Mortis

[mc warhammer]

yeah, you can be aware but lying to yourself that "this is all fine" until breaking point. way back, i worked for a really dodgy company for a while until i just finally woke up. similarly people in abusive relationships aren't necessarily unaware but we all have the ability to perform mental gymnastics

 

and if there's a primarch who's good at mentally forcing himself to do stuff that isn't good for him...it's this guy

[b1soul]

Don't have the book...but knowing his character, I think it's probably tied to the fact that he can no longer prove his strategic superiority in a relatively "fair" siege...so it becomes pointless and frustrating to him.

 

He wanted to play chess with Dorn but now there are all these magical daemon-pieces on the board he doesn't control that boost his side's odds of winning.

[DarkChaplain]

Re: Perturabo:

 

It makes sense, considering where he ends up after the Siege. His only real action afterwards was to humble Dorn, besides that, he's been sitting on Medrengard, sulking about his then-daemon being, and a bunch of regrets. It took Abaddon millennia to get him to rejoin the Long War in any real capacity. Heck, by the tail end of M41, when Uriel Ventris visits Medrengard, the Iron Warriors are at war with one another over matters of succession, as the companies present want to head out back into the galaxy while Perturabo won't lift a finger.

 

Considering that, reality crashing down on Perturabo was always going to be needed. He needed to realize that he'd cast his lot with crazed madmen, corrupt to the core, and start questioning himself seriously for the first time. He needs this.

 

On top of that, Perturabo still believed in being able to control Chaos as tools, that his brothers were changed, but in charge. They may be daemons, but he still believed them to be his brothers - but they aren't. They've become puppets to the Pantheon, solely focused on their own desires as informed by their gods, incapable of making logical decisions in favor of the wider cause of rebellion. We've seen this with Fulgrim last time, and Magnus hasn't even been in it from the start - his sole purpose was to get to his missing piece, and only after his confrontation in the Palace did he truly side with the traitors. Mortarion is broken beyond belief, a self-loathing husk, and Angron just charges in and shouts with even less of a regard for his own Legion than before.

 

The World Eaters in general have fallen. The Emperor's Children are busy refusing orders so they can celebrate BDSM orgies with the populace. The Word Bearers have been the Pantheon's mouthpieces all along. The only Legion still in control and unbroken are the Iron Warriors.

 

....and then comes Horus, who has lost himself to the warp, no longer even truly himself. Yeah, that's enough to back out of.

Edited January 28, 2021 by DarkChaplain

[mc warhammer]

all the above works for me

[SkimaskMohawk]

Man, French continuing perturabo's arc even more? Amazing.

[Bobss]

Can't say these spoilers are really doing it for me, but The Solar War is still my favourite Siege book thus far so I'm definitely holding my opinion until I can get the cheaper hardback edition in three months time or whatever it is

 

FWIW regarding Perturabo pulling out... wasn't it around this time, anyway, that he kind of withdrew from the siege properly and began to concentrate on destroying Imperial Fist assets? My mind is hazy because the pre-Black Library Siege is a decades-old composite of sources, but it sounds familiar. I'm sort of on the fence about these newer reasons, but, again, John French is a top-notch author and deserves people to read his book at the very least

 

The space stuff sounds cool but I'm unsure if I'm digging just how much importance it's been given here

Edited January 28, 2021 by Bobss

[Taliesin]

As an aside, I asked BL last week when the Mortis hardcover is coming out as it was not on their new update for March, whereas on Amazon its up on same mid March date as Luther.

 

They responded to me saying that they are not able to say anything until it is announced on Warcom. So.....yeah.

Edited January 28, 2021 by Taliesin

[Shield-Captain]

Well they updated the listing to "ship within 17 days" but other than that nothing for me. 

[Robbienw]

More infos

 

 

The Titan battle is really well done. The Ignatum vanguard and the Solaria titans are bogged down by the zombie titans but are fighting back. Ignatum maniples are merging shields and moving forwards, but then the Legio Mortis main force arrives. Under heavy fire (including from vortex missiles) and losing titans the Ignatum force refuses to retreat and advances into the enemy. Then the Ignatum main force, led by the 2 Emperor class Titans and the princeps maximus Cydon, the Ignatum commander, joins the battle.

 

Katshuiro is still on the walls with other troops, exhausted. Fighting another chaos wave some troops turn, katshuiro is hearing voices telling him to go to paradise (chaos warped hive where Oll is) and rest and sleep. Katshuiro’s faith in the emperor stops him running.

 

The Imperstor Somnium has advanced technology that has allowed it to get far into Terran orbital space before it’s detected. The 4 Dark Angel ships are riding alongside it. It destroys dozens of enemy ships in a glorious epic charge before succumbing to mass fire. Thanks to the distraction the 4 Dark Angel ships are able to get in and disgorge the entire dark angels force. They are also destroyed but the entire Dark Angels force has got in unharmed to combat drop on the Hollow Mountain.

 

The Iron Warriors have definitely left Terra and are heading to the translation point. Their departure has left less depth and order in the traitor fleet, and has also seen some traitor ships breaking orbit to pursue them. It’s possible the Somnium and the DA ships may not have made it in if the Iron Warriors hadn’t left!.

[SpAcEGhOsT095]

The Siege is just becoming more confusing with each book.

Is Pert really doing that? Giving up?

[Cerbero666]

More infos

 

 

The Titan battle is really well done. The Ignatum vanguard and the Solaria titans are bogged down by the zombie titans but are fighting back. Ignatum maniples are merging shields and moving forwards, but then the Legio Mortis main force arrives. Under heavy fire (including from vortex missiles) and losing titans the Ignatum force refuses to retreat and advances into the enemy. Then the Ignatum main force, led by the 2 Emperor class Titans and the princeps maximus Cydon, the Ignatum commander, joins the battle.

 

Katshuiro is still on the walls with other troops, exhausted. Fighting another chaos wave some troops turn, katshuiro is hearing voices telling him to go to paradise (chaos warped hive where Oll is) and rest and sleep. Katshuiro’s faith in the emperor stops him running.

 

The Imperstor Somnium has advanced technology that has allowed it to get far into Terran orbital space before it’s detected. The 4 Dark Angel ships are riding alongside it. It destroys dozens of enemy ships in a glorious epic charge before succumbing to mass fire. Thanks to the distraction the 4 Dark Angel ships are able to get in and disgorge the entire dark angels force. They are also destroyed but the entire Dark Angels force has got in unharmed to combat drop on the Hollow Mountain.

 

The Iron Warriors have definitely left Terra and are heading to the translation point. Their departure has left less depth and order in the traitor fleet, and has also seen some traitor ships breaking orbit to pursue them. It’s possible the Somnium and the DA ships may not have made it in if the Iron Warriors hadn’t left!.

 

I don't understand why would the Iron Warriors leave the war so soon. I understand the reasons behind Perturabo decision, but from a narrative POV it has no sense. Why waste the Iron Warriors characters and troops for the next two novels? Is Perturabo going to abandon the war before reaching inner palace, now that he was so close to do it and humiliate Dorn? It just makes no sense narratively.

 

Well, I think is the same nonsense that wasted Night Lords and Alpha Legion on the siege so far. But this seems pretty absurd. The main legion doing the siege just abandon it because suddenly their primarch "discovered" that their brothers are corrupted by chaos? Why don't do that on the last novel, forcing Horus to fight the Emperor face to face? That would make sense. I don't know. So far the Siege of Terra series has been a deception, apart from a couple of epic moments (mainly in Saturnine and Solar War) it feels bad. It should have been a longer series or bigger novels to do the job, I think. 

[Marshal Rohr]

 

More infos

 

 

The Titan battle is really well done. The Ignatum vanguard and the Solaria titans are bogged down by the zombie titans but are fighting back. Ignatum maniples are merging shields and moving forwards, but then the Legio Mortis main force arrives. Under heavy fire (including from vortex missiles) and losing titans the Ignatum force refuses to retreat and advances into the enemy. Then the Ignatum main force, led by the 2 Emperor class Titans and the princeps maximus Cydon, the Ignatum commander, joins the battle.

 

Katshuiro is still on the walls with other troops, exhausted. Fighting another chaos wave some troops turn, katshuiro is hearing voices telling him to go to paradise (chaos warped hive where Oll is) and rest and sleep. Katshuiro’s faith in the emperor stops him running.

 

The Imperstor Somnium has advanced technology that has allowed it to get far into Terran orbital space before it’s detected. The 4 Dark Angel ships are riding alongside it. It destroys dozens of enemy ships in a glorious epic charge before succumbing to mass fire. Thanks to the distraction the 4 Dark Angel ships are able to get in and disgorge the entire dark angels force. They are also destroyed but the entire Dark Angels force has got in unharmed to combat drop on the Hollow Mountain.

 

The Iron Warriors have definitely left Terra and are heading to the translation point. Their departure has left less depth and order in the traitor fleet, and has also seen some traitor ships breaking orbit to pursue them. It’s possible the Somnium and the DA ships may not have made it in if the Iron Warriors hadn’t left!.

 

I don't understand why would the Iron Warriors leave the war so soon. I understand the reasons behind Perturabo decision, but from a narrative POV it has no sense. Why waste the Iron Warriors characters and troops for the next two novels? Is Perturabo going to abandon the war before reaching inner palace, now that he was so close to do it and humiliate Dorn? It just makes no sense narratively.

 

Well, I think is the same nonsense that wasted Night Lords and Alpha Legion on the siege so far. But this seems pretty absurd. The main legion doing the siege just abandon it because suddenly their primarch "discovered" that their brothers are corrupted by chaos? Why don't do that on the last novel, forcing Horus to fight the Emperor face to face? That would make sense. I don't know. So far the Siege of Terra series has been a deception, apart from a couple of epic moments (mainly in Saturnine and Solar War) it feels bad. It should have been a longer series or bigger novels to do the job, I think. 

 

 

 

Essentially, all the unaligned legions are gone except the Sons of Horus. Which totally blows for those of us who were looking forward to the Siege from FW but narratively now its purely Chaos vs the Emperor which does make sense

[Bobss]

The Iron Warriors pulling away from the conflict before(?) Traitor forces even break into the Inner Palace is pretty hilarious. Like, aren't the Sons of Horus infamous for being the first Legion to break/withdraw/whatever after the death of Horus? And the Emperor's Children initially dominate the Legion Wars due to their actions outside the Palace reducing their causalities (and filling their holds with slaves and loot)

 

Oh well. People who like this development will defend it to the death and those who don't will crap on it. War, war never changes 

Edited January 28, 2021 by Bobss

[Cerbero666]

 

 

More infos

 

 

The Titan battle is really well done. The Ignatum vanguard and the Solaria titans are bogged down by the zombie titans but are fighting back. Ignatum maniples are merging shields and moving forwards, but then the Legio Mortis main force arrives. Under heavy fire (including from vortex missiles) and losing titans the Ignatum force refuses to retreat and advances into the enemy. Then the Ignatum main force, led by the 2 Emperor class Titans and the princeps maximus Cydon, the Ignatum commander, joins the battle.

 

Katshuiro is still on the walls with other troops, exhausted. Fighting another chaos wave some troops turn, katshuiro is hearing voices telling him to go to paradise (chaos warped hive where Oll is) and rest and sleep. Katshuiro’s faith in the emperor stops him running.

 

The Imperstor Somnium has advanced technology that has allowed it to get far into Terran orbital space before it’s detected. The 4 Dark Angel ships are riding alongside it. It destroys dozens of enemy ships in a glorious epic charge before succumbing to mass fire. Thanks to the distraction the 4 Dark Angel ships are able to get in and disgorge the entire dark angels force. They are also destroyed but the entire Dark Angels force has got in unharmed to combat drop on the Hollow Mountain.

 

The Iron Warriors have definitely left Terra and are heading to the translation point. Their departure has left less depth and order in the traitor fleet, and has also seen some traitor ships breaking orbit to pursue them. It’s possible the Somnium and the DA ships may not have made it in if the Iron Warriors hadn’t left!.

 

I don't understand why would the Iron Warriors leave the war so soon. I understand the reasons behind Perturabo decision, but from a narrative POV it has no sense. Why waste the Iron Warriors characters and troops for the next two novels? Is Perturabo going to abandon the war before reaching inner palace, now that he was so close to do it and humiliate Dorn? It just makes no sense narratively.

 

Well, I think is the same nonsense that wasted Night Lords and Alpha Legion on the siege so far. But this seems pretty absurd. The main legion doing the siege just abandon it because suddenly their primarch "discovered" that their brothers are corrupted by chaos? Why don't do that on the last novel, forcing Horus to fight the Emperor face to face? That would make sense. I don't know. So far the Siege of Terra series has been a deception, apart from a couple of epic moments (mainly in Saturnine and Solar War) it feels bad. It should have been a longer series or bigger novels to do the job, I think. 

 

 

 

Essentially, all the unaligned legions are gone except the Sons of Horus. Which totally blows for those of us who were looking forward to the Siege from FW but narratively now its purely Chaos vs the Emperor which does make sense

 

 

 

Well It does make some sense but I find its too soon to do that. Right now the Emperor's Children are out doing their BDSM stuff. Alpha Legion are not present so far, maybe some cells that I cannot remember. Night Lords are only mentioned in passing. Same for the few Word Bearers that Layak took to Terra. The Thousand Sons are here and there but standing back so far. The Sons of Horus are pretty much beaten after Saturnine. If the Iron Warriors leave the only legions capable of doing something are the World Eaters and the Death Guard, and the first ones are basically throwing themselves to the walls to die. The one primarch planning the whole siege, the only traitor primarch that so far has been depicted as "sane" and calculating, doing all the job for the traitor faction, is gone. It just makes no sense to kick him out of the war so soon. I would buy this if it was in the last book or the ending of the next novel, but right now? He's about to breach the last defenses, his dream since he betrayed the Emperor, and He's goin to leave just like that? That would make sense on the last novel. Perturabo breaks into the palace but the traitors are defeated there because all his mutated brothers are following their own petty wars. Perturabo is frustated and leave them to their fate, tired of trying to do something for all of them. So Horus is forced to provoke the Emperor to attack him aboard the Vengeful Spirit to, at least, win the war with a last duel. But leaving now? I don't know, there're still two novels ahead and the traitor faction is pretty much defeated

Edited January 28, 2021 by Cerbero666

[Marshal Rohr]

 

 

 

 

 

 

More infos

 

 

The Titan battle is really well done. The Ignatum vanguard and the Solaria titans are bogged down by the zombie titans but are fighting back. Ignatum maniples are merging shields and moving forwards, but then the Legio Mortis main force arrives. Under heavy fire (including from vortex missiles) and losing titans the Ignatum force refuses to retreat and advances into the enemy. Then the Ignatum main force, led by the 2 Emperor class Titans and the princeps maximus Cydon, the Ignatum commander, joins the battle.

 

Katshuiro is still on the walls with other troops, exhausted. Fighting another chaos wave some troops turn, katshuiro is hearing voices telling him to go to paradise (chaos warped hive where Oll is) and rest and sleep. Katshuiro’s faith in the emperor stops him running.

 

The Imperstor Somnium has advanced technology that has allowed it to get far into Terran orbital space before it’s detected. The 4 Dark Angel ships are riding alongside it. It destroys dozens of enemy ships in a glorious epic charge before succumbing to mass fire. Thanks to the distraction the 4 Dark Angel ships are able to get in and disgorge the entire dark angels force. They are also destroyed but the entire Dark Angels force has got in unharmed to combat drop on the Hollow Mountain.

 

The Iron Warriors have definitely left Terra and are heading to the translation point. Their departure has left less depth and order in the traitor fleet, and has also seen some traitor ships breaking orbit to pursue them. It’s possible the Somnium and the DA ships may not have made it in if the Iron Warriors hadn’t left!.

I don't understand why would the Iron Warriors leave the war so soon. I understand the reasons behind Perturabo decision, but from a narrative POV it has no sense. Why waste the Iron Warriors characters and troops for the next two novels? Is Perturabo going to abandon the war before reaching inner palace, now that he was so close to do it and humiliate Dorn? It just makes no sense narratively.

 

Well, I think is the same nonsense that wasted Night Lords and Alpha Legion on the siege so far. But this seems pretty absurd. The main legion doing the siege just abandon it because suddenly their primarch "discovered" that their brothers are corrupted by chaos? Why don't do that on the last novel, forcing Horus to fight the Emperor face to face? That would make sense. I don't know. So far the Siege of Terra series has been a deception, apart from a couple of epic moments (mainly in Saturnine and Solar War) it feels bad. It should have been a longer series or bigger novels to do the job, I think.

 

Essentially, all the unaligned legions are gone except the Sons of Horus. Which totally blows for those of us who were looking forward to the Siege from FW but narratively now its purely Chaos vs the Emperor which does make sense

 

Well It does make some sense but I find its too soon to do that. Right now the Emperor's Children are out doing their BDSM stuff. Alpha Legion are not present so far, maybe some cells that I cannot remember. Night Lords are only mentioned in passing. Same for the few Word Bearers that Layak took to Terra. The Thousand Sons are here and there but standing back so far. The Sons of Horus are pretty much beaten after Saturnine. If the Iron Warriors leave the only legions capable of doing something are the World Eaters and the Death Guard, and the first ones are basically throwing themselves to the walls to die. The one primarch planning the whole siege, the only traitor primarch that so far has been depicted as "sane" and calculating, doing all the job for the traitor faction, is gone. It just makes no sense to kick him out of the war so soon. I would buy this if it was in the last book or the ending of the next novel, but right now? He's about to breach the last defenses, his dream since he betrayed the Emperor, and He's goin to leave just like that? That would make sense on the last novel. Perturabo breaks into the palace but the traitors are defeated there because all his mutated brothers are following their own petty wars. Perturabo is frustated and leave them to their fate, tired of trying to do something for all of them. So Horus is forced to provoke the Emperor to attack him aboard the Vengeful Spirit to, at least, win the war with a last duel. But leaving now? I don't know, there're still two novels ahead and the traitor faction is pretty much defeated

I wouldn’t be surprised if the timeline is now a few weeks from the end.

[Robbienw]

Up to page 356 now

 

 

On the palace walls many imperial soldiers and gun crew are suddenly overcome by a wave despair and exhaustion fuelled by the warp and leave their posts to jump off walls, overload plasma relays or cause explosions or kill themselves in other ways.

 

The Ordo Sinister place themselves under Dorn’s command, by the emperors order, and will be joining the Titan battle.

 

The Titan battle is intense, Ignatum are pushing forward but the fire from the wall guns has slackened (due to many gun crew killing themselves), orbital debris is raining down and they are under fire from enemy ships in orbit. The Ignatum vanguard are withdrawing to repair and re-arm at the wall and then the Dies Irae appears having broken through the lines. It’s heavily corrupted, and is accompanied by 7 possessed battle titans.

[Fedor]

it seems French is going all in with his recurring theme of how incapable of working well together the traitors have become since the Gods got their claws in. It seems early for such a development though.

 

Also hard to believe the other traitors and fleets in orbit would let them leave without things descending into...chaos.

[Robbienw]

Up to page 400 now. Interesting information about Oll and the Emperor incoming.

 

 

The paradise hive is a creation of Fulgrim and the Emperors Children. The people who go inside become wrapped in thorns and their deepest secrets are seen in their dreams.

 

Jon meets Oll in Olls dream and we find out why the Emperor and Oll fell out and when it happened. The Emperor was a king and Oll was his great friend at this point in the long past, and was the Warmaster of his armies. Yes that is right; in the long past Oll once held that position just like Horus.

 

They led a large army to attack a structure that turns out to be the Tower of Babel; the common language the inhabitants of the tower are using is actually Enuncia, the primordial language of creation. This is too deadly for anyone in the world to use so they have come to destroy the tower and its inhabitants. The tower is breached by their army, and they move in to destroy the Enuncia lexicon in the tower. The emperor destroys the men in the tower speaking Enuncia who are attempting to hold the army back. However we find out the Emperor seeks to take the remaining lexicon away and lock it up as a forbidden weapon, for use in the future if necessary (the emperor tells Oll he sees the long future when mankind have spread into space and may need such weapons against terrible enemies). Oll wanted it destroyed because it is so dangerous. Oll tries to kill the emperor, by stabbing him under his armour and speaking an Enuncia word at him. This causes the tower to explode and the emperor and Oll to fall out. John is horrified by all this. John also becomes able to understand the Enuncia from Olls mind.

 

Olls crew come and rescue him and pull him, jon and leetu (Erda’s space marine)out from the thorns.

 

The Dark Angels assault the hollow mountain. There are loads of slaneesh daemons and heavily corrupted Emperors Children. Corswain kills the slaneesh daemon thing at the heart of the hollow mountain. Vassago saves Corswains life twice.

 

[Robbienw]

About 80% through the book now!

 

 

Ignatum have resorted to firing Vortex missiles from their command Warmonger at the enemy.

 

Dorn has come to the Mercury wall. Order has been restored and the guns are firing again. The ordo sinister have arrived and freak out the Titan and Knight crews rearming in the hangers as they walk out to battle.

 

One of the Ordo Sinister titans is a Reaver, they don’t just have Warlords.

 

Vethorel convinces the Titan crews who have refused to fight to go out into the battle. But they will not be going out as a ragged host, they will form into a new Legion and fight as one, the Legio Invigilata. They will be led by the Great Mother of Legio Solaria.

 

Shiban is still on the way back, fighting cultists and zombies and a plague marine, whilst trying to protect the army officer and the baby.

 

Oll and co find that paradise is a dream farm; the emperors children are refining the dreams of the people in the thorns into a liquid. They are trying to find one of Olls crew who is missing.

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Robbienw

[malika666]

By the way, is there any mention of Titan or Knight classes that don't have models yet?

[Robbienw]

Malika, a Nightgaunt Titan is mentioned, nothing else other than that.

 

One Titan that is getting a model soon has just put in an appearance :D

[Robbienw]

Some more info. I’ve only got about 60 pages left to go now, will read them tomorrow.

 

 

Ignatum have 3 Emperor class titans present. 2 Imperators and 1 Warmonger.

 

Dorn wants the wall plasma generators secured and the guns ready to be shut down. The enemy aren’t firing on the wall, they clearly want to take it. Dorn doesn’t want their guns used against them when the wall is lost.

 

The Ignatum vanguard commander is back in the battle re-armed and carrying vortex missiles. 2 formidable possessed Mortis titans are incoming. An Ordo Sinister Titan arrives on the scene, orders the Ignatum warlord to fire a vortex missile between it and the possessed titans, steps into the warp vortex to heal damage taken from the possessed titans, then proceeds to annihilate them.

 

The Great Mother, now in command of Legio Invgilata, passes command of Legio Solaria to her daughter.

 

Another threat has entered the battlefield, Legio Mortis has deployed its Warmaster Titans!!!

 

[b1soul]

How badly damaged is

 

Shiban? He's more machine than man...so I feel damaged is more appropriate than injured

[Robbienw]

B1soul, very badly damaged! Edited January 29, 2021 by Robbienw

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

This seems to be quite good.  Question. 

Who is the baby?

Edited January 29, 2021 by Lord Lorne Walkier