Weaver Option Update 23 April 2021

The Legate are slightly bigger than the Enterprise at thirteen kilometers long. That makes them far smaller than the Gloriana 'class'.

Antony444

I haven’t seen much on the legate class battleships. How would they compare to a Gloriana or even the Enterprise?

Rufio18

They're talking about two different Glorianas. The first is the Tsunami Magos Wismer just recovered. The second is the Flamewrought.

Gabriel Meadow

“I certainly don’t want to share the fate of this wrecked Gloriana they towed here five days ago. [...] The Super-Battleship should have reached the Ring of Iron by now," 5 days to travel from Nyx System to Mars? It seems quite inconsistent with travel times mentioned elsewhere. For example Mechanicus armada travelling from Mars to Nyx after discovery of STC took a lot longer. Similarly transit times between Pavia and Nyx were much greater despite shorter distances involved.

Please note Battle Group Volga has the only two Gloriana available. Taylor wasn't able to get more. The Heimdall psy-tech will be explained in detail...in the next chapter (evil grin).

Antony444

So the fleet is just the first group and it has two Glorianas in it. How many more fleet groups will be there for ships ...... same as ground battle groups? Can you explain more on the heimdall psy tech feild and do all the larger capital ships have it or only the aegis class heavy cruiser? I love your empire building and I hope your next updates will have the many improvements made for operation Stalingrad.

Rufio18

Do you want to explain to an adorable spider why they are left behind?

Antony444

Thx for your work! Parth with arena one of best imo. But im no idea how taylor will feel when sending children to war (i mean this new spiders are 10year old :P)

The Imperium had already close to 95% certainty Lorgar was going to lead the Black Crusade. The 5% remaining were in case he sent 'only' the Dark Council in his name. The information was useful otherwise.

Antony444

It sounds like Imperium have found out that Lorgar is going to lead this Crusade based on what Aurelia did say and was going to reveal before the scene ended. Still the Imperium is going to be less exterminate all xeno in the galaxy in the future. Still it will be interesting to see how far the gigantic spider is going to spread in the Imperium over the millennium.

Albino87

Well given everything else he's had to deal with, I imagine that being near the Sisters of Silence is probably low on the "this causes me imeasurable amounts of suffering and pain" scale.

Dominic

Thinking about how unpleasant it is for a powerful psyker to be exposed to a null and the way that the bad vibes they give off to pretty much everyone, it is actually pretty impressive that the Emperor is able to work with the Sisters of Silence.

primus

This...this is too entirely accurate, now that the comparison is sticking in my head...

Antony444

Ha! Ha! Ha! Nice try, but no, you will have to wait for several chapters for this answer.

Antony444

And I'm not going to say you're wrong.

Antony444

Also, Lakadiath is basically Eldar Commissars Cain? Lol.

Vortiboy27

What exactly did Aurelia see that would allow Weaver to change her plans? Also at least this time, Taylor actually sees the coming fire storm.

Vortiboy27

I strongly suspect Biel-Tan is going to be a name forever tainted as far as the Eldar as a whole go. The Eldar pirate's thoughts on Starbane's lineage is a good hint it's already heading that direction. I feel sure this trip to the Arena of Blades, and the upcoming Operation will only underline to the Eldar the best hope as a species they have is to be as inoffensive as possible. Between the fact Taylor was in the forefront of the Dark City xenocide for a large portion of the time spent there don't show her as less then dangerous. The fact the Queen of Blades cheerfully confirmed she dueled Weaver, and wouldn't mind a new spar is likely not going to make the other Eldar have less nightmares, as they just finished watching her slaughter her way through some hefty numbers, and NECRON. To find out Weaver survived THAT, even if it was due to the Queen being merciful... no, no, NOPE. I'm sure they're reactions to any suggestions that might piss Taylor off worse will help insure Biel-Tan's legacy being curses heaped upon their graves for provoking this horrible monster into regarding Eldar as enemies.

Dale

I recall one past excerpt saying Eldrad had inventively figured out something to handle the issue of the 'burning' for Eldar. Probably he figured out something here.

Gabriel Meadow

I've reread this piece several times and a question appeared: all Eldars were branded by Sacrifice during the death of Slaanesh and this Brand were burning all the time, even if they found some ways to make it more bearable. So I realised that the fact, that it wasn't mentionned once during whole Arenas event is strange. Moreover, I would have thought that being at close proximity to one who embodies 'Sacrifice' would have some effect on Eldars. Otherwise another question, i would like to know, our new apprentice of Queen of Blade who managed to pass 'minimal level required', just how badass she is now in comparison to average Farseer?

Boris Michenski

Hilarious. (grin)

Antony444

That or it will bring them to regrettable actions. Don't forget that in canon M41, the only thing that prevented a wide rebellion against Guilliman was the fact the situation was clear totally desperate.

Antony444

The Army Groups have been partially dispersed into several structures, because not all regiments have the same specialties, and for politics-doctrinal-rules reasons. And of course since Volga is under Taylor's command, every force wanted to have an army serving under her to prove the valour of their guardsmen. But yes, Army Group Volga is only one of ten Army Groups, and it is 40 million-strong.

Antony444

Frankly on this one, I just decided to have some creative fun, din't realise it was posted elsewhere.

Antony444

Not were unwilling or totally surprised among the audience, no. First, because the most intelligent knew very well they had ocmmitted treason, and the Imperium is not known to forgive and forget in matters such as these. Plus the bounty on the Queen of Blades is huge, so why not try to become wealthier than in your craziest dreams?

Antony444

I was reading the part of astartes pizza making when I had that idea : Taylor : "I wonder if the idea of pizza will stick to the galaxy this time" 6000 years later " The captain general may not be the best fighter, but he is able to taylor-bake nutricious yet delicious pitzza-pies for ten-thousands Custodians every single day. The recipe an ancient and secret wonder miracle given by one of the greatest living Saint ! "

Gohu lacd

Given her local position in the Imperium, I wouldn't be surprised if Antony said she had to put a lot of effort to limit it to two species.

primus

For some reason the image of 2 astartes cooking pizza is hilarious. However, going back and reading this section of the chapter alongside the one released last week, I'm finding it a little hypocritical of Taylor to recommend to the Rogue Trader not to put her name on a system when Taylor herself now has two species named after her.

ScreamingMidgit

Well, Biel-Tan (with company) and Commoragh left that *bad* an impression. It's gonna take a while and good deeds for the emissaries to get past that - and Starbane isn't helping. Why did Alaitoc think sending him was a good idea?

Gabriel Meadow

Artemis has been plotting with Wei, hasn't she?

Gabriel Meadow

I suspect we'll be seeing more of the Black Crusade in the later parts of the chapter.

Gabriel Meadow

Really good chapter and while I don’t expect it to be a focus or mentioned until after Stalingrad and this Noctilith Arc are over, I wonder if a certain Khan will be coming back just isn’t time to receive a Gloriana as a bribe to go and be anywhere but near Terra. After all the arguing that Vandire and Company will make I imagine would change real quick if they believed that a Primarch or 2 would be setting up shop on the homeworld. What better way to get them to go then by gifting this gift of the Omnisiha/god emperor to one of his sons and letting them go back to killing traitors far far away from them

Jack

Also, loving the giant, golden, surprisingly talkative death spiders.

Benjamin Mages

Taylor is throwing more hostility to the Eldar than's actually warranted, but the why is very understandable. Obviously Eldrad and co had no intention of burning the very tiny string bridge that remained, but I couldn't help but comment in my head about painting the other Asuryani with the same brush as Biel-Tan is kind of like painting all parts of the Imperium with the same brush; you really shouldn't.

Benjamin Mages

So Army Group Volga is separate from the Army Groups Indiga, Nyx, Krieg, etc, correct? Looks like it'll bring the army forces into the ballpark of 300 million. Already this is going to be several times larger than Comorragh, and more than likely the Imperium will win a victory that is comparatively dirt cheap.

Gabriel Meadow

Space marine pizzas, someone really likes listen to Protean Politics

Well, the ride is gaining in speed! I somewhat disliked the fact the Aena of Blades seems like Druckari's one light, but well it's pretty much inevitable. I do hope that not ALL spectators were unwilling and waiting for execution... I liked how Eldrand ended up sounding condescendant, while certainly trying not to be. Well that's Eldar's nature for you, man, but you can gain humility, keep working on it! And mister perfect Farsser was brought just to lighten the mood... I'm surprised it worked. Either best negotiator amongst Eldars was demounted back to just Authack or you forgot about it. And I suspect Tsumani was brought to Nyx five years, not days ago. Thanks for your hard work, I'm looking forward for more... by the way, what size should we expect from whole chapter?

Boris Michenski

The Eldar are more and more thinking Biel-Tan should have been burned by their hands. Just because. There will be several...ironic scenes with the spiders in this chapter and later in this arc. That I can promise.

Antony444

Of course there was spectators! They just shifted for several seconds between 'spectators' and 'arena gladiators'. Some of them may have been a bit unwilling to do the latter, but where was the problem? (evil cackle)

Antony444

My poor friend. Do you think the Guard has only laser weapons. The Baneblade wants to say hello...

Antony444

Mhh...the scene with the Gloriana isn't a priority...unfortunately, there's a limit of scenes I have, and the action is coming closer. Mars isn't anywhere near the action this time. The Space Marines were warriors who had tarnished the reputation of their Chapter by killing people who were neither traitors nor heretics on a particularly day where 'friendly fire' took all its meaning.

Antony444

You're welcome.

Antony444

Thanks for the update. I'm enjoying the build up. One thing did surprise me. It sounded like the Queen of Blades fight had no spectators at all. The humans Taylor had brought to watch and die were all trying to kill her and the Eldar, Necrons, and Human Leadership were negotiating with each other instead of watching. That the Queen of Blades was fine with this seems very out of character to me.

Nicholas

Necrons are generally considered immune to fire weapons. How can the guard armed with laser rifles win?

Ted min

20(ish) years

Silver Wolf

As someone who has always had trouble reading the imperial method of displaying dates, when our Glorious Saint (long may she reign) says "Over a decade ago, being surrounded by men and women having centuries more of experience than her on the frontlines would have made her nervous." How long has she been in the 40k universe? Because it's easy to tell when timeskips happen in the story, it's just had to get a feel for how long they are.

thx for the words as always yikes tank sized spiders that can think for them self's the eldar who lived and saw the fall are not going to feel save in that galaxy best bit is when they try to life the encounter the nids :D already waiting for the discussion with spiders and dragon on what form the the best for mech spiders or dragons. best guess would be taylor hitting her head against the table once she witness it

frank schellingerhout

Thanks for the 2 for one birthday present

Harpy81

Man I hope we get some reactions from a second Gloriana coming into the Ring of Iron, because that would be good. The Arena was pretty good, and Taylor's hostility towards the Eldar is right there. The fact the Eldar was asking for one of the most strategically important resources in the galaxy...wow. Though I can see why they want it. Two Space Marines died? What did they do to get that assignment. And yeah, Battlefleet Nyx doesn't trust the Eldar not to try and backstab them which is the intelligent move. That said, I hope we get to the part where Logar kicks off the crusade at the end of the chapters. The buildup is nice , but I'm looking forward to the action as well:)

Bel

Artemis: I'm offended you don't recognise We are the third insect! Are we not majestic and beautiful enough?

Antony444

Sorry for Morpheus and all the deities of sleep.

Antony444

Fun. Giant talking spiders. This just reinforces that cult of the three insects can’t wait to see what the third insect will be. I will admit I had expected Maea to maybe request the sorrow sword she’s missing from Trayzyn as her reward for winning but it will be interesting to see how she gets her hands on it.

Raymond Horn

I'm rather underwhelmed so far. This chapter has been a second interlude. Not really a "Black crusade" chapter. Not even the Chaos parts involve the actual crusade yet. Just the pre-crusade.

Mordart

Well now there goes my sleep for the night!

Confused

universe evacuations should alredy had hapened when she got personal swarm of catachan ants, thos spiders are powerfull yes but ants will build her a kingdom and more.

Krisjanis Jansons

Skitter, the Warlord of Brockton Bay... now has an army of Sentient, Psychic, Baneblade sized Spiders. Welp, everyone out of the Universe.

Robbie Baker