October 2016 – Q&A

This is a compilation of questions that have been emailed and messaged to me recently.

If you want to ask anything, you can post a comment here or get in touch through the contact page (and newsletter subscribers can just reply to any of my emails).

I’ve been posting Q&As for a few months now, so if you’ve found this one interesting, you can look back at previous Q&As here.

Bryan asked on Facebook: A curious question came to mind and thought you might be able to answer. During the Second War of Armageddon Yarrick, Tu’Shan and Calgar conceded overall command to Commander Dante. If Supreme Grand Master Azrael had been at Armageddon, what would have been his reaction? Just curious to know how he would react? I believe he would not let Dante command any Dark Angels.

I don’t think that Dante directly commanded any of the other Chapter warriors – his position as supreme commander was like Eisenhower in WWII – the single point of strategic thought from which the flow of the war was derived, weighing the opinions and plans of the other commanders against each other and political (or in this case Imperial) interest. In that case Calgar and the others are more akin to Monty, Patton and so on, and I believe Azrael would have been content to command under the aegis of Dante as much as the other Chapter Masters present.

This one on Twitter got a little lost in the Warp but I came across it the other day, from Rob: Have you planned how the Dark Angels get from where they are now in the HH to where they are in 40k?

Kinda… I have some ideas, some of which have been discussed with the editorial team and others not. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself and assume which books I may be writing in the future, and I wouldn’t say it’s a ‘plan’ more of a vague treasure map covering points of interest along the way. However, Legacy of Caliban was written with the assumption that a fair few of these ideas will become reality at some point, whether it’s me writing them or someone else.

Original Brother Artemis Mini

Gavin Thorpe (yes, really!) replied to the newsletter: Firstly I’ll say that my name is Gav Thorpe and I am often confused for you in hobby circles but I’ll be the first to admit I’m not as talented as you but I’m working on it. My question is really surrounding the Deathwatch and has stemmed from your blog post on the background of the Deathwatch. Basically I’m wondering if when a marine is seconded to the Deathwatch would they keep various chapter totems for want of a better word, for example would a Salamanders veteran wear their drake cloak or a Space Wolf don various wolf pelts and talismans etc. I’m looking to build a kill-team and convert the models etc. and want to know how far to go etc.

I think that is very likely – as well as the shoulder pad they might well keep such totems and accoutrements. I always liked an old story of the Deathwing that had one suit of Terminator armour loaned by the Ultramarines sill in its original colours because they believed that repainting it offended the machine spirit b- a space marine entering the deathwatch might well feel the same about removing other identifiers of his Chapter of origin.

Hunter contacted me via the website: I’d like to start off with a slight bit of strategic flattery so here it goes. Your work building the lore for the dark angels in 40k and the Horus Heresy has truly been a pleasure to experience. Now that my fandom is out of the way I was wondering if you might have any insight on when the next black library short story submission window might be and perhaps a small clue as to what the desired subject matter might be.

Flattery is always appreciated – writers have such fragile egos!

Unfortunately, in this instance it is also wasted as I have no special insight into the submissions process. I believe that the majority of the last submissions have now passed through the first stage of processing and those that were successful have been passed to the editors. I would expect the next window to be in the first half of 2017 but that’s just a guess, and I have no clues as to the subject.

RedFurioso asked on the website: Hi Gav! Which primarch is best fighter in straight combat, the Lion or Sanguinius? We know the Lion is a supreme swordmaster, but even Horus and Angron feared the wrath of Angel… Hope you like the idea of hypothetical ‘Clash of Angels’!

Sanguinius. He’s my boy. Ain’t nobody could face the Blood Angel in full wrath until Horus got himself all Chaos-infused.

Mike asked on Facebook: Peta Orpheus Epsilon Was that purposely done? Has anyone asked you about that before?

Yes. No.

Matthew asked on Twitter: You say Inquisitor is in your top three things you are proud of. What are the other two?

In no particular order, Battlefleet Gothic and the last Vampire Counts book I worked on.

For those who follow my music playlist blogs, Joe suggested the following via the website:

13th Warrior by Jerry Goldsmith

Battle Los Angeles by Brian Tyler

Fury by Steven Price

Immortals by Trevor Morris

The Transformers soundtracks by Steve Jablonsky (People like to dismiss the movies but I’ve often found the music the best part about them).

If you want to ask anything, you can post a comment here or get in touch through the contact page (and newsletter subscribers can just reply to any of my emails).

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