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Warhammer 40,000/Tropes/A to H: Difference between revisions
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*** How about Fulgrim the Phoenician, Primarch of the Emperor's Children?
**** Followers of Slaanesh in general. Nuff said.
* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: Opinions vary between whether 40k is black and grey, black and ''black'', or black and '''''[[Darker and Edgier|ALL-CONSUMING, LIGHT DEVOURING VOID]]'''''. Either way, a Commissar will *BLAM* a soldier for not having excessive bravery when overrun by superior fiorces as an example to the others, Mechanicus has a knack for "recycling" criminals (such as malcontent workers) into servitors, and Inquisition can wipe out a hive of billion citizens just because they may have seen something, or sometimes a whole planet if they deem it "not salvageable"... but those are downright friendly compared to Dark Eldar, most Heretek [[Mad Scientist]]s, or many "legitimate" local lords and death cults in the Imperium, for that matter.
** [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/
*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt5e2OX9FUk/ For the irony...]
* [[Black Comedy]]: The humor in this seting is either this or very, very dry.
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** 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."
* [[Depleted Phlebotinum Shells]]:
** [[Holy Hand Grenade]]: Holy hammers, holy bullets, holy stakes, holy artillery rounds, holy flamethrowers, holy [[strike:[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|hand grenades]] [[Shout-Out|orbs of Antioch]].... "Sanctified" weapons. The Grey Knights have an array of weapons specifically for battling the daemonic spawn of Chaos. The Black Templars have the actual Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Also, the frag grenades with soil of a shrine world (most commonly Maccabeus) mixed in - blessed and distributed by Ecclesiarchy.
* [[Derelict Graveyard]]: Space Hulks.
* [[Derivative Differentiation]]: It used to just be ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' [[Recycled in Space|with space ships]] before adding its own mythos and creatures.
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** Non-race-specific example is any unit that has the "Rage" special rule, which force them to go after the closest visible enemy when they move, run, or charge, or the "Feel No Pain" special rule, which lets them keep going despite horrific injury.
** One of the more extreme examples is Black Templars, who are the only army that [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|move ''towards'' the enemy when their men die.]] On top of this, they are literally fearless in close combat - a lone Neophyte (a warrior ''novice'') who has just seen the rest of his squad die will stay in the fight against a monster three times his size, which just happens to have huge claws, acidic blood, head-bursting psychic powers and Emperor knows what else.
** This is also true of [[Death Seeker|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, [[24|Jack Bauer]] and meme-makers know who else.
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* [[Exotic Weapon Supremacy]]
* [[Expansion Pack World]]: Suddenly, the Tau Empire!
* [[Explosive Leash]]: Used on Imperial Penal Legion troopers to keep them killing the enemies of the Emperor and not their fellow Imperials or each other. Another option is shock collar.
* [[Expy]]: Lord Solar Macharius, of Alexander the Great.
** "[[Rambo|Sly Marbo]]".
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** Space Marines, due to their various enhancements, are also able to survive by eating things most people wouldn't consider food.
** The Kroot eat anything they can so near future generations will take on certain aspects. They also digest EVERYTHING they eat, to make up for the few things they don't.
* [[Eye Beams]]: Played straight with Eldar Striking Scorpions and Dark Eldar Incubi, who have lasers mounted on their helmets
** Baleful Eye implant is rare archaeotech, but a concealed hands-free laser pistol has its uses even besides scaring the savages. And it still works as a replacement eye. Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, having had his ''eye shot out of his skull'', had it replaced with a bionic laser eye implant. "If the Orks believed he had the Evil Eye, then by the Emperor, an Evil Eye he would have!"
* [[Eyepatch of Power]]: Yarrick's aforementioned bionic laser eye. Prince Yriel of the Eldar also sports one.
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** More than understandable: due to the nature of the Imperial religion and the fact that the God Emporer is the only god that Chaos can't touch, becoming a close-minded, xenophobic bigot is pretty much ''the only way your soul can be saved.''
* [[Fantastic Rank System]]: The Imperial Guard have several additional ranks, such as "Lord General Militant" and "Colonel-Commissar". Non-human factions have entirely invented rank systems; see the trope page for details.
* [[Fantastic Slurs]]:
** In the Imperium, "twist" is often used for mutants, though the mutants have largely reclaimed the term.
* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]
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** The Kroot have a very Aboriginal Tribal feel to them, using relatively primitive weapons and warbeasts rather than the high-tech weaponry of every other race (and it's not like it's hard for them to get the equipment either, they just simply don't want it because it's too flimsy).
* [[Fashionable Asymmetry]]: Tau Fire Warriors wear an over-large, reinforced shoulder pad on their left shoulder to provide additional protection when they open fire on the enemy. Some older patterns of Space Marine power armor have a studded, reinforced shoulder pad on one side for the same reason.
* [[Fast Roping]]: A tactic that was introduced in the ''Cities of Death'' expansion that allows troops to drop directly onto buildings from their skimmers. Later adopted as a standard - if dangerous - technique for exiting a Valkyrie at speed in ''Codex: Imperial Guard''.
** ''[[Only War]]'' rates Clip/Drop Harness as "Common" for Logistics purpose. It wouldn't be something your quartermaster almost certainly have, if it wasn't ''used'' all the time (not only from hovering transport, but also in urban and mountain warfare).
* [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]: ''[[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|through Hell]]''.
** Unless you're the Tau. They just "''skim the surface''" of hell.
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* [[Genetic Memory]]: Space Marines and Tyranid Lictors have the ability to absorb the memories of the dead by eating their flesh, particularly the brain. In addition, each Space Marine Chapter is based on the genetic templates of one of the [[A God Am I|Primarchs]], and occasionally display traits and memories of that Primarch. Blood Angels, for example have a random chance of triggering the genetic memory of their Primarch's bloody death, which can drive them into an [[Unstoppable Rage]]. Ork Mekboyz and Painboyz have their (respectively) technological and medical talents genetically encoded, and Kroot are said in designers' notes to have gained Ork technology through their ability to absorb the DNA of prey.
** In fact, according to one version of their backstory, the Kroot started out as fairly ordinary birds, aside from their ability to absorb DNA and evolved into intelligent, humanoid lifeforms by scavenging dead Orks.
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: A wide variety, although who, why and to what extent vary wildly depending on the setting. Of particular note, perhaps, is [[The Emperor]]
** Much of Inquisition, given that investigation is a big part of the job. In case of Scholariate at Arms it's right in the name.
* [[Genre Busting]]: It doesn't matter if the tropes the series uses are from Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, or whatever, as long as they make the setting [[Darker and Edgier]].
* [[Genre Savvy]]: Ork madboyz have been known to [[Medium Awareness|mutter about "Rolls" and "The meta game"]]...
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* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]: ''Everyone'' seems to have these.
* [[A God I Am Not]]: The Emperor, despite what his worshippers say.
* [[Golem]]: Eldar wraith-constructs. Also, vat-grown Servitors/Cherubim/Gholam.
* [[God-Emperor]]: Read through the page and if you can't guess who it is by the end, we'll give you a cookie. We'll even give you a clue, his name begins God- and ends -peror and despite ascending to literal godhood after his reign ended due to the worship of the masses [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|he is so totally not a]] ''[[Dune]]'' rip-off.
** Ironically, the guy tried to make sure that he wouldn't. It didn't work. Far worse than he would [[Alternative Character Interpretation|publically admit]] to liking.
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** Subverted (finally) with Isha, the Eldar Mother Goddess. She's been Nurgle's prisoner for centuries, and he tests his plagues on her, learning something when she cures herself. When Nurgle isn't looking, Isha whispers the cures for these diseases to mortals.
* [[Godzilla Threshold]]: Despite getting [[Flanderization|Flanderized]] to being a solution for any problem, [[Earthshattering Kaboom|exterminatus]] is actually treated this way within the canon.
* [[Goggles Do Something Unusual]]: Photo Sight (night vision and glare/flash suppression), Preysense (IR-vision systems, good ones pass as normal goggles)...
* [[Go Mad From the Revelation]]: Roll up! Gaze unprotected into the Warp! Lose your mind!
* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: The book ''Farseer'' ([[Fanon Discontinuity|if you count it]]) has an Eldar character admitting that some of the Eldar, shortly before the fall, were actually deliberately trying to engineer the necessary psychic-resonance to create a new god of pleasure that would allow the Eldar to transcend mortality and live in eternal bliss, leaving behind the concerns of the mortal realm. [[It Got Worse|It did not work out quite as they intended]].
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* [[Grimmification]]: First-edition Rogue Trader ''started off'' as a spectacularly grim and horrible place where the good guys were insane thugs and war and horror dominated everything. [[It Got Worse|It got much, much, much,''much'' worse]].
* [[Guilt-Free Extermination War]]: pretty much every single race has a reason to exterminate every other race and has [[plan]]s to do so.
* [[Guns Akimbo]]: Cypher and Sisters of Battle Seraphim (jump pack using hit-and-run troops), mostly. Dire Avenger Exarchs can have this too. In RPG Two-weapon wielder and subsequent Gunslinger talent are present in all branches, of course.
* [[Gun in My Pocket]]: Plenty of examples of models holding their guns in, shall we say, suggestive ways, but kings of this trope are the old Ork Gargant and Imperator Titan models, both of which featured rather unfortunately placed trouser cannons.
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** 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.
** Then there are heavy laspistols, with damage of a full lasgun, only with lesser range and rate of fire (and fed from the same 60-shot power packs). Hotshot laspistols qualify even more, due to being not as much "pistol" as a hotshot lasgun shortened to be handy in close quarters; the result is 4 kg piece cable-fed from 10 kg power backpack (or bigger) - and in performance against armored targets is comparable with bolt pistol.
* [[Hanlon's Razor]]: Almost always inverted - never attribute to stupidity what can be explained by malice or conspiracy.
* [[Happiness in Slavery]]: Brutal aversions abound, but there is one straight example: The Chapter Serfs of the Space Marine Chapters. They fill all positions in a chapter not involving leadership or infantry combat, and are better trained and equipped than any non-Astartes. The Space Marine Chapters, in turn, recognize the skill and dedication of their serfs, and chapter serfs are full members of the chapter cult, and enjoy a better lifestyle than all except the richest citizens of the Imperium.
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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 with Fire|flamethrower]]. Cyber-mastiffs with chainsaw jaws may qualify, though.
* [[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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** Second Edition Lord Commander Solar Macharius had the rather unique ability as your army's leader and [[Informed Ability|a tactical genius]] to ''totally screw up your battleplan'' on the basis of a dice roll; just having him in your army might potentially lead to all your reserve units being committed immediately and skipping the devastating Preliminary Barrage step that was one of the IG army gimmicks (every artillery weapon in your army could fire before the battle actually started). Um, thanks there, [[Marty Tzu|mister tactical genius]].
** While Hollywood Tactics are typically averted both in written fluff and in the game itself (again barring Orks,) it is quite commonly depicted in artwork made for the game. A very common theme is to show two opposing armies of huge size standing in lines and firing at each other from practically point blank range with no cover and no room to move laterally. [[Rule of Cool|It looks very dramatic]], but such battlefield situations almost never occur on the tabletop or in a narritive.
* [[Hologram]]: Holo-projectors are fairly widespread. Large-scale "holo-lanterns" are used as stationary art pieces or as cinema. While "holo-wafers" the size of a name badge (projectors holding a single holo-pict) are not quite commonplace, but cheap and has myriads of obvious uses from 3D map to pocket altar to assassin's [[Calling Card]].
** [[Hologram Projection Imperfection]]: Usually a somewhat flickering cone of blue-ish or green-ish light is involved.
** [[Holographic Terminal]]: Holo-displays. Used in various command and control centers, advanced portable sensors and ''expensive'' home theatre systems. [https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/ffg_blog/20847/original_content like this]. It's also possible to plug a general-purpose holo-projector into a cogitator and use existing input methods, if you don't mind flickering. Crafting hololithic images is also practised as a form of visual art; in RPG it's one of forms covered by Trade (Artist) skill.
* [[Homage]]: Tonnes and tonnes of 'em, some minor, like planets named after Games Developers or deodorants, some much more major. The best example of a major homage would be the Necrons, started as a clear and blatant homage to the ''Terminator'' films: mysterious robotic skeletons, who carried on trying to kill you even if reduced to crawling torsos with no legs, and a special rule called "I'll Be Back". Later changes [[Retcon|departed from this]], focusing more on their image as impossibly ancient servants of even more impossibly ancient monsters. Essentially now a bunch of [[Ancient Conspiracy|Ancient Evil]] [[Determinator]]s with rather too much scalpel imagery, they maintain the robo-skeleton and "I'll Be Back". "I'll be back" has since been redubbed resurrection protocols and their fluff has moved them further than a simple Terminator [[Expy]].
** In what may be a twisted homage to the original Terminator's flesh gradually getting messed up to reveal the robotic endoskeleton (as well as a reference to the Aztec deity Xipe Totec), Necron Flayed Ones invert this: they start as machines that then ''drape themselves in the flayed corpses of their victims''.
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* [[Horny Vikings]]: Space Wolves are Vikings IN SPACE, though they don't wear horned helmets - those are reserved for Chaos Marines (and members of the Wolves' 13th Company, who have been in the Warp for 10,000 years and occasionally had to scavenge gear from dead Chaos Marines).
* [[Horse of a Different Color]]: Mutant horses, cyber-horses, cyber-boars, giant lizards, daemons that look like slugs, daemons that look like ''metal rhinos''...
* [[Hot Blade]]: The [[God-Emperor]] sported one back in his heydays. Naturally, there are imitators among the fanatics.
* [[Hot-Blooded]]: [[Authority Equals Asskicking|Shas'O]] [[Hot-Blooded|Vior'la]] [[Badass|Shovah]] [[Ace Custom|Kais]] [[Overly Long Name|Mont'yr]] aka [[The Strategist|Commander Farsight]] has this ''right in his name''. He is also [[Memetic Mutation|A CHAR]].
* [[House Rules]]: If you and your opponent agree to them.
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** This is hilariously lampshaded by some Hive Worlds claiming Imperial Guard troopers as their prime (and sometimes sole) export. This is also the case with Cadia, which apparently does nothing else other than pumping out battle-ready babies (although their effectiveness is no better than any other world in-game).
** 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, Adeptus Astronomica <ref>who will sacrifice ''themselves'', as a monastic order who trains for years to the job on which they'll burn out in a year at most, knowing exactly what they do and to what end</ref>, or Astra Telepathica - where those deemed tough enough become "normal" sanctioned psykers<ref> who end up used as walking guns or sensors until they spontaneously combust, get possessed by daemon, shot by the minder if it looks like they're about to, or learn even tougher control of their powers - which gives some tiny chance to die of old age or be "promoted" into Inquisitor's retinue</ref> and "talented, but not strong-willed enough" soul-bound to the Emperor and used for communication<ref>usually end up with burned-out eyes and dubious life expectancy due to mental strain and/or being high-priority targets for anything hostile to their employer or the Imperium in general - but given from ''what'' soul-binding protects, may still have a better deal than the rest</ref>. 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 the System|has]]'' [[Inherent in the 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.
** As a corollary, there are resourceful types who manage to survive all of this.
* [[Humans Are White]]: In the future there is only war... and white people.
** Though <s>most</s> [[Retcon|all]] of the Space Marines of the Salamanders chapter are black in official art, and the White Scars are distinctly Asian. [[All There in the Manual|The fluff]] states the Tau have different skin colours, although all are variants on blue/grey. We have the distinctly shh-we're-not-Arabs Tallarns too.)
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** In-game, [http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Titans/ELDAR-PHANTOM-TITAN-BODY.html Eldar Phantoms] currently take the cake, ''being over 4 foot tall''. Miniature? Hardly.
* [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place]]: The Warp, or Immaterium, is a reflection of the emotions of all sentient beings, the collective [[Dream Land]] of the galaxy and home to all the nightmares there have ever been, given form. Part [[Spirit World]], part [[Phantom Zone]], a sea of emotion and the source of all psychic power, it's also the daemon-infested home of the [[Cosmic Horror|Chaos Gods]] and is, for all intents and purposes, ''hell''. And going through it is the only faster-than-light travel available to most races.
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