Warhammer 40K: More Stories From The Xenos, Please
The Black Library is bringing in more stories told from the Ork and Necron points of view and it’s about time!
When you look at the landscape of the lore in Warhammer 40,000 it’s got certain themes. One of the biggest and most obvious themes is that the vast majority of it is written from the Imperium’s point of view. There are only a handful of books and stories that explore the Aeldari point of view and even that’s pushing it. The T’au get some attention as well – but Orks or Necrons? It’s pretty slim pickings.
Read of me and my children! …And Nothing Else!
On one hand, it kind of makes sense as writing from a human perspective is the default and the Grimdark’s history and lore is human-centric. The Black Library has spend the past 10 years working on releasing the Horus Heresy novels for example. It’s a major event with a ton of characters but there are lots more stories to tell in the the Warhammer 40k universe. But what were the other races doing at this time? Was the galaxy just empty of external threats? Were they all taking a nap?
That’s why is so good to see the announcement that we’re getting a pair of stories that are exploring the Ork and Necron PoV. And I hope we see even more on the way.
Brutal Kunnin’ by Mike Brooks
Brutal Kunnin’ features Freebooter Kaptin Badrukk and a new upstart named Ufthak Blackhawk squaring off. Not only does this promise to have quite a bit of Dakka but we’re getting a look inside the Orky Politics, too. I’m curious to see the direction they are going with this story and how the Orks are portrayed. Will there be comedy? Will it be brutal? Are there going to be a whole lot of apostrophes that make it hard to read? I’ve got questions, man! It’s about Orks and we don’t have a ton of stuff written from their perspective – this is why we need more books like this one.
“Mike really knows how to write orks, capturing both their terrifying brutality and the rich vein of humour that runs through them. This is a tale that will make you wince in horror and laugh out loud – sometimes in the same sentence.”
The Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath
Here is another great example of why we need more Xenos books. This one pits Trazyn the Infinite and Orikan the Diviner against each other in a galactic game of chess. They are both after the same artifact and their “game” stretches millennia.
“Set from the end of the Horus Heresy to the time of the Great Rift, The Infinite and the Divine offers unparalleled insight into those lucky few necrons who returned to consciousness well before the Great Awakening and shows what they were up to for all those years while their fellows kept hitting snooze.”
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This answers (at least partially) one of my questions above – what have all the xenos races been up to? It’s also going to be cool to see how their minds work and how their conflict will play out. I think we might get a taste of just how powerful and manipulative the Necrons are and that’s going to make them much more interesting as characters and antagonists in the Grimdark.
More stories from the Xenos perspective helps to fill and round out these factions. These stories make the the typical “bad guys” more than soccer hooligans or mustache twirling villains. It gives them some much needed depth and also creates more fans of these factions. We all know about Space Marines and the Imperium because it’s all that gets written about. Let the Xenos stories get some time to shine.
Orks and Necron stories? Heck ya! I still don’t think we’ll ever get one written from the Tyranid PoV. Consider that a challenge!
