This thread may primarily be meant for those who, like me, remain skeptical about all the new narrative developments from the Indomitus Crusade forward. But ultimately it is an open invitation for all enjoyers of Warhammer 40'000 background to reflect and brainstorm and add their own suggestions.
New background developments for Warhammer 40'000 from circa 2017 onward has seen narrative taking precedence over static setting. As someone endlessly intrigued by the richness of the decrepit and depraved themes of the static setting, this would seem a doubtful decision, casting aside the obvious commercial allure for Games Workshop of selling more miniatures. So far, it has been a mixed bag. I will first try to point out some advantages and disadvantages to the new background developments, with an eye to setting over narrative.
The Laudable
What some have described as the Indomitus Heresy is not bereft of quality. For instance, bringing Primarch Roboute Guilliman back has served up a good number of memorable moments, most of them revolving around a contrast play between the sclerotic, fanatical and demented Imperium of the 42nd millennium, with the optimistic and enterprising early Imperium during the human renaissance that was the brutal but brilliant Great Crusade. Which is a good call. Guilliman's headbutting with the fervently religious mankind of the latter Age of Imperium is well known, but a more subtle strain has also been carried forth by various authors, namely the contrast between the humourless, stern, pious and rigorously hierarchical Imperium of
40k with the more jovial, easygoing and seemingly approachable Imperium of
40k. This perfectly mirrors the
souring of the fundamental mood of the Roman empire from classical antiquity through the crisis of the third century and the travails of late antiquity and the middle ages. Special mention in this regard goes to a little scene where Guilliman in full armour is doing paperwork, and a plastic sheet falls down on the floor. Since his powered glove is not built to pick up tiny objects, Guilliman quips that he has been defeated by his greatest enemy, to which a nearby Marine asks if his lord made a joke. The Primarch's sarcastic reply is affirmative, for in the legendary age from which he hails he did not spend all time at heroics and grand works, but occasionally he would enjoy himself with making a simple joke.
Likewise, Guilliman's sweeping reforms continues to play heavily on the
Roman themes of organization for resilience that has long been a hallmark of the setting's background. And seeing the Primarch's handling of the High Lords of Terra and the flogging of the Paternoval Envoy of the Navigators was undeniably sweet.
And Abaddon now comes across as a competent threat.
More can be said about other positive developments, including good new artworks, but hopefully you get the point: Some new background do play up the setting. To say nothing of the glorious new background for Necromunda and Leagues of Votann, but that is outside of the narrative scope of this discussion.
The Questionable
On the negative side, the list grows: Shoehorning so much from Horus Heresy into
40k. Doing away completely with remote mythical figures of the past by first showing them in Horus Heresy, and then bringing back Primarchs in M42. Deus ex machina introduction of improved Marines, without flaws or echoes of the Cursed Founding to better ground them in the decrepit themes of the setting. There is a lot that pulls against the grain of the setting, and runs counter to its overarching themes, but let us cut the minus list short here.
At the end of the day, such large new background developments will be up to personal interpretation. Skeptics like myself are free to view it as an interesting alternative dimension but not the real deal of the static setting, and those who enjoy it are free to embrace it.
However, it would seem to me that on balance, the current background developments are still salvagable for the sake of maintaining the vision of
40k without breaking its overarching themes.
Proposed Tweaks
Without getting bogged down in detail and characters, I would like to present the following list on how to adjust the new background developments to play up the themes of the setting instead of running against it. This will be done with an eye to 'show over tell' in the miniature department, and an eye to 'tell' in the background department. The aim is to make small adjustments, not sweeping overhauls, to try and end up in a recognizably grimdark spot.
Pure improvement aside, I personally like Cawl because mad geniuses slaving away in laboratories (like the Emperor and His genetors did) is something I like to see in fiction. So I'm willing to overlook
GW writing Cawl's handiwork as too perfect for the decrepit themes of the setting. It is even possible to take an angle that the Primaris Marines, for all their brilliance and power, is in the final analysis a strategic malinvestment: That the Imperium for instance could have been better served by investing many of the vast resources bound up in Primaris expansion in increasing output of lethal special weaponry or heavy support for their hordes of organized infantry, or some suchlike take. With one obvious parallell being the overengineered Tiger tank contra cost effective Stug and Hetzer investments made by Germany toward the later stages of the second world war in real history (with Soviet decisions in 1941 to switch tank production to the most easily mass produced but sufficiently powerful variant, the T34, and then making the original design even cruder, chiming in as well).
Now, if a finger could have been snapped and
GW had put some focus with miniature releases on showcasing the depths of desperation which the Imperium plunges with their new narrative drive, I would have liked to see roughly this lineup, with more that could be added, but you get the idea:
- Primaris Marines. Improved Astartes, bigger and stronger and made to win a war of attrition against mutated and more experienced Chaos Space Marines. The Imperium is after all fixated upon their Archenemy, so this is fine. Let the counterproductive Imperial obsession with Chaos play itself out. And it could be a malinvestment of resources and a logistical headache when Firstborn Astartes sufficed just fine and ate a smaller resource pie.
- Failed Primaris experiments herded into battle. Corvus Corax style.
- Poorly equipped militia units, including barefoot paramilitaries. Maybe technicals of armed civilian vehicles pressed into Loyalist service. Necromunda kits doing double duty?
- Zealot hordes. Flagellants and doomsayers and fanatics throwing themselves unto martyrdom. Complete with descriptions of pogroms and schismatic violence peaking in the dark days of the present.
- Imperial Guard with lunge mines and outright human bombs as per Rogue Trader. Or somesuch similar depiction of callous and desperate and dysfunctional budget measures being rolled out in response to a slide into doomsday; it need not necessarily be these suggestions, it could be something else entirely. Think cheap and shoddy wargear to fill gaps and check boxes on paper.
- Blocking detachments of an NKVD-equivalent in space. Give the Commissars some company.
And give the Tau Gue'vesa human auxiliaries to display rats abandoning a sinking ship, or put differently desperate souls clinging to the only alternative offered to the crushing tyranny of the Imperium. Chaos Cultists and Genestealer Cults are already well represented with units and miniatures.
Other parts that would play up the visual depravity are already long since covered to great effect by the Adepta Sororitas and the Ecclesiarchy's bonkers penitence engines and arco-flagellants. But I guess an autodafé on tracks could help play up the ongoing madness.
With something in the spirit of the above proposals, I believe that the new background developments could be made to better fit the overarching themes of the
40k setting. Again, the aim is for tweaks, rather than sweeping overhauls, and much of it is show over tell supported by miniature releases.
How would you have received the new background developments if the above proposals were baked into it?
Please share your thoughts and your own proposals.
Cheers
Imperium Nihilus artwork by Phil Moss
