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With the news that games workshop and the Black Library intend to trace the history of The imperium over the next 6-8 years, starting from the heresy (books already out) leading right up to "modern" day, there is a sense that Gamesworkshop may be about to shake up the 40K universe and actually advance the story in a drastic way. The only other company I can think of that where actually brave enough to do this with there brand was white wolf, when they ended the world of darkness by actually brining about the apocalypse and return of cain they had been hinting at.

So if Gamesworkshop are actually planning on having a big story advance what form will it take. The 40K universe is alot more open to major storyline changes then the fantasy battle world is. First the sheer size means that the game system wont need to be drastically changed to represent world changes (If chaos where to suddenly become all powerfull in the warhammer world you would at least lose a race or 2, magic would have to be changed e.t.c.), The way that GW have left the 40K universe so open ended also leaves alot more skope for major story development. The history of the fantasy world is pretty cannon, while thee are still big gaps in the 40 K universe, gaps that are now being filled by Gamesworkshop.

SO what do you think GW will do?

In the last heresey Novel mechanicum I think there is a big hint as to where GW is going to take the Story in the future. Chaos is not going to be eradicated, just as Humanity is not going to be overun. The 2 of them need each other. Order and chaos need to co exist (A similair argument was use in the original Warhammer Fantasy roleplay, the gods of order would see all things stagnate and nothing progress, the gods of chaos would see it all go crazy, and so The Old world needed both to exist).

The big threat to the future of the Galaxy will be the C'tan. Now that The c'tan have awoken, and have realised there is a whole new food source (humanity) they will start to hunt again. The emperor himself knew that they where a major threat to humanity, hence why he trapped one under mars (this and it helped him take over mars peacfully, by playing on there belief in a machine god).
Finally, at the very end of mechanicum, the book that holds the story of the dragon has been taken, and the novel states that a new guardian would be found in 10'000 years, but by then it would be to late. This suggests the Dragon is to reawaken at some point. Probably to be reawoken by whoever stole the silver book.

So the dragon under mars awakens, causing anouther civil war on mars. It combines forces with the deciever and the nightbringer who in a rage at humanity for having the gall to imprison one of there kind launch a full scale attack on humanity. The emperor trappped as he is in stasis can do nothing, At the same time the hive mind reveals itself as the outsider. Humanity looks doomed, and it is now that the plans of the old ones come into play, knowing that they can not exist if humanity is enslaved by the c'tan and that the only being that can defeat them is the emperor (he has already beaten one in combat) Cypher is finally allowed by chaos to complete his mission, He makes his way to earth and kills the emperor, releasing his spirit into the ether, where he can now take form again and fight the c'tan. Knowing that humanity will be at threat from chaos, and all the other xenos of the universe without his physical body on earth anymore the emperors last act is to reawaken the remaining primarchs. So it is shown that all the time the old ones have manipulated Chaos and Humanity with the aim of finally defeating the Necrons.

anyway just an idea. feel free to rip it apart .

there is anouther possibility, which is that the Emperor is actually an old one. and planned the whole thing himself. Either way C'tan will be the big bad guys of the 42nd millenium.

The new 40K rulebook (and all other GW references) refer to the 'now' as "The End Of Times".
I like your thoughts on the Mars & C'Tan bits - as well as Cypher - here is an interesting one... What has Russ been doing all this time?

Why did Eldrad allow himself to be killed and scattered in his (for lack of a better word) super spirit stones

Has GW really given up on the Sensai and the Star Children or might there still be a part for them to play (I always liked their part in the grand scheme of things)

Was the warp storm that shielded the Tau a freak accident or did someone (Tzeench perhaps) cause it to create unstabilization in that sector of Imperial Space?

Did the Old Ones make a cure to the virus they created to wipe out the Necrotyr?

After the death of the Emperor, he will be reborn, and bring forth a new Dawn of Man!....okay, maybe not.

Or has he already been reborn?
The first time around he loitered around for a few ten thousand years before stepping up...

If ya feed enough psyker souls a day to a rotting corpse will it make a psi beacon?

Hummmmmm....

Golden throne is slowly breaking down IIRC... so the Emperor finally dies, but not before the illuminati show up and sacrifice his descendants at the moment of his death. He is reborn and takes command of the Imperium once again, casting down the corrupt lords of Terra. He starts up the Great Crusade again. Here's hoping...

And it'd be nice if Corax came back at some point... the Raven Guard need him!

Hmm, if he is reborn they should make him a special character for the Inquisition (not Spaiz Mareenz).

He could be 450 points and have special rules that allow him to kill nigh on anything

Without the goodness of Eternal Warrior of course

Mercurial wrote:Golden throne is slowly breaking down IIRC... so the Emperor finally dies, but not before the illuminati show up and sacrifice his descendants at the moment of his death. He is reborn and takes command of the Imperium once again, casting down the corrupt lords of Terra. He starts up the Great Crusade again. Here's hoping...

And it'd be nice if Corax came back at some point... the Raven Guard need him!

the lords of terra are inquisitors and will call the emporer the thing with a demon inside of it they want power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! finnally gw has a valid point of ig fighting space marines

there is already a potentialy decent reason for IG fighting Spacemarines, the dragon is released, the mechanicum splits and takes some of the guard with it.

lso I cant see the emperor becomong a corporeal form, that would lead to him being worshipped even more as a god (somthing he doesnt want). No cypher kills him, and his soul enters the warp, however before it can be tainted by chaos, the same belief that keeps the 4 chaos powers so strong, elevates the emperor (imagine all that belief focused on one individual), so an unforseen by product of the belief in the emperor, which he tried so hard to prevent, results in him becoming a 5th chaos power, only one for good, therefore finally balancing out the warp. (much like malal was back in the days of the origiinal WFB, a chaos god who fought all the other chaos gods and protected the races of the old world).

Sorry means you dont get him as a charachter.

Ye but then how can they make new models if they end the series?

I like the idea of the C'tan becoming the next big threat, as well as the return of the Emperor and the Primarchs as actual in-game factors, but I would be amazed if they actually did it. Of course, they need to do something dramatic for 6th edition, or the game will start to stagnate.

I am not saying end the series, I am saying take it somewhere new. The great thing is that as the rules now seem to have settled into a pretty balanced, standard format, and dont really need any major overhaul (yes I know at least one of you will disagree but lets leave that to anouther thread). Then it means future editions can work more on developing the future story. oherwise, like Warpcrafter says, it will start to stagnate, there are only so many chaos incursions, or tyranid attacks that dont really push the story on that the old school gamers can take.

There were some rules for a few primarchs in some 'throwback to the Heresy' scenarios a while back.

I say let the Emperor come back - give him rules for Apoco. Bring back the Daemon Prince Primarchs as well and the few Primarchs still alive. Take it up a notch.

KMKhaine wrote:There were some rules for a few primarchs in some 'throwback to the Heresy' scenarios a while back.

I say let the Emperor come back - give him rules for Apoco. Bring back the Daemon Prince Primarchs as well and the few Primarchs still alive. Take it up a notch.

Wouldn't that just screw over all the other races unless of course all the other races were stepped up in a similar fashion e.g. Super Eldrad for Eldar, The Grand Ethereal for Tau, Somthing close to the Hive Mind maybe call it "The mouth of the Hive Mind" for Tyranids, An Ork who has managed to unite a great Majority of other Orks, a more powerful C'Tan for Necrons, The fallen Phoenix Lord (Ahra I think) for Dark Eldar.

Not necessairily, ya a Primarch would be all kinds of kick ass but he might cost 800 points... can he possibly kill 800 points of stuff, perhaps but that'd be a ton of saves he has to make.

Some races could bring some big baddie - A bigger, bader C'tan, Avatar etc... some of those are seemingly toned down to fit the skirmish battles that are 40K. Orks would probablyh just have more Stompas and Gargants. Tau, bigger Mechs...

KMKhaine wrote:
Was the warp storm that shielded the Tau a freak accident or did someone (Tzeench perhaps) cause it to create unstabilization in that sector of Imperial Space?

Well, It seems as though the Tau were created by either the Old Ones or Eldar, so the storm could have been their way of keeping the Tau alive

The Orks already have their supreme leader, Ghazgkull Thrakka. Let him build up his Waagh some more and make him the biggest (Literally) Warlord the Orks have ever seen.

Ghazgkull needs to actually take frikken' Armageddon before he can call himself a supreme leader.

I mean really, I think Abaddon did better.

You're all forgetting that the timeline hasn't been advanced in any significant manner since the games inception many years ago. I bet that nothing will happen. Ever. And it wasn't an Old One virus that was unleashed against the Necrontyr. The proliferation of warp-using races during the War in Heaven lured the Enslavers out of the warp who wiped out most life, drove off the remaining Old Ones and forced the Necrons to go into hibernation.

Anyone else notice the "necron" like characters popping up in various pictures and artwork?

Check out the "guy" in the cloak in the middle of the guard lines on the cover of apocalyspe, or the servitor that looks suspiciously like a wraith on page 8 of the guard codex (you can only see its back). Coincidence? I think not.

Methinks the necrons/c'tan have infiltrated the imperium.
They're the next big enemy.

Cue spooky, dramatic music.

You all are being distracted, GW is making us look the other way so we don't see the Space Dawrfs coming!

:-)

Kidding aside I have no idea where they are taking the story, just have a feeling I'll be buying more books and models.

Orkeosaurus wrote:Ghazgkull needs to actually take frikken' Armageddon before he can call himself a supreme leader.

I mean really, I think Abaddon did better.

That could be one of the turning points in the next millennium, along with the awakening of the Emperor and return of the Primarchs. He who gives in to despair is lost.

There is a story line? I thought the formula for their story is...

Marine vs X [ which ever is the army they are promoting at the time ]

It's more like Humanity vs. X, with Marines proving immensely popular. The Eye of Terror campaign was great because it highlighted Cadians, Eldar, the SW 13th company and expanded Chaos a little... and SM were NOT in the spotlight, for once.

The story hasn't moved much since 3rd edition, and by rights it shouldn't. I'd hate it if they woke the Emperor. Escalating a warzone, like Armageddon or the EOT is much more characterful for the setting.

So perhaps the question is, where will the next epic campaign take place?

Wouldn't it be cool if the story progressed like ... Emperor of Imperium actually died? All the Imperium fell into disarray , and lots of other armies used this chance to launch their attacks.

Planetstrike might be geared towards the battle of the Sabbot Worlds. Imperial forces vs. Chaos. that would make for some cool models. Large war machines, Dark Eldar allies, Inquisition, ect.

If the Emperor finally died (Or horus.. anyone ever read the fluff in the inquisitor book?) then mankind would be completely cut off without the emperor to guide the astranomicon to allow the imperiums vast armies to communicate & travel/respond to things via warp travel.

& The golden throne is failing.. if anything GW needs to either leave that facet of the story alone (the emperor & the golden throne) or sort out some way for warp travel to be viable w/o the emperor.

What happened if the eye of terror one day just collapsed. Hive fleet Siren is discovered approaching from above the galactic plane, intial estimates estimate a force 10 times the size of previous fleets & rough estimates place its course heading to the tip of the perseus spiral arm (the dysons sphere), at the same time there is a catastrophic explosion on mars from an unknown source knocking it out of its current orbit..

Just my 3 cents.

Razerous wrote:If the Emperor finally died (Or horus.. anyone ever read the fluff in the inquisitor book?) then mankind would be completely cut off without the emperor to guide the astranomicon to allow the imperiums vast armies to communicate & travel/respond to things via warp travel.

& The golden throne is failing.. if anything GW needs to either leave that facet of the story alone (the emperor & the golden throne) or sort out some way for warp travel to be viable w/o the emperor.

What happened if the eye of terror one day just collapsed. Hive fleet Siren is discovered approaching from above the galactic plane, intial estimates estimate a force 10 times the size of previous fleets & rough estimates place its course heading to the tip of the perseus spiral arm (the dysons sphere), at the same time there is a catastrophic explosion on mars from an unknown source knocking it out of its current orbit..

Just my 3 cents.

Interesting, would be bloody and disruptive to everyone. Something needs to be done. Perhaps the Night Lords would use the disruption to establish their own Imperium, and force the loyalists to acknowledge their dominion because they're too busy defending their own chosen sectors to dispute them. The Adeptus Mechanicus would expand their presence and induct trillions from neighboring systems into the Skitarii by force. Would make for some really cool armies.

Similiar to what they did with CSM & Demons... Necron 5ed & the Adeptus Mechanicus, the light and dark sides of the same coin?

As for this eye of terror closure, it wouldnt mean the end of CSM's per say...there would just be progressive more small-scale incursions after a brief period of calm. Could work.

GW has held the fluff in stasis right before the end for a long time now. The whole "Two Minutes to Midnight" theme is essential to the feel of the game.

Chaos or Humanity triumphant would ruin the feel, so it will never happen. What can be done is interesting stories that highlight important parts in the fluff, but don't affect the outcome. The heresy is a good example. They can reveal lots of secrets, but none of it will change the setting in any way.