Necromunda: Bring On ‘Ciderak Burning’
Long time fans have good reason to be excited about Ciderak Burning. The status quo is about to change on Necromunda.
Necromunda is getting a new campaign book very soon. Necromunda: The Aranthain Succession – Ciderak Burning is slated next for the Hiveworld and it’s promising some big changes. Today, we’re going to delve into some of the reasons why I’m excited to learn more about this book and what I hope it means for the future of Necromunda.
Last month, GW dropped quite a bit of info on the upcoming book but a lot of the details got buried in the weeds. I want to go through those tidbits and dissect them a bit more and talk about some of the implications surrounding them — and why those implications are exciting news for fans of Necromunda. With that said, let’s go through that post in more detail, shall we?
The Great Rift Is Calling
“The sky has split in two, lights are going out across the cosmos, and the planetary core itself is cooling, causing rolling blackouts in the great hive cities of Necromunda. The Great Darkness has come, and in the depths of this endless night a fire is ignited on the horizon of the ash wastes – the city of Cinderak is aflame.”
From this first paragraph we can see that the Great Rift’s impact is being felt on Necromunda. Apparently, the core of the planet is cooling (that’s never good) and there are rolling blackouts in the hive cities. It unclear if the blackouts are being caused by the core cooling or what — but I can see the Great Rift causing some electrical issues for Necromunda regardless.
In anycase, think about a Hive City for a moment. They aren’t exactly know as safe havens of law and order. Now turn the lights off. Can you imagine the lawlessness that’s going to happen now?! You thought gang warfare was bad before. Just think of how many folks are going to attempt to take advantage of this situation to settle old scores or worse! And what about things that used to have to hide in the dark? I wouldn’t be shocked if the Mutants rose up and attacked during this time, too.
Assassin Abound
“As if the aftermath of the Great Rift wasn’t enough, Gerontius Helmawr, undisputed Lord of Necromunda, now lies in medical stasis after a failed assassination attempt.”
Apparently during this great blackout someone attempted to assassinate Lord Helmawr, Lord of Necromunda. And while the assassin didn’t manage to kill him outright, he’s now stuck in stasis. That’s going to take him out of commission for sure. And that means a power vacuum has just hit Necromunda. Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the organization of the planet or only aware of the Gangs then you might not know about all the other great houses. There’s a lot of nobles on the planet that are looking to make moves and GW pretty much confirmed that the status quo on Necromunda is about to be shaken-up!
I wonder how the Palatine Enforcers are going to react to this news. Lord Helmawr and his office kind of ran the planet and the Enforcers were his strong-arms. If he’s in stasis who’s giving the orders now? And which of his heirs are going to rise up to take control? GW mentions a “Lady Haera, the 13th Daughter of Lord Helmawr” maybe she’s next in line? But what about her 12 other older sisters and unknown number of older brothers?
GW also dropped this Lady Credo art in the article. I’m wondering if this nomad noble is going to have a role to play as well. The article did mention “Nobles, Clans, Guilds, rebels…” and more.
Necromunda Status Quo No More
“This expansion is the first chapter in The Aranthian Succession, a planet-spanning story that will change the face of Necromunda forever – assuming it survives…”
This line here is another big clue that the status quo of Necromunda is about to change too. Personally, I think this is what has me most excited. Necromunda is a setting that hasn’t really moved all that much in almost 30 years. With the latest edition of the game we’ve seen GW lay some major ground work though. First, the updated rules and models are a big shift. Each Gang got reworked and has a steady stream of updates and new miniatures.
And then there are the “House of…” books. Each one covered the history and lore of their respective houses. This was already a huge lore drop from Games Workshop and really fill out the background of each of the major Gang Houses. It made each one a character in their own right. Then, GW has gave us a map of Necromunda and even took us out into the Ash Wastes to showcase what the planet’s surface is like.
All of these steps just made the planet feel bigger and richer. And now, for the first time in a long time, we’re going to see the scariest thing ever on Necromunda: Change. GW is taking all that groundwork they’ve been slowly working on and they are moving forward with it. Necromunda is catching up with the rest of the 40k setting. The events of the Great Rift had galaxy wide repercussions and not even Necromunda is immune.
I don’t know where Games Workshop is taking us with the new Necromunda Campaign book. But I like the direction these tidbits are pointing. Hopefully this Aranthian Succession storyline pans out and GW uses it as more than just a vehicle to introduce more…uh…vehicles. I really hope Necromunda changes for the bigger and better.
Cinderak Burning is hopefully just the start of something even bigger for Necromunda.
