40K: What Is GW Hiding Inside the Blackstone Fortress
GW has been teasing something big for 40K’s future in the Blackstone Fortress Game. Let’s try to piece it all together.
Since the Blackstone Fortress boxed set arrived last year – GW has been teasing out that it will play a key role in the future of the galaxy.
We’ve had several supplements since then and they just announced the final expansion, so apparently we will get a big reveal. It’s hard to say what big future plans for Warhammer 40k they have hidden within the game, so we’ve gone through all our archives and pulled together a lot of loose ends. Perhaps that will point us in the right direction:
Battlefleet Gothic
The Blackstone Fortresses were first introduced in Battlefleet Gothic (1999).
The Imperium discovered 6 of them in the Gothic Sector, and dated them to “between 17,000 and 300,000 years old” and of alien and unknown origin.
Abaddon took control of all 6 during the Gothic War, and lost 4 of them. He retreated into the eye of Terror with 2.
Eye of Terror
During the Eye of Terror Summer Campaign of 2003, Abaddon assaulted Cadia with the 2 missing Blackstone Fortresses.
Eldrad Ulthaun personally leads Eldar forces against Abaddon during the conflict. His reasons are “They (the Necrons) seek to destroy the remaining Talimans of Vaul and without them, we are helpless agains the Star Gods.”
Fall of Cadia
During the retconced Fall of Cadia the remaining Blackstones are lost, one of them impacting on Cadia, destroying it.
The Craftworld Eldar fought in this conflict.
Trayzn the Infinite was present during the conflict.
Blackstone Fortress Game
A 7th Blackstone Fortress has been located on the far western edge of the Imperium.
It appears to be fully funcitonal and displays the appearance of sentience.
It is pulling thousands of ships of many races, including Chaos to itself and consuming them.
It is allowing members of various races to board it.
The fortress can alter its internal shape and “heal” itself at will.
It has an internal complement of native defenders, the “Spindle Drones” of various size.
Psychic Awakening
We have an ongoing war between the Necrons, Chaos, and the Mechanicus for the mining of Blackstone for thier own purposes, either to block the warp from the galaxy (Pylons of Cadia), or to create warp rifts (Noctilith Crowns).
Thoughts
So right off the bat the Imperium’s dating of the Blackstone could to be really, really off. If the Eldar consider the Talimans of Vaul tools to destroy the C’tan, they might be millions of years old, dating back to the War in Heaven. It is possible they were not created by the Eldar, but by another species – who were also trying to destroy the C’tan. The Eldar were one of many races created by the Old Ones to fight against the Necrons & their masters.
The latest Blackstone Fortress is clearly “alive” in a way that the earlier 6 were not. Its actions seem to represent an attempt to study the current species of the galaxy surreptitiously.
The Spindle Drones do not look like any other race currently in Warhammer 40,000. They have a strange merging of technological and organic elements.
I think it’s possible the creators of the Blackstone Fortress may be a future race to be introduced to the galaxy/game. They could be something previously unknown, or maybe even one of the Old Ones.
With the power of Blackstone as a substance and the amount of it contained in a Blackstone Fortress, who knows what it could do the galaxy. From a narrative point of view, it might be able to do anything from healing the great rift to making more like it.
It looks like GW is setting up a major narrative conflict between the Necrons and whatever is behind the Blackstone Fortress.
~ What do you think is going on inside that thing, and what are GW’s plans?
