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Holy Emperor that's a lot of text! My usual questions and nitpicking, item by item:

"Reports of Black Legion, Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors, Emperor's Children, and more are heard." They got reports of the Alpha Legion? Either their intel is really freaking good, it was a bluff by the AL who wanted them to hear it, or (most likely given how things have gone) the infiltrator legion forgot how to infiltrate.

"Would it help if I said we're on a mission from god?" That was pretty funny. I like your version of Celestine.

Did Calgar make it? He was wounded, but did he recover?

Not sure if it's the book or your translation of it, but damn Guilliman sounds edgy when he's catching up on the past 10,000 years. It's somewhat justifiable but still seriously man, I thought Kurze was the emo one?!

"This is an age of war and wrath-- learning must be set aside," to everyone who thought that just because there are Primarchs walking around, everything would go all noblebright, here you have it from the mouth of a primarch. 40k is still as senselessly serious and grimdark as always, whether it makes sense or not.

"The imperials that refused to surrender were either killed or forced to submit." First, why are the daemons/red corsairs bothering with taking so many prisoners? Second, assuming that the normal imperial attitude towards chaos and surrendering still holds, then most of the Terran crusade is probably dead, right?

Edit: I was happy that Kairos managed to defeat a Primarch, but was it necessary to immediately deus ex machina him free? Also how do the khorne daemons find the place anyway?

Edit: the Legion of the Damned can manifest inside the maelstrom? That's interesting. Anyone else feel like that's foreshadowing something about their identity?

Once again, thank you for writing this. Most if my nitpicking is towards the story itself, not your additions or transcription.

Commissar Benny wrote:
Thanks again Goon. Beautifully written. There is a lot to get excited about, but this stood out the most:

Cadia was only the beginning – from Fenris to Armageddon

Sounds like Angron will be returning to Armageddon. I'll alert the Steel Legion.

And don't forget to phone in Ghazghkull to join the fun.

im interested in the secret pacts on mars

 Segersgia wrote:

Commissar Benny wrote:
Thanks again Goon. Beautifully written. There is a lot to get excited about, but this stood out the most:

Cadia was only the beginning – from Fenris to Armageddon

Sounds like Angron will be returning to Armageddon. I'll alert the Steel Legion.

And don't forget to phone in Ghazghkull to join the fun.

Hey it wouldn't be Armageddon without Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Besides I don't think Ghazghkull is going to let anyone kill old man Yarrick but Ghazghkull. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Things are about to get very interesting...

It is better than I thought, even if I despise the awakening of a loyalist primarch.
Thanks for the summary !
About the «super marines» thing, I don't believe any word of it.
It was probably the Custodian.

 Kap'n Krump wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Gathering Storm is a Trilogy.

We don't yet know (but kind of suspect) there'll be at least one other trilogy this year.

Ah, ok, double trilogy would mesh with what I've heard then.

And yeah, I think the 8th in june rumor is probably accurate. Because gathering storms started early this year, and it's now march, so logically, if another trilogy started, it would probably end june-ish.

Bad guys definitely need some new toys, though. Don't even care if it's not orks, CSM definitely deserve something shiny after all this 'good guy' nonsense.

Traitor Legions, Thousand Sons and KDK wernt enough for them this past year, as well as new plastic LOC and Bloodthirsters, and other multitudes of chaos kits?

I don't mind the awakening. ALso this is nicely setting the stage for 8th, don't give the conclusion just move the clock forward and have every faction react in their new codex.

Commissar Benny wrote:

 Segersgia wrote:

Commissar Benny wrote:
Thanks again Goon. Beautifully written. There is a lot to get excited about, but this stood out the most:

Cadia was only the beginning – from Fenris to Armageddon

Sounds like Angron will be returning to Armageddon. I'll alert the Steel Legion.

And don't forget to phone in Ghazghkull to join the fun.

Hey it wouldn't be Armageddon without Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Besides I don't think Ghazghkull is going to let anyone kill old man Yarrick but Ghazghkull. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Things are about to get very interesting...

Angron was due to get his kicked once again. The poor thing. He never learns. Than again brain damage is going to do you just that.

Commissar Benny wrote:

 Segersgia wrote:

Commissar Benny wrote:
Thanks again Goon. Beautifully written. There is a lot to get excited about, but this stood out the most:

Cadia was only the beginning – from Fenris to Armageddon

Sounds like Angron will be returning to Armageddon. I'll alert the Steel Legion.

And don't forget to phone in Ghazghkull to join the fun.

Hey it wouldn't be Armageddon without Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Besides I don't think Ghazghkull is going to let anyone kill old man Yarrick but Ghazghkull. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Things are about to get very interesting...

Would actually love for it to happen like this: Angron downs Ghazzy and focusses on Yarrick. He offs the commissar and tosses him aside as if he was nothing. Ghazghkull immediately, coming back out of nowhere, goes: "THAT ... WOZ MY KILL!!! WAAAAAAGH!!!" and with his newly found strength and rage, manages to banish him back to Khorne's domain.
basically the encounter between Nemeroth and Grimskull, but with the Ork actually beating the Daemon-prince.

yes, I'm not the best at writing stories.

 GoonBandito wrote:
“I erred,” Greyfax admits, “and I will do Penance. You truly are the instrument of the Emperor’s Will.”
“Vigilance is not a sin, Katarinya,” Celestine replies, “You serve Him as surely as I”.
“Indeed. Let us serve him together, as true warriors of Faith.” Together, Celestine and Greyfax launch themselves into the battle. Way better love story than Twilight.

haahha I LOL'd

 godardc wrote:
It is better than I thought, even if I despise the awakening of a loyalist primarch.
Thanks for the summary !
About the «super marines» thing, I don't believe any word of it.
It was probably the Custodian.

proably someone with crossed wires, my guess is we'llget a custodes codex this year, and storyline wise we'll see a new space marine founding.

Great Summary thank you - love the whole Celestine Greyfax relationship - most amusing

Looking forward to getting the book.

Uh, there was some talk in the past about Magnus and Guilliman sharing some brotherly words. Did they just battle? Meh.

One last thing that Guilliman orders before setting out to reclaim the wider Ultramar system – he orders the Library of Ptolemy barred shut to all visitors. This is an age of Wrath and War – learning and lore must be set aside.

I already dislike him.

Yeah I noticed that too. What a hypocrite. Wants a golden age of enlightenment like the Emps and then shuts down one of the few places of knowledge. Very counter intuitive.

I say good on the blasé Berserker. He wasn't going to let a little thing the return of a Primarch get in his way of killing. Khorne should have rewarded him right then and there with dark apotheosis. That would have made the slaughter (I would say fight but Chaos punching bags vs. the plot armored, spiritual liege, c'mon) of the Black Legion a little more interesting.

Yeah, I liked that aprt.

 Vector Strike wrote:
Uh, there was some talk in the past about Magnus and Guilliman sharing some brotherly words. Did they just battle? Meh.

That's really kind of a lost opportunity. You'd think Magnus would be a bit more... cerebral.

 Gamgee wrote:
Yeah I noticed that too. What a hypocrite. Wants a golden age of enlightenment like the Emps and then shuts down one of the few places of knowledge. Very counter intuitive.

did you read his reason....this is a new age of war, there is no time to focus on learning

very pragmatic thing to do..Roboute has always been pragmatic

Yes, I am sure the scholars that were in that Library are going to make excellent guardsmen and that their numbers are going to make a huge impact on the galaxy.

Yoyoyo wrote:

 Vector Strike wrote:
Uh, there was some talk in the past about Magnus and Guilliman sharing some brotherly words. Did they just battle? Meh.

That's really kind of a lost opportunity. You'd think Magnus would be a bit more... cerebral.

They do talk back and forth quite a bit during their duel - Magnus calls Guilliman insignificant, Guilliman fires back that Magnus is arrogant, they both accuse each other of being "slaves to monsters being worshipped as gods".

 Bobthehero wrote:
Yes, I am sure the scholars that were in that Library are going to make excellent guardsmen and that their numbers are going to make a huge impact on the galaxy.

If someone conscripted me and sent me on the front lines I would die. I'm a sickly person. I use my mind though in place of that and find a niche and use. All those scholars are now dead and the knowledge they had with them.

If he was a true pragmatist I would ask the scholars what their specialties are. Any of them who seem promising send to Cawl to aid him and train a next generation of tech priests. THAT is pragmatic. Set up a basic schooling system for everyone. What he did is dumb. Scholars take longer to train than soldiers. If the planet is about to fall like that day and it is that fire where it might all be lost anyways then sure, but he just crippled himself int he long term.

I always hear about Robut being an amazing statesmen and then I realize he is only as good as the authors own abilities which tend to be poor. This just makes me hate him more.

This was an extremely sarcastic post, forgot the sarcasm font, my bad

Great summary, thanks GoonBandito

I had hoped that they were building up to having some genuine consequences to the storyline (and not just the addition of a new Lord of War), but, there you go.

Guilliman just sounds like the usual Space Marine douche bigot on steroids. There was an opportunity for actual growth in the archetypal Space Marine character that seems to have gone wanting (the fact that it was Xenos and the Adeptus Mechanicus that saved him, over and over, and not his own smurfs, could have helped justify a new prevailing attitude in the Imperium.) But perhaps I'm being impatient, and we'll see what happens with 8th Edition and the second trilogy that presumably

a) finishes Abaddon's 13th Crusade (and hopefully Abaddon too),
b) raises the god Ynnead (so the Eldar can stop moaning about being Doomed),
c) settles the score between Guilliman and Fulgrim (more wishful thinking on my part), and
d) more clearly defines the factions in the 40K 'verse - along the lines of Good Guys, Neutral Guys, Evil Guys and Universal Baddies ('Nids)



Of course, the big disappointment was after he finished downloading (Lee Loo style) what he'd missed in the preceding millennia, his first comment wasn't "WTF happened to the Squats?"

I was agreeing with you. I was shocked when I seen that Bob. It was so pointless.

Great summary, there's a lot, A LOT, I don't like but some bits are quite cool.

I thought the plague was a particularly good bit, wonderful trick. Not just clever for 40k, but clever by any measure.

And I've loved 40k's Terra as a setting for a long time, so I may well have to pick this up.

Lord Flasheart wrote:
Great summary, thanks GoonBandito

I had hoped that they were building up to having some genuine consequences to the storyline (and not just the addition of a new Lord of War), but, there you go.

Guilliman just sounds like the usual Space Marine douche bigot on steroids. There was an opportunity for actual growth in the archetypal Space Marine character that seems to have gone wanting (the fact that it was Xenos and the Adeptus Mechanicus that saved him, over and over, and not his own smurfs, could have helped justify a new prevailing attitude in the Imperium.) But perhaps I'm being impatient, and we'll see what happens with 8th Edition and the second trilogy that presumably

Well he only actually has one interaction with the Ynnari we read, said interaction also comes quite late, just before he decides to head off to Terra, so we don't actually ever get how he or the Imperials reacted or developed with the Ynnari (and based off the discussion it seems during the battles in Ultramar the Ynnari as a military force aided them).

Said meeting we do see, between Yvrainne, the Vizarch and Roboute is...perhaps unrealistically friendly. As in, considering Guilliman was never one of the Sons who was shown to protest the Emperor's standing orders of kill all aliens on sight the way Magnus, Horus and Fulgrim did his treatment of Yvrainne is incredibly friendly. Pretty much he spends the brief conversation flattering her, saying he won't forget the debt he owes her, he asks if he can't convince her and the Ynnari to come with him and then ends it by saying that he's not going to try to force more information from her cause he values their alliance more than any potential benefits that might bring.

Then he does end by musing to himself that the Eldar will only pursue the alliance as long as it aides them.

But yeah Yvrainne gets along with him fine. In fact in the side bits we see Yvrainne wants to forge an alliance with the Necron too (but a dumb Autarch sabotages her attempt). So Yvrainne is apparently great Alliance-builder who seeks to join the species of the galaxy who she can into a great union against Chaos. Her and Sylandri are everywhere.

Overall though Roboute's bizarre friendliness with Yvrainne is indicative of one of the missteps I felt was prevalent in the book; seeing how Roboute would actually handle the new galaxy, the religion, having been saved by the hated Xenos, is all largely glossed over in sentences which don't actually show us the character's interacting. For example I was really looking forward to how interesting a situation would be where Celestine, an ardent believer, discusses with Guilliman, an ardent atheist, her faith. But, instead, we never see them have a conversation about religion and, instead, we get a bit of text which almost makes it seem like Greyfax and Celestine don't even care that Guilliman's an atheist. Missed opportunity for some fun conversation, I'd have loved to see Celestine's inner monologue concerning a being she worships dismissing the notion of religion.

Thanks for writing that one up, great stuff.

 cvtuttle wrote:

 GoonBandito wrote:
“I erred,” Greyfax admits, “and I will do Penance. You truly are the instrument of the Emperor’s Will.”
“Vigilance is not a sin, Katarinya,” Celestine replies, “You serve Him as surely as I”.
“Indeed. Let us serve him together, as true warriors of Faith.” Together, Celestine and Greyfax launch themselves into the battle. Way better love story than Twilight.

haahha I LOL'd

I genuinely think they're pairing off Celestine and Greyfax at this point. Which I support 100%, the only question is what portmanteau to use...Celefax? GreyStine? Celerinya? Katastine? so many choices!

Exalted!

I love these plot summaries. keep them up man they are great reads.

Also, it sounds like Cawl had the thing to fix Rowboat all along. So procrastination for 10k years. The best lol.

Thank you for the great job @GoonBandito. I really enjoyed your summaries.

About the cliffhanger, I'm not sure they are going to resolve it in the next trilogy. They may just use it as a starting point for the 8th, and then expand it a bit there and in the codices.