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* [[After the End]]: Though there have been about five "ends" for humanity alone, each more awful than the last.
* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]: The first true human-created artificial intelligences, the Iron Men, wiped out humanity's first great interstellar civilization and plunged the human race into a galaxy-wide dark age. The Adeptus Mechanicus outlawed sentient AIs as a result, and for the most part the Imperium's modern-day "machine spirits" are pretty well-behaved.
** Tau drones are also entirely well-behaved. Mind you, their AI is approximately the same as a squirrel (OK, [[Call a Rabbit Aa Smeerp|pterasquirrel]]), though it does increase as more of them are networked together.
* [[Air Jousting]]: Eldar Shining Spears: space elf knights on flying bikes with laser lances.
* [[AKA-47]]: Some vehicles were quite clearly based on certain real-life vehicles:
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* [[The Alliance]]: The Tau Empire, who are the only faction with significant allies outside their own species. This being 40K, they don't always get along. And then there's the people who suspect brainwashing, and the evidence from [[Dawn of War]] of forced sterilization and concentration camps for populations that rebel...
* [[All There in the Manual]]: Numerous rulebooks, novels, magazines, supplemental sourcebooks and spinoff games with their own sets.
* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Chaos]] and the Dark Eldar. Conversely the Imperium is Always Lawful [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Extremist]], Craftworld Eldar are Always Lawful [[The Chessmaster|Manipulative]], the Orks are Always Chaotic [[Psychopathic Manchild|Rambunctious]], the Necrons are Always Lawful [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal]] the Tyranids are Always Neutral [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Hungry]], and the Tau are Always Lawful [[Utopia Justifies the Means|Utopian]]. All [[Alternate Character Interpretation|subject to interpretation]], of course.
** And get this: in spite of all the atrocities they commit, the Imperials still consider ''[[Knight Templar|themselves]]'' to be [[Lawful Good]]. Or at least [[Lawful Neutral]], for those who aren't Space Marines or Grey Knights.
*** To some extent, this feeds into the [[Crapsack World]] of the universe. There are plenty of instances demonstrating how horrific it is if some of those atrocities are not committed. To some extent, the Imperials generally get more opportunity to go between Good, Evil and Neutral, but rarely will not be Lawful.
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* [[Anti-Air]]: Post ''Titan Legions'', aircraft and specialized AA vehicles with a rule called "Snap Fire" started to show up in ''Epic''. Not really applicable to 40K outside Forgeworld products, since most things in the sky are "skimmers" as opposed to true aircraft, and pretty much anyone can shoot at them; however, special mention does go to the Imperial Guard Hydra Flak Tank, which is better at shooting down aircraft and skimmers due to the [[More Dakka|sheer amount of lead it can put into the air]].
** Aw, c'mon now, it has a special machine spirit to auto-track aircraft too. And let's not forget the amount of lead it can put against ''ground'' targets when there aren't any fliers to kill...
* [[Anti-Magic]]: Pariahs, Blanks and Untouchables [[Power Nullifier|nullifying]] psyker abilities. Which means [[Superpower Lottery|you're immune to all the psychic and sorcerous nastiness out there]], but [[Blessed Withwith Suck|everyone hates you because you have no soul, and the Necrons will do unpleasant things to you if they find you]]. Oh, and some Pariahs will actually harm psykers just by standing close by.
* [[Apathy Killed the Cat]]: Imperial domestic policy. "Only the awkward question; only the foolish ask twice."
* [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape]]: Played straight by the Craftworld Eldar and the Tau. ''Thoroughly'' averted by everyone else, who gladly maim, torture, kill, and even ''eat'' members of their own race, and claim no moral superiority from avoiding such acts.
** The Dark Eldar sometimes forces the Craftworld to violate this. And the Tau Commander Farsight sometimes has no problem killing his own race (especially his ethereals).
** Actually averted with the Tau, under Commander Farsight, although he mostly targets Ethereals.
* [[Apocalypse How]]: Class 0-5 happen due to rounding errors on tax forms or when an inquisitor [[ItsIt's the Only Way|has to make sure]]. This sounds pretty bad until you consider that: The Tau are going to annex your world and ethnically cleanse you if you resist; the Eldar are going to exterminate you if you touch one of their ancestral worlds, not to mention they're making a new god for the final battle with Chaos; the Orks are going to make WAAAAGH! and burn the galaxy; the Necrons are going to awaken and enslave everyone; the Tyranids are going to arrive and consume the galaxy; and Chaos cannot be denied and is going to turn the galaxy into a Freudian nightmare. And that's only if the Emperor stays alive long enough, because once he kicks it humanity will be stranded without [[FTL]] travel and die slowly anyways. Enjoy your life.
* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: A few have cropped up from doomed Imperial research expeditions.
* [[Apologetic Attacker]]: The Tau claim to always be this, at any rate. Then again, this could be [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|doublespeak...]]
* [[Arbitrary Gun Power]]: Averted in most cases - a failed To Wound roll with firearms means the target ''was'' hit, but was wounded non-fatally and not incapacitated. A failed armor roll either means the firearm pierced the target's armor or hit them in a place where the armour couldn't protect. Since most infantry only have one wound, this means they can be killed by a good hit easily. On the other hand, there are infantry which have more than one wound. They may be very [[Badass]] non-humans which served as a more reasonable justification, but may be simply very [[Badass]] humans that play the trope straight.
** Taken to ridiculous extremes with Commissar Yarrick, who is apparently a normal human pushing 70 and can not only survive three consecutive blasts from a fusion gun, but still get back up and give the opponent a [[Power Fist]] to the face.
* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: ...or just corrupt and ''really'' stupid. Various background pieces have members of the Imperial upper classes joining Chaos cults out of boredom, smuggling xeno artifacts, ''[[Too Dumb to Live|using Dark Eldar as mercenaries]]'' to sort out their rivals, trying to [[Deal Withwith the Devil|cut a deal]] with ''the [[Physical God]] of death''...
* [[Arm Cannon]]: Chaos Obliterators are this ''[[Up to Eleven|all over]]'': their bodies are partially made out of weapons.
** The Grey Knights strap rocket-propelled grenade launchers to their wrists as ''standard'' armaments.
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* [[Army of the Dead]]: The Legion of the Damned, a Space Marines chapter that got lost in the Warp and became spectral beings. They occasionally emerge from the warp to turn the tide of a battle in favor of the Imperium before disappearing again.
** To lesser extent, the soul-powered Wraithlords and Wraithguard of the Eldar.
* [[Artifact of Doom]]: By the truckload in every size and shape imaginable, from simple daemon weapons to entire planets serving as the titular cans in [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]].
* [[Artifact Title]]: In the past, ''Warhammer 40,000'' was essentially ''[[Warhammer]]'' [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE!]], with many setting and system elements borrowed directly from the other game; however, as time went on, both the setting and the system moved away from their ''Warhammer'' roots, and the two games are now distinctly different beasts. The game developers have actively defied the "40,000" part of the title becoming an artifact, as they steadfastly refuse to advance the [[Metaplot]] past the end of the 41st millennium (though some Black Library authors, particularly [[Sandy Mitchell]], have included elements from the early 42nd).
* [[Artificial Limbs]]: May be the above [[Arm Cannon]]. Even in the higher echelons of pretty much every Imperial organisation, there is some discrepancy over just what it is possible to replace damaged parts with. Sometimes actual flesh and blood vat grown limbs are referred to, but most of the time it's large, mechanical, piston-driven coolness.
** Iron Legion Chaos Marines love this trope, as do the Loyalist Iron Hands.
* [[Art Major Biology]]: First the genetically-engineered supermen are designed to look cool, then they later explain how it (doesn't) work.
* [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence]]: The Emperor already has.
* [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]: Ork "society". It is said that a powerful enough Ork warlord uniting all of the galaxy's Orks could [[Curb Stomp Battle|curbstomp]] every other faction. This is also how Space Marines get promoted, and how champions of Chaos gain renown.
* [[A-Team Firing]]: All Orks ever, who consider [[More Dakka]] far more important than such nonsense as "aiming". The one exception would be Warboss Nazdreg, who has learned that dakka + aimin' = bigga 'splosions.
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*** And his rival, Commissar Yarrick.
*** The C'tan take the cake from everyone, having probably existed since the start of the universe (they only made contact with beings after Necrodermis allowed them to take physical form). In terms of badassery, the reason why the Nightbringer looks like the goddamn [[Grim Reaper]] is because he imprinted the fear of death on all sentient beings (minus Orks, who apparently were late to the party), and he's only the second strongest C'tan.
** [[Badass in Aa Nice Suit]]: Some Commissars, priests of the Ecclesiarchy, and Inquisitors make a point of dressing conservatively or humbly. The rest gleefully embrace the same [[Bling of War]] worn by everyone else.
* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Fear the Commissar more than you fear the enemy!
* [[Badass Mustache]]: Basically anybody from the White Scars Chapter.
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** Imperial Guard Commissars, who are employed to keep morale up by setting a heroic example - and by shooting cowards and incompetents if necessary. Ok, maybe many Commissars have the justification of shooting fleeing men because there are a lot that can follow suit, and their infantry depend on [[More Dakka]] via their numbers to kill stuff, but...
*** Woe betide any commissar that tries this with Catachans. [[Unfriendly Fire|Commissars assigned to Catachan regiments have a disproportionately high fatality rate]], noted on the tabletop by the "Oops Sorry Sir" special rule.
*** Largely averted by the novel protagonists [[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts|Ibram Gaunt]] and [[Ciaphas Cain]], '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!'''. Gaunt is working with a severely limited number of troops and cannot afford to be wasteful, while Cain knows that eventually his schemes to get out of trouble will fail, at which point he would prefer that his troops like him enough to watch his back rather than aim for it. It helps that both men are basically understanding and honorable individuals ([[Heroic Self-Deprecation|much as Cain would deny it]]), attached to disciplined regiments that don't have the kind of morale problems that typically require Commissars to be [[Bad Boss|Bad Bosses]].
** Commander Chenkov of Valhalla routinely abuses the Imperial Guard's [[We Have Reserves|reserves]] to overwhelm the enemy with endless waves of poorly-trained, disposable conscripts. He's also been known to use his troops to clear minefields for tanks and bog enemy units down so that the artillery can shell them, and once executed a million of his own men to build a dam from their bodies. His regiment, the Tundra Wolves, has been refounded more than a dozen times in recent decades due to casualties, and it's rumored that he's killed more of his own men than he has of the enemy. And of course, since this is the Imperium, he's routinely awarded medals and commendations for quickly defeating the enemy with these brutal tactics.
** Ork Nobz also aren't above "krakkin' a few uv da ladz' 'eadz" (often fatally) in order to restore order, and Runtherdz maintain the "morale" of their Gretchin charges by having their squighounds ''devour'' a couple of them whenever they try to flee.
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* [[Bald of Evil]]: In ''[[Dawn of War]]'' at least, the Heretics, Cultist Squads, and Chaos Lords are shown with shaven heads.
* [[Barbarian Tribe]]: Many Space Marine chapters, such as the Space Wolves and White Scars, recruit solely from the Barbarians of their homeworld.
* [[Base Onon Wheels]]: The Leviathan, a mobile command centre on treads the size of ''a small city''... which acts as an APC ''for tanks''.
** Orks have their own version - A ''krawla'' will vary in size from a tank APC to a city on wheels which may in turn contain smaller krawlaz.
** Before the setting [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|got rid of them]], the Squats specialised in these, and it was said they built the Leviathans. Back in the days when Epic was still called ''Space Marine'', there was also the Cyclops [a colossal anti-Titan assault gun], Land Train, Colossus [a Leviathan variant], Hellbore [a ridiculously huge drilling machine], the Ordinatus machines, and the Capitol Imperialis [the modern Leviathan is a ret-combination of this tank-carrying monstrosity and the old Leviathan which was just a mobile command post].
** The Imperator Titan is also essentially a base on ''legs'' which carries an entire ''castle'' around on its back, particularly when the ridiculously complex ''Titan Legions'' rules are used; the same applies to the Mega-Gargant. Variant Imperators were supposed to follow the release of the ''Titan Legions'' but never did, one of which would have had an entire aircraft carrier deck on its back.
* [[Battle Trophy]]: Pretty much everyone.
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** [http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m500485a_99110101430_SpaceWolvesCanisMain_873x627.jpg Canis Wolfborn rides a wolf so big it has its own zipcode.]
** It should be noted that the Space Wolves (Space Vikings) make extensive use of: Fenrisian Wolves (around twice the size of most wolves today), Blackmaned Wolves (even bigger) and Thunderwolf Cavalry, who are entire units of supermen on wolves the size of Canis's... and then of course, they have viking werewolves in powered armour...
** They also call themselves [[Space Wolves]], their Primarch Leman Russ was literally [[Raised Byby Wolves]] (after climbing out of the volcano he landed in), and their home planet is [[Norse Mythology|Fenris]]...
* [[Big Bad Ensemble]]: Once again, taken [[Up to Eleven]] with entire ''armies'' qualifying for this 'bull. If we get into the full details, we might have to give ''40k'' its own page for it, so for now, we'll just settle with naming the biggest antagonists in order of threat level, from mildest to most extreme: [[Asskicking Equals Authority|Ork]] [[Large and In Charge|Warbosses]], Chaos Lords, Necron Lords, [[One-Winged Angel|Daemon Primarchs]], the Tyranid [[Hive Mind]] and the [[Eldritch Abomination|Chaos gods]].
* [[Big Book of War]]: The ''Tactica Imperium'' and the ''Codex Astartes''. ''The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer'' would be this - it's actually pretty useful in some places, containing useful and informative tips such as how to make a frag grenade into a booby trap, how to field-strip and clean a lasgun, and how when you are on guard duty you should '''NEVER LEAVE YOUR POST EVER''' - were it not otherwise full of outright lies,er, uplifting Imperial propaganda.
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* [[Black Market Produce]]: The nobles eat the best food, imported from agral worlds. The masses... not so much (yes, [[Soylent Green]] included)
* [[The Blacksmith]]: Vulkan, who passed the trait on to the Salamanders. To a lesser and weirder extent, Ferrus Manus and the Iron Hands.
* [[Blade Onon a Stick]]: A number of Grey Knights' Nemesis Force Weapons come in the form of glaives; it's the default form for them in ''[[Dawn of War]]''. Some Eldar Exarchs also use glaives, and some Eldar psykers carry Singing Spears. Dark Eldar Incubi carry a long, wicked-looking glaive called a Punisher as their default weapon.
** The Necron warscythe is one of the most feared close-combat weapons in existence - a glaive that can cut through ''energy fields'' without slowing down.
** The honor blades used by Tau Ethereals. The blades are swung fast enough to become invisible, and are used in bloodless duels to settle disputes. Aun'shi carries one on the battle field, and is skilled enough with it to ''kill enough Orks that they are to afraid to go near him.''
** The Berserker Glaive from the 3rd edition of Chaos Space Marines. Averted on occasion, though, as Daemon Weapons do not always resemble their given description.
* [[Blessed Withwith Suck]]: Psykers; these are also a debatable case of [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]], at least until a daemon eats their soul.
* [[Blind Seer]]: The soul-binding process required to turn psykers into Astropaths - interstellar telepaths used for all long-distance communication - completely burns out their eyes, though their psychic abilities generally compensate for it. Many non-Astropath psykers are also depicted as physically blind.
* [[Bling of War]]:There's a reason it's called "war gear". Running on [[Rule of Cool]], if you see something Blingtastic, both the equipment and the user are [[Badass]] enough to have earned this title.
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** In an interesting twist, the guardsman's flak armor is the best starting armor of any of the careers in ''[[Dark Heresy]]''.
* [[Burn the Witch]]: Standard government policy.
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Played for laughs with grots. Played straight with Imperial Guard as they were Games Workshop's favorite punching bag. Even extended to the players as they got two consequtive under-powered codexes with at least half the units being useless and had to (and still do) deal with [[Scrappy Mechanic|kill points]] making the Annihilate mission [[Unwinnable]]. GW eventually decided to [[Throw the Dog Aa Bone|give IG players a break]] by releasing a codex that was actually good and giving them the lion's share of stuff in Apocalypse.
** Case in point: meet the business end of a Baneblade. Who's the [[Butt Monkey]] now?
** Also played straight with Ka'Bandha. Keep in mind that he's a 20-foot-tall [[Eldritch Abomination|Greater Daemon of the Blood God]]. Yet every time he goes up against the Blood Angels, he just ends up embarrassing himself.
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== C ==
* [[Call a Rabbit Aa Smeerp]]: And occasionally [[Call a Smeerp Aa Rabbit]].
* [[Canis Latinicus]]: Conventional rendering of High Gothic; e.g., Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Mechanicus. "Imperium," however, [[wikipedia:Imperium|is an actual Roman word]], according to [[That Other Wiki]].
* [[Can't Argue Withwith Elves]]: ...but you can shoot them in the face. Foul Xenos.
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Soylent viridians are [[Soylent Green]], "Sly" Marbo is John [[Rambo]], the Black Templars possess [[Monty Python and The Holy Grail|a holy hand grenade of Antioch]], and the Necrons are effectively an entire army of [[Terminator|Terminators]], among others.
* [[Car Fu]]: Tank Shock.
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* [[Card Games]]: There's been a few actual card games released based on the 40K universe. One could also easily count ''Second Edition'' and earlier editions of ''Epic'', which came packaged with a whole dead forest worth of cards, counters, templates and assorted other bits and pieces, sometimes including entire ''decks'' for mechanics like the Winds of the Warp or things like the Imperator and Mega-Gargant templates and counters which were entire mini-games in their own right.
* [[Cargo Cult]]: The Imperium of Man combines this with [[Ancient Astronauts]] in an interesting fashion, as the overwhelming majority of the technology they use predates the incident that put [[Messianic Archetype|the Emperor]] on life-support, and maintenance has become more of a religious ceremony than anything else.
** A little more complicated, [[Depending Onon the Writer]]. The Mechanicus are often depicted as competent engineers despite/because of their mystical approach, who understand the workings of many things and for whom reverse-engineering the [[Black Box|rest]] and discovering the physics responsible is a holy quest for enlightenment.
** Ironically, all of the equipment used by the Imperium is kept at optimal efficiency due to all this, since a clean and well-maintained machine is a happy machine, and a happy machine means a happy machine-god. It also means that there's never an issue with poor quality materials being used (although field repairs do happen, which is looked down upon by the Adeptus Mechanicus).
* [[Casual Interstellar Travel]]: Played straight by the Eldar and Necrons with the Webway, [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|brutally]], [[Cosmic Horror|horribly]] averted by everyone else.
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* [[Church Militant]]: The Imperium's Cult of [[The Emperor]] asks of you: KILL THE MUTANT! BURN THE HERETIC! PURGE THE UNCLEAN!
** ... [[Church Militant/Quotes|and it has more.]] So many that we couldn't chose which ones were best and had to give ''Warhammer40000'' its own section in the page.
* [[City in Aa Bottle]]: Some hive cities get like this.
* [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]: Ork technology and Ad Mech rituals appear like this to the casual in-universe observer. Ork Mekboy knowledge is instinctive, so they build without conscious thought. An ambiguous amount of Ork psychic power may also be involved, which might make it a ''literal'' application of the trope. Tech-priests on the other hand ''are'' taught genuine mechanical skills, just in an odd and [[Machine Worship|highly-ritualised way]], so maintenence operations often include unnecessary praying and application of Holy Lubricant.
** [[Wild Mass Guessing|Maybe the "praying" is machine code commands to voice-activated equipment?]]
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** The Slaaneshi weapon aptly named "Lash of Torment".
* [[Comes Great Insanity]]: A rich tradition among leadership figures within the Imperium, from Horus to High Lord Vandire. Generally, reforms follow in their wake to stop similar incidents happening. For example, after the Horus Heresy, the Space Marine Legions were divided into smaller Chapters. In the case of Vandire, no-one was ever allowed to become both the head of the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Administratum]] and the [[Church Militant|Ecclesiarchy]] again. And the Ecclesiarchy couldn't keep men-at-arms. [[Amazon Brigade|Which they got around]].
* [[Commissar|Commissars]]: Fielded by the Imperial Guard in all their CommieNazi [[Bling of War]] (including the [[Putting Onon the Reich|black and silver]] [[Commissar Cap]]). Their job is to shoot the undisciplined, the heretics and the cowardly to keep morale high. In ''[[Dawn of War]]'', this is not only a valid tactic but an essential one, as using [[You Have Failed Me|Execute]] temporarily increases the firing rate of all nearby infantry. In fifth edition they will summary execute the squad's leader if the squad fail's a leadership test, when assigned to command squads this can cause much more harm than good.
* [[Commissar Cap]]: [[Trope Namer]], and not entirely restricted to Commissars - a few regular regular officers and the odd Inquisitor wear similar hats, and some Orks love looting them.
** In fact, Nork Deddog, a (comparatively) super intelligent Ogryn bodyguard was rewarded a [[Commissar Cap]].
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* [[Crazy Enough to Work]]: Everything the Orks do, ever.
* [[Creepy Child]]: The Apex Twins, a minor but memorable background note. Think the girls from ''[[The Shining]]'', except ''[[Person of Mass Destruction|omnipotent and deadly]]''.
** [[Creepy Twins]]: "[[Mystery Science TheatreTheater 3000|These two girls, they make quite a pair. They both come from your worst nightmare. They will haunt your soul forever, and now when you see pink you're gonna think, 'we're doomed'. They are agents of Satan...]]"
* [[Creepy Monotone]]: Necron Lords, and techpriests of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Servitors are independently creepy and monotonous.
* [[Creepy Souvenir]]--Many warriors keep skulls of their slain enemies, some in shrines, some carried around with them.
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* [[Culture Police]]: The Inquisition and Adeptus Arbites are pretty laid-back about culture, so long as planets revere the Emperor and pay tribute to the Imperium. However, if they see anything that could possibly be interpreted as a sign of Chaos, the purge will be swift and without mercy - and not all Inquisitors agree on what constitutes a sign of Chaos.
** The Tau are all about this trope, even before their grimdark revision. All Tau (and their allies) must work, fight, and live for the [[Utopia Justifies the Means|Greater Good.]] Deviation lands you in a concentration camp.
*** Though for their part, the Tau do not see it this way. According to the [[Novelization]] of ''[[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]'', they see imprisonment-as-punishment as an (ironically) alien concept. Those who deviate from the right and just path are poor misguided people worthy of sympathy and help. If said sympathy and help involves some [[Culture Clash|"tough love" in a re-education facility]] then so be it.
* [[Custom Uniform]]: Many examples for minor characters and squad leaders, such as Imperial Guard commissars and techpriests, and Eldar warlocks.
* [[Cutscene Power to Thethe Max]]: The differences in power between beings are drastically diminished in the actual tabletop game compared to the fluff - don't expect those greater daemons to kill whole worlds or the space marines to be a [[One-Man Army]]... or those lasguns to punch through concrete.
** Lampshaded by a White Dwarf article that supplied rules for "Movie Marines", depictions of Space Marines based on the how they might appear in an in-universe war film. Basically turns every Marine into a Hive Tyrant and every Bolter into an Assault Cannon, and they're about 100 points each.
** In the ''[[Space Wolf]]'' novels, Ragnar and co. fight off what we can estimate to be 40 odd genestealers [[Too Dumb to Live|in close combat]]. In-game, that many Genestealers spell a one way ticket to rending claw ''buttrape'' for anything short of a super heavy tank.
** Among many 40K fans who are used to discussions of a big fight involving everyone in the universe, their response to the discussions [[Depending Onon the Writer|is that the inconsistent portrayal of the factions, aside from usually favouring the protagonists, makes it impossible to really guess.]]
* [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]]: Servitors, and most Adeptus Mechanicus magi. Possibly literal in the case of certain Necrons.
** Also Chaos Marines interred inside Dreadnaughts tend to go...a little mad.
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== D ==
* [[Dance Battler]]: Eldar Harlequins.
* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Lelith Hesperax and [[Shout-Out|Kruellagh]] [[101 Dalmatians (Disney)|the Vile]].
* [[Darker and Edgier]] with respect to the regular [[Warhammer]], which was fairly grim to begin with.
** It uses this [[Egregious|egregiously]], one might say.
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** Horribly subverted, of course, when about half of them decide that they're not so friendly after all.
* [[Defector From Decadence]]: The Craftworld Eldar and Exodites, before the Fall of the Eldar. Turned out they were right...
** Also, [[Soul Drinkers (Literature)|in their novels]], the Soul Drinkers Space Marine chapter. Except the Decadence is the [[Designated Hero|Imperium]]. After a [[Gambit Pileup]] gone badly wrong, they decided that the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Obstructive Bureaucrats]], [[Corrupt Church]], and ignorant, terrified populace couldn't possibly be what the Emperor wanted.
* [[Defictionalization]]: [http://thq.com/uk/features/show/6258 Look! A Rhino. A RHINO. Our game developers are building METAL BOXES, the cowards. The FOOLS!]
** [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|The Liber Chaotica]] has been published as a [[Sourcebook]] [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|on the]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Chaos Gods]]
** The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer has also been published.
* [[Deflector Shields]]: Starting with personal infantry shields or shield drones and reaching up to Void Shields that defend Titans and starships.
* [[Dem Bones]]: Servo-skulls and Necrons.
* [[Demonic Possession]]: Even the ''tanks'' can get possessed.
* [[Depending Onon the Writer]]: In a fictional universe this big, it can't really be helped, but there are tonnes and tonnes of factors that vary wildly depending on who's writing them.
** This is a frequent response to internet discussions of the "who will win" within 40K. The winner will be the protagonists of the story, regardless of the connotations of their faction.
** Official GW policy is that beyond the broad strokes each author gets to choose what counts as canon. "All of it is real, and none of it is real."
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** This is also true of Sisters Repentia in a Sisters of Battle army. Their zeal and will to repent is represented in their special rules, which attempt to ensure that they will always rush towards the enemy during their movement phase, and will always charge the enemy ''if they ever fail a Morale check in combat''. Adding in a Priest only <s>exacerbates the situation</s> improves their chances of doing so.
** On the Chaos side, the Khorne berserkers voluntarily undergo a partial lobotomisation that make them singlemindedly bloodthirsty and removes their inclination towards self-preservation. This means that they rush into melee brandishing chainsaw axes and are completely immune to morale effects.
** Another notable example would be Commissar Sebastian Yarrick. Despite losing his left eye and his right arm, as well as being an old, old man by the time of his main exploits, Yarrick managed to inspire terror and respect in the Orks by his uncanny ability to fight in the thick of it no matter the odds (and the pain). When his right arm got chopped off he simply beheaded the offending Ork Warboss and kept on fighting, only "allowing himself the luxury of passing out" after the long battle was won. This has granted him the dubious honour of being WH40K fandom's answer to Chuck Norris, [[Twenty Four24|Jack Bauer]] and meme-makers know who else.
** Played with by the Tau, who are physically unable to disobey their Ethereal caste leaders. If an Ethereal tells another Tau to do something, they automatically become the Determinator. If all nearby Ethereals are killed in battle, they tend to react... [[Heroic BSOD|poorly]].
** Not only are the Orks determinators individually, they're determinators as a race. They reproduce by giving off spores that grow into orkoids (orks, gretchin, snotlings or squigs) in the ground. Orks come out of their pods fully formed and ready to [[Ax Crazy|fight anything they can find]]; since the more an Ork fights, the more spores he gives off, once you have Orks on a planet you will '''always''' have Orks on that planet.
** The Blood Angels Space Marines suffer from [[Cursed Withwith Awesome|the Flaw]], which turns them from noble warriors into [[Ax Crazy|blood-crazed, vampiric madmen]]. To date, only Mephiston, their Chief Librarian, has succumbed to the Black Rage, the final stage of the Flaw, and been able to return to sanity. He does it by sheer willpower.
* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: Units can rout, such as from failing a 'morale check' from casualties.
* [[Detect Evil]]: Psykers can sense the presence of Chaos. Chaos itself is supposed to have a smell somewhere between rotten flesh and sugar.
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* [[Dream Land]]: The Warp.
* [[Drop the Hammer]]: Partly ''named'' after this trope. Thunder hammers, a gigantic hammer with a tank-splitting energy release, are a favourite of Space Marine Terminators and the Ordo Malleus...which translates to "Order of the Hammer."
* [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|Dropped a Swarm of Alien Locusts on Them]]: The [[Old Shame|Squats]].
* [[Drop Pod]]: The most common way for Space Marines to enter combat.
* [[Drop Ship]]: Many, the best known being Space Marine Thunderhawk Gunships.
* [[Dual-Wielding]]: Done with swords, axes, chainsaw swords, chainsaw axes, giant hammers and enormous bladed claws that shoot lightning; a combination of this and [[Guns Akimbo]], [[Sword and Gun|with a pistol in one hand and a blade in the other]], is used by virtually all close combat troops in the setting.
** Taken to the next step by Eldar Striking Scorpions, who have a [[Chainsaw Good|chainsword]] in one hand, pistol in the other, and mind-activated gun mounted on their helmet. Half a step to the left are the classic Dark Eldar Incubi, who trade the chainsword and pistol for a double-handed glaive, but keep the head-gun. (Modern Incubi do away with all forms of dual wielding whatsoever in favor of [[BFS|a single, massive two-handed sword]].)
* [[Duel to Thethe Death]]: Common in the Imperium and Dark Eldar; ''extremely'' common, if informal, among the Orks.
* [[Due to Thethe Dead]]: Orks and Chaos forces regularly mutilate the bodies of dead foes, possibly to stick some heads on something pointy. Not that respect for the dead is exactly common...
** The Orks actually consider being turned into a trophy a [[Due to Thethe Dead]] for foes worthy of it. Very [[Values Dissonance]].
** As Orks reproduce via spores and constantly release them, and release a bunch when they die, Imperium forces regularly use flamers to burn their corpses, [[Kill It Withwith Fire|if not directly employ them in battle against them]].
* [[Dug Too Deep]]: How one usually finds out that they're on a Necron Tomb World.
* [[Dumb Is Good]]: The Imperium '''LIVES''' by this.
* [[During the War]]: Though sometimes it feels more like [[After the End]].
* [[Dying Asas Yourself]]
* [[Dying Moment of Awesome]]: Really, the best you can hope for.
* [[Dying Race]]: The Craftworld Eldar.
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* [[Earth Is the Centre of The Universe]]: Played literally, and justified. Earth is the site of the psychic beacon known as the Astronomican, necessary for humanity's faster-than-light travel.
** Not to mention that at some point during the Dark Age of Technology, humanity moved the '''entire''' terran solar system to the centre of the galaxy
* [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]: Just about every large Imperial vessel is equipped for Exterminatus, the cleansing of an entire planet, which is often employed at the mere ''suspicion'' of heresy. Then there are the Eldar [[Forgotten Superweapon|Akliamor]], the [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Planet Killer]], the [[Artifact of Doom|Blackstone Fortresses]]...
* [[Earth That Used to Be Better|Earth That Used To Be Much, Much Better]]
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: ''Crawling'' with them.
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* [[Emperor Scientist]]: The Emperor, appropriately enough.
* [[The Empire]]: ''The "good" guys.''
* [[Empire Withwith a Dark Secret]]: The Tau Empire has a few skeletons in its closet. The Imperium of Mankind has entire ''mausoleums''. To go further, since they inadvertently created ''an entire Chaos god'', one of the most terrifying forces in the Galaxy (and in this case, the [[Squick|Squickiest]] of the four), you could say the Eldar have an entire ''necropolis''. The other sides also have dark histories; they're just more honest about them.
** Incidentally the same with the Necrons. Considering they gave birth to nearly a whole legion of god-like beings that are nothing but pure narcissistic malice, and lost their free will and souls to said beings, it could be said they have entire Tomb Worlds of skeletons (Pun intended). Probably only kept a secret due to the fact that they can't talk.
*** Games Workshop just retconned quite a bit of Necron history with the new Codex; now, instead of being puppets of the C'tan, the Necrons ended up [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|blowing said beings into thousands of itty-bitty shards]]... AFTER using their help to defeat another, even more powerful foe, and attain immortality. With the C'tans no longer being the driving force, Necrons now only want their universe-spanning empire back. Or in one case, only want artefacts for a museum.
** Almost each of the Space Marine chapters have at least enough secrets to fill a tomb or two. Special mention goes to the Dark Angels, who are more than willing to kill members of the Inquisition to hide their secret (which is similar to killing a judge at your own trial) and are so secretive about it within their own Chapter that it would make [[Church of Happyology|Happyology]] seem like an open book.
* [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]: This age of mankind has been dubbed ''The Time Of Ending'', since it is believed that humanity will either be extinguished, or it will evolve into a brand new species.
* [[Enemy Civil War]]: Ongoing between various factions of Chaos, the Imperium, Tyranids, and Dark Eldar since the beginning, and still no end in sight. Literally a way of life for the Orks.
** Possibly subverted by the Tyranids, as they waste no ammo (they eat it back up), and the winning swarm acquires any useful genes the losing swarm picked up, thereby strenghtening the race as a whole.
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* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: Everyone calls him...the Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind.
* [[Everything Is Better With Monkeys]]: The Jokaero.
* [[Everything's Worse Withwith Bears]]: The Vostroyan Rough Riders are literal Bear Cavalry.
* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: Non-video game example: the setting in general, life on a Death World in particular.
* [[The Evil Army]]: The forces of Chaos, the Dark Eldar, and the armies of the Imperium on a bad day (or under a bad leader).
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* [[Evolutionary Levels]]: Referenced as humanity evolving into a new, psychic species. Which makes ''very'' [[You Fail Biology Forever|little sense]], since 1: Daemons eat psykers, and 2: the Imperium kills psykers. Evolutionarily speaking, the "psyker species" should die out before it is even born. Possibly justified by the [[A Wizard Did It|will of the Emperor]].
** It probably means that humanity is evolving into a new breed of psyker that starts kicking Daemon ass for point 1. Point 2 is for the shitty prototypes, so to speak, and they don't kill the loyal chaos resistant ones.
* [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]: Most prominent example being the Planet Killer.
* [[Exotic Weapon Supremacy]]
* [[Expansion Pack World]]: Suddenly, the Tau Empire!
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*** "[[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|In the Valhallan Army, it takes more courage to retreat than to advance.]]"
*** "[[The British Empire|Praetorians! First rank FIRE! Second rank FIRE! Independent fire at will!]]"
** ''[[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts]]'' for ''Sharpe'' in the beginning, though they've moved away from that and become more original. Similarly, [[Ciaphas Cain]] ('''HERO''' etc. etc.) for ''Flashman''.
** Necrons seem to be an army made up entirely of [[Terminator|Terminators]], complete with a special rule entitled [[Catch Phrase|"We'll Be Back".]]
** The Arbitrators [[Judge Dredd|are the Law!]]
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** The [[Alien|Xenomor]]- er- Tyranids.
*** Who were then Expy'd into [[Starcraft|the Zerg]] by Blizzard Entertainment.
** Commander Farsight was a prominent leader of an Empire's military forces. He eventually led some of his brethren in a rebellion against the powerful ruling cast, whose whims most Tau serve their entire lives. [[Stargate SG -1|He is also known as O'Shovah.]]
* [[Extreme Omnivore]]: Tyranids eat everything up to and including ''entire planets'', right down to the bedrock, ''including the atmosphere''.)
** Orks count, too, due to their incredibly robust physiology. Point in case, Ork Fighta-Bommas run their fuel lines through their cockpits, in case the pilot gets thirsty.
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** To the point that the rogue chaos god Zuvassin is, for the most part, the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of Murphy's Law; he doesn't so much as give his worshippers orders as much as just let them loose, because if he actually were to give orders, they would find some way of messing them up.
* [[Final Solution]]: Exterminatus is a disturbingly popular problem-solving tool.
* [[Five Rounds Rapid]]: In background material, trying to take down warp-spawned horrors with conventional weapons usually achieves nothing, and [[Depleted Phlebotinum Shells|alternative]] [[Kill It Withwith Fire|methods]] must be [[Who You Gonna Call?|employed]]. Generally averted in the tabletop game; even greater daemons and star-gods ''can'' be hurt, but can take a hell of a lot of punishment.
** On the tabletop, [[Five Rounds Rapid]] is ineffective. Five ''Hundred'' Rounds Rapid, on the other hand...
** Star-gods and a few nasty T8+ creatures are utterly immune to most small-arms fire in-game, due to the rule that if a weapon's strength is 4 or more less than the toughness of the target, it can't hurt them (and the standard firearm is usually Strength 4, if not less). They also have a helluva lotta wounds to withstand anything that can hurt them.
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* [[Forever War]]: That should be obvious by now.
{{quote| ''In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war!''}}
* [[Forged Byby the Gods]]: The Chaos Gods sometimes grant their mortal or daemonic servants powerful weapons, though usually their forging is done by daemons, not the gods themselves.
** Vaul, the forge god of the forged ninety-eight swords and a variety of other Eldar gadgets.
* [[Four Is Death]]: The four chief [[God Is Evil|Chaos Gods]], [[The Corruption]] distilled. Massively powerful warp entities, each a reflection of one survivalist emotion as present in the collective subconscious of all sentient beings. Each has their own set of daemonic creatures and corrupted followers. Similarly, the surviving C'tan number four: [[The Chessmaster|The Deceiver]], [[The Grim Reaper|The Nightbringer]], [[And I Must Scream|The Outsider]] and the [[Deus Est Machina|Void Dragon]].)
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** Orks have a word to describe this: "Skumgrod" roughly translates to "Favourite Enemy." Or "Best Friend." This is the Ork psyche in a nutshell.
* [[Full-Circle Revolution]]: All of the Imperium's reforms and resolved civil wars since the Horus Heresy.
* [[Full-Frontal Assault]]: [[Stripperiffic|Sisters Repentia]], [[Nightmare Fuel|Arco-flagellants]], and [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|daemonhosts]].
* [[Funetik Aksent]]: Orks.
* [[Fun Personified]]: Orks. They're the only non-Chaos-corrupted race that really enjoys war, and see the galaxy as a big playground full of wacky hijinks. Plus, their Codexes are hilarious. Pretty much the only race [[The Loonie]] can play and not get a [[Dope Slap]].
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* [[Giant Spider]]: Giant ''robot'' spiders, no less, in the form of Necron Tomb Spyders, and a [[Humongous Mecha]]-scale variant called the Tomb Stalker, which is more of a Giant Centipede.
** The Tyranid Hierophant biotitan has elements of this as well, combined, of course, with reptilian features.
* [[Girl Withwith Psycho Weapon]]: Sisters of Battle "Sisters Repentia", entire squads of young women wearing scraps of parchment and carrying ''[[BFS|eight-foot-long]] [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw swords]]'', driven on by an armoured woman with a [[Whip It Good|barbed cat-o-nine-tails]] [[Dual-Wielding|in each hand]], who are apparently assigned to these squads to "repent" for perceived acts of immorality. [[Fetish Fuel]] much?
* [[Glass Cannon]]: Eldar put emphasis on the "cannon", Dark Eldar on the "glass".
** The [[Everything's Better Withwith Monkeys|Jokaero]] combine this with [[Lethal Joke Character]]. They wear technomagic rings on their fingers that fire beams that can do ''three different types of ranged damage'', but they die just about as easily as you'd expect unarmored space monkeys to.
*** Taken to extremes by the joke army build known as the "Barrel of Monkeys"<ref>Take Inquisitor Coteaz, who can take Jokaero as troops. Spend ''all'' the rest of your points on Jokaero</ref>. You will murder your way across the tabletop, provided you keep up the pace and not give the other guy an opening because the second you do he'll turn you into Swiss cheese.
* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]: ''Everyone'' seems to have these.
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* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]: Genestealer hybrids, though in an unusual take the original Genestealer itself is never a parent - it [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong|infects another creature with its genetic material]], and when that creature reproduces normally with another of its kind, [[Fetus Terrible|the offspring will be part Genestealer]]. Necron Pariahs are horrifying hybrids of Untouchable humans and Necron technology.
* [[Hand Cannon]]: Imperial bolt pistols, plasma pistols, and inferno/infernus (melta) pistols, particularly the versions wielded by Space Marines. Ork sluggas also qualify. Other races tend to be a bit more... restrained when it comes to their sidearms.
** Laspistols, [[Fan Nickname|or flashlights]] ''technically'' count by a great abuse of technicality that will surely land this in the YMMV tab, because, while the weakest weapon in the setting, a laspistol can easily liquefy/explode any organic matter the beam hits. Why weren't they mentioned before? Well, firstly they're ''the weakest weapon in the setting'' and everyone calls them flashlights. And it has as big a case of [[Overshadowed Byby Awesome]] as the rest of the [[Imperial Guard]], because... well, look at the above pistols. And the [[BFG]] versions which weren't mentioned because they could deserve their own page. And the artillery pieces. And so on.
** Notably, 40k is one of the only settings where the energy weapons can be considered Hand Cannons.
** Notable as well is that these energy weapons don't go pew, but krak! as the beam vaporizes the air in its path, also causing the weapon to actually have kick as well.
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* [[He Knows Too Much]]: The very existence of the Grey Knights chapter is kept secret from the rest of the Imperium. If circumstances dictate that they must fight alongside other Imperial forces, then the secret is maintained after the fighting is over with [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|executions]] or when the soldiers in question are valuable enough to be allowed to live (such as in the case of other Space Marines) with [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]].
* [[Hell Gate]]: The Eye of Terror, the Maelstrom, Van Groethe's Rapidity...
* [[Hell Hound]]: Khornate Flesh Hounds. Also, to a lesser extent, Dark Eldar Warp Beasts. The Imperial Guard also have a tank ''called'' the Hellhound, which is armed with a [[Kill It Withwith Fire|flamethrower]].
* [[The Heretic]]: The Ecclesiarchy, the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the Space Marines all have different ideas of what constitutes heresy, but all three agree that worshiping Chaos fits the bill.
* [[Heroic Safe Mode]]: A core tenet of Eldar Aspect Warrior training.
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** To quote von Remus from ''[[Damnatus]]'': In this universe, one is either sacrificed, or sacrifices themself.
* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: Older Inquisitors tend to have radical (no, not [[Totally Radical|that kind of radical]]) ideas about protecting the Imperium, such as using alien technology to battle aliens or daemon-possessed weapons and artifacts to battle Chaos. This tends to cause friction with younger, more puritanical Inquisitors. Some postulate that this is the inevitable fate of every Inquisitor, and given their job description, it's not very surprising.
** How do you get rid of crime on a planet? Why, become [[Death Note (Manga)|a terrifying serial killer who kills all the other criminals, down to jaywalkers]]. At least, that's how the [[Batman|Night Haunter]], Primarch of the Night Lords, chose to go about it. Is it really surprising he fell to Chaos?
** Really, you can apply this to the whole of the Imperium. It helps that in some cases, they are fighting ''actual monsters''.
* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]:
** Three of the main characters in the ''[[Ultramarines (Film)|Ultramarines]]'' movie are voiced by the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Superman (Filmfilm)|Superman]] II'', the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Equilibrium]]'', and the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[V for Vendetta]]''. Appropriate, really.
** Wow, [[Mass Effect 2|Zaeed]] is narrating the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHu4Na0lsd0 trailer] for ''Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millenium Online''!
* [[Hidden Elf Village]]: Eldar craftworlds, Exodite worlds, and Maiden Worlds. The Eldar aren't a very social bunch.
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** The rulebook actually takes a very congenial stance towards them. Some things basically HAVE to be decided by the players (especially when dealing with terrain).
* [[Hover Tank]]: The Tau's Hammerhead, and the Eldar's Falcon and its offshoots.
* [[Humanity Is Superior]]: Which is why everything else should be [[Kill It Withwith Fire|killed with fire]].
* [[Humanoid Aliens]]: Pretty much every main race except for the Tyranids. Lampshaded in ''Xenology''.
* [[Human Outside, Alien Inside]]: The Orks are actually ''fungi!''
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** Don't forget, Cadia also helps guard against [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|The Eye of Terror]]. And [[Rule of Cool|they're awesome, so that's that.]]
* [[Human Sacrifice]]: The Golden Throne is fed, ''daily'', the souls of one thousand psykers who weren't selected for use by the Inquisition. Chaos rituals frequently make use of this also.
* [[Humans Are Bastards]]: Although, to be fair, ''so is everyone else.'' In addition, it has been established that the Imperium ''[[Inherent in Thethe System|has]]'' [[Inherent in Thethe System|to be terrible in order to survive.]] So Humans Are Bastards out of necessity rather than choice. Think of it as [[I Did What I Had to Do]] on a larger scale.
* [[Humans Are Morons]]: The Imperium of Man has hardly advanced their technology in the 10,000 years since anyone has last seen The Emperor Of Mankind. Human culture throughout their vast empire is extremely paranoid and superstitious, and the government is such a vast, inept bureaucracy that a simple ''filing error'' can lead to entire populations of people being immediately forgotten about and/or destroyed.
* [[Humans Are White]]: In the future there is only war... and white people.
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** The Emperor himself is said to have been born in central Anatolia and is usually depicted as quite tan.
** I blame the lack of sunlight on [http://www.servantsoftheimperium.com/comic.php?comicid=81 hive worlds].
* [[Humans Byby Any Other Name]]: We're [[Incredibly Lame Pun|mon'keigh]] to the Eldar, gue'la to the Tau, <s>humies</s> 'umies to the Orks, playthings to the Dark Eldar, and lunch to the Tyranids.
* [[Human Subspecies]]: The Space Marines fall under this trope, being so modified that they're practically a different species. Also, the various Abhumans.
* [[Humongous Mecha]]: Titans, and to a lesser extent, Space Marine Dreadnoughts; Ork Dreads, Killa Kans, and Gargants; Eldar Wraithlords and War Walkers; Chaos Defilers; Tau Battlesuits; Witch Hunter Penitent Engines...
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/879882"