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.

This is my second question of the day, and it is no less inane than my first. So, the HH took place more or less in the middle of Big Es reconquista of humanity to make a unified human empire. Right? So, 1. was the conquest ever finished? After the HH Big E is comatose, all the loyal primarchs are off fighting Chaos, and the actual humans seem to be really busy forming a government and religion.
2. Could have any human worlds slip through the cracks? Is there, perhaps, a small human empire that has grown with out the Emporers influence?
3. I know that most worlds rediscovered during the Great Crusade had regressed in technology, but' that isn't necessarily a hard rule, is it? Could there be human worlds where technology has advanced?
Lastly, 4. Do sentient machines in the 40k verse always rebel from their creators, or is it possible for the two to co-exists? Are Men of Iron situations the rule or merely the most common possibility?

1. No
2. Yes
3. There are, they even visit a few in the HH novels
4. There are a couple that did appear to... then they got stomped for their ways

There's tons of non-imperial Human worlds out there. Could be in the hundreds of thousands or more. There's explorator fleets whose job it is to go out there and find them. Basically everyday The Imperium loses a planet to an alien invasion or Demonic explosion or some catastrophe but also gains another through conquest or returning one to the fold.

I would find it kinda hard to fathom there not being systems outside the IoM and the whole galactic war that didn't keep advancing provided they solved some of the more warp influenced calamities (read: daemon incursions).

There could be a whole world of blanks (or mostly blanks) with advanced stealth technology that function much like Asimov's Foundation just waiting for war to tear galaxy apart only to to come back and fix it after the major threats have finally fizzled out.

I also think while AI seems to go bad most of the time, that doesn't mean it does all of the time. Perhaps in some systems humanity got it right. However, they saw what the rest of the galaxy is up to and decided unlike the Tau, to not get involved if at all possible.

Regardless whether they do or don't exist, and don't contribute to the setting's story so they wouldn't be worth even mentioning. After all, who wants to play in the 40K universe but have absolutely nothing to do with 40K.

Look up the Interex- an advanced human faction that went to war with the Imperium

Personally, the idea of non-IoM human interstellar civilisations is fascinating. There's not much in the existing lore that hasn't been destroyed or subsumed by the IoM, but that doesn't mean that they're not out there. Plus, it pretty much gives you free reign to come up with your own grimdark human civilisations.

There's some kickass examples from the Horus Heresy of human civilisations encountered. People like the Interex, Diasporex and the Olamic Quietude.

It doesn't even have to be civilisations out on the fringes of the galaxy. Because warp travel requires stable/passable warp routes, and can be blocked off by storms for thousands and thousands of years, there could be undiscovered civilisations right next door (comparatively) to Imperial worlds and each has no idea the other is there until the storms abate.

Iron Sleet's Green Mechanicum is a great example of what societal changes could happen to a Mechanicus society that's been isolated for thousands and thousands of years

I also think there's fantastic potential for successful human civilisations that have relationships with the Chaos Gods. Say, a standard (but grimdark) civilisation that bases their technology on Chaos tech things like daemonic possession of vehicles/equipment and stuff like Fleshmetal as standard equipment.

Loads of ideas to explore