I’ve often noted that one of the secrets to the longevity of Warhammer is how it manages to be different things to different people. You’ve got the tabletop wargame, of course, the building and painting of the minis, and deep lore and library of books… and folks can quire comfortably inhabit any one of these even to the exclusion of others. Take me, for instance. Longtime Black Library reader and (more recent) collector, I’ve painted precisely one mini in my entire life and played my first-ever game of tabletop just a few weeks ago.
Even within a particular niche there’s plenty of variety. Just like some gamers have never played 40K but love them some Necromunda, amongst us Black Library fans there’s a whole spectrum of readers and collectors. My library has several hundred physical books, while my fellow nutter Lenoon has at least that many- all conveniently stored on his tablet.
Given how much effort Games Workshop puts in to producing beautiful special editions, it’s clear that there’s a visual and tactile aesthetic that has captured a large part of the reading community. So for those who love to see what the next Limited Edition has to offer your shelf, for those who enjoy seeing others post pictures of their high-end collections, and for those learning more about some of the rarer offerings in the Black Library, this new feature is for you! In our kickoff piece today you’ll get all three!
My Museum: The Thousand Sons
Like most of us I’d wager, my collection is an evolving work in progress. It started with the paperbacks, then hardbacks, then limited and special editions. Codexes, gamebooks, and RPG’s too. Then the minis. Eventually, I started to get an idea of how I wanted to display some of these things in my home.
In each installment of Black Library Bibliophiles, I’ll share some of the more ‘finished’ shelves I have in the museum. Today, we’re going to start with Ahriman.
“Let me tell you five things about Ahriman:
Ahriman is pure evil.
Ahriman is obsessed by gathering knowledge and arcane power.
Ahriman is a misunderstood hero.
Ahriman is Tzeentch’s greatest champion.
Ahriman worships no god, and follows his own path.
All of these things are true. All of these things have nothing to do with who Ahriman is.” -John French1
To date, John French has penned five novels for the tragic Thousand Sons sorcerer, and the fourth one- Ahriman: Exile– received the lavish Mega Limited Edition treatment upon release in March of 2022. Let’s take a closer look at what’s in the box!
Here’s my Ahriman shelf in my display cabinet (the glass doors are open for the picture), and this is a great example of the essence I’m going for with my arrangements. In addition to the contents of the Ahriman: Exile Mega, there’s also a copy of the Ahriman: Undying Limited Edition as well as Ahriman’s Warhammer 40,000 miniature (the Horus Heresy miniature will be joining him soon).
The Book
In addition to the novel itself, there’s an afterword by French where he goes into greater detail about what he feels makes Ahriman- and by extension the Thousand Sons- tick. Here’s an excerpt:
“When I began the first Ahriman trilogy, I envisaged Ahriman’s progress and actions as a series of quests or projects. Each of them would be an attempt to reverse the devastation of the Rubric, save the Thousand Sons from Chaos, and earn himself redemption for the harm he had done them in the past. Though, of course, each quest would fail to achieve the whole goal, each of them would change and add to Ahriman’s knowledge, and open new possibilities in his mind. They would also all have great and terrible consequences for both him and his Legion brothers. Each one would be a step on the never-ending stair that he walks for Tzeentch’s amusement, taking him both higher and further away from where he started.
“The greatest threat faced by Ahriman and the Thousand Sons is their own nature. They create their own crises and doom. It’s another pattern that stretches all the way back to their story in the Horus Heresy.
“The Thousand Sons after the Horus Heresy adopted the sigil of a burning ouroboros, a flaming snake eating its own tail. That symbol perfectly describes their nature. They turn back on themselves, unable to move on from the past, destroying and working against themselves at every turn. Most often this is not conscious. It stems from the fact that most of them are convinced of their own insight and ability and pathologically incapable
of not acting. They create their own doom repeatedly, and where some of them might come close to a solution, the others undo that chance. The hand of Tzeentch does not need to intervene directly to keep them spinning to the Changer of Ways’ design – it simply needs to let the Thousand Sons follow their nature.”
Given that French is essentially the Black Library’s lead voice on the Thousand Sons, this is as good a gospel as you’re likely to find. It’s terrific insight into the cursed circle this ill-fated Legion is doomed to tread- and part of what makes them so appealing. The rich treatment and shelf appeal of Limited Editions is always nice, but it’s the extra author content that tops my list for best feature in the premium range.
If one book wasn’t enough for you, though, it’s a good thing this set comes with a second.
Daemonologie: A Question Asked of Darkness
“I lay this down as record of the rituals that I am about to undertake. It is possible that I will not survive. It is possible that if I do survive, I will not remember. Such is the risk of my craft.
“I am Ctesias. It is not my true name, but it is the name I have borne for more than two lifetimes…
So begins the companion book, which appears as an in-universe chapbook filled with musings and illustrations from the Thousand Sons ‘summoner and binder of daemons’ as he looks for answers from a denizen of the warp. Think a sort of Liber Chaotica in miniature.
Towards the end of the book, some of the passages are written backwards (to avoid spoiling the novel). That can be a bit of a hassle to read, unless you have the right tool for the job. And it just so happens you do…
The Mirrored Scarab
This palm-sized mirror is perfectly serviceable for reversing the reflected passages so you can more easily read them, and it’s a lovely piece of art in its own right.
The Divination Coin
I imagine this must have been a lot of fun to sculpt, because it is very detailed and textured on both of its sides. But if you’re flipping it to see what the future has in store for you, I don’t think you’re gonna like what it says.
The Divination Cards
Who needs the Emperor’s Tarot when you’ve got the Changer of Ways on your side?2
These are nine cards of a similar size and firmness as bar coasters and you could, in theory, use them for that. The set has uniform art on one side and something unique on the other, just the thing for trying to read some tea leaves and see what Tzeentch has in store.
The Tasseled Bookmark
This bookmark is lovely, but if there’s a knock on it it’s that it is very thin (so thin, in fact, that I have concerns that over time it might warp in its holder solely from the weight of the hanging tassle). This is a far cry from those durable, laminated bookmarks you see in bookstores and a rare miss from this set.
The Art Print
The cover art from the book’s regular release, there was a certain community puzzlement over this piece that was reminiscent of the one years ago with Magic: the Gathering involving Olivia Voldaren.
No, I shan’t be elaborating, this is a family publication.
The Box
Finally, the Mega Edition’s box itself. With its magnetic covers and evocative art, it’s just as well-composed as its contents.
The Ahriman: Exile Mega Limited Edition was restricted to only 1,500 sets upon release, and has the individual numbering and author signature characteristic of Black Library limited issuances. These days it can be had in the secondary market for around USD $250. I paid $210 for mine, but as bargains go that pales in comparison to our next story.
Chasing a Grail
If you’re a collector of just about anything, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve got a few ‘grails’ you’re chasing. Something rare, scarce, or expensive that you haven’t managed to acquire yet, but oh the celebration once you do!
For Dom from the UK, that thing was a physical copy of Dark Hunters: Umbra Sumus.
Talk about a title with a tale, Dom didn’t choose an easy one.
Northern Irish writer Paul Kearney entered the Black Library in 2010, with short stories appearing in two different anthologies that year. For 40K, that was The Last Detail, a story about a father and son who find a wounded Astartes and must help get him to safety as battle rages above. The chapter of that Astartes? The Dark Hunters.
While Kearney’s body of work for the Black Library was modest, he found a measure of success with his own novels which, in 2009, saw him longlisted for the David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel (somewhat ironically losing out to Graham McNeill’s Warhammer story Empire). This success gave him the greenlight for his first 40K novel, and in 2015 Dark Hunters: Umbra Sumus was announced.
But there was a problem. As it happened, an American writer named Sherrilyn Kenyon already had the title “Dark Hunter” locked down for her urban fantasy series and wasn’t too keen on sharing. With the threat of legal action in the air Games Workshop yanked the book at the very last moment, with all shipped copies sent back to be destroyed.
Well, all but around 100.3Â
Games Workshop had intended to change the title and reissue the book, but for whatever reason that never happened and physical copies of Dark Hunters: Umbra Sumus are amongst the rarest of the rare when it comes to Black Library books. In other words, the perfect grail.
That brings us to today’s featured collector, Dom. Dom’s story is a familiar one for many of us, where being further on our career paths has given us the ability to acquire things that were once out of reach.
“I got back into the Hobby about seven years ago,” he shared, “having been away from it since mid 2000’s- but only started collecting books seriously in 2021.” It was the Death Korps of Krieg that pulled him back, and he’d soon assembled the full set of Imperial Armour. From there he moved on to the Forgeworld Horus Heresy books, and finally the Limited Edition of Alpharius: Head of the Hydra triggered the jump to Black Library collectibles.
“From there, I went further down the rabbit hole of a Black Library collector! I started buying the LEs of my favorite novels (luckily when prices were much friendlier to those starting a collection!). Soon I had caught up with the Siege of Terra LEs that had been released, followed by the Night Lords trilogy, Talon of Horus, Dark Imperium trilogy and more Primarch books!”
All of these are great, of course, but there’s one book that is clearly the gem in the crown of Dom’s collection. One that, but for a quirk of fate (and full bladder), might well have passed him by.
“Like most grail stories, mine came with a huge slice of luck! In mid-2024 I finally caved in to my wife and daughter’s request and we decided to get a puppy. Like most puppies early on, she didn’t respect normal sleeping hours! My wife and I would take turns to get up with her and settle her back down.
“One morning, I was woken by barking at 4am. It being my turn, I let her outside. While she was in the garden, I decide to scroll through eBay. I have saved searches for any minis or books I’m keeping an eye out for, and on this occasion I got a hit on a listing for Umbra Sumus. Now I had only seen this book sold on two previous occasions, both being auctions that finished close to £2000! This was a book I had genuinely come to terms with never owning.
“This listing was a buy-it-now, for $400 (roughly £300). My eyes lit up! surely its fake? Do people fake books? Do they know how much it sells for? To some, £300 for a book is crazy, but this was a rare opportunity- maybe once in a lifetime.
“Other members of the Black Library Nutters Facebook4 group had posted pictures of their copies, so I scrolled through the group page and compared pictures to try and find any differences. The only thing I could find was the ISBN number didn’t match theirs, and the price printed being in dollars (all other Nutter copies being in pounds and euros). Was there a US release? I searched the ISBN database and it matched! Yes, Umbra Sumus had been set to release in the US. I couldn’t risk stalling much longer so I pulled the trigger and bought it.
“As I waited for the book to cross the pond from the US to the UK, I felt more nervous than excitement. When the day came and it finally arrived I was glad to see the packaging was intact, no damage!
“There it was in my hands, one of the rarest Black library books ever to (not) be released. I took photos and sent them to one of the other owners to help with verification. All seemed to check out, colours matched, text aligned, and one of the clearest indicators: the spine cover is slightly curved, and not flat like newer hardbacks. It was genuine.
“I put a post out on the Nutters group and shared my good fortune. It was documented and I was only the eighth person to own one in the group. That was just over 12 months ago, and since then only one additional copy has been found.
For many, the ‘thrill of the hunt’ is part of the payoff of building a dream library, and Dom shared a few things he’s keeping an eye out for now.
There are still some holes in my collection. Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor’s Legion, Celestine: The Living Saint, Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah, Nagash, Neferata. They go for quite a lot, so I’m biding my time until I see a good deal.
What about reading?
Anything by Dan Abnett or Aaron Dembski-Bowden! Those two are top tier writers. The Night Lords trilogy is fantastic, it literally made me paint up some Night Lords! Same with Spears of the Emperor.
The Devastation of Baal by Guy Haley, and The Infinite and The Divine by Robert Rath are also great. None of my books are for reading though. They sit on the shelf as display pieces, then I catch the audio book version when released. This allows me to spend more time painting, and the narrators the Black Library use are fantastic.
Dom was kind enough to share a few snaps of the rest of his library, too- with Umbra Sumus enjoying a well-deserved pride of place.
A grail’s glory for Dom, but spare a thought for author Paul Kearney. It’s one thing to bring your creative talents to bear when you know in advance that the audience is going to be limited, such as with the one-of-a-kind Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album from Wu-Tang Clan (also in 2015). It’s quite another to get excited about a novel release only to find it torpedoed by factors well beyond your control.
Fortunately this wasn’t to be his epitaph for the Black Library, as he would go on to pen two more novels (Calgar’s Siege and Calgar’s Fury) in the following two years, and one more short story in 2020.
That’s it for this time, I hope you enjoyed this stroll through the collector’s world of Black Library books. Got an impressive collection you’d like to share, perhaps for a future feature? Let’s connect!5
Footnotes
- John French wrote a nice two-parter for Warhammer Community back in 2016 explaining his vision for the character. Although long since disappeared from WarCom, you can find them here and here.
- Ish. He’s really only ever on one side: his own.
- Even that’s a best guess.
- I’m also in this group, and get a lot out of it. Worth checking out if you’re still using Facebook.
- I’m on Bluesky, Reddit, and Facebook.
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