Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Essentially, there aren't
any. Imperials think there are, and the Ministorum certainly preaches it that way, but Warptaint is not
what it is portrayed as in the WH40K tradition.
There is something that inhrerently rebels in me, at the thought of...
... the warprift (a literal breach in material existence) occurring, and Warpenergy coalescing into our
physical realm, adopting somebutnotall physicaluniverse traits (as a natural sideeffect of the
interaction), and (otherwise) violently interacting with this physical realm because of the
disconnect/disharmony between Warpspace and Materium...
...yet that bizarre and fascinating occurence gets boiled down to...
" The Warpgate appears as an ornate, blooddrenched vaginaanofistulodentata, covered in glowing
futhark runes.
Several things that look like screaming red cathedralgargoyles brandishing mangasized cleavers
jump out of it."
I mean, damn. Warptaint should be more interesing, more insidious, and far less marvel comics
meetsD&D. "Daemons", in my games, aren't. They're closer to Charles Stross Laundrytypes, if they
appear at all.
Perils of the Warp is cancer and radiation sickness as often as spectral shift or auditory hallucination.
ADDENDA:
I couldn't recall whether doubleposts are a bannable offense, so I'm playing cautious and just filling
out this first post.
re: the Orks. Hmmmm. My Orks are linguistically savant, among other things. They have their own
language, which, along with the standard vocal noises that they can make with those giant wolftraps
they call jaws, uses buzzes and clicks and woofs of bass subsonics, which they can "hear", essentially,
in their jawbones. They make these noises largely through the bones in their lower jaws as well. These
are very loud at very short range, and can only be transmitted/picked up by bonesructures that can
vibrate that way without (eventually) breaking. This is the other reason that Ork jawlines look the way
they do, and are so resilient. It's also the reason their teef tend to drop out so fast. Their rate of wear is
pretty heavy. Secondarily, in a mass of Orks, Imperials will find that shortrange comms of the radio
variety go bugf@kk crazy. It's not because of the "WAAAAGH"energy.
All their language, like much else they do, is almost entirely instinctive from the getgo, though their
facility with it increases with age. They find Human verbal communication appealingly funny; that's
why they speak Orkbabble pidgin around Imperials. They're having a laugh, and belittling the softies at
the same time.
They see Humans as worthy of enough respect to think of them as sentients. That's why they
occasionally communicate, "joke with" and bother to trade with/enslave them. Thst won't stop them
from slaughtering and eating them as part of the fun. It won't stop them from using pieces of stillliving
Humans as vehicledecoration. And it won't stop them from carpetbombing their planets prior to
groundinvasion. Most times, an Ork WAAAAAAGH that doesn't decimate the opposition's ground
forces before the troops land didn't do so becuase they've got another planet next on the roster that they
have to save the massdriver Roks for.
Orks hate Eldar differently becuase Ork psyker ability doesn't include the refined level of telepathy that
Eldar mindwork does. orks can't readily understand or replicate Eldar "speeech" because it's laced with
telepathic "accents" and "punctuation" as a matter of essential structure. To the Orks, this means that
Eldar are"timid" (apparently unable or unwilling to express themselves clearly and forthrightly). Thus,
they are presumed to not "really" be people (true sentients) at all. Ork wars of extermination against the
Eldar are characterized by a revulsion that, if a witness were left alive to tell, would surprise other
races. No screwing around with chants or gleeful mockery at all. No muss, no fuss, just
pure....IMPACT!
/ADDENDA
I've also tried to amp up the complexity of combat and interstellar interaction (communication, combat,
whathaveyou).
However, it is complicated by two things; one, I've no facility whatsoever with technology, engineering,
information processing/storage et al, so my handwaving much of the actual complexities of those things
often comes down to the same thing as "rule of cool"ing it. Sad.
I'm getting better, though, and reading various authors of (actual) scifi is helping, as is my girlfriend,
who understands a lot of the above quite shockingly well.
the other problem I have is that I'm no student of military history and one of my primary (sometimes
only) players is my brother, who is a Marine and an avid student of actual military tactics, strategy,
history, et cetera. he also knows and cooresponds with a fair number of dudes who work in law
enforcement. so, my ideas of how a fight might go can become comedyfodder very quickly. I have to
play fast andloose, and trust the player not to abuse the drama of the setting with outside knowledge.
It's an uphill battle.
Green Knight has, IMO, the right idea with the abhumans. It's also the feel of the original RT setting
that there would be the (same as now) revulsion towards the abnormal and presumption that "physical
human ideal equals virtuous person" racism/geneticism, but in utter conflict with the the reality on the
(planetary) ground, i.e., that those who are abnormal were, in fact, part of the reason that Mankind
advanced throughout space in the first place.
Whew, that was a ridiculously long sentence. What I mean is, that this cultural "cognitive dissonance"
is one of the things that I loved about WH40K since I was 1213, when it first showed up.
And, since then, I've come accept two things. One, I actually accept the Squats pretty wholeheartedly,
and two, I was having trouble accepting them because of my (tacit) acceptance of the Eldar.
I still can't abide a universe where both Space Elves and Space Dwarves exist, independently created;
one, an offshoot of humanity that coincidentally acts/appears as mythological/D&D dwarves. The
other, complete aliens, who for (watever the hell the rationale now is) are basically like Tolkien Elves,
and have suspiciously Gaelicoid sounding language.
Eldar must stay; there's too much cool about them. "Space Elves", however, must go, sadly.
My DH has "Eldar" (a name coined by humans) that look very little like the Elves of yesteryear. Most
humans never see an Eldar face. They wear their conehead gear all the time around species enemies
(almost everyone).
They are similar to humans in that they are bilaterally symmetrical, have endoskeletons, et cetera.
They aren't "primates" like we are. Their closest evolutionary relative was an arboreal being similar in
phenotype to a squirrel, but having no genetic relationship to either rodentia or primates of Terra. They
don't have five fingers to hand, they have seven (two of those are thumbs). Their joints (elbows, knees)
don't move like ours, and apparently, their anterior/interior cruciate ligaments, if they have them, are
resilient in a way that no hominid's is. Their pivots seem to all be on universallyswivelling balljoints.
Threir necks extend in a manner unlike humans', and their heads can swivel about on those necks much
like an owl's. In motion, they are as fast as the legends portray, but also able to go utterly still with no
perceptible slowdown, kinked into positions a human would be absurd to emulate. Thy aren't
"graceful"seeming to a human; unless that human thinks that hyperkinetic stickbugs are "graceful".
And they aren't "disturbingly beautiful" either, unless the viewer fancies something that looks like a
somewhat anthropomorphized, megalocephalic rabbit/fieldmouse/pseudohominid. There's a reason
their helms are so pointy.
I keep all the Craftworldystuff and Aspects, and they are still massively psychic.
Their language is inflected totally throughout by telepathy. Nobody else can really "speak Eldar".
All the names that people have for them (both the personal and the titlenames, like Fire Dragons) are
usenames that the Eldar would never use.
They have only allied with humans long enough to put that same set of humans into bigger problems.
This is deliberate. I run them as the prognosticating schemers that they are known to be, only more so.
"Dark Eldar" are just a variant on the Exodite type. The natural competition between them and all
others is just that. Humans see an intersubspecies war. Eldar see it more as we would see the "war"
between Democrats and Republicans in the USA, or the "war" between Old and New Labor.
"Sla'anesh" is a human shortening of a very complex series of thoughtterms for a specieswide psychic
malady. Said malady caused what we call the Fall, but to the Eldar would be viewed as "the Setback".
It's really bad, and yes, it had (maybe) something to do with the Eye of Teror, but then again, that may
also have been really unwise (and at that point, utterly crazy) eldar superscientists screwing around with
the safety protcals on warpgate junctures, too.
I know I'm not the only one to have made changes to the Eldar...I feel as though this set of ideas is,
actually, a ripoff of someone else's. I stick with them because they seem right to me, though I worry I
may have appropriated some other poster's notions. if so, please don't think I'm taking sole credit...I
doubt I've ever had an "original" idea for this game in my life!
Good to hear . Now, about them Spacer'inos...
Holy Hannah, this coffee is good. I just can't stop talking today.
Hmmmm, start in brief. In my DH, there is a big difference between an Astartesaspresented and what
Astartes actually act like. AdMin propagands has them as, well, as Dezmond shows them to be. Gallant,
lone warriorknights who engage in deeply symbolic 'lonehero' action against the foe like a Joseph
Campell archetype. <Not a bad idea, by the way...just not the truth in my campaign>.
The reality is that they are not that at all, at least when onmission in their standard outing. Nor are they
(usually) crazed 'Zerk'a'rinos that "kil kil kil" all the time. They veer between the two a lot, though. The
first, heroic type of demeanor will often be shown by a chapter/detatchment during "parade action",
when the force has already won the planet and a triumphal march of force is needed to awe the
(remaining) spectators.
The second does happen, often by accident. In the absence of orders and clear goals, (new) field
Astartes might revert to a "kill all presumed hostiles" surgical butchery tactic. Usually, by this point
supplies and ammo are low, so it might come down to sidearms and chainaxes.
Once officers/clear orders/a working frigging voxponder have been found, things generally settle down.
Unless the Marines have been left on their own for more than a few weeks...then, see below.
Their hypnoindoc makes them very much the "do nothing except prepare to fight" type...at first.
But...hypnoindoc, as every supp I care to remember, since WD#96, is not particularly welldone;
shrouded in ritual and, let's face it, poor procedural oversight, it doesn't always take. And Marines, over
time, redevelop their personalities, even if only in part.
Also, the officer class are, by necessity, reprogrammed over time, during their visits to the
Apothecarion/Techmarines, to have more variation in their thinking. This naturally leads to them
becoming more individual.
As said before, HypInd and radical surgery sometimes don't fully erase the person's "former self". So
even Scouts/new Astartes have traits of character that weren't erased. An inability to hold one's temper
without cursing a blue streak, for example. A shocking remembrance of past libidinal interest, despite
being effectively chemgelded, for another. Perhaps most worryingly, a tendency towards insubordinate
remarks towards superiors that would be bettersuited to a PDF trooper...
Some of the above, in the canon, would get an Astartes expunged. In my game, the truth is that it
doesn't happen that often. The "purity above all in mind and deed" schtick is a lot of tell and no show.
There's fighting to get to, after all.
Physically, Astartes are regenerative in ways no human is. In my game, that means they are as much
afflicted as blessed. They are, at the standardtroops level, entirely physically dependent on the
Apothecarion to keep them "immortal" . Going rogue or being left behind really does result in
"Metabolic Crazyville". And insanity. And, often, painful death. None of this "going to ground, alone
on the jungle deathworld for six years" foolishness. Unless "alone" means "a lone reinforced Company
with Apothecary and Techmarine adjuncts".
Also, the physical appearance of a Marine is probably sickening to an average human. They survive and
are repaired by regrowth and by chemical/surgical/regen. They are benign cancer factories. Their
scarring, after a year of active duty, makes their skin appear as though they've been through an atomic
blast. The constant ampinganddumping action of the Melanochrome attribute, coupled with chemical
searing during that same action, probably leaves a lot of wierd piebald spotting and striping.
No regular human would be able to tell the difference between a Loyalist veteran Marine, and a Traitor
mutated by warpexposure and medical neglect. They are almost fascinatingly ugly.
Heh. Well. In the years before the "Heresy", every Legion designed it's own bobs and bits on their
armor to amp up their image as the 'ardest of the ard' bastaaads. So. spikes. Sometimes.
my Traitor'inos don't...
have spikes bigger than their forearms on their armor.
have ridiculous horns or solarpanel flanges on the sides of their helms.
overembellish their armor to the point of looking like a pincushion.
They're still pretty scarylooking. They DO adorn themselves with the standard individualistic
paintschemes that tend to emphasize antiImperial, pro"I'm going to eat your face on the way to your
brain" ideals. Imperials would view this kind of decoration as "idolatry". or, Daemonworship. Or, at
the very least, Daemonimitation.
Most Traitors view it as an extension of the "shock and awe" effect they were trying to achieve back in
the day when they ran the armed forces. Y'know, when things were right.
The PwrAxe'verse version of the InterLegionary Wars (Heresy) has it that it was really just an
Astartessupremacy "cult" started by Lorgar and amped up to fullon civil war by that most unlikely of
traitors, known as Horus ("Horus" was probably his title, of course; nobody remembers his personal
name).
The Warpstruck lunacy progressed only because of the Traitors' need to find an ace in the hole. Many
amongst them were convinced that warpcraft (a la the Adranti, the warpsmiths of Kai, et cetera) was a
natural progression to real power in the galaxy...after all, the Astartes were (ideally) running things;
they weren't going to be afraid to utilize a resource just because it caused mental and physical side
effects on normal humans...
Traitors don't "worship" Warpgods or anything like that. True, the least sane and mostcognitively
degenerate amongst them incorporate wierd superstitions into their daily ritual, likely gleaned from
whatever savage outposts they hide at. They also utilize preImperial, DAoT medical techniques
whenever they can, to augment themselves. Some of these involve psychic "training" outside the
approved norm, and (supposedly controlled) exposure to the "Hard Radiance" (radiation, from
pulsars,black holes, and warp rifts).
Many Traitors still carry the presumption that Hard Radiance (aka: the Black Sun, the Invisible Sun,
Daemon's Fire or Hellfire) is both unbelievably dangerous to normal humanity, but relatively less so to
Astartes. They believe that the proscriptions against warpexposure were Terra's attempt to limit their
capabilities (just as the Council of Nikaea was).
And right there, with the cynosure of unsanctioned psionic augmentation, the utilization what
Guilliman would call the "Forbidden Biologies", and deliberate warpexposure...that's where the myth
of the Daemonpossessed Traitor comes from.
And those lads really are crazy and scary. Mostly, though, it's the same kind of inhuman scariness you
can get from what we see as "normal" craziness. Read any book concerning crystal
methamphetamine...see what a simple overexposure to a neurotoxic stimulant does to the personality of
a community involved with it.
That's why Traitors are scary, teethfiling, cannibalistic wretches. The "Daemon"is the warpenergy
itself.
And of course, the occasional Psychic Vampire, or other inimical Warpparasite lurking in their brain.
I agree concerning the Slaaneshstate (Slaaneshthing, Slaaneshphenomenon). In my 'verse, the
phenomenon must have been prominent for as long as there were beings that had sensoria and any
interaction with warpresonant space at all.
The Eldar are just the current species in the humanocentric histories to interact with/be infected by the
Slaanesh state to the degree that they were. Their name for this state/phenomenon/condition is
something humans say like "Slaanesh".
But Slaanesh never had to have a name. It's been there for as long as interaction between the Materium
and the Warp has been viable.
Oh, as long as I'm amped on Astartes, I should mention a huge change I have made: the Primarchs are
not godly beings as in the Alan Merritt canon. they weren't actually tossed through the Warp and lost
on planets unknown, either. Whatever did happen was sanctioned and orchestrated by the Emperor.
They might not be his clonechildren, they may merely have been "elevated" to greater status because of
fantastic potential...We really don't know what they were.
Here's what the Imperium of now does know:
They were instrumental leaders of various Legions (Horus being defacto "overlord"/Warmaster of all
of them at some point)
They were likely either psychic or had such genius of persuasion they could control their chosen
Legions with little effort, and be mostly perceived as (at worst) above most reproach or (at best) saintly
and flawless of character
They molded their Legions' tactical and strategic preferences to their own, and introduced quirks of
heraldry/presentation that they felt fitting
Here's what I've labeled verboten:
Sanguinious (or Sanguino, or El Sanguinado, nobody knows for sure) wasn't some stupid great winged
mutant angel like in Marvel Comics; his representation as such is merely an affect of his Legion (whom
I renamed and gave new, less ridiculous heraldry to).
Guilliman allowed the Legio XIII to be (nick)named the "ultramarines" as a nod to unit pride. This is
due to their adoption of the distinctive ultramarinecolored armor. Their REAL NAME has always been
"the XIIIth", and their armor, whether it has an "Uh"rune, an OldeEnglish capitial "U", or some other
"ultra" symbol on it, always has that "XIII" on the left pauldron.
Oh, yeah, Ultras are, in my 'verse, the leastblingy of the lads. They don't adorn their armor, or recolor
their helms with wierd heraldry, or even really use the colorcoded pauldron/eagles/whathaveyou.
They use small symbol pips at the edges of same, usually in white, to denote all of that. Generally, they
identify Company and squad the way a Marine should, using voxcodes and signcant.
Their Codex insists on all that for other Legions/Chapters, because of a presumption that those guys
need their rankings and placings spelled in big, primary colorcodes. Yep, Guilliman's brood are still
really arrogant...
Space Wolves don't have some stupid werewolfgene. The few SW officers who sport fangs or tusks
had those implanted by elective surgery to look scary and make the Legion's reputation stand out as
animalistic killers that you don't cross. Most Great Company leaders are cunning and slowfused
planners, and think that charging gloriously ahead is nothing but a good PR stunt. S'Wolves are about as
Vikingish as you or I "are" Jack Sparrow the Pirate at Halloween. It's an affectation, done relatively
rarely.
Dark Angels, weirdly enough, are pretty much same! I just like these fellas...oh, but they are dead
blackarmored, and their heraldry is RED, RED, RED. Like back in '87.
I made the "Iron Warriors" (only a nickname) a breakaway traitor faction of the Iron Hands; just a
preference thing.
The "Imperial Fists", "Dorn's Fists", and "Crimson Fists" are all the same Legion. They look like
Crimson Fists 'cause I like me some Crimson Fists.
The only 'Fists who throw up the Yellow and Black are those who are on permanent HonorGuard
assignment on Terra. They are hardly ever seen anywhere else in the Galaxy.
There's no Black Rage or Red thirst throughout the selfnamed "Vampire Legions" such as the Blood
Drinkers, Flesh Eaters, Fleshtearers, or others. This, again, is carefullyspread misinformation to make
those fellas sound vicious. Fangs, claws, scary faces? you bet that's a combo of elective surgery,
hammedup acting, and being "Marinefethugly".
Nor are all those presumed to be "Vampire Legions", such as the Wolves Carnelian, even breakaways
or successors of the Ninth. Having a vampiric, bloody, or cannibalistic motif is pretty common even
amongst Loyalist Marines.
Yes, this feels right, to some degree.
It is this "with us, but not of us" conflict that I enjoy most form an RP aspect. Astartes come from us,
but are (as many see it) above us. They fight for "us" (humanity), but will have no particular empathy or
meaningful contact with "mere" men for most of their existence.
We are, in an extreme Astartes view, merly the chrysalis, an imperfect but still necessary beginning
point for the more perfect Astartesform.
Even in the more moderate Chapters, there is a sort of dissonance...
...Marines are Human, but they are not men (in standard genderrole models);
....Or, Marines are the epitome of "manliness" (they are 'born' purely artificially, care only for duty,
have no overt feelings that could be construed as 'soft' or weak and have no apparent weakness for
family or females); yet they aren't (biologically) "Human" as we are;
...Or, they are a "better human", but inextricably tied to, and deliberately indebted to, their fallible
forebears.
Is it any wonder that the Astartes who go rogue often adopt "AstartesSupremacist" movements? A way
to bring order to the ambivalence; instead of attempting the difficult synthesis of so many of the above
ideas, they just view the whole process of questioning as yet another Human fallibility, to be destroyed.
Destroyed just like the very roots of their origin; their ties to the perceived weakness of the past, cut.
History, abolished.
1. As I see it
Aliens are presumed, even during the "nonreligious" supposedlyenlightened Great Crusade, to be
antithetical to Humanity (as a spiritual "thing", an idea, a set of values, and as a set of appropriate
genetic traits) because their alienness will pollute both our genetics, and our understanding of
ourselves, our "identity".
Xenos, therefore, are AntiHuman as well as nonhuman, merely by virtue of being xenos.
That is the belief. It is fostered both by ridiculous superstitions, but also by some real evidence,
such as the Great Alien Wars at the ending of the DAoT. Assumptions that all xenos presence
destroys/mutates Humanity itself is, of course, nonsense, a misunderstanding/conflation of the outof
control psychic activity that resulted in so much chaos happening at the same time as Humanity
showing an upswing in conflicts with aliens.
Nonetheless, while the "xenos=antius" belief is entirely prevalent and could be almost entirely
unexamined and unquestioned.
AND YET....There are powerful people trading with aliens. And getting away with it. Even with
Orks. And not getting eaten, or shot at too often.
It's not always happening in the open, but it does happen. And it's necessary for it to happen, in
some places, like craphole Frontier Worlds, and it's unnecessary but still keeps happening in other
places, because of some cultural inertia that allows it to keep happening since forever.
"Cultural inertia" like a longlived and extremely eccentric Lord Helmawr of Necromunda, who has
audience with xenos filth, yet not only walks away from the meetings hale, hearty, and happy, but also
able to turn a profit from some of those meetings.
And hey, the Magos Biologis can't find anything wrong with him, he still goes to pray at the Altar
of HeEnthroned, and most importantly, Necromunda IS STILL PAYING THEIR HEAVY TITHES,
ON TIME AND WITH NO TROUBLES.
As long as nobody else underSpire gets a notion, everyone can ignore this kind of thing, right? Just
a Noble's little fanciful dalliance with the outre...
And despite the dissonance between what the Imperium as a whole believes (fervently)and what
many Imperials experience, the belief continues, forever.
DISSONANCE IS FUN. Doublethink is also fun. It is right, and very 40K, to have that which
threatens Humanity's essential humanness, also be an occasional guest at state dinner.
2. Re: the contingent of Marines on Necromunda's principal spire.
Sadly, they are rather boring Ultramarines. Not anyone else, and of course, they could afford to
expand their token squad into something like a thirtyMarine permanent garrison/honor guard, over
time. Yes, I think I read long ago that they're even fitted with their own Thunderhawk.
'Course, one wonders how "ultramarine" they are at this point, if "they" are the same guys
permanently stationed there (and not a bunch of dudes from the Reserve Co.'s rotated in over time). I
mean, do they have a claim to their Company anymore? Do they wear Helmawr's/the Spire's heraldry to
show their station, or their old unit numbers? Do they even bother reporting back to Macragge?
3. Dezmond The Jim Burns picture you referenced, showing a F@KKAWESOME SPACER'INO
slingin' bolt rounds straight into a crowd of Scavvies... by his pauldron heraldry, that guy was actually a
Blood Drinker, not a BA. Interesting that he did seem to have heraldry confirming a permanent status
on Necromunda, though...