Blades of the Traitor
My struggle to describe who John French exactly looks like
continued. Here I’ve scribbled: “Matt Damon. That’s what John French looks
like. Matt Damon in some Daniel Day-Lewis method acting nightmare.” That seems
weirdly insulting, but I think it’s mean as a compliment?
The seminar started with each author of the stories in the
‘Blades of the Traitor’ anthology describing their stories.
Chris Wraight described ‘Daemonology’ as a look at
Mortarion’s psyche. He really enjoys writing for Mortarion – the character has
a long way to go before he gets to his ultimate destination, but it’s an
interesting journey. He also loves, in particular, the Primarch origin stories,
and what the Emperor and Malcador had hoped for – perhaps misguidedly – when
‘making’ the Primarchs.
John French kind of repeated what he’d said in the Tallarn
seminar about ‘Black Oculus’ (and I kind of zoned out, since I already read
that story) but he did smirk that the story was “pretty trippy” which I got a
kick out of.
Guy Haley described ‘Twisted’ as showing Maloghurst in “an
exciting new light” but then noted that was what celebrities often said about
ad campaigns where they model lingerie. It’s nothing like that. Apparently more
than Maloghurst is described by the title. The Vengeful Spirit, the Sons of
Horus legion, the Warmaster himself – all of them are becoming warped by the
insidious influences brought into Horus’ side in this war. Guy characterised
this as a “political manoeuvring story” which really piqued my interest.
Nick Kyme started his section with a debate on the
pronunciation of his story’s title, ‘Chirurgeon’. It’s about Fabius,
post-‘Angel Exterminatus’, post-‘Imperfect’, but it also ties in to the Great
Crusade-era of the Legion. He described it as “unpleasant”.
Graham McNeill told us that ‘Wolf Mother’ is a follow-up to
‘Vengeful Spirit’, concerning the ship of refugees Horus let escape Molech.
He’d wanted to write more about Slaaneshi cult debauches – “they’re fun and
inspirational for all the family” – but for reasons of space, he had to leave
them out of the novel, so what better place than a short story to explore them
further?
Q&A
Q: As there’s a strong traitor theme to this anthology, were
there any other traitor characters you would have liked to write about?
A: Graham: Loves writing about Lucius, but he’s already a
pretty major character in The Crimson King. He likes Lucius a lot. You would
have expected that guy to have embraced Slaaneshi excess more fully than any of
his Legion, but in a lot of ways he’s keeping the disciplined spirit of the
Emperor’s Children alive.
John: Would have liked to have explored the Davinite
Priesthood more – we’re seeing more overt Chaos/warp stuff now, and it would
have been good to fit something in to that.
Nick: Happy to keep working on Fabius, as he’d enjoyed
writing about him in ‘Imperfect’. He’d like to write some more Conrad Kurze,
but knowing where that arc is going next, there’s not really room to do more
about him. (So, could we be seeing a direct sequel to Conrad's predicament at the
end of ‘Unremembered Empire’ in the near future?) There was also a temptation
to write an Erebus story, but there was a worry that he’d become a bit
overexposed.
Chris: Would really like to write about Typhon, or perhaps
Ahriman/Magnus – he likes the idea of tackling the ‘second in command’ dynamic.
He’s interested in writing the Third Legion as well, Fabius or Lucius in
particular – Chris tends to be quite keen on the good guys side, though.
Guy: Again, Typhon is a fascinating character as he’s so
arrogant and overreaching and it all goes horribly wrong for him. Guy really
likes bad guy stories in general – Maloghurst was chosen for him as a topic
this time as there were key issues BL wanted addressed around the character.
Q: And who don’t you want to write? (OH SHIT! SOMEONE
FLIPPED THE SCRIPT!)
A: Nick: Alpharius. There’s been a bit too much time in the
sun for that guy! When a character becomes so widely written about it’s really
hard to find a new angle without making up weird, outlandish stuff.
John: Garro. Jim’s stamp is on that character so deep that it
would probably feel strange to write about him. It wouldn’t be easy to do your
own version without wrecking something!
Graham: Pretty much nobody. If someone else has done the
character really well, then it might give him pause – but maybe not, as he can
view that as a challenge, like the Knight Errant stuff being so heavily
associated with Jim and them Graham putting them in ‘Vengeful Spirit’.
Guy: Again, Garro. But that aversion does really make him
want to give it a try.
Chris: Alpharius – he doesn’t feel that he has a handle on
that character, which is why he didn’t put POV Alpha Legion stuff into ‘Scars’.
He also doesn’t think he’d make a good Night Lord writer as he’s too
reasonable!
Q: Do you feel possessive of your characters?
Guy: The HH characters I write belong to the series, they
belong to all of the writers who take part. Having said that, he’d really like
to do some more stuff for Lucretius Corvo (‘The Laurel of Defiance’), but he
doesn’t necessarily want to lock that character down forever.
John: Wouldn’t want one of the arcs he’s writing taken over
– but individual characters are pretty much OK. It was quite hard to let Polux
go, though! It can be a bit like comic book writing. Characters are going to
change arc to arc as different people write them.
Chris: There are huge characters which you just have to
accept you will never get sole writing privileges for, but then there are
smaller characters who you feel a bit more ownership of. For example, Chris
would really like to write all of Arvida’s stuff (but then I think he said that
Arvida might show up in ‘The Crimson King’, so I guess he didn’t get his
wish?).
Graham: You need to be very possessive and attached to them
while you’re actually writing them – but you shouldn’t necessarily feel that
way all the time, you need to let other writers in and not shut them out.
Q: Which two characters in the Heresy series would you most like to write a confrontation between?
Nick: Has kind of already done his ideal one, Vulkan and
Kurze. He enjoyed writing it and though their psychological games were quite
subtly done, but it seems people only compliment him on the bit where Vulkan
beats the shit out of Kurze with a giant hammer!
Graham: Also has kind of done his ideal one – the one he
bagsied in the first Heresy meeting, Fulgrim and Ferrus. The most satisfying
one to write was the memorable scene in Perturabo’s workshop where he smashes
Fulgrim’s face.
Guy: The Emperor versus Horus! “But they’d never let me do
it.” He does have a great one coming up between Kurze and someone else.
Chris: He likes this idea, as even the Primarchs have “who
would win?” conversations (see ‘Scars’). He’d maybe like to do a confrontation
between the two unknown Primarchs (that got a big laugh).
John: Malcador versus Magnus in the psychic realm having a
battle of wills, or Guilliman and Dorn post-Heresy.
Q: How do you decide how the Primarchs relate to each other,
ie, which ones get on or hate each other?
A: Graham: Some are planned long in advance, some end up as
quite surprising. For example, you might not expect Magnus and Perturabo to be
close. This lead to Graham doing a great impression of Magnus patronising the
Lord of Iron – “Oooh, there’s little Perturabo. Oooh, he wants to build things.
Isn’t that nice?”
John: Yeah, it doesn’t always make sense which Primarchs get
on, but then, that’s a lot like real life – why people like or dislike each
other isn’t always predictable and rational.
Chris: He spoke about the Khan and Russ’ mutual dislike – he
thought it was an interesting twist; not hate, but antipathy. He was also
really fascinated by the Khan and Magnus’ link when it was mentioned in ‘A
Thousand Sons’, and built on that. He would absolutely love to do more on
Horus’ relationships in general: was he really the universally loved figure we
are told about, and if so, why?
Guy: He’s drawn to relationships – not necessarily friendly
– of Primarchs who are mirrors to each other. Dorn/Perturabo, Kurze/Sanguinius,
or Kurze/Vulkan for example.
Q: Ever going to do anything about the missing Primarchs?
A: (crickets chirping, barely perceptible sound of several
authors and most of the fans in attendance rolling their eyes)
Q: Do you dislike any of the Primarchs as people?
A: John: All of them are pretty awful! Kurze is probably the
worst.
New Models
The hall was filled up pretty quickly by a fairly
boisterous, enthusiastic crowd, reinforcing the impression I was getting that
more people here cared about the HH miniatures than the HH novels. There was a presentation
that was fairly packed with new model releases, which we were told
should mostly be out over the next few months, in time for the Warhammer World
opening (the first of many times we were told to buy tickets for this other
event). As well as the models I’d already seen in the ‘Flesh and Steel’
seminar, there were such upcoming releases as:
-Solar Auxiia Stormhammer (big, giant tank)
-Reaver Titan weapons such as a Volcano Cannon and Chainfist
-The Primus Redoubt Gun, a piece of fixed artillery so big
it will come with its own scenery tile
-Thunderhawk landing pad
-Word Bearers tainted ‘Mhara Gal’ dreadnought (This was
featured in the event programme and had some pretty interesting background, seeming
to be some nameless Gal Vorbak warrior who was horribly wounded at Isstvan V –
could be just some random guy, but wouldn’t it be a kick if they brought back
Xaphen or one of Argel Tal’s other buddies?). This was a beautiful/horrible model.
-Raven Guard upgrade packs – MKVI armour heads,
shoulderpads, torsos, command section extras
-Space Marine Deredeo Dreadnought, a ‘heavy artillery’ version
of the dreadnought
-Solar Auxilia Rapier-style tracked platforms with various
heavy weapons
-Alexis Polux of the Imperial Fists (and Crimson Fists)
-Armillius Dynat of the Alpha Legion (while this was the AL
special character I was least intrigued by in ‘Extermination’, I have to admit
this model looked amazing – really hope they do an Exodus model though)
-Samus, Ruinstorm Daemon Prince
-Xiphon interceptor (Space Marine flyer)
-Stormbird (This looks really great, absolutely massive – a Rhino
can fit in the back. People completely freaked out over this model.)
I'm sure there are loads of pictures out there of all this stuff, since as soon as a new slide went up, people threw up their phones for the snappy-snaps. BUT PURPLE HERESY DON'T ROLL THAT WAY, YO.
Q&A
Forge World would like to do a model for every character they
write rules for in the books. All the Primarchs will be done, with some being
done more than once as the traitor Primarchs change. Sadly Ferrus won’t be done
again (so there’s no hope of a ‘zombie Ferrus’ model for you to recreate ‘Imperfect’
or ‘Vulkan Lives’ with). Even older characters from book 1 like Tarvitz,
Rylanor, etc, would be nice to do, time and resources permitting.
There will probably be a Garro model eventually.
Rapier-style tracked platforms will come out for the
Legions.
The Ultramarines will be the next to get
shoulderpads/upgrades (I assume this is after the Raven Guard).
Prospero Book One (when it comes) will most likely feature
both Wolves and Thousand Sons. They probably won’t be in different books. (This
leaves me wondering what will be in Book Two of Prospero? Custodes and Sisters
of Silence?)
There are lots of plans for the Knight range, and there are
more variants on the way, along with more heavy/elite classes of Knight.
Q: Will you put out a Warlord Titan model?
A: These are about twice the size of the Reaver Titan, which
is already a very big model. But maybe. Maybe.
Q: Will you put out more female models?
A: We’d like to – there may be opportunities to put out
female Rogue Trader, Solar Auxilia or Mechanicum models, for example.
Meet The Creators
The last thing that happened on Day One was the ‘Meet the
Creators’ seminar. I spent pretty much a whole hour talking to Chris Wraight,
who is super nice and didn’t seem terrified by my enthusiasm for his books. I’m
just going to throw out the key points I gleaned from our conversation.
I got things started with the question I've rhetorically asked a few times on this blog: whether there’d be a Death Guard
novel from him anytime soon, since he was so keen on Mortarion and Typhon’s
stories. He doesn’t anticipate there being a full length Death Guard book in the Heresy series, apart
from the one dealing with the Fall of the Death Guard in the Warp on the way to Terra, and that will most
likely be near the end of the series. Since it’s so far off he’s not sure who’d
write it, but he’d love for that to be one of his – and to continue dealing
with the Death Guard and Mortarion in the HH in general as he sees the Death
Lord as an interesting character. However, he doesn’t think he’ll be writing
about Typhon anytime soon as Gav is writing about Typhon at the moment (my
guess: Gav’s forthcoming Dark Angel work will heavily feature Typhon as an
antagonist – see ‘The Lion’).
He normally takes five months to write a Heresy book –
Warhammer Fantasy novels are shorter to write, often because the story has been
planned out extensively beforehand. He’d love to take a full year to write a
massive doorstop of a novel, but he doesn’t think Black Library want a book
like that from him – he also finds the deadline helpful in some ways, because
if it wasn’t there, he’d just keep writing and writing. For example, he wanted
to follow more of the plot strands in ‘Scars’ all the way to their conclusion,
but he thinks it works well with some of them being cut short.
Speaking of which, Chris has written a novella about the
Space Wolves immediately after ‘Scars’ – in other words, an Alaxxes novella.
It’s finished, and he hopes it’ll be put out this year. He’s also just started
a novel following up ‘Scars’, and he thinks it’ll be finished this year, though
perhaps not published. (He implied that Hibou Khan’s story post-‘Little Horus’
may be a significant part of it.) Once that’s done, he’d like to write a
follow-up to the 40k Space Wolves book ‘Stormbringer’, and I think he may have
said there’s more End Times stuff coming, though I’m not sure about that.
When asked about the upcoming release schedule for the Horus
Heresy, Chris was quite forthcoming, and told me that yes, as far as he knows,
‘Deathfire’ by Nick Kyme and ‘The Crimson King’ by Graham McNeill are next on
the release schedule. He also said he thought Guy Haley was writing an Imperium
Secundus novel which might come out after that, though he advised I’d need to
speak to Guy to get any more information on that. (Sadly, I didn’t get a chance
to speak to Guy at all, but that sounds pretty cool!) He also complimented Guy’s incredible work ethic and
said it’s almost annoying how prolific he is.
I asked about the ‘Librarius threesome’ of Sanguinius, the
Khan and Magnus the Red. He’d explored the relationship between Jaghatai and
Magnus, but how did he see Sanguinius and the Khan’s relationship? Chris said
he didn’t see them as being close, as the Khan may have been a little
disapproving of the Angel’s popularity/position at the centre of things. Chris
is a big Blood Angels fan, though, and would love to see more books featuring
the IX Legion as central characters, though he’s not sure he’ll get to write
one.
He really enjoys the Forge World books and would like to help
write the background when they eventually get to the White Scars – but he knows
Forge World have a lot of writers already.
If he wasn’t writing for Black Library, he’d probably try
writing high fantasy, though there are a few other genres he’d like to try out.
I think that’s pretty much it… Thanks Chris, it was pretty cool meeting one of my favourite authors and having them be a straight-up normal person. Whew! With that, the schedule for the first day of the Heresy Weekender was pretty much over.
Bonus round
In the buffet queue, I managed to speak briefly to Graham
McNeill, and ask if there would be a lot of Primarchs in ‘The Crimson King’. He
said probably not, as it would mostly focus on Magnus. However, Lucius will feature
heavily – the conflict between Lucius and Sanakht is far from resolved. He
compared their relationship to the Dread Pirate Roberts in ‘The Princess Bride’
– “Well, goodbye for now. Next time I see you, I’ll probably kill you.” Lucius
also needs to continue his quest for answers: why didn’t he stay dead once
Sharrowkyn killed him? (Following ‘The Eternal Blade’, I’m eager to see how
this progresses.) I did want to ask Graham more, like “If there are no
Primarchs in ‘The Crimson King’ but Magnus, why did Alpharius say that thing in
‘The Serpent Beneath’?” and also “You killed pretty much all the Thousand Sons’
power elite, are you adding some more guys?” but I didn’t get a chance – never
mind.
I had a fairly bizarre situation while eating, as I sat next
to James Swallow and we talked about Primarch penises. Odd.
The legendary Heresy Weekender evening entertainment was
almost underway when I decided I would get an early night and fortify myself
for day two. PEACE OUT, HERESY FANS - Til next time.
