Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Gloriana-class Battleships

 


The Gloriana-class battleship was the largest warship* produced by the Imperium of Man during the Great Crusade. At least twenty were built to serve as flagships for the 20 Astartes Legions (more may have been built: the Alpha Legion was given two, and Lord Militant Segmentum Solar commanded another). Their names are legendary: Macragge's Honor, Nightfall, Endruance, and more. Most, but not all, were destroyed during the Horus Heresy and the Great Scourging that followed.

Each Gloriana was unique in appearance and capabilities, but all shared a common spaceframe and core systems. A Gloriana was more powerful than any other battleship produced, capable of engaging an entire enemy battle-line. It carried vast amounts of fighter craft, landers, drop pods, and boarding torpedoes. It could carry an entire Astartes Chapter with all assets battle-ready.

* Three Abyss-class vessels (of which Verbum is one) were secretly built for Lorgar. These were even bigger but were never officially commissioned by the Imperium. They were also visually rather distinct from the Imperium's warships, almost to the point where you'd think xenos thinking had factored into their design. Whether or not they were more powerful - or merely larger - than the Glorianas is a matter of debate.

The Jupiter Project aimed at building a ship far larger than anything seen before. It was a vessel that dwarfed even the Gloriana and Abyss classes. The prototype was abandoned in an advanced state of construction. It was later [REDACTED]. No trace of the ship was ever found. Assumed to have suffered catastrophic warp drive failure. 

No comments:

Post a Comment