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The Thunder VVarriors were the first of the Emperor's great troops. It was they who served his rise to become Emperor of Terra.

However, at the end, when they had fulfilled their purpose, the Emperor had them eradicated on the grounds of their instability.



The Emperor saw himself as a Platonic philosopher king, one who selflessly worked for the benefit of Mankind.

Yet, he treated the lives of his first and most loyal, most contributing, and most indebted servants with little regard.

Sure, they had their instabilities, but was there no other way? Could the Emperor, in his infinite wisdom, have come up with another solution that could satisfy his loyal Thunder VVarriors?


If you were one of the Emperor's advisors and you wanted to save the Thunder VVarriors' lives, what would you have recommended?

Sent them on a one way trip to fight against Orks? Did humanity have interstellar travel back then?

Maximus Bitch wrote:
If you were one of the Emperor's advisors and you wanted to save the Thunder VVarriors' lives, what would you have recommended?

There was no recommending. The Emperor has absolute rule, he doesn't care what people think of his orders, only that his orders must be obeyed.

I highly doubt there are any novels showing The Emperors decision being swayed by anyone.

Da Mediokre Painta wrote:
Sent them on a one way trip to fight against Orks? Did humanity have interstellar travel back then?

is that supposed to save their lives?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mellow wrote:

Maximus Bitch wrote:
If you were one of the Emperor's advisors and you wanted to save the Thunder VVarriors' lives, what would you have recommended?

There was no recommending. The Emperor has absolute rule, he doesn't care what people think of his orders, only that his orders must be obeyed.

I highly doubt there are any novels showing The Emperors decision being swayed by anyone.

Malcador was his closest advisor. Anyway, I'm just saying IF.

The burn out of the Thunder Warriors was inbuilt. The price for their abilities. Doomed at creation IMHO.

Why keep a one-use-tool around if you may access a more stable set of tools after unification?

 1hadhq wrote:
The burn out of the Thunder Warriors was inbuilt. The price for their abilities. Doomed at creation IMHO.

Why keep a one-use-tool around if you may access a more stable set of tools after unification?

I was thinking, at least give them a happy retirement. Take care of your veterans.

Thunder Warriors weren't veterans, they were purpose-built weapons of war, and he was making better ones.

The Honor to die for him in battle IS the retirement plan....

I believe a few of the officers were made into the very first rogue traders (no source, just memory. Maybe FFG). Also there were very, very few left at the end. Their combat attrition was very high and their bodies were falling apart. They were more powerful than marines, but paid for it in their longevity. Plus power armor was far less effective at that time.

Honestly I think he should have kept the process around for the imperial army. Apparently thunder warriors were far easier and faster to produce than true space marines. I'm suprised the project was never revived by the high lords.

Rihgu wrote:
Thunder Warriors weren't veterans, they were purpose-built weapons of war, and he was making better ones.

They're still veterans.


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 1hadhq wrote:
The Honor to die for him in battle IS the retirement plan....

but they were massacred.

Emperor never had them eradicated, as that's something that was already built in them. His intention was to have Astartes overtake their role, as the TW's weren't never intended to be used beyond Terra. TW's worked as sort of "test-beds" for Emp's plans, as the Astartes were designed to be more standardised and commonplace, whereas TW's were built to be strong and durable, but they were hard to implant (IIRC, failures in TW implanting was higher than marines). All this eventually lead to the development of primarchs and gene-seed.

The retirement plan, they where brutal near phycoticly aggressive warriors.

They had only one use.... There was no peacetime use, no garrison duty.