The Death Of The Araneus Continuity - 40K Theories

[@Warrior-Of-Virtue]

The mentions of things like unnatural fire as well as the fact that the invaders seemingly vanished into thin air following the destruction of the warp gates seems to be outright confirmation that The Araneus Continuity was the victim of a daemonic incursion.

[@kappa6109]

At that point the empire did not know of Chaos and everything was a Xenos or humans so it tracks.

[@max1mumchr1s]

When it's 1am, you can't sleep, and Remleiz comes in clutch with the Lore

[@CastleF3]

Bruh, how you know I can't sleep rn you witch bitch !?

[@TheNarwhal85]

A little too much

[@TechPriestCharlie]

More like 5 in the morning but yeah lol

[@Grandott]

Only 00:40, you witch!

[@WASDLeftClick]

Imperium: You don’t seem to realize that Necromunda isn’t yours to conquer.

[@robertnelson9599]

Imperium of Man: Only we get to destroy human planets.

[@MegaHarko]

Someone has watched Invincible :p

[@Chaos_Pawn]

I understood that reference

[@ilyac3185]

Is Macarius Conquest in this scenario? And Thrag the one true emperor?

[@Big_E_Soul_Fragment]

Almost all systems destroyed? So the Araneus Continuity almost got _discontinued_ I'll see myself out

[@rickconnolly5006]

Baddump tssshhht

[@gamer65688]

This is a horrible pun?

[@rickconnolly5006]

@@gamer65688transcendent humor. Pretty sure that joke just cured AIDS

[@MrPeabody67]

@@gamer65688 Every Geologist in the comments just groaned.

[@lumpofmeatsack2013]

RIP Tallarn. 😔

[@robkemp598]

I really wish the continuity had survived, I love the smaller empires and governments within the Imperium (eg. Manichean Commonwealth and Realm of Ultramar)

[@jonathantheslow]

If they survived, then we wouldn’t have the wonderful setting known as Necromunda.

[@r.cdahuman7682]

They are always incredibly interesting.

[@robkemp598]

@@jonathantheslow yeah I guess that's just what happens when you make background lore that's too interesting lol

[@r.cdahuman7682]

I have no idea what this video is about, the title means nothing to me. That's extremely exciting in its own right though. But its rem, so ik its gonna be great. Keep up the good work Lore Master! Edit: OH SHIT THE PLANET IS NECROMUNDA. I knew necromunda was once part of a massive age of strife/great crusade era empire, but I didn't know the context. That's wild man. I love this universe because of shit like this.

[@svagglaorde4387]

Inquisitor Remleiz: Enslavers... Alpha Legionaire: Actually its the Rangdans....trust me, they survived the Xenocides, hid in the warp and became one with the warp. Alpharius has seen it.

[@robertnelson9599]

Seems credible.

[@Sleepy_zzzzz]

I am Alpharius.

[@peterwall8191]

@@Sleepy_zzzzz Isn't every body? Alpha legion meetings, must terribly confusing.

[@TheVegeta67]

Saw the title and I thought this was about some alternate continuity for the franchise at first.

[@kyrridas1573]

haha, same.

[@thehandofgod2864]

same.

[@Mrkabrat]

8:53 He simply irradiates smugness even though a Necron can't emote

[@proto303]

I think necons can emote, it's described a couple times in The Infinite and the Divine and I'm pretty sure a couple of the faces on the lychguard/triarch preatorian models have smirks

[@MattBrain9336]

Given how vague the details and information on these aggressors, it's possible that this is a setup for the introduction of a completely new race in the 40k universe

[@maddlarkin]

Maybe it wasn't Xenos at all, a rouge fleet of Men of Iron tired to the gates or running some sort of experiment with the continuity, one they decided to terminate when the Imperium showed up. Sun Snuffers and omniphage swarms would seem to match the description and capabilities described

[@fadelsukoco3092]

That would seem to be the case. Necrons sure do have the tech to do similar things with scarab swarms and C'tan shards or the Celestial Orrery, but the first takes too long to eat the energies of stars and the second simply novas them. MOI Sunsnuffers on the other hand are explicitly described as coiling around stars to snuff out their energy in what seems to be a tactically-expedient manner. The ship descriptions could also work for the MOI, as they are hyperadvanced machines it would make sense for them to have giant well-defensed motherships and carriers and swarms of small drone ships with disproportionately-powerful armaments.

[@Lioness2895]

Necromunda has more of a canonical connection to the Men of Iron and the Dark Age of Technology than it does to Necrons. Gorkamorka (the game) had a connection to Necrons.

[@Twy87]

Unlikely to the point of being inconceivable (mind you, this is 40k), but imagine if it was a Tyranid splinter fleet that at some point in the distant future had stumbled across a lost warp gate leading to some *accidental* time-traveling shenanigans. Hive Secondus is currently controlled by a Genestealer cult after all.

[@erickelly1323]

Tech Rulers: "So tell me about your forces. Do you have seven planetary systems?" Emissary: "We have 20 legions of super soldiers, about 1,000 worlds and space colonies at our disposal. About one billion regular soldiers and uncounted space ships of various sizes. But we expect those numbers to increase every day as our fleets are spreading out in all directions and reestablishing contact with former Terran empire colonies from the past. Not to mention we got a planet full of tech guys who are practically oiling their robes for you all to be a part of the Imperium since you have tech that is new to them. In fact I wouldn't put it past them to ask you to be apart of their order in a high ranking position." Tech Rulers: "Yes but do you have seven planetary systems?" Emissary looks at Rulers with befuddlement: "You serious? I just, I just told you that a minute ago."

[@Lioness2895]

Necromunda gives a little more info on the Iron Lords and they're still around in some capacity menacing the Van Saar, but it's unclear if it's them of AI that thinks its them

[@jjvagnar1]

3:43 Wow... this is one pic that would drive both Imperial Fists and Iron warriors into paroxysms of Angron level rage

[@NateTheNarrator]

Perhaps the strange xenos that came through the rift gates were the Yu'Vath. They have a strange bond with the warp and their ships seem to match the description you gave.

[@jonathantheslow]

Living lightning could also refer to shots from Tesla weapons.

[@daniell1483]

Given the information we are presented within the video, Necrons seem to be the safe bet. Unusual technology? Check. References to metallic bodies? Check. Potential references to Ctan Shard activity? Check. Assuming it was a Xeno species still existant in the galaxy in M41, nothing else comes close.

[@TheSkeletonVA]

Would not at all be surprised if it was trayzen showing up at the last possible moment he could to grab some of their artifacts before the Imperium would destroy them all forever.

[@r.cdahuman7682]

Another comment brought them up, but could they be Yu'vath? Its been a while since I looked them up, I think arch did a video on them back when I still watched him, but what rules them out? They were basically "warp smith, the species" and a lot of what is described in their attack could be associated with the warp pretty easily. The only thing I don't see being answered by them being y Yu'vath is them disappearing after the warp gates were destroyed, but like you said in the beginning, its also thought that the xenos fleet might have been destroyed by the "death flame of the gates" (which is a great way to say "the big a** explosion" BTW. As I writer I appreciate that greatly). I don't entirely remember how the Yu'vath vessels looked, but I remember that it was something nuts. And if I'm not mistaken, they weren't official wiped out until a crusade conducted after the Heresy.

[@patricksmith7626]

YES! Necromunda is CLEARLY a vitally important Necron world, special in some way that prevents them from just showing up and taking over. Even with all the death and skull motifs associated with the world, GW is developing some plot in the long game.

[@pyrokitsune777]

Remleiz always droping the lore mike like a boss.

[@gryphonofmight]

Last time I was this early Magnus really hadn't done anything wrong

[@neosavior9305]

Still hasn't

[@r.cdahuman7682]

@@neosavior9305 he didn't do anything wrong... *Until he did*

[@asaenvolk]

@@neosavior9305 "This is true" Rogal Dorn

[@KadRSP]

@@r.cdahuman7682 Which was never.

[@r.cdahuman7682]

@@KadRSP disagree. He isn't blameless. spoilers for the newest magnus book He straight up killed malcador after a conversation on Terra (to be fair he was angry that the last piece of his soul wasn't on Terra anymore, but he still killed him). He tried to kill the emperor, which is understandable, and him becoming a deamon prince isn't really his fault, (he reached out for tzeetch as he was literally about to die for Gog's sake) but he's not blameless in the least.

[@mikewaterfield3599]

Necrons. They woke up and found children playing with their toys. Couldn’t let that stand. Besides there the only ones who regularly snuff out stars.

[@trentkelly2303]

Given the fact that the stars were destroyed/sapped of power it strongly implies necrons to me everything but the mothership description fit and even then they could have just meant the size of the ship not its overall configuration or it could have been a unique ship like the planet sized ship necrons had, and the necrons could have bailed once the gates were destroyed, angered that their technology was being used in the first place, and with them being destroyed their mission complete so opted to phase out.

[@protoclone138]

1am and trying to avoid sleep.

[@Matt-md5yt]

Crazy stuff you covered today man. Thanks for teaching me something new

[@kurthasedd7923]

I think 40k is a big universe and not every unknown xenos faction of 40k's legend is one they have a model for. The galaxies a big space and even the "lesser" xenos species that come up a lot don't have any substantial models such as the Hrud. It's a big place that inspires big stories and inspires hardcore fans to come up with their own factions and to me this is one of those factions where if I want to do an Imperial Fists campaign of the Great Crusade in the Araneus system, I can go to someone that makes minis of unique, alien design or some fancy humans that use laser guns and create my own scenarios

[@alexdavidson239]

I think it's Men of Iron. The warpgates were ancient human tech attached to a hidden world of theirs, and the Imperium provoked them into action. They also ate stars, burning them up rapidly into Iron to make more Men of Iron.

[@Ridgelinehunter007]

Great content is always in the icing on the cake was to see the video title, listen to the video, and then at the end find out this was necromunda that's how you do lore keep them coming the emperor approves

[@The_Unamed_Commissar5721]

Could the zenos be a separate breed of tyrannids cause it sounds like it could be possible

[@chilliewhk]

It's never officialy Monday until we get a 40k Theories video.

[@calebolds9609]

It *is* also completely possible that it was some kind of Chaos fleet who were misidentified as Xenos. It could be some Chaos God shenanigans. Necromunda would have been *relatively* early on in the Great Crusade and the Space Marines did not know about Chaos. It could have been a minor warband and the people reporting back to the Emperor would have had no idea and just vaguely told their superiors "yeah there were some weird Xenos but they got blown up by the warp gate"

[@DwAboutItManFr]

I am sure these aliens were the ones who built the warp gates.

[@grandmoffrevan4933]

Maybe eldar since it syas the stars were blown up but not went super nova, maybe dome tipe of raid that didnt work and decided to retreat

[@absalomdraconis]

Not impossible, but the scale would be very odd.

[@Anadarksoul1701]

what happened to the Araneus Continuity? It likely got killed by plot holes that ended up killing the Continuity.

[@bentuovila5296]

Oof

[@Kid_illithid]

What is the music in the background of the video? It’s cool af

[@Blastercadre]

What about the Drukhari? What rules them out?

[@40KTheories]

The Imperium were already well aware of the Drukhari (and the Aeldari in general) at this particular point in time. Plus Drukhari will typically conduct raids to capture slaves as opposed to performing interplanetary genocide.

[@____________838]

They don’t blow up stars?

[@Blastercadre]

@@____________838 They didn't say blown up. The Stars flared and then petered out. While that sounds more like C'Tan, the Drukhari do have captured stars inside Commorragh, so siphoning a star to it's death doesn't seem unfeasible.

[@Blastercadre]

@@40KTheories The Imperium's familiarity with the Drukhari is a really good point, to which I have no counter. But the genocide could have been a scorched earth tactic, or a acceptable byproduct of whatever process was used on the stars. Theoretically, the Imperium's records of this time and place could be full of massive holes, but I still think you are more likely to be correct.

[@iloveblood51789]

That sounds like it could be the Yu’Vath

[@iloveblood51789]

There tech is warp based there ships match

[@Holammer]

Great topic with Necromunda: Hired Gun just three weeks away.

[@TheOtakuKat]

How about warped corrupted Man of Iron?

[@theblindbuildergrandminuti5648]

The more I think about it, the more I feel the fists actually obliterated most of the place cause the continuity started using super weapons, and they just said (or Malcador’s propagandists said) the warp gate did it. It would be very consistent.

[@cawlsthirdfoot1982]

Lovely video thank you Rem

[@EyeKracker83]

I am fortifying this comment section against the AI overlord of KZbin. Praise be to Rogal Dorn! Calling it now, it's either necrons or demons, and I'm leaning on necrons

[@____________838]

But Necrons don’t use warp gates...

[@TippyCraft]

Always great when a new theory vid drops.

[@Richard-cx9bb]

Could have been the Silent King, who according to him, was active prior to the heresy and supposedly interacted with Sanguinus.

[@PCveteran117]

Yu' Vath

[@kennethbedwell5188]

We know little to nothing of the Rangdan.

[@zweihander7825]

It seems this may have been a Hrud attack; as detailed in hammer of olympia, they can cause (given sufficient numbers) ludicrous amounts of destruction in very short periods via their time-warping abilities-- in Hammer of Olympia Perturabo observes their effect on a sun; it goes from a small, "regular" one to a red giant in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, a Hrud attack leaves buildings in ruin, as even stone decays with the forced passing of years. Another similarity is the Hrud's inscrutable method of travel; though they have ships, they just appear and disappear without warning; much like those that decimated the Continuity. My synopsis does little to meet their description in Necromunda, however, though "flame-wreathed chrome" could be referring to the silvery time-distortion that enwraps each member of the species.

[@kristopherb]

Me: I gotta go to sleep. Got work in the morning. *Sees video* Me: I got 16 more minutes.

[@djsharky3822]

I'm here before Angron got those nails stuck in his head

[@seanread5556]

geedubz has been obsessed with shoehorning the necrons into all their old lore recently (Retcrons indeed) but i really doubt it was them. the chrome part is the only thing that really implies them. the gates are explicitly called WARP gates, and in the 40K setting that term always refers to the space-hell variety of 'warp'. As much lore and abilities as newcrons like to steal from other factions, they still cant really utilise the warp, for now at least. the imperium of the 30k time also didnt widely know about deamons, even the marines and other higher ups. it was pretty much just emps who knew of them so its extremely likely anyone seeing them would simply classify them as xenos. im pretty sure that exact thing happened in one of the earliest horus heresy novels, in fact!

[@levrapport2033]

Any thoughts on them being Drukari?

[@Aristaios]

unlikely dont think they were that active during the great crusade never heard of them wielding lightning or flames and ive not heard of them possessing weapons that could destroy stars

[@fadelsukoco3092]

@@Aristaios Indeed, if anything, the Dark Eldar would simply seal the stars in dimensional cages and transport them to Commorragh, which they have done before.

[@Aristaios]

@@fadelsukoco3092 wow really? i didnt know about that

[@jondw]

while the vanish as the gate is destroyed doesn't line up i'll admit, but what about eldar?

[@markrtoffeeman]

My guess is the Xenos were either Aeldarie or Necron. Given the attacks on the stars reported. Given that the planet was called "Necromunda" my guess is Necron. The claim the Xeno came through the warp gates may be a misdirection. More that this was the actual target of the Xeno. To prevent their use by the Imperium.

[@StarboyXL9]

Excellent! I was just worried I might have to actually have to sleep!

[@ACCostanzi]

I'd only add Necrons had been known to simply quit a field of battle, let alone vanish from a part of the universe, the moment their objective is accomplished, or even becomes impossible to achieve. Even the most arrogant of their rulers, especially the most capable and dangerous ones, won't even bother at that point. To them, it doesn't even phase their pride, let alone I'd wouldn't be surprised a Necron Force simply phased in the middle of a battle because their Overlord simply got bored. This hasn't ever been proven, however. Even then, this kind of behavior was typical to anyone who played the Dawn of War: Winter Assault PC game about a dozen years ago.

[@csgilmore3536]

I would posit that perhaps it was Drukari. Large and small ships, dark appearance, some pretty messed up tech. Seems like the sort of thing they would do for kicks and giggles.

[@kingbaldwiniv5409]

What about the Maggot Men from the Alpharious primarch novel?

[@peterwall8191]

Oh loremaster! What makes you think we know or even know off all the types of warp entities? But what of entities beyond the warp? The chaos four domains ,are hardly the whole of the sea of souls. What if .. the araneus incident was a preemptive strike by forces inimical to those of the warp? The araneus continuity used the gates as a navigational shortcut, if they had no psyckers , or at least none powerful enough to attract attention.. Then the Imperium comes along. An Imperium headed by the most powerful psycker ever, routinely utilising psycker talents for communication and navigation. Maybe the araneum continuity used mechanical means IDK, whatever the case they did not attract chaos interest. The Imperium though...was under chaos scrutiny for the beginning. I hypothesize that not all thunder warrior deterioration was purely physical, but, i digress. The Imperium is now in possession of the warp gates. What if that was seen as a threat by some unknown and heretofore hidden agency? What if the purpose was to drive the imperium out of the sector, or destroy enough imperial forces and interests, to make them abandon the whole thing? The vanishing at the destruction of the gates without traces left..argues some kind of psychic entity, yes, warp based.. not enough evidence. Flimsy and full of suppositions ,but there are not enough hard fats to go on with anything else. vague descriptions are just not enough.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

It was Trazon, he needed some lightbulbs for his museum

[@Terribads]

Rangdan? Extict now, but they were fought elsewhere during that time, so they would be better recognized, right? They did use warp tech though too.

[@tba113]

The timing of the nonhuman invasion is way too close to be a coincidence. A few weeks, possibly as little as a few hours after Araneus surrendered, and then swarms of unknown hostiles start boiling into the conquered territories out of nowhere, attacking the stargates? Those events have to be linked somehow. Honestly, that sounds to me like an Eldar op, since they pay attention to human politics, prefer high-speed surprise raids to capture or destroy specific objectives over wider invasions of conquest, and would typically not want an expanding power like the Imperium to get its hands on something like the Araneus stargate network. And, once the last stargate had been vaporized, they would have no reason to stick around, so vanishing at that point is the kind of thing they'd do. ...Though the Imperium had fought them before, their ships aren't bloated or wreathed in flame, and it seems really unlikely that a task force led by Astartes would have had any trouble identifying them, so it doesn't entirely add up. My theory (and that of a couple others): the Yu'Vath. They're creepily weird, even by 40K standards, and have a bizarre approach to warpcraft to the point that it's completely alien to pretty much every other race. On top of that, the Imperium has only fought their actual personal military forces a couple times in its entire history. More often, they send mind-controlled slaves rather than their own people. Introducing psykers to the Araneus Continuity, especially if the Continuity's stargates were Yu'Vath artifacts, might well have attracted their attention - and just like the Eldar scenario, once the gates were gone, the Yu'Vath might have decided their job was done and buggered off. Their artifacts are usually described more in terms of having lightning effects than flame, though, so this is mostly based on the sentiment of "who the hell knows what to expect when it comes to the Yu'Vath". An Ork Waagh! would certainly bring bloated-looking ships and could easily sweep through defenses weakened by an Astartes invasion - but like the Eldar, the Imperium would definitely have known what they were fighting, and swooping in to destroy stars isn't really their thing. Orks show up for the fight itself, not for assassination runs. A _Krork_ fleet might have done that kind of thing, and their ships would probably have the heavy look of Ork ships (if more streamlined and less ramshackle) - but that's pure wild-ass guessing, since no Krorks have been confirmed to be roaming the galaxy since about the time the dinosaurs went extinct. Even Trazyn was only able to add a single Krork to his collection, and it's in stasis. So, possible, but really unlikely. An Enslaver invasion is an intriguing possibility, especially since they might well be attracted by desperate psykers screaming about being shot at by Continuity forces. The Enslavers could also have brought along a bizarre collection of ships mind-controlled from who knows how many different races, which could easily confuse the Imperial task force's sensors. However, the fact that the Imperial task force's psykers and Navigators didn't start wigging out when the unknown invaders arrived suggests they didn't have any Enslavers along with them. That rules out the Enslavers for me, since harvesting Psykers and Warp-stuff would be the Enslavers' whole reason for invading in the first place; sending conventional forces to break everything by destroying stars would be self-defeating. It also would mean reevaluating how the Enslavers work, since previous accounts suggest they're closer to dangerous predators rather than conquerors in the usual sense. Grand interplanetary strategy isn't really their thing; they usually just go after targets of convenience. So, barring some completely unknown race that showed up for one fight and one fight only (can't rule that out in 40K)... Yeah, I'm going to go with the Yu'Vath. That would also explain the scouring of the planet, and the dead Hive City on Necromunda where no one goes because it's just too lethally weird, even for all the craziness that world usually has going on.

[@mrnathanielshaw]

I’ve not collected or played with 40k figures since I was 14. I’m now 28 watching lore videos on KZbin about it...

[@tomahtopotahto8084]

Soooooo mass relays and reapers confirmed in 40k in a small manner, Shepard failed, necromunda shithole also confirmed. By the gods I love this universe.

[@NetMoverSitan]

0:47 - Either of Aeldari or Old Ones in origin. | 2:46 - The ones with sticks up their a***s. | 6:00 - Ah yes, THAT one...The Planet of the Dead...if that occurred 10000 years later, they would've have been subject to exterminatus. | 8:46 - As in one that has competition with the Blood Ravens later on? | 9:14 - (monotone) All hail the Ultrasmurfs. | 12:30 - Something worse to deal with than the Imperium...much worse.

[@ChaseDaOrk3767]

This is probably going to sound pretty dumb, but what if the Emperor cause the cybernetic or at the very least, had a hand in it?

[@sohrabroozbahani4700]

What about yuvath?

[@majordakka5743]

Just in time for Necromunda: Hired Gun

[@hammond1994]

Imperium: Look a technologically advanced Human civilization, with tech which is different from our own. Also the Imperium: Imagine what we could learn from them. Imperium: ATTACK! BURN IT ALL!

[@mattgrandich3977]

Another mysterious xenos race seemingly lost to the annals of time.

[@thehandofgod2864]

What if it was time lost genestealers, extremely unlikely, but for some reason it just clicked in my mind. Maybe the mention of behemoth triggered something in my brain?

[@spacemarine00]

There are many incidents from that time period in which records of been lost due to the march of time in the imperium of man. We will probably never know and it is good that we don’t; the myth is what’s interesting not necessary the actual events

[@markrtoffeeman]

I do not feel this was the Rangdan. Since they were located in the galactic north at this time. The fact that the identity of this Xeno enemy is neither known nor easily identifiable. Is deeply troubling. Should be subject to Inquisition investigation as a priority.

[@Typhusmiller82]

Which convent of sisters was destroyed at Sanctuary 101?

[@orben-amos6172]

thanks to you i now know the origin necromunda.

[@PKSkeith]

Where's is a good place to get those hours heresy books? Like that extermination one you reference. Whenever I find them they are super expensive.

[@asafusubov696]

could those be yu'vath?

[@poodlescone9700]

It is only Trazyn collecting collectibles. Don't mind the murder.

[@hexwrench4433]

The Erroneous Continuity... common on GW!

[@DwAboutItManFr]

What were these zenos forces?

[@The-Random-Hamlet]

Folks going about doing their thing. Everything is fine. Then the Imperium shows up and everything gets ruined. I'm starting to sense a pattern here.

[@luckystranger4312]

Are we sure that druhkari are not an option?

[@peterhares5312]

What about dark elders?

[@doominator4072]

It would be cool if the were mostly wiped out like the necromunda system was but like one planet of the aliens survived just like necromunda did.

[@MeGBillG]

No Love For YuVath

[@zuluactual839]

Very early, hi Ramleiz :D

[@Sp33ddialz]

Techno-Lords/Techno-Barbarians. Is everyone of these despots just conquering worlds while listening to Sandstorm? :p

[@lewisirwin5363]

3:09 Comprised of HOW MANY Astartes?!

[@karollysiak1]

Only twenty thousand Remember that the legions had about 100,000 Astartes English is not my main language and writing is difficult

[@____________838]

@@karollysiak1 You did great.

[@lewisirwin5363]

@@karollysiak1 Yeah, but this is post-Codex; like even Armageddon didn't pull in this many, I'm sure. Your English is all good, btw!

[@raleighjune8952]

Notification gang

[@aelminiatures]

interesting video, I'm assuming this isn't covered in a novel and just a couple of paragraphs in a HH 'codex'. give my best to the cat.

[@ISayEssays]

Could be dark eldar and webway gates.

[@40KTheories]

Doesn't really fit with their M.O, tbh. The Drukhari generally prefer guerrilla raids so they can capture slaves, as opposed to comminitting acts of planetary extermination.

[@ISayEssays]

True, but that is the modern Dark Eldar. So soon after the collapse of the empire and swelling with refugees I could see them pulling entire planets into the webway as raw material to expand Commorragh (Pre collapse the Aeldari pulled in stars). Necromunda could be a pyrrhic victory for the imperials, stopping the dislocation of the planet and torching it in the process.

[@40KTheories]

Perhaps, but it would still seem weird for nobody within the Imperial forces to recognise them as Aeldari/Drukhari, seeing as the race was well known to humanity by that point.

[@kebarius6760]

Dark Eldar don’t get a look in?

[@40KTheories]

Considering that: A) The Imperium were well aware of the Drukhari (and Aeldari in general) at this point in time, so they wouldn't have been an "unknown" race to the Imperium. and B) Interplanetary genocide doesn't fit the Drukhari's M.O (as they prefer to raid and take slaves back to Commoragh as opposed to destroying multiple planetary systems) It's most likely not Drukhari.

[@TK199999]

With anything Warp-spaghetti like, it could well be the aliens where from another universe, timeline or even era. Meaning with all the time travel nonsense Warp based objects can do. Its just as possible if the invasion was of a Xeno race long extinct before the Great Crusade or one from far, far into the future. With an unnatural, but probably justified hatred of humanity. The reason the Xeno's disappeared is probably the same reason Daemons need access to the Warp. What ever effect or power of the Warp allowed the Xeno's to arrive during the Great Crusade. Required the gates to keep them tethered to that era. Once the gates were lost, the tether snapped and returned back to their own time/space/reality.

[@demilung]

They were protoss. The huge ships surrounded by swarms of smaller ones were carriers, and witnesses probably thought that plasma shields were fire surrounding tye "chrome" of protoss armour. Lighting and fire was probably made by high templars and archons When the wapr conduits were nuked, the remaining forces got recalled to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit.

[@spartana1116]

yeah I feel like the more likely culprit are dark eldar and the warp gate is actually a webway gate as there few of the only other race in the galaxy who can navigate and use them

[@____________838]

Rak’gol, perhaps?

[@kephrekhtheunbroken7510]

How about eldar? well, Dark eldar, given descriptions

[@40KTheories]

The Imperium were already well aware of Aeldari/Drukhari by this point in time, so wouldn't be an "unknown" race. Plus the attack doesn't match that of a typical Drukarhi M.O, as Drukhari will typically raid and take slaves as opposed to committing mass genocide in rapid succession.

[@kephrekhtheunbroken7510]

@@40KTheories Good point, I hadn't thought of searching up when the Eldar were first encountered in relation to this incident. Also thanks for replying to my comment!

[@mouseketeery]

Daemons and Enslavers build ships?

[@bumbyonline]

the daemon Yssarile had a ship - i rmr it being a plot point in the third Eisenhorn book

[@KingFlameHawk]

Another group that could fit, though not 100%, is the Dark Eldar.

[@lancechrist8660]

Could the invaders from the gate have been DARK ELDAR?

[@40KTheories]

Unlikely, since the Imperium were already aware of the Drukhari/Aeldari, and a scorched earth policy/interplanetary genocide doesn't fit the Drukhari's MO (since they'd rather take slaves, let the population replenish itself then raid again a few years later)