Goonhammer Reviews the Maelstrom: Lair of the Tyrant

We move (galactic) northwest from the 500 Worlds of Ultramar to the Maelstrom, a self-sustaining warp storm in the Ultima Segmentum. Bordered by Ryza, Catachan, Chogoris, and the Thousand Sons' daemon system of Prospero and Sortiarius, the Maelstrom is (theoretically) ruled over by the Tyrant of Badab Huron Blackheart and his renegade Red Corsairs. But there is far more in the Maelstrom than Huron's Skull Planet. Indeed, what lies in the Maelstrom is a realm of adventure and terror, where humans and aliens have forged their own societies and groups not ruled by the Imperium or Chaos. And now we get an in-depth look at this mysterious interstellar Sargasso Sea.

In addition, we also get some of the history of the Astral Claws Space Marines, and the Chaotic renegades they have since become. We learn about the cruel lords of the Red Corsairs, many of whom now actually can be brought to the tabletop through the new Crucible of Champions Rules. This is done without rehashing significant chunks of Imperial Armour: The Badab War, which means we have room for plenty of new content.

Lastly, we have a small story about this release's other new group of pirates, the Aeldari Corsairs. They're neat and all, but let's be honest you're here for Huron Blackheart and pirates!

What I found most cool in this book:

The Red Corsairs have created a unique adventure zone in the 40K Universe, where all factions can fight and mix. If I was going to run a 40K tabletop RPG campaign, I would probably be using Lair of the Tyrant for campaign inspiration. Indeed, my Chaos Space Marine Combat Patrol is designed to be a Lair of the Tyrant-inspired force!
The mix of the Red Corsairs' characters is clearly intended to provide inspiration for your Champions of the Crucible. We get Chaos Space Wolves, Chaos Iron Hands, corrupted Votann, and Ordo Astartes Inquisitors. The possibilities are endless, and this book provides a way to make those kitbashes feel canon.
The parallels between the Red Corsairs and Aeldari Corsairs are highlights: both groups are shown to basically have the same reason for existing. They hate the stifling systems of the Imperium, the Traitor Legions, the Craftworlds, or even the Drukhari. They yearn for freedom and adventure, and thus pursue it with both hands and then adorn themselves in lots and lots of trim.

Before we continue, we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of the book for review purposes.

The Storm - The Stellar Cartography of the Maelstrom

We begin with an overview of the stellar cartography of the Maelstrom, a warp storm that "even in the night skies of planets far from its fringes", it is "a hideous strain, a glowing blemish that invites madness to look upon." The light of the Astronomicon is obscured, and thus lawlessness and danger flourishes. However, the warp does not fill the entire region of space! There are stars and planets where realspace still holds, allowing for more standard travel. But for every system where the laws of physics have a hearing, there are "colossal stellar crystals that radiate cryothermal rays", and asteroids that just suddenly phase in and destroy convoys. Despite these dread phenomena, the Maelstrom is stable and thus pirates (transhuman and xenos) are able to maintain their boltholes and bases when Imperial punitive expeditions are launched.

"Any attempt to reconcile the Maelstrom's structure to reality, of course, cannot wholly succeed" - Dorothea Jalk, Interrogator Senioris, Null Bastion

Despite a terrifying warning from Interrogator Jalk, we are given an overview of notable locations in the Maelstrom: The Rad Marches of the "north" unleash countless changing forms of malefic corruption, down to the very nature of the universe, while the Venatorian Caldera is a "chaotic scar dozens of light years across" that splintered nebula, threw planets into each other, and left stellar cores in phasic flux.

The Red Corsairs maintain numerous bases and strongholds, with Huron's power at the nexus of the Tyrant's Crown world of New Badab. Red Corsairs, humans, mutants, and aliens all gather in this dark fortress world, while in orbit hundreds of captured and commandeered warships lay at anchor. Other key facilities include Hell's Iris (a stolen Star Fortress) that serves as Huron's main commerce hub, and the Corsair's Keep, an inactive Blackstone Fortress gifted to Huron by Abaddon the Despoiler.

The Howling Gyre is a domain whose subatomic resonance causes the superstructures of voidships to literally scream. On the world of Ghalmek, the Word Bearers raise their cruel temples and the Iron Warriors build their dark forges alongside the corrupted keeps of Infernal Knight Households. Indeed, Ghalmek is so evil that it is the second most important world to the Word Bearers, with their daemon world Sicarus winning out because Lorgar lives there. The Lost and the Damned are guided to Ghalmek, where they pray and in turn are preyed upon by "half-seen fiends" that prowl. The Word Bearers also contracted with the Dark Mechanicum to industrialize the world, so it has an industrial equal to that of a Mechanicus Forge World. Ghalmek also has three infernal households (Vheer, Sharde, and Carranthis), plus plenty of Dreadblade pilots.

The world of Cocholus is a Necron Tomb World, but one severely damaged by being in the Maelstrom for millennia. Nevertheless, many of the Necron noctlith wards remain active and keeping the Tomb World intact. The daemon world of Bathamor features "glimmering rivers of fire" that "lace through kaleidoscopic crystal jungles" where warbands of Renegade Space Marines maintain bases seeking knowledge and resources. Lastly, within the Gyre is Null Bastion: a hidden Inquisitorial Fortress currently held by Inquisitor Phorica Skaelen of the Ordo Astartes.

The one Traitor Legion that does not seem to maintain a semblance of good terms with the Red Corsairs are the Night Lords, because the Night Lords eschew empire building in favor of rampant hunting and slaughter. Huron is much displeased, but after the first bounty hunters were horrifically kept alive by the Night Lords he struggles to do much about it.

Back Through Time - The Chronology of the Maelstrom

We then get some useful context from GW in the form of "Maelstrom Annals", which details history of the Maelstrom from after the Heresy to the formation of the Great Rift. We learn that the Imperial Fists have a legend of their Chief Librarian sealing away the Daemon Lords of the Maelstrom, while Chaos Space Marines stole the Las Impulsor STC in M38. In M41, we have a date entry in which an Astral Claws punitive force successfully destroyed an Ork raiding force at the cost of their Chapter Master. Third Captain Lugft Huron succeeded him.

We are then treated to some early tales of Huron's career as Chapter Master, in which he is responsible for anti-piracy and anti-Chaos interdiction duties. Huron forms an alliance of local Space Marine chapters, where they fight Orks, Word Bearers, and others. However, Huron suffers more than a few setbacks: a Black Templars-led crusade into the Maelstrom went awry when the Templars left to fight in Ultramar, for example. During this time, Huron is asking for additional Space Marines and resources to fight what he believes is a grueling and neverending defense of the Maelstrom zone. As detailed in Imperial Armour #9, the High Lords of Terra deny his request because of other pressing issues (such as the rebuilding of the Ultramarines after the First Tyrannic War). Furthermore, an oligarchy of local human distributors (the Karthagonians) begin pressing the High Lords to start requiring Huron to pay his tithes again, which the human distributors will collect.

Eventually, Huron declares his independence from the Imperium and the Badab War is fought for 12 years. Huron gets mauled by escapes into the Maelstrom.

The Annals then turn to the rampages of the Red Corsairs. First came rumors of "a previously unknown pirate lord" who "styles themselves Blackheart". Inquisitor Pranix and 5 companies of Space Wolves attempt to reclaim the worlds of Lastrati from the Red Corsairs, but the Red Corsairs outwit the Wolves and they are forced to withdraw. The Salamanders lead a fleet into the Maelstrom, which immediately descends into mutiny and a Red Corsairs trap which gets Chapter Master Neh'tar killed. We're also given a brief summary of the Pandorax Invasion, in which Huron saves the Warmaster's bacon from Battlefleet Demeters, the Dark Angels, and Grey Knights. Huron is also eventually able to subvert a number of Sons of Russ and gets a warband of Chaos Space Wolves, renamed the extremely creative "Red Wolves". By the time of the Great Rift, the White Scars believe that Huron's Red Corsairs now numbers comparatively to a Space Marine Legion. The Imperium, however, is able to retrieve the Las Impulsor STC and start making new Knight Preceptor kits again though!

The first tale we get after the formation of the Great Rift is during Roboute Guilliman's desperate Terran Crusade. In Lair of the Tyrant, the tale notes that Guilliman's fleet is forced into the Maelstrom and "Guilliman is brought low and delivered to the Red Corsairs" and imprisoned within their Blackstone Fortress. Guilliman is subsequently freed by "suspicious allies". Less is mentioned of the fact that the Red Corsairs also captured and commandeered Guilliman’s flagship, Macragge’s Honour. It has bothered me for years how the Ultramarines got the Honour back, and I was hoping Lair of the Tyrant would tell that tale. While Lair of the Tyrant does not mention this at all, it is also not the only lore (re) release from Black Library this weekend.

The Red Corsairs begin to suffer harassment from various xenos forces. First, Harlequins attack trying to retake the Blackstone Fortress. Then Leviathan Tyranids arrive and begin trying to devour the Corsairs. Even the Leagues of Votann arrive to steal things.

Under Blackened Banners - Huron and His Allies

We are given a description of the various units that make up the Red Corsairs. We then get to the lords of the Red Corsairs. First we start off with the characters who do not have their own models:

Lord Draak Traehzar, the Iron Reeve. He somehow managed to get fired from the Iron Hands because he got too many of their allies killed, and turned renegade rather than serve with the Deathwatch. While he has since managed to reap a technological bounty, his "ruthlessness and utter disregard for humans and aliens alike" have not given him a large number of slaves.
The Crimson Choir, a Dark Apostle. While Huron is not thrilled with godbothering, Huron is a fan of the Choir's loyalty and zealotry convincing more Space Marines to join the Red Corsairs. He claims to be a former Son of Sanguinius, but no one knows for sure or if the Crimson Choir is one specific individual.
Veerlis Khreele is a former Mantis Warrior who went renegade after the Badab War, has a "crude bionic eye", and managed to abscond with an Ark of Omen that he now rules as "the Undermaw". Khreele also has a marvelous robo-beard.
There's even a human, General Henrik Falkrieber who went renegade because he was given an undesirable anti-piracy regimental command instead of conquering worlds for The Emperor. So he went renegade and now commands Huron's Traitor Guard.

We then get biographies of the Lords of the Maelstrom box.

After a recitation of his previous biography, Huron Blackheart's leadership style is discussed: like Abaddon the Despoiler, Huron does not favor any one Chaos God. But he's perfectly happy to let his minions serve the Pantheon, as long as said minions do what he tells them to do. That latitude is allegedly why so few of the traitor Astral Claws remain alive. Huron encourages his minions to fight amongst themselves, and Huron will occasionally order tithes from the warbands under his rule. Huron is also willing to make deals with xenos (Kroot, Drukhari, and Orks). Huron also has a mysterious connection to the Maelstrom, personified into the Hamadrya on his base.
Garreon the Corpsemaster, once a senior Apothecary of the Astral Claws and now Lord Apothecary of the Red Corsairs. While he *does* still occasionally heal or repair an ally (such as Huron), his vivispectus array is usually aimed at reducing the living to a grisly wreck. That stated, Huron keeps him around because Garreon is able to create new Red Corsairs from Astral Claws geneseed. He's not Fabius Bile, but he does give off vibes of "We have Fabius Bile at home".
Katar Garrix is a most disloyal son of Rogal Dorn, a former member of the Fafnir Rann's Executioners Space Marine chapter. He likes to decapitate people with his giant axe. Since Huron is need of people whose sole career goal is "decapitate people", he has a job for Mr. Garrix. It keeps everyone else in line.
Garlon Souleater is a former Librarian of the Mantis Warriors, nicknamed "The Tyrant's Witch". While a skilled battle psyker and passionate orator, Garlon's main job is Huron's intelligence director. He can use his psyker powers to effectively mind control and manipulate mortals and destroy defenses before they have a chance to fire on Huron's fleets. He never takes his helmet off.
Captain Markalla Eureos Vahrnistra fon Sargotta XXI commands the Reign of Spite, a powerful battleship. She serves as Huron's top Admiral. When she was in the Imperial Navy she was a deeply ambitious woman, quickly rising through the ranks without care of whom she stepped on to climb. This proved to be the undoing of her naval career, as she suffered an injury and found herself reassigned to a backwater subsector. Shortly thereafter, Cap'n Sargotta arranged for the Red Corsairs to invade and plunder the base. While Sargotta normally commands void war from her bridge, she will occasionally join boarding parties and use her serve platform to commander enemy ships.
The Enforcer is a Tarellian bounty hunter. As a Crocodile Lady with space armor, she hunts down people who run away from Huron and makes sure everyone is aware of the consequences. She also has a Barghesi named Plunder, which everyone hopes is still immature.

We also get a brief section on Red Corsair heraldry, and a biography of an ex-Ultramarine-turned-Red Corsair, Skorvus the Damned. He quit the Thirteenth because he felt his career was not progressing, so he joined the Red Corsairs instead.

The Call of the Waves - The Xenos Sailing the Maelstrom

The Heretic Astartes are not the only denizens or pirates within the Maelstrom, though! As noted earlier, plenty of Ork freebootas sail the Maelstrom. Deathskull Warlord Snikmek managed to conquer a world where disabled warships drift to when crippled within the Maelstrom, and they have since built themselves an Orky technological empire. The Wurrklaw Hordes warband control several moons protected by noctlith totems. The biggest, baddest, and most annoying (to Huron) Ork is the Freeboota Admirul Sunsmasha, who has a gilded power claw reputed to have snuffed out a sun!

The most important other pirates of The Maelstrom, however, are the Aeldari Corsairs led by the new Prince Yriel model. These Aeldari cannot stand the exacting discipline laid out by the Craftworlds, nor can they stand Commorragh because it is better to live life without a knife constantly at your back. So the restless become corsairs to find "liberty and adventure". These pirate captains are arrogant jerks, and so while the Aeldari use a bunch of florid titles the Imperium instead just calls them "Prince" or "Princess" to signify them as jerks. They strike swift and sure, but do not have remotely the staying power or numbers of the Naval Imperialis or Abaddon's war fleets.

We get an in-depth look at the most successful Corsair fleet, Prince Yriel's Eldritch Raiders. Founded in the aftermath of Yriel mishandling the defeat of Chaos Lord Kallorax (and getting Iyanden hit by a cyclonic torpedo), this group of buccaneers focus on their war against Chaos. They're also really good at stealing things, like Necron Overlord treasurers or Aeldari relics deep within the Eye of Terror. They also still help out Iyanden when it needs saving.

We get profiles for all the new models in this release:

Kharseth the Aethyrmancer, an Aeldari Void Dreamer. Void Dreamers are "intimately attuned to the fabric of realspace", and "can perceive the faintest traces of cosmic radiation billowing from distance starts, discern the overlapping gravitic fields of celestial bodies, and sense the thrumming resonance of voidships light years distant." This means that Kharseth can sense enemies that use the warp on the battlefield.
Prince Yriel, the former High Admiral of Craftworld Iyanden, one of the galaxy's most gifted naval commanders, and cursed with "arrogance and pride". Because Yriel does not play well with the rest of Iyanden's leaders, he leads his Eldritch Raiders from the front in melee combat. His weapon, the Spear of Twilight, is one of the legendary Aeldari croneswords. He also has an eyepatch that can shoot lightning.
The Skyreavers, who are drawn from the Drukhari, Craftworlders, and other Aeldari throughout the galaxy. They are the boldest and most impetuous, striking from their Vampire Raiders.
Vypers, which were first built on Craftworld Saim-Hann in order to have a transport that can keep up with Windrider Hosts. The Starfang variant incorporates Drukhari technology (grenade launchers and disintegrator cannons) for use as close-support.

Set Sail and Conquer - The Raid on the Crimson Eyrie

The story for Lair of the Tyrant starts with the Eldritch Raiders entering the Maelstrom at the behest of the Harlequins. The Harlequins promised that there were legendary Aeldari weapons that could be recovered and put to good use. Prince Yriel is not thrilled that the Ynnari have descended into "extremism and zealotry", and thus seeks to free Craftworld Iyanden from the madness of the Ynnari.

Yriel eventually tracks a Red Corsairs raiding force that had ambushed and plundered a Craftworld Alaitoc fleet to a space station called the Crimson Eyrie. With the assistance of Void Dreamer Kharseth, they are able to get themselves into position to launch a surprise attack on the Chaos flotilla. Yriel would put his flagship and it's escorting dragonship outside of sensor range of the flotilla, and use the planet's gravity well to slingshot to the Crimson Eyrie for their attack. The Aeldari gambit initially seemed successful to Yriel and friends, as they boarded the Crimson Eyrie to rescue captives and recover plundered loot. The Aeldari cut through the human and mutant crew like butter, but faced sterner resistance from the Red Corsairs themselves.

Then Huron Blackheart arrived aboard a Strike Cruiser and everything went to hell for Yriel.

Huron was able to intercept the escorting dragonship and launch several boarding torpedos. This prevented the ship from fleeing, while leaving it vulnerable to Huron's broadsides. Huron then fired harpoons and physically grabbed the dragonship. Huron teleported aboard, killed the Aeldari bridge crew, and claimed the dragonship as a prize. However, Huron declared vengeance on Yriel for having successfully surprised him. Yriel had technically won the day, but lost one of his main warships.

To the End of the World

After the raid on the Crimson Eyrie, we have various first-hand accounts from inside the Maelstrom. There, Imperial loyalist and Chaos traitor realize that the Maelstrom is inherently corrosive and corrupting, from the insane daemon worlds (such as the Tzeentch world of Hell's Teeth or the quivering flesh continents of the Fleshmyre) to Imperial warships whose crew get melded with the ship despite the Gellar fields.

Lair of the Tyrant ends, however, with a missive from the Maelstrom continuing the story in this campaign book setting. Ordos Astartes Inquisitor Skaelen of Null Bastion makes contact with another inquisitor. She is absolutely livid that Roboute Guilliman has granted The Emperor's absolution to the Mantis Warriors, Executioners, and Lamenters. These lost chapters are hereby ordered to rearm and refit in preparation for a crusade directed at Huron Blackheart. Inquisitor Skaelen, however, does not want Huron managing to convince these chapters to side with him again, and thus speaks to an unknown other Inquisitor about "instigating a contingency" against the Astartes. If the Badab War chapters uphold their oaths and honor to The Emperor, they will have reinforcement. If they do not, the Ordo Astartes "will have a weapon in place, ready to strike them down. A weapon the Imperium lacked at Badab."

Final Thoughts

The Lair of the Tyrant reads very differently than 500 Worlds: Titus, despite ostensibly having a similar release (a Marine main hero plus a bespoke support unit versus a new xenos character leading their own subfaction). Whereas Titus was about aligning several years worth of varying canon sources and then creating their own tabletop version of the Space Marine game, this release feels like more of a character study into Huron Blackheart and the Red Corsairs. While I am personally more partial to the release that features my primary 40K army, Lair of the Tyrant has influenced my nascent Chaos Space Marine army significantly, featuring a mixed force from various Legions and renegades forced into a single warband. That many of the new kits (Huron and the Raiders) are precisely how I have longed to build my Chaos Space Marines is just icing on the cake.

Additionally, the ongoing story of this campaign release (the Ordo Astartes getting their hackles up at things Guilliman is doing) is becoming more ominous. Once we travel to the Eye of Terror, who knows what insane plans the Ordo is brewing!

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