Angels of Caliban Q&A
As promised, here’s a compilation of questions that have been emailed and messaged to me recently about Angels of Caliban.
Don’t worry if you still have a question, you can always get in touch through the contact page and I’ll include it in one of my monthly Q&As (and newsletter subscribers can just reply to any of my emails).
Arthur asked by email: First of all – thank you for very good job at writing Warhammer 40000 and Horus Heresy novels. I would like to ask you one particular thing about Angels of Caliban. Can you please say, will this book be the last or one of the last books about Lion El’Jonson in the Heresy Era? I mean it’s getting close to the Battle of Terra and after the Lion has done chasing Curze, it possibly may be already last days of the Horus Heresy.
This certainly won’t be the last of the Lion – though Imperium Secundus is crumbling we have at least one more book before it ends and then I am sure there will be more titles following his exploits.
(Also it’s worth noting that the Lion will feature in the new Primarchs series – I’ll not be writing his volume but it’s likely to be related to events in the Horus Heresy.
Lee also reached out via the contact page: I’m not too far in but I was surprised that Mortarion knew of Typhon’s abilities. Previously I was under the impression that he had hidden his psychic abilities from his Primarch. Is this a new idea in the storyline?
I took my cue from the Forge World material – “The First Captain of the Death Guard Legion once pursued the role of Epistolary in the Legion’s Librarius, but with the Primarch Mortarion harbouring a deep-rooted distrust of those who wield the powers of the psyker, Typhon suppressed his gift and strove instead to serve as a war leader.” It would be almost impossible for any psyker to hide their abilities from the Librarius testing even before Nikaea was enacted.
Steven Baeber emailed: Hi Mr Thorpe. Thanks for putting so much of your writing time into the first legion. I just finished Angels of Caliban. I was wondering if you think that both the Dark and Blood Angels are recruiting at this time in the Ultramar system? It would seem prudent to me that they continue trying to replenish their numbers from peoples in the Ultramar system. Or would legion beliefs and / or Guilliman calling dibs dissuade them?
That’s a really interesting question. The reality is that Imperium Secundus has not existed long enough for any recruitment outside the Ultramarines to yet take place. I would expect that in the medium term particular planets from the Five Hundred Worlds would have been assigned as recruiting and arming systems for the Dark Angels and Blood Angels. More intriguing perhaps would be the fate of the Legion ragtags like the Imperial Fists and White Scars that ended up on Macragge. Or did Guilliman envisage a post-Legion recruitment and command system as was enacted at the Second Founding…? With the Primarchs assuming far higher roles, in the new scheme, a Chapter system might have been the best way forward.
RedFuriso asked on email: Hi Gav, thanks for great book! Will you (or Mr Bligh) give us more info about Griffayn and cause of his demotion? It’s so intriguing!
The truth is that Griffayn is just one of those characters that sort of inserts themself into the story without much invitation. Laurie Goulding (Horus Heresy editor) suggested that a significant member of one of the wings should be present on Caliban. My inclination is that Griffayn’s authority in the Firewing is temporarily suspended for that very fact – being away from the bulk of the Legion for an indeterminate length of time means his successor would have to take the position in his absence. The reality is that any Firewing brothers would still look to him for leadership (though it is debatable how prominent the wings are on Caliban as the Order reasserts its organisation and the recruits are shielded from the old brotherhoods).
Also on the email I received this from Luca Angeli: I’m toying with the idea of writing my 30k Dark Angels army’s fluff from the point of view of one or more remembrancers. They were variously received by the Legions, but I don’t remember them in any official book or story involving the First. I’d like to ask you how do you think the Angels related to remembrancers during the Great Crusade. Sure, they are secretive and insular in nature, and would lie or ignore them for the most part. In 30k, though, I could see something along the lines of chivalric romance writers be a thing that some in the Legion, especially Calibanites may… appreciate, or at least tolerate. I’d like to hear your opinion on this.
As you’ll see at the opening of Angels of Caliban, I’ve included a Remembrancer’s quote on the frontis so they definitely travelled with the First. To answer this we have to break down the history of the Legion a little.
In the earliest years as the Six Hosts, there would not have been Remembrancers attached, but following reorganisation into the Terran Dark Angels they would have been embedded the same as other Legions. As we saw from the Warrior Lodges in the Sons of Horus elsewhere, it is quite possible to continue operating inner brotherhoods and yet present the ‘official’ Legion outlook to the rest of the Imperium.
The real issue comes with the incorporation of Caliban and the arrival of the Lion. On the one hand he is not a public individual, but on the other he was raised in a culture of heroic chronicles and would certainly like his victories and legacy recorded for posterity. During the Great Crusade the veneer of openness would continue but at the outbreak of the Heresy I imagine the Dark Angels shed their Remembrancers pretty sharply as they started reverting to their Six Hosts nature and deploying more ancient, secret technologies.
Similarly, on Caliban outsiders were gradually culled. Bearing in mind Luther was sent back several decades before Isstvan, ‘natural wastage’ would see most Remembrancers leave, die or returned to Terra, or replaced by Calibanites loyal to Luther. By the time of Angels of Caliban, the Remembrancers are all gone, spies and lackeys of the Emperor every one of them!
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