Blood of Asaheim (Novel)
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| Author | Chris Wraight | |
| Publisher | Black Library | |
| Series | Blood of Asaheim | |
| Followed by | Stormcaller | |
| Released | April 2013 | |
| Pages | 332 | |
| Editions | 2013 softcover: ISBN 9781849703062 | |
Blood of Asaheim is a Black Library novel by Chris Wraight, the first in a new series featuring the Grey Hunters from the Space Wolves chapter. It was published in April 2013 with details of its release in White Dwarf April 2013.[2a]
Story Description
After half a century apart, in service to the Deathwatch and the Chapter, Space Wolves Ingvar and Gunnlaugr are reunited. Sent to defend an important shrine world against the plague-ridden Death Guard, the Grey Hunters clash with the pious Sisters of Battle, who see the Space Wolves as little better than the enemy they fight. As enemies close in around them and treachery is revealed, Gunnlaugur and his warriors must hold the defenders together – even as hidden tensions threaten to their the pack apart.
Summary
Fifty-seven years after leaving Fenris to serve the Ordo Xenos, Wolf Guard Ingvar returns to his home world. He is a changed warrior, hardened by decades of secretive warfare against alien horrors. Reassigned to his old pack, Járnhamar, he finds his former rival Gunnlaugur is now the pack's leader. Tasked with aiding a remote shrineworld against an unknown foe, the reunited pack is plunged into a brutal war against the forces of the Plague God Nurgle. As old tensions resurface and the pack is tested to its breaking point, Ingvar's secrets and Gunnlaugur's pride clash, threatening to tear Járnhamar apart just as the true, terrible nature of their enemy is revealed.
Synopsis
Prologue
Aboard a drifting troop conveyer, Wolf Guard Hjortur Bloodfang, leader of the Járnhamar pack, is hunted and killed by a team of mysterious, heavily augmented assassins. Before he dies, his killer reveals a strange emblem—a golden, spike-crowned cherub—and asks if he knows who sent them. Mortally wounded, Hjortur's last thoughts are of his pack and his failure to name a successor between his two strongest warriors, Gunnlaugur and Gyrfalkon.
Part One
Fifty-seven years later, Ingvar Orm Eversson, returns to Fenris. His service in the Deathwatch is shrouded in secrecy, but it has left him changed in ways he is not even allowed to talk about. He is met by the new Wolf Lord Ragnar Blackmane, who questions Ingvar's long absence and his ability to reintegrate. Ingvar is then returned to the Járnhamar pack, now led by his old rival, Gunnlaugur; with the pack being understrength and scarred by years of relentless campaigning, a blood claw named Hafloí is added to its members—Gunnlaugur, the blademaster Váltyr, the heavy-handed Olgeir, the cynical pilot Jorundur, and the serene Baldr. Each of them is wary of the returned Ingvar.
The pack is immediately dispatched to the distant shrineworld of Ras Shakeh, a planet defended by the Adepta Sororitas of the Order of the Wounded Heart, who have requested aid. Travelling aboard the ancient frigate Undrider, the pack arrives in-system only to be ambushed by a lone Death Guard destroyer. In the ensuing void-battle, the Undrider is crippled. Refusing Ingvar's suggestion of a tactical withdrawal, Gunnlaugur orders a high-risk boarding action. Using the frigate's Caestus Assault Ram, the pack smashes into the enemy vessel and prepares to purge the traitors within.
Part Two
On Ras Shakeh, Canoness Alexis de Chatelaine and Sister Palatine Uwe Bajola prepare for the arrival of their reinforcements. On boarding the destroyer, Járnhamar discover it is crewed by a horde of plague-mutants. They fight their way through the corrupted ship towards the bridge. There they encounter the ship's master: a grotesquely bloated creature fused with the bridge itself. They destroy the monstrosity, causing the ship to begin breaking apart. Ingvar, realizing they cannot return to the Caestus in time, shatters a viewport with his sword, blowing the pack out into the void where they are rescued at the last moment by Jorundur in their gunship, the Vuokho. The two ships—the crippled Undrider and the Chaos destroyer—are destroyed as they enter the planet's atmosphere.
On the planet, the Wolves learn the full scale of the invasion: huge armies of the plague-damned are marching on the last bastion, the city of Hjec Aleja. Worse, Palatine Bajola reveals to Ingvar that she has seen Hjortur Bloodfang's name on an old Ecclesiarchy kill-list, hinting at a deeper conspiracy. The city is already succumbing to infiltration and Baldr, while trying to deal with fatigue caused by what he thinks is warp travels, discovers and kills a mutated scholiast hiding in the citadel's foundations. Gunnlaugur, his pride wounded by the loss of the Undrider, orders a daring night raid against an approaching enemy column, believing a sorcerer travels with it; over Ingvar's protests, Gunnlaugur orders Ingvar and Jorundur to remain and assist with the city's defence. The raid is a disaster: the pack is confronted by a powerful Plague Marine sorcerer who overwhelms them with fell magic. Hafloí is gravely wounded, and Baldr is exposed to a torrent of warp energy that leaves him comatose and visibly tainted. The pack manages to kill the sorcerer and retreats with their wounded, but the hunt is a bitter failure.
Part Three
Back in the citadel's apothecarion, the pack discovers the horrifying truth: Baldr is not in the healing trance of the Red Dream, but is actively infected with warp-taint. Ingvar, furious that Gunnlaugur's pride led them into the trap, confronts him, spiralling out of control into a brutal fistfight that ends only when the other pack members separate them. Believing Baldr's corruption must be contained, Gunnlaugur orders Ingvar to remain under guard in the apothecarion with him.
The full-scale assault on Hjec Aleja begins. As the outer defences crumble, Ingvar defies his orders, leaving Baldr's side to join the battle, arriving at the Cathedral to find Palatine Bajola and a handful of her Sisters making a last stand. He helps them fight off the horde, but Bajola is mortally wounded. Before she dies, she reveals the truth she has been hiding: Hjortur was not killed by orks as the sagas claim, but by an Imperial organisation called the Fulcrum. She gives Ingvar a small golden cherub emblem, their symbol, before passing away.
Meanwhile, at the inner gate, the battle turns. The Death Guard champion Thorslax the Blighted teleports ahead of his army and engages Váltyr at the bridge, killing him just as Gunnlaugur, Olgeir and Jorundur arrive. The three Wolves fight the champion but are overwhelmed. As Thorslax stands over the defeated Gunnlaugur, an awakened Baldr appears, burning with raw psychic power; he effortlessly destroys the Death Guard champion before disappearing into the burning city. Inspired by the enemy's broken command, the Imperial forces launch a counter-attack, led by a newly-arrived Hafloí piloting the damaged Vuokho in a suicidal charge that shatters the enemy vanguard.
In the aftermath, Ingvar finds Baldr, using an old soul-ward to soothe the psychic storm raging within him and bring him back from the brink of damnation. Ingvar and Gunnlaugur reconcile over Váltyr's funeral pyre, acknowledging their shared faults. With the enemy temporarily repulsed and reinforcements on the way, they prepare to face the rest of the war, united once more.
Epilogue
A flashback reveals the end of Ingvar's service in the Deathwatch. He and his brothers of Onyx Squad are decommissioned after a horrific campaign against the Tyranids. Their commander, the Ultramarine Callimachus, tells Ingvar that they have all been changed by their experiences and may never truly fit in with their home Chapters again. The Onyx Skull pendant is placed around Ingvar's neck, a mark of his long and secret journey.
Notable Characters
- Ingvar "Gyrfalkon" Everrson
- Gunnlaugur "Skullhewer"
- Váltyr
- Olgeir "Heavy-hand"
- Jorundur "Old Dog"
- Baldr Fjolnir
- Hafloí, Blood Claw
- Hjortur Bloodfang (in prologue/flashbacks)
- Ragnar Blackmane, Wolf Lord
- Canoness Alexis de Chatelaine
- Palatine Uwe Bajola
- Thorslax the Blighted, Death Guard Champion
Images
Trivia
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- Ingvar "Gyrfalkon" Everrson is Chris Wraight's favourite character of the pack.[2b]
Notes
- The name of one of the main characters is spelled Gunnlaugr on the Black Library webpage for Blood of Asaheim, but the novel itself consistently spells it Gunnlaugur.