[40k] What's a Cherubim?

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2007-10-16 08:25pm

Quick question.. in Warhammer 40k, there's this thing that some Inquisitors have in their retinue called a Cherubim, which actually looks like the name suggests.

What the hell is that thing?

Teleros · Post by **Teleros** » 2007-10-16 08:28pm

Some sort of mutant I guess. Some at least appear to be psychic, as they're used as psychic familiars for Inquisitors when they're in a retinue on the tabletop.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2007-10-16 08:31pm

They are biological constructs that can be used as a familiar (psychic relay/booster). They look like winged babies. Necromundia has a lot of them.

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2007-10-16 08:58pm

In basic terms a cherubim is a small servitor that has the shape of, well, a cherubim. They fly with grav pods in their wings. Like the majority of servitors, they're made from vat-grown human tissue, mostly the central nervous system. Though a few of them have been actually made out of children. There are two examples I remember, cited in some Inquisitor material. One is the child of a noble family who was about to perish from some disease while and was servitorized by his grief-striken parents. He has outlived both of them and is technically the owner of their estate, though it is really controlled by a family member of his. The other example was a child who had witnessed the corruption of some Ecclesiarchal figure. Instead of killing him, said figure had him turned into a cherubim because the child's singing voice was particularly good. Unfortunately his flock recognized the kid's voice in the next mass and proceeded to kill lynch the bastard.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2007-10-16 10:03pm

Speaking of which, what are servitors? Are they actually former people, or just grown tissue?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-10-16 10:13pm

Either/or, more or less.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2007-10-16 10:26pm

Xenophobe3691 wrote:Speaking of which, what are servitors? Are they actually former people, or just grown tissue?

Both, the AdMech does grow alot of the 'biological components' of servitors in tanks for their purposes, but even so they also cut up criminals and turn them into servitors for various crimes.

Zor

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2007-10-17 01:46am

I think that the simpler servitors, especially mono-task, are vatgrown tissue. However the more complex ones are usually former people.

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2007-10-17 06:51am

Why is it called a 'cherubim' when that's the plural? Shouldn't it be a 'cherub'?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-10-17 11:13am

Probably so Games Workshop can copyright it.

white_rabbit · Post by **white_rabbit** » 2007-10-17 11:19am

Winston Blake wrote:Why is it called a 'cherubim' when that's the plural? Shouldn't it be a 'cherub'?

the english "translation" of High Gothic is "english with bits of bodged latin"

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2007-10-17 11:49am

Shit, so those things are what I was afraid they were.
Well, at least the ones made out of Real Baby(Tm) goodness, anyway.

For the ones that aren't, I guess it makes sense that if you had specially grown biological constructs consisting mainly out of a developed central nervous system, for the purposes of assisting a psyker Inquisitor, it would look something like a baby.
Still fucktastically creepy, mind.

Man, 40k kicks so much ass.

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2007-10-17 12:19pm

By the way, the ones on Necromunda are blue, have bat wings and are called Caryatids. They're either lucky or are attracted to people who are. (At least, that was the case back when GW were publishing their Confrontation game in White Dwarf, back in '91)

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2007-10-17 04:17pm

Winston Blake wrote:Why is it called a 'cherubim' when that's the plural? Shouldn't it be a 'cherub'?

"Cherub" is short for "cherubim". Most translations of The Canterbury Tales to modern English have one of the characters described as having "a face like a cherubim".

Cykeisme · Post by **Cykeisme** » 2007-10-17 07:26pm

andrewgpaul wrote:By the way, the ones on Necromunda are blue, have bat wings and are called Caryatids. They're either lucky or are attracted to people who are. (At least, that was the case back when GW were publishing their Confrontation game in White Dwarf, back in '91)

Sounds strange and wonderful. And creepy.

Are these blue cherubs naturally occurring, or are they Adeptus Mechanicus/Inquisitorial constructs as well?

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2007-10-17 07:53pm

[quote="Cykeisme"]For the ones that aren't, I guess it makes sense that if you had specially grown biological constructs consisting mainly out of a developed central nervous system, for the purposes of assisting a psyker Inquisitor, it would look something like a baby.
Still fucktastically creepy, mind.[quote]

I suppose it depends on the Inquisitor in question and his or her tastes. Some might prefer psyber-eagles, for example. I know I do - two headed psuedo psychic cybernetic bird half the size of a human being for the win*.

*That's roughly how big Lord Coteaz' psyber-eagle is, though he IS Lord Coteaz.

Invictus ChiKen · Post by **Invictus ChiKen** » 2007-10-17 08:36pm

Adrian Laguna wrote:Instead of killing him, said figure had him turned into a cherubim because the child's singing voice was particularly good. Unfortunately his flock recognized the kid's voice in the next mass and proceeded to kill lynch the bastard.

What was the fate of the lynch mob? I don't think the inquisition would look kindly on this.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2007-10-17 08:50pm

Invictus ChiKen wrote:What was the fate of the lynch mob? I don't think the inquisition would look kindly on this.

The Cardinal was apparently corrupt. There are quite a few Inquisitors who would have created such a mob specifically for the purpose of killing the Cardinal.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2007-10-17 10:03pm

Invictus ChiKen wrote:
Adrian Laguna wrote:Instead of killing him, said figure had him turned into a cherubim because the child's singing voice was particularly good. Unfortunately his flock recognized the kid's voice in the next mass and proceeded to kill lynch the bastard.
What was the fate of the lynch mob? I don't think the inquisition would look kindly on this.

The Inquisition might be disappointed they couldn't interrogate him and find more of his associates, but that's about it. Unless the cardinal was involved with something really dangerous, it isn't an Inquisition matter. Corrupt Ecclesiarchy members are really more of a matter for the Ecclesiarchy and Arbites.

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2007-10-18 08:24am

Adrian Laguna wrote:
Winston Blake wrote:Why is it called a 'cherubim' when that's the plural? Shouldn't it be a 'cherub'?
"Cherub" is short for "cherubim". Most translations of The Canterbury Tales to modern English have one of the characters described as having "a face like a cherubim".

Huh. I was under the impression that the words like 'seraphim' and 'elohim' were all plurals.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2007-10-18 10:21am

Elohim can be plural, but so can sheep. You dig?

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2007-10-18 12:24pm

Yeah, cherubim is both singular and plural. Another one that's singular and plural is "samurai", I think a certain recent movie makes more sense if you keep that in mind.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2007-10-18 12:55pm

Adrian Laguna wrote:Yeah, cherubim is both singular and plural. Another one that's singular and plural is "samurai", I think a certain recent movie makes more sense if you keep that in mind.

Yeah, but that's because Japanese doesn't have pluralization. The plural of katana is katana, and the plural of otaku is otaku. All Japanese nouns are both singular and plural.

eyl · Post by **eyl** » 2007-10-18 04:40pm

Adrian Laguna wrote:Yeah, cherubim is both singular and plural. Another one that's singular and plural is "samurai", I think a certain recent movie makes more sense if you keep that in mind.

Are you sure of that? At least in the Hebrew from which it's derived, there's a singular form (karuv)

Patrick Ogaard · Post by **Patrick Ogaard** » 2007-10-18 05:13pm

eyl wrote:
Adrian Laguna wrote:Yeah, cherubim is both singular and plural. Another one that's singular and plural is "samurai", I think a certain recent movie makes more sense if you keep that in mind.
Are you sure of that? At least in the Hebrew from which it's derived, there's a singular form (karuv)

All the dictionary references I've seen agree that cherub is the singular, cherubim the plural. Just like seraph and seraphim (and otherwise Rolls Royce would surely never have produced a Silver Seraph).