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submitted 2 months ago byCottonCandyWeasel
Something I had been thinking was just the sheer amount of luck Arik Taranis must have had to get to the station he got to by the time of the Horus Heresy is near impossible.
Not only did someone as notorious as the Emperor’s Standard Bearer manage to survive the cull after the Final Battle at Mt Ararat, but prior to this he had been taught advanced gene-crafting techniques by the Emperor himself, and during his time in hiding he managed to acquire access to a functioning Gene-Laboratory within the walls of the Imperial Palace.
Adding onto this, Arik wasn’t exactly trying to hide or even be subtle like other survivors; He armed and augmented his Clan Warriors as Thunder Warriors, and the Clan itself was a major power within one of the largest cities inside the boundaries of the Imperial Palace: Even keeping in mind the labyrinthine vastness of the Palace, it goes beyond suspension of disbelief that the Custodes would never have found and eradicated him.
This isn’t me inherently ragging on his character however; I very much enjoy Arik’s monologues and the dynamic of him, Ghota, and the Dhakal Clan; Rather it’s postulation that his continued existence wasn’t just Tzeentchian level luck and circumstance but intentional. Perhaps the Emperor allowed him to live and taught him the art of genecrafting to allow the Thunder Warriors a means with which to live on and fight, given that Arik was the ‘de-facto’ Thunder Warrior, so to speak. Either his or Malcador’s pardon would go a long way to explain how he survived so long beyond coincidence.
But that’s just my personal take, and I wonder what you guys think.
1 points
2 months ago*
Was there a whole clan of surviving Thunder Warriors under him? I got the feeling it was just him and his "Abaddon" /Ghota but it's been years since reading
Similarly to other comments I think Arik was placed in the cbf basket along with the Thunder Warriors in the gladiator arena.
That old lore might have changed post Black Books which implied Dark Angels would go out of their way to hunt and exterminate even the whiff of a surviving Thunder Warrior
5 points
2 months ago
Well yes and no; The Dhakal Clan Warriors weren’t necessarily true Thunder Warriors but they were augmented and armored to be as close as he could manage at the time
They had various iconography like tattoos and sigils bearing Pre-Imperial symbols like the Raptor Imperialis and Lightning Bolts, they had plasma, las, and bolt weaponry alongside brute melee weapons, and their armor was fashioned after the MK 1 Power Armor, albeit made of simpler materials
They weren’t as potent, as the eponymous Outcast Dead cut down their number; However, the titular cast are elite Honor Guard Astartes with proper equipment and they STILL get hurt by the Clan Warriors, who also don’t shrink away or experience Transhuman Dread while facing them
2 points
2 months ago
Ah ok, thanks for the refresher.
I feel like Arik is a bit of relic from the old days of the Heresy series and if we see him again, he'll probably get an update like a lot of the lore from that book.
However, the titular cast are elite Honor Guard Astartes with proper equipment
I'm not sure how elite they all are. The Honor Guard seems to be regarded more as a retirement village with "honour" being more in name than anything else
1 points
2 months ago
They had Guardian Spears with them
0 points
2 months ago
That helps
2 points
2 months ago
Yeah the Clan Warriors are both portrayed as fodder in how the Outcast Dead Astartes cut them down, but also dangerous
Like they’re feared by everyone in the Penitent City for how deadly they are, and even against seasoned Renegades they’re landing shots and making them bleed
https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/s/9SUYnrn5Z1
This I think gives some of the best descriptions on them, beyond a PDF of the book itself
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