40K - THE TITANIC DEFENCE OF RYZA | Warhammer 40,000 Lore/History

[Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] today we will explore the conflicts which took place between titan legions around the defense of the forge world riser during the horus heresy this follows on from our previous look at the conflict around the beta garment sector the conflict of shadow and iron the defense of rise is a supplementary element for the tabletop titanicus game if you've never taken a look i advise you to do so it's an adjacent tabletop game to the core 40k and it focuses on battles between world ending titans you can fight open battles or play out narrative engagements focused on some of the most devastating battles in imperial history i already have multiple videos discussing titans the troubling side titans and the apocalyptic conflict known as titan death both will be available in the end portal of this video riser was one of the most powerful forge worlds within the emperor's burgeoning imperium it was said to have stood only second to mars itself due to the level of sophistication seen in its manufacturing so much so that it was known to many as the furnace of shackled stars rizer was famous for its capability to understand and produce plasma equipment and weaponry of the highest quality and to a degree that is still true today its forges turned out greatly coveted plasma reactors and the associated high-grade magnetic containment fields necessary for their operation at both personal arms level and for that of the titanic scale of hardware it also produced the famed lehman russ executioner plasma destroyer cannons these are exclusively forged on riser this high grade of production is largely attributed to a sect of tech priests founded upon ryzer who turned towards the study of plasma believing that each drop was the blood of the omniscient gifted to his servants to ensure they crafted new wonders in his name ryzer was brought into the realm of the emperor's new imperium as one of the unusual worlds to have weathered the age of strife quite successfully this was in no small part due to the cult mechanicus which you will recall had been periodically sent out into the galaxy from mars throughout the age of strife also important to remember that the cult mechanicus and the adaptus mechanicus are two different things this is why people were often referred to the cult mechanicus as the cult of the machine before the heresy the mechanicus was known as the mechanicum and its religion was that of the cult mechanicus this is a small but important note as you could be mistaken for thinking the adaptus mechanicus somehow existed during the age of strife it did not the cult mechanicus emerged because of the age of strife after mars was reverted back to its red state after all terraforming technology failed on mars and its technology-focused society was driven underground barely surviving after a brutal civil war the cult mechanicus and mechanicum emerged as the ruling faction on mars so brief history of mars over riser was able to survive through the age of strife because of the technological skills of the cult mechanicus just as they did on mars and many other now forge worlds dotted across the galaxy when riza was rediscovered it was viewed with some contention as many believed it had achieved too much knowledge and posed something of a rival threat to mars itself its titan legio crucius was also rightly feared few wanted to have to bring riser into the emperor's imperium through submission as doing so would be likely of a drawn-out and painful affair the resolution was to offer rise of vassalage to both mars and terror allowing it to become part of the emperor's ever-expanding empire with no need for conflict history records suggest though that there were those unable to dismiss the thoughts of ryze's ambitions and although riza offered no public descent towards mars many in the mechanicus especially were uncomfortable with the level of reverence to which riser was often spoken about such high praise and admiration was ordinarily reserved exclusively for mars there were those who feared envy bubbling below the surface and that there were even those burning with jealousy about risers prominence it would be these bitter individuals who much later would ultimately whisper into the ear of the war master and it would be they who subsequently assembled a force to assail the world many years later consumed by avarice and desperate to claim the world and its rich vaults of knowledge for themselves the most ancient records state that riza was once a world bountiful in life two large continents separated by vast oceans brimming with biodiversity the millennia preceding the arrival of the emperor's reuniting crusade however saw great change upon riser its landscapes became barren plains stripped of life and massive forge temples appeared shrines to the omnisire as is often the case on the imperium's heavily industrialized planets the former oceans were seemingly boiled away by unending out-of-control levels of industry steadily replaced though with industrial runoff and effluent ryze's massive areas of industry and habitation were still separated by the void left by these oceans but they now featured a network of artificial isthmus's these are narrow land strips connecting risers continents these artificial straits enabled access to all of riser mag trains ran the length of these artificial crossings but were primarily used for carrying cargo and raw materials between the forges and production centers to ensure the industry of riser never went hungry these access routes would later be seen as vital targets for invaders claiming even a single isthmus gave unrestrained access to ryze's continents on most worlds appropriated by the mechanicus in the age of strife they would nearly always be found with titan legions rizer was no different and upon this forged world it was legion crucius who stood as its powerful defenders crucius was rumored to have held connections with rizer prior even to the great crusade his speculation comes from crucius being well known as one of the most well equipped titan legions in imperial service as well as boasting numbers sufficient to provide garrison forces upon several smaller outlying forge worlds and even for adaptive mechanicus outposts whose meijer maintain fealty or alliance to riser and its masters because of their plasma mastery it's reported that ryze's own skitari regiments are near to fully equipped with lehman russ executioners rare enough for any imperial regiment but for them to be seen in such numbers is truly an extreme rarity at the height of rise's technical zenith during the great crusade it is said that the majority of plasma guns mounted on the astati's stormblade super-heavy tanks were forged from riser when the weapon fired a rolling barely contained bolt of raw plasma as bright as the sun was unleashed only the strongest armor had any hope of resisting its power and most were turned to liquid reduced to slag by such force it was said to be capable of even defeating titan-grade void shields with relative ease during this era ryzer produced one other key piece of hardware the solar riser pattern lehman russ now this was utilized by the elite soldiers of the solar auxilia imperial guard by another name for they were still unenhanced humans but despite this their reputation was that of soldiers so elite that it is said they were often referred to as being second only to astartes themselves and that supposedly astartes even displayed an uncommon amount of respect for these mortal human fighters as a consequence the solo auxiliary were equipped with some of the finest equipment during the crusade they made extensive use of armored vehicles which were enhanced to what were known as solar specifications solar riser pattern lemon rust tanks possessed not only a highly extensive array of equipment and weaponry but their specifications were so advanced that this enabled them to operate in almost any location including even the most hazardous of environmental conditions so riza was well known as a world of achievement and glory a shining jewel of human technological capability but then the darkness fell upon the emperor's soon to be imperium and very few worlds of humanity were able to escape the cloak which would envelop the new empire of mankind the heresy was well underway and the traitors were laying waste to worlds both beautiful and technically powerful fire and hellish suffering were unleashed amid one of mankind's worst betrayals and most self-destructive periods riser like so many other worlds would not escape the greed and avarice of horus and was soon to be dragged into the burning abyss of war horus had now been fighting his way toward terror and many of his followers his traitors gazed upon the rich worlds of the emperor now less well defended than they might otherwise have been and saw them as ripe for exploitation and conquest within the crusade of shadow and iron located in the beta garment cluster the majority of the dark mechanicums titan legions were committed to those battles others they were sent out to explore any unchecked worlds that may stall or otherwise delay the war master and so it was that the minions of the fabricated general of mars had amassed the traitor fleet departed from the fringes of the beta garment system where they had gathered with one focused destination the riser system razer itself had not been swayed by the golden promises of horus in fact they had reacted to the office of betrayal very poorly and instead sent out word to those within the loyalist mechanicum who refused to break away from the emperor and consequently had been cast out from mars by kel bor-hal the fabricator general word soon reached these forces that rise was now offering them a sanctuary and many travelled there to escape the horror the consequence of this was that when finally those loyal to the war master descended upon riser it was not only defended by the already formidable legion crucius but now also bolstered by several other legio and night houses among their number were house tyrannis and house zevora of the knights ancient households bound to mars since the age of strife and both legio honoram the death bolt and legio osidax the cockatrices all were able to aid riser to some degree in due accordance with treaties negotiated upon their patron worlds all were sworn to rise unto death for the world toiled to reunite the shattered forces that still oppose the war master across the ultima segmentum yet the now emergent dark mechanicum greatly desired the powerful knowledge of plasma technology held on riser and so despite its reinforcements when the traitors finally approached riser and were preparing to engage its defenses they unfortunately outnumbered the loyalists significantly the wall master wanted ryzer crippled so as to pose no threat to his grandiose plans the mechanicum of cowboy hal however while they wanted something much more new forges later known as hell forges to develop the horrors via techno-heretical profane experimentation commanding the traitors was one euretas omicron upon the orders of the warmaster he would deploy the infamous legio magna otherwise known as the flaming skulls legio volturum the gore crows titans from legio mortis the death's heads whose presence had been demanded personally by the war master to ensure victory in total some 140 titans had been assembled their gathered might a portent of doom for the world of riza these titans were also supported by the night houses of morbidia and auroborn with additional hosts of mechanicum tag mata supported by a menagerie of twisted creations given life by the minds of their dark mechanical masters the traitors upon arrival were to face an unusual challenge before they were even able to make planetfall during the age of strife riser had been like so many worlds continually assaulted by the zenos and it should be noted that not all worlds during the age of strife turned into cannibalistic anarchy so its greatest minds were able to in this time construct a huge structure in orbit of the planet known as riser secundus in essence this was a vast satellite battle station perhaps something the size of a moon it was capable of housing entire expeditionary fleets and was stocked heavily with munitions during the great crusade this posed an immediate and highly dangerous problem for the traitor force approaching for they may have been armed with over a hundred powerful titans and night houses not to mention their other subsidiary forces of the mechanicum but locked aboard their ships in the dark silence of space this counted for absolutely zero their choices were limited they had the numbers to assault the station and defeat it this was certain but their losses would likely mean any invasion of the planet below would be over before it had truly begun around this time techs aboard riser secundus had been seeing unusual ghosts in their sensor readouts for many weeks but upon further investigation nothing ever clearly presented them with an answer patrols and scout ships were sent out to scour sectors of space around the riser system but always to no avail during the heresy the warp was known to be at best unstable and so these sensor readings were steadily attributed to this and nothing more yet drifting in the darkness of the void were forms likely to be unseen and unrecognized for they presented barely any power readout barely any visual signatures they were stripped down skeleton vessels who drifted steadily toward riser these were mechanical vessels though now you could barely call them so their cargo bays contained corrupted skittery and abhorrent mechanical constructs they were drifting under the absolute lowest levels of power required to maintain their motion such little energy was used they did not appear on the readouts of the sensors aboard ryzer secundus or even that of the scouting ships the traitors had unfortunately planned a masterwork of patience and discipline to achieve their ultimate goal the ghost mechanicum ships drifted toward riser and it would take well over a month for them to come even near to the world yet around this time was just when the main fleet of traitor ships would be entering the riser system this main fleet was immediately tracked and noted by both riser and the secundus station whose attention was now squarely focused on the approaching traitor fleet riza itself had only a modest deployment of ships much of them having been assigned elsewhere early on in the heresy so they could not engage the fleet of traitors without the support of the battle station its armaments easily were capable of shredding incoming enemy ships with a few volleys of their powerful batteries the loyalists were so focused on engaging with the traitor fleet that they were only alerted to the approaching stealth ships when they quite literally crashed into them so unseen were they the loyalist vessel the cog of virtue was split wide open leading thousands of souls to be poured into the void of space and immediate and gut-wrenching panic ensued the defenders realized this sudden predicament they found themselves in this was of no concern to the traitors whose ships powered up and the secundus sensors could see in close proximity 11 ships within minutes waves of boarding ships were powering toward the station a great money were vaporized but the proximity volume and surprise of the assault meant a considerable amount of traitors were able to make entry upon riser secundus the scene within the corridors of secundus had suddenly become that of over a thousand worlds in the imperium loyalist and trait were like battling hand to hand if necessary close range brutal bloody fighting gunfire filled the corridors many became quite literal shooting galleries others were overwhelmed by invaders and the fighting became personal close range and brutal the traitors were quickly gaining ground by now all that stood between them and the control of the station were 12 knights of house von hare who had already suffered greatly at the hands of the word bearers amidst the betrayal at cause only a few of the knights survived and riser had helped support them with nudie forged knights but the numbers of enemy were so great on secundus that they were soon to be overwhelmed they fought bravely and fought hard but could not push back against the wave after wave of near-suicidal traitors who continually launched themselves upon the wardens of secundus again and again as more and more of the battle station was lost to the traitors its battle effectiveness continued to decrease versus the exterior threats and by now it was surely a foregone conclusion that secundus would soon be lost to the heretics the knights of house of on her knew the situation was beyond salvation and that for them and the others aboard cundus who sought the defense of riser death was not far from their minds aftermath data pulled from the dead shells of the knights indicated a battle lasting for some six hours straight had occurred in the central point of rise's secundus that other defenders had rallied to hold out with the knights for as long as was possible if the data fragments retrieved are accurate their delaying perseverance meant that the traitors attention was held primarily on this final stand made by the knights and the scant defenders and this enabled the few pockets of text still resisting to fire off final volleys by the powerful armaments of the battle station and this sundered the traitor's ship omniscience blessing the twelve knights of house von hare would never be forgotten and their names were inscribed upon secundus into the age of the modern imperium some ten thousand years later for those on riser though now looking up at their guardian moon it had become silent and dark all on the planet below knew what was now soon to come and their hurried preparations continued in expectation of the traitors making planet four with the apocalyptic weaponry of the legion titanicus a cold feeling of dread must have caught the souls of human defenders knowing secundus had been defeated the mortal defenders on the frontlines of the planet surfaced knew that soon they would witness what few ever imagined they would bear witness to with their own eyes the god machines of the omnisire would soon march forth into battle with them unleash the power of sons turn the ground itself to glass fire missiles that could tear holes into reality itself and vaporize mortal men in the hundreds of thousands it was rumored among many how the god machines were so powerful they could destroy entire worlds titanic warfare was soon to be unleashed upon the surface of riser awaiting the traitors was nearly a fifth of legio crucius the rest of their number were scattered across the galaxy in defense of distant worlds and they were bolstered by the other titan legios and lighthouses committed in the defense of riser the challenge awaiting the traitors was formidable the traitors who were used to either outnumbering loyalist defenses or crushing them with shock assaults made possible by carefully deployed deceit their tactical choices would not differ here on riser the planetside battles themselves would be fought by means of literal attrition between some of the most powerful war engines ever seen by the mortal eyes of most humans for the traitors however they first had a more imbalanced task to accomplish as it soon became clear that even making it to the surface was going to be a significantly dangerous task ryzer had powerful ground to air defenses and for the enemy running the gauntlet to the surface was proving quickly to be a costly affair so in order to avoid significant losses before the battle proper had even begun the traitors would use a strategy deployed commonly throughout the heresy to gain a foothold upon riser their strategy would be to light the fires of fear and paranoia within its population their goal insurrection [Music] one of the most dangerous and costly impacts of the horus heresy or not simply the battles between astartes themselves this is of course the most widely documented and fabled series of events for many they are mythical now being some 10 000 years after they took place the heresy though quite obviously affected far more than just the disintegration of the astartes legion's loyalties it also significantly warped formerly stable planets into raging pits of rioting anarchy and unrest within populations very often this did not happen by mere chance or by means of some unfortunate event it was all too often deliberately orchestrated by traitors and heretics who would send out seeds of disinformation that then steadily infected the minds of those within a population who were perhaps more easily persuaded into doubting the loyalties of their fellow citizens or who maybe had always harbored mistrust of this new imperium that they had been very forcibly brought into although many worlds across the crusade were now under the banner of the imperium it's certain that a solid percentage of the populations likely still had silent doubts or simply did not agree with joining this new imperium many worlds had after all been doing quite well until the emperor decided he knew better and that it was for their own good that they must join his new imperium of man in fact this was a whole part of the great crusade was that if a world did not agree to join the imperium they would be crushed into submission and forced to join the imperium so what would follow across many world citizenry during the heresy would begin usually with agents of the traitors either arriving or being contacted to begin spreading suspicion of traitors in their midst perhaps forming small groups to discuss or speak false information within a population perhaps they might try to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the imperium or the activities of its representatives in some cases even committing sabotage or instigating civil unrest to then raise tensions on a world in a relatively short period of time this would then deteriorate into witch-hunts of varying purposes very often without cause or evidence the accused making protestations of innocence only fuelling the delusions of those who would then judge them that of course they usually must certainly be guilty these agents of chaos would continually feed the steadily growing fears and doubts of an all-too-often unfortunately gullible or ignorant population you would finally begin to see traitorous cults appearing openly on formerly loyalist worlds and by now whole sections of citizenry had become convinced believing that their eyes were open to the truth of things and that the stable order of the emperor's imperium must all be a lie despite the concerted efforts of loyalist planetary and civilian leaders nothing could shift or alter the personal convictions of those whose minds had been corrupted by the darkness of the void at this point in fact quite the opposite the more the others attempted to try and convince them otherwise it only further validated their own reality entrenching their fears and beliefs and civilian traitors on imperial worlds had fueled their own deception to saturation levels and this happened all throughout the imperium during the heresy most of the civilians at this point were way past the point of no return they were now themselves traitors and beyond the reach of any logical reasoning that the emperor had sought to found his whole new imperium upon instead whole sections of imperial world populations had now allowed themselves to become enslaved to the will of the darkest forces in the galaxy the gods of chaos themselves however there were also wider implications because ultimately the objective of these subversive traitor agents on imperial worlds was to very appropriately sow chaos they sought to turn previously stable and relatively peaceful worlds who had until recently belonged to a wider and ever more united imperium of mankind into isolated ruined worlds where doubt suspicion paranoia and fear ran through the population like wildfire neighbors would turn against one another long time loyal friends even family on many worlds it was simply the notion the exploitation of doubts and fears that seemed to get deeply inside the citizenry and consume them and as i have explained before in the most dangerous weapons video and also an inquisition video this is one of the most dangerous parts about chaos because its effect is tearing apart the cohesion of societies on during the heresy thousands of worlds leaving them as burning ruins importantly of course the benefit of this was a world in disarray was a world that could not mount a cohesive and well-organized defense that was the entire point of this during the heresy for the most part because this instability would be key to many of the invasions made by the traitors throughout the galaxy in this time so despite the legendary battles of astartes across the heresy it was the mental and spiritual destruction of imperial populations across the galaxy which was one of the most damaging and i think understated effects of the heresy worlds became ever more isolated as the population turned in on themselves spiraling into a cycle of largely unnecessary and painful self-destruction unsurprisingly once this downward direction of societal collapse had begun there was little that could prevent it from worsening as divisions only fueled further divisions violence fueled more violence and very often this deteriorated to a point where it would finally spark a civil war it was only after seeing great quantities of bloodshed and agony for billions as well as obviously the actual end of the heresy itself with the death of horus that the worlds of humanity were able to come out the other side and regain something of their former selves it would be still many years though before they would be able to regain any true stability although the heresy fell apart after the death of horus the division they had created would take generations to weed out and bring back any true sense of societal unity across imperial worlds these events of irrational and senseless self-destruction came at a terrible price not only with the huge numbers of civilian deaths but also the widespread destruction of infrastructure technology and planetary resources the result of all of this is one reason as to why within the modern imperium the inquisition engaged with the ordinary population of the imperium with absolutely zero tolerance subversives weird cults and those who would for whatever reason perhaps even for personal gain seek to sow the seeds of paranoia doubt and fear are tracked down and eliminated by the inquisition with vicious and unrelenting efficiency it's why there is in fact some truth to the joke about calling anyone for any reason a heretic this is on some worlds not so far from the truth the heresy was one of the biggest tragedies not only for the obvious casualties or that it would cause the imperium to stagnate for some 10 000 years but simply because it would take the loss of many billions of lives throughout the imperium for their populations of these worlds to realize that their biggest threat was not so often the literal threats that they could see but to allow those who sought to divide and corrupt the minds of their fellow citizens to prevail and be complicit in bringing about such wanton destruction it was quite simply a very poor reflection on humanity and demonstrated that little had changed over the many thousands of years despite the age of strife the dark age of technology humanity could still be twisted manipulated and turned against itself with seemingly very little effort all for the needs and desires of beings who cared not one wit for they themselves it seems ever to be true that humanity is simply unable to learn from its own mistakes and history this would not be the final chapter in humanity's struggles within its own borders many uprisings and rebellions would break out upon imperial worlds across the next 10 000 years but few would replicate the wide reaching destruction and wholesale madness of those insurrections which occurred during the horus heresy returning to riser the wild fires of insurrection had been ignited agents seeded amongst the population by the war master long before his allies had descended upon ryzer leading dissident manufacturing workers to then seize control of forges and besieged garrisons bereft of training and reliant on scavenged weapons and the machineries of their trade these rebels could do little more than raid supply convoys sabotage infrastructure and delayed troop movements such actions offered little threats to night houses or titan legions but this was not necessary to have the effect the traitors required for the intent was merely to strain the defenses of riser to force loyalist forces to spread themselves across the surface more thinly so as to ensure the nerve centers of the planet were left dangerously under garrisoned with the pro-traitor sects on riser now creating disorder worker revolts and acts of sabotage were quickly becoming widespread and out of control the loyalist forces on riser could largely contain these although they were an irritating distraction in the circumstances it would be some 19 days later when a rogue tech priest seized control of a forged fame on the southern continent close to the vital conveyance terminus 9 omega spaceport the captured forged fame contained over 10 storm blade tanks causing a legio honor and battle group to move against them house loden was designated to defend the spaceport and it was then that the traitors struck house loden revealed their treacherous nature and turned upon the legio honoram as it rushed to return and the first of the gore crows traitor titans transports began to make their landings within the spaceport the legio honor and titans would unleash their guns upon the spaceport before being forced to withdraw but in doing so would destroy some vital infrastructure in a vain effort to keep it out of the traitors hands by the time the gore crows crested the walls of the spaceport to answer the resounding guns of legion onerum only two warlords remained the forms of both swazed in billowing fire conveyance terminus nine omega was claimed by the traitors and the door to riser was opened for the traitors to be successful their next action had to be in securing a vital isthmus these were the narrow bridges that spanned the long since departed oceans of riser and connected its vast continents legion magna and legion volturum fell upon salvation isthmus an artificial land strip formed from metal and rock cretan lined with manufactoria that connected the southern and northern continents across the sea of reclamation the defending loyalists needed to defend this isthmus at all costs but were unfortunately by now outnumbered two to one crucius warlord titans dueled with vulture and reavers loyalist warhounds would leap from the shadows of surrounding buildings to ambush traitors advances and soon for what had begun as a bold and confident assault which the traitors believed would lead to a very easy victory soon turned into a grinding war of attrition for eight days the tide of war raged upon the isthmus the warmongers refusing to bow in the face of an invasion even as their titans became covered in a patchwork of hasty repairs and scorched metal things were not progressing well for the traitors and worse were reports of loyalists seeking to outflank them they would have to act quickly and boldly if they were to salvage the situation princep's ultima scrindus of the gorecrows commander of the assault knew his time was pressing and options limited legion magna were ordered to draw the attention of the defending loyalists whilst his only geo volturum marched into the sea of reclamation itself although the true oceans of riza were gone as on many industrialized worlds in the imperium they had been replaced by oceans of liquid effluent and industrial refuse it was down into this blinding opaque filth that legion volturum the gore crows would now descend the chemicals and waste of this hostile environment were something of a danger in and of itself with some potentially corroding or flooding compartments of the titans but far more dangerous were the invisible threats several of the titans were lost to concealed geothermal caverns upon the seabed or set upon to the distress of their princeps by strange roaming packs of feral servitors seemingly in the sea their forms had become hardened against the harsh conditions of the oceans and their engram directives had been corrupted by scrap code unleashed upon riser during the first days of invasion a common tactic by the dark mechanicum those of legion volturum who survived to emerge did so upon the northern continent of riser and they quickly began an assault upon the fortress of legio crucius without any hesitation the result was chaos and devastation many loyalist titans were here away from the front lines of battle stationed in their repair cradles each carefully tended to by way of the administrations of many hundreds of tech priests six of these slumbering giants were claimed before they were even able to power up their void shields and three more fell only so as to buy time for the rest of their number to awaken it was an appalling and distressing sequence of events for the loyalists and if nothing else dealt a crushing blow to their morale the loyalists were all ready to fight to the death in defense of the critical isthmus but instead the order for retreat was given for they could no longer take advantage of the terrain to even the odds and one battle did not equate to complete victory to waste their titans here when it was clear they had been outflanked would have been sheer folly and so it was that with great reluctance princep's ultima hendrill ordered the abandonment of the defense the legion would move west towards the forged city of prosperity having to admit failure and retreat was painful enough but it was made far worse by knowing that by leaving they had left their brothers and sisters still fighting on the isthmus with certain death as legion magnet and the gore cries slowly closed in around them including princep's ultima hendra the loyalists would make sure that they very obviously had no intention of going down without a fight and the last stand upon the isthmus was a raging battle between the god engines their actions would be forever carved into the legacy of legio crucius three warhounds speared through the traitors battle line shields flaring as one to resist the weight of fire poured down upon them within the center of the tray to line the hounds toppled the warlords cordless ignis and baron ashes the resulting explosion claiming the three warhounds and blaze of roth a river titan of legio magna the crucius river titan beast of riser physically slammed into its counterparts among the gorecrows having exhausted its ammunition and now sought to bring them down with pure hatred and rage by physical combat it claimed two god engine kills before a determined volley from a vulture and warbringer nemesis finally brought down the beast of riser the last titan of legio crucius reported to stand in the fight was the death of avarice a warlord forged during the age of strife according to its data extracts a titan that had brought civilizations to heal and destroyed a thousand worlds finally it stood in its last moments upon salvation isthmus rise of the world of its creation standing wrapped in whipping plasma as its reactor overloaded the death of avarice plunged its plasma annihilators into the wounded side of a voltrom river titan splitting it in two and igniting its reactor simultaneously they exploded the shock wave was like that of a supernova and there was nowhere on riser it would not have felt the shock wave its death signified the traitor's victory peric as it was they had seized salvation isthmus and now unlocked access to all of ryzer the war on riser was now escalating quickly the traitors were well established and continued to push the advance leaving burned out twisted metal hulks consumed by plasma engulfing large stands fought in bitter jewels in their wake at the city of prosperity the remnants of the legio crucius who had made the successful retreat from salvation isthmus regrouped alongside three menopause of the legio honoram and surviving house of vaughn hair knights despite prosperity's formidable defenses it had fallen upon legion magna to pursue the fleeing war mongers such legion crucius prosperity was both a center of industry and a fortress constructed to withstand assault the strength of its wars tested many times during the age of strife although significant time had passed since those dark days the mechanicum had dutifully attended the maintenance of the world's defenses a place deal wall some 10 meters thick encircled the city manned by battalions of skittari and augmented by the machines of the mechanicum tag mata it also boasted fearsome emplacements bearing plasma obliterators evenly along the outward city walls ryzer was an unusual planet comparative to many assaulted by the heretics during the crusade for on riser there was considerable value contained within its cities and manufactured so heavy assaults that might lead to catastrophic levels of collateral damage were not necessarily favored by the traitors even though they sought the complete annihilation of the loyalists this was their primary goal so it was for this reason that both sides considered prosperity too important to risk dealing heavy unconstrained fire from titan legions upon it and so it was before the walls of prosperity that the loyalists gathered not within the city itself as they awaited the arrival of the traitors across the barren plains of riser stretching out before them into what seemed like an infinite distance beyond the horizon behind the titans were connected a line of plasma generators poured from their births in the city humming with energy these were brought out so as to feed the insatiable hunger of the titans through plasmic tethers they were now bound both by oath and physically to the city the two would stand or fall together the traitors came at them with some 50 titans though yet again heavily outnumbered the loyalists managed to inflict losses on the traitors but as the two sides traded fire the loyalist warhounds of legio onoram ventured forth biting at the flanks of the advancing legion magna though their fleeting assaults offered little threat to the power of the traitor warlords any attempt to pursue by the traitors exposed them and so several flaming skulls god engines fell victim to the guns of legion crucius as they broke formation to chase the warhounds additionally the traitors found themselves drawn into ancient fields of formerly dormant minds burrowed beneath the surface in ages past when the city of prosperity was first raised these are now reawoken by a burst of binary unleashed from prosperity these ancient weapons buried free of the earth spider-like limbs propelling them into the advancing traitors and mayhem tore through the ranks of legion magna their battle line fragmenting as the loyalist weapons crippled the more impetuous of the traitors in answer the flaming skulls were able to deploy their own scrap code seizing control of mines closest to the loyalists and turning them against their masters even as the main bulk of the traitor force now broke upon the loyalist line it was now a brutal melee battle upon the outer wars of prosperity as the almighty god engines fought with fists and smashed their ranged weapons against one another some powering their weapons and firing close range at great risk even to themselves there was little thought for their own survival though some on the periphery broke away to gain distance and provide supporting fire with ranged weapons but in doing so left gaps inadvertently which the traitors immediately would exploit their fallback maneuver had cost the loyalists a section of the wall and by now the faster titans of the enemy crested the wall and entered the city panic terror and suffering now filling the vox waves of loyalist titans and finally legion magna pushed forward breaking through the loyalists however for some of the traitors that glee and gloating at having won the city blinded them to the fire still incoming from loyalist titans scattered as they were at least one of the traitors void shields collapsed as their princess were bathing in their own glory and self-satisfaction and the warlord titans came crashing down the traitors laid eyes on their executioners three nemesis titans moved forward to reinforce the loyalists the warbringer nemesis is a rarer and much feared class of titan for it is designed specifically with one battle role in mind killing titans the nemesis sits between the size of a warlord titan and a river titan and his primary weapon is a truly apocalyptic quake cannon designed to take down enemy god machines but also to break through sieges this artillery weapon features a revolver style loading mechanism and will render even warlord titans into piles of white hot slag it is also then fitted additionally with more standard titanic weaponry the insanity doesn't end there though quake shells fired by the nemesis titan are said to contain fragments of planets who have undergone exterminatus and this destructive energy is then reborn in the form of quake shells unbelievably the imperium have also seen fit to mount this weapon on tanks and the imperial guard will use quake cannons upon bane sword attacks a variant of the shadow sword these are primarily reserved for siege battles as they feature one of the few weapons able to break through city or bastian defenses as their shells can quite literally disintegrate meters of heavy plastil and rock crete two more traitor titans were fouled their panic was instantly palpable but it cost the life of one of the nemesis as they returned fire in their death throws the loyalists liquidated more of the traitor rivers as they attempted to scale the city walls and their ruined corpses now blocked the broken lines to the enemy it also assisted to shield the remaining nemesis from incoming fire and they unleashed vengeance upon the traitors legion magna and the flaming skulls were now in disarray as loyalist warhand scout titans transmitted firing coordinates to the artillery titans behind the main city wall the traitors were breaking and now in full retreat but more of them fell as the nemesis god machines continued to rain down shells of concentrated exterminators upon them pinning their corpses to the ground in white-hot craters of boiling slag and twisted limbs as their plasma cores imploded into the molten metal as the firing subsided and losses tallied despite being outnumbered the loyalists had scored fewer casualties than the traitors but it was only a matter of time before they would regroup with the new knowledge of what they now faced to secure prosperity as the night came the loyalists prepared for a new assault by the traitors but instead a strange storm appeared which seemed somehow to rain blood from the darkness above them within the city those who had allowed themselves to be corrupted by the agents of chaos performed bizarre rituals and held their gatherings which only further stirred the power of the skies overhead the city seemed now wash with blood streets ran red and a ferocious storm battered the walls the city seemed to turn on itself and much of the populace had turned against one another in a disturbing plague of murder and city-wide disorder the loyalists had appeared to have held good prospects for successfully defending the city by the end of the first assault of the traitors but it was not to be the terrifying scream cracked the skies as if something tore itself out from the void itself and descended upon prosperity in this moment the city fell into total darkness no machines were operational all were black and silent the city was lost only fragments of information were recovered from this bizarre event corrupted recordings garbled messages that managed to reach other loyalist outposts in broken encrypted messages that were only partially received they point towards some kind of techno-corrupting event whereby the data web of the city and all its connected machines were possessed by a sentience in the code further recordings point toward bizarre machine creatures appearing out of the darkness seemingly made from remains of manufacture and machinery itself based on the collective information some have speculated that these were minions operating at the behest of some singular control the nature of who or what it may have been is unknown the loyalist knights and titans survived to see the light of day but the city itself had been slaughtered anything of worth was gone it is recorded that the city was saturated with apparently blood every building and surface stained by its citizenry it stood silent empty they were forced now with a feeling of nausea melancholy to abandon the city for there was nothing left worth defending prosperity was now a dead city with this chapter closed the traitors now turned their attentions to prosperity's sister city endeavour this was another thriving forged city and while it produced high quality weapons and hardware it was also a logistical network hub its focus was on coordinating the transportation of products and materials across riser and this had now switched to the coordination of loyalist forces the traitor's primary goal though is not on these functional aspects of the city but upon acquisition of risers hirofan's technis this is essentially a planetary governor but on forge worlds they were often given different designations the traitors believed that if they could quite literally acquire her head this would serve as a significantly demoralizing blow to the loyalists not to mention the likely destabilizing effect it would have as there would be a short window of disorder created among their ranks which could then be exploited for further victories princep's magnus sal of legion mortis led a brazen and aggressive assault upon endeavour legion mortis also known as the death's heads were a greatly feared legion formed also around the age of strife and it's rumored their final corruption toward the god knurgle occurred during the virus bombing of israel iii remembering also that horus himself had ordered mortis to riser to ensure complete victory with this singularly aggressive assault the death's heads being supported by the gore crows occupied the city the far more straightforward affair than prosperity had been and the dark mechanicum quickly scoured the city searching for their prize of neera haldentum the herophant technis but she could not be located much to the bitter frustration of the mechanicum few of those now trapped within the city occupied by the dark forces held out hope of salvation their only sliver of hope was in the seemingly widespread knowledge that haldentum had not been taken by the traitors without reinforcements though they knew soon enough that all hope would be lost a small number of titans were able to be redeployed from other arenas around the planet to aid the city of endeavour but once assembled the loyalists featured only a pitiful 11 titans supported by contingents of knights from two houses the princeps of the loyalists stood on the barren edge of the city with a predicament assaulting the city meant near enough certain death they were easily outnumbered three to one maybe more they knew that those inside were by now living in a literal hell and their duty was to save them from the horror their suffering did not alter the reality of the situation nor the fact that the wider survival of the planet itself was hanging on by a thread they would have to ask themselves the question did it help riser for them to lead a forlorn hope on the basis of duty alone they would not have to make this decision the nighthouses of the red planet were overcome with the frustration of inaction the knights still held fresh in their mind the knowledge that mars itself had been torn away from them and seeing the traitors on the cusp of now seizing riser brought forth all of their rage and humiliation and it was more than they were able to bear knights as we know tend to have a more honorable and powerful bond to the citizenry of a world and their sense of duty as well more so than others serving within the imperium this is widely believed to have been caused by their connections with the machine spirit of the night designed by stcs during the dark age of technology this transformative mental attitude which over time consumes knight pilots led to the creation of their noble households and helped forge the ideology of feudal worlds was this a deliberate design of the stcs who originally conceived the knight constructs who can say the knights of house tyrannus and zevora though knew what needed to be done they would not allow another glorious forge world to fall to the enemy and they charged towards the city and an intrigued guardian force of traitor titans surprised by the audacity of such an assault on the face of it this may sound like certain death however consider that between the two houses nearly 200 knights were now charging towards the city of wars the two traitor legios looking down upon these loyalists rushing towards the city relished in opening fire and creating smoldering molten remains of the knights some still crawling forward cut off at the legs but refusing to dine until their reactors inevitably overloaded princess senora nuvas of legio osidax was overwhelmed by the losses she monitored from her titan as scores of knights were being obliterated as every minute passed she would scream over the vox for them to turn back and retreat their sacrifice and willful disregard for their lives and machines was traumatic and disturbing she begged upon her allies to withdraw and regroup but they ignored her pleas totally the night houses had shamed the titans into action nuvas ordered the titans forward and began their steady march toward the city walls unfortunately having to crush some of their smaller kin beneath them as they marched toward the traitors and the legio osidax opened fire its effectiveness was minimal the traitor titans were being slaved by power from the city conservatives as they sat on the wall their void shields easily handling the incoming fire but the loyalist titans did help to at least reduce the fire raining down upon the knights data extracts from the city's records and automated monitoring systems have shown that of the near 200 knights itself who assaulted the city barely one quarter survived to the walls themselves however those that did survive found to their great surprise the city itself was wide open the traitors had made no effort to shore up the huge gaping holes they blasted upon their aggressive entry and so the knights quickly entered the periphery of the city their next actions would later be chronicled as the storm of endeavour the knights who were now inside the city walls turned quickly upon the titans who were standing plugged into their power stations of the war the cyrestas castigated gladius ignam scored the first kill it downed an ancient river titan who had survived since the dark age of technology itself nuvas and her fellow titans still steadily marching toward the city picked up the falling traitor titan on their long range scans and it only emboldened them further the small number of knights would survive the horror were now wreaking a terrible vengeance on the traitor titans who had limited maneuverability in their positions some were attempting to reposition but the knights now had the advantage the knights now seem to be in some kind of blood rage as titan after titan foul four in fact in short order the rest of the traitor titans were beginning to realize their predicament as they were now trapped between two forces each requiring different tactics titans as powerful as they are tend to be focused on their forward defenses with their void shields but these are barely effective for smaller units that are able to get inside their shielding so the traitors were caught between getting out into the open space where they could more effectively count on their shielding and use long range weapons but in doing so they would be exposed to the continual battery of incoming fire from the loyalist titans smaller in number though they were so similarly to the indecision of nuvas and her titan kin the traitors were now caught and with each passing moment the knights were making them paid dearly for every single one of their knights that had been slaughtered not to mention the rage they still fell to having lost mars to the traitors the traitors decision was to come together thus merging their void shields much like the titans on salvation isthmus they now found themselves in something of a last stand huddled together so their more exposed rear sights were protected by their merged void shields and physical bodies they hoped that this would reduce damage from the more immediate threat from the knights as they lay down suppressing fire with the knights dashing in and out of city structures while the traitors awaited reinforcements the loyalist titans were still approaching the city and they could be dealt with soon enough princep nouvass of the osidax saw her opportunity now she ordered two of her river titans to fire off a huge hailstorm of missiles landing on the merged void shield of the death said titans princess magnus sal was enraged by this they turned their attentions again toward the loyalists advancing putting down two with their volcano cannons but as sao's raging vengeance at this insulting fire coming from the ranks of the loyalists he and his machine spirit were both consumed by their success so much so that they had not noticed that all the incoming fire had pushed their void shelter and reactor to a point of criticality as many warning lights flashed red it was all sao could do but to realize his tactics of bringing the titans together in a final stand and in fact killed them all the second wave of missiles came from the loyalists as they impacted upon the merged void shielding they failed to penetrate but this was not their purpose they pushed the reactors beyond critical and the titan vita mesorum was ripped apart by the powerful explosion which then consumed the titans standing in close proximity all that was left of the seven deaths had legion mortis titans was a molten crater the humiliating loss of the legion mortis titans was a gut punch for the traitors they still held endeavour but the unfolding events had badly damaged their morale and there was a palpable sense of preservation taking precedence over wider objectives some titan menopause were now calling full retreats in a scene that you could only imagine taking place among heretics some of the gorecrows and deathhead titans even opened fire on each other as they took issue with the call for retreat the loyalist titans had now finally reached the walls of endeavour and steadily were moving through connecting with remaining knights and defenders who were able to come out now into the open this was when the hirofan technis would use her authority to reap vengeance on the traitors as she ordered the opening of the vaults of riser she deemed the risk of laying bare formerly unseen secrets held locked away within the vaults of riser a worthwhile risk if she should be held to account later down the line so be it they could judge her actions if they lived a new army of knights emerged from the depths of riser unknown to imperial records house siddhas the combined forces of siddhis the remaining other knights and legio osidax proved more than enough to drive the occupying traitors from the city who had not helped themselves by destroying some of their own amid a frantic and shambolic retreat the knights scoured the city exterminating any sign of the traitors until endeavour had returned fully to loyalist control the losses on all sides had been devastating to this point some legio's deployments have been completely eradicated others were scattered broken and in various states of disrepair and this is where the hierophant technis would again call upon the cog erudition a guardian cast of mechanicus to open more of ryze's hidden and powerful hardware vaults the exact nature though of what was unleashed in the final days of the defensive riser are unknown the information if it was ever recorded has been purged the broken fragments that have been reported on suggest the remaining traitor titans were exterminated by a machine or machines able to tear them apart with singular blows some are said to have been cast screaming into the void others report seeing the livery of legio crucius but upon god machines so massive they eclipse even warlord titans little if any usable data beyond this was available so just what was unleashed from the vaults there are a variety of rare titan specifications known like the apocalypse carnivore and komodo there are also siege titans described as being one of the largest imperial titans even bigger than a warlord the descriptions we have from riser seem to fit here as siege titans these are used to physically tear down fortifications and the titans gigantic melee weapons are armed with disruption field sheath wrecking balls and other weapons featuring multiple drill heads this fits the description of titans larger than the warlord tearing apart enemy warlords however there is also the description of enemy titans being sent screaming into the ethereal void and that the giant titans to emerge from the vault still bore the livery of loyalist legio crucius this perhaps suggests that the hierophant may have unleashed the objectively rare emperor class of titan upon the traitors who would be able to fire these vortex missiles at their enemy vortex weapons of course rending and ripping material space dragging their enemies back into warp space the void and there is a small link here as well because it is noteworthy that there are only two classes known of emperor titan the imperator and the warmonger now it may or may not be a coincidence that the geochristians are also known as the warmongers whatever they unleashed from the vaults of riser though it had the desired effect and enabled the loyalists to coherently scour the planet of traitors the ease of their cleansing though was met with simultaneous wariness they did not want to become overconfident and walk into another devastating trap the newly emerged house siddis broke with ease a traitor nighthouse who had occupied a forge train the traitors being caught entirely off guard by the rage and ferocity with which they were assaulted this revealed to be something of a hollow victory however as it appeared that the traitors were now actively destroying any infrastructure as they retreated the loyalists had hoped to use this critical forge frame to establish information about movements of the enemy and the general status of riser but clearly now as the traitors felt things were not turning in their favor they sought to disrupt and delay the efforts of the loyalists as much as possible the commander of the traitors omicron had indeed made this decision they had judged their losses too great to now achieve total victory and instead sought to riser as best they could fearful of the wrath that would be incurred by the war master should they fail in this mission it was already bad enough that they would have to convey the news to horus that the deployment of legion mortis in this assault had been annihilated by the loyalists and somewhat also themselves unknown to the loydists the traitors had by now already sounded a full evacuation from riser and were preparing to depart from the terminus nine omega where transporters were already readying to retrieve crippled traitor titans back to their ships in orbit convincing all of the traitor titan princess from different legios that this was necessary was no easy task across riser some such as those routed from endeavour knew that their time was very limited others having taken control of whole regions and the horror delivered upon prosperity were unaware of just what forces others had faced and so felt there was still hope of overall victory for their cause it took omicron an unwelcome amount of time but he successfully persuaded those who disagreed to return for transport off the planet by the time the loyalists realized they were evacuating the planet two-thirds of the traitors were already in orbit the loyalists descending on the spaceport was a bloody and harrowing affair the traitors who were not able to get off of riser were now left without support their ships in orbit had no desire to return and get involved in another costly engagement they were in essence left to die this bitter realization for the traitors on the planet's surface was taken in typically heretical fashion they would make the loyalists pay a price for their deaths around the spaceport the city structures were consumed with hundreds of thousands of infantry each engaged in their own battle for survival and supremacy over the enemy no doubt each soldier's battle feeling as important to them as was the god engine war going on above and around them the traitors numbered barely 25 titans in various states of condition the loyalists prepared 60 titans to bear down on them this battle reportedly wore on for some 13 hours nemesis titans bringing down multiple enemy in single volleys fusion blasts tearing through the powerful armor of warlords as if it were paper and others grappled in close quarters falling into the ground both attempting to beat one another into clumsy submission reactors fled as they were pushed to the limit their princess constantly managing the difficult battle between power for fire and power to maintain their void shielding as the grinding engagement wore on some of the traitor titans even deliberately overloaded their reactors in a bid to take loyalists down with them with cascading detonations the infantry forces were only able to sustain six hours of engagement before things became too dangerous and were forced to pull back the titans continued on for the full length of the battle until the raging traitors were making suicidal charges toward the loyalist lines that ammunition extinguished they simply had no cards left to play they wouldn't be given any kind of gratifying death though and were cut down sometimes shot in the back by the loyalist titans the final battle came to close the planet was significantly damaged in some places rizer was all but ruined victory came but with a bitter and hollow feeling there were no celebrations to be had on riser even in this final assault outnumbering the enemy significantly they still had lost half their forces here at terminus 9 omega the traitors sent whatever orbital bombardments they had left to the planet before they left to return to the war master after assessments were made a mere one-fifth of the planet's infrastructure was deemed still fit for purpose the rest was but twisted metal blackened ruins and ashes the dark mechanicum had failed but horus had won his victory riser was crippled badly it had not been secured for the twisted purposes of the mechanicum ultimately just as was the case throughout the imperium of mankind the heresy came at a devastating and terrible cost to any world the traitors came upon some worlds were lost others like rise are just ruined if nothing else some planets were crippled to a point they could never truly recover from even across the span of some 10 thousand years that was still to come [Music] in the clear light of the aftermath post heresy it became more widely understood that before it had become entangled unwillingly within the heresy itself the leadership of riser had seemingly held ambitions higher than being a forge world of the imperium and the mere survival of the planet that they believed riser to be a special and perhaps untouchable world there were those in the mechanicus who have speculated that ryzer sought to take position above mars motivated by the belief that the power of the red planet would be so diminished at the end of the heresy it would be unable to reclaim its former position as the core world of the cult mechanicus in imperial production the events that occurred as a result of the traitors assault upon riser would turn such ambitions to ashes when all was said and done riser quite unexpectedly suffered far more than mars as a forge world it would rise once more to prominence but there were very few who would let it be forgotten just how humbled riser had been the original records pertaining to the strength of riser and its holdings noted with some contention that the forge world laid claim to no night houses this met with significant skepticism from the cult mechanicus for they had the means and knowledge to construct such machines many would question how or indeed why across millennia of self-rule from the age of strife to the present day the leadership of riser had judged it unnecessary to establish a single night household because they are specifically suited to dealing with situations titan legions would be ill-suited to overcome the leadership of riza have never provided an explanation for this their only statement was entirely dismissive that its magi had turned their minds to other pursuits this was entirely unsatisfactory for many in the mechanicus who felt there was more going on here and could be explained away by a statement that amounted to little more than suggesting that they simply didn't feel like creating knights it was suspicious and demanded further investigation it's still none was forthcoming and over time these suspicions were sidelined in recognition of rise's considerable contributions to the great crusade riser's power was seen as being too important to risk by stirring up unnecessary accusations it was unusual to be sure and a curiosity but there seemed to be little harm done it was only when riser was dragged into the heresy and the traitors descended upon it that its secrets were exposed unleashed from containment beneath the city of endeavor during the closing hours of the siege nearly 150 knights marched to battle bedecked in orange and black trimmed with bronze it was noteworthy that there was an overwhelming presence of mechanical pattern knights and this army of knights significantly aided the loyalist forces driving even the might of a titan maniple to fall before them the deceptive nature of the night house's existence was given great scrutiny in the aftermath of the defense of riser riser itself claimed that the knights had very simply been produced in the years following the emergence of the war masters betrayal their manufacture had been made possible by the relative peace the forge world was blessed with prior to its invasion these answers were accepted but for many in the mechanicus they were wholly unsatisfactory evidence existed that many of the knights predated not just the war masters fall but indeed the imperium itself the sheer quantity also of rarer pattern knights seen as being available in numbers that even mars would have struggled to produce in such a time frame made risers assertions extremely questionable unbelievable even the reasoning for risers concealment of these matters continues to be debated within the mechanicus but it is theorized that these assets were deliberately concealed to prevent them from being reassigned to other worlds as had happened with many of the titans born of riser to the concern of many this adds considerable further evidence that rizer seeks to maintain independence from the rule of others and indeed the imperium a theory that holds much credence when wider events on numerous forge worlds are considered [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Luetin09

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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: i8d_j-aQxe0

Length: 67min 16sec (4036 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 13 2020