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Hey Dakka.

A couple of questions regarding Dreadnoughts...

I was reading about the different Marks/patterns of dreadnought armour there have been in the 40k universe over the ages, particularly the Contemptor Pattern.
Apparently Dreadnought technology comes from the DoT, predating astartes. Does this mean normal humans can be put in dreadnoughts ? or did they run on AI originally ?

One dreadnought that springs to mind is "Ancient" Rylanor. Now was Rylanor really that "Ancient"? being a astartes during the great crusade surley he was no older than a lot of other astartes except that he had been put in a dreadnought.

As I understand it Dreadnoughts are irreplaceable relics, with thousands of years of wisdom, knowledge and skill in battle, who are worshipped by their chapers. Was this not the case during the great crusade/heresy ?

Also, does anyone know who the first Dreadnought was ?

Lastly, ( apologies for all the questions - im a noob ) Are any known Contemptor Dreadnoughts still around in 40k ? I quite fancy one in my army, only if is "fluffy" tho.

Cheers guys

Let's see.

The original dreadnoughts that existed during the DoT were significantly different from even the dreadnoughts of the Great Crusade. For one thing, they were just piloted, they didn't require internment, so most likely yes, they could be used by normal humans.

Keep in mind that most astartes during the great crusade were not around for that long. They wouldn't have been recruited until their primarch was discovered. For many legions, just to predate the finding of your primarch already made you rather old. And to have served in the War of Unification made you ancient. You're thinking in terms of M41, where progression and change are slow and astartes have had hundreds of years to operate. In 30k, it was still all very new and the idea of living to 200+ was still a novel concept.

No. It wasn't. Again, you're thinking in terms of M41. A lot has changed. Dreadnoughts were respected as veterans for their knowledge and strength, but if one went down, it wasn't a huge issue to get another one. The resources of the legions were immense and you could find any weapon, any vehicle, and any formation amongst any of the legions.

Depends on what you mean by first. First Contemptor? First Castraferrum (that's the traditional kind)? First Lucifer class? There's really no way of answering any of those questions.

Yes, contemptors are still around. But they're impossible to build and a MASSIVE pain in the ass to maintain because the reactor they use is extremely difficult to work with. Compared to the Castraferrum class, whose reactor is basically interchangeable with that of a Rhino. For that reason, you'll only really find Contemptors in First and Second Founding chapters, or the Minotaurs (being the dog of the HLoT has its benefits). But if you can come up with a good reason for why a later founding chapter has one, then go for it.

The Great Crusade lasted several hundred years before the Heresy, so there were plenty of old marines. The older ones would have been marines who were recruited on Terra prior to finding the Primarchs(or just anyone recruited prior to finding their Primarch)

 Grey Templar wrote:
The Great Crusade lasted several hundred years before the Heresy, so there were plenty of old marines. The older ones would have been marines who were recruited on Terra prior to finding the Primarchs(or just anyone recruited prior to finding their Primarch)

Several? Everything I've seen says 200 years between the start of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.

 Deadshot wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
The Great Crusade lasted several hundred years before the Heresy, so there were plenty of old marines. The older ones would have been marines who were recruited on Terra prior to finding the Primarchs(or just anyone recruited prior to finding their Primarch)

Several? Everything I've seen says 200 years between the start of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.

That's still disputed. The Great Crusade was rumored to have began late M29 and ended at the turn of M31.

 LumenPraebeo wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
The Great Crusade lasted several hundred years before the Heresy, so there were plenty of old marines. The older ones would have been marines who were recruited on Terra prior to finding the Primarchs(or just anyone recruited prior to finding their Primarch)

Several? Everything I've seen says 200 years between the start of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.

That's still disputed. The Great Crusade was rumored to have began late M29 and ended at the turn of M31.

Only if you include the War of Unification and all the time that just the Thunder Warriors and Techno-barbarians were fighting. The Triumph of Ullanor has been stated throughout the early Horus Heresy novels to have been the 200th year of the Great Crusade.

Never heard of a Lucifer class... Interesting. Thanks for the info.