History Fridge / Warhammer40000

* A case of AccidentallyCorrectWriting caused by SocietyMarchesOn with the Orgyn's increasing intelligence. But it would make sense as the increasing calories intake given to them by serving in the Imperial Guard combined with massive evolutionary pressure for intelligence on the battlefield would result in more and more calories being used by the brain for the sake of survival.

* Longtime Space Marine players disliked the 5th Edition Codex because it glorified the Ultramarines and the Codex, and basically flipped off any other first founding Chapters and thier descendants, especially if they aren't codex-compliant. That's because this is the Codex Astartes, just outside of the 40k universe, of course it's gonna make the Ultramarines seem so overpowered, it was written by their Primarch!

** Ironically, in the 8th Edition, the Ultramarines themselves are noncompliant, as their Primarch realised how counterproductive strict adherence to the Space Book was. Not only did he make significant changes, it appears his own chapter is now quite eager to think outside the box.

* There's this one story in the Chaos Space Marine codex which talks about the Alpha Legion hypono-indoctrinating the natives of a Space Marine recruitment world and then turning the would-be scouts on their brothers when the Alpha Legion attacked their fortress-monastery and ransacked their gene-seed vault. This opens up the really disturbing possibility that a frighteningly significant number of loyalist Astartes are in fact Alpha Legion sleeper operatives just waiting for the right moment to strike.

* The fact that essentially everything we see is in-universe propaganda from the Imperiums POV explains a LOT about how every other faction is extremely powerful and hates humanity, but loses to space marines constantly and the constantly swinging power level. It's a classic fascist propaganda tactic to make The Enemy an Incredibly Dangerous Threat that wants to Destroy Everything You Hold Dear and is Only Held At Bay by Our Heroic Military, and will be defeated easily by The Right Sort in Our Heroic Military (Now you want to join Our Heroic Military, right? And you DEFINITELY want to be The Right Sort, RIGHT?). It's so effective that a lot of people out of universe buy into it!

* The fact that essentially everything we see is in-universe propaganda from the Imperiums POV explains a LOT about how every other faction is extremely powerful and hates humanity, but looses to space marines constantly and the constantly swinging power level. It's a classic fascist propaganda tactic to make The Enemy an Incredibly Dangerous Threat that wants to Destroy Everything You Hold Dear and is Only Held At Bay by Our Heroic Military, and will be defeated easily by The Right Sort in Our Heroic Military (Now you want to join Our Heroic Military, right? And you DEFINITELY want to be The Right Sort, RIGHT?). It's so effective that a lot of people out of universe buy into it!

* I had a moment of brilliance after reading the LighterandSofter entry under the Ciaphas Cain novels page. It struck me as odd that on many of the planets Cain finds himself on, life is described as being, well, NOT grimdark. Based on my thorough reading of the Warhammer 40k setting, I assumed every planet, right down to its individuals, to be a paranoid, delusional, heretic-hunting, fatalistic lot. So why are these people living relatively normal lives and dealing with issues that we can relate to, 38000 years previous? The same reason why our current world (on the whole) isn't a hopeless, violent age, despite the negativity of stories in the media. For every planet under attack by Orks, Tyranids, or whatever, there's a thousand more that's just minding its own business, just like how for every murderer one hears about, there's tens of thousands of well-adjusted people. ''The only reason that we're suddenly concerned with a particular planet is because it's right now under threat'', otherwise we'd have never gotten to know its name.g It's a documented psychological phenomenon where people will assume that an event is more widespread than it really is based on the magnitude it has in their minds. Brilliant! -wms366

*** This similarity is something even Orks themselves can notice. In [[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Soulstorm]], if the player is playing as Orks and defeats Sisters of Battle, the narrator mentions how Gorgutz "suspected that they even had their own form of Waaagh!," only to quickly dismiss that idea because "anyone knows you can't have a Waaagh! without proper banners."

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

* After the eldar birthed their chaos god of The Bad Kind of Hedonism, their culture split into the ascetic Craftworld Eldar and the Dark Eldar who remained largely true to their ultra-hedonistic ways. The Craftworlders view the Dark Eldar suspiciously, as they view their ways to be dangerously close to what Slaanesh wants, preferring their Path system by which they control their impulses by dedicating themselves solely to a singular task/sphere of interest until it is mastered before moving on to the next. Then you realise that alongside general debauchery, Slaanesh is also God of Perfection. The Craftworld Eldar are feeding her via their Path system every bit as much as the Dark Eldar.

* The Salamanders don't claim any successor chapters despite having several heavily implied ones (like the Black Dragons). However, the Salamanders place a high value on self-reliance so any successor chapters would have to be able prove themselves without having to be tied down to it's original chapter in the Salamanders eyes.
* The Navigator gene is extremely unstable, with Navigators without extensive mutations being extremely rare. This makes a lot of sense, as the Navigators were only ever meant as a temporary solution while the Emperor finished his Webway project -- The Navigators would have been phased out after the Webway project was finished, and there would never have been a chance for the instability of the Navigator gene to be an issue.

* The Salamanders don't claim any successor chapters despite having several heavily implied ones (like the Black Dragons) however the Salamanders place a high value on self-reliance so any successor chapters would have to be able prove themselves without having to be tied down to it's original chapter in the Salamanders eyes.

* This Troper has a friend who complains that ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'''s writers have screwed themselves over with the Tyranids. He says that this is because the Tyranids have been made out to be the biggest boogeymen of them all and so unstoppable that they cannot be stopped in universe. Then it hit me. THAT'S THE WHOLE DAMN POINT! The 40K universe is MEANT to be completely screwed. The only thing that prevents the Apocalypse from sticking is the fact that [[KillEmAll everybody is trying to wipe everyone else out!]] And [[GambitPileup they keep getting in each other's way]]. Heck, the players are LateToTheTragedy for the apocalypse, because that's what the Horus Heresy was! Therefore, the Tyranids will be dealt with, but the Imperium (and everyone else) shall endure and everything will remain happily screwed. [[RuleOfCool Because that's the way we like it.]] -- {{Hariman}}

* Much is made of the Blood Axes' supposed inability to understand camouflage, but it turns out their wacky colourful camouflage schemes are often TruthInTelevision. Camouflage does more than hiding an object; it also serves to make it difficult for the enemy to recognize (a) what that object is, (b) how far away it is, and (c) what it's doing. If an entire Ork army is painted in neon-green and orange camouflage, even though they're highly visible, it's more difficult for their opponents to tell whether they're looking through their gunsights at an artillery piece, or a heavily-armoured battlewagon, or a walker, or (in extreme cases) an ork kommando who has just jumped out from behind a corner within spitting distance. (Or a decoy, for that matter.) See also this article from Wiki/TheOtherWiki on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage dazzle camouflage.]]

* The simple fact that this troper added an edit (regarding the Sisters of Battle) without even realizing he hadn't actually reached the fridge horror section yet says something about the entire universe.

* The priest from the ''Last Temple'' story accuses the Emperor of not being relate to humanity. ''Outcast Dead'' proves this to be false with his treatment of Kai Zulane. It is impiled in this book that Emperor possibly ''knew'' about his death '''before''' and deliberately instigated the Horus Heresy... And knowing his precognitive powers, he possibly led the future to 40000. When you know the enemies of the Imperium, [[TheExtremistWasRight another option may be suicide]], despite [[AbusiveParents his]] [[KnightTemplar nasty]] [[KickTheDog ways]].

* Remember Tuska the Daemon-Killa? The one played for fun? The one who sailed into the Eye of Terror to find daemons to bash and quickly became Khorne's favorite plaything? Think about this. He fought endless waves of daemons, and when he died Khorne revived him and his friends to fight some more. And when Orks fight and kill enemies, they become bigger. So, after a few thousand years in the Eye of Terror, Tuska and his buddies would become the BIGGEST, most ferocious Orks. And since they released spores, they made a constant stream of NEW ORKS who would also become GIANT. Now I wonder if Khorne had any plans for these dudes... perhaps created a giant army of giant Ork size of the Beast or greater with the experience of a Daemonic Prince (and perhaps blessed with a whole lot of power and mutations from the Immaterium), then put them on a space hulk and smashed them on some random planets.... Yeah we are fucked.

* It's hinted that the Tyranids are fleeing from something in their galaxy. Keep in mind that the Tyranids aren't frightened off with the Milky Way of Warhammer 40,000 aka one of the biggest (if not ''the'' biggest) [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Worlds]] in all fiction. Does this mean that whatever they're running from is '''worse''' than everything present in Warhammer 40,000?!
** The Tyranids aren't affected by Chaos. That at least gives us a vague idea. If they are fleeing something, then somehow, someway, it's '''worse than Chaos.'''

*** I once thought well Leman Russ left the galaxy in order to stop an outside force he had a dream was going to be the greatest threat to all of man, so he left to go fight it before it got to the Imperium. What if the nids are fleeing from the Primarch Leman Russ, the wolf king??
*** So with that theory, Leman Russ may be a savior to mankind, becoming something powerful enough to scare even the tyranids...or he has turned into something even the Chaos Gods couldn't dream up. That is horror both from the obvious (something so bad it's worse than all the crap we've seen), and especially from the perspective of Space Wolf players (their beloved primarch is...Emperor knows what).
* The Imperium tolerance for mutation varies from world to world, from letting them live as second class citizens, to shooting them on sight. Some worlds may be so extreme/ignorant, that they see ANY physical deformity as mutation. A child is either separated from his/her parents to live in a slum, or is just executed. For having a physical deformity we see today. Kind of drive home how brutal The Imperium can be.

*** No, but even tiny mutaion can lead to damnation of Chaos... I'll prefer death to Chaos Gods.
*** Yes, but are they susceptible to damnation because it's an intrinsic property of mutation...or because the Imperium treats them like shit and Chaos is willing to actually accept them?

* The priest from the ''Last Temple'' story accuses the Emperor of not being relate to humanity. ''Outcast Dead'' proves this to be false with his treatment of Kai Zulane. It is impled in this book that Emperor possibly ''knew'' about his death '''before''' and deliberately instigated the Horus Heresy... And knowing his precognitive powers, he possibly led the future to 40000. When you know the enemies of the Imperium, [[TheExtremistWasRight another option may be suicide]], despite [[AbusiveParents his]] [[KnightTemplar nasty]] [[KickTheDog ways]].
* The ending of Warhammer Fantasy indirectly gives a huge fridge horror to 40k. [[spoiler: The Chaos Gods managed to destroy not only the Old World, but also the universe with it with absolutely no consequences. This was previously thought impossible as it was believed the gods need worshippers to become powerful. Turns out they view different universes all at once, and as long as one of them has emotions to support them, they will survive. This means that they can indeed wipe out all life within the Imperium, and suffer no ills from it.]]
* Its common knowledge that each of the Primarchs were made in part of the Emperor's, but what exactly that part is tends to be not out right stated. Some argue Horus was his ambition, which is what led to him being a great Warmaster before the heresy. Sanguinius was his nobility, which is what led to all of the Primarchs being so impressed by him. But what makes this fridge horror is Angron who is not the Emperor's anger like his name would suggest, because he is constantly angry whereas it actually takes quite a bit for the Emperor to be angry in the few scenes we see of him. More like Rogal Dorn in fact, and when he does it often is because of betrayal. But then we see Angron against Gulliman and for the first time we see him utterly wreck a person, his brother primarch, with just words because he is in fact the Emperor's philosophy. He wants to unite people (his gladiator brothers/humanity) but the universe seems to be constantly tearing down his dreams (the Emperor/ the Chaos gods) and when in doubt he seems to default to destroying everything (Rage/Purge the xenos/heretic/mutant/etc.).
** Do note Angron had the Butcher's nail in his head thanks to the planet he landed on. For all we know if he didn't have a device that caused him pain all the time outside of battle he might not have been so perpetually angry.
** And this is the good God].

* The tyranids' subconscious buzzing (or psychic presence) is so loud that it drowns out the warp. Warp storms are stated to have gone out because of their presence. Does that mean the Tyranids are the greatest hope for finally destroying chaos?
* Remember Tuska the Daemon-Killa ? The one played for fun ? The one who sailed into the Eye of Terror to find daemons to bash and quickly became Khorne's favorite plaything ? Think about this. He fought endless waves of daemon, and when he died Khorne revived him and his friends to fight some more. And when Ork fought and killed enemies, they became bigger. So, after a few thousand years in the Eye of Terror, Tuska and his buddies would become the BIGGEST, most ferocious Orks. And since they released spores, they made a constant stream of NEW ORKS who would also become GIANT. Now I wonder if Khorne had any plans for these dudes... perhaps created a giant army of giant Ork size of the Beast or greater with the experience of a Daemonic Prince (and perhaps blessed with a whole lot of power and mutations from the Immaterium), then put them on a space hulk and smashed them on some random planets.... Yeah we are fucked.

* Why don’t the Custodes intervene in civil wars more often? Taking a side would make enemies. Unlike the other members of the Adeptus Terra, they can do their job without stepping on any toes; as long as you stay away from the palace, they’ll leave you alone [[note]]Unless the Emperor tells them to do something, but in that case, nobody should stop the [[MouthOfSauron Emperor's representatives]] from carrying out his will[[\note]]. So if they’re powerful, prestigious warriors, why can’t they just crush the opposition and say it’s the Emperor’s will? Their fame and power are exactly the problem. Let’s say that the Custodes took a side during the Beheading.

** Now let’s look at how and why they could safely interfere during the Age of Apostasy. First, the Storm of Emperor’s Wrath was a sign that the Emperor had taken Thor’s side, so they couldn’t not aid Thor. Second, they only intervened after Vandire retreated into a compound guarded ‘’only’’ by the Brides of the Emperor; even though it was a meatgrinder of a battle, Vandire’s defeat would be inevitable anyways, and the Brides could be safely eliminated because they weren’t an established institution. Third is how they did it: rather than killing anyone themselves, they took Alicia Dominica to the Emperor, who (presumably) told her to kill Vandire. Whether this is true or not, it passes the buck neatly to the Emperor, whom nobody can defy.

*** WEEELLLLL...are we forgetting the Black Plauge? The constant wars of the middle ages? Perhaps something did happen...they just haven't mentioned it yet.

* [[HangingJudge "A plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time."]] This policy sounds like a KangarooCourt until you realize that the accused had to officially draw the attention of the Inquisition, mere millions among many quadrillions, and the fact that they're holding a trial at all is a formality given their right to summary judgement. Someone pleading innocence really is wasting the Inquisition's time, and with the Inquisition being the representatives of the GodEmperor, the accused is wasting the Emperor's time, which is heresy.

* Abaddon the Despoiler has engaged in thirteen Black Crusades, all of which have been repelled. Despite these apparent failures, and despite having the gaze of Chaos Undivided upon him, Abaddon has somehow not been punished, suggesting that these crusades, their apparent failure notwithstanding, have served some greater purpose. Then again, Chaos can afford to play the long game...
** Most of his later Crusades actually had more or less clear target which was achieved. Yes, the Imperium repelled the invasion, but Abaddon grabbed whatever artifact he was aiming for, a LOT of loot and slaves and half of his personal forces were unscratched.
** Abaddon's personal goal may be to storm the Imperial Palace and rip the Emperor's corpse off the Golden Throne, but the Chaos Gods don't really care about that. They're more concerned with gaining power and fighting among themselves. They stopped caring about the Emperor after he was mortally wounded and unable to lead the Imperium directly. As far as they're concerned, the Black Crusades have been succesful as each of them has resulted in untold carnage and billions of people sacrificed in the name of the Dark Gods, thus increasing their power.
*** It gets worse. Gods feeds on emotions. Dead Emperor means no FTL travel for Imperium, a lot of dead hummies and much, much less delicious emotions for the Gods. The Emperor will live forever! [[AndIMustScream Whether he likes it or not.]]