Dark Imperium 3: Godblight discussion

[mc warhammer]

matthieu is gone?

can't say i'm mad about it

[MarineRaider]

I just finished Godblight.

 

It was the best in the trilogy, and I'm not sure how anyone can be disappointed or upset?

I suppose if your only interest in the story is some revelation, and not the story or the journey itself then you might be let down.

 

But even so, this was an absolute ride. The trilogy of books left me exhausted and battered but in a good way. It feels like coming to the end of Lord of the Rings but with even higher stakes.

 

The implications and foundations for future stories laid down by this book are pretty Earth shattering for the universe itself. I just hope someone from BL is bold enough to pick the story threads up again in the near future!

Totally agree. I finished it and the last 50 pages changed the direction of the Imperium...at last. I hate Chaos and the traitors, I love it when writers give them the shaft each and every time. The Death Guard is the worst legion and I hope they are completely and utterly destroyed.

I do find it interesting E seemed to leave a door open for his wayward son though.

 

E is back and I am delighted.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Kelborn

[DukeLeto69]

Can anyone spoiler tag and explain the last 50 pages and the big E thang?

 

Thanks

[Aramis K]

One thing I liked

 

Some of the miracles may have material assistance.

 

When the Cadian general is saved by a flash of light he sees it as a miracle, but shortly afterwards we see the Novamarines tank firing a lascanon to save the Cadian tank.

 

Likewise, I wondered if Mathias had a bomb in that servo skull that blew up the cauldron.

 

Not all direct divine power, but perhaps The Emperor influencing events.

 

Unrelated, I loved the "drive me closer I want to hit them with my sword" moment.

 

[Scribe]

 

 

I just finished Godblight.

 

It was the best in the trilogy, and I'm not sure how anyone can be disappointed or upset?

I suppose if your only interest in the story is some revelation, and not the story or the journey itself then you might be let down.

 

But even so, this was an absolute ride. The trilogy of books left me exhausted and battered but in a good way. It feels like coming to the end of Lord of the Rings but with even higher stakes.

 

The implications and foundations for future stories laid down by this book are pretty Earth shattering for the universe itself. I just hope someone from BL is bold enough to pick the story threads up again in the near future!

Totally agree. I finished it and the last 50 pages changed the direction of the Imperium...at last. I hate Chaos and the traitors, I love it when writers give them the shaft each and every time. The Death Guard is the worst legion and I hope they are completely and utterly destroyed.

I do find it interesting E seemed to leave a door open for his wayward son though.

 

E is back and I am delighted.

LOL. Anyone with a nuanced take care to give it a shot? Edited June 12, 2021 by Kelborn

[Apothecary Vaddon]

Can anyone spoiler tag and explain the last 50 pages and the big E thang?

 

Thanks

in essence, the rift was really bad for the Imperium but it seems to have given the Emperor a shot of TRT/HGH. He's now coming to after long millenia of relative inactivity and was able to possess Guilliman to torch a part of Nurgle's garden, with a warning that the materium/immaterium have been out of balance for too long and that he's coming for the Big Four.

 

Also, just imo and some general musings, but he seems to be more the god of will than the corpse god than anything. He's able to exert his influence in places that are psychically blunted, within those who have no real psychic ability, and when speaking at nurgle seemed to position himself as aligned with the materium, so that was interesting (and quite explanatory).

[Scribe]

Just cant help themselves eh?

[Taliesin]

That sounds really interesting, might try and track down a hardcover somewhere after all.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

That sounds really interesting, might try and track down a hardcover somewhere after all.

 

The Godblight hardcover is back in stock on the US GW site. I assume it's back up elsewhere as well, but haven't bothered to check.

[b1soul]

The E thang should come as no surprise.

 

Guilliman had a conversation with E in Dark Millenium and sensed that His power felt greater (and less subtle) than ever

[Scribe]

The E thang should come as no surprise.

 

Guilliman had a conversation with E in Dark Millenium and sensed that His power felt greater (and less subtle) than ever

Oh it's no surprise, but that's not a good thing. :p

 

Either way, just like every other time people make grand claims, I'm sure the text itself is far more measured and accurate to the setting.

 

If not? Well it was a good run.

[DukeLeto69]

 

Can anyone spoiler tag and explain the last 50 pages and the big E thang?

 

Thanks

in essence, the rift was really bad for the Imperium but it seems to have given the Emperor a shot of TRT/HGH. He's now coming to after long millenia of relative inactivity and was able to possess Guilliman to torch a part of Nurgle's garden, with a warning that the materium/immaterium have been out of balance for too long and that he's coming for the Big Four.

 

Also, just imo and some general musings, but he seems to be more the god of will than the corpse god than anything. He's able to exert his influence in places that are psychically blunted, within those who have no real psychic ability, and when speaking at nurgle seemed to position himself as aligned with the materium, so that was interesting (and quite explanatory).

Thanks.

 

At the risk of antagonising Scribe (joke) I gotta say that certainly aligns with speculation I was making years back in the Pariah thread re The Yellow King (though I called that wrong...

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/345238-speculation-spoilers-regarding-the-magos-pariah-etc/

 

That the Big E is active in the Warp. Alive and involved, manipulating behind the scenes. Personally always liked that notion

[aa.logan]

I’d say the idea goes back even further-

I got Jaq Draco/Starchild vibes from the whole thing. There is long-standing precedent for this kind of thing.

Edited June 13, 2021 by aa.logan

[DukeLeto69]

I’d say the idea goes back even further-

I got Jaq Draco/Starchild vibes from the whole thing. There is long-standing precedent for this kind of thing.

Oh certainly. Not for one moment claiming a totally original thought

[mc warhammer]

I’d say the idea goes back even further-

I got Jaq Draco/Starchild vibes from the whole thing. There is long-standing precedent for this kind of thing.

yeah, i like that take.

i'd want it to be in line with draco though, in that his activity is fractured and not altogether necessarily aligned with what roboute might agree with

[DukeLeto69]

 

 

I’d say the idea goes back even further-

I got Jaq Draco/Starchild vibes from the whole thing. There is long-standing precedent for this kind of thing.

yeah, i like that take.

i'd want it to be in line with draco though, in that his activity is fractured and not altogether necessarily aligned with what roboute might agree with

Yes...

 

Loved how it was quite clear the Emperor was completely bonkers/mad with multiple personalities. Imagine if half of those facets/avatars were actively working against the others!

Edited June 13, 2021 by DukeLeto69

[Vanger]

*humming Katy Perrys "kissed a girl"* I read Goblight, and I liked it.

 

Discussion about if Haley is a good writer or not is purely a matter of taste. He has his faults, like he cannot convey character through dialogues, but rather through themes and descriptions. Also his choice how to portray the Nurglites is inherrently divisive. I found it funny, but stupid. On the other hand all the story threads are easy to follow, never got lost what is happening to who. His prose is easy to read and the story doesn't have big plot holes. Also it has no deus ex machinas which is a welcome change.

That he cannot write certain types of characters isn't only his shortcoming. No BL author can write any real military strategey/tactics or a believable superhiman mind of a primarch. Those criticism can be raised against any of them.

So to my objective tastes it's a good book. I'd give it a 7(ish)/10.

 

Now what the book/story suffer from is, that it's like an amalgam of the original 8th edition Dark Imperium storyline inserted into a retconned timeline, which has not been published yet! This book reads like as if you start the Siege of Terra right after reading the Flight of the Eisenstein without any knowledge about the Horus Heresy aside from what is in the books jou just read

Pariah Nexus and Vigilus are heavyily refferenced. Events we already know but have no definitive knowledge about. Characters already had major changes happening to them. And some story threads beginning s are dangling around which could reframe characters in this book.

 

I really hope they finish the Dawn of Fire series, before we travel with the crusade over to Imperium Nihilus!

 

I get the impression that GW is planning some major shake up to the offices of the Imperium. One is a schism in the Ecclesiarchy itself. I don't know what will be the reaction to the fact, that the Imperial Creed is based on the teachings of a traitor primarch. This storyline was already teased in Apocalypse.

 

I want to know what happened with the Macragges Honour in the warp, while the Red Corsairs had it. Because Frater Matthieu served on the ship. This could reframe his character...

 

Love Lucerne. Sad that his induction into the Black Templars has been spoiled. I still hope he gets a nice story/event and he not jsut gets his papers served.

 

Wonder where they want to go with the Imperium Secundus & Emperor Sanguinius plot threads. Maybe the Civil War theory has some truth in it?

Edited June 13, 2021 by Vanger

[aa.logan]

The bonus story from the LE deals with some of Mathieu’s time on Macragge’s Honour; it’s a decent character sketch, but doesn’t really tell us much about what happened onboard.

 

 

the crew have hidden and underground services, a la the Reformation in England/the early days of the Imperial Creed in the HH, esp. Swallow’s works. He is a regular priest, accompanied by another slightly less faithful one; they encounter a possessed child, perform an exorcism, get discovered his companion overcomes his crisis of faith and sacrifices himself so that others can escape.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

The bonus story from the LE deals with some of Mathieu’s time on Macragge’s Honour; it’s a decent character sketch, but doesn’t really tell us much about what happened onboard.

 

FWIW, that story's been available as an eShort since last December:

 

https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/his-will-eshort-2020.html

[Scribe]

 

 

Can anyone spoiler tag and explain the last 50 pages and the big E thang?

 

Thanks

in essence, the rift was really bad for the Imperium but it seems to have given the Emperor a shot of TRT/HGH. He's now coming to after long millenia of relative inactivity and was able to possess Guilliman to torch a part of Nurgle's garden, with a warning that the materium/immaterium have been out of balance for too long and that he's coming for the Big Four.

 

Also, just imo and some general musings, but he seems to be more the god of will than the corpse god than anything. He's able to exert his influence in places that are psychically blunted, within those who have no real psychic ability, and when speaking at nurgle seemed to position himself as aligned with the materium, so that was interesting (and quite explanatory).

Thanks.

 

At the risk of antagonising Scribe (joke) I gotta say that certainly aligns with speculation I was making years back in the Pariah thread re The Yellow King (though I called that wrong...

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/345238-speculation-spoilers-regarding-the-magos-pariah-etc/

 

That the Big E is active in the Warp. Alive and involved, manipulating behind the scenes. Personally always liked that notion

 

 

I'm not saying its not an option, as you say it has precedent within the setting. How they write it is what determines if 'progression' in the setting is good.

[DarkChaplain]

Theory re: potential schisms

 

Between Guilliman reading the Lectitio at the end of Plague War, and encountering / recalling suppressed memories of the Emperor here, seeing what monstrosity his soul has become while rotting on the throne for ten millennia (in the Draco-style), and the Ecclesiarchy deciding to reinstate their own militia/military in the audio box set involving Greyfax and Celestine, along with already existing disgruntlement between pragmatic rationalist Guilliman vs the Imperial Creed, including his frequent denials of his father's godhood and his own demigod status, that others revere him as, we have a powder keg waiting to explode.

 

With Guilliman not happy about his father's state of mind, to call it that, and increasingly resenting him for his ulterior plans and treatment as a despised tool, he might end up on a spiritual collision course with the Ecclesiarchy one way or another. So far he's been playing along as much as he reasonably had to, to keep things orderly. But now he knows both the scripture - which so far he hadn't read for himself, despite punishing Lorgar for it at the Emperor's behest during the Great Crusade - and has seen the real thing on the Throne, both physically and psychically. He's not happy with it, and apprehensive of the Emperor actually returning if this is what he's become.

 

On the flipside, we have the Ecclesiarchy militarizing beyond the decrees of having "no men at arms", which was the reason to have the Sororitas. Technically, the Ecclesiarch Decius XXIII did repeal the Decree Passive - even though he was executed right after. We have yet to really see the full impact of that.

 

The pieces are on the board already.

 

[Scribe]

See, now thats how you do it. :D

[DukeLeto69]

Theory re: potential schisms

 

Between Guilliman reading the Lectitio at the end of Plague War, and encountering / recalling suppressed memories of the Emperor here, seeing what monstrosity his soul has become while rotting on the throne for ten millennia (in the Draco-style), and the Ecclesiarchy deciding to reinstate their own militia/military in the audio box set involving Greyfax and Celestine, along with already existing disgruntlement between pragmatic rationalist Guilliman vs the Imperial Creed, including his frequent denials of his father's godhood and his own demigod status, that others revere him as, we have a powder keg waiting to explode.

 

With Guilliman not happy about his father's state of mind, to call it that, and increasingly resenting him for his ulterior plans and treatment as a despised tool, he might end up on a spiritual collision course with the Ecclesiarchy one way or another. So far he's been playing along as much as he reasonably had to, to keep things orderly. But now he knows both the scripture - which so far he hadn't read for himself, despite punishing Lorgar for it at the Emperor's behest during the Great Crusade - and has seen the real thing on the Throne, both physically and psychically. He's not happy with it, and apprehensive of the Emperor actually returning if this is what he's become.

 

On the flipside, we have the Ecclesiarchy militarizing beyond the decrees of having "no men at arms", which was the reason to have the Sororitas. Technically, the Ecclesiarch Decius XXIII did repeal the Decree Passive - even though he was executed right after. We have yet to really see the full impact of that.

 

The pieces are on the board already.

 

Love it! Put me down for that!

 

I guess we have to remember...

 

That the lore will be driven by the need to generate sales for GW.

 

Now I am fairly certain that Imperial factions are the biggest selling armies right? We know part of the real world reason the HH exists is as a mechanism to have a box of models that only needed a single mould!

 

So I also reckon a civil war is on the cards at some point!

[Scribe]

I certainly hope not Duke. The Imperial obsession is bad for the game side.

[DukeLeto69]

I certainly hope not Duke. The Imperial obsession is bad for the game side.

I agree but I can see it!