While understanding that Warhammer is designed to defy or spite the idea of sound living principles, resolution, and progress (unless that progress is also subverted for the sake of some larger moral compromise), Warhammer fiction is at its best when it challenges its fundamental premises.
This is the truth of Horus Lupercal – that it didn’t matter how much he was given, born with, or celebrated, he was only really interested in himself and his own desires.
“Art is subjective.” Yeah, we’ve all heard that one. This cliche saying basically means that not all art means the same thing to everyone. While that can certainly be true, I tend to look at art interpretation much like I look at literary interpretation – not all interpretations are equal or are equally supported by the subject matter.
No article today, dear readers, but instead I have an extra-long video for you! The much anticipated second part of the mental health discussion is here! Dr. Nahumck took close to 2 hours out of his day (and part of the Dodgers’ game!) to speak to me and answer some questions.
Now that the hammer of betrayal has fallen at Istvaan III, we will look a little bit more at Loken on a personal level, because it is at this point that he begins acting more as an individual and less like a machine in a legion-level cog.
This is the system we have created to protect the ethical integrity of competitive play in the ITC and to not apply it when a player has violated the rules discredits the entire system.
What do we mean by innocence when talking about Garviel Loken? It is hard to imagine a decades-old galaxy-wide bio-engineered super-soldier having innocence. Of course, innocence isn’t here as a “guilty vs. innocent” comparison but is instead the lack of knowledge or ignorance that he and many other Astartes operated under.
If you were asked who the “main character” of the Horus Heresy story is, you’d be hard-pressed to find an answer that could cover the 50+ novels of the Horus Heresy story. It is, after all, so incredibly vast and covering so many different characters that there’s no real way to say that one character is the main one in all of the stories. Some might say Horus since this is all titled after him. Some would say that it is the Emperor since all of the heresy’s conflict is done in support of or in spite of his dream for humanity. For me, I choose Garviel Loken.
This debate is a question of game ethos. To GW, what does being a good matched play/tournament player mean? This is the foundation of the social contract that applies to matched play at home and tournaments. Can we even take a moment and just appreciate that GW has taken the time to more clearly formalize a social contract? No one can say that GW doesn’t have a right to do it, either.
