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Death Korps of Krieg HH novel?


TorvaldTheMild

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pretty sure they only turned traitor around m39/40, so far after the heresy. would be neat to see what they were like before they nuked their planet into a rad-waste tho!

Yeah a quick check of Lexicanum confirms this. I’d read about the Krieg civil war regardless of when it took place, though I think you’d need to look at the misery of Krieg present as well to present a proper contrast.

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I feel like the timeline could make it a bit of a nightmare, though. Also "we will do alarming things to our women for the sake of fertility, so that centuries in the future, we will return to the surface and send nameless soldiers to die in the Emperor's name!" would be an... interesting epilogue.

 

Actually, the Death Korps strike me as a difficult faction to portray unless you use external characters for the POV.

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It would be kinda hard to do a novel where the central character has no personality whatsoever. They don't even really have names, just identification numbers, as their whole culture is built around the idea that the individual doesn't matter, that they exist solely to expunge the stain on their worlds honour in the eyes of the Emperor.

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It would be kinda hard to do a novel where the central character has no personality whatsoever. They don't even really have names, just identification numbers, as their whole culture is built around the idea that the individual doesn't matter, that they exist solely to expunge the stain on their worlds honour in the eyes of the Emperor.

Of course they have personality. They are human it’s not possible to be human and have no personality. We are a pretty diverse lot. The mask is just a mask it creates a look of uniformity but underneath they are still men. Even the genetic tinkering won’t eradicate personality. They aren’t robots or animals.

@bluntbalde, the people of kreigs treatment of their women is extremely fitting for the 40k galaxy. The 40k galaxy is unkind, uncaring and throughly nasty. Human rights have been swept away with all progress, there are only chinks of honour and goodness left. That’s what makes good stories the little beams of light in the dark. I’m totally opposed to inserting our 21st century rights and equalities into the 40k galaxy, it’s ridiculous. The whole galaxy is oppressive the empire survives because it oppresses and uses people as disposable commodities. It ain’t supposed to be pretty. Grimdark

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My point is that it doesn't make for much of an engaging or rousing epilogue to a story about the fall and rise of Krieg. It would just be a slog, which might be thematically appropriate but equates to the literary equivalent of drone metal.

 

If my problem was with grimdark, I wouldn't be in the BL subforum.

Edited by bluntblade
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You'd be surprised how much being raised from birth in an ultra-authoritarian, militaristic environment literally designed to shape you into an unthinking cog can change that, Knockagh. Hell, just take a look at the effects some real-world cults have had on their members. The fluff we're given on the DKoK repeatedly tells us that they don't have individual personalities, or are at least all incredibly similar to each other. Even the names given to command elements are only an affectation to allow for easier interaction with external organizations.

 

They're a religious death-cult, the key tenets of which are the utter insignificance of the individual, that their entire purpose in life is to die for the Emperor, beyond even the indoctrination of the usual Imperial bureaucracy.

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In the book Dead Men Walking, they are expected to
throw their special weapons away if they are shot by Gauss weapons in order for them to be used by others, and they somehow actually manage to do this
, having the presence of mind to do that is simultaneously stupidly implausible and the coolest thing I’ve ever read. I’d say them being part of a death cult is putting it lightly. Edited by aa.logan
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My point is that it doesn't make for much of an engaging or rousing epilogue to a story about the fall and rise of Krieg. It would just be a slog, which might be thematically appropriate but equates to the literary equivalent of drone metal.

 

If my problem was with grimdark, I wouldn't be in the BL subforum.

 

And what's wrong with drone metal, hmmmmmmm?

 

Joking aside, no amount of depresso can turn me away, bring on the atrocities, as long as it's apparent that's exactly what they are. Assuming this thread has become about a Daeth Korps origin novel, in the right hands it could be a truly wonderful tragedy.

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Would love a DKoK novel, origin or otherwise. Would need a good author to make it work though, due to their fluff.

 

Why stop there though? Come on BL, where's my regiments of renown series? Once a common subject they now seem rare as hens teeth (Hill's Cadian series excepted).

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My point is that it doesn't make for much of an engaging or rousing epilogue to a story about the fall and rise of Krieg. It would just be a slog, which might be thematically appropriate but equates to the literary equivalent of drone metal.

 

If my problem was with grimdark, I wouldn't be in the BL subforum.

I think the human spirit will always try and break through, in little bits at least. Death cult, years of nurture and indoctrination can’t make people into robots. The stories will always be in the difference.

I think kreig citizens have an immense sense of corporate responsibility or duty which is drummed into them but people can’t be robots....unless they are servitors. And a servitor novel would not be cool.

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Maybe it could do an epic saga, every chapter or so jumping ahead a generation with the personalities of each time period becoming more ground down by conditioning until the last few chapters derail the exploits of the ‘modern’ Death Korps we know and love...
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Would be funny though if their entire History/ culture is basing on once being Horus aligned and be condemned to eternal penalty, thus becoming the Korps we know and love.
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Comissars are sourced from outside Krieg, and are more for mediating between the Kriegers and non-Kriegers than anything. The Commissar main character in what I think was Dead Men Walking notes that every single officer that replaced a deceased one acted in exactly the same way, and their generals were pretty much the same to.

 

The buggers wouldn't even take their assigned shore leave, something the Commissar despairs of, electing to spend tbe whole time training instead.

Edited by Beren
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Yep, Krieg commissars are explicitly noted for having an almost opposite role in Krieg regiments, acting as a restraining force rather than having them to stay and fight.

 

Generals have a bit more personality, but it's noted as being an affectation to allow for easier work alongside other regiments, and they tend to do so via intermediaries. Even their names are just for "external use only". Internally, they still go entirely by their identification number. Their generals are still the exact same fanatical death-cultists as the rest of their military, they just understand that they are called to serve in a different way. They don't miss their family back at home, or want to settle down after the war, etc. They don't really see themselves as people, but as weapons in the war against the Emperors foes.

 

Even the Space Marines have their personal pride and identity, so you couldn't even go with the portrayal of Grimaldus in Helsreach as a starting point.

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