The Scouring (Series)

[DarkChaplain]

That only works out for Guilliman's storyline, though. Weren't Russ and the Khan still out there somewhere? If I remember correctly, Guilliman thinks of having to leave them alone like that, before he gets put in stasis.

 

I just can't see them skipping the Khan's departure, or Russ's feast (even though we have seen that already in the Bjorn audio drama and elsewhere).

[Felix Antipodes]

2 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

That only works out for Guilliman's storyline, though. Weren't Russ and the Khan still out there somewhere? If I remember correctly, Guilliman thinks of having to leave them alone like that, before he gets put in stasis.

 

I just can't see them skipping the Khan's departure, or Russ's feast (even though we have seen that already in the Bjorn audio drama and elsewhere).

 

True enough about Guilliman not being the last man standing.  As well as the Khan and Russ, we don’t know (as far as I can recall) when Vulkan and Corax slipped away.   Hell, wasn’t Dorn supposed to be the still around at that point as well?

The trouble is we are trying to think logically, not ‘GW logic’ logically. 

 

Edit:  Since I was not sure of who left when, the following is from the Lexicanum timeline;

 

• 014.M31 - The Fall of Caliban.  Loss of the Lion.
• 014.M31 - Eskrador.  Guilliman kills Alpharius (Omegron?).
• 014.M31 - The Iron Cage
• 021.M31 - The Second Founding
• 022.M31 - Disappearance of Corax into the Eye of Terror
• 034.M31 - Loss of Rogal Dorn on the Sword of Sacrilege
• 081.M31 - Corusil V.  The loss of Jaghatai Khan into a warpgate.
• 121.M31 - Battle of Thessala.  Fulgrim wounds Guilliman and is placed in statsis.
• 211.M31 - Russ holds great feast before disappearing.

 

So only Vulcan’s movements are unknown to us for this period.

Edited Saturday at 02:07 PM by Felix Antipodes

[Ubiquitous1984]

There is also the conclusion of Valdor’s arc to consider, how it ties in with Russ, and whether it flows into the Abnettverse or not.

 

I wonder if they have Abnett lined up to write a Valero-focused Scouring book that can tie into his own work?  

[DukeLeto69]

1 hour ago, Felix Antipodes said:

 

True enough about Guilliman not being the last man standing.  As well as the Khan and Russ, we don’t know (as far as I can recall) when Vulkan and Corax slipped away.   Hell, wasn’t Dorn supposed to be the still around at that point as well?

The trouble is we are trying to think logically, not ‘GW logic’ logically. 

 

Edit:  Since I was not sure of who left when, the following is from the Lexicanum timeline;

 

• 014.M31 - The Fall of Caliban.  Loss of the Lion.
• 014.M31 - Eskrador.  Guilliman kills Alpharius (Omegron?).
• 014.M31 - The Iron Cage
• 021.M31 - The Second Founding
• 022.M31 - Disappearance of Corax into the Eye of Terror
• 034.M31 - Loss of Rogal Dorn on the Sword of Sacrilege
• 081.M31 - Corusil V.  The loss of Jaghatai Khan into a warpgate.
• 121.M31 - Battle of Thessala.  Fulgrim wounds Guilliman and is placed in statsis.
• 211.M31 - Russ holds great feast before disappearing.

 

So only Vulcan’s movements are unknown to us for this period.

Aha I had it in my mind Bobbie was last man standing in realspace (apart from Vulkan as per The Beast Arises and the others disappearing off into the warp or webway) but I was wrong.

[Karhedron]

1 hour ago, Felix Antipodes said:

Edit:  Since I was not sure of who left when, the following is from the Lexicanum timeline;

 

I don't think that timeline is correct. Dorn was the last loyalist Primarch at large for several centuries (Vulkan having disappeared sometime earlier). I think his reported death aboard the Sword of Sacrilege was supposed to be about 500 years post-heresy.

 

Here is the list I put together:

 

015.M31 Corax disappears into the EoT in a 1-man ship
015.M31 Johnson vanishes during the destruction of Caliban not long after the Siege of Terra (however long the Warp translation to Caliban took).
084.M31 Jaghati Khan lost in the Maelstrom pursuing Dark Eldar Corsairs.
121.M31 Guilliman fatally wounded by Fulgrim at the Battle of Thessala.
211.M31 Russ vanishes on the 197th anniversary of the Emperor's Ascension.
781.M31 Dorn is lost and presumed killed in an attack on the Chaos Battleship, Sword of Sacrilege.
544.M32 Last sighting of Vulkan during the Battle of the Beast.

[Alpharius902]

To my knowledge, the Primarch disappearance timeline is thus:

• 016.M31 - The Lion is lost at Caliban’s destruction (Black Book 9 establishes that Caliban was lost at this date, but the Dark Angels hid that their lord was missing till after the Second Founding as per Russ’ primarch novel)
• 022.M31 - Corax locks himself into a ship and disappears into the Eye (After splitting his forces in the Second Founding, he soon kills the mutated Raptors, then locks himself in the Ravenspire for a year and a day before heading out - Raven Guard Index Astartes)
• 084.M31 - The Khan and his First Brotherhood disappear into the Webway in pursuit of Commorite Aeldari (White Scars Index Astartes + First Founding)
• 121.M31 - Guilliman’s interned into stasis during Thessala (Dark Imperium)
• 211.M31 - Russ takes his huscarls on a quest into the Eye of Terror (Space Wolves Codex 7th Edition)
• 650s-700s.M31 - Vulkan disappears from his Legion (Salamanders Index Astartes establishes that the last time he was seen by the Salamanders was 1000 years after the Legion’s founding)
• Early M32 - Dorn is killed during a random (not one of Abaddon’s) Black Crusade (Dorn was known to have ordered the Third Founding, so has to have made it till the turn of the millennium, but not the War of the Beast - The Aegidan Oath + War of the Beast Series)

I’m of the opinion that the Second Founding’s probably a good place for the “numbered” series to end, since it’s pretty much the conclusion to the tale of the “Legions.” Otherwise, if they want to just establish it as a “setting,” Russ’ disappearance would definitely be a good stopping point as an epilogue of sorts, otherwise you end up needing to cover Abaddon’s First Black Crusade.

Edited Saturday at 04:33 PM by Alpharius902
Fixed date of Caliban’s destruction

[Scribe]

3 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

034.M31 - Loss of Rogal Dorn on the Sword of Sacrilege

 

I hope GW/BL have the stones to actually put this to paper definitely. 

[DukeLeto69]

Oh oh you don’t think BL will rebrand ADB’s Black Legion books as The Scouring do you? I mean time-wise and if a setting!!!! They shouldn’t!

 

Personally I would prefer The Scouring to be a setting not a sequential series but looking at HH it will be the latter I bet. Of course they could do both! Bit of sub-branding and books like the Black Legion and the Flesh Tearers start to fit in timeline wise. Then have a core series also.

[Felix Antipodes]

If it forces GW/BL to actually return a book to print I could put up with them being force marched into this series/setting.

[Odd-ad]

On 11/1/2025 at 4:34 PM, Scribe said:

 

I hope GW/BL have the stones to actually put this to paper definitely. 

While it would be nice to get confirmation of Dorn's fate one way or the other, I doubt it'll be in this series. 

 

Dorn goes missing in a Black Crusade, and according to  ADB in an old thread here on B&C it's after Abbadon's 1st:

 

"I thought that's where Dorn went down originally, but nope. Dorn dies aboard the Sword of Sacrilege in "a Black Crusade" between the First and Second (apparently not even one of Abaddon's, according to the Lore Peeps). I've got the actual date in my notes, but I'm on my iPad on my break. Early M32, I think. A couple of hundred years after the First Black Crusade, either way. (This all came from one of the meetings/documents where we had to plan out just what actual dates the primarchs all went down.)"

 

 

(ADB's quote is near the bottom of page3)

 

So, yeah, Dorn goes missing well after the Scouring is over, and if the series did want to get there it'd have to cover a significant amount of time and major events like Abbadon's 1st Black Crusade to get to the one where he goes MIA.

 

And as much as some of us would be fine with that, others would definitely start to feel the late-stage HH fatigue if they went that far!

Edited Sunday at 06:54 PM by Odd-ad
Clarity & finding ancient knowledge

[Krelious]

On 11/1/2025 at 2:47 PM, DukeLeto69 said:

Oh oh you don’t think BL will rebrand ADB’s Black Legion books as The Scouring do you? I mean time-wise and if a setting!!!! They shouldn’t!

 

Personally I would prefer The Scouring to be a setting not a sequential series but looking at HH it will be the latter I bet. Of course they could do both! Bit of sub-branding and books like the Black Legion and the Flesh Tearers start to fit in timeline wise. Then have a core series also.

To me the Black Legion books take place definitively after the Scouring as the Scouring is the Loyalists going after the traitors and forcing them into the Eye Of Terror which in a time wise setting in real space I couldnt imagine being longer than the Heresy itself. I think thats an important disctinction in itself because when the traitors are in the eye all sorts of funky shenanigans can happen like for Abbadon it might be 30 years passed but for Sigismund it was 1000. 

 

I'm sure they could definitely do some stories of the traitors inside the eye but I think they should be like what they are doing there immediately afterwards, like whats their mindset and motivation, how is the eye effecting them, what sort of exotic threats or resources might they encounter, maybe Lorgar does another pilgrimage to Cadia. How does this foreshadow into the 40k timeline where again the Gods have long standing plans for their minions and what comes about during and after the siege will reflect on that as I feel like regardless what has happened to the Legions in the 30k setting they are a whole lot more corrupted by 40k but also completely comfortable with it. 

[Roomsky]

If Dorn does indeed disappear after the First Black Crusade, I would love to read his reaction to Siggy's death, and the manner in which he was sent back to Terra. Maybe a foolish thing to wish for considering how much BL ballooned a seven year war into a 60+ book series, but I want it all the same.

[Nagashsnee]

I braved the reddit posts about the spoilers, and its 90% people complaining about female custodes, wokeism and hoping 'GW doesnt force Henry Cavill to go beta' and the usual mindrot.  The 10% on the actual plot sounds all right.  Tho 

Spoiler

Keeping Sanguinius death a secret from the greater population seems...difficult, like you know the legion and the serfs found out the moment the boarding party returned, the cover up would have had to be instant and constant. It seems a weird choice to make, tho i will wait till i actualy read it to judge.  Tho having surviving Blood Angels be terrified of enganging in CC as they dont understand the rage and what triggers it feels right. 

 

Also beast Vulkan going for the Emperors Children for what they did to the civilians is also fantastic. 

 

[The Lost Son]

I dropped out of reading the Heresy series a good while ago but for some reason the Scouring seems to appeal to me. Please correct me if it's been updated but wasn't the scouring originally around 35 years of fighting with no defined point of ending? I'd always assumed it stopped with Bobby G's bad shave from Fulgrim in an almost Alexander-esque manner, the survivors looking inwards after all the destruction and the third founding being the true sundering of the legions and the death of hope in the Imperium.

[Karhedron]

My original recollection is that the Scouring lasted 10 years and ended with the loss/destruction of the last traitor legion holdings outside the EoT. Having said that, I read that a long time ago and it could have been changed since then.