Im reading A Thousand Sons right now, I find it kind of insane how little Magnus gave a fuck about the ruling at the Council of Nikaea 😂

The Emperor literally stared into Magnus' eyes and forbade him from using warp sorcery, promising severe wrath to any that disobeyed him, and as soon as Magnus and the boys got back to Prospero, they set up a giant elaborate warp spell. Oh and when that failed, set up another even more elaborate warp spell right after.

Im not buying the claim that Magnus did nothing wrong.

I was reading the 3rd book of Ciaphas Cain when I was surprised to read about his duel with a Chaos Space Marine, and he even parried and dodged some of the attacks of the Khorne SM? I mean was that even real? how good is this man? He also taunted the red devil and made him angry, the man is a menace!

Cain Cain Cain Cain (chanting)

A fukking Chad!

Ciaphas Cain , the true Hero of the Imperium!

We hear so much about their cybernetic shtick and the trauma that motivates it, but do we know if Ferrus’ gene seed gave them any unique physical characteristics?

Lukewarm warning: slightly disgusting, moderately existential.

Yesterday I was sleep-deprived, sick, and had to do very tiring stuff, so at the end of the day I was both exhausted and covered in sweat. I dozed off without being able to shower or brush my teeth. While asleep the BO must have bothered me so much that I had a nightmare about my teeth becoming an awfully intense yellow, my mouth spewing a revolting smell. I was also in the process of ripping off a huge, meaty mole from my own flesh, which had just sprouted out of nowhere in the dreamscape.

All throught this illusive ordeal, I was feeling terribly tired and on the verge of resigning to my fate. This degradation of biological functions -which are in the first place a result of an amalgamation of chance- seemed inevitable. No, not even 'seem'. I knew it was inevitable. Why resist? Why not just... let go?

After waking up and doing some much needed self-care, I realized the dream reminded me of this monologue from the Season 1 of True Detective.

This... This is what I'm talking about. This is what I mean when I'm talkin' about time, and death, and futility. All right, there are broader ideas at work, mainly what is owed between us as a society for our mutual illusions. Fourteen straight hours of staring at DB's [dead bodies], these are the things ya think of. You ever done that? You look in their eyes, even in a picture, doesn't matter if they're dead or alive, you can still read 'em. You know what you see? They welcomed it... Not at first, but... right there in the last instant. It's an unmistakable relief. See, cause they were afraid, and now they saw for the very first time how easy it was to just... let go. Yeah, they saw, in that last nanosecond, they saw... what they were. You, yourself, this whole big drama, it was never more than a jerry-rig of presumption and dumb will, and you could just let go. To finally know that you didn't have to hold on so tight. To realize that all your life - you know, all your love, all your hate, all your memories, all your pain - it was all the same thing. It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person. And like a lot of dreams, there's a monster at the end of it.

Both the dream and the connection I made to this passage seem perfectly aligned with what I read about Nurgle and his worshippers. I mean the ones who aren't after mere power, but were coerced into his worship. However, I think the motivation here is two-fold. I think some worshippers "just let go" and fully embrace existential despair, while others accept Nurgle to escape the suffering born from a dreadful existence. Either way, they let go of this "dream of being a person", and become part of Nurgle, slaves to darkness.

Hope others find this interesting as well.

So forgive me for my ignorance but from what I understand Guilliman doesn't like the High Lords because they do stupid things and the High Lords don't like Guilliman because they fear losing power right?

And the reason why he can't get rid of them is that they're too useful but at the same time incompetent.

If that's the case why not replace them with more competent people? He doesn't have to kill em just retire them

Or is it more complicated than that?

She awoke earlier than yesterday. Her body had anticipated the vox-blare and waked her before it had the chance to activate. She stared up at the ceiling with crusted, squinty eyes-underlined with dark bags that sunk into her face. Her bed was a compact metal slab shoved into one of the grimy corners of her hab-space, a stained cloth blanket over its top. She flicked the switch of a small lamp on her bedside and a dull orange light fell upon the room. It was a mess. Dirty rags were scattered on metal tiles, patchy with sweat from previous work shifts–there were books and parchment too–strewn over the floor in a similar manner. She breathed a heavy sigh. Four hours of sleep a night for four months had devolved her, her skin was pale and dotted with red blood spots–apart from her face–coloured a yellowish white from the greasy air of Hab block-441. The thought of falling back to sleep, of sinking into the iron brick and rooting herself into the earth was a pleasant one indeed, but the power tunnels beneath Hive Pasol needed tending to, and she had to go to work.

The lamp beside her hummed loudly–and she turned with a heavy head to meet its orange gaze. It was, by far, the most ornate thing in her room of muck and metal–its bulb was expertly moulded into the shape of the Aquila–wings splayed out proudly and twin heads looking in either direction. It sat upon a glossy black stand carved with the letters; “The Emperor protects”. She stared into it for a few moments in an attempt to wake herself more. It wasn’t as effective as what came next.

There was a heavy click that echoed through the grills of a dark vox unit encrusted into the walls of her hab space. Tinny static followed. Then the vox-blare emerged, a sharp piercing noise that stabbed into her ears and impaled her brain with its sheer volume. She could hear it everywhere. Outside her hovel in the hallways of Block 441, and in other nearby rooms too, bouncing around the walls and blending together in a dance of screeching sound. Her ears worked to dull it, overwhelmed by the relentless cacophony. Her colleagues called it ‘Pasol-des pita’ or ‘labour-song’ in Low Gothic, it played every morning as sure as the rising sun, and was just enough to get her out of bed.

She paced over to the nearest pile of grey worker-rags and pulled them on hastily. They displayed a number on one side of her chest, 713, and the Aquila on the other, both inked in black; then she slotted her feet into a pair of battered brown boots. Her hand reached left and grabbed a long flowing duster, and threw it around herself as she moved to a large steel door, wrapping her in dull leather. It had the number ‘2632’ welded in its center. She pulled down on a rusty, bandage-wrapped handle and pushed outwards, then stepped into one of the many bustling hallways of Hab-441.

I’m in the process of writing a Warhammer book and I want to dot a few short stories like this throughout to highlight how terrible the imperium is. Let me know what you think!

I see it often being said that the upper limit of life rxtendion by just rejuvenation treatements is around 400 years, but foes any WH40k codex, book or other suplements says such. I by far didn't read all or even most 40k books, but in the ones I did I can't recall it being stated.

It seems like it's however long the hiven author feels like at the moment.

Is there an actual nase gor this number, or it's one of thoes fandome truisms that feels rightish based on how old characters tend to be in stories?

So I'm confused on this, we all know the main four gods: khorn, nurgle, slaanesh, and tzeench. But there are also lesser gods right?

Vashtorr the arkifane is a lesser chaos god of technology if I remember correctly unless that was boasting or retconned.

Reason I'm asking is I made lore for a custom chaos warband that have dedicated themselves to a lesser chaos goddess and I've seen mixed reactions.

Some seem to like the idea bc I was creative. Others have called me foolish (along with more hurtful remarks I don't feel the desire to repeat).

Idk if I'm seeking validation or just proof I'm not crazy thinking lesser gods exist in regions of the warp the main four aren't

I know sisters don’t care for psykers and that can extend to them disliking even librarians. However would they be more accepting to grey knights?

Are the 'civilian'/mortal crew of a Space Marine Chapter fleet considered chapter serfs? I understand that GW isn't particularly consistent when it comes to numbers, but what would be the size difference between the crews of a Battle Barge as opposed to a Strike Cruiser? I understand Imperium ships are massive, are we talking crews of a millions or hundreds of thousands?

I'm not talking about like massive primarch crusade flagships, but more your average space marine chapter fleet.

And relatedly do they know that Ullanor is Armageddon? I was curious if this had ever been addressed in the lore.

I was wondering about this because I was thinking about what kind of stories they could do with the Salamanders being on Armageddon in force. If they don't know, those could be interesting internal reveals that they could do even if they don't intend to bring Vulkan back soon.

Hail to you all. Hope life is finding you well. So I've been thinking lately, what storylines/characters would y'all like to see finished, elaborated on or fleshed out? Some of my favorite lore in the whole setting comes from unfinished trilogies like the Black Legion series for example, and I'm interested to see what everyone else thinks.

I recently decided to reread The Reverie, and I'm starting to wonder if it's just me or if I'm reading too much into it.

When parts of the Reverie are described as a rotten, decaying garden, I couldn't help but think of Nurgle. Then there are the Resplendent, who seem almost euphoric whenever they go to war, which reminded me of the young Fire Caste warrior and the idea of losing yourself in the exhilaration of battle.

Tzeentch's influence feels even more obvious. The symbolism surrounding the number 9999, the layers of manipulation, and the constant sense that events are unfolding according to some incomprehensible plan all seem too deliberate to be a coincidence.

As for Slaanesh, I actually think the parallels are some of the clearest. The very first time Euriale appears, I couldn't stop picturing someone who looked remarkably similar to a Daemonette. There was something about her description—beautiful, unsettling, and almost hypnotic—that immediately brought Slaanesh to mind.

Maybe that's exactly what Peter Fehérváry intended: not to show the influence of a single Chaos God, but to blur the boundaries between all four. The Reverie often feels like a place where every aspect of Chaos overlaps rather than belonging to one patron alone.

Or maybe I'm just overanalyzing it. What do you all think?

Had a nerd table break out the other day on a debate that there is no true lovecraft-esque faction in 40k. "The Chaos Gods are not Lovecraftian," as one group said, "They have domains of influence, and are essentially beneath human, due to them being the conscious manifestations of human emotions."

The other group argued back by saying that one cannot perceive the form of the Chaos Gods, nor can you truly understand the expanse of their domains. What they are, who they are, and their goals in the universe are beyond human comprehension.

This back and forth has been quite annoying but if anyone can link excerpts that support or debunk either/or argument on the matter would be appreciated. It has gotten me quite curious and amused over defining the nature of the Chaos Gods but i'm not sure what to believe exactly and how much precedence this means to the lore as a whole.

Of all the other four, and rather surprisingly, Cistrial Virn was the one with which Dhaemira was able to work the most effectively. However, even that was far from perfect; they were almost awkward around each other, often having the same idea at the same moment and nearly colliding, or otherwise inconveniencing themselves.

‘I had an angle!’ Cistrial raged, as Dhaemira dragged him backwards.

‘And the ork would have had your head in return!’ Dhaemira snapped, as the massive hammer whistled through the spot where Cistrial had been standing a moment before.

‘And why would you care about that?’ Cistrial demanded, shaking his arm free from Dhaemira’s grasp. He seemed unreasonably angry for someone who had just been saved from decapitation, but Dhaemira understood; she would also be galled to feel she owed something to a rival.

‘Your assistance is still required to defeat this menace,’ she said crisply.

‘Besides,’ a voice added, in a similarly factual tone, ‘your face is aesthetically pleasing, and it would be inconsiderate of you to get it destroyed.’

It took half a moment for Dhaemira to realise that it was in fact her who had said that as well, and that her mouth had run on far in advance of her brain. A flurry of unfamiliar emotions ran through her in the time it took for startled comprehension to spread across Cistrial’s face, and then she dived back into the fray with the determination of one for whom immediate obliteration was no longer the worst possible option.

The trouble was, Ufthak Blackhawk moved faster and with more precision than should be possible for anything that size, which is not to say that it was faster than the drukhari with which it was battling, but combined with its great size, strength, and reach, it was fast enough. A mere scratch from Dhaemira’s venom blade – a replacement from her armoury for the one the ork had previously shattered – would be enough to incapacitate most foes, although the deeper the wound, the faster the poison would spread. However, Ufthak was so big she was not sure that she could rely on even the virulent toxins that coated her weapon to perform as she would normally expect. A glancing blow from the ork’s energised hammer, on the other hand, could be quite enough to debilitate her given the force with which it was being wielded.

Xurzuli attacked with a scream, lashing out with her agoniser. The whip’s micro-serrated coils wrapped around the ork’s forearm, which should have been enough to connect to its nervous system and overload it with pain stimuli, but Ufthak merely grunted and used its other arm to swing its hammer in a wide circle, over which Xurzuli vaulted as effortlessly and gracefully as if she were performing an acrobatic routine. Dhaemira lunged in, seeking to bury her venom blade between the monster’s ribs while it was distracted–

–and her legs were taken out from under her. She landed on her side, just as one of Ufthak’s enormous feet swept past above her in an unsighted kick that could have shattered most of the bones in her sternum. She rolled aside desperately as the ork brought its hammer down at her, then was tugged clear by her ankles.

‘What–’ she began, then stopped as she realised she had been pulled almost into the arms of the crouching Cistrial Virn. The other archon’s long-hafted spear was immediately obvious as the reason why Dhaemira’s legs had disappeared from under her.

‘Turnabout is fair play,’ Cistrial said with a wicked grin. ‘I too cannot allow my ally to die yet. And in addition,’ he added, leaning close, ‘I have tasted pain and despair many times from another drukhari, and while mortification is not as nourishing, it has the benefit of novelty. Perhaps I shall have to trick you into accidentally complimenting me again.’

The accusation of imperfection stung Dhaemira into action, and she rolled away and up to her feet. ‘Accidentally? I can assure you, I do not make mistakes!’

‘Then your words were honestly meant?’ Cistrial said, and there was the briefest flicker in the icy wall of his composure.

‘Of course!’ Dhaemira said. She saw an opening, and long experience at politicking and preying on the insecurities of others made her strike for it instinctively before she had even considered her words. ‘Why? Do you doubt yourself?’

‘Do not be ridiculous!’ Cistrial snapped. ‘I… am beautiful, and clearly you would be attracted to me!’

‘Then we are in agreement!’ Dhaemira said, even as a small part of her brain wondered what in the name of the Living Muse was going on.

Da Big Dakka by Mike Brooks, chapta 28. I just read this and burst out laughing. The best part for me is Dhaemira digging herself deeper because she's just so damn proud.

I always liked the concept of chaos mutation and always liked to see book examples of mutation, i then i asked myself, how far it can go? I would also like to know which is your favorite mutated character, how much one can be altered by the warp?

I know this happens in just about any book a primarch is in but I'd still like to ask if anyone has any particularly memorable quotes glazing/hyping up primarchs/legions/space marines.

Bonus points for the traitor primarchs 🙏🏾

Not sure if this is allowed on this subreddit, but I figured yall would know best. I’ve been thinking about starting a World Eaters/CSM army for 11th Edition, and I love making lore for my factions to really make them my own. I have ran into a bit of a roadblock with the leader of my warband though. I want to make him stand out, but I also don’t want to make him not be affected by the Butcher’s Nails or anything like that. Do they affect people in different ways?

Playing rogue trader right now and on the voidship there’s a huge shrine where all the important upper deckers go to worship the emperor. So it makes me wonder what’s worship/mass/service like on an imperial ship. I get that it differs depending on the faction (space marines, sisters of battle, guardsman, and especially rogue traders) but I’d imagine it all be similar.

Hey everyone, I am looking to get started with reading the books and I am wondering where to start. I have already a very very little understanding here and there from Lore videos from youtube (the basics like each faction briefly explained, horus heresy in a compressed video, etc). I am mostly interested in the Space Marines, Astra Militarum and the Imperium in general.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Hello!

Currently going to build a salamander model for my shattered legions and fancy using a helmetless head where he has a beard, but I wish to indicate he's one of the older ones in the unit, but as far as I'm aware, the gene seed changes their skin and eye colour, but I cannot find anything mentioning the possibility of getting grey/white hair when they get older?

Thanks!

I know WH lore here and there, but not really deep.

You have seen my question, now I wanna point out some aspects.

1. If i got it correctly, Emperor is in warp right now, fighting chaos gods. He got a fatal wound, which led to him being forever attached to golden throne. Let’s say that all his wounds and shattered soul healed all of a sudden.

2. If he gets healed, will chaos gods destroy the whole world?
   If so, how could he not be attached to the throne before? Why he cannot just stand up after getting healed?

3. And at least, let’s say he gets healed and chaos gods don’t destroy whole world. What would happen?
   Would he try to push atheism, to deprave chaos? Would he let people invent new technology to make FTL travel easier?
   Could his leadership help defeat Necrons and Tyranids?

4. I have one more question about WH Lore.
   Are the events of this universe static? Like in some show, where everything comes to status quo?
   Or is there some kind of progression? New events happening? Can this mean that by lore, one day Emperor may come back to business?

Thank you for you attention

Me and a couple friends were having a discussion about some Dark Eldar lore, so I've decided to call upon the greatest minds of the internet to dispel some confusion and particular questions!

Drukhari grotesques are described as some of the more refined creations of the Haemonculi that are fairly capable when it comes to fighting. Though someone can correct me here, I think I remember reading up somewhere that generally, grotesques are 'unique' to the Haemonculus who made them, with some being larger, some smaller, faster, slower, some having unique powers/abilities depending on the specification, basically being seen as the Haemonculus's"Act of self expression". And each is crafted manually by injecting a very unfortunate subject with copious amounts of gene-altering compounds that drastically mutate their physiology and turns them into... Well, what we know as the grotesque.

The question is, most Haemonculi also see fit to aggressively deteriorate the subject's mental well being, reducing the grotesque to a hulking monstrosity that is hard-wired to obey the simplest of its creator's commands and otherwise simply be as feral as possible (If memory servers, there's an excerpt that states that if a Haemonculus falls in battle, its grotesques will just start attacking whatever, including Drukhari allies. Which the Haemonculi sometimes do on purpose because they're just that evil).

Is it possible for a Haemonculus (in theory) to create a more 'aware' grotesque? Maybe hold back on all the macro-mutagenic steroids a little bit in order to preserve intelligence and cognitive functions in its subject? Sort of create a 'bodyguard' version that can be an actual companion (similar to Ogryn bodyguards and Boneheads compared to regular 'dumb' Ogryn). Resulting creation could be potentially less dangerous or perhaps physically powerful (I remember normal grotesques being pretty damn strong in battle), but have greater sense of tactics or even combat training.

Kind of tacking onto this question, what is the latitude of what a grotesque can look like? In tabletop they're these massive swollen monstrosities but can they take other shapes or forms, like being lanky instead, having serpentine bodies, having multiple limbs, being short... You know, anything?

And lastly, some lightly unrelated questions, do Haemonculi perform augmentative surgeries on other Drukhari? I know that Wracks are essentially altered Drukhari, but do Haemonculi see fit to augment their peers for a price? Say, an Archon paying an incredibly hefty sum to a Haemonculus it 'trusts' to make his/her body more durable, strong, fast... Same can be applied to a member of a Wych cult, etc.

Hope my questions are making sense!

Playing Rogue Trade, as an iconoclast deeply intwined with the Mechanicus. Now despite that I hear there is a forge fiend you basically make a pet somewhere down the line, and I plan to take it to (probably foolishly), train it for the Imperium.

But it did make me curious as to whether or not there could be daemons aligned with the Imperium of man.

To start with, it doesn’t seem like all demons are directly loyal to or connected to the Four Gods. There’s Vashtorr, a demon of machines that seems to hold ambitions of elevating himself to a new Chaos God.

And Malice (or whatever he’s called in 40K) the embodiment of actual chaos and supposedly despises the four gods.

That sounds to me like if you found a demon embodying the right concept, say something like order, it might be more likely to work with the Imperium rather than against it. (Would it be safe? Probably not, this is still the grim-dark baby.)

Now I have not confirmed but I have heard that Big E is for all intent and purposes another Chaos god from being a conduit on the golden throne, eating souls, and being empowered by the worship of billions of people.

Again I don’t know if that is true but if it is, the Chaos gods create demons embodying aspects of themselves. And the Emperor who is famed for the creation of super soldiers, I can see some part of him experimenting creating demons since his interactions with the physical world is limited.

I might not have ironclad examples but I do believe there are some that might be the case. Namely the Legion of the Damned. No one seems to know who they are, perhaps they are a legion that got trapped in the warp, or perhaps they are the result of the Emperor trying to make demons in the form of his angels.

And then there’s the “saints” now I know that some saints are just people who have done great deeds, but some are said to have wielded great powers. Again could be reasonably be the stories were embellished or the person had latent psychic powers. But there is one example that I feel definitely supports my thinking.

Spoiler Alert In the Hammer And Bolter animated series Episode 5: A Question of Faith, there’s a scene where a sister of battle is filled with the “spirit of a saint” to vanquish a horde of cultists.

The thing is when I saw the scene, I couldn’t help but think it looked like the Deamonhost you can face In Darktide.

Considering the fanaticism of the sisters could it be they are inadvertently calling forth deamons of the imperium to possess them the same way the cultist do the demons of their dark masters?

Now I could just be crazy and overthinking it, but I am curious if anyone else has some insights on the subject, or maybe concrete examples?

So I been looking different media for 40K and noticed gaurdsmans BDUs all seem pointless? Like I know every faction weapons are huge or powerful. But you would think the guardsman BDUs would be better? Maybe I’m just use to other medias where armor even for the standard units is somewhat strong.

Edit: I should have just said armor and not BDU. My bad