Meet The Person Who Was There From The Start. Also, Why Is There Blue Cheese Everwhere? (Grimdark WIP) (Patreon)

Hello!

A new Grimdark update is here! 

Last Grimdark Month, I spent the entire time beating Fulgrim with a proverbial stick.  But this month, I'm going to do the exact opposite and fanboy over one of the best characters from the Horus Heresy! 🤩

So Garviel Loken is the original protagonist from the start of the Horus Heresy series.  He was 10th Captain of the Luna Wolves and one of the favoured sons of Warmaster Horus.  Unlike a lot of the 16th Legion which is raised on gang culture, Loken possesses a cool head and intelligence that saw him win many campaigns and accolades.  

One of the highest honours he received was induction into the Mournival which is sort of an unofficial advisory board to Horus himself (sponsored by Rogal Dorn I might add).  It's a very interesting concept where four officers are meant to give differing viewpoints to the Warmaster based on their varying humors (a Greek Hippocratic medical theory popular during the European Middle Ages).  Basically there's the happy go lucky guy, the angry Starscream, the melancholic guy and the calm rational one.  Loken is the cool headed one in the group and Rogal Dorn wanted him to be Horus' naysmith, to point out the things the Primarch didn't want to hear but were true.  His symbol to mark his induction is the new moon.  

Anyways, things were going great until this super prick showed up and started doing Chaos nonsense with warrior lodges and undermining the Mournival.  Long story short, one of the most hated character in 40K engineered a series of events that caused Horus to fall to Chaos and start changing the Legion in very disturbing ways.  

Loken and his buddy Tarik were one of the few that called out this BS so they and other loyalist elements were marked for destruction at the Battle of Istvaan III.  It was supposed to be a very quick backstabbing, but with advanced warning from Saul Tarvitz, the loyalists held out way longer than they were supposed to.  Loken was instrumental in the resistance, making the traitors pay dearly by dragging out the campaign for months.  It got so bad that the Primarchs themselves had to show up but even they had a hard time digging the loyalist out.  Finally Abaddon manages to KO Loken but Armless Abby gets Kaldor Draigo levels of plot armor so I didn't expect this fight to go any other way.  The traitors ended the whole sorry affair with an orbital bombardment.  

But surprise! Loken actually survived all this although he ended up with huge PSTD.  Quick aside - even I think this reveal was a huge stretch.  But due to blatant favouritism, I'm going to say surviving orbital bombardments are super easy, barely an inconvenience.  Or maybe the Emperor personally intervened on Loken's behalf.  Yeah, let's go with that. 👍

Eventually Nathaniel Garro comes along and recovers Loken, adding him to a burgeoning group of Knights Errant (basically a pseudo Inquisition composed of mostly loyalist Space Marines from traitor legions).  From then on, Loken does a bunch of shadowy operations which includes infiltrating Horus' flagship the Vengeful Spirit and act as a sort of pathfinder for Leman Russ and his Legion to stage a future attack.  

Horus discovers this and even after all the bloodshed, offers Loken a place back in the Legion.  It's here we get one of his most badass moments, where Loken basically rips into Horus and gives him a speech which can be summed up as all of Winston Churchill's bars in this ERB.  Also, I want to point out it's super hard for a Space Marine to resist their Primarch's commands due to gene conditioning, so Loken gets extra kudos for slapping Horus in the face on top of all that. 👍

Loken also has the super rare honour of getting a personal audience with the Emperor.  He was initially slated to be one of the founding Grey Knight Grandmasters (another huge stretch IMO) but the Emperor actually convinced Loken that his fate was to face the Warmaster (cue heavy foreshadowing).  And during the Siege of Terra, Loken distinguishes himself with a huge kill tally and finally gets a measure of paypack against Horus Aximand in a scene I hope to capture in the future. 👍

So that's why Garviel Loken is one of my favourite Horus Heresy characters and maybe now he's yours as well.  He might not be an incomparable fighter like Sigismund or play 4D chess like Alexis Polux (the guy who beat Perturabo in naval combat, holy shit).  But Loken represents a lost breed of Space Marine that was rare even during the Great Crusade.  A rational, open minded warrior who believes in the Imperial Truth and the Emperor's vision vs the modern Space Marine who is increasingly intolerant, superstitious and fanatical.  The entire Horus Heresy started with Loken and I'm pretty sure it will end with him making this character the glue for the entire series.  I would say he is Horus' best son but that would be a disservice to Loken.  The dude turned out way better than his Primarch.  

Respect man, respect. 🔥🏆👍

Career Highlights

• One of the few Space Marines who is actually friendly to baseline humans and even indulges the iterators by giving them honest interviews and sponsors them.  He goes so far as to protect their right to free speech when the Legion was clamping down on all the atrocities they were committing after Horus' corruption.
• On good terms with Sigismund who said the iconic line to him 'In the far future, there is only war' even though this was before the Horus Heresy.  The new Sigismund book actually explains why he believes this which I thought was a nice callback.
• Loken is the first Space Marine to beat Lucius in a duel, starting a hilarious trend of him getting egg on his face.
• Actually beats Khârn in a duel during the battle of Istvaan III.  Okay, a Land Raider was involved but a win's a win!
• Apparently Loken is a latent psyker which I always thought came out of nowhere but he does actually use this power during the Siege of Terra and finally puts Tarik's daemon possesed body to rest.
• Gives the traitor Horus Aximand one of the most painful deaths imaginable.  Diorama for this somewhere in the future. 

Okay, so next we have the T'au XV95 Ghostkeel, which is basically a super version of their XV25 Stealthsuit.  Now full disclosure, I am not a fan of the T'au.  For me, their inclusion into 40K was about as welcome as a surprise colonoscopy at a routine dental appoinment.  One of the reasons is because it always seems the Imperium becomes a thousand times more incompetent than usual against them in battle reports.  Exhibit A.  Grrr, ridiculous plot armour should only belong to the Space Marines dammit! 😉

And don't get me started about them in DOW 1.  Their basic units can shoot things that aren't even on the map and every time this blue cheese shows up, I rage in ways that will make an Ork blush.  Lastly, all the T'au battlesuits are cheesed to the max (like titans I guess, but again I'm super biased) and are basically Gundams with a makeover.  Although, it looks like the Angry Company has been dipping generously into the BattleTech feeding trough as well.  

Armament wise, the Ghostkeel has a jetpack, twin-linked Burst Cannons and a whole assortment of tech that seems to outstrip even the Eldar and Necrons.  Geez, do the designers want to tack on a Vortex grenade launcher to the Ghostkeel while they're at it?  Because I don't think they stacked things enough in its favour.  Ranting aside, I will admit all the T'au Battlesuits look super cool, each an every one.  From now on, every time a T'au unit wins the poll, I'm just going to pretend a Gundam got sucked into a wormhole or something and ended up fighting in the most nightmarish setting possible. 😄

So as many Grimdark fans are aware, you-know-who has been doing you-know-what to a lot of creators lately which is why I've had to repost my public gallery.  This means I will need to be extra careful with next month's release and include a lot of outlandish variations to my designs (and what's more ridiculous than a T'au in melee?  Ha!).  Since I can't promote stuff as much, please spread the word whenever possible.  Thanks.

Poses are up next which will also include some new design variations to the stuff I've shown so far!  The Fantasy poll will also be up in a week or so.  Stay tuned!