Where We're Going, We Won't Need Eyes to See (Grimdark WIP)

Hello!

Praise the Emperor, Grimdark month returns!

As usual, the majority of the Grimdark WIPs are not on Patreon anymore.  But community members can still access the latest WIPs as mentioned in previous posts.  Just to be thorough, community members will receive an email with the access information as well.

So first off, let's start with Argel Tal who holds a unique status in the Grimdark universe. He is canonically the first Possessed Chaos Space Marine and really the first Space Marine to delve deep into the Eye of Terror. Ironically his name also translates to "The Last Angel" in the Colchisian dialect. Argel Tal was originally Captain of the 7th Assault Company of the Serrated Sun Chapter of the Word Bearers. An interesting side tidbit is that Erebus actually selected him for a Chaplain position in the past but Argel Tal decided not to take the post. I'm sure this would not have any future consequences. 😅

So community members may recall I mentioned how Lorgar went on a pilgrimage after his city of Monarchia was destroyed as chastisement for his worship of Big E. Well after this event, Lorgar was pretty depressed. In swoops Erebus, who decides this is a great time to start moving some Regicide pieces.

To regain a sense of purpose, Erebus and Kor Phaeron convince Lorgar to undertake a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror. Basically the point was to investigate whether there was definitive proof that true divinities existed in the universe because the Emperor always said there were no gods. To cut a long story short, they went to Cadia, met a very shady Cadian (who eventually become a Daemon Prince called Ingethel the Ascended) who convinced Lorgar he would find the gods he was looking for in the Eye of Terror. So Lorgar tasked Argel Tal to take the light cruiser Orfeo's Lament into the Warp Rift to do some exploring. Oh and Ingethel convinced Argel Tal to lower the Gellar Field while in the Eye of Terror. Not a great plan.

It's been awhile since I read the First Heretic, but I do remember the pilgrimage part of the story to be distinctly uh...unpleasant, especially for the human crew. Think of what happened to everyone on Event Horizon and you'll get the general vibe. I'm trying to avoid the gorier details but let's just say in terms of the Grimdark meter - out of all the books I've read this is probably among the highest. So if you're squeamish about this sort of thing, it's probably something to avoid. If you love the Grimdark then you'll get it here in droves.

What I will say is that I always thought Lorgar sending Argel Tal into the Eye was kind of a sus move. It kind of reminds of that time Tzeentch threw Kairos Fateweaver into the Well of Eternity to find answers because he was too afraid to do it himself. Or you know, this meme.

Anyways, Argel Tal and the other Space Marines would subsequently be possessed by Daemons (Argel Tal's Daemon was called Raum) becoming the first Possessed Space Marines in canon. He actually explored the Eye of Terror for seven months but because time operates differently in the Warp, it had only been a couple of minutes in realspace. But when the Orfeo's Lament returned to realspace, most of the crew was dead and the Serrated Sun Chapter had been decimated to 3 companies (because everyone had been nommed by Daemons or suffered much worse fates). During questioning by Lorgar, Tal detailed what he had experienced in the Eye of Terror, which providing useful insight that Lorgar would later use to write the Book of Lorgar.

After these 'revelations', Lorgar comes to a bunch of conclusions. He decides that the Emperor's Imperial Truth was a big lie and that the worship of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos was the way to go. Lorgar also took one look at his Daemon possessed super corrupted son and decided it was proof that humanity could co-exist in harmony with the Ruinous Powers.

Anyways, Lorgar would favor Argel Tal and the other Possessed Marines, calling them the Gal Vorbak, "the Blessed Sons" in Colchisian. Argel Tal also got promoted to Chapter Master of the Serrated Sun Chapter and would go on to commit many acts of heresy during the Drop Site Massacre and Shadow Crusade. I'll detail that in a future post but suffice to say, it involves a lot of dead Smurfs.

So visually, I wanted to true chaotic nature of the Possessed Space Marine. They are 'rancid with corruption' as Curze put it so visually their appearance can be as varied and unpredictable as their blessings. I'll be adding a few more variants for the Gal Vorbak later but right now I have two head versions for Argel Tal so far. I'll give him and the Gal Vorbak a bunch of other blessings in a bit.

Next up is the Warhound Titan! Warhounds are the smallest class of Imperial Titan but they are also the fastest. Warhounds are primarily used as scout units carrying out reconnaissance of the enemy's lines or as the flanking element of a Titan Legion in conjunction with others of its kind. They are the only Titans to be normally deployed by the Titan Legions in packs of two members, as compared to the larger Battle and Emperor Titans which normally operate alone.

For my standard proxy, I tried to stick more or less to the Warhound aesthetic while adding some AdMech type iconography. I've got the Plasma Blastgun and Vulcan Mega Bolter proxies done so far but I'll add the Turbo Laser Destructor and the Inferno Gun later.

I've also been working on the fan variant that was included in the suggestion which had lightning claws. Not sure how to justify this in lore but I'd like to imagine a Forge World made a new pattern for Logan Grimnar because they thought it was hilarious how he kicked the Inquisition in the proverbial balls. We shall call it the Great Wolf pattern! 😄

Speaking of which, Logan Grimnar and the Void Dragon that looks like a dragon is up next. Stay tuned!