Without Honour by Nick Kyme

Author:Nick Kyme
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-08T08:48:28+00:00

INTRODUCTION

by Dan Abnett

Volpone Glory Limited Edition

When are the bad guys not the bad guys? Well, sometimes, it depends on where you're standing.

When I started writing the Gaunt's Ghosts novels, I began creating other Astra Militarum regiments to operate alongside them, mainly to illustrate the wild variety of the Emperor's Own Imperial Guard. Some units were just 'there', side by side with the Ghosts or in the same theatre of operations, while others, like the Pardus, the Narmenians and the noble Vitrians, became friends and proper allies.

And some - and I'm not ashamed to admit it - were created to be rivals. To be adversaries. To be, quite simply, the bad guys. Not all Imperial Guard units are created equal, and some come with their own agendas, or chips on their shoulders, or have been beguiled, willingly or otherwise, into less than honourable activities. Not everybody gets along in the Astra Militarum, and sometimes, for the sake of story and variation, it's fun to have the 'enemy' on the wrong side… i.e. yours.

This was the case with the Jantine Patricians, and it was definitely the case with the Royal Volpone, the so-called 'Bluebloods', especially their celebrated 50th regiment.

Like the Jantine, the Volpone were aristocratic and haughty. They were proud and overbearing. They came from privileged worlds and sported the very finest equipment and weapons. They were obnoxious, boorish and unbearable. They looked down their noses at everybody, considered no one worthy enough to lick their boots, and generally treated other regiments as peasant scum, particularly the rough-and-ready Ghosts of Tanith.

I made them that way deliberately and without much subtlety. The Volpone were simply odious, highborn arseholes, established with the explicit purpose of making the reader hate them. They were the bullies, the rich-kid frat-boys, the suave thugs, the Iceman to Gaunt's Maverick, the Elves to the Tanith's Halflings, the Slytherin… you get die idea.

The Volpone filled that role effortlessly. Sneering and regal, they treated everyone, but mostly the Tanith, like dirt, and acted like they were the God-Emperor's gift. And they weren't just overly proud soldiers: the Volpone were downright snakes. What with certain 'accidental' friendly fire incidents, conspicuous black-heartedness, and siding with the notorious traitor General Sturm, they were your actual boo-hiss villains, and everyone was frankly delighted when they got their comeuppance. (Side note - on reflection, I think it's interesting that the two 'bad' regiments I built, the Jantine and the Volpone, were both aristo and privileged. That happened so easily, so effortlessly, so automatically, it probably says a lot about the good old British class system. Or me. Or both.)

Later on, several Gaunt novels in, we started producing Sabbat Crusade anthologies where other writers were invited to play in the Gaunt's Ghosts sandpit. These writers were encouraged to pick the bits of Sabbat Crusade continuity that most appealed to or interested them, and run with them. This has led to three volumes (so far) of terrific short stories, which I encourage you to seek out and read.

So

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