Dark Imperium Spoilers/Plot Summary (Read Along)

[HeritorA]

 

 

 

Guilliman orders Cawl to construct Necron Pylon-ish devices so that the warp storms can be driven back.

 

I'm soooo tired of Fix-it-all-Cawl...

How does he even know how to make those?

 

That's just being started to be explained with the following stories in DI.  For example Dark Imperium LE has a short story that explains then and how Primaris recruitment went. And a slight glimpse of Cawl evolution.

 

More to follow.

[Mellow]

He knows because he's a fugging Necron disguised as a Magos!

[NKCougar]

He knows because he's a fugging Necron disguised as a Magos!

Please be true. If we're jumping the shark by bringing primarchs back, why not go all the way?

[HeritorA]

 

He knows because he's a fugging Necron disguised as a Magos!

Please be true. If we're jumping the shark by bringing primarchs back, why not go all the way?

 

 

That's too much oberboard. He is not a necron - as was plausible explained upon his meeting with Trazyn in the Gathering Storm fluff.

He is a heretical tech magos who combined several hundred personalities of himself into one strange conglomeration:

 

«To say Cawl was a single sentience was untrue. Not anymore. He was a collection of iterations of himself. Creating them had taken him over the line of blasphemy that he had skirted most of his life, but he did not care. Duplication of psyche equalled multiplication of effort. They were limited things, these copies of himself, but utile. Half a dozen sub-Cawls worked in perfect synchronicity, overseen by the core intelligence that was the original Cawl. Though Cawl would only put it in such crude terms if he were forced to, he was like the conductor of the music he listened to, directing a host of lesser Cawls, all playing different instruments.»

 

Excerpt from: Guy Haley. «In the Grim Darkness». iBooks.

 

Further on as seen by a human:

«A voice at odds with his monstrous, mechanical appearance. And he was a monster to human eyes, so big and imposing, so alien seeming a standard human from a backward world would not recognise him as belonging to the same species. None of his fleshy components were visible. He had numerous extra arms, and a shape that, when stripped of its voluminous red robes, evoked precisely nothing of mankind's basic form.»

 

Excerpt from: Guy Haley. «In the Grim Darkness». iBooks.

 

And as for his goals and abyssmal hubris:

«It will be finished... As long as it takes. Ten years, ten thousand years. That is the true virtue of discovery, you never know how long it will take you. The journey is the joy, as once was said, long, long ago. My brothers in the priesthood forget this. They do not like to innovate,' he said, stressing the word... 'They copy. They look for other things to copy. They make mistakes while they are copying. They rarely understand what they replicate, and «never make anything new. I do,' he said proudly. 'Anything can be improved upon, and if it cannot, then you should make something better. This was once the prime driver of human technology. My colleagues think we have forgotten much and expend all their efforts in rediscovering it, but actually the most precious thing we lost as a species was not standard templates or ancient techniques, but the spirit of inquiry. Without it, there is no science. They do not see this, and would kill me for saying so. But the Emperor knew...»

 

Excerpt from: Guy Haley. «In the Grim Darkness». iBooks.

 

[veterannoob]

In the last 100 pages. This has me so hyped to see Guy tackle Morty in his Primarchs novel. I wonder if the coming of the Emperor and the battle vs. Morty's foster father will be (even a flashback) in that novel and, if not, it better DAMN WELL be in the HH novel where Morty & his legion fall to Chaos.

[HeritorA]

In the last 100 pages. This has me so hyped to see Guy tackle Morty in his Primarchs novel. I wonder if the coming of the Emperor and the battle vs. Morty's foster father will be (even a flashback) in that novel and, if not, it better DAMN WELL be in the HH novel where Morty & his legion fall to Chaos.

Actually it is all already written in the new 8th. Buirlliman will meet and fight Morty at Iax, after which Morty will retreat to the Scourge Stars to defend against minions of the other Chaos Gods.

Nothing unexpected. I had never believed they will do something unexpected.  But that's the same old boring advertisement

Edited June 30, 2017 by HeritorA

[Izlude]

I have just finished the book and I have to say I really liked it alot. I went into the book thinking it was just going to 300+ pages of "look how cool the Primaris are...buy me!" To some extent this felt to be the case and also I felt Felix and others were little boring, nothing super exciting about them. Honestly this was the only real negative of the book and overall I loved getting into RG's mind about the whole state of the current Imperium...his ideals more or less smashed compared to when we see RG in early HH. Some of the real strong points in the book:

 

1. His "death": I remember reading about the bit with RG laid low by Fulgrim back as far as second edition. To see the actual battle and how it got there was a real treat. I think Haley did a smash up job. From RG letting his emotions getting the better of him and being out maneuvered by Fulgrim and the actual banter between those two was well handled. His last thoughts before he is put into stasis really sets up the book. 

 

2. Religion and the current Imperium: In some ways I was expecting RB to go to town on everyone and single-highhandedly break down the whole religious infrastructure. But interestingly (realistic) RG, while disgusted, realizes it is to his benefit to exploit this.  I also love the small things that illustrate the state of decay and regression of the Imperium. The one scene with the Cherub and RG's thought about it was so well handled and hit home how bad it is.

 

3. Nurgle: I am glad the whole nurgle thing was explored here. In the HH setting we don't get much of that as the DG really don't convert until way later so to see how it is handled here was very well down. I really love how Haley handled the idea of nurgle not being just decay but joy in life and death as well as reference to "papa nurgle." Since I love Walking dead/WWZ type scenes, the description on Iax was eerie and definitely felt like a tribute to zombie lovers everywhere.  Also getting more of Mortarian is great and would not be disappointed if either he or Wraight does him as both handle his character and his legion well. 

 

4. Cawl: I didn't know too much about Cawl except from reading book 3 of the Triumvirate series. Yeah I can see how people dislike his character...just seems far-fetched...even for warhammer 40k (I can make super SMs, better weapon/armours, play with necron technology...and also I am 10k years-old). There is no doubt there will be issues between RG and him...

 

Overall I felt Haley did a bang-up job and have no regrets getting the LE unlike the Primarch Series for RG...I am definitely looking forward to the next books. It sounds like Haley will be doing this? Haley is def on fire, Pharos was one of my favorites and with all the issues with the Beast series, his last book saved it. 

[HeritorA]

I have just finished the book and I have to say I really liked it alot. I went into the book thinking it was just going to 300+ pages of "look how cool the Primaris are...buy me!" To some extent this felt to be the case and also I felt Felix and others were little boring, nothing super exciting about them. Honestly this was the only real negative of the book and overall I loved getting into RG's mind about the whole state of the current Imperium...his ideals more or less smashed compared to when we see RG in early HH. Some of the real strong points in the book:

 

1. His "death": I remember reading about the bit with RG laid low by Fulgrim back as far as second edition. To see the actual battle and how it got there was a real treat. I think Haley did a smash up job. From RG letting his emotions getting the better of him and being out maneuvered by Fulgrim and the actual banter between those two was well handled. His last thoughts before he is put into stasis really sets up the book. 

 

2. Religion and the current Imperium: In some ways I was expecting RB to go to town on everyone and single-highhandedly break down the whole religious infrastructure. But interestingly (realistic) RG, while disgusted, realizes it is to his benefit to exploit this.  I also love the small things that illustrate the state of decay and regression of the Imperium. The one scene with the Cherub and RG's thought about it was so well handled and hit home how bad it is.

 

3. Nurgle: I am glad the whole nurgle thing was explored here. In the HH setting we don't get much of that as the DG really don't convert until way later so to see how it is handled here was very well down. I really love how Haley handled the idea of nurgle not being just decay but joy in life and death as well as reference to "papa nurgle." Since I love Walking dead/WWZ type scenes, the description on Iax was eerie and definitely felt like a tribute to zombie lovers everywhere.  Also getting more of Mortarian is great and would not be disappointed if either he or Wraight does him as both handle his character and his legion well. 

 

4. Cawl: I didn't know too much about Cawl except from reading book 3 of the Triumvirate series. Yeah I can see how people dislike his character...just seems far-fetched...even for warhammer 40k (I can make super SMs, better weapon/armours, play with necron technology...and also I am 10k years-old). There is no doubt there will be issues between RG and him...

 

Overall I felt Haley did a bang-up job and have no regrets getting the LE unlike the Primarch Series for RG...I am definitely looking forward to the next books. It sounds like Haley will be doing this? Haley is def on fire, Pharos was one of my favorites and with all the issues with the Beast series, his last book saved it. 

True. But let be honest - the novel gave nothing for the plot. What it did - it applied much needed descriptive layers for the Dark Imperium, nothing more. In general all what 'happened' in the book - could have been described in 5 sentences in codex

[DogWelder]

 

I have just finished the book and I have to say I really liked it alot. I went into the book thinking it was just going to 300+ pages of "look how cool the Primaris are...buy me!" To some extent this felt to be the case and also I felt Felix and others were little boring, nothing super exciting about them. Honestly this was the only real negative of the book and overall I loved getting into RG's mind about the whole state of the current Imperium...his ideals more or less smashed compared to when we see RG in early HH. Some of the real strong points in the book:

 

1. His "death": I remember reading about the bit with RG laid low by Fulgrim back as far as second edition. To see the actual battle and how it got there was a real treat. I think Haley did a smash up job. From RG letting his emotions getting the better of him and being out maneuvered by Fulgrim and the actual banter between those two was well handled. His last thoughts before he is put into stasis really sets up the book. 

 

2. Religion and the current Imperium: In some ways I was expecting RB to go to town on everyone and single-highhandedly break down the whole religious infrastructure. But interestingly (realistic) RG, while disgusted, realizes it is to his benefit to exploit this.  I also love the small things that illustrate the state of decay and regression of the Imperium. The one scene with the Cherub and RG's thought about it was so well handled and hit home how bad it is.

 

3. Nurgle: I am glad the whole nurgle thing was explored here. In the HH setting we don't get much of that as the DG really don't convert until way later so to see how it is handled here was very well down. I really love how Haley handled the idea of nurgle not being just decay but joy in life and death as well as reference to "papa nurgle." Since I love Walking dead/WWZ type scenes, the description on Iax was eerie and definitely felt like a tribute to zombie lovers everywhere.  Also getting more of Mortarian is great and would not be disappointed if either he or Wraight does him as both handle his character and his legion well. 

 

4. Cawl: I didn't know too much about Cawl except from reading book 3 of the Triumvirate series. Yeah I can see how people dislike his character...just seems far-fetched...even for warhammer 40k (I can make super SMs, better weapon/armours, play with necron technology...and also I am 10k years-old). There is no doubt there will be issues between RG and him...

 

Overall I felt Haley did a bang-up job and have no regrets getting the LE unlike the Primarch Series for RG...I am definitely looking forward to the next books. It sounds like Haley will be doing this? Haley is def on fire, Pharos was one of my favorites and with all the issues with the Beast series, his last book saved it. 

True. But let be honest - the novel gave nothing for the plot. What it did - it applied much needed descriptive layers for the Dark Imperium, nothing more. In general all what 'happened' in the book - could have been described in 5 sentences in codex

 

 

It provided a lot of background lore which is desperately needed. The plot actually needs to stop advancing right now so a lot of world building can take place for the new Imperium.

[Mellow]

 

 

 

He knows because he's a fugging Necron disguised as a Magos!

Please be true. If we're jumping the shark by bringing primarchs back, why not go all the way?

That's too much oberboard. He is not a necron - as was plausible explained upon his meeting with Trazyn in the Gathering Storm fluff.

He is a heretical tech magos who combined several hundred personalities of himself into one strange conglomeration:

 

«To say Cawl was a single sentience was untrue. Not anymore. He was a collection of iterations of himself. Creating them had taken him over the line of blasphemy that he had skirted most of his life, but he did not care. Duplication of psyche equalled multiplication of effort. They were limited things, these copies of himself, but utile. Half a dozen sub-Cawls worked in perfect synchronicity, overseen by the core intelligence that was the original Cawl. Though Cawl would only put it in such crude terms if he were forced to, he was like the conductor of the music he listened to, directing a host of lesser Cawls, all playing different instruments.»

 

Excerpt from: Guy Haley. «In the Grim Darkness». iBooks.

 

Further on as seen by a human:

«A voice at odds with his monstrous, mechanical appearance. And he was a monster to human eyes, so big and imposing, so alien seeming a standard human from a backward world would not recognise him as belonging to the same species. None of his fleshy components were visible. He had numerous extra arms, and a shape that, when stripped of its voluminous red robes, evoked precisely nothing of mankind's basic form.»

 

Excerpt from: Guy Haley. «In the Grim Darkness». iBooks.

 

And as for his goals and abyssmal hubris:

«It will be finished... As long as it takes. Ten years, ten thousand years. That is the true virtue of discovery, you never know how long it will take you. The journey is the joy, as once was said, long, long ago. My brothers in the priesthood forget this. They do not like to innovate,' he said, stressing the word... 'They copy. They look for other things to copy. They make mistakes while they are copying. They rarely understand what they replicate, and «never make anything new. I do,' he said proudly. 'Anything can be improved upon, and if it cannot, then you should make something better. This was once the prime driver of human technology. My colleagues think we have forgotten much and expend all their efforts in rediscovering it, but actually the most precious thing we lost as a species was not standard templates or ancient techniques, but the spirit of inquiry. Without it, there is no science. They do not see this, and would kill me for saying so. But the Emperor knew...»

 

Excerpt from: Guy Haley. «In the Grim Darkness». iBooks.

I didn't really mean that he's a Necron.

 

The way you quote him being described is similar to the original shaman-conglomeration of souls. Cawl is a conglomeration of his own multiple "souls"

 

If they are not souls then they are AI.

 

We all know how well AI goes for Humanity.

[Scribe]

Sounds to me like he is just quite the heretek.

 

He'll get his, eventually.

[DogWelder]

Sounds to me like he is just quite the heretek.

 

He'll get his, eventually.

 

I mean, if we put his accomplishments next to the accomplishments of the entire loyalist Mechanicus, its clear one Heretek is infinitely more useful than the entirety of the techpriests on Mars.

 

#KelborHalDidNothingWrong

[Scribe]

 

 

Sounds to me like he is just quite the heretek.

 

He'll get his, eventually.

I mean, if we put his accomplishments next to the accomplishments of the entire loyalist Mechanicus, its clear one Heretek is infinitely more useful than the entirety of the techpriests on Mars.

 

#KelborHalDidNothingWrong

Useful, or opening the door to another Dark Age of Technology?

[DogWelder]

 

 

Sounds to me like he is just quite the heretek.

 

He'll get his, eventually.

I mean, if we put his accomplishments next to the accomplishments of the entire loyalist Mechanicus, its clear one Heretek is infinitely more useful than the entirety of the techpriests on Mars.

 

#KelborHalDidNothingWrong

Useful, or opening the door to another Dark Age of Technology?

 

 

He actually might have created an AI in the book.

 

Though, honestly you can't deny that he's done more for the Imperial War effort than the entire planet of Mars did in 10,000 years 

[helterskelter]

 

 

 

 

Sounds to me like he is just quite the heretek.

 

He'll get his, eventually.

I mean, if we put his accomplishments next to the accomplishments of the entire loyalist Mechanicus, its clear one Heretek is infinitely more useful than the entirety of the techpriests on Mars.

 

#KelborHalDidNothingWrong

Useful, or opening the door to another Dark Age of Technology?

He actually might have created an AI in the book.

 

Though, honestly you can't deny that he's done more for the Imperial War effort than the entire planet of Mars did in 10,000 years

If he's that good he can re-arm all the astartes with Volkite.

[bluntblade]

He probably will. Remember that volkites were only general-issue back before the Legions collectively hit triple figures.

[Mellow]

He created AI in the book that was SO clever it convinced everyone it was just a collection of predetermined answers wrapped up in a google search.

 

I'm convinced it was an AI. Or probably one of his copied consciousnesses extracted from his mind and implanted in the thing RG was talking to.

 

If he enjoys invention so much I wonder what he thinks if the Tau who also invent a lot.

[godking]

I have just finished the book and I have to say I really liked it alot. I went into the book thinking it was just going to 300+ pages of "look how cool the Primaris are...buy me!" To some extent this felt to be the case and also I felt Felix and others were little boring, nothing super exciting about them. Honestly this was the only real negative of the book and overall I loved getting into RG's mind about the whole state of the current Imperium...his ideals more or less smashed compared to when we see RG in early HH. Some of the real strong points in the book:

 

1. His "death": I remember reading about the bit with RG laid low by Fulgrim back as far as second edition. To see the actual battle and how it got there was a real treat. I think Haley did a smash up job. From RG letting his emotions getting the better of him and being out maneuvered by Fulgrim and the actual banter between those two was well handled. His last thoughts before he is put into stasis really sets up the book. 

 

2. Religion and the current Imperium: In some ways I was expecting RB to go to town on everyone and single-highhandedly break down the whole religious infrastructure. But interestingly (realistic) RG, while disgusted, realizes it is to his benefit to exploit this.  I also love the small things that illustrate the state of decay and regression of the Imperium. The one scene with the Cherub and RG's thought about it was so well handled and hit home how bad it is.

 

3. Nurgle: I am glad the whole nurgle thing was explored here. In the HH setting we don't get much of that as the DG really don't convert until way later so to see how it is handled here was very well down. I really love how Haley handled the idea of nurgle not being just decay but joy in life and death as well as reference to "papa nurgle." Since I love Walking dead/WWZ type scenes, the description on Iax was eerie and definitely felt like a tribute to zombie lovers everywhere.  Also getting more of Mortarian is great and would not be disappointed if either he or Wraight does him as both handle his character and his legion well. 

 

4. Cawl: I didn't know too much about Cawl except from reading book 3 of the Triumvirate series. Yeah I can see how people dislike his character...just seems far-fetched...even for warhammer 40k (I can make super SMs, better weapon/armours, play with necron technology...and also I am 10k years-old). There is no doubt there will be issues between RG and him...

 

Overall I felt Haley did a bang-up job and have no regrets getting the LE unlike the Primarch Series for RG...I am definitely looking forward to the next books. It sounds like Haley will be doing this? Haley is def on fire, Pharos was one of my favorites and with all the issues with the Beast series, his last book saved it. 

2. Religion and the current Imperium: In some ways I was expecting RB to go to town on everyone and single-highhandedly break down the whole religious infrastructure. But interestingly (realistic) RG, while disgusted, realizes it is to his benefit to exploit this.  I also love the small things that illustrate the state of decay and regression of the Imperium. The one scene with the Cherub and RG's thought about it was so well handled and hit home how bad it is.

 

Roboute dealing with religious zealots was the most interesting part of the book.

 

Roboute constantly having to deal with zealots who get more convinced the emperor is a god the more Roboute claims that he is not.

 

Not even a Primarch can contend with mindless zealots who will not accept any viewpoint other then their own viewpoint

[Prot]

I also found the fact that Guilliman closed his library down very interesting. He doesn't feel like he has anything to be ashamed of but perception and the tie ins with religion come into play here. It was a different time and the Imperium Secondus was a real possibility but how would the zealots perceive such an idea appeared to be the motivation behind closing it down for now.

 

I love how he has changed. I love how he has questioned his own ideals of the old era. I love how he is retuning the codex in a lot of directions at once. I even like how after reliving his defeat at the hands of Fulgrim, he his frustrated with his own ego of that era, and the decisions he made

 

Guilliman's day to day life is crazy. I think he has been humbled by his rude awakening but the twist of unfolding events since his hibernation has also served to motivate him.

 

It's a very interesting era, and even though this book came out of nowhere it might be my favourite rendition of Guilliman to date. I am personally caught off guard by the author's grasp on All the events and personalities at play. It's been an extremely entertaining read for me but I'm not quite done yet. I personally want more of this

[veterannoob]

Any questions for Guy re: Dark Imperium or Perturabo? For this weekend.

[DogWelder]

Any questions for Guy re: Dark Imperium or Perturabo? For this weekend.

 

-We know there are two more major battles until the Plague Wars end. The Battle of Parmenio and the Battle of Iax. Will he write about these two in the future novels?

 

-How did several of the Ultramarine successor Chapters whose homeworlds were on the other side of the rift make it to Ultramar?

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

Any questions for Guy re: Dark Imperium or Perturabo? For this weekend.

Any details on the Wolfspears...color scheme, how "Fenrisian" they are, anything please

[Conn Eremon]

Any details on the Wolfspears...color scheme, how "Fenrisian" they are, anything please

I'm expecting that they are to be detailed in either the C:SM or C:SW. All we have now is a nane, and the worry that they won't be accepted by their brothers (and maybe a similar spiritual worry too, can't quite recall).

 

It makes it seem like the Wolfspear are the first and only Space Wolf successor in the Ultima Founding. All other Unnumbered Sons of Russ went to Fenris until Raukos, where all remaining Unnumbered Sons of Russ become the Wolfspear.

[karden00]

Hmmmm

I'm older lore Guilliman was effectively put down by Fulgrim, but it was also stated that Fulgrim had never been seen since, leading many of us to believe he had banished the big snake, even if it cost him dearly.

 

That kind of mutual destruction made for lots of room to debate the finer points of primarchs vs daemon primarchs. It always seemed like daemonhood was a bit of five and take, but in ways that were difficult to qualify.

 

What with Magnus rolf stomping Bobby G but for the silent sisters and other help, and now a definitive bitchslapping by daemon Fulgrim, it seems GW is content to go very much in the direction of daemon primarch = primarch +++

 

Don't know how I feel about that certainty just yet.

[Scribe]

Thats how it should always have been. Its not like you make a deal with the devil and get nothing in return....

 

Primarchs should always lose a 1v1 to a Daemon Primarch, outside of the application of a Plot Armour/Weapon interaction, nothing else makes sense.