Warhammer 40,000: Difference between revisions

[[File:new40k_4612.gif|frame|Welcome to [[Crapsack World|Hell]]. We accept [[Crack Isis Cheaper|payment]] in paper or plastic.]]

What makes 40K unique in the gaming genre is its ''[[Refuge in Audacity|extreme]]'' [[Grimdark|darkness]]. Set thirty-eight thousand years in the future, the game's basic setting, insofar as it ''can'' be summed up, is that of a universe twisted into a [[Crapsack World|horrifying hell]] where an [[War Is Hell|eternal, impossibly vast conflict]] occurs between several absurdly powerful [[Kill 'Em All|genocidal]], [[Fantastic Racism|xenocidal]], and (in at least one case) [[Apocalypse How|omnicidal]] factions, with [[Trope Overdosed|every single weapon, ideology, and creative piece of nastiness imaginable]] [[Troperiffic|turned]] [[Up to Eleven]]. And even ''it'' [[Cosmic Horror Story|has a]] [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|Hell]].

The central faction, the [[The Empire|Imperium of Man]], once held immeasurable glory, but is now a [[Dystopia|paranoid, fascist theocracy]] whose [[Messianic Archetype|messiah]] has been locked up on life support for the past ten millennia, [[Horus Heresy|laid low by his most beloved son]]. An incomprehensibly vast [[Church Militant]] [[Corrupt Church|commits horrible atrocities in his name]] on an almost-daily basis. Millions of capricious, fanatical, [[Bio Augmentation|genetically engineered]] [[Super Soldier]] [[Knight Templar|Knights Templar]] and equally fanatical, [[Kill It With Fire|pyromaniacal]] [[Amazon Brigade|battle nuns]] serve as the Imperium's special forces, while its ''trillions''-strong regular army takes [[We Have Reserves|disregard for human life]] to new and interesting extremes. A futuristic [[State Sec|Inquisition]] ruthlessly hunts down anyone with even the ''slightest'' taint of the heretic, the mutant, or the [[Fantastic Racism|alien]], [[Earthshattering Kaboom|even destroying entire planets]] ''just to be sure''. Technology has, at best, [[Medieval Stasis|hardly progressed for ten thousand years]], is largely considered [[Cargo Cult|magical]] because the science behind it has been [[Lost Technology|long forgotten]], and the [[Cybernetics Will Eat Your Soul|deranged]] [[Machine Worship|machine cult]] that [[Ragnarok Proofing|preserves and replicates what remains of it]] considers [[Older Is Better|innovation to be blasphemy]] against the [[Precursors|wisdom of the ancients]]. The Warp, the [[Faster Than Light Travel]] the Imperium must rely on, carries with it a good chance of [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|being torn apart by daemons in more ways than one]], and the Astronomican, the navigation aid used to negotiate Warpspace, is powered by the [[God -Emperor]]'s soul and [[Powered By a Forsaken Child|has the souls of one thousand psychic humans]] [[Human Resources|sacrificed to it every day]], dying by inches to feed the machine.

The problem is, as bad as the Imperium is, it's equaled in evil by many other factions; dying when facing them is about the best fate you can hope for. The ancient and mysterious [[The Chessmaster|manipulator race]], hovering near extinction, contrives wars that see billions dead so that ''[[Moral Myopia|small]] [[ItsIt's All About Me|handfuls]]'' of their own may survive, while their depraved cousins ''must'' spend their lives perpetuating [[Cruel and Unusual Death|mass slaughter]] and [[Cold -Blooded Torture]] to stave off their own destruction. Vast [[Bee People|Bug]] [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Swarms]] are trying to eat every organic thing in the galaxy as part of their natural life cycles. An entire civilization of incredibly advanced, [[Immortality Immorality|undying]], [[Robot War|living metal]] conquerors are awakening after millions of years of slumber, ready to reclaim a galaxy they see as rightfully theirs. A [[Our Orcs Are Different|genetically-engineered warrior species]] infests every corner of the galaxy and is cheerfully trying to kill everything else (including each other, if nothing better presents itself) because it's literally hard-wired into their genetic code to do so... and because [[For the Evulz|it's]] [[Blood Knight|fun]]. The closest thing to the [[Well -Intentioned Extremist|"good guys"]] you can find in this setting is a [[Naive Newcomer|tiny alien empire]] sandwiched between all the other factions, and they [[I Did What I Had to Do|may or may not]] have a thing for forcing new subjects into their empire through [[Utopia Justifies the Means|orbital bombardment]], [[The Evils of Free Will|concentration camps,]] and possible [[Mass Hypnosis|mind]] [[Happiness in Slavery|control]] by a few [[Path of Inspiration|benevolent]] [[Well -Intentioned Extremist|elites]]... but at least they'll [[Stockholm Syndrome|offer you admittance into their club]] [[Join or Die|before doing any of that stuff]]. Many of these factions have a common foe in the forces of Chaos, which infests the Warp, exists to corrupt all it touches, and is best known for ''two'' light-years-wide [[Negative Space Wedgie|holes in reality]] through which [[The Legions of Hell|countless daemons]] and [[Evil Counterpart|corrupted]] [[The Dark Side|daemon-powered]] [[Like a Badass Out of Hell|super-soldiers]] periodically attempt to bring the universe to further ruin.

As well as the game itself and its rulebooks, faction-specific, setting-specific, and campaign sourcebooks, 40K has spawned a range of [[Expanded Universe|spinoff games and publications]]. Over sixty novels and short story anthologies are published by the Black Library, a subsidiary of Games Workshop, who also published the now out-of-print comic book ''Warhammer Monthly'' and short story magazine ''Inferno''. Boom! Studios now publish comics set in the 40K universe, in the form of various mini-series, rather than an ongoing title. There is even a full-length fan film, ''[[Damnatus]]'', which was approved, made, banned over conflicts between British and German IP laws, then leaked online. Spinoff tabletop games include the space combat game ''[[Battlefleet Gothic]]'', large-scale strategy ''Epic 40,000'', gang-based ''[[Necromunda]]'', all-Ork ''Gorkamorka'', small scale ''[[Alien (Film)|Alien]]''-influenced ''[[Space Hulk]]'', RPG-influenced "narrative wargame" ''[[Inquisitor]]'', and the more traditional RPGS, ''Dark Heresy'', ''[[Rogue Trader]]'', ''[[Deathwatch (Tabletop Game)|Deathwatch]]'', and ''[[Black Crusade]]''. A small but growing number of 40k videogames have also been made; early examples include the ''Space Hulk'' series and a slightly obscure isometric Genesis / Mega Drive game called ''Aspect Warrior''. More recent are ''Warhammer 40,000: [[Dawn of War]]'' and its sequel ''[[Dawn of War]] II'', a pair of [[Real Time Strategy]] games for the PC; ''Warhammer 40,000: [[Fire Warrior]]'', a [[First -Person Shooter]]; ''Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command'', a turn-based tactical game; and finally, a third-person shooter, ''[[Warhammer 40000 Space Marine]]''. ''Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium'' is currently in development. An official CGI movie, ''[[Ultramarines (Film)|Ultramarines]]'', was recently released on DVD, following up on a number of live-action shorts shown at various Games Day events in the 90s.

As you may have guessed from the incredible size and attention to detail on this page, [[Fan Nickname|40k]] has a huge, diverse, and fanatical following, despite the niche status of the hobby. The franchise has a lot of appeal even to people who don't play the wargame itself, and who only follow the spinoffs (many of which are perfectly good in their own right). You don't have to [[Crack Isis Cheaper|spend all your money]] to experience the inimitable insanity that is ''Warhammer 40,000''.

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