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The Kasrkin are the elite soldiers of Cadia, the fortress world that guarded the Cadian Gate against Chaos for ten thousand years. Their name comes from the Cadian word for the planet's fortress cities, the kasrs. Only the best Cadian troopers are chosen, and they receive far better training and equipment than ordinary Guardsmen.
The Departmento Munitorum classes them alongside the Grenadiers of other worlds, but the Kasrkin's reputation is their own. They are sent into the worst fighting: storming enemy lines, holding breaches and defending vital sites. In 999.M41, for example, a company of Kasrkin guarded the mining world of Ormantep, an important astropathic listening post near the Cadian Gate, when it came under heavy attack.
The Kasrkin fought through the 13th Black Crusade and the Fall of Cadia. After Cadia's destruction, surviving Kasrkin carry on the honour of their lost world among the Cadian regiments that remain.
The Kasrkin are Cadia's elite storm troopers, the best of a planet where every child learns to shoot. They come from the most promising Cadian soldiers and receive the best training and equipment. They fought for millennia on the Cadian Gate against the Eye of Terror. They were present for the Thirteenth Black Crusade, and after the Fall of Cadia they are among the scattered remnants of Cadian regiments still fighting.
Generations of fighting the Warp and its champions have made the Kasrkin rigidly disciplined. They see the strict culture of lost Cadia as a vital mental defence against corruption. Their hot-shot lasguns, also called hellguns, are seldom seen outside elite storm-trooper units, and sacrifice rate of fire for armour penetration.
Appearance & wargear
Kasrkin wear heavy carapace armour over their Cadian fatigues, with full-face helmets and rebreathers. Their main weapon is the hot-shot lasgun, a powerful laser rifle fed by a backpack power pack. Squads carry plasma guns, melta guns, flamers, grenade launchers and hot-shot volley guns, and sergeants may carry power weapons or bolt pistols.
Kasrkin wear Cadian-style carapace armour with helmets and rebreathers. They carry hot-shot lasguns (hellguns), special weapons such as plasma guns, meltaguns and grenade launchers, and vox equipment.
Kasrkin wear moulded carapace armour of armaplas or ceramite and use micro-bead vox with a range of about a kilometre.
Weapons & Vehicles
The rugged, ubiquitous directed-energy laser rifle of the Astra Militarum—modest on its own, but capable of felling any foe in the gala…
A volatile directed-energy rifle that hurls bolts of miniature sun-hot plasma capable of vaporising Terminator plate and tank armour—at…
A short-ranged thermal sub-molecular agitation weapon that flash-melts battle tank armour, bunker doors and heavy walkers into bubbling…
A volatile liquid-promethium projector that floods bunkers, trenches and xenos swarms in clinging, self-oxidising gouts of cleansing ch…
A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Kasrkin act as shock and assault troops. Their armour lets them survive fire that would cut down ordinary Guardsmen, and their hot-shot weapons can cut through power armour. Commanders use them to take objectives, clear buildings and fight as the reserve that plugs a breaking line.
They are elite strike infantry used for raids, reconnaissance in force and holding key points. Their hellguns punch through armour, and their discipline lets them stand where ordinary Guardsmen would break. However, they are few, and losses hit hard.
Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier
Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary Kasrkin act as shock and assault troops. Their armour lets them survive fire that would cut down ordinary Guardsmen, and their hot-shot weapons can cut through power armour. Commanders use them to take objectives, clear buildings and fight as the reserve that plugs a breaking line. asset of Astra Militarum, Kasrkin relies on a tightly coupled symbiosis between operator conditioning and primary armament. Field maintenance and biological recovery logs indicate that extended deployment without liturgical recalibration or bio-stasis rest degrades targeting and metabolic stability by less than 4% per solar week—far outperforming standard sector baselines—while post-engagement recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core wargear, neural/gene-seed components, or machine-spirit memory cores before enemy scavengers can exploit them.
Notable battles & users
- Ormantep, 999.M41: a Kasrkin company defended the astropathic relay world near the Cadian Gate.
- Thirteenth Black Crusade: Kasrkin fought alongside Lord Castellan Creed in the defence of Cadia.
- Kasrkin appeared in the Dawn of War: Winter Assault PC game as the Imperial Guard's elite infantry.
Related
Characters (1)
Ursarkar E. Creed · Lord Castellan of Cadia
