Gert wrote:
I like how vague the majority of the War in Heaven is left. The Crusade and Heresy gained something because it gave modern 40k forces better options for stories and character motivations. Why do the Custodes hate Astartes? Ah because they were responsible for ruining the Emperor's vision. Why was Abbadon crowned Warmaster? Here is his origins and growth as a warrior and commander.
The War in Heaven works better as this unknowable but intensely destructive conflict works better because it was millions of years ago rather than 10k. Most factions in 40k shouldn't have an idea of the War in Heaven whereas it makes sense they'd know about things like the Heresy or Crusade.

 Gert wrote:
Even then the Silent King is hardly going to see his race as the bad guys so the whole conflict will be from the Necrontyr point of view which is that the Old Ones could have saved them but didn't so the Necrontyr turned to trickster Gods who stole the Necrontyr's flesh and souls in order to further their own feast on reality. Parts of it are true but the Necrons are still not good by any measure.

Andykp wrote:

 Gert wrote:
Even then the Silent King is hardly going to see his race as the bad guys so the whole conflict will be from the Necrontyr point of view which is that the Old Ones could have saved them but didn't so the Necrontyr turned to trickster Gods who stole the Necrontyr's flesh and souls in order to further their own feast on reality. Parts of it are true but the Necrons are still not good by any measure.

And he’s not likely to talk about it! Get it, cos he’s silent…….

Andykp wrote:

And he’s not likely to talk about it! Get it, cos he’s silent…….

 Valkyrie wrote:
In the older Chaos Daemon Codex there's a detailed account of how the Changeling visits a traitorous Planetary Governor and presents him with a device that "will end the war for good". The Governor is happy to hand over his children in exchange, and upon activating the device, a squad of Deathwing teleport into his chambers and gun him down. Turns out the device was a Teleport Homer the Changeling had stolen from Sammael.

What I like about this story is that when they released the Dark Angels Codex, Sammael was the only Ravenwing unit or character that didn't have a Teleport Homer.

Freebooterz, pp 52 wrote:
Occasionally Weirdboy Warpheadz (who have become addicted to the warp and reckless in the use of their psychic powers) become possessed by Daemons.

This happens because the Weirdboy acts as a natural conduit for warp energy when he uses his power and a daemon can be sucked into him from the Warp along with pure warp energy. However this does not result in daemonic possession of the same kind as would occur in a human psyker.

The Ork personality and soul are much more robust and resistant. Orks are resolute and self knowing and there is almost no weakness in their minds for a daemon to exploit in order to manipulate the host.

The daemon is therefore unable to take control and is effectively imprisoned within the Weirdboy with the result that the Weirdboy becomes greatly enhanced.

The cost to the Weirdboy is a form of mania in which he appears to be constantly arguing with himself whilst his mind disputes with the daemon prisoner within him. The result is a confused Weirdboy almost ecstatic with power, sharing his body with a daemon who is very disenchanted with the situation and prone to outbursts of frustrated wailing.

Such possessed Weirdboyz are very rare, and usually keep themselves to themselves or are avoided by other Orks. Like other Warpheadz the Possessed Weirdboy doesn’t need Minderz because he actually enjoys using his powers., but unlike ordinary Warheadz he has no Madboy followers. This is because the Madboyz, in their intuitively accurate way, recognise the daemonic presence in the Warphead and avoid him. Being less physically attuned, Gretchen and Snotlings are quite willing to serve the Warphead and soon become used to his endless conversations with himself, inexplicable poltergeist activity and occasional outbursts of daemonic wailing

 KidCthulhu wrote:
I agree with a lot of things already mentioned. But here's a few more:

I was always partial to the story where Nork Deddog drags back a whole ruined Chimera because it had a medipak in it (rather than just bring the medipak like Colonel Greiss asked. He leaves to retrieve the medipak but stops and salutes Greiss twice for forgetting to salute the first time.

I loved the snippet in the 2nd Ed Chaos Codex where Konrad Kurze lets himself be killed by a Callidus because "death is nothing compared to vindication". It was the first time there was really any information about the Chaos primarchs.

And I'll never forget the Admech waging a bloody war of attrition over an STC for a freaking self-heating crock pot!

(oh and anything in Freebooters! I don't even play Orks and I'm constantly thumbing through my copy ).

 Gert wrote:
The Psychic Awakening short stories are some of my favourite snapshots of 40k. The Custodes wiping out an entire Primaris contingent in a Torchbearer fleet because some of the original Chapter turned renegade is how the Imperium needs to be portrayed far more often IMO. They were flat out the bad guys in that.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Because accuracy…..

Nork salutes twice, because at that moment he couldn’t remember which hand to salute with.

I’ve got the 2nd Ed Guard codex at home. Will type up the passage (OOOOEEERRRRR MISSUS!) when I have the time

Codex: Imperial Guard, 2nd edition, page 86 wrote:"yes, sarr" Nork instinctively saluted with his left hand, then his right hand, then both together....

...."yes surr" cam the loud and snappy response as Nork plunged into the Chimera, remembered he'd forgotton to salute, came back, saluted twice for good measure, and and busied himself searching for the vehicles medical supply cabinet

 Gert wrote:
I mean it was played off as the Custodian had such a hatred for Space Marines that he wouldn't even consider that some Loyalist members of the Chapter remained. We've seen the Imperium be "lenient" on renegade Chapters before such as with Badab so there's precedent for mercy.

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
Does the lore of the video games count? Because I love the fact that in the DoW 1 series, the IG commander is literally willing to kill loyalist Astartes because he was ordered not to back down to anyone, including the Chapter Master of the BRs.

 Gert wrote:
Firstly the Primaris was a Captain. Secondly, the Captain asked to Custodes to help purge the traitors and retake their homeworld. Instead the Custodian decided to just kill them all and waste what might have been half a Chapter worth of Astartes because of a personal grudge and an over-inflated ego.
The Custodes speak with the voice of the Emperor who was and still is a terrible person. The Custodes always hated the Astartes even before the Heresy. They are characterised by their great abilities but also their utter detachment from humanity, the events of the galaxy in context and for arrogance second only to the Emperor Himself. That is how they should be portrayed and there was loads of complaints about how the Custodes was being irrational and stupid. Wade Pryce read the story on Hang out and Hobby, even explaining at the end that yes it is stupid and horrible, that's the Imperium. GW just doesn't show it enough but the PA stories did a much better job than 90% of BL books and Codexes/campaign supplements.

 Gert wrote:
The Brazen Drakes were already a founded Chapter before the events of the Rift so their Primaris additions wouldn't have been made with any Traitor gene-seed.
The entire event was based on the fact the Custodes think they're better than everyone else because the Emperor made them first and that since some of the Legions turned against the Emperor, all the Space Marines are flawed. The Custodes are just as bad as the Emperor.