Abaddon the Despoiler: Fun ADB Blogpost

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Your homework for today is to read this excellent blog post about Abaddon. Not sure who exactly is responsible for the amazing essay on our neighbourhood friendly Warmaster of Chaos contained within the post, but it reassured me once more that the people who write this stuff really do know what they're doing.

It's excellent. Go read.

[url]http://aarondembskibowden.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/lets-talk-about-abaddon/[/url]

[Aegwymourn]

That was an incredibly good read. Thanks for sharing that.

[Zac78]

Very good read cheers

[eldargal]

Rather good read, puts Abaddon in a new, favourable light. Also amusing to read ADBs response to a particularly idiotic dismissal.

[ElectricPaladin]

That is interesting. It's a neat exploration of the fundamental tragedy of Chaos and those who serve it.

[Katharon]

One small mistake, in my opinion:

"And he wonders if it is vanity. He wonders if he is deserving. He wonders if what he wants is possible."

This I find the only thing that doesn't jive. Abaddon is many things and has many vices, but vanity and doubt were never party to them. He never basked in the vanity of being "Little Horus" like Aximand, nor ever felt that he was ever undeserving of his place as First Captain and then Warmaster of Chaos. He claimed them as being his by right, by conquest and privilege.

To make him think of vanity or somehow undeserving of the position he has carved out for himself is to lessen Abaddon as the Arch-Traitor he is.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

I don't agree one bit. I don't think any character is diminished by being made more rounded by giving them mortal, human reactions to their situation. Abaddon is the single most terrifyingly powerful mortal in the 40k galaxy. But he's still *mortal*. Part of the mortality is contained in that very same (and it is only occasional) self-doubt. He's not a Daemon, he's not a Primarch; he's a man. A genetically engineered superhuman invested with numerous of the Boons of Chaos, but a man. And it's his ability to maintain control of his independence, his own mind, and his own will, in the face of the pure Chaos of the Warp, which makes him as powerful and threatening as he is. And a part of that ability, that strength and determination, must come from self-examination. He knows what he could become; he may, in darker moments, fear that he is already becoming it. It's how he reacts to this which drives him on.

There's no drama if he's immune to all human frailties, after all.

[ElectricPaladin]

I think if Abaddon was immune to doubt after so many years of playing this rigged game, he'd have to be some kind of moron. I understand why he keeps playing - the "good money after bad" fallacy is a powerful force, and what choice does he really have? - but to never have doubts? He'd have to be an idiot. I don't think he's an idiot.

[Katharon]

I didn't say he was "immune to all human frailties." I said that vanity and doubt are not, and should not, be among his vices or weaknesses.

He suffers from (imho): pride, envy, and covetousness. These are the primary emotions which drive him in his quest to accomplish what Horus could not.

Pride in that he knows himself, knows that he commands as the Warmaster of Chaos, and pride in himself as a warrior that once stood astride Terra as it's would-be conqueror and will be again. It is his pride that drives him to remain untainted by any single chaos god or to give any of them his single allegiance -- to which he knows will see the end of his ambition to conquer the Imperium.

Envy in that he both loathes and hates the strength of unity that the Imperium has at its defense, that he cannot bind the factions of Chaos more tightly within his talon'ed fist; and perhaps even envious of the powers that are given in full to those daemon prices and primarchs that fell to individual Chaos gods.

Covetousness for the Golden Throne and the dominion of the universe.


Those are three emotions, human emotions, I see Abaddon suffering from. Vanity and doubt are not among them.

[Wolfshead]

I don't see any "should not" at all in regard to vanity or doubt with Abaddon, nor do I see how him feeling them lessens him at all. He doesn't have to feel them all the time after all.

Regarding vanity, it is something that I think goes hand in hand with vast power and is something that must be guarded against if one is to avoid falling into the trap of believing ones hype. Indeed, in the 40K universe, if one were to give in to vanity and bask in ones own power and majesty then one would soon find Slaanesh tickling ones pickle a tentacle growing somewhere it shouldn't.
Abaddon needs to be vigilant against vanity and suppress it whenever he feels it because if he doesn't he risks making the same mistakes as Horus, or some of them at least.

As for doubt, nobody is immune to that. Some people may be good at putting it aside easily and without any worry or stress, but they feel it all the same to begin with. I imagine that even the Emperor felt doubts even before his powers of foresight failed him as he was, after all, just a man. Doubt is an essential part of the human condition as without it we will plough on into the most dangerous of situations without a care. Yes, Abaddon is a post-human killing machine wearing a suit of the toughest and most protective armour that the Imperium ever made and he has a vast army of similar soldiers, mortal slaves & followers and goodness knows what else at his disposal, but that doesn't mean he can't have moments in the cold dark of the night where he wonders if perhaps he's fooling himself and his fall to the depths that Horus sank too is inevitable and all he is doing is postponing it, rather than stopping it.

Abaddon should not show mercy without good reason (even if said reason is simply because the reaction to it amuses him) nor should he write love poetry about anyone. Those would be out of character and diminish him somewhat. Making him struggle with vanity and doubt on occasion? That just adds depth and nuance and makes him less likely to go to a barbers and buy a jar of moustache wax and ask Erebus for tips on how to twirl with panache and maximum badness.