Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar comes to a close with Lord of the Cosmic Gate by Gav Thorpe, the twelfth and final Age of Sigmar short story in the series. Rikjard of the Many Numbers, mathemagician and sorcerer of Tzeentch, masses his forces within the bizarre, enclosed land of the Thousand Portals as he enacts a plan to draw forth the armies of the Slann and learn the final part of the Eternal Equation. With that arcane knowledge he hopes to open the Cosmic Gate and break through to the Crystal Labyrinth of Tzeentch, returning the Thousand Portals to their rightful place and raising himself up above even the Everchosen.
It’s a Tzeentchian story so inevitably there’s going to be intrigue and devious plots, but Thorpe goes down an unexpected, enjoyable route, focusing on a sorcerer whose specialty is numbers and calculations, which feels delightfully perverse for a follower of the god of change. Rikjard is typically proud and overconfident, monologuing to his underlings in anticipation of victory, while the landscape around him shifts and changes around him in a brilliantly described depiction of yet another of the Age of Sigmar’s entertaining new realms. It’s a little over complicated at times, and does reward careful attention (or multiple readings) to get the best out of it, but overall it’s brave, adventurous and another example of what can be done with Warhammer when authors are given a blank slate.
Click here to go to the main Black Library Advent Calendar post and see the other reviews.
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