Black Library The Scouring Series Announced - Ashes of the Imperium (Chris Wraight)

[roryokane]

5 minutes ago, Nephaston said:

 

It's probably gonna be an argument about recuperating and planning vs hunting each and every traitor down and putting their heads on a pike.

To be fair, Guilliman’s argument of “I lost over a third of my legion between fighting the Word Bearers and then fighting to get here, and I STILL have more troops and ships than the rest of you put together” is likely a telling one. 

[Karhedron]

3 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

I feel like as the primarchs disappear from the story lines a lot of interest in the series will be lost.

 

I think that the disappearances of the Primarchs is going to be something the series will cover. The studio mentioned that Guilliman was chosen at the first Primarch to return because it was already known where he was. There was not mystery to resolve for him to reappear. I suspect that Lion el Johnson was chosen for a similar reason.

 

The remaining loyalists disappeared under various mysterious circumstances. My guess is GW will use these disappearance novels to plant the plot hooks for their return to 40K.

[grailkeeper]

21 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

 

I think that the disappearances of the Primarchs is going to be something the series will cover. The studio mentioned that Guilliman was chosen at the first Primarch to return because it was already known where he was. There was not mystery to resolve for him to reappear. I suspect that Lion el Johnson was chosen for a similar reason.

 

The remaining loyalists disappeared under various mysterious circumstances. My guess is GW will use these disappearance novels to plant the plot hooks for their return to 40K.

 

 

Some we know exactly how they disappeared, others we dont. One up side of the beast arises is that we know Vulkan was one of the last to go, and it was long after the scouring. 

Hopefully we either have very little Vulkan, or if we must have Salamanders, a different author will be given a chance to write them. 

[Iron Lord]

Didn't Vulkan disappear for a long period between the Scouring and The Beast Arises though?

[Marshal Rohr]

5 hours ago, Karhedron said:

 

I think that the disappearances of the Primarchs is going to be something the series will cover. The studio mentioned that Guilliman was chosen at the first Primarch to return because it was already known where he was. There was not mystery to resolve for him to reappear. I suspect that Lion el Johnson was chosen for a similar reason.

 

The remaining loyalists disappeared under various mysterious circumstances. My guess is GW will use these disappearance novels to plant the plot hooks for their return to 40K.

Prophetic. Disgusting they’re doing this but exceptionally insightful. 

[Lord Blackwood]

I am personally very excited for this. After The End and the Death Vol 3  I have felt a little empty as far as Warhammer goes  the HH and Siege of Terra novels were  driving factors in my participation with the hobby.  I am not bothered by Primarchs in 40k so this series potentially setting up returns for them would be interesting.  I imagine we might also see some of the Cawl stuff bridged as well which will be interesting. There are plenty of sub plots that were not tied up in Era of Ruin , so I am hopeful for a host of new audiobooks to enjoy listening to. 

[Nineswords]

On 7/18/2025 at 10:19 PM, Son of Rawl said:

That's an amazing piece of art. Gonna be a day one, but skipping any LE's for this series. Been burned far too many times to consider it.

 

 

Came here to say this. It was absolutely not worth the heartache and stress for the LE’s and I won’t ever buy those again. 
 

GW have had multiple chances to fix this and have missed a very obvious solution which satisfies collectors and denies the scalpers.

 

On a more positive note, now I’ve got a year to finish the Siege so I can pick this up fresh. 

[Nineswords]

On 7/18/2025 at 10:36 PM, Inquisitor lorr said:

May I ask what you mean by this? (Just started the Horus Heresy series, so I’m intrigued). 

I think GW underestimated the popularity of the Heresy as a setting. The perfect storm of Foreworld’s early source books and resin minis fuelled a strong appetite for the Heresy books which Black Library… just kept going with. 
 

if anyone had really known how many numbered novels (and unnumbered novellas) there were going to be in the lead up to the Siege of Terra, I think many of us would’ve thought twice about going all in on the collector’s books. 
 

When the Siege LE’s came out, demand was so high professional scalper rings got in on the action and ruined the buying experience for everyone. I and many other collectors hope there’s not a repeat for The Scouring, another series with no planned end in sight; and no climactic battle to work towards to. 

[Armchair Warlord]

On 7/18/2025 at 8:55 PM, Borbarad said:

Get ready to dust off your first born marines for warhammer 40k - the old world

Already got it on the shelf mate!....7th edition.

[Astartes Consul]

Echoing the general positive reception to Wraight kicking this off - he’s got a particular knack for writing both non-Space Marine characters and Imperial political intrigue. So an excellent choice IMO.

 

I wonder who else they have lined up. The stable of writers who did the best Heresy books (imo) is a bit depleted these days. 
 

Other than some better editing and forward planning, my main hope for this series would be that they don’t feel the need to pursue every single leftover plot point from the HH/SoT. Leave some things open to interpretation and our imaginations! Save the big moments and new lore for some new characters! 

[LemartesTheLost]

On 7/19/2025 at 2:36 PM, Karhedron said:

 

I think that the disappearances of the Primarchs is going to be something the series will cover. The studio mentioned that Guilliman was chosen at the first Primarch to return because it was already known where he was. There was not mystery to resolve for him to reappear. I suspect that Lion el Johnson was chosen for a similar reason.

 

The remaining loyalists disappeared under various mysterious circumstances. My guess is GW will use these disappearance novels to plant the plot hooks for their return to 40K.

 

I hate that you're right with every fiber of my being.

[ZeroWolf]

5 minutes ago, LemartesTheLost said:

 

I hate that you're right with every fiber of my being.

To be fair, they've already been working on that. The most famous example being Dorn. Went from a fully recovered body to just being a hand. That change happened at least well over a decade ago...if not longer.

[LemartesTheLost]

On 7/19/2025 at 12:48 AM, Fire Golem said:

You don’t have to read it. 

 

No but the events of the novels will be mentioned ad nauseam in Youtube lore/painting tutorial videos because "Muh Primarchs!!" so we're getting the mysticism stripped anyway. 

[gideon stargreave]

17 hours ago, LemartesTheLost said:

 

No but the events of the novels will be mentioned ad nauseam in Youtube lore/painting tutorial videos because "Muh Primarchs!!" so we're getting the mysticism stripped anyway. 

And the ability for longbeards like me and you to creatively explore the corners of the setting will be reduced because “this new book says…” 

[Antarius]

3 hours ago, gideon stargreave said:

And the ability for longbeards like me and you to creatively explore the corners of the setting will be reduced because “this new book says…” 

I think it is important to keep hold of the notion that you have a right (so to speak) to your own headcanon. I don't enjoy the advancement of the timeline/the storyline approach to 40K and I dislike (most of) the ways they have resolved the many mysteries and storyhooks that were present in the setting pre-Gathering Storm, so I simply discount them. In a similar vein, I have absolutely zero qualms about deciding that some event played out in this or that manner or that this or that character said or did this or that thing, because my 40K hobby is my own - and people will obviously never agree on one interpretation anyway.

I have, generally speaking, enjoyed most of the HH series. Yes, there were a few clunkers and yeah, the series got dragged out and stretched way too thin, but even the actual stinkers such as "Fear to Tread" were easy enough for me to discount as "something some author (who was probably hepped up on goofballs at the time) might have thought happened", so in that sense, I'm not too worried about how they'll handle The Scouring, although I'm sure they'll do things I'll disagree with over the course of the 117ish books they'll probably drag it out over 

Edited July 22 by Antarius

[TheMalius]

Do we think they will do a MTO of the Seige hardbacks? I missed out on them and want the collection to match.

[LSM]

On 7/19/2025 at 12:33 PM, roryokane said:

...Therefore, unless Dorn refused to have his armour fixed for a few years, this being just after the Siege makes the most sense. 

 

Yeah. If they go with anything like the older fluff:

 

"While the Ultramarines maintained order within the Imperium, the Imperial Fists hunted down the traitors, levelling fortress after fortress. Dorn led them, dressed in the black of mourning, his customary mercy set aside until the guilty were punished. While others shaped the new Imperium, Dorn immersed himself in implacable justice. It was rumoured that he saw the Emperor's death as his personal failure and his crusade as penance. After all, were the Traitors not his brothers? Whatever the cause, Rogal Dorn was absent from the highest councils until he was summoned back to Terra when Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines presented his Codex Astartes as the future of the Space Marines." (Index Astartes: Imperial Fists, White Dwarf 259, 2001)

 

Dorn dresses in black and goes crusading for a bit before the Legions are broken up.

[WARMASTER_]

Jumping in late to this but I’m super stoked Wraight is kicking off the series he’s one of my favourite BL authors and he’s especially good when it comes to imperial politics 

 

also REALLY hoping this turns into a scouring mini game black books to be honest I’d be way more excited about that then the heresy, MKVII re sculpts… Box Dreads [MKIV]… Chapters 

 

a man can dream…

[Laurence]

On 7/21/2025 at 5:21 PM, ZeroWolf said:

To be fair, they've already been working on that. The most famous example being Dorn. Went from a fully recovered body to just being a hand. That change happened at least well over a decade ago...if not longer.

Wasn't Dorn just a hand (or two) as far back as Ian Watson's original Space Marine novel?  

[Doghouse]

I'm really not a fan of this idea but I am more of an old school what's behind the mystery door kind of guy. My personal take is that they more they adopt a no stone left unturned approach the less interesting the setting becomes for me. I preferred the good old days before we knew everything about Primarchs as people rather than being the mythological beings of history they were always intended to be.  

 

I don't really buy into the giving the fans what they've been asking for all along mentality because at the end of the day they're doing it to sell more novels which for a publishing branch of GW is fair enough. I think it's more of a product now for a newer generation who never knew the days of making buildings out of pudding pots and hills out of stacked books with a great cloth over the top.

 

I certainly do not expect everyone to share my feelings on this kind of thing though and am probably in the minority.

[ZeroWolf]

9 hours ago, Laurence said:

Wasn't Dorn just a hand (or two) as far back as Ian Watson's original Space Marine novel?  

If I remember correctly, the first we'd heard was that they recovered a full body. I know the Index Astartes article from the early 2000s had they recovered only a fist (hence my theory that when Dorn returns, he'll have a bionic hand built into the Emperor's lightning claw)

[Karhedron]

13 hours ago, Laurence said:

Wasn't Dorn just a hand (or two) as far back as Ian Watson's original Space Marine novel?  

 

No, they had his full body in Space Marine. Most of his skeleton was encased in amber but his hand was separate and Chapter Masters were allowed to minutely inscribe their names on his hand-bones.

 

Then came the retcon that they only had his hand and the rest of his body was never found. This potentially opened the door for his return in some fashion.

 

Then came the revelation in Praetorian of Dorn that Dorn cut of Alpharius's hands before killing him. This means he has been potentially carrying around a spare Primarch hand ever since. We know from Angels of Caliban that despite their differences in appearance, the Primarchs are so genetically similar that Kurze was able to use his generprint to launch and orbital drop of Dark Angels that had been keyed to the Lion's DNA.

 

My personal head-canon is that Dorn decided to disappear for some reason (maybe going undercover, maybe going off on some secret mission for the Emperor). He waited for a suitable opportunity and then launched an apparently suicidal attack. In the confusion he drops Alpharius's hand somewhere he knows his sons will find it and leap to the obvious conclusion. He then slips away in the confusion and vanishes.

[Evil Eye]

I always took it that he was so badly mangled by his murderers that his hand was the only recognizable thing that could be recovered.

[MoriyaSchism]

7 minutes ago, Evil Eye said:

I always took it that he was so badly mangled by his murderers that his hand was the only recognizable thing that could be recovered.

Rogal Dorn? More like Rogal Torn Apart. 

 

[Felix Antipodes]

While I love the irony of numerous IF Chapters Masters (and rank & file) venerating the remains of one of their greatest enemies, I still think he will be sporting a bionic if when he reappears.