Ynneadwraith wrote:

 Novelist47 wrote:
Most of the Imperium are made up of peaceful civilised worlds. Regular people who have regular lives who worship the Emperor.

That's a pretty happy ending.

The thing to remember is that the standard for 'regular life' within the Imperium would probably fall somewhere between North Korea, the worst of Soviet Russia and a concentration camp.

It's a civilisation that has been in a state of total war for a shade over 10,000 years. Imagine the stories of the world war home-fronts, but perpetuated for 10 millennia.

It's a happy ending compared to what the Dark Eldar will do of course, but that's the point.

If people want a good news story from all the darkness it's one of survival. Life s pretty awful. Enemies more horrific than you can imagine hammer at every door. The only thing holding them back is a fascist military religious-fanatic dictatorship, and even then not very well.

Yet, despite all of this. Despite countless apocalypses. Despite the living conditions. Despite widespread ignorance. Despite enemies that outclass us in every way. Despite all of this, humanity endures through sheer grit and determination.

It's a message that works because of the level of unrelenting darkness.

Usually in fantasy universes humanity's racial trait is something like 'adaptability' or 'inventiveness' or something similar. It's quite rare that you come across a universe where our racial trait is that we're hard as nails.