Andy Chambers is the man!

Recently I had a bit of an odd fanboy question for Andy Chambers so I decided to email him directly on facebook.


Subject: Fan question about the Natives from Masque of Vyle

Hey Andy,
I'm a huge fan of your work, especially the recent Dark Eldar Novels for Black Library. Being a Dark Eldar fanboy, I can never get enough of their history and soak up every morsel I find. My blog with tons of Dark Eldar minis is proof: eyeoferror.blogspot.com/

After recently discussing Masque of Vyle on www.thedarkcity.net, I have a question that might seem odd…but it's been bugging me and been the cause of some debate.

The saucer eyed natives of the Sable Marches; are they of Eldar Stock originally?

Considering that the Sable Marches was artificially created and all life originally ferried in then left to evolve and adapt to the new environment, it seemed to me that the natives would be almost feral, degenerate aquatic Eldar with the Innsmouth look. But if that was the case then are their souls doomed with no knowledge of how to protect themselves from She Who Thirsts?

Thank you for taking the time to read this query and again, we all over at TheDarkCity.net absolutely love your vision of Commorragh and it's denizens. We all hope there are many more novels to come after Path of the Archon.

Thanks, Ron Gamble.


His response:

Hi Ron, thanks for taking the time to write, I'll take a swing by your blog and take a gander. I hadn't fully thought through exactly what the natives were to be honest, I just wanted something as you rightly point out 'a bit Innsmouth' about them.

I think the original notion was them being an aquatic fishmen species that were the 'real' owners of the sub-realm being kept horribly repressed. In that context the idea of them being an adapted strain of eldar is extra unpleasant. I have used the 'saucer-eyed' descriptor in a few places referring to Daemonettes and She-Who-Thirsts.

Anyway, I'm very glad you enjoyed it and thanks for your kind words on my humble offerings. Path of the Archon is now finished in its first draft form and I'm on to a new project set in Paolo Parente's Dust universe. Hopefully I can tempt BL with some more Dark Eldar stories towards the end of this year.

Cheers
Andy

So in summary, Any Chambers is the man for being nice enough to email me back about my obscure question, shed a little light on the backstory and giving me hope for more Dark Eldar from The Black Library in the near future.

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

Always nice to see writers who really care