Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour worn by a Space Marine Legionary of the Salamanders Legion. This suit is armed with a Plasma Bombard and Saturnine Disruption Fist.
Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour, also called Saturnine Terminator Armour, is a formidable pattern of Tactical Dreadnought Armour first deployed during the Great Crusade that was considered the best wargear a Space Marine could use without being interred in the sarcophagus of a Dreadnought -- offering protection akin to that of a walking tank.
First seen deployed in large numbers on the black sands of Isstvan V during the Drop Site Massacre, Saturnine Terminator Armour was personally developed and crafted by Vulkan, primarch of the Salamanders Legion, and it stood bulkier and more ponderous than the more widely-utilised Cataphractii and Tartaros Patterns of Tactical Dreadnought Armour.
A squad of Salamanders Legion Saturnine Terminators deployed during the Horus Heresy. From left to right, each Terminator is armed with a twin-linked Heavy Disintegrator and a Power Fist, two Plasma Bombards and finally a twin-linked Heavy Disintegrator, another Plasma Bombard and an Occulix Targeting Auspex.
Mounting only an array of fearsome directed energy weapons as the pattern dated back to the esoteric techno-arcana of the Age of Technology, which was combined with complex and potent energy shielding, those warriors of the Legiones Astartes capable of wearing such armour saw the already legendary resilience of a Space Marine improved significantly, allowing them to stride through the fires of battle with impunity.
After the long standard years of brutal warfare during the Imperial civil war, suits of Saturnine Terminator Armour are unlikely to have survived much past the end of the Horus Heresy.
History[]
"Nocturne Pattern" Prototype[]
"Let the storm fall upon us. We shall endure its wrath, and in the stillness after, we shall remain."
- —Attributed to Praetor Vashtus Su'ran, XVIIIth Legiones Astartes, Assault of the Tempest Galleries, Unification Wars (ca. M30)
Salamanders Veteran Legionaries arrayed in prototype Terminator Armour unofficially nicknamed "Nocturne Pattern" during the Great Crusade.
During the latter years of the Great Crusade, the primarch Vulkan personally designed and crafted twenty suits of special master-crafted Tactical Dreadnought Armour for his Salamanders Legion. These prototypes were massive even by Astartes standards -- taller, broader, and heavier than standard Cataphractii or Indomitus Pattern Tactical Dreadnought Armour.
Each suit was built upon a reinforced exo-frame, akin to the mining and deep-forge hardsuits used by the subterranean clans of the primarch's homeworld of Nocturne. This underlying frame was then clad in sloped, heat-treated ceramite and adamantium plate, deliberately angled to deflect high-impact and penetrative kinetic weaponry. These plates bore the burnished green and black of the Salamanders, though many soon became scorched and soot-blacked, indistinguishable from the volcanic ash that swirled about them in battle.
This prototype armour (unofficially referred to as the "Nocturne Pattern") was as much a walking weapons platform as a suit of war-plate. The left gauntlet of each suit housed brutal close-combat systems: Power Fists, Chainblades or even Lightning Claws designed to shear through ceramite like parchment. These tools, inspired by Vulkan's own work on breaching and siege operations, were not merely for slaughter, but for function -- to tear through bulkheads, reinforce siege lines, and rend apart the inner works of corrupted war machines. In the right gauntlet, the Salamanders bore weapons tailored to the nature of the foe: Combi-bolters, Plasma Chargers, long-barrelled Volkite Culverins, or in heavier configurations, even triple-barrelled, rotary Autocannons.
This suit of Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour has incorporated the Saturnine Aquila proudly upon its breastplate, linking the Saturnine tech-enclaves with the wider Imperium.
What truly set this prototype pattern apart from later Terminator Armour variants, however, were the auxiliary systems integrated directly into the shoulder mounts and power cores of each suit. These included independent hardpoints capable of mounting Lascannons, Multi-meltas, Heavy Flamers, Conversion Beamers, or even armour-piercing Missile Launcher arrays.
These systems were not manually operated but slaved to an organic-machine neural interface known as a Mind Impulse Unit (MIU) built into the helm of the wearer, allowing a single Terminator to track and engage multiple targets at once. The effect on the battlefield was catastrophic for the enemy -- a firestorm of concentrated death erupting from every limb and plate of the advancing juggernauts.
Teleport synchronisers set into the broad pauldrons of Saturnine Pattern Terminator war plate link to the teleportation transponders carried by senior Space Marine Legion officers, enabling those wearing this plate to be teleported to the battlefield.
Each suit was a walking bastion of flame and fury, capable of holding entire corridors or choke-points alone. Within the tight confines of voidships, siege tunnels, or volcanic breach zones, these prototype Terminators became living gods of fire and death, incinerating xenos monstrosities, Traitor Legionaries, and Daemons alike in a deluge of blazing wrath. Despite their immense bulk, these Terminator suits were designed with heat-dissipating pylons, allowing for extended operation even in extreme thermal conditions, such as molten Forge World interiors or during orbital re-entry strikes.
Yet these prototypes were not without cost. Their technological complexity was immense, requiring dedicated artificer-forges and specialist Techmarines to operate and maintain. The Mind Impulse Units, though effective, placed an unspeakable strain on the wearer's neural pathways, occasionally burning out synaptic relays or rendering the user catatonic after prolonged engagements.
Moreover, the overburdened power cores of these suits were prone to catastrophic feedback if too many weapon systems were activated simultaneously. The price for such devastating firepower was always close at hand -- death by fire, even for the wielder.
A Veteran Legionary of the Blood Angels Legion arrayed in Saturnine Terminator Armour with an Occulix Targeting Auspex, and armed with a twin-linked Heavy Disintegrator and Power Fist.
Despite their formidable power, terrifying battlefield presence, and remarkable innovations in integrated weaponry, these early pattern Terminator Armour prototypes would ultimately fall by the wayside. The Nocturne Pattern's extreme weight, high maintenance demands, and dangerous neural feedback systems rendered them unsustainable for widespread deployment across the Legiones Astartes.
As the Great Crusade dragged on and the Imperium began to standardise its wargear under increasing logistical pressures across-ever lengthening supply lines and operational distances, these complex and individualised designs were gradually phased out in favor of more efficient and versatile Tactile Dreadnought Armour suits.
Chief among these was the Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour, a more balanced evolution of Tactical Dreadnought war-plate that retained much of the resilience of its prototype Nocturne Pattern predecessor while offering improved battlefield reliability, manufacturability, and reduced neural strain on its wearer. Thus, while Vulkan's prototype Terminator Armour patterns remain a legend of ingenuity and ferocity -- burning brightly in the annals of the Salamanders -- it would be the Saturnine Pattern that would endure into the bitter future of Mankind's endless war.
Development of the Saturnine Pattern[]
A Veteran Legionary of the Ultramarines Legion arrayed in Saturnine Terminator Armour and armed with a pair of Plasma Bombards.
Among the myriad Tactical Dreadnought Armour patterns devised during the rise of the Imperium, none invoke as much awe, dread, and reverence as Saturnine Tactical Dreadnought Armour. This prototype Terminator Armour was designated as "Saturnine Pattern", the heaviest and most advanced form of Terminator war-plate ever conceived.
Its origins are shrouded in mystery, but it is known by Imperial scholars that unlike most of the Imperium's arms and armour it was not created in the ancient Mechanicum's hallowed forges of Mars as one might expect, but in the secretive tech-enclaves of Saturn -- sanctified vault-forges that owed their allegiance to the Martian Mechanicum, yet operated with an unorthodox techno-theocratic independence.
Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour first enters the Imperial technological record alongside other powered-armour types developed during the Unification Wars to conquer Old Earth in the 30th Millennium. The other patterns have their origins on Terra or Mars, but Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour is allegedly the work of a Martian Mechanicum sub-sect banished to the ninth moon of Saturn, Phoebe, during the Age of Strife.
The truth may never be known, for access to that moon was forbidden to all but the most senior members of the Imperial Household -- though none can deny it was the source of several other technological marvels. Rumours abound that the original schematics were discovered in xenotech ruins beneath Titan or drawn from forbidden STC variants hidden deep within the Scholian Vaults of Enceladus.
A Veteran Legionary of the Emperor's Children Legion arrayed in Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour and armed with a Plasma Bombard and Saturnine Disruption Fist.
Regardless, the Saturnine war-plate was a marvel of pre-Heresy ingenuity -- too advanced for mass production, too sacred for trust. Massive and brooding, a suit of Saturnine Terminator Armour towered over all other Space Marine Legion infantry, its signature downward-curved shoulder pauldrons, built from unyielding adamantium and ceramite slabs, provided layered shielding over vulnerable actuators and joints, and concealed auxiliary defensive force field emitters, including thermal diffraction fields and pulse-dampening shield lattices. The reinforced plastron-cowl entombed the helm of its wearer deep within the chest cavity, granting a thickened frontal silhouette designed for breaching fire corridors under intense enemy resistance.
Few enemy weapons -- short of voidship or Titan-grade Melta-lances or a turbolaser strike -- could breach its ironclad defences. Its internal servos and power stacks are of such potency that it may bear weapons beyond the scope of even Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour, including Plasma Bombards, Heavy Disintegrators, and Disruption Fists. But its true deadliness lay not only in brute resilience or weapon load, but in the teleportation synchronisers embedded within the massive pauldron assembly, allowing instant deployment via command-link to officer-mounted transponders. The effect was devastating -- entire kill-teams of Saturnine Terminators crashing into enemy fortifications with the precision of guided munitions.
A Veteran Legionary of the Iron Warriors Legion arrayed in Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour and armed with twin-linked Heavy Disintegrators and a Saturnine Disruption Fist.
However, the very qualities that made Saturnine Terminator Armour so fearsome also ensured its scarcity. The demands of its construction, the sacred nature of its arc-cores, and the near-impossible skill required to pilot its dense systems limited its distribution to only the most resolute and iron-willed of the Legiones Astartes. Introduced to service in small numbers during the latter years of the Unification Wars, this formidable suit of Terminator Armour was the result of combining the early models of power armour with suits of exo-armour.
These were heavily armoured, environmentally-sealed suits that enabled the wearer to survive the most hazardous and extreme conditions: it was designed to shrug off orbital debris, protect against reactor leaks and all the other dangers of interstellar travel. Combined and refined by Imperial scientists -- the resulting Terminator Armour was tested in the final bloody throes of the unification of the Sol System.
The Salamanders Legion initiates its combat-drop on the Urgall Depression during the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V. Here, Legionaries arrayed in Saturnine Terminator Armour fight alongside a Saturnine Dreadnought.
While fielded briefly during the Unification Wars, Saturnine Terminator Armour's use reached its zenith in the early Great Crusade, only to decline due to its difficulty to manufacture so that it was quickly supplanted by more economical grades of Terminator Armour like the Cataphractii and Tartaros patterns. But this venerable relic did not fade entirely. Primarch Vulkan, ever the artisan and protector, took it upon himself to unlock the secrets of this venerable technology in order to rekindle its legacy.
Vulkan's intentions were to unlock the Saturnine war-plate's secrets to enable full-scale production of this vaunted armour. Where no-one else had succeeded, the master artificer triumphed -- and by his hand, the secrets of manufacturing his masterwork was provided to his brother primarchs. Unbeknownst to him, however, Horus Lupercal's betrayal was already in motion, and it is a tragic fact that the first major deployment of Saturnine armour was on the black sands of Isstvan V during the Drop Site Massacre, in the battle that shattered the Salamanders Legion.
A Salamanders Legion Saturnine Terminator equipped with a pair of Plasma Bombards.
Saturnine technology was ultimately turned against the Imperium that it was forged to protect. Those few warriors who bore this formidable pattern in that age of betrayal became avatars of war incarnate: slow-moving, unstoppable, and wielding the wrath of a forgotten age. Today, Saturnine Terminator Armour is considered a relic of myth -- if any remain, they are sealed away in the vaults of dead Legions or worn in silence by heroes whose names are known only to starlight and ruin.
Had the Great Crusade not faltered and ended in the Horus Heresy, the Imperium might eventually have rolled out Terminator Armour as the de facto standard defensive wargear of the Legions. Unfortunately, the devastation of the galactic civil war was so complete that the Imperium would never again have the resources to build such powered armour variants at scale.
Praetor Saturnine Terminators[]
A Praetor of the Imperial Fists Legion arrayed in Saturnine Terminator Armour. He is armed with a Plasma Blaster, a pair of Power Fists and a Saturnine War Axe.
Rather than relying on the tried-and-tested patterns of armour they had utilised throughout their service, some Space Marine Legion praetors instead took to the field in suits of prototype or experimental war plate, such as the Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour.
Upon their approval and wider distribution, these warriors displayed exemplary knowledge of its benefits and drawbacks, leading their companies into the deadliest fighting protected by the very best wargear the Legiones Astartes had to offer. Pairing this superior protection with weaponry able to shatter even the might of a Dreadnought chassis, such commanders become a true colossus of battle.
Saturnine Pattern Operational Aspects[]
Size comparison of a Salamanders Legionary wearing Mark II Crusade Power Armour and a Veteran Legionary arrayed in Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour.
Every aspect of Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour was carefully and thoughtfully considered: the suits were built strongly enough to mount weapons even heavier than other patterns of Terminator Armour could wield.
Additionally, it boasted a reactor powerful enough to operate multiple directed energy weapons and a thermal diffraction field that also aided in the safe dispersion of the deadly energies unleashed upon the wielder by their own deadly plasma weaponry. Finally, advanced targeting systems allowed Saturnine Terminators to aim and fire multiple heavy weapons with unerring accuracy.
Not everyone, not even every Space Marine, could effectively pilot Saturnine armour. It took an especially strong, disciplined mind to utilise this extremely potent pattern of Terminator Armour. Some even whispered that a wearer needed to possess a measure of cybertheurgic (psychic) resonance, although few were willing to speak upon this. In truth, Saturnine Terminator Armour required both technological skill and a small degree of psychic attunement for a Legionary to deploy it -- above the non-existent psychic ability of the average Space Marine, but nowhere near the level of a true Librarian.
Regardless of the difficulties of finding suitable pilots, each Space Marine Legion was able to field Saturnine armour in at least limited quantities during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy -- the practical tactical advantages it offered outweighed all other concerns.
Unit Composition[]
- 1 Saturnine Terminator Sergeant
Wargear[]
Saturnine Terminators[]
The wargear available for use with Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour. Right to left on top: a Twin-linked Heavy Disintegrator and the breastplate of Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour displaying the Palatine Aquila. On bottom: a Saturnine Disruption Fist, a Power Fist, and a Plasma Bombard.
- Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour
- Plasma Bombard - The default weapon of a Saturnine Terminator, this formidable armament is effectively a Plasma Cannon that doesn't need a line of sight to make an accurate strike against an enemy target. A unit of Saturnine Terminators set up in an obscured position sporting a pair of Plasma Bombards can threaten a vast portion of the battlefield with relative impunity.
- Saturnine Disruption Fist - The Saturnine disruption fist is an exotic version of the classic Terminator archetype. It hits with fearsome strength and damage -- so one squad can wreck a medium vehicle, or kill enemy Terminators with a single punch.
- Occulix Targeting Auspex - Incorporating a potent Machine Spirit, this advanced auspex sensor system allows the wearer of Saturnine Terminator Armour to track targets for its multiple heavy weapon systems at once, though this increased firepower is bought at the cost of mobility for the armour.
- Thermal Diffraction Field - This auxiliary energy field projected from the emitters located in the armour's oversized pauldrons aided in the safe dispersion of the deadly energies unleashed upon the wielder by their own Saturnine Terminator Armour's deadly plasma weaponry.
- Saturnine Teleportation Transponder - Saturnine Terminators are unable to make full use of the standard pattern teleportariums found on most Legiones Astartes warships. Due to the complex energy disruption equipment incorporated into their wargear, specialised teleportation transponders were required to prevent catastrophic teleportation incidents.
- Additional Plasma Bombard (In place of the Saturnine Disruption Fist)
- Twin-linked Heavy Disintegrator (In place of the Saturnine Disruption Fist) - A pair of these deadly weapons are for devastating elite infantry and dreadnoughts. If a Saturnine Terminator can secur a firing position and deliver a full broadside, they can wipe out entire enemy units.
Praetor Saturnine Terminator[]
- Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour
- Saturnine War Axe
- Saturnine Disruption Fist
- Thermal Diffraction Field
- Saturnine Concussion Hammer (As replacement for Saturnine Disruption Fist) - This formidable weapon is so powerful, it can literally kill tanks. It can even break open the armour of Knights Armiger, Castellax Robots and Ogryns.
- Plasma Blaster (As replacement for Saturnine Disruption Fist)
Videos[]
Canon Conflict[]
Earlier lore described Saturnine Pattern Terminator Armour as "functionally identical to both the Tartaros and Indomitus Patterns, so any differences between them seemed to be functionally aesthetic. Its creation was conceived at the same time as those suits. Little else is known about the Saturnine Pattern at this time save that few examples of this armour pattern are still known to exist."
According to a twitter post made by Black Library author Gav Thorpe, the artwork depicting Salamanders Legionaries in master-crafted prototype Terminator Armour in The Horus Heresy short story "Deeds Endure" found in the Shattered Legions refers to this pattern of Terminator Armour as the "Nocturne Pattern". However this designation was never made official canon.
Sources[]
- The Horus Heresy: Shattered Legions (Anthology) edited by Laurie Goulding, "Deeds Endure" by Gav Thorpe
- Wayback Machine Archive - Gav Thorpe's Official Twitter, "I'd think of it as Nocturne Pattern but nothing official." (11 Sept 2019)
- Warhammer Community - Rules in the Age of Darkness: Saturnien Terminators take to the field (17 June 2025)
- Warhammer Community - Saturnine Armour: The Lore (16 Jun 2025)
- Warhammer Community - Saturnine Terminators kit focus (16 June 2025)
- Warhammer Community - Saturnine: Highlights from the Dropsite Preview
- Warhammer Community - What is Saturnine Technology?
- Warhammer Community - Saturnine: What's in the box?
- Warhammer Community - Saturnine: What is Saturnine-Pattern Terminator Armour?
- Warhammer Community - Saturnine trailer: Watch the all-new Horus Heresy cinematic
- Warhammer Community - The Horus Heresy round table – The origins of Saturnine armour
- White Dwarf 109 (UK), "Terminator Squads," pg. 32
- White Dwarf 115 (UK), "'Eavy Metal" (Showcase), Space Marine in Terminator Armour, pg. 61
- White Dwarf 304 (UK), "Rise of the Terminators," Image, pg. 48
Gallery[]
