Angel_of_Blood Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Spoilers for Master of Mankind ahead... Soooo this was undoubtedly brought up on here back when Master of Mankind came out, but that thread is ages about and likely got a ton of pages. Last we see of Ra, the Emperor has thrown Drach’nyen into him and told him to run. I never really thought anything more of this, beyond Ra evidently dying at some point as Abaddon gets hold of the sword. Been reading Black Legion again, where I thought the first time reading we might see Abaddon get the sword. Then went off trying to read on the lore just when he gets it, which is when I came across the old lore. In the lore it states that a ‘golden figure’ leafs him to the sword, which I believe the community as a whole all readily assumed was the Deciever, for whatever reason it wanted Abaddon to have Drach’nyen. Far as I’m aware though, it was never confirmed as the Deciever. Soooo, could said golden figure be Ra? After 10,000 years, or potentially even more trapped with the insanely powerful demon. Again, was probably discussed to death back then, but hey fresh discussion eh! Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apothecary Vaddon Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 AFAIK Abaddon gets Drach'nyen sometime in M31 or M32, not in M41. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5242804 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panzer Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Didn't Ra get impaled by Drach'nyen? Being impaled by a sword would make it pretty difficult to "lead" someone to said sword I'd say. ^^ Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5242851 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel_of_Blood Posted January 27, 2019 Author Share Posted January 27, 2019 Didn't Ra get impaled by Drach'nyen? Being impaled by a sword would make it pretty difficult to "lead" someone to said sword I'd say. ^^ Not like we know how that works though. Is he just running around with a sword sticking out of him, can he take it out, or who knows. AFAIK Abaddon gets Drach'nyen sometime in M31 or M32, not in M41. Ah of course. Though again, with the way the warp works, it could indeed have been that long, longer or hell only a day. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5242857 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Loss Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Yeah, I think it's very safe to say that the golden figure on Uralan will have something to do with Ra. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5242859 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonreaper666 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Yeah, I think it's very safe to say that the golden figure on Uralan will have something to do with Ra. Drach'nyen might be powerful enough to corrupt Custodes and Grey Knights just like the Blade of Antywr Or Abaddon kills him as a test to see if he is worthy Just like Inquisitor Horst, Ra became a host for a Chaos Artifact I am more interested in Abaddon talking to Drach'nyen. Will Abaddon make a deal with huge consenquences just as he did with the Warp Ghosts? Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5242919 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apothecary Vaddon Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 For all its strength, the Blade of Antwyr has never corrupted a single GK... Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5242943 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dagoth Ur Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Yeah, I think it's very safe to say that the golden figure on Uralan will have something to do with Ra. Drach'nyen might be powerful enough to corrupt Custodes and Grey Knights just like the Blade of Antywr Drach'nyen itself reflects on the corruptability of custodes in Master of Mankind and comes to the realization that 'all the stars would grow cold before it could sway even one of the emperor's guard' (Paraphrase as my own copy of the book is in a different country right now). My speculation is that Abaddon indeed has to slay Ra in order to get the sword, but I suppose we'll know the truth once the last BL book hits the shelves in a few years. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5242953 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prot Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Didn't Ra get impaled by Drach'nyen? Being impaled by a sword would make it pretty difficult to "lead" someone to said sword I'd say. ^^ It depends on the order of operation. What if Raa was consumed, or under the influence of the sword? What if it wasn’t necessarily the will of Ra to lead Abaddon to the sword but in doing so it allowed the sword to free itself by killing its capturer? That might be enough of a ‘bargain’ to let Abaddon wield it. I have no idea, but there’s a lot of open possibilities. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5242963 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelborn Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Wasn't it that Ra was stabbed and absorbed the blade? That the daemon was within him now, acting as its walking prison? Yes, he still had to suffer from the wound but I understood it that the entire blade was inside of him from then on. Maybe I've misunderstood but that would make more sense to me than let him run with a sword in his chest. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5243009 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Loss Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 How about we look at the passage with the greatest detail on what happened on Uralan: As the bloodshed of the First Black Crusade reached its frenzied heights, cities burned and worlds were stripped of people to feed the dark desires of the Traitor Legions. Leaving his Black Legion to continue their brutal reprisals and raids against Imperial worlds, Abaddon pursued his own plans. Using the howling souls unleashed into the Warp by so much death and destruction, he made a secret daemonic bargain. In payment for the feast of despair, pain and anguish Abaddon had created with his Black Crusade, the Dark Gods gifted him with knowledge of the secret location of the Tower of Silence on Uralan. Cloaked in the shadow of the Eye of Terror, Uralan was whispered of in daemonic lore as a place where the gods themselves locked away their secrets. Following the strands of fate unravelled by his cabal of Sorcerers, Abaddon had discovered a concealed path through the Warp and across the shifting sea of worlds beyond to reach Uralan without needing to breach the Cadian Gate. With a cadre of the Black Legion's elite warriors, each one a brutal veteran of a thousand battles, Abaddon set foot on Uralan and entered the Tower of Silence. Almost at once, the tower's guardians set upon them, ancient constructs of dark energy that shifted and flickered, their claws tearing at the ragged edges of his warriors' souls. After a bitter battle, Abaddon climbed down into the mirrored heart of Uralan. There, the dank tower crypts gave way to ethereal light and wind. Gravity reversed, and where Abaddon had been descending into the earth, he now walked out into a reflected realm, the sky beneath his feet and the ground above. Following a floating path of twisted trees, he walked into a crumbling labyrinth of ancient stone that both decayed and was remade before his eyes. Filled with the ghosts and echoes of those that had come before, the maze was a maddening tangle of old and new, its walls turning in upon themselves at impossible angles. For what seemed an age, Abaddon wandered the haunted labyrinth, fighting off the spirits of the dead that threatened to add him to their ranks. Finally, close to exhaustion, the Despoiler prepared to make his final stand. Then, from out of the madness of the maze, a towering figure appeared, its perfect form wreathed in golden light. Without a word, the figure beckoned for Abaddon to follow. Though the Despoiler tried to talk to the being and see its face, it remained hidden within a gauze of shimmering light, unresponsive and silent. The figure led Abaddon to the centre of the labyrinth where a shard of shifting darkness hung suspended in the air. Reaching out into the void, Abaddon felt the cold hilt of a blade meet his palm and he pulled it into reality; the Daemon sword Drach'nyen took terrible shape before his eyes. Raising the fearsome blade before him, Abaddon turned to demand the name of his golden guide, only to discover that the figure was gone. The source is the old Codex: Black Legion supplement. Now while ADB did not write this, he was apparently consulted about the supplement in places, and they'd originally wanted him to write it (if I recall correctly). Therefore given his involvement and the end of Master of Mankind - where Ra holds Drach'nyen within him, but is not literally a superhuman kebab as some posters seem to believe - it seems more like than not that the golden stranger has something to do with Ra. Perhaps he is corrupted into becoming the daemon's keeper, enslaved by the gods, as after all Abaddon is apparently led to the blade as a gift from the pantheon. It's interesting also that Abaddon wills the blade to take the form of a sword (Khayon certainly believes so), which was the form the daemon took when it impaled the Emperor...Perhaps Ra held true and was never corrupted and something even more mysterious has happened. I don't remember the MoM quote that TO paraphrased above but I also haven't read the book in quite a while. But this is ADB, after all. The man loves his mystery & fidelity, and rightly so. I would bet no small amount of money that we will never receive a concrete answer on what happened to Ra. We will instead see the beginning (Master of Mankind) and the ending (Black Legion III: The Return of the Topknot) of this mystery, and have only hints and suppositions to guide us to our conclusions. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5243035 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluntblade Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 I'd still be totally on board with Khayon saying "It's an elegant distortion. In truth Abaddon, bleeding from a hundred wounds of his own, plunged his hand up to the elbow in the ancient Custodian's chest and tore it free, bringing with it something that coalesced from blood and smoke..." Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5243059 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Loss Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Plausible but, I think, rather unlikely. There has always been a lot of mystery about the golden figure's form & Uralan more broadly, going back right to 2nd ed. I can't see ADB completely torpedoing that, which is what overtly referencing the Custodian would do. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5243061 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panzer Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Well there seems to be a lot of golden figures doing mysterious things in 40k lore anyway. For example the golden figure defending Terra infront of the palace Dante often thinks about is just another one (and I'm sure he would have recognized a Custodian if it were one). :teehee: Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5243063 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlo Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Just a note, but I'm fairly sure MoM says that Ra was created exclusively for the purpose of containing the First Murder - engineered by the Emperor for this duty. It's a cracking mystery though; my 2p is that the whole "tower" could well be a prison engineered by Ra's on mind inside the Eye of Terror. His will so strong that the warp shifted to his own design to keep the Daemon locked up. The Chaos Gods just needed the fuel of the Black Crusades to breach it - they just presented it to Abaddon as a "gift" as a manipulation, as is their way ;) Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5243066 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Loss Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Just a note, but I'm fairly sure MoM says that Ra was created exclusively for the purpose of containing the First Murder - engineered by the Emperor for this duty. Having just read the passage, that interpretation would probably be a huge stretch. I think the context (the visions being shown to Ra throughout MoM are stated to be out of the ordinary) implies that he wasn't created exclusively for that reason, but all of the illuminations and conversations between the big E and Ra throughout MoM were ultimately for that greater purpose. It's one of the reasons why Diocletian suddenly conversing with the Emperor at the end is a delicious bit of potential foreshadowing. A very interesting theory though. Anyway, more interestingly still, the last words prior to "run" the Emperor says to Ra are these: The Emperor still bled, still clutched His wounded chest with one gloved hand. Blood flecked His lips. ‘When all that remains is ash and dust,’ He said, strained, ‘be ready.' Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5243071 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nashnir Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 It is highly possible, that Ra is killed sometime/where and the demon takes control of the corpse like it did of the custodes during the ambush scene in Master of Mankind. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5245589 Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1soul Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 I hope they come up with something more interesting than the Daemon consumes Ra Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/353420-custodian-ra-endymion/#findComment-5245739 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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