Topic: Warhammer 40K Core Fluff

[Feanor Fire Heart]

Well I learned something new today:



Apparently, Ullanor, home to the largest Ork empire during the Great Crusade, then later again during the war of the beast was later colonized and became the world of Armageddon. Which would explain why the 2nd and 3rd wars for Armageddon were subject to some of the largest Ork invasions.

[GamesPoet]

Da Orks iz not happy when da hummies take over da proppaty!

[Dihenydd]

Does this explain why orks originally were 1/3 the size of the current range?

My old metal 1st and 2nd edition Orks are barely bigger than current grotz.  Plus the old ones were much better dressed and organized.  In a few generations they've morphed into these giant, loin-cloth wearing, degraded society, brutes who are barely able to speak.  Seems like there's only 3-4 types of boys now too!  Whatever happened to the Beer Boyz for instance?  And why did all the Ogryns leave to join the 'umies?  Did the Sewin' Boyz all lose their jobs when uniforms went out of fashion?  Did someone eat all the boars?

All this fightin' over whatever-that-planet-is-called-today has definitely enacted the "growth" gene in the orkoid biology.

[Feanor Fire Heart]

Nah the older and tougher the ork, the bigger he is. The Beast was huge! Ten meters tall!

[Gankom]

Yeah the Beast series had some trippy lore bombs like the Ullanor/Armageddon thing, or the Imperial Fist extinction stuff.

[Feanor Fire Heart]

Is the series any good? I know they were on audible.

[Gankom]

It got a lot of flack at the time. I find it a bit hit or miss myself. Some novels are great, others feel like they stretched it out for no reason. There's also some weird retcons to stuff like the Deathwatch. But if you like the Imperial Fists, Vulcan or orks its a pretty decent series.

[Sigmar90]

What would you recommend if I was more interested in Tyranid lore & fluff? Any good reads in that regard?

[Gankom]

I'm not as familiar with Tyranid focused stuff. Devastation of Baal is real good though. Primarily focused on Blood Angels, but also one of the few books I can think of that has a POV from the Tyranids themselves. Also shows just how deadly they are that the Tyranids nearly overrun a mostly reformed legion.

I've heard really good things about "Cult of the Spiral Dawn", but I think that might be more Genestealers with a side of tyranids.

[GamesPoet]

Are genestealers their own faction? I just presumed because they were tyranids.  The game Space Hulk has Blood Angels and genestealers, if I recall.

(I haven't played in about 10 years, but the box is sitting here in my living room staring at me ... lol.)

[Gankom]

Genestealers are a unit available to both Genestealer cults and tyranids. They're essentially Tyranid infiltrators and sleeper cells. They infect human hosts that return to a planet to spread the infection. Each generation/birth is a further evolution, and the cult slowly works to take over or destabilise the planet. Once they reach critical mass, the psychic potential of all the cultists acts as a kind of beacon that draws the tyranids to the planet, and all the cults work makes the planet easier to harvest and eat.

So Genestealer Cults are essentially humans infected and brain washed by Tyranid virus' to prepare for the invasion. In game they share some units and can generally ally really easily. Genestealers themselves are one of those units shared, and essentially what 'starts' the cult.

[Feanor Fire Heart]

What would you recommend if I was more interested in Tyranid lore & fluff? Any good reads in that regard?

Theres few with the Tyranids as the protagonist/main character. They usually show up as the big bad (either in a grand/splinter invasion or through subtler means via the Genestealer Cults). They show up every now and then in the Cain novels. "Warriors of Ultramar" (2nd book in Ultramarines series) is suppose to be a great one detailing a Tyranid invasion. A lot of people are lauding "Devestation of Baal" (Nids vs Blood Angels) for Tyranid lore too.

Other than the Cain books I have only read a few short stores like "The Fall of Malvolion" which was a good depiction of how dire a full on hive fleet invasion can be to the unsuspecting. There was also a short story by the King of Space Wolves novels (William King) "In the Belly of the Beast" about a space wolf scouting mission on a mysterious ship found that seems to be organic. I read both short stories in the anthology book "Let the Galaxy Burn" which has great short stories that flesh out the whole universe. It was published in the mid 2000s so it may be hard to get a physical copy but I am sure you can probably find them on the interwebs.

As for Genestealer Cults (GSC) there is the novel Cult of the Spiral Dawn. I also like this fan made video from the TTS guys for Halloween a few years back. Its a lovecraftian telling (and homage to the xbox game "Call of Cthulhu") of a GSC set in the universe of "If the Emperor Had a Text To Speech Device" (often referred to as TTS).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep_1k-lOto8

If you like webcomics "Servants of the Imperium" is a comedy 40k webcomic about an Inquisitor and his crew that run into a few misadventures (its based on the Inquisition table top RPG game) and has an "Order of the Stick" style artwork. The comic starts in Black and White and after a handful of strips its full color. They have a really fun and interesting GSC arc near the middle of the series that I re-read from time to time. I am glad you made me re-find the webcomic because it ended abruptly with a montage comic detailing what would of happened if he had time to finish it (this was a long time ago), but it looks like he finished it as I am seeing new comic panels than I remember and no longer that montage one.  The GSC arc starts around strip #63
https://www.servantsoftheimperium.com/index.php


Edit: Also if you're into video games Dawn of War 2 has you play as a Space Marine chapter (Blood Ravens) as their recruitment worlds are being invaded by a hive fleet. The story and action is really good. It plays like a squad based rpg strategy game. They also have this wonderful trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTjyO_FncE4

Its $20 on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/15620/Warhammer_40000_Dawn_of_War_II/

There are sequels, one that continues the story of your team against a Chaos invasion, and a 3rd where the Inquisition shows up and you can play the campaign as any faction (the vanilla and first sequel games campaigns is only from the PoV of the Space Marines)

[Feanor Fire Heart]

Looks like Forge World is redesigning their site. They have a cool page talking about the Horus Heresy with a small break down of each legion. Check it out:

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-GB/Horus-Heresy

[GamesPoet]

A good refresher, and a quick read, thank you!

[Feanor Fire Heart]

I've been on a bit of an Armageddon kick and reading up on the lore. Here's a fun tidbit I found:

Herman Von Strab was Overlord of Armageddon during the 2nd war for Armageddon. He ignored all signs and warnings that an invasion was coming. He refused to send out a distress signal to ask for assistance (luckily Yarrick disobeyed orders and did it anyways). He made himself the military high command with no experience. He Sacrificed a full legion of Titans (providing no support). He used virus bombs that were past their expiration date that did nothing to the Orks and was just utterly incompetent. Yarrick saved the day and prevented the planet from falling to the Orks long enough for the warp storms to calm down while Von Strab sat it out in a bunker. Then Dante along with the blood angels, salamanders, and Ultramarines who received the distress call and were waiting for the storm to subside, showed up and took command. When asked who fucked everything up so badly, Von Strab took off in a personal spaceship and went MIA...until the 3rd war of Armageddon when he shows up and cuts a deal with the Orks so he can rule one of the hives cities in exchange for showing them the secret route into the city.

[Feanor Fire Heart]

Speaking of TTS they just released a one off episode about Ciphas Cain! AND IT IS GLORIOUS!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRozBAIbaG4

There is also another one off from a few years ago about the power that is Sly Marbo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCMNWAJiz5Y

It looks like along with the normal TTS episodes, the Bro Trip episodes, and other shorts, Alfabusa seems to be doing a Hero of the Imperium series too.

[GamesPoet]

Came across this fluff piece about Tau being attacked by the Deathguard ...

 https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/01/13/psychic-awakening-beyond-the-startide-nexusgw-homepage-post-2/

Makes me want to work on my Tau figures, and it has me curious as to what came after this short story.

[GamesPoet]

Here is a video with core fluff regarding Robuote Guilliman, although it also provides some bits and pieces about some of the other primarchs as well ... this could be perhaps useful to those that are just coming up to speed with some of the basic background for 40K ...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UqnfJ31muk&pbjreload=101