Daemonship

A Daemonship is a void-faring starship that has in one form or another had its mortal crew replaced by daemons of the Warp. Such vessels are often radically changed in appearance or mutated by this transition and can possess organic, daemonic appearances as the real and the unreal merge within its hull.

Some say Daemonships are created when a ship's crew sacrifices themselves to the Dark Gods of Chaos, seeking immortality in return for daemonic servitude. Alternatively, it is argued that they are ships of the damned, condemned by acts so heinous as to defy description, their crews and captains in thrall to the Dark Gods forever.

Those who know something of the Warp claim that Daemonships are starships lost in the Warp. For centuries or even millennia, they disappear from the real universe only to re-emerge with a crew of daemonkind.

There are rumours exchanged by Navigators of spectral ships that ply the Warp. The Navigators perceive these ships both as twisted parodies of normal ships and as convocations of daemons. There are tales of these Daemonships pursuing their prey back to the material universe.

This has led to the theory that Daemonships can only leave the Warp by following in the wake of another vessel and that at other times they are trapped in an endlessly shifting ocean of madness within the Immaterium. Typically, there has never been enough reliable evidence to confirm any of these hypotheses.

Although most of the tales of Daemonships describe them as lone hunters captured Renegade Navigators have, under close interrogation, suggested that pacts can be made with any of the daemons of the Warp.

Normally, the time that a daemon can spend in realspace is severely limited. Without the power of the Warp to sustain it, then it will be diminished, gradually losing its stability in the mortal universe before translating back to where it came from. This process can be prevented by ritual worship or by binding the daemon in an object or living thing which serves as a Daemonhost or a possessed machine, as is done by the Masters of Possession and Warpsmiths of the Heretic Astartes.

To know exactly how this is done is forbidden knowledge but it stands to reason that possessing a great starship would give a daemonic host greatly enhanced stability. In time of war, one could expect the sorcerers of Abaddon the Despoiler to add to the strength of his fleets with such apparitions if they are able to.

The incidence of sightings of Daemonships has been tenuously linked to the incidence of flares of the Warp Storms comprising the Eye of Terror and now the Great Rift. If ever it were possible for such monstrosities to be bound to the service of Renegades and Heretics then that time is now.

Notable Daemonships[]

• Veritas Ferrum - The Veritas Ferrum was originally a Strike Cruiser of the Iron Hands Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. The Veritas Ferrum took part in the battle for the orbital space above Isstvan V during the Drop Site Massacre. Commanded by Captain Durun Atticus, the Veritas Ferrum was part of the second wave of Iron Hands vessels to arrive at Isstvan V, having been too damaged by the Emperor's Children ambush in the Callinedes System to join their Primarch Ferrus Manus in the first wave of assault. After its translation from the Warp above Isstvan V it was immediately attacked by the Traitor Legions' fleets. In the massacre that followed most of the second wave of Iron Hands vessels were destroyed, with the Veritas Ferrum taking fire as its crew desperately tried to escape after receiving word that their primarch had been slain in the battle on the world's surface. As the Veritas Ferrum made its escape, it suddenly received a vox hail from two Thunderhawks bearing survivors from Isstvan V's surface and, after being convinced by Sergeant Khi'dem of the Salamanders 139th Company, moved to recover them. While coming under continuous fire the Veritas Ferrum recovered the survivors, which cost the Iron Hands more lives in lost crewmen than the ones they had just saved, before finally making an emergency jump into the Warp as the Traitors' ships closed in. The Veritas Ferrum later traveled to the Death World of Pythos as part of the Shattered Legions expedition there under the command of Captain Atticus. At Pythos, the Veritas Ferrum along with the Legionaries on the damned world were claimed by the daemon Madail. Following Madail's capture of the ship, the daemon transformed the Veritas Ferrum into a corrupted daemonic monstrosity, a true Daemonship. The vessel became far larger than it originally was and grew seemingly organic features such as jaws, tentacles, and eyes. The damned warship became the center of Madail's fleet as he terrorised worlds across the galaxy. During the Second Battle of Davin with a combined Imperial fleet led by the Primarchs Roboute Guilliman, Lion El'Jonson and Sanguinius, the Veritas Ferrum materialised above that cursed world as the flagship of a fleet of other Daemonships, laying waste to the Loyalist armada and destroying the Ultramarines' acting flagship Samothrace. When Davin was destroyed by Cyclonic Torpedoes, the physical anchor keeping the fleet in the Materium died with it, and the Veritas Ferrum and its daemonic escorts vanished back into the Warp.
• Terminus Est - The Terminus Est was one of the first capital ships assigned to the Death Guard Legion of Space Marines by the Emperor of Mankind. It is of a unique design that pre-dates the Great Crusade and which was later copied in the 36th Millennium as part of the Gareox Prerogative to create the Despoiler-class Battleship. As might be expected, this ancient vessel was considerably more powerful than its inferior successor. Few vessels conjure such dread in their foes as does the Terminus Est. Its very name is a curse upon the lips of Imperial ship captains and commanders across the Imperium. It has been present at some of the greatest betrayals and bloodiest days in Imperial history. The Chaos Lord Typhus sits upon its command throne, overseeing its filth-encrusted cannon and infected crew. The Terminus Est has become a harbinger of the Plague God, its appearance above a planet heralding disease and ruin for the citizens below. From its bloated launch bays and pustule-studded holds, rusting dropships are vomited down in putrid brown waves. Inside, Death Guard Plague Marines hunch over corroded blades and pitted bolt guns, waiting for their chance to carry out the will of Nurgle. More than merely a vessel, the Terminus Est is a vile legend and symbol of fear for the people of Imperium. Even a whisper of the ship's presence in a sector can send planetary governors and system lords screaming to the Astra Militarum and Imperial Navy for protection. However, when the Terminus Est darkens the skies of a world, there is little that can save its people -- their fate sealed as the terrible attentions of the Plague God fall upon them.

Sources[]

• Battlefleet Gothic - Traitor Fleets: The Vessels of Chaos (Specialty Game), pp. 40-41
• Index Chaotica: Terminus Est (Digital Edition), pp. 3-4, 6-11
• Veritas Ferrum (Audio Book) by David Annandale
• The Damnation of Pyhtos (Novel) by David Annandale
• Ruinstorm (Novel) by David Annandale