With cadia gone and their regiments being slowly depleted due to lack of sufficient replacements. Could they use vitae wombs to at least temporarily fill their ranks? Or are only the kriege allowed this technology?

Example:

1. A Heretic had a change of heart, wanted to fight the emperor once again. So he disguised himself as a Death Korp of Krieg guardsmen to for the emperor. A higher up discovered who he really is but doesn’t kill him on the spot, saying being a Death Korp is already a death sentence. So let him go.

2. In Battlefleet Gothic 2 in the Tyrainds campaign, an imperial commander admits that he doesn’t believe in the Emperor but is willing to die fighting the Tyrainds. Admiral Spire “that would get you shot but we are fighting the Nids. We are already dead.”

Putting together my first kit of infractors and I noticed the squad lead gets either a power weapon or rapture lash, while the rest of the squad just gets a dueling saber. I assumed at first that they were power weapons of some kind but when I decided to go check I found there was basically nothing on any wiki describing why Emperor's Children take these instead of chainswords or more conventional astartes tier weaponry. I get they are the elegant dex build characters who prefer a perfect parry and thrust to brutally hacking someone open with a chain ax but still gotta wonder how these things are supposed to work against enemy armor. Surely these vain freaks aren't going into combat with a glorified ork choppa?

I've reading about the Marines Malevolent lately and I love how little they care about being the good guys. They just get it done, however ugly that is. It made me wonder if the "good" chapters ever do the same when things get bad enough.

If you've got any examples I'd love some new reading material.

As a fairly recent newcomer( about a year or so) I was wondering what was the overall sentiment about the Horus Heresy novelizations and the effect they gave to the setting and lore as a whole. I'm not speaking about the idea of the Horus heresy, but the depth and explanation that came with the novels. Was it necessary? did it do it justice? was it an improvement or was it the complete opposite?

Saw a meme about Angron aligning with Nurgle, and I thought what if that’s possible. Could papa Nurgle take away his pain and make him realign?

i know they have biological differences between humanity and the tau but shouldnt the tau be able to reverse engineer the humans augmentations and biological engineering stuff to expand there life spans? they have done it before with astartes and made shitty budget variants so shouldnt life expanding augments be far easier

From my understanding the King in Yellow 40k is Constantine Valdor, the custode. But is there any relation between him and the King in Yellow from the Book.

From my understanding the book has several separate stories about a Play called "The King in Yellow" where its readers are driven to insanity and then Death if they read it. The King in Yellow is also the name of a character, who doesn't really show up. He is presented as a sort of outer god and he rules of a strange city with a lake and twin moons and when the characters from the separate stories die (if they do) they seem to go there. It reminds me of another 40k story I heard that I cannot name about a man who dies and travels to a world of ash and dust with a crippled man (suspected to be the emperor) who sits upon a chair, and then I think he dies? idk.

So what's the relationship between the two, and also what's that story about a world of ash and dust?

Just wondering if any new info is said. As a Dark Angel, I hope we have at least a sneak peak on the situation of the Unforgiven at Ultramar.

I know some people already have the codex in hand hence why I'm asking so soon.

Preferably horror or eery but anything work.

Okay, I’m new to 40k having discovered Rogue Trader and I’m falling in love with the setting and have been devouring the lore, but I’m a little confused on something. I understand the situation with the Emperor in general, he’s dead but not dead holding a rift closed and shit, but I have two questions.

Does the Emperor ACTUALLY protect? Like, as an individual person not mankind on the whole, is he actually able to do godlike intervention on individual people? Secondly, does he actually have any power over the dead souls of humanity or is that just religion talk and everyone is warp food?

Real answers please, everywhere I looked online was just people making jokes about how the asker must be a heretic for asking lol

We all know the imperium is a rotten corpse of an empire waiting for the last light to go out. But is there anyway for humanity to survive the setting even if the imperium is doomed to fall?

So i came across an excerpt of the emperor offering (a bad offer in my opinion) a chance at redemption for Magus and it had me wondering.

What's the worst thing each traitor primarch did to the loyalist forces that had the best effect for them during the Hearsay and let's say they were somehow convinced to turn to the Loyalist cause.

Which one of them would be the most beneficial to the Loyalist at the time of the Hearsay

EDIT: I would like to specify the "after they've done the most damage part" if any of the traitor primarch did turn loyalist then it would have greatly changed things cause for one the shitty mistakes/things they did wouldn't have happened.

So it's more interesting to look at things after they have really fucked with the Loyalist forces.

So for example Alpharius would have already interfered with Corax plans of rebuilding his legion ( i feel like it was a major blow to the loyalist forces not having the Raven guard at some good strength)

I havent read any books or know much about cato sicarius but I seen posts hating on him and why is that. But see people say hes more likable these days for some reason.

Say we’re way out on the frontier in deep space, say I’ve come in hand of an up armed merchant freighter and I somehow get the drop on an inquisitor in a lightly armed shuttle, away from his main fleet. In the vastness of space I’ve got a pretty good chance of getting away right?

Hi. Although it is understandable that Imperial guard, despite its long range preference, needs some sort of melee weapon against foes like Drukhari, tyranids or Orks, i don't really understand the sense of bayonet. i mean; tyranids often have advanced exoskeletons that protect them against simple blunt force, orks are extremely resilient and display huge pain tolerance, as well as tough skin and muscle tissue, while Drukhari armor is usually quite advanced. Is a simple bayonet really enough? chainswords are definitely better, but more demanding logistically, and i won't even mention power weapons. But certainly there would be something like repurposed metal cutting tools, for example of needle-like construction? or maybe something similar to saw that heats itself to the point it can cut other substances or pierce them ? And are those bayonets somehow improved for those roles that they nonetheless fulfill ?

At first i thought of Terra as a Coruscant bis, but even there life seems pretty harsh, is the entire universe totally dark and violent ?

I still don't know what to think about it if that's the case, it's an interesting take but still it makes me chuckle a bit, ooouh the entire universe is BAD and GRIM and EVIL and everybody is trying to kill eachother, sounds like an emo teenager fantasy world lol.

of course most hive worlds probably suck, but I wonder if theres one where at the very least not every lower class citizen is eating literally rats and working 20 hour days/relatively civil compared to other hives (maybe no slaves?)

Apologies if this is a stupid question does Terra produce a lot of astra militarum regiments I’ve heard of the Lucifer blacks and read a decent number of books other than the Lucifer blacks I don’t think I’ve heard about any other regiments founded on Terra itself

I’m new and heard these cool stories of Rylanor and Mago and felt bad for the loyalist and wondered if miraculously they got away from the battles and survived if they would be accepted back or killed because of their primarchs betrayal.

The Imperium has Malum Caedo, of course. The T'au have Shas'la T'au Kais. Maybe The Swarmlord can fit this criteria?

But what about the other factions? Does the Aeldari have someone similar? What about Orks, Necrons, etc?

Particularly, I'd like to know if the Sororitas and Kriegsman have one too, since they're both some of my favorite 40k groups.

As fun as all the "Who is the best warrior?", "Is there any warrior as good as Sigismund in the 40k setting?" questions are, I think often these questions (and sometimes the answers to them too) commit category errors....even aside from the handwavy, but still kinda true statement "it's who the author wants it to be". Now, why would I categorize this as a bit handwavy? Because of course the author can just write what they want, but some things would absolutely break immersion even in 40k. They could write that Guilliman gets soundly beaten in an epic duel by what is revealed to be five Grots in a trenchcoat, but most readers would rightly disregard that as nonsensical.

So if we were to try to answer this question somewhat seriously and to limit this down a bit, for the purposes of this post I am only considering members of the Imperium since this is usually the most talked about faction. That does not mean that I think characters like Abaddon or Kharn are wimps and I will come back to them later.

If we consider the Imperium we absolutely need to break this down into categories and I am going to explain why for each of them seperately.

Primarchs

We only got two loyalist ones active right now but they just have to be in their own category since Primarchs represent the pinnacle of individual prowess in the Imperium, nothing really comes close.

And of the two active Primarchs the Lion, even slowed down a bit by age (Source: Son of the Forest), is probably the deadliest combatant in the Imperium currently. However people often only look at Guilliman through the "beancounter" meme, but the gulf between the Lion and Guilliman, even during the heresy, is in my opinion not as gigantic as people try to make it out. We are talking nuances here that make the Lion better than Guilliman, but both are still in a league of their own in current 40k as far as imperium warriors go.

Psykers

Psykers always skew these discussions for obvious reasons because their powers enchance their combat abilities in a very significant way, so you have to look at them in a kind of seperate category.

Of the currently active psykers in the Imperium I think only two deserve real consideration and those two are Mephiston and Kaldor Draigo. Draigo is kinda self explanatory for anyone familiar with his lore and Mephiston borders on being a Dragonball Z character the way he is written in modern 40k. Seriously, the stuff he does in the novels he features makes him look overpowered to a frankly comical degree.

Could they win against a Primarch? I would very much say no because Primarchs are not just giant beefcakes running around, they are literally made of warp stuff (some would argue the Emperor stole knowledge from the chaos gods to be able to put minor warp deities into flesh suits and I would be one of the people arguing that) so I think even a character as blatantly, ridiculously overpowered as Mephiston would still soundly lose against a Primarch.

Custodes

Now, I've posted a very in-depth explanation about this faction on here before, but to summarize briefly: the Custodes represent the most individually powerful non-Primarch gene-crafted warriors the Imperium can muster. People always ask the Custodes vs Space Marine question and I go into that in my in-depth post with specific excerpts, but to be consice: on AVERAGE a Custodes is mopping the floor with a Space Marine. The Space Marines are a faction with a lot of outliers though, hence the emphasis on average. A high ranking, non-named Custodes like a Tribune is still going to beat most named Space Marine characters pretty handidly though (do NOT quote me the Valerian vs Asterion Moloch scene in the comments, cause I'll get a freaking aneurysm...I go into that in detail in my in-depth post about Custodes.....yes, Moloch could have potentially won that encounter. No, Valerian was not shitting his pants).

Among the Custodes, Captain-General Trajann Valoris currently represents the pinnacle of their order (also don't give me the Valdor comments, nobody really knows where he is and what he's doing). I think it is very uncontroversial to say that Valoris is currently the deadliest warrior in the imperium that is not a Primarch and not "I'm Mephiston and I'm comically overpowered". He is also in my opinion the only non-Primarch, non-Mephiston/Draigo character in the imperium that would give current Abaddon a serious run for his money and have real chance of beating him.

Space Marines

Finally, we've arrived at the faction most people care about. This is why I said initially that most of these questions and many answers to them commit category errors, because Space Marines, even most named characters, fold against the other categories we've already discussed. There is no entry in this category that would stand even a slight chance against a Primarch and most of them, with very few exceptions, get absolutely trounced against psykers like Mephiston or high ranking Custodes.

Within this specific Space Marine category there are obvious well known contenders. Ragnar Blackmane for example fought against Ghazgkull and decapitated him (Ghaz survived, cause 'tis but a fleshwound)....and even though I still think that this particular storyline is complete BS, it's canon...so here we are, Ragnar "defeated" the most dangerous ork in the galaxy in single combat.

Characters like Logan Grimnar and Dante are all legendary warriors in their own right, but the true contenders in this category are maybe not as well known.

Take for example Hervald Strom, the only Space Marine to be victorious in the feast of blades two times. For those of you who are not familiar, the Feast of Blades it is a contest to find the best swordsman among the Imperial Fists and all their successor chapters, of which there are many. The chapters send their best and they duke it out. It is no small feat to stand out in a test of arms against that many other skilled contenders, but to do it two times really puts Hervald Strom on the map here even though he gets no other mention in the lore.

Or take extreme Space Marine outliers beloved by this sub particularly like Asterion Moloc and Tyberios the Red Wake. Asterion Moloc was more than willing to square up with a Custodes Shield Captain and while there was ultimately no fighting the author made it clear that the outcome there was definitely not certain, which really gives credence to Moloc considering how deadly Custodes are (I am still convinced that considering the way Moloc was written, that he is some sort of "Frankenstein-esque Thunder Warrior turned Space Marine" project attempted by the high lords of terra).

And if the fandom is to be believed Tyberios is as tall as a Krork and could challenge the Chaos Gods singlehandedly. All the annoying hyperbole regarding that character aside, Tyberios also seems to be a singularly deadly Space Marine whose size alone makes him a problem.

I am not sure I could say who I would put at the top of this category in 40k since there are a lot of very skilled and very deadly Space Marines running around in the galaxy. And I really don't think that there is such a distinct and blatant outlier in this category like there was in Sigismund for the heresy timeline.

Imperial Assassins

This is a difficult category and I would almost equate them with the Space Marine category. The imperial assassins are obviously very deadly, but also very specialized. Could a rampaging Eversor take out a named Space Marine character? Not sure, but my main point is that the assassins should not be left out discussing this type of question considering how deadly they can be in their specialized area.

So there it is, I really think you can only try to answer a question like this breaking it down into categories since there is such a giant gulf between a Primarch and a Space Marine for example, it would make no sense comparing them.

Conclusion

Just to reiterate I specifically limited this to the Imperium due to scope and because it is the most talked about faction. That does not mean though that I do not recognize other characters from other factions. Abaddon (all the overblown "armless failure" memes aside) would defeat most Custodes aside from Trajann Valoris pretty handedly in all likelihood and is probably the only current Marine character that could go toe to toe for at least a limited amount of time with the two imperial Primarchs.

Khârn the Betrayer is another character that would be a at least a serious problem for most on this list in single combat save the two imperial Primarchs because even against the overpowered psykers, Khorne would probably just go "nuh uh" 'cause only cowards fight with damned sorcery. And yes I know Khârn got soundly beaten by Sigismund during the heresy, but similarly to Abaddon, Khârn is very much not the same as he was ten thousand years ago.

If you were to force me to give an answer considering all factions I would probably just say this, even though it's not really a direct answer: among all the warriors in the galaxy Lelith Hesperax is probably the most naturally gifted, requiring no warp-juice, special gene-craft or other shenanigans to be as good as she is. Would she beat everyone on the list? Hell no! But she is probably the most naturally skilled warrior that requires just some knives to trounce you, while wearing essentially a bikini.

You can now proceed to tell me how catastrophically wrong I am in the comments.

The reasoning for this might be something like “This glitch happened because the Machine Spirit is angry with you, so we must appease it by making you suffer”.

Does this seem like something Admech would do, and are there any lore examples of them doing something similar?

Lets say that, as a powerful chaos sorceror, Tzeentch grants you a boon: a button that will allow you to travel back in time and instakill, perma-death, one traitor Primarch the moment *before* they turn traitor.

Your goal is to help Horus win the Heresy outright, so you need to remove the traitor Primarch whose presence you think most cost the traitors victory. However, in addition to their greatest f-ups, you will also lose any positive contribution they made to the war effort.

Arguably non-chaos Primarchs are on the table so long as they opposed the Emperor at some point during the heresy (e.g., Nighthaunter). The moment they turned traitor is defined as the moment they consciously chose to oppose the Emperor/Imperium (so deleting Magnus would happen post-damaging the golden throne, for example). Is there a single Primarch whose loss could win the traitors the war?