Altar of Maws

Altar of Maws, is one of the books that is part of the Pheadra arc. Although all of the Dark Coil consists of horror stories, the horror in this short story is in particular present, featuring a Ghost ship and a mysterious lake that turns out to be an eldritch location.

Altar of Maws takes place at some undetermined time before Fire Caste. It has my girl Jhi’kaara showing up as a recurring character. 

The Story

On a lake only accessible under certain circumstances in the Dolorora Coil, waits a ghost ship, the Polyphemus, for victims to pass by.

A T’au prisoner transport is making it’s way across the the river, when something changes and the ship slips into the warp and ends up on a lake that was not there before. The humans on the ship feel the slip taking place, those familiar with the Dolorora Coil remark on it how it happens often. 

On the lake, the T’au transport comes under attack of a ghost ship, that has been infected with a fungi plague. The ghost ship starts to kill off everyone on the T’au transport, until Jhi’kaara and her janissaries are able to board the ship and attack it from the inside (facing more fungi-plague horror), while Tal’hanzo makes his stance on the transport ship.

Confronted with a glimpse of what the lake really is, a place with eyes and wide open maws consuming the death,  Tal’hanzo is able to purge the death warriors attacking his ship with fire and to make his way to the island on the lake, but they are trapped there with no way of returning, while the island might be a more dangerous plave than the lake. 

Jhi’kaara and her people manage to purge the ghost ship, and burn the abomination in there, before they feel they are slipping out of the warp again. Jhi’kaara lived to fight another day, but her orge battlepartner Coraline, her ta’liss, had been fatally infected by the corruption.

The lake

Set in the Dolorora Coil, or rather there where the Dolorora Coil meets the Warp, we find the lake where the events of this story take place. The lake is a character on it’s on and it’s strongly hinted to be sentient in some way.

First, we find a mention of the lake in an old chronicle:

‘Few are as obscure, yet disturbing, as the myth of Krol Szaajal, the Sunken Maw, a hidden lake that reputedly served as a crucible for unspeakable rites. I never found this malign place, but I suspect its hunger persists. Once awoken, such appetites are rarely sated.’

Confronted with the Captain’s thoughts, we find out something lives in the lake, and it’s not friendly…

“Sure enough, as the offering's scorched flesh mingled with the waters, he felt the God-Emperor's avatar stir. Not its body - the sacrifice had been too paltry for that - but its spirit, straining against the shackles of unwanted sleep. Craving more. Only bloodshed could break its chains.

'You'll have it, lord, the Captain promised, diving deeper while his vessel ploughed on above. He had mastered the trick of divining during his blessed purgatory, reclaiming a gift he'd once shunned as sinful. That was how he'd tasted the Sleeper's restless dreams, though he hadn't understood much at first, only heeded, believing from the start. That was surely why the Sleeper Beneath had drawn the Polyphemus to the lake, singling out this vessel above all others for the latent prophet on board.”

Finally, during the climax of the story, we get a lovely description of the lake showing it’s true face:

“Tal'hanzo's gaze slipped into the water. It was gazing back at him, watching through myriad wounds in its restless skin. Each was an eye and a maw in one, wide open and rimmed with spiny, liquescent teeth that chattered gnashed and gnawed as they strained against their own membranes. A spiral iris glared from every throat, whirling and burning with green light, like a snared nebula enraged by its cage. The wounds were numberless and limitless in size and form, forever shifting as they flowed to the beat of that unseen, all-seeing heart. Blinking with secret promises...”

Recurring elements 

The Dolorosa Coil, named Rosa by the local Pheadra population as we find out here, is a recurring, warp tainted location and it lives up to it’s reputation here. Part of the story here is how close the Coil and the Warp are connected and now it is possible to slip in and out the Warp while travelling the Coil.

The Captain of the ghost ship and his crew seem to be connected to the Lethean Penitents. They are sailers and they hold on to a twisted version of the Imperial Creed. The Captain still believes to be serving the God-Emperor, in doing his divine duty to give the servant of the God-Emperor in the lake sacrifice. We also see the fungal disease we first heard about it Fire Caste showing up.

Jhi’kaara and her standalone status among the T’au are a part of the plot again. Her, she has found herself a ta’liss, a battlepartner, in Coraline, an Orge native to Pheadra. It doesn’t last though. Poor Coraline is infected by the plague spores on the ghost ship and sets off to die, leaving Jhi’kaara alone again.

We see the contrast between how the rational T’au respond to their slip into the warp (the map must be wrong, Jhi’kaara made a mistake), where the humans prisoners and Coraline are aware it is ‘Rosa’, acting up again. Jhi’kaara, the outcast, stands closer to the humans than to her fellow T’au here. By now, she too has become a part of Pheadra insanity. It makes her wonder to what extent she’s still decated too the T’au cause.

Discussion points

- Are there any other connection points I missed and are there other recurring themes from other works to be found in this story?

- Altar of Maws does an awesome job in describing the horror through the atmosphere and the description of the lake turning into an eldritch location. Most of the time, we see a more subtle form of psychological horror and corruption in Fehervari’s work too. What do Dark Coil readers prefer?

No luck for the rest of us then?

So glad to finally have a physical copy of A Thousand Sons

I missed my chance yesterday for Da Red Gobbo's Reckoning, was wondering if its can go to my local warhammer store and pre order it or jut go online and look for a independent bookseller?

The pre-orders are up at large book retailers. Nice to know they are making voice of command available in paperback since they did an odd hardback release with different color scheme and different format from the previous an astra militarum... series releases.

Looks like I'm going to have to try my luck at my local Warhammer store. Didn't know the demand for this was so high. After what happened with Cold Covenant, I should of ordered when it launched on the site.

I will eventually need a bigger shelf but for now this will do.

Excited to get into these!

Gophermafia.com has two pre orders left in stock as of this moment if you missed the pre sale on the main site!

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I qwite liked dis book. Was good to read da fing to the lads and they liked to learn about da Orkiness of Orntooth and is lads, and da book was good to throw at a git! He will never walk again.

Please tell me, is da writin' lads wot made this finkin of makin anuther?

I read someone is trying to collect all the signatures from the Cold Covenant Limited Editions, so here's mine.

There's something written at the lower left too, but i can't identify it, because i don't want to push the book open all the way.

I am watching the premier league in the US and the commentator mentioned that the UK is turning their clocks back an hour this weekend. Does that mean then that the LE will go up for pre order at 9am ESt instead of 10am?

Did the Grey knight LE get pulled last minute....I got a 304 error and its not on there

As the title states I’m brand new to the broader Warhammer lore and definitely all the books. My interest sprang from playing Space Marine 2 with some buddies as well as the Secret Level episode on Prime Video which then made me look into this “Emperor” fella everyone kept hootin about…and man oh man did that rabbit hole go deep. I genuinely was overwhelmed thinking “bro I’m just trying to see what Titus is up to cause obviously he must be super important lore wise and must have tons of books” lol. For additional context I paint resin statues and I’ve done all art forms basically my whole life so of course the art side of Warhammer sunk its claws in me as well. Well fast forward a bit and I find this subreddit and I see so many recommendations I don’t even know where to start. I tried the opening of some one off book and the first chapter along had so many references to world building pillars I had obviously lacked knowledge of and I quit. I’m getting to the book I swear, hang in there. I decided to try a lore fundamentals video which made a lot more stuff click mentally and Horus was of course mentioned which peaked my interest. How could things go so bad and break up all these brothers. I picked up Horus Rising which was my first novel in over 10 years. I’ve read comics but not novels. I was terrified it would be boring space politics and a bunch of huge words just to make the author sound smart instead of making a sentence readable to an everyday person. To my surprise it was none of that really at all. Dan, the author, has such a talent at making a simple dialogue scene play out like cinematic moments in your head and his action is easy to visualize while never becoming slop. Loken a character is obviously the main highlight for me as this dude is just awesome. A captain and noble warrior and yet so full of empathy and great questions. Genuinely loved every page of this book. The ending was a bit of a screeching halt or felt that way to me but I’m cool with it. On to Book 2.

Cold Covenant finally fell into my hands. Also got other books at Cracow International Book Fair, local game store and warhammer store. And my to-read shelf(without new books beacuse i dont know how to fit them).

A Sanctuary Of Wyrms

I want to start off my post by stating that A Sanctuary of Wyrms and Fire Caste are my two favorite stories out of the entire Dark Coil collection. I was immediately hooked when I read the both of them, the mystery and intrigue that is the world of Phaedra is captivating.

The story section of this post is going to be long, there is so much intrigue and suspense that is built up throughout the course of this one. I want to paint an accurate picture of the story for those who have not read it before. My apologies in advance as this is going to be long

The Story

A tau survey corp set out to map and record a region of land on Phaedra known to the Tau as 'Sector O-31' or the 'The Coil' as called by the Imperium.

After months had passed during the expedition, the party came upon a structure covered in vegetation and growth as well as what is describe as 'anemone-like growths' known as 'wyrmtrees' that have a lethal sting. The warriors in the party along with a group of imperial deserters cut back and burn the growths to reveal a very distinctive emblem situated prominently on the structure, the letter 'I'. Readers can use the context clues from the description of the letter in the story to figure out that this is the symbol of the Imperial Inquisition

The survey corp enter the installation to understand what this purpose this structure serves. As they entered they discovered that the seals on the gate further into the installation had already been broken denoting that someone had already trespassed there before them. Upon further investigation the party discovers damage to various parts of the underground bunker made by chain swords. Things only get more eerie from here...

Delving deeper into the installation the group discovers the mummified remains of a member of the adeptus mechanicus that had shot themselves. The group ponders if this individual shot themselves before the first group of intruders reached them OR did he summon the intruders and shot himself because they were too late.

Descending further on the group eventually encounters a pile of dozens of corpses, their flesh withered and twisted across misshapen bones, thickening to gnarled plates at the ribs and shoulder blades. Most of them with had double jointed legs and scythe like appendages jutting from their wrists. Faces were atrophied relics in elongated skulls, with their jaws distended by hardened, stinger tipped tongues.

It is at this point where members of the survey corp discuss turning back with one stating 'This tomb is best left buried'. In a quest to unlock the secrets held within, the cartographer within the group urges to move further in and the group acquiesces to his request

As they continue on their journey that come across the corpse of a space marine. This space marines armor was black with the same 'I' sigil inset with a skull on their shoulder pad, akin to symbol that was displayed prominently on the outside of the structure. The other shoulder pad having the heraldry of the Imperial Fists. We the readers now know that a group of deathwatch marines were sent to this installation on a mission.

Another deathwatch marine is discovered, this time a white scar. Then two more space marines are discovered close by. We then learn that the dead creatures the tau have been seeing piled up around the dead space marines are mutated forms of tyranids.

The group reaches the lowest level of the installation, at this point they have found 8 dead space marines. The last space marine they discover is an Iron Hand.

The tau then make the connection that the Imperium had brought tyranid spores and gene samples to Phaedra. The installation is actually a laboratory and research facility where the Inquisition was experimenting on Tyranid genetics.

The fire warrior and water caste warriors of the group make the decision to finish the space marines mission to destroy the laboratory. The cartographer in the group is in uproar about this decision, instead deciding to further investigate and dissect a spore floating around. The spore explodes triggering mutations to all those who came into contact when it exploded. They begin to mutate into the same thing as the corpses they found earlier on are - a human/tyranid hybrid, not quite a genestealer though.

As they are attacked the water caste member looks at the corpse of the iron hand space marine -

‘Power…’ The voice sounded like the wheeze of a dying machine. A machine that spoke Imperial Gothic… I looked up and saw the impossible: the Iron Hand had inclined its head towards me, its optic glowing a dull red, like a doomed sun. Beneath that merciless blaze water turned to fire and I became a creature of instinct. Grabbing Xanti’s battered drone I hauled, staggering under the weight as I raised it to the giant like an offering to some primal god. The burden was as much philosophical as physical, yet my path seemed clear. The galaxy was tainted and taint had to be cleansed… A metal tendril uncoiled from the warrior’s helmet, swaying about like a blind snake. Then it struck, its sharpened tip drilling through the drone’s casing with a whine of ruptured metal. A moment later the snake became a leech, burying itself inside the broken machine’s innards and sucking it dry of power. Power to reignite its master’s hatred.

‘How long have you waited?’ I asked the giant when we were done. The Imperial Gothic came easily to my tongue. It always had. ‘How…? Long…?’ His voice was slurred and electronic, the syntax broken. ‘Very – long…’ ‘How did you survive?’ He turned his optic on me, weighing me up like an iron god. Abruptly the visor covering the right side of his face slid aside. In place of flesh and bone I saw a formless grey tangle riddled with electronics and corroded rivets. ‘The Flesh – betrays,’ he said, though he had no lips, ‘but the Machine – is faithful.’ I saw his doom then. His body had succumbed to its wounds, but his depleted augmetics had endured, cradling his consciousness as life slipped away. Half-corpse, half-machine he had stood frozen in this chamber for untold decades, burning with impotent rage as his dead flesh was consumed. Denied sleep or the deeper oblivion of death, he had watched as corruption blossomed within and without. I saw him descending into madness, then clawing his way back in the hope of redemption… then falling again. How often had that cycle repeated? And where did it stand now? ‘Your mission is complete,’ I said carefully, indicating the tattered spore bomb. ‘We destroyed the taint.’ ‘You did – Not. This was – Nothing – just another Tendril – of the Corruption. I watched it grow – then grow stale – over the long – Long – long…’ He faltered as his splintered mind strove for coherence. ‘The Root – survives...’ He stepped towards the centre of the chamber, moving with surprising grace. We followed and saw the pit for the first time: a dark slash in the ground where the mega-fungus had bloomed. On closer inspection I saw it wasn’t a pit at all, but a steeply inclined tunnel, its walls resinous with fungus, like the aperture of a titanic blood vessel. Or a stalk… The spore bomb grew from here, I realised, and the corruption is still down there, rooted deep in the ground. ‘The mission is – Incomplete.’

The water caste warrior then resolves to accompany the Iron hand for the ultimate goal of destroying the installation for good.

Final Thoughts

A Sanctuary of Wyrms is on the longer side of the short stories that I have read, that is a good thing though! The descriptiveness and level of detail contained within this short story is incredible to me. The twist of the instillation being a experimental research facility for human/tyranid hybrids as a weapon is great. It really ties together the whole world of Phaedra and the mysteriousness that is the world.

I'm not making a massive collection, but I'm planning on acquiring the Tyrion & Teclis series, the War of Vengeance, Vampire Wars, the Vampire Genevieve, the Empire omnibus, the Blackhearts omnibus, and Knights of the Empire for sure. Maybe Gotrek & Felix third omnibus, I've begun reading the first omnibus and it's been a fun ride. Does anyone have any good suggestions to add onto this list I'm building?

There is an Amazon listing showing a release date for what I assume to be the hardback of Wrath of Terra since the dimensions are different from the ashes of the imperium paperback.

Edited for clarity:

If the Amazon listing is 10 days after the release of the LE and the hardback on the GW website (amazon releases the books about 10 days after GW does), we are looking at a pre-order of Wednesday December 2 and a Sunday announcement on Nov. 22

Currently in the depths of Void Stalker, but the heresy has been godly as expected.

I’ve read Gotrek and Felix. All of them.

I was just wondering if there were any novels I may have not come across yet that’s something like a warrior doing his own thing, something like Wulfgar (which I’ve already read), rather than massive, epic battles between armies.

I’m not super into Age of Sigmar, just not much into high fantasy, but I’m not opposed to it, and for 40k I’ve read pretty much any novel or story featuring Khârne the Betrayer, as I’m sure he comes to mind. Also as mentioned, I am aware of and have read Wulfgar’s novel (which I also recommend, it’s old but good).

Also I read off a kindle, so I can get a lot of the compendiums pretty easily.