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So all of the 8th edition buzz from Adepticon is about the proposed rules changes but I haven't seen any news on what might happen with the fluff. The fluff in the 7th ed rulebook and the Gathering Storm campaign books have certainly hinted that the overarching story is at a break point (the rulebook refers to the years 744.M41 - 999.M41 as the "Time of Ending").

There's been speculation that 8th would be an Age of Sigmar like change but I can't see that happening with so much of the current timeline still in progress. But it does feel like some big changes are coming fluff-wise. At the very least I think we will see the story progress past the year 40,999, which in turn might lead to a name like "Age of Sigmar" (Age of the Primarch?).

Just wondering what everyone thinks we will see fluff wise come 8th ed. Wild speculation on my part - the failure of the Golden Throne and the final death of The Emprah, like a literal "God is dead" scenario. Not a break with continuity like AoS, but a massive upheaval of the existing universe.

There won't likely be a name change, as there's no reason to change the name. 40k is thriving, fantasy was fading (regardless of the reasons behind that, it was).

Typically edition to edition doesn't change much. We will likely see story changes in the lead up and perhaps after, but the core book story won't change much.

As for upheaval...There was a great blog post about the Gathering Storm did change some things, but at the end of the day didn't really change anything in regards to the overall setting. I think that'll continue. Things may change (a world lost here or there), but the overall state of everything likely won't.

With AoS, GW blew up a planet. With 40k 8E, the would have to blow up the entire galaxy. Doesn't seem practical.

It's also unnecessary. The Old World was visually distinctive because its main faction was primarily inspired by the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years War, something that wasn't otherwise reflected in fantasy (until very recently). Aside from that, the Old World was extremely generic - most of it was just as at home in D&D or countless other IPs. When you look at, say, Mordheim (which focused on the Empire) - now that is a very strong brand, or rather sub-brand. But WHFB just wasn't ... and yet that was the scale of game the company needed to profitably move kits. So that setting was scrapped in favor of building something more brand-cohesive that also has reasonably wide appeal. The posterboy result is the Stormcast. It's no coincidence that they look a bit like Space Marines ...

There is a fine line between a strongly distinctive brand and limited market appeal. It's amazing how well 40k walks that line. And let's face it, it owes a lot of its success on this score to the Space Marines. In other words, there is no need to "AoSify" the 40k setting precisely because what actually happened with AoS was that GW "40kized" WHFB. Obviously, 40k does not need to be further 40kized. So will GW bring anything over from AoS, fluff-wise? They already have, by marketing product releases parallel to high-level story arcs. The "Triumvirate" box sets are just the most obvious examples of this. I suspect this will continue and be expanded. This will probably also mean that codices will shift to battle tomes - i.e., books that cover events or portions of factions rather than comprehensively describing a faction as a monolithic army. Again, this has already been happening to a certain degree in 40k for a number of years.

I agree with both of your assessments - AoS was more about revamping WHFB than about creating a new setting, and that's not necessary with 40k.

But...I can't help thinking that 8th edition is going to bring significant changes to the 40k storyline.

First there's the prediction in 744 by Taggarth that the end times approach, a time of "unprecedented upheaval in which even the light of the Emperor is swallowed in darkness." First hint of a potential demise of the Big Man himself.

Lots of "end times" entries in the last two years of M41 (998 and 999):

Prophet of the Waaagh: Ghaz gets bored with Armageddon, goes looking for "something greater"

Chaos Rising: growing failures in the mechanisms of the Golden Throne. Chaos decides its party time, real space here we come!

Baal's Darkest Hour: "so is the stage set for the defense of Baal itself - perhaps the final battle of the Scions of Sanguinius" (yeah not likely, but the Sanguinor showed up at the end of Exterminatus for the first time "in centuries" so something big is going down)

The Black Crusade / Gathering Storm - the biggest events in the "Time of Ending" and the reason, I think anyway, we're about to see a new chapter in the 40k story.

I agree that we're not likely going to see any universe shattering events like with WHFB but I think GW has been setting the stage for a major upheaval in the 40k storyline, perhaps something as big as (dare I say it) the HH. And my guess is it starts with the Big Man finally kicking the bucket. Dude's old, I'm just sayin'

In real world terms we're talking a slew of new campaign books filled with the thematic forces that were mentioned in the Adepticon preview. Very much a continuation of what we've seen the past year in both 40k and AoS, but with a much bigger scope.

I know it seems far fetched but there's been hints of something big happening in the fluff, could be very, very interesting...

Maybe the issue is, you are comparing [mostly nothing happening] which is largely where the IP has been for about a decade to [something happening] which has been gradually ramping up, with the biggest deal so far being Roboute's return.

And if a (loyalist) Primarch can return what else might happen?

Just IMHO, I think one of the big fluff changes (and probably TT as well) that will come about will be the slow release and introduction of "Paragon" characters. By this I mean the Triumvirates, but expanded.

I think we're gonna see more GW releases involving Primarchs and other characters of that size/power for other factions. We've already seen Magnus, and Guilliman... and the recent video release strongly hints that Mortarion is coming back, so I would sort of expect still more of that going on across the board.