Averichollie
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Joined 09-09-14, id: 6093531, Profile Updated: 01-20-15
Author has written 1 story for Warhammer.

Here lie some of the greatest criminal minds of our millennium

Penelope Argos, Arbiter, 40786

Foreword: A Letter from the Editor

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the void-ship Salieri's Shadow. Her ongoing mission: to conqueror strange new worlds, to subjugate new life and new civilisations, to boldly split infinitives where no man had split them before.

The following contains the completely true, unvarnished chronicle of the voyages of the void-ship Salieri's Shadow, as well as the various activities of the Salieri Rogue Trader company and their unending quest for ever more liquid assets*. For these reasons, the manuscript as you see it here has only been released in the Expanse, and the extra-Imperial territories, and has been translated into more than thirty languages, including Eldar. A second, "Imperial-safe" version is at this moment being checked over by the Inquisition, such that any unpatriotic references may be excised, for the psychological health of the Imperium.

But this, this is the raw, uncut version rendered illegal in Calixis due to violation of the Code Scriptorium, though, interestingly enough, not on the [nquisitorial burn list, probably due to the relative harmlessness of its contents, and the comparatively small viewership†.

Now, due to the fact that Gothic has split into so many separate languages over the years, and that Gothic itself is a distant descendent of the Euro-Asian creole spoken by the Terran Confederation near the beginning of the Age of Strife, there are translational difficulties. Various idioms translate poorly, slang terms cannot be properly expressed, and there is an untranslatable distinction between the educated, aristocratic Gothic spoken by the Lord-Captain Scipio Salieri and many of his associates, the High Gothic liberally speckled with low vulgarities and borrowed terminology favoured by DeMoss, and Manuellus' preferential Shipboard Gothic. I have tried to capture this by giving Salieri and DeMoss a rather aristocratic 'voice', while Manuellus speaks in terms that are warm, informal, friendly, and familiar. I have also attempted a 'translation by meaning' approach, which sacrifices precision for readability. It helps that I have had access to the crew to get a deeper insight on their thought processes and meanings.

I first came into the service of DeMoss, as he is referred to in these chronicles, perhaps two years before the beginning of the first book, which I have entitled The King of the Wasteland. During this time I have come to regard him as a mentor, a teacher, and even a friend. It is in his name and his memory that I have compiled, organized, and transcribed nearly a hundred thousand hours of archived video in security tapes, video diaries, and the like, most of which was captured by DeMoss' constant companion, the Servo-Skull Pustullio.

Notably, DeMoss, and later Salieri, kept their servo-skulls on record-mode for most of the time they worked together. Through this footage, supplemented by crew interviews, compiled documents, and the like, I've managed to put together a good picture of the day-to-day life of the crew of the Salieri's Shadow. Depending on the planet, the crew of the Salieri's Shadow have come to be regarded as legends, saviours, conquerors, despots, madmen, monsters, and footnotes in the grand scheme of things. Through this manuscript, I hope to prove that Salieri, Manuellus, and DeMoss were simply men who tried their best to make their way in an uncaring universe, whether for good or for ill.

I am not here to answer the question of whether they were saviours or monsters. That is for History alone to judge.


DeMoss, I'm given to understand, was more interested in liquid assets.

†So far, that is. Hope springs eternal, as they once said.


See Tumblr for earlier updates (probably) and the occasional illustration.

http: // the-king-of-the-wasteland. tumblr. com/

The King of the Wasteland reviews
Three men look out into the Abyss, arguing over which star they should blow up first.
Warhammer - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Humor - Chapters: 9 - Words: 22,143 - Reviews: 9 - Favs: 3 - Follows: 4 - Updated: 2/21/2015 - Published: 12/15/2014 - Planetary Defence Forces, Rogue Traders