Aurelian Cover Art
Finally. Been waiting months to show this.
This went out in the BL newsletter today, and has already spread across the various 40K forums. While my favourite Heresy cover is still Legion, this one slides neatly into the #2 spot.
"Don't leave me, Soundwave."
I… I don’t think that Avatar is going to make it home to his kids.
There were several deleted streams of dialogue, where Lorgar talks smack to this guy. Ultimately, I went with this totally true and honest extract:
Lorgar did a little dance. “Where you going in such a hurry, Chuckles? I broke your legs with my megahammer. You’re going nowhere.”
The Avatar didn’t answer. It started crawling, bleeding this stuff like souls and fire and magic shit like that.
Lorgar laughed. He laughed like a winner. “This is why I don’t have tabletop rules, man. Because I’m H to the Ardcore.”
The Avatar still didn’t answer. It was in pain, and its life totally sucked, and everything else was on fire, too. The Avatar was sad about that, because all that stuff on fire was his house or his base or whatever.
Lorgar caught up with the crawling fellow, and pressed a boot into the creature’s spine.
“Where’s my money, man? Why you gotta make me do this? Why you gotta make it into a thing?”
“Dude…” said the incarnated essence of an alien god of war. “I just need a few more days.”
“You’ve had plenty of days. You’ve had all kinds of days. Now I’m totally going to kill you, guy.”
Lorgar raised his megahammer, and totally killed the guy.
“Screw this place,” he said afterwards. “I’m going to go kill half of the Imperium for a laugh.”
He looked at the Avatar’s corpse as it dissolved into ash, like in Dawn of War.
“Later, dater.”
Aaron Dembski-Bowden 
Slides neatly into the #2 spot? Tee hee hee 🙂
Whoa, what happened to Lorgar’s face?
I’m sure that Avatar’s not happy about where that mace is about to be shoved…
I can vouch for AD-B here – those lines of dialogue were definitely deleted.
No no, the Avatar is perfectly OK! He’s just crawling around on the floor…with fire dripping from his mouth. And firey blood dripping from cracks in his armor.
Hah Hah, thats an awesome cover!! Cant wait to get this. Do feel a bit sorry for Avatars though, they get no love at all. First one gets slapped to death by Fulgrim, and then another beaten with a mace by Lorgar. Its just not their millennium!!! That being said, I’m sure the story will reveal this to be more than just another Avatar smackdown. Now excuse me while I go hock my remaining kidney!
Seems like you’re sticking it to the Eldar a lot lately; between their poorly looking god on the front of this and the whatever horrors you’ll inflict in Void Stalker, they’ll find out that being a “dying race” isn’t just all acting tragic. There’s a lot of dying in there, too.
Good.
Kill ’em all, Aaron. Kill ’em all.
i think the cover art is epic some of the best of the serise so far
You know, killing Avatars isn’t so hardcore these days. Even normal marines kill them.
Eldar and Avatars: 0. Imperium 1,000000000001. It seems the Eldar totally are getting pwned off their asses.
Nah man, this beats Legion. This cover beats ’em all. Damn you need to take the cover artist out for some steak and a couple beers. And then profess your undying love to him. He treats you all sorts of good 😛
I cant even imagine what the book it would be – epic – awesome? Aurelian rule them all! But right now the only question iam interested with is – WHO THE FUCK KILL FIRST CAPTAIN AWESOMNESSSSSS SEVATAR! It must be someone epic – one of the Primarchs or first captains i think! Hope tj get the answer in Void Stalker! No Void Stalker rule them all!
Ahh I can almost hear the shrill screams of Eldar players from here….
It is a sweet sweet song…
I’m not sure what I like more; the Transformers reference under the cover art, or the extract . . .
That ‘extract’ is awesome. you should totally do a book of 40k parody! (of course pissing off GW might not be smart for a new Dad to be with hopes of paying future bills, but I think it would be TOTALLY WORTH IT!)
Anakwanar : I too want to know who killed Sevatar, but I think it will be much cooler for us to witness his death LIVE (;p ) in the horus heresy series thah being told in voidstalker. I mean : it will be much cooler I think to witness it first hand while reading a horus heresy book and being there in the whole situation, then just a quick trip in voidstalker back to the time of the heresy and see sevatar die. Don’t get me wrong : the flashbacks in both soul hunter and blood reaver about the HH and the siege of terra etc were very cool, but to see his death in it …. no, that would be better in the real HH books !
Awesome artwork! Cannot wait to read this novella 🙂 Though I love the above dialogue. *Sigh* If only more books were written that way 😛
I’m with you Aurenian. Cover is awesome, Transformers reference is win.
6pm BST is 1pm EDT right? I just gotta be prepared to order my copy of Aurelian on the 12th.
The excerpt from “Aurelian” was great. Really looking forward to its release!
With a supported scenario rules available online, I guess Angron isn’t hardcore enough for Lorgar either. :p
WHHHYYYY must the novella be $50!!!!!! ;(
great excerpt lol and the cover art is beyond epic
really cant wait for this book to come out,
Aaron do you know & would you be able to tell us what date its available for pre-order ?
Andy
Hey Andy,
Limited run novellas don’t go up for pre-order. This one goes on release on Monday night at 6pm.
aaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahaha indigenous writing, jersey shore 40k
If that exact dialogue isn’t in the actual book, I’m gonna be seriously pissed.
I… I’ve failed you.
*Swings megahammer*
Still cracking me up.
Can you write an entire book like this?
[…] Maybe I’m biased, though. Taken together, I think the Night Lords Trilogy is the series with most evocative and killer covers that BL has ever done (I profusely thanked John in the Omnibus foreword for his blood, sweat, and tears) and as for Neil’s work on the Heresy? Well, I think one of my covers ended up being the best in the HH series, as well. […]
Why are the Eldar the perennial punching bags for the heresy era? Lorgar, Fulgrim… it seems that when they need to start feeling good about themselves, here walks up an Avatar, who happens to be a God incarnate, and basically gets his stuff pushed in. Every time.
Totally stupid. Totally unbelievable. Totally ruins the HH novels for me.
They’re not. That’s literally the entire point of this scene. How’d you manage to miss that?
It’s not exactly news that the Eye of Terror is the graveyard of the eldar empire. What do you expect people to find there? If you think this scene in any way matches Fulgrim destroying an Avatar (or even any scene where the eldar are a punching bag), then may your deities of choice help you.
LATE-BREAKING EDIT: Unless you’ve not read Aurelian, in which case I totally agree with you. The cover looks like the eldar are getting punked, but they’re not. I hate that meme, too.
Oh and ADB – a Phoenix Lord falling for the “dead man’s switch” on a krak grenade made me give the Night Lords trilogy a B+ instead of an A+. Do you hate Eldar for some reason?
Nope! Love them! I’ll take the B+, thanks.
I can’t seem to unsee something that looks like the blood ravens insignia on Lorgars chest, at least i deduct its Lorgar from the plot of the novella. It looks to me like a drop of red blood, surrounded by black wings and tiny head at the upper center. Anyway, what is supposed to be at the center of his chest? I must know.
I’m not sure, actually. But between you and I, any time someone thinks they’ve found a canonical/lore-friendly link to the Blood Ravens, no matter what it is, it’s a safer bet to say it’s a misleading and/or cute throw-in reference rather than evidence of a tie.