I just wanna talk about stuff I like

[luci-yabs]

The Fall - Hedonism? Or (per Master of Mankind) Psychic Awakening?! (Huh?)

It took me a long while to realize this but the idea has sat in my head and I finally found the words for expressing it.

Lore has stated, for a very long time, that the Aeldari have always been psychic, were made as such by the Old Ones, and always been so MORE than any other species.

As a result, the fall of their Empire has always been ascribed to an excess of *excess*, not simply because they were psychic. The dramatic NATURE of the fall, tearing a hole into the Warp and such, that has been ascribed to the fact that so powerful a psychic species experienced a 'fall'.

This is canon which has been affirmed and reaffirmed again and again and again.

But, very strangely, in Master of Mankind the Emperor directly states the Eldar fell when they were at the same juncture as humanity was at the start of the Long Night, that a mass psychic awakening within the species led to their downfall.

This is baffling out of line with the usual line and it is easy to gloss over because its being used for the obvious parallel: "Look Ra, we are were the Eldar were, so we either experience a fall like them or don't" the problem is to get to this parallel the Emperor says something which is at odds with what we've been told before, that the catalyst for the Fall wasn't a mass psychic awakening but, rather, the mass psychic conglomeration of excess caused in the warp by millennia of a massively psychic species indulging in extremes.

It is a very weird bit, and I get kinda why the Emps has to reframe it because he wants to directly cast a psychic awakening itself as inherently dangerous, so he has to tell Ra a psychic awakening is what did the Aeldari in, not that they were always a psychically awakened species who lived as such for millennia and were done in by their cult of excess, rather than simply because they were psychic.

[luci-yabs]

Things I have recently caught up on

Been doing a lot of reading. Some stuff that stuck:

Leagues of Votann, nice to see, surprised GW lists them as a Xenos army but also in their lore consistently emphasizes they are definitely abhuman. Enjoy having another faction which uses intelligent machines, them and the T'au have much to bond over (as they do in the lore).

I really don't like that the big plot arc which currently exists is about finding 'the Key' to unlock 'the Gate' to 'the Weapon'. I feel as if some more effort could have been put into it than that.

I like Vashtorr, more non-Astartes Chaos is always welcome, but I just REALLY wish we could get Xenos Daemon Princes at last.

The Fourth Tyrannic War is underwhelming. Just a constant string of 'the Tyranid were advancing then lost...but there's still threats because there is ANOTHER tendril now,' which has no sense of stakes because each tendril just ends up losing.

I appreciate that the new Norn-types were showcased as being strong, but man it is underwhelming to have their very first appearance in lore be three of them being sent on three missions of which only one succeeds (the of course least important one). Its part for the course, Magnus reappeared to be defeated on Fenris, Mortarion reappeared to lose the Plague Wars and Angron had a humiliating TWO defeats since his reappearance already, on Armageddon and to the Lion, but still just really disappointing. You'd think at least to push the new miniatures they could have given them SOME significant victories that actually LED to victory for the Tyranids, not just more defeats.

In the remaining Dawn of Fire books I really find it funny Roboute keeps bringing up the idea that he thinks the Eldar want him to stay in the armor for some ulterior motive and yet none exists whatsoever. Cawl built the armour, Eldrad doesn't give a shit, Yvraine doesn't know anything about it, its just so funny this is ascribed as like a reasonable suspicion and then no Eldar even seems to realize that apparently they have something to do with the armour, since Sylandri was the only person involed.

Speaking of that is an absence I feel. If there was anyone I THOUGHT would be a special character by now it is Sylandri. She was so important in the 8th Edition and Gathering Storm but since then she has simply ceased to exist. I guess because GW decided the Ynnari don't matter now that they've served their purpose she was simply forgotten.

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Ship pairing that you think would upset people the most? I’m going with Celestine and Greyfax fighting over a man. It would be such a terrible choice and people would lose their minds

See, I don’t really follow the shipping side of the fandom, so I don’t know what the uh… “hot button issues” are. That said, I think I would also dislike that just for the pure character assassination.

I personally think Illiyan Nastase developing a crush on Guilliman would complete the utterly repugnant and non-Aeldari insult of a farce that is his character and send every Aeldari fan into some kind of blood frenzy. He’s barely two monologues away from describing the mighty upward curve of the primarch’s shaft and how it’s a metaphor for the burgeoning supremacy of humankind anyway.

[luci-yabs]

The 'idea' for Illiyan was fine...at the start. Of course, because the Ynnari mean nothing and Eldrad was wrong about everything his existence has become more and more pointless. The alliance had to shift from Ynnari-Imperium (as seen in the Hand of Darkness and associated audio dramas) to, specifically, just an Eldrad-Imperium alliance. To rub salt in the wound in that same chapter Illiyan waxes about how amazing a seer Eldrad is, which just makes it all the more painful that yet again Eldrad's every prophecy proves a failure. He has literally had to go back to Ulthwe and beg their fucking forgiveness because his entire Ynnead project has been deemed a total failure by GW. FUCK. If ever more confirmation was needed (it wasn't) that all the Ynnari were was an excuse to do more for the Imperium.

But I truly, truly, hate this phenomenon of 'pet' xenos that occurs. Where to allow xenos to be in 40k stories and narratives (from novels to games) it is always important that in some way, in some manner, they function to assuage the subtextual supremacy of humanity in the setting.

Even in the tabletop it is made clear that when Xenos and Human partnerships exist the Human counts as the dominant and determining force of narrative. When introduced Ephrael Stern and Kyganil could fight alongside Imperium factions but not Xenos factions, because whilst it was okay to have Kyganil serve the Imperium to ever imply Ephrael might be fighting for Xenos and not the Imperium was unacceptable.

Truly, Aeldari and T'au recieve the worst of it, of course, as they are the factions most likely to ally with the Imperium in certain situations and so are used as a mouthpiece to exalt the subtext that humanity truly is supreme consistently. Guilliman himself, during the Plague War series, simply thinks that the Aeldari are, ultimately, just bitter losers and that humanity has surpassed them and will not make their same mistakes. Then Illiyan in cases like this just confirms it.

The worst of it also comes from just such a disappointing piece of fiction, a novel called the Silent King where the Silent King is not even a character of note or mention, barely featured, flattened out into a generic cartoon overlord ala the Beasts from the Beast Arises series. Finally, a Xenos who, more than any other, should truly be able to make Roboute actually have to confront the idea that there are LIMITS to his and the Emperor's agency, a being vastly older than them, vastly more knowledgeable of all things, far more widely traveled and who had fought in a war beyond their comprehension, and we get none of it. Worse its ending plays with one of my least favourite of all tropes, the idea that even when the hero was gonna lose it all was fine because 'everyone always acts how he expects them too so actually he saw it all coming', as if the Silent King of all people should not have been able to simply defy expectations of beings who simply had no frame of reference for who, or what, he truly was.

This demeaning of these cosmic threats strips any ounce of the idea that the setting is meant to be 'dark' or 'grim'. The Chaos Gods are personified as beings so scared of the Emperor that when Roboute walks in the Garden of Nurgle the collective force of entropy is likened to a scared hermit unwilling to come out of their house, hiding within it. The Hive Mind has been so utterly ruined by the need to depict as being so absolutely humiliated by the Blood Angels that it literally takes it personally and now, like a child, impotently vents its anger at them in a baby-ish display. To say nothing of the fate Orks come the Beast Arises series, a series which recasts the species who fear no death and have overcome the great quandaries of existence to simply wallow in a hedonistic existence of their own passions as traumatized children, so utterly scarred by the destruction of one (of MILLIONS) of their empires that even a thousand years later the entire species apparently had PTSD from it.

I honestly lost track there I am sorry I just feel that vent had been building up for a while.

But yeah, as a Xenos and Eldar fan, I actually like the concept of Illiyan's character but despise the execution. I also just HATE the persistent trope of the Xenos 'pet' that has become so prevalent now.

"Xenos are okay to have around, as long as at the end of the day the story reaffirms through them who the REAL BIG BOYS ARE"

[luci-yabs]

Is this a sign

An Ork novel, with Orks as main characters, about them fighting Space Marines, Black Templars no less.

I...honestly cannot remember the last time a novel had any major named Space Marine Chapter lose anything but I also cannot remember the last time a BL novel ever let the perspective characters lose, unless it was the T'au.

I don't want to become overexcited, I want to temper my expectations, I am only dipping my toes back in after almost half-a-decade being out, but I cannot deny how much of a rush of joy I got seeing this. A part of me has always wanted something like this for Orks.

I really am fond of Slitta's appearance too, Blood Axes are along with Bad Moons my favourite Clans. Man. I don't know. I guess I should check out the Grotsnik book, was going to do it after Voidscarred and Elemental Council, but maybe I will do it now first instead.

On a different note, I'm glad to see that Robert Rath's Necron stuff does so well. It has to be considering I've never seen Xenos books get these many re-releases or special editions.

It is deserved though, his Necron stuff has been very good, and I particularly enjoyed the Twice-Born King a lot, the last books I read before I took my hiatus from all things GW.

[luci-yabs]

Good Xenos Novels?

Have there been any good Xenos novels since I was away? Bonus points if they actually have Xenos win battles against the Imperium. Bonus bonus points if said battles involve Space Marines/Deathwatch/Grey Knights/Custdoes (how many fucking tiers of super warrior does one faction need?)

The last thing I read was the two Twice-Born King novels and I enjoyed them.

Has anything good come out since?

[tauman942]

TAU READING LIST

TAU READING LIST Note this is a work in progress, if something is missing, please let me know and I will add it. That is, except for Phil Ke

AELDARI & DRUKHARI READING LIST

AELDARI & DRUKHARI READING LIST Note this is a work in progress, if something is missing please let me know and I will add it. NOVELS AND

I don't have a list for Necrons or Orks but the above pretty much carries it for Tau, Aeldari, and Drukhari.

[luci-yabs]

OH! This helps a TON!

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!

[luci-yabs]

2019 Xenos Wishlist

With the final day of 2018 being here I think I’ll remain positive. Today I’m gonna make a vague wishlist of things I hope for Xenos next year, tomorrow I’ll do an overview of how my expectations for 2018 went.

Aelindrach:

Let them just exist! I was so excited when Fracture of Biel-tan seemed to really be bringing Aelindrach into focus, empowering it, building it up…only for all of it to just be completely abanonded throughout 8th Edition, including in the Drukhari Codex itself! I hope in 2019 we see Aelindrach actually have some significance.

A Kheradruakh miniature as powerful as a Primarch.

Anhrathe:

Let this army be redone and made more effective. Normally, as a minor force, I’d not really expect them to even get rules, but the Anhrathe DID have rules, many, so it sucks to see them degraded to basically nothing.

I’d love to see more fiction starring them, even if only short stories, novellas and audio dramas. The Anhrathe could be for Aeldari literature what Inquisition stories are for the Imperium. 

Asuryani:

Clarify Biel-tan’s state! Please! I’d also like Biel-tan, considering the beating it’s taken recently, to get a major win against a notable force or character.

Feature the Phoenix Lords more in the Lore; be it Phoenix Lord Novels or simply more mentions in the codices I would just like to read more about them.

LET THE AVATAR OF KHAINE WIN AN IMPORTANT FIGHT.

Plastic Aspect Warriors, please.

Drukhari:

Lady Malys miniature and Lady Malys focused lore and stories, particularly explaining her connection to the Ynnari.

Arhra coming back into the lore! Whether he be Drazhar or not, I just want to see him back.

Haemonculi actually demonstrating they have superior genetic manipulation capabilities to humans.

Asdrubael either dying or getting off his ass and winning even just one major battle.

Exodites:

I would love a story featuring Exodites in which they don’t just die to Space Marines or Daemons but actually are shown as capable of defending themselves.

An army!

Harlequins:

A special character. Sylandri Veilwalker would most likely be best (and make her a stronger Psyker than Voldus who’s way younger than her).

A story of a Solitaire killing like a Shield-Captain or something to make up for the awful ‘died to kill an Eversor’ fluff we got in the Codex.

Death Jester guns actually being worth something without having to take Curtainfall every time. >_>

Give Harlequins actual extreme anti-Daemon and Chaos capabilities, in excess of Grey Knights, since, you know, HARLEQUINS HAVE ACCESS TO THE BLACK LIBRARY ITSELF! Seriously they should have access to more True Names than anyone in the Galaxy.

Ynnari:

Let them actualy exist. By far the biggest dropped plotline of all of 8th Edition. Just let the Ynnari actually do meaningful things.

Show that the alliance with the Imperium is reciprocal, not one-way.

Have a story in which Ynnari kick Captain Artemis’ butt. 

Have a story in which the Yncarne is shown to be as strong as a Daemon Primarch. 

Necron:

Show the consequences of the Absorption Wars. Imotehk conquered the largest territory of any single being in the last 8000 years, most of it Imperial, yet in none of the works about the Imperium, not Guilliman or anyone, does anyone even MENTION that the Sautekh Dynasty has just carved the largest congruent, centralized empire in the galaxy out of their territory.

Female Phaerakh Special Character.

Expand on the notion of potential alliance between the Necron and Ynnari.

Orks:

CLARFIY THE STATUS OF THE OCTARIUS WAR!

I’d say ‘let them win Armageddon’ but at this stage I honestly think I should give up.

Have Nazdreg win a war against the Dark Angels decisively.

Have Snagrod win a major conflict against the Imperium.

Have Wazdakka defeat the Dread Host sent to kill him.

Let Orkimedes have a miniature.

Give me my Mega Armour Warboss.

T’au Empire:

Have Shadowsun win the Battle of the Startide Nexus without needing assistance.

Introduce a new, female, Ethereal Supreme.

Give Battlesuit pilots BS 3+

Have the T’au complete the conquest of the Dovar System as Shadowsun’s major triumph of the Third Sphere Expansion as, without it, she basically conquered a grand total of 1 planet; Prefectia. 

Kroot:

Give them a playable army under the T’au Empire Keyword!

Tyranids:

Let there be a fourth Tyrannic War and LET THE TYRANID WIN FOR ONCE.

Show that the Swarmlord is as strong as a Primarch.

Genestealer Cults:

Let them be the victors of Vigilus, though I know that won’t happen sadly.

Give them lore in which they actually win battles and don’t, in their own codex, just constantly lose every conflict they get into.

Have a story about them slaying a Death Watch strikeforce. 

[luci-yabs]

HOLY FUCK I WAS STUPID

Man let me go through this again, I wonder if anything even came close:

Aelindrach got nadda, no importance, no mini, niks.

Anhrathe you know...kinda did? Don't have a whole army yet but some minis and they got at least 1 novel so...yeah this one sorta did pan out.

Plastic Aspect Warriors are a thing, sadly Phoenix Lords, Avatars and Biel-tan didn't get any new cool lore.

So, Malys mini (I'm seeing a pattern where my desire for cool new lore never came true but we did at least get more minis) and Arhra sorta got more involved, albeit just in one tiny book in Phoenix Rising. Haemonculi still haven't done shit to make them look impressive and Asdrubael continues to just sit on his ass and win no important fights unless its killing his own minions.

Exodites, yeah nothing on this. Still just massacred constantly.

Sadly Harlequins not much. Can't talk to the crunch side of things anymore as I really do not understand the new systems that well yet, but no impressive achievements in lore and the Black library continues to be pathetic.

Don't even want to talk about the Ynnari good fuck its depressing.

No mention of the absorption wars at all, Necron just lost to Titus and Silent King is DEFINITELY about to lose to Roboute.

Orks again mini we got (mega armour warboss) but lore nope. No wins for Nazdreg, Snagrod or Wazdakka. Octarius was a wash but the lore anyway sucks since it just immediately went from 'if one side winds they'll suddenly have a cruching victory against the Imperium' to 'one side did win and the Imperium just held the line anyway'.

T'au got nothing, even battlesuits still at fucking BS 4+

Kroot got a ton of minis though so I'm happy about that. Wish they got cool lore too.

Welp there was a fourth Tyrannic War...and they are already losing it and have lost every major battle in it. Womp Womp. Swarmlord has continued to lose all fights and was even now taken out by 1 Custodes.

Genestealer Cults definitely didn't win Vigilus, haven't won anything I think.

Pattern is: still just losers in the lore but at least they got cool new minis.

[luci-yabs]

Catch up

Having caught up on like 5+ years of lore or so that I have missed I can summarize what I have found out as:

Farsight killed a few Orks and Daemons

Nazdreg teleported somewhere

Leviathan launched another thus far failing offensive

The Ynnari lost all their allies and are going insane (absolutely sucks for how much effort Malys, Sylandri and Eldrad put into this only for it to amount to nothing. Sylandri hasn't reappeared since, probably hiding from the sheer fucking humiliation of it all)

Squats are back as the Leagues of Votann aka we have Space Dwarves now, that is cool

Female Custodes exist which is overdue even if I do not like the faction since it is just another level of Imperium wankery

Fulgrim is around but seems not to have done much

Cawl basically already perfectly understands Necron tech and stabilized the Raukos Pit

Necron are about to lose again against the Ultramarines, which is becoming the favourite hobby of the Necrons at this point

There's a new Daemon Vashtorr who is the most competent Chaos character in a LONG time even if said competence, again, requires him to constantly lose fights but then afterwards insist that 'it's all according to plan'. Still, I personally think Daemons are vastly underutilized in the setting and far too weak, so I enjoy this addition. Would have preferred it even more if it was a Xenos Daemon Prince at last.

Oh, and, of course the only development which actually matters:

MOAR PRIMARCHS MOAR PRIMARCHS ONLY PRIMARCHS MATTER WELCOME TO 40K THE STORY OF PRIMARCHS WHAT IS THAT YOUR FACTION DOES NOT CONTAIN A PRIMARCH? CONGRATULATIONS YOUR FACTION IS IRRELEVANT AND WILL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING

The sheer humiliation of Angron returning to lose his only fight of consequence right away is painful even for someone like me who finds Khorne a bit boring.

Yuck

Welp, caught up now on the lore, I guess.

[luci-yabs]

@thunderhawk727: As I said, if your faction does not have a Primarch they are irrelevant and will never matter. The entire Ynnead plotline was used purely to bring back a Primarch and then jettisoned.

It is a bad thing. It continues to mean all Xenos factions are just used as endless punching bags to show off Space Marines. It means we continue to have this dull and uninteresting story where when you pick up any book you can safely guess 'the Imperium wins' and be right 9/10 times.

Xenos players, as always, get fucked. This is nothing new.

Glad nothing's changed.

[luci-yabs]

@thunderhawk727: Thank you for letting me know that all factions but the Imperium are irrelevant. I will email GW just for clarification as I was under the impression all factions existed for players to invest in and get a return on their investment but knowing that only the Imperium matters certainly does make many things make sense.

Thank you for giving me permission to dislike something.

"Raging against the dying light" is ridiculous. If you win 99% of all engagements over 40000 years you are not 'raging' against anything, you are completely dominating.

But I am just a dumb Xenos fan who hasn't realized we don't matter to the setting, so what do I know.

Don't worry though, all trends show that we are firmly in Primarchhammer so you don't have to worry about Xenos being anything but punching bags, as if they ever were anything else.

[luci-yabs]

@thunderhawk727: But they are irrelevant, that is not a matter of opinion, that is an objective fact of the setting.

They exist only to show off how cool Space Marines are and near exclusively lose all engagements.

Our opinions on it are irrelevant, that is the reality.

[luci-yabs]

Catch up

Having caught up on like 5+ years of lore or so that I have missed I can summarize what I have found out as:

Farsight killed a few Orks and Daemons

Nazdreg teleported somewhere

Leviathan launched another thus far failing offensive

The Ynnari lost all their allies and are going insane (absolutely sucks for how much effort Malys, Sylandri and Eldrad put into this only for it to amount to nothing. Sylandri hasn't reappeared since, probably hiding from the sheer fucking humiliation of it all)

Squats are back as the Leagues of Votann aka we have Space Dwarves now, that is cool

Female Custodes exist which is overdue even if I do not like the faction since it is just another level of Imperium wankery

Fulgrim is around but seems not to have done much

Cawl basically already perfectly understands Necron tech and stabilized the Raukos Pit

Necron are about to lose again against the Ultramarines, which is becoming the favourite hobby of the Necrons at this point

There's a new Daemon Vashtorr who is the most competent Chaos character in a LONG time even if said competence, again, requires him to constantly lose fights but then afterwards insist that 'it's all according to plan'. Still, I personally think Daemons are vastly underutilized in the setting and far too weak, so I enjoy this addition. Would have preferred it even more if it was a Xenos Daemon Prince at last.

Oh, and, of course the only development which actually matters:

MOAR PRIMARCHS MOAR PRIMARCHS ONLY PRIMARCHS MATTER WELCOME TO 40K THE STORY OF PRIMARCHS WHAT IS THAT YOUR FACTION DOES NOT CONTAIN A PRIMARCH? CONGRATULATIONS YOUR FACTION IS IRRELEVANT AND WILL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING

The sheer humiliation of Angron returning to lose his only fight of consequence right away is painful even for someone like me who finds Khorne a bit boring.

Yuck

Welp, caught up now on the lore, I guess.

[luci-yabs]

@thunderhawk727: As I said, if your faction does not have a Primarch they are irrelevant and will never matter. The entire Ynnead plotline was used purely to bring back a Primarch and then jettisoned.

It is a bad thing. It continues to mean all Xenos factions are just used as endless punching bags to show off Space Marines. It means we continue to have this dull and uninteresting story where when you pick up any book you can safely guess 'the Imperium wins' and be right 9/10 times.

Xenos players, as always, get fucked. This is nothing new.

Glad nothing's changed.

[luci-yabs]

@thunderhawk727: Thank you for letting me know that all factions but the Imperium are irrelevant. I will email GW just for clarification as I was under the impression all factions existed for players to invest in and get a return on their investment but knowing that only the Imperium matters certainly does make many things make sense.

Thank you for giving me permission to dislike something.

"Raging against the dying light" is ridiculous. If you win 99% of all engagements over 40000 years you are not 'raging' against anything, you are completely dominating.

But I am just a dumb Xenos fan who hasn't realized we don't matter to the setting, so what do I know.

Don't worry though, all trends show that we are firmly in Primarchhammer so you don't have to worry about Xenos being anything but punching bags, as if they ever were anything else.

[luci-yabs]

Xenos loss ratios against Space Marines (so far)

So let us tally this and see what we get since people love Maths so much.

Orks have a win ratio of; 11.84%! HOLY CRAP ORKS SUCK.

Conversely Space Marines have an 86.84% win ratio against Orks. That’s right in all recorded battles Space Marines win almost 90% of all conflicts against Orks. 

What about Asuryani? Well their win ratio is; 15.38%! So Asuryani only manage to win less than a fifth of all battles they fight against Space Marines.

Space Marine win ratio against them is; 84.62% so, I mean, still better than Orks I guess!

Drukhari have a win ratio of 18.18%, highest so far, but still not even approaching a fifth of all battles they face.

Space Marine in ratio is; 81.82%. Drukhari are our winners so far among the Xenos but, wow, all three these factions don’t even manage to win a FIFTH of all the battles they face against Space Marines.

Will T’au, Necron or Tyranid make any substantial improvement on these ratios? I rather doubt it. 

[luci-yabs]

I guess I will update these too. I'm sure that there have been MANY Xenos victories against Space Marines in the time I was gone. I mean. There will surely be at LEAST 1, right? Maybe even 2?

[luci-yabs]

Catch up

Having caught up on like 5+ years of lore or so that I have missed I can summarize what I have found out as:

Farsight killed a few Orks and Daemons

Nazdreg teleported somewhere

Leviathan launched another thus far failing offensive

The Ynnari lost all their allies and are going insane (absolutely sucks for how much effort Malys, Sylandri and Eldrad put into this only for it to amount to nothing. Sylandri hasn't reappeared since, probably hiding from the sheer fucking humiliation of it all)

Squats are back as the Leagues of Votann aka we have Space Dwarves now, that is cool

Female Custodes exist which is overdue even if I do not like the faction since it is just another level of Imperium wankery

Fulgrim is around but seems not to have done much

Cawl basically already perfectly understands Necron tech and stabilized the Raukos Pit

Necron are about to lose again against the Ultramarines, which is becoming the favourite hobby of the Necrons at this point

There's a new Daemon Vashtorr who is the most competent Chaos character in a LONG time even if said competence, again, requires him to constantly lose fights but then afterwards insist that 'it's all according to plan'. Still, I personally think Daemons are vastly underutilized in the setting and far too weak, so I enjoy this addition. Would have preferred it even more if it was a Xenos Daemon Prince at last.

Oh, and, of course the only development which actually matters:

MOAR PRIMARCHS MOAR PRIMARCHS ONLY PRIMARCHS MATTER WELCOME TO 40K THE STORY OF PRIMARCHS WHAT IS THAT YOUR FACTION DOES NOT CONTAIN A PRIMARCH? CONGRATULATIONS YOUR FACTION IS IRRELEVANT AND WILL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING

The sheer humiliation of Angron returning to lose his only fight of consequence right away is painful even for someone like me who finds Khorne a bit boring.

Yuck

Welp, caught up now on the lore, I guess.

[luci-yabs]

@thunderhawk727: As I said, if your faction does not have a Primarch they are irrelevant and will never matter. The entire Ynnead plotline was used purely to bring back a Primarch and then jettisoned.

It is a bad thing. It continues to mean all Xenos factions are just used as endless punching bags to show off Space Marines. It means we continue to have this dull and uninteresting story where when you pick up any book you can safely guess 'the Imperium wins' and be right 9/10 times.

Xenos players, as always, get fucked. This is nothing new.

Glad nothing's changed.

[luci-yabs]

Good Xenos Novels?

Have there been any good Xenos novels since I was away? Bonus points if they actually have Xenos win battles against the Imperium. Bonus bonus points if said battles involve Space Marines/Deathwatch/Grey Knights/Custdoes (how many fucking tiers of super warrior does one faction need?)

The last thing I read was the two Twice-Born King novels and I enjoyed them.

Has anything good come out since?

[luci-yabs]

@farseeryirith: Thank you! I will give those two a look then.

[luci-yabs]

Good Xenos Novels?

Have there been any good Xenos novels since I was away? Bonus points if they actually have Xenos win battles against the Imperium. Bonus bonus points if said battles involve Space Marines/Deathwatch/Grey Knights/Custdoes (how many fucking tiers of super warrior does one faction need?)

The last thing I read was the two Twice-Born King novels and I enjoyed them.

Has anything good come out since?

[luci-yabs]

Catch up

Having caught up on like 5+ years of lore or so that I have missed I can summarize what I have found out as:

Farsight killed a few Orks and Daemons

Nazdreg teleported somewhere

Leviathan launched another thus far failing offensive

The Ynnari lost all their allies and are going insane (absolutely sucks for how much effort Malys, Sylandri and Eldrad put into this only for it to amount to nothing. Sylandri hasn't reappeared since, probably hiding from the sheer fucking humiliation of it all)

Squats are back as the Leagues of Votann aka we have Space Dwarves now, that is cool

Female Custodes exist which is overdue even if I do not like the faction since it is just another level of Imperium wankery

Fulgrim is around but seems not to have done much

Cawl basically already perfectly understands Necron tech and stabilized the Raukos Pit

Necron are about to lose again against the Ultramarines, which is becoming the favourite hobby of the Necrons at this point

There's a new Daemon Vashtorr who is the most competent Chaos character in a LONG time even if said competence, again, requires him to constantly lose fights but then afterwards insist that 'it's all according to plan'. Still, I personally think Daemons are vastly underutilized in the setting and far too weak, so I enjoy this addition. Would have preferred it even more if it was a Xenos Daemon Prince at last.

Oh, and, of course the only development which actually matters:

MOAR PRIMARCHS MOAR PRIMARCHS ONLY PRIMARCHS MATTER WELCOME TO 40K THE STORY OF PRIMARCHS WHAT IS THAT YOUR FACTION DOES NOT CONTAIN A PRIMARCH? CONGRATULATIONS YOUR FACTION IS IRRELEVANT AND WILL NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING

The sheer humiliation of Angron returning to lose his only fight of consequence right away is painful even for someone like me who finds Khorne a bit boring.

Yuck

Welp, caught up now on the lore, I guess.

[barpsy-abaub]

Avatar of Khaine

petition to make AoK actually badass, he deserves it

[luci-yabs]

Ye gods!

How I wish the Avatars of Khaine were even a FRACTION this cool in the lore.

Absolutely adore this haunting art style amazing work.

[luci-yabs]

Tarellians, Chaos & Xenos, Barghesi and some nostalgia

I am glad to finally see a Tarellian Dog Soldier miniature.

I would love to see them added as auxilla for the T'au, seeing as many of them canonically do serve in the T'au Empire, but I would also be equally happy if we just had any of the other T'au auxilla beefed up (barring Kroot who are in a good place now). Expanding the Vespids to have more forces, a hover tank using big crystal guns for example, or perhaps Nicassar units though those might struggle to translate as well.

I must admit the Baghesi, though very obviously drawing on the Barghest - Dog myth is a bit funny to me because in lore they've been consistently hyped up as terrifying foes who rip Marines to shreds and who the Imperium thinks would be an existential threat if the Tyranid ever absorbed them. So, to have them just be kinda red dogs is surprising. I would have expected them to be bigger, at the very least.

I am personally always a fan of more Xenos with Chaos armies. Chaos has no reason to sick to a policy of xenophobia and it has just always been dumb that within the setting aliens somehow barely ever have any connection to Chaos at all, we do not even know of a single Daemon Prince ever who is not human (except maybe Be'lakor) in a timeless Warp, implying that throughout all space and time no non-humans have EVER become Daemon Princes.

Seeing so many Corsair minis make me nostalgic. One of the earliest things I remember doing was trying to make up rules and stats for a fictional Corsair army list.

[luci-yabs]

@dryococelas01 ah, thank you for clarifying that for me, appreciated. That does help to make the idea of how deadly they are less silly, though I am surprised they would choose not to make the mini be an adult one.

[xenosgirllastarchive]

Prince Arhain Cython of the Azure Veil Host

A commission done for me by the very talented Virlandil (https://twitter.com/virlandil) 

This is another part of my own world building project I am working on, an OC. Prince Arhain Cython of the Azure Veil Corsair Host.

I already have a bio for him forming, and will hopefully have a fluff piece to put up about it soon-ish.

[luci-yabs]

There was a time I was dreaming up a whole Anhrathe host for myself.

Can't seem to find any of the posts about the stats anymore, but honestly that stuff is best left forgotten.

I like Yriel's new helmet. Hope he finally gets to actually be cool.

[luci-yabs]

Tarellians, Chaos & Xenos, Barghesi and some nostalgia

I am glad to finally see a Tarellian Dog Soldier miniature.

I would love to see them added as auxilla for the T'au, seeing as many of them canonically do serve in the T'au Empire, but I would also be equally happy if we just had any of the other T'au auxilla beefed up (barring Kroot who are in a good place now). Expanding the Vespids to have more forces, a hover tank using big crystal guns for example, or perhaps Nicassar units though those might struggle to translate as well.

I must admit the Baghesi, though very obviously drawing on the Barghest - Dog myth is a bit funny to me because in lore they've been consistently hyped up as terrifying foes who rip Marines to shreds and who the Imperium thinks would be an existential threat if the Tyranid ever absorbed them. So, to have them just be kinda red dogs is surprising. I would have expected them to be bigger, at the very least.

I am personally always a fan of more Xenos with Chaos armies. Chaos has no reason to sick to a policy of xenophobia and it has just always been dumb that within the setting aliens somehow barely ever have any connection to Chaos at all, we do not even know of a single Daemon Prince ever who is not human (except maybe Be'lakor) in a timeless Warp, implying that throughout all space and time no non-humans have EVER become Daemon Princes.

Seeing so many Corsair minis make me nostalgic. One of the earliest things I remember doing was trying to make up rules and stats for a fictional Corsair army list.