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Post your ideas for moving the narrative forward keeping in mind GW need for $$$.

My Idea - Not wholly cannon backed up but progressive and grimdark enough

Seeing the ever growing threat from Orcs/Nids/Chaos, the Necrons Anrakyr and Trazyn start talking about the future. They consult Orikan and he tells them that if things keep going this way, there will be no galaxy for the Necrons to reclaim. *GRIMDARK
They get together with other notable Necron dynasties and form an alliance with Imohtek promoted as the new Silent King. Anrakyr and Trazyn then go out seek an audience with Eldrad and Vect. Imohtek, Anrakyr and Vect meet up and have a Yalta conference 40k style. *referencing history - GW loves it
The Eldar and DEldar go with the plan seeing their own existence in peril. Eldrad and Vect already begin many "Just as planned" schemes for how they can come out on top afterwards *Grimdark
They seek out Cypher and find out what his ultimate goal is. Turns out he must use the sword he carries to kill the emperor setting him free from the golden throne so that he can become a full fledged god. How this is possible is still a mystery *super Grimdark
The Eldar reveal that they have the last 2 blackstone fortresses and hatch a plan to use them to attack Cadia and all factions there to battle.
Eldar, DE and Necrons lure tyrannids and orks into a 7 way apocalyptic battle around the eye of terror with chaos and the imperium.
The Eldar launch an attack with the blackstone fortresses automating them to attack everything in their path. They then scurry off. The BS Forts move towards the Eye of Terror.
The BS forts wreak havoc all over the place causing the Imperium to attack them.
Eldar/DE/Necrons and Cypher move towards Terra, stealthily, and covert ops their way into the Golden Throne.
There Cypher kills the Emperor. *Ultimate GRIMDARK
Eldar/DE/Necrons leave Terra and see if all goes to plan!
Cypher dies and is reborn. No longer the fallen Angel, but the avatar of the Emperor. He weeps when he sees whats become of man. He then resurrects or returns or frees the loyalist primarchs.
$$$- Fluff for new codexs/novels

All at once Lion El'Jonson, Jaghatai Khan, Leman Russ, Rogal Dorn, Sanguinius, Ferrus Manus, Roboute Guilliman, Vulkan, Corax and finally Alpharius(turns out he was always good) appears.
$$$- New models and codices for Space Marines. Codex space marines is gone. Now they force you to buy the books for your flavour of Marines.

Emperor abandons Terra - WHAT???? and goes to Mars
Kills the Void Dragon and all the C'tan - Imperium technology fails everywhere. - In turn, all unawakened necrons die off. - NOT ACCORDING TO PLAN
With a simple thought the Emperor(new name needed now) kills all within the Imperium of man that rule or have power that are in opposition to his core beliefs - Hundreds of Billions die and their bodies disappear - G R I M D A R K
Sisters of battle are all touched by the Emperor and forgiven. They become the new stewards of the Imperium. Less hardcore, more benevolent.
$$$- Not so bad - despite the advanced tech going down a lof of people die so the survivors make due with what works but don't suffer the famine, disease and violence if the tech went down but all the people remained. More Sisters!!!!

With the culling of Man by the Emperor, Chaos has a crazy blood orgy as all of those souls the emperor deemed vile go straight to the chaos gods.
Untold numbers of Chaos force pour out of the warp into the raging battle there.
All Traitor legion primarchs or Demons Princes that were primarchs come out.
$$$- New models and codices for CSM. Get to play as traitor legions with their primarchs/DPs

The Emperor restores the Webway.
The Emperor wills into existence devices that all of mankind receives that instructs them on how to use the webway.
The Emperor instructs the primarchs to rebuild their worlds and unit to destroy the enemies of man when needed.

With the Astronomicon destroyed, the Hivefleets of Tyrannids change course for the warp.
The Emperor distorts reality to have all of the Tyrannids arrive there at once. He communicates with the hive mind and dominates it to do his bidding.
The Emperor also brings all orcs to the eye of terror and compels them to follow him for the greatest waagh ever.
The Emperor enters the warp and tricks Cegorach into coming with him to save Isha. The emperor also brings the orcs and tyrannids with him, save for some Genestealer broods and Ghazkul hordes who recognize they are being tricked.
The Eye of Terror closes and chaos forces stuck in the material world are all that remain.
The Emperor battles all the chaos gods and defeats them. He absorbs them all along with Isha who willingly joins him.
The Emperor then splits the warp into two planes the upper plane - Paradise and the lower - Hell
A third plane of limbo is created by Cegorach and Mork and Gork - That plane is weird one of trickery, the abstract and fantasy. To some its great to others its a place of madness. Orks now go here when they die to fight forever forever for either Mork or Gork and play Cegorachs games.
The Emperor then splits into two beings one of light the other of dark and they ascend to their planes of existence taking the souls with them
- The Dark Lord and the Lord of Light oppose each other for eternity countering each other at every step.
--Allows for Pyskers to still exist and still divides forces of chaos and forces of order
Draigo appears on Titan and appears to have no knowledge of his warp crusades. He is at peace but is filled with sorrow over the Grey Knights actions.

Outcomes:
The Loyalist primarchs leave each other and go to what's left of their chapters
Imperium is in shambles but looking to come out from under the oppression of the old ways.
Sisters of Battle take up the cause of leading humanity
Grey Knights now serve the sisters to atone for their sins
Eldar gods are dead and none are safe with humans now using the webway.
Vect is overthrown as leader of DEldar for all not going according to plan
Necrons only have their active tomb worlds left
Chaos are out of the warp and fractured but still evil and bent on revenge.
Tyrannids are left with only 1 hive fleet under the control of the genestealers
Orcs have 1 waagh left united under Ghazzy
Tau were insignificant but grow in size as everyone got effed up. Now an actual player in the galaxy, rather than a race no one cared about.
Knights and titans are gone and no longer functional. Become great terrain pieces. EFF KNIGHTS and their escalation of 40k games with D weapons.

When all is said and done everyone has been taken down a peg and all their forces are reduced in number. Doesn't seem grimdark enough but then...

A few new races appear
1 the race that the tyrannids were fleeing from
2 the lizardmen appear from WFB backed by the old ones
3 another new race the appears to also stake claim to the galaxy

The Emperor gets a text to speech device.....

While the series is hilarious. the ramifications if it happened in lore would be galaxy shattering and things would be put in motion big time.

I'm struggling to accept Necrons and Eldar working together, even for their own survival.
Also it's not very Grimdak - no more eye of terror, 1 more tyranid hive fleet, 1 more ork waaagh, very few necrons, imperiums access to the webway, DE in turmoil. The three factions that benefit from all of this are Eldar, Tau and the new, less oppressive imperium.

For GW, there are a few very clear directions for 40k to travel in fluff wise that have been reinforced in fluff both new and old, unavoidable conclusions if you will:

1) The Lion waking up. There are lots of references to Primarchs returning at a time of great need, but only the Lion is accounted for and actively referred to as being ready to go, merely waiting to be woken up by the Emperor or the Watchers in the Dark - heavily implied in the latest codex to be imminent in relations to the 13th Black Crusade. Rather than just reinforcing old fluff, this has been a fairly recent direction by GW, unlike the blurb about pilgrims thinking Guilliman is healing.

2) The 13th Black Crusade being something special. Relatively few Black Crusades are well fleshed out, but the idea has always been is this one is a really big deal - Primarchs involved, potential fall of Cadia, largest naval battles in recorded history, etc. The whole "expanding the eye of terror" is a new bit, but the 13th being something generational, setting-defining has always been on the agenda, one of the reasons I believe GW chose to ignore the results of the global campaign as if made canon, it would be too problematic to move forwards.

3) Cypher. His fluff has been shifting more and more to being a positive for the Imperium - he's far less ambiguous then he used to be, undermining the Fallen a lot more aggresively, indirectly working against major threats to the Imperium by leading the Dark Angels on merry chases after him directly into what needs doing, etc, but his fluff is very clearly tied to some kind of meeting with the Emperor - a certainty in any "End Times" for 40k, which would probably be good for the Imperium as a whole, if destabilizing.

4) Ghazgkull ain't no normal Ork. He's a big deal, unavoidable, but a wild-card. What he actually wants is consistently alluded to being more than that of a mere WAAAGH but something more dramatic. There's a lot of ways he could go, but there's no ignoring his presence in any big reckoning.

5) Ynnaed (spelling?) - Eldar God of the Dead. The Eldar pantheon is heavily tied into "End Times" mythos in 40k, as are the Eldar themselves. There are many ways to twist the fluff around to suit whatever the desired direction is, as its quite ambiguous, but no matter what some fundamental universal changes will be tied to the Eldar and, quite likely, their demise.

6) Chaos is the chief "threat." While pre-ward fluff had the C'tan has equal, if not greater threats than the Chaos gods, the re-write into resentful slaves of the Necrons greatly reduces their potential role in any big showdown. I certainly see room for a C'tan or two appear in-full (Void Dragon or Outsider, maybe Deceiver if he can manipulate the situation), but Chaos will all but certainly be the chief antagonist and actor in changing the 40k universe at this point. Tyranids are an extinction level threat for sure, but they're animalistic, an environmental threat almost which wouldn't lend itself half as well to the prophetic conclusions that have been alluded to for decades.

As for what all that means? Well, here's what I think GW would do (not neccessarily what I think would happen most logically, but what makes combined business and universe sense to GW):

13th Black Crusade forces a showdown which ultimately cripples the Imperium's power, but also that of the Traitor Legions. Basically, the prophecies wouldn't be "true," at least not yet, and Abaddon's plans would go unfulfilled, his forces smashed and favour with the Dark Gods severely hampered - maybe even resulting in his death allowing for introduction of another character - Horus Aximand, one of the more sane Daemon primarchs? Who knows. Shattering the traditional traitor legions could also allow GW to move more to the "Warband" idea they've been pushing - by fully dismantling the old Legions in a titanic war, they could silence the demand to see them covered in favour of the various smaller Chaos groups.

At any rate, the Eldar see their strength spent at the wrong time, and go from a dying race to a nearly exterminated one trying to hold together until the time prophesied actually comes to pass. They're more radical, less prone to co-operation and more extreme in their conduct.

The main showdown would see either the Orks or Tyranids emerge victorious in the Octavian sector - the victor emerging enormously powerful. I suspect the Orks, under Ghaz would emerge as a major galactic power capitalizing on the weakness of the more established powers and coming into conflict with the Necrons in particular, either due to genetic programming or the Necrons wanting to strike against a foe that caused them so many troubles in eons past.

Tyranids will continue to be menacing and eat things, and no doubt act as a distraction force in various battles/campaigns.

The Imperium, however, I think would end up split by civil war in the wake of the 13th Black Crusade. Cypher gets his audience with the Emperor, by force or other means and kills him - allowing for his ascension to the Warp as per the old fluff, or allowing him to regenerate due to being Perpetual in accordance to the new fluff. The Astronomicon stutters, Imperial logistics struggle and crumble, and two main camps emerge from the chaos: a force representing the old Imperial Truth centered around either the reborn Emperor or the Lion (and any other Primarchs they opt to bring up) and the Imperial Cult centered around most of the High Lords of Terra and, maybe, Guilliman (only if the Big E is "ascended" rather than reborn - he's the arch pragmatist and a staunch foe of the Lion ideologically, I could see him leading the ecclesiastic faction "for the good of humanity"). A smaller though no less bitter, and less "mythological" version of the Horus Heresy to keep things interesting and reflective of huge divides existing within the Imperial system which would emerge in such a situation.

More importantly to GW, Imperial factions, SM in particular, are what drive their sales (at least insofar as they see it), a divided Imperium still fundamentally committed to an idea of the Imperium and the Big E allows for increased Imperial diversity, particularly amongst SM as sides are chosen, would be an opportunity to further develop the Ecclesiarchy as a tabletop faction (no longer constrained by the laws laid down post Age of Apostasy, they could have a lot more than SoB, which GW clearly considered anathema), and would help justify the Imperial on Imperial battles which seem so prevelant at GW stores. (Honestly, GW stores seem to be really SM centric, whereas the independents have a lot moe diversity I've seen, but this is purely anecdotal)