Jump to content

Gathering Storm


G_R_H

Recommended Posts

Guy Haley is always a hit to me. I love his xenos-perspective novels: he wrote Valedor and it's tie-ins, and the Ork trilogy of short stories. Also wrote one of the best Tau stories too. Now if only he'd tackle Necrons....

By the by, how would you all feel about stories including the Custodians and Silent Sisters? If the new state of affairs has them traveling again, that's something interesting to cover. Of course, I'm probably getting ahead of myself. The Horus Heresy is still going on, so we'll probably see plenty of them in the coming Siege.

Ugh, hurry up GW. Launch your next campaign with Orks and Necrons gearing up for the next millennium! Tau too!

Custodians and Sisters of Silence are running wild in W40K sure. They were hidden and idle but right after Guilliman audience they are listening to the Primarch - Custodes and SoS. Sure..... Who wrote that censored.gif

'Ugh, hurry up GW. Launch your next campaign with Orks and Necrons gearing up for the next millennium! Tau too!' - down.gif Xenos lover biggrin.png

Broken Sword, from Damocles.

The only good story in that absolutely horrible anthology.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Custodes off of Terra in 40k?

 

They'd only do that if they had reason to believe the Emperor wasn't on Terra...

 

 

Guilliman is the Emperor. Obviously. The only bits of the Emperor still on Terra are a set of psychic gestalts split between Astropaths, the Astronomican, and whatever residual function the body inhabiting the Golden Throne has. The bodily, active Emperor is elsewhere - ergo it's Guilliman, or worse.

 

Obviously.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Guilliman was told by The Emperor to switch off the Golden Throne so that he could be reborn. The Custodes now search the Imperium for a new born.

 

Wishful thinking :)

 

By the way at last BL will be branched separately from Warhammer digital. It is long past time ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe this has been covered already, but I don't feel like reading through 6 pages of notes to find it: Do you think the trend of introducing trios of new heroes to lead factions will continue in future events? I can easily picture one or two characters for the various armies, but a trio somewhat eludes me.

 

Then again, they pulled Yvraine and the Visarch out of nowhere for the Eldar portion of it. Maybe we'll see some brand-new characters for other factions as well. Personally, I'm holding out hope for Shas'O Kais to finally make an appearance.

 

Dark Eldar... they had a lot of characters cut out of their most recent Codex, didn't they? Could a bunch of those come back for this? Oh, remember Lady Malice and her crystal Heart? Could we finally learn the secret to that little mystery?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For Dark Eldar - one of the big things they've done is background Vect (for now) and foreground the Haemonculi as rivals of Ynnead. It's not hugely song-and-danced in the second book - but visually it makes a lot of sense too. The Haemonculi units, at least, are *very* visually distinct - even from the rest of the Eldar range.

 

With the others, I'd love to see:

Tyranids-

- a fused Kraken/Leviathan "Gladiatrix" of Commorragh - a sort of willful/distinct bug as per the start of TGS 2. Heavy investment in the webway/independent movement away from fleets/biomass. Like the Swarmlord, but a bit more varied/less-one-of-a-kind.

- Bring the Ymgarl lot's visuals back into the picture as a distinct/rival faction of the Hive Mind.

- Patriarch of Terra. It was mentioned in the book that the polar hives had been sealed off - let's have that done as a big "setting on Terra". Unresolved, arunning dynamic stalemate somehow - haven't quite thought it through, but it'd allow some of the best aspects of "The Beast Arises" to be pulled out into the tabletop. Fuse it with Shadow War. Bingo!

 

Necrons:

- Avatars/Twitter Eggs of the Master Control programme/Emperor of that dynasty who's MCU went haywire and started spawning nonsense.

- Vassals of Mandragora (or somesuch) - Pariah-like intermediaries that stand between the Necrons Overlords and the subjugated peon races.

- Triarch character of some variety. They're supposed to have been the most dynamic/active/personable of the Necrons down the centuries - perhaps one of them has a history with Sylandri and & Carl?

 

Tau Empire - Auxiliaries -

- "The Caretaker" - a Demiurg (Bentu'sin'la?), one of the first aliens that the Tau encountered (shortly before the battle for Tau'n?), and purportedly (but unconfirmed) the very same being/entity that first negotiated the sale of Ion Cannon tech to the nascent Empire.

- "The One Who Takes Care of Things" - Vespid 'superhero' - enigmatic, force for "justice", 'celebrity' effect both to the Tau and the various auxiliaries. Nicknamed "The Kor'vesa", e.g. the Drone, the Helper

- The Matriarch of Mu'gulath - one of the lead Gu'vesa'o who is now a chief marshal or what ot of the Tau Empire in that Sept. Go for a battlesuit or something daft - part Necromunda Spyrer, part Dreadknight, part XV Battlesuit.

- the Shaper of Things to Come - psychic Kroot shaper who's been the defacto leader of one of the Third Sphere septs under constant Imperial/Necrons assault.

 

Tau - Tau

- Aun'la: a straight up "boring" young Tau Ethereal, but who we can assume will one day be a candidate for Supreme Leader. Allows and insight into the excitement and dramatic inner workings of the Ethereals. For once, a character that is just "some guy" (albeit an Ethereal, and also a girl)

- A Ghost of N'dras, maybe the one mentioned in the Codex, give her a cool-as-hell XV1 suit, perhaps as well as a big-ol' Ghostkeel too.

- A bad-ass drone. Not especially *special*, but characterful as hell. A drone who's been through it all. Think John McClane out of Die Hard meets Jonny 5 for the climax of Short Circuit 2, but a Tau drone.

 

Orks -

- As long as they're not as boring as Grimgor, you can't go wrong.

- at a guess, the Captain who's on his way to Catachan following the whale.

- "Orkimedes" of Third War for Armageddon fame.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read via most the of Rise of the Primarch book. It has been awhile (I think 3rd edition) I have read the rule books with history. Obviously was waiting with abated breath for the return of Guilliman. Being mostly a HH BL reader, I was preparing myself not to expect that level of writing as this is more of a rule book with some fluff. Definitely read like some crazy Alice in Wonderland book with RB waking up in the middle of a major battle on his home turf and going back to Terra and basically running into every possible obstacle known which itself seemed crazy even for 40k :@)

 

I agree with others that this provides some good fodder to write up some good books. The best scene was the fight right when he wakes up and once he does...him knocking some heads...be a great movie scene. The rest of the stuff seemed reasonable except the whole Terra Crusade getting shackled in prison...if someone had the ability to do that to RB, GKs, Cypher, eldar, etc...

 

Otherwise an entertaining read. My favorite artwork in the book is with RB facing off against Magnus. In the HH, I don't think they literally said a SINGLE word to each other or even mention each other in conversation but the small blurb of them talking was fun. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How bout a different angle then? Instead of which heroes and monsters might be added in the future, how about what events? Cadia's gone, Fenrys and Biel-tan are in ruins, and Commoragh is being swarmed by daemons. What else could happen in the coming storm?

 

I can't think of many settings that great stuff could happen on, but here's an idea: the potential return of the C'tan. We've heard about several examples of C'tan shards breaking free into the galaxy (The Nightbringer released by the Ultramarines, and the Worldmaker freed by the Astral Knights). So what if one of them were to start going around collecting it's various shards, and the Necron race, realizing the danger, gathered together it's dynasties to stop it? Hmmm, but one god versus an army isn't much of a campaign story. Who could the star-god dupe into assaulting the worlds that contain it's fragments, allowing it the chance to become whole again? *notices a waaagh over to one side of the galaxy* Hmmmmmmm....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wasn't Pharos of Necron origin? It attracted the Nids so why not making a C'tan in charge of a hive fleet? Or as a beacon which the Nids are chasing after.

 

Then, there are still the rising Tau and Ork threats, which could be dealt with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wasn't Pharos of Necron origin? It attracted the Nids so why not making a C'tan in charge of a hive fleet? Or as a beacon which the Nids are chasing after.

 

Then, there are still the rising Tau and Ork threats, which could be dealt with.

Nope.  Pharos was of an unknown ancient xenos.  It was not tied to Tyranids or Necrons directly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't agree (unless I see a decent quote from the novel) because it's based on empathy which I'm not sure the Necrons are exactly known for.

 

It was empathic in a traditional understanding of the word, as in, it could decipher wishes of its users.

 

It had plenty sinister undertones, if memory serves right, and it was capable of self-repair in a manner that was similar to known Necron constructs, though don't quote me on that. I found Pharos to be fairly dull, and as such, I don't recall specific quotes off-handedly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's been 3 Wars for Armageddon already. I'd thought that'd be enough for anyone, but given what's been revealed about that planet's place in the lore, do you think we'll get another one at some point? Could that be a future setting for a huge event?

 

Oooooh, how bout a war to determine who's waged the biggest war? Angron vs. The Beast, who would win?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In terms of scale, I'd say its clearly Ghazghkull. The amount of involved parties in the 3rd War for Armageddon far exceeds anything that happened with the Beast or even Angron.

Yeah, I agree - more, I think it's a danger to rely too heavily on the past for 40k's sense of scale and epic grandeur.

 

Angron was one hulk & horde. Ghazkull #2 was... hulks without count. A whole asteroid field's worth of roks. An unprecedented array of Ork armadas.

 

The only thing missing was an attack moon, and even then, they might have ruined a good fight!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not just that, but they dragged countless Chapters and regiments to Armageddon for the big scrap. The 2nd War had a late intervention of a few Chapters, but the third was expected and prepared for by unnumbered imperial forces.

The Beast had what, a few Deathwatch and Imperial Fists landing? IF-successors in orbit and the rest of the available fleet? The Third War had multiple Black Templar crusades on its own!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In terms of scale, I'd say its clearly Ghazghkull. The amount of involved parties in the 3rd War for Armageddon far exceeds anything that happened with the Beast or even Angron.

Yeah, I agree - more, I think it's a danger to rely too heavily on the past for 40k's sense of scale and epic grandeur.

Angron was one hulk & horde. Ghazkull #2 was... hulks without count. A whole asteroid field's worth of roks. An unprecedented array of Ork armadas.

The only thing missing was an attack moon, and even then, they might have ruined a good fight!

And that's the problem again. Math doesn't have anything related with GS writing team. Even the endless W40K universe has a 'definite' amount of orks in it, etc.

And it will go even further in the way of 'hundreds of thousands' cause because. From the rumour about Death Guard - hundreds of thousands of Death Guard CSM will invade Inperium sectors. Righttttt - CSM now created from buds in the plagua garden of Grandpa Burgle, cause - new age and extended steam progress teehee.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In terms of scale, I'd say its clearly Ghazghkull. The amount of involved parties in the 3rd War for Armageddon far exceeds anything that happened with the Beast or even Angron.

Yeah, I agree - more, I think it's a danger to rely too heavily on the past for 40k's sense of scale and epic grandeur.

Angron was one hulk & horde. Ghazkull #2 was... hulks without count. A whole asteroid field's worth of roks. An unprecedented array of Ork armadas.

The only thing missing was an attack moon, and even then, they might have ruined a good fight!

And that's the problem again. Math doesn't have anything related with GS writing team. Even the endless W40K universe has a 'definite' amount of orks in it, etc.

And it will go even further in the way of 'hundreds of thousands' cause because. From the rumour about Death Guard - hundreds of thousands of Death Guard CSM will invade Inperium sectors. Righttttt - CSM now created from buds in the plagua garden of Grandpa Burgle, cause - new age and extended steam progress teehee.gif

The Chaos numbers have never made sense, and remain artificially inflated for it to remain a threat.

One cannot overcome the power of writers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, check this out!

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/Ak3s7

 

It looks like someone posted a bunch of pictures from the Gathering Storm in this gallery. You have to search through the whole thing to find them all, but a lot of them are really, really cool!

 

(Also, the OP put my very own Panthera Scouts in his gallery! *sniff, sniff* I'm so happy....)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only saw one from Gathering Storm (including Celestine).

 

Rest is from Traitor's Hate or the other one (Angels Blade?), Deviantart and the cover of PoD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.