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Rangda

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Targetdrone.gif This article is about the Xenos race; for the World that was the site of battle during the Great Crusade, see Rangda.

The Rangda, also called the Rangdan Cerabvores,[1a] Rangdan Osseivores,[1b] or just Rangdan,[1a] were a violent and powerful Xenos species encountered by the Imperium during the Great Crusade.[1a][4a] They allegedly originated from a homeworld of the same name.[4a]

History

The Rangda were first encountered by the 105th Pioneer Company of the Vth Legion in the northern rim of the Galaxy and were recognized as a grave threat and engaged by the First Legion of Astartes.[4a] During the Rangdan Xenocides, the Rangdan invaded from the galactic north and east. In the bloodiest war for the Imperium until the Horus Heresy the Rangdan were halted, at great cost to the Imperium and the Dark Angels especially.[1a] The Imperium later claimed that it had purged the entire species and their home system in the Third Rangdan Xenocide, but the accounts of these events were highly contradictory.[1a][4a][4c] It seems likely that the Imperial records deliberately or accidentally mislabelled Advex-Mors as "Rangda", the species' capital world.[4c][6]

Characteristics

The Rangdan were described as possessing "Slaugth murder-minds", suggesting they may have been a slave species to the Slaugth species.[2] Indeed, the Slaugth have been seen following the wake of the Rangdan, harvesting the dead and any survivors they come across.[5] The Rangdan were feared for their mimicry abilities, and their ships had a brutal appearance of spines and flails which dragged behind the vessels like metallic tentacles, giving them the appearance of jellyfish.[3] Their elite warriors were said to be the match for a Space Marine in combat, wielding weaponry perhaps even superior to the Imperium and protected by personal energy shielding. Their preferred tactic was to use vast legions of slave armies and send them against the foe, exhausting them until selecting the right moment and place to strike. Their campaigns were conducted by Warmasters while their slave-controlling elite were known as Overlords.[4b]

Their warships fired radioactive electromagnetic blasts known as Shadow Blasters for the ominous shadow they left behind of their victims.[4b] They were capable of creating vast artificial war-moons manned by millions of slaves who were controlled via neural collars.[4a]

Trivia

The Rangda are probably named after Rangda, the demon queen of the Leyaks in Bali, according to traditional Balinese mythology.

Sources