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Power Armour

Revision as of 22:45, 22 March 2025 by Shazrael (talk | contribs) (→‎Skin-Tight Power Armour)
Energy Fields: Conversion field - Refractor field - Displacer field - Stasis field Armour: Flak - Carapace - Powered - Artificer - Terminator
A Firstborn Space Marine wearing Power Armour

Power Armour is worn primarily by the Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, Adeptus Custodes and the Chaos Space Marines. It is a completely enclosed suit of armour, made of thick ceramite plates. The armour would be heavy and cumbersome to wear but for the electrically motivated fibre bundles within the armour that replicate the wearer's movement and enhance his/her strength.[1]

Space Marine Power Armour

Space Marine Power Armour is an extraordinarily sophisticated defensive system which combines huge resistance to physical damage with a sensory array and sealed environment which protects its wearer from the ravages of the void and alien atmospheres. Integrated with the armour are networks of electro-motivated fibre bundles which mimic and augment the muscular strength of the wearer. The true genius of the design, however, lies in its close integration with the already superhuman physiology, senses and reflexes of the Space Marine within. Working in concert, armour and Astartes together become a weapon without equal.[3]

Chaos Space Marines

 
a Chaos Space Marine

At the time of the Heresy, Crusade-pattern armour was in the process of disappearing from the Legions and being replaced by improved iterations of Space Marine power armour. Even so, both sides were forced to reinstate older marks of armour to replace their losses, as well as scavenging from their fallen comrades.[16]

The armour of the Traitor Legions reflects these turbulent times, often featuring distinctive studded and riveted plasteel plates rather than the smooth ceramite of later designs.[16]

Exposed power cables blend with sinew and vein and many Chaos Space Marines individualise their armour with crests, horns, skulls chains and spikes. A Chaos Space Marine’s armour will have been changed by long exposure to the warp. It might sprout spines or bony ridges, be covered in a layer of scales or flicker with coruscating energy[16]

Imperium

Sisters of Battle Power Armour

The Sisters of Battle use a version of power armour designed for the human shape and size, known as Sororitas Power Armour.

Adeptus Custodes Power Armour

The Adeptus Custodes are clad in finely wrought golden armour. Their Power Armour is made from Auramite as opposed to Ceramite.

Vratine Power Armour

Vratine Armour is a type of armour used by the Sisters of Silence. which shares design elements with both the power armour of the Space Marines and the silicate-mesh of Selenite void-mail[8]

Inquisition

Power armour is also favoured for use by agents of the Inquisition and those individuals wealthy enough to afford one, such as Rogue Traders. These suits of armour enhance the user's strength, allow for operation in hostile environments, and include auxiliary systems such as vox-links and auto-senses. Like the Adepta Sororitas though, the lack of a Black Carapace means these users cannot fully interface with their power armour and so do not enjoy the same strength enhancements and other advanced support systems typical to Astartes power armour.[2a]

Malleus Power Armour

 
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor

Rare even among the Holy Ordos, this power armour is inscribed with pentagrammatic wards in the vaults deep below the Tricorn Palace. It is highly prized by those who expect to fight daemons in hand-to-hand combat, and an Inquisitor who allows an Acolyte access to it must have good (or desperate) reasons. The wards inscribed onto the armour harm Daemonic creatures who directly strike the wearer. The wards are temporary at best, some failing after a single encounter, but servants of the Ordos Malleus regard them as a retributive strike, hoping that with their death they might still weaken or slay such accursed creatures. The power pack used in Ordo Malleus power armour allows it to operate for a week without recharging. Alternatively, it can be equipped with a power supply like that used by the Adeptus Astartes.[7]

Delphis Mk.II "Ironclad" Heavy Power Armour

 
Delphis Mk.II "Ironclad" Heavy Power Armour[5]

A variant of standard power armour, it features increased personal protection at the cost of agility, with huge plates of Plasteel covering the flatter areas of the body. Exposed servo-mechanisms run along the legs and arms and elaborate bracing runs across the spine. The helmet is small by comparison and the gauntlets are unwieldy to the point where basic actions beyond wielding a weapon is impossible. The power cell system in the rear has several thermal fins protruding to shed away excess heat. Ranks of power cells mounted on the rear provide 12 hours of continuous operation before recharging is needed, but require a day of recharging after each prolonged use. The suit is also a fully enclosed void suit and incorporates an inbuilt auspex, good craftsmanship photo-visors, an incorporated vox, and a pair of recoil gloves. If the suit becomes unpowered, vents open automatically in the helmet to ensure the wearer does not suffocate.[5]

Each suit is a personal heirloom item, colourful paintwork and elaborate scrolls delineating the history of the various users cover the surface; some users have also added additional ornamental shields to indicate their personal heraldry. The more ostentatious suits include large retractable poles for flying more elaborate personal banners and their vessel’s blazons. [5]

Ignatus pattern

 
Ignatus pattern power armour[17]

Ignatus pattern power armours are individuality crafted for representatives of the Holy Inquisition. Not as durable as Adeptus Astartes power armours, the Ignatus-pattern is of a better design than those sold to nobles, Rogue Traders and other agents of the Imperium.[17]

Ignatus power armour is made of thick Ceramite armour plates and incorporated electro-muscles so the user can even use the power armour in the first place. The optional helmet protects the wearer from toxic gasses, allows the wearer to breathe underwater, and even survive in vacuum as long as the suit has power. The helmet has photo-visors so the user can see in the dark and an automatically closing visor renders blind-grenades useless against the wearer. These devices can be controlled by speaking to the armour’s machine spirit, or the wearer can commune with his armour directly if they have a cerebral plug, MIU, or similar device. It is also possible to use a backpack for the suit which acts as external power-source. With this power-backpack the wearer can use his armour for five continuous days in battle conditions.[17]

Because the Inquisition often has to deal with Ruinous Powers and other heretical forces, Ignatus suits are commonly inlaid with hexagrammic wards.[17]

Skin-Tight Power Armour

Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau was known to wear an unnamed pattern of Skin-Tight Power Armour worn beneath a long cloak. Like most Inquisitors, he eschewed wearing a helmet in favour of a hat. As Clousseau is said to be a "typical inquisitor", it is unknown whether his particular armour is a rare or unique pattern of his or meant to represent something more available to Inquisitors at large. However it appears to provide all the very same benefits of normal powered armour (with the exception of the head and breathing apparatus, ostensibly). [2b]

Mechanicus Dragon Scale Armour

 
A Mechanicus Enginseer[18]

This type of power armour is worn by the tech-priests of the Magos Militant and the Enginseers seconded to the Imperial Guard. Each set of dragon scale is individually hand-forged from adamantine and ceramite plating and woven with prayers of permanence and micro-etched with fractal incantations of defence. While offering protection of the finest powered armour, and augmenting the wearer's strength, dragon scale’s greatest advantage is that it is designed to interface directly with the tech-priest’s cybernetic body and draws its power from his potentia coil, never needing to be recharged while worn. The suit's systems include a photo-visor and a respirator. However, the user must have a cybermantle and potentia coil in order to use this type of power armour.[4a]

Other Imperial Designs

  • Light Power Armour

By reducing the bulk of the ceramite plating, Light Power Armour offers the benefits of servo-boosted strength and a shell of durable ceramite, without sacrificing mobility or nimbleness.[13]

  • Heavy Power Armour

Sacrificing mobility for thicker plating and industrial grade actuators, Heavy Power Armour turns its wearer into a walking tank, capable of striding through a storm of small arms fire without so much as flinching.[13]

  • Lidhl Light Power Armour

Despite its heavily ornamented and impressive visage, this armour it is at the low end of protective value. It sees the most widespread use among the officers of the Scintillan Guard, for it allows a great deal of customisation to better display their heraldry and accomplishments.[4b]

  • Stormsuit pattern
Main article: Arkan Confederates Armour

Used by the Imperial Guard's Arkan Confederates' Steamblood Zouaves. Stormsuits are powered exoskeletons covered in high quality and resilient carapace armour.[9]

  • Zayth Engine Armour

The complicated exoskeletons used by the Engine Orders of Zayth are marvels of Dark Age technology. While not as advanced as most power armour, Zayth engine armour provides a degree of protection from environmental hazards and its pistons and servos greatly increases the user’s strength. Since no clan would ever willingly trade away even a single one of its irreplaceable suits of Engine Armour, most examples found off world are those salvaged from dead Zaythian cities, casualties of the endless wars. Designed to allow the wearer to operate in the hazardous engine rooms of Zayth's vehicle cities, engine armour also comes equipped with rebreathers capable of sustaining the wearer for up to 10 hours, and its shielding allows the wearer to resist the effects of extreme heat and most forms of electromagnetic radiation. The power cells needed to use the engine armour (without which the exoskeleton is nothing more than dead weight) generally last 10 hours before they must be recharged or replaced.[6]

Non-Imperial Power Armour

Exo-Armour

Exo-Armour is extremely durable and advanced Power Armour produced by the Squats of the Leagues of Votann. Often compared to Terminator Armour, it is capable of shrugging off heavy fire and turning its wearer into a living battering ram.[15]

Armour of the Order

The Knights of the Order on Caliban used a rudimentary pattern of power armour, before the arrival of the Emperor. Each suit was handed down from knight to knight and repair/maintained throughout the Age of Strife, being one of the few technologies that the armourers of Caliban retained through the Age of Strife.[10]

The Auretian Technocracy's power armour

The civilisation known as the Auretian Technocracy used a model of power armour for its "Brotherhood" order of soldiers. Each suit of power armour was fully enclosed and coloured a gleaming silver with red/black heraldry on their pauldrons. The power armour was noted as being so similar to Astartes power armour that the release catches on the helmet were in the same location. Unlike Astartes power armour, the Auretian Technocracy's power armour did not require the use of a black carapace, and its wearers were not gene-enhanced. These suits were the product of a still fully functional STC that the Technocracy possessed, thus while the Brotherhood numbered in the millions, they were all armoured with this power armour.[11]

After the destruction of the Auretian Technocracy, the STC fragment for this power armour was recovered and presented to the Mechanicum as a new pattern of Astartes power armour.[12]

Dulanian power armour

The Faash (the military cadre of the non-Imperial human civilisation known as the Dulanians) employed a type of reactor-driven power armour utilised by their Scarabine mechanised troopers. This heavy armour incorporated internal shield generators and chem-stimm dispensers and featured built-in arm-mounted weapons, typically interference guns or lasguns and power gauntlets.[14]

See also

Sources

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