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There is a ridiculous amount of history in the 40k universe, from every Space Marine Chapter to every race, army, individual, etc. How was it possible not to contradict any of the current information with previously written stories? Who were the authors that wrote all the history, the Horus Heresy, etc? From every battle, to every engagement, everything? Is there a point where adding new history might contradict with old history? How were they able to come up with this besides pure imagination? It couldn't of been one guy. Basically, whats the history of the history of GW's Warhammer 40k? Unless, the history is nearly 30 years in the making.

It's simple, they have an approach of "everything is canon, and nothing is."

If there's a contradiction, it's because history and experience are subjective and any inconsistencies are explained by differing perceptions.

Factually, Rick Priestley is the father of 40K, but much of the background has been added to by various voices down the years, much of which draws very heavily from our own history and folklore.

Rick Priestly is the original creator of most of the 40k universe.

However, over time, particularly over the last seven or so years, the tone and substance has changed dramatically in some ways.

Over time there have been many other contributors to the 40k universe, and since the "old school" crew of people like Rick Priestly and Andy Chambers and the like have left, it's begun to change quite a bit. and is far less subtle.

Less subtle than Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau, Ultramarine-blue Marines called Ultramarines, an angry guy called Angron and Ferrus Manus ruling over the Iron Fists with an Iron Fist?

I think not.

Wonderwolf wrote:
Less subtle than Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau, Ultramarine-blue Marines called Ultramarines, an angry guy called Angron and Ferrus Manus ruling over the Iron Fists with an Iron Fist?

I think not.

There was RT era sillyness where they're not intending to be serious, back when they had blurbs about Imperial Citizens being sent to camps for late library books, and when Marines were T3 and only got a 5+ armor save against lasguns

However, when you look at the later RT/2E/3E/early4E stuff and then compare it to 5E and later, aside from some silly naming conventions, and look at the actual quality of the writing and the tone, it's become much more "fanfic-ey".

I can't even claim to be wearing rose-tinted hindsight glasses, as I certainly didn't play during RT or 2E (RT coming out a year after I was born and 2E coming out when I was 8 years old), I just read the older stuff and find it to be much more compelling.

I miss the fact that during the Horus Heresey, both the Imperial and Traitor forces made heavy use of robots in order to limit human casualties.

 Portugal Jones wrote:
I miss the fact that during the Horus Heresey, both the Imperial and Traitor forces made heavy use of robots in order to limit human casualties.

Wow that must be going back a long way. I waded in at the very end of 2nd, and I have no memory of that at all. Interesting, do you remember where that was featured?

Xyptc wrote:

 Portugal Jones wrote:
I miss the fact that during the Horus Heresey, both the Imperial and Traitor forces made heavy use of robots in order to limit human casualties.

Wow that must be going back a long way. I waded in at the very end of 2nd, and I have no memory of that at all. Interesting, do you remember where that was featured?

It was in the RT rulebook, it's all in the section on robot's rules, right after the Dreadnought's.

timebandit3077 wrote:
How was it possible not to contradict any of the current information with previously written stories?

Looool

Even from the outset they couldn't keep things straight.

The Ultramarines started out as a 3rd Founding Chapter founded to replace one of the banished Treacher Legions following the First Inter-Legionary War, then they were retconned into the 3rd Chapter of the 1st Founding, then they had their number swapped with the Emperor's Children. (which is why the Ultramarine Chapter Standard mini has a III in the white circle, apparently the sculptor had an old picture rather than an amended one)

The original write-up for Isstvan V (as it was then spelt) was that the three loyalist chapters were purged from Imperial records following their annihilation there.

More recently the modern Index Astartes series couldn't even agree on who the traitors who turned at Istvaan V were: the Raven Guard IA listed it as the Iron Warriors plus the Emperor's Children, Death Guard and World Eaters, whilst the Iron Warriors listed the other three as the Night Lords, Alpha Legion and Word Bearers.

 lcmiracle wrote:

Xyptc wrote:

 Portugal Jones wrote:
I miss the fact that during the Horus Heresey, both the Imperial and Traitor forces made heavy use of robots in order to limit human casualties.

Wow that must be going back a long way. I waded in at the very end of 2nd, and I have no memory of that at all. Interesting, do you remember where that was featured?

It was in the RT rulebook, it's all in the section on robot's rules, right after the Dreadnought's.

Compendium, the Horus Heresy didn't exist in the rulebook.

shoot, I thought they were just talking about the Robots

timebandit3077 wrote:
There is a ridiculous amount of history in the 40k universe, from every Space Marine Chapter to every race, army, individual, etc. How was it possible not to contradict any of the current information with previously written stories?

Easy. Nobody bothers to do any more than basic plot checking. And even then, eh.

Otherwise, 40K is rife with inconsistencies, partial retcons, and full retcons, even if you throw away Rogue Trader and just go with the "Modern 40K" timeline which started with 2nd Edition. The new Horus Heresy novel line is especially bad about it, but a lot of that has to do with it becoming its own product. They're not telling the story of the Horus Heresy anymore. They're just selling books, which require stories to be manufactured for them.

Xyptc wrote:

 Portugal Jones wrote:
I miss the fact that during the Horus Heresey, both the Imperial and Traitor forces made heavy use of robots in order to limit human casualties.

Wow that must be going back a long way. I waded in at the very end of 2nd, and I have no memory of that at all. Interesting, do you remember where that was featured?

The red 'White Dwarf Presents Warhammer 40,000.'

You also got to read about the Ultramarines half-eldar Chief Librarian, and unknown xeno race manipulation, or even replacement, of Lufgt Huron was suspected for his rebellion and the Badab War.

That was around 1990, so '1st edition,' and included such rules as how to figure the arc of a turn to figure out how far you could move a vehicle in non-straight lines.

Wow thanks guys! But here is another question? Who put together the 40k wiki? Every piece of information about everything is there and I'm sure GW didn't originally write most of it. I know the wiki is independent but how much of that information is fan created or how much of it was from GW rules books and codexes?

I believe it's all "official" much like any Wiki, it's subject to the errors that format can generate, but there is a lot of lore out there.

Actual history is filled with contradictions. Far more than is found in 40k. Different historian's views permeate the narratives they write.

Udo wrote:
Actual history is filled with contradictions. Far more than is found in 40k. Different historian's views permeate the narratives they write.

As a (fictional) example, I offer the Draenei of World of Warcraft.

In one version of history, they're political refugees who've been fleeing for twenty five thousand years after the rest of their race joined with the demons, and have been hunted from world to world, never attaining more than a short rest before Burning Legion forces catch up and annihilate the planet. They thought that had changed when they settled on the Orc homeworld, naming it Draenor, and they had 200 years of relative peace and security, until the native Orcs, manipulated by high-ranking members of the Burning Legion, brutally slaughtered the vast majority of their population and built a massive road with their bones. The surviving Draenei fled to Azeroth to acquire allies to battle the Burning Legion. They fought their way to an interdimensional starship, an allied Naaru city-vessel,but it had been sabotaged by the Blood Elves who'd commandeered it and the ship crashed into Azuremyst Isle, causing massive environmental damage which the Draenei and their new allies put every effort into cleaning up. They returned to Draenor with new allies and defeated the Orcs and demons who were still hunting their friends and families.

In another version of history, the Draenei are traitors who turned against their own people and, heavily outnumbered and outmatched, have been on the run for twenty five thousand years, settling in populated zones where the local innocents are massacred in the planet-destroying crossfire. Each time the Draenei fled, they settled on a new world, hoping to use the world's population as living shields against the fury of the Burning Legion. When they settled on Draenor, the Legion decided to enlist the local population in the fight to subdue the insurgents, rather than launching yet another all-out attack. This proved highly effective, eliminating many of the Draenei's number and forcing the survivors into hiding, where they could do little harm thanks to the destruction of their infrastructure. A large, practical monument was built to honor the local Orcs for their aid. A force of Draenei commandeered an interplanetary vessel and crashed it into Azeroth, where the radioactive crystals began to mutate Azerothian fauna, turning them into wicked monsters bent on killing. Acquiring new allies, the Draenei insurgents made their way back to Draenor and began systematically eliminating every Orc and Burning Legion stronghold there.

A third version of history is that the Draenei were these weird people who showed up in the sky above the planet in a big ship. When they debarked, they began to settle in the warmer parts of the continent. They didn't seem very hostile and mostly kept to themselves, so the Orcs left them alone and were left alone themselves, though some fair trades did happen on occasion. They built large, ornate cities that towered into the sky, as high as a giant. For two hundred years peace prevailed, until a highly-respected shaman spoke to his wife's ghost, who'd returned from the spirit world to warn us that the Draenei were plotting to kill all of the Orcs. He spoke to the clan leaders, who elected to unite and put an end to the imminent Draenei threat. And that they did - the Draenei armies were easily broken because they weren't expecting war so soon and many cities were simply undefended and fell easily. The Orcs put the treacherous Draenei to death, keeping some prisoners to create hybrid supersoldiers with the strength and tenacity of an Orc and the magical prowess of a Draenei. To commemorate victory and inspire the Orc troops onward, the bones of the Draenei dead were taken to Hellfire Peninsula and used to build a road over which the Orcs would march on their next target - a new world, on the other side of a large, magical portal.

Three versions of history, describing the same events but from a different viewpoint each time.

timebandit3077 wrote:
Who put together the 40k wiki?

Random schmucks on the internet. Wikipedia itself used to have a list of Space Marine Chapters on it, I didn't create the page but I fixed/added a lot of info on it, which was then copy-pasted by Lexicanum which was then copy-pasted wholesale onto the 40k wikia.

timebandit3077 wrote:
I know the wiki is independent but how much of that information is fan created or how much of it was from GW rules books and codexes?

The 40k wikia is full of fan fluff, officially it's meant to be canon but the mods rarely check cited sources (eg: there used to be a fully Index Astartes style writeup on a chapter called the Liberators, pure fan fiction, but because it cited a source the mods let it stay.. but the cited source merely mentioned a name, and it wasn't even the Liberators: It was the Libators.)

I often go to the 40k wikia but I always check Lexicanum as well, if its on the former but not the latter it's usually - tho not always - fan fluff.

Michael Moorecock's writings are the main inspiration for the the large overall man vs chaos storyline. Individual groups within 40k have a variety of inspirations based on modern fiction and to a large extent movies and in a few cases it is purely cultural in order to try and make sales.

The World Eaters for example were based on the old Sparticus movie. Nightlords are very obviously based off of Apocalypse Now. Tau were designed to appeal to Asia and the fluff seemed almost an afterthought as they were released when GW attempted to enter the Asian market. Necrons originally were Terminators with a grand total of 4 or five different model types(dumb looking lord, warrior, I think they had Immortals and Scarabs, and a goofy looking skimmer thing). But essentially they wanted to appeal to the terminator fan base. Nids were originally from Alien and they took an even more Geiger-esque look when they second generation of models came out. So Geiger-esque that he sued and that line of models had the fastest retool GW has ever done. Space marines in general were meant to be kind of Star Ship Troopers light mixed I think with Armor(another novel). Either way, GW rarely has original ideas and they have been sued and or countersued/ settled for this lack of originality successfully several times in the past. Plasma guns and nids are a great example of GW backing down and doing something else.