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Yup. I know i'm certainly not alone. Which begs the question what kind of endings would I spew sober?

I think they could use more heavy metal, there aren't nearly enough exterminatuses and that needs to be fixed. There needs to be a massive invasion of the IoM during which they destroy hundreds of planets to stop the invaders. And after that they would go on another crusade to try to purge the galaxy of the non-human and heretic before being completely destroyed by the 'Nids and Necrons. Not the best ending, but it's metal as hell.

The Primarchs return. *Nod*

Chaos-Wulfen-Corrupted Leman Russ and Daemon Prince Magnus basically destory a Hive World in a one on one duel.

I fail to see how stompin' all dem 'umie gitz spells the end of 40k. If anything, without all those pompous murder monkeys, GW/FW etc would turn their efforts towards creating a new golden age of multiculturalism the likes of which we have never seen!

I hate space marines, you see.

Yea, if the Imperium (and maybe Chaos' primary human population with it) were to die out, there'd still be Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, and perhaps most likely, Necrons, Orks, and Tyrannids.

Though personally I think a setting of just Necrons, Orks, and Tyrannids and nothing else would be atrociously boring (relatively speaking)

They need to hire some writers to help them finish things. Not the guys they currently have. Get Chris Nolan in there, and maybe some Tarantino, mixed with the guys who wrote the 3rd act for Cabin in the Woods.

I just want them to not ignore the Primarchs. I feel like any ending of the game that doesn't involve Russ, Khan, Rowboat, Johnson, Vulkan, Corax, and maybe even Dorn stumbling back into the picture is just missing a whole bunch of golden opportunities.

 sing your life wrote:
some parts of 40k are set in the 42nd millenium and people are still alive.

What parts? I can only think of the Cain books. They take place in the 42nd millenium, since that's when Amberly is giving out the books to her fellow Inquisitors. But I wouldn't really view one Black Library series as hard evidence, especially one that veers from the studio material quite a bit, in places.

In the core rulebook the time line has been brought back to the end of M.41. If you consult your rulebook and look at the first part of the fluff section. When Peals Midnight, read the bold section under the title. This is hard proof that official writers for the 40k universe are considering, or at least joking about such an ending. And that horrifies me. But I assume it's more of an inside joke than a serious effort, I just thought it would be cool to leak some of their insidious plots upon our beloved hobby.

A return to metal sounds good to me. So long as doomrider comes back and noise marines get electric guitars again, I'll play a game with you.

The Primarch vs Daemon Primarch battles would be epic. The death and rebirth of the Emperor would be epic. Necrons vs. Tyranids. The death of the Eldar. The second siege of Terra. There's epic descending upon epic just waiting to happen.. But that bell will never toll, and our imaginations will be left to run wild.

I feel like chaos would start to eat everyone's soul if the Emperor truly died, but there would still be faith in the Emperor and there would still be grim order to men's hearts even in the darkest of hours. It would be too cool for 7th edition to have the light go out and then a 'platinum' crusade or some garbage in the 8th where the Primarchs return and the remnants of humanity are rallied in badassery of outrageous proportions.. Profit.

my vote is to wake goldie locks up but have another civil war between two or three factions to keep it grimdark and to statisfy the other races with gaining of ground on the galaxtic whole. Even if the IoM was a cluster of afew hundred world they would still be a wounded animal backed into a corner.


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my vote is to wake goldie locks up but have another civil war between two or three factions to keep it grimdark and to statisfy the other races with gaining of ground on the galaxtic whole. Even if the IoM was a cluster of a few hundred world they would still be a wounded animal backed into a corner.

 Iyandenseer wrote:
I

In addition it's much cooler now since it's most likely that the High Lords of Terra are keeping the Emperor dead to maintain their own supremacy. And that Cypher is the goodest good guy to ever do good. Plus that the dark angels are heretics. The Alpha Legion are the good guys. There's so much to keep the brain churning, they'd better do a damn good job of summing it up if and when the time comes. I kind of like letting Cypher plunge the sword into the Emprah's heart and letting the light of the throne go out. Everything goes black as the Imperium is eaten alive from every angle and it can't even see it coming. Every kingdom for itself. Praying that the Emperor returns to bring salvation. It's like 40k Judgement Day.

This may be the coolest version I've heard pitched so far. Not necessarily in the sense that it was intended, but in the idea that the High Lords of Terra have, in fact, been keeping the Emperor dead to maintain their supremacy and power base. Whether or not the light of the Astronomicon goes out, I would love to see a power struggle within the IoM.

Once the accusation is made, all hell breaks loose. The High Lords on one side, and self-proclaimed Loyalists on the other. The ripple crosses every faction and every section of the Imperium. The church in some places preaching that the emperor must be reborn as savior, while the others denounce this as dangerous heresy. Entire systems up and revolt, some throwing in their lot with the "Loyalists," others simply taking advantage of the weakened power structure to lift the boot off their neck. Space Marine chapters are torn, from one to the next - unsure who to call ally as both sides claim loyal service to the emperor. Except the Minotaurs. They would have a field day.

The in-fighting among men gives chaos opportunities they haven't seen in ages. Tyranids claim systems unchecked. Necrons keep on cronin', Eldar spin events and Tau may even be taking some secessionist systems under their wing. For the Greater Good.

It would be a very interesting setting to game in (and do wonders to explain why, statistically, space marines fight space marines in most games), and personally I love when a conflict isn't morally color-coded for your convenience.

It would also serve as a great vehicle for GW, when one thinks about it. If, at the end of the war, they want everything to go back to normal? Terra wins, history paints the traitors as chaos-touched and we go back to business as usual. If they wanted to advance the story to actually answer the Emperor question, one way or another, the "loyalists" win - which would make a fantastic climax to what could be a very long campaign.

I agree that the minotaurs would be an even more badass faction to play as.

I'd be truly interested to see which side the Adeptus Custodes took in such a conflict.

I would want some uber crazy ending:

Tyranids finally make a huge push from our neighboring galaxy (secretly lead by a c'tan).

Mars explodes as the dragon awakes (another c'tan) and rapidly awakens the necrons. Eye of terror goes nuts and a massive chaos incursion is launched to take advantage of the chaos. Lost primarchs return in some kind of semi-dead (ghost state) to lead humanity. Emperor returns in some kind of god-like state. Eldar craftworlds band together for an epic last stand. Ork and DE just kind muck around......

Epic things can happen.

The Q Continuum arrives, sees how much of a mess things are, blinks and winks and few times, and then nothing is left as it was, or even in any recognizable shape.

they could always have sanguinus be "reborn" via BA marine or something, they do have his blood

 Iyandenseer wrote:

I 100% agree with the gakking. Except option 1. I recommended that our game of deathwatch take place after the Astronomicon went out so gak would really be going down and it would be even grim darker.. Because that would be cool.

Not so sure how much fun you'd have playing in a galaxy devoid of interstellar travel (for humanity at least).

TiamatRoar wrote:
Though personally I think a setting of just Necrons, Orks, and Tyrannids and nothing else would be atrociously boring (relatively speaking)

It only sounds boring right now because, so far, those impotent space racists have been hogging the attention of all the writers

Down with necrons and nids, up with SM, CSM, Orks and IG!!

Chaos wins the 13th Black Crusade, nids, crons, orks etc start making some serious headway. Lost primarchs return to lead humanity, but high lords dont like it. Story progresses, becomes more dark, more epic and more awesome.

Ehh end for humanity maybe, what about the other races.

 Iyandenseer wrote:
In the core rulebook the time line has been brought back to the end of M.41. If you consult your rulebook and look at the first part of the fluff section. When Peals Midnight, read the bold section under the title. This is hard proof that official writers for the 40k universe are considering, or at least joking about such an ending. And that horrifies me. But I assume it's more of an inside joke than a serious effort, I just thought it would be cool to leak some of their insidious plots upon our beloved hobby.

1) The timeline's not moving. People have been speculating on this sort of thing for a couple of decades now. Nothing's going to happen.

2) The "end times" were spelt out a bloody long time ago as well. Tyranids will eventually spread through and eat everything in the 40k Galaxy, and move on to the next one. Inescapable, inevitable.

 Azazelx wrote:

 Iyandenseer wrote:
In the core rulebook the time line has been brought back to the end of M.41. If you consult your rulebook and look at the first part of the fluff section. When Peals Midnight, read the bold section under the title. This is hard proof that official writers for the 40k universe are considering, or at least joking about such an ending. And that horrifies me. But I assume it's more of an inside joke than a serious effort, I just thought it would be cool to leak some of their insidious plots upon our beloved hobby.

1) The timeline's not moving. People have been speculating on this sort of thing for a couple of decades now. Nothing's going to happen.

2) The "end times" were spelt out a bloody long time ago as well. Tyranids will eventually spread through and eat everything in the 40k Galaxy, and move on to the next one. Inescapable, inevitable.

As we have seen, not all of the setting or background is set in stone. The Horus Heresy continues to update the fluff for at least that part, so who's to say other things wouldn't change like in all the codex we have seen. Segments of long standing fluff are being swapped out and replaced all the time.

 Rotary wrote:
Ehh end for humanity maybe, what about the other races.

Mostly eaten by Tyranids. Though Chaos, the Dark Eldar, and the Necrons might be able to avoid that

Eldar could survive the Tyranids also, so long as they stay hidden in the webway.

Human warp travel could become more short ranged. The Astronomicon may be the primary beacon, but I'm sure navigators could become more skilled and use smaller beacons of light. Perhaps greatly diminish the ammount of interstellar travel. Until the Emprah comes and saves everyone, yay!

I believe the nids will be held back, eventually


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Why you ask? because 4 companies, and one world defeated a hive fleet, yay ultrasmurfs

 raiden wrote:
I believe the nids will be held back, eventually


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Why you ask? because 4 companies, and one world defeated a hive fleet, yay ultrasmurfs

Most of the people defending the sector died, Calgar was nearly killed, Macragge is unsafe forever, and that was only a small fleet.

You also forgot they had to detonate the Warp Drive of an Emperor class Battleship to suck most of the fleet into the Warp.

And most of the veterans of the Ultramarines died, so did most of the other companies. They also got the help of everything nearby including trader ships, PDF, and lots of other ships. And the fleet was almost completely destroyed.

 Iyandenseer wrote:
Eldar could survive the Tyranids also, so long as they stay hidden in the webway.

Human warp travel could become more short ranged. The Astronomicon may be the primary beacon, but I'm sure navigators could become more skilled and use smaller beacons of light. Perhaps greatly diminish the ammount of interstellar travel. Until the Emprah comes and saves everyone, yay!

In the HH book the Lion it talks of some worlds having warp beacons, but tjey are few and far between. But I could imagine the IoM still using the warp for short jumps as you stated.
My question to you is would these short jumps be longer than the Tau who skip upon the warp like a pebble over water, or shorter?

 darthnatus wrote:
And most of the veterans of the Ultramarines died, so did most of the other companies. They also got the help of everything nearby including trader ships, PDF, and lots of other ships. And the fleet was almost completely destroyed.

still a victory, an entire have fleet was eradicated, including the hive mind and the swarm lord. and they smurfs stand to rebuild for the next wave.

 Iyandenseer wrote:
A few friends of mine were standing around after a fine day of wargaming when the topic came up that one of our club members had met the head publisher of The Black Library at last year's Feast of Blades and had gotten him quite drunk. At such a time, he told my friend that there were indeed two possible endings officially recognized by all of the writers. And what actually happened to the two lost legions. Neither of which will likely ever be published.. But still, here's the two possible endings to 40k.
0. You're expecting the star child, that makes it no fun for it to be an option.
1. The Emperor is killed and the Astronomicon goes out. Grim Dark gets darker and Games Workshop continues selling models. Humanity is shattered and disjointed, but it would be an awesome atmosphere to game in.
2. In case Games Workshop decides they don't want to make more money.. The sad part is that this idea has some legs and there have been books written about it! The second ending is that as the Imperial clock strikes midnight at the end of 999.999 MK 41 or whatever that the entire human race dies instantaneously.. Apparently the human race stopped existing when the Emperor, being the last perpetual died fighting Horus and that these last 20k years were all just a space/time distortion where the Emperor's death shriek hasn't caught up yet..

Does it disturb anyone else that 2 is the preferred option.

Also missing Legion 1 was sent to colonize another galaxy and Legion 2 was disbanded, because their primarch went crazy, enslaved a planet and was just fething with people when the Emperor found him.

Oh God, the Inquisition is here!

I sniff heaptons of horsegak on this post.. Option 0 is the only one that really makes sense, though doing so will go through Stage 1.

Iyandenseer, I think you were lied to. There is a 0% chance of option 2, drunk writer was playing with you, proablby because he thought, or preferred to think you were getting all 'adoring fan' on him. I can see GW writers doing that, it's a flash odf self inportance for them.

Any meaningful advance of the metaplot will have big ramifications in corporate HQ, to the extent fear of financial change will likely both tone down and delay any changes.