I know the topic is kind a vague, but mine is that the bolt family of weapons have far less ammo than GW reports. Based on size and the caliber they shoot, I can't see a standard bolt gun having more than 15 rounds, and a bolt pistol maybe half that.

Whats yours.

My favourite head cannon is that the Primaris Project was actually job of the Emperor, to create better Space Marines, just like he did before with Thunder Warriors. He just stoped it mid-way because the Webway project was more important, and after the Horus Heresy happened and in the Throne isn't like he can end it.
Is lore that Space Marines wheren't the best job the Emperor Could do. Those where Custodes and Primarchs. Space Marines where the best the Emperor could MASS PRODUCE. So it makes sense for him to try to improve the process and make mass produced warriors that are just better.

Roboute Guilliman fount that project, half way done, and he commanded Belisarus to end it.

So the "This Mechanicus Magus IMPROVES the work of the god-emperor himself" changes to "This 10.000 yeard old Mechanicus Magus ended the work the emperor had already half-done"

There are billions of marines. It's the only way the work on a galactic level. The imperium loses 10,000 a day on a good day. 100,000s of thousands on bad days. Because galaxies are big.

HoundsofDemos wrote:
I know the topic is kind a vague, but mine is that the bolt family of weapons have far less ammo than GW reports. Based on size and the caliber they shoot, I can't see a standard bolt gun having more than 15 rounds, and a bolt pistol maybe half that.

Whats yours.

My minor head canon is that the majority of the Imperium is far more like what Caiphas Cain sees, than what you seen in the other IG novels. Cain's world and military seems like one that would actually work. Other than the weird troop numbers which are almost universally too small.

Martel732 wrote:
There are billions of marines. It's the only way the work on a galactic level. The imperium loses 10,000 a day on a good day. 100,000s of thousands on bad days. Because galaxies are big.

This.

I also apply the same increase in scale to fleet sizes, Eldar population numbers, etc.

On of mine is that the fluff about "every krieg women is pregnat" is a lie to hide the fact that the majority are all Vat grown. And that both men a women serve in the Krieg army, its just impossible to tell because of the gear and the fact that all the "normal" Private is usely 14-16 years old.

 Galas wrote:
My favourite head cannon is that the Primaris Project was actually job of the Emperor, to create better Space Marines, just like he did before with Thunder Warriors. He just stoped it mid-way because the Webway project was more important, and after the Horus Heresy happened and in the Throne isn't like he can end it.
Is lore that Space Marines wheren't the best job the Emperor Could do. Those where Custodes and Primarchs. Space Marines where the best the Emperor could MASS PRODUCE. So it makes sense for him to try to improve the process and make mass produced warriors that are just better.

Roboute Guilliman fount that project, half way done, and he commanded Belisarus to end it.

So the "This Mechanicus Magus IMPROVES the work of the god-emperor himself" changes to "This 10.000 yeard old Mechanicus Magus ended the work the emperor had already half-done"

They should have went with this to begin with, the whole primaris thing is just straight up heresy if you ask me. Way too much innovation going on in the imperium with 8th edition. I can't stop GW from crapping on their own setting though.

 Thargrim wrote:

 Galas wrote:
My favourite head cannon is that the Primaris Project was actually job of the Emperor, to create better Space Marines, just like he did before with Thunder Warriors. He just stoped it mid-way because the Webway project was more important, and after the Horus Heresy happened and in the Throne isn't like he can end it.
Is lore that Space Marines wheren't the best job the Emperor Could do. Those where Custodes and Primarchs. Space Marines where the best the Emperor could MASS PRODUCE. So it makes sense for him to try to improve the process and make mass produced warriors that are just better.

Roboute Guilliman fount that project, half way done, and he commanded Belisarus to end it.

So the "This Mechanicus Magus IMPROVES the work of the god-emperor himself" changes to "This 10.000 yeard old Mechanicus Magus ended the work the emperor had already half-done"

They should have went with this to begin with, the whole primaris thing is just straight up heresy if you ask me. Way too much innovation going on in the imperium with 8th edition. I can't stop GW from crapping on their own setting though.

If this is the case, then we shouldn't have anything new in the since first edition then.

Truthfull;y there s some evidance the Primaris Marines MAY have been essentially designed by the emperor. apparently the big key to their development has been some dohickey that stored more intact copies of the Primarchs gene sequencing (which is the root of space marines) and all the new organs where designed by the emperor (eaither stuff froim the custodes or the primarchs themselves) Cawl just implanted this stuff onto Space Marines. So Primaris Marines in that scope are less innovations and more "upgrade of a classic frame with some new toys"

 Galas wrote:
My favourite head cannon is that the Primaris Project was actually job of the Emperor, to create better Space Marines, just like he did before with Thunder Warriors. He just stoped it mid-way because the Webway project was more important, and after the Horus Heresy happened and in the Throne isn't like he can end it.
Is lore that Space Marines wheren't the best job the Emperor Could do. Those where Custodes and Primarchs. Space Marines where the best the Emperor could MASS PRODUCE. So it makes sense for him to try to improve the process and make mass produced warriors that are just better.

Roboute Guilliman fount that project, half way done, and he commanded Belisarus to end it.

So the "This Mechanicus Magus IMPROVES the work of the god-emperor himself" changes to "This 10.000 yeard old Mechanicus Magus ended the work the emperor had already half-done"

I like that.

My fan theory about NuMarines is that they are merely slightly tweaked Thunder Warriors. NuMarines are bigger and stronger than regular modern Marines... just like Thunder Warriors.

Basically, Cawl only made slight adjustments, most of them going towards making them more stable but even that took 10,000 years... and who's to say the process was perfect? I'm half expecting the first known incident where one of these newly fangled Glitter Boys snap and flip out. Any day now...

My favorite headcannon (which is due to the ambiguous wording on GW's part) is that there are actually a lot more Sisters than a lot of people suspect. In my head, each world's primary Ecclesiarchal presence is guarded by at least a squad, if not a whole convent of Sisters. The Orders Minoris are primarily defensive in nature, working with local defenders in order to protect the sanctity of Imperial worlds from the heretic, the xeno, and the daemon, thus allowing the Orders Majoris to join in on crusades and major combats en masse and retake that which was lost.

The official fluff only describes the number of Sisters in each of the Orders Majoris, but gives no limit to the numbers of minor orders, and no overall numbers for Sisters. I reckon there's at least as many Sisters as there are Stormtroopers and Commissars combined; possibly putting them in the billions.

The sisters are often raised in the schola progenium along with Commissars and storm troopers, so they should have roughly even numbers...if we assume that the ST's and commissars skew overwhelmingly male. I don't really like that assumption, but on the other hand I would expect an organization as important and prestigious as the Ministorum to recruit from multiple avenues, so the numbers of Sisters are likely to be much higher than the SP could produce, anyway.

Reasonable estimates put the number of IG in the Imperium at a few quadrillion, or hundreds of trillions at least. IG are the cream of the human military, the top percent of the PDF if I recall. If there is one sister for every thousand guardsmen, or for every 100,000 PDF soldiers, then there would be hundreds of billions of Sisters in the Imperium. They may not all be in the orders militant, but that is still a lot of women under arms.

Nitpick: a cannon is a projectile weapon, either artillery or at least big enough that it's no longer "just" a machine gun. Canon in the context of fiction is the "official" version of something.

My personal favorite is that the Tyranids are on their last legs, too inefficient and stupid to survive in a galaxy with intelligent life. Biotech is a nice scifi trope but woefully unsuited to interstellar conquest when the opposition has real tech. Especially seeing as living ships (and the crews) would be dead ships in an instant just from the radiation out there.

That the Black Templars have numbers very far beyond what the Codex Astartes dictates due to a) an extremely stable gene-seed that isn’t being hoarded carefully but actually used, b) a complete disregard for the Codex Astartes, and c) that they’ve spawned numerous successor chapters.

I can’t take credit for this one, but it’s my favorite of all time:
“Orks have a powerful collective psychic consciousness, so strong that if enough of them merely believe something it will happen; their red vehicles go faster and seemingly impossible weapons work. They enjoy war above all else, and it is the common, unifying trait among all Orks. It’s estimated that Orks may be one of, if not the most numerous species in the galaxy.
And thus in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war”.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
There are billions of marines. It's the only way the work on a galactic level. The imperium loses 10,000 a day on a good day. 100,000s of thousands on bad days. Because galaxies are big.

This.

I also apply the same increase in scale to fleet sizes, Eldar population numbers, etc.

Yes, yes, of course. It's not just a marine thing. But they are the most egregious offenders.

 gnome_idea_what wrote:
That the Black Templars have numbers very far beyond what the Codex Astartes dictates due to a) an extremely stable gene-seed that isn’t being hoarded carefully but actually used, b) a complete disregard for the Codex Astartes, and c) that they’ve spawned numerous successor chapters.

This isn't head canon, is actually true. Black Templars have various Crusader Fleet at the same time, with all of them having thousands of marines.

 Galas wrote:

 gnome_idea_what wrote:
That the Black Templars have numbers very far beyond what the Codex Astartes dictates due to a) an extremely stable gene-seed that isn’t being hoarded carefully but actually used, b) a complete disregard for the Codex Astartes, and c) that they’ve spawned numerous successor chapters.

This isn't head canon, is actually true. Black Templars have various Crusader Fleet at the same time, with all of them having thousands of marines.

Yes, but the numbers have gone from “hundreds of thousands” to “a few hundred over” from edition to edition.

So you're saying Black Templars have tens of billions instead of billions. Got it.

Martel732 wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
There are billions of marines. It's the only way the work on a galactic level. The imperium loses 10,000 a day on a good day. 100,000s of thousands on bad days. Because galaxies are big.

This.

I also apply the same increase in scale to fleet sizes, Eldar population numbers, etc.

Yes, yes, of course. It's not just a marine thing. But they are the most egregious offenders.

I was agreeing with you. One million space marines spread through a whole galaxy might as well not even exist. One per Imperial planet.

And I agreed back

If Eldar are using advanced hydroponics and living spaces like an arcology, they can squeeze billions and billions onto craft worlds. That's not a "dying race". They just need water (abundant) and organic molecule sources (abundant).

Because vehicles can assault now and that models with the Fly rule can target flyers in assault, it is now my headcanon that, at some point, a monolith bodyslammed an aircraft out of the sky.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Because vehicles can assault now and that models with the Fly rule can target flyers in assault, it is now my headcanon that, at some point, a monolith bodyslammed an aircraft out of the sky.

Sure, why not? A Drukhari skimmer assaulted by primaris lieutenant, and he killed it. So, in my head, he gave it a Zangief SPD.

The Salamanders have 9 companies: The veteran Firedrakes (aka First Company), 4 battle companies, 3 reserve companies and the Scout company. That's it.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Because vehicles can assault now and that models with the Fly rule can target flyers in assault, it is now my headcanon that, at some point, a monolith bodyslammed an aircraft out of the sky.

Certainly possible. Monoliths move surprisingly fast and have a lot of mass behind them, and aircraft in 40k tend towards pathetic rather that impressive given technology in the universe, so all it takes in an incompetent pilot not taking evasive maneuvers and a Cryptek with an extremely creative mind, and WHAM! Bodyslammed by a Monolith.

Between "extra" Great Companies out sailing the sea of stars and "conservative" reporting of those Companies residetn in the Fang, the Space Wolves are basically still operating at Legion strength.

The Primaris marines are based on the same approach as Corax used with the Raptors (before the Alpha Legion contaminated the new geneseed).

Spetulhu wrote:
Nitpick: a cannon is a projectile weapon, either artillery or at least big enough that it's no longer "just" a machine gun. Canon in the context of fiction is the "official" version of something.

My personal favorite is that the Tyranids are on their last legs, too inefficient and stupid to survive in a galaxy with intelligent life. Biotech is a nice scifi trope but woefully unsuited to interstellar conquest when the opposition has real tech. Especially seeing as living ships (and the crews) would be dead ships in an instant just from the radiation out there.

Youre awfully unimaginative..

 greyknight12 wrote:
I can’t take credit for this one, but it’s my favorite of all time:
“Orks have a powerful collective psychic consciousness, so strong that if enough of them merely believe something it will happen; their red vehicles go faster and seemingly impossible weapons work. They enjoy war above all else, and it is the common, unifying trait among all Orks. It’s estimated that Orks may be one of, if not the most numerous species in the galaxy.
And thus in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war”.

Head canon is gak you make up. The above is actual canon. That's totally how orks work.

My favourite headcanon is that sergeants without helmets have forcefields to protect thier heads and attract sniper bullets.

Makes perfect sense but AFAIK has never been taken up by an official source.

Ork headcanon. What orks believe is true. Orks believe commisar Yarrick is invincible, as strong as an ork and kill wiht his sight alone therefore commisar Yarrick is invincible, as strong as an ork using a powerklaw and has an eyeppatch that kills.

My favourite head-canon is that Roboute Guilliman is actually papa-smurf. Not as nick-name, but that he is actually papa-smurf. Prepare to be surprised.

Martel732 wrote:
There are billions of marines. It's the only way the work on a galactic level. The imperium loses 10,000 a day on a good day. 100,000s of thousands on bad days. Because galaxies are big.

If I had to pick any one thing to make true, it'd be this...

 kinratha wrote:
On of mine is that the fluff about "every krieg women is pregnat" is a lie to hide the fact that the majority are all Vat grown. And that both men a women serve in the Krieg army, its just impossible to tell because of the gear and the fact that all the "normal" Private is usely 14-16 years old.

This, however, is awesome

 Galas wrote:
My favourite head cannon is that the Primaris Project was actually job of the Emperor, to create better Space Marines, just like he did before with Thunder Warriors. He just stoped it mid-way because the Webway project was more important, and after the Horus Heresy happened and in the Throne isn't like he can end it.
Is lore that Space Marines wheren't the best job the Emperor Could do. Those where Custodes and Primarchs. Space Marines where the best the Emperor could MASS PRODUCE. So it makes sense for him to try to improve the process and make mass produced warriors that are just better.

Roboute Guilliman fount that project, half way done, and he commanded Belisarus to end it.

So the "This Mechanicus Magus IMPROVES the work of the god-emperor himself" changes to "This 10.000 yeard old Mechanicus Magus ended the work the emperor had already half-done"

My little bit of headcanon is sort of like this, but with a little twist that adds a little more nuance and narrative potential.

Primaris are Thunder Warriors.

Cawl didn't invent them. Cawl didn't do jack. He did what every Mechanicus 'inventor' does: sift through the detritus of their once-glorious civilisation for sacred archaeo-tech and appropriate it for themselves. Cawl's been (heretically) raiding the Emperor's old laboratories and strongholds for evidence and machinery for mass-producing Thunder Warriors.

The reason I think this is better isn't just the whole Tech Priest thing, but it also means that each and every Primaris is a psychopathic killing machine (so unstable that the Emperor replaced them with the physically inferior but more predictable Astartes) just waiting to break out of its (probably inadequate) indoctrinated conditioning.

Yeah I like that. Cawl's devious and a liar, Primaris are potentially a horrible mistake (although maybe not).

Also...what happens when Primaris find out what they are and what the Emperor did to their predecessors? What happens when Astartes find out what they are?

All of the fluff is poorly sourced imperial propaganda, hence the reality could well be closer to the actual games than the books which just so happen to greatly favor their protagonists. Space marines aren't THAT amazing, nor that limited in number, guardsmen fight and break like regular men, so on.

Makes the setting in general make a lot more sense, while encouraging you to do the same kind of nonsense because you can and there's no real reason to question it.

"If I had to pick any one thing to make true, it'd be this... "

It's kind of true whether GW wants it to be or not, because galactic size is not negotiable.

Martel732 wrote:
galactic size is not negotiable.

What if my head canon is that the galaxy is really really tiny ?

In all seriousness the idea that there’s room for anything you want in the 40kverse is one of the things that drew me to it, and I’m glad when GW encourages it by leaving things like the missing Tau expansion fleet or Cypher’s motives open-ended.

Open-ended is way better than a nonsense number, I agree.

My favorite bit of headcanon is that Tzeentch engineered the deaths of Ethereals in Farsight's expedition and the existence of the Farsight Enclave is a Chaos plot.

YeOldSaltPotato wrote:
All of the fluff is poorly sourced imperial propaganda, hence the reality could well be closer to the actual games than the books which just so happen to greatly favor their protagonists. Space marines aren't THAT amazing, nor that limited in number, guardsmen fight and break like regular men, so on.

Makes the setting in general make a lot more sense, while encouraging you to do the same kind of nonsense because you can and there's no real reason to question it.

This is one of my favourite techniques too not just Imperial propaganda either, but basically no-one really knows anything particularly well. The eldar know better, but only enough to come across as arrogant. Everyone's scrabbling around in the dirt of their former greatness.

So yeah, propaganda and ignorance.

 gnome_idea_what wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
galactic size is not negotiable.

What if my head canon is that the galaxy is really really tiny ?

Ok. New headcanon. Over 40,000 years humanity has evolved to be a shade over 28mm tall.

Space Marines are life size.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
There are billions of marines. It's the only way the work on a galactic level. The imperium loses 10,000 a day on a good day. 100,000s of thousands on bad days. Because galaxies are big.

If I had to pick any one thing to make true, it'd be this...

 kinratha wrote:
On of mine is that the fluff about "every krieg women is pregnat" is a lie to hide the fact that the majority are all Vat grown. And that both men a women serve in the Krieg army, its just impossible to tell because of the gear and the fact that all the "normal" Private is usely 14-16 years old.

This, however, is awesome

 Galas wrote:
My favourite head cannon is that the Primaris Project was actually job of the Emperor, to create better Space Marines, just like he did before with Thunder Warriors. He just stoped it mid-way because the Webway project was more important, and after the Horus Heresy happened and in the Throne isn't like he can end it.
Is lore that Space Marines wheren't the best job the Emperor Could do. Those where Custodes and Primarchs. Space Marines where the best the Emperor could MASS PRODUCE. So it makes sense for him to try to improve the process and make mass produced warriors that are just better.

Roboute Guilliman fount that project, half way done, and he commanded Belisarus to end it.

So the "This Mechanicus Magus IMPROVES the work of the god-emperor himself" changes to "This 10.000 yeard old Mechanicus Magus ended the work the emperor had already half-done"

My little bit of headcanon is sort of like this, but with a little twist that adds a little more nuance and narrative potential.

Primaris are Thunder Warriors.

Cawl didn't invent them. Cawl didn't do jack. He did what every Mechanicus 'inventor' does: sift through the detritus of their once-glorious civilisation for sacred archaeo-tech and appropriate it for themselves. Cawl's been (heretically) raiding the Emperor's old laboratories and strongholds for evidence and machinery for mass-producing Thunder Warriors.

The reason I think this is better isn't just the whole Tech Priest thing, but it also means that each and every Primaris is a psychopathic killing machine (so unstable that the Emperor replaced them with the physically inferior but more predictable Astartes) just waiting to break out of its (probably inadequate) indoctrinated conditioning.

Yeah I like that. Cawl's devious and a liar, Primaris are potentially a horrible mistake (although maybe not).

Also...what happens when Primaris find out what they are and what the Emperor did to their predecessors? What happens when Astartes find out what they are?

I like the Thunder Warrior bit, no I LOVE it. That's how I'll have to look at them from now on because it makes sense and is awesome at the same time, and also the Thunder Warriors start to degenerate much more rapidly than the Marines so that would be an interesting element in the story too.

For me, I would have at least a single loyalist WB (Narek is so close!!) confirmed to have existed during the HH in some form so that I can make a loyalist WB without getting dirty looks all the time haha.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

YeOldSaltPotato wrote:
All of the fluff is poorly sourced imperial propaganda, hence the reality could well be closer to the actual games than the books which just so happen to greatly favor their protagonists. Space marines aren't THAT amazing, nor that limited in number, guardsmen fight and break like regular men, so on.

Makes the setting in general make a lot more sense, while encouraging you to do the same kind of nonsense because you can and there's no real reason to question it.

This is one of my favourite techniques too not just Imperial propaganda either.

Yeah, I really hate how some people seem to think only the Imperium will use propaganda.

Commander Farsight's Dawn Blade is a Chaos artifact that is slowly and subconciously turning him into a Khorne worshipper. That would explain his aggressiveness, his red paint job and the fact that he forms a band of Eight with his most trusted companions.

Dark Eldar aren't exclusively limited to feeding on negative emotions and pain..rather, extreme emotion of any sort is enough to sate the lusts of Slaaneesh.

Kabalites Mike Wazowski and James Sullivan discovered that laughter would sustain their beings far more effectively than pain, tragically were unable to share their findings, as a passing Archon flensed and doused the pair with lemon juice out of boredom.

That interstellar space is full of AoT and DAoT/early Long Night ships and 'ohneals' that guessed better than to contact anyone current.

Also that known Tyranid Hive Fleets is merely diversion or 'DNA harvesters' (or military wing) while REAL (worker) fleets are gorging on C-H-O-N (carbon-hydrogen-oxygen-nitrogen - building materials for organics) of uninhabitable rocks and gas clouds everywhere other than inhabited systems.

Possibly they even fight.

 kinratha wrote:
On of mine is that the fluff about "every krieg women is pregnat" is a lie to hide the fact that the majority are all Vat grown. And that both men a women serve in the Krieg army, its just impossible to tell because of the gear and the fact that all the "normal" Private is usely 14-16 years old.

I thought it was cannon that they were vat grown?

agurus1 wrote:

I thought it was cannon that they were vat grown?

As far as I know it's never been conclusively stated.

Either choice would be Krieg-level Grimdark though.


As for my favourite head canon, it's that every battlefield in 40K is drenched in ECM. Space Marine drop pods rarely get shot down because all targeting systems are being scrambled. Only highly sophisticated and expensive technology bypasses most of the ECM. This helps explain why the range and accuracy of even advanced technology in 40K can seem so low. They can't mass produce equipment that overcomes the ECM.

 Melissia wrote:
My favorite headcannon (which is due to the ambiguous wording on GW's part) is that there are actually a lot more Sisters than a lot of people suspect. In my head, each world's primary Ecclesiarchal presence is guarded by at least a squad, if not a whole convent of Sisters. The Orders Minoris are primarily defensive in nature, working with local defenders in order to protect the sanctity of Imperial worlds from the heretic, the xeno, and the daemon, thus allowing the Orders Majoris to join in on crusades and major combats en masse and retake that which was lost.

The official fluff only describes the number of Sisters in each of the Orders Majoris, but gives no limit to the numbers of minor orders, and no overall numbers for Sisters. I reckon there's at least as many Sisters as there are Stormtroopers and Commissars combined; possibly putting them in the billions.

I like this too, there's no reason for it not to be the case eaither. the nly differance between the SOBs and stomtroopers/commissars (given their similer base orgin) would be equipment. and I can't see SOB power armor being THAT big of a bottleneck

 Galas wrote:
My favourite head cannon is that the Primaris Project was actually job of the Emperor, to create better Space Marines, just like he did before with Thunder Warriors. He just stoped it mid-way because the Webway project was more important, and after the Horus Heresy happened and in the Throne isn't like he can end it.
Is lore that Space Marines wheren't the best job the Emperor Could do. Those where Custodes and Primarchs. Space Marines where the best the Emperor could MASS PRODUCE. So it makes sense for him to try to improve the process and make mass produced warriors that are just better.

Roboute Guilliman fount that project, half way done, and he commanded Belisarus to end it.

So the "This Mechanicus Magus IMPROVES the work of the god-emperor himself" changes to "This 10.000 yeard old Mechanicus Magus ended the work the emperor had already half-done"

Pretty much this.

We know the Astartes were an emergency stop gap. Produced when the Primarchs went walkies as a way to salvage what The Emperor could.

There's absolutely no suggestion in the pre or Heresy background that the Astartes as we know them are the final design. The Emperor just knew he couldn't progress much further without recovering The Primarchs, and had run out of time - The Great Crusade had to be launched. After all, the clearing of the Warp Storms benefitted all species, not just humanity. The Emperor had to seize the initiative and commit before anyone else could realistically take advantage.

He did away with the Thunder Warriors when it suited him. Why should Astartes be any different?

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 greyknight12 wrote:
I can’t take credit for this one, but it’s my favorite of all time:
“Orks have a powerful collective psychic consciousness, so strong that if enough of them merely believe something it will happen; their red vehicles go faster and seemingly impossible weapons work. They enjoy war above all else, and it is the common, unifying trait among all Orks. It’s estimated that Orks may be one of, if not the most numerous species in the galaxy.
And thus in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war”.

Head canon is gak you make up. The above is actual canon. That's totally how orks work.

And Ork headcanon is some Dakka you put on your ‘elmet to mince some Eldar even faster than me shoota by itself.

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 greyknight12 wrote:
I can’t take credit for this one, but it’s my favorite of all time:
“Orks have a powerful collective psychic consciousness, so strong that if enough of them merely believe something it will happen; their red vehicles go faster and seemingly impossible weapons work. They enjoy war above all else, and it is the common, unifying trait among all Orks. It’s estimated that Orks may be one of, if not the most numerous species in the galaxy.
And thus in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war”.

Head canon is gak you make up. The above is actual canon. That's totally how orks work.

Pretty sure the head-cannon is that...

 greyknight12 wrote:
I can’t take credit for this one, but it’s my favorite of all time:
“Orks have a powerful collective psychic consciousness, so strong that if enough of them merely believe something it will happen; their red vehicles go faster and seemingly impossible weapons work. They enjoy war above all else, and it is the common, unifying trait among all Orks. It’s estimated that Orks may be one of, if not the most numerous species in the galaxy.

is the cause of...

 greyknight12 wrote:
And thus in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war”.

Essentially he's saying that the constant state of galactic war is caused by there being enough Orks who believe that this is how the galaxy should be.

I know Terminator armor is pretty durable, but there's only so much damage armor can take before it really becomes useless.

So based off the fact that part of Tyberos' armor, specifically the helmet, is shown in one of the Horus Heresy books, I came to the conclusion that only a really skilled Marine would be able to keep such armor in good condition while killing dudes. Tyberos could be much older than anyone knows...

Not all Nurgle CSM are miserable and/or grim like the Death Guard.

Torquar wrote:

 EmpNortonII wrote:

 greyknight12 wrote:
I can’t take credit for this one, but it’s my favorite of all time:
“Orks have a powerful collective psychic consciousness, so strong that if enough of them merely believe something it will happen; their red vehicles go faster and seemingly impossible weapons work. They enjoy war above all else, and it is the common, unifying trait among all Orks. It’s estimated that Orks may be one of, if not the most numerous species in the galaxy.
And thus in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war”.

Head canon is gak you make up. The above is actual canon. That's totally how orks work.

Pretty sure the head-cannon is that...

 greyknight12 wrote:
I can’t take credit for this one, but it’s my favorite of all time:
“Orks have a powerful collective psychic consciousness, so strong that if enough of them merely believe something it will happen; their red vehicles go faster and seemingly impossible weapons work. They enjoy war above all else, and it is the common, unifying trait among all Orks. It’s estimated that Orks may be one of, if not the most numerous species in the galaxy.

is the cause of...

 greyknight12 wrote:
And thus in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war”.

Essentially he's saying that the constant state of galactic war is caused by there being enough Orks who believe that this is how the galaxy should be.

Which is canon.

Or not

I like to believe that there were MANY failed "primarchs" that the emperor either threw out the back dor, killed them on the spot, or ended up within the thunderwarriors and/or astartes, maybe siggy, kharn and a few others are more than meets the eye, maybe incredibly closely related to "their" primarch so that they got put into the legion of said primarch

A faction of the Primaris Marines will eventually revolt against the Imperium leading to all Primaris Marines are declared Excommunicate Traitoris. The Primaris Marines who survive the initial purge retreat into the depths of the galaxy, fighting a continuous war against Chaos and the Imperium for survival.

My best favorite head cannon is based off of Rogue Trader original introduction of WH40K back in 80's combined with the current grimdark setting. For example:

The Imperium of Man's Space Marines consist of brainwashed genetically enhanced super warrior thugs. This was the original concept for Space Marines: getting drunk, doing drugs, smoking cigars, raping and pillaging, policing, pushing around the regular guardsmen. Look to /tg/'s wikia article on the ORIGINAL Games Workshop Space Marines. Actually quite similar to StarCraft's marines (in behavior, not equipment and power level) but GW's Space Marines came first!

There are also Space Marines that are indoctrinated as the genetically enhanced super warrior monks, well disciplined, fearless, religiously devoted to the Emperor. that which we see in the latest editions of the Codexes. Also, space marine dicks do in fact work. xD

- - - - - - -

Also, there are alot more bipedal humanoid sapient alien species out there. Its a giant cluster feth in the milky way galaxy, an experiment gone wrong. The old ones for this galaxy went and created the SECOND most hardcore galaxy of all time.

The Old ones that created the Tyranid's original galaxy.... THAT was the most insane life experiment ever, THE most hardcore galaxy of all time - matter and energy consuming itself for eternity...

Also, Dark Eldar can still be powerful psykers, outside of Comorragh. They can tap into their superior eldar genetics and re awaken their latent psychic abilities. Therefore some of the DE's realspace raids consists of intense psykers creating absolute chaos on the battlefield.

Also, the Renegade Guardsmen, and Chaos lead factions of humans are not all ridiculously grimdark settings to live in. Some chaos planets would look pretty similar to imperial controlled planets.

I assume all planets that are taken over by military action are tiny. I can’t wrap my head around companies of space marines, predator tanks, and land speeders overtaking a planet the size of Jupiter. It’s mind boggling. So all planets are tiny.

I like to think 40k is our destiny and maybe someone of my progeny will be a space marine. My buddy and I often joke about our great great x75,000 grand children and what Legion they’ll be a part of.

I never thought about the Orcs believing in war causing the grim darkness of the far future. That is fething badass

 DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr wrote:
Also, the Renegade Guardsmen, and Chaos lead factions of humans are not all ridiculously grimdark settings to live in. Some chaos planets would look pretty similar to imperial controlled planets.

Maybe, but they will all eventually fall in to the grimdarkness you'd expect, as the Chaos Gods demand more sacrifice, and the leaders and powermongers of their society desire more power at any cost. The Chaos Gods, after all, care little for the concerns of 'mortals', they do not really even understand our existence. Theirs, after all, is a very simplistic one, in which belief is reality; the constraints of realspace are as alien to them as the warp is to us.

Does Emperor TTS count as minor?

Captyn_Bob wrote:
My favourite headcanon is that sergeants without helmets have forcefields to protect thier heads and attract sniper bullets.

Makes perfect sense but AFAIK has never been taken up by an official source.

I swear I remember something to this effect on terminator plate - I think theyre called "skull fields"?

I prefer to just give my sergeants helmets.

 Melissia wrote:
They will all eventually fall in to the grimdarkness you'd expect

Most, but not all. It depends on the user; most users are inexperienced, you are correct. But Chaos was born from us (sentience). Without us, (without our souls, our true existence) there can be no chaos. A true wielder of the arcane and extra-ordinary, someone who is 'free", fully aware (which is rare, thanks to galactic Imperial indoctrination) can and will, enforce.

I like the story when the Laughing god was trying to evade Slaanesh and the mythos Falcon swooped in at the last second to sacrifice itself so that the trickster could escape and now the bird is in eteranally picking at the innards of Slaanesh.

Must be crowded in there. I read that even though Slaanesh devoured the strongest of the elder gods Asuramen That the diety is very much alive inside the deamons belly...being too powerful to be destroyed but now is imprisoned. Story is that when Slaanesh is destroy he will emerge and restart the mythos

that the missing Primarchs are Femarines who saw the Big E and his boys club for the disaster in waiting it turned out to be and sodded off for parts unknown with thier Lady Legions

That Eldar Gods were warp ghost of the Old Ones.

That a lot of the superheroic exploits depicted in the fluff, (especially those concerning Primarchs or a certain Grey Knight) are just ludicrously exaggerated legends or even pure fabrication.

That the Primaris marines are just a part of gradual improvement efforts of Space Marines, just like the Cursed Founding chapters were (and just like then, there may be some yet unseen problems.)

That Belissarius Cawl is not a single individual in any conventional sense; there have been numerous Belissarii, it is just that his vast knowledge is preserved in his databanks when new organic brains are plugged in the existing exoskeleton.

My favourite minor head canon is Yriel's "eye of wrath".

@admironheart: Thats some good lore right there.

-----------
CHAOS. What is it really? In WH40K, its an umbrella term for all of the "beyond-this-dimension" stuff, like Psykers, and chaos "gods", etc. The biggest and most true mythos of this universe is of the 4 chaos gods, who have taken up arms in the Milky Way Galaxy. There's no denying them, you've all sensed their presence. Of course the Imperium hides the full truth from its public, so, for anyone under their regime, "extra curricular" learning is required for you to understand just how much bigger the world really is. But, regardless of your upbringing, you all know in your gut that there is much more out there than meets the eye.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -


We play the ultimate game. The game is called duality. For, in this life, in this dimension - in this particular reality, you can, and will, break down anything and everything surrounding yourself, for better or worse. On this limited plane of existence, you reside in that body of yours, for the most part. So, in your life? Everything other than you and your physical form, is of a secondary concern. Your self comes first! Your surroundings, are under your strict scrutiny. This is your world, and you are in control.... and, for a fee, you can potentially control it all! Muhahaha **<--- whisperings of chaos **

People have a choice. Chaos is the primary result of people serving themselves to the detriment of the universe. The word god is supposed to be used to represent the universe as a whole; when you pray to "god", its supposed to mean that you pray to the universe, you pray to the true components of real life, instead of surrendering to a false prophet.

Fast forward 40 thousand years in the future, and this (WH40K) galaxy has become so acquainted with its own chaos, that new realities have been integrated into its populace. The Old Ones who fostered this galaxy fell spectacularly, so life here has gone totally psycho. People are crazy because Chaos has gained enough mass to replace god. Hell, we've played the game so hard and far (looking at you, Eldar!) that chaos has fething EXPLODED! Its so big, we've been able to divide it into multiple sections and categorize certain parts. Its ridiculous.

And so we pray for the Emperor's help....


..... and yet.... the Emperor is claiming to be God, as so many before him have. Is he truly serving us and our combined universe? Or just himself? People can have multiple reasons for their actions, but, mathematically, you can add up the sum total of their soul's energetic orientation: Ultimately the soul spark is either a positive charge (service to the universe) or a negative charge (service to one's self) in the overworld, in the higher dimensions of this vast universe, on the much more pure, energetic level.

In the lower planes of existence, we can separate, and wage war on each other. This is duality. This is the game.

But a lot of energy has consolidated and taken form, and has created its own reality. Hence chaos.

 DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr wrote:
Most, but not all. It depends on the user; most users are inexperienced, you are correct. But Chaos was born from us (sentience). Without us, (without our souls, our true existence) there can be no chaos.

And yet, there's no evidence Chaos cares.

Self-preservation is a human thing, not a Chaos thing. Indeed, the entities of Chaos urge their followers to behave in utterly fanatical, suicidal ways to please them-- and for the sheer and sole sake of pleasing them, often sacrificing tactical advantages to do so.

Because no matter how experienced the "user" is, it doesn't matter if the system they're using is inherently self-destructive.

Melissia wrote:Because no matter how experienced the "user" is, it doesn't matter if the system they're using is inherently self-destructive.

Ah, but who created this "system"? Didn't we ourselves? Or sentience itself, galactically? If it weren't for our emotions, our souls, then there'd be nothing for these daemons to feed off of. These deamons maybe would not even exist. So, we essentially made chaos ourselves. Therefore, we could control it.

But... maybe we (as humans) didn't create the current mess that is Chaos. Perhaps some outside force deliberately created this hellspawn just to feth with us.

What do you think? Just what the hell IS chaos? Did we create it? Can it be peaceful? Were all the currents and flows and eddies of energy in the immaterium/empyrean at one time peaceful?

Or has chaos always been about absolute madness?

Somewhere, somehow, an ork has become an Imperial Inquisitor. He is very good at his job.

My favourite would be if the cosmos rearranged itself and everyone always refereed to a parent "chapter" and the first founding "chapters" correctly as a parent legion.

I like to think that Imperial reports about the decimation of Squat homeworlds is propaganda put out by the Squats so everybody would just leave them alone.

I’m going to assimilate that Belisarii headcanon. It opens up so many delightful pathways.

Mine is Ferrus Manus is being cloned, tempted by Fulgrim, killed, and cloned again. Eventually Robbie G will find one of the clones and free him and Ferus Manus will return to the Imperium now lacking necrodermis hands and be disgusted by what his iron hands have become.

 DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr wrote:
Ah, but who created this "system"? Didn't we ourselves?

Chaos was created by a gigantic feth-everything war that screwed the galaxy up so hard that it also fethed up the afterlife. It is a byproduct of the biggest war the galaxy has ever seen, that makes the Horus Heresy or any of Abby's little crusades look like a playground spat in comparison.

Imagine if you will, a country annihilated from border to border by nuclear weapons, with all major cities and medium-sized towns little more than glowing craters, and suburbs and rural villages the only things left over. The massive entity that is the Imperium, the huge hordes of the Orks, the massive fleets of the Tyranid hivemind, the remnants of the Eldar and the Necrons, the upstart xenos races like the Tau-- all of them are nothing more than tiny little villages, roving tribes, and irradiated suburbs compared to the warring city-states that existed before the War in Heaven.

Chaos is, essentially, the radiation left over from said war, killing, corrupting, and mutating everything it touches-- and with a half life that is going to last until the heat death of the universe, it is not going away. Hell, somehow, it's even gained sentience! I doubt even the death of all sentient beings in the galaxy would do anything more than cause Chaos to slumber. And even if you had a way to try to utilize that radiation, every attempt to do so will ultimately kill you, and probably everyone around you as well.

Thinking of the Chaos as merely a tool does not give it credit. Though Chaos wants you to think of it that way...

That gets an exalt. It's the straight forward blunt of it. The hellish daemonic landscape of the Immaterium is a lingering projection of the hostilities from the largest war in the galaxy's history.

 Lance845 wrote:
Mine is Ferrus Manus is being cloned, tempted by Fulgrim, killed, and cloned again. Eventually Robbie G will find one of the clones and free him and Ferus Manus will return to the Imperium now lacking necrodermis hands and be disgusted by what his iron hands have become.

Didn't the cyberbois disable their emotion inhibitors to slay a Keeper of Secrets, permanently?

My headcanon is that the Traitor Legions side suffered a bit more heavily than the Loyalist Legions. I always thought that it was dumb that almost all the traitor Primarchs have been turned into Daemon Princes and that their aren't more traitor Primarch deaths on their side.

1. First I would have had Perturabo and Dorn die fighting in the iron cage slaughterfest.

2. Second actually have Konrad Kurze die by Sanguinius hands. Sanguinius, for all the kindness and mercy in his heart, should have just taken one look at Kurze, remembered of what all he has done and simply just snapped his neck on the spot.

3. Three Russ kills Angron because at this point he knows that Angron is suffering greatly because of the nails & it would be stupid to think that Angron would take any lesson from Russ with a grain of salt.

4. Four Russ actually goes to the Emperor to confirm that he wants Magnus killed. While he may hate the fact that Magnus uses sorcery all whily nily that doesn't mean that he wants to kill over it. I would have had Horus exterminatus Magnus's planet thus promting him to take reins of the rebellion early or have Chaos helping/tricking an aliens species, that were brought to close extinction by the empires hand, to help kill Magnus off.

Another headcanon that I have is that the Iron Men were not completely destroyed and some have fled a bit early on near the end during the Dark Age of Technology. Also have them be the ones to revive Guilliman because I hate the Man+Elves=Win trope that GW decided to put in the Gathering Storm series. There's too much bad blood between the two with the fact that Eldar would sacrifice/kill billions imperial citizens to save their own and vice versa for the Imperium due to the Eldar's deeds.

My favourite is that the Chaos God's weren't that bad untill Slaanesh came along. Then the God of excesses presence amplified the worst traits of the Ruinous Powers to the frothing insanity we know them as now.

The legion of the damned pop up - or are at least hinted at - in master of mankind, a heresy novel.

The short story animus malorem shows that they can and do recruit (sort of), not that the process is a good thing to experience...

Assuming the legion originated in the psychic and emotional turmoil of the heresy:
- Black armour with silver trim says iron hands
- black armour with bone-white detail says raven guard
- archaic armour with flame details says salamanders
- a stylised composite of the above as a representation of 'the unjustly dead' says dropsite massacre
- the animus malorem is an unusually large skull with whichbthe legion seem to share a spiritual link

- The animus malorem is ferrus manus' flensed skull (last seen of horus' desk, and which he's started talking to. It may actually be genuinely talking back.....)

Xeno daemons
Evil god of anotget galaxy or dimension become so powerful that their demons start ripping through the walls of the universe to invade current reality. The grey knights and deathwatch become one.

1: The Imperium really isn't that awfull to live in 'cept for it's constant state of warfare. That for the average middle class citizens the arts, sports, travelling, litterature and entertainment available dwarfs what we imagine today.

2: The Tyranids has never come across a military even remotely similar to the Imperium in terms of scale (not to mention orks, necrons, Eldars and so on). Therefore they are for the first time caught on the back foot and must develop intelectually instead of just physically.

3: Yarrick is a perpetual. Made a long thread about this a long time ago.

4: The Tyranids are attracted by the Astronomican, like moths to a flame. Not because whatever the HH books says. Something about a magic box button thing.

5: Space marines don't actually matter very much. That the few engagements where they make a diffrence are few, far between and always over propagated afterwards.

6: that the High lords of Terra are competent. Ha! No, not really.

My favorite head canon is that Sigmar really was one of the lost Primarchs.

 Galas wrote:

 gnome_idea_what wrote:
That the Black Templars have numbers very far beyond what the Codex Astartes dictates due to a) an extremely stable gene-seed that isn’t being hoarded carefully but actually used, b) a complete disregard for the Codex Astartes, and c) that they’ve spawned numerous successor chapters.

This isn't head canon, is actually true. Black Templars have various Crusader Fleet at the same time, with all of them having thousands of marines.

Yeah BT actually make some sense, and I suspect Wolves ignore a lot of the same rules as well, and there are minimally several dozen more Great Companies wandering around the galaxy.

As non-codex chapters they're also the only ones that can function too, as the codex structure for chapter companies is a farce. The first and tenth companies are almost always go to be split up and organized with other companies in a 'real' unit formation with a functional Table of Organization and Equipment. And the 'reserve companies' are non starters at all, as the state of the galaxy doesn't allow for reserves in that way. They'd be mixed up into functional battalions and sent out with a workable order of battle, and the vehicle pool nearly always split up into active theaters or fleets.

I might be willing to swallow that the 'chapter' as a unit is the formal honor guard and training regiment for their homeworld or fortress/battlestation, but most of the codex structure resembles nothing anyone would send out into the field, especially not in pieces.

And the books that have a half dozen marines being sent out as the entire complement with their own strike cruiser are just nuts. And yes, looking at you, Priests of Mars.

My homebrew chapter - Wings of Dawn - actually does 10 companies, but slightly different. Fleet-based, very old chapter.

1 is still Vets, but nominal - the squads of 1st embed with other Companies (although not long-term assignments, they move around a lot).

Companies 2 through 6 are the Battle Companies. They usually have 6-2-2 Tac-Dev-ASM, but every squad is expected to gear up and perform in any role - it is common for an ASM to deploy as Tacs or vice versa. There is a stigma of not having at least 1 Dev or ASM kitted squad at any given time, and it is clear to all that 6-2-2 is the ideal and the best tactical balance.

Company 10 are the Little Brothers - A Scout company much like most chapters.

Company 9, though, are the 'Younger Brothers'. Capped at 10 squads. They are still Scouts, but they have proven themselves ready to be promoted to Battle Brother - there just aren't any open slots. So when things go poorly (like when 7th company was cut down to 23 surviving Battle Brothers), this company gets undersized. When this company is at full strength, Little Brothers are not promoted to Company 9.

Company 9's Command (Captain + Command Squad + assigned senior Chaplain/Librarian/TechMarine) are also in charge of intelligence/recon. Because they need to know more than just what other IoM forces have told them.

Every Battle Brother routinely trains in everything the Chapter needs done. And are routinely rated on many things. If a Battle Brother ever fails any raiting - even an ASM screwing up a GravCannon exorcise - they are immediately releived from duty (vary rare, and very demeaning). So when a Captain needs 3 Assault squads for a mission, one of the Tac squads straps on the Jumppacks - they are all prepared to do so. Not just that they were trained, but that they continue to do it. And which squad is typically Tac vs ASM vs Dev rotates.

This training for all roles is not just all combat roles. Practically every duty in the fleet are carried out by teams of 10 people. Even cleaning the messhall. These teams are picked somewhat-randomly, including both Marines and non-Marines (the human staff that assist with day-to-day operations). The leader of the duty is assigned, but is no more likely to be the senior person on the duty squad. So some random human could be the CO of a senior vet sarge while scrubbing the floors.

Battle Brothers are routinely transfered between Companies as well. And Battle Brothers get promoted to Vets and sent to 1st Company. 1st Company Vets get promoted to non-1st Sargents. Non-1st Sargents can be promotted to 1st Sargents or Command Squad. Captains come from that company's Command Squad (Command Squad brothers are supernumerary and are not transfered). Chapter Master comes from Captains.

I could go on and on, but I think that's enough to share.

The Emperor's origin story is myth, fable and fabrication. The whole 'watching over humanity since pre-history' is bunk. The Emperor never was a warp entity (note 'was').

Who the Emperor actually is is a particularly savvy regular human warlord from the tail end of the Age of Strife. Possibly gene-modified, but no more or less than anyone else at the time. Plotting amd scheming to take over earth and destroy his rivals just like any other despot.

Explains why he struggled to unify Terra. He's just a regular (if gifted) dude.

His ascention to godhood began when he (against all odds) unified Sol and the eldar finished their murder-orgy, paving the way for the Great Crusade. As each world fell to his armies, people began to deify him. Because of the way belief works in 40k, the larger the Imperium grew, the more and more he transitioned into a warp-entity.

Cue 10,000 years of feverish belief and the Emperor of Mankind is more warp-god than man. Utterly inhuman, and little more than an echo of the strife and troubles of his beleaguered species, fuelled by the false dogma and myth generated by generations upon generations of ignorant religious fanatics.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
The Emperor's origin story is myth, fable and fabrication. The whole 'watching over humanity since pre-history' is bunk. The Emperor never was a warp entity (note 'was').

Who the Emperor actually is is a particularly savvy regular human warlord from the tail end of the Age of Strife. Possibly gene-modified, but no more or less than anyone else at the time. Plotting amd scheming to take over earth and destroy his rivals just like any other despot.

Explains why he struggled to unify Terra. He's just a regular (if gifted) dude.

His ascention to godhood began when he (against all odds) unified Sol and the eldar finished their murder-orgy, paving the way for the Great Crusade. As each world fell to his armies, people began to deify him. Because of the way belief works in 40k, the larger the Imperium grew, the more and more he transitioned into a warp-entity.

Cue 10,000 years of feverish belief and the Emperor of Mankind is more warp-god than man. Utterly inhuman, and little more than an echo of the strife and troubles of his beleaguered species, fuelled by the false dogma and myth generated by generations upon generations of ignorant religious fanatics.

That reminds me of someone else’s headcanon that the Emperor during his life was just an extremely potent psyker, that when he fought Horus he succumbed after the battle from his wounds, and that the warp stuff attributed to him (imperial saints resurrecting, the astronomican, etc) is just a particularly benevolent warp entity formed of the souls of humans who believed in the divinity and power of the Emperor in their lives with direct connection to big E. Basically the Emperor on his throne is completely dead, he didn’t ascend to godhood, and everything else is the warp being weird.

 RedCommander wrote:

 Galas wrote:
My favourite head cannon is that the Primaris Project was actually job of the Emperor, to create better Space Marines, just like he did before with Thunder Warriors. He just stoped it mid-way because the Webway project was more important, and after the Horus Heresy happened and in the Throne isn't like he can end it.
Is lore that Space Marines wheren't the best job the Emperor Could do. Those where Custodes and Primarchs. Space Marines where the best the Emperor could MASS PRODUCE. So it makes sense for him to try to improve the process and make mass produced warriors that are just better.

Roboute Guilliman fount that project, half way done, and he commanded Belisarus to end it.

So the "This Mechanicus Magus IMPROVES the work of the god-emperor himself" changes to "This 10.000 yeard old Mechanicus Magus ended the work the emperor had already half-done"

I like that.

My fan theory about NuMarines is that they are merely slightly tweaked Thunder Warriors. NuMarines are bigger and stronger than regular modern Marines... just like Thunder Warriors.

Basically, Cawl only made slight adjustments, most of them going towards making them more stable but even that took 10,000 years... and who's to say the process was perfect? I'm half expecting the first known incident where one of these newly fangled Glitter Boys snap and flip out. Any day now...

Interesting, but here is my take: I would say actually that at one point the standard Astartes were so successful that they had overwhelmed all other opposition, and no credible enemy remained, so that they essentially turned to garrison duty. While this was a good situation for most, unfortunately this meant that the forges of Nottingheim Primeris were no longer needed. Many adepts stood to lose their livelihoods and many Magistrates saw an approaching end to their lavish lifestyles of finest silkes, poached grox-egg delicacies and secret Slaaneshi concubines.

So the magistrate lords conferred in secret and plotted a plan to keep the forges hot, and the assembled Astartes in need of their services. All of a sudden they 'found' lost plans for new, bigger suits of armour (one of the previous adeptus had filed them incorrectly, apparently!) Suddenly, all of the Marine chapters were no longer content with the armour that had served them faithfully for over 10,000 years. Oh no, not when the new shiny was available, complete with bigger shoulder pads and new-fanged face-recognition software. Into the bin the old armour went (a whole lot of it onto the galactic auction hub) and in came the new sets, and the Astartes commanders rejoiced at the brilliance of their new armour. Meanwhile, the Magistrate Lords congratulated each other on a job well done, while smoking their expensive lho-stick cigars, lit from the embers of the remaining plastic battle-nuns they had kept hidden in the back stockrooms for the past 7 years. Their eyes were drawn to another folder, held behind indestructible plexi-glass, marked 'top secret'. One which would not see the light of day until the galaxy had had its fill of the new stock. It was entitled, "Primaris Maximus armour"

I like to imagine Primaris Marines have a built in mind chip that makes them ultimately loyal to Cawl and this whole Primaris project is a ploy for him to take over the Mechanicum.

I'm not sure if I read this somewhere and it's actual canon or if I came up with it, but I like to think Sorcerers who participated in the Rubric of Ahriman can replicate it to a small degree and dust the marines of other legions/chapters in order to expand the numbers of the Thousand Sons.

 Arachnofiend wrote:
I'm not sure if I read this somewhere and it's actual canon or if I came up with it, but I like to think Sorcerers who participated in the Rubric of Ahriman can replicate it to a small degree and dust the marines of other legions/chapters in order to expand the numbers of the Thousand Sons.

They can totally do that. Both rogue Thousand Son's sorcerers and Chaos Sorcerers of the Black Legion know how to made smaller versionf of the Ahriman's Rubric to create more Rubric Marines, for the Thousand Sons warbands, for the Black Legion, or to "sell" them to Chaos Lord's as bodyguards, etc...

I've got a whole lot of headcanons to help explain some things that I believe don't make sense. I got a bunch of these ideas off Dakka but I don't remember who posted them.


WH40k Fluff Explanations:
Emotionless Emperor - The Emperor did see the Primarchs as his tools and showed no emotion for them, only taking actions that would further the unification of humanity (I.e. Keeping the nails in Angron which made him a better warrior), but his flaw was he began to show emotion towards Horus and actually began favouring him as a son. As that flaw caused the downfall of both himself and his Imperium (not being able to land the killing blow) he has since doubled down on his emotionless stance, as seen in his meeting with Gulliman in "Dark Imperium".

Space Wolf Geneseed - The geneseed works by absorbing the DNA of its host when the progenoid glands grow. As the people of Fenris all have the Canis Helix the geneseed becomes adapted to that gene overtime, and cannot work without it. This is why, after the Crusade, the wolves could not recruit from outside Fenris. The Primaris Space Wolves work because, using Crusade era geneseed, it is not adapted with this limitation.

Ork Meks - Ork fluff has recently been rather contradictory, some sources stating that Ork tech works only because they think it does, while others state that makes are genuinely innately competent when it comes to technology. I believe that Ork technology works on a mixture of the Orks believing it through their WAAAGH!!! energy and a Mek's innate knowledge. The Orks were originally created by the Old Ones as the Kroak, designed as a tool to fight the Necrons and their C'tan masters as the perfect warrior race. They utilised the warp indirectly to battle the Necrons (as this was their greatest weakness, and as such was used extensively by the old ones), using the warp to augment the Kroak's own weapons and abilities. The Mek caste was not only designed to create vehicles and weapons, but ones that made greatest and most efficient use of this WAAAGH!!! energy. The Necrons were the masters of the material realm, their weapons unsurpassable by mundane means, and so the Old Ones attempted to use the Warp to one up them instead through augmentation by this WAAAGH!!! energy. As the Kroak eventually devolved into the Orks, the Mek caste retained this sub-conscious knowledge. The Meks know subconsciously how to make vehicles and contraptions that will best use this WAAAGH!!! energy. They subconsciously know how to make vehicles and weapons that the Orks think will work, and as such will work due to the reality bending effects of their subconscious psychic powers.

Why Were the C'tan Sharded, Not Destroyed? - C'tan are intrinsically tied to the material realm, and as such the destruction of a C'tan has drastic and violent ripple effects on the rest of the galaxy, which is why they must either be sharded or absorbed (where the C'tan's being is in effect diffused or concentrated, not destroyed). Many Imperial scholars note that the galaxy is unusually violent, more so than it has any right to be, and this can be seen as a ripple effect on the destruction of the Flayer C'tan millions of years ago.


How do the Tyranids locate planets without Vanguard Organisms?
- The Tyranids are capable of homing in on the collective warp signature of all inhabitants on a planet, which is how they determine where to travel. This also explains how they avoid Tomb Worlds (lack of warp signature) and how Kronos can specifically locate and attack Warp/Daemon possessed planets (by following the stronger, more evident signatures). Due to general Warp ****ery, however, this is not always accurate, and can lead a Hive Fleet to worthless Daemon/Dead worlds. Genestealer cults would serve the following purposes:
* Stronger, more unique signature ensures this is a viable world for the Hive Mind and not something like a Daemon World.
* Larger cults result in larger signatures, and imply larger populations.
* Cult uprisings weaken the defenses of the world and make it easier to overwhelm.

How can the Tyranids be defeated on the ground?
- While it is true that the Tyranids can recycle their own and their enemy's dead into new warriors this biomass does not just magically reappear in the bioships. It requires feeder organisms to consume the fallen biomass (requiring territorial gains where the defenders are pushed back so the Rippers can come in to eat the fallen bodies) and Feeder Tendrils to transport this biomass to the Hive Ships (requiring enough of a hold on the planet for this to be established). If either of these are not established by the Tyranids they are unable to recycle their biomass, and as such any organisms lost on the planet represents biomass lost, and through this the Tyranids can eventually be starved and attritioned out (not to mention the energy lost over time by the bioships in orbit. While biomass lost to respiration can be recovered on the planet, they can not be recovered from the bioships in space. This is why the Tyranids do not actually lose anything from a planet getting Exterminatused, as matter is not destroyed, only changed, and forces the Tyranids to essentially terraform a planet from scratch

Why did Kryptman's Cordone work?
- By exterminating planets the Tyranids were unable to find out what were and what weren't viable prey worlds (because non-sentient carbon doesn't give off warp signatures) and as such were forced to travel much further to find viable worlds to consume, slowing them both directly (making the Tyranids have to travel farther with their slow FTL) and indirectly (Tyranids having to hibernate, and as such having to go much slower, for longer due to not being able to eat).

Why do the Tyranids not hide in the rim and consume poorly defended alien worlds to build up biomass before attacking?
Due to the way the Imperium/the factions of 40k are spread out, and due to the way Tyranids locate planets (see above) they are not able to determine what are poorly defended, isolated fringe worlds and what are Imperial worlds. This also explains why they don't just go and find asteroids/planets made of Carbon, Nitrogen ect, because they're unable to locate and find appropriate worlds, and simply going on random searches would quickly starve out the Tyranid Hive Fleets.

The Emperor fully expected a Heresy, and had engineered events so that certain sons would fall (hence the treatment he gave his sons such as what he did with Lorgar, Mortarion, Angron, and Perturabo).

He was hoping to use them to draw as much of the Chaos God's power into the Materium as possible, and then stomp those 4 with the remaining 14, thereby breaking their power forever.

When 9 fell instead (including Horus) it completely destroyed his plans.

I don't often make up much canon in my head, but I enjoy thinking up cool cinematic moments which could happen in the 40K universe. It's partly what inspires me to keep gaming in 40K (the game is sub-par, the models are expensive...but the universe is still very appealing).

I like to think specific alpha legionaires, and alpharius and omegon can shapeshift to a degree, or at least do it almost like corax, but instead of invisibilty it's a perfect disguise however thousand sons also have a nearly as good set of infiltration specialists and recon gatherers due to telepathy and biomancy face changers, in fact alpha legion psykers who use biomancy, probably know how to change someones face, to like the mirror image of someone else.

At the beginning of the Horus Heresy, Sanguinius made one last attempt to bring Horus to his senses by establishing psychic contact with him and desperately urging him to abandon his treacherous ways. His efforts failed though when Horus spontaneously broke into song:

MalfunctBot wrote:
I've got a whole lot of headcanons to help explain some things that I believe don't make sense. I got a bunch of these ideas off Dakka but I don't remember who posted them.


WH40k Fluff Explanations:
Emotionless Emperor - The Emperor did see the Primarchs as his tools and showed no emotion for them, only taking actions that would further the unification of humanity (I.e. Keeping the nails in Angron which made him a better warrior), but his flaw was he began to show emotion towards Horus and actually began favouring him as a son. As that flaw caused the downfall of both himself and his Imperium (not being able to land the killing blow) he has since doubled down on his emotionless stance, as seen in his meeting with Gulliman in "Dark Imperium".

My only objection to this is Angron is a really terrible soldier, and keeping him this way was bad for the Crusade, the chapter, the planets he 'liberated' and any sort of cause or purpose he's attached to.
An aggressive commander can be fine (and indeed, the Primarchs have several aggressive generals in their ranks). But Angron, and the chapter as a whole, loses track of everything. They can't make command decisions, deal with logistics, enemy troop movements or anything at all. They should have been wiped out several times over, even against inferior troops. When fighting other marines it should have been no contest at all.

Space Wolf Geneseed - The geneseed works by absorbing the DNA of its host when the progenoid glands grow. As the people of Fenris all have the Canis Helix the geneseed becomes adapted to that gene overtime, and cannot work without it. This is why, after the Crusade, the wolves could not recruit from outside Fenris. The Primaris Space Wolves work because, using Crusade era geneseed, it is not adapted with this limitation.

I'm... not actually sure this isn't the canon explanation. Granted I've not read a lot about the 'canis helix' silliness, but it seems pretty clear that Cawl was working with ancient stockpiles and stasis-bound warriors. The early marines of most chapters were largely Terrans, and even granted Russ was found fairly early on, he could have easily used early samples and stable geneseed.

After all, the glands that are used to make new marines are harvested from dead ones (or, I believe, living ones if they live long enough), so have a chance to pick up oddities over generations of growth, implantation, then harvesting new glands from each host in sequence.

Ork Meks - Ork fluff has recently been rather contradictory, some sources stating that Ork tech works only because they think it does, while others state that makes are genuinely innately competent when it comes to technology. I believe that Ork technology works on a mixture of the Orks believing it through their WAAAGH!!! energy and a Mek's innate knowledge

This one is definitely mostly canon. It is belief, but Meks are innately competent- the basic schematics and skills are encoded on their genes.

been a long time since I've seen anyone reference Total Eclipse of the Heart

Cypher is a psychic manifestation of the lion while his body is comatose in the rock.

It explains why he appears and disappears all over the galaxy, has the lions sword and that artifact pistol, and when hes leading the Dark Angles on a merry chase he often leads them into situations where their help would be needed most.

That would also explain why [insert absolutely classy joke about the Lion enjoying being chased by men here], as well!

 Melissia wrote:
That would also explain why [insert absolutely classy joke about the Lion enjoying being chased by men here], as well!

So you're saying Luther did stab him, just that it wasn't his sword.

nobody wrote:
The Emperor fully expected a Heresy, and had engineered events so that certain sons would fall (hence the treatment he gave his sons such as what he did with Lorgar, Mortarion, Angron, and Perturabo).

He was hoping to use them to draw as much of the Chaos God's power into the Materium as possible, and then stomp those 4 with the remaining 14, thereby breaking their power forever.

When 9 fell instead (including Horus) it completely destroyed his plans.

How is Curze not on that list? The dude who has known every day of his life that the Emperor would kill him was *not* going to be loyal.

 EmpNortonII wrote:

How is Curze not on that list? The dude who has known every day of his life that the Emperor would kill him was *not* going to be loyal.

Arguably he was loyal for a while. Plus he was only killed because he turned Traitor and it's possible he could have seen that as a possibility.

If he hadn't known he was going to be killed, he might not have fallen.

Curze was never directly mistreated by the Emperor, the root of his trouble had more to do with the degradation of his home world (and that was more a case of severe mismanagement by the Imperial Administratum than a direct order by the Emperor).

There was also the betrayal of his trust when Fulgrim told Dorn what Curze had seen of the upcoming civil war and Dorn took it...badly.

nobody wrote:
Curze was never directly mistreated by the Emperor, the root of his trouble had more to do with the degradation of his home world (and that was more a case of severe mismanagement by the Imperial Administratum than a direct order by the Emperor).

There was also the betrayal of his trust when Fulgrim told Dorn what Curze had seen of the upcoming civil war and Dorn took it...badly.

Dorn's a little bitch.... I still think if Dorn had gone traitor, Curze and Pert might have sided with the loyalists just for a chance to skin that fool alive.

 EmpNortonII wrote:

nobody wrote:
Curze was never directly mistreated by the Emperor, the root of his trouble had more to do with the degradation of his home world (and that was more a case of severe mismanagement by the Imperial Administratum than a direct order by the Emperor).

There was also the betrayal of his trust when Fulgrim told Dorn what Curze had seen of the upcoming civil war and Dorn took it...badly.

Dorn's a little bitch.... I still think if Dorn had gone traitor, Curze and Pert might have sided with the loyalists just for a chance to skin that fool alive.

When B&C started their alt-Heresy project and declared that Dorn took the place of Horus I had absolutely zero trouble believing it.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
The Emperor's origin story is myth, fable and fabrication. The whole 'watching over humanity since pre-history' is bunk. The Emperor never was a warp entity (note 'was').

Who the Emperor actually is is a particularly savvy regular human warlord from the tail end of the Age of Strife. Possibly gene-modified, but no more or less than anyone else at the time. Plotting amd scheming to take over earth and destroy his rivals just like any other despot.

Explains why he struggled to unify Terra. He's just a regular (if gifted) dude.

His ascention to godhood began when he (against all odds) unified Sol and the eldar finished their murder-orgy, paving the way for the Great Crusade. As each world fell to his armies, people began to deify him. Because of the way belief works in 40k, the larger the Imperium grew, the more and more he transitioned into a warp-entity.

Cue 10,000 years of feverish belief and the Emperor of Mankind is more warp-god than man. Utterly inhuman, and little more than an echo of the strife and troubles of his beleaguered species, fuelled by the false dogma and myth generated by generations upon generations of ignorant religious fanatics.

THIS IS AWESOME! YES! Not only was the "Emperor" gene modified and was the template for the future space marines, he was also a powerful psyker. It'd be a good idea for a sci-fi post apocalyptic TV show. The "emperor" takes over the masses. He defeats all of the techno-barbarians who dabbled in chaos, thru his own shear force of will, single mindedness and dedication - the "Emperor" united everyone under his rule, and he at least started off as a fair but powerful man, like Jesus.

My personnal headcanon involves:

larger Chapters (the thousand Space Marines limit is for their combat units, it doesn't involve their reserves units, their recruits in training AKA scouts, their vehicle crew and their Space Ship crew).

A rare few female Space Marine here and there (more common amongst Chaos Space Marines due to their more ''liberal'' use of geneseed).

The High Lords dislike Space Marines (too independant) and the Sisterhood (keeps meddling in their affairs).

Taus can change of cast during their life, but it remains rather rare.

Orks sound dumb, but are actually pretty smart, much smarter than they are given credit for. They are also more political than imagined and solve a lot of their problems through talking and negociating, the fighting is more ceremonial or exceptionnal.

Tyranids are the greatest threat to the galaxy, but people are too blinded by Chaos to realise they are screwed if they don't unite against them.

Space Marines and historical Spartans share certain traits in common when it comes to sexuality

Guilliman is on a timer, his armor cannot sustain him for very long, but he is not aware of this yet. Cawls knew it from the beginning and keeps it as a bargaining chip.

Three xenos species of my design that I like to use in RPGs and short stories.

the Grotvolution is comming and is growing.

The Custodians, the Grey Knights and the Inquisition are working together very closely.

 DoMiNaNt_HuNtEr wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
The Emperor's origin story is myth, fable and fabrication. The whole 'watching over humanity since pre-history' is bunk. The Emperor never was a warp entity (note 'was').

Who the Emperor actually is is a particularly savvy regular human warlord from the tail end of the Age of Strife. Possibly gene-modified, but no more or less than anyone else at the time. Plotting amd scheming to take over earth and destroy his rivals just like any other despot.

Explains why he struggled to unify Terra. He's just a regular (if gifted) dude.

His ascention to godhood began when he (against all odds) unified Sol and the eldar finished their murder-orgy, paving the way for the Great Crusade. As each world fell to his armies, people began to deify him. Because of the way belief works in 40k, the larger the Imperium grew, the more and more he transitioned into a warp-entity.

Cue 10,000 years of feverish belief and the Emperor of Mankind is more warp-god than man. Utterly inhuman, and little more than an echo of the strife and troubles of his beleaguered species, fuelled by the false dogma and myth generated by generations upon generations of ignorant religious fanatics.

THIS IS AWESOME! YES! Not only was the "Emperor" gene modified and was the template for the future space marines, he was also a powerful psyker. It'd be a good idea for a sci-fi post apocalyptic TV show. The "emperor" takes over the masses. He defeats all of the techno-barbarians who dabbled in chaos, thru his own shear force of will, single mindedness and dedication - the "Emperor" united everyone under his rule, and he at least started off as a fair but powerful man, like Jesus.

Thanks! I aim to please

It also explains some discrepancies with why he struggled to unify Terra (little more than a backwater world infested with Technobarbarians at the time), yet was quite happily rolling over worlds almost single-handedly later in the crusade. His power grew as a function of the people who believed in him, beginning as a regular dude and ending up as a powerful warp entity

Starts off as Ghengis Khan, ends up as Cthulhu

One of my army themes for years was the Death Guard and Night Lords alliance. I always had figured that since both Morty and Konrad had no real friends in the HH, they mutually respected eachother, listened to Black Metal music albums, and enjoyed eachothers doom and gloom theatrics on the battlefield. Their legions would work together during the Heresy, hammers and anvils, Lightning raids with merciless infantry advances.
'
Afterwards, a few Captains retained this alliance and raided worlds with even more corruption and cruelty.

ANd them BAM, Resident Evil/Silent Hill type horrors. Nightmarish monster movie, Zombie movie, and psycho slasher horror movie cliches the whole time. A Haunted House ride, with all the fun of an infectious disease.

Ive seen too many movies I think. ;D

I'm not normally a fan of legions/chapters being fluffed to regularly work side/by/side (as it's usually just gak to explain some rules shenanigans), but that makes a lot of sense!

Even if it weren't a formal alliance, you'd still have Night Lords raid places that DG were going to hit - as there would be no retaliation. And DG would hit places Night Lords were going to raid - because they would be weakened or busy.

This one feels so insanely fluffy and evil, it's a perfect element of the 40k universe!

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
The Emperor's origin story is myth, fable and fabrication. The whole 'watching over humanity since pre-history' is bunk. The Emperor never was a warp entity (note 'was').

Who the Emperor actually is is a particularly savvy regular human warlord from the tail end of the Age of Strife. Possibly gene-modified, but no more or less than anyone else at the time. Plotting amd scheming to take over earth and destroy his rivals just like any other despot.

Explains why he struggled to unify Terra. He's just a regular (if gifted) dude.

His ascention to godhood began when he (against all odds) unified Sol and the eldar finished their murder-orgy, paving the way for the Great Crusade. As each world fell to his armies, people began to deify him. Because of the way belief works in 40k, the larger the Imperium grew, the more and more he transitioned into a warp-entity.

Cue 10,000 years of feverish belief and the Emperor of Mankind is more warp-god than man. Utterly inhuman, and little more than an echo of the strife and troubles of his beleaguered species, fuelled by the false dogma and myth generated by generations upon generations of ignorant religious fanatics.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I see it as well.

That Magnus did nothing wrong.

Magnus's only real mistake was how he chose to warn the Emperor. Had he taken his fleet to Davin while sending a message to the Emperor via astropath it's unlikely he would have flipped.

Well that and intentionally ignoring what he was told....

pm713 wrote:
Well that and intentionally ignoring what he was told....

NOTHING, WRONG!

 Backspacehacker wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Well that and intentionally ignoring what he was told....

NOTHING, WRONG!

I blame the Emperor. Imagine how much would have changed with a short conversation about Tzeentch. I know Emps was busy but some parenting would've helped so much with the Heresy.

epronovost wrote:
My personnal headcanon involves:

larger Chapters (the thousand Space Marines limit is for their combat units, it doesn't involve their reserves units, their recruits in training AKA scouts, their vehicle crew and their Space Ship crew).
.

That ones actually canon, people have estimated the Ultramarines as being about 1200-1500 strong once you include the honor guard, the Libarius, the scout company (which has no fixed size) and all those other support units that aren't part of the codex in that regard

What people see when they look at the emperor is just a psychic projection. He's actually just a normal human, just a very powerful psyker who is good at using his powers and showmanship to impress people and gain their loyalty. At the time of the great crusade/heresy he's actually a barely-alive shriveled old man, but still a powerful psyker. Maybe he is just a psychic projection created by Malcador.

The "science" used to create the primarchs was actually obtained from the warp and deals made with daemons/chaos gods. And so is most of the emperor's psychic power. Once he had what he needed from them, the "emperor" decided to go back on his deal and not give them whatever his side of the bargain was. So he invented the "Imperial truth" and his goal of spreading it throughout the galaxy in order to defeat the chaos gods so he wouldn't have to pay them what he owed for the power they gave him. The idea being that if he could spread those lies throughout the galaxy, and nobody believed in daemons or gods, they would no longer have any power in the material universe and couldn't get back at him.

The Chaos Gods obviously weren't happy about this. Since the primarchs were, in essence, partially warp beings or daemon possessed to begin with, they had no trouble abducting them and conveniently depositing them on just the right worlds to cause them to develop the way they wanted. The way that would cause them to plunge the galaxy into civil war, killing the emperor for his treachery and insuring belief in chaos for all time. Because, when you make a deal with the devil, of course you always lose.

Neatly explains why the almighty emperor would have any trouble uniting earth or why he didn't do it way earlier. Also explains why he does such dumb things, and why he would create such flawed beings to lead his armies. He didn't really create them, the chaos gods did. And explains his obsession with spreading the false "Imperial Truth" all over.

The movie Event Horizon is secretly canon.

^-this-^

A lot of archeotech, DA tech or lost tech is actually not lost and fairly common in other parts of the Galaxy. Not everything is getting worse all the time, and the darkness is less grim than popularly supposed. I hate the whole "the emperor was really bad/weak/the real liar" movement and think heavy metal awesome chaos (or rather its success) is the worst aspect of the setting. I much prefer the lighter BL works to the mopey, hopeless ones.

Really, if BL can't let there be anything in the setting worth rooting for (and if you say chaos, I will roll my eyes and judge you), then I don't know why I should care.

That virtually everything we accept as being canon - in particular from the Imperial side - is in fact mostly lies, baked in mythos, wrapped in misinformation, iced with propoganda and gorged so long ago that we can't remember what the truth really tasted like. Just like a typical dicatorship in other words.

So for example we might never read about the Emperor's death and its consequences... because he's already dead, just a lifeless skeleton sitting on a throne. There might not even be a throne, which is why virtually nobody can get access to it. Maybe SM are more like truly elite of modern NFL/NBA players, and that all the talk of being 8 feet tall and having acid saliva is just an old wives tale. Maybe the exist in their millions per chapter, you just never see more than a few companies worth at a time. Or perhaps the tales of their near ubiquitous presence are in fact the real lie, and in reality they only go to war once every decade or so.

Maybe the Orks have a psychic field that brings them together, but it doesn't actually power their vehicles, make red things go faster etc. These are excuses used by the Imperium because they simply cannot explain/accept how the Orks make their machines work without the use of STC's and machine spirits (I've always hated the whole "they think the petrol tank is full so it is" business). Maybe the meks and doks just learn how to "fix"/build things via trial and error, from watching older orks do it, from messing around with other factions tech, and it's not in fact written in their DNA (again, an explanation I've always hated vs them just tinkering and learning as we do, free from any constraints imposed by a religious order but without universal education).

Maybe Tyranids aren't from another galaxy (which is a patently ridiculous story which by some miracle managed to evade the attentions of an editor). Maybe they're human experiments gone wrong? Maybe this is what happened when viral weapons were tested on some planet(s)? A branch of the Eldar that everyone would rather forget about?

Etc, etc. Pick your preferred over the top, semi/completely ridiculous piece of canon and apply the reverse propaganda filter.

I find solace in the idea that although terrible things befall a lot of imperial worlds and there are sectors of the galaxy in perpetual war, there are also millions of world too far from the clutches of chaos, xenos or imperial cults where people live normal lives and their daily struggles are more akin to normal people. Let's call it the less grimfark side of 40k.

My other favorite piece of head-cannon is that while IG commanding officers are notoriously squishy compared to, say, an ork boss, they are mostly strategists and don't need to take to the field. In a way I like the idea of them being invulnerable on the battlefield (at least in the fluff) because they are behind the scenes and strategizing, and only lose their lives if the whole platoon/brigade/army gets wiped out.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
What people see when they look at the emperor is just a psychic projection. He's actually just a normal human, just a very powerful psyker who is good at using his powers and showmanship to impress people and gain their loyalty. At the time of the great crusade/heresy he's actually a barely-alive shriveled old man, but still a powerful psyker. Maybe he is just a psychic projection created by Malcador.

The "science" used to create the primarchs was actually obtained from the warp and deals made with daemons/chaos gods. And so is most of the emperor's psychic power. Once he had what he needed from them, the "emperor" decided to go back on his deal and not give them whatever his side of the bargain was. So he invented the "Imperial truth" and his goal of spreading it throughout the galaxy in order to defeat the chaos gods so he wouldn't have to pay them what he owed for the power they gave him. The idea being that if he could spread those lies throughout the galaxy, and nobody believed in daemons or gods, they would no longer have any power in the material universe and couldn't get back at him.

The Chaos Gods obviously weren't happy about this. Since the primarchs were, in essence, partially warp beings or daemon possessed to begin with, they had no trouble abducting them and conveniently depositing them on just the right worlds to cause them to develop the way they wanted. The way that would cause them to plunge the galaxy into civil war, killing the emperor for his treachery and insuring belief in chaos for all time. Because, when you make a deal with the devil, of course you always lose.

Neatly explains why the almighty emperor would have any trouble uniting earth or why he didn't do it way earlier. Also explains why he does such dumb things, and why he would create such flawed beings to lead his armies. He didn't really create them, the chaos gods did. And explains his obsession with spreading the false "Imperial Truth" all over.

Ooh this I like not surprising given my previous headcanon though

I like the aspect of the emperor being a psychic projection,and his whole success being a Faustian bargqin he tried to renege on

BrianDavion wrote:

epronovost wrote:
My personnal headcanon involves:

larger Chapters (the thousand Space Marines limit is for their combat units, it doesn't involve their reserves units, their recruits in training AKA scouts, their vehicle crew and their Space Ship crew).
.

That ones actually canon, people have estimated the Ultramarines as being about 1200-1500 strong once you include the honor guard, the Libarius, the scout company (which has no fixed size) and all those other support units that aren't part of the codex in that regard

I know. My headcanon goes only further down the line. Half of the traditional Space Marine company are classified as reserves company. According to my headcanon this would mean that the upper base size of a Space Marine Chapter could actually be of 2000 Marines, a thousand in the first five "combat company" and a unrestricted number of Space Marines in the last five which could be just as numerous or even more than the "combat company" and indeed, this doesn't cover the number of Space Marines who are part of the Chapter HQ like honor guards, librarians, techmarines and, in my case, ship crew, vehicle pilots, Scouts and of course Chapter Serfs who would be trained and equipped to participate in combat.

 Lotus Corgi wrote:
My favorite head canon is that Sigmar really was one of the lost Primarchs.

All 20 Primarchs were found and all 20 participated in the Great Crusade though. It's right there in the 4th ed CSM codex.

My favorite head canon is, that space marines have to engage in some sort of arkward 3D Tetris whenever they want to embark or disembark a rhino...

"Brother Nefarius, please move your boot away from my air intake"

And that rhino's exist in M and XXXL version - one for humans, one for Astartes.

The emperor was a human geneticist/cybernetic engineer/etc...basically a mad scientist. He made a bunch of super warriors to seize power, then realized that his creations were greater than him, so made up the story about him being a veritable god to keep them in check. After he was defeated by one of his creations (Horus), the Lords of Terra discovered the myths but realized it was a good propaganda tool and the rest is history.

Ruin wrote:

 Lotus Corgi wrote:
My favorite head canon is that Sigmar really was one of the lost Primarchs.

All 20 Primarchs were found and all 20 participated in the Great Crusade though. It's right there in the 4th ed CSM codex.

Sigmar did vanish though....

I don't really like it as canon but if people want that as their headcanon there is wiggle room.

Why do you guys play 40k if half of your «headcannons» are : the most grimdark wargame is in fact not grimdark at all, it is just noble bright sf» ?

 godardc wrote:
Why do you guys play 40k if half of your «headcannons» are : the most grimdark wargame is in fact not grimdark at all, it is just noble bright sf» ?

Because even with the lore headcanon’d to something not grimdark, the game world is still fairly interesting and somewhat unique. Also, because it supports 50 different noblebright-ization headcanons and allows people with radically different ideas about the game to still be able to discuss and enjoy the game together due to the attitude towards canon held up by the community and the lore.

Got a little canon going off in my head right now of primaris marines getting through doorways on their hands and knees whIle the regular marine can still at least crouch/angle his way through. Their incompatibility with so much of imperium vehicles and delivery methods is noteworthy despite Cawl having some 10k yrs to get it right. So yeah, Primaris on hands and knees, cuz Cawl no doubt overlooked other things like simple doors and hallways.

Some others:

1. The legend of the Old Ones and the Necrontyr

Legend has it that the Old Ones had denied the Necrontyr their request to "fix" their short lifespans. What's not known is that the Old Ones did indeed try, but something was wrong.
Maybe they couldn't make them truly immortal. Maybe there was a drop in fertility. Maybe it was a slow process, that would take untold generations. Maybe it wasn't something that could be fixed directly, but the Old Ones could create an inheritor race based on them to take over once they died off. Maybe it was a combination of the above.

Whatever the cause, the Necrontyr were not happy, and broke off communications, becoming hostile. The project was put into stasis in one of the seeder solar systems that the Old Ones maintained in a corner of the known universe, and the knowledge that the Old Ones had tried, but couldn't do exactly what the Necrontyr wanted shifted into "the Old Ones had refused" through propaganda.

Millions of years later, something happened, and the project started back up again through an automated process. The resulting species did indeed have longer lifespans (albeit nowhere near immortal), and aren't nearly as fertile, but they did retain their progenitor's knack for technological progress and curious lack of psychic potential. You'd have to forgive the Necrons for not recognizing the Tau as their descendants, they haven't seen themselves in the flesh in millions of years...

2. The Dawn Blade

Not sure if this has been confirmed yet or not, but the Dawn Blade is the missing Cronesword, as it can steal the life of its victims and give it to its wielder.

nobody wrote:
Some others:

1. The legend of the Old Ones and the Necrontyr

Legend has it that the Old Ones had denied the Necrontyr their request to "fix" their short lifespans. What's not known is that the Old Ones did indeed try, but something was wrong.
Maybe they couldn't make them truly immortal. Maybe there was a drop in fertility. Maybe it was a slow process, that would take untold generations. Maybe it wasn't something that could be fixed directly, but the Old Ones could create an inheritor race based on them to take over once they died off. Maybe it was a combination of the above.

Whatever the cause, the Necrontyr were not happy, and broke off communications, becoming hostile. The project was put into stasis in one of the seeder solar systems that the Old Ones maintained in a corner of the known universe, and the knowledge that the Old Ones had tried, but couldn't do exactly what the Necrontyr wanted shifted into "the Old Ones had refused" through propaganda.

Millions of years later, something happened, and the project started back up again through an automated process. The resulting species did indeed have longer lifespans (albeit nowhere near immortal), and aren't nearly as fertile, but they did retain their progenitor's knack for technological progress and curious lack of psychic potential. You'd have to forgive the Necrons for not recognizing the Tau as their descendants, they haven't seen themselves in the flesh in millions of years....

Tau are pretty short-lived as-is. Do your Necrontyr die at 25 from old age?

We know the original Necrontyr were a short lived race and were plagued by cancers due to their home system star, 20-25 wouldn't be out of the question.

nobody wrote:
We know the original Necrontyr were a short lived race and were plagued by cancers due to their home system star, 20-25 wouldn't be out of the question.

True enough, I suppose.

That technology is pretty damn impressive if with that lifespan.

One of my favorite head canons came from this veru forum, though I don't remember who first posted it.

It's that the stone men = normal humans
Iron men = AI/ Robots
And the the otherwise mysterious “Gold Men” = post humans modified on the genetic level to create the next evolution to humanity. Some of those modifications are what would lead to psykers, and other modifications are what the emperor tapped onto to engineer the Custodes and Astartes, and are what actually allow thier bodies to accept new and unnatural glands and organs.

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:
That technology is pretty damn impressive if with that lifespan.

They all wanted to be recognized in death, so the drive to expand technology etc was extreme

The Necrontyr were on the cusp of roboticising their entire species anyway - by the time the C’tan were discovered they were already using personal powered exoskeletons to go about their daily lives and their “living metal” was originally designed to make perfect prostheses. A few ultra-wealthy were already using full-body living metal prosthetics and were essentially brains-in-robot-jars.

Thus the whole ‘deal’ with the C’tan was less to do with creating the robot bodies and more to do with the mind-machine transfer process to make them fully immortal (their brains could still die even in their shells).


Also, the Heresy would have been circumvented if the Emperor hadn’t quit halfway through. If he’d either stuck it out to the point where the entire galaxy was nominally pacified or stayed home working on the webway project the whole time, the whole thing could have been avoided or nipped in the bud before it got out of hand.

Didn't he leave partway through because he couldn't control the Astronomicon as well?
To be fair the Heresy would also have been avoided with common sense.

The "resurrected" Guilliman is actually a bunch of grots stacked in power armor. So is Cawl. The Primaris were invented by grots as a way to create enemies too big to notice grots, so that while the giant marines and orks are busy fightin' and killin', the grots can sneak under them and steal all of their neat stuff.

The plan got out of hand though, and it turns out that many of the actual primaris marines are also a bunch of grots stacked in power armor.

nobody wrote:
Some others:

1. The legend of the Old Ones and the Necrontyr

Legend has it that the Old Ones had denied the Necrontyr their request to "fix" their short lifespans. What's not known is that the Old Ones did indeed try, but something was wrong.
Maybe they couldn't make them truly immortal. Maybe there was a drop in fertility. Maybe it was a slow process, that would take untold generations. Maybe it wasn't something that could be fixed directly, but the Old Ones could create an inheritor race based on them to take over once they died off. Maybe it was a combination of the above.

Whatever the cause, the Necrontyr were not happy, and broke off communications, becoming hostile. The project was put into stasis in one of the seeder solar systems that the Old Ones maintained in a corner of the known universe, and the knowledge that the Old Ones had tried, but couldn't do exactly what the Necrontyr wanted shifted into "the Old Ones had refused" through propaganda.

Millions of years later, something happened, and the project started back up again through an automated process. The resulting species did indeed have longer lifespans (albeit nowhere near immortal), and aren't nearly as fertile, but they did retain their progenitor's knack for technological progress and curious lack of psychic potential. You'd have to forgive the Necrons for not recognizing the Tau as their descendants, they haven't seen themselves in the flesh in millions of years...

2. The Dawn Blade

Not sure if this has been confirmed yet or not, but the Dawn Blade is the missing Cronesword, as it can steal the life of its victims and give it to its wielder.

There is a slight amount of truth to #2. The Dawn Blade kinda reminds me of melee Necron stuff too.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

nobody wrote:
Some others:

1. The legend of the Old Ones and the Necrontyr

Legend has it that the Old Ones had denied the Necrontyr their request to "fix" their short lifespans. What's not known is that the Old Ones did indeed try, but something was wrong.
Maybe they couldn't make them truly immortal. Maybe there was a drop in fertility. Maybe it was a slow process, that would take untold generations. Maybe it wasn't something that could be fixed directly, but the Old Ones could create an inheritor race based on them to take over once they died off. Maybe it was a combination of the above.

Whatever the cause, the Necrontyr were not happy, and broke off communications, becoming hostile. The project was put into stasis in one of the seeder solar systems that the Old Ones maintained in a corner of the known universe, and the knowledge that the Old Ones had tried, but couldn't do exactly what the Necrontyr wanted shifted into "the Old Ones had refused" through propaganda.

Millions of years later, something happened, and the project started back up again through an automated process. The resulting species did indeed have longer lifespans (albeit nowhere near immortal), and aren't nearly as fertile, but they did retain their progenitor's knack for technological progress and curious lack of psychic potential. You'd have to forgive the Necrons for not recognizing the Tau as their descendants, they haven't seen themselves in the flesh in millions of years...

2. The Dawn Blade

Not sure if this has been confirmed yet or not, but the Dawn Blade is the missing Cronesword, as it can steal the life of its victims and give it to its wielder.

There is a slight amount of truth to #2. The Dawn Blade kinda reminds me of melee Necron stuff too.

I thought the Dawn Blade was confirmed Necron? Plus the last Cronesword is on Belial IV so it is definiely not the Dawn Blade.

Space Marine chapters are 10,000 strong and GW will someday retcon this so that the military actions of space marines actually make a lick of sense.

 EmpNortonII wrote:
The movie Event Horizon is secretly canon.

Secretly?

Also, I refer to the rebuilt Roboute Guilleman as “Robot Guilleman” because Cawl totally went full Robocop on him and he’s now a brain in a walking, talking, animatronic jar.

My personal favorite for recent events, is that "Primaris" marines are just "future" marines.

Which is to say, dark ages don't last forever. Times of plague and ignorance blossom into ages of enlightenment and expansion.

The world of space marines in cobbled together power armor, of fading knowledge and dwindling gene-seed, that's the world of M41. It is a coherent setting, suitable for playing in without worrying about what comes later.

The world of MKX armor and grav-tanks is just what space marines look like a few millennia later, clearly after some changes have occurred that have solved many of the problems that seemed insurmountable from the perspective of M41. They're not super marines in giant armor, they're just space marines as they always were, in regulation modern equipment of their era.

By thinking of them this way, I never need to field the two types side by side, and never have to deal with the weird "replacing the original marines you've loved for 30 years" element in the actual official Primaris fluff.

Wouldn't that kind of be like the Dornian Heresy? I think in that alternate fanfiction timeline Marines were a lot like Primaris, with better than Mk8 armor because it had advanced over the years.

My own favorite is that Thousand Sons sorcerers decorate all their rubric marines since the rubric marines are quite different looking from what a standard legionaire looked like before the rubric.

 The Green one wrote:
My own favorite is that Thousand Sons sorcerers decorate all their rubric marines since the rubric marines are quite different looking from what a standard legionaire looked like before the rubric.

Painting and decorating are an act of Change.... it's also kind of Slaaneshi, but I could see Tzeentch being a fan of art.

Not really a headcannon per-say, but just imagining the Emperor getting smashed during his drinking contest with Russ. The Emperor canonically lost that contest, meaning at some point Big E was blackout drunk. The idea of this high-and-mighty, pristine figure stumbling about while trying to outdrink his son is hilarious. I'd pay to see an entire book just about that night.

 Vitali Advenil wrote:
Not really a headcannon per-say, but just imagining the Emperor getting smashed during his drinking contest with Russ. The Emperor canonically lost that contest, meaning at some point Big E was blackout drunk. The idea of this high-and-mighty, pristine figure stumbling about while trying to outdrink his son is hilarious. I'd pay to see an entire book just about that night.

Exactly....I Like to think that during the drinking contest is when Russ endeared himself to the Emperor and vice versa. I'm pretty sure he cemented his Executioner status to the Emperor on that night.

That's also the night a primarch drew a penis on the Emperor's face, but we don't talk about him any more.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
That's also the night a primarch drew a penis on the Emperor's face, but we don't talk about him any more.

Well now we know what happened to the other Lost Legion then, don’t we?

 Mr_Rose wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
That's also the night a primarch drew a penis on the Emperor's face, but we don't talk about him any more.

Well now we know what happened to the other Lost Legion then, don’t we?

Actually unrelated, the lost legions were exiled and executed (simultaneously) when the Emperor found out their power armor was being painted in one thick coat.

Even though the Adeptus Mechanicus think Orks will technology to life with a psychic field, I hold to the belief that the Orks are too advanced for the Imperium to understand.

Clark’s law of Technology being like Magic applies.

A Big Mek can make anything into a shoota for example because he knows a level of physics on an instinctual level that humans have no hope to match.

Edit: So Orks couldn’t say create matter out of nothing if a boss says it’s right. They were built as scavengers so that they didn’t need to be resupplied if fighting took place on planet far away from supply lines. That’s why try can beat the Imperium in numbers because they don’t need Forgeworlds to create everything for them.

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Even though the Adeptus Mechanicus think Orks will technology to life with a psychic field, I hold to the belief that the Orks are too advanced for the Imperium to understand.

Clark’s law of Technology being like Magic applies.

A Big Mek can make anything into a shoota for example because he knows a level of physics on an instinctual level that humans have no hope to match.

Well now it's my head canon that orks are all advanced scientists and what humans think is growling and grunting is actually orks communicating mathematics in it's purest form. like the camels in discworld!

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Even though the Adeptus Mechanicus think Orks will technology to life with a psychic field…

They don’t.
One magos suggested it as a possibility along side other, more rational options. That same guy also thinks he’s the greatest magos since Arkhan Land.

 Mr_Rose wrote:

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Even though the Adeptus Mechanicus think Orks will technology to life with a psychic field…

They don’t.
One magos suggested it as a possibility along side other, more rational options. That same guy also thinks he’s the greatest magos since Arkhan Land.

They tried to canonize the idea in the Beast Arises book series. One of the Magic Biologis has an Ork cadaver that can turn on big choppa’s motor even though the tech priests can’t. It was flat out said that their tek is activated by their psychic field, which exists and is measurable.

DontEatRawHagis wrote:

 Mr_Rose wrote:

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Even though the Adeptus Mechanicus think Orks will technology to life with a psychic field…

They don’t.
One magos suggested it as a possibility along side other, more rational options. That same guy also thinks he’s the greatest magos since Arkhan Land.

They tried to canonize the idea in the Beast Arises book series. One of the Magic Biologis has an Ork cadaver that can turn on big choppa’s motor even though the tech priests can’t. It was flat out said that their tek is activated by their psychic field, which exists and is measurable.

Psychic corpse, huh?

 Mr_Rose wrote:

DontEatRawHagis wrote:

 Mr_Rose wrote:

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Even though the Adeptus Mechanicus think Orks will technology to life with a psychic field…

They don’t.
One magos suggested it as a possibility along side other, more rational options. That same guy also thinks he’s the greatest magos since Arkhan Land.

They tried to canonize the idea in the Beast Arises book series. One of the Magic Biologis has an Ork cadaver that can turn on big choppa’s motor even though the tech priests can’t. It was flat out said that their tek is activated by their psychic field, which exists and is measurable.

Psychic corpse, huh?

Yeah that's my interpretation of Orks too.

'Psychic Corpse' could be as simple an explanation as some sort of genetic-based locking device that prevents non-Orks from using the weapon.

Not that it's a complete given of course. 40k thrives on ambiguity. Perfectly open to the whole gestalt psychic field making tech work thing. Just don't personally believe that's the most likely explanation. If other people do, then who am I to argue

I mean, there's at least one supposed psychic corpse that i hear is a pretty important part of the background... not an ork though.

Hm... maybe i need to start developing a theory that suggests otherwise though...

Mine is that the collector Necron (im too lazy to look up his name) Has either the 2nd or 11th primarch in stasis.

 Mr_Rose wrote:

Psychic corpse, huh?

Kind of. The primary brain was dead and there was a secondary brain even smaller that gave off the psychic field. Keeping the body alive allowed the secondary brain to activate tek... and now I’ve gone cross eyed.

DontEatRawHagis wrote:

 Mr_Rose wrote:

Psychic corpse, huh?

Kind of. The primary brain was dead and there was a secondary brain even smaller that gave off the psychic field. Keeping the body alive allowed the secondary brain to activate tek... and now I’ve gone cross eyed.

That's less dumb I guess.

Primaris Marines dont truly exist. They are normal Marines with better gear. The propaganda of the Imperium has them seem like better than normal Marines because they want people to think the Imperium has a new tool against Chaos.

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
Even though the Adeptus Mechanicus think Orks will technology to life with a psychic field, I hold to the belief that the Orks are too advanced for the Imperium to understand.

Clark’s law of Technology being like Magic applies.

A Big Mek can make anything into a shoota for example because he knows a level of physics on an instinctual level that humans have no hope to match.

Edit: So Orks couldn’t say create matter out of nothing if a boss says it’s right. They were built as scavengers so that they didn’t need to be resupplied if fighting took place on planet far away from supply lines. That’s why try can beat the Imperium in numbers because they don’t need Forgeworlds to create everything for them.

Yes, I prefer this too. Belief making stuff work thing is just stupid. Though Orks don't really understand their own tech either. They just know how to do it in the same way than a beaver knows how to build a dam.

The belief thing gives that extra push that allows them to compete with more technological civilizations. For the most part they know what they are doing seemingly unlocking better technical knowledge the more orks united under the same Waaaagh! They don't seem to know why they know how to build stuff nor does it seem to make sense to them to even ask or explain why they know. They just happily do their thing with no angst.

But the belief thing is there and plays it's role. I read a nice example once to explain it. Picture a trukk full of Boyz and a Nob speeding their way to make it to the big fight. Suddenly the trukk sputters to a stop. The orks hop out to figure out what to do. One of the Boyz says he thinks maybe the trukk is out of fuel. The nob clobber him over the head and yells he fueled it that day and if he says there's fuel the there's fuel. Ork boy logic kicks in; the Nob is the leader and proved it with the unconscious ork on the ground. And leaders do look after stuff like the fuel so what he says must be true. So back into the truk they go, start it up, one drop does 10, and they make it with just enough to get to the fight.

 ProwlerPC wrote:
The belief thing gives that extra push that allows them to compete with more technological civilizations. For the most part they know what they are doing seemingly unlocking better technical knowledge the more orks united under the same Waaaagh! They don't seem to know why they know how to build stuff nor does it seem to make sense to them to even ask or explain why they know. They just happily do their thing with no angst.

But the belief thing is there and plays it's role. I read a nice example once to explain it. Picture a trukk full of Boyz and a Nob speeding their way to make it to the big fight. Suddenly the trukk sputters to a stop. The orks hop out to figure out what to do. One of the Boyz says he thinks maybe the trukk is out of fuel. The nob clobber him over the head and yells he fueled it that day and if he says there's fuel the there's fuel. Ork boy logic kicks in; the Nob is the leader and proved it with the unconscious ork on the ground. And leaders do look after stuff like the fuel so what he says must be true. So back into the truk they go, start it up, one drop does 10, and they make it with just enough to get to the fight.

Yeah that's precisely the sort of scenario that, in my slightly harder-scifi slant on it, would be complete hearsay fabrication and/or caused by other factors.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the Orks, when their trukk sputters to a stop (spat a spark plug out) one of their Grots is busy mucking about with the engine while the macho Orks misdiagnose the issue, swagger about, argue and punch each other. By the time the driver comes back to try again, Mr Grot has jury-rigged a fix and lo and behold the Trukk starts again! Orks think it must have been full of fuel the whole time!

You can even get a pretty half-decent real-world explanation for the whole 'red wunz go fasta' thing too. Either the meks subconsciously make the red ones actually faster, or the Orks driving them get more reckless with their driving

Not that I'm saying it definitely is that, more that it's definitely possible that it's either way. The option are:

1. Orks have knowledge of technology hard-coded into their DNA such that they can absent-mindedly put together ramshackle tech that rivals the greatest achievements of the other races without thinking about it.
2. Orks have an in-built psychic mechanism that subtly bends or outright breaks the laws of physics when enough of them will it that way.
3. A combination of the two.

It's not clear which one (if any) are true, so it's entirely up to the reader to determine which one they believe.

And it's better that way

My take on it is that the Ork psychic effect is basically "lubricant" - mechanisms that should seize up, jam or not work due to dodgy tolerances run regardless. Engines get a slightly higher power output than they "should", etc. Nothing that is really overt.

I'm an avid reader of Sci fi, myself, but I'm also a huge nerd with fantasy/adventure such as JRR Tolkien''s Middle Earth as well as the Forgotten Realms and DragonLance settings. I'm completely certain that the 40k setting is fantasy/adventure in space and not a Sci fi. There's just too much ridiculous stuff in the fluff to fit in with any label that implies logic.

 ProwlerPC wrote:
I'm an avid reader of Sci fi, myself, but I'm also a huge nerd with fantasy/adventure such as JRR Tolkien''s Middle Earth as well as the Forgotten Realms and DragonLance settings. I'm completely certain that the 40k setting is fantasy/adventure in space and not a Sci fi. There's just too much ridiculous stuff in the fluff to fit in with any label that implies logic.

Remember, 40k literally had its start as “WHFB in space.” While 40k does kind of fit the label of Space Opera, its focus on dramatic and overblown storytelling rather than the creation of a logically consistent and coherent universe does make it more fantasy. However, sci-fi and fantasy are more often than not two sides of the same coin, just with different sets of tropes. Sci-fi did start as a sibling of speculative fiction, but has become an almost meaningless term due to genre expansion, just like the term “roguelike” in gaming used to mean a very specific thing but now can refer to anything that has a few certain features from a massive checklist. This is probably something for another thread though and I think I rambled on a bit much .

As for the ork gestalt field I think that it’s a defense mechanism put in place by the Old Ones to give them an edge in situations where their natural abilities were outclassed, able to be channeled by the brainboyz. With the brainboyz gone it only activates when orks are in conflict, which is part of why orks fight each other all the time and why grots make such good weirdboy handlers.

There's a "Getting Started With Orks" article in the latest issue of White Dwarf. It states outright that Orks have an innate understanding of technology and can make things that humans can't understand, and that the portrayal of them as stupid is basically Imperial propaganda. So I guess that isn't head canon.

 Supertony51 wrote:
Mine is that the collector Necron (im too lazy to look up his name) Has either the 2nd or 11th primarch in stasis.

Fabius Bile- Clonelord spoilers inbound.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
There's a "Getting Started With Orks" article in the latest issue of White Dwarf. It states outright that Orks have an innate understanding of technology and can make things that humans can't understand, and that the portrayal of them as stupid is basically Imperial propaganda. So I guess that isn't head canon.

Again, going back to 1st edition, teleporter and force field technology was something that Orks had an innate knowledge of that was superior to Imperial (and possibly also Eldar) technology. Partly because Ork physiology could withstand walking into a teleporter beam unprotected (something that humans could only survive in heavy shielding such as Terminator armour). That's what lead to such devices as the Mekboy speedstas - with the lifta-droppa and bubble-chukka weapons - and the Shokk Attack Gun, which is effectively a portable webway tunnel generator.

Latest headcanon:

Humanity of the 41st millennium is genetically and in some aspects biologically unrecognisible to humans in our millennium. Less to do with evolution, but more to do with widespread genetic engineering that lingers from the DAoT.

Things like modification on the genetic level to make bionic implants more feasible, explaining how even backward technobarbarians are able to graft bionic limbs onto themselves.

I'd also expect a whole host of other lingering low-level augmentations that would have been useful to colonists, like the ability to digest more stuff than we can and less muscle-wastage in zero-g...

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
Latest headcanon:

Humanity of the 41st millennium is genetically and in some aspects biologically unrecognisible to humans in our millennium. Less to do with evolution, but more to do with widespread genetic engineering that lingers from the DAoT.

Things like modification on the genetic level to make bionic implants more feasible, explaining how even backward technobarbarians are able to graft bionic limbs onto themselves.

I'd also expect a whole host of other lingering low-level augmentations that would have been useful to colonists, like the ability to digest more stuff than we can and less muscle-wastage in zero-g...

I like this. Also lends a nice undercurrent to the whole "preserving the purity of mankind" thing.

It might even be full canon too; I remember a throwaway line or two in one of the Horus Heresy books that spoke of the Emperor’s conquest of Terra and the rebuilding of the surviving humans on a genetic level because of all the various and vicious rad-, chem-, and bio-warfare agents used in the DAoT, not to mention that everyone and his dog has a “secret” (read: no plans, no prototype, no backup) supersoldier programme going…

Well, I would assume so. I mean, even that many millennia of breeding would end up with the "vanilla" human gene-type being substantially different from our modern one. Then add god-knows what during the Golden Age of tech.......

 Grimtuff wrote:

 Supertony51 wrote:
Mine is that the collector Necron (im too lazy to look up his name) Has either the 2nd or 11th primarch in stasis.

Fabius Bile- Clonelord spoilers inbound.

Spoiler:

He doesn't (maybe).

By the end of the novel Trazyn takes a cloned version of pre-daemon Fulgrim away with him (he originally wanted Bile). Trazyn only agrees to this as "(he) came close to adding a Primarch in his collection centuries ago" and takes Fulgrim away kicking and screaming.

I say "maybe" because interestingly earlier in the novel two characters mention that (real) Fulgrim claims "One of the two forgotten ones was said to have lead an expedition to it's black heart, in the early centuries of the Great Crusade". The "It" in question referring to a large Necron space obelisk that is smack bang near Solemnace, the site of Trazyn's museum.

So he is absolutely confirmed to have Fulgrim and he may have one more that he has forgotten about.

Amazing that Trazyn gets so much done for himself.

One of my many ideas:
Going from homo sapiens to a Space Marine is far from just: "Yeah, upgrade!". That's not grimdark at all and not very realistic. Take the coolest version of power armour, ie. The coolest dimensions/scale of legs, arms and torso. Insert arms, legs and torso of the fully developed space marine, these parts will likely not connect properly like a normal human. Now insert bionic parts which will connect torso with arms and legs. This way a space marine will be an abomination without armour and represent the sacrifice he chose of his handsome muscular warrior frame he had before, which he gladly made, so he could serve the Emperor.

This will also highlight the significance of Mars and the deal, the Emperor made back in the days: the power armour was of such a brilliant design, that the Emperor formed his warriors to suit the armour and not the other way around.

The Dark Angels were turned to Chaos' Malal; Cypher is actually Lynn Al'Gonson; the =Inquisition= knows it, but has to let it slide because otherwise, they admit that the DA turned to a 5th Chaos God.

I imagine, that at least extra parts are necessary for the shoulder to connect to the torso, and that bulky machinery is inserted giving him grotesque wide shoulders but enabling a space marine to move is arms properly.

I just really don't like the Captain America-sort of enhancing of the body in this grimdark universe.

That normal life on Imperial Worlds can range from slave labor to modern day life. I imagine that there is a world out there very similar to the 21st century 1st World Country with all that that entails. Religion wise there is the Imperial Cult but it’s not as regimentally enforced with most of the populous falling into an agnostic type or Easter/Christmas type populous.

While the Ecclisiarchy is powerful on certain worlds I imagine that these worlds are stable enough not to warrant drastic action. Especially if they meet their tithe no one actually bothers them.

Since it will likely never be answered nor really matter to the story I like to think about what the Emperor bargained to gain the power to make the primarchs. Since the demons in the HH novels always refer to the Emperor as the betrayer I think he bargained two things.

First, was his foresight. Beyond explaining almost every plot hole of the primarchs turning without the Emperor knowing, it makes sense he would have to give up something personal.

Second, is that I think he promised humanity itself to chaos. I don't think he ever intended to keep said promise but only something as grand as the whole of humanity is a prize strong enough to wrest something to make his demi-god sons. Further, it explains why chaos always seems to refer to humans as belonging to them.

 buddha wrote:
Since it will likely never be answered nor really matter to the story I like to think about what the Emperor bargained to gain the power to make the primarchs. Since the demons in the HH novels always refer to the Emperor as the betrayer I think he bargained two things.

First, was his foresight. Beyond explaining almost every plot hole of the primarchs turning without the Emperor knowing, it makes sense he would have to give up something personal.

Second, is that I think he promised humanity itself to chaos. I don't think he ever intended to keep said promise but only something as grand as the whole of humanity is a prize strong enough to wrest something to make his demi-god sons. Further, it explains why chaos always seems to refer to humans as belonging to them.

Makes a lot of sense that

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
That normal life on Imperial Worlds can range from slave labor to modern day life. I imagine that there is a world out there very similar to the 21st century 1st World Country with all that that entails. Religion wise there is the Imperial Cult but it’s not as regimentally enforced with most of the populous falling into an agnostic type or Easter/Christmas type populous.

While the Ecclisiarchy is powerful on certain worlds I imagine that these worlds are stable enough not to warrant drastic action. Especially if they meet their tithe no one actually bothers them.

Assuming a world is actually in touch with the Imperium and not cut off, I cannot see a world having a 21st century modern day lifestyle for very long for the following reasons:

The comforts of modern day life rest on a consumerist society. We don't see this in any existing 40K societies. At best there might be a tiny layer of luxury at the top and the slightly larger layer of servants and artisans that serve them, but there is no widespread class of middle class consumers. Nearly all the industry we see in the Imperium is heavy industry, geared towards the production of capital goods not consumer goods. If such a society were to come about, and the Administratum heard of it, they would likely raise tithes and tax the prosperity away. Why? Well, when the rest of the galaxy is in such dire straits, how can the Imperium afford to let one world live in relative luxury without contributing more to the Imperium? Clearly if they have the resources to support a consumerist society, they can afford to tithe more.

The few paradise or resort worlds that exist in the Imperium are for the enjoyment and recuperation of the powerful such as nobility, highly placed Administratum officials, Ecclesiarchy members, Inquisitors. Even then, they appear to be more places of relative untouched natural beauty rather than modern built up consumer societies, and the populations exist as a servant class. Think a planet of resort hotel staff, themselves living in picturesque naturalistic poverty when not serving their masters.

So even if the Imperium were to encounter or somehow spontaneously develop a comfortable 21st century equivalent society on a world, it would either be taxed out of existence, or maybe converted to a resort planet for the benefit of Imperial peers.

Iracundus wrote:

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
That normal life on Imperial Worlds can range from slave labor to modern day life. I imagine that there is a world out there very similar to the 21st century 1st World Country with all that that entails. Religion wise there is the Imperial Cult but it’s not as regimentally enforced with most of the populous falling into an agnostic type or Easter/Christmas type populous.

While the Ecclisiarchy is powerful on certain worlds I imagine that these worlds are stable enough not to warrant drastic action. Especially if they meet their tithe no one actually bothers them.

Assuming a world is actually in touch with the Imperium and not cut off, I cannot see a world having a 21st century modern day lifestyle for very long for the following reasons:

The comforts of modern day life rest on a consumerist society. We don't see this in any existing 40K societies. At best there might be a tiny layer of luxury at the top and the slightly larger layer of servants and artisans that serve them, but there is no widespread class of middle class consumers. Nearly all the industry we see in the Imperium is heavy industry, geared towards the production of capital goods not consumer goods. If such a society were to come about, and the Administratum heard of it, they would likely raise tithes and tax the prosperity away. Why? Well, when the rest of the galaxy is in such dire straits, how can the Imperium afford to let one world live in relative luxury without contributing more to the Imperium? Clearly if they have the resources to support a consumerist society, they can afford to tithe more.

The few paradise or resort worlds that exist in the Imperium are for the enjoyment and recuperation of the powerful such as nobility, highly placed Administratum officials, Ecclesiarchy members, Inquisitors. Even then, they appear to be more places of relative untouched natural beauty rather than modern built up consumer societies, and the populations exist as a servant class. Think a planet of resort hotel staff, themselves living in picturesque naturalistic poverty when not serving their masters.

So even if the Imperium were to encounter or somehow spontaneously develop a comfortable 21st century equivalent society on a world, it would either be taxed out of existence, or maybe converted to a resort planet for the benefit of Imperial peers.

Absolutely agreed. The Imperium has been in a state of pretty much continuous Total War for 10,000 years.

The only instances of modern Total War we have are WW1 amd WW2. Taking a look at the home fronts in the various countries involved should give you an indication of what happens to things like 'luxuries' when a state is dedicated wholly to prosecuting a war.

WW1 lasted for 4 years. WW2 lasted for 6.

The Imperium as a whole has been in that same state for 10,000.

From a realism perspective, they've actually got the whole 'universal fascistic crap-hole' thing bang on the money for the Imperium...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, another favourite piece of headcanon:

Although long-distance deep-warp travel is how people traverse the colossal distances of the Imperium, there are numerous 'little' locally produced puddle-jumpers that are capable of travelling between nearby systems in a similar 'warp-skimming' method to the Tau.

This opens up a whole load of cool scifi avenues for small-scale interplanetary empires beneath Imperial rule, low-level interplanetary commerce, and for stuff like fugitives and other such characters to move between systems without having to stow away on naval vessels.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

Oh, another favourite piece of headcanon:

Although long-distance deep-warp travel is how people traverse the colossal distances of the Imperium, there are numerous 'little' locally produced puddle-jumpers that are capable of travelling between nearby systems in a similar 'warp-skimming' method to the Tau.

This opens up a whole load of cool scifi avenues for small-scale interplanetary empires beneath Imperial rule, low-level interplanetary commerce, and for stuff like fugitives and other such characters to move between systems without having to stow away on naval vessels.

That's not headcanon, but actual GW canon. Calculated jumps were how ships got around before the advent of Navigators, and they still are how many ships get around. FFG's RPGs had the Chartist captains, who basically had set navigational data and kept doing the same routes of calculated jumps over generations. They are slower than ships with Navigators, as they have to keep popping back out of the warp in re-orient and calculate the next jump.

The sheer size of the universe, and the necessity for large scale trade as evidenced by entire worlds exporting or importing vast quantities of bulk goods. The number of Navigators has never been explicitly stated but they are portrayed still as not being dirt common. Therefore if they are uncommon, then how do all the bulk food freighters that keep hive worlds alive get around? Answer is calculated jumps.

That also answers how interstellar human pirates can exist, as obviously not every little pirate vessel is going to have or being able to kidnap a Navigator.

Iracundus wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

Oh, another favourite piece of headcanon:

Although long-distance deep-warp travel is how people traverse the colossal distances of the Imperium, there are numerous 'little' locally produced puddle-jumpers that are capable of travelling between nearby systems in a similar 'warp-skimming' method to the Tau.

This opens up a whole load of cool scifi avenues for small-scale interplanetary empires beneath Imperial rule, low-level interplanetary commerce, and for stuff like fugitives and other such characters to move between systems without having to stow away on naval vessels.

That's not headcanon, but actual GW canon. Calculated jumps were how ships got around before the advent of Navigators, and they still are how many ships get around. FFG's RPGs had the Chartist captains, who basically had set navigational data and kept doing the same routes of calculated jumps over generations. They are slower than ships with Navigators, as they have to keep popping back out of the warp in re-orient and calculate the next jump.

The sheer size of the universe, and the necessity for large scale trade as evidenced by entire worlds exporting or importing vast quantities of bulk goods. The number of Navigators has never been explicitly stated but they are portrayed still as not being dirt common. Therefore if they are uncommon, then how do all the bulk food freighters that keep hive worlds alive get around? Answer is calculated jumps.

That also answers how interstellar human pirates can exist, as obviously not every little pirate vessel is going to have or being able to kidnap a Navigator.

Also why a lot of trade is done in convoys; you merge Gellar fields and have one lead ship with a navigator take everyone along for the ride. Much more vulnerable to warp storms but good for efficient medium-range bulk perishable goods trade. Plus you have a lot of nominal friends around in case of raids.

Iracundus wrote:

DontEatRawHagis wrote:
That normal life on Imperial Worlds can range from slave labor to modern day life. I imagine that there is a world out there very similar to the 21st century 1st World Country with all that that entails. Religion wise there is the Imperial Cult but it’s not as regimentally enforced with most of the populous falling into an agnostic type or Easter/Christmas type populous.

While the Ecclisiarchy is powerful on certain worlds I imagine that these worlds are stable enough not to warrant drastic action. Especially if they meet their tithe no one actually bothers them.

Assuming a world is actually in touch with the Imperium and not cut off, I cannot see a world having a 21st century modern day lifestyle for very long for the following reasons:

The comforts of modern day life rest on a consumerist society. We don't see this in any existing 40K societies. At best there might be a tiny layer of luxury at the top and the slightly larger layer of servants and artisans that serve them, but there is no widespread class of middle class consumers. Nearly all the industry we see in the Imperium is heavy industry, geared towards the production of capital goods not consumer goods. If such a society were to come about, and the Administratum heard of it, they would likely raise tithes and tax the prosperity away. Why? Well, when the rest of the galaxy is in such dire straits, how can the Imperium afford to let one world live in relative luxury without contributing more to the Imperium? Clearly if they have the resources to support a consumerist society, they can afford to tithe more.

The few paradise or resort worlds that exist in the Imperium are for the enjoyment and recuperation of the powerful such as nobility, highly placed Administratum officials, Ecclesiarchy members, Inquisitors. Even then, they appear to be more places of relative untouched natural beauty rather than modern built up consumer societies, and the populations exist as a servant class. Think a planet of resort hotel staff, themselves living in picturesque naturalistic poverty when not serving their masters.

So even if the Imperium were to encounter or somehow spontaneously develop a comfortable 21st century equivalent society on a world, it would either be taxed out of existence, or maybe converted to a resort planet for the benefit of Imperial peers.

A lot of Warhammer fiction focuses on the world’s that are either at war or are geared towards supplying the various fronts. There has to be at least a couple of worlds where they haven’t been touched by war for hundreds of years or if there was war it was easy enough for local forces to deal with. They ship off a crapton of crops and such to the Imperium. While the rest of the population is very 21st century lifestyle.

A lot of Black Library books deal with themes of class divides with the slave class of servitors, working class(farmers, soldiers and such), and upper class (governors and lords). So to say that there is a missing class that is not represented isn’t as far fetched as you’d think. As long as the tithe comes no one cares how a planet carries on.

We do see a couple of worlds with a recognisable middle class of sorts in Abnett’s Inquisition books. It’s just that the Inquisitors are generally either slumming it to get info from underground informants or cruising past those same middle classes in the luxury grav-limousine they commandeered on their way to the estate and yacht dealership in the expensive part of town, so we never see what their lives are like, beyond “people with free time and disposable income”.

There's a few in the Ciaphas Cain novels too, that manage to maintain a comfortable middle class and reasonably open society.



You're still looking at something more like China than western Europe or north America, though.

A single Space Marine per Space Marine squad is designated to carry a small teleportation device, embedded in his palm. This device can only teleport smaller objects. In the battle barge in orbit each squad has its own armoury with ammunition, grenades, equipment and weapons. In the armoury a servitor with an incorporated teleportation device received the orders from the Space Marine below and teleports the order down.
This can explain how Space Marines can stay in a fight for a long time without being bulked up with all the necessary equipment. It also lets the squad exchange their special and heavy weapons during a battle, reflecting the incredible flexibility of the tactical squad.

Chaospling wrote:
A single Space Marine per Space Marine squad is designated to carry a small teleportation device, embedded in his palm. This device can only teleport smaller objects. In the battle barge in orbit each squad has its own armoury with ammunition, grenades, equipment and weapons. In the armoury a servitor with an incorporated teleportation device received the orders from the Space Marine below and teleports the order down.
This can explain how Space Marines can stay in a fight for a long time without being bulked up with all the necessary equipment. It also lets the squad exchange their special and heavy weapons during a battle, reflecting the incredible flexibility of the tactical squad.

Nice. Explains unlimited ammo and why each marine doesn't have a mountain of clips strapped to their bodies. I had a different theory of where they hide their clips but your head canon is more family friendly then mine

The Space Marine fitting into it's armor isn't that weird when you consider what other various GSC members look like.

Anyway, the headcanon - the Emperor borrowed most of the things he "invented" from the dominant forces in the galaxy:
Space Marine Geneseed: Tyranid Genestealers
Librarius: CW Eldar Ghosthelms and Runes
Webway: DE Eldar escape Chaos by using the Webway
MEQ Spam: Necron Warrior spam
POTMS: C'tan
Being an donkey-cave: Demons
Being an idiot: Orkz

T'au didn't exist yet (and wouldn't be a major power).

I tend towards a slightly less hopeless version of the universe than the one you see in the lore. Where Imperial Guard service isn't a death sentence, for instance, and the citizenry have lives outside of the cogs they turn.

Not enough that it's a great place to live, but more World War II Britain, and less World War II Stalingrad.