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The History and Legacy of Dorn's Betrayal


Aurelius Rex

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You have made a single error from what I have read in your otherwise innovative and entertaining versions of IA. I haven't read every word, but there is a recurring problem, and that is the Ultramarines having a forward base in the Istvaan system.

 

Horus was engaged in the galactic North East according to established fluff, which logically we can take to mean Istvaan was in that region also. If this is the case, why would Guilliman create an independent empire in the South East when that would strategically inefficient? I feel the use of Istvaan needs to be revised as otherwise the "loyalist" Legions could have just attacked his Empire and left him without support stranded in the North East.

 

Sorry to find fault with your work, it was just a glaring problem that needed revision.

I would agree that using Istvaan as the site of the betrayal in both timelines is a bit of a conceit, but it is such an iconic location that you can't have the drop-site massacre anywhere else. :) I checked high and low and there has never been any canon mention about where Istvaan actually was in the galaxy. Add to that the rapid expansion of the Ultramarines empire far past the bounds of the normal Ultramar, so it could be anywhere within Ultima (Now Ultramar) Segmentum. If GW can't be bothered to say where it is, then there is at least a little wriggle-room.

 

And if it really bugs you, then as Sigismund has said, feel free to take it that one of the changes in this alternate history can be that during the Great Crusade a different system was named Istvaan. :D

 

Oh, and Calth is taken... the Word Bearers still destroy it, but in a slightly different way of course. :blush:

@Captain Idaho - Good stuff - I'm glad that works for you. :ph34r:

 

 

@Lee265 - As far as the Imperium, and the Emperor's Children knows, Bile killed himself rather than facing Fulgrim's wrath for continuing to diddle with the legion's geneseed. When they broke into his Apothecarion they found what they thought was his body turned to mush inside his power armour by powerful acids / enzymes. Pity the poor sap that Bile got to take his place for that role.

 

With his legion thinking him dead, he escaped and made his way to offer his 'help' to Corax in rebuilding the Raven Guard. Corax doesn't know that Bile is on the run and a traitor to his legion, and Bile's true identity is unknown to the wider Imperium, who only knows the corruptor of the Raven Guard as the Clonelord. Only the reader, with Norm-'verse knowledge of Bile's aliases would know it.

 

The two Corax POV colourtext sidebars are supposed to represent knowledge only known by the reader, by the way. I will be removing the name 'Fabius' from the first one for the Librarium, as it is not required - people should be able to work out who he really is without this rather heavy handed nudge, don't you think? ;)

  • 2 weeks later...

Yes, the Alt-Ultramarines IA has been written, but like their primarch it is in stasis... with luck there will be something special to come with it.

 

In other news, Alt-IA: Word Bearers is really beginning to take shape.

It seems to me that you left it open for Corax to be a kind of Cypher figure in this timeline, since it's never actually stated that he is dead, however instead of the (possible) motive of strengthening the Imperium, he could be out to "rectify his mistake". Not saying it's a bad thing, just pointing it out as I understood it.
It seems to me that you left it open for Corax to be a kind of Cypher figure in this timeline, since it's never actually stated that he is dead, however instead of the (possible) motive of strengthening the Imperium, he could be out to "rectify his mistake". Not saying it's a bad thing, just pointing it out as I understood it.

I'm fine with the ambiguity, FK... in fact it was intentional! :D Leaving a few ends loose and open to debate rather than always closing everything off - like GW's handling of the Lost Legions - can work well if not over-done.

Really liked reading these and looking forward to the rest. I like the close attention to detail, so that the alt-universe info is a plausible mirror and interesting without sounding like a cliché. Your IAs seem to have avoided the usual fan-fiction mistake of making certain protagonists all-powerful, by making the loyalists seem noble yet they still have flaws of character such as the EC's supposed pride or fulgrims dogmatic attention to purity rather than increasing numbers. The way that the strands of the story differ but it still pivot around key events like istvaan or the siege is nice because it keeps the w40k atmosphere.

 

The way the normal universe chaos legions are given the opportunity to show how good they would have been as loyalists, kinda leaves you with a strange sense of nostalgia about what might have been.

 

Great IA's.

I must admit, after 20 years of playing and collecting Warhammer 40,000, this has got me excited all over again. This has encouraged me to pull out some of the sketches I did when I was collecting pre-heresy World Eaters during 2nd edition and start 3 new armies for the alternate universe.

 

I really enjoyed the idea of the World Eaters, so I have started converting and painting up my old saxon marine-themed army, and I have plans for a Space Wolf and Word Bearer force.

 

Absolutely top notch, can't wait to see what comes next.

Thanks for the kind words, guys! It is a really nice boost to hear that it is going down well and resonating in people's imaginations. :P While I am still working on new Alt-IA articles in the background - the Word Bearers and their own take on the Age of Apostasy at the moment - it is a marathon rather than a sprint, but one that I intend to see through.

 

The thing that I think the articles and the project is really missing though is artwork! While If anyone is inspired to paint miniatures or artwork based on the Dornian Heresy, or even knows how to make the B&C marine painter sit up and beg, I would be really interested to see if they can be added to the articles here, with appropriate credit of course! B) I can paint and convert minis passably, but can't do a 2d drawing to save my life!

i'd just like to add my congratulations to this thread, your alt-heresy is definetly my favourite fan fiction ever- period. The heresy fluff was always really good with you wondering what would have happened if things had gone the other way plus it gives me an excuse to paint up some loyal alphas, i always did like them as a legion, my only niggle is i wanted to see a loyal luther fighting an evil lion'el (as i always thought even in norm-verse he was a bit dubious in his allegiance) but yeh, eagerly awaiting the next installment

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