Dark Imperium Spoilers/Plot Summary (Read Along)

[DogWelder]

Well, I've got my (virtual) hands on the Dark Imperium ebook and I'm a fair bit into it. I thought I'd do the plot summary piece-by-piece so I can answer everyone's questions more easily.

 

Up to Chapter 5:

 

-The book starts with Guilliman's fleet engaging Fulgrim's over Thessala back in 30k. Guilliman has brought 6 Ultramarine successor chapters with him for the hunt but Fulgrim has led him into a trap and 3 EC fleets catch the Ultramarines over Thessala.

 

-Guilliman's Battle Barge faces off against the Gloriana-class "Pride of the Emperor" and he decides to board it with half of his second company and half of his first. Aeonid Thiel is shown to be the Captain of the 2nd. Several other successor chapters board it too (Novamarines, Iron Snakes, Aurora etc.)

 

-The Ultramarines and their successors disable/destroy the critical systems on the EC flagship and Guilliman fights Fulgrim in the Heliapolis. Fulgrim uses the wound Kor Phaeron left him to poison Guilliman and the Ultramarines teleport back to their ships with their wounded primarch.

 

-Time skip to the present. It is 100 years after Gathering Storm and the Indomitus Crusade has more or less returned the Imperium of Man to a state of normalcy. The giant warp rift in the galaxy remains but the chaos has largely been contained and the fronts have been stabilized. Guilliman orders Cawl to construct Necron Pylon-ish devices so that the warp storms can be driven back.

 

-Guilliman is on the Maccrage's Honour (The Ultramarines must have gotten it back from the Red Corsairs) and he's contemplating the state of affairs. Apparently, as a side effect of his resurrection, he no longer needs to sleep anymore. He also doesn't need to wear the armor all the time and wears a casual robe and a bodyglove when he's not in combat. 

 

-Cato Sicarius informs him that they're about to engage a large force of Word Bearers and Iron Warriors. Guilliman smiles and relishes the opportunity to take on the Word Bearers. 

 

-Back in Ultramar, it is undergoing the invasion by Nurgle's forces and Iax has been converted into a hospital world so that the wounded/infected can be put back in the fight. There is some very nice detail given to the medicae setup they have. It's not a Hollywood hospital ie: a panicking mess of screaming doctors and dying patients but a very organized and calm place where the wounded are treated thoroughly by professional doctors and medicaes. This is my favourite part and it shows that Guy Haley has clearly talked to medical professionals when writing this piece. 

 

Thats it for now. I'll continue reading and should have the full book out by the end of the weekend.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Caius Tadius

[Joe]

That's a considerable time-skip, but I'm not going to complain! It's nice to see us advancing to 100.M42-ish.

 

Also glad to see the Iron Snakes have been confirmed as successors of the Ultramarines. I assume that makes them Second Founding then.

[Soldier of Dorn]

I just finished reading it myself, and was posting my impressions in the other thread.

 

 

 

Read the leaked version from /tg/ - a short review in the spoilered section below. Suffice to say, I did not like it.

​

I would warn of spoilers for the Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium novel, but to have spoilers you must first have a plot, and this book doesn't have one.

 

Simply put, do not read this book. All it serves to do is introduce in a series of vignettes the various factions involved in the new 40k, with new units and new characters, without actually resolving anything. The worst part is that this does not become readily apparent until the third and final act of this so-called novel, a...round where the Daemon Primarch Mortarion (who has been mentioned as, essentially, the primary antagonist of the novel throughout the story) is introduced for the first time, where he vows to slay his brother Roboute, and then proceeds to... never appear again.

 

It's just a bad story. That's all there is to it. There is no resolution. The prose itself is enjoyable enough, but when I reached the end, I felt cheated. In the last chapter, our hero Guilliman fights... a sort of boss monster, I guess, in a Greater Daemon of Nurgle? But it's not someone who's been particularly well developed prior to this point, or indeed developed at all (asides from maybe one mention earlier of his name? I honestly can't remember.) Whatever the case, when he appeared, he seemed like a brand new character, and though what little of him we saw seemed interesting, it made for an utterly awful narrative. You are expecting some resolution of the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist, and it simply never happens.

 

​EDIT: ​All that being said, it does introduce some new units for the Primaris (spoilered because I'll directly quote the novel)

 

 

 

First out were the Primaris Aggressors. They wore battleplate of a similar type to Felix’s, but more massively armoured: the Gravis class. Before they had exited the troop bay, missiles shot from their shoulder-mounted racks, their exhaust filling the craft’s troop compartments.

 

New equivalent to the Devestators, in Gravis armor with shoulder mounted missile racks (Cyclone missile launchers?)

 

 

The Overlord shook. Its armour was massively thick, and its engines prodigiously powerful. The new craft made Thunderhawks look like toys. As with so much the primarch had commissioned, the Overlord hearkened back to older designs of insertion craft, improved by the boundless creativity of Belisarius Cawl.

 

Possibly the plastic Thunderhawk that's been mentioned by Hastings in the past? I dunno.

 

 

He glanced at his concilia psykana, several Space Marine and Primaris Librarians stationed close at hand.

 

And confirmation of Primaris Librarians.

 

Edited June 3, 2017 by The Psycho

[Marshal Rohr]

Always down for a new marine aircraft

[Marshal Loss]

Who needs the entire Mechanicum when you have Bellisarius Cawl...

 

Witnessing the encounter between Fulgrim and Guilliman sounds pretty cool though. Interested to hear as many opinions as possible given that the last few tie-ins I bought were rubbish, so I avoided this one.

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

Who needs the entire Mechanicum when you have Bellisarius Cawl...

 

Maybe the patronage of the new leader of the Age of Guilliman allows Cawl to actually build new stuff rather than mumbling prayers over keyboards. 

[DarkChaplain]

 

Guilliman orders Cawl to construct Necron Pylon-ish devices so that the warp storms can be driven back.

 

I'm soooo tired of Fix-it-all-Cawl...

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

I've only read the first chapter, but it seems to me that this book isnt for veteran readers. The long, lengthy explanation of the setting seems like its for the new hobbyists, to get the setting down right.

 

If its not, then its just heavy handed. 

[Loesh]

I don't think I need to say what part of this book im most interested in.

[Boldthreat]

Just finished reading the book.  I tried to gather as much information as I could on the Primaris Space Marines:

 

There are at least two squad types we have not seen yet:

 

Aggressors - Gravis clad warriors with shoulder mounted missile launchers and flame gauntlets.  

 

Reivers - Armor that is adapted for stealth.  Death's Head masks and a extra large left pauldron.  Heavy Bolt Pistol and an extra large combat knife with a disruptor field.  Infiltration and close combat specialists.

 

The new vehicle mentioned is the Overlord.  It is described as being similar to the Corvus Blackstars of the Deathwatch.

 

I enjoyed the Orbital Drop of the Inceptors and the follow on Orbital Drop from the Repulsors on Raukus.  Makes me wonder if the new tank will have some kind of deep-strike mechanic.  

 

Still have no idea how a Chapter or Company of Primaris are supposed to be organized.  It seems its all ad-hoc at this point.  

 

It appears Cawl and RG arent necessarily friends.  RG acknowledges Cawl will eventually have to be dealt with.  Cawl wants to use traitor geneseed (as well as the missing legions) to build more primaris marines.  RG denies him but admits it could be inevitable that Cawl will implement this.  Interesting.

 

At least one Primaris Space Wolf chapter is created in the novel.  The Wolfspear.  I really enjoyed the bits that described the Indomitus Crusade and the Primaris forces in it.  There is a lot of potential to insert your own DIY Chapter in here.  

Edited June 4, 2017 by Boldthreat

[Wispy]

i want to know everything about the Wolfspear.

 

Space Wolves successors! So happy right now!

[Kierdale]

100 years after the Gathering Storm?

...what happened to the 13th Black Crusade? It's still going on??

[Vaughn]

Really hoping the Primaris have some form of heavy melee squad.reivers sound great for stealth and the like, but I'm hoping we'll get something for close combat chapters (blood angels, Black Templar, etc)

 

 

Great to hear there will be more variety of specialist Primaris troops

[Withershadow]

100 years after the Gathering Storm?

...what happened to the 13th Black Crusade? It's still going on??

It wasn't convenient to keep Abaddon in any kind of victorious position, so he just left and we shall speak of this no more.

[Augustus]

Lol this book ended things before they really began. Interesting. Guess we'll be waiting for the 14th black crusade(not that I'm complaining)

[Jareddm]

 

100 years after the Gathering Storm?

...what happened to the 13th Black Crusade? It's still going on??

It wasn't convenient to keep Abaddon in any kind of victorious position, so he just left and we shall speak of this no more.

 

The 13th Black Crusade and the Indomitus Crusade are equivalents to the Age of Strife and the Great Crusade.  Periods where horrible/awesome stuff happened and everything was going to hell in a handbasket.  We'll likely get all manner of snippets of stories and lore regarding these two going forward.

[HeritorA]

 

 

Guilliman orders Cawl to construct Necron Pylon-ish devices so that the warp storms can be driven back.

 

I'm soooo tired of Fix-it-all-Cawl...

 

True. And you are not alone in that.

 

100 years after the Gathering Storm?

...what happened to the 13th Black Crusade? It's still going on??

Time jump. New tactic in GW sleeve, lol

AsJareddm

said 'We'll likely get all manner of snippets of stories and lore regarding these two going forward.'  - through a long period of time.

 

I do totally agree with The Psycho

in his opinion for this 'novel'. I better go re-read good old first and second Horus Heresy Trilogies of books and Eisenhorn...

 

So far the start to Primaris, Dark Imperium etc. went exactly by the footsteps of an Age of Sigmar

[Triszin]

on the twitch stream Jervis described the way the Repulsor works. 

 

He said when you think of grav, speeders, tau, eldar stuff they float, someone can run under them and not be hurt and they can fly over things and not damage them.

 

The repulsor doesnt do that, its grav pushes its entire weight, crushing weight down. Grinding everything beneath it. 

 

A brute force overpowering "grav vehicle" that fits right in with the marines, and imperium.

[RikuEru]

on the twitch stream Jervis described the way the Repulsor works.

 

He said when you think of grav, speeders, tau, eldar stuff they float, someone can run under them and not be hurt and they can fly over things and not damage them.

 

The repulsor doesnt do that, its grav pushes its entire weight, crushing weight down. Grinding everything beneath it.

 

A brute force overpowering "grav vehicle" that fits right in with the marines, and imperium.

*Imagines a Repulsor driving over a trench full of Guardsmen*

Ooooouuuuch....

[Marshal Rohr]

 

on the twitch stream Jervis described the way the Repulsor works.

 

He said when you think of grav, speeders, tau, eldar stuff they float, someone can run under them and not be hurt and they can fly over things and not damage them.

 

The repulsor doesnt do that, its grav pushes its entire weight, crushing weight down. Grinding everything beneath it.

 

A brute force overpowering "grav vehicle" that fits right in with the marines, and imperium.

*Imagines a Repulsor driving over a trench full of Guardsmen*

Ooooouuuuch....[/quote

 

It would bottom out. No anti-gravity craft can do a sudden drop like that. Actually, if my understanding of it is correct, it would drop nose first into the trench then flip itself onto its back.

[Biscuittzz]

Primaris marines created for stealth and infiltration you say?

[Scribe]

Primaris marines created for stealth and infiltration you say?

Yeah, creatures even larger than the 500 lbs marines sure make me think 'stealth'

 

-.-

[Apothecary Vaddon]

stealth isn't all about size, the Reivers are noted as having 'eerily silent armor'. If the armor is protected from, at the very least, auditory detection, then that's a good claim on its own towards being 'adapted to stealth work', as it's called out.

Edited June 5, 2017 by Apothecary Vaddon

[Loesh]

I don't usually do this, especially not for things I consider as trite as Primarch vs Primarch battles, especially not for something as unfair as Daemon Primarch vs Primarch. But i'd be lying if I said my inner 'My dad can beat up your dad!' child didn't have a small fangasm over Fulgrims duel with Roboute.

[Scribe]

stealth isn't all about size, the Reivers are noted as having 'eerily silent armor'. If the armor is protected from, at the very least, auditory detection, then that's a good claim on its own towards being 'adapted to stealth work', as it's called out.

 

yeah, not working for me. Stealth Astartes was a non-starter for me anyway really, these are the size of a VW Beetle. :p