There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and
the laughter of thirsting gods.
Across the Imperium of Man, the resources of a million worlds have been mobilized so
that what remains of human civilization might resist the ever present threats of aliens,
heretics, mutants, and worse.
From the medieval backwaters of feudal kingdoms to the vast manufactorums of the greatest
Hive Cities, every manner of weapon is assembled, issued, and then turned against the enemies
of mankind.
No instrument of death is too small, nor too great, to not be considered for use.
The inexhaustible armies of the Imperium have seen tens of millions charging the foe armed
with nothing but spears or bayonets.
They have seen the flashes of lasguns and bolters within the struggle of urban conflict.
The clash of mechanised armour across vast toxic wastelands, duels of artillery that
reduce mountains to rubble beneath the weight of their shells, and great broadsides cast
between naval vessels that turn hundreds of kilometers of open space into roiling cauldrons
of death.
When war is fought on such a scale the individuals who wield such weapons, their dreams, hopes
and fears become inconsequential.
To focus on such trivial concerns would be irresponsible, a dereliction of duty.
The scale of war eclipses all.
Yet there are still greater moments when the very battlefield itself seems to fade into
insignificance.
These are the times when the Imperium deploys its greatest weapons, and the God-machines
walk the earth.
They stride across the battlefield like the titans of myth for which they were named,
great bipedal engines of war that rob the conflict of any nuance.
They are the God-engines of the Collegia Titanica.
And while many classes of battle-titans occupy their hallowed ranks, from the humble Warhound
to the towering Imperator, the foundation of titanic warfare belongs to one alone, the
Warlord Class.
The Warlord-class Titan was designed to fit into the upper-echelon of the Titantica’s
arsenal, trading speed and agility for protection and firepower.
Yet, as with all machines of such sophistication present within the Imperium of Man, the secrets
of their design have been fragmented and lost.
A great breadth of deviation now exists across the class, split between various patterns
and sub-variants.
Additionally, divergences between Forge Worlds ensure that even so-called “standardized”
Warlords can range wildly in size, armament and complement.
The average Warlord produced to Mars-Pattern Alpha or Lucius-pattern Beta specifications,
stands approximately 33 meters tall and weighs several thousand tons.
This is a significant increase over the Reaver class medium battle titan, yet still notably
smaller than the heavy Warmaster class.
Depending on additional factors, many Warlords might be larger or smaller, and while certain
reports list some variants as reaching a staggering 200 meters tall, the truth of these claims
is tenuous at best and likely the result of misidentification.
Standardized Warlords boast four Titan-class weapon hardpoints as their primary armament.
Its two arms offer a range of configurations, from the anti-titan Volcano cannon and Plasma
Annihilator, to the Mori Quake-Cannon capable of inducing localised tectonic shifts and
toppling enemy fortifications.
It’s shoulder-mounted hardpoints present further options for tactical flexibility,
further supplementing its offensive firepower, countering airborne threats or offering auxiliary
support.
Numerous smaller emplacements are present across its structure, intended to engage smaller
targets at close range.
Though impressive for its size, the Warlord’s maneuverability is far less than that of smaller
titans like the Warhound.
As a consequence, it is designed to weather attacks rather than avoid them.
The defensive capacity of a Warlord consists of heavily layered void-shields covering extensive
armour plating.
Much of this is centered around the Titan’s legs preventing infantry from assailing it
with explosive charges.
In most cases, the Warlord is impervious to all but the most powerful of superheavy weapon
emplacements.
Control over the Warlord comes from a heavily armoured cockpit situated within its immense
armoured head.
A senior officer, known within the Collegia Titanica as a Princep, directly commands the
God-machine upon a neural-interface command throne.
From here, they preside over a supporting crew.
The composition of this crew will differ depending on the model of Warlord.
Some will contain a single pair of junior officers known as Moderatii to serve as gunners,
whilst others will consist of multiple specialists acting as weapons officers, steersmen and
sensor personnel.
Almost all Warlords will carry a pair of Techpriests to effect field repairs, keep watch over the
immense Thermo-Plasma reactor that is at the Titan’s heart, and help to placate its volatile
machine-spirit when necessary.
Of the many subclasses and variants that exist with the Warlord family of titans, the greatest
differences are usually found in their primary armament.
The Nightguant subclass in particular replaces the Warlords long range weaponry with melee
oriented power claws or chain fists, engaging enemy titans in ferocious close quarter combat.
The Nemesis sub-class strikes a different approach, limiting the Warlord’s already
meager maneuverability in favor of further armor and long range firepower.
The most mysterious and rare sub-class however, is the Warlord-Sinister.
Operated solely by the Titanicus Terranic within the larger Collegia, the Sinister has
been almost completely overhauled to directly combat demons and the powers of the ruinous
gods.
In battle it unleashes enormously powerful psychic energies, harnessed through a strange
hybrid of forgotten technologies.
How such machines like the Warlord Titan came to walk the battlefield has long since been
lost.
All that can be said with some degree of certainty is that they were created at some point during
the Dark Age of Technology.
The spark of growth and unity that was the Great Crusade saw much knowledge of the ancient
titans recovered.
For a brief moment, Mars and her sub-empire of Forge Worlds were able to reinforce their
Titan Legions before that progress was again swallowed in the fires of the Horus Heresy.
In the millennia since, the Warlord is one of the few Titans whose specifications have
been maintained across the Forge Worlds, a few even possess the secrets of creating more.
Thanks to this hoarded knowledge, Warlords are currently the most prolific model of titan
within the ranks of the Collegia Titanica and the Imperium of Man.
However, it is not just the armies of the Emperor that play host to these God-machines.
The Black Crusades of the Archenemy can often be found with Warlord Titans at their heart.
Ancient and irreplaceable, these are the last survivors of those Titan Legions that turned
on the Emperor during the Horus Heresy, or else have been stolen from Forge Worlds or
scavenged from battlefields in the intervening millennia.
Exposed to the malign powers of the warp, many are twisted shadows of their Imperial
counterparts.
When dedicated to one of the Chaos Gods, traitor warhounds are often renamed Banelords, Plaugelords,
Painlords of Warplords.
Although their weapons may differ, imbued with ruinous energy, the most distinctive
changes are their horribly mutated hulls.
Some traitor titans will bear warped sections of plating reminiscent of grotesquely bulbous
flesh or immense protrusions of bone.
Though it is likely that their interiors are as twisted as their exteriors, little is known
precisely of what the touch of Chaos does to the inner workings of a Warlord, let alone
its once-living crew.
Today, loyalist Imperial Warlords and their counterparts in service to the ruinous powers,
serve first and foremost as a superheavy weapons platform.
They are focused on sheer offensive output above all else.
Though tactically flexible depending on their loadout, Warlords are in their element when
used to directly counter a single target.
Whether these are immense void-shielded fortifications or other Titans makes little difference, as
there are few things that can survive the undivided fury of a Warlord.
Matching the greatest forces of the enemy in sheer firepower, they nevertheless suffer
fundamental restrictions when engaging targets below a certain elevation.
As such Warlords require support from other units to ensure their protection from threats
at close range.
Though the Warlord’s offensive capability allows it to be an anchor point for titanic
formations, it would be ill-conceived to deploy a Warlord without an escort of Warhounds,
Reavers, smaller Knight-Titans or even conventional armour and infantry.
Commanders will therefore often use several Warlords to form the core of a mixed unit,
using smaller Titans and Skitarii Maniples to act as screening forces.
This allows the Warlords to freely engage their primary targets without fear of close
assault.
The Warlords are the workhorses of the Imperium's Titan Legions.
Their presence on the battlefield provides the same impact of all Titans: elevating the
tactical theatre to a different stage entirely, with the scale of offensive power and the
dynamics of cover fundamentally shifted.
The mere presence of a Warlord spells a complete change in the nature of a conflict.
A simple soldier cannot comprehend the scale of violence a Warlord operates at.
As the Collegia Titanica itself eagerly proclaims, the title God-machine is an apt one.
Yet, despite the Warlord’s imposing presence and awe-inspiring power, only a fool would
take them to be invincible.
Whilst their presence has secured victories against seemingly impossible odds, just as
many Warlords have been lost to the folly of overzealous commanders.
The galaxy’s long history has proven many times that, if faced with a great enough foe,
even a God may fall.