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Peter Fehervari

2021-12-27T16:36:35Z

2603:7080:4D00:BDE4:1C4D:7A22:508B:657B:

A full time TV-editor of Hungarian descent, Peter Fehervari is pretty much a flagship of 40k's Warhammer Horror line, having published some of the most genuinely unsettling 40k novels. Like [[Dan Abnett]], he features numerous linking threads between them all - recurring characters, locations, or concepts. The term for Fehervari's sub-setting is [[The Dark Coil]], and you can find more about it on that page.

Unlike Dan Abnett, Fehervari's oeuvre mostly centers around horror.

Unlike most Black Library writers, Fehervari's depictions of Chaos are rarely as direct and clear-cut as most depictions in the fluff. The typical hallmarks of Chaotic corruption, like mentioning Nurgle or Khorne, or having easily recognizable types of daemon are rare if not nonexistent in his work. Fehervari uses the Tau to show a contrast to the Imperium, as their scientific-minded, less-zealous and xenophobic mindset provides us a great point from which to see how horrific and uncaring the Imperium really is, although he also manages to show a distinctly unique dark side to the Tau quite apart from the usual soft-Orwellian overtones they usually have.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Writers]]
[[category:Black Library]]

Peter Fehervari

2021-12-27T16:36:21Z

2603:7080:4D00:BDE4:1C4D:7A22:508B:657B: Had to happen at some point

The Dark Coil

2021-12-27T16:29:17Z

2603:7080:4D00:BDE4:1C4D:7A22:508B:657B:

The setting (if such a term applies) for the stories written by [[Black Library]] writer [[Peter Fehervari]].

==Wait... What?==
The '''Dark Coil''' is a rather unusual setting/concept/sub-setting(?)/something which features in all the Warhammer novels and short stories of Peter Fehervari, not entirely unlike the sub-setting of 40k (the Sabbat Worlds, the Helican Sub-Sector) in which [[Dan Abnett]]'s novels take place. Although they take place on a few common settings or involve a few overarching general organisations, there are few direct links between characters or the main plotlines of each story, and it often takes a little extra work to spot the connections. And given the horror/psychological themes of most of Fehervari's stories, attempting to figure it out can be tricky. Or [[skub]]. Or both.

A crucial conceit of the setting is the malleability of time and reality depending on individual perception, often aided by [[Chaos]] shenanigans. Whilst regular Lovecraftian Chaos stuff does still occur within the Coil, it's rarely as direct and clear-cut as most depictions in the fluff. The typical hallmarks of Chaotic corruption, like mentioning Nurgle or Khorne, or having easily recognizable types of daemon are rare if not nonexistent in his work. Fehervari uses the Tau to show a contrast to the Imperium, as their scientific-minded, less-zealous and xenophobic mindset provides us a great point from which to see how horrific and uncaring the Imperium really is, although he also manages to show a distinctly unique dark side to the Tau quite apart from the usual soft-Orwellian overtones they usually have.

Attempting to unpick the Coil is tricky because most characters are unreliable narrators, insane, delusional, capable of rewriting or traversing reality to make it refit their perceptions, deliberately hiding things from the reader, or all of the above. This said, there are a few linking factors that overlap in most of the stories.

==Linking Threads==
* '''The Angels Resplendent/[[Angels Penitent]]''' - Originally two separate chapters that GW gave Fehervari permission to turn into different incarnations of the same chapter. The former were inspiring, humanistic craftsmen. The latter were [[Judge Dredd]]-calibre fun police. Both incarnations had their dark sides. The Resplendent thought getting their aspirants to walk through a Chaos-haunted forest (and situating their [[Fortress-Monastery]] near it) was a good idea. The Penitent abandoned most of their duties to the Imperium in favour of removing all the stains of their past, despite significant numbers of their chapter still doing forbidden artistic things on the down low.
* '''Phaedra''' - Space Vietnam. [[Catachan|No, not that one]]. This is more specifically Space ''Apocalypse Now''. It's a hot, thoroughly miserable [[Death World]] in the Yuxa system that the Imperium and [[Tau]] use as a dumping ground for their broken and problematic troops and commanders, keeping them fighting in a contrived proxy war to avoid having to contest a wider area of space. People down there go crazy, if they aren't already. Ostensibly loyal regiments defect to the T'au, go renegade from Imperial Command, or become cannibals. It's all but stated the planet is ''extremely'' Chaos-tainted, with oddities such as coral temples made by forgotten civilizations around which no vegetation grows, characters being haunted by ghosts, and a tendency to drive any inhabitants but the native population (the Saathla) insane. If they don't get infected by the mutagenic fungus or poisoned by the local fauna, that is. The native human(?) population bears a resemblance to the Deep One hybrids from the work of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]. The planet also seems to have a tendency to throw certain people across time and space, only to dump them into another twist in the Coil.
** The Yuxa system's only other (as far as we know) inhabited planet is a gas giant known as Scitalyss, which hosts a similarly miserable orbital hive known as "The Rat's Cradle".
* '''Vytarn/Redemption-219''' - A Shrine World. Originally an endless ocean, bad things happened there and it turned into an ocean of fire. Unknown to everyone who lives there, the planet is effectively a sewer grate for the [[Webway]]. It ends up being a magnet for cults of all stripes and creeds - at one point there are at least two competing Chaos cults, a genestealer cult, and numerous Imperial creeds all duking it out for supremacy.
* '''Providence''' - A recent inductee into the Imperium from before the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. It was conquered in a religious crusade, initially made tricky by Providence's pro-science stance. Ironically enough, they start discovering Chaos juju after they join the Imperium. Uniquely for 40K, they are unambiguously based on the pre-20th century United States, with elements of the US Civil War thrown in. A core belief of its people is that of the "Thunderground" - a point of their lives where they face their greatest challenge that either changes them forever or ends them entirely - sometimes both at once. Other characters in the Coil face similar pivotal moments and such "Thundergrounds" have a propensity to overlap.
* '''The Sunken Worlds''' - a system of seemingly oceanic worlds which have a tendency to spawn some of the most fanatical and cruel Imperial Guard regiments, including the Lethean Mariners and Iwuji Sharks.
* '''"The Emperor Condemns!"''' - A common phrase throughout the Coil as well as an overarching belief. It was originally introduced by the Lethean Mariner regiments (imagine Waterworld crossed with [[Krieg]] with the fatalism spiced with religious fanaticism). Basically, they believe the Emperor is not the caretaker of humanity and is instead its punisher. The Angels Penitent take large parts of their inspiration from the creed and whilst the Undying Martyr who inspired them has possible links to the Lethean Creed, an ironclad link is not certain.
* '''The Torn Prophet''' - The inspiration for several rather dark (which is saying something) creeds of the Imperial Faith. Similar to Christianity's Holy Trinity, the Prophet is seen as a septpartite being, with each aspect nominally personifying various virtues. Despite inspiring several orders, churches, and Sororitas Ordos, no one can accurately trace the Prophet's true origins, or even when they existed. Given the way the Coil works, they may never have existed in the first place. As with other beliefs in the Dark Coil, the teachings of the Prophet tend to get twisted into either macabre insanity or unwitting [[Chaos]] stuff. Or both. The Prophet may even be Fehervari himself.
* '''Sarastus''' - A former hive world, now an abandoned urban wasteland. A perpetually dark world, many of its hives were kept under large domes, partly to keep them warm and partly to provide a semblance of light. At some point in its past something bad happened, and the domes were compromised, allowing the Night (note the capital letter) in. Along with a succession of strange occurrences, like the local equivalent of the Rapture but more depressing (random people died suddenly but their bodies didn't decay), and the civilised population all but died later. The feral remnants managed to survive later and the world became a favoured recruiting ground for the Night Lords.
* '''Oblast''' - another Imperial world on the edge of T'au influence. It's an icy rock with its cities interconnected by huge Snowpiercer style trains and full of unhappy promethium miners and revolutionaries. The Alpha Legion, Inquisition, Tau, Chaos Cults, Angels Penitent AND Resplendent have all dipped their toes in here and SOMEHOW it's still the most "normal" a world in the Coil, by virtue of not having any reality-bending shenanigans.
* '''Olber Vedas''' - The closest thing to a central character in the Dark Coil, and that is using the term extremely charitably. Whilst he's appeared only twice in person, his influence and actions have been felt in almost every twist of the Coil. It's implied that multiple iterations of him are trapped in the Coil and have cycled their actions repeatedly, sometimes as a hero, sometimes as a villain, in hope of either breaking free of the Coil, controlling it, or destroying it entirely.

[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Black Library]]
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Black Library

2021-12-27T16:23:00Z

2603:7080:4D00:BDE4:1C4D:7A22:508B:657B: /* List of Black Library writers */

{{Topquote|Stories may meander, but they all end the same. I have seen the authors. They are terrible.|Magnus the Red, having just read Nemesis evidently}}
[[Image:Black_Library_logo.jpg|thumb|right]]
The '''Black Library''' is the book publishing arm of [[Games Workshop]], responsible for releasing fiction set in the [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles|Warhammer Fantasy]] and [[Warhammer 40,000]] universes (and, until [[Fantasy Flight Games|FFG]] took over, the corresponding [[RPG]]s). It shares its name with the Black Library within the 40K setting, which has more to do with forbidden [[Eldar]] lore than dodgy novels. The quality of BL output tends to be quite variable; they've put out many books worth reading (such as those that give us a glimpse into backstories-HH books, for example) but also many that are quite terrible (eg something that is supposed to be a major event for the characters but is otherwise ignored).

==Is this [[Canon]]?==
While the Black Library has published good books from good authors, some works are of [[C.S.Goto|dubious adherence to canon]]. There exists a certain controversy among the readers as to whether the works of BL can be considered canon, and its employees are not helping the case, either. Marc Gascoigne, former publisher and editor for the Black Library says on the matter:

:"Keep in mind Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 are worlds where half truths, lies, propaganda, politics, legends and myths exist. The absolute truth which is implied when you talk about "canonical background" will never be known because of this. Everything we know about these worlds is from the viewpoints of people in them which are as a result incomplete and even sometimes incorrect. The truth is mutable, debatable and lost as the victors write the history...

:Here's our standard line: Yes it's all official, but remember that we're reporting back from a time where stories aren't always true, or at least 100% accurate. If it has the 40K logo on it, it exists in the 40K universe. Or it was a legend that may well have happened. Or a rumour that may or may not have any truth behind it.

:Let's put it another way: anything with a 40K logo on it is as official as any Codex... and at least as crammed full of rumours, distorted legends and half-truths."

George Mann, the current head of the Black Library, has elaborated further in interviews:

:"In further conversation, George emphasized that Black Library’s main objective was to 'tell good stories'. He agreed that some points in certain novels could, perhaps, have benefited from the editor’s red pen [[C.S.Goto|(a certain multilaser was mentioned)]] but was at pains to explain that, just as each hobbyist tends to interpret the background and facts of the [[Warhammer]] and [[Warhammer 40k|40K]] worlds differently, so does each author. In essence, each [[:Category:Writers|author]] represents an “alternative” version of the respective worlds. After pressing him further, he explained that only the Studio material (rulebooks, codices, army books and suchlike) was canonical in that it HAD to be adhered-to in the plots and background of the novels. There was no obligation on authors to adhere to facts and events as spelled out in Black Library work."

They have a regular submissions window so you can submit your <s>fanfiction</s> work and get a job as a freelance writer. Like any business, they prefer to hire staff with an established track record, so the commissions tend to go to existing tie-in writers or ex-GW staff, but anyone can apply for the job. Fa/tg/uys have, as yet, been unsuccessful, leading to hilarious [[Nerdrage]], [[Black Library Submissions Window|as they have yet to realise that they will never get the job]].

==The Quality Issue==
As mentioned above BL books sometimes suffer from a quality issue but this is not doing it justice. Part of the problem is the mix of talent. Some of the writers are experienced and skilled professional novelists. Others are ex-staff members and friends of GW staff who happened to be in the room at the time. Some of them are both.

While some books are either very well written or perfectly decent reads, others are pure trashy slash and burn books to fill your need to read about beheadings or copious amounts of blood and what little plot is present exists just to satisfy your bloodlust.

Such a state may be perplexing at first but you have to understand the BL often releases books in cooperation with GW army releases. There is a new Eldar update? Better bring out a novel about the Eldar then! GW often have a few army updates planned in advance, plently of time get a new novel rolling in time for the army release. Other books are sometimes bought out to satisfy the needs of fans of one of the more popular factions (space marines for example) for a story about their favourite warriors.

BL understands though that there are fans of just the fluff (such as the people that read this wiki) and so demand a little more than just the normal bloods and guts sort of writing. So they bring in competent writers to draft some stories with actual weight and dignity.

A good way to judge the quality of a read is by the author. Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill and Sandy Mitchell occupy the leading pantheon of great 40k writers and you'd be hard pressed to find anything by them to be half baked. Well, your mileage may vary on McNeill's more recent work. John French, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Guy Haley and Christ Wraight have ascended to the pantheon in recent years, though AD-B can be very polarising around these parts.

At the other end of the scale you've got C.S.Goto, who writes very compelling toilet paper.

==In [[Warhammer 40,000]]==

In-universe, the Black Library is the repository of the [[Eldar]] Empire's collected knowledge of [[Chaos]]. It is guarded by the [[Harlequin]]s and White Seers and is hidden in the [[Webway]], because that knowledge could be used for great [[heresy]], although now and then, the Harlequins let [[Bronislaw Czevak|someone]] check out a book if it is [[Just as planned|important that they know something]]. The only people the Harlequins will allow to enter the Black Library are those who have "conquered the Chaos within them" and have the requisite membership and card, so the list of non-Harlequin members is predictably minuscule. [[Ahriman]] has attempted to enter the Library for some time now; unfortunately, he has yet to succeed and stir some shit up. [[Eldrad]] keeps denying his library membership application.

<s>Doesn't seem to be guarded that closely, since Inquisitor [[Jaq Draco]] could just walk in, steal the Eldar's book of Prophecies and walk away with it </s>The Harlequins let him in. He just didn't know it then boasted everywhere about it.

==List of Black Library writers==

In no particular order, for very obvious reasons, just ignore the fact that the top 3 write some of the best (Gaunt's Ghosts, various, Ciaphas Cain). Note that some of these authors are not employed at BL any more.

*[[Dan Abnett]]
*[[Graham McNeill]]
*[[Sandy Mitchell]]
*[[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]]
*[[Peter Fehervari]]
*[[Danie Ware]]
*[[Matthew Farrer]]
*[[Ben Counter]]
*[[James Swallow]]
*[[David Guymer]]
*[[John French]]
*[[Guy Haley]]
*[[Ian St. Martin]]
*[[Rachel Harrison]]
*[[Josh Reynolds]]
*[[Mike Brooks]]
*[[Lucien Soulban]]
*[[Rob Sanders]]
*[[Henry Zou]]
*[[Nick Kyme]]
*[[William King]]
*[[Ian Watson]]
*[[Gav Thorpe]]
*[[C.S. Goto]]
*[[Christian Dunn]]
*[[Robbie MacNiven]]
*[[Chris Wraight]]
*[[Paul Kearney]]

== The Good Stuff ==
*[[Ciaphas Cain]]
*[[Gotrek & Felix]]

==See Also==
*[[List of Warhammer 40,000 novels]]
*[[Black Library Submissions Window]]
*[[Warhammer Adventures]], Black Library's first and hopefully last attempt at children's literature

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Publishers]][[category:Black Library]][[Category:Games Workshop]][[Category:Literature]]

The Dark Coil

2021-12-27T16:17:58Z

2603:7080:4D00:BDE4:1C4D:7A22:508B:657B:

The setting (if such a term applies) for the stories written by [[Black Library]] writer Peter Fehervari.

==Wait... What?==
The '''Dark Coil''' is a rather unusual setting/concept/sub-setting(?)/something which features in all the Warhammer novels and short stories of Peter Fehervari, not entirely unlike the sub-setting of 40k (the Sabbat Worlds, the Helican Sub-Sector) in which [[Dan Abnett]]'s novels take place. Although they take place on a few common settings or involve a few overarching general organisations, there are few direct links between characters or the main plotlines of each story, and it often takes a little extra work to spot the connections. And given the horror/psychological themes of most of Fehervari's stories, attempting to figure it out can be tricky. Or [[skub]]. Or both.

A crucial conceit of the setting is the malleability of time and reality depending on individual perception, often aided by [[Chaos]] shenanigans. Whilst regular Lovecraftian Chaos stuff does still occur within the Coil, it's rarely as direct and clear-cut as most depictions in the fluff. The typical hallmarks of Chaotic corruption, like mentioning Nurgle or Khorne, or having easily recognizable types of daemon are rare if not nonexistent in his work. Fehervari uses the Tau to show a contrast to the Imperium, as their scientific-minded, less-zealous and xenophobic mindset provides us a great point from which to see how horrific and uncaring the Imperium really is, although he also manages to show a distinctly unique dark side to the Tau quite apart from the usual soft-Orwellian overtones they usually have.

Attempting to unpick the Coil is tricky because most characters are unreliable narrators, insane, delusional, capable of rewriting or traversing reality to make it refit their perceptions, deliberately hiding things from the reader, or all of the above. This said, there are a few linking factors that overlap in most of the stories.

==Linking Threads==
* '''The Angels Resplendent/[[Angels Penitent]]''' - Originally two separate chapters that GW gave Fehervari permission to turn into different incarnations of the same chapter. The former were inspiring, humanistic craftsmen. The latter were [[Judge Dredd]]-calibre fun police. Both incarnations had their dark sides. The Resplendent thought getting their aspirants to walk through a Chaos-haunted forest (and situating their [[Fortress-Monastery]] near it) was a good idea. The Penitent abandoned most of their duties to the Imperium in favour of removing all the stains of their past, despite significant numbers of their chapter still doing forbidden artistic things on the down low.
* '''Phaedra''' - Space Vietnam. [[Catachan|No, not that one]]. This is more specifically Space ''Apocalypse Now''. It's a hot, thoroughly miserable [[Death World]] in the Yuxa system that the Imperium and [[Tau]] use as a dumping ground for their broken and problematic troops and commanders, keeping them fighting in a contrived proxy war to avoid having to contest a wider area of space. People down there go crazy, if they aren't already. Ostensibly loyal regiments defect to the T'au, go renegade from Imperial Command, or become cannibals. It's all but stated the planet is ''extremely'' Chaos-tainted, with oddities such as coral temples made by forgotten civilizations around which no vegetation grows, characters being haunted by ghosts, and a tendency to drive any inhabitants but the native population (the Saathla) insane. If they don't get infected by the mutagenic fungus or poisoned by the local fauna, that is. The native human(?) population bears a resemblance to the Deep One hybrids from the work of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]. The planet also seems to have a tendency to throw certain people across time and space, only to dump them into another twist in the Coil.
** The Yuxa system's only other (as far as we know) inhabited planet is a gas giant known as Scitalyss, which hosts a similarly miserable orbital hive known as "The Rat's Cradle".
* '''Vytarn/Redemption-219''' - A Shrine World. Originally an endless ocean, bad things happened there and it turned into an ocean of fire. Unknown to everyone who lives there, the planet is effectively a sewer grate for the [[Webway]]. It ends up being a magnet for cults of all stripes and creeds - at one point there are at least two competing Chaos cults, a genestealer cult, and numerous Imperial creeds all duking it out for supremacy.
* '''Providence''' - A recent inductee into the Imperium from before the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. It was conquered in a religious crusade, initially made tricky by Providence's pro-science stance. Ironically enough, they start discovering Chaos juju after they join the Imperium. Uniquely for 40K, they are unambiguously based on the pre-20th century United States, with elements of the US Civil War thrown in. A core belief of its people is that of the "Thunderground" - a point of their lives where they face their greatest challenge that either changes them forever or ends them entirely - sometimes both at once. Other characters in the Coil face similar pivotal moments and such "Thundergrounds" have a propensity to overlap.
* '''The Sunken Worlds''' - a system of seemingly oceanic worlds which have a tendency to spawn some of the most fanatical and cruel Imperial Guard regiments, including the Lethean Mariners and Iwuji Sharks.
* '''"The Emperor Condemns!"''' - A common phrase throughout the Coil as well as an overarching belief. It was originally introduced by the Lethean Mariner regiments (imagine Waterworld crossed with [[Krieg]] with the fatalism spiced with religious fanaticism). Basically, they believe the Emperor is not the caretaker of humanity and is instead its punisher. The Angels Penitent take large parts of their inspiration from the creed and whilst the Undying Martyr who inspired them has possible links to the Lethean Creed, an ironclad link is not certain.
* '''The Torn Prophet''' - The inspiration for several rather dark (which is saying something) creeds of the Imperial Faith. Similar to Christianity's Holy Trinity, the Prophet is seen as a septpartite being, with each aspect nominally personifying various virtues. Despite inspiring several orders, churches, and Sororitas Ordos, no one can accurately trace the Prophet's true origins, or even when they existed. Given the way the Coil works, they may never have existed in the first place. As with other beliefs in the Dark Coil, the teachings of the Prophet tend to get twisted into either macabre insanity or unwitting [[Chaos]] stuff. Or both. The Prophet may even be Fehervari himself.
* '''Sarastus''' - A former hive world, now an abandoned urban wasteland. A perpetually dark world, many of its hives were kept under large domes, partly to keep them warm and partly to provide a semblance of light. At some point in its past something bad happened, and the domes were compromised, allowing the Night (note the capital letter) in. Along with a succession of strange occurrences, like the local equivalent of the Rapture but more depressing (random people died suddenly but their bodies didn't decay), and the civilised population all but died later. The feral remnants managed to survive later and the world became a favoured recruiting ground for the Night Lords.
* '''Oblast''' - another Imperial world on the edge of T'au influence. It's an icy rock with its cities interconnected by huge Snowpiercer style trains and full of unhappy promethium miners and revolutionaries. The Alpha Legion, Inquisition, Tau, Chaos Cults, Angels Penitent AND Resplendent have all dipped their toes in here and SOMEHOW it's still the most "normal" a world in the Coil, by virtue of not having any reality-bending shenanigans.
* '''Olber Vedas''' - The closest thing to a central character in the Dark Coil, and that is using the term extremely charitably. Whilst he's appeared only twice in person, his influence and actions have been felt in almost every twist of the Coil. It's implied that multiple iterations of him are trapped in the Coil and have cycled their actions repeatedly, sometimes as a hero, sometimes as a villain, in hope of either breaking free of the Coil, controlling it, or destroying it entirely.

[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Black Library]]
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]