The Story: The Dark Angels and the Night Lords fought one another to a bloody stalemate during the Thramas Crusade and, though the Lion eventually claimed victory, it left both Legions scattered and under-strength. Far from a spent force, both Legions must consider where their own personal loyalties lie, and what path they will take in the days and months to come.
As I understand it, Master of the First takes place on Caliban through the eyes of Astellan as he clenshes out the loyalist parts of the Dark Angels leaders. But it will be fun to see Sevatar post-Prince of Crows.
Horus Heresy: Master of the First/The Long Night now available!
The Story: The Dark Angels and the Night Lords fought one another to a bloody stalemate during the Thramas Crusade and, though the Lion eventually claimed victory, it left both Legions scattered and under-strength. Far from a spent force, both Legions must consider where their own personal loyalties lie, and what path they will take in the days and months to come.
As I understand it, Master of the First takes place on Caliban through the eyes of Astellan as he clenshes out the loyalist parts of the Dark Angels leaders. But it will be fun to see Sevatar post-Prince of Crows.
I've just downloaded this. I'll provide a detailed Synopsis once I've finished listening to it. Booting up iTunes now. It's ADB, so made an exception to my usual "no audio" rule.
Having already listened to both, i'll do that right now;
The Long Night;
The audio starts off with Sevatar in prison aboard the Invincible Reason. He is dying as a result of the psyker gifts he was born with returning, the audio outright confirms that Sevatar was a psyker but suppressed it out of sheer willpower because he realized that being a psyker is a horrific curse rather than a gift. But you can't just will it away, and now it's return is killing him because his mind cannot handle the influx of power. He is also holding conversations with a ghost named Altani, he thinks she is a girl who died aboard the Invincible Reason at some point, but after a slip in the conversation he realizes that she is actually a living Astropath who has been talking to him because she can sense his pain, and wishes to help. He asks if she knows who and what he is, and she says she does, but she still wants to help him because she finds his pain sad.
Sevatar holds a few conversations with her until the overseer of the Astropathic Choir finds out what Altani is doing and savagely whips her, paralyzing her from the waist down. The Dark Angels prepare to move Sevatar onto another ship, an actual prison-barge, but as the squad escort him Altani uses her powers to immobilize them, including the Dark Angels Librarian in command of the group. Sevatar executes the Librarian and is told by Altani to take the shuttle and hide amongst the fleet, and apparantely the other Night Lords are being similarly escorted to shuttles, but she cannot help them. Sevatar instead asks Altani where she is. He then fights his way to the Choir Chambers and, after a brief moment where he views Altani for the first time and realizes that she is a pre-adolescent girl, finds the overseer that whipped her and brutally garrotes him with his own whip. He then surrenders to the Dark Angels that find him and is returned to his cell.
The audio ends with Altani reaching out to Sevatar again, and Sevatar smiling.
T'was a damn good audio. The voice acting for Altani was brilliant, and brutal in certain scenes, and Sevatar was irreverant and cynical as always, his voice actor gives him a sibilant, almost hissing quality to his voice that makes him sound a lot less ferocious than he actually is, which fits his sociopathic character.
Just want to say, if you don't want your image of Sevatar ruined, don't get the audio, and wait for the Script/prose version. His voice acting is shit, coming across like some really weak OTT disney villain.
The story opens with Sevatar in a Force Field shrouded cell, being awoken by a voice in his head of a young girl. He is all alone once again. When he is brought food, he grins, and tells the captors that it's the best thing he's ever eaten. Despite being kept in the darkness, it's not one he can see through, despite his night vision, but he prefers the cool darkness to the pain of the light when they bring him his nutrient paste.
Despite dreaming of the dead "a hundred times and more", only this girls voice brings him relief from the pain. The dead he dreams of are the dead of the cells. The girls voice is the only one however which lingers when he is alive - and Sevatar thinks it has been a long time since he actually spoke with a ghost, so tries to speak with her. He wonders if she died in this cell and is drawn to him because of his curse. Her name is revealed as Altani [N.B; that name makes a lot of sense in the allegory here, she was a Mongol girl who saved the life of Genghis Khan's son, and as a result was honoured).
She states it feels like Sevatar is dying - and Sevatar doesn't dispute that - but she changes the subject to just saying she wanted to talk because she was lonely. Sevatar himself enjoyed the company - saying it was the only voice he welcomed. A small thought-flashback to when he was a child stated that Sevatar had always heard voices even as a child, being able to sense thoughts and emotions and the voices of the city's crows as they fight over food - but the worst voice was those of the dead when he saw their bodies - the very worst of those being when he saw the bodies of the Night Haunter's victims. Back then, he could here the music of it all, and didn't care for the words, but when the legion came, and sealed it away, it left him in silence.
However, now, despite being sealed away by the Night Lords, he is able to hear the dead speak again. Altani said that Sevatar need not be coy about hiding the talent from her - she knows he has. Questioning why a child should know of that things, she replies that she watches and listens - but states that despite trying to banish the talent, it could not be - and only trying damages brain, heart and soul. Sevatar said he wanted to, because those with the 6th Sense in the legion are hollow and bitter and wretched with melancholy and do not/cannot lead the legion, because their misery leaves them too unreliable and mournful - but Sevatar was aided by the Night Haunter and his viziers to keep it hidden and he hoped that disuse would let it decay into nothing. However, despite recognising that it would kill him, he still is attempting to repress it - stating that there are worse deaths - "you should know" he keeps to himself, as "the dead do not like to be reminded they are dead"; being caught as a ghost between life and death he sees obviously as a fate worse than death.
Altani asks who the Prince of Crows - he asks whether she plucked the name from his head, but that last time they spoke, he moaned it out loud when the pain in his mind became too much. He answers that he is Prince of Crows - "Why are you a prince of birds?", she asks - he answers that it is a Title and joke between him and his brothers, for Crows eat corpses and he makes corpses. Altani turns silent for a few minutes, but Sevatar can feel she is still there in the back of his mind, so calls out. She responds by asking him another question; "Where is [his] homeworld".
"Gone. Dead." He replies. "Nostramo, a lawless and sunless place." He said that it burned not because it was guilty, but because we (who this we is, whether' it's the Night Lords in general, the Night Haunter and his other high command like Sevatar, or the Imperium in general, it's not clear) failed to keep it innocent, and that the moment the legion left Nostramo, it's new laws completely failed - embarrassed at the failure, the Curze turned around and incinerated the world - but that he wasn't alone - the entire legion turned their ship's guns on Nostramo. Sevatar himself saw the Night Haunter give the order (so obviously he was something special to Curze prior to the coming of the Legion to be given so high an appointment to be placed onto the presumed bridge of the Nightfall so soon after elevation to Astartes). Sevatar asks Altani if she has ever seen a world die - the girl replies that she hasn't.
Jago states that it's "Beautiful. Truly, Honestly, Beautiful", and that he'd never seen anything as beautiful as the night he watched Nostamo burn. "Decreation incarnate" (I fucking love that saying, thanks once again ADB), "Unmake the very threads of the universe. Pulling apart a body of rock and fire and life that the galaxy itself had conspired to create. You see the worlds burning blood through the cracks in the breaking tectonic plates." He is silent at this - after voicing his heresy, "his confession given at last", and a traitor among traitors. [N.B my one complaint with this bit is that it's not expressly clear why he is a traitor to the Night Lords about this thing - I guess that it's to do with that like the Night Haunter, the rest of the legion did not find it enjoyable, or were embarrassed about it, while Sevatar enjoyed killing the world].
Altani responds - she states that she does not understand him - Sevatar replying that is because he is the "only simply man in a complicated galaxy. Now the Imperium burns and trillions die in the trenches of Horus' ambition and the fires of the Emperor's hypocrisy. To the abyss with them. I spit on them both." He goes to rant about being called "the Lords of the Night, the nobility in the darkness. That is where they were born to be." He is not a soldier, beholden to a master. "I am Justice. I am Judgement. I am Punishment", but Altani states that that is not what he is, but rather what he wishes he was, and should have been. Sevatar scoffs - but the girl questions who he judges, and who he punishes now [he is imprisoned] - before he can answer, she judges him in return - asking him exactly which side he is on - he replies that he is on nobodies.
She questions why he tries to escape, but now realises why he's stopped escaping. Although Jago laughs, Altani states that she thinks it's because he believes he deserves to be where he is, and this is his judgement and punishment. His justice for the things he has done, accepting that his self imposed death by "brain rotting in the darkness" (by refusing to use his Psychic powers); he is about to say "I am a simple man", but the Dark Angels return.
3 Legionaries bring him his food - he greets them with typical snark and a vile grin to hide his weakness - 2 of them aim their bolters at him - something new - questioning why, the Dark Angels question why they heard voices "has madness come so quickly to the Great Torturer now that he languishes in captivity?"
"So it would seem." [Ace]. They notice his bleeding - Sevatar acts surprised, and thanks them for their concern - the Dark Angel responds that it wasn't concern - the Night Lord stating that he knew, but was imagining that they were of a legion whose Primarch gifted them with manners. [Got to hand it to the guy, he's cool under pressure]. "Can I have my nutrient slime now, Noble Knight? I'm ever so hungry."
Sevatar states that he recognises two of his captors, but the third is new - the Dark Angel deflects the question, and calls Sevatar a traitor - "you keep calling me that. Show some respect, Angel. I outrank you, you know."
"We are watching you, Sevatar"
"Seeing as I'm caged as a prize pet, I cannot see that makes for interesting viewing. Shouldn't you be out there, fighting your little war?"
[I love this guy]
Sevatar starts eating again, but as a beast, more than anything else. Altani returns - and warns him that the Dark Angels fear something is wrong with his mind. He jokes that there are many things wrong with him mind, and requests to be more specific. Altani states that one of the wardens was a Psyker - Sevatar goes cold, and asks how she could know that (with her being dead). She said she could feel him reach Sevatar with his mind, just like she is doing - but it's not that the Dark Angels give him worry, but that she is actively able to contact him. He asks his "Little Ghost" how she died.
She's shocked and horrified that he thinks she is one his dead ghosts he speaks to in his dreams, and reveals that she is actually the Second voice of the choir, and her full name is Altani Shedu [N.B. Shedu is another word for a Lamassu, and Lamassu were Assyrian Protective Spirits]. Sevatar feels the nearest thing to fear, realising that she is an Astropath and able to get into his mind. She thought it was obvious, otherwise how else could she speak to him without the talent. Sevatar laughs at the irony in the question, and pictures her innocent surprise. She states that she is the strongest of the choirm and second voice only because she needs to be older for the first voice of the choir.
He questions why someone as powerful and important (despite her young age) would try and contact an imprisoned enemy, and risk punishment to do so - she replies that it's because she can feel his dreams breaking into their song, disrupting it. The other choirs turned away to guard against the pain in their mind. Altani states that she did not, because she felt that she could help stop his repressed psyker-hood from killing him, even though she would not be able to teach him how to use it properly. Sevatar is angry, believing it now to be a form of torture from the Dark Angels, in an attempt to get him to feel grateful to an ally of his captors.
Altani tells Sevatar to listen to himself - unable to feel gratitude without suspicion - unable to understand why another would help another soul in pain, and that his homeworld has poisoned him. "That is no answer at all" says Sevatar, but Altani persists, saying that it is not to him, but that's because he is a broken soul, and is always selfish, always judging himself, but having lost the right to judge anyone else.
She is upset at her help being rebuffed - and she fades from his mind. Sevatar attempts to use his sealed powers to chase her, but she's gone. Days pass in isolation, and without her voice, the pain returns leaving him drooling. In his fever dreams, he hears the girls agonised screams, in wakefulness he recognises the opening and closing of doors but in incapable of giving them snark let alone eat the food brought for him. Suddenly, she returns - asking if he's still alive. He affirms - but feels the pain reduce in his mind - he replies "Thank you" - the first time in many years.
Altani tells Sevatar that her Overseer (master of the choir and first voice) caught her contacting him, and punished her - she wouldn't tell him because she wanted to get him to escape the Dark Angels, for she sensed that they were coming to take him and his brothers to a prison transport; but he resisted, and used the Psychic Connection and his own powers with ease "that was as if breathing in", he senses her broken body - she was tortured for 7 days and 7 nights, and had her back broken, paralyzing her, but as she's an Astropath in the choir, that's irrelevant to them. Sevatar is angry at the punishment, seeing it more fit for the Techpriests of Mars. He lets the Dark Angels take him - he doesn't intend to fight them, but resolves to face his fate, recognising it's justice.
The Dark Angels come to take him to the prison ship are greeted with the usual snark, "Cousins...", and he asks where they are going - to the prison ship "Remnant of Brotherhood". They let him get his eyesight back, and notices that there are 12 Astartes to escort him. It is revealed his cell was on Invincible Reason, a Gloriana class vessel, and it takes more than an hour to transport him to the ship. Sevatar senses the presence of Altani the astropath draw near once more, and she says "Jago..."
Instantly, the Dark Angels freeze in movement; She warns them that if he gets onto the prison ship, he will die - she will help him, but cannot hold them for long - she is being fought by the Dark Angels Librarian.
"Hello, cousin. Don't struggle, this will only take a moment." Sevatar draws the Librarians' Bolt Pistol, and shoots him in the face. "You didn't have to kill him, Jago." warns Altani. "No but it suited me to do so". Altani says that she can help him escape through ancillary vessels while in orbit over Macragge, but Sevatar instead steals the Dark Angel's weaponry and prepares for a crawl through the service ducts. "Just tell me where you are, Altani. I want to hear your choir sing".
---
Peaceful calming music, there are 20 hermetically sealed gnosis pods, keeping them ignorant of the sound of sirens now washing across the deck of the Astropathic choir, the Astropaths themselves asleep as they attempt to pierce the ruinstorm.
Outside of the pods, there are sounds of screaming and the revving of chainswords - Sevatar ignores them however - they are innocent - "so innocent they may as well not exist" notes the narrator. He pauses at the pod for Altani - despite the danger - in her sleep and despite her blindness, she is able to see what he looks like, stating that he looks tired (despite the scars, or his black eyes). He simply grins. Duty Calls.
He uses the chainsword to cut open one of the pods, a 30 year old wizened man by the name of Nemoc [sic], although he looks 50, and has the health of a 70 year old - unlike normal Astroapths, as Overseer, he is given bionic eyesight, and normally has a whip - reaching down for it, he realises that it is no longer there - but sees instead Sevatar (though he does not know who he is, just a man with completely black eyes) whispering "I have come for you". Nemoc gets garrotted by his own lash, the same one which was used to beat Altani.
It talks about about how much Sevatar knows about how much force it takes to kill a man - but that he chooses to simply cut off his airway and slowly strangle him to death - the Astropath attempts to lash out against the Night Lord, but it's as weak against the Astartes' mind as his thin arms are against his body. Eventually the Overseer dies, but Sevatar doesn't let go "For all his flaws, Sevatar is a thorough soul..."
The sealed doors at the end of the chamber open - followed by a squad of Dark Angel's Knights, surrounding him, and raises their bolters. "I AM JUSTICE" yells Sevatar, breaking the overseers neck. "I AM JUDGEMENT. I AM PUNISHMENT. And... I surrender".
---
We next see him sitting in the blackness once again - but this time calm and cool like he never has been for the last few decades. Now no longer haunted by the dead, but instead the emptiness of the void. Altani sends he voice out again - "Jago, are you still alive?" This time, he doesn't reply. He just smiles.
Edit - mine's a little bit more in-depth, but TLR, read LotN's. Difference of opinion over the VA aside.
I liked Sev's voice acting, i'm sick of Space Marines that sound as if they are chewing gravel or have had shrapnel scar their throat. I like the bionic Space Marines, like the Dark Angels Commander in Master of the First, but so many Space Marines just sound like interchangable deep-voices, Sevatar's more sibilant and soft voice is a welcome change and gives him his own character, like Kharn's Ukranian accent in his audios.
Eh, I just thought that the idea of one of the noted hardest bastards in the Imperium (Was it Sigismund, who thought that it was he, Abaddon, and Jubal who were the most dangerous fighters?), 8 foot tall, killing machine sounding like a snake with tonsillitis a bit immersion breaking.
Compare Jafar to Snake Jafar. The depth of voice of Jafar is much better. Or compare to Rasputin in Anastasia
Eh, I just thought that the idea of one of the noted hardest bastards in the Imperium (Was it Sigismund, who thought that it was he, Abaddon, and Jubal who were the most dangerous fighters?), 8 foot tall, killing machine sounding like a snake with tonsillitis a bit immersion breaking.
The audio-drama Templar. Before fighting Jubal Khan in an honour-duel, Sigismund reflects that he considers the most dangerous duelists in the Astartes to be Jubal, Sevatar, Abaddon and himself.
My mistake, it was Alajos, not Sigismund (although he was mentioned). And it was Savage Weapons (another ADB).
Alajos was many things beside his rank of Ninth Captain: a loyal son; a dutiful knight; a gifted tactician; and a warrior with a head for the detailed logistics of planning and organising a crusade force. He was also one of the finest swordsmen in the First Legion, and had once lasted almost a full minute in a spar with his primarch.
He suspected the number of Legiones Astartes warriors capable of besting him numbered fewer than twenty across all the Legions. Ezekyle Abaddon of the traitorous Sons was one; Jubal Khan of the Scars another; and Templar Sigismund of the Fists definitely another.
As was Sevatar. His name joined the others, coursing through both sides of the Imperial Civil War, cheered by some, cursed by others.
The Audio "Templar" details the duel between Sigismund and Alajos (or maybe Corswain) if you're interested, IIRC.
Edit ninjad. Got to relisten to Templar it seems. I'm not an audio centric learner it seems.
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R, read LotN's. Difference of opinion over the VA aside.
