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Knight of the Raven

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Knight of the Raven last won the day on September 28 2016

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  1. How much experience I have with falling out of love, losing interest, seeing what I cherish turn into something I despise and all those depressing 'broken pedestal' things is on the wrong side of hilarious, so maybe I'll mention something that'll help you. I won't bore you all with the details, but as I reviewed all the media I've enjoyed in my life before the magic went away—ranging anywhere from merely growing apart as our interests diverge to genuine "what in the world is wrong with you, creative team?" moments—I noticed a common trait. There was always a part of me making it my own. Picking and choosing what I like and keeping that while ignoring (and sometimes straight out discarding) what I didn't enjoy. Leaving me something to go back to, whatever happens; sometimes even something to cling to, as media-makers turn characters I love into the opposite. That may be the fanfiction writer in me talking, and might not work for everyone or come naturally to them. It also implies a very cavalier attitude regarding canon, "the Codex Astartes is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules" style, which probably isn't everyone's cup of tea either. But it does work for me. Another thing that works is just taking a break. Not necessarily because what I disagree with keeps piling up, sometimes I've just spent so much time in the same universe that I grow bored of it. My interest in Warhammer 40,000, for instance, is old enough to drive. Saturation levels are bound to happen. If you have something else to spend your 'WH40K time' on—and I know that's not a given, especially now—and if nothing else works, I suggest taking a break. Clearing your mind and distracting yourself with other things may even give you new, wonderful ideas about your Dark Angels (or World Eaters, or Blood Angels, etc; this post isn't directed at jaxom alone) for when you return. That certainly happened to me, although it was Warhammer 40,000 inspiring my Friendship is Magic creative headspace rather than the other way round! (Probably for the best.) Inspiration can also come from your fellow hobbyists. Or even solace, maybe: finding a storytelling plog covering your favorite faction better than Games Workshop—admittedly a very low bar to pass most of the time—can be a breath of fresh air. It can also get the creative juices flowing... and I can say that it's more enjoyable to spend my evenings crafting the tales I'd always wanted the Salamanders (for example) to live and shine through in my head, even if I never complete them or put anything to paper, than it is remembering everything Games Workshop did wrong just this month. TL;DR: focus only on the good, even if it exists only in the past now, and take a break if you don't find anything good to focus on.
  2. Posted here alongside Showcase: True Scale Astartes because ultimately, it's just a kitbashed Primaris. Who just needs his jump pack swapped to count as an Assault Intercessor, too.
  3. Coincidental timing made this years-old kitbash hilarious in hindsight.
  4. Knight of the Raven

    2020+

  5. I'll never not see an Anomid when I look at Primaris with rebreathers and I find the brazier just doesn't belong with a Salamander despite their obsession with fire, but that's by far my favorite non-generic Primaris model. I'm really not keen on the sloped base. Remove it, and he's aiming down. Works well in a diorama where he's about to execute a traitor marine on his knees, but not as a model on his own.
  6. edit: rereading this post, it's nothing but criticism for criticism's sake. Apologies.
  7. I fished the corresponding (French) White Dwarf out of my bookshelf. October 2003, number 114 with the Winged Lancers/Gryphon Legion of Kislev charging Chaos Marauders* on the cover in France; apparently number 286 with some librarian in pale-blue power armor on the cover in the United Kingdom. "Limited Edition Tau Pathfinder." He's basically a fire warrior without shoulder pads visually, so it's logical he's mistaken for the protagonist of the game that came out the previous month. There is a Kais model, though. Twelve centimeters tall, painted by hand and numbered 1 to 5000. Created by Warp Artefacts, an old division of Games Workshop's BL Merchandizing according to Wikipedia**. The source is the (again, French) White Dwarf just before the one I mentioned at the beginning. September 2003, number 113, the same cover as the actual game and the novel in France; apparently number 285 with the scene where a Nazgûl and his hell hawk tower over Frodo in Osgiliath, except with models rather than a screencap, in the United Kingdom. And there were also rules for Shas'la Vior'la Kais. Fire warrior with two wounds and a personally-modified rail rifle (they incidentally were created by/for the video game), alongside some special rules crafted just for him. Model-wise he's exactly that, a fire warrior converted to wield a rail rifle. Source: December 2003 White Dwarf, number 116 with a (probably edited) screencap of King Elessar leading the forces of Gondor and Rohan on the cover in France; apparently number 288 with the previously mentioned cover of the video game in the United Kingdom. * a picture called Riders of the Dead by Adrian Smith, to be more specific. ** formally introduced in the December 2003 White Dwarf, alongside a notice about Windless Steel Crafts forging nothing less than a genuine copy of Archaon's sword, the Slayer of Kings. Just for information. - About this thread's actual question; I'd like to see the XV22 stealth battlesuit from the Dawn of War franchise made into a model. Not a named character, true, but that remains a commander of the Tau Empire. And either Shas'O Kais or Shas'O Or'es'Ka as far as Dark Crusade and Soulstorm are concerned.
  8. It's not lore per se, but I enjoyed the atmosphere of the 3rd and 4th editions. As mentioned, lore was usually presented as in-universe sources; first-hand accounts, after-the-fact reports, theories and speculations... The Truth Is Not Known, as made increasingly obvious with all information on Guilliman's Codex Astartes coming from a source straight out named the Apocrypha of Skaros, everything from the Index Astartes articles of yore so many people take as gospel being gleaned from 'the few archives that have survived the passage of time' or 'legends passed on since the dawn of time' and sometimes having several contradictory, unprovable theories (like for the Lost Thirteenth Company). Index Astartes: Rogue Sons outright states that knowledge of ancient times has broken down so much, the most powerful and best-informed people in the Imperium consider these legends as canon, precisely because the archives of the Imperium have been lost, rewritten and/or purged so many times that again, The Truth Is Not Known. These editions pulled you in the universe, so to speak. The latest codices may as well be Wikipedia articles. Out of universe, Games Workshop also felt... friendlier, for lack of a better word. Codices had entire sections devoted to interacting with you. How you could plan and play your army better. How you could make cool conversions for your models. How you could make awesome terrain for your battles. And sometimes, even pages showing off the sweet models all the other you's in the world have made. Now, a foreword with nothing but "Yo." in a random novel has more interaction than the gamebooks Games Workshop sells. In some way, watching Games Workshop over the years has felt like watching a friend I've spent years having fun and painting the town with turn into a suit who can't be bothered to even care remembering my name.
  9. So apparently, the supplements devote one page to each company in a chapter. I'm expecting that question to still not get a satisfying answer. Or an answer at all. I'm a little hopeful for Armageddon, though.
  10. I love, love, love that the survivors from the crusade that sundered the Swords of Victory keep tracking them down. It's wonderful to see someone not dismiss a defeated threat as "meh, not my problem anymore." And it takes some serious mettle for an Imperial Guard regiment of all things to personally hunt down chaos space marines led by a daemon prince. About the Sunder themselves, I feel there's a severe disconnect. They come to expect mortals to worship the ground they walk on, without even passing the "Where's my gratitude!?" stage apparently. But that theme vanishes very soon; it evolves into a competition for victory for victory's sake as soon as the next paragraph. Or perhaps for bragging rights, but certainly not for the adulation of the masses, who incidentally are only mentioned again when they throw themselves at the Inquisitor's coalition with their masters' name on their frothing lips, without a word of description about what these same masters thought about that. Then "beauty comes in many forms" gets involved. That fits Slaanesh's themes, but I felt it came out of nowhere. The Sunder are also as obsessed with perfection as can be expected of his/her followers, but I don't really get the feeling of "an excess of martial pride that would make even Slaanesh blush" when I read the article. At least, not after they fall to Chaos. The Swords of Victory certainly have an inflated sense of self-importance, whether about their actual significance in both Imperial history and the grand scheme of things or about the actual importance of something like grace versus brutishness when the only thing that matters regarding space marines is that they prosecute humanity's wars. The Sundering of Lilaethan speaks of the Eldar changing their plans to focus on the biggest threat. I can easily imagine the Swords of Victory's precious little huge ego being nastily bruised if their enemies ignored them to deal with someone else on the same battlefield or in the same warzone, because they were the biggest threat... I'd call it delicious even, and it does give an opportunity for the Sunder to hunt down the guilty chapter/order/knight house/whatever to the ends of the galaxy. About what could have possibly tipped off the Inquisition. The chapter was for all intents and purposes paragons of virtues on par with the most admirable paladins of Dungeons & Dragons, then their personality took a turn so sharp, it's a miracle the Swords of Victories didn't all die from whiplash. And their homeworld turned into a monument to the glorious magnificence that is they, the God-Emperor's gift to the human species. Yeah. Any inquisitor worth their salt will see the writing on the wall from across the galaxy and go "damn, not this again."
  11. It makes sense for Guilliman to task a chapter with bringing the better, happier past back to the current Imperium. He may struggle for the survival of the human species right now, but there's still some idealism in him and he sees farther than most. Once humanity is safe, he'll want them to live, not just survive. The Ashen Blades descending from the Salamanders is a little on the nose, I find. But then again, is there anyone Guilliman could trust better than the sons of Vulkan when it comes to safeguarding the future of mankind no matter the odds? I assume Vulkar was named such when it was annexed into the XVIIIth Legion's realms. What about this planet made the Ashen Blades choose it as their homeworld? Did they feel sentimental about the past? Did they decide that they might as well establish themselves where humans are endlessly threatened? Was there already a fortified outpost brimming with ancient knowledge and powerful relics dating back to the Great Crusade? Was it all of the above and the chapter master saw it as a sign? Or did he simply have an interesting sense of humor and a taste for irony, making him go "Nocturne, 'Brace yourselves, Winter is already there' edition. Yeah, that'll do" when his fleet stumbled upon Vulkar? Moving on to the fire theme. It's always a good thing not to achieve CHIM Kyme, but I feel there's potential here. The Salamanders' views on fire are linked to smithing; melting out the impurities, forging an unbreakable mind in an unbreakable body, crucible of war; all that. Here, it can be shifted to the fire that keeps you warm, keeps you alive, keeps all the horrors of the galaxy away from you and your loved ones. It only takes a candle to light a fire, after all, and then the darkness is no more. (A candle might be a good chapter badge if you follow that route. Adding a book would probably make it too similar to pre-damnation Word Bearers... but "the first idea behind the Ashen Blades were that of a Pre-Lorgar themed Primaris successor," so perhaps it would suit them. It also has the benefit of not looking like the arm of the Statue of Liberty.) I like these hoarders of ancient lore. They're like a Warhammer 40,000 version of the Brotherhood of Steel from the Fallout franchise, with a heavy emphasis on the 'bro' part. I also like Lorebringers as a name for the chapter even though, again, it's thoroughly on the nose. But it matches the 'Hope Bringer' archetype, as named by TVTropes, which space marines in general are supposed to embody and Salamanders in particular do embody with flying colors. And indeed, history on its own isn't included in the Adeptus Mechanicus' 'Knowledge is Power' hoarding trip. And technology isn't part of the Ashen Blades' mission as given to them by Guilliman either.
  12. Betrayer spoilers. As for before the Heresy, that a guy with a murder drug-machine in his brain apparently always managed to restrict itself to minimal effort in the fighting pits is very telling about how seriously he took those fights. (The "apparently" is there for a reason. Betrayer and Praetorian of Dorn are the only Horus Heresy novels I read.)
  13. It's not much of a problem that the chess pieces always remain the same if the entire chessboard is frozen in stasis to begin with. That's not the case anymore, though. But what's the point of tweaking, nudging, manhandling or even outright replacing the chessboard if the chess pieces are still the same? What's at stake if the precious few of them that do get flicked to the side stand back up with a fresh coat of paint and a brand new name two minutes later? I'm partial to characters dying, especially when it prevents them from outstaying their welcome. A subjective spectrum, of course, although I do think many will agree that Ferrus Manus was the opposite in that we didn't even have time to finish saying "hello there!" before the Grimdark Reaper whisked him off stage with his scythe. Killing characters is a minefield, though. Especially in Warhammer 40,000, where all factions are equal but some are more equal than others, and where the Emperor's Light casts long shadows behind the primarchs, which fall dark upon the chapter masters of their bloodlines.
  14. The writing on my wall since Games Workshop changed its tune from a setting to an evolving story about all things Warhammer 40,000 is clear; they're shooting for the stars, specifically two stars known as the DC and Marvel franchises. As such, I expect death to be taken as 'seriously' as there. And that's before my belief that the Design Studio is too enamored with their precious little darlings to do anything bad to them, much less off them for good. A good point was brought up about death, that it could be made into a fitting end to a character's story. But 'bowing out and letting the curtain fall' just isn't in the blood of franchises, from what I've seen. Why, yes, I am talking about you Batman. Ready to outstay your welcome one more century? Of course you are! I consider the Rubicon Primaris a cheeky transition. Thirty years from now, people will remember there were non-Primaris Calgar, Dante and Logan Grimnar kicking around about as much as people remember Tigurius was a half-eldar crime against nature now. That's the rule of Lucius' immortality curse, yes... as written by Slaanesh himself, probably for his own amusement. I wouldn't expect a Chaos God to follow their own rules if doing so deprived them of their favorite toy in the mortal realms, if I were you.
  15. I'm looking forward to the moment an Angel of Redemption rounds a corner to stumble upon a Praetor of Denzarr and they do the 'are you a reflection or an impostor?' dance. The other posters brought up good questions. Dolchiate Remembrancer especially; just what is so important about the Denzarr sector that the crusade fleet not only decides to settle there instead of continuing to sail the stars reclaiming systems, but also to rename themselves after it and to change their objective from the one they were created to achieve in the first place? (Unless you meant that they vowed to "defend it everafter" in addition to still following their High Lords-given directive.) "It's not dead until you see the light die in its eyes."
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