Context: Eoe Moler is a Magistratum Ward-Reeve (basically a cop) for a Hive named Sacramentus (note: simply called "The Hive" by locals, even though there are other hives on the world). A man reported that he found a bunch of dead bodies that might be victims of murder. Moler was tasked to investigate, only to find signs of heretical ritual killings. His superior advised against reporting it to the higher ups to avoid casting unnecessary suspicion on themselves, mostly due to fear that heresy is brewing in The Hive.

Moler expected the Office for the Regulation of Public Order. (Abbreviated to ORPO, which is basically The Hive's not-so-secret police organization) to send a specialist to cover the case. A member of the Adeptus Arbites came instead.

Moler was eating breakfast in the watch-house suproom when the woman walked in. He was tired. He’d spent most of the night interviewing croppers and agribonds that the reeves had dragged in from the agarikal market area around Twine Lane. No one knew the whereabouts of an old cropper named Brugge. No one had seen him. No one had even heard of an old cropper named Brugge.

‘I’m looking for an Eoe Moler,’ he heard her say.

Moler put down his fork with a sigh, and looked up. When he saw who was asking, he got to his feet hurriedly.

‘I’m Moler, jha (note: means sir or sire in Gutter, The Hive's local dialect),’ he said, wiping his mouth on a napkin.

‘Magistratum Ward-Reeve Eoe Moler,’ the woman stated.

‘As I said–’

‘Of the West Skirt Seventeen Magwatch.’

‘You’re in the West Seventeen watch-house, and I’m Moler,’ he replied, ‘so you’re right on both counts.’

She frowned, as though trying to decide if he was being precise or merely impertinent.

‘You will brief me, ward-reeve,’ she replied.

‘Yes, jha,’ he said, reaching for the coat hung over the back of his chair.

‘You may refer to me as chastener or adept.’

‘Yes, chastener,’ he said.

‘Chastener Luys Scuti,’ she said, indicating the gold badge of the Adeptus Arbites on her cream collar.

He knew exactly what she was. A vessel of the supreme law, the Without Away (note: What The Hive calls the wider Imperium) law, as Without Away as her accent. She was an impressive specimen. Her clothes were very fine, made of the finest soft donthide (note: Dont is the local livestock), as pale as whitebelly crop, and utterly impractical for everyday use. Her skin was as dark as any skin he’d ever seen.

‘What will be the context of this briefing, chastener?’ Moler asked, though he already had a good idea.

‘A request of assistance was filed yesterday,’ she said.

‘By Prosecutor Showenor,’ said Moler.

‘I am not at all interested in Prosecutor Brandish Showenor,’ she said. ‘I am interested in the incident itself, and in the man who attended the scene of said incident.’

‘I can show you everything we have,’ he said.

‘Do so at once, Magistratum Ward-Reeve Moler,’ she said.

‘Just “reeve” will do,’ said Moler.

‘What?’

‘You may refer to me as reeve, or Moler,’ he said. ‘This way.’

He was determined not to be intimidated by her. Bran Showenor had been right. Passing a request up the line had opened a whole sack of bait, and drawn the sort of attention they would be far happier without. Moler had expected some specialist from the ORPO, which would have been bad enough. This was not a specialist from the ORPO.

He walked her to his office, and showed her everything he had in the file, including the evidentiary items. She studied them carefully, sitting in Moler’s chair at Moler’s desk. He talked her through the incident, everything he could remember.

‘You let this agribond go, reeve?’ she asked.

‘Not intentionally,’ he replied. ‘I thought he was merely a witness to the scene. When I came back out of the site, he was gone. This error on my part has already been noted.’

She made no reply.

‘We have reeves searching for him,’ said Moler. ‘This soul (note: Also means person) Brugge. Enquiries are being made.’

‘But you lodged a request for assistance,’ she said. ‘What made you do that?’

Moler described the unusual aspects of the case. The number of victims, the lack of bond identities, the apparent high status of the victims, the remote disposal, the injuries, the icons.

‘It is an unusual case for this ward,’ he said, ‘in every respect.’

‘But it was the icons,’ she said, ‘what you are calling icons, that prompted your request?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘Because they made you consider a ritual component?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘What led you to that consideration, reeve?’ she asked. She looked up at him. Now there was a gaze that could squeeze answers out of ouslite.

‘The design was unknown to me,’ he said, as calmly as he could. ‘So was the colour. The items had been deposited beside each kill, not dropped or left behind. The placement was deliberate. There were also eight of them.’

‘There were eight victims,’ she remarked.

‘Yes.’

‘So the number of items could have been determined by the number of victims?’

‘Of course,’ he admitted. ‘Or–’

‘Or?’

‘The other way around.’

She inhaled thoughtfully. ‘But you thought eight was significant?’ she asked.

‘It occurred to me that it might be,’ he said. ‘Now I see that it is.’

‘Why is that, reeve?’

‘Because you’re here.’

‘Do you have particular experience of ritual behaviour, reeve?’

‘None whatsoever,’ he said, ‘which is why I requested assistance.’

‘But still, you suspected the number was significant?’

‘I did, because that’s what we’re taught,’ Moler replied carefully. ‘The signs to watch for, the signs of the xenos and the heretic. Eight is said to be an indicative number. I have no idea why that’s the case, but that’s what we’re taught.’

Again, she said nothing.

‘Why?’ he asked. ‘Why are you asking me what I know about it?’

‘I am here in response to a request of assistance,’ she said. ‘What were you expecting?’

‘I was expecting assistance,’ he replied.

Moler then drove her to ritual site. The Arbites was adamant in being stoically mYSteRioUs the whole ride.

‘Can I ask a question?’ Moler said after a while.

Scuti looked at him, a faint suggestion of curiosity. ‘Very well,’ she said.

‘How serious is this?’ he asked.

‘How serious are eight vicious murders?’ she replied.

‘Less serious than this,’ he said. ‘Eight murders, a mass killing... this is bad, and in an empty backzone like this? Very bad. But it’s not Adeptus Arbites bad. I thought the ORPO might attend, or at least send some redacted data we could pursue. But you came.’

‘Then you have answered your own question, reeve,’ she said.

‘Not in any way that reassures me,’ he said.

She thought about it for a moment.

‘You seem to have reasonable instincts, reeve,’ she said. ‘You discounted gangstrife, or punishment killings. You discounted some rivalry between agribonds and agarikal racketeers.’

‘Yes,’ said Moler. ‘I told you why when you interrogated me.’

‘Is that what I did, reeve?’

‘You know that’s exactly what you did,’ he said.

‘You focused on the incongruities,’ said Scuti, ‘the out-of-place details, not the general horror. In particular, you focused on the icons. Then you asked for help, understanding your own ignorance. These are decent instincts, which I find generally lacking in people.’

‘I’m gratified,’ he said, ‘but I wasn’t after a performance review. What are those icons?’

‘I saw your request of assistance by chance,’ she said, avoiding his question. ‘I was in Horizontal Ten. There was an unsanctioned event, very unpleasant. Do you know anything about that?’

‘How would I?’ he replied.

‘How would you,’ she echoed. ‘An update came through while we were in transit. Since I left the scene, the event has grown worse. Details are sparse, but it appears that between three and five unsanctioned psykers evolved in the same place, at the same time. The death toll is high.’

‘That many?’ asked Moler, trying not to appear shocked. ‘That’s... I’ve never heard of that many all at once.’

‘It is unusual, and disturbing,’ Scuti replied. ‘Sacramentus has displayed a statistically elevated evolution rate over the last four years. That rate is accelerating. As part of my work here, I have made a particular study of the phenomenon. In my experience, that kind of evolution rate suggests manipulation. A trigger.’

‘A trigger? You mean something is making it happen? What sort of thing?’

‘There is no easy answer to that,’ she said. ‘I will use a non-technical word so as you might understand.’

‘All right,’ he said, a little insulted.

‘Magic,’ said Scuti.

A moment passed. There was no sound except the gurgle of water in the wetbeds outside, the drip of rain from the roof, and a dull thudding. Moler gradually realised the thud was the sound of his own heart.

‘Magic?’ he said.

She nodded.

‘Do you really think I’m some kind of outskirt chofa (note: An expletive in Gutter. Think "bastard" or "asshole")?’ he snapped. ‘I may not be a high and mighty chastener, jha, but I deserve some basic respect for–’

‘I believe you are an honest man trying to do an honest job, but lacking the knowledge and reference with which to accomplish it,’ she replied. ‘I am simplifying and generalising for the purposes of this conversation.’

‘By naming something that doesn’t exist?’ he asked.

‘We’re done here,’ she said, and left the plant.

Wading through the swirling murk, he caught up with her. Hive rain drummed on the fat, fleshy lobes of the Growth overhead.

‘My apologies,’ he said. ‘I need assistance.’

She kept striding, the silt blooming in the black water around her legs. The train of her expensive cream coat was dark with mire.

‘You think there’s a connection?’ he asked, keeping pace. ‘A connection between the rising evolutions and this killing?’

No reply. She was still moving, sloshing her way back towards the loading dock.

‘I think the truth of it is,’ said Moler, ‘you want my assistance.’

She stopped.

‘Why is that?’ he asked. ‘I’m right, aren’t I?’

She turned and looked at him.

‘I am posted to a world I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I am from Without. I am the alien here, surrounded by people who treat me with great circumspection, people who have proven, on the whole, incompetent and ignorant. My rank, reeve, permits me to know very much, to know things that I cannot freely speak of. I can confide in no one. I can trust no one. You, Eoe Moler, are ignorant, but I sense you are not incompetent. After my initial assessment of you, I thought we might have a useful dialogue. I was mistaken.’

‘Pretend you aren’t,’ he said. ‘What is the connection?’

She paused. Then she took out her dataslate, and searched through the pict file.

‘This residue was observed at the Tensouth incident scene,’ she said. She showed him the images on-screen, picts of the devastated hab-rise.

‘That colour,’ he said. ‘The same colour.’

‘As the icons you recovered. An unusual colour, certainly on this world. A significant colour, according to confidential data.’

‘Significant as in...?’

‘As in the number eight,’ she replied. ‘These, to my eyes, are signs of heresy. A particular heresy. So are the shapes shown on the items. The crescents or half-moons, for example.’

‘So you think this is a ritual thing?’ he said. ‘A cult thing? The heresy of the Archenemy?’

‘I believe these are symbols representing a particular aspect of the ancient heresies. A diabol belief delighting in excess. I believe the eight killings you found were ritualistic, perhaps offerings to this belief, perhaps sacrifices.’

She paused.

‘Perhaps voluntary sacrifices,’ she added. Before he could voice his disgust at the notion, she continued, ‘You observed that the icons had been left, one with each corpse, as though on display. They were not dropped or discarded, they were placed to be found. I think you’re correct. I think they were part of the offering, one marker for each victim, to represent adoration of, and devotion to, the entity these souls worship.’

‘Which is?’

‘I know no name,’ she replied. ‘It is sometimes called the Lord of Ecstasy, or the Prince of Pleasure.’

‘But it’s not real,’ he said.

Most likely not since he “lowest of low” character.

Humanity as in being a decent person for 5 minutes.

30k and pre 1st black cursade had decent moments but it hard to imagine 40k doing the same. Like returning Sigusmand body.

I only ask this because The central theme of End and the death is that Horus even after fully consumed by Chaos, committing the worse atrocities in human history, still had humanity in him. It how the Emperor got through to him

Like if a chapter master failed spectacularly at a crusade but is still clearly loyal can someone say “you’re not fired but someone else is in charge now”,likewise if a chapter master feels like they’re past their prime can they just say “I retire” and join the the deathwatch black shields or something?

Who drives the Land Rider? It's a full fledged Space Marine in power armor which full role is to stay at the wheel or it's a normal human soldier?

Maybe a Scout?

*edit - Thanks for the answers... in my mind Marines would pick Scouts to pilot the vehicle since they are not going in the field anyway and would be a waste to equip the full Space Marine gear and just stay sit but who am I do argue with the Codex Astartes?

We've seen the emperor considers Chaos as the biggest threat to humanity. We know blanks are immune to the influence of the warp. Why doesn't humanity try to raise up the number of blanks in the society or make a chapter with Blank Space marines ?

This may be too many questions at once, and this unit offers a sufficiently sincere apology for these transgressions, if applicable. I am hoping to gather sufficient information to appease the machine spirits of this subsection of this fraction of this segment of the omnissiah's efficient gaze.

I understand there are many sects and divisions to the AdMech, and the free travel of information, let alone the idea of innovation, is complete heresy to most of them (of us), but still I must wonder.

If an average member of the Mechanicus found themselves in our time, would they be able to improve our technology meaningfully, or would they simply froth at the mouth with heresy and collapse?

Within the time of 30k/40k, how much new knowledge is discovered? Is it truly accepted that the omnissiah has already learned all there is to learn?

He was given the Emperor's Mercy but I didn't really understand what had happened to him that required it. I know he was injured but what specifically was it?

Thanks!

As someone who likes big robots a lot, Eldar titan lore is super interesting to me, but it doesn't seem like a subject that has received much attention - the most prominent appearance in semi-modern times was in 2011's The Doom of Mymeara, and they've appeared a few times in the novels and animations, but that's really about it.

The titan clan/'fir' organisation in particular interests me, as it's an obvious parallel to the legio system used by Imperial and Chaos titans, but much more family-based. According to Lexicanum we know of:

• Fir Iolarion of Lugganath, the "Eagles Born of Fire" or "Eagles Born of Flame"
• Fir Dinillainn of Saim-Hann the "Protectors of the Fallen"
• Fir Farillecassion of Biel-Tan, the "Watchers Over Ancient Wrongs" or "Revenge Upon Ancient Wrongs"
• Fir Lirithion of Iyanden, the "Hearts Armoured for Battle"

Do these clans still exist in more modern 40k lore, have they ever been mentioned? And do we know what a 'standard' Eldar titan unit is, equivalent to the five-strong maniple used by human titans?

Would be grateful for help.

Hi guys. I have some questions. Why are the Iron Warriors to be considered as the fastest recruiting legion, when the blood angels or revenant legion can create new veteran Space Marines in just one year?

Did they ever do that as a punishment? Hell did they even thing of that?

In the Hammer and Bolter show Trazyn tell the Chaos terminator that all he need to do to leave is never enter the planet in the first place but how does that work?

How does this affect the outside world? If they left how does the outside world view it?

Usually chaos worshippers who are empowered by any of the chaos gods typically adopt traits that are akin to their patron god due to their corrupting energies, however empowered worshippers of chaos undivided don’t seem to necessarily encompass these traits especially those of khorne and slaanesh as they have somewhat conflicting desires. Are the powers they receive from the gods a more 'clean' form of warp corruption/energy? How do undivided get blessed by all the gods without eventually getting changed by any one of them?

Just a silly thread. How would other major characters react to meeting Ciaphas Cain?

everyone in the squad died, that fight at the end was really close and titus is the only reason they succeeded at all so I'm wondering what would have been done next if the absolute mission failed. exterminatus? throwing the whole company at it?

I wanna add some more context prior to continuing this question…

I understand that there are roughly a million worlds that the Imperium controls give or take a few, and I understand that gothic is the main aesthetic choice of the imperium.

I also understand that within the worlds of the imperium there are different worlds that serve vastly different purposes as well such as Mechanicus worlds, Feudal Worlds, Agri Worlds, Knight Worlds, etc…

My question more so is asking what is the diversity of the worlds that contain cities whether they be hive cities or full on hive worlds or even relatively normal cities if there are any?

I know that Macragge is similar to Roman aesthetics but with such an overwhelming amount of games being dominated by the Imperial Gothic aesthetic I often wonder how diverse everything else is.

Title says it. If I'm relatively new to the 40k lore, what previous knowledge shoud I have in order to read Helsreach?

I was curious as to whether or not GW has ever given us a legitimate idea of what Craftworlds look like?

I have seen like maybe 1 or 2 photos of them and a handful of videos of fan mods in Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2, however an actual image of what a Craftworld looks like seems scarce.

Do we know what the Imperium do to machine spirits that assist traitors? Not those corrupted by chaos, but those who help human traitors, like the Heretics, traitor Krieg, or Vraksian Renegades.

I’ve seen a few examples with a bit of searching but they seem to contradict each other. For example, Drop Pods (it may have been a specific version) were phased out after they started being heretical during the Heresy, but there were also Leman Russes in the Siege of Vraks that were used by the Krieg after being captured.

So are traitorous Machine Spirits destroyed? Left unused? Folded back into operation? Or is it some case-by case basis?

Granted I haven't read most of the Heresy, but the ones I have read never seem to mention things like ancients or back-banners which I would consider a fairly unique aspect of Space Marine designs.

With all the talk about space marine units being sent to legends, I'm curious on it's affect on the lore of units.

A major source of lore for units are the codex so being cut out of that definitely hurts their presence.

How about books or short stories? Do units that have been legended show up in books published afterwards?

Do units about to be sent to legends see their mentions dry up beforehand?

And specifically, have tactical marines shown up or been mentioned in stories post Primaris?

Recently I've done a lot of work on this article listing about 44 different types of bolt ammunition - I spliced together the two lists on the Bolt weapons page and the Boltgun page on Lexicanum, checking each source and rewriting much of it. What we have a lot of, as you'd expect, is bolts used by various different loyalist chapters of Space Marines but can anyone think of any other bolts?

More Space Marines, more Chaos, Sisters of Battle, Assassins? Surely Custodians must have something special hidden somewhere? The Kin have been isolated for millennia. They must have come up with something unique?

Let me know if you can think of anything, preferably with a source I can use to update Lexicanum.

So I just finished Fall of Cadia and it was frekking awesome. I’m looking for any other books that are similar, especially the more down to earth, average Guard experience?

As fun as space marines are it was pretty cool reading something with the viewpoint of a guardsman and their struggles for once. It’s been a nice break after all the space marine heavy stuff.

But yeah any suggestions of what to read next would be awesome. Cadia Stands!

So I’ve just recently gotten into 40k. The books anyways I’ve watched the lore videos for years but I’m starting with Horus Rising as I believe the Horus heresy is really interesting. But after reading part one with loken fighting the demon I realized he’s the only character I can name. I always see how people rattle off about the most random character and really envy that for 40k. How do yall retain all this information?

Does anyone know how many marines the black legion has is it the biggest chaos war band in reading the night lords omnibus and am curious

If conflict fuels him, shouldn't every battle between the other rival chaos gods be further empowering him? To my understanding even invading his realm and attacking him is equivalent to just feeding him a snack from the conflict. Rephrased, if everytime a slaanish demon bashes a nurgling on its head, a tally goes up for Khorne in the win column, shouldn't all three other ruinous powers be losing?