Motherhood: The Tale of Three

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"The Eldar had committed to their...fertility ritual in an attempt to bolster their population across the galaxy. But instead, their ritual of debauchery had birthed...something. Whatever was born, it had rivaled the Three in both power and scope. Its very birth had churned the Immaterium into becoming the cataclysm that shattered the galaxy. You...you had plans to implement if you were going to save mankind. Plans you wish you weren’t necessary. You sighed once more and wished Eve was here." —Intro

Motherhood: The Tale of Three is an Alternate Universe Warhammer 40,000 fanfic by Older-than-Time on Sufficient Velocity. Beginning as an expanded version of a series of snippets largely set around the 31st Millennium, story features among others the tales of three immortal women, who by a turn of fate all come to raise three specific Primarchs:

Lion El'Jonson, now known as Crown Prince Mordred by Merdraut.

Sanguinius, now known as Gabriel of Baal Secundus by Eve.

Magnus the Red, now known as Solaire of Prospero by Anri.

Suffice to say, the presence of such female "Perpetuals" raising Primarchs would have far-reaching consequences for the burgeoning Imperium, the Great Crusade and the Emperor's ultimate plans.

Tropes used in Motherhood: The Tale of Three include:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • Malcador the Sigillite is revealed to have be an artificial Perpetual born during the fall of Troy. Malcador also gone by Judas Iscariot, Merlin and Douglas MacArthur in his long life.
  • Ollanius Persson this time around is shown to have led more high-profile lives at a few points over the millennia, including being Achilles and Omar Nelson Bradley.
• All Myths Are True: Sort of. Many of the Perpetuals are either the basis of various mythological and historical figures.
• Alternate Universe Fic: It doesn't take too long after the Emperor reunites with his "sons" that divergences from canon become even more pronounced.
• Deadpan Snarker: Eve, who has more than a few snarky and disparaging remarks on her husband and His exploits. Whether it’s on His decision to rename Gabriel Sanguinius or her recalling how the Unification Wars weren’t as one-sided as He tries to present them.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Eve in particular tends to be called "Empress of Mankind" by the citizens of the Imperium at large.
• Expy:
  • Eve, in both her appearance and personality, is based on C.C. from Code Geass. She also has a few tinges of a genderbent Malcador in for good measure.
  • Merdraut is a combination of both [[Fate/stay night|Saber/Artoria Pendragon]], Ruler/Jeanne d'Arc and Saber of Red/Mordred from the Nasuverse. Indeed, her backstory not only has her being a bastard child of the legendary King Arthur (aka, the Emperor) before being an artificial Perpetual, but also has Jeanne as one of her many aliases over the millennia.
  • Anri, meanwhile, comes across as a an amalgamation of various characters from the Dark Souls series, which is lampshaded by how she still managed to preserve some lore from the video games as inspiration for her cult.
  • The United Human Empire of Albion can come off as a peculiar blend of the Kingdom of Bretonnia and the Tau Empire due to its simultaneously idealized culture and high technology.
• First-Name Basis: In a fashion. Eve is the only one who really gets to call the Emperor by what's heavily implied to be among his first names: Adam.
• Freudian Excuse: Even after tens of thousands of years (along with bouts of therapy over that time), Merdraut never really got over her rejection by her supposed father-figure, King Arthur/the Emperor. This especially manifests in her efforts to make Albion a powerful realm that would subconsciously make the Emperor proud, as well as her trying to be a better parent.
• Grey and Gray Morality: Compared to Chaos, the major human factions by and large come across as this to each other.
• Happily Married: Downplayed. Eve and the Emperor don't always see eye to eye and have had some quarrels over their millennia-long lives, only reuniting upon His arrival on Baal Secundus after a particularly long separation. Nonetheless, they still clearly care for each other, with Eve remaining unashamedly loyal to her beloved.
• Immortal Procreation Clause: Perpetuals in general are unable to reproduce naturally, often resorting to adoptions among others. Though it hasn't stopped some from finding ways to circumvent sterility.
• In Spite of a Nail: Played with.
  • Even with the renaming of the Primarchs, they still wind up using the names granted to them by the Emperor of Mankind. Though some of them still prefer to use the names given them by their Perpetual mothers.
  • While events like the Great Crusade still happen more or less on schedule, the presence of other human polities like Albion and the aforementioned Perpetuals throw a wrench on the Cabal's plans, who are still plotting behind the scenes.
  • Roboute Guilliman's backstory and subsequent role in the Imperium remain remarkably similar, albeit with Eve eventually taking Tarasha Euten's place as his closest advisor and respected confidant (with Euten herself becoming a dutiful advisor to Eve).
• Julius Beethoven Da Vinci: Many of the Perpetuals are revealed to have taken the guise of various mythological and historical figures of varying significance over the millennia.
• Just Before the End: There are a few glimpses of how life was like during the final days of the Dark Age of Technology, just before everything goes mad.
• Living Relic: While the Perpetuals themselves by and large are this by default in one way or another, some are much more so than others. Many of them have been around in time periods familiar to modern-day mankind, and still retain more than a few memories, cultural habits and personality tics from those eras.
• Original Character: The Perpetual "mothers" themselves, though they're not the only ones. In addition to them, notably, are the two Lost Primarchs and their respective Lost Legions; unlike in canon, they're not only discovered but remain loyal to the Imperium.
• Space Romans: Compared to the Imperium, the United Human Empire of Albion forged by Merdraut is based on an idealized, if technologically advanced re-imagining of Britannia and old Camelot.
• Time Abyss: The Emperor and the other Perpetuals, by and large, have been around for since antiquity or some point in humanity's earlier history. Anri, meanwhile, can't really recall anything earlier than the 20th Century (her earliest memories being during the Holocaust), despite Eve and the Emperor having encountered her more than once generations before then.
• Unconventional Formatting: The Emperor's dialogue tends to be displayed using gold-colored text.