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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"?