If you could change anything in the lore what would you change?

[HeinzD]

18 hours ago, LSM said:

Bile is still very much a mad scientist - don't buy into his own delusions! (Like, in Genefather he's accompanied by a New Man, and she's a grotesque. Sure, Bile declares himself the saviour of humanity, the one who will usher it into its new form - one capable of dominating the galaxy. But that form... is barely recognisable as human - inherently psychopathic gene-spliced monsters.)

He is definitly ruthless and doesnt really have any morales or ethics when it comes to most things. Mad scientist describes him very well, he is mostly practical in his actions, he doesnt create monster because he likes the horror, or because he wants to be a scary villain type character, he creates monster because he believes it is the most efficent form. And lets be honest, a stitched together Flesh Cape doesnt really sound all that practical. If you tell me that it happens to be eldar skin which is super practical and water repellent or something, sure, i guess, but as things stand, id say its just an over the top design decision from the 90s, which doenst quite fit anymore.

[LSM]

On 12/9/2025 at 5:50 AM, HeinzD said:

He is definitly ruthless and doesnt really have any morales or ethics when it comes to most things. Mad scientist describes him very well, he is mostly practical in his actions, he doesnt create monster because he likes the horror, or because he wants to be a scary villain type character, he creates monster because he believes it is the most efficent form. And lets be honest, a stitched together Flesh Cape doesnt really sound all that practical. If you tell me that it happens to be eldar skin which is super practical and water repellent or something, sure, i guess, but as things stand, id say its just an over the top design decision from the 90s, which doenst quite fit anymore.

 

On the plains of the Crone World, the agony of the modificates was never-ending. It covered the landscape from horizon to horizon, across the fields of the flesh-farms and the cropping houses, through the slaughter tracks and the meat-works. Overhead, the ever-baleful glow of the Eye looked down over everything, and found it good.

The master of this place moved through the rows, sampling the changed and the mutated in the way that a winemaker would wander a vineyard in search of the best grapes for his next harvest. Thus it was, he halted and became irritated beyond all degree to find a perfect circle among his crops, where the flesh of his most recent captures was spoiled.

Some arcane discharge of warped energies had merged the meat of the men and women there into a mess of limbs and faces. It was a ruin, an utter waste of good samples. The master’s hand vanished into the depths of his great leathery coat and returned with his rod. He brandished it angrily.

“Show yourself!” he demanded, the great mechanism upon his back reacting to his anger, pumps churning, blades and splines unfolding into the air. “Give your name to me, creature!”

The flesh-mass quivered, and spoke in a dozen breathy, screaming voices. “I bring news of value to you, great Primogenitor, first among Chaos Undivided, scion of all—”

He stabbed the meat with the rod and it rippled with exquisite pain. “Answer me! How dare you break my wards and come here without invitation! I will destroy you!”

“Hear me out,” bubbled the amalgam. “Know that your grand plan, one of many I do not doubt for so brilliant a mind, your grand plan upon the death world fifth from the Dynikas star has been ended.” The chorus voice simpered.

“Dynikas…” The rod dipped. “The silence from my proxy…?”

“The servants of the Corpse-God did this, Great Master.” It keened and whistled. “The Blood Angels.” In saying the name, the morass of flesh vomited with anger.

He laughed coldly. “Of course. I knew they would come. It was a bold gambit, after all. I should not be surprised they retaliated.” The master glared at the daemon-thing. “Why do you tell me this? What value does this news have to you?”

“My lord and master only wishes to see you have success in your endeavours,” bubbled the fleshy mess. “And he wishes to help you overcome this setback.”

“I need no help,” came the angry reply. “I have many proxies. I will send another. Begin again. No single act of interference can destroy my great strategy.”

“So true. But do not the fires of anger burn in you, great one? Would you not wish to see these Blood Whelps dead?”

He turned away. “I will kill who I will in my own time. Now be gone.”

“As you wish,” gasped the flesh-form, the magicks holding it together fading, the skin and tissue melting into slurry. “But remember this offer, Fabius Bile, and know that the Warp Prince Malfallax shares your hate.”

 

The epilogue to 2010's Black Tide. (As trivia, apparently James Swallow wanted to end his Blood Angels books by killing Bile, but was refused. I think this is the source of Bile having clones of himself out-and-about; as it let Swallow kill him, while not actually killing him.)

 

I think he seems like the kind of guy who would wear a flesh-coat, as he tours his flesh crops and his flesh factories.

 

//

 

Also bear in mind that Fabius Bile: Primogenitor takes place in 764.M34, and Clonelord a few centuries after that. Manflayer then jumps forwards to 993.M37, with only its epilogue around ~000.M42.

 

Which is to say, the Fabius Bile of that series is not fully formed. They're prequel books to his tabletop model. He only gets Marked by Chaos towards the end of Manflayer.

 

Edited yesterday at 12:01 AM by LSM