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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.

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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.