2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Phil Kelly

2019-11-03T12:37:18Z

2A00:23C4:259A:AA01:819C:786D:31A6:765C:

[[File:Phil_(Gribbly)_Kelly.jpg|frame|[[Venser|Just ''gaze'' at the sideburns on this guy. Gaze in ''awe''.]]]]
'''Phil Kelly''' is a games designer for [[Games Workshop]]. /tg/'s opinion on the man is best described as [[skub|Oscillating between adoration and hate depending on the new book he puts out]]. In any case, he's one of the few writers that /tg/ remembers fondly and aside from the new hotness that is [[Anthony Reynolds]] (who is both American and therefore not as spiffy as well as less established than Kelly), Kelly is essentially the only current game designer that [[/tg/]] actually likes to talk about. [[Robin Cruddace]] fucked up [[Tyranids]] badly and buffed [[Imperial Guard]] to Wardian levels, and [[Matt Ward]]... well, if you've spent any time here at all you know our feelings on a [[Ultramarines|certain chapter's]] [[Spiritual liege]].

==The Pros and Cons of Phil Kelly==
Kelly is often regarded as perfect by /tg/, which is only partially true. The main reason people like him is that unlike some [[Matt Ward|other designers]] he tries to keep at least some of the themes of the old armies, rather than [[Grey Knights|give away all the mystery behind an army]], [[Ultramarines|try to make a chapter into the greatest thing ever]], [[Necrons|or completely revamp existing armies to fit their tastes]] and his [[fluff]] (with the notable exception of [[Space Wolves|Codex: Space Wolves]]) is usually '''very''' well written and holds true to the old armies, [[Heldrake|even in cases when it should be really, really stupid]]. However, his actual [[crunch]] has seen ups and downs. Most of his codices are very middle-of-the-road, and the internal balance is almost always terrible; it's not a Kelly book unless there's at least [[Counts As#Mandrakes|one completely useless unit]] and [[Heldrake|one completely overpowered, auto-include-or-else unit]].

Sometimes though his fluff does have problems, the most notable example would be some of the issues surrounding Codex: Space Wolves. First and foremost, much of the fluff is frankly ridiculous, such as a story about scuba-diving Terminators or a handful of Space Wolves floating across space, breaking into a Chaos Space Marine flagship by hitting it, and then slaughtering all Chaos Space Marines onboard before using it to wipe out an entire Chaos fleet. Most of the non-Codex: Space Marines wargear has the word "Wolf" thrown in for no reason, such as '''Wolf''' Fangs, '''Wolf''' Necklaces, '''Wolf''' Tail Talismans, and, of course, '''wolf''' mounts. Yes, this Codex has Space '''Wolves''' ride giant Thunder'''wolves''' while acting like '''wolves''' with their '''wolf''' wargear, while leading packs of Fenrisian '''Wolves'''. While most of these options have been in the Codex for some time heaping more '''Wolf''' options into the codex is an example of taking something [[Awesome]] and overdoing it, which is another problem with Kelly. Additionally, the Codex is an extreme example of "Codex Creep." It has a number of choices that are outright better than the Codex: Space Marines equivalents while costing much less, leading to the disappearance of vanilla Marines from competitive play. The most egregious examples are Grey Hunters (who have a bunch of special rules and equipment, including Wolf Guard Terminators as Sergeants, at a cheaper cost than vanilla's Tactical Squads) and Long Fangs (who have much greater firepower than the equivalent Devastator Squads but cost nearly the same).

Another issue would be how his armies are his wobbly crunch, if you want to make Chaos Space Marines competitive you can go Heldrakes and/or Nurgle or go home, whereas with the new Eldar codex you can spam vehicles and have essentially a guaranteed win against all comers lists. The armies ''do'' have good options, but many of the options need very specific scenarios to work and earn their points back (especially thanks to rampant over-costing), the Daemon army book for example can be really powerful if you roll decently, but a few bad rolls on mandatory tables will have you lose the game regardless of how sound your game plan is. Mediocre units (but not ''bad'' per se) are fairly common in Phil Kelly books, including [[Counts as|Mandrakes,]] Chosen, Possessed, Juggernauts, Grotesques, and so on. That's not to say the Codices are ''bad'', per se; rather, his Codices usually have one truly great build, one or two other builds that work all right, and a lot of builds that just don't work very well (usually referred to as "monobuild"). You won't win nearly every game ([[Eldar|with a]] [[Space Wolves|few aforementioned exceptions]]), but you won't typically lose because [[Robin Cruddace|somebody took all]] [[Tyranids|of your good units]] [[Carnifex|and made them terrible for their cost]].

Finally, Kelly is becoming known as the "High Lord of Random Tables" because he puts random tables in every... fucking... thing. This has only started with his more recent codices, but Chaos Space Marines introduced a [[Warriors of Chaos]]-esque table for challenges, and the new Chaos Daemons are an absolute mess of random tables, with most of the wargear and a number of special rules (including Daemonic Instability and Warp Storm) being entirely random . Some see this as a good thing because it adds "spice" to the game as most of these tables do make sense from a fluff perspective (especially when we're talking about the embodiment of true chaos), but many find these tables to be tedious, annoying, and damaging to the game as it could lead to you either losing the game or curb-stomping the enemy depending on a mandatory lucky 2D6 roll with the opposing argument being "A small element of randomness is fine; too much of it is just tedious, annoying and it interferes too much with the game".

==A Small List of Kelly's Work==

===Warhammer 40k===
*[[Codex]]: [[Space Wolf]]s (5th Edition). [[Space Wolves|This codex gave them their true identity as an immensely fun and tactical (though slightly underpriced) army that absolutely spams the word "wolf." WOLFY WOLF WOLF FOR THE WOLFITY WOLFITY WOLFY WOLF WOLFULOUS WOLFITY WOLF WOLF!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!]]
*Codex: [[Orks]] (4th Edition). A Codex that has survived through two editions still coming out somewhat strong though with a very small number of competitive builds to this day. Though the cheese it once had seems to have been stolen by mice. Responsible for the dreaded 'Aspekt boyz'; forcing specialized orks into designated squads, forcing lootas to use only deffguns, burna boyz to stick to one squad, and so on. Also, hilarious fluff.
*Codex: [[Eldar]] (4th Edition). A great codex in and of itself, it fixed a lot of the OP bits from 3rd Edition Eldar (most notably turning Exarchs from mini characters to standard champions, and gimped hideously overpowered vehicles) although most of the fluff is copy pasted from 2nd edition and it has not gone through editions as well as Philipus's other codices due to changes beyond his control (such as the vehicle rules and codex power creep), overall it's fun, balanced, and fluffy.
*Codex: [[Dark Eldar]] (5th Edition). This, this is arguably Kelly's best work fluff wise, Commorragh's description is a true masterpiece, along with Vect's, Malys', and Sliscus' background. At the time it was powerful without being broken, fun without being weak, and as tactically challenging as a fast glass cannon should be. Moreover, Kelly managed to give new life to the evil cousins of the Eldars, allowing certain lists to be competitive once again. One of the only things kinda bizarre with it are why the Craftworld Eldar are worried about dying off when this codex makes it very clear it would be quite easy for them to avoid this fate.
*Codex: [[Chaos Space Marines]] (3rd & 6th Edition). We knew the bucks we were paying were worth it. [[Abaddon|Failbaddon]] [[/tg/ gets shit done|is getting shit done]] and kicking Cadia's ass, possibly with the [[Primarchs]]. Possessed and [[Chaos Spawn|the-ones-which-shall-not-be-named]] are better than last edition (though still not great). Motherfucking daemon dino-bots and a vector-striking robo-dragon flyer. The first 6th edition Codex and the first fully colored 40k Codex. To be fair, that was all fluff, the crunch was revealed to have some trouble areas, namely its internal balancing: Warp Talons and Mutilators are terminally useless whereas Heldrakes are second only to Vendettas as the best flyer in the game and can be game winners by themselves. Speaking to the former, 3.5 ed CSM was hands down '''THE BEST''' (and stupidly, brokenly OP) codex for CSM, making them the OP monsters we remember them as - with legion rules, an ''awesome'' wargear section and troops that were useful in the absence of ATSKNF. These were the days when Space Marine fanboys got bent over and raped by possessed dreadnoughts, infiltrating CSM blobs that guided Obliterator deep strikes, FA13 Defilers that could fix themselves on a 4+, '''cult terminators''' and [[Awesome|predators fitted with blastmasters]]. Sigh, those were the days.
*Codex: [[Chaos Daemons]] (6th Edition). Though the fluff, while well written, completely changes Daemons from how they used to be into something completely different (there's now a class system for example with regular Daemons looking down upon Daemon Princes for example). The better parts make him a candidate for the [[Daemon Prince|daemonhood]] reward (In said Codex, Phil actually hints in a plausible way that a [[Grey Knight]] has had a seed of doubt planted with in his mary-sue heart), whereas the crunch makes him a shoe in for the [[Chaos Spawn|Something else entirely]]. The army plays like horde with cheap, disposable and deadly units all over the place and is a truly random force of destruction, never before have games been won or lost just by a single roll.
*Codex: [[Eldar]] (6th Edition). Take two! This time around, Eldar were buffed into the stratosphere, their weaponry will bring a rapetrain's worth of fun to the guys firing them and cause purest agony to the ones they are directed at (sometimes to the detriment of a casual game). The codex included buffs like Psyker Level 4 Eldrad, Lots of DS2 weapons, '''SHOOTING AND RUNNING''' (an ability for units across the board, however Phil has recently admitted Ward came up with the idea). Some new phantom units including '''THE BIGGEST''' fucking citadel model ever outside of Apocalypse! The main drawback was supposed to be their individual soldiers being weaker, but hey, a unit that already killed its enemies before they could do anything means a unit that doesn't have to fear enemy fire at all.
**Special note on Codex Eldar: it's important to notice that only this codex has made obsolete almost every unit in the game that uses a cover save as its main save, as the basic eldar transport can fire d6+1 S7 shoots, usually twin-linked, that ignore cover from 60". It's a big irony that the same designer that restored dark eldars for the game has destroyed them completely using a single unit, a feat that even Matt Ward has never dreamed. Stealth armours, darkshrouds, camo suits and many other items and units are also now useless. And even more, as almost weapon in the army is semi rending you will never see again a terminator suit. So, Phil Kelly changed the game forever with this codex, and many people still think that much more have been lost since then.
** It worth nothing he collected Eldar since 2nd edition. That's what happens if you let fanboys write their own Codices (Eldars were arguably the strongest faction in 6th edition and pretty much retained that status in 7th with their scatterbikes. Phil's participation in recent Codex is unknown). Yeah, and you thought [[Robin Cruddace|Treadhead]] was bad.
*Supplement: Farsight Enclaves. Crisis suits as troops? Completely crazy powerful bodyguard squad made of independent characters (including an independent character RIPTIDE)? Need I say more? On the downside, the Ethereals shift a from "ambiguous but vaguely benevolent space Taoists" to "cackling mustache-twirling cartoon villains" (something he reinforced in his Farsight novels), it removed a [[Grey Knights|lot of mystery that the Enclaves had]] while giving the least satisfying and dumbest answers possible and had some 'questionable' fluff, like the Enclaves using their limited resources to carve a planet into a D20 just to show off to nobody else watching. It also retconned some of Farsight's campaigns so that he no longer had the character flaws that prevented him from being a Mary Sue and used an author avatar who not only guesses how the Orks reproduce (based on nothing, yes everyone around him assumes this baseless guess is the truth) but also creates a disease that wipes out a hive fleet (on top of numerous inventions to the point that he makes Cawl's accomplishments seem minor). [[Mary Sue|Pretty impressive]] considering how when Nurgle's daemons tried to do this they were unable to.
*Warzone Damnos: Hands down Kelly's worst work before he wrote his novels. You thought Ward was an Ultramarine fanboy? You haven't seen anything yet, due to their defeat at Damnos there was a massive morale drop throughout the Imperuim so the Ultramarines lead a force to reclaim the now Major Tomb World. It has Scouts sneaking up on a completely undefended pylon, Calgar lifting up said Pylon (which somehow gives him the ability to fire it at Tomb Complexes) Cato Sicarius killing first a Necron Lord by stabbing it in the right spot, then taking out a transcendent C'tan shard in a way that would make C.S. Goto proud. Lastly it had the Deathwatch taking a stroll through the completely undefended Tomb Complex (literally, there are no Scarabs, Spyders, Wraiths or Canoptek anything in this Tomb Complex) all the while planting charges on everything and also forgetting how the new Necron Dynasties work (blow up a world and their mind transfers to the next).
*Codex Deathwatch: He co-wrote this with Robin Cruddace, as confirmed by an interview. Said Codex retcons the Deathwatch into never being a part of the Inquisition, features them using Necron weapons while saying they kill those who use Xenos weapons and has a lot of contradictory lore in general, for example stating that there's a Watch Fortress that excels so much at attacking and destroying Eldar Craftworlds (no mention of how a few Space Marines are supposed to take on a fleet capable of crippling multiple chapters) that they have prevented them from appearing in the Segmentum Solar, however the map depicts two craftworlds only being a few lightyears away from Terra (not to mention a Waaagh! Apparently happened just a few planets over from Terra now). Even though they're no longer a part of the Inquisition they retain access to a massive Inquisition-like network (no mention of how) and they retain their Inquisitorial heraldry, because the book's retconned the Inquisitorial I to just heraldry anyone can wear so long as they guard the Imperium. They also gain some Custodes Gear (no mention of how or how this affects relations with the Custodes), because why not? To put the cherry on top, they also stated in an interview the reason the Codex is missing so many marine units (specifically their vehicles) is because they only included the units they wanted the players to buy. Isn't it great when authors fuck the army over because they wanted to sell you specific models? It's [[Tyranids|happened in the past,]] only this time [[ChapterHouse_Studios|without a legal issue motivating it.]]

All this said though, Kelly is usually a fairly safe bet for having your codex look, feel, and play mostly the same way it used to. Unless you have faith in our [[Spiritual Liege|Spiritual Liege]]. Or the [[Robin Cruddace|Treadhead]], if you lead [[Imperial Guard|a certain shooty army]]. Or [[Jeremy Vetock|the new guy]], if you play [[Tau| the other shooting army]].

And now Kelly is moving into Black Library with a series of novels about Commander Farsight. They have... a few interesting details scattered among a ton of shitty writing. For starters Kelly has confirmed the canon status of Shas'O'Kais (turning him into a massive Mary Sue) and revealed that the three students of Puretide are bonded to each other. But more interesting is the revelation that Tau actually CAN get possessed by Daemons (to be fair, the manner in which said Tau got possessed was a bit roundabout, as he had to come in contact with something that was already possessed, but its still interesting).

He also wrote 'War of Secrets,' a Dark Angel book about Primaris Marines. This book also references the Farsight books, whilst giving us a look into Primaris and Dark Angel relations.

===Warhammer Fantasy Battle===
*Army Book: [[Ogre Kingdoms]] (6th Edition). Kelly introduces a new very fun army with the single lowest model count in the game. While the book's crunch was average (nothing overpowered but at the same time you had a good chance at winning every game you played) the fluff was very good but surprisingly for Kelly was lacking in detail, though that could be argued as the Ogres not keeping very good records of their own history. Problems only started surfacing when the FAQ came out (which did things like add the "Move or Fire" rule to a character that didn't previously have that limitation).
*Army Book: [[Beastmen]] (7th Edition) If Warzone Damnos is his worst 40K book, then Beastmen is his worst Fantasy book. The army went from having decent chances at winning games to the worst army in the entire game. Some of the rules were downright retarded, like needing two of the exact same unit to pull off an ambush, one of which would take no part in the ambush. The Beastmen themselves were also moved to a spot where the Chaos Gods and everyone else shit on them constantly, almost never blessing them with gifts to help get the job done, completely losing all access to any kind of mark, and they even lost the ability to make themselves new weapons and armour. On the plus side he kept the theme of them being Chaos Anarchy embodied, and the book introduced several new monsters that have awesome fluff, great models, and would be auto includes if they weren't all hideously overpriced (coming in slightly under some dragons but nowhere near as useful).
*Army Book: [[Warriors of Chaos]] (7th Edition). Pretty damn good. He gave them some nifty special characters such as Valkia, Sigvald and Wulfric. And it had the [[Awesome|Viking drinking song/saga of Khalac Swordsson in it]].
*Army Book: [[Vampire Counts]] (8th edition). A fairly decent release, it removed the cheese that the old one had, added some more untold horrors upon the old world, and with Storm of Chaos being retconned into not happening he then (like the rest of the new Army Books) added a bit to advance the plot of Warhammer Fantasy. A bit of fluff in the codex has Mannfred conspiring with Kemmler to resurrect [[Nagash]] in a ritual involving a battle, the abduction and sacrifice of the High Elf Everqueen's daughter, which is one of the events leading to [[The End Times]]. This also disrupted an attempt at reconciliation between the High Elves and Dwarfs.

===Future Releases===
Unfortunately with the removal of the author credit in the new GW books there's no real way to tell which ones he may or may not have a hand in (especially since they're now supposed to be done by a "design team"), though the White Dwarf articles still interview some of the creators of the various books, so when a new one comes out you'll have to read on the articles to see if he had a hand in it or not. In the White Dwarf issue introducing the End Times this revealed he had a hand in End Times:Nagash, but then so did [[Matt Ward]]. If the recent teaser video's on GW's Facebook page are any indication, he's also involved in the upcoming 8e Space Marine codex. He seems to have been kicked upstairs to Black Library for the most part, though.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oatGPbCSIU And listen to this charming motherfucker chat about the DEldar with the also awesome Jes Goodwin.]

[[Category:Writers]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Game Designers]]

Mephiston

2019-11-03T12:27:55Z

2A00:23C4:259A:AA01:819C:786D:31A6:765C:

{{Awesome}}
{{topquote|And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.|Judges xvi, 30}}
[[File:DeathstormMephiston.png|350px|thumb|Whoever [[Kaldor Draigo|you are]], Mephiston eats like ten of your sorry asses for breakfast.|right]]
'''Mephiston''' a.k.a. angry Lucius Malfoy in SPEEHHSS is the Chief [[Librarian]] of the [[Blood Angels]] [[Space Marine]] chapter, one of the most powerful [[psykers]] in the [[Imperium]], and he bears the title "Lord of Death" for A FUCKING REASON! He's a monstrous creature in artificer armour and his sole purpose in life is to [[RAPE]] you in close combat. He often contends with the likes of [[Ahzek Ahriman]], [[Njal Stormcaller]], [[Eldrad |that dick]], [[Varro Tigurius]], [[Swarmlord|THE SWARMLORD]] and [[Kaldor Draigo]] for the title of baddest psychic motherfucker in the galaxy that's still mortal. Well, technically Space Marines are functionally immortal but are killed in action long before it can be considered relevant.

==Origin and History==
Once upon a time, Mephiston was called Brother Calistarius, one of many librarians of the Blood Angels (and possibly the same from the Sin of Damnation book, which would also make him the same Librarian Calistarius in the Space Hulk games). You know, just your average 8-foot tall, superhuman killing machine with psychic powers and [[vampire]]-ish tendencies. Nothing that special. Then one day, he was overcome by the effects of the Red Thirst.

Once a Blood Angel is overcome with the Red Thirst, he is afflicted by the [[Black Rage]] and is inducted into the [[Death Company]]. Death Company Marines are bat-shit crazy, berserker, vampire Space Marines. Since there's no cure for the Black Rage, the only thing that can be done for the Death Company is to use them as shock troops and throw them onto the front lines of the most brutal, meat grinder, suicide assaults and let them find a glorious death on the battlefield, like Samson in the House of Dagon.

During the second war for Armageddon, Brother Calistarius, as a Death Company Marine, was used to assault the [[Orks]] holding up in the Ecclesorium building of Hades Hive. As he and his fellow bat-shit crazy, berserker, vampire Space Marine brothers [[RIP AND TEAR|hacked, slashed and raped]] their way through the Orks' defences, they might have gotten a little bit too enthusiastic. As in, they brought the entire fucking building down on their heads.

Calistarius was the only one left alive, buried in the rubble with his body crushed and broken. Trapped, denied his glorious death, and unable to vent his rage by raping the shit out of the enemy, he was forced to sit and stew in his blind fury for seven days and seven nights. The madness of the Black Rage was tearing at his mind, screaming for blood and death, causing him to trip balls with out-of-this-world, fucked up visions that had driven all before him right off the deep end!

With nowhere to go and nothing to do, he had no choice but to stare down the visions and fight the madness. At midnight on the seventh day, he finally overcame the Black Rage and the Red Thirst and was reborn as Mephiston, LORD OF DEATH!

Having done what no Blood Angel had EVER done, he was reborn with new strength and power unlike anything he had ever felt before. Feeling the utter RAAAAAGE! and fury of Mephiston's rebirth, the thousand tons of rubble that had been crushing down on him and keeping him trapped SHIT ITSELF (how does rubble shit itself, you ask? Mephiston was angry with it, that's how!) and tried to escape, allowing Mephiston to burst free.

[[File:Lord of Death.PNG|250px|thumb|[[RAGE|A real champion is he who doesn't piss his pants at the mere presence of this bastard.]]|left]]As he burst free, he attracted the attention of a nearby Ork band. Now, there were several hundred heavily armed Orks and Mephiston was alone, his armour was shredded, he had no weapons, and was exhausted after what had just occurred. Given all this, it's clear Mephy wasn't really at his best. The odds were stacked against him, so it's fairly obvious what happened next...'''he fucked them ''right'' up!''' He butchered them, tore them apart with his bare hands. Then he grabbed hold of the biggest motherfucking Ork, PUNCHED A HOLE THROUGH HIS CHEST, AND TORE OUT HIS MOTHERFUCKING HEART. Then he skull fucked him while the other Orks just watched and cried girly tears of fear and defeat.

After this, because of his awesome power and the fact that the other Blood Angels were a bit scared of him and wouldn't refuse his application for promotion when he applied for one, he quickly rose through the ranks to the position of Chief Librarian.

===The Cybele Incident===
Mephiston was involved in, and helped to resolve, a conflict that nearly tore the Blood Angels Chapter apart. In the novels ''Blood Angels: Deus Encarmine'' and ''Blood Angels: Deus Sanguinius'', a schism occurs within the chapter during a campaign against the forces of [[Chaos]] on Cybele. A young Marine, Arkio, grew wings and then got all uppity and powerful, proclaiming himself to be the reincarnation of [[Sanguinius]], the Blood Angels' late [[Primarch]]. While many of his fellow Marines swore fealty to him, a number of others, including his older brother Rafen (his actual biological brother as well as fellow Blood Angel), refused to acknowledge any truth to his claim. As it turns out, they were right; the whole shebang turned out to be a typically dickish [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] plot intended to tear the Blood Angels apart and turn them to Chaos, and was orchestrated by Inquisitor Remius Stele, a traitor and agent of Chaos.

Eventually, [[Dante|Commander Dante]], who was suspicious of the events on Cybele, sent Mephiston to assess the situation and decide if Arkio really was the reincarnation of Sanguinius. Almost immediately upon arriving, Mephiston sensed the taint of Chaos in Arkio, denounced him as a fraud, and identified Inquisitor Stele as a [[HERESY|heretic]] and a traitor, because Mephiston is a fucking discerning motherfucker and was way too smart for any of those asshats. But Arkio persisted in his claims, and Mephiston, feeling unusually gracious, allowed Rafen to kill him instead of just [[RIP AND TEAR|eviscerating]] the little bastard himself. Still, Mephiston got to annihilate scores of other Chaos Marines and cultists while he was there, so it was a good time overall.

===Divinatus Prime===
In ''Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius'' it was revealed that while Mephiston had been "cured" of the Black Rage, whenever he tried to unleash his full might he would be overcome by a bout of UNSTOPPABLE RAGE (seriously, he conjured miniature Warp Storms several times in this book). Furthermore, his body was slowly changing (his skin turned darker, his RAGE became harder and harder to stop, etc.).

Mephiston sought the Blade Petrific, a Xenos artifact which could amplify its user's psychic power, as an answer to his problem. The Blade was housed on the shrine world of Divinatus Prime, which had been lost to the Astronomican (Mephiston and his retinue had to jump, and traverse the Immaterium blind). Two Chaos Sorcerers, vying to be the protege of a third one, decided to make a little contest: Both of them would try to manipulate Divinatus Prime's populations to wage a civil war to see who would get the blade first.

Unfortunately, in the end, one of them escaped with the blade. [[Just as planned]], Mephiston deliberately let her to lead him to the third Chaos Sorcerer (whose identity he was implied to know.) Mephiston also realized that there was no salvation for him (his body had almost completely changed), but he said he "would be the Blood Angels' hope." This also shows his deep loyalty. Rather than take the blade to save himself, he sacrificed his possible chance simply for a lead to a threat against humanity so he could destroy it.

==Revenant Crusade==

In 'Mephiston Revenant Crusade', good' ol Mephiston seems to have gone "blind" to the warp, this brings him to a world infested by insane Necrons. One of which boards his ship, and with his bodyguard of warriors, gets obliterated by a lieutenant and a few hellblasters. Mephiston then has them accompany him and his old friend Gaius, (not Merlin) down to the planet.

Whilst this is going on, A Codicier from Blood of Sanguinius named Antros, has been sent to investigate a way to cure the Rage or Mephiston warp overdose .
This brings him into contact with the Sons of Helios Chapter, a near dead Chapter who live next to the Great Rift. Without falling to Chaos. [[Just as Planned]]. Using the chant from the Sorcerer guy 'We dream, dreaming, dreamed,' ye. This is then turned out to be the result of a Chaos trick.

Antros then joins Mephiston. But in the end things get fixed, but Antros may be corrupted.

==For All You Illiterate Folks==
Mephiston, however, is not based on a vampire, regardless of the Blood Angels connection. He is based on Mephistopheles, or Mephisto, a demon of Satan, marvel comic character and one of the Seven Chief (see the connection?) Devils. Mephistopheles was the demon who turned up to take [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust Faust's] soul when he made a deal with the Devil, or Satan. When Mephistopheles first appeared to Faust, he actually advised Faust not to sell his soul. Mephistopheles didn't spend his time finding people to corrupt, but came to collect on souls from people who were close, or already, damned.

So you see, Faust is Brother Calistarius and Mephistopheles is Mephiston. Calistarius overcomes the Black Rage (his soul is already damned) and becomes Mephiston (sells his soul for great power). This theory is further reinforced by the fact that, in the Blood Angels Codex itself, it says (paraphrased) "in over coming the Black Rage, he became something much worse". As in, he sold his soul to overcome the torment of the Black Rage and in doing so became a demon, or one of the Seven Chief Devils of Satan.

This similarity is is touched upon in the Lord of Death book, in which a lost Blood Angel chaplain accuses Mephiston of losing his [[Black Rage|"soul"]], referencing the twin curses of the chapter as being the heart and soul of who the Blood Angels are—and the reason for their humility and nobility. Mephiston rebukes him, stating that while part of the Blood Angels' humility was acquired by their suffering, it was in fact the tenets and beliefs of Sanguinius that truly fostered it. The chaplain dismisses this and [[rip and tear|very nearly comes to realize how very much of Mephiston's "soul" is still there.]] In the end, Mephy proves his loyalties as [[Doombreed]] himself screams to Khorne that he cannot [[Star Wars|sway Mephiston to turn to Chaos]]. Doombreed then leaves with Mephy knowing that he should have died right then and there

It should also be noted that [[Gabriel Seth]], [[Chapter Master]] of the [[Flesh Tearers]], of all people considers Mephiston a monster and an abomination. This sentiment earned him the scorn of basically every Chapter Master of every Blood Angels' successor chapter with Malakim of the Lamenters straight up saying that Seth's boys murder more people horribly than any one of the Lamenter's Death Company. Take that as you will. Although, Seth has too much of a fixation on the flaws. His main reason for disliking the Primaris Marines, for example, is their lack of the flaws which he believes are what defines the Sons of Sanguinius.

==On the Tabletop==
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Mephiston''' || 160 || 7" || 2+ || 2+ || 5 || 5 || 5 || 4 || 9 || 2+
|}

Mephiston is similar to last edition, with 5s for S, T, and W instead of 6s like the days of yore (or 4s for a standard librarian), but he makes up for it in other ways. His Sanguine Sword is now a Power Fist with no to-hit penalty; his other benefits include M7 (although he has no jump pack), BS2+ with his Plasma Pistol, A4 like a Primaris, a 2+ save, a 5+++ FNP, Denying 2 powers instead of 1, and knowing 3 powers instead of 2, but that last is particularly lackluster, as he can still only cast 2; you'll probably want to take Unleash Rage (or Quickening, if you want him to buff himself better [[derp|since THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE MEPHISTON!]]), Shield of Sanguinius, and Wings of Sanguinius on him, then only cast the third power when you really need to get him into position. All of those benefits will cost you 57 points over a normal Librarian, or 52 more than a Primaris Librarian (which has the same W and A as him).

Mephiston has an excellent statline, lots of melee power (combined with a Sanguinary Priest, he can hit at S12!), can buff himself and/or others well, and is priced decently. He makes a good HQ (although his warlord trait is lackluster). His only weaknesses are no way to generate anything better than a 5++, allowing basic power swords to hurt him, and no means to deep strike with other choppy units. otherwise he can perform any HQ role quite well. He's in direct competition with a librarian dreadnought, given how much of his special character oomph was directed into making him beatstickier.

Mephiston with Quickening and the Red Rampage stratagem adds 2d3 extra S10 AP-3 D1d3 attacks that wound everything up to toughness 9 on 2s... holy shit, it won't matter if there can be only one, there's gonna be nothing left!

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Mephiston.jpg|He's as pissed off as an [[Angry Marine]] — on one of his quiet days.
File:Will power incarnate.jpg|Sheer willpower is what keeps him from tearing his own guys apart. ([[Mark Gibbons|MG]])
File:Warhammer-40000-Mephiston.jpeg|Some artwork depicts his hair as blonde, others make it look silver/white...
File:Awesome Art.jpeg|Mephiston has a lot of awesome artwork. Choosing a favorite is indeed hard.
File:Lord Mephiston.jpg|Kain of Nosgoth called; he wants his aesthetic back.
</gallery>

{{Marines-Characters}}

[[Category:Blood Angels]]

James Swallow

2019-11-03T12:17:17Z

2A00:23C4:259A:AA01:819C:786D:31A6:765C:

{{Stub}}

[[File:James_swallow.jpg|right|300px|thumb|He has already found all the weak points in your armor.]]

'''James Swallow''' is an <strike> African Swallow</strike> author. He's written a whole bunch of tie-in novels for a whole bunch of different franchises, but most of [[/tg/|us]] know him for his [[Warhammer 40,000]] (and, in particular, [[Blood Angels]]) novels. His [[Horus Heresy]] book ''Fear to Tread'' ranks as Black Library's most financially successful book.

A lot of people hate him for some reason, which is odd, because he isn't exactly [[C.S. Goto]], or, hell, [[Matt Ward]]. Sure, he occasionally has some pretty big jumps of logic and takes some liberties with the [[fluff]], but he hasn't made [[derp|back-flipping Terminators]]. This might have something to do with him crediting Ward as a major help in writing Hammer and Anvil. Then again he did write the good Sisters of Battle books...

He isn't... uh... I dunno. I think we covered all the other [[Black Library]] authors. So, he most definitely isn't Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, or Frank Herbert, although he (and most of [[Games Workshop]], really) probably took inspiration from all of the above.

And yes, in fact he does indeed swallow.

Also wrote some kickass [[Sisters of Battle]] books.

[[Category:Black Library]][[Category:Writers]]

Robbie MacNiven

2019-11-03T12:13:30Z

2A00:23C4:259A:AA01:819C:786D:31A6:765C:

A very new Black Library writer, unlike most writers he's very active in the fanbase mostly on his tumblr[http://a-40k-author.tumblr.com/], including how things work behind the scene (as he's not high enough to get in trouble) and his projects, both current and upcoming. Not [[Henry Zou]].

He is staunchly anti-Tau and gave the Carcharodons some much needed love in some of his recent books "Red Tithe" and "The Reaping Time". This gives him the self proclaimed and well deserved title of Black Library's resident "shark guy". (Of the two nicknames listed, this is the one he would likely recognize)

He also trolls people about what he may or may not know

He wants this page to be more glorious, like him.

He his book "Outer Dark" gives us a look at Motherfucker King of Sharks, [[Carcharodons]] master of Rip and Tear, Tyberos The Red Wake, who is sadly not as tall as his fan art. But still huge.

He recently wrote the novelization for [[Dawn of War III]], which arguably gives a better DoW III experience than the game itself, though that isn't saying much. Given the game's performance so far, the same could be said even if a certain someone [[C.S. Goto|''else'']] had written the novelization.

He wrote some stuff with White Scar's fighting Tyranids, pretty good.

Another notable tidbit is that he unironicly supports the theory that Guilliman is in fact Alpharius/Omegon/an alpha legion triplet we never knew about. To be taken with a grain of salt for sure, as with all things alpha legion related, but it would explain a lot about Guilliman's return, the plot armor of the smurfs and the inability for any force to really make a dent on legion numbers despite no real known recruiting process.

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

Robbie MacNiven

2019-11-03T12:13:16Z

2A00:23C4:259A:AA01:819C:786D:31A6:765C:

A very new Black Library writer, unlike most writers he's very active in the fanbase mostly on his tumblr[http://a-40k-author.tumblr.com/], including how things work behind the scene (as he's not high enough to get in trouble) and his projects, both current and upcoming. Not [[Henry Zou]].

He is staunchly anti-Tau and gave the Carcharodons some much needed love in some of his recent books "Red Tithe" and "The Reaping Time". This gives him the self proclaimed and well deserved title of Black Library's resident "shark guy". (Of the two nicknames listed, this is the one he would likely recognize)

He also trolls people about what he may or may not know

He wants this page to be more glorious, like him.

He his book "Outer Dark" gives us a look at Motherfucker King of Sharks, [[Carcharodons]] master of Rip and Tear, Tyberos The Red Wake, who is sadly not as tall as his fan art. But still huge.

He recently wrote the novelization for [[Dawn of War III]], which arguably gives a better DoW III experience than the game itself, though that isn't saying much. Given the game's performance so far, the same could be said even if a certain someone [[C.S. Goto|''else'']] had written the novelization.

He wrote some stuff with [[White Scar's]] fighting Tyranids, pretty good.

Another notable tidbit is that he unironicly supports the theory that Guilliman is in fact Alpharius/Omegon/an alpha legion triplet we never knew about. To be taken with a grain of salt for sure, as with all things alpha legion related, but it would explain a lot about Guilliman's return, the plot armor of the smurfs and the inability for any force to really make a dent on legion numbers despite no real known recruiting process.

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