[tanglewood]

Introduction

This game will be based on the tabletop miniture wargame Warhammer 40,000, hereby WH40k or 40k. 40k is an offshoot of the original Warhammer Fantasy Battles game which is probably more well known and widely played, but in truth is really, really, really boring. WH40k however is not only better in a game mechanic sense but its biggest hook (for me) is a stupendously rich setting that I genuinly feel is the best sci-fi setting ever created. Better than Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, Blade Runner, everything. WH40k is a huge universe, but this game only focuses on a specific region, a specific conflict and a specific time of the WH40k universe, so encyclopedic knowledge of the setting will not be neccessary to take part. The information I provide should be more than enough for even someone with no knowledge at all of WH40k to take an active and enjoyable role and I will also be more than happy to answer any questions based on the setting from the players (within the bounds of common sense GM restriction of course).

The Warhammer 40,000 Universe

The universe of WH40k can be loosely described as 'dystopian gothic science-fiction', think Star Wars meets 1984 meets the Dark Ages. The bloated Imperium of Man rules with an iron fist over an incalcuable number of star systems with The Emperor at its head, a godlike figure of worship for his citizens, desperatley kept artificially 'alive' for centuries on end for fear of what may happen if he dies. The Imperium is unashameadly facistic, rampantly xenophobic, irrevocably corrupt and technologically stagnant. Its enemies from the outside are many, the alien hive-like hunting creatures the Tyrannids, the monsterous barbaric species named Orks and others, but perhaps the most dangerous is the Chaos. The Chaos are a collection of Daemon Gods who inhabit the Warp, a kind of subspace acessible only to navigators who use it to pilot their ships, who prey on the emotions and stimuli of living flesh. They corrupt souls and bend them to their own demands, feeding on their anguish and burning hatred. As such, although Chaos does posses armies of Daemon warriors, Chaos cannot be combated in the same fashion as the Imperiums other enemies. Many of the elite genetically enhanced Space Marine super soldier legions sent to combat the forces of Chaos have themselves become corrupted and turned on the Imperium. 10,000 years ago, the first of these great Heresys, lead by the Emporer's favourite and most trusted general, Horus, almost ripped the Imperium in two, a shock in truth it has yet to recover from. It is this event that the game is based on and named after.

This post will be general WH40k information about the setting in a non-game related sense and will be updated throughout the game as people ask questions and as notice things fit to add. The next post will provide more detailed specifics about the actual game mechanics.