The Young Xian of the Celestial Realm: Space Cathay 4x Warhammer 40k Quest

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So who is Ingrid?

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one of the greatest threats to the Imperium and Holy Empire, the lady of the von Stahlmachts. The von Stahlmachts are to the Cruorans what the Von Carsteins are for Vampires. I will admit i don't know much about her other than that she is one of the many Big Bads the Garden has to offer, and that she managed to breech the Imperial Palace and do what Vlad did to Altdorf in the World-That-Was.

 

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omake because i am paranoid

(Credits for these ideas; Grand Cults are all me, the Cults of Gorkamorka are made by Chipperz1, the Endless Winds are the creation of TimeStayOnReddit, the Children of Worgron are the creation of chefboar7, next planned omake is part 3 then will move on to more imperial guard regiments)

Omake: Minor destruction factions part 2

Cults of Gorkamorka

Each of the Great Warp Evils has a phenomenon known as Grand Cults attached to them. Most common in the forces of Chaos, Grand Cults are religious beliefs that have gained enough strength to become a part of the narrative of their god. This is how identical religious beliefs can flourish even across multiple galaxies, and ensures that certain cults can never die.

While all of the Great Warp Evils have these Grand Cults, the Grand Cults of Destruction, better known as the Cults of Gorkamorka, function differently from other Grand Cults. The closest analog would be the Eightpoint Warbands, which themselves are patterns of warbands that have attracted the favor of the Chaos Gods and are prominent members of the many Chaos tainted beings outsiders collectively call the Slaves to Darkness. The Cults of Gorkamorka operate much like they do, and like the Eightpoint Warbands and Grand Cults it is impossible to give a full list of Cults of Gorkamorka.

This is more due to the fact that its nearly impossible to determine what forces are a true Cult of Gorkamorka and what is merely a pattern of Destruction band. The typical requirements are that a Cult of Gorkamorka must be composed of beings normally unaligned with destruction, and more than one such band must have formed with sufficient distance and no known relation. The best known Cults of Gorkamorka are collectively known as the Huntin Guilds. They are two cults that formed differently but mesh well together. The Ghyran Guild arose from Exodite Eldar who spent too much time hunting Greenskins and taking trophies, to the point where their minds have been warped; the Azyr Guild arose from monster hunters sent by Sigmar to free worlds from the monsters that inhabited it but who became far too into their job. Together the Huntin Guilds are powerful assassins and hunters for Destruction.

Endless Winds

The study of the Winds of Magic is typically a very rigid and restrained thing, given the very nature of Wizards. From the Collegiate Arcane of the Holy Alliance to the Scholasta Arcana of the Imperium to even the dark academies of Death and Chaos, the study of the Winds is the most scholarly of all Esoteric paths, due primarily to the nature of how the Winds are channeled. Even Dhar and its variants, which are the Winds of Magics improperly mixed and curdled, almost always requires great study to use. While there are many beings that can use the winds instinctively or without instensive book learning (such as the Greenskins) but in most cases even these beings have to know something of the winds and to restrain themselves somewhat.

The Endless Winds reject these ideas. Not so much a true faction, the Endless Winds are more accurately described as a phenomenon, which is also separate from things like the Grand Cults because they do not arise from the influence of the Warp. The Endless Winds are more a type of criminal, loose gangs of Wizards who rebelled against the restrictions of their craft and coming to align with the beings of Destruction. They are the equivalent of jacks of all trades for Wizards, their magics not turning into Dhar only by the might of the WAAAGH!

Children of Worgron

First encountered by the wider Garden during the War of Slaughter, when the hoofbeats of Kragnos and the roar of the Prime-Orkoids spurred destruction as a whole into a Garden-wide WAAGH!, the Children of Worgron were stirred into action. At first glance they appear to be a simian life form like the Jokero or Kinebranch. But upon closer inspection one realizes their true origin, for they have facial features only truly found in Eldar and the races/factions descended from the Eldar.

Once the Children of Worgron were a sub-kingdom of the Witch Kingdom in the Worgron galaxy that was dedicated to pushing the knowledge of the Winds of Magic to heights not yet seen. A massive ritual of Ghur was enacted during the Wars of Vengeance, which led to the Worgron galaxy being consumed by a Warp-Storm of Destruction. The Slann leading the forces of the Cadaists believed that the Worgron kingdom had destroyed themselves, which was not far from the truth.

The truth being that the power of Ghur stripped these Eldar of their civilization, of their learning and culture, reducing them to monkey like mutants called the Aepes and the Groar. The power of the raw wellspring of the Wind of Beasts caused them to mutate so heavily that their very souls have become something unrecognizable as Eldar. This saves them from the hunger of She-Who-Thirsts, but all Eldar realize the cost of doing what the Children of Worgron did is far too great.

The Children of Worgron are beings with cunning and brutal magic who exalt the adage of Might Makes Right. They travel through the Warp in Witchwood ships on raiding parties, as well as the Webway for they understand the kindship they have with the Eldar. Their raiding parties are primarily done for two purposes when not riled up by powerful beings of Destruction. The first is to explore, for while they have fallen far they still have the curiosity that drove the mages long ago. The second is much, much darker.

Slannesh's birth cry damned the Eldar, and the Children of Worgron did not escape the birth cry unscathed. When Slannesh could not claim them, the Lord of Pain and Pleasure rendered them sterile to ensure no more of these insults to their majesty could come into being. But the Children of Worgron are cunning and Ghur blessed them with biological immortality, and by the time of the War of Slaughter they found a way to replenish their numbers. Every time they encounter the Eldar, they take as many as they can alive, bringing them back to the Worgron Galaxy, where they subject them to dark rituals known only to the Groar mystics. Once these rituals are through, the Eldar is no more, only a new Aepe is left. Even half-born eldar like the majority of the Drukhari are vulnerable to this fate. It makes them a scourge and an insult not only to the Eldar but to Slannesh as well.

 

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omake because i am paranoid

(credit for these, all three of them are the creation of TheBlackBaron45. The Kaijinns would be pathfinder kaiju type things)

Omake: minor destruction factions 3

Kaijinns

In the Garden there are many old monsters, things that existed since the War in Heaven or even predating it. One such monster which predates the War in Heaven is known as the Great Mother by the Eldar. Believed by some to be almost as old as the C'tan, this creature resembles a jellyfish larger than most stars and is not only immortal in every sense of the word but also travels throughout the Garden with an unknown means of FTL

The Great Mother lives up to its name, spawning dozens of eggs from various orifices at random intervals. These eggs can survive the vacuum of space and are sent to various worlds throughout the Garden by means of the same unknown FTL travel. Once it lands upon a world it hatches into a gigantic monster, each looking very different from one another. Most of these monsters are essentially copies of various Godbeasts, but others being massive war beasts like the Atomosaurus and the Anguidon.

These creatures are known as the Kaijinns by the Eldar, who have known of the Great Mother and her spawn since the beginning of their civilization. But the much more common name originates from the Harmonious Collective, the Kaiju. These creatures are not evil, or inherently hostile to the worlds they arrive upon. Indeed, as a whole the planetary ecosystem will flourish as a beneficial radiation emits from the Kaijinns. Previously dead worlds have been resurrected by the presence of a Kaijinn. It is only advanced life that suffers.

Kaijinns are inherently hostile to all forms of life who have progressed past the technological level of swords and arrows, while being indifferent to all other forms of life. Some like to belive that this is a way for nature to heal itself and get revenge, but this is proven to be false by the fact that they often fight alongside the Greenskins. How the Orkoids treat the environment makes a Hive world of the Imperium look like an Eldar maiden world, but because their Tek runs on the WAAGH! field, it does not register to the Kaijinns. Indeed, they are often caught up in the WAAGH! or merely following the unruly mobs of boyz to advanced foes.

Vaanitri

Extremophiles are types of creatures able to survive and thrive in extremely harsh and hostile environments. While this does describe a great many beings in the Garden, the title of extremophile is ultimately given to very few beings due to complexities that only a trained biologist can truly understand or explain. One such Extremophile race is the Vaanitri, a race that shares a great deal in common with the Orks, so much so that they are mistaken for a sister race to the Greenskins made by the Old Ones (though no such race exists).

An all-female race, like the Greenskins they do not truly have gender but they do adhere to a gender identity, being spawned by their queens. They are strong, slender, and eyeless, and extremely difficult to kill. They can survive for years without sustenance, heal even the most grievous of wounds in minutes, and survive the cold vacuum of space without protection. They also are able to generate a form of super-adrenaline that makes them stronger, faster, and more psychotic.

The technology of the Vaanitri is like that of the Greenskins or the Skaven, ramschakle and primitive. Unlike the technology of the ratmen, Vaanitri technology malfunctions typically hurt the foes of the Vaanitri rather than the Vaanitri. This combined with their tendency to live in extremely hostile environments and cultural focus on fighting and killing makes them, in the words of the Harlequins, distaff counterparts to the orks. They even have a friendly relationship with the Greenskins, one that only the Ogors can claim to have.

Krono-Phantoms

When one speaks of the Grand Alliances, they rarely speak of true alliances. Rather the Grand Alliances are groupings of various policies and monsters that fit together. No Grand Alliance is immune to infighting, not even the Tyranids. Though in the case of the Tyranids, their fights are more a sharing of knowledge, how individual bioforms are learned and understood by other fleets.

No Grand Alliance proves these facts better than Destruction, for while it overall can be placed as the sins of the Old Ones, made up of Greenskins and Ogors and the like. However, there are many that merely exist in the alliance because there is nowhere else to put them, like the Thyrrus and the Krono-Phantoms.

The Krono-Phantoms come from a possible future roughly 396 million years in the future, and they enter this time not to escape some great calamity or to kill a certain being, or any other thing one associates with intentional time travel. No, they do this because they are bored, and they desire to alleviate their boredom by waging war, fighting the greatest warriors of their past in what amounts to a Ludocogitator game session. The Krono-Phantoms even behave like stereotypical trolls and griefers one might encounter on such a system.

They are very much like the Golden Revenants, ie walking anacronisms that are only a threat due to the immense power they wield. Their bodies are near impervious to physical harm, and even destroying one won't kill a Krono-Phantom but instead sends them back to their own time. In addition, they are able to manipulate time in a great many ways by using their weapons, each of which grants a different type of manipulation. In addition, they can manipulate the speed of objects they touch or otherwise send objects into the past or future. This leads to such shenanigans as enemy generals blowing up hours before a battle.

Of course, the Krono-Phantoms are in no way unbeatable, and have a myriad of weaknesses, three of which are extremely easy to exploit. The first and most easily exploitable is their attitude and lack of tactics. Its almost laughably easy to get Krono-Phantoms to turn on each other or their allies. The second is esoteric power, for that more often than not is a great equalizer. The third weakness is the most surprising, namely their lack of protection against temporal manipulation. Unlike practically every other being who can manipulate time, Krono-Phantoms have no inherent protection against temporal manipulation. In fact, they actually have less protection against temporal manipulation than a baseline beings of the Garden have.