Angels of Caliban (Spoilers)

[Robbienw]

Hi chaps,

My sister went to the London comic com yesterday, I asked her to swing by the forge world stand for me to see if they had anything on pre-release. Lo and behold, they had Angels of Caliban for sale

I haven't had much of a chance to read it yet, only the prologue, but here is the Dramatis Personae and some details of the prologue:

Dramatis Personae

Calibans Saviours:

Luther, Grand Master of the Order
Lord Cypher, Guardian of the Orders traditions
Merir Asterlan, Master of the First Chapter
Galedan, Chapter Master, Master of the Watch

Zahariel, Librarian, Master of the Mystai
Vassago
Asradael
Tanderion
Cartheus
Athadrael

Vael, Lieutenant Commander
Vastobal, Captain
Adarthian, Training Master

Bethalin Tylain, Imperial Army colonel
Saulus Maegon, Mistress of the angelicasta

Belath, Chapter Master
Asmodeus, Librarian
Griffayn, 'The Spear-Cast' sergeant-at-arms
Tagrain, Deck Captain transport division
Haster, deck lieutenant

Tukon, Chapter Master, captive beneath aldurukh
Melian, Captain, captive beneath aldurukh

Distant Macragge, and Imperium Secundus

Sanguinius
Guilliman
The Lion

Konrad Curze

Valentus Dolor, Ultramar Tetrarch
Titus Prayto, 13th legion librarian
Myrdun, Librarian of the first legion
Drakus Gorod, commander of the invictus bodyguard
Azkaellon, head of the sanguinary guard
Faffnr Bludbroder, watch-pack space wolf
Vodun Badorum, Praecental Guard captain
Tarasha Euten, Gullimans Chamberlain

Stenius, Dark Angels Captain, master of the invisible reason
Theralyn Fiana, Invincible reason navigator

Holguin, 'Deathbringer' voted lieutenant of the Deathwing
Morphael
Athoris
Carolingus
Nemeres

Farith Redloss 'Dreadbringer', voted lieutenant of the Dreading
Danaes, Voted Successor, Dreadwing
Halswain
Xavis, Paladin, 20th Order
Barzareon Paladin, 31st order

Neraellin, Lieutenant, Commander of the Colgrevance
Hexagia

Sacatus Demor, Ultramarine sergeant
Thoran, Dark Angels sergeant
Casobourn
Asamund
Faretal
Dolmuin

Daevios, 13th legion master of ordnance
Hastenral
Parestor
Metrital
Sardeon

Champions of the Great Crusade (this is the character from the prologue, which is set in the past 970 m30)

Horus Lupercal
Abaddon, mournival
Tarik Torgaddon, mournival
Litus, mournival
Janiper, mournival

Garviel Loken, sheild lieutenant

Calas Typhon, first captain of the death guard
Hadrabulus Vioss grave wardens captain
Hurklan, Sergeant

Israfel, Dark Angels chief Librarian

Erebus

Deblessent, imperial army lieutenant

Regulus, Mechanicum Envoy

The Prologue

This takes place in 970 m30 during the great crusade, from the viewpoint of Calas Typhon.

The planet Zarumund, near to terra and a planet taken early in the crusade, rebelled against the imperium.

Horus arrived with the luna wolves and a detachment of the death guard and re-took the planet.

A contingent of Dark Angels from Caliban, led by luther, also responded to the emergency call (zaramund was close to Terra and had ships which, in theory, could have attacked terra) and fight alongside the luna wolves. This is despite the fact they were told to remain on caliban as ordered by the lion.

A victory celebration is being held aboard the vengeful spirit, horus is praising heroic action. Loken is present, this explains how luther and loken knew each other in the Grey Angel audio story.

Luther and typhoon converse, erebus makes a brief appearance.

Typhon is covertly aligned to nurgle already at this point, and is obviously in league with erebus to some degree.

As the celebration goes on, suddenly a special guest makes an appearance, the Lion himself. Turns out he was near zaramund by chance and heard about dark angels taking part.

The Lion chastises luther and states he should be on caliban as ordered. Horus makes excuses for luther, but the lion is not interested, and is dismissive of and rude to horus. He orders them back to caliban and takes their fleet off them so they can't leave again without his orders. He then departs the celebration.

After his departure, typhon talks to luther again, it seems to be an attempt to ingratiate himself with luther with a view to getting him onside in the future. I think later on in the novel, or in the heresy series this will play out further!

More details when I get the opportunity to read more.

Rob

[veterannoob]

Doooood! Nice. I'm not reading this , thx for spoiler warning, but I'm envious.

[Taliesin]

Very very interesting.

 

Quick question, the 5 characters names after Zahariel, Master of Mystai, are these all supposed to be Librarians since they have no title and are mentioned alongside him?

[Robbienw]

Only unto page 64 so, but its enjoyable and fast pace so far!

 

More infos:

 

 

The novel is set in 011 m32

The lion is still has doubts as to wether the decleration of imperium secundus is treachery or not, given that there is no confirmation the emperor is dead.

The Dark Angels are out amongst the 500 worlds, sealing the borders and bringing order and security to the fringes. The Lions true purpose (known only his most trusted officers), however, is to hunt Curze. Currently they are following leads found in visions of the librarians, and are heading for the zepath system

Caliban. Zahariel is stuck underground, or rather within the ourborous demon underground

Ultramar. The dark Angels at zephath find a world devastated by word bearers and world eaters. Curze was not there. They find an immense mound of skeletons, made from the inhabitants of the planet. Some traitors are still on planet in a fortress, the dark angel make a combat drop in

We are with farith redloss in the assault on one of the fortress ground positions. We get an explanation of how the Dark Angels wings work and how they relate to the emperors original organisation of the first legion into six hosts, and the traditions brought in by the order from Caliban. The wings run across and through the normal Dark Angels structure of orders, chapters, companies etc. The paladin in command of one of the orders requests a dreadwing assault and passes command to Redloss. Redloss then calls in to his command Dark Angels units, from the orders present on the battlefield, who are dreadwing. There is further information on the original six host formation as well.  Redloss does not know the original names of the six hosts, the current names are Calibanite names.  But the original organisation as a whole was referred to as the Hexagramatron

 

Very very interesting.

 

Quick question, the 5 characters names after Zahariel, Master of Mystai, are these all supposed to be Librarians since they have no title and are mentioned alongside him?

 

I assume thats the case, but I'm not that far in yet and haven't got to the part with these characters

[RedFurioso]

Thanks for spoilers!

Can you tell me what is Dreadwing specialization? They are Destroyers?

[Robbienw]

Thanks for spoilers!

Can you tell me what is Dreadwing specialization? They are Destroyers?

 

Kind of.  They aren't all Destroyers, though there are many destroyer squads called in by the dreadwing commander.  Its not stated in the novel at all, but I would speculate all Dark Angels destroyers are Dreadwing.  They seem to be a scorched earth/force of annihilation type force to me.  They deploy phosphex, rad weapons and warp rift weaponry.  

[Robbienw]

up to page 91

 

 

The dreadwing assemble and move towards the enemy position, chanting. A da ship, the intolerant, fires an exotic weapon from vanes along its flanks, which produces a black sphere. warp rift. This messes up the enemy a bit, and the dreadwing go in. They use phosphex and rad weapons, vindicators equipped with void shells as well as more conventional weapons. Redloss kills a dread naught, he is lethal.

The aftermath of the battles, we are with holguin, the leader of the deathwing. The dark Angels have destroyed the bone towers and are assisting the few surviving citizens. There are dreadwing glaives tanks present that don't have volkite cannons like normal glaives, they also have warp rift weapons!!!

Tchulcha makes an appearance. It is onboard the battle barge the lion is currently using, the Honoured Deeds, not the invincible reason.

Corswain gets a mention.

The lion asks Tuchulcha to take them after the traitor ships that fled Zephath, but before that can happen word comes in from the navigator that she can't find the Sotha beacon. Tuchulcha says midnight clad are the 500 worlds. The lion realises what this means and orders Tuchulcha to take them to macragge

 

[Robbienw]

upto page 121

 

 

Back to Caliban. We are with Astelan and colonel tylain. Some very cool history on the the origins of The Order. They discuss construction of jail cells to imprison the Dark Angels on Caliban who are loyal to the lion. The ones who rebelled against Luther in the Master of the First audio story.

Enter Galedan, who informs Astelan warships have been detected arriving at the edge of the Caliban system. Zahariels absence is also mentioned. Astelans supports Luther currently, but as we already know, he has his own agenda.

Now we are with 4 librarians on Caliban, Zahariels fellows. They are psychically attempting to locate Zahariel. They are disturbed by Lord Cypher and some Watchers. Cypher orders them back to aldurukh to attempt contact with the approaching ships.

At the prison were the lion loyalists are being kept with Astelan and Galedan. They discuss why the dark Angels have less mechanicum tech priests than other legions. This is because the first legion was in full operation before the alliance between the emperor and Mars, and is a hangover from their original non mechanicum support structure. Astelan explains more to Galedan on the first legion before they were even a legion as such, before the other legions were established. They speak to two of the loyalist officers.

 

[Forward Assist]

Warp-rift cannons?

 

Yes please!

[b1soul]

How is the prose?

[HaSY]

How many pages does it have?

[Augustus]

Already not liking it based on the prologue. :(

[DarkChaplain]

For the record: Zaramund has been a thing since VIsions of Heresy was released (the revised one). It wasn't fleshed out in detail, but the core ideas have been around for years within the team, it appears.

[Robbienw]

b1soul, prose seems good, i am enjoying it so far.  Feeling like the caliban sections might drag a bit though.

 

HaSY, its 398 pages including the afterword.

 

up to page 157

 

 

Back to ultramar, with Guilliman awaiting the lions return. Lion arrives angry, Guilliman informs him what happened at Sotha and Curze still being on macragge. Lion is a bit stunned by this. They go to see sanguinius. We learn only Azkaellon and 4 other sanguinary guards survived the explosion caused by Curze (as seen in the Pharos novel)

Back to Caliban. Zahariel is out of the ourborous demon thing. He has come to believe it is part of Caliban. He is found by one of his librarians and goes back to aldurukh

Now with Luther. He is with Astelan, Zahariel and cypher. He knows they all have their own agendas and may only be aligned with him for convenience. Luther finishes talking with them and goes to read a book about the ouroboros.

Back to ultramar. The lion, sanguinius and Guilliman meet. They discuss Curze. Sanguinius is still disturbed by his recent encounter with Curze. Some argument between Guilliman and Lion. Sanguinius tells them of his vision he will die at the hands of Horus, though at this point he thinks it means Horus will come to imperium secundus and kill him. The lion is authorised to hunt Curze on macragge by sanguinius.

 

[b1soul]

Why wouldn't they triple-team Curze?

[HeritorA]

upto page 121

 

 

Back to Caliban. We are with Astelan and colonel tylain. Some very cool history on the the origins of The Order. They discuss construction of jail cells to imprison the Dark Angels on Caliban who are loyal to the lion. The ones who rebelled against Luther in the Master of the First audio story.

 

Enter Galedan, who informs Astelan warships have been detected arriving at the edge of the Caliban system. Zahariels absence is also mentioned. Astelans supports Luther currently, but as we already know, he has his own agenda.

 

Now we are with 4 librarians on Caliban, Zahariels fellows. They are psychically attempting to locate Zahariel. They are disturbed by Lord Cypher and some Watchers. Cypher orders them back to aldurukh to attempt contact with the approaching ships.

 

At the prison were the lion loyalists are being kept with Astelan and Galedan. They discuss why the dark Angels have less mechanicum tech priests than other legions. This is because the first legion was in full operation before the alliance between the emperor and Mars, and is a hangover from their original non mechanicum support structure. Astelan explains more to Galedan on the first legion before they were even a legion as such, before the other legions were established. They speak to two of the loyalist officers.

 

 

 

 

 What about Sevatar and duel with Conrad? Spoil me the ending please/ Also does it contain void warfare? Any fleets where?

[Kelborn]

hm...

six specialized wings...Dread-, Death-, Raven-, Iron- and Stormwing. What is the sixth?

 

Potential 2nd founding successor chapters featuring the wings as they are no part of the DA during the last 10k years.

 

How large is that Legion? oO

We got a sizable force with the Lion, one with Luther, one saving the Space Wolves...seems like it's one of the largest Legions. And why does the DA = AL theory comes into my mind? ;) 

[Spaced Hulk]

hm...

six specialized wings...Dread-, Death-, Raven-, Iron- and Stormwing. What is the sixth?

 

Potential 2nd founding successor chapters featuring the wings as they are no part of the DA during the last 10k years.

 

How large is that Legion? oO

We got a sizable force with the Lion, one with Luther, one saving the Space Wolves...seems like it's one of the largest Legions. And why does the DA = AL theory comes into my mind? ;)

 

According to HH book 6, the last host is called the Firewing.

 

As for legion size, the First were the largest until the Rangdan Xenocides, where they suffered 50,000 casualties, and then other legions (Ultras, Word Bearers, maybe some others?) overtook them. But by the heresy, the Dark Angels had rebuilt their strength and numbers considerably again.

[HeritorA]

Robbienw. Due to the plot  you scribed for us (and it is much appreciated - ty) - sadly it seems that the novel is just another filler with nothing major to happen/expand upon!  Imperium Secundus  and Caliban are boring betond measure. Up to the point I will go to the  forums to simply read the synopsis.

[HaSY]

hm...

six specialized wings...Dread-, Death-, Raven-, Iron- and Stormwing. What is the sixth?

Potential 2nd founding successor chapters featuring the wings as they are no part of the DA during the last 10k years.

How large is that Legion? oO

We got a sizable force with the Lion, one with Luther, one saving the Space Wolves...seems like it's one of the largest Legions. And why does the DA = AL theory comes into my mind?

According to HH book 6, the last host is called the Firewing.

As for legion size, the First were the largest until the Rangdan Xenocides, where they suffered 50,000 casualties, and then other legions (Ultras, Word Bearers, maybe some others?) overtook them. But by the heresy, the Dark Angels had rebuilt their strength and numbers considerably again.

In Wolf King novella, the First Legion have several outposts (Starforts) scattered around the fringes.

Despite the strength of the First Legion, its strength is considerable but not cohesive enough.

[Robbienw]

b1soul: Guilliman and Sanguinius have an empire to run. I think they also want to avoid a booby trap situation like in Unrembered Empire, when the Lion and Guillian were together and nearly killed by Curzes bombs. Of course when the Lion finds curze, he can call them both in if necessary.

HeritorA: Sevatar is not in this book. The duel with Curze is coming, I haven't got to that bit yet though. I'll tell you the ending when I get there There is no void combat yet, save for the orbital warp rift attack made by the Intolerant. Its not stated what classification of ship the Intolerant is. There is the fleet with the Lion, and the fleet of transports from terra nulls and a battleship with Belath at Caliban. The Caliban based Dark Angels have no fleet, the Lion took it off them.

This novel may be seen as a filler novel by many heresy fans, I can see that. Its based around what is happening on Caliban, which won't play out until after the Battle of Terra, the hunt for Curze and the ending of Imperium Seconds that began in Pharos. However Dark Angel fans will love this novel, its loaded with information on the first legion.

Kelborn: The 6th is the Firewing. Not sure on the exact size of the Legion. There are about 40,000 on Caliban (30,000 new recruits Belath wants to take, and some other units the Lion sent back). Corswain has 30,000. I'm not sure how many the Lion has with him, in Unremembered Empire it was said he had 20,000 Dark Angels ready for a drop assault on Macgragge, but he may have more in his actual fleet (keeping some back for reserves!). So thats 90,000 at least, probably more. Then we have the Dark Angels from the watch stations from the Wolf King novella, with no indication of their numbers. Also, remember The Lion and Corswains forces would have taken casualties fighting the Night Lords in the Thramas crusade, and Corswains forces may have taken casualties fighting Typhons Death Guard.

[Robbienw]

Past halfway now, up to page 208.  As a Dark Angel fan, this book is really doing it for me!!

 

 

Guilliaman and the lion speak on a balcony. Macragge is about to be locked down under martial law to help the lion in his hunt for Curze. The lion is bringing the dark Angels to the surface of macragge to hunt Curze.

Guilliman has a chat with his mum.

Back to Caliban. Zahariel and Astelan converse. The ships that entered the system earlier have arrived. It's the force of Dark Angels under Chapter Master Belath. This is the force that was sent by Corswain back in the short story By the Lions Command, to bring the new recruits on Caliban into the fighting.
They take him to see Luther. On the way, Zahariel asks for news of Nemiel. Belath says he is dead, but does not elaborate further. Zahariel has already sensed he is hiding something though. Zahariel makes a sudden psychic intursion on Belaths mind, and finds out the truth that the Lion killed Nemiel.

Back to ultramar. In the Illyrian mountains, Guilliman flies in to meet the lion and his forces. Following up leads into finding Curze

Caliban. Belath meets with Luther, cypher, Astelan and Zahariel. He updates them on the heresy and the current disposition of the Dark Angels. Corswain is mentioned again. Belath states that 30,000 Dark Angels are under Corswains command.

Luther and co aren't sure wether to believe what Belaths has said, and are reluctant to send the forces of new recruits on Caliban (also numbering 30,000) out into the war. Zahariel mind scans Belath again, to verify his claims, and finds they are true. They assure Belath they will turn the troops over to his command (Luther is commanded to remain on Caliban). Belath leaves and Luther and co begin working out a way to keep the legionaries on Caliban and to break from the imperium. The believe they may be able to turn Belath to their cause, as he and his officers are calibanites.

Luther states that they cannot choose a side to align with, either Horus or the Emperor, until they are certain which side will win. Exactly what Astelan accuses the Lion of doing in Angels of Darkness!!

Though their are differences of opinion between Luther and co, they all agree to break their oaths to the Lion. They agree they are no longer Dark Angels, their loyalty is to The Order.

Zahariel and takes his mystai librarians into a special warp/sorcery type room and connects them to the ouroboros demon like he is.

 

[DarkChaplain]

Is anybody described the same way as in Grey Angel, where we were led to believe that "Cypher" saved Loken? Does the description from there match with Lord Cypher or anybody else?

[Marshal Rohr]

Wasn't there 10k aboard the Chimera in Wolf King too? If my hunch is correct the top 3 for numbers will be something like Ultras with 250K, Word Bearers with 200K, and dark angels hover a few thousand under that. The only difference is you've got a good third of the legion loyal to Luthor.

[DarkChaplain]

Also keep in mind that probably three quarters of the Dark Angel reserves on Caliban haven't seen combat. They're recruits waiting at home til they're called upon, and never participated in the Great Crusade. Their combat experience is confined to conflicts on Caliban itself.