History Fridge / Warhammer40000

** Ironically, in the 8th Edition, the Ultramarines themselves are noncompliant, as their Primarch realised how counterproductive strict adherence to the Space Book was.

** There is a small problem with the point: more distance ultimately means more power for the projectile. if you can throw a bolt 10,000 meters it has to have more power than one that can only go 1,000 meters. saying that they are using varying tactics or munitions that can limit range to achieve another effect is one thing, but if they limit the range of base projectiles they are saying that they are limiting the maximum force of the projectile. If it does less damage, it is less useful. I am relatively certain the primary reason is the obvious purpose of balance.

** There is a small problem with the point: more distance ultimately means more power for the projectile. if you can throw a bolt 10,000 meters it has to have more power than one that can only go 1,000 meters. saying that they are using varying tactics or munitions that can limit range to achieve another effect is one thing, but if they limit the range of base projectiles they are saying that they are limiting the maximum force of the projectile. If it does less damage, it is less useful. I am relatively certain the primary reason is the obvious balance reasons.

* The moment you realize that this dark setting of absurd war, cargo cult science, religious hatred, fascism, and brutality is written by writers are from one of the most secular, best educated, and most technologically and artistically gifted countries on earth.
** Reality would like a word with you in regards to your assertions about secularism, education, and art...
** UK is neither of those. While some chunk of population is atheist/agnostic/secularist supporter, Anglican Church is the '''state''' church of the UK, Queen is its head and clergy have seats at the parliament. Education is highly doubtful. While one of the highest in the world, it comes low compared to other countries like Germany and others due to insane tution fees and currently its international rankings are quite stagnant. Technologically they are beaten by other countries be it Japan, Germany, US, France and so on. And artistically, they aren't that renown asides several sparks here and there like Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde and so on.
** All those traits (especially the bit about artistically gifted) that you mentioned are probably the very reason why Games Workshop made this setting as grimdark as possible. And we love them for it.
** Not really contributing anything here, but GW comes from Lenton, in Nottingham. I'm from Nottingham. Not only is the GW HQ (and, by extension, Warhammer World)within walking distance, I go there all the time. It's an awesome life for me.
** Further FridgeBrilliance: Only a nation that has gotten over [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades religious extremism]], [[TheMiddleAges oppressive governments]] and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII devastating war]] can take such a setting lightly enough to present it as escapist entertainment.

* According to Phil Kelly, [[HalfHumanHybrid Eldar/human hybrids]] are very much possible. However, think about how such a union would come about: the average Imperial official would very likely execute you on the spot for even thinking about it, and given how they call us "Mon'keigh" ([[SarcasmMode subtle, by the way]]) the average Eldar would probably rather die than lie with a human. But these unions still happen, which means that it's very likely that when it does happen, one of the participants is not doing it willingly. Yikes.

* Considering that most of the major factions are somewhere between Type I and Type II on the [[AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit Kardashev scale]] (with local variations in cases like the Imperium), you'd think that infantry combat would be largely obsolete in 40K. It's justified for [[TheHorde Orks]], [[TheLegionsOfHell Daemons]], and Tyranids, who are either at low TechnologyLevels with a few advanced pieces of equipment here and there, use no technology apart from [[DemonicPossession daemonically possessed war machines]] and the occasional piece of {{Magitek}}, or are just a straight-up HordeOfAlienLocusts, but surely the other major factions would have switched over to full-blown armour and air-based combat? It's especially strange that the Eldar (who are not only a DyingRace, but also a solid Type II on the Kardashev scale) and Necrons (a race of super-advanced TranshumanAliens, who were specifically said to have [[HigherTechSpecies advanced their science as far as possible]]) still rely on footsoldiers to handle a lot of their combat, when the lore has shown that they clearly have the tech to turn any fight against an enemy infantry force into a CurbStompBattle.

* ''Warhammer 40K'' casually mentions that after the many years of early FTL research, the Warp was considered the best! So one must ask, how much worse were the other forms?
** It was considered best in that it was possible through human science.
** Plus, when warp travel was first invented, the warp was relatively calm compared to the insanity of the warp in 40k; that was before Slaanesh and before 10,000 years of GrimDark war. Since using the webway would involve fighting the Eldar over it, if humans even had the technology to access it. Additionally it's implied, though not outright stated that early human ships used FTL similar to the Tau's; rather than fully entering the warp, they "stayed near the shallows", to use the SpaceIsAnOcean analogy.
** Arguably, it is the best. And it is Fridge Horror. Look at the webway, and what it is now. Your soul, in the warp, can be protected by advanced shielding, and a million other unreliable things. In the webway? You can only hope to god that an indescribably vast horde won't find you. And the Warp Spiders basically dance through that.
*** As long as you have protection from the Harlequins or the regular Eldar you're safe. The Emperor was trying to give humanity access to the Webway because while it was dangerous it was also reliably dangerous thus letting you safeguard yourself and actually being able to have a set in stone arrival date rather than I might get there in a week or I might get there 10000 thousand years 'ago'.
*** It is also shielded from Daemons.
** Or maybe its the only one that's allowed, considering the Adeptus Mechanicus have outlawed any new form of technology that's not permitted or built by them. The Tau were able to have their own means of FTL travel which is similar to the the Imperiums ability to warp jump except they can only go at short distances.
** It may have been the best in the sense that it was the fastest available to humanity. It may very well be that, by the time of the Dark Age of Technology, for example, humanity had developed Alcubierre drives, but discarded them in favor of Warp drive because Warp drive is faster. Remember, as fast as light is, it still takes years for light to get from one star even to a very close one. Faster-than-light is, in and of itself, insufficient for a galaxy-spanning civilization; you need to be able to go ''much'' faster than light.

** Further FridgeBrilliance: Only a nation that has gotten over [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades religious extremism]], [[TheMiddleAges oppressive governments]] and [[WorldWarII devastating war]] can take such a setting lightly enough to present it as escapist entertainment.

*** Another possibility is that the sponsons are to counter one of the major problems for some of the larger german tank designs of ww2, being outmaneuvered by smaller and faster vechiles. Given the size of the Baneblade, its makes sense to give it extra weapons to avoid being flanked by enemy armour or being attacked by infantry.

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* This Troper has a friend who complains that TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'s writers have screwed themselves over with the Tyranids. He says that this is because the Tyranids have been made out to be the biggest boogeymen of them all and so unstoppable that they cannot be stopped in universe. Then it hit me. THAT'S THE WHOLE DAMN POINT! The 40K universe is MEANT to be completely screwed. The only thing that prevents the Apocalypse from sticking is the fact that [[KillEmAll everybody is trying to wipe everyone else out!]] And [[GambitPileup they keep getting in each other's way]]. Heck, the players are LateToTheTragedy for the apocalypse, because that's what the Horus Heresy was! Therefore, the Tyranids will be dealt with, but the Imperium (and everyone else) shall endure and everything will remain happily screwed. [[RuleOfCool Because that's the way we like it.]] -- {{Hariman}}

* A lot of the Space Marine models come with an arrow on their Pauldrons. This seems like a strange design choice until you remember that many Chaos Space Marines have a Chaos Star motif. The Chaos Star come from ''Literature/{{TheElricSaga}}'' where an arrow pointed every which way was the symbol of Chaos. The books also featured a symbol of Order. A single arrow.

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While most of the horror in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is brutally obvious from first glance, there are some horrors that do not appear until you give the setting a second look:

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