#ave-dominus-nostramos

[divinituscaptivus]

"For some reason I can't explain,

I know saint Sanguinius won't call my name.

Never an honest word.

But that was when I ruled the world." 🎶

He's singing drunkenly again just outside of Kusig's cell.

@ave-dominus-nostramos

"You again." The ancient simmered.

He was growing quite weary of his wayward child's antics, but was powerless to stop them. Since Terra, he had been reduced to a dog on a very short leash, and when he bit, he felt the sting of his master's sharp hand.

"Who taught you this song?" @ave-dominus-nostramos

[forgottnseccnd]

Leaps out from behind a crate and affectionately tackles his brother to the ground

( @ave-dominus-nostramos )

" HHOUGHK--!! " Aurelius audibly grunted, nearly yelling, as he was tackled to the ground-- the back of his helmet smacked against the ground as he was brought down by the other Primarch. He just sighed... but some part of him faintly smiled under his helmet as he moved to pat Curze's head.

" Affectionate today, brother? " Hummed Aurelius, peering down to look at him.

Some Stars Repentant marines looked frantic at the thought of Konrad tackling their Primarch, but none dared to approach. Luckily, one of the First Company seemed to explain to them that, no, Aurelius was not in fact dying. This was just brotherly bonding.

[mxchineandnerve]

The Night Haunter tears the head and spine from a Brute's carcass with his bare hands. He holds it out to John, waiting for him to take it. The alien's glassy eyes stare blankly back at the Spartan, it's hideous purple tongue lolling out of a slack jaw . Blood and viscera drip onto the ground.

"A trophy for your regalia of fear. A warning. A reminder of what awaits your enemies."

( @ave-dominus-nostramos )

"That won't be necessary." John tells his bizarre giant companion. Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 was not a savage. He did not need grizzly trophies adorning his armor to be a symbol of fear to the Covenant. They were already terrified of him. They hated and despised him, naming him "demon" as though he was a creature from the depths of hell come to suck out their souls. Besides, wearing the heads of his alien victims was more the territory of the species whose head the Night Haunter held out to him. John was no Jiralhanae; he was above those great hairy slobbering Brutes.

[lunarsprincess]

❝⠀I have been told you are called Konrad.⠀❞

Upon his own planet, @ave-dominus-nostramos had been met with the sun made flesh; blinding, scouring, both the sustainer of life and its destroyer. Upon Terra, in a silent hall of the Emperor's palace, the greeting of this girl creature was far less egregious ... Or so she hoped.

Mindful of eyes that had formed in shadow, Luna restrained her regalia as much as she dared for this newest Primarch. Subtlety and simplicity were never her brother's preference, and his desires were her own ---- even if his armour was replaced with sheer silk, his weapons for strings of pearls and diamonds, she bore his Aquila all the same.

❝⠀In its original language... It meant bold counsellor. A fittingly handsome name for one such as you, do you not agree?⠀❞

[arshak-rp]

Curze passes him a still beating human heart. ( @ave-dominus-nostramos )

@ave-dominus-nostramos

Arshak remains still, looking at his Lord with unimpressed eyes, years of training making it hard for him to show emotions yet he could feel confusion toward Curze's behavior.

"My Lord?", he asks, unsure if he should take the heart or simply ask his primarch what he wants him to do with it.

[nevesmose]

Nostraman Nature Sucks: An Attempted Lore Post

Ave dominus nox Night Lords fans. I thought I'd take some time to go through the various NL stories I have to hand and see what I could find out about the animals that lived on Nostramo. Might come in useful for something, who knows?

Sharks and Whales

As a child, on several coastal journeys with his father, he had witnessed the eyeless barrasal sharks that would group together to hunt the great whales of the open ocean. (Night Lords Trilogy)

His voice filters into something savage and predatory, as hungry as the eyeless white sharks of Nostramo’s blackest depths. (The Long Night)

Not a big surprise since they talk about them fairly often and have the Space Sharks as a successor chapter but Nostramo does have sharks. Pretty gnarly-sounding sharks if I'm honest.

I didn't know what "barrasal" meant, so I looked it up and only found one thread on r/40klore that had the same quote in it as above. Hmm.

Assuming it's not a typo or a more straightforward reference to something I'm just not getting, I'd venture a guess that barrasal, understood here to mean of or relating to "barras" like with "abyssal" could be connected to the French Revolutionary leader Paul Barras who is mostly remembered for supporting Napoleon's rise to power before being overthrown by him.

So maybe the older barrasal sharks will make use of younger ones as temporary hunting partners only to be inevitably betrayed and consumed by them. Sounds about right I think.

As for the whales, where do I even begin? I would imagine they're "whales" in name only like in Dishonored:

This does imply the possible existence of a whaling industry at some stage in Nostramo's history, though.

Crows

Jago reached into his pockets, offering a handful of breadcrumbs. Come, he said to the crows. Food for tonight. Flesh, flesh, flesh, they called back. He laughed as several of the black birds landed on his shoulders and outstretched arm. (Prince Of Crows)

‘Yes. I’ve seen them in books. Is a crow a type of bird?’ ‘Black of feather and dark of eye. It feeds on the bodies of the dead, and sings in a raw, croaking caw.’ (TLN)

Breaking news - legion that keeps referring to crows in shocking has crows on its homeworld scandal. "This is outrageous," said local Nostraman cutpurse and skin disease enthusiast Verxaglryn Quickstabber, "here we are trying to make a good name for Nostramo as a respectable hellhole, a place you'd be proud to exile your worst enemy to, and yet we're surrounded by some of the most intelligent and curious birds in existence. I was shanking someone in a back alley the other night and suddenly I saw a crow learning how to use rudimentary tools! Not on my watch, I said to the rapidly cooling body, and I threw my shiv at it. But it just flew away." At this point Mr Quickstabber was obliged to end the interview due to having been eviscerated by the Night Haunter.

I know their communication with Sevatar is happening in a dream but I really like the idea of the crows adapting to Nostramo by developing some kind of psychic hive mind that's also able to be understood by human psykers.

Crag Cougars

A beast of my home world. When next you see one of the Atramentar, look to their shoulder guards. The roaring lions on their pauldrons are what we called crag cougars on Nostramo. It was considered a mark of wealth for gang bosses to be able to leave the cities and hunt such creatures. (NLT)

Every single one of them is Scar from the Lion King, isn't it? An interesting hint about Nostramo's geography though, of which more later.

Rats

Groundcars whisked by, headlights brighter than deep-hive rats’ eyes, the occupants snug and safe behind armoured glass. (Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter)

No surprises here either. Where there's people there's rats after all.

Something with tusks?

The older Astartes grinned, wolf-like and keen, as the Atramentar either side of the Exalted’s throne growled through their tusked helms. (NLT)

This isn't that conclusive because a lot of Chaos Terminators have tusks no matter what legion they are, but Nostramo being Nostramo they probably belonged to a species of giant carnivorous mammoth that ate babies and sprayed acid from its trunk.

Cows? On My Sunless World?

‘They are still of standard human stock, and not to be mourned. What does it matter if the cattle fear the herdsman?’ hissed Krukesh the Pale. (KC:TNH)

This one's a real reach on my part as it's very likely just a turn of phrase, but I noticed it because wouldn't it be slightly more typical to use a sheep metaphor here? Plus it supports the existence of Nostraman cowboys/ranchers/vaqueros which is fun.

No bats?

His helmet bore a new, spread batwing crest in blatant imitation of Sevatar’s own. (A Safe and Shadowed Place)

A sole space was neat: a circle around an iron lectern fashioned in the form of a bat’s outflung wings, which carried a heavy book bound in human skin. (KC:TNH)

Although they appear a lot in the VIII legion's iconography and artwork, oddly enough I wasn't actually able to find a direct reference to Nostramo itself having bats. Let's cover my ass by saying this aspect might therefore have been brought in by the legion's Terran component instead.

Some Nostraman geography

The Hill Folk lived away from the cities, eking out an existence in the mountains. (NLT)

What's worse than living in a Nostraman city? Living on a Nostraman hill, apparently. This seems to just be an idea of ADB's that doesn't come up again but I've always found it quite interesting. Were the Hill Folk as scummy as the City Folk, just with more of a down-home Dukes of Hazzard vibe? Seems likely.

This also supports the idea of Nostramo not being completely urbanised like some Hive Worlds are. In my view its continents might have had a geographical layout a bit like Italy or Scotland where the cities are mainly on the flatter coasts with a more sparsely populated hilly/mountainous interior.

What else? (This part is just me making stuff up so feel free to ignore it. I'm not ADB, I'm not even ADB's hat.)

If the rest of Nostramo's marine life is anything like the sharks and whales then it's fucking terrifying. I would imagine, because it's funny, that a lot of Nostraman food features disgusting industrially-processed fish in some way or another. Like the food in Dishonored but even worse.

Is something wrong, dearest offworld husband? You haven't touched your stale bread, whalemeat and jellied eels.

Since all life on Nostramo seems to be comically carnivorous and aggressive, it would make sense in a 40K kind of way for there to be giant predatory penguins living at one or both of its poles. A bit like the monstrous blind albino penguins HP Lovecraft wrote about.

Last known infrared pict-capture of an early Nostraman settler attempting communication with a juvenile specimen of the native penguin species. There were no survivors.

[rxgeincarnate]

“The fools deserve to die choking on their blood. Do not act like you haven’t done the same. Am I a ‘monster’ for ripping mortals limb from limb when you torment and flay them for your entertainment?!”

How do you tell if Angron is especially angry? Is it more swears or is there another tell?

There is much more swearing. Oh and the butchers nails rise a little to make him taller, he is not aware of this.

[tertiusdecimusfilius]

Where she stops...

( @ave-dominus-nostramos )

Send me “Where she stops...” for a starter using the whump wheel || Accepting!

Roboute had returned to the ship, moving to his quarters to log information about the battle that had just been won. His chapter masters and officers were in charge of debriefing and post-battle procedures. He'd given them their orders and they would follow through as expected.

The Primarch sank down into his chair at his desk. His head leaned back, eyes closed as he took a few slow and deliberate breaths. The pharmacopia in his armor could only do so much for pain and it could only stem bleeding wounds for so long. There was gauze patch on his right temple that was starting to bleed through. It was the only visible wound, but there were a couple more hidden beneath the armor.

His eyes opened and he lifted his head to see his brother in the darkened corner of the room.

"Do you need something, brother?" Roboute asked.

[the-emperorofmankind]

🥞 Enjoy a stack of some of the densest, chalkiest pancakes ever without a single drop of syrup

@ave-dominus-nostramos

“This is a crime against humanity and pancakes, Konrad. Why would you do this.”

[divinituscaptivus]

😞 reverse ( @ave-dominus-nostramos )

"When was the last time you rested?" Asked the ancient. Rest would do this child good. Rest might dull his fangs, his vindictive judgements, his cruelty that made even the infamous Tyrant of Tyrants blanch. The Night Haunter was likely to refuse him. He knew his war-dog's soul. It was a mirror of his own, a fiery spirit that never liked to be restrained. In that event, The Emperor might have to force him to sleep. @ave-dominus-nostramos

[forgottnseccnd]

Knocks his brother's limbless body over and begins to roll ( @ave-dominus-nostramos )

There should have been joy at the thought of seeing his brother again, perhaps relief, a cry of saying you're finally back! But there was nothing.

Instead, as Aurelius's limbless form had been removed from the wall-- he was knocked over, his helmed head smacking down against the floor with a CLUNK, while his heavily-scarred, limbless body was rolled about like clay. Humiliation was quick to make itself known for the Primarch, as all he could do was let it happen-- he couldn't even fight back, he barely had the focus to actually use his psychic abilities to stop Konrad. Arms awkwardly moved in some attempt to get him to stop, but it was all for naught.

So Aurelius crumpled, letting himself be rolled about, a toy for his brother's antics.

He didn't utter a word. Instead, he could only accept such fate.

[warpcursed]

"My thoughts are my own, witch. Perhaps you need a reminder... A little gift from me to you."

( @ave-dominus-nostramos )

He's absolutely frozen in place. His blood suddenly ran cold and his heart it hammering in his chest, feeling like it was going to burst from the sheer terror of the man before him. No. This was no man. This was a monster. A Primarch. A Son of the Carrion Lord.

Even if Ozura could find his voice, there was no point in talking back. He was going to die here and he was sure of it.

@ave-dominus-nostramos

[savior-of-humanity]

If you were a deity, what would you be the god of?

STRATEGY AND WARFARE

prideful and ambitious, your followers come to you for guidance and luck in battles they feel are too much for them. you embody the bravery and bloodlust of warfare and the battle intelligence for strategy and leadership. Your patience tends to thin around those who don’t respect you or question your intelligence and strength.

Stolen from: @unforgivendivine

Tagging: @rathalascendant, @ofluckandmagic, @wisperedlullaby, @heaven-said, @expvrgction, @hauntedreality, @ave-dominus-nostramos, @mxchineandnerve, @musesfromthefifthdimension, and anyone else who wants to do this!

[tlatia-the-radiant]

"I will enslave Father. To bind what remains of his humanity and use him as he did to his own children. 'Even a broken tool has its uses,' in his own words."

@ave-dominus-nostramos

And I'll stand against you. No one should ever be a slave. Not even those who would enslave others.

Has this entire family forgotten the idea of basic human decency?

[primarchstory]

"Take a bath, before I force you into this water basin."

To be fair, the other had a bad smell that only those with sensitive noses could pick up, certainly something the normal people could do. But Lion is more tired, so to speak and doesn't put much force into his words like he used to.

@ave-dominus-nostramos

[the-archpriest-and-the-outcast]

Bites Lorgar's fingers when he reaches towards him ( @ave-dominus-nostramos )

@ave-dominus-nostramos

"Hey!" Lorgar said as he snatched his hand back. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright. No need to snap at me."

Did he treat Fulgrim with such disrespect while he was being tutored in the ways of the Imperium? he thought to himself.