Angels of Death is one of many exciting animated projects coming soon to Warhammer+. The show follows a force of Blood Angels as they hack their way through an incursion of Genestealer Cultists. The odds are bleak, and with every frenzied kill chipping away at our heroes’ sanity, they’ve more than just the enemy without to contend with.
Among other characters, the squad includes a staunch and dutiful Sergeant, a Deathwatch Veteran dealing with some serious Black Rage issues, and a Techmarine who can throw down some mean lines of poetry. Let’s get to know them better.
A Sergeant of the Blood Angels and experienced leader, Ancaeus is devoted to his duty and holds his obligations to his Chapter, his battle-brothers, and the Imperium of Man higher than any amount of personal glory. Once considered a candidate for the Sanguinary Cult – the Blood Angels’ own interpretation of a Chapter’s Apothecarion – he believes individual honour is secondary to the safety of his men and mission, and this brings him into conflict with his formerly close friend Kazarion.
One of the show’s writers, George Mann, explains why Ancaeus is such an important member of the squad.
“Ancaeus is the key to unlocking the whole show. He’s perhaps the character who most typifies the Blood Angels, but not in the most obvious of ways. He’s not struggling, like Kazarion, with the Black Rage. He’s not pious like Rafael. But he’s encoded with a deep melancholy that, for me, seems to encapsulate the truest nature of the Blood Angels.
“He’s a character who harbours a sense of resignation that his life has not turned out the way he planned. He wished to be an Apothecary, caring for the gene-seed of his brothers, but instead came to understand that he was needed elsewhere – his calling was on the front line. He knows he has done the right thing for his Chapter and his brothers, but he carries with him this sense of loss. I found that fascinating to write about, a dimension that we don’t often explore in Space Marines.”
Sergeant Kazarion has recently returned from a long service in the Deathwatch – an elite group of hand-picked Space Marines dedicated to fighting xenos threats. Struggling to reconcile the Deathwatch’s unorthodox ways with the traditions of his Chapter, Kazarion fights to contain the Black Rage creeping through his mind.
Secondment to the Deathwatch is a great honour in many Chapters, but Kazarion resented the time he spent away from his fellow Blood Angels. Companionship and brotherhood are important weapons against the threat of the Black Rage, and being separated from his comrades for so long brought him perilously close to his Chapter’s ancestral curse…
Kazarion gives us a fascinating insight into the fallibility of the Blood Angels Chapter, and he proved to be a particularly captivating hero to explore for show writer Andy Smillie. “For me, the Black Rage is one of the most interesting aspects of the Blood Angels,” he says. “It’s an ever-present shadow that weighs on every decision they make. It’s this ‘heroes stood on the edge of madness’ that makes them such compelling characters to write.”
“With Kazarion, we had a great opportunity to explore this awful curse and its impact on the Blood Angels. For the first time, we were able to play with more than just the storytelling aspect of the curse, realising it through powerful visuals and a shifting soundscape. The creatives behind the show did a great job of bringing the Black Rage to life.”
The spiritual leader to his brothers and a voice of balance among the Blood Angels, Chaplain Rafael has his work cut out for him keeping the clashing characters aboard the strike cruiser Sword of Baal in line. While all Chaplains are charged with maintaining the spiritual purity of their fellow Space Marines, as a Blood Angel, Rafael is also responsible for easing the fury within and ensuring the squad do not succumb to the Black Rage.
It is by his will alone that his brothers remain in cohesion after the disaster of their exit from the Cicatrix Maledictum, and his words of inspiration are often the only source of comfort for the Blood Angels during the direst of circumstances.
Writer John French tells us that Rafael’s resolve stems from a long, harrowing life of service. “Rafael is an old warrior. He has seen it all. He has fought wars, seen brothers die, tasted victory and defeat, and turned all that experience into wisdom. Everything he has done and seen has given him balance. He is a mentor and a teacher who wants to bring that balance to the Blood Angels whose spiritual well-being is his responsibility. That makes him fascinating because he is the character that the other Blood Angels characters pivot around – his presence is the rock that gives them strength and unity.”
As the squad’s Techmarine and a devoted adherent to both the Blood Angels creed and the teachings of Mars, Hadrael harbours a burning reverence for machine and Space Marine alike. He is loyal and efficient, much like the machine spirits he entreats with, and when push comes to shove he’s a fearsome warrior in his own right. Unbeknownst to many, he was an adept poet with a distinct artistic flourish before his journey to Mars for his Techmarine training.
When disaster strikes, Hadrael is the only Blood Angel aboard the Sword of Baal. Faced with a ruinous insurrection that threatens to disrupt critical repairs to the dropship needed to retrieve his battle-brothers, Hadrael is forced to turn to an ancient ally for aid…
During the writing process, Hadrael quickly became one of John French’s favourite characters. “I have always had a soft spot for Hadrael because he emerged from the story as we were building it,” he says. “Originally there was not a Techmarine as part of the principal cast, but we realised we needed someone who was responsible for the functioning of the ship and the wargear. So we created Hadrael, and he just came alive.
“He is interesting because he is both a Space Marine and a member of the Cult of Mars, devoted to his brothers and the machines he maintains. That is one of the things that makes him intriguing; he actually cares. He is not just a function or a creature of logic, but a builder and maintainer.”
Not a member of the Adeptus Astartes but nonetheless valued by the Space Marines aboard her ship, Livia is the human Captain of the Sword of Baal and is brutally efficient in her command. She was at the helm of an entire fleet before the Cicatrix Maledictum tore through the universe. A hellish journey through the warp left only the Sword of Baal intact, and Livia bears the weight of those lost souls heavily.
Her level head in a crisis and willingness to take matters into her own hands have earned her the respect of all the Blood Angels, from Captain Orpheo to Techmarine Hadrael. Despite being ‘only’ human, she speaks with just as much authority as the Space Marines and is not afraid to get her hands dirty when a threat to the ship arises with the Blood Angels gone.
Andy Smillie explains how Livia works as a foil to the Astartes of Angels of Death. “Livia's a great character. We knew she had to stand next to a cast of Space Marines and hold her own. She needed to be in command of her vessel and by virtue of that, the lives of the Space Marines themselves. She embodies duty, sacrifice, and courage against a universe gone mad. She's a force on screen and, of all the characters, is perhaps the least flawed. There's a real strength to her that even the Space Marines are lacking. And she's definitely got some of the best lines in the show!”
As a Captain of the Blood Angels and commander of the Space Marines aboard the Sword of Baal, Orpheo is a veteran of many wars and commands the total respect of his Battle Brothers. When the ship is stranded above Niades by their exit from the warp, the crew receive a transmission of such uncommonly high priority that Captain Orpheo resolves to investigate personally.
Despite the danger involved, Orpheo leaves the rest of his Space Marines behind due to the low numbers that survived the journey through the warp. After being set upon by the Genestealer Cults, Orpheo’s disappearance prompts the Angels of Death to descend from their ship to pierce the mystery of the planet’s eerie silence.
Of our brave Captain, Andy had this to say, “Orpheo is the embodiment of Baal, equal parts fury and nobility, as old and as venerable as the suit of Terminator armour he wears in battle. For the story to work, he needed to be the best of the bunch in spirit, someone they could aspire to. But we didn’t want to make him indomitable – he’d have been two dimensional. There needed to be a frailty to him, and he needed to show real courage in the face of certain defeat.”
Music To Die For
One of the most engaging things about Angels of Death is undoubtedly the score. It’s a soundtrack filled with as much grandeur and pathos as the 41st Millennium demands, with a heavy injection of the haunting tragedy reminiscent of the Blood Angels themselves.
Composer Jon Hartman tells us about the secret to capturing the essence of the Blood Angels in the Angels of Death soundtrack (which you can pick up on iTunes and the Black Library Audio App). “Some of the main challenges in depicting the Blood Angels included adding the right amount of gothic reverence and musical hints at their ritualistic nature. “We also had to strike the knife's edge balance of venerating the Blood Angels’ past and embracing the loss of their Primarch, while also knowing that they may be lost to that memory. When scoring Angels of Death, I composed a number of musical pieces that included massive choir at the height of action sequences, implying that the borderline rage is always present.”
When in doubt, deploy a massive choir to bring a sense of awe and wrath to proceedings. The score provides a suitably epic soundscape for the struggles of Ancaeus and his fellow battle-brothers and fits perfectly with the Blood Angels’ battle cries and the roar of bolter fire.
Angels of Death is one of the first animations coming soon to Warhammer+, and you can see the opening seven minutes (along with the initial wave of animations that are joining it) in our recent Animations Preview.
They’re not the only things your subscription to Warhammer+ will let you access either, with more benefits (including some you wouldn’t even think of) joining the service when it launches. If you want to find out more, keep your eyes trained on Warhammer Community on the 23rd of June when we take a closer look.
