| 1 | %%When adding examples for rules and other information specific to a limited number of editions rather than the game/setting as a whole, please note which edition is being referred to. |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | By the will of the Immortal God-Emperor, the great reliquary, or "page" as it is known, of tropes has grown to the point that it shall be broken up into four different pages. These pages are divided by the letter that starts the trope, and misplaced tropes shall be returned to their proper place. This page is for those tropes that start with the letter Q through the letter Z. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Venerate the God-Emperor. To deep-strike back to the main page, click [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 here]]. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | [[Warhammer40000/W40kTropesAToD Tropes A to D]] | [[Warhammer40000/W40KTropesEToH Tropes E to H]] | [[Warhammer40000/W40KTropesIToP Tropes I to P]] | '''Tropes Q to Z''' |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ---- |
| 10 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | [[folder:Q]] |
| 13 | * QuantityVsQuality: |
| 14 | ** When building their armies for Matched Play style games,[[note]]games designed to played between balanced armies to a fixed points value[[/note]] players often have a choice between taking small high-points cost but powerful/flexible units, large low-point hordes that can [[ZergRush swamp an enemy with numbers]], or some mixture of the two. Which choice is most effective depends on the faction in question and which edition of the rules is being used. |
| 15 | ** In the background material, the Astra Militarum are the go to example as they're millions if not billions strong and span across Imperial space as they come from any planet the Imperium can collect people. The problem is their weapons and armor pale in comparison to many of the forces they fight against, so they often only have weight of numbers on their side. They do make up for this with quantity ''and'' quality of cavalry and heavy armor, but this goes only so far when you have to rely on infantry for the most important tasks or static defenses. The Militarum do have their own specialist infantry units (such as the [[HumanSubSpecies abhuman]] [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogryns]], the elite Tempestus Scions, and unique elite regimental units like the Cadian Kasrkin and the Death Korps Grenadiers) who are much smaller in number but much better trained and equipped than their rank-and-file comrades. |
| 16 | ** On the other side of the scale on quality are the Adeptus Custodes, the personal PraetorianGuard of the Emperor and completely unmatched among the forces of the Imperium -- they are so powerful and elite that they make the ''Astartes'' look like PDF rejects. However there have probably never been more than ten thousand Custodes in existence at any moment due to the inherent difficulty in creating them. To demonstrate the difference, for the same points cost of a barebones, three-man squad of Custodian Guard, you can get ''two'', ''ten''-man squads of Guardsmen, and still have points spare to give them some toys! |
| 17 | * QuirkyMinibossSquad: |
| 18 | ** HQ characters' retinues, of all stripes. |
| 19 | ** With the introduction of Formations in 6th edition and the widespread use of them in 7th edition, now every army has this in one form or another, usually a formation of some kind made up of one type of unit. Special Mention goes to the Aspect Host, a formation made up of 3 Squads of Aspect Warriors that you can choose to be either better at choppy or shooty (which is a huge boon, considering Aspect Warriors are only good at one thing). |
| 20 | ** The leaders of the Farsight Enclaves, known as "The Eight". |
| 21 | * TheQuisling: Several human worlds near the Tau Empire have been assimilated into it, some more willingly than others. Not that the Imperium cares whether you were a willing traitor, had to surrender to survive, or were born to people who did [[DisproportionateRetribution when they kill you for it.]] |
| 22 | [[/folder]] |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[folder:R]] |
| 25 | * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: |
| 26 | ** Imperial penal legions, entire armies of convicts sentenced to death at the hands of the enemy; [[RedemptionEqualsDeath in death they may be forgiven for their crimes.]] The best known unit is Colonel Schaeffer's "[[Literature/TheLastChancers Last Chancers]]", inspired by every war-movie RagtagBunchOfMisfits ever. |
| 27 | ** Tanith's First and Only are this because of the destruction of their homeworld. While not as scattered and mismatched as the Last Chancers, Imperial Guard Regiments are suppose to be specialized in one form of warfare and one only (such as Mechanization, Artillery, or Infantry). Tanith, having made only one regiment (hence the name) basically merged all these disciplines into one. Even their leader, Colonel Commissar Ibram Gaunt, acts more like the Regimental leader than their commissar. |
| 28 | * RandomizedDamageAttack: |
| 29 | ** This game has several weapons with random strength or random amount of hits, usually determined by D6 or D3 roll. Examples include Chaos daemon weapons (random amount of hits) and Ork zzapguns (random strength). The most extreme example is probably the Dark Eldar Casket of Flensing, which has random range, random amount of shots ''and'' random strength. |
| 30 | ** Weapons with situational damage also exist, but are much rarer. The conversion beamer, a rare weapon available to certain Space Marine characters and Inquisitors, deals more damage the further away the target is, while the pulse submunition cannons of the Tau R'varna battlesuit increase in strength and amount of hits as the target's size increases. |
| 31 | * RandomNumberGod: A number of bizarre good-luck superstitions have arisen among players, such as never calling missile launchers by their proper name (it has the word "miss" in it), the idea that painted models are luckier than unpainted models (but that ''freshly'' painted models always fare badly in their first battle), the usage of blue dice for important rolls and the practice of occasionally muttering prayers to the Emperor. Never taken seriously, but often endearing. It "helps" that the Imperium is ruled by superstition, and the [=RNG=] exists in-universe, going by the name Tzeentch. |
| 32 | * RandomTransportation: Warp travel, jumping through a demon-infested alternate dimension that allows FTL travel, sped up or hampered by Warp currents. While ships that have a Navigator or some analogue have some degree of reliability, all too often they end up adrift. When this happens, sometimes they're lost to the Warp, but more often they sometimes only occasionally come out on target, when not in deep space. And then there's the fact that sometimes you don't even come back at the right ''time''. Ships will occasionally arrive to find out that they have arrived wildly off schedule, sometimes even before they dropped into warpspace. One instance had a Navy ship answer a distress call to find no allied ships in trouble, but an enemy fleet, and managed to send out a single distress call before they were destroyed... One ork Waaaagh found when they ran into their future selves (that one ended in considerable confusion, as the future!warboss killed past!warboss in order to have two sets of his favorite gun). |
| 33 | * RankScalesWithAsskicking: A few factions follow this logic. Astra Militarum commanders can hail from privileged families and benefit from superior training since childhood, while the Adeptus Mechanicus' techpriests' ranks determine how much technology they have access to, so the higher-ups can have their bodies upgraded into more deadly mixes of metal and flesh. Orks believe that MightMakesRight, so the bigger and more powerful an Ork is, the higher he will be in Ork society. Also Tyranid Hive Tyrants are the ones responsible for leading other Tyranids on the battlefield so the hive mind engineers them to be as tough as possible. |
| 34 | * RatedMForManly: In many fantasy games, the elves are effeminate, the humans are just like real life people, and the orcs are manly. In the grim darkness of the far future, the elves are manly, the humans are extremely manly, and the orcs make Chuck Norris look like a milk-swilling baby. Could you have ever expected anything else from a game where the {{Tagline}} is "There is ''only'' war..."? Examples: |
| 35 | ** Baby flies through a NegativeSpaceWedgie unharmed and lands on an icy hellhole, to subsequently get RaisedByWolves, wolves the size of horses. He challenges the most powerful man in existence to a drinking contest and wins, then gets punched in the face with a PowerFist that can wreck tanks, shrugs it off, and then joins said man in leading a vast army of superhuman space Vikings in a massive intergalactic crusade. |
| 36 | ** Ordinary men and women with nothing more than flak vests, laser guns and World War I-era tanks take on [[RobotWar nigh-invincible metal zombies]], [[HordeOfAlienLocusts all-devouring hordes of alien insects that outnumber the stars]], [[OurOrcsAreDifferent psychotic hulking monstrosities who tear men apart with their bare hands and live and die to fight]], [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien psychic ancients who train thousands of years in deadly warrior arts]], and [[EldritchAbomination mind-raping eldritch horrors from beyond space and time]]... and don't always lose. |
| 37 | ** CoolOldGuy defeats powerful daemon in single combat and takes its axe, and then makes the daemonic entity inside the axe bitch down to him. He likes the axe so much, he takes it back to the smiths to be re-forged, so he can use the axe in battles without it {{Mind Rap|e}}ing everyone else around him. |
| 38 | ** Commissar challenges a 7-foot-tall hulking Ork warboss to a duel. The monstrosity has a power-claw bigger than a man, and uses it to cut the commissar's right arm off. Rather than bleed out or die like a bitch, the commissar stays conscious long enough to cut the monster's head off then tear its claw off. When he recovers, he takes the Warboss' cyber-arm as a replacement and garners a reputation among Orks as an unkillable monster, causing them to flee in terror when they see him. |
| 39 | ** Tough survivalist man from a jungle planet so nasty that living to adulthood is a major accomplishment, wields a {{BFG}} that rapid-fires .75 calibre explosive shells. On a routine patrol, a giant snake-like creature bursts out of the ground from under him, and knocks his weapon out of his hands. Lacking a knife, said man then catches the creature in a headlock and crushes its neck with his biceps. Said survivalist and his fellow troopers are so tough they don't need armor as their muscles ''are'' their armor. |
| 40 | ** Scarred, bald and battle-hardened warrior women take up rapid-firing rocket launchers, flame-throwers, chainsaw swords and power armour, taking time between butchering the enemies of their GodEmperor to make boisterous boasts about said GodEmperor. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | * RealityWarper: C'tan, distinct from the setting's other gods in that they are ''literal'' {{Physical God}}s, immensely powerful in the material world rather than being warp entities. The more powerful psykers can also break the setting's (already tenuous) grip on physics. The literal extreme is the Orks, who have a collective gestalt psychic field that runs on ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve. |
| 43 | * ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: |
| 44 | ** Most wealthy and/or super-important/famous (like Ciaphas Cain) Imperials, via juvenat technology. |
| 45 | ** Most SpaceMarines have much longer lifespans. Barabas Dantioch, a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors, was estimated to have been prematurely aged by 3,000 years by the Hrud and their entropic fields in ''Perturabo -- The Hammer of Olympia'', leaving him frail and infirm. It is theorised that a Space Marine can live for three millennia before their bodies start to deteriorate, with the Blood Angels in particular being particularly noted for their longevity (their current Chapter Master has served in that position for more then 1,500 years). Few if any of them ever manage to reach such an age without entombment in Dreadnought armor on account of their likelihood of being killed in battle. |
| 46 | ** Bjorn the Fell-Handed of the Space Wolves has him beat, though, as he is the oldest living Space Marine in the Imperium, having fought beside the Primarch Leman Russ during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. His greatly extended lifespan is due to him being entombed in a Dreadnought. |
| 47 | ** Many of the Chaos SpaceMarines are from the original traitor legions of the Literature/HorusHeresy, likely kept alive by the warp. |
| 48 | ** As a race of SpaceElves, the Aeldari have lifespans measured in millennia and suffer little natural physical degradation. Eldrad Ulthran was around to warn the Emperor about Horus during the Horus Heresy, ten thousand years ago. Depending on whether or not you believe their claims, Asdrubael Vect and Urien Rakarth may have been alive to have seen ''the Fall'', making them both at least 12,000 years old and one of the few beings in the entire universe older than a ''Chaos God''. |
| 49 | ** Most believe Commander Farsight to be a legacy name, a mantle taken up by successors as Tau only live to around 40. The truth is that the original Farsight is almost a few hundred years old due to the Dawn Blade giving him life force from those he kills, a fact that he is almost completely ignorant of, though he has his suspicions. The Tau Empire proper continues to propagate the LegacyCharacter idea among their people as a desperate cover-up of damning evidence that their FlatEarthAtheist policies are dead wrong. |
| 50 | ** Belisarius Cawl has lived since the original Horus Heresy, where he was approached by Guilliman for the Primaris Project. He was already old at the birth of the Imperium, having assisted the Emperor himself in the development of the Black Carapace membrane implanted into Space Marines. The information stockpile within his memories is so vast that he no longer remembers how he obtained huge portions of it. A combination of his eccentricities, paranoia, and near-heretical fascination with xenos tech has ensured that he has never become Fabricator General (a position he desperately craves). |
| 51 | ** Several of the characters from ''Literature/TheBeastArises'' series are veterans of the Horus Heresy, which is worth noting since that was nearly a thousand years prior to the books. Most interestingly, because of the relative peace enjoyed by the Imperium since the Heresy, thousand-year old Marines are not exactly rare. This further highlights the brutal nightmare that the Imperium devolves into by the 41st millennium, where they rarely survive beyond three or four hundred. |
| 52 | ** Kyril Sindermann, a notable Iterator during the Great Crusade and one of the founders of the Inquisition, lived for over 1,500 years through the use of an ornate suit of Power Armour in conjunction with arcane technologies. |
| 53 | * {{Realpolitik}}: Aeldari-Imperium and T'au-Imperium relations are defined by this. The cynical Aeldari manipulate humans (and everyone else) to serve their ends in a hostile galaxy and would happily put entire human worlds to the torch where necessary to avert a greater threat to their survival, but also aren't above saving human worlds through direct action if the Farseers deem them to have a crucial role in the battles to come. Likewise, while standard Imperium policy towards Aeldari is [[AbsoluteXenophobe "kill the xenos on sight with whatever implements are at hand"]], more open-minded or pragmatic individuals might be tempted to stay their hand and instead strike up a temporary truce with the aliens if they see a need to stop a common enemy, like Chaos. Likewise the less dogmatic officials of the Eastern Fringe have fallen into a SpaceColdWar towards the T'au Empire, reckoning that the burgeoning alien state acts as a buffer zone protecting Imperial worlds from the likes of the Orks and Tyranids; meanwhile the Ethereal Caste, realizing that the Imperium is ''much'' larger and more powerful than the T'au Empire but also divided and beset by enemies on all sides, avoids the policy of direct confrontation and rapid expansion that led to the [[CurbStompBattle brutal Damocles Crusade]] in favour of a more passive policy of gradually influencing human governors and worlds on the periphery of the Empire to peacefully and quietly fold these planets into the Empire while the Imperium is too distracted by bigger fish to fry to care. |
| 54 | * ReassignedToAntarctica: Herman von Strab, the inept Overlord of Armageddon, banished Commissar Sebastian Yarrick to Hive Hades for countermanding his orders. The reason? He sent out a distress call to get help in defending Armageddon from an Ork Waaagh! led by Warlord Ghazghkull. |
| 55 | ** ReassignmentBackfire: Needless to say, von Strab's arrogance and incompetence proved to be his own downfall which almost lost the Second War for Armageddon to the Orks had it not been for the brilliance of Commissar Yarrick and the power of the three Space Marine Chapters that answered his distress call. |
| 56 | * RedEyesTakeWarning: Things like bionic eyes and Space Marine helmets can also have red lenses. In fact, until 5th edition, this was the only way Space Marine helmets were depicted. |
| 57 | ** The Orks, as an entire species, have blood red eyes. |
| 58 | * RedOnesGoFaster: The Orks are the TropeNamer, and it can also be seen with the red tanks the Blood Angels Space Marines drive around. |
| 59 | * RedOniBlueOni: |
| 60 | ** Angron and Kharn, respectively. The fact that the Blue Oni is ''still'' a raving fanatical berserker should tell you something. |
| 61 | ** The Dark Eldar/Drukhari and the Craftworlders are this on a racial scale; The Craftworlders, who managed to escape the hedonistic debauchery that led to the birth of Slaanesh, sees a monastic regimented lifestyle (to the point that they cultivate split personalities for different ''jobs'') is the only way to survive, while the Dark Eldar will be more than happy to indulge in anything and everything; feeding anything to Slaanesh so long as it will keep him off their souls. Because of this, Dark Eldar see Craftworlders as boring prudes, while Craftworlders see Dark Eldar as shortsighted idiots. |
| 62 | * RedemptionEqualsDeath: One of the fundamental concepts behind the ChurchMilitant's idea of "[[FateWorseThanDeath penance]]." |
| 63 | * {{Redshirt}}: A side effect of the general wound allocation rules intended to represent the difficulty in picking out individual targets in a moving unit and/or a comrade picking up a significant piece of wargear, that some editions use, leads to those models in a unit without special options, wargear, or abilities being killed to protect the more tactically important models. |
| 64 | * 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 aware of 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. |
| 65 | ** Typically, a world's Planetary Defense Force (PDF) has it even worse than the Guard, as their primary job in most stories is to die horribly at the hands of the invading forces until the Imperial Guard arrives, [[MemeticMutation usually killed to a man]]. That's right, they're the RedshirtArmy ''for'' the RedshirtArmy. The PDF is so infamously useless in both {{canon}} and {{fanon}} that the letters 'PDF' have been joked to stand for "Please Don't Fight (Us)," and [[http://www.servantsoftheimperium.com/comic.php?comicid=119 one webcomic]] called them "The Imperial Speedbump" for how useless they are compared to the Guard. |
| 66 | *** In the Literature/CiaphasCain novel "Cain's Last Stand", Cain formed a militia known as the Planetary Defense Volunteers, whose job was to slow the enemy down long enough for the PDF to arrive, making them a RedshirtArmy for the RedshirtArmy of the RedshirtArmy. Granted, it worked pretty well, and Cain didn't die ([[UnreliableNarrator which may or may not have been his motivation in making them]]). |
| 67 | ** And then are the penal legions, who are just a bunch of convicts told to charge the enemy and die as a form of execution. |
| 68 | ** On the other end of the spectrum there's the Gue'Vesa, Human Auxiliaries of the Tau. Unlike the Kroot or Vespids, Gue'Vesa are recruited from the fringe Imperial Worlds that the Tau have conquered, so they get little in the ways of diplomatic rights the Kroot and Vespids enjoy, so they're largely used in the same way the Imperial Guard use the PDF, to the point that rarely do the Tau even provide them with weapons (with the Gue'Vesa relying on what remaining Imperial Hardware they have left). |
| 69 | ** Genestealer Cult armies are this to the Tyranids; win or lose the cultists will all be absorbed and turned into biomass for the hive fleet regardless. Most of the time they're not even expected to win, but just to provide enough of a distraction so a coherent defense against the actual invaders can't be mounted. |
| 70 | * ReducedToDust: The backstory behind the Thousand Sons chapter is that the sorcerer Ahriman cast a spell that would protect the Chapter from mutation, which worked perfectly (FromACertainPointOfView, as incinerated piles of dust are no longer susceptible to mutation). The vast majority of the Thousand Sons chapter now consists of Rubric Marines, who are suits of [[AnimatedArmor Animated]] PowerArmor with the powdered remain of the former Marine inside and his soul bound to the armor. |
| 71 | * RegionalRedecoration: Earth (now called Terra) lost its oceans long ago and several mountain ranges have been leveled to make way for colossal cities. |
| 72 | * ReignOfTerror: Began with the Emperor's unification of Terra and has since settled into a permanent state of affairs. |
| 73 | * ReligionIsMagic: Used to its fullest by both the Imperium and Chaos, especially the Sisters of Battle, who can literally ''stop bullets'' with their faith. |
| 74 | * ReligionOfEvil: Chaos cults, and the Word Bearers' claim to fame. Not that the "[[CorruptChurch good]]" religions are much better. |
| 75 | ** Newly added as a full army in 2016 are Genestealer Cults, who (mostly) unwittingly worm through a planet's social structure and replace it with loyal, bald, occasionally 3-limbed neophytes ready to incite civil war just in time for the Tyranids to gobble it all up. |
| 76 | * RememberTheNewGuy: New units and characters are typically introduced into the game's lore as though they had been there all along, with historical battles sometimes being rewritten to include their presence. Only the Tau avert this (and even then, only sometimes), given that they are pretty much the only faction in the setting routinely churning out new technology. |
| 77 | ** Averted with the introduction of the Primaris Marines and Marine Lieutenants, who really ''are'' new, because Roboute Guilliman is back and is busy rewriting things. |
| 78 | * ResignationsNotAccepted: |
| 79 | ** Chapter Serfs (failed Space Marine candidates who somehow managed to survive regardless) live out their entire remaining lives within the Fortress-Monasteries of the Chapters along with their wives and children, who serve as Chapter Serf as well. It's not that bad when they live with Loyalist chapters as they live much better lives than the average citizen (or even bureaucrat). Treatment however is a different story: Blood Angels see their Chapter Serfs as an essential part of their chapter's success and treat them as one of their own; the Blood Drinkers (a Blood Angel successor) do the same but ask them to volunteer so they may drink their blood as a means to control the Red Thirst; the Flesh Tearers (also a Blood Angel successor), are stupidly prone to the Black Rage and will use their serfs as "stress balls". |
| 80 | ** Agents of the Officio Assassinorums can never resign. Especially in the case of Eversors, as their bodies will violently explode ''as a withdrawal symptom'' from the combat drugs they use. Other temples instead just sends out more assassins to take out any rogues among them. |
| 81 | ** Once you're a Space Marine, you're a Space Marine for life. Because the creation of even a single Space Marine is a massive tax on resources and huge loss in manpower (only 1 in 1000 will survive the initiation process), the regimented lifestyle of the Space Marines are both intended to keep him trained and to indoctrinate him into the Chapter code so that he never forsakes his Battle Brothers. On the rare occasions that a single or a handful of marines go rogue, the entire Chapter will mobilize to destroy them, as their mere existence is a stain on their honor. |
| 82 | ** Eldar who become trapped on a particular path suffer a mental version of this, becoming unable to distance themselves from that one particular vocation. Exarchs are Aspect Warriors who have lost themselves to the teachings of the temple and have renounced their previous lives to permanently join their temple until they die or are sacrificed to summon the Avatar of Khaine. Similarly, Farseers are those who walk the path of the Warlock too long and become unable to leave. Unlike other examples, Exarchs are not only trapped for life, but their afterlife as well; normally when an Eldar dies his/her soul is trapped within a soul stone (to prevent Slaanesh from devouring it) which is then retrieved and placed in the Infinity Circuit to join their ancestors. The souls of an Exarch, however, is instead trapped within the soul stone of the Exarch suit he wears, so that his knowledge may be added to the previous generations of Exarchs so the next wearer can gleam from it. This, however, robs them from ever being able to see their former friends ever again, as they can only ever interact with people in the soul stone (who are other Exarchs) or its current wearer (who is, obviously, another Exarch). |
| 83 | * ResistantToMagic: |
| 84 | ** The Tau have very little psychic presence, unlike humans, and so the corrupting nature of the Warp has very little effect on them. This also has the side effect of them disbelieving the existence of Chaos daemons, thinking them to be a highly-unpleasant species of alien allying with insane humans. In VideoGame/DawnOfWar: Dark Crusade, this leads to O'Kais being entirely unable to hear Eliphas' psychic taunts, thinking it's just static. |
| 85 | ** Orks are similarly resistant to the Warp (or possibly too stupid to be affected by it). In Dark Crusade, Gorgutz is able to yell back at Eliphas' voice in his head. |
| 86 | * RetiredBadass: More than can be counted. Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, any Space Marine Dreadnought, and Literature/CiaphasCain, '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!''' among them. Of course, in this setting, everyone badass enough to survive that long is expected to return to arms soon. After all, "Only in death does duty end". And sometimes not even then. There's a reason one of the lines dreadnoughts say in the games is "Even in death I still serve". |
| 87 | * {{Retcon}}: As you might imagine after thirty years and [[DependingOnTheWriter dozens of writers]], quite a lot has changed. Most of the more dramatic changes are instances of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, although there's exceptions. 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 (though Be'lakor can be considered a reworking of Malal's concept). 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. |
| 88 | ** There have also been a number of {{RetCon}}s of technology, such as Terminator armour and plasma weapons being changed from utterly irreplaceable relics to simply very, very difficult to make. |
| 89 | ** 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. |
| 90 | ** The general tone of the setting has shifted quite a bit over the years. In the original ''Rogue Trader'' rulebook, the Imperium had a ragtag, ScavengerWorld feel (still present but not to the same degree). In fact, the whole thing had kind of a ''Film/MadMax'' [-[[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]]-] feel to it. The copious amounts of black humor and irony that marked ''Rogue Trader'' have also been downplayed over time. |
| 91 | ** Inquisitors were originally lone adventurers not unlike U.S. Marshals in Western fiction-- our friend Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau would ''not'' fit in with the Inquisiton of modern ''40K''. |
| 92 | ** Daemons and Chaos were originally not part of the setting; the Warp was instead inhabited by a variety of dangerous but non-daemonic "Warp Creatures", such as Enslavers, Psychaneuein, and ''Vampires'', though it was mentioned that some inspired legends of demons on especially superstitious planets, and they still were drawn to unprotected psykers. |
| 93 | ** The Tyranids at first were less bestial in appearance, and the Hive Mind concept wasn't as thoroughly fleshed out. The Genestealers were originally unconnected to them. |
| 94 | *** Genestealers were also described in the ''Rogue Trader'' book as intelligent creatures which weren't necessarily hostile, as opposed to the ''Alien''-influenced monsters they became in the expansion that first introduced Genestealer cults. |
| 95 | ** There was a lot less romanticization/fetishization of the Space Marines in ''Rogue Trader''-- they were clearly badass mofos, and the most dangerous fighting force in the setting, but they were also played as the most brutal and insane individuals in a brutal, insane universe. In fact, most were recruited from psychotic murderers on feral and hive planets. Most of their transhuman elements (such as all those extra organs) were also added in later. The religious indoctrination aspect was always present, though. |
| 96 | *** The Soul Drinkers novel ''Crimson Tears'' has a Guard general describing them pretty much exactly like that. |
| 97 | ** Ollanius Pious, in first edition, was an [[BadassNormal ordinary]] [[RedshirtArmy Guardsman]] who pulled a YouShallNotPass on [[PhysicalGod Horus]] when Horus was on the verge of killing the Emperor of Mankind. Later editions are inconsistent with what he was or if he even existed, ranging from retconning him out of existence, changing him to a Custodes, or even an Perpetual. |
| 98 | ** New models and characters are routinely retconned into previously discussed events. The Tyrannid Swarmlord character was recently retconned into leading most of their major battles back to first contact, and the new vehicles in the most recent IG Codex were now mixed into their armies all along. |
| 99 | ** The C'Tan were retconned again with the fifth edition Necron book, radically so. Instead of completely dominating the Necrons and using them to harvest the galaxy for life-energy, they were betrayed by the Necrons and shattered into shards that the Necrons use in the campaign to conquer the galaxy. How the rest of the canon will be altered to deal with this change remains to be seen. |
| 100 | ** Humans born with no soul are no longer a product of Necron genetic manipulation and the Necron's Pariah unit has been dropped as a result. |
| 101 | ** 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. Similarly, Orks, and even Eldar, could take some captured Imperial vehicles. This was a pragmatic decision from a time when GW's model range was very limited. |
| 102 | ** Primarchs were absent from the Rogue Trader rulebook (Leman Russ was simply a famous commander back then). 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 millennia until he had to be placed on life support. |
| 103 | ** Sixth Edition retconned the Squats back into existence in a list of sanctioned abhumans. Ninth Edition brought them back as a faction independent from the Imperium, the Leagues of Votann. |
| 104 | ** The Tau used to have a distinctive form of faster-than light travel that skimmed the barrier between the material world and the Warp, not as fast as true Warp travel but much safer and more reliable. As of their 6th edition codex and the War Zone: Damacles campaign books they have no faster than light capability AT ALL, only being able to construct an interstellar empire because the stars in that region happen to be bunched tightly together and through the use of suspended animation. It's not clear what this means for the warp-capable client races they used to have; Kroot for example are still said to be found as mercenaries across the galaxy. |
| 105 | ** The Space Wolves have always had a flaw in their makeup that causes them to transform into wolf monsters called wolfen and back over the course of their initiation, and extreme stress or specialized magic attacks can cause some individuals to turn into them again permanently. It's an essential part of their lore and faction identity, and their lost 13th company is famous for having deployed them in large numbers. As of the ''Curse of the Wulfen'' campaign supplement they have never heard of the Wulfen before; the plot revolves around them encountering the creatures for the first time, only recognizing them as Space Wolves because they use ancient Space Wolf equipment. The change didn't even make it to the end of the story in the next supplement before being forgotten and retconned back. |
| 106 | ** The Cataphractii Terminator Armor and Contemptor Dreadnoughts were originally just meant to be early versions of, but otherwise functionally identical to, Terminators and Dreadnoughts. With Forge World's Horus Heresy line of miniatures, these have been retroactively made to be more distinct from their "current" counterparts, with different tabletop rules, and are often said to have been much more prolific during the Horus Heresy period than the "modern" versions (if those even existed at that point). This in turn made several in-lore errors as Bjorn the Fell-Handed is suppose to be the oldest Imperial Dreadnought, yet he's in a chassis that came AFTER the Contemptor Dreadnought (with Contemptors still running around) and how Chaos Terminators from the original Traitor Legions are using the Indomitus Pattern Terminator armor (the one that looks like a pissed-off elephant) rather than Cataphractii armor, which should have been more widespread among the traitor legions during the heresy. The explanation (as of 7th edition) is that Bjorn happened to be one of the first to receive the "newer" dreadnought body while Contemptors were still in service, while Chaos Terminators had to either scavenge armor from fallen marines or received the Indomitus Armor just prior to the outbreak of the heresy (as it was the newest type of armor). |
| 107 | *** Also, before the twilight years of Rogue Trader, what is currently called Mk VI "Corvus" power armour was just the standard Space Marine power armour. In late 1990, a White Dwarf article retconned it to be the sixth of eight successive power armour Marks (with rumours suggesting that this was an attempt at reining in their sculptors and artists, as they were taking more and more liberties with Space Marine armour designs). The Mk VII "Aquila" armour was also retconned into being the standard power armour in the transition to 2nd edition, and the existence of earlier armour marks was downplayed by Games Workshop for a long time, although models continued to be produced with partial or full Mk VI armour to add flavour to squads. This arrangement remains the case to this day, although the earlier Marks are now much more prominent, with Mk III and IV armours even having their own plastic kits. |
| 108 | ** Many new players would find it curious as to why Crimson Fists, a Successor Chapter of the Imperial Fist with little notable history within the Imperium (other than having their Fortress blown up by Orks) are so popular with older gamers. They would be surprised to learn that Crimson Fist, at one point, was considered a First Founding Chapter. Moreover, at the same time, Ultramarines were a ''second founding'' chapter. However since that lore dates from the Rogue Trader era, it doesn't mean that the Crimson Fist were originally a legion, and that the Ultramarines are the descendants of someone else. |
| 109 | ** The 6th edition Space Marine Codex retconned the other major Imperial Fists Second Founding Successor, the Black Templars, from being atheists who merely saw the Emperor as the pinnacle of humanity, to outright worshiping him as a god. Quite a few fans thought that this change made sense, since they already acted like [[ChurchMilitant militant religious zealots]] anyway (they're basically [[UsefulNotes/{{TheKnightsTemplar}} Knights Templar]]/[[UsefulNotes/{{TheTeutonicKnights}} Teutonic Knights]] IN SPACE!). Their views on psykers also changed from [[AntiMagicalFaction blanket intolerance]], to exclusively hating ''enemy'' psykers, with their own lack of battle-psykers now being attributed to them mysteriously losing their Librarius division (possibly due to genetic deterioration or combat losses) at some point in the past. Similarly, their attitude towards Astropaths and Navigators changed from considering them a necessary evil, to revering them as Emperor-touched disciples and guides. |
| 110 | * TheRightHandOfDoom: All those {{Power Fist}}s give this effect, often occurs in the mutations of daemon princes but special mention must go to the Crimson Fists who all paint just one of their hands so that it at least looks a little bit more prominent. |
| 111 | ** One member of the Soul Drinkers has an extremely large mutant hand, which he either uses to wield his power axe to great effect, or uses to splat people dead while using his normal hand to use the axe. |
| 112 | * RightHandVersusLeftHand: As a means of explaining why two forces from the fame faction would fight against each other, the background material includes information on internal divisions of honour, method, jurisdiction, ignorance, manipulation, etc. The eternally divided forces of [[TheCorruption Chaos]] (particularly those of Tzeentch, the god of manipulation), the self-righteous [[StateSec Inquisition]] and the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy war loving]] Orks are particularly prone to this. |
| 113 | * RiversOfBlood: The Chaos god Khorne sits on a massive throne of brass on an ever-growing [[NothingButSkulls mountain of skulls]] located in an ocean of blood. The skulls come from worthy warriors (his faithful's enemies or their own, he does not like it when people use the skull of defenseless victims as trophies), while the blood never stops flowing from the constant warfare in the galaxy. Both policies are summed up in the oft-heard [[CatchPhrase catchphrases]] "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" as well as "Khorne cares not from where the blood flows, only that it flows". |
| 114 | %%* RobeAndWizardHat: Eldar Farseers, some Chaos sorcerers. |
| 115 | * RoboCam: The standard depiction of space marine battle helm readouts. [[UnusualUserInterface Bonus points for directly scrolling across the retina.]] |
| 116 | * RobotWar: One of them was partly the reason for the end of the Dark Age of Technology. Nowadays, they happen wherever the Necrons show up. |
| 117 | * {{Roboteching}}: Tau Smart Missile systems. |
| 118 | * RockBeatsLaser: |
| 119 | ** A setting of world-splitting superweapons, ludicrously powerful weaponry and interstellar empires, and the standard tactic of most factions is to charge screaming at their foes waving a sharp thing. And it ''works''. To be fair, if you're 8ft tall, largely immune to firepower and can flip tanks over, it is a lot more logical. |
| 120 | ** Whenever Chaos is involved, expect a lot of the "equipment" to sound archaic, like swords forged with hellfire or a scythe dipped in the cauldron of Nurgle as opposed to Plasma-sheathed blades and fusion guns. Doesn't make them any less lethal though, and in most cases they're ''more'' lethal. |
| 121 | %%* RodentsOfUnusualSize: They live in the underhives. |
| 122 | * {{Room 101}}: Commorragh, the home of the Dark Eldar, is implied to be a ''City 101''. 40k is this in general. |
| 123 | * RoomFullOfCrazy: Psykers are prone to this. |
| 124 | ** Apparently Pariahs, people who are literally born without a soul and thus have no presence in the warp, can turn other people into this, as their innate lack of a soul drives normal people mad, or at least REALLY irritates other people for no apparent reason. |
| 125 | * RoyalInbreeding: The Navigator Houses, or Navis Nobilite, have become so inbred over the millennia that most if not all of them have mutations other than their genetically engineered third eye (which is recessive, hence the inbreeding). |
| 126 | * RubberForeheadAliens: Eldar resemble tall, thin humans with pointy ears. Also, Tau are just stocky grey humans with funny feet and faces. {{Justified|Trope}} and {{Lampshaded}} in Xenology. |
| 127 | * RuleThirtyFour: Sexy Tyranids, loli Daemonettes, Cultist-chan, the Ronery Wych, Faptau... among others. ''Beware'' some of the stuff that comes out of [[Website/FourChan /tg/]]. |
| 128 | ** In some ways Slaanesh is the in-universe personification of this. |
| 129 | * RuleOfCool: Warhammer 40K was not carefully put together like Middle-Earth, but was cobbled by a whole bunch of authors adding elements from the favorite science fiction and horror movies. Lots of things make little sense, but it was meant to be Cool, not sensible. |
| 130 | * RuleOfPerception: 40k's What You See Is What You Get rule requires models to actually have the wargear they bought represented on the model, so you can't say your out-of-the-box tactical marine is somehow a captain holding a relic blade. However, while general consensus is to have everything represented, there is a lot of leeway for stuff that people would consider too cumbersome (the infamous Melta Bomb) or just too esoteric to represent (such as Veteran Skills). This hasn't stopped people from creatively modelling them however, and the end results are truly something to behold. |
| 131 | * RulesLawyer: A very interesting version pertains to the breakup of the Space Marine Legions under the Codex Astartes, written by Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman. Under the Codex, the old Legions, which had previously numbered in the hundreds of thousands, were to be broken up into much smaller Chapters to avoid another potential disaster like the Horus Heresy by denying any one organization the ability to mobilize Astartes in such numbers ever again. However, while a few Legions, specifically the Raven Guard, White Scars and Salamanders, took this decree to heart, their brothers obeyed the letter of the law while quietly ensuring they could surreptitiously conduct themselves closer to the old days. Specifically... |
| 132 | ** The Dark Angels, obsessed as they are with the Fallen, maintain close organizational and doctrinal ties with all of their successor Chapters, to the point where the term "Unforgiven" refers just as much to Dark Angels successors as it does to the sons of the Lion. Most of their Chapter Masters are members of the Inner Circle, ensuring the equivalent of an entire Legion is hunting for the Fallen, and most such Chapters will simply defer to the orders of Grand Master Azrael in matters of strategic importance. This often means that anytime the Dark Angels commit themselves to a campaign, a disproportionate number of their successors will arrive too. Unlike the other Legions, however, this fact has not escaped Inquisitorial suspicion. |
| 133 | ** The Blood Angels and successors have a similar system, with the successors being closer to remote companies than true independant Chapters. This meant when Baal itself was attacked by Tyranids the whole lot of them showed up to join the defence, even one chapter who are technically renegades. |
| 134 | ** The Imperial Fists maintain close bonds with their successor Chapters through far less clandestinely direct means, mostly in the form of what amounts to Astartes family reunions. Most prominently, the Fists regularly hold the Festival of Blades, where all of Dorn's successors send their greatest champions (and a decent chunk of their Marines) to a month long knightly tournament where they feast, carouse and compete in displays of martial skill. While ostensibly to test their worthiness as Astartes and win the honor of hosting a prized relic, it ensures the sons of the Fists build deep ties of camaraderie, enabling them to fight well on the battlefield together and ensuring they will always answer their brother's calls for aid. It also means their cultures and values are very similar to each other, which actually saved the Imperial Fists when they were completely annihilated in the 32nd millennium. Rather than let the Imperial Fists be snuffed out, the successors instead quietly rebuilt the chapter from their own ranks and absolutely no one noticed anything different. |
| 135 | ** The Black Templars, themselves a Fists successor, finagle their way around the usual stricture of only one thousand Marines to a Chapter by exploiting the loophole pertaining to Crusades. Normally, Crusades are only undertaken as a form of penance by a Chapter for grave stains to their honor, and while on one, they are allowed to maintain a number above the usual thousand, as it's understood that the demands of constant war will bring their numbers back down upon its conclusion. However, the Templars have been on a Crusade ''since the moment of their founding'', and as such constantly draw in an ever growing number of recruits. Current estimates place the number of Black Templars at nearly six thousand Initiates, scattered across their many Crusade fleets, a fact which, given the ferocity of the Templars, quietly terrifies much of the Imperial command. |
| 136 | ** While the Ultramarines stress strict adherence to the Codex (seeing as it was ''their'' Primarch who wrote it) and will routinely lambast other Chapters for even minor deviation, they're quite possibly the [[{{Hypocrite}} worst offenders of all in this regard.]] Apart from being the only Chapter known to rule an actual realm of the Imperium in Ultramar, most of their successors are also based in this same region and base themselves entirely on their progenitors, right down. many of them even having heraldry based on old Ultramarine companies from the Great Crusade. In fact, the Genesis Chapter is notable for existing almost solely to be used as an entire second chapter of ready-made replacements if the Ultramarines need new men in blue. Anytime the sons of Guilliman take substantial casualties, the Genesis chapter quickly offers themselves to fill out their ranks, which the Ultramarines have always graciously accepted. The rest of the Imperium is slightly suspicious of this state of affairs, but the fact that the Ultramarines are otherwise beyond reproach means this usually slides fairly easily. Even if it didn't, the old 13th Legion basically still exists in terms of coordination and might, ensuring no one in the Imperium could really do anything about it. |
| 137 | * RunningGag: [[https://regimental-standard.com/ The Regimental Standard website]], resembling a publication of in-universe propaganda bulletins for the Imperial Guard, never fails to imply or attest to the importance and efficacy of the bayonet and therefore the use of them in a bayonet charge whenever it can. This is in humorous contrast to [[PunyEarthlings Guardsmen's long odds in close-combat]] with nearly every other faction in the game. |
| 138 | [[/folder]] |
| 139 | |
| 140 | [[folder:S]] |
| 141 | * SacredScripture: The ''Lectitio Divinatatus'' penned by Lorgar, which later formed the basis of the Imperial faith, the ''Codex Astartes'' by Guilliman, and many more. |
| 142 | * SameCharacterButDifferent: The ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' cut-out boardgame based on the fight on Horus' Battlebarge featured two Greater Daemons on Horus' side, named Doombreed and "Kraxnar." ''Years'' later when Codex: Chaos came out, this was referenced, but poor never-described-at-all Kraxnar had been ousted by the rather less goofily-named N'Kari. |
| 143 | ** The third edition Space Marine codex featured a minor character named "Sergeant Lysander", a tactical sergeant with little character background beyond his talent at drilling his squad in bolter accuracy. The fourth edition codex brought him back, but greatly fleshed him out and turned him into the captain of the Fists' first company. |
| 144 | ** Ollanius Pius was originally an Imperial Guard foot-soldier, unremarkable save for the fact he had the chutzpah to try and take on Horus after the latter struck down the Emperor on his battle-barge. It didn't go well for him-- his weapons were incapable of harming a Primarch and Horus immolated him with a glance-- but the courage he displayed and his subsequent violent death was enough to steel the Emperor's will and convince him his son was truly lost. In later depictions, Pius was removed and replaced (first by an Imperial Fists terminator, then by a member of the Emperor's bodyguard, the Legio Custodes). The ''Horus Heresy'' novels have brought him back as a Perpetual, a being with ResurrectiveImmortality. |
| 145 | * SandWorm: Raveners, the Red Terror, Trygons and Mawlocs, in that order from least to most matching. |
| 146 | * SapientTank: Some armored vehicles are known to be capable of acting on their own. Whether the "machine spirit" is an ArtificialIntelligence or an actual spirit is another question entirely. |
| 147 | ** Chaos Space Marines simply use demon-possessed vehicles. |
| 148 | * SatanicArchetype: Horus was the favorite son of the God Emperor who rebelled against him and took somewhere between one third and one half of the space marines with him. Sound Familiar? |
| 149 | %%* ScaleOfScientificSins: Unsurprisingly, pings on all 7 sins. |
| 150 | * ScarabPower: The Scarab Occult, also known as the Sekhmet and Magnus's Veterans, were the veteran Space Marines of the Thousand Sons Legion who served as the [[PhysicalGod Primarch Magnus the Red's]] [[BodyguardingABadass elite honour guard]]. They were made up of the best and brightest of the Thousand Sons Legion's Astartes and were equipped with crimson and ivory Terminator Armour, with jade scarabs on their breastplates denoting their status. |
| 151 | * ScaryBlackMan: The Salamanders are an entire chapter of this, and they're one of the nicer chapters of Space Marines. |
| 152 | * ScaryDogmaticAliens: ''All'' the factions, even the Imperium. Yep, we are [[GodEmperor Scary]] [[ChurchMilitant Dogmatic]] ''[[HumansAreBastards Humans]]'': |
| 153 | ** The Imperium of Man and its subfactions: all xenocidal and imperialist, [[WeHaveReserves as happy to wipe out billions of its own people]] as it is to exterminate entire alien races. |
| 154 | ** Chaos: 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. |
| 155 | %%** [[OurElvesAreDifferent The Eldar]]: |
| 156 | *** 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 thousands, if not millions or more, of "lesser" species (usually humans) to safeguard a few hundred Eldar lives more than a fair trade, and have the {{psychic|Powers}} 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 Wars 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). |
| 157 | *** Dark Eldar: The Dark Elf-esque EvilCounterpart to the Craftworld Eldar. 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 {{Jerkass Woobie}}s, the Dark Eldar have ''no'' excuse for their depravity. They actually '''choose''' to be evil. This is proved by the fact that there are Dark Eldar who have [[DefectorFromDecadence defected]] and joined a Craftworld. It's quite rare, but it happens. |
| 158 | *** 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-invincible 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]]. |
| 159 | ** 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. |
| 160 | ** 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 {{psychic|Powers}}, with the [[PsychicStatic psychic chatter]] that forms their HiveMind being so powerful that their mere presence drives psykers insane and interferes with technology that uses psychics, including interstellar travel and communications. {{Bug War}}s 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]]. |
| 161 | ** 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 very ill-disposed toward these nasty little upstarts walking around and being alive all over their old stomping grounds. They just want to conquer the galaxy again... except for [[CloudCuckoolander Trazyn]], who doesn't like the whole "conquering and exterminating" business and just wants to build a museum. |
| 162 | * ScaryImpracticalArmor: Very much so. |
| 163 | ** The [[SpaceElf Dark Eldar]] warriors have armour suits are covered in blades and attach by hooking into their skin. Subverted, since the hooks are meant to produce a little bit of pain which enhances the senses. And [[CombatSadomasochist given their proclivities]], armour that can cut whilst in use is approved of. Parodied in a ''[=Turnsignals on a Land Raider=]'' strip [[http://tsoalr.com/?p=111 here]]. |
| 164 | ** Surprisingly [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by the standard [[PowerArmor Power Armour]] for the [[SpaceMarine Space Marines]]. It looks kinda sinister, but that's just a design quirk of the helmets mostly. Apart from the [[ShouldersOfDoom massive pauldrons]], which seem to also vary in size DependingOnTheArtist, it is actually quite practical in design. It is flexible enough to allow you a decent range of movement and covers you pretty much literally from head to toe, with none of the glaring issues of the other more impractical armours of the setting. |
| 165 | ** [[EvilCounterpart Chaos Space Marines]] Power Armour. Each suit is individually customized to be downright menacing, and invariably include an excess of horns, spikes, skulls, and [[Creator/MichaelMoorcock arrows]]. Most of them are decorative or devotional, but more than a few of those horns coming out of their armor [[EvilMakesYouMonstrous are actually parts of their bodies]]. |
| 166 | ** Again, [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by the Tau. Their armours are very practical, if a bit lightly armoured. |
| 167 | * ScavengersAreScum: Scavengers (also known as scavvies) are among the lowest social classes in hive cities, and treated as such, though the {{RPG}}s that feature them tend to be seen as TheScrounger. |
| 168 | * ScavengerWorld: Much more prominent in the game's [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness first edition]], when the game wore its numerous influences on its sleeve a lot more, but it's still in effect. |
| 169 | ** Whatever equipment the Imperium has that isn't built from jealously guarded STC blueprints tends to be scavenged or jury-rigged, especially when they're [[LostTechnology unable to make new copies]]. For example, it's not uncommon for relatively new suits of Space Marine [[PoweredArmor power armor]] to be jury-rigged with parts taken from several older Marks, although this is often based as much on a belief that the [[OlderIsBetter older versions are better]] as it is on necessity. |
| 170 | ** While the models have been known to [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zag]] on this point, this is the norm for all but the most well-off Chaos Space Marine warbands in the background. In particular, the [[Literature/NightLords Night Lords trilogy]] makes a point of describing the mish-mash of stolen, jury-rigged weapons and armour parts that the members of First Claw are forced to use. The first book even has a small subplot focusing around Talos' mission to replace his armour's failing right gauntlet. |
| 171 | ** A lot of Ork technology is actually custom-made, even if it's ramshackle enough that it ''looks'' scavenged, since every Ork has the [[GeneticMemory genetically-coded ability]] to make at least some basic weapons and equipment (Ork Meks tend to be in charge of building the more advanced stuff). However, scavenging is still quite common, especially among the aptly-named Lootas, who steal and salvage heavy weapons from other races to create their Deffguns. |
| 172 | * SceneryGorn: About half of the art. A fair proportion of the other half is just regular {{Gorn}}. |
| 173 | * SchizoTech: |
| 174 | ** 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!!]]" |
| 175 | ** Due to Ork technology being an instinctual thing rather than an exact science, this results in all sorts of weirdness depending on what the local mekboy has access to, such as a Warboss riding a cyborg-boar (Cyboars) while wielding a massive, primitive club with a sharpened piece of flint at the end. Generally if it works without too much hassle, the Orks won't be too fussy on the "small details". This can even occur in-universe as Ork Flash Gits and Lootas are known to make their weapons out of scavenged tech from all species, so you can get something that look as sleek as a Tau Fusion gun duct taped to a baroque Imperial pistol while being powered by an Eldar Gem. Sometimes without a Trigger. |
| 176 | * SchrodingersCanon: Because of Games Workshop's approach to the canon (it's all propaganda), nailing down one, true, accurate picture of the ''real'' canon state of the 40k verse is pretty much impossible. While it allows Games Workshop plenty of freedom to retcon things the fans don't respond to, it also means that just about anyone's interpretation of the canon is as valid as anyone else's. |
| 177 | ** Especially notable is the Sisters of Battle. Much is made about the strength of their faith in the God-Emperor, including rules for weaponizing that faith on the tabletop. So strong is their faith that only one Sister has ever fallen to Chaos, [[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Miriael_Sabathiel Miriael Sabathiel]]. Except that Mirieal has also turned to Chaos many Adeptas Sororitas who came hunting her. Then there are stories involving whole convents of Sisters falling to Chaos. Whether or not it's even possible for an Adepta Sororitas to fall to Chaos, and how often it may or may not happen, is [[FlameBait a somewhat contentious topic within the Sororitas fandom]]. |
| 178 | ** An example of how this works in practice is the "[[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Khornate_Knights Khornate Knights]]" incident. In the 5th Edition Grey Knights codex, there was a small story about the Knights being sent to a world where a nanotech virus had been corrupted by Chaos. They also found a convent of Adepta Sororitas who were mostly resisting the corruption. Deciding they needed such powerful faith on their side to protect themselves, the Knights [[NotQuiteTheRightThing murdered the Sisters]] and [[BloodMagic used their blood to paint wards]] on the Knights' armor. Note that the rest of this same codex talks at length about how awesome the Grey Knights are and how this awesomeness makes them incorruptible, and their armor is also awesome and adds its awesomeness to their incorruptibility. That they needed a third level of incorruptibleness provided by the blood of the innocent is. . . bizarre, even by [=40k=] standards. Come 7th Edition, the story is retold but with no mention of the Adepta Soritas even being present. So has the event been retconned? Probably. Want to play a convent of Battle Sisters out for revenge for the needless slaughter? Go for it. |
| 179 | ** This allows players some extra freedom in building their armies as well. For example, [=YouTube=] channel [[https://youtu.be/xNt4QMSN4oQ Play On Tabletop]] has Space Marine Steve with his Astral Claws army, but the Astral Claws have fallen to Chaos. According to Steve, though, they haven't, or at least his detachment of them haven't. Whether his Astral Claws are still loyal or not is a subject of much good-natured debate. |
| 180 | * {{Scienceville}}: The planet Prospero was originally one of these, having been chosen as a sanctuary for a reclusive cabal of psykers during the Dark Age of Technology. Here, the scholars of the colony could study and improve their powers without fear of being persecuted. Contact with Magnus the Red and the Imperium transformed it into a major centre of learning and knowledge, and a for a time, it flourished... right up until the Space Wolves bombed it into dust. |
| 181 | * ScienceFantasy: Well, technically, there's [[DoingInTheWizard (pseudo)scientific explanations for all the magic found in the setting]], but the fact remains that ''Warhammer 40,000'' incorporates a ''lot'' of fantasy tropes. Unsurprising, considering that it started out as Warhammer IN SPACE! |
| 182 | %%* 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]]... |
| 183 | %%** 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. |
| 184 | %%** ''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. |
| 185 | %%*** 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. |
| 186 | %%*** 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 over half a kilometre tall. |
| 187 | %%** 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. |
| 188 | %%** Weapon ranges suffer from this trope, particularly where artillery is concerned. Even the game's longest-ranged artillery pieces, which can fire over 100" (8+ feet, which can easily hit anything anywhere on a standard-sized table) is laughably short-ranged even compared to [=WW2=]-era artillery. Justified in that if it was scaled realistically, the artillery range would be measured in real-life city blocks (perfect for those games of Apocalypse you're playing by telephone). |
| 189 | %%** The models themselves are done on "Heroic" scale, meaning that their faces, hands and feet are enlarged out of proportion. This is done to put more emphasis on features of the hands and face of the models, as otherwise they'd be too tiny to see, and is not particularly obvious unless you know about it. Many players however have made "truescale" version of Space Marines specifically because of this, whom have the standard hands and heads but enlarged torsos, legs and arms. |
| 190 | * TheScottishTrope: Two of the original founding Space Marine Legions have had their names and their Primarchs stricken off of all Imperial records completely. Quite the feat in a society where ''putting the GodEmperor himself in a ten thousand year coma'' doesn't even earn you that treatment. |
| 191 | ** The Eldar firmly believe mentioning Slaanesh's name brings his/her attention, hence they refer to him/her as "She Who Thirsts" or "The Great Enemy". A Ranger character in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' is quickly established as a badass CulturalRebel by his willingness to name-drop Slaanesh. |
| 192 | * TheScourgeOfGod: The ancient Ultramarine Master of Sanctity Ortan Cassius has come to believe that the Tyranid invasion of the galaxy is divine punishment for mankind's complacency and their lack of vigilance against the threat posed by the xenos. |
| 193 | * 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. |
| 194 | ** Likewise certain Noise Marines, who use a similar piece of technology known as "The Doom Siren". |
| 195 | ** One word: WWWAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!! |
| 196 | ** So common that the Necrons are notably intimidating for NOT doing this. |
| 197 | * ScrewThisImOutOfHere: The battlefields of the 41st millennium are not particularly nice places; unsurprisingly, soldiers assigned to them often decide they have better places to be. Whenever something particularly scary happens (lose a quarter of the unit to shooting, lose a round of close assault, see a nearby friendly unit get wiped out, confront one of the setting's many, many, many {{Eldritch Abomination}}s...), basic troops have to pass a morale check or immediately fall back towards friendly lines. If they still have more than half their starting number, they can test to regroup during the next friendly turn (otherwise they'll decide they've had quite enough and just continue running). Those who reach the table's edge get one last chance to [[ChangedMyMindKid return to the fight]]; if they fail, they leg it off the battlefield and count as destroyed. |
| 198 | %%* ScrewYouElves: Or Eldar, as the case may be. |
| 199 | * 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. |
| 200 | %%* SealedArmyInACan: Subverted with the Necrons, in that they can't be controlled. Overlaps with SealedEvilInACan. |
| 201 | * SealedBadassInACan: Several. |
| 202 | ** Eversor assassins are kept in stasis tanks when they're not on active missions because they are [[AxCrazy too psychotically insane]] to not be, and in fact they are given mission directives through subconscious conditioning and deployed by ''shooting their stasis pod'' at the planet. |
| 203 | ** Astartes Dreadnoughts are also kept asleep until they are needed to fight, and Heretic Dreadnoughts too but it's [[DeathSeeker played differently]] (Loyalists are put in artificial sleep for centuries between deployments, Traitor Legion Dreadnoughts get their legs and weapons removed and get chained to a wall until their next deployment, which might also be centuries later). |
| 204 | ** The T'au do the same with many of their best commanders, most notably Commander Shadowsun - from a Doylist perspective this justifies the commander from a race of aliens who rarely live past fifty being active across a millennia of duty. |
| 205 | ** Eldar warriors also, but the "badass" is a SplitPersonality that is locked away in the backs of their heads until its time to don the armour and fight, and Exarchs are what you get when the "badass" seizes control and refuses to be put back in the can... |
| 206 | * SealedEvilInACan: Many, many examples. |
| 207 | ** Just about everything can have a daemon sealed in it, turning an ordinary weapon-- or monument, or tank, or ''planet''-- into an ArtifactOfDoom. |
| 208 | ** 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.) |
| 209 | ** 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. |
| 210 | * SealedEvilInAnotherWorld: At some point in human history, the Emperor defeated the star vampire C'tan known as the Void Dragon and trapped it on Mars (in the process inspiring stories about Myth/SaintGeorge and the dragon). As the Void Dragon has power over machines and Mars is the homeworld of the Machine Cult, it's all but stated that the Omnissiah the Cult prays to is a life-hating EldritchAbomination. |
| 211 | * SeaMonster: There are a few, though they're rather obscure. Given the nature of the setting, it's a safe bet that most world with any oceans have at least one. The Space Wolf homeworld, for instance, has a ''massive'' kraken (said to be a [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranid offshoot]]) and sea serpents straight out of Norse myth, appropriate given the Space Wolves' Viking theme. Another sea monster is said to live on the planet Armageddon, where it attacks Ork ships. |
| 212 | * SeaSerpents: |
| 213 | ** Monstrous sea serpents are among the numerous predatory beasts native to Fenris' ice-choked seas. They are often hunted by Fenrisian sailors for their tough, useful hides, but are entirely capable of hunting them right back. |
| 214 | ** Ithaka, the oceanic homeworld of the Iron Snakes chapter of Space Marines, is home to immense serpents up to 300 meters in length, which create storms that trail behind them as they swim. Chapter initiates are required to hunt one of these beasts in their initiation rituals, and the chapter also uses them to test accused criminals in the "Trial by Wyrm". This involves leaving the accused on a spit of rock in serpent-infested waters and coming back in six hours to check if they got eaten. If they're still alive then they're considered guilty and executed, since the Iron Snakes don't believe that the serpents would sully themselves by eating a criminal. |
| 215 | * SelfDeprecation: In a game made by a British company where just about every faction in the game is some FantasyCounterpartCulture of a real life group, the British representatives are the thuggish, stupid and {{Funetik Aksent}}ed Orks - specifically, they are English FootballHooligans... big green ones with guns, on a violent intergalactic pub crawl that consumes entire ''planets'' in their wrath. |
| 216 | * SelfFulfillingProphecy: Warmaster Horus is shown a vision of the future in which humanity toils in suffering and misery and the Emperor is worshipped as a god. He proceeds to start a rebellion against the Emperor... which plunges the galaxy into the grimdark future of his vision. |
| 217 | * SenselessSacrifice: |
| 218 | ** There are many {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s in [=40K=], "But the universe is a big place and, whatever happens, you will not be missed..." |
| 219 | ** 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. |
| 220 | ** Tau military doctrine views any last stands ordered by a commander to be this unless escape was truly impossible; being one of the few factions that values practicality over honor, they view last stands not as a heroic feat, but a waste of resources and total incompetence on the commander's part. |
| 221 | %%* SentientCosmicForce: The Warp is this. |
| 222 | %%* SeparateButIdentical: All races, although it's being gradually changed with different Craftworlds, bio-augmentation, regimental doctrines, etc.%%ZCE. |
| 223 | * SerialEscalation: How much [[MoreDakka Dakka]] can the Ork Mekboys put together [Answer: never enuff]? How much [[MoralEventHorizon more evil]] can we make the [[AbusivePrecursors Dark Eldar]]? How loud can Kharn scream "'''BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!'''"? How big of a BigBad can Literature/CiaphasCain, '''[[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!]]''', defeat through a combination of dumb luck, skill and [[IndyPloy fast thinking]]? How much bigger can the [[HumongousMecha Titans]] and various Planet Killing guns on Imperium ships get? Just how much worse can things get? How much more {{troperiffic}} can this setting get? It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the setting pretty much ''runs'' on SerialEscalation. |
| 224 | * SeriousBusiness: Considering what this game costs, you can kinda see why. |
| 225 | * SexMagic: The Chaos god(dess) Slaanesh is the living embodiment of desire, so it has control over (and is fueled by) pain, pleasure and all manners of excess. [[note]] In [=40K=], it was actually created after the highly psychic Eldar engaged in millennia of hedonistic orgies to occupy their very long lives.[[/note]] While the sex aspect isn't used on the tabletop ([[FreudWasRight not directly at least]], [[Rule34 but fans are all too happy to make up for its absence]]), fluff contains a lot of references to pleasure cults that try to obtain hir favor or conduct rituals ([[Literature/CiaphasCain summoning daemons, for instance]]) this way. |
| 226 | * 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. 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 [[GreaterScopeVillain Chaos Gods]], who were so terrified of the Emperor that they actually ''worked together'' to eliminate him. |
| 227 | * ShapeshifterWeapon: Obliterators again, and their new close-combat flavoured counterparts, Mutilators. |
| 228 | * SharedUniverse: Particularly in the novels; most fans regard anything written by some authors, especially C.S. Goto, as automatically non-canon. |
| 229 | * SharpenedToASingleAtom: The basic bladed weapons of the more technologically advanced races are often described as having a monomolecular edge. Unlike in many other settings, the rules for such weapons don't make them {{Absurdly Sharp Blade}}s (such weapons tend to be covered with a field of energy that disrupts molecular bonds) and in some cases they are as effective in combat as a simple club or crowbar. |
| 230 | * ShieldBash: The suppression shield wielded by some Imperial warriors such as the [[StateSec Adeptus Arbites]] and, in some editions, the [[PraetorianGuard Crusaders]] of the [[ChurchMilitant Ecclesiarchy]], incorporates an electro-shock generator designed to stun any enemy that is struck by, or strikes, the shield. How this is represented depends on the edition with 2nd Edition giving the wielder a DashAttack, while 3rd Edition counts them as both an additional close combat weapon (similarly to a knife held in the model’s off-hand) as well as giving them a special invulnerable save. |
| 231 | %%* ShinyLookingSpaceships: Eldar and Tau, mostly. |
| 232 | * 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. |
| 233 | * ShootTheDog: Happens very, very often in the Imperium. |
| 234 | ** One of a commissar's duties is to maintain unit cohesion and discipline-- by execution, if necessary. |
| 235 | ** 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. |
| 236 | ** 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. |
| 237 | ** One of the more dramatic versions happened after the Inquisition decided to mass-liquidate several loyal Guardsmen regiments after a particularly brutal war to avoid knowledge of Chaos spreading. The Space Wolves, who'd served alongside said Guardsmen, objected violently, leading to actual war between the Space Wolves and the Inquisition (and the Grey Knights), known as the Months of Shame, that only ended after the Space Wolves woke up Bjorn the Fell-Handed and teleported him into the Grey Knights' Battle Barge, killing the Chapter Master and getting everyone to stand down. |
| 238 | * ShortRangeGuyLongRangeGuy: Apply this trope to a faction and you get the Tau and Kroot. The Tau have awesome guns but are pathetic in close combat, the Kroot are barbarians who live for close combat but don't wear armor. It illustrates their "Greater Good" philosophy, where the weaknesses of one are compensated by the strengths of the other. |
| 239 | ** This is also a case of GameplayAndStorySegregation, as it is most certainly true in the fluff, but the Kroot started as mediocre close combat troops with surprisingly cheap firepower and infiltration back in third edition, and this trend just keeps becoming more and more pronounced over time. In sixth and seventh editions, the kroot are incredibly cheap infiltrating snipers who will crumble like tissue paper before any real assault troops. |
| 240 | * ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon: Shamelessly prevalent in the tabletop game, even the artillery (though keep in mind [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality they don't exactly have a choice]]). 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. |
| 241 | ** 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.) |
| 242 | ** 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." |
| 243 | * '''ShouldersOfDoom''': If you look at the Creator/GamesWorkshop site, "Shoulder Pads" is an entire category of modeling bits, along with scenery and weapons. |
| 244 | ** To be fair, the reason why it's a category is because certain armies, like Space Marines, use their pauldrons to display things like squad/rank markings, army badges, and personal heraldry (for most models, the more traditional chest simply isn't an option). Many players/collectors will buy pads with sculpted-on icons for their entire army if Games Workshop provides them, so giving them their own category makes sense if they want to move them in bulk. |
| 245 | * ShoutOut: Tons. Enough to get a [[ShoutOut/{{Warhammer 40000}} separate page]]. |
| 246 | * ShownTheirWork: A few editions of the core book give full explanations of the Imperial calendar. It explains that full dates include final digit that tells the reader how certain the author was that the date actually corresponds with the Terran date. Thanks to the way it's organized around Astropathic relays the odds of a distant sector having the right date are remote, but its worlds probably all have the same wrong date. This is good enough for most purposes. |
| 247 | * 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. |
| 248 | ** 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''. |
| 249 | ** One excerpt from the Chaos Codex details the life of a nomad prince who raided cities with his caravan. After the city has had enough of him and his family, they called the Sky-giants to come subdue him, killing his entire family in the process and nearly wiping out the nomad caravan. It is at this point that another sky-giant came and almost singlehandedly defeated the enemy giants, then offered the now homeless and orphaned prince a place in the heavens to fight alongside his gods. That sky-giant was heavily implied to be ''Abaddon the Despoiler himself''. |
| 250 | %%* SicklyGreenGlow: Necrons in general and gauss weapons in particular. |
| 251 | %%* SightedGunsAreLowTech: One of the few science fiction works to avert this trope. |
| 252 | * SigilSpam: Every faction does this. The Imperium and Chaos are particularly prone to showing their sigils because they have multiple subfactions which have their own. And looking at the Chaos ones [[BrownNote drive you insane]]. |
| 253 | %%* SingleBiomePlanet: Used and averted equally often. |
| 254 | * SinisterScythe: Trademark of Nurgle followers and the [[GrimReaper Nightbringer]]. |
| 255 | * SituationalDamageAttack: [[GravitySucks Graviton weapons]], by virtue of crushing their target inside their own armor via a sudden localized gravity spike, deal damage based on the targets armor save (and thus how heavy it is to begin with.) Absolutely excellent for killing Tau Battlesuits and Mega Armored Orks, almost worthless against Guardsmen or smaller Tyranids. |
| 256 | * SkeletonMotif: It is full of skeletal imagery. Particularly with the Imperium of Man and even more so with worshippers of [[BloodKnight Khorne]]. |
| 257 | * SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: ''Extremely'' cynical, to the point that it's actually nihilistic. To explain how nihilistic the setting is, all the characters ''have'' to be evil because being unambiguously good will result in the person getting {{mind rape}}d or literally tentacle-raped by a daemon, and tearing open a portal to hell roughly the size of a planet. Even the closest thing to heroic is still objectively evil. |
| 258 | * 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 rule-book of several Imperial heroes performing a Slow Walk. |
| 259 | * TheSmurfettePrinciple: A dearth of female special characters usable in the game proper, although the fluff doesn't suffer from this so badly. |
| 260 | ** Turned on its head with ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar II: Retribution'', which has half of the playable Eldar characters being women and the Imperial Guard under the command of a female Inquisitor. |
| 261 | * SociopathicSoldier: Any Ork, Dark Eldar or follower of Chaos. Quite a lot of Space Marines and Imperial Guard troops too, and they're supposed to be the "good guys". The king of this trope though has to be the Thunder Warriors, the PsychoPrototype Space Marines, much more powerful than Astartes but so brutal and unhinged that the Emperor had them all destroyed when they finished conquering Terra for him and thus had outlived their usefulness. |
| 262 | * SomeCallMeTim: |
| 263 | ** Some call me Commander Farsight (Shas'O Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr or O'Shovah for short). Standard practice with Tau. |
| 264 | ** Somewhat averted by Ork ''players'': most of them remember simple manageable names like [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Wazdakka Gutzmek]] or [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]]. |
| 265 | * 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 that brutal so that mankind as a whole can survive), Orks ([[BloodKnight WAAAGH!]]), then Tyranids (driven by hunger rather than any genuine malice), then Necrons (who want to bring back their ancient empire and are willing to unleash the wrath of evil star-gods who want to farm every sentient species in the galaxy on their enemies), Chaos (let's convert the materium into more warp and fuck everyone else!), and Dark Eldar (pure, unrepentant evil, even by this setting's standards). |
| 266 | ** 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]]. |
| 267 | %%* SoulCuttingBlade: Force weapons. |
| 268 | * SoulEating: |
| 269 | ** The Dark Eldar, who drink the souls of their victims, whom they torture for death for amusement. The main reason they devour souls is in order to maintain their youth, thus preventing them from dying and feeding Slaanesh with their souls.souls, or because Slaanesh is continually draining their souls while alive and they use their victims souls to replenish or as a substitute for their own souls, DependingOnTheWriter. |
| 270 | ** Souls comprise the diets of daemons and Chaos gods, either mortals or weaker daemons. Notably, Slaanesh devoured all but three of the Eldar gods shortly after awakening. |
| 271 | * SoullessBedroom: Invoked by many of the loyalist Space Marine Chapters. Since a Space Marine is meant to be a WarriorMonk, many Chapters discourage personalising their quarters in favour of austere, almost empty rooms. There are quite a few Chapters who ''don't'' do this, though, such as the Space Wolves and White Scars. |
| 272 | * SoulsavingCrusader: Incorporated as official policy in the Imperium, where unrepentant and brutal policy often takes sway over more conventional practices. Specifically, while there are some worlds that are okay, even great to live on, the Imperium as a whole indoctrinates its people to accept hardship and stay loyal to a psychotic dystopia--no matter how hard their lives, how misplaced their loyalty, or how misused they are. All because failure to do so and to stay a coherent force in the galaxy will eventually lead to the extinction of the human species. |
| 273 | ** Used more specifically by the Ecclesiarchy, and by extension their Adeptus Sororitas, and by the somewhat more close-working Ordo Hereticus. They take anybody spiritually impure, or otherwise suspect, and use a wide range of punishment for their redemption, from [[BurnTheWitch burning them at the stake]] to [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment being mounted onto a]] [[SuicideAttack penitent engine]]. |
| 274 | %%* SoundOff: Imperial battle hymns, Ork war chants. |
| 275 | * {{Sourcebook}}: In addition to the core rulebook, every edition of the game has had numerous sourcebooks that include the background and rules for using the various factions on the table top. As well as this, a number of editions have had supplemental and more advanced rules released as either sourcebooks or box sets that expand the core game but are not essential. There are also a number of campaign sourcebooks that give additional rules and background for specific warzones. |
| 276 | * SpaceAgeStasis: Most of the races in the 41st millennium have been in a state of technological stagnation for thousands of years. Many worlds are even Medieval. |
| 277 | ** The Imperium bans any technological advancement, partly as part of their reverence for old tech in their religion, with beliefs of StatusQuoIsGod. Some Mechanicus adepts get around this by claiming to have "discovered" their latest inventions, which has the added benefit of being technically true, just with a different use of the word. |
| 278 | ** The Eldar are in decline, with all their efforts focused on keeping their immortal race alive. |
| 279 | ** The Necrons are a machine race that are basically mindless outside of their Lords, and have been asleep for the past 65 million years. |
| 280 | ** Averted by the Tyranids (who [[LivingShip don't use]] [[OrganicTechnology technology at all]]), and the Tau and [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Leagues of Votann]], who have no prohibitions around technological advancement and are the only two factions in the setting actively advancing. |
| 281 | ** Averted by the Imperium in the Horus Heresy series, as the Emperor encouraged delving into science as opposed to religion and new advancements (mostly in war) were made. This all came to a halt when a certain son decided to stick a blade in him. |
| 282 | * SpaceAmish: The Imperium actually has "medieval worlds" and "feral worlds." The Eldar have exodites, and the Orks have feral tribes and the deeply traditional Snakebite clan. |
| 283 | %%* SpaceFighter: Naturally. |
| 284 | * SpaceIsAnOcean: The background material for the setting has equated space travel with travelling across the ocean since the 1st Edition of the game by mixing things from almost every period of historical sea travel from the days of WoodenShipsAndIronMen to the World Wars and modern-day navel engagements. The setting sees fleets of space navies travelling between planetary systems like boats travelling between island chains, navigate through celestial phenomena like they are travelling through submerged reefs, unleashing Napoleonic-style broadsides against their enemies, being battered by [[NegativeSpaceWedgie warp storms]], fighting off SpacePirates, and being beholden to the currants of [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the warp]]. The [[SpaceElves Aeldari]] even use solar sails and have to tack to make the most of the solar wind. Also see the ''TabletopGame/BattlefleetGothic'' page. |
| 285 | %%* SpaceMarine: Imperial Guard Stormtroopers, Tau Fire Warriors, Eldar Aspect Warriors, just about any Necron, but especially... |
| 286 | %%** SuperSoldier: ... The guys ''called'' Space Marines. |
| 287 | %%* SpaceNavy: The Imperial Navy. |
| 288 | * SpaceOpera: Emphasis on the epic heroes, villains, and battles-- not so much on the love stories. |
| 289 | * SpacePlane: Notably, Thunderhawks and Valkyries are described in novels as behaving this way. |
| 290 | * SpacePirates: Eldar Corsairs, Dark Eldars in general, Ork Freebootaz, Chaos and Humans. |
| 291 | ** 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]]''. |
| 292 | %%* SpaceRomans: The Imperium. Especially the Ultramarines. |
| 293 | * SpaceSector: The Imperium of Man has a military-administrative hierarchy in which the galaxy is divided into five ''[[GratuitousLatin segmentae]]'', which are then divided into sectors (e.g., the "Gothic Sector"), with sectors in turn containing both "inter-sectors" of unexplored or uninhabited systems, and organized sub-sectors of one or more inhabited star systems. |
| 294 | * SpareAMessenger: The Dark Eldar are known to do this, both because it allows their reputation to grow, but other times so they can [[TrickAndFollowPloy follow the survivor to his camp and destroy it]] (sometimes leaving him alive), just to show they can. |
| 295 | * SparseListOfRules: Some storylines and fluff use the ''[[BigBookOfWar Codex Astartes]]'' like this, for example in an early mission of ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar's'' single-player campaign where Captain Gabriel Angelos notes what the ''Codex's'' recommended course of action in response to the Orks' tactics is. |
| 296 | %%* TheSpartanWay: Taken to utterly ridiculous extremes by the Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines. |
| 297 | * SpeedDemon: |
| 298 | ** [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks The Orks]] love driving battle vehicles as fast as possible and with reckless abandon, especially those in the Evil Sunz klan. The Orks in Da Kult of Speed, in particular, [[SenseFreak have become addicted to the thrill that comes with speed]]. Regardless of whether they're in a calm environment or the middle of a warzone, they push their vehicles to frightening speeds performing stunts and maneuvers that leave even other Orks thinking they're insane. |
| 299 | ** The Tzeentchian daemon known as the Changeling once infiltrated an ork Waaagh! and started making up a story about their gods competing to see who was the fastest. Driven to recreate this feat, the orks piled into their vehicles and wound up driving off a cliff, thanks to the Changeling's misdirection. |
| 300 | * 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''. |
| 301 | * SpiderTank: Chaos, specifically Defilers and Brass Scorpions. Necron Tomb Stalkers may also qualify. |
| 302 | * 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. |
| 303 | * SpotlightStealingSquad: The Space Marines in the game as a whole, and the Ultramarines amongst the Space Marines themselves. |
| 304 | * SpyCatsuit: Several Eldar have one, but it's pretty much standard issue for the Officio Assassinorum agents of the Imperium. |
| 305 | ** Some employ chameleon-like mimicry abilities, others have no special reason for this apart from being fetishes. In one of the ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'' 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. |
| 306 | ** A non-spy variant called a bodyglove is a fairly common type of clothing worn by high-ranking civilians or hired guns. It's typically worn under armor or with other clothes, like jackets or utility harnesses. |
| 307 | * 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. |
| 308 | * 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. |
| 309 | * StableTimeLoop: Thanks to the acausal reality-warping nature of the Warp, this had happened on more than one occasion. |
| 310 | ** In one story, for example, has two rival Imperial Guard regiments from the same world finding themselves stranded on a world being overrun by the Tyranids after the Imperium received a mysterious garbled distress call through the Warp calling for help and sent them as reinforcements. While they never found who sent the distress call, over the course of the story they [[FireForgedFriends put aside their differences]] and became a BandOfBrothers as they successfully fend off the Tyranids' attack. However, the remnants of both units find themselves on the verge of being overrun by fresh Tyranid swarms, and they desperately sent an Astropathic distress call through the Warp for assistance just as they prepare for their LastStand... a distress call which became garbled through transit and was received by the Imperium in the past, who would send the two regiments before their reconciliation as part of the relief force, effectively [[ViciousCycle dooming them to fight the same battle]] and face [[BolivianArmyEnding their implied annihilation]]. |
| 311 | ** Waaagh! Grisgutz came to an inglorious end when it emerged from the Warp shortly before it would have left. The older Grisgutz attacked and killed his past self so as to have his favorite gun twice, and we're only told that the Waaagh!(s) [[GrandfatherParadox disbanded in the resulting confusion.]] |
| 312 | %%* StandardSciFiArmy: Considering its focus on war, every single type of unit conceivable has been used in the games. |
| 313 | %%* StandardSciFiFleet |
| 314 | * StandardSciFiHistory: The Imperium and Eldar follow the trope closely. They explored, found aliens, built great empires, and are now falling. |
| 315 | %%* StandardSciFiSetting: Only painted black and covered in skulls. |
| 316 | * StandardTimeUnits: The Imperium officially runs on Terran years, and presumably Terran days onboard starships. |
| 317 | ** 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. |
| 318 | %%* StarKilling: The C'tan. |
| 319 | * TheStarscream: Look in any Chaos warband, Ork mob, or Dark Eldar Kabal, and you'll likely find one of these. |
| 320 | ** The Dark Eldar faction is almost made up entirely of these guys. They may work together to ensure the success of a raid, but Kabal members are all constantly trying to claw their way to the top of the pile, and if the guy above them gets killed in a raid, then that just saves them the trouble. There's only one exception: Asdrubael Vect himself, and that's only because [[BigBad he doesn't have a superior to backstab]]. Of course, many Dark Eldar try to backstab ''him'', but this is [[TheChessmaster Vect]] we're talking about, so they all fail horribly. |
| 321 | ** And this isn't just from the "evil" factions. This happens shockingly often on Imperial worlds, too. |
| 322 | * StateSec: The Imperium's secret police are called the ''Inquisition''. It suits them. |
| 323 | * StatsDissonance: The "[[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/DISTRACTION_CARNIFEX DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]]" meme and tactic involves having a single scary-looking unit to draw fire (combat ability optional), allowing the actual damage dealers behind to fire relatively unchallenged. |
| 324 | * 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. |
| 325 | ** It is no longer the case as of the 7th Edition as campaign books picking up from where the Codices left off advance the plot for several of the factions. Most notably, the Gathering Storm series details the unveiling of events that will have galaxy-wide consequences, such as Abaddon finally conquering Cadia, the Eldars having partially summoned Ynnead, their God of Death purported to defeat Slaanesh, and the return of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman. |
| 326 | * StealthPun: |
| 327 | ** There are demonic beasts of the Chaos God of Bloodlust that resemble large canids. So that would make them... wait for it... Khorne dogs. |
| 328 | ** ''Literature/IronSnakes'' actually spells out the "Khorne = corn" pun (corn dolls in the shape of his skull-rune), although the character who points this out is the only non-Space Marine and therefore is the only one to find it funny. |
| 329 | ** The Ultramarines are a chapter widely regarded as the paragon of devotion other Space Marines should live up to. They wear blue armor and originate from the Ultramar empire, and are NOT named for being objectively more skilled or competent than any other chapter. |
| 330 | ** When you're playing the game, all distances are measured in inches... or, rather, Imperial units. |
| 331 | ** One of the oddities in the Space Wolf geneseed is that it causes their canines to slowly but steadily grow as they age. The Wolves' seasoned veterans are called Long Fangs, and since they've been around for a few centuries, they have, well, long fangs. Because of their age, you could also say they're long in the tooth. |
| 332 | * StepfordSmiler: Nurgle is suspiciously too nice for a god of disease... You should probably turn down any gifts he offers you. |
| 333 | * StopWorshippingMe: The God Emperor of Mankind when he was alive. |
| 334 | * StoutStrength: Generally anything associated with Nurgle gets this treatment. Especially the daemonic servants who the fatter they are, the more powerful they are. |
| 335 | * TheStormbringer: Njal Stormcaller passively makes the weather around him get worse every turn, at first slowing movement or reducing visibility until every enemy in range is getting pounded by lightning bolts every turn. |
| 336 | * StraightForTheCommander: |
| 337 | ** Tyranids use synapse creatures as commanders, who relay the HiveMind's orders to each individual 'nid in range. Taking out a synapse creature (which can best be summed up as "shoot the big ones") causes momentary confusion amid the 'nids, until a synapse creature gets back in range. |
| 338 | ** Tau armies suffer severe morale penalties if their Ethereal leader is slain. A blurb in an Imperial Guard codex credits a Ratling sniper named Magogg with assuring one Imperial victory when he blew an Ethereal's head off. |
| 339 | ** In the fluff, ork Waaaghs! can be more easily defeated if the warboss/warlord leading it is killed, as it leads to an EnemyCivilWar. |
| 340 | * StrategicAssetCaptureMechanic: Matches are resolved by taking and holding an Objective marker, or wiping out the opposing team. |
| 341 | * 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 are a UniversallyBelovedLeader and their realm is unprecedentedly well organised, so they must be doing something right. |
| 342 | ** The whole mini-empire was a united alliance, ruled from Ultramar by Guilliman, before the Imperium even got there. They only directly rule one world, it just happens to be the capitol. |
| 343 | *** And as Guilliman actually wrote the Codex, it probably is not against it. |
| 344 | * 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. |
| 345 | * {{Stripperiffic}}: Drukhari Wyches. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since they are for the most part meant to be performers in the arenas of Commorragh, not frontline warriors. |
| 346 | * StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Depending on the focus of any particular work or piece of background information, the strength and competency of every faction can vary tremendously. The Astra Militarum, for example, can be anything from a BadassArmy to CannonFodder, while the [[MonsterClown Harlequins]] have been depicted as being merely trading blows with [[SuperSoldier Astartes]] to being able to {{Curb Stomp|Battle}} Adeptus Custodes, the PraetorianGuard of the GodEmperor and one of the most elite tropes in the Imperium. |
| 347 | * StupidEvil: |
| 348 | ** Too many examples to list, typically from the Imperium and the Chaos Space Marines. Much of how the Imperium survives seems to come down to the fact that Chaos Space Marines are even dumber, or at least crazier than they are. The Orkz ''would'' qualify here as well, if not for the fact that their [[RealityWarper latent psychic powers]] actually make being too dumb to realize how stupid and/or insane most of the things they do are [[AchievementsInIgnorance an asset]]. |
| 349 | ** The Dark Gods of Chaos themselves, to a degree, because their victory over the Imperium would result in their own downfall. Of all the races, the Dark Gods rely most on humans for the psychic and emotional energy that is their lifeblood: the Imperium being destroyed would also destroy mankind (and eventually all thinking beings in the galaxy), leaving the Dark Gods to starve. The stalemate of the Long War is the best possible outcome for the Dark Gods, but none of them (save possibly Tzeentch) seem aware of this fact. |
| 350 | * StupidFuturePeople: |
| 351 | ** The VastBureaucracy combined with the Ecclesiarchy of the Imperium relies on keeping its people as ignorant as possible of the existence of Chaos. How easy this is depends on the world, there are some that haven't seen change in millennia, others where Chaos is a daily occurrence (here they're not as strict about it), and still others where they're prevented from executing countless amounts of Guardsmen who'd been exposed to Chaos by the [[Literature/SpaceWolf Space Wolves]] who'd fought alongside them. This results in {{Witch Hunt}}s and mass frenzies that tend to kill more innocents than guilty. |
| 352 | ** The Tau are implied to use mass mind-control to keep their population happy and unwilling to change their caste system. Whether or not they're kept deliberately ignorant is unknown, though they have been known to purge their kroot allies to make sure Chaos corruption (to which the Tau are immune) wouldn't spread. |
| 353 | * SubParSupremacist: The Eldar talking down to humans tend to have shades of this, by holding themselves to be the SuperiorSpecies and the only ones capable of fighting against Chaos. Never mind that the Eldar ''created'' one of the Chaos gods in the first place through millennia of relentless hedonism, or that their manipulations have a tendency to backfire on them (in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'', their interference and refusal to explain the situation led to the ascent of a Daemon Prince). |
| 354 | %%* SubspaceAnsible: Sending telepathic messages-- through ''hell''... |
| 355 | * SubsystemDamage: |
| 356 | ** The 1st and 2nd Editions ''Warhammer 40’000'' had individual damage charts for each vehicle that randomised which part of a vehicle was struck by an attack. Each location on a vehicle then had its own Armour Value and damage table that could result in anything from minor damage that reduced the vehicle’s effectiveness to the destruction of that specific location or causing a chain reaction that destroys the entire vehicle. When the game was simplified in 3rd Edition this was replaced with a single damage chart, covering damage to every part of the vehicle, that lasted until 8th Edition, which folded vehicle damage into the same system other models used. |
| 357 | ** Early editions of the ''Epic'' game system used location and damage charts for its Titans, their massive size allowing for the targeting of individual parts of the war machines. |
| 358 | * SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: C'tan/Necrons, and the Aeldari in their heyday. |
| 359 | ** In one book, the Emperor's Children accidentally trigger an ancient Aeldari defence system while invading a planet that causes the Astartes to be attacked by swarms of spectral warriors with swords that pass clean through their armour and kill the Marines inside without leaving a visible wound, and without the intervention of [[PhysicalGod post-ascension Fulgrim]], the Emperor's Children would have been wiped out to the last. |
| 360 | ** In another book set during the Horus Heresy, the Cabal agent John Grammaticus was gifted a pair of Aeldari scissors that ''cut through time and space'' and allowed him to cross the galaxy to reach Terra in time for the siege. The Aeldari regularly launch suicide missions to their lost Crone Worlds to recover these incredible technologies and hopefully turn the tide of the war against the rest of the galaxy -- one example being the Distortion Cannon, a powerful weapon that shoots ''miniature black holes''. |
| 361 | * SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology: |
| 362 | ** High-ranking Eldar may be seen with decorative spears and ribbed body armour, and carry little runes that look like they're made of carved bone in a little pouch -- the uselessly impractical looking spear actually projects a force-field that lets it cut through PoweredArmor like butter, the mail-looking bodysuits rapidly harden when struck and repair any damage all by themselves, and the little runes are made from a form of reactive living plastic that also acts as a conduit for their immense psychic prowess. |
| 363 | ** Necrons have access to thing like Resurrection Orbs (little glowing crystals that enhance the self-repair protocols of the robotic warriors), Sempiternal Weave (which is a force-field that looks like a scale-mail suit of armour) and various staves. |
| 364 | ** Quite a few of the more esoteric Imperial pieces look deceptively primitive as well, retaining a sort of Renaissance or Victorian aesthetic but leaving modern technology well behind-- the boxy Leman Russ looks like something that belongs in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the muddy trenches of Northern France]], but it handles like a European sports car and would thrash a top-of-the-line Abrams with little trouble. |
| 365 | * SummonMagic: |
| 366 | ** Summoning daemons. |
| 367 | ** The Eldar and Sisters of Battle get in on the act as well with their Avatars and Living Saints, respectively, though because of the way magic works in ''40K'' the distinction is mostly semantic. |
| 368 | * SuperGullible: Ogryns are {{Psychopathic Manchild}}ren that possess childlike faith in the GodEmperor. Unfortunately, as BeliefMakesYouStupid (and Ogryns are not well-endowed with smarts to begin with), they are very gullible, and many rebellions are caused by the instigator telling the Ogryns the Emperor said their caretakers are evil. |
| 369 | %%* SuperpowerMeltdown: Happens to psykers. A lot. |
| 370 | %%* SuperpowerfulGenetics: The Primarchs and the Space Marines. Also Orks. |
| 371 | * SupernaturalElite: The original leaders of the Empire of Man, i.e. the GodEmperor and the Primarchs, his clone-sons. Although none of them are close to his level of power (and intentionally so), almost all of them have some Psyker-abilities. This proved to be a VERY bad idea in hindsight, since Psykers are more vulnerable to TheDarkSide. The elite split in two camps with one half defecting to the demonic Chaos Gods. |
| 372 | * SupernaturalFearInducer: A ''very'' popular ability is to inflict fear (or, worse yet, ''terror'') on the enemy. Necron pariahs have this effect on people, due to the inherent wrongness of their lacking souls entirely. Some human blanks have this ability, but whether or not this is because they don't have souls seems to vary ([[Literature/CiaphasCain Jurgen]] is generally repulsive to everyone around him, but this is generally because of his poor hygiene and appearance rather than his being a blank). |
| 373 | * SuperRegistrationAct: An ''extremely'' euphemistic way of describing the treatment of psykers who aren't sacrificed to the Astronomican or Golden Throne. |
| 374 | %%* SuperpoweredMooks: Psykers and those "blessed" by the Chaos gods. |
| 375 | * SuperSoldier: Where do we begin? Practically every army is composed largely or even ''entirely'' of these, from the bioengineered giants in PoweredArmor selected through decades of difficult training and indoctrination, all the way to the unrelenting killing machines resistant to small-arms fire and armed with the most advanced weaponry in the setting. Conspicuous for being the sole ''exception'' is the Imperial Guard, though some the more hardcore regiments like the Krieg and Cadians might qualify too, as would the [[EliteMooks Stormtroopers]]. |
| 376 | * SuperSpit: ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' magazine #98 article "Chapter Approved". Most Space Marines have an implant named Betcher's Gland that creates a [[PoisonIsCorrosive highly acidic contact poison]]. The Marine is able to spit the poison at opponents to damage and blind them. |
| 377 | * {{Superweapon}}: The dial on the setting has been turned so far past eleven that what would be superweapons in any other setting are just weapons, but it is nonetheless {{Invoked}} by the means by which one can enact Exterminatus. Ranging from basic [[OrbitalBombardment planetary bombardment]] by guns the size of most settings' small spaceships, to specific planet-cracker or viral ordnance which either crack the planet down to the mantle or turn everything organic into a high-flammable biological slurry, the whole point of Exterminatus is that by the time [[GodzillaThreshold you need to use it]], you need to be ''absolutely certain'' that '''nothing''' can defend against it. |
| 378 | * SuperweaponSurprise: Eldar Maiden worlds and Imperial medieval worlds-- Do not touch without a force big enough to repel the reinforcements. |
| 379 | * SuppressedHistory: there are entire millennia of history called "The Dark Age of Technology", where some of mankind's greatest technological advances were created, like the Warp Drive, and subsequently lost. This is so significant in sight of current events, as the technology to create such ancient relics like [[GiantMecha Titans]], Teleportatiums (Entire complexes that allow entire groups to teleport), and so on have been all but forgotten, making the items themselves practically priceless. |
| 380 | * SurvivalMantra: The many, ''many'' little prayers and litanies recited on a regular basis by the Imperials. Often have [[MadnessMantra Chaotic counterparts]]. |
| 381 | * SwallowedWhole: |
| 382 | ** Stay away from Mawlocs, because you'll still be alive when you get digested. |
| 383 | ** This is actually a rule for the Red Terror, allowing him to remove a single infantry model of the player's choice if enough hits land. |
| 384 | * SwordAndGun: Generally favoured by every somewhat-sentient race in the game for close-quarters combat troops. |
| 385 | * SympathyForTheDevil: As horrible as the Imperium of Man, most of what they fight against to protect humanity is considerably worse. |
| 386 | * {{Synchronisation}}: Titans and their Princeps, some ships and their captains. |
| 387 | [[/folder]] |
| 388 | |
| 389 | [[folder:T]] |
| 390 | * TactfulTranslation: This happened to ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'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." |
| 391 | * TacticalSuperweaponUnit: Lords of War is a battlefield role reserved for exceptional {{Hero Unit}}s, super-heavy vehicles, walkers, aircraft and gargantuan creatures that are much tougher than standard units and boast weapons whose destructive capabilities are beyond anything else, but demand a significant cost in both points and real money to field. Coupled with their sheer size, they can't hide and will attract fire from everything your opponent has. In 4th and 5th editions, you can only field them in Apocalypse games; from 6th to 9th Edition and in ''Horus Heresy'' (which also has the Primarch role for Primarchs and equivalent), they can be taken in normal games, with restrictions to ensure that they don't unbalance the game[[note]]the Force Organisation Chart was axed in 10th Edition; only the Titanic keyword remains for superheavy vehicles and gargantuan creatures[[/note]]. In normal-sized (2000 points) games, you'll be taking a single Lord of War at most. |
| 392 | * {{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!" |
| 393 | ** Most of the armies have one as well, like Chaos' "Death to the False Emperor!" |
| 394 | * TakeCover: |
| 395 | ** Terrain on the table is not just for decoration, as hiding behind a bush can protect you from even anti-tank weaponry due to cover also representing the firer missing the target due to obscuring, or simply not seeing the target and not firing at all. The exact way this is represented in the game depends on the edition including: a modifier to the attackers To Hit roll; a special saving throw; or bonuses to the target's existing saving throw. |
| 396 | ** Some editions of the game include the 'Go To Ground' action that represented the unit making the most of the available cover to increase its effectiveness. |
| 397 | * TakeOverTheWorld: the Monodominant faction seriously believes that the Imperium should strive for this. Ironically, their inspiration is an ancient work which expounded this theory [[IWasJustJoking in order to highlight its impossibility.]] |
| 398 | * TakeThat: |
| 399 | ** When PETA decided to take a shot at Warhammer's setting for its various uses of fur (nevermind the fact that most factions prefer more...[[GenuineHumanHide humanitarian]] forms of decoration), Matt Ward of all people decided to step in and penned a short story where some eco-activists tried to protect a native species from the Imperium's state policy of cleansing xeno life forms (in anticipation of colonization). Such activists managed to get the xenos onboard only to realize the reason why the Imperium deemed the xeno life harmful is because they're extremely violent carnivores. The activists' ship soon went silent as the beasts broke free of the holding cells. |
| 400 | ** The occasional background reference is made to the Black Planet of Birmingham, so called because it receives little natural light. It's the best-known of the "feral and backwards worlds", no one wants to go there and the inhabitants are "culturally and linguistically isolated", the musket being their most advanced weapon. |
| 401 | * TakingYouWithMe: |
| 402 | ** Once again, taken to extremes; a good example would be the Eversor Assassin. When you kill him, his ''blood explodes'' with tank-destroying force. |
| 403 | ** All vehicles in the game have a chance of exploding, to the misfortune of everyone around, when destroyed. |
| 404 | ** 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 Lukas's laughing face to look at for eternity. |
| 405 | ** Taken to ludicrous extremes with the Warlord Titan, whose reactor core can detonate with enough range to cover ''the entire playing board''. It also detonates with far more force than a "standard" superheavy vehicle, meaning that any opponents of a Warlord Titan can only, at best, hope for a draw. |
| 406 | ** One reason the Pyrovore was so reviled is that it inflicts damage on being killed, but due to AmbiguousSyntax it was interpreted as being a living ''nuke'' (instead of stating units in a certain radius took damage, the rule seemed to state that ''every unit on the board'' took damage, with that damage increasing for every unit within the radius). |
| 407 | %%* TannhauserGate |
| 408 | * TankGoodness: 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!''' |
| 409 | ** 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 Space Marines?? (At least, now all the Chaos Space Marines can use Vindicators) |
| 410 | * TarotMotifs: The Emperor's Tarot. Used seriously for divinition: and it works: and as playing cards. |
| 411 | * TechnicianVersusPerformer: Armies tend to go for one side or the other. |
| 412 | ** Elite armies and close combat-based armies tend to be the Performer, while hordes and gunlines tend towards the Technician. |
| 413 | ** Armies like the T'au, the Astra Militarum, Tyranids and the Necrons are more likely to win by sticking to a strict gameplan[[note]]that is usually, moving little and blowing the enemy to smithereens with overwhelming firepower from the far side of the board; maybe saturating the table with artillery and armour or going for a "castle" strategy where buffing characters nearby make certain shooting elements very strong[[/note]] and using point-efficiency to carry the day. |
| 414 | ** Armies like the Orks, Chaos Space Marines, Aeldari and Drukhari can rely on the versatility and quality of the army to switch things up as the game changes and avoid strategic pitfalls, using terrain, deep-striking elements and overload with multiple different threats to keep the other player on their toes and force them to concede those ever-valuable objectives, all the while rushing up to blast them apart with close-range fire or just shred them in melee. |
| 415 | ** However it can be [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] as armies are flexible and varied by design and there is much room for deviation: Maybe a Militarum gunline keeps a small handful of competent melee fighters (some Ogyrns, characters or just sergeants with power weapons) to provide a little protection for the big guns; or the Orks, usually stereotyped as a horde of axe-wielding savages, instead have a decent go at a gunline-style army using Meks, Lootas and vehicles -- nothing says humiliation quite like being tabled by the jury-rigged contents of a tatter's yard. Players might also TakeAThirdOption and use a more esoteric strategy -- psyker-heavy armies, [[DeathFromAbove flyer spam]], mechanised infantry, and "Hero Hammer"-style armies (where the real strength is in the characters buffed up the wazoo to be {{One Man Arm|y}}ies and the troops are simply there to be CannonFodder). |
| 416 | * {{Technopath}}: Eldar are and know it, Ork Meks are but don't know it, and the Adeptus Mechanicus ''think'' they are and they may even be -- certainly they are in the tabletop spinoff ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy''. The amount of ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve going on here is [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane deliberately ambiguous]]. |
| 417 | * TechnologicallyAdvancedFoe: The Necrons and the Aeldari are this to the Imperium. Both being alien races whose time of grandeur existed millions of years before humanity's distant ancestors crawled from the sea. The Imperium cannot replicate or research the advanced technology of these races, as Necrons self-destruct or teleport away when they are "killed" and Aeldari technology is explicitly tied to their psychic potential. That said, for all their sparkly space magic, [[GlassCannon Aeldari still go down quite easy if you bury the foul xenos in enough "primitive" ordnance]]. [[ImplacableMan Necrons, on the other hand...]] |
| 418 | * TechnoWizard: The Adeptus Mechanicus takes the "wizard" part seriously, to boot. |
| 419 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: |
| 420 | ** Imperial forces working together with xenos, which has happened in a variety of ways from WorthyOpponent to painfully bad. Indeed, several Imperial forces working with ''other'' Imperial forces, such as Space Wolves and Dark Angels, qualify.\ |
| 421 | This is sometimes codified: the races are broken up into two super-factions, Order and Disorder (since the punchier antonym for "order" is already taken.) Disorder are everybody's enemies, all the time, ''especially'' each other; Order will team up in the face of an overwhelming threat from Disorder, and fight to the death any other time. This is officially codified by the Allies chart introduced in the sixth edition rules, which has four settings (ranging from "battle-brothers" to "[[GodzillaThreshold come the apocalypse, but not before]]"), with the middle two representing this trope. The main difference is that in the first the factions dislike each other a great deal but are willing to mostly cooperate, while the second is for those who are relentlessly paranoid and keeping an eye on each other in order to spot the coming betrayal so they can fire first. |
| 422 | ** Deathwatch kill teams often feature this, as they can throw together Space Marines whose natures naturally cause friction (pairing the silent, dour Raven Guard with the boisterous, HotBlooded White Scars, for instance) and/or who have mutual grudges (such as the Dark Angels and Space Wolves). |
| 423 | ** Teeth Clenched Teamwork is the only way the [[GreaterScopeVillain Chaos Gods]] know how to work together. |
| 424 | ** Any factions which are "Desperate Allies" on the allies matrix are in for this when they work together. Having such enmity for each other that it takes EnemyMine or another grave situation for them to unite. |
| 425 | * TeleFrag: 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. |
| 426 | ** The Orks' Shokk Attak Gun works by firing a Squig through Hell into the enemy's insides. In theory, anyway. |
| 427 | * TelepathicSpacemen: Imperial Astropaths. |
| 428 | * {{Teleportation}}: Xenos races have the technology. For their part, Aeldari Warp Spiders use portable warp jump devices to teleport mid-fight. Finally, the Necrons can teleport whole armies in and out of battle. |
| 429 | * TeleportationWithDrawbacks: |
| 430 | ** 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''). Imperial teleporters are somewhat reliable but have limited range and matter penetration. The Space Marines' Terminatours are known for teleporting directly on the battlefield and circumvent the cumbersomeness of their armor. |
| 431 | ** Orks have several teleportation devices, and their "tellyportas" are unexpectedly advanced as theirs can teleport great masses at once and sometimes across interstellar distances, and are said to actually function more reliably than human ones, although they actively enjoy the risks it poses. |
| 432 | *** The Shokk Attack Gun actually relies on HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace to work (it opens a Warp tunnel between the gun and the target, then encourages snotlings to run through, the snotlings are terrorized into violent madness by the horrible things they saw and viciously attack everything in sight on emerging). But because it's an ork gun, potential problems range from the gun exploding and sucking everything around it into the Warp to the crazed snotlings retreating and coming out the wrong side to the gun's ''operator'' being sucked through the tunnel. |
| 433 | ** One of the Antiquity Relics that a character from any faction can acquire during the course of a Crusade campaign is the Dark Age Displacer Belt. A product of arcane science, these belts are compact teleporters that allow the wearer to instantly move almost anywhere on the board[[note]]subject to the normal restrictions for mid game deployment[[/note]] instead of moving normally. |
| 434 | * TeleportInterdiction: There are teleport jammers that can disrupt, stop or relocate things that are teleporting down into combat. |
| 435 | * TempleOfDoom: |
| 436 | ** Necron tombs form the majority, although there are (probably) other cases. |
| 437 | ** Chaos and Dark Eldar leaders have been known to consecrate temples to themselves... where "consecrate" means "decorate with skins and spikes". |
| 438 | * TemporalDuplication: Waaagh! Grizgutz ended after the Warp brought the Waaagh! back to its starting point, just before it set off into the Warp. During the inevitable battle, Warboss Grizgutz fought and killed his past self in order to have two of his favorite gun. We're told that the Waaagh!(s) disbanded in the ensuing confusion. |
| 439 | * TemporalSuicide: The Waaagh! of Warlord Gritgutz was thrown into disarray after it travelled back in time, and the Warlord decided to kill his past self to have a spare of his favorite gun. |
| 440 | * TemptingApple: Leman Russ is looking for apples from the Tree of Life to get the Emperor back on his feet. He's been looking for ten damn millennia. |
| 441 | * TenThousandYears: The more recent catastrophic events in Warhammer 40K happened around the thirtieth millennia, 10,000 years earlier (the Fall of the Eldar and the rise of Chaos). The people who were alive back then (Asdrubael Vect, Ezekyle Abaddon) are noted to be among the most dangerous people in the galaxy. |
| 442 | * TerrorHero: |
| 443 | ** Several characters rely on this. Like Konrad Kurze, who as the Night Haunter was 40K's amalgamation of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/ThePunisher. He's notable in that when the left, the planet fell back into its criminal ways, which played a part in his VillainousBreakdown. |
| 444 | ** Tyranid Lictors are infiltrators, turning invisible and leaving bloody dismembered corpses to demoralize enemies. |
| 445 | ** [[Creator/SylvesterStallone Sly Marbo]] is the Imperial Guard's version, a Catachan with ''major'' PTSD who fights in the jungle as well as Franchise/{{Rambo}}. |
| 446 | ** The Carcharodons prefer terror and scorched earth tactics while using close combat to tear apart anything into red paste. Their gene seed is chimeric but unusually pure so it's likely their Primarch was Corvus Corax or Konrad Curze so they have some connection to the Night Haunter (maybe). |
| 447 | * ThatsNoMoon: |
| 448 | ** Necron tomb-complexes tend to look relatively small and innocuous at first... then they're revealed to be much, ''much'' bigger, and often still occupied by their builders. |
| 449 | ** The Ork "Battle Moon" that was warped into orbit above Terra during the War of the Beast, which was literally a moon hollowed out and filled with Orks and machinery. While it actually ''is'' a moon, it's definitely not a regular one. |
| 450 | * ThemeNaming: Excluding the actual tanks, a lot of the vehicles and a few pieces of field artillery that the Imperial Guard uses are named after various monsters and races from Greek mythology. |
| 451 | * TheoryOfNarrativeCausality: Why do things keep getting worse and the factions less sympathetic? Inertia and because the writers say so. |
| 452 | ** It's heavily DependingOnTheWriter, but the Warp is sometimes treated like this, as it's the realm of emotions, ideas and concepts rendered somewhat physical. For instance, fire is an effective weapon against daemons because of its [[FirePurifies association with light and purity]], while the [[EvilWeapon daemon-sword]] [[EldritchAbomination Drach'nyen]] is an Emperor-killing weapon partially because it embodies the concept of [[HumansAreBastards human self-destruction and internal conflict]], whereas the Emperor is the lynchpin of human unity. |
| 453 | * 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.]] However, some of the more humane commissars mention troops going to see the chaplain for guidance. |
| 454 | * ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: |
| 455 | ** 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. |
| 456 | ** 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.]] |
| 457 | ** Accounted for in the rules by a rule fittingly called "Instant Death". A sufficiently strong weapon against a squishy target (like an anti-tank rocket being used against a human footsoldier) or just a weapon that's extra-deadly (like a daemon-possessed sword) will automatically slay its target, regardless of how many wounds it has left. Tactically, this is often the best way to get rid of particularly tough enemy models. |
| 458 | ** There's a particularly noteworthy example in the sixth edition rulebook where the Death Korps of Krieg surround a treacherous hive city and submit it to an artillery bombardment for ''10 straight years.'' Of note, the bombardment went on five years after the hive submitted its unconditional surrender and two years after all signs of life had ceased. |
| 459 | ** Old One Eye shows why this is standard Imperial Policy; the beast has been shot with every kind of conventional ordinance the Imperium has, and several kinds of unconventional ordinance. In the end it took a plasma gun to the face to put it down, and only temporarily. It's rumored that the beast is still alive and out there, as they never found the corpse. |
| 460 | * TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: This is a mindset heavily encouraged by those in the Imperial power structure that actually ''do'' know those things--keeping the population ignorant of what's really out there is the safest bet. Also, deep knowledge of Chaos will corrupt and/or drive insane all but the most strong-willed of humans, and could even lead to daemonic incursions, so such knowledge is brutally repressed and censured. |
| 461 | * ThinDimensionalBarrier: |
| 462 | ** The minds of untrained psykers are the main reason they're hunted down and captured for indoctrination as soon as they can, they can all too easily become portals for daemonic invasion (and even with training it's a possibility), or worse, learn to master their powers and become a servant of Chaos. |
| 463 | ** The closer to the Eye of Terror, the thinner the barrier between reality and the Warp becomes, until they finally intermingle, causing RealityIsOutToLunch. |
| 464 | * ThirteenIsUnlucky: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]]. The Ultramarines, the 13th original Space Marine Chapter, are idolized and exalted from one end of the Imperium to the other, but [[BigBad Abaddon]]'s 13th Black Crusade was his most damaging yet, having destroyed Cadia and thus having let the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Eye of Terror]] grow unchecked. |
| 465 | * ThisIsADrill: Corvus assault pods for Titans, the bizarre-yet-cool mole mortar. |
| 466 | * ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: Chaos tends to have this effect on the mind-- goes double for psykers. SANITY IS FOR THE WEAK! |
| 467 | * ThreateningShark: The Carcharodons, based on their Fortress-Monastery the Battle Barge ''Nicor'', returned from the dark space beyond the galaxy and fight against the enemies of the Imperium in complete silence striking with fearsome force and tearing apart their foes and leaving as fast as they came with only bloodshed left in their wake. Their solid black eyes are similar to a Great White Shark's and their librarians have several powers unique to them such as "From the Depths"[[labelnote:description]] "clouds the minds with darkness and rithe with images of watery depths of numbing cold and writhing pelagic shapes amplifying their fear and surprise so that it paralyses"[[/labelnote]] and Rending Maw[[labelnote:description]] "calls forth the avatar of a great oceanic predator whose maw erupts from the very ground beneath the enemy, consuming all within in a shower of gore"[[/labelnote]]. |
| 468 | * ThrowawayCountry: The Tyranids have literally eaten empty three entire galaxies and they apparently think the Milky Way will make an interesting dessert. |
| 469 | ** Everyday a planet is destroyed either by Exterminatus, devoured by Tyranids, culled by Necrons... |
| 470 | * ThrowAwayGuns: Generally averted unless the weapon in question is damaged to the point of unusability. With common soldiers, this is because losing one's issue weapon is a serious infraction that can (and frequently is) be punished by summary execution (the weapon may very well be more valuable than the conscript who was using it). In the case of elites, the weapon in question could be a centuries or millennia old relic -- something which, if lost, some parties might be willing to wage a minor war to recover. |
| 471 | * ThrowTheDogABone: |
| 472 | ** The 5th edition Imperial Guard codex does this for Imperial Guard players. After being a underpowered for nearly four editions, the 5th Edition Codex improved the power level of the faction and allowed them to field some of the most devastating weapons the game had to offer. Having access to some of the Guard's armoury and design structure was considered a major advantage and the Guard, know known as the Astra Militarum, have been considered a higher tier faction in most subsequent editions. |
| 473 | ** The Dark Eldar, as the Drukhari used to be known, went twelve years without an update. The outdated rules for an already fragile and unforgiving faction, along with dated miniatures, resulted in the Dark Eldar being considered low tier until 2010 when their update brought them sleek, predatory looking models, some much-needed staying power, along with unique mechanics and a slew of new special characters. |
| 474 | ** 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. |
| 475 | * TieredByName: Tyranid units that are stronger than usual are usually referred to as "Unit's Name" Prime. |
| 476 | * TimeAbyss: |
| 477 | ** Most Eldar, but a few ancient Marines and Chaos Marines cross into this trope as well. |
| 478 | ** 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. |
| 479 | ** One backstory for the GodEmperor gives his birthdate sometime around 8,000 BC. |
| 480 | ** Perpetuals are humans who just don't die. One of them, Ollanius Pius, is ''older than the Emperor''. |
| 481 | ** 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 the stars they orbit die. |
| 482 | ** Zigzagged with certain traitor legion Chaos Marines and their Primarchs. Whilst over 10,000 years have passed in the material universe, a lot of the traitors have spent "time" in the Eye of Terror, which -- as mentioned -- has a purely incidental relation to material time passing. It gets lampshaded by several renegades wondering why the Primarchs, who were only "alive" for just over two hundred years, are considered a big deal when some renegades have been fighting the long war for thousands of real-space years longer than they ever did. |
| 483 | * ThunderHammer: The [[https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Thunder_Hammer Thunder Hammers]] are huge war hammers used by Space Marine Terminators. They have disruption fields designed to activate on impact, greatly increasing the damage they deal and producing a crack of thunder. |
| 484 | * TimeSkip: Between 7th and 8th edition. Thanks to [[TimeyWimeyBall warp weirdness]] it's anywhere from nothing to 300 years depending on where you're standing. |
| 485 | ** The battle on Baal notably had Imperial reinforcements arrive a century after the Warp Storms began by their reckoning but later the same day from the perspective of the defenders. |
| 486 | ** An anecdote in post Gathering Storm fluff notes that the recorded calendar is potentially 200 to 1000 years out of date EITHER way. So whilst time has definitely passed, how much has relatively passed is still up in the air. |
| 487 | * TinTyrant: Pretty much every commander wears a high tech suit of armor. Artwork of Khorne and the Emperor also has them fall under this. |
| 488 | * TinyHeadedBehemoth: DependingOnTheArtist, this will happen to the SpaceMarines (who are never seen outside their PowerArmor), especially if they go overboard with the ShouldersOfDoom. |
| 489 | ** Also, the biggest [[MiniMecha tau battlesuits]] like the Riptide have the same heads as battlesuits half their size. It's not the pilot's actual head anyway, just a camera and other sensors. |
| 490 | * TitleByYear: Named after the setting of being in or near the 42nd millennium. |
| 491 | * TookALevelInBadass: |
| 492 | ** 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. |
| 493 | ** Chaos started losing some of its threat as the Tyranid onslaught was increasingly hyped and the Necron/C'Tan were introduced. Besides the many failures of Abaddon and the Black Crusades, one of Chaos's big trump card -- Corruption/Daemonic possession, was almost nerfed against any race that wasn't human despite fluff about even inanimate objects getting possessed. Recent editions have restored Chaos as the predominant danger to the galaxy and now every race faces the danger of corruption (Necrons had half a Tomb World turn to Chaos, Khornates brought an entire Tyrannid Hive ship and its crew under its control, increasing numbers of Orks and Kroot are going over to Chaos, and Slaanesh have even possessed an Avatar of Khaine). |
| 494 | * TomeOfEldritchLore: The Black Library is an entire extradimensional stronghold full of these. See also the Book of Lorgar. |
| 495 | * TooDumbToLive: Practically endemic in this universe. Especially in the Imperium, the Tau and the Forces of Chaos. |
| 496 | ** Whoever wrote the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, assuming it isn't just blatant propaganda. It's a book issued to every Guardsman and it offers such sound information as "Orks are brittle-boned and feeble", "Eldar technology is antiquated and inferior to our own" and "Tau are scared of loud noises and hairy people and their guns require sustained fire to penetrate flak armour and kill a healthy human". Thankfully, most Guardsmen find the book as laughable as out-of-universe observers and as far as they're concerned the book is extra toilet paper rations. |
| 497 | ** It's suggested that before the Fall of the Eldar, many of their pleasure cults were ''aware'' they were creating a Chaos God and ''stepped up their efforts''. They apparently believed the God would reward them with an eternity of bliss. Instead, Slaanesh ripped the souls of millions of Eldar in an instant and gutted the empire, reducing the entire race to a bunch of nomadic survivors. |
| 498 | ** Apparently bored Imperial nobles often try to recruit [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the Dark Eldar]] as mercenaries. Yes, the race of ultra-xenophobic psychopaths who literally ''eat souls''. |
| 499 | ** The Tau combine this with WrongGenreSavvy. They believe they are in a SpaceOpera when the truth is they are really in a CosmicHorrorStory. They don't even believe Chaos daemons exist, they're just another aspect of material reality. |
| 500 | ** The Viskeons, a minor Xenos race, were a race of ''very'' stupid ProudWarriorRaceGuys. They disdained all ranged weapons and believed only in honourable one-on-one duels. When the [[ItCanThink Tyranids]] invaded their homeworld [[CurbStompBattle they were wiped out in a single night]]. In a similar story, another unnamed race encountered by the Imperium in the early years of the Great Crusade had abandoned war entirely in favour of gladiatorial combat; when the Imperial fleet showed up, the aliens were holed up in their massive arenas, armoured up and weapons in hand, looking up at the sky waiting for the humans to come down and fight them. [[DeathFromAbove The fleet promptly erased the arenas wit orbital bombardments, and the race with them.]] |
| 501 | ** The Emperor finds one of his sons, Angron, on Nuceria and offers him command of a Space Marine Legion and an invitation to participate in humanity's great quest to conquer the galaxy. Angron tells him off by saying he would rather die fighting alongside his slave-gladiator brothers. But just before the battle is about to begin, Angron is teleported against his will from Nuceria and into The Emperor's fleet. Angron helplessly watches his comrades get Curb Stomped and harbors a new feeling of absolute hatred and betrayal towards The Emperor. Tell us, Emperor, how you thought that giving command of a Space Marine Legion to a primarch who had every reason to hate you would turn out to be a good idea? |
| 502 | * 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. |
| 503 | * TouchOfDeath: Mainly used by C'tan and daemons, but the odd high-power psyker has been known to do this. |
| 504 | * TournamentPlay: The kind of competition at a 40k Grand Tournament is enough to give the casual player horrible nightmares. Quite appropriate for the setting. |
| 505 | * TragicDream: Many of the races have impossible goals. |
| 506 | ** The Imperium uniting all of humanity. It's clear its greatest enemy is itself. |
| 507 | ** The Tau uniting all races through the Greater Good because not everyone understands what that even is. |
| 508 | ** Chaos winning because of its own self-destructive nature. |
| 509 | ** The Eldar defeating Chaos because they are trapped by the impossible choice of letting themselves go extinct so their death god Ynnead can be born or keeping themselves alive for as long as possible because Slaanesh will eat them if they die. |
| 510 | ** The Necrons becoming flesh and blood again. |
| 511 | * TrainingFromHell: Pretty much the only training there is. The only way they can top it is by having people trained ''inside'' the universe's hell. |
| 512 | * TrainingTheGiftOfMagic: The powers possessed by psykers aren't called "magic", but they might as well be. Psykers are randomly born, but they have a very strong tendency to get possessed by demons if not found and trained by the Imperium, a process that takes years and is extremely detrimental to the psyker's mental health (and since being a psyker involves hearing voices pretty much all the time, they aren't all that great to begin with). |
| 513 | * TragicTimeTraveler: |
| 514 | ** One short story set prior to the Horus Heresy has a proto-Sister of Battle hurled into the future and then manage to come back and try to deliver a message to warn the God-Emperor of the impending catastrophe... only to be shot for using heretical psyker powers. |
| 515 | ** Subverted in the case of Waaagh! Grigutz, which emerged from the Warp at the same place and shortly before it actually left. Grigutz (a noted kleptomaniac) immediately attacked and killed his past self so as to have two of his favorite gun, after which the Waaagh(s)! fell apart in the resulting confusion. Being orks, they wouldn't have had it any other way. |
| 516 | * TranquilFury: Usually this or an UnstoppableRage. |
| 517 | ** Given what they know about Chaos (especially Khorne), Space Marines and Eldar try to fight in this state. |
| 518 | *** The Carcharodons are scary about this as their writer Robbie [=McNiven=] has stated that "unlike other 'savage' Chapters and Legions, they’re never not in control of their own actions" and as such fight with shark-like ferocity in complete silence. |
| 519 | * 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. |
| 520 | * 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. |
| 521 | * TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: |
| 522 | ** Averted with Tzeentch, god of sorcerers, schemers and backstabbers, and his followers, for who betrayal at the worst possible time means everything is going JustAsPlanned. |
| 523 | ** Khorne is the god of battle, rage and blood, and his followers don't consider it treason when they attack their own side (since blood spilled in battle strengthens Khorne). However, one of Khorne's greatest demons attacked him once (due to Tzeentch's manipulations), Khorne ripped his wings off and left him to slaughter for eternity without hope of being taken back. |
| 524 | ** Every Imperial unit gets the Hatred special rule when fighting against gue'vasa (human auxiliairies serving in the Tau army). Willingly serving a xenos species is one of the highest forms of treason, never mind that some of them are descended from human worlds abandoned by the Imperium. |
| 525 | * TrickBomb: |
| 526 | ** 1st and 2nd Edition included Antiplant grenades and missiles, which contained a powerful defoliant chemical that killed all vegetation it came into contact with while leaving animals unharmed. A player could use these weapons to instantly destroy plant-based terrain features, such as bushes and trees, to prevent their enemy form using them as cover. |
| 527 | ** Tanglefoot grenades, from the 1st and 2nd Editions of the game, incorporated gravitic reactors that created a field of opposite gravity at ground level that would trip infantry and have a chance of causing vehicles to go out of control. |
| 528 | * TrivialTitle: ''Warhammer 40000'' was originally just ''Warhammer'' JustForFun/RecycledInSpace, but now the franchises are noticeably different. Warhammers are still used, but just by certain characters of a faction or two, and the current present is the very beginning of the 42nd millennium (much as they retcon things back). |
| 529 | * {{Troll}}: Tzeentch along with many of his high level servants mortal and daemon alike. |
| 530 | ** The Necron Lord Trazyn the Infinite once crushed an Imperial Guard invasion force and sent a letter to the Inquisitor who sent the force, thanking him for "[[CollectorOfTheStrange gifting]]" the regiments to him. |
| 531 | %%* TronLines: Necron technology. |
| 532 | %%* {{Troperrific}}: Ya '''''think?''''' |
| 533 | %%* {{Tsundere}}: A large number of Eldar females (especially the ones who get shipped with Space Marines) are a bit closer to canonical. |
| 534 | * TunnelKing: The Tyranids have tunneling creatures with the size and power of tanks. |
| 535 | * TurnBasedStrategy: The chaotic and frantic battles of the 40th millennium still need to be represented on the tabletop by one side using movement, shooting, then assault phase, followed by the other player's movement, shooting, then assault phase, and so on. |
| 536 | [[/folder]] |
| 537 | |
| 538 | [[folder:U]] |
| 539 | * {{Ubermensch}}: The God-Emperor's biggest fault was that he was convinced he was always in the right. He practically never considered the opinions or feelings of anybody else and single-mindedly insisted on getting his way until it eventually brought him and his Imperium to ruin. |
| 540 | %%* UglyGuyHotWife: Nurgle and Isha. |
| 541 | * UnblockableAttack: The 8th Edition of the rules introduced the concept of mortal wounds. Originating from ''Warhammer 40,000's'' {{Fantasy}} sister game ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', mortal wounds automatically inflict damage against the target without the usual roll to wound and cannot be stopped by any form of amour or invulnerable save. |
| 542 | * UndyingWarrior: Perpetuals are immortal mutant humans who never age and [[FromASingleCell can recover from even atomic disintegration]]; for good measure, given the state of the setting, it's kind of inevitable that they'll see frontline combat sooner or later. Known Perpetuals include the Emperor of Mankind, who lead a crusade to regain control of the galaxy, Vulkan, the Primarch of the Salamander Space Marine chapter, and Ollanius Pius. The latter may take the cake, as Pius is ''even older'' than the Emperor, and has participated in many conflicts throughout humanity's history, including the Napoleonic Wars and the Gulf War. |
| 543 | * UnfriendlyFire: Catachan regiments don't really appreciate Commissars pushing them around, and so Commissars assigned to said regiments tend to suffer "unfortunate accidents". This is reflected in the tabletop game in the "Oops, Sorry Sir!" rule. |
| 544 | * UnfulfilledPurposeMisery: |
| 545 | ** SpaceMarines have this mentality drilled into them from the start, the severity depending on the Chapter. They are taught that they exist only to make war on the GodEmperor of Mankind's enemies, and that death is nowhere near enough punishment for failing Him. Unfortunately, some simply can't take it and end up falling to Chaos. |
| 546 | -->What is the terror of death? |
| 547 | -->That we die, our work incomplete. |
| 548 | -->What is the joy of death? |
| 549 | -->To die, our duty complete. |
| 550 | ** The Lone Wolf is a Space Wolves special unit who seeks redemption in death for some past crime or failure. As a result, they only grant victory points to the enemy player if they're still alive at the end of the battle. |
| 551 | ** Dreadnoughts are Marines whose wounds don't allow for return to active service, so they're placed into [[WalkingTank metal sarcophagi with heavy weapons systems]] to continue serving. But since they're so valuable, they're only rarely deployed and spend decades or more sleeping between battles. Chaos dreadnoughts are much the same... except they don't get the luxury of sleeping, [[AndIMustScream instead having their legs and weapons removed and spending centuries chained to a wall aware of every passing second]]. When finally returned to battle they have a good chance of shooting their own side. |
| 552 | ** The Primarch Lorgar of the Word Bearers was ultimately responsible for half the Imperium falling to Chaos because all he wanted to do was spread worship of the Emperor as a god. Unfortunately, the Emperor was a strict atheist, as he believed it would starve the Chaos gods (and was wrong on that point, as the only way to kill them is to kill off all life in the galaxy). When he heard about it, he severely humiliated Lorgar and his Legion before destroying the cathedrals they'd built (another sore point, as this meant they weren't conquering planets as fast as the other Legions). So when Lorgar heard about certain other powers in the Warp that welcomed being worshipped, he promptly switched sides and kickstarted the Literature/HorusHeresy, leading to the Emperor suffering wounds so severe he had to be placed on permanent life support and powerless to stop him being worshipped as the GodEmperor. |
| 553 | ** Orks were a species designed to wage a ForeverWar against the Necrons, whose metal bodies could regenerate and teleport away. Thus orks who go too long without a fight end up growing lethargic, losing strength and getting paunches (though in the galaxy's current state, it's a rare sight). |
| 554 | ** Tzeentch, the permanently scheming personification of hope, betrayal and mutation, carefully ensures all his plans eventually fail, because while he has no wish to be defeated, his victory over the other gods of the setting would leave him with no one to plot against. |
| 555 | * UngovernableGalaxy: The Imperium has minimal control over planets, by necessity. It's so impossibly vast and bureaucratic that entire worlds and populations are simply forgotten about for hundreds of years due to simple filing errors. Essentially, as long as Chaos is kept in check and the occasional planetary tithe is paid, the Imperium doesn't really care how a governor runs his world -- as a democracy, as a monarchy, as a dictatorship, doesn't matter. Only the Tau really manage it with restricted range and powerful controls. |
| 556 | %%* UnholyNuke: The game is full of these. Any time Chaos is involved, expect Unholy Nukes to be flying thick and fast. |
| 557 | * TheUnmasquedWorld: The realisation that daemons actually existed was the death knell for Imperial Truth, and helped kick-start the Horus Heresy. Something similar led to the creation of the Farsight Enclaves in the case of the Tau. |
| 558 | * UnnecessarilyLargeInterior: All Imperial ships. Also covered in religious iconography and kilometres-high skulls-and-eagles gold bling. |
| 559 | * {{Unobtainium}}: Plenty of it; Wraithbone, Necrodermis and Adamantine are the widest used examples. |
| 560 | * {{Unperson}}: Legions II and XI of the Space Marines have been expunged from all imperial records and effectively erased from history. The reason for this has never been explained, originally this was meant so that players could create their own Loyalist/Chaos Astartes chapters. |
| 561 | * UnpredictableResults: |
| 562 | ** 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. |
| 563 | ** 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. |
| 564 | ** 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... [[note]]They're nowhere near as dangerous as this description implies, ''Gets Hot!'' only occurs if you roll a 1 while trying to hit your target. It's not great, but operating an Imperial plasma weapon isn't as much of a death sentence as the fandom would have you believe. And as of 8th edition, this is further mitigated by only having lethal backfires if fired in Overcharge Mode, otherwise, they're completely safe to use.[[/note]] |
| 565 | ** Avoiding this is an explicit goal of the Tau Earth Caste, which the Fire Caste deeply appreciates, as they're perfectly willing to accept a slight decrease in overall power if it means their weapons won't kill their operators. When Rail Rifles were first introduced and actually ''did'' come with an operational risk, it shocked many players and many Tau alike. The version present in the Codex is, appropriately, less punchy but no longer has a chance of burning out the poor Pathfinder's nervous system with each shot. Behold the saga of the Rail Rifle's journey from maligned newcomer to beloved mainstay [[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Gauss#Rail_Rifle here]], though caution is advised, 1d4chan is notoriously [=NSFW=]. |
| 566 | ** While the initial teething problems of the Rail Rifle might have been sorted out, the T'au have an all new chance to dice with death thanks to the Nova Reactor aboard their Riptide Battlesuits. Upon activating it, there's a chance the reactor will overload, hosing the pilot and anyone around the suit with a hideously powerful dose of radiation. |
| 567 | ** The Shokk Attack Gun varies in effect depending on the edition, but generally have some hilarious results. It's essentially a teleporter weaponizing [[TeleFrag telefragging a goblin into the enemy]] and it's half and half between whether it follows reality (launching chunks of deep-fried goblin at it's enemy) to something hilariously insane (tearing a NegativeSpaceWedgie at the intended location, then launch chunks of deep-fried goblin at it's enemy). |
| 568 | * TheUnpronounceable: Tau names can get hard to pronounce-- but ask any ''TabletopGame/BattlefleetGothic'' player about Tau ''ship'' names... |
| 569 | * UnreliableCanon: Both InUniverse and out, misinformation and plain lack of information is visible at all levels of classification. |
| 570 | ** For example, in order to avoid lowering morale anymore [[RedshirtArmy than it already is]], the Imperial Guardsman's Uplifting Primer states that Orks are cowards who will flee at the first opportunity (Orks are eight-foot-tall killing machines who embody AttackAttackAttack) and whose teeth can be yanked out (while they do shed teeth like sharks, clubbing them out is just as hard as knocking out human teeth).\ |
| 571 | Or that the Tau-- the army dedicated to ranged firepower-- have bad eyesight and can't see things that don't move (this is sort of true, but only within arm's reach). And as most of the information on other races comes from a xenophobic human point of view, what information is canon may not necessarily be true. |
| 572 | ** Out of universe, you can create your own highly specific army with its own backstory and design (most popularly, SpaceMarines) precisely because of this UnreliableCanon. |
| 573 | ** [[https://www.2d4chan.org/wiki/Your_Dudes At the end of the day, it's really all about your story and your dudes]]. The rest of the canon is backdrop to be used, abused and discarded at will because any {{Retcon}}s and {{Revision}}s made to it are most often revealed to have simply been a case of in-universe propaganda or cover-ups by one or more factions, to now be replaced with the new [[{{Tradesnark}} totally canonâ„¢]] knowledge. There's thus nothing preventing you from making an army or story totally flaunting canon as long as you are fine with acknowledging that the very existence of your story and your dudes have been [[{{unperson}} stricken from record]] or otherwise are engaging in TheGreatestStoryNeverTold. |
| 574 | ** The Imperium in particular is vulnerable to this, because its administration is such an incredible mess that it regularily loses entire solar systems between the cracks - who knows what unique things those systems had going for them that flaunts current canon? On the flipside, maybe the very existence of space marines themselves are just propaganda, and the reason they are superhuman badasses displaying varying levels of competency and ability is because they are literally as StrongAsTheyNeedToBe in Imperial propaganda? Because the canon is so unreliable, you can do whatever you want and no one will be able to say with 100% certainty that the thing you are doing cannot be possible. It might not be current canon, but that doesn't stop it from being possible - the galaxy is a ''big'' place. |
| 575 | %%* UnusualUserInterface: A lot of Eldar and Imperial gear. |
| 576 | * UnstoppableRage: Black Templars. Blood Angels. Khorne Berserkers. Even Eldar, when the Avatar is nearby. |
| 577 | * UntranslatedCatchPhrase: |
| 578 | ** The Space Wolves have "Fenrys Hjolda!", variously translated as "Fenris Holds Out" or "Fenris Endures". |
| 579 | ** Averted with the orks, since most of their language is corrupted Gothic (the stand-in for English), so "WAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!" is easily recognizable as a longer and louder word for "war". |
| 580 | * UnusableEnemyEquipment: Often {{Justified|Trope}}. |
| 581 | ** The reason a Guardsman cannot just pick up and use a slain alien warrior's weapon is down to the difficulties of using the technology; Aeldari weapons are just inert lumps of plastic without the psychic abilities of their wielders, T'au weapons often have built-in DNA locking systems to specifically prevent their opponents from using them, and Necron gauss weapons are just far too advanced to figure out. |
| 582 | *** This is besides the point that any Guardsman ''seen'' using an alien weapon would be summarily executed for tech-heresy - remember unauthorized use of a photocopier is enough of a crime [[DisproportionateRetribution to have you sent off to a]] [[TradingBarsForStripes penal battalion]]. |
| 583 | *** Touching a [[ArtifactOfDoom Chaos Marine's weapon]] is a very bad idea as even if you aren't immediately shot by the Commissar, [[DemonicPossession you would probably be wishing he did]]. |
| 584 | ** Averted [[DependingOnTheWriter occasionally]] with Ork firearms and technologies, which are presented as kind of usable (especially if it was Imperial tech in the first place before it was looted), though largely unreliable without the [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve latent psychic field Orks generate that keeps their tech working smoothly]]. |
| 585 | * UnwantedFalseFaith: |
| 586 | ** The GodEmperor didn't wish to be worshiped and banned any practice of it in the earlier days of the Imperium. |
| 587 | ** There is also a small sect that worships Literature/CiaphasCain as the embodied will of the Emperor although Cain has never heard of it. |
| 588 | * TheUpperCrass: Imperial nobility tends towards this. Backwater planets with little outside contact are more susceptible to falling to Chaos out of boredom or ambition (although the same can be said of the more cosmopolitan nobles, but they're far more likely to be removed by Inquisitors or conspirators). |
| 589 | %%* UrbanSegregation: Taken to utter extremes with hive cities. |
| 590 | * 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. |
| 591 | ** Human tech is so old and outdated that Orks can copy them. They can't do that with the Eldar or the Tau. |
| 592 | * 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. |
| 593 | * TheUsualAdversaries: [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality Technically]], [[ForeverWar everyone]]. That said, the Orks are almost always lumped with this role, allowing the secondary antagonist (be it Chaos, Necrons, Tyranids, or occasionally Imperials) to start landing troops and making their move. |
| 594 | * UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: For the Greater Good! |
| 595 | [[/folder]] |
| 596 | |
| 597 | [[folder:V]] |
| 598 | * 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. |
| 599 | * VancianMagic: While [[GameplayAndStorySegregation it's far from the case in the fluff]], the use of psychic powers in-game fits: |
| 600 | ** Psychic powers themselves fit the first rule[[note]]spells are distinct, with a fixed purpose[[/note]] and the first part of the third rule[[note]]spellcasters have a finite spell capacity[[/note]], as each power has a specific function and effect and a psyker can't use more powers than his/her psychic mastery level allows unless some specific circumstance changes that. |
| 601 | ** Generating psychic powers fits the second rule[[note]]spells prepared in advance[[/note]], as a psyker's powers are determined by die roll prior to the game starting. The exception is those few models whose powers are rolled for each turn. |
| 602 | ** The psychic phase covers the latter part of the third rule[[note]]spellcasters can use up their spells[[/note]]. Warp Charge pools are generated for each player by the offensive player rolling 1D6 and adding that to the sum of each player's psykers' mastery levels. The offensive player then has his pool's worth of die rolls to cast his psykers' powers, with the defensive player similarly using his pool to attempt to negate those rolls, or "deny the witch". Once either player exhausts his Warp Charge pool, he can't make any more such rolls until the next psychic phase when the process starts over. |
| 603 | * VastBureaucracy: It's something of a running gag that the Imperial Administratum is top-heavy, inefficient, arcanely organized, and prone to errors. Also, its systems are bizarre enough that the worlds have been deemed traitors based on spelling, rounding, and filing errors, entire regiments have been posthumously given an execution sentence, and entire wars have been lost or caused due to red tape. In the case of the latter, one world is noted to be on the brink of civil war because it's running out of storage space for its paper files. |
| 604 | * VehicularKidnapping: Stock in trade for the [[EvilCounterpartRace Dark Eldar]], whose skimmers are [[SpikesOfVillainy spike-covered]] ships equipped with nets and dangling hooks all specially designed so they can snatch [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil potential slaves]] without stopping. |
| 605 | * VestigialEmpire: According to the Canon, two races previously held dominion over the galaxy but are now no longer what they used to be. |
| 606 | ** The Necrons, soon after defeating the Old Ones, turned against their C'tan gods and defeated them which left them too weak to consolidate their vast territorial gains, and went into hibernation. 60 million years later, the Necron dynasties are reawakening and making ground in their recovery, though the dynasties are now disunited and prone to infighting. |
| 607 | ** The Eldar, despite having an empire that only spanned 9 sectors, could go anywhere and do anything they wanted thanks to their advanced technology. Unfortunately, they went down a path of excess and pleasures which created Slaanesh who brought about the destruction of the Eldar Empire. All that's left of them now are a few craftworlds and exodite colonies. |
| 608 | ** The Imperium of Man is the current faction that controls most of the known galaxy. They're sadly on a downwards trend due to many factors. |
| 609 | ** The Orks were once the Krorks, the purpose-built SuperSoldier race made by the Old Ones to fight the Necrons. Despite coming out of the War in Heaven dominating nearly the entire galaxy, to the extent that even the Necrons and the Eldar decided it best to simply hide from them, the Krorks eventually fell upon the only thing left to war with... themselves, slowly, but inevitably breaking apart from the vast galaxy-spanning and highly advanced army they once were into the anarchic, primitive, Orks of the current year. |
| 610 | ** And for each of these groups, 'vestigial' should not be taken to mean 'weak'. They may be in bad shape, but they are all still forces to be reckoned with. |
| 611 | * VillainByDefault: Upon close inspection, ''everyone''. |
| 612 | * AVillainNamedKhan: It actually averts this with the White Scars chapter of SpaceMarines (Mongols InSpace having traded their horses for huge weaponized motorbikes), who have always been loyal to the Imperium and use Khan as an indication of leadership (their Primarch was Jaghatai Khan, their rank for Chapter Master is Great Khan, etc.). |
| 613 | * VillainousValour: Even though the Imperium is doomed in the long run, it is still treated as the most powerful faction in the setting by a considerable margin and many stories taking place from the perspective of the "bad guys" show how they manage to still pose a threat in the face of the Imperium's overwhelming firepower. This most often comes up with Chaos Space Marine forces, who are indeed often demented and amoral bastards but also trying to succeed against a galaxy-spanning empire with limited resources, ramshackle and often inferior equipment, and their sheer skill alone. Abaddon the Despoiler usually gets the short end of the stick for losing twelve Black Crusades, but it's worth noting in every single case he was horribly outnumbered and trying to keep his fractious forces together while the Imperium was entirely united against him, and still in most cases he was beaten back at considerable cost to the Imperium and achieving his objectives anyway. |
| 614 | * VillainousVow: One of the Chaos SpaceMarine creeds goes: |
| 615 | -->Hatred shall be our weapon |
| 616 | -->Impurity shall be our armor |
| 617 | -->Immortality shall be our reward |
| 618 | * VineTentacles: The Venus mantraps of Catachan can physically grab onto creatures several feet away from them with their vines in order to drag them into their maws. |
| 619 | * ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: No comment necessary. |
| 620 | ** Sometimes ''Subverted'' when a more complex narrative, such as a campaign background or a novel, plays out and explores the relationships between the factions. More often than not becoming a Double Subversion, as politics and alliances usually break down, changing the question from "violence or not" to "how much violence" or "when the violence starts". |
| 621 | [[/folder]] |
| 622 | |
| 623 | [[folder:W]] |
| 624 | * WalkingTheEarth: |
| 625 | ** Played straight by the Eldar. Sometimes the rigid Craftworld society gets too much for a young Eldar, and they choose the Path of the Outcast, seeking excitement and adventure out in the open galaxy. Not all of them come back: some simply [[DyingAlone die]], and some get utterly consumed by their urges and go insane, becoming ruthless pirates, mercenaries or even worse, seeking out the Dark City of Commorragh, where cruelty and madness reign supreme. However, many Eldar simply get bored of wandering eventually and return to the civilised Craftworld society, and even the ones that don't are happy to lend their skills (and their {{sniper rifle}}s) to their home in times of war. |
| 626 | ** Amusingly {{Inverted|Trope}} by the Orks. Ork society is all about going wherever the zog you want and doing whatever the zog you feel like, as long as it doesn't get you crumped by Da Boss. Young, rebellious Orks find it all a bit much and so join da Stormboyz, where they can do un-Orky things like wear uniforms, march around in synchronisation, and participate in regimented training drills. While most of them eventually get bored of this un-Orky lifestyle, some of them eventually turn into Ork Kommandos. |
| 627 | * 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. |
| 628 | * WarfareRegression: While different factions have different themes and specialisations, melee combat is a big part of the setting with most forces having access to dedicated close combat troops. The in-universe explanation is a mixture of tradition, religion, resource management, access to a high level of personal protection equipment and the fact that massed manpower is far easier to come by than high tech ranged weapons. The out-of-universe explanation is that many fans consider close combat to be far more entertaining to play and read about. |
| 629 | * WarGod: Khorne for Chaos and Khaine for the Eldar, The GodEmperor of Mankind and of course Gork and Mork. |
| 630 | * 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. |
| 631 | * WarIsHell: Most usually for the Imperium, Aeldari and T'au, but sometimes it's WarIsGlorious instead; even the Imperial Guardsmen have a few stories of incredible human gallantry and sacrifice peppered here and there. For da Orks, it's WarIsGlorious ''all the time''. In a messed up way, the Iron Warriors have WarIsGlorious ''[[NightmareFetishist precisely because it's Hell]]''. |
| 632 | * 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. |
| 633 | * WaveMotionGun: Bombardment Guns, Nova Cannons, the appropriately-named Planet Killer, etc... |
| 634 | * WarriorVersusSorcerer: |
| 635 | ** The WarGod Khorne despises magic and forbids his warriors from using it if they want his favor. Magic weapons and the like are permitted so long as they result in more bloodshed, and the base of the Skull Throne is a massive forge where kidnapped sorcerers and cowardly warriors toil away creating enchanted weapons for his champions to use. Meanwhile, Tzeentch's followers tend towards a manipulative, backstabbing mindset, and so look down on Khornates as simple-minded brutes. |
| 636 | ** In 40K, the World Eaters Legion cemented their allegiance to Khorne by slaughtering their Librarians. Now they roam the galaxy in eight-man warbands looking for things to kill and be killed by. |
| 637 | %%* WeAreEverywhere: The Inquisition. |
| 638 | * WeAreTeamCannonFodder: Kroot for the Tau, Imperial Guard anytime they aren't the protagonists, Gretchin for the Orks, ''everyone else'' for the Eldar. |
| 639 | * WeAreStrugglingTogether: Gameplay wise, any players can play against each other using the same faction or factions techically under the same umbrella. Some blatant examples, lorewise: |
| 640 | ** All the different branches of the Imperium, while technically under the same banner, fight among themselves quite frequently for a number of different reasons, including but not limited to: suspected heresy and/or corruption, ''actual'' heresy and/or corruption, orders from a superior statement, a bureaucratic error from the Adeptus Administratum, etc. |
| 641 | ** Orks, when not united under a WAAAAGH! and if no other potential adversaries are present, will eagerly and happily beat the tar out of each other. This is the main reason why, despite their overwhelming numbers, they haven't completely taken over the galaxy (the one time they ''were'' under unified leadership led to the Literature/WarOfTheBeast). |
| 642 | ** Chaos forces often despise each other as much as they despise the Imperium. In particular, followers of Khorne ''absolutely hate'' those of Slaanesh, while followers of Nurgle will happily destroy any follower of Tzeentch on sight (and vice-versa). |
| 643 | ** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with the Drukhari. Kabals in Commorragh spend their time backstabbing each other and engaging in what is basically constant gang wars, but one of the only rules all Drukhari follow is that sabotaging each other during raids outside the Webway is a ''BIG'' no-no, since Drukhari society needs these raids to be successful if they want slaves to torture (and dying outside the Webway makes their souls vulnerable to being eaten by Slaanesh). |
| 644 | * WeHaveReserves: |
| 645 | ** Basically the CatchPhrase of the Orks and Imperial Guard. |
| 646 | *** Ork biology actually ''requires'' that they die in order to spread, as their fungal biology releases spores that grow into more orks. |
| 647 | *** Commander Chekov is infamous not only for his attitude being "throw more men at it", "it" being minefields, tanks or fortress walls (in-game, he spawns a new unit of troops every turn), but this ''actually working''. Despite the ArmchairMilitary tactics, he's actually a FrontlineGeneral, and his bolt pistol is said to have killed more cowards than actual enemies of the Imperium. |
| 648 | ** 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. |
| 649 | *** Even their leaders aren't spared, whenever the HiveMind decides the Swarmlord is needed elsewhere, it gets digested and its consciousness sent to the new body grown on another planet. |
| 650 | ** {{Inverted|Trope}} with the Craftworld Eldar. They're a DyingRace, so they do everything they can to avoid this. Although, then again, that doesn't mean they can't [[ManipulativeBastard manipulate]] ''[[UnwittingPawn someone else]]'' into being their reserves. |
| 651 | ** {{Inverted|Trope}} with the Necrons as well. Having forfeited their biological bodies millions of years ago, they cannot reproduce anymore, and so any killed Necron is impossible to replace. Luckily for them, Necrons are notoriously ''hard'' to permanently destroy. |
| 652 | * WeWillAllFlyInTheFuture: Numerous units have flight capabilities, usually either via a JetPack or by flying wings. On the civilian side, hovercars are commonly seen in more advanced worlds. |
| 653 | * WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture: |
| 654 | ** 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 averted. |
| 655 | ** Played straight by the Aeldari, naturally. Their medical technology is so incredibly advanced that the most disfiguring injuries can be healed perfectly without complication. In ''Path of the Warrior'', the protagonist is mutilated by an Ork Warboss cleaving him with a choppa in his first battle, and he heals completely from the experience after only a couple days of treatment. What cannot be treated through their psychic powers can be treated with bionics that are indistinguishable from organic parts. There's no indication that they actually get sick either. |
| 656 | *** There is a story about a Drukhari pirate queen named Lady Malys, who engineers an invasion of an Imperial world to steal away {{Panacea}}, a [[LostTechnology forgotten STC]] that holds the cures for just about every disease known to man and can save billions of lives. She successfully steals it away and takes it back to Commoragh, and it turns out that the Dark Eldar ''have no need of the Panacea'', [[ForTheEvulz she just stole it because she knows that lots of humans will die preventable deaths without it and that amuses her]]. |
| 657 | * WeWillUseLasersInTheFuture: |
| 658 | ** The Imperial Guard uses lasguns primarily because they're cheap to manufacture, easy to maintain (having no moving parts), and the power packs are rechargeable virtually anywhere.[[note]]''The Imperial Guardsman's Uplifting Primer'' notes they can be charged by sticking them in a campfire (but also notes that this is against regulations as it damages the pack) or leaving them out in the sun (but also notes that this recharges the pack very slowly. Hooking them up to some sort of powerplant is the recommended way to go; if the guardsman's unit has a vehicle with it, that will provide an excellent source of recharges for his packs), among other things.[[/note]] They're also the weakest infantry weapon in the setting [[TheWorfEffect despite being more potent than a modern-day assault rifle]]. The more powerful hellguns are harder to come by and primarily issued to stormtrooper units. Laser weapons referred to as 'hotshots' are typical las-weapons with much higher energy consumption per blast, and are more expensive, chew through ammo much faster, and are generally for marksmen. On the other end of the scale, lascannons are extremely powerful weapons typically mounted on main battle tanks and the like, used for destroying opposing armored vehicles. |
| 659 | ** In the early days of the Great Crusade, the Space Marine standard weapon was the Volkite Charger. This was a heat ray that was as devastating as the Tau Pulse Rifle. Unfortunately, demand outgrew supply and Mars couldn't keep up, so the more easily manufacturable bolter became the Marine main gun. And after the Horus Heresy, the knowledge of making more Volkite weapons have been lost. So Space Marine Volkite weapons are also a case of KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter. |
| 660 | ** The Tau also arm their infantry with energy weapons, but thanks to the Tau advantages in tech these are some of the deadliest man-portable weapons in the setting. Tau infantry weapons fire droplets of superheated plasma that expand as they travel, and are capable of destroying light vehicles. |
| 661 | ** The Eldar and Dark Eldar also use laser weapons, ranging from the Lasblaster (basically a Lasgun with a better firing rate) to the Void Lance or the Prism Cannon (basically Lascannons that make vehicles with AV higher than 12 counts as 12) and everything in between. |
| 662 | * 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. |
| 663 | ** That's nothing. Orks use Gretchin as guidance systems in their giant missiles. |
| 664 | ** That's nothing. The imperials (and Chaos) use '''slaves''' to power their ships, by walking on giant stepped axles. |
| 665 | ** Again, this is a curious but logical solution to a practical problem. The one resource the Imperium and the Orks are never short of is warm bodies. It makes perfect sense to use a thousand slaves (which are free and self-replicating) to load missiles, and use the resources required to build an auto-loader to make something which can't be replaced by squishies instead. |
| 666 | ** Due to a NoodleIncident with AI in the past that caused an uprising of "Iron Men", the Imperium instead relies on Servitors, lobotomized cyborgs, to perform most manual labor that would usually be done by a machine. |
| 667 | * WeaponizedOffspring: The Tyranid's Tervigon unit spawns Termagants. |
| 668 | * WeaponBasedCharacterization |
| 669 | ** The Imperial Guard almost universally tote [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]] and [[TankGoodness tanks. Lots and lots of tanks]]. |
| 670 | ** The Space Marines favour [[{{BFG}} bolt weapons]] and [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]]. |
| 671 | ** The Chaos Space Marines prefer ''[[SpikesOfVillainy spiky]]'' bolt weapons and chainsaws. Various specific cults have sonic weapons, chainsaw axes, and boiling-hot ''pus'' as their Weapons of Choice. |
| 672 | ** The Daemonhunters (Ordo Malleus) have a bit of a thing for hammers. (As a side note, "Ordo Malleus" means "[[MeaningfulName Order of the Hammer]]") |
| 673 | ** The Eldar mainly use [[AbsurdlySharpBlade absurdly sharp]] [[FlechetteStorm shuriken weapons]], though individual [[CripplingOverspecialisation Aspect temples]] have their own ritualized Weapons of Choice. |
| 674 | ** [[ChurchMilitant The Witch Hunters]] KillItWithFIRE. |
| 675 | ** No Ork is happy without his choppa and his [[MoreDakka dakka]]. Some pass up one for more of the other, and every now and then you get the glorious Ork who maxes out both at once. |
| 676 | ** The Necrons kill you with green lightning that literally flays you layer by layer. Except for their leper colonies; they tear you apart with claws and wear sheets of your flesh for a hat. |
| 677 | ** The Tau stick to [[MagneticWeapons railguns and pulse rifles]]. Extremely powerful ones at that. |
| 678 | ** 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]]''. |
| 679 | %%* WeirdScience |
| 680 | * WeirdWeather: Warp storms are disturbances over vast expanses of space that can engulf entire systems, cutting off sections for galaxy for centuries at a time. The Dark Eldar and forces of Chaos can exercise some measure of control over them. Subverted by [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Shadow in the Warp]], which has the same effect -- isolating a star system from hyperspace travel and communication -- but isn't a natural phenomenon. It's the psychic presence of the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranid]] [[EldritchAbomination hive mind]], and the first and only warning you'll get before the hive fleet arrives to eat your planet. |
| 681 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: The Tau. The "well intentioned" bit is what sets them apart. |
| 682 | ** 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. |
| 683 | ** The Craftworld Eldar are trying to save their dwindling people from extinction. That's fine. What's not fine is they don't care how many of ''your'' people they have to kill or sacrifice to save theirs. |
| 684 | * WellDoneSonGuy: Several primarchs. Giving up on that was one motive to join the Literature/HorusHeresy. |
| 685 | * WetwareCPU: Servitors, in all their various flavors. It helps that they lack a lot of higher brain functions and thus can't be as easly pulled to Chaos unlike the Men of Iron who had enough free will to be corrupted by the Dark Gods. |
| 686 | * 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"). |
| 687 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Although, to be fair, pretty much every other race sees those not of its kind as worthless too. |
| 688 | * WhatOtherGalaxies: |
| 689 | ** The EldritchAbomination Gods of the [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Warp]] live in the "immaterium", a sort of Spiritual counterpart to the Milky Way, and want to merge the two. Whether this extends to the rest of the Universe is up for debate. One argument in favor of this trope is that the said chaos Gods are the embodiments of rage, lust, hope, and love felt by the sentient species. Since they hail only from sentients in the Milky Way, it's as if there's not much out there. |
| 690 | ** The Tyranids are extragalactic insectoids that differentiate themselves from the main galaxy's sapient species in that they are the ultimate predators and are all variations of the [[PlanetOfHats same genetic theme]]. Essentially, an AlienInvasion of galactic scale. |
| 691 | ** For humans, FTLTravel is only possible in the range of the psychic beacon of the Astronomican, which is on Earth and doesn't even cover the totality of the galaxy (and, as of the 8th edition, has been cut off from about half of its former range). So for all intents and purposes, there is no universe outside the Milky Way. |
| 692 | * 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'. |
| 693 | * WhereItAllBegan: The fate of the Imperium has turned more than once on the system of Ullanor and the Orks who infest it. First, it was here that Horus was crowned Warmaster after purging the Orks, and the events of the Horus Heresy were inexorably set in motion. A thousand years later, The War of the Beast brought Terra itself to its knees until the Imperium brought the fight to the Beast itself, once again on Ullanor. [[spoiler:Nine thousand years after that, during which time the system was renamed Armageddon, Angron and the World Eaters returned to what was once Ullanor, beginning the First War for Armageddon. Then Ghazkull, perhaps guided by Gork and Mork themselves, follows in the footsteps of the Beast, and wages the Second and Third Wars for Armageddon.]] |
| 694 | * WhiteHairBlackHeart: |
| 695 | ** Pre-Heresy Fulgrim and Lucius. Both of these men ''were'' once good and noble (relatively speaking) but the ways of Slaanesh corrupted them with Fuglrim becoming a demon Pirmarch and Lucius becoming an unavailable, bald, and heavily scared thing who comes back every time someone becomes proud of killing him by warping their body into his own and putting their screaming face onto his armor. |
| 696 | %%* WhiteMagic: Sisters of Battle Acts of Faith... [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve maybe.]] |
| 697 | %%* WhiteMaskOfDoom: Chaplains and their skull helms. |
| 698 | * WhosLaughingNow: |
| 699 | ** The Imperial Guard languished in the bottom-rungs of the army tier list for many years, due to the relative fragility of their infantry, gimmicky playstyle, and relationship with the rules that made certain games effectively unwinnable. Cue 5th Edition, which transformed the Imperial Guard into ''the'' undisputed kings of mechanized warfare overnight. This was the general reaction from Guard players. |
| 700 | ** The very first thing Grots that get promoted to Killa Kan pilots do is to go straight for any Ork that used to bully them and deliver some well deserved krumpin'. |
| 701 | * 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. |
| 702 | * WillfullyWeak: The Asuryani self-impose massive limitations on the technologies and psychic potential they can unleash on their foes. Their race once [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien bestrode the galaxy as living gods]], able to manipulate time and reality and ''move, kindle and quench stars'' at a whim, but they became arrogant and fell into cultural rot and depravity that eventually gave rise to Slaanesh and gutted their interstellar empire. They are wary of unbridled power because when their ancient ancestors seized it with both hands (and gave a good EvilLaugh at the same time), it wrought disaster on their people. Unfortunately, in a universe where many things want them dead, this is only making it harder for themselves... Generally, as warfare escalates, the Asuryani are brought by necessity to pull their more advanced and rare equipment out of the vaults, up to superheavy Titans, powerful grav-tanks and Exterminatus-grade WeaponsOfMassDestruction - but they are often reluctant to do so. |
| 703 | * WithCatlikeTread: |
| 704 | ** "Recite the Litany of Stealth to reduce your chances of being heard."[[note]]This becomes a BrickJoke later on: if you look in the appendix and read through all the Litanies, you'll find the Litany of Stealth doesn't actually exist[[/note]] |
| 705 | ** Ork Kommandos are as stealthy as any Ork can be... which is to say, not very much. However, they're able to stay quiet ''long enough'' to sneak past sentries (and since no one expects such behavior of an ork it works decently well). |
| 706 | %%* WithMyHandsTied: Just about everyone, hence why more... exotic... measures are commonly employed. |
| 707 | * 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. |
| 708 | * WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: And with that insanity comes even more power! |
| 709 | ** [[InvokedTrope "Sanity is for the]] '''[[LampshadeHanging WEAK]]'''[[InvokedTrope !!!"]] |
| 710 | * WithUsOrAgainstUs: The Imperium, the Tau. The rest generally don't even bother to ask, and even the Imperium [[FantasticRacism generally only bothers to ask if you're human]]. |
| 711 | * WolverineClaws: Lightning Claws are this combined with PowerFist. Generally they are only distributed to Terminator Marines. |
| 712 | * WombHorror: Daemonculaba was an attempt at mass-producing Chaos Space Marines, involving taking female {{Breeding Slave}}s and mutating them so their wombs could accommodate [[{{Squick}} an adolescent human and his growing into a seven-foot tall Astartes]], who was reborn without skin. If the newborn was deemed acceptable, skin from other slaves was grafted onto him, if not, he was rejected into the sewers, where some survived as the Unfleshed (who somehow resisted falling into Chaos and instead still venerate the GodEmperor). |
| 713 | %% * WombLevel: The interior of Tyranid hiveships. |
| 714 | %%* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: |
| 715 | %%** The Thousand Sons. |
| 716 | %%** The Night Haunter. |
| 717 | * WoodenShipsAndIronMen: Life on board Imperial Fleet ships is this trope JustForFun/RecycledInSpace. |
| 718 | * 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. |
| 719 | ** TheWorfBarrage: Often used as part of the above. |
| 720 | ** The Avatar of Khaine, to the extent it's become a longstanding joke amongst players. The Avatar is a fragment of Khaine, the Eldar god of war, placed into an [[HumongousMecha enormous mech]] that burns with his divine power. Its might inspires fear and awe amongst the Eldar, and it is only summoned in the most dire of circumstances. So naturally an Avatar of Khaine is most commonly found as a pile of rubbish at the feet of whoever Games Workshop wanted to look badass that week. In fact, the Avatar of Khaine has been beaten by so many people, so often, that it has basically lost its original Worf status (if it ever had it), and crushing the Avatar of Khaine at this point is just winking at the meme, rather than a demonstration of anything badass. |
| 721 | ** Practically every story involving the [[AmazonBrigade Sisters of Battle]] results in them getting slaughtered by something. It happens so often that some fans have ''accused Games Workshop of misogyny''. |
| 722 | * WorldHalfFull: 8th Edition is ultimately shaping up to be much lighter, but still bleak. [[spoiler:Chaos managed to breach the Cadian gate and split much of the galaxy with the Great Rift, but Roboute Guilliman has awakened from stasis and vows to change things, starting with reigning in the Ecclesiarchy and the High Lords of Terra and working with Bellisaurus Cawl to make technology improvements. Guilliman is a much more compassionate ruler than his father and genuinely cares about the people of the Imperium without signs of disconnection. He has also formed an [[EnemyMine uneasy truce]] with the Eldar, who show signs of reversing their decline, have awoken an avatar of Ynnead without all dying, and have even brought the Dark Eldar into the fold (but the Dark Eldar are still colossal dicks).]] |
| 723 | * 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. It's strongly hinted that the entire reason the galaxy is the insanely awful place that it is, is because the Gods of Chaos exist. |
| 724 | * TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed: "World" meaning ''the entire galaxy''. Or just any world chosen at random. |
| 725 | * WorldOfActionGirls: Commander Shadowsun, [[Literature/CiaphasCain Inquisitor Amberley Vail]], and every [[AmazonBrigade Sister of Battle]] ever. Most Howling Banshees, as well; though they can be male, most are not as the Aspect is named for a female mythological spirit. |
| 726 | * WorldOfBadass: If there is indeed only war, it would make only the badass survive. [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou Well, it's generally 'survive for a bit longer...']] |
| 727 | %%* WorldOfHam: [[VideoGame/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. |
| 728 | * WorldOfJerkass: More like [[EvilVersusEvil World of Villains]], really. Virtually every character is more or less evil, [[ALighterShadeOfBlack some less so than others]], always doing at least one KickTheDog moment. |
| 729 | * WreathedInFlames: The [[CavalryOfTheDead Legion of the Damned]] Space Marines, who are like this in all depictions. How much is up to the artist ranging from just their greaves and shoulder-pads (as is on the models and some official artwork) to being ''completely wreathed in flames'' in many artworks. |
| 730 | * WretchedHive: |
| 731 | ** The [[TabletopGame/{{Necromunda}} "Underhive"]] in hive cities ''always'' qualifies-- sometimes the entire arcology, with its population of billions. |
| 732 | ** Commorragh of the Dark Eldar would make [[TropeNamer Mos Eisley]] shudder in fear. |
| 733 | * WrongGenreSavvy: The Tau, for all their outward idealism, believe they're the liberating heroes in a SpaceOpera. Sadly for them, they're just the NaiveNewcomer in a CosmicHorrorStory, a fact that only a few of them have become cognizant of and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation survived.]] |
| 734 | * {{Wutai}}: The T'au Empire borrows heavily from Japanese and Chinese influences (with a dash of ancient India) and lies to the galactic east of the Imperium (which takes its cues from the British Empire, the Soviet Union and Inquisitorial-era Spain). The Craftworlders as well have a very strong oriental theme that has gradually given way in recent editions to ancient Greece, Myth/CelticMythology and classic Tolkien-esque elfishness (to distinguish them from the T'au). |
| 735 | [[/folder]] |
| 736 | |
| 737 | [[folder:X]] |
| 738 | * XtremeKoolLetterz: The Orks' FunetikAksent is written with these. Other examples, such as Dark Eldar Wyches, feature occasionally. |
| 739 | [[/folder]] |
| 740 | |
| 741 | [[folder:Y]] |
| 742 | * YouAreNotReady: Common Eldar sentiment to humans. The most common reply is a bolt shell to the face. |
| 743 | ** This is also commonly directed at the Tau, both from the Eldar and ''their own people'' courtesy of Commander Farsight. His primary goal with Farsight Enclaves is to serve as a buffer against the numberless, nameless horrors his people are not yet ready to face. |
| 744 | * YouCantGoHomeAgain: Standard for Imperial Guard, sent across the galaxy to various war zones and almost certainly die fighting. The few that survive to retire and be discharged tend to be allowed to settle on the planet they happened to be on (likely having fought for it) while finishing. With no trip home guaranteed as part of finishing their service, even the rare survivors are unlikely to ever manage to return to where they were raised. This varies with the world involved, though; Valhallan regiments are sometimes stationed on their homeworld to rebuild their numbers with fresh recruits, and some feral world Guardsmen are returned to their homeworlds as a way to further integrate them into the Imperial culture. |
| 745 | * YouCantFightFate: Mostly subverted. While there are some destinies that are unavoidable, YOU CAN FIGHT FATE AND WIN! Unfortunately for the more benign factions, everyone can fight fate and the best at it are the Dark Gods themselves. |
| 746 | * YouHaveFailedMe: |
| 747 | ** Regularly used by Chaos in the form of mutilation, mutation, torture, and death whenever somebody isn't pulling their weight. |
| 748 | ** An Ork warlord will occasionlly pull this card whenever he hears some not-so-optimistic news and to instill some discipline in his followers.. |
| 749 | ** And also Imperial Commissars, who are legally empowered to execute any member of the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy who have failed to meet the standards of the Imperium of Mankind. |
| 750 | ** Sisters of Battle that fail to fully meet the standards of their Order are degraded to Sisters Repentia, basically cannon fodder dressed in rags wielding a huge chainsword. If a Sister Repentia '''dares''' to show any sign of cowardice, [[FateWorseThanDeath she's put inside a Mortifier]]. |
| 751 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: |
| 752 | ** Gleefully employed by followers of Chaos and the Dark Eldar. |
| 753 | ** Also employed by the Grey Knights chapter with most other Imperial troops [[HeKnowsTooMuch in order to preserve the secret of their existence]]. Usually they go with the cleaner memory-wiping method, but that isn't always possible. |
| 754 | ** This is the fate of all Genestealer Cults. They're consumed along everything else on the planet after the Tyranids they serve are done. |
| 755 | * 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... |
| 756 | * YouKillItYouBoughtIt: The hierarchies of the Orks, Dark Eldar, and Chaos tend to work this way: if you succeed in killing the previous Warboss/Archon/Chaos Lord, the former officeholder clearly didn't deserve the job. |
| 757 | [[/folder]] |
| 758 | |
| 759 | [[folder:Z]] |
| 760 | * ZergRush: Many "horde" armies, such as Orks, Tyranids and infantry focused Astra Militarum forces, employ waves of cheap infantry to swamp the enemy. The Astra Militarum is probably the single most emblematic example in the background as they are the largest fighting force in the setting, numbering in the ''billions''. In-game, some versions of the rules allow horde armies to recycle their basic troopers whenever a squad is wiped out. |
| 761 | * ZombieApocalypse: |
| 762 | ** After occasionally menacing the depths of TabletopGame/{{Necromunda}}, plague zombies cropped up in force during the 13th Black Crusade, courtesy of Nurgle. ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'' introduces many more new and exciting ways for characters to find themselves up to their eyeballs in shambling dead. |
| 763 | ** 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. |
| 764 | ** In addition, under the new Chaos Space Marine Codex, you can turn Chaos Cultists into zombies if you take a certain special character, allowing you to turn the game into this. If a Nurgle cult springs up on an Imperial world and goes unchecked for a long period of time, this is the most common outcome. |
| 765 | ** With 8th edition, zombies (which are called Poxwalkers) are a regular troop choice for Death Guard (Nurgle) Chaos Marines. They even get to recruit fresh Poxwalkers when they get kills; by spending a command point, they get to do this whenever ''anything'' nearby dies, including troops on their own side (other than Poxwalkers). |
| 766 | [[/folder]] |
| 767 |
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