'Myriad are the cohorts of the Inquisitor Covenant. As he struggles to unpick the plans of the mysterious and deadly 'Triumvirate', he must use every weapon in his arsenal and every resource at his disposal. These are the men and women who follow his iron example, his closest agents, psykers and killers. Every tool is necessary in the war against Chaos and herein are eleven tales of such gifted, devout and sometimes terrifying individuals. Heed their stories, their origins, their bleakest moments and their greatest triumphs. What destiny has in store in the end none can say for sure, all we can do is turn the card and see what fate decrees...
'A truly awesome collection of short stories featuring Inquisitor Covenant. Read about the allies – rogues, agents, psykers and killers – who aid him in his battle against the darkness.'
I still remember one of the first times I came across Inquisitor Covenant, it was when his model was released for the old Inquisitor game. Whilst I only briefly delved into that game he was at the time sadly outshone for me by the Eisenhorn model as I'd fallen in love with that character through the books. However, thanks to some of the amazing novels released from Black Library since then I've come to have a new respect for Covenant and his band of warirors.
Hoursian Wars: Divination is the latest entry into the Horusian Wars series, a set of books that sees Inquisitor Covenant fighting against a faction within the Empire that wants to recreate Horus, a figure invested with the power of the Warp, but that will unite mankind rather than enslaving it to Chaos. Whilst the main series addressed these issues, this new book sets aside the big picture to spend time looking at each of Covenants main allies, giving a short story over to several of them.
'The Mistress of Threads' centres on Viola von Castellan, sister to Covenant's other ally Cleander (who also has a story to himself), and second in line to the von Castellan legacy. Her story immediately stands out as different from the others in the book as it' told through communication logs rather than regular prose, using the Warhammer 40,000 equivalent of letters to tell its tale. Contacted by a cousin of hers, Cressida Syr Morio, she is asked for help to get out of a tricky situation. Cressida and her husband have recently fallen on hard times, and their entire trading operation was on the verge of collapse before a shadowy group called the Cyctos Cartel stepped in to help them.
As can be expected from a shadowy group that comes in to help you without wanting any obvious reward other than 'friendship', there are hidden string attached. My first thought here was that it was going to end up being some kind of criminal organisation that was wanting to use Cressida's company to do something dodgy; and I was right, just not in the way that I was imagining. Over the course of the communications it begins to become clear that the Cytos Cartel are actually a front for a Genestealer cult. Obviously, such a group can't be allowed to stick around, so Cressida uses Covenant's resources to step in and wipe them out. But even this action is told in the form of after-action reports and logs.
The story is a fun little tale where the mystery becomes obvious to anyone familiar with the Warhammer 40,000 universe even before Viola says the dreaded G word, but it's still really fun to see how things unfold. It's also fairly unique as it's one of the few times that I've seen big actions scenes written as dull reports that still come across as exciting.
'Spirit of Cogs' turns attention to Glavius-4-Rho, the former Martian Tech Priest. In this tale Glavius tells a story to Severita, the former Sister of Battle. He recounts a story from his early life, long before he met Covenant and joined his team. Having been summoned to the planet Zhao-Arkkad for his experitise in plasma reactors, Glavius discovers a secret mission by a group of Tech Priests to restore a huge, hitherto unknown kind of titan, to life.
The story is written as part mystery, and part slow burn horror, as Glavius descends deep beneath the surface of the planet to the dig site far below, where the sleeping machine awaits. The secrecy surrounding this project already makes it creepy enough, with the way the chief Tech Priest acts being weird enough to raise questions, but when you discover that the Titan is somehow drawing all sources of energy to it, including simple things like light from candles, it makes the whole place a very disturbing location.
There's no confirmed answers given in the story as to what this Titan is, or why these strange things are happening within it, though the small detail that it's painted purple and has golden metal seems to be a heavy hint that it's tainted by Chaos as it immediately made me think of Slaanesh and the Emperor's Children. The fact that you don't get these answers, however, helps to increase the level of discomfort you get from the story, and makes it one of the creepiest entries to the collection.
'The Father of Faith' might be one of my favourite stories in the collection. It focuses on Josef Khoriv, a former gang member turned Preacher. We get to see some of his past in this story, showing readers the violent and bloody upbringing he had living in a hive city before being seized by a Navy press-gang. It's here that he meets Abernath, a preacher who gives Josef an opportunity to make something more of himself and get him out of the violent and dangerous lower levels of the ship.
Abernath proves to be someone who shows Josef that there's the possibility of more for him than the life he currently knows, and meeting that man would completely change the course of his life forever. So when Covenant learns that Abernath has been arrested for heresy and blasphemy, Joesf is given the chance to try and help him.
The reason why this story stood out to me amongst the others in the book, why it's the one story I thought about most after finishing, is the end. So if you don't want it spoilt for you turn away now as I have to talk about the final pages of this story. Having accepted his crimes and confessed there is nothing that Josef or Covenant can do to save him, and he is punished accordingly. The two characters discuss this, and Josef makes a request of Covenant regarding Abernath after his punishment. Now, I was expecting this to be Abernath being executed and they request his body so that they can give him a proper burial; but I forgot how horrible the 41st millennium is. Instead, Abernath is butchered, and transformed into a horrifying Arco-flagellant. The scene where Josef goes to collect his former friend and mentor, finding a mindless monstrosity in his place was genuinely heartbreaking, and left me close to crying. It was a stark reminder that there are no 'heroes' in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and that the humanity of the future is a horrific, and often brutal regime.
These are just a few of the stories on offer in The Horusian Wars: Divinations, and the collection is packed with tales that are of equally high quality. There are stories that are full of action and adventure, deep dives into character's psyche's, mystery and intrigue, and enough exploration into characters pasts that proves that whilst Covenant might be the central figure of the series, each one of his team are well crafted and amazing characters who would be more than capable of headlining a story of their own.
The Horusian Wars: Divination is set for release on April 30th, 2020.
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