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Warhammer 40,000/Tropes/I to P: Difference between revisions
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* [[Join the Army They Said]]: The Imperial Guard.
** Or, to quote 1d4chan, "Join the Imperial Guard or die. Then die."
* [[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."
** Unusual punishments...or [[Kill It With Fire]].
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== K ==
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Everyone, to everything, all the time.
* [[Kill
* [[Killer Rabbit]]: The Catachan Barking Toad, a large, [http://uk.games-workshop.com/download/popup.htm?/warhammer40000/creature-feature/images/toad-big.jpg sad-looking amphibian] sometimes dubbed the [[Memetic Mutation|"Ronery Toad"]]. If attacked, hurt or even surprised, it [[Taking You With Me|explodes into a cloud of obscenely virulent toxins]], killing absolutely everything for miles around and poisoning the earth so that nothing will ever grow there again.
* [[Kill It With Fire]]: ''Imperial government policy'' towards ''everything.'' The Salamanders chapter of Space Marines and the Witch Hunters specialize in fire based weapons. The Sororitas are also [[Burn the Witch|very fond]] of flame-based weaponry. On the Eldar side, the Fire Dragons kill tanks with fire, specifically with fusion guns and firepikes.
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* [[Legend Fades to Myth]]: The setting is full of this.
** The Emperor was ''not'' a god, half his campaigning was in order to eliminate the concept of religion (and one of his children turned against him because he ordered him to stop worshipping him). These days, he's the central figure of humanity's state religion.
** Many of the more primitive worlds ascribe [[Space Marine]] landings as the [[God
* [[Lethal Joke Character]]: The Apocalypse expansion includes rules for a Warlord Titan, four times the size of the biggest model they actually sell with the point cost of an entire army and almost certainly meant as a joke. Then some people actually scratch-built them, and they are so unbalanced that an equivalent-cost force of super-heavy tanks and artillery can't even get through the shields before being wiped out.
** And if that's not enough, one of the datafax on the Games Workshop website is for the ''Emperor'' Titan, which is best modeled by someone [[Cosplay|dressing up as the Titan]] and climbing on the table. It's all fun and games until someone's whole army gets squished....
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* [[Lost Technology]]: See also [[Cargo Cult]], [[Ancient Astronauts]], [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] and [[Sealed Evil in A Can]]. The Blackstone Fortresses come under ''all five''.
* [[Loves the Sound of Screaming]]: The Dark Eldar.
* [[Low Culture, High Tech]]: Orks and Humans, due to the various scavenged and Lost Tech.
* [[Luck Manipulation Mechanic]]: In the ''[[Warhammer 40000]] Trading Card Game'', numbers are printed on the cards, so a 'random' number is generated by revealing the top card of your deck. Naturally, this opens up plenty of combo opportunities with abilities that let you know (or even choose) what that next card will be.
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* [[Magitek]]: Mostly the Eldar and the Necrons, though Imperial and Chaos gear crosses into this sometimes.
* [[The Magnificent]]: Kharn the Betrayer, Abaddon the Despoiler, and Scyrak the Slaughterer, among others.
* [[Man
* [[Man in The Machine]]: Space Marine Dreadnoughts, Ork Deff Dredz and Killa Kanz.
* [[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.
** In a stunning display of originality, Corax (Greek for "raven") is the primarch of the Raven Guard.
** In an [[Up to Eleven|even more stunning one]], Ferrus Manus (latin for "iron hand") is the primarch of the Iron Hands, and he has ''actual'' iron hands.
** And Magnus was a cyclops and is now a [[One
** 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.
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** Averted by the Tyranids and the Tau.
* [[Mental World]]: The Warp.
* [[Merchandise
* [[Mercy Kill]]: The Emperor's Peace.
* [[Messianic Archetype]]: The Emperor.
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* [[More Than Mind Control]]: Chaos is insidious indeed.
** Any Tau who can smell an Ethereal will be completely fearless and free of doubt, following any instruction from that Ethereal without hesitation. However, Ethereals cannot always be present. As such, Tau society has been groomed over the generations to follow the will of the Ethereals even when they are not present. A Tau will generally attempt to do what they believe the Ethereals think would be best when separated from one, and to be near one is a source of joy. For the most part, an Ethereal does not need to compel a Tau, as a Tau will be more than happy to obey already. [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|Commander Farsight]] is a notable exception to this.
* [[Mono
* [[Monster Clown]]: Eldar Harlequins are [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|psychedelic space elf ninja killer clowns]]. They wear holographic harlequin costumes and extremely scary masks, and carry horrifyingly nasty weapons even by 40k standards; as an example, their usual squad support weapon fires molecule-edged crystal discs covered in toxins that make the target's ''blood explode''. They worship the "Laughing God", and are the Eldar equivalent of a roving carnival, visiting the various Craftworlds and acting out tales from Eldar mythology with holographic, psychically-enhanced interpretive dance. When they're not killing people in unspeakably horrible ways, that is.
** Just to put this one in perspective, the Dark Eldar, a race of beings who have an almost genetic urge to torture people in anatomically horrific ways, are terrified of the Harlequins and dare not refuse them entry into the normally impregnable dimension they reside in.
* [[Moral Myopia]]: To elaborate on the above, when the Eldar are faced with a choice between safeguarding their own kin and the welfare of another species, they will pick their own kind every time. Which is perfectly understandable - just not much fun when you're the one getting screwed in their stead. And especially after the Eldar have decided that a couple <s> thousand</s> of their lives are worth several ''million'' of yours.
* [[Morally
** 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....]]
* [[Moses in The
* [[Multi
* [[Mushroom Samba]]: Imperial hallucinogen grenades can invoke all manner of humorous and potentially self-destructive delusions in their victims.
* [[Musical Assassin]]: Noise Marines and Goff Rokkerz kill with [[The Power of Rock]].
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** Axe-waving blood-drinking/mutated burning tentacley/rotting maggot-ridden cyclopean/androgynous crab-clawed sex-fiend psychic emotion daemons.
** Viking/Mongol/Roman/Spartan/perverted [[Sense Freak]] bondage-obsessed/AxeCrazy/magic zombie/cyborg/vampire/Daemon-possessed genetically engineered power-armoured super-soldier [[Warrior Monk|warrior monks]].
* [[No Hugging, No Kissing]]: Unsurprisingly, the subjects of love and romance tend to be completely glossed over in the setting and all of its spin-offs. As noted on its page, Warhammer 40k prefers to minimize the love story aspect of its approach to [[Space Opera]].
** It's actually quite justified when one takes a closer look. Space Marines are largely asexual (whether by choice or conditioning is a matter of no small fan debate), the Eldar largely repress sexual desire to avoid [[Emotions vs. Stoicism|falling prey to the urges that brought about the Fall]], the Tau view sex simply as a matter of procreation, Orks are [[Mono
* [[Non Human Undead]]: Undead Daemons created from the souls of those killed (not NOT turned into the undead) by the undead plague, undead statue robots (wraithguard and wraithlords) Undead Wizard Statue Robots (Wraithseer and Warlock Titans). Undead Robots (necrons) and Undead Mecha (Dreadnoughts to a degree and Nurgle Titans). Surprisingly no Undead Dragons (then again, their fantasy counterpart fills in whatever holes it has).
* [[No One Gets Left Behind]]: Thoroughly averted for the most part - the Tau and Eldar are about the only ones who ever try, and the Eldar consider recovering the waystones of the dead good enough consolation for being unable to save the bodies of the living (because the waystones [[Soul Jar|contain the soul]] of the dead Eldar). Similarly, although the Marines consider it the highest honour to die in battle, they'll fight hard to recover the progenoid glands from the still-cooling bodies of their battle brothers.
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** Orks invert this trope brutally and repeatedly.
*** It's actually built into their genetics (again! noticing a pattern?) so that when they die, they release a huge bunch of spores to grow into more Orks.
* [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]]: Even the best and brightest Mekboyz don't know how some of the things they build work, or occasionally even what they had in mind when they started nailing bits on. Often the purpose of a Mekboy speshul invention can only be determined by testing it, a dangerous pursuit.
** Also justified for a lot of Imperial tech, thanks to it being [[Lost Technology]].
* [[Nothing but Skulls]]: Most commonly associated with the Imperium. Yes, the <s>good guys</s> protagonists. They're also known for using skulls as [[Attack Drone|Attack Drones]].
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* [[Not So Different]]: The Imperium and the Eldar are both avowed enemies of Chaos and both elitist xenophobes. Naturally, each considers being compared to the other to be a dire insult.
* [[Noun Verber|Noun Verbers]]: Lots of Space Marines, both Imperial and Chaos: World Eaters, Word Bearers, Soul Drinkers, Flesh Tearers, Flesh Eaters, Blood Drinkers, Skull Takers, Deathmongers, Fire Reavers....
* [[Nuke
** A particularly [[Egregious]] example is the Death Korps of Krieg, who "[[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|subjected their homeworld to a 500-year campaign of atomic cleansing]]."
* [[Number of the Beast]]: The Grey Knights are Chapter 666, and their initiation involves the 666 [[Mind Rape|Rites of the Emperor]]. They hunt daemons.
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** Necrons were this until the most recent codex, where their main motivation is not killing everyone but ruling everyone. They'll still gladly kill whoever treatens their empires, though.
*** No, their motivation was changed from wanting to kill all life out of hatred, to wanting to exterminate all other life so that they can regain their former empire. To quote the codex, "They seek to destroy the lesser forms of life that infest their old domains, and re-establish their rightful rule."
* [[One
** Tau have different sexual characteristics from humans. The female dissected in ''Xenology'' is nearly indistingushable from a male Tau. End result: you could be fielding an all-female or all-male or mixed group of Fire Warriors. There's no way to know.
*** The Tau do not seem to have much trouble determining which other Tau are male or female so this may also be a case of [[You All Look Familiar]]. The distinction beteen male and female Tau is more subtle than that of humans.
* [[One
* [[One World Order]]: The Tau Empire, though as their fluff is expanded, differences between Tau Septs are starting to appear.
* [[Only Sane Man]]: Possibly the Tau Empire, though this is more of a subversion - it's the insane people who are completely correct and realistic about things, and the sane Tau seek to play by the rules in a universe that has none.
** Arguably, the Emperor of Mankind was this for the Imperium. And now he's locked on life-support, unable to do anything as his race and Imperium go straight to Hell.
* [[Order Versus Chaos]]: Generally accepted as Imperium, Eldar, and Tau for Order, and Orks, Dark Eldar and, well, Chaos for Chaos. Necrons and Tyranids are off to the side a bit.
** One could argue that the Necrons are also on the side of Order - just that their method of defeating Chaos (the ideology, not the faction) is to [[Kill
* [[Organic Technology]]: See Tyranids again.
* [[Original Position Fallacy]]: Many people who join Chaos cults do so in the hopes of attracting their chosen god's favor. Unfortunately for them, said gods are just as likely to ignore them, give them what they want or subject them to horrible (or benign) mutations.
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** [[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.
** [[Raised By Wolves]]: Literally in the case of Leman Russ, more figuratively for some of the others.
** [[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.
** [[Offing the Offspring]]: As a direct result of the above.
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* [[Planet Terra]]
* [[Planetville]]: Averted and played straight in equal measure. A lot of fluff has, often for game reasons, the fate of systems decided by tiny battles, while just as much - particularly the novels and worldwide campaigns - features thoroughly "realistic" planetary campaigns, with millions upon millions of soldiers and years of fighting involved.
* [[Plant Aliens]]: The Orks are symbiotic creatures, a seemingly mammal-like anatomy with a fungus in its skin and blood, meaning they have green skin but red blood. They [[Mono
* [[Pleasure Planet]]: Garden Worlds.
* [[Plot Armor]]: All races to an extent but some tend to have more than others. The most extreme example of this trope are the Tau, which earns them a certain degree of hate from the fan base.
* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]: You know you're on the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|extreme end on the cynical side of the scale]] when this role is filled by the [[Blood Knight|rampaging, murderous hordes of Orks]], whose idea of a good time is to indiscriminately kill anything, including each other, and introducing people's internal organs to daylight.
* [[Politically Incorrect Hero]]: Subversion in that the Imperium is only considered heroic in comparison to the other factions in the galaxy.
* [[Politically
* [[Portal Network]]: The Eldar Webway.
* [[Power Born of Madness]]: Followers of Chaos are generally crazy enough to do ''anything'', but the Imperium itself acknowledges this trope: "In the darkness, a blind man is the best guide; in an age of madness, look to the madman to lead the way."
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* [[Praetorian Guard]]: The Adeptus Custodes.
** Also note that the Imperial Guard regiment called the Praetorian Guard has [[The British Empire|little to do with the trope.]]
* [[Pre
* [[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]].
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