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By the will of the Immortal God-Emperor, the great reliquary, or "page" as it is known, of tropes has grown to the point that it shall be broken up into three different pages. These pages are divided by the letter that starts the trope, and misplaced tropes shall be returned to their proper place. This page is for those tropes that start with the letter Q through the letter Z.
Venerate the God-Emperor. To deep-strike back to the main page, click [[Warhammer
== Q ==
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* [[Rated "M" for Manly]]: Part of the [[Tagline]] is "There is only war.", after all.
* [[Razor Floss]]: Many Eldar weapons.
* [[Reality Warper]]: C'tan, distinct from the setting's other gods in that they are ''literal'' [[Physical God
* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: Most wealthy Imperials, via juvenat technology.
** Also most [[Space Marines]], who have much longer lifespans.
*** Taken [[Up to Eleven]] by the Blood Angels, those that don't fall to [[The Corruption|the black rage or red thirst first of course.]]
** Many of the Chaos [[Space Marines]] are from the original traitor legions of the [[Horus Heresy]], likely kept alive by the warp.
** Many Eldar and Dark Eldar are very old. The late Eldrad Ulthran of Ulthwé craftworld was over 10,000 years old, and before his death, he was one of the few people who met the Emperor in person. Also, Asdrubael Vect, the leader of the Dark Eldar Black Heart Cabal, claims that he was around to ''see the fall of the Eldar civilisation''.
* [[Recycled in Space]]: Began as a [[Recycled in Space]] version of ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'', which predated it by four years, but has over time diverged from it. Now contains a [[Recycled in Space]] of nearly every fantasy and SF trope imaginable, turned [[Darker and Edgier]] to a ridiculous degree and armed to the teeth.
* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: Orks' eye colour tends to be red, with some slight variations. Things like bionic eyes and Space Marine helmets can also have red lenses, and the entire Salamanders chapter has red eyes due to an interaction between their geneseed and the high radiation of their homeworld.
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Angron and Kharn, respectively. The fact that the Blue Oni is ''still'' a raving fanatical berserker should tell you something.
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* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: One of the fundamental concepts behind the [[Church Militant]]'s idea of "[[Fate Worse Than Death|penance]]."
* [[Red Shirt]]: Though not specifically called out as such, this tends to emerge from the gameplay mechanics. The wound allocation rules (barring special exceptions) allow the player who controls the unit being hit to designate which models in the unit fall in combat when the unit is attacked. Inevitably, it will be the models without special options, wargear, or abilities, who [[Taking the Bullet|Take The Wound]] instead of the more important ones.
* [[Redshirt Army]]: The Imperial Guardsmen are ordinary humans in a world filled with genetically engineered [[Super Soldier
** Typically, a world's Planetary Defense Force (PDF) has it even worse than the Guard, as their primary job in most stories is to die horribly at the hands of the invading forces until the Imperial Guard arrives. That's right, they're the [[Redshirt Army]] ''for'' the [[Redshirt Army]].
** As an aside, PDF also stands for "Please Don't Fight [Us]".
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* [[Retcon]]: The Squats, Zoats and the fifth Chaos God, Malal, were removed from the game background - the Squats because they weren't sure what to do with them, Malal because they weren't quite sure who owned the copyright. Other forces changed drastically, for example, the Tyranids turning from curiosity bugs into a [[Horde of Alien Locusts|galaxy-eating horror]], and the C'tan changing from the Necrons' star gods to their ''former'' star gods who got betrayed.
** There have also been a number of [[Retcon|RetCons]] of technology, such as Terminator armour and plasma weapons being changed from utterly irreplaceable relics to simply very, very difficult to make.
** The removal of the Squats is not a [[Retcon]] so much as a [[Dropped a Bridge
** The general tone of the setting has shifted quite a bit over the years. In the original ''Rogue Trader'' rulebook, the Imperium had a ragtag, [[Scavenger World]] feel (still present but not to the same degree). In fact, the whole thing had kind of a ''[[Mad Max]]'' <small>[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]]</small> feel to it. The copious amounts of black humor and irony that marked ''Rogue Trader'' have also been downplayed over time.
** Inquisitors were originally lone adventurers not unlike U.S. Marshals in Western fiction - our friend Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau would ''not'' fit in with the Inquisiton of modern ''40K''.
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** The Imperial Guard used to field the same vehicles as Space Marines -down to dreadnoughts and land speeders- before the IG vehicle range was introduced in the mid-90s.
** Primarchs were absent from the Rogue Trader rulebook. The Horus Heresy was initially introduced -in the background for the original Space Marine game- as just a huge civil war, and Warmaster Horus as a mere corrupted general. In this early version of the background, the Emperor had simply grown old and weak over the millenia until he had to be placed on life support.
* [[The Right Hand of Doom]]: All those [[Power Fist
** One member of the Soul Drinkers has an extremely large mutant hand, which he either uses to wield his power axe to great effect, or uses to splat people dead while using his normal hand to use the axe.
* [[Right Hand Versus Left Hand]]: Common in the Imperium, ''standard operating procedure'' in the Inquisition.
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* [[Roboteching]]: Tau Smart Missile systems.
* [[Rock Beats Laser]]: A setting of world-splitting superweapons, ludicrously powerful weaponry and interstellar empires, and the standard tactic of most factions is to charge screaming at their foes waving a sharp thing. And it ''works''.
** To be fair, if you're
* [[Rodents of Unusual Size]]: They live in the underhives.
* [[Room 101]]: Commorragh, the home of the Dark Eldar, is implied to be a ''City'' 101.
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* [[Scale of Scientific Sins]]: Unsurprisingly, pings on all 7 sins.
* [[Scary Black Man]]: The Salamanders are an entire chapter of this, and they're one of the nicer chapters of Space Marines.
* [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]]: ''All'' the factions, even the Imperium. Yep, we are [[God-Emperor|Scary]] [[Church Militant|Dogmatic]] ''[[Humans Are
** The Imperium of Man and its subfactions: all xenocidal and imperialist, [[We Have Reserves|as happy to wipe out billions of its own people]] as it is to exterminate entire alien races.
** Chaos: [[Cosmic Horror|Extra-dimensional malevolent gods and daemons]] that are capable of crossing into the physical realm and [[The Corruption|corrupting the minds and bodies of sentient species]]. Four principal Chaos Gods and countless lesser deities and daemon princes, served by billions of cultists and thousands of ancient daemon-corrupted [[Super Soldier
** [[Our Elves Are Better|Craftworld Eldar]]: Dying elder race with massive superiority complex. Through their past depravity, they are responsible for creating the Chaos god Slaanesh. Not quite xenocidal, but consider the deaths of <s>millions</s> hundreds of billions of humans to safeguard a few hundred Eldar lives more than a fair trade, and have the [[Psychic Powers|psychic]] future-prediction and [[The Chessmaster|manipulative skills]] to make that sort of thing a reality rather than a dream. As an example, they tricked the Ork warlord Ghazghkull Thraka into attacking the human planet of Armageddon, setting off the Second and Third War for Armageddon, killing ''billions'' of humans, to prevent Ghazghkull from attacking one of their Craftworlds (world-ships that harbour the refugees of their lost empire).
*** Dark Eldar: You think the Craftworld Eldar are bad? Try their Dark Elf-esque [[Evil Counterpart]]. They ''still'' practice the same depravity that led to their race's fall. Sadistic in the extreme, need to [[Your Soul Is Mine|feed on others' souls]] to avoid their own being devoured by the Chaos God Slaanesh. Worth noting that unlike the Craftworld Eldar, who could be considered [[Jerkass Woobie
*** Harlequins: A meta-faction with members drawn more or less equally from the other three factions, who form troupes of wandering [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|bards, historians, performers, and high-speed close-combat specialists]] who are [[Monster Clown|feared and respected]] by the elite troops of all sentient races, including their own. All of this is, of course, secondary to their "Great Work", which is the re-uniting of the other Eldar factions and hastening the [[Have You Seen My God?|creation of Ynnead]], the Eldar god of death, who will destroy the Chaos gods and cause the Eldar race to be reborn as near-invicible demigods. They also have many weapons that can kill in [[Cruel and Unusual Death|extremely gory and unpleasant ways]], including a monofilament wire that inserts into a man's body and flails about, tearing his insides apart. Why use these horrible weapons? [[Can't Argue
** Orks: Genetically engineered by a [[Precursors|precursor species]] as a biological weapon. [[Bizarre Alien Biology|Peculiar biology]] (see [[Plant Aliens]]), personalities based on ridiculously exaggerated football hooligan stereotypes, all "[[Mono-Gender Monsters|boyz]]" and speak with [[Funetik Aksent
** Tau: Technologically advanced humanoids with a rigidly caste-based society. The Ethereal caste rule over the [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|Earth, Air, Fire and Water]] castes, who are all utterly loyal and devoted (one theory has it the control is based on pheromones). They see themselves as [[Benevolent Alien Invasion|benevolent imperialists]] fighting religiously for the 'Greater Good,' and are singled out for being the only faction that seriously engages in diplomacy or offers anything other than genocidal total war. Despite a thing for [[Unreliable Narrator|(allegedly)]] [[Utopia Justifies the Means|mass sterilisation, warmongering and concentration camps]], they really are the nicest people you'll find in this galaxy. Imperialist, expansionist, slightly fanatical, ("slightly" in this setting meaning that only one mech per army can be upgraded to [[Taking You
** Tyranids: Extra-galactic locusts in apparently limitless numbers. If they take over a planet, they [[Planet Eater|devour all organic material, eat the soil, drain the geothermal heat from the planet's core, drink the oceans and suck up the atmosphere]], leaving a cold airless rock. ''[[Horde of Alien Locusts|Hungry]]''. Extremely [[Psychic Powers|psychic]], with the [[Psychic Static|psychic chatter]] that forms their [[Hive Mind]] being so powerful that their mere presence drives psychics insane and interferes with technology that uses psychics - including interstellar travel and communications. [[Bug War
** Necrons: Ancient undead metal constructs powered by the souls of long-dead aliens that hate all living things. Ridiculously advanced technology, [[Implacable Man|almost impossible to kill]], and [[Omnicidal Maniac|omnicidal down to the last bacterium]].
* [[Scenery Gorn]]: About half of the art. A fair proportion of the other half is just regular [[Gorn]].
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** One word: WWWAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!
** So common that the Necrons are notably intimidating for NOT doing this.
* [[Screw You, Elves|Screw You, Eldar]]
* [[Scry vs. Scry]]: Primarily between Eldar farseers and Tzeentchian sorcerers; human and even Ork soothsayers sometimes try this as well, but are generally far less successful at it.
* [[Sealed Army in
* [[Sealed Evil in
** Just about everything can have a daemon sealed in it, turning an ordinary weapon - or monument, or tank, or ''planet'' - into an [[Artifact of Doom]].
** It's heavily implied that the Forge World of Mars imprisons the Void Dragon, a sleeping C'tan star-god. The Outsider, another C'tan, is currently trapped in a ''Dyson sphere'' (also batshit insane.)
** Done both metaphorically and literally by the Necrontyr, a short-lived, life-hating race who had themselves sealed in undying living-metal battle shells, becoming the Necrons. "In a can" indeed.
* [[Sense Freak]]: Followers of Slaanesh. Dark Eldar as well.
* [[Senseless Sacrifice]]: There are many [[Heroic Sacrifice
** On the other hand, there is another saying which goes "No man who died in His service died in vain", so make what you will of it. Imperial dogma is occasionally contradictory. Pointing this out is heresy.
* [[Sentient Cosmic Force]]: The Warp is this.
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* [[Shadow Dictator]]: The God-Emperor of Mankind. The ''official'' story is that he was mortally wounded in a duel with Horus and has been hooked up to the Golden Throne and [[Not Quite Dead|preserved in a state between life and death]] ever since, but sometimes it's alluded that he might be, in fact, long dead. Of course, those making said statements generally happen to be enemies of the Imperium, so it's impossible to know whether or not they're true.
** It's also important to note that the Eldar believe that if the Emperor died, he would ascend to full-on Godhood upon fully transitioning to the Warp, which they're convinced would make another Eye of Terror. Also, it's heavily implied that if this happened, he'd utterly curbstomp the [[Bigger Bad|Chaos Gods]], who were so terrified of the Emperor that they actually ''worked together'' to eliminate him.
** As long as the Astronomican remains coherent and Sanctioning (and even soul-binding) works, he is still kind-of-here.
* [[Shaped Like Itself]]: Orks wired into Deff Dredds "soon find out that the disadvantage to being permanently enclosed inside a metal can is being permanently enclosed inside a metal can."
* [[Shared Universe]]: Particularly in the novels; most fans regard anything written by some authors, especially C.S. Goto, as automatically non-canon.
* [[Sharpened to
* [[Shiny-Looking Spaceships]]: Eldar and Tau, mostly.
* [[Shock and Awe]]: Necron ranged weapons typically fire bolts of green lightning that [[Disintegrator Ray|strip away the target's flesh one molecular layer at a time]]. A great many psychic powers also involve using bolts of lightning to fry people.
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* [[Shoulders of Doom]]: If you look at the [[Games Workshop]] site, "Shoulder Pads" is an entire category of modeling bits, along with scenery and weapons.
* [[Shout-Out]]: Tonnes, some subtle, some obvious.
** Most obviously, much of the backstory is heavily based on ''[[Dune]]''. If you're wondering why, here's a short sentence: The God-Emperor of the Imperium. And the navis nobilitae eventually turns into something like the floating bollock-frogs from the movie, and they have more or less the same function. And the AI ban after a [[Robot War]].
** [[The Swords Trilogy]] was started in 1977 and had the [[Order Versus Chaos]] motif, complete with Chaos Gods and an eight pointed star as the sigil of Chaos. So Warhammer is [[X Meets Y|H.P. Lovecraft meets The Swords]].
** One of the elite fighting forces in the imperial guard are know as the [[World War
** [[Animal Farm|"All Orks is equal, but some Orks are more equal dan uvvas."]]
** The Adeptus Arbites are the Imperium's police, with big guns, eagles and ginormous shoulder pads. [[Judge Dredd|Hmmm...]]
** 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, who's whims most Tau serve their entire lives. [[Stargate SG
** The [http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e142/paco1185/blood%20angels/DSC03570.jpg cover art] for the 3rd edition Blood Angels codex has someone who looks suspiciously like [[Christopher Lee]]. (Compare the lower left Marine to the [http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418GBD120QL._SL500_AA300_.jpg DVD cover] for ''Scars of Dracula.'')
** The two gods of the Orks are stated in ''Gorkamorka'' to be Gork and [[Mork and Mindy|Mork]].
** The Space Marines Codex makes reference to the Zeist Campaign, a shout out to [[Highlander]] 2. The fandom was NOT pleased.
** Quite possibly, several to ''[[Rogue Trooper]]'' — or at least, the Gland Warriors.
* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: Space Marines are seen as legends by most of the Imperium. An average Imperial citizen will occasionally get to see how much of the legends are true; unfortunately, this is generally in a Marine-worthy combat situation, meaning the citizen's life expectancy can probably be measured in minutes at most.
** One comic story describes an Ork invasion of a medieval-level Imperial world and a Black Templar counterattack, from the perspective of one of the world's peasants. At the end, after the Orks are driven off, the peasant hopes that they never come back again: not because he's scared of the Orks, but because he's scared of the ''Space Marines''.
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* [[Sickly Green Glow]]: Necrons in general and gauss weapons in particular.
* [[Sighted Guns Are Low Tech]]: One of the few science fiction works to avert this trope.
* [[Sigil Spam]]: Most Imperial organisations. Chaos Marines and cultists are often depicted in this fashion also.
* [[Single Biome Planet]]: Used and averted equally often.
* [[Sinister Scythe]]: Trademark of Nurgle followers and the [[Grim Reaper|Nightbringer]].
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* [[Spikes of Villainy]]: Chaos all the way. Dark Eldar go for more of a bladed look, while Orks will mix spikes with blades and add anything else brutal you can think of.
* [[Split Personality]]: Eldar on the path of the warrior deliberately cultivate a separate "warrior" personality so that their "true" selves can remain untainted by the violent and murderous things they have done. Those who screw up and [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock|lose the ability to switch back]] become Exarchs.
* [[Spy Catsuit]]: Several Eldar have one, but it's pretty much standard issue for the Officio Assassinorum agents of the Imperium. Some employ chamaeleonic mimicry abilities, others have no special reason apart from being [[Fetish Fuel]]. In one of the newer novels, this tendency is repeatedly [[Lampshaded]] when several characters can't keep their eyes from the girl-assassin brought up by a [[Chainsaw Good|rather]] [[Kill It
* [[Squishy Wizard]]: Played straight by most races' psykers, but subverted by some being real hardcases, such as Tyranid Hive Tyrants (but not Zoanthropes), Space Marine Librarians, Grey Knights and most Chaos Daemons. Eldar Farseers are actually ''tougher'' than most other Eldar, due to slowly turning into crystal.
* [[Stab the Sky]]: Common pose of characters in artwork; not so much in actual tabletop models these days, unless you pose them that way yourself. Older models ''did'' tend to have their swords held high over their heads, due to pewter- and plastic-casting limitations of the time.
* [[Standard Sci-Fi Army]]: Considering its focus on war, every single type of unit conceivable has been used in the games.
* [[Standard Sci-Fi Fleet]]
* [[Standard Sci
* [[Standard Sci
* [[Standard Time Units]]: The Imperium officially runs on Terran years, and presumably Terran days onboard starships.
** Sort of: the Imperial calendar is explicitly based on the Gregorian, but rather than having 365 days, it has 1000 "Days"/"Year Fractions"/"[[Call a Rabbit
* [[Stanley Steamer Spaceship]]: And Stanley Steamer ''Tanks''.
* [[Star-Killing]]: The C'tan.
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* [[Stop Worshipping Me!]]: The God Emperor of Mankind when he was alive.
* [[Stout Strength]]: Generally anything associated with Nurgle gets this treatment. Especially the daemonic servants who the fatter they are, the more powerful they are.
* [[Straw Hypocrite]]: The Ultramarines, most outspoken supporters of the Codex Astartes, rule over an entire sector despite the Codex explicitly prohibiting Space Marines from ruling more than one homeworld (barring short periods of emergency government). Mind you, they have a [[
** The whole mini-empire was a united alliance, ruled from Ultramar by Guilliman, before the Empire even got there. They only directly rule one world, it just happens to be the capitol.
*** And as Guilliman actually wrote the Codex, it probably is not against it.
* [[Stripped to
* [[Strong
** Note that Imperial regiments probably vary like this, due to varied enrollment/conscription and training methods over the big galaxy.
* [[Subspace Ansible]]: Sending telepathic messages... through ''hell''...
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* [[Sword and Gun]]: Generally favoured by every somewhat-sentient race in the game for close-quarters combat troops.
* [[Synchronisation]]: Titans and their Princeps, some ships and their captains.
== T ==
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* [[Take Cover]]: Terrain on the table is not just for decoration, as hiding behind a bush can protect you from even anti-tank weaponry (though not flamethrowers).
** This is because in practical terms cover also represents the firer missing the target due to obscuring, or simply not seeing the target and not firing at all.
* [[Taking You
** Lukas of the Space Wolves, in keeping with being an analog for the Norse god of trickery, has this as an actual battle plan. He has a specialized stasis bomb in place of his second heart, rigged to detonate if he dies. As a result, who ever finally slays him will be frozen forever in undying stasis with Loken's laughing face to look at for eternity.
* [[Talk to
* [[Tannhauser Gate]]
* [[Tank Goodness]]: Naturally, taken [[Up to Eleven]]. Every race has its armoured death machines, but honestly the Imperial Guard Armoured Companies are the ''kings'' of this trope. '''TANKS FOR THE TANK GOD, TREADS FOR THE TREAD THRONE!'''
** Before the 5e codex, the Iron Warriors were this. Is being able to play with an extra tank not enough for you? How about borrowing Basilisks from the Imperial Guard and Vindicators from the [[Space Marines]]?? (At least, now all the Chaos Space Marines can use Vindicators)
* [[Tarot Motifs]]: The Emperor's Tarot. Used seriously for divinition: and it works: and as playing cards.
** This troper recalls a card game (in-setting) called Hearts and Titans. No idea whether The Emperor's Tarot is used or not though...
* [[Technopath]]: Eldar are and know it, Ork Meks are but don't, and the Adeptus Mechanicus ''think'' they are.
** They may even be - certainly they are in the tabletop spinoff ''[[Dark Heresy]]''. The amount of [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]] going on here is [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|deliberately ambiguous]].
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** More often than not taken literally, as deep knowledge of Chaos will corrupt and/or drive insane all but the most strong-willed of humans.
* [[This Is a Drill]]: Corvus assault pods for Titans, the bizarre-yet-cool mole mortar.
* [[This Is Your Brain
* [[Throwaway Country|Throwaway Galaxy]]: The Tyranids have literally eaten empty three entire galaxies and they apparently think the Milky Way will make an interesting dessert.
* [[Throw the Dog
** I will see your Imperial Guard and raise you a Dark Eldar. After TWELVE. FUCKING. YEARS. They FINALLY got an update. And while it won't be outdoing Grey Knights any time soon, what an update it was.
** Inverted for Chaos Space Marines. They spent most of third edition as an incredibly dangerous force, then got the fourth edition codex, which removed the legions as anything other than a paint job, removed most of their customisation and nerfed most of what remained.
** And of course, played straight and inverted for Chaos Space Marines in the thirteenth Black Crusade. After thirteen tries, Chaos wins the campaign and takes Cadia. Then Games Workshop retcons it so they only have a foothold on the planet.
* [[Throw the Pin]]: Ork Stikkbommaz are noted for being above average intelligence for Orks, as they know that stikkbommz are the bit you throw, not the pin...
* [[Time Abyss]]: Most Eldar, but a few ancient Marines and Chaos Marines cross into this trope as well. The Dreadnoughts are prominent even among the Marines: the oldest one of them has seen the Emperor and fought by his side in life, which is almost 11 000 years from current in-universe time. Truth be told, though, Necrons own this. The C'tan are outright stated to be the oldest living things in the universe, and the actual Necron race is ancient on par with the Old Ones themselves. The Necrons and C'Tan are actually old enough that they have to periodically wake up and move their tomb worlds when they stars they orbit die.
* [[Tin Tyrant]]: Pretty much every commander wears a high tech suit of armor. Artwork of Khorne and the Emperor also has them fall under this.
* [[Took a Level
* [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]]: The Black Library is an entire extradimensional stronghold full of these. See also the Book of Lorgar.
* [[Torture Technician]]: Dark Eldar Haemonculi, quite a lot of Inquisitors. Most Ork painboyz have got the Torture part down, but the Technician (keeping him alive) part is usually ignored.
* [[Touched
* [[Touch of Death]]: Mainly used by C'tan and daemons, but the odd high-power psyker has been known to do this.
* [[Tournament Play]]: The kind of competition at a 40k Grand Tournament is enough to give the casual player horrible nightmares. Quite appropriate for the setting.
* [[Training
* [[Tranquil Fury]]: Usually this or an [[Unstoppable Rage]].
** Given what they know about Chaos (especially Khorne), Space Marines and Eldar try to fight in this state.
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* [[Tsundere]]: 1d4 chan's interpretation of Commander Shadowsun(dere), a female Tau general. Pretty much completely unsupported by canon, but funny nonetheless.
** A large number of Eldar females (especially the ones who get shipped with Space Marines) are a bit closer to canonical.
** In fanon, [http://lutherniel.deviantart.com/gallery/46787308/W40K-Bolter-to-Kokoro Battle Sisters] (almost always; with other Sororitas may vary) and [http://kain-moerder.deviantart.com/art/Blamming-hearts-448713327 Commissars] ([http://kain-moerder.deviantart.com/art/Drawthread-7-337764313 occasionally]) tend toward this. Also, in what may be second-generation fanon, Commissar Raege (after some re-education) learned more subtle ways to manipulate people than brandishing a bolt pistol and shouting. Because even at the point where soldiers feel [http://mr-culexus.deviantart.com/art/Soldiers-Duty-01-103379239 resigned] about being shot either way, they still are so [http://mr-culexus.deviantart.com/art/Soldiers-Duty-02-103379135 unprepared] to deal with ''this'', they'd rather perk up and charge into familiar almost-certain death just to escape the awkwardness. [[Played For Laughs]], yet canon has some moments (like "[[Hypocritical Heartwarming|only ''we'' can *BLAM* our Guardsmen]]!" purge during Tranch war) that may make you to wonder...
* [[Tunnel King]]: The Tyranids have tunneling creatures with the size and power of tanks.
* [[Turn
== U ==
* [[Ubermensch]]: The Emperor himself was an immortal great warrior, psyker, armorer, weapon designer, genetic engineer...
* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]: Nurgle and Isha.
* [[Ultimate Evil]]: The Emperor and the Chaos Gods all get this treatment to varying degrees.
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* [[Vader Breath]]: Because of the wildly differing techlevel of the setting, cybernetic lungs can work perfectly well and even better than the natural ones - or they may let the recipient do an unwilling Vader-impersonation, which is not practical when you're trying to be stealthy.
* [[Vapour Wear]]: Dark Eldar Wyches practically wear ''anti''-clothing.
* [[Villain
* [[Violent Glaswegian]]: Orks.
* [[Violence Is the Only Option]]: No comment necessary.
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== W ==
* [[Walking Tank]]: Dreadnoughts, in all flavors except the [[Haunted Technology|Wraithlord]] (a.k.a. the Eldar Dreadnought), as well as Defilers. [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Soul Grinders]], considering [[Eldritch Abomination|their]] [[Haunted Technology|esoteric]] [[Organic Technology|nature]], sit in a more gray area.
* [[War for Fun
* [[War God]]: Khorne for Chaos and Khaine for the Eldar.
** The [[God-Emperor]] of Mankind probably counts as well.
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* [[War Is Hell]]: In some instances, literally.
* [[Warrior Monk]]: Sisters of Battle are the most blatant example. Numerous but a relative few Ecclesiarchs may fit into this trope. Space Marines, including the more devout Chaos Marines, have shades of this; many Loyalist chapters are a militant ''and'' monastic order, but the Warrior part has far greater emphasis for obvious reasons.
** Militant psyker temples (like Psykana Temple Calix), who specialize on force blades.
* [[Warrior Poet]]: The Craftworld Eldar.
* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: Bombardment Guns, Nova Cannons, the appropriately-named Planet Killer, etc...
* [[We Are
** It is worth mentioning that in at least one case in the novels the Necrons in question had been partially vaporized and the remainder was a little puddle of liquid metal on the ground. They ''still'' managed to teleport back to their base for repairs.
** It's also hinted at that, up until this point, not a single Necron has been truly "destroyed". This is in contrast to everyone else, who usually suffer casualties in the 7 figures on an hourly basis.
** Played straight with the Necrontyr. They would die very young due to the intense radiation from their sun.
** Averted by the Tau. They're pretty short-lived, with fifty years being considered ancient to them. They're painfully aware of this.
** Averted more so by the lesser Tyranid creatures, being grown during a 100-day invasion and digested back into biological gruel at the end of it. Most aren't even born with a digestive tract, as they weren't expected to live long enough to starve.
* [[We Are Everywhere]]: The Inquisition.
* [[We Are Team Cannon Fodder]]: Kroot, Imperial Guard anytime they aren't the protagonists, Gretchin, ''everyone else'' for the Eldar.
* [[We Have Reserves]]: Basically the [[Catch Phrase]] of the Orks and Imperial Guard. Tyranids take this to such an extreme that their [[Mooks]] don't even ''have digestive systems'' - they are created, sent into battle for a few hours of frenzied combat, and then recycled.
* [[We Will Have Perfect Health in
* [[We Will Use Manual Labor in
** That's nothing. Orks use Gretchin as guidance systems in their giant missiles.
*** That's nothing. The imperials (and Chaos) use '''slaves''' to power their ships, by walking on giant stepped axles.
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** The Daemonhunters (Ordo Malleus) have a bit of a thing for [[Drop the Hammer|hammers]]. (As a side note, "Ordo Malleus" means "[[Meaningful Name|Order of the Hammer]]")
** The Eldar mainly use [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|absurdly sharp]] [[Flechette Storm|shuriken weapons]], though individual [[Crippling Overspecialisation|Aspect temples]] have their own ritualised Weapons of Choice.
** [[Church Militant|The Witch Hunters]] [[Kill It
** No Ork is happy without his choppa and his [[More Dakka|dakka]]. Except if they pass up one for more of the other.
** The Necrons kill you with green lightning that literally flays you layer by layer. Except when they tear you apart with claws and wear sheets of your flesh for a hat.
** The Tau stick to <s>mere</s> [[Magnetic Weapons|railguns and pulse rifles]]. Extremely powerful ones at that.
** The Tyranids prefer the tactic of jumping on you and ''eating your face.'' When they're not doing that, they're shooting at you with the usual array of toxic, electrified, high-velocity crystals; angry, life-seeking beetles and brain-eating flesh-borer worms; biologically generated plasma; and, occasionally, dragging you screaming to your doom with lengths of ''[[Hooks and Crooks|flesh hooks]]''.
* [[Weird Science]]
* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: The Tau. The "well intentioned" bit is what sets them apart.
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* [[A Wizard Did It]]: The Warp did it. Or the Eldar. Or the C'tan Deceiver. Or Tzeentch.
* [[Wolf Man]]: Wulfen are basically werewolves...in space..with guns...in power armour.
* [[Wolverine Claws]]: Lightning Claws are this combined with [[Power Fist]]. Generally they are only distributed to Terminator Marines.
* [[Womb Level]]: The interior of Tyranid hiveships.
* [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]]: Life on board Imperial Fleet ships is this trope [[Recycled in Space]].
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== Y ==
* [[You Are Not Ready]]: Common Eldar sentiment to humans. The most common reply is a bolt shell to the face.
* [[You Have Failed Me...]]: Regularly used by Chaos, Orks and Imperial Commissars.
* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: Gleefully employed by followers of Chaos and the Dark Eldar.
** Also employed by the Grey Knights chapter with most other Imperial troops [[He Knows Too Much|in order to preserve the secret of their existence]].
* [[Your Head Asplode]]: When a psychic [[Mind Rape]] is a bit too subtle. Ork Weirdboyz even used to have a power called "'Eadbang", which is [[Exactly What It Says
* [[You Kill It, You Bought It]]: The Ork hierarchy tends to work this way, ditto the Dark Eldar and Chaos: if you succeed in killing the previous Warboss/Archite/Lord, the former officeholder clearly didn't deserve the job.
== Z ==
* [[Zeppelins
* [[Zerg Rush]]: Tyranids - unsurprisingly, as the ''Zerg themselves'' were based on them. A lot of "horde" armies, such as Orks and Imperial Guard, employ this one as well. The Imperial Guard is probably the single most emblematic example; as the largest fighting force around, numbering in the ''billions'', you get ''so many'' of them.
** Previously Tyranids were given a rule that allowed them to recycle their basic troopers, the Termagaunts, whenever the squad is wiped out. This has since been toned down and a less broken version was introduced in the form of the Tervigon, a mobile birthing sac which can run out of eggs as soon as the battle starts. It is again reintroduced in the Imperial Guard in the form of Special Character Commander Chenkov, where the rule is literally named "Send in the next wave!".
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