Salamanders short story gets a new title
After finishing up some work on Assault on Black Reach and writing up a glossary for Honourkeeper, I can now turn my attention back to the Salamanders.
Those who have been following the blog will know that I have two projects involving this Chapter, the first of which is a short story that will be featured in the Heroes of the Space Marines anthology. In an earlier post I revealed that the working title of the story was 'Unto The Anvil...'. I've since had a slight change of heart on this and gone for the slightly more punchy 'Fires of War'. I felt the first title lacked a little something, and was perhaps a little too ambiguous for non-Salamander aficionados. 'Fires of War' still retains strong elements of the Salamander's battle cry, as did 'Unto the Anvil...', but is simply more overt. It's actually a melding of both elements of the Salamander cry (Anvil of Battle, Fires of War etc), so, for me, had a nice ring that distinctly said Salamanders to me.
I'll be mapping out the story synopsis in some detail today, having gone over it with my editor last week. The characters at the heart of the tale will be the main protagonists in the novel (currently called 'Salamander', but that might change to, currently I'm thinking either Fire Born or Sons of Prometheus, as it sounds more evocative, grandiose and less Saturday morning cartoon derivative). There is a crucial event, a character shaping act, that takes place in the story that will effect what's to come in the novel. It's not necessary for you to have read 'Fires of War' to understand or appreciate the novel, but it will add to the experience. If I do write more than one Salamanders novel (I'd like to, and am planning for, a trilogy), then it's likely that this story would feature in any omnibus.
As well as giving me a chance to 'road test' my heroes, as it were, I also want to introduce, or rather expand, elements of Promethean and Salamanders battle culture not seen before. There'll be no views of Nocturne in the short, as it all takes place in a different sector, on a different planet, but I do plan on having some fairly lengthy scenes on the Salamanders homeworld in the novel itself (and a huge thank you to all those who posted me links and background for the Chapter - Bolter & Chainsword, Vulkan's Forge: you guys absolutely rock! Thanks also to Pyriel, who's insightful and well-researched work on posited Nocturne geology was a great source of interest.
I really don't want to reveal anything more about the story now - you might find some snippets in the interview I did for 40K Radio (see an earlier post for details) - but let's leave it there until it's written and in print.
Those who have been following the blog will know that I have two projects involving this Chapter, the first of which is a short story that will be featured in the Heroes of the Space Marines anthology. In an earlier post I revealed that the working title of the story was 'Unto The Anvil...'. I've since had a slight change of heart on this and gone for the slightly more punchy 'Fires of War'. I felt the first title lacked a little something, and was perhaps a little too ambiguous for non-Salamander aficionados. 'Fires of War' still retains strong elements of the Salamander's battle cry, as did 'Unto the Anvil...', but is simply more overt. It's actually a melding of both elements of the Salamander cry (Anvil of Battle, Fires of War etc), so, for me, had a nice ring that distinctly said Salamanders to me.
I'll be mapping out the story synopsis in some detail today, having gone over it with my editor last week. The characters at the heart of the tale will be the main protagonists in the novel (currently called 'Salamander', but that might change to, currently I'm thinking either Fire Born or Sons of Prometheus, as it sounds more evocative, grandiose and less Saturday morning cartoon derivative). There is a crucial event, a character shaping act, that takes place in the story that will effect what's to come in the novel. It's not necessary for you to have read 'Fires of War' to understand or appreciate the novel, but it will add to the experience. If I do write more than one Salamanders novel (I'd like to, and am planning for, a trilogy), then it's likely that this story would feature in any omnibus.
As well as giving me a chance to 'road test' my heroes, as it were, I also want to introduce, or rather expand, elements of Promethean and Salamanders battle culture not seen before. There'll be no views of Nocturne in the short, as it all takes place in a different sector, on a different planet, but I do plan on having some fairly lengthy scenes on the Salamanders homeworld in the novel itself (and a huge thank you to all those who posted me links and background for the Chapter - Bolter & Chainsword, Vulkan's Forge: you guys absolutely rock! Thanks also to Pyriel, who's insightful and well-researched work on posited Nocturne geology was a great source of interest.
I really don't want to reveal anything more about the story now - you might find some snippets in the interview I did for 40K Radio (see an earlier post for details) - but let's leave it there until it's written and in print.
posted by Nick Kyme at
15:12
5 Comments:
Looking forward to seeing the "test drive", as it were, of the characters. Would you be able to give us a release date for the Heroes of the Space Marines Anthology?
Hey Sig,
I'm away from my work desk at the moment, but I reckon I can have a cheeky peek at the schedule on Monday and maybe slip the release date of the anthology.
Watch this space...
Just a minor thing, and I hate myself for pointing it out, but the Salamanders battle cry is "Into the fires of battle, unto the anvil of war", not the other way around, as you have it here.
Fires of War is still a cool title though...
...please don't burn me. :P
On another note, I was reading through the section on Command Squads in the new marine codex, in particular the bit on "last rights" (so to speak) performed by the apothecaries, and I had an idea I wanted to share with you, to see if you found it cool and/or useful.
I was thinking about the Salamanders affinity with fire, and that wouldn't it be cool if, after harvesting the geneseed and organs needed from a dead marine, the apothecary performed some form of right which caused the corpse in the armour to be consumed by fire (figuratively or literally), leaving the armour unscathed and ready for retrieval by the techmarines? Perhaps injecting the corpse with a form of chemical harvested from the blood of firedrakes?
Just a thought.
I also had a thought on the direction of my Salamanders short story, in making the captain of 4th company (my army), Valsh'r Ibn'ez, have risen to command of the 4th after the ascension of Captain He'stan to the rank of Forgefather. I thought perhaps previous to his promotion that he could have been He'stan's company champion. There's something to go on here, and the basis of the characters is beginning to take shape. Any thoughts on how to go about developing these tid-bits of information into a legible plot?
Hey Dan,
Good to see you on the blog again.
Yeah, I actually meant 'Fires of War' as in it took elements from both clauses in the battle cry - taking 'fire' from 'Fires of Battle' and 'war' from 'Anvil of War'. Hopefully, Salamanders fans will appreciate the synthesis at work there.
Interesting idea about the Apothecaries and last rites. I actually thought that the Salamanders would burn their slain brothers, once the gene-seed was extracted, and the ash would then be scattered over Nocturne or fed into Mount Deathfire as part of some Promethean tradition.
It's quite cool that a chemical reaction causes the spontaneous combustive effect, though - very intriguing.
Your set-up for your story sounds cool and perhaps the tension of He'stan leaving his battle-brothers to pursue a higher calling could be the thing to hang your plot on. I find that character dynamics and complex relationships often end up telling their own narrative.
If you're interested in developing your plotting skills, though, I'd suggest a couple of books. Firstly, Christopher Brookers, 'Seven Basic Plots' has a lot of food for thought on the subject, as well as providing some fairly detailed analysis. It's pretty heavy and hard-going at times, but well worth the work. The second one is 'Plot & Structure', by James Scott Bell. This is a little lighter, and has some practical tips for writing good plots and adding all-important structure.
I hope that's of interest and of use.
All of your feedback is of interest and useful, I'd be a fool not to listen.
If you want to read a bit of my prose then you can find it in the link further down this post. I have to warn you though, I wrote it a good year ago, and it's not something I am completely happy with. One of my older pieces, which I cannot find for the life of me placed 1st in a 40k writing competition, so if I find it I'll link that one too.
I'd love to do something for the black library but I am not sure how to go about it?
With regards to the chemical combustion, perhaps something which affects the Larraman cells in the marines blood?
I had another idea for representing the Firedrakes (the actual salamanders, not the Space Marines) - I was reading about mythological Salamanders and found this:
"In one of the earliest surviving descriptions of a salamander, Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) noted that the creature is "an animal like a lizard in shape and with a body starred all over; it never comes out except during heavy showers and disappears the moment the weather becomes clear." All of these traits, even down to the star-like markings, are consistent with the golden Alpine salamander (Salamandra atra aurorae) of Europe that has golden or yellow spots or blotches on its back and some similarly marked subspecies of the fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra)"
Now that got me thinking, it is possible the author is describing a subspecies of the Fire Salamander, which has the same markings as the Badab War Veterans, so seems to be "the" salamander that the great drakes of Nocture are inspired by. The part about them only appearing during storms got me. I was thinking that perhaps you could liken this nugget of information to the largest salamanders, the Firedrakes, only coming out during the time when Nocturne is in upheaval, representing the storm, only on a much grander scale (emphasis on the "only" there).
Couple that with the real life salamanders love of water (not all of them have gils) - convert that into a love of lava for the 40k version, and you have a basis for the reality behind the legends of the great drakes of Nocturne.
A lot of this may be already hinted in the established Salamanders background material, but I haven't read the old IA article in quite some time, so if I've covered old ground here then do forgive me.
I also had my first game with the 5th Edition Salamanders rules, and I have to say I had a blast. Compared to how stagnant 4th Edition was to me, and the abysmal 4th Ed. Codex, its definitely rekindled my love of 40k.
Hopefully I'll be able to grab a copy of Black Reach soon, as it's a real trek for me to get to my "local" GW, so when I do I'll let you know what I think about it.
Here's the link to the latest prose I’ve written, although again, remember it was a year ago - not that I can say I've learned anything in that time. ;)
Any pointers you could give would be awesome.
http://bootae.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=7792
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