WARMASTER HEAVY BATTLE TITAN

The title of Warmaster is one now tainted by betrayal, the once- lauded honorific a bitter reminder of the once-favoured son who became the Imperium’s most abhorrent of foes. Perhaps it was the treacherous actions of Horus Lupercal that gave name to the Warmaster Titan, or perhaps fate itself was foreshadowing passages of history yet unwritten when the name was bestowed. Either way, the god-engine’s very existence was in many ways an act of treachery of the highest order, its existence kept hidden from most, perhaps even the Emperor Himself, until the latter days of the Horus Heresy.

With the virtue of hindsight it is perhaps unsurprising that the Mechanicum kept knowledge of this mighty god-engine from Mankind, for ever did the Cult Mechanicus build upon foundations of secrets. Indeed, it was through its own knowledge and expertise in technology that the Cult Mechanicus rose to power, and retained it by sharing only what it deemed necessary. Even amongst its own Order, a measure of ignorance was maintained, with rival Forge Worlds often refusing to exchange knowledge so that the hoarder might stand above the ignorant. Yet the Warmaster Titan was not a tool of political power nor a pillar of strength, but a weapon of apocalyptic death and destruction, shrouded and slumbering until a Forge World stood at the precipice of extinction. On that day, the Warmaster Titan would stride to war, leaving naught but blood and ash in its wake. Its very existence was a protected secret within the highest echelons of the Mechanicum, one never spoken of openly, to peers or to outsiders.

The first rumours of a new god-engine emerged from Mars following the Death of Innocence, with tales told of towering engines of war, their like yet unseen, marching to battle. Such tales spoke of six forge-fanes of Phoenicis brought low in a single day by a fortress filled with wrath; of thousands rendered to ash in a singular storm of plasma; of maniples of Titans, Loyalist and Traitor alike, torn apart by a god-engine contemptuous of its inferiors and the weapons they wielded. Such tales were discarded as myth and fancy, conjured forth by terrified minds broken by the changing galaxy. Yet the emergence of the Warmaster could not be ignored forever, for the god-engines were a final contingency plan, an exemplar of the ethos that peace must be bought with blood and, should victory prove impossible, they all should burn before a Forge World could fall.

In battle, a Warmaster Titan is a tool of eradication that rarely rests, sent to stride across the ashes of its foes and tear down any stronghold they shelter in. Little can halt its ponderous advance, for its ceramite-plated form is designed to withstand barrages of artillery and Titan-grade weaponry; where even a Warlord Titan might fall, a Warmaster Titan would stand unwavering. The least of its weapons are those wielded by a Warhound Scout Titan, borne within the Warmaster’s shoulders, while the god-engine’s own arms and carapace bear weapons tailored for complete annihilation – plasma destructors that render foes to atoms and barrages of missiles that can slay super-heavy tanks and Titans alike. Though few Titan Legions held a Warmaster Titan within their ranks, and far fewer still lay claim to several, the Horus Heresy was a crucible for which the god-engine was conceived. For the first time in millennia, the Warmaster Titan strode forth across the galaxy, a living embodiment of the Omnissiah and the deadly ingenuity of His servants. In time, the title of Warmaster was born by two, god-engine and arch-traitor, yet stood for both the same – a perpetrator of annihilation and a foe against whom few could stand.