Ashiraya wrote:
Does anyone know anything about the progress of the Titan contest? The last entry day was 18 days ago, and while I know my odds of victory are slim to say the least, I am still loath to buy one manually while a chance of winning one still exists.

 CragHack wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
Does anyone know anything about the progress of the Titan contest? The last entry day was 18 days ago, and while I know my odds of victory are slim to say the least, I am still loath to buy one manually while a chance of winning one still exists.

Lel, I was wondering the exact same thing.

The time of truth is here. The Forge World Panel of Judgment have finished their deliberations and made their final decisions. We’ll be revealing the winners over the next four days, right here in this bulletin.

Today we disclose the winner of the first of two Warhound Titans. Our first winner is Ross D of Windsor, UK. Well done Ross, your story has earned you a Warhound Titan!

Ross wrote of the fall and rise of the Warhound Titan Hate Nail. Read his winning story below:

Roaming the desolate tech wastes of the decimated Forgeworld from which it was raised, the Warhound titan known as Hate Nail carries with it a trail of bloodshed and woe stretching back through the ages.

Constructed in late M35. on the demi-Forgeworld of Ceciditas as tithe to their greater masters on further, more dominant Forgeworlds, the Warhound Titan originally named Priusex Plures was crafted by the tech-priests of Ceciditas attempted to prove their skill at production in order to elevate the status of their Forgeworld and thus to be elevated amongst the ranks of their brothers afar, the first war machine of such size to be created on their world.
The initial success of their creation was not to last however, for even as tech-priests revelled in the glory of their creation the ever pressing presence of chaos drew its eye upon their world, seeping through the veil, drawn by the pride that riled, unchecked through their hearts & minds.

As the effort of the worlds’ labour began to bear fruit, a terrible affliction engulfed the world, spreading a demonic data plague that boiled the machine spirits of those engines that had once been loyal servants to the Omnissiah. Now loyal creations turned upon their masters and slaughtered them without mercy, the blood of tech-priests flowed freely through the halls of their hallowed factories. In their desperation the tech priests unleashed their newly completed war machine, but in their haste they failed to observe the proper rights of benediction before sending the Titan to lead their remaining legions to war and salvation. Without the true benediction from the Omnissiah, the machine-spirit of the titan was open to the corrupting forces of chaos and the inhabiting tech-priests watched helplessly as their favoured creation turned against them, massacring the population and tearing down the forges of its birth. The last harrowing message that left the world proclaimed that the titan fed the daemons at its core on the corpses of those it killed and devoured.

Now the workshop cities of Ceciditas are now little more than desolate wastelands of blood red sands, the ruins of a once mighty world haunted by Cybernetic-daemons that feast upon the scavenging traders or lost travellers unwary enough to explore the factory deserts of the world, led by the mightiest predator in their midst’s, the daemon titan now proclaiming itself only as Hate Nail.



Congratulations again to Ross. Make sure you come back tomorrow to find out who’s won the next Titan!

 Yaraton wrote:
That story was garbage. You can't unscrew a nut without a prayer in 40k, yet they have managed to build a whole Titan without blessing it at the end, knowing full well that it suppose to fight Chaos. I don't see any logic here. FW staff is on drugs.

 Yaraton wrote:
That story was garbage. You can't unscrew a nut without a prayer in 40k, yet they have managed to build a whole Titan without blessing it at the end, knowing full well that it suppose to fight Chaos. I don't see any logic here. FW staff is on drugs.

One Titan has already been claimed, today we announce the winner of our second Warhound Titan.

Today’s winner is Sam G of Manchester, UK. Congratulations Sam, you’ve won yourself a Warhound Titan!

Sam’s story tells of the glory of the Warlord Titan Melody of Rapture.

A proud engine of the Legio Crucius, the titan given the designation Melody of Rapture bears lineage to the famed Dominus Lux, a Nightgaunt class Warlord which served as the principle engine of Battlegroup Circe, alongside the Blood Angel’s Primary Expeditionary Fleet.

The battlegroup met their end against an ork scrap-stronghold on Purgatia Secundus. Here, the greenskins had created a nightmarish amalgamation of several thousand war machines; this so called ‘extinction engine’ dwarfed even the mighty Imperator class in stature and potency. Battlegroup Circe’s task was to disable the gargant's shields at range, to allow a strike force led by the Primarch Sanguinius, to board and destroy it from within.

The attack did not begin well - the enemy’s shields were discovered to be far more powerful than anticipated. Realising their offensive was stalling, the battlegroup formed up to engage at point blank range.

It was then that the titans of the battlegroup began to die - blasted apart by the overwhelming firepower of the gargant and its ground support. Soon, only Dominus Lux remained; her hull aflame and her gun barrels warping from charge-cores that were dangerously close to catastrophic overload. Defiant to the last, her warhorn boomed a mournful dirge and her weapons roared in rage at the deaths of her lesser kin. With a last surge of effort, Dominus Lux closed the distance and delivered a blow from her arioch claw that finally brought low the gargant's shields, allowing Sanguinius and his sons to board and carry the day, but not before Dominus Lux was dealt a deathblow that shattered her armoured carapace and annihilated her bridge section.

At the battle's conclusion, Sanguinius remarked that the sound of the engine’s final moments was ‘...a dolorous symposium; akin to the melody of rapture itself...’ And that their sacrifice would be honoured as ‘…befitting their glorious martyrdom.’

Afterwards, elements of the Dominus Lux were recovered and re-forged anew. Anointed Melody of Rapture, the titan’s honour pennant bears a solitary stylised blood drop, rumoured to have been imbued with a single measure of blood from Sanguinius himself. Testimonials given by the XXVIIth Arkharion Grenadiers during later campaigns suggests that the warriors of the IXth Legion fought all the harder whilst under the Melody's shadow; though whether this is in deference to the sacrifice of her forbearers, or the potential proximity to the holy blood of their angel Primarch is unknown.



A great story Sam, and it’s won you a Titan, congratulations!

How did your story compare to our first two winners? Come back tomorrow to find out if you’ve won a massive Reaver Titan.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Good one Sam G

I want FW to make the extinction engine too, because Orks

 kronk wrote:
Congrats! I hope you're a Dakkanaught!

They must be saving the best (mine) for last!

 NidLifeCrisis wrote:
That was a good read and it's awesome to see a Manc amongst the winners!

I really wish I'd thrown my hat into the ring, now. Did you have to buy something as well or did you just have to write a short story?

Over the last two days we’ve announced the winners of a pair awesome Warhound Titans. The winners wrote fantastic stories, but today we’re revealing who’s won an incredible Reaver Titan!

The great story that’s won today was written by Aaron F of Levittown, Pennsylvania, USA. Well done Aaron, your writing has won you a Reaver Titan!

Aaron wrote about the birth of Titan Belligerence.

Hold Manufactorum Boreas for 48 hours…

That was the last order from legion command, and that was 65 hours ago.

Phaeton, Centurio Secundus of the Imperial Fists Legion, watched helplessly as the last Fire Raptor tumbled from the sickly yellow sky, belching black smoke from its torn fuselage. The daemon-titan was inexorable. Each unholy plasma blast was a roiling cacophony of daemonic laughter that left smoldering ruin in its wake. The behemoth pivoted and fired again, sending shards of rockcrete and shattered armour showering across the outer sanctum. From his vantage on platform L9-4, Phaeton scanned several Iron Warriors already pushing through the new breach.

“All squads to quaternary positions. Basilisk fire at zero-nine-seven.” The Fists were selling blood to buy valuable seconds in a one-sided battle. The daemon-titan had ravaged the subsector like a god opposed by insects, and although the Mechanicus had promised deliverance, it had not come; the manufactorum’s destruction seemed inevitable.

“Repel the enemy with vengeance! We fight to the last!” The Centurion locked a fresh magazine into his bolter, and opened fire. Phaeton and his battle-brothers were making their final, desperate stand.

***

A raspy mechanical hymn reached a crescendo inside the primary hangar of Manufactorum Boreas. The colossal chamber was filled with tech-priests, scaffolding, and writhing clouds of incense. Archmagos 7769-6E ceremoniously anointed the last metal hallux of the fledgling titan with rich, red blood and raised his gilded aspergillum in celebratory praise. The machine-prayer ceased.

After days of arduous ceremony, the rituals of awakening were now complete.

***

With a gentle spasm, Korvun Thurlis closed his eyes and became one with the god-machine that cradled him.

Welcome, Princeps.

The titan spoke to him for the first time as Thurlis saw the world through the eyes of a deity: smoke-muted light glinting off silver and crimson plating, tech-adepts scurrying below, and the sealed hangar doors ahead... Holorunes rapidly flickered across his god-sight, rendering the devastation in the outer sanctum.

“The daemon dies today,” Thurlis merely echoed his war engine’s insatiable desire to lay waste to its traitorous machine-kin, “you shall be salvation!”

Salvation is provisional, Princeps. Violence solves everything.

As the young titan took its first monumental step, an angry tempest of gears and pistons boomed to life, bellowing the thunderous canticle of the Omnissiah. The hangar doors began to part, and the god-machine’s weapons reverberated with a deafening righteous fury.

I am Belligerence.



We really enjoyed your story Aaron, and it’s earned you a Reaver Titan!

There’s one more titan to be won, and it’s the biggest of all. Come back tomorrow and find out if you’re the winner of a colossal and devastating Warlord Titan.

 Rayvon wrote:
Mine was basically a love story featuring a keeper of secrets and a slaaneshi Titan..

 Rayvon wrote:
Mine was basically a love story featuring a keeper of secrets and a slaaneshi Titan..