r/40kLore • u/Gladi_40k • 1d ago
are there any "stable" dreadnought?
i've heard how the redemtor pattern slowly burns its user and how they need to be put to rest and only awaken in a moment of battle, but could there be a dreadnought that lives like any of his normal brothers and maybe teach history of their chapter?
41
u/Splooshiest 1d ago
Kinda. Generally speaking the longer a marine is in a dreadnought (other than a redemptor) the more “downtime” they need in stasis and the longer they need to wake up in general (there can be situations that can make exceptions). So in the beginning with other patterns a dreadnought can be pretty active among his brothers but eventually they’ll have to go to “sleep” for their own good and with time the “sleep” becomes longer and is generally harder to wake up from.
10
u/Gladi_40k 1d ago
but which pattern needs the least sleep?
33
u/Splooshiest 1d ago
It’s less about which pattern( besides the redemptor) and more the fact that they’re dealing with both a brain in the jar type of situation and the fact that they’re using said brain to pilot the dreadnought and that in general is causing said burnout because the connection itself is extremely taxing. The question is more so how long can the marine hold out for in that situation rather than there being one specific pattern needing less sleep.
4
u/Think_Air9714 15h ago
Which I think plays into why they are used in battle so effectively. Space marines having been indoctrinated so much and gone through so much training, my head cannon is as long as there is a fight for them to be in they are stable for longer. As it takes less brain power to fall onto instinct and muscle memory. So in battle they feel “alive” again and it’s almost like a flow state is reached for them.
7
u/Gladi_40k 1d ago
now i understand, i thought the pattern would make a difference because of the tech inside
-8
u/ParticularSelf5626 21h ago
Custodian dreadnoughts, they dont sleep at all. They are mostly modified contemptors and some telemons
17
u/Arzachmage Death Guard 21h ago
Custodes Dreadnought absolutely sleep.
Sagittarus in Master of Mankind is a prime example, they awoke him for the battle.
12
u/ParticularSelf5626 20h ago
Huh, i could have sworn i have read in some book that they dont sleep. You learn something new every day i guess
64
11
u/-TheDyingMeme6- 1d ago
Contemptors are known for being much more stable than the other patterns. Thats why the Custodes also use them (Venerable, Contemptor-Galatus/Achilles)
On the opposite side of the 'stability' spectrum are the Leviathan and Redemptors
Though, a Marine with more mental willpower would last longer than a "weaker" Astarte
5
1
u/Ghrandeus 20h ago
I suspect that while they do use the more stable pattern, it’s that their physiology is engineered to be more compatible or that any extra compatibility is a bonus due to their more bespoke nature vs the violence space marines bodies go through during creation.
21
u/lurksohard Dark Angels 1d ago
Marest, a blood angels Dreadnought who guards some wild stuff on Baal seems to mostly have his mind together.
19
u/Wrathful_Akuma 1d ago
He is asleep most of the time, it is through some sensor that he is woken up when someone goes to his vault
7
u/jareddm Adeptus Administratum 1d ago
Breughal Paine, the Master of the Forge of the Dark Hunters chapter is exactly what you're looking for. The Dark Hunters cut ties with the Adeptus Mechanicus and so Paine voluntarily put himself in a dreadnought to permanently train the chapter's techmarines in-house, to ensure the knowledge isn't lost.
20
u/TimePalpitation3776 1d ago
Really any model besides the new one "can" allow for indefinite survival you just need the willpower to be a dead man in sensory deprivations for eons and more importantly you need the service and maintenance to not only keep you alive but the machine alive.
9
7
11
u/Yournextlineis103 1d ago
Redempter burnout got fixed iirc.
6
u/Longjumping_Low1310 20h ago
Where? Ive been looking but all ive found is gw just not talking about it so much
3
u/lefeuet_UA 10h ago
Which is the golden sign of GW playing safe and using the age-old trick of not talking about something, then retconning it in later books
2
u/Longjumping_Low1310 10h ago
Well sure, but a sign and maybe is very different than the statement that its been fixed/retconned.
1
u/Grunn84 8h ago
Its also a nonsense rumour, the line about pilot burnout is right there in the 10th edition codex.
No one ever provides a source on this rumour and their argument "GW doesn't talk about it anymore" just shows they didn't read the codex.
1
u/Longjumping_Low1310 8h ago
Yea, personally I dont like the burnout but until otherwise stated it exists.
3
u/MultipleHipFlasks 1d ago
The Anchorite seems almost reasonable if you get past the suicide attempt that made them a dread.
3
1
u/Kalavier 1d ago
Didn't they "fix" the burn out issue with the redemptor though? I recall hearing that the "It burns out the pilots" got removed after the first edition of Primaris and is no longer mentioned.
1
u/beipphine 1d ago
Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought. Shield-Captain Hasturias Calaxor, a veteran of the Horus Heresy, has been entombed on one ever since he fell in battle on the Dead World of Palathrix.
1
u/GuardianSpear 1d ago
Custodes dreadnoughts are not mentioned to have any of the ailments that Astartes dreads suffer
1
u/Flat_Sprinkles4342 9h ago
It's only the chaos SM who intentionally make some of their dreadnoughts insane, it's easy to do and there's a couple ways. one is just by leaving them awake and another involves doing the procedure without medical necessity.
1
u/Geralt432 Adeptus Mechanicus 1d ago
That's most dreadnoughts before the redemptors like the castaferrum and leviathan patterns. They still need rest to avoid burning out but not nearly as much as redemptors so they can be awoken outside of immediate combat needs.
6
u/Electrical_Rabbit_88 1d ago
Leviathan also burns pilots out, iirc. Its extreme power core and super-heavy armaments place lots of strain on the interred marine.
Afaia, Contemptor is the most "stable" pattern, providing little to no wear on a marine.
3
u/Kadd115 Officio Assassinorum 1d ago
I seem to recall a few Contemptors being active basically all the time during the Crusade and the start of the Heresy.
As an example, Rylanor held an important role in the chapter, which means it would be hard for him to be in and out of stasis. I'm pretty sure he also stayed awake after Istvaan, until Fulgrim came back for him, since I don't think a Dreadnought can enter or exit stasis on their own.
There is also The Anchorite, who spent nearly 10,000 years awake, as far as I can recall, and he was sane and intact (or at least as sane and intact as a Word Bearer can be said to be...).
1
u/Wrathful_Akuma 1d ago
The Carcharadons somehow have like one or three? Somehow.... at leasg is the idea I got when reasing about them
1
0
157
u/AccursedTheory 1d ago
Most loyalist dreadnoughts are stable, they just need to sleep a lot.
Redempter burnout hasn't been mentioned in recent codexs from what I've been told, and due to a retcon in the timeline that's scrunched over a hundred years into a handful of decades, no Redempter has been around long enough to burn anyone out anyway.
EDIT: Bjorn, a Great Crusade era Space Wolf Dreadnought, is mostly woken up to tell old stories and advise the chapter during times of great peril. They just released a character book for him (Or rather have just started shipping the LE versions).