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I've only been playing since 5th edition came out. So not very long.

My question is, has any time in game passed since 1st edition till now?

If so how much time has passed.

Marginally. Since I started playing 2nd ed GW has been 'd*cken around 999.M41 but never really going beyond that date. Recently though they have expanded at least a hundred years into the 42nd millenia, though not to any great extent. The only really advancement per say might be the gradual breaking down of the Golden Throne, but ultimately no, in game time has not passed in any meaningful way.

The only change is that the timeline in the latest book talks about the End Times being upon the Galaxy.

The human race has been trembling on the brink of extinction for 30,000 years and still owns 1,000,000 planets.

The Eldar too have been a dying race for many millenia. No-one knows how many Exodite worlds there are.

The Tyranids have been an unstoppable force of total destruction for hundreds of years.

Nothing has really changed.

well I would cite the 13th black crusade as evidence of progression, before they ran that whole campaign Cadia was still an impenetrable fortress, now its depicted as something more akin to stalingrad with the Imperium and Chaos forces locked in planet wide combat, with the Imperium on its last legs. Plus you keep getting newer and bigger hive fleets and supposedly the Necrons are fully awakening, so I'd say its progressing.

The timeline is progressing albiet very slowly. For example, the Uriel Ventris books are slowly advancing the timeline, or at the very least the Ultramarine timeline. Codex SM still shows Captain Idaeus as Captain and he is dead but if you look at the timeline since Uriel has taken command scant years have actually passed.

Why does the timeline need to advance?

Its a setting for your toy soldier battles.

There is an entire universe and 10,000 years virtually empty of detail.

Create your own history in your own sector.

Look at what Dan Abnett has done with the Sabbat Sector. Nearly all his books take place there, yet rarely do the different storylines cross.

If they move forward and have a resolution, the balance between the races tips.

40,999 is the never-ending year of peril!

skrulnik wrote:Why does the timeline need to advance?

It doesn't. But some of us like a good story, and hearing the same story in the same years over and over again is dull.

yeah that was the thought myself and Laughing God were tossing around, the way things are going either the Imperium is going to fall or the Emperor is going to reincarnate and the whole thing is going to end lol

Melissia wrote:

skrulnik wrote:Why does the timeline need to advance?

It doesn't. But some of us like a good story, and hearing the same story in the same years over and over again is dull.

And there aren't any new stories in an entire universe?

The setting story isn't for the veterans. It is to set the stage for new players. Just like an RPG.

If you don't like it, do something for yourself to freshen the history up.

Personally, I like how they have fleshed out the Heresy. No need to move the story when you have something as big as the Horus Heresy to fill out.

How many versions of the Horus Heresy is GW going to produce again? Same story over and over again.

The lore is there for everyone, not just new players or veterans. That'd be silly, as quite often only the veterans actually KNOW the lore in the first place, not the new players. And then there's the fact that exploring it is the purpose behind Inquisitor, Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch. And games like DoW do their best to immerse the player in the lore, veteran or new, for the benefit of the player's enjoyment regardless of their level of experience.

Just like 40k tabletop.

This is one of those rare circumstances where I agree with Melissia.

You can't do 'the universe is ending' plots forever. Eventually you have to save it, or end it. Since I have started playing 'the Necrons have been awakening and getting stronger.' Meanwhile, in real life, a half a dozen wars have started, been fought, and ended. Makes the whole thing seem fake somehow. If you have a huge, dynamic world like this, you have to make changes to it. I would even accept changes I didn't necessarily like (removing one of the Inquisitorial orders, for example) rather than no change at all.

Yes, one of the things that makes 40k so great is that the stories that can be told in it are infinite. Tragically, the patience of myself and others is not infinite. I'm not about to just walk away, it hasn't gotten anywhere near that point. But I do agree that changes need to happen.

I agree too. So the game is called Warhammer 40,000 so what? It's time to go into the great unknown that is the year 41,000!
Also, just write what happened to the 2 lost primarchs so we don't have a new thread addressing it every week.

The problem here is though that no matter how much "progression" you have nothing will actually change in any real sense, the 40K universe will keep ending forever.

Throughout all the fluff there are always hints of what's going to happen in the long run, i.e the Emperor is reborn and saves the Imperium, the Tyranids will devour everything, the Necrons will seal off the immaterium and kill just about everbody, etc.

The only viable way here to satiate peoples' desire for conclusions is to have some sort of finale, with one faction becoming dominant and then setting all the battles players carry out as 'Historical Records' or something. The problem there is that whoever wins, a lot of people supporting other factions are going to be very cheesed off...

THAT can be solved by having some fun hypothetical "if X faction wins" stories.

That's actually a pretty good idea. Having a hypothetical ending for each faction laid out still leaves an awful lot of room for people to discuss which one is most likely and/or inherently correct, but everyone can take away the conclusion they like the best.

It would definitely satisfy me as they could wrap up the loose ends for every side without making any of them obsolete.

Melissia wrote:THAT can be solved by having some fun hypothetical "if X faction wins" stories.

Oooh, that'd be fun, but it'd also make the little skirmish going on between the players of various factions go nuclear......SM fanboys are scary enough already. We don't need to feed them anymore.....

Of course, I wouldn't mind reading about the Imperium's final assault on T'au. Or the Craftworld sieges. Or the resumption of the Great Crusade into the EYe of Terror with the God-Emperor and his remaining loyal sons at the lead. =)

skrulnik wrote:Why does the timeline need to advance?

Its a setting for your toy soldier battles.

There is an entire universe and 10,000 years virtually empty of detail.

Create your own history in your own sector.

Look at what Dan Abnett has done with the Sabbat Sector. Nearly all his books take place there, yet rarely do the different storylines cross.

If they move forward and have a resolution, the balance between the races tips.

It doesn't need to. I was just wondering if I missed anything from 1st edition to now.

I know there is a lot of back story and I have read a lot recently because I'm really getting into the background of the game. But just wanted to know if any time passed since 1st came out.

The problem is that, short of the Imperium either utterly collapsing or winning forever after, there is very little room for the timeline to continue if all factions are to be pleased. How would Eldar players feel if they were finnally wiped out, even if they did so guns blazing? How would the Tyranid players feel if the back of the Hive Mind was broken, even if they eat half the galaxy before it happens?

Any serious change is just to anger someone and please almost no one. This is why the Cadia/Armageddon campaigns ended in a stalemate, becuase a real win either way would just piss people off. The Medusa IV scenario was clever, becuase it didn't really advance the story while the campaign was underway. I only wonder how many times they're going to use this horse before even that gets old. The answer? As much as they can. I can't see GW jumping in their shoes at the chance of severely advancing the storyline unless it involves another stalmate or the advance is insignificant. Serious changes will just upset far too many.

ChrisWWII wrote:

Melissia wrote:THAT can be solved by having some fun hypothetical "if X faction wins" stories.

Oooh, that'd be fun, but it'd also make the little skirmish going on between the players of various factions go nuclear......SM fanboys are scary enough already. We don't need to feed them anymore.....

Of course, I wouldn't mind reading about the Imperium's final assault on T'au. Or the Craftworld sieges. Or the resumption of the Great Crusade into the EYe of Terror with the God-Emperor and his remaining loyal sons at the lead. =)

Who says they'll get as far as T'au? (Lol its starting already! )

But you are right. realistically though, the Tau are unlikely to come out on top. The only way they will continue to expand is if they are largely left alone, and the Imperium doesnt send all its might against them.

The Imperium doesn't need all it's might to scrub off the Tau. Compared to the forces raised to fight the Black Crusade, the Damocles Crusade was about as big as a Hot Wheels is compared to a tractor.

they could advance the timeline without losing the unending war thing.


they could kill all the Etheriels in the T'au Empire and have a massive T'au Incursion of Impierial space while simultaniously attacking the Tyranids.

the main Tyranid invasion could be stopped, but they can never be rooted out and will plague the galaxy for eternity.

Orks are, well, still orks.

the Eldar god of the Dead could be awakened before the entire race is destroyed and the Eldar are renewing their attempts the reclaim their old Empire and stop theNecrons.

Necrons wake up..........

the Impierium has a technological revolution either by Ad Mech repairing a bunch of STCs or finding a few functioning ones.

Emperor dies and is reincarnated as the Star Child and is, from his realm in the Warp, leading the Impierium to reconquor the Galaxy as a full fledged Deity and bring about his dream.

Chaos in turn launches an all out offensive against the revitilised impierium. LATD could come back as Impierial forces who do not belive that the Emperor has returned/opposes him as they have lost their former power(think Protastant Reformation)

I actually think having the Necrons wake up more might be better for GW monetarily than anything else. (Meaning something GW is most likely to do)

Think about it, if GW has the Necrons wake up more, then they can:

1) Make a new Necron codex (something the 'Crons are desperately overdo for)
2) They can make many more new models for the 'Crons that could be big sellers.

That I think could move the story along a LOT while also making GW alot more money, and not really piss most players off. Of course, I'm willing to bet someone will find some way to complain, but eh.....with a fandom this big you can't please everyone.

Of course, this isn't what I would like to see in the future of 40k fluff. I personally would like to see the Imperium somehow find a way to stage a comeback....I mean, as editions go on the Imperium slides more and more into 'completely, utterly boned' territory. Seeing the Imperium become more powerful again, and maybe actually delivering a crippling blow to one of their foes would be the best.

ChrisWWII wrote:
Of course, I wouldn't mind reading about the Imperium's final assault on T'au. Or the Craftworld sieges. Or the resumption of the Great Crusade into the EYe of Terror with the God-Emperor and his remaining loyal sons at the lead. =)

Imagine something on this epic scale done like the Forgeworld hardbacks. That'd be awesome.

The emp will just reincarnate and restart the great crusade, its not the end of 40k, just the end of the current situation of things. Its not like the emperor waking up will get trid of the nids or necrons or everything else that wants everything dead.

Not to mention the big 4 chaos gods would start actively participating in the world again to influence another heresy or downfall.

All in all i see things staying pretty much the same. Mabye humanity would have a massive civil war when the emp started saying he wasnt a god and they all need to stfu and stop worshipping him and split into a couple empires, which da emprah consolidates over a few thousand years.