'HE BURNED WITH life. It seared through his veins. The righteousness of his cause haloed him, bathing him in a Corona of a faith that was wholly unreligious, but faith nevertheless. I stared up at him beyond the ranks of his huscarls, those warriors who we would learn in later wars were called Sword Brethren, and I realised then just how it was that Sigismund still lived even after all this time. He had survived for a thousand years because he refused to die. He hated us too much to sleep in his grave with his duty undone.
"So you have returned." He spoke to all of us, his voice ancient but I cracked. "I never doubted you would".'
*****
The second post in the Loremaster series sees a different tale under scrutiny. This time we are looking at a very specific portion of a novel, and what is labeled as the "true end to the great crusade".
This is the Death of Sigismund, the Emperor's Champion of Terra, first of the Templar Brethren, and finest duelist amongst the Legiones Astartes.
'So ordinarily, I would add a guest paragraph here describing why they picked this lore segment and what they like about it. Unfortunately, for this post the person I had asked let me down, so rather than hold off as the post was ready, I decided to post it anyway as it's part of the series.'
First published in 2017, Black legion is the second novel of the Black Legion Series;
'EZEKYKE ABADDON AND his warlords strive to bind the newborn Black Legion together under threat of destruction. Now Khayon, as Abaddon's most-trusted assassin, is tasked with ending the threat of Thagus Daravek, the self-proclaimed Lord of Hosts - a rival to Ezekyle's final fate. Fighting the vile whispers of the Dark God's within his mind, Abaddon turns a fevered gaze back to the Imperium, where his destiny awaits. Yet the Emperor's Champion and his Black Templars stand guard at the gates of hell, and Sigismund has waited centuries to face Abaddon in battle.'
Aaron Dembski-Bowden erupted into the Black Library upper echelon of authors with his fantastic Night Lords trilogy* which really paved a trail for better then middling Chaos Marine novels. As a lot of the other stuff was just chaff, seeming to be based upon how stupid GW makes the Chaos forces in their own background box-outs and Codex writing.
The Black Legion Series, which he started but seems to have neglected as he's been pulled into finished the Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra novels off, follows the formation of the titular legion in the far off days of the Legion Wars inside the Eye of Terror.
Having been driven back into the warp storm following the defeat, the traitor legions turned upon one another and for a few centuries piratically raided each others holdings within the eye with no loyalty other than to themselves.
The series follows the main character Iskandar Khayon, and is told from his point of view, relaying the deeds and events which birthed the greatest threat to the Imperium to Inquisitorial Captors in a memoir form.
The first book, The Talon of Horus, details the search for Abaddon and the Vengeful Spirit, Horus' Flagship.
This second book, Black Legion, details the first forays out of the Eye, and the start of the first Black Crusade. Waiting for them are the Black Templars and Sigismund himself, personally speaking this segment is the highlight of a rather underwhelming book overall.
'SIGISMUND REMAINED MOTIONLESS and said, with infinite patience, "You keep speaking Ezekyle. Do I look as though I am listening?"
"No pity, no remorse, no fear," Abaddon said with a smile.
He did not wait for a reply. He held out his hand for his sword. Zaidu moved forwards, picking it up and placing it in Abaddon's hand before backing away.
Sigismund mirrors the gesture in reverse, handing the sword of the High Marshals to one of his huscarls. Sigismund drew the Black Sword in its place, raising it to salute Abaddon with the same cold formality he had displayed unceasingly this far.
Sigismund would be faster in his ornate power armour, but there was no way of knowing how much age had slowed him.'
You have to admire Sigismund here. He knows that he is going to die, but will not shirk from his duty as the Emperor's Champion and seeks to duel the traitor champions.
Abaddon as the arch-traitor was clearly in his sights during the siege of Terra, but circumstances denied the duel, so here they finally meet.
AND SIGISMUND'S AGE did show. It slowed him, the finest duellist to ever wear ceramite, to a pace that was no faster then Abaddon in his hulking Terminator plate.
Abaddon and Sigismund's blades met for the first time, a skidding clash that sprayed sparks across both warriors. I thought it might have been the signal for both sides to charge, yet there was no such uproar.
Their crashing blades brought a storm's light to the place of austere darkness, and still the gathered warriors on both sides stood in awes silence across the devastated chamber.
I found the signs of Sigismund's age unconscionably tragic - a fact that Ezekyle later mocked me for. He remarked that I should have paid more heed to the fact that the Black Knight, at a thousand years of age, could still have stood toe to toe and matched blade with any warrior. Age had slowed him to a level with the rest of us.'
I love the last line in the passage above, utmost respect from Abaddon himself, who was under no illusions that he could have, and very nearly did, die in the duel.
The whole piece is written so well, ADB could have waxed on about how badass Sigismund is after his heroics during the Heresy and the Siege of Terra, instead he writes a respectful, fitting end to a characters legacy which stays completely within the bounds of what he was. It's written in such a way that you get sucked in and forget the rest of the book, or what else is happening during this duel.
The Black Legion and Black Templars fleets are grinding into one another at this point in the story, the void war raging all around. Yet all the focus is down upon this one chamber inside the Templars command ship as the greatest champions of their age fight one another.
'THE BLACK KNIGHT, fallen and ripped apart. His Sword Brethren gone or dead.
Here at the last he looked every one of his years, with time's lines cracking his face. He looked upwards at the chamber's ornate ceiling, his eyes lifted as if in reverence to the Master of Mankind upon His throne of gold.
Sigismund's hand trembled, still seeking his fallen sword.
"No", Abaddon murmured with brotherly gentleness, through the running of his blood and the heaving of his chest. "No. It's over. Sleep now".
The knight's fingertips scraped at the hilt of his blade. So very close, yet he lacked the strength to move even that far.'
Later on Abaddon remarks that "He just wouldn't die!" And Sigismund is clearly showing that here, still reaching for his sword as a warrior should, whilst he has strength he plans on killing his foe.
I love how respectful Abaddon is, even though these are hated enemies**.
The final section of the novel concludes Sigismund's story and described the Black Legion's official declaration of war upon the Imperium.
Again this is a solemn piece of writing which really captures the essence of the characters, not the "hurr, durr, we chaos have tentacles" bits which GW focuses on in their codexes.
One of the Black Templars ships served as Sigismund's mausoleum.
I was one of the four warriors who carried him there, a pallbearer for our first Imperial foe. We laid him upon the command throne in readiness.
Abaddon handed me Sigismund's favoured blade - the Black Sword and bade me carve out declaration along the length of the blade.
Once it was done we lay the cooling blade upon Sigismund's corpse and closed his hands around the hilt. No effort was made to hide the wound that had slain him, not to mask the mangled ceramite of bloodstained tabard. The knight-king's chin was bathed in blood - Abaddon wiped the worst of it from the old warriors beard with a care that would astonish any Imperial witness.
With three words we delivered our message and declaration of war. Words that encapsulated all that we had been, and all that we had become.
'We are returned.'
It is such a respectful end to Sigismund's story,. Story which has ran throughout the Horus Heresy series, seen him censured by his Primarch, promoted to be the first Emperor's Champion, duel and defeat most of the traitor commanders who were not Primarch's.
Sigismund is a beloved character in the setting, no matter what anyone says, and seeing the main antagonists of the setting giving him a proper state funeral (almost) in a dignified manor to deliver their declaration of the long war is such a different take on things I think it works beautifully.
You're expecting them to desecrate Sigismund and use him for some sort of ritual as they probably would if this was in a codex. But the sheer lack of drama in this piece is actually refreshing and a nice change from the norm.
This has been the second post of this series, and I ask if you want to participate, leave me a comment on the post and I'll detail what I ask for involvement from readers.
Until next time, have nice day...
(Italicized sections of text are quoted from the novel).
*I read the Night Lords trilogy, as well as the Emperor's Gift (also by ADB) and quickly found that he had become my favourite Black Library author. He seems to weave a more grounded take on these otherwise alien characters, (come on, Astartes are as relatable to humans as we are to our pets).
One thing which keeps getting quoted as part of the reason for the various Primarch's falling to chaos is that the Emperor made them "too human", with a human's foils and flaws.
ADB managed to write this into his characters and you really seem to feel things like Hyperion's inexperience and the shame in the Emperor's Gift. Or Lheorvine Ukris' rage taking over him at times from the Butcher's Nails eating into his brain in these novels.
* True he does have the Black Sword buried to the hilt through his chest at this point, but you can still be respectful of an enemy without needing life threatening accessories.
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