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So I've been reading the Vaults of Terra-Dark City, it's the 3rd book in a series following an Inquisitor stationed on Earth in 'modern' post 9th edition times.

I've really enjoyed its accounts of Terra as a bloated, rotting capital with more people than it can feed. As a New Yorker I felt a special kinship to the guy who informed on his own mother so he could get a bigger apartment.

There's a long sequence set on Luna just as [Redacted] arrives via webway porthole.

And it is SO ANNOYING.

I've always thought that Luna, even in 40k, had no atmosphere and the 40k wiki seems to back me up.

https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Luna

But there's a line early on referring to Earth-type gravity and atmosphere and sure enough everyone goes around taking off their helmets.

It's just a frustrating scene, not just for the bad science, I can totally believe that the Imperium can add artificial gravity and air to the moon, but because what could have been a different sort of setting where the characters are in the silence of a vacuum, and bounce around in the lower gravity, becomes more of the same. I have the same issue in space operas where every world has Earth atmosphere and gravity. I can live with it on TV and movies but there's no reason to be so limited in books.

Now the Lexicanum says the moon has Earth gravity and parts have a breathable atmosphere

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Luna

But to me it robs Luna of what would make it an interesting setting.

Anyway... so how about that Luna?

The 40k wiki you first linked up to states that there's billions of people living on Luna beneath the surface.

So you're annoyed that the habitable parts of the Moon are habitable because humanity made them habitable?

I would counter that Luna having atmosphere really sells the technology marvel of the old imperium.

Of course, it would be so much more depressing if Luna had an atmosphere. Then the characters could be lamenting the dilapidated state of the moon.

I guess my issue is that the author spends zero time explaining this. They're off to the moon and there's an off-hand comment about it having Earth gravity and air.

The problem is unlike Peptous 8, we all know darn well it does not.

Had Chris Wraight included a quick paragraph to the effect of:

"Luna was the first world terraformed by the ancients, a gravatonic engine installed in its core raised its gravity to the point it could sustain a thin atmosphere"

I'd have nodded and carried on. But he didn't. Instead everyone is bopping around the moon, taking off their helmets like it's no big thing.

And also, it robs, the moon - the only other sphere we've walked on - of any sort of uniqueness.

Underground cities, fine! But leave the surface bleak and airless!

Anyway all that being said, I do like the description of the moon covered in old starship wrecks. Basically the moon is Brooklyn to Holy Terra's Manhattan. The place where all the dirty work gets done to sustain the golden palaces.

I'm pretty sure Luna has no atmosphere in the Flight of the Eisenstein book during the Horus Heresy, at least outside the Somnus Citadel.

Which suggests that either the world has been terraformed since or there are regions with atmosphere and regions without, perhaps contained within massive domes or energy shields over the city districts.

I'm reading the same book right now and I agree, it was rather jarring when they casual took their helmets off. It makes me wonder if something got cut out during the editing phase because the idea of Luna being reduced to a ship graveyard is rather interesting.

 Haighus wrote:
I'm pretty sure Luna has no atmosphere in the Flight of the Eisenstein book during the Horus Heresy, at least outside the Somnus Citadel.

Which suggests that either the world has been terraformed since or there are regions with atmosphere and regions without, perhaps contained within massive domes or energy shields over the city districts.

Thank you! I knew I'd seen somewhere that the moon was still airless!

Related question - So we've been Holy Terra and Mars, have any books been to Venus or the rest of the solar system? IIRC Venus is pulp sci fi jungles and ruled by the Adeptus Mechanicus Biologicus.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Haighus wrote:
I'm pretty sure Luna has no atmosphere in the Flight of the Eisenstein book during the Horus Heresy, at least outside the Somnus Citadel.

Which suggests that either the world has been terraformed since or there are regions with atmosphere and regions without, perhaps contained within massive domes or energy shields over the city districts.

Thank you! I knew I'd seen somewhere that the moon was still airless!

Related question - So we've been Holy Terra and Mars, have any books been to Venus or the rest of the solar system? IIRC Venus is pulp sci fi jungles and ruled by the Adeptus Mechanicus Biologicus.

Titan is the obvious example, home of the Grey Knights. We see a bit of the Jovian and Saturnine settlements (like orbital docks etc.) in the HH and Siege of Terra series, and I think the outlying planets feature too. Dunno if they feature in the War of the Beast series at all.