Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I though I would make a thread where we could post our own personal canon. This is stuff that is based on written canon but because of the contradictions and the lack of good information you have to extrapolate.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'll post my own later, I have to finish writing it up.

This thread happens to already exist.

Well it is 38 days since the last post.

Still, I doubt people have changed their headcanons a lot.

I guess. This is supposed to be a bit more open however, talk about whatever, from the daily life of an imperial citizen to the molecular structure of wraith-bone.

my head cannon is that some space marine chapters train based on what the next mission calls for. if they need mobile attack, they train bikes. If they need to do a drop pod entry, they train to unleash the most devastating barrage upon impact. if they need stealth, they train to infiltrate areas.

It makes the most sense to me.

In my personal canon major Chaos Space Marine warbands are almost entirely comprised of normal humans with the majority being untrained rabble. A lot like what the Astral Claws were doing during the babdab war. The traitor Astartes themselves are a combination of enforcers, political officers, spiritual leaders and elite shock troopers. At least that is how my warband is going to be like. It is the only way I can see them being world conquering armies.

The Imperial Guard numbers in the Quadrillions rather than the Billions. Regiments comprise of many hundreds of thousands troops...

Actually, multiply all of the figures GW gives us by a thousand. That is a more realistic scale for a galaxy wide setting.

Also, in this new count of planets Earth like worlds are rare. About .1% rare. Most Imperial Worlds are actually orbital cities around gas giants, floating cities in the upper atmosphere of planets like Venus and enclosed mining operations on Asteroids/Dwarf Planets/Moon/Atmosphere-less planets. Or just ship cities a-la Craftworlds.

The Imperial Navy is the force that does most of the work for the Imperium. The Guard is only deployed when the planet they need cant be bombarded.

The only part of mine that doesn't require lengthly explanation is that only the old Necrons exist, my Legion mocks the Ordo Malleus and my Legion > everything.

The Grey Knights are unwitting pawns of the ruinous powers. Draigo died in the warp and the thing that now wears his skin manifests from time to time to lead them further down the path of damnation.

Yes, you should use that daemon weapon. Yes, you should ally with that radical inquisitor and his daemon host. Yes, you should murder those battle sisters and paint your armor with their blood. Yes, you should kill all witnesses to demonic incursions...

 ashcroft wrote:
The Grey Knights are unwitting pawns of the ruinous powers. Draigo died in the warp and the thing that now wears his skin manifests from time to time to lead them further down the path of damnation.

Yes, you should use that daemon weapon. Yes, you should ally with that radical inquisitor and his daemon host. Yes, you should murder those battle sisters and paint your armor with their blood. Yes, you should kill all witnesses to demonic incursions...

And one has never 'fallen' because why break the ruse? Oh lordy lord...

The most popular Guardsmen tactic is to drown it in men. Life is cheap in 40K for many races but humanity takes this up to eleven. The number of troops available is colossal, but Guardsmen lose to the soldiers of all races one on one, and often five on one too.Tanks are expensive, men are cheap. Jk, IG tanks are cheap too. Won't match an Eldar or Tau tank for sure, but they are unending in number.

We won the battle? The manufactorum is intact? And only two million casualties?! Heroic victory! You are promoted!

Eldar godmode around by being fast enough to dodge almost everything- they do not literally dodge bullets but they move faster than you can adjust your aim.

Tyranid Hive Fleets are large enough to be seen on the galactic map.

It is unknown who really is most numerous, Orks or IG. Both die and replenish themselves so quickly so it's not feasible to count.

PA makes you all-but immune to small arms fire and mundane melee attacks as well as granting resistance even to anti-tank weaponry. SoB and SM are excellent for dealing with large numbers of lesser foes for this reason.

A fight between a bolter and chainsword-armed SM and bolter and chainsword-armed CSM can well take several minutes. Marine PA is very resistant even to direct boltgun fire. SoB PA is as well, but as their bodies are much less sturdy they die quickly as the concussion of bolter fire crushes their ribs and internal organs, while the tougher Marines can survive it much better.

SM are 9' tall. (Haters gonna hate.) There's a reason one million Marines is enough for the Imperium.

PA, Bolters, Chainswords, Heavy Bolters, Plasma Guns etc exist in two categories. Those small enough to be used by normal humans, and much larger versions used by Marines. The larger versions are far more lethal.

A Hormagaunt can easily cut down a dozen Guardsmen in a few seconds if it gets close.

Lasguns are powerful weapons by today's standards, lethal to be shot by for normal humans, but in a galaxy filled with monsters it is medicre at best.

Plasma Guns, Melta Guns etc don't loloneshot PA troops, including SoB. It is effective but you will need a good few shots regardless (Even more against SM since they are tougher inside of the armour as well.)

Necrons are almost unkillable, capable of repairing themselves from being almost completely melted into a pool of metal. They can only repair themselves a limited amount of times in a short while before they run out of power, however.

Eldar holofields are ludicrously advanced and can make their largest titans entirely invisible.

Eldar, especially Dark Eldar, often literally move faster than the eye can follow.

Daemons are extremely lethal, very hard to kill and instantly induces madness in normal humans on sight (Often even presence is enough.) SoB can resist this thanks to their faith, as can troops like Space Marines thanks to their psycho-conditioning. Certain other troops like Kasrkin also have a degree of resistance thanks to sheer battle-hardenedness and force of will.

Commissars have extremely high mortality numbers. They try lead by example with a brave charge but die as fast as any guardsman.

Leman Russ are sub-par tanks due to cheap materials being used in construction, maintenance, and for ammunition. This is considered a cost worth paying to get lots of tanks out there.

Marines can hack their way through hordes of lesser Orks with relative ease, but Nobs take time to fight. They reliably defeat Nobs 1 on 1, but it takes time and often ends up in annoying wrestling for the Marine.

 Ashiraya wrote:

Spoiler:

The thing I find the strangest in this image is the human/eldar size ratio.

It'll all come down to a fight between the Orks, Necrons, and Tyranids.

It'll be awesome, but no one else is going to survive.

Makes sense that they'd be a bit taller to me. Nothing crazy, but still noticeably.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kain wrote:
It'll all come down to a fight between the Orks, Necrons, and Tyranids.

It'll be awesome, but no one else is going to survive.

Khorne? As long as the Orks fight, they will continue to feed Khorne.

As long as the Orks enjoy the fight it will feed Slaanesh, as long as the battle rages back and forth it will feed Tzeentch...

 Ashiraya wrote:
Makes sense that they'd be a bit taller to me. Nothing crazy, but still noticeably.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kain wrote:
It'll all come down to a fight between the Orks, Necrons, and Tyranids.

It'll be awesome, but no one else is going to survive.

Khorne? As long as the Orks fight, they will continue to feed Khorne.

As long as the Orks enjoy the fight it will feed Slaanesh, as long as the battle rages back and forth it will feed Tzeentch...

Well yes, Chaos is going to be around in it's present form up until the Human race s reserves are finally exhausted at which point it'll be more of a corrupted Xenos show, and the Orks are only going to be a major player if they can unite quickly as the rest of the Necrons wake up and the bulk of a fleet that has devoured countless galaxies arrives.

As to who will win between Szarekh's empire and the great devourer, I have no idea; but better bring the popcorn.

I also agree with your headcanon regarding the height of Eldar vs Humans. They'd be roughly the same average mass as Eldar are spindly, but the Eldar are taller as a rule.

 Ashiraya wrote:
Makes sense that they'd be a bit taller to me. Nothing crazy, but still noticeably.

Completely agree with that. But on the picture, it seems a lot taller to me. Then again, some people are tall, some are short… we could find the same size difference between two actual humans, so it is hard to tell.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
Makes sense that they'd be a bit taller to me. Nothing crazy, but still noticeably.

Completely agree with that. But on the picture, it seems a lot taller to me. Then again, some people are tall, some are short… we could find the same size difference between two actual humans, so it is hard to tell.

They are a head or so taller on the picture. Maybe slightly more.

The tabletop models, especially Imperial vehicles, are only crude approximations of the 'real' things they represent. The Leman Russ has suspension, a turret with room for a couple of guys and the gun breech, etc.

'Las' weapons are a combination laser and particle beam. Melta weapons are very, very high frequency 'lasers'. Plasma guns don't fire plasma at all; I haven't figured out what they do shoot exactly, but it's not plasma.

Ork's use psycho-conductive materials to enhance their telekinetic powers. These are made from orkoid 'fungus' and contain loads of living spores. The most common one is bright red and usually painted onto vehicles.

The Imperium's dating system does not line up neatly with our calendar. Neither does it's measuring system. There are several local variations, which account for inconsistent numbers in the background. Notably, the heights of people in Dan Abnett novels are about 10% off.

The 'war in heaven' occurred about 100,000 years ago, not 60,000,000 years ago.

All the major humanoid races were created by the old ones from humans. Including the necrontyr.

The Celestial Orrery is not nearly as simple to use as a weapon as the necron codex implies. It is merely the control mechanism for a larger network of devices which can cause stars to become unstable and eventually blow up. It takes many years to do this.

Larger imperial ships have greater proportions of their bulk dedicated to reaction mass. Hence why a cruiser with ten times the volume of a frigate only has twice the crew.

Zoats are the descendants of the old ones. They made the tyranids from an extra-galactic species, then lost control of them and eventually ended up enslaved and then destroyed.

The Tyranid Hive mind is not a single unified consciousness. Different elements have different priorities, although they are all connected. At best, it's like a human suffering from multiple personality disorder or something. Tyranids do fight tyranids for reasons other than experimentation. Individual tyranid organisms do have some self-awareness and can feel emotions (although not ones which a human would understand).

Orks have a collective racial memory of sorts. Once enough orks understand something, other orks will eventually have access to the knowledge even if they are totally isolated. This is how orks seem to be able to understand virtually every other race's languages and how mekboys have 'instinctive' knowledge of devices which were invented relatively recently.

A large group of orks thinking the same thought will broadcast it to other orks. An ork who gets the attention of a few dozen other orks and shouts a message at them really loudly creates an effective telepathic transmitter. This is how orks manage to communicate with each other across significant distances.

Gretchin are individually pretty smart, but have very limited access to the ork collective psychic field. Snotlings, on the other hand, are utter idiots but very well tuned in to the psychic field, even more so than orks themselves. When fired through a shokk attack gun, they get charged up with warp energy, then unleash it when they hit the target.

Mine involves:

A couple additional Imperium sub-factions: the Blackcoats (Imperium Mafia and sometime mercenaries) and the Legio Santificae Mutagen (Imperium haemonoculi who make "sanctified" mutants.

Tyranids can be mind controlled, but it is very difficult.

There are still human populated planets that humanity has not discovered.

Nobody is truly doomed. Every faction is on the same level of power and there's a sort of stagnation on who's more powerful.

The Emperor is truly knocked out. He has no idea what's happening or that he's even alive.

Oh, a couple more. Chaos has superior manufacturing capabilities since they pretty much build stuff like we do. An individual Dark Mechanicus Forge World is far more productive than their Imperial Counterparts. It's just that the Imperium has a lot more of them. Rhinos, Predators and their ilk roll off the assembly lines in superior numbers from DM worlds but they aren't as reliable as their Imperial produced counterparts since... well, the Dark Mechanicus has a tendency to make their stuff corrupted. A Rhino produced by them can either be just as good as an Imperial Rhino (Or better) to something that actively attempts to kill it's crew.


The Leman Russ battle tank is an excellent infantry support weapon but finds itself lacking against other tanks thanks to it's tall profile, slab sides and it's wanting weaponry (Against tanks. A Battle cannon will kill most things stone dead). It's pretty much the Sherman of 40k and, like the Sherman, can be fitted with weaponry that can destroy even the heaviest armored vehicles with ease. This weaponry is rare and hard to obtain, though.

The entire galaxy is doomed. The Tyranids have consumed millions upon millions (a billion+) of galaxies and the force facing the milky way is just a tiny fraction of the whole.

Everyone's accomplishments are ultimately meaningless and futile, as everyone is going to get eaten and die anyway.

This does not mean that the galaxy cannot go out in one last blaze of glory before being eaten.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:

Spoiler:

The thing I find the strangest in this image is the human/eldar size ratio.

I think the Tau battlesuit should be up-scaled a tad. Not a lot, maximum ~120% of it current size. As it is now, assuming the "head" of the suit is actually like a helmet (which it has no reason to be and is actually kinda dumb when it can just be a remote mount for sensor gear) then the bottom of the torso is about level with the Tau Fire Warrior's ankles. Kind of a tight fit. I always assumed that the tau pilot was basically curled up in the fetal position inside the torso wearing a mind interface helmet, but even so there's not a lot of room for a pilot and armor and suit systems at the current scale.

As far as personal cannon, I haven't really thought about it. I suppose the closest thing I have to head cannon is that the Adeptus Mechanicus actually understands how its own tech works (the high ranking members anyway) and use the religious trappings to ensure maintenance rituals are performed correctly and to blend in with the rest of the Imperium. They don't reproduce the dark age tech both because a lot of their blueprints really have been lost but mainly because the highest ranking tech priests recognize that the admech coming back in full glory as a scientific organization would cause another civil war in the Imperium (tech supporters vs ecclesiasty) and think that what they have now is better than that. (come to think of it, the "failing golden throne" thing might be the ad mech subtly "pulling the plug" on the Emperor without anybody realizing it)

Also I subscribe to the short story in the front of the Inquisitor rulebook (which isn't available on the GW website anymore :( ) about how it was possible to revive the Emperor almost immediately after the heresy, but the high lords decided not to either because it would have started another civil war or (more likely) they didn't want to give up their power. This caused a couple of them to defect and be labeled as chaos supporters because they wanted to revive the emperor. I haven't really thought about whether it's still possible.

It's true I may have made the battlesuit a tad small.

The wonky pose made him look bigger than he is.

The Alpha Legion has infiltrated every level of the Imperium. They have agents in the loyalist Astartes, the Adeptus Administratum, the Ecclesiarchy, and even the High Lords of Terra. Thousands of Imperial worlds are operating secretly under the affiliation of the Legion and more are slowly being brought under the Alpha Legion's occupation. There's no telling how deep their corruption goes, but it is far worse than the Inquisition wants to admit.

The Tyranids that we have seen thus far are only scout fleets. Tiny tendrils of a much bigger whole. The true mass of the Tyranid biofleets is coming and when it does, it will devour everything in the milky way.

A shard of the Void Dragon, hidden under Mars for tens of thousands of years, is slowly regaining its true form by feeding off the life of those who worship him as the Machine God. Soon, he will rise from the depths of the red sands of Mars with the Mechanicum as his unwilling servants. He will wage a war against all life in the galaxy; including the Necrons that betrayed him.

The Sanguinor is the soul of Sanguinius which manifests to protect his descendents.

The " Imperium" is a overall culture and bureaucracy that covers the vast majority of human-settled space, but I'd say about 20-30 percent of human worlds have not been assimilated into the Imperium as of the 41st millenium.

The Dark Age of Technology was an unprecedented time of prosperity for humanity that was somewhere way past Star Trek level. It was hugely advanced, the fact that the Eldar are the most psychic race prevented humanity from ascending to the Eldar's level in the galaxy. There were probably a few hundred titans on every major planet at some point.
Pretty much, if the tyranids had invaded the galaxy in the DAOT, they would have not gotten past the galactic borders..
the Imperium is analogous to a post-apocalyptic society, it rebuilt itself but definetly not nearly at a level CLOSE to the DAOT.
The technology base has scraps of it intact but for the most part no. The tanks of the Imperial Guard used to be tractor designs for agriculture, and the Baneblades were the SCOUT vehicles.
The Tau Empire would have been over with in a few weeks if the DAOT never ended.
Terminator armor wasn't even used AS military armor, it was purposed for radiation shielding in fusion engine repair service.


Necrons would be medium-level enemies but the fact that the Imperials actually can fight them and win means the DAOT would have squashed the necron awakening in the long-term.


the Grey Knights are more in the moral center, having to do things uncharacteristic of "heroes" but at the same time doing deeds very worthy of the title.

if the Imperium really wanted to, it could be a much more massive threat to the galaxy and tyranids at large but it would have to minimize waste and the inefficiency of the bureaucracy, communications, and it would need to improve Hive World conditions. Stuff it could do. It would just take time and new leadership.

Hive worlds are so big that the Tau Empire won't acknowledge their existance as factual, they're THAT ridicoulously big.

The Necrons in the War In Heaven would have squashed DAOT humanity like a bug.

Humanity is not special or unique in anyway, there is no grand human destiny. Humanity's accomplishments and dreams are ultimately meaningless and will be swept away like dust in the wind by the time of M45.

Human extinction is inevitable, there is no hope for mankind's survival under chaos or the Imperium. There is only hope to die gloriously before being crushed under an inexorable and unstoppable tide of aliens.

The forces of Chaos would get crushed in a fair fight with the Imperium due to the Imperium's vastly superior logistical capacity and technical superiority. Chaos only survives due to the powers of daemons and cowering in the warp storms and the Imperium having other enemies to attend to.

Xenos are the superior and more interesting factions in 40k.

If all the humans and all the xenos got into a fight, humanity would get crushed as quickly as the Xenos could bring the fight to them.

HFY (Humanity Feth Ya! Or pro-humanism) is the worst cancer to ever afflict Scifi and Fantasy fandoms.

I use 40k as the baseline setting and add other fandoms on top it.
The "Inner Sphere" where it is 100% human and no one knows anything about chaos, aliens, or anything else...and the purpose of the Inquisition is to ensure that it stays that way.

The IOM occupies only about 33% of the galaxy, the Galactic Empire occupies another 1/3rd...and all the factions exist in the last 1/3rd

The High Lords of Terra are: The Chancellor of the Adeptus Custodes. The Most High Cardinal of the Ecclesiarcy, The Precentor of ComStar, The Grandmaster of the Officio Assassinorum, The Padishah Emperor of the Landsraad, The Lord Martial of the Imperial Guard, the High Admiral of the Holy Fleet, The Triumvirate of the Adeptus Biologis, the Fabricator Master of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Paternova of the Navis Nobilite, The Imperial Quartermaster of the Departmento Munitorium, the Lord Administrator of the Administratum, the Chief Justice of the Adeptus Arbites and representative of the Inquisition.

The High Lords like to quash dissent, and have created an analogue of the Inquistion, called the Overlords (10 are known, 2 are "Shadowlords") that have absolute control over all Imperial assets...and have a disturbing tendency to run counter to the Inquisition...

The list of other factions that are present:


-STS

 Kain wrote:
The Necrons in the War In Heaven would have squashed DAOT humanity like a bug.

Agreed, though to be fair those guys would crush anyone. Even the Nids.

Humanity is not special or unique in anyway, there is no grand human destiny. Humanity's accomplishments and dreams are ultimately meaningless and will be swept away like dust in the wind by the time of M45.

Yeah, but that is true of pretty much every living race.

Human extinction is inevitable, there is no hope for mankind's survival under chaos or the Imperium. There is only hope to die gloriously before being crushed under an inexorable and unstoppable tide of aliens.

As above. Even the ultimate alien will face their end too.

Xenos are the superior and more interesting factions in 40k.

Debatable. I think the Eldar and Necrons are cool but the other factiond are kind of lame/trite.

If all the humans and all the xenos got into a fight, humanity would get crushed as quickly as the Xenos could bring the fight to them.

True of any other race but I agree.

HFY (Humanity Feth Ya! Or pro-humanism) is the worst cancer to ever afflict Scifi and Fantasy fandoms.

I agree and disagree. I dislike it when humans win just because of humans. (Looking at you, Mass Effect!) But I dont think it is wrong to want to see your own race persevere.

I understand what you are trying to say, though, but you do seem biased against the Imperium. I guess we could call this sentiment Humanity, feth You!

To list my entire head-canon would be impossible in the time allotted, so some highlights:

* Space Marines are not immortal. They are, however, naturally very long-lived. Their function, however, means that it is far more likely they die in combat rather than of natural causes.

* Blood Angels live longer than other Marines, and appear to age more slowly.

* The Space Wolves are still a Loyalist Chapter. The people of Fenris, however, have taken to worshiping the "natural forces" of Fenris, anthropomorphized into a Norse-like pantheon, which are actually manifestations of Tzeentch and Khorne. Both the Space Wolves and the Ecclesiarchy were "right", but neither side is willing to admit the other may have had a point.

*Rune Priests aren't Psykers. They're Druids. This means they're Sorcerers, even if they don't recognize it.

*The Tyranids have previously devoured 12 galaxies... but have never encountered one with such a rich, diverse sampling of intelligent life as this one. Unless the Hive Mind can completely re-configure how the Tyranid Hive functions, it will eventually be eradicated by combined weight of multiple Xenos attacking its Hive Fleets from all sides.

* Of course, this being 40k, such a combined-forces army is nearly impossible to manage.

* The biggest threat to the Tyranid is the Warp. The Shadow in the Warp can disrupt the link between a manifest daemon and the Warp... the Hive Mine is SOL if it enters a Warp Storm or a Warp Rift. If a Hive Fleet enters such a place, the Hive Mind must cut that fleet off from itself, or it will eventually go mad, not to mention risk the genetic mutations inherent to the corrupting effects of the Warp... which would spell eventual extinction of the bioform.

Oh, I guess this one bears mentioning. I think that the Emperor (or at least some kind of emperor construct created by the focused belief of the entire imperium, maybe having nothing to do with the actual emperor that is presumably still in some state of coma on the throne) has manifested as a god in the warp. The Sanguinor, Drago, Lost and the Damned, Living saints...all "demons of the imperium".