#nathian

[oedonion]

"Perhaps that was what angered Corax: that he should have known better. Nathian’s betrayal was the primarch’s pride staring back at him, an embodiment of Corax’s refusal to back down, so often a boon but on occasion a terrible vice."

The ending of 'Ravenlord' is important for many reasons, but among other things, I find the question of loyalty and leadership responsibility particularly interesting.

While Corax tends to take on an enormous amount of personal responsibility, even for things beyond his control (though this is likely not a positive trait but another manifestation of his ego), at the same time, when his pride drives him to act impulsively or irrationally, he fails to realize how this may be perceived by his legionaries – especially those whom he has led to genuinely believe in the cause.

Part of this may be because, for Corax, loyalty to the Emperor is simply a given, and he seeks no reward or recognition for it, so he expects the same from his subordinates, and in my view, he does not sufficiently value their individual devotion. Even though Corax knew there would be traitors within the legion, until this moment he had never connected this to the consequences of his own mistakes.

Here, Nathian is important not so much in himself, but precisely as an example and manifestation of Corax’s pride, stubbornness, and disregard. No matter how wrong Nathian himself may be, his grievances are partly valid. Loyalty cuts both ways; it is not a given, and one must live up to it.

We have several examples of those who remained loyal no matter what. But most of these people are Corax’s family and friends – to them, he is much more than just a war leader. This is precisely why their tolerance for his mistakes is incomparably higher. After Nathian’s desperate, shocking suicide, Arendi's loyalty serves as a form of damage control, and the ending of the novella is one of the few episodes where we finally see Corax showing open gratitide for such loyalty.

[fortunatto]

a Shadow's shadow quotes from Ravenlord and Weregeld and some hc

[oedonion]

without a compass, the soldier knows no disgrace

[fortunatto]

today? I offer you some redraws from conversation with friends. tomorrow? who knows

[oedonion]

28. Homeworld

Design inspired by one of IRA's posters.

[fortunatto]

Deliverance Lost (The Star - Reversed) and Ravenlord (Six of Cups (not reversed but well... - there is a nuance) ) respectively

[fortunatto]

and another bunch of sketches I found in my folders with bits from deliverance lost, ravenlord and shrike's novel ( oh carnivore kiavahrian forest from shrike's novel, I`ll draw you one day...) once again, hc and Lycaean people and also Reqaui, Arendi's father with his carvings (come to think of it, he really did best of his situation, despite being on Lycaeus - raised a son, mentored a primarch, influenced them both with same ideas and probably died before all things went south)

[oedonion]

Random lazy memes