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Is there anything in the 40k universe that you wish there was more information about? Whether that's certain organisations, people, technology, situations, etc.

For example, one of my little interests comes from Eisenhorn: Hereticus, and it's about human mercenaries and what kind of things they're employed to do. In the novel, it speaks of how they'll fight and die for the Emperor if the price is right, but there's also mention of them being hired to fight a border war, so I'm interested in what tasks mercs can be employed for without Imperial disapproval.

Hm..i'd like to know if the the imperium of the great crusade, or the current one, have reached the borders of the former human empire. Just how much more in terms of lost planets is there? what could an especially bold rogue trader find out there ( besides horror, carnage, torment and death, ofc)?


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As for the mercenaries, depending on who deploys them, the end justifies the means. You work for the big I, you can pretty much do anything within the authority of your boss. If af local governour is expected to repell a xenos attack without reinforcements, and has the means, noone will be unhappy if he sends mercs into the meat grinder instead of pdf. If he were to raise af big enough army to threaten local guard strength, someone would probably wag a finger at him (maybe the “get your butt send to a penal detail “-finger).

The brothels. You know the hives are just teeming with brothels.

Honestly, I'd love to read more about the rogue traders. The two novels by Andy Hoare (Star of Damocles, Rogue Star) were two of my favorite non-HH black library novels.

The war in heaven is one of those things that deserves expanding on in the same lieu as Halo's forerunner trilogy.

The Tau. There just isn't enough books about them.

Sturmtruppen wrote:For example, one of my little interests comes from Eisenhorn: Hereticus, and it's about human mercenaries and what kind of things they're employed to do. In the novel, it speaks of how they'll fight and die for the Emperor if the price is right, but there's also mention of them being hired to fight a border war, so I'm interested in what tasks mercs can be employed for without Imperial disapproval.

If you like to read about mercenaries, perhaps these articles from GW's old Inquisitor RPG may be of interest to you:

Navis Nobilite Trade Wars
Desperados, Mutie Killers, Rogue Traders

As for my own curiosity, I'd like GW to write more about the aspects of the setting that were so far only dealt with in passing. Enough about First Founding Chapters and Cadians already. Tell me more about life on Valhalla, Xenonia, or the Mentor Legion, the Adeptus Arbites, as well as details about numbers, politics, organisations and technology. I loved how much the writers went into detail in the older books, and although I have a feeling about why they did it, I think the new, more ambiguous approach displayed over the past couple editions is a bit meh. At least the 6E books seem to offer more fluff again, though.
If the studio would resurrect the old Index [...] articles, either for White Dwarf or as downloadable content on their website, that would be awesome - though I suspect they are busy with other things, and may even intentionally avoid fleshing out details so as to leave room for the Black Library and its freelancers.

 Lynata wrote:
...the Adeptus Arbites...

The trouble with this is, the inspiration is so transparent that you can find out more simply by picking up a Judge Dredd comic. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't expanded on the Arbites through fear of a copyright infringement suit.
Hell, Mega City One is basically how I imagine a hive world anyway...

To answer the original question I agree with Lynata in that I would like to hear more about other Imperial Guard worlds, particularly the old 2nd ed metal model ranges that have kinda been left behind. Valhalla is particularly interesting to me because what we know of the planet already makes for a really interesting setting (humanity being cooped up underground and not being able to set foot on the surface brings to mind snowier versions of the Fallout or Metro backgrounds).

Would be nice to hear more on non-cadian/FW IG.

 sing your life wrote:
Would be nice to hear more on non-cadian/FW IG.

There's actually a fair amount of this out there already. IIRC, the IG "series" that's already out includes Catachans, Valhallans, Krieg, Steel Legion, and a smattering of others.

The Halo stars and other unchartered Galactic areas which are teasered. On the one hand leaving it open to the imagination is cool but on the other a bit more info would be great too.

I would like the story of Inquisitors, they always touch on a bit of the past but not that moment that decides they are appropriate to fill that role.

Who they were before, how they were selected, their training.
In some books they alluded to space marines, mars tech priests and even a grey knight was considered to join: they draw from ANY organization. How do you train all that? Or is it hands on, being assigned to veteran inquisitor?

Could you imagine an assassin, commissar, navigator, cognitive savant, astropath, ratling or bounty hunter (necromunda) joining the Inquisition (not just as a retinue member)?

Picture a high level Inquisitor investigating their members: how do you weigh the "ends justify the means" until it is heresy? Ultimate usefulness for the emperor and imperium until cost outweighs benefit. Are interventions figured out or once a line is crossed they are done.

The idea of what kind of person gets judged to have huge power and be able to ensure they keep to task: how is it done, to what criteria and who does it?

 Mr Nobody wrote:
The Tau. There just isn't enough books about them.

And more than half of the ones that DO feature Tau, the Tau are just... decorative bits.

They're not the focus of the novel.


Hell, "The Greater Good", a Tau Title if there ever was one, was a "Ciaphus Cain" novel...
and the Tau figure into maybe 30-something lines, total.

Anything that isn't related to the horus heresy, space marines. or the inquisition.

But the day to day lives and (mis)adventures of citizens on a planet within the Imperium (especially during times of conflict, be it political, social, military, or any combination) could provide a great book, even allowing for action scenes without forcing it to be a military thing.

 Melissia wrote:
Anything that isn't related to the horus heresy, space marines. or the inquisition.

But the day to day lives and (mis)adventures of citizens on a planet within the Imperium (especially during times of conflict, be it political, social, military, or any combination) could provide a great book, even allowing for action scenes without forcing it to be a military thing.

I'd love for them to start doing more of this with a Hive Focus like they did with the old Necromunda book series. Given the much better stable of authors they're presently employing, it could do quite well. But don't take away my HH stuff, either

Like they'd ever give up horus heresy. At the moment, though, it feels like HH is all they want to do. And HH is the most boring part of 40k for me.

 Melissia wrote:
Anything that isn't related to the horus heresy, space marines. or the inquisition.

But the day to day lives and (mis)adventures of citizens on a planet within the Imperium (especially during times of conflict, be it political, social, military, or any combination) could provide a great book, even allowing for action scenes without forcing it to be a military thing.

LOL...so reading about a guy waking up...grabbing some coffee and heading to work. Some riveting stories about which restaurant he likes to frequent during lunch breaks. Learning how he sits down and figures out paying his bills each month, dentist appointments, paying taxes.

Wow, I hate to bust on an idea but I just cant' get my head around a Warhammer 40K book that focuses on everything but the very thing 40k is about...Military life, heroes, wars, battles, the Horus Heresy, Space Marines, and Inquisitors.

Though I tend to discourage from delving too deep into Black Library interpretations due to a tendency for deviation between the various writers .. I do have to recommend the Warhammer Monthly comic series "Kal Jerico" and "The Redeemer", which both deal with various inhabitants of the Necromunda Underhive. Grim, wacky, and entertaining in a "Mad Max" kind of way.



Not much in the way of background, to be sure, but it gives a good visual imagery to what we tend to hear about in the short descriptions in the rulebook.

And indeed, the setting has so much potential. The focus on interplanetary wars and elite forces duking it out sadly overrides all the small and local conflicts, even though they are no less dramatic. Perhaps even more dramatic, considering that they tend to be about everyday survival rather than some great destiny of conquest.

You have zero imagination at all if that's what you think "non-military" would amount to.

Let's see, I'll take ten seconds to think... there we go.

Story begins with a woman getting up and preparing for her shift in the manufactorum-- drinking her recaff and trying (and failing) to make the Soylens Viridiens she has for breakfast have some semblance of good taste. As she heads out the door, though, she finds herself in a riot, and gets swept up in the utter chaos (as it were) surrounding a chaos insurgency. Even as she struggles to survive, she also has to figure out where her loyalties lie, do some morally questionable things, and perhaps even turn the tide against the heretics through her efforts near the end of the story.

It's not very hard to create synopses like this.

Yeah, the Hive life is just teeming with possibility. As is the rogue trader life. There are a lot of other cogs in the machine than just the military, for sure.

I want more Mechanicum story. They're complex and their inner politcs are fascinating to me. I want to hear more about how they operate in the military theater. They send ships out to explore the galaxy. Think, Star Trek but with insane, machine worshiping freaks at the helm.

I'm interested in seeing varieties of the Imperial Creed, from world to world, and how GW writers adapt real-world mythologies and belief systems into the 41st millennium.

I've done a bit of this myself for a DH campaign, adapting the "Elder Gods" of Sumeria (as presented in the Simon edition of the Necronomicon) into seven Saints revered on an Imperial backwater. Things get much more complicated in the setting, but the veneration of these seven saints, and the various rivalries that exist between the cults dedicated to these saints, and with the Ecclesiarchy in general, drive a lot of conflict in the campaign.

Considering how often the Missionaries are presented as "Preachers with a Shotgun", I could imagine this to offer quite a bit of potential for a cool story.
Add a "gone native" Sister Sabine who went undercover as a shaman or prophetess with whom he teams up, and another sidekick character, perhaps a penitent IG or PDF Veteran who did something bad and wishes to atone, thus acting as the Missionaries's bodyguard.
For the location, perhaps a desert with sandstone buildings, red mountains, an oasis and scattered remnants of the original high-tech colony whose history turned into myth.

 Melissia wrote:
But the day to day lives and (mis)adventures of citizens on a planet within the Imperium (especially during times of conflict, be it political, social, military, or any combination) could provide a great book, even allowing for action scenes without forcing it to be a military thing.

Non-military? ...but... but... There Is Only War

I too am a bit sick of the Heresy already. I think it's largely to do with there being a set outcome that we all already know about - the major plot points were covered by GW a couple of decades ago, and I'm sure many of us filled in the gaps with our imagination... now FW and BL are filling in the gaps, but they're doing it with so much filler inbetween that it's beginning to look like a builder's nightmare...

Advanced non-Imperial worlds interacting (and/or defending against) the Imperium.

The bargeshi. I want to know more about the hyper violent guys who scare the imperial.

I want to know more about the various non-major Xenos. The inhabitants of the Ghoul stars, Kroot, Demiurg, Clawed Fiends.. etc. etc. Hunting a space faring species to extinction should be next to impossible so even the most persecuted of aliens should still have some enclaves. I want to know about human world that owe no allegiance to the Imperium or the Chaos. I would *love* to have a series of novels about the Imperial Navy - maybe the crew of a Dauntless Light Cruiser on long range patrol - think Master and Commander in Space, or maybe Horatio Hornblower.

 Demigod wrote:

 Melissia wrote:
Anything that isn't related to the horus heresy, space marines. or the inquisition.

But the day to day lives and (mis)adventures of citizens on a planet within the Imperium (especially during times of conflict, be it political, social, military, or any combination) could provide a great book, even allowing for action scenes without forcing it to be a military thing.

LOL...so reading about a guy waking up...grabbing some coffee and heading to work. Some riveting stories about which restaurant he likes to frequent during lunch breaks. Learning how he sits down and figures out paying his bills each month, dentist appointments, paying taxes.

Wow, I hate to bust on an idea but I just cant' get my head around a Warhammer 40K book that focuses on everything but the very thing 40k is about...Military life, heroes, wars, battles, the Horus Heresy, Space Marines, and Inquisitors.

You are the most narrow-minded person ever. May I point out that George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four could very well be adapted into a 40k story and still not be a war story, yet still be an interesting read about life in a grim dark world.

 Melissia wrote:
You have zero imagination at all if that's what you think "non-military" would amount to.

Let's see, I'll take ten seconds to think... there we go.

Story begins with a woman getting up and preparing for her shift in the manufactorum-- drinking her recaff and trying (and failing) to make the Soylens Viridiens she has for breakfast have some semblance of good taste. As she heads out the door, though, she finds herself in a riot, and gets swept up in the utter chaos (as it were) surrounding a chaos insurgency. Even as she struggles to survive, she also has to figure out where her loyalties lie, do some morally questionable things, and perhaps even turn the tide against the heretics through her efforts near the end of the story.

It's not very hard to create synopses like this.

If I want to read something like that I would just read a book by Henning Mankel or some other authour that excells at such stories. If i choose tor ead about 40k I do not wish to read about some civilain oaf. Also Warhammer stories should by default include some sort of millitary action

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:
I want to know more about the various non-major Xenos. The inhabitants of the Ghoul stars, Kroot, Demiurg, Clawed Fiends.. etc. etc. Hunting a space faring species to extinction should be next to impossible so even the most persecuted of aliens should still have some enclaves. I want to know about human world that owe no allegiance to the Imperium or the Chaos. I would *love* to have a series of novels about the Imperial Navy - maybe the crew of a Dauntless Light Cruiser on long range patrol - think Master and Commander in Space, or maybe Horatio Hornblower.

All of those would be interesting. Naval stories aren't common enough in 40k.

 Trondheim wrote:
civilain oaf.

... what.

I think he just means he wants heroes and marines etc to be the focus of the books, not following around a janitor who observes them. He'd rather be more elite shoes for the reader point of view.