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If Magnus reached the Palace (Crimson King spoilers)


Karhedron

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Spoiler warning. If you have not yet read Crimson King, turn back now!

 

 

 

 

 

Still here? OK

 

Crimson King explains how Magnus' soul was broken along with his body in his duel with Russ on Propsero. The largest shard orchestrated the escape of the Thousand Sons to the Planet of Sorcerers but was slowly losing cohesion and dying in its fractured state. The other shards were scattered through the Warp and came to rest in places that held personal significance to Magnus either as places of triumph or despair. Each shard represented a specific aspect of the Primarch's personality.

 

The novel details the quest by the Thousand Sons to retrieve as many of these Soul shards as possible to restore their father and the efforts of a ragtag band of loyalists to stop them. Long story short, Ahriman and his cabal succeed in retrieving all but one of the Soul Shards and these are enough to restore Magnus to his former glory.

 

The only shard that remains lost to them is located within the Imperial Palace itself, drawn there by the weight of Magnus' actions in damaging the Golden Throne. The most fascinating revelation is that both Malcador and Dorn (and presumably the Emperor) know that Magnus is there (or at least a piece of him). Unfortunately this fragment contains Magnus' humility and conscience which explains why the restored Magnus lacks these attributes and chooses to side with Horus for the remainder of the Heresy.

 

So my question is, what would happen if Magnus managed to break into the Imperial Palace and regain his missing soul shard? How would the restoration of his most noble aspects affect him after 10,000 years attacking the Imperium? Could Magnus repent? Might a restored Magnus offer to take the Emperor's place on the Golden Throne as penance for his actions at the start of the Heresy?

 

My feeling is that too much water has passed under the bridge for both parties for there to be any kind of rapprochement now. Does anyone in the Imperial Palace still know that the ghost of Magnus' nobility still lingers there, pondering what has happened?

Nb: the below came out snarkier and more dismissive than I intended, please read it knowing my intent is to enthusiastically encourage further chat & reading because of the obvious excitement for folks here, not to rain on any parades!

 

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There are many reasons not to be enthused with TCK. I'm sure this sort of tantalising complexity is one of them.

 

That is: Magnus is Magnus.

 

He's done some intolerable things. Repenting isn't much help when you've already sold out the salvation of your species to Choronzon.

 

Almost everything that TCK covers is expanded on with heartfelt emotion in "The Battle of the Fang", "The Ahriman Trilogy+", and to an extent (salvation/redemption for the species) in "Atlas Infernal" (and to a less connected, far more tangential extent: the aggregate of "The First Heretic", "Aurelian" and "The Emperors Gift", with a lesser position for 'The Sigilite' and 'The Master of Mankind'). Wraight's HH entries contribute similarly.

 

Read them and all the effort of TCK is, to my eyes, lacklustre and irrelevant.

 

(Except, of course, that McNeill's writing and storytelling is v. entertaining. I just think the lore/in-universe meta-notes were all hit better in other stories.)

 

Tl;Dr the question is sort of interesting, and I can see why it's really enthusing, but the other books & stories on the topic pose much more compelling (and for me: consuming/captivating!) questions.

 

The quote from Atlas Infernal nails it, for me:

"Everything comes to pass, eventually, Resurrection Man. You trouble yourself with questions of the divine, like many of your short sighted kind, when you should be divining answers to your questions."

 

I think of all this as 'The Saga of Fenris and Prospero', and it's so so so interesting. :D

Isnt there additional shards as seen in the ahriman trilogy? Like there's at least three in play throughout.

 

McNeill commented on that a good while back when that was brought up. There's also a Shard in Battle of the Fang, which, once "destroyed", allowed Magnus to attack the Fang in the first place. The thing is, McNeill didn't read the last part of the Ahriman trilogy and didn't seem to be in full contact with French, so he was surprised that themes overlapped like that and kinda contradict.

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