#nostramo
Text
Bandages on Broken Souls: A Nostramo Culture/Lore Post
Sometimes I think about the wee lower-deck people that were all covered in bandages in the Night Lords Trilogy. Why so bandagey? (Bandagepilled wrapmaxxers, not beating the bandage allegations, etc)
She glanced at the wretch, who was unhealthily tall and sexless in its overcloak, keeping its face behind stained bandages. Several others lurked close to the door, whispering amongst themselves. It was impossible not to smell their sweat, their stinking, bloodstained bandages, and the rancid oil-blood of their bionics.
Those ones. The attendants providing for Octavia's needs as a Navigator. Octavia's attendants.
It turns out ADB does tell us a bit later on:
The chlorine reek of them offended his senses, the way it rose in a miasma from their antiseptic-soaked bandages, as if such trivial protections could ward against the changes of the warp.
This is very interesting to me for a few reasons since it can lead to various interpretations about Nostraman culture, even though it's important to bear in mind that what we're seeing is the degraded situation after however-many thousand subjective years of dicking about in the Warp, Eye of Terror etc.
They believe, or at least Ruven the POV character here thinks they believe, that warp mutation can be defended against with purely physical items i.e. bandages and disinfectant. While it's easy to point to examples of people from all kinds of cultures in the setting using spiritual or metaphysical ways to protect themselves from the warp, I find it interesting that this doesn't seem to occur to the Nostramans.
In fact, unless I'm remembering it wrong (always a possibility tbh) other than a small mention in one of the Gendor Skraivok short stories about there being a secret Lectitio Divinitatus cult among the serfs, there seems to be very little spiritual/religious belief organic to Nostramo itself.
That makes some sense, I think. It is after all Space Gotham, a world of armoured groundcars and looming starscrapers where everyone is living under some form or another of very high pressure just to survive whether that means getting their next meal or keeping their position in high level gang politics. Whatever beliefs the original settlers brought with them to the Sunless World were, I imagine, ground away over time as generations passed and people had other, more visceral concerns.
There are a few scenes in the 1984 nuclear war TV movie Threads that take place in the period about 10-20 years after the bombs have fallen. It's clear that the by now rapidly deteriorating survivors of the pre-war world are trying as best they can to provide some kind of education for their post-war descendants, but this is extremely limited and relies on what they can gather together from whatever books, VHS tapes etc happened to survive the war:
"The skeleton of a cat! A cat's skeleton!"
And we can see that it simply means nothing to the children and young adults whose entire existence revolves around basic survival - mostly food and the things they have to do in order to get it.
This, in a way, is what I think happened to whatever beliefs in anything beyond the material that may have ever existed on Nostramo by the time we see it in the Crusade/Heresy era. It's a sad, stunted little world and I feel immensely sorry for the nasty, skeevy people it produced.
Another factor affecting this would of course be the Night Haunter. You don't really need to have a spiritual/metaphorical figure or system dispensing rules and justice when Konrad is actually real and inside your home making it brutally clear what his views on law-breaking are.
So, in my usual roundabout way, we come back to the bandages again. My view, as I've expressed before in my ramblings, is that Konrad didn't truly eradicate crime on Nostramo so much as eradicate the appearance of it.
There's a legend from Ancient Greece about a Spartan boy training to be a warrior which I'll post as a screenshot below since I think we could all do with a break from my writing style for a bit:
"He could steal and suffer and die rather than be found out" is the relevant part here I think. Much like the idea that snitches get stitches or the mafia code of omertà where one's value in society and life itself hinge on a mutual keeping of silence against any and all authority figures.
We know that even before Konrad arrived, Nostraman society functioned on a gang allegiance basis, so already fertile ground for a very insular and secretive type of culture. But then we add the Night Haunter to the mix and the numbers spell disaster for you at Sacrifice the social pressure in this direction ramps up massively.
It's also made very clear pretty much everywhere that Nostramo is a vicious, predatory society. There's a description in one of the Skraivok stories of Phy Orlon, the canonical smallest saddest uwu-iest Night Lord:
It astounded Skraivok how such a vulpine little thing had made it through the selection process. Even bulked by legionary gifts, Orlon still managed to convey the impression of feebleness. Towards the end, Nostramo had been providing only the dregs of the dregs. No wonder Curze had levelled the place.
Weakness was like the scent of blood in the water to the Night Lords. Legionaries like Orlon would always attach themselves to those they deemed powerful, for protection. That explained the ridiculous batwings welded to the top of his helm in emulation of Sevatar, and why he had appointed himself as Skraivok’s adjutant.
It's like prison or high school. Even the transhuman supersoldier Nostramans still function this way. What hope do ordinary people have?
Not much at all, I think. Just in order to survive day to day it'd be necessary to conceal any injury, weakness or deformity at the risk of having it being ruthlessly used against you by just about everyone.
So we come back to the bandages again. Told you I'd get there eventually. We see that the attendants are in fact completely covered in bandages Joshua Graham style:
‘Lord,’ they hissed through slits in their faces that were once lips. Their bloodstained bandages rustled as they shifted and lowered their weapons.
[...]
She raised a bandaged hand, as if she could possibly bar the warrior’s passage with a demand, let alone with her physical presence.
I can imagine the impulse to cover up and conceal any weakness applies very strongly to warp mutations of any sort. Curdled and degraded over millennia roaming the immaterium in the bowels of a ship with the changes becoming worse and worse the longer they go on, it would be plausible for this to develop into a need to cover up and disinfect every inch of oneself in order to maintain some pretence, however flimsy, of being a capable human being.
The saddest part of it for me, though, is that all of the attendants are like this. It's a situation where everyone is quite literally in the same boat, undergoing the same suffering, and yet they still retain this deeply-ingrained need to hide and conceal themselves from each other. It feels like even here, ten thousand years after its destruction, Nostramo's poison is still influencing them, still flowing through their veins to keep them separated, afraid, and deeply alone.
Oh wow, a few paragraphs from ADB somehow led to a great long wall of text. Congratulations if you've made it this far!
PS: This being ADB I feel obliged to consider the possibility of Ruven either lying or being mistaken. I don't think this is likely since he is a) also Nostraman and b) a sorcerer meaning that if there was any spiritual aspect going on he would more than likely have the requisite cultural/magical knowledge or experience to be aware of it or otherwise detect it. Ruven is a conniving goth thot but he has no reason to lie in that particular bit of his own thoughts.
#night lords#lore#nostraman culture#lore post#wh40k#warhammer 40000#warhammer 40k#horus heresy#nostramo#warhammer lore#in this house we respect Hound who deserved far better than what he got#nightlordposting#is this domestic lore? i feel like it is#domestic lore#this will be the 327th post in which i have mentioned Threads (1984) and i have become exceedingly good at it#neves loreposts
31 notes
·
View notes
Text
SFW version of the Konrad Curze Pin up. HE IS CERTAINLY HANGING IN THERE HAHAAA
#magnificart#wh40k#warhammer 40k#konrad curze#night lords#primarch#traitor primarchs#nostramo#night haunter#the night haunter
128 notes
·
View notes
Text
Another Primarch for the planet-swap-post by @relax-and-read-on:
Horus Lupercal, Mobster-Lord of Nostramo
#Warhammer#Alternate Universe#Planet Swap#Primarch#Horus#Horus Lupercal#Nostramo#Sons of Horus#Luna wolves#Horus Heresy#WH40k#Adeptus Astartes#Space marines#AU
109 notes
·
View notes
Text
Queen Nocta and her guard meet the day pony on their territory.
#night lords#warhammer 30k#warhamemr 40k#viii legion#ponyhammer#night pony#nostramo#nostramo people#mlp fanart#my os#mlp oc#mlp art
5 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Konrad Curze by @disarmonia
Thank you @candiceirae for this gem :)
#Warhammer 40k#Warhammer 30k#Konrad Curze#The Night Haunter#The Dark King#King of Nostramo#Primarch#Primarch Curze#ILY too#Primarch of the Night Lords
176 notes
·
View notes
Text
quick CSP practice (featuring OCs belonging to a handful of artists I love and admire here on the hellsite)
Machete belongs to @canisalbus
The Hessian belongs to @spaghettibastard
Fernka belongs to @plasmometer
Arshak belongs to @kathy-rah
Lark belongs to @idle-skull
Anathema belongs to @interplanaranathema
Your characters are amazing and I love them dearly, thank you for sharing them with us.
my links - (please check out the listed artists before you click here! they deserve it.)
#my art#NOT my characters#canisalbus#sighthound#the hessian#bonemen#warhammer 40k#iron warriors#chaos space marines#fernka#night lords#arshak skraidor#lark huntsman of nostramo#anathema#c'tan#art#artists on tumblr#PLEASE support these fine people and their work#ps if you would like me to remove the drawing of your character for whatever reason I will respect your wishes
54 notes
·
View notes
Text
He’s problematic and Night Lord aligned.
#nightlords#warhammer#warhammer art#warhammer oc#wh30k#wh40k#lark: the huntsman of nostramo#digital art#art#oc art#artist in tumblr#character art
39 notes
·
View notes
Text
RP Starter (Open to Anyone):
[Pre-Heresy]
Lark is practicing throwing knives at a far off target. He arches his arm in a powerful launch, and the knife he held shoots straight forward; moments later it hits the target nearly perfectly.
His following attempts are not as lucky, however, and he struggles to get a good strike in. Cursing under his breath, he keeps trying, and failing.
78 notes
·
View notes
Note
Roboute has been recieving reports of a certain nuisance of a primarch strutting about as if he owns the ship, giving orders to serfs and Astartes alike to the chagrin of every Ultramarine in the fleet. And worse: he'd done so wearing their father's laurel.
Roboute looked up, confused for just a moment. His laurel? But it was still-
He reached up to run fingers through his straw yellow hair. They didn't snag on his headpiece. Actually the thing was completely absent. Funny thing about wearing something long enough, it still feels like it's there when it's been removed.
Theoretical: Konrad had been unusually affectionate this morning, removing his laurel to ruffle his hair. In all likelihood he only pretended to put it back only to steal it for another prank of his.
Practical: Let his older brother have his fun for the time being. He would only intervene if it was starting to cause harm. Konrad would likely give it back once he was bored or maybe if Roboute asked him to.
"As long as he's not being too disruptive or causing harm, leave him be. There are more pressing matters to attend to."
8 notes
·
View notes
Note
😞 reverse ( @ave-dominus-nostramos )
"When was the last time you rested?" Asked the ancient.
Rest would do this child good. Rest might dull his fangs, his vindictive judgements, his cruelty that made even the infamous Tyrant of Tyrants blanch.
The Night Haunter was likely to refuse him. He knew his war-dog's soul. It was a mirror of his own, a fiery spirit that never liked to be restrained. In that event, The Emperor might have to force him to sleep.
@ave-dominus-nostramos
9 notes
·
View notes
Note
"My thoughts are my own, witch. Perhaps you need a reminder... A little gift from me to you."
( @ave-dominus-nostramos )
He's absolutely frozen in place. His blood suddenly ran cold and his heart it hammering in his chest, feeling like it was going to burst from the sheer terror of the man before him. No. This was no man. This was a monster. A Primarch. A Son of the Carrion Lord.
Even if Ozura could find his voice, there was no point in talking back. He was going to die here and he was sure of it.
@ave-dominus-nostramos
#eternally cursed || self#at the mission board || ic#the nighthaunter of nostramo || konrad curze#he is absolutely terrified lmao
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Nostraman Nature Sucks: An Attempted Lore Post
Ave dominus nox Night Lords fans. I thought I'd take some time to go through the various NL stories I have to hand and see what I could find out about the animals that lived on Nostramo. Might come in useful for something, who knows?
Sharks and Whales
As a child, on several coastal journeys with his father, he had witnessed the eyeless barrasal sharks that would group together to hunt the great whales of the open ocean. (Night Lords Trilogy)
His voice filters into something savage and predatory, as hungry as the eyeless white sharks of Nostramo’s blackest depths. (The Long Night)
Not a big surprise since they talk about them fairly often and have the Space Sharks as a successor chapter but Nostramo does have sharks. Pretty gnarly-sounding sharks if I'm honest.
I didn't know what "barrasal" meant, so I looked it up and only found one thread on r/40klore that had the same quote in it as above. Hmm.
Assuming it's not a typo or a more straightforward reference to something I'm just not getting, I'd venture a guess that barrasal, understood here to mean of or relating to "barras" like with "abyssal" could be connected to the French Revolutionary leader Paul Barras who is mostly remembered for supporting Napoleon's rise to power before being overthrown by him.
So maybe the older barrasal sharks will make use of younger ones as temporary hunting partners only to be inevitably betrayed and consumed by them. Sounds about right I think.
As for the whales, where do I even begin? I would imagine they're "whales" in name only like in Dishonored:
This does imply the possible existence of a whaling industry at some stage in Nostramo's history, though.
Crows
Jago reached into his pockets, offering a handful of breadcrumbs. Come, he said to the crows. Food for tonight. Flesh, flesh, flesh, they called back. He laughed as several of the black birds landed on his shoulders and outstretched arm. (Prince Of Crows)
‘Yes. I’ve seen them in books. Is a crow a type of bird?’ ‘Black of feather and dark of eye. It feeds on the bodies of the dead, and sings in a raw, croaking caw.’ (TLN)
Breaking news - legion that keeps referring to crows in shocking has crows on its homeworld scandal. "This is outrageous," said local Nostraman cutpurse and skin disease enthusiast Verxaglryn Quickstabber, "here we are trying to make a good name for Nostramo as a respectable hellhole, a place you'd be proud to exile your worst enemy to, and yet we're surrounded by some of the most intelligent and curious birds in existence. I was shanking someone in a back alley the other night and suddenly I saw a crow learning how to use rudimentary tools! Not on my watch, I said to the rapidly cooling body, and I threw my shiv at it. But it just flew away." At this point Mr Quickstabber was obliged to end the interview due to having been eviscerated by the Night Haunter.
I know their communication with Sevatar is happening in a dream but I really like the idea of the crows adapting to Nostramo by developing some kind of psychic hive mind that's also able to be understood by human psykers.
Crag Cougars
A beast of my home world. When next you see one of the Atramentar, look to their shoulder guards. The roaring lions on their pauldrons are what we called crag cougars on Nostramo. It was considered a mark of wealth for gang bosses to be able to leave the cities and hunt such creatures. (NLT)
Every single one of them is Scar from the Lion King, isn't it? An interesting hint about Nostramo's geography though, of which more later.
Rats
Groundcars whisked by, headlights brighter than deep-hive rats’ eyes, the occupants snug and safe behind armoured glass. (Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter)
No surprises here either. Where there's people there's rats after all.
Something with tusks?
The older Astartes grinned, wolf-like and keen, as the Atramentar either side of the Exalted’s throne growled through their tusked helms. (NLT)
This isn't that conclusive because a lot of Chaos Terminators have tusks no matter what legion they are, but Nostramo being Nostramo they probably belonged to a species of giant carnivorous mammoth that ate babies and sprayed acid from its trunk.
Cows? On My Sunless World?
‘They are still of standard human stock, and not to be mourned. What does it matter if the cattle fear the herdsman?’ hissed Krukesh the Pale. (KC:TNH)
This one's a real reach on my part as it's very likely just a turn of phrase, but I noticed it because wouldn't it be slightly more typical to use a sheep metaphor here? Plus it supports the existence of Nostraman cowboys/ranchers/vaqueros which is fun.
No bats?
His helmet bore a new, spread batwing crest in blatant imitation of Sevatar’s own. (A Safe and Shadowed Place)
A sole space was neat: a circle around an iron lectern fashioned in the form of a bat’s outflung wings, which carried a heavy book bound in human skin. (KC:TNH)
Although they appear a lot in the VIII legion's iconography and artwork, oddly enough I wasn't actually able to find a direct reference to Nostramo itself having bats. Let's cover my ass by saying this aspect might therefore have been brought in by the legion's Terran component instead.
Some Nostraman geography
The Hill Folk lived away from the cities, eking out an existence in the mountains. (NLT)
What's worse than living in a Nostraman city? Living on a Nostraman hill, apparently. This seems to just be an idea of ADB's that doesn't come up again but I've always found it quite interesting. Were the Hill Folk as scummy as the City Folk, just with more of a down-home Dukes of Hazzard vibe? Seems likely.
This also supports the idea of Nostramo not being completely urbanised like some Hive Worlds are. In my view its continents might have had a geographical layout a bit like Italy or Scotland where the cities are mainly on the flatter coasts with a more sparsely populated hilly/mountainous interior.
What else? (This part is just me making stuff up so feel free to ignore it. I'm not ADB, I'm not even ADB's hat.)
If the rest of Nostramo's marine life is anything like the sharks and whales then it's fucking terrifying. I would imagine, because it's funny, that a lot of Nostraman food features disgusting industrially-processed fish in some way or another. Like the food in Dishonored but even worse.
Is something wrong, dearest offworld husband? You haven't touched your stale bread, whalemeat and jellied eels.
Since all life on Nostramo seems to be comically carnivorous and aggressive, it would make sense in a 40K kind of way for there to be giant predatory penguins living at one or both of its poles. A bit like the monstrous blind albino penguins HP Lovecraft wrote about.
Last known infrared pict-capture of an early Nostraman settler attempting communication with a juvenile specimen of the native penguin species. There were no survivors.
#ended up mentioning Dishonored a lot#fine by me I love Dishonored#shall we gather for whisky and cigars tonight?#warhammer lore#wh40k#warhammer 40000#warhammer 40k#night lords#nostramo#neves loreposts
41 notes
·
View notes
Note
god i love how you draw long hair. long hair is one of the best things on a man for me and to see so many of these guys with flowing locks is just so good. lucius and fulgrim come to mind immediately (but that might be because i just love those two) but. yeah. long hair on men extremely good. you get it
as always, much love, hail slaanesh, down with the corpse emperor 💜
What a lovely evening at Nostramo Quintus!
Here's someone with long hair that's not quite as lovely (I bet his pre-Emperor-arrival haircare consisted of gnawing it off if it got too long).
I have a love-hate-relationship with drawing hair. I just can't figure out how it works! So I mostly treat it like flowing cloth. That does not fly at all with any form of curls, of course. Or other non-straight hair. I looked up so many tutorials but nothing clicked.
I'm lucky that curls are not really a thing in Warhammer! It's either the long, straight-variation or cropped short or shaved. Finally an aesthetic choice by GW I can get behind! 😁
Maybe I'll force myself into more curly hair with the Salamanders-with-hair. Lots of blood, sweat and tears in my future!
But with the usual amount of Emperor's Children and Word Bearers to relax hairwise.
#Warhammer#Ask Post#Curze#Night Lords#Hair#Nostramo#Night Haunter#Konrad Curze#Horus Heresy#Adeptus Astartes
92 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Fel Zharost wip
3 notes
·
View notes
Photo
I Need A Bigger Handkerchief by Nan Kikicheva
#Warhammer 40k#Warhammer 30k#Konrad Curze#The Night Haunter#The Dark King#King of Nostramo#Primarch#Primarch Curze#ILY too#Primarch of the Night Lords#fulgrim#primarchs#emperors children primarch
336 notes
·
View notes
Note
Leaps out from behind a crate and affectionately tackles his brother to the ground
( @ave-dominus-nostramos )
" HHOUGHK--!! " Aurelius audibly grunted, nearly yelling, as he was tackled to the ground-- the back of his helmet smacked against the ground as he was brought down by the other Primarch. He just sighed... but some part of him faintly smiled under his helmet as he moved to pat Curze's head.
" Affectionate today, brother? " Hummed Aurelius, peering down to look at him.
Some Stars Repentant marines looked frantic at the thought of Konrad tackling their Primarch, but none dared to approach. Luckily, one of the First Company seemed to explain to them that, no, Aurelius was not in fact dying. This was just brotherly bonding.
#ask answered.#ic / in character.#ave-dominus-nostramos#forever remembered // 30k verse.#the forgotten son // primarch aurelius augustus.#ask to tag tw
2 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
terukanerealist
clock keeper
dwchtjiminah
Yoongi's Wife🥢💍Military Wife💍🐱 Seeing AgustD👑
ask-ayato
Ayato Sakamaki
slycoopershitposts-va4
A Thief and His Two Boyfriends
certaingardenercollectorlove
Untitled