#the forges of mars

[definitely-not-iorveth]

[bobombun]

In Forge of Mars, there's a moment where a Magos gets complimented, and though his face is mechanical and so does not show much of his emotions at this, it is mentioned that from under his hood a light pulses in binary as a thanks, and I just have to say that that is somehow the cutest thing. It's like the closest thing the Mechanicus have to blushing. A silent practically morse code of "aw shucks thank you" that's so clear to any Mechanicus.

[vossn]

Listen, we all know AdMech are absolute goals in the "I replaced my gender with some cool new gadgets" nonbinary way, but I also keep coming at it from a more binary angle and it kind of tickles my brain, so. hear me out-

You do not look like a man. You looks like steel, machine, wires, cables, but these are not the things that make up a man. As flesh melts away into steel you shift closer and farther from an arbitrary point of data their decisions are based on, but it means so very little.

You honor no aesthetics because your body has long foregone aesthetic purpose. It wasn't made to be perceived, it was made to run tirelessly, and to fight just the same, to serve you, and to serve The Omnissiah. If you shape it to fit its function, who dares question you?

They will not know if you have ever been a man to begin with. You might not even know. It doesn't matter where your path of enlightenment started. It doesn't matter what your flesh looked like before it became something sacred.

You are, by all accounts, more machine than man. But you are still a man. And so you declare yourself as one, because what else would you be?

[cursedbeasts]

An attempt at digital painting that I got bored with and turned into a vandalised portrait of Archmagos Kotov

pst. commissions are open

[maggotknight]

Lilith von Valancius keeps her local inquisitoral agent close on particularly snowy worlds.

Conducting most trade deals and explorations huddled like a penguin against his person.

[thegirlwiththebikermicetattoo]

@brimstoneandstardust - this reminded me of your fic. ❤️

[niseag-reads]

Ouch my brain /pos - a ramble

Right. I want to say something sensible about this book, but I have been reading it since January, and I would be damned if I remembered what happened in the first half of it in any detail. This is a ramble/review for "Forges of Mars." the full trilogy. by Graham McNeill

Taking so long to read it was not the books fault. Indeed, that was me running into burnout and being preoccupied with university stuff. But being somewhat less than fully emerged in this book probably didn't help the book at all.

There are so many characters, holy shit. And some of their names are so similar! Hawke and Hawkins come to mind. Additionally, characters will be named by their first name, last name, or nicknames and keeping apart who is who is no joke. The dramatis personae provided is somewhat useful, but annoying when you have to refer to it too often. this does come with the caviat that I do, as a rule, not really remember names (I think it's the autism) making this all the more difficult to me. Where characters are diverse enough in their thinking and acting i will be able to tell them apart by that, but for side and background characters that really doesnt work.

With this, there are also multiple storylines, and my issue with that in many books is that there is always some I prefer over the others and then I get annoyed when they switch to the ones I do not care for as much. Also because I often didn't immediately know where we were jumping to. it really grated my gears that when a POV switch happened it wasn't always immediately clear whose POV the book had switched to, causing moments of confusion. Perhaps if i remembered which names belonged to what people it would be easier, but sadly it was not. for fairness, I was reading the ebook. Maybe this is clearer in the paper version.

In this trilogy, I found myself intrigued by the characterisation of the mechanicus characters whom I wanted to stick with, only to be forced to read about these other groups as well... if I wanted to read space marines, I'd have picked up one of their books, you know? Regardless, the arcs of kotov, linya, and tychon were all very interesting to me, and eventually, around the second book, I started to appreciate locke as well. The way the warhounds were written actively annoyed me, but I am someone who has read a lot of books involving (were)wolves, and my expectations from that may have influenced how I looked upon these chapters. the many POVs in this book felt somewhat unnessecary, too, like, I am unsure what the marines or the warhound POVs truly added to the storytelling. I get why there was both mechanicus and bondsman perspective though, that was a very interesting and clever choice in worldbuilding that allowed the reader to see the two ends of the coin when it comes to the runnings of a mechanicus expedition. the eldar perspective was not one I cared for much, but I do not fault the book for including it because it did definitely add a completely different angle to everything going on in this book.

The last book in the series is significantly more intense and action-packed than the other two, which I had not expected. It solidifies the feeling of a finale, I suppose, especially since the other two books lacked proper ending points. I thus believe that this was written as one very long book that was chopped into threes for marketability. That's not a negative, just an observation. the final confrontation is a-tier. very good, very satisfying. Galatea deserved worse. All in all, this was a decent enough experience and I can see why some people go wild for the characters in this book, they're very good. I left this review sitting in my drafts for so long I forgot where I was going with it. anyways. 3.5 stars. do recommend, but is very long and requires brain.

[jaal-ama-daravv]

Omnissiah Forgive Me - Chapter 3 - WIP

An evocation came flooding back to Pasqal in an instant. A fleeting moment on the battlefield just a few moons ago. 'Enemies were closing in, firing upon Pasqal and Kassard as they crouched behind a large concrete barrier. Kassard tried to be the daring commissar she is, and Pasqal was having none of it. As Kassard began to shuffle to take aim at their enemies, Pasqal’s mechadendrite launched towards her and gripped on to her thick leather collared garment and aggressively dragged her back down. She was now engulfed in his stance. His blood pressure rose greatly. The mechadendrite released its grip and Pasqal threw his arm across her chest - only death would release it - and pulled her into him as he peaked the barrier and dispatched the remainder of their enemies. The pair locked eyes and exchanged several moments of long, dragged out breaths as the adrenaline wore off.'  Kassard laid neatly tucked in the space between Pasqal’s forearm and bicep - the heat radiated off his metal chest, the gears whirred - she trembled whilst in his embrace and whispered, “You didn’t have to do that…” “I had no choice, Lord Captain.” His voice shook, and his vox hissed.  It was in that moment that Pasqal wondered if he should be grateful, or should curse the fact that despite his servitude to the Omnissiah, his heart was no longer sheltered inside his metal plated chest - it now took form in the shape of the Lord Captain. [x]

[cursedbeasts-cc]

Brontes goes on a weird date with Kotov

[lisystrata]

Depiction of astronauts from the 1918 Danish science fiction film A Voyage to Mars (original Danish title: Himmelskibet).

This reminds me of someone, doesn't it?

[hamstergod]

a friend sent me a nikke crown creature art sitting in a chair and he was like someone should draw Galatea like this so I did it for the glory of the Omnissiah

[bobombun]

I'm working on a 40k translation project, and I've learned that there is a big difference between Orders Hospitaller (Sororitas) and Hospitallers (Space Marines), and that context and rapid googling can indeed be everything.

However, I still prefer the first translation I made where this one character is talking about how coy and shy a Hospitaller is on her wedding night, but I first interpreted it as the Space Marines.

Space Marines need some loving, too

[vossn]

I'm starting a collection

[cursedbeasts]

Kotov posing like one of the French girls

2023

Commissions

[nightscalestudio]

Tech-Priest Dominus from Mars Forge World.

[seventeeneightyfine]

i’m sorry but if you. a huge jacked dude. are invited to a nice dinner and a guy shaped like a bug tells you he could predict the outcomes of battle with weird math and your next move is to ask him to fight you personally; to effectively and nigh on literally just say ok man cool you wanna take this out back?? that’s on you bro. you have disrupted the whole event. you might as well reach over and double fist your host’s filet mignon at this point