40k Lore, Titans! God Machines of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Part 1 

I love 1d4chan's description for a Titan, "Imagine a city that hates you. Now give it city leveling weapons and legs to walk on, then fill it with more things that hate you. You have a rough idea of a Titan."

-Hello, this is Collegia Titanica Helpdesk! How can I help you? -My Titan is not working! -Have you tried unplugging and plugging your Princeps?

mechanicus tech support: Have you tried saying the prayer again?

Slaaneshi titans? Oh god, I can already see the crotch-mounted main gun. it'd probably compensate for the recoil by pelvic thrusting every time it fired.

"Oh Emperor, I pray to thee that I have thy holy blessing to not ballocketh up the action of performing rotatorum maximus upon these blessed Screws Imperialis" - Litany of the loosening/tightening the screws.

"The Grey Knights are the abominable spawn of the fifth chaos god, Matt Ward." Damn, I just lost my shit xD

Sure, praying to the Machine God might take up a lot of time, but I think the added protection against deamons and angry machine spirits more than makes up for it. Especially when you are constructing walking battleship the size of Matt Ward's ego.

Precept: Hey buddy hows it going today? ready to kill traitors and xenos? Titan: I guess... scaring people away is what I'm good at anyway... Precept: Now, now don't be like this again, we will return to mars soon, you can go see all your buddies again Titan: Whats the point? I've been away so long I bet no-one of them are even going to want to remember me... Precept: **Sighs Deeply** Titan: Lonely... I'm Mr lonely... ain't got no-body... Precept: **Sighs Even Deeper** Titan: All on my own... wooooooooh~

I'm hoping to see VR technology advance by leaps and bounds in the coming years. Maybe when I'm old and grey, we'll see VR advanced enough to justify a first-person Titan-based game. I would sell just about everything I own for that experience.

I am new to Warhammer, and new to the lore. BUT HOLY FUCKING SHIT I NEVER KNEW HOW METAL THIS SHIT IS!

150 meters tall, with weapons of size of "cities"...'???? My scale logic had just exploted

"5th Chaos God, Matt Ward!" Oh my god Arch, my spleen just ruptured from laughing :D

Not sure which HH or 40K novel/book it was in, but an Imperator Titan making ground-fall via drop-pod certainly left a vivid image in my mind. Anything that survives the initial cataclysmic collision/landing, doesn't survive much longer when the hab-block tall Raping-Death machine unleashes it's weaponry that's only out-matched by fire-power on battle-barges and other large void-ships! That said, did I read somewhere that there are some super-psykers that can crack titans in half with warp powers?!

So I take it the Grey Knights are a matter of controversy since I've heard other people describe them as the most popular and most impressive yadda yadda yadda.

The "official" heights of these machines kills my soul. Look at the photos.....a Reaver titan is not 15 meters tall!

Giant Triple Linked Flamers, cause burn the heretic.

"Dark Adeptus" By Ben Counter That Specific novel covers that a certain Forge World has produced Chaos Titans in massive numbers Granted, its Grey Knights, but ey. Knowledge:)

>Shit talks the gay knights for 5 min... Welp I guess I have to subscribe now

These titans would make the titans from 'Attack on Titan' crap themselves

You know, I'd actually like to see a lore video dedicated to technology in the imperium, and the psychology behind the practices that are done with them. I've read some interesting threads about the subject that I, being the schmuck I am, cannot recall or cite at the moment. They went into what lead to the "culture" built around machines, and why you could *not* solve all of the imperium' problems with one person with common sense and a rudimentary understanding of technology and mechanics. I had a great time reading them, and I think such a thing would make a good video. (though it would definitely be hard, given how vague the subject is) ... And I should probably be saying this on a video that isn't 7 months old if I actually want to get noticed. Ah well.

I do t mind the grey knights in older lore, I actually liked them...until Matt ward fucking ruined them with his bs. I think some thing are starting to be fixed now at least. Btw what's your opinion on the new skitarii/mechanicus stuff arch?

Emphatic link, semi-sentient machine, ability to go berserk... Holy shit, Titans and Evangelions really are similar!

Watching this vid makes me remember... I WANT Mech Commander 3, DAMMIT!!

Pacific Rim 40K

The Warhammer and 40k lore is simply awesome. There is so much interesting stuff. Thanks Arch.

Feedback: You should lower or remove the background music IMO. It seems to make the video more difficult to hear and understand, and gives it a too monotonous pace.

How appropriate that the music used throughout this video is "Crusade" from Kevin MacLeod (in case anyone was wondering).

i know its technicly defunked but id love to see a vid on space warfare in the 40k universe i have been reading some of the Hours heresy books and scae or as they call it void warfare is there in the background

As a note on the Warhound, IIRC it's not a match for armour squadrons; it carries roughly the same weapons as Baneblade variants; the Vulcan cannon on the one pictured at 42:20 is also mounted to Macharius heavy tanks, which are somewhat smaller than a Baneblade.

Good stuff, but change up that backing track. It gets repetitive.

i just found your channel, i'm really enjoying it. for all you titan fans, some good news, GW is bringing back adeptus titanicus (official announcement should be coming at some point after blood bowl release) it was the first GW game i ever played some 30 years ago, i can't wait. for those of you not familiar, it's like kill team with titan legions, also forge world is supposed to do epic, i wasn't as big of a fan of that, but many were.

listening to you talk about whether or not chaos can create it's own Titans makes me want to smash my head through my monitor

ARCH, I GIVE YOU YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE YET. I DARE YOU TO MAKE A VIDEO FOR EVERY KNOWN IMPERIAL GAURD REGIMENTS COMPLETE WITH LORE AND PICTURES. WHAT DO YOU SAY SIR?

The way you describe the princeps controlling the Titan and the moderati controlling the less critical task's i compare it to the nervous system. The moderati in me maintains the heartbeat while the princeps does the important stuff like overthinking Warhammer lore and writing comments on RU-vid.

Let's remember the second war for armageddon where the Ork-gargant "godbreaka" destroyed the emperor class titan "stormherold" with a single strike from it's hab-block sized melee weapon, splitting stormherold from head to groin^^

Good Lord Arch, I'm a big fan of your videos and you can tell this is an old one....Because damn man, you used to be very VERY long winded! Love ya dude

At first I thought it was so silly that religious rituals would go into building a war machine, but then I remembered that in the 40k universe machine spirits are real and observable. If a gun can get an observable increase in reliability with a few muttered prayers in this universe I'm sure whatever extra time those extra religious processes add to the Titan building is worth it in the end.

God, 47000 subscribers in 9months good job Arch!

Never played any 40k game but still enjoy watching and learning the lore

Love the old school artwork, first edition epic stuff?

14:04 I am dying laughing at this little segment. Perfectly executed within the normal framework of seriousness in these videos to be hilarious.

So, when would you get to the tactics of deploying and killing titans?

You sound like Caddicarus only older, wiser, and inebriated. Love listening to your videos man.

If i were a princeps on Imperial or Chaos titan, fist thing i'd do is to make damn sure to have some kick-ass music playing in the manifold. To set the mood, as it were.

Ever thought of making a video on the different classes of ships?

Im pretty sure in one of the books, they used warhounds to shoot stuff of the legs of bigger titans, that was pretty cool :D Loved the books about the titans and imp. knights.. GJ, keep it up

Quieter background music brother.

On the notion of fresher than 10k old, chaos Titans and astartes.............the Horus Humbug wasn't necessarily the last time some imperials turned traitor. Huron being the best example.

If Diomedes were to pilot an Emperor Titan, he still would be able to deepstrike! Even into the Eye Of Terror's core!

Castigor was not killed/destroyed by the Grey Knights, the Grey Knight group leader baited Castigor into attacking the Chaos ship that was send to take him away. This led to him being destroyed by the other Chaos WarShips after they had to watch one of their own destroyed. Chaos destroyed chaos. I like that.

+ 1 sub because of your cozy-christmas-fireplace-teatime english accent (i'm french...) and because you are very enlightening, tho i think you could add some references from where you took your informations, it could help viewers to continue in the same topic with novels and such... great work !

can we have an indepth explanation about the grey Knights? Kappa

Now I know where the idea for Neon Genesis Evangelion came from.

Super enjoying listening to these vids while I work! One suggestion though: Maybe be a little more sparing with your background music. lower the volume and maybe avoid music that uses synth brass.

Matt Ward is love Matt Ward is life

In warhammer, church comes to you!

What I think when I think a titan factory is just a bunch of workers shouting as loud as they can Prayrs to the omnisia

Castigator could fire demons because of a pact with the chaos gods (at least one, but presumably more). While exactly how it worked wasn't well described, to my knowledge, I assume that the demons were created at the moment of being fired and were absorbed back into their creator shortly after. Long enough that they could do some damage, but they didn't stick around for years or anything.

Matt Ward has been sacrificed to the four chaos gods already.

Arch you the man ,,, nuff said !!

Ok, which machine wins in a 1v1 land duel between the average Imperium Titan and the UC Generation 1 Gundam that Amaro Ray originally piloted? Let's assume the pilots of both machines in this duel are average space marines with virtually the same physical and mental abilities. (I know it's hard to imagine a space marine physically fitting into a standard Gundam cockpit, but just roll with it)

You have grimdark that is 40K. You have the noblebright that is trek.

I guess you have not read the Horus Heresy Book: Mechanicum, which does go into detail that Titan Crews who convert to Chaos are spliced together with their titans or Daemons possess the titan and change its weaponry to the daemon's liking. Also its been prooven Daemon Titans who have been severely damaged are sent back to the warp where the dark mechanicus repairs them but ultimately they can't build new Titan Engines.

Grey Knights, for when an onslaught of nukes is to subtle

Just found and finished you Hive World lore vid, watching this one now, subbed.

Naming the Point of Chaos and it producing new Titans. Missed the Point of that they are still driven by mortal Beeings, so the Option of imperial Titans/theire Crews beeing corrupted by Chaos might be a Possibility to.

I thought that Castigator was an STC for Golden Age titans, hidden prior to the Heresy. At some point it was infected by a demonic entity. Once merged with the AI within, the daemon began to think more like a machine, and while still allied to Chaos, its very nature was changed. As evidenced by the fact that Grey Knight Alaric was only able to fight it, and narrowly avoided being into the plasma core, by reminding the Castigator of its true nature. From there, it corrupted the first tech priest to find it. Convincing them to set in motion a plan that saw the Forge World it was based on being pulled into the warp. After a thousand years warp time, it saw the original gatling gun being retrofitted, firing captured daemons rather than conventional ammo. Once the daemon, unknown if it was still merged with the original AI, was defeated, Castigator died with it as its reactor went critical. Perhaps the daemon's last malicious act, due to the battle being fought in/around it, or simply the AI died with the daemon and without a mind to control it, the titan's systems fell apart. Whatever the cause, this was a passing much mourned by the Mechanicum.

Who wants to be human when you can be a 150 meter tall robot with huge guns?

author of the 8:52 Warhound shot here - no watermark, no footnote, nothing to tell the viewer who made the pic or the other shots you grabbed from Deviantart. maybe you should give people some goddamn credit where it's due?

Why did I do the John Luc Picard nose pinch style face palm after hearing grey nights and then immediately afterwards your tone of voice display the exact facepalm hahahaha

18:54 that would be asking its machine spirit not to electrocute you.

I dunno a Grey Knight Shattered a Daemon princes' sword with his mind so i still think they're pretty dope.

48:00 The Warlord looks like a suit of power armour for fucking Techno-Jesus

i couldn't watch through this (13 mins was all i could handle)... that looping music was fucking terrible!

Chaos are creating Titans en mass as was demonstrated in novels.

The Priests of Mars and I think Lords of Mars novels have a lot of information about titans including when one goes nuts while on a starship

! these are AWESOME :D been listening like hours now xO

No wonder tears would fall from my eyes after seeing this when a titan would fall in DoW mods.

Coming from a guy who just got into Warhammer 40k: Holy shit. HOLY SHIT. HOOOOOOOOLLLLYYYY SHIIIIIIIT.

Chaos marines from the Traitor legions can still use their gene seed to create new marines.

You have neglected one other way Chaos Forces acquire Titans. The Alpha legion hijacked a Mechanicum vessel containing a titan LEGION on its way to deployment to a world being assaulted by (you guessed it) the alpha legion. This is one of the cases when the Alpha commander in charge is designed a Harrowmaster for the destruction of said world. We also learn from this case that the Alpha legion recruits Mechanicum personnel, so it isn't surprising that they would be at least able to maintain their Titans. And let's not forget that the Alpha Legion not only destroyed an Astartes Chapter, but were able to harvest most of their geneseed for Abbaddon, as well as several battle barges. They did this by several methods, among them, corrupting the inductees so that years later, they turned on their brothers. The cost to the Alpha legion was negligible (in terms of lives). I love those guys...

What happened to the original imperium of man lore video of arch? Does anyone still have it?

Funny is when orks try to steal a titan and the machine spirit gets pissed

A Gatling Gun that shoots demons...that sounds terrifying.

14:55 What? No. If "Castigor" is a misreading of "Castigator," that's not a Matt Ward-ism. "Castigator" the Chaos-worshipping STC Titan was the villain (and partially, setting) of "Dark Mechanicus," the 2nd Grey Knights novel by Ben Counter. The Machine Spirit was essentially ascended to demon princedom. Alaric didn't "destroy the Titan" so much as talked the demonic AI into fully manifesting, and then did what Grey Knights are supposed to do. This book came out in 2005 or 06, before Matt Ward.

On larger titans the crewmen or servitors would also control the secondary batteries, for example, AP heavy bolters or light anti-vehicular Lascannons

Are Princeps impervious to things like sneezing or hiccup? Silly me just imagines a titan moving like it's sneezing or has hiccups because it's princeps had to sneeze or got hiccups...

Maybe it's the engineer in me talking, but I think that the 40k authors typically flunked math. Their sense of scale surrounding the titans is probably one of my biggest complaints. Most of the time their measurements don't add up. Take the typical Astartes being about 3 meters tall as a baseline. They talk about Titan legs being large enough that they have mounted weapons emplacements, and enough room in the legs that people climb through and work in them. -At 10 1/2 meters tall, a marine would come up past the knee joint of a Warhound, and it's almost impossible to imagine there being enough room in the legs for even a normal man to fit inside. The body would be maybe 4-5 meters tall, but even so, fitting three normal sized humans inside the cabin would take up quite a chunk of the available volume, let alone the additional 10+ crewmembers. -Even at 35 meters tall, there would barely be enough room in the physical volume of a Warlord leg for a staircase or ladder for normal humans, let alone the physical structure, armor, and aforementioned weapons emplacements. Again, there's insufficient volume in the hull for more than a couple of crew. - The vast numbers of crewmembers in an emperor class titan (thousands) would require entire buildings to hold, ignoring the huge space needed for the structure and mechanisms, armor, guns, etc. 150-200 meters tall wouldn't be a bit on the small size to fit that many people. 400-500 meters tall would be more reasonable. -The original lore with warlord titans being 200 meters tall or larger makes more sense than any of the current sizing numbers. Yes, they are vast, but I think even then they are pushing things a bit. Look at the large mining shovels for an example - they can have a few crewmembers working in them amongst the machinery, but they don't have armor plate around the outside.

Poor peincep, withdrawals sucks I can relate, I’m a machine operator by trade and getting out of a d10 dozer or a 6015b ex. It’s hard to adapt back to only 185 lbs being able to lift move stuff by 50-100 pounds at a time when I was just 190,000 pounds moving 35 cubic yards 😂

Oh... I remember the Grey Knights Omnibus and Castigator. If I remember correctly, the ending of that book can be interpreted many different ways. Alaric, when confronting what can be perceived as the avatar of Castigator, inside his Titan body, confronted the AI who in effect had forgotten his purpose. Alaric confronted Castigator and told the AI that it was actually a demon, and it was then that the AI corrupted itself, accepting Alaric's words as fact, and became a demon. Whether or not Alaric was demonic prior to Alaric confronting it, or was corrupted afterwards is subject to debate. However, I like to think the closed minded Grey Knight actually corrupted Castigator.

That's because gray knight are great I love them they may be broken I know they are pretty bad but they are my army and I can't wait to start getting them

If I were to write new fluff for Titans in 40K, I would have Forge Worlds be able to... -Build a Knight in 1 month (and have Knight Worlds and/or Hive Worlds with enough Mechanicus presence also be able to build Knights). -Build a Warhound Titan in 1 year. -Build a Reaver Titan in 10 years. -Build a Warlord Titan in 25 years. -Build an Emperor Titan in 100 years. Of course, if the enemy has enough strength D weapons...

Lucky for the Titans, all the work is worth it. Are there any "Unkillable" tians?

IDK about mighties land born weapons arch. I mean sure, a Titan is a giant walking can of rape, however, an Ordinatus engine ... they have been known to wipe out (as in nothing left but a crater) entire cities (the 40k fuckhueg arcology like definition of a city). Not to mention that they are basicaly entirely newly made engines of war using weapons that not even titans are allowed to use, making them the peak of what the mechanicum can produce (and even the "weakest" ordinatus outugns even an imperator in sheer damage of it's armament).

Disagree with some of the scales mentioned for the reaver/warlord. Taken a marine in power armour is roughly 8 feet tall(Roughly 2.4metres tall) and putting them next to the models itself(Yes I have seen reaver and warlord titan models in the flesh so to speak) you'd have to stand so many of them on eachothers shoulders and multiply the result by how many marines would form this human ladder it comes in at way more than 30 metres(More like 45-50metres at least) That being said the imperator titans really would be at least 100 metres tall as a warlord titan in epic scale just about reach the imperators head so roughly half as tall.

I remember reading the Gray Knights book with the father of all titans... from what i remember, the titan did not had a AI, it had a demon that possessed the Titan control unite and got lost and overwhelmed by the titan complexity... the demon lost its mind and thought it was AI.

Castigator STC Class Titan = ???? Apocalypse Emperor Class Titan = ???? Imperator Emperor Class Titan = 55 meters (182 ft) Warmonger Emperor Class Titan = 43 meters (141 ft) *due to lack of Imperator Class's cathedral* Executor Emperor Class Titan = ???? "Siege" Imperial Class Titan = ????? Warlord Imperial Class Titan = 32.76m (107ft) Warbringer Nemesis Class Titan = 28.95m (95ft) Komodo Battle Class Titan = ???? Carnivore Battle Class Titan = ???? Reaver Battle Class Titan = 25.21m (83ft) *with rocket pod* / 22.25m (73ft) *sans rocket pod* Reviler Battle Class Titan = ???? Punisher Teslan Class Titan = ???? Warhound Scout Class Titan = 17m (56ft) Rapier Scout Class Titan = ???? (Imperial Knights) Imperial Knight Acastus = 14m (46ft) Imperial Knight Cerastus = 11m (37ft) Imperial Knight Dominus = 9m (30ft) Imperial Knight Questoris = 9m (30ft) Imperial Knight Amiger = 7m (23ft)

... You know... The Warhounds "face" looks more like a cow... rather than a wolf or canine.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a game focused on Titan combat? with imperial titans, chaos, Gargants, Eldar and Tyranids all going at each other? imagine the carnage!

The Titans were lost technology in the 90s. That was the story when I played. So yes it is a retcon It was dropped when Epic 40K was discontinued.