Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Areyar]

Wasn't Malal an atheist deity?
He can be a representation of self-hatred and denial.

It is indicated that the Eldar had their own apocalypse with their own chaos gods, which they barely survived. References to the ancient enemy IIRC.

The suggestion that Tyrranid are Oldone bioweapon is not very likely, the same has been said of orcs.
Also genestealer / hybrids have a connection to chaos.



That said, I haven't really paid attention to post-2ed fluff. I've read several of the novellas, but no white dwarfs or rulebooks.

[Luke_Prowler]

I thought Malal represented Chaos' infighting. He powers is always equal to the other Chaos gods. 

[puke]

That said, I haven't really paid attention to post-2ed fluff. I've read several of the novellas, but no white dwarfs or rulebooks.

yeah, its all post second ed.  i havent really played the game since 2nd ed, but i've kept up on a little of the fluff.  basically it went like this:

someone was told to write a new "raider" army for a white dwarf, and they ended up writing up some fluff for these terminator style robots that attacked merchant ships and distant colonies and things.  it was later decided to turn them into a "beginner army" since they were easy to paint and had good stats.

thus the Necrons were born, and they gave them even better stats and wrote up shome shit about them never really dieing, just teleporting away.  kids love that shit, cause then their soldiers never really die and they can just wish away anything bad that happens to them.

in writing up the fluff, they added in a bunch of stuff about stargods and oldones, mostely as an afterthought.

so theres all this epic sweeping history and stuff, including the techpriest getting all their technology from a burried ctan god under the sands of mars, and the possibility of psychic bioweapons from the old-ones being the only thing that can stop the ctan (even if they destroy the galaxy as a consequence).

and it was all written up post-facto to support this random raider-ary whim that they tossed into a white dwarf once.

pretty much everything GW does is like that.

regarding the history of the orks, i think gorka-morka treated that best.  but some people hate that version.

[Servant Corps]

In Xenobiology, or whatever that's called, there was some Eldar relic that pointed ot the Emperor is an Old One.

[Aqizzar]

And everyone knows what an honest authority on mon-keigh affairs the Eldar are.  Good folks.

Or for that matter, the canonicity of Xenobiology.  But I like it.

[Org]

I get very confused about all this Primarch & Emperor fluff. Who are the Primarchs? And what is the Emperor, and what's his backstory? I could look on the wiki, but you guys can probably give me a nice condensed version. WH40K is awesome just for the fluff.

Okay...  Lemme take a crack a crack at it.

Around 30000 A.D., this guy known to history only as The Emperor (DA EMPRAH to his friends), who may or may not be Jesus, or Longinus, or every important figure in history, conquered the neofeudal tribes of Earth, then the Mechanicus Priests on Mars, and took such a shine to conquering that he went after the whole galaxy.  Needing an army to carry out his serious business, he created the Space Marines, genetically engineered super soldiers who could kick ass and take names for him.

To lead these armies, Da Emprah sort of cloned himself (the specifics aren't really clear), creating what would be the 20 Primarchs.  Except SOMETHING happened to the Primarchs that scattered them across the galaxy as infants.  Over the next whole bunch of years, 18 of the 20 were found, all of them living legends on whatever planet they grew up on.  Each of the Primarchs was granted command of his own Space Marine Legion, impressing upon it their personalities, and their genes (which were only sort of related to Da Emprah's) were the origin of the Space Marine genelines.

Foremost of the Primarchs was Horus (real original I know), lord of the Luna Wolves (not to be confused with the Space Wolves).  Horus was Da Emprah's favorites son, and led all of his personal battles.  Naturally, Horus turned out to be a titanic dick who wanted the Imperium for himself, and turned to worshiping the Chaos Gods at some point (when, how, and why differs with every account).  When he went all Oedipus Rex on Da Emprah, he convinced half of the Primarchs and their legions to go along with him, massacring most of the Loyalists in one swoop and laying siege to Earth.

Eventually, in a battle that's been rewritten too many times and ways to count, Horus slew Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels, before being slain in turn by Da Emprah himself.  However, the battle left him also mortally wounded.  Thinking quickly, his closest servants chose to preserve him within The Golden Throne, a holycrap arcane... thing... that would both keep Da Emprah alive forever (but not really, well sort of, except... it's complicated), and also turn his already superhuman psionic power into a mental lighthouse that lets ships navigate the Warp, among many other perks.

However, and it's a big however, he's pretty much dead for all intents and purposes (if not really dead HERESY), so he doesn't actually rule anything.  Instead, the Imperium is ruled by a bunch of powermongering Illuminati and Generals and Space Popes and such, collectively known as the Administratum and Ecclesiarchy.  Basically, all the worst parts of the Chinese government, the Nazi war machine, the Catholic church, and the Aztec empire, cranked up to 11.  About 3000 years after he was not really killed, the Imperium fought a big civil war over exactly how to worship Da Emprah's corpse.  Then they did it again 3000 years later.  And sort of again 3000 more years later.  Which brings us to about the present day of the 41st Millennium.

Meanwhile, those Marine Legions that turned to Chaos, and a bunch of other nasties, all lead by Horus' lieutenant Abaddon the Sore Loser, have launched 13 Black Crusader over ten thousand years, scaring everyone shitless but always accomplishing exactly nothing.  And the Eldar kneecap everyone to save their ancient hides, those plucky Tau are about to be eaten by Space Bugs, magic Terminator skeletons want to eat everyone's souls, and the Orks have been a pain in everyone's asses since time immemorial.  But I'm sure you knew that.

And now you're hopefully up to speed.  If you need any more clarification, feel free to ask.

All 20 were found. however, the "mysterious two" were deleted from all records by someone, so we are not sure what happened to them. Most speculate they did something before the Horus heresy that was a big no-no.

As Luke might know, I am making the Primarchs rules on Dakka Dakka for Apoc games.

[deadlycairn]

Wow. It's funny to see all the stuff you came up with AFTER I took Neruz's advice and went on a Lexicanum trawl.

I still need to look at the history for most of the races, but, man, is the Imperium screwed. Also, everything is the Eldar's, and the Necrontyr's, fault.

The Necrontyr's petty war with the Old Ones was what created the first bad warp things.

And the Eldar were so bad they tore the universe a new a-hole, which also had the effect of creating a new God of Chaos.

Da EMPRAH was immortal, and supposedly born from the combined souls of all the shamans (who were trying to avoid being eaten by warp-things when they tried to reincarnate). The Golden Throne was originally a teleporter-thing to traverse the webway, and yes, it does have irreparable faults. Should the WH40K plot ever advance, the Emperor will die, and mankind will soon fall to Chaos, tearing the universe apart AGAIN, and birthing a fifth (sixth?) Chaos God. Of course, he apparently had children during his 10,000 year or so lifetime, who are also immortal, and one nefarious dude plans on sacrificing them to the Emperor to try and revive him. All fun stuff.

Now to have a look-see at how the other races are shafted...

This is why I love WH40K!

[Ampersand]

Games Workshop likes maintaining the status quo. There is only one reason that the Emperor must remain alive for the sake of humanity, and that is that the psychic abilities of humans is not up to par with those of, say the Eldar. Thus, he is required as a means of providing for Warp Travel, and holding the forces of Chaos from spawning within the Imperium.

If he is allowed to die, then one, or both of the following must occur;

Human psychic abilities advance to a level where, collectively, the same job can be fulfilled by the masses of psykers.

OR.

The Martian Techpriests develop technology that effectively does the same thing.

[Vester]

All 20 were found. however, the "mysterious two" were deleted from all records by someone, so we are not sure what happened to them. Most speculate they did something before the Horus heresy that was a big no-no.

As Luke might know, I am making the Primarchs rules on Dakka Dakka for Apoc games.

NUMBER 19 IS SIGMAR.

...

Warhammer Fantasy fans may murder me now.

[deadlycairn]

You forgot the third option Ampersand.

OR Cut off from the other planets of the Imperium, and from reinforcements, the human race is slowly destroyed by the other warring myriad races in the galaxy, the negative emotions produced tearing the Universe ANOTHER warp rift and birthing another Chaos God. (God of Sorrow, anyone? Or is that taken?) Of course, some people believe the Emperor will reincarnate as the 'Star Child' and neutralise Chaos once and for all, but the first one has more GRIMDARK.

[Duke 2.0]

 After reading the 40K condensed, I have a question: what is GRIMDARK?

 Also:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 
 

 Huh. Either my comparison is spot on despite my ignorance or this is just a passing relation to how they look.

[Org]

Grimdark=Grim Darkness

as in:

IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE, THERE IS NO RESPITE. NO PEACE. THERE IS ONLY WAR.

[Ampersand]

You forgot the third option Ampersand.

OR Cut off from the other planets of the Imperium, and from reinforcements, the human race is slowly destroyed by the other warring myriad races in the galaxy, the negative emotions produced tearing the Universe ANOTHER warp rift and birthing another Chaos God. (God of Sorrow, anyone? Or is that taken?) Of course, some people believe the Emperor will reincarnate as the 'Star Child' and neutralise Chaos once and for all, but the first one has more GRIMDARK.

That would never happen, as it would mean the status quo changed.

[Duke 2.0]

Grimdark=Grim Darkness

as in:

IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE, THERE IS NO RESPITE. NO PEACE. THERE IS ONLY WAR.

This is about as helpful as FUTUREGRIMDARKGRIMDARKGRIMDARKGRIMDARK.

[Areyar]

After reading the 40K condensed, I have a question: what is GRIMDARK?

 Also:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 
 

 Huh. Either my comparison is spot on despite my ignorance or this is just a passing relation to how they look.

that primarch is a 2nd ed one. genestealers have been reimagined three to four times. they currently have lost the ability their named for: creating hybrids with alien creatures. 4th generastion hybrids were pretty much as the host and included patriarchs, psyckers and such.
 
grimdark. I had the same problem. initially thought it was some pokemon reference, but after googling it, found all sorts of interesting things. angry marines among others. In short it is the young 40k initiuates' term for 'noir' or 'apocalyptic' but then over the top depressing.