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So I was on vrchat one day, having a conversation with other Warhammer 40k fans, and one of the guys brings up a part of one of the Horus Heresy novels where Leman Russ wrestles Magnus the Red and breaks his spine like Bane did to Batman in that one dark Knight movie.

He goes on to say that the Emperor also poked his eye out on Rogal Dorn's armor when passing him by in the same novel series.

Are any of these stories true? I tried looking up this stuff on Google and found nothing.

Russ breaking Magnus' spine was definitely canon. Not sure about Dorn's Iron Halo poking the Emperor's eye out; I see that everywhere, but have not had the inclination to see if it was in canon somewhere.

Russ did break Magnus's back. The Rogal Dorn bit sounds silly though.
But this is a universe where being stamped on by a god can actually happen so logic doesn't hang around much.

the rogal dorn bit proably comes from TTS, it's an amusing series but when people go to it for their primary source of lore that becomes a problem

BrianDavion wrote:
the rogal dorn bit proably comes from TTS, it's an amusing series but when people go to it for their primary source of lore that becomes a problem

Now that you brought up TTS, I guess that guy might've been joking.

As for finding out about Leman the wrestler, that'll probably be my favourite piece of lore from the Warhammer franchise forever.

It's hilarious thinking about it.

[hulkamania]What are you going to do, Brother![/hulkamania]

There is some official fiction that is a lot more irreverent and GrimDark. Check out the Ciaphas Cain novels to see a reluctant and accidental hero facing off against the worst the 41st millennium has to offer while still getting the occasional booty call from a hot Ordo Xenos Inquisitor.

One thing that made me like the Emperor's Spears was that, in "apology" for their brief conflict with the Aurora chapter, each year they send a ship to the Aurora's homeworld and dump some water and a disgusting sea serpent at the Fortress Monastery.

 Karhedron wrote:
There is some official fiction that is a lot more irreverent and GrimDark. Check out the Ciaphas Cain novels to see a reluctant and accidental hero facing off against the worst the 41st millennium has to offer while still getting the occasional booty call from a hot Ordo Xenos Inquisitor.

Sounds like an interesting novel, I'll have to check them out like you said if I get the chance.

I mean, as a Brit, the funniest part of 40k is the Orks because they are a not-that-embellished caricature of certain parts of Britain.


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 Karhedron wrote:
There is some official fiction that is a lot more irreverent and GrimDark. Check out the Ciaphas Cain novels to see a reluctant and accidental hero facing off against the worst the 41st millennium has to offer while still getting the occasional booty call from a hot Ordo Xenos Inquisitor.

Ciaphas Cain gets boring once he starts repeating the same lines literally word for work, all of the format "If I knew I was walking into <Extremely-Dangerous-X> I'd have done <Extremely-Heretical-Thing-Y>

 BaconCatBug wrote:
I mean, as a Brit, the funniest part of 40k is the Orks because they are a not-that-embellished caricature of certain parts of Britain.

Perhaps some parts of the US as well.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
Ciaphas Cain gets boring once he starts repeating the same lines literally word for work, all of the format "If I knew I was walking into <Extremely-Dangerous-X> I'd have done <Extremely-Heretical-Thing-Y>

True that, but it is still one of the best BL series. It is on par with the Eisenhorn and Ravenor ones TBH. I'm starting the 5th book and beside the repetitive formulas it is enjoyable and the comedic part fits well with the 40k setting. You know, in some parts it's pretty hilarious but it manages to stay "plausible" by 40k standards.

And then, it's BL we are talking about, if a book it is not boring and clumsily written we can already call it a masterpiece

to my view the "formulaic writing" is what makes it great.

With the Cain series, there isn’t much at stake. You know Cain lives to retire. So there really isn’t anything to worry. It’s just some guy recalling funny and harrowing antics. So the recollection formula is just about all that can work in this scenario.

Lukas the Trickster.
You want 40k comedy follow this cretin around before the stasis bomb he replaced his secondary heart with ends him.

 Karhedron wrote:
There is some official fiction that is a lot more irreverent and GrimDark. Check out the Ciaphas Cain novels to see a reluctant and accidental hero facing off against the worst the 41st millennium has to offer while still getting the occasional booty call from a hot Ordo Xenos Inquisitor.

I know the novel series is meant to be somewhat of Flashman in 40k, but there is a lot of depth put into Cain's character. He starts off as an abject coward, but when his reputation starts to become inflated he starts to grow into it, voluntarily taking dangerous assignments because he knows that is what people expect of him. Yeah the novel series as a whole is somewhat snarky and irreverent, but I seriously think it's the best guard lore behind Gaunt's Ghosts. It is a lot more plausible and doesn't stretch suspension of disbelief as much as some of the other "ultra-grimdark to the point of self-parody" 40k lore.

The ultimate pimpslap: When the Emperor met Russ, and after a tiresome series of contests decided to just slap Russ with his power fist so he could drag the primarch’s enibreiated butt back to his ship and take home.

 Stormonu wrote:
The ultimate pimpslap: When the Emperor met Russ, and after a tiresome series of contests decided to just slap Russ with his power fist so he could drag the primarch’s enibreiated butt back to his ship and take home.

Oh yeah, I remember that story! I love the part where the Emperor pukes his guts out after losing a drinking match against Russ.

Evil sunz rising is a wonderful little novelette following a couple of Ork Meks who pilot a Stompa. Probably one of my favourite bits of 40K fiction and one of the few from the Ork point of perspective. Also had a wonderful audio drama sequal.

There's a subtle gag in Deliverance Lost, where Corax is allowed access to the Primarch Project labs so that he can start rebuilding his legion:

The vault beyond was barred by a harmonic lock, attuned to an extremely narrow frequency of sound wave. There were certain parts of the rock that were linked to amplifiers within the structure, and the location of these had been revealed to Corax by the Emperor's memories. He raised his fist to the first area and ran through the position and timing of each blow required to generate the correct harmonic key.

He banged his gauntlet against the rock face, the blows resounding deep within the hollow beyond the cliff but muffled by the howling wind and snow.

Knock. Knock-knock knock-knock. Knock-knock.

Yep, the master of mankind used the old "shave and a haircut" as the secret knock.

cody.d. wrote:
Evil sunz rising is a wonderful little novelette following a couple of Ork Meks who pilot a Stompa. Probably one of my favourite bits of 40K fiction and one of the few from the Ork point of perspective. Also had a wonderful audio drama sequal.

There's a story in Waaagh! The Orks (from 1st edition) of an Ork warboss and his retinue encountering an Imperial titan and Marine battle group. The Weirdboy psychically eavesdrops on the communication between the titan Princeps and the Marine commander, and there's some crosstalk:

Librarian: "I'm detecting some psychic interference, from that ridge"
Princeps: "setting coordinates - alpha twelve -" "-squig"
Librarian: "squig?"

And then the orks realise the titan's macro cannon is moving to point at them ...

"No Princeps, I don't know what a squig is."

RFT wrote:
There's a subtle gag in Deliverance Lost, where Corax is allowed access to the Primarch Project labs so that he can start rebuilding his legion:

The vault beyond was barred by a harmonic lock, attuned to an extremely narrow frequency of sound wave. There were certain parts of the rock that were linked to amplifiers within the structure, and the location of these had been revealed to Corax by the Emperor's memories. He raised his fist to the first area and ran through the position and timing of each blow required to generate the correct harmonic key.

He banged his gauntlet against the rock face, the blows resounding deep within the hollow beyond the cliff but muffled by the howling wind and snow.

Knock. Knock-knock knock-knock. Knock-knock.

Yep, the master of mankind used the old "shave and a haircut" as the secret knock.

Neat way of messing with Corvus there, I like it.

Khan calls it as it's meant to be.

Not sure about “out of the ordinary” but definetly comedic:


An explanation why the Imperium doesn’t just slap plasma drivers on asteroids.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Khan calls it as it's meant to be.

Wellp, talk about a burn.

When the Changeling was first introduced, the fluff described a situation whereby he approached a traitor Planetary Governor who had asked for a way to win the war. The Changeling produced a device which he promised would end the war, in exchange for the souls of the Governor's two daughters.

The Governor immediately accepted and activated the device, at which point two squads of Deathwing Terminators appear in his office; the device was a Teleport Homer the Changeling had stolen from Sammael's jetbike. The funny thing is, in the DA Codex at the time, Sammael was the only Ravenwing unit to not have a Teleport Homer.

I can't remember where I read it, but I saw a story once about some enterprising guardsmen that saw no reason to let the War for Armageddon get in the way of good business. They made some contacts amongst the Ork mechs and negotiated the sale of a few basilisks, however, they had the foresight to rig them to explode upon use. Mech boy'z contraptions exploding is such a common occurrence for Orks though, they never even realised they got conned!

I find the Dark Eldar fluff to be pretty entertaining. Like the time Vect decided to take out one of his rivals by seducing his daughter, then gets her to bring her dad a present from Vect. The dude opens the box and find a black hole inside. His whole palace and everyone inside are sucked in and killed.

<laughs in darklight>

The inverse of this title should be the reality.

Grimdark slowly started taking itself (ok the writers and those with influence on the background did) seriously, which is probably something to do with modern society..blah de blah.

Personally, I think it's as if some (un)certain unconscious nihilistic urges have come to the fore with more strength over the last few decades.
Tragedy and absurdity often go best hand in hand and I think some of those who influence the background of 40k have forgotten that.