Ascanius

Nurgle's a guy who loves a fly And is also known as Grandfather Always giving us boils and pox That he grows in his garden, so No, I don't want your power No, I don't want you in my mind and No, I don't wanna know your secrets No, I don't want none of your lies and No, I don't want no gods A god is a thing of the warp and not for me Reflections of our mortal minds in empyreal tides Tainting all we could be (X2) Well, Khorne's promised a cull, but his threats are kinda dull And he knows that he will not get my skull 'Cause that red-hot ass on a throne of dirty brass Ain't in my Emperor's class, so No, I don't want your power No, I don't want you in my mind and No, I don't wanna know your secrets No, I don't want none of your lies and No, I don't want no gods A god is a thing of the warp and not for me Reflections of our mortal minds in empyreal tides Tainting all we could be (X2) If you're flayed alive and you like it Oh, Slaanesh, I'm talking to you If your girl has pink hair and crab claws Oh, Slaanesh, I'm talking to you If you're talking pleasure but you really mean pain Oh, Slaanesh, I'm talking to you Won't take control and eat my soul Oh no, I don't want no . . . No, I don't want no gods A god is a thing of the warp and not for me Reflections of our mortal minds in empyreal tides Tainting all we could be (X2) See, you say you'll magically expand my horizons But you say you're a friend and that means that you lyin' I don't find it surprising if you don't know the way To sway me into serving you and giving you praise So, let me give you nothing to think about Fortify my mind with intentions to keep you out The armour of contempt is all that I really need Your power's nothing set against the imperial creed You keep promising me something spectacular Visions oracular, as if I'll crack for ya With ceramite protection, rejecting your mental connection Can't affect my direction or compel my defection Master fate-spinner, if you want to really know Ask the Emperor imprisoned on the Golden Throne Between the faith we wield and our ships' Geller fields You'll never get our souls No, I don't want no gods A god is a thing of the warp and not for me Reflections of our mortal minds in empyreal tides Tainting all we could be

I'd be shocked if they established that Abaddon has a single second-in-command - not just because that's the point of the Ezekarion as a whole, but because it definitely seems more apt for both Chaos in general and Abaddon in particular to never name an official second and instead encourage various lieutenants to compete for primacy.

My uninformed guess would be that, given Dawn of Fire is more closely tied to the Studio's game narratives than ever before, its success is more likely to lead to a new set of novels associated with the storyline in the next phase of the game's releases, or the next edition, depending on timing. I also think it's a good thing that the novel Indomitus isn't part of Dawn of Fire, even though it does explicitly involve ships of Indomitus Crusade Fleet Quintus. As with the links to Chris Wraight's Vaults of Terra and Watchers of the Throne, I appreciate seeing connections between different stories without everything needing to be braided together in a single rope.

It took a while to get used to his performance, but I do, too. I am amused, however, that someone evidently told him he was pronouncing "Omnissiah" incorrectly a couple of chapters in, but they didn't bother to go back and re-record the earlier lines. On the other hand, although he doesn't distinguish them as I would, I appreciate that he's one of the few British audiobook actors who pronounces "empyreal" and "empyrean" so it differs from "imperial" and "imperium" more than some. I'm never confused when the two words sound identical in other actors' mouths, but it is a bit jarring. Elstob places the emphasis on the first and third syllables - EM-pih-REE-ul - whereas most actors say em-PEE-ree-ul, which is only one often-elided vowel sound different from "imperial". I emphasise the second syllable but keep the short vowel sound - em-PIRR-ee-ul, or ɪɹ in IPA, like "mirror" or "Sirius".

Rhu from Warhammer Community tweeted recently that he's moving from that team to the partworks magazines. Now, maybe that just means finishing off Mortal Realms, but maybe it means that they're going to be producing more in the future . . .

Worst option for the worst worlds: servitor wet nurses. You don't have to ever have been pregnant to induce lactation, so it's not difficult to imagine some worlds setting up infant creches with servitors who feed them on a set rotation, 24 hours a day, forever.

I remain hopeful that the rumours about a retooling of Forge World come true, and that one of its new purposes is producing exactly the kind of specific customisation bits and pieces that people really want, but not enough people really want to make it viable to produce them in plastic. Robed Dark Angel Primaris torsos and heads, extra bionic bits for Iron Hands and veterans, chapter-specific shoulderpads for some of the smaller but still popular chapters (i.e. at least those that they included in the Deathwatch kit), et cetera . . . It could be like the glory days of the Horus Heresy upgrade kits, only in support of the main product range and thus presumably more viable over the long term.

Fails to include a Deathwing Terminator because the Space Wolf Terminator objected.

It's funny that we're on different schedules! Until this month I hadn't been charged since November 22 and hadn't received a delivery since November 28, but I got charged on February 21 and received a delivery on February 4. However, that delivery was for issues 20-23, which is a delivery behind your own schedule. I had a weird issue where they sent me an email confirming a cancellation I hadn't requested, so I had to ring them to sort that out - maybe that's why I'm behind. Unfortunately that November delivery was also mispacked - instead of Lord Felthius and the Tainted Cohort, I received one copy of the large sprue and a second copy of half of that sprue, which looks like it got snapped in half somewhere and mistaken for the small sprue in packing. Email them and they'll resend the issue. You just got yourself a full squad of Blightlords my dude. Yeah, it's all good, I'm actually painting them today! There sure are a lot of maggots on Felthius's cloak . . .

It's funny that we're on different schedules! Until this month I hadn't been charged since November 22 and hadn't received a delivery since November 28, but I got charged on February 21 and received a delivery on February 4. However, that delivery was for issues 20-23, which is a delivery behind your own schedule. I had a weird issue where they sent me an email confirming a cancellation I hadn't requested, so I had to ring them to sort that out - maybe that's why I'm behind. Unfortunately that November delivery was also mispacked - instead of Lord Felthius and the Tainted Cohort, I received one copy of the large sprue and a second copy of half of that sprue, which looks like it got snapped in half somewhere and mistaken for the small sprue in packing.

Today in the hobby I finished off these Sicarian Ruststalkers: (click through to embiggen)

I think I agree with you on this point. Haley doesn't write with the same flourishes or sophistication as others, but that he's able to write to a consistently high standard at the pace he does is certainly impressive. Where he drops out of the top of the pyramid* for me is that, perhaps because he's writing at such a pace and is often asked to write novels versus pitching ideas to Black Library (as it seems Wraight did with his two Terra-focused series and French did with the Horusian Wars), his ideas also tend to be a bit more straightforward, more of an exploration of existing lore about the setting than contributing something new** to it. I have enjoyed every one of his books that I've read, though, so this is more me saying "He can only get better from here" than anything else. * Like the food pyramid, every level as you descend gets wider and some things within tiers are put on top of the others. The first tier is Dan Abnett, the second tier is Aaron Dembski-Bowden just above John French and Chris Wraight, the third tier is Guy Haley and Robbie MacNiven just above, say, McNeill and Guymer, et cetera. ** Not sure if this really counts as "contributing something new", but Dante made me interested in the Blood Angels in a way that I wouldn't have thought possible, so that's something!

That's rough! Everything in my parcel was intact, but it seemed like either the bag had gotten a bit squished in transit or someone had been overzealous in closing it up, because the magazines themselves were a little bent. It's quite funny that the clippers are an entirely different item from the ones they sell in stores, but as far as I can tell the mouldline remover is literally the same piece of metal that forms the head of the one they sell, just without the handle.

I've received my first delivery and I can confirm it was the first three issues.

Yeah, I'm not saying he writes the most exciting or intriguing books (well, I am, but that wasn't my point), but Abnett's command of prose is unequalled in the BL stable. I'm not saying he could never be topped, either, but the way he writes is so good that I don't see anyone topping him for a while.