The Rangdan Xenocides: An Incomplete History (Warhammer 40K & Horus Heresy Lore)

what if out there in the filmy blackness of the void there existed a threat so cyclopean in its immensity that even its nature could not be fully understood I do not refer to the existential threat from the warp know with the entirely mundane threat of the xenos since the first contact wars of eons past humanity has been assured time and time again that the alien exists only to be purged its stain to be wiped clean from our human galaxy for they do not accept mean us ill we have millennia of experience in the pain that the xenos have meted out upon our race hundreds of their kind Pulu to this galaxy the ailed re the green skins the necrons a town with the HUD the RAC gall the Knabe the Demiurge the NICUs are the hideous names feel archives alongside copious evidence of their corruption and perfidy these and many more are the xenos we are aware of whose obscenity is known documented and insofar as something so atrocious can be understood yet as I am sure the most keen of one's acolytes may be aware of there is a gap in our knowledge here and a rather monolithic one at that time and time again in one's studies of the Great Crusade has a name arisen only to never be elaborated upon clarified or expanded despite the clear and present danger it posed to not just the expeditionary fleets of the crusade as a whole but possibly even the entire Imperial endeavor there's clearly more afoot here than I can yet comprehend but it would be remiss of me as a scholar and history tour to not address all that we may yet know man if you will indulge me I may posits um hypotheses of my own to fill the gaps in the archives know then that this is a record of one of the greatest threats the Imperium has ever faced foe upon whose anvil a billion human lives were smote and to whom we brought the calamity of Xenocide the Rangda what we know for certain about the xenos a species known as the Rangda is to be perfectly frank very little what can be established is that they were a race of phenomenal power and capability posing an existential level threat to the progress of the Great Crusade subsequent to their first Imperial contact around the 860 s of M 30 upon the expeditionary fleets of the Great Crusade first breaching the boundaries of what we now classify as segmental Ultima in the Galactic East the nascent Rangda were alerted to the military campaigns being waged by our glorious Emperor and moved to ensure they were stymied to counter the threat and with the aim of exterminating such a powerful foe the Imperium waged at least three Xena Seidel campaigns of such apocalyptic scale that it is widely considered to have been the greatest conflict in human galactic history until the Horus heresy entire expeditionary fleets were lost without a trace thousands of worlds were scoured of their very biospheres rendering them uninhabitable husks billions of the Imperial auxiliar personnel hundreds of mechanical tagged mata dozens of Titan legions and even hundreds of Legionnaires starties were killed or destroyed in action it was only through the direct intervention of the Emperor himself and the combined might of at least three Astarte legions but the very existence of the Imperium was in short and the Rangda ultimately defeated after almost a full century of conflict the fate of the Great Crusade was once more assured and the hegemony of mankind brought one step closer beyond this fairly profound Tory acknowledgement of the history of a major and one would have expected defining series of conflicts in crusade history the archives of the Rangda themselves are completely bare ma they appear again and again in the histories of imperial military formations nothing is recorded with any degree of precision about they themselves we do not know if the threat they posed was biological technological psychic or some hideous fusion of the three we do not know the precise Galactic volumes they once inhabited we know nothing of their history society or culture we do not even know what they looked like now your humblest of servants will be the first to admit to the catastrophic failings of the Imperium when it comes to record-keeping that being said the discrepancy here is troubling one finds it odd that when so many of the minor Xena sides of the crusade were recorded in detail and be at the death guard purging the chalk arrow the lunar walls exterminating the interacts the blood 'angels reaping bloody tolls from one eldery craft world after another but the most fundamental alien threat to the nascent Imperium short of the green skins remains almost completely unrecorded the first Legion Dark Angels central in so many ways to the records concerning the Rangda suffered more losses in those seventy or so years of campaigns than any of their brother legions did through the entirety of the Great Crusade itself so much so that they were never after that point the most numerous of legions forever losing their position to the 13th Legion ultramarines why would such a sacrifice by the Angelus tenaris go essentially unrecorded the very nature of their foes simply expunged entirely from Imperial records while one cannot attest to the loss of such knowledge one has managed to gather all one can drawn from dozens of different sources and crusade chronicles in order to do what one can't form as complete a picture as possible of the xenos I have heard that certain foundational records concerning the Dark Angels in the process of being d sequestered thanks largely to a push from the Grand Master of the administrator violator rasca Fleur on behalf of the Lord Regent despise it must be said strenuous pushback from the current chapter master while one can but hope that they may contain precious information about the Rangda I go to work with the tools I have and so the work must continue to address first the nature of this mysterious xenos you must turn to a series of references in relation to the history of various starting legions encounters have been mentioned between numerous Legion as a start his forces and the Rankin Accio Wars and serba Voris when one parses out the root of these words were left with the implication that these were creations who consumed bones and brains respectively and are referred to as being specifically rang dan where this thread becomes interesting is in the service record of the first master of ordnance of the twelfth Legion war hounds later world eaters one jewel jack null null who held the dubious honor of being one of the first of his legion interred within a contempt or pattern dreadnought fell in combat to the slocked murder mines at random aside from the implication that there was an identifier and an homeworld it is deeply fascinating and disturbing that the hideous sloth were there at present busyness are one of the foul lists of their kind carrion cravers who desire above all else the flesh of dead sentient beings relishing in particular the cranial matter from which they seem to derive an almost euphoric pleasure in consuming it has been postulated by the Ordos eNOS that it is even possible for this species to extract the memories of the deceased from the cadavers they consume and in doing so apply this stolen knowledge to better prosecute their hunts for the sloth possess a terrifyingly advanced mastery of biomechanical technology and elemental physics that far exceeds human capabilities our understanding they are capable of interfacing with their technology in a manner only exceeded by the tyranids for the sloths though known to be roughly humanoid in shape appear as more of a colony of hundreds of crawling shifting worm-like creatures you can apparently alter their size and shape to small degrees these maggot men or worms that walk to apply colloquial terms persist to this present era that is an unfortunate truth yes but their existence in the age of the crusade and indeed where offers vital clues to the nature of the Rangda firstly what wonders if there is a connection between the nature of the sloth as brain eaters and the existence of specifically ranked an herbivores is it possible then that the slocked were a slave or client species subservient to their overlords seemingly I believe their nature is more of an offshoot of the rag dam that perhaps if historical inaccuracies can be accounted for the Serb Avars and the slocks are one in the same one species in different forms the existence of the tyranids lends some credence to this those extra galactic horrors are less one species and more one life-form expressed again and again in an infinite number of varieties if xenos evolution can render something as foul as that well it is no great stretch to imagine that the rang down genome expressed itself in multiple evolutionary paths and that the sloth of today are simply the last pitiful and wretched survivors of a most righteous genocide [Music] there is however one important note to this and that is a passing reference drawn from the combat records of the 14th Legion death guard to an encounter known as the imagined Tork transgression taking place during the second of the Rankin's inna sides a base mechanic bark broke the imperial court and surrounding rank dance space impacting ultimately at the planet of imagined the death guard pursuing the xenos vessel suffered horrendous casualties at the hands of the macro beast within saved only through the intervention of the sixth Legion space wolves whose role in the second and third Xena sides appears crucial now if any of one's acolytes are confused as to what exactly transpired here know that I am with you as this is the sole reference to both the base mechanic and their macro beasts in imperial history we can infer that the base mechanic are a xenos race blockaded within rank and space and their barks worships of presumably immense size the macro beast is an altogether more interesting affair as it appears given the naming conventions to have been some sort of monstrous organic technological or perhaps both construct activated by its base mechanic handlers or in this case the presence of the Legionnaires austerities given their connections we have previously established between the slocked and the Rangda as well as a confirmed existence of multiple Rangda and xena forms it is highly possible that the base mechanic are yet another expression of the rang Dan over species perhaps given the name those responsible for the maintenance of the races biotechnological mastery it would certainly not be a stretch in credulity to believe that given the apparently overwhelming might of these xenos that such a caste would exist to specifically craft and create their weapons as the macro beast seems to be believed of them acolytes as akin to the earth caste amongst the hated Tao only perhaps even more integral if we know little about the nature and appearance of the species we know even less about their military capabilities save for the utter and total threat they represented not even the green skin empire toppled at Allah nor is spoken of in terms of the xeno sides the nice houses of aurillac and Milan acts reference the Xena sides in there now sequestered chronicles stating only that the conflict cost them many of their sacred night suits but did serve to distinguish them amongst the ranks of the quests Taurus Imperialis and mechanically the Li Geo's Griffin aqus vulture 'im and Kai Tiana's fought with distinction but suffered the losses of many of their God engines to macroscale Xena's war beasts with CAI Jia knows in particular noted as emerging from their campaigns as a shadow of their former selves the xenos wrecked untold havoc upon the first Legion within whose sealed records one desperately hopes to find yet more true from what we do know the first legion encountered Rangda ships whose technology could accurately spoof Imperial sensor profiles allowing them to slip through Imperial lines and launch devastating surprise attacks upon crusade forces the angels and their Primark were known to have actively raged at never being able to strike at the foe from a position of advantage with rang Dan hardships consistently ambushing their fleets not to mention instilling severe paranoia amongst a starties forces seeking to reinforce their combat elements with other Imperial vessels and regiments often fleet contests between the crusade and the disturbing zenith ships described as bloated spined things trailing biomechanical tentacles would cost Imperial elements two ships for everyone Zeno's brought down the Angels themselves the first legion numerous more than any other suffered a loss of over 50,000 of their estar teased in the third Xenocide alone unprecedented against a single enemy and leading to the if certain histories are to be believed emergence of the 20th Legion star tease the Alpha Legion as with all matters concerning this Legion the truth is impossible to ascertain as their ultimate emergence from the shadows is recorded not only having taken place here during the latter stages of the third Xenocide but anywhere within a discrepancy of approximately 30 years Imperial standard nevertheless even what has been supposed about the Alpha legions role up to this point as effectively as starties counterintelligence operatives the escalation from their position in the shadows to full frontline legion speaks volumes as to the threat the Rangda posed and the devastation they inflicted it was however seemingly the emperor himself that broke the back of this wicked race and doing so by according to one's evidence on the matter breaking the labyrinth of knives now inexperienced initiates may question the location or nature of this place or structure some may even suppose that this was a fortress of the xenos themselves some vast warren nor Citadel or hive from whence their forces were arrayed but no far far from it for there is only one place in the galaxy that goes by this name although it is much more commonly referred to by its proper High Gothic the Noctis labyrinth us this is none other than the region of Mars between the Valles Marineris and the Tharsis upland access to which is band utterly under the most total rays of both the Senate Orem Imperialis and the holy synod of the adaptors mechanicus and around whom rumors almost too dark and terrible to comprehend swirl the labyrinth us is a maze-like series of deep and almost impossibly steep walled valleys well named for both its impenetrability and the sheer lack of sunlight it receives it once bore priceless mining operations until the downfall of the Martian planetary regime during the age of strife and the subsequent rise of the mechanical saw it poisoned beyond habitation with scouring radiation storms and mentok and nano phages rendering its local atmosphere lethal to both flesh and metal this is a lie a convenient and largely accepted one designed to keep the common herds from straying too deep into the canyons to learn of its truest secrets the noctis labyrinth us is the resting place of the dragon of Mars one wishes one could be more precise as such a statement warrants further study but that well that is all I have to go on this very sentence was passed to me upon a scrap of data waiter by parties unknown some time ago and I have pondered its meaning greatly it was not until I saw a reference to the Emperor and his breaking of a nightly labyrinth did I draw the connection and realize there may be more to this what is this dragon is it a weapon akin to the mechanical or donatas engines deployed against the Rangda during the 2nd Xenocide if so why did the mechanic ham not wield it the Treaty of Olympus placed strict laws upon the chain of command divided between Imperial and mechanical forces and while the Emperor himself Azzam Messiah of the Machine God could have technically levied whatever he so wished from Mars there is only one instance of him doing so directly with the founding of the Ordo sinister in the aftermath of the Zeno science no no I fear the truth is altogether stranger and more terrible perchance a Chancellor named dragon is literal after all per the ancient Greek and myth of the hero Theseus Tetley's hunting the foul minute horus of the labyrinth such mazes have allegorically and may be literally being used to contain monsters beyond the most horrid imagination could the emperor in his wisdom have broken a labyrinth and freed the abominable entity within in a desperate ploy to halt an enemy unlike anything the Imperium had ever encountered such mysteries they mad at me Oh to have true answers for once this dreadful is supposition ill becomes me but I must question I must we shall have to shelve that a particular line of inquiry for now well precisely how yet eludes us the Emperor's intervention is noted in most histories as being the turning of the tide of these conflicts the point from which the xenos were finally placed upon the back force and the process of righteous extermination could begin in earnest a final chapter to this sparse Chronicle here is an interesting one it is noted that the task of full extermination fell to the first legion and the 6th with the angels and the wolves doing their best to apply their per take killer talents to enact a decade long series of BioPark roms in order to ensure the rank damned threat was utterly purged by OPA Grom is a very specific means of dealing with a very specific type of foe one who needs to be purged on essentially a cellular level thus they research similar actions are taken to ensure the ultimate destruction of green-skinned spores gene stealer genetic infection vectors and even macroscale tyranny occupations lest their insidious biologies wreak havoc upon a world's biosphere this would mean that the Imperium having emerged from seventy years of conflict with this particular enemy feared the rank Dan at a level far beyond their sheer military might and deployed the full level of two of the most lethal estar T's legions in the galaxy in order to effect a complete biological extermination of every genetic level of the foe both the Dark Angels and the space wolves are known in the darker of crusade annals to have been legions whose remit was often to accomplish tasks none others could the Wolves often bore the soubriquet of the Emperor's headsman his bloody executioner's and while this threat was made good upon enough times to have them fully live up to us it often remained more of an implicit warning intimidation should it be needed their name alone would often carry that waves the Angels however would have burned the galaxy to cinders had the Emperor bathed them so of that I am quite sure their dread wing was noted to use weaponry prescribed beyond use of any branch of the Imperial military let alone and a starties legion given this evidence their role and presence during both the conflict and its aftermath and what we have discerned about the nature of the xenos themselves I am drawn to hypothesize the following the rang Dan Xena's were effectively a bacteria or a virus a cellular life form that could should they wish it form into colonies of gestalt combines to sculpt and wield their blasphemous biology into forms better suited to kill and devour and propagate I doubt it is for naught that the sir befores and Aussie of wars were named as they are an unspeakably hostile xenos race that once alerted to humanity's existence as a seller power moved to invade into file in a way nothing else ever had they did not desire to conquer us as the al-douri may or simply desire the conflict for its own sake as is the case with the hated green skins no it is likely their motive was consumption parasitic colony things fusing with their technology on a cellular level consumed by a hunger that is more akin to purest evil than that even of the tyranids yet millennia from arriving in our galaxy my nature as a maggot-like or viral race would make their presence phenomenally difficult to contain by conventional means and necessitate only the harshest of extermination procedures to ensure their Staton was wiped from history perhaps that is why that of all the conflicts in the imperials history it is their destruction that is referred to by the term genocide perhaps the pain of their passing was simply too much at the time and the annals of the Great Crusade would rather forget than record should any more information come extant with the sealing of the origin chronicles of the first Legion I shall naturally relate them with all haste and until such a time and hopefully with your minds not utterly polluted with dread imaginings of a Imperator gloria in excelsis terra this video and this channel is made possible through the incredibly kind support of my patreon subscribers if you'd like to help support the channel head on over to patreon comm forward slash oculus Imperia if you want to kick me a buck or two to help keep the lights 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Channel: Oculus Imperia

Views: 160,456

Keywords: Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Lore, Warhammer 40k Lore, Warhammer 30k, Horus Heresy, Horus Heresy Lore, Forge World, Games Workshop, Astartes, Primarchs, Space Marines, Adeptus Astartes

Id: 50eLYnL3TMI

Length: 25min 55sec (1555 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020