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The Rangda are minor antagonists in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. They are an alien species, allegedly from a planet of the same name, that invaded the Imperium of Man in the early Great Crusade. Due to being very rarely featured and having most information on them redacted or lost in-universe, the Rangda have never been officially visually depicted, but have been described as appearing lithe and vaguely vulpine. However, they were also said to possess mimicry abilities, so it is unclear if this description is their true form.
Rangda were mentioned in book one, seven, and nine of The Horus Heresy, in the anthology Scions of the Emperor, in the novel Alpharius: Head of the Hydra, and Games Workshop's White Dwarf magazine.
History[]
First Rangdan Xenocide[]
In the grim darkness of the far future, the Emperor of Mankind created the Imperium of Man to return the shattered, dying human race to its lost golden age. After unifying Earth, now known as Terra, the Emperor set out in a Great Crusade across the stars to reintegrate the colonies of humanity. In the late 30th millennium, as the Imperium was still expanding, the Rangda invaded the northern rim of the Imperium's frontiers, first sighted at the Advex-Mors system. This began a long and brutal war between the Imperium and the Rangda, known as the Rangdan Xenocides. The First Rangdan Xenocide began with the battle of Advex-Mors, where they were engaged by the Ist Legion of Astartes (Space Marines), the Dark Angels. The conflict saw the Dark Angels lose 5,000 Space Marines. The Rangda fought with armies of slaves from other species, wearing down the Imperials before engaging them directly, with Rangda warriors being strong enough to kill Astartes, while jellyfish-shaped Rangda spacecraft utilized devastating Shadow Blasters to destroy defensive fortifications and soldiers alike. However, the Rangda were routed after four months of fighting, with the Imperium apparently mistaking a world in Advex-Mors for the Rangda homeworld.
Second Rangdan Xenocide[]
After the Imperium's victory in the first conflict, the Rangda took a decade to recover, before launched a renewed invasion with greater forces at the galactic north and east, their campaign led by Rangda known as Warmasters. The Imperium fielded their own 'Warmaster' in this campaign, along with the IInd and XIth Space Marine Legions and Solar Auxilia regiments. The Rangda armadas utilized more than just their standard spacecraft, unleashing moon-sized warships manned by thousands of mind-controlled slaves, annihilating many human colonies in the early days of the Second Rangdan Xenocide and taking more slaves. However, the XIXth and Vth Legions, the Raven Guard and White Scars respectively, were instrumental in holding off the initial Rangda advance long enough for Imperial forces to rally for a proper counterattack. Both Legions were then forced into a stand against the Rangda on the Forge World of Xana II, holding for eight months and losing many lives before the Dark Angels and Death Guard Legions helped break the Rangda onslaught, carving a path through the alien lines and establishing Xana II as the Imperium's beachhead for the campaign.
Over the next two decades, the assembled Space Marine Legions battled the Rangda in an incredibly bloody war that saw 19 systems destroyed, untold millions upon millions of lives lost. The Imperium also noted that the Rangda possessed "Slaugth murder-minds", seeing Slaugth following in the wake of Rangda advances, opening the possibility that the Rangda were yet another pawn of the Slaugth. Ultimately, nine whole Legions were deployed against the Rangda, along with at least three Primarchs, the superhuman sons of the Emperor, one of whom was Lion El'Jonson, Primarch of the Dark Angels. Ultimately, the Rangda threat was so great that the Emperor himself intervened, shattering the alien forces and sending their survivors fleeing. Some Rangda stragglers would be eliminated shortly afterwards, and planets tainted beyond repair by the Rangda were abandoned, any survivors from them sworn to silence or killed over the next few decades. Additionally, the Dark Angels established the Order of the Broken Claws to study the Rangda and keep watch for their return.
Third Rangdan Xenocide[]
The third and final Rangdan Xenocide occured sometime in the 8th century of the 30th millennium. Most accounts on this war have been lost, destroyed, purposefully censored, or found to be contradictory, but what is known is that surviving Rangda had amassed and multiplied to recover their lost strength, and launched an invasion of the northern Imperium that brought the region to the brink of destruction, seeking revenge nourished from their hatred of the Imperium. Sources also agree that Primarchs Lion El'Jonson and Leman Russ of the Space Wolves led the charge against the Rangda, ultimately hunting down every last Rangda outpost and seemingly finding and destroying the true Rangda homeworld. While the sources contradict each other in the time the campaigns took and the exact methods they used, they all agree that the Rangda were finally destroyed, and one source claims that the Dark Angels took such heavy losses in this crusade that they lost their status as the largest Legion, a title that would then be claimed by the Ultramarines Legion.
At some point in the second or third Rangdan Xenocide, a figure claiming to be Alpharius emerged within the forces of the Alpha Legion involved with the crusade, and despite the Imperium claiming that the Rangda were exterminated, the Order of the Broken Claws was not disbanded, and kept watch in Advex-Mors for the possible reemergence of the foul alien threat. However, by the 41st millennium, the Rangda have not returned, implying that they may have truly been utterly destroyed.
