Dark Imperium: Godblight, the next book in the Dark Imperium series, was announced during the Black Library Preview way back in December 2020. Along with the conclusion of a story that’s been in the works since the days of Roboute Guilliman’s awakening, new editions of the original books (Dark Imperium and Plague War) are soon to be available for pre-order. To find out about the latest book in the series, and how it fits into the Dark Imperium narrative, we collared author Guy Haley for a few questions.
Warhammer Community: For those who have followed the Dark Imperium series so far, what can they look forward to in Dark Imperium: Godblight?
Guy: This is the climactic conclusion to the whole series, the moment we have been waiting for! Guilliman faces his brother Mortarion on the garden world of Iax, which the forces of Nurgle are busily transforming into a daemon world named Pestiliax. Most of the planet has fallen, but a few enclaves hold out, and it is at one of these that Guilliman and Mortarion will finally come to blows.
Godblight isn’t just about primarch versus primarch action, as we continue to explore the effect that the Emperor himself may or may not be having on the galaxy, and chronicle the beginning of the war between the dark gods…
WarCom: How was writing Dark Imperium different from writing stories in the Horus Heresy?
Guy: Ha! I don’t know. They follow similar threads, so maybe they’re not that different. I mean, they’re both about the endless struggle against chaos, they feature primarchs… In fact, when I wrote Dark Imperium, at the time it was the Warhammer 40,000 book that was most similar to the Horus Heresy. Of course, there were others, books that picked up or created plots that went back and forward between the two time periods. Graham McNeill’s Iron Warriors series does that, for example. But Dark Imperium had an actual, living, breathing, loyal primarch in it. To me, it’s all part of the same, massive story.
One big personal difference was that when I began writing Horus Heresy material, it seemed like such a responsibility that I was terrified of messing it up. Dark Imperium arguably carried even more of that responsibility, because the story was moving forward. And in fact, Dawn of Fire had even more! But I didn’t feel the fear for either of them that I had when I sat down to write Pharos. I’d become a grizzled veteran by then.
WarCom: Can you tell us about the relationship between the bad guys in the trilogy?
Guy: That’s a good one. To begin with we’ve got Mortarion, Ku’Gath and Typhus. They’re all slightly at odds with each other. Although they agreed to invade Ultramar together, their accord begins to unravel. The biggest tensions are between the primarch and Typhus. As far as Typhus can see, Mortarion is more concerned with humiliating his brother than winning as much territory in realspace for their god before it falls into the warp, which was their original plan.
Ku’Gath finds himself uncomfortably caught between the two – his goal as always is to purge himself of the shame of his undignified creation. Then Ku’Gath’s situation becomes more unpleasant when Rotigus gets involved in Godblight. Rotigus is angling to replace Ku’Gath in the Nurgle hierarchy. So, to say the bad guys are unified, even those that serve the same power, would not be true. It is Chaos after all.
WarCom: What can you tell us about the character of Roboute Gulliman himself?
Guy: Guilliman has changed since the days of the Heresy. He’s appalled by the 41st Millennium. He’s dogged by a sense of failure, he’s completely alone, and he’s lonely. Belisarius Cawl believes that the twenty primarchs were created as a harmonious system. Guilliman’s just one small piece of that. He’s much less patient than he was, very driven. He has no time for petty politics, and to him, that includes at the galactic scale. Although he knows he is storing up trouble for the future, he has to be bold and decisive, and he knows that he could fail at any moment.
On top of that, until just before Dark Imperium, he’s trapped in the Armour of Fate. Even though he is free of needing to wear it constantly by the time of the Plague Wars, he can’t be without it for long. He’s in pain because of it, and this makes him dependent on others. He keeps on going because he is a primarch.
Key to it all is how Guilliman feels about his ‘father’. It’s been fascinating getting into his head. In Dawn of Fire, we made the deliberate choice never to see things from Guilliman’s point of view, but much of the Dark Imperium trilogy does just that, so collectively we get to see the galaxy from all angles.
WarCom: What was it like exploring the politics of the Imperium at the time of the Indomitus Crusade?
Guy: To me, the politics surrounding the returned primarch is some of the most interesting stuff going on in the setting. However, they don’t feature as prominently in this trilogy as they do elsewhere. I touch on the relationship between the state and the Ecclesiarchy, specifically regarding Guilliman’s church-proclaimed divinity and his relationship with Militant-Apostolic Mathieu, and the politics ongoing elsewhere is referenced in these books. But for the real intrigue generated by Guilliman’s return, I heartily recommend checking out Chris Wraight’s Inquisitor Crowl and Custodians books. In those, especially in The Regent’s Shadow, we get to see exactly how Guilliman has shaken things up. I can’t recommend them enough. The connections between all these Era Indomitus books go deep.
WarCom: Now that the timeline of the Dark Imperium story has changed, what was it like revisiting the earlier books?
Guy: It was interesting in a technical sort of way, but I reckon here would be a good place to lay out exactly what has changed, and why. I get asked about this all the time, so can’t say it often enough!
The main change is that the story has moved from c.120 years after the Great Rift opening to c.12. It now takes place after the first phase of the Indomitus Crusade, which we’re currently writing about in Dawn of Fire, rather than at the very end.
In the original Dark Imperium, I made a big show of Guilliman disbanding the last formations of the Unnumbered Sons (the Greyshields, informally). That all still happens, but for more overt political reasons. Guilliman has been forming up Primaris into new chapters right from the start, and sending them off to be reinforcements, but there were still quite a lot of them left in these huge, somewhat hypocritical, legion-sized formations. He has to get rid of them. Their utility is being outgrown by the political damage they cause. In the new editions, the Triumph of Raukos marks the end of these formations instead of the end of the crusade.
Throughout both books there were minor tweaks to bring these things into line. As you’d expect, there are far more alterations to Dark Imperium than to Plague War.
One big advantage of this was that I was able to introduce lots of things that we’ve been talking about or will be talking about in Dawn of Fire. In Godblight, we meet an older Fabian Guelphrain, for example, and there are little nods and easter eggs throughout. I also polished up the writing, which is something I did to satisfy my own writer’s vanity. That was personally satisfying. So, in short, the changes are extensive, but not profound. If you’ve read the original editions of Dark Imperium and Plague War and pick up Godblight, so long as you bear in mind the time alteration, you’ll be fine.
However, I do recommend the new editions. The result is that you’ll be able to read Dawn of Fire, then this trilogy, and get one humdinger of a story that neatly segues into… Well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?
WarCom: Who was your favourite character to write about in the trilogy?
Guy: I really enjoyed writing the interactions between the daemons. I love the very human nature of Nurgle’s Great Unclean Ones. They’re quarrelsome, affectionate, amusing, insecure, as well as being god-level spreaders of supernatural diseases! I had lots of fun with Ku’Gath’s plague guard, particularly the unfortunate Septimus, but that pleasure was eclipsed by writing the rivalry between Ku’Gath and Rotigus in book three. I can’t wait for people to be… infected by my enthusiasm for that. (Sorry.) A close second would be Tetrarch Decimus Felix, who I liked so much that I put him into Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work.
WarCom: In one sentence, why should people read Dark Imperium: Godblight?
Guy: It’s the climax of the Dark Imperium trilogy, it’s packed with revelations, action, horror, even humour! If you love Warhammer 40,000, you should read it.
Dark Imperium: Godblight, and the new editions of Dark Imperium and Plague War, will be available for pre-order soon, so keep an eye on Warhammer Community for more news.