Someone explain Warhammer 40K to me

[Lonestar]

Please. What is it all about, exactly?

[Stormbringer]

Please. What is it all about, exactly?

What exactly do you want explained? It's a rather large and complicated universe, there isn't any particular nutshell summary out there.

[Lonestar]

Damn...I kinda hoped there was.

[Stormbringer]

Damn...I kinda hoped there was.

I'm afraid not. Unlike Star Wars (or indeed most franchises) Warhammer 40K is a fully fleshed out universe, the novels cover every thing from soldiers to cops to Inquisitors and just about everything in between.

A little bit of History

Keep in mind that all that is terribly brief and some what out of date (a fair amount of 2nd Edition rules material) but it's the best I know of offhand.

[justifier]

A quick rundown.
It is set in the year 40,000. Humanity reached a technological peak[the dark age of technology] but after a long a complicated series of events humanity was broken up and reduced to a techno-barbarian state, the Emperor [a human created in the distant past by Shaman combined all of their mystical energy into one perfect, immortal human. 40k is very heavy on the fantasy aspect] creates the Space Marines[super-soldiers with powerarmor] and reunites humanity. He is is betrayed and ends up basically comatose. Since then the Imperialum[humans] has stayed technologically backslide, with no new inventions being allowed and dark age technology revered as something mystical.

The factions:
Imperialum, the humans. A brutal, xenophobic regime. They have the Imperial guard, who are like the standard army, conscripted from various planets and the Space Marines, recruited at young ages and turned into super-soldiers.

Orks, primative, big, ugly and always looking for a fight

Eldar, space elves.

Dark Eldar, bad space elves.

Tyranids, space bugs

Chaos, gods fed by emotions of sentiant species. Four major gods: Korne[bloodshed], nurgle[disease],slannesh[drugs sex and rocknroll] and Tz-something(forgot the name)[deceit]

Tau, space commies. High tech weapons, a young race

Necrons, evil robots(of doom)



This doesn't explain a lot, but it gives you some basic information

[Elheru Aran]

I agree with Lonestar... I don't have any WH40K experience either.

Here's what I think might be the best way to educate us-- what's the basic backstory, in very general terms? beginnings, notable events, etc?

[Lonestar]

I'm afraid not. Unlike Star Wars (or indeed most franchises) Warhammer 40K is a fully fleshed out universe, the novels cover every thing from soldiers to cops to Inquisitors and just about everything in between.

A little bit of History

Keep in mind that all that is terribly brief and some what out of date (a fair amount of 2nd Edition rules material) but it's the best I know of offhand.

Good Gravy! That's a lot of stuff!

[justifier]

I agree with Lonestar... I don't have any WH40K experience either.

Here's what I think might be the best way to educate us-- what's the basic backstory, in very general terms? beginnings, notable events, etc?

There is a lot that you need to understand. It has the depth of both a mythology and sci-fi series. It has been around for at least 20 years, and stuff has been constantly added. 40k is fucking huge.

[Stormbringer]

I agree with Lonestar... I don't have any WH40K experience either.

Here's what I think might be the best way to educate us-- what's the basic backstory, in very general terms? beginnings, notable events, etc?

The Founding of the Imperium of Man and the Horus Heresy: A very brief history

Basically, the Emperor (being a god and all) decided to create some super warrior children to assist him in the coming Crusade to free humanity. Those children would be the Primarchs (not Patriarchs!) and there were twenty of them. As developing children they got snatched by Chaos and scattered, partially foiling the Emperor's plans. They survived but were isolated from the Imperium, they survived and propsered.

Back on Earth, the Emperor went ahead with the next best option. Using gene-seed (essentially genetic samples) from the vanished Primarchs to create the orginal First Founding Space Marine Legions, one Legion per Primarch. The test subject was implanted with a variety of artificial organs and genetically altered into a super human being. All in all, the Legions tended to have some of the distinctive qualities of their Primarch. It's with these superhuman Space Marines that he launched the Great Crusade.

Eventually the Crusade found each of the Primarchs in turn and assigned them the Legion that was created from their gene-seed. The Great Crusade continued and they stomped aliens, Chaos-worshipper and any one that gave them crap. Horus, the Primarch of the Lunar Wolves Legion was the foremost of the Primarchs and the favored of the Emperor. Eventually owing to his sucesses he was named Warmaster (and the Lunar Wolves renamed the Sons of Horus) and was the Emperor's favored son.


40K being 40K, Horus was eventually corrupted by the Chaos Gods and turned on the Imperium along with eight of the other Legions. The whole of the Empire was ripped apart by war, nearly ever organization split. Eventually after a lot of battles the whole thing came down to the Imperial Fists and Blood Angels standing against the combined Traitor Legions in defense of the Imperial Palace (which was essentally a continent size fortress) and the Emperor himself. The whole things was decided in single combat, the Emperor slaying Horus but being mortally wounded in turn. The Traitor Legions collapsed, the Emperor went into the Golden Throne, and the Imperium went about picking up the peices.

The Traitor Legions retreated into the Eye of Terror and became the first of the Chaos Space Marines, subsequently some Marine Chapter have gone over to Chaos. And of course the old Chaos Legions do some what grudgingly add new Marine-recruits into it's ranks.

The Loyalists Marines had their Legions (10K+) reduced into Chapters (1-5K) producing the now familiar Chapters. Each of the present Chapters is successor (meaning created with the gene-seed of) one of the orginal Legions (with the supposed exception of the Grey Knight, the Inquisition's home grown Marine chapter). Some don't know which they're descended from though.

Loyal Legions

Dark Angels (okay, some supposedly turned but the bulk were loyal)

• Primarch Lion El'Jonson

Blood Angels

• Primarch Sanginius

Space Wolves

• Primarch Leman Russ

Imperial Fists

• Primarch Rogal Dorn

Ultramarines

• Primarch Guilliman

White Scars

• Primarch Jangtai Khan

Salamanders

• Primarch Vulkan

Raven Guard

• Primarch Corvax

Iron Hands

• Primarch Ferrus Manus

Presumably the two other First Founding Legions remained loyal but unlike the Salamanders and Raven Guard, who narrowly escaped total annihilation, were massacred to the last man in the Betrayal at Istaavn IV (?).

Traitor Legions

Black Legion (they changed their name yet again after Horus was slain)

• Primarch Horus

Iron Warriors

• Primarch Peturabo

Emperor's Children

• Primarch Fulgrim

Thousand Sons

• Primarch Magnus the Red

Word Bearers

• Primarch Lorgar

World Eaters

• Primarch Aragon

Alpha Legion

• Primarch Alpharius

Death Guard

• Primarch Mortain

Night Lords

• Primarch Konrad Kruze better known as Night Haunter

Other events of particular note are the Dark Age of Technology which preceeded the Imperium, the Fall of the Eldar, the Age of Apostay, the Armageddon Crusades, the Gothic Sectory War (in reality a minor Black Crusade and the precusor to the 13th Black Crusade), and of course the 13th Black Crusade. The fall of Hyrda Cortonus (sp?) might deserve to be up there, time will tell on that one.

Lesser but equally important events being the awakening of the Necrons (Necrons ), some of the Tyranid Hive Fleet incursions, the appeareance of the Tau on the scene (:wtf:) (and of course the Empire desire to slaughter them).

I'm afraid not. Unlike Star Wars (or indeed most franchises) Warhammer 40K is a fully fleshed out universe, the novels cover every thing from soldiers to cops to Inquisitors and just about everything in between.

A little bit of History

Keep in mind that all that is terribly brief and some what out of date (a fair amount of 2nd Edition rules material) but it's the best I know of offhand.

Good Gravy! That's a lot of stuff!

Like I said, it's a thouroughly fleshed out universe. It's the product of twenty five years of work by a hundred, if not thousands, of very talented people. That's a very bare bones summary but it'll give you your bearings.

[Elheru Aran]

Question... is this supposed to be a future Earth, ruled by this Emperor? And I suppose it's circa 40K AD... hence the name... correct?

[18-Till-I-Die]

Question... is this supposed to be a future Earth, ruled by this Emperor? And I suppose it's circa 40K AD... hence the name... correct?

Spot on.

It's a sterile, wasteland Earth of the year 40,000.

More over, it's no ruled by the Emperor, but by a group of politicians who claim to speak in his name, or some such. Though i think at one time, the Emperor could still 'speak' (psionically, i beleive) but that was millennia ago.

[Elheru Aran]

Okay... and I suppose all those other weird names (Tyranid, etc) are various aliens? I presume the Tyranid (from those two versuses with the Lictor) are some kind of bugs a la Starship Troopers... don't know about the other aliens (Chaos, Necrons, etc).

[18-Till-I-Die]

Someone correct me if i'm wrong please, but from what i know of WH40K from the books and other fluff.

Tyranids are a swarm of DNA absorbing insects who function like a biological version of the Borg, but are much, much more dangerous and a thousandfold cooler

Chaos is the catch-all term for any entity/force that exists both in our realm and the magical real of Warp, also those who worship these entities, such as rogue soldiers called the Chaos Marines.

Necrons are (or were) th ebiological followers of living gods called C'tan. But they gave up their bodies to put their midns in immortal machine bodies millions of years ago. Basically, they are the most powerful race, but by far the most enigmatic.

Eldar are a race of humanoid creatures resembling elves. Very beautiful, and extremely agile, they once ruled the galaxy, or the better part of it, but were nearly destroyed by the birth of the Warp creature Slannesh. Now they are slowly dying out, and live in mobile worldships called Craftworlds.

Tau are a race of blue-skinned humanoids, with extremely advanced technologhy. Little is known about them, other than they seem to be like communists, and are very young/small on the galactic scale.

the Imperium are humans who worship the God Emperor, but since he can no longer communicate, they are actually being bamboozaled by his 'advisors' the High Lords of Terra. They are by far the largest and most stable empire.

Orks are my favorite, absolute favorite in tehWH40K world They are a kick ass bunch of green skinned ape-like humanoids, who actively seekout any other species to fight wars with them.. That is all they care about, and their are literally trillions of them.

I think thats all of them.

[NecronLord]

Necrons are (or were) th ebiological followers of living gods called C'tan. But they gave up their bodies to put their midns in immortal machine bodies millions of years ago. Basically, they are the most powerful race, but by far the most enigmatic.

Their power is limited by their numbers, there are only a few million necrons active as far as we know. This doesn't compare well with the countless billions of guardsmen.

[18-Till-I-Die]

Necrons are (or were) th ebiological followers of living gods called C'tan. But they gave up their bodies to put their midns in immortal machine bodies millions of years ago. Basically, they are the most powerful race, but by far the most enigmatic.

Their power is limited by their numbers, there are only a few million necrons active as far as we know. This doesn't compare well with the countless billions of guardsmen.

Ah yes, but i was just trying to capsalate what i knew into a single breath, as it were. As i understand it, that is the best decsription of the Necrons.

[Chris OFarrell]

Necrons are (or were) th ebiological followers of living gods called C'tan. But they gave up their bodies to put their midns in immortal machine bodies millions of years ago. Basically, they are the most powerful race, but by far the most enigmatic.

Their power is limited by their numbers, there are only a few million necrons active as far as we know.

So far

[Sokar]

Necrons are (or were) th ebiological followers of living gods called C'tan. But they gave up their bodies to put their midns in immortal machine bodies millions of years ago. Basically, they are the most powerful race, but by far the most enigmatic.

Their power is limited by their numbers, there are only a few million necrons active as far as we know. This doesn't compare well with the countless billions of guardsmen.

Yes, but if thoes few million were massed up , they could turn nearly any Imperial world of their choice(possibily short of Terra, and even then the damage would make the Palace siege look like tea party hissy fit) into a charnel pit to rival hell itself. The Necrons are BAD motherfuckers, underestimate them at your peril.

Good descripitions all as well. I always explain 40k as a blend of fantasy and gothic sci-fi. There are theme elements to appeal to almost any gamer, from the grim terror of the backsliding Imperium to the shiny techno nerd Tau Empire.

[white_rabbit]

Now they are slowly dying out

Tell that to the swordwind...

[NecronLord]

Yes, but if thoes few million were massed up , they could turn nearly any Imperial world of their choice(possibily short of Terra, and even then the damage would make the Palace siege look like tea party hissy fit) into a charnel pit to rival hell itself. The Necrons are BAD motherfuckers, underestimate them at your peril.

Examine the username, avatar and sig and tell me if I look like the type to underestimate the necrons. And yes, a few million necrons, even assuming two are needed to match a space marine, is far greater than any single land force the Imperium has, and the entire Space Marine Corps would be outmatched.

Certainly the necrons could take any world of their choice, holding it agaisnt the Imperial fleet might be a problem though.

Fortunately for everyone else, the necrons don't consider them anything more than annoyances, and have no plans to wipe them out, instead harvesting them to feed the C'tan, and perhaps keeping some organics as pets and playthings for said C'tan's amusement (Nightbringer Prologue) and therefore, the necrons aren't really waging a war against the other races, more waging a campaign of pest-control and harvesting.

So far

Indeed, hell the Deceiver was able to convert an Imperial factory into a necron plant churning out thousands in a few days in the Skipos Incident. I'd hate to think how many a necron-forge world could turn out.

[NecronLord]

It's a sterile, wasteland Earth of the year 40,000.

Actually, it's a city-planet, a little like Coruscant, but writ a little smaller.

[Smiling Bandit]

Indeed, hell the Deceiver was able to convert an Imperial factory into a necron plant churning out thousands in a few days in the Skipos Incident. I'd hate to think how many a necron-forge world could turn out.

They might be limited by their initial genesis. They may need their original anti-soul existences to create new functional Necrons.

[Vympel]

Question: has the Tyranid problem been 'resolved'?

[NecronLord]

They might be limited by their initial genesis. They may need their original anti-soul existences to create new functional Necrons.

That's pariahs. Necrons are just uploaded minds, there's no 'anti-soul' there. It's a case of cut and paste, and the ones at Skipos were quite lethal, and armed with the usual gauss weapons. There was no suggestion of them being limited, though it would explain the visual difference between the old style and new style necrons (Which appeared in illustrations too) if the old style were freshly built somewhere.

[NecronLord]

Question: has the Tyranid problem been 'resolved'?

No.

[Vympel]

No.

That's gotta suck.

Has it gotten worse?