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I'm not sure if anyone has yet made this connection (probably since its relatively obvious), but throughout the Forge World Heresy books, reference is made to the "Rangdan Xenocides". A series of wars that almost halted the Great Crusade and posed a serious threat to the Imperium at its conception.
Spoiler:
When the Imperial Expeditionary Fleets of the Emperor's Great Crusade, at last, had breached the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, they inadvertently attracted the attention of the Rangdan Cerabvores, a species of such macabre power and technological might it seemed, for a time at least, that the Imperium had met its doom. Facing waves of attack from the galactic east and north, and suffering losses that would not be exceeded until the dark days of the Horus Heresy, the wars of the Rangdan Xenocides were the most terrible of any yet fought. Whole Expeditionary Fleets went to their deaths without a single survivor, worlds were laid waste, dozens of Titan Legions were obliterated and by the end, entire Space Marine Legions had been lost to the Imperium.
The main enemy - The "Rangdan Cerabvores" are never physically described at any point by the writers. This strikes me as deliberate, GW seems to be in the habit of returning to their roots and resurrecting RT era armies to expand their range. With the Primarchs returning to 40k and the rapid development of the 30K range is it possible that we may see the "Rangdan" faction released for use in both settings?
This may at first seem ridiculous but the name "Cerabovres" roughly suggests "brain eater", a reference to human anatomy - the cerebrum
Spoiler:
the principal and most anterior part of the brain in vertebrates, located in the front area of the skull and consisting of two hemispheres, left and right, separated by a fissure. It is responsible for the integration of complex sensory and neural functions and the initiation and coordination of voluntary activity in the body.
In addition, the Slaugh are specifically designated as brain eaters who actually absorb information and memories to find new places to inhabit and new victims to devour in this manner. Lastly, I believe if I remember correctly a Slaugh is directly stated to have mauled a Legiones Astarte in the Rangdan system which puts them directly at the location of the war.
Maybe this is a project planned for further down the line, one that might shed light on one or both of the forgotten legions? It is of course heavily implied that the Wolves had something to do with the destruction of one Legion - the Slaugh are noted for sharing their advanced technology with humans on occasion, and in Thousand Sons in a warning to Magnus, Leman Russ states that one of their fallen brothers dabbled with forbidden powers. Maybe powers derived from interaction with the Slaugh, this would certainly help to explain how a xenos empire was able to put up such stiff resistance against so overwhelming a force.
not too sure about that generally xenos races aren't described in detail if they don't have minis etc, I see it more as the writers covering their rear ends in case GW ever DOES decide to make an army of them they have a fairly clean board to work with
Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two
Don't see the Slaugth getting anything, GW just likes to make mentions like that once in a while, to remind us that there's a wider galaxy outside of the minis and factions they represent.
To me, it seems to be a little more than a courtesy call. They are heavily alluded to in 7 of the Heresy books. The war is established as a defining event in the galactic order; essentially securing the Imperiums dominance, bringing the Xana forge-system into the imperial fold, shaping the identity of the space wolves and heavily influencing Russ's perspective, catapulting the Ultramarines up to the largest legion, assuring Horus's ascendancy (by decimating many of the other legions Horus and his Luna Wolves were firmly cemented as humanities saviour who continued the bulk of the work of the Great Crusade from then on). It's also strongly hinted that one if not both of the forgotten Legions were lost in some way over the course of this war. Lastly, so significant was the conflict that the Emperor ordered the Labyrinth of Nightmares opened for assistance from the World Dragon presumably, he also commisioned the Ordo Sinister to create a new class of Psi-titan which has recently been given rules.
To me it really seems like more than just a nod to the wider scope of the galaxy, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw something like this emerge later in the HH series. I know book 9 is going to be focussing on the Dark Angels, the legion which bore the brunt of the fighting during Rangdan (suffering over 50,000 casualties) so maybe more light will be shed then
Slaugh would unlikely be anything but a handful of models at best Their is only so much you can do with a vaguely humanoid mass of maggots. It's like DnD elementals, individual they're okay but they're not very interesting and they would not make a good army.
Yazima wrote: To me, it seems to be a little more than a courtesy call. They are heavily alluded to in 7 of the Heresy books. The war is established as a defining event in the galactic order; essentially securing the Imperiums dominance, bringing the Xana forge-system into the imperial fold, shaping the identity of the space wolves and heavily influencing Russ's perspective, catapulting the Ultramarines up to the largest legion, assuring Horus's ascendancy (by decimating many of the other legions Horus and his Luna Wolves were firmly cemented as humanities saviour who continued the bulk of the work of the Great Crusade from then on). It's also strongly hinted that one if not both of the forgotten Legions were lost in some way over the course of this war. Lastly, so significant was the conflict that the Emperor ordered the Labyrinth of Nightmares opened for assistance from the World Dragon presumably, he also commisioned the Ordo Sinister to create a new class of Psi-titan which has recently been given rules.
To me it really seems like more than just a nod to the wider scope of the galaxy, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw something like this emerge later in the HH series. I know book 9 is going to be focussing on the Dark Angels, the legion which bore the brunt of the fighting during Rangdan (suffering over 50,000 casualties) so maybe more light will be shed then
Are the Labrynth of Nightmares and the Psi Titan stuff mentioned in any of the BL novels, or anywhere outside Forgeworld?
Skaorn wrote: Slaugh would unlikely be anything but a handful of models at best Their is only so much you can do with a vaguely humanoid mass of maggots. It's like DnD elementals, individual they're okay but they're not very interesting and they would not make a good army.
Now now, a mass of maggots can be used for a lot, since they can shape and stretch their form at will, sorta like how in Halo the same worm aliens are seen as both humanoid Hunters and as huge Scarab-walkers. So Slaugth army could easily have vehicles and infantry as humanoids, centaurs, spiders, crabs, snakes and so on. They could even sell models to represent multiple forms of the same unit, sorta like how Morathi has two forms in AoS. Imagination's the limit, though I won't see a Slaugth army ever happening, at most a Necromunda model from FW.
Oh, and Slaugth are said to have a huge array of techno-organic costructs, so as I said, imagination's the limit.
Skaorn wrote: Slaugh would unlikely be anything but a handful of models at best Their is only so much you can do with a vaguely humanoid mass of maggots. It's like DnD elementals, individual they're okay but they're not very interesting and they would not make a good army.
Now now, a mass of maggots can be used for a lot, since they can shape and stretch their form at will, sorta like how in Halo the same worm aliens are seen as both humanoid Hunters and as huge Scarab-walkers. So Slaugth army could easily have vehicles and infantry as humanoids, centaurs, spiders, crabs, snakes and so on. They could even sell models to represent multiple forms of the same unit, sorta like how Morathi has two forms in AoS. Imagination's the limit, though I won't see a Slaugth army ever happening, at most a Necromunda model from FW.
Oh, and Slaugth are said to have a huge array of techno-organic costructs, so as I said, imagination's the limit.
This ^ The Slaugth are known for employing biomechanical engineering. In fact the majority of their forces are bio-constructs, they are also explicitly stated as using titan-level constructs called Rangda Osseiovores (possibly what ultimately decimated two full Titan legio's) so I think there is plenty of room for expansion. GW already have nurgle characters made entirely of flies after all
