40K - Should I .... or not? Where to start?

[Aginor]

Ok. An ...interesting approach concerning technology but given that they have had advanced technology for SO many millenia it is probably understandable that they think that way.

EDIT: So there was practically no development of new technology since that Horus Heresy time, 10000 years ago? (at least not in the Empire, I understand other races have evolved in the meantime)

 

[Aginor]

And, uh, that time the Eldar summoned Chtulhu (or Slaanesh or whatever) by apparently doing drugs and having orgies, was that before or after the Horus Heresy? Did humans have interstellar travel already back then?

I understand that the Demons (except Slaanesh?) were already there, but confined to the Warp, but now they come out of that Eye of Terror which is like the polar gates in the old Warhammer world?


Wait, that Emperor dude was there all along and now he is basically undead Lord Kroak but doesn't speak? So is he as evil as the chaps running government in his name now? Will he like what they do if he ever wakes up or not?
And while he is sleeping, does he do anything?

 

[Captaniser]

EDIT: So there was practically no development of new technology since that Horus Heresy time, 10000 years ago? (at least not in the Empire, I understand other races have evolved in the meantime)

There has been progress, albeit slow. Think like, a society like ours might take 100 years to have any major advancements, the Emperium takes 1000 years. The Emperium is very regulated when it comes to tech of any sort, and any major development must go through Mars, the Capital of the Mechanicus. Mars must allow it and send a message back too the creator that they can use it. Now this takes forever to do, first the machine must come to mars, which can take an eternity due too the extreme distances. Then Mars must test it, and this also takes forever. If the machine is declared heretical, the creator must be eliminated for heresy. If the Machine gets approved the message must first return to the inventor, but the inventor is long since dead and nobody wishes to continue the works, if the planet has fallen to the enemy or the ship gets attacked there is nobody left to retrieve the approval and the machine is lost forever.

There is plenty of planets that create their own tech without the approval of the Mechanicus, but they have to stay hidden.

 

[Aginor]

Wait, that Emperor dude was there all along and now he is basically undead Lord Kroak but doesn't speak? So is he as evil as the chaps running government in his name now? Will he like what they do if he ever wakes up or not?
And while he is sleeping, does he do anything?

Uh, and to further expand on that: Do people even know the Emperor is not there but some other guys are running the whole show?

 

[Ritual]

Okay, I'll reply properly to this tomorrow, however for starters if you're interested in getting a taste for the lore and the different factions check out these podcasts. They're by The Independent Characters podcast, and they take time out every now and again to focus on a particular faction, get in "experts" on those factions and really go into detail on the lore. I love these podcasts and have listened to them all multiple times:

http://theindependentcharacters.com/blog/?s=show+of+force&x=0&y=0

 

[Aginor]

Okay, I'll reply properly to this tomorrow, however for starters if you're interested in getting a taste for the lore and the different factions check out these podcasts. They're by The Independent Characters podcast, and they take time out every now and again to focus on a particular faction, get in "experts" on those factions and really go into detail on the lore. I love these podcasts and have listened to them all multiple times:

http://theindependentcharacters.com/blog/?s=show+of+force&x=0&y=0

Sounds good.
And yeah right now this is just, you know, looking at it a bit trying to find what I could like. Right now the fantasy side takes up most of my thoughts, 40k is just a quick glance now and then.

 

[Killer Angel]

Hey y'all!

This is a purely hypothetical thread because I will be actually pretty busy with building/painting AoS models and playing them until at least mid-2018.

I am still....curious a bit and like some armies style-wise, and despite those models costing a fortune I can imagine trying it one day, so since a few of y'all are playing 40K I'd like to ask a few things.

I am, more or less, in your same condition.

WH40K always interested me, and I was in love with Tyranids and, to a much lesser extent, Necrons and Tau. Very few SM and guards.

I'm so much into fantasy that i really don't care too much about it... However, 8th edition is here and in my Group many player are picking 40k and trying it.
I didn't wanted to stay behind, but i was looking for something at a reasonable price.
sadly, 'nids are already taken in our gaming Group, so are Necrons and Tau.
one of or friend (that plays almost exclusively 40k) was selling a large portion of his army to pick the new marines.
His army was a large mix of SM and Grey Knights, including a solid portion of forgeworld models.
Heck, i still don't know what exactly i've buyed, but he sold me almost 5000 pts, an amount of around 1300 Euro for just 250!

So, I'm here with a new army that I don't love so much, but it's full of things and models, so I will enter 40k.... somehow.

 

[pendrake]

This has been an entertaining thread...

Watching Aginor try to sort through the flailing, railing, madness that is the 40K fluff ...or make any sense of its technobabble has been priceless.

...carry on, carry on.

 

[Aginor]

This has been an entertaining thread...

Watching Aginor try to sort through the flailing, railing, madness that is the 40K fluff ...or make any sense of its technobabble has been priceless.

...carry on, carry on.

Haha Yeah.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Warhammer fluff always reminds me of some really really cheap metal lyrics. Take the most bloody, dark, edgy shit, turn it up to eleven and mash it up.
Like a Manowar music video put in literary form. So bad and trying to be badass and dark so hard that it involuntarily becomes hilarious.


Anyway I am having fun reading all that stuff right now, and I am slowly warming up to parts of it.
More questions soon, I am sure.

 

[Captaniser]

And, uh, that time the Eldar summoned Chtulhu (or Slaanesh or whatever) by apparently doing drugs and having orgies, was that before or after the Horus Heresy? Did humans have interstellar travel already back then?

I understand that the Demons (except Slaanesh?) were already there, but confined to the Warp, but now they come out of that Eye of Terror which is like the polar gates in the old Warhammer world?


Wait, that Emperor dude was there all along and now he is basically undead Lord Kroak but doesn't speak? So is he as evil as the chaps running government in his name now? Will he like what they do if he ever wakes up or not?
And while he is sleeping, does he do anything?

The Elder society became super decadent and most Elder only wanted the next great sensation. Their lives were perfect and without strife, to avoid getting bored to death they had to indulge in more and more depraved acts of pleasure. When an entire species of highly psychic humanoids keep doing the same thing, something is going to happen. Over the course of thousands of years of endless pleasure, Slaanesh was born and devoured most of the Elder gods except Isha, who was saved/kidnapped by Nurgle, Khaine was saved by Khorne but was fractured and cegorach who foresaw the coming of Slaanesh, and used the other gods as meatshields meanwhile he booked it.

When Slaanesh was born he/she/it created a warpstorm in the heart of the Elder empire that killed most of their race, this warpstorm was later known as the eye of terror. You know those doomsday prebber's? Yeah, they were the only ones of their race that survived the fall of the Elder and they did by hiding on plant sized spaceships.

This had a positive affect though, on humanity. The Eye of terror allowed the warp to expand and allow for warp travel again, and that is when the Emperor revealed himself to humanity and began the great crusade.

The Emperor was born in about 2.000 B.C. And he helped humanity in the shadows until he revealed himself. At some point the world is plunched into nuclear war and basically becomes Fallout/Mad Max and he unifies earth and begins conquering the universe. Something happens and travel suddenly becomes impossible between the worlds and humans across the universe start evolving psychic powers.

Big E was heavely crippled by his son, Horus in the year 31.000, and sits upon the golden throne, which is also the device that allows for warptravel across the emperium. He can't speak, or do anything really, he's little more than a corpse. If the Emperor should die, all intersteller travel in the emperium would fail, and the emperium would crumble. The High lords of Terra, the current rulers of the emperium dictates that the Emperor is a omnipotent golden god that watches over all, and all who speak against it is a heretic that must be purged.

Here are some illustrations of what he looks like:

 

[Aginor]

Thanks for the summary!
Reading about that part in the wikia as well....
...Oh dear that gets better and better! In a weird way...

...well at least up to the point where they mention that they run the throne by killing 1000 of their own psykers (aren't psykers, like, rare and needed for the war?) each day which basically means they have been recreating the Holocaust, the greatest atrocity known to man in real life, every couple of years for the last TEN Millenia???
That's an amount of rotten B.S. normally reserved for bad fan fiction but they really have that in official publications... that's just... poor.

Anyway. Moving on. Next I'll read about those Space Marines and sections or whatever those are called.

 

[Warden]

This has been an entertaining thread...

Watching Aginor try to sort through the flailing, railing, madness that is the 40K fluff ...or make any sense of its technobabble has been priceless.

...carry on, carry on.

I second @pendrake on this one, and I definately feel for you @Aginor . The 40K universe is pretty big, especially when you pull in the epicness of the beginning of the imperium in the 30K time period, it gets out of hand really quick.

I haven't played 40K for a while now, I think the last time was 4th or 5th edition with the Battle for Maccrage set (Space Marines vs Tyrannids), so there definately have been changes since then, especially with 8th edition now being out.

As far as the fluff goes, this I have been reading about for a long time. If you want a good (though highly irreverent) summary check out id4chan; they got a ton of good information in their summary that calls out GW (and others) for their craziness but also does a good job describing some of the key points of the universe. My opinion of course.

Warhammer 40K summary.

Edit: Forgot to add the universe's motto: "In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war"

 

[Aginor]

I second @pendrake on this one, and I definately feel for you @Aginor . The 40K universe is pretty big, especially when you pull in the epicness of the beginning of the imperium in the 30K time period, it gets out of hand really quick.

I haven't played 40K for a while now, I think the last time was 4th or 5th edition with the Battle for Maccrage set (Space Marines vs Tyrannids), so there definately have been changes since then, especially with 8th edition now being out.

As far as the fluff goes, this I have been reading about for a long time. If you want a good (though highly irreverent) summary check out id4chan; they got a ton of good information in their summary that calls out GW (and others) for their craziness but also does a good job describing some of the key points of the universe. My opinion of course.

Warhammer 40K summary.

Edit: Forgot to add the universe's motto: "In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war"

Yeah I read that one as well. Combined with what I read elsewhere things are slowly starting to make sense.

I think I could live with it being only war. But it is much more than just war. It is... I don't have words for all of it yet.

 

[Warden]

I think I could live with it being only war. But it is much more than just war. It is... I don't have words for all of it yet.

That is true. There is a huge amount of depth to the universe, that is part of what makes it so interesting.

 

[Captaniser]

...well at least up to the point where they mention that they run the throne by killing 1000 of their own psykers (aren't psykers, like, rare and needed for the war?) each day which basically means they have been recreating the Holocaust, the greatest atrocity known to man in real life, every couple of years for the last TEN Millenia???
That's an amount of rotten B.S. normally reserved for bad fan fiction but they really have that in official publications... that's just... poor.

Anyway. Moving on. Next I'll read about those Space Marines and sections or whatever those are called.

Yeah, it's kinda poorly written, but not as stupid as you think. There exist about 300 trillion humans in 40k and about 0,1% of the human population is born with psychic powers to some degree. Most psykers can't control their powers and are put on ice or executed when their powers are revealed, and only very few becomes something more than food for the golden throne.

 

[Aginor]

Yeah, it's kinda poorly written, but not as stupid as you think. There exist about 300 trillion humans in 40k and about 0,1% of the human population is born with psychic powers to some degree. Most psykers can't control their powers and are put on ice or executed when their powers are revealed, and only very few becomes something more than food for the golden throne.

Ok that makes it a bit less stupid I guess.

I still wonder: how was society when the Emperor was still active? The same amount of evil or less, for the common man and women of the Empire?

 

[Crowsfoot]

I am, more or less, in your same condition.

WH40K always interested me, and I was in love with Tyranids and, to a much lesser extent, Necrons and Tau. Very few SM and guards.

I'm so much into fantasy that i really don't care too much about it... However, 8th edition is here and in my Group many player are picking 40k and trying it.
I didn't wanted to stay behind, but i was looking for something at a reasonable price.
sadly, 'nids are already taken in our gaming Group, so are Necrons and Tau.
one of or friend (that plays almost exclusively 40k) was selling a large portion of his army to pick the new marines.
His army was a large mix of SM and Grey Knights, including a solid portion of forgeworld models.
Heck, i still don't know what exactly i've buyed, but he sold me almost 5000 pts, an amount of around 1300 Euro for just 250!

So, I'm here with a new army that I don't love so much, but it's full of things and models, so I will enter 40k.... somehow.

Pics please, Grey knights are awesome

 

[Crowsfoot]

Ok that makes it a bit less stupid I guess.

I still wonder: how was society when the Emperor was still active? The same amount of evil or less, for the common man and women of the Empire?

Space marine factions are doing the Emperor's work some to the letter, evil is everywhere and it needs to be stopped.

 

[Aginor]

Reading through the Space Marine articles now, their Orders, leaders and so on.
....man there is really some great fluff in there, it is just buried below mountains of ugly crap.

 

[Crowsfoot]

Reading through the Space Marine articles now, their Orders, leaders and so on.
....man there is really some great fluff in there, it is just buried below mountains of ugly crap.

Just like the real world