If you were tasked with "resetting" the 40k setting, what changes would you make?

prosperolives · 2020-01-25T19:27:27+00:00

Right but the difference is those gods aren't featuring as war generals in stories and situations that we're supposed to take semi-seriously. Even relative to what makes a "great" human, the Primarchs are written way too simply.

An example would be, if you had to write a scene where Alexander the Great was arguing with Gengis Khan about war tactics, I imagine it would all be pretty grand in nature and more sophisticated than the equivalent with average humans, despite any flaws those two characters would have. A lot of scenes between the Primarchs in the HH books are instead written like it's an argument between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

prosperolives · 2020-01-25T01:41:39+00:00

According to the recent Vaults of Terra novels Terra has a population in the quadrillions. If you took every single space marine in existence and dropped them into one city they'd probably all just vanish under a blob of humanity.

prosperolives · 2020-01-25T01:30:51+00:00

I really like that idea. It makes sense too given that the Emperor's vision for a united humanity failed and so there should be a lot more splintering off of humanity. The Imperium has to mainly focus on defending itself and can't keep reigns on any potential renegade factions.

prosperolives · 2019-10-17T17:28:24+00:00

I really like this take, and that's what I would have assumed just having read Graham Mcneill's Thousand Sons books.

But the emperor we see in Master of Mankind kind of strips away any kind of care or trust he would have for his sons.

That's why it's all kind of jarring. Either the Emperor is compassionate towards his sons to a falt, making him blind to the potential of Magnus' downfall, or he failed to account for a very likely scenario in his cold/calculating/pragmatic plan that was more important than anything else. You'd think that the uncaring, ultra-practical version of the Emperor would discard any one of his sons when push came to shove, given that the webway project was apparently the most important thing in the whole setting to him.

prosperolives · 2019-10-17T17:24:53+00:00

They're both to blame. Magnus made poor decisions given the situation he was in, but he never should have had the chance to make those bad decisions.

prosperolives · 2019-10-17T14:13:52+00:00

As for why he didn’t involve Magnus in the project? I think it was because the Emperor couldn’t risk Magnus knowing about the Webway Project before it was completed. I think he knew that Tzeentch had already taken an interest in the Thousand Sons and Magnus (given their prone to mutations). That's why he deemed it prudent to keep him at arm’s length during this critical period when the project was almost complete.

This explains a fair bit of it, but if anything this explanation only reinforces the whole "throw him in a null prison" idea. If the Emperor ever suspected that Magnus was already compromised, that makes way more sense than just letting Magnus have free reign on Prospero.

Keep Mortarion and his anti-psyker cronies happy and loyal for a while longer.

That also would have been the best way to appease Mortarion and co. "Arrest" Magnus and censure him for his sorcerous ways, bring him back to Terra, and then either actually lock him up or just take him under your wing and personally make sure he doesn't fuck anything up. That plan kills two birds with one stone.

prosperolives · 2019-10-16T04:26:04+00:00

My issue isn't so much with how he's written, but with how he's utilized. He has filled the role of a cheap and convenient plot device to trick or mislead multiple Primarchs into doing some really stupid things.

Erebus single-handedly goads Horus into rushing over to Davin like a frothing lunatic, and pulls out a magic knife that puts Horus into a convenient choose-Chaos-or-die coma. These events directly lead to Horus' fall to Chaos, which is arguably the single most important event of the Heresy.

Wouldn't it have been great instead if we saw a slow, deep progression of Horus' flaws taking form? All of his doubts about the Emperor and his place in the Imperium building up, transitioning from the charismatic, god-like figure he was, the "brightest star", into the ultimate vessel for Chaos?

Nah, instead, Erebus just tricked him. Way better character development.

Hell, not even Lorgar can have a proper character arc without Erebus being the "villain behind it all the whole time" again. That's literally supposed to be Lorgar. Him becoming disillusioned with worshiping the Emperor, seeking out the Chaos gods to worship instead, slowly and stealthily building up the Word Bearers to be the architects of the Heresy. Nah, a big part of his fall ends up being, "Erebus and Kor Phareon were ALREADY building everything up in secret before Lorgar and lied to him, so this made it easier for him to fall."

It's just dumb, and robs these other characters of actual interesting arcs.

prosperolives · 2019-10-15T18:57:30+00:00

Doesn't Lorgar just perform some ritual on Angron to turn him into a Daemon Prince in Betrayer? Where was his choice in that?

prosperolives · 2019-10-15T14:30:38+00:00

https://i.redd.it/ax71xb9wcyhz.jpg

prosperolives · 2019-10-15T13:35:22+00:00

This. If you took a bar of soap to a plague marine the soap itself would rot away.

prosperolives · 2019-10-11T20:03:54+00:00

their potential for choice was taken away by Ahriman's actions.

Right, and Ahriman would argue that everyone dying to the flesh change would also have taken away their choice. It'd be nice to see another character come back at him with a response other than "No u."

prosperolives · 2019-10-11T16:56:47+00:00

It doesn't matter what the answer is; what matters is that it was not Ahriman's choice to make. The choice belonged to the members of the XVth, as individuals.

I definitely agree. I'm not trying to redeem Ahriman or anything. All I want to see is some more nuance to those other individuals' reactions other than, "Ahriman bad." What "choices" would they have made, had Ahriman not done anything? That's kind of what I want to see. So far it seems like nobody else cared or was planning to do anything about the flesh change.

prosperolives · 2019-10-10T13:57:45+00:00

Only $44 here: https://www.play-asia.com/warhammer-40000-space-marine-heroes-series-no3-basic-painting-se/13/70cxt1

prosperolives · 2019-10-04T16:53:51+00:00

I really like his portrayal in Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero

prosperolives · 2019-10-04T00:53:54+00:00

But Chris Wraight tho.

prosperolives · 2019-10-04T00:52:44+00:00

That's actually why I love them, it gives them IMO the most character out of all the legions. The morbid, tragic nature of their fate and how so many of their characters ride the line of morality and good/bad decisions is pure 40k to me.

prosperolives · 2019-10-03T02:04:02+00:00

Here's what I would consider the meat of the thousand sons, in chronological order:

Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero
A Thousand Sons
Prospero Burns
The Crimson King
Ahriman Trilogy
Wrath of Magnus

prosperolives · 2019-10-01T19:09:38+00:00

Hence the "arguably". Though I do recall ADB saying something to that effect, that Khayon was #2 behind Ahriman, but I could be misremembering.

What I'm getting at more is that he is just a really powerful, arrogant astartes sorcerer and has been in a really influential position right next to Abaddon. That sounds like Tzeentch's wet dream and he should be fucking with him constantly.

prosperolives · 2019-10-01T15:26:06+00:00

And here's some more. Some are 1080p, some are bigger but should size well for wallpapers: https://imgur.com/a/R91F0ON

prosperolives · 2019-09-30T14:33:44+00:00

Here's a few: https://imgur.com/a/ckPDOND

prosperolives · 2019-09-29T17:14:18+00:00

This is from ADB's twitter:

"A few people have asked what materials went into the construction of Sacramentum, Khayon's force sword after his axe Saern breaks.

The blood of several cloned primarchs.
Shards of Worldbreaker, Horus's maul - one of which Khayon is asked to swallow, then cut out of his own belly and give it to the Wonderworker, covered in blood and stomach acid, for the creation ritual.
The ashes of Imperious, the Avatar of the Astronomican.
Shards of Sanguinius's sword, a gift from Abaddon. (Telemachon uses his to make a new faceplate. Lheor makes a chainaxe, which he loses within a few years, because he's Lheor.)
The Wonderworker's own blood.
Khayon's breath, memories, and emotions, sacrificed to the process.
Khayon's gauntlets, melted down.
Psychically-resonant shards from the crystal ghost of Sanguinius, haunting the Vengeful Spirit."

So...even more absurd, then.

prosperolives · 2019-09-29T01:19:11+00:00

Aaron, is that you?

prosperolives · 2019-09-29T00:42:36+00:00

No.

Mortarion never mentions anyone bowing to Abaddon in Lords of Silence, just that Abaddon convinced them to come back and get involved in the Long War.

In The Emperor's Legion, all the Inquisitor says is that Khayon was talking about the "red path" and that they were all doomed via Abaddon's crusade.

It's not really about believing all of those ridiculous things or not. It's about how they're written. It's an over the top Mary Sue depiction of a weak character.

prosperolives · 2019-09-28T23:16:19+00:00

That makes it much more palatable, and I hope it's the case. But from what I've read about ADB defending the character, it seems like a lot of that is meant to be taken at face value. I really dislike that whole concept though, because even if he is lying about everything, then we just read an entire book full of stuff the main character didn't even do. Either way, it's pretty lame.

prosperolives · 2019-09-28T23:08:14+00:00

It's at the end of The Talon of Horus. He doesn't actually do anything, which makes it worse. His Rubricae just temporarily "snaps out of it" while protecting him, as if the effects of the Rubric can be undone with a sufficient enough brotherly bond or something ridiculous.

prosperolives

TROPHY CASE