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 Formosa wrote:

Nurgle technically was born from the night bringer, Nurgle is the embodiment of life, death, decay and all the mixed emotions that come from that, since it was the nightbringer that gave all species the fear of death, it makes logical sense that the end result of this fear, is part of Nurgle.

Very good point!

Maximus Bitch wrote:
Well, I hope GW comes up with a cool reason as to why the BSFs have that shape.

Oddly, I don't really. I treasure the level of misinformation and ignorance that we have around most of the details of the 40k universe. It's far, far more fun to try and work these things out yourself than just be outright told 'this is why this is'.

Far more fun to hint at why they might be from an in-universe source, and leave it open to interpretation.

Otherwise you just strip all the mystery away from it and it becomes that little bit more boring. I think that's part of the issue I have with Newcron fluff TBH. So much of the mystery has been stripped away that they're nothing really intriguing left to them...

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

 Formosa wrote:

Nurgle technically was born from the night bringer, Nurgle is the embodiment of life, death, decay and all the mixed emotions that come from that, since it was the nightbringer that gave all species the fear of death, it makes logical sense that the end result of this fear, is part of Nurgle.

Very good point!

Maximus Bitch wrote:
Well, I hope GW comes up with a cool reason as to why the BSFs have that shape.

Oddly, I don't really. I treasure the level of misinformation and ignorance that we have around most of the details of the 40k universe. It's far, far more fun to try and work these things out yourself than just be outright told 'this is why this is'.

Far more fun to hint at why they might be from an in-universe source, and leave it open to interpretation.

Otherwise you just strip all the mystery away from it and it becomes that little bit more boring. I think that's part of the issue I have with Newcron fluff TBH. So much of the mystery has been stripped away that they're nothing really intriguing left to them...

I have a different idea, I find these mysteries rather useless. GW is just gonna keep them a secret forever and release tidbits here and there to get everyone salivating and talking. But after they do that too much, it becomes rather boring and irrelevant.

If it's never gonna be revealed, then it becomes irrelevant to me. It just becomes a tool for GW to sustain interest that otherwise might not have been sustained.


I'd rather GW focus on compelling war stories, the original aim of 40k. Shield of Baal was pretty good. Except that the Necrons were too OP.

Maximus Bitch wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

 Formosa wrote:

Nurgle technically was born from the night bringer, Nurgle is the embodiment of life, death, decay and all the mixed emotions that come from that, since it was the nightbringer that gave all species the fear of death, it makes logical sense that the end result of this fear, is part of Nurgle.

Very good point!

Maximus Bitch wrote:
Well, I hope GW comes up with a cool reason as to why the BSFs have that shape.

Oddly, I don't really. I treasure the level of misinformation and ignorance that we have around most of the details of the 40k universe. It's far, far more fun to try and work these things out yourself than just be outright told 'this is why this is'.

Far more fun to hint at why they might be from an in-universe source, and leave it open to interpretation.

Otherwise you just strip all the mystery away from it and it becomes that little bit more boring. I think that's part of the issue I have with Newcron fluff TBH. So much of the mystery has been stripped away that they're nothing really intriguing left to them...

I have a different idea, I find these mysteries rather useless. GW is just gonna keep them a secret forever and release tidbits here and there to get everyone salivating and talking. But after they do that too much, it becomes rather boring and irrelevant.

If it's never gonna be revealed, then it becomes irrelevant to me. It just becomes a tool for GW to sustain interest that otherwise might not have been sustained.


I'd rather GW focus on compelling war stories, the original aim of 40k. Shield of Baal was pretty good. Except that the Necrons were too OP.

Oh I agree with you wholeheartedly on the last point. GW absolutely should focus on compelling war stories. That's part of the reason I feel the background should be left mysterious, for a couple of reasons.

1. It means that they spend less time detailing the ins and outs of the background, and more time on the war stories themselves
2. It helps keep the characters (and thus the reader) in ignorance of what might happen next, which is a key part to a compelling story
3. Strip away the ignorance and you strip away a core part of what makes 40k what it is: a veritable Dark Ages of grimdark techno-barbarism.
4. It makes each individual drip-feed reveal of new information more valuable/intriguing/tantalising

Ultimately, there's a sweet-spot between the two. Expand enough to give the background detailed flavour, but not so much that everything is revealed and it loses its mystery and interest to people such as myself. Get to that point, and then focus on the small-scale conflicts that are actually interesting to read (and write) a story about, drip-feeding new information as we inch along

That's what 40k should be about. The small-scale stories. The rest is just a setting, which by all means can expand and evolve, but it needs to do so at a moderate pace

Somewhat tangentially related, but I believe Liber Chaotica had a bit that suggested that the Old Ones created the Eldar to assist with the War in Heaven, with the specific purpose of manifesting sentient weapons in the warp. The Eldar eventually came to worship these "weapons" as their gods. It's a very ambiguous passage that I'm sure has been contradicted numerous times since, but have always liked the suggested bridge between War in Heaven mythology and actual in universe events.

As far as the Blackstone Fortresses/Talismans of Vaul are concerned, they were presumably built as conduits to channel the power of the Eldar gods into the material realm. Once the Chaos gods became the predominant warp beings, the fortresses were by extension a symbol of their power (basically getting to the earlier point that maybe the chaos star is shaped the way it is because it's based on the shape of the fortresses).

 cymera wrote:
Somewhat tangentially related, but I believe Liber Chaotica had a bit that suggested that the Old Ones created the Eldar to assist with the War in Heaven, with the specific purpose of manifesting sentient weapons in the warp. The Eldar eventually came to worship these "weapons" as their gods. It's a very ambiguous passage that I'm sure has been contradicted numerous times since, but have always liked the suggested bridge between War in Heaven mythology and actual in universe events.

As far as the Blackstone Fortresses/Talismans of Vaul are concerned, they were presumably built as conduits to channel the power of the Eldar gods into the material realm. Once the Chaos gods became the predominant warp beings, the fortresses were by extension a symbol of their power (basically getting to the earlier point that maybe the chaos star is shaped the way it is because it's based on the shape of the fortresses).

Yeah I really like those two concepts part of my Croneworld Eldar army is based on the idea that they still use the psychically manifested weapons of war which eventually coalesced into the Eldar Gods. Justifies my use of summoning as they're a counts-as Daemons army

Stuff can be disassembled, rebuilt, or expanded upon. Look at the concept of Space Hulks being a massive hodgepodge of all manner of ships and space debris cuddled and welded together. I am not strong in (early history) 40K Lore. Perhaps the Blackstone Fortresses once had a different shape and those discovered were eventually retrofitted to look like they do now?