Peter Fehervari’s Dark Coil

[The Scorpion]

I wonder who got "So it goes".

[hd3]

5 hours ago, The Scorpion said:

I wonder who got "So it goes".

The guy who got the copy after the one that says "So it flows".

 

I'm more interested in whichever limited edition previously allegedly cumulatively explains the fate of the Resplendent's first company. Though I suspect I may already have worked it out. 

[LemartesTheLost]

On 10/19/2026 at 8:02 AM, Lord Marshal said:

 

I don't think so, if only because he's all but confirmed to be...

 

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Gurdijeff from Fire Caste, who if I remember correctly had always served with the Lethean Mariners, who go on to share the same 'creed' as the Penitent. 

 

He 'dies' asking Cutler if it's a dream before falling into a river, and the first thing he asks upon being found by the Resplendent walking out of a river is if he's still dreaming, along with having the same wound through his stomach.

 

 

Spoiler

Just finished Cold Covenant and it IS confirmed later on in the novel that Talbaine/Gurdijeff is the Undying Martyr. Intriguing stuff. A reread will be in order sometime soon to see if I missed anything else that might be of import.

 

[Morovir]

 

Spoiler

I interpreted it differently - the references to Talbaine have him as the Burning Martyr, rather than the Undying Martyr, who is one of the Incarnates in Requiem Infernal and part of the suspiciously Khornate Burning Creed/Path which also appears in Casts a Hungry Shadow.

 

[The Scorpion]

8 hours ago, hd3 said:

The guy who got the copy after the one that says "So it flows".

 

I'm more interested in whichever limited edition previously allegedly cumulatively explains the fate of the Resplendent's first company. Though I suspect I may already have worked it out. 

What is your theory for the fate of the First Company?

[Lord Marshal]

Treachery Unbound contains Nightshift Nineteen, which is kinda surprising when it was already in the omnibus.

 

Edited October 21 by Lord Marshal

[DarkChaplain]

Where's my crying emoji reaction again? Oh right. People got upset over it ;_;

[hd3]

14 hours ago, The Scorpion said:

What is your theory for the fate of the First Company?

 

 

Spoiler

So evidence of what happened to them after 'the reverie'.

We know :

 

-Varzival Cervantes was on Vytarn/Redemption when Jonah Tythe destroys Olber Vedas' device and recruits Athanazius.

 

-In sins of my brothers, Athanazius is certain that -Varzival still lives because the warp would have reacted if he had died and that he and the 1st company garrisoned a world of 'shadows and fire' which is what Vytarn became after the incident at the end of requiem infernal. 

 

-The bulk of the evidence is from 'Cult of the Spiral Dawn'

-We learn that the Sisters of Battle there inherited their garrison  from the Resplendent 

-We see statues of the Resplendent on Redemption/Vytarn

-The gene stealer patriarch is shown being unable to lead it's cult because it's forced to use it's psyker abilities to keep whatever warp abomination is trapped in the koronatus ring imprisoned. They mention that it inadvertently inherited this responsibility when they took over the planet from the sisters 

-When Ariken Skeith the secondary POV character is fatally wounded in the last battle she gets asked by a mysterious voice if "she wants to live?" And she answers "yes"

-Ariken awakens under the spires and finds herself in front of a stern armoured woman, ostensibly the sister of battle commander from the prologue who mysteriously disappeared without leaving a corpse in the room that can only be sealed from inside which Cross/Templeton breaks into earlier.

-The sister commander says that 'this is the fate of all those who watch over redemption and she shows Ariken all the previous 'chief wardens'  of redemption, including her, something not human (gene stealer patriarch who accidentally succeeded her) and a GIANT MORE THAN JUST HUMAN.

-She also explicitly says Ariken is not dead

 

:TLDR: 

-Varzival got his existence tethered to the koronatus spires while the first company was slowly picked off or dispatched by the inherent warp taint of Vytarn/redemption like the sisters and cultists after them. He is not 'technically' dead though 

 

Edited October 22 by hd3

[hd3]

13 hours ago, Lord Marshal said:

Treachery Unbound contains Nightshift Nineteen, which is kinda surprising when it was already in the omnibus.

 

 

I'm genuinely disappointed it's not blindsight.

[1ncarnadine]

Here's my special edition signature & mysterious message:

Edited October 23 by 1ncarnadine

[The Scorpion]

On 10/21/2026 at 7:37 PM, hd3 said:

 

 

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So evidence of what happened to them after 'the reverie'.

We know :

 

-Varzival Cervantes was on Vytarn/Redemption when Jonah Tythe destroys Olber Vedas' device and recruits Athanazius.

 

-In sins of my brothers, Athanazius is certain that -Varzival still lives because the warp would have reacted if he had died and that he and the 1st company garrisoned a world of 'shadows and fire' which is what Vytarn became after the incident at the end of requiem infernal. 

 

-The bulk of the evidence is from 'Cult of the Spiral Dawn'

-We learn that the Sisters of Battle there inherited their garrison  from the Resplendent 

-We see statues of the Resplendent on Redemption/Vytarn

-The gene stealer patriarch is shown being unable to lead it's cult because it's forced to use it's psyker abilities to keep whatever warp abomination is trapped in the koronatus ring imprisoned. They mention that it inadvertently inherited this responsibility when they took over the planet from the sisters 

-When Ariken Skeith the secondary POV character is fatally wounded in the last battle she gets asked by a mysterious voice if "she wants to live?" And she answers "yes"

-Ariken awakens under the spires and finds herself in front of a stern armoured woman, ostensibly the sister of battle commander from the prologue who mysteriously disappeared without leaving a corpse in the room that can only be sealed from inside which Cross/Templeton breaks into earlier.

-The sister commander says that 'this is the fate of all those who watch over redemption and she shows Ariken all the previous 'chief wardens'  of redemption, including her, something not human (gene stealer patriarch who accidentally succeeded her) and a GIANT MORE THAN JUST HUMAN.

-She also explicitly says Ariken is not dead

 

:TLDR: 

-Varzival got his existence tethered to the koronatus spires while the first company was slowly picked off or dispatched by the inherent warp taint of Vytarn/redemption like the sisters and cultists after them. He is not 'technically' dead though 

 

This makes a lot of sense. I had dismissed the possibility because Athanazius messed up my timeline: we see him talking with Varzival as a fully-fledged Resplendent in "Sins of my Brothers", so I did not imagine the 1st company crusade would have returned to a place already visited in the Coil. I imagined they were questing in a place as to yet unkown.

 

On 10/22/2026 at 6:25 PM, 1ncarnadine said:

Here's my special edition signature & mysterious message:

 

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One of the better ones for this particular novel. Hate that even now, the nature of the Ghostlight remains unknown.

Edited Tuesday at 09:34 PM by The Scorpion

[1ncarnadine]

Finished. Great timing with Spooktober. This was a really fantastic read, and happened to pair really well with a re-watch of Mike Flanagan's Haunting of... shows last week 

The ghostlight does just seem to be the warp bleeding through the deep oceans and upwards through the ice. It's like a reflected feeling that underneath the ice is something deeper, and because people believe in it, it becomes the planet's reality (as above, so below). But Oblazt is also clearly a world whose core may have been something else at one point, possibly going all the way back to the War in Heaven? So that could go some way to explain the deep ocean's resonance and the ghostlight, and implies more of a self-reinforcing cycle (there is something older and deeper under the ice, and humans pick up on that and believe in it, and that in turn makes it more real). It is noted that the runemarkers are made from the planet's deep rock or core and seem to possess special properties. So they could even be blackstone/noctilith, or something else.

I think it's interesting that the slow degradation of the domes and the toppling of the runemarkers/anchor shrines could be looked at from multiple angles. They may have been keeping the warp at bay, or they may be responsible for its increasing influence, as they're exposed to the sins of humanity and the ghostlight over time. Maybe they worked to do the former at one point but now that their arrangements are damaged they do the opposite. I hope at some point Fehervari writes a short story exploring the Undervaults a little, since those were mentioned but not really touched on.

I've also looked through a bunch of the other signatures (there's a big thread on reddit) and from everything I've seen it's just random references or quotes from the book itself. So, very cool, but I doubt there's a hidden message among the arrangements. Maybe, though.

Random mysteries & musings, + spoilers (some of these are just from my notes, for me to check the next time I journey through the coil):
 

Spoiler

• Enzo (the "Eye") just up and disappeared despite being a member of the Circle valued by Khadyr through the novel. The afterword mentions he might be back some time. Just something to keep in mind for now I suppose, but that implies he hasn't shown up anywhere else yet.
• The pit where Kletka's redcaps met disaster: was "Give it back" just in reference to the deep ocean wanting the Tortuga back, or something else? I think it's the Tortuga, but this may have been some other kind of freaky phenomenon.
• Urzelka Esseker has an older daughter who is the "real" Tzürke (although that's not her name)
• Arkadi/Khadyr (Arkhadyr?) "ascended" into the warp as part of the Tortuga, so that might not be the end of them. Rhed was still in the body/statue of Indigo who may also be the control system for that warpship (???). I think they may have all just vanished into the madness of the great ocean, but I wouldn't rule them out, either. Never know with Fehervari.
• Scarlet's ring is now indigo (little i, but perhaps also big I), so these rings may have the property to house aspects of the soul? Is Indigo's soul (or part of it?) literally in the ring, or does the ring simply reflect the changing aspects of the bearer?
• Who was Titus before Urzelka? Someone who is "truly old," who had experience with horsecraft, and got shot in the left leg at some point.
• Who was the curator of the Galleria Hypothetika? He's an old man with a lilting accent, dusky complexion, and with a web of pale, thread-like marks on his face and hands (pressure marks?). Fehervari's afterword mentions that the gallery's keeper "has never forgiven me for his fate, even if it's a fairly clement one." 

 

[Fedor]

I've seen a few mentions of this book starting to give off a "too much retreading of the same tropes/tricks" vibe, even though it's still very good. Not that I mind that too much because of it being part of its own interconnected little bubble.

 

I'm waiting for a paperback release, myself.

[hd3]

Spoiler

Another thing I noticed in cold covenant the quote "We are what we were and will ourselves to become" is attributed to both 'the torn prophet' and the arc Resplendent by xoren Castaneda. Im convinced now xoren founded the original order of the last candle on Vytarn/redemption after being 'torn from reality' on malpertius

 

[hd3]

Finally finished it. Loved it! Though a couple of questions are gonna bother me. 

 

Spoiler

Was the curator of the gallery Indigo and Rhed visit supposed to be Titus?

 

Enzo disappears from the plot after the first covenant, but Qadir talks about him as if he is still around and contributing?

 

Props to Micah for having the sense to choose the better option after selling yourself to chaos. 

 

Finally, Scarlet mentions she saved some of the pages of Rhed's manifesto. In fire and ice, they mention the t'au unity propaganda was supposedly distributed in the wrapping of fishery worker. Is this supposed to be the foundation of that? 

 

Was the thing possessing Rhed's corpse at the end supposed to be someone we recognized? 

 

And lastly, I was so desperate for kelta and talbaine to hang onto the emperor's light and finish the mutineers in the first act. I thought it was so ironic they go from redeeming each other to damning each other. 

 

[1ncarnadine]

38 minutes ago, hd3 said:

Finally finished it. Loved it! Though a couple of questions are gonna bother me. 

 

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Was the thing possessing Rhed's corpse at the end supposed to be someone we recognized? 

 

 

This one's easy:

Spoiler

It's Indigo's father, her first ghost. The big clue is that it uses her birth name: "Marizka."

 

[hd3]

20 minutes ago, 1ncarnadine said:

 

This one's easy:

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It's Indigo's father, her first ghost. The big clue is that it uses her birth name: "Marizka."

 

 

 

Spoiler

Ah that's right. Thank you! I guess he was right about what his daughter would become technically...

 

Edited 6 hours ago by hd3