[Horus Heresy] Brotherhood of the Storm by Chris Wraight

"Il est dit que Horus s'attend à ce que le Khan se range de son côté,
et l'on ne sait pas pourquoi, jusqu'à aujourd'hui..."

- Ghost of Arkio - a écrit:... 24h avant afin qu'ils ne commencent à envoyer les paquets/la commande groupée que j'attend depuis 2 semaines.

ASTELAN a écrit:oui, parce que ce qui comme moi on un anglais plus que moyen (mais oui sa existe) sa me fais rager de passé a coté de ces romans...

Chris Wraight: Mongols, motorbikes and the Horus Heresy

Many of you ask about the writing process for Black Library authors. Especially for a series as vast as the Horus Heresy. Chris Wraight, author of the new Limited-Time Edition Horus Heresy novella, Brotherhood of the Storm, has taken the time to provide just such an insight. Here’s what he had to say...

Of all the cool things about writing Brotherhood of the Storm, perhaps the coolest was the opportunity to flesh out the character of the mysterious Fifth Legion. Apart from a few mentions here and there in the Horus Heresy continuity, we don’t know much about what they were doing or why. We have almost nothing on their ‘deep’ history – their mannerisms, their cultural traits and origins.

Of course, in the wider mythos the White Scars are drawn from Asiatic models – nomadic warriors, particularly the Mongols, specialising in fast cavalry attack. The few names and titles existing in the canon – Jaghatai, Targutai Yesugei, Khan, etc. – are drawn from Mongolian, as is much of the imagery. Like ‘Norse’ Space Wolves or ‘Arthurian’ Bretonnians, the White Scars are one of those factions that depends on real-world sources for their flavour.

In part, Brotherhood of the Storm maintains that tradition. Some of the proper names in the book follow the same Mongol-inspired pattern, as do the military tactics employed by the Legion. But that isn’t the end of it. Just as Imperial High Gothic isn’t really Latin but uses Latin-type language to evoke an air of arcane obscurity, the White Scars of the Heresy use superficially ‘Asiatic’ symbolism to suggest broader, more interesting concepts.

The White Scars are presented as a fundamentally elusive Legion, one that operates far outside the mainstream of the Imperium’s command structures. Their mode of warfare – striking hard with overwhelming force before retreating into the void – reinforces their sense of unknowable mystery. Their mindset is alien to most of the other Legions, forged on a world of shifting allegiances and short-lived power structures. Unlike, say, the Ultramarines, they have no history of building static empires: they are all about movement, never resting for long enough to be tied down or dominated by other powers.

And if the White Scars are the exotic ‘other’ to the Imperium, then the Imperium is also an enigmatic ‘other’ to them. The monolithic administration imposed as the Great Crusade progressed is profoundly at odds with their philosophy. This manifests in a number of small, but telling, ways – poor communications with other Imperial institutions, a certain lack of fluency in spoken Gothic, tensions between Terran and Chogorian elements within the Legion.

While the Imperium is in its expansionary phase, such idiosyncrasies can be overlooked: if the White Scars are content to range widely, employing their superlative gifts for fast attack in the far-flung reaches of the void, then none will try to prevent them. But with the onset of the Horus Heresy and the prospect of Legion fighting Legion for the prize of a sprawling empire, who knows how they will react? Will they adapt their gifts to a galaxy of grinding, attritional combat? Or will they be swept aside by forces beyond their understanding?

In Brotherhood of the Storm we are given some indications. We see the war against the orks on Chondax from their point of view, as well as gaining a glimpse of their homeworld of Chogoris and their massive battlefleet hanging above the shattered plains of Ullanor.

What becomes clear, I hope, is that the White Scars are not savages, but a proud and subtle people with a unique role in the battle for the Imperium’s soul. As the Khan himself says, speaking in an extract from the story:

‘For now, we are unknown. It will not always be so. A day will come when we will be revealed, fighting in the way that I will teach you.’

His eyes were like jewels in the night, burning with hungry, boundless ambition.

‘And when that day comes,’ he said, ‘when we are revealed at last, I tell you truly, zadyin arga: the gods themselves will cower before us.’