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{{Quote|I have seen worlds burn and crushed nations underfoot, torn down the idols of false gods and slaughtered kings like cattle. Presume not to order me, tiny man, for I am war, and you are no more than chaff before the scythe...|Venerable Targas of the [[Executioners]] to General von Litzner of the Jantine Cataphracts}}
 
{{Quote|I have seen worlds burn and crushed nations underfoot, torn down the idols of false gods and slaughtered kings like cattle. Presume not to order me, tiny man, for I am war, and you are no more than chaff before the scythe...|Venerable Targas of the [[Executioners]] to General von Litzner of the Jantine Cataphracts}}
 
[[File:Minotaurs_Contemptor_Dred.jpeg|thumb|250px|A Relic Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Minotaurs]] [[Chapter]] armed with a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]] and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] with built-in [[twin-linked]] [[Bolter]].]]
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A '''Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought''' is an ancient [[Imperial]] [[cybernetic]] combat walker used by the [[Space Marine Legions]] in the days of the [[Great Crusade]] and the [[Horus Heresy]], 10,000 Terran years before the present day.
   
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Like the current patterns of [[Dreadnought]], the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought served as a cybernetic sarcophagus for an [[Astartes]] who had been so badly wounded in battle that his only chance for continued service to the [[Emperor]] lay in being interred within the cybernetic sarcophagus of a Dreadnought.
[[File:Minotaurs_Contemptor_Dred.jpeg|thumb|250px|A Relic Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Minotaurs]] [[Chapter]] armed with a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]] and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] with built-in [[twin-linked]] [[Bolter]]]]
 
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A '''Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought''' is an ancient [[Imperial]] cybernetic combat walker used by the [[Space Marine Legions]] in the days of the [[Great Crusade]] and the [[Horus Heresy]], 10,000 Terran years before the present day. Like the current patterns of [[Dreadnought]]s now utilised, the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought served as a cybernetic sarcophagus for an [[Astartes]] who had been so badly wounded in battle that his only chance for continued service to the [[Emperor]] lay in being interred within the cybernetic sarcophagus of a Dreadnought. The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, like much of the technology developed at the dawn of the [[Imperium of Man]], is larger and more powerful than its standard pattern counterparts. The Contemptor Dreadnought was once a key part of the earliest Space Marine Legion forces raised on [[Terra]] in the late 30th Millennium to initiate the Great Crusade. Such relics are sometimes recovered as [[archeotech]] by the Imperium in the late 41st Millennium and then used to supplement the forces of the present-day [[Space Marine]] [[Chapters]].
 
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The Contemptor Pattern, like much of the technology developed at the dawn of the [[Imperium of Man]], is larger and more powerful than its standard pattern counterparts. The Contemptor Dreadnought was once a key part of the earliest Space Marine Legion forces raised on [[Terra]] in the late 30th Millennium to initiate the Great Crusade.
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Such relics are sometimes recovered as [[archeotech]] by the Imperium in the late 41st Millennium and then used to supplement the forces of the present-day [[Space Marine]] [[Chapters]].
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The few of these Dreadnoughts that can still be awoken are wonders of a different era, walking reminders of a time when the Emperor strode the galaxy and the Imperium was a bright hope. They may be few in number, but Mankind's enemies still tremble at their approach.
   
 
==History==
 
==History==
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The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought was once a staple of the armoured might of the Space Marine Legions first raised on [[Terra]] following the end of the [[Unification Wars]]. Evidence of their ancient origins exist in the forms of sacred [[Chapter]] ''memento mori'' and other Imperial monuments raised long ago on worlds such as [[Necromunda]] and Lorin Alpha. This suggests that the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought played an integral part in the earliest Astartes forces raised on Terra for the Great Crusade.
 
The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought was once a staple of the armoured might of the Space Marine Legions first raised on [[Terra]] following the end of the [[Unification Wars]]. Evidence of their ancient origins exist in the forms of sacred [[Chapter]] ''memento mori'' and other Imperial monuments raised long ago on worlds such as [[Necromunda]] and Lorin Alpha. This suggests that the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought played an integral part in the earliest Astartes forces raised on Terra for the Great Crusade.
   
A more powerful combat walker than the current patterns of Dreadnought in service with the [[Adeptus Astartes]] in the late 41st Millennium, the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought featured many technological systems that found a parallel in the combat [[robots]] of the ancient [[Legio Cybernetica]], including such fabled techno-arcana as Atomantic Field Generator technology that would later be refined and incorporated into the [[Storm Shield]]s used by Space Marine [[Terminators]] and other, now-lost, secrets from the [[Dark Age of Technology]] that were meshed with the Contemptor's basic systems. Another interesting aspect of the Contemptor Pattern was the design of the Dreadnought's head. The oversized metal helm possessed the precious cargo of sensor nodes and visual [[Auspex]] and pict-finders linked to the foetal corpse curled deeper within. The Contemptor was fashioned with the simulacrum of a head to focus its pilot's awareness forwards. It helped to create an impression within the corpse's neurological sensory input/output that it was still alive, for it saw the outside world just as it had seen it in life: from a human perspective, albeit from a much taller vantage point than in the wounded Astartes' previously organic form.
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A more powerful combat walker than the current patterns of Dreadnought in service with the [[Adeptus Astartes]] in the late 41st Millennium, the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought featured many technological systems that found a parallel in the combat [[robots]] of the ancient [[Legio Cybernetica]], including such fabled techno-arcana as Atomantic Field Generator technology that would later be refined and incorporated into the [[Storm Shield]]s used by Space Marine [[Terminators]] and other, now-lost, secrets from the [[Dark Age of Technology]] that were meshed with the Contemptor's basic systems.
   
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Another interesting aspect of the Contemptor Pattern was the design of the Dreadnought's head. The oversized metal helm possessed the precious cargo of sensor nodes and visual [[Auspex]] and pict-finders linked to the foetal corpse curled deeper within. The Contemptor was fashioned with the simulacrum of a head to focus its pilot's awareness forwards. It helped to create an impression within the corpse's neurological sensory input/output that it was still alive, for it saw the outside world just as it had seen it in life: from a human perspective, albeit from a much taller vantage point than in the wounded Astartes' previously organic form.
[[File:ContemptorDreadnought00.png|thumb|250px|An ancient Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Death Guard]] [[Legion]] during combat]]
 
   
 
[[File:ContemptorDreadnought00.png|thumb|250px|An ancient Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Death Guard]] [[Legion]] during combat.]]
During the height of the Great Crusade, the Contemptor served alongside the [[Dreadnought|Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought]] as a spearhead unit for the ''[[Legiones Astartes]]''. During the [[Horus Heresy]] and the wars that followed in its wake like the [[Great Scouring]], they bore the brunt of the fighting by Dreadnoughts in every theatre and as a result suffered the heaviest losses. Like so many of the Imperium's most advanced and sophisticated war-fighting technologies, the ability to manufacture and maintain the Contemptor Dreadnought was essentially lost in the chaotic aftermath of the Heresy, though there exist reports of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts being regularly fielded by [[First Founding]] [[Chapters]] of the [[Adeptus Astartes]] as late as the 36th Millennium. The few Contemptor Dreadnoughts that remain in service in the late 41st Millennium are incredibly rare pieces of archeotech even in comparison to their fellow Dreadnoughts. But when they take to the field, it is as a living reminder of the Golden Age of the Imperium when the Emperor still walked amongst [[Mankind]], and the foes of humanity tremble at the sight of its ancient glory.
 
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During the height of the Great Crusade, the Contemptor served alongside the [[Dreadnought|Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought]] as a spearhead unit for the ''[[Legiones Astartes]]''. During the [[Horus Heresy]] and the wars that followed in its wake like the [[Great Scouring]], they bore the brunt of the fighting by Dreadnoughts in every theatre and as a result suffered the heaviest losses.
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Like so many of the Imperium's most advanced and sophisticated war-fighting technologies, the ability to manufacture and maintain the Contemptor Dreadnought was essentially lost in the chaotic aftermath of the Heresy, though there exist reports of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts being regularly fielded by [[First Founding]] [[Chapters]] of the [[Adeptus Astartes]] as late as the 36th Millennium.
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The few Contemptor Dreadnoughts that remain in service in the late 41st Millennium are incredibly rare pieces of archeotech even in comparison to their fellow Dreadnoughts. But when they take to the field, it is as a living reminder of the Golden Age of the Imperium when the Emperor still walked amongst [[Mankind]], and the foes of humanity tremble at the sight of its ancient glory.
   
 
==Armament==
 
==Armament==
 
[[File:ContemptorDreadnought07.png|thumb|250px|An ancient pict-capture of a [[Death Guard]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought armed with [[twin-linked]] [[Heavy Bolter]]s and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]]]]
 
[[File:ContemptorDreadnought07.png|thumb|250px|An ancient pict-capture of a [[Death Guard]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought armed with [[twin-linked]] [[Heavy Bolter]]s and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]]]]
The standard Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought is outfitted with a [[twin-linked]] [[Heavy Bolter]] attached to one arm and a massive [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] on the other with a built-in twin-linked [[Bolter]]. [[Smoke Launcher]]s and a [[Searchlight]] complete the standard weapons load-out. A Contemptor's standard weapons complement can be replaced with a number of different weapons to suit different tactical needs, including a [[Multi-melta]], a set of twin-linked [[Autocannon]]s, a [[Plasma Cannon]], a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]], a twin-linked [[Lascannon]], a power-leeching [[Heavy Conversion Beamer]], and a [[Chainfist]] with a built-in, twin-linked [[Bolter]]. A Contemptor can replace its built-in twin-linked Bolter with a Heavy Flamer, a [[Plasma Blaster]] or a [[Graviton Gun]]. It can be outfitted with [[Extra Armour Plating]] and a carapace-mounted [[Havoc Missile Launcher]]. All Contemptor Dreadnoughts are protected by advanced Atomantic Shielding which generates a protective gravitic shield around the walker using an advanced [[Atomantic Power Generator]] and that provides greater protection from both ranged and melee attacks for the walker. However, when damaged, the Atomantic Power Generator can overload and result in a devastating miniature atomic explosion which can badly damage nearby allied units.
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The standard Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought is outfitted with a [[twin-linked]] [[Heavy Bolter]] attached to one arm and a massive [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] on the other with a built-in twin-linked [[Bolter]]. [[Smoke Launcher]]s and a [[Searchlight]] complete the standard weapons load-out.
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A Contemptor's standard weapons complement can be replaced with a number of different weapons to suit different tactical needs, including a [[Multi-melta]], a set of twin-linked [[Autocannon]]s, a [[Plasma Cannon]], a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]], a twin-linked [[Lascannon]], a power-leeching [[Heavy Conversion Beamer]], and a [[Chainfist]] with a built-in, twin-linked [[Bolter]]. A Contemptor can replace its built-in twin-linked Bolter with a Heavy Flamer, a [[Plasma Blaster]] or a [[Graviton Gun]].
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It can be outfitted with [[Extra Armour Plating]] and a carapace-mounted [[Havoc Missile Launcher]]. All Contemptor Dreadnoughts are protected by advanced Atomantic Shielding which generates a protective gravitic shield around the walker using an advanced [[Atomantic Power Generator]] and that provides greater protection from both ranged and melee attacks for the walker. However, when damaged, the Atomantic Power Generator can overload and result in a devastating miniature atomic explosion which can badly damage nearby allied units.
   
Some rare examples of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts have been known to carry strange and singular weapons that find their origins in the Dark Age of Technology such as the Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon, considered by some Imperial savants of the techno-arcane to be the forerunner of the [[Terminator]]s' [[Assault Cannon]], compact Plasma Blasters capable of being fitted to the carapace of a Dreadnought and Gravity Flux Weapons like the Graviton Gun whose secrets were ultimately lost during the civil war between the sects of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] known as the [[Schism of Mars]] at the outset of the Horus Heresy.
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Some rare examples of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts have been known to carry strange and singular weapons that find their origins in the Dark Age of Technology such as the Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon, considered by some Imperial savants of the techno-arcane to be the forerunner of the [[Terminator]]s' [[Assault Cannon]], compact Plasma Blasters capable of being fitted to the carapace of a Dreadnought and Gravity Flux Weapons like the [[Graviton Gun]] whose secrets were ultimately lost during the civil war between the sects of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] known as the [[Schism of Mars]] at the outset of the Horus Heresy.
   
 
==Unit Composition==
 
==Unit Composition==
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===Venerable Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought===
 
===Venerable Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought===
The [[Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought]]s of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] feature a different loud-out than those used by the [[Adeptus Astartes]].
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The [[Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought]]s of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] feature a different load-out than those used by the [[Adeptus Astartes]].
   
 
A Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought is armed and equipped with:
 
A Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought is armed and equipped with:
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===Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought===
 
===Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought===
 
[[File:ContemptorDreadnought04.png|thumb|250px|An ancient pict-capture of a [[Sons of Horus]] [[Legion]] [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] armed with twin Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]s]]
 
[[File:ContemptorDreadnought04.png|thumb|250px|An ancient pict-capture of a [[Sons of Horus]] [[Legion]] [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] armed with twin Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]s]]
In the time of the Great Crusade, Dreadnought combat walkers primarily served as heavy assault units and highly mobile weapons support platforms for the Space Marine Legions. They were highly valued for their ability to endure under very heavy enemy fire and to operate in locations and theatres where traditional combat support vehicles would be impractical or downright impossible to use. The Contemptor-Mortis sub-pattern used the more advanced Contemptor chassis as a potent carrier of heavy weapons. It was able to target and destroy the foe at close range and was also outfitted with an advanced [[Helical Targeting Array]] that allowed it to provide a Space Marine spearhead force with close anti-air support when needed. During the last years of the Great Crusade, the [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought|Contemptor-Mortis sub-pattern]] was widely used by both the [[Dark Angels]] and [[Iron Warriors]] [[Legions]], although it was used to some extent by all of the Astartes Legions during this era. Ten millennia later, there remain several Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnoughts that are still operational. They are revered both as potent relics of the Imperium's Golden Age and as powerful weapons by those few Space Marine Chapters lucky enough to still possess them.
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In the time of the Great Crusade, Dreadnought combat walkers primarily served as heavy assault units and highly mobile weapons support platforms for the Space Marine Legions. They were highly valued for their ability to endure under very heavy enemy fire and to operate in locations and theatres where traditional combat support vehicles would be impractical or downright impossible to use.
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The Contemptor-Mortis sub-pattern used the more advanced Contemptor chassis as a potent carrier of heavy weapons. It was able to target and destroy the foe at close range and was also outfitted with an advanced [[Helical Targeting Array]] that allowed it to provide a Space Marine spearhead force with close anti-air support when needed. During the last years of the Great Crusade, the [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought|Contemptor-Mortis sub-pattern]] was widely used by both the [[Dark Angels]] and [[Iron Warriors]] [[Legions]], although it was used to some extent by all of the Astartes Legions during this era.
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Ten millennia later, there remain several Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnoughts that are still operational. They are revered both as potent relics of the Imperium's Golden Age and as powerful weapons by those few Space Marine Chapters lucky enough to still possess them.
   
 
The Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought differs from the standard pattern Contemptor Dreadnought only in being outfitted with two ranged-weapons arms as a standard weapon load-out along with the integration of a Helical Targeting Array that allows the Dreadnought to unleash its heavy weapons as dedicated anti-aircraft support.
 
The Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought differs from the standard pattern Contemptor Dreadnought only in being outfitted with two ranged-weapons arms as a standard weapon load-out along with the integration of a Helical Targeting Array that allows the Dreadnought to unleash its heavy weapons as dedicated anti-aircraft support.
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===Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought===
 
===Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought===
 
[[File:Contemptor-CortusDreadnought000.png|thumb|250px|An ancient pict-capture of a [[Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought]] during close combat]]
 
[[File:Contemptor-CortusDreadnought000.png|thumb|250px|An ancient pict-capture of a [[Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought]] during close combat]]
The [[Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought]] was first created during the ancient [[Ullanor Crusade]] against the [[Orks]], where they were used to replace the battlefield losses in Legion Dreadnoughts which had far outstripped supply. The Cortus Pattern was created from damaged or wrecked examples of the highly successful original "Prime" Contemptor Pattern, and utilised many of the base components. However, a large number of the more sophisticated systems and sub-systems were replaced with robust -- if less potent -- replacements that could be more easily fabricated in the field by the Legions. The result was a war machine with its own unique strengths and combat characteristics, but also with a reputation for instability.
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The [[Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought]] was first created during the ancient [[Ullanor Crusade]] against the [[Orks]], where they were used to replace the battlefield losses in Legion Dreadnoughts which had far outstripped supply. The Cortus Pattern was created from damaged or wrecked examples of the highly successful original "Prime" Contemptor Pattern, and utilised many of the base components.
   
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However, a large number of the more sophisticated systems and sub-systems were replaced with robust -- if less potent -- replacements that could be more easily fabricated in the field by the Legions. The result was a war machine with its own unique strengths and combat characteristics, but also with a reputation for instability.
The [[Mechanicum]], however, strongly disapproved of this ersatz design, and upon the conclusion of the Ullanor Campaign the Cortus Pattern was phased out almost entirely from the Imperial arsenal, with surviving examples of the Cortus either decommissioned or put into permanent slumber. Afterwards the production of new Contemptor-Primes and Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnoughts met the shortfall. The Cortus Pattern was well on its way to being nothing more than a footnote in the annals of the ''Legiones Astartes'', eventually to be forgotten altogether. This would not come to pass, however, for shortly after the great triumph at Ullanor the [[Horus Heresy]] would set the galaxy ablaze, and the Contemptor-Cortus would see a resurrection in that grinding interstellar civil war. During the Horus Heresy many more Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts strode into battle, either as newly constructed models or cannibalised Prime or Mortis Pattern Contemptors, salvaged from wreckage found all over the galaxy.
 
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The ancient [[Mechanicum]], however, strongly disapproved of this ersatz design, and upon the conclusion of the Ullanor Campaign the Cortus Pattern was phased out almost entirely from the Imperial arsenal, with surviving examples of the Cortus either decommissioned or put into permanent slumber. Afterwards the production of new Contemptor-Primes and Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnoughts met the shortfall. The Cortus Pattern was well on its way to being nothing more than a footnote in the annals of the ''Legiones Astartes'', eventually to be forgotten altogether.
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This would not come to pass, however, for shortly after the great triumph at Ullanor the [[Horus Heresy]] would set the galaxy ablaze, and the Contemptor-Cortus would see a resurrection in that grinding interstellar civil war. During the Horus Heresy many more Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts strode into battle, either as newly constructed models or cannibalised Prime or Mortis Pattern Contemptors, salvaged from wreckage found all over the galaxy.
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===Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought===
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[[File:BA_Contemptor-Incaendius_Dred_01.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Blood Angels]] Contemptor-Incaendius Class Dreadnought wielding a pair of [[Talons of Perdition]] with built-in [[Heavy Flamer]]s.]]
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The [[Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought]] is a sub-class of the Contemptor Dreadnought chassis manufactured only within the ancient Mechanicum enclave that clung to the irradiated surface of [[Baal]]'s first moon, under ancient treaty with the great [[Forge World]] of [[Anvillus]].
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Similar in most respects to the widely used Contemptor chassis, the Incaendius differed in one key aspect: the external [[Incaendius Booster Pack]] secured to its back. This volatile, single-burn magneto-plasma engine was powerful enough to decelerate the Dreadnought in a fall from low orbit or to propel it in a shallow leap at significant velocity despite the bulk of its armour and [[ceramite]] endoskeleton.
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It served the [[Blood Angels]] [[Legion]] exclusively as a shock assault unit of unparalleled ferocity, for the half-dead warrior entombed within suffered none of the disorientation such tactics inflicted on the living.
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Most commonly, such vehicles were armed with weapons designed for battle at close ranges, with [[Flamer]]s and the so-called [[Talons of Perdition]] being preferred, though some had been known to employ the prototype [[Assault Cannon|Iliastus Pattern Assault Cannon]].
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These weapons were well-suited to the Dreadnought's role, which was to secure a heavily contested drop zone for the Blood Angels' infantry that followed on its heels. Those enemies that survived the impact of its arrival were given no opportunity to fortify their position or to fall back in good order.
   
 
==Chapter Specific Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts==
 
==Chapter Specific Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts==
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===Blood Angels Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought===
 
===Blood Angels Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought===
 
[[File:ContemptorDreadnought11.jpg|thumb|250px|A Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Blood Angels]] [[Chapter]]]]
 
[[File:ContemptorDreadnought11.jpg|thumb|250px|A Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Blood Angels]] [[Chapter]]]]
The [[Blood Angels]] Chapter and its Successors have long been considered unique amongst the Adeptus Astartes as a result of their history and much of their wargear, as well as for their armoury and the "taint" that some whisper hangs over the Blood Angels and their Brethren since the death of their [[Primarch]] [[Sanguinius]] during the [[Battle of Terra]] at the end of the Heresy. At the end of the Great Crusade, the Blood Angels Legion fielded a large number of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts in its ranks, which had been optimised for close assault duties as was always the tactical preference of that Legion. Very few of these walkers survived the horrors of the Horus Heresy that followed. In the millennia afterwards, the [[Furioso Dreadnought]] came to dominate amongst the ranks of the Blood Angels' Dreadnought brothers and what Contemptor Dreadnought remained had been distributed to the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters as living monuments to both the triumphs and the tragedy that defined the Blood Angels Legion's past. They became living monuments of war intended to tie Blood Angels Astartes yet unborn to the fragile and fading memory of the lost glories of Sanguinius.
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The [[Blood Angels]] [[Chapter]] and its Successors have long been considered unique amongst the Adeptus Astartes as a result of their history and much of their wargear, as well as for their armoury and the "taint" that some whisper hangs over the Blood Angels and their Brethren since the death of their [[Primarch]] [[Sanguinius]] during the [[Battle of Terra]] at the end of the Heresy.
   
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At the end of the Great Crusade, the Blood Angels Legion fielded a large number of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts in its ranks, which had been optimised for close assault duties as was always the tactical preference of that Legion. Very few of these walkers survived the horrors of the Horus Heresy that followed.
The Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought is largely identical to the standard Contemptor with only a few key differences. The Blood Angels variant is optimised for close assault combat and so replaces the standard Contemptor's weapons load-out with two Blood Fists (Blood Angels variants of the [[Power Fist]]) with built-in Storm Bolters and Smoke Launchers. It can replace its Blood Fists with Blood Talons (Blood Angels variants of [[Lightning Claws]]) and can also make use of a carapace-mounted Magna-Grapple. Unfortunately, like all Blood Angels Astartes, the Space Marine within this Dreadnought can still fall victim to the Chapter's Flaw known as the [[Black Rage]].
 
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In the millennia afterwards, the [[Furioso Dreadnought]] came to dominate amongst the ranks of the Blood Angels' Dreadnought brothers and what Contemptor Dreadnought remained had been distributed to the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters as living monuments to both the triumphs and the tragedy that defined the Blood Angels Legion's past. They became living monuments of war intended to tie Blood Angels Astartes yet unborn to the fragile and fading memory of the lost glories of Sanguinius.
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The Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought is largely identical to the standard Contemptor with only a few key differences. The Blood Angels variant is optimised for close assault combat and so replaces the standard Contemptor's weapons load-out with two Blood Fists (Blood Angels variants of the [[Power Fist]]) with built-in Storm Bolters and Smoke Launchers.
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It can replace its Blood Fists with Blood Talons (Blood Angels variants of [[Lightning Claws]]) and can also make use of a carapace-mounted Magna-Grapple. Unfortunately, like all Blood Angels Astartes, the Space Marine within this Dreadnought can still fall victim to the Chapter's Flaw known as the [[Black Rage]].
   
 
===Space Wolves Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought===
 
===Space Wolves Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought===
 
[[File:SW_Legion_Contemptor_Dred.jpg|thumb|250px|A relic Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the [[Space Wolves]] [[Chapter]]]]
 
[[File:SW_Legion_Contemptor_Dred.jpg|thumb|250px|A relic Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the [[Space Wolves]] [[Chapter]]]]
The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought has an uneasy reputation as a result of the dark and strange history of this walker within the ancient Space Wolves Legion which was woven into the sagas and legends of the present day [[Space Wolves]] Chapter. The Contemptor was never as numerous within the Space Wolves as it was in some of the other Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade era as they favoured the Mars Pattern Mark IVs and Mark Vs due to their robust natures and ease of repair. The Space Wolves' Contemptor Dreadnoughts developed a reputation within the Legion for engaging in excess on the battlefield and unwarranted savagery that stained the character of those interred within the Dreadnought's armoured carapace. This infamy became a form of self-fulfilling prophecy in some cases as the superstitious [[Iron Priest]]s of the Chapter began to inter only elite fallen Astartes who already possessed sagas relating deeds darker than most of their peers in pursuit of the foe. As a result, the few Contemptor Pattern chassis that survived the Fall of Prospero and the heavy losses the Chapter sustained during the [[Wars of Apostasy]] of the 36th Millennium still serve, but are always looked upon as troublesome and ill-omened allies at best by the Astartes of the Great Companies. They are valued for their great prowess in combat and always afforded the respect that all Dreadnoughts are due, but are never fully trusted as is normally the due of such living ancients amongst the Get of Russ.
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The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought has an uneasy reputation as a result of the dark and strange history of this walker within the ancient Space Wolves Legion which was woven into the sagas and legends of the present day [[Space Wolves]] [[Chapter]]. The Contemptor was never as numerous within the Space Wolves as it was in some of the other Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade era as they favoured the Castraferrum Mars Pattern Mark IVs and Mark Vs due to their robust natures and ease of repair.
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The Space Wolves' Contemptor Dreadnoughts developed a reputation within the Legion for engaging in excess on the battlefield and unwarranted savagery that stained the character of those interred within the Dreadnought's armoured carapace. This infamy became a form of self-fulfilling prophecy in some cases as the superstitious [[Iron Priest]]s of the Chapter began to inter only elite fallen Astartes who already possessed sagas relating deeds darker than most of their peers in pursuit of the foe.
  +
  +
As a result, the few Contemptor Pattern chassis that survived the [[Fall of Prospero]] and the heavy losses the Chapter sustained during the [[Wars of Apostasy]] of the 36th Millennium still serve, but are always looked upon as troublesome and ill-omened allies at best by the Astartes of the Great Companies. They are valued for their great prowess in combat and always afforded the respect that all Dreadnoughts are due, but are never fully trusted as is normally the due of such living ancients amongst the Get of Russ.
  +
  +
Space Wolves Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts are essentially identical to the standard variant of this Dreadnought pattern save for the addition of Smoke Launchers and some morale-building wargear that is unique to the Astartes of the Space Wolves, such as Wolftail Talismans and Wolftooth Necklaces that are derived from the massive, semi-sentient [[Fenrisian Wolves]].
   
Space Wolves Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts are essentially identical to the standard variant of this Dreadnought pattern save for the addition of Smoke Launchers and some morale-building wargear that is unique to the Astartes of the Space Wolves, such as Wolftail Talismans and Wolftooth Necklaces that are derived from the massive, semi-sentient [[Fenrisian Wolves]]. Additionally, unlike in other Chapters, the few Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts left to the Space Wolves are infamous war engines whose stories are filled with ill-omens, blood and death. As such, these Dreadnoughts are defined by three special sagas that shape the personalities of the warriors within these Ceramite behemoths, including:
+
Additionally, unlike in other Chapters, the few Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts left to the Space Wolves are infamous war engines whose stories are filled with ill-omens, blood and death. As such, these Dreadnoughts are defined by three special sagas that shape the personalities of the warriors within these Ceramite behemoths, including:
 
*'''The Saga of the Black Cull''': A thousand times a thousand dead can be heaped at the feet of this Contemptor Dreadnought, who has shown unwarranted excess upon the battlefield in his pursuit of blood. These Dreadnoughts will actively seek out enemy infantry to slay, no matter the tactical cost to their fellows.
 
*'''The Saga of the Black Cull''': A thousand times a thousand dead can be heaped at the feet of this Contemptor Dreadnought, who has shown unwarranted excess upon the battlefield in his pursuit of blood. These Dreadnoughts will actively seek out enemy infantry to slay, no matter the tactical cost to their fellows.
 
*'''The Saga of the Forsaken One''': This Contemptor Dreadnought's deeds before his internment within his Ceramite shell were dark and marred by unwarranted savagery. Though his Battle-Brothers remain respectful, they do not wish the shadow of his deeds to blacken their own names. As such, this Contemptor Dreadnought will fight alone and will not be supported by any of his fellow Astartes should he enter close combat.
 
*'''The Saga of the Forsaken One''': This Contemptor Dreadnought's deeds before his internment within his Ceramite shell were dark and marred by unwarranted savagery. Though his Battle-Brothers remain respectful, they do not wish the shadow of his deeds to blacken their own names. As such, this Contemptor Dreadnought will fight alone and will not be supported by any of his fellow Astartes should he enter close combat.
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===Contemptor-Galatus Class Dreadnought===
 
===Contemptor-Galatus Class Dreadnought===
 
[[File:ContemptorGalatusDreadnaught00.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]] of the [[Legio Custodes]]]]
 
[[File:ContemptorGalatusDreadnaught00.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]] of the [[Legio Custodes]]]]
Similar to the Contemptor Dreadnoughts of the ''Legiones Astartes'', the [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]] is a markedly superior war machine. The unrivalled skills of the warrior entombed within its sarcophagus notwithstanding, the Contemptor-Galatus is stronger, faster and better armoured than the more common Contemptors used by the Space Marines. Designed to provide an anchor for a ''[[Legio Custodes]]'' battleline, the Contemptor-Galatus was armed in similar fashion to the Custodes [[Sentinel Guard]] -- wielding a huge [[Galatus Warblade]] with its built-in [[twin-linked]] [[Infernus Incinerator]], and equipped with a vastly enlarged version of the [[Praesidium Shield]]. Already able to withstand heavy assaults with its thick armour and refractor field, the Praesidium Shield allows the Contemptor-Galatus to stand nigh impregnable, enduring the enemy onslaught and reaping a murderous toll with its massive [[Power Sword]].
+
Similar to the Contemptor Dreadnoughts of the ''Legiones Astartes'', the [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]] is a markedly superior war machine. The unrivalled skills of the warrior entombed within its sarcophagus notwithstanding, the Contemptor-Galatus is stronger, faster and better armoured than the more common Contemptors used by the Space Marines.
  +
  +
Designed to provide an anchor for a ''[[Legio Custodes]]'' battleline, the Contemptor-Galatus was armed in similar fashion to the Custodes [[Sentinel Guard]] -- wielding a huge [[Galatus Warblade]] with its built-in [[twin-linked]] [[Infernus Incinerator]], and equipped with a vastly enlarged version of the [[Praesidium Shield]]. Already able to withstand heavy assaults with its thick armour and refractor field, the Praesidium Shield allows the Contemptor-Galatus to stand nigh impregnable, enduring the enemy onslaught and reaping a murderous toll with its massive [[Power Sword]].
   
 
===Contemptor-Achillus Class Dreadnought===
 
===Contemptor-Achillus Class Dreadnought===
 
[[File:ContemptorAchillusDreadnought00.png|thumb|250px|A [[Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]] of the ''[[Legio Custodes]]'']]
 
[[File:ContemptorAchillusDreadnought00.png|thumb|250px|A [[Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]] of the ''[[Legio Custodes]]'']]
At the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the most widely employed Dreadnought by the ''Legio Custodes'' was the [[Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]], a general battle unit which combined phenomenal strength and speed with the echoes of the interned Custodes' own unmatched martial skill. A fearsome example of Dreadnought technology, this Achillus is armed with the massive [[Dreadspear]], an enlarged Dreadnought-sized version of the Custodes' [[Guardian Spear]]. The Dreadnought is also armed with two wrist-mounted [[Storm Bolter]]s, [[Infernus Incinerator]]s or [[Adrathic Destructor]]s.
+
At the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the most widely employed Dreadnought by the ''Legio Custodes'' was the [[Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]], a general battle unit which combined phenomenal strength and speed with the echoes of the interned Custodes' own unmatched martial skill.
  +
  +
A fearsome example of Dreadnought technology, this Achillus is armed with the massive [[Dreadspear]], an enlarged Dreadnought-sized version of the Custodes' [[Guardian Spear]].
  +
  +
The Dreadnought is also armed with two wrist-mounted [[Storm Bolter]]s, [[Infernus Incinerator]]s or [[Adrathic Destructor]]s.
   
 
===Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought===
 
===Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought===
 
[[File:Custodian_Ven_Contemptor_Dred_2.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought]] of the [[Adeptus Custodes]].]]
 
[[File:Custodian_Ven_Contemptor_Dred_2.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought]] of the [[Adeptus Custodes]].]]
The [[Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought]]s of the Custodian Guard are revered relics of the Imperium’s golden age. Each houses a fallen hero of the Adeptus Custodes, a warrior broken in body but not in mind who has opted to fight to his last breath. The pilot is shorn of all unnecessary flesh, rendered down to little more than a sack of organs and brain matter sustained within an armaglass amniotic tank. The Custodian becomes a god of war, able to stride unharmed through hails of fire and crush the Master of Mankind's foes with their hydraulic might. Articulated in the manner of a human warrior, the Contemptor fights with a deceptive dexterity for its size – onward it pushes, its heavy weapon system laying down a swathe of deadly fire. At close quarters, sweeps of its power fist crush infantry to paste and tear their war engines apart to leave naught but wreckage behind.
+
The [[Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought]]s of the Custodian Guard are revered relics of the Imperium's golden age. Each houses a fallen hero of the Adeptus Custodes, a warrior broken in body but not in mind who has opted to fight to his last breath. The pilot is shorn of all unnecessary flesh, rendered down to little more than a sack of organs and brain matter sustained within an armaglass amniotic tank.
  +
  +
The Custodian becomes a god of war, able to stride unharmed through hails of fire and crush the Master of Mankind's foes with their hydraulic might. Articulated in the manner of a human warrior, the Contemptor fights with a deceptive dexterity for its size – onward it pushes, its heavy weapon system laying down a swathe of deadly fire.
  +
  +
At close quarters, sweeps of its power fist crush infantry to paste and tear their war engines apart to leave naught but wreckage behind.
   
 
==Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought==
 
==Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought==
{{Quote|Dark have been my dreams, crimson dim and whispering souls I have taken. My eternity wakes again and again to kill, to reave bloody across the stars. This is my reward, my slavery, my sustenance, a chalice of flesh, burned in offering to the Dark Gods.|Ramshek the Ever-Living, War-Adept of the [[Thousand Sons]]}}[[File:Chaos Contemptor Dred.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Chaos]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the [[World Eaters]] [[Traitor Legion]] dedicated to the Blood God [[Khorne]], armed with a Twin [[Heavy Bolter]] and a customised Assault Claw]]
+
{{Quote|Dark have been my dreams, crimson dim and whispering souls I have taken. My eternity wakes again and again to kill, to reave bloody across the stars. This is my reward, my slavery, my sustenance, a chalice of flesh, burned in offering to the Dark Gods.|Ramshek the Ever-Living, War-Adept of the [[Thousand Sons]]}}
  +
[[File:Chaos Contemptor Dred.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Chaos]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the [[World Eaters]] [[Traitor Legion]] dedicated to the Blood God [[Khorne]], armed with a Twin [[Heavy Bolter]] and a customised Assault Claw.]]
In the aftermath of the galaxy-wide conflict known as the [[Horus Heresy]] and the subsequent [[Great Scouring]], the [[Traitor Legions]] were pursued by the vengeful Imperium and cast into disorder and retreat. They were eventually driven into the shadow of the greatest [[Warp Storm]] in the galaxy, known as the [[Eye of Terror]]. During their flight from their persecutors, the Traitors lost much of their cherished and sacred wargear or it became corrupted and scavenged. Much of the more advanced techno-arcana was cast aside in favour of arms more readily manufactured and maintained by the hell-spat forges of the [[Dark Mechanicus]]. But even during these dark times for the servants of the [[Ruinous Powers]], the rare few Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts were always held as a most precious resource by those [[Chaos Space Marine]] warbands fortunate enough to possess them. The nightmarish intellects of the warsmiths of the Traitor Legions fashioned daemonic replacements for those technological systems of the Contemptor Dreadnoughts that they no longer possessed the skills or the materiel to replicate.
 
  +
In the aftermath of the galaxy-wide conflict known as the [[Horus Heresy]] and the subsequent [[Great Scouring]], the [[Traitor Legions]] were pursued by the vengeful Imperium and cast into disorder and retreat. They were eventually driven into the shadow of the greatest [[Warp Storm]] in the galaxy, known as the [[Eye of Terror]].
   
  +
During their flight from their persecutors, the Traitors lost much of their cherished and sacred wargear or it became corrupted and scavenged. Much of the more advanced techno-arcana was cast aside in favour of arms more readily manufactured and maintained by the hell-spat forges of the [[Dark Mechanicum]].
Unable to maintain the Contemptor's original arcane armaments in exile, the Dark Magos replaced them with occult weapons of diabolical design, forged in blood and suffused by daemonic force, such as the [[Soul Burner]] which unleashes explosive blasts of daemonic force that devours the souls of its victims, and the [[Butcher Cannon]], a heavy calibre rotary gun whose shells are bound with daemonic runes of anathema and bloodletting to increase their penetrating power and murderous toll. Another notable piece of forbidden Chaotic technology incorporated within a Chaos Contemptor is the replacement of its standard Atomantic power generator with a Warp-infused Hellfire Reactor that charges its armoured carapace to provide a preternatural resilience and also serves as a hungry vortex for the soul-stuff of those it has killed. Enemy [[psykers]] are particularly vulnerable to its relentless hunger. The cost for this boon, however, is the loss of the advanced Atomantic Shielding used by the original Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought.
 
   
 
But even during these dark times for the servants of the [[Ruinous Powers]], the rare few Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts were always held as a most precious resource by those [[Chaos Space Marine]] warbands fortunate enough to possess them. The nightmarish intellects of the warsmiths of the Traitor Legions fashioned daemonic replacements for those technological systems of the Contemptor Dreadnoughts that they no longer possessed the skills or the materiel to replicate.
Though few in number, these ancient relics have changed hands over the millennia many times and carried out countless dark deeds in their wake. Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought chassis have always been preserved for the interment of powerful [[Chaos Lord]]s, Dark Magos [[Heretek]]s and sometimes even worse. As a result of their exalted nature and favour with the [[Dark Gods]] the occupants of these Dreadnoughts have avoided the inevitable madness that normally consumes other [[Chaos Dreadnought]]s. These potent combat walkers fuse together the power of Mankind's lost technological might with the diabolic forces of the [[Warp]] to create killing machines that are more than a match for any fielded by the forces of the Corpse Emperor.
 
  +
  +
Unable to maintain the Contemptor's original arcane armaments in exile, the Dark Magi replaced them with occult weapons of diabolical design, forged in blood and suffused by daemonic force, such as the [[Soul Burner]] which unleashes explosive blasts of daemonic force that devours the souls of its victims, and the [[Butcher Cannon]], a heavy calibre rotary gun whose shells are bound with daemonic runes of anathema and bloodletting to increase their penetrating power and murderous toll.
  +
 
Another notable piece of forbidden Chaos technology incorporated within a Chaos Contemptor is the replacement of its standard Atomantic Power Generator with a Warp-infused Hellfire Reactor that charges its armoured carapace to provide a preternatural resilience and also serves as a hungry vortex for the soul-stuff of those it has killed. Enemy [[psykers]] are particularly vulnerable to its relentless hunger. The cost for this boon, however, is the loss of the advanced Atomantic Shielding used by the original Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought.
  +
  +
Though few in number, these ancient relics have changed hands over the millennia many times and carried out countless dark deeds in their wake. Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought chassis have always been preserved for the interment of powerful [[Chaos Lord]]s, Dark Magos [[Heretek]]s and sometimes even worse.
  +
 
As a result of their exalted nature and favour with the [[Dark Gods]] the occupants of these Dreadnoughts have avoided the inevitable madness that normally consumes other [[Chaos Dreadnought]]s. These potent combat walkers fuse together the power of Mankind's lost technological might with the diabolic forces of the [[Warp]] to create killing machines that are more than a match for any fielded by the forces of the Corpse Emperor.
   
 
Chaos Contemptor Dreadnoughts are normally dedicated to one of the four major Chaos Gods, which provides the following sorcerous boons in combat:
 
Chaos Contemptor Dreadnoughts are normally dedicated to one of the four major Chaos Gods, which provides the following sorcerous boons in combat:
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===Thousand Sons Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought===
 
===Thousand Sons Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought===
[[File:OsironDreadnought02.png|thumb|250px|A pre-Heresy [[Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought]] of the ancient [[Thousand Sons]] [[Legion]]]]
+
[[File:OsironDreadnought02.png|thumb|250px|A pre-Heresy [[Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought]] of the ancient [[Thousand Sons]] [[Legion]].]]
The '''Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought''', or simply the '''Osiron Dreadnought''', was a variant of the ancient [[Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought]] used by the [[Thousand Sons]] [[Legion]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]] that allowed an [[Astartes]] [[psyker]] to continue to use his powers after being transformed into a cybernetic behemoth. For many solar decades the arts by which the power of an Astartes psyker could be maintained medically within the armoured sarcophagus of a [[Dreadnought]] eluded the Thousand Sons and any other [[Space Marine Legion]] that tried, with the occupant experiencing a lingering death, madness or malign psychic phenomena. The Osiron Pattern Dreadnought came about as the result of [[Magnus the Red]] himself applying his brilliant mind to solve the problem, resulting in the creation of a device known as the ''[[Osiron]]''. This device takes the form of a crown of psychometric barrier lattice encasing the occupant's living brain. The Osiron device was difficult to construct and was barely understood by even the most learned psi-arcanists, though this did not stop the Thousand Sons from outfitting it to their Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts, with startlingly powerful results. Imperial records indicate that Magnus the Red, before the [[Council of Nikaea]], gave the schematics of the ''Osiron'' device to all of the other Space Marine Legions, though it is likely that most spurned this gift entirely. It is unknown if the Osiron Pattern Dreadnought is still used by the Thousand Sons, or if any other Astartes Legions or their descendants made use of the Osiron.
+
The '''Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought''', or simply the '''Osiron Dreadnought''', was a variant of the ancient [[Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought]] used by the [[Thousand Sons]] [[Legion]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]] that allowed an [[Astartes]] [[psyker]] to continue to use his powers after being transformed into a cybernetic behemoth.
  +
  +
For many solar decades the arts by which the power of an Astartes psyker could be maintained medically within the armoured sarcophagus of a [[Dreadnought]] eluded the Thousand Sons and any other [[Space Marine Legion]] that tried, with the occupant experiencing a lingering death, madness or malign psychic phenomena.
  +
  +
The Osiron Pattern Dreadnought came about as the result of [[Magnus the Red]] himself applying his brilliant mind to solve the problem, resulting in the creation of a device known as the ''[[Osiron]]''. This device takes the form of a crown of psychometric barrier lattice encasing the occupant's living brain. The Osiron device was difficult to construct and was barely understood by even the most learned psi-arcanists, though this did not stop the Thousand Sons from outfitting it to their Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts, with startlingly powerful results.
  +
  +
Imperial records indicate that Magnus the Red, before the [[Council of Nikaea]], gave the schematics of the ''Osiron'' device to all of the other Space Marine Legions, though it is likely that most spurned this gift entirely. It is unknown if the Osiron Pattern Dreadnought is still used by the Thousand Sons, or if any other Astartes Legions or their descendants made use of the Osiron.
   
 
===Word Bearers Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought===
 
===Word Bearers Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought===
 
[[File:MharaGalTaintedDreadnought00.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought]] of the [[Word Bearers]] [[Legion]]]]
 
[[File:MharaGalTaintedDreadnought00.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought]] of the [[Word Bearers]] [[Legion]]]]
The [[Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought]] is a variant of the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought that was once used by the [[Word Bearers]] [[Traitor Legion]] during the [[Horus Heresy]]. The Mhara Gal was first encountered by Imperial forces during the Battle of Ithraca amidst the atrocity on [[Calth]]. The first of the Mhara Gal Dreadnoughts is believed to have been created from the barely living remains of a [[Gal Vorbak]] Dark Brethren and a battle-shattered Contemptor Dreadnought chassis, both recovered from the blood-soaked ground of [[Istvaan V]]. Fused together by unholy practices, they were then corrupted by a [[Warp]]-borne power, giving birth to a new monstrosity -- a living engine of war and hatred.
+
The [[Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought]] is a variant of the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought that was once used by the [[Word Bearers]] [[Traitor Legion]] during the [[Horus Heresy]].
  +
  +
The Mhara Gal was first encountered by Imperial forces during the Battle of Ithraca amidst the [[Battle of Calth|atrocity]] committed by the Word Bearers on [[Calth]].
  +
  +
The first of the Mhara Gal Dreadnoughts is believed to have been created from the barely living remains of a [[Gal Vorbak]] Dark Brethren and a battle-shattered Contemptor Dreadnought chassis, both recovered from the blood-soaked ground of [[Istvaan V]].
  +
  +
Fused together by unholy practices, they were then corrupted by a [[Warp]]-borne power, giving birth to a new monstrosity -- a living engine of war and hatred.
   
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==
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*''Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines'' (8th Edition), pp. 83, 166
 
*''Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines'' (8th Edition), pp. 83, 166
 
*''Codex Adeptus Astartes - Dark Angels'' (8th Edition), pp. 52-53, 102
 
*''Codex Adeptus Astartes - Dark Angels'' (8th Edition), pp. 52-53, 102
  +
*''Codex: Space Marines'' (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pp. 81, 136
 
*''Index: Imperium 2 - Armies of the Imperium'' (8th Edition), pg. 127
 
*''Index: Imperium 2 - Armies of the Imperium'' (8th Edition), pg. 127
 
*''Imperial Armour - Apocalypse - Second Edition'', pp. 24-28, 107
 
*''Imperial Armour - Apocalypse - Second Edition'', pp. 24-28, 107
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*''The Horus Heresy - Book Six: Retribution'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 1, 27, 43, 49, 143, 153, 161
 
*''The Horus Heresy - Book Six: Retribution'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 1, 27, 43, 49, 143, 153, 161
 
*''The Horus Heresy - Book Seven: Inferno'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 63, 87, 148, 195, 211, 214, 236
 
*''The Horus Heresy - Book Seven: Inferno'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 63, 87, 148, 195, 211, 214, 236
  +
*''The Horus Heresy - Book Eight: Malevolence'' (Forge World Series) by Neil Wylie and Anuj Malhotra, pg. 209
 
*''The Horus Heresy: Legiones Astartes - Age of Darkness Army List'' pg. 34
 
*''The Horus Heresy: Legiones Astartes - Age of Darkness Army List'' pg. 34
 
*''Betrayer'' (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, pg. 133
 
*''Betrayer'' (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, pg. 133
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*[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Alpha-Legion-Contemptor-Dreadnought ''Forge World Webstore - Alpha Legion Contemptor Dreadnought'']
 
*[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Alpha-Legion-Contemptor-Dreadnought ''Forge World Webstore - Alpha Legion Contemptor Dreadnought'']
 
*[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Imperial-Fists-Contemptor-Dreadnought ''Forge World Webstore - Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnought'']
 
*[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Imperial-Fists-Contemptor-Dreadnought ''Forge World Webstore - Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnought'']
  +
*[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-GB/Blood-Angels-Contemptor-Incaendius-Dreadnought-2019 ''Forge World Webstore - Blood Angels Legion Contemptor-Incaendius Class Dreadnought'']
 
*[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Iron-Hands-Legion-Contemptor-Dreadnought ''Forge World Webstore - Iron Hands Legion Contemptor Dreadnought'']
 
*[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Iron-Hands-Legion-Contemptor-Dreadnought ''Forge World Webstore - Iron Hands Legion Contemptor Dreadnought'']
 
*[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Salamanders-Legion-Contemptor-Dreadnought ''Forge World Webstore - Salamanders Legion Contemptor Dreadnought'']
 
*[https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Salamanders-Legion-Contemptor-Dreadnought ''Forge World Webstore - Salamanders Legion Contemptor Dreadnought'']
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Dreadnoguht.jpg|A [[Word Bearers]] [[Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought]] armed with a [[Plasma Cannon]] and tainted [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon|Power Claw]]
 
Dreadnoguht.jpg|A [[Word Bearers]] [[Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought]] armed with a [[Plasma Cannon]] and tainted [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon|Power Claw]]
 
contemptor16.jpg|Size comparison of a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought and a [[Siege Dreadnought]]
 
contemptor16.jpg|Size comparison of a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought and a [[Siege Dreadnought]]
Iron Hands Heresy Comech Dreadnought.png|[[Iron Hands]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Horus Heresy]]
+
Iron Hands Heresy Comech Dreadnought.png|[[Horus Heresy]] era [[Iron Hands]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought Comech
 
Legio Custodes Sagittarus Heresy Dreadnaught.png|''[[Legio Custodes]]'' Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Battle of Terra]]
 
Legio Custodes Sagittarus Heresy Dreadnaught.png|''[[Legio Custodes]]'' Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Battle of Terra]]
 
Dreadnought by andreauderzo.jpg|A Contemptor Dreadnought of the ''[[Legio Custodes]]'' in combat
 
Dreadnought by andreauderzo.jpg|A Contemptor Dreadnought of the ''[[Legio Custodes]]'' in combat
 
Ultramarine Heresy Justarius Dreadnaught.png|[[Ultramarines]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Horus Heresy]]
 
Ultramarine Heresy Justarius Dreadnaught.png|[[Ultramarines]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Horus Heresy]]
Space Wolves Heresy Aesir Dreadnought.png|[[Space Wolves]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Scouring of Prospero]]
+
Space Wolves Heresy Aesir Dreadnought.png|[[Space Wolves]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought Aesir, who fought during the [[Scouring of Prospero]]
Sons of Horus Heresy Dhekarst Dreadnought.png|[[Sons of Horus]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Horus Heresy]]
+
Sons of Horus Heresy Dhekarst Dreadnought.png|[[Horus Heresy]] era [[Sons of Horus]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought Dhekarst
 
Ancient Rylanor Emperor's Children.jpg|The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought Ancient Rylanor of the [[Emperor's Children]] [[Traitor Legion]] on [[Istvaan III]]
 
Ancient Rylanor Emperor's Children.jpg|The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought Ancient Rylanor of the [[Emperor's Children]] [[Traitor Legion]] on [[Istvaan III]]
 
Thousand Sons Contemptor 1.jpg|[[Thousand Sons]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Scouring of Prospero]]
 
Thousand Sons Contemptor 1.jpg|[[Thousand Sons]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Scouring of Prospero]]
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World Eaters Heresy Jaruler Dreadnought.png|[[Word Bearers]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Horus Heresy]]
 
World Eaters Heresy Jaruler Dreadnought.png|[[Word Bearers]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought during the [[Horus Heresy]]
 
World Eaters Contemptor.jpg|[[World Eaters]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor [[Dreadnought]] during the [[Istvaan III Atrocity]]
 
World Eaters Contemptor.jpg|[[World Eaters]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor [[Dreadnought]] during the [[Istvaan III Atrocity]]
Death Guard Contemptor 1.jpg|[[Death Guard]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor [[Dreadnought]]
+
Death Guard Contemptor 1.jpg|[[Death Guard]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor [[Dreadnought]] Haldon-Tal
Iron Warriors Contemptor.jpg|[[Iron Warriors]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor [[Dreadnought]] armed with two [[Lightning Claws]]
+
Iron Warriors Contemptor.jpg|[[Iron Warriors]] [[Traitor Legion]] Contemptor [[Dreadnought]] Promodon armed with two [[Lightning Claws]]
 
ContemptorDreadnought03.png|An ancient pict-capture of a [[World Eaters]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought during combat
 
ContemptorDreadnought03.png|An ancient pict-capture of a [[World Eaters]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought during combat
 
ContemptorDreadnought10.png|An ancient pict-capture of a [[World Eaters]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought during the [[Istvaan III Atrocity]]
 
ContemptorDreadnought10.png|An ancient pict-capture of a [[World Eaters]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought during the [[Istvaan III Atrocity]]
Line 238: Line 321:
 
OsironDreadnought02.png|A pre-Heresy [[Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought]] of the ancient [[Thousand Sons]] [[Legion]]
 
OsironDreadnought02.png|A pre-Heresy [[Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought]] of the ancient [[Thousand Sons]] [[Legion]]
 
Contemptor Dreadnought.jpg|A Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the [[Astral Claws]] [[Chapter]] of [[Space Marines]]; armed with a [[twin-linked]] [[Lascannon]] and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]]
 
Contemptor Dreadnought.jpg|A Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the [[Astral Claws]] [[Chapter]] of [[Space Marines]]; armed with a [[twin-linked]] [[Lascannon]] and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]]
EC Contemptor Ancient Sarancos.jpg|A Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Emperor's Children]] [[Legion]] armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a set of [[twin-linked]] [[Lascannons]]
+
EC Contemptor Ancient Sarancos.jpg|Contemptor Dreadnought Ancient Sarancos of the [[Emperor's Children]] [[Legion]] armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a set of [[twin-linked]] [[Lascannons]]
 
EC Contemptor Mortis Pattern.jpg|A [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] of the [[Emperor's Children]] [[Legion]] armed with two sets of [[twin-linked]] [[Autocannon]]s
 
EC Contemptor Mortis Pattern.jpg|A [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] of the [[Emperor's Children]] [[Legion]] armed with two sets of [[twin-linked]] [[Autocannon]]s
NL Contemptor 1.jpg|A [[Night Lords]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought armed with a pair of deadly [[Power Claw]]s
+
NL Contemptor 1.jpg|[[Night Lords]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought Ancient Carrow armed with a pair of deadly [[Power Claw]]s
NL Contemptor 2.jpg|A [[Night Lords]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought armed with a [[Missile Launcher]], [[Heavy Bolter]] and [[Power Claw]]
+
NL Contemptor 2.jpg|[[Night Lords]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought Ancient Reeve armed with a [[Missile Launcher]], [[Heavy Bolter]] and [[Power Claw]]
WE Contemptor Dred2.jpg|A [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] of the [[World Eaters]] [[Legion]] armed with twin Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]s
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WE Contemptor Dred2.jpg|[[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] Juljak Nul of the [[World Eaters]] [[Legion]] armed with twin Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]s
Ancient Skorrvall 'Bitterblood'.jpg|A Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Death Guard]] [[Legion]] armed with a set of [[twin-linked]] [[Heavy Bolter]]s and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]]
+
Ancient Skorrvall 'Bitterblood'.jpg|Contemptor Dreadnought Ancient Skorrvall of the [[Death Guard]] [[Legion]] armed with a set of [[twin-linked]] [[Heavy Bolter]]s and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]]
Kahgor Lothsul2.jpg|A Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Death Guard]] [[Legion]] armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a [[Multi-Melta]]
+
Kahgor Lothsul2.jpg|Contemptor Dreadnought Kahgor Lothsul of the [[Death Guard]] [[Legion]] armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a [[Multi-Melta]]
SoH Contemptor Ghrastak.jpg|A Contemptor Dreadnought of the [[Sons of Horus]] [[Legion]] armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a set of [[twin-linked]] [[Heavy Bolter]]s
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SoH Contemptor Ghrastak.jpg|Contemptor Dreadnought Ghrastak of the [[Sons of Horus]] [[Legion]] armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a set of [[twin-linked]] [[Heavy Bolter]]s
 
SoH Contemptor Mortis2.jpg|A [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] of the [[Sons of Horus]] [[Legion]] armed with twin Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]s
 
SoH Contemptor Mortis2.jpg|A [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] of the [[Sons of Horus]] [[Legion]] armed with twin Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]s
 
WB Legion Contemptor Dred Serrated Suns2.png|A [[Word Bearers]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought, Eduhkar of the Annunake, armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and [[twin-linked]] [[Lascannon]]s
 
WB Legion Contemptor Dred Serrated Suns2.png|A [[Word Bearers]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought, Eduhkar of the Annunake, armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and [[twin-linked]] [[Lascannon]]s
 
Cyrnai 2r Annunake.jpg|A [[Word Bearers]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought, Cyrnai of the Annunake, armed with a [[Power Claw]] and a deadly [[Conversion Beamer]]
 
Cyrnai 2r Annunake.jpg|A [[Word Bearers]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought, Cyrnai of the Annunake, armed with a [[Power Claw]] and a deadly [[Conversion Beamer]]
Ancient Nehalen Contempt Dred.png|An [[Alpha Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a rare, [[twin-linked]] [[Volkite Weapon|Volkite Colverin]]
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Ancient Nehalen Contempt Dred.png|[[Alpha Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought Ancient Nehalen armed with a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a rare, [[twin-linked]] [[Volkite Weapon|Volkite Colverin]]
Pre-Heresy Cont. Dred Archontas Origo.jpg|An [[Alpha Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought armed with a [[Missile Launcher]] and a pair of deadly [[Power Claw]]s
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Pre-Heresy Cont. Dred Archontas Origo.jpg|[[Alpha Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought Archontas Origo armed with a [[Missile Launcher]] and a pair of deadly [[Power Claw]]s
IronWarriorsContemptor000.png||A Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the ancient [[Iron Warrior]]s [[Legion]]
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IronWarriorsContemptor000.png|Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought Khragan of the ancient [[Iron Warriors]] [[Legion]]
SW_Contemptor Dred.jpg|A [[Space Wolves]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought of the infamous [[13th Great Company]], armed with a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]] and a [[Power Claw]]
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SW_Contemptor Dred.jpg|[[Space Wolves]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought Har Skrinn of the infamous [[13th Great Company]], armed with a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]] and a [[Power Claw]]
 
IF Contemptor Dred Justici Ghunfried.jpg|An [[Imperial Fists]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Justici Ghunfried, armed with a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]] and [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] with siege drills and a built-in plasma torch
 
IF Contemptor Dred Justici Ghunfried.jpg|An [[Imperial Fists]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Justici Ghunfried, armed with a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]] and [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] with siege drills and a built-in plasma torch
 
IH Contemptor siege variant2.png|An [[Iron Hands]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought (Siege Assault configuration), Ancient Morn, Order Primii, Clan Avernii
 
IH Contemptor siege variant2.png|An [[Iron Hands]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought (Siege Assault configuration), Ancient Morn, Order Primii, Clan Avernii
 
IH Contemptor Mortis Pattern2.png|A [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] of the [[Iron Hands]] [[Legion]] armed with twin Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]s
 
IH Contemptor Mortis Pattern2.png|A [[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought]] of the [[Iron Hands]] [[Legion]] armed with twin Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]s
 
IH Contemptor Dred Veneratii Oberas.jpg|An [[Iron Hands]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Veneratii Oberas, Order Secundii, Clan Morragul; note that Veneratii Oberas' Dreadnought form utilised a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a rare and deadly [[Conversion Beamer]] cannon.
 
IH Contemptor Dred Veneratii Oberas.jpg|An [[Iron Hands]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Veneratii Oberas, Order Secundii, Clan Morragul; note that Veneratii Oberas' Dreadnought form utilised a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] and a rare and deadly [[Conversion Beamer]] cannon.
Ancient Tuseok.jpg|A [[Salamanders]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought armed with a pair of deadly [[twin-linked]] [[Multi-Melta]]s
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Ancient Tuseok.jpg|[[Salamanders]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought Ancient Tuseok armed with a pair of deadly [[twin-linked]] [[Multi-Melta]]s
SA Ancient Grenn.jpg|A [[Salamanders]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought of the elite [[Firedrakes]] Company, armed with a [[Power Claw]] and a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]
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SA Ancient Grenn.jpg|[[Salamanders]] [[Legion]] Contemptor Dreadnought Ancient Grenn of the elite [[Firedrakes]] Company, armed with a [[Power Claw]] and a Kheres Pattern [[Assault Cannon]]
 
RG Ancient Krahzen.jpg|Pre-Heresy [[Raven Guard]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Ancient Krahzen, armed with a pair of deadly [[Power Claw]]s
 
RG Ancient Krahzen.jpg|Pre-Heresy [[Raven Guard]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Ancient Krahzen, armed with a pair of deadly [[Power Claw]]s
 
File:Custodian_Contemptor_Achillus_Dred.png|A ''[[Legio Custodes]]'' [[Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]], armed with an [[Achillus Dreadspear]] with built-in [[Corvae Las-Pulser]] and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] with built-in [[Lastrum Storm Bolter]]s
 
File:Custodian_Contemptor_Achillus_Dred.png|A ''[[Legio Custodes]]'' [[Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]], armed with an [[Achillus Dreadspear]] with built-in [[Corvae Las-Pulser]] and a [[Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon]] with built-in [[Lastrum Storm Bolter]]s
 
File:Contemptor_Galatus_Dred.jpg|A ''[[Legio Custodes]]'' [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]], Vettranio Shapura, armed with a [[Galatus Warblade]] with built-in [[twin-linked]] [[Infernus Incinerator]] and a [[Praesidium Shield]]
 
File:Contemptor_Galatus_Dred.jpg|A ''[[Legio Custodes]]'' [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]], Vettranio Shapura, armed with a [[Galatus Warblade]] with built-in [[twin-linked]] [[Infernus Incinerator]] and a [[Praesidium Shield]]
  +
Ancient_Vhakis.jpg|Pre-Heresy [[Iron Warriors]] Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Ancient Vhakis
  +
TegusaiWhiteScarsContemptorDreadnought.jpg|[[White Scars]] Pre-Heresy Contemptor Dreadnought Tegusai of the ''Uhaan Solban''. Rarely were the Dreadnoughts of the White Scars seen outside of the fortresses of [[Chogoris]] and [[Terra]] at this time, and only for those key battles destined to shape the Legion. It was perhaps a sign of what was to come that more Dreadnoughts were present during the [[Chondax Campaign]] than any other campaign of that time.
  +
Ancient_Lhorgath.jpg|Ancient Lhorgath, a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the [[Death Guard]] who fought in the battles of the [[Horus Heresy]].
  +
Ancient Skara Brae Contemptor Dred.jpg.jpg|Ancient Skara Brae, Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the [[Red Talons]] [[Chapter]]
  +
Hedara_Ptomalac.jpg|Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought Hedara Ptomalac of the [[Thousand Sons]] [[Legion]]
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>
  +
  +
{{Space Marine Forces}}
  +
{{Chaos Space Marine Forces}}
   
   

Revision as of 20:41, 18 February 2020

"I have seen worlds burn and crushed nations underfoot, torn down the idols of false gods and slaughtered kings like cattle. Presume not to order me, tiny man, for I am war, and you are no more than chaff before the scythe..."

—Venerable Targas of the Executioners to General von Litzner of the Jantine Cataphracts
Minotaurs Contemptor Dred

A Relic Contemptor Dreadnought of the Minotaurs Chapter armed with a Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon and a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon with built-in twin-linked Bolter.

A Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought is an ancient Imperial cybernetic combat walker used by the Space Marine Legions in the days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, 10,000 Terran years before the present day.

Like the current patterns of Dreadnought, the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought served as a cybernetic sarcophagus for an Astartes who had been so badly wounded in battle that his only chance for continued service to the Emperor lay in being interred within the cybernetic sarcophagus of a Dreadnought.

The Contemptor Pattern, like much of the technology developed at the dawn of the Imperium of Man, is larger and more powerful than its standard pattern counterparts. The Contemptor Dreadnought was once a key part of the earliest Space Marine Legion forces raised on Terra in the late 30th Millennium to initiate the Great Crusade.

Such relics are sometimes recovered as archeotech by the Imperium in the late 41st Millennium and then used to supplement the forces of the present-day Space Marine Chapters.

The few of these Dreadnoughts that can still be awoken are wonders of a different era, walking reminders of a time when the Emperor strode the galaxy and the Imperium was a bright hope. They may be few in number, but Mankind's enemies still tremble at their approach.

History

ContemptorDreadnought01

An ancient pict-capture of a Contemptor Dreadnought of the World Eaters Legion during the Istvaan III Atrocity

The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought was once a staple of the armoured might of the Space Marine Legions first raised on Terra following the end of the Unification Wars. Evidence of their ancient origins exist in the forms of sacred Chapter memento mori and other Imperial monuments raised long ago on worlds such as Necromunda and Lorin Alpha. This suggests that the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought played an integral part in the earliest Astartes forces raised on Terra for the Great Crusade.

A more powerful combat walker than the current patterns of Dreadnought in service with the Adeptus Astartes in the late 41st Millennium, the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought featured many technological systems that found a parallel in the combat robots of the ancient Legio Cybernetica, including such fabled techno-arcana as Atomantic Field Generator technology that would later be refined and incorporated into the Storm Shields used by Space Marine Terminators and other, now-lost, secrets from the Dark Age of Technology that were meshed with the Contemptor's basic systems.

Another interesting aspect of the Contemptor Pattern was the design of the Dreadnought's head. The oversized metal helm possessed the precious cargo of sensor nodes and visual Auspex and pict-finders linked to the foetal corpse curled deeper within. The Contemptor was fashioned with the simulacrum of a head to focus its pilot's awareness forwards. It helped to create an impression within the corpse's neurological sensory input/output that it was still alive, for it saw the outside world just as it had seen it in life: from a human perspective, albeit from a much taller vantage point than in the wounded Astartes' previously organic form.

ContemptorDreadnought00

An ancient Contemptor Dreadnought of the Death Guard Legion during combat.

During the height of the Great Crusade, the Contemptor served alongside the Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought as a spearhead unit for the Legiones Astartes. During the Horus Heresy and the wars that followed in its wake like the Great Scouring, they bore the brunt of the fighting by Dreadnoughts in every theatre and as a result suffered the heaviest losses.

Like so many of the Imperium's most advanced and sophisticated war-fighting technologies, the ability to manufacture and maintain the Contemptor Dreadnought was essentially lost in the chaotic aftermath of the Heresy, though there exist reports of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts being regularly fielded by First Founding Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes as late as the 36th Millennium.

The few Contemptor Dreadnoughts that remain in service in the late 41st Millennium are incredibly rare pieces of archeotech even in comparison to their fellow Dreadnoughts. But when they take to the field, it is as a living reminder of the Golden Age of the Imperium when the Emperor still walked amongst Mankind, and the foes of humanity tremble at the sight of its ancient glory.

Armament

ContemptorDreadnought07

An ancient pict-capture of a Death Guard Legion Contemptor Dreadnought armed with twin-linked Heavy Bolters and a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon

The standard Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought is outfitted with a twin-linked Heavy Bolter attached to one arm and a massive Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon on the other with a built-in twin-linked Bolter. Smoke Launchers and a Searchlight complete the standard weapons load-out.

A Contemptor's standard weapons complement can be replaced with a number of different weapons to suit different tactical needs, including a Multi-melta, a set of twin-linked Autocannons, a Plasma Cannon, a Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon, a twin-linked Lascannon, a power-leeching Heavy Conversion Beamer, and a Chainfist with a built-in, twin-linked Bolter. A Contemptor can replace its built-in twin-linked Bolter with a Heavy Flamer, a Plasma Blaster or a Graviton Gun.

It can be outfitted with Extra Armour Plating and a carapace-mounted Havoc Missile Launcher. All Contemptor Dreadnoughts are protected by advanced Atomantic Shielding which generates a protective gravitic shield around the walker using an advanced Atomantic Power Generator and that provides greater protection from both ranged and melee attacks for the walker. However, when damaged, the Atomantic Power Generator can overload and result in a devastating miniature atomic explosion which can badly damage nearby allied units.

Some rare examples of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts have been known to carry strange and singular weapons that find their origins in the Dark Age of Technology such as the Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon, considered by some Imperial savants of the techno-arcane to be the forerunner of the Terminators' Assault Cannon, compact Plasma Blasters capable of being fitted to the carapace of a Dreadnought and Gravity Flux Weapons like the Graviton Gun whose secrets were ultimately lost during the civil war between the sects of the Adeptus Mechanicus known as the Schism of Mars at the outset of the Horus Heresy.

Unit Composition

  • 1 Relic Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought (41st Millennium Only)
  • 1 Venerable Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought (41st Millennium Only, Adeptus Custodes Only)
  • 1-3 Legion Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts (31st Millennium Only)

Wargear

The Relic Adeptus Astartes Contemptor Dreadnoughts are armed and equipped with:

Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts may replace one or both of their Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons (Contemptor Dreadnought Powerfists) with built-in Storm Bolters with any of these options:

Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts may replace one or both of their built-in Storm Bolters with any of these options:

Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts may replace one or both of their Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons (Contemptor Dreadnought Powerfists) with in-built Storm Bolters with any of these options:

Venerable Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought

The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts of the Adeptus Custodes feature a different load-out than those used by the Adeptus Astartes.

A Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought is armed and equipped with:

A Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought may replace their Multi-Melta with:

Horus Heresy Era Wargear

A standard Legion Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of this era is armed and equipped with:

Any Legion Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought may replace their twin-linked Heavy Bolters with any of these options:

Any Legion Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought may replace their Dreadnought Close Combat (Dreadnought Powerfist) with any of these options:

Any Legion Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought may replace the built-in twin-linked Bolters from their Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons with any of these options:

Legiones Astartes' Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts may also have a variety of vehicle equipment such as:

Variants and Sub-Patterns

Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought

ContemptorDreadnought04

An ancient pict-capture of a Sons of Horus Legion Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought armed with twin Kheres Pattern Assault Cannons

In the time of the Great Crusade, Dreadnought combat walkers primarily served as heavy assault units and highly mobile weapons support platforms for the Space Marine Legions. They were highly valued for their ability to endure under very heavy enemy fire and to operate in locations and theatres where traditional combat support vehicles would be impractical or downright impossible to use.

The Contemptor-Mortis sub-pattern used the more advanced Contemptor chassis as a potent carrier of heavy weapons. It was able to target and destroy the foe at close range and was also outfitted with an advanced Helical Targeting Array that allowed it to provide a Space Marine spearhead force with close anti-air support when needed. During the last years of the Great Crusade, the Contemptor-Mortis sub-pattern was widely used by both the Dark Angels and Iron Warriors Legions, although it was used to some extent by all of the Astartes Legions during this era.

Ten millennia later, there remain several Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnoughts that are still operational. They are revered both as potent relics of the Imperium's Golden Age and as powerful weapons by those few Space Marine Chapters lucky enough to still possess them.

The Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought differs from the standard pattern Contemptor Dreadnought only in being outfitted with two ranged-weapons arms as a standard weapon load-out along with the integration of a Helical Targeting Array that allows the Dreadnought to unleash its heavy weapons as dedicated anti-aircraft support.

Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought

Contemptor-CortusDreadnought000

An ancient pict-capture of a Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought during close combat

The Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought was first created during the ancient Ullanor Crusade against the Orks, where they were used to replace the battlefield losses in Legion Dreadnoughts which had far outstripped supply. The Cortus Pattern was created from damaged or wrecked examples of the highly successful original "Prime" Contemptor Pattern, and utilised many of the base components.

However, a large number of the more sophisticated systems and sub-systems were replaced with robust -- if less potent -- replacements that could be more easily fabricated in the field by the Legions. The result was a war machine with its own unique strengths and combat characteristics, but also with a reputation for instability.

The ancient Mechanicum, however, strongly disapproved of this ersatz design, and upon the conclusion of the Ullanor Campaign the Cortus Pattern was phased out almost entirely from the Imperial arsenal, with surviving examples of the Cortus either decommissioned or put into permanent slumber. Afterwards the production of new Contemptor-Primes and Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnoughts met the shortfall. The Cortus Pattern was well on its way to being nothing more than a footnote in the annals of the Legiones Astartes, eventually to be forgotten altogether.

This would not come to pass, however, for shortly after the great triumph at Ullanor the Horus Heresy would set the galaxy ablaze, and the Contemptor-Cortus would see a resurrection in that grinding interstellar civil war. During the Horus Heresy many more Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts strode into battle, either as newly constructed models or cannibalised Prime or Mortis Pattern Contemptors, salvaged from wreckage found all over the galaxy.

Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought

BA Contemptor-Incaendius Dred 01

A Blood Angels Contemptor-Incaendius Class Dreadnought wielding a pair of Talons of Perdition with built-in Heavy Flamers.

The Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought is a sub-class of the Contemptor Dreadnought chassis manufactured only within the ancient Mechanicum enclave that clung to the irradiated surface of Baal's first moon, under ancient treaty with the great Forge World of Anvillus.

Similar in most respects to the widely used Contemptor chassis, the Incaendius differed in one key aspect: the external Incaendius Booster Pack secured to its back. This volatile, single-burn magneto-plasma engine was powerful enough to decelerate the Dreadnought in a fall from low orbit or to propel it in a shallow leap at significant velocity despite the bulk of its armour and ceramite endoskeleton.

It served the Blood Angels Legion exclusively as a shock assault unit of unparalleled ferocity, for the half-dead warrior entombed within suffered none of the disorientation such tactics inflicted on the living.

Most commonly, such vehicles were armed with weapons designed for battle at close ranges, with Flamers and the so-called Talons of Perdition being preferred, though some had been known to employ the prototype Iliastus Pattern Assault Cannon.

These weapons were well-suited to the Dreadnought's role, which was to secure a heavily contested drop zone for the Blood Angels' infantry that followed on its heels. Those enemies that survived the impact of its arrival were given no opportunity to fortify their position or to fall back in good order.

Chapter Specific Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts

The following are Contemptor Dreadnoughts that are only used by certain Space Marine Chapters:

Blood Angels Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought

ContemptorDreadnought11

A Contemptor Dreadnought of the Blood Angels Chapter

The Blood Angels Chapter and its Successors have long been considered unique amongst the Adeptus Astartes as a result of their history and much of their wargear, as well as for their armoury and the "taint" that some whisper hangs over the Blood Angels and their Brethren since the death of their Primarch Sanguinius during the Battle of Terra at the end of the Heresy.

At the end of the Great Crusade, the Blood Angels Legion fielded a large number of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts in its ranks, which had been optimised for close assault duties as was always the tactical preference of that Legion. Very few of these walkers survived the horrors of the Horus Heresy that followed.

In the millennia afterwards, the Furioso Dreadnought came to dominate amongst the ranks of the Blood Angels' Dreadnought brothers and what Contemptor Dreadnought remained had been distributed to the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters as living monuments to both the triumphs and the tragedy that defined the Blood Angels Legion's past. They became living monuments of war intended to tie Blood Angels Astartes yet unborn to the fragile and fading memory of the lost glories of Sanguinius.

The Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought is largely identical to the standard Contemptor with only a few key differences. The Blood Angels variant is optimised for close assault combat and so replaces the standard Contemptor's weapons load-out with two Blood Fists (Blood Angels variants of the Power Fist) with built-in Storm Bolters and Smoke Launchers.

It can replace its Blood Fists with Blood Talons (Blood Angels variants of Lightning Claws) and can also make use of a carapace-mounted Magna-Grapple. Unfortunately, like all Blood Angels Astartes, the Space Marine within this Dreadnought can still fall victim to the Chapter's Flaw known as the Black Rage.

Space Wolves Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought

SW Legion Contemptor Dred

A relic Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the Space Wolves Chapter

The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought has an uneasy reputation as a result of the dark and strange history of this walker within the ancient Space Wolves Legion which was woven into the sagas and legends of the present day Space Wolves Chapter. The Contemptor was never as numerous within the Space Wolves as it was in some of the other Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade era as they favoured the Castraferrum Mars Pattern Mark IVs and Mark Vs due to their robust natures and ease of repair.

The Space Wolves' Contemptor Dreadnoughts developed a reputation within the Legion for engaging in excess on the battlefield and unwarranted savagery that stained the character of those interred within the Dreadnought's armoured carapace. This infamy became a form of self-fulfilling prophecy in some cases as the superstitious Iron Priests of the Chapter began to inter only elite fallen Astartes who already possessed sagas relating deeds darker than most of their peers in pursuit of the foe.

As a result, the few Contemptor Pattern chassis that survived the Fall of Prospero and the heavy losses the Chapter sustained during the Wars of Apostasy of the 36th Millennium still serve, but are always looked upon as troublesome and ill-omened allies at best by the Astartes of the Great Companies. They are valued for their great prowess in combat and always afforded the respect that all Dreadnoughts are due, but are never fully trusted as is normally the due of such living ancients amongst the Get of Russ.

Space Wolves Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts are essentially identical to the standard variant of this Dreadnought pattern save for the addition of Smoke Launchers and some morale-building wargear that is unique to the Astartes of the Space Wolves, such as Wolftail Talismans and Wolftooth Necklaces that are derived from the massive, semi-sentient Fenrisian Wolves.

Additionally, unlike in other Chapters, the few Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts left to the Space Wolves are infamous war engines whose stories are filled with ill-omens, blood and death. As such, these Dreadnoughts are defined by three special sagas that shape the personalities of the warriors within these Ceramite behemoths, including:

  • The Saga of the Black Cull: A thousand times a thousand dead can be heaped at the feet of this Contemptor Dreadnought, who has shown unwarranted excess upon the battlefield in his pursuit of blood. These Dreadnoughts will actively seek out enemy infantry to slay, no matter the tactical cost to their fellows.
  • The Saga of the Forsaken One: This Contemptor Dreadnought's deeds before his internment within his Ceramite shell were dark and marred by unwarranted savagery. Though his Battle-Brothers remain respectful, they do not wish the shadow of his deeds to blacken their own names. As such, this Contemptor Dreadnought will fight alone and will not be supported by any of his fellow Astartes should he enter close combat.
  • The Saga of the Iron God: The warrior within this Contemptor Dreadnought has grown prideful as a result of his enhanced abilities in combat and seeks out other Dreadnoughts or walkers in combat to display his superiority, no matter the tactical cost to his fellows.

Adeptus Custodes Contemptor Dreadnoughts

The following is a list of Contemptor Dreadnoughts used by the Adeptus Custodes, including the:

Contemptor-Galatus Class Dreadnought

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A Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought of the Legio Custodes

Similar to the Contemptor Dreadnoughts of the Legiones Astartes, the Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought is a markedly superior war machine. The unrivalled skills of the warrior entombed within its sarcophagus notwithstanding, the Contemptor-Galatus is stronger, faster and better armoured than the more common Contemptors used by the Space Marines.

Designed to provide an anchor for a Legio Custodes battleline, the Contemptor-Galatus was armed in similar fashion to the Custodes Sentinel Guard -- wielding a huge Galatus Warblade with its built-in twin-linked Infernus Incinerator, and equipped with a vastly enlarged version of the Praesidium Shield. Already able to withstand heavy assaults with its thick armour and refractor field, the Praesidium Shield allows the Contemptor-Galatus to stand nigh impregnable, enduring the enemy onslaught and reaping a murderous toll with its massive Power Sword.

Contemptor-Achillus Class Dreadnought

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A Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought of the Legio Custodes

At the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the most widely employed Dreadnought by the Legio Custodes was the Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought, a general battle unit which combined phenomenal strength and speed with the echoes of the interned Custodes' own unmatched martial skill.

A fearsome example of Dreadnought technology, this Achillus is armed with the massive Dreadspear, an enlarged Dreadnought-sized version of the Custodes' Guardian Spear.

The Dreadnought is also armed with two wrist-mounted Storm Bolters, Infernus Incinerators or Adrathic Destructors.

Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought

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A Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought of the Adeptus Custodes.

The Venerable Contemptor Dreadnoughts of the Custodian Guard are revered relics of the Imperium's golden age. Each houses a fallen hero of the Adeptus Custodes, a warrior broken in body but not in mind who has opted to fight to his last breath. The pilot is shorn of all unnecessary flesh, rendered down to little more than a sack of organs and brain matter sustained within an armaglass amniotic tank.

The Custodian becomes a god of war, able to stride unharmed through hails of fire and crush the Master of Mankind's foes with their hydraulic might. Articulated in the manner of a human warrior, the Contemptor fights with a deceptive dexterity for its size – onward it pushes, its heavy weapon system laying down a swathe of deadly fire.

At close quarters, sweeps of its power fist crush infantry to paste and tear their war engines apart to leave naught but wreckage behind.

Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought

"Dark have been my dreams, crimson dim and whispering souls I have taken. My eternity wakes again and again to kill, to reave bloody across the stars. This is my reward, my slavery, my sustenance, a chalice of flesh, burned in offering to the Dark Gods."

—Ramshek the Ever-Living, War-Adept of the Thousand Sons
Chaos Contemptor Dred

A Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the World Eaters Traitor Legion dedicated to the Blood God Khorne, armed with a Twin Heavy Bolter and a customised Assault Claw.

In the aftermath of the galaxy-wide conflict known as the Horus Heresy and the subsequent Great Scouring, the Traitor Legions were pursued by the vengeful Imperium and cast into disorder and retreat. They were eventually driven into the shadow of the greatest Warp Storm in the galaxy, known as the Eye of Terror.

During their flight from their persecutors, the Traitors lost much of their cherished and sacred wargear or it became corrupted and scavenged. Much of the more advanced techno-arcana was cast aside in favour of arms more readily manufactured and maintained by the hell-spat forges of the Dark Mechanicum.

But even during these dark times for the servants of the Ruinous Powers, the rare few Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts were always held as a most precious resource by those Chaos Space Marine warbands fortunate enough to possess them. The nightmarish intellects of the warsmiths of the Traitor Legions fashioned daemonic replacements for those technological systems of the Contemptor Dreadnoughts that they no longer possessed the skills or the materiel to replicate.

Unable to maintain the Contemptor's original arcane armaments in exile, the Dark Magi replaced them with occult weapons of diabolical design, forged in blood and suffused by daemonic force, such as the Soul Burner which unleashes explosive blasts of daemonic force that devours the souls of its victims, and the Butcher Cannon, a heavy calibre rotary gun whose shells are bound with daemonic runes of anathema and bloodletting to increase their penetrating power and murderous toll.

Another notable piece of forbidden Chaos technology incorporated within a Chaos Contemptor is the replacement of its standard Atomantic Power Generator with a Warp-infused Hellfire Reactor that charges its armoured carapace to provide a preternatural resilience and also serves as a hungry vortex for the soul-stuff of those it has killed. Enemy psykers are particularly vulnerable to its relentless hunger. The cost for this boon, however, is the loss of the advanced Atomantic Shielding used by the original Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought.

Though few in number, these ancient relics have changed hands over the millennia many times and carried out countless dark deeds in their wake. Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought chassis have always been preserved for the interment of powerful Chaos Lords, Dark Magos Hereteks and sometimes even worse.

As a result of their exalted nature and favour with the Dark Gods the occupants of these Dreadnoughts have avoided the inevitable madness that normally consumes other Chaos Dreadnoughts. These potent combat walkers fuse together the power of Mankind's lost technological might with the diabolic forces of the Warp to create killing machines that are more than a match for any fielded by the forces of the Corpse Emperor.

Chaos Contemptor Dreadnoughts are normally dedicated to one of the four major Chaos Gods, which provides the following sorcerous boons in combat:

  • Dedication of Khorne: The Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought can be consumed by a Khornate Berserker rage that increases the speed and velocity of its attacks when it engages in close combat.
  • Dedication of Slaanesh: The Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought is outfitted with sonic weaponry that mimics the effect and usage of grenades and allows it to often gain the drop on the enemy in ranged combat.
  • Dedication of Nurgle: The Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought is afflicted with the decay and pestilence of the Plague Lord and finds itself more resistant to external damage as a result.
  • Dedication of Tzeentch: The Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought finds its effectiveness, damage and ability to target the foe with Bolter and Flamer weapons to be dramatically increased as a result of the arcane blessing of the Lord of Change.

Thousand Sons Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought

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A pre-Heresy Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought of the ancient Thousand Sons Legion.

The Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought, or simply the Osiron Dreadnought, was a variant of the ancient Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought used by the Thousand Sons Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy that allowed an Astartes psyker to continue to use his powers after being transformed into a cybernetic behemoth.

For many solar decades the arts by which the power of an Astartes psyker could be maintained medically within the armoured sarcophagus of a Dreadnought eluded the Thousand Sons and any other Space Marine Legion that tried, with the occupant experiencing a lingering death, madness or malign psychic phenomena.

The Osiron Pattern Dreadnought came about as the result of Magnus the Red himself applying his brilliant mind to solve the problem, resulting in the creation of a device known as the Osiron. This device takes the form of a crown of psychometric barrier lattice encasing the occupant's living brain. The Osiron device was difficult to construct and was barely understood by even the most learned psi-arcanists, though this did not stop the Thousand Sons from outfitting it to their Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts, with startlingly powerful results.

Imperial records indicate that Magnus the Red, before the Council of Nikaea, gave the schematics of the Osiron device to all of the other Space Marine Legions, though it is likely that most spurned this gift entirely. It is unknown if the Osiron Pattern Dreadnought is still used by the Thousand Sons, or if any other Astartes Legions or their descendants made use of the Osiron.

Word Bearers Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought

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A Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought of the Word Bearers Legion

The Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought is a variant of the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought that was once used by the Word Bearers Traitor Legion during the Horus Heresy.

The Mhara Gal was first encountered by Imperial forces during the Battle of Ithraca amidst the atrocity committed by the Word Bearers on Calth.

The first of the Mhara Gal Dreadnoughts is believed to have been created from the barely living remains of a Gal Vorbak Dark Brethren and a battle-shattered Contemptor Dreadnought chassis, both recovered from the blood-soaked ground of Istvaan V.

Fused together by unholy practices, they were then corrupted by a Warp-borne power, giving birth to a new monstrosity -- a living engine of war and hatred.

See Also

Sources

Gallery

Space Marine Forces
Chapter Command Chapter MasterMaster of the KeepMaster of SanctityChief LibrarianMaster of the ApothecarionMaster of the ForgeMaster of the WatchMaster of the FleetMaster of the ArsenalMaster of the MarchesMaster of the RitesMaster of RelicsChief VictuallerLord ExecutionerMaster of RecruitsMaster of ReconnaissanceMaster of the SignalChapter AncientPrimaris AncientChapter ChampionHonour Guard
Company Command Command SquadReclusiam Command SquadCaptainPrimaris CaptainLieutenantPrimaris LieutenantCompany AncientCompany Champion
Specialists Librarian (EpistolaryCodicierLexicaniumPrimaris LibrarianVanguard Librarian) • Chaplain (ReclusiarchPrimaris ChaplainJudiciar) • Apothecary (Primaris ApothecaryApothecary BiologisHelix Adept) • Techmarine
Veteran Squads Veteran Marines (Sternguard VeteranVanguard VeteranVeteran IntercessorVeteran Assault IntercessorBladeguard Veteran) • Terminator SquadTerminator Assault Squad
Battleline Squads Tactical SquadIntercessor Squad (Heavy Intercessor Squad) • Infiltrator Squad
Close Support Squads Assault SquadAssault Intercessor SquadJump Pack Intercessor SquadInceptor SquadReiver SquadIncursor SquadSuppressor SquadBike SquadOutrider SquadCenturion Assault Squad
Fire Support Squads Aggressor SquadDesolation SquadDevastator SquadHellblaster SquadEradicator SquadEliminator SquadInfernus SquadCenturion Devastator Squad
Neophyte Squads Scout SquadScout Bike Squad
Light Vehicles Assault BikeAttack BikeScout BikeRaider Pattern Combat BikeInvader ATVLand Speeder (Land Speeder StormLand Speeder TempestLand Speeder TornadoLand Speeder TyphoonLand Speeder VengeanceLand Speeder ProteusDarkshroud) • Storm Speeder (Storm Speeder HailstrikeStorm Speeder HammerstrikeStorm Speeder Thunderstrike)
Combat Walkers Dreadnought (Castraferrum DreadnoughtSiege DreadnoughtHellfire DreadnoughtIronclad DreadnoughtVenerable DreadnoughtMortis DreadnoughtChaplain DreadnoughtLibrarian DreadnoughtFurioso DreadnoughtDeath Company DreadnoughtRedemptor Dreadnought (Brutalis DreadnoughtBallistus Dreadnought) • Wulfen DreadnoughtDoomglaive Dreadnought) • Nemesis DreadknightInvictor Tactical Warsuit
Armoured Personnel Carriers RhinoRazorbackDamocles Command RhinoRhino PrimarisRhino AdvancerImpulsor
Main Battle Tanks Predator Destructor (Predator AnnihilatorBaal Predator) • Land Raider (Land Raider PhobosLand Raider CrusaderLand Raider RedeemerLand Raider AchillesLand Raider PrometheusLand Raider Terminus UltraLand Raider AresLand Raider ExcelsiorLand Raider Wrath of MjalnarLand Raider Angel InfernusLand Raider Solemnus AggressorLand Raider Anvilarum) • Deimos Vindicator Laser DestroyerRepulsorRepulsor ExecutionerGladiator (Gladiator ReaperGladiator ValiantGladiator Lancer) • Astraeus
Artillery WhirlwindVindicatorStalkerHunterWhirlwind HyperiosLand Raider HeliosThunderfire CannonFirestrike Servo-turret
Aircraft/Air-Deployed StormtalonThunderhawkThunderhawk TransporterShadowhawkStormravenStorm EagleFire RaptorStormhawk InterceptorCaestus Assault RamDark TalonNephilim JetfighterStormfangStormwolfCorvus BlackstarOverlordDrop PodHammerfall Bunker
Rare, Relic or Retired Vehicles Contemptor Pattern DreadnoughtDeredeo Pattern DreadnoughtCerberus Heavy Tank DestroyerLeviathan DreadnoughtJavelin Attack SpeederJetbikeDeimos PredatorDeimos RhinoSabre Tank HunterLand Raider ProteusKratos Heavy Assault TankMark IIb Land Raider PhobosMalcador Assault Tank (Malcador Annihilator) • Sicaran Battle TankSicaran VenatorSicaran Punisher Assault TankSicaran Arcus Strike TankSicaran Omega Tank DestroyerSpartan Assault TankTyphon Heavy Siege TankFellbladeFalchionMastodonDeimos Whirlwind ScorpiusXiphon Pattern InterceptorStormbirdKharybdis Assault Claw
Chaos Space Marine Forces
Command Chaos LordExalted ChampionChaos ChampionAspiring ChampionSorcerer LordDaemon PrinceDaemon Prince of NurgleDaemon Prince of TzeentchDeath Guard Lord
Specialists Exalted SorcererSorcererWarpsmithDark ApostleMaster of PossessionMaster of ExecutionsLord DiscordantWarsmithDeath Guard SorcererLord of ContagionMalignant PlaguecasterPlague SurgeonTallymanScarab Occult SorcererScarab Occult Terminators
Troops Chaos Space MarinesHavocsChosenChaos TerminatorsPossessedGreater PossessedKhorne BerzerkersPlague MarinesNoise MarinesRubric MarinesObliteratorsMutilatorsChaos SpawnFallen AngelsNoxious BlightbringerFoul BlightspawnBiologus PutrifierBlightlord TerminatorsDeathshroud
Fast Attack Chaos Space Marine BikersChaos Space Marine RaptorsWarp Talons
Chaos Dreadnoughts HelbruteFerrum Infernus DreadnoughtChaos Contemptor Pattern DreadnoughtSonic DreadnoughtBerserker DreadnoughtLeviathan Dreadnought
Vehicles and Daemon Engines Chaos RhinoChaos PredatorInfernal Relic PredatorChaos VindicatorChaos Land RaiderChaos Land Raider ProteusInfernal Relic Land Raider AchillesLand Raider Hades DiabolusRelic Sicaran Battle TankMaulerfiendForgefiendDefilerBrass ScorpionBlood SlaughtererBlight DroneFoetid Bloat-droneKytanPlague HulkVenomcrawlerMyphitic Blight-hauler
Heavy Vehicles and Daemon Engines Spartan Assault TankFellbladeDecimatorTyphon Heavy Siege TankLord of SkullsDeath WheelPlaguereaperPlagueburst CrawlerSilver Tower of Tzeentch
Aircraft HeldrakeStormbirdThunderhawkChaos Storm EagleChaos Fire RaptorHell BladeHell TalonHarbingerChaos DreadclawKharybdis Assault ClawFire LordDoom Wing
Summoned Daemons BloodlettersPlaguebearersHorror of TzeentchDaemonetteNurglingsBeast of NurglePlague DroneFlamerScreamer
Lost and the Damned Chaos CultistsPoxwalkersPestigorPlague ZombiesPlague OgrynThrall WizardTzaangorTzaangor EnlightenedTzaangor ShamanDark Disciple
Champions Magnus the RedMortarionAbaddon the DespoilerKharn the BetrayerTyphusAhrimanHuron BlackheartFabius BileCypherHaarken WorldclaimerInvocatus