants. Clones, prisoners, rivals pretty much everything can be bound to their will and they are even less likely to care if they are mindwiped successfully or not. They probably enjoy the suffering of their thralls.

[WarriorFish]

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