The Fall of Prospero and Other News

Hey all, third blog post! W00t!

Anyway, thanks to NachoMon on DeviantArt for letting me use his awesome conversion and overlay my terribly done text! [For anyone that's interested, here's the link to the original conversion before I got my hands on it].

As you probably guessed from the title and the picture, this post is mostly about the Vikings of the 40k universe: the Space Wolves (a.k.a. the Rout or the Vlka Fenryka).

I just finished the book Prospero Burns by Dan Abnett after having previously read A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill and... wow. There is so much revealed in this book, not only about the character of the Space Wolves and the conflict between them and the Thousand Sons, but other things as well. I'm going to be discussing a few of the things that I found most interesting, so if you haven't read the book and don't want spoilers, look no further! (Actually, you can just skip to the bottom of the post, as I'll be discussing other matters in the last paragraph)

So, to jump right in, I'll go with the biggest revelation (for me at least) in the book. It was at the end, when Hawser is about to be put into deep stasis by the Wolves and he is out in the snows of Asaheim with Leman Russ. Hawser talks about how unprecedented it is to have the Sixth Legion called in to sanction another Astartes Legion and Leman Russ replies with a sad chuckle: "Hjolda no. That's not unprecedented." This is huge! Unless I'm severely lacking in my knowledge of pre-Heresy lore (which, admittedly isn't my strong point though I do think I know a fair bit about it), this indicates that the Space Wolves had something to do with the erasure of the two "missing Legions". I mean, think about it. If the Space Wolves had sanctioned another one of the "known" Legions, it would probably be a major part of that Legion's background. Thus, another tidbit of information about the missing Legions. As a fluff enthusiast, this is really exciting for me, as the two missing Legions are one of, if not THE biggest mystery in the 40k universe! But, do we really want to know exactly what happened to these Astartes and their Primarchs? Hmm... That sounds like a topic for a different article. Time to move on.

This next one is one that Space Wolf players will love: The origin of Bjorn the Fell-Handed's name. That's right, you finally get to find out the story of one of the most famous hands in the 40k universe (the contenders being Khaine's bloody hand and the Talon of Horus though arguably the latter is a weapon...). It's a pretty cool story, and once you realize who Bjorn is and what got him his name, his epic-ness score goes up a few notches, which is impressive considering how high it already was. I mean, he beat (at least) a Greater Demon into the ground and it seemed like at the time he was simply just another Space Wolf. Not a Captain, not even a Wolf Guard. Just a plain old Grey Hunter going mono-a-mono with a Greater Demon. If that doesn't say epic, I don't know what does.

Last but certainly not least is the information given in the two books about the Canis Helix. In A Thousand Sons, Magnus says to one of his Scarab Guard (can't remember which) that the Canix Helix was not originally  intended to be the gene-activator that the Space Wolves use it as, or not entirely. Then, this is the good part, in Propero Burns, it is revealed the the Wulfen are not the final devolution of the Space Wolf genetic impurity. Apparently, all of the Wolves on Fenris are actually Space Wolves that have not been able to control the Canix Helix and have changed. That gives a whole new perspective on Thunderwolf Cavalry...

And that concludes my overview of the most interesting fluff points in the book(s). In other news, I was just accepted into the House of Paincakes blogroll! Thanks to everyone there for that. Here's hoping that it'll do something for my readcount. The portents are hopeful. My number of followers has already increased by three to an all-time high of... three! Thanks to those three brave souls who have chosen to follow me, it sure does wonders for a man's confidence in such matters. Tune in next time for... Well, to be honest, I'm not sure what I'm doing next. Maybe an examination of the pros vs. cons of revealing the mystery of the missing Legions...

~Have any of you read these two books? What are your thoughts on them? Also, if you feel strongly about what I should write about next, let me know! I'll take it under advisement, promise.