CREDO!
He is the Nemesis — He is the Warlock — He is the shape of things to come — The lord of the flies — Holder of the Sword Sinister — the Death Bringer —The one who waits on the edge of your dreams — He is all these things and many more.
More importantly, he is one of the stars of venerable British comic 2000AD. An alien khaos sorcerer inciting a rebellion against the theocratic, xenophobic Terran Empire, Nemesis is one of the most important precursors to Warhammer 40,000. The adventures of Nemesis and his... um... nemesis, the Inquisitor Torquemada, can be adapted for the 40k family of RPGs relatively easily, while other gms and players could find the wild flights of fancy, bizarre details and over the top swords and sorcery action very useful indeed.
In BOOK ONE: The World of Termite (>>44307075) we were introduced to the principle characters, the Termite Empire, and witnessed the death of Torquemada again and again and again. In BOOK TWO: The Alien Alliance we find out more about the other inhabitants of the galaxy, as well as gaining some crucial insight into how Torquemada came to be such a bastard.
NOW READ ON
>>44328117
Shakaranon
B A S E D
A
S
E
D
Ace of Swords > Sword Sinister IMHO
>>44328139
But first, Torquemada's backstory.
The Children's Crusade was a real event in 1212. While research shoes the participants were not necessarily children, it did involve an awful lot of non-knights attempted to reach Jerusalem.
It did not go well.
>>44328176
Get off the tubes, Deadlock.
is he choking on some sort of delta wing aircraft?
>>44328241
That is, in fact, his nose. The grille is actually his mouth.
The art for this book was provided by a Spanish artist named Jesus Redondo rather than series co-creator Kevin O'Neill. He brings a more knightly, fantastical look to the proceedings in place of the deranged level of detail in the earlier stories.
Vestal Vampires were mentioned in passing previously as the fanatical battle sisters of the Terran Empire.
"Vestal Vampire" is of course a play on the ancient Roman Vestal Virgins, priestesses of Vestas, goddess of the hearth and home.
The Terran leader uses arcane, poorly understood machinery to drain the life force of his subjects in order to remain alive in death.
I swear I've seen that somewhere before .
>>44328360
It's still pretty similar, I think.
>>44328713
True, but compare the cavalry charge in >>44308543 with the firedrake riders in >>44328576 - O'Neill's is a lot more bizarre and baroque.
There's nothing wrong with it, its just worth mentioning that Redondo's version of the setting is a bit closer to mainstream high fantasy and a bit less warped.
Then again, prison planet of the spider aliens.
I don't know why Torquemada's looming face in the second to last panel amuses me so much, but it does.
Do we have any arachnophobics in the house?
>Deathwatch Marine exfiltrates from Tau prison.
Oh Torquemada.
>To return to my HOME PLANET to see my FAMILY again... Somehow, I sense they could be in DANGER...
I am sure that has nothing to do with the actively malevolent psychotic ghost you've just let go free Nemesis. Can't see any problems for you in the future there at all.
An accursed deviant ate my image.
Finally, we end Book Two with the Secret Life of the Blitzspear, showing the evolution of Warlocks and their traditional mounts from a species of trilobite dolphins.
>>44329149
Absolutely.
And as a bonus, a family portrait of our beloved Grandmaster and his loved ones.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/u0d4t6axp21ttb8/Book+2+-+Alien+Alliance.cbr
>>44329875
Then I hope it properly tapped into your loathing for the heathen deviants, loyal Termite!
>>44329917
You have no idea.
Sometimes I wonder if they're actually aware of how horrifying some of the stuff they make is.
>>44330650
Certainly not fellow human. That would be silly. What a jokester you are. Ho. Ho. Ho.
I realised I missed a couple of the one shots that came between the longer arcs of Nemesis, so without further ado, the origin of Nemesis' weapon, Excessus, The Sword Sinister.
This story was in the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1981, which came out the same month as Book One of Nemesis. You'll notice that the alien prisoner is the same one who was left behind at the start of Book Two >>44328213
The call to adventure!Its might be a coincidence, but notice the name of the lady who rules the space station. Before Dan Abnett wrote Gaunt's Ghosts he used to do a lot of work for 2000AD. Still does, really.
What a lovely story.
>>44332287
Was Nemesis the dead warlock there and revive when the sword was removed, or did he just magically appear right after Olric picked it up?
Right, the one I thought I'd missed actually comes directly after Book Three. We'll get to it soon.
http://www.2000adonline.com/books/judge_dredd_total_war.php
>>44332358
I wondered about that. Both explanations work. There's a nice irony in the idea that the quest to find a weapon to slay Nemesis is what releases him. On the other hand, Nemesis is exactly dickish enough to wait until the exact moment that his would-be executioner has finally found the sword after years of pain and effort to strike. Choose whichever you like more!
But first BOOK THREE: THE WORLD OF NEMESIS
The scan quality leaves a lot to be desired in some places, but I've not been able to get a better version. Hopefully won't be too much of a problem.
CRAP the pages for this are all out of order, hang on.
OK, sorry about this. THIS TWO PAGE SPREAD should be the first page after the cover. I've fixed the other ones where it went wrong, I think. I hope.
Back in the day, comics like 2000AD could only afford to have a few colour pages, usually the covers and centrefold.
This page follows >>44332590
Some proper 80s hair on Chira there.
>>44332797
>centaur
>humanoid
>spaceship
are all the same genus
god help them
>>44332867
There's even more variety then that, it seems. You don't see many Rubenesque centaurs, for instance.
>>44333002
some have wings, some don't
WIIIIZZZZZAAAAARD!
Holy Tau the deviancy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSfVMOXhSHk
What a beautiful baby. He has his father's eyes.
>Brother kevin
tee hee hee
>>44333260
>play it again, Pan!
hehe
BIG JOBS!
>>44333295
The Blitzspear has a really great design I think. Like maybe one of my favourite ship designs in anything.
>>44333336
The artist is basically admitting he has a monstergirl fetish here.
>>44333336
>>Brother kevin
>tee hee hee
Is that one of the 2000AD artists or something?
Before Nemesis, before 2000AD really, there was a strip called Ro-Busters by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill in a comic called Starlord. Ro-Busters was essentially International Rescue from Thunderbirds, but with a team of robots - the filthy minded sewer cleaner Ro-Jaws, the noble Hammerstein, and the ever lovable, completely moronic psychopathic demolotion droid Mek Quake.
Ro-Busters was a popular strip, so when Starlord merged with 2000AD the characters returned in a new series The ABC Warriors. Until this moment (bar one Easter egg in an earlier story >>44308208), there was no connection between the worlds of Nemesis and Ro-Busters / The ABC Warriors, but the links would only get stronger from here on out.
>>44333595
Kevin O'Neill is the co-creator of Nemesis and the ABC Warriors, and the artist for this book. He got a lot of stick at the time for not being as fast to complete pages as some of his peers, mainly because of the ridiculous amount of detail he'd put into each page. I think he also started the trend of getting artist credits for British comic creators in defiance of traditional publishing practices as well, which annoyed publishers no end because they had to pay more.
So I'm sure its just a neat coincidence that there's a panel with a surprisingly normal looking Brother Kevin who takes too long doing his illuminated borders but labours "under a vow of poverty and obedience" drawing strange monsters for a tyrant in a page drawn by O'Neil
Man, that was a lot more than I meant to write. TL:DR - yes.
Back cover forming the full poster. I should really have posted this first, but c'est la vie
>>44333840
Hah. Thanks, Shakaranon. I love your dumps (and BTypes Usagi Yojimbo one, I think) because you can go into detail on all this ancillary stuff that contributes to the experience.
>>44333890
I'm glad you enjoy them! I do think the wider context often helps make them better, but I often wonder if anybody reads it or whether I'm just distracting people.
Wow, these relics of the Lost Age of Technology are titanic.
>Technical details courtesy of...
>>44333464
Man I think a random generator based on this comic would be some fertile ground.
>1. A giant siege robot built from automobile parts that expresses its current feelings via an electronic road sign on its chest e.g. DIE DEVIANTS, CRUSH, HUG ME
>2. A crane rebuilt into a mech with trebuchet arms
>3. A sentient fire truck converted into a battering ram with a church on top named Dennis
Maybe I'll comb through the whole thing when you're finishing and do a d100 one. When do you expect to wrap up?
Also reading this while listening to Ziltoid the Omniscient is some trip, would recommend.
>>44334299
24 to go with this one, so at least half an hour with this damnable post timer.
>>44334079
FEDARKOS
E
D
A
R
K
O
S
There's also very nearly an official Nemesis soundtrack that I've been waiting to find an appropriate place to post. I'll post it in a story for its release year, but if you want to look now searchShriekback - Nemesis. Maniac Street Preacher's song PCP also references Torquemada's famous catchphrase.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN5AxvjTJhQ
Richey Edwards of the Manic's was a huge fan of 2000ad in his youth. A piece of fan art he did as a boy was even published in it!
Skiapodes are based on Monopodes from medieval bestiaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopod_%28creature%29
>Thing's can't get any worse.
Famous last words...
ohboyherewego.rune
Ah memories.
Blimey.
Brother Gogol showed up here >>44308514 and was last seen being hurled through a window here >>44309424
END OF BOOK THREE
http://www.mediafire.com/download/y6fn1e06tfhbg1c/Book+3+-+World+Of+Nemesis.cbr
We're just one more book to do before we finish the first volume of Nemesis stories, showing the Warlock's adventures in the Gothic sector (which I know has been shown on the galaxy maps, but I just can't find the page right now.) After Book Four Nemesis and the ABC Warriors become one series for a while then go off on related stories.
Then it gets weird. Really weird. Reality breakdown weird. But you'll see for yourselves soon enough.
Hope you enjoyed that, I'm finally off to bed, see you tomorrow.
>>44335386
Thanks for the tales of weird beauty, dear anon. May the light shine your way.
