The Dark King (Vigilus fiction hints)

[Ascanius]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/03/01/tales-from-vigilus-10-the-messengergw-homepage-post-4/

 

The astropathic message that never gets sent in this story:

 

The Dark King is coming. His blade has two edges. The sentinels must not fall. The blood of Terra must be kept sacred. The way must be kept open.

 

The obvious interpretation, given everything that's going on with Vigilus, is that "the Dark King" is Abaddon.

 

The luckless protagonist of the story, Lex-Adept Venastra Ghorrod, interprets the message to mean that there will be two attacks, one against Vigilus and one against another sentinel world, though she doesn't specifically assume Abaddon is the Dark King.

 

("The blood of Terra" is easy to interpret as a reference to Sangua Terra, one of the key worlds near the Nachmund Gauntlet, and "the way must be kept open" as a reference to the Gauntlet itself.)

 

However, I'm going to stake my flag on the possibility that the Dark King is Lion El'Johnson, and that "his blade has two edges" refers to the Dark Angels and the Fallen.

 

I'm not saying that the Lion is coming back as part of this release, but I do think he might be coming back soon based on some recent story elements, with the latest Vigilus story the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I'll provide the counterpoints to my own thoughts because I can see the natural objections.

 

• The Dark Angels have been a bit more prominent in major story events recently, from their involvement in War Zone Fenris to Cypher's prominent yet functionally minor role in the third Gathering Storm narrative
  • Counterpoint: I'm not counting the involvement of the Space Wolves in their own War Zone Fenris storyline
    • Counter-counterpoint: That was their major storyline, since it brought the first Daemon Primarch back into modern 40K even if it didn't involve the return of Leman Russ
  • Counterpoint: The Blood Angels had a solid reason to be less involved because of the existing Tyranids-at-Baal narrative that sidelined them in 999.M41, so it only seems like the Dark Angels are more prominent because the Blood Angels couldn't be used
  • Counterpoint: as one of the major chapters both in the lore and the game, the Dark Angels get used for everything anyway
    • Counter-counterpoint: This is true, but they have also been specifically spotlighting and progressing the narrative of the Dark Angels in the last few years, such as Luther's escape from the Rock as of 8th Edition
• Cypher is prominent in the Gathering Storm: Rise of the Primarch narrative, even though ultimately he doesn't do that much. Yes, he frees Guilliman and co. from imprisonment in the depths of the Blackstone Fortress, but that situation could easily have been contrived to justify Guilliman's taking Cypher to Terra afterwards
  • Counterpoint: Games Workshop makes cool models first and then puts them into the game and narrative, so Cypher was there because they'd made a cool Cypher model, and they just made something up for him to do
    • Counter-counterpoint: Yes, I'm sure Cypher was there because they had made a cool new model for him, but that doesn't mean that they can't have chosen to release Cypher as part of the Gathering Storm narrative because they wanted to start setting things up for the next loyalist Primarch a few years later. We know GW sits on cool sculpts until the time or context is right to release them
• Games Workshop seems, at least to my eyes, to be inspired to bring some of the ideas from the Horus Heresy game and fiction into the 40K setting, in some form at least. I think it's hard to imagine Roboute Guilliman would have shown up in 40K if the Heresy had not been fleshed out, for instance, and there are some parallels between Primaris Space Marines' doctrines and those of the Legions (most notably mono-loadout squads). Given that, I don't find it hard to believe that they'd be excited to add the Lion to the modern setting in order to revive the rivalry between them depicted in stories like Dan Abnett's The Unremembered Empire, not just to replicate that but also to explore how it would be different in the modern Imperium
  • Counterpoint: None of this actually means they're literally going to bring the Lion back
    • Counter-counterpoint: Sure, but it doesn't hurt!
• I mentioned above that Luther has been released from imprisonment within the Rock. He's also rumoured to be gathering the Fallen under his command. It's not hard to imagine that GW might have a release planned including both the Lion and Luther, perhaps in a triumvirate box with a Primaris version of Chapter Master Azrael.

Anyway, that's what I think might be possible. I'm not saying that, if I'm right, we should expect to see any of this on the 2019 schedule, or even necessarily the 2020 schedule, but I was just inspired to consider possibilities beyond "the Dark King is Abaddon" . . .

[Gederas]

I would be TOTALLY down for the reveal of The Dark King actually being Lion El'Johnson. I was planning on revamping my Dark Angels, and his return is why I'm redoing them all in I Legion Black and Silver (Deathwing and Greenwing will have their respective colours on their symbol shoulder pads). Because out of all the Chapters/Legions, the one I could see going back to their original colours would be the First.

[Quantum]

Though a twist like this would be awesome, GW's writing is rarely subtle or layered. I doubt it refers to anything but Abaddon.

[Marshal Loss]

A noble effort, but nope, not a chance. The context makes it very clear and there is absolutely no evidence to the contrary.

[Ranulf]

A noble effort, but nope, not a chance. The context makes it very clear and there is absolutely no evidence to the contrary.

Now, now Loss, you know what happens when one states suppositions as fact, all astropathic transmissions are open to interpretation.

 

I like the theory Ascanius, but i'd argue against it from a marketing perspective - it's already a month full of new releases including a box set and a (likely) new Abaddon while the return of a loyalist Primarch is cause enough for a box set of its own.

 

-Ran

[DeadFingers]

I really doubt "Dark King" refers to anyone but Abaddon, as in Vigilus Defiant, the people afflicted with nightmarish visions due to exposure to the Cicatrix start chanting "The Dark King is coming" in unison just before Haarken does his "The planet will belong to the Warmaster" speech.

 

With that said, I like your idea. It'd be pretty cool.

[Marshal Loss]

 

A noble effort, but nope, not a chance. The context makes it very clear and there is absolutely no evidence to the contrary.

Now, now Loss, you know what happens when one states suppositions as fact, all astropathic transmissions are open to interpretation.

 

Yeah I should be more careful with my wording after that. :P I'll rise to the bait to illustrate my point: in academia, a supposition is a hypothesis based on no evidence (at least in the humanities, the two words are not used as synonyms in peer-reviewed publications). Case in point: this thread, and the people in N&R stating that kits were ETB even though we had pictures showing duplicated models. There can be little doubt that the "dark king" refers to Abaddon here. Each of the various times the 'dark king' stuff has been uttered it has been closely associated with chaos proclamations - context - and Abaddon has been referred to by this title in older fiction. The Lion has never gone by this title.

 

Put simply: there is as much evidence in the Vigilus material cited here for the Lion coming back as there is for a race of sentient robo-flamingos invading the Imperium as a new xenos faction.The Lion could well be coming in the future, but in terms of pure Vigilus material: no. I'm not commenting on the rest of the post, he could be totally correct in terms of broader trends, but the quote's target can be stated beyond reasonable doubt.

[Rob P]

If you wanted to push The Lion thing, BL has just re-released The Board is Set in which the Lion is represented by the double-edged blade.

[Guest Triszin]

:D. Hope your right. We need another loyaist as there are to many theaters for Bobby g to handle

[DeadFingers]

. Hope your right. We need another loyaist as there are to many theaters for Bobby g to handle

Poor Roboute, his crusade against performance arts must be exhausting. :P