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Im voting Imperium but because of the nature I will not debate in this poll.

I will say though "Who the feth voted Eldar/Dark Eldar?"

 Galdos wrote:

I will say though "Who the feth voted Eldar/Dark Eldar?"

I did because you posted this.

The Dark Eldar are safe and thriving in their own little dimension, unassailable by any outside force and possessed of the ability to hit anywhere in the galaxy whenever they feel like it, in addition to possessing the most advanced technology in the entire setting. And they're content to just sit back and enjoy themselves, with no worry about realspace territory or static resources.

So far as every faction not sitting back in an extradimensional safe house goes, the Imperium hands down. Vast beyond measure and possessed of thousands of years of experience fighting every imaginable foe, in addition to possessing more advanced technology than anyone save the necrons and eldar factions.

Curious, all you guys saying Necrons, would you have said them before the latest codex?

Pretty sure that's why we're playing the game that we're playing, but I'm still going to say Chaos. Because every race feels something. Even the gap in the warp caused by the bugs may just be because they feel things differently. There's definitely desire in them, so at least there's some emotion.

None of these sides are going to "win".

Most of these factions can't win simply because doing so means defeating the Imperium. If they even come close to doing that, the Golden Throne fails, the barriers between reality and the warp fizzle out, and Daemons flood the galaxy. The Tau and Necrons don't make for very good eats, so they get exterminated. The Eldar and Dark Eldar all belong to Slaanesh, and he collects. The Tyranids and Orks will be overwhelmed and beaten at their own game. The Imperium ends with the Golden Throne, and humanity is reduced to a race of cattle. Then the great game plays out in realspace, feeding Malice until he becomes strong enough to wipe out all of the Chaos Gods. Then, without the great game to feed him, he dies as well.

Technically, humans (and any other warp-sensitive creatures that haven't been mentioned) will be the victors (read: survivors) of this. But the Imperium will be gone.

Will the survivors learn from their mistakes? Will the galaxy become a better place? Or will the cycle start all over again?

reaper with no name wrote:
None of these sides are going to "win".

Most of these factions can't win simply because doing so means defeating the Imperium. If they even come close to doing that, the Golden Throne fails, the barriers between reality and the warp fizzle out, and Daemons flood the galaxy. The Tau and Necrons don't make for very good eats, so they get exterminated. The Eldar and Dark Eldar all belong to Slaanesh, and he collects. The Tyranids and Orks will be overwhelmed and beaten at their own game. The Imperium ends with the Golden Throne, and humanity is reduced to a race of cattle. Then the great game plays out in realspace, feeding Malice until he becomes strong enough to wipe out all of the Chaos Gods. Then, without the great game to feed him, he dies as well.

Technically, humans (and any other warp-sensitive creatures that haven't been mentioned) will be the victors (read: survivors) of this. But the Imperium will be gone.

Will the survivors learn from their mistakes? Will the galaxy become a better place? Or will the cycle start all over again?

personally I think that the survivors will be bitter ,especially any and all of those who lived in comfort.
They will never forget what they had and it will all start again,only on a bigger scale.
Oh and who said anyone was going to destroy the golden throne?
If you wipe out all other humans you have still technically destroued them.

To defeat the Imperium you must first bring it to the breaking point. If you do that, the strain will interfere with the black ships enough that the Golden Throne will start to hiccup. You do that, entire worlds will be lost, starting a cycle that results in the Golden Throne failing.

The Imperium and the Golden Throne: if one falls, so does the other.

reaper with no name wrote:
To defeat the Imperium you must first bring it to the breaking point. If you do that, the strain will interfere with the black ships enough that the Golden Throne will start to hiccup. You do that, entire worlds will be lost, starting a cycle that results in the Golden Throne failing.

The Imperium and the Golden Throne: if one falls, so does the other.

that may be true,but then something just occured to me. The chaos gods war all the time. With only one race left,etc they will not consider it worth their while.
(Necron victors,khorne likes bloodshed ,nurgle likes
disease slaanesh likes OTT 'hobbies none get this with necrons etc etc) theyy will continue their interfight just with amuch bigger playground and the winners will move galaxy or hide till its all over and the chaos gods are dead and gone.

I do see where you are coming from though

Who said there would only be one race left?

Humans aren't the only warp-sensitive race out there.

Moreover, wars are most certainly possible even with just mankind. Heck, Chaos Space Marines fight amongst themselves!

True

I wouldn't be surprised if even the Emperor dying was survivable, though. Maybe sacrificing more psykers could keep the Astronomicon going, and very much fit with the grimdark

I throw my chip on the Imperium pile...

... maybe (just maybe) with some Tau Help [I just read in "Fire warrior" the pray "Tau'va protect" that reminds me of "The Emperor protects"... even if it's difficult to consort with xenos]

Some rants on other species (all made imo, of course):
- They are powerful... but they were beaten in the past, so they can be put "to rest" again
- Chaos fights inside itself, the Ruinous Powers are not too fond on alliances with each other
- Mmmhh... I sincerely miss Genestealer's Cults from 2e... even if I ain't fond on 'nyds

The other possibility is the "equilibrium" one: the war tides now and then in favour of this or that, but eventually the balance is re-estabilished. In the end, that is what makes things interesting, isn't it?

There are some plot hints about what will happen. Chaos will probably cause the physical destruction of the current emperor's body, it just wouldn't make sense from a story point of view for anyone else to, or for it not to happen. With that in mind, I figure

13th black crusade penetrates into the solar system and Chaos invades terra. After a long battle and heavy losses including Abadon, Cypher slips into the throne room, acknowledges the emperor, then kills him with the Lion Sword before vanishing again. Immediate disruption of the astronomicon prevents heavy reinforcements from arriving immediately. Surviving traitors expand the battle on to mars. With the omnissiah dead, the tech priests are demoralized and defeated. In the noctis labyrinth the dragon is awoken.

Meanwhile, after the death of the emperor, the warp gates behind the throne failed, causing countless demons to spawn on the planet and the earth becomes another rip in real space. The Dragon finds the warp an affront and begins summoning *using inertialess FTL* legions of necrons into the battle, erecting new pylons and containing the warp storms and rift around terra. With their esoteric anti-warp technology, they battle the traitors and demons to a stand-still, grinding down until both are reduced to a shadow of their former power. The traitor primarchs are dead, or blasted beyond repair by the incredible weaponry of the fully mobilized Necron war machine. Billions of demon prince and greater demon level creatures are also disincorperated.

The Eldar seize the weakness of their two ancient enemies- and Eldrad finally gains control of the Blackstone fortress. Yriel and a fleet of other eldar ships capture the other blackstone fortress and with the guidance of Eldrad, turn it back to Eldar control. The eldar focus fire on the Necrons and eliminate the last of the gathered Ctan forever. Necron extinction is now assured although it will take thousands of years.

The tyranids and orks continue to rage at each other and strengthen. Surviving Inquisitors and high admirals, now working autonomously, begin to divert the hordes into the yawning warp rift that stretches from Terra to the Eye of Terror. As the disorganized remnants of the Imperium's military struggle to hold on, figures out of legend return. One by one the precious few surviving primarchs return to lead human forces in tunnelling the orks and necrons into the bleeding wound cutting across the galaxy. Over the course of several decades, the fighting power of the tyranids and orks is gradually spent as their forces funnel unceasingly into the nightmare realm of the warp. They have many victories there, but no biomass or ork armies return from the Eye of Terra (See what I did there? Eh?)

The psychic resistant Tau continue to expand, their population increasing dramatically as they grab world after world from the weakened Imperium and their primary other xeno threats have been reduced or destroyed. The eldar begin assisting them with warp manipulation and other technology in return for safe passage, and the craftworlds gather in Tau space, their populations slowly increasing in this island of calm in the sea of war. Driven onward the Tau empire creates another hard bulwark forwarding Orks and Nids onward down the path of least resistance, towards the warp rifts.

There are great disturbances in the warp- as so many champions of chaos or slain by orks or disincorporated by Nids and Necrons. More and more elemental warp energy, no longer bound up, flows through the immaterium. It is drawn into a swirling maelstrom of warp energy, growing in power every day with the death of so many humans and the presence of so much unclaimed energy. For a hundred years the maelstrom grows and grows in the warp, drawing away the power liberated by the war and fading out the light of the the old gods. Then in a roiling flash that blasts the mind of every non psychic human, the maelstrom coalesces and vanishes from the warp. Out in the deserts of Ultima Marachia, a child is born. A child unlike any other....



Then the universe just resets with the upstart Imperium trying to retake all the old planets great-crusade style.

Me and my friend always have these types arguments and we get the same answer all of the time.
-Humanity will get hammered hard losing many soldiers, resources and planets. (because of this other races will cash in and expand/prosper)
-The Emperor will die and be reborn along with the remaining primarchs currently in staisis fields etc. (They are rumoured to return on humanity's darkest hour)
-Due to the Emperor being reborn and the expansion of other races the gods (both Chaos and not) will either send more powerful servants or come right down themselves and have a pop at the galaxy
-After millenia of colossal warfare in which loses so proposteriously large will occur humanity will eventually and triumphantly rise above it all and 'win'

I say 'win' as after loses so extreme it's hardly winning especially seeing as not all races will be wiped out. Hell there will no doubt still be Necrons, Chaos will be beaten but as always they will never truly 'die' and orks, well they are mushrooms and it's a bit difficult to fight something that can churn out warriors from mold.

Hah, "who ever has Matt Ward writing their fluff"
What a funny future:
"In the dark, grim... No wait... Ermh; IN THE BRIGHT HAPPE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE, THARR IS ONLY ULTRAMUHREENS AND HAPPENESS AS DECREED BY THE CODEX ASTARTES! EVERYON SPESS MEHREEN FOUND OUT THAT IT IS MUCH BETTAR TO BE ULTRAMUHREEN. EVEN I, INDRICK BOREALE, AND SO WE CAST OUT ALL THE XENOS AND BECAME ULTRAMUHREENS FOREVAR!"

Seriously though, my bet is either 'Nids or Tau. Kinda worlds apart, eh?

'Nids: Come on, look at that gigantic swarm of "omnom" lurking under the galactic DISC (yeah, it is clearly showing on a scale of 156 billion LIGHTYEARS!)... That, and their stupidly adaptive physiology would prove more than a match for anything... Now, if they weren't hideous bugs, they might actually "win" of GW where to advance the plot

Tau: The empire "had it's chance" and when the Emprah took one in the face and went all mummy the whole thing kinda stopped dead in it's tracks... His lifes work is now just like him, a rotting carcass failing under it's own weight. No one communicates, the designated "supersoldiers of ultimate heroism" don't feel like taking orders from anyone but themselves and sometimes a book and good 'ol human greed is pretty much in control of everything (inquisition, high lords, generals, governors and blah, blah). Now, what if some one came in with a new idea?
Working together to stop that hulking mass of biomatter previously mentioned? With something else than flashlights and bayonettes (yeah, guard...)? Actually advance technology instead of not knowing what the hell makes that cool Titan work and literally getting by on prayers and oil?
Yeah, the Tau aren't all "hey, let's be best friends and equals" even though they SAY so, but at least they know how to plan and, most importantly, PUT ASIDE GRUDGES so that we all can avoid becoming snack!
If anything, I know I would rather try and keep the swarm at bay with a plasma rifle and giant robots than good old "Ruskie taktiks! Throw people at them until they run out of bulle... wait, the don't use those... bummer..."

And if everything goes to hell, I bet the "Spess Elves" have some gigantic bomb of "screw you all, we are going home!" stuck up some webway crossway...

Hah, thats a solid block of text! Let the rage begin