40K - THE TITANIC CATACLYSM OF IRON | Warhammer 40,000 Lore/History

[Music] today's video is brought to you by audible audible is an amazing service which offers a huge selection to listen to but it is also one of the best ways to make huge savings on 40k audiobooks this month i'm beginning an audiobook club and we're kicking off with valdor birth of the imperium you can join us and start listening today with a 30-day audible trial get a free audio book and full access to thousands of select originals audio books and podcasts included in the audible plus plan visit audible.com luton or text lutein to 500 500 for those of you in the us full details about my new audio book club follow at the end of this video each month we'll be listening to a new audio book and at the end of that month i'll host a live stream where we will discuss the core themes and events as always all relevant links are listed directly below in the video notes [Music] [Music] [Music] we return to our adaptus titanicus series now with another conflict during the heresy era no less devastating than any other this campaign is known within imperial records as the cataclysm of iron like many of the conflicts during the time of the heresy the specifics of their timings are vague and overlapping but most of these titanic battles are recorded as having happened in what would be described as the first phases that is earlier in the heresy period of m31 and then secondary later phases where the decisive battles would be fought in the later stages of the heresy it's not specifically relevant but i feel worth reminding that for all that it's talked about and for how important it was the horus heresy is recorded as roughly only having taken place over what amounts to nine terran years from roughly zero five to zero fourteen of m31 these dates are of course approximate and whilst the period is rammed with heroic stories and details it can really be summarized relatively easily as horus rallying a force of traitors leading a huge campaign of destruction to terror itself to challenge the emperor and then ultimately failing these stories of titanic warfare and huge battles between space marine legions are in many ways subsidiary but of course still highly important the point is that while horus was leading his campaign to terror and the legions were ripping apart the imperium directly or indirectly other factions like the mechanicum suffered equally greatly from broken internal divisions and this is what we have seen with all the traitor mechanicum titans turning against the loyalists the titanic battles between god engines were devastating of course on a practical level but the real damage was the fracturing of the cult mechanicus to the point it would eventually lead to what would become known as the dark mechanicum and the remaining loyalist adaptus mechanicus being created for those who may not realize why this is so devastating for the imperium mechanicus are not just worshipers of machines or technicians they exist under the banner of the imperium but stand really as an individual faction that is maybe closely allied to the imperium and this is why even to this day there is elements of suspiciousness and awareness towards the mechanicus despite this though none could risk any further disruption between the mechanicus and the imperium because of just how critical they are they provide all the technological miracles used by the imperium they are the few who have even what you would consider to be a basic understanding of the extremely advanced technologies used within the imperium their forge worlds produce the critical hardware needed to support the imperium's endless wars and it's only through the stability of these forge worlds that the imperium could ever hope to retain its grip on the galaxy each forge world is of course bound not to terror but to mars and the fabricated general except this unity had been far from what you would consider to be in any state of permanency the forge worlds stood alone during the age of strife and in many regards developed their own sense of independence and riser is a good example even in the modern age it's not known truly if riser is 100 loyal to the mechanicus as a galactic organization or the imperium for that matter it's very possible that many forge worlds administrations consider that a second age of strife could occur at any time and so it should remain that they are prepared to once again stand against the darkest knights alone if necessary hence risers apparently hidden assets they were conveniently stockpiled and only used when all appeared lost and their hand was forced by the traitors assaulting their world so similarly to riser many of the forge worlds had some grievance or rivalries with other forge worlds especially if they were in close proximity and the heresy enabled these to boil over into the open and some were ruined by their supposedly loyal kin many of these conflicts they were fairly isolated and salvageable in the aftermath few if any of these internal conflicts are comparable to what we will look at today and what is known as the cataclysm of iron this devastating conflict is contained within the supplementary element for the tabletop titanicus game crucible of retribution and a smaller side if you have never taken a look at the titanicus game i do advise you to do so it's actually been increasing in popularity and it's an adjacent tabletop game to the core 40k it focuses on battles between the devastating titan legions and the core game enables you to fight open battles or play out narrative engagements which these supplements like titan death shadow and iron defensive riser focus on and these are some of the most apocalyptic battles in imperial history as per usual all the links down below and i've actually got multiple videos discussing these titanic struggles already including the sci titans and the conflict on titan death both will be linked via the end portal of this video but now we will enter into the cataclysm of iron the crucible of retribution that is to say the galactic southwestern region of imperial space bordering two segmentums and this would become a boiling pit of bitter vengeance between rival forge worlds grinding one another into a furnace of white hot titanic battles i know not if victory across the galaxy can be achieved all i know is this world will burn and we will be the ones to ignite its pyre the so-called belt of iron is an area of spaces noted to the galactic southwest of terror but still within its fairly close periphery relative to the whole of imperial space while it's named for its forge worlds these mechanical planets were but a small percentage of the total planets within the designated region many systems containing hundreds of human worlds were located within the belt of iron like most sectors of imperial space these planets held designations such as agri or hive worlds that supported one another and fed the needs of the more important and resource-hungry planets like a forge or primary factorum hive world all hive planets will have a degree of manufacturing but some will be more heavily committed to this and rely far more on external resource support during the reunification of the human empire as part of the emperor's great crusade the belt of iron was found to be a particularly beneficial discovery for all concerned the forge worlds despite having been in relatively close proximity to one another had still remained isolated during the age of strife so when the crusade came through they benefited from the security and stability of a unified human empire and of course the imperium benefited from their production of war materials and the addition of new titan legions titan legions were useful during the crusade either to reinforce and create a strong defensive presence on worlds which required a permanent force while the astati's legions continued on their quest into the dark voids of the galaxy searching for lost human colonies who had by some chance survived the age of strife or the titans could also be used as a show of force against planets which may have felt they had some hope of resisting the imperium although this was not especially common most planets actually welcomed reunification but where there was resistance it was generally preferred to try and resolve this by diplomacy not force as the entire point of the reunification was to achieve this constructively although this certainly varied from space marine legion to the legion some thought it better to break the will of a world and move on quickly and spend a great deal of time converting a populace so deploying titans was often enough to help a civilization realize they had no hope of resisting the imperial forces of the emperor this needed not always be seen so negatively as well sometimes it may be enough that they were just shaken from their delusions caused from the centuries of isolation and say centuries the age of strife is estimated and having lasted for anything like five millennia it is said though that the worst of the resistance to the emperor's crusade came in fact from forge worlds these heavily defended cult mechanicus bastions had generally fared considerably better than planets with mere human populations and so when the time came for reunification many resisted because they saw no need for it this led to battles which would lay the seeds of bitterness and grievance especially when forced reunification came at the hand of neighboring titans of adjacent forge worlds this was especially true within the belt of iron and so by the end of the crusade this area now spanned from the edge of the pacific coast segmentum into tempestus reunification had brought little benefit to the forge worlds within the belt of iron if anything the opposite some felt weakened by having now to pledge their vital defenses and materials to a wider empire and many longed for earlier times where they need only worry about the goings-on within their own borders not contributing their powerful military hardware to battles far away they felt that they had no stake in and many of these worlds not dissimilarly to riser would take an opportunity to distance themselves from the red planet of mars home of the mechanicum some though felt entirely the opposite they were willing to sacrifice degrees of independence for the huge benefit they received by gaining the shared knowledge of both the mechanicum and the wider imperium and began to understand that they were far more important when part of the greater hall than as an isolated island in the vast void oceans of the galaxy alone insignificant and precarious to no surprise these festering ideological differences required minimal agitation by the traitors within the heresy when it descended on the imperium to begin a devastating galactic regional conflict between the forge worlds however the beginnings or initial phases if you will were far from outright conflicts in fact mirroring many worlds across the imperium in the early days of the heresy there was far more of a period that resembled a cold war for several years where planets and factions had to play a very careful game of trying to determine just who were their friends and who were their enemies more positive actions where stealth and subterfuge as well as sabotage became the next cards to play attempting to undermine rivals with surgical interventions and assaults carefully covered to conceal the source of any attack the effects though were minimal and merely inflamed tensions and rivalries further so that when conflict did break out into the open it was furious bitter and raging the titan legions would deliver retribution and death upon their enemies the scale of which was of course titanic now ordinarily i have not needed to lay down specifics within a system when it comes to titanic conflicts of the heresy but within the cataclysm of iron knowledge of the planets and worlds within the systems is essential to both the cause for and resolution of the entire campaign the six core worlds within the belt of iron which have critical importance to us are as follows firstly atar median this world was actually founded early during the great crusade and this seems unusual but the reason for this occurrence was due to in fact another forge world known as phaeton within the segmentum solar they had resisted the control of mars and phaeton was extremely stubbornly independent and came into conflict with mars over arguments about its autonomy the tensions nearly rose to full-scale conflict but feiton relented at the last minute and agreed to pay a tribute by sending an entire third of its forces to mars however rather than undertaking the agreed transaction the tech priests of phaeton would instead throw their tribute seemingly at random into the void in a final act of spite these forces would eventually come to settle at atar median and their titans known as legio ataris were established here incidentally phaeton was known to be the second most productive forge rod in the imperium after mars during this point in time as for atar median itself having been founded with a third of the strength of phaeton it was a lesser world than many established forge worlds yet it very quickly flourished it was defended vigilantly by the legion of taurus and the fast rise of eight armenian along with their desire to prove themselves having had no history or heritage of their own led to a distinct feeling of superiority among the other forge worlds in the belt of iron who felt that this upstart forge world so shiny and new with no struggle or history was most certainly beneath them and as a result many outright refused to work with or accept communications from atar median a tarmedian instead would attempt to connect with the wider imperium and would then contribute legio ataris to the expeditionary fleets the desire for the tech priests of atar median though was not exactly ideal it led to the legion of taurus seeking to prove themselves by some active dramatic victory or bravery and they sought to almost construct situations by which they could create a name for themselves some history for their world and so would often be quicker to engage in combat than was preferable and created a reputation for themselves in the process except not really that which they had hoped for they became known for their negative reputation of being unhelpfully enthusiastic to a pathological degree they were regarded as firebrands who were quick to shoot first and discuss later it did however embed atar median and the ataris within the imperium and they would become only further aligned to the loyalists when a large force of titans were lost at isvan 5. atar median was already well aware of the tensions within the belt of iron and so would then begin preparations early on to increase the power size and strength of their titan legions and general planetary defenses they understood all too well that the belt of iron was effectively a planetary tinderbox and the smallest spark would be enough to engulf them all in fire greyer is a problematic planet and so it's important that i should note that there exists a conflict as to its specific location within the imperium as it's specifically referenced in two very different regions across multiple sources this is actually kind of unusual usually there is a conflict here or there but often not so much as there is with this world which is very strange this of course gladly though adds to my continued reminder that much of the law in 40k especially details recorded by the imperium very contradictory sometimes entirely deliberately misleading greyer is stated by some sources old and new as being located within the segmentum tempestus that is to say the belt of iron that we're currently discussing however a roughly equal amount of sources also place it within the eastern regions of ultramar so not even close in the ultima segmentum and tangent within a tangent this is the same grayer that appears in the space marine game so what should we believe is gray nearer to terra in tempestus or far out on the fringes of ultramar in the galactic east my personal feeling is that its location within tempestus seems to be more attributed to widely known conflicts like the heresy whereas the ultramar location is more singular and specific of course there is always a possibility that two greyers exist which could have come from some kind of imperial bureaucratic administrative error who knows but now you know the conflicting debate of just where the hell is greyer lastly i would just note that most currently stated does not necessarily equate to most correct within 40k either and as i've said before sometimes you just end up having to make your best estimation given the information available and the parameters that we understand to exist anyway returning to the actual planet and obviously from here on i will refer to it as being placed within the belt of iron in segmentum tempestus greyer is the most prosperous forge world of the belt of iron and much of this is because its production is geared towards the manufacturing of so-called god engines that is of course the power plants for titans greyer is surrounded by a network of orbital stations and principal forges known as the greyer crown worth noting that not all mechanicus forges are necessarily located on a planet itself often forge worlds will have vast orbital platforms that encircle or surround an entire world mars for example has a massive ring that surrounds the entire world grija is able to support a large titan legio due to its vast production capabilities and was easily brought into the imperium who had been originally nervous about approaching the forge world which clearly wielded such immense power during the unification thankfully though the tech priests agree used vast cogitation stacks in the depths of their planet to produce highly accurate data predictions and so they easily saw the worth and logic for them joining the imperium and the reign of mars and a treaty was quickly drawn that would enable greyer control over many planets within its localized systems the grey crown of primary forges which geometrically encompasses the planet has a quite specialized functionality and while the adeptus mechanicus does not make it widely known it is said to be capable of independent flight usually any platforms around the world are constrained by a world's gravity but the greyer crown is said to use giant fusion engines to enable it to escape the planet's gravity and move to the nearest mandeville point and then even be able to enter the warp itself tangent what is a mandible point this is the minimum safe distance that a void ship can safely enter or exit warp space from its origin or to its destination system respectively what this means is that you can't just leave the orbit of a planet and enter warp space you basically have to get the hell away from a planet or other things before entering the warp some incorrectly assume that imperial ships can just enter the warp at any point that they choose this thinking most likely comes from overlap with other fictional verses whereby entering fast and light travel is as simple as putting your ship into warp gear this is not the case with 40k warp travel within 40k is extremely dangerous and entering or exiting the warp occurs by basically tearing a huge hole through material space and indeed reality itself some points within a star system will therefore be known as being the safest or objectively best point for accessing the warp and they may be what you would consider to be a mandeville conjunction that is a point which is optimal to enter the warp for all ships across multiple planets determined simply by the galactic position relative to one another with all that said there are rare possibilities to enter the warp by means of so-called warp gates now warp gates are extremely rare however and are assumed to have been created in the dark age of technology by humanity they appear of human origin but that is all that is known they allow entry to the warp far closer than would otherwise be safe to do so the benefits of this are obvious but unfortunately this technology is far outside the understanding of the imperium and for that reason warp gates will be extremely heavily guarded by the imperial navy and no the mechanicus are not going to just reverse engineer them and i have explained why many times at this point greyer has reportedly moved the orbital crown multiple times in its history and in the modern age while imperial records currently claim garage priesthood have returned to circumnavigate their home world at least one rogue trader report lists the planet's orbit as strangely empty returning though to the time of heresy for grey it is a world known for its tenacity and relentless pursuit of its goals and this appears tied to the magi's reliance on their cogitation stacks which give them predictions which encourage them to attempt missions that others would deem impossible or suicide mission this is because the tech priests of greyer trust in their data if their logic is sound they will succeed the heresy was a tense time for graham for this exact reason the priests approach all things from position of pure logic and this means to a large degree disregarding such things as emotional loyalty but purely examining the facts and data of a situation so at the outbreak of the heresy there were many who argued that they should not be in a default position of loyalty to the imperium but instead they should exhibit a thorough examination of all details available to determine their best position they quickly though determined that the emperor's forces were vastly superior and therefore their allegiance should remain with the imperium however a troubling cloud hangs over greyer in that as many have speculated since had the forge world known the true power of the war masters forces and the additional powers behind the traitors would they have been so quick to remain with the loyalists and the imperium it is a troubling consideration that means the imperium has to continue to keep a close eye on the world of grier valia maximal would be one of those worlds which could have avoided a painful transition into the imperium but who through millennia of isolation and believed themselves to be far more powerful than they were comparative to the might of the imperium the rulers of valya maximal were unlike other systems in their galactic proximity and they resisted becoming subservient to the all-powerful human empire they claimed as many as 24 systems around them as being their sovereign territory and having dominated the region and even having exterminated an ancient human xenos microempire which was presumably forged during the dark age of technology when mankind's outlook toward zenos was very different to that of the extremely xenophobic imperium valia maximal believing itself to be powerful enough to challenge any aggressors felt that simply a show of force along its borders should be sufficient to ward off and in fact dissuade any who might seek to challenge their territory and they hoped if it came to it that this would just strengthen their position in any subsequent negotiations this of course was a catastrophic error of judgment and made only worse by the fact that after initial diplomacy a fleet was sent out from the forge world in an attempt to expel the imperials from their territory the following localized war between the imperium's expeditionary fleet and forge world valley maximal was humbling for the would-be isolationists led by astartes of the raven guard who fell swiftly upon the forge world with titan legio astroman of grier to counter that of the forge world much to their astonishment war consumed the world and diplomatic solutions were then swiftly sought yet even as a peace was being brokered forces had not received orders to disengage and many hundreds of thousands died for essentially nothing through this engagement the titan legions of gray and the forge world itself will become a bitter word spoken by those on valiant maximal and even though they had effectively brought this punishment upon themselves this was a fact that would be erased from collective memory almost as soon as the conflict had ceased and all of those upon value maximal would remember from that day a thirst for a bitter vengeance upon the titans and forges of greyer although initially painful valya maximal benefited from its entry into the imperium the mechanicum of mars found it was able to produce advanced alloys through a process of hardening using extracted elements from its natural environment and these were shown to be highly resistant to corrosion and plasma and would enable mars to produce higher quality and quantity of alloys for extended deployment of imperial hardware to hazardous worlds despite this success the painful manner by which valia maximal had been brought into the imperium combined with its bitter feeling toward greyer meant that upon the outbreak of the heresy valya wasted little time in declaring its allegiance with the war master and then establishing a solid ring of defense around its home forge planet then they would send out a continual supply to aid the traitors within the ultimate segment but this was a dangerous and lengthy mission to undertake and they were frequently raided by friend and foe alike on route to their ultimate destination the grudge between valley and greyer was still to play out and it would as the belt of iron entered now into the period of cataclysm calibrax is a world strewn with scars of a painful history a forged world that if judging by the ruins across its surface or anything to go by could have rivaled mars itself at one point when the expeditionary fleets of the imperium arrived they found a world still in the midst of an apocalyptic civil war and like many forge worlds bizarre tech cultists have become twisted versions of what was now the modern mechanicum and cult mechanicus on calibrax the dominant cult known as the endeavour of airless purity sought to sterilize the galaxy and purge all biological life the imperium made contact with the survivors of the world who opposed this strange tech cult and with their powerful forces they soon turned their tables unfortunately the world itself was all but destroyed a broken apocalyptic landscape of twisted metal and ancient ruins of a long forgotten but once glorious civilization the imperium gifted the world a newly migrated population to bolster its thin amount of survivors as well as reinforcing the remnants of what would have been its titan legion drawn from the legio mortis the titan legion of calabrex known as legio kula seitai was dramatically altered by the arrival of these new titans and the world now felt strong ties to mars itself and more importantly to the fabricated general when the heresy came calabrax surprised many by immediately declaring allegiance to the imperium and to sever its ties with the traitor fractured forces of the mechanicum even executing many who were said to have been aligned to mars but many were highly skeptical of this seemed very surprising that calibrax would have had such a strong and immediate split when many had indeed expected the opposite unfortunately named for the bizarre arachnoid megafauna that long ago walked the surface of the world and thankfully hunted to extinction by legio venator arachnus would sit at the center of an empire who had weathered the age of strife and now strongly opposed domination by the imperium there was little diplomacy to be had when the expeditionary forces arrived arachnis demanded it retain its sovereignty outright a message that was unlikely to be well received by imperial forces who promptly deployed multiple titan legions to engage the empire of forge world arachnus it was not long before they had suffered catastrophic losses as much as 75 percent of their empire fell to the imperium in short order and they were quickly pushed to a surrender or face total obliteration to no surprise the violent suppression of the forge world did not leave an especially good relationship between the planet's inhabitants and the imperium and mars however their production of specialized laser tech which was favored by the custodies helped arachnus to gain fast and reaching influence within the imperium which helped to quell some of the sour feelings they had from their initially brutal subjugation for the expeditionary fleet still though dampening bitterness and outright loyalty were far from being one and the same strangely arachnis eligio venator held an entirely opposite perspective to those on the forge world itself the legio had been functioning in the service of the great crusade for some time and had been accustomed to the ideas of self-sacrifice and loyalty to the imperium and this created significant friction when they would be rotated back to the forge world for refitting and encountered the opinions and widely held views of the population on the forge world who were still extremely bitter and looking for a way out of remaining in the imperium so as the cataclysm of iron descended upon this region of the imperium it would only make matters worse for them urdesh was a world which lay on the border of the pacificus and solar segmentum of the imperium and urdish was yet another world that upon rediscovery had been found to have lost a huge amount of both its infrastructure and knowledge including the ability of how to construct titans yet it's still upon investigation was of interest to the mechanicum of the time this was in no small part because where it lost more specialized knowledge it was still functional enough of a forge world to output significant quantities of more basic materials required by say the imperial guard it was therefore easy enough to bring the planet back under the banner of the imperium mars would supply them with an ongoing new force of titans and in return they pledged their loyalty and production for the imperial cause it was one example of how the arrival of imperial expeditionary forces could sometimes bring worlds back to the human empire with minimal if any trouble at all however what had appeared to be an easy and secure addition turned out to in fact be a weakened planet when it came to its sense of loyalty to the imperium its loss of knowledge meant that urdish had a great desire to continually reinforce its lost strength and when loyalist mechanicum and then neighboring forge worlds refused to grant it the lost knowledge for titan construction when the heresy came around and the promises of the traitor fabricator general were easy enough to then turn the world against the emperor urdesh though was still a minor world comparative to most major forge worlds and so it would supply materials to cells of traitor saboteurs within segmentum solar it would create disruption and generally prepare to undermine the imperials as and when the war masters main fleet would enter the system urdesh's role was effectively to prepare for a resistance of traitors [Music] durant is known for being one of the forge worlds which most heavily resisted reunification with the imperium they had established quite the powerful local dominion over systems and even another forge world and when the rogue trader militants effectively the scout ships for the crusade fleet arrived to open diplomacy they were completely obliterated without warning durant immediately prepared its forces for all-out war as it was sure that reinforcements would be on the way the ensuing war in fact lasted several years between the imperium and the regional empire of forge world durant many if not all records of this time have now been purged and so all that remain are what are by now like the heavily biased accounts that lay all blame at the feet of the rulers of durant where it is described how they committed horrific crimes by any means necessary to resist the imperium not limited to biological warfare and even unspecific references to advanced mechanical intelligence more advanced than that of the cult mechanicus with its legion cybernetica which are basically cyborgs more than robots by deliberate design of the mechanicus of course to avoid the extreme fears they have of artificial intelligence still even if you account for the very likely biased recording of the situations these acts of turning a hive planet into an ashen mass grave by unleashing viral agents or using potentially abominable intelligence are not out of the realm of possibility for an isolated pocket of humanity who have nothing to lose it's not known specifically how advanced the artificial constructs of durant were it suggested they were somewhere in between machine spirit and full ai and were not necessarily true a.i but this is completely heretical undoubtedly durant would ultimately and depending on your perspective perhaps tragically fail to defend itself and so in the aftermath it would be spared nothing in the eyes of both the imperium and the mechanicum not only had they resisted but clearly unleashed untold horrors on the forces of the emperor's glorious new imperium as a consequence durant would be completely stripped of its worth in both wealth and materials it was reduced to outputting only the most basic of supplies for the imperium and was reduced to essentially a backwater world it still was granted titans as was the norm for forge worlds but an absolute bare bones contingent lastly in a final humiliation its name was erased forever to be purged from the hearts and memories of its citizens and the imperium at large it would from here on be known as generalist station as was often the case on many worlds violently suppressed by the imperium they remained a contingent of the original inhabitants the tech priests of deranth but who disappeared all from view by the time the imperium had won victory many worlds experienced pockets of resistance to the imperium but rarely do these amount to anything so the tech priests of gerald station were left to skulk and crawl around in the darkness below the surface murmuring their ancient data streams and dreaming of a world that they had fought so hard for but ultimately had been crushed by the irresistible force of the imperium [Music] aliyeth was in stark contrast to the previous forge world a very minor planet it was certainly a low production grade forge world and it produced supplies mainly for agriworlds however the mechanicum were interested in alias far beyond what it appeared to be at face value the age of strife had different effects on regent of humanity's once great galactic federation and some worlds drifted into a slow regression simply forgetting what they once had known either through brief violent bursts of civil war which left a weakened society to survive in a very basic sense or perhaps through invasive psychic creatures of the war the higher sections of society could be obliterated leaving only the more simple peasantry style of citizenry and still planets were often isolated then for millennia so it could equally be just a natural shift away from technology not entirely dissimilarly to night worlds who reverted to something of a feudal life shunning modern tech for the most part so aliath appeared very much in this light yet further exploration showed that below its face value surface life it secretly harbored vast complexes of ancient archaeotech and this was very obviously of high priority and interest for the mechanicum because a lot of it remained intact however this tech did not appear to be in fact of human origin it was not of the golden age humans but constructed by an entirely other now lost civilization although the tech priests who existed on the planet were well aware of these lost and advanced ruins they had not been able to unlock the secrets and believed that if they were able to it would imbue them with the power to converse directly with the omnisire as a relatively peaceful society aliath allowed itself to join the imperium on the condition that the tech priests could continue investigating these strange ruins as had become so critical to their culture the imperium in return demanded a large increase in mining output which was soon easily achieved by as much as 10 times the previous output aliath would remain loyal during the heresy and was still to exist as an important world in exporting raw materials in high quantities for production but its citizens really regarded the rebellion of horus as more of an irritating distraction that threatened their continued investigation of its ancient tech than something they should really concern themselves with their lack of enthusiasm to join the traitors was seemingly more by way of apathy than anything else and switching sides was just more trouble than it was worth when all they were concerned with was after all unlocking the secrets buried beneath their world [Music] there are various other planets that were of relevance within the belt of iron but which were not primary forge worlds one important planet was findari spoil near to atar median it was the sole remainder of a system which showed signs of once having been occupied by multiple planets but some power or event long ago had destroyed all the others leaving oni findari it was not rich in resources but during the cataclysm of iron it provided a stable warp route through the destabilizing ruinstorm that was created by lorga the other main location of note is the nigerina sector containing multiple worlds of worth it was essentially an area with as many as 13 worlds suitable for mining operations three industrial worlds were colonized two fleet anchorages and a hive world its main importance was the vast amounts obviously of mineral wealth which were then maintained by multiple primary forge worlds by the end of the great crusade the hive world of shiloki ii was now in control of distribution of the massive wealth of materials to forge worlds in the belt of iron the treaties of which were renegotiated every 10 years within the region and this led to many forge worlds attempting to bribe their way to more substantial allocations of raw resources the worlds of greyer an atar median who would end up becoming aligned with the loyalists in the heresy had often swayed the sector through promises of extended support and technology unsurprisingly a situation which did not go down especially well with the other forge worlds who already held bitter opinions towards these two loyalist forge worlds the situation within the belt of iron was essentially at a diplomatic breaking point by the time the heresy had arrived the forge worlds of the cult mechanicus within the region held centuries if not longer of bitter rivalries and their ever more divided opinions of one another only helped fuel an accelerating downward spiral of antagonization which would eventually boil over into a regional civil war it is of course debated by imperial scholars and historical analysts had the heresy not occurred the region here was already on course for a breakdown so severe it would have caused a regional conflict regardless it was merely that the heresy presented a situation that caused tensions to boil over far more quickly than they may have done otherwise [Music] as word of the chosen son of the emperor horus's rebellion reached the belt of iron and the drip drip of information filtered into the worlds that constituted the band of forge worlds some made near immediate declarations of loyalty and backed this with physical actions such as atar median's dispatch of titans to the east van system other forge worlds however were more guarded and chose to keep their cards closer to their chest initially dismissed as being just yet more examples of spiteful rivalry this scene was called into question when actual skirmishes began to be reported some words like valium maximal simply declared outright that they would side with the war master defensive constructions both planetside and orbital were being prepared and titan legios were activated and deployed everything was being placed on the highest alert and scouts and scanning systems trawled local sectors for signs of approaching enemies this high alert standoff continued over a period of roughly five years but by the imperial recorded year of zero ten m31 communications between rival forge worlds had effectively ceased sides had been chosen and the traitors were more clearly defined one of the first major engagements occurred at period 3 when 14 titans were destroyed and millions of civilians perished as a result the forge world of atar median noted that the arrival of the astati's iron warriors via the findari spoil region was a moment which only filled the loyalists with the sinking feeling of cold dread findari's spoil had indeed been occupied by the iron warriors and worse it was now supported by several manopoles of the legion coliseuti these were the legio from calibrax that had been reinforced by legio mortis this was especially problematic as despite findari's spoil being a dead world this was of course not the issue facing the loyalists findari spoil was a critical warp jump location and so establishing control of the space around this system meant securing control also of the planet the mechanical forces from atar median split so they were able to simultaneously engage in both orbital and ground assaults boarding orbital structures they were able to quickly eradicate those on board and secured a relatively straightforward victory but the ground assault on the planet was the far more problematic battle legio are taurus titans deployed to the surface in dangerous proximity to the traitors defenses but this was all too common a trait of the fire brands who were known for these wild and unexpected tactics their gamble to catch the calibrax titans unaware paid off but the withering fire from the fortresses during deployment cost them four titans who were barely able to escape their landers before being crippled or simply consumed by critical plasma detonations it was still a gamble worth having taken though because as the firebrand titans were storming the fortress laying down heavy fire and having already taken minimal damage from bursting out of their landers circumventing the ordinary protocols the traitor titans were still engaging their awakening rituals while the loyalist fire was battering the exterior fortress the reports of the assault state how the traitors were barely able to engage before the fight was already over the firebrand titans of atar median seized the perimeter of the fortifications and immediately pressed onward another six traitor titans were destroyed after more combat and the loyalists sustained varying degrees of non-critical but sometimes severe damage for the traitors the humiliation was not over as four titans still in their repair cradles were seized by the firebrand legio in the aftermath legion taurus spent its time securing findari spoil and reinforcing defenses as well as hunting down the traitors who had escaped within one system solar week they had complete control over the findari spoil system a victory was always a positive thing but upon the forge world of atar median they knew that this was merely the beginning while the first victory for the loyalists have been important and thankfully straightforward the near simultaneous counter-assault by the traitors would hit back twice as hard the critical production sub-sector of near drina had been eyed with greed for some time by those forge worlds who resented their forcible entry into the imperium and they now sought to take by force that which they believed themselves to be entitled to it was only a couple of weeks after the loyalists had arrived and secured vendari's spoil and its warp entry point did the traitors enter the nigerina sub-sector these ships were cited as being aligned with the forge worlds of urdesh and calibrax and they smashed through perimeter defenses with ease moved to secure a primary base of operations within the region their timing for this was in fact perfect as they had entered the system during the typical cycle for negotiations within the sub-sector the worlds of atar median and greyer had traditionally benefited most but it was custom during this time for each forge world only to be allowed to maintain a minimal presence within the sub sector for obvious reasons so the arrival of the traitors with scores of titans made this system essentially ripe for the plucking one wonders how given the situation this oversight had not been considered more thoroughly by the loyalist forge words as they were by now well aware of the dangers to them and the imperium so it seems a heavy mistake on behalf of the loyalists in fact the loyalists barely engaged with the enemy at all quickly conceding they were absolutely outgunned and any attempted defense would be futile suicidal and a waste of materials instead they regrouped and redeployed at the shilokini system and their aim would be to defend the sub-sector's capital hive world and hope that they could hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive the traitors continued to secure worlds around the sector and take control of various adjacent systems but largely ignored the capital world initially when they did so they were finally slowed and even became stuck in a difficult battle of attrition with the loyalists the combined fortifications of the hive defenses coupled with the loyalist titan legios making any approach assault costly for the traitors they would instead double down by directing materials and reinforcements from the recently secured systems of the sub-sector and began pouring supplies into the capital world to support the traitors assault in a disturbing act of things to come from what would eventually be the dark mechanicum the traitors also began to mass lobotomize citizens of worlds which were deemed to have become a non-essential workforce and many hundreds of thousands if not millions of drone-like warriors more akin to something like an arco flagellant were thrown indiscriminately at the loyalist hive city there was little hope that this would have any positive effect of breaking the city but it was carried out as a means to diminish the morale of the loyalists and this was undoubtedly a success having to slaughter many thousands of clear innocents who were little more than fodder is no act of honor or glory for the brave warriors of the imperial guard pdf or a titan princess as time wore on the communications sent out by the loyalist forge wilds were becoming ever more desperate the first sign of relief for the loyalist defenders came when a fleet from atar median entered the yanazani system carrying along with them two full manopoles of legio venator titans dispatched from arachnus their first objective to secure was the mining world of yanuzar4 which contained significant and critical mineral deposits under the cover of a heavy orbital bombardment the iron spiders descended to the surface and marched upon the entrenched impalers who guarded the sole strip of mining quarries that had survived their assault was successful but as a new wave of traitor ships entered the system and the loyalist fleet driven off the titans on the surface now found themselves in an extremely dangerous position they would soon face a whole wave of landers dropped by legio d'amicium of the planet urdesh who had fallen so easily into the pocket of the heretical fabricated general of mars the loyalists were now trapped upon yanuzar4 and facing down a significant force of traitor titans the loyalist forge world of greyer would now come to the fore it launches a significant fleet to begin pushing back against the encroaching and offensive forces of the traitors within the system of uradakini at urudoki five a month-long titan conflict is engaged to retake the mining colony from the traitors but it unfortunately causes extensive damage to the planet's industry and infrastructure not to mention a total of eight titans being felled and 13 others taking significant damage meanwhile adoradoki 2 the population is slaughtered to a tenth of its previously recorded number in a nightmarish campaign by the nighthouse of goodreads who had participated in supporting the great crusade but who quickly gained a reputation for dealing with any who stood or spoke out against the emperor or the imperium with one response and one response only and that was brutal slaughter where house gertrude marched death followed and only deeds of blood were wrought in their name it will remain forever unknown if such actions were committed out of a perverse desire to lord their strength over others or out of a need to show the imperium that house gotrith was the strongest of all when the news reached dalinar of the war masters betrayal they chose a new path and tragically the first to fill their blades were the people of the homeworld of dalanar house goodreads turned its machines of war upon those who no longer respected their glorious night household and for any who might dare call out to the emperor for protection the house knights of gatrif were born anew during this time baptized in the blood of their own people that they would forever forge themselves a new legacy of blood thirsting conquest as they reached into the stars to tear down the imperium they were driven from their world by house mauritane who arrived as part of the loyalists pledging to defend the minimal survivors but even then as katrieth abandoned the planet they left behind them mountains of dead arranged in disturbing parodies of human form pinned together on mass were discovered the survivors protected by the loyalists were even then struck down by a mysterious plague which cut down as many as three hundred thousand the cities of udoki two were ruined and the planet was left in a shambolic state this was fairly the norm during the heresy and one of the reasons why even post-heresy the imperium was left in a significantly weakened state many worlds were effectively raised and left as smoldering ruins with entire populations annihilated as a tribute to the dark gods and this for many worlds meant if they were not entirely scoured of life or turned into hellish dark forges the population were condemned to a miserable slow death of exposure disease anarchy or starvation but a final gut punch came to the traitors as the loyalists rounded on uridoki iii they faced only a small garrison of enemy titans and greyer sent as many as 20 titans to break them which they did and handily more an act of spite and vengeance than tactical necessity the enemy titans had no chance against the loyalists this though was possibly a miscalculation by the loyalists as the traitors seeing they were obviously facing obliteration decided instead to detonate nuclear warheads across the surface of what was an agriworld annihilating its biological life and severely irradiating the entire world it additionally ruined the planet's atmosphere and exterminated the entire population when this action became known across the belt of iron it triggered on some planets immediate surrender to the traitors who feared they would suffer equal fates should they not give in to the will of the traitor forge words it also contributed to further insurrections even within fleet anchorages and caused considerable damage to some titan maniples in storage the loyalists felt that they had turned a corner but was still feeling demoralized from the apathetic slaughter displayed by the traitors across many worlds it made them question their entire approach after all what can men do against such reckless hate the massive damage inflicted by the ongoing state of insurrection sweeping through the entire belt of iron was creating ongoing problems for the loyalists but it was not limited to them as huge delays were being seen in deploying reinforcements by the traitors as well within many traitor held sectors there were continual acts of sabotage being carried out by loyalist dissidents this led the traitors to become forced to redistribute titans deployed at shiloki too which was still in a state of being besieged as the loyalists tried to hold out within the capital hive city of that system when news that the traitors were actively weakening their position on this world the magos dominus in command of the loyalists was not about to waste such an opportunity to launch a decisive battle that if able to be won would be both significant for morale and crushingly unexpected by the traitors the main objective for the loyalists was the seizure of the capital hive world thereby ensuring security for the region and to this end three detachments of legio astroman titans numbering a total of 25 god engines landed upon shiloki ii within landing zones secured by loyalists who were still dug in on the surface the traitors moved their forces to reinforce these siege lines creating reinforced fortifications around unconquered hive cities in doing so the traitors sacrificed what little momentum they had gained and in response the loyalists would lead a three-pronged assault against hive cities in close proximity to prevent traitor positions from reinforcing one another the tactical choice was a powerful success for legion astroman the morning stars had been relying upon manopoles consisting largely of reavers and warlords the strongest elements of kuleseitae pushing through them with devastating and unrelenting fire that steadily wore down the traitors until their void shields were all but collapsing the confusion and division of the traitors had left them weakened and disorganized and finally it enabled the loyalists to break open traitor lines it still took them three months though of protracted warfare to gain ground but when all was said and done the traitors were finally ousted from shiloki too the last resistance to loyalist control was quashed after a determined assault upon the hive city of tartan rus spire which the commanding magos himself took part in directly commanding the conflict from within the morning star's warlord titan grace of wrath unwilling to expend time and lives upon another siege the fate of tartan or aspire was sealed when the guns of astroman were turned upon the mountain around which the city itself was constructed burying it beneath an avalanche of rock a questionable action considering the battle for the planet was now all but one and it demonstrates how so very often within the galaxy of the imperium the lines between loyalists and traitor can certainly appear very very gray from time to time once control of shiloki ii was secured the knights of house kolkak were tasked with rooting out any and all remaining resistance while the magos committed his forces to regaining control of the remaining worlds within the shilokini system and then beyond we should well remember that the planet which had been forcibly renamed as jerulus station and its people had a great degree of negative sentiment toward the imperium and had been relegated to this backwater planetary status it was now kept in order solely thanks to the strength of the garrison stationed upon the forge world and this is another common misunderstanding or incorrect projection questioned about the imperium often i see it said why don't some worlds rebel against the imperium if it's so awful surely that would happen and the answer to that is simple they do in fact this happens with regularity on some areas of the imperium the trouble is when you are often little more than a peasantry and have little if any knowledge of technology beyond your day-to-day it can be difficult to mount a rebellion against a galactic empire which has literally many thousands of superhuman soldiers backed by trillions of highly disciplined well-trained well-equipped armies because the imperium would think little of slaughtering a rebelling populace or worse if it came to it most worlds which live under the thumb of the imperium know far better than to attempt a pointless and inevitably bloody rebellion that would most likely be doomed to failure after all if during the great crusade highly advanced worlds forge worlds controlling multiple systems failed to stand up to the imperium as it was then does it stand to reason that a population of civilians in control of little if anything would be able to do better not necessarily but it does still happen for the fact that some do not know what lies beyond their own world also some planets do manage to escape the imperium because some live very far out on the rim of the imperium and maybe through administrative errors become lost or mismarked as dead worlds so although it is not known to be especially common some planets may well revert to a pre-imperium society and begin to even evolve a culture outside of the oppressive nature of the imperium and yes this could include research and free thinking so yes there could well be planets within the galaxy and what is considered to be the territory of the imperium who do not really remember even what the imperium is at this point in time they may even have the icons the visual representation of the imperium in their society but they may have completely lost all memory of what it actually was and then some planets may even mount a successful rebellion the problem being that this is usually limited to within that planet itself which would likely later be crushed by any means necessary even as far as exterminatus should it come to it by now though within the belt of iron the now outright dark mechanicum had hoped to find an ally in journalist station it seemed a straight fit for them and although it was a crippled forge world at this point it still would serve as fertile ground for the rapid expansion of its industry and acceptance of the numerous practices employed by the traitorous order both the ruined storm and cataclysm of iron severed communications across the bout of iron and neither loyalist or traitor had actually maintained contact with geraldo station for several years the last recorded communication had been at the outbreak of widespread rebellions as well as the presence of entities of unknown origin the imperial recorded data of this was toward the end of zero eight of m31 it would not be until 011 m31 that the fate of geraldo station was discovered a fleet dispatched from urdesh to broker a treaty within the world found a dead planet devoid of all life and civilization subsequent picked captures obtained from salvaged traitor ships by imperial texts were found to contain details of what had remained on geraldis station and they showed towering featureless buildings of metal reaching up into the skies of the planet and which were located directly atop where productive forge veins once stood surrounding the world's orbit was a sea of shattered remnants of what were determined to be space vessels in orbit of geralis station and were the sole remaining indication of a prolonged and presumably bloody conflict the records recovered from the traitor vessels also described how an urdesh research team had decided to inspect the planet to determine if it could be occupied and utilized for the traitors as they made planet fall upon the forge world a tremendous cacophony of binary data bursts was unleashed the towering featureless buildings upon the surface flared into life and the appearance of dozens of ship signals amongst debris and geralis station's orbit and metallic vessels of unknown design powered up and unleashed cascading beams of energy upon the fleet in quick succession the fleet was lacerated with little ability to withstand the power of the orbital stations and was reduced to a third of its starting strength forcing them to quickly abandon the planet of geralis station along with their research team upon its surface geralis geralistation is now declared as a dead world and access to it prohibited it is presumed that the most likely scenario is that during its period of isolation the remnants of the original population prior to the great crusade the tech priests who had fought so bitterly against the imperium and had been subsequently crushed had been laboring in secret and by manipulating the long forbidden technology encountered by the imperium on their initial conquest of the world had now returned to haunt them and without the power of the emperor's crusade these renegade tech priests had unlocked powerful dark age technology or xenos technology that was seemingly far in advance of the mechanicus nothing more is known about the culture of the tech priests of geralis station or perhaps more appropriate to refer to it by its original designation of durant seeing as it had now been effectively reclaimed by its original inhabitants seemingly one of very few worlds to have been able to free itself from the shackles of the imperium the only question of course is at what cost as no information exists as to the status of its population or even the tech priests themselves within the borders of forge world arachniss it had been well known for some time that two warring ideological sects had fought an ever more furious political battle that would determine the allegiance and indeed the fate of the forge empire the titan legion of arachnis which had been deployed earlier to aid the imperium that had spent decades in the great crusade held great respect for the imperium and its values and so naturally advocated for standing against the war master in aid of the emperor while they had been off-world though there were many others within the planet's ruling body who claimed the unfolding conflict now served as the perfect backdrop against which arachnis could once again seize control of their own independence things though did appear to calm after a variety of implied threats convincing the forge world to resume shipments of aid and supplies to worlds within the belt of iron and further afield in answer the rulers of arachnes dispatched several fleets and several dozen legio venator engines to aid the loyalist push into the nidrana sub-sector and so it fell to those who had served widely during the great crusade to lead the war efforts of legion arachnis within the belt of iron while other elements were given the task of guarding the borders of arachnis however detailed assessment of imperial records showed that the distribution of arachnus military outside of their local borders consisted of those who refused to support the idea of independence essentially they had been deliberately placed away from the forge world to help them consolidate support on the planet itself with a very obvious goal of attempting to effect a change the first reports of conflict upon arachnus came in the closing days of 010 m31 with data indicating the discharge of weapons fire within the principal legio stronghold upon the forge world this was an attempt by the now zealous supporters of planetary independence to eradicate any remaining supporters of the imperium the so-called trident's purge engulfed arachnis and its two moons iketomia and nizkara with later estimates placing the death toll at many million not to mention 37 titans recorded as having fallen undoubtedly from the ferocious internal fighting yet all this did not produce a clear outcome but after several days the rebellion contingent did gain control of both the forge world and moon victoria the battle still raged upon the moon of niskara due to fierce resistance by a handful of loyalist legio venita titans in a message to all within the belt of iron arachnis pronounced itself as an independent state declaring punishment for any who defied them in recognition of this new state of affairs the traitorous faction of legion venator was renamed legio tritonis in homage to the three celestial bodies arachnis and its two moons others knew them by another name calling them dark tide for the widespread destruction they brought down upon any who opposed them a titan legion known as dark tide where have i heard dark tide before it's food for thought isn't it in the eastern area of the belt of iron the sporadic conflict between greyer and valia maximal which had been happening since the outbreak of the heresy had by now escalated from regular border skirmishes into an all-out war valia maximal the traitor world had remained dominant for the longest time as a significant portion of grier's forces were committed to the conquest of the nidrana sub sector and are now escalating conflict with the beta garment system beta garment being one of the most destructive titanic conflicts of the heresy involving the deaths of billions of imperial citizens and where at one time over a thousand titans fought on the irradiated fields of beta garman 2 in what became known as the conflict of titan death that story follows at the end of this video as well the royal greyer played in the conquest of valia maximal during the great crusade is well recorded and by the tech priests bitterly remembered as well the continually denied petitions by the leadership of valia maximal who had been demanding reparations for the damage caused by the morning star titans of greyer that had been initially afflicted upon their world during the crusade in a now fast escalating conflict valia maximal unleashed its forces upon three star systems neighboring greyer conquering them in swift's succession and denying greyer essentially industrial worlds which primarily aided the production of titan god engines greyer dispatched manopours to these three systems while also urgently recalling much of their forces committed elsewhere in the galaxy forcing their allies to withdraw from the conquest of the nigerian sub-sector it became quickly apparent to the loyalists that the three conquered systems had been transmitting false reports of a heavy presence by those of valia maximal and even that their commanding magos was present instead all they found were the shattered survivors who related tales of devastating shock assaults followed by rapid withdrawal the greyer loyalists were extremely concerned by the unfolding situation and their fleets scoured the system eventually data was coming through which appeared to suggest the forces of valya maximal had moved directly to besiege the forge world of greyer itself though devoid of much of its fleet and titan legion greyer was far from defenseless like many forge worlds the orbital defenses could engage with considerable firepower against any invading fleet and the traitors of valya maximal were of course all too aware of this and so had refitted several battleships with heavily modified nova cannons intending to out range greyer's orbital stations as the battle raged in orbit a strike force of religio laniskara titans was unleashed upon the forge world itself smashing into the planet and bursting from their landers to sweep through the industrial landscape a particular note was the titan legion's successful employment of ferox and venator light manopoles just a reminder that manopoles are just formations of titans usually numbering between three and five a ferox was made up with two rivers and three warhounds and the venator one river and four warhounds these were especially suited to the urban environments of various industrial worlds invaded during the conflict between valia maximal and greyer these featured primarily impalers warhounds who would disperse through the streets and heard loyalist engines into the path of laniskara river titans alternatively the warhounds would focus on just immobilizing their foe before darting away leaving them stranded among urban debris left at the mercy of the powerful reavers who could choose an approach that put them at minimal to no risk before brutally executing enemy titans reducing them to a torn apart mess of molten slag or throwing down fire which would overload their reactors this precision use of titan mana pores meant the traitors infiltrated an extremely successful assault and before an efficient defense could be mustered they had secured a significant number of forge fans attempts to land additional ground forces though proved unworkable there were some broken reports which have suggested movement amongst a network of space stations much to the dismay and confusion of the traitors who had previously no record of their capability to do so these were then able to act as a direct counter to trade to fleet movements as they steadily lost momentum and the effective capability to deploy new units to the planet the traitor fleet retreated from the greyer system abandoning over 30 legiolaniskara titans deployed upon the forge world which proceeded to engage upon a sustained campaign of destruction across the surface of greyer returning to forge world directness and its fall to the now traitor fracture of the original legion so called dark tithe titans or legio tritonis and what remained of the loyalist legio venator otherwise known as the iron spiders were extremely vocal in their desire to recapture their homeworld having made several unsuccessful assault upon the holdings of arachnis it quickly became apparent that their efforts would achieve a little without aid from their allies all of which viewed the securing of the nidrana sub-sector which had been besieged for a considerable period of time as a target of far higher priority than that of arachnus princep's maxima procolis acting grand master of what remained of legio venator was left with no option other than to hammer out an agreement with atar median that if the iron spiders would lend their force to the full conquest of nidrana then legioh taurus of eight armenian would commit a measure of their forces to war against arachnis and thereby hopefully ensure the recapture of their homeworld within the sub-sector of nidrana the loyalist numbers had already been reduced by the redeployment of many legio astroman titans to the eastern front of war but the 60 god engines brought to the fore by legio venita quickly turned the tide with a series of rapid assaults driving out legio damicium from the janazarini system coupled with the retrieval of the fallen engines of legion venator from the ravaged planet of yanuzar4 its mining operation unfortunately now deemed inoperable as a result of damage inflicted by the traitors similarly the loyalists assailed the paradonnelly system committing 50 titans on both legio taurus and venator to besiege the traitors entrenched around the orbital elevator upon paradigma 1 which linked to the fleet anchorage in orbit the subsequent siege saw yet more acts of appalling destruction which were becoming a regular feature now of the traitors when they were backed into a situation which clearly had no successful exit strategy they would resort to inflicting maximum destruction upon their enemies prize before likely succumbing to obliteration the siege saw 18 titans fall and was only ended when the traitors turned their guns upon the orbital tether itself severing the link between the fleet anchorage and the planet itself the resulting massive pieces of debris which fell upon the traitor's position claimed the life of the primary loyalists commanding magos and nine loyalist titans along with the few remaining traitor titans and this was devastating enough but the size and scale of the debris smashing from orbit into the planet caused even more catastrophic damage to the planet's biosphere this final act of spite committed as the remaining traitors withdrew left the loyalists in control of a heavily ravaged sub-sector its industry and populace severely reduced compared to its pre-invasion status censuses taken two decades after the invasion of the sub-sector reported a 64 decrease in population and 76 decrease in industrial output relative to the numbers recorded before the horus heresy had begun no longer capable of supplying the loyalist forge worlds as it once had the sub-sector still proved viable and of a strategic worth not least because it awarded the loyalists a stronghold from which they could now assault the traitor forge worlds directly importantly despite the appalling devastation victory within the sub-sector had improved the morale of loyalist forces prompting many across the belt of iron whose allegiance had previously been undetermined to announce their support now for the emperor and the imperium thereby diminishing and undermining the traitor's attempt at finding any new allies so although in some respects the conquest eventually of the nidrana sub sector had been a pyrrhic victory it perhaps achieved a more positive success in the bigger picture of the cataclysm of iron in that it likely shortened the conflict by denying the traitors additional allies which would have enabled them to drag out the whole affair for much longer and inflict far greater damage and perhaps even seize other forge worlds to the ruination of all the devastation of the worlds within the nirana sub-sector was very great but their sacrifice saved billions of lives [Music] several years had now passed and the ongoing war between forge worlds was now reaching its zenith the traitors had been forced out from the nijrana sub sector and were now looking like they had few cards left to play they began to reinforce positions and were for once primarily setting themselves on a defensive footing their new tactic was to bunker down and simultaneously deploy small fleets to create skirmishing raids upon loyalists in a bid to slow down their efforts to reinforce campaigns as well as launching scorched earth raids upon worlds which displayed any weakness or that were more actively aligning with loyalists inflicting maximum damage as quickly as possible and then vacating the area dark mechanicum ships were reported as engaging worlds with weaponry which rendered life very quickly completely inhospitable many atrocities were committed as was the mark of the traitors and their crimes could rarely be paid for with any equal amount of justice commonly traitor titans embarked upon campaigns of wanton slaughter where they made planetfall burst forth to lay down appalling weapons of planetary war normally reserved for engagement only with other god engines instead they turned their weapons of mass destruction upon the billions of refugees that had settled upon the agro worlds within the system in an attempt to avoid the unfolding war worse was still to come though as in a ritual reminiscent to what occurred on calth the traitors were able to somehow achieve manipulation of the system's star and within days the sun had undergone billions of years of expansion those worlds not entirely devoured by the star or scoured clean by harsh radiation were consumed by a warp rift brought into being through the sacrifice of billions the resulting terran reality soon became known as the refugees whale its bail for light visible to worlds across the western fringe of the segment and pacificus this episode was undoubtedly one of the most harrowing events to befall both the loyalists of the belt of iron but also the wider imperium back once again on the barren world of findari's spoil a different method of death was brought down upon the loyalists an assault by house vex tricks caused much confusion to the loyalists due to its small scale the actions of the traitor forces also stood at odds with conventional invasion tactics with roaming groups of house vexatrix knights moving from location to location to understand the logic behind the traitors forces an order was issued to capture an enemy tech priest in order to extract the purpose behind this confusing invasion after several weeks of running battles during which house vextrix managed to destroy three firebrand titans the warriors of house kolkak achieved their goal and captured a tech priest left behind as the traitors enacted a suspiciously hasty evacuation of the planet interrogation logs transmitted back to atar median tell only of a tech priest seemingly driven mad by corrupted code infesting their algorithms the final log transmitted as the traitor fleet reached the edge of the findari spore system was abruptly cut off its final seconds recording nothing but harrowing laughter interlaced with bursts of scrap code moments later august stations deployed across the findari spoil reported signals consistent with the detonation of cyclonic warheads beneath the surface of findari prime shortly before the entire world itself was shattered into pieces taking tens of thousands of atar medium warriors including a decade of firebrand titans with it following the destruction of findari prime retrieval fleets from atarmedian entered the system to scavenge anything of value and it was there that they encountered a single traitor vessel opening communications the traitor vessel issued a mocking warning declaring that the fate of findari prime awaited any who continued to oppose the fabricated general of mars before retreating in the face of imperial reprisals the apocalyptic destruction wrought by the traitors across the bout of iron led to widespread famine agriworlds were often the first targets of aggression due to minimal defenses which feels something of a poor tactical choice when you consider that although some loss of civilians is almost inevitable within conflicts of the imperium especially those which are internal completely abandoning aggro worlds to the heretics who would then burn them to a point of becoming near enough dead worlds seems wildly reckless on behalf of the loyalists as in short order other worlds which provide materials and maintenance for forge worlds and hive planets would soon begin to starve and then begin to inevitably cannibalize themselves quite possibly literally attempts to source food from elsewhere in the galaxy are usually unsustainable especially during the heresy as well because innumerable worlds had been scorched or pillaged both by the loyalists and traitor forces leaving most planets unwilling or unable to share their resources in order that they secure and replenish the scattered reserves of food both sides moved to redeploy a portion of their forces to secure aggro worlds capable of continued production as a result we would see legio taurus and ligio laniskara deployed to the world of malinar in an absurd situation their attempts at defending the planet through their powerful weaponry their titan weaponry caused irreversible damage to the ecosystem rendering it unable to produce food and depriving the system of yet another precious agriworld this is often one of the bleak comedy aspects of the imperium and the galaxy of the 40k verse the very often primary objectives become destroyed or contaminated by the sheer power of battles fighting over them and so the result is an almost faustian irony the situation on malna became ever more complicated when a zenos raiding fleet no longer contained by the imperial fleets that once patrolled the surrounding sectors laid waste to both the imperial and traitor fleets orbiting the planet stranding both forces upon the ruined agriworld with little hope of rescue denied any chance of escape or reinforcement the war upon malinar simply continued regardless with both sides eventually having to resort to guerrilla tactics as the firebrands and impalers sought the complete and total destruction of one another it was only years later that the fate of those who fought on the surface of malinar was revealed when imperium landing parties descended upon the planet were greeted by a single and heavily battered firebrand river titan named fire of resolve the legion taurus titan was the sole survivor of the conflict the atar median god engine fire resolved was heavily stained and visually battered by years of war without end yet the titans stood unbroken alone against the apocalyptic ruined landscape the assessment team of each imperial text noted seven crudely painted new kill markings upon its armor presumably marked there by its crew they related to discover that the titans crew had taken it upon themselves to keep diligent records of their battles against both legio laniskara and the zenos raiders at the personal request of the princeps the river titan's carapace was left bearing superficial damage suffered during this time and it was not to be repaired upon its servicing back at their home planet's forge world its legacy remembered through its visual scarring forevermore none would look upon their glorious titan and stand ignorant of their final victory and so now the loyalists would set their sights upon the traitor-held forge worlds of urdesh and araknes as had been their agreement with the iron spiders to find the attempt to secure their homeworld and wrench it from the traitors messages from terror itself had reached greyer calling for the censure of the planet urdesh for its efforts in transporting supplies to the traitors in segmentum solar greyer would obviously immediately answer any instructions from terror itself and would dispatch over 40 morning star titans and 60 nights of house more tane those upon terror dead not risk the failure of such an important mission and so the loss and damage to morale would have been catastrophic so to this end assistance was sent both in the form of martial strength with terror dispatching an octade of legio ignatum god engines these are titans heading from mars itself forged before the imperium even existed redeployed from the outer sphere of defenses across the segmentum solar to aid the loyalists on urdesh to ensure the safety of such valuable titans the fleet carrying the fire wasps would use codes acquired by the sigilite agents that masked their appearance as being that of the traitors under service to the war master rather than sworn to the imperium indeed the deception was so effective that upon urdish itself its people celebrated the arrival apparently of allies to help in the conquest of the region also on mass the morning star's landing craft descended onto the world directed to landing zones across the surface of the forge world urdesh having inadvertently invited a most deadly enemy of grier titans onto their world the ruling cast of urdish gathered in a widely attended public ceremony to judy greet the representatives of the war master flanked by a token guard drawn from legio damasium and the crowds were jubilant the ruling cast felt that this was their moment of ultimate glory being gifted a personal reinforcement of titans by the war master spirits were high crowds cheered as the landing vessel ramps of the titans were lowered and with a single devastating salvo the highest echelons of urdesh's leadership were vaporized along with thousands of their citizens and the titans which stood alongside them across the forge world similar scenes played out cold merciless executions resulted in a series of landing zones being secured by the loyalists which then allowed further reinforcements to be ferried to the surface unfortunately domination of a world is ready achieved in a day and so the complete subjugation of urdesh proved to be far more troublesome with udesh deprived of much of their leadership though the resistance faced by the loyalists proved uncoordinated yet bitterly ferocious the people of urdush had forever held back those seeking their destruction before and clearly this was to be no exception the opening months of the war saw the battered traitors of legio demystium heavily depleted by the cataclysm of iron combined with the lack of engine shipments following the blockade of the red planet but they would still punish the loyalists for their audacity at the siege of drownheim a month-long assault upon the forged city seven legio astroman titans were felled by the handful of legiodomesian warlords aided by the gloria victoria a rare and ancient warmonger class emperor bator titan with the traitors contesting every advance the loyalists made the forces of grier paid for each of their steps forward in blood and the invasion slowly advanced until six standard months after the death of urdesh's leaders the promised reinforcements from the segmentum solar arrived and the reputation of legio ignatum a titan legion once honored upon mars and defenders of the imperial palace on terror proved true upon their descent to urdish the fire wasps were given command of every battlefield as each stood a veteran of countless wars alone or in pairs the legiognatum titans joined the different fronts across udesh guiding the unfolding conflict and lending both their vast experience and the fury of their own titans to ensure a victory and this reinforcement of elite titans meant victory came swiftly the forge city of urdusec proved to be the location of the traitor's last stand with the remnants of legio demysium numbering now only 11 while they fought to inflict as much damage as possible the result was assured from the beginning the city of odessa was reduced to rubble and never to be rebuilt its shattered ruins would remain as essentia for their crimes against the imperium the largest forged cities of udesh were laid waste by massed titan fire its knowledge banks ruthlessly purged of any technology the mechanicus deemed urdish unworthy of which was a considerable amount and soon the battered industry of the forge world was turned only to supplying loyalist forces operated by fresh numbers of displaced tech priests now part of a newly formed faction of the imperium known as the adeptus mechanicus with the war master edging ever closer to terror the vast majority of ammunition and weapons produced by urdesh was now being dispatched directly to the soul system intended to reinforce the twin gates the glorious relics of antiquity that facilitated rapid deployment of ships within the core system of the imperium soon after the battle of durdecek the titans of legio astroman departed for greyer intended to escalate the war with valya maximal by order of the regent lijjignatam was left to stand guard over udesh and his holdings and was also given authority to punish any who dared rise once more against the emperor the loss of urdesh and the manner in which it was dominated for the second time by the imperium damaged both the cohesion and morale of traitor forces but for their opposition it had become a symbol of ascendancy for loyalist forces across the belt of iron momentum was now growing for the loyalists and many similar planets would rise and fall as eligio venator and legio headed now for arachnus the iron spiders had a singularly clear vision of recapturing the world in the name of the emperor and at any cost forge while calabrex observed that the attention of the loyalists was focused elsewhere and now like many of the trade to forge worlds would abandon its allies in an attempt to fortify its holdings in doing so the worlds they had conquered were deprived of the presence of legion kurdista and with their oppressors removed many of their number rose up once more casting down any traitors that remained his sense of freedom soon led to a desire for vengeance and many of the smaller worlds began banding together and so a vast flotilla of mismatched ships was formed hundreds in number and eclectic in design few among the tech priests of a powerful forge world could have anticipated seeing such a sight as hundreds even thousands of obscure and sometimes unarmed ships fell now upon calibrax millions would die against the superior guns of the forge world yet as is often the case in war the sheer weight of numbers proved superior and the fleet seized control of calibrax's orbit the traitors had not accounted for the strength of will the years of tortured suffering imbued across the worlds held in their dominion and these ordinary imperial citizens would have their vengeance this seems good in theory but unfortunately they lacked any real means of conquering the planet obviously so instead the flotilla vowed to blockade the forge world until greater forces came to scour their world clean they trapped the titans and the traitors on their planet and the all-encompassing mass of raging little ships doomed the traitors below to look upon with bitter frustration as they would await their fate meanwhile at arachnus the ruling text of the planet would soon fill the wrath of the loyalists since announcing their succession the empire of arachnis had grown the title of dark tide was fitting given they had become known for brutal and swift assault and the traitor titans of arachnis had turned to nearby planets without a means to defend themselves for their brutality but it was these worlds that would be the first to be re-conquered as the loyalist vanguard carved straight through to arachnus falling upon its two moons before the wayward elements of legio trotonis could be recalled to defend the planet on the moon of niskara the invading loyalists found the world heavily contested by those still loyal to the imperium the beleaguered defenders having by some miracle of the emperor weathered a siege since arachnis first fell into civil war they would be rightfully honored in the aftermath legio taurus moved to relieve the moon's defenders breaking open the traitor lines and forcing legion trottones from its surface on the moon of iketomia a similar fate befell the traitors defending it as the full wrath of legio venator was brought down upon those who had renounced their oaths and stolen their homeland the traitor titans were scattered like insects from a child lifting a rock but none were spared the emotionless fury of the legion venator trapped the traitors in their web of destruction following the successful conquest of arachnis's two moons loyalists turned to the forge world itself with the agreement of those loyalist citizens who had been forced into exile from the world the immensely powerful guns of the two moons were unleashed upon the forge world the power of the weaponry was so world-ending that it tore vast craters directly into the planet's surface and the damage destroyed huge areas of the forge world's industrial landscape but cleared the way for an invading force of titans the battle here on arachnus would rage longer than most others and in fact the final glory of conquest was not even achieved until after the fall of the war master this of course meant that unfortunately for the titans falling upon arachnids many would perish before ligia veneto once more reclaimed their home the ongoing war of arachnis fall of urdish and blockade of calibrax crushed the traitors within the segment and pacificus of the belt of iron although lesser forgerod still showed some signs of rebellion the heretics within this region were now on their knees few could contest the powerful might of atar median and soon firebrand titans were dispatched from the belt of iron many of these fleets sought to answer distress calls long ignored and though such purpose was noble it largely proved futile with the fires of war having long since consumed those smaller worlds who had once needed aid and sadly so often is the case within the imperium the belt of iron was not free of war however for the loyalist bastion and titan powerhouses of greyer remained locked in seemingly endless war against their bitter rivals of valya maximal the loyalists had faced an unending campaign of attrition orchestrated by magos dominus alpha heronium who had sought to disperse the strength of greyer through a series of faints and rapid assaults it was only with the death of their commanding magos that the traitors were thrown into disarray valia maximal and his titans now stood unable to muster a coherent assault but still the late magos had prepared the forge world's defenses extremely well and an unyielding line of enemy worlds stood in defiance of greyer in a logic defying space of time the traitors of valya maximal had somehow turned these small worlds into planets spanning fortresses each demanding blood be shed for every wall that crumbled for valiant maximal to fall the logicians of greyer determined that these worlds must be conquered first lest their garrisons prove a threat to greyer's holdings of the 16 recorded attempts to capture this soon named blood iron worlds only one success was recorded the seizing of the now dead world of aristara at the cost of 11 morning stars god engines and an estimated 250 000 mechanical tag mata losses greyer maintained its defense for still another year whilst it continued to assault the defense planets of valya maximal this was only achieved by throwing millions of souls into the cauldron of war until the forge world was all but bled dry but then as if by some pre-ordained signal the tide of traitors waned the fleets of maximal retreating beyond their fortress worlds this change in parameters caused much contention among the logicians of greyer preventing consensus and stalling their war effort when no renewed assault was forthcoming the forces of grime moved cautiously against the blood iron worlds but found only silence disturbingly ten dead worlds were all that were found hanging in the void the horse of their fortifications empty and then a similar yet even more perplexing fate had befallen valium maximal itself for the forge world had seemingly been scoured clean of its forged cities only scattered pieces of industry remain like some ancient archaeological site there was no sign at all with the traitors or anything that belonged to them upon the surface of the world the initial landing force reported no detectable signs of life and encountered only the hollowed-out shells of legio astroman the titans that had fallen in the preceding years of war each one posed as if in great pain and kept standing by intricate scaffolding as to how or why valya maximal departed none can say and so in a bizarre anti-climax so concluded the cataclysm of iron billions of souls had been poured into a crucible of bitter spite of furious vengeance and like so much of the heresy it left a deep scar across an area of the imperium that it would never truly recover from [Music] after the slaughter which had encompassed two segments and thousands of god machines weapons so powerful that planets themselves were near enough cracked open when all was said and done all that remained in the aftermath was silence some worlds remained locked in battle others had been crushed to a point of near physical exterminatus others were quite literally scoured clear and now marked as death worlds the godlike war machines of the titan legions had done little for those who walked beside them the imperium had retained its territory but still billions lay dead were now suffering eternal horror at the creatures of human nightmares few could realistically call it victory it would be a long time before the belt of iron would achieve anything close to unity as internal civil wars continued to tear apart planets human nature reigned supreme in its rawest form and without any order many planets looked like they had returned once again to the age of strife the titanic machines of mars had conquered the void their vast presence and god-like weaponry barely understood by any within the imperium of mankind and had once again dominated the spoils of war were left for the imperium and the emperor but on a small subsidiary forge world which had little to no significance humanity still tore itself as raw and animalistic as it ever had been within the vast shadow of a long abandoned titanic machine of war one man battered another skull into the dirt until the ground was a sea of crimson and his hand wrapped around a dark rock was now stuck with shards of bone the shadow cast by the god engine obscured the heat of the sun and as he stood a small rock slipped from his blood-soaked hand the man looked to the skies for the glory of mankind and the emperor he thought to himself so so now i just want to talk briefly about audible and why it's an excellent service for you to consider getting involved in as always i've included some of your comments about why you guys choose to use audible audible is consistently the best value when it comes to audio books and that's more important for people these days than ever also with that in mind audible recently released their new plan audible plus and this is all about giving members a chance to listen to and explore different formats discover new favorites classics or things you've maybe never even considered before within audible as you can see you can easily narrow what's available within the plus category or search within specific themes and genres the other option is audible premium and that actually remains the standard price as per before and within that you get one credit per month for an audiobook of your choice and if that's a 40k audio book you're looking at often 10 hours or more of content but then you also get access to the whole audible plus range and all the other benefits that come with audible also this month i'm starting what i hope will be a successful ongoing project with my audiobook club and i will select a title each month which you guys can get involved in via audible if you're not a member with audible already this is a great opportunity to trial it and use the free audiobook offer this month i'm selecting valdor birth of the imperium it's an interesting title and not too long at only six hours if you've heard it before maybe give it a second listen and then on the last day of this month for january that's the 31st i'll arrange a live stream and details will follow on my community tab you can then come and join me where we'll discuss it live and all are welcome there even if you haven't listened to the audiobook in the next month in february i'll choose a new audiobook for us to run with it's pretty simple format but i think it'll be fun and engaging for us all lastly i often talk about the best new 40k books but there's plenty of other content on audible to check out some of my personal recommendations would be near enough anything by the legendary author philip k dick having an opportunity to listen to some of his classics whilst doing my miniature paintings has been great to rediscover especially with the depth and vision of his ideas so i highly recommend checking out some pkd you can get involved today by starting a 30-day audible trial this gets you a free audio book as well as full access to thousands of originals audio books and podcasts in the audible plus plan visit audible.comlutin or for those in the us text looting to 500 500. as always a huge thanks to all of you for supporting me here on the channel and i'll see you in the next one you

Channel: Luetin09

Views: 910,902

Keywords: Gaming, Discuss, Channel, Future, 40K, Warhammer 40K, Imperium, Humanity, Mankind, Doom, Fall, Space Marines, Heretic, Heresy, The Emperor of Man, Lore, History, Guide, Warhammer 40000, Warp, Immaterium, Rift, War, Slaughter, Horror, Nightmare, Tabletop, Inquisition

Id: y0G_i_oqvH4

Length: 107min 30sec (6450 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021