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Made in tw
Regular Dakkanaut





What exactly lied within them? So far, we know Tyranids actively avoid that area and the Necrons there are succumbing to a "flesh-tearing" fetish...
Do you think it's normal warp-removed (we know warp-removed work on Necrons too, just look at how Lucius the Eternal reborn from a Necron duelist) or something else (as in: something lovecraftian)?

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/07/03 20:03:36


 
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






Its heavily implied there are some very dangerous Xenos and anomalies in the Ghoul Stars that require constant vigilance. Each time something has come out it has cost the Imperium dearly. So Warp shenanigans plus dangerous Xenos, plus other bad things.

Maybe watch the language in your post though chief.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/07/03 09:18:41


 
   
Made in us
Humming Great Unclean One of Nurgle





In My Lab

I too would like to know what is said about the Ghoul Stars. The Lexicanum is short on info.

Clocks for the clockmaker! Cogs for the cog throne! 
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






It was one of the last targets of the Great Crusade before the Heresy started. I believe the Dark Angels and maybe the Alpha Legion were supposed to go an purge them.
   
Made in us
Warp-Screaming Noise Marine




I suspect the mystery, to include mysterious redacted threats of the past, and swathes of unexplored portions of the region and other unspecified anomalies are the attraction and flavor of the lore. Basically, more is less as your mind compulsively tries to dream up what nightmares could possibly reside.

But maybe xenomorphs from the alien franchise is what is there XD that would tear a hive world apart before they realize what went wrong.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. -Kurt Vonnegut 
   
Made in us
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot





Questions like these are reminders for me that many in the 40k community have never touched an RPG sourcebook. They are designed to be full of incomplete information and loose ends. These are intended to be inspirations and storyhooks for designing your own campaigns. 40k has its roots in similar gaming systems and so is designed in the same way. These holes are not there to be waited on until an author comes to fill them in. They are there for people to write into their own TT stories.
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






jareddm wrote:
Questions like these are reminders for me that many in the 40k community have never touched an RPG sourcebook. They are designed to be full of incomplete information and loose ends. These are intended to be inspirations and storyhooks for designing your own campaigns. 40k has its roots in similar gaming systems and so is designed in the same way. These holes are not there to be waited on until an author comes to fill them in. They are there for people to write into their own TT stories.

I agree to a point. 40k should absolutely be a place for hobbyists to tell their own stories but outside of GW publications the content becomes difficult to define. The licensed stuff (Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, Wrath and Glory) isn't sold in GW stores so a lot of people aren't going to know they exist until they've spent some time in the hobby already. Add onto this that these works are considered "non-canon" by GW and they aren't great for answering questions posed in "canon" material. The Storm Wardens Chapter are really cool and have some great backstory but have never been featured in a GW publication. I do hesitate to use "canon" because 40k being what it is, everything is canon nothing is true but I can't really thing of another way to say it.
GW is more likely to explain events found in these publications the way the explained the Dawn of War games (up until DoW 3). The Blood Ravens do things in this sector of space for some time but never ever speak about it to anyone even within the Chapter so nobody knows what happened. The Chapter itself wasn't even "canon" until Deathwatch: Overkill featured a Blood Ravens Librarian.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/07/03 20:01:53


 
   
Made in us
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot





 Gert wrote:
jareddm wrote:
Questions like these are reminders for me that many in the 40k community have never touched an RPG sourcebook. They are designed to be full of incomplete information and loose ends. These are intended to be inspirations and storyhooks for designing your own campaigns. 40k has its roots in similar gaming systems and so is designed in the same way. These holes are not there to be waited on until an author comes to fill them in. They are there for people to write into their own TT stories.

I agree to a point. 40k should absolutely be a place for hobbyists to tell their own stories but outside of GW publications the content becomes difficult to define. The licensed stuff (Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, Wrath and Glory) isn't sold in GW stores so a lot of people aren't going to know they exist until they've spent some time in the hobby already. Add onto this that these works are considered "non-canon" by GW and they aren't great for answering questions posed in "canon" material. The Storm Wardens Chapter are really cool and have some great backstory but have never been featured in a GW publication. I do hesitate to use "canon" because 40k being what it is, everything is canon nothing is true but I can't really thing of another way to say it.
GW is more likely to explain events found in these publications the way the explained the Dawn of War games (up until DoW 3). The Blood Ravens do things in this sector of space for some time but never ever speak about it to anyone even within the Chapter so nobody knows what happened. The Chapter itself wasn't even "canon" until Deathwatch: Overkill featured a Blood Ravens Librarian.
I'm not talking about the 40k RPGs. I'm talking about literally any RPG sourcebook. The concept applies just as well to Codexes, Warzone books, and Imperial Armours.
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






Some people just prefer a definitive answer I guess.
   
Made in us
Monstrously Massive Big Mutant





The Wastes of Krieg

I never knew about these, but this area does sound terrifying and intriguing. GW should make a series about the Ghoul Star Crusades, I would watch the crap out of that
   
Made in eu
Longtime Dakkanaut




The Ghoul Stars are where all the lovecraftian horrors are kept, basically.

One of my favourite lore tidbits is the echoing vault. A mysterious artifact located on a planet within the ghoul stars which was first found by explorers in M32. Them tampering with the artifact released lovecraftian horrors, which defied physics and drove people in their vicinity insane, upon the neighbouring systems. They were simply called "the harrowing" and it was speculated that these beings originated from another dimension, with the echoing vault acting as a pathway.
It took a joined effort from multiple space marine chapters, the inquisition and a doomsday weapon from the dark age of technology to drive these creatures back into the echoing vault.

A couple milennia later an ambitious chaos lord tried to gain access to the echoing vault, but before opening it he was intercepted by two of the three moraides, the ancient warships of the custodes. They teleported forty terminators directly into the chaos lords forces and proceeded to completely wipe them out. Later they permanently stationed a group of wardens outside the echoing vault to keep guard.

I think it gives a great sense of how dangerous "the harrowing" was when you consider that the personal bodyguard of the emperor stationed some of their valuable assets in such a remote area just to make sure nobody gets access to some extremely dangerous lovecraftian artefact.

I love this piece of lore because it shows that there are beings within the setting of 40k that are as horrifying and dangerous as the chaos gods. I just love cosmic horror within 40k so much, if it is only sprinkled on the fringes of the setting....legends of forgotten conflicts too horrifying to even keep records about.

Edit: I am also firmly against fleshing out the lore of the ghoul stars. They should stay shrouded in mystery, with little lore tidbits sprinkled around various faction codices hinting at unknowable, dangerous beings and artifacts which can be found within that area. Imo some parts of the lore have to be left unexplained and open to interpretation, because it is one of the factors which makes a setting like 40k seem vast.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/07/03 22:06:27


 
   
Made in us
Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot





The Echoing Vault was from the Halo Stars, not the Ghoul Stars, but otherwise I agree.
   
Made in at
Longtime Dakkanaut




jareddm wrote:
The Echoing Vault was from the Halo Stars, not the Ghoul Stars, but otherwise I agree.


Oh dang, I always get those mixed up. Oh well...still very cool lore.
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






I can very much imagine that being a real thing a high ranking Munitorum official would say if they mixed up the Ghoul and Halo Stars.
"Ah woops, accidently sent 20 Militarum Regiments to the wrong set of stars. Oh well, it happens."
   
Made in us
Stealthy Warhound Titan Princeps






Tiberias wrote:
The Ghoul Stars are where all the lovecraftian horrors are kept, basically.

One of my favourite lore tidbits is the echoing vault. A mysterious artifact located on a planet within the ghoul stars which was first found by explorers in M32. Them tampering with the artifact released lovecraftian horrors, which defied physics and drove people in their vicinity insane, upon the neighbouring systems. They were simply called "the harrowing" and it was speculated that these beings originated from another dimension, with the echoing vault acting as a pathway.
It took a joined effort from multiple space marine chapters, the inquisition and a doomsday weapon from the dark age of technology to drive these creatures back into the echoing vault.

A couple milennia later an ambitious chaos lord tried to gain access to the echoing vault, but before opening it he was intercepted by two of the three moraides, the ancient warships of the custodes. They teleported forty terminators directly into the chaos lords forces and proceeded to completely wipe them out. Later they permanently stationed a group of wardens outside the echoing vault to keep guard.

I think it gives a great sense of how dangerous "the harrowing" was when you consider that the personal bodyguard of the emperor stationed some of their valuable assets in such a remote area just to make sure nobody gets access to some extremely dangerous lovecraftian artefact.

I love this piece of lore because it shows that there are beings within the setting of 40k that are as horrifying and dangerous as the chaos gods. I just love cosmic horror within 40k so much, if it is only sprinkled on the fringes of the setting....legends of forgotten conflicts too horrifying to even keep records about.

Edit: I am also firmly against fleshing out the lore of the ghoul stars. They should stay shrouded in mystery, with little lore tidbits sprinkled around various faction codices hinting at unknowable, dangerous beings and artifacts which can be found within that area. Imo some parts of the lore have to be left unexplained and open to interpretation, because it is one of the factors which makes a setting like 40k seem vast.


This helps me significantly! A while ago I asked in this subforum a question about a short piece of lore I read once. I thought it was in a core rulebook timeline, but this information matches up with what I remember so well it must be it, and this seems to be from Dark Heresy. Thank you for posting this!

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Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





West Michigan, deep in Whitebread, USA

Stuff like this should remain tantalizingly just out of reach of anything other than hints, otherwise they lose their special quality and just become normal 40K fluff.

I find that even some of the places having just "names only" conjure things more interesting than could be written. I remember that about much of the "edge of the map" in the old Battlefleet Gothic rulebook, like the Hammerhead Deeps, or (if I remember correctly) something like Portis Cthulhuis, or something like that.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/07/04 14:45:42




"By this point I'm convinced 100% that every single race in the 40k universe have somehow tapped into the ork ability to just have their tech work because they think it should."  
   
Made in us
Growlin' Guntrukk Driver with Killacannon





Italy

For a moment there I was wondering if no one had ever picked up the Rogue Trader RPG books, then I remembered that Rogue Trader deals with the Halo Stars and not the Ghoul stars.

Ghoul Stars are fun but I think it's best they stay an undefined bit of lore. Horror works best when you leave enough to the imagination rather than explaining every detail.
   
Made in au
Longtime Dakkanaut




jareddm wrote:
Questions like these are reminders for me that many in the 40k community have never touched an RPG sourcebook. They are designed to be full of incomplete information and loose ends. These are intended to be inspirations and storyhooks for designing your own campaigns. 40k has its roots in similar gaming systems and so is designed in the same way. These holes are not there to be waited on until an author comes to fill them in. They are there for people to write into their own TT stories.


Exactly this, it's the same for things like the Halo Stars, The Veiled Region, etc. They're basically the extents of the Imperium where you can go "my dudes live here on an undiscovered world, the light of the astronomican unable to reach them leaving them trapped to a life of isolation." Or something like "my dudes came here in search of a rumoured STC fragment."

That's one thing the writers really got right with the setting they left a ton of open space for the players imagination.
   
Made in nl
Pragmatic Primus Commanding Cult Forces






 The Red Hobbit wrote:
For a moment there I was wondering if no one had ever picked up the Rogue Trader RPG books, then I remembered that Rogue Trader deals with the Halo Stars and not the Ghoul stars.

Ghoul Stars are fun but I think it's best they stay an undefined bit of lore. Horror works best when you leave enough to the imagination rather than explaining every detail.


Agreed. A good setting needs to have its mysteries. Especially a setting like 40k which is all about telling your own stories. It helps to trigger the imagination and provides hooks we can use to create the fluff for our miniatures and fanfiction.

In my mind, the Ghoul Stars are home to some kind of terrifying madness-inducing Lovecraftian entity as old as the galaxy itself, pre-dating even the Chaos gods and horrible enough to disorient and unsettle even the Tyranids. Its aura of insanity gradually affects everything within the Ghoul Stars.

Error 404: Interesting signature not found

 
   
Made in tw
Regular Dakkanaut





Thank you for all the answers, guys. I guess as much as I’d like to see what ACTUALLY haunted the place, it would be better to keep a mysterious vibe to keep the chills (that’s what h.p. usually does). Although I do wonder, would it be too much to ask for a subpar explanation (by the GW creative team) or establishment of a link of some sorts between the ghoul stars and other hostile lovecraftian xenos like the rangdan and slaugth?
   
Made in us
Growlin' Guntrukk Driver with Killacannon





Italy

That's a great explanation! Gives just enough of a premise and leaves the reader to fill in the rest of the gaps.

I feel that way about the Tyrant star as well. Really interesting premise and I don't see a need for an explanation. An unexplained phenomenon where cities burn it's wake. Exciting stuff.
   
Made in ca
Stormin' Stompa






Ottawa, ON

I guess you could tie them all together by connecting them to the Old Ones. Aborted experiments and weapons, or the final remnants of their species degraded into monsters. Nothing too detailed.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/07/05 21:11:54


Ask yourself: have you rated a gallery image today? 
   
Made in at
Longtime Dakkanaut




 Mr Nobody wrote:
I guess you could tie them all together by connecting them to the Old Ones. Aborted experiments and weapons, or the final remnants of their species degraded into monsters. Nothing too detailed.


I'd honestly hate the horrors of the Ghoul Stars and Halo Stars being tied to the old ones. The old ones are the lore origin of so many species and conflicts in 40k there have to be parts of the lore that don't have anything to do with the old ones.
I'd much more like GW to hint at the Ghoul Stars and their native entities to be so alien in a lovecraftian sense that even the old ones stayed clear of that area.
   
Made in ca
Stormin' Stompa






Ottawa, ON

Tiberias wrote:
 Mr Nobody wrote:
I guess you could tie them all together by connecting them to the Old Ones. Aborted experiments and weapons, or the final remnants of their species degraded into monsters. Nothing too detailed.


I'd honestly hate the horrors of the Ghoul Stars and Halo Stars being tied to the old ones. The old ones are the lore origin of so many species and conflicts in 40k there have to be parts of the lore that don't have anything to do with the old ones.
I'd much more like GW to hint at the Ghoul Stars and their native entities to be so alien in a lovecraftian sense that even the old ones stayed clear of that area.


That's a good point. It's a big galaxy and there's no reason it was only filled with necrontyr and the old ones and their creations.

Ask yourself: have you rated a gallery image today? 
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut





The ghoul stars should be a campaign that introduces a new army to 40K.

A totally new species would be cool or maybe that’s where the fallen have concentrated.
   
Made in fr
Inquisitorial Keeper of the Xenobanks





France

mrFickle wrote:
The ghoul stars should be a campaign that introduces a new army to 40K.

A totally new species would be cool or maybe that’s where the fallen have concentrated.


That's exactly what we don't need: another commercial campaign and another mystery solved. The Heresy is already fleshed out, 40k need mysteries, less commercial events (I remember good old campaigns that weren't tied to a product / a launch) and more mysteries

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/07/07 14:23:26


   
Made in ca
Poisonous Kroot Headhunter





It's kinda like GW's last mystery box. When / if they decide to add a totally new faction, it will probably be "they were in the Ghoul Starts all along" or something to that effect.

My hope is that some remnant of the Rangdan has been festering over there. They are canonically known to have been one of, if not THE greatest threat to the Great Crusade back in the day, so they fluff would support them being of a power level to be a main army on the tabletop if they've been around all this time.

Could be a large volume of Hrud that makes the space over there all crazy?

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1614 1342 1010 2000 960 1330 1040  
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut





To be fair the galaxy is big enough that they can always find a new anomaly or uncharted but of space for something to be hiding in
   
 
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