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Made in ie
Norn Queen






Dublin, Ireland

Reading the recent codices I noticed at least 3 references to "trillions" in relation to casualties, population, bodies etc.
I've been reading GW codex fluff for about 25 years and it struck me that is this the first time they have moved into the trillion category?
Recollections always seem to be things like countless billions, or billions upon billions but the Nid, Eldar and GK codices all reference trillions of late.

#pondering

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Made in gb
Mighty Vampire Count






UK

 Ratius wrote:
Reading the recent codices I noticed at least 3 references to "trillions" in relation to casualties, population, bodies etc.
I've been reading GW codex fluff for about 25 years and it struck me that is this the first time they have moved into the trillion category?
Recollections always seem to be things like countless billions, or billions upon billions but the Nid, Eldar and GK codices all reference trillions of late.

#pondering


If they have its make more sense given the scale of the background.

They play around with numbers quite a bit - eg there are now millions of Sisters of Battle where before it seemed there was only tens of thousands at most. Space Wolves have gone down in number and Black Templars seem to be back to a large scale force in the thousands.

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Made in de
Storm Trooper with Maglight





Seing how races like mankind, the Orks and Tyranids and other "widespread" races in the setting have always numbered in the [MOD EDIT - Language! - Alpharius]illions, it's hardly a difference.
Its the "smaller" races, like Eldar and Tau, about whose rough population estimates GW apparently can't make up its mind.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/12/06 19:02:59


 
   
Made in ie
Norn Queen






Dublin, Ireland

But even the recent Eldar codex states there are billions of Eldar and even a single craftworld can hold billions - which is pretty big - although obviously not Ork numbers big!

Dman137 wrote:
goobs is all you guys will ever be

By 1-irt: Still as long as Hissy keeps showing up this is one of the most entertaining threads ever.

"Feelin' goods, good enough". 
   
Made in de
Storm Trooper with Maglight





 Ratius wrote:
But even the recent Eldar codex states there are billions of Eldar and even a single craftworld can hold billions - which is pretty big - although obviously not Ork numbers big!


Hence the indecisiveness. In 2nd Edi, the Tyranid attack on Craftworld Iyanden - the one that killed off the majority of the till-then largest craftworld population - was said to have left "thousands dead". I assume in newer fluff, Iyanden lost "billions" of Eldar to Hive Fleet Kraken, not "thousands".
   
Made in gb
Dakka Veteran





 Esmer wrote:
 Ratius wrote:
But even the recent Eldar codex states there are billions of Eldar and even a single craftworld can hold billions - which is pretty big - although obviously not Ork numbers big!


Hence the indecisiveness. In 2nd Edi, the Tyranid attack on Craftworld Iyanden - the one that killed off the majority of the till-then largest craftworld population - was said to have left "thousands dead". I assume in newer fluff, Iyanden lost "billions" of Eldar to Hive Fleet Kraken, not "thousands".

I don't think there are billions of Eldar...


At least not any more!

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Made in gb
Lethal Lhamean




Birmingham

craggy wrote:
 Esmer wrote:
 Ratius wrote:
But even the recent Eldar codex states there are billions of Eldar and even a single craftworld can hold billions - which is pretty big - although obviously not Ork numbers big!


Hence the indecisiveness. In 2nd Edi, the Tyranid attack on Craftworld Iyanden - the one that killed off the majority of the till-then largest craftworld population - was said to have left "thousands dead". I assume in newer fluff, Iyanden lost "billions" of Eldar to Hive Fleet Kraken, not "thousands".

I don't think there are billions of Eldar...


At least not any more!

There most certainly are, each Craftworld is the size of a continent after all. Iyanden losing billions to Kraken has been a thing for some time now.
   
Made in de
Contagious Dreadnought of Nurgle





Sounds good to me. Too late for Cadia with its tiny population of only 850million.

With the spreading of the Primaris Marines we might see some more reasonable numbers for Space Marine chapters in the future as well.
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

So Cadia was like Planet Wyoming?

   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




Washington State, US

Nah more like planet "we have no real natural resources to export so let's ship out highly trained men and women instead"

 
   
Made in us
Pyromaniac Hellhound Pilot






Maryland, USA

Huh, I thought Cadia was very Earth-like?

M.

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Out-of-the-loop from November 2010 - November 2017 so please excuse my ignorance!
 
   
Made in us
Never Forget Isstvan!






Cadia had a climate almost earthlike, but probably a bit cooler (average temp about 1 or 2 degree's lower) and less greenery (wild unclaimed lands).

It's oceans were smaller % of the planets surface and most of its population was inside of the Hive Cities (think NYC, Chicago, Pittsburg, and Tampa Bay stacked on top each other).

Most of the landmass was either agriculture (to feed the population) or unhinhabitable (warzones/mountainous).

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Made in us
Pyromaniac Hellhound Pilot






Maryland, USA

Huh, I'm going to need to go reread that. With such a small population you'd think it would have been mostly wild space.

That said, if there's a lot of mountains and a smaller % of ocean, you're likely looking at more deserts.

M.

Codex: Soyuzki - A fluffy guidebook to my Astra Militarum subfaction. Now version 0.6!
Another way would be to simply slide the landraider sideways like a big slowed hovercraft full of eels. -pismakron
Sometimes a little murder is necessary in this hobby. -necrontyrOG

Out-of-the-loop from November 2010 - November 2017 so please excuse my ignorance!
 
   
Made in au
Longtime Dakkanaut




Cadia is described as pretty flat actually, with large tundras, allowing for military maneuvers and live fire training. The planet is colder than Terra.

So a few fortress like planned cities called Kasrs, a few small oceans, and large swathes of relatively flat land. There may be craggy mountains but they don't seem to be a dominant terrain feature. The only map we have of Cadia AFAIK is from the Eye of Terror campaign.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/12/09 23:35:27


 
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

 TheSGC wrote:
Nah more like planet "we have no real natural resources to export so let's ship out highly trained men and women instead"


With only 850 million? On a galactic scale? Their price per gram must be astronomical.

Their fortresses must have been emptier than a Blockbuster Video in 2010.

   
Made in gb
Norn Queen






To nitpick, if something says that millions died, that doesn't prevent it from being 1000 million
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka






Technically true, but I'm not sure of any examples where that's the case. If I read " ... millions", I'm assuming 2 - 9 million with no other context. I bet I'm not alone.
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Technically true, but I'm not sure of any examples where that's the case. If I read " ... millions", I'm assuming 2 - 9 million with no other context. I bet I'm not alone.
.

The next non-awkward non-specific number range would be tens of millions leading me to believe millions could be up to the 19 million range. But you are correct that I would never assume it to be 1000 millions, or even 100 million.
   
Made in de
Lesser Daemon of Chaos





its like those battle reports from ancient times (IRL) where every death or troop count was multiplied by 100 to 1000 to make it seem more epic.

Except in 40k writers do the reverse. "No, you have to cut three zero's, the kids can't imagine such large numbers"


40k - IW: 3.2k; IG: 2.7k; Nids: 2.5k; FB - WoC: 5k; FB-DE: 5k 
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

kingleir wrote:
 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Technically true, but I'm not sure of any examples where that's the case. If I read " ... millions", I'm assuming 2 - 9 million with no other context. I bet I'm not alone.
.

The next non-awkward non-specific number range would be tens of millions leading me to believe millions could be up to the 19 million range. But you are correct that I would never assume it to be 1000 millions, or even 100 million.


That might be the case in a sci fi VS debate, but in real life people who aren't fastidious about number use "millions and millions" or even just "millions" to mean "really big numbers/way more than a million." The distinction between millions, billions and so on is too subtle and often ignored. It's like people using solar system and galaxy near interchangibly; it's a mindset that waves helplessly at anything beyond the personal scale.

   
 
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