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Baron Bifford posted:The God-Emperor (sequel book), the Navigators, and the ban on AI. My understanding was that it used to be a lot more blatant in the Rogue Trader days but the lore sort of grew into its own after an edition or two. The basic concept is fairly derivative of Dune (Feudal far future with advanced technology being relatively scarce, powerful rogue trader houses vying for power and riches) and also of Warhammer Fantasy (basically all of the Rogue Trader-era aliens were counterparts to WHF races) but once the focus was taken off Rogue Traders the Imperium got developed into the unique and fascinating hellhole we've come to know and love.
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Jul 24, 2012 16:31
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VanSandman posted:Honestly, I've found that none of the Horus Heresy books are truly TERRIBLE, although many are very meh. So honestly just churning through them isn't a bad way to spend your busrides. Although I'd steer clear of a certain novel that rhymes with 'Tattle for the Amiss".
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Jan 27, 2013 09:01
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So just finished Pariah immediately after the Eisenhorn omnibus. That was sure a thing 
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Apr 16, 2013 04:21
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Nephilm posted:Did you read Ravenor before? Highly recommend that. Yup, first 40K books I ever read.
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Apr 16, 2013 13:59
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Titanicus is a must-read if you're at all interested in the Ad-Mech, NAND even if you aren't you should still probably pick it up if you're up to date on Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin (it isn't related to those though, don't worry about spoilers).
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Apr 22, 2013 03:45
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Specifically, the Mechanicum opposes science and 'new' technology because it believes that the only true source of knowledge is from the past, namely the Golden Age of Technology. I feel like that's more a consequence of the Ad Mech arising from the ruins of a much more advanced civilization than anything else though.
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Jun 1, 2013 13:59
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hopterque posted:He's not a chaos god so probably not particularly. Even without being a god, human belief has been established as having a real effect on reality in 40k (see the Sororitas' miracles, the Chaos gods, etc.) Plus he has 100,000 psykers jumper cabled to his cranium at any given moment. The one book that features the emperor in the 40k era was part of the Inquisition War trilogy and was written a long time ago, before a lot of the fluff got worked out. In it the emperor is fragmented into multiple personalities and basically completely insane.
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Jun 9, 2013 22:08
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Baron Bifford posted:The intro blurb in the W40K rulebook says the Emperor is "master of mankind by the will of the gods." Which "gods"? Poetic license, the Imperium doesn't acknowledge any gods other than the Emperor. Unless you're on a feral or feudal world, in which case he might be the senior-most of a pantheon. Like Dracneir said, the intro text is really old.
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Jun 24, 2013 01:15
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Baron Bifford posted:The wikis I've read says that blanks come in degrees just like pyskers. On one end you have people like Bequin, whose aura of wrongness is mild and bearable. On the other extreme you have the Pariahs, who can feed on the energies of psykers and whose presence is intolerable even to a normal. I imagine that since humanity is portrayed as getting more and more psychic (psykic?) as time goes on, originally humans were almost all mild blanks like Bequin or the Tau. Like, if you took anyone from now forward into the 40k setting they'd be seen as a blank because even regular humans have evolved psyk sensitivity. That's why there's no one on Earth right now shooting lighting bolts and sprouting tentacles.
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Jul 5, 2013 00:26
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Cream_Filling posted:I get that, but I'm in disagreement on how much "big" matters to "big and scary and monstrous" because a guy the size of a house who can't even ride around in a normal car or spaceship but has to be carried around like cargo isn't a more scary super-intelligent demigod, he's clifford the big red dog. I just think it makes the whole setup sillier instead of scarier or cooler. But the Primarchs don't ride around in 'normal' spaceships, they have their vehicles and equipment designed for them because they are literal demigods in Imperial society. Why do you think Imperial ships have such gigantic interiors? Every major piece of architecture built in M31 gets described as 'cavernous' or 'towering' because its designed to fit giants.
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Jul 14, 2013 03:27
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Arquinsiel posted:To be fair, Dante wears a cast of Sanguinius' face. Though that doesn't actually prove anything: there are psyker powers in 40K (in Dark Heresy specifically, as 'Biomancy') that let you change your physical appearance.
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Jul 15, 2013 08:26
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Arquinsiel posted:He was pretty dead when it was made. Normally you'd expect him to stop being actively psychic at that point. Nah, it's not an illusion, it actively lets you sculpt your body permanently.
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Jul 17, 2013 04:32
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Fried Chicken posted:I found the spoiler listing being referenced here, and I'm pretty skeptical. It contradicts a LOT of other stuff they have established in the Horus Heresy, as recently as the latest book. Stuff like who is where doing what, and what we know is the fate of some of the characters. That doesn't preclude them making changes (see The Primarchs and Fulgrim) but I doubt it. We'll see though, and Nick Kyme is a lovely enough writer to do it and handle it the way it says. It doesn't seem too likely given that every Primarch has survived re-entry at least once, and they did it as infants. Then again, Nick Kyme.
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Jul 19, 2013 14:29
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UberJumper posted:
This one at least has the excuse that Primarchs, especially Horus, have never really had any reason to expect Marines to be anything but absolutely loyal, especially since they spend most of their time surrounded by members their own Legion, who are genetically programmed to be unswervingly obedient.
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Jul 21, 2013 03:54
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VanSandman posted:I think what you'd have to emphasize is initially the good aspects of the four gods. Slaanesh is all about experience, Khorne at least used to be partially about martial honor, change is necessary for any sort of progress, and... Ok I have nothing for Nurgle. Maybe resilience? From there you make almost but not quite sound arguments while emphasizing that Horus is in an extremely weakened state mentally and physically, that lead from 'your dad is a dick, we need your help' to 'hey rebellion is sometimes justified' to 'how can human morality even apply to you, a primarch, anyway?' to 'let's kill everything that disagrees with us so we can start over from a clean slate. Starting with your father.' Nurgle's positive aspect is paternal love, he is 'Grandpa Nurgle' after all. All his worshipers love him and they never die from his diseases. It wouldn't be too hard to justify a whole lot of killing in the name of progress to Horus, after all he was leading the Great Crusade. He's already crushed countless peaceful worlds in the name of the Imperium, all he really has to do is fight the Crusade in reverse.
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Jul 24, 2013 19:50
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Mowglis Haircut posted:Turning into a giant bug is pretty grimdark. That sounds like good material for a Death Guard short, actually.
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Aug 10, 2013 23:37
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Kenlon posted:I really like Abnett's take on Chaos, especially as seen in the Gaunt's Ghosts books (though I have only read up through The Armour Of Contempt, so.) Exposure to Chaos will change you, guaranteed - but it doesn't have to corrupt you. Abnett's really good at writing Chaos adherents as more than berserk homicidal maniacs. Like the 'factor' character in Ravenor who is fairly normal psychologically and totally unmutated despite using Chaos artifacts, and works as a mercenary for different cults because he think's its the best way to weaken the Imperium. Or the Chaos fighters in Gaunt's Ghosts, who come from their own extra-Imperial civilization that manages to maintain its society (albeit in a highly messed-up form) despite worshipping Chaos. I especially like the latter because they're an example of Chaos worshippers who aren't secretive cultists or renegades: they see Chaos worship as a totally normal component of their culture, and thats a lot more interesting than the depiction of chaos as "Oh no this world has fallen and now demons are running around everywhere and the seas are boiling blood whelp better exterminatus the whole thing". It makes the CSM slightly more sympathetic in that them winning wouldn't necessarily result in the extermination of humanity, just it living under different, even more horrible and brutal rulers. I think the corruption thing has to do with the person itself. If you're smart or strong-willed enough, or super faithful, you have a better chance of resisting corruption. And if you don't resist, how hosed up you get (physically and mentally) depends on how useful you are to Chaos. So if the average person gets exposed to Chaos they're going to go insane or get some gnarly new limbs, but if you have potential as a cult leader you might get an easily disguised mutation or blemish, if any at all. Meanwhile if you're a Chaos renegade it doesn't matter how hosed up you look, so you get razor-sharp claw-tentacles or a demonic chainsaw where your forearm was or some crazy poo poo like that.
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Sep 8, 2013 07:47
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E: poo poo, wrong thread
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Aug 3, 2014 06:31
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PRESIDENT GOKU posted:People pay $15 or whatever for these? The Black Library: All of the embarrassment of anime, for only 3/4ths the price! Zephyrine posted:So the Heresy and Pre-heresy era is the 40K equivalent of the old republic I take it? Heresy and pre-heresy gives BL the opportunity to tell a grand, universe-spanning story, which it can't normally do because for game reasons the universe circa 40k has to remain static.
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May 10, 2015 23:29
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Waroduce posted:I am really really looking foward to the emperor of mankind, the next black legion Installment, the next ahriman installment and thatssss pretty much it. I dont know anyrhing else worth a poo poo on the horizon. I really wanna read some ham but like nothing decent has come out. I reread Helsreach and Night Lords recently cause I miss my hams. Friends don't let friends read baen books.
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Dec 24, 2015 05:47
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