First time poster here.

I haven't looked through this whole thread yet - I got here by Googling "dark heresy haarlock komus phaenonites" (which should give you a few clues as to what I'm planning on throwing at my Acolytes) and landed on page 20. I've read up til this point (which was highly fascinating and useful) and something has struck me - I don't recall seeing any direct references to the Servants of Twilight (DotDG pages 11-13) even though that section has been referred to frequently. I point this out because a group apparently devoted to bringing about the Propheticum Hereticus Tenebrae would surely be immensely important to any theory regarding the Tyrant Star and whoever it is that is causing and/or exploiting it.

I will concede that I don't have any of the Haarlock's Legacy books (though I soon will), and don't know if they turn up there and for some reason haven't bee mentioned, or if they have already been discussed in the thread, but then, there have already been recurring points. Am I missing something?

Anyway, I'm also curious about what people have decided to do with the Servants, if anything. I personally intend them to be the 'big bads' of my campaign. Who they are is not set in stone - I definitely want a Phaenoninte leader (I've conceived of the name Alexandrus), Solkarn Senk of the Beast House (who in my campaign is an Eldar Pathfinder who fell to the Path of Damnation) and a senior Inquisitor of the Calixis Conclave (perhaps Zerbe himself).

I intend at least one of them to be the Unknown Heretic, possessing an as-yet unnamed ancient xeno-tech device to partially mask their souls in the warp, preventing their identity/ies to be divined. Alexandrus' and particularly Zerbe's motive for murdering Inquisitors would be quite simple: to remove any Inquisitor who should stumble upon their plans and failed conversions. Senk, meanwhile, loves to hunt, and there is little more varied and potentially dangerous prey than Inquisitors; he also has to wear such a device at all times to prevent his soul from being taken by She Who Thirsts, or from his former Craftworld (perhaps Ulthwé) from finding him. Senk's motive for making sure Erasmus Haarlock returns is also quite simple - what more could a hunter and enslaver of beasts want than for there to "be no difference between man and the beast"? I'm just throwing these ideas out to get a feel for what people think of them.

True, the Servants of Twilight have been omitted from much of this thread and are only referenced to a few times. I guess that is partly because they are not detailed anywhere in the material at all. There is no mention of them in the Haarlock Legacy books. I think they are only mentioned in Disciples of the Dark Gods and in the Radical's Handbook with not much detail given.

So I am finally running the Haarlock Legacy campaign myself now .. we just played through House of Dust and Ash, which follows Damned Cities and several Legacy adventures of my own making.

Reading Tattered Fates now more carefully ... noticing how quirky the plot is, with holes you could drive a Land Raider through, but I really like the atmosphere of especially the Carnival.

A thing I did notice relevant to this thread ... the Widower has summoned the Black Sun by means of the Haarlock scion blood ... this ties in the Haarlocks with Komus even stronger. Erasmus Haarlock is the herald of the Tyrant Star!

btw am I right to assume that Gabriel Chase (the Haarlock mansion in Tattered Fates) is a nod to Doctor Who?

Not too familiar with the chronicles of the time-travelling Doctor ...

High time to revive this thread, which i found scrolling back to page … 13! Haarlock lives and he will soon be among us

So I’m finally reaching the apotheosis of my Haarlock Legacy campaign and gearing up towards Dead Stars. There isn’t really an apotheosis in the adventure as written so I’ve gone over this entire monster thread to summarize the most appropriate and important explanations. Most of this boils down to an explanation on the nature of Komus, the Tyrant Star, as the fate of Erasmus Haarlock ánd his goal coincide with the baleful dark star.

These suggestions pop up most often or most forcefully in the theories shared in this thread:

· Komus is a seal to another dimension from whence the Harrowing came. This seal was brought into place and can be lifted thru the Seven Devils of Calyx as mentioned in the Bray Lexicon (Bladehate’s brilliant theory)

· Komus is a weapon against the Necrons

· Komus is some kind of time leak which disrupts and turns back the proper flow of time, turning cities to dust and men into beasts

· Komus is the ‘coming darkness’ also known as the ‘widening gyre’ by the Ocularians, the consuming of the future

· Komus is a receptacle or refuge for the Yu’vath who are biding their time to return to the galaxy

· Komus itself is the harbinger of a coming darkness, not the darkness itself

Other important themes:

· The dead stars are a result of Necron activity, i.e. the C’tan star leeches

· If the acolytes in Dead Stars manage to prevent Haarlock’s return, a possible future hinted at is one of Slaugth dominion. From lack of a unifying threat (ie Haarlock) the Calixian Inquisition unravels due to infighting and sabotage and the Maggot Men reap the rewards.

· If the acolytes allow Haarlock to return, war is the result. The force opposing Haarlock are the ones who are extinguishing the stars (‘the dead stars circling at our will’). Haarlock may be an anti-Imperial force, and/or a force opposing the Necrons.

One of the things that I’m missing, as it occurs to me now, is that Komus in Disciples of the Dark Gods is being associated to misrule, mad revelry, an unravelling of disorder, a feast of fools, a dark carnival. This element so far does not come back in the theories.

I guess I will have to make a decision now which theory to go for … but I also realize that the main attraction of a mystery is that it’s a mystery and that solving everything also takes away the excitement and wonder. Yet on the other hand the Haarlock’s Legacy trilogy at the moment offers too little conclusion and reward….

I may have a different perspective for you…

I've been reading this entire thread, back-to-front (backwards). On pg. 23 of this thread you (Laughing God) wrote:

"4) In Dead Stars on p7 it is hinted that Haarlock may have traveled to or THROUGH the Tyrant Star. The latter gives weight to the theories expressed here that the Tyrant Star might be a gateway to another reality and/or another time. On p46 it says he passed from the FUTURE into the Tyrant Star."

Passing "from the FUTURE…" may not mean that Haarlock came back from the future, but that he ceased to exist in this particular time/dimension, his "now" self having left his future "here" behind in favor of a future somewhere/someplace…somewhen else, and as a result his future here ceased to exist. Perhaps this could explain why the Eldar are of little help in teasing the details from this mystery…without Haarlock to occupy his natural place in time, the Eldar don't have anything to anchor their readings of the future.

Honestly, this was my first thought when I read your bullet point. Kind of "backward", like the manner in which I am reading this thread.

For my campaign, I used the following backgroud for the star.

--------------------------------------

In pre-elder time a powerful old one went crazy- He was imprisoned in a vast prison construct which was then trapped in a dimension between the warp and real-space. However, the prison construct is powered by solar energies. So that it would not exhaust the energy of a single sun, it moves from star system to star system within the Calaxis sector, across space and time. To receive the solar power it touches the edge of real-space, and on certain conditions (when the separation between real space is thin), partially manifests.

The prisoner is quite mad and this leaks out as a powerful psyhcic attack, causing madness etc.

Rituals to summon the tyrant star are in fact beacons which mess with the constructs navigation system, causing it to manifest in places and time it would not normally manifest. Hence the rituals are different from normal chaos rituals and usually involve some navigation devices like 'time/clocks'.

One can, with rituals, enter the prison, but would need an individualised key to get them out. The 'prisoner's key is lost ( e.g. I am using the key from House of Dust and ash as the key, now in the hands of a radical inquisitor).

The Yutavh learnt how to manifest the tyrant star, without understanding what it truly was, but it was difficult to manifest it as a weapon during the crusade. The Harrlocks discovered the rituals from demon's and other artifacts of the Yutavh. This lead to the Haarlocks manifesting the star on Tanis. Fearing reprisals for their part in the death of Tanis, they buried the knowledge with the widow and killed/mind wiped all with knowledge of it, until Erasmus rediscovered it.

Erasmus partial understanding was that the star can move him back in time, but did not fully understand that someone had to open the door at 'that' particular time. If he came back, he would be invested with a large part of the prisoners power, technological knowledge and madness, to become the 'Dark traveller'

The tyrant star is responsible for the madness of Woes' infinity circuit, which resulted in the elder abandoning the sector.

-------------------------------------

Some time after writing this, I read the 'Fallen Suns' rogue trader storyline, which had some similar ideas about a ship causing madness.

Laughing God, some more stuff for you to ponder…

The Laughing God said:

I woke in the middle of the night, thirsty. After quenching said thirst, I thought I'd take a little "peek" at the forums…and now I'm paging through my vast collection of 40K RPG books, codexes, and all else, thoroughly intrigued.

The name Kaleb has twice crossed my investigations.
"… and the other claims the name Kaleb, but hides his face behind a featureless mask of tarnished silver."
There is a very old tale, relating an event surrounding an individual known as Kaleb Daark, a worshiper of Malal, the fifth "lost" Chaos God. The tale, and other interesting bits may be founds here:
http://www.freewebs.com/malal-lives/thelostgod.htm

From the link: A- the number associated with Malal is 11; B- The symbol associated with Malal is a skull, bisected down the center, one half white, the other black; C- Malal's powers come from the struggle of a single, (relatively) powerless figure trying to fight a larger oppressor; He is also the god of those that have been wronged, but lack the power to correct this; D- Witchfires burn at seemingly random places around Malal's hall, and glimpses of futures that might be flicker within them.

From The Gods of Chaos, pg. 210, 1st Ed WHFP Rule Book: "Malal is a renegade Chaos God, who has turned against the others and is dedicated to their destruction. His followers, sometimes called "Doomed Ones", seek out and destroy the followers of other Chaos Gods wherever they may be found."

Is there any mention of "Doomed Ones" anywhere else the the hidden Haarlock tidbits?

Anyway…
Out of curiosity, I pulled own my copy of Tattered Fates…

pg. 36, Haarlock's Folly, The Ground Floor, second sentence: "The hall is clad in black and white chequered marble…"

Skimming through the Table of Contents, I noted the entry for The Clockwork Court…

pg, 16, The Clockwork Court, third paragraph, second sentence: "There are thirty-seven 'servants' in the court."
When reading this I stuttered back on it and thought "Of what importance is the number of servants? There is no practical need for that information to have been provided…" IF, as a GM, you shared that info with your players, wouldn't you expect them to make some note of that, even mentally, for future reference? And yet, that information (seemingly) serves no purpose. The sidebar on the same page, The True Origins of the Clockwork Court, is presented as a GM's hint, letting on that the Clockwork Court is a red herring…but I think the sidebar is itself a red herring. Thirty-seven servants…?

There are seven locks, Malal's number is eleven, the number thirteen is prominent throughout the Haarlocks' history (such as Solomon Haarlock's thirteen-year voyage beyond the Imperium's borders to chart the Clayx Expanse…), and there are thirty-seven servants in the Clockwork Court. I'm just skimming the surface here, but these are all prime numbers…

Regarding the cylinder of red dust…

Minum, alalso called red lead or triplumbic tetroxide. A naturally ocurring pigment, minium is rare and occurs in lead-mineral deposits that have been subjected to severe oxydizing conditions. It also occurs as a result of mine fires.

That's the only idea I have.

Sorry about the text…my unit has gone widgy.

Interesting stuff! There are more links pointing at the Chaos God Malal: http://darkreign40k.com/drjoomla/forum/index.php?topic=4421.15 and http://fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=101&efcid=46&efidt=277689&efpag=29 . What do you think is that stuff in the canister? what does it do?

Just finished reading the topic… Huh! That's great!

Any ideas of Calixis serial murders? Was it just Haarlock killing his kin or the mistirious "Unknown Heretic" from the DotDG?

The Laughing God said:

RE: That thing most precious to Erasmus Haarlock

To what end is all he has done been aimed?

The resurrection of his wife and daughter .

It then stands to reason this is what the Dusk Hag required of Erasmus Haarlock.
And did she not tell him that what she would make possible for him would "end" his desires? Not solve his conundrum, but end it. By giving up any chance at returning his wife and daughter to him, at the very end the Dusk Hag has undone him. Perhaps the cylinder held by the Dusk Hag contains the mortal remains of Erasmus's beloved wife and daughter (or something significantly representative of them), and not the Haarlock Warrant of Trade? Perhaps a day has passed within Komus while hundreds of years have slipped by without, but in that one day Erasmus Haarlock has come to terms with his decision and set himself toward…something else.

So, if Erasmus could be convinced to "give up" that which he has plotted, planned and schemed toward for so very long, what other agenda might he have that is worth returning "from where none have returned"?

Xisor said:

Too convenient. It is my opinion that just because the Yu'Vath inhabited the Calyx Expanse does not mean they are responsible for all things ancient and warp-related in the Callixis Sector. The Yu'Vath are known to have had many slave races, one of which could certainly be the Slaughth, and I take issue with the notion that Erasmus Haarlock uses Komus just to "one-up" the Slaughth.

Later withinin the post I've quoted you suggest a link to the Warp Gate and the Jericho Reach.
Might I direct your interest regarding the Harrowing to pg 4 of the Rising Tempest supplement for Deathwatch (see "Background", referring to Ghanathaar).

They also comform to much of the following quotes:

These entities disobeyed known physical laws and close proximity to them alone was enough to kill or drive the unprotected mind insane …

…where the Mechanicus employed a forbidden weapon of the Dark Age of Technology to destroy their foothold and seal the breach between dimensions through which they had passed …

…others favor different explanations of the myths - a mangled misinterpretation of a Chaos incursion, a short lived warp rift, or even some long forgotten Tyranid precusor hive . Some few who know of the story wonder if somewhere in the vastness of their silent other realm, removed from both euclidean realspace and the empyrean seas of the warp, the Harrowing yet wait patiently for the hour to return"

Just some food for thought.

've found such a passage in wh

"However, for reasons that can only be speculated at, a fragment of each consumed deity's conciousness remained and plagued the mind of the Outsider, driving it insane. In its insanity it left the populated area of space and now wanders out in the void , where it fights its inner demons and feeds once more upon the stars that gave birth to it. It also had a hellish presence, and it caused madness in all who came close and many killed themselves rather than having to face the Outsider. While the Outsider cannot match the Nightbringer for pure force, or the Deciever for guile and cunning, it is rumoured to be the most deadly and dangerous of the four remaining C'tan. Should the Outsider return from its self-imposed exile, the galaxy shall bear witness to a culling not seen since the last Necron harvest, which almost wiped out all life in the galaxy and brought about the downfall of the Old Ones ."
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/The_Outsider
said to be taken from

• Codex: Necrons (3rd Edition), pp. 5, 25, 63
• White Dwarf 385 (UK)

Before reading that I held the opinion that Harrowing is either some sort of Yu'Vath legacy or some-mystic-horror-out-of-space-not-defined-in-game-systen-turms. Now C'tan looks fitting too.

The Laughing God said:

That was the thing I thought about: It's very unlikely that the same men created or were involved in creation of Haarlock legacy and the idea of Maal. But - of cource - possible.

I heard an oppinion that Maal actually became The Emperor Of Mankind. His followers fight against the Ruinous Powers and value "lonely wronged individual fighting desperately against greater powers". And Chaos Gods call him Anathema. Anyway i decided not to use this idea neither in Haarlock legacy nor in the whole compane.

The way i inserted Maal in game was the folowing: Oblationists. The whole doctrine of the faction and the ritual of creating a Sin Eater (Radical's Handbook, p. 58, 111) was created under the direct controle of Maal's "cult". The method of enslaving deamons of other Chaos Gods into their service in humiliating form of possessed items seemed very resembling the "trophy room" of Maal's realm.

ForkofTruth said:

Concidering Servants of Twilight - same as ForkofTruth i made them Those-Very-Bad-Guys. It's funny thuogh, but i either included Zerbe and the Unknown Heretic in the "board of directors" of this organisation. Sorry, ForkofTruth - it was jus such good idea that more than two of us used it, atleast four of my friends-game-masters did the same without reading this forum or knowing eachother =)) Maybe it means that the idea is quite brilliant?

By the way, the unknown heretec is The Faseless One - leader of Serrated Query (just in my game!). The third leader of the Servants was Inquisitor Morn (long dead) and now - inquisitor Antonia Mesmeron - one of the Oblationists. The reson for strange and unexplainable stop of Purge of Serrated Query was the union of Oblationists (Maal's servants) and Serrated Query through Zerbe as a mediator.

So… The reason why Servants started the Tyrantine Cabal was to confront tha forces of Chaos, probably in the Screaming Vortex itself. So, they managed to obtain the book "Lieber Daemonica" from the Twilight (Purge the Unclean) whe the info about the 7 Fiends was held. Now the Servants are working out the plan of simultanious activation of all the entities and enslaving them into daemonhosts, daemonic weapon, binding or finding the way of final and utter distruction. If you ask me why, i'll tell you: To get controll over the Tyrant Star and to anihilate the Chaos Forces of Screaming Vortex and, may be, Calixis Sector by the way (collateral loses).

For example, they distroyed the planet Spectoris with the Sightless Gaze somewhere in the depths of the Eternal Ocean using an old good method - driving a comet into the planet. The comet was the prio-purged Cometary Fragment 0-777 (Lathe Worlds, Light of Reason, 125-126).

So i mastered three parties of Acolytes who met in the 0-777. The first Acolyte Cell (unaware and naive) was sent to purge and destroy the False Astronomicon, the second - to drive the comet through Warp to Spectoris and destroy the Sightless Gaze and the third one - to stop the second one, as they managed to recapture the Lieber Daemonica during the conflict on Sinophia that followed the events of the Damned Cities adventure and had a strong opinion that the distruction or binding of the 7 Fiends will lead to an uncontrolled release of Komus - whatever it might be. It was a tradedy, but players of the second party (playing the Acolytes of Zerbe) were least shoked by the idea that they have to fight not Game Masters npc's but real players' characters controlled by living people. And won the battle destroying the first cell and almost - the third one.

Now the two parties are preparing to meet on Mara…

Not sure if it fits the topic, but hope gave you a few ideas.

If you have no desire to read my hypothesis and how I arrived at it… just scroll past the wall of text and read the last line…

Now this may not work for everyone's game but happens to work for mine.
1. The Tyrant Star is unknowable. Good... problem with explaining what it actually is, is that players end up reading it behind the GM's back and believing that that's the way it has to be. Plus something in print seems to take on an aura of "truth." Best to leave it unknowable. Now everyone is right and everyone is wrong.

2. There are several players in the DH universe who seem to be able to exert some control over the Star, either summoning it or sensing when it is coming. But none are responsible for creating it. In fact whoever is responsible is also unknown. Again; all is right with the world.

3. I believe there are no new ideas. Well intrinsically there are none. Every concept comes from some other source, you do not materialize a completely foreign idea, it is built upon something that you have experienced in your life elsewhere, even your best ideas can be found to have a root somewhere in your head if you think hard and long on it. The FFG writers are a clever bunch and have created an awesome world, but they purposely left clues as to their sources. Thus begins my game of 7 Degrees to Kevin Bacon.

I only began playing, or rather running Dark Heresy in February 2013, which means two things... I have at my hands all of the books up too this point and did not need to wait for more clues to come out and instead read all the books or referenced them as I needed at the moment. Second, I have the speculations and theories of many to come before me for several years of work to look at to validate my own suspicions.

At some point in April I began to get the crazy notion that DH felt like a Chuthulu game set in the 40k universe. So I decided to look to some old call of Chuthullu adventures as sources for plots for some upcoming stories. At this point I had completely discounted using the Tyrant Star as any part of my general game. However, as I began using the Chuthulu themed adventures, I developed a larger story arch involving cultists and looking to tie that in with the established setting more. I finally decided at last to let the Tyrant Star come in from the cold. In my campaign I started with finding a Chuthulu idol and a radical Inquisitor back from the dead who possessed one member of the group. I soon brought this dead inquisitor back into the story by giving everyone a dire warning that there was a cult out there looking to activate the Tyrant Star and it would be as bad as the opening of the Eye of Terror. I then ran a few adventures that sent the players running around looking for shards of stone as keys to “something” though I as GM knew I was pointing all fingers at the Tyrant Star.

What first began as a retroactive means of tying my campaign to the established FFG setting, was trying to discover what the TS was, who made it and who controlled it. I was a relative late comer to the Haarlock trilogy having only read those adventures last week starting with Dust & Ash. Because of this I’m coming from a different direction than most of you. For one, I saw the Yu’vath as a more influential group in my game after reading “Beneath the Dust of Designate–228–18” (RH pg 210) and coming to the conclusion that their Resonance and Crowns were devices used for controlling the Tyrant Star, and that their technology is based on the warp but not specifically Chaos as the Imperium knows the gods. As I see it Bugles, Cheese-it, Corn and Salad are the names given to the Chaos gods by GW or the Imperium… but who’s to say any other alien race would use the same names? And more than likely would not as unlike Star Trek not everyone in the friggin’ universe speaks Southern Californian English. Also... the quote that opens the section in that book reminded me of something I read…. At the Mountain of Madness, by HP Lovecraft.

Another clue was The Menagerie and the mention of the Radiant King, a.k.a the King in Rags and Tatters which I googled for more information and found Wikipedia and the King in Yellow. Which of course leads me to the author Robert W. Chambers, who of course turns out to have influenced a whole host of Chuthulu mythos writers and thus we arrive at the inevitable the Kling in Yellow is Hastur, brother of Chuthulu. Another piece that helped solidify my speculation was:
“…he wears no mask…he wears no mask…he wears—” a quote from Disciples of the Dark Gods, which is the same as
“CAMILLA: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!” The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2.

Lets not discount that the name Cassilda is a really weird name, and to come up in such close proximity is no coincidence. Cassillda Cognos? Cognos, as in Latin “to know” and her quote “least the truth devour us all” and her seeming central role in the development of the Tenebrae Collegium and probably major stack in the Blighted Schola…. Come on folks that many coincident are not coincident. Yes Cassillda “Knows” a lot, she knows she’s a character in the “King in Yellow”.

So I read that old book… and Cassillda’s Song… is the description of the Court of the Radiant King, a.k.a Hastur. But what’s more, the very first story in the book is about uncle Hildred Castaigne who is quite simply crazy and trying to kill his relative to become the Emperor of the United States. As a plot taken to full blown proportions this is the House of Dust and Ash and the Trilogy all wrapped up. Eremmus is trying to kill his entire family? And of course that book also involves some time travel…

I now realize I was not alone in seeing the Chuthulu connection. In June it became more of a game of Seven Degrees to Kevin Bacon for me. Between my own plots, reading every DH book and finding some clues in the texts there in I started to formulate a theory.

I realize that if I'm going to bring the TS into my game, I at least need to know what the TS actually is. That way I can get my facts straight when running the game. Who gives a flying frog if the PCs ever figure it out... and mine most likely will not. They solve most mysteries by just killing something (usually the first no-name NPC guard they come across)... and often fail utterly to get to the bottom of anything.

The Haarlock story aside, for a moment and not saying that that entire story line is not something else entirely. The overall umbrella seems to be that the writers took a broad plotline from The King in Yellow and expanded upon it from various sources, notably the Chuthulu mythos. I’m not going to speculate too much on Eremmus/Solomon, as that seems to have been wrapped up nicely when they printed the eloquent words “It’s a trap…” But now looking at the broader picture… Haarlock did not create the Tyrant Star, it already existed. The Servants of Twilight didn’t make it, they have some control over it (and BTW that’s a Dean Koonz book). There seem to be a few groups/entities that can siphon off some of the TS power or summon it to wreak havoc, but no one is given the title of Tyrant Star Creator. So how you control the TS is multifaceted and belongs to many. Heck make up your own group to control it as well… I did.

The truth is we don’t know what the Tyrant Star really is

So I started with the name itself.

Komus: Comus [ˈkəʊməs] n (Myth & Legend / Classical Myth & Legend) (in late Roman mythology) a god of revelry [from Latin, from Greek kōmos a revel]

In Greek mythology, Comus or Komos (Ancient Greek: Κῶμος) is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Bacchus. Comus represent anarchy and chaos. His mythology occurs in the later times of antiquity. During his festivals in Ancient Greece, men and women exchanged clothes. He was depicted as a young man on the point of unconsciousness from drink. He had a wreath of flowers on his head and carried a torch that was in the process of being dropped. Unlike the purely carnal Pan or purely intoxicated Bacchus, Comus was a god of excess.

The game itself points to several cults that practice revels, the Masquerade of Malfi and the Menagerie being two. Both of these groups have ties to Malfi, and Malfi is the source of the legend of the King in Tatters. This clue is however only a slight one, as everything afterwards leads one to suspect that the tie in between Komus and The King in Yellow end there. The description of the symbol for Komus is that of a clawed bird claw, perhaps the same as the Yellow Sign? This may be attempt of the writers to draw these two different mythos together, the same thing known by different names as it were?

One of the unsolved mysteries of the setting is what exactly the Tyrant Star is. Some subtle clues left by the writers point towards a Chuthulu influence. First Chaos, originally was inspired by HP Lovecraft. Though the GW folks adopted it towards their own ends and shoehorned it to fit with their Chaos gods. The FF people seem to be going back to the mythos for inspiration, pointing out that the Calix sector is far out on the edge of the universe and that the Tyrant Star predates anything human including the Emperor. As I’ve read through much material I’ve come across a few things that have cemented this theory. One the Yu’vath are the mi-go from Chuthulu. Also the secretive and highly Radical Cassilda Cognos has an extremely rare name. It turns up in a poem by Robert W. Chambers. His book of horror short stories published in 1895 entitled The King in Yellow. Chambers had read Bierce's work and had also borrowed a few other names (including Hali and Hastur) from Bierce's work. HP Lovecraft adopted The Yellow King into his own works on Chuthulu. This seems to lend a lot of credence to the theory that the Tyrant Star may in fact be Carcossa. Further; The King in Yellow is a collection of tales of the supernatural by Robert W. Chambers, named after a fictional play with the same title that recurs as a motif through some of its stories it contains 10 stories, the first four of which, "The Repairer of Reputations" (Inquisitor’s HB Mind Wiped) mention The King in Yellow, a forbidden play which induces despair or madness in those who read it.
Starting with the King in Yellow, real word research has just lead me in a loop to all things Chuthulu. As you read through different source material you come to the conclusion that the FF writers were all heavily influenced by the original writers of Chuthulu mythos and have taken much of it and twisted it to the 40k universe. Continuing references and little quote here and there point to the Tyrant Star being Carcosa. A lot of other gamers have come to the same conclusion that it is all Chuthulu influenced. But it appears though none have apparently connected the Tyrant Star to Carcosa and the likelihood that Hastur (The King in Yellow) may be another dark god of Chaos. Whatever their original intentions, there is no official word on what the Tyrant Star actually is, but their intentions seem to point to the heavy influence of Chambers and the reoccurring references to his book are not a coincidence.

The King in Yellow
The King in Rags and Tatters and his Radiant Court. Real world literary sources point to him as the same as The King in Yellow. The Fear chart in the rule book specifically lists him as a Fear 4 test. So i think that pretty well establishes he’s a entity in the DH universe.

“…he wears no mask…he wears no mask…he wears—” a quote from Disciples of the Dark Gods, which is the same as “CAMILLA: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!” The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2.

In Disciples, pg 154 describes the Radiant Court as exactly the same thing as Carcossa. Though they point to Tzeentch as the ruler of this realm. It would imply that Tzeench is Hastur. However, i don’t see the two as having overlapping spheres of influence. I don’t necessarily agree with GW that all the Chaos Gods are named and known, and that human cataloging does not mean they are right, just their way of coping with the unknowable. Who’s really to say that Hastur isn’t another Chaos God or at the very least a powerful entity like the Crow Father.

The King in yellow is the “entity” worshiped by the menagerie, and they specialize in revelry and madness. It is no coincidence that Komus is the god of revelry and often comes with his own madness? This cult may be the only true group that understands exactly what the Tyrant Star actually is.

Tzeentch is a God of Chaos who represents the vitality and volatility of change. Tzeentch is closely associated with sorcery and magic, as well as dynamic mutation, and grand, convoluted scheming. The domains of history, destiny, intrigue and plots are his chief interests, and in pursuit of these aspects he listens to the dreams and hopes of all and watches their plans take form.

Hastur is the embodiment of change through entropy, or the gradual shift from order to disorder and chaos. He is also tied to prophesy and determinism, where all things have cause and effect. These ideas of determinism and entropy are at direct odds with one another. This might also explain why he is also strongly associated with madness and insanity.

Tzeentch and Hastur appear to have some overlap, but are not exactly the same. So in the 40k universe there is definitely a strong possibility for them to be separate entities.

Also there is the sentient Sea planet which just smacks of Chuthulu living under it. You don’t want to know what happens when these two bro-fist.

Then there is the question of Carcossa, Hastur’s home. It is perfectly described in DotDG. Again, coincidences such as these are not coincidence.

Carcossa

Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.
Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead,
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa.

—"Cassilda's Song" in The King in Yellow Act 1, Scene 2

So there it is folks, my hypothesis based on real world books covering the Chuthulu Mythos and specifically centering on The King in Yellow lead me to believe that the Tyrant Star is in fact Carcosa. It may be a prison, it may be the formation of a new Chaos God (Hastur... because 40k really needs a god with the market cornered on madness), it may just be his really pimped out ride where he tosses madness out to the peoples like a Santa tossing candy in the Macy parade.

The Tyrant Star is Carcossa, The King in Yellow is comming, Haarlock was just one of several groups using the Tyrant Star to his own ends... and is rewarded with madness.

Oh... a very petty thing, but not mentioned in the thread: we do now know the identity of another of the seven devils of calyx.

• The Voice of the Flame: The daemon Balphomael (DotDG)
• The False Prince: Tychak Crowfather (the daemon from adventure in the core rulebook)
• The Treader in the Dust: The Radiant King (DotDG)
• The Night Traveler: Erasmus Haarlock (probably!)

• The Eater of the Dead: Mord'dagan, supernatural beast of legend, godhead of the Saynay cannibal cult, Dusk. (Possibly the Hag herself?)
• The Empty Hunger: Astral entity, aetheric residue of extinct xenoform, attributed cause of lethal psychic phenomena, Drusis Shrine World/Sacris. ( The Enslavers )

The only one we have no real clue to is

• The Dweller in the Depths: The Sightless Gaze, autochthonic entity, nature unknown, Spectoris. Spectoris is a water world that exports large amounts of fish and is very hostile to non-natives (TAH). Conjecture: this entity is of a cthulhu type.

The enslavers are pretty clearly pinned as the cause of anything fiendish and empyrean on Sacris.

See the Deathwatch article "Nemesis Incident"

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/deathwatch/minisite/support/nemesis-incident/The%20Nemesis%20Incident%20DLC%20(WEB).pdf

Man, I was old when this thread was young, or feel like it at least. Having spent the last 8 hours reading back through this entire thing I am still pleasently surprised that we're not at all closer to having any real answers. Hats off to FFG for that.

However as for the devils I believe the Dweller is Spectoris itself, as mentioned earlier in the thread. However where are you getting the link between The Enslavers and the Hunger?

This thread is indeed very interesting and full of inspiration. I would comment on something Alistair Cookie said; madness is pretty well covered by the existing dark gods; Tzeentch is unfathomable, Slaanesh is full of depravity, Khorne is pure and unreasonnable violence and Nurgle is despair made form; all of these aspects cover entirely madness in all its forms.

However as for the devils I believe the Dweller is Spectoris itself, as mentioned earlier in the thread. However where are you getting the link between The Enslavers and the Hunger?

See the attached link about the Nemesis Incident. Sacris is the Storm Warden's homeworld and

I see, I forgot about the Storm Wardens, been a while since I've heard of FFG's own chapter. What've they been up to?

Mostly being angry* and Scottish* at people in the Jericho reach. There's a sizeable force of the actual chapter (especially the scouts) there as well as just detached deathwatch veterans. Beyond that, we don't really know. Nemesis Incident (see the link above) is the main fleshing out of the background we've seen, aside from learning that they have a group of veterans called the Tempest Blades - double-handed weapons specialists** who are out looking for worthy opponents to duel to the death.

* I am informed by my friends that apparently there is a subtle distinction.

** See Honour the Chapter. They're quite stupidly badass, swapping the unwieldy/unbalanced that most double-handed swords get for balanced . Combined with the Storm Wardens' increased weaponskill in a one-on-one duel and they're arguably amongst the best chapters going for pure swordplay.

I just reread this ancient trove of wisdom and man there are some good ideas in here!

I have developed my own theory of the Tyrant Star which I will soon share but I want to work in as many details and evidence as I can, which takes some time.

Hi, good people of this here (Tyrantine) Cabal,

Long time reader, first time writer... etc, etc. Congratulations on this marvelous collective endeavour.

Just thought to point out a couple of things.

1. Could it be that the Servants of Twilight (and Unknown Heretic) are in fact only one person - Erasmus Haarlock? The man tried time and again to change the past via Blind Tesseract, traveling back and forth through time, perhaps himself appearing in all instances in which SOT activity is being suspected. Their/his actual goal being misinterpreted by those investigating, or not, as he is now utterly mad and inhuman.

2. You all should seriously check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Harlock , if you are not already familiar with this anime.

Have a dark and terrifying journey.

In developing my Encyclopaedia Calixis I've come to the conclusion that it should contain something on the more iconic mysteries of the sector (namely Komus and Haarlock).

The most important one is probably the section discussing the nature of the Tyrant Star. I'm not so much interested in pinning down any ONE explanation. Rather I'm trying to come up with usable alternatives so that GMs can pick and chose.

So far I've listed no less than 7 different options for the GM to pick from. Please have a look and tell me what you think. And maybe there is a couple more options that deserve mention?

Chapter 12: Calixian Secrets (Komus_draft)