Day 1 of Princess Appreciation Week: Favorite Scene/Quote! (Event & prompt list organized by @princessappreciationweek)
I had this whole plan to make preparation sketches for this event and actually lock in, but alas… I do however think I'm going to finish this illustration after the event or even during it, if I get the time.
I wish I could get excited for things in the lore.
Wish I could get excited for books.
Wish I could get excited for campaign supplements.
Wish I could get excited for games.
I'd like to read cool stories about my boyz too.
I'd like to read cool stories about cool warbosses doing cool things and not always losing.
There's is nothing to look forwards too because the lore is just always the exact same thing. It is either not about Xenos or if they feature they suck.
I am tired of Orks sucking at everything and never being allowed to win any campaigns.
I just wish I could get excited for and read cool stories too. I feel this massive FOMO as I see all the excited chatter and discussion that happens but there is nothing for me to talk about because there is no new lore for Orks ever (or even Xenos really) aside from humiliations and defeats.
I just wish I could have cool stories and characters to look forwards to as well.
This extends to Eldar and Tau, Dark Eldar and Tyranids, Genestealer Cults and Necron too, Orks will always just be the nearest and dearest to my heart.
Just feel like ashes in my mouth. There's never anything good to say about Xenos.
I think the part which depresses me most is that after the Ynnari there isn't even Xenos plotlines to get excited or invested in. GW has just completely given up on Xenos having their own plotlines, only the Imperium has plotlines. The lore is now just about which Daemon/Loyalist Primarch comes back next and what do they do.
Ghazghkull returned to Armageddon and nothing new happened. Nothing. He didn't achieve anything, he changed nothing, nothing developed. The situation is exactly the same as it was when he left at the end of the 3rd War: a stalemate that goes nowhere in the background. He does nothing. He killed some normal humans (not even Space Marines) in one tower and then has done nothing else this entire war. He doesn't even lead any assaults.
The Ynnari don't exist.
The T'au have been fighting on the same 3 planets in the Chalnath Expanse for the past 10 years of real time. Octarius ended...only for it to immediately do nothing and now with the new Ork Codex listing Octarius as one of its warzones we're going back even more to just a status quo.
There is never anything to get excited for about Xenos lore. There is nothing to hold out hope for. There is nothing to look forwards too. There is just losing to Space Marines again and again and again.
We never even got to have Lady Malys team up with Yvrainne in a book or expand on her (clearly intentional and informed by Cegorach) direct role in bringing about her emergence as the Herald of Ynnead.
We never even got to have Lady Malys, Yvrainne, Lelith Hesperax and Jain Zar all fighting together or hanging out.
GW doesn't even bother to make new Hive Fleets anymore, Leviathan just repeats the same losing strategies it has employed in both its past two big defeats again and the narrative tries to act as if this is something new.
Commorragh is penetrated every Tuesday and everything from Orks, Deathwatch Squads, Custodes Squads and a single Rogue Trader are causing dysjunctions of entire Subrealms (something in codex stated to be super rare but seems to be super common in the actual lore).
It isn't even that the lore sucks, it has never been great for Xenos, but there just isn't anything to ever even look forwards to anymore. GW doesn't even try to give Xenos plotlines anymore.
All that awaits us at the end is the eventual transformation fully of 40k into just Horus Heresy again.
What's that Necron? You got Gauss weapons to atomize your foes?
THE CUSTODES HAVE ADRATHIC WHICH IS EVEN BETTER AT DISINTEGRATING!
What's that Aeldari? You're described in your own codex as the 'masters of forcefield technology?'
SORRY STORMSHIELD BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE AND ONLY IMPERIUM GETS TO HAVE A 3+ INV NOW
Oh, T'au, you have the best base guns?
NO, YOU DON'T HEAVY INTERCESSORS DO (and honestly even basic Bolt Rifles arguably)
Aeldari, of all kinds, Jetbikes are kind of your thing?
HAHA! CUSTODES JETBIKES ARE FAR MORE POWERFUL AND ADVANCED!
Oh, Asuryani, the one thing repeated about you over and over again always is your species is the most psychic species in the galaxy?
HUMAN PSYKERS LAUGH AT HOW PATHETIC YOU ARE, WE LITERALLY HAVE MULTIPLE HUMAN PSYKERS (Emperor, Malcador, Magnus, Draigo) STRONGER THAN YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES
Haemonculi, you are masters of genetic engineering with an unbroken lineage of this technology going back millions of years?
SPACE MARINES AND CUSTODES SURPASS ALL HAEMONCULI CREATIONS WITH EASE AND REGULARLY HUMILIATE THEM WITH NO EFFORT
Oh, Tyranids, you are meant to adapt quickly?
NOT AS QUICKLY AS SPACE MARINES WHOSE TACTICS CONSTANTLY OUTCLASS YOU! INDEED, THE SWARMLORD GROWS WEAKER WITH EVERY FIGHT, THEIR EVERY DEFEAT MORE HUMILIATING THAN THE LAST!
T'au, you're meant to be rare in the setting as a faction that activaly innovates?
CAWL WIPES HIS ASS WITH YOU AND SINGLE-HANDIDLY OUT INNOVATES YOUR ENTIRE FACTION (he even out-techs Necron now and easily hacks entire Tomb Worlds!)
@tytftyhgb: scale might affect some, but it does not change the underlying point: that the Imperium has the best version of every single thing. That even things which are meant to be the forte of other factions (Jetbikes, forcefields for Aeldari, disintegration for Necron, basic firepower for T'au, genetic engineering for Haemonculus or the Hivemind) the Imperium simply ultimately does best.
The most powerful jetbikes are Imperial.
The most powerful gene-constructs are Imperial.
The strongest Psykers are Imperial.
The strongest Forcefields are Imperial.
And so on and so forth.
To look at some of the specific examples you brought up:
Necron Warrior Gauss weapons aren't even powerful by normal standards. You can just watch Pariah and see that even 40+ Necron Warriors firing at two regular Space Marines barely injure them. The Gauss Weapons of Necron Warriors are not only weak when compared to Adrathic, they are weak when compared to much lower grade Imperial tech as well.
And Adrathic is monumentally better than Gauss if we go by stats and what happens in lore. We again just have a precedent where the Imperial version of a technology is simply superior at its height to that of a faction who are meant to be more technologically advanced.
Another way to put it is: the scale doesn't change anything because of how the lore is written. Necron having 'more' doesn't meaningfully help them. Custodes already have more known victories under them than the Necrons as a species do and so clearly scale doesn't make a difference.
The idea that their 'small numbers' is a drawback isn't really a drawback because of how GW and BL approach lore: namely that Marines/Custodes are always where they need to be anyway and there doesn't seem to be a problem of numbers because every single major war and battlefield has them in it already.
So, not only does their supposed weakness of small numbers not actually translate into a weakness on the field (they win 99% of all battles and campaigns) but they also are in 100% of all major campaigns and battles to the point that we know far more wars and campaigns featuring Space Marines or Custodes than we know which do not.
On top of this being the case we then also have the problem that not only does the small numbers not actually in any way disadvantage them, but their best version of a thing is still always better than everyone else's.
To be blunt: why do Custodes need hyper-advanced better than Necron Gauss guns? They already have better armour, better speed, more strength, overall higher fighting capabilities and a billion other things, why not let the overall tech of Custodes be less advanced than that of the Necron, the species explicitly said to be the most advanced species in the setting?
Jetbikes have the same problem, although that one I am sure will be compounded as the moment I saw Repulsors I have been counting down, and still am 100% confident, we're going to see Space Marine jetbikes as core units sooner than later and they will, of course, 100% outperform Aeldari ones as Custodes do.
The 3+ invuln is admittedly dated, that was because for much of 40k Stormshields gave 3+ invulns whilst the Aeldari, described in their own Codex as the 'masters of Forcefield technology' were never given anything comparable.
Putting all this aside though, at the end of the day, for me the bigger thing is just...why does the Imperium need to be the best at everything? Why can't other factions have niches which, at the highest levels, they simply are the best at?
That's how I feel anyway.
Thank you for recontextualising everything like that, I hadn't quite looked at it from that perspective. It makes me think of how even with the whole Dark Age of Technology tech how many times Imperial tech outclasses other species' tech, like with the Adrasite spears, but also how much Custodians are doing? I don't catch up on the lore extremely often and I'm shocked how many victories they have, considering most of them should be on Terra.
No problem.
Imperial Tech has long (in the lore) actually been better than everyone's (like their psychic). Saw it expressed best in a recent lore thread about Mechanicus:
"The Mechanicus has in a few years managed to reverse engineer Necron blackstone, reinvent DAoT era AI, create hover-vehicles superior to anything used by the other factions, fix all stability issues with plasma, and invent a new higher quality mass producible variant of Space Marines."
Only the Necron in lore technically still sometimes get more hype (with things like the Celestial Orrery) but because narrative demands that Necron lose as easily now as all Xenos this diminished with time (the biggest culprit here being the 4 books and 2 campaign supplements in which Cawl takes over entire tomb worlds by himself by just hacking them).
But Eldar and Tau tech has been functionally in-universe worse than the Imperium always. Same for Eldar psychic which has always just been pathetic compared to the Imperium. Even the Imperium's seers are superior to the Farseers (which isn't saying much, Farseers are up there with Ork Warbosses, the Swarmlord, Greater Daemons and the Avatar of Khaine as the single most pathetic things in the setting).
As for the Custodes: yeah since 8th they are way more active off Terra than on Terra. GW cranked out a LOT of battles for them quick at a time when in other Codices they dropped timeline segments and mentions of achievements Custodes continued to get nonstop litanies of specific battles they won.
It isn't really surprising; to be honest, this is all just a consequence of the same trend we've been seeing since 8th began: Horus Heresy-fication.
The success of the Horus Heresy convinced GW that the key ingredients to make 40k popular are:
Primarchs.
Even MORE Space Marines but now with family drama thanks to Primarchs.
Custodes.
And they probably were right. A consequence of this is just that, like in the Horus Heresy, everything that isn't relevant to this (see all Xenos) just become more and more marginalized than they already were (which was a lot).
Cawl's a strong guy, but there should be no way he can hack an entire tomb world, even with his previous contact with the Necrons. And Mephiston or Tigurius being stronger than Eldrad in terms of psychic might does straight up seem like they forgot about him, like hasn't he stopped time multiple times?
I understand the reasoning GW uses to have the Imperium, and especially Space Marines, win constantly. But it just doesn't make sense, like if they want a whole "good wins over evil" thing like they constantly frame it as, it doesn't work cause they're just not supposed to be the good guys. And even so, seeing your favourite faction win every time without taking a hit gets boring, like in my mind GW has already probably printed a book where Armageddon is won by the Imperials and it just doesn't feel earned as an Imperial victory.
I'm really hoping that GW eventually comes to their senses. Books on the Phoenix Lords and their aspect warriors would be so interesting I feel, or a T'au book about the Water Caste negotiating with a potential new addition to the Empire. And a book on Ghaz's perspective of a victory over Armageddon and sticking it to that random Space Wolf would be incredible I find, especially with how good the Ghaz book I've read was. Or maybe even a book where an Avatar of Khaine chokes Fulgrim to death.
Thank you for the book recommendations too! I'll be sure to take a look.
What's that Necron? You got Gauss weapons to atomize your foes?
THE CUSTODES HAVE ADRATHIC WHICH IS EVEN BETTER AT DISINTEGRATING!
What's that Aeldari? You're described in your own codex as the 'masters of forcefield technology?'
SORRY STORMSHIELD BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE AND ONLY IMPERIUM GETS TO HAVE A 3+ INV NOW
Oh, T'au, you have the best base guns?
NO, YOU DON'T HEAVY INTERCESSORS DO (and honestly even basic Bolt Rifles arguably)
Aeldari, of all kinds, Jetbikes are kind of your thing?
HAHA! CUSTODES JETBIKES ARE FAR MORE POWERFUL AND ADVANCED!
Oh, Asuryani, the one thing repeated about you over and over again always is your species is the most psychic species in the galaxy?
HUMAN PSYKERS LAUGH AT HOW PATHETIC YOU ARE, WE LITERALLY HAVE MULTIPLE HUMAN PSYKERS (Emperor, Malcador, Magnus, Draigo) STRONGER THAN YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES
Haemonculi, you are masters of genetic engineering with an unbroken lineage of this technology going back millions of years?
SPACE MARINES AND CUSTODES SURPASS ALL HAEMONCULI CREATIONS WITH EASE AND REGULARLY HUMILIATE THEM WITH NO EFFORT
Oh, Tyranids, you are meant to adapt quickly?
NOT AS QUICKLY AS SPACE MARINES WHOSE TACTICS CONSTANTLY OUTCLASS YOU! INDEED, THE SWARMLORD GROWS WEAKER WITH EVERY FIGHT, THEIR EVERY DEFEAT MORE HUMILIATING THAN THE LAST!
T'au, you're meant to be rare in the setting as a faction that activaly innovates?
CAWL WIPES HIS ASS WITH YOU AND SINGLE-HANDIDLY OUT INNOVATES YOUR ENTIRE FACTION (he even out-techs Necron now and easily hacks entire Tomb Worlds!)
@tytftyhgb: scale might affect some, but it does not change the underlying point: that the Imperium has the best version of every single thing. That even things which are meant to be the forte of other factions (Jetbikes, forcefields for Aeldari, disintegration for Necron, basic firepower for T'au, genetic engineering for Haemonculus or the Hivemind) the Imperium simply ultimately does best.
The most powerful jetbikes are Imperial.
The most powerful gene-constructs are Imperial.
The strongest Psykers are Imperial.
The strongest Forcefields are Imperial.
And so on and so forth.
To look at some of the specific examples you brought up:
Necron Warrior Gauss weapons aren't even powerful by normal standards. You can just watch Pariah and see that even 40+ Necron Warriors firing at two regular Space Marines barely injure them. The Gauss Weapons of Necron Warriors are not only weak when compared to Adrathic, they are weak when compared to much lower grade Imperial tech as well.
And Adrathic is monumentally better than Gauss if we go by stats and what happens in lore. We again just have a precedent where the Imperial version of a technology is simply superior at its height to that of a faction who are meant to be more technologically advanced.
Another way to put it is: the scale doesn't change anything because of how the lore is written. Necron having 'more' doesn't meaningfully help them. Custodes already have more known victories under them than the Necrons as a species do and so clearly scale doesn't make a difference.
The idea that their 'small numbers' is a drawback isn't really a drawback because of how GW and BL approach lore: namely that Marines/Custodes are always where they need to be anyway and there doesn't seem to be a problem of numbers because every single major war and battlefield has them in it already.
So, not only does their supposed weakness of small numbers not actually translate into a weakness on the field (they win 99% of all battles and campaigns) but they also are in 100% of all major campaigns and battles to the point that we know far more wars and campaigns featuring Space Marines or Custodes than we know which do not.
On top of this being the case we then also have the problem that not only does the small numbers not actually in any way disadvantage them, but their best version of a thing is still always better than everyone else's.
To be blunt: why do Custodes need hyper-advanced better than Necron Gauss guns? They already have better armour, better speed, more strength, overall higher fighting capabilities and a billion other things, why not let the overall tech of Custodes be less advanced than that of the Necron, the species explicitly said to be the most advanced species in the setting?
Jetbikes have the same problem, although that one I am sure will be compounded as the moment I saw Repulsors I have been counting down, and still am 100% confident, we're going to see Space Marine jetbikes as core units sooner than later and they will, of course, 100% outperform Aeldari ones as Custodes do.
The 3+ invuln is admittedly dated, that was because for much of 40k Stormshields gave 3+ invulns whilst the Aeldari, described in their own Codex as the 'masters of Forcefield technology' were never given anything comparable.
Putting all this aside though, at the end of the day, for me the bigger thing is just...why does the Imperium need to be the best at everything? Why can't other factions have niches which, at the highest levels, they simply are the best at?
That's how I feel anyway.
Do you think you could suggest some good books featuring Xenos? Admittedly, a good amount of the literature I interact with is Space Marine based, given they're my main army, though I have read The Infinite and the Divine and a good couple of Ork books. I would love to hear your suggestions of reads about Eldar and T'au especially, since I've heard much about their stories without really knowing where to go about it.
What's that Necron? You got Gauss weapons to atomize your foes?
THE CUSTODES HAVE ADRATHIC WHICH IS EVEN BETTER AT DISINTEGRATING!
What's that Aeldari? You're described in your own codex as the 'masters of forcefield technology?'
SORRY STORMSHIELD BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE AND ONLY IMPERIUM GETS TO HAVE A 3+ INV NOW
Oh, T'au, you have the best base guns?
NO, YOU DON'T HEAVY INTERCESSORS DO (and honestly even basic Bolt Rifles arguably)
Aeldari, of all kinds, Jetbikes are kind of your thing?
HAHA! CUSTODES JETBIKES ARE FAR MORE POWERFUL AND ADVANCED!
Oh, Asuryani, the one thing repeated about you over and over again always is your species is the most psychic species in the galaxy?
HUMAN PSYKERS LAUGH AT HOW PATHETIC YOU ARE, WE LITERALLY HAVE MULTIPLE HUMAN PSYKERS (Emperor, Malcador, Magnus, Draigo) STRONGER THAN YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES
Haemonculi, you are masters of genetic engineering with an unbroken lineage of this technology going back millions of years?
SPACE MARINES AND CUSTODES SURPASS ALL HAEMONCULI CREATIONS WITH EASE AND REGULARLY HUMILIATE THEM WITH NO EFFORT
Oh, Tyranids, you are meant to adapt quickly?
NOT AS QUICKLY AS SPACE MARINES WHOSE TACTICS CONSTANTLY OUTCLASS YOU! INDEED, THE SWARMLORD GROWS WEAKER WITH EVERY FIGHT, THEIR EVERY DEFEAT MORE HUMILIATING THAN THE LAST!
T'au, you're meant to be rare in the setting as a faction that activaly innovates?
CAWL WIPES HIS ASS WITH YOU AND SINGLE-HANDIDLY OUT INNOVATES YOUR ENTIRE FACTION (he even out-techs Necron now and easily hacks entire Tomb Worlds!)
@tytftyhgb: scale might affect some, but it does not change the underlying point: that the Imperium has the best version of every single thing. That even things which are meant to be the forte of other factions (Jetbikes, forcefields for Aeldari, disintegration for Necron, basic firepower for T'au, genetic engineering for Haemonculus or the Hivemind) the Imperium simply ultimately does best.
The most powerful jetbikes are Imperial.
The most powerful gene-constructs are Imperial.
The strongest Psykers are Imperial.
The strongest Forcefields are Imperial.
And so on and so forth.
To look at some of the specific examples you brought up:
Necron Warrior Gauss weapons aren't even powerful by normal standards. You can just watch Pariah and see that even 40+ Necron Warriors firing at two regular Space Marines barely injure them. The Gauss Weapons of Necron Warriors are not only weak when compared to Adrathic, they are weak when compared to much lower grade Imperial tech as well.
And Adrathic is monumentally better than Gauss if we go by stats and what happens in lore. We again just have a precedent where the Imperial version of a technology is simply superior at its height to that of a faction who are meant to be more technologically advanced.
Another way to put it is: the scale doesn't change anything because of how the lore is written. Necron having 'more' doesn't meaningfully help them. Custodes already have more known victories under them than the Necrons as a species do and so clearly scale doesn't make a difference.
The idea that their 'small numbers' is a drawback isn't really a drawback because of how GW and BL approach lore: namely that Marines/Custodes are always where they need to be anyway and there doesn't seem to be a problem of numbers because every single major war and battlefield has them in it already.
So, not only does their supposed weakness of small numbers not actually translate into a weakness on the field (they win 99% of all battles and campaigns) but they also are in 100% of all major campaigns and battles to the point that we know far more wars and campaigns featuring Space Marines or Custodes than we know which do not.
On top of this being the case we then also have the problem that not only does the small numbers not actually in any way disadvantage them, but their best version of a thing is still always better than everyone else's.
To be blunt: why do Custodes need hyper-advanced better than Necron Gauss guns? They already have better armour, better speed, more strength, overall higher fighting capabilities and a billion other things, why not let the overall tech of Custodes be less advanced than that of the Necron, the species explicitly said to be the most advanced species in the setting?
Jetbikes have the same problem, although that one I am sure will be compounded as the moment I saw Repulsors I have been counting down, and still am 100% confident, we're going to see Space Marine jetbikes as core units sooner than later and they will, of course, 100% outperform Aeldari ones as Custodes do.
The 3+ invuln is admittedly dated, that was because for much of 40k Stormshields gave 3+ invulns whilst the Aeldari, described in their own Codex as the 'masters of Forcefield technology' were never given anything comparable.
Putting all this aside though, at the end of the day, for me the bigger thing is just...why does the Imperium need to be the best at everything? Why can't other factions have niches which, at the highest levels, they simply are the best at?
That's how I feel anyway.
Thank you for recontextualising everything like that, I hadn't quite looked at it from that perspective. It makes me think of how even with the whole Dark Age of Technology tech how many times Imperial tech outclasses other species' tech, like with the Adrasite spears, but also how much Custodians are doing? I don't catch up on the lore extremely often and I'm shocked how many victories they have, considering most of them should be on Terra.
please read this even if you're not indian. especially if you're not indian.
you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.
first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.
now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:
in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.
and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.
and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.
it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:
• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.
• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.
• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.
• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.
• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.
• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.
and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.
what i'm asking:
if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.
if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.
india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.
we can still save her. but only loudly.
reblog. share. don't scroll past.
Was driving with my grandmother and in broken English she says “no eyes… no nose… no face. Don’t trust.” To which I looked around wildly in search of this omen of ill portend.
Cybertruck. It was a cybertruck.
Btw, today is my birthday 👉👈
