Blood of the Emperor (Primarchs Anthology)

[Roomsky]

Blood of the Emperor

 

I liked this whole collection. Some are much stronger than others, but with one exception it exemplifies what I like out of the Heresy: exploring the Primarchs at an arms’ length, through someone else’s lens. It is, to me, restraint that produces the best Heresy stories rather than a bald account of events.

 

Lupus Daemonis - Graham McNeill

The one exception. Not a lot to say about this one, its goal is to flesh out Chthonia, just a little, and it does that well enough. While it doesn’t have the distance I prefer, it’s obtuse enough that it never goes too far or too wacky. It’s fine.

 

Skjalds - Nick Kyme

Better in concept than execution – the idea that a group of hunters share their versions of Russ` legend is a great idea. The story focusses overmuch on the hunt rather than these disparate tales, but it’s still surprisingly good, especially for Kyme.

 

The Sixth Cult of the Denied - David Guymer

I’ve been missing good Guymer for a while, and this delivers. The pacing’s good and it keeps mostly to conversation to fill the story. The concept here is great too, Magnus having a sort of Nikea-in-miniature for one of his sons (with unsurprisingly, a similar result.) Full of character and a bit of TS philosophy.

 

The Will of the Legion - Andy Clark

Probably the weakest entry, but still decent. I praised Clark’s work on Gate of Bones but in terms of actual writing quality he’s nothing special. It’s mostly an action sequence with some ruminating about Dorn’s manner of warfare. It does let us see Yonnad in action though, and paints a good arms-length picture of the primarch, especially for so short a story.

 

Council of Truth - Mike Brooks

The Alpharius tale I’ve been waiting for, relegated to a good but unfortunately short story. I usually have no problem with the Heresy’s additions, but for the Alpha Legion they all but threw away his establishing character moment and motivator in favor of everything about Legion. This story doesn’t correct that, but it does at least finally acknowledge the Guilliman incident. On its own, it’s pretty great.

 

Terminus - Chris Wraight

Arms-length considerations about Daemon Mortarion and the Doom of the Death Guard. If you disliked The Buried Dagger, read this instead. It’s 1/20th the length and leaves more room for interpretation, while addressing the necessary beats. Standard high-quality Wraight.

 

 

Overall I think this is the best Primarchs anthology released so far. Every entry is at least solid and again, it’s nice to see some restraint for once. It preserves what little gravitas these characters have left.

 

To Taste (it’s an anthology, what do you expect?)

8/10

Edited March 27, 2021 by Roomsky

[Marshal Loss]

 

Terminus - Chris Wraight

Arms-length considerations about Daemon Mortarion and the Doom of the Death Guard. If you disliked The Buried Dagger, read this instead.

Guess I better give this a purchase!

[malika666]

Spoilers?

[Marshal Loss]

Terminus was absolutely bloody fantastic. Best short story I've read from BL in years. Makes me sad that we missed out on a Wraight Fall of the DG novel, but with this & Lords of Silence, any lost ground is more than made up.

[Blood-worm's Master]

Am I the only one finding the events in Lupus Daemonis' ending strange to the point of being anticlimatic?

The whole idea of delayed growth of Horus resulting in his instant Hulk-like transformation spurred by gaining a kill-name and by Emperor's psychic command

[Darkwrath121]

Am I the only one finding the events in Lupus Daemonis' ending strange to the point of being anticlimatic?

 

The whole idea of delayed growth of Horus resulting in his instant Hulk-like transformation spurred by gaining a kill-name and by Emperor's psychic command

You're not the only one. It's very... McNeill!

[malika666]

Erm...elaborate?

[Lucerne]

Maybe the real Alpharius

was the Horus we met along the way?

 

 

More seriously though the Alpharius one was fine if nothing ground-shaking. Gave us a nice little set of motive rants.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Lucerne

[Tymell]

Spoilers?

 

Lupus Daemonis:

Brutal gang warfare life on Cthonia, from the POV of "Nergui" (meaning "no name"), a runt of sorts who seems to only survive because one of the tribal lords sees something in him and wants to keep him alive. He ventures to the surface at one point, seeing Mechanicum forces extracting something, and killing one of them before fleeing. He returns, hoping to earn respect at last, but is scorned by the tribal lord for doing something that will probably just bring retribution down on them. Nergui kills this lord, being given his "kill name" from him: Horus. The Emperor seems to psychically connect to Horus and trigger a transformation in him, just as Imperial forces arrive in the cavern (and I assume the object they were extracting earlier was his primarch pod).

 

Skjalds:

A group of hunters on Fenris are after some unknown beast, sharing some stories about the legendary Russ along the way at one point. Part way through, they encounter another being stalking their quarry, a superhuman of some kind. By the end, they manage to slay the beast(s), though one of the hunters dies and two flee. The superhuman they encountered turns out to be Leman Russ, who seems to make regular returns to Fenris like this.

 

The Sixth Cult of the Denied:

Sometime during the Great Crusade, a Thousand Son, Aqhet Hakonis, has been delving deep into the Great Ocean, and believes he has made a discovery that warrants the creation of a sixth legion cult. Having prepared to give a symposium going over his findings to his peers, he's actually met by the five Magister Templii of the legion and Magnus himself. Magnus questions him, with Hakonis stating that he believes he has discovered real intelligence in the beings of the Ocean. Magnus seems hostile to this, with this seeming more like a trial, and Hakonis intends to summon a daemon there to convince him. But Magnus acts before he can do so, revealing that this entire discourse had been taking place in Hakonis' head, that he already knows about daemons, and that he made a pact with them to save the legion. Furthermore, he orders Hakonis to lie about his discoveries and keep it all secret. They return to reality, and Hakonis seems to go through with it, as we see him years later, disgraced after his testimony, and now demoted to a line brother and effectively in exile, serving with the Night Lords. But he's still communing with the daemon, and intends to prove Magnus wrong.

 

The Will of the Legion:

I don't recall this one that clearly (I read it as an individual short previously, and skipped it this time around), but from what I recall, basically just a compliance action with some reflections on what lengths Dorn is willing to go to to achieve victory.

 

Council of Truth:

Alpharius speaking with three unknown members of the legion, answering questions about the recent Tesstran Conservation compliance actions (as seen in their exemplary battles section of Forge World Book III: Extermination), and connecting to wider discussion of the Alpha Legion's methods, with several comparisons to the Ultramarines. Includes Alpharius stating that he believes the Emperor has more planned beyond just conquest of worlds, and he intends to show that his legion is ready for whatever may come after the Crusade, "We are the Emperor's ultimate fail-safe, and we must prove to Him that this is the case". By the end, it's revealed it was Omegon answering, and Alpharius was one of the three questioning. Includes flashbacks to the compliance action itself.

 

Terminus:

Set during the Siege, with the freshly (rottenly?) Death Guard making planetfall, joined part way through by Mortarion. Not much to spoil, it's a very introspective piece with them talking about their changes, reflecting on it all, etc.

 

Anywho, as a whole I felt this anthology was a mixed bag. None of the stories were terrible, but several were held back by certain aspects.

 

Lupus Daemonis: I really enjoyed the glimpse of Cthonia life, since we've seen very little of that before, and I felt McNeill did a great job conveying the sheer brutality of their existence there. I also appreciate the idea of a young primarch not excelling, but being treated like an unwanted outcast. But the whole "his true power is now psychically unlocked by the Emperor" thing felt very contrived. It's not like psychic power being awoken, his whole body underwent a massive transformation just because the Emperor said "It is time", and this isn't something we've ever seen any indication of before to my knowledge. It just felt like a forced plot device to allow for the story of him being treated like a runt. 5/10

 

Skjalds: It's funny how similar this feels to the previous story, in that it's a "mystery" of a primarch among the common folk of his adoptive homeworld. This one did feel better, and I felt the writing was solid, but it felt like it didn't really do much. It's just Russ hanging out with Fenrisians on a hunt, and we've already seen Fenrisian life a fair bit in previous works. 7/10

 

The Sixth Cult of the Denied: A great story all round. I liked the notion of another Thousand Sons legion cult, of one of them discovering something he wasn't supposed to, and of course, the parallels to Nikaea. Unlike some Heresy stories, I really didn't know where this was going to go, and that felt delightfully fresh. 8/10

 

The Will of the Legion: As above, I read this one previously and barely remember it, but that itself may say a lot. It's basically just some mild reflection on the determination of Dorn and the Fists. Nothing special. 6/10

 

Council of Truth: I did enjoy some aspects of this, but it felt very "tell don't show" in how it got across Alpharius' viewpoints. The flashback compliance scenes illustrated Alpha Legion style well enough, but in the actual council scenes it felt too much like the author speaking directly to the audience, almost meta in that sense. Like, the fanbase has questions about Alpharius' mindset, methods, etc, and here these completely blank, faceless individuals are putting those questions to the primarch, and he's just answering them. And honestly, the whole "ohhhh but how much of that was true and how much wasn't?" *pinky finger to mouth* thing is a bit tiresome at this point. 7/10

 

Terminus: An outstanding piece that makes me wish that Wraight had done the story of the fall of the Death Guard. I love these more introspective offerings, where we get a good look at how the members of a legion think and feel, what makes them tick, etc. This one does a superb job of that, looking at the Death Guard soon after their fall. It's got an absolutely palpable sense of lethargy and rot without just resorting to throwing a bunch of "decay/entropy" synonyms at you. This feels like a story that just -gets- what happened to them and how they ended up here. 9/10

 

 

I give it a 7/10 as a whole. A couple of great stories, a couple of fairly forgettable ones, and a couple with some good promise held back by certain points of execution.

Edited April 8, 2021 by Tymell

[Urauloth]

Hold up, there's Wraight Death Guard content in this? I somehow missed that fact. I'll go order this immediately.

[Matcap86]

As someone who's usually pretty okay with anything BL puts out and fond of Anthologies, this was a rare disappointment for me. Only The sixth cult of the denied and Terminus where alright for me and even those fell kinda flat? With Lupus Daemonis being just weird (not in a good way) introducing character traits and paradigms that fly against what we've seen so far.

 

5/10 if you like death guard

Edited April 9, 2021 by matcap86

[Urauloth]

weird (not in a good way) introducing character traits and paradigms that fly against what we've seen so far

 

 

I would probably summarize my whole Heresy experience with McNeill like this, honestly.

[StrangerOrders]

 

 

weird (not in a good way) introducing character traits and paradigms that fly against what we've seen so far

 

I would probably summarize my whole Heresy experience with McNeill like this, honestly.

I do not understand why they keep letting him near that Legion and the VIth too for that matter.

 

Leaving him near any legion with 'wolf' in its name is like leaving a baby alone with a jackal.

[Splog]

6/10

 

Wraight's Death Guard story stands out from the others (in a good way).

 

Overall, I was left feeling that I was only really reading the stories to be current/complete in reading the Horus Heresy. 

 

Lupus Daemonis was the weakest. The transformation of Horus was (as far as I'm aware) out of keeping with what we know about primarchs. I was surprised by the surgery scars. I thought they were more like custodians in how they were created than space marines with implants and grafts. I'm left wondering whether this is supposed to be what primarchs are like, or is something particular to Horus. I doubt, at this stage of the HH, we're going to find out, and I find myself not really caring. It felt a bit shoe-horned in for the sake of it.

Edited April 22, 2021 by Splog

[byrd9999]

Just finished Lupus Daemonis, and I can see what you are saying. It follows McNeill's classic predictability, rather than bothering with any kind of character arcs, developments, twists or turns. Adult Horus is fed-up of bloodthirsty tyrants, so he rebels by wanting to kill the closest thing he has to a father? So of course little boy Horus has to do the same as well. This kind of on-the-nose storytelling is what really frustrates me about McNeill's writing.

 

And thankfully Horus' primarch pod has golden lightning Emperor-brand awareness on it, rather than being a functional piece of equipment, otherwise we wouldn't be able to make the connection   If the Emperor had really made the primarch pods golden with lightning flashes on them, he deserves to lose the galactic civil war.

[Doghouse]

Not having read Luper Daemonis and based on what people are saying here it's genuinely sounding a lot like the plot to Spiderman.

[byrd9999]

I don't know Spiderman, but there's certainly an element of Incredible Hulk about it... maybe McNeill has spent too long in LA lol.

 

And so was little boy Horus bald too, or when the magic code word was spoken and Horus bulked out, is that when he went bald?

[Ubiquitous1984]

I was really looking forward to this anthology, but I found it only 'ok'.  Sons and Scions were both superior IMO.  

[mc warhammer]

finally read this. weirdly, i rank the stories almost in the order they were collected:

 

lupus daemonis

didn't hate it, yes it's all the usual mcneilsisms but he's actually made it work here. for once the metaphors and parallels aren't METAPHORS AND PARALLELS. or maybe they are, but just turned down from his usual fare. if you can stand this apart from the body of his 40k work, it improves its read a fair bit.

 

i don't even hate the delayed growth thing (and really, that might have made more sense for all the primarchs) but can't disagree that the hulk out at the end lacked any sort of depth or character. it felt like we were building towards a character discovery and instead it was just a male teen's spontaneous engorgement.

 

hmm maybe that's a metaphor too.

 

skjalds

the least interesting of the lot for me, but also fine. it was cute, though i think another missed opportunity to explore the primarch's personality through interaction with mortals. struck as the kind of back up story you'd get in a comic book xmas annual.

 

 

the sixth cult of the denied

more foreshadowing and sins of the father type stuff, but unlike mcneil, we got insight into the primarch's character. yay. this was solid.

 

the will of the legion

anything that gives me a distant primarch, and a loyalist primarch's dark side is a lot of fun. an astartes that questions his autonomy under the primarch's authority is also interesting. another solid entry.

 

council of truth

having read alpharius: head of the hydra only makes this even more enjoyable. i really enjoy brooks' style of writing and he gives just enough about the twins while holding back just enough too. one of the best in this book.

 

terminus

the other best, and like council, i assume this only gets better after/while reading warhawk. mortarion's fall makes sense in just a paragraph. a death guard astartes is unconvinced by his bloated, diseased, vomitus new form. great stuff.

[byrd9999]

I instantly retconned McNeill's take on Horus' discovery the moment I read it. It's still ridiculous.

[MegaVolt87]

Give it to me straight fella's, whats the likelyhood of McNiell writing the primarch book for Horus instead of Abnett since McNiell wrote this short story? 

[mc warhammer]

considering that mcneill made it clear that his dream primarch novella project is writing horus...i'd be willing to bet my membership here that will end up being the case.

[Tymell]

Give it to me straight fella's, whats the likelyhood of McNiell writing the primarch book for Horus instead of Abnett since McNiell wrote this short story? 

 

Well, if we want to be a bit mathematical about it: it's not a big indicator.

 

Looking at "Primarchs"-labelled short stories that were published before the respective Primarchs novel, I believe only 3 have actually had the same author: Ghost of Nuceria (Angron) by St. Martin, A Lesson in Iron (Ferrus Manus) by Guymer, and Council of Truth (Alpharius) by Brooks.

 

By contrast, we've had the following before their Primarch books came out:

• The Abyssal Edge (Curze) - Written by ADB, eventual novel by Haley
• A Lesson in Darkness (Curze) - Written by St. Martin, eventual novel by Haley
• Mercy of the Dragon (Vulkan) - Written by Kyme, eventual novel by Annandale
• Shadow of the Past (Corax) - Written by Thorpe, eventual novel by Haley
• Prince of Blood (Angron) - Written by Goulding, eventual novel by St. Martin
• Stone & Iron (Perturabo) - Written by MacNiven, eventual novel by Haley
• The Passing of Angels (Sanguinius) - Written by French, eventual novel (will be) by Swallow
• Better Angels (Sanguinius) - Written by St. Martin, eventual novel (will be) by Swallow
• First Legion (Lion) - Written by Wraight, eventual novel by Guymer

So it's not actually that good an indicator, though when it is, the short story usually comes out soon before the full novel.

 

And if we look at the remaining unknowns, we've had stories about Dorn by Swallow and Clark, stories about Mortarion by Haley, Annandale and Wraight, and stories about Horus by Abnett and McNeill. Given that we don't have actual dates for any of those books yet, I wouldn't put money on any one of them specifically.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Tymell

[theSpirea]

Give it to me straight fella's, whats the likelyhood of McNiell writing the primarch book for Horus instead of Abnett since McNiell wrote this short story? 

 

This is from a recent interview with McNeill. It was posted in a different thread. Just adding it here in case you missed it.

Q: Can you tell us if you will contribute more books to the Warhammer setting? Perhaps an entry into the Primarch series, or the Dawn of Fire storyline?

GM: I don’t have any plans to contribute to the Dawn of Fire storyline yet, but I certainly have one more entry in the Primarch series to write, yeah. As to which one, I can’t say.

 

 

[MegaVolt87]

 

Give it to me straight fella's, whats the likelyhood of McNiell writing the primarch book for Horus instead of Abnett since McNiell wrote this short story? 

 

This is from a recent interview with McNeill. It was posted in a different thread. Just adding it here in case you missed it.

Q: Can you tell us if you will contribute more books to the Warhammer setting? Perhaps an entry into the Primarch series, or the Dawn of Fire storyline?

GM: I don’t have any plans to contribute to the Dawn of Fire storyline yet, but I certainly have one more entry in the Primarch series to write, yeah. As to which one, I can’t say.

 

 

 

 

Boy do I regret reading the replies in the morning before I head to work. Day ruined.