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I think Pius' story isn't going to get wiped from history with the HH series. rather the man seems tied up in the perpetual storyline, and unlike most people I really do think they're going somewhere, somewhere important with that.
Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two
Arhra, the fallen Scorpion Phoenix Lord is probably on the top end of the "badass" spectrum, although all the Phoenix Lords probably make the list.
Kharn has got to be up on the list as well, dude's so lethal every time he revs Gorechild Khorne's nipples get hard.
I'd give my final vote to ol' Captain Cortez. In one of the old marine dexes he disarmed an Ork Warboss after his Choppa got stuck in his ribs by turning sharply to the side, then killed him and all his Nob bodyguards in close combat.
Soo'Vah'Cha wrote: I think someone mentioned they retconned Pius as a imperial fist marine..the last time this question was asked.
Adeptus Custodes wasn't it?
Huh? He is now a Perpetual, somehow related to Empy. one of Abnett's less brilliant ideas, but its fluff.
I'm losing track now to be honest.
They first had him as an unfortunate member of the imperial Army sucked onboard Horus' ship by Empy, Priarches, Space Marines and Custodians teleporting in. Then they elected to have him as a member of the Custodes to highlight how powerful Horus was. massive condemnation followed. Then Abnett came along and had his idea of making sure Pious had lived multiple times. End-game he is now kin to Empy who also is or was a Pertupetal.
If you have nothing nice to say then say frakking nothing.
He's probably not thee most badass soldier warrior, but he's definitely up there.
Sharrowkyn
Gods? There are no gods. Merely existences, obstacles to overcome.
"And what if I told you the Wolves tried to bring a Legion to heel once before? What if that Legion sent Russ and his dogs running, too ashamed to write down their defeat in Imperial archives?" - ADB
Beaviz81 wrote: They first had him as an unfortunate member of the imperial Army sucked onboard Horus' ship by Empy, Priarches, Space Marines and Custodians teleporting in. Then they elected to have him as a member of the Custodes to highlight how powerful Horus was. massive condemnation followed. Then Abnett came along and had his idea of making sure Pious had lived multiple times. End-game he is now kin to Empy who also is or was a Pertupetal.
Pius was from before a time when the Vengeful Spirit duel was a thing. Originally all that was said about his was that he maybe took an attack from Horus meant for the Emperor during the assault on the Imperial Palace.
The more familiar tale of attacking Horus while the Emperor lies crippled and then dying a messy death began with a Terminator. The Terminator was then changed to a Custode much later on for no reason so far as I can discern.
Pius and the Terminator/Custode were ultimately different events, similar only in the fact that they were Horus and the Emperor's third man.
Now there's some stupid perpetual bs happening and we can only hope the HH novel team is abducted by aliens so we never have to see that wretched seed bloom.
Oh, and obviously Draigo is #1
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/02/07 03:00:49
Did not back down against Horus. A primarch. Horus blessed by FOUR chaos gods. Horus who was knee deep in the blood of one of the deadliest Primarchs (Sanguinious). Horus who had just mortally wounded the Emperor of freaking mankind. He stood up against that and was killed horribly. The fact that he fought/made his way to the flag ship and managed that feat alone makes him the most bad ass character in the 40k universe. The fact that he didn't back down when I he stood before Horus means he should get a standing ovation from all the characters listed thus far.
Anyone who is married knows that Khorne is really a woman.
He doesn't even speak yet we all know how badass he is. That takes somethin' special.
Yea, he would be my pick as well. Especially if he really is Ahrha.
And the Angels of Darkness descended on pinions of fire and light... the great and terrible dark angels.
He was not the golden lord. The Emperor will carry us to the stars, but never beyond them. My dreams will be lies, if a golden lord does not rise.
I look to the stars now, with the old scrolls burning runes across my memory. And I see my own hands as I write these words. Erebus and Kor Phaeron speak the truth.
Honourable mention to Ephrael Stern, who makes Draigo look like a teenager's attempt to create a self-insert sidekick for her.
Ephrael Stern was a Seraphim of the Order of Our Martyred Lady assigned to the Order of the Blessed Enquiry, presumably as some kind of guard.
She then survived the massacre of the Order of the Blessed Enquiry when they attracted the attention of Slaanesh himself with their research and was sent to report the incident to the convent on Ophelia VII.
While held in custody there for testing to make sure she wasn't possessed, corrupted or a sleeper agent, she ripped a daemonic infiltrator out of its host with her bare hands and strangled it to death. The daemon looked like a cross between a Bloodletter and a Daemonette and was there specifically to kill her, because its Greater Daemon master thought she was a threat. Badass.
She was then sent back to the site of the Blessed Enquiries' convent along with a psyker, Inquisitor Hand. During their investigation of the convent, they found the surviving Sisters: They had been bound together into a massive ball of flesh and tortured by Slaaneshi daemons. An honourable 'badass' mention goes to the Sisters of the Blessed Enquiry, who were not corrupted by chaos despite being held captive by Slaanesh for five years.
She and Hand (and a few mooks I guess) then not only held off an assault by Daemonettes and Daemon Infiltrators but destroyed the entire army. The Order of the Blessed Enquiry then gave Ephrael a gift: The sum and results of their research. The True Name of the Chaos God Slaanesh. until the Greater Daemon himself showed up and captured them. The mooks were dead. The Greater Daemon killed Hand, and then Ephrael Stern banished him using his True Name.
Even more Badass when you realise that six syllables of a daemonic true name is usually enough to drive a mortal insane and get them consigned to a pretty little cell in orbit around Titan.
Of course, that wasn't enough for Ephrael Stern. She was stranded on the planet with nothing but stray daemons and the occasional cactus. She proceeded to not only survive there for months, but to commit a large part of the knowledge she held to paper. She was then rescued by the Inquisition, who took her back to Ophelia VII for another trial, this time for the murder of Inquisitor Hand. Everyone knew she was innocent, but the Inquisition wanted her in a pretty little cell on Titan and convicted her anyway. The Inquisitor here gets an honourable mention for not only disguising himself as a Black Templar, but for convincing the Black Templars themselves that he was one of them.
Stern wasn't very happy with this, and the Prioress sent her away to continue her work as an independent agent. Yes, that's right: The Prioress Sanctorum herself defied the Inquisition on Ephrael Stern's behalf.
A few skirmishes with the Inquisitor and his Arbites later, she found herself captured by Ahriman of the Thousand Sons and tortured for information. Again, Ephrael Stern refused to break, this time breaking free despite having no weapons, armour, or really any equipment at all and destroying Ahriman's ship before escaping through the Warp under her own steam.
Reminder: Ephrael Stern is not a psyker. She's just that badass enough that she can fight her way through the Warp with her bare hands.
That same badassitude served her well when she escaped the Warp into the Webway, only to get captured by a Dark Eldar patrol and thrown into the fighting pits of Commoragh, where she performed so well that her owner decided to pass her off as a Succubus and enter her into a top-tier tournament among the Wych Cults. Which she won.
I probably missed a few high points in her story, but eventually she ended up a bit depressed after escaping Commoragh and drifted around until she was invited to go and record her experiences and knowledge for archive at the Black Library.
"That time I only loaded the cannon with powder. Next time, I will fill it with jewels and diamonds and they will cut you to shrebbons!" - Nogbad the Bad.
Besides Titus of course, I've always been fond of Sicarius - He's not only good at what he does, he's also fething smug about it
Anyway, Farsight has always been a favourite of mine. Yeah, I've seen the type of character before, but his stern beliefs actually seem hardcore enough, compared to the rest of the galaxy.
Reminds me of a song from Revengeance...
"I've carved my own path!
you've followed your wrath,
but maybe we're both the same.
The world has turned,
and many has burned,
but none are to blame!"
"Now we're standing,
on the burning land.
I feel new life might be born
beneath the bloodstained sand!"
Anyway, Farsight has always been a favourite of mine. Yeah, I've seen the type of character before, but his stern beliefs actually seem hardcore enough, compared to the rest of the galaxy.
Wow, I actually forgot about Farsight. He might the one character with the most fluff potential. and Drazhar are probably tied for me. Both are pretty badass.
And the Angels of Darkness descended on pinions of fire and light... the great and terrible dark angels.
He was not the golden lord. The Emperor will carry us to the stars, but never beyond them. My dreams will be lies, if a golden lord does not rise.
I look to the stars now, with the old scrolls burning runes across my memory. And I see my own hands as I write these words. Erebus and Kor Phaeron speak the truth.
Anyway, Farsight has always been a favourite of mine. Yeah, I've seen the type of character before, but his stern beliefs actually seem hardcore enough, compared to the rest of the galaxy.
Wow, I actually forgot about Farsight. He might the one character with the most fluff potential. and Drazhar are probably tied for me. Both are pretty badass.
Yeah, potential is an important thing - I mean, yeah, the Emps is awesome, but his time is over. He has no future... There's a lot of characters, who's only natural evolution would be with stagnation and/or death, like Aun'va, Imotekh, Marneus Calgar, Vect and other higher-ups. But characters like Farsight, Shadowsun, Sicarius, Karlean, Trazyn or Ahriman are interesting, because they still got the worst in front of them, and are found in the middle of their largest battle.
According to the fluff, Tau Commander Puretide was one of the most badass warriors in the galaxy. The Tau even immortalized him by retaining some of his memories in chips so that his knowledge would never be lost. How awesome is that?
My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/7/24, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~16000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Imperial Knights: ~2300 | Leagues of Votann: ~1300 | Tyranids: ~3400 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000 | Kruleboyz: ~3500 | Lumineth Realm-Lords: ~700
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2024: 40 | Total models painted in 2025: 23 | Current main painting project: Tomb Kings
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The Grotsnik Corp Bump Feelerer 9,000. It only looks like several bricks crudely gaffer taped to a cricket bat.
Grotsnik Corp. Sorry, No Refunds.
ZergSmasher wrote: According to the fluff, Tau Commander Puretide was one of the most badass warriors in the galaxy. The Tau even immortalized him by retaining some of his memories in chips so that his knowledge would never be lost. How awesome is that?
Not only that, they have a holographic version of him, controlled by an AI made to basically be Puretide, with his memories interred inside... And, the Tau being big on the Samuri-analouges, he's of course stowed away in a sanctuary somewhere on the top of a mountian, where only the most learned students get to train with him.
Going through The First Heretic atm, so I would nominate Corax, when he completely roflstomps the Gal Vorbak. He would have stomped Lorgal easy without silly Curze getting in the way.
Other then that, I like that other raven guard I forgot the name of, that ran circles around Lucius the Eternal and handed his ass back to him.
.... so, once again I favour the Raven Guard it seems.
Boreal wrote:Going through The First Heretic atm, so I would nominate Corax, when he completely roflstomps the Gal Vorbak. He would have stomped Lorgal easy without silly Curze getting in the way.
Other then that, I like that other raven guard I forgot the name of, that ran circles around Lucius the Eternal and handed his ass back to him.
.... so, once again I favour the Raven Guard it seems.
This guy is who you're thinking of
Spoiler:
King Pariah wrote:He's probably not thee most badass soldier/warrior, but he's definitely up there.
Sharrowkyn
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/02/08 00:47:00
Gods? There are no gods. Merely existences, obstacles to overcome.
"And what if I told you the Wolves tried to bring a Legion to heel once before? What if that Legion sent Russ and his dogs running, too ashamed to write down their defeat in Imperial archives?" - ADB
Honorable mentions go to Daemon Primarchs and Creed
Actually the Ork wasn't a threat to the Emperor. The Emperor got himself into that situation so Horus could "save" him and bond with his father over it.
The the Emperor promptly murderized all the Orks. As in dissolved them.
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”
Furyou Miko wrote: Honourable mention to Ephrael Stern, who makes Draigo look like a teenager's attempt to create a self-insert sidekick for her.
lol, no. Not giving a gak about the warp and the Chaos Gods is > everything she's done. Stern is pretty badass though.
The award goes to random Space Marine guy who held his own against Lelith Hexperax for six hours straight in the same sentence of fluff that stated she had been tearing through "Warbosses and Hive Tyrants" with casual ease.
Runner-up goes to the no-name White Scars captain who held his own against a Necron Tombship using just a Battle Barge, even going so far as to drop its shields and get it one-shotted by a planetary defense battery.
For reference, Tomb Ships are the largest and most powerful ships Necrons have.
This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2015/02/08 05:59:51
... Draigo wanders the Warp randomly. Ephrael stalks through it with a purpose. The latter seems more badass to me. Besides, the writing in Daemonifuge was much better.
"That time I only loaded the cannon with powder. Next time, I will fill it with jewels and diamonds and they will cut you to shrebbons!" - Nogbad the Bad.
Furyou Miko wrote: ... Draigo wanders the Warp randomly. Ephrael stalks through it with a purpose. The latter seems more badass to me. Besides, the writing in Daemonifuge was much better.
I dunno reading your description all I could think was "and people say Dragio was mary sue" but I'm gonna guess you've simply not done the tale justice.
Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two
Well, yes, that was part of my point, lol... that said, no, I really haven't. You should read Daemonifuge.
"That time I only loaded the cannon with powder. Next time, I will fill it with jewels and diamonds and they will cut you to shrebbons!" - Nogbad the Bad.
7500+
4000+
3000+
1500+
1000+
1000+
1000+ 
and Drazhar are probably tied for me. Both are pretty badass.
~16000 Astra Militarum: 
~1200 | Imperial Knights: 
~2300 | Leagues of Votann: 
~1300 | Tyranids: 
~700
