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Darkness in the Blood - Spoilers incoming


RikuEru

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On legionary immortality l’m prepared to give the benefit of the doubt. They were designed to be immortal all being well - In the case of Sisigmund old battle wounds might have been enough to slow him down. In other cases there might have been gene seed flaws - either the signs of the degeneration that means Marines are no longer immortal or implantation errors (HH era recruitment is said to be a lot wider and more lax than later after all)

 

In the book it states Sigismund has aged, he's an Old Templar King sat upon a throne of bronze or something, I cannot remember it off the top of my head but it made it clear he was slower because of his actual age not his wounds over time.

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On legionary immortality l’m prepared to give the benefit of the doubt. They were designed to be immortal all being well - In the case of Sisigmund old battle wounds might have been enough to slow him down. In other cases there might have been gene seed flaws - either the signs of the degeneration that means Marines are no longer immortal or implantation errors (HH era recruitment is said to be a lot wider and more lax than later after all)

 

In the book it states Sigismund has aged, he's an Old Templar King sat upon a throne of bronze or something, I cannot remember it off the top of my head but it made it clear he was slower because of his actual age not his wounds over time.

 

 

Pretty much this. Also Dantioch aged 1500 years and was pretty diminished. Also Iacton was old and he was also not considered at full combat capability either. Old legionaries are like Rocky, old but still somewhat formidable with their exp + wisdom. Must of had a chat with Wright on how to do rectons.... 

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About everyone who complains about or is concerned with this:
 

 


All the golden/ black angel stuff sounds intriguing, especially when "Sanguinius" shows up. I can already hear the fanboys crying "He's back! He will be back!"
 

 
I love Sang, but he has to remain dead, if he was to return it would destroy his entire character and the HH story, also TUESDAY VIDEO TITLE, 'MR WING IS BACK' :teehee:
 

 

 
Did you actually read the linked reddit post with the spoilers? It also says:
 

 Suddenly the angels stop fighting and they stand besides Sanguinius looking down on Mehpiston. Mephiston's soul is dragged back into to the waking world but before he fades, he apologies to his Primarch. Sanguinius smiles sorrowfully and tells him that he isn't Sanguinius. Sanguinius is dead.

 
So there's nothing to worry about I'd say. It's just a manifestation in the warp like we have seen a few times before already.

 

 

 

 

 

I dont think its going to be as blatant as Papa Sang coming back from the dead.... my fan theory is Mephiston may evolve (inb4 pokemon memes)  into another aspect of the Angel, similar to 'The Red Angel' or like 'Imperious, Avatar of the Astronomican' in AD-Bs Black Legion novel.

 

The Emperor has Daemons too :happy.:

 

 

 

The spoilers made it pretty clear that Mephiston is the avatar of the dark angel like Sanguinor is the avatar of the bright angel, with the difference that the Sanguinor has given himself completely to it so he basically became the bright angel while Mephiston is 'just' channeling it because if he would give in to it he'd become an entire different being that does the Blood Angel more harm than most foes ever could.

Edited by sfPanzer
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So somebody channelling some power from the warp makes things JoJo's Bizarre Adventure now? Characters becoming (temporary) avatars of higher powers isn't something new for 40k (let alone Warhammer Fantasy and GW in general). I can hardly see Mephiston making JoJo poses and screaming Wrrrryyyyy after sucking some blood, if that's what you're expecting.

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I can hardly see Mephiston making JoJo poses and screaming Wrrrryyyyy after sucking some blood, if that's what you're expecting.

 

Now BL, if you're listening, we'd hardly object to a non-canon crossover.

 

 

Man, after sleeping on it, I'm seriously tempted to buy the new miniature and turning him into Dio.

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So somebody channelling some power from the warp makes things JoJo's Bizarre Adventure now? Characters becoming (temporary) avatars of higher powers isn't something new for 40k (let alone Warhammer Fantasy and GW in general). I can hardly see Mephiston making JoJo poses and screaming Wrrrryyyyy after sucking some blood, if that's what you're expecting.

You say that like MegaVolt87 posted about MephisDio as if it were a bad thing. I, for one, have wholeheartedly accepted MephisDio as canon.

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You're on the right track, as the character Dio was in fact named after the lead of the band

 

The author of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure stuffed his manga series with all manner of pop culture references, most notably band names and songs; it got so obvious, English localizations renamed some of them in subtitles (even if you heard the correct name spoken) to avoid copyright-related issues. If a band was popular around the 80s and 90s, you'll probably find a reference somewhere.

 

That being said, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a manga series that's been running since the 80s, and still publishing its 8th part. This decade we finally got a decent animated version, which brought in plenty of new fans and attention - the anime finished up part 5 recently. It's a wildly over the top, fun romp about people battling each other in whacky ways, supported by supernatural powers, which one scene in the book here seems to be close to, as Mephiston is manifesting a "stand" formed like a shadowy angel during his rampage. In JoJo Part 3 and onwards, Stands are commonplace and usually fight each other on a meta level while their holders are engaged.

 

If you're into whacky battle stuff with a dose of humor and rather creative art, I'd recommend giving it a try, the entire series so far is legally streamable on Crunchyroll, and best binged anyway.

 

I wonder how much Psychic Awakening 3 will spoil for the novel at this point. It's clearly set after its end, and will probably only give cursory flashbacks to justify the new Mephiston model. But how much of the details will it tackle, and will it answer further questions posed by the novel already, way before the regular audience will be able to even read the questions themselves?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’ve read it!

 

As ever, preamble and context. I really enjoyed Guy’s previous Blood Angels books, Devastation of Baal especially- but I listened to them, rather than read them. I’m generally a fan of Guy’s other writing too; he has written some of my favourite BL fiction, so I’m afraid that my take on this book is going to be another positive one.

 

I bought the super fancy version at the Weekender, giddy after the seminar which, unsurprisingly, sold the book to me where I was wavering before. Generally, I’m happy that I did, since I got to read it early, and the box is full of lovely tat. The content of the book is pretty good too. The box is really nice and sits happily on my bookshelf alongside my overpriced LEs. Seeing it on everyone’s tote bag at the Weekender almost certainly planted the seed, but I’ve convinced myself that Sanguinius’ death mask is iconic enough to want it on a fancy notebook (which I could conceivably use, the paper is of above average quality and it feels nice and solid) and a badge I *might* be brave enough to wear in public; the other items are an ‘interesting’ mix, 3 coins (5/6 faces of which have pleasing designs, the vampirish one can do one...), a sandtimer which feels cheaper than it looks, somewhat disappointingly and some decent dice- no idea if these are the same that usually accompany a Codex release or not. The book itself is *gorgeous*; I adore the mirrored portrait of Dante and Mephiston they use for a cover, yes there is the symbolism, but also it’s very pretty and interesting to see more realistically proportioned Marines. It’s a very nice gloss black, which is a magnet for grease and fingerprints, which isn’t really ideal for a item as frequently handled as a book...

 

Right, the content. As has been mentioned, this is a direct continuation from Devastation of Baal, looking at the rebuilding efforts alongside some apt and illustrative flashbacks from Dante’s early career. There’s also a plot line exploring mortal frailties and the underlying humanity of the Astartes. Of all that I’ve read recently it’s perhaps most similar to The Great Work, which isn’t really that surprising. They both do excellent work in fleshing out the changes to the setting, but maybe less well at exploring characters. By the end of this book, my understanding of what makes Dante tick is no more advanced than it was after the previous two. He’s noble, old and conflicted about the hard choices he has to make. Mephiston continues to brood and goes on a metaphysical journey, which is my least favourite to read about but not as bad as I feared it might be, certainly not as long in term of pages. We don’t see that much of other members of the Chapter, and from the mortal cast we get GoT’s Varys but in spaaaace and a more interesting pair of navy officers. As seems to be the case a lot at the moment, the mortal thread is possibly the most interesting to me in terms of character for all that it lacks the scope of those focusing on Dante and co.

 

In terms of the spoilers, they’re, as far as I can recall, pretty much accurate in terms of content, but as with everything, context matters the most. For example, I read any interpretation of Tyranid motivation as coming wholly from Dante rather than Guy voice-of-God-Emperoring it. Dante can think they were spiteful, without them actually being so. Additionally, their ‘spite’ in

destroying the pretty pictures and statues of Baal
is further justified in the book positing that this is done to sap morale as much as anything else. Sanguinius is absolutely dead, sfPanzer is correct. It’s also worth considering before piling in to Guy about how awful *his* changes to the lore are (which I don’t think they are, FWIW), he’s stressed both in the foreword and at the Weekender how closely he’s worked with the design studio on this and his more recent books; the decisions made won’t just be his alone. The discussion between Dante and Qvo is a highlight, both in terms of lore revelation and the contrast is shows between their two institutions and subsequently the issues Dante is facing as Regent.

 

Given the choice, I’d have listened to this as I did with the previous parts of the trilogy to maintain some continuity, but I welcome the couple of days I have left where very few people will be able to disagree with me about the book as they haven’t read it yet. It pales in comparison to some of BL’s more recent output, but that’s because the likes of Honourbound have been stellar rather than any major shortcoming of this.

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While i still wait for the standart Hardback version to purchase the Novel, i looked at the spoilers, and for a time i was wondering about how the, 

Angel of light and the Angel of Darkness, plus the Red Angel from Horus Heresy

Could make sense in the Lore.

 

While it is just my interpretation of things, it is always important in the 40K Lore to remember that all Warp-related things are by nature related to the viewer point of view.

Plus considering the other spoiler about the nature of the warp,

The warp being neither good or bad, just seemingly "corrupted", which can also be an interpretation rather than an absolute truth

It can be assumed that the Blood Angels point of view of the first spoiler may not be the truth, nor can it be false, it may not even be consistent/permanent.

 

The nature of the Warp is a matter of concepts rather than absolute.

 

For example, Khorne represent the concept of War, but in its dark form, mindless, unending, absolute, uncarring, tyrannical, fearfull and of dark glory.

Yet, on the other side of the coin, the concept of War also carry the concept of honor, glory, righteousness, protection, fearlessness. Concepts that can be tied to the Sanguinor or other warp entities related to, as said in the first spoilers, and they can even be "Shards" of a main belief, where every entity can be the crystalisation of one aspect of a greater Concept.

This way, the Dark Angel, may not be "Evil", it is just the representation of the brutality of war, one aspect of  the Angelic representation of the Blood Angels.

 

There is no good without evil, and even the interpretation of this fact is simplist. For example, a servant of Chaos, a true devote of Khorne, killing peoples is an act of faith, something he consider to be right and "Good", he make what pleases his god and so fulfill his purpose in life. While for a Blood Angel the notion of war is an act of necessity, it exist to fight those who wage war. This way, it could be say that Blood Angels purpose in life is to limit/control/stop the madness of war....by waging war, fire against fire, and while it may not be the same fire, it remain a fire. See the logic ?^^.

 

For what is worth, i will conclude that concept are a matter of point of view and like all things are open to interpretations.

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I’ve read it!

 

As ever, preamble and context. I really enjoyed Guy’s previous Blood Angels books, Devastation of Baal especially- but I listened to them, rather than read them. I’m generally a fan of Guy’s other writing too; he has written some of my favourite BL fiction, so I’m afraid that my take on this book is going to be another positive one.

 

 

From what I have read so far, it seems not quite so impressive an offering as Devastation of Baal or Dante.

Would you agree with that?

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I’ve read it!

As ever, preamble and context. I really enjoyed Guy’s previous Blood Angels books, Devastation of Baal especially- but I listened to them, rather than read them. I’m generally a fan of Guy’s other writing too; he has written some of my favourite BL fiction, so I’m afraid that my take on this book is going to be another positive one.

 

 

From what I have read so far, it seems not quite so impressive an offering as Devastation of Baal or Dante.

Would you agree with that?

I really, really liked Devastation of Baal. I really liked Dante. It’s closer to the latter than the former.

 

There’s good stuff in it, but it doesn’t quite hit the heights that a lot of recent stuff has.

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Surprised the limited edition of this hasnt sold out yet. Plenty of solid bling in it for once.

 

Well, at 120 €, it does not really surprise me. It look like the price is too much for many people, which once again is not really surprising.

 

From my point of view, the bling, while solid are not what i await from a book^^. Most notably, i see no interest in the "Blood Angels journal" (which i would consider too precious to even write on it^^) and the Sand timer. As for the rest of the bling, only the dice and coins are really appealing, and they would have fair better if released separately.

 

As for the Book itself, a price between 55 € (the Dante limited edition price if i remember correctly) and 70 € would have been better. Personnaly, 55 € or even 60 would have been fine for me given the apparent quality + , of the limited edition. But at 120 €, i'm not that rich^^.

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Has anyone else found an issue with the recent release of darkness in the blood and Mephiston: city of light?. I don’t own darkness in the blood because it’s not on wide scale release, I bought Mephiston: city of light to read but I'm only a few pages in but it’s referenced things from darkness in the blood three times already.

I just can’t understand why you release them in the wrong order, I don’t want to read this book because it’s set after darkness in the blood and it’s very frustrating.

 

Anyone know when darkness in the blood will go on full sale? Or have an educated guess based on usual limited edition- general sale release date?

 

Thanks

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I wouldn't be surprised if there had been production issues with Darkness in the Blood's limited edition, seeing how early in the year it was announced/teased, and then they pushed it back for the holiday season / the Weekender since it lined up better. Speculation, obviously, but it may explain a few things.

 

Production issues might also include the Blood of Baal Psychic Awakening book, which obviously teased Mephiston for quite a while now, before finally being released this or last weekend (I lost track). Of course, GW might now expect people to familiarize themselves with Blood of Baal somehow to get them up to speed.

 

Chances are, we'll be waiting up to 6 months for Darkness in the Blood to get its regular hardback release. Last year's Weekender/Holiday Bling Box only now got its paperback on preorder, too.

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