Asking For It

Today I continue in my quest to work through my backlog of 'Ask the Author' questions and provide half-decent answers. Wish me luck...

"Hello Rob,

I just finished Legion of the Damned, and enjoyed your take on... well, pretty much all of the Chapters (and Legions) involved. As masochistic as the Excoriators are, I couldn't help feeling for the Scourge and his brothers. The Damned were suitably creepy and the Cholercaust were a real treat to read about, especially for an old World Eaters player.

I took a particular interest in the Fire Lords appearance early in the book - I'd been spit-balling my own ideas about the Chapter for awhile now, but I think you topped all of them. I suspected they were prometheum-swillers, but I never thought about what they'd use as a flint. Very cool.

Which leads to my question: there's been some uncertainty about the Fire Lords's parentage - should we take it as established that they're sons of Dorn?
David Earle"

Hi David,

Thanks for your generous comments on Legion of the Damned. It’s really gratifying when a writer’s take on elements in a shared universe (shared by both authors and invested fans) chimes successfully with readers. It is an easy hurdle to fall foul of. All writers and all readers imagine elements of the background and setting in different ways. It’s great to be on the same page as a good number of readers and certainly it seems that my take on the Legion of the Damned, the Excoriators and the World Eaters has been well received. Some readers see certain chapters a very specific way. This might be their own vision for the chapter – perhaps from their own gaming background or fanfiction. It might be because they were exposed to another writer’s vision of that chapter much earlier on. This can mean it’s very difficult for anyone else to impress upon that reader their own representation of the chapter. Ultimately I think that most readers desire variety and admire publishing companies who try to bring them different stories from different voices set in a universe we can all share.

I’m really glad that you liked the Fire Lord’s chaplain. I enjoyed writing him. I try to give each chapter I use a distinctive culture – even if they only get a few pages of exposure. The promethium and flint were cool elements to include but I also wanted his fighting style to reflect the fast and fluid movement of flames.

I contacted Mat Ward quite early on in respect to what little there had been written about the Feast of Blades in the codexes. He had some further information for me in respect to who might attend in respect to being Imperial Fists successor chapters. I was delighted to see the Fire Lords on the list – although it didn’t specify a Founding. I guess we can both take it as confirmed that the Fire Lord’s have Dorn as their parent-Primarch. It would be great to return to the Fire Lords some day in further fiction.

Thanks for your question, David and thanks for reading Legion of the Damned.