Right now using AI isn't controversial in the Trust for the same reason sacrificing babies to Satan isn't controversial in the US—there's no group advocating the pro side.
While we strongly suspect that Muspelheim has and uses them, they are keeping them very much on the down-low. For the very good reason that the ban on AI is something that the vast majority of the Trust whole-heartedly supports. The only way they can get implemented in the near future is if we are faced with imminent destruction.
Trying to sneak them into use is a horrible idea. Even if it works perfectly in eventually getting the use of AI accepted, it will cause a huge hit to our reputation, both for continuing to take unilateral action on things that are very much not our job to handle as well as making us far less trustworthy.
And it won't work perfectly. The position against AI is not denying or ignoring the benefits they give, and those in the know are most likely not worried about an immediate rebellion. The problem is that (1) as far as the vast majority of the admech is concerned, they are literally unholy—full stop, end of sentence—and (2) there is a long term danger of rebellion/corruption, which historically broke a galaxy full of civilizations far more powerful and aware of how AI work than we are. And then there are the more immediate concerns, such as the very valid one of what happens if the Dark Mech gets specific word of the fact that we're using AI—while they're already interested in the rest of our goodies, I'd expect word of AI to be just below word of a functional STC machine as far as response level goes.
That said, anyone wanna give me odds on Muspelheim implementing the super advanced sensors that need an AI to work to their full potential from Roskilde? Given that their cities are fucking ginormous and they probably have AIs I can totally see them doing that. They might even have it implemented already from the text of this update...
That said, anyone wanna give me odds on Muspelheim implementing the super advanced sensors that need an AI to work to their full potential from Roskilde? Given that their cities are fucking ginormous and they probably have AIs I can totally see them doing that. They might even have it implemented already from the text of this update...
This is something of an over-generalization. Arranged marriages have worked well enough for most purposes throughout much of human history. For that matter Rotbart's marriage was arranged and I'm willing to bet his parents' marriage also since they would have been from a noble family whether it was formally recognized or not. I don't think he would see anything wrong with ranged marriages IC.
The reason she doesn't have any children is because she is careful not to get pregnant. She has had lovers before and flings. The juvenat doesn't change anything for the non leader/hero units. We give it to several different sets of people and all of them keep having kids. As for marriage it is because no one aside from @Valkur has made any candidate omakes. If we had Syr would be married by now. All we ever do is talk about what world is best but don't take it any farther than that.
So I know we are all jouyos from this improbable victory... but do we have anything to sweeten the end, even if just a bit?
We did lose plenty of ships regardless, and there's a WAAAGH coming soon. No use from sitting on our laurers.
Can we use any of our above forces in any clever or especially efficient ways?
A bunch of ideas on the topic, and maybe I'll make a plan later if nobody wants to bother:
We should keep anyone with valuable info well away from the frontline. Or any danger, for that matter.
Since we only need to hold out 20 hours till Eldar come, then stalling tactics is our bread and butter.
Giving ground may not be a terrible idea, since we don't need to give that much.
General focus on hit-and-run tactics, to minimize our loses.
High-intensity psyker actions would be worth it. Not like we'd need more pskyers when Eldar arrive.
Going all-in with the dispelling.
Erecting force walls (or reinforcing whatever doors they have) and blocking off some of the corridors (to herd them to worse encounter, or just cut forward groups off)
Scry&Fry on frontline elements? Focus would be on officers and anyone capable of giving orders.
Just incinerating whoever comes. Maybe combine with the anti-plasma barriers for a small scale repeat of Surt's trick?
Since it's the Abomination we are dealing with, then maybe some confusing tricks to throw at them?
Telephatically hijacking frontline officers, to make them believe a false or incorrect version of their orders. Let them run into one another.
Since the AI Machine Spirits of Muspelheim are so great, can they focus on scrambling their communication?
Focus on scrying not only the general plan, but more detailed & short-term orders everyone is getting, so that we can counter them better.
General plan would focus on keeping Abomination forces at range, utilizing their confusion to launch surprise attacks, all while battering them with pure psychic might.
that plus that admiral that can hide ship way bigger than he should will cause some funny shenanigans^^.
funny scenes like this one:
chaos minion: Captain we are receive a transmission.
Captain: from where?
chaos minion: ... from 200 meter ahead?
Admiral: Ramming speed!
*a Capital ship complete destroy a really small chaos ship*
*Abaddon finally launch a crusade on avernus*
*get traumatic flashback about Creed when a battleship pop out of nowhere just behind his troops transport*
« ROTBARTTTTTTT!!!!!! »*extreme frustration.*
@Durin do we have to specify that the Eldar should stay at the colony and kill the chaos people or not? Because if not I got nothing and think you should just call it because I can think of nothing else that can be done.
You are the enemy. Your fleet has three prospective entry points into the system. Rotbart has three ambush fleets to hit you with, their composition unknown because he could split them however he likes. No matter which entry point you use, Rotbart will have the appropriate ambush fleet positioned to deal with you, so long as those forces aren't otherwise engaged and in a known position by some other hostile force.
You are the enemy. Your fleet has three prospective entry points into the system. Rotbart has three ambush fleets to hit you with, their composition unknown because he could split them however he likes. No matter which entry point you use, Rotbart will have the appropriate ambush fleet positioned to deal with you, so long as those forces aren't otherwise engaged and in a known position by some other hostile force.
That, and the stealth fleet that is exactly as big as he wants it to be once they notice it. Which may or may not be lead by Sarnow, so good luck noticing it.
@Durin do we have to specify that the Eldar should stay at the colony and kill the chaos people or not? Because if not I got nothing and think you should just call it because I can think of nothing else that can be done.
Could we leave a small part of the Eldar force at the colonies, so that they can help out with the remains of the invasion?
Fittingly enough, the needs of Muspelheim and Hvergelmir are completely different- first needs elites and psykers, the other mostly chaff (to grind down the Space Marines).
hmm, ok so a tidbit from the fight. crone's ark came away with light damage, but atlas's got obliterated despite crone's forces taking a thorough beating. This is likely because we had a heavy accelerator in the fight against atlas, meaning the ark was tanking shots that could actually pierce it's armor. I think that puts in perspective just how much of a game changing having an AP 24 gun can be. While we likely won't be able to build a battle ship around it due to i'ts minimum length, we might be able to build a defense station around one. Having an answer to hyper caps in our core worlds would be super useful.
@Durin would it be feasible to try and design a defensive instillation around a Heavy Acclerator? assuming we where willing to make compromises on it's other armaments.
Aan was a sub-sector within the Imperium of Man. It had a large number of habitable worlds and because of that it was rich and prosperous. Then, everything changed when the system was invaded by a massive force of Nurglites. While the Imperium eventually won the war for the Aan sub-sector, every single planet within Aan was designated a Quarantine World, because any humans who died within the sub-sector reanimated as a plague zombie. No one was allowed into or out of the sub-sector.
After many centuries with no outside contact, the people of Aan eventually forgot the God-Emperor and ceased to worship him. Instead of turning to Chaos, however, they turned to the worship of a new god, Zaghâsh, God of Death and Fire, whose holy flames purge the unclean and who allows the innocent to rest in peace. The many worlds and the many peoples on them allowed the seed of the god that would be Zaghâsh to grow quickly, but for the longest time it failed to form. Bereft of protection, the seed was consumed by warp predators whenever it reached any appreciable size.
One day, during yet another cycle of the nascent god's growth, an extremely old, large, and powerful warp entity came across it. The entity had the appearance of a three-headed dog and was once the guardian of a pantheon's underworld. When the pantheon was destroyed, it fled and survived by eating daemons and other warp entities. Initially, it approached the god seed to consume both it and the daemons who were preparing to it eat themselves, but then it sensed the seed's domains: Death and Fire. The domains were familiar to it, and so the warp entity consumed only the daemons, deciding to protect the god seed until it was born.
For many years it would feed itself and protect the seed by leaving the direct proximity of the seed, hiding in the shadows, and ambushing the daemons who got close to it. All the while the seed grew stronger and stronger from a sub-sector's worship. Unfortunately, as the seed grew ever more powerful, it shone across an ever greater range and attracted an ever greater number and power of daemons. It came to be that the protective warp entity could no longer engage in ambushes and was forced to engage directly in combat against an ever-increasing horde of enemies. Eventually, the warp entity began losing the war of attrition, taking wounds that could not fully heal before its next battle began. The fate of both it and the god seed seemed doomed.
Luckily, the god seed had undergone much development by then, and instinctively sent visions to its most ardent worshippers of its state. Prophets across the sub-sector received these visions and saw what needed to be done. At the time, the worlds were under extremely heavy assault by the forces of Nurgle. Spreading the word that Zaghâsh needed aid, the prophet convinced people that a mass ritual sacrifice would bring the god to power and bring salvation. Seeing no other hope for survival, a great multitude of people volunteered themselves to aid their god in desperation. With the power of many billions of souls willingly sacrificing themselves to it, the god seed swelled quickly in power and Zaghâsh born in truth.
Everywhere, across all the planets, black-cloaked skeletons bearing large swords wreathed in fire emerged and fell upon the Nurglites with great wrath and terrible fury. Implacable and incorruptible, the daemons of Zaghâsh tore into the Nurgle hordes and, flush with the power of their god's birth, tore them utterly apart. The forces of Nurgle were destroyed to the last and Aan was saved. Meanwhile, in the Warp, the newly born death god unleashed the power of his hate and engaged the daemons in battle, banishing them back to whence they came and saving the life of the warp entity. After the battle, the creature allowed Zaghâsh to give it his power and swore itself to his service, after which he gave it its current name, Grim. Since then, Grim has protected Zaghâsh's afterlife and fought alongside him in every one of his battles.
***
Zaghâsh protects the souls all those who show proper reverence to him and bear the mark of his cult somewhere on their skin, which is branded onto them. The curse that raises the corpses of Aan's peoples into plague zombies is delayed from taking hold by those who are branded, and the delay is increased the more faithful the person was at their time of death. Children, whose inferior minds may make them incapable of surviving the branding or even worshipping him, are still protected, but only after being baptised into the cult. This special protection is temporary, however, and expires upon reaching the age where they should receive their branding.
As a god of Death, Zaghâsh gains power from death, though as a Religious God only gains power from the deaths of his own followers. This aspect allows Zaghâsh to interfere in battles in which his followers are dying in great numbers, sending in the weaker of his divine servitors to kill his people's enemies and assure his followers that he is with them.
Human sacrifice is an integral part of the Cult of Zaghâsh. It empowers the god and ensures he can continue maintaining the afterlife where all faithful Aanese go to rest. Occasionally, when the forces of Nurgle launch particularly heavy assault on Zaghâsh's realm, his clergy may call for a mass sacrifice to empower the god enough to win victory. As one of Zaghâsh's domains is Death, the power he gains from the deaths themselves is sufficient to secure victory, and therefore doesn't have to draw from those souls themselves, therefore allowing them their well-deserved rest.
Sacrificing the unwilling to Zaghâsh is considered to be heretical in the extreme, an utter perversion of the faith and sacrifice that allowed the god to be born. Zaghâsh takes personal offence at such an act, and will send one of his divine servitors to destroy whoever would be so foolish and so evil as to do such a thing. He will do so even if his realm is under heavy assault.
The afterlife is believed by Zaghâsh's cult to be a peaceful, extremely heavily reinforced place. For a while they can enjoy this peacefulness, entertaining themselves, conversing with each other, and enjoying the tranquillity that only death can offer, all while being free of the pains of life. Eventually, however, they will begin to become sleepy, and will eventually fall into a slumber from which they will never wake up. It's believed that the more devoted one was to Zaghâsh in life, the longer they remain awake before their eternal peaceful rest. Veneration of the diseased also gives them more time, allowing loved ones to meet each other again in the afterlife, though there is a limit to this. Ultimately, the only ones who remain awake forever are those who have earned the title of Saint.
Psykers on the worlds of Aan are brutally suppressed. Those who show an aptitude for fire are taken into the Cult to be inducted into the priesthood while the rest are summarily executed. Those psykers that did not fall to Chaos before their execution go to the afterlife, where they are trained to use their powers. Those who fail are used as fuel for the forge that makes the arms and armour of Zaghâsh's divine servitors.
Aan's military forces, descended as they are from the Imperium, are strongly reminiscent to the Imperial Guard, if with a greater focus on mobile firepower, high-yield weaponry, and fire weapons to combat the forces of Nurgle. Additionally, they field a higher-than-average quantity and quality of pyromancers compared to other armies with no other psykers of any kind, though those pyromancers do double as daemon-summoners.
Zaghâsh's forces are split into two distinct groups: the Deathfire Host and the Soulfire Host. The Deathfire Host is comprised of Zaghâsh's divine servitors while the Soulfire Host is comprised of those mortal souls who've died who, without prompting, volunteered themselves to fight and, after passing judgement to test their suitability, were accepted. Induction into the Soulfire Host involves a ceremony wherein all the souls' weaknesses are burnt to ash, turning them into killing machines without fear or corruptibility. This burns away their flesh and blood, leaving nought but skeletons whose skulls are wreathed in flame. Only Saints are precluded from conducting this ceremony. The Deathfire Host functions as a typical daemonic army while the soldiers of the Soulfire Host fights largely as they did during their mortal lives, with guns, armour, vehicles, psychic powers (if applicable), and other such things included.
The lesser divine servitors of Zaghâsh are called Reapers. They appear as skeletons wearing full black-coloured feudal plate armour (sans helmet) with a plain, black, hooded cloak over it. They bear two-handed longswords whose blades are wreathed in flames. At their hip they carry a simple iron lantern. Reapers have two primary duties. The first duty is to destroy Zaghâsh's enemies, as one might expect. Their other primary duty is to collect the souls of those faithful to Zaghâsh after they die and take them to the afterlife. The souls are kept in their lanterns, which, when carried by Reapers, illuminate the secret ways that allows a Reaper to reach the afterlife without interference. Reapers are capable of reason and logic, but are very neutral and even in temperament. Over time, their emotional range expands and they develop personalities, though they generally retain their even temperaments.
Several things change for a Reaper once they've gained enough favour to become a Herald of Zaghâsh. To begin with, two black-feathered wings sprout from the Herald's back, granting it flight. Second, its lantern gains gold filigree, and through channelling their power through it the Herald can call upon the divine miracles of their god. As Heralds of Zaghâsh, their duties change as well. They now only collect the highest priority of those souls faithful to Zaghâsh, leaving the rest to their Reaper brethren. Furthermore, their role in battle changes from being backbone troops to being either champions or leaders of the Deathfire Host. Finally, a Herald can swap their sword for a scythe, which while inferior for attacking single opponents is better for attacking hordes.
Among Zaghâsh's most powerful servants are the World Saints. Each one of Aan's worlds has a World Saint, who in life were incredibly pious mortals who did great things for their worlds. For their piety and service, they would be worshipped by their world as its World Saint and be empowered by Zaghâsh. Their link to their worlds of origin allow them to be summoned on them much more easily than divine servitors of equal power.
Hounds of Grim are beasts holy to Zaghâsh who patrol his realm for intruders, run down his enemies, and serve as mounts for his divine servitors. They have the appearance of large black dogs with glowing red eyes and have an inner glow that shows clearly through their throat and shines through their skin at points. Hounds of Grim are fast, strong, exceptionally perceptive, and can breathe fire. While Hounds of Grim bear Zaghâsh's power, they are neither divine servitors of his nor are they mortal souls, but are instead warp entities birthed by Grim.
***
Zaghâsh has been in constant war with the forces of Nurgle since the moment of his birth, whether it be in skirmishes in the Warp or withstanding full on invasions of Aan, his divine realm, or both. At times, great sacrifices have had to be made to allow Zaghâsh to emerge victorious, sacrifices which take a long time to recover from. Additionally, while both Zaghâsh's power and Aan's power have continued to increase over the centuries, the power and danger of Nurgle's forces have also been increasing, and at a slightly higher rate. They were winning the war of attrition.
To gain enough power to reverse his fortunes, Zaghâsh joined the alliance of minor gods in their raid on Nurgle's holdings. The raid's massive success gave him a great deal of power as well as two new miracles.
The first allows him, and by extension those of his followers imbued with the power to call down miracles, to imbue the ashes of the dead reduced to such by holy flame with Zaghâsh's power. The ashes form as charred, blackened skeletons of what they once were and fight on the caster's behalf for a time, after which they cannot be called forth as such again. Unlike the unholy mockery of life and death that are plague zombies, this miracle imbues the dead with no false life and leaves their souls in peace, affecting only the physical corpus. It is essentially no different to how a servo-skull is powered by the Motive Force.
The second of his new miracles is that of a ritual that improves the fertilising property of ash, allowing crop fields fertilised with it to grow much more quickly, healthily, and with greater yields.
The power Zaghâsh gained, combined with the order of withdrawal for so many daemons given by Nurgle himself, allowed he and his forces to inflict immense casualties on the forces of the daemonic as the withdrawal turned into a rout. All nearby worlds with a significant Nurgle presence were defeated and scoured of all life by his divine servitors.
After meeting and speaking with other minor gods of the alliance, Zaghâsh has decided to renounce his prior goal of gaining the unrestricted domains of Death and Fire, fearful of what it would mean for both him and his people. He is now considering other possible long-term strategies to survive the tides of Chaos. For now, with the Warp space near Aan temporarily clear of hostiles, Zaghâsh and his divine armies are conducting mission after mission for the eldar to accrue favours and technology.
***
The amount of skull ornamentations and imagery in the Aan systems surpasses that of the Imperium of Man.
***
[Author's Note: This was what I had in mind for a greater servitor, but unfortunately the god isn't powerful enough to make greater servitors so it couldn't go in the omake proper.]
After a Herald gains a sufficient amount of favour, they may attempt to undergo the Trial of Fear. Entering into a special chamber within Zaghâsh's fortress with an upright coffin in the centre. On touching the coffin, the Herald will receive a vision and, temporarily, know what it means to feel the fear of death. When the vision recedes, the Herald is given a choice. They can either leave the chamber and return to their duties, or they can enter the coffin. If they choose the latter, the coffin will close and then open after a short while, at which point the Herald will leave and return to their duties. They don't emerge unchanged, however. By entering into the coffin, the Herald has willingly cursed themselves so that the next time they're banished, they won't simply reform and reemerge within Zaghâsh's realm. Instead, they will reform as several base-level Reapers, blank slates devoid of all who the Herald was. Essentially, they curse themselves with mortality. From this point on they will fear death. As much as it's a curse, it's also a weapon, because the Herald emanates an aura that induces the fear of death on all enemies of Zaghâsh. This includes daemons, to whom the emotion would be even more potent in effect due to how utterly alien it is to their nature. Ultimately, however, the true nature of the curse is that of a test. The curse is itself the Trial of Fear. If, despite the Herald's own pseudo-mortality, they manages to conquer their fear and become truly and utterly fearless of death, they will have completed the trial. As reward, they lose their mortality while retaining their aura. More significant still, they can ascend and become a Doombringer, a Greater Divine Servitor of Zaghâsh.
The Herald undergoes a number of changes besides becoming as large as a typical Greater Daemon upon becoming a Doombringer. The eye holes of their mask, once empty and black, now shine with radiant light and can shoot out searing beams of fire. The light of their lantern shines bright constantly and wards against the daemonic, allowing them to collect the souls of Zaghâsh's followers when they die en masse, such as during battle. They also become the most powerful champions and highest-ranked leaders of the Deathfire Host. Finally, the range and potency of their aura increases, affecting ever more strong-willed mort
With their ascension, a Doombringer has two options for wargear. The first is to simply receive an upscaled version of the Herald's sword of scythe but with their lantern built into the design. The second is to replace their two-handed weapon a one-handed sword or sickle, allowing their offhand to wield a lantern staff. The lantern staff of a Doombringer is ornate, etched in its entirety with sacred inscriptions and holy iconography, bearing multiple purity seals along its length, and filigreed with a tasteful amount of gold. This staff lets them more easily call upon Zaghâsh for divine aid via miracles. Upon the Doombringer receiving their staff or two-handed weapon, the lantern sends out a call across Zaghâsh's realm to all those the Doombringer escorted through to the afterlife. It calls on them to once more enter the lantern, this time permanently, to lend the divine servitor their strength. The lantern makes the same request to all those the Doombringer escorts from then on as well. This call to aid is only heard by those who would accept without regret, allowing the rest to experience the afterlife as is their right. The more souls present in a lantern, the more damage it does to the unholy and the easier it is to call down miracles, depending on if the lantern is built into a weapon or staff.
Could we leave a small part of the Eldar force at the colonies, so that they can help out with the remains of the invasion?
Fittingly enough, the needs of Muspelheim and Hvergelmir are completely different- first needs elites and psykers, the other mostly chaff (to grind down the Space Marines).
We do not need to send the warhost anywhere else there are no chaos on any trust land but the colony. The Eldar Fleet is already in Muselphiem and 20 hours from killing the atlas fleet.
