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Old Necrons were quite creepy as a whole and had some specially creepy pieces. Mostly subtle but still pretty unnerving. Unlike the moustache-twirling villians of Ward.

the oldschool Tyranids were incredibly grotesque and gribbly. Back then they didn't turn everything into soup, they bound you, fused you into the walls of their ships, turned you into incubation chambers, furniture. In Space Marine, they discover a cryochamber of sleeping tyranid warriors that are illuminated by large bioluminescent 'spotlights' growing out of the stump limbed torsos of former astartes, fused to the floors, wriggling in agitation at their presence. In another novel, the primitive humans of a feral world that fell under genestealer influence gleefully queue and sing as they shuffle into the gaping maws of the bioships as the hive fleet assimilates the life on their world. When the protagonists go onboard, they find thousands melding to the walls, things moving under their skins as they whimper and sob. Another described in passing a tyranid gun that possessed an 'all too recognizably human eye'.

The Death Korps gotta be there if only because of how easy it seems for them to completely strip a human out of almost every thing that makes a human human with nothing but some fethed up training.

I think it is pretty scary how much one will give up for power and war. Space Marines give up all their humanity besides Rage to become killing machines while tech priests and skitarii give up their human senses to become machines in their own right, with faith their only link back to humanity...

Awesome stuff.

 IGtR= wrote:
The most horrific elements of the fluff are bad custom chapter.

Normally starts off like "I wanna make like a totally really unique chapter thats like 1/3 loyalist word bearer, 1/3 grey knights and 1/3 space wolf geneseed and is immune to psykers and uses solely grav and I'll be proxying everything as thunderwolves, does this sound okay dakka?"

And such fan-chapters cannot be stopped by the holy inquisition as they are legion

You forgot "Have a close relationship with the Mechanicum"

There is an afterlife where your soul will inhabit for all eternity after you shuffle off your mortal existence.

That afterlife is a hellish nightmare-scape in which you suffer unimaginable torment at all times until the end of time.

It doesn't matter what your life was like before you died. Horrible monster or saintly samaritan. They all have the same fate.

Nothing can be more horrible than that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Bobthehero wrote:
The Death Korps gotta be there if only because of how easy it seems for them to completely strip a human out of almost every thing that makes a human human with nothing but some fethed up training.

That's not setting specific. That's straight up been happening in the real world since the dawn of humanity until this very day.

Not to the point of the Death Korps, I don't think so

 DarknessEternal wrote:
There is an afterlife where your soul will inhabit for all eternity after you shuffle off your mortal existence.

That afterlife is a hellish nightmare-scape in which you suffer unimaginable torment at all times until the end of time.

It doesn't matter what your life was like before you died. Horrible monster or saintly samaritan. They all have the same fate.

Nothing can be more horrible than that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Bobthehero wrote:
The Death Korps gotta be there if only because of how easy it seems for them to completely strip a human out of almost every thing that makes a human human with nothing but some fethed up training.

That's not setting specific. That's straight up been happening in the real world since the dawn of humanity until this very day.

Actually, most human souls get snuffed out as soon as they die. They're just to puny to withstand the forces of the warp. Now exceptional, "gifted" individuals, or the Eldar...

I remember readingg that one time Trazyn the Infinite captured a Deathwatch Killteam AND the Ork Warboss they were going to kill

Trazyn then proceeded to throw them both into stasis, facing each other HE THEN MADE SURE THEY WERE STILL SENTIENT, FACING THEIR ENEMY FOR ALL ETERNITY

One of the more amusing bits of horrifying lore I can remember occurs during he novel Nightbringer. Uriel Ventris, on the trail of a Dark Eldar manipulated cartel member on an industrial world enters the cartel members mansion to find one of his associates dissected by the Dark Eldar. As if this wasn't enough, the DE had pulled each part of the henchman's body apart and strung it around the room in the same manner as an orrery (The little machine with the planets on little rods all rotating around the sun). Oh and the best bit - the guy was STILL ALIVE. He's completely dissected, with his insides outside and all strung up from the ceiling, his brain exposed to the air and he's screaming in silent agony at Ventris from one side of the room, while his lungs are bubbling away on the other side.

Say what you like about Graham McNeills writing ability - he knows how to do creepy.

The word you're looking for is "vivisect" not "disect". Vivisection is on live things (that's what the "vivi" part is referring to).

From emperor text to speech I found out when a salamander captain dies, they lower his body into a volcano and two space marines must hold the scolding chains until his body is completely burned away.

Also when a new captain is promoted he stand in a puller of flame and is branded on his chest.

 Backspacehacker wrote:
From emperor text to speech I found out when a salamander captain dies, they lower his body into a volcano and two space marines must hold the scolding chains until his body is completely burned away.

Also when a new captain is promoted he stand in a puller of flame and is branded on his chest.

That's correct. Not only is Nick Kyme a terrible author, he also has stupid ideas.

 DarknessEternal wrote:

 Backspacehacker wrote:
From emperor text to speech I found out when a salamander captain dies, they lower his body into a volcano and two space marines must hold the scolding chains until his body is completely burned away.

Also when a new captain is promoted he stand in a puller of flame and is branded on his chest.

That's correct. Not only is Nick Kyme a terrible author, he also has stupid ideas.

To quote emperor text to speach, "Was this because i left vulken to close to the candle in the incubator?"

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:

 oldravenman3025 wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
I have one word for you... "Daemonculaba"

Yeah, Honsou is one sick feth. Probably sicker than Fabius Bile. And that is saying a lot.

Didn't Fabius Bile make the thing? I didn't think Honsou made it... Wait... Fabius made Honsou and Honsou made the Daemonculaba?

Iirc, Honsou asked Fabius Bile to make it.
So basically a sick feth asked another sick feth to make something fethed up.

In the Night Lords trilogy, Talos was the guy that helped create and maintain the Screaming Gallery for the Night Haunter, who had it made so that non-psykers could hear the screaming in the Warp.

Always thought the abuse of the injured loyalists by the WBs post Istvaan was pretty horrific. Both the delight they took in it and the fact there was no honor left for former brothers.
nasty.

Zahariel's fate at the end of Pandorax is one of the grimmest bl things I've read in a while. I'm a big fan of Clive Barker, and that ending was almost on par.

The Inquisition sending in a Interogator to investigate with the plan (unknown to her) that her team will be killed, she will be implanted by a genestealer and that they can (when she is near term) swoop in,"rescue her" and then see if she can domesticate her offspring.............as part of a larger plan.

DarknessEternal wrote:The word you're looking for is "vivisect" not "disect". Vivisection is on live things (that's what the "vivi" part is referring to).

I'm not going to go too much into pedantry here - but Dissection comes from the Latin dissicare which simply means to 'cut into pieces'. Vivisection is not distinct from Dissection but is merely a form of dissection when the subject is still alive. TL;DR - Either term can be used, as vivisection refers to the subjects status prior to dissection, whereas dissection refers more to the scientific process the subject is undergoing. Vivisection tends to be more of a pejorative in modern usage.

DarknessEternal wrote:

 Backspacehacker wrote:
From emperor text to speech I found out when a salamander captain dies, they lower his body into a volcano and two space marines must hold the scolding chains until his body is completely burned away.

Also when a new captain is promoted he stand in a puller of flame and is branded on his chest.

That's correct. Not only is Nick Kyme a terrible author, he also has stupid ideas.

I fail to see what exactly the stupid idea is here. Fire is a central theme in many early civilisations and cultures and in various cultures it is seen as a force of rebirth, so I'll just leave this here: Fire Worship. That Nick Kyme plays upon that isn't too stupid. As for the pillar of flame - you can safely pass your hand through a certain flame on a Bunsen burner, so I'm assuming a genetically enhanced super-soldier could survive a quick blast in a symbolic ceremony. The brands - common theme in worship and to show allegiance to a certain group. Tattoos have been commonplace since man began to create dyes and they are essentially a brand without the use of fire. Finally, launching a body into a volcano - why not? There are loads of volcanoes around the world that are fairly accessible and an Astartes would have no trouble reaching one.

Obviously, If you feel he is a terrible author then that's your personal taste, I'll not question that, but the ideas aren't that stupid - they have, for the most part, scientific and cultural plausibility.

Genestealer Cults are incredibly horrifying when one considers a lot of the implicit things that go on with them. Taking the subtlety of sexual horror from both ALIEN and The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and mixing it with the coming of an apocalyptic force of nature makes for an incredibly horrific concept.

That piece from Xenology about the quoorl and what they do against their lack of the navigator-gene.....
That is quite horrible.

Or that poor Alpha Prime in the two novels Skitarius and Tech-priest. What a career: From an Alpha Prime to a Chaos-assassin to a Kataphron Destroyer.

Or the whole creepy DE-stuff.

The bit where the Ultramarines(?) captain is left to fight Angron.
His screams are so horrific even Kharn and Tal turn away in horror.
One wonders WTF Angron did to him? :(

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
I think it is pretty scary how much one will give up for power and war. Space Marines give up all their humanity besides Rage to become killing machines while tech priests and skitarii give up their human senses to become machines in their own right, with faith their only link back to humanity...

Awesome stuff.

I don't know about that. The Space Wolves novels have the Wolves hunting, drinking, while they are at the fang. Then at all times they show friendship wish each other, they even raise pets, thunderwolves and fenrisian wolves! It varies from chapter to chapter. Before space wolves were space wolves, they were just vikings, and most of them were dying. Which is why the Wolf priests that choose the Fenrisians to become Space Wolves are called Choosers of the Slain, because the greatest warriors are not always the victors in battle.

 gwarsh41 wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
I think it is pretty scary how much one will give up for power and war. Space Marines give up all their humanity besides Rage to become killing machines while tech priests and skitarii give up their human senses to become machines in their own right, with faith their only link back to humanity...

Awesome stuff.

I don't know about that. The Space Wolves novels have the Wolves hunting, drinking, while they are at the fang. Then at all times they show friendship wish each other, they even raise pets, thunderwolves and fenrisian wolves! It varies from chapter to chapter. Before space wolves were space wolves, they were just vikings, and most of them were dying. Which is why the Wolf priests that choose the Fenrisians to become Space Wolves are called Choosers of the Slain, because the greatest warriors are not always the victors in battle.

I should have wrote (Except Space Wolves) next to that then!

 Tiger9gamer wrote:

 gwarsh41 wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
I think it is pretty scary how much one will give up for power and war. Space Marines give up all their humanity besides Rage to become killing machines while tech priests and skitarii give up their human senses to become machines in their own right, with faith their only link back to humanity...

Awesome stuff.

I don't know about that. The Space Wolves novels have the Wolves hunting, drinking, while they are at the fang. Then at all times they show friendship wish each other, they even raise pets, thunderwolves and fenrisian wolves! It varies from chapter to chapter. Before space wolves were space wolves, they were just vikings, and most of them were dying. Which is why the Wolf priests that choose the Fenrisians to become Space Wolves are called Choosers of the Slain, because the greatest warriors are not always the victors in battle.

I should have wrote (Except Space Wolves) next to that then!

Hah, I'll be honest, no other chapter has really held my interest enough to read any novels or much backstory. Mainly because the Space Wolves are the way they are. I have heard that Ultramarines are pretty much pray/meditate/war 4 life. No idea how recruitment for any other chapter is either.

 Tiger9gamer wrote:

 gwarsh41 wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
I think it is pretty scary how much one will give up for power and war. Space Marines give up all their humanity besides Rage to become killing machines while tech priests and skitarii give up their human senses to become machines in their own right, with faith their only link back to humanity...

Awesome stuff.

I don't know about that. The Space Wolves novels have the Wolves hunting, drinking, while they are at the fang. Then at all times they show friendship wish each other, they even raise pets, thunderwolves and fenrisian wolves! It varies from chapter to chapter. Before space wolves were space wolves, they were just vikings, and most of them were dying. Which is why the Wolf priests that choose the Fenrisians to become Space Wolves are called Choosers of the Slain, because the greatest warriors are not always the victors in battle.

I should have wrote (Except Space Wolves) next to that then!

Don't forget the Salamanders! They can basically become the patriarchs of their clans if/when they retire (might also be the only SM Chapter to have retirees).

I thought most of the 40k fluff was horrific.


... oh, sorry, horribly written - I always get those mixed up.


It hasn't been the same since 2nd ed, when it was equal parts bizarre, corny, and gut-wrenchingly funny/sickening.

 fallinq wrote:
The Dark Heresy sourcebooks have some of the best stuff, IMHO. Disciples of the Dark Gods in particular has some good ones.

Two that stand out to me are:
The Amaranthine Syndicate- A seemingly normal group of traders, merchants, and smugglers who are actually secretly in the employ of the Slaugth, an alien race of maggot men who crave the brains of intelligent species and have advanced, disturbing technology. The Slaugth are presented in a very Lovecraftian way, but what's most disturbing to me is that their middle men are normal, unbrainwashed humans who got into some kind of trouble and turned to the Syndicate to bail them out, then realized they were in way over their heads when it was already too late. They do horrific things for their "Principals", basically preparing their fellow human beings as cows for the slaughter, out of simple greed, desperation, and fear. And the lower down workers in the Syndicate don't even know what they actually work for. To me, it's the idea of becoming caught up in something like this without even realizing it that makes the Syndicate so frightening.

The Murder Room- A demonic entity of Khorne that takes the form of a room entirely soaked in blood, instead of some demonic baddie. A person can open a door they've been in a hundred times and one day, for some completely unknowable reason, it leads them into The Murder Room. When the person comes out, they become a serial killer. The room seems to like to target nice, unassuming, family oriented folks.

What are these sourcebooks? Are they novels that you can read? I'd definitely read a story about either of these guys

 urbanknight4 wrote:

 fallinq wrote:
The Dark Heresy sourcebooks have some of the best stuff, IMHO. Disciples of the Dark Gods in particular has some good ones.

Two that stand out to me are:
The Amaranthine Syndicate- A seemingly normal group of traders, merchants, and smugglers who are actually secretly in the employ of the Slaugth, an alien race of maggot men who crave the brains of intelligent species and have advanced, disturbing technology. The Slaugth are presented in a very Lovecraftian way, but what's most disturbing to me is that their middle men are normal, unbrainwashed humans who got into some kind of trouble and turned to the Syndicate to bail them out, then realized they were in way over their heads when it was already too late. They do horrific things for their "Principals", basically preparing their fellow human beings as cows for the slaughter, out of simple greed, desperation, and fear. And the lower down workers in the Syndicate don't even know what they actually work for. To me, it's the idea of becoming caught up in something like this without even realizing it that makes the Syndicate so frightening.

The Murder Room- A demonic entity of Khorne that takes the form of a room entirely soaked in blood, instead of some demonic baddie. A person can open a door they've been in a hundred times and one day, for some completely unknowable reason, it leads them into The Murder Room. When the person comes out, they become a serial killer. The room seems to like to target nice, unassuming, family oriented folks.

What are these sourcebooks? Are they novels that you can read? I'd definitely read a story about either of these guys

They are from the RPG sourcebooks publised by Fantasy Fligth, dont recall the exact books but I will have a look in my libereary to see if I can hunt downt the spessefic chapters and book titels for you

It hasn't been the same since 2nd ed, when it was equal parts bizarre, corny, and gut-wrenchingly funny/sickening.

I dunno. Some of it has been good of late, I recently read the two Tau expanison books and the fluff in them was quite good imo. However the Baal Leviathon one was actually atrocious. Its the lack of consistently decent writing that annoys me rather than the overall quality.