Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[nenjin]

That's probably best. He still is my favorite sorcerer character in 40k and the novels kind of fucked that up for me. YMMV though.

[Kot]

Yeah, I guess he kinda is cool... except he is a fucking heretic, also basically evil murderous genocidal Stephen Hawking.
Also he's on about the same level of getting shit done as Failbaddon these days, IIRC.

[Teneb]

Also he's on about the same level of getting shit done as Failbaddon these days, IIRC.

That's just GW refusing to move the plot.

[Tack]

Better than Eldrad, whose death was so lame they had to retcon it.

But murderous and genocidal, sure. Heretic, absolutely, although pretty sure he's only working for Tzeentch because he still thinks he's got the upper hand.
Because really, all he wants is knowledge and power, and nobody is taking him off that path.

One of the coolest bits of fluff was when Ahriman found a SM relic on a fortress-world.
He can't attack the monastery directly, so he just whips up a ritual and turns the sun of that system into a warp-rift.
He then drops to the planet with his retinue, slaughters his way through soldier and daemon alike, finds his way to the rubble, digs out the relic and finds, tucked unimportantly away on it, an extremely old word he doesn't have in his dictionary.
Satisfied, he drops the thing and warps out. Job done. That right there is badass.

[Grim Portent]

Dark gods help me, but I'm seriously contemplating making an army of Death Riders, the Krieg equivalent of Rough Riders.

I'd need 98 cavalry models to make a fully army for the size of games I usually play (2000 points) and I cannot find any cheap minis suitable to the scale 40k uses, which means I may wind up buying and converting a ton of the discontinued bretonnian knights from fantasy. If I start this project it's going to take aaaaaages, but now I can't get it out of my head.

[nenjin]

Because really, all he wants is knowledge and power, and nobody is taking him off that path.

Were that just what he wanted.

The recent novels painted a decidedly.....emo picture of the sorcerer. He doesn't want "power" per se. He wants "the power to fix all my brethern I fucked over." He doesn't want "knowledge" per se. He wants "the knowledge that will show me the flaw in my Rubric that fucked over all my brothers."

Basically, Ahriman could and probably would die this very instant with no problems or regrets if only the rest of the Thousand Sons were restored in mind and body. That is literally his only goal since the heresy, at least according to the trilogy.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And they couldn't even give him a win, or death. The Re-Rubricing fails, again...mostly. Except for one single Rubric Marine who is magically made better. But just the one.

So neither can Ahriman claim victory, defeat or anything tangible in between. So he will, I suppose, continue to be brooding and emo trying to figure out what went wrong. In a sense the entire Ahriman trilogy amounted to nothing in terms of actual plot development. He and the Thousand Sons are essentially where they were before.

Oh but don't worry, there's more Ahriman novels planned ><

Then again, with the stupid amounts of power and potential the author lavishes on him, I suppose if he weren't shackled to some whiny emo ideal and was just out for himself like most players in Chaos....he'd probably already be on Terra shocking the Emperor's nuts with Warp Lightning.

[LordBaal]

Again, anyone have the BFG magazines in physical copies?

[Tack]

Oh that is gross. The codices have Ahriman being really wowed by the rubric, only showing a semblance of contrition when Magnus threatens to kill him.
Then when he's banished, I always assumed he went
"lol, righto. Let's see who the chapter follows. Enjoy your tower."

[Kot]

Dark gods help me, but I'm seriously contemplating making an army of Death Riders, the Krieg equivalent of Rough Riders.

This shit right there is what Commissars have to deal with on daily basis.
I'm very confused between either summarily executing you for invoking Chaos Gods or giving you a medal for wanting to make an army of Death Riders. I suppose I should first do the latter and then do the former and then strip you of your rank and take away your medal and award it to myself... but I think I will wait until you finish your army and then I will take it too.

Original Ahriman is unhinged selfish prick who would destroy the entire Galaxy over a fucking piece of paper, he just gathers knowledge for the sake of it, never intending to actually help anyone and basically represents one of worst mindsets one can have. He is pretty high on the "most evil fucks in Galaxy" list.

Emo Ahriman at least has a purpose in life. He fucked up his only friends and basically got kicked out by Magnus. It will also allow him to fix shit up so he doesn't have to live with the knowledge that he fucked up because he wasn't good enough.

EDIT:
Though, I do guess the non-emo Ahriman fits a bit better.

Eldrad deserved even lamer death. He's such a fucking dick.

[nenjin]

Oh that is gross. The codices have Ahriman being really wowed by the rubric, only showing a semblance of contrition when Magnus threatens to kill him.

That is certainly legit.

"lol, righto. Let's see who the chapter follows. Enjoy your tower."

That's where the newp starts though. Ahriman has a really weird relationship with Magnus (best pupil, equerry, the guy who tried to do what Magnus told him would fuck up.)

So after the Heresy and an indeterminate amount of time, Ahriman essentially doubles down on his feelings about the Rubric. The first two books of the trilogy are (incredibly over the top) magical staging for the next attempt at the Rubric. The third book is the actual activation of it.

But yeah. He doesn't want to lead the Thousand Sons. He doesn't want to return them glory. He doesn't want to stick it to the Emperor. He just wants to fix his mistake. If this were like, a Space Marine we were talking about, that'd totally fit. But for, like, THE CHAOS SORCERER of 40k? It just doesn't sit right. He's basically walking around with all the power of the universe in his hands, and a giant "PITY ME" sign on his back for alllllll the things he's gone through to clean up his own willful mistake.

I mean, it's so emo it goes right down to the "slivers of metal working toward his heart only stopped by the force of his will and OH how easy it would be to just let them kill him."

And then over it all is Tzeentch being Tzeentch and screwing with Ahriman. Blech.

[Tack]

Too shit, Iron Man. I'd rather take the remorseless, ruthless Ahriman kthanks.
Emo is somehow more dehumanising to me than psychopath.

[nenjin]

He's still pretty much "a means to an end" kind of guy with how he treats people. (Actually, a lot of people.) But the undercurrent of it all is that he does still in some capacity give a shit. That he feels guilty for the Rubric. That he maybe feels bad on some subconscious level for a lot of things. (The trilogy deals a lot with his subconscious mind.) Add in some daddy issues and yeah....this is by the far the most emo CSM novel or series I think I've read. Maybe not whining Kruze or crying Lorgar bad, but still pretty emo. It could have been laid on even thicker.....but it was thick enough in the novel I was irritated. I found most of the side characters better just on that basis alone. I can probably describe better quick sketches of the rest of the cast as characters than him. Ahriman remains remote, too-goddamn-powerful-to-make-interesting and plagued by doubts and guilt.

I may be biased though. I enjoyed the Thousand Sons part of the HH novels and thought Magnus delivered. I was super excited to read about Ahriman, who I'd always heard of through the years but never drilled down into his history. By the end of the HH novels, I didn't feel like the guy in the book matched the legends. Or at least, he didn't add to them in a good way. I still can't really describe his personality because I don't think he has one as he's been written, other than "Like, super deep and smart" and "Thinks he knows better." I'm probably being overly harsh.

[Tack]

IMO all of the 1st captains thought they knew better.
Ahriman, check, Lucius, check, Typhus, lol. Whoever Kharn replaced, check.

Only one who mightn't have was fawning Abbadon.

[nenjin]

Perseverance appears to have paid off. Priests of Mars came down 50% fucking percent since the last time I looked. Either BL decided to print more novels or someone was fucking with the price. It's still pricey at $24, but that's better than $50 after shipping for a paperback.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

A few pages late, but isn't the warp beyond the galaxy the "Formless Wastes?" Daemons belonging to no Chaos God reside there.