Psychic Awakening: The Ritual of the Damned

[Archaeinox]

Has anyone read the new Mephiston novel, city of light? Granted it's a novel, but it has updated fluff on what has been going on since the attack on Fenris, and perhaps some insight on the future of the new PA.....Some spoilers ahead:

 

 

 

Um I'mma need some more spoilers in PMs, bud.... if you got time.. I need my fix.

[Ahzek451]

Haha, I'll likely devour the book soon and when I'm done I'll post a summary.

 

Spoilers:

Hidden Content

but I will say this, magnus acknowledges that more psykers are popping up and his ultimate goal is to "enlighten" mankind and has an interest in these psykers. He also has a heavy interest in mephiston and talks how he has a special connection with sanguiniuous that is more than the the blood angel curse. And seems to want to use mephiston for a ritual. The Rehati as a whole seems to all be on board with reversing the rubric. While they think it's still impossible, they view the idea as the ultimate gift to give magnus. So it seems nearly everyone is on board and not just ahriman.

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by Ahzek451

[Prot]

Has anyone read the new Mephiston novel, city of light? Granted it's a novel, but it has updated fluff on what has been going on since the attack on Fenris, and perhaps some insight on the future of the new PA.....Some spoilers ahead:

 

 

Hidden Content

  Since Sortiarius has warped to orbit Prospero, Magnus has since rebuilt Prospero. Not in the sense of returning it to old Tizca with pyramids and such. It is still a dead husk, but the planet is now riddled with war factories, bunkers and industry. Designed to be the planet that feeds the thousand sons war effort. This isn't much, and I still have to read on....but it is at least super inspiring that Magnus has been busy building his forces and possibly creating new weapons. 

 

 

I like that. It shows a real 'offensive' effort from Magnus that I've never really seen before.

[Archaeinox]

Prot I found more stuff which might be "going on" in PA: IV. Spoilers ahead (from recent Mephiston stuff, applicable to us)

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/dzd9vc/what_mephiston_has_become_spoilers_for_madness_in/

 

It's ok to post links, right? 

Edited December 15, 2019 by Archaeinox

[Ahzek451]

Is it the 25th yet? I had a dream that gw teased a modified, updated deredeo gunboat sorcerer dread as a new model.

[Archaeinox]

I'll have whatever he's having

[Hathor42]

Thousand sons getting a character would be neat since we dont have very many. Ignis would be cool but then they'd have to let us have those big forgeworld robots lol.

[brother_b]

Thousand sons getting a character would be neat since we dont have very many. Ignis would be cool but then they'd have to let us have those big forgeworld robots lol.

My Admech say get in line.

 

;)

[Hathor42]

 

Thousand sons getting a character would be neat since we dont have very many. Ignis would be cool but then they'd have to let us have those big forgeworld robots lol.

My Admech say get in line.

 

 

yeah but these robots don't need controllers and that's a no no for the admech nowadays lol. Plus thousand sons put psychic crystals in theirs.

[Heliomanes]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/12/16/psychic-awakening-a-better-place/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=40k&utm_content=40kawakening161219&fbclid=IwAR1zqiYR0Q4nagUMaDz3h2B7frjRYapBSX223iFb58KNfxsT7vJPUgsa490

Magnus seems to be having fun these days.

[Raven1]

I wonder what the toll is? Losing your right eye?

[Prot]

Probably an eye indeed. But can you imagine the ritual? Everyone has to run in a room tightly packed with goats and a pair of scissors in their hands.

 

I imagine if the stuff Arch posted is a real reference to the Baal novel then Magnus and the Thousand Sons have to have a huge hand in this. A bigger player than I'd normally suspect. And with Magnus reshaping the Planet of Sorcs for war, and a haven for psychic refugees, it's only a matter of time before the Imperium at large goes after it big time.

[Marshal Loss]

Pretty cool story, definitely piqued my interest. There's a lot of potential for a fantastic plot in this book, I hope GW haven't phoned it in.

[Archaeinox]

The Independent Characters Podcast (Episode 198: 1h 15m 30s) says that after they playtested stuff and have seen what's coming they are very anxious for Thousand Sons in particular - "there is so much character that I'm gonna be able to play around with and I cannot wait for it to come out"

[BoomWolf]

The Independent Characters Podcast (Episode 198: 1h 15m 30s) says that after they playtested stuff and have seen what's coming they are very anxious for Thousand Sons in particular - "there is so much character that I'm gonna be able to play around with and I cannot wait for it to come out"

 

 

Eeeer, is there any context for this?

Like, who are these guys, what did they playtest against, etc?

[Raven1]

The Independent Characters Podcast (Episode 198: 1h 15m 30s) says that after they playtested stuff and have seen what's coming they are very anxious for Thousand Sons in particular - "there is so much character that I'm gonna be able to play around with and I cannot wait for it to come out"

Sounds like a lot hype too me. Look at the last PA book it took BA from trash to top tier while Tyranids are still trash tier. Both got a lot of new options. I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Archaeinox]

Thats all these said in regards to TS when discussing their thoughts on GW putting out the PA books.

[Prot]

The 'extra character' they refer to is so vague. I know it has to be but still... is it a reference to character enhancement? Or perhaps the different Sekts of psychic abilities come back?  Character could very well reference a host of new abilities depending on which 'culture' of Psychics you ascribed to. 

 

Personally ever since that piece about what Magnus is doing as a second coming of mankind I've been really looking forward to the fiction on this one as well.

[Archaeinox]

Yeah I am starting to temper expectations but I still think this PA stuff is stepping up with the end of the Baal book.. I mean there is bad stuff going down, not like in faith n fury.

[byrd9999]

I'd love to see different buffs/auras/spell disciplines for the different sects.

 

I was hoping this would happen in the move to 8th ed, but it didn't, and the 9 "new" Cults listed in the 8th Ed Codex are all too predictable and distinctly uninspiring (Cult of Magic? Cult of Change?).

 

It's a very long shot, but I'd like them to have put some effort into updating the TSons and bringing back Corvidae, Rehati et al, and give them some more flavour/unit options.

 

It surely wouldn't be too much effort, if Prospero is now churning out munitions, to release a Rubrics arm-sprue with plasma guns, etc... Soulreaper cannons for everyone, double flamers, just something to combat NuMarines!

[Prot]

I'd love to see different buffs/auras/spell disciplines for the different sects.

 

I was hoping this would happen in the move to 8th ed, but it didn't, and the 9 "new" Cults listed in the 8th Ed Codex are all too predictable and distinctly uninspiring (Cult of Magic? Cult of Change?).

 

It's a very long shot, but I'd like them to have put some effort into updating the TSons and bringing back Corvidae, Rehati et al, and give them some more flavour/unit options.

 

It surely wouldn't be too much effort, if Prospero is now churning out munitions, to release a Rubrics arm-sprue with plasma guns, etc... Soulreaper cannons for everyone, double flamers, just something to combat NuMarines!

 

This might just be me, but I see it more in mutated machinations.... spawn with mutations, melded with death crawlers. More realistically we get use of Venom Crawlers etc. 

 

I can handle that though. What's always torn me between my Black Legion and Thousand Sons is I don't really like a lot of the Daemonic Engines we have, where as the chaos ones are newer, and sometimes a little more functional (Master of Possession helps a lot.)

 

Hypothetical: Let's say we take that storyline from the Baal book and look at Magnus' war factories. Let's say that opens up new or recycled Daemonic Engines for Thousand Sons. Maybe one of them is a psychic Dread. The model exists, it would simply have a special psychic ability and we'd actually have a character Dreadnought. To me this is all good stuff that helps sell existing models.

 

Now taking that line of thinking to the next level.... what if we get a partial Eldar Treatment: IE: Let's say.... any psyker that has smite (all of course) can replace smite with a modified version of all of the Master of Possession powers?

 

So we could get rid of baby smite on our Troops/Termies/HQ's (if we want) and start getting powers that... Increase invuln in an aura of Daemonic Engines. Or let you reroll the abilities of Spawn, etc, etc.

 

I could totally get on board with that. I'd love it. 

 

I'm sure I'm over thinking it but I think this is the sort of stuff they could easily do because 1) It already exists, and 2) no new sculpts required!

[Archaeinox]

Yes Prot, the fact that Exalted Sorcerers have mutated bitz in their kit provides precedence for giving Psyker helbrutes (though I despise the model because of the mutations it would make it palatable in that context).

 

Did BA even get new warlord traits? Hm, I don't think so if I remember correctly. I think it's also important to note that it doesn't seem like PA took anything away. GW also has no interest in providing rules which have made other things redundant. I'll explain. We can safely make the following two assumptions as far as psykers go:

 

1. We won't be getting re-roll 1s for psychic tests. Magnus provides this aura.

 

2. We won't be getting a bonus to cast. Cabalistic Focus provides this bonus. 

 

Yes, I think we can expect the following at a minimum: Stratagems, Relics, a pure-TS army benefit. I would be absolutely stunned to see anything more than those 3 things. My guess, and of course this is all guessing, is that the trait would only benefit psykers. Frankly, I'm ok with that.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Archaeinox

[Ahzek451]

Man, I just hope the new additions make exalted more viable. I always gravitate toward ahriman, princes, and the terminator sorcerer which leaves little room for exalted. To me, almost every other hq choice outclasses these guys. Which is a shame and an oddity...most hq packs come with one model. This oddly gives you 3 which would made you think gw would write rules to make you want more than 1....

[Hathor42]

Well in 7th you did want more then one thanks to the formations and such.

[Archaeinox]

Well yeah but even without the formations, the sorcerers at least could be made to be awesome. ML 3! It didn't rely on a special detachment.. Which was the entire fun of it.