Dark Imperium

Perhaps the most significant Warhammer novel released since 2006's "Horus Rising"; can anyone give me a quick rundown on the story?

Some niggas dead, some niggas aint dead, some niggas happy, other niggas really aint happy. Somehow nothing really important actually happened still.

>Alpha Legion bows to Guilliman
>In contact with aeldari
>Possesses psyker-like abilities
>Controls Terra with an iron but fair fist
>Owns planets and fleets globally
>Direct descendant of the Emperor of Mankind
>Will bankroll the first human Webway (the first gateway will be built on Macragge)
>Owns 99% of geneseed editing research facilities on Mars
>First primaris in all likelihood will be ultramarines
>Said to have 215+ IQ, such intelligence in Milky Way has only existed amongst the Old Ones and Sensei
>Ancient eldar scriptures tell of a warrior with a flaming sword who will descend upon Terra and will bring an era of enlightenment and unprecedented technological progress with him
>Commands Mechanicus worlds around the galaxy
>You likely have a primaris behind you right now
>Guilliman is in direct communication with Vulkan and Jaghatai Khan, forwarding the will of the Emperor to Salamanders. Who do you think set up the return of the primarchs (second one in 1000 years) and arranged Khan's first visit to Imperial palace?
>He learned fluent tyranid in under a week
>Chapters entrust their geneseed reserves with the primarch. There’s no geneseed on Sanguinius, only on Konor.
>The primarch is about 10,000 years old, from the space-time reference point of the base human currently accepted by the Imperium.
>In reality, he is a timeless being, existing in all points of time and space from the big bang to the end of the universe. We don’t know his ultimate plans yet. We hope he's a benevolent being.

...

The actual events of the book aren't that significant and mostly set up to where 8th edition begins. It includes lots of details/updates on people though

Basically
>100 years since Guilliman came back, has been waging the Indomitus Crusade whole time
>Mortarion invades Ultramar
>Girlyman goes there to fight them

I'd argue it's the most significant book yet released, because it's the first BL novel that actually advanced the timeline.

Horus Rising was making detailed towards a foregone conclusion, just as the Beast Arises series covered a lot of "new" events we all knew the conclusion of

>I am Bogdanoff.

The sad part is that I could easily believe BL authors would write this. The HH series on this same tier.

>Series starts 100 years since Guilliman came back
>Has been waging the Indomitus Crusade this whole time, reuniting the Imperium with the "Dark Imperium", the worlds stuck on the other side of the Great Rift
>There's a single passage through the rift near where Cadia was, a remnant of the pylons, so the cadian gate still has big strategic significance
>Covers the battle of raukos, a big final fight of the indomitus crusade where Guilliman's fleet BTFO's a bunch of word bearers/iron warriors
>Most of the book is details on what Guilliman has been doing/changing, updates on factions post-gathering storm, and how the primaris marines are settling into the greater setting
>Belisarius Cawl is full heretek 101 with his own AI that he uses to communicate for him. It lies and pretends it's not as advanced as Guilliman suspects it really is
>Ultramar gets invaded by Mortarion/Kugath/Typhus, lots of POV shit on Nurgle slowly infecting worlds
>Mortarion keeps his warlord-daddy from Barbarus in a perpetual torture chamber
>Typhus is a huge dick who doesnt respect mortarion anymore
>Kugath is a a legit autistic cunt who constantly agrees with everyone for positive validation, even if it contradicts himself. mortarion finds it pathetic
>Very brief Mortarion-Guilliman standoff at the end before both retreat

Nothing really happens but we get to know a lot of stuff from after hte time jump

You left out how Mary Sue Caul made the Restartes at the behest of Girlyman before Fulgrim turned him into humanity's second greatest vegetable.
>Gorillaman got his throat slit because Fulgrim got pissed that Emps didn't like Bill fucking with the gene-seed but golden boy Robby gets a pat on the head doing the exact same shit.

>Restartes

>You left out how Mary Sue Caul made the Restartes at the behest of Girlyman before Fulgrim turned him into humanity's second greatest vegetable.
>Gorillaman got his throat slit because Fulgrim got pissed that Emps didn't like Bill fucking with the gene-seed but golden boy Robby gets a pat on the head doing the exact same shit

When you overdose on memes but still want to keep 4channing.

It wouldn't be a meme if it didn't work. And yeah, outside of the Nurgle parts and the adventures of Mortarion's resentment issues, that's how it felt to me. I mean, he's declared less radical thoughts and strategies heresy and he suddenly was fucking around with a Mechanicus tech magos and the gene seed at the same time he's forming the Imperium Secundus and nobody has a clue. And this is at the same time Loken finds out about the Grey Knights because of shitty accounting. It strains credibility, even for 40k.

...

Emps didn't like how Bile made astartes into freaks with insect heads and subwoofer mouths instead of pure noble human form.

Basically

- Good account of Guilliman fucking up in the Scouring, where somehow he got outmaneuvered by Fulgrim. It mostly illustrates how tired he is of fixing the Imperium in M31.
- Guilliman in M41's mixed on his feelings of everything, but does try to keep up with the time. He looks for people who will question him. Interestingly, he's looking at the world and starting to privately wonder if the Emperor is actually a god.
- A few guardsmen are infected with a very subtle plague and left to heal for a few months on an Ultramar hospital world. This is a trojan horse to let Nurgle invade the planet with their secret plague opening a portal. Worst part of the book.
- A few new Primaris marines are laughing, friendly buds who enjoy brotherhood across gene-lines, and are sad that most are off to create new chapters instead of conquering the galaxy together in a legion with Guilliman. They're powerful as fuck, but still kinda green which makes their interactions different than usual marine fare.
- Mortarion is BTFO by his own First Captain for being a brooding idiot and having a dumb plan to slowly Invade ultramar, and let Guilliman build his forces. Typhus calls him a trophy, and basically fucks off to do his own thing. Mortarion is going to be punked.
- Marneus Calgar's spent the last few decades brooding at how he wasn't good enough, and that Guilliman's disappointed in how Ultramar's done. He puts down a boy scout revolt with his terminators effortlessly, and uses it for building up resentment against the Imperium's people for not living up to the standards of Guilliman's time.
- Guilliman decides to personally slay Mortarion, taking a lesson from his failure against Fulgrim. Ends up, the Emperor's Sword is a crazy warp artifact that burns with anti-chaos, and obliterates daemons. This makes Guilliman really, REALLY question if Emps is a god or not.

Well it's another book about Ultramarines

Restartes is probably the best alternate name for primaris marines.

Nothing else you wrote was even intelligible. Lay off the memes, man, it's killing your brain.

I have nostalgia of reading Horus Rising way back in 2006. People forget how blown away everyone was about seeing Marines act so humanizes and witnessing the Primarchs in action as characters rather than plot devises.

To this day Loken still remaines the greatest Astarte that ever was, even if he wasn't the strongest.

>How many Americans have you killed today?
>There is no difference between what is right and what is necessary.
>If you were a better person, you wouldn't be here.
>It's time for you to wake up.
>Squad commands are unavailable when you're alone. No one can help you now.
>Can you even remember why you came here?
>This is all your fault.
>Do you feel like a hero yet?
>To kill for yourself is murder. To kill for your government is heroic. To kill for entertainment is harmless.
>White phosphorous is a common allotrope used in your slaughter at the Gate. It can set fire to soldiers and the innocent civilians they are trying to help.
>It's Konrad. He did it. All of it.
>Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously.
>You cannot understand, nor do you want to.
>The US military does not condone the killing of unarmed combatants. But this isn't real, so why should you care?
>We cannot escape anguish. It is what we are.
>If Lugo were still alive, he would likely suffer from PTSD. So, really, he's the lucky one.
>Adams blames Walker for Lugo's death. It's his fault they didn't leave Dubai when they had the chance.
>Walker's obsession with Konrad has brought nothing but destruction—to Dubai and his squad.
>There is no escape.
>Life begins at the other side of despair.
>No one can help you now.
>Collateral damage can be justified, if the gain outweighs the cost. How much do you think Adams and Lugo are worth?
>Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.
>I exist and I find it nauseating.
>Walker and Adams have served together for many years.
>You can't go home.
>If the Radioman now speaks for the 33rd, then what happened to Konrad?
>You are still a good person.

Jesus, the autism just weaponized itself...

Good reference.

I quite liked the bit on the medical facility (albeit I'm only halfway through the book). Definitely a bit slow, but I much prefer it to the "and then they fight" bits, which are almost always the worst parts of the 40K novels.


Really loved when Robert is talking about all the shit he has learned about since awakening up, particularly the secret time wars by the Ordo Chronos which is pretty much just a massive civil war over what the date is. Really wish there was more of that kind of shit in the novel.