Space Marine tidbits from Rift War

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

I'm not going to go into spoilers from the book (aside from one very minor one which could already be inferred from the Kill Team Moroch announcement), but I thought there were a couple of non-spoilery things that might interest the Astartes faithful:

• Add the Minotaurs and the Silver Templars to the list of chapters known to have taken part in the greater Nachmund conflict since things kicked off way back in 2018 our time. By my count, that's 39 chapters not counting the Deathwatch. The only First Founding loyalists not to make an appearance yet are the Blood Angels, who are still warped in at Baal or have only just emerged, and the Raven Guard, who sent a strike force but wound up getting sidetracked at Sithoza.

• If it wasn't already obvious that the Wrathhost are either White Scars successors or doing their best to give that impression, their appearance here pretty well hits us over the head with clues to that effect. We already had the chapter name, chapter symbol, known preference for rapid and savage assaults, and their vessel names from their White Dwarf appearance. Now we can add even more Khan-esque vessel names, the fact that their company leaders like to be known as "Windcaptains" and the actual given names of a couple of those captains. And the chapter got promoted to sharing the spotlight in one of the major actions covered in this book - the other chapters in said spotlight being the four employee homebrew chapters that were originally introduced in Vigilus Defiant: the Castellans of the Rift, the Sons of the Phoenix, the Necropolis Hawks, and the Void Tridents. So pretty solid bet the Wrathhost are the creation of some GW/WD employee. Going by what I've seen so far, they are solid evidence that the Tome Keepers have even less of an excuse for sucking so bad.

• I believe this book is the first time we've actually had the world of Moroch referred to outside of the Kill Team announcement. Moroch is in fact a world in the Jaghaal system which exists SOUTH of Sangua Terra, so even further into Imperium Sanctus, but that placement makes sense given the events briefly alluded to currently taking place in that system. The book very broadly mentions "Space Marine intervention" being required to deal with uprisings on Moroch and Marhdukk, so if the narrative background of the Kill Team set wasn't already blindingly obvious by the fact that it faced off Phobos marines against Traitor Guard, now we know. And the location is interesting as it won't be another sideline skirmish in the systems lining the guantlet but actually further out into Imperium Sanctus and therefore not something that would still have to get past the bastion at Sangua Terra in order to threaten the "good" side of the Rift.

• Speaking of Sangua Terra, I don't think the "imminent" threat of the Planet-Killer that was alluded to at the end of Vigilus Ablaze has gotten a single mention this edition. I guess they got a flat and forgot to pack a spare.

That's about all.

[killersquid]

Thanks for the info! Just a small request, does the book mention the Wolfspear chapter at all?

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Thanks for the info! Just a small request, does the book mention the Wolfspear chapter at all?

 

Nope. The Space Wolves get a callout, but only as one of the many chapters whose presence at the first big conflict in the book is rumored and assessed as "not impossible."

 

Also, I am happy to get into spoilery territory if people are curious (which I'll hide appropriately). The status quo did change a little bit with the events of this book, I just didn't want to charge straight into the spoilers and doing so would have been a little outside the bounds of highlighting the Space Marine elements anyway.

[Sarvis]

Yes let’s see these spoilers if you please!

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Well, I'm not looking to do a monologue. If people have specific questions, I'm happy to answer.

 

But if you're just want a good overview of the lore from the book, I'm going to have to point you to one of the more tolerable sections of reddit as this is probably the best online summation I've seen:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShaskaisWarhamBits/comments/uqcn9a/interesting_bits_from_warzone_nachmund_the_rift/