Warhammer 40,000/Tropes/I to P: Difference between revisions

** The Kroot have this as their [[Planet of Hats|hat]], as when they eat something they incorporate parts of its genome into their reproductive DNA. They began as vultures scavenging ork corpses and eventually became a bipedal, if still distinctly avian, species that eats their own (and everyone else's) dead, if the individual was strong enough to warrant being incorporated into future generations.

** Tyranids are the same, except that they're an entire species dedicated to consuming organic matter (even their own) and use biological weapons to the exclusion of all else (so they can "recycle" spent ammunition later).

* [[Immortality Inducer]]: The Emperor's throne.

* [[Immune to Bullets]]: Big daemons and monsters are generally more or less proof against [[Five Rounds Rapid|small arms]], though not against heavy weapons.

** Armour Value 14. Especially the Monolith.

** Currently only the Wraithlord, Talos, Cronos, Monoliths, and Land Raider Variants are able to actually completely ignore mainstream shooting (and, in the case of the Wraithlord, close combat too). This is due to the To Wounds chart disallowing you to wound something with a Toughness value 4 higher than your Strength Value. Same goes with Vehicles, where it is not allowed to penetrate something that has a AV 7 points higher than your strength (you're suppose to roll a dice and add it to your strength to see if you penetrated the enemy's armour, so by default 7 higher would mean it's nigh impregnable to you). This mechanic makes it so that Vehicle hunting weapons are actually a viable method and alternative to otherwise mono-purposed sniper rifles for taking down such beasties.

* [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]: Orks + guns = hilarity. Fortunately, they have [[More Dakka]] where that came from. Averted with the Imperium of Man's own Storm Troopers, who can aim just as well as any Space Marine.

* [[Implacable Man]]: Things like higher-level Tyranids, Space Marines, Orks and Daemons are ridiculously hard to take down, but the Necrons ''really'' take the cake.

** Although, in an odd case of quasi-realism, when somebody else does this in ''[[Ravenor]]'', Harlon Nayl's answer is to switch to [[More Dakka|full auto]] and shoot her to bits.

* [[Improvised Weapon]]: All Ork equipment is basically improvised out of bits of scrap metal. Even spaceships, because...

* [[I'm Your Worst Nightmare]]

* [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]]: The Grey Knights, a Space Marine Chapter that serves as the military arm of the Ordo Malleus specializing in anti-daemon combat. In over ten thousand years of service, not a single one of their number has ever defected to Chaos. More impressive when you consider that at least ''half'' of all Space Marines had done so by the end of the Horus Heresy, which occurred somewhere around one thousand years after the Legions were created, and that Grey Knights are all psykers (and thus inherently more vulnerable to daemonic corruption).

* [[Infernal Retaliation]]: Only mentioned in relationship to Tyranids, but more than likely applies to Necrons and Orks as well.

** Except of course against the Tau who would be more than happy to welcome more Gues'va into their empire, whether the humans were willingly or not.

* [[Initiation Ceremony]]: Space Marines, especially the Grey Knights; also Chaos.

* [[Intangible Man]]: Necron Wraiths.

* [[Interservice Rivalry]]: To the point that rival Imperial Guard regiments, Space Marine chapters, Inquisitorial task forces, or any combination of the above will <s>occasionally</s> often open fire on each other in the name of the Emperor.

* [[Insectoid Aliens]]: The Tyranids and the Vespid.

* [[In Working Order]]: Justified for Orks - if they think it'll work, it will, even if it's actually broken. Averted and avoided by everyone else.

* [[Jeanne D Archetype]]: The [[Church Militant|Sisters of Battle]] are obviously based on [[Joan of Arc]].

* [[Jet Pack]]: Assault marines, Chaos raptors, Seraphim, Rokkit Boyz and Crisis suits.

** Though he cared far less about people who didn't follow the Ultramarine example, such as when he killed an entire city as a warning to his brother Lorgar after Lorgar taught them to worship the Emperor, which Guilliman didn't like.

* [[Join the Army They Said]]: The Imperial Guard.

* [[Judge, Jury, and Executioner]]: Several organisations and individuals with this power. The Adeptus Arbites who enforce Imperial law (and who [[Captain Ersatz|rather resemble]] the [[Judge Dredd|Judges of Mega City One]], although this is superficial: according to ''[[Dark Heresy]]'', abandoning due process and using summary execution is the worst heresy an Arbites officer can commit), the [[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|Commissars]] of the [[Redshirt Army|Imperial Guard]], the [[Church Militant|Ecclesiarchy]] (who tend to favour [[Fate Worse Than Death|unusual punishments]]) and, of course, the Inquisition. Innocence proves ''nothing.''

** "A plea of innocent in my courtroom is guilty of wasting my time. Guilty."

* [[The Juggernaut]]: Necrons, Tyranids, and the <s> Imperial Guard</s> Space Marines. There's also a breed of Khornate daemon actually ''called'' the Juggernaut; for the uninitiated, it's the thing that looks like an angry metal rhino.

* [[Julius Beethoven Da Vinci]]: The Emperor is likely to have been Alexander the Great (his flagship is called the Bucephalus), among numerous other historical figures (or at least [[Magnificent Bastard|stole their stories to ease his transition to power]]).

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Everyone, to everything, all the time.

* [[Kill'Em All]]: This one was a no-brainer.

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: GW's [[Old Shame]], the Squats.

** Also Eldar special character Eldrad Ulthran, who made a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] at the end of the 13th Black Crusade global campaign.

** And Blood Angels Captain Erasmus Tycho, who first was afflicted with the Black Rage, then killed, in the Third War for Armageddon.

* [[Klingon Scientists Get No Respect]]: Ork weird boyz.

* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: The literature of Warhammer 40K has given us fairly decent people (for a given value of decent) who even in the face of all this madness keep trying to do what's right (for a given value of right... it's that kind of place). But next to none of them have any illusions that they'll actually succeed in the end, and only continue their works because it is their duty.

* [[Loads and Loads of Rules]]: ''Rogue Trader's'' comically huge rulebook, and ''Second edition's'' obsession with insanely complex special rules. Just try firing a Conversion Beamer or Thudd Gun without having to consult the rulebook repeatedly.

** The Imperial Robot rules in ''Rogue Trader'' were probably the most complicated set of rules for a single model in the history of the game (though the Imperator Titan and Mega-Gargant come close). Basically, any time they wanted to use a Robot, the player would have to create a program for it before the game started using a series of [[wikipedia:Logic gate|logic gates]] to define how it would react to various situations (no visible targets, target in sight but out of range, target in sight and in range, etc), with the robot's points cost being partly decided by the number of instructions in its program. This was about as complicated and pointless as it sounds, and might well be the reason the later editions avoided the idea; the Legio Cybernetica seemed to go the way of the Zoats and Squats.

** Anything Matt Ward writes.

* [[Looks Like Cesare]]: Astropaths, due to their Soul Binding.

* [[Lost Colony]]: All over the place.

* [[Lost in Transmission]]: Imperial vox systems are notorious for going on the fritz when they are needed most. This is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by a Silver Skulls chapter marine in one of the books, when he muses on the likelihood of a civilization that can genetically engineer [[Super Soldiers]] being unable to create reliable comm systems.

* [[Loves the Sound of Screaming]]: The Dark Eldar.

* [[Low Culture, High Tech]]: Orks and Humans, due to the various scavenged and Lost Tech.

* [[The Magnificent]]: Kharn the Betrayer, Abaddon the Despoiler, and Scyrak the Slaughterer, among others.

* [[Man-Eating Plant]]: Crop up all the time on [[Death World|Death Worlds]].

* [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]: 40k loves this one, given how blurry the line between magic and technology tends to be.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Both played straight and inverted where Space Marine Chapters are concerned; a popular joke pokes fun at this.

** Isha, the Eldar Goddess of life, health, growth and fertility, who whispers the cures to the diseases that Nurgle tests on her, is the Japanese word for "doctor" or "physician".

** Hilariously inverted with the Land Raider and Land Speeder. Indeed those names are appropriate for the purposes of the vehicles (The Land Speeder is rather fast and can only glide over land, never achieving true flight, while the Land Raider is one badass tank that will make any serious player crap their pants), they're not named because they're Land vehicles, but because their in-universe discoverer's last name was "Land". So it has two meaningful names in-universe, and one outside. Go figure.

* [[Mechanical Horse]]: Krieg Death Riders and the like on the Imperial side, cyboars for the Orks.

** Mogul Kamir of Atilla had a mechanical horse made for him by the Adeptus Mechanicus, because he kept riding the flesh-and-blood ones to death.

* [[Medieval Stasis]]: Most of the races in the 41st millennium have been in a state of technological stagnation for thousands of years. Also literal on many worlds.

** The Imperium bans any technologically advancement, partly as part of their reverence for old tech in their religion, with beliefs of [[Status Quo Is God]].

** According to fluff, the [[Monster Clown|Harlequins']] ''masks'' do this if they are worn by anyone untrained in their use (or at least humans) by causing them to hallucinate and psychically forcing the wearer to assume the role the mask is meant for.

* [[Mini-Mecha]]: The Eldar War Walkers and Imperial Guard Sentinels, as as well as some of the larger Tau battlesuits.

* [[Moody Mount]]: Juggernauts of Khorne.

* [[Mook Maker]]: Some of the Tyranid critters, such as the Tervigon and the Parasite of Mortex, have the ability to spit out smaller creatures.

* [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate]]: Ork Mad Doks and Painboyz to a Boy.

** Ork medical knowledge is genetic, and anyone claiming to be a dok is licensed to operate. [[Mad Scientist|That doesn't necessarily mean you'll like the results, though....]]

* [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous]]: Warp Spider Exarchs, the mandrake Decapitator, certain Mechanicus adepts, some cyborks, every Tyranid ever.

* [[Mushroom Samba]]: Imperial hallucinogen grenades can invoke all manner of humorous and potentially self-destructive delusions in their victims.

* [[Obvious Rule Patch]]: ''White Dwarf'' used to give out official rulings against interpreting the second edition rules in stupid ways. For example, your Imperial Assassin using the shape-changing drug Polymorphine is not allowed to disguise himself as a tiny Gretchin while wearing Terminator Armour and riding an armoured motorbike just because the rules don't specifically say he can't.

** ''A [[Commissar]] (of any rank) will never [[You Have Failed Me|execute himself]].''

* [[Offscreen Villain Dark Matter]]: Ten thousand years of continuous war, and the Traitor Marines are ''still'' in bolter shells. This has been made somewhat less ridiculous in recent fluff, with mention of Chaos forge worlds, and a change in focus towards Renegade (recently-corrupted) Marines to distract from the question of how the original Traitor Legions even still ''exist''. And since they do reside in the Eye of Terror, where "physics" is even more of a joke than elsewhere, they have ''literal'' [[Offscreen Villain Dark Matter]].

* [[The Ogre]]: Ogryns of the Imperial Guard, armed with automatic shotguns designed to be equally useful as giant clubs.

*** 1st edition 40K Rogue Trader also had actual creatures called Vampires, which were [[Shape Shifter|polymorphic]] [[Bat Out of Hell|giant humanoid bat-things]] which originate in the Warp and can [[Paranoia Fuel|mimic any other vaguely human-sized organism]].

** [[Our Werewolves Are Different]]: Wulfen, failed/corrupted Space Wolves.

* [[Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions]]: The Imperium was created as a galaxy-wide example of this trope, and during the course of the Heresy became a [[He Who Fights Monsters|comprehensive and horrible subversion]].

** Of course, there is a school of thought that says the Emperor only tried to steer humanity away from religion precisely because he KNEW there were gods out there, and nasty ones at that. Then there's some subtle references in at least some of the novels that suggest the Emperor to be the <s>fifth</s> <s>[[Retcon|sixth]]</s> <s>[[Brother Chuck|seventh]]</s> '''latest''' Warp God, who is only prevented from kicking the snot out of the other big four because he is still tethered to his mortal form...

* [[Outscare the Enemy]]: Part of the Commissar's job is to embody this. Probable death at the hands of of reality-defying abominations or a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]] may be terrifying, but ''certain'' death for "cowardice" is a big motivator.

* [[Outside Context Villain]]- [[Swarm Of Alien Locusts|The Tyranids]] were this to the Ultramarines because the latter's [[Big Book of War]] had no combat plans against that kind of enemy, leaving them tactically flat footed.

 

 

** [[Parental Abandonment]]: The infant Primarchs were scattered through [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the Warp]] by the Chaos gods, coming to rest on various human worlds throughout the galaxy. It was, to be fair, hardly intentional, but they were all adults before the Emperor found them again.

** [[Like Father, Like Son]]: Of the eighteen known, each Primarch had risen to a position of power before they were found, and most were the rulers of one or more planets.

** [[Parental Favoritism]] / [[The Unfavourite]]: Horus was the Emperor's "first son", both in order found and as the Warmaster of the Great Crusade, while some of the Emperor's decisions about his other children (especially concerning Magnus the Red) have been... [[What the Hell, Hero?|questionable]].

** [[Calling the Old Man Out]]: The Horus Heresy. Never let it be said that 40K does things on a small scale.

* [[Prescience Is Predictable]]

* [[Pretty Little Headshots|Pretty Little Tank Piercing Shots]]: The description of Tau railguns in the Tau codex says that there was a little entry hole in the front of a Leman Russ, a little exit hole in the back, and the liquified remains of the crew forming a 20ft stain coming out the back of the tank. [[Ludicrous Gibs|Gibs do not get much more ludicrous]].

* [[Primal Fear]]: Apart from being ''made'' largely out of hideous monsters and darkness, Sarpedon's main psychic power in the Soul Drinker series deserves points: it's called the Hell, and it conjures illusions of whatever Sarpedon thinks will scare the crap out of the enemy, such as making all his Marines three times as large or causing hellbats to come out of nowhere.

** The C'tan ''Nightbringer'', who has the honor of being the origin for the fear of death in all living things (as well as the Grim Reaper figure) - except the Orks and Tyranids, of course.

* [[Psychopathic Manchild]]: Orks, to a Boy.

* [[Punctuation Shaker]]: Tau personal names are bad; Tau ''spaceship'' names are nigh-unpronouncable.

** Geneboosted implanted humans however are a completely different matter even before you add the enormous power armour.

** To be fair, most Imperial Guard regiments have extensively trained in close-quarter combat and are quite skilled for their size, which is why it's possible (if sometimes unlikely) that a bayonet-fixed Guardsman can take down a huge Ork or a nimble Eldar in a fight. Heck, going up against the Tau (canonically averaging about a foot shorter than humans outside of [[Mini-Mecha|battlesuits]] and focusing on ranged weapons) is about the one time the Guard gets to pull a banzai-charge with a fairly good chance of victory. Of course, that's why the Tau hire the Kroot...

 

{{reflist}}