Dragons in 40K Universe

By T-800, in Dark Heresy Gamemasters

all things are possible with the warp.

as 8 spider pointed out. if it can spit out daemon princes, astral spectres, and all other nasties i'm sure out can spit out one nasty ass dragon.

even a mechanical one would be a very tough customer, break out the heavy weapons, one mean ambush and lots of sucker punches.

the Legio Cybernetica is described as such:

...The Legio Cybernetica is one of the oldest parts of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Its records stretch back almost unbroken to the very first days of the Imperium. The Legio has a long history, and its memeber regard themselves as an elite.

The Legio is responsible for the care and construction of all Robots throughout the Imperium. Robots mayb be used by all kinds of Army and Marine forces, but they are always under the Legios final control. Indeed, many of the Adepts of the Legio are killed while taking part in military operations. The legio continues to serve, aware of its value as a fighting force, even in the face of 90% plus casualties.

The Legio is organised into several thousand cohorts, although only a percentage of these is ever active at any one time. Ech cohort is in turn organised into maniples of three, four or five Robots plus a Legio tch adept. The number of maniples in a cohort varies, but is rarely more than 100....Battles involving more than 4 or 5 maniples are rare...

Each maniple is a virtually self contained unit. The typically four units are managed by a single tech adept. He has little more to do than give the Robot's their final programs and then monitor their progress. He is also charged with making sure that a damaged Robot is destroyed as quickly as possible. Each Robot carries a self destruct system hich can be detonated by remote control should its programming fail in some way....It is said that a tech adept of the Legio is worth his weight in spares and can repair virutally any item of Imperial equipment.

The Inquisition has also put cohorts of the Legio to good use. Robots by their very natures, utterly incorruptible. Their preprogrammed, non biological natures make them the perfect troops to use against mutants and other contaminated populations. The terror value of Robots when used against unprepared and underarmed troops has not gone unnoticed by the Inquisition. This , combined with their unflagging loyalty, has made them valued additions to the Inquisitions armoury. Cohorts attached to the Inquisition are usually staffed by technican-Inquisitors rather than Legio adepts. Robots may be pure and incorruptible; men are not.

Like a Dreadnought,a Robot is the product of the many advanced technologies which have produced its armoured shell, its artificial muscle and nerve bundles, its cortex, power plant, weapons control systems, equipment interfaces and cortex.

What makes a Robot different from an occupied Dreadnought suit is its cortex. This is an artficial brain of sorts, which is constructed from artificial proteins and enzymes. This cortex is imprinted with simple maintenance and movement routines - a rudimentary mind....these firmware rountines (so called because they are 'wired in' software) are often patterned after living creatures, and a Robot may develop a dog-like devotion to its technician master.

Before a battle the firmware rou tines are overlayed and replaced by the Robots combat wetware (ie the software of a protein computer). This new cortex program, which can be changed for every battle, defines, for example, how and when the robot os to fire its weapons or detonate its self destruct charges.

Each piece of wetware is aheld in a small slice of bioplastic, about the same size as a credit card. Many warrriors take these from 'dead' robots believeing that they hold the soul and courage of the Robot.

these excerpts were taken from White Dwarf Compendium 1989.

hopefully this may give some of you ideas and expand your games a lil bit.

cheers

Lord Inquisitor Kadmon said:

It is not certain that the 'Dragon of Mars' is the C'tan known as The Void Dragon, only likely.

Yeah, but in various sources (from Codex: Necrons, Battlefleet Gothic to Ciaphas Cain novels and Horus Heresy: Mechanicum) it´s implied as fact with all subtelty of Emperor class Titan ,)

TorogTarkdacil said:

Lord Inquisitor Kadmon said:

It is not certain that the 'Dragon of Mars' is the C'tan known as The Void Dragon, only likely.

Yeah, but in various sources (from Codex: Necrons, Battlefleet Gothic to Ciaphas Cain novels and Horus Heresy: Mechanicum) it´s implied as fact with all subtelty of Emperor class Titan ,)

True, I maybe should have said VERY likely! :)

Lord Inquisitor Kadmon said:

It is not certain that the 'Dragon of Mars' is the C'tan known as The Void Dragon, only likely.

Naw, it's pretty certain that the Dragon of Mars and the Void Dragon are one and the same. The one thing that is disputed however is if the Void Dragon/Dragon of Mars is actually the Omnissiah or not. The fluff doesn't give a coherent answer to that question, only that there are certain (heretical) factions within the AdMech who believe it is.

Gregorius21778 said:

Luddite said:

segara82 said:

1. While domesticated big lizards are not unknown in the Imperium, a real Dragon (as in WFRPG or other Fantasygames) is unknown.

I reckon with 1,000,000 worlds in the Imperium, there's a flying fire breathing mega lizard knocking about somewhere. It might even sit on piles of gold...

Even worth...it could be home to a vulcanic deathworld and the "gold" are the eggs it is guarding... and no, not fake gold but "the real stuff"...brittle enough to be broken up, but still gold! GOLD! GOOOOLD!!!

Talking "flame breath"...if you do not want to go "mystic" (or not 100%), the "mixe-chemicals-spray" of the dragons of the 2002 movie "Reign of Fire" could proof helpfull.

If you are interested in states, I happens to have made some a little while ago for RT, it is quite.... dangerous so much more the fun.

Did anyone yet mention that Karn the Betrayers axe is made with the teeth of Mica Dragons? I can only assume a Mica Dragon is some form of WHFRPG Dragon....

Inquisitor Renfield said:

Did anyone yet mention that Karn the Betrayers axe is made with the teeth of Mica Dragons? I can only assume a Mica Dragon is some form of WHFRPG Dragon....

It could. But it could also just be a really big lizard (sort of like the real world Komodo Dragon). The word "dragon" doesn't always imply that you're dealing with a mythical beast that can fly with the help of wings and shoot fire from it's nostrils, it can be something as mundane as a big lizard or some sort of dinosaur too.

Just sayin' gui%C3%B1o.gif

The nice extensive Legio Cybernetica post covered most of my thoughts here. The old ruleset meat of the issue is pretty straightforward: Back in the OLD days of Warhammer 40K (Rogue Trader and the first army lists) Imperial forces could include combat robots as part of their battlefield contingent. There were several standardized models and rudimentary rules for building custom models. As mentioned earlier, these combat robots were fielded in "maniples" (think war-machine squads) of identical-model warbots that shared identical software and controlled by an individual Tech Adept. Each robot had a base "points cost" (for balance of tabletop forces) and then the controlling player built the programming of each maniple by spending extra points and building a flowchart-style logic and behaviour chain that determined the actions of the entire maniple each combat turn. The more complex their programming, the more "points" they cost to field.

Follow this example fairly closely and you should be reasonably safe from the HereTech branding. Clockwork and hydraulic mecha-forms with rudimentary targeting arrays, strict and limited software-directed actions (logic-chains, not true AI) and lockout/override supervision of a menial Tech Adept is good (semi-remote monitoring is acceptable by Mechanicus standards). Mechagodzilla or James Cameron style Terminators are BAD.

On an entirely different vector: Eldar Exodites are known to have cavalry-style troops known as "Knights" in the Gothic tongue that ride into battle on "dragons" (no official models of Exodite Knights have been made by GW, but it is generally accepted that the "dragons" are similar to the giant lizard mounts seen in Warhammer Fantasy).

The Salamanders chapter of the Adeptus Astartes are from a volcanic world and have prominent dragon heraldry. Their chapter master even wears a special cape made from a particularly tough example of "dragonhide" native to their homeworld that manages to increase the protection of a space marine wearing Astartes Power Armour (Artificer-class to boot!). At one point the Salamanders army list allowed for special squads that were armed entirely with a mix of flamers and meltaguns.

One of the Aspect Warrior shrines maintained on most Eldar Craftworlds translates as "Fire Dragons" and practice a highly ritualized style of warfare focusing on flame and heat. Their armour has prominent dragon themes, tends towards red-to-orange colouration and (in the fluff at least) is fireproof. The older rulesets have their armour fairly comparable to Astartes power armour, minus the strength boosting traits; The last few rulesets place the protection closer to carapace. Their ritual weapons include meltaguns, "firepikes" (very long sleek meltaguns with frightening range), flamers, meltabombs and the occasional "fire axe" (more or less a power axe with cool graphics). Some of their Exarchs (sergeant/hero/leader) have a psychic power known as "burning fist" that allows them to punch through personal body armour as if it was not there, complete with cool flaming special effects.

The previously mentioned "Dragon of Mars" secret/mystery of the Adeptus Mecahnicus. It should be noted that displaying knowledge of this legend to members of the Cult Mecanicus is likely BAD for your health.

It is also important to note that the Imperial Cult makes it quite clear that "bad things" can be dealt with by "purifying, cleansing flame".