Fluff - The Outcast Dead

[CornishMike]

Hi everyone,

 

Fluff question here...

 

In the early books it is clear that when Magnus astral projects to Terra to warn the Emperor about Horus, noone on earth has any idea.

 

Then, when the Emperor wants to have Magnus brought to Terra for judgement, he contacts Horus to send the wolves.

 

But, in the Outcast Dead, mere hours after Magnus projects to earth, we hear that a cell for Horus has been prepared.  We also hear later in the book that the people of Terra seem to know that three primarchs have joined Horus.

 

So are these versions of events in conflict, or am I missing something?

[Jareddm]

 

So are these versions of events in conflict, or am I missing something?

Yes and yes.

Simply put, McNeil's novels have led to more outright canon conflicts than any other BL author.  The details in The Outcast Dead are indeed different from earlier tellings from large source books like Collected Visions/Visions of Heresy, but are also in conflict with McNeil's earlier Thousand Sons book.

 

The way this has been corrected is in the short story, Wolf Hunt, where it is explained that Magnus's message arrived nearlier two years earlier, but due to the broader psychic protections around the Imperial Palace, the effect of Magnus was contained until the wards finally broke, nearly two years later.  Thus, the turmoil we see in The Outcast Dead are those psychic wards finally breaking, and the rest of Terra feeling Magnus's arrival.

 

The full, historical series of events regarding Magnus's message is detailed in HH7: Inferno, and I personally take that as the official version of what happened.

[Amun Ra]

Wasn't it this that prompted a bigger editorial oversight? Its such an obvious error..

[Tymell]

As Jareddm says, it was a (big) error. They tried to explain it in Wolf Hunt, but I always found that explanation pretty flimsy: the idea of the message being "held up" feels contrived, and it isn't just the impact on Terra that's the problem, it's the fact that Russ was sent out over this years earlier, plus Magnus' knowledge of what he'd done. So apparently they got enough of the message for Terra to know how to respond and Magnus to see the damage he'd done, but the whole thing hadn't made it through.