I hope it is nothing to do with Serrated Query as that plot thread wasn't that well explored in the Illumination/PTU trilogy and I killed it off dead from our campaign. I guess Black Industries might have had a bigger plan for it but to think that FFG might resurrect it as linked to the Tyrant Star wouldn't be a satisfactory explanation IMO.

Great thread though, lots of fantastic ideas being put forward.

Well, to be fair, FFGs take on the Tyrant Star and the Hereticus Tenebrae in Disciples of The Dark Gods is pretty much that its up to GMs to determine the nature of these things for themselves. They give lots of conflicting possibilities, but I don't think its something they'll ever provide a fixed explanation for. The involvement of the Serrated Query, and even the true identity of the Faceless One, aren't presented as definite facts (although I like the idea of Eloeholth as a major force of darkness in the game...)

InfinityDoctor said:

Agreed ... though I don't think the SQ should have much of a part in the whole Tyrant Star story, other than possibly as some sort of a decoy.

Replicant253 said:

I think FFG are keeping their options open on this point. The whole Serrated Query plotline seemed to me to be the brainchild of TS Luikhart, (I think - that's from memory, so I could be wrong) a writer who worked on the BL books. FFG continue to use BL writers for many of the newer books, so I'm sure we'll hear more from him again (which can only be a good thing.)

Additionally, I recall that the Radical's Handbook specifically mentions the Serrated Query as a continung rival to some Radical factions, so they're still out there, even in the newer FFG material.

InfinityDoctor's right, I reckon there probably won't ever be a definitive, clear cut explanation as to the nature of the Tyrant Star, as it's just too cool to explain away. It provides a cool visual representation of the dangers facing humanity (who doesn't love evil total solar eclipses?) looms large over the culture and secretive organisation of the Calixian Inquisition and promotes healthy (and fun) speculation. Clarifying precisely what it is once and for all would be an error, I think, a bit like Midichlorianing the Force, or dissecting Santa Claus to see what makes him magic...

EDIT: In my own head, I always think of it as a vast, planet sized, warp-tainted xenos construction, a bit like a super Blackstone fortress, from a long-dead, unknown, pre-Imperial Xenos civilisation. It's been lost in the warp for uncounted millenia, and changed beyond the dreams of its extinct creators. It's largely mechanical, vast but also somehow alive and malign. Over milions of years, some races have learned to summon, control or predict its movements, but these secrets are intangible and bring a curse on those who possess them, often dooming entire species. To learn too much of the Tyrant Star is dangerous, for it is itself aware of the emotions its passage creates, and gazes levelly back at observers.

That's my personal take on it, anyway!

After reading all the theories I have changed my mind and I now believe the Tyrant Star to be a prison created by Eloeholth. To keep the scale grand I am thinking he has trapped either the soul of Horus or the Emperor. Perhaps syphoning off the power of all those psychics sacrificed to the Emperor.

The next stage will be the return of the Emperor and the Warmaster and history will repeat itself.

Moff8 said:

If that be the case, I vote Horrus. Someone/something like that can't just die and that's it, even by the Emperor's hand. This would definitly fix that. That and if you combine that theory with the Throians quest for a new host for the Emperor's soul plus the Xanthites theory of the Child of Darkness and Light shall be born (the child of light is the Emperor and the child of darkness is, of course, the reborn Horrus, though both are born from the same womb...) and you have your self a prophecy already injected into the setting to support your epic :-)