The Age of Dusk

"It is the 61st Millennium, and the Age of Dusk is upon us. Let us hope dawn will break on a new universe. For hope is all we have, screaming against the storm."

The Age of Dusk (updates here) is the sequel to Lord Lucan's monumental Warhammer 40,000 fanfic The Shape of the Nightmare to Come, but covers the 51-61st millenia instead of the 42nd-51st millenia.

As a sequel, please consult this article for tropes for the predecessor and as a Warhammer 40000 fanfic please check its trope page for tropes relating to its parent universe.

'Spoilers ahead for The Shape of the Nightmare to Come''. Please read at your own risk.'''

"Mephiston gestured to an archway that loomed high above his own throne like a terrible banner. As he did, lumen globes ignited around the grotesque spectacle. Bound with bonds of serrated iron and runic wards that burned eternally, Zelphagor saw a figure. A winged figure. A winged figure that seemed to phase in and out of reality. Only its immortal expression of sheer agony and horror remained a constant.
 * All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Nex and the Draziin-maton, the mere mention of which makes the walls bleed, overrun the entire Eye of Terror with the aid of and take down most of the Daemon Primarchs in weeks.
 * And I Must Scream: Lucius the Eternal's fate, who is dismembered and left to lie in a pit--
 * A World Half Full: The empire based on Armageddon, which actually provides a prosperous, functioning society in the post-40k universe.
 * Overall, the setting as a whole seems to be moving towards this. Things are getting worse, but they're also getting better. For one, the number of characters that could be called genuinely good (and not 40k's brand of good, OUR brand of good) can no longer be counted on one hand.
 * Awesome McCoolname: The Ryzan-Catachan Plasma Commandoes.
 * Ax Crazy: The Oblivionites, the psychopathic, nihilistic remnaints of the Black Templars.
 * Badass Abnormal: The afromentioned Ryzan-Catachan Plasma Commandoes are particularly powerful and resilient Catachans (or equally strong humans from the Ryzan-Catachan sphere) who were cybernetically augmented by Ryzan tech priests.
 * Badass Normal: The Confederation of Justice, who manage to old the Dorn Revenants of all people hostage before being convinced to join Vulkan's empire.
 * Big Bad: Abaddon, the Star Father, the Deceiver, the Void Dragon, the Nex and the Draziin-maton.... the list goes on and on.
 * Big Badass Wolf: The Fenryka, who manage to wreak havoc upon the Chaos Imperium. The Alpha Wulfen counts as well, but.
 * Big Damn Heroes: The Krork seem to be shaping up to be this for the galaxy as a whole, halting the Nightbringer's necrons.
 * During the fight between, bursts in to save the day.
 * When the Tau ships carrying the highest officials of the Empire head for the Warp, the Necrons of the Silent King pursue them. Just before they catch up,
 * Big Good: Vulkan's back!
 * And so are
 * Came Back Strong: Khaine, raised by the Dark Eldar
 * The Cavalry: The Iron Hands and Fire Beasts are this to . Earlier,
 * Cool Old Lady: Imogen, the head of Vulkan's semi-Inquisition.
 * Cool Starship: The Idealist, the first AI-run ship in the Tau Empire. More of them are built though.
 * Corrupt Church: The Ophelians, who at this point are nihilistic death worshippers.
 * Crap Saccharine World: Vulkan implemented a functioning, free civilization based on Armaged--
 * Creepy Twins: The Apex Twins. Although they appear to be good guys. Tempermental, horrifying good guys.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: The corrupt Ophelians start a war with Vulkan's Imperium. Despite the fact that Vulkan is fighting the invading Emperor's Children at the same time, once the Ophelians' fancy copied Tau ships are destroyed they're slaughtered.
 * Deader Than Dead: Any system that gets close enough to the Ophiliim Kiasoz is erased from reality.
 * Demonic Possession: Fulgrim of course, but also the Draziin-maton which appear to be Pre-Fall Eldar war constructs possessed by.... something.
 * Dirty Business: The Fire Beasts take care of this for Vulkan, performing a Mercy Kill on the remnants of the Black Templars and waging a terror campaign against the Ophelians.
 * Disney Death: The Orks as a whole. Spores from Orks simply lay dominant in planetary ecosystems, which finally grew and became Orks in the 51st Millenium.
 * Dying as Yourself: . He gets better though. Or worse depending.
 * Dying Moment of Awesome: 's last appearance.
 * Empire With A Dark Secret: The Realm of Fathers
 * Enemy Mine: Vulkan's Imperium is in a huge one with the, who, while , are far too industrially vital and heavily armed to destroy without crippling the Imperium. The new Space Marines, particularly the Fire Beasts, may not like them, but they will use weapons built by them and fight beside the Cultists as long as the Pure Strains are kept out of sight.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Corsair Lord Zelphagor is horrified that the now-corrupted Mephiston would go so far as to desecrate and bind the Sanguinor, the avatar of the Blood Angels' memories of their fallen primarch.

It was the Sanguinor, humbled and broken by profane sorcery and mutagenic viruses.

Even the vile Zelphagor was taken aback at this sight."

"He was supposedly the Father of all Astartes, tasked by his own father, Guilliman, to create a race of warrior giants to watch over humanity. According to his propaganda, he cut the flesh from his left hand, and used powerful magicks to summon the Astartes into being, born of his own flesh. First he created his council of Elders, then they in turn brought forth their own Astartes, who then flourished and drove back the darkness that had fallen over creation."
 * Evil Versus Evil: Kaldor Draigo, favored Angyl Prince of the Star Father, versus the corrupt rulers of Grand Sicarium.
 * Final Battle: Appears to be heading up to this; from the hints dropped so far, it will probably be EPIC.
 * Five-Man Band: The more prominent of Vulkan's Mk.2 Astartes Commanderies.
 * The Hero: The Salamanders, anti-insurgency specialists named after and partly made up of the original Salamanders Chapter.
 * The Lancer: The Iron Hands/Dorn Revenants, specializing in boarding actions or siegecraft.
 * The Big Guy: The Fire Beasts, one half The Unfettered, one half Undying Loyalty.
 * The Smart Guy: The stealthy Sons of Corax.
 * Sixth Ranger: The Scions of Polyphemus, with their superheavy tanks and Knight mini-mecha.
 * Forever War: Goes with the territory, but the Tau Empire and the Nightbringer's Necrons have been in one for MILLENIA, with the Tau creating more and more advanced weaponry and AI to fight against the ancient and obscenely powerful Necrons.
 * The Grey Knights and Custodes have been fighting against the Void Dragon's Necrons and the endless tides of daemons on Titan for over sixteen thousand years.
 * Of course, this took place in a warp storm as bad if not worse than the eye of terror, and we all know how such regions of space scoff at our universe's notion of linear time.
 * Future Imperfect: Probably done intentionally with Grand Sicarium's myth about the creation of the Space Marines:

"We can see that this is at least partially a corruption of the concept of geneseed transference, and the process of Astartes creation, but to the ignorant inhabitants of Grand Sicarium, they believed this tale wholeheartedly."
 * Lampshaded in the narrator's own notes:


 * Galactic Conqueror: Abbadon the Despoiler owns the entire Segmentum Tempestus, which is a pretty big step-up from his 40K incarnation as General Failure-- right up until.
 * Gone Horribly Right: The resurrection of Khaine. The Dark Eldar seem to have ignored how close his ties to Khorne really were...
 * Gone Mad From the Revelation: Occurs to Menantus after he He's later seen on Valhalla (somehow), "calmly carving his tale into the irradiated bedrock with a broken femur."
 * Oh Crap: A possible cause of his breakdown, since the last thing he sees before going more insane is.
 * Heroes Unlimited: After liberating Armageddon, Vulkan rebuilds the Adeptus Astartes using his own blood and some MK I Astartes who survived the second age of strife
 * He's Back: The God-Emperor in the form of the Star Father, the nightmarish god of order.
 * If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him: In a weird way, Abaddon is this to the Imperium. He conquered most of Segmentum Obscuras and Solar, but he's also one of the biggest forces for order, or at least structured chaos. This comes back to bite him.
 * It Got Worse: Repeatedly. First the Ophilim Kiasoz starts tearing its way through space, unmaking reality as it passes. Then Ahriman releases the Void Dragon, who besieges half the galaxy at once. Then, the Nex and the Draziin-maton arises from the deep warp and overruns the Eye of Terror, conquering the Chaos Primarchs and overthrowing the Chaos Imperiums of Abaddon and Huron Blackheart with ease.
 * I Will Find You: Vulkan promises this to, even as he bashes in his brain with his helmet.
 * Last Stand:
 * Lighter and Softer: Not the setting as a whole, but Vulkan's Imperium is a much better place to live in than the original Imperium-- never mind the rest of the hell the galaxy has become.
 * Legion of Lost Souls: A new one consisting of non-essential soldiers (read: thugs and mercenaries who wanted to prove themselves and people from penal colonies and criminal worlds) and equipment (obsolete hulls of old Imperial vessels) was created to recover one woman from a necron Tombworld. It is lead by Colonel Schaeffer.
 * Mercy Kill: Vulkan pulls one off against.
 * Mexican Standoff: end up pulling one off during the fight on Altansar.
 * Mini-Mecha: The Confederation of Justice's Individual Engagement Units.
 * The Mole:
 * Mordor: The Solar System is this trope on an interplanetary scale, warped by Chaos and periodically struck by the Dragon Tides which sweep away everything on the planets it hits.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ahriman releases the Void Dragon from Terra in his quest to get at the Emperor's abandoned labratories. Although given what he does with that technology he's not quite heroic...
 * One-Man Army: Vulkan and the other Primarchs, but especially the Phoenix Lords who are capable of taking out entire planets single handedly.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: The Wulfen, a mix of the Space Wolves 13th Grand Company, cloned Raven Guard from the Horus Heresy and the remnants of Fabius Bile's experiments who've banded together under the leadership of Russ and Corax to rip Chaos a new one.
 * Proud Warrior Race: The.
 * Putting the Band Back Together: Leman Russ and Corax are after this.
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Imogen's Brotherhood of the Willing, a pseudo-Inquisition that is much more effective than its Imperial predecessor.
 * Ramming Always Works: Against a Witch Hunter class cruiser or its progenitor the Tau Idealist, it doesn't. Unless of course, you blow off its engines first or ram one from inside a sun.
 * Rasputinian Death: Chenkov Jr. died in his sleep. Not too special, until you realize took several dozen disgruntled soldiers, fourteen rounds of a heavy stubber, an overdose of tranq, a vial of neurotoxin, a hatchet and three bayonets to make sure he died in his sleep. The legend of Chenkov’s death subsequently did get amplified in the telling, but his remains suggest at least the stubber shots were accurate. Also.
 * Recursive Fanfiction: Several friends of the original author have written pieces set in the 60K universe. Most of these, like the Fire Beasts, Sons of Thunder and Sons of Corax are mentioned in the background as some of Vulkan's comamnderies.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: The Void Dragon. And now he's been loosed from his prison in the Solar System.
 * Shout-Out: To Warhammer Fantasy: a Demiurg brotherhood mentioned is called the Collective of Hashut.
 * There's a Cathedral of St. Ciaphas (yes, that Ciaphas) on Valhalla.
 * A minor detail in the account of the Necron invasion contains a reference to a possible "Rise of the Tau".
 * Tank Goodness: The Sons of Thunder Commandery specialize in this. Honorable mention to the Thunder Lizard Tank Legion, all of whose super heavy tanks are named after dinosaurs.
 * The Heartless: The Star-Father and his Angyls embody this. The Draziin-maton, servants of the Nex may be even worse.
 * This Is Sparta: “I am master and king of all Space marines. Though you have cast aside your humanity, you are still Astartes, and you! Will! Kneel!"
 * You Shall Not Pass: Vulkan He'stan pulls this off in the shield control room on Armageddon against a . Doubles as a.
 * An Imperator Titan blocks the way against a reborn Khaine, allowing the Vulkanite army on the planet to pull off the planet before it is destroyed. Karandras and Arhra end up fighting inside the Titan as the Bloody-Handed God rises.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Several forms: Nurgle releases a plague that keeps the souls of the dead inside their bodies, in order to prevent human souls from fueling the Star-Father. Ahriman is currently building up his force of mindless Rubric Marines by casting the Rubric on other Astartes, instantly turning them into slaves to his will.