What's In The Dark Cells of Terra? | Warhammer 40K Lore

A further thing to consider about Subject 11 is that 11 is also the daemonic number of Malice, the Chaos god of Chaos's own self destruction.

I love the idea of the four demons not having anyone to test, so they just shoot the shit with a custodian. Khornite demon: Remember that time I caught you with that right hook? Custodian: Remember when I cut your head off demon? Khornite demon/Custodian: Good times.

The emperor's little SCP foundation... That aside, thanks for featuring my art!

Something to remember too, we know that some of Tyrants defeated in Unification Wars were imprisoned in black cells according Valdor. At the same time we also know that some of the Tyrants were other Perpetuals who opposed the EoM and his mission. So subject 11 could be the 11th Tyrant imprisoned. Which is scarier than lost Primarch, since that would mean a Perpetual so powerful that it took the first Custodies, the Thunder Warriors and the EoM just too imprison.

There are 10k Custodes. They are not Adeptes Astartes. They do not have the Black Carapace, two hearts, etc. They were engineered before the Astartes even existed. In fact, they were who the Emperor used to slaughter his Thunder Warriors. The Custodes are vastly superior to the Astartes in every way.

If subject 11 was one of the missing primarchs then perhaps he was a perpetual like Vulkan so couldn't be truly killed at the time so they just stuck him in a cell?

Personally I like the idea that a majority of the things held in the vaults are more corporeal in nature, as opposed to warp based. Yes they have the testing daemons, but the idea that the shadow keepers are keeping daemons or chaos entities is just super boring to me, especially since we already have titan and the ordo malleus. To me it's much more fun if it's things more akin to the c'tan. Very powerful godlike things of _this_ reality. Eldritch and ancient things, discovered during the unification wars, the great crusade or before, and taken to terra to be locked away by the finest warriors in the galaxy.

I think that the dark cells straight up contain a Cthulhu like entity that entered the universe and realized it wasn’t the big fish in the pond anymore

Coca Cola formula. A finished version of original Fallout 3. And I cannot emphasis this enough. A real women.

Well guess it’s good to know that it isn’t just Mars that’s filled with all sort of horrific goodies that it uncovered/released could lead the galaxy getting absolutely boned.

In my opinion, there’s a cell with nothing but a single, small wooden table in the center. On the table is single small object made of paper; a magazine. A magazine with a single page that hadn’t succumbed to the ravages of time. On that page is the most dangerous of all things. A single anime girl. Should knowledge of this lost art get out, the Imperium would instantly collapse.

They're all essentially big red buttons that will kill everything in the universe if you press it. In the Eisenhorn novel with the enuncia loom that Gregor goes in, there's a lot of bizarre stuff. Especially when Eisenhorn and Cherubael go to the alien planet to do something with the daemon chariot thing. The dark cells are just full of the kinds of things that grant extreme power. Like those objects that if someone touches them, most people die, while a few are transformed into indestructible alien killing machines.

The khrave you mention in 4:50 was a parasitic type of species that the Dark Angels fought and destroyed around the same time Horus was victorious on Ullanor. They also were warp like entities and only blade and fire could harm and they shared some sort of psychic link with each other similar to the tyranids and the hive mind. You can read Lion El'Johnson: Lord of the first if you want to find more

These Dark Cells really have some SCP vibes to them, I love it!

The lost primarchs being completely destroyed wouldn't make sense given the fact it's still quite the work to make them so Big E likely still keeps them around, but likely was never able to do anything about it because he's skeletor and Steven Hawking Also some of the techs in the cells are usable but just not entrusted to the imperium's use. Like that time the custodes took some items from the cells to help repair the Phalanx

I find most interesting, that while the collection of dangerous objects in the cells must be huge, there are still many equivalent things just laying around somewhere without guards. Sometimes people live right next to them, or on them. Like with the lost technology of the golden age

Enjoyable bit of lore analysis. Following breadcrumbs in the lore is one of my favorite bits of 40K.

So if Terra was at extreme risk of being captured or destroyed, and all hope was (close to) lost, is it possible that the Dark Cells would be opened in order to fight back? No doubt it'd be very risky, but if there was no other option...

My dumb fan theory is that the 11th primarch (which is implied to be there) is in the dark cells and is used as a gene seed cow and he's the reason the imperium hasn't run out yet and how Cawl was able to get so much for the Primaris project

I knew of the Dark Cells already, that they hold horros from the DAoT and other such things. I also knew that when Abaddon's big fat scar on reality appeared some of the Cells were empty. But what I didn't know was that the actual Shadowkeepers were fucking killed. It's one thing for the cells to empty on their own but knowing that whatever they were holding finally managed to overpower the Custodes and are currently loose in the galaxy is nothing less than horrifying.