Hello.

I've read a review about the old MAC game Marathon, in which the following text has a meaning: "I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh. I have been called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the world goes dim and cold. I am hero."

Thinking about what sounds to be some sort of true warrior essence been reincarnated through time and time again sounds like a nice bit of fluff to add to the w40k universe in form of a sandy planet with remains of a battlefield, the rotten corpses of giant war machines protruding through dust and sand.

In the middle a tomb with a mummified corpse or a freshly deceased man in a stasis field (yeah, sounds like some other famous W40k guy) with some runes hinting that this body might be the last of a long line of reincarnations of what might have been the greatest warrior soul mankind had known - perhaps a slight shard or splinter of the emperors own spirit? Dunno yet, dunno where to go from there but I mostly evolve such an adventure idea into an adult storyline on the fly, based on the reactions of my players....

Nevertheless, I'm planing to start this exploration by letting the explorator to pick up an old distress call with strange data through his oldest implantat (meaning that the players will have to convert the message from ascii HEX to something readable, and then from Latin to native language *eg*). They will have to search for the planet, explore it, battle the remnants of chaos influence still lurking about and then gather knowledge of the whereabouts of a long lost hero (which I'll make up). In addition they might salvage some archaeotech components, perhaps half of an Titan or perhaps guide an explorator ship to the planet - thus gaining their Profit Factor increase by helping the Adeptus Mechanicus...

But I could really need some more names to add a second sentence like the first one. While old greek heroes sound good and are probably well known by the players, their characters won't be able to cope with them. Thus I want to add a copy of the first sentence with exchanged names.

Problem: my knowledge about W40k is limited to the RPG ressources and some tabletop rule books. In short: limited. I think I might dare to go with the names of Sanguinius and Drusus - but can anyone help me out with some known names of great persons who lived between?

Anyone suggestions?

Sincerely,

Eochaid

Great idea! You could add some remnants of an ancient Space Marine chapter no one has ever heard about. Their only task is to protect the grave of the eternal champion (yes, I quoted Moorcrocks wording of that concept intentionally).

Moreover, you could add some "bad incarnations" to the past of that eternal hero. Some incarnations could have been tainted by the warp. This could add some flavor when the player characters are going to investigate the hero's past.

I can't help you with official Warhammer names, but I would add Siegfried and maybe Thor to the first sentence – and maybe Elric of Melniboné, this would be a nice homage to Moorcrocks original idea.

I must say, the lost chapter is a very good idea - since I sort of dislike the SMs due to the tabletop fluff in their army book (best of the best of the best, graduate with honors, Sir!) I haven't even considered that there might be something lost the Adeptus Astartes would either like to have back or brushed deeper under the carpet.

Also, thanks for telling me of both author and books, I did not know where it came from. Searching through TVTropes, I found an even longer version from an Evangelion fanfic - so I have now an additional idea and one or two nice suggestions for my next reading spree

Sigfried is a nice addition, too. I'll take a short look into WW2 "heroes" tomorrow and look if I can find someone suitable there. About the "bad" incarnation... well... Horus is dead, isn't he? And what I got from the first two Horus Heresy books, he wasn't a bad guy to start with until he slipped to the dark side....

Greetings,

Eochaid

The Empra has been alive since roughly 1,000 BC. Who's to say he didn't preserve a few heroes from classical antiquity and stash them in the far reaches of the galaxy?

Sebastian Thor, M36, The Imperium's greatest saint (possibly after Sanguinus, but it's debatable), ended the Reign of Blood, reformed the Ecclesiarchy. Notable for being a purely inspirational figure, and neither fighting in nor directing a battle. Body entombed on Terra

Lord Commander Solar Macharius, M40, The greatest general of the 41st millennium, conquered a thousand worlds before reaching the Halo Zone beyond the reach of the Astronomican, where his men would not follow. Body entombed on Macharia.

Fatidicus, M31, founder of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor, which was to become the Ecclesiarchy. Known to have fought in the Siege of Terra.

Dolan Chirosius, M36 and contemporary of Thor, known as the Great Confessor he was subject to a show trial at the order of Cardinal Bucharis, the would-be Ecclesiarch responsible for the Plague of Unbelief after the fall of Vandire. He used the widely broadcast show trial as a pulpet to call populations to rise up against the tyrant, and died under torture without submitting. His body disappeared.

Arkhan Land, late M30 or early M31, the greatest techo-archaeologist in Imperial history for whom the Land Raider and Land Speeder are named. Died on Mars leading a second expedition into the reaches, his body never found. Recodings found centuries later indicated that his team had been picked off one by one by an unknown entity.

Ollanius Pius, M31, patron saint of the Imperial Guard, details are stated by later publications to be in doubt, he is said to have given his life by taking a sword thrust which might have struck the Emperor himself. Original publications for 1st edition had this as during the duel between the Emperor and Horus.

Colonel Jurten, M39, launched a 500 year war to reduced his homeworld of Krieg to an irradiated warzone rather than see it succede from the Imperium.

Darth Fanboy said:

Specifically they retconned him into a member of the Adeptus Custodes, a far lamer sacrifice which has none of the badass bravery of a weakling Guardsman with a flashlight taking a blade for the Emperor.

Did they retcon Olanus Pius, or did they just replace him again (It was an Imperial Fist terminator at one point) during the final confrontation?

Clarification: Is there now a Custodes by that name who took the role?

Darth Fanboy said:

You have some info on Ollanus Piusin Blood of Martyrs p20. No known facts are certains : for the Imperial guards, he was a guardsman, but there are many variations of the tale, and the IG version is not accepted as canon throughout the Ministorum : there is even an Astartes version....
That's mean : " officially we don"t really know", but that's mean you can choose your prefered version as canon. For me, that's mean the lowly guardsman.

Thanks again for the big list.

I've gone with the first suggestions of Siegfried and Thor as well as added Artus and Arminius. Siegfried is nice as he was known to be a dragon slayer and as far as I can remember that was incorporated into W40k fluff by saying that Siegfried was the Imperator and the dragon was some big ol' entity still safely tucked away where the Imperator put him...

Thor has a double impact, too. In "normal" fiction it is just a mythic norse god while there is the mentioned very famous 40k version - so even if the chars don't know which is meant, the players might think about it a bit.

I also added two made-up names for further reference. I think I might make one into a small martyr, a "normal" human who lead an uprising on a chaos infested planet. Someone who tried to change something for the better but was taken down due to circumstances.

If you like I can post my created material here - that would be the hex encoded message, the original message (in latin) and a translation...

Sincerely,

Eochaid

Please do. That would be excellent to see the end results.

Here is what I got.

First bit, the message encoded in ASCII hex code as a block. This is intended to be the format the explorator will pick up:

4E 6F 74 75 6D 73 69 74 76 6F 62 69
73 71 75 6F 64 65 67 6F 73 75 6D 71
75 6F 6E 64 61 6D 64 65 6D 65 6C 6E
69 62 6F 72 6E 65 65 69 72 69 63 63
65 6E 74 75 72 69 6F 6C 65 67 69 6F
6E 69 73 64 65 63 69 6D 61 65 45 72
61 6D 65 67 6F 6E 69 6D 72 6F 64 62

65 6F 77 75 6C 66 61 63 68 69 6C 6C
65 73 67 69 6C 67 61 6D 65 73 68 53
69 65 67 66 72 69 65 64 61 70 70 65
6C 6C 61 74 75 73 73 75 6D 61 72 74
75 73 65 74 74 68 6F 72 65 74 61 72
6D 69 6E 69 75 73 45 72 61 6D 65 67
6F 68 6F 72 75 73 74 68 75 72 61 6D

67 72 65 63 6F 73 64 72 75 73 75 73
56 6F 63 61 74 75 73 73 75 6D 6E 6F
6D 69 6E 61 63 65 6E 74 75 6D 65 74
76 6F 63 61 62 69 61 72 6D 69 6C 6C
65 61 6E 74 65 6F 63 65 61 6E 75 73
6D 75 6E 64 69 66 69 74 6F 62 73 63
75 72 75 6D 66 72 69 67 6F 72 75 6D

71 75 65 49 6E 74 65 72 66 65 63 74
75 73 73 75 6D 6D 69 6C 6C 69 65 6E
73 73 65 64 72 65 64 65 6F 69 74 65
72 75 6D 61 64 71 75 65 69 74 65 72
75 6D 50 75 67 6E 6F 70 72 6F 66 61
6D 61 65 65 74 67 6C 6F 72 69 61 65
50 75 67 6E 6F 68 6F 6E 6F 72 65 65

74 66 69 64 65 6C 69 74 61 74 65 50
75 67 6E 6F 70 61 63 65 50 75 67 6E
6F 76 65 72 69 74 61 74 65 50 75 67
6E 6F 6C 69 62 65 72 74 61 74 65 53
75 6D 66 6F 72 74 69 73 73 69 6D 75
73 52 65 63 75 72 72 69 61 6D 73 65
6D 70 65 72

I am planing to give them an excerpt from the ASCII table, going from a/A to z/Z - should be no problem to find a suitable version yourself. Applying the table and converting the message to a more readable format will result in this:

Notumsitvobisquodegosumq
uondamdeMelniborneEiricc
enturiolegionisdecimaeEr
amegonimrodbeowulfachill
esgilgameshSiegfriedappe
llatussumartusetthoretar
miniusEramegohorusthuram
grecosdrususVocatussumno
minacentumetvocabiarmill
eanteoceanusmundifitobsc
urumfrigorumqueInterfect
ussummillienssedredeoite
rumadqueiterumPugnoprofa
maeetgloriaePugnohonoree
tfidelitatePugnopacePugn
overitatePugnolibertateS
umfortissimusRecurriamse
mper

As you can see, it containts no spaces or punction marks. Adding those you'll end up with the following sentences including translation.

Notum sit vobis, quod ego sum quondam de Melniborne Eiric, centurio legionis decimae. - Know you that I am he who once was Eiric of Melniborne, centurio of the tenth legion.

Eram ego Nimrod, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh. - I was Nimrod, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh.

Siegfried appellatus sum, Artus et Thor et Arminius. - Siegfried I was called, Artus and Thor and Arminius.

Eram ego Horus, Thuram, Grecos, Drusus. - I was Horus, Thuram, Grecos, Drusus.

Vocatus sum nomina centum, et vocabiar mille, ante oceanus mundi fit obscurum frigorumque. - I was called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the ocean of worlds (e.g. Space) grows dim and cold.

Interfectus sum milliens, sed redeo iterum adque iterum. - I was killed a thousand times and every time I return.

Pugno pro famae et gloriae. - I fight for glory.

Pugno honore et fidelitate. - I fight for honor.

Pugno pace. - I fight for peace.

Pugno veritate. - I fight for truth.

Pugno libertate. - I fight for freedom

Sum fortissimus. - I am hero.

Recurriam semper! - I _will_ return!

Since my Latin is a lot rusty after not being used for over fifteen years, the sentences will have some grammatical errors. If you find them, keep them .

I also thought about the last "I fight for" sentence - since this warrior is intended to be some eternal anti-chaos champion, I should have him fight for order instead of freedom as the last and most important thing. But I've already written and printed the handouts and I don't want to begin with the ASCII to hex conversion process again so I'll probably just tell the players that I've forgotten one sentence and include it in their translated, final version.

Have fun,

Eochaid