I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Heralds of the Siege , book 52 in the series. Heralds of the Siege is an anthology, consisting of several short stories, and I'm going to review each one. The Board is Set is the sixteenth and final short story in the book, written by Gav Thorpe.
In Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, a knight returns from the Crusades and finds his country ravaged by the plague. In the film, this knight plays chess against Death, in hopes of altering the fate of those around him. I see The Board is Set as a Warhammer 40,000 take on The Seventh Seal.
In The Board is Set, Malcador the Sigillite plays Warhammer Underworlds against the Emperor, in hopes of altering the fate of Terra and the whole galaxy. Well, it's not really Warhammer Underworlds but it is a wargame that uses cards, and it's not exactly the Emperor but a mental embodiment of the Emperor called "Revelation". Through the game, Malcador learns about what it means to sacrifice everything for victory, what failure would mean for the galaxy, and also that sometimes victory and failure look a lot alike.
The Seventh Seal is in part about the silence of god. It questions why an all-powerful god would remain silent while also demanding absolute faith and unparalleled loss of life in the form of the Crusades.
That's also a running theme in the Horus Heresy. Horus questioned early on why the Emperor was absent in the Great Crusade. He wanted to know why the Emperor had apparently abandoned his Primarchs. The Emperor hasn't been declared a god yet, and in fact stands against the concept of gods, but still there's doubt from a man who knows the Emperor exists but resents his silence. It seems that a god, whether silent or verbose, dormant or active, inspires equal amounts of faith and doubt.
I think that's one of the key battles of the Horus Heresy. There's a battle between the state of blind faith and persistent doubt. Doubt is different that skepticism. Skepticism is where Lokan in the earliest Horus Heresy books starts, and it's what Malcador in this story cites when he says to Revelation, "You say there's no such thing as a soul." Doubt is different. It's what Horus harbours, not because he doubts that the Emperor is a god, but because he doubts the Emperor. He doubts that the Emperor has a plan, he doubts that the Emperor is benevolent, he doubts that the Emperor is what's best for the galaxy. He doubts this as much as loyalists have faith in the Emperor, some as if the Emperor is a god, but others in the older sense of just having faith that the Emperor is a rational being fighting for something beneficial for humanity.
Regardless of who's right or wrong, possibly the biggest problem with the Emperor is, like the god of The Seventh Seal, his silence. If he does have a master plan, then he's not communicating it. If he does care about humanity, he's not demonstrating it. If he denies Horus, he's not declaring it. In fact, even in the game with Malcador, Revelation uses the term "Warmaster". The honorific hasn't been stripped away from Horus.
Revelation asks what Malcador would sacrifice for him, and Malcador claims that he would sacrifice everything. In the The Seventh Seal, sacrifice is all around the knight. His brothers have sacrificed their lives for the crusade, and their "enemy" has been sacrificed. The country he's returned to is being sacrificed to the plague. Everything is being given up to god, and still Death demands more.
In the Horus Heresy, the state of the galaxy is similar to Europe after the Crusades. Sacrifices are made daily in numbers previously incalculable. Ostensibly, these sacrifices are for the survival of the human race, but there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.
Malcador provides a reason for it. He says he wants to avoid failure. He says that it's failure that he fears the most, whether his failure lasts for just a moment prior to death, or for eternity. He doesn't want to fail the Emperor. The endless sacrifice of eternal war is worth avoiding failing in his duty.
If ever there's a definition of slavery, surely that's it. Malcador doesn't fear failing himself and his own personal integrity. He fears failing the expectations of someone else. That's what the Imperium is about in Warhammer 40,000 Your actions are guided by someone else's expectations and ideals, so you're enslaved to a silent master who demands, through silence, endless sacrifice. That's the alternative, in the Warhammer universe, to the boundless selfishness of Chaos.
Recognising a recipe for disaster can be an effective way to avoid that disaster. It's well-documented that Warhammer is meant as a cautionary tale, and I think that The Board is Set is a sublimely effective, and admittedly esoteric, reminder of that. Between being a slave to silence and a slave to darkness, there's a place in the real world for compassion and collaboration. Malcador doesn't see it, but I think some people in the Warhammer universe do. I like to think that Malcador's assistant, who wanders in as he's sitting around playing a Wargame apparently by himself, sees the truth. There is no Emperor, in a figurative sense, and there are no dark gods. There are humans, many of whom play wargames against imaginary foes, and others who are just wandering the palace living their lives.
The Board is Set is the final short story. It sets the stage for Terra's invasion. The next book is Titandeath, which isn't about the invasion of Terra. Yes, it's another Horus Heresy cliffhanger.
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.