On Monday, Games Workshop unexpectedly revealed miniatures for two fan-favorite Warhammer 40k novel characters, Commissar Ciaphas Cain and his malodorous adjutant Ferik Jurgen. The anti-hero and comic foil of a beloved series of Warhammer 40k books, I doubt that their tabletop rules will quite match the presence this duo have in the novels, where they share the thickest plot army of any sentient creature in the 40k canon.
If you’re not familiar with Ciaphas Cain, you should be. The Cain novels by Sandy Mitchell are actually posthumous extracts from his diaries, after a long career with the Astra Militarum during which he became a renowned hero of the Imperium. To hear Cain tell it, he’s actually a latent coward who curses the day he first attempted to desert, since he drove directly into an undetected flanking force of Tyranids, saving his regiment from almost certain destruction and earning a reputation as a talented and fearless war hero that he could never escape.
The Cain stories are modelled on the Flashman Papers series by George MacDonald – well worth a read if you enjoy adventure tales with a comic edge – in which the fictional coward, womanizer, and general reprobate Harry Flashman blunders through pivotal historic events in the 19th century, emerging from each one smelling like roses.
As the Cain novels are set in the Warhammer 40k universe they feature rather less sex – except for a few insinuations about Cain’s relationship with the Inquisitor Amberley Vail – and a lot more fighting.
The other major difference between Cain and Flashman is that, despite his protestations, he clearly is a good guy who does the right thing almost all the time, not just a blaggard with outrageous luck – and he’s probably the most lethal baseline human fighter in the entire universe.
In Death or Glory, a prequel to the rest of the series, Cain becomes stranded within Ork territory after a crash landing, and leads a successful counter-insurgency of planetary defense force troopers that ends with him killing an Ork warlord in hand to hand combat. He’s fought and survived Tyranid Genestealers, aliens so dangerous that Space Marines only engage them using veteran squads in Terminator armor.
Even Cain’s choice of adjutant is a sign that he’s got more going on than first appears. Ferik Jurgen isn’t just foul-smelling and hideous, he’s also a pariah, an anti-psyker whose mere presence causes discomfort and loathing. Cain can’t stand his smell, but he can stand his presence, which marks him out as a profoundly strong-willed individual.
The new Cain and Jurgen miniatures, as well as a special edition reprint of the first Cain novel, ‘For the Emperor’, will be available to pre-order soon, according to Games Workshop.
Got a favorite Cain escapade? I’ve read a lot of the series but not all of it, and I’d welcome your recommendations in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
