The DARK Reality Of Dreadnoughts | Warhammer 40k Lore

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This is a 2 part video, first a deep dive of dreadnoughts, followed by a short story about dreadnoughts that left me absolutely shook... Dreadnoughts are possibly the most iconic unit in all of warhammer 40k, even more so than space marines. they are literal walking tanks that are a hybrid of death engine and life support system. used by the forces of the imperium and the chaos legions, they are like an iron lung with machine gun hands. lets take a deep drive into what a dreadnought is, what life is like for their pilots and most importantly the saddest piece of 40k lore I have ever read, about what its like for a dreadnought to pass away...

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Time Stamps
0:00 Intro
1:15 What are dreadnoughts?
11:35 castraferrum dreadnought
13:10 assault dreadnought
14:03 Hellfire dreadnought
14:48 siege dreadnought
15:21 ironclad dreadnought
15:57 Venerable dreadnought
17:27 Contemptor dreadnought
19:35 Redemptor Dreadnought
22:40 Leviathan dreadnought
24:22 Telemon Dreadnought
25:54 The saddest 40k story of all time...

Music Used.
Ghost Stories Encorperated. Owned and performed by Marc van der Meulen

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[TheWaluigiman]

There are rare cases of Dreadnaughts having memory loss or just being confused. Sometimes there are even cases when a Dreadnaught will wake up on his own and go stomping about as if he's a regular marine. In this case, his brothers have to bring him back, like guiding an old man with Alzheimer's syndrome.
"Yes Brother Deras, Captain Rass is this way, we'll meet him in just a moment."

[thebighurt]

I have a feeling treatment of Dreads depends on the chapter.
Tancred, for example is a treasured Ancient, but he's kept suspended between battles.
Bjorn, on the other hand, is woken up regularly and used by the Space Wolves as an advisor and living memorial. They're like a bunch of kids asking Grandpa Bjorn what the War was like.

[helixmusic]

Honestly, the dreadnought pov story really broke me... you don't usually get this sense of humanity from a lot of the Imperium and it's a welcome change.

[NutjobGTO]

It's kind of fascinating how practically every variant of Dreadnaught is simultaneously one of the rarest types of Dreadnaught

[juggernaut]

In the Angels of death when the dreadnought is dying and talking about how he wished he could have seen the sky of Bale one last time and how he never thought he would feel cold air on his skin again almost had me crying

[zerotankor]

So I’m not gonna lie, I had a few too many drinks and clicked this video by accident and now I’m addicted to 40K lore.
It is absolutely fascinating and you explain it so well.
Please do more.

[shaggyzor]

Björn the fellhanded wasnt given the choice, his brothers were so desperate to preserve him no matter the cost that they decided to do so on his behalf. In the audio short story about it you can feel his pain as he awakes and realizes what he has become.

[wolfyboy]

Omg, imagine waking up, wondering why you are is such great pains, then the memories come flooding back, mixed with the dreadnought startup sequence. You don't recognise anybody around you, you ask where brother Karl is, as he was present during all your other awakenings, and are told that he died in glorious battle over 100 years ago. What about brother alder? He died 87 years ago. Brother Aldus? 63 years ago. Brother apothecary aldorph? Died 24 years ago attempting to retrieve a fallen brother's gene seed. Surely the chapter master is still alive? He died 4 days ago, in the battle you are being awoken to fight in. "... I see."

[_vez]

This is one of the reasons why 40k is so good. It might be a bunch of buffed up space dudes shooting giant guns on the surface, but it's so diverse and it has alot of depth.
This is some good writing on the Black Templar Dreadnaught.
Damn it weshammer, this was one hell of an ending.

[simonrogersons]

This story gets me every time man....
It when he realised how little of his body is left as the fluid slowly drains.
Love these little books and novels, they bring real life to the universe.
Reminds me of another story if anyone remembers the name please let me know, a dreadnought keeps waking up and roaming the chapel fortress to do his daily duties, several times he's tried to go on patrol or to meet with his long dead Sargent to report in for duty and each time the apothecary and his aids have to walk him back to his pad and reassure him the Sargent will be along soon.
It's like telling your granddad that yes you brother will be here soon when you know he died 10 years ago. Hits me every time.

[taiyoqun]

Imagine a salamander dreadnought, away from the battlefield, living a normal life among his brothers, eagerly awaiting the return to the battlefield, washing the dishes with an enormous apron after a meal he lovingly prepared for his brothers, while a mechanicus adeptus prays to the giant cable recharging his bateries and an apothecary pours a barrel of nutritional liquids into his deposit. All of this while his mother knitts him a long scarf with his favourite prayers embroidered, sitting in a chair next to him

Edit: Y'all are liars. You claim to love grimdark, and to love all that edgy crop. But some idiut shows up with a mildly wholesome badly-written comment and y'all loose your shut and give me more than a thousand likes. Let's go back to watching disney shows bois, you know you want to. No spoilers for the owl house, I'm still watching it. Sorry, I mean LET'S END XENOS AND EAT CORPSESTARCH BROTHERS! MEN DONT CRY! LET'S SACRIFICE OURSELVES FOR THE EMPEROR!

[GlriusMdget]

Can you imagine finding him on the brink of death hearing him talking to himself saying “I’m not scared father I’m a warrior”

[greatbritishsquid]

If there is one thing I can greatly appreciate so much with glorious tomb is how human and touching those final moments are... no grand death or zealotry over ruling his reason in his final moments... just all crumbles away as he slowly reclaims himself in his dying breathes, regrets and achievements both... he no longer knows whats next, and he no longer fears it. He accepts that human truth. Thanks for covering that, I always love it when space marines just get to be human beings again... and not just glorious tools.

[Slop_Dogg]

Dreadnought: “Oh wait this sucks actually”

Necron: “Yeah, no shit.”

[Adamant]

Speaking as a father, I'm sure the Emperor would forgive any marine who wishes, even just once, to have spent more time with their father. The Emperor is a father too.

[Stywel]

Interesting detail I found:
When Adelard/Invictus wakes up for the second time to enter his drop pod, he starts identifying more and more with the machine, saying "I enter my drop pod". After the drop in the anticipation of battle, Adelard even asks himself, whether he is Invictus and admits to not knowing. The lines disconnecting the man from the machine fade more and more during battle until being violently introduced back with Invictus' near destruction and Adelard's death. I take this as a testament to how bred and conditioned for battle the Space Marines are, to the point of Adelard periodically forgetting about his entombment, doing his duty as an avatar of war. All that is in crass contrast to Adelard's dying memory of his childhood and imagination of a peaceful life, which he deems traitorous in the end, finally proving his complete indoctrination. Beautiful effing story, well written and Gareth Armstrong's reading performance is beyond stellar.
A Dreadnought's POV was something I was madly curious about ever since reading somebody's homebrew of one called Vercingetorix on a certain imageboard.
Thanks for the vid man, otherwise this might have gone below my radar.

[Gwydion_Wolf]

The Iron Warriors novel thats linked to the Ultra-Marines books (if im remember correctly), talks about how one of the Iron Warriors (chaos) leaders stopped a plan from a underling to usurp him, and as 'punishment' forced that underling to undergo the process that placed him into a Dreadnaught. It was seen as a punishment because they nolonger 'feel' anything. They nolonger feel there enemies crushed under their gauntlet, or hear the roars of War. All of their 'input' comes purely from sensors and targeting readouts now. So they are eternally 'disconnected' from the vary war they .. well for all intent and purpose... 'love'.

[Alex-qryh]

The impression I always had from the Over-the-top, super brutal art style of the 40k universe wasn't that it was juvenile, or cheesy, but more of a way of examining what makes a warrior a warrior. Always showing how the bad guys can be worse than the good guys, but the good guys can still be bad. How much pain and self sacrifice these marines go through for their abilities, the dreadnoughts the embodiment of this. Simultaneously they are the embodiment of the emperor's cruelty.

[EVER_PRINCE]

Fun fact: Dreadnoughts are actually what made me fall in love with 40k. Dreadnoughts are just so wild that I think they’re fun. Also one more thing. Something really really important.

**I AM RYLANOR AND I AM THE ANCIENT OF RITES**

[Tsurf]

It honestly says so, so, so much about just how insanely stressful the life of a Grey Knight is that as a Chapter, they very much are not about being brought back as a Dreadnaught. You'd think that they would be willing to be interred to continue their War against Chaos and the specific Demon they are Anathema to, but nope, they see their eventual death as a reward for their long service to the Imperium and the Emperor.