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So, are there any actual plans for the 40K story to advance? Has anyone heard any rumors or had the chance to talk to the developers?

There is some thread floating around where some guy planned out the entire story post emperor. It was really cool if anyone remembers it

If there was anything like this planned with likely rumours to back it up it would no doubt be in the News and Rumours or Background forums...so for now it looks like we will be staying at the end of the 41st Millennium for the foreseeable future.

I would say at the moment GW are more interested in shedding light on background events that happened long before the "present" (e.g. the Primarchs, etc). However, there are some novels that go into the 42nd millennium - the Cain series springs to mind.

 TheAngrySquig wrote:
There is some thread floating around where some guy planned out the entire story post emperor. It was really cool if anyone remembers it

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/TheShapeOfTheNightmareToCome?from=Main.TheShapeOfTheNightmareToCome

Essentially 50k. This page has links to both threads. It's actually a fantastic read.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But there are no official plans to advance. Because that would mess everything up.

That's it, IIRC the guy got some BL deal or something

Not within our lifetimes, at least Which is a shame.

It's a setting not a storyline, it's never going to advance because it would mess with GW's setting

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:
It's a setting not a storyline, it's never going to advance because it would mess with GW's setting

They used to advance the story line semi-regularly, leading up the the 13th Black Crusade and the associated global campaign. They just stopped there, with the setting year of 999.M41.

The only M42 dates I've encountered so far have been in Black Library products, specifically the Ciaphas Cain series, where the "editor" of the works is compiling Cain's memoires in M42.

 CaptainGrey wrote:

 TheAngrySquig wrote:
There is some thread floating around where some guy planned out the entire story post emperor. It was really cool if anyone remembers it

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/TheShapeOfTheNightmareToCome?from=Main.TheShapeOfTheNightmareToCome

Essentially 50k. This page has links to both threads. It's actually a fantastic read.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But there are no official plans to advance. Because that would mess everything up.

I think that story shows why it would be a bad idea to advance the storyline. It's an interesting concept and relatively well thought out, but it requires you to have a narrow view of certain events. If the storyline advanced in the way it's written there, it invalidates three armies at least (Orks, Eldar and Tyranids), it messes with a ton of fluff. Just reading it for myself I had several sections I greatly disliked because they were written to propel events in a way my own interpretations of the fluff would be invalidated. The setting is intentionally vague so I, and others, can believe that the Eldar created the Tau in an attempt to benefit themselves, amongst many other things. Even going a shorter distance into the future is problematic.

The changes in the Current Codex, just add more to the 13th Crusade from what I am told. For instance the Chaos Daemon Prince Primarchs are supposedly entering from the Warp and are joining in the fighting at the Eye of Terror.

In the Dark Angel's Codex supposedly their entire floating Rock and every Successor Chapter they ever created are attacking the Eye of Terror in one push to repel the Chaos forces.

Additional:
I hate the 50k storyline after reading it. Considering that the Orks got taken out of the equation entirely. I wouldn't have mind if it was just Octavious(sp?) Orks, but they said not a single ork was left alive. So for some reason the Orks on Armegedon are devoured by Devorers, but the humans weren't and can still launch a military campaign from there? Doesn't make sense.

Anyone remember the Fall of Medusa V? That happened in early M42 I think. But other than little things like that, we're constantly stuck on the edge.

That 50k thing... eh. Some of the things in it are just disregarding established things to make things grimdark for the sake of making things grimdark without proper heed to what came before. It's not a bad read, mind you.

In any case something like that shouldn't be considered as an argument against officially advancing the storyline. For one, jumping far into the distant future is not quite the same than advancing by, say, even just a few decades at first. New fluff progression wouldn't invalidate what we have right now. It wouldn't have to invalidate current tabletop models or anything either. After all, we already have two Tychos, Celestine as a regular HQ choice despite being mostly a disappearing act, Eldrad who is dead (soul stones or whatever notwithstanding)... and so forth. The fluff can even be advanced without killing a plethora of special characters, though a few casualties here and there would make sense.

I mean, sure, there's hell of a lot of stories to write about the Heresy, and the 10k years between the "then" and "now" - heck, even of the Dark Age of Technology and Age of Strife, for that matter - both interesteing eras of which I'm not sure there even is any proper fiction about?

But I think most 40k fans are mostly interested in the "now", and seeing it progress. What happens to Yarrick and Helbrecht on their chase of Ghazghkull? What becomes of the 13th Great Company? Does the 13th Black Crusade fail again, as usual? What of the weakening Astronomican? What of the Primarchs? And so forth ad nauseum.

Playable characters that die could simply go into a separate section of the Codex, usable despite being dead in the fluff, so as not to affect tabletop too much. In the meanwhile progressing fluff would more sensibly allow new unit types and such without effectively having to retcon all the time. And of course fluff fans would have good times with stories actually progressing.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/The_Death_of_The_Emperor_-_A_Continuation_of_the_40K_Universe_by_Dark_Lord_Seanron

Fan written but I seem to remember it being reasonably interesting.

well in the dark angel codex they have definitely stated the lion is alive being protected in a secret chamber beneath the rock with keepers guarding him. maybe as they release new codexes they will put little bits here and there in preparation for some big event or reveal? (you can tell im a bit of a noob cant you?).

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:
It's a setting not a storyline, it's never going to advance because it would mess with GW's setting

That isn't entirely true. The "story" advances every so often. For two quick examples: Commissar Yarrick didn't exist until GW did their Armageddon Campaign several years ago, after which the results of the global campaign were added in their canon. One of the Tau unique characters from their first codex was killed in one of their campaigns between then and the release of the second codex. It became canon and so he is no longer a playable character in the second codex.

Now, to prevent the dates from moving us forward and out of the 41st millennium, they just have everything happen more or less simultaneously. That said, the fluff in the new BRB makes a few references to the fact the Golden Throne is broken beyond repair, and it is only a matter of time now until it can no longer sustain the Emperor and he dies. Who knows if they decide to push it down that route. Maybe 7th edition will be a post Emperor galaxy?

Sorry but the new Dark Angels codex didn't advance the plot in any way. I re-read my 2nd ED Angels of Death codex and found out much of th fluff was copy/pasted from the old codex. The part about Lion alive is 100% copied from codex published back in 1996.

Cheesedoodler wrote:

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:
It's a setting not a storyline, it's never going to advance because it would mess with GW's setting

That isn't entirely true. The "story" advances every so often. For two quick examples: Commissar Yarrick didn't exist until GW did their Armageddon Campaign several years ago, after which the results of the global campaign were added in their canon. One of the Tau unique characters from their first codex was killed in one of their campaigns between then and the release of the second codex. It became canon and so he is no longer a playable character in the second codex.

Now, to prevent the dates from moving us forward and out of the 41st millennium, they just have everything happen more or less simultaneously. That said, the fluff in the new BRB makes a few references to the fact the Golden Throne is broken beyond repair, and it is only a matter of time now until it can no longer sustain the Emperor and he dies. Who knows if they decide to push it down that route. Maybe 7th edition will be a post Emperor galaxy?

The current fluff writers have been fleshin gout the other stories such as Abaddon's crusades and the Lion's status

The Armageddon campaign was a quite a long time ago mate

 SilverMK2 wrote:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/The_Death_of_The_Emperor_-_A_Continuation_of_the_40K_Universe_by_Dark_Lord_Seanron

Fan written but I seem to remember it being reasonably interesting.

Thats the one I was thinking of

Cheesedoodler wrote:
Now, to prevent the dates from moving us forward and out of the 41st millennium, they just have everything happen more or less simultaneously. That said, the fluff in the new BRB makes a few references to the fact the Golden Throne is broken beyond repair, and it is only a matter of time now until it can no longer sustain the Emperor and he dies. Who knows if they decide to push it down that route. Maybe 7th edition will be a post Emperor galaxy?

I actually kind of like the idea it will be stuck forever at 999.M41, as new events will show just how massive the Imperium is, adding to the idea it is a vast holding action for humanity at this point. I used to be annoyed by it and thought why isn't it just set in 000.M41 (it is called Warhammer 40,000 after all, not Warhammer 40,999) so we'll never reach that point but obviously that removes the millenarian element. Though really, would it be a big problem to move into M42? The Imperium by our standards of change is obviously not going to collapse any time soon.

As to the Emperor's Throne, the mention its failing is cool and adds to the sense of doom but remember its a 10,000 years old piece of machinery, starting to die by that standard could be centuries or millennia.

I'd be truly shocked if 7th edition, or any edition was post-Emperor. Its far too big a change and in order to maintain the game balance they would have to come up with awful convoluted excuses for the Astronomicon and Imperial unity. It is a dramatic party popper that has to be immediately cleaned up, in other words pointless.

Better to keep up the unending cliffhanger of doom which is the main theme of 40k that drew me to it in the first place.

The biggest changes I'd ever want would be broad but shallow and add to the "things are starting to go downhill" vibe. Say the Imperium is starting to hire pirates and mercenaries to supplement the Fleet (people they'd normally burn at the stake), entire planets(sub sectors even) now too expensive to defend are being abandoned wholesale, Terra is giving more and more freedom to the Segmentae, and other large groups due to its ossified state, laying the ground work for the possible splitting of the Imperium into Roman style allied dominions. Etc.

If I am remembering correctly if the golden throne fails and the emperor dies they believe the eye of terror will grow unchecked and consume the known universe. I've read that in quite a few of TBL books from an imperial stand point. There is also the Astronomic beacon that if memory serves is linked to the emperor, without that the imperium of man is denied warp travel and with out warp travel the imperium would collapse. Therefore killing man and denying the story progress because most of the lore is written from a human stand point. Please correct me if I am wrong on any of this.

Cheesedoodler wrote:
Commissar Yarrick didn't exist until GW did their Armageddon Campaign several years ago, ...

Uh, Commissar Yarrick has been around since Second Edition.

One of the Tau unique characters from their first codex was killed in one of their campaigns between then and the release of the second codex. It became canon and so he is no longer a playable character in the second codex.

Characters dying in the fluff has no effect on whether or not they are playable in the game... That's purely a Codex design choice. Yarrick is also dead in the current time. Other characters 'dead' while still being playable have included Nork Deddog, Lord Solar Macharius, Chaplain Xavier, Eldrad, and Veteran Sergeant Naaman.

The 'current time' in 40k sets the scene for the 'present day' but games can theoretically take place at any point in the 10000 years between the Heresy and 'current' time. Which is just part of why GW are trying to flesh out more of the backstory rather than continue advancing the 'present' timeline.

 Phaeron wrote:

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:
It's a setting not a storyline, it's never going to advance because it would mess with GW's setting

They used to advance the story line semi-regularly, leading up the the 13th Black Crusade and the associated global campaign. They just stopped there, with the setting year of 999.M41.

The only M42 dates I've encountered so far have been in Black Library products, specifically the Ciaphas Cain series, where the "editor" of the works is compiling Cain's memoires in M42.

They also used to produce good codex's and sell models for a reasonable price...
Times change.
I think we're unlikely to see any advancement in the setting.

chapgrimaldus wrote:There is also the Astronomic beacon that if memory serves is linked to the emperor, without that the imperium of man is denied warp travel and with out warp travel the imperium would collapse

Not exactly denied, they'd just be sort of traveling blind. Which is kinda silly, as other races etc have found means to travel interstellarly prior to the Astronomicon.

insaniak wrote:Yarrick is also dead in the current time.

When did this happen? As far as I know the latest fluff on Yarrick is still him having joined up with Helbrecht to try and chase down Thraka after the Third War for Armageddon.

There was a Battle Report in WD where the BT and Yarrick catch up to Thraka, only for the Orks to stomp them and kill Yarrick (I think). So the usual bit of mini fluff after might have had Yarrick die but a one off 'fun' Battle Report seems an overblown way to officially kill off such a character.

 Jape wrote:
There was a Battle Report in WD where the BT and Yarrick catch up to Thraka, only for the Orks to stomp them and kill Yarrick (I think). So the usual bit of mini fluff after might have had Yarrick die but a one off 'fun' Battle Report seems an overblown way to officially kill off such a character.

Eh, sounds to me more like just a regular meaningless battle report and in no shape or form official canon fluff. And as you say, killing someone of Yarrick's stature in a manner such as that? That'd be daft, even by GW standards.

Only times that 40k cannon has ventured into M42 that I know of is in several BL novels and several games (DoW 2: Retribution and Space Marine spring to mind(and, yes, SM happened in M42, the Blood Ravens that come to help Captain Titus are saying the new War Cry that Chapter Master Angelos made, also showing with of the Retribution endings happened))

 tvih wrote:

 Jape wrote:
There was a Battle Report in WD where the BT and Yarrick catch up to Thraka, only for the Orks to stomp them and kill Yarrick (I think). So the usual bit of mini fluff after might have had Yarrick die but a one off 'fun' Battle Report seems an overblown way to officially kill off such a character.

Eh, sounds to me more like just a regular meaningless battle report and in no shape or form official canon fluff. And as you say, killing someone of Yarrick's stature in a manner such as that? That'd be daft, even by GW standards.

Of course, merely trying to come up with a source someone might use for saying Yarrick is dead, and if that's the best that can be sound, it is certainly bollocks.

 insaniak wrote:

Characters dying in the fluff has no effect on whether or not they are playable in the game... That's purely a Codex design choice. Yarrick is also dead in the current time. Other characters 'dead' while still being playable have included Nork Deddog, Lord Solar Macharius, Chaplain Xavier, Eldrad, and Veteran Sergeant Naaman.

The 'current time' in 40k sets the scene for the 'present day' but games can theoretically take place at any point in the 10000 years between the Heresy and 'current' time. Which is just part of why GW are trying to flesh out more of the backstory rather than continue advancing the 'present' timeline.

With the exception of Eldrad and Macharius, when did these other guys die? (I only recognize Nork and Yarrick so those are the guys Im most concerned about)

Last I heard Yarrick was off chassing Gazhgul in some random solar system with an entire crusade fleet of the Black Templars.

And Nork just came out, when did he have time to die, there hasnt been a major event sense his release

 Galdos wrote:
With the exception of Eldrad and Macharius, when did these other guys die? (I only recognize Nork and Yarrick so those are the guys Im most concerned about)

Last I heard Yarrick was off chassing Gazhgul in some random solar system with an entire crusade fleet of the Black Templars.

And Nork just came out, when did he have time to die, there hasnt been a major event sense his release

Looks like I had misremembered on Yarrick. Nork was introduced in 2nd edition, and was already dead at that point. His fluff made it quite clear that he was around well before the 'current' timeline. He's one of the few examples of an Imperial hero dying of old age...