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Black Legion Series (ADB)

105K views 599 replies 86 participants last post by  MontytheMighty 
#1 ·
#4 ·
Hmm the Black Legion have never really interested me (Abaddon too except his cameo in the first ADB NL book) because they've been depicted as your generic bad guy legion. A Chaos version of the Ultramarines.
ADB does actually address that in the comments.

ADB said:
It’s hard to reply without saying too much, but where the Ultramarines are “generic” Space Marines (as much as I love them, that’s not an insult – they are 95% of the template for the concept itself, which in turn is one of the things I love most about their implementation), the Black Legion aren’t the generic template for the Chaos Marines. They’re not the “default” Chaos Marines in the same way. Instead, they’re everything about Chaos. The best and worst of it; the best and worst of every single Legion. You can point to an Ultramarine and say “That’s a Space Marine”. You can’t do that with a Black Legionnaire, and say “That’s a Chaos Marine”. Uh, is he a former Son of Horus? A Word Bearer exploring his faith in a new way? A Renegade newly sworn to the Black? A Thousand Son sorcerer? A guy who forgot his original Legion completely? A Khorne Berzerker? There’s no “generic” Black Legionnaire. Former Sons of Horus are as defined and unique as any other Marine in the Legion.

The Black Legion: united in hate.
I share the sentiments here. More CSM is always a great thing, by ADB it's an even greater thing. But a CSM series by ADB that has the potential to become a long-running series, ala Gaunt's Ghosts?? Now that is the best news i've heard since The Creative Assembly's Warhammer RTS game.


LotN
 
#9 ·
Well, the lore says the Emperor's Children steal Horus' body and try to clone him. I assume that means we'll most likely see Lucius for sure. And cloning Horus? That seems to have Fabius all over it.

But really, there isn't much set lore during the period right after the HH. All we know is the BL courted each of the Chaos gods in turn and the other chaos legions attacked them. ADB is free to write anything he wants. Be interesting to see if any of the traitor primarchs/daemon primarchs show up. And dare ADB clear up what happened to Russ/Corax who were both said to have disappeared into the Eye? Highly doubtful...but fun to think about.
 
#11 ·
Yep, here's what we know about him so far.

ADB said:
The main character, at Abaddon's right hand and who will become one of the Black Legion's founders, is Iskandar Khayon - a Thousand Son, though he has many, many, many titles by 999.M41, and hardly anyone knows his real name by then. He was in the Thousand Sons' inner circle of command, and unsuccessfully tried to stop the Rubric.
He definitely sounds interesting.


LotN
 
#13 ·
Oh, this definitely seems interesting, I'm sure it will be great:eek:k:!
 
#17 ·
Well ADB did confirm that Falkus Kibre survived the Heresy in Soul Hunter, he was still leading Abaddon's Terminator elite. If I had to guess i'd say he'll likely be in the Black Legion series.


LotN
 
#20 ·
I am pretty excited for this series. Even more so if it becomes a long running series. It looks like ADB can take things pretty much anywhere he wants to (and over a 10,000 year period, that can be pretty far). Now the wait for The Talon of Horus. This may be the first series I buy everything in hardcover.
 
#24 ·
Apparantely words like "ADB's Gaunt's Ghosts" are being tossed around at BL. So this series could very well be Black Library's new long-running series. And it's not a Guard series or an Imperial Marine series but a Chaos Marine series. Truly great news indeed. :grin:


LotN
 
#27 · (Edited)
Not every important Thousand Son was involved in the prose of A Thousand Sons. No doubt Aaron will justify Iskandar Khayon's XV Legion heritage without any problem. He is very good at dealing with established lore and meshing it seamlessly into his own works.

Besides, Aaron shouldn't restrict himself by using XV Legion characters that were only mentioned/featured in Mcneill's A Thousand Sons. That would be silly. :wink:
 
#29 · (Edited)
:goodpost:

Completely agree with Aaron. That's the main reason why I found Mcneill's massive character/setting overlaps between his 40k series' and one or two of his Heresy novels to be cringe worthy.
 
#31 ·
I am looking forward this series and have no doubts that it will be excellent. However I am slightly concerned that because it will be such a large series it will take up much of Aaron’s writing time to the detriment of other topics that could do with some of the Bowden magic. Personally I find that every aspect of the Warhammer setting he writes about benefits enormously from his work. The Night Lords, World Eaters and Word Bearers for example have all had their legacy/background etc improved extensively because of his writing.

I’d love to see him writing about all the legions, the Necrons, Tau, Dark Elder, Orks and everything else in the setting and even some Warhammer Fantasy. I know we can’t have it all as he’s only one man but hopefully he’ll still be able to cover a lot of things.

Now of course it’s his personal choice what he writes about and I’ll read it regardless because it’s always great, however I still hope that the journey he takes us on can be as varied as possible.
 
#32 ·
ADB Twitter said:
Evacuating Prospero; winged Dark Eldar women; talking to Rubricae; and strangling one of the Emperor's Children. On to Chapter II.
So much to love already. :grin:


LotN
 
#41 ·
So much to love already. :grin:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ADB Twitter
Evacuating Prospero; winged Dark Eldar women; talking to Rubricae; and strangling one of the Emperor's Children. On to Chapter II.
He really does seem to have a thing for strangling.

Curze strangling Lion, Talos strangling loyalists, now some EC being strangled.

Generally, I find EC to be pretty annoying, so I'll probably enjoy this for once
 
#34 ·
I feel as if ADB 'gets' the essence of 40k lore in all its grimdark appeal, whereas so many other authors can't -- or at least not A) to the same extent or B) on a regular and replicable basis. What I've read never fails to provide new and interesting angles to view the setting with, be it the large or small picture, that also mesh with previously established material. Even to this day little things such as, say, the Night Lords' conceit and elitism towards renegades in the Maelstrom stick with me (if I dreamt that moment, my rather enjoyable Spring of 2011 will come crashing down). Why? I don't quite know. This interaction between one of the founding Legions and a much more recent turncoat group feels so natural, but it was something I had never thought about before. And once again:

''This is about the Traitor Legions being forced to live in Hell, in the wake of their primarchs abandoning them and evolving to a higher plane of life; and a new breed of Chaos Marine rising from the rubble.''

To me the Black Legion were the Sons of Horus with a new lick of paint, who gradually assimilated other Astartes. Not, ''a new breed of Chaos Marine'' who, from the base up, have cast aside their previous divisions to form a new fighting machine, hardened by their experiences in the Eye of Terror. I'm not a simpleton, but it's quotes like the above which exercise my brain in different and enjoyable ways, and I feel that's the greatest thing an author working for an already existing and borrowed setting can achieve.

It's things like that which make me want to reread his novels with the same passion I rewatch 80s anime -- another pastime close to my heart. So, yeah, good luck, and I may even brave one of those loathsome hardbacks at the first opportunity.
 
#35 ·
I silently bookmarked this post for my personal, secret feedback file, then decided to post to explain my immense gratitude. I don't have the words to adequately explain how much I appreciate this point of view, because it's exactly what I'm hoping to achieve by writing in the setting. Hell, it's practically our only mandate, even if it's a silent assumption rather than an ironclad law.

So often, you see reviews (thankfully, not too often for my work, or I'd be in tears) that say "This is different to what I expected about Faction X, so it's wrong, and it sucks." But that's just... it's so blithely, snidely against what 40K is about. So much nuance and depth of the setting doesn't necessarily come across in the rulebooks. So much of it is down to personal interpretation and deeper perspective, or stuff that's not always made clear in the short Codex overviews. When people take those little overviews as Everything There Is, rather than the broadest strokes of the brush meant to inspire your own imagination, that way lies madness and misunderstanding.

tl;dr - Thanks. That's one of the coolest, insightful-feeling things anyone's ever said about my work, and I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to say it.

On a related note:

"My Legion bears no number – it was not founded by the Emperor and it never fought at his side. We were born in the centuries after those days of defeat. Numbers were only bestowed upon the Legions of the Great Crusade. We are the Legion of the Long War."
 
#36 ·
You just love to tease us, don't you? That quote alone makes it clear that the BL are not simply Sons with a different color scheme. Btw, now you've got me wondering why did they pick that color and name and just how much symbolism is in there (well the Legion one is made obvious in that quote)?

Generally I'm not a fan of CSM books (I got the word bearer trilogy from a friend and Storm of Iron which was my first 40k anything ever) but I loved the Night Lords trilogy. You know what made me pick up that trilogy? When I saw who wrote it. Since then I've bought every book by ADB because I know it's going to be awesome. Last week I finished Betrayer and it was great (Kharn and Argel Tal were a delight to read). So I can't wait for this series because I know ADB will do some awesome stuff with this and turn our expectations on their heads.

That said, I'm still hoping you'll write another IG book somewhere down the line.
 
#37 · (Edited)
Btw, now you've got me wondering why did they pick that color and name and just how much symbolism is in there (well the Legion one is made obvious in that quote)?
Assuming AD-B goes down the same route as the brief sentence in the codex which answers this question: "Abaddon's first edicts rejected the name of Horus and their ancient Legion title. He ordered his remaining Chaos Space Marines to repaint their armour black in eternal memory of their shame..."

There is such a rich body of material to draw from for this series, that at the very least, the plot will be exciting. The retreat into the Eye; the worship of each Chaos God in turn and the possession of many Sons of Horus; the decimation of the Sons of Horus and their defeat in the inter-legionary wars; the cloning of Horus; the rise of Abaddon and his utter rejection of his father and god; Abaddon's daemonic pacts and acquisition of the gods favour and relics. Etc. The new codex has also put a lot more emphasis on the 13th Black Crusade being Abaddon's ultimate endgame, and the previous 12 being prerequisites. I wonder if that is the path Aaron will take.

All of this has got me in the mood to go re-read Aaron's prologue short story for this series now.
 
#39 ·
Black Library Games Day Anthology 12/13. So no link, sorry.
 
#49 ·
While I certainly welcome the thought of a Black Legion series to give Abaddon and his boys some credibility, given how much of a joke he has become in recent years because of a certain failure meme, I perhaps can't quite muster proper enthusiasm for this book.

I mean, I course I'm happy that the Black Legion are getting a novel, from what I'm hearing from A D-B does not really match up with what frankly drew me into the army in the first place.

To me, the Black Legion was the Sons of Horus, or a proper continuation of them. The XVI Legion if you will. These teasers for the upcoming concept have me cringe in disappointment, no offense intended to the author.
 
#50 ·
Whilst that may have been your interpretation, if you look closely at the lore, that has never actually been the case. The Black Legion was never just the Sons of Horus with a different paint-job and leader; it was an unprecedented amalgamation; a new Legion. For example:

Codex: Chaos Space Marines said:
The Black Legion is a loose coalition built upon the remnants of the ancient Sons of Horus Legion...
 
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