As the White Dwarf Facebook page has so kindly put this up for us, I'll write down whatever the thing says so that you guys don't have to squint and make out the tiny words. I'm sacrificing my eyes so that you guys (those without a copy of the White Dwarf anyway) will have an easy time reading. Okay, that was a bad joke. Anyway, let's begin.
THE SAGA OF GUILLIMAN
Deep within the Fortress of Hera, a team of skilled artians have toiled for many hours to bring Roboute Guilliman back to life. Dan travels to Ultramar to talk to the writers, miniatures designers, painters and illustrators behind Rise of the Primarch.
Andy Clark
Andy Clark is the man behind the story in Rise of the Primarch. A loyalist (and part-time Ork) at heart, he was delighted and terrified in equal measure when he was given the opportunity to resurrect Guilliman.
For 10,000 years the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Terra, his withered body little more than a husk of the great man he once was. His grand vision, the Imperium of Man, endures - yet it does not prosper, for it lingers under a pall of misery and persecution, suspicion and mistrust. It is assailed on all sides by and from within by heretics, witches and aliens, and only by the continual sacrifices of countless citizens does the Imperium continue to exist.
Yet now, at the close of the 41st Millennium, the people of the Imperium face their greatest trial. Orks wreak havoc across the galaxy, the Tau Empire expands in the east, the Tyranids send vast alien swarms from beyond the stars to consume all in their path, and the Necrons awaken to reclaim what was once theirs. And above all, more deadly than any other foe, the forces of Chaos choose this moment to begin their most concerted invasion of the Imperium. Under the eye of Abaddon the Despoiler, countless worlds have already fallen. Madness and heresy are rife and violent Warp storms tear great rents in the galaxy. Blind in their ignorance, the High Lords of Terra send billions to their deaths in a bid to save the Imperium. Yet it takes the Eldar, a more far-sighted race, to realize what the Imperium needs now is a hero, a symbol of the Emperor's will made manifest. The Imperium needs a Primarch...
"Deciding which Primarch would return was an interesting discussion," says Andy Clarke (why is there a freaking typo here? There's no e in Clark in the other parts of the article?!), who wrote the story in Gathering Storm: Rise of the Primarch. "Only a few of the loyalist Primarchs are confirmed dead - alas poor Ferrus - but most of them are simply unaccounted for. Roboute Guilliman was always a primary contender because of who he is - he's the statesman of the Primarchs, the creator, the empire-builder and, following his father's downfall at the hands of Horus, he helped lay the foundations of the modern Imperium. It seems only right that he, of all the brothers, was the one to come back and save it. Great as it might seem to have a Primarch like Leman Russ return, I can imagine his reaction to the state of the Imperium would be nothing short of apocalyptic. His rage would be monstrous and he'd no doubt go rushing off to fight anything and everything he could find until, eventually, something killed him. We needed a more level-headed Primarch to save the Imperium and, when it came down to it, Guilliman was really the only contender."
It is perhaps no coincidence that Roboute Guilliman is the Primarch to follow in his Emperor's hallowed footsteps, as his fate closely mirrors that of his father's. The Emperor was mortally wounded by his son Horus during the Siege of the Emperor's Palace and interred in the Golden Throne. Close to 1,000 years later, Guilliman was wounded unto death by his brother Fulgrim and interred in a stasis field on Macragge, where he has remained for close to 9,000 years, the poisoned blood still glistening at his throat. So how exactly does Guilliman return to active service? "Rise of the Primarch brings together all the story arcs and the characters from the preceding Gathering Storm books and knits them together," explains Andy. "You've got an ancient Tech-Priest who must get to Macragge to talk with the Lord of Ultramar, a living saint on a holy quest and a pair of mysterious Eldar characters, one of which has the power to resurrect the dead. You can probably see where this is going!"
Emissary of Death
Throughout the Gathering Storm story, Yvraine, Emissary of Ynnead, has killed quite a few people, harvesting their released spirit energy to make herself more powerful. She believes that only through death can rebirth occur. What, then, is her agenda on Macragge? Surely there's no one there that's near to death...
Below: Guillman marches against the enemies of mankind flanked by Grand Master Vodius of the Grey Knights to the right and Cypher, the mysterious former Dark Angel, to the left.
It's not all as simple as Andy makes out, though. Abaddon has got wind of the plan to resurrect Guilliman and sends whatever forces he can spare to lay siege to Macragge. All it would take is one bullet in the right place - namely Yvraine's head or Belisarius Cawl's reliquary - and the quest would be over. "They have to run quite a gauntlet to get to Macragge," says Andy. "That was one of my..."
For the rest of the article, please purchase White Dwarf March issue and read it! For the Emperor!
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