Vox Stellarum: Hara Barazaiti

[Ryltar Thamior]

More Adamantine loyalists 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Threeswords (Sword Worlds) Grenadier officer

[Ryltar Thamior]

Adamantine Dead Star veteran 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine work on the Vet.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Completed the Grenadier officer. Went for quite a dark palette , which nevertheless semi-inadvertently echoes the Harii in some ways - whilst still being recognizably distinct. And maintains some less overbearing ostentation and prestige with the gold. Contemplated doing the limbs of the skull-axial'd cross in a (brighter) bronze or copper tone , but eventually decided against it. The slightly faded look may have been overpowered by it, and I like that the lustre of the metal nevertheless shines through. 

 

The more difficult thing is going to be building a few more to go with. I have some ideas, but from what I recall - getting the neophyte hybrid arms with autoguns or shotguns to fit on greatsword torsos [or, for that matter, seemingly most human-sized torsos they're not explicitly designed for] can be a bit of an effort. Last time I did so, I think I worked around the problem by using skitarii arms for bionic replacements here and there

 

Although the main difficulty, unquestionably, is going to be heads. Because that shall likely either make or break the aesthetic. Which, at this stage, I'm feeling something German. Cadian helms will probably be too close to the standard Guardsman silhouette; Greatsword helms are a possibility, although the beards may be a complication for the look. I *may* have some Manann's Blades helmeted heads around that might work if some of the rosettes etc. are trimmed down; and I can probably make good use of the Cadian HQ head with the field cap on - in fact, I may be able to get in several with that if I apply rebreather masks to get around the otherwise identical facial expressions. If I can be bothered trimming down the necks significantly, Scion berets may be a possibility; and there's also always Orlocks to be made use of (with the goggles and what not, which may manage a certain German aesthetic to them) - although I've mostly been using those styles of haircut etc. for either Adamantia Auxilia, or the post-Adamantia traditions that take their direct points of inspiration therefrom.  

 

And then there's the question of what to actually *build* , equipment and posing etc .. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

These are painting in progress ... I've wanted to do some 'proper' XXth for some time ; but the colour-scheme has always been a significant obstacle.

 

The one on the right, I tried out just doing an electric blue and bronze/brass to see if it could carry off the right vibe with appropriate bitz

 

The one on the left, I basically just wanted to test out whether contrast paint would make the metallic blue actually possible to do ... so it's not even a conversion, just a different head and a Headhunter pad ;

 

I'm not entirely happy with either - but I'm weighing up wheher to keep them basicaly as is and finish painting , or to attempt to redo them ,and if so, how.

 

I don't mind that they're in rather different colours from each other - this is the [Loyalist] Alpha Legion. And they'll be showing up for Hara Barazaiti so I figure by M42, the Legion will have made a semi-inadvertent mockery of its previous uniformity - all sorts of Marines going all sorts of directions with individualistic aesthetics ;

 

but yeah, I wasn't sure that metallic green-blue was a goer, or that almost electric-blue rather than something more subdued.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Made a start on the Sentinels of Dzungaria - those 'Unbarking Hounds of Zeus' I referenced elsewhere: an Adamanticore who's in some ways an older equivalent to those Gryphon-badged Harii 

[Ryltar Thamior]

This Is #GangSteppe 



Pazyryk Barbarian 



Oh, and the 'inspiration' ... 



And if you're wondering just what on earth that last image is - here's an article I wrote a few months ago on the relevant subject. 

 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Completed the (first of a few) Adamanticore Warden of Dzungaria 






 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Adamanticore Warden's model. How will you decorate his base?

[Master Umbra]

Awesome conversions and neat paint scheme, along with a badass Chapter name!

[Ryltar Thamior]

Excellent work on the Adamanticore Warden's model. How will you decorate his base?

Churr. Haven't thought that far ahead. I never do viz. basing

 

Awesome conversions and neat paint scheme, along with a badass Chapter name!

Thanks - if you're interested in the Adamanticores, they have a dedicated thread I keep meaning to put more of the current tranche of miniatures into, here. 

 

Although there's a bit of a 'timeline' difference - the thread linked is the Adamanticores at their height about ... 4-5 millennia before the 'current day'. The Adamanticores in *this* thread are ... also largely 'from' that period, but often preserved in stasis or otherwise and are 'back' for various reasons in M42. 

 

Something not coincidentally bound up with the Haunting Harii of Hvergelmir . Linking threads because further conversions etc. 

 

And because I *really should* start actually sitting down to write up the overarching story and setting going on here ! 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Dzungaria. A name shrouded in legend amidst the archaeo-explorator fraternities across half a Segmentum. A fanciful folktale dismissed and derided by the more serious-minded Magii of half a Segmentum more. 

The 'standard' story sounds plausible enough - a world given over as the former treasure-house of Adamantia, a repository for many of the secrets and wealth of that long-vanquished stellar domain. Lying out at the far end of an otherwise-unassailable warp-current flowing down from the North - the Buran - and still holding within its vaults the vast reservoirs of knowledge and power that once saw Adamantia begin to burgeon to rival Ultramar. Before the Hammer of the Imperium crushed down upon it and ended its putative ascendency afore it had ever really begun. 

Yet that's just it - say the skeptics. The Imperial obviation of Adamantia was motivated in no small part via the envious eyes and jealous hands of its rivals further afield. They did their best to ensure that while Adamantia's pleas of innocence fell on deaf ears, furtive gazes and grasping hands should go along with the Imperial war machine. Ransacking and pilfering as much of Adamantia's hard-won technical and material wealth as they could carry off under the cloak of ill-fitting official legitimacy and sanction. 

Surely an entire planet of the very creme of Adamantia's gleanings could not have been somehow overlooked, inaccessible warp-currents or no. 

And then there are the still less plausible elements. Golden Gryphons standing watchful guard over the treasures at the edge of the world. An entrance into the Underworld, where the Spirit-Warriors of Revenant Ghosts haunt halls long-thought abandoned yet which still thrum with ancient, hidden power. 

There is no question amidst even the moderately superstitious minds who incur into the Adamantine Spoil from without from time to time that the entire stellar expanse is still watched by something. And sufficient episodes exist within the sealed records of the Inquisition to confirm that the void-fire tales of hulking, green-eyed giants with armour the colour of the dead have their basis in fact. Although just what facts those might be, the Ordo Astartes (amidst many others) should dearly wish to know. 

Yet it seems utterly implausible for these to have anything to do with the fabled Adamanticores of old - who had surely died to the last man fighting 'gainst their doom in the field, or who were mercilessly, methodically tracked down and expurgated in the gruelling, cooling years afterward. Tortured with all the imaginative cruelty of both Inquisition and Mechanicus in search of tantalizing troves of Adamantia's hidden wonders secreted away during the Fall. 

This is a myth that must endure. For if it did not, it would be the tenuous Pax of the region that crumbled with it. The hold over various parts of the former Adamantine Spoil by 'outlander' Houses and other such duly appointed external authorities is tenuous - especially in light of the tumultuous upheavals that have recently engulfed both the wider Imperium and the worlds of the Spoil itself.

Were the folk-accounts of the adamantine-armoured storm-sentinels occasionally reported by informants to turn out to be more than hearsay, it could induce the Adamantine population to rise up against their foreign oppressors, sure of victory as they fought alongside living legends of their own ancestral past. Worse, it could attract the unwelcome scrutiny of the Inquisition - and consequent closing off of the still incredibly lucrative trade in both technology and trinkets looted from the former sites of Adamantine civilizational glory.

Indeed, even were the Inquisition not to take sole charge of the Ruins of Adamantia unto itself, there should still be such a chilling effect upon the teams of 'outlander' prospectors who make the industry run that both it and the mineral-extractive sectors that are its sibling should dry up virtually overnight.

Few are the foreigners foolhardy to the point of daring to disturb a demigod's tomb! Fewer still are they who would do so even despite knowing that the demigod does yet still draw breath amongst them! 

And yet, it is becoming more difficult by the day for all sides to ignore. The harrowing accounts told with an Ugratic glee by native Adamantians of what seem to be their forebears - speaking in dialects not heard for near five thousand years, and armed and armoured like the Adamantine Auxilia of yore. The scattered siroccos of 'old scores' settled against those who first authored and thence profiteered relentlessly from Adamantia's sad demise - feats that had to be accomplished via advanced technological availment and seemingly superhuman operational proficiency. 

The Warp itself has subtly shifted - bending the fabric of its internecine routes and currents as if in response to a powerful insurgence towards the Adamantine North. 

All of these events could be unconnected - The Imperium in M42 is a time of both happenings of darkness and miracles in equal measure, after all.

Yet 'midst the minds of those who make it their business to be alert to such things - whether their spirits be clouded by terror or clarified by zeal at the prospect - there can be little doubt: 

Dzungaria stirs !

[Ryltar Thamior]

God of our fathers, known of old,

   Lord of our far-flung battle-line,


 

Beneath whose awful Hand we hold

   Dominion over palm and pine—


 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;

   The Captains and the Kings depart:


 

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,

   An humble and a contrite heart.


 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;

   On dune and headland sinks the fire:


 

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

   Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!


 

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

 

[Zebulon]

I had to briefly switch from mobile to the full version to read your text above - the pale lilac is barely legible on the mobile site - but as usual it was well worth the effort! Very well written, you evoke the mythology of a vanished civilisation (or have they?!) with aplomb!

 

I also enjoyed the poem/prayer and imagery. Those heads from ?Assyria? put me in mind of Easter Island, too.

[Ryltar Thamior]

I had to briefly switch from mobile to the full version to read your text above - the pale lilac is barely legible on the mobile site - but as usual it was well worth the effort! Very well written, you evoke the mythology of a vanished civilisation (or have they?!) with aplomb!

 

I also enjoyed the poem/prayer and imagery. Those heads from ?Assyria? put me in mind of Easter Island, too.

Glad it was worth the effort, although hadn't realized it'd have that impact on a mobile browser. I get a bit carried away mucking about with fonts and text-colours from time to time, because it seems more grandiose on the dark background than a sans-serif. Shall have to keep the browser-version issue in mind.

 

Churr about the writing. It was one of those things that turned up in my head and demanded it be written to set a stage. 

 

The poem, of course, is Kipling's Recessional - I'm not quite sure why, but an elegaic line of the third verse occurred to me, I went back for a re-read, and I started feeling a bit of a compulsion to do some appropriate shots to go-with. A bit of a 'trailer' perhaps. 

 

Close, as applies the heads - they're from a rather minor (in the scheme of things) Seleucid successor state (the Commagene kingdom) wedged between Anatolia and the western frontiers of the Persian (well, by that stage, Parthian) sphere. You can kinda see that in the stonework - insofar as it's a combination of Greek and Iranic influences. Which seemed reasonably apt for what I'm attempting to go for here. The statuary itself is quite famous - hence why there's so many rather grand photos and slightly manipulated photos thereof to choose from online. It's at a place called Mt Nemrut in modern-day Turkey - so a little north of the Assyrians, although they were represented in its populace as well. 

 

That notion of obviously previously impressive material culture, cast down and left to lie in stony vigil for its former creators atop a mound of rubble (and a suitably melancholic looking Eagle) afore broken thrones , really did seem pretty much 'the vibe'. Even before the sunset and the excellently hued 'cloudy' picture's scrutinizing stare were considered. And, of course, as I noted, the Iranic style of aesthetics in some areas being a bonus. Figured also that it was a lot easier to add real-world photographs like this to evoke the feel rather than just writing about it or letting quotes do the work. Makes the worldbuilding in question seem more 'alive'. 

 

Anyway, thanks for kind words. And we'll be hearing more from/of those sharp-beaked ghosts of the past in due course. As well as the more contemporary inhabitants of the Spoil in its present state. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

"The Grypes of Dzungaria are often reckoned to be a myth. That is undeniably true - although it fundamentally misrepresents just what a 'Myth' is. It certainly shall not save you from Their claws should you trespass upon Their domain." 

- Aristeas the Wind-Walker, an Adamantine Who Wandered Beyond 




 

“Be on thy guard against the Gryphons, the keen-mouthed unbarking hounds of Zeus, and the one-eyed Arimaspian host, who dwell around the stream flowing-with-gold, the ferry of Plouton.”

 

- Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 




 

"Round Nemesis' throne flew a bird of vengeance, a Gryps flying with wings, or balancing himself on four feet, to go unbidden before the flying Vengeance and show that Inescapable Fate traverses the four separate quarters of the world."

- Nonnus, Dionysiaca 





The Gryphons of Dzungaria are in some ways even more legendary than that dark and windswept place 'midst the folk-religion of the Adamantine Core. For They have transcended Their demesne to become symbols of something - something enduring and precious. Fierce, savage, Hope. 

Part Eagle, and part Lion - the Grypes (lit. 'Sharp[-Beaked]') has assumed a place within the Adamantine pantheon of guardian spirits as the protectors and guardians of that which other men should wish to steal. Possessing the keen eyesight and keener claws of the mighty Aquila, and the noble, regal bearing - as well as the thunderous roar - of the leonine breed. They bring together the iconographic trappings of Empire with the subtleness required to strike swiftly and sagely - pursuing with an almost draconic vigour and vindictiveness those who should 'tempt to poison and despoil the Adamantine heritage via misappropriation. 

Indeed, it is small wonder that there has even emerged an Aspect of the God-Emperor - known to the Adamantines more usually as the Spear-Lord - Who is hailed in just such a form. 



Yet whilst it is customary for foreigners to Adamantia to dismiss or even to outright deride such fanciful tales as being mere folk-superstitions - perhaps seeking to euhemerize the accounts away via sleight of an academic's pen and penury of vision , as a mechanism to assuage their own fears should they be seeking to intrude 'pon Old-Adamantine Holy Ground ... 

... a 'Myth' is not called a Myth because it is false. A Myth is called a Myth because it explicates something vital, integral, and fundamentally True about the world of the people who live within it.

Thus it is with the Gryphons of Adamantia. 

In truth, even despite the majestic presence of various such 'heraldic beasts' oft-held to have "inspired" the legends, the core of the Adamantine Gryphon cult is no mere animal representation. 

Rather, the ancient sigil of the protectors of Adamantia's northern reaches has carried forward. And even some five  thousand years after its last 'official' use emblazoned upon the panoply of the Adamanticores - it retains its customary meaning for the peoples They once watched over on guard. The Sentinels of the Steppe of Stars. 

More curious, however, have been the recent reports of so-called 'Riphean' Revenants bearing this blazon, and other symbols like it such as the Golden Talon or the Auric Eagle. A number of these armoured warrior-demons are not even in the traditional, customary Adamantine colours of bronze - but rather the blue-black of shadowed death. 

The Seers of the SakAryans' descendants explain that the Ghost Grypes of the darkened hue have come to take up the vigil of the Adamantine Gryphons of old. Terrifying Spirits of Vengeance sent by the Spear-Lord Himself .

Although this does not quite explain the Ugran figure in the baroque suit of hand-engineered Terminator armour. He of sharp-beaked knightly helm, wings of mechandendrites, claws of plasma and lightning, and axe-spear that is a 'sharp-beak' all its own. 






 

[Ryltar Thamior]

The KalAdharastine Bhairava - Nemesis Kapalika



Amidst the many specialized sects and warrior-fraternities of both the Adamanticores and Old Adamantine folk-religion alike (for one was suitably indistinguishable from the other), the exaltation of Law was a common fixation. Yet whilst the 'Iron Masks' pursued the maintenance of civic order, and the Heshrpandits upheld the genomic excellence required for the Realm of Adamantia's fated purpose as Astartes fortress-womb ... the KalAdharastines (occasionally Gothicized as 'Kal-Adrastines') were different. 



A grim-faced order of terrific killers, their name meant something akin to 'The Blade / Leading Edge / Hand of Kaal' - Kaal being an Old Adamantine theonym for a deity of both Time and Death and bearing the Black colouration of the Dark Night. With slight alteration of inflection, it could also be interpreted to mean 'The Skillful in the Craft', implicitly of Death; and when calqued into the Yavanite languages to Adamantia's West it became 'Kal-Adrastines': understood there as "The Inescapable Kal". 

Leaving aside that "Kal" could also mean 'Beauty' in those latter languages, the "Inescapable Kaal" conveyed the underlying sense to the KalAdharastas' self-designation. For just as with Time and Death, they were held to be implacable - seeming to be outright 'inevitable' in their pursuit and eventual taking of their prey. 

Whereas various of those other orders aforementioned focused upon combating generalized threats to the Order of Adamantia , the KalAdharastas took as their mission the targeting and elimination of specific and often highly individual opponents to same.

Each particular sub-order specialized in a different form of approach - some favouring the subtlety of stealth or the far-reaching grasp of long-range precision-kills as their particular forms of tribute to the All-Enfolding Death-That-Is-Night. Particularly adroit KalAdharastas would eventually begin to combine to their taste disciplines drawn from multiple of these traditions, becoming truly terrifying masters of the deadly administration of Justice's Harsh Hand. Demarcated from their fellows by bearing an ever-lengthening series of sobriquets alluding to the ways and means with which they could cast their sacred sanction upon Adamantia's foes. 

The specialization of the Kapalika was, as the name implies, in 'Headtaking'; with the 'Bhairava' cognomen of this particular Adamantine avenger indicating a focus also upon terror. Justice, in other words, being seen to be done - and the psychological affect being generated by the coldly implacable manner of the Astartes stalking forward with the inavoidability of Dusk towards the end of life's day; the massive eviscerator chainblade sweeping down like Night's sudden twilight fall. 

The 'Kapalika' affiliation of the Astartes is also declared not only via the two partially-flensed skulls that he carries in his right hand, but also by the servo-skull units slaved to his armour, that assist with the operation of certain arcane devices mounted upon his back. 

Meanwhile, the Cog-Wheel device represents a not uncommon escutcheon for the KalAdharastas - as it is thought to symbolize the inexorable, regular expression of the Law : the central wheel about which all else turns in motion as a result. And hence, once again, the inevitable cycle via which Night follows Day - and the KalAdharasta pursues his quarry til its dissolution. Declaring to would-be usurpers that they shall be ground down between the indefatigable gear-teeth of Order in recompense for their having sought to defy and oppose Reality Itself. 
 

History does not record with any great certainty what became of many of the KalAdharastas following the Fall of Adamantia. It is generally presumed that they, along with their Adamanticore brethren, died fighting 'gainst the forces which, with their own seeming inevitability of entropy, sought to lay the stellar domain of Adamantia low. What few remained must have, in a fitting bout of irony, have faded away into the dark obscuring mists of time - or else disappeared into the blackness which lingers betwixt the stars. 

However, some suggest that their influence lingers still. Analysis of several of the Adamantine Old Faith cults in operation over recent millennia suggest that these have gradually developed features of increasing resemblance to those of known KalAdharasta denominations. It should not take an unreasonably paranoid mind to postulate that these sects may be being actively 'guided' by the embodied Spirits of Vengeance whom they strive to emulate. 

Perhaps the wheels remain in motion. And perhaps the return of Darkness is merely one bright day away. 

[Master Umbra]

 

Perhaps the wheels remain in motion. And perhaps the return of Darkness is merely one bright day away. 

Ok, that last line was particularly awesome. You have incredible writing creativity-are you also a Linguist? Your insights on language dynamics lead me to that guess.

 

Regarding the minis, awesome job as always!

[Ryltar Thamior]

 

 

Perhaps the wheels remain in motion. And perhaps the return of Darkness is merely one bright day away. 

Ok, that last line was particularly awesome. You have incredible writing creativity-are you also a Linguist? Your insights on language dynamics lead me to that guess.

 

Regarding the minis, awesome job as always!

 

Thanks Glad it got read all the way to the end. I was worried it was a bit much text for a mere two photos to hold the attention. 

 

Now, in terms of your question ... I'm not a linguist, I'm a theologian . 

 

Hindu and Indo-European theologian , specifically.

 

Which means I make use of a fair amount of comparative I.E. linguistics in the course of my work. Kaal, derived from PIE 'Kel' is one of my favourite particles , so it turns up a fair amount in my output [including occasionally disguised as other things - the short story 'Operation Psychopomp' that I wrote for the Haunting Harii of Hvergelmir , for instance, has "Karl" [as in, Old Norse for 'Man' ] as the 'cover' [this is literally what 'Kel' means - 'cover' ... there's a discursion upon its saliency and how it turns into what we know in Sanskrit as 'Kaal', found here ] 

 

My 40k efforts tend to intertwine heavily with my theological ones. Often-times, I've been putting things together in service of the background of a 40k project, and it'll lead *directly* to something happening in my more professional sphere.  GHOST DIVISION (one of my best articles) is a good example of that - it happened because I was prodding around with a line from Tacitus' Germania and some vaguely related concepts in the course of developing the Haunting Harii of Hvergelmir ... and then it became obviously apparent that there was an underlying Indo-European concept with *strongly* coterminous expression in each of the Nordic and Hindu mythologies as a result. 

 

Other times, things go the other way - I'll be turning over things in my mind for my research and professional output ... and I'll have a sudden series of flashes of inspiration to 'express' it in miniature or background form. 40k's actually proven a really useful 'test-bed' in that sort of way. I can put concepts together and work over them in my mind and with my fingers (both keyboard and knife/brush) and see how they 'hang together' or require improvement. 

 

If you take a look at some of the 'setting construction' / 'worldbuilding' from the first few posts in this thread, that's basically what I was doing there. There was some various material around the Indo-European Sky Father deific that I was working on ... and I just spooled that directly into the cosmology .. er .. world-building around the Stars of the Dead and suchlike. I needed a way to 'express' the unrefined and untested/proven hypothesis prior to adding further/direct research attestations. 

 

Meanwhile, the Gryphons whom we've met earlier in this thread are ... a bit of both. I started out just having this vague concept of the Golden Griffin shoulderpads on some Harii as representing a more overtly 'Scythian' area of Adamantia's north ... and then at about the same time I was doing the second one, I was also back to that area of research. Which all came together in this article ... various details of which you can see in various of the fluff bits I've written directly upthread.

 

Anyway, I got somewhat sidetracked there. 

 

The point is ... no, I'm not a linguist - but I do make quite frequent use of linguistics (etymology, at any rate) in the course of my professional work. 

 

And if you manage to read all my various rantsplications, discursions, background-treatments, stories etc. .. you're basically getting a crash-course in (slightly obscurated) rather advanced comparative Indo-European theology. 

 

I find it difficult if not impossible to write something that doesn't have some core kernel of truth and authenticity to it. 

 

Even if it is not always immediately obvious that that is what it is. 

 

The Truth so often comes wearing masks. Gets in far more broadly that way.  

 

--

 

Thanks once again for the kind words. Helps to justify the effort of writing things etc. rather than just posting pictures if I know people're appreciating them. 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Ryltar Thamior

[Master Umbra]

Ah, now it all makes sense! As a Linguist, I find etymology quite interesting too. I admit that sometimes I find following your text a bit difficult, but that's probably due to my own limitations and attention span, or lack thereof. I like how trascendental your background writings feel, which is a side-effect of the subject matter, I guess. In-depth cultural explanations are no doubt one of the bits I enjoy the most in Black Library fiction when such sections do appear in those novels. Thus, I commend the effort you put into these and the synergy of combining both of the things you like! 

[Yosef Hausakluif]

Been lurking this thread for a while and second Umbra’s words. I truly enjoying the ‘style’ with which you write, and commend you for making the different mythos of space marines, such as chaplains, apoths, etc. into your chapters own unique roles and honorary titles and roles. Looking forward to more to come. Edited September 9, 2020 by Yosef Hausakluif

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on Nemesis Kapalika's model and backstory.

[Zebulon]

To add to the chorus of applause, the depth and thought you put into these treatises is impressive. I had you down as a philologist but I think a few of us were close but no cigar!

 

As I think I mentioned previously, something that helps a lot to maintain the in-universe theme is the relative obscurity of your references? I say this as my first DIY mixed up quite a lot of Byzantine and Classical Greek references, but comparatively more people know enough about those cultures that they are over-familiar and can jar with the 40k universe. No such problem with your Proto Indo-European references! :D

 

I do enjoy the way that this hobby attracts well-read individuals. Sometimes that can be a curse but mostly it is a blessing.

 

I tend to only manage to keep one point from your posts in my mind at a time when writing these responses; apologies. Am I right in thinking that Mt Nemrut has the same linguistic root as the mythical Nimrod?

[Ryltar Thamior]

Gosh, well now I suppose I *have* to keep doing the writeups then! 

Although I do hear what people are saying about some of the prose being hard to follow or conceptually ... heavydenseallovertheplace. I'll try and work on that. It happens a fair bit in my professional writings as well - in part because it's *seriously* difficult for me to actually ... separate out all the various densely interwoven threads of a complex matter to talk about piece by piece and step by step. It all happens at once in my head - perhaps a bit of an 'implosion' metaphor, as it all 'comes together'. 

It probably doesn't help that with these posts here in my allegedly recreational space , various occasions are (rather literally) hypomanic bouts of wild-eyed enthusiasm which splay themselves cross the page like a full-scale bombardment ; or at the other end of things when I'm experiencing difficulty stringing a sentence together . 

The other difficulty I've had is that ... a lot of stuff was conceptry we'd developed for the 'Divine Founding' campaign. We *intended* to keep our cards close to our chests [there's three of us involved in all of this] and gradually release information in narrative, in-universe format and see how people pieced things together. 

The habit carried over into these subsequent projects - I got into the bad practice of saying very, *very* little so as not to 'spoil' various surprises. I'm attempting  to go in a more 'overt' direction now. But still keep a bit of a balance.  

 

Ah, now it all makes sense! As a Linguist, I find etymology quite interesting too. I admit that sometimes I find following your text a bit difficult, but that's probably due to my own limitations and attention span, or lack thereof. I like how trascendental your background writings feel, which is a side-effect of the subject matter, I guess. In-depth cultural explanations are no doubt one of the bits I enjoy the most in Black Library fiction when such sections do appear in those novels. Thus, I commend the effort you put into these and the synergy of combining both of the things you like! 

Yeah, nah, if I'm putting downrange a thousand words or more in a post, it's probably my fault not yours if you're having a bit of a time following it :P 

Linguistics is definitely an interest and enthusiasm for me - at least within my own relevant sphere. And the manner in which words help to 'condition' our thinking is vitally important. Frantz Fanon was completely correct with his well-known aphorism that "to speak means to uphold the weight of a civilization". 

Definitely with you on the cultural explications being some of the best bits of Black Library and 40k writing all up. It's something I really liked about the old Index Astartes articles and the modern FW Black Books. Especially because Alan Bligh (Emperor safeguard his Soul) left all these rather excellent 'bread-crumb trails' through his work on those that if you know how to follow them , are quite useful. I've ranted at great length elsewhere about the 'Germanic' character of the Alpha Legion that he subtly put in there, for instance, as well as the rather strong 'Persianate' substrate of the IVth and its implications for what we know of the Unification Wars. And, of course, his subtle integrations of Sanskrit elements in there as well (e.g. the 'Vratine Armour' of the Sisters of Silence) 

Also, since you are a linguist - you may find  this short-story I wrote a few months ago for one of the Haunting Harii of Hvergelmir to be of interest. It also features a linguist (sort-of), as well as the deployment of linguistic analysis in what we would, in Nordic circles of a thousand years ago, refer to as 'The Skald's Game'. 

I got a bit of flakk from one of the guys at our research institute (who's also into 40k) over it, because I'd put "Ska(n)da" in there - he was like "you can't write dialogue like that!" My justification had been that because there were two rather different reconstructions for the Proto-Germanic root term in question that I had to include both .. somehow .. 

Or, phrased another way, that I was empathizing with Tolkien - a fascination with the linguistics etc. triumphing out over the literary craft :P 

 

Been lurking this thread for a while and second Umbra’s words. I truly enjoying the ‘style’ with which you write, and commend you for making the different mythos of space marines, such as chaplains, apoths, etc. into your chapters own unique roles and honorary titles and roles. Looking forward to more to come.

Legit. Glad you're enjoying it :D The curious thing, though, is that with a lot of what I'm doing ... the extent to which it's a "different" mythos is perhaps overstated. It's similar concepts that are found expressed similarly in different Indo-European cultures. I'm just utilizing the forms that are more 'familiar' to me due to my religious and professional background, rather than the forms that most people have encountered more regularly via their own education or history books or GW's official publications. 

And then exploring some of those different 'implications' also bound up in those different terms. 

For instance, a lot of the conceptry around the Adamantine Old Faith's depictions of The Emperor - are Shaivite elements. Hence, 'Spear-Lord', and so forth. ['Ishvara', as I keep pointing out, effectively translates from Sanskrit as "God-Emperor", as it happens, as well] 

I say that these are 'familiar concepts' expressed unfamiliarly ... because Shiva is the equivalent Hindu expression of the Roman Jupiter [long story, have written many articles on it, particular point of relevancy being Rudra as Dyaus Pitar - Dyaus Pitar, you can see how "Ju-piter" is relevant ... etc.] . And nobody would bat an eye at people drawing from Roman / Jupiter conceptry when talking about The Emperor - it's right there in the official GW art and other such material. 

So 'Chakravartin' as 'The Emperor' , it attains that additional sense of figurative, evocative relevancy when we look at what the term more literally means ... and that 'Chakra' element (i.e. 'Wheel') , which I figuratively reinterpreted only veery slightly to refer to The Galaxy. 

Anyway, I digress ... 

I'll keep in mind the interest for these sorts of things, and I shall do a few more. 
 

Excellent work on Nemesis Kapalika's model and backstory.

 

Churr :D There's even a rocky outcropping on the base this time :P 
 

To add to the chorus of applause, the depth and thought you put into these treatises is impressive. I had you down as a philologist but I think a few of us were close but no cigar!

As I think I mentioned previously, something that helps a lot to maintain the in-universe theme is the relative obscurity of your references? I say this as my first DIY mixed up quite a lot of Byzantine and Classical Greek references, but comparatively more people know enough about those cultures that they are over-familiar and can jar with the 40k universe. No such problem with your Proto Indo-European references!

I do enjoy the way that this hobby attracts well-read individuals. Sometimes that can be a curse but mostly it is a blessing.

I tend to only manage to keep one point from your posts in my mind at a time when writing these responses; apologies. Am I right in thinking that Mt Nemrut has the same linguistic root as the mythical Nimrod?

Thank you once more for the kind words. It was your positive sentiment on the Haunting Harii of Hvergelmir post a week or two ago that actually lead to me getting back to doing the effort-ones here as well. 

You're quite right about more 'obscure' or 'unfamiliar' reference-points being useful in this regard - it means that people come at them with the appropriate sense of unfamiliarity, without all the preconceptions that would often underlie something they're better acquainted with. Means they may actually look at it upon its own merits and see some of the things that they might otherwise have glossed over. 

Although in my case, I tend to take the view that the references lend the 'power' of the concepts I'm drawing upon to me - they make it easier for *me* to get a grasp of what I'm talking about. As can be seen with that most recent miniature. Bhairava is a reasonably well-known .... in the Hindusphere, at any rate ... figure, and the force and power of this figure meant that as soon as I could see the relationship between the miniature and the deific-expression, the rest of it started filling itself in. Even if what was 'filled in' in terms of depth and detail wasn't necessarily actually Bhairava-originated. 

Amusingly, a lot of the time I am working in Greek materials - it's just that because a lot of people don't really know too much outside certain well-trodden paths ... people don't notice so much.

For example, the 'Nemesis' here is quite obvious. 'Adrastines', meanwhile ... like Adrasteia (or Adrastus) - 'The Inescapable'. A sobriquet applied to Nemesis. [Oh, and to 'give some of the game away', 'Yavana' in Sanskrit means (inter alia) 'Ionian' - Greek. So, 'Yavanite' languages to Adamantia's West ... well, it's all Greek to me ;) ] ... which I then calqued into Sanskrit. Where it turned out there was already a useful term-and-a-half waiting for me. 

The backstory for the world of Gelonus, and the Sauromatriae therefrom ... I'm running off Herodotus' Persian Wars , amidst a few other Classical sources. With a few details 'tweaked' slightly [e.g. Gelonus, I decided that due to the Indo-European 'Gel' , meaning 'Cold/Freeze' ... the planet should now be an ice world ..; and that instead of the Persians .. er .. Darians ... burning the town , we'd have the planet shunted out of its initial orbit to a further-from-the-Sun one; I also just went with a quite ... direct interpretation for "Sarmatian" to link them to the Harii via the 'serpentine'/reptilian metaphor , and the Sauromatriarch is a rather direct inclusion for Tomyris ] 

In any case, because I have digressed again ... the challenge - well, the opportunity, i should more properly suggest - for me, some of the time, anyway, is to find ways to get these 'less familiar' expressions drawn from my native canons and incorporate them in ways that don't jar or dysjunct with the established 40k fluff. 

But which rather 'enhance' or 'expand' elements of it for our loka-lized context. 

That use of Chakravartin I mentioned in my reply to Yosef Hausakluif above, is a good example. It's effectively just saying 'Emperor' in Sanskrit in a rather more pointedly theological sense .. yet we can add some functional interpretation to it (That notion of the Galaxy - His Domain - as the Wheel) , and in terms of then *also* associating the relevant Shaivite iconographic etc. elements ... we wind up with something that's sufficiently 'different' to just "The Emperor" as worshipped elsewhere ... yet which recognizably traces backto and maps *onto* the established 40k fluff. And, indeed, feels more 'real' -  to me, at any rate - than the notion of The Emperor being worshipped in *exactly the same way* iwth *exactly the same* iconographic representations, right the way across all the Million Worlds of the Imperium. 

Similar detail when I was using "Herjan" [Old Norse, this time] to refer to The Emperor in the Haunting Harii of Hvergelmi writeup ... "Imperator" in Latin didn't initially mean "Emperor" as we'd understand it - it meant "War-Leader". The figure with the power to lead an army. Conquestor, we might perhaps imply. 

Herjan, would mean 'War-Leader' also - and forms an important element for Odinic theonymry. 

So, by referring to The Emperor ... or at least, by referring to a Herjan , which can be understood as meaning The Emperor ... it evokes that these are their own people with their own language and understanding - not just because the word is different but the concept the same ... but also because the concept is subtly different, as well. 

Astartes hailing The Emperor as pretty much exactly that: a War-Leader as He was during the Great Crusade, and as He still *is* in a spiritual sense for the Imperium all up. The 'raiding party' element of 'Harja' perhaps being more directly relevant for the Harii than a 'standing army' , as well, anyway. 

But, again ... I digress. And I was meaning to keep all of this *simple* and straightforward! Gah!

Now, in terms of your question ... I'm not actually sure - Turkish linguistics and much of 'Abrahamic' belief is .. a bit outside of my competency. A cursory wikipedia search informs me that the *other* Nemrut a lot to the east in Turkey *is* named after Nimrod, due to an alleged ancient rulership over that more easterly region by the figure in question. So I suppose it's plausible. 

Drat. This is going to niggle me now :P 

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Anyway, thank you all once again for the kind words ... and I apologize for getting a bit carried away in my responses.