You know someone's a good Villain when everybody hates him, even his own legion and primarch. But no one can deny how slippery, conniving, morally empty and S tier espionage skill that even alpharius respect
That was pretty much my reaction when I saw the title and decided to watch the video. Then I got a disturbingly large laugh a few seconds later from "casual violence and scorpion torture".
Erebus is the only guy who knows he's a cartoon villain in the 40K universe and embraces it, while everyone else believes they live in a serious world so they're super vulnerable to his tactics. It really says something that the only person who can see how blatantly he manipulates Horus in False Gods is the poet
I'd never really sat and considered the existence of children within the 40K universe until the start of this video. Obviously they exist. With that many people being churned through the systems and machinery of war, they have to be getting them from somewhere. But, like...I'd just not considered how desolately miserable being a child in that universe must be.
"He took his chance he crept up on the settlement star pupil a boy he'd always been unfavorably compared to and strangled him to death stealing his identity..." The Talented Mr Erebus.
One thing that didn't get mentioned: Erebus spent time on Olympia and sewed the seeds of rebellion there, leading to the breaking and the corruption of Perturabo.
I've been watching this channel for quite a while now and I can't decide what is more impressive. The **massive** mythos of 40k or the seemingly endless knowledge you have of it. It's not just that you know an assortment of dates and what happened at various battles. It's the details and an obvious understanding of the motivations of the players behind those details. I can't even imagine how much time and money it must have taken to reach these erudite heights. Well done Ian.
In case nobody has said this yet: F Erebus. EDIT: I have a theory...it wasn't Chaos that corrupted Erebus, but Erebus that corrupted Chaos. This has ABSOLUTELY no supporting evidence other than my raging hatred of Erebus.
Ironicaly, I think we can say that Erebus was actually never a heretic, because he never "strayed" from the faith in the Emperor. He was a "true believer" in the four bloodthirsty bastards from the start to the end :-) So the titular First heretic from ADB´s book was Lorgar, IMO
I think you're maybe thinking of the term apostate. A heretic just has beliefs in conflict to the primary religion, someone who abandons their religion has committed apostasy not heresy.
@@gimlym6641 yes, you might be right! If - from certain religion's point of view - we describe all the non-believers (i.e. believers in different faiths) as heretics, then he definitely was a heretic to the Imperial creed, true... I just always picture Erebus as so condescending towards the other faiths that he wouldn't concern himself with their definitions.
@@gimlym6641 Heresies are branches/versions of a religion. In the case of Erebus it was a completely different religion to start with. On the other hand - as a secular organisation Imperium wasn't able to have heresies by definition, so 🤷
"Erebus... is a dick" Yep, that's pretty much the tldr; of the dude. He's just unapologetically evil and I both hate and love the guy for it. A genuine villain you can hate without feeling bad about it.
I think it's an interesting thought experiment to ask what would have happened if the True-born Erebus had been there instead, would the Legion never have turned? Would they have still turned and the Heresy been even more successful? For my money True-born Erebus was the real plan of the other Chaos Gods, but Tzeentch was like: Man I am going to mess this up for everyone.
I love Erebus. It's kinda nice to have someone who's just completely unapologetically a piece of crap. I find it much more charming and compelling than a Chaos Marine who somehow tries to rationalise that it's not his fault he's a giant mutated treacherous monstrosity that eats testicles.
In every great tragedy you've gotta have a villain somewhere who is, just... a villain, plain and simple. What does the setting look like in _50_ K? The Galaxy is dead, apart from Erebus, in the desert of the warp, pulling the legs off the shrunken remnants of the Chaos gods, as the sting him over and over... forever.
I am SO glad you did this video. Thank you! I think about him a lot. Erebus is the only agent of chaos who basically didn't have a chance... or choice. Some folks like Horus, Angron and Morty had seriously bad upbringings leading them by the nose. Others like Perturabo or Magnus just stumble into corruption via ignorance or naivety. And yet others like Lorgar simply had a change of heart or a heck of a midlife crisis (the 400's are ROUGH). And then there were those "just following orders" which I will leave here without further comment. BUT in all these cases, there was somehow the possibility of turning away. There was choice. Not so with Erebus. And that sociopathic almost force-of-nature evil makes him friggin' awesome! He'd go out of his way in order to kick some puppies just to see what happens.
I think we always lose sight of when we genuinely hate a character for their actions and not the writing that theyre better than most characters we love. We all burn with rage when someone says Erebus and I think GW did their job while making him he’s gotta be one of the most hated fictional characters ever.
One thing about Warhammer universe I really like is the fact that it made one of the most easy-to-hate villians I have ever met Like I love Chaos, bow before Abaddon the Warmaster, argue that Lucius is pretty cool, use tears to clean brushes but still hate Erebus
Disagree. Erebus is the most content HUMAN in the setting. Orks are busy putting Oprah or Elizabeth Gilbert to shame in living their best life. They're too busy to even bother writing their best selling self-help book, "Nosh, Waaah, Krump." But your point is taken. Erebus be true to thine self like no other.
My favourite villain. I love him. Every setting needs a good villain and Erebus is a great one. He is very well written and one of my favourite characters of Heresy. A character I love to hate. I really hope we start seeing him more in 40k.
Very informative and entertaining video. This is one character I knew little about. Really looking forward to how he will be used now Dark Imperium with primarchs returning. Looking forward to the next video. Keep up the good work.
To be fair, that last thing he did in End and Death v3 he earned the forever moniker of "**** Erebus!" The community has adopted as that hurt as I was not expecting that at all
Yep, got me good style twice in that book, first time was with Oll as thought after having "that scene" play out in Vol 2 he may escape but no, should've known better, it's Abnett after all
Erebus is such a good villain. 40k has the Marvel problem with dull af villains but they hit it out of the park with Erebus. I'm astounded some people want him to be killed off or hate him but not in the I love hating this bad guy way.
hey isn't Horus, Ghazkull, The Silent King, Imotekh, Angron, Perturabo, Lorgar, Fulgrim, Ahriman, the Red Corsairs, and much more good villains too? Erebus is definitely the most evil, but aren't there good villains too in Wh40k?
I hate the shit out of Erebus. I hate him more than any other character. But I think I'm supposed to. He is very well-written. He's as well-written as much as I hate. He is the most perfect villain.
I feel a bit stupid bc I thought both Erebus and Kor Phareon had models. How the hell can there be a Word Bearers Legion on the tabletop without them? I hate them both but the deserve models. What the hell?!
Erebus is one of my favourite 40k character. Sinister and deceiful, he is truly a poisonous parasite that seeks to further his goal no matter what. I wish one day there will be a novel from his point of view. The “Child of Chaos“ short story seems not enough.
It seems like Erebus was sent from future by the Chaos gods to shape the event in the past and fulfill what ever destiny is. Because it seems Erebus was everywhere random doing random stuff but at the same time it doesnt seems random at all. Its like he know what he’s doing and what it led to/ or how it would affect the future of his victims and the galaxy.
Is it weird I kinda love how much I hate him? Whenever he shows up it's an "oh no!" moment but I can't wait to see what bastardry he gets up to. F in the chat for Loken though. He was a real one. ✊
Welp, "Erebus's" mom did tell him why can't he be more like Erebus, so honestly that one's on her. Also his first name is probably F*ck, judging how everyone calls him that.
I'm about 2/3 through the word bearer book and surprised how little Erebus is in it. He's been popping up in almost all of them but has only been mentioned a few times in this one.
@AliceBowie yeah. I did like how he's mentioned in the Thousand Sons book as being the only word bearer that Arhiman gets along with. This book makes it seem as if Argal Tal breaks the gala field around the primarch gestation pods but I don't know how real that was yet.
Imagine when he prayed to the chaos good thr great horned rat answered his call and it's just constant torturing and making fun of erebus making sure he suffers at everything he does
Say what you will about Erebus but without him the great crusade would have conqured the galaxy and 40k would just be ultramarines doing microsoft excel.
Kor Phaeron instigated the corruption of Lorgar. Or did he? At the end of his Promarch novel, Kor Phaeron realises that Lorgar had actually used him all along to get where he wanted. And in Betrayer, Lorgar dismisses Kor Phaeron and Erebus as grand architects.
Erebus, stood in Lorgar's office, with Lorgar's own holy scriptures written all over his armour and tattooed all over his head and face: "This religion you've got's great and all, boss, but check THIS out..."
"If i had a gun with two bullets and walked in on Horus, Lorgar and Erebus. I'd shoot Erebus twice." ~Guilliman.
Double Tap, only way to be sure.
Kor Phaeron:
Hold my beer
I'd use the 2nd on Kor Phaeron.
You know someone's a good Villain when everybody hates him, even his own legion and primarch. But no one can deny how slippery, conniving, morally empty and S tier espionage skill that even alpharius respect
Magnus may have done some things wrong for the right reasons.... but Erebus did all the wrong things for all wrong reasons.
I prefer to frame it another way; Magnus may have done nothing wrong, but Erebus did everything right.
Magnus also did alot of wrong things for the wrong reasons too though lol.
@@AltoStratusX1 "Don't fight back against the Space Wolves as they slaughter Prospero. That makes us look guilty"
He did it for all the right reasons. He was serving the dark powers😂
“The unequivocal biggest bastard in 40K.”
Erebus is the Spinal Tap of 40K bastards: his bastard knob goes to 11.
cool reference!
Opening with the line “Erebus is a dick” Legendary.
That was pretty much my reaction when I saw the title and decided to watch the video. Then I got a disturbingly large laugh a few seconds later from "casual violence and scorpion torture".
This dude cannot even go to a chippy without nuking a town, skinning a homless orphan and eating crunchy food in the cinema.
Erebus doesn't sleep because that would imply he is not doing something horrible
In the words of Brass Eye..."we must catch that man. He really is a shit."
Erebus, projecting himself into the war masters soul, literally the last thing we wanted to happen.
“So is it any wonder people are afraid of Heresy?”
Here we see an Erebus disguised as a school
Chris Morris is a satirical genius.
Is that because he's got bad aids?
Erebus is the only guy who knows he's a cartoon villain in the 40K universe and embraces it, while everyone else believes they live in a serious world so they're super vulnerable to his tactics. It really says something that the only person who can see how blatantly he manipulates Horus in False Gods is the poet
He's the Palpatine of 40k
In other words: Erebus is the grimdark version of Deadpool, the Grimpool
Erebus - The Michael Gove of 40k
Bravo sir, bravo
I'd never really sat and considered the existence of children within the 40K universe until the start of this video.
Obviously they exist. With that many people being churned through the systems and machinery of war, they have to be getting them from somewhere.
But, like...I'd just not considered how desolately miserable being a child in that universe must be.
"He took his chance he crept up on the settlement star pupil a boy he'd always been unfavorably compared to and strangled him to death stealing his identity..."
The Talented Mr Erebus.
One thing that didn't get mentioned: Erebus spent time on Olympia and sewed the seeds of rebellion there, leading to the breaking and the corruption of Perturabo.
I've been watching this channel for quite a while now and I can't decide what is more impressive. The **massive** mythos of 40k or the seemingly endless knowledge you have of it. It's not just that you know an assortment of dates and what happened at various battles. It's the details and an obvious understanding of the motivations of the players behind those details. I can't even imagine how much time and money it must have taken to reach these erudite heights. Well done Ian.
In case nobody has said this yet: F Erebus.
EDIT: I have a theory...it wasn't Chaos that corrupted Erebus, but Erebus that corrupted Chaos. This has ABSOLUTELY no supporting evidence other than my raging hatred of Erebus.
Lorgar: i am rebelling because the emperor lied
Erebus: i’m doing this for the love of the game
Ah, the Apex-Bastard...
Excellent work, as always!
Ironicaly, I think we can say that Erebus was actually never a heretic, because he never "strayed" from the faith in the Emperor. He was a "true believer" in the four bloodthirsty bastards from the start to the end :-) So the titular First heretic from ADB´s book was Lorgar, IMO
I think you're maybe thinking of the term apostate. A heretic just has beliefs in conflict to the primary religion, someone who abandons their religion has committed apostasy not heresy.
@@gimlym6641 yes, you might be right! If - from certain religion's point of view - we describe all the non-believers (i.e. believers in different faiths) as heretics, then he definitely was a heretic to the Imperial creed, true... I just always picture Erebus as so condescending towards the other faiths that he wouldn't concern himself with their definitions.
@@gimlym6641 Heresies are branches/versions of a religion. In the case of Erebus it was a completely different religion to start with.
On the other hand - as a secular organisation Imperium wasn't able to have heresies by definition, so 🤷
I think heretic would still apply but it could be argued he was never a traitor to the Imperium.
@@gimlym6641 that implies those words have the same meaning 40,000 years in the future, as they do in present day
required "F Erebus" comment!
All my homies hate Erebus
"Erebus... is a dick"
Yep, that's pretty much the tldr; of the dude. He's just unapologetically evil and I both hate and love the guy for it. A genuine villain you can hate without feeling bad about it.
I was at work in my office listening and when I heard that I literally lol... Yup, perfectly summed that all up
And ending with "what a bastard" gold
My favorite thing about Erebus is when he said “I’m the most bastardy bastard” and then he bastarded all over the place
Erebus: Ouch, I think I cut myself shaving.
Cracked mirror: 👋
➡HORUS HERESY!
Best character finally getting the recognition he deserves.
There are no "good guys" in 40k. Except Erebus. He is a good lad.
“The biggest Bastard in 40K” that is some title considering his opposition
Thanks Erebus: for making sure the dark is grimm
I think it's an interesting thought experiment to ask what would have happened if the True-born Erebus had been there instead, would the Legion never have turned? Would they have still turned and the Heresy been even more successful?
For my money True-born Erebus was the real plan of the other Chaos Gods, but Tzeentch was like: Man I am going to mess this up for everyone.
I love Erebus. It's kinda nice to have someone who's just completely unapologetically a piece of crap. I find it much more charming and compelling than a Chaos Marine who somehow tries to rationalise that it's not his fault he's a giant mutated treacherous monstrosity that eats testicles.
I did not know that Erebus still lived. I am outraged at this news
The one and only guy in 40k who got what he wanted. Nothing but respect. 😤
In every great tragedy you've gotta have a villain somewhere who is, just... a villain, plain and simple. What does the setting look like in _50_ K? The Galaxy is dead, apart from Erebus, in the desert of the warp, pulling the legs off the shrunken remnants of the Chaos gods, as the sting him over and over... forever.
Erebus has done one good deed: cause the setting we enjoy. That's literally it, and it is only a good deed out of universe
Loved it. My favorite character from the HH. I hope they give him a 40K miniature eventually.
I also hear WhiteBat synth wave, which I also love.
Awesome video, I wish Mira had a sound bite saying "bastard Erebus", her reactions to Erebus are always so genuine and pure.
I am SO glad you did this video. Thank you! I think about him a lot. Erebus is the only agent of chaos who basically didn't have a chance... or choice. Some folks like Horus, Angron and Morty had seriously bad upbringings leading them by the nose. Others like Perturabo or Magnus just stumble into corruption via ignorance or naivety. And yet others like Lorgar simply had a change of heart or a heck of a midlife crisis (the 400's are ROUGH). And then there were those "just following orders" which I will leave here without further comment. BUT in all these cases, there was somehow the possibility of turning away. There was choice. Not so with Erebus. And that sociopathic almost force-of-nature evil makes him friggin' awesome! He'd go out of his way in order to kick some puppies just to see what happens.
I think we always lose sight of when we genuinely hate a character for their actions and not the writing that theyre better than most characters we love. We all burn with rage when someone says Erebus and I think GW did their job while making him he’s gotta be one of the most hated fictional characters ever.
Erebus killing Lokan was the most bastardly thing that he could have done, and made me feel legitimate loss and anger about fictional characters
Congratulations Erebus, you did it, you are the warhammer 40000
Great video Ian, I'm only slightly disappointed you didn't call it 'Orrible 'Eretics: Erebus
In today's episode: the main character of Warhammer!
Writing prompt for this character.
If Roger from 'Lord of the Flies' got into the occult.
Ahh yes, Mira's most beloved character
Thank you, Ian, for this overview. I love Erebus as a character and I'm glad to see that his story is being shared with more people.
Excellent video. Erebus is truly the Arch-Bastard of the 40K universe.
One thing about Warhammer universe I really like is the fact that it made one of the most easy-to-hate villians I have ever met
Like I love Chaos, bow before Abaddon the Warmaster, argue that Lucius is pretty cool, use tears to clean brushes but still hate Erebus
Erebus is the single most successful person in the 40K universe. What a legend. Word Bearers are the best Chaos Space Marines.
My boy finally got a dedicated video
Ironically, Erebus has been, and is, the most content person in the setting.
Disagree. Erebus is the most content HUMAN in the setting. Orks are busy putting Oprah or Elizabeth Gilbert to shame in living their best life. They're too busy to even bother writing their best selling self-help book, "Nosh, Waaah, Krump."
But your point is taken. Erebus be true to thine self like no other.
Sorry I said “person” instead of “human”. Of course that’s what I meant, duh 🙄
My favourite villain. I love him. Every setting needs a good villain and Erebus is a great one. He is very well written and one of my favourite characters of Heresy. A character I love to hate. I really hope we start seeing him more in 40k.
IMO Erebus even overshadows his own Primarch
Never thought it possible. I like Erebus now.
Just finished reading his story in Lupercal's War. This video (like all your others) excellently answered all my questions!
Very informative and entertaining video. This is one character I knew little about. Really looking forward to how he will be used now Dark Imperium with primarchs returning. Looking forward to the next video. Keep up the good work.
The best named 40k series is back! Absolutely stellar episode!
To be fair, that last thing he did in End and Death v3 he earned the forever moniker of "**** Erebus!" The community has adopted as that hurt as I was not expecting that at all
Yeah that was so mean that it was almost comical, a very "lol fuck you lmao" moment from Abnett
Yep, got me good style twice in that book, first time was with Oll as thought after having "that scene" play out in Vol 2 he may escape but no, should've known better, it's Abnett after all
Been waiting for the return of this series!
Erebus is such a good villain. 40k has the Marvel problem with dull af villains but they hit it out of the park with Erebus. I'm astounded some people want him to be killed off or hate him but not in the I love hating this bad guy way.
hey isn't Horus, Ghazkull, The Silent King, Imotekh, Angron, Perturabo, Lorgar, Fulgrim, Ahriman, the Red Corsairs, and much more good villains too? Erebus is definitely the most evil, but aren't there good villains too in Wh40k?
I hate the shit out of Erebus. I hate him more than any other character. But I think I'm supposed to. He is very well-written. He's as well-written as much as I hate. He is the most perfect villain.
Erebus does deserve to be killed off....by Kharn.
Erebus is the only villain that’s not dull?
Not sure I agree with you there.
@@Empiriarch1945 more than half of those aren't good villains
Erebus deserves a model in 40k
I guess there's only the Horus Heresy Kor Phaeron and Erebus character model. I don't even want to know how much it costs, in money.
I feel a bit stupid bc I thought both Erebus and Kor Phareon had models. How the hell can there be a Word Bearers Legion on the tabletop without them? I hate them both but the deserve models. What the hell?!
I agree. The HH model that comes with Kor Phaeron is cool but it’s also $112. Still, for Word Bearers collectors it could be worth it.
It is @@ridetoruin
@@michaelhowell2326they have a paired set in Horus Heresy
Erebus is one of my favourite 40k character. Sinister and deceiful, he is truly a poisonous parasite that seeks to further his goal no matter what. I wish one day there will be a novel from his point of view. The “Child of Chaos“ short story seems not enough.
the intro, chills every time. abandon on horrible heretics next?
Can't click on these videos quick enough when they come out! Keep up the awesome work Ian
Ah yeah, Main Character time!!!!
What a bloody brilliant video. Great work Ian, thanks for taking the time to produce and share🎉
Loved the video, it was so good! Don't know how but you summaries and narrate the character perfectly.
F--, and I cannot emphasise this enough, Erebus.
Cracking video as usual Ian 👏
As Mira said, it really is named that start with E
in the grim dark future of the 41st millenium there are only bad guys, but... nothing compares... to you (Erebus)
Erebus is a swear word in our house! It’s awesome and a credit to all at GW that he’s written so well as such a cock!
I heard from a credible source in the comment sections here on UA-cam, that Erebus once gave a girl scout to the Dark Eldar.
Child trafficking seems a bit tame for Erebus.
All i want is Kharn to make Gorechild and Erebus' skull exist in the same space
He’s just misunderstood, don’t you see? Nothing a comforting hug and a nice cuppa tea won’t fix.
It seems like Erebus was sent from future by the Chaos gods to shape the event in the past and fulfill what ever destiny is. Because it seems Erebus was everywhere random doing random stuff but at the same time it doesnt seems random at all. Its like he know what he’s doing and what it led to/ or how it would affect the future of his victims and the galaxy.
Is it weird I kinda love how much I hate him? Whenever he shows up it's an "oh no!" moment but I can't wait to see what bastardry he gets up to.
F in the chat for Loken though. He was a real one. ✊
What a piece of work!
Welp, "Erebus's" mom did tell him why can't he be more like Erebus, so honestly that one's on her.
Also his first name is probably F*ck, judging how everyone calls him that.
Erebus’s journey is a tale of “cult topping”.
I'm about 2/3 through the word bearer book and surprised how little Erebus is in it. He's been popping up in almost all of them but has only been mentioned a few times in this one.
The Argel Tal one? He's in the background, manipulating everyone from the shadows.
@AliceBowie yeah. I did like how he's mentioned in the Thousand Sons book as being the only word bearer that Arhiman gets along with. This book makes it seem as if Argal Tal breaks the gala field around the primarch gestation pods but I don't know how real that was yet.
Finally talking about 40k’s best cheeky boi
That intro goes hard every time
Even the guys on his own side hated Erebus' guts.
This Erebus guy - I like the cut of his jib.
Not read The Siege of Terra series of books yet, so am very disappointed to hear that Erebus turns up again to spoil everyone’s day.
I clicked on this primarily because I wanted to see if Ian would do an intro song like Horrible Histories.
me at about 17 minutes in: ooh hold on a sec I haven't finished The End and The Death Part III yet! > rushes to pause.
New Ian video let's gooooooo
Imagine when he prayed to the chaos good thr great horned rat answered his call and it's just constant torturing and making fun of erebus making sure he suffers at everything he does
Glad to see you using arhpriest's(Elijah Gurenko) art work he is really talented
Handily, he's also drawn LOADS of pictures of Word Bearers!
@@ArbitorIan and Alpha legion for some reason
I ❤️ Erebus. He's the reason why we have 40k.
Now as a devout servant of Lorgar I would agree Erebus is a bit of a bad sort but his heart was very much in it so you can't fault the effort
Aren't the Chaos Gods even sick of him at this point?
Horriblest is really the only good word to describe Erebus
Say what you will about Erebus but without him the great crusade would have conqured the galaxy and 40k would just be ultramarines doing microsoft excel.
You can tell it's a green screen when the candle doesn't flicker
The first minute of this video went weirdly hard
"Who am I? I am Erebus."
Erebus might not be the bastard we need, but he is the bastard we deserve.
Just remember if it wasn’t for Erebus we wouldn’t have 30K/40K 😂
Kor Phaeron instigated the corruption of Lorgar. Or did he? At the end of his Promarch novel, Kor Phaeron realises that Lorgar had actually used him all along to get where he wanted. And in Betrayer, Lorgar dismisses Kor Phaeron and Erebus as grand architects.
Erebus, stood in Lorgar's office, with Lorgar's own holy scriptures written all over his armour and tattooed all over his head and face: "This religion you've got's great and all, boss, but check THIS out..."
Extremely naughty boi
Erebus is such a great villain, he inspires so much hate i love that dude
Erebus breaks the bastard scale.