Abaddon, on A D-B's blog

[Kol Saresk]

http://aarondembskibowden.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/lets-talk-about-abaddon/

“Horus was weak. Horus was a fool.”

 

It sums up Abaddon. Horus allowed himself to be used by Chaos – Horus is the Chaos Powers’ dupe to get back at the Emperor. Abaddon will never let this happen. He will never allow himself to be a Pawn of Chaos. Simply surviving without choosing one as a patron is a massive achievement. Never succumbing to the temptation of becoming a daemon prince is a second. Seriously, Abaddon is so driven he’d rather battle and scrape and bite and claw his way up to achieve his goals on his own terms than achieve immortality and virtually limitless power, because the alternative is to open the slightest chink in his independence that the Chaos Gods will exploit.

 

If Horus was the vessel that all of the Gods poured their power into (right up until they abandoned him at the end), then Abbadon has become the vessel that the gods want to have for themselves but haven’t been able to claim. They’ve all offered him a chance to be their regent, to rule in their name, and he has turned them all down, playing them off each other. He is the New Emperor in a way that Horus never was or would have been. Abaddon has, through sheer force of will and dominance, made himself more than a pawn, he has made himself kingmaker. If he were to choose one god to serve, if he dedicated the Black Legion to a single power in his name, that God would crush his rivals almost to the point of victory.

 

Almost.

 

Because Chaos can never win against itself, of course, and Abaddon has seen the truth of this. He knows that Chaos is a process, a state, not a goal, and the moment anyone surrenders to the journey and forgets the destination is the moment their worldly ambitions are forgotten and their spirit becomes simply a part of the Chaos Powers. Abaddon is utterly relentless in his pursuit of what he wants – whatever that may actually be. Revenge on the Emperor? Too petty. Vengeance for Horus? Too sentimental. Power? Yes. What kind of power? Mortal power. He could have all the immortal power he can handle if he but asks for it, but that is not what drives him. He sees the Primarchs disappear, fade, die or simply not care anymore and he understands that only a man can really rule other men. Abaddon doesn’t want to destroy the Imperium, he wants to succeed where Horus failed. He wants to be Emperor and have Mankind bow beneath his rule.

 

His rule, not the rule of the Chaos gods.

 

Abaddon has not failed because he is wilful or incompetent. He has mustered the greatest armies since the Heresy and unleashed them upon the material universe. He has amassed power and influence within the Eye of Terror greater than any primarch. He has done this through feat of arms and personality, but the one thing he can never truly do, because it is anathema to Chaos, is truly unite the ruinous powers. They can only come together in dominance, not subservience. Whenever Abaddon has been on the brink of victory his backers break ranks, seeking to gain some last-minute short-term advantage.

 

Ultimately, a win for Abaddon is a loss for Chaos. If he becomes Emperor he has everything he desires and they can hold nothing over him. And so they continue to dangle the carrot, continue to be his patrons, giving him daemonic power and servants, ordering their mortal representatives to debase themselves and serve his will, all in the hope of snatching the final victory of Abaddon for themselves.

 

It is the Office Politics of Hell. Literally… One of the beliefs surrounding Satan in many Christian theologies is that his defiance of God was his refusal to bow to Man when they were created. In refusing to submit to the rule of mortals, Abaddon carries this analogy perfectly – the Legiones Astartes were created by a god and were never meant to be corralled and curtailed by purely mortal ambitions. As Angels they have a higher purpose – and once had a higher regard in the eyes of their creator, who shunned them.

 

Quite how much of this Abaddon realises when Horus fails and how much he learns over the next ten thousand years (or three days, depending on warp time) is narratively elastic…

 

Bearing in mind the warp/ real interface, being the bearer of the Mark of Chaos Ascendant is not just having a shiny star of Chaos imprinted in one’s forehead. It is, when the Chaos gods are bestowing their blessing/ energy, to be the centre of a blazing star, to be surrounded by a coil of ever-replenshing Chaos energy, heralded by choirs of daemons of all powers, suffused with the essence of the four great Chaos Gods. To each worshipper and follower he appears different (much like the Emperor…). He is a schemer, a warrior, a self-centred iconoclast and a survivor.

 

But there are the times, after the effort, the glory, of being the conduit of so much power, when he teeters on the precipice of doubt, madness and physical corruption. He stands between mortals and immortals, his ambitions far beyond the understanding of the first, yet incomprehensibly alien to the second; constantly he is failed by the inherent weaknesses of both.

 

His enemies circle, material and immaterial, sensing potential weakness. His allies start to disappear. For a while the Chaos Powers are disinterested, choosing to split, becoming self-serving once more, raising up their champions, sometimes alone, sometimes together, hoping that these mortals will rival Abaddon. Yet they never do.

 

And he wonders if it is vanity. He wonders if he is deserving. He wonders if what he wants is possible.

 

And then the Powers come back, trying once more to win him to their cause, taunting, threatening, cajoling and coercing Abaddon to become theirs and theirs alone. And he listens, and he wonders. And always, from somewhere deep in his soul, from the darkest yet strongest place in his mind, the answer comes back, hesitant but growing louder with every beat of his twin hearts.

 

Yes.

 

Yes, one day it will all be yours.

 

And he starts the struggle again. The Long War continues.

What do y'all think?

[Odsox]

*shiver* If there's one man who can turn Abaddon into a properly fleshed-out, damaged and terrifying character, it's that man.

 

By the Skull Throne, I can't wait for the first book.

 

Od.

[Balthamal]

Breath-taking, quite literally.

 

Now if only that was placed literally word for word in the Black Legion supplement then it would count among the greatest pieces of fluff ever produced. Almost enough to make me like him and want to dust off the black primer and get the gold paint ready. Until I remember his model is old and sucky.

 

And Sevatar got there first 

[Noctus Cornix]

And now I want to go back to my Black Legion army....

[Danny Cyanide]

Sweet! Can't wait for the book!

[Chaeron]

I love it - great reasoning really, and as ever, eloquently put.

[TheDevourer]

You can´t beat ADB. Fanboy all the way, I´ll even read about the Black Legion :D

[Pariah Mk.231]

Might be enough to get me to read the rest of his Night Lords trilogy and Betrayer.

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

Breath-taking, quite literally.

Now if only that was placed literally word for word in the Black Legion supplement then it would count among the greatest pieces of fluff ever produced. Almost enough to make me like him and want to dust off the black primer and get the gold paint ready. Until I remember his model is old and sucky.

And Sevatar got there first

No excuse, Forgeworld have a decent one

I've always enjoyed ADB's work, I remember well the wall of text he posted about a chaos warband, excellent stuff

[Sception]

FW's abby is very much a heresy era model, lacking both the equipment and the many manifest blessings of chaos that a 40k Abaddon should have.  I recommend converting from a plastic chaos lord, using the head and hands from the actual model.

[Marshal Rohr]

I don't really feel like chaos is a state, since nothing about 40k chaos is functionally chaotic.

[Chaeron]

I don't really feel like chaos is a state, since nothing about 40k chaos is functionally chaotic.

 

The warp?

[Kol Saresk]

Well to be fair:

 

2

a often capitalized : a state of things in which chance is supreme; especially : the confused unorganized state of primordial matter before the creation of distinct forms — compare cosmos

b : the inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system (as the atmosphere, boiling water, or the beating heart)

 

That is "chaos" as defined by Merriam-Webster. And Chaos in 40K is anything but organized. The Black Legion is nothing more than a boat using its tides to get to shore. It no more controls the ocean than any other sailor.

[Marshal Rohr]

Chaos in 40k is still a hierarchy

[Scribe]

What do I think? I think this should have been the basis for the CSM book. The Emperor's fallen angels, a true mirror of the fall from heaven. I must temper my wrath however, and just say instead, that I will be joining the Black Legion...

[Kol Saresk]

Chaos in 40k is still a hierarchy

But its an ever-shifting,, mutating hierarchy. Sometimes even the Gods are not the top of a specific hierarchy. And since Chaos is only "no organization" and "no order", well 40K Chaos does fit that bill.

[Prot]

 

What do y'all think?

 

I have a feeling that my thoughts are going to (unintentionally) rub people the wrong way. But I'm just going to be honest here, and see if that bites me in the warp hole.

 

I think the piece on Abaddon is beautifully thought out, and it feels like an ADB piece in the sense that it waxes and wanes from showing us an omnipotent bad guy who carries self doubt, and plenty of fault.

 

That's all great... and I mean that. BUT (you knew this was coming) the piece itself makes me go back to something I voiced in the thread where we were all guessing about what we could expect, or wishlist from the Black Legion Codex.

 

So here we have all the amazing background, and understanding of what it means to be truly 'undivided' and not only survive but thrive with that mentality. Right here is all we need to know to have made a truly useful 'Undivided Mark of Chaos' function on the tabletop. It was the first thing I mentioned in my own personal wish listing on the new codex. It had so much potential (beyond what my lethargic imagination is capable of) and it never came close to happening.

 

And that really peeves me off and inevitably is why I am skipping the codex.

 

Essentially I felt the exact same way about Abe as ADB wrote. I am just incapable of putting it so eloquently. Now if some of the rulemakers at GW had read that first.... perhaps we would have seen someone take advantage of this unique relationship that Black Legion (through Abe) has with Chaos.

 

But that ship has clearly sailed....

 

 

[Scribe]

I am not aware of what your stance was, but what about the rules doesn't say 'Chaos Undivided' in the sense that.

 

1. Abby can join any marked unit he wants.

2. All marks have a place in the Black Legion.

 

There is no monolithic 'undivided' sentience anymore, for better or worse, but that doesn't mean the rules don't reflect the nature (as the fluff seems to be indicating) of the ever shifting loyalty (or partnership/patronage may be a better word) of the Black Legion to any one God.

[Kol Saresk]

Undivided literally means undivided now. There is individuality, but there is no segregation. Undivided is a coming together of the Unmarked and the Marked. It is literally the Forces of Chaos Undivided. And no Legion showcases that better than the Black Legion.

[Scribe]

Exactly what I was trying to say. :]

[Kol Saresk]

Oh, sorry.

[Scribe]

Just agreeing with you! :D

 

Either way, I like this take (obviously) on the Legion itself, and its fluff is fitting with what I want Chaos to be, an actual threat.

[Marshal Rohr]

Chaos is ordered though. Khorne can never be the god of change, for example. Just because its an ever shifting system in power doesn't mean it's chaos. The international system is anarchic, but that doesn't make it chaos. If chaos had no order then it never would follow Abaddon. That's called spontaneous order, it may go through periods of power vacuum, but eventually order reasserts itself.

[Kol Saresk]

When isn't that the case though? Even the Greek primordial deity known as Chaos was still, a deity who gave birth to Erebus and Nyx and was also, according to Hesiod, the true foundation of reality. And reality is something that exists with natural orders. In essence, according to the Greeks, Order springs forth from Chaos.

[Tenebris]

Makes me even more adamant about eviscerating loyalist at every turn. We might not have the rules but we as Chaos sure have the best fluff. I am a fan of ADB work but I would love to see more of not just Abby but about the other powers in the Black Legion. I would love to see the human face of the Black Legion, the mutated and warpspawned flesh of the Black Legion and I would love to read more about the Despoiler. Oh a note for ADB if he eventually reads this, please include somewhere and sometime in the BL series a lowly mutant character. We are used to cultists and marines but we hardly see any mutants and abhumans in the Black Library books and they are a core part of the whole grimdark vibe. 

 

Still the Abby post above, poetry for my dark soul. Keep the good job.