Black Library: Dark Hunters Umbra Sumus
Check out the book by Paul Kearney here! Illustration © Games Workshop Art director/producer: Karen Miksza
Umbra Sumus, or “We Are Shadow”, motto of the Shadow Hunters.
This chapter are shadowy blue armour wearing descendants of the White Scars, and they are embroiled in fierce urban combat with their nemesis, the Punishers traitor legion.
The brief was conveniently open: to illustrate a fight between a Dark Hunters squad led by a captain against a Punishers detachment. Also, there was to be a Eldar Farseer fighting alongside the Dark Hunters. This gave me all the inspiration/excuse to set up a narrative of an ambush gone awry, playing off the title of course.
This title-play was a cheeky idea that I’m glad Karen went through with; it involves a kind of linear narrative from left to right, or “back cover to front cover”. The idea was to portray this detachment of Punishers as having taken a position in the city and successfully springing an ambush, only to be countered by a shock and awe move by the Dark Hunters, thereby bringing light… to the darkness… both literally and metaph… I know… I know… I’m sorry.
STORY
The Space Marines of the Dark Hunters, descendants of the White Scars and their savage primarch Jaghatai Khan, are called to battle on the world of Ras Hanem, a world they thought long since liberated from the grip of heresy and returned to Imperial rule. Many years ago, the Dark Hunters defeated the traitor warband known as the Punishers on that world, in a conflict that left deep wounds in the Chapter. But now the Punishers have returned, seeking vengeance upon their would-be destroyers. Captain Jonah Kerne of Mortai Company is sent to annihilate the traitors once and for all, but the cost of victory may be too high for him to bear…
