Timeline Headaches with Regards to Nostromo

[Son of Carnelian]

Hey everyone. So, I've expressed how little I care about things like "does a bolter fire automatic or semi-automatic" in the past, because I think questions like that miss the point of the setting. But now I might need to warm up the oven for a healthy serving of crow because I'm literally ANGERED by the Horus Heresy timeline.

 

Massacre states that Nostromo happens a full 20 years before Istvaan. So, why in the world did the Imperium just let Curze run around for 20 years doing whatever he wanted? The Forge World books make it sound like the Night Lords are still attacking worlds for the Great Crusade after the destruction of Nostromo, which means they're not traitors yet. And though I haven't read it yet, apparently Curze goes and trains with Vulkan? Or something? God. Please help me out here, guys and gals.

 

Also, do the Remembrancers only exist after Ullanor or before? That seems... muddled. 

 

 

[Kol Saresk]

The IA articles are the original source material that states the Night Lords blew up Nostramo, went on their own little crusade beyond the reach of the Imperium and then joined up for the Massacre pretending they were Loyalists. Problem is that like everything else with the IA articles, there is no context. In fact, if one were to just read the material, it would seem as though it all happened in less than a year. Despite the fact that logically, it would take longer.

 

So what Massacre does is provide context by saying that Nostramo happened well before the Heresy and then they spent the next twenty years destroying every civilization they came across before volunteering for the Retribution Fleet.

 

As for the remembrancers, before Ullanor they only served at the discretion of the individual Expedition Fleets. Following Ullanor, all fleets were ordered to have remembrancers regardless of individual opinion. That's why you see the Thousand Sons with remembrancers before Ullanor, but the whole idea is a brand new concept to the Luna Wolves following Ullanor.

[Son of Carnelian]

So we have no record of any reprisal? The Imperial Fists didn't chase the Night Lords down for practically gutting their primarch?

[Kol Saresk]

Not that we've seen. Of course, his imprisonment before he blew up Nostramo was supposed to be the reprisal.

[CaptainStabby]

I think there are a couple places where it's mentioned it was on the Big E's to do list, but... he just got sidetracked til he needed he bodies for Istvaan.

[Kol Saresk]

Not exactly. When Curze beat the snot out of Dorn and imprisoned, he was supposed to have been brought to Terra where his brothers would try to bring his crimes before the Emperor. But he escaped, Nostramo happened and then he went so far beyond the Imperium's reach that "out of sight, out of mind" became the SOP.

 

Then, when it came time for Dorn to organize the retribution fleet, the Night Lords came out of the fringes and volunteered. Dorn reluctantly agreed, although Massacre presents the interesting notion that Dorn and Ferrus were plotting to deal with Curze immediately following the Massacre.

 

But surprisingly, the Emperor was never involved; it was always Dorn.

[Son of Carnelian]

Oh and apparently the Salamanders witnessed Nostromo's destruction according to Artefacts? And then Vulkan also tried tutoring Curze? 

 

I'm losing my mind. That makes no sense at all. 

[Kol Saresk]

I haven't read Artefacts so I can't confirm or deny that.

[Kol Saresk]

Okay, I've read it. And it is pretty much the source of the headaches. Okay, so in Vulkan Lives, Vulkan recounts an earlier campaign he shared with the Night Lords on the world Kharataan where it was basically his first exposure to the Night Lords and he was utterly appalled by their acts in slaughtering the enemy and then even gunning down the refugees just to kill an eldar. As far as I can recall, this was never really given a place in the timeline.

 

Apparently Nick Kyme(also author of Vulkan Lives) decided to retcon that. Or finagle with it. However you want to justify or condemn the action.

 

By itself, the primary purpose of Artefacts is to explain the origin of the seven artefacts the Forgefather hunts for and how they went on to be hidden away.

 

Primary problem is this....... headache. Instead of using Horus as the reason why this must be done, Nick Kyme chose to use Curze and his actions at Nostramo and Kharataan.

 

Primary problems are that if Vulkan was scarred by Nostramo then he shouldn't have been surprised by Kharataan, instead he should have been disappointed and maybe ashamed.

 

The other problem is that Nick Kyme places Kharataan as being somewhere between False Gods and Galaxy in Flames. Now, sure, since it was always said the Night Lords went on the rampage and not the Night Lords and Curze, that can be explained away and even provides a decent reason for why only some of the VIII Legion responded to Istvaan while the rest was partying in the Eastern Fringe.

 

But basically it means that Vulkan spent roughly sixteen to eighteen years with Curze, after hearing about him executing prisoners of war and almost murdering another primarch and then directly witnessing him commit a mass extinction as a starting point, and yet at the end of it all he is still surprised by the shooting of refugees who just happen to be in the way of an alien.

 

And then you get the really stupid part where Horus says that finally Curze has learned to use fear as a weapon.

 

Basically, the story is stupid and screws things up dramatically. I started out trying to rationalize and I can't. So I won't. Because this isn't even the "well, it's just your opinion that this bad writing just because it disagrees with your viewpoints." No, this is just poor, sloppy writing. It literally holds no context in the continuity and that is what makes it bad. It's like how in Star Trek TOS the Romulans have a crappy cloaking device that can be detected by motion sensors and they just find out the species is an offshoot of the Vulcans with even the Vulcans not being aware of that fact, but in Star Trek Enterprise they have the near perfect cloaking device they have in TNG and everyone but Trip knows they're related to Vulcans. It's just absolutely one hundred percent bad exactly for the reason it does not hold to continuity. Although it does explain a snide comment that Laurie Goulding once made on First Expedition about how perhaps Curze wasn't part of the Night Lords rampage.

 

And the worse part of this is that it was written by an editor. I mean, that should speak volumes by itself about just how wrong it is that it can't follow continuity. Especially when that continuity involves a work he had previously written.

 

Personally, I'm going to pretend I never even read it.