Roleplay / The Imperium Of Man Comes To Gensokyo

A forum roleplay/fanfic pitting Warhammer 40,000's Imperium of Man against the inhabitants of Touhou Project's Gensokyo.

While the game started out fairly lighthearted and basic in its premise, which was Exactly What It Says on the Tin, the addition of five other 40k factions has made the RP suitably Grimdark, and as both the initial factions quickly learned, this was not a war that could end quickly or painlessly.

The first iteration of the game has come to an end, but a long-planned sequel, entitled The Aquila and the Rising Sun--The Imperium Of Man Comes To Gensokyo began on the third of January 2011 and, as of this writing, is still ongoing. As it is a rather different beast from its predecessor, it now has its own page.

Fear the unknown, Tropers, and gaze upon the unspeakable Character Sheet!

For a general breakdown of the events of this now-completed game, go here.

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Tropes exhibited by this work include:

• Aerith and Bob: One of the story's naming elements. Names range from Arcturus to Droz to Isaac to Azmodai to Thomas in this RP.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Magnus the Red, as a result of his canon Anti-Villain nature. When he is banished, he gets a rather touching send off.
  • Zig-Zagged with Isaac Bickerstaff: when Arcturus breaks his neck his first response is to rage pathetically against his fate, but he calms down as he slowly begins to die and apologises to his killer, resulting in this. However, when it's revealed what he did to Zee, most people lost all sympathy with him.
• Attempted Rape: Heavily implied to have happened when the Imperial Guard moved in to the Tengu Stronghold. Luckily, the Commissars were there to stop both it, and the native reprisal.
• The Alliance: One has been formed between the Imperium, the Tau, and some, if not all of the Gensokyo inhabitants.
• All for Nothing: The Shaft of Ulysses commited suicide to terminally ram... a fake Hive ship.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Any and all Titans, of course.
  • And the Hisoutensoku
• Back from the Dead: Gargoth the Undying was resurrected shortly after being torn apart by Marisa, and again when his soul was retrieved from the Netherworld by his Khornate forces.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: The fight with Harvester, inside Arcturus' mind.
• Blood Knight: Most of the Warhammer characters, although several—such as the Brotherhood of Darkness and its Daemon Prince, Gargoth—stand out.
• Body Horror: What had happened to Yamame. One can only imagine what the Tyranids will do with this now tested and successful procedure.
  • Later side-material reveals that Yamame's genes were used to breed a new sub-species of Venomthrope Superior, which has been harassing Imperial forces in the Ultima Segmentum since the events of the roleplay.
• Character Development: Eirin in particular has been through a lot by now. Being subjected to the Tyranid Hive Mind, betrayed and having one's soul trapped in a suit of Power Armour, as well gaining the attention of a Greater Daemon tends to force people to face the reality of their situation.
  • The Oni change as well after the attack on the Ancient City by first the Tyranids, then Nurgle.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Inquisitor Arcturus and Chapter Master Zolomon use this to get an Eldar Exarch to talk.
• Cool Tank: The Dakkawagonbommawagon, a flying Baneblade with just about every type of gun ever wielded in the 40K universe to be found welded somewhere on its hull.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Suggested by Flandre: "Maybe promise him cake or tea if they talk?"
• Cool vs. Awesome
• The Corrupter: The Lord of Change known as Tyranthraxus.
• The Corruption: Taken to new and horrifying levels, both youkai and Tyranids falling to it.
  • This has pissed off the Tyranid Hive Mind.
• Deadpan Snarker: Arcturus, in spades.
• Deus ex Machina: The Emperor Himself intervenes to help save Zelenin alongside Remilia, turning her into what she is now.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: literally—Yuyuko actually sat down to share pleasant conversation over tea with Magnus the Red.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: subverted when the protagonists banished the Deceiver into the Warp, as doing so resulted in Kai'Ro's death; played straight when the Oni, with considerable help from the Imperial Guard and a few Space Marines, beat down a Bloodthirster and tore it apart.
  • Another factor was the lack of opportunities for the creators to post their parts of the story.
• Dying Curse: Bickerstaff's death scene starts with him ranting, raging, lecturing and cursing Arcturus, who killed him, before Arcturus breaks his neck, when it becomes Alas, Poor Villain.
• Enemy Mine: Several, typically against the Tyranids. As it presently stands, the inhabitants of Gensokyo and the Imperium of Man are no longer trying to kill each other, with a few exceptions...
  • The Imperials and Gensokyoans grudgingly teamed up with Bickerstaff to deal with Magnus The Red.
  • The Emperor's Angriest and Mekboss Gutpuncha's crew ceased hostilites in an effort to get the Wave-Motion Gun working again.
• Eviler than Thou: Chaos, the Necrons and the Tyranids seem to be having a competition to see who can be more evil than the others. The winner is not entirely clear.
• The Glomp: Remilia likes to deliver these from time to time, as does Zee, who does it far more frequently and usually follows it up with some heavy snogging.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Inquisitor Arcturus and Chapter Master Zolomon seem to have these roles, save for when dealing with aliens.
• Good is Not Nice: Most of the "heroic" characters from 40K qualify, but Shas'El Kai'Ro stands out. Nice chap, respectful of the natives' wishes, even planned to allow them to decide their own future rather than proselytize them. In spite of this, he has no qualms when watching Arcturus and Zolomon brutally torture an Eldar exarch, and even joins in.
• Gunship Rescue: The crew of the Dakkabomma pulll one off to rescue their Mekboss.
• Large Ham: The Imperials and their Chaos counterparts just love chewing scenery. Which leads to the inevitable...
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat. Inquisitor Arcturus and Chaos Sorcerer Thanas had a grand one.
  • Another happens when the Arcturus and Kai'Ro are deciding who will enter Heaven first so they could get Marisa Kirisame. Since Iku tells the two of them to not enter Heaven yet, they engage in a verbal standoff.
• Heroic Sacrifice: A rapidly mutating terminator kills both himself and the Deadly Doctor Drammlech by holding him down and detonating the latter's suit powerplant.
  • Also one from the Brotherhood of Darkness, of all people, when Captain Caedus rams the Tyranid Hive Ship with his battlebarge.
  • A new Hive Fleet came in about 20 pages later however...
  • Kai'Ro channels a fatal overdose of radiation in order to maroon the Deceiver in the Warp.
  • The Shaft Of Ulysses ramming a Hive Ship. Didn't quite work out, though.
• Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha! - Youkai mountain is under attack, its taking the resident goddess everything just to hold the Tyranids back. Suddenly This starts playing and the Hisoutensoku, a giant mecha, rises out of the mountain with a green haired shrine maiden on his shoulder and charges at the Bio-Titan for a good old fashioned fist fight.
  • And wins! Granted, it had help...
• Jerkass: the male Eldar Farseer—speciesist, hypocrite, hateful...basically a bigoted old man with terrifying psionic powers.
• Kill Sat:
  • The Necrons are dispatched along with their base from orbit by the Tau.
  • The Dakkabomma is now was one as well.
• Knight of Cerebus: Dare we say, Every last one of the five factions?
• Knight Templar: The second group of Puritan Imperials to arrive (Darius Bickerstaff, Silon, Marshal Grimbolg, and Canoness Isabella).
• Lightning Glare: One occurs between Sakuya and Zee, neither of whom is pleased to discover that there is another target for Remilia's affections...
• Manipulative Bastard: The Thousand Sons are in the neighborhood. In case you didn't know, they serve a god that embodies scheming and change. You do the math.
• Mexican Standoff: The Eldar had one with the Imperials and the Tau near the top of Youkai mountain.
• Mind Rape:
  • Reisen gets hit with this early on when she tries to influence the Tyranid Hive Mind with her wave-manipulating abilities.
  • The Harvester does this rather often.
• Mooks: The Khornids qualify.
• More Dakka: An eleven-barreled Baneblade modified by Orks to have guns covering its surface. And later, non-Ork guns were added, including Necron flayers and Tau railgun.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Gargoth took forever to kill. As did most of the Tyrannid Elite (save for the Parasite Of Mortrex, who was killed with relative ease by the Sisters).
• Orphaned Punchline: "That's no Genestealer, that's my wife!"
• Our Angels Are Different: The fairies seem to be gradually becoming this under Sedna's influence.
  • There is also Zee, who as of this writing is now a strange mixture of a vampire and a Living Saint.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: During a fight with some of the Hrud, Mokou's body ages up to late teenagerdom. Not like it's a bad thing...
  • This also goes for Flandre and Remilia Scarlet, due to the same kind of exposure.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The Imperials lost at least a thousand guardsmen rescuing Mokou.
• Ramming Always Works: How the Chaos battlebarge Litany of Slaughter takes out the Hive Ship of the Tyranid fleet. It didn't quite work, and her captain was forced to detonate the barge's reactor in order to destroy the Hive Ship completely.
  • Also used against the last Tyranid Hive Ship... except it turns ou it was a decoy.
• Red Shirt: Alas, poor Generic Youkai Rabbit #231...
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Orin went absolutely nuts when the Tyranids tried to kidnap Satori.
• Running Gag:
  • "Drive closer! I want to hit them with my sword!" eventually became this.
  • Arcturus' habit of shouting "Wait, wha—" before getting pounced on by Zee and making out with her.
  • Bickerstaff and Arcturus talking about their adventures. This abruptly ceased being funny when Lana/Zee turned up.
  • Commissar Graille dressing in drag and doing the hula to improve morale.^note Originally suggested when his player asked what he should do next; while it never happened, references to it are common, and he is even shown doing this in character art.
  • Commissar B.L.A.M. McKillington.^note Originally a naming suggestion for Graille, it was expanded into his own character: a commissar known for his selflessness, compassion, non-indicative name and tragic backstory.
  • Joking about the Harvester being a secret agent for Tzeentch, sometimes suggesting that every event in the thread has been orchestrated by him.^note Harvester, a daemon of Nurgle, has an unusual taste for schemes and mind games that doesn't fit with his role.
• Senseless Sacrifice: The Shaft of Ulysses.
• Sequel Hook: Several are dropped, such as a brief glimpse of the Thousand Sons sorcerer Ahriman plotting something he refers to as "The Apotheosis".
• Shout-Out: Oh so many.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: This work has been all over the scale during its run.
• Status Quo Is God: The way things are heading rapidly downhill, it is becoming more likely for this to be subverted.
  • With the tragic development below, it appears the subversion is now complete.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Tal'desh, at least once.
  • Training Montage: The protagonists preparing the Oni for war was essentially this. Also counts as Training the Peaceful Villagers, even if the Oni aren't quite so peaceful.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: With the arrival of more and more factions, things seem to be headed this way.
• Upgrade Artifact: the Codex of Hakh-Kan'Tarkos, an ancient device that contains all the Eldar's knowledge of the Old Ones and can transfer this information into the brain of any sapient once activated. Turns out it's actually Marisa's Hakkero.
• Useless Useful Spell: Mystia's singing can only be used to disorient and confuse people, nothing else. It helped a lot in stopping Magnus's spell to transport the planet.
• Villainous Breakdown: The Deceiver freaks out when faced with the unending denizens of the Warp, a far cry from his usually calm demeanour.
• Villainous Rescue: The Thousand Sons come in to save the day help drive the Tyranid's away from Youkai Mountain.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Courtesy of the Dakkafenix/ UP YOURS FUCKFACE XXIV, used to open the way to the Empress of Rot's fortress.
  • Leading to a What Could Have Been: the projectile used could have been the Dakkawagon, thus delivering eleven thousand barrels of hell in the heart of the fortress.
  • GRAND MASTER SPARK!!
• Wham Episode: The deaths of the Lunar Princesses to purge the Moon.
• The Worf Effect: The inhabitants of Gensokyo normally have near god-like powers, and for the first few pages, wreak havoc on the first wave of Imperials. Then, the other factions show up, and the Imperium brings in forces reserved for fighting and killing gods...

• Wreathed in Flames: Mokou's fighting style of choice is to cover parts of her body in flames and either fling fireballs and just brawl with the opponent.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Attempted by Meiling. Doesn't quite work out, as they ended up fighting another horde of zombies corpses on the side of the Gensokyoans.