History Warhammer40000 / W40kTropesQToZ

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids/WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Given the subject matter you wouldn't think this would be a problem, but in England Games Workshop stores are usually deliberately set up to appeal to 12 year olds who compose the target demographic. In the US it's considered a ''very'' adult setting.

* WasteOfTimePlot: Well, it's a ''tabletop game''.

* RefugeInCool: RuleOfCool in the sense of "governed by cool with an Iron PowerFist."

Venerate the God-Emperor. To deep-strike back to the main page, click [[{{Warhammer40000}} here]].

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Most wealthy Imperials, via juvenat technology.

* RetCon: The Squats, Zoats and the fifth Chaos God, Malal, were removed from the game background - the Squats because they weren't sure what to do with them, Malal because they weren't quite sure who owned the copyright. Other forces changed drastically, for example, the Tyranids turning from curiosity bugs into a [[HordeOfAlienLocusts galaxy-eating horror]], and the C'tan changing from the Necrons' star gods to their ''former'' star gods who got betrayed.

** The removal of the Squats is not a RetCon so much as a DroppedABridgeOnHim, as they officially existed, but were utterly eradicated by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken. The Zoats get a quarter-page mention in the Tyranid book, as they were wiped out by the Imperium.

** Sixth Edition retconned the Squats back into existence in a list of sanctioned abhumans.

* {{Room 101}}: Commorragh, the home of the Dark Eldar, is implied to be a ''City'' 101.

* SharpenedToASingleAtom: Most combat blades have an edge one molecule thick. This includes combat knives, swords, some types of ammunition, etc.

** TheSwordsTrilogy was started in 1977 and had the OrderVersusChaos motif, complete with Chaos Gods and an eight pointed star as the sigil of Chaos. So Warhammer is [[{{XMeetsY}} H.P. Lovecraft meets The Swords]].

** Before the 5e codex, the Iron Warriors were this. Is being able to play with an extra tank not enough for you? How about borrowing Basilisks from the Imperial Guard and Vindicators from the [[SpaceMarines Space Marines]]?? (At least, now all the Chaos Space Marines can use Vindicators)

** This troper recalls a card game (in-setting) called Hearts and Titans. No idea whether The Emperor's Tarot is used or not though...

* ThrowThePin: Ork Stikkbommaz are noted for being above average intelligence for Orks, as they know that stikkbommz are the bit you throw, not the pin...

* TunnelKing: The Tyranids have tunneling creatures with the size and power of tanks.

** Averted more so by the lesser Tyranid creatures, being grown during a 100-day invasion and digested back into biological gruel at the end of it. Most aren't even born with a digestive tract, as they weren't expected to live long enough to starve.

** The Tyranids prefer the tactic of jumping on you and ''eating your face.'' When they're not doing that, they're shooting at you with the usual array of toxic, electrified, high-velocity crystals; angry, life-seeking beetles and brain-eating flesh-borer worms; biologically generated plasma; and, occasionally, dragging you screaming to your doom with lengths of ''[[HooksandCrooks flesh hooks]]''.

* WolverineClaws: Lightning Claws are this combined with PowerFist. Generally they are only distributed to Terminator Marines.

** Played straight with the Necrontyr. They would die very young due to the intense radiation from their sun.

* WeAreTeamCannonFodder: Kroot, Imperial Guard anytime they aren't the protagonists, Gretchin, ''everyone else'' for the Eldar.

** The Space Marines Codex makes reference to the Zeist Campaign, a shout out to {{Highlander}} 2. The fandom was NOT pleased

*** Then again, ''nobody'' seems able to decide how tall Titans are, with official figures for the Imperator varying from Graham [=McNeill's=] books (43m) to Dan Abnett (>140m). The cover of the graphic novel ''Titan'' showing a smaller Warlord Titan features access ladders and details on the gun implying the barrels are ''each'' the size of a house, making the whole Titan [[BeyondTheImpossible over half a kilometre tall]].

* TrainingFromHell: Pretty much the only training there is. The only way they can top it is by having people trained ''[[BeyondTheImpossible inside'' the universe's hell]].

* TheWhiteHouse: The Imperial Palace, which is said to cover most of Europe and to be visible ''from Mars''. How's that for BeyondTheImpossible? No really, that is BeyondTheImpossible, you couldn't make out continents from Mars, much less see anything that would set any one of them apart. Then again, why am I asking for realism from this setting?

** Chaos: [[CosmicHorror Extra-dimensional malevolent gods and daemons]] that are capable of crossing into the physical realm and [[TheCorruption corrupting the minds and bodies of sentient species]]. Four principal Chaos Gods and countless lesser deities and daemon princes, served by billions of cultists and thousands of ancient daemon-corrupted {{Super Soldier}}s who rebelled against the Imperium during a galaxy-splitting civil war ten thousand years before the setting. [[CardCarryingVillain Unquestionably evil]], delighting in murder and depravity. The four main gods are born from the emotions of hope, love, bravery and acceptance; this should tell you most of what you need to know about 40k's place on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.
** [[OurElvesAreBetter Craftworld Eldar]]: Dying elder race with massive superiority complex. Through their past depravity, they are responsible for creating the Chaos god Slaanesh. Not quite xenocidal, but consider the deaths of [[strike:millions]] hundreds of billions of humans to safeguard a few hundred Eldar lives more than a fair trade, and have the [[PsychicPowers psychic]] future-prediction and [[TheChessmaster manipulative skills]] to make that sort of thing a reality rather than a dream. As an example, they tricked the Ork warlord Ghazghkull Thraka into attacking the human planet of Armageddon, setting off the Second and Third War for Armageddon, killing ''billions'' of humans, to prevent Ghazghkull from attacking one of their Craftworlds (world-ships that harbour the refugees of their lost empire).
*** Dark Eldar: You think the Craftworld Eldar are bad? Try their Dark Elf-esque EvilCounterpart. They ''still'' practice the same depravity that led to their race's fall. Sadistic in the extreme, need to [[YourSoulIsMine feed on others' souls]] to avoid their own being devoured by the Chaos God Slaanesh. Worth noting that unlike the Craftworld Eldar, who could be considered [[JerkassWoobie Jerkass Woobies]], the Dark Eldar have ''no'' excuse for their depravity. They actually '''choose''' to be [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]].
*** Harlequins: A meta-faction with members drawn more or less equally from the other three factions, who form troupes of wandering [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot bards, historians, performers, and high-speed close-combat specialists]] who are [[MonsterClown feared and respected]] by the elite troops of all sentient races, including their own. All of this is, of course, secondary to their "Great Work", which is the re-uniting of the other Eldar factions and hastening the [[HaveYouSeenMyGod creation of Ynnead]], the Eldar god of death, who will destroy the Chaos gods and cause the Eldar race to be reborn as near-invicible demigods. They also have many weapons that can kill in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath extremely gory and unpleasant ways]], including a monofilament wire that inserts into a man's body and flails about, tearing his insides apart. Why use these horrible weapons? [[CantArgueWithElves For reasons your puny human mind cannot possibly comprehend]].
** Orks: Genetically engineered by a [[{{Precursors}} precursor species]] as a biological weapon. [[BizarreAlienBiology Peculiar biology]] (see PlantAliens), personalities based on ridiculously exaggerated football hooligan stereotypes, all "[[MonogenderMonsters boyz]]" and speak with {{Funetik Aksent}}s. Highly [[PsychicPowers psychic]], but not aware of it - Ork technology [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum only works because the Orks THINK it should]]. Violently sociopathic, prone to infighting, and genocidal, they will come on your home planet and tear you and your whole family apart. Why? [[WarForFunAndProfit Because they find it so fun]]!
** Tau: Technologically advanced humanoids with a rigidly caste-based society. The Ethereal caste rule over the [[ElementalRockPaperScissors Earth, Air, Fire and Water]] castes, who are all utterly loyal and devoted (one theory has it the control is based on pheromones). They see themselves as [[BenevolentAlienInvasion benevolent imperialists]] fighting religiously for the 'Greater Good,' and are singled out for being the only faction that seriously engages in diplomacy or offers anything other than genocidal total war. Despite a thing for [[UnreliableNarrator (allegedly)]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans mass sterilisation, warmongering and concentration camps]], they really are the nicest people you'll find in this galaxy. Imperialist, expansionist, slightly fanatical, ("slightly" in this setting meaning that only one mech per army can be upgraded to [[TakingYouWithMe a suicide bomber]]), nothing will get in the way of their manifest destiny to conquer the galaxy in the name of the Greater Good.
** Tyranids: Extra-galactic locusts in apparently limitless numbers. If they take over a planet, they [[PlanetEater devour all organic material, eat the soil, drain the geothermal heat from the planet's core, drink the oceans and suck up the atmosphere]], leaving a cold airless rock. ''[[HordeOfAlienLocusts Hungry]]''. Extremely [[PsychicPowers psychic]], with the [[PsychicStatic psychic chatter]] that forms their HiveMind being so powerful that their mere presence drives psychics insane and interferes with technology that uses psychics - including interstellar travel and communications. [[BugWar Bug Wars]] crop up wherever they go, with the suggestion that the three galaxy-eatingly-enormous, near-unstoppable Hive Fleets are just ''scouts'' for [[TheWarHasJustBegun the real invasion]].
** Necrons: Ancient undead metal constructs powered by the souls of long-dead aliens that hate all living things. Ridiculously advanced technology, [[ImplacableMan almost impossible to kill]], and [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal down to the last bacterium]].
* SceneryGorn: About half of the art. A fair proportion of the other half is just regular {{Gorn}}.
* SchizoTech: Planets in the Imperium of Man range from Stone Age-level Feral Worlds to hyper-tech Forge Worlds, and pretty much all technology levels in between. Even within a given world, examples of SchizoTech often abound: it's not uncommon for an adept to ride a flying bus into work and then spend the day copying numbers onto rolls of parchment with a quill. And of course, "[[MemeticMutation DRIVE ME CLOSER! I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD!!]]"
* ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder: Orks.
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Has a love-hate relationship with this one. At times, distances, timescales and the number of soldiers needed to launch a sector-spanning crusade are handled "realistically", but just as often a few hundred Space Marines defend - or ''purge'' - an ''entire world''. But then again, they are [[SuperSoldier Space]] [[BadassArmy Marines]]...
** The models also have some scale issues; for example, the Leman Russ tank, compared to a Guardsman figure, has a 16-inch main gun and two 3-inch repeating cannons.
** ''Epic'' had this going on with weapon-related rules; all weapons of a given class had the same stats no matter what the model looked like. This got odd with "bolters" (any bolter, sometimes two only counting for one attack dice) and "battle cannon" (the Battle Cannon in a Stormblade's sponson is a quarter of the size of the one in a Baneblade's turret, yet both had the exact same stats). This results in some weirdness when trying to scale up a Superheavy tank to 40K; a Stormhammer, for example, might have anything from 12 bolt pistols in firing ports to 24 heavy bolters.
*** In addition, ''Epic'' models have a tendency to be too small directly proportional to the actual size of the model; a Leman Russ is ''slightly'' smaller in comparison to an infantry figure than the 40K equivalent, while vehicles supposedly as big as city blocks tend to only have a few times the footprint of a regular tank. Perhaps the biggest case is the Imperator Titan; the Imperator model is around four inches tall, and the head has just about enough room to contain one ''Epic''-scale Terminator figure, despite being described in fluff as containing a whole battle bridge for the Princeps and Moderati. Most likely this is because a true-to-scale ''Epic'' Imperator would be two or three feet tall.
*** Then again, ''nobody'' seems able to decide how tall Titans are, with official figures for the Imperator varying from Graham [=McNeill's=] books (43m) to Dan Abnett (>140m). The cover of the graphic novel ''Titan'' showing a smaller Warlord Titan features access ladders and details on the gun implying the barrels are ''each'' the size of a house, making the whole Titan [[BeyondTheImpossible over half a kilometre tall]].
** Another time-related example: A fair amount of the Imperium's equipment, such as some of the older Marks of power armour that are still in use by the Space Marines, is still around and functional after ''at least ten thousand years of regular use''. Even with maintenance, that's a bit of a stretch in most cases.
* ScreamingWarrior: Eldar Howling Banshees, who - thanks to a psychosonic amplifier in their masks - can actually ''shut down someone's nervous system'' by screaming at him.
** Likewise certain Noise Marines, who use a similar piece of technology known as "The Doom Siren".
** One word: WWWAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!
** So common that the Necrons are notably intimidating for NOT doing this.
* [[ScrewYouElves Screw You, Eldar]]
* ScryVsScry: Primarily between Eldar farseers and Tzeentchian sorcerers; human and even Ork soothsayers sometimes try this as well, but are generally far less successful at it.
* SealedArmyInACan: Subverted with the Necrons, in that they can't be controlled. Overlaps with SealedEvilInACan.
* SealedEvilInACan: Many, many examples.
** Just about everything can have a daemon sealed in it, turning an ordinary weapon - or monument, or tank, or ''planet'' - into an ArtifactOfDoom.
** It's heavily implied that the Forge World of Mars imprisons the Void Dragon, a sleeping C'tan star-god. The Outsider, another C'tan, is currently trapped in a ''Dyson sphere'' (also batshit insane.)
** Done both metaphorically and literally by the Necrontyr, a short-lived, life-hating race who had themselves sealed in undying living-metal battle shells, becoming the Necrons. "In a can" indeed.
* SenseFreak: Followers of Slaanesh. Dark Eldar as well.
* SenselessSacrifice: There are many {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s in [=40K=], "But the universe is a big place and, whatever happens, you will not be missed..."
** On the other hand, there is another saying which goes "No man who died in His service died in vain", so make what you will of it. Imperial dogma is occasionally contradictory. Pointing this out is heresy.
* SentientCosmicForce: The Warp is this.
* SeparateButIdentical: All races suffer really badly from this, although it's being gradually fixed with different Craftworlds, bio-augmentation, regimental doctrines, etc.
* SeriousBusiness: The FanDumb, of course, [[CrackIsCheaper but considering what this game costs]], you can kinda see their perspective.
* SexyJester: Eldar Harlequins, though most of their opponents are too busy screaming in pain and terror to notice.
* ShadowDictator: The God-Emperor of Mankind. The ''official'' story is that he was mortally wounded in a duel with Horus and has been hooked up to the Golden Throne and [[NotQuiteDead preserved in a state between life and death]] ever since, but sometimes it's alluded that he might be, in fact, long dead. Of course, those making said statements generally happen to be enemies of the Imperium, so it's impossible to know whether or not they're true.
** It's also important to note that the Eldar believe that if the Emperor died, he would ascend to full-on Godhood upon fully transitioning to the Warp, which they're convinced would make another Eye of Terror. Also, it's heavily implied that if this happened, he'd utterly curbstomp the [[BiggerBad Chaos Gods]], who were so terrified of the Emperor that they actually ''worked together'' to eliminate him.
* ShapedLikeItself: Orks wired into Deff Dredds "soon find out that the disadvantage to being permanently enclosed inside a metal can is being permanently enclosed inside a metal can."
* SharedUniverse: Particularly in the novels; most fans regard anything written by some authors, especially C.S. Goto, as automatically non-canon.
* SharpenedToASingleAtom: Most combat blades have an edge one molecule thick. This includes combat knives, swords, some types of ammunition, etc.
* ShinyLookingSpaceships: Eldar and Tau, mostly.
* ShockAndAwe: Necron ranged weapons typically fire bolts of green lightning that [[DisintegratorRay strip away the target's flesh one molecular layer at a time]]. A great many psychic powers also involve using bolts of lightning to fry people.
* ShootTheDog: Happens very, very often in the Imperium. One of a commissar's duties is to maintain unit cohesion and discipline - by execution, if necessary. Discovered psykers are usually killed to stop them getting daemon-possessed and destroying worlds, fed to the Astronomicon to preserve it and the Emperor, or put through brutal conditioning to serve the Imperium as "sanctioned" psykers. And, if that weren't bad enough, in extreme catastrophes ''planets'' are subjected to Exterminatus in order to prevent the taint from spreading and put the inhabitants out of their misery. To highlight how monumentally fucked up this galaxy is, people are actually ''awarded medals'' for such acts.
* ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon: Shamelessly prevalent in the tabletop game, even the artillery. The worst offender is the Imperial Guard Basilisk, whose range is both unnecessarily long for the tabletop game - twenty ''feet'', several times the length of the average game table - while also far, far too short for an artillery piece of that size.
** As of the 5th edition Imperial Guard codex, the Basilisk has passed its crown to the Deathstrike Missile, an ''intercontinental ballistic missile'' with a range of 12" - 960". In other words, an ICBM with a maximum range of less than a mile, that can also be used to shoot at people standing ''sixty feet'' from the launch site. ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon indeed. (As of the latest errata, the Deathstrike's maximum range is now officially unlimited, but it can still shoot people standing just off the launch pad.)
** Apparently when asked why they changed this, the designers said "If you are playing on a table where this actually makes a difference, then good for you."
* ShouldersOfDoom: If you look at the GamesWorkshop site, "Shoulder Pads" is an entire category of modeling bits, along with scenery and weapons.
* ShoutOut: Tonnes, some subtle, some obvious.
** Most obviously, much of the backstory is heavily based on ''{{Dune}}''. If you're wondering why, here's a short sentence: The God-Emperor of the Imperium. And the navis nobilitae eventually turns into something like the floating bollock-frogs from the movie, and they have more or less the same function.
** TheSwordsTrilogy was started in 1977 and had the OrderVersusChaos motif, complete with Chaos Gods and an eight pointed star as the sigil of Chaos. So Warhammer is [[{{XMeetsY}} H.P. Lovecraft meets The Swords]].
** One of the elite fighting forces in the imperial guard are know as the [[WorldWarOne storm troopers]], and most [[StarWars wear fully enclosing gas masked helmets]]
** [[AnimalFarm "All Orks is equal, but some Orks are more equal dan uvvas."]]
** The Adeptus Arbites are the Imperium's police, with big guns, eagles and ginormous shoulder pads. [[JudgeDredd Hmmm...]]
** Commander Farsight was a prominent leader of an Empire's military forces. He eventually led some of his brethren in a rebellion against the powerful ruling cast, who's whims most Tau serve their entire lives. [[StargateSG1 He is also known as O'Shovah.]]
** The [[http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e142/paco1185/blood%20angels/DSC03570.jpg cover art]] for the 3rd edition Blood Angels codex has someone who looks suspiciously like ChristopherLee. (Compare the lower left Marine to the [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418GBD120QL._SL500_AA300_.jpg DVD cover]] for ''Scars of Dracula.'')
** The two gods of the Orks are stated in ''Gorkamorka'' to be Gork and [[MorkAndMindy Mork]].
** The Space Marines Codex makes reference to the Zeist Campaign, a shout out to {{Highlander}} 2. The fandom was NOT pleased
* ShroudedInMyth: Space Marines are seen as legends by most of the Imperium. An average Imperial citizen will occasionally get to see how much of the legends are true; unfortunately, this is generally in a Marine-worthy combat situation, meaning the citizen's life expectancy can probably be measured in minutes at most.
** One comic story describes an Ork invasion of a medieval-level Imperial world and a Black Templar counterattack, from the perspective of one of the world's peasants. At the end, after the Orks are driven off, the peasant hopes that they never come back again: not because he's scared of the Orks, but because he's scared of the ''Space Marines''.
* ShrugOfGod: Games Workshop has deliberately left everything regarding the two "missing" Primarchs open for fan speculation. Ditto for other major characters, like Commander Farsight.
* SicklyGreenGlow: Necrons in general and gauss weapons in particular.
* SightedGunsAreLowTech: One of the few science fiction works to avert this trope.
* SigilSpam: Most Imperial organisations. Chaos Marines are often depicted in this fashion also.
* SingleBiomePlanet: Used and averted equally often.
* SinisterScythe: Trademark of Nurgle followers and the [[GrimReaper Nightbringer]].
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Take a wild guess. This is a universe where extreme prejudice and xenophobia against anyone ''remotely'' different: psykers, mutants, etc.: is truly the best option, since anything else will, in a best case secenario, get you possessed by demons.
* SlaveRace: The Gretchin to the Orks, handling all the non WAAAGH!!!ing operations.
* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: Looked at from an out-of-universe perspective 40K has the tongue so firmly planted in cheek its punching through, in-universe it is so serious and depressing its rather surprising you have productive people at all considering how depressing it must be to be in charge of anything in 40k.
** This is often based on whichever perspective it's coming from. Read something written from the point of view of an Ork, and the descriptions and dialogue will take on an amusing and humourous tone. [[MoodWhiplash Take the point of view of a Guardsman seeing an Ork]], and all he's going to see is a terrifying green monstrosity howling barbarically, waving either a monstrous cleaver or improbably sized gun around. Definitely ''not'' something to be taken lightly.
* SlidingScaleOfTurnRealism: Turn by Turn.
* TheSlowWalk: Necrons are masters of this, as is any unit with the Slow and Purposeful rule (e.g. Obliterators, Meganobz, Thousand Sons). There is also a drawing in the 5th edition rulebook of several Imperial heroes performing a Slow Walk.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: A dearth of female special characters usable in the game proper, although the fluff doesn't suffer from this so badly.
** Turned on its head with Dawn Of War II Retribution which has half the playable Eldar being women and the Imperial Guard is run by a female inquisitor.
* SomeCallMeTim: Some call me Commander Farsight (Shas'O Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr or O'Shovah for short) . Standard practice with Tau.
** Somewhat averted by Ork ''players'', most of them remember simple manageable names like [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Wazdakka Gutzmek]] or [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]].
* SoulCuttingBlade: Force weapons.
* SoulsavingCrusader: The forces of the Imperium of Man are examples of this and also the other races that appears to be fighting for what seems right in this setting.
* {{Sourcebook}}: [[AllThereInTheManual By the bucketload]].
* SoundOff: Imperial battle hymns, Ork war chants.
* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: It begins with the Tau (for whom peace talks are - [[GunboatDiplomacy usually]] - the first resort), then the Eldar (who will not normally screw you over [[CombatPragmatist unless the lives of their own species are at stake]]), then the Imperium (which has to be this brutal so that mankind as a whole can survive), Orks ([[BloodKnight WAAAGH!]]), then Tyranids (driven by hunger rather than any genuine malice), then Chaos (let's convert the materium into more warp!), Necrons (who hated the universe at large even before they were made the slaves of maniacal star-gods who want to farm every sentient species in the galaxy), and Dark Eldar (just pure, unrepentant evil, even by this settings standards).
** The Imperium also sends its forces to a planet based off this - the worse the situation there gets, the more Mooks, EliteMooks, TankGoodness and HumongousMecha it sends. If that all fails, they call down [[EarthShatteringKaboom Exterminatus on the planet]].
* SpaceAmish: The Imperium actually has "medieval worlds" and "feral worlds." The Eldar have exodites, and the Orks have feral tribes and the Snakebite clan.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: Complete with starship-sized kraken and moon-sized leviathans. Also see the ''BattlefleetGothic'' page.
* SpaceMarine: Imperial Guard Stormtroopers, Tau Fire Warriors, Eldar Aspect Warriors, just about any Necron, but especially...
** SuperSoldier: ...The guys ''called'' Space Marines.
* SpaceOpera: Emphasis on the epic heroes, villains, and battles - not so much on the love stories.
* SpacePirates: Eldar, Dark Eldar and sometimes Orks, Chaos and Humans.
** Kaptin Badrukk of the Orks even wears a pirate hat.
** The Red Corsairs, yarr! Their leader even has only one eye (the other is bionic) and a [[PirateParrot sentient pet]] that allows him to ''[[TimeStandsStill slow down time]]''.
* SpaceRomans: The Imperium, right down to the Latin. Especially the Ultramarines.
* TheSpartanWay: Taken to utterly ridiculous extremes by the Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines. Just ''look'' at the page quote.
* SphereOfDestruction: Eldar wraithcannons and D-cannons and Imperial vortex weapons work this way, neatly removing perfect spheres of matter and sending them ''straight to hell''.
* SpiderTank: Chaos, specifically Defilers and Brass Scorpions. Necron Tomb Stalkers may also qualify.
* SpikesOfVillainy: Chaos all the way. Dark Eldar go for more of a bladed look, while Orks will mix spikes with blades and add anything else brutal you can think of.
* SplitPersonality: Eldar on the path of the warrior deliberately cultivate a separate "warrior" personality so that their "true" selves can remain untainted by the violent and murderous things they have done. Those who screw up and [[ShapeshifterModeLock lose the ability to switch back]] become Exarchs.
* SpyCatsuit: Several Eldar have one, but it's pretty much standard issue for the Officio Assassinorum agents of the Imperium. Some employ chamaeleonic mimicry abilities, others have no special reason apart from being FetishFuel. In one of the newer novels, this tendency is repeatedly {{lampshaded}} when several characters can't keep their eyes from the girl-assassin brought up by a [[ChainsawGood rather]] [[KillItWithFire puritanical]] [[SexIsEvil sect]] who would most likely kill them if she had any idea ''why'' they looked at her like that.
* SquishyWizard: Played straight by most races' psykers, but subverted by some being real hardcases, such as Tyranid Hive Tyrants (but not Zoanthropes), Space Marine Librarians, Grey Knights and Chaos Daemons. Eldar Farseers are actually ''tougher'' than most other Eldar, due to slowly turning into crystal.
* StabTheSky: Common pose of characters in artwork; not so much in actual tabletop models these days, unless you pose them that way yourself. Older models ''did'' tend to have their swords held high over their heads, due to pewter- and plastic-casting limitations of the time.
* StandardSciFiArmy: Considering its focus on war, every single type of unit conceivable has been used in the games.
* StandardSciFiFleet
* StandardSciFiHistory: The Imperium and Eldar follow the trope closely. They explored, found aliens, built great empires, and are now falling.
* StandardSciFiSetting: Only painted black and covered in skulls.
* StandardTimeUnits: The Imperium officially runs on Terran years, and presumably Terran days onboard starships.
** Sort of: the Imperial calendar is explicitly based on the Gregorian, but rather than having 365 days, it has 1000 "Days"/"Year Fractions"/"[[CallARabbitASmeerp Chronosegments]]" of roughly 8hrs 45min apiece. If you think of each Chronosegment as a work shift, it makes it easier, especially if a "week" is 20 Chronosegments, and a "month" 100, as you wind up with roughly the same breakdown as the 7/30 you have now. The fluff explicitly has the "Year Fraction" part of the system used only by those who have to deal with ''lots'' of different local calendars.
* StanleySteamerSpaceship: And Stanley Steamer ''Tanks''.
* StarKilling: The C'tan.
* StateSec: The Imperium's secret police are called the ''Inquisition''. It suits them.
* StatusQuoIsGod: The huge fate-of-the-galaxy-depends-on-the-outcome-of-this summer global campaigns never seem to change anything. However, 5th Edition advances the plot a couple of hundred years, and the Imperium, though it hasn't collapsed yet, is apparently more screwed than ever before.
* StealthPun There are demonic beasts of the Chaos God of Bloodlust that resemble large canids. So that would make them... wait for it... Khorne dogs.
** The Ultramarines are a chapt
* StepfordSmiler: Nurgle is suspiciously too nice for a god of disease...
* StopWorshippingMe: The God Emperor of Mankind when he was alive.
* StoutStrength: Generally anything associated with Nurgle gets this treatment. Especially the daemonic servants who the fatter they are, the more powerful they are.
* StrawHypocrite: The Ultramarines, most outspoken supporters of the Codex Astartes, rule over an entire sector despite the Codex explicitly prohibiting Space Marines from ruling more than one homeworld (barring short periods of emergency government). Mind you, they have a HundredPercentAdorationRating and their realm is unprecedentedly well organised, so they must be doing something right.
** The whole mini-empire was a united alliance, ruled from Ultramar by Guilliman, before the Empire even got there. They only directly rule one world, it just happens to be the capitol.
*** And as Guilliman actually wrote the Codex, it probably is not against it.
* StrippedToTheBone: Necrons make wide use of gauss-flayer weapons, which strip the target away layer by molecule-thick layer - although most have so much power that even a single shot usually ends up vaporising the victim whole.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Depending on the writer, the Guard can be filled with competent men and women able to pull their weight against the superhuman enemies of the Imperium or full of redshirts only good for cannon fodder and buying time for the tanks or Space Marines.
** Note that Imperial regiments probably vary like this, due to varied enrollment/conscription and training methods over the big galaxy.
* SubspaceAnsible: Sending telepathic messages... through ''hell''...
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: C'tan/Necrons, and to a lesser extent the Eldar.
* SummonMagic: Summoning daemons.
* SuperpowerMeltdown: Happens to psykers. A lot.
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: The Primarchs and the Space Marines. Also Orks.
* SuperRegistrationAct: An ''extremely'' euphemistic way of describing the treatment of psykers who aren't sacrificed to the Astronomican.
* SuperpoweredMooks: Psykers and those "blessed" by the Chaos gods.
* SuperweaponSurprise: Eldar Maiden worlds and Imperial medieval worlds - Do not touch without a force big enough to repel the reinforcements.
* SurvivalMantra: The many, ''many'' little prayers and litanies recited on a regular basis by the Imperials. Often have [[MadnessMantra Chaotic counterparts]].
* SwallowedWhole: Stay away from Mawlocs, because you'll still be alive when you get digested.
* SwissArmyWeapon: Obliterators again.
* SwordAndGun: Generally favoured by every somewhat-sentient race in the game for close-quarters combat troops.
* {{Synchronisation}}: Titans and their Princeps, some ships and their captains.

[[folder:T]]
* TactfulTranslation: This happened to ''White Dwarf's'' battle reports. At one point they were blow-by-blow accounts, until a farcical ''Titan Legions'' battle report where one side with a Mega-Gargant suffered a ridiculously one-sided defeat against a Space Marine army with no Imperator Titan. Presumably the worry was that they'd made the supplement look bad, so battle reports were changed to a story-like format, presumably for easier "equalising."
* {{Tagline}}: "There is no time for peace. No respite. No forgiveness. There is only WAR!" "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war!"
** Most of the armies have one as well, like Chaos' "Death to the False Emperor!"
* TakeCover: Terrain on the table is not just for decoration, as hiding behind a bush can protect you from even anti-tank weaponry (though not flamethrowers).
** This is because in practical terms cover also represents the firer missing the target due to obscuring, or simply not seeing the target and not firing at all.
* TakingYouWithMe: Once again, taken to extremes; a good example would be the Eversor Assassin. When you kill him, his ''blood explodes'' with tank-destroying force. All vehicles in the game have a chance of exploding, to the misfortune of everyone around, when destroyed.
** Lukas of the Space Wolves, in keeping with being an analog for the Norse god of trickery, has this as an actual battle plan. He has a specialized stasis bomb in place of his second heart, rigged to detonate if he dies. As a result, who ever finally slays him will be frozen forever in undying stasis with Loken's laughing face to look at for eternity.
* TalkToTheFist: Standard Imperium policy with talkative xenos filth.
* TannhauserGate
* TankGoodness: Naturally, taken UpToEleven. Every race has its armoured death machines, but honestly the Imperial Guard Armoured Companies are the ''kings'' of this trope. '''TANKS FOR THE TANK GOD, TREADS FOR THE TREAD THRONE!'''
** Before the 5e codex, the Iron Warriors were this. Is being able to play with an extra tank not enough for you? How about borrowing Basilisks from the Imperial Guard and Vindicators from the [[SpaceMarines Space Marines]]?? (At least, now all the Chaos Space Marines can use Vindicators)
* TarotMotifs: The Emperor's Tarot. Used seriously for divinition: and it works: and as playing cards.
** This troper recalls a card game (in-setting) called Hearts and Titans. No idea whether The Emperor's Tarot is used or not though...
* {{Technopath}}: Eldar are and know it, Ork Meks are but don't, and the Adeptus Mechanicus ''think'' they are.
** They may even be - certainly they are in the tabletop spinoff ''DarkHeresy''. The amount of ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve going on here is [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane deliberately ambiguous]].
* TechnoWizard: The Adeptus Mechanicus takes the "wizard" part seriously, to boot.
* TeleFrag: The Ork Shokk Attak Gun - see {{BFG}}.
** Inverted with units that teleport into the battlefield; due to the Deep Strike rules, accidentally teleporting onto an enemy has a chance of killing ''you'' and does nothing to him.
* TelepathicSpacemen: Imperial Astropaths.
* TeleportersAndTransporters: The Imperium has a few of these, though they have the kind of reliability you'd expect when maintenance consists of a lot of chanting and application of sacred oil (and when the actual function involves ''firing people through hell''). The Ork mek Orkimedes also created a "tellyporta" device for the Battle of Armageddon; in fact, teleporters are one of the few pieces of technology that Orks can build better and more reliably than humans, much to the tech-priests' chagrin.
** A lot of factions, for instance Space Wolves, refuse to use teleporters because they don't trust them; they can't put units down accurately, if the unit even arrives at all.
** One of the Ork's weirder weapons teleports snotlings (the smallest and least intelligent Orkoids) into an enemy tank; the passage through the Warp makes them insane and very violent.
* TeleportInterdiction: There are teleport jammers that can disrupt, stop or relocate things that are teleporting down into combat.
* TempleOfDoom: Necron tombs form the majority, although there are (probably) other cases.
** Chaos and Dark Eldar leaders have been known to consecrate temples to themselves. And by consecrate, I mean decorate with skins and spikes.
* TemporalParadox: Though TimeTravel is rare in the 40K universe, the Warp does strange things sometimes. Take, for example, the waaagh of one Ork Warboss traveling back through time via warp-storm, meeting up with his army's past self, then ''attacking it so he could have two copies of his favorite gun.'' The remaining Orks were so confused by the result that the waaagh was called off.
* ThatsNoMoon: Necron tomb-complexes tend to look relatively small and innocuous at first...then they're revealed to be much, ''much'' bigger, and often occupied by their builders.
* TheoryOfNarrativeCausality: Why do things keep getting worse and the factions less sympathetic? Inertia and because the writers say so.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Because those who need them are ''weak'', and thereby not worth the resources and time to fix it. [[WeHaveReserves There are many to take their place, anyway.]]
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Standard operating procedure for the Imperium. Justified in that there are some things you'll want to kill ''really quickly'' in this universe, and some things you want to stay ''very'' dead.
** Generally the only way to permently kill a Necron. As Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!) found out, [[spoiler:the best way to stop a Necron Army is to pour 8 MILLION GALLONS OF PROMETHIUM on them and light the match.]]
* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Be strong in your ignorance!
** More often than not taken literally, as deep knowledge of Chaos will corrupt and/or drive insane all but the most strong-willed of humans.
* ThisIsADrill: Corvus assault pods for Titans, the bizarre-yet-cool mole mortar.
* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: Chaos tends to have this effect on the mind - goes double for psykers. SANITY IS FOR THE WEAK!
* [[ThrowawayCountry Throwaway Galaxy]]: The Tyranids have literally eaten empty three entire galaxies and they apparently think the Milky Way will make an interesting dessert.
* ThrowTheDogABone: The 5th edition Imperial Guard codex does this for Imperial Guard players.
** I will see your Imperial Guard and raise you a Dark Eldar. After TWELVE. FUCKING. YEARS. They FINALLY got an update. And while it won't be outdoing Grey Knights any time soon, what an update it was.
** Inverted for Chaos Space Marines. They spent most of third edition as an incredibly dangerous force, then got the fourth edition codex, which removed the legions as anything other than a paint job, removed most of their customisation and nerfed most of what remained.
** And of course, played straight and inverted for Chaos Space Marines in the thirteenth Black Crusade. After thirteen tries, Chaos wins the campaign and takes Cadia. Then Games Workshop retcons it so they only have a foothold on the planet.
* ThrowThePin: Ork Stikkbommaz are noted for being above average intelligence for Orks, as they know that stikkbommz are the bit you throw, not the pin...
* TimeAbyss: Most Eldar, but a few ancient Marines and Chaos Marines cross into this trope as well. The Dreadnoughts are prominent even among the Marines: the oldest one of them has seen the Emperor and fought by his side in life, which is almost 11 000 years from current in-universe time. Truth be told, though, Necrons own this. The C'tan are outright stated to be the oldest living things in the universe, and the actual Necron race is ancient on par with the Old Ones themselves. The Necrons and C'Tan are actually old enough that they have to periodically wake up and move their tomb worlds when they stars they orbit die.
* TinTyrant: Pretty much every commander wears a high tech suit of armor. Artwork of Khorne and the Emperor also has them fall under this.
* TookALevelInBadass: The Imperial Guard went from the whipping boys of the entire setting to the utterly terrifying gods of mechanised combat in the space of one codex.
* TomeOfEldritchLore: The Black Library is an entire extradimensional stronghold full of these. See also the Book of Lorgar.
* TortureTechnician: Dark Eldar Haemonculi, quite a lot of Inquisitors. Most Ork painboyz have got the Torture part down, but the Technician (keeping him alive) part is usually ignored.
* TouchedByVorlons: Not always a good thing...in fact, almost ''never'' a good thing. Partly because you're liable to get nailed to a stick and purged with flame if you get touched by ''any'' alien...or listen to them...or look at them...or live in the same general area as someone who looked at them...and Emperor help you if someone on your planet was engaged in a Chaos Cult.
* TouchOfDeath: Mainly used by C'tan and daemons, but the odd high-power psyker has been known to do this.
* TournamentPlay: The kind of competition at a 40k Grand Tournament is enough to give the casual player horrible nightmares. Quite appropriate for the setting.
* TrainingFromHell: Pretty much the only training there is. The only way they can top it is by having people trained ''[[BeyondTheImpossible inside'' the universe's hell]].
* TranquilFury: Usually this or an UnstoppableRage.
** Given what they know about Chaos (especially Khorne), Space Marines and Eldar try to fight in this state.
* TranslationConvention: "Low Gothic", the common language of the Imperium, is presented as English, while "High Gothic" is rendered in [[CanisLatinicus Pseudo-Latin]]. Ork language is generally shown as English with a FunetikAksent, and is sometimes explicitly said to be pidgin Low Gothic. Depending on the context, nonhuman languages are either translated as English, or shown to need interpreters.
* TreacheryCoverUp: Most of the Imperium's citizenry don't know anything about the Horus Heresy, including the fact that fully half of the Space Marine Legions rebelled against the Emperor.
* TronLines: Necron technology.
* {{Trope 2000}}: ...wait, why settle for two when you can have 40?
* {{Troperrific}}: See above. This is one of the few works pages to have folders.
* {{Tsundere}}: 1d4 chan's interpretation of Commander Shadowsun(dere), a female Tau general. Pretty much completely unsupported by canon, but funny nonetheless.
** A large number of Eldar females (especially the ones who get shipped with Space Marines) are a bit closer to canonical.
* TunnelKing: The Tyranids have tunneling creatures with the size and power of tanks.
* TurnBasedStrategy

[[folder:U]]
* {{Ubermensch}}: The Emperor himself.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Nurgle and Isha.
* UltimateEvil: The Emperor and the Chaos Gods all get this treatment to varying degrees.
* UnholyNuke: The game is full of these. Any time Chaos is involved, expect Unholy Nukes to be flying thick and fast.
* TheUnmasquedWorld: The realisation that daemons actually existed was the death knell for Imperial Truth, and helped kick-start the Horus Heresy.
* UnnecessarilyLargeInterior: All Imperial ships. Also covered in religious iconography and kilometres-high skulls-and-eagles gold bling.
* {{Unobtainium}}: Plenty of it; Wraithbone, Necrodermis and Adamantine are the widest used examples.
* UnpredictableResults: Anything connected to the Warp or Ork technology. Represented ingame by psykers suffering "perils of the warp" attacks and more esoteric Orky wargear having its own tables of random effects. Ork ''psykers'' are beyond random, rolling just to see what completely-unpredictable power they ''get''...every turn.
** Weapons and effects that use scatter rules (typically big artillery pieces, and troops that deep strike to enter the battlefield) can impact well away from the intended targets, even on to their own troops or in dangerous terrain.
** Plasma guns are powerful weapons that are able to fry even Space Marine Terminators. The problem is, they also tend to fry their operators rather a lot...
* TheUnpronounceable: Tau names can get hard to pronounce - but ask any BattlefleetGothic player about Tau ''ship'' names...
* UnusualUserInterface: A lot of Eldar and Imperial gear.
* UnstoppableRage: Black Templars. Blood Angels. Khorne Berserkers. Even Eldar, when the Avatar is nearby.
* UnwantedFalseFaith: The GodEmperor didn't wish to be worshiped and banned any practice of it in the earlier days of the Imperium. There is also a small sect that worships CiaphasCain as the embodied will of the Emperor although Cain has never heard of it.
* UpToEleven: '''''Everything.''''' And often to twelve, thirteen and [[strike:several]] [[strike:over nine]] forty thousand.
* UrbanSegregation: Taken to utter extremes with hive cities.
* UsedFuture: Again, taken to extremes. Almost all of the current technology and equipment being used by the Imperium is ''thousands of years old'', and much of it they can't even make any more.
** Human tech is so old and outdated that Orks can copy them. They can't do that with the Eldar or the Tau.
* UselessUsefulSpell: Blast weapons can sometimes fall into this. Many are extremely powerful (particularly the massive vehicle-mounted Ordnance weapons), but their tendency to scatter off-target makes them unreliable, particularly if your troops have low Ballistic Skill (which makes the blast scatter farther) or you just tend to roll poorly.
* TheUsualAdversaries: Orks (usually). But also... Chaos Space Marines, Dark Eldar, Necrons, Tyranids...
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: For the Greater Good!

[[folder:V]]
* VaderBreath: Because of the wildly differing techlevel of the setting, cybernetic lungs can work perfectly well and even better than the natural ones - or they may let the recipient do an unwilling Vader-impersonation, which is not practical when you're trying to be stealthy.
* VapourWear: Dark Eldar Wyches practically wear ''anti''-clothing.
* VillainByDefault: Upon close inspection, ''everyone''.
* ViolentGlaswegian: Orks.
* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: No comment necessary.

[[folder:W]]
* WalkingTank: Dreadnoughts, in all flavors except the [[HauntedTechnology Wraithlord]] (a.k.a. the Eldar Dreadnought), as well as Defilers. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Soul Grinders]], considering [[EldritchAbomination their]] [[HauntedTechnology esoteric]] [[OrganicTechnology nature]], sit in a more gray area.
* WarForFunAndProfit: The Orks, who go on interstellar sprees that leave billions dead because they're ''fun''. "Orks iz made for fightin' and winnin'."
* WarGod: Khorne for Chaos and Khaine for the Eldar.
** The GodEmperor of Mankind probably counts as well.
* TheWarHasJustBegun: Countering the Gotterdammerung of the Eldar and Imperium, increasingly heavy hints have been dropped that the Necrons are just beginning to wake up for their galaxy-wide omnicidal spree and the Tyranid Hive Fleets have barely started to turn their attention on our galaxy.
* WarIsHell: In some instances, literally.
* WarriorMonk: Sisters of Battle are the most blatant example. Numerous but a relative few Ecclesiarchs may fit into this trope. Space Marines, including the more devout Chaos Marines, have shades of this; many Loyalist chapters are a militant ''and'' monastic order, but the Warrior part has far greater emphasis for obvious reasons.
* WarriorPoet: The Craftworld Eldar.
* WaveMotionGun: Bombardment Guns, Nova Cannons, the appropriately-named Planet Killer, etc...
* WeAreAsMayflies: Eldar are immortal; so, biologically, are Space Marines and Orks, though their entire lives being devoted to war somewhat gets in the way of that. Nobody's found ''anything'' that can stop the Necrons getting back up.
** It is worth mentioning that in at least one case in the novels the Necrons in question had been partially vaporized and the remainder was a little puddle of liquid metal on the ground. They ''still'' managed to teleport back to their base for repairs.
** It's also hinted at that, up until this point, not a single Necron has been truly "destroyed". This is in contrast to everyone else, who usually suffer casualties in the 7 figures on an hourly basis.
** Played straight with the Necrontyr. They would die very young due to the intense radiation from their sun.
** Averted by the Tau. They're pretty short-lived, with fifty years being considered ancient to them. They're painfully aware of this.
** Averted more so by the lesser Tyranid creatures, being grown during a 100-day invasion and digested back into biological gruel at the end of it. Most aren't even born with a digestive tract, as they weren't expected to live long enough to starve.
* WeAreEverywhere: The Inquisition.
* WeAreTeamCannonFodder: Kroot, Imperial Guard anytime they aren't the protagonists, Gretchin, ''everyone else'' for the Eldar.
* WeHaveReserves: Basically the CatchPhrase of the Orks and Imperial Guard. Tyranids take this to such an extreme that their {{Mooks}} don't even ''have digestive systems'' - they are created, sent into battle for a few hours of frenzied combat, and then recycled.
* WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture: Health care for military veterans and Imperial nobles is so good that just about anything short of having one's brain destroyed is survivable. Spectacular advances in surgery and [[{{Cyborg}} augmetic enhancements]] allow just about anyone to live for two hundred years or more, and that's assuming you don't splurge on a mechanical coffin that can preserve you for millennia. Of course, if you're ''not'' a veteran or noble, this trope is brutally, horribly averted.
* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: As an example, gigantic anti-ship missiles with onboard reactors and homing [=AIs=] are loaded with the back-breaking labour of thousands of deckhands. Using ropes. While being whipped.
** That's nothing. Orks use Gretchin as guidance systems in their giant missiles.
*** That's nothing. The imperials (and Chaos) use '''slaves''' to power their ships, by walking on giant stepped axles.
* WeaponOfChoice
** The Imperial Guard almost universally tote [[FrickinLaserBeams laser weapons]] and [[TankGoodness tanks. Lots and lots of tanks]].
** The Space Marines favour [[{{BFG}} bolt weapons]] and [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]].
** The Chaos Space Marines prefer ''[[SpikesOfVillainy spiky]]'' bolt weapons and chainsaws. Various specific cults have sonic weapons, chainsaw axes, and ''pus'' as their Weapons of Choice.
** The Daemonhunters (Ordo Malleus) have a bit of a thing for [[DropTheHammer hammers]]. (As a side note, "Ordo Malleus" means "[[MeaningfulName Order of the Hammer]]")
** The Eldar mainly use [[AbsurdlySharpBlade absurdly sharp]] [[FlechetteStorm shuriken weapons]], though individual [[CripplingOverspecialisation Aspect temples]] have their own ritualised Weapons of Choice.
** [[ChurchMilitant The Witch Hunters]] KillItWithFIRE.
** No Ork is happy without his choppa and his [[MoreDakka dakka]]. Except if they pass up one for more of the other.
** The Necrons kill you with green lightning that literally flays you layer by layer. Except when they tear you apart with claws and wear sheets of your flesh for a hat.
** The Tau stick to [[strike:mere]] [[MagneticWeapons railguns and pulse rifles]]. Extremely powerful ones at that.
** The Tyranids prefer the tactic of jumping on you and ''eating your face.'' When they're not doing that, they're shooting at you with the usual array of toxic, electrified, high-velocity crystals; angry, life-seeking beetles and brain-eating flesh-borer worms; biologically generated plasma; and, occasionally, dragging you screaming to your doom with lengths of ''[[HooksandCrooks flesh hooks]]''.
* WeirdScience
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Tau. The "well intentioned" bit is what sets them apart.
** The Imperium, and the Emperor who created it, could be seen as this. They have committed many, many crimes and exist in several grey areas, but by their efforts, they have created an empire whose subjects can live a life free of Chaos, and even achieve a paradise in death. That's right: an Empire so big it loses entire worlds due to clerical errors, which practices genocide, torture, and murder on a daily basis, whose religion emphasizes hate for aliens and fanatical devotion for its figurehead and puts people to the stake for the slightest bit of doubt... is the best place to live in this galaxy. Think about that.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Several primarchs. Giving up on that was one motive to join the HorusHeresy.
* WetwareCPU: Servitors, in all their various flavors.
* WeWillWearArmourInTheFuture: Every army. Space Marines have the aforementioned PowerArmor, Tau and Eldar have full body covering plate armour, and the Imperial Guard have flak jackets (though unfortunately for the Guard, nearly every faction in the game has basic weaponry that can punch straight through their personal armor, which earns Guard flak such unkind nicknames as "t-shirts" and "cardboard vests").
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids/WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Given the subject matter you wouldn't think this would be a problem, but in England Games Workshop stores are usually deliberately set up to appeal to 12 year olds who compose the target demographic. In the US it's considered a ''very'' adult setting.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Although, to be fair, pretty much every other race sees those not of its kind as worthless too.
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: The Imperial Guard. When all you have is men and tanks...a ''lot'' of men and tanks... The Imperial Guard has been even referred to as 'The Hammer of the Emperor'.
* WhipItGood: Has FetishFuel examples with Dark Eldar Agonisers and Sisters of Battle "Mistresses", and a rare non-fetishy example with Arco-Flagellants, which are [[NightmareFuel just plain horrible]].
** Oh, and Chaos has a psychic power called Lash of Submission. Guess which god it's associated with.
** Ork runtherdz often carry grot prods and whips.
* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: Pre-Heresy Fulgrim.
** Also Lucius, before he [[AxCrazy cut his face to bits]].
* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: The Sisters of Battle often bleach their hair white, though whether they're actually ''pretty'' varies from artist to artist.
* TheWhiteHouse: The Imperial Palace, which is said to cover most of Europe and to be visible ''from Mars''. How's that for BeyondTheImpossible? No really, that is BeyondTheImpossible, you couldn't make out continents from Mars, much less see anything that would set any one of them apart. Then again, why am I asking for realism from this setting?
* WhiteMagic: Sisters of Battle Acts of Faith...maybe.
* WhiteMaskOfDoom: Chaplains and their skull helms.
* WhosLaughingNow: Everyone else's thoughts about Guard players when the Guard finally got a good codex.
* WhoYouGonnaCall: The Sisters of Battle or the Inquisition, generally, including the Grey Knights and the Deathwatch. Calling might [[ShootTheDog get you killed]], but not calling will often have worse results.
* WithCatlikeTread: "Recite the Litany of Stealth to reduce your chances of being heard."
* WithMyHandsTied: Just about everyone, hence why more...exotic...measures are commonly employed.
* WingedHumanoid: As well as troops in the Eldar, Dark Eldar and Chaos who use "jump packs" with mechanical wings, there are examples of humanoids with actual wings. The Primarch Sanguinius, known as "the Angel", had perfect white wings, and the [[AmazonBrigade Battle Sisters]]' Living Saint manifests them as part of being a saint. Of course, this being 40k, the Angel was a vampiric demigod who fought giant blood daemons.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: And with that insanity comes even more power!
** [[InvokedTrope "Sanity is for the]] '''[[LampshadeHanging WEAK]]'''[[InvokedTrope !!!"]]
* WithUsOrAgainstUs: The Imperium, the Tau. The rest [[KillEmAll generally don't even bother to ask]], and even the Imperium [[FantasticRacism generally only bothers to ask if you're human]].
* WitchSpecies: Eldar. Human psykers are also regularly referred to as "witches".
* AWizardDidIt: The Warp did it. Or the Eldar. Or the C'tan Deceiver. Or Tzeentch.
* WolfMan: Wulfen are basically werewolves...in space..with guns...in power armour.
* WolverineClaws: Lightning Claws are this combined with PowerFist. Generally they are only distributed to Terminator Marines.
* WombLevel: The interior of Tyranid hiveships.
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen: Life on board Imperial Fleet ships is this trope RecycledInSpace.
* TheWorfEffect: New races or factions are commonly introduced in the background completely dominating Space Marines. One particularly memorable example has a Necron destroyer firing straight through a near-invulnerable Land Raider tank, accompanied by an AfterActionReport of tech-priests talking about the obscene amount of power required to do such a thing.
** TheWorfBarrage: Often used as part of the above.
* WorldGoneMad: Creeps into this territory at times - the universe is a CrapsackWorld taken to such a ludicrous extent that one sometimes wonders if the setting hasn't well and truly lost its marbles.
* WorldHalfEmpty: Played straight with the Imperium, which struggles to maintain its slowly slipping grasp on galactic supremacy and survival, and the Craftworld Eldar, who are struggling to survive the galaxy. The Tau appear to avert this trope, but there are hints that things aren't going so smoothly. Averted by everyone else, where the sky is the limit.
* TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed: "World" meaning ''the entire galaxy''. Or just any world chosen at random.
* WorldOfHam: [[DawnOfWar INDEED!]]
** It is a shame the TagLine isn't as exclamatory as it is on the Laconic page. It'd be even more self-explanatory.
* WorldOfBadass: If there is indeed only war, it would make only the {{Badass}} survive. [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou Well, it's generally 'survive for a bit longer...']]
* WretchedHive: The [[{{Necromunda}} "Underhive"]] in hive cities ''always'' qualifies - sometimes the entire arcology, with its population of billions.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:X]]
* XanatosRoulette: Everything in the galaxy, as played by Tzeentch (who rigs the game), the Deceiver (who rigs the players), the Emperor (who knows when to call in the cops), and the Eldar Laughing God ([[{{Metaphorgotten}} who keeps wandering off the floor to visit the buffet and watch the stage show]]).
** And let's not forget Eldrad ([[OverlyLongGag Who's counting]] [[{{Metaphorgotten}} cards]]).
* XtremeKoolLetterz: The Orks' FunetikAksent is written with these. Other examples, such as Dark Eldar Wyches, feature occasionally.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Y]]
* YouAreNotReady: Common Eldar sentiment to humans. The most common reply is a bolt shell to the face.
* YouHaveFailedMe: Regularly used by Chaos, Orks and Imperial Commissars.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Gleefully employed by followers of Chaos and the Dark Eldar.
** Also employed by the Grey Knights chapter with most other Imperial troops [[HeKnowsTooMuch in order to preserve the secret of their existence]].
* YourHeadASplode: When a psychic MindRape is a bit too subtle. Ork Weirdboyz even used to have a power called "'Eadbang", which is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what it sounds like.]] An 'Eadbang is also how the Orks refer to what happens when a Weirdboy suffers Perils of the Warp. Just guess what happens...
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: The Ork hierarchy tends to work this way, ditto the Dark Eldar and Chaos: if you succeed in killing the previous Warboss/Archite/Lord, the former officeholder clearly didn't deserve the job.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Z]]
* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: The Squats had ironclad airships.
* ZergRush: Tyranids - unsurprisingly, as the ''Zerg themselves'' were based on them. A lot of "horde" armies, such as Orks and Imperial Guard, employ this one as well. The Imperial Guard is probably the single most emblematic example; as the largest fighting force around, numbering in the ''billions'', you get ''so many'' of them.
** Previously Tyranids were given a rule that allowed them to recycle their basic troopers, the Termagaunts, whenever the squad is wiped out. This has since been toned down and a less broken version was introduced in the form of the Tervigon, a mobile birthing sac which can run out of eggs as soon as the battle starts. It is again reintroduced in the Imperial Guard in the form of Special Character Commander Chenkov, where the rule is literally named "Send in the next wave!".
* ZombieApocalypse: After occasionally menacing the depths of {{Necromunda}}, plague zombies cropped up in force during the 13th Black Crusade, courtesy of Nurgle. ''DarkHeresy'' introduces many more new and exciting ways for characters to find themselves up to their eyeballs in shambling dead.
** And there's ''another'' kind in ''The Bleeding Chalice'', where it's all the fault of a super-mutant produced by a Techpriest experiment on cleansing mutations, and who can psychically create viruses ''through ship hulls and hard vacuum'' that have this effect. His main battlecruiser is essentially intended as a massive [[ItsRainingMen drop assault]] ship that breaks apart and spews down a ridiculous number of zombies, making the first ''air drop'' ZombieApocalypse.
[[/folder]]

* RetCon: The Squats, Zoats and the fifth Chaos God, Malal, were removed from the game background - the Squats because they weren't sure what to do with them, Malal because they weren't quite sure who owned the copyright. Other forces changed drastically, for example, the Tyranids turning from curiosity bugs into a [[HordeOfAlienLocusts galaxy-eating horror]], and the C'tan becoming the Necrons' star gods.

** The Imperium, and the Emperor who created it, could be seen as this. They have committed many, many crimes and exist in several grey areas, but by their efforts, they have created an empire whose subjects can live a life free of Chaos, and even achieve a paradise in death. That's right: an Empire so big it loses entire worlds due to clerical errors, which practices genocide, torture, and murder on a daily basis, whose religion emphasizes hate for aliens and fanatical devotion for its figurehead and puts people to the stake for the slightest bit of doubt... is the best place to live im this galaxy. Think about that.

* The Imperial Guard used to field the same vehicles as Space Marines -down to dreadnoughts and land speeders- before the IG vehicle range was introduced in the mid-90s.
* Primarchs were absent from the Rogue Trader rulebook. The Horus Heresy was initially introduced -in the background for the original Space Marine game- as just a huge civil war, and Warmaster Horus as a mere corrupted general. In this early version of the background, the Emperor had simply grown old and weak over the millenia until he had to be placed on life support.

* ShockAndAwe: Necron ranged weapons typically fire bolts of green lightning that [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel strip away the target's flesh one molecular layer at a time]]. A great many psychic powers also involve using bolts of lightning to fry people.

* SwallowedWhole: Stay away from Mawlocs. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Because you'll still be alive when you get digested]].

** The Tyranids prefer the tactic of jumping on you and ''eating your face.'' When they're not doing that, they're shooting at you with the usual array of toxic, electrified, high-velocity crystals; angry, life-seeking beetles and brain-eating flesh-borer worms; biologically generated plasma; and, occasionally, dragging you screaming to your doom with lengths of ''[[HooksandCrooks flesh hooks]]''. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Have a nice day.]]

* {{Redshirt}}: Though not specifically called out as such, this tends to emerge from the gameplay mechanics. The wound allocation rules (barring special exceptions) allow the player who controls the unit being hit to designate which models in the unit fall in combat when the unit is attacked. Inevitably, it will be the models without special options, wargear, or abilities, who [[TakingTheBullet Take The Wound]] instead of the more important ones.
* RedshirtArmy: The Imperial Guardsmen are ordinary humans in a world filled with genetically engineered {{Super Soldier}}s in both religious-fanatic and daemon-corrupted flavours, [[RobotWar unstoppable death robots]], and aliens with horribly lethal weapons and/or terrifying PsychicPowers. They are surprisingly GenreSavvy about this, meaning that infantry have crap morale because they know exactly how expendable they are. Of course, [[YouHaveFailedMe Commissars]] are there to solve that little problem.

** Ollanius Pius, in first edition, was an [[BadassNormal ordinary]] [[RedshirtArmy Guardsman]] who pulled a YouShallNotPass on a DEMIGOD. Later editions retconned him out of existence. [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks The fandom most definitely did NOT rejoice.]]

** To be fair, if you're 8ft tall, largely immune to firepower and can throw tanks into the sun it is a lot more logical.

* RubberForeheadAliens: Eldar resemble nothing so much as tall, thin humans with pointy ears, Tau stocky grey humans with funny toes and faces. Justified, or at least Lampshaded, as of Xenology.
* RuleThirtyFour: Sexy Tyranids, loli Daemonettes, Cultist-chan, the Ronery Wych, Faptau...among others. ''Beware'' [[NightmareFuel some of the stuff]] that comes out of [[ImageBoards /tg/]].
** In some ways Slaanesh is the in-universe personification of this.
* RuleOfFunny: The Orks. Seriously, just read their [[BloodyHilarious Codex]] and you'll understand.

* ScaryDogmaticAliens: ''All'' the factions:
** The Imperium of Man and its subfactions: Scary Dogmatic ''Humans''. Xenocidal and imperialist, as happy to wipe out billions of its own people as it is to exterminate entire alien races.

** [[OurElvesAreBetter Craftworld Eldar]]: Dying elder race with massive superiority complex. Through their past depravity responsible for creating the Chaos god Slaanesh. Not quite xenocidal, but consider the deaths of [[strike:millions]] hundreds of billions of humans to safeguard a few hundred Eldar lives more than a fair trade, and have the [[PsychicPowers psychic]] future-prediction and [[TheChessmaster manipulative skills]] to make that sort of thing a reality rather than a dream. As an example, they tricked the Ork warlord Ghazghkull Thraka into attacking the human planet of Armageddon, setting off the Second and Third War for Armageddon, killing ''billions'' of humans, to prevent Ghazghkull from attacking one of their Craftworlds (world-ships that harbour the refugees of their lost empire). The FragileSpeedster[=/=]GlassCannon race, with some conceptual ties to ''Warhammer'''s High Elves.
*** Dark Eldar: Torture-obsessed Dark Elf-esque counterparts to the Craftworld Eldar. ''Still'' practice the same depravity that led to their race's fall. Sadistic in the extreme, need to [[YourSoulIsMine feed on others' souls]] to avoid their own being devoured by the Chaos God Slaanesh. They rival Slaanesh for the kinkiest faction, and in game terms take the jets-equipped glass cannon even further than their Craftworld cousins.
*** Exodite Eldar: Descendents of Eldar who left before the fall to live simpler lives on planets with harsh conditions. Their tech is deliberately less advanced than that of their Craftworld counterparts, and by choice they are reclusive, sticking to their own planets for the most part, making them [[RecycledInSpace Wood Elves in Space]]. They are a background plot element rather than a playable faction, but unofficial army lists have been made for them, complete with ''dinosaur-riding, laser-lance-equipped knights''.
*** Harlequins: A meta-faction with members drawn more or less equally from the other three factions, who form troupes of wandering [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot bards, historians, performers, and high-speed close-combat specialists]] who are [[MonsterClown feared and respected]] by the elite troops of all sentient races, including their own. Probably the biggest and strongest [[GlassCannon glass hammer]] in the game. All of this is, of course, secondary to their "Great Work", which is the re-uniting of the other Eldar factions and hastening the [[HaveYouSeenMyGod creation of Ynnead]], the Eldar god of death, who will destroy the Chaos gods and cause the Eldar race to be reborn as near-invicible demigods.
** Orks: Genetically engineered by a [[{{Precursors}} precursor species]] as a biological weapon. [[BizarreAlienBiology Peculiar biology]] (see PlantAliens), personalities based on ridiculously exaggerated football hooligan stereotypes, all "[[MonogenderMonsters boyz]]" and speak with {{Funetik Aksent}}s. Violently sociopathic, prone to infighting, and genocidal, but all in good fun; an Ork "Waaagh" is described as a combination of mass migration, pub crawl and holy war. Highly [[PsychicPowers psychic]], but not aware of it - Ork technology [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum only works because the Orks THINK it should.]] This also has other effects - for example, Orks piously believe "da red wunz go fasta", so if an Ork paints his bike red, it ''will'' [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve go faster]].
*** An entire spinoff game, ''Gorkamorka'', concerns a planet full of Orks that holds no strategic importance to the other races, with the Orks having no way off (having turned their space hulk into a massive statue of a god... and then destroyed it fighting over ''which'' of their two gods it was). They pass their time with a massive, futile tribal war between themselves.
** Tau: Technologically advanced humanoids with a rigidly caste-based society. The Ethereal caste rule over the [[ElementalRockPaperScissors Earth, Air, Fire and Water]] castes, who are all utterly loyal and devoted (one theory has it the control is based on pheromones). They see themselves as [[BenevolentAlienInvasion benevolent imperialists]] fighting religiously for the 'Greater Good,' and are singled out for being the only faction that seriously engages in diplomacy or offers anything other than genocidal total war. Despite a thing for [[UnreliableNarrator (allegedly)]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans mass sterilisation, warmongering and concentration camps]], they really are the nicest people you'll find in this galaxy. Imperialist, expansionist, slightly fanatical ("slightly" in this setting meaning that only one mech per army can be upgraded to [[TakingYouWithMe a suicide bomber]].)

** Necrons: Ancient undead metal constructs powered by the souls of long-dead aliens that hate all living things. Ridiculously advanced technology, [[ImplacableMan almost impossible to kill]], [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal]] down to the last bacterium.

* SchizoTech: Planets in the Imperium of Man range from Stone Age-level Feral Worlds to hyper-tech Forge Worlds. Even within a given world, examples of SchizoTech often abound: it's not uncommon for an adept to ride a flying bus into work and then spend the day copying numbers onto rolls of parchment with a quill. And of course, "[[MemeticMutation DRIVE ME CLOSER! I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD!!]]"

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Has a love-hate relationship with this one. At times, distances, timescales and the number of soldiers needed to launch a sector-spanning crusade are handled "realistically", but just as often a few hundred Space Marines defend - or ''purge'' - an ''entire world''. Of course, they are [[SuperSoldier Space Marines]]...)

** WAAAGH!!!

** It's also important to note that the Eldar believe that if the Emperor died, he would ascend to full-on Godhood upon fully transitioning to the Warp, which they're convinced would make another Eye of Terror. Also, it's heavily implied that if this happened, he'd Curbstomp the [[BiggerBad Chaos Gods]], who were so terrified of the Emperor that they actually ''worked together'' to eliminate him.

** Also employed by the GreyKnights chapter with most other Imperial troops [[HeKnowsTooMuch in order to preserve the secret of their existence]].

*** Taken UpToEleven by the BloodAngels, those that don't fall to [[TheCorruption the black rage or red thirst first of course.]]

* UnstoppableRage: Black Templars. BloodAngels. Khorne Berserkers. Even Eldar, when the Avatar is nearby.