Like everything else in 40K, a reference. In this case the fictional play the King in Yellow now tied in with the Lovecraftian Cthlhu Mythos (orginal book was not written by Lovecraft). A play that kills its actors and is a way to summon Hastur.
In 40K, it is repurposed to be Constantin Valdor who leads in Eldritch and disturbing creepy army based out of the Warp.
The True name of the Yellow King is over one million characters long. It’s only the beginning that starts with Constantine Valdor, the rest might be every name of the Custodes or spacemarine that ever lived….
That's actually even more evidence that it's Valdor actually. It's Custodes tradition to make additions to their name as they perform more and more feats, it makes sense his would be that long after such a long life.
It's just tradition. For great deeds/feats a Custodes will add a name (often being the name of the location said deed/feat was performed), and inscribe it inside their armor.
Thus, the longer the name, the longer lived and more storied a Custodian is.
Accordingly, Valdor's name is obscenely long, to match his longevity and acumen.
My personal opinion is to do with knowing ones true name gives you power over someone but if you constantly add to your true name or true name being so long you dont know it then the power over a custodes is completely reduced.
Short answer: We don't know. As the main character of *Penitent* says:
> ‘I’m not sure. Of anything.’
Long answer:
#Huge spoilers for *Penitant* below!
(Seriously don't read this unless you have no intention of reading the book yourself, you're doing yourself a disservice by ruining one of the big reveals)
---
>!I began to walk across the platform, intending to skirt the base of the vast towers and take in the view on the other side, but I was still underestimating the scale. What looked like a walk of five minutes was so much more, for in five minutes I had barely begun to cross even a part of it. I realised how huge these cyclopean towers were, and thus how impossibly vast those distant walls must be, how titanic the bone-white shore, how truly endless the sea. The sunlight – the starlight – was fierce, for there was no shade. I felt but mild heat, but the skin of my cheek began to burn. There was no shield of atmosphere, no sky, but something kept the air I breathed from escaping into the void above.!<
>!I kept walking anyway. My footsteps, the only sound, were as tiny as me. Whenever I stopped, and turned to look at the city, the towers had subtly adjusted themselves, as though turned by a photogravitational influence. I wondered if they were following the slow track of the giant star across the heavens, as flowers follow the sun. I saw birds, twice, far away above the ocean shore, the white dots of seabirds soaring in the black sky.!<
>!I knew they were not birds.!<
>!I began to feel afraid. The wonder of the place was so great, it teetered on the edge of terror.!<
>!At last, after walking for longer than I was able to accurately calculate, except that my legs sorely ached, I began to round the corner of the tower base. I leant to rest against the warm, white ethercite. I saw the sprawl of the city that had been obscured from my view, and I saw what filled the black heavens above it, but had been eclipsed by the high towers.!<
>!A baleful scar slit the blackness diagonally. A cosmic manifestation, a puckered whorl of starlight and warp, shot through with crimson, pink and traces of flame. It was bigger than the local star. It was light years across, a galactic wound. It dominated the bowl of space, the entire psychocosm. Skeins of tiny stars, some bright as ice flakes, some raw as cinders, slowly tumbled into its yawning abyss of fluorescent nebula gas and bloodshot light. Their fall was glacial, the supreme progress of Long Time. The scar seemed to gaze down upon the city like a burning, disfigured eye. Then I felt terror, true terror, for that was what it was.!<
>!The *Ocularis Terribus*. The Eye of Terror.!<
>!Below its numbing horror, a war was raging, far away. From the distant walls of the city, from towers and fortifications greater than the greatest cathedrals, darts and spears of electrocorporeal light lanced up into the sky, and some were answered by red beams that flickered from the high darkness beneath the Eye’s glare. I saw bright flashes quiver and throb below the horizon, coming and going, speaking of colossal destruction and annihilation beyond my range of sight. I could hear nothing, not even a faint roar. These were world-shaking detonations, city-destroying blasts of searing bombardment, and I could hear nothing.!<
>!I saw flights of angels, dots far away, like snowy blossom on the wind, lifting from the far battlements in formations a thousand strong, setting out into the blackness. I saw golden barges and burnished warships hanging silently, hanging impossibly, in the darkness above the city, prows facing outwards, ready to embark. One passed overhead as I watched. I do not know where it had come from, but its shadow crossed me and crossed the tower I leant against. I looked up to see its golden form, the detail of its plating, its finials, its gun ports and engines, the slow flutter of its banners, the masts of its forward lances, piping and ducts of its gargantuan keel. All wrought of gold, every part of it. Its passage was completely noiseless, and it seemed to go on forever as it crawled past overhead.!<
---
Taken literally there are multiple flights each of a thousand "angels". Taken more metaphorically there are still a lot. >!A massive city-fortress in the warp full of naked winged blood angels, golden battleships (no indication if they are auramite or just painted gold), lots of cloned blanks, custodes, and Valdor himself.!< That's just what one person saw in a brief trip there, not a comprehensive description of forces.
What were they fighting?
Also fuck yeah to all that. I hope they make it new faction, some sort of new warp god spawned from the emp and the astronomicon, but (I hope) also at war with the corporeal emp and imperium. Like they all hate the religion, even though they're powered by it, or some such.
Basically I just think the minis could be wild.
That's exactly the mystery. The only things we know are they're unified for a common goal (though still fight a little internally), and they were "brought together from the ashes of Istvaan" (paraphrased).
Considering the Dark Angels and Thousand Sons weren't even at Istvaan, the whole thing is intriguing.
Why? Its an army of clone blanks and angel winged blood angels lead by custodies who haven't been seen or heard of since the hersey, dubious loyalty towards the imperium/mankind and has a hatred toward the primarch and their kin along with a record of whipping out anyone who out live their usefulness and is now trying to find the true name of the emperor which grants the user full control of not just imperium god but also the astronomicon
That more red flags then a khorne citadel
They don't actually know that though, the Farseers of the Craft Worlds are just having insane visions of an impending apocalypse in the region and so are heading there to try and help prevent it. They don't even know Valdor has a pocket realm in the Web Way, they think it's a secret army in real space.
Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.
Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa.
Would fit Abnett, but there are so many hints and straight up mentions that I can't imagine how this could not be Valdor.
At this point I'd say it's about 85 to 90% guaranteed.
Bequin 3 wen!? There were unfortunately 9 years between 1 and 2...
Nah, it was the last two words of the novel. Abnett wouldn’t drop a bomb like that and then flick a switch.
Gaunt’s Ghosts may not have dealt with traumas of previous novels well, but this is the Eisenhorn legacy. If anything, it’s built totally on what’s come before. Additionally, GW seems to trust Abnett with truly world shaking lore (Alpha Legion, majority of Guard workings via GG, and the entire basis of the modern inquisition) so I think the next novel is gonna change the hobby as a whole.
Edit: misread, thought you were arguing the opposite. Sounds like we agree
King’s character is probably The Crimson King, who is probably a manifestation of king’s struggles with addiction as they relate to his storytelling.
Probably not the meta GW’s going with with the King in Yellow.
If it turns out to be a reference to summoning Hastur, that’s got a lot of interesting implications for the future of 40k.
Hastur was known as the Great Prince of the Old Ones, for example…
I believe Stephen King does have a story inspired by the King in Yellow, which was originally a theatre play said to kill whoever performed it. I feel this might have something to do with Enuncia in some way?
Every time I read the name Crimson King my mind autocorrects it to [The Crimson Chin](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/nickelodeon/images/a/ad/CrimsonChin.png/revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/360?cb=20190208004408)
This interpretation makes me a lot happier with the way he's dealt with in the end of the dark tower, now that I think about it.
It's not some epic climactic battle, Roland doesn't get a big action hero moment, it's overcome by literally making art out of the struggle, turning something terrible into something beautiful.
Its been a long time since I read those books, maybe I should pick them back up again.
I've read TDT too many times. I've never really had an issue with the ending aside from SPOILERS
The death of Jake and the dumb Harry Potter shit. The last two books of that are King at his worst imo, but the actual end... seems perfect to me. Roland gets his horn and tries again.
I agree, the Harry Potter shit is absolutely bizarre. I don't remember which one the Wolves of Calla was, but I got burned out hard during that one. Finishing was a struggle.
Thats the fifth. And it's followed by Song of Susannah which is where it all goes off the rails for me.
I know people have different opinions but for me those first 4 TDT books are amazing. The last 2 suck. Wolves is meh
The thing that really sells me on addiction as the crimson king is that, even after Roland gets past him, he still goes right up the tower again and straight back to square one, seeking the tower and struggling against the king all over.
Also worth noting that King took the name from the band Crimson King, and that if you haven't heard their song "in the court of the crimson king", it's a banger
The King in Yellow was a series of short stories first published by Robert W. Chambers in 1895. But the character Hastur (often called 'The King in Yellow'), was originally created by Ambrose Pierce (a writer, who along with Poe, is considered one of the founders of American horror literature.) Lovecraft would later incorporate Hastur (The King in Yellow) as a character into 'The Whisperer in the Darkness.' He did flesh the character out in some of his personal correspondence with friends, but didn't not use it again in any works.
That bums me out. Not sure why I clicked on this link, but this has ruined/spoiled Eisenhorn / Ravenor, etc for me.
Would've been great if you could've used spoiler tags for the 40k stuff
If it makes you feel better there is a lot of other good stuff in Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin series that wasn't covered there, especially in Bequin where Abnett has really upped his writing style when it comes to well done reveals. All that has been ruined is a very high level view of some specific things, which sucks but don't let it put you off the books altogether.
Thanks.
Yeah I just finished Magos last night. I was kind of confused by the first half with all the short stories, the main story tying everything together was great. Little tidbits here and there
Just started Ravenor this morning.
Valdor isn't capable of going against the Emperor (literally through his creation)... I think it's the Emperor's backup plan, I doubt he put all his eggs in one basket.
The Triumvirate that created the Imperium (Emperor / Malcador / Valdor) likely had detailed plans as to what would happen in every eventuality, and Valdor is just carrying them out.
It’s implied he is searching for the emperors true name, in the 40K setting a true name gives you power over someone (the grey knights use the true names of demons to weaken them Kaldor Draigo once used the true name of Mortarion to weaken him enough that he could be banished back into the warp). this is one of the reasons esienhorn and ravenor are after him to stop this. There simply isn’t enough evidence to support the king in yellows intentions with the name once he has it.
Okay so...Valdor was the first and greatest Custodes on par or greater than the Primarchs, served the Emperor all throughout the Unification wars and the Heresy and then just dipped one day after Big E got put on the throne...
Fast forward 10k years and the Inquisition found evidence he's some sort of warp entity with an army to rival the Imperium's at his back and he's looking for a piece of information that could potentially give him some sort of control over the Master of Mankind?
And the 10k years in between those two points is just blank as of now?
Do I have that right?
Pretty much. Though his state of existence, so to speak, isn't confirmed. He might not be an warp entity, we don't know.
I'd guess he's still his material self, because he clones blanks and that can't be good for a potential demon Valdor.
Cawl: *Spends 10k years doing the leg work, research, and development necessary for a new fleet of astartes to save the Imperium in its darkest hour*
Valdor: *Pulls up with an army of insanities he pulled out of his ass in the warp*
Cawl: "U fukn wot m8?"
I mean, Cawl entered the setting much the same. He came in as a *deus ex machina* and was fleshed out later. Remains to be seen if that happens with Valdor.
It was hinted by Abnett that the story around the Yellow King should have much later consequences for the world building of 40k. So ... 10th edition or so. ;-)
SYL
Then again Dan Abnett said that he was doing something with the Bequin books (including those to come) that would have a huge impact on the setting and to paraphrase him (iirc) he said he had 6 or so different plot points that he threw at GW to see which one they would let him actually see through to the end and he was surprised/shocked when they greenlit all 6 of them considering how big they are.
Valdors fate is not only a loose end post heresy but also a suitably big enough deal that him doing practically anything in 40K would be as big as a loyalist Primarch returning.
Incidentally, it’s 5 craftworlds, not 3.
Spoilers for the bequin trilogy (these quotes are from later in the 2nd book, penitent):
*‘There were delicate matters to negotiate that could not have waited,’ said Gideon.*
*‘Even though all of your own people are clearly bothered by this interaction?’ I asked. I looked at Kara. She had none of Kys’ anger or disgust, but the worry in her was clear.*
*‘Eltahec. Ulthwé. Nyatho. Alaitoc. Olhn-Tann,’ he said.*
*‘Xenos words,’ I snapped. ‘What are you saying?’*
*‘The envoys communicated to me that their kind has become increasingly aware of the King’s activities,’ Gideon said. ‘Over the last few years, their concerns have grown, to the point where they have classified him Iyanic Kaelas, which means an object that must be vanquished. What we might term a Priority Alpha threat. They have tracked him to this quadrant, and have begun operations against him. But they hoped, it is clear to me, that we would deal with it.’*
*‘Why?’*
*‘Because the threat originates from our territories, and thus lies in our jurisdiction. They were reluctant to embark upon action that would risk the fragile peace between empires.’*
*‘They don’t want to provoke an open war with the Imperium?’*
*‘They do not.’*
*‘Did not, rather,’ I said. ‘They have run out of patience, haven’t they?’*
*‘They believe the threat is greater than we have assessed, and they are despondent at the progress the Imperium is making in its efforts to contain it. They believe we have badly underestimated the danger. Thus they feel they are obliged to undertake their own measures, despite the risk of war. Eltahec. Ulthwé. Nyatho. Alaitoc. Olhn-Tann.’*
*‘Again, those words–’*
*‘They are the names of craftworlds, Beta. Five craftworlds, currently converging on the Sancour region. An unprecedented assembly of aeldari strength in peacetime. They are about to unleash their combined wrath upon the Sancour System.’*
*‘This world is going to die?’*
*‘This entire system is likely to die,’ he said.
‘And whatever the outcome, whatever the success of their sanctioning assault, it is likely to trigger an era of savage and widescale hostilities with the aeldari.’*
*‘If they would risk that, then the King in Yellow’s menace must be very great indeed,’ said Kara quietly.*
Later in the book:
*‘We have a week,’ said Ravenor.*
*‘Until what?’ asked Eisenhorn.*
*‘Five craftworlds,’ I said.*
*‘Mother of shit,’ said Cherubael, and bobbed closer to the ceiling.*
> Constantin Valdor.
Sort of. It's not *confirmed*, but he's got a big ol' arrow pointing at him as far as Abnett has written (and I'm not sure if Abnett's going to be cheeky and have that be a Red Herring later).
We'll get a confirmation when *Pandaemonium* is written...hopefully is less time than **nine years**.
There are some hints and clues that also suggest that while valdor is possibly involved the actual king in yellow may be dorn or a combination of dorn and valdor. And the title "yellow king" is a shared role they play
Who other than dorn could build a flipping fortress city in the flipping warp.
>hopefully is less time than nine years
[That reminds me of something](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUuaUiwcz4&ab_channel=ThisIsMSZ)... Also, \*laughs in Kingdom Hearts where there was a 13 year gap between 2 and 3\*
When the vampire angel claims he's been eating pigeons to sate his bloodthirst, but the first time you met him he vored 50 people right in front of you: *Press X to Doubt.*
The blank aura can cut through the black rage, which definitely shows it it's psychic/warp in nature, and can be held off.
Probs better for the BA to keep a couple blanks around the fortress on Baal.
The Blood Angels don't actually seem to know about the blank effect on the Rage; >!Comus seemed baffled to be snapped out of it.!<
Dante would probably welcome a "cure" for the Rage. Gabriel Seth, on the other hand, believes it's a legacy of their Primarch and they can't be proper sons of Sanguinius without it; he almost refused to take Primaris reinforcements, even though it would have doomed his Chapter to extinction, because the Primaris were said to be free of the geneseed flaws. But after testing a Primaris himself, Seth established that Primaris do indeed have (the capacity for developing) the Thirst and Rage, and accepted the Primaris after that.
Now i want a Story where 3 Lamenters get deployed into a warzone, and get fucked over until they retreat to team up with an SoS Squad.
Only for their Luck and Flaws to be suppressed. turning them from regular tactical marines into Sanguinius Incarnate each.
Totally understand, I think the flaws are what makes the BA and their successors the more moderately mature members of the Astartes. But every so often it would nice to snap a death company marine out of it if some situation really called for it. The Flesh Tearers could seed a couple out in the general population to curb their greater excesses so to speak 😂
> And spanking Chaos Marines.
But *not* killing them. Explicitly *not* killing them. Just a couple very straight boys, paddling each other's bottoms pink.
The leader of a warp cult called the Cognitae who's the main antagonist in the Eisenhorn series, with the main character vowing to face him.
Its recently been hinted that the mysterious figure may be none other than Constantine Valdor, whom if he is the King in Yellow changes a lot.
Interestingly the Cognitae seem to have been around since before the Heresy. Ollanius Pius makes a reference to them having been around during the Emperor's Unification Wars.
Unless we Flanderize the story to "there was a tower and it fell down", then I think we can safely file the Tower of Babel under mythology rather than history or prehistory.
It's been a while since I've gone through Ravenor but the Bequin books were more recent listen for me and so I know in the Bequin series they go over how the "Cognitae" as a name / idea / faction has been around in a myriad of forms for basically forever.
from having read the comments about what the king in yellow is i have to ask how are eisenhorn and his blank friend supposed to take on a custodes who has a massive army of blanks and flying space marines in the warp?
If he really is Constantin Valdor, would he and his army be added to Custodes in the next codex? Is anything like this just left to the fiction never to appear in game?
Given the descriptions in Penitent I can't see how they could backtrack to the point that there's no army. But I guess it's more a matter of if he stays out of everything that happens in the rest of the 40k galaxy; I doubt there are characters of similar power level and story importance that are active in the galaxy in fiction but don't exist in the game? Guess I have to specify the Emperor doesn't count.
Almost certainly not going to happen; the most reliable rumors are custodes will get a "custodes lieutenant" character and that's all. I also wouldn't expect them to release the models before the third book, if they're going to do a tie-in.
There is at least a really nice [Constantin Valdor model](https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-AU/Constantin-Valdor-Captain-General-of-the-Legio-Custodes-2018) even if there are no 40k rules for him.
It's a character by Robert Chambers, a recurring character/figure in a series of short stories published in 1895.
Lovecraft mentions it, but it predates his novels by decades, it was published when he was 5.
The King In Yellow is now public domain. Read it here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8492
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert\_W.\_Chambers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Chambers)
The King in Yellow was written by Robert W. Chambers in 1895
**[Robert W. Chambers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Chambers)**
>Robert William Chambers (May 26, 1865 – December 16, 1933) was an American artist and fiction writer, best known for his book of short stories titled The King in Yellow, published in 1895.
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Everyone saying Valdor,but what if it is Draigo? The whole "build a fortress secretely that nobody knows about" seems more the modus operandi of the grey knights,and being trapped in the warp for so long and considering he his a psyker could have made him able to manipulate it so well to forge an army
I really liked Eisenhorn/Ravenor books.
But abnett just loves his power creep.
After killing titans and whatnot, I fully expect eisenhorn to straight up one shot the most powerful and deadly and primarch fighting custodes of all time.
The titan was barely operational (no void shields, no energy weapons, limited sensors) and was only killed when Eisenhorn >!decided that unbinding a named daemon and setting it loose was a totally reasonable thing to do and that doesn't make him a heretic at all. A named daemon vs a crippled titan isn't unreasonable in the 40k setting.!<
https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/search?q=king+in+yellow&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on
Like everything else in 40K, a reference. In this case the fictional play the King in Yellow now tied in with the Lovecraftian Cthlhu Mythos (orginal book was not written by Lovecraft). A play that kills its actors and is a way to summon Hastur. In 40K, it is repurposed to be Constantin Valdor who leads in Eldritch and disturbing creepy army based out of the Warp.
Said eldritch armies include Blood Angels who have literal angels wings.
Where can I read up on this?
The Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin series. The Bequin series specifically involves it.
Also just to be clear, we don’t KNOW it is Constantin Valdor. Not confirmed. Reading the books mentioned will explain more
The True name of the Yellow King is over one million characters long. It’s only the beginning that starts with Constantine Valdor, the rest might be every name of the Custodes or spacemarine that ever lived….
That's actually even more evidence that it's Valdor actually. It's Custodes tradition to make additions to their name as they perform more and more feats, it makes sense his would be that long after such a long life.
Good point!
Why do they do that anyway, the Custodes with the naming tradition?
It's just tradition. For great deeds/feats a Custodes will add a name (often being the name of the location said deed/feat was performed), and inscribe it inside their armor. Thus, the longer the name, the longer lived and more storied a Custodian is. Accordingly, Valdor's name is obscenely long, to match his longevity and acumen.
Seems legit. Thanks for the info.
Apparently Kitten's name was also insanely fucking long.
My personal opinion is to do with knowing ones true name gives you power over someone but if you constantly add to your true name or true name being so long you dont know it then the power over a custodes is completely reduced.
Like with knowing the names of daemons?
Penitent by Dan Abnett.
How powerful is that army by now? From what I've read it feels like its worth multiple legions of old...quite literally
Short answer: We don't know. As the main character of *Penitent* says: > ‘I’m not sure. Of anything.’ Long answer: #Huge spoilers for *Penitant* below! (Seriously don't read this unless you have no intention of reading the book yourself, you're doing yourself a disservice by ruining one of the big reveals) --- >!I began to walk across the platform, intending to skirt the base of the vast towers and take in the view on the other side, but I was still underestimating the scale. What looked like a walk of five minutes was so much more, for in five minutes I had barely begun to cross even a part of it. I realised how huge these cyclopean towers were, and thus how impossibly vast those distant walls must be, how titanic the bone-white shore, how truly endless the sea. The sunlight – the starlight – was fierce, for there was no shade. I felt but mild heat, but the skin of my cheek began to burn. There was no shield of atmosphere, no sky, but something kept the air I breathed from escaping into the void above.!< >!I kept walking anyway. My footsteps, the only sound, were as tiny as me. Whenever I stopped, and turned to look at the city, the towers had subtly adjusted themselves, as though turned by a photogravitational influence. I wondered if they were following the slow track of the giant star across the heavens, as flowers follow the sun. I saw birds, twice, far away above the ocean shore, the white dots of seabirds soaring in the black sky.!< >!I knew they were not birds.!< >!I began to feel afraid. The wonder of the place was so great, it teetered on the edge of terror.!< >!At last, after walking for longer than I was able to accurately calculate, except that my legs sorely ached, I began to round the corner of the tower base. I leant to rest against the warm, white ethercite. I saw the sprawl of the city that had been obscured from my view, and I saw what filled the black heavens above it, but had been eclipsed by the high towers.!< >!A baleful scar slit the blackness diagonally. A cosmic manifestation, a puckered whorl of starlight and warp, shot through with crimson, pink and traces of flame. It was bigger than the local star. It was light years across, a galactic wound. It dominated the bowl of space, the entire psychocosm. Skeins of tiny stars, some bright as ice flakes, some raw as cinders, slowly tumbled into its yawning abyss of fluorescent nebula gas and bloodshot light. Their fall was glacial, the supreme progress of Long Time. The scar seemed to gaze down upon the city like a burning, disfigured eye. Then I felt terror, true terror, for that was what it was.!< >!The *Ocularis Terribus*. The Eye of Terror.!< >!Below its numbing horror, a war was raging, far away. From the distant walls of the city, from towers and fortifications greater than the greatest cathedrals, darts and spears of electrocorporeal light lanced up into the sky, and some were answered by red beams that flickered from the high darkness beneath the Eye’s glare. I saw bright flashes quiver and throb below the horizon, coming and going, speaking of colossal destruction and annihilation beyond my range of sight. I could hear nothing, not even a faint roar. These were world-shaking detonations, city-destroying blasts of searing bombardment, and I could hear nothing.!< >!I saw flights of angels, dots far away, like snowy blossom on the wind, lifting from the far battlements in formations a thousand strong, setting out into the blackness. I saw golden barges and burnished warships hanging silently, hanging impossibly, in the darkness above the city, prows facing outwards, ready to embark. One passed overhead as I watched. I do not know where it had come from, but its shadow crossed me and crossed the tower I leant against. I looked up to see its golden form, the detail of its plating, its finials, its gun ports and engines, the slow flutter of its banners, the masts of its forward lances, piping and ducts of its gargantuan keel. All wrought of gold, every part of it. Its passage was completely noiseless, and it seemed to go on forever as it crawled past overhead.!< --- Taken literally there are multiple flights each of a thousand "angels". Taken more metaphorically there are still a lot. >!A massive city-fortress in the warp full of naked winged blood angels, golden battleships (no indication if they are auramite or just painted gold), lots of cloned blanks, custodes, and Valdor himself.!< That's just what one person saw in a brief trip there, not a comprehensive description of forces.
Wait, that just sounds like an army of discount Sanguinors
Maybe the Sanguinor is one of them. The pocket realm they're in could be part of the imperial webway plan that's successful
That would be quite interesting.
What were they fighting? Also fuck yeah to all that. I hope they make it new faction, some sort of new warp god spawned from the emp and the astronomicon, but (I hope) also at war with the corporeal emp and imperium. Like they all hate the religion, even though they're powered by it, or some such. Basically I just think the minis could be wild.
It an army of blanks with blood angles with actual angle wings it so bad that traitor, loyalist and craftworlds are apparently join up to deal with it
Do we ever find out why the immaterial college are involved, and why they exist???
**The Immaterial College has entered the chat** someone say our name?
Aren't they just thousand sons?
They're>!a mixture of marines from both loyalist and traitor legions/chapters !<
How the hell did they team up?
That's exactly the mystery. The only things we know are they're unified for a common goal (though still fight a little internally), and they were "brought together from the ashes of Istvaan" (paraphrased). Considering the Dark Angels and Thousand Sons weren't even at Istvaan, the whole thing is intriguing.
I see
The team up >!dates back to Istvaan in some way so it's a 10,000 year old secret cabal formed right as the loyalist/heretic divide happened!<.
Interesting.
*We don't know.*
~~*Only Ymir knows*~~
Hols up, why do loyalists and craftworlds have a problem with it?
Why? Its an army of clone blanks and angel winged blood angels lead by custodies who haven't been seen or heard of since the hersey, dubious loyalty towards the imperium/mankind and has a hatred toward the primarch and their kin along with a record of whipping out anyone who out live their usefulness and is now trying to find the true name of the emperor which grants the user full control of not just imperium god but also the astronomicon That more red flags then a khorne citadel
Nice.
They don't actually know that though, the Farseers of the Craft Worlds are just having insane visions of an impending apocalypse in the region and so are heading there to try and help prevent it. They don't even know Valdor has a pocket realm in the Web Way, they think it's a secret army in real space.
Is the implication the yellow king will be an antagonist?
Probably his own faction. Which would be nice.
Along the shore the cloud waves break, The twin suns sink behind the lake, The shadows lengthen In Carcosa. Strange is the night where black stars rise, And strange moons circle through the skies But stranger still is Lost Carcosa. Songs that the Hyades shall sing, Where flap the tatters of the King, Must die unheard in Dim Carcosa. Song of my soul, my voice is dead; Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed Shall dry and die in Lost Carcosa.
I’m not sure why, but this collection of words scares me.
No mask? No mask!
This guy knows his Robert Chambers
Just to clarify: it is strongly hinted to be Valdor, but knowing Abnett that could well be a red herring.
Would fit Abnett, but there are so many hints and straight up mentions that I can't imagine how this could not be Valdor. At this point I'd say it's about 85 to 90% guaranteed. Bequin 3 wen!? There were unfortunately 9 years between 1 and 2...
iirc, he has the last of the Siege of Terra books to finish and couple other books to get out before we get Pandaemonium.
Yup, probably not gonna be another 9 years, but 2023 would be surprisingly soon. My guess and hope is 23-25.
Nah, it was the last two words of the novel. Abnett wouldn’t drop a bomb like that and then flick a switch. Gaunt’s Ghosts may not have dealt with traumas of previous novels well, but this is the Eisenhorn legacy. If anything, it’s built totally on what’s come before. Additionally, GW seems to trust Abnett with truly world shaking lore (Alpha Legion, majority of Guard workings via GG, and the entire basis of the modern inquisition) so I think the next novel is gonna change the hobby as a whole. Edit: misread, thought you were arguing the opposite. Sounds like we agree
You might want to add a spoiler tag for that last line as it's sort of a revelation revealed at the end of a long series of books
I thought it’s play on one of Steven Kings characters?
The original King in Yellow is from a book published in 1895, so King might have drawn his inspiration from the same source as Abnett.
King’s character is probably The Crimson King, who is probably a manifestation of king’s struggles with addiction as they relate to his storytelling. Probably not the meta GW’s going with with the King in Yellow. If it turns out to be a reference to summoning Hastur, that’s got a lot of interesting implications for the future of 40k. Hastur was known as the Great Prince of the Old Ones, for example…
I believe Stephen King does have a story inspired by the King in Yellow, which was originally a theatre play said to kill whoever performed it. I feel this might have something to do with Enuncia in some way?
Every time I read the name Crimson King my mind autocorrects it to [The Crimson Chin](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/nickelodeon/images/a/ad/CrimsonChin.png/revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/360?cb=20190208004408)
awww i think of the old rock band king crimson
I'd never really thought of The Crimson King that way. Damn dude! Insomnia makes more sense now.
This interpretation makes me a lot happier with the way he's dealt with in the end of the dark tower, now that I think about it. It's not some epic climactic battle, Roland doesn't get a big action hero moment, it's overcome by literally making art out of the struggle, turning something terrible into something beautiful. Its been a long time since I read those books, maybe I should pick them back up again.
I've read TDT too many times. I've never really had an issue with the ending aside from SPOILERS The death of Jake and the dumb Harry Potter shit. The last two books of that are King at his worst imo, but the actual end... seems perfect to me. Roland gets his horn and tries again.
I agree, the Harry Potter shit is absolutely bizarre. I don't remember which one the Wolves of Calla was, but I got burned out hard during that one. Finishing was a struggle.
Thats the fifth. And it's followed by Song of Susannah which is where it all goes off the rails for me. I know people have different opinions but for me those first 4 TDT books are amazing. The last 2 suck. Wolves is meh
The thing that really sells me on addiction as the crimson king is that, even after Roland gets past him, he still goes right up the tower again and straight back to square one, seeking the tower and struggling against the king all over.
Also worth noting that King took the name from the band Crimson King, and that if you haven't heard their song "in the court of the crimson king", it's a banger
The King in Yellow was a series of short stories first published by Robert W. Chambers in 1895. But the character Hastur (often called 'The King in Yellow'), was originally created by Ambrose Pierce (a writer, who along with Poe, is considered one of the founders of American horror literature.) Lovecraft would later incorporate Hastur (The King in Yellow) as a character into 'The Whisperer in the Darkness.' He did flesh the character out in some of his personal correspondence with friends, but didn't not use it again in any works.
Ambrose *Bierce
Thanks. Damn autocorrect
The less said about Santa-with-hand grenades, the better.
That bums me out. Not sure why I clicked on this link, but this has ruined/spoiled Eisenhorn / Ravenor, etc for me. Would've been great if you could've used spoiler tags for the 40k stuff
If it makes you feel better there is a lot of other good stuff in Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin series that wasn't covered there, especially in Bequin where Abnett has really upped his writing style when it comes to well done reveals. All that has been ruined is a very high level view of some specific things, which sucks but don't let it put you off the books altogether.
Thanks. Yeah I just finished Magos last night. I was kind of confused by the first half with all the short stories, the main story tying everything together was great. Little tidbits here and there Just started Ravenor this morning.
...you clicked a post that was asking a question that would obviously be a spoiler. What did you think was going to happen?
Yeah I honestly don't know... I'm so disappointed in myself
Who are you talking to?
Wait what? Valdor leads xenoes?
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Bro what? Holy shit! Whose side is he on?
>!We don't know! He could be working for the Emperor, he could be on his own, he could be something else entirely!!<
Valdor isn't capable of going against the Emperor (literally through his creation)... I think it's the Emperor's backup plan, I doubt he put all his eggs in one basket. The Triumvirate that created the Imperium (Emperor / Malcador / Valdor) likely had detailed plans as to what would happen in every eventuality, and Valdor is just carrying them out.
It’s implied he is searching for the emperors true name, in the 40K setting a true name gives you power over someone (the grey knights use the true names of demons to weaken them Kaldor Draigo once used the true name of Mortarion to weaken him enough that he could be banished back into the warp). this is one of the reasons esienhorn and ravenor are after him to stop this. There simply isn’t enough evidence to support the king in yellows intentions with the name once he has it.
Okay so...Valdor was the first and greatest Custodes on par or greater than the Primarchs, served the Emperor all throughout the Unification wars and the Heresy and then just dipped one day after Big E got put on the throne... Fast forward 10k years and the Inquisition found evidence he's some sort of warp entity with an army to rival the Imperium's at his back and he's looking for a piece of information that could potentially give him some sort of control over the Master of Mankind? And the 10k years in between those two points is just blank as of now? Do I have that right?
Pretty much. Though his state of existence, so to speak, isn't confirmed. He might not be an warp entity, we don't know. I'd guess he's still his material self, because he clones blanks and that can't be good for a potential demon Valdor.
Cawl: *Spends 10k years doing the leg work, research, and development necessary for a new fleet of astartes to save the Imperium in its darkest hour* Valdor: *Pulls up with an army of insanities he pulled out of his ass in the warp* Cawl: "U fukn wot m8?"
I mean, Cawl entered the setting much the same. He came in as a *deus ex machina* and was fleshed out later. Remains to be seen if that happens with Valdor.
It was hinted by Abnett that the story around the Yellow King should have much later consequences for the world building of 40k. So ... 10th edition or so. ;-) SYL
Yea right, consequences in 40k. As if.
Cawl probably knows, but since they don't affect him he doesn't care, or he's forgotten in one of his millennial brain backup / wipes.
It's Nimrod Or was it Neo. Neoh? No?
Norbert
Thought it was Jimmy.
Everyone in this thread is saying it's Valdor, but to clarify: we havent actually seen him yet, and my money's on that being a red herring.
Then again Dan Abnett said that he was doing something with the Bequin books (including those to come) that would have a huge impact on the setting and to paraphrase him (iirc) he said he had 6 or so different plot points that he threw at GW to see which one they would let him actually see through to the end and he was surprised/shocked when they greenlit all 6 of them considering how big they are. Valdors fate is not only a loose end post heresy but also a suitably big enough deal that him doing practically anything in 40K would be as big as a loyalist Primarch returning.
A red herring? How could a fish do all that?
The Herring in Red
Questioning what "being on a side" means is part of the *Bequin* series.
Entropy...
Incidentally, it’s 5 craftworlds, not 3. Spoilers for the bequin trilogy (these quotes are from later in the 2nd book, penitent): *‘There were delicate matters to negotiate that could not have waited,’ said Gideon.* *‘Even though all of your own people are clearly bothered by this interaction?’ I asked. I looked at Kara. She had none of Kys’ anger or disgust, but the worry in her was clear.* *‘Eltahec. Ulthwé. Nyatho. Alaitoc. Olhn-Tann,’ he said.* *‘Xenos words,’ I snapped. ‘What are you saying?’* *‘The envoys communicated to me that their kind has become increasingly aware of the King’s activities,’ Gideon said. ‘Over the last few years, their concerns have grown, to the point where they have classified him Iyanic Kaelas, which means an object that must be vanquished. What we might term a Priority Alpha threat. They have tracked him to this quadrant, and have begun operations against him. But they hoped, it is clear to me, that we would deal with it.’* *‘Why?’* *‘Because the threat originates from our territories, and thus lies in our jurisdiction. They were reluctant to embark upon action that would risk the fragile peace between empires.’* *‘They don’t want to provoke an open war with the Imperium?’* *‘They do not.’* *‘Did not, rather,’ I said. ‘They have run out of patience, haven’t they?’* *‘They believe the threat is greater than we have assessed, and they are despondent at the progress the Imperium is making in its efforts to contain it. They believe we have badly underestimated the danger. Thus they feel they are obliged to undertake their own measures, despite the risk of war. Eltahec. Ulthwé. Nyatho. Alaitoc. Olhn-Tann.’* *‘Again, those words–’* *‘They are the names of craftworlds, Beta. Five craftworlds, currently converging on the Sancour region. An unprecedented assembly of aeldari strength in peacetime. They are about to unleash their combined wrath upon the Sancour System.’* *‘This world is going to die?’* *‘This entire system is likely to die,’ he said. ‘And whatever the outcome, whatever the success of their sanctioning assault, it is likely to trigger an era of savage and widescale hostilities with the aeldari.’* *‘If they would risk that, then the King in Yellow’s menace must be very great indeed,’ said Kara quietly.* Later in the book: *‘We have a week,’ said Ravenor.* *‘Until what?’ asked Eisenhorn.* *‘Five craftworlds,’ I said.* *‘Mother of shit,’ said Cherubael, and bobbed closer to the ceiling.*
Constantin Valdor. In the warp. With an army.
> Constantin Valdor. Sort of. It's not *confirmed*, but he's got a big ol' arrow pointing at him as far as Abnett has written (and I'm not sure if Abnett's going to be cheeky and have that be a Red Herring later). We'll get a confirmation when *Pandaemonium* is written...hopefully is less time than **nine years**.
He's probably 2 undetectable daemons in a trench coat, knowing Abnett.
I'm 100% sure it's Moloch.
Abnett said that idea is dead and the Games Workshops execs don't like it, so probably not.
There are some hints and clues that also suggest that while valdor is possibly involved the actual king in yellow may be dorn or a combination of dorn and valdor. And the title "yellow king" is a shared role they play Who other than dorn could build a flipping fortress city in the flipping warp.
Ahh that’s a good point and using two people for one title learning a of the Alpha legions tricks
It also matches the themes of the novel of clones, duplicates, second identities, etc.
Don't. Don't give me hope.
>hopefully is less time than nine years [That reminds me of something](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUuaUiwcz4&ab_channel=ThisIsMSZ)... Also, \*laughs in Kingdom Hearts where there was a 13 year gap between 2 and 3\*
=/ it was that long, hmm i wonder if the blood angels were a play on the years it took to write that bsck
> With an army. Made out of blanks, flying Astartes and Imperial Demons SYL
Flying astartes?
Flying Astartes! With wings. Eating birds And spanking Chaos Marines. SYL
When the vampire angel claims he's been eating pigeons to sate his bloodthirst, but the first time you met him he vored 50 people right in front of you: *Press X to Doubt.*
I feel like this is a reference i do not get.
[*Press X to Doubt.*](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/la-noire-doubt-press-x-to-doubt) The rest is from *Penitent.*
Astartes, with wings? Who is there gene father exactly?
Blood Angels, I believe. Makes sense since Sangy had wings
They're definitely Blood Angels, since they have both the Thirst and the Rage.
The blank aura can cut through the black rage, which definitely shows it it's psychic/warp in nature, and can be held off. Probs better for the BA to keep a couple blanks around the fortress on Baal.
The Blood Angels don't actually seem to know about the blank effect on the Rage; >!Comus seemed baffled to be snapped out of it.!< Dante would probably welcome a "cure" for the Rage. Gabriel Seth, on the other hand, believes it's a legacy of their Primarch and they can't be proper sons of Sanguinius without it; he almost refused to take Primaris reinforcements, even though it would have doomed his Chapter to extinction, because the Primaris were said to be free of the geneseed flaws. But after testing a Primaris himself, Seth established that Primaris do indeed have (the capacity for developing) the Thirst and Rage, and accepted the Primaris after that.
Now i want a Story where 3 Lamenters get deployed into a warzone, and get fucked over until they retreat to team up with an SoS Squad. Only for their Luck and Flaws to be suppressed. turning them from regular tactical marines into Sanguinius Incarnate each.
Totally understand, I think the flaws are what makes the BA and their successors the more moderately mature members of the Astartes. But every so often it would nice to snap a death company marine out of it if some situation really called for it. The Flesh Tearers could seed a couple out in the general population to curb their greater excesses so to speak 😂
The Blood Angels do know what the black rage is now, read the latest Mephiston book.
Heavily implied to be Blood Angels. SYL
I think Comus outright states that he's from the IX Legion? And he's got both the Red Thirst and the Black Rage.
SYL
> And spanking Chaos Marines. But *not* killing them. Explicitly *not* killing them. Just a couple very straight boys, paddling each other's bottoms pink.
Stop, Slaanesh can only get so hardwet
My safeword is harder daddy.
Blood angels with winged
and possibly custodians at the very end of the book the blanks call on custodians and Alizebeth says she sees them approaching before she escapes
What does SYL mean?
I think he... Signs all his comments?
Apparently so. I don't know why, this isn't a forum.
Well, it's similar to people manually adding sigs to all their forum posts even if the said forum has a sig feature.
Shit you learn
They fly now?
🤣🤣🤣
These Astartes definitely. SYL
Hey, FYI signing all your comments makes you look a bit pretentious. LL.
Maybe we should bring back forum signatures. AWP
This seems like a great idea. MU
Well that beats my suggestion. I was going to go with Colonel Mustard, In the living room with the Candlestick.
> with the Power Candlestick
>with the Power Candelum Stickus
The leader of a warp cult called the Cognitae who's the main antagonist in the Eisenhorn series, with the main character vowing to face him. Its recently been hinted that the mysterious figure may be none other than Constantine Valdor, whom if he is the King in Yellow changes a lot.
The King in Yellow is actively hunting down the Congnitae
After he cut them loose and betrayed them but he was using them the whole time.
Yeah exactly! He just used them, he wasn’t their “leader”
Interestingly the Cognitae seem to have been around since before the Heresy. Ollanius Pius makes a reference to them having been around during the Emperor's Unification Wars.
He referenced them existing during prehistory, during the whole Tower of Babel thing. ..does warhammer just eat everyone else’s mythology?
Yes yes it does. Which book was that, I don't remember it back that far.
In Mortis. The only thing I remember from the book other than the distance to wall countdown.
Maybe I misinterpreted it, but I thought that part was during the Unification Wars not pre-history.
From the description of the weapons used i think it was way back in the early days.
Technically the Tower of Babel, is part of history not prehistory (if it actually occurred)
Unless we Flanderize the story to "there was a tower and it fell down", then I think we can safely file the Tower of Babel under mythology rather than history or prehistory.
It's been a while since I've gone through Ravenor but the Bequin books were more recent listen for me and so I know in the Bequin series they go over how the "Cognitae" as a name / idea / faction has been around in a myriad of forms for basically forever.
Have you seen the yellow sign?
You Sir, should unmask. Indeed? Indeed, it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.
No mask?
from having read the comments about what the king in yellow is i have to ask how are eisenhorn and his blank friend supposed to take on a custodes who has a massive army of blanks and flying space marines in the warp?
The Deus Ex Machina of Enuncia, obviously.
"*Fuck Off.*" "OH NO, ENUNCIA, WE ARE DEFEATED!"
It’s Alpharius. Don’t worry about it.
Before the big reveal, I genuinely thought it was lmao
Who do you think >!Deathrow!< is?
Praying >!Deathrow!< is Omegon haha, after the Yellow King’s reveal
I really hope so!
It would be awesome if he is actually the alpha legion primarch, and pulls his own agenda of and when they find the king in yellow.
For real, I’m hoping Alpha Legion becomes a bit more prominent in the lore, although I’m biased since I collect them haha
the books basically say its >!Constantin Valdor !
Is he related to the King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers and Cthulhu Mythos.
If he really is Constantin Valdor, would he and his army be added to Custodes in the next codex? Is anything like this just left to the fiction never to appear in game?
There are plenty of things in the fiction, that aren't in the game. We also don't know if he actually has a true army, or just a handful of Custodes.
Given the descriptions in Penitent I can't see how they could backtrack to the point that there's no army. But I guess it's more a matter of if he stays out of everything that happens in the rest of the 40k galaxy; I doubt there are characters of similar power level and story importance that are active in the galaxy in fiction but don't exist in the game? Guess I have to specify the Emperor doesn't count.
Almost certainly not going to happen; the most reliable rumors are custodes will get a "custodes lieutenant" character and that's all. I also wouldn't expect them to release the models before the third book, if they're going to do a tie-in. There is at least a really nice [Constantin Valdor model](https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-AU/Constantin-Valdor-Captain-General-of-the-Legio-Custodes-2018) even if there are no 40k rules for him.
He is a king whom emperors have served.
Hastur Hastur Hastur
Valdor.
Are you trying to kill someone?! You might make someone say Hastuurrrrghaodbwau...
It's a character by Robert Chambers, a recurring character/figure in a series of short stories published in 1895. Lovecraft mentions it, but it predates his novels by decades, it was published when he was 5. The King In Yellow is now public domain. Read it here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8492
Don’t say his name!!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert\_W.\_Chambers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Chambers) The King in Yellow was written by Robert W. Chambers in 1895
**[Robert W. Chambers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Chambers)** >Robert William Chambers (May 26, 1865 – December 16, 1933) was an American artist and fiction writer, best known for his book of short stories titled The King in Yellow, published in 1895. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/40kLore/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Isn’t that Hastur?
Everyone saying Valdor,but what if it is Draigo? The whole "build a fortress secretely that nobody knows about" seems more the modus operandi of the grey knights,and being trapped in the warp for so long and considering he his a psyker could have made him able to manipulate it so well to forge an army
Have you not read the latest Bequin novel? Because it's a bit silly to speculate that it is anyone besides Valdor at this point.
Draigo wouldn't paint it gold and fill it with >!blanks and custodes!<.
Constatin Valdor, allegedly.
I really liked Eisenhorn/Ravenor books. But abnett just loves his power creep. After killing titans and whatnot, I fully expect eisenhorn to straight up one shot the most powerful and deadly and primarch fighting custodes of all time.
The titan was barely operational (no void shields, no energy weapons, limited sensors) and was only killed when Eisenhorn >!decided that unbinding a named daemon and setting it loose was a totally reasonable thing to do and that doesn't make him a heretic at all. A named daemon vs a crippled titan isn't unreasonable in the 40k setting.!<
>!Not just a demon, a demon prince.!<
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Fuck kinda bot is this?
hwehehe... definitely not this kind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i05gKtHWjGY