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Hi all. As you may have noticed, I've been battering away at 20K to the point where I've had to take a break due to burnout! I'm looking for any and all feedback for the series of any description whatsoever - any inaccuracies, anything I'm doing well, anything that contradicts canon. I am particularly interested in hearing from people with extensive knowledge of the Rogue Trader era. I also want to hear from people who can educate me in names -- that is, contemporary and classic names from various cultures, ethnicities, religions etc from around the world. The Terran Empire represents a totally united human race where racism, sexism, political correctness and any other type of divisiveness do not exist any more, and in any case are outlawed severely.

20K represents contemporary humans (with extensive cultural and technological improvements) facing the darkness of the 40K universe without psykers, without Space Marines and without other deus ex machina stuff.

Bear in mind that all my 20K stories are being written and posted on the fly, so they are effectively "alphas" or "betas" which may receive editing (potentially extensive editing in some cases). There will be mistakes, things that don't work, stuff appearing out of order, so if you spot it and I've missed it, please let me know.

EDIT: I will try to support other writers while I work on 20K. This should get easier as I deal with the backlog of 20K work I've landed myself with.

Anyone who helps me by suggesting significant ideas or improvements will be credited. The most helpful people can choose a character, name, species, whatever to be included in a future 20K story and will be credited for their contribution. (Bearing in mind I've already got 20K mapped out to some extent!!)

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CURRENT WORK IN PROGRESS 20K STORIES



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NEXT 20K STORY

Gods and Daemons: The Fearless crew make contact with the first forgotten colony. The humans of that world have regressed to mediaeval superstition and believe Eldar ruins located on their world are a place where the living and spirits of their ancestors can meet. While exploring the ruins, the Fearless crew meet a strange troupe of Eldar performers, who teach them more about the galaxy's history than any human should know. This is the second story in the Fearless series.

HELP REQUIRED: Anyone with extensive knowledge of the Eldar Harlequins will be invaluable here! I don't have access to Codex Harlequins!

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POINTS ALREADY RAISED BY READERS FROM DAKKA AND OTHER FORUMS

ELDAR


ORKS


EXISTING MILITARY POWERS IN 20K


The Immortal Emperor

Unfortunately, the only option I'd be able to help with is orks, which you're putting on hold for now. I can try to answer a few questions regarding Eldar, but they may be inaccurate. In regards to the Eldar cats, IIRC, Eldar could communicate to them psychically to an extent, and they also could boost the Eldar's psychic potential.

What ideas do you have regarding Orks? I just got their Codex yesterday and need some help with them.

Perhaps one of the human ships encounters an ork one and tries to contact them, but ends up getting attacked instead? Or maybe human miners find a rok, and accidentally uncover an ork horde as they try to harvest resources from it?

A bit of threadcromancy is necessary. I've only recently started hammering my fiction again as a result of nanowrimo. If you're still around and interested in helping 1Blackjack1, I might like to bounce some Ork-related ideas around with you at some point in the next few weeks.

20K is receiving a thorough overhaul. The existing stories are being reworked - Faithless will be finished by the end of the month and On Eagle's Wings is receiving a huge rewrite. I have a few teasers that I'd like to share now and then if people are sufficiently interested. Please note that not all information stated in teasers will appear at once (or in order). For now:

++ Expect to see the founding of the Terran Navy.

++ There will be a main series of 20K stories under the project name FEARLESS. There are spin-offs planned which will come later.

++ Rumours of Imperial vessel XMS Solstice making first contact with a hostile species known as the Rak'gol.

++ Humans will come into conflict with a previously unknown galactic empire.

++ The Terran Empire is developing self-aware artificial intelligence. Some of these will become major characters.

++ 20K will explore and expand on elements of 40K 1st Edition.

++ There will be limited Horus Heresy and 40K crossovers.

++ Some storylines will revolve around the Age of Strife, although this will not be handled in the way readers might expect.

++ Four 20K stories should be completed by end of November or early December 2017 (depending on existing workload).

Additional developments:

++ Human technology will continue to develop as the stories progress.

++ Earth's technology level is higher than that of Mars.

++ On Eagle's Wings, the inaugural 20K story, will be approximately 20,000 words long.

++ Rumours are that at least one human starship will use captured xenos technology.

++ Humanity has diplomatic ties with alien cultures.

Well I'd be happy to jump in and chew the fat on Harlequines and Ork but just so you know, all my fluff comes solidly from a 2nd ed. era perspective (which for this project may not be such a bad thing.) So none of your Ynnead nonsense. Its all classic all the time in my head.

Orks-wise there was always a hint that they were a product of genetic testing or manipulation gone wrong. There was a lab somewhere (London's East End maybe, hence the way Orks talk) and they grew these spore-based muscle creatures that got out of control and killed their masters.

Then there was the Lost Race theory that their society lack a brain-type that was originally in control of the rest but thy were eradicated and a vestige of their psychic abilities remains latent in odd-boy types. That snotling may be all that remains of the former brain-boys race.

Anyway, Ask me anything about either, I'll try and help if I can.

Have you got any sources I can look at with regard to the origin of the Orks?

There is a leadership caste of Orks in 20K which are introduced in "On Eagle's Wings", the story I have massively re-written and expanded. This may or may not contradict canon, but at this point I'm not aware of anything specific about Brain Boyz. If you can point me to some that would be helpful - but the story's gone too far to change significantly, so if I end up contradicting fluff, I'll have to figure out a good cover.

The best example I can think of where someone successfully explains a retcon is in Star Trek Enterprise, where we are shown why the Original Series-era Klingons look like humans painted red. Hopefully I won't have to do anything so drastic!

Ha! No, I don't think it worked in Enterprise and it certainly isn't an example to follow.

As far as source material. Codex Imperialis 1993- Rick Priestly & Andy Chambers

I've taken some snaps on my phone. Hope you can read it.


Not sure where I imagined that genetics lab nonsense. But you know, all this ain't cannon no more and its all pretty speculative to begin with so your origin story can be as good as any as far as it goes.

Oh wow, I had that! I got 40K for Christmas in 1993. So that was second edition, eh? The one with Blood Angels vs Orks where all the models were just in a single pose and the GW were crowing about how wonderful their new generation of plastic models were

OMG! Remember Dark Millennium? With all the Wargear cards that nearly every race could use! The vehicle rules, the massive influx of data cards! Why did I ever chuck it all out, it would be worth a fortune now, and what a resource it would have made for 20K! I bought a WD mag from GW Meadowhall (when it still existed) and was reading its blurb about the upcoming release of Dark Millennium, and was so excited I nearly crapped myself on the bus home! (When the Meadowhall bus still existed) That alone is beyond helpful! The one thing I can't work into it is humans creating Orks. It could be done, but we then stray into Alien: Covenant territory, where you ruin the background of a terrifying and hugely popular species by saying "Humans made them. Humans are evil. Humans must DIE!" You then reduce the most terrifying alien race to an afterthought in a nihilistic, incredibly human-centric way. And the unanswered question is, WHY? Why, Ridley Scott? You binned off Ripley and Hicks for this gak! Er... anyway, lol.

EDIT: Just remembered, it's stated in multiple sources that the Old Ones created the "Krork" to fight Chaos? And the Krork are the Orks? They'd better be, as I've used Krork in 20K.