Warhammer 40,000

I'd also be more interested in 41k, but I suppose I thought 50k had a more marketable ring to it and would be more likely.

By the way, what is the official date as of the latest material?

edited 24th Oct '12 1:37:00 PM by montagohalcyon

I believe it's hovering at 999.M41. There is published material from after that - the Ciaphas Cain books, or at least their in-universe content, are published in early M42 - but outside that the entire universe stops dead at 999.M41.

Yeah, because that's when the 13th Black Crusade took place.

There are some signs that the Imperium actually isn't in a total backwards slide, like the appearance of new or at least diversified technology. Most of it's Forge World, the Lightning, the Crassus and variants, but the Hellhound variants in the main IG book came direct. Also the appearance of Mark 8 suit for Marines is a relatively recent development and the first new issue since shortly after the Heresy.

Losing a lot of worlds may be working out for them, cutting off non-contributory parts.

I wonder if anything other than weapons is advancing, though.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

I think I'm about halfway through that fanfic now. There's also a sequel, which has a thread 36 pages long and is yet incomplete.

Now that is GRIMDARK.

...too much grimdark...

I need to go watch something cheerful now.

Yeah, I love Warhammer and all but I don't think I can take a lot of my favorite characters suddenly losing it. Cato Sicarius, y u go insane and not keep Ultramar loyal to the Emperor?

If that's to Grimdark for you, skip ahead to the sequel. Things get better. Sort of.

It starts with Vulkan returning and building a new (significantly less Grimdark) Imperium based on Armegeddon, and is currently at the precipice of a Final Battle which will decide the fate of all reality. Unlike 40k, the chances of the "good guys" (though there are some genuine good guys in 60k in the soup of Grey-and-Black Morality that is most of 40k) winning are measurable.

At least Guilliman gets a Dying Moment of Awesome (banishing the Angyl Price Kaldor Draigo back to the warp while minutes away from dying from the anatheme's poison) and Sicarus repents as he and his primarch lay dying.

edited 24th Oct '12 11:24:36 PM by Archereon

I did actually skip ahead and read a few random excerpts, most memorably one featuring a prototype AI-run Tau ship kicking the crap out of about three different fleets. That was fun.

40k has a reputation for grimdark but most of the time that gets drowned out by the ham or other elements, at least in what I've read/played.

...I think it's the lack of Orks.

edited 24th Oct '12 10:55:20 PM by montagohalcyon

The Orks return in 60k. They aren't nearly as quirky though, since either Ceogorah (spelling), Tzeentch or the Deceiver engineered a plot in which the Orks who went off on a WAAAGH into the Webway would find their brainboyz. 60k also is notable for reconstructed a lot of the older fluff like the Sensei, and deconstructing some other elements like the Star Father

edited 24th Oct '12 11:26:03 PM by Archereon

In regards to the last edit on the Imperial Factions page: can someone verify that part that was added?

I've never heard anything like that. Machine spirits could be A.I., but I always saw them as a more mystical thing, with no real explanation.

I figured most "machine spirits" are A.I.s, but, given that daemon-driven vehicles exist, a few probably are more mystical in nature and so Techpriests treat them all as if they could be.

Machine-Spirits are described in The First Heretic and on their Lexicanum page as being semi-biological, but I have never heard any reference to them being actual human brains.

I never heard of such an explanation for machine spirits either. However, the part "most imperial citizens believe everything has machine spirits" should definitely stay in some form (but likely not with "everyone").

And there's also the Clap Your Hands If You Believe factor.

Definitely mystical in nature. If we were talking about it in machine cult terms, the computer you're typing on has a machine spirit that needs to be appeased through regular maintenance rites. If it crashes or has an error, clearly it is displeased with you and you must perform the rites of atonement and troubleshooting. See the problem here? Of course, when we get into the bigger vehicles like Land Raiders or Titans, the machine spirits start talking back and so that's probably where the Cult Mechanicus got the idea that all machines have them.

Space Marines using a rail gun, as in the magnet powered cannon that shoots things so fast they catch on fire, as a sniper rifle. I'm imagining a fairly complicated gun with blocky magnetic strips arranged down a cylinder barrel and a whole mess of controls and wired for cybernetic hook-up around the trigger but the ammo is dead stupid, just a thick cylinder of solid steel. The Sniper Marine slots it in like a musket, through the end of the barrel where it gets sucked it by the magnets. Then he has to charge up the magnets before firing and the trigger reverse the polarity to fire! It's 'stealthy' because the bullet outruns its own sonic boom.

That seems like something that would be more suited to a Vindicare xD

Uhm, Don't bullet always outrun their sonic boom? (apart from subsonic ammo that has none)

Scratch that, doesn't anything that makes a sonic boom outrun it?

edited 26th Oct '12 11:44:56 AM by Medinoc

Yep.

I think they meant "outruns its sonic boom" in the sense that there's a very tangible time gap between the projectile passing in front of you and the sonic boom reaching you — i.e. it's moving at very high supersonic speeds, such that maybe 10-20 seconds pass before the sound reaches you (assuming that the gun is at a far enough distance, of course).

edited 26th Oct '12 4:53:07 PM by MarqFJA

Resultant mental image: someone being shot, then sitting there with a stopwatch waiting to hear the discharge.

Say, Tzeentch is described as deriving his power from "the will to change one's destiny", while Nurgle's Power Source is "despair and the acceptance of one's fate". Does that mean that Tzeentch's domain includes those who invoke Screw Destiny?

On the other hand, they are also described as being "hope and ambition" vs. "defiance born of despair and hopelessness", respectively. How can the latter statement be reconciled with the above?

I.E. We have a man who lies dying in his own blood, and keeps madly chanting "I cannot die here! I refuse to accept that this my destiny! I CANNOT END HERE!" in his head. Assuming he has nothing to sway him towards either of the Slaaneshi and Khornate portfolios, which Daemon gets dibs on him: Tzeentchian, or Nurglite?

edited 28th Oct '12 1:27:30 PM by MarqFJA