The Mark of Calth book question

[Brother-chaplain Astador]

Is this a book composed of entirely new stories? Or is it a compilaiton of stories taken from previous, already released books?

[Kol Saresk]

Every story is new.

[Brother-chaplain Astador]

Thankyou.

[Artein]

Only one of them was released previously in a digital format.

[Kol Saresk]

Yes, that was Dark Heart by Anthoney Reynolds however the BL Blog that advertised it describe it as a sneak peek of The Mark of Calth and it was the only one to my knowledge that was released before the book. But no one I know of bought it. Doesn't mean no one did, just that no one I personally know bought it.

 

But none of the stories were taken from previously released books.

[Wade Garrett]

If someone that has read the book could clear this up I'd be grateful.

 

Scuttlebutt online is Mark of Calth has the Word Bearers killing 60% of the Ultramarines and 80% of their fleet in the battle. If true, then neither Kor Phereon's retreat in Know No Fear nor Lorgar's kvetching in Betrayer make ANY SENSE AT ALL. That's not an ambiguous stalemate...it's a victory worthy of engraving on their armor until the end of time.

 

What's going on here?

[Kol Saresk]

 

Well, that's true but there's something missing. Primarily that the Ultramarines started to counter attack both on the groun and in orbit, and that one of the loyalist Tech-priests regained control of the orbital weaponry, but not until after Calth's sun had been damaged. And in a battle between Guilliman and Kor Phaeron, Guilliman had his throat slit but also ripped out of Kor Phaeron's primary heart afterwards. As a result, Kor Phaeron retreated back to his ship, which then began to retreat.

 

On the surface, the Ultramarines were planning a counterattack on Hol Beloth and Foedral Fell but due to the sun, everyone had to go underground. And apparently the sun's outpouring of radiation was also dangerous to the fleets in orbit because both the surviving Ultramarines and remaining Word Bearers had to retreat as well. The supposition of it being years before retrieval could happen was implied IIRC.

 

A very good portion of both forces were left on the ground and that's how the Underground War started as the forces began excavating and fighting each other.

 

What Lorgar was thinking would happen is that the Ultramarines would probably have responded faster or better and that reinforcements would have shown up and caught the XVII's fleet in a pincer and crushed it. Lorgar was not expecting anyone to survive Calth and was expecting it to just be a disastrous rout for the Word Bearers after an initial success. And while it was, all of the Word Bearers who did retreat remained with Kor Phaeron in the Maelstrom IIRC.

 

Now, during the Underground War, which a good portion takes place in "Mark of Calth", we see that the Word Bearers are completely disorganized for the most part while in contrast the Ultramarines have managed to completely reorganize. Foedral Fell and Hol Beloth are separated with the majority of the Word Bearers either with them or trying to get to them. From Hol Beloth's perspective we see that at least his army was very disorganized, lacking ammunition and not in a very good state of well being although the Sorcerer-Apostle Maloq Kartho promises a way of striking back at the Ultramarines.

 

We also see that this is repeated in at least one of the roving bands of Word Bearers as it is ambushed on the surface by the 200-something members of the Ultramarines IV Company, which with the aid of orbital bombardment and improbability, not only wipe out the much larger, disorganized and "shell-shocked" WB, but also suffer no fatalities. No word was mentioned of any wounds that may or may not have been received on the par of the UM.

 

But yeah, we see a couple of daemons here and there, some more deaths on the part of the Ultramarines and the civilians as well, the Word Bearers' forces are for the most part broken and shattered. Thanks to Maloq Kartho, Beloth's and Fell's forces are wiped out while he ascends to daemonhood and that pretty much leaves the Word Bearers in rather isolated groups to die out as they run out of supplies and soldiers.

 

And in my own reasoning, I wouldn't exactly call it a stalemate. I'm not sure what I would call it. I guess a pyrrhic victory for the Word Bearers since it did achieve what Lorgar wanted but I'd still hesitate to use the word "victory" in any form.

 

 

But that's pretty much everything I can remember while away from my books.

 

EDIT: Added some things.

[Wade Garrett]

Thanks Kol.

I also assume those percentages are the Ultramarines at Calth, not the Legion's assets in total. As otherwise, between that and the Shadow Crusade XIII Legion would be wiped out.

[Kol Saresk]

Most definitely just the forces at Calth. Although I'm not too sure how accurate they are or if it also includes all of the Army units and civilians or just the Ultramarines.