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Personally, I was wondering. I love how the necron's are ancient robots from a long time ago, fighting with the eldar. That's about all I know about the necrons..... What about you guys?

Just in terms of novels written, I would have to say the SM or AM... But they are the easiest to relate to so it makes sense. I'm partial to the Orks, however a series covering a particular clan would make for a tough read and may require an extended appendix.

Imperial Guard IMO

They tend to have more interesting, diverse backgrounds and characters.....

Space Marines have the most books written about them but fluff wise they are pretty bland. Necrons and Eldar would be up there with the most interesting fluff. Khorne has some interesting stuff going him too.

Love Nid fluff personally. Especially the early stuff where they really were an unknown quantity with only small pockets of the IoM trying to investigate them.

As an Ork player, there's obvious bias from me thinking Orks have some of the bigger depth as a faction, given that they can be portrayed as hilarious goofs but at the same time also maintain a very alien and brutal yet unorthodox mindset that even boggles the Eldar. They also have their origins up there with the Eldar being creations of the Old Ones and arguably the only ones that continue to thrive in 40k.

Chaos

Realm of Chaos and Liber Chaotica were cool

Chaos Space Marines, Orks, and IG have some of the best fluff out there though not necessarily current.

Worst is probably Space Wolves.

Anything but space marines honestly.

Part of the reason I'm disappointed in the fact that Chapter Tactics is so proliferate, but every other army has to make due with one set of rules is because every other race has so much more to build on, but 9 flavours of power armor is the only ones we get diversity in.

for those saying space marines don';t have rich fluff, ok justify it, justify why the Imperial guard has much deeper fluff.

remember the Horus Heresy, the Primarchs, chaos etc..

all are important parts of space marine fluff. it's fine to dislike marines, but if you're gonna claim the marines don't have much of a rich fluff background to em, justify it.

SM just based off the Fourth Company UM alone make good awesome stories. I also do love the IG fluff though, especially the ones (I forgot the names) of the penal legions.

Orks have the best culture
SM and IG have the most detailed societies
Necrons and Tau have the most interesting backstories
Nids are the hardest to pin down
Eldar and DE are just Elves in Spaaaaaaaaaaaace
Chaos includes everything so is both great and overdone at the same time
Squats are sorely missed

Volume doesn't necessarily equal richness. The Horus Heresy is indeed interesting, but so many side stories and whatnot got released fleshing out every detail that it gets bland really quick. Plus the heresy is more about the primarchs than the space marines.

In fact I would argue that it's because of the sheer volume that kills some of the richness, as they seem to be going on about every single detail, while a lot of the more obscure non-marine factions are far more interesting because they have so little to work with. Like Vostroyan Firstborns are really interesting to me due to how their weapons are passed from father to son, or how the Bad Moonz get beaten up for their teefs since they grow so fast.

The thing with the Horus Heresy stuff is that sure, there are a lot of books about silly details about Marines, but all the interesting stuff in them is happening to Remembrancers, Techpriests, Imperial Army captains, Primarchs and so on.

Because even in The Space Marine Story, the authors realise that Marines are... actually kind of boring. They've got the 'ultimate awesome super soldier' thing going and that's actually about it. You can't go into their psychology without breaking fluff, because their fluff is that they're all hypno-indoctrinated battle maniacs.

So... yeah. Most Space Marine books are really more about the supporting cast than the protagonists, and in trying to give the Marines more flavour, we get treated to Power Armour Maintenance Ritual XIII or Meditations on the Nature of Death Chapter 6 through 50.

In terms of richness, the only ones who really have both the inherent personality and the page count to be really counted as 'rich' are the Imperial Guard, with Orks coming a distant, distant second - the other potentially fluff-rich factions have the basic framework for awesome laid out (Eldar, Necrons, Sisters, Tau), but then either the handful of attempts to fill out that have been too hyperfocussed (Paths of the Eldar) or too gak (Blood of Asaheim, Faith and Fire, Eldar Prophesy) to really be useful.

Being drowned in publications featuring space marines does not mean what is published is actually good.

Eldar and Dark Eldar are not elves in space. There is far more to them than that. Get into reading of the fluff and you'll see how they created Slaanesh, defeated the Necrons and how they helped bring the Enslavers into the materium. The eldar have a lot more fluff than the space marines if you go looking for it and it is far more interesting than anything the Space Marines have to offer. Space Marines are on the low end of richness of fluff when compared to Eldar, Necrons, Orks, Tau, all the Chaos Gods, and even the Tyranids (with all their mystery) are more interesting than the Space Marines.

I like the darkness of the dark angels fluff. They seem to have a better back story than the Mary sue marines.

 Xerics wrote:
Being drowned in publications featuring space marines does not mean what is published is actually good.

Eldar and Dark Eldar are not elves in space. There is far more to them than that. Get into reading of the fluff and you'll see how they created Slaanesh, defeated the Necrons and how they helped bring the Enslavers into the materium. The eldar have a lot more fluff than the space marines if you go looking for it and it is far more interesting than anything the Space Marines have to offer. Space Marines are on the low end of richness of fluff when compared to Eldar, Necrons, Orks, Tau, all the Chaos Gods, and even the Tyranids (with all their mystery) are more interesting than the Space Marines.

Eldar were originally marketed as Space Elves

However this all changed with White Dwarf (127? I think, away from my books) in which they suddenly created a really great background and theme - complete with evocative artwork, short stories and creations such as the Aspect Warriors and the Eldar path.....

BrianDavion wrote:
for those saying space marines don';t have rich fluff, ok justify it, justify why the Imperial guard has much deeper fluff.

remember the Horus Heresy, the Primarchs, chaos etc..

all are important parts of space marine fluff. it's fine to dislike marines, but if you're gonna claim the marines don't have much of a rich fluff background to em, justify it.

You can't relate to a SM. The Primarchs are portrayed as human at times but the average space marine would be terrible at a party. The best books out of the Imperium are Gaunts Ghosts and the Eisenhorn trilogy because you can make that connection with the characters.

So for that reason I'd have to say AM. The entirety of the 40k universe is given to use essentially through their eyes. We have bits and pieces of everyone else here and there but the relationship is how alien they are in comparison with the average human being.

Although I like the Ork fluff personally. I'd love a "Gorillas in the Mist" documentary type story. Or maybe the story of a boy who finds an ork spore who spits out a grot for him to befriend as a heartwarming coming of age tale that ends with the grot growing into a full ork and going on a rampage ala the rick & morty episode "Raising Gazorpazorp" or whatever it was.

Or get this, a scientist is exposed to high levels of latent waaagh energy in an experiment gone terribly wrong. Now he wanders the earth trying to hide the terrible side effect. He's a good guy at heart, but you wouldn't like him when he's angry...

Space marine fluff is boring for the same reason Superman, despite having among the most canon of any superhero, will always be among the most boring.

Conflict, weakness, personal struggles and all the things that define "character" are stunted when you start with a Mary Sue "perfect at everything" level.

The Guard and the Orks I wuld say.
Eldar tend to be all about how they are so flawlessly perfect but are a dying race and Marines books go on about how perfect they are at war and how each one is the equivalent to XYZ and capable of doing all this stuff all by himself.

Space Marines, as there are tons of factions, but specifically Dark Angels. I love how the fluff is written and I think they're a good flawed chapter

The question is: which faction has less fluffy-stuff covered. Codexes says it all for each faction, but as a matter of Black Library books we need more: Tau, Necrons, Orcs, Nids etc. The problem with those factions are that they don't have any distinctive characters. I mean... what novel you can write about a bug...

 DalinCriid wrote:
The question is: which faction has less fluffy-stuff covered. Codexes says it all for each faction, but as a matter of Black Library books we need more: Tau, Necrons, Orcs, Nids etc. The problem with those factions are that they don't have any distinctive characters. I mean... what novel you can write about a bug...

I think ol' one eye could make an awesome book.

 Fido198674 wrote:

 DalinCriid wrote:
The question is: which faction has less fluffy-stuff covered. Codexes says it all for each faction, but as a matter of Black Library books we need more: Tau, Necrons, Orcs, Nids etc. The problem with those factions are that they don't have any distinctive characters. I mean... what novel you can write about a bug...

I think ol' one eye could make an awesome book.

sure but the book'd proably be about na space marine scout or guardsman hunting the bugger.

which admittingly could make for a HELL of a story

A quasi - totalitarian , quasi laissez-faire Theocracy ? what's not to like ?

it beats watching Walmart approved - super heroes or Star Trek for the 7th millionth time .

So ; the Imperial Guard, Inquisition, and Sisters of Battle.

Necrons could be really cool , but as long as the fan base absolutely demands a lore that cannot possibility be elaborated apon, never mind the interests of GW , that would not be something to hold your breath over unfortunately.

I'd say IG. IG has the regular human in hell kind of feel. Most relateable faction, and you can see the horror of the 40k universe through the eyes of a human. Most of the IG novels I've read is top quality. 15 hours was a really crazy novel, and shows the sheer disregard the imperium has of human lives. Most imperium VS tyranid fluff tends to be amazing.

After that, probably Necrons and Tau. Necrons have that whole ancient empire feel to them, along with the mystery of their gods. Tau fluff is getting more dystopian, the earlier fluff is bad, but the later ones are really good, especially with the sterilisation of humans, mind control of vespids, and racist pro-Tau policies

The fun ones are probably orks and marines. Marines are like superhero novels, but not too deep at all. They also have the most novels. Orks are funny, but there's little depth beyond that.

Tyranids would have been great, but for the fact that everyone always trashes them, and they lose in every single war they fight. Loser on the tabletop and in the fluff. They're a bit of a joke. Almost a non-threat, generic enemy for people to beat on.

The worst is definitely eldar. Mary sue space elves. More boring than white bread, and much harder to swallow. Any origin story where they show up ends up being very stupid.

I would say Guard, for a few reasons

The Imperial Guard spans such a wide variety of regiments, that there is literally a regiment for everything. You still have cavalry regiments fighting alongside armored regiments, it's hilarious really. The other thing that imo gives them the richest fluff is that they are mere humans fighting against all the scary gak this universe can throw at them. In a universe of terrifying aliens and genetically altered super humans, the little guy is just that much more interesting.

It is easily Space Marines. On top of the many Chapters that we have details on, there's 1000 Chapters total. If you needed to create your own Chapter, there's enough justification for how you want to design it.