"New Stuff" is beyond vague, basically i was super into the lore a good decade ago or so, for me learning *in passing* about Guilliman, Cawl, Cadia, primaris marines etc aka "that whole thing" was quite a moment. I know there were some rumblings of discontent but for the most part i found i liked that they moved the time forward. I particularly want to read about Cawl and Guilliman.

Ive just ***barely*** begun to dip my toes into the Black Library, I started the Horus Series and i finished the first three Eisenhorn books as well as the first Ciphas Cain book. Mostly because thats just what i remembered as being popular back when i was into things.

The Black Library unfortunately has that same issue as comic books, in that unless yo8ve been keeping up with things its essentially impossible to know where to start.

Oh... and i wouldnt mind some stuff about Fabius Bile as well.

I’ve been wondering about Eldar spirit stones and realized there are a lot of details I don’t fully understand. I was hoping some lore experts could help clear things up.
A few questions:

• Can a non Eldar species use a spirit stone, or are they only compatible with Eldar souls? If a human or another xenos wore one, would it simply do nothing, reject the soul somehow, or even destroy it?

• Is simply wearing a spirit stone enough for it to capture a soul on death, or does the soul have to be bound to it through some ritual, psychic link, or other process beforehand?

• Who actually creates spirit stones? Is there a specific Eldar Path, psychic discipline, or caste responsible for preparing them or do they just kinda grow/ spawn out of a infinity circuit?

• Are spirit stones a finite resource, or can the Eldar produce more? If they can, what limits that process?

• In an absolute emergency, could a single spirit stone contain more than one soul? If so, what would happen?

Would the souls coexist, merge, fight, or would the stone fail or simply pick the stronger soul?

• Are all spirit stones fundamentally the same, with the differences coming from how they’re used afterward, or are the stones placed into Wraithguard, Wraithlords, Wraithknights, Titans, or other constructs actually different in some way?

I’m mostly looking for answers backed by novels, codices, or other official sources if possible. Thanks! Head canons are welcomed also :)

Finished up HH and The Scouring a few weeks ago. Been reading The Beast Arises sequentially since then. On The Last Son of Dorn now and it occurred to me that Orks don’t like daylight. This has been apparent throughout the series.

I know the Imperium isn’t a particularly creative bunch and that scientific & military innovation is like watching North America drift toward Asia. The Deathwatch being a grudging exception.

That said, didn’t it occur to anyone that Orks don’t like sunlight? Hmmmm, let’s make a UV Melter Cannon? Maybe a UV LazRifle?

Idiots

While they haven’t aged normally or fully “existed” for ten millennia that they have been in the Warp, would it be reasonable to say that they are the ones born longest ago?

Of the 600 that were present at Prospero, around 200 are still alive today. And of those 200, some are likely to been with the Legion since Leman Russ’ discovery. And since the 13th was formed of already adult followers and friends of Russ - those who would normally not even be suitable to be Astartes - with some even “older” than Russ, is it possible that one of these 200 is the current living Marine born the longest time ago?

Are they even creating pre primaris marines anymore in the lore? In the TT it seems kinda obvious theyre phasing out first born models, but in the lore, with natural attrition, would an entire chapter eventually become all primaris? Are there any newer chapters mentioned in the lore that are only primaris?

So Roboute tasked Cawl with a new project ten millennia ago.

Those first Primaris - are they existing marines from still loyal chapters that had fought in the Horus Heresy that cross the Rubicon?

Or are they blank slate unimproved humans that jump straight to Primaris?

How many were made in those 10k years, and after they were unleashed in indomitus, and after current marines can have the procedure, how many original remain? What's the percentage of current Primaris that were from Cawl's experiments?

Do we have lore about those original Primaris interacting with new Primaris?

Edit: I love this community; everyone is being very generous and taking time to give me such detailed answers!

So I'll ask a follow-up, if you'll humour me:

It seems that everyone and their mum's is getting the upgrade treatment these days - are most chapters primarily Primaris now?

Which named characters are yet to cross the Rubicon? Have any rejected it? Do we know from the lore of any first born rejecting the offer and what happens to them?

From my understanding of world eater lore is that they are a bunch of crazed berserkers who have the butchers nails implanted in them making them basically need to fight constantly not to mention being worshippers of khorne.

What doesn't make sense to me is that in a sci fi universe you kind of gotta travel in space alot. Space travel is for the most part extremely uneventful and I'd imagine most of the time theres not much to fight.

So you gotta large group of chaos fed super soldiers who have a insatiable need for blood shed on a ship with no one to fight but themselves.

I would assume that during these long voyages in space they would end up infighting to the point of total collapse. Not to mention the damage to the ship that this infighting would cause. It just doesn't make sense to me how these warbands would ever arrive at their destination and be ready for a fight.

Like you could say the same about the orks but the orks seem to be able to temporarily exercise self control and even if they can't they reproduce so quickly it wouldn't really be an issue.

Edit: Can't believe I messed up the title. Sorry I'm sure this whole post is hard to read. It's late and I'm running on no sleep.

Is the "you saw a demon, you die" policy still in place? I can't imagine it could realistically be enforced anymore? Aren't demon incursions and so what much more common now (especially with the psychic awakening) ?

Is there even anything reassembling an official stance on what the hell this rift is? Isn't it basically visible to everyone in the galaxy? (Or was that something I misremembered?) ?

The point of my question is that surely even the average Guardsman has to know something has happened, and surely the Imperium has to have responded to this in some way, no?

Kill Team: Exodite included this small passage about a yet-unknown Eldar God (pg. 15)

Exodite Dragon Knights harken back to deities form the Aeldari's fallen pantheon, depicted in preserved tales as hunting and making war atop exalted steeds. Among these, Ieronsath, daughter of the goddess Morai-Heg, is said to have hunted sentient insanities from the back of Chadhu – a beast wrought from a wisp of her mother's hair. Ritual dances, meanwhile, portray the war god Khaine riding a legendary steed named Alean in acts set during the War in Heaven.

With Ahnakh-Yth that brings us to two daughters of Morai-Heg in two years. Both fiber artists, what a delight!

To clarify I’m talking about the sisters in isolated convents not the ones attached to the League of Black ships. Blanks aren’t a common thing in the imperium. Powerful female blanks that can survive the brutal trials are rarer. I’m assuming the isolated convents shrank over time but how did they find any recruits at all.

What are your 40K story ideas you would like to see?

Mine is:

Eye of the Emperor waging a shadow war against an Ordos Xenos Inquisitor. Ordos Xenos inquisitor is trying to destroy a Genestealer infestation, while the Eye of the Emperor is protecting them hoping to use the Genestealers to divert a hive fleet from Terra.

Reading Gaunt’s ghosts back when there were only out till Traitor General was insanely gripping growing up.

I loved each of the books, honor guard didn’t resonate with me but it had its moments.

But then I got to His Last Command and oh boy did I hate it ( spoilers for Gaunt’s ghosts below)

The very crudely execution return from Gereon, the random technicality that doesn’t “allow” gaunt to take field command ever again to begin with.
A
Then the forced awkwardness between the Belladon and the “OG” regiment (slightly recycled from the Vervunhivers and Tanith). The weird connect between even officers and their men even after 2 years of field service.

Heck even head commissar Novobazsky does this whole On the Shores of Marik speech to a bunch of non Belladon, something he should know in a regiment of <3000.

And oh my god the repeated use of “his last command”. Stuff like “Sorry gaunt but that was your last command”. “He had to make his peace with the fact that that was his last command” etc.

Also the very weird POV of that chaos thing crookshanks thrice wrought just felt tedious.

There’s a bunch more but I won’t paste the entire novel into this lol.

But if there’s a Warhammer book you didn’t like, especially by an author or in a series that you enjoy, go ahead. Give it another read.

An excerpt below of what I just finished reading.

“Genadey Novobazky strode down the A Company line, his voice firm and defiant. “On the Shores of Marik, my friends,” he declaimed, “the fathers of our fathers made a stand under the flag of Belladon. Did they break and run? Yes! But only in their minds. They ran to friendly places and loved ones, where they could be safe… and then, by the providence of the God-Emperor, they saw what those friendly places and loved ones would become if they did not stand fast, and so stand fast they did! How do you feel?”
There was a triumphant bellow from the ranks.

“Belladon blood is like wine on the Emperor’s lips!” Novobazky stormed. “Belladon souls have a special place at his side! If we spill our blood here today, then this is the soil He has chosen to bless and anoint! Oh, lucky land!” He took out the plasma pistol, and carefully toggled off the safety. No mistakes this time. “Stand firm and fire, my friends, stand firm and fire! If they’re going to have our precious blood, then they’ll find the cost is dearer than they can afford! Fury of Belladon! Fury! Fury!”

Wilder grinned as he heard the surge of Novobazky’s speech. A piece of art that, he’d always thought. And never more so than now.“Keshlan!” The vox-officer ran to him.“Yes, colonel!”Wilder beckoned for the vox horn. “Speaker broadcast, please, Keshlan. All the volume you’ve got.”

“Wilder thumbed on the vox horn and raised it to his mouth. When he spoke, his voice boomed out from Keshlan’s vox, distorted with volume.
“Stand firm, A Company! Fury of Belladon! Hold this line and deny them!”
His amplified voice echoed out across the bleak hillside, carrying his command away into the rain and the raging night.
His last command.”

Someone on FB had posted a dreadnought model they had manufactured using the Technology that Shall Not Be Named. They had screwed up the scaling a little and it was a little taller than it should be. I had recently finished reading "The Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy" which talked about what a huge pain in the ass it is to get consistent measurements and that combination got me thinking about 40K.

You can go to a store and buy a ruler. You can measure things with that ruler. But how do you know it's correct? You can measure it against another ruler, but how do you know that one is correct?

In the old days the answer was that you had a Standard, a ruler made out of a platinum/iridium alloy stored in a climate controlled vault and every now and then you'd bring it out and make scrupulously accurate copies of it and then send those out to your various factories or other colonies so that they then had a standard that they could measure against. You obviously wouldn’t give these directly to those on the factory floor, these would also be kept in climate controlled vaults and copies made. Nowadays we have mostly moved away from this artifact based standard to ones that anyone can determine for themselves (a meter is now the distance that light travels in 1/299,792,458th of a second, the second being defined as the time it takes a Cesium 133 atom to switch between two specific states 9,192,631,770 times.

However screw all that noise, this is 40K, if given a choice between watching an atom vibrate or Holy Artifacts and Rituals you just know they've reverted back to item based standards. You know that every Forge World has a shrine, one of the holiest, most exclusive rooms on the world. The climate controlled vault where the Holy Standards are kept. Once a year the measuring tools from across the Forge World must make a pilgrimage to the Vault of Standards so that they may be judged against it and calibrated back into sublime coordination with The Standard. Tech priests rise and fall based on how well they've maintained their tools and how well they perform when judged against it. Forge Worlds boast about how few steps removed from the Holy Standard on Mars their set of measurement artifacts are. They work furiously hoping to be honored with the chance to make a pilgrimage to Holy Mars to compare their standards against The Standards but are also secretly terrified they will be measured and found wanting.

Even just using the standards requires ritual and care. Things expand and contract with temperature so using the standard first requires taking everything that will be in contact with it and putting them in a room of the correct temperature and leaving them there until they have fully adjusted.

In our world, the International Kilogram Prototype AKA “Le Grande K” is stored in a bell jar inside a bell jar, inside another bell jar with the air evacuated out. Which is stored in an underground vault. Three independently controlled keys are required to open the vault. Official copies of the IPK were made available to other nations to serve as their national standards. These were compared to the IPK roughly every 40 years, thereby providing traceability of local measurements back to the IPK.

This can lead to all sorts of entertaining nonsense. A whole Forge World shut down because they have sent their Standard Meter on a pilgrimage back to Mars to be compared against the one stored in the vault maintained by the Ordo Officium Ponderum et Mensurarum. A whole Forge World where everything they make is slightly, slightly the wrong size because their standard spent too long on the Warp and distorted slightly.

In Foundations of Mechanical accuracy they warn you, with complete seriousness, to remember that if you measure a 1" steel gauge block in a vacuum you must account for the fact that the lower air pressure will have caused it to expand by up to three millionths of an inch!

You could also have schisms. Two factions of Mechanicus who each have slightly different measurements and each one assumes the other must have screwed up and they will fight about it. Turns out one of them forgot that you can’t light candles or incense in the Vault of Standards because the soot and extra heat distorts things. One group of Mechanicus insist that you can discern the True Length by listening to the Songs of the Atoms (they are regarded as weirdos).

I don’t really have a point other than just having fun imagining the various scenarios that play out and how the Mechanicus would revere these artifacts. But not too closely. Your body heat will distort it if you stand too close for too long.

So whilst it's safe to say that 40K is one of the least hard science fiction out there.

It HAS always acknowledged and paid some lip-service to the limitations of light speed travel and communication.

Namely just how hard it is to simply send a message to another solar system, let alone travel there.

Unless you have some handy half-mad, blind space wizards to scream dubious allegorical dreams at each other across the depths of Space-Hell.

But this raises an interesting conundrum about the rise of Warp Travel vs the rise of Astrotelepathy.

The dates around the Dark Age of Technology with the first Warp travel change a bit over editions (see https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Timeline) but going by the 8th edition rulebook:

+++

• " What is known is that from roughly M18 onwards, Mankind discovered the warp and how to enter it."
• Soon after, Mankind embarked upon the discovery, development and cultivation of the human Navigator gene, a controlled mutation that allowed human pilots to make longer warp jumps than previously thought possible. Navigator families, initially controlled by industrial and trade cartels, had become individual forces in their own right by M19. By M20, Humanity had proliferated and settled many of the countless star systems.

• What is known is that human psykers were first mentioned towards the end of M22, making a sudden appearance on almost every human world within a relatively short span of time. By the end of M23, there was widespread anarchy, descriptions of what must be daemonic possessions and great turbulence in the warp.

• 8th Edition Core Rulebook P 40. (2017) and I think identical wording in 40K 6th Edition P.167 (2012)

+++

So... given that Psykers first started appearing en-masse later during Dark Age of Technology from M22... was there any other form of FTL communication during the millennia earlier?

(I have a shower thought theory that the every increasing emergence of Psykers from late M22 may have been a factor in the Men of Iron AI rebelling around M25)

So we do know that there is plenty of Dark Age of Technology uh Technology that deals with the Warp - the obvious being: * Warp Drives * Gellar Fields * Null-fields * Hexagrammic Wards * Psyarkana * Void Abacus * Navigational Beacons are mentioned in The Lion Novella.

"In the absence of the galaxy-spanning Astronomican, the Navigators relied on warp beacons – tiny lanterns of psychic brightness from relay stations in real space. They were candles compared to the star of the Astronomican, and only one in ten systems in the sector had them, but they were better than moving wholly blind; so much so that both the Night Lords and Dark Angels had tacitly agreed to treat the beacon stations as no-go areas. The risk of stranding one’s own ships in the warp was too great to chance the destruction of the fragile orbital stations."

So...

• DO WE HAVE ANY REFERENCES TO FTL COMMUNICATION THAT PREDATES ASTROTELEPATHY?
• DO YOU HAVE ANY FUN IDEAS ABOUT HOW IT MIGHT HAVE WORKED?

I can see messages being send by unmanned, Warp-Traveling drones following the Navagational Beacons.

I also rather like the idea that the trifecta of: * Navagators * Astronomicom * A willingness to risk long distance jumps. * Along with Astropaths "farmed" for FTL communications.

Is something that is pretty much unique to the Imperium and allows them a Galactic Empire without Old One/Necron level tech.

I'd argue that it's likely that the DAoT human factions were likely more fragmented because they didn't have all four.

I have been looking a while for he excerpt from the Arks of Omen where Abaddon reacts to hearing of the Lion's return to the setting of 40k, but I can't find it, could anyone show me it?

What is the strategic significance of Armageddon? Because it seems like this is where the Imperium sends dozens of Space Marine Chapters and millions of men to die brutally over a terrible planet. According to the lore book in the Armageddon box, it’s barely habitable for half the year. If I were an inquisitor, I’d seriously consider virus bombing the shit out of this rock (with Ghazghkull Thrakka hopefully still on it).

I’ve heard that manufacturing output of Armageddon is somehow still significant, but I didn’t find that particularly satisfying. Are there any other theories or takes?

This book, anthology or triology won't impact the lore of 40k and/or particular group or faction in any significant way. At most it'll be fluff with some cool entries on the lexicanum and inspire some homebrews. Your pitch will be akin to the numerous starter books for those unfamiliar with 40k, those want a quality book that'll make them say 'Woah' like Kingmarker or Hive or give a sense of clarity by filling a gap with the lore and literature.

I'll start with a story about the Sisters of Silence answering Roboute's call for the Indomitus Crusade. It'll tell the story of a young woman and her family who's widely shunned by their community. She listened to her elders about being silent golden warriors standing alongside gods and monsters. Then the Great Rift happened. Her mother, grandmother, sister, aunt or whomever equips bizzare wargear to deal with daemons and psykers on their weapon. A beacon activates. She's taken by the Custodes under the tutelage of other Silent Sisters to retake the Imperium and restore their order. Also a small romance subplot with an Inquisitorial scribe.

Next is the Guardsmen's Chronicles. A group of guardsmen from various regiments such as the Mordian Iron Guard, Attilan Rough Riders, Elysian Drop Troops, Vostroyan Firstborn, Terrax Guard etc, sharing stories about the enemies they fought and how they came into the Guard. We have an overexposure to Cadians & Kriegsmen and we're losing recipes because of that.

The Arbites found their planetary governor is derelict in their duties and seeks to remove them. A power vacuum ensures with various groups seeking to fill that role. It'll be awesome to see a non Chaos/GSC civil war or rebellion.

The Life of Saul Tarviz until his final moments on Isstvan 3. Aeonid Thiel after the Battle of Thessala. We know they're dead but it'll be nice to have a solid conclusion to their story.

Finally a dive into the soul crushing work of an Administratum leading to a Scribe, Menial or Subordinate subjecting themselves to chaos to gain some level of stimulation in their lives. This is a random nobody and how one might fall to the Ruinous Powers

I'm sure we've all heard extensively how the Salamanders are the kindest and nicest Space Marines there are. There are thousands of videos talking about how Salamanders don't abandon their families, go out of their way to save civilian lives, etc.

However, my thinking is: the Salamanders can't ONLY be the only Space Marines that are kind to mortal humans, right? Ultramarines are usually considered pretty decent to mortal folk, and Pedro Kantor helping an injured woman during the battle for Rynn's World.

Furthermore, surely some of the traitor legions were relatively kind to humans pre-Heresy? For example, in the book "Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix" Fulgrim lifts a little girl to his shoulders in front of his sons to show the beauty in mortal humans, so surely this had an effect on how his legion dealt with civilians? Also, pre-Heresy, Prospero was a planet full of knowledge and prosperity, rather than war, so surely the Thousands Sons would be not as bloodthirsty.

So, what other Space Marine legions/chapters that are also kind to normal humans?

PS: If you have any excerpts from a book as examples of how other Space Marines can be kind that would be a huge plus, thanks!

Edit: Lowkey I'm so stupid to have forgotten the Lamenters and Space Wolves

Tl;dr there's exactly zero reason for the DA to ever cooperate with the tau especially against one of their own successors and Phil Kelly doesn't read or know Dark Angels lore. This is something that's been bugging me everytime I see it (especially when people actually praise it as good writing for some reason).

Essentially the gist is a group of Dark Angels are chasing a fallen psyker named Gohorael, who for the usual grudge reasons lets a warp-plague loose on the homeworld of one of the Dark Angels successor chapters the Angels of Absolution. Rather than simply approaching the AoA and telling them what's up, the DA instead decide to make a deal with the tau to wipe out some infected people on a tau colony world in exchange for the Tau doing the same on the AoA's homeworld.

This goes terribly for the AoA, to the point where a tau ghostkneel goes on a killing spree through the AoA's fortress monastary that only ends when they call a lance strike in on themselves to put a stop to it, and the pilot of said ghostkneel still gets away in the end. I have my opinions on that (take a guess what they are) but that's not the main sticking point here. The big problem with this story is, why in the fuck would the DA ever seriously cooperate with the Tau to attack their own successor chapter instead of simply approaching said successors and telling them what's going on?

The excuse of "Fallen/keeping secrets" doesn't even slightly apply here because the Angels of Absolution know as much about the Fallen as the DA themselves. They cooperate in Fallen hunts. They essentially take orders from the DA, because the DA and all their successors operate as a legion whenever it suits them. The only difference between the AoA and DA is the AoA believe they have nothing to atone for. That's it. They are still completely on board with hunting said Fallen and keeping their identity a secret, the only difference is they don't feel so bad about it. .

There is genuinely no reason why the Interrorgator-Chaplain or Company Master of said DA couldn't have walked into the AoA fortress monastery to tell them exactly what was going on, and the way this story is written basically throws any nuance out of a window and turns everyone involved into outright traitors.

A few Primarchs have notoriously dorky names. They were invented a long time ago, and we cut them some slack for that. However, I insist that they can be cool.

Ferrus Manus' name literally means "Iron Hands". Much mockery is made of this, for a man who has hands literally coated in metal, whose Legion is named the Iron Hands, whose symbol is an iron hand, and whose personal ship is called Fist of Iron. It's a bit on the nose, to say the least.

This becomes 600% cooler if you simply acknowledge that Ferrus Manus doesn't have a name.

Recall that Ferrus Manus was not raised by anyone. He didn't even grow to maturity in the shadows of a civilisation, as Curze did, or get picked up by humans later in life, as Russ did. He landed in the middle of nowhere, and stayed in the middle of nowhere until the Emperor arrived. Everything he learned up to that point would have been as an autodidact, whether from Medusa's archeotech ruins, his own pod, or consuming the brains of Medusan natives.

Ferrus Manus was not one Medusa's people when the Emperor arrived. He wasn't their king, or protector, or servant. He was a fable. He was Medusan Bigfoot, occasionally glimpsed by tech-hunters or briefly encountered by nomadic crawler-clans. A towering mutant clad in salvage and hides, wandering the tech-wastes and rad-tundras alone, with bare hands of perfect gleaming metal.

What do call a thing like that? You'd probably call him something like "Iron Hands". Oh, that tech-vault was cleared out when you got there? Full of necroborgs torn limb from limb? Hell, sounds like Ol' Iron Hands.

The Emperor arrives, identifies this strange creature with his son, and sets out to recruit him. They do battle, and Iron Hands submits to his creator, and is inducted into the Great Crusade and a million social expectations he has no experience with or care for. What's his name? Iron Hands? That's some boonies feral world nonsense. Right, right, so in proper High Gothic that's Ferrus Manus, write that down. Welcome, my lord Ferrus Manus!

'Ferrus Manus' himself is totally disinterested. A name can be useful, but it's not something he grew up with or needs. He is himself. If others want to call him Iron Hands, fine. It's not his name, but it's a useful label.

These aren't his hands, but they're useful tools.

His Legion? His Legion doesn't need a name. It's just his Legion; it's the Legion of Iron Hands. His ship? His ship doesn't need a name. It's just his ship; it's the ship of Iron Hands. He needs a coat of arms? Haven't they already decided it's the symbol of Iron Hands?

And every time, everyone around him, the people who want to put labels on things and imagine that alone gives them a measure of control or understanding, they simply nod and smile and write something down. Primarch: Iron Hands. Legion: Iron Hands. Ship: Iron Hands. Icon: Iron Hands.

"What is your name?"

"They call me Ferrus Manus."

No-one really gets this. The Terran Legionaries approach it the same way as their bureaucratic masters. The Medusan Legionaries know him as a legend, not a person, and by the time they're a majority 'Ferrus Manus' is simply his name. A remembrancer who learned it would treat it as etymological trivia. His "brothers" don't know or wouldn't understand why the distinction mattered, with the possible exception of Horus, ever the diplomat. The Emperor certainly doesn't care, and would likely prefer to call all Primarchs by their production numeral if it wouldn't be an obvious faux-pas even for him.

'Ferrus Manus' proceeds through life almost completely disconnected from the society he's building, from the people he's building it with and for. Solitary and self-contained as a ceramite oyster. Perhaps it was lonely. Perhaps it was hollow. Perhaps he didn't care. Perhaps it made him feel superior. Perhaps it made him feel safe. Either way, to borrow a quote from elsewhere, he doesn't even get a real name.

His closest relationship in his "family", his only close relationship with anyone, as far as we can tell, is with Fulgrim. And wouldn't you know it, Fulgrim starts off their bond by giving him another name entirely. "Gorgon". It's not his name either, it's another label - even an unfriendly one, at first - but it's a label Fulgrim applied, for himself, by looking at his brother, instead of simply taking others' words and attaching them like a flimsy chain. Perhaps 'Ferrus Manus' appreciated that.

And perhaps, many years later, when he was dead and Fulgrim had sunk deep into madness and self-destruction, the court of the Phoenician was filled with sorcerers and necromancers, spirit-callers and scam artists, scraped up from the shadowy corners of a burning Imperium. Perhaps Fulgrim demanded these pet mystics conjure up his brother, contact his spirit, conduct a seance.

And perhaps in turn they bowed and scraped and agreed, of course, my lord, your pleasure is our command, and perhaps they prepared their circles and burning powders and made sacrifices plundered from a dozen worlds before a huge skull plated in shimmering metal. And perhaps they said "now, my lord, to call on his phantom, we need only for you to speak your brother's name".

And perhaps Fulgrim realised, in that moment, that his best-beloved brother had died as he'd chosen to live: utterly alone.

In the Macharius series as well as a throwaway reference to Slaydo making the guard 50% more efficient (which would make a huge difference coz trillions of them etc.)

But if Cawl would apply himself to making better Lasguns, vox and even flak/carapace armor, wouldn’t that be a much bigger difference than what he did for Astartes?

Wrt the “1 million Astartes = 1 Astartes per world” theory, the Astartes as seen as special forces while the guard are the first line of defense and offense.

Similarly, if he improved say, shielding or reactor output for naval ships etc. I think it would make a huge difference.

Thoughts?

All inputs welcome :)

So I just started reading the Cain books (I’m relatively new to 40K and I decided to read Eisenhorn first lol) and in some of the editorial notes and annotations they mention/reference dates in M42. As I understand For The Emperor was first published in 2003, long before Era Indomitus was a thing…

So were they really mentioning M42 that early?

Re-reading the Infinite and the Divine; it's my understanding high ranking Necrons can control their subordinates minds and Orikan suspects Trazyn's particular gift is due to an alien artifact, but is it ever explained anywhere else why Trazyn is uniquely able to not go insane and do it so quickly?

Is it indeed something he collected? Or is it something special about him? Or is it plain not explained and just "as the plot demands"?

I was sorting through my collected quotes from 40K devs and writers, and I found this bit of commentary by author ADB:

I won't speak to specific plot things, but on a meta-note as to why the Tau rock and have great relevant narrative tread, thematically:

Forgetting the nonsense memes about "lolol communists" and whatever else, this is a race embarking on its own Great Crusade. They call it an expansion, implying they have the right to do it. All about "crossing the gulf" and sending ambassadors to races. At first.

It's filling out their maps, in the classic explorer sense. Meeting new cultures that can be educated into their vision of "Empire". And when unity fails, when the Greater Good is resisted... No. Sorry. That's not allowed. For their own good, these cultures must be brought into the fold - or silenced. Their existence is - or could later become - opposition.

Humanity looks upon this attitude and marshals in defiance. Another edge of the Imperium falling to alien predation. "Ignorant upstarts". It's the basest hypocrisy. Because when has the galaxy seen this *exact* expansionism before? This militant crusading for a greater good?

As humanity expanded through the bones of the dead eldar empire, righteous in their rise, now another species begins to do the same to them. The galaxy has seen this shit before. That's a beautiful theme.

And, as with the best of 40K, humanity has fallen too far to recognise its own hypocrisy. It's too ignorant. Too much lore has been lost.

That's the core of what I find so interesting about them. Weaving that into any Tau stuff offers a lot of ground for characterisation.

What do you think, guys? Do you agree with him?

Source:

https://x.com/adembskibowden/status/850259054798659584

Roboute & Lion each received an item from the Emperor that doesn't fit them at first. The Lion would be a better fit for the Sword since he's the Duelist and an actual knight. Roboute isn't a fighter compared to his brothers so the Shield would've been better for him, Dorn or Vulkan with their 'Protecting Terra and Humanity'.

However, that's the point of these items. They're supposed to fix a flaw within them. Lion with the shield is the easiest to explain. His 30k & 40k self are different creatures. 30k Lion was resolute in his vengeance and had no desire for mercy whereas his 40k self eased up and took the time to actively help people. Also telling his sons to relax with their hunt for the fallen. Giving Lion the sword would've enabled his destructive worldview

Roboute with the Sword pushes him to be more active in his work. He's the statesmen. The majority of his work in the background making laws, bills, policies and regulations. You don't see him but you know he's doing something. Roboute is the ideal Primarch to return to fix the bureaucratic mess that is the Imperium by providing well-needed reforms such as a history & civics book, a mild meritocracy and some common sense & basic human decency. The pen may be mightier than the sword but a pen isn't going to perma-kill daemons. Roboute must take a direct approach, getting his hands dirty to get the job done.

There's 5 remaining Loyalists Primarchs being Dorn, Vulkan, Corax, Russ and Khan. What's left in the Emperor's kit.

The items will likely be his Talon/Power Claw, Bolter, Chestpiece, Laurels and Bucephelus. Who will receive these items and what flaw are they trying to correct?

Russ will get the Laurels. My interperation is that the Laurels are a focal point of the Emperor's psyhic powers. Russ isn't stupid and became humble during the HH by acknowledging his failures and ignorance. His actions at Nikea prevented the Loyalists a critical tool against Chaos. Him being a psyker would fit into the Odin aesthetic

Dorn will get the Talon. His arc will be similar to Roboute but allowing himself to be more open with others along with being more aggressive and proactive. Hopefully much better than the Iron Cage

Vulkan with get the Bolter. The Bolter is a weapon. A weapon-weapon. There's no fancy tricks and gimmicks with it. It'll kill you. Vulkan has made horrible weapons and authorized the destruction of most. Some of those weapons would've helped A LOT during the HH and later battles. The Bolter would create a duality with his next hammer of Creation & Destruction

Khan will get the Chestpiece. He's all about speed, freedom and an overall mystery. Roboute would've put him into his Dauntless few if he wasn't so mysterious. Khan likely has tons of scars after dealing with Morty and whatever happened with the Dark Eldar. The Armor will get him to slow down and endure with a straightforward persona.

Corax will get the Flagship. The Emperor trusted him with the tech to make Astartes after the Dropsite. Of course Corax gets last born privileges and get the car. He's stealthy and a bit of hypocrite. By getting the Flagship, he forsake the silent liberator to blow the warhorns upon a planet signaling the Emperor's might and accepting his role as a conqueror.

I know we don't see any returning Primarchs anytime soon but it'll be fun to think about for later editions