Is Kasper Hawser still in stasis?

[mc warhammer]

yeah, i’m with you. it didn’t irk me, but that seems to be the common complaint. and maybe because it is successfully evocative, it’s use tends to stand out

 

re hawser’s ending; it’s an ending you can keep turning around in your mind. i’m happy not to have settled on a definitive answer

[JH79]

This thread has prompted me to re-visit my well worn Prospero Burns Audiobook again this morning and there's an interesting statement as regards to the "lives" of Hawser which comes up during his first flashback to a time with Sindermann. It reads:

 

"Ironically, given what the Upplander would witness towards the end of one of his lives, Tizca was another."

 

I like to believe that Hawser's tale is far from over, and even now he dreams of wolves in the deepest reaches of The Fang.

 

Re the Wolf Kings final farewell i always had the impression it was because he had no intention of ever freeing him from Stasis due to the danger he represents. The maleficarum still exists within Hawser right at the end of the Novel, he is fluent in the dialects of Fenris and slips between them as if they were born to him, this was only possible due to the Warp / Chaos's fiddling of his soul. I think the only time we truly see Hawser freed of the touch of Chaos is in the presence of the Silent Sisterhood on Nikaea.

[1000 Sons]

He's mentioned in the Crimson King, some Sons run into him on Terra. It's a weird scene.

[JH79]

He's mentioned in the Crimson King, some Sons run into him on Terra. It's a weird scene.

That's an alternate viewpoint of one of the early scenes from Prospero Burns, Hawsers first exposure to an Astartes and an event that becomes quite the linchpin in said novels story. It is nearly word perfect in terms in conversation between Hawser & who we now know is Ahriman, but for what ever reason McNeil didn't keep the dialogue exactly the same. It was very exciting when i realised what was going on!! 

[Huggtand]

Yes that's a beautiful tie in by McNeil 

[Ascanius]

I counted once that there are 16 instances of wet leopard-growls/snarls/purrs in Prospero Burns, for the record.

[bluntblade]

Abnett just got too fond of the phrase.

[b1soul]

16 instances seems borderline OK for a book of that length

[Ascanius]

It felt more repetitive in the audiobook, probably because I find it more jarring to hear the same word or phrase repeated than to read it, hence my "swayed aside" and "the reflection was reflected" posts over the past few months.e 

[kamedake88]

I posit that for all intents and purposes Hawser still is a dreadnought in all but the chassis. Notice the diction that is used. In the first person he uses the word "us". Dreadnoughts as we all know are revered ancients that are mostly only awoken, at least in the literary sense, when a chapter requires the council and insight of one of their ancestors. In the majority of the fiction they are walking plot devices rather than just a simple war machine. I also get the impression from the novel, Russ intended Hawsers internment to be rather more indefinite than just popping him into the garage freezer for a bit. 

 

As a side note, this segues into my biggest disappointment with another otherwise excellent novel, The Battle of the Fang. When I read it, I really hopped Caspar would've made a cameo appearance giving finality to his arc. Instead, I don't think it's a stretch to imagine he will rot along with many others in a heap somewhere in the old Tarvitz landfill. 

Edited February 25, 2018 by kamedake88

[Ascanius]

I definitely think Hawser is put on ice at the conclusion of the story, and it wouldn't surprise me if he were kept on ice past the end of the Heresy. I suspect, however, that for one reason or another he wouldn't survive to M41.

 

The "good ending" would be, sometime after Russ disappears he's brought out of stasis sleep and asked to tell tales of the Primarch and Prospero, then allowed to live out his life as a skald-serf of the Space Wolves Chapter - making sure his stories are passed on to others.

[R_F_D]

As a side note, this segues into my biggest disappointment with another otherwise excellent novel, The Battle of the Fang. When I read it, I really hopped Caspar would've made a cameo appearance giving finality to his arc. Instead, I don't think it's a stretch to imagine he will rot along with many others in a heap somewhere in the old Tarvitz landfill.

I think both books were written at the same time (although this was at the time that Abnett was unwell so it may be that they were only published at the same time) so I don't think there would have been the opportunity for one work informing the other?

[bluntblade]

Also it's probably not a great idea to risk a valuable and fragile asset in the battle.

[JH79]

The scene has a very dreamlike quality...

 

‘Are there wolves on Fenris?’ I ask.

‘Go and look for yourself,’ he tells me. ‘Go on.’

I look at him. He nods. I start towards the forest line across the snow. I begin to run. I pull my pelt, the one Bercaw gave me, tight around me, like a second skin. In the enormous darkness under the evergreens, I see eyes staring at me: luminous, gold and black-pinned. They are waiting for me, ten thousand pairs of eyes looking out at me from the shadows of the forest. I am not afraid.

I am not afraid of the wolves any more.

Behind me, the Wolf King watches me until I’ve disappeared into the trees.

‘Until next winter,’ he says.

 

I don't know why a bunch of wolves would be gathered there waiting for Kasper. I believe this is a dream.

 

So I've just this minute finished Chapter 8; Longfang's Dream of Winter. Aside from being testament to the absolute genius of Abnett's writing i noticed something which for the first time stuck with me. It's right in the closing moments of the chapter. Longfang is showing Hawser an event that happened on Fenris from some point in his past, he call's this his account and instructs the Skald to watch. He and Longfang are hunting a beast of sorts which turns on them. It is unstoppable and after ploughing through Longfang bears down on Hawser. A monstrous black Wolf intervenes and saves Hawser.

 

Upon questioning who or what the Wolf is, after all there are no wolves on Fenris, Longfang explains that Hawser knows the Wolf who has saved his life before and that his name if Brom. The black Wolf proceeds to sprint to a distant and dark tree line wherein they lose sight of it except for it's glowing eyes… Haweser realises that there are 10,000 pairs of eyes staring at them and demands Longfang explain himself re the naming of the Wolf. The scene ends and Longfang had died 12 minutes previously.

 

Now we know that Brom died at the beginning of the Novel after being brought to Fenris and aiding the safeguarding of the Upplander. Does this mean that what Haweser saw was a White of the Underverse, as in that is what became of Brom's Soul? Is that what he was chasing at the end of the Novel in that Dream like scene... are the 10k eyes are all Wights? Is that his eventual fate, to join Brom and countless others as a Wight of the Underversee and watch over all those who come to Fenris?

 

I consider my mind blown that I've listened to this book 7 times now over the past 5 years and never tied those two scenes together!

 

Anyone else more schooled on this subject that I got any ideas as to what this could mean for Kas?

Edited February 26, 2018 by JH79

[b1soul]

I think you mean Wight

[JH79]

I think you mean Wight

I recognise my failing and will be sure to correct it

[Manchu warlord]

He's mentioned in the Crimson King, some Sons run into him on Terra. It's a weird scene.

That was the best part of the novel, in my opinion.