Insequential said:

"...as a ... heart turns to Malal, all Gods of Chaos grow fearful, and the laughter of the Outcast God fills the tomb of space . . . "

SJE: I understand your point entirely. However, a real issue with the ink-blot approach is that a large chunk of the material yet to be published on Dark Heresy and the Tyrant Star won't function as a cohesive whole, in which the truth is out there if both the GM and players know where to look and are smart enough.

I give two examples of where, to my mind at least, the approach used by Black Industries fell somewhat flat. The first is Vampire: The Masquerade. A huge number of supplements and books were released, each with their own dire hints about the Vampire apocalypse, more commonly known as Gehenna. Then when White Wolf decided to can the line and reboot the setting in which it is in, they released a supplement, giving a wide range of possible options for the GM. The information they were working with for the ultimate movers and shakers of the Jyhad were in some cases a few sentances. Imagine how much cooler it would have been if every clue was actually part of a larger puzzle.

My second example is the X-files. The big overarching alien storyline involving bees, clones, smallpox vacccinations and all that jazz was made up as the producers and writers went along and to be honest it suffered for it.

Now, an actual planned approach would obviously cause more work for the GM's, but if it was extremely cool, I expect the majority of people would be happy. Plus, if the design studio made sure they selected the most useful and practical option from the list of possibilities, then it would in all likilihood have a great deal in common with what a good GM invents on the fly and so could easily be adapted, in much the same way as they write pre-generated adventures and the GM integrates them with into the campaign appropriately and makes allowances for the group's inquisitor.

SJE: I understand your point entirely. However, a real issue with the ink-blot approach is that a large chunk of the material yet to be published on Dark Heresy and the Tyrant Star won't function as a cohesive whole, in which the truth is out there if both the GM and players know where to look and are smart enough.

I give two examples of where, to my mind at least, the approach used by Black Industries fell somewhat flat. The first is Vampire: The Masquerade. A huge number of supplements and books were released, each with their own dire hints about the Vampire apocalypse, more commonly known as Gehenna. Then when White Wolf decided to can the line and reboot the setting in which it is in, they released a supplement, giving a wide range of possible options for the GM. The information they were working with for the ultimate movers and shakers of the Jyhad were in some cases a few sentances. Imagine how much cooler it would have been if every clue was actually part of a larger puzzle.

My second example is the X-files. The big overarching alien storyline involving bees, clones, smallpox vacccinations and all that jazz was made up as the producers and writers went along and to be honest it suffered for it.

Now, an actual planned approach would obviously cause more work for the GM's, but if it was extremely cool, I expect the majority of people would be happy. Plus, if the design studio made sure they selected the most useful and practical option from the list of possibilities, then it would in all likilihood have a great deal in common with what a good GM invents on the fly and so could easily be adapted, in much the same way as they write pre-generated adventures and the GM integrates them with into the campaign appropriately and makes allowances for the group's inquisitor.

I had a look at lexicanum today.

It looks like the Nectrotyr after loosing the first war, went to the Halo Stars to hide. So the oooold structures there might be ancient Necrotyr.

Another thing is, that the 4th C'tans, the Outsider, power is that of madness (since he was driven mad by the laughing god).

From the background it seems that the most likely explanation would be that the Outsider (maybe outside of reality) is trying to come "home".

On the other hand some it is stated, that the Outsider is in a sphere below the galaxy (which the hive fleet Leviathan avoided). But it is not stated that the sphere is in real space and the Outsider might project himself to the Calixis Sector.

Nice story idea of a necron worshipping cult that tries to bring the 4th back.

BTW: I believe that this expanation was NOT intended by Black industries/FFG... its just a coincedence.

Normally I would prefere an official explanation (as a gm you can still refuse to use it), but in this case a more cthulhuesque approach... its to alien to understand, increases the horror more.

As a long time Deadlands player I like that DotDG did not give a definitive answer and flat out tells the GM that they are free to make up their own ultimate mystery adds a degree of replay value to the setting. Deadlands is great the first couple of times you play through it, but once you have played a big, epic campaign and learned The Secret. It get's kind of boring. Dark Heresy masterfully avoids this pitfall by allowing the GM to make up his own Secret. This way, you never know just what The Secret behind the Tyrant Star is going to be from one GM to the next.

Torque2100 said:

I also really like the fact that the writers did it this way.

It allows creative storytellers to make their own creations within the 40k universe, which is a difficult thing to do, since there is already SO MUCH written about it.

Frankly I dislike the idea of labelling mysterious evil things for players who are very familiar with the setting. Nothing I hate more than to have the players make decisions based on their knowledge ("I'm not going in there! Genestealers have wicked armor penetration and are super good at hand to hand combat!" or "Robots, eh? Must be the Necrons").

Also, using pre-existing material can be limiting- all that back story about all those weird gods the other people mentioned in this thread, along with all of the arguing about that fluff really turns me off, personally.

It can dilute the intensity of the mood of evil when there are so many OTHER potential sources of conflict and evil in the setting.

Hmmm I like to think that the star is actually somegood that is misunderstood. It appears before a planet in an attempt to warn the cilzilation of some impending disaster. Thus after it appears something intense and crazy happens...Such as a Demon incursion, a hole in the imateriam is ripped open, Warp ghosts/or the dead rises on the planet, mass physic storm rages across the surface...etc.

You can pretty much go where you want with it. I would like to see this type of idea played out as my PCs have not really even touched on what this star really is.

Necrozius said:

I actually had this exact thing happen in a game (before DotDG was even out). The PCs had interrogated a bunch of locals and found out that a star in the sky that was normally very bright had been darkened for a couple days. Eventually they ended up fighting a cult leader who, with his dying breath, said their actions had stopped nothing and that the Tyrant Star looms ever closer despite their efforts. I remember reading in the core book that the Tyrant Star is listed as taking many different levels of intensity. Sometimes it's huge and cataclysmic, and other times it might manifest as something small, such as darkening a star. I liked that idea, figuring I would make it travel across the sector, increasing in intensity as it went, until some final climactic event. That was my plan, anyway...

One of the players says, in character, to the other player, "Well, can't be the Tyrant Star. If it were, this planet wouldn't be here."

So much for mystery. I had to rewrite the campaign after that.

In my game, Komus is a mistranslation of Horus- the rune being the symbol of his rank of Warmaster.

Eloeholth came to the Adranti after Horus' defeat with the remains of the defeated Horus and tricked the Adranti into believing that they were the chosen people, who were given the task of ressurecting the true Emperor of the Universe. They learnt to master the warp, and under the guidance of Eloeholth, they constructed "the Star Womb", which should ressurect the now long dead Horus.

After many millenia, the Imperium of Man under the leadership of Angevin arrived at the Adranti Empire, and destroyed them. Thats how the story goes, but in reality as does happen with all conquered peoples, the Adranti were assimilated into the Imperium of Man. The Adranti nobility and royals intermarried with what would one day become the Great Houses of the Calixis Sector.

The Adranti pretended to worship the God-Emperor, while they still had the dream that one day, the true Emperor of the Universe would return. When Sebastian Thor curtailed the power of the Ecclesiarchy, which had become the former Adranti noblility's, which was now known secretly as the Agema (lit. "Those Who Lead powerbase, "), powerbase. The Agema therefore decided to join forces with the Sectors newly born Temple Tendency.

During the Millenia, the dogma and stories of the Tendency's God-Emperor, and the Agemas Emperor of the Universe, where intertwined, and the Agema lost it's purpose and it's legends. The Tendency and the Agema were as one. Untill +Classified+ discovered how to decipher some ancient Adranti scripts that told the story of Eloholth and the Emperor of the Universe. Now +Classified+ is on the hunt for a suitable vessel, so Horus the Star Emperor can return and lead his people (read: Adranti) to a new destiny. To aid him, +Classified+ has turned to the Agemas righthand organisation, the Serrated Query- Purveyor of All Things Evil, in order fo find a being powerfull enough to contain the essence of a reborn god.

Moff8 said:

Yea Malal is still smarting over that little "disagreement".

For me it goes like this.

1) The Eldar really don't like the Calixis Sector, to the point of cursing it and warning it away.

2) The passing of the Tyrant Star pretty much makes the citizens loose their higher intelligence, and devolve into creatures of base instinct, consuming, fornicating, basically going mad and doing whatever they want.

So with all that in mind, my guess is that it has something to do with the Dark Eldar and Slaanesh. To me it has a striking resembelance to the Eye of Terror in some ways.

My theory is that it was a Eldar Craftworld, that during the chaos of the Eldar fall, was corrupted and lost to the Warp. To far away to be pulled into the Eye of Terror, but not far enough away to not feel the psychic shockwave of Slaanesh's birth, it was flung into the warp, and corrupted, basically becoming a very large space hulk.

Its the Infinity Circuit, now very corrupt and holding the corrupted remains of what Eldar that were on the Craftworld during its unfortunate trip that is causing all the madness. Corrupted with the birth chaos of Slaanesh's birth, the dying Eldar were integrated into the Infinity Circuit but were also corrupted by its slow march through the warp.

The "Star" is actually the "shadow" of this corrupted Craftworld as it comes close, but never entered the materium. The psychic vibrations of its corrupted Infinity Circuit vibrate through its shadow causing all kinds of madness. As the Infinity Circuit is somewhat alive, it echoes its call at times, and its sect answers the call. It probably also can "feed" on the psychic madness let loose by what occurs on the planets it effects, and grows in strength with each planet it "devours".

In some ways my guess is that in its madness it thinks it is the Great Enemy, devouring souls, and causing all kinds of madness. A living being that size, with that much power, instilled with the warp of the exact moment of the birth of a Chaos God would be very, very powerful and very, very dangerous, especially when it has access to all the things that the Eldar have on a Craftworld.