40k Lore, Regiments of the Imperial Guard, The Valhallan Ice Warriors! 

Hmmm a sudden ice age followed up by a great calamity? Sounds like the actions of that champion of Tzeentch: Scrat from the Ice Age movies. He was continuing his quest searching for his own chaos artifact: a single Acorn from the very first Ice Age. In Scrat’s haste to acquire his artifact, he has caused thousands of worlds across the aeons to fall into ice ages of their own

"Food is ready comrades, Valhallan Green Curry, is traditional dish from orc invasion." - A Valhallan preparing food for his regiment

As someone with a deep and abiding hatred of warm weather, Valhalla sounds like a wonderful place.

Being prepared for winter is indeed a complicated thing. A foot of snow in San Francisco is an apocalyptic event. A foot of snow in Fairbanks Alaska is Tuesday.

Imagine a 40K fps game about Valhallans fighting Orks on a random ice world. Climbing glaciers, navigating snowstorms, tunneling beneath the ice, all with huge green monstrosities charging at you while screaming like maniacs.

Spacemarines are nice and all but it's good to see more of human regiments

in reference to snow goggles, they are equipped with them, on a couple of occasions jurgen has to give cain a pair to protect his eyes as cain either forgets to bring them or does not have the time to properly equip himself before planet fall, due to the apparent necessity for cain to crash into whatever planet he is going to be working on

I imagine this planet's hive citys like a a ton of Frospunk generators on top of each other... With the same death by frostbite, work accidents and "work accidents"...

Grabbing a free floating chunk of metal, strapping engines to it and then flying it into a garden world with enough force to fling it into a stable orbit further from its sun. That sounds like Brutal Kunnin' to me!

"Good job Arch! You tell those Warmlanders how the cold works!" ~your fans in Minnesota and other very cold places.

Ah the good old days when an imperial guard army would be a wild mix of dozens of metal models from a dozen different regiments.

The hat would be called an “Ushanka.” Oddly enough, the Finns had adopted it prior to the Russians, who adopted it from them after the Winter War.

You have to do Cain after this. The greatest hero of the imperium.

With the way GW has gone with Kislev and the Space Wolves I was half expecting space vikings wielding cryo ammunition and explosives with a name like that.

one of my fave warhammer comics is about a squad of valhallans that meets a bunch of space wolves during a tyranid invasion. its called lone wolves and the art is fantastic. :)

Yes! Another Guard episode! We need more of these. I'd love to see one on Vostroya and their Firstborn Regiments since they are my favorite regiment of them all. Edit: Plus I'm adept to the cold, thanks to my home being Wisconsin in the US, so these guys and Vostroya are perfect homes for me.

As a person born in the Soviet Union in 1991, who spent a childhood in the dashing 90s and survived all the economic crises, epidemics and seen Chelyabinsk meteorite live, I can understand the Valhallans too well. They will probably outlive everyone out of spite.

What is scariest? Valhallan guardsmans play with aircondition? Or Kriegsman play with ventilation? :-D

As someone who lives in an area of the world currently in 30°c/86°Freedom, but very cold in the winter. Arch's Norwegian tangent was very enjoyable.

Ci-Ci-Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM! On that note, and given your earlier video on the inquisition......can we expect a video on "the only sane Inquisitor in the Galaxy"?😉

I remember in a Chaiphas Cain book (The last ditch I think) that they emerged from a cavern out into a blizzard and Cain immediately goes snow blind because he forgot his goggles and his soldiers were laughing at him while they helped him out with a spare set.

The extra cloth wrapped around the valhallans chest could be more inspired by troops in the American Civil war. Troops on both sides tended to take their blankets (either the wool blanket or the rubber gum blanket) and wrap up their belongings in it to keep track of it and offer slight protection from a saber cut… or I’m just giving GW too much credit. I’ll let all of you decide.

Many times in the Cain books he'll make note of how inured to cold the Valhallans are, simply not caring about or even enjoying the cold temperatures at various levels. Usually once each book he'll make a comment about a particular Valhallan busy at some job and "And dear Emperor his great coat was open!" or one book where they were deployed to an ice world the regiment was treating it as a second home.

personally in my own head cannon the stock Valhallen ice warrior models are basically their summer / more temperate uniforms for offworld use when they aren't deployed to icy death worlds. As such it would be pretty cool to kit bash some custom vahallen ice warriors in proper extreme weather equipment with great coats going over the body suits would be fun imho.

The Valhallans, the making of Warmaster Slaydo, and the men that made Commissar Colonel Gaunt from a snivelling Commissar Cadet into the steel backed Tanith leader he is today.

Those Russian WWII winter uniforms were noted for being resistant to lower-power bullets, like pistol rounds, due to sheer thickness.

Ciaphas Cain references waiting... music starts playing

That soviet winter jacket is called "ватник" [vatnik]. It is a quilted jacket stuffed with cotton wool.

I can remember the article in white dwarf when the 2nd edition 40k imperial guard was being all flavoured up. They were no different to any of the other guard squads on the table but having more than cadians painted up in different colours made the guard actually worth looking at.

The Valhallan regiment, or "how i learned to love the emperor and fight for him in antarctica while being knee deep in snow"

As a heating installations engineer I can only imagine what a headache was to deal with the heat loss on an entire city placed inside a overglorified icebreg ...

If I remember right the Ice warrior uniform does indeed come with a pair of specially made goggles for there home environment, I believe it was brought up in one of the Cain novels vary briefly as Cain stepped out into a winter environment and forgot to put his goggles on and almost froze his eyes shut and one of the Valhallans had to give his a hand. Also I strongly believe that the Valhallans border on being Abhumans due in part to there unusual resistance towards the cold as Cain often times comments on how they love to keep there barracks and command centers just cold enough to see there own breath and that's treated as normal room temperature, often when they get a chance to deploy onto cold weather areas on other worlds they just talk about how nice the weather feels implying to me that Valhalla is a vary cold world even when compared to other cold worlds

These segments on Imperium regiments are great and there aren’t enough of them.

Krieger: cmon cousins let us charge to our glory! Valhallan with an ice drill: I have a better idea

Ah yes, my favorite Not-So-But-Really-Red-Army in 40K

No fcking way! I just went through your imperial guard lore vids and looked at the last time you made one, and thought, " Yeah, it's dead, his not gonna make more". Then BOOM you make a new one! Amazing! Keep up the good work, love your videos

Valhallan Ice Warriors: Low in number (comparatively speaking) due to the world they live on. Also Valhallan Ice Warriors: Have a famous captain that favours human wave tactics.

Imperium sending disaster relief? Very funny Arch. The imperium helping a world. Good joke.

Damnit Arch now you got me looking up bear pussies and cold weather gear, it doesn't get that cold in Ohio...often

I could swear that there was a civvie in Caves of Ice that actually seemed to at least be indifferent to Tanna when Cain gave him a cup while they were questioning him.

A discipline contest between Valhallan Ice Warriors, Krieg Guardsmen, and Mortian Iron Guard.

At 1:00 as a Canadian living in the northern part of the country I totally get you .... and as a joke people say to newcomers : Welcome , we are born here and you what's your excuse ? XD

could the next video be a deep dive into psykers? i wanna know all the crazy stuff involved with them, sanctioned or otherwise!

Cant wait for to hear what you have on the Vostroyan firstborn. 🖤

I remember an old comic about a guardsmen on Ice World fighting Tyranids to encounter a pack of Space Wolves. They had the Vahallen uniforms but they were Slavok I think. Vahalla is the standard for all Imperial Guard Artic Pattern uniforms. Found it ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lH9GS75_9cM.html

*sits down while Jurgen fetches me a mug of Tanna

Chad regiment, and the Caine's novels were great and made me appreciate the conoisseurs of colder climates and most orkophobic of all regiments.

Warhammer 40K lore, after the Rings of Power review-rant? Busy, busy Arch, indeed. Seriously though, thank you for your contents. I was wondering whether you will continue the Imperial Guard regiments video, and here you are, with one of my favorite regiments, whose Commissar (or was it an officer?) had one time shared _Mjöd_ with the *Space Wolves,* and not dead from the experience.

Interestingly people from very cold places are often cold wimps in my experience as they HAVE TO have good heating, warm housing, suitable clothes etc.

Their coat looks like a rather artistically licensed version of a Finnish M36 great coat. 10/10 recommend peeping "Varusteleka" here and there and picking up Swedish/Norwegian/Finish military surplus on the cheap! My Swedish army jacket from the 50s is 100% wool and denim and only cost like 45$

I can imagine Arch cosplaying as Valhallan in his backyard during Norwegian winter.

I have been eagerly awaiting the Arch video on the Valhallans. And I was not disappointed, in the slightest. Great job Arch. Keep it up.

As someone living in a country with harsh winters, I can attest that the cave slime isn't so bad.

The Valhallan's are great and would be a fun formation to play as in a RTS no base building just given your troops and against Orks and later some Demons.

1:20 *Looks at Norway and at Greenland*

Feth Yeah! more 40K IG lore! and Valhallan Ice Warriors!. Can't wait to see you do the Tanith some day!

Great video once again! I just wanted to let you know that this video got me to read (listen to on Audible) the Ciaphus Caine series for the first time and I absolutely loved it! I read through the series (bar the last which hasn’t been narrated yet) in about 3 weeks. I just couldn’t stop listening! Thanks for getting me to read the series and keep up with the great lore videos!

Great work as always Arch, your Norwegian insight into cold weather really brings this to life. One thing I've always thought when it came to the Valhallan great coats, is that the coat it self is multi layered, with removable lining. Combined with the Valhallans developed cold resistants (shirt sleeves rolled up at 0°C and calling it balmy) and things start to make a bit of scence. Also a "woolen" or spacewoolen great coat in a warzone makes is a perfect top layer as wool is often more fire retardant than synthetics. Meaning that its less likely for them to go up inflames the moment a piece of hor shrapnel hits the material. From personal experience I've had fresh from the forge hit my woolen cloak at a re-enactment event to no effect but a mild singe and seen someone at the same even in a synthetic costume wind up with 3rd degree burns. Anyway end rant because i could go on for hours.

That little rant about the not-so-wintery winter uniforms makes me want to see your take on a properly designed Ice Warrior uniform (with the 40k aesthetic, of course), similar to that WH Fantasy Ice Guard redesign you commissioned some years back.

Been waiting for this one for a while

Now we know where Inquisitor Arch is from, and why he knows so much about orks.

keep them regiment coming its very cool to know about each different world they come from / mentality /what forged them! thx for the video

Yes! My favorite angry ice popsickles!

Another lore video from Arch? YAAAAAYYY ❤️Thanks for your work bro' 👌🏻

Greetings and salutations Arch! Good to have you in my feed heck yeah!

If the great coat was sticky on the inside then it could work, as the coat would act as a second skin which could also be heated

Love you Arch! Have a good one.

As someone who likes wearing tank tops in January, Valhalla might be a good spot.

Hey, I know you might not see this. And you might hate the idea. But I love every single one of your HHeresy video break downs. The series and your series mean a lot to me. If you could still keep doing them. Even if it’s ever 2-3months or so. You’d make a collage student a very happy guardsmen. Cheers and all the support in what you’re up to!

i am appreciating the adjacency to cain here

Short but sweet, good to see more lore.

Valhalla was 40k Frost Punk before FrostPunk became a thing ...

As someone with a deep and abiding hatred of cold weather, Valhalla sounds like hell.

Another great lore video about the guard!

Valhalla reminds me of my home in northern New York. Same kind of deal. Cold, bitter, poor, and almost completely devoid of intelligent life since a major catastrophe ruined the once beautiful and thriving region. (Just switch the meteor with an economic downturn). Not as cold as say……Norway but still more than cold enough to have sun zero temperatures that can crack windshields and flatten tires. Really makes me appreciate the modern era I live in instead of the one my ancestors did when they had to settle here.

I read a memoir from a marine in teh Korean war (battle of chosin reservoir) and they were issued a great coat like uniform addition, and he said that they were perfect, even in negative degrees, so i think the great coat design with good pants ect could work, but not alone.

You want good cold weather gear, you take FDF winter gear. When I did my time 20 years ago, we had a camp when it was around -40 Celsius. When I was on guard duty at night, standing still, snow up to my belly button, I was sweating.

So with the Valhallans done, Ciaphas Cain next please?

Finally!!!! I have been waiting for years for another regiment of reknown!!!

ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO BY THE EMPERORS FINEST .... ALL HAIL THE HOLY EMPEROR

The Valhallans being a mix of the different parties in the Eastern front makes the most sense yeah. Guerrilla warfare in the snow was Finland's bread and butter

Really appreciate the background music really lends these videos a very story book like feel if that makes any sense.

The type of hat the Valhallan Ice Warrior in the main picture you used is wearing what in English is called a fur bomber hat. These were developed for high-altitude bomber crews (along with the possibly better known bomber jacket) to keep them warm in the rather extreme conditions. They didn't used heavy gloves, because that would interfere with them using the controls of the various crew stations, including the guns. Instead, air crew wore electrically heated gloves. (A teacher of mine in highschool, who spent WWII as a child in occupied Holland, had a story about being able to find a pair of these gloves that had been ejected from a crashed Allied fighter. It was only after he got them home that he discovered the pilot had been wearing them during the crash...and they hadn't been blown off his hands to end up some distance from the main wreckage.)

Jacob Gellar has a fantastic video on the impact of cold which might help explicate the real struggle early valhallans would face

The greatcoat along with another coat as well as the quilted jacket were used as the cold weather uniform.

And after listening for quite a while, I had no idea that you were Norwegian!! Well done!

Ahhhh,,, so nice to hear Arch speaking his mind as he contemplates the coming of winter. That's enough cope to warm my Southern Delta heart!❤🔥 My one brush with stupid cold while surveying the mountain tops in New York during a record breaking winter with a mere -17F with a steady 15 to 25 mile an hour wind sweeping across the land was the only time in my life I almost called the home office to tell them to go get 🖕 I'm going home. 🥶7 I salute you madlads. Pack in extra Arch,,, it's going to be a cold one I think.

One thing id like to say about the greatcoat vs a suit is weight and bulk. I used to work in ND in the winter and it was not uncommon to see -40F windchill weather or even lower in some extreme cases. When your lugging around a bunch of equipment and supplies it doesnt seem like much but it adds up. When i switched from a full set of winter overalls, over winter clothing, over the top of street clothing, over long underwear. And instead just had a heated set of winter gear while not AS warm as the suit, the extra range of movment and about 10 pounds less material to lug around was a big deal. The bulk and restricted movment was the real killer when you were doing hard physical stuff all day. And keep in mind i only had around 20 or 30 pounds of gear on me most of the time. If your lugging around 60-120 pounds of crap ontop of that and with restricted movment/extra bulk and treacherious terrain.....i can see how an much less bulky and lighter insulated and heated great coat could be much more practical. Set it up to run off a laspack which i have ZERO doubt has MORE then enough power to keep you warm for quite a long time and well...... Course as i learned first hand if that heat source fails then your in for a pretty bad bloody day.

Given the calorie requirements for Arctic operations they must have a very effecting slime farming system

Tanna sir?

Maaaan, I fucking love the Ciaphas Cain novels so much. This makes me want to reread them again, Arch. Made me like the Valhallan regiment almost as much as I love the Gaunt's Ghosts too!

You mean Commissar Cain's most glorious soldiers. Why? Because they have pretty good tea.

Warhammer 40k: Long Dark Edition

Great content buddy.

in the 2nd cain book there is a bit where he talks about how goggles are part of the standard valhallan kit

Regarding the rapid evolution of well-adapted species: Likely that they were previously around but confined to some remote arctic biome and have spread across the world following the cataclysm having found no competition.

Arch i love your imperal gaurd videos so good

Ah in the Austrian Army we called them also "Bearpussy" or "Bärenfut" in the original :D

It's 22C in my tropical island. I AM ICE WARRIOR.

Also thing to consider with custom stock on lasgun.. when you are wearing several layers of insulating clothing, this requires space, hence you are bulkier and normal stock might become hence too long for optimal draw distance. Further more since you would be wearing thick gloves... well those look like simple leather gloves but yes there is several ways to deal with it like mentioned heating elements so you dont freeze your fingers off with plain leather gloves, those things take again space, so your trigger guard needs to be enlarged so gloved finger can fit easily to pull the trigger.. though in extreme cold climate you would want to use mittens, though military version witch had your index finger as separate from the rest like your thumb as well, or there is folded cut so you can stick your finger out to fire, but thats more of on the fly solution and has issues like finger freezing on prolonged fire fight. Also any grease or oil used in the gun needs to be thinner, since it will stiffen in the cold and in las weapon, probably have some system to heat up the lenses so those wont fog up and cause distortions that effect the power of the beam and worse case direct some of the energy into frame of the weapon. As Arch mentioned winterizing and operating over all in cold climate is very tough and needs ridiculous amount of preparations and logistics. Cant have half of your army end up into field hospital for severe frost damage, if your logisticians fucked up and didnt send enough warm socks to front for instance.