January 2017 – 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.

Luke posted a comment to ask: Is it still the intention that Corax and his raptors survive the heresy and he kills them just after and disappears? Will there be any more books on Corax?

Well, if you read Corax (and more specifically the novella Weregeld) that first question is answered. As to the second one, I have no plans to write more Corax at the moment.

Also in the comments, from Andrew: I really enjoyed Mission: Purge (hopefully you’ll do a sequel one day). Captain Artemis is a rather cool character and has become a favourite of mine. Does ‘Kill Team – A Last Chancers novel’ feature Captain Artemis at all?

Have you seen Mission: Annihilate? I would love to do more Mission: X stories and it’s a definite possibility for audio in the coming years.

Artemis does not appear in Kill Team, there is an appearance by another brother of the Deathwatch (who is basically smuggled into Tau space in a crate!).

Andrew also asked: Lastly I was wondering if maybe you could help me with a modelling question (as in miniatures not Vogue)? I’m building a Deathwatch force at the moment and was wondering what do Lavestus and Haryk look like (without their helmets on)? I’d like to model them as close to how you imagine them as possible. Also, and last question I promise, what weapons would they have bolter, frag cannon, infernous heavy bolter?

Lavestus I imagine as being ultra-orthodox, so archtypical space marine – short cropped hair, square jawed hero, service studs. He’s a regular Deathwatch brother so would be armed accordingly (probably bolter).

Haryk is an ex-Long Fang (so, beard, braids, fangs) and a heavy weapons specialist, so any big gun will do.

Via facebook, Daniel asked: Hey Gav, I’m really sorry to bother you but I just came across something that’s really puzzling, Azrael’s Lion Helm. I’m being told it was said to of been the Lion’s but may not have been, this is due to concept work seen at FW open day and apparently the description in the codex. Please can you confirm that the helm worn by Azrael did indeed belong to the Lion el Jonson whether he used it or not.

I’ve always thought it a little odd that the Lion Helm was believed to be the actual wargear of the Lion. The greater size of the Primarchs would mean their equipment and armour would be substantially too big for a regular space marine – unless perhaps the Lion was a pinhead, or maybe the Dark Angels Supreme Grand Masters pad it out with lots of foam!

Anyway, like most artefacts and relics in 40K, I think the provenance of any particular item after 10,000 years of constant war is likely to be dubious.

Rob commented on this site: Do you think we’ll ever find out what happened to the Blade of Caliban ship and Sen Naziel? [From Angels of Darkness]

I think it is unlikely we’ll return to that, but never say never, I might see if I can slip in a short story.

On my Facebook Page, Erik asked me: So Mr. The Great Gav, throughout the years working with GW, do you own any of the many army’s that GW releases?

Before joining GW I had a sizeable Epic Orks army, and a pretty good army from the Empire for WFB. I had mostly Eldar for 40K, though bits of everything really – Tyranids, Space Marines (Celestial Lions – the name I came up with when I was fourteen and later appeared in the background!), whatever was being released and took my fancy. I also had an Empire Man o’ War fleet, Eldar and Imperial ships for Space Fleet, as well as the forces for Advanced Space Crusade, Advanced Heroquest, Space Hulk, etc etc.

While working there I collected (aside from specific armies I built and painted that we needed for playtesting):

Undead and Skaven Blood Bowl Teams.
Delaques and Ratskins for Necromunda.
Morks, Diggas and Muties for Gorkamorka.
40K Eldar.
Warhammer Dwarfs.
The warband of Inquisitor Kessel, for Inquisitor.
Dwarfs for the original Mordheim campaign.
A Battlefleet Gothic Chaos fleet.
Orcs and Easterlings for LOTR SBG.

And these days I still have the old Dwarfs and Eldar, the LOTR evil guys and am about to collect a Dwarfs team for new Blood Bowl. However, apart from the BB I haven’t played any GW games except for an introductory game of AoS for about seven years…

Bryan emailed to ask: Just finished Azrael on my lunch break, it was an awesome book. Please can you answer me a few questions?

What manner of man is Azrael? (Arrhhh cliffhanger!! – In a way) Did he stay his blade in the end or did he kill the girl? I can only assume he stayed his hand as he did with the Space Wolves (Curse of the Wulfen/War on Fenris) in the end.

Was the Farseer’s prophecy to Azrael regarding the War on Fenris and the Dark Angels involvement during the Curse of the Wulfen?

And finally, it mentions that Azrael is given the Sword of Secrets and the Lion’s Wrath but what of the Lion Helm? Is this given to him by the Watchers in the Dark like the Sword of Secrets?

1. That is entirely for the reader to decide.

2. Yes, it was an allusion to those events (bearing in mind that at the time of writing I did not know how they would finish!).

3. As I answered to someone else recently, I’m not convinced the Lion Helm is really an artefact of the Primach – common sense would dictate that in reality it would be too big to be wargear for a regular space marine. As an artifice with a shield generator that is a metaphorical helmet of the Lion, embodying his continued protection… Well that seems more likely, but either way I didn’t want to get dragged into that in Azrael so I conveniently ignored it