The tyrant star mystery

By Varnias Tybalt, in Dark Heresy Gamemasters

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Is it just me or does anyone else have severe problems in coming up with a cool enough explaination for the tyrant star mystery? I try to the best of my abilities to come up with an interesting story behind the phenomena, but somehow I always feel that its not doing the tyrant star any justice in terms of "epic:ness" and "awesome:ness". : /

Are you, like me hoping that FFG will someday extrapolate on the matter completely (in an exstensive campaign or something), instead of just doing the irritating "...its up for the GM to decide"-bit? (which quite a few other RPGs has done before, and I always hate when they do it simply because im not up for the task to extrapolate on such large mysteries all by myself)

What do you think?

Oh, and if you have cool explanations to the mystery dont shy away from posting them here. :)

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I think the Tyrant Star, like the other elements game writers tend to apply the "... it's up to the gm" line to, is a game tool there to serve its purpose as dark mysterious threat, to drive campaigns, to push that sense of impending doom, etc. By the time they could define it most game master will have already devised an explination - at least for one campaign - and will find the actual answer disappointing.

Me, I'm just the opposite, I hate it when the writers introduce something with so much potential as the TS and then explain it away.

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Jack of Tears said:

I think the Tyrant Star, like the other elements game writers tend to apply the "... it's up to the gm" line to, is a game tool there to serve its purpose as dark mysterious threat, to drive campaigns, to push that sense of impending doom, etc. By the time they could define it most game master will have already devised an explination - at least for one campaign - and will find the actual answer disappointing.

Me, I'm just the opposite, I hate it when the writers introduce something with so much potential as the TS and then explain it away.

Although I agree that aspects with lot of individual GM potential is great, I just seriously doubt that I could come up with a cool enough answer to the mystery on my own. Sure I have been Gm:ing for a respectable number of years now (if you compare it with the number of years I have been in existence that is), but I have serious troubles when dealing with mysteries and conspiracies that could throw off the entire galaxy (or even just the entire Calixis Sector). Using the tyrant star as a constant and mystic threat to jump-start campaigns I can do, but writing a campaign that eventually culminates in a conclusion and explanation of whats REALLY going on, I do not dare to do.

Whatever I come up with, it just wont cut it in terms of awesomeness and epicness. I mean, the explanation should be the biggest "Aha!-moment" ever for the playes, and if it leaves them any less than completely flabbergasted I would deem it as a faliure.

Perhaps its just me who lacks confidence in the matter? : /

Anyhow, this is why I would like to see a LONG campaign from FFG sometime in the future that deals with the subject (although I have my suspiscions that the Haarlock legacy will somehow include the mystery of the Tyrant star somwhere down the line). Sure the actual answer might disappoint some players out there, but if they dislike the actual answer they could by all means ignore the official story if they like, now couldn't they? Instead of just leaving the rest of us (who would like to get the story striaght) in painful suspense. :)

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Well,

I think the upcomming Haarlock trilogy will deal with the Tyrant star...

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i say its an eldar craft world, with a webway gate that broken and freely allows the warp to flow into realspace, the eldar consider the entire calaxis sector cursed due to that event, and this craft world do have a type of warp drive thats gone bad.

this also gives an possible solution to the problem.

if the acolytes somehow go in turn off thewebway gate, possible with an melta bomb shaped off button, then they would proberly have to deal with some eldars that dont want a craft world in imperial hands gui%C3%B1o.gif

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I think that the collective answers that you guys have come up with as a fan community are greater by far than any specific thing that we writers might have imposed; however, I think one day - though no time soon, a couple of us might have to get around to revealing one scenario of what the Tyrant Star actually is...

...but I sincerely doubt you'll ever be presented with anything "official" - the line of Haarlock has more than enough mysteries of its own. demonio.gif

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Morrsleib...ahem...the Tyrant Star is a Jokaero spawning pod.

When it pops, 20 billion Jokaero will blink into existence across the worlds of Calixis.

Banana supplies are going to be severely strained, but if you've got a broken toaster, or want a cold fusion-powered trouser press knocking up, you'll be in luck...

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TS Luikart said:

...but I sincerely doubt you'll ever be presented with anything "official" - the line of Haarlock has more than enough mysteries of its own. demonio.gif

Im not sure I agree completely. After all the entire House of Dust and Ash scenario seemed to circle around the concept of myth and prophecies. The pretty recent sightings of the Tyrant Star phenomena, and the newly risen, long-dead Haarlock cant just be a coincidence. But thats just my paranoid and twisted conscpiracy theory of course. :D

If I were forced at gunpoint to invent what the Tyrant star was, I'd probably go with it having something to do with the Necrons (Chaos certainly dont need any more phrophezised phenomena concerning them, they have the whole frigging Eye of Terror to gloat from). Perhaps it is the raw star-feeding energy of an emergent C'Tan or something like that.

Or it could have something to do with the long extinct race that created the Halo Devices (of whom I personally do not believe the necrontyr had anything to do with, because of the Halo Devices life restoring capabilities).

But I dont want to dabble in this. I want an "official" explanation. Preferably one coming from the culmination of a long and awesome campaign. :)

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As I stated in another thread, here's my version of the Tyrant Star (feel free to steal):

The Tyrant Star is not really unique, it's just the first of it's kind. When serious failures start cropping up in the Golden Throne, portions of the protection provided my the Emperor's will grow weak. It's like a dam, where a small crack takes on all the pressure held back by the rest of the barrier. While the flow of warp energy would be steady and moderately higher without the Emperor's protection existing at all, the hole is the barrier he provides is far more intense due to the pressure differential. Worse still, the Komus thus acts as a harbinger of the holes that will follow, created by the instability introduced by this initial crack in the barrier. When the hole is drawn to an inhabited world, the resulting explosion of warp activity leaves an apocolypse in its wake.

There is a yet more sinister angle to all of this as well. The damage wrought by each appearance of the black sun, and by those that seek to call it forth, has created it's own harbinger, a twisted echo of the Emperor himself known as "The King in Rags and Tatters". When the black sun rises the twisted King holds court, and the few that survive this period of madness are forever damaged by the experience. The menagerie are his most active and favored of servants, and their unusual and specific goals of bringing forth the Black Sun to hold court with their King has kept them largely under the radar of the Inquisition.

The various secrets of the Tyrant Star held by the Inquisition factions are but shades, echoes, and portions of the truth... though they might get a sense for the full picture if they ever trusted each other enough to exchange their information, though that is unlikely to ever occur. The amaltheans have "discovered" that the harbinger of Komus is tied to the Emperor, but don't know the details enough to know how or why. The radicals know that the star is summoned, but believe the summoning is tied to an Imperial Cult of some sort, due to the misdirections of the Menagerie. Yet another sub-faction of puritans, the mono-dominants, know that the star is caused by the Emperor, but have no idea how and believe that it is a manifestation of his wrath, thus they spend time and energy actually preventing other factions from working against it.

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I posted this in the old Black Industries forums when DH first came out.

This is how I'm going to be doing the Tyrant Star. I think the mind fragging that accompanies it is a perfect 'Aha!' moment:

A self fulfilling prophecy born of the psychic paranoia of the entire sector. Every time the Tyrant star disappears, a seed is left, one that grows within the psyche of the sentients in the sector. This then gestates a warp entity/storm capable of destroying planets (breaching warpspace through the very people whose dread created it). But, because the root construction of the phenomenon also incorporates into its mythos that it disappears shortly after laying waste to everything, the storm abates, leaving only the Seed - a whisper of its existence which starts the process all over again.

How do you stop a phenomenon that, by its very nature, feeds off your own knowledge of its existence?

How do you fight an idea?

EDIT: This could lead to an epic campaign where the PCs are directed by their Inquisitor to find and destroy all information on the Tyrant star, killing anyone involved. This takes months of game play, the acolytes all reaching toward the end of their careers, until finally they piece together exactly WHAT the Tyrant star is, and realise that they alone are the only things keeping it alive. So at 14,999XP they all commit suicide for the Imperium to prevent the Tyrant Star manifesting.

And then an Inquisitor comes to investigate their demise, and discovers something about a 'Star' that they were investigating..... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Thanks, it would certainly be a BIG adventure.....

I think one of the other bonuses behind that style of Tyrant Star is that, because it's not a central plot, you don't have to worry about overarching storylines, bad guys etc.

ANYONE can be a threat to Imperial security - anyone with knowledge of the Tyrant Star.

What it also allows is for direct and violent confrontation between Inquisitorial Acolytes - the PCs are sent to kill a group researching the Tyrant Star who happen to be the acolytes of another Inquisitor.

Eventually the PCs would have to chase down and kill Lord Inquisitor zerbe himself (as he is known to be worried about the Tyrant Star). Eventually the PCs woul have to locate and destroy the entire Tyrantine Cabal...

Definitely - the suicide thing was just one of those 'oh crap' moments, when you realise that you alone must make the ultimate sacrifice to safeguard humanity (which is what the acolytes of an inquisitor as supposed to be doing - even if it involves the deaths of a few thousand million people...).

The power would be proportionate to the number of people that know about it - but you could start the campaign where the prophecy has already done the rounds before the Inquisition hears about it (the Tyrant Star as described in the DH background appears to be fairly pervasive) and thus it's too late to stop the build up, it's only a matter of time before it reaches critical mass.

Also, if your PCs are going to stand by and watch billions die, you would definitely get to shower them in Insanity and Corruption Points....

I think ending up as a gibbering mess due to extensive mind scrubbing is just as good as killing yourself, and could be even more depressing than just being dead...

I think I will write up a brief about this version of the Tyrant Star, perhaps with an insane amnesiac who fortells doom to an Inquisitorial Explicator...

(note that some of the above is cut and pasted from replies which is why it appears to be answering other people).

Hellebore

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Hellebore said:

I posted this in the old Black Industries forums when DH first came out.

This is how I'm going to be doing the Tyrant Star. I think the mind fragging that accompanies it is a perfect 'Aha!' moment:

A self fulfilling prophecy born of the psychic paranoia of the entire sector. Every time the Tyrant star disappears, a seed is left, one that grows within the psyche of the sentients in the sector. This then gestates a warp entity/storm capable of destroying planets (breaching warpspace through the very people whose dread created it). But, because the root construction of the phenomenon also incorporates into its mythos that it disappears shortly after laying waste to everything, the storm abates, leaving only the Seed - a whisper of its existence which starts the process all over again.

How do you stop a phenomenon that, by its very nature, feeds off your own knowledge of its existence?

How do you fight an idea?

EDIT: This could lead to an epic campaign where the PCs are directed by their Inquisitor to find and destroy all information on the Tyrant star, killing anyone involved. This takes months of game play, the acolytes all reaching toward the end of their careers, until finally they piece together exactly WHAT the Tyrant star is, and realise that they alone are the only things keeping it alive. So at 14,999XP they all commit suicide for the Imperium to prevent the Tyrant Star manifesting.

And then an Inquisitor comes to investigate their demise, and discovers something about a 'Star' that they were investigating..... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Thanks, it would certainly be a BIG adventure.....

I think one of the other bonuses behind that style of Tyrant Star is that, because it's not a central plot, you don't have to worry about overarching storylines, bad guys etc.

ANYONE can be a threat to Imperial security - anyone with knowledge of the Tyrant Star.

What it also allows is for direct and violent confrontation between Inquisitorial Acolytes - the PCs are sent to kill a group researching the Tyrant Star who happen to be the acolytes of another Inquisitor.

Eventually the PCs would have to chase down and kill Lord Inquisitor zerbe himself (as he is known to be worried about the Tyrant Star). Eventually the PCs woul have to locate and destroy the entire Tyrantine Cabal...

Definitely - the suicide thing was just one of those 'oh crap' moments, when you realise that you alone must make the ultimate sacrifice to safeguard humanity (which is what the acolytes of an inquisitor as supposed to be doing - even if it involves the deaths of a few thousand million people...).

The power would be proportionate to the number of people that know about it - but you could start the campaign where the prophecy has already done the rounds before the Inquisition hears about it (the Tyrant Star as described in the DH background appears to be fairly pervasive) and thus it's too late to stop the build up, it's only a matter of time before it reaches critical mass.

Also, if your PCs are going to stand by and watch billions die, you would definitely get to shower them in Insanity and Corruption Points....

I think ending up as a gibbering mess due to extensive mind scrubbing is just as good as killing yourself, and could be even more depressing than just being dead...

I think I will write up a brief about this version of the Tyrant Star, perhaps with an insane amnesiac who fortells doom to an Inquisitorial Explicator...

(note that some of the above is cut and pasted from replies which is why it appears to be answering other people).

Hellebore

This reminds of a joke. A really bad joke. The dreaded purple flower joke.

Similar conclusion and just as awesomely destructive.

I approve gran_risa.gif

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The problem with official answers is that they would instantly rob the Tyrant Star storyline of its mystery, sense of impending doom, and horror. 40K will always be about doomsday prophecies and unsolvable mysteries. Just look at the latest incarnation of GW's warhammer 40,000 wargame rulebook, it's stacked with tantalizing teasers in the timeline.

We need stories such as these for a game like this. The moment you see the monster, you know the movie is at least halfway :)

I do think that they have an official explanation for the Tyrant Star, or at least some possible candidates (warpgate, cursed planet, Necron tomb, Eldar craftworld, Dyson sphere, whatever has been suggested) but I don't think we'll be hearing of it anytime soon - if ever ;)

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You could also use a radical Inquisitor attempting to harness the warp ala Quixos from the Eisenhorn Trilogy. Or instead of just one radical it's a conclave. Call it the Malleus Collegium or some other such name. They're trying to perfect a ritual that will turn the eye of terror back on itself but so far their experiments have just opened "unstable" mini-Eyes of Terror. The reason why their doing it out in the calixis sector is because it's "out of the way" bordering on the Halo Stars, who's going to care about them right?

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Aureus said:

As I stated in another thread, here's my version of the Tyrant Star (feel free to steal):

The Tyrant Star is not really unique, it's just the first of it's kind. When serious failures start cropping up in the Golden Throne, portions of the protection provided my the Emperor's will grow weak. It's like a dam, where a small crack takes on all the pressure held back by the rest of the barrier. While the flow of warp energy would be steady and moderately higher without the Emperor's protection existing at all, the hole is the barrier he provides is far more intense due to the pressure differential. Worse still, the Komus thus acts as a harbinger of the holes that will follow, created by the instability introduced by this initial crack in the barrier. When the hole is drawn to an inhabited world, the resulting explosion of warp activity leaves an apocolypse in its wake.

There is a yet more sinister angle to all of this as well. The damage wrought by each appearance of the black sun, and by those that seek to call it forth, has created it's own harbinger, a twisted echo of the Emperor himself known as "The King in Rags and Tatters". When the black sun rises the twisted King holds court, and the few that survive this period of madness are forever damaged by the experience. The menagerie are his most active and favored of servants, and their unusual and specific goals of bringing forth the Black Sun to hold court with their King has kept them largely under the radar of the Inquisition.

The various secrets of the Tyrant Star held by the Inquisition factions are but shades, echoes, and portions of the truth... though they might get a sense for the full picture if they ever trusted each other enough to exchange their information, though that is unlikely to ever occur. The amaltheans have "discovered" that the harbinger of Komus is tied to the Emperor, but don't know the details enough to know how or why. The radicals know that the star is summoned, but believe the summoning is tied to an Imperial Cult of some sort, due to the misdirections of the Menagerie. Yet another sub-faction of puritans, the mono-dominants, know that the star is caused by the Emperor, but have no idea how and believe that it is a manifestation of his wrath, thus they spend time and energy actually preventing other factions from working against it.

Not a bad theory.

However I don't think the entity known as "The King In Rags And Tatters" has anything to do with The Emperor. If I read into what it suggests in the rulebook, is an ancient galactic entity much like the C-tan. If this is the case, it makes me wonder how the Inquisition/Imperium deal with the Aldebaran system.

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ClockworkGecko said:

Not a bad theory.

However I don't think the entity known as "The King In Rags And Tatters" has anything to do with The Emperor. If I read into what it suggests in the rulebook, is an ancient galactic entity much like the C-tan. If this is the case, it makes me wonder how the Inquisition/Imperium deal with the Aldebaran system.

Actually, I think the King in rags and Tatters has a lot more to do with Chaos then it dose with the C'Tan. If I remember correctly, it was mentioned in passing in either the DotDG or CA as an example of or being a major or greater daemon or something similar but for the life of me, I can't remember exactly where I read it. I just remember thinking "oh, so he is a gribbly chaos fella!"

I think, so far, I'm torn between the Tyrant Star being a self fulfilling prophesy ala Hellbore's idea (because that has so much cool it's not even funny) and the idea of the Star being the awakening of the Dark Emperor in some form. Despite the coolness of Hellbore's idea, I'm probably going to run with the Dark Emperor idea. It meshes better with the universe I've been setting down and ideas I've been toying with as well as matching up to hints and mentionings in the books. The biggest one being in DEotDG where it was mentioned that the Amalathians (and other Inquisitorial groups) know a dark and terrible secret about what the Tyrant Star represents and are working to keep it a secret because such knowledge would change everything. I guess you can't get knowledge that could have a greater impact on the Imperium and the power that be then the knowledge that the way the Emperor is worshiped and the very way the Imperium functions is creating a chaos god...

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If I had to have a big reveal about the nature of the Tyrant Star it would be this: There is no Tyrant Star. Or at least, there wasn't.

The Tyrant Star was, for centuries, a legend, a desperate attempt by the citizens of the sector to apply some kind or pattern or order to explain random tragedies and inexplicable atrocities throughout local space. However, if we have learned anything from Eldar history, uncontrolled thoughts can have unforeseen consequences. The apocalyptic anxieties of the citizens of the Calixis Sector have been leaking into the Immaterium for centuries, and in the last 500 years these thoughts an emotions have been coagulating and creating The Tyrant Star, manifesting in brief flickers, just long enough to be seen and link itself to new tragedies. Given enough time the Tyrant Star will become a "real" and self sustaining warp entity in much the same way Slaanesh was born.

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Graver said:

ClockworkGecko said

Not a bad theory.

Actually, I think the King in rags and Tatters has a lot more to do with Chaos then it dose with the C'Tan. If I remember correctly, it was mentioned in passing in either the DotDG or CA as an example of or being a major or greater daemon or something similar but for the life of me, I can't remember exactly where I read it. I just remember thinking "oh, so he is a gribbly chaos fella!"

It's probably from the Corebook, page 232, Table 8-3: Fear Test Difficulties, The King in Rags and Tatters is an example of Fear(4) Terrifying. Least that's the only place I currently remember seeing it mentioned.

As for the Tyrant Star Mystery, I'm very much left wondering what the Gilded Widow's answer to the What is to Come? question. I'm left wondering if the reference to the eye is about the Eye of Terror or the Astronomican. If the carrion lords are the Slaugth, Nurgle or the High Lords of Terra, and whether the hungering ones from the outer dark are the C'Tan or the Chaos Gods. Lots of room for interpretation there.

Edit:

The other thing about the King in Rags and Tatters is that maybe it's related to those folk tales, of the rich king/prince cursed with a horrifying exterior, cursed to be rejected and persecuted by mankind. But only if someone were to embrace and love him, despite what he is, would the curse (that's currently blinding mankind) be lifted, and the King's true self become apparent. It would mean an iota of hope exists in the Imperium, yet it is almost destined to fail due to current dogma and attitudes.

Quite fitting in a tragic and romantic sense, in that even if salvation is at hand, the Imperium is too blind to see it and take it. Even if the Acolytes were to piece it together, they would be nothing more than crazy Radicalists in the eyes of the Inquisition. Or they might just go mad with the implications.

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Lexicanum said:

It's probably from the Corebook, page 232, Table 8-3: Fear Test Difficulties, The King in Rags and Tatters is an example of Fear(4) Terrifying. Least that's the only place I currently remember seeing it mentioned.

As for the Tyrant Star Mystery, I'm very much left wondering what the Gilded Widow's answer to the What is to Come? question. I'm left wondering if the reference to the eye is about the Eye of Terror or the Astronomican. If the carrion lords are the Slaugth, Nurgle or the High Lords of Terra, and whether the hungering ones from the outer dark are the C'Tan or the Chaos Gods. Lots of room for interpretation there.

Edit:

The other thing about the King in Rags and Tatters is that maybe it's related to those folk tales, of the rich king/prince cursed with a horrifying exterior, cursed to be rejected and persecuted by mankind. But only if someone were to embrace and love him, despite what he is, would the curse (that's currently blinding mankind) be lifted, and the King's true self become apparent. It would mean an iota of hope exists in the Imperium, yet it is almost destined to fail due to current dogma and attitudes.

Quite fitting in a tragic and romantic sense, in that even if salvation is at hand, the Imperium is too blind to see it and take it. Even if the Acolytes were to piece it together, they would be nothing more than crazy Radicalists in the eyes of the Inquisition. Or they might just go mad with the implications.

I found where it was mentioned in DotDG, pg 154. The King in Rags and Taters is somehow linked to the Menagerie. There's a Malfian legend that is a part of the cults beliefs referring to the Radiant King or King in Rags and Tatters. The King is said to be pretty much an incarnation of pure chaos and madness and is both illuminator and death-dealer to all who look upon it's continuance. Some say the menagerie is actually lead by the King while others whisper that the King is little more then a mask for a power of madness and change known as Tzeench.

Of course, all of that is presented as merely legends and half understood fragments of a belief system that would drive any who fully understand it insane.

Either way, sorry for the derailment. I'll shut up about the KiR&T now.

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The tyrant star is where slaanesh entered into realspace, fluffwise

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Dragonfire said:

The tyrant star is where slaanesh entered into realspace, fluffwise

Uhm, arent you thinking of the Eye of Terror now? And have Slaanesh ever entered realspace? Its a Chaos-god (by definition a warp entity).

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I’m running the Tyrant Star as something very different from what everyone has said. Just lets say it’s the portents of a chaos god that can not hang around the Eye of Terror. i can't say more as my players have not got there yet.

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Dragonfire said:

The tyrant star is where slaanesh entered into realspace, fluffwise

You'r confusing the Tyrant Star, Komus with the eye of terror. And Slaanesh never entered real space, the eye of terror is just where it was born in the warp.

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The Eldar dont go into Calixis because they have always considered it cursed. Perhaps the Tyrant Star has something to do with the Fall of the Eldar.

What is the difference between Slaaneesh feeding on souls and the Emperor doing the same? I am curious about this facet of the Empire. I think that the Tyrant Star is somehow linked to the deaths of all those whos energy has been consumed to keep the Emperor on the Golden Throne.

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Heretic! The Emperor of Man, Glorious in His deeds, Terrible in his Wisdom, does not "feed" on souls ... members of the Imperium gladly give up their lives in glory to the Emperor so he may continue his ever vigilant protection of the Galaxy and Holy Mankind. These brave sacrifices, martyrs to the glory of man, allow the Emperor to continue in his protection of humanity.

The Demon Lords, forever wallowing in their filth, devour the souls of men to corrupt and destroy them. They consume the purity of the human soul in an effort to undermine the very thing the Glorious Emperor, the Holy Inquisition and all Blessed Arms of the Imperium, fight to preserve and protect.

Chaos destroys, Order prevails - all Hail the Holy Empire of Man.