Grav-weaponry, also called Graviton Weapons, or just Grav Weapons, are devastating graviton-based personal and vehicular weapons employed by the Imperial Adeptus Astartes and the Collegia Titanica and the military forces of the Leagues of Votann based on ancient and forgotten technology dating back to the time of the Age of Technology. Manipulating the very nature of gravity itself, Grav-weaponry turns a target's mass against it, crushing it to pulp under its own weight.
This is especially shocking when used against heavily armoured infantry like Terminators, as the hapless warrior is brutally crushed by the bulk of their ceramite plates until only a crimson trickle remains. Space Marine Chapters are among the few warriors of the Imperium to be gifted with the use of Grav-weaponry, and it is considered a sacred honour to wield such a potent weapon.
All Grav-weaponry fires a stream of graviton particles which affects the local gravitational field of a target area, making the targeted object either far heavier or lighter depending on the weapon's setting. The Grav-weapon also creates a bass rumble as the waves affect the local air pressure, causing the air to vibrate.
The effect is generally non-lethal and can be used to incapacitate foes who need to be captured alive, but the power of the Grav-weapon's highest settings is sufficient to rupture organs and crack bones even inside armour.
Some living targets will be affected more variably; a very large creature may be killed under excessive weight, but most targets will either be slowed or completely immobilised.
A Grav-weapon is very useful when fighting in a voidship or a null-gravity environment, as well as during demolition and siege work. This is because it is particularly effective against massive objects such as bunkers or fortifications, where the building's great mass can be used against it, causing it to collapse.
History[]
The secrets of Grav-weaponry construction are known only to a precious few; their design is based upon the graviton weaponry many Space Marine Legions employed during the Horus Heresy era in the early 31st Millennium. Even then, these exotic and rare weapons were little understood by the Tech-priests of Mars.
The term "Graviton-gun" refers to a group of gravity projector devices whose sophistication is such that the few that remained were relics of a lost age from before the birth of the Imperium of Man. These weapons proved extremely useful when fighting on a voidship or in a null-gravity environment.
The power of the Grav-gun's highest settings was sufficient to rupture organs and crack bones even inside armour, but its primary use was to impede the enemy and damage machinery without the risks of secondary explosions.
But the secrets of Grav-weaponry are still locked away in the deepest vaults on Mars. Only Techmarines who show the greatest promise are entrusted with the sacred binary psalms detailing the assembly and maintenance of such weapons.
In battle, all forms of Grav-weaponry affect the local gravity field, using its victim's own mass against them, an ordeal that will stun those it does not kill outright. Heavily armoured targets find themselves crushed as if by the mighty fist of the Emperor Himself, while enemy vehicles are left as crumpled, smoke-belching wrecks.
Notable Imperial Grav-weapons[]
- Grav-pistol - The Grav-pistol is the hand-held pistol version of a Grav-weapon. Its effect is not quite as powerful as that of its larger counterparts, but it can still do enormous damage to targets possessed of a large mass.
- Grav-cannon - The Grav-cannon is a large, vehicle-mounted type of Grav-weapon. The power of the Graviton Cannon is sufficient to rupture organs and crack bones even inside armour, but its primary use is to counter enemy machinery without the risk of secondary explosions. Grav-cannons have been seen mounted on Rapiers and Centurion heavy infantry.
- Deathwatch Graviton Cannon - The Deathwatch Graviton Cannon is a modification made by the Deathwatch Techmarines of Watch Fortress Erioch in the Jericho Reach of the more common Grav-gun. The Deathwatch Graviton Cannon possesses a higher graviton output and has proven decidedly more deadly when unleashed on the Deathwatch's foes. Where the common Graviton Gun has but one setting that affects the gravity in a sizeable area, the Deathwatch version can also focus its energies into a continuous tight beam of incredibly dense gravity waves.
- Combi-grav - This relatively rare Combi-weapon variant incorporates a single-shot Grav-gun, allowing the wielder a potent graviton attack when the fighting is fiercest without sacrificing the formidable wrath of the standard Bolter. The Combi-grav incorporates a standard Astartes pattern Bolter with a Grav-gun as the secondary weapon.
- Heavy Graviton Cannon - A Heavy Graviton Cannon, also called a Heavy Grav-Cannon, is a graviton weapon deployed by the Adeptus Mechanicus on its Kataphron Destroyer Battle Servitors. The graviton technologies used by the Adeptus Mechanicus are fearsome indeed. A target hit by the Heavy Grav-Cannon's invisible field will be stunned and likely crippled, or even crushed under their own exponentially increased mass until all that is left is an oozing disc of biometallic waste.
- Graviton Destructor - A Graviton Destructor is a Titan-grade Grav Weapon deployed during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy on Warhound and Reaver-class Titans that unlashes a directed energy particle beam of gravitons towards a target that dramatically increases the local gravity, crushing the foe under its own mass.
- Graviton Ruinator - A Graviton Ruinator is a Titan-grade Grav Weapon deployed during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy on Warlord-class Titans that unlashes a directed energy particle beam of gravitons towards a target that dramatically increases the local gravity, crushing the foe under its own mass. It possesses a longer range and more stopping power than its smaller Titan-grade counterpart, the Graviton Destructor.
Notable Leagues of Votann Graviton Weapons[]
- Graviton Hammer - A Graviton Hammer is a melee Graviton Weapon in the form of a single-handed warhammer used by the military forces of the Leagues of Votann. Like all Graviton Weapons, the Graviton Hammer works by dramatically increasing the local gravity, crushing the foe under its own mass after a bonebreaking strike from the hammer. A Graviton Hammer is the standard melee weapon used by BrƓkhyr Iron-masters when they are operating in the field to maintain and repair their Oathband's vehicles and wargear.
- Graviton Rifle - A Graviton Rifle is a man-portable Grav Weapon used by the military forces of the Leagues of Votann. It is a favoured weapon of the BrƓkhyr Iron-masters. It unleashes a directed energy particle beam of gravitons towards a target that dramatically increases the local gravity, crushing the foe under its own mass. However, Kin weapons like Graviton Rifles are superior in almost every respect to those patterns of Grav Weapons wielded by the agents and military of the Imperium, since the Kin employ superlative materials and methods in their construction and have no fear of further innovating on an ancient STC design. As a result, the Grav Rifle and its variants often have longer ranges and more stopping power than any of their Imperial equivalents.
- Graviton Blast Cannon - A Graviton Blast Cannon is a man-portable Grav Weapon used by the military forces of the Leagues of Votann. It is a favoured weapon among the squads of the BrƓkhyr Thunderkyn. It unleashes a directed energy particle beam of gravitons towards a target that dramatically increases the local gravity, crushing the foe under its own mass.
Sources[]
- Codex Adeptus Mechanicus - Cult Mechanicus (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pg. 233
- Codex: Leagues of Votann (9th Edition), pp. 92, 98, 100-101
- Codex: Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 121, 123
- Dark Heresy: The Inquisitor's Handbook (RPG), pg. 133
- Deathwatch: Rites of Battle (RPG), pp. 137-138
- Imperial Armour Volume Nine - The Badab War, Part One, pg. 153
- Rogue Trader: Rulebook (RPG), pg. 128
- Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal (Imperial Armour), pg. 231
- Warhammer 40,000: Munitorum - Grav-Guns
- Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (2nd Edition)
- Warhammer Community - Turn Titans' Mass Against Them With Graviton Weapons for Adeptus Titanicus