Who is your favourite Character from any 30k/40k Novel and why?

[Krelious]

I'm going with Iskander Khayon as there is something very relatable about him in that hes not necessarily the best leader, hes very talented at what he does, he is surrounded by people he is forced into relationships with out of necessity/survival, particularly Abbadon serves as a kind of mentor/therapist/older brother figure for him. I rather like how he is very opinionated about certain things regarding the use of psyker powers and is at the same time, to a degree respectful of others or comes to a certain understanding with them despite their differences. I think hes a very complex character and I really like the way he is portrayed.  I think there's just something about the human psyche that ADB really has a grip on which is why people like his novels so much.

 

I am definitely not a super human space wizard.

[rookie40K]

Telemechrus and/or Eikos Lamiad or Thiel 30K. Bigger names Garro and Loken are fantastic.

 

Grimaldus 40K.

[Tolmeus]

To difficult for me to pin it down to one per se:

 

30K:

-For Primarch-action I go with Perturabo.

-Bigger character: Garviel Loken 

-Minor character: Barbarus Dantioch, Camba Diaz and Katsuhiro 

 

40K:

-Bigger character: Dante

-Minor character: Vadhán

Edited January 15, 2023 by Tolmeus

[Roomsky]

I'm disqualifying ADB because he'd sweep my list for both eras. Also disqualifying Wraight for the Heresy-era because so many of his White Scars are top contenders, and Abnett from 40k because I'd have to list too many Ghosts.

 

Heresy:

Meduson - Love the sheer tenacity of the character while remaining a very flawed leader. Had one of my favourite sub-plots throughout the series.

Qruze - Loken, but better. RIP, taken too soon.

Aeonid Thiel - C'mon, gotta love everyone's favourite Ultramarine.

Sota-Nul - Repping the Dark Mechanicum for ages after everyone forgot about Kelbor-Hal.

 

40k:

Fabius Bile (Reynolds): probably the most nuanced and entertaining portrayal of a traitor marine. 

Severina Raine: I love that she's just a no-nonsense commissar. I love Gaunt and Cain, but Raine dispels the illusion that trigger-happy hard-asses are a myth.

Lucille Von Shard: Gimme more, Flowers. Entertaining but very believable character.

 

Honourable mention to Drakan Vangorich. Wish he occupied a better series.

 

[Bobss]

Ilya Ravallion, Torghun Khan, Arrian Zorzi

[wecanhaveallthree]

For the Heresy, it's almost certainly BARTHUSA NAREK. 

 

There are, of course, more prominent characters. More exciting characters, more developed characters, but I think Narek deserves top spot for surviving not one, not two, but three entire Kyme Salamanders novels and Unremembered Empire without taking a significant reputational hit. He walked through literal literary fire and survived with his motivations and character intact. He's not enormously complex, nor is he particularly riven by introspection: Lorgar :cuss:ed up, so Lorgar has to die, and since nobody else appears to be doing it (quickly enough), it's up to Narek. And if that means teleporting through the Warp, killing Slann (OR WAS HE???), and grinning like a madman on learning he's appeared aboard a ship about to head into the actual Siege itself - goshdarnit, Narek's our lad. 

 

Simply put, Narek is fun. He's something that a lot of the Heresy forgot to be with all the titanic personalities and deep mythologizing and contest of philosophies going on. He's not connected to any major events. He's not a Perpetual. He's not a Captain or even particularly impressive. He's just Narek. And in that cast of colossi, we really do need more Narek.

 

Honourable mention to Shadrak Meduson for being the actual best character for the HH, but never getting the recognition he deserves. I almost guarantee when the series is done and various anthologies collate the Shattered Legions storylines (and file off the rough edges), Shadrak will emerge as the premiere Heresy OC.

 

For 40K, it's Colquan, no contest.

 

Colquan is not a philosopher. He is not a lecturer or a teacher or a navel-gazing wall-sitter. He is an angry man. He is here to chew gum and kill heretics, and he is all out of gum. His reaction to Guilliman's return was 'oh yeah?' followed by 'prove it' followed by 'I could take him' followed by 'I'm gonna run combat sims until I can chop all his hands off'. Guilliman has to be a politician. Colquan is free to tell Mathieu to eat grox and die, and that while Guilliman might not be able to (politically) squash him like a bug, Colquan really does not give two gaunts about any of that. Colquan exists solely to yell angrily at people who aren't killing the enemies of mankind to get on with it. Colquan is ten thousand years of Custodian pent up frustration at being stuck on Terra while humans messed up spacedad's beautiful dream, and every nanosecond he's not undoing that damage is a nanosecond wasted.

 

And, for all that, he's still shrewd. He's still a Custdoian, and he's still capable of sneakiness ('member BLOOD GAMES?) and subterfuge. Watching him very directly act as Guilliman's political attack dog - and doing it in a way that even Guilliman doesn't quite appreciate - is masterful. Everybody knows that Guilliman has to play a balancing game, and the Primarch himself is perhaps overaware of that fact. Colquan has no such restraint, and everybody knows that, too. Colquan is free to say what the Primarch won't, and free to make threats that the Primarch would never carry out - he is, in modern terms, the Lord Commander's 'party whip'.

 

Colquan is very handsome and we love him very much. Rock on, angry gold man. 

[grailkeeper]

Caiphas Cain. I read the flashman books thinking he was going to be a direct rip off but he has evolved into his own, more pleasant, creature.

 

Robert Rath did a great job of making Robots into sympathetic characters.

 

I like Adbs take on Abaddon. You know a guy is dogged when he doesn't change his hairstyle in 10,000 years.

 

[Moonreaper666]

Torvann Lokk from Dawn of Fire: Gate of Bones

 

He is relatable, has a grimdark-esque character growth, has the same realization and motivation to become a Daemon Prince like his Primarch Perturabo and technically has the most reasonable mindset for someone in Warhammer 40k

[Cartaphilus66]

Ullis Temeter and Huron Fal....

 

For their indomitable will and selfless devotion in the face of gutless treachery.....they died with total honour.....heroes of the Imperium both.

 

Garviel Loken for giving his Genesire a full frontal rebuking then vehemently pledging his undying loyalty to the Blessed Emperor...Balls of steel isn't the word!

 

Perturabo and Curze....such tortured and brutalised souls...fabulous characters.

 

 

[Orange Knight]

In 40k my favourite characters are Guilliman and Cawl. They are simply very well realised and really stand apart from the rest. Both outsiders in their own way.

 

When speaking with Dante about the state of Baal, and applicable to the wider Imperium, Guilliman delivers one of the best quotes in the entire setting, in the novel Devastation of Baal: "It is easy for a man to sell his soul to the Devil, when he already lives in Hell"

 

Cawl truly stands out in the novel dedicated to him. He is a Mary-Sue type of character, but one that has a back-story so compelling and interesting that it justifies him. He is the last real scientist in the Imperium, and is a very quirky and witty character that injects the right levels of mirth and humour into the setting. His meddling with forbidden tech and a potential abominable intelligence only adds to the intrigue.

[2PlusEasy]

Dan Abnett, Peter Fehevari, William King and AD-B are all very good at character-driven prose, and all for different reasons.

 

But, because they were the first books I read by the Black Library (and the ones I inevitably come back to from time to time), I have to go the cast of the Eisenhorn trilogy and it's successors.

 

I also enjoyed Nathan Long's portrayal of Ulrika Magdova in her trilogy of books.

Edited February 23, 2023 by 2PlusEasy

[MarineRaiderII]

In 30k I like Land

 

40k The Space Wolf named the Trickster.

[Vassakov]

I think I'd have to go with Gregor Eisenhorn, at least as portrayed in Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus. It's just such a good character study of what fighting for the Imperium in the shadows would do to someone, and the steady blurring of the line as he justifies each individual action until finally he's summoning a Daemonhost... and Throne save him, in the moment he's probably right.

 

The particular passage in Hereticus just before everything goes sideways and Cherubael coming in remains one of my standout "This is what 40k is about for characters" moments.

 

Honourable mention goes to Lotara Sarrin for being such fun up until Echoes of Eternity, at which point the tragedy of what has happened to the people who walked with Chaos becomes clear. 

[Valkia the Bloody]

My favorite characters are Gideon Ravenor and Talos Valcoran.

I really like tragic characters!

I absolutely love Dan Abnett's writing, and his Inquisition novels are part of what brought me to Warhammer 40k (I was a Fantasy player before that).

Ravenor had been nearly destroyed completely, but came back much, much stronger for it. Although he basically is nothing more than a lonely brain floating in an armoured jar, he is a force to be reckoned with. And he can be utterly terrifying. I actually prefer Ravenor to Eisenhorn- while Eisenhorn is slowly sliding down the slippery slope to Chaos and has done some truly evil things (one could even call him out for being lawfully evil), Ravenor stayed in the "good" territory (even if he has gone rogue). I am not sure which of the two Inquisitors is the more tragic character, but I just like Ravenor and his powers more.

 

And Talos Valcoran- I also adore the Night Lord trilogy of books. So many tragic characters. Once, they (kind of) aspired to some noble goals, but ended up as utter monsters.

It is a great achievement by the author to have the readers develop sympathy for these savage monsters and give them back some humanity.

And Talos Valcoran is fully aware of his tragic situation, and his words say all: "I wanted to be a hero. See how that turned out."

These books hastened my fall to Chaos and made me start my growing Night Lord army.

[Moonreaper666]

3 hours ago, Valkia the Bloody said:

My favorite characters are Gideon Ravenor and Talos Valcoran.

I really like tragic characters!

I absolutely love Dan Abnett's writing, and his Inquisition novels are part of what brought me to Warhammer 40k (I was a Fantasy player before that).

Ravenor had been nearly destroyed completely, but came back much, much stronger for it. Although he basically is nothing more than a lonely brain floating in an armoured jar, he is a force to be reckoned with. And he can be utterly terrifying. I actually prefer Ravenor to Eisenhorn- while Eisenhorn is slowly sliding down the slippery slope to Chaos and has done some truly evil things (one could even call him out for being lawfully evil), Ravenor stayed in the "good" territory (even if he has gone rogue). I am not sure which of the two Inquisitors is the more tragic character, but I just like Ravenor and his powers more.

 

And Talos Valcoran- I also adore the Night Lord trilogy of books. So many tragic characters. Once, they (kind of) aspired to some noble goals, but ended up as utter monsters.

It is a great achievement by the author to have the readers develop sympathy for these savage monsters and give them back some humanity.

And Talos Valcoran is fully aware of his tragic situation, and his words say all: "I wanted to be a hero. See how that turned out."

These books hastened my fall to Chaos and made me start my growing Night Lord army.

 

I actually like Bequin. Hopefully Decimus (who is getting his own trilogy) I would like as well

 

Abaddon is getting some good character moments in the Siege

[Arguleon Veq]

As per the name, Arguleon Veq

 

Daemon World was one of the first 40k books I read, the sheer over the top intensity was a revelation for me. From my years of lurking, I know that Ben Counter has both proponents and detractors, but this book led me in 2009 to something called Horus Rising… and well, you know, here we are!

 

no doubt Veq is a fringe character, but (for me) he represents the incredible, darn near limitless potential of the setting - the wonder and horror of the next day, horizon, or planet

 

40k character - Mephiston, one of a handful 40k Astartes characters who could/would stand tall at the Siege, who also embodies the horrific struggle/defiance against insane, no hope odds -so much of the essence of the setting 

 

Happy to have emerged from my lurker rock, happy to be here

 

Cheers,

[Cartaphilus66]

On 2/24/2023 at 2:40 PM, Vassakov said:

I think I'd have to go with Gregor Eisenhorn, at least as portrayed in Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus. It's just such a good character study of what fighting for the Imperium in the shadows would do to someone, and the steady blurring of the line as he justifies each individual action until finally he's summoning a Daemonhost... and Throne save him, in the moment he's probably right.

 

The particular passage in Hereticus just before everything goes sideways and Cherubael coming in remains one of my standout "This is what 40k is about for characters" moments.

 

Honourable mention goes to Lotara Sarrin for being such fun up until Echoes of Eternity, at which point the tragedy of what has happened to the people who walked with Chaos becomes clear. 

Indeed, Lotara Sarrin's fate was superbly written...another tragic figure of the Heresy, but if you throw your lot in with the Red Angel you can expect only damnation.

[Scribe]

I'm surprised we dont see more Talos here.

 

I dont know if hes my favourite, but hes certainly one of the best at illustrating the self delusion, the willful ignorance, the pride, and contempt, of the CSM.

[Moonreaper666]

17 hours ago, Cartaphilus66 said:

Indeed, Lotara Sarrin's fate was superbly written...another tragic figure of the Heresy, but if you throw your lot in with the Red Angel you can expect only damnation.

 

Lotara is still alive and happy. Can't say the same for Sigismund, Ollianius Pius, Pollux, Gaunt or Ciaphas Cain, dead, forgotten and despairing in the afterlife

 

Countless people throughout history would wish the Chaos Gods were real and worship them in a heartbeat

 

The capricious Dark Gods sometimes are more fair and rewarding that many human civilizations throughout time