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Attention anyone who enjoys fanfiction of Warhammer 40K novels! Over the past few months, I devoured the whole Ciaphas Cain series and wrote a series of short fics as I went. Since they're all pretty much stand-alone and only very loosely connected, I thought I'd make this post listing them all with a bit of summary and detail, to help people pick and choose which ones they might be interested in reading!
A lot of them don't require much specific knowledge of the source material, since I wrote most of them when I wasn't finished reading it all myself either, and focused a lot more on the characters and their relationships than on specific plot events. Also, many of them are way more about sex than anything else (and I'm shipping Cain with absolutely everyone at once, because why not), but with varying levels of explicitness and seriousness about it, plus there's also one of them in there that's just funny and not sexual at all. So I think there's something for everyone! If that sounds good to you, check out the list below, and enjoy!
For each one of these I'll give a brief description/reflection, and list the main ship in it, whether you need much knowledge of canon to get it, and the level of smuttiness.
Note from the Inquisitorial Archives #1: In retrospect, this one kind of feels like it was a warm-up to the rest of the series. It's entirely from Amberley's perspective, which kind of sets it apart because I soon switched to mostly writing from Cain's perspective for the rest of the series, and really not much happens in it. But it's the origin of some cute ideas that have stuck with me and it's okay! Enjoy it maybe!
Main Ship: Cain/Amberley
Required Canon Knowledge: minimal
Smut Level: mild
Note #2: This one was heavily influenced by some of the other great Cain fanfiction I found on Ao3 after posting my first one! I was really happy to see a few other people exploring the same characters, and it inspired me to keep going too. Anyway this one is pretty cute I think.
Main Ship: Cain/Jurgen
Required Canon Knowledge: best if you've read book 3 or at least don't mind it getting spoiled by way of references to major events
Smut Level: medium
Note #3: I feel like this is where my writing of this series really hit its stride! This one is about a threesome and it's great, highly recommend reading it.
Main Ship: Cain/Amberley/Jurgen
Required Canon Knowledge: minimal
Smut Level: high
Note #4: Another one I'm especially proud of, which I wrote with a burst of inspiration in just one day. Amberley introduces Cain to some light bondage, and it's very cute.
Main Ship: Cain/Amberley
Required Canon Knowledge: best if you've at least read book 1 and have some general understanding of Cain's character and the pressures of his career
Smut Level: high
Note #5: A longer one! This one has three chapters, one of which is from Amberley's perspective instead of Cain's, which all sets up for them having a threesome with Felicia Tayber. It comes especially highly recommended from my friend @sybilius, whose support has generally helped a lot with my writing. Thanks!
Main Ship: Cain/Amberley/Felicia
Required Canon Knowledge: best if you've read book 4 so you know who Felicia is
Smut Level: medium
Note #6: A rare entry which is actually not about sex at all, it's just funny! I hope so anyway. Involves Cain getting really drunk and Jurgen putting up with a series of silly antics.
Main Ship: Cain/Amberley is like, an element of the plot, but it's less about that than it is about Cain drunkenly stumbling around a starship
Required Canon Knowledge: best if you've read the short story "The Traitor's Gambit" (the one in between books 5 and 6 in the omnibus), since it basically functions as an epilogue to it, but it doesn't rely on it so much that you wouldn't be able to appreciate it without that
Smut Level: Zero! What a concept.
Note #7: This one is just about Cain and Amberley being into BDSM. Involves her slapping him in the face, like, in a hot way.
Main Ship: Cain/Amberley
Required Canon Knowledge: minimal
Smut Level: Depends on your definition of smut I guess, since it doesn't really describe anything directly sexual, but you know what I'd still say high
Note #8: It was high time to add yet another character to my growing list of people I ship Cain with. Involves some creative and probably extremely not canon interpretation of space marine lore.
Main Ship: Cain/Drumon
Required Canon Knowledge: best if you've read book 7
Smut Level: medium
Note #9: Okay this is another one I'm extra proud of, I think it's very funny. The concept is that it's a passage written by Sulla, describing a time she allegedly slept with Cain, but Amberley has a lot of comments to make about stuff she thinks is inaccurate.
Main Ship: Cain/Sulla
Required Canon Knowledge: best if you're familiar with some of the bits where Amberley comments on Sulla's writing (also it's set during book 8 but doesn't rely on much specific knowledge of that)
Smut Level: high-ish but not at all in a way that's meant to be taken seriously
Note #10: My most recent and also most explicit one! I did a little bit of actual research on what kind of video-call-type technology exists in 40K just so that I could write about Cain and Amberley making creative use of it. This one is hopefully very relatable to people in long-distance relationships.
Main Ship: Cain/Amberley
Required Canon Knowledge: minimal
Smut Level: high
Also, separately from this series, I wrote another pretty cute Cain/Amberley one called Divine Providence. It's specifically based on another fic, Attalander's A Sinner And A Saint, so check that one out first if you're interested! I've also written a couple fics for other 40K novels too: my very first 40K fic about Bannick from Baneblade and Shadowsword fucking a chaos marine, and a very short one about Sebastian Yarrick and Dominic Seroff that takes place near the beginning of Imperial Creed. Maybe you'll like those too!
If you read that whole list, thanks, and I hope you find something to enjoy! I'll probably write more soon, so follow me here or on Ao3 if you want to see it. And feel free to comment or message me if you want to talk about Ciaphas Cain! Have a good day!
I sometimes get pushback when I describe Warhammer 40K Space Marines as eroticised figures, usually on the grounds that canonically, Space Marines can't fuck – then you look at the source material and it's like:
The text frequently dwells on long, luridly detailed lists of the various ways in which Space Marines' bodies have been modified. A disproportionate number of these modifications involve bodily fluids and/or the mouth.
The text tells us that Space Marines' power armour actually makes them less scary to other humans, because the mere sight of a Space Marine's unclothed body causes unenhanced humans to experience primal terror – and sure, you could interpret this as a body horror thing, but it's really not framed that way.
The text tells us that the only way to make a new Space Marine is to cut out part of an existing Space Marine and put it inside you, and that each chapter has a specific guy whose duty is to pick over battlefields and harvest the "gene-seed" of dead Space Marines so that their lineages might carry on.
Frankly, at this point, the fact that they're biomechanically incapable of fucking only makes it more horny.
(My actual controversial 40K opinion is that the whole "heavily marketed brand-flagship faction of genderless-in-theory-but-exclusively-male-in-practice eroticised caricatures of butch masculinity who are as a matter of explicit canon biomechanically incapable of fucking" thing actually pops up twice, because this description applies equally to 40K's interpretation of Orks, and that the distinction between the two hinges entirely on whether you prefer your blue balls upper class or working class.)
I think that's an oversimplification of the Orks. If the Space Marines are unexpressed masculine homosexuality, then the Orks are expressed masculine homosociality.
Orks are derived from English football hooligans, and they intentionally inherit the particular masculine competitiveness of factionalized sports. Orks are an eroticization of that combative/competitive masculinity, to the exclusion of sex as a practice.
Orks collapse the masculine connection between fighting and fucking into a single point. War is their orgiastic release, in contrast to the repression surrounding Space Marines. Orks want to fight because fighting makes them feel amazing! Ork societies revolve around fighting to such a degree that I would say Orks resemble a globalized fetish fiction; it's just not a fetish based in sexual pleasure.
I don't think the Space Marine's homosexuality is unexpressed. Space Marines also collapse that masculine connection into a single point, it's just more formalized and ritualized. War is the Space Marine's sexual release as much as it is the Ork's; you can't really call it orgiastic for the Space Marine, but that's just a different flavour. Space Marines societies also revolve around fighting to such a degree that you could say they resemble a globalized fetish fiction for a fetish not based in sexual pleasure; it's just that they have layers of ritual and formalized structures that spread the eroticism from combat itself to combat-adjacent things: both things that are already erotic like maintaining weapons, male camaraderie between squadmates, and military/monastic hierachy; and to things that weren't already erotic like logistics and tradition.
I think the key point is that neither Space Marines nor Orks are erotic at all in-universe, they're only erotic to the audience. A Space Marine is not sexually repressed, they canonically don't fuck and don't want to fuck, just like an Ork. And from an out-of-universe viewpoint, they're both hunky beefcakes who love Gun like it's dick and spend all their time in close, sweaty proximity with a bunch of other hunky beefcakes who love Gun like it's dick. The only real difference is the "football hooligan" vs. military/monastic source materials for the male homosociality, and the resulting flavour thereof; they even both reproduce by fighting, it's just that the Space Marine's reproduction is, again, more formalized and ritualized. So I think that the "upper class or working class" thing definitely holds.
I love how the cover is giving actual Cain (and Jurgen and Amberley!) while the other sketches read more propaganda Cain, like undersketches for a painting
I am convinced that the only reason Cain hasn't shown up as a living Saint yet is because you need to die to be ressurected with the wings and halo and nothing can kill Ciaphas Cain
Are you here for gay 40k OC writing? No? Well that's too damn bad, now isn't it!
The Motions
Commissar Quincy Bentley and Commissar Arden Ward reunite after 15 years apart and it all feels familiar.
M/M, eventually explicit, trans male character
Also on AO3.
Chapter 1
Commissar Quincy Bentley and Commissar Arden Ward had been talking for hours, catching up on 15 years worth of details. They hadn't noticed the sun go down or how they had opened a third bottle of Amasec. The room was warm, just like everything else on this desert planet. The lights were low and outside the reinforced window, one could see the dim points of light across the military base that were a constant sign of activity. At some point they had moved from Quincy's overstuffed, cramped office to his attached quarters and lost their great coats and tall hats in the process.
Arden sat on the edge of Quincy's bed while Quincy himself sat on a stool he had dragged in from the office. They each had a glass in their hand which Quincy currently topped up with the last bit of spirits from the Amasec bottle. Arden grinned as he continued the story he had started in the other room.
"So that's when the East flank came around the corner and, bam! The bastard realized he fell into a classic Pincer maneuver. I've never seen a heretic look so crestfallen."
"What an imbecile." Quincy laughed and shook his head, setting the empty bottle on the ground. "It's such an obvious maneuver, how did he miss it?"
Arden chuckled and shrugged. He took a gulp of his drink and absent mindedly loosened the red Sasha around his waist. Quincy sipped his own drink, eyes locked on Arden's hand.
"How do you stand the heat?" Arden asked abruptly. Quincy looked surprised.
"The heat? It's rather pleasant right now." He said. Arden shook his head.
"It's 25 degrees* in this room." He replied. As if to emphasize his point, a single bead of sweat trailed down the side of his face. Quincy watched it and swallowed hard.
"I supposed my time here has changed my perception of what I consider hot. We're in the middle of Autumn now, it gets much hotter." Quincy shrugged. "Feel free to take off some layers if you need to cool down."
"Why can't you just adjust the thermostat?" Arden asked, putting his glass on the hard floor. He removed his belt and sash then immediately started unbuttoning his uniform.
"Well," Quincy stared, distracted by the scene in front of him, "The generators are under a lot of strain already from the heat and generator three went down in the last skirmish, so to lessen the load, we're reducing our electricity usage."
Arden nodded as he cast aside his uniform's outer layer. He undid a few of the buttons of his red dress shirt, exposing the white undershirt and the uppermost part of his broad, dark chest. It took every ounce of Quincy's willpower not to throw himself at Arden, to feel his curly chest hair under his cheek.
Quincy sipped at his drink.
"It makes sense, but what a misery." Arden said. He leaned back on the bed, propping himself up on his elbows. "It's explains how dim the lights have been across the base."
"We all must make sacrifices." Quincy made the comment with an noncommittal tone and a vague hand gesture. He wouldn't admit it to Arden, but he's bent the rules of the restrictions a few times to suit his own needs. A modest refrigeration unit was being powered to supply him (and the officers) with a steady supply of iced recaff.
They fell into silence that with anyone else would have felt awkward. Between the two of them it was comfortable, reassuring. It gave a moment for observation and observe they did.
Arden saw how much Quincy had aged, fine wrinkles around the eyes, white hair barely visible in the platinum blonde, and perpetual frown lines. He noted that Quincy didn't smile nearly as much as he used to. He grinned, he sneered, but his youthful smile seemed to have vanished. This made Arden's heart ache. But despite that, he still saw the same warm brown eyes staring back at him.
Quincy took in how beautiful Arden had stayed. A few grooves on his forehead, laugh lines and crows feet. The beard was a new treat and Quincy wondered why Arden hadn't grown it sooner, it suited him so well. Quincy's eyes inevitably went back to Arden's chest to ogle but he was startled by the sight of a thin silver chain. His chest tightened.
It looked very similar to the chain around his own neck, a chain that carried a very dear piece of their history that he couldn't bear to part with even after he had called off their marriage. Quincy swallowed.
"Quincy," Arden said, "you're making me feel under dressed."
The blonde man was snapped out of his reverie and looked down at his own complete uniform. He looked back at Arden who gestured as if to say 'Go on.'
Quincy rolled his eyes and set his drink on a nearby side table. He unbuckled his belt and noticed how Arden seemed to perk up. Grinning internally, Quincy dropped the belt to the floor. He slowly undid the red sash and let it join the belt.
Arden's gaze was fixed and a small smile played on his lips. Quincy stood up and undid every button on his uniform jacket, he shrugged it off and draped it over the stool. He looked Arden in the eyes as he unbuttoned the red shirt completely, untucking it and a tossing it aside. He stepped closer to Arden, standing at the end of the bed so his knees almost touched the other man's.
The blonde stood in his white undershirt, black uniform pants, and heavy leather boots. He stared down at Arden, placid and serene Arden. Quincy had seen him in this exact pose a thousand times before. He knew what would have happened if this had been over a decade in the past. He knew the straddle, the positions of the hands, the sweat, every motion was an instinct and no matter how many times they had played out the motions, it had always felt new every time.
Quincy was frozen. Things were different now. He felt like he was misreading something, that they couldn't possibly be right back to where they were before. Quincy had done everything he could to demolish their relationship, a self destructive act wrapped in a veneer of self preservation. He had wanted to unburden himself from attachments. But here Arden was, returned to him.
The dark skinned man slowly, quietly reached out a hand. Before, Quincy would have taken it and been pulled into a freny of limbs and gyrations. Quincy took the hand but Arden didn't pull. He just held his hand.
Warm and calloused fingers wrapping around each other. With his free hand, Quincy reached up and tugged on the thin chain around his neck. It pulled up the gold ring that had been hidden under his shirt. The sound of the ring bouncing on the taut chain sounded like a soft bell chime. Arden sighed, like he was relieved.
"Oh, Quincy…" Arden's voice was tight with an edge of tears. He pulled gently on Quincy's hand and Quincy straddled him to play out those familiar motions.
