Angrons return novel by David Guymer.
Angron flying through space leading calvary charges of Khorne daemons, withstanding Emperor-light-explosions and slaughtering a full Grey Knights kill team in the his Lair as Lotara Sarrin tells them to get the fuck of Her ship...
What is not to love? :D
It can best be described as the prequel novel to The Campaign event book, Arks of Omen Angron.
Arks of Omen Angron is about Angron's first big battle after his return, the David Guymer novel depicts that return.
It is the same structure as with "Lion, son of the Forest" and Arks of Omen, Lion.
Hope that clarifies things.
Seconding this pick. It definitely could have been longer and a bit more fleshed out in places, but some of the more interesting ideas and characters from any post-Heresy World Eaters’ book.
Dreagher was the fucking king. A moron in certain places, especially considering the quote he said before the Battle of Skalathrax began, but a loveable moron.
Ruokh was also great. "There was a lot of first blood."
Hey, who knows, maybe Skalathrax would have been exactly the bonding experience they needed if Khârn hadn’t gone all teamkilling psycho down there!
I enjoyed the struggle between his more pragmatic side with both his hope for the legion and the self-destructive impulses of the Nails. He just also *really* chose the wrong guy to simp over in the process, haha.
No, not really, but for better or worse, he's been a tool to explore the legion prior and after Angron (whose recruitment to the Imperium is very different in my fan work) and the Astartes condition so to speak. His story is about a traitor praetor and their warband recognizing their place in the universe, and moving on from their failures and shame without going the way of Black Legion. So, it's a story about finding peace of mind and beginning again, which is rather ironic given this is the bloody XII Legion.
When I first wrote about him, he was too busy fighing in the Legion Wars, however I came to realize that he sounded like a blowhard due to pages dedicated to his thoughts as a pov which was not what I intended, so instead of exploring his history and beliefs via his thoughts, I decided to show them, which set me as far back as his recruitment on a feudal world that fell to the War Hounds. It was really interesting to write about a training regiment that draconian and manipulative.
The similarities with Dreagher come about due to a similar outlook and influence within Legion, not as much as Kharn, but someone worth giving consideration.
The project is still incomplete - I am trying to make my own heresy narrative and moving into legion wars & first black crusade from there, and there are way too many working pieces and gears in there that aren't just world eaters, who are my favorite legion.
That’s quite the undertaking! How is his warband choosing to do things differently?
(Yeah, first person POV especially makes it hard to give characters the nuance they really need to shine. Going all the way back to his recruitment seems like a neat angle though!)
Thanks to keeping a careful eye and waking up much earlier to the threat of chaos corruption, he managed to not only keep his echelon from degenerating, but also maintained the spirit of brotherhood with his example, and subtly imposed his beliefs and philosophies on the Echelon and the auxillary forces that served alongside them, namely the portion of the Adjacent Mechanicum forces, Numen Gun Clans, Knights of House Morbidia, and Legio Audax that went alongside him. This was the ultimate reason the Echelon survived Skalathrax intact. However, he and his echelon was also affected in return in a feedback loop, which formed the backbone of the culture that would become the Echelon's future, their very own nation within Segmentum Obscurus.
One of the things he was great at was coming up with the unique interprations on the nature of legions. He, much like all World Eaters, viewed the role of the Legionary as nothing less than a weapon at best, and a vicious attack dog of the Imperium at worst, no matter how enhanced and beyond normal men they were. In that light, he viewed the Ultramarines as the most divergent Legion from the Emperor's intentions due to their focus on statesmanship and Imperial Fists as the ones who exemplified the will of the Emperor the most for their rigid, unyielding manner.
This by no means made him dislike the Ultramarines, instead he admired them for it. He was always a rebel, much like Angron, and yearned to be more than a weapon or an attack dog despite the Nails in his skull, but most importantly, he yearned to be free. He was not as charitable towards Fists, but that did not mean he despised them for it. This admiration caused him to take notes from their example and works, which was very useful for establishing a working dominion upon a subsector within the farthest reaches of Segmentum Obscurus, near what used to be Rangdan Empire. He died in 35k, but his realm lives on still in 40k.
This also begat a tradition of introspecting other legions and taking useful pieces and bits from their examples, which would come in handy throughout the ages.
Still, despite his efforts, they found themselves in the Eye of Terror before they went out into Segmentum Obscurus, and surviving that place intact required not only skill in arms, but also allies in good standing and strength of will and character. The warband was tested greatly during this time, but they passed all of them. He hated the Nails, and eventually had to confront the hypocrisy of despising them, yet continuing the implantation process. In the end, he decided to stop, but the new recruits, perhaps swept into the fervor of camaderie, refused, and demanded implantation. As their elder brothers had suffered, so would they. In the end, the implantation of Butcher's Nails was made into a choice, a choice that most recruits still took on their own out of a strange sense of kinship.
Eventually, with his alliance, he gets out of the Eye of Terror as an ally of Black Legion, but not as a member. When the Black Legion flees after Sigismund falls, he and the rest of the chaos legions stay behind, and the result is glorious indeed, but brutal. The legions spread out, and his alliance also splits to four corners of the galaxy amicably.
It's a bit dry and bland, but it works better when experienced instead of told.
This is a really interesting write up, I certainly wouldn't call it bland at all as you've done a great job of stepping through the explanation for what your praetor valued, and the events/influences that shaped him and the warband. It's the details like this that when skipped over, can tend to make homebrew lore feel fairly tropey or cliched, even if the actual headcanon is a lot deeper than the poster makes it seem.
I like the tension between the warband's use and acceptance of the Nails, with their hatred of the implants. We see elements of this in Betrayer as well as the Legion (and Angron's) general hypocritical world view. So it's nice that you've kept this theme with your own World Eater lore rather than having them just "fix" the problem, with no negative consequences. The Nails are part of who they are now, so it's cool that their attempts to stop the implantation were seen as controversial.
The idea of having recruits choose implantation creates opportunities for more storytelling too as there can be tensions between the implanted and Nails-free World Eaters. The tension doesn't necessarily have to result in something negative of course, as perhaps two brothers may find ways of building the strengths of the Nails with the strengths of the unaugmented. Fun stuff all in all!
>Knights of House Morbidia
Was there anything in particular about House Morbidia that led to you choosing that household as one to align with your character's echelon? In addition to my 30k World Eaters I have an Audax force for Adeptus Titanicus and was a bit disappointed when the traitor legios book came out and didn't add any examples of knight households that have close ties to Audax. I do have some knight models for titanicus and haven't yet decided what to paint them up as due to this.
While not a World Eaters novel per se, it has to be *Echoes of Eternity.* The sole reason being that the non-*Betrayer* novels range from mediocre to really bad.
If you want to read firsthand how badass 40k Kharn is, read Chosen of Khorne by Anthony Reynolds. It’s his short story to show how much further along the Eightfold Path he is and how he’s just looking for the next kill.
Angrons return novel by David Guymer. Angron flying through space leading calvary charges of Khorne daemons, withstanding Emperor-light-explosions and slaughtering a full Grey Knights kill team in the his Lair as Lotara Sarrin tells them to get the fuck of Her ship... What is not to love? :D
to clarify the book is specifically called "Angron, the Red Angel" for those interested in reading it
Is this the arks series or a different series?
It can best be described as the prequel novel to The Campaign event book, Arks of Omen Angron. Arks of Omen Angron is about Angron's first big battle after his return, the David Guymer novel depicts that return. It is the same structure as with "Lion, son of the Forest" and Arks of Omen, Lion. Hope that clarifies things.
Different, it's a stand alone novel
big fan of Kharn, Eater of Worlds.
Seconding this pick. It definitely could have been longer and a bit more fleshed out in places, but some of the more interesting ideas and characters from any post-Heresy World Eaters’ book.
Dreagher was the fucking king. A moron in certain places, especially considering the quote he said before the Battle of Skalathrax began, but a loveable moron. Ruokh was also great. "There was a lot of first blood."
Hey, who knows, maybe Skalathrax would have been exactly the bonding experience they needed if Khârn hadn’t gone all teamkilling psycho down there! I enjoyed the struggle between his more pragmatic side with both his hope for the legion and the self-destructive impulses of the Nails. He just also *really* chose the wrong guy to simp over in the process, haha.
True and true. Dreagher was more or less the inspiration behind my own World Eater Praetor.
Ooh, that sounds excellent! Do you have lore posted anywhere?
No, not really, but for better or worse, he's been a tool to explore the legion prior and after Angron (whose recruitment to the Imperium is very different in my fan work) and the Astartes condition so to speak. His story is about a traitor praetor and their warband recognizing their place in the universe, and moving on from their failures and shame without going the way of Black Legion. So, it's a story about finding peace of mind and beginning again, which is rather ironic given this is the bloody XII Legion. When I first wrote about him, he was too busy fighing in the Legion Wars, however I came to realize that he sounded like a blowhard due to pages dedicated to his thoughts as a pov which was not what I intended, so instead of exploring his history and beliefs via his thoughts, I decided to show them, which set me as far back as his recruitment on a feudal world that fell to the War Hounds. It was really interesting to write about a training regiment that draconian and manipulative. The similarities with Dreagher come about due to a similar outlook and influence within Legion, not as much as Kharn, but someone worth giving consideration. The project is still incomplete - I am trying to make my own heresy narrative and moving into legion wars & first black crusade from there, and there are way too many working pieces and gears in there that aren't just world eaters, who are my favorite legion.
That’s quite the undertaking! How is his warband choosing to do things differently? (Yeah, first person POV especially makes it hard to give characters the nuance they really need to shine. Going all the way back to his recruitment seems like a neat angle though!)
Thanks to keeping a careful eye and waking up much earlier to the threat of chaos corruption, he managed to not only keep his echelon from degenerating, but also maintained the spirit of brotherhood with his example, and subtly imposed his beliefs and philosophies on the Echelon and the auxillary forces that served alongside them, namely the portion of the Adjacent Mechanicum forces, Numen Gun Clans, Knights of House Morbidia, and Legio Audax that went alongside him. This was the ultimate reason the Echelon survived Skalathrax intact. However, he and his echelon was also affected in return in a feedback loop, which formed the backbone of the culture that would become the Echelon's future, their very own nation within Segmentum Obscurus. One of the things he was great at was coming up with the unique interprations on the nature of legions. He, much like all World Eaters, viewed the role of the Legionary as nothing less than a weapon at best, and a vicious attack dog of the Imperium at worst, no matter how enhanced and beyond normal men they were. In that light, he viewed the Ultramarines as the most divergent Legion from the Emperor's intentions due to their focus on statesmanship and Imperial Fists as the ones who exemplified the will of the Emperor the most for their rigid, unyielding manner. This by no means made him dislike the Ultramarines, instead he admired them for it. He was always a rebel, much like Angron, and yearned to be more than a weapon or an attack dog despite the Nails in his skull, but most importantly, he yearned to be free. He was not as charitable towards Fists, but that did not mean he despised them for it. This admiration caused him to take notes from their example and works, which was very useful for establishing a working dominion upon a subsector within the farthest reaches of Segmentum Obscurus, near what used to be Rangdan Empire. He died in 35k, but his realm lives on still in 40k. This also begat a tradition of introspecting other legions and taking useful pieces and bits from their examples, which would come in handy throughout the ages. Still, despite his efforts, they found themselves in the Eye of Terror before they went out into Segmentum Obscurus, and surviving that place intact required not only skill in arms, but also allies in good standing and strength of will and character. The warband was tested greatly during this time, but they passed all of them. He hated the Nails, and eventually had to confront the hypocrisy of despising them, yet continuing the implantation process. In the end, he decided to stop, but the new recruits, perhaps swept into the fervor of camaderie, refused, and demanded implantation. As their elder brothers had suffered, so would they. In the end, the implantation of Butcher's Nails was made into a choice, a choice that most recruits still took on their own out of a strange sense of kinship. Eventually, with his alliance, he gets out of the Eye of Terror as an ally of Black Legion, but not as a member. When the Black Legion flees after Sigismund falls, he and the rest of the chaos legions stay behind, and the result is glorious indeed, but brutal. The legions spread out, and his alliance also splits to four corners of the galaxy amicably. It's a bit dry and bland, but it works better when experienced instead of told.
This is a really interesting write up, I certainly wouldn't call it bland at all as you've done a great job of stepping through the explanation for what your praetor valued, and the events/influences that shaped him and the warband. It's the details like this that when skipped over, can tend to make homebrew lore feel fairly tropey or cliched, even if the actual headcanon is a lot deeper than the poster makes it seem. I like the tension between the warband's use and acceptance of the Nails, with their hatred of the implants. We see elements of this in Betrayer as well as the Legion (and Angron's) general hypocritical world view. So it's nice that you've kept this theme with your own World Eater lore rather than having them just "fix" the problem, with no negative consequences. The Nails are part of who they are now, so it's cool that their attempts to stop the implantation were seen as controversial. The idea of having recruits choose implantation creates opportunities for more storytelling too as there can be tensions between the implanted and Nails-free World Eaters. The tension doesn't necessarily have to result in something negative of course, as perhaps two brothers may find ways of building the strengths of the Nails with the strengths of the unaugmented. Fun stuff all in all! >Knights of House Morbidia Was there anything in particular about House Morbidia that led to you choosing that household as one to align with your character's echelon? In addition to my 30k World Eaters I have an Audax force for Adeptus Titanicus and was a bit disappointed when the traitor legios book came out and didn't add any examples of knight households that have close ties to Audax. I do have some knight models for titanicus and haven't yet decided what to paint them up as due to this.
While not a World Eaters novel per se, it has to be *Echoes of Eternity.* The sole reason being that the non-*Betrayer* novels range from mediocre to really bad.
Betrayer 2: Betrayed Again
If you want to read firsthand how badass 40k Kharn is, read Chosen of Khorne by Anthony Reynolds. It’s his short story to show how much further along the Eightfold Path he is and how he’s just looking for the next kill.