A HISTORY OF THE LAND RAIDER
The Land Raider carries more armour and armament than any other tank in the Space Marine arsenal.
These articles take a look at the history of the tank in the 41st millenium, as well as the development of the plastic kit.
Across the hundreds of thousands of planets in the Imperium, even amongst the most regressed and superstitious populations, the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes are legendary. On civilised worlds they are spoken of in hushed whispers, accompanied by ignorant tales of ancient secrets concerning bio-alchemy and geno-conditioning. The myths of primitive peoples tell of the Angels of Death who descend from the stars on fiery wings to bring retribution to the serpents of Chaos. Just as prominent are the tales of the steel chariots of the Angels - massive beasts of metal with a skin that turns any blow, whose eyes unleash bolts of lightning and in whose stomach the Angels of Death travel. This is the legend of the Land Raider.
The Land Raider is based upon the near-mythical Standard Template Construct (STC) technology, and as such its design pre-dates the Imperium by many thousands of years. Its rediscovery is commonly attributed to the great Technomagus Arkhan Land at the very birth of the Imperium. When the Imperial Land Raider first saw combat is now a matter of much debate amongst Imperial archaeologists. Some claim it was during the Siege of Delebrion that a Land Raider first fired its lascannons in anger, others point towards the massed tank battles of Calysto Platinum and say that the Land Raider drew first blood during the mighty conflict that raged over that world at the start of the Emperor’s Great Crusade. The popularity of the Land Raider in Imperial forces was nothing short of overwhelming. A whole forge world, Anvilus 9, was turned over entirely to the production of Land Raiders and the design spread throughout the galaxy with the Emperor's fleets.
At that time, the Land Raider was used by almost every human force, including the Space Marines and the Imperial army. There was not a battlefield in the first two hundred years of the Imperium that had not tested the mettle of this awesome war engine. Then the Warmaster Horus virus bombed Istvaan V and the Great Heresy engulfed the galaxy. Anvilus 9 was overrun by renegade Techpriests at the outset of the heresy, and production of the Land Raider was suddenly reduced to a trickle from a handful of forge worlds still loyal to the Emperor's rule (many forge worlds opted to secede from the Imperium at this point, rather than joining one side or the other). With the Warmaster's forces threatening to overrun Terra, the Emperor decreed that all Land Raiders still in loyalist service were to be recalled for exclusive use by the Legionnes Astartes, who were at the forefront of the fighting. The Land Raider proved to be essential for both sides during the bitter fighting that would decide the fate of the Imperium. It was one of the few vehicles that could, when used in sufficient numbers, hold off and even destroy the massive Titans of the Adeptus Mechanicus, whilst its ability to fight in almost any imaginable warzone, including sea beds and in highly corrosive atmospheres, meant that it saw more service than any other machine of war. The Heresy was eventually crushed by the sacrifice of the Emperor, but with the Emperor's ascension to the Golden Throne none dared countermand his order that Land Raiders were for the exclusive use of the Space Marines. Thus has it remained for the last ten thousand years.
