"Censure" by Nick Kyme

It is almost two years since the events of ‘Know No Fear’, and the Underworld War still rages on Calth between the remnants of the XIII and XVII Legion left to fight it out by their Primarchs. The surface of Calth is a rad-soaked wasteland and even Space Marines can’t stay out there too long – not that Aeonid Thiel is one to accept what ‘can’t’ be done. When their underground base is overrun by Chaos forces, Thiel’s commanding officer commands him to escape and plan a rescue for his comrades. But how effective can a lone Space Marine really be? And is the lone mortal soldier accompanying Thiel going to be a help, or a hindrance?

NEVER LOOK AT THE CAMERA

‘Censure’ is written in third person present tense, much like ‘Know No Fear’. While I found ‘Honour To The Dead’ annoyingly transparent in its attempt to be just like Dan Abnett’s Calth masterpiece, ‘Censure’ feels like its own beast – the setting and plot would have fit nicely in the ‘Mark of Calth’ anthology, and probably would have made that compilation seem a bit more varied.

After some short stories I was indifferent about and a novel I really struggled to get through, ‘Censure’ was the release that convinced me Nick Kyme had something important to offer to the Heresy series. He writes Thiel to a standard arguably equal to Dan, though I suppose it’s an unfair comparison. While Thiel was an interesting character in ‘Know No Fear’, he was just one man in a rather large cast. Here, Nick is able to focus on him almost exclusively, and the ways his character grows are sometimes unexpected, but always welcome. An important part of Nick’s writing is that Thiel in ‘Censure’ seems to be the same person as the forward-thinking, insubordinate hero we liked in ‘Know No Fear’. It’s not a complete copy of course – that would mean there was no character growth at all – but inconsistency of characters when an authorial switch happens has been one of my main annoyances in the Heresy series, so this was a nice surprise.

The drama begins with Aeonid Thiel outwitting two invader militia troopers in a deadly ambush using rather unconventional means. In fact, Aeonid is breaking convention all over the place here: out above ground in Calth’s wasteland operating solo is not exactly the kind of thing Ultramarines are renowned for being cool with anyway, and to spice the pot he’s kind of going a bit nuts here, almost daring his superiors to slap him down with his defiance of ‘standard’ protocols. Yet with the Shadow Crusade rampaging away elsewhere, Thiel knows the pressing threat of complete annihilation has passed for the Ultramarines. As he states, “There are no true daemons left on Calth anymore… just the Unburdened”. But the possessed are danger enough, as we will come to see.

Our lead antagonist is Kurtha Sedd, “Apostle of the Third Hand”, a Word Bearer waging the Underground War with a small cadre of other Legionaries who were also left behind. If there’s any dominant theme that disappoints me about ‘Censure’, it’s that Sedd and his homies are just A. N. Other group of Seventeenth Legion loonies – their attitudes to being left on Calth aren’t really explored, beyond a brief hand-wave that they went a bit crazy in their denial of Lorgar’s betrayal. (A bit? Well, for Word Bearers, this level of insanity probably is just “a bit”.) Nick writes evil bastards well, and if any portrayal of a monomaniacal zealot was going to be justified, it’d be the Word Bearers – but this could have been handled a little better.

As an audio drama, ‘Censure’ is certainly a neater package than some of BL’s Heresy offerings. The Gal Vorbak effect of Astartes and daemon voices speaking simultaneously works much better here than in ‘Butcher’s Nails’. And the cast do good work. Gareth Armstrong, I believe, plays Thiel here, and does a good job – though I get the feeling Armstrong was told that Thiel was something of an anti-establishment rebel but didn’t really grasp the nature of how mentally focused and physically strong an Ultramarine is. He comes across as an insouciant smart-ass and it’s fun to listen to, but he sometimes sounds a little effete to be a giant hulking superman. I think Chris Fairbank – famously the portrayer of Kharn in such dramas as ‘Chosen of Khorne’ and ‘Butcher’s Nails’ – is Sedd. He’s somehow at once gravelly and slimy; a great performance, but you do wish for slightly better writing for the character – Fairbank certainly deserves it. I'm not sure who plays him, but Raud is the other primary lead. In an occasionally homogenous voice cast, Raud has a strong West Country accent (I think!) and is well played as an honourable, earnest and brave warrior. It could have easily been a caricature but good writing and a great performance make him an interesting presence, not just a human to throw Thiel’s ultra-brilliance into relief. The exploration of his origins is nicely handled as well – brief enough not to seem drawn out, but powerful enough that you get a sense of who is he is, beyond just another gun. Lastly, Voltius is excellently played, the embodiment of the Ultramarines’ devotion to order and regulation – as well as their arrogance. Raud is a good foil for Thiel, but I can’t help but wish Voltius got more of an opportunity to bounce off his rebellious subordinate. Heavy Entertainment are the production studio behind this, and they bring out some of their better atmospherics. The ominous but proud fanfares as Thiel travels into the Arcology are particularly good, and the deafening after-effects of a stun grenade are nicely reproduced.

‘Censure’ is not perfect by any means. There are a few holes in the more slapdash actions scenes. Thiel getting trapped under a load of rubble with Raud, as well as the method used to escape, really feels like it stretches the suspension of disbelief a little too much and it’s hard to shake the feeling that this would have left Raud dead twice over. Later in the story, our heroes commandeer a wrecked Rhino. Nick needs Raud to see something sinister in the rearview mirror, so never mind the fact a Rhino probably doesn’t need anything like that – we’ll put a ‘rearview reflector’ in. And of course there seems to be one fairly massive oversight at the end of ‘Censure’ – so Ultramarines can apparently now travel to and from Calth and Macragge with little issue? Then why aren’t the Word Bearers trying to escape?

And that’s not quite all. Just like in most stories set in an environment like this, as soon as a character (Raud, in this case) starts coughing, you know he’s a goner, because BL and Heavy Entertainment have very little regard for subtlety. Fair enough, I suppose, but it kind of ruins any dramatic tension this storyline could’ve had. A slow death from radiation poisoning is hopefully something I’ll never experience and I don’t know much about the realities of it – but would you still be able to walk (and fight) mere minutes before it suddenly became fatal? I kind of wish they’d gone in another direction with the poignancy and bleakness that massive rad-poisoning is given in, say, ‘Edge of Darkness’, but whatever.

While some of the fights are a little interminable, the final confrontation between Word Bearers and Ultramarines in the contested underground base is a great one. Sure it ends pretty predictably – Sedd gets Spawn’d, Thiel is triumphant, Raud dies a hero’s death – but the writing is up to a good standard. Thiel’s tearful eulogy for Raud is the only time ‘Censure’ approaches the creamed corn of ‘Honour To The Dead’, so that’s a triumph. And that one weak moment is followed immediately by Thiel’s incisive observations on the continuing war for Calth, a high point in the drama, and a high point for the character in general.

The ideal time for you to listen to this (or, nowadays, read this – it’s in the ‘Legacies of Betrayal’ collection in print format) is before you read ‘The Unremembered Empire’, since the teaser ending will make a certain scene in ‘TUE’ that little bit more shocking. If you’ve already read ‘Unremembered Empire’ and spoiled the surprise, I beseech you to seek out ‘Stratagem’, the twenty-minute audio drama which sets up where Thiel’s character arc might go in the next few years of the Heresy.

Would I like Dan Abnett to take sole custody of damn near everything in the Heresy series? Kind of, but that’s not going to happen. If Kyme takes stewardship of Thiel for the rest of the Imperium Secundus arc – or if he does what I hope he does, and makes him a prominent part of ‘Deathfire’ – then I’ll be far from dissatisfied. 8/10

New to PurpleHeresy? Head on over to the index page to see a more chronological list of the Horus Heresy reviews on this blog.

Yo, that Vulkan be spittin' that hot fire, son.

So after months of fucking nothing (beyond a fairly vague tweet from Nick Kyme), Heresy fans were given a treat yesterday...

Yes, book 32, the sequel to 'Vulkan Lives' and 'Unremembered Empire' is coming, in, like, two fuckin' months. AGES away! (Remember when we were told "Hey, by the way, we didn't mention it before but 'Unremembered Empire' is out this week!"? That seems a loooooong time ago now.) Ahh well, I guess it gives me time to read all Kyme's Heresy work again in preparation.

£25 is the price tag floated, so we can probably expect the hefty 500+ page count of 'A Thousand Sons', 'Vengeful Spirit' or 'Fear To Tread'. This could be a mixed blessing. 'Vulkan Lives' was average length but it felt drastically overlong and I really struggled to read it. But that was a book I read fresh off of reading the whole Heresy series for the first time. After the famine of 2015, I might be hungry enough for Nick's rather dry prose to seem a feast...

So, what will 'Deathfire' actually be about? From BL's website:

Vulkan lies in state beneath the Fortress of Hera, and yet many of his sons still refuse to believe that he is truly dead. After a seemingly miraculous rescue by the Ultramarines, Artellus Numeon, once captain of the Pyre Guard, urges the other Salamanders on Macragge to leave Imperium Secundus and return their primarch’s body to the home world of Nocturne – there to be reborn in the flames of Mount Deathfire. But Numeon grapples endlessly with his doubts and fears for the future of the Legion, while their foes seek to carve out new destinies of their own...

And from an email sent out from BL, with a slightly different synopsis:

In the wake of the cataclysmic events in The Unremembered Empire, Captain Numeon of the Pyre Guard experiences visions of Vulkan born anew in the furnaces of Mount Deathfire. An epic odyssey to Nocturne ensues. Beset by the Death Guard and Magnus the Red, can the Salamanders make it home through the Ruinstorm?

So we have a pretty good idea of what the setup will be, and I'm kind of confident that neither BL or Nick will throw us a curveball and have this be Vulkan's last voyage. No, this will most likely be a setup for his eventual return to Terra - well, if that's what they end up doing with the character (I got my suspicions). A corpse-carrying road-trip isn't necessarily a bad idea, and a small group of Salamanders defying Guilliman and going on a Viking-style quest for a borderline-impossible goal could be the framework for an excellent novel.

I anticipate that Vulkan will spend most (or all?) of the book as an inert corpse in a box, making Numeon our primary character. He wasn't always a character I felt massively engaged by, but the way his storyline was left hanging at the end of 'Vulkan Lives' always nagged at me, and now I guess we'll get closure, or as close as we can get in these books.

As for the Ultramarines... my bet is that Aeonid Thiel rescues Numeon - in fact, this would make a lot of sense as a topic for the apparently upcoming audio drama 'The Red-Marked', named for Thiel's unconventional group of Ultramarine guerrillas. That would be great, as I really like how Kyme writes him. And then, the return to Imperium Secundus; that'll give us some hints about how that story will progress, I hope, maybe even answer some of the annoying questions the last few stories set there have raised.

The Death Guard and Thousand Sons being the antagonists could be interesting, not least because I'd imagine they are almost as likely to kill each other as to kill some Salamander leftovers. I'm always keen on the Death Guard taking a prominent role in a Heresy novel, and Nick hasn't written them yet as far as I recall - so I'm quite intrigued to discover what his spin on them might be. As for the Sons, it'd be interesting to see what Nick would bring to that Legion too, and considering 'Crimson King' is probably up next, it could give some nice opportunities for some 'Prospero Burns' / 'Thousand Sons' split scenes, with the action playing out differently depending on the viewpoint character. Of course, the two factions may never interact, in fact, Magnus might just show up in magic ghost form and scream "NEW MIXTAPE DROPS 2015!" then disappear as everyone shits blood.

Concerns? Well, I don't know if more stories about Shattered Legion warriors "[grappling] endlessly with [their] doubts and fears" is really what the Heresy needs. In fact, we probably need a break from it. Salamanders doing it is probably going to be a bit more readable than yet more Iron Hands grinding their teeth about their moribund Legion, but... I dunno. I guess it could be an OK theme, if it's not one that 'Deathfire' doesn't lean on too much; the problem is I have little faith that Nick won't just run it into the ground.

And also... Numeon experiencing visions? I mean... is this going to be another 'awakened psyker' story? While I don't hate them as much as some Heresy fans seem to, I think we've maybe had enough of them for now - yet the idea of another character being granted visions by the Emperor also seems depressingly likely, as well.

I'm not sure I can really express how disappointed I am with this year's Heresy release schedule without coming across as a real whiner, but this goes some way to redressing the balance. Still, it does make me worry we might see only two Heresy novel releases this year - maybe just one, if Graham doesn't finish 'The Crimson King' in the next few months. I suppose it's unfair to complain - Black Library seem to be concerned with pushing the End Times series at the moment, and gods know those poor Warhammer Fantasy fans do need some attention, so it's good they're getting their due. I do feel a bit hard done by, though, especially when you consider the sheer volume of Heresy stuff that came out last year.

Ah well, the Warhammer World opening will probably give us a bit of a preview for the release schedule. I'm optimistic that 'The Red-Marked' is a likely audio release before 'Deathfire', and hopefully at least one HH novella to come out this summer... if nothing else, that Battle for Calth Forge World book is gonna be here soon.

AND WE OUT LIKE FULGRIM

"Tallarn: Executioner" by John French

Prompted by the wide-scale re-release of this previously limited-edition novella, and the announcement of a full-length Tallarn novel coming soon (released before I finished the review), I decided to jump back in time and review this – absolutely one of the best Horus Heresy novellas so far. Better even than ‘Aurelian’ or ‘Prince Of Crows’? It’s not a competition… but yes, I think so. Let’s look at why.

PEW PEW PEWWWW

In 40K, Tallarn is a desert wasteland, homeworld of the Tallarn Desert Raiders, its surface near-uninhabitable. In 30K, despite Graham’s ‘False Gods’ line “My mouth’s as dry as a Tallarn’s sandal”, Tallarn is a temperate ‘jewel world’, prosperous and thriving in its economy and environment. All that will soon change. At the novella’s beginning, (which, thanks to ‘Black Oculus’, we pretty much know follows on from the events of ‘Angel Exterminatus’) we see the Iron Warriors fleet burst into existence, jumping from… elsewhere. They translate in disarray; Perturabo’s flagship, the Iron Blood, even smashes a lesser vessel out of the way, leaving it to die. It’s implied here that the Iron Warriors turn their deadly attention to Tallarn simply because it is the closest system to where they’ve ended up – yet there have been hints elsewhere that there is a deeper motivation to the actions of the IV in their stubborn persecution of the world. I suppose we’ll need to wait and find out. Once there, they virus-bomb the planet, leaving millions upon millions dead – but not managing to extinguish all life on the world, due to Tallarn’s extensive subterranean network of tunnels and installations.

The book has a rather interesting format. It’s split into six chapters, each one of which follows our group of characters for a short time period during the beginning of the Tallarn war. These chapters are very ‘ground level’, focusing on these soldiers’ experiences and rather narrow view of the planet-wide war. Between each chapter, there’s a page of wider context, telling you what happened in the weeks or months between these little moments. (This concept – personal narrative, then some macro-view inserts – is also used by John to great effect in his Tallarn audio drama ‘The Eagle’s Talon’.) In the Limited Edition novella there’s a helpful timeline insert to show you the exact timeframe of how long the war dragged on – but those of you buying the standard edition should have no difficulties following the chronology.

Our heroes here are a mix of people who, through various means, have avoided the terrible but quick death caused by virus-bombing. They have survived to become soldiers, whether they wanted to or not. Actually, Lieutenant Tahirah is already a soldier, an officer in the armoured formation the Jurnian 701^st. She drives a Leman Russ Executioner (hence the novella’s name) called Lantern. When disaster comes, they are working far below the Sapphire City. Stranded on the world awaiting deployment for twenty-seven months, she and her unit are getting jumpy, bored and frustrated. They are about to get more than they bargained for. Sharing the underground complex are the Chalcisorian 1002^nd, whose sergeant Brel is another primary character. Plagued by old war injuries which left him with debilitating headaches, Brel is a real piece of shit, sort of a cross between Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ and the venal Meryn from Gaunt’s Ghosts, yet somehow surpassing them both in roguish scumbaggery (he makes quite a dramatic first impression). Lastly, Akil is a wealthy merchant prince who trades in the Sapphire City, whose most pressing concerns are that the end of the Great Crusade will impact negatively on Tallarn’s economy. Journeying home through a more proletarian area of the city, he intervenes in a brutal mugging, saving an (apparently) helpless old man from two thugs. Akil’s kindness will have a profound effect on Tallarn’s fate. While there are other significant characters, these three are the ones we spend the most time with, and John works excellently within this small cast at contrasting their character traits. Outside of his extra-legal shenanigans, Brel is like a hunter, relying on instinct and feeling out the battlefield to get the drop on his prey. The moment where he cuts his machines’ systems and lies in wait, using the other tanks in his squadron as bait, shows us just how cold a bastard he can be. Tahirah is more by-the-book, a promising soldier now doomed to an ugly, unwinnable war, and her frustration at this is a powerful motivator – not always in a good way Akil is a bit of an audience substitute, in that he is no solider: relatable reactions to the situation, like fear, guilt and anger, are mostly supplied by him. However, there is more to him than we can see at first glance.

Due to my misreading of key factors of the story background, and the way the timeline insert is laid out, I thought ‘Tallarn: Executioner’ took us through most of the battle for Tallarn. The novella actually finishes about a month after the hostilities commence; we have around a year of war left before the Iron Warriors withdraw. Chronologically, your next trip into Tallarn should be ‘Eagle’s Talon’ and ‘Iron Corpses’, in that order, followed by ‘Tallarn: Ironclad’ which deals with the last half of the war. ‘Tallarn: Executioner’ may be little use as an overview of the largest tank battle in galactic history, but it’s a superb introduction to the Tallarn arc – I’ll need to go back to the other stuff before I review it, but my feeling at this time is that it’s the best Tallarn fiction by a long, long way.

There are similarities here to ‘Know No Fear’ and ‘Legion’ – two fairly lofty comparison points. ‘Know No Fear’ in the brilliantly tense writing of the action sequences; while much more ‘low-stakes’ than the planet-spanning dust-up of Calth, the tank battles here are just as capable at keeping you on the edge of your seat. As for my beloved ‘Legion’, the similarity is in the book’s almost exclusive reliance on unaugmented human personnel. The Iron Warrior antagonists and the loyalist Space Marines who flock to Tallarn later in the conflict are not shown as characters. The Traitors are just represented by their sealed war machines. While the spectacular cover image of burning Terminators disembarking from a damaged Land Raider certainly happens, it’s not really a fair representation of the majority of the action. Notably, no Space Marine is given a single line of dialogue.

The Black Library book other than this I remember having great tank combat was Dan Abnett’s ‘Necropolis’, and Dan’s a pretty high benchmark for a Black Library author wanting to write a compelling action sequence which also builds on characters. To be honest, I don’t read much non-Black Library combat-heavy stuff, so there’s likely more mind-blowing sci-fi tank battles out there – but ‘Tallarn: Executioner’ certainly did it for me. However, the action almost feels more like submarine combat – tanks in thick fog, unable to see their opponents until they’re on top of them. The fact that these skirmishes are rather small scale (barring a slightly out-of-place, but utterly visceral, confrontation with a Titan) gives them a desperate intimacy we don’t see a lot in books from this publisher. I guess this leads to the only concern I had about ‘Tallarn: Ironclad’ once I’d finished ‘Executioner’: that if, as John had stated, it was going to take a much more ‘widescreen’ view of the Tallarn war, with a larger cast and larger battles, perhaps this intimacy would be lost. ‘Ironclad’ is fantastic, I’ll say that now – but it’s no ‘Executioner’.

The plot here is intriguing and well-layered considering the relatively sparse page count. The tension of that last denouement is handled masterfully, and to cap it all, there’s even a ‘post-credits scene’ to rival any Metal Gear Solid game. The fact it’s called ‘The Hydra’s Dream’ would seem to prove that the shadowy organisation operating from within the Imperial survivors’ camp is made up of operatives from the Alpha Legion – an assumption that John’s subsequent Tallarn work has borne out.

‘Tallarn: Executioner’ is beautifully written. I’d enjoyed ‘The Last Remembrancer’ quite a bit, but this was what convinced me John French was a top-tier Black Library writer to watch. He does not have the bleak humour of AD-B, but nor does he have that writer’s occasionally embarrassing fits of over-emoting. I doubt that, for example, Aaron could have handled the tragic-heroic ‘face turn’ of Brel without making it much more melodramatic. (Christ, I’m using wrestling terms to denote plot points. I listen to the Giant Bombcast too much.) John’s work is cold and clinical when it needs to be yet can also bring some poetic beauty to things. Whether it’s the description of the virus-bombing of Tallarn – in some ways, a more disturbing one than the ‘Galaxy In Flames’ murder of Isstvan, due to its matter-of fact brevity – or the relationship between the survivors, or the bittersweet moment of the poison fog clearing enough for Akil to see the moonlight over his dead world… Well, John’s got that quality that I will – while hating myself to use such a cliché – call cinematic. It certainly doesn’t pull its punches; many of the non-combat scenes leave you just as shaken as the high-stakes tank fights. By showing us the quality of the Sapphire City – not sci-fi beauty, but conceivable modern beauty – John gives its desolation that much more of an impact. When we were told that Isstvan III and the Choral City were once beautiful, did it really sink in? We only ever saw them as the backdrop to a war.

Finally, Silence and Lantern, the names of the two primary engines in the squadron for most of the book, correspond, oddly enough, to the weaponry of Mortarion: his huge scythe is called Silence, and he wields a large unidentified pistol called the Lantern. I’m not sure of the significance of this allusion, but since John French helped to write ‘The Horus Heresy: Betrayal’ where Mortarion’s wargear was named, I’m pretty confident it was intentional. The scout vehicle, Talon, might be a nod to John French’s buddy AD-B’s ‘Talon Of Horus’ book.

As I originally asserted, ‘Tallarn: Executioner’ is one of the very best Horus Heresy novellas so far. ‘Aurelian’ and ‘Brotherhood of the Storm’ are certainly on its level, but cut from their associated novels, could they stand alone? I strongly doubt it. And as much as I enjoy all the other novellas Black Library has produced for the Heresy, none of those come close. ‘Tallarn: Executioner’ is the complete package – ‘Ironclad’ is a great sequel, but ‘Executioner’ almost needs no continuation. 10/10

New to PurpleHeresy? Head on over to the index page to see a more chronological list of the Horus Heresy reviews on this blog.

"Scars" by Chris Wraight

Sometimes… Shit, sometimes… I think ‘Scars’ might be my favourite fuckin’ Horus Heresy book ever.

o shit look over there son

Let’s not throw other books under the bus. There are close competitors. ‘Prospero Burns’ is a poem, an experiment with style which is divisive in the fanbase, but which I love unreservedly. ‘The First Heretic’ was a complete surprise, not a flawless one, but it brought emotional depth to some of the most cartoonish villains in the lore. And then Aaron did that again with a whole different Legion in ‘Betrayer’, also refining the structure of ‘The First Heretic’, trimming its narrative fat. ‘Legion’ is fucking amazing – but it’s so short, and as the series goes on it feels more and more like it doesn’t belong, perhaps even that its presence hurts the series in some way; it makes all other Alpha Legion appearances so disappointing, and its vision of the Crusade is so far from everything else we’ve seen (yet, I think, so much better than most of the other stuff as well). The same pitfall, in a way, befalls ‘Horus Rising’ – every time I read it, I get mad at the serious drop in almost every aspect of the story’s quality that happened when ‘False Gods’ came around. I’ll argue at length for ‘Angel Exterminatus’ being an underrated classic – but it’s not my favourite. I’ve grown fonder and fonder of ‘The Unremembered Empire’ for its distinctive writing style – but it’s not my favourite.  ‘Know No Fear’ has, I believe, the best action sequences in the whole Heresy, no contest, but it’s probably not my favourite. Probably not. That one’s a strong contender, though.

But ‘Scars’? This book has some serious pull.

First off, don’t read this without reading ‘Brotherhood of the Storm’. Since ‘Brotherhood’ is now available in ‘Legacies of Betrayal’, even you ‘I won’t read anything but the numbered novels’ crazies are going to have no excuse to skip this masterpiece. Between ‘Brotherhood’ and ‘Scars’, there’s a switch from first-person to third-person which readers may find jarring at first, but it’s a necessary step considering the drastic increase in ‘perspective’ characters in this book.

The book begins with a prologue which cuts between Tamu (a youth on Chogoris) and Haren (a Terran boy from the region of Skandmark, which is a great name for a fake-Nordic place). The two boys are on completely different worlds, but their lives run parallel. The prologue takes you through their days as Legion Aspirants, Haren hoping to join the Luna Wolves, Tamu being a potential White Scar. Tamu forms a companionship with Yesugei the Stormseer, and Haren suffers the agony of not quite making the grade for his preferred Legion. As the two of them prepare for ordination into the White Scars, they must choose new names as part of the ritual of Ascension. Tamu becomes Shiban, and Haren becomes Torghun. Shock! IT WAS TWO KEY CHARACTERS FROM ‘BROTHERHOOD OF THE STORM’ ALL ALONG!

I don’t think the Heresy has ever really explored the Aspirant process as thoroughly as Wraight does here. It works brilliantly, not just as a re-introduction to these characters, but as an explanation for their attitudes.

This section also features probably one of the best paragraphs ever: “Many of [the Aspirants] had been taken from the Asiatic hive clusters. Haren disapproved of that. After Unity the Imperium was meant to have moved beyond racial and ethnic stereotyping, so the fact that the V Legion remained mired in the physiognomic traits of their backwater world was an irritant.” Sure it’s a nice indicator of Haren’s frustration and arrogance, but it also lampshades the idiocy of a whole Legion of Space Mongolians. (There are elements of other real-world cultures in the White Scars Legion. Torghun uses a tulwar, an Indian sword; Shiban wields a guan dao, a Japanese weapon.) When Black Library were selling ‘Scars’ as an episodic e-book series, I only had to buy ‘Prologue’ to feel confident it would be worth waiting for the hardback and reading it in one sitting. After this, you might assume Shiban and Torghun will be the main characters here. Unfortunately, I feel Torghun is never really explored or shown to the same degree as Shiban. I did find Torghun a really interesting character so I would have liked more exploration of his motives, but hey, whatever. It’s possible that could be an element of whatever comes next in this story arc.

After the prologue, we skip forward and follow the events of ‘Brotherhood of the Storm’. Ilya Ravallion is preparing to leave Chondax, concerned by the inability of the Astropaths to make contact with the rest of the Imperium. Meanwhile, Shiban is on Phemus-IV, and discovers the bodies of a White Scar patrol group mysteriously assassinated months ago – a great tie-in to ‘The Serpent Beneath’. And Torghun is creeping over to a Lodge meeting to get hella crunk. At this time, Yesugei is on Chogoris, musing over the Edict of Nikea. He comes to the conclusion that he must have guidance from the Khagan to unpick this knotty issue, and though he had been ordered to remain on the homeworld, he resolves to find his Primarch and appeal to him regarding the Edict which he believes to be a mistake. Unfortunately, due to suspicious Warp-storm activity, shit’s kinda rough and his journey will not be an easy one. It feels like by this point in the Heresy series, I should be rolling my eyes and looking at my watch whenever there are sequences where clueless loyalists scratch their heads at the strange Warp phenomena restricting their movements, but Chris does well in making this seem like a fresh new storyline.

Then, the ‘wild card’, unexpected for fans of ‘Brotherhood of the Storm’ but perhaps unsurprising given Chris’ authorial history: we cut to the Space Wolves. Their spirit darkened and bruised after Prospero, and worsened by learning of the betrayal at Isstvan, they’ve realised they have been manipulated and used. Gathering at the Alaxxes Nebula to repair their fleet, they ponder their next move. As Russ orders them to return to Terra, their plans are complicated by the arrival of the Alpha Legion. It’s really cool that we get – ostensibly – a sequel to ‘Prospero Burns’ as some bonus content to a book about a completely different Legion, and it gives Chris a chance to expand on the not-entirely-positive relationship between the V and VI Legions.

But that’s not all! Then we have a meeting on Terra between Dorn, Constantin Valdor and the Sigillite, where they discuss their possible options for squashing this rebellion, and Malcador drops this jewel: “You brothers – such a nest of rivalries. I warned him to make you sisters, that it would make things more civilised. He thought I was joking. I wasn’t.” As someone who has a shitload of aunts, I would say that perhaps Malcador is not completely correct there, but I love that line. And then (yes, there’s more), back with the White Scars fleet, we get a reintroduction to another character from ‘Brotherhood of the Storm’ – Jaghatai Khan. He’s grown closer to Ilya and she no longer feels like she’s going to have a heart attack when she sees him, though he’s still an extremely intimidating presence. He’s also given much more time on the page than he was in ‘Brotherhood of the Storm’; in fact, you could argue he is one of the main characters in this book – and I think that’s as it should be, with this being his Legion’s first novel.

Now, my intro covers a rather small portion of ‘Scars’, and I think you’ll agree that’s a lot of characters and a lot of plot strands for the first three chapters of a book. As I read it, I was flipping out – could Chris keep this many storylines in a manageable, tight story? As it turns out, he doesn’t need to; many of the storylines are dropped quickly. The Terran intrigue is just a nice bonus, a reminder that Chris probably writes Malcador better than anyone else. We don’t see anything like that again. And the Space Wolves strand is a major plot device, but doesn’t persist through the whole book, though it’s an opportunity to get some more Bjorn character development. As for Torghun, he does some pretty significant stuff, but in terms of page count he’s a secondary character we don’t spend much time with. No, ‘Scars’ really just carries on with the characters (and plot strands) of ‘Brotherhood of the Storm’, with a much greater presence from the Khagan. In fact, the Fifth Primarch is the driving force behind the book’s narrative, which is as it should be. Torn between his duty to the Imperium, and his independent nature, the Khan would rather find things out for himself than blindly carry out an order from his brother, whether that’s Dorn or Horus.

The Space Wolf/Alpha Legion confrontation is great, but a relatively brief account. Wraight’s void war was impressive, but I admit I enjoyed it more when Bjorn and his pack were fighting the Hydra face to face. And Bjorn’s angry interrogation of the dying Alpha Legionary, and his confusing answer… it’s so great. I honestly feel that by giving the Alpha Legion an almost non-speaking role, Chris has taken the first steps on the road I wish all the Heresy writers would travel: pulling it back to the remote and mysterious characterisation of ‘Legion’. As a bonus, Leman Russ has a fight against a Contemptor Dreadnought which ends so gruesomely, it actually made me nauseous. But the Space Wolf strand quickly draws to a close, with the VI forced back into the Alaxxes nebula and driven to seek aid from the White Scars – aid which Jaghatai denies them with a frostily polite message mentioning that they must go investigate the reported demise of Prospero. I don’t doubt this moment will be a point of contention when the Wolf and the Khan meet again – but it also sets the Wolves up brilliantly for the Alaxxes fight, something we can hopefully expect in novella form later this year.

With the second part of the book beginning, Yesugei joins the Shattered Legions in their fight, which is a good opportunity for him to discuss corruption and sorcery with the more tunnel-visioned Bion Henricos. (Yes, Bion Henricos. The shadow of ‘Little Horus’ continues to loom over the minds of other Horus Heresy writers, though Chris seems much less indebted to it than Graham.) There’s a telling scene where Yesugei horrifically tortures a captured Word Bearer, before being stopped by a Salamander – Yesugei’s apparent ruthlessness switching quickly to his capitulation and shame when the error of his judgement is pointed out, makes me like him (and the Salamander) even more. It also shows that even the most powerful of the White Scars are nowhere near as intractable as many Legion command elite. It says a lot about their Legion’s character.

Though Torghun and Shiban’s scenes here slow the pace a little too much – especially considering this Legion’s predilection for speed – the Khagan’s quest to find out what happened to his beloved brother Magnus more than makes up for any shortcomings elsewhere. It also leads to one of the most devastating scenes in the book: Jaghatai confronting the shade of his brother Magnus in the ruins of Tizca. Not content with defining one Primarch’s character, and redefining the character of another Primarch who had previously been rather undeveloped (we’ll get to that later), Chris actually writes yet another Primarch to a very good standard as well. There’s no dramatic change in Magnus’ attitudes from what’s previously been written about him, but his dialogue and his characteristics just seem more well-thought out and subtle than the rather one-dimensional wizard king in Graham McNeill’s book. As for their unexpected regard for each other, it’s written in a way that makes a lot of sense – it’s established fairly early on that some seem to think Jaghatai has the gift of psychic powers – Yesugei and Magnus among them. I really like the idea of Primarchs who you’d never think would get on ending up as best bros, so this is a great development. Not only that, but Chris’ Ahriman is excellent as well, much more in line with the John French books. I know I’ve banged on about being disappointed in ‘A Thousand Sons’ before, and most HH fans love that book so this probably won’t stand out as much for them. I have faith that ‘The Crimson King’ could be a fantastic book, so I’m not going to start clamouring for Chris Wraight to write all the Magnus stuff from now on… but it’s a great expansion to his character, one I hope McNeill takes a few cues from.

And speaking of writing Primarchs excellently… the brief flashback to Ullanor, just after the Triumph and Horus’ ascension to Warmaster, sees Fulgrim, Mortarion, Sanguinius and the Khan having a nice family get-together. Buried (and not-so-buried) resentments don’t take long to ruin the gathering. It’s a masterfully written scene, and makes me regret that Wraight didn’t have the opportunity to feature Primarch interaction more heavily in his books. I’m almost tempted to add another one to the list of ‘Chris might be the best at writing this Primarch’ characters: Sanguinius. Unfortunately, in a great deal of Heresy fiction, the Angel has come across as a little fey and – not stupid, but rather naïve, and perhaps lacking in charisma. More sullen than angelic. Here, Wraight shows him as (in Nick Cave’s words) a lovely creature, a conciliator amongst his passive-aggressive brothers with little in the way of guile or malice. This conversation is also a telling illustration of the Khan’s attitudes to the Imperium itself. He does not believe that Horus should have been elevated to Warmaster, not because he distrusts Horus or wishes the role for himself, but because he doesn’t think such a positon should exist. ‘Scars’ is littered with little moments like this showing the Khan’s “fuck the Feds” attitude; there’s a very telling flashback where Yesugei remembers the Khan back on Chogoris denouncing the very prospect of an Emperor able to conquer everything.

Abnett’s Russ and Guilliman, AD-B’s Lorgar, Graham’s Perturabo… The list is impressive, yet this late in the game, it feels like the redefinition of a Primarch is less and less likely. Somehow though, Chris managed it for the Khan, not just redefining his character, but his role in the Horus Heresy. Wraight began to show his skill in this arena in ‘Brotherhood Of The Storm’, and continued into ‘Scars’ (and ‘Daemonology’, for Mortarion). Something in me hopes he gets a crack at Alpharius next, as of all the eighteen Primarchs, the XX seems the most in need of a helpful push at the moment – yet if Wraight stays with the Khagan, I will be far from dissatisfied.

Jaghatai and the Magnus-shade’s conversation is one of the best moments of the book; it reads like an eloquent apology for the intensely stupid actions Magnus’ character has been funnelled into during the series. Yet it’s also a harsh reality check for the Khan, who’s been focusing so much on the horror which has befallen his closest brothers – Magnus and Horus – that he hasn’t quite allowed himself to see the wider context. A side must be chosen. Oh, man. What a downer this book is getting towards the end. It’s like the big homie Randall said, life is just a series of downer endings.

But could… wait, could Chris just… throw in a late-novel game-changer featuring a Primarch who’s been woefully underused so far? And perhaps write one of the most emotionally resonant Primarch confrontation we’ve had in the series so far? (OK, Angron and Lorgar v Guilliman in ‘Betrayer’ is pretty great too.) I’ve already gushed about this in other reviews, so the shock (and spoilers) should be low by now. But when I saw Mortarion show up in this book, it felt like Christmas had come early. I was like OH SHIT SON YOU AIN’T EVEN HAD TO DO THAT! BOOK WAS ALREADY A SOLID 9! Not only is this a great fight scene (unstoppable forces vs immovable object, Spiderman vs the Hulk) it’s a wonderful confrontation of the two brothers’ viewpoints. The Khan’s disdainful verbal excoriation of Mortarion’s self-aggrandisement is rather cutting, but I think if we look at how things played out, Mortarion had a better grasp of how things would play out on a wide scale. I strongly recommend reading ‘Daemonology’ right after you finish this book, and then reading the Death Lord’s scenes in ‘Vengeful Spirit’ – it makes a horrible kind of sense now.

I feel like I’ve compared a lot of Heresy books’ endings (favourably) with The Empire Strikes Back. With ‘Scars’, my feeling is more of ‘A New Hope’. The characters are beginning to realise the stakes, they have won a significant victory, but they know a long hard road is ahead of them. Their optimism is cautious, but it’s still there. I hate saying it, because I genuinely like the Scars so much as characters, but I can’t wait for the V Legion to go down the dark paths we know are waiting for them on this long Heresy road.

When I finished ‘Scars’ for the first time, I might have given it 9/10. I was annoyed that the Space Wolf/Alpha Legion strand was truncated so abruptly, and that all the Primarchs listed in the Dramatis Personae didn’t take a more central role. Knowing the overview of the book, and giving each plot strand the added attention it deserved, I found it to be as perfect a Heresy novel as we’ve ever had. Yes, there were a few moments where I was a little less engaged – Torghun and Shiban’s dance around the Lodges should have been shorter by a few scenes. But it’s packed with superb sequences which stand as highlights of the entire series.

I honestly can’t wait for the next ‘Scars’ novel – from my conversation with Chris Wraight at the Weekender, its publication before the end of 2015 doesn’t seem completely impossible at this point – but it’ll be bloody difficult for him to get better than this. 10/10

New to PurpleHeresy? Head on over to the index page to see a more chronological list of the Horus Heresy reviews on this blog.

Horus Heresy Weekender - Part Six: Conclusion

Day Two

Garro: Knight-Errant

Before the speakers came in, some enterprising soul changed Laurie Goulding’s name to ‘Saul Tarvitz’ on the Powerpoint document. We all chuckled.

In attendance were Laurie Goulding, John French and Jim Swallow. This seminar was partly to promote the new 20 minute audio drama ‘Garro: Ashes of Fealty’ which was a new exclusive drama for the ‘Garro: Knight-Errant’ audio drama pack. We were told it ties into ‘Flight Of The Eisenstein’ more overtly than the other Garro dramas. It was described by Jim as a story of “faith versus reason”, focusing on Garro’s apothecary comrade who is trying to find a cure for Nurgle’s Rot. It also will go into the story of the loyalist Death Guard on Terra who were on the Eisenstein and weren’t named Nathaniel Garro. Jim assured us there is a longer plan for those characters, they haven’t been forgotten, and things will not go well for all of them.

On the subject of Knight Errant dramas, John French then brought up ‘Grey Angel’. John saw Garro as Jim’s character, so rather than doing a Garro story he decided to write a character who’d been done by other authors before. At the time, Black Library also wanted to pick up the trailing Caliban thread.

This led into a general discussion of the Knights Errant as an ‘organisation’ and it was emphasised that Garro isn’t necessarily that central to the way they work – they don’t just follow him around in a line like baby ducks. Answers to questions like “How many are there?” and “How long have they been around?” and “Does Garro know them all?” are probably going to be kept deliberately vague. 

Malcador sees his operatives as tools. There are things Malcador is surprised by – he’s not omniscient. (Case in point, the end of ‘Garro: Shield Of Lies’.) Jim said Garro is trying to find himself and find his purpose. That can create tension between he and Malcador, which is fun to write.

Malcador isn’t necessarily the villain. He definitely isn’t a straightforward, upright guy, which can make him appear to be villainous, in comparison to Garro. Jim likened Garro to Captain America (which I think kind of embodies his appeal).

Q&A

Q: Will the Knights Errant be featured further in the Heresy series?

A: Yes. (laughter) (I’m not sure what the person who asked this question was actually expecting.)

Q: Will we get more explanation/exploration of Malcador’s backstory?

A: At some point, the writers and editors for the Heresy had a meeting with Alan Merrett about the Sigilite’s definitive backstory. It was “too far”. It’s got some stuff which may never be used in the Heresy series. It was described as “chillingly awesome”. The authors also spoke on how they thought Malcador was a useful ‘Emperor substitute’ character, since it’s not possible for the Emperor to show up and say stuff most of the time.

Q: When you write recruitment stories for the Knights Errant, do you prefer it to be a Loyalist or Traitor Legion?

A: There are lots of warriors in the Traitor Legions who are starting to think “I’m not really sure about this ‘stapling a baby to my hat’ thing”, so the Traitor stories are often more fun as there is that additional conflict. Someone said they’d love to write about a loyalist Legionary who doubts their commanders and ends up switching to Horus’ side.

Q: Are there any plans for a Macer Varren solo story?

A: Jim: There are no plans, but it’d be fun. World Eaters are great to write, as they’re so raw, and Varren is just an angry Gerard Butler. (Laurie remarked he looks a bit like Gerard Butler on the ‘Sword Of Truth’ art.)

Q: Any more stuff about the secret base on Titan forthcoming?

A: There are plans to do more with the Titan storyline, though it might be a while before we see that.

Q: Any plans to do a Saul Tarvitz story? (groans)

A: It’d be really fun to do a flashback story, but there’s no (or very little) chance of bringing the character back to life in the current Heresy timeline. It was always the plan to bring Loken back from his apparent death; they have no such plans for Saul. Besides, Tarvitz did a significant job already, in slowing the Traitor advance and helping Garro flee to Terra. He fulfilled his role and perhaps bringing him back would cheapen that. However, it’s still fun to do ‘what if’ scenarios: How would events have differed if Saul and the loyalists had failed on Isstvan III? ‘Warmaster’ shows that Horus feels the events around this time are an endless series of mistakes and missed opportunities for his cause – but his ability to turn them around, to use them to his advantage…. Well, that’s why he’s Warmaster.

Q: If the Heresy series was being written on a blank slate and the ending wasn’t an issue, would you have changed the outcome?

A: Apparently, when this was starting out, Tony Cottrell asked “Why don’t we have Horus win? They won’t expect that.” However, they can confirm that’s not going to happen. Jim: “Yes, I enjoy destroying your sweet, sweet hope – your tears taste so delicious.” Laurie: “That was a bit sinister.”

Q: Will there be a Garro miniature?

A: They hope so, and they’d all like models for all the Knights Errant.

Q: Will there be any Knight Errant operatives from the Alpha Legion?

A: How do you know there aren’t now? (nervous laughter) The things which are appealing about the Alpha Legion are the things which make them very hard to fit into the Knights Errant. It would be difficult to trust any Alpha Legion warrior who was claiming to be a loyalist, and Malcador is not a trusting person anyway, so… probably not. However, when you think about it, the Knights Errant are a lot like the Alpha Legion, in that they wage war in the ways available to them, and not always in the most obvious way.

Q: In the wake of ‘The Watcher’, will there be Ison appearances in future Knight Errant stories?

A: Yes, that will be built on. Also that nearly-dead Space Wolf may be repurposed and show up later on. The Knight Errant organisation, such as it is, is a lot bigger and a lot more eventful than the stories take in, so there are a lot of stories like this happening all the time.

Conclusion

With the seminars finished, I slunk away into the night (well, mid-afternoon) deciding to forgo the closing ceremony.

How was the Horus Heresy weekender? Despite my general dislike for interacting with strangers, and general belief that some of the Heresy fans out there are complete monsters, I did enjoy myself for most of it, though I found it really tiring. If you’re thinking of going, I advise you go in a group of likeminded friends if possible – it’s much easier to cover a lot of ground with two or three of you checking out different things at different times. If I hadn’t felt a pressure to show up and pay close attention to every seminar, I might have been a bit less shattered when the night rolled around and been more intrepid in seeking out scoops from the BL authors, or getting into “bare bants” at the evening’s entertainment (the way this was scheduled and referred to quite coyly throughout day one made me think it was Laurie Goulding doing some Heresy-themed cabaret or something).

As for the people in attendance, they were fine. There was behaviour on display which I find massively annoying on forums (and in real life, as it turns out) like jeering when a character or Legion was discussed, or proudly stating that the novellas are a waste and money, but that stuff was fairly uncommon. I don’t love crowds, but it was rarely too claustrophobic an experience. I’ve learned by now that just because I share an interest with a big crowd of people, that doesn’t mean I’m going to feel a warm, fuzzy sense of kinship to them, and the Heresy Weekender was no different; I had some enjoyable (if short) conversations but I suspect I didn’t form any bonds which will persist throughout the ages.

For my intended purposes (mostly to get some exciting Black Library news and early releases) the Weekender was not a massive success. I’m tempted to try the Black Library Weekender later in the year, as I understand that has more of a book focus, but… ultimately, I think if Black Library really want to promote the Horus Heresy series in novel, rulebook and miniature format, they could stand to talk in a lot more detail and a lot more specifics about what is coming up. The fact I barely heard the words ‘Deathfire’ and ‘Crimson King’ at all over the whole weekend seems like an oversight.

It feels like this would be a perfect place to drum up publicity and enthusiasm for the 2015 schedule. Maybe they have yet to iron out what that actually is, but talking candidly about what everyone’s working on or even not working on, and what will be released this year, seems like something they could emphasise a bit more.

At least there was no “only available at this event!” shenanigans with Black Library here. With ‘Tallarn: Witness’ released as an ebook this week (think of how long most of us had to wait to read ‘Serpent’ and ‘Spirit Of The Conqueror’) and ‘Blades Of The Traitor’ available in ebook format right now – and probably print format within a few months – it looks like Black Library have decided to distance themselves from ‘event only’ shenanigans, going instead for ‘event early’. That’s great, and I really mean that. I’m glad everyone will be able to read the stuff I went to that event for in a few months, rather than a couple years. (Of course, I’d be happier if they had floated a release date for ‘The Imperial Truth’ and ‘Sedition’s Gate’ standard editions.) But the fact BL have sidestepped this but opened themselves to a new type of ‘exclusive’ scumbaggery is disheartening. In my opinion the pricetag for ‘Tallarn: Ironclad’ isn’t outrageous at all by itself… but I’m worried when they describe it as a ‘novel’. I’d rather say “Hey, a new Limited Edtion novella came out which cost a bit more and was a lot longer” than say “Hey, a new novel came out which was a lot shorter and a lot more expensive.” They’re kind of pushing me towards the second one, sadly. As for introducing a ‘location specific’ book – fuck outta here with that shit…

I doubt I’ll be at the Weekender next year. Still, it wasn’t a total loss. ‘Tempest’, the Ultramarine minis, the Scars sequel, the Alaxxes novella, Gav’s mysteriously absent ‘Raptor’, not to mention the curiously undersold ‘Deathfire’ – I’m happy the next several months will most likely be exciting ones for Heresy fans.

Horus Heresy Weekender - Part Five

Forge World Book V: Tempest

Due for release in Spring 2015 – “optimistically”, said Tony Cottrell. It’s not quite out of the studio yet, and it hasn’t been printed. There will, hopefully, be early copies at the Warhammer World re-opening in May, so we can expect hopefully by the end of June it’ll be widely available.

Key points it will include:

• Ultramarines (People booed)
• Word Bearers (More people booed)
• Mechanicum (Nobody booed)
• Imperial militia (Absolutely no reaction)
• Warp Cults

In more detail:

• The story of the Word Bearers’ assault on Calth.
• Background on the XIII Legion, the largest of the Legiones Astartes at around a quarter-million Marines. (THIS is the bit I’m really interested in. I think the main fault of ‘Conquest’ was that it lacked a pre-Crusade/pre-Primarch history of a Legion and I think that’s something I really need to enjoy one of these books.)
• Further background on the Word Bearers as the changes in their Legion continue.
• Background and narrative for Knight Houses and Titan Legions both loyalist and traitor.
• A new campaign system (Ugh. Every fucking book.)
• Imperial Militia and Warp Cults army lists and background.
• Additional Legion units and rules.

‘Tempest’ will show FW trying to capture the scale of ‘Know No Fear’. Similar to that book, in ‘Tempest’, they’ll try to focus on the first 30 hours or so of this fight. The Underworld War will follow in the book after this (which wasn’t named) – as well as the continued war on Calth, it’ll also deal with the Shadow Crusade, Ultramar (Imperium Secundus?), and the World Eaters. It will hopefully be with us before Christmas 2015.

Coming up next for Forge World books, they plan to release a Horus Heresy masterclass book – in fact there will be a series of them. After that, they will probably deal with Prospero and start building all the Tizca pyramids (possibly out of Ferrero Rocher) for the dioramas of the Burning. That will most likely begin 2016. The book will feature Thousand Sons AND Space Wolves (presumably including full army lists and background for both Legions, as well as an account of the assault on Prospero).

Tempest

Calth is a microcosm for the Imperium at its height of its powers – smashed by the Heresy. Its destruction is symbolic, which of course, the Word Bearers appreciate. Expect to read a bit about Macragge. Speaking of which, Alan pronounced it “Macraije”? I’ve always said “Mah-krag”. Guess I’m an idiot. In terms of other stuff in ‘Tempest’, the Knight Houses include the loyalist House Vornherr (I can’t be sure how it’s spelled) who rallied at Ithraca (hey, remember that fight from ‘Honour To The Dead’?). They will not survive the book. They are the largest Knight House in the segmentum.

There will be extensive background on the Ultramarines and also on Ultramar – why the XIII are allowed to have an empire within an empire.

As people were expecting, the next Forge World Primarch work in progress was shown – but people weren’t expecting it to be Guilliman. The model showed him looking very noble and handsome, perhaps in a more rugged way than you might have seen him before – maybe even Dorn-esque. FW’s sculptors have come a long way since the grotesque-looking face of the Fulgrim model. There is a lot more work to do on him, especially the base – they’re hoping to get him ready for purchase at the Warhammer World opening (broken record alert). Guilliman will carry a sword and a power fist. Like all Primarchs he had an extensive armoury, but they had to limit themselves to two weapons. It might not be in line exactly with all the books or artwork, but it will be in line with his appearance in ‘Betrayer’.

The Warp Cults are meant to reflect the huge number of mortal units brought along by the Word Bearers in this conquest. It’s not going to be a giant, deep army list, but you’ll be able to put together a pretty good non-elite force flexible for multiple purposes. The list is going to represent the diversity of Imperial worlds. You could even field muskets against Space Marines, if you really want. To the Word Bearers, Calth is a mass ritual killing and it was “great fun” to add extra stuff to all aspects of the background.

They didn’t pay much attention to how Ultramarines are in 40k, as they aren’t yet transformed by the Codex. No exploration of the “We’re the best” mentality in Heresy-era. The Luna Wolves had really been the most successful pre-Heresy, not the Ultras. They did explore some origin sections of the Successor chapters.

They plan to do gladius upgrade packs for Ultramarine models.

Daemons will be present in the story parts of ‘Tempest’, but not the rules. In the follow-up there will probably be rules for them.

The new campaign system will partly be familiar, some will draw from the novel. It’ll be about small scale stuff in comparison to the massive scale of the Battle for Calth itself – you can’t stop Calth from falling, obviously. There is a scenario included which could tie in to the fight on the Macragge’s Honour.

We will see a lot of Ultramarine character rules – Guilliman, a Dreadnought that fell from space (Telemachon?), a captain (Ventanus?). As well as that, there will be some new Word Bearer characters and revisits of old Word Bearer characters (I guess Lorgar and Kor Phaeron?).

The Mechanicum in Tempest will be extra units – not a new list.

Tempest follow-up

There will be a Calth slipcase like there was an Isstvan slipcase.

Argel Tal will be in the Shadow Crusade book, probably, as will Samus. Maybe it will also feature daemon Angron.

Prospero

They do anticipate challenges for Prospero. The Sisters of Silence and Custodes will probably be the biggest challenge as there’s no framework for them yet. The Thousand Sons will probably require the most playtesting. They want to get the magic and the sub-cults feeling right (As I’ve said before, this is an area I always thought was kind of a shortcoming in Graham’s book, so it’ll be nice to see that get fleshed out, in both rules and background).

Other stuff

More Shattered Legions stuff is coming. It was meant to be in ‘Conquest’. FW would love to put them in a smaller book or perhaps into the ‘Tempest’ follow-up. It will deal with small disparate groups of loyalists, even some Marines from traitor Legions who remain loyal.

They do want to do a Mars book. It keeps getting away from them in the schedule. It wouldn’t just deal with Mars, it would deal with the wider Solar War.

At the very beginning of the project, Alan Bligh and John French tried to map out strengths and weaknesses of each Primarch and Legion. Alan Merrett also helped.

Corax will be done – work has been started on sculpting him. They reiterated that they do plan to get models out for every Primarch there are rules for, but they can’t really comment on the timeframe for that.

There probably won’t be rules for Oll Persson, though they may do a book focusing more heavily on agents of the Emperor and Warmaster – but that’ll need a stronger narrative reason for an Oll feature.

Shifting/corrupted Traitor Legions will be represented by both all-new lists and updated lists. Both sides will change as their method of war changes. We can expect more stuff like the Mhara Gal dreadnought.

While I would have preferred a bit more emphasis on Black Library through the Weekender, I definitely could see that this was the most positively received seminar of the whole schedule. The book looks very exciting and I'm really looking forward to it.

Horus Heresy Weekender - Part Four

Day 2

Stone and Iron – the Iron Warriors and the Imperial Fists

Taking my seat for the beginning of the second day, I heard a lot of people talking about what good fun the previous evening was – but it was too late to feel regret now. This seminar was pretty self-explanatory, an exploration of the IV and VII Legions and their entwined destiny.

John French began by stating the Fists exemplify the Great Crusade; they were built to conquer. Compared to, say, the Night Lords, the VII Legion specialise in taking and holding. They scooped up their conquered population to rebuild the Legion, leading to a diversity of cultures. Their discipline and idealism also are a microcosm of the Great Crusade. I guess I never thought of it that way before, but this kind of made me like the Fists way more than usual.

As a result of their viewpoint, the Heresy becomes a philosophical issue for them, not just a military one.

Polux and Sigismund are perhaps Dorn’s most exemplary sons. (John mentioned something about a third son, perhaps Archemus, but I couldn’t really make out the pronunciation). Sigismund, the crusader, the believer. Polux, the stoic and practical. Dorn himself moves between these two extremes.

Alan Bligh took over to speak about the Iron Warriors. Many people consider the Fists and the Warriors natural enemies. It’s motive that sets them apart. The IV were built for a purpose, but what is it? The dirty, attrition-based wars with no glamour, just tearing down the enemy. The IV may not be the most savage of the Space Marine Legions, but few legions are more pitiless. They see war as industry and arithmetic. They are aren’t an idealist Legion like the Fists, especially since Perturabo was twisted by the intrigues and betrayals of Olympia. Winning is everything for them, and the decimation of the Iron Warriors when their Primarch returns is a lesson. It’s not done in anger, but the Lord of Iron wanted to show his Legion that if you aren’t the best you’re nothing. (Hmmm, maybe some Alpha Legion similarity?)

John: Are the Iron Warriors callous? No. I think they see strength in sacrifice.

Alan: They’re rational and logical. They don’t always get the subtleties. Arguably they join the Heresy because they feel betrayed by the Imperium, and feel loyalty to Horus. Facing xenos during the great crusade, they took awful losses, suffering the highest casualty rates in the crusade – but also a lot of victories. In the run-up to the Heresy their dissatisfaction with their status grows, and it’s a case of the weapon starting to realise what it’s used for. Their paranoia and suspicion is fed by Horus. The Warmaster doesn’t necessarily trust Perturabo, and so sends him to do the dirty jobs – ie, Phall.

John: They’re a very passive-aggressive Legion, and they feel unappreciated.

Alan: Horus doesn’t send his own fleet to Phall – since it could be a suicide mission. We will see the IV start to split off from the traitor cause, further along in the fiction. Horus asks the Iron Warriors to stop Tallarn due to too much material being wasted. (Perhaps unintentionally, Alan spoiled the ending of ‘Tallarn: Ironclad’ for everyone attending this seminar.) ‘Chaos’ as a force doesn’t fit well with the Iron Warriors. They tend to have an attitude of “We bow to nobody – not even gods.”

John: Yet Chaos is in them, in their obsession with strength and destruction. It just manifests in more insidious ways.

Alan: As explored in the Paramar background, there’s a fairly substantial number of loyalist Iron Warriors. Their logical, cold outlook may lead the more isolated ones into the loyalist path, as they may not feel a particular emotional bond with their Primarch. As for what happens to those loyalists in the Scouring and beyond… who knows?

Q&A

Q: Will there be rules and models for other prominent Iron Warriors, ie Forrix, Kroeger?

A: Yes, eventually. We’d like to. John really likes Forrix and wants to explore his character more.

Q: What will the IV do when faced with certain defeat?

A: John: Not accept it. It “does not compute” in their heads. They will always try to find a way.

Q: Would Dorn, even theoretically, fall to Chaos? If so, which patron do you think he would follow?

A: John: I don’t think he ever would. It’d be difficult. He is still too much of an idealist. Perhaps that Chaotic free-spiritedness would actually have helped him in some of the situations he’s in during the Scouring.

Tony: We haven’t seen any traitor Fists at all…

Alan: If Dorn had ended up in a different situation, if he’d ‘grown up’ on Nostramo, perhaps he would have fallen.

John: The Night Lords and the Firsts have an absolutist outlook in common.

Q: What other rivalries do you like?

A: John: Space Wolves vs Thousand Sons, Space Wolves vs Dark Angels, Ultramarines vs Word Bearers.

Alan: Alpha Legion v Ultramarines.

John: The Alpha Legion want to not just be the best, but also the cleverest. The Ultramarines’ all-round excellence gets on their nerves.

Alan: Iron Warriors and Salamanders are very far apart in ideology, though they’re similar in some ways. They’re both good at burning things.

Q: Any plans to expand on the Kurze/Dorn fight in ‘The Lightning Tower’?

A: John: No, but I love the pairing.

Q: Could Dorn or Perturabo ever have ended up on the opposite side to the one they chose?

A: John – Maybe. Dorn’s role as the Emperor’s Praetorian requires utter obedience, but in Dorn’s position, Perturabo would certainly have been more curious and requested info on the Webway War. And no way would Magnus be fit for that role. Dorn cannot trust/rely on human beings around him and that’s an interesting thing to explore.

Q: Why hasn’t Dorn done anything about Mars?

A: It’s a siege. There’s a war but it’s a slow war. Breaking the deadlock on Mars would probably cost Dorn his whole fleet, including the Phalanx, and he doesn’t want to risk it. Also the solar system is hard to secure. It’s big and there are pockets of resistance all over – there were even before the Heresy.

The seminar ended with a pretty exciting teaser. The last tale of the Fists as a Legion happens pre-Scouring – it’s the story of how the Legion got broken down. It’s never been officially told. Alan and John stated they hope to tell it (I assume they mean ‘we’ as in the Forge World team and Black Library authors, though I’d love it to be a John French novel). It is not as simple as it’s portrayed in previous stuff.

The Art of the Horus Heresy

This comparatively sparsely-attended seminar included a discussion of Neil Roberts’ iconic cover work for the Heresy series, and also the art process which goes into the sculpting of the Forge World miniatures.

Mark Bedford is really inspired by John Blanche, which in turn was inspired by the “grim, dark Thatcherite Britain of the 80s”. He does quick sketches for pages and pages trying to get as many different ideas out as possible. His advice was for prospective artists not to get hung up on using the ‘right’ equipment – go with what works for you.

Neil Roberts talked about the cover of ‘Tallarn: Ironclad’. When drawing the cover art, he’s really inspired by the FW model design and that takes some of the pressure off because the vehicles and units have already been designed – he doesn’t really have to “make shit up”, just make it look as cool as possible. He does like to give his covers narrative context. He likes putting characters on covers – and he also likes featuring “disgusting stuff”. He sees his pictures as a “Remembrancer’s version of what happened” – not constrained by gravity, logic, armour mechanics etc.

Mark: Often when we design the Primarch models, we’ll be very faithful to Neil’s work, though the positioning is tough.

New artwork was shown at this point – a cover for a new book, ‘Meduson’. It looked like a lot of Iron Hand Space Marines and Terminators with one ‘hero shot’ guy bareheaded and pointing, holding a big unidentified glowing thing. Background is a big industrial-type terrain. It looks like a classic ‘cool guys walking at the camera in slow motion’ shot. Warhammer World’s reopening in May will be the only place ‘Meduson’ will be available; it’ll be a numbered edition, it won’t come out on the website. No word on story, length or author.

Rhys Pugh was present – he’s got a hand in the superbly detailed Space Marine ‘diagram’ drawings in the Forge World books. They showed some Ultramarines from the forthcoming ‘Tempest’ book and they looked really great – VERY Roman Empire influenced, probably more than the III Legion even – a strong eagle/aquila motif. Long leather strips off the ‘dickplate’ of the armour, and ornate head-plumes, also seem a little Sons of Horus.

There are also updated Word Bearers – including a jump-pack guy who looked a lot like the Rocketeer. The XVII are starting to change due to Warp influence and their new armour will reflect this.

Alan does have a big say in what’s appropriate for Forge World book artwork. The FW designers are very influenced and inspired by Rhys’ artwork to make their models.

There was a preview also for the very intricate Calth dioramas which will show up in ‘Tempest’ using Forge World models. Looks like some epic stuff.

They talked about the next cover Neil’s working on, which is “crazy”, and Neil thinks he “went too far”. Laurie said “we can’t talk about it yet, but you’ll know it when you see it.” (My hope is that it’s for ‘The Crimson King’ and it’s some ACID TRIP SHIT.)