In 40K News: Bill King, Writing about the Macharian Crusade

[Connor MacLeod]

Black Library Link

Due out summer of next year, and according to William King's blog he's finished the book and its up for revisions, but I must say between that and Cain and more Gaunt next year I'll be excited to see what happens.

[madd0ct0r]

is that a living saint posing there?

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

is that a living saint posing there?

Your ability to read the linked article does not impress me.

[Vympel]

Solar Macharius = the Imperium's Alexander the Great, right?

[Simon_Jester]

...Macharius wasn't a saint, was he?

[NecronLord]

is that a living saint posing there?

Your ability to read the linked article does not impress me.

Technically, his thought is correct. Lord Solar Macharius is an imperial saint.

He's also not been depicted with wings before so that may represent some kind of saintlyness.

[Simon_Jester]

My impression is that he was canonized for conquering so much in the name of the Imperium, not for having supernatural abilities during his life...

[Kingmaker]

Considering the wings are somewhat insubstantial, I think it may be symbolic of his awesomeness, not an indication of supernatural ability. Or it's the presence of the Emperor... or something.

[Boeing 757]

This has the potential to be rather awesome. But what is the consensus on King's writing ability? I found his first Ragnar novel to be enthralling, but as the series progressed, it began to become much like of a replay of the earlier novel preceding it, with the last one falling flat on itself....

[Ahriman238]

Well, I'm excited. Don't think I've ever read King before, though.

And yeah, Lord Solar (warmaster equivalent) Macharius led the biggest damn Crusade since the Emperor was mobile, conquering or recapturing several hundred worlds and pushing the Imperium's borders farther than they'd ever gone, until he reached the limits of the Astronomicon. It was the great accomplishment that closed out the 40th Millenium and opened the 41st. Immediatly followed by something called the Macharian Heresy, don't know what happened there. Only that by the end, Macharius was still a great hero of the Imperium, and drank himself to death.

[Elheru Aran]

The Space Wolves books being repetitive is a bit grating, but they're more enjoyably written than the sequels by Lee Lightner; you have to give King that.

For my part... hmm... I wonder if the Macharian Heresy was a bunch of guys figuring that Macharius was the new Emperor or something? That'd be a hell of a place for him to find himself in, considering that the Reign of Blood wasn't particularly long ago (couple thousand?).

The picture is obvious propaganda; the wings aren't as interesting to me as the fact they changed the helmet. Macharius used to have this Alexander-esque lion's head style helmet, but they've converted it into a horned or winged Teutonic-knight style helm. Guess they want to give him more of a 'crusader' look...

[NecronLord]

The picture is obvious propaganda; the wings aren't as interesting to me as the fact they changed the helmet. Macharius used to have this Alexander-esque lion's head style helmet, but they've converted it into a horned or winged Teutonic-knight style helm. Guess they want to give him more of a 'crusader' look...

The model has the winged helmet, though open faced, where here it appears as a closed helm (but then, Cadian helmets serve as both).

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Well, I'm excited. Don't think I've ever read King before, though.

And yeah, Lord Solar (warmaster equivalent) Macharius led the biggest damn Crusade since the Emperor was mobile, conquering or recapturing several hundred worlds and pushing the Imperium's borders farther than they'd ever gone, until he reached the limits of the Astronomicon. It was the great accomplishment that closed out the 40th Millenium and opened the 41st. Immediatly followed by something called the Macharian Heresy, don't know what happened there. Only that by the end, Macharius was still a great hero of the Imperium, and drank himself to death.

According to Lexicanum, the Marcharian Heresy happened when Macharius' seven generals started fighting among themselves, to the point where they even seceded from the Imperium and divided up his conquests into their personal empires (think the Diadochi). They were put down later.

[Vympel]

I wonder if this dude commanded any Space Marine Chapters. You'd think they'd play a role in vast conquests.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

I wonder if this dude commanded any Space Marine Chapters. You'd think they'd play a role in vast conquests.

The Astartes were almost certainly involved. Precisely how this worked is harder to say, as Astartes can sometimes have funny attitudes about accepting orders or requests from regular Imperial forces. The White Scars were heavily involved in the original Sabbat crusade, and respected the Saint enough to provide an honour guard at her funeral. By contrast, the Dark Angels have a bad reputation for cutting loose at awkward moments because they happen to get word of a Fallen Angel. The Marines Malevolent are even worse, with a reputation for ruthlessless and egotism.

Considering a Lord Solar is supposed to be equivalent to a Warmaster, there's a better than average chance that Astartes would accept Macharius' orders. Like an Inquisitor, he would do well to be respectful and tactful.

[Black Admiral]

It depends a lot on the Astartes. The Salamanders, Ultramarines, White Consuls, etc. are generally pretty good at working with existing command structures, the Dark Angels are among those who are kind of shaky there, and others have giant banners on their ships for the exact purposes of flipping other Imperial forces off (see: Marines Malevolent, the).

The Marines Malevolent are even worse, with a reputation for ruthlessless and egotism.

This happens to be a reputation that they entirely deserve, given their behaviour (one example of their dickheaded behaviour led to Chapter Master Tu'Shan of the Salamanders beating the fuck out of a Marines Malevolent Captain).

[evilsoup]

WRT Space Marines: in the latest IG codex, it is stated that it took 100 Chapters 100 years to re-conquer the Macharian conquests after Macharius' death (and his generals' rebellions). Now, I haven't looked that hard into it, but I have always got the impression that the actual Macharian crusade was primarily an IG thing.

Of course, I fully expect these books to change that. Gotta shoehorn the SMs into everything.

[Bedlam]

WRT Space Marines: in the latest IG codex, it is stated that it took 100 Chapters 100 years to re-conquer the Macharian conquests after Macharius' death (and his generals' rebellions). Now, I haven't looked that hard into it, but I have always got the impression that the actual Macharian crusade was primarily an IG thing.

Of course, I fully expect these books to change that. Gotta shoehorn the SMs into everything.

Any large scale conflict is going to be primarily a guard thing, marines don't have the numbers and logistics (except maybe the Ultramarines) to conquer hundreds or thousands of worlds. But as with any imperial undertaking there will be marines, eclisarchy, mechanus, etc forces involved. Some planets may have been taken with the help of the marines, one or two just by marines but the majority would have been guard alone.

[Ahriman238]

The Sabbat Worlds Crusade had at least 6 chapters of Space Marines, and at least 2 Titan Legions, and that war was barely a large skirmish by the standards of the Macharian Crusade. At least as of IA X, the Star Phantoms chapter partcipated in the Macharian Crusade, and Lord Macharius himself left directions that the chapter was never to be called on for mission involving 'subtlety' or 'minimal collateral damage.'

[Black Admiral]

The Sabbat Worlds Crusade included elements of six Chapters, or at least it did at the start (more probably joined later on) - Raven Guard, Iron Snakes, Silver Guard, White Scars and Imperial Fists are the known ones. The Raven Guard certainly didn't commit their entire strength to it; they don't do that - or, at least, don't outside of very extreme circumstances, such as a critical threat to Deliverance and Kiavahr (or the 13th Black Crusade, which per Cadian Blood most of their strength was committed against). And even then they're not liable to fight as a Chapter; simply doesn't fit with how they work..

[Lord Relvenous]

Immediatly followed by something called the Macharian Heresy, don't know what happened there. Only that by the end, Macharius was still a great hero of the Imperium, and drank himself to death.

Essentially the Imperium overextended itself during the Macharian Crusade. They could not construct the required infrastructure and provide the necessary garrisons to stop the planets from leaving the Imperial fold later on. After the crusade died out with Macharius, the worlds were kept in line by their governors for a time. Pretty soon after his death, the whole of the worlds conquered collapsed into rivalry and war (think the collapse of Alexander's empire). The unrest lasted for 70 years before it was quelled by the Imperium.

Interesting note: 100 Space Marine chapters (I doubt full ones) were deployed to end the fighting.

[evilsoup]

Out there, somewhere, there is a fan-made Macharian Crusade codex/rulebook (along the lines of Imperial Armour). It was quite a good read, actually - definitely up there with GW stuff.

[Serafina]

Out there, somewhere, there is a fan-made Macharian Crusade codex/rulebook (along the lines of Imperial Armour). It was quite a good read, actually - definitely up there with GW stuff.

You can find it here. Sadly it's still based on the old Imperial Guard codex, but then again doctrines were pretty well-suited for this kind of project.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

The picture is obvious propaganda; the wings aren't as interesting to me as the fact they changed the helmet. Macharius used to have this Alexander-esque lion's head style helmet, but they've converted it into a horned or winged Teutonic-knight style helm. Guess they want to give him more of a 'crusader' look...

The model has the winged helmet, though open faced, where here it appears as a closed helm (but then, Cadian helmets serve as both).

Those aren't wings on the helmet. They are giant, golden laurels, just like on the model.

[evilsoup]

No, they're horns, just like on the model; they're a reference to Alexander the Great, who was often depicted as a sort of demigod, as represented by his having horns.