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While I was reading through the fluff section of the 5th editiong 40k rulebook last night I discovered that some one in Gamesworkshop is either really funny. Or actually lives in Birmingham.

If you look at the map that shows all of the Imperial Guard tithe worlds and such you will discover in the bottom right hand corner a deathworld called Birmingham. When I read this I laughed out loud for quite a few minutes at the hilarity of it. Anyone else notice this little hilarious tidbit?

Isn't there a kind of rivalry between Birmingham and Nottingham? It's probably part of that.

In the past, there have been battlefield shots from planets called "Minogue K".

It's little bits like that that suggest to me that no-one in the dev team takes the background entirely seriously.

Maybe, its still funny though.

Don't be silly.

It's a feral world.

Birmingham is more like a hive world than a death world.

Thanks to the way the traffic system is laid out, the city centre is hell for pedestrians, and hell for drivers too.

(At least it used to be. I know they've done a lot of changes around the Bull Ring which I haven't seen.)

What me and my friend found funniest was that they described it as "the black planet".

The Dreadnote wrote:What me and my friend found funniest was that they described it as "the black planet".

It's the centre of what used to be called the Black Country, in the days when Britain had significant heavy industry. It was an area of coal mining, iron founding, and other major industries.

There was so much smoke in the air, that trees' trunks got much darker than in the countryside. There was a species of moth that evolved darker colouration to match the trees they rested on. Unless you believe in Intelligent Design, of course.

That's nothing. I live in Kansas city, Kansas, and its industrial section is called Fairfax, and every couple of years there's a big insurance fire that spread smoke all over, like we're a suburb of Mordor.

But Kansas isn't mentioned in the 40k rulebook... (though if it was you would have to enter Detroit as a hive city, talk about your gangers...)

"Birmingham the Black Planet" has been around as long as 40K has, IIRC. I'm pretty sure it's mentioned in the Rogue Trader book.

I like Albion in fantasy too, the rainy isle with stone circles and places called Bol-a-hat. Made me chuckle.

I don't see why this topic needed question marks in the title to be honest. Any one who's ever been there knowns that Birmingham IS a deathworld.

I'm agreeing that Brum is a craphole.

My own outlandish theory about the origin of the ''black planet'' tag? Birmingham birthed the first true heavy metal band. Black Sabbath.

brum aint no death world
more like a tip.

kinda ritch from me since i live on soho XD

Birmingham's a place where you only really go to vomit or die.

Or both.

or, if none of the above, if you feel likegetting mugged or getting your car stolen

after all this i gotta go there for GD each year XD

chromedog wrote:
It's little bits like that that suggest to me that no-one in the dev team takes the background entirely seriously.

Back in the old rogue trader days, this was true throughout. This was part of the charm, as you could see that the people who made the game were beer and chips guys that were people too. We're seeing less of that nowadays, and more of the Reality-World of Giveusyamoneyopolis. This is a good sign for things to come though, coupled with the hopefully larger community section of WD.