CANIS REX, Man's Best Friend | Warhammer 40k Lore
Welcome to the TTP Field Manual’s End-of-Year Special!
In these FINAL DAYS, join Joshy and Jonny as they delve into the characters of Warhammer 40,000, exploring their stories, motivations, and roles in the grim darkness of the far future. Each episode in this series unpacks the "who, what, where, why, and how" of iconic figures, making it the perfect introduction—or reintroduction—for fans old and new.
For Episode #5, Jonny guides us through the epic tale of Canis Rex, the legendary Imperial Knight piloted by Ser Hekhtur Cerberan. We explore their heroic journey from the fall of their homeworld to their transformation into a mercenary Freeblade and freedom fighter. The story heats up with the emergence of a fierce rivalry against the Chaos Dreadblade, The Hatred of Krastellan. Canis Rex isn’t just a force to be reckoned with in the lore—his impressive arsenal makes him a powerhouse on the tabletop too. Dive in and enjoy this action-packed saga!
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TTP Field Manual is brought to you by Joshy and Jonny, best friends and gaming enthusiasts from their local group, Trust the Process Hobbies. Die-hard fans of the Warhammer universe, we use this podcast as a platform to share our passionate (and somewhat humorous) ramblings about all things Grimdark.
By day, Joshy is a therapist; by night, he's an RPG aficionado who grew up on (not-so) Final Fantasies and crafting his own Dungeons & Dragons worlds. Jonny, a hospitality manager, spends his downtime conquering more video games than Joshy can keep track of.
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Notes:
- Ser Hekhtur Cerberan, the pilot of Canis Rex, is a legendary figure in Warhammer 40,000 lore.
- Canis Rex can operate independently, reflecting the unique bond between Ser Hekhtur and its machine spirit.
- The Chaos invasion of Randoran Alpha resulted in the tragic downfall of House Cerberan.
- Hekhtur's transformation into a Freeblade underscores his unwavering commitment to fighting for the Imperium.
- The lore surrounding Hekhtur and Canis Rex opens exciting possibilities for future narratives.
- On the tabletop, Canis Rex is a formidable knight, boasting powerful weaponry and abilities.
Transcript
Well, hello there.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the TTPFM Countdown to the New Year, I think is what we're ending up with this being called.
Speaker B:I called it Final Days.
Speaker A:Oh, that's terrifying.
Speaker B:Seems thematic.
Speaker A:Today we will be discussing another one of our small lore bites regarding a character.
Speaker A:And I got an interesting one for you today.
Speaker B:Who do you have?
Speaker B:For me?
Speaker A:The only epic character in either of the Knight Codexes.
Speaker A:We will today be talking about Ser Hector Cerberin and Canis Rex.
Speaker B:Ho, ho, ho.
Speaker B:Take me away.
Speaker A:Well, let's start with a quote, because we always gotta have a good quote, you know.
Speaker A:The dark forces that assail humanity will never cease their attack, and so neither shall I.
Speaker A:The traitors, the heretics, the aliens, they began this fight, but we shall be the ones to finish it.
Speaker A:The Emperor expects no less.
Speaker A:Our enemies wield terror and cruelty as their weapons, thinking they can cow us into submission.
Speaker A:I wield a crushing gauntlet and a damned awesome laser as mine.
Speaker A:And I shall never submit.
Speaker A:Were I a betting man, my lord, I know where I'd put my coin.
Speaker A:That was Ser Hector, the Chainbreaker to a governor before one of the battles that he was in.
Speaker B:It is a nice, meaty quote.
Speaker B:I find a lot of these quotes pretty short, but that was meaty.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And very up himself.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker B:So Kanis Rex is the knight and Sir Hector's the pilot.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:With his damned awesome laser.
Speaker A:Damn straight it is.
Speaker A:And when you look at the character, it is a big laser.
Speaker B:I know nothing about him at all, so this will be fun.
Speaker B:Except that maybe he's a freeplay, but I don't even get that.
Speaker A:Well, today we are going to Randoran Alpha, an Imperium night world in the Ultima segmentum.
Speaker A:This world was ruled over by House Cerberun before the invasion of a warsmith of the Iron warriors known as Ganshore.
Speaker A:But before we get to that, what is a Night World?
Speaker A:These are technologically advanced feudal worlds ruled over by a noble house who controls the Night Suits and the world itself.
Speaker A:Many cut off from the Imperium during the Age of Strife and left mostly to themselves until they were rediscovered and folded back in during the Great Crusade.
Speaker A:But what happens if it's not the Imperium that finds you?
Speaker A:Ganshor assaulted the world of Randren Alpha with a large force.
Speaker A:He was an Iron warriors warsmith and was looking to take over and use their knights and technology that they had to further the gains of the Iron warriors themselves.
Speaker A:The campaign itself was grueling and merciless.
Speaker A:The knights breaking the heretic Astartes line time and time again in a back and forth battle, showing just how strong their knights were as they would just charge headlong into the Iron warriors line.
Speaker A:It's unfortunate that knights are so big and expensive and such a crucial part to their strategy, because after so many successes, one by one the knights just fell or were crippled, which led to their strongholds being sieged and razed and all of their chattel enslaved by the millions.
Speaker A:It was a hard win, one fight for the heretics, but inevitable in the end due to just how much force they had.
Speaker B:Yeah, Imware is pretty damn strong.
Speaker B:I'm amazed.
Speaker B:Yeah, the knight household even put up such a long fight.
Speaker A:Well, this fight went on for a while and many, many knights were taken down in the process.
Speaker A:This led to a final stand at the Cerberan House of Stygian Keep.
Speaker A:The Warsmith refused to give up the planet and actually utilized invasive electrogeists to disable the night suits in this final stand, basically using demons to get in there and hit the off button.
Speaker A:The nobles that commanded them were then hauled out by their own night suits as they were taken over by these essentially poltergeists of technology and were sent off for reconditioning, let's call it.
Speaker B:Ah, that's a nice way of putting it.
Speaker A:And this allowed Ganshor to take the keep quite easily.
Speaker A:Without the defenses of their knights, he now controlled the world and enslaved its entire population.
Speaker A:Meanwhile, the nobles that were thrown from their suits were tortured and gradually their spirits broken, letting chaos corrupt them, and the knights were infused with demons and turned into heretical engines of destruction.
Speaker A:My favorite boy is the Chaos Knights.
Speaker B:You had to bring them into this somehow, didn't you?
Speaker B:You had to.
Speaker A:They don't have an epic character.
Speaker B:You had to bring an imperial knight character whose buddies became Chaos Knights, didn't you?
Speaker A:Of course, of course.
Speaker A:You know what I'm like.
Speaker B:Okay, so was Kanis Rex just off world at this point?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Hector was captured.
Speaker A:He was one of the prisoners.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And his night suit, Kanis Rex was in the middle of, you know, being messed with and attempt to turn to chaos.
Speaker A:Before long, he was the only remaining prisoner that was uncorrupted and basically prayed to the Emperor daily to keep his sanity.
Speaker A:Some say that the master of mankind heard his prayers and sent him a miracle to reward his honor and faith.
Speaker A:Others claimed that Hector's unusually strong bond with his knight Canis was the cause of the strange events that followed.
Speaker A:Whatever the reason, all agree that Hector Was rescued from captivity by his night suit, which unpiloted, acting purely on the directions of its machine spirit, AKA its artificial intelligence, Kanis Rex tore free of the Iron Warrior's remaking engines and using that enormous laser, forced its way through to where Hector was being held prisoner.
Speaker B:Oh, right.
Speaker B:I did not have Autobot breaks free from Decepticons on my bingo card.
Speaker A:Yeah, I bet you didn't.
Speaker A:And I thought you might appreciate that one.
Speaker B:I actually very much enjoy that.
Speaker A:Freed from his chains and with the Iron warriors now in complete disarray at what was going on, Hector managed to get in and make his escape.
Speaker A:Upon escaping and re evaluating what had happened around him, he realized that he was the last remaining loyal member of his household and took the Freeblade oath.
Speaker A:Basically becoming a Freeblade and offering his services to those in need.
Speaker A:And he led the Randorinian resistance, AKA the fight back for the planet.
Speaker B:Was this defenders already on the planet or did he have to leave and come back?
Speaker A:This was him freeing slaves and attempting to ferry them off world.
Speaker A:Okay, so he basically single handedly was trying to take down the Iron Warriors.
Speaker B:You must be so conflicted.
Speaker A:This freeing of slaves and helping is what earned him the epithet Chainbreaker.
Speaker B:Ah, yep.
Speaker A:Yet eventually Hector was forced to accept that his world was lost forever and had to retreat.
Speaker A:Left his planet behind.
Speaker A:Rather than throw his life away on a lost cause, Hector took Canis Rex, stole an Imperial frigate, and escaped off world in search of wars it could fight for the Imperium.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:He then spent a long period of time focusing on freeing oppressed and enslaved citizens and fighting chaos specifically.
Speaker A:He had a grudge.
Speaker B:Yeah, I imagine so.
Speaker A:And I can only imagine why he might have such a grudge.
Speaker B:I'm curious how he repairs Canis Rex without his knightly world.
Speaker B:Like does he have engineering skills or does he just ask nicely?
Speaker B:Some Mechanicus.
Speaker A:I would imagine it's more a case of asking nicely.
Speaker A:And also he kind of has that vibe of Ephrael where he kind of just shows up in the middle of narratives, gets name dropped and then disappears sort of vibe.
Speaker B:I feel like he's a lot more noticeable than Efrael Stern is.
Speaker B:Does he Titanfall?
Speaker B:Does he Orbital Drop?
Speaker A:Oh, I'm sure he does.
Speaker A:He doesn't have any sort of teleporting tech.
Speaker A:I imagine he stole that Imperial frigate and he's using that as his like home base.
Speaker A:He probably has people there that can help him fix his giant death robot.
Speaker B:I actually love that.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's formed his own Little resistance against Chaos and he flies around and saves the day.
Speaker B:I'm into it.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:At least as far as we know, he has never returned to Randoran Alpha.
Speaker A:But we do have only a little bit more lore.
Speaker A:I did say that some of these would be a lot quicker than others.
Speaker B:Oh yes.
Speaker A:As this guy kind of only got a couple of chapters in recent Codexes because knights are fairly new.
Speaker A:But in the more recent history there is a Dreadblade, which is the Chaos version of a free blade known as the Hatred of Crastylan.
Speaker B:Miniature Wen.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:It is a Night Desecrator.
Speaker A:So a similar loadout to what Kainis Rex has.
Speaker A:Bearing the colors of House Hawkshroud, who was essentially exiled from House Hawkshroud.
Speaker B:Is Hawkshroud evil or just Castellix or what his name was?
Speaker A:House Hawkshroud is Chaos Aligned.
Speaker A:And even they were like, that's a little bit too far really.
Speaker A:The hatred of Crassland then took revenge upon House Hawk Shroud and basically went to war with them himself.
Speaker B:Oh no.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's.
Speaker A:It's a whole mess.
Speaker A:Chaos Man.
Speaker B:That was so bad.
Speaker A:Oh, he.
Speaker A:I actually have to quickly.
Speaker B:Gotta do a juju.
Speaker A:Yeah, Quick.
Speaker A:A quick juju.
Speaker B:I didn't realize there was a rival in this story.
Speaker A:There kinda is.
Speaker A:And it's not a rivalry that's happened yet, but we will get more into.
Speaker B:That next year with the Year of Chaos.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Imperial Knights Codex coming out soon.
Speaker A:The reason he was removed from House Hawkshroud was essentially due to him no longer wanting to accept commands from any king or queen of a nighthouse.
Speaker A:Basically just didn't think anyone was good enough for him to serve.
Speaker A:And he was just like screw you guys.
Speaker A:And decide to try and fight them instead after they were like, well, if you don't want to work with us, we will essentially just kick you out.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And how does he relate to.
Speaker A:So this guy obviously has heard of Hector and what he has been doing and recognizes this man for.
Speaker A:Well, this.
Speaker A:This knight for exactly what he is.
Speaker A:Teamed up with some Heretic Astartes and basically attempted to set a trap for Kanis Rex.
Speaker A:They campaigned through a system known as the Disephamine System, enslaving the populace and murdering every Psyker in the system.
Speaker B:Just a small task.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The Heretic Astartes that were involved were known as the Company of Misery.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Cool.
Speaker A:Their whole reason for slaughtering Psykers was to prevent a distress call being sent off.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:But one got through.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker A:Unfortunately this was planned by the hatred of Crassylan and was laced with another message, which was a formal challenge to the free blade Hector and his knight, Canis Rex.
Speaker B:He wants a jousting match.
Speaker A:He wants a jewel.
Speaker A:It is a duel on the Sol Moon of Diceph 9, one of the planets in the disephomene system.
Speaker A:And the hatred of Kraslin abandoned this crusade and is just sitting there on the moon, waiting.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:It's such a chaos riddled mess to just be like, come get me.
Speaker A:I'm here waiting for you.
Speaker B:And Kanis hasn't.
Speaker B:Hasn't done that yet.
Speaker A:That's where the lore ends for this guy.
Speaker B:That's it.
Speaker A:That's all we've got for him.
Speaker A:Like super small and elegant.
Speaker B:He's a baby character.
Speaker A:They haven't had a lot of time to expand on the knight's lore as much yet.
Speaker A:But like Kanis Rex, the only epic hero in a knight's codex.
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:On the tabletop, he's a.
Speaker A:He's a pretty badass man.
Speaker A:He counts as having a knight preceptor, which is a Laz Impulsa, his giant laser, and a Thunderstrike gauntlet, so exactly as he has described himself in the quote we read earlier.
Speaker A:And he is.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:He hits on twos.
Speaker A:It's pretty scary stuff.
Speaker B:Anus Rex Wahapedia.
Speaker B:Yeah, that sounds scary, but I'm not surprised.
Speaker A:On top of that, he has a lot of damage.
Speaker A:Sustained hits.
Speaker A:He has sustained hits and crits on fives.
Speaker B:Everything's sustained.
Speaker A:Yeah, everything is sustained.
Speaker B:I just read Chainbreaker.
Speaker A:Ah, Yep.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And he hits so hard that he's wounding most enemies on like, twos and threes.
Speaker B:Oh, wow.
Speaker B:With blast as well.
Speaker A:With blast.
Speaker A:He's just like this full on knight souped up.
Speaker A:There's a reason he is played in like every Imperial knights list as 22 wounds, toughness, 12, it's.
Speaker A:Oh, man.
Speaker A:And when he dies, Hector gets out.
Speaker B:You get an action monkey.
Speaker A:You get an action monkey who's a lone operative.
Speaker B:Hector's pistol is just straight up better than like, Astarte's commanders.
Speaker A:Yeah, man, this guy is ballin'man, okay?
Speaker A:And until you kill Hector, you don't count as having killed Kanis Rex.
Speaker A:So for the purpose of, like, scoring objectives, you finally take down this big knight, and then you've got to try and get close to this little dude running around now doing things that.
Speaker B:Oh, I'm.
Speaker B:I'm just looking at the Canis Rex weaponry.
Speaker B:Still trying to wrap my head around.
Speaker A:Something so Strong what you do against such big laser.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:What is his freedom's hand.
Speaker B:5 attacks on twos.
Speaker B:Strength 20.
Speaker B:Damage 9.
Speaker B:Damage 9.
Speaker B:Is that the strongest melee profile I've seen?
Speaker A:Melee, maybe?
Speaker A:It's no warp shock Harpoon, though.
Speaker B:He's cool.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:I did see him in the store the other day.
Speaker A:I technically have purchased one.
Speaker A:I corrupted the hell out of it.
Speaker B:Yeah, you're not.
Speaker B:You're not going to Imperial Knight anytime soon.
Speaker A:No, but I.
Speaker A:I have technically got a Hector sitting on my shelf.
Speaker B:Oh, like pilot.
Speaker A:Yeah, him too.
Speaker B:Because he would come with the sprue.
Speaker B:That makes a bunch of other knights.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And that's my.
Speaker A:My knight.
Speaker A:That's got the open cockpit that has a pilot in it, which is technically the man, the myth, the legend.
Speaker A:Ser Hector Cerberin.
Speaker B:I'm excited for what's next in the Codex because the lexicatum sources here have like four things, four sources of story.
Speaker A:There's very little.
Speaker B:Very little.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:There's like two pages in Codex Imperial Knights, 8th edition.
Speaker B:That's being referenced.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:Because that's all we've got for this guy.
Speaker A:But he's still super cool.
Speaker B:Still a sizable chunk.
Speaker B:I did not know much about Free blades with their little, like, spaceship and their little crew.
Speaker B:They're almost like a knight rogue trader and like a free agent.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker B:That's pretty cool.
Speaker B:I love the mercenary approach there.
Speaker A:And there's definitely Dread Blades, which are the Chaos version as well.
Speaker B:I love the Transformers pill duel on the moon that's about to happen.
Speaker A:Oh, and the breakout scene where the Transformer just up and just goes to the pilot.
Speaker B:Oh, that's my favorite part of this whole episode.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:He's so cool.
Speaker A:Kaytus Rex is a badass and Sir Hector is a cool bloke.
Speaker B:I bet there was like one dark Mechanicus guy with the Iron warriors that was like, that's not possible.
Speaker A:That's not supposed to happen.
Speaker A:The worst part was like, Kainus Rex was in the middle of being, like, worked on at the time he broke out of their machinery to do this.
Speaker B:Imagine if we get a version where Hector can disembark because it's specified like a transport.
Speaker B:When Canis Rex is destroyed, Imagine if, like, for a round, Hector can just get out, do an objective, and Kainis Rex just hangs out.
Speaker A:That would be pretty cool, even if they limited what it can do.
Speaker A:Yeah, I could see that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, we now need the hatred or the joke.
Speaker B:I keep making that we should get Hector's long lost Twin Mavis Rex.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I would really like to see, like, the hatred of Crassland is a good one to put in there, especially if they decide to expand on Kainis Rex's.
Speaker B:And Ser Hector's hatred has an artwork.
Speaker A:It does.
Speaker B:It's a lot of spikes.
Speaker A:It's chaosy with the white and yellow, blacks and reds.
Speaker A:Like, it's very colorful.
Speaker B:Does Mr.
Speaker B:Chaos knight?
Speaker B:Johnny, does the art of the Hatred of Crasstelyn look unique enough to be an epic hero, or does it just look like a Chaos Knight?
Speaker A:They would need to do some work.
Speaker A:It just looks like a Chaos Knight.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Because Canis has, like, the wolf iconography, the chain iconography.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:This.
Speaker A:This guy is exactly what you would expect from a desecrator.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:He could get an updated model.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, do you have anything else for me on Canis?
Speaker B:That's Hector.
Speaker A:That's all I've got for you today.
Speaker A:A nice quick one to fit into today's episode.
Speaker B:I am pleasantly impressed with Canis.
Speaker B:When you said you wanted to do Canis Rex, I just thought, sure.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:But then as soon as this is.
Speaker A:Just gonna be nights.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:As soon as you mentioned the breakout scene, I'm like, ah, okay.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's a cool dude.
Speaker B:He's like 40k's bumblebee and sandwit Wiki.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:For sure.
Speaker B:Fun.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's what we've got today for our lovely listeners.
Speaker A:And I hope you all have a lovely day.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or night.
Speaker A:See you next time.
Speaker A:Or night.
Speaker A:And we'll see you next time for the TTP FM final days.
Speaker B:Good night, Imperial Knights.
Speaker A:That's a good one.
Speaker B:Thank you.
