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"Mature Content Warning!" |
Herman Von Straub is a minor antagonist in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. The inept planetary governor of Armageddon, Von Straub would rise to power by murdering his entire family, starting a decadent and ineffectual rule over the planet. Believing he could take on the impeding Ork invasion, he would deliberately ignore all the warnings about it thinking his forces could handle it alone, This combined with a series of tactical blunders would nearly cause the planet to fall against the Ork WAAAGH! during the Second War for Armageddon. Sentenced to House arrest for his crimes, Von Straub would flee, only to return during the Third War for Armageddon, betraying the Imperium and instigating a rebellion that would fail, ending in his death at the hands of the 13th Penal Legion.
What makes Him a Hate Sink?[]
- His rule in Armageddon is described as decadent and oppressive, relying on fear to be maintained.
- Ignored all the warnings about the impeding Ork invasion out of narcissism, thinking that he could take on the Orks alone.
- Banished Commissar Yarrick for merely sending a distress signal when the Orks landed.
- He is a very incompetent military commander, doing extremely stupid decisions that made the situation even worse:
- Ordered piecemeal attacks against a ferocious and reckless enemy such as the Orks.
- In spite of Mannheim's warnings, he sent his Titan Legion against the Orks without any support, causing the very costly Titans to be completely wiped out for nothing since the Orks would keep advancing anyway. It should also be noted one of the Titans that was destroyed was an Emperor Class Titan (Which Mannheim was onboard and commanding), Titans are already insanely hard and rare to built with taking a decade or more to built and Emperor Class Titans are the pinnacle of Titans and takes arguably hundreds of years to build and in the eyes of the Adeptus Mechanicus a single Titan Legion (Especially with an Emperor Class Titan apart of it) is worth more than an entire planet. And yet Straub managed to loose it without even slowing down the Orks.
- Used the Life-Eater virus, that potentially wipes out all life in a planet, on the world he was supposed to defend. If the virus bombs did not have poor maintenance, he would wipe out everyone in Armageddon. While the virus bombs did wipe out a good amount of Orks, the wind shifted and sent the Virus back onto the Armageddon forces and actually ended up killing more of the Armageddon forces than the Orks. Thus making the already outnumbered Armageddon forces even more weakened.
- Cowardly retreats to a bunker while the population resorted to fighting the Orks alone due to his incompetence.
- Actually said he had everything in control when facing a group of Space Marines in spite of being obvious that all his forces were wiped out, before escaping his house arrest.
- During the Third War for Armageddon, Von Straub revealed himself to have betrayed the Imperium and began to aid the Orks, starting a rebellion supported by nobles.
- Overall, Von Straub is nothing but an egotistical smug snake that not only nearly doomed Armageddon because of his narcissism and stupidity, but also betrayed his own species too, and his death at the hands of the 13th Penal Legion was well-deserved.
External Links[]
- Herman Von Straub on the Lexicanum
- Herman Von Straub on the Pathetic Pinhead Wiki