#Ruven

I’m crying, Ruven really walked into the room and said “it smells like y’all wanna fuck in here”

I was looking up Ruven-related things for other reasons today and came across this bit of flashback in Void Stalker (to when the Ultramarine successors were trying to eliminate the Night Lords), and DAMN I wish we’d had more of this: All five of the Praetors had left the safety of their cover. All five stood in the open, their limbs locked tight, shuddering as spasms wracked their bodies. As First Claw watched, two of them dropped their weapons. Their unburdened fingers trembled and curled, all control lost. A figure stepped into view behind them. Horns curled in an elegant rise from his skull-faced helm, and his T-shaped visor looked upon the scene in expressionless silence. In one armoured fist, the figure held an ancient bolter; in the other, a staff of mercury-threaded black iron, topped by a cluster of human skulls. The Praetors’ shaking helms clicked with flawed vox signals, as they tried to vocalise their torment. Smoke hissed from their melting armour joints, and their epileptic quivers redoubled. As holes appeared in their armour-plating, the screams finally broke free from the molten decay. One by one, they collapsed to the hangar decking, liquidised organic filth spilling in slow gushes from each armoured suit. The figure lowered its staff, and walked calmly towards First Claw. ‘You weren’t thinking of leaving without me, were you?’ asked Ruven. His voice lacked even the shadow of emotion. ‘No,’ Talos lied. ‘Not for a moment.” Somebody pls draw him with his elegant horns and his skull staff and his monstrousness <3 (Book club question: did Ruven decide to betray them before or after First Claw made it Very Clear that they held him in contempt and wanted to be rid of him however they could?)

Ruven！It seems many people dislike him, but I do. What a FAILURE, what a wretched and pathetic маленький человек— ambitious yet inadequate, lonely yet craving companionship, doomed to a stumble-filled life that ends in a hastily scribbled conclusion, like some discarded trash. And of course, the most important thing, I adore his androgynous appearance. Maybe I just have a thing for pretty side characters who suffer.

Say “please”. Wanted to draw my OCs again after being inspired by the wonderful @velnna !

Outcast among Outcasts. Untouchable among Untouchables. Alone. Talos and Ruven and all the world of differences between them. My half of a trade with @captainswank :} Alternate color versions, closeups and composition notes below cut so my whole concept here is just. Ruven and his isolation within his legion, contrasted with Talos and his many many bonds and brothers. Talos belongs, and Ruven is Enemy. No one will look at him or touch him…. because Talos disapproves. Because Talos has made him untouchable. Witch. This is set shortly after Ruven was retrieved, while he is still showing starvation and has not received augmetics yet. COMPOSITION: Every figure here looks away or turns his back to Ruven. All the “contacts” between figures happen on a different plane; I’ve made them distinct compositional groups in -their poses: everyone stands but Ruven. they exist in the foreground, and he in the background. the only thing that somewhat inches into the middle space is his shackled foot… -their contacts: they all look at and touch each other, while Ruven *seeks* contact but gets none. He is looking with blind eyes and seeing no one. The only one who looks at him/acknowledges him is Talos, who is looking down on him. Ruven is below and separate. -color wise: Ruven is wearing a psy-blocking collar in this part of the story, which only further isolates him from a legion that won’t touch him. I’ve made the others bright to match their souls, while he is weak and washed out and cold. he cannot see them and he cannot sense them. He is cut off from them in every sense. Alternate colors: Blue dominant (love blue) VIII Legion Colors Original Colors (how it was painted)

Gently hold forever

Imagining Ruven as a teenager. Hiding under his hair. Curze geneseed soon making it straighter and greasier.

Look at him go. Off to destroy his enemies! Made while taking @velnna ‘s Coloso course.

stiff as toys and tall as men Talos/Ruven fic, a what-if set around Ruven’s rescue in book 2. very dubious consent, complicated feelings, Talos not acknowledging those feelings. messy night lord things.

also some older doodles that i still like

this was drawn in like march i think, after a particularly cringefail session characters left to right belong to @evenmoreevil , @sylve17 , @hopepetal , @seawaveleo , me, and @dragonheart2497 . also dm is @milkypiggybeans it was their fault they did this to these guys

Him hold, him be helmed

he blush uwu

heel to haunch on bended knee - Laylah - Warhammer 40.000 [Archive of Our Own] Ruven joins the Black Legion! Abaddon tests his dedication personally. Contains a lot of power imbalance, Ruven being kinda horny for the power imbalance, Abaddon keeping almost all the armor on, and everybody ultimately having a good time because I’m soft.

The ambiguity in how Ruven ended up with the Black Legion to begin with fascinates me. We hear "he ditched the NL" from characters who are known unreliable narrators (and who then do have a moment of doubting whether or not that was what happened when Ruven denies it, so they probably weren't 100% certain even if they act like it). Personally I think the Exalted pulled the same "selling him to the Black Legion" trick he tried to pull on Talos. Given that at minimum half of the NL trilogy is about perpetuating the cycle of abuse, it adds extra flavor to Ruven being directly involved in Abbadon and the Exalted's attempt to force Talos into the Black Legion.

You know there’s another fucking thing for me to rotate. God. Ruven being sold? No brother saving him? What if they all knew. They all saw it happen. They think him a traitor for leaving and he resents them for not saving him. Talos would see a man led away like a sacrificial scapegoat and resent him for it because he is a psyker. Talos would indeed refer to that as ditching, wouldn’t he. I think a lot abt that scene where Talos was by all means planning to leave Ruven behind in enemy territory, and Ruven shows up just in time. “You weren’t planning to leave me behind were you” “of course not” but they were. Talos judges Ruven for cowardice as they both stand behind better fighters. Talos would see Ruven sold and blame him for it. You’re so right.

thinking about the worst night guy Ruven again & the VIII’s librarians Ruven is easy to hate, but his behavior is pretty standard Night Lord behavior. Talos has a good reason to want him dead, but why does 10th company hate him to such an extent? Remember how the Night Lords consider their librarians a poison to their legion (where have we heard that one before)? Talos mentions he was lucky to be favored by Curze, but I don’t think he realizes just how lucky he is to be a passive conduit for prophecy & to have awakened late. Even during the Crusade, the gift wasn’t a blessing. Sevatar describes the Night Lord librarians as hollow and bitter beings, who do not and cannot lead the legion. The same first captain Sevatar who shares the gift, but took great pains to seal and hide it. During the heresy, with the chief librarian exiled, the remaining ones were forced to into servitude of the Word Bearers, to conjure and bind horrors of the warp. In Vathras’ own words “We were made sport of. Traded like cattle. Bartered away. We saw the claws of the Seventeenth, then. Knowledge to scar the soul! “ With that in mind, what bonds was Ruven breaking by betraying the Night Lords? The Black Legion must have felt like a step up, and had he known how to make allies, he might have been allowed to remain in a lesser role. Even so, it was his former brothers betraying the Warmaster that got him cast out by association. Being of the VIIIth is also why Huron forced him to teach his librarians regardless of his wishes (what happened after is 100% his fault). Even in death his bones hung from the Echo of Damnation’s bridge, the VIII legion battle barge crashing into Tsagualsa. It’s like it dragged him back like a curse, dead or alive. To be denied bodily autonomy to such an extent and on so many levels, even as a villain is pretty messed up. Welcome to the grimdark universe.

Also extra Night Lords from the Omnibus just because 🦇 A lot of Vandred because of a really powerful scene with him in one of the books and because I’m a creature artist deep in my heart ಥ‿ಥ

“Here is a truth that none but I know, and that I have not known until now: I love Ruven. I love the heretic who hates my gods and burned my kingdom down. He hates me, when he does not pity me, and I love him.” […] I notice how Ruven’s head and shoulders are bowed. The next moment, he begins to shake with a great, hollow laughter. Then he says aloud: “This is the truth I have known for days but dared not think: I love the girl who cut my throat. She hates everything I hold dear, and I love her.” What Monstrous Gods , by Rosamund Hodge