Yapping About Media

Hi, I’m Emrys/Em, 24 years old, she/her. Occasional nsfw, 18+, has a massive thing for elves. Massive custodes and stormcast eternals fan.

[e3n-ethan]

This is a general list I’m making and updating with black library books about specific factions. I’m adding to this while working my way through the entire black library catalogue so if you think something is missing, it’ll be added sooner or later 😊. I just found this a neat way to catalogue stuff and think some people here might also find it interesting and/or benefit from it.

Imperial Guard

13th Legion (novel)

Annihilation Squad (novel)

Armageddon Saint (novel)

Kill Team (novel)

Harlequins

A Deadly Wit (audio play)

Death’s Mercy (audio play)

Soulblight Gravelords

A Dynasty of Monsters (novel)

Thousand Sons

A Thousand Sons (novel)

Battle for the Abyss (novel)

Dark Angels

Fallen Angels (novel)

Call of the Lion (short story)

Descent of Angels (novel)

Luna Wolves / Sons of Horus

False Gods (novel)

Galaxy in Flames (novel)

Horus Rising (novel)

Adeptus Custodes

Blood Games (short story)

Space Wolves

Wolf at the Door (short story)

Battle for the Abyss (novel)

Word Bearers

Scions of the Storm (short story)

Sisters of Silence

The Voice (short story)

Imperium of Mankind

The Last Church (short story)

World Eaters

After Desh’ea (short story)

Battle for the Abyss (novel)

Ultramarines

Battle for the Abyss (novel)

Emperor’s Children

Fulgrim (novel)

Death Guard

Flight of the Eisenstein (novel)

Alpha Legion

Legion (novel)

Adeptus Mechanicus

Mechanicum (novel)

[3161106705]

[e3n-ethan]

Custodes fun fact of the day relates to custodes and friendships.

It’s a common misconception in universe that custodes don’t form close interpersonal relationships and friendships. This is false. They simply tend to stay within their own and the sisters of silence. While some custodes do form friendships with non-custodes and SoS, this is rare and these relationships are never as open and loving as their relationships with fellow custodes.

Custodes and sisters of silence can grow so close, like Diocletian and Oblivion Knight Casryn, that they understand each other and can communicate through micro expressions. Amongst themselves, Custodes form semi-familial bonds and even live in types of family units (blood games, auric gods). There seem to be multiple cases where an older Custodes seems to have almost paternal emotions towards younger ones they trained, like Amon Tauromachian with Aquillon and Venthara, or the entire main cast in the novella Auric Gods who basically went to war solely to save their Custodes-dad. Valdor especially is protective of his men - he’s known to greet them personally after blood games, be there as emotional support when they do a type of duty for the first time, and while he’s generally fine with Russ verbally abusing him, he draws the line very distinctly as soon as Russ tries going after his boys. Russ’ comment in that scene that Valdor never smiles or jokes is also patently false - he just never does so around him. Diocletian has heard him sing, and Samonas has heard him joke around. This just never happens around people Valdor doesn’t cherish as he does his ten thousand, many of whom he himself picked as infants. This protectiveness extends even after their death. Valdor accepted that Alpharius’ presence from him was kept secret and accepted that Alpharius could endanger the emperor to prove a point with no complaint or even distaste - but he can’t accept Alpharius keeping the guardian spear of one of his.

Custodes debate with each other freely, and love and adore each other, just not with the militaristic intense brotherhood the space marines have. Of course, however, sometimes this intensity still exists and I can’t end this without mentioning Achellor and Vychellan, besties until death does them apart.

I also feel it’s important to note that custodes don’t tend to go by their full names around those of their kind, but instead use nicknames (like the absolute cuties they are).

[e3n-ethan]

Custodes fun fact of the day: while Custodes never were the primarchs’ biggest fans, to claim that they straight up hated them and space marines is also incorrect. A lot of Custodes have space marine friends and respect them (funnily enough Aquillon isn’t the only Custodes with a word bearer friend) and even the Custodes seemed to have never considered the primarchs turning against the emperor. They predicted problems and were against their creations, yes, but they never predicted the ultimate betrayal, which was a mistake on their part - and a blind spot in their hyper vigilance that I’ll include in one of my fun facts of the day later on.

Even then, Constantin was willing to implement the blood games even if he hated the man who the idea came from, and gave Russ genuinely well meant advice, called him friend, and joked around with Jaghatai.

The custodes were even the peace makers more often that the primarchs - Valdor refused to argue against Dorn and countermand his (dreadfully idiotic, which Dorn himself realized) orders in magisterium solely because he didn’t want there to be even more division in the imperium. One might argue that Aquillon’s, the oculi imperator,biggest weakness was his continued patience with Lorgar and his unwillingness to perceive hostility against *him* as hostility against the Emperor.

The custodes lost their faith in the primarchs and the space marines as an institution only during the Horus heresy, and one has to wonder whether they sometimes missed their dreams of unity as well.

Return to tomorrow’s fun fact on the day where I’ll reveal more about custodes and friendships!

[e3n-ethan]

Where did the narrative that Cyrene was a prostitute in Monarchia come from? Yes, she’s called a “dumb whore” by an old lady but that’s just… something some people call women if they’re annoyed with them, whether or not the woman in question is a sex worker or not. It’s also explicitly mentioned she’s a virgin.

[e3n-ethan]

Okay I’m dumb she 100% was one

[e3n-ethan]

Seeing as Lorgar just wanted a faith and gods to believe in and would’ve followed the “gods” he found in every way he could no matter of his personal morality - what if Cegorach had appeared before him. Would all the word bearers have gone to clown college?

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

I have asked this before and I really really wish it would've happened.

[e3n-ethan]

Honestly an alternate heresy that happens because the laughing god found it funny would’ve slayed

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

picture a harlequin troop rolling into town and one of them is just. a giant mon'keigh

[e3n-ethan]

None of the harlequins see this as weird. He’s such a good thespian!

[e3n-ethan]

Seeing as Lorgar just wanted a faith and gods to believe in and would’ve followed the “gods” he found in every way he could no matter of his personal morality - what if Cegorach had appeared before him. Would all the word bearers have gone to clown college?

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

I have asked this before and I really really wish it would've happened.

[e3n-ethan]

Honestly an alternate heresy that happens because the laughing god found it funny would’ve slayed

[e3n-ethan]

Seeing as Lorgar just wanted a faith and gods to believe in and would’ve followed the “gods” he found in every way he could no matter of his personal morality - what if Cegorach had appeared before him. Would all the word bearers have gone to clown college?

[e3n-ethan]

Honestly I also like The First Heretic a lot more upon reread just like A Thousand Sons and I think it’s generally because my expectations aren’t completely disappointed again.

I’ve seen so much Lorgar, WB and Argel Tal are such cutie patootie good guys who actually didn’t want all that guyssss and especially Argel Tal is actually so sweeeeeet I was left utterly confounded by how massive assholes they were.

I reread A Thousand Sons as a villain origin story and am now reading The First Heretic the same way and my absolute confusion doesn’t exist anymore while reading with the knowledge that Argel Tal is an atrocious human being - probably worse than 90% of other space marines, which is already a truly shitty level of comparison.

[e3n-ethan]

Something I find really funny is how quickly Aquillon always beats Argel Tal. Like yes, custodes are stronger than space marines but not by that much, normally. For context, they’re generally as much stronger than Astartes as Astartes are to humans, according to their Codex, but with more internal variance because custodes generally have the most internal variance (Valdor fought Alpharius on pretty equal terms in Alpharius’ Primarch novel, even if Alpharius tried to count that as his win bc “Valdor wore armor and I didn’t!!!1!1!1!!2!1!”).

In A Thousand Sons, a sister of silence (unaugmented human) kept in a fight really long against Phosis T’Kar. The Eversor and Koyne, who, tbf, are enhanced, took out a SoH together. Ofc, sometimes Astartes win pretty decisively against custodes as well (The Outcast Dead), and five Astartes can take a custodes (Garro), same way five humans can also sometimes take down an entire squad of space marines (Pandorax, tho tbf those were catachans) because at the end of the day we’re all reliant on the roll of the dice.

But Argel Tal consistently and solely losing against Aquillon in a single stroke means either that Aquillon was particularly gifted (which tbf, he’s Amon Tauromachian’s kid, so maybe), or that Argel Tal is just. Really really bad.

[e3n-ethan]

Where did the narrative that Cyrene was a prostitute in Monarchia come from? Yes, she’s called a “dumb whore” by an old lady but that’s just… something some people call women if they’re annoyed with them, whether or not the woman in question is a sex worker or not. It’s also explicitly mentioned she’s a virgin.

[e3n-ethan]

Something at the end of nemesis I just realized is either genius, or actual fridge brilliance:

Something that annoyed me the entire book is that Valdor seemed kind of… weird. Him following along with Malcador, him letting Malcador give him orders, him not telling the Emperor about something he should’ve known. But in the last scene we learn that the emperor was in the room of assassins the entire time. And Valdor notes at one point that he just “feels” the line of argument he should take against Dorn, which seems to just come to his mind fully formed, which is similar to how the Emperor tends to talk to his custodes.

It’s never explicitly stated in the text that Valdor *didn’t* act on Big E’s explicit orders - the scene where Valdor asked Malcador about who gives the orders just kind of ends abruptly and Valdor just appears and does shit after. Adding to that, I actually feel like he let himself be shadowed by Imperial Fists. There’s no way a couple of Imperial Fists could’ve been inconspicuous enough for Constantin Magic CIA Valdor not to notice them.

Again, this might just be me interpreting a text in hindsight to fit into what was probably only created as custodes lore after, but it’s interesting that it’s still an absolutely valid way of interpreting the text, especially concerning all we learn later about Valdor.

In hindsight it feels like Valdor and Big E very carefully maneuvered around Dorn to get him to accept “amoral” strategies he wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

[dacreaturefeature]

I wonder what it would feel like to lay my head between a space marine giant fucking pectorals while I sleep

[e3n-ethan]

Ever think about how the empire’s royal line got created out of Sigmar being dommed out of his mind

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

Spill the tea NOW

[e3n-ethan]

Karl Franz is mentioned to be Sigmar’s descendant. Sigmar only had two living descendants, twins, Fridleifr and Sigulf.

We know Sigmar never had more kids because he canonically only had sex twice in his life - once with his childhood sweetheart before she was murdered by her brother, the man who’d become the first Everchosen of Chaos, and with Freya, Queen of the Asoborns, a warrior tribe mainly defined by their matrilineal culture and their fearsome war chariots.

Freya bore those twins and got pregnant after a night that left Sigmar more bruised and exhausted than many a battle he fought where he submitted to her total control.

Sigmar never acknowledged the twins as his in life, partially due to loyalty to his deceased fiancée, partially because he wanted all of the Empire to be his children, and partially because it’d be a conflict of laws - he was from the patrilineal Unberogen and claiming the sons would bring their laws in conflict with the matrilineal Asoborns.

But the fact that Karl Franz is mentioned specifically to be his descendant, it means that his line must come from either Fridleifr or Sigulf.

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

extremely based, thank u James workshop

[krakoansam]

I remember really enjoying the Sigmar books by Graham McNeill! I remember the Asoborns fondly 💖

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

Important question: are his Fantasy books as homoerotic as his 40k books?

[krakoansam]

It's been a long time since I read them, but I remember them being very Graham. IIRC Sigmar and his "blood-brothers" are very close 🤭

I really wish I'd asked Graham about the homoeroticism one of the times I met him... I did get copies of Heldenhammer and A Thousand Sons signed though 😁

[e3n-ethan]

Sigmar notes at one point that he loves his closest friends as “husbands and friends”

[krakoansam]

That settles it!

[e3n-ethan]

I think I also have to point out Myrsa, the Knight Eternal of the Teutogens and Kurt Bremen of another fantasy series of his (ambassador chronicles, Kurt is a knight panther who plays a major role in them) who get described as like super hot and fuckable in every scene they’re in 😂

[e3n-ethan]

Ever think about how the empire’s royal line got created out of Sigmar being dommed out of his mind

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

Spill the tea NOW

[e3n-ethan]

Karl Franz is mentioned to be Sigmar’s descendant. Sigmar only had two living descendants, twins, Fridleifr and Sigulf.

We know Sigmar never had more kids because he canonically only had sex twice in his life - once with his childhood sweetheart before she was murdered by her brother, the man who’d become the first Everchosen of Chaos, and with Freya, Queen of the Asoborns, a warrior tribe mainly defined by their matrilineal culture and their fearsome war chariots.

Freya bore those twins and got pregnant after a night that left Sigmar more bruised and exhausted than many a battle he fought where he submitted to her total control.

Sigmar never acknowledged the twins as his in life, partially due to loyalty to his deceased fiancée, partially because he wanted all of the Empire to be his children, and partially because it’d be a conflict of laws - he was from the patrilineal Unberogen and claiming the sons would bring their laws in conflict with the matrilineal Asoborns.

But the fact that Karl Franz is mentioned specifically to be his descendant, it means that his line must come from either Fridleifr or Sigulf.

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

extremely based, thank u James workshop

[krakoansam]

I remember really enjoying the Sigmar books by Graham McNeill! I remember the Asoborns fondly 💖

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

Important question: are his Fantasy books as homoerotic as his 40k books?

[krakoansam]

It's been a long time since I read them, but I remember them being very Graham. IIRC Sigmar and his "blood-brothers" are very close 🤭

I really wish I'd asked Graham about the homoeroticism one of the times I met him... I did get copies of Heldenhammer and A Thousand Sons signed though 😁

[e3n-ethan]

Sigmar notes at one point that he loves his closest friends as “husbands and friends”

[e3n-ethan]

Ever think about how the empire’s royal line got created out of Sigmar being dommed out of his mind

[decentatrtskindamaybe]

no what explain. in detail.

[e3n-ethan]

I did in another reblog!

[e3n-ethan]

Ever think about how the empire’s royal line got created out of Sigmar being dommed out of his mind

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

Spill the tea NOW

[e3n-ethan]

Karl Franz is mentioned to be Sigmar’s descendant. Sigmar only had two living descendants, twins, Fridleifr and Sigulf.

We know Sigmar never had more kids because he canonically only had sex twice in his life - once with his childhood sweetheart before she was murdered by her brother, the man who’d become the first Everchosen of Chaos, and with Freya, Queen of the Asoborns, a warrior tribe mainly defined by their matrilineal culture and their fearsome war chariots.

Freya bore those twins and got pregnant after a night that left Sigmar more bruised and exhausted than many a battle he fought where he submitted to her total control.

Sigmar never acknowledged the twins as his in life, partially due to loyalty to his deceased fiancée, partially because he wanted all of the Empire to be his children, and partially because it’d be a conflict of laws - he was from the patrilineal Unberogen and claiming the sons would bring their laws in conflict with the matrilineal Asoborns.

But the fact that Karl Franz is mentioned specifically to be his descendant, it means that his line must come from either Fridleifr or Sigulf.