Abaddon the Despoiler: Fun ADB Blogpost

[Cap'nSmurfs]

It's moot, anyway; this text is as close as you're gonna get to Word Of God about Abaddon's motivations and character.

[coppersungt]

Sweet! love the objectivity

[Nabterayl]

True enough.

I agree that M41 Abaddon ought to experience some doubt, though. That isn't doubt about his goals, or that he should be the one to carry them out. It's doubt about his methods. It's the vestige of his uncorrupted intelligence saying, "Wait a minute ... this is never going to work. There is a critical flaw in the very premise of my plan. Nobody has made an unstoppable army of Chaos because it can't be done; it isn't a matter of just need the right leader. It literally cannot be done. Maybe I should ..."

And then the forces of Chaos tempt him back. "Yes it can be done. All you need is to be strong enough, clever enough, charismatic enough, tough enough ... it's not impossible. Nobody has done it before. But you can do it. You can bend Chaos to your will. All you need is a little more knowledge, a little more determination, a little more strength, a little more independence, a little more of ... us."

And then he steps back from the brink of doubt, convinced once again that he can make Chaos his instrument without succumbing to it, that he can forge an army of Chaos that is not only huge but has the internal cohesion - provided in the form of his own peerless self - to go the distance. It's not doubts about whether he should rule mankind, only doubts about whether his current plan (step 1: create unstoppable army of Chaos; step 2: overthrow current ruler(s) of mankind; step 3: profit!) will actually work.

EDIT: The reason I like this is because, of course, it is patently obvious to the reader that it won't work. You can't create an unstoppable army out of Chaos. It will never have the internal cohesion to go the distance. If no part of Abaddon ever realized that, he'd just be an idiot, a dupe.

[ElectricPaladin]

True enough.

I agree that M41 Abaddon ought to experience some doubt, though. That isn't doubt about his goals, or that he should be the one to carry them out. It's doubt about his methods. It's the vestige of his uncorrupted intelligence saying, "Wait a minute ... this is never going to work. There is a critical flaw in the very premise of my plan. Nobody has made an unstoppable army of Chaos because it can't be done; it isn't a matter of just need the right leader. It literally cannot be done. Maybe I should ..."

And then the forces of Chaos tempt him back. "Yes it can be done. All you need is to be strong enough, clever enough, charismatic enough, tough enough ... it's not impossible. Nobody has done it before. But you can do it. You can bend Chaos to your will. All you need is a little more knowledge, a little more determination, a little more strength, a little more independence, a little more of ... us."

And then he steps back from the brink of doubt, convinced once again that he can make Chaos his instrument without succumbing to it, that he can forge an army of Chaos that is not only huge but has the internal cohesion - provided in the form of his own peerless self - to go the distance. It's not doubts about whether he should rule mankind, only doubts about whether his current plan (step 1: create unstoppable army of Chaos; step 2: overthrow current ruler(s) of mankind; step 3: profit!) will actually work.

EDIT: The reason I like this is because, of course, it is patently obvious to the reader that it won't work. You can't create an unstoppable army out of Chaos. It will never have the internal cohesion to go the distance. If no part of Abaddon ever realized that, he'd just be an idiot, a dupe.

Bingo!

It isn't that some vestige of Abaddon's morality or compassion. It's the vestiges of his natural intelligence, potential for humility and self reflection, and independence.

[Nabterayl]

And to go back to the vanity point, the only real reason he needs to do it with Chaos is because it has to be him. Abaddon isn't in this to overthrow the Imperium for the good of mankind. He's in it for the good of Abaddon. It is certainly possible, at least in principle, to build an army that can overthrow the Imperium. You could ground that army's power in the legions of human beings who don't feel served by the Imperium and in the space marines who don't feel served by the slavery of their chapters, just like Abaddon has done. You just can't also ground it in the actual power of Chaos, as Abaddon has done.

In order to overthrow the Imperium the old fashioned way, you need an entire society that can support the sort of army you need. That means you need a safe haven of some sort, so the Imperium doesn't crush you while you're setting things up. It also means that the guy who starts the project is probably going to be dead by the time the unstoppable army is ready to go, even with a space marine's lifespan. The powers of Chaos provide Abaddon with both the haven (the Eye of Terror) and the possibility that he, personally, can live the dream. In reality, ultimately, he has to choose: do it in a slower way with a more conventional route to success and admit that he will never personally see the Imperium cast down, or do it in the faster way with the impossible [edit: It's not impossible! You can do it! -Chaos gods] route to success that will let him be there.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Isn't this just the coolest damn thing? It's like, this is actually a character! They've really thought about this!

[Nabterayl]

Now the poor deluded sod just needs a more modern model ...

[sangrail777]

That was a good read, I like this so much better then how he gets portrayed in fluff

[Katharon]

*sigh*

Can't argue against a brick wall, since words aren't a hammer. You're taking far too human-esque a line in comparing normal human emotions with what is suppose to be a post-mortal warrior who has spent 10,000 inside the Warp and spending that entire time focused upon gaining more power and using it to achieve what his dead overlord couldn't. I again, stress, that vanity and doubt do not fit that sort of character. Doubt is something reserved for a being who does not see himself/herself winning in the end; and vanity is reserved for characters who see in others what they wish they had in themselves, and so amplify themselves to feed that dark emotion.

But, I won't waste any more words on it.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Edit: snip!