History Headscratchers / Warhammer40000

* Lelith Hesperax in the 2010 Dark Eldar Codex has plasma grenades as part of her standard wargear. Where does she keep them in that outfit of her's?
** [[Franchise/SamAndMax None of your damn business.]]
** Hard to say. She may have a [[HyperspaceArsenal pocket dimension in her pocket]], [[VictoriasSecretCompartment stuff them in her top]], [[StomachOfHolding swallowed them to spit them back up]], [[HammerspaceHair braided into her hair]], [[TrouserSpace kept in her trousers]], or perhaps even kept "in" her [[AssShove trousers]]. Although she's understood to have these, the core rules mention that the model should be modelled with them, if only particularly for the formal games. Creative or lawful players will likely go to the trouble to model a few on her or something that she could carry them in.

** No they look almost identical and your average imperial citizen doesnt even know the eldar exist.

** [[FateWorseThanDeath Until it's too late]].

** Also, is preventing just ONE planet from becoming Tyranid lunch really worth the risk of awakening an entire Nectron Tomb World, with all the horrors that lie within? It is far easier to purge a nid infested planet than it is to destroy a Tomb world.

** Is it still good luck that there were no Necrons on Earth if it turns out they're actually on Mars? Primitive cultures can't open tombs unaided, but even with thirty five thousand years of martian colonisation they haven't woken the Necrons there yet.

** Yes. Remember, the C'tan are after delicious souls. Gauss Flayers help harvest that. However, the Necrons also appear to gather up survivors from an assault and load them onto their ships, probably to be harvested or expermineted on in a more efficient manner.
** No longer true with the new edition codexes. Now the Harvest is collecting DNA samples that might be relevant to restoring organic bodies. The exact mechanics are not known (except for one mad Cryptec that experiments on living subject), but phrasing implies that samples might not be necessary alive when collected.

* I know it's far easier for readers to follow human characters and for writers to write them, but why aren't there more novels looking at the setting from the point of view of the Eldar, the Tau, or, heck, the Orks ? That would be very interesting to have an epic saga told from their perspective.
** If nothing else, MostWritersAreHuman. They do have a few stories told from other viewpoints, but these have either failed horribly or just come off as arguably human with just another cultural view. As far as I know, there are not many books from the Tau viewpoint, and virtually none from the Orks. Many writers could be reasonably reluctant since Orks are simple, and would be rather flat, or restricted to comedy (you know, like they are in the fluff); Eldar are supposed to be an enigmatic and complex species, and an effective story from their view would likely not explore their thoughts or make them seem a lot like the humans they hold in disdain.

** Speaking as someone who considers da orks to be his favorite race/faction in 40, I don't think they lend themselves well towards novelization. As the previous troper said, they're simple and there isn't a huge amount of variety in their personalities and motivations. Where orks would excel is as protagonists of a comic or graphic novel series, where the visual medium could highlight their CrazyIsCool qualities.

** It's not who takes joy, it's who feels pride or triumpt and killing him. However if he was killed by someone who didn't do either (let's say for instance they never realised they did kill him, or died after inflicting a mortal wound), he would logically stay dead. So I'd say he avoids Necrons like the plauge, and to date nobody detached enough to not feel pride at slaying him as gotten the chance.
** Lucius once had a duel with some unique hardcore Blood Angel character, whose name I can't recall. Slaanesh had to personally intervened to get Lucius to hell out of the fight, since his death was inevitable. Apparently, when you hold back Black Rage with sheer force of will for a hundred years straight, you can't feel any pride and triumph over impaling yet another chaoslord anymore.

* The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer states that part of lasgun maintenance includes lubrication. Which is interesting seeing how as an EnergyWeapon wouldn't need any moving parts.
** Says who?
** Modern lasers and [[EnergyWeapon Energy Weapons]] ([[AluminumChristmasTrees Yes, they exist]]) don't use moving parts. MemeticMutation aside, lasguns, when you get down to it, actually does work like a flashlight. Flashlights don't have moving parts, do they?
*** Every flashlight I've ever used had a moving part. It's called "a switch".

Related to the above: Why was so much terminology directly referencing [[ChurchMilitant the most unsavory aspects of Christianity and religion in general]], e.g. Heresy, Crusade, Inquisition, used before the rise of the Imperial Cult and, indeed, by the [[WellIntendedExtremist fanatically]] [[NayTheist anti-religious]] Emperor himself? Best I could come up with is that the TranslationConvention calibrated on the 40Ks leads to Gothic words having established translations based on religious connotations the words had not yet acquired in the Emperor's time (basically HaveAGayOldTime with religion rather sex).

* Whoa whoa ''whoa''…where on earth did "Death Korps of Krieg as clones" come from?!

** Cloning is tech heresy and thus is only allowed in very specific scenarios after showing fanatical devotion and having the living shit kicked out of you. Imagine if a clone using planet rebelled they would effectivly having infinite troops too fight in the revolution.
** Not if the Imperium used Exterminatus.
** Most planets with the resources to make clones have the resources to defend against orbital bombardment.
** Its implied that the Imperium and the Mechanicus look the other way when it comes to Krieg. Probably due to their soldiers being really good and the entire planet being even more loyal than usual for an Imperial World out of atonement for the earlier rebellion.
** Krieg doesn't have technology to avert law of conservation of matter-energy. While the cloning stations are located on Krieg, they will not be able to work without constant supplies from other star systems. They still need biomass, chemicals, spare parts, energy resources, etc., etc.

** Marines would weigh, probably, not quite half a metric ton. They're so well protected because they have PowerArmor. While this does give them considerable protection, the armor not as guaranteed to block a hit from conventional weapons as a tank's armor would. Also, a tank could concievably stand up to a hit that would pulp or vaporize a marine if their armor dodn't stop it.

* As intriguing and well thought out as the Chaos Gods are, there's something about them I'm a little confused about. I read somewhere that says they're [[EldritchAbomination Lovecraftian]] in nature, but at the same time, the four of them seem to neatly divide up the duties and attributes of {{Satan}}: a fierce and terrifying warrior (Khorne), offering pleasures beyond imagination and (Slaanesh), being nice and friendly to effectively lure people to the dark side (Nurgle), and coming up with clever plans to gain as many souls as possible and undermine God (Tzeentch) (although Satan is more likely to angrily shout "YouHaveFailedMe!" in contrast with Tzeentch's cool and confident "YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness"). So which is the true source and inspiration for the Dark Gods?
** All of the above. 40K's Chaos Gods are a mixture of both Lovecraftian horrorabominationgods and a more Christian/Abrahamic-style Satan figure. Or rather, they're Satan fused with Cthulhu, for the extra unstoppable evil. It's worth noting that some interpretations and fluff surrounding the Chaos Gods posits them as not a wholly evil force, but rather as a neutral force made up of both good and evil elements; i.e. Khorne is a god of violence and murder but also honor and bravery. Slaanesh is a god of excess but also a god of love and creativity. Nurgle is a god of despair and waste but also a god of endurance and determination, and Tzeentch is a god of scheming and manipulation but also learning and hope.
** People tend to forget the Britishness of [=WH40k=], the Chaos Gods are based on the Lords of Chaos from Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series (this is especially true with early Warhammer Fantasy which had Gods of Law as a counterbalance). Moorcock's Lords of Chaos were whimsical being made from thoughts and emotions of living beings so they can be cruel or kind depending on their own mood and the thoughts of people at the time (Chaos behaves at its worse when humans and other races are Conan-type barbarians). Moorcock's influence doesn't just extend to the Chaos gods, the fluff you see about Demon worlds or worlds caught in the Eye of Terror, could almost be taken straight out of Corum or Elric novels and Moorcock had an immortal Emperor living on a Golden Throne long before GW did.

** Because you haven't haven't actually bothered looking? Off the top of my head, I can recall a popular revolt in Tactica Imperialis that was caused by general uprising, two genestealer rebellions in the ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' books - along with Cain mentioning that popular rebellions in the Imperium occurred regularly - and two more popular rebellions mentioned in the Gaunt's Ghosts books.

** There are many non-Chaos rebellions that happen all the time in the Imperium, as mentioned above, as long as the planet keeps paying their taxes and tithes, the Imperium see’s no reason why it should expend energy crushing it, it’s usually when the Ruinous Powers get involved that they take a revolt seriously. That being said there were some major non-Chaos backed rebellions that the Imperium quashed; the Rophanon Rebellion, which was technically crushed by the Imperium, but they let the Tyranids do most of the work and then did Exterminatus on the planet, the Fourth Quadrant Rebellion also hardly involved Chaos, and the Badab War was against Renegade Space Marine Chapters rather than Chaos Space Marines(though Lufgt Huron turned to Chaos after the war ended and he escaped).

** [[WhatAnIdiot People just want a happy ending.]]

[[folder:Why is there light in grimdar universe?]]

** Well, to much darkness creates sooner or later TooBleakStoppedCaring and to prevent that, they put at least some hope into the 40k universe. If there wouldn't be any hope, at some point 40k would just be boring and at least some people would ask "Why are they fighting anyway?" But if there is still light, people have a reason to move on and it depends on the author anyway how dark 40k is. The ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' novels for example are quite a bit less crapsack then other material.

** He may be in coma only because he had to CastFromHP.

* I am no authority on warp travel, but try as I might, I could find no answer in the fluff or elsewhere to the question: Why doesn't Abaddon simply enter real space beyond the Cadian Gate? I know that it's been established that the only stable route from the eye of terror lies here, and Cadia is in the way. I'm just wondering, what keeps Abaddon, or for that matter, any Chaos ship from entering the warp, and just navigating until they reach Terra or whatever other vital system they want to conquer, and return to real space basically on the doormat?

** It was actually his big mistake from the first Black Crusade. While he ravaged what codex calls "thousands of worlds", Abbaddon allowed Imperium to capture Cadia and cut off his forces from supplies and reinforcements and later wear them off due superior numbers.

** Dark Angels Deathwing see's no problems with plasma cannon Terminators.
** Laser wapons are only the least powerful if you don't include multilasers or lascannons. Or autoguns for that matter.

** Human souls do go to the warp but, unlike the Eldar, don't remain conscience or aware of it as their souls do not burn as brightly due to having a weaker physic presence. Those without souls, such as physic blanks, would simply cease to exist.

** They didn't.
** I'm pretty sure they had ''some'' sort of FTL travel. Otherwise, how did humanity spread so far during the Dark Age of Technology?
** They used the Warp. The Warp was far calmer during those days. The birth of Slaanesh turned the warp tumultuous and shattered the existing human empires.
** The canonical answer is that no one knows for certain; the answer may have been lost to history. The answer is ''not'' that the Warp was calmer before the birth of Slaanesh. Just the opposite is true: the birth of Slaanesh ''calmed'' the Warp; before that, his/her gestation was what caused the Warpstorms that brought about the Age of Strife. Even before that, there is no particular reason to think that the Warp was calmer than in the 41st millennium. The most likely answer is that they did it the same way the Tau do in the 41st millennium: they take only short, shallow dips into the Warp, which is much safer and more reliable, but has the disadvantage of also being much slower.

** From the fluff I would say that the average Tau in the street has a fairly enlightened outlook on life and many of the commanders/leaders are relatively benevolent, if a little cynical. But the higher-ups and the Etherials are more aware of how generally shit the universe is and act as ruthless as everyone else. The difference between them and Imperial authorities is that the humans don't bother to lie about being tyrants any more. Basically, Tau on the street are LawfulGood with LawfulNeutral rulers, while Imperial citizens are LawfulNeutral with LawfulEvil rulers. On a good day.

** Hard to say. She may have a [[HyperspaceArsenal pocket dimension in her pocket]], [[VictoriasSecretCompartment stuff them in her top]], [[StomachOfHolding swallowed them to spit them back up]], [[HammerspaceHair braided into her hair]], [[TrouserSpace kept in her trousers]], or perhaps even kept "in" her [[AssShove trousers]]. Although she's understood to have these, the core rules mention that the model should be modelled with them, if only particularly for the formal games. Creative or [[CharacterAlignment Lawful]] players will likely go to the trouble to model a few on her or something that she could carry them in.

** About 75% of it was BlackComedy and raw irony; things like the Space Marines, the shining saviors of the Imperium, being largely recruited from the ranks of death-row inmates and street gangs, and the only real defining difference in traits and characteristics between them and the Chaos Marines being who they worshiped and how [[SpikesOfVillainy spikey]] their armor was. There were also a lot more "zany" things (especially in regards to the Orks), more "lesser races" and generally taking concepts that were already UpToEleven and then breaking the knob so you could dial it up more. In that respect it suffered much the same as ComicBook/JudgeDredd; starting as a complete over the top parody of action tropes, only to end up having to balance the parody with becoming halfway like that which it was making fun of just in order to remain sustainable.

** Commissars A) have {{Nice Hat}}s, B) have {{Badass Longcoat}}s, and C) are the only units that routinely execute their men on the tabletop as a game mechanic (excepting Kharn). Thusly, MemeticMutation.

** There were different periods before invention of Astronomicon. Up to M18, Humanity used conventional non FTL engines, stasis and generation ships and the like. Then, somewhere between M18 and M22, Navigator and Psyker genes manifested and warp drive and Geller Field was invented. Warp was much calmer and there was no need for Astronomicon. Humanity colonised thousands of worlds, maybe even millions. And it backfired. Due to incredible amounts of humanity's psy emanations, warp became more turbulent and dangerous. Ships no longer could reach their destination and got lost in the warp. The Age of Strife began. It goes for 3 millenia, humanities numbers fall steadily due to lack of trade with the nearby systems, attacks of xenos, rebellions of the Men of Iron. Then happened the Fall of Eldar and the Birth of Slaanesh. The psychic scream of new borned God killed most of the Eldar Empire population, but also cleared the warp from the warp storms. And for a hundred years vessels of newly founded Imperium of Man have navigated with little difficulty. However, at some point the numbers of humans rose once again and once again Warp got turbulent. It was at that point that Emperor retreated back at his palace and activated Astronomicon. And it works ever since.

** Speaking as someone who considers da orks to be his favorite race/faction in 40, I don't think they lend themselves well towards novelization. As the previous troper said, they're simple and there isn't a huge amount of variety in their personalities and motivations. Where orks would excel is as protagonists of a comic or graphic novel series, where the visual medium could highlight their CrazyAwesome qualities.

** Well, to much darkness creates sooner or later DarknessInducedAudienceApathy and to prevent that, they put at least some hope into the 40k universe. If there wouldn't be any hope, at some point 40k would just be boring and at least some people would ask "Why are they fighting anyway?" But if there is still light, people have a reason to move on and it depends on the author anyway how dark 40k is. The ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' novels for example are quite a bit less crapsack then other material.

** Well, to much darkness creates sooner or later DarknessInducedAudienceApathy and to prevent that, they put at least some hope into the 40k universe. If there wouldn't be any hope, at some point 40k would just be boring and at least some people would ask "Why are they fighting anyway?" But if there is still light, people have a reason to move on and it depends on the author anyway how dark 40k is. The CiaphasCain novels for example are quite a bit less crapsack then other material.

** The Necrons already did that once... and the boredom after made them sleep for millions of years (along with the Enslaver and C'tan fighting thing). And the 'nids are only still scouting parties, with the main force taking a while to get here, if they're headed to this galaxy at all. But i think that the Orkz would challenge the assertion that either force is unstoppable (they already lived through the 1st Necron purge), if they unite that is.

[[folder:Jurgen, take a bath!]]
* ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' series. Why doesn't Cain ever order Jurgen to, you know, ''bathe''?
** He's afraid it would only anger the smell.
** He uses it to deflect attention from himself.
** It's also that Jurgen is an {{Expy}} of Private Literature/McAuslan, GM Fraser's other classic series besides Flashman. [=McAuslan=] is depicted as something like Pigpen, and is occasionably forcibly washed by his comrades. On the one occasion he is shown clean, he is unrecognizable.
** At one point, Jurgen does take a bath. The smell comes back damned fast. Its nothing to do with his actual hygiene, but rather it has to do with his status as a blank. Being a blank, normal humans have a natural aversion to him that manifests as his general repulsveness.
** It's probably a good thing the Jurgen smells so revolting. As a blank, normal humans would find him unpleasant for reasons they don't quite understand. The smell at least gives them something to explain their feelings, even if it isn't the true cause.
*** Perhaps the natural aversion people have towards Blanks manifests as stench. The human brain knows there is something off about Jurgen, but cannot explain it, so it fires off the negative olfactory receptors as a warning.
** In the Ravenor books, there's a Blank on the Inquisitor's team who is basically a pick-up artist and is constantly looking at nudie mags. People justify leaving him alone because he's an odious little toad, but they'd want to leave him alone anyway because he's a Blank. This troper's headcanon is that every Blank develops a bad smell or poor grooming or horrible personal habits so that people want to leave them alone, as a manifestation of their soulless nature.
[[/folder]]

** And as it turns out, they've failed. Ghrazghkull turned the tide in da orkz' favor and krumped the 'nids(though not the whole of the hive fleet) and continued on his merry way with Octarian Orks in tow as part of his Great Waaagh. So that means that the Leviathan is still there, presumably still strong from their battle with da orkz, and the pumped up orkz are also still out there, only now they aren't occupying each other's time anymore.

** [[SamAndMax None of your damn business.]]

** People tend to forget the Britishness of WH40k, the Chaos Gods are based on the Lords of Chaos from Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series (this is especially true with early Warhammer Fantasy which had Gods of Law as a counterbalance). Moorcock's Lords of Chaos were whimsical being made from thoughts and emotions of living beings so they can be cruel or kind depending on their own mood and the thoughts of people at the time (Chaos behaves at its worse when humans and other races are Conan-type barbarians). Moorcock's influence doesn't just extend to the Chaos gods, the fluff you see about Demon worlds or worlds caught in the Eye of Terror, could almost be taken straight out of Corum or Elric novels and Moorcock had an immortal Emperor living on a Golden Throne long before GW did.

* So, I read on 1d4chan wiki that WH40K was actually a very comedic setting in its early years, how exactly was it designed to be humorous? I heard a lot of the StupidEvil was added in the 3rd edition, though the Orks were pretty much always the same.

** I hate to be trite, but the truth is that they charge that much because that's how much people will pay. WH40K continues to sell despite the price, so GW figures that's the right amount to charge.