Ibram Gaunt - Inconsistencies Within The Warhammer 40,000 Universe

Inconsistencies Within The Warhammer 40,000 Universe

The books demonstrate a number of chronological errors that disagree with the established timeline. In one of these errors a character in Titanicus invokes Princeps Hekate (protagonist of the Titan: God-Machine comic series, also written by Abnett) even though the book is set centuries before Hekate was born. This inconsistency is partly dealt with in Eisenhorn (which is set before Gaunt's Ghosts), also by Abnett, where the title character meets an aged Hekate.

Internal inconsistencies within the Gaunt's Ghosts novels themselves include the operation of the hotshot las weapon. Early novels imply that the hotshot sniper rifles can fire multiple shots which are more powerful than a standard weapon, although each powercell provides fewer shots than standard. The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer (Damocles Gulf Edition) confirms that a hotshot clip is good for roughly 20 shots. The "change" of the hotshot occurred during Sabbat Martyr (Chapter 3, p818). However, throughout The Lost story arc, sniper rifle powercells only provide a single shot before replacement is necessary. The Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying game Dark Heresy subsequently incorporated this apparent discrepancy by renaming the reduced-capacity cells as overcharge packs and the single-shot cells as Hotshot packs. In addition, the "straight silver" knives of the Tanith First-and-Only are originally described as being 30 cm long, but then in "Only in Death" they are 10 cm long.

A further internal inconsistency appearing in The Lost arc is the portrayal of the relationship between Gol Kolea and his son, Dalin Criid. After the events of Necropolis, the young Dalin (ten years old at the time) assumes that both of his parents have been killed in the attack on Vervunhive, which leads to his and his sister's adoption by Tona Criid. Although it later turns out that his father, Gol Kolea, is alive and in fact has joined the Ghosts himself, Kolea chooses to stay out of Dalin's life, feeling his return would be too much for the young boy to go through. While Kolea keeps this secret for a long time, he does tell Tona Criid, who later tells the rest of the Gereon team in the time between Traitor General and His Last Command. It is then revealed in The Armour of Contempt that the fact that Gol Kolea is his birth father has since been revealed to Dalin, who wishes Kolea to take a greater part in his life. However, the following book, Only In Death, portrays Dalin as still unaware of Kolea's status as his father: when Kolea comes to visit the wounded and unconscious Tona he finds Dalin sitting by her side. Dalin does not recognize him, only asking if Kolea had known his parents in Vervunhive, to which Kolea replies that they had "died in the war".

This last discrepancy may be explained as Dalin wanting to talk to his father but not wanting to open the emotional floodgates of a reunion that both want but seem unable to take the first step towards. Instead Dalin asks Kolea about his parents, and Kolea replies as if he knew them well.

In Straight Silver, Gaunt makes a reference to Commissar Yarrick - whom he calls the "Great Yarrick" - despite the fact the novel is set several centuries before the second war on Armageddon (the conflict that made Yarrick a legend).

The time inconsistencies can be explained as either a minor oversight or an example of how Warp Travel can play havoc with perception of when events happened.