Memorial Day Evening Open Thread – Warhammer Style

Normal disclaimer:  if it has to do with Warhammer in any way, Games Workshop owns it.  So do not give your kid a name from any of the lore or books.  Unless you are really annoyed at the kid.

Today is Memorial Day when we give thanks and honor our fine men and women for their final sacrifice to protect this country.  How this would work as a holiday for the Imperium,  I have no idea.  Think about it, you have a military with not millions but billions of troops and command cadre.  You never let the citizens know about Chaos or rebellions, the Astartes are known only as myths “Emperor’s Angels”, but the Empire takes millions of souls from each planet annually.  A lot are petty crooks, the young unemployed, or just anyone the recruiters grab to be able to meet the tithe of people for the Imperium.  Once gone, no one remembers them, except for families, if said family actually gave a shit (they may be happy to have one less mouth to feed).

Of course the legions the recruits are sent to may honor their dead, particularly if they are part of an elite legion such as the Vostroyan First Born or Cadian Stormtroops.  The Astartes always honor their dead, with particularly notable Astartes being entombed in Dreadnoughts.  They are alive upon entombment, usually so heavily injured that even their super human physique can not totally heal from the wounds.  They are memorialized within the shrine built to keep them alive and the Dreadnought in the absolute best shape.  The Astartes within the Dreadnought are placed into hibernation and brought out when needed.  But they go a little insane as they spend the centuries asleep only to be woken up and sent out to fight.  And when the fighting is over?  They immediately are placed back into hibernation.  Awaken, kill, sleep, awaken kill, sleep for millenia.

Obviously the Imperium would make being memorialized a one way trip to a personal hell.  The Eldar have the soul stones so they can be reborn, the Orks probably drink and fight to remember the greats who have passed, but normal dead orks, well they died so they were weak and not worth remembering.

Each world may have a day of remembrance, but it seems it always comes back to worshipping the Emperor more than the soldiers.

Sports:  Possible elimination of the Pacers by the Celtics and for the NHL Dallas vs. Oilers in game 2 of their series.  Pretty sure there is baseball being played somewhere.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day and that the shortened work week does not suck.