I wanted to get something from this book out, and I hope to be able to get more out soon, too! Though, I am getting rather busy so it may not be as soon as I would like. This moment really hit me, though, with some fantastic life affirming narratives and some truly sad moments in what is arguably the most important tipping point in all of Warhammer! If you enjoyed please do like, comment and subscribe for some more! My many thanks for watching!
Rogal always cared deeply, always considered what he was doing and why. He was always trying to be better, as a person, as a general, he never stopped trying to improve on what he was doing. But he was not made of stone, for all his stoicism, he was human. His family was broken, the Imperium's dream shattered, his father half dead. So the man who shouldered the weight of the world could not bear his burden anymore.
I don't know why but Rogal makes me think of vegeta in a way (Yes i know im lame). This stoic and never smiling serious guy that secretly cares about his family.
When I read master of mankind, he had one moment of softness in a meeting. Custodians refused his help and also seemed to say they couldn't trust the legions fully. He stiffened like he was offended but nodded and said something along the lines of "Magnus, my brother, of all the mistakes you have made, this one is the worst" I was the first time I ever seen him seem saddened. BUT THIS BOOK, I broke for him.
No wall is unbreakable, no siege is unstoppable. If this is what it takes to make a man like Rogal Dorn cry then it's both a sign of his strength but also how terrible the Horus Heresy was.
Rogal - true to his nature as the consummate siege-master - built a fortress around his emotions... but like all fortresses, it was built to protect - his feelings. Rogal felt deeply... he cared immensely for family and loved ones... perhaps more so than any other primarch. In The Flight of the Eisenstein, Euphrate Keeler cries for him - because she and Garrow have broken a brother's heart by news of Horus's treachery and it will never mend again. Rogal slept every night with the blanket of the grandfather who raised him.
Hearing Malcador call him "His king of Ages" really shows how much he loved the Emperor beloved by all. Only Constantine has ever uttered that phrase and it was when the sun rose in the sunless relm.
Malcador sounds so old, older than all the ages of the Earth. Melancholic, tired, worried for his found family, wishing to impart some final words of wisdom. He always had such focus, drive and hope, but this moment cut deep. Incredible voice acting, very powerful.
I mean Malcador is thousands of years old, and is a character I think actually portrays this. Human's in 40k aren't meant to live that long, even the Perpetuals struggle, unlike the Aeldari who were born to immortality (or as close as now-Mortal creatures can get to it after the Birth of Slaanesh). He's an ancient and aged being, he's not eternally young, he's eternally aged, and is very clear about how tired he is when he ascends the Golden Throne. Malcador was perhaps the Emperor's only real friend after the other Perpetuals left, and is the only one the Emperor truly confided in at every point. He stuck around so long because of this, and lived to fulfill the Emperor's purposes.
So powerful. To us, the Primarchs are demigods. To Malcador and The Emperor, they are but children, left with an empire their fathers fear they cannot manage.
Rather fitting how Emperor is so very grounded in the end. He is not an omnipotent being playing 4d chess. Instead he is just a man burdened with knowledge making plans upon plans in hopes of achieving the best outcome possible. Years of speculation offof how much this was intentional only to discover none of it was and that he is just a man trying his best is very tragic. I'm glad they chose to preserve this outcome and not be reactionary towards people wanting more grimdark Heresy conclusion. This always was supposed to be the catalyst for the grimdark 10,000 years. Very good delivery. My favorite part was the delivery of malcadors sadness to Rogals tears.
That's always been the point. The Emperor isn't a God, He's just a Man, a powerful and extremely knowledgeable one, practically immortal and eternal, but not perfect despite all that. He told people this repeatedly, but they just couldn't fathom someone like that was just a Man, and labelled Him a God instead. He even casts off the promise of Apotheosis and remains a Man to safeguard Humanity, demonstrating this to be true until the end. The Emperor even says this to Sanguinius, that His foresight isn't as developed as His Son, and that He basically gets vague impressions of the future, a massive number of branching decisions that are unclear and can only be navigated with assumption and knowledge, not purely foresight. I never understood the whole "the Emperor planned everything" when it's clear that this fate could have been avoided at many turns if His foresight was that developed, and this is the single WORST possible outcome bar Horus surviving and taking Terra. In my opinion, there are no God's in 40k, there are powerful things, indescribable entities, but between Extradimensional Parasites that feed upon sentient mind's, Sentient Creature's of Pure Energy born in the Big Bang that feed upon the very Stars themselves, the Crystallized forms of Sentient Beliefs like the Aeldari created in the War in Heaven, Machine's beyond the scope of imagination, and simple biological beings blessed with immense potency, all are fallible, none are omnipotent, nor omniscient, and all can die! This is what makes the setting so dark, people believe these creatures to hold their hopes and dreams, they seek meaning from them in an apparently meaningless universe, and all that Faith is based upon lies. The only ones who understand this made their own such mistakes in the past, and caused the state of the Galaxy through this, the Necron's killed their Star God's, and the Aeldari buried theirs until they birthed a new one. The Tau kind of get this, but from a point of ignorance and naivete.
I liked that thematic emphasize and gotta give props to BL for not writing reactionary fun service in regards to the whole mythology accumulated through years around HH, through fan theories/expectations and so on...
@@AveSicarius Well said. The way I like to think of the Emperor's plans is almost as if he were a poker player. Poker is a game of limited information, but you do know all of the possible outcomes. You can bet and raise or fold with the knowledge of the possibilities, and a good player simply maximizes the chips on the table when the odds are in his favor. But the player still might lose, despite having the statistically better hand. The Emperor acts similarly. He has some foresight and can "see" a myriad of possibilities. So he acts to maximize humanity's odds to survive and thrive, even though he might still lose when the final card is on the table. And like a good poker player, he tries to leave himself "outs" to salvage a bad situation, to have an improbable victory, and to minimize damage so that he might play another hand. Likewise, even being on the Golden Throne, the Emperor has "outs". His primarchs are returning and the devotion of the imperium is making him more powerful. Humanity is in a terrible spot, but they still have some "outs" as it were.
Ehhh he was more than a guy trying his best to be fair. He made a lot of mistakes, mistakes that his fellow perpetuals warned him against and yet he plowed onward. Anyway. Anyway. The emperor was a giant paradox. He created 20 sons and never treated them like sons. He wanted to treat them like sons when it suited him but other than that he wanted them to be obedient little Lab rats
Malcador and the Emperor are, by far, the two best characters in all of warhammer 40k lore. Ah Malcador, you will be missed. I hope the Emperor will be whole
"I wonder if they have learnt enough." Malcador always considered the primarchs as his sons even if he doesn't want to admit it. This book made me cry a lot and seen a side of Malcador and the Emperor we've never seen before. Their humanity and compassion. The Emperor truly loved his sons and always suppressed that love by treating them as tools. I have so much things to say but I can't find the words to describe them. Malcador's love for Vulkan, Rogal, & Sangunius. Malcador's deep affection for his friend and King of Ages, the Emperor. beloved by all, Oh man. this is just a lot to take :( I really hope that you narrate for the Black Library. You've got the spark!
Man Malcador here kinda hypes me up for Rogal Dorn returning. The brick wall Dorn getting teary and emotional while Malcador hopes he learns from his mistakes in the future? Damn.
@@3rdtimesthecharm376 With how they set up dorn being snatched by Khorne to corrupt him, I wouldn’t be surprised in the scouring books to come we learn that Dorn was again scooped up by Khorne on that battleship and has been ever slowly been attempted by all 4 gods to corrupt him. My fun wish tho is when we get him back after such, we learn that he’s become a worshiper of the emperor like Sigusmund and Keeler. As it would be a fun through line for his character and would be a nice interesting thing Gulliman and the Lion would have to come to terms with. - as do how he’d become one… I would be surprised if a certain small aspect of a fractured soul in the warp just so happens to leave his favoured son before him in the dark sands. And on reaching his body, remembers who he was and finds a very small pendant handed to him by the very first saint clutched in his hands as a mini-gift for his fathers faith in both the imperium and the emperor.
@@reecedignan8365 funny, it is also my "fun wish". Rogal Dorn stated (while he was alive) that the Primarchs should not venerated because only the emperor deserve the adoration of mankind. So making Dorn the unyelding come back as a devotee of the emperor of mankind could be an interesting take from the Imperial Truth obsessed Roboute Guilliman. it should be done with a certain care tho, making him directly a zealot would be a too big stretch from his character.
@@TemplarBlack. I would see him more in line with how Sigusmund and Garro were, they beloved the Emperor was something more than man but not to the level of “he is our god emperor! You are all heretics for not believing such” More “our father is more than just a man brother. I witnessed and felt his power on the vengeful spirit and I have met his spirit in the warp. While he may not be a god, the faith of these people and even our sons in our father has created a counterbalance in the warp that opposes the 4 great warp entities. So do not disavow our sons and these people for believing in our father brother, I did that with my favoured son, and it took me until the end to realise that his devotion may not have been truly the superstition I believed once before”
It's no surprise that if you are a man of a certain age, you will completely, and utterly, understand what Malcador meant by the futility of plans, the fickle nature of time and the future, and of course, the dogged persistence to continue, so that those that come after you may persist and fight the same good fight.
I weeped at this. Literally sobbed. The glorious future of humanity destroyed, transfigured into an abominable existence from this point on. Yet 10,000 years later humanity persists after this turning moment. We fight. We do not lose hope. It’s so tragic yet inspiring.
I always loved Malcador as a character and this is the cherry on top. The idea of him lingering after his death, only to see Big E take his place, is so tragic and beautifully depicted here and really shows how much he loved him and his sons. Really well done on the voice over, you really did him justice 👌
Rogal Dorn managed to retain his stoicism and composure for almost the entire Siege of Terra. It's devastating to see Dorn in tears here over his father when the Emperor was so distant from his Primarch sons. 😢
Great narration, bravo. Malcador alone understood the Emperor and his depths; what had to be done and why. Thus he sat the Throne to give his old friend the time he needed to save Humanity - what it had always been about. It is also why he is not sad for the Emperor, for when they committed to the plan they both knew it was a possibility (perhaps, in truth, an inevitability). It is His sons whom Malcador feels sadness for, for they do not understand, neither why - truly - the two of them did it, or what it means. Malcador the Hero, indeed.
As I was listening to this, at first, with the art, and intelligence of the speaker, I thought it was the perspective of the Emperor. When I realized it was Malcador soeaking, I nearly teared up... His final moments spent in the knowledge of the cruel reality of the golden throne's purpose.
Even this coming from a grim dark crazy ass fantasy of roided out hulking super soldiers, gods, demons and aliens, the discussion on plans should be taken to heart. Nothing ever goes as planned. Always best to prepare for when a plan fails, and have flexible backups in place behind it.
That last line. “It’s time….” Has so much weight to it. Relief, regret, resolve and the sum of life between eternities from an old man who’s come to terms with his role in the grand scheme. Malcador held out as long as he could and did everything in his peer to see through the plans of the emperor and yet all he could do was break even. He’s truly a hero for standing against the inevitable and daring to dream. He died a hero and kept humanity from drowning in the fires of hell in the darkest night. It breaks my heart to hear these thoughts as he passes but those last words brought me to tears. Brilliant reading my friend. You’ve got a talent. May you have a long career narrating these stories. 🍻
Day 3 of asking a dropside massacre narration. (I want to see Corax look into the eyes of Nostramo's Dark King and see his death. I want to see lorgar humiliated and Ferrus's head in the phoenician's hands as he realizes what he has done) Great as always
The thing I find most moving here, is the reflection that plans fail. You can have everything laid out, and it will blow up in your face. Consider all the contingencies and get caught with your pants down, you can be the smartest guy in the room-and it will all still fail. All you can do is make back ups, and hope really.
Ive listened maybe. 3 or 4 times now. The second time i tried to imagine the perspective of malcador. This went way to hard. I was on the verge of tears. A wonderful video.
"I feel something.... it's time," Love the double meaning. It's time for Malcador to pass on, but time is also what Malcador is physically feeling, because he's fully back in realspace.
A layer of tragedy I think about when listening to this is that, through the Horus Heresy and in other novels where we get an idea of what kind of thing the Emperor is and that his attitude towards his primarchs is through the sight of a maker and his tools. He treats them all certain ways to have them useful to his goals. In this passage, it seems to me as though he's forgone that attitude of seeing them as tools, and is grasping a true glimpse of how his sons wanted to see him and have him treat them. To see someone as stoic as Dorn shed tears for him, to have Vulkan in his presence, to have broken and spoken to Horus to wait for him to come back to him again, it's not the attitude of a man regretting that his tools didn't save the day or do as he pleased. It is as if he, at the end of his life, finally is ready to call them his sons. And it's just too late.
He always saw them as his sons, his boys. There are scenes where the Emperor isn't even saying anything and he just stands there, but the Primarchs note that the aura coming off him and the way he looks at them is a look of pure pride and glee. I know the look they're talking about because my own father has given me that look a few times in my life. Malcador also reminisces that even way back when they were babies growing in the lab, the Emperor switched from calling them his "subjects" to saying "my sons". At the time he found it odd but didn't mention it, just raised an eyebrow and moved on. You can't develope the type of genuine love he had for Horus right at the end of everything, it was always there. For all of them.
With a Scouring series I do look forward to when Robutte is put in stasis. I loved how you performed when the big G came back so, I would love to bookend those moments.
I found this deeply sad. The Emperor is both a saint, a monster, and a martyr. He's a complex character, especially when viewed through the many lenses of the races and characters of 40k. The Horus Heresy is so often experienced through the lens of war. This bit of narrative lore humanizes Malcador, the Emperor and the Primarchs present and introduces an potent dose of tragedy that we often miss out on in the dark-celebration of the Grim-Dark setting. We laugh at this dark parody of the future and caw at the sinister hilarity of it all, and yet I find myself really captured by this particular scene, which brought tears to my eyes. Thank you ❤
I went from not knowing much about Malcador to loving the character now, Malcador the hero! When Malcador is discussing planning ... too true ... this makes the Emperor and Malcador even more human than the lore has ever stated.
I really liked this chapter but I thought it unlikely that Malcador would be able to wax so eloquently when his mind, body, and spirit were ablaze with the powers of the throne to the point of almost complete destruction. I imagined the best he would be able to say is "fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuuuck!"
Title gives me a mental image of Emp interning at like "The Daily Servitor", in disguise and incognito, à la Clark Kent. Scrawny, hair tied back in a greasey ponytail, bespectacled and acne-ridden. Running errands frantically, head down....All while being 12 feet tall
This may be one of the most humanizing moments for both Malcador and The Emperor. You get to see that they were so wrapped up in the demands of what it took to make things happen, no matter what, that as powerful as they seemed, they were eternally just raging against that dying of the light like everyone. And that they weren't awarded the luxury of being able to act the heroes, as others would, because heroes wouldn't be enough to save others in the larger game. They know they don't deserve sympathy for all the lives they've cast into that growing pyre of sacrifices, they accept the weight of their plans and their callousness, however necessary it may have at some times been... and now it's their turn. Now Malcador can be just a man wondering if it was all worth it and what lies beyond the future they've been chained to for more years than any empire had known. He sympathizes with Rogal and the rest for what they'll have to do, the weight they'll now be carrying.
Seeing this phrased as "interned" rather than "interred" makes me imagine the Emperor being sent of coffee runs and doing the bitch work nobody else wants to do 😅
Malcador The Hero. The only friend the Emperor had known. A father figure to the primarchs and the Imperium. His Sacrifice will forever be remembered. Reading and Listening to this scene has broken my heart twice. I hope whatever comes after this book has atleast some final thoughts of the Emperor as he is interned. What did he command the last loyal sons to do. As always great work. Cant wait for the Emperor vs Horus scene
Big E and my wife are one and the same …… Both loves plans even when on Vacation, where I want to get up late and do whatever, she wants to be up early following the days plan . 😢
I am not alive to witness it...but I am present at least... Reminded weirdly of another scene that made me cry from the Haunting of Hill House which is surprisingly similar with the ghost of a family member being so worked up about their family fighting that moves things to make them stop.
The ending was so sad. What happened to our beloved Loken. Just know screw Erebus. But the ending still left a opening. Hope the scowering still happens for books. We still need actual lore to tie the ending of HH to the Dark imperium and present day lore
this is more than an old man dying. This is tyrant turned servant dedicating his last thought to his friend and king, and two of the men he love like sons
Sad as this outcome is I am a little judgmental about Malcador’s lack of remorse for the many horrible things he and the Emperor did along the way. In the end the terrible price they willingly paid was for nothing. their atrocities were supposed to be for the greater good but in the end it was all just pointless suffering they inflicted on their own doomed race.
They do realise and acknowledge that, they both do. Everytime you read Mal or the Emperor speak of "the dream" and how it is dead, that is them saying out loud that all they did, all they hoped from and did to make humanity better, was all for naught. They tried and they failed.
I think they regret the outcome more than the cost. They eradicated countless civilizations and cultures many of whom were only guilty of wanting to be left in peace and posed no threat to the Imperium. In some cases mankind as a whole would have been better off if the great crusade had failed to conquer and assimilate the other civilization.
@@spencerherron5539 It was both and there's a reason they did that to those civilizations. There's a scene where either the Custodian Ra, or Valdor-I can't remember which, is asking what the Emperor was actually planning wihh the whole Webway thing. And he explains that he wanted to do 2 things. 1.) EVERY SINGLE human in the entire galaxy was going to be part of the future in the Webway. He wanted literally all of Mankind in there and not a single person was to be left from it's glory. Ra/Valdor thinks it's flat out hubris but he explains that so long as there is a single person in the galaxy, Chaos could use and manipulate them. That feeds into step 2 2.) Step 2 was to exterminate all sentient Xenos in the Galaxy that aren't under Imperial protection (yes a few of those exist, they're a thing) because like with the Laer and like the Eldar, they can be twisted by Chaos and made to screw with the Webway somehow. That could not be allowed to happen if humanity was to grow and evolve So to you it looks like he's doing it for his own ego, but it was an absolute must, a bitter necessity that every single colony they came across had to be integrated. Given a few millenia those very same societies who 'just wanted to be left alone' would've been knocking on the gates of the Webway, with Chaos symbols carved into their flesh and Daemons at their backs. The Horus Heresy showed us that even the absolute best of humanity isn't immune to their influence. The Emepror and Malcador didn't 'like' what they were doing to their own kind, but all they did was justified by necessity. It was the only way to avoid annihilation at the hands of malevolent gods
I don’t think he did it for his ego , just that he was misguided and arrogant. He was convinced that the only way mankind was going to work together was if he gave it other choice and learned the hard way that you can’t force people to do what is in their own best interest . Saving mankind without resorting to imposing his will under threat of genocide and crushing all resistance to his way of doing things may have been a lot more difficult and risky but was never impossible. I see it like how America did not forcibly take over the allied countries but they were still able to work together and won world war 2 . Big E did what he told himself he had to do but It’s like how Curze tried to claim the horrific actions he took were the only way to save his home world, when in fact it was just the easiest/fastest way . The emperor always chose the way that offered the highest likelihood of success in any given situation no matter the moral implications . He did not deme human free will to be necessary. He also treated diversity of values and beliefs as nothing but an obstacle to be corrected to better fit his greater plan. As for all the other human civilizations being doomed even if the Emperor didn’t take over , I disagree . The Imperium was not the only human civilization that was in a position to capitalize on the power vacuum left by the Eldar. The others had been growing in power and would have continued to do so if not for the great crusade snuffing them out faster than any xeno or demon ever could . the Imperium started so early and expanded so fast that they never got the chance. Any of those civilizations could have in time been the one to find a way to overcome the terrors of the galaxy. It was the Imperium’s policy of preemptively taking over everything in the galaxy to secure itself as soon possible which eliminated so many opportunities for someone else to find better ways to do things.
@@spencerherron5539they tried. Had they not, they would have failed anyway. Without the great crusade humanity would be wiped out by the orks. Without the emperor erasing religion EVERY religion would eventually worship the 4. (Because yes, literally every religion eventually devolves into worshipping the 4. INCLUDING the worship of the emperor.) And no, mankind would have NEVER been better off without the emperor and the great crusade. Cultures that he destroyed were most often violent ones, ruled by greedy tyrants who desired nothing but power. They cared nothing for uplifting mankind as a whole. Or just mutated lesser humans…who couldn’t coexist with base humanity. And those that wanted to be left in peace? Who’s to say that they wouldn’t become like those violent civilization? And who’s to say that had they been left alone and left unchecked, that they would survive? As to why not leave them be? When you see a drowning child, and the child tells you he doesn’t want to be saved… do you not try to save him? Do you accept his words and let him drown? Would that make you a morally superior person to a man who did save him? Imagine that on a planetary scale. A single governor saying no, doesn’t represent the wishes of a population… There are DOZENS of logical and moral reasons to commit those atrocities. And the emperor did improve the worlds he conquered. He gave them technology. He gave them reason. He eliminated unnecessary cruelty and protected those worlds. What more could he have done?
I wanted to get something from this book out, and I hope to be able to get more out soon, too! Though, I am getting rather busy so it may not be as soon as I would like.
This moment really hit me, though, with some fantastic life affirming narratives and some truly sad moments in what is arguably the most important tipping point in all of Warhammer!
If you enjoyed please do like, comment and subscribe for some more!
My many thanks for watching!
A
I won’t lie…the thought of Rogal Dorn weeping is heartbreaking to me. To have a man so defiant and unyielding brought to tears is powerful.
Rogal always cared deeply, always considered what he was doing and why. He was always trying to be better, as a person, as a general, he never stopped trying to improve on what he was doing. But he was not made of stone, for all his stoicism, he was human. His family was broken, the Imperium's dream shattered, his father half dead. So the man who shouldered the weight of the world could not bear his burden anymore.
I don't know why but Rogal makes me think of vegeta in a way (Yes i know im lame). This stoic and never smiling serious guy that secretly cares about his family.
When I read master of mankind, he had one moment of softness in a meeting. Custodians refused his help and also seemed to say they couldn't trust the legions fully. He stiffened like he was offended but nodded and said something along the lines of "Magnus, my brother, of all the mistakes you have made, this one is the worst" I was the first time I ever seen him seem saddened. BUT THIS BOOK, I broke for him.
No wall is unbreakable, no siege is unstoppable. If this is what it takes to make a man like Rogal Dorn cry then it's both a sign of his strength but also how terrible the Horus Heresy was.
Rogal - true to his nature as the consummate siege-master - built a fortress around his emotions... but like all fortresses, it was built to protect - his feelings. Rogal felt deeply... he cared immensely for family and loved ones... perhaps more so than any other primarch. In The Flight of the Eisenstein, Euphrate Keeler cries for him - because she and Garrow have broken a brother's heart by news of Horus's treachery and it will never mend again. Rogal slept every night with the blanket of the grandfather who raised him.
“I weep for the end of a dream that never came to pass”
I seriously hope you narrate for the black library soon.
“Oh Vulkan, my boy”
Guess we know whose the favorite
I always thought that with every comment the Emperor made of him that he had the biggest part to play in the grand plan… but who knows
Oh, you mean the child who is good and pure and simply not allowed to die at all? Him the favorite, no way.
I still think it was Horus. "I will wait for you and I forgive you."
@@TheHound402 Emperor is definitely playing the long game with Vulkan. Secret favorite or close favorite.
I agree. Majorkill thinks he is THE favorite, and I think he might have a point@@StimmBehr
“Oh Vulkan, my boy” that broke my little heart
Hearing Malcador call him "His king of Ages" really shows how much he loved the Emperor beloved by all. Only Constantine has ever uttered that phrase and it was when the sun rose in the sunless relm.
I think it's used by other custodes during this book as well?
Indeed, that wording reminded me of John Gramaticus last scene in the book, laying the tread by the (cave) painting...
? Constantine wasn't in the webway when the Emperor arrived. Ra Endymion held command there instead of Valdor.
I remember Dionysus addressing the Emperor with that title at the end of "Master of Mankind".
He is old. He is tired. He sits on the Golden Throne. 😢
"I have tasted but a brief moment of that eternity; and that is more than enough!"
Malcador sounds so old, older than all the ages of the Earth. Melancholic, tired, worried for his found family, wishing to impart some final words of wisdom. He always had such focus, drive and hope, but this moment cut deep. Incredible voice acting, very powerful.
I mean Malcador is thousands of years old, and is a character I think actually portrays this. Human's in 40k aren't meant to live that long, even the Perpetuals struggle, unlike the Aeldari who were born to immortality (or as close as now-Mortal creatures can get to it after the Birth of Slaanesh).
He's an ancient and aged being, he's not eternally young, he's eternally aged, and is very clear about how tired he is when he ascends the Golden Throne.
Malcador was perhaps the Emperor's only real friend after the other Perpetuals left, and is the only one the Emperor truly confided in at every point. He stuck around so long because of this, and lived to fulfill the Emperor's purposes.
So powerful. To us, the Primarchs are demigods. To Malcador and The Emperor, they are but children, left with an empire their fathers fear they cannot manage.
The Emperor is the father, Erda the mother, and malcador the Uncle to the primarchs.
Rather fitting how Emperor is so very grounded in the end. He is not an omnipotent being playing 4d chess. Instead he is just a man burdened with knowledge making plans upon plans in hopes of achieving the best outcome possible. Years of speculation offof how much this was intentional only to discover none of it was and that he is just a man trying his best is very tragic. I'm glad they chose to preserve this outcome and not be reactionary towards people wanting more grimdark Heresy conclusion. This always was supposed to be the catalyst for the grimdark 10,000 years. Very good delivery. My favorite part was the delivery of malcadors sadness to Rogals tears.
That's always been the point. The Emperor isn't a God, He's just a Man, a powerful and extremely knowledgeable one, practically immortal and eternal, but not perfect despite all that. He told people this repeatedly, but they just couldn't fathom someone like that was just a Man, and labelled Him a God instead. He even casts off the promise of Apotheosis and remains a Man to safeguard Humanity, demonstrating this to be true until the end.
The Emperor even says this to Sanguinius, that His foresight isn't as developed as His Son, and that He basically gets vague impressions of the future, a massive number of branching decisions that are unclear and can only be navigated with assumption and knowledge, not purely foresight.
I never understood the whole "the Emperor planned everything" when it's clear that this fate could have been avoided at many turns if His foresight was that developed, and this is the single WORST possible outcome bar Horus surviving and taking Terra.
In my opinion, there are no God's in 40k, there are powerful things, indescribable entities, but between Extradimensional Parasites that feed upon sentient mind's, Sentient Creature's of Pure Energy born in the Big Bang that feed upon the very Stars themselves, the Crystallized forms of Sentient Beliefs like the Aeldari created in the War in Heaven, Machine's beyond the scope of imagination, and simple biological beings blessed with immense potency, all are fallible, none are omnipotent, nor omniscient, and all can die!
This is what makes the setting so dark, people believe these creatures to hold their hopes and dreams, they seek meaning from them in an apparently meaningless universe, and all that Faith is based upon lies. The only ones who understand this made their own such mistakes in the past, and caused the state of the Galaxy through this, the Necron's killed their Star God's, and the Aeldari buried theirs until they birthed a new one.
The Tau kind of get this, but from a point of ignorance and naivete.
Very well put!
I liked that thematic emphasize and gotta give props to BL for not writing reactionary fun service in regards to the whole mythology accumulated through years around HH, through fan theories/expectations and so on...
@@AveSicarius Well said.
The way I like to think of the Emperor's plans is almost as if he were a poker player. Poker is a game of limited information, but you do know all of the possible outcomes. You can bet and raise or fold with the knowledge of the possibilities, and a good player simply maximizes the chips on the table when the odds are in his favor. But the player still might lose, despite having the statistically better hand. The Emperor acts similarly. He has some foresight and can "see" a myriad of possibilities. So he acts to maximize humanity's odds to survive and thrive, even though he might still lose when the final card is on the table.
And like a good poker player, he tries to leave himself "outs" to salvage a bad situation, to have an improbable victory, and to minimize damage so that he might play another hand. Likewise, even being on the Golden Throne, the Emperor has "outs". His primarchs are returning and the devotion of the imperium is making him more powerful. Humanity is in a terrible spot, but they still have some "outs" as it were.
Ehhh he was more than a guy trying his best to be fair. He made a lot of mistakes, mistakes that his fellow perpetuals warned him against and yet he plowed onward. Anyway. Anyway. The emperor was a giant paradox. He created 20 sons and never treated them like sons. He wanted to treat them like sons when it suited him but other than that he wanted them to be obedient little Lab rats
Malcador and the Emperor are, by far, the two best characters in all of warhammer 40k lore.
Ah Malcador, you will be missed.
I hope the Emperor will be whole
"Look, we'll stick him on the chair to keep it ticking over until we figure out how to fix it."
Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution.
"I wonder if they have learnt enough." Malcador always considered the primarchs as his sons even if he doesn't want to admit it. This book made me cry a lot and seen a side of Malcador and the Emperor we've never seen before. Their humanity and compassion. The Emperor truly loved his sons and always suppressed that love by treating them as tools. I have so much things to say but I can't find the words to describe them. Malcador's love for Vulkan, Rogal, & Sangunius. Malcador's deep affection for his friend and King of Ages, the Emperor. beloved by all, Oh man. this is just a lot to take :(
I really hope that you narrate for the Black Library. You've got the spark!
Man Malcador here kinda hypes me up for Rogal Dorn returning. The brick wall Dorn getting teary and emotional while Malcador hopes he learns from his mistakes in the future? Damn.
Dorn is dead-
@@3rdtimesthecharm376 not been confirmed
@@3rdtimesthecharm376
With how they set up dorn being snatched by Khorne to corrupt him, I wouldn’t be surprised in the scouring books to come we learn that Dorn was again scooped up by Khorne on that battleship and has been ever slowly been attempted by all 4 gods to corrupt him.
My fun wish tho is when we get him back after such, we learn that he’s become a worshiper of the emperor like Sigusmund and Keeler. As it would be a fun through line for his character and would be a nice interesting thing Gulliman and the Lion would have to come to terms with.
- as do how he’d become one… I would be surprised if a certain small aspect of a fractured soul in the warp just so happens to leave his favoured son before him in the dark sands. And on reaching his body, remembers who he was and finds a very small pendant handed to him by the very first saint clutched in his hands as a mini-gift for his fathers faith in both the imperium and the emperor.
@@reecedignan8365 funny, it is also my "fun wish". Rogal Dorn stated (while he was alive) that the Primarchs should not venerated because only the emperor deserve the adoration of mankind. So making Dorn the unyelding come back as a devotee of the emperor of mankind could be an interesting take from the Imperial Truth obsessed Roboute Guilliman. it should be done with a certain care tho, making him directly a zealot would be a too big stretch from his character.
@@TemplarBlack.
I would see him more in line with how Sigusmund and Garro were, they beloved the Emperor was something more than man but not to the level of “he is our god emperor! You are all heretics for not believing such”
More “our father is more than just a man brother. I witnessed and felt his power on the vengeful spirit and I have met his spirit in the warp. While he may not be a god, the faith of these people and even our sons in our father has created a counterbalance in the warp that opposes the 4 great warp entities. So do not disavow our sons and these people for believing in our father brother, I did that with my favoured son, and it took me until the end to realise that his devotion may not have been truly the superstition I believed once before”
It's no surprise that if you are a man of a certain age, you will completely, and utterly, understand what Malcador meant by the futility of plans, the fickle nature of time and the future, and of course, the dogged persistence to continue, so that those that come after you may persist and fight the same good fight.
I weeped at this. Literally sobbed. The glorious future of humanity destroyed, transfigured into an abominable existence from this point on. Yet 10,000 years later humanity persists after this turning moment. We fight. We do not lose hope. It’s so tragic yet inspiring.
You’re either exaggerating or a loser. Get a grip.
Malcador's last words about the plans is just something else. Guilliman returning was truly the only thing that saved Imperium
I always loved Malcador as a character and this is the cherry on top. The idea of him lingering after his death, only to see Big E take his place, is so tragic and beautifully depicted here and really shows how much he loved him and his sons. Really well done on the voice over, you really did him justice 👌
Sheer Willpower!!
Rogal Dorn managed to retain his stoicism and composure for almost the entire Siege of Terra. It's devastating to see Dorn in tears here over his father when the Emperor was so distant from his Primarch sons. 😢
Great narration, bravo. Malcador alone understood the Emperor and his depths; what had to be done and why. Thus he sat the Throne to give his old friend the time he needed to save Humanity - what it had always been about. It is also why he is not sad for the Emperor, for when they committed to the plan they both knew it was a possibility (perhaps, in truth, an inevitability). It is His sons whom Malcador feels sadness for, for they do not understand, neither why - truly - the two of them did it, or what it means.
Malcador the Hero, indeed.
As I was listening to this, at first, with the art, and intelligence of the speaker, I thought it was the perspective of the Emperor. When I realized it was Malcador soeaking, I nearly teared up... His final moments spent in the knowledge of the cruel reality of the golden throne's purpose.
Moments like this remind me how frail,old Malcador could make a primarch feel small.
Malcador loved his friend, his Emperor and he loved his sons. Malcador the Hero will always be remembered. I am currently crying
E
Even this coming from a grim dark crazy ass fantasy of roided out hulking super soldiers, gods, demons and aliens, the discussion on plans should be taken to heart. Nothing ever goes as planned. Always best to prepare for when a plan fails, and have flexible backups in place behind it.
You know its so sad that even Dorn is crying
That last line. “It’s time….” Has so much weight to it. Relief, regret, resolve and the sum of life between eternities from an old man who’s come to terms with his role in the grand scheme. Malcador held out as long as he could and did everything in his peer to see through the plans of the emperor and yet all he could do was break even. He’s truly a hero for standing against the inevitable and daring to dream. He died a hero and kept humanity from drowning in the fires of hell in the darkest night. It breaks my heart to hear these thoughts as he passes but those last words brought me to tears.
Brilliant reading my friend. You’ve got a talent. May you have a long career narrating these stories. 🍻
in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only... sadness...
Who in the world is cutting onions?
Someone next to Dorn, powerful onions they are, to affect a primarch.
Erebus
This is fantastic, a great voicing of Malcador and wonderful to see his perspective.
"May Your death live forever, my friend. There is nothing immortal about this."
Day 3 of asking a dropside massacre narration.
(I want to see Corax look into the eyes of Nostramo's Dark King and see his death. I want to see lorgar humiliated and Ferrus's head in the phoenician's hands as he realizes what he has done)
Great as always
The thing I find most moving here, is the reflection that plans fail. You can have everything laid out, and it will blow up in your face. Consider all the contingencies and get caught with your pants down, you can be the smartest guy in the room-and it will all still fail.
All you can do is make back ups, and hope really.
interred: place (a corpse) in a grave or tomb, typically with funeral rites. Having typed that, great voice-over work.
Ive listened maybe. 3 or 4 times now. The second time i tried to imagine the perspective of malcador. This went way to hard. I was on the verge of tears. A wonderful video.
"I feel something.... it's time,"
Love the double meaning. It's time for Malcador to pass on, but time is also what Malcador is physically feeling, because he's fully back in realspace.
Woah. So Malcador was the end and the death all along?
These voice overs make me want to pick up the novels again, although they're a bit expensive :p
Nice job with these videos!
"It's time...."
This was beautiful! Can't wait to see what more youll cover!!
Rogal Dorn in tears... That must be so heartbreaking...at the very least.
ah... so that's why this one dude on twitter when I asked him what was the final line/sentence of the book he keep saying "it's time"
I feel like Rogal Dorn is still alive somewhere, trying to find a real way to help his father return
I think he might be in a horrible situation imprisoned and tortured somewhere
Damn... had me tearing up there
Just Beautiful…. Epically saddening, yet enlightened to hear it!
Superb work.
Amazing, im nearly crying. tip my hat to you sir.
Incredible series of readings! Black Library needs to hire you for some full readings!
A layer of tragedy I think about when listening to this is that, through the Horus Heresy and in other novels where we get an idea of what kind of thing the Emperor is and that his attitude towards his primarchs is through the sight of a maker and his tools. He treats them all certain ways to have them useful to his goals. In this passage, it seems to me as though he's forgone that attitude of seeing them as tools, and is grasping a true glimpse of how his sons wanted to see him and have him treat them.
To see someone as stoic as Dorn shed tears for him, to have Vulkan in his presence, to have broken and spoken to Horus to wait for him to come back to him again, it's not the attitude of a man regretting that his tools didn't save the day or do as he pleased. It is as if he, at the end of his life, finally is ready to call them his sons. And it's just too late.
He always saw them as his sons, his boys. There are scenes where the Emperor isn't even saying anything and he just stands there, but the Primarchs note that the aura coming off him and the way he looks at them is a look of pure pride and glee. I know the look they're talking about because my own father has given me that look a few times in my life. Malcador also reminisces that even way back when they were babies growing in the lab, the Emperor switched from calling them his "subjects" to saying "my sons". At the time he found it odd but didn't mention it, just raised an eyebrow and moved on. You can't develope the type of genuine love he had for Horus right at the end of everything, it was always there. For all of them.
Always love some Big E content!
I need to read these books. I am only 3 minutes in and this is some of the best writing i’ve ever seen.
With a Scouring series I do look forward to when Robutte is put in stasis. I loved how you performed when the big G came back so, I would love to bookend those moments.
that scene (the battle of Thessala) has already been written by Guy Haley in the Dark Imperium series
Incredible! Amazing work! Malcador the Great!
Would you do the excerpt of the Blood Angels falling to the Rage? That part stood out to me the most. My favorite in End and DeathV3
I shall certainly add it to the list! That would be a fantastic excerpt indeed.
My thanks for watching!
Really good narration mate
I don’t know if you’ll see this, but I think this is your best work.
I found this deeply sad. The Emperor is both a saint, a monster, and a martyr. He's a complex character, especially when viewed through the many lenses of the races and characters of 40k.
The Horus Heresy is so often experienced through the lens of war. This bit of narrative lore humanizes Malcador, the Emperor and the Primarchs present and introduces an potent dose of tragedy that we often miss out on in the dark-celebration of the Grim-Dark setting.
We laugh at this dark parody of the future and caw at the sinister hilarity of it all, and yet I find myself really captured by this particular scene, which brought tears to my eyes.
Thank you ❤
I went from not knowing much about Malcador to loving the character now, Malcador the hero!
When Malcador is discussing planning ... too true ... this makes the Emperor and Malcador even more human than the lore has ever stated.
We should all be so lucky as to have a homie such as malcador
I really liked this chapter but I thought it unlikely that Malcador would be able to wax so eloquently when his mind, body, and spirit were ablaze with the powers of the throne to the point of almost complete destruction. I imagined the best he would be able to say is "fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuuuck!"
He’s basically dead here already. This is basically the last lamentations of the remnants of his soul.
WHAT WILL YOU HAVE AFTER TEN THOUSAND YEARS!
Definitely not Malcador
@@URKCEHinoSuu someone call an Apothecary!
Him... I will still have Steve the Guardsman
Only war.
Bobby G
I know dorn was the most stoic of his sons but the thought of him breaking down is souk crushing
Thank you for this wonderful reading...
Wow....just.. holy Terra wow...SOO well captured
These are amazing 😢 what’s nxt??
Damn you!
Making me feel Human emotions.
Beautifully done.
Title gives me a mental image of Emp interning at like "The Daily Servitor", in disguise and incognito, à la Clark Kent. Scrawny, hair tied back in a greasey ponytail, bespectacled and acne-ridden. Running errands frantically, head down....All while being 12 feet tall
This may be one of the most humanizing moments for both Malcador and The Emperor. You get to see that they were so wrapped up in the demands of what it took to make things happen, no matter what, that as powerful as they seemed, they were eternally just raging against that dying of the light like everyone. And that they weren't awarded the luxury of being able to act the heroes, as others would, because heroes wouldn't be enough to save others in the larger game.
They know they don't deserve sympathy for all the lives they've cast into that growing pyre of sacrifices, they accept the weight of their plans and their callousness, however necessary it may have at some times been... and now it's their turn. Now Malcador can be just a man wondering if it was all worth it and what lies beyond the future they've been chained to for more years than any empire had known. He sympathizes with Rogal and the rest for what they'll have to do, the weight they'll now be carrying.
Brilliant reading
Seeing this phrased as "interned" rather than "interred" makes me imagine the Emperor being sent of coffee runs and doing the bitch work nobody else wants to do 😅
Someone get this man a contact with black library as a voice actor
Oh, that is amazing and soo sad.
Love it... love your work.
I love getting insight into the Emperor, But Malcador is right up there.
Malcador The Hero. The only friend the Emperor had known. A father figure to the primarchs and the Imperium. His Sacrifice will forever be remembered.
Reading and Listening to this scene has broken my heart twice. I hope whatever comes after this book has atleast some final thoughts of the Emperor as he is interned. What did he command the last loyal sons to do. As always great work. Cant wait for the Emperor vs Horus scene
Big E and my wife are one and the same …… Both loves plans even when on Vacation, where I want to get up late and do whatever, she wants to be up early following the days plan . 😢
I am not alive to witness it...but I am present at least...
Reminded weirdly of another scene that made me cry from the Haunting of Hill House which is surprisingly similar with the ghost of a family member being so worked up about their family fighting that moves things to make them stop.
The emperor basically went to hell for eternity 😢
Malcador was the realest one among the real ones
When will you narrate for Black Library? You're amongst the finest 40k narrators and most certainly my favorite.
Malcador the Hero, !!!
The ending was so sad. What happened to our beloved Loken. Just know screw Erebus. But the ending still left a opening. Hope the scowering still happens for books. We still need actual lore to tie the ending of HH to the Dark imperium and present day lore
I swear someone was cutting onions while I was watching this 😢
this is more than an old man dying. This is tyrant turned servant dedicating his last thought to his friend and king, and two of the men he love like sons
Sweet Mercy 🤯
Just Found This Site…SUBBIN👐🏾
The dangers of Hubris...
“He was asked to make coffee”
Horus vs the Emperor please!
Ow. My heart.
Malcador the hero😭😭😭
Amazing!!
The Emperor Protects.
Sad as this outcome is I am a little judgmental about Malcador’s lack of remorse for the many horrible things he and the Emperor did along the way. In the end the terrible price they willingly paid was for nothing. their atrocities were supposed to be for the greater good but in the end it was all just pointless suffering they inflicted on their own doomed race.
They do realise and acknowledge that, they both do. Everytime you read Mal or the Emperor speak of "the dream" and how it is dead, that is them saying out loud that all they did, all they hoped from and did to make humanity better, was all for naught. They tried and they failed.
I think they regret the outcome more than the cost. They eradicated countless civilizations and cultures many of whom were only guilty of wanting to be left in peace and posed no threat to the Imperium. In some cases mankind as a whole would have been better off if the great crusade had failed to conquer and assimilate the other civilization.
@@spencerherron5539 It was both and there's a reason they did that to those civilizations. There's a scene where either the Custodian Ra, or Valdor-I can't remember which, is asking what the Emperor was actually planning wihh the whole Webway thing. And he explains that he wanted to do 2 things.
1.) EVERY SINGLE human in the entire galaxy was going to be part of the future in the Webway. He wanted literally all of Mankind in there and not a single person was to be left from it's glory. Ra/Valdor thinks it's flat out hubris but he explains that so long as there is a single person in the galaxy, Chaos could use and manipulate them. That feeds into step 2
2.) Step 2 was to exterminate all sentient Xenos in the Galaxy that aren't under Imperial protection (yes a few of those exist, they're a thing) because like with the Laer and like the Eldar, they can be twisted by Chaos and made to screw with the Webway somehow. That could not be allowed to happen if humanity was to grow and evolve
So to you it looks like he's doing it for his own ego, but it was an absolute must, a bitter necessity that every single colony they came across had to be integrated. Given a few millenia those very same societies who 'just wanted to be left alone' would've been knocking on the gates of the Webway, with Chaos symbols carved into their flesh and Daemons at their backs. The Horus Heresy showed us that even the absolute best of humanity isn't immune to their influence. The Emepror and Malcador didn't 'like' what they were doing to their own kind, but all they did was justified by necessity. It was the only way to avoid annihilation at the hands of malevolent gods
I don’t think he did it for his ego , just that he was misguided and arrogant. He was convinced that the only way mankind was going to work together was if he gave it other choice and learned the hard way that you can’t force people to do what is in their own best interest . Saving mankind without resorting to imposing his will under threat of genocide and crushing all resistance to his way of doing things may have been a lot more difficult and risky but was never impossible. I see it like how America did not forcibly take over the allied countries but they were still able to work together and won world war 2 . Big E did what he told himself he had to do but It’s like how Curze tried to claim the horrific actions he took were the only way to save his home world, when in fact it was just the easiest/fastest way . The emperor always chose the way that offered the highest likelihood of success in any given situation no matter the moral implications . He did not deme human free will to be necessary. He also treated diversity of values and beliefs as nothing but an obstacle to be corrected to better fit his greater plan.
As for all the other human civilizations being doomed even if the Emperor didn’t take over , I disagree . The Imperium was not the only human civilization that was in a position to capitalize on the power vacuum left by the Eldar. The others had been growing in power and would have continued to do so if not for the great crusade snuffing them out faster than any xeno or demon ever could . the Imperium started so early and expanded so fast that they never got the chance. Any of those civilizations could have in time been the one to find a way to overcome the terrors of the galaxy. It was the Imperium’s policy of preemptively taking over everything in the galaxy to secure itself as soon possible which eliminated so many opportunities for someone else to find better ways to do things.
@@spencerherron5539they tried. Had they not, they would have failed anyway.
Without the great crusade humanity would be wiped out by the orks. Without the emperor erasing religion EVERY religion would eventually worship the 4. (Because yes, literally every religion eventually devolves into worshipping the 4. INCLUDING the worship of the emperor.)
And no, mankind would have NEVER been better off without the emperor and the great crusade. Cultures that he destroyed were most often violent ones, ruled by greedy tyrants who desired nothing but power. They cared nothing for uplifting mankind as a whole.
Or just mutated lesser humans…who couldn’t coexist with base humanity.
And those that wanted to be left in peace? Who’s to say that they wouldn’t become like those violent civilization?
And who’s to say that had they been left alone and left unchecked, that they would survive?
As to why not leave them be? When you see a drowning child, and the child tells you he doesn’t want to be saved… do you not try to save him? Do you accept his words and let him drown? Would that make you a morally superior person to a man who did save him?
Imagine that on a planetary scale. A single governor saying no, doesn’t represent the wishes of a population…
There are DOZENS of logical and moral reasons to commit those atrocities.
And the emperor did improve the worlds he conquered. He gave them technology. He gave them reason. He eliminated unnecessary cruelty and protected those worlds.
What more could he have done?
Ayoooooo this mf really made me cry while i was making my lunch for tomorrow 😢
excellent
Damn its enough to make a grown man cry
Erebus used his Cursed Technique: Strong Stab.
Malcador 😢
Damn bro your story telling with these 40k stories are bringing tears to my eyes. Making me feel like a lil bitch boy lol jk
That was good
I hope vulcan or rogal returns.
It will most likely be Russ , since the Pups have their own codex like DA …. And well G-man .
@@kharnthebetrayer1575Black Templars have their own list, WDYM? Dorn leading his angry Bois would be a sight to see.
@@ethanduncan1646 😂🤣😂🤣 a page in the Codex . Not the same as Dark angels , Grey Knights, Space pups, and Blood Angels.