Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

How do?

I know it’s a bit early, given it won’t be in the wild for a couple of weeks, but figured there’ll be enough info out there that we may wish to coral it in a single thread.

Me? I’m avoiding spoilers, especially about what’s in the envelope - or even if all the envelopes are the same.

Format here is simple. General character or plot related stuff shouldn’t require a spoiler tag. But anything relating to the contents of the envelope?



That way peeps interested in the ‘common’ knowledge can still peruse the thread, without the ending being revealed.

I’ll be sharing a link to this thread in the other BSF threads.

It does seem a bit at odds with the past fluff for the Blackstones. Being all six were supposedly accounted for.

So where does this one come from?

The Galaxy is a colossal, mind boggingly huge place. We knew of six.

But if they were indeed built to knack C’Tan, why only build six?

Aye, and even of those the Imperium only knew a tiny bit of how they actually worked. Don't forget science is a religion with strict rules on what can and cannot be done and that's before you get to tinkering with foul xenotech.

So its no shock that there is another that survived and has remained hidden within the depths of the galaxy; more might also exist out there. Plus whilst htey are famous for having world shattering firepower, there is likely far more that they can, or some can, do that the Imperium still doesn't understand.

Its something that often gets forgotten in sci-fi settings, especially those that have some form of FTL. But space is really huge(40k also often forgets that ten thousand years is a really long time ). Even the size of "just" our own star system is hard for the human mind to appreciate. Given how Warp travel hops between gravity wells, there could be thousands of Blackstones drifting in the interstellar void between Sol and Alpha Centauri and no one would know.

 BaronIveagh wrote:
It does seem a bit at odds with the past fluff for the Blackstones. Being all six were supposedly accounted for.

So where does this one come from?

If they really are the talismans of vaul as the eldar/harlequins seem to think, then there should be a thousand of them right?

 BaronIveagh wrote:
It does seem a bit at odds with the past fluff for the Blackstones. Being all six were supposedly accounted for.

So where does this one come from?

All Six that the Imperium had found in one Sector.

 cole1114 wrote:

 BaronIveagh wrote:
It does seem a bit at odds with the past fluff for the Blackstones. Being all six were supposedly accounted for.

So where does this one come from?

If they really are the talismans of vaul as the eldar/harlequins seem to think, then there should be a thousand of them right?

Here, who knows?

The Talisman’s Of Vaul are a post-fall legend. How much truth can we place on a dim racial memory? They’d been effectively defunct for millions of years, if they were actually C’Tan killing weapons.

And it’s that last comment that things get really interesting. Any Eldar knowledge, outside the Black Library is mythic in its nature. That’s just they way they are. So the modern Eldar calling them Talismans of Vaul doesn’t carry much weight in terms of evidence of their origin.

For instance, if I told a primitive human of a magical device that generated both light and heat....what am I actually describing? Could be a cigarette lighter. Could be a match. Maybe a lightbulb. Or a computer monitor. Perhaps a firework. Or a gas oven with an electric light. Could even be a high powered research laser, or a stick I’ve set on fire.

Who knows! It all depends on the accuracy of the description, and the individuals points of reference.

In 40k, there are many, many, many eras completely unrecorded in history. From there, who’s to say the modern Eldar didn’t encounter a Blackstone Fortress, and label it a ‘Talisman Of Vaul’ because it’s the closest cultural approximation in terms of a monicker? After all, humanity has given these things a name. Why not the Eldar? Giving something a name does not mean one has understanding of it.

Well, the reason that a limited number of them were written in was because more than two or three at once steamrollers the entire Imperial Navy all the way to Terra.

It'd be like the admech suddenly rolling out billions of Men of Iron.

It took the Phalanx to cripple a single one with it's shields disabled. Three can create Star Exploding super beams. Two can wipe out fleets.

This brings up another point; if Blackstone Fortresses are so powerful, doesn't the premise of a single explorer taking it on seem horribly flawed? I mean, I can see a kill team, maybe- especially if they had fleet support. But a single explorer?

PenitentJake wrote:
This brings up another point; if Blackstone Fortresses are so powerful, doesn't the premise of a single explorer taking it on seem horribly flawed? I mean, I can see a kill team, maybe- especially if they had fleet support. But a single explorer?

Hence why there's more than one explorer in the box.

Since the game is officially out... can we get some spoiler tagged spoilers of the envelope's contents? I'm very curious about if they're going to all be the same for real, and if they're a model...

And worse, can't pick up my own copy until Tuesday (Out of town for US holiday, and the store I preordered at isn't open on Sunday when I get back, OR on Monday. Doh!)

 Dulahan wrote:
Since the game is officially out... can we get some spoiler tagged spoilers of the envelope's contents? I'm very curious about if they're going to all be the same for real, and if they're a model...

And worse, can't pick up my own copy until Tuesday (Out of town for US holiday, and the store I preordered at isn't open on Sunday when I get back, OR on Monday. Doh!)

Having seen the cards on /tg/, rather than giving the specific contexts, I can just say it has no wider lore implications whatsoever and is just one of a random set of rewards for the character who completes the mission.

Or in other words, don’t worry about it unless you’re playing the game, and if you were expecting a shocking revelation relevant to the wider setting, sorry. Nope.

Yup, got my copy today and one of the first things I did was open the envelope. No fluff revelation or preview of upcoming stuff. Just a special bit of in game loot.

Envelope spoilers:

Wow, that is really boring and underwhelming.

It's a tabletop game gone Diablo. But only a little.