Regarding King-Ships

[karden00]

So, ADB did a beautiful job of rehabilitating the idea of a game-changing ship that started with the Furious Abyss and developed into the Blessed Lady and Trisagion. While the Furious Abyss was something of a joke, the later two sister vessels felt like actual threats. In Betrayer, they are introduced wonderfully, but far more importantly, they are described as very real players in the void war around Ultramar. At one point, a character in Betrayer more or less states that the only reason the traitors are successful against a retaliating fleet of Ultramarines is because of the presence of one (or was it two? I cannot recall and do not have the book handy) of those ships. Lorgar boasts that they would easily prove a match for even the Phalanx.

Now lets remember, these are opinions of characters within the book, not statements of outright fact.

Then we had a neat little description of the Salamanders leaving Ultramar in one of the Vulkan Lives books, where the skeleton of an unknown and exceedingly large ship is observed. I took it to be one of the two newer Kingships, but it was all very odd. Surely as the Shadow Crusade wrecked Ultramar, word would've gotten out about the existence and threat of these two ships. So for the Sallies to not know what ship this could have been, either suggests sloppy writing continuity or a different ship alltogether....Aaanyway.

I do not recall of in Slaves to Darkness either of the ships are mentioned. Lorgar featured quite a bit in the book, but I don't remember reading much about his pimped out ride.

I am about halfway through Solar War, so I dont know if they pop up or are even mentioned, given that Lorgar has been removed from the Siege so far by a very unhappy Horus.

 

Now that we've gotten accounts (and lack thereof) of the Kingships out of the way, I wanted to know what people thought of the two Kingships. I thought ADB did a masterful job at reintroducing the concept of singular (okay, there are two of them) ships being major strategic assets that fundamentally shift the outcome of naval warfare. How often in sci fi are superweapons cliched and ultimately goofy plot devices? Do all of you agree that one or two of these ships could feature very significantly and/or very coolly in an upcoming novel? It seems a shame to just leave the idea by the wayside.

[Master Ciaphas]

Hail

 

I think the ship discovered by the Salamanders leaving Macragge is the wreck of the Furious Abyss, as that was destroyed right on the edge of the Macragge System...

 

Kindly

Master Ciaphas

[Marshal Rohr]

I’m pretty sure someone from bL specifically said that was the wreckage of the Abyss towed to the edge of the system.

[RedFurioso]

The destroyed ship is the Blessed Lady.

 

The Furious Abyss detonated right above Macragge.

Salamanders discovered that new hulk at the fringes of Ultramar, amidst the sea of dead ships. They discovered entire battle companies of dead Ultramarines and Word Bearers inside, something that wasn't mentioned in the description of Abyss' final moments.

And the Blessed Lady never appeared in recent books! Trisagion only.

 

‘That,’ he said, pointing at the orbiting wreck of the Furious Abyss, now clearly visible as it crested the horizon.

‘It’s dead,’ said Auguston, ‘and what’s left of it is being dismantled by reclamation teams. What of it?’

‘It’s a hazard to navigation,’ Polux replied, ‘and furthermore, it is a military threat. Effective sabotage could knock it from orbit, and drop every megatonne of its metal bulk on this city. The enemy is not beyond such tricks, First Master. That corpse-ship must be towed beyond the orbit of the outer moons and dismantled there.’ - outer moons, not Ultramar fringes

[grailkeeper]

King-Ship, not kingship

[Marshal Rohr]

Are we 100% sure it’s an Abyss class at the fringes of Ultramar?

[Marshal Loss]

I doubt very much that the Blessed Lady has died off-screen. It seems far more likely that if that ship is intended to be an Abyss class it is the Furious Abyss with some editing errors responsible for any anomalies.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

King-Ship, not kingship

lmao yeah i was super confused when i opened the thread and it wasn't talking about the various characters who have the titles of king in-universe and how they interact with the Imperium

[karden00]

Hahaha my bad! King-Ship! Mod, maybe redo that?

Re it being the Furious Abyss...there would be exactly one dead Ultramarine, who would very likely have little to no remains after the explosion that took it out...

 

But I wanted to talk more about how people feel about the place and role they have within the story, not get too caught up in the details of what happened to them. Did they fulfill their narrative role within Betrayer, and seem out of place at this point in the story? They seemed to be super weapons that the Imperials don’t seem to have a counter for. Would’ve been pretty fitting to see the two of them spearhead into the Sol System.

[Kelborn]

Ask and you shall receive.

 

Topic name's edited. :)

[Lord_Caerolion]

I think in Betrayer they were done well, in BftA it just seemed too... "generic evil super-weapon". I was almost expecting the Word Bearer Captain to put his pinky finger to the corner of his mouth and demand one billion dollars to not blow up the planet.

[b1soul]

1 million dollars

[mactire]

I thought one of Lorgars King-ships was destroyed and crashed onto Angrons homeworld during the battle with Guilliman near the end of Betrayer. Didn't it cause a tidal wave/tsunami.

[Roomsky]

I thought one of Lorgars King-ships was destroyed and crashed onto Angrons homeworld during the battle with Guilliman near the end of Betrayer. Didn't it cause a tidal wave/tsunami.

 

That was the Word Bearer's Gloriana / former flag ship, the Fidelitas Lex.

 

Going through Unremembered Empire again, Polux has the Ultras tow the Furious Abyss out-system, so presumably that's the other wreckage mentioned and the Ultras on board are just a continuity error? 

 

Yeah, no idea where the Blessed Lady went. Maybe Lorgar took it with him after Ullanor?