Warhammer Anthology review: Ignorant Armies

Here we are; it's the second anthology of the Old World; Ignorant Armies. This edition, like the first one I did, is the one that got published by GW books and one of the (three?) earliest anthologies which had story-specific, black and white artwork for each of its 8 tales, commissioned from a variety of artists.

Unlike with the first anthology post, the artwork has been scanned rather than having badly lit pictures taken of it. Yes, I'm still very pleased with that purchase :)

Geheimnisnacht

Of all the novels set in the Old World there is only one series to have been there from the very beginning, through every permutation of lore and tone, weathering every upheaval with dwarven stoicness, straight to the end at the heart of the all-devouring storm... and then right on through, out the other side...
I'm talking, of course, about Gotrek and Felix.

As the young fugitive poet Felix Jaeger follows his crazed dwarven companion Gotrek on the darkest night of the year, he and his companion are almost run over by a sinister black coach.

Following it, they arrive at an inn, where the occupants tell them of dark rituals enacted in the woods. With his death oath driving him on, Gotrek takes off into the dark forest to meet his end, and Felix, bound by blood-oath to witness and record the Slayer's mighty death, must follow.

Geheimnisnacht, by the always welcome William King is an absolute classic in Black Library's stable. It's the one that kicks off Trollslayer, the first novel in the Gotrek and Felix series. Written in 1989, it's been around a while and it's still a fun one. It's got a wild and happy soul of adventure, and it's hard not to fall in love. I found myself unabashedly giggling now and then. This might have been the first Old World fiction I had ever read, unless you count those extracts from my brother's White Dwarf magazine. In truth, he's the sole person responsible for me getting into Warhammer, as he read  the terrifying tales of steaming jungles and horrific space war out loud to me. But of those tales it was the Lizardmen tale that still stands out the most. (I'll see if I can find that for a next post somewhere.)

The story's unexpectedly delightfully humorous, developing almost as if it is a play, with question followed by exaggerated humorous (to the reader) pantomime, followed by answer, and repeat.
Recently there was a post by William King on his writing process and how his experiences as a DnD Game Master helped his writing. It's quite an interesting read: Roleplaying games and the Blessings of Father Nurgle.

Art by John Sibbick

Looking at the unabashedly gleeful artwork above (also; very spot on), I had an idea.
At Games Workshop's beginning, dwarven lore obviously wasn't set in stone and dwarven beards weren't as yet a staple, and just like there isn't any mention of that here, there wasn't any mention of it in the previous anthology's Wolf Riders short story. Now obviously, John Sibbick took his cues from Paul Bonner, who did the artwork for the Wolf Riders short story, but I'm wondering now if Paul Bonner didn't take some inspiration from 2000ad's Celtic warrior Slaine, and his dwarf sidekick, Ukko: Woad tattoos, spiky hair, double bladed axe. You can easily see what I mean. And Slaine was published some years before so the idea has some merit I think.

The Reavers and the Dead

Written by Charles Davidson, the Reavers and the dead is a tale of a young man in a village by the Sea of Claws, as he arrives at a significant stage in his journey to become a necromancer. At the time of the story's beginning he has already been dabbling rather aimlessly into the necromantic arts, but its effects have nonetheless been felt far to the north, where fish have been dying off in great shoals, and delivering to the fierce warriors of Norsca disease and famine. To lift their 'curse' they have journeyed south to the northernmost lands of the Empire to exterminate the culprits of their misfortunes. As necromancer to-be, Helmut Kerzer, contemplates the door behind which the dreaded Liche lies waiting, the raiders arrive at his village, spurring him to fateful action.

Though it's a straightforward tale, it's actually a remarkably good one, with an emotional subtlety to the writing, and where every character has multiple dimensions and understandable motivations.
It even has an almost benign Necromancer-Liche, if you can fancy that. It might not be all that canonical because of it, but if it's off it's only so by a hair's breadth.

Artwork by Steven Tappin

The Other

Stefan is a young surgeon in training with his father. On a trip out of the city he meets a young aspiring doctor, Katya Raine, and though Stefan is instantly attracted to her, but he also finds himself strangely repelled. Try as he might, he can't get her out of his head.
 Later as he celebrates with his friends the acquisition of his surgeon's license, he sees Katya again, singing and performing as the evening's entertainment, and as she sings of a young girl innocently corrupted by the forces of chaos, he begins to have suspicions on the origin of his conflicted feelings for her.

By Nicola Griffith, a Nebula and among others, a James Triptree, Jr award and multiple Lambda award winner. And I did see some nods to those themes here, and though they don't take center stage they are pretty undeniable, prompting our main character at one point into some strata of moody envy and bubbling jealousy; the helpless gaze of the outsider.

Though those elements might be a rarity in Warhammer, and their inclusion here a welcome one, the story itself is unfortunately not one of the better ones in here, which isn't an indictment of Griffith's skill but rather of her subject matter. It's one of those tales that the Black Library's march forward has rendered largely incompatible with what came later. Also, unlike with the other tales, there isn't much going on in the way of action, focusing rather on mood and internal strife than anything the Library is usually known for.

Artwork by Jim Burns

It's a story about mutation, undoing the effects of it and has a (for Warhammer) jarring focus on the practices of surgery.

In a world where Gods are very much active and people have healing sorcery and magic, one questions the continued practice of 'sawbonery'. More than that, coming out of Van Horstmann, which has a massive focus on healing and sorcery, and with its hardline depiction of Witchunters, going after mutation and heresy like they're breathing air, The Other's treatment of mutation feels more than a tad out of place. There's simply no way this set-up would work in later-era Warhammer of any kind. What can I say; the Old World was a kinder, gentler place, once upon a time. Oldhammer through and through.

Apprentice Luck

By Sean Flynn, Apprentice Luck, like The Other before it, takes place in Middenheim, the city of the Wolf, for some reason. The story and I got off the wrong foot immediately by on its first page maligning the antiquarian book trade.

Karl Spielbrunner has been an apprentice for 6 months to an aging antiquarian book seller, and over that time he's grown heartily sick of it. Surely there's more to life than this stale old drudgery?

But Karl finds his boring days suddenly at an end as an old crone steps through the door to sell an ancient tome dressed in human skin. Between its pages Karl discovers a curious map, and soon he finds that there are several interested parties looking for it and the danger-skirting path that it reveals, leading through the city's forgotten tunnels to much coveted treasure.

It's not actually a bad tale though, it even reminded me a bit of those old Path to Victory gaming books. A classic dungeon crawling adventure, with a likeable main character complete with a happy ending after all the hard trudging. Very pleasant, pretty canonical.

Artwork by Martin Mckenna

A Gardener in Parravon

I will tell you a story that has to do with the city of Parravon in Brettonia, and of my old friend Armand Carriere and his unhealthy obsession with his neighbor's hidden garden. The garden that ate birds and of the dark reason for their growing. It's a sinister tale, with a sad and bloody ending. Come listener, sit and listen.

Here we have yet another very good tale, by Brian Craig, and it's reminiscent of Lovecraft in its horror and mystery leading up to an unhappy ending, foreshadowed at the start. Of a young outsider, well to do and well off,  and his growing obsession which will eventually lead to his demise. 

It's on occasion a rather creepy tale, working on vague suggestion rather than divulging clear-cut images. This is helped along by in other places delivering a rather vivid depiction of what could have been a very ordinary setting, making the story on the whole very memorable.

 This is also helped by the artwork being gloriously stunning and, so far, the absolute stand out piece in this collection.

Artwork by Ian Mcaig

The focus on gardening was rather amusing (for in truth, and for the moment, I be a gardener by trade), and though demons are obviously an odd subject to throw into the plant-care mix, there were enough unique and intriguing ideas present to make this more than memorable. Dare I say that this one might be an actual classic?

It doesn't fit completely with the Warhammer mythology as it became, but the quality is so good it might just transcend the setting.

The Star Boat

This one, without a doubt, takes the 'Incompatible' cake for its uncanonical shenanigans.

In it the Norscan were-man; Erik, is contracted by a travelling Slann to join with him on a trek into the Chaos Wastes to find a crashed space ship.

Yes. Indeed.

It's not a bad story though. It's just another one of those that doesn't fit into the Warhammer universe as it came to be.

Besides the werewolf-man, the Slann, and the spaceship, which technically are all explained and do fit in the lore somehow, somewhere (though very inelegantly, and still in the case of the spaceship and the Slann; extremely improbable), there's also mention of chainswords (which could feasibly also be explained away but... you know), mithril holding back the power of Chaos, genuine giants in the employ of Erengrad's ruler, the aforementioned Slann's technological steam-apparatus, to say nothing about the silly mithril land-boat, and some smaller stuff besides.

What makes this more confounding is that these elements are mixed with some very cool references to The Great Catastrophe; the destruction of the Slann's great polar portals, here depicted as a great storm of fire crashing from the Portals into the cities, which you can take as a revelation or as a neat interpretation, with the errors explained away by the unreliability of the legend's narrator. 

There's also the presence of the spaceship itself and all it summons up. You see, it's technically not impossible, as in there's precedent in the setting, it's just slightly, well... ridiculous to put it in any contemporary Warhammer story. Too much time has passed since the arrival of the Old Ones on this world to make this easily acceptable.

Artwork by Adrian Smith

What's good then about this one?

Well, despite it being one of the two longest tales in the collection, the story roars along at a decent pace, whisking our likable beast of a protagonist south to Kislev and back to Norsca in the space of a few pages, and then doubling down on the journeying for the rest of the tale. An easy and enjoyable ride. The last part of that story, where Erik treks alone through the Chaos wastes, was particularly welcome. I'm always up for trekking in the mad country, and Baxter had some really cool moments in here. Every author depicting the Wastes tends to have some unique take on them. The parts where the ground spurted blood wherever the soil was broken, or the appearance of the horrible herd-chimera, which was particularly nasty and inventive, or even the disorienting landscape in general were all very memorable.

So despite this one having more than its share of problems, it had a hopeful, pleasant ending and I enjoyed it very much.

The Ignorant Armies

To the north of the Empire, in the forests of Kislev, a young man silently reminisces on the events that led him and his retainer in pursuit of the warlord who razed his family's mansion to the ground, who murdered his family and kidnapped his younger brother, Wolf.

Relinquishing his hereditary title and the claim on his lands, Johann has been giving chase to the warlord's forces, in a desperate bid to save his brother, or, if Wolf is beyond saving, to take vengeance on the monster who upset the course of all their lives.

And now the hunt draws to a close, and soon Johann and the warlord will meet on the plains where champions clash and lead their ignorant armies in never-ending war for the bloodthirsty joy of the Chaos Gods.

The collection's titular short story, Ignorant Armies is one of those early tales that had an enormous influence on the Warhammer setting as whole; a certain tone to be carried forward into the future, but even then it is Yeovil's deft skill that still makes this one stand out. It's another absolute classic.

It's also a tale that's connected to the Genevieve stories by the character of Vukotich the mercenary, who here is Johann's faithful retainer, situating the events of this story as taking place after the Red Thirst short story in Red Nails.

Yeovil, as usual, is an amazing writer. setting his pieces on the board, seeding his ideas and story tools well in advance, without giving too much away beforehand. 

Now, if this was a modern Warhammer story, the conclusion would be a foregone one: 10 years is a long time to be in the thrall of the servants of Chaos. See, for instance, Dan Abnett's classic Warhammer story, Riders of the Dead... or, really, any later Warhammer tale with characters captured by Chaos forces.... or... ooh, like Dark Apostle; an insanely dark and brooding Chaos tale in the 40k setting, also having a large part of its runtime dedicated to one such character. But as it is, the conclusion to this story is rather surprising.

In Oldhammer, the forces of Chaos weren't so much the end-all force of absolute evil that it came to be. It and those who follow it are absolutely evil, of course, but where in the future, Chaos' all- corrupting influence is really all-corrupting and all-consuming, and once touched the taint would never wash off, in this setting where the dark will come to be never-ending, here, in these early tales, the good may still occasionally prevail.

 Looking back one can see the neat foreshadowing, that is nonetheless quite invisible the first time. The scene itself is a glorious but dark miracle. And as usual, Yeovil is excellent in his delivery, adding force to something that, in a less skilled writer, might've come off silly or blatantly contrived.

Artwork, just like with the Star Boat above, by Adrian Smith.

And here is the book's coloured Frontispiece, depicting the fateful clash between the Chaos warlord and Johann.

By John Blanche

It's a very enjoyable tale. I'm looking forward to seeing Vukotich again in the Red Thirst short story in a month or two.

The Laughter of Dark Gods

...Wow...

 ...this one was dark. 

By the effervescent (:p) William King, this tale is an exploration of what it means to be an aspiring Champion of Chaos. Of dark deeds and wants, and fighting aimless bloody fight after fight, wracked by mutation and rewarded with a mind unhinged from its original track, all in a desperate bid to win the favour of a chosen patron lord. But, unsurprisingly, what's in a name after all, the Chaos Gods are notoriously fickle and untrustworthy, and how they reward their champions might not always be reward at all.

As with Baxter's Star Boat, we travel into the Chaos Wastes, and this time we follow someone around who actually wants to be there; the disgraced outcast nobleman Kurt Von Diehl...

Yes, that Von Diehl, of the same family that William King has Gotrek and Felix trek around with for a short wile in the Wolf Riders short story.

In Wolf Riders Manfred Von Diehl tells Felix about their curse, cast upon the Diehl line when Manfred's father burned a witch, who cursed her killers to horrible deaths as she died, and makes mention of one of his uncles; Kurt Von Diehl, who headed north, having turned to banditry and falling to a chaos warrior, or maybe, as rumours suggested; falling prey to yet a darker fate.

In The Laughter of Dark Gods the fate of the last of the Von Diehl line is revealed.

I've been wanting to read this story for a very, very long time, since the time that the Black Library site still showed extracts online. I remember downloading all the extracts I could get my hands on, printing them out and hiding them away from my parents and reading them secretly, away from god-fearing eyes, and this one in particular caught my fancy; It was so mind-numbingly horrifying to someone in his early teens, especially with that cover.

King's nasty little denouement at the end of one particular paragraph, still pretty early into the story, has been engraven into my mind, and reading it again here, within the whole picture, as it were, gave me a nasty little thrill; an echo of earliest horrors.

So here we are in the Wastes again.

Fiction writers in the early days of the Warhammer world must have been looking at the various elements of the infant Warhammer world, start out basing their tales on some fact, figure or event that piqued their interests and proceeded then to construct their journey on such rough beginnings, eager for the untrammelled opportunity of fleshing out the shoreline a bit more.

And I imagine that for any writer it would be hard to leave something so wild and crazy as the Chaos Wastes be. The sheer unchecked horror of the place... Lucky for me because I still love these particular tales. And two in one collection! :)

Here, on the prowl in the Wastes, as in the Star Boat, one of the main characters speculates on the origins of this maddening intrusion of the stuff of Chaos on the world, proclaiming it's the work of a sorcerer that has gone hideously wrong; a theory without much backing it up and quickly dropped in favour of the other correct 'theory'; that it's something to do with the elder Slann and who, long ago, once had gates far to the north to work their ungodly schemes with.

It's another cool little reference to the Great Catastrophe, although by now it's decidedly odd that this would be common knowledge, it having happened so far in the past. But you know, it is Chaos and I gather that those exposed to its raw intensity might indeed be gifted (or cursed) with sights beyond the ken of normal men.

There's also a reference to ' the followers of the renegade god Malal', whose champion has eyes red as blood and skin white as milk. More echoes from a different age, one could dismiss, but the Chaos wastes are a strange place, directly touching on the realm of Chaos (read: the Warp), as is evidenced when Kurt finds a strange crossbow which fires bolts of light, and which beams shrivel everything it touches. Technically this in't out of the ordinary for the world of Warhammer as I heard that in one of the End Times novels a character from the 40k universe shows up. 

Either way, easily slotted in or not, I do tend to dismiss thoughts of canonicity in the wastes, it's just so much fun.

Artwork by Bob Naismith

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Ignorant Armies is immediately a step above Wolf Riders in quality, with several classic works of Warhammer fiction between the covers, with even the lesser works being pleasant or unique reads.

A worthwhile excursion into the earliest days of the Old World.