Welcome!

If you’re reading this as a newcomer, read on! But if you are one of my veteran readers, there’s a good chance you’ve read much of this Foreword before. You see, I am writing this in retrospective, having previously cited the Afterwords of the (then-three) Volumes of this story in conversation with a new reader and deciding that it might behoove me to be more upfront with this story’s origins and what I have learned over the course of writing it.

So here goes.

Cronos is intended as a beginner-friendly work of Warhammer 40,000 literature. When I sat down to work on it in October of 2022, I was doing so for my father, who had only just gotten into the 40k universe himself with the works of Dan Abnett. (Eisenhorn, Ravenor, Bequin, Gaunt, etc.) The first Volume of this story, Penance, was at first written solely for him, and was structurally a bit different from how it appears here now on RoyalRoad – originally it featured official artwork and appendices, offering deeper descriptions and more-accurate depictions of things that I had/have no rights to share, so I must instead make use of textual-descriptions in author’s notes here on RR.

A casualty of writing fanfiction, I suppose.

So how beginner-friendly can it be, then, if it needs such descriptions of things? A fair question, but ‘need’ is not how I have looked at them. I saw the appendices I wrote as supplementary, and in truth, I am fairly certain my father did not even read them! All for naught, hah! But this is an Inquisitorial tale, so for the inquisitive among you, I do strive to provide some background on the universe and its goings-on.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

But for the Warhammer veterans out there, who perhaps know more about this universe than I do, I must caution you of a literary weakness I have fallen prey to: any battle in Warhammer is always dictated by its architectural author. Which is a fancy way of saying that ‘plot armor’ is real. After all, there is no more dangerous force in 40k than a named Space Marine, especially if they do not wear a helmet. This necessitates forewarning, as even I, as the architectural author of some such encounters, am terribly uncertain about some of the outcomes I have written. Yet they must be as they are, as the plot must go on. I have strived not to create anything too egregious (glances at Rogue Trader and Inquisitor: Martyr), but there may be some things that feel a little wrong within the universe. You have my apologies for that in advance. The telling of a good story matters more to me here than setting-accuracy; this is particularly true for Warhammer 40,000, for as the adage goes, “Everything is canon, but not everything is true.”

Speaking of which, enough of my rambling; let us get on with that story you clicked on! And if you ever have any feedback about anything involved, from narrative uncertainty to egregious examples of plot armor (or, worse, plot holes! Perish the thought!), please feel free to drop me a line. This Foreword, and much of the editing of Cronos, was motivated by user feedback!

Enjoy,

* Ceno