[Mentirius]

Right, I have finally have a solid new chapter up on The Ghost Worlds - sorry it has taken a while.  What I've posted is actually only half of what I wrote for this Elpis instalment, but there was so much action to get through that it just kept growing along the way.  I have now divided it into two substantial episodes, because there has to be some kind of limit to how much text I'm prepared to put up in a single sitting!  This week's half is called Division & Subtraction, spread over two posts for character limit, and ends on something of a a cliffhanger (I'm afraid I had to break it there for structural reasons).  I'll post the other half next week under Deus Est In Machina.  I am quite pleased with this as I've developed a fondness for writing Elpis, but due to the general content, I feel the following disclaimer might be warranted:


Warning: Contains Heresy.

Just to be clear on this, Elpis has lived most of her life “outside” the Imperium for all intents and purposes, so her character and theological musings should be taken in that spirit.  My depiction of these tech-priests and Skitarii is in no way intended to be representative of the Adeptus Mechanicus or STC technology in general – Fabraxis is a Heretek forge, and while they do still worship the Machine God, they do so in their own deeply heretical way.  They’ve gotten away with it so far because they operate in the shadows on the very fringes of the galaxy, but they dabble in a lot of forbidden research/lore and have recently attracted the attention of Tzeentch…and of course Inquisitor DuBois, who already tried to enlist a supposedly open-minded Magos from the legit Adeptus Mechanicus to help with her discovery and ended up losing an arm.

Anyway, we do have a lot more background worked out for Fabraxis but it was created purely for the story.  Anyone who feels like E.G. Abnett goes too far with inventing things/stretching the lore...please don’t send stormtroopers to my house?  I plead artistic licence – this whole project is as much a tribute to old-school IC Conclave fiction is it is to the core canon, and a lot of questionable stuff got invented in the Nexus/Amon Dull days which I nevertheless enjoyed.  When in doubt, blame the warp.

[Mentirius]

And I've posted the second half of my Heretek/Tzeentchian battle sequence in The Ghost Worlds, spread over two posts again.  Make of this madness what you will!  Elsewhere in the Ishkar system, similar shenanigans will be going on aboard the Tomb of Kaires, which we will get to in due course...  Next up, more developments on the Terra thread.

[Dosdamt]

A lot later than intended, but posted nonetheless! An update on how Qi is tracking and moving through the labyrinthine world of Terran politics, and poor unfortunate Yun working through the literally labyrinthine underbelly of the Inquisitorial Fortress.

[Mentirius]

Hey, theoretical reader(s) - just a quick OOC update to apologise for my own lateness and assure you that I'm at the editing/post-production stage for another big two-part chapter, this time for the Terra thread to pick up where Ben left off last week.  The chapter deals with Amaurn's attempt to hunt down Ymaar, fellow radical Inquisitor and comparably overpowered character, on behalf of his current allies.  The first half of it should be ready to go up in the next couple of days.  I'll then post the second half on Saturday to try and realign with the weekend. 

I realise we've gotten a bit patchy about the regularity of our IC posts...I'm afraid that is likely to be the case for a while, but unless we explicitly say otherwise, please assume we haven't given up on any of these story threads!  The project remains very much alive, even if our time is a bit more limited now than it was back in the Spring.

[Mentirius]

I realise we've gotten a bit patchy about the regularity of our IC posts...

Case in point: this next post is taking longer than expected to finish off.  I'm still working on it but have revised the ETA to "as soon as humanly possible".  Sorry all.  I can at least guarantee there will be plenty of it when it comes.

[Dosdamt]

Yes, to add to this. Much work drama and many real life things have prevented a regular discourse and regular chippings away at my current storylines. Regular service to be resumed as soon as real life stops being a jerk.

[Mentirius]

I've posted on the Terra thread - this instalment is called The Hidden Sword, and forms the first half of a two-part story in which Amaurn must leave the Inquisitorial Fortress in pursuit of Ymaar.  I'm afraid this half is all stalking and scene setting, but the payoff has been written and polished.  I'll put that up next weekend for sure.

This vision of Terra is an earnest effort to stay true to all the sources I've encountered, though I can't promise I got it completely right.  Most of our tale is intentionally set "in the cracks" of it all, so hopefully there's room for a bit of improvisation.  Amaurn is hardly a reliable narrator anyway, so if I have made any flawed assumptions he can take the blame!

[Mentirius]

The second half of Amaurn/Ymaar is up...I'm calling this one Invincible.  A very violent post all around.  I hope it was worth the build-up!

It might be a little while until the next instalment on the Terra thread after this, as I'm currently figuring out another Rahn episode for The Keeping of Secrets, while Ben has more DuBois flashback revelations in the pipeline for The Ghost Worlds, but this is by no means the end for the thread.

[Mentirius]

So, we're back after a moderate hiatus.  Ben has more material in the works, and I've just added a new Inquisitor Rahn instalment to The Keeping of Secrets - a retrospective focused on his early training back in M41, entitled "Welcome to the Inquisition".  I realise we use the word "Welcome" in our titles a lot but hey, the phrase ended up as a motif at some stage and I couldn't resist another reference, incorrigible cheese addict that I am...

Today's IC post is the start of a lengthy new sequence split into five segments, the rest of which will be set mostly in the present, comprising an extended story arc within the thread.  Next week I'll be bringing back a formidable old villain from the second Amon Dull Saga, against whom Rahn and the rest of Redacted's crew will be set.  All this has already been written, although given it has taken me several months to do it, I appreciate that any regular readers might reasonably have given this thread up for dead by now (the forum even asked me if I was sure I wanted to resurrect an out-of-date topic when I made the post!)  Anyway, here's hoping there's at least one of you out there who still keeps the faith, and if not then no hard feelings. 

Long live the In Character board!

[Mentirius]

New "present day" post up on The Keeping of Secrets, featuring Inquisitor Rahn's first attempt to interrogate a problematic prisoner...there is plenty to more to come from this arc, but hopefully this segment should give an idea of what he might be in for next time.

Full disclosure here: this villain I've brought back from the old AD2 project is not one of my own creations.  Credit for the original character, who I'll try to avoid naming on the OOC thread in case of overt spoilers, goes to Inquisitor_Sargoth, a fine writer and one of our main collaborators back then.  If you fancy delving into the character's background, check out A History of Violence followed by Blood, Pain & Darkness within the Conclave Archive.  As the character was last seen IC being recruited by Balkoth at the end of M41, it did feel appropriate to explore what happened to him after that, and I feel like he makes a good foil for Rahn, but I didn't actually get permission to use him here.  Sargoth, if you end up reading this - thank you for the inspiration, and sorry for the shameless appropriation!

[Mentirius]

I've just posted the finale to the Pain & Purpose arc on The Keeping of Secrets - this entry is entitled "The Toll", and is spread over three posts by reason of being absurdly long.  For anyone who read the previous instalments, I hope this is a satisfying conclusion.

This may be the end for the arc, but we have plenty more material planned for the thread, and the wider project remains alive and kicking.  I'm afraid I haven't finished the next entry yet but writing is in progress and I will get it up as soon as I can. 

Ave Balkoth

EDIT: Coincidentally, the last part of The Toll was my 100th post on this iteration of the forum...I finally got my OOC Inquisitor's Seal!

[Dosdamt]

Lines of communication have been restored after appropriate sacred unguents and violence were applied to the machinery that disobeyed the commands of the most holy machine spirit. Works are in progress.