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Warhammer Fantasy Battle

2020-05-07T12:22:55Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* In A World Of War */

[[Image:WHFBlogo.gif|center]]
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[[Image:Empire Daemons.jpg|lright|thumb|600px|Where SAN saves are automatically passed while your flag still stands. Where a single greenskin can beat Chaos Undivided at its strongest. Where Liches can order around Chaos Gods like bitches. Where American football takes precedence over ONLYWAR. This <s>was</s> '''IS''' Warhammer Fantasy.]]
{{Topquote|There was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars.|Robert E. Howard}}
{{Topquote|To this day, I have the most fond memories of some of my old toys.|Michael Keaton}}
{{Topquote|Every parting gives a [[The End Times|foretaste of death]], [[Total War: WARHAMMER|every reunion a hint of ]][[Warhammer: The Old World|the resurrection.]]|Arthur Schopenhauer}}
Warhammer is dead! Long live Warhammer! It has been replaced with [[Age of Sigmar]] by GW with a continuation of the canon storylines. For the supplement where the [[Squat|world is destroyed]], see [[The End Times]]. To see the fan revolt continuation of the game, see [[The 9th Age]] or [[Warhammer Armies Project]]. To see the video game adaption, see [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: Warhammer]]. There's also the [[Endhammer]] project.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/11/15/old-world-new-warhammer/ WARHAMMER LIVES!''' STOMP STOMP.''']

Warhammer Fantasy '''IS''' a traditional Fantasy world created in the days when metal hair was all the rage and Dungeons and Dragon was still a new and strange concept. A somewhat darker take on the age-old Fantasy set forth by earlier writers such as Tolkien where the forces of man are almost constantly on the defense, Fantasy is a place where MEN are MEN, and ELVES are MEN, and DWARFS are MEN-MEN, (and Skaven are Man-Things). The entire world is constantly saturated in ancient and warping magic to the point that giant skulls are natural formations in rock, flora sometimes grows eyeballs and genitals, nobody stays dead, and the whole planet is some part of the [[Old Ones]]' last-minute emergency anti-Chaos plan.
It also has many more dead-hard, beardy [[Vikings]] killing, raping, and pillaging.

==In A World Of War==
[[File:3697970-3704646247-Warha.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Back when [[Power Armor|unnaturally powerful armour]] was exclusive to the bad guys.]]
Warhammer is about peasants living in shit, dying in shit, and the thousands of perils that befall them. Which are often covered in shit. It is not a fun place to be, [[Warhammer_40k|though there are worse]]. You have the standard three races of human, elf and dwarf... and none of them a united front. Your average soldier of the Empire is armed with a sword, a musket, and maybe a uniform which comes with a cheap piece of armor that couldn't stop an untipped arrow. Thusly equipped, he is expected to go toe-to-toe with a Daemon. Or a 9-foot-tall daemonically enhanced steel/daemon/*insert Chaotic thing* [[Warriors of Chaos|metal clad super Viking]]. Or a giant, many of which prefer to stuff opponents down their pants or [[Ogre Kingdoms|boil you/mash you/stick you in a stew]]. Or a [[Lizardmen|battle-trained whatsit-a-saurus]]. Or a [[Skaven|rat-man armed with a flame thrower and a machine gun while leading a colossal goddamn steampunk frankenstein rodent abomination]]. Or a [[Beastmen|half man/half goat eight-foot-tall killing and raping machine]]… oh, let's just say nothing nice ever comes out of the Chaos Wastes. [[Humanity_Fuck_Yeah|And to top it all off, the madmen actually manage it!]] The one good thing for humanity is that the various factions and races have enough sense to set aside their differences to avoid total annihilation, and succeed at this with stunning regularity.

Of course, once the threat of turning into some Daemon's bitch passes, the various races get right back to smacking the living shit out of each other. Throw in lots of undead in Gothic and Ancient Egyptian flavors, ratmen, omnivorous in every sense of the word Ogres, a race of dinosaur-taming lizard precursors, an [[Chaos Dwarfs|evil faction of Dwarfs]], some [[Wood Elves (Warhammer)|neutral nature-loving elves]] and [[Dark Elves (Warhammer)|an evil faction of elves]] and we have our setting. However unlike the 40k counterparts, the Empire has ties to both elf and dwarf, both ties have grown stronger over the centuries and usually what gets the 2 races from tearing each other to pieces, in fact the Elves are the ones who taught humanity to wield magic, while the dwarfs taught them mechanics and engineering, which both have resulted in The Empire creating some pretty badass warmachines and devices.

In short, there is a thicker line in terms of Good vs Evil, sure its hindered by the dirty mistakes in the history of big 3 (Man, Dwarf, and Elf) but it's still so much better than the <s>xenophobic</s> righteous alien smashing of 40k.

==WFB crunch in a nutshell==
[[File:M2180130 P1Mb2.jpg|left|thumb|600px|Contrary to popular belief, engaging an enemy army from the flank isn't that good an idea. Makes for cool shots though.]]
As for actual tabletop performance, some argue WHFB requires more tactical skill from the player; however, this is probably because it's not as widely discussed and is more often played by an older audience that was introduced to the setting during the glory-years of the fantasy genre. The game certainly does require more memorization (or reference at least) of rules, although listbuilding factors in less than actual field tactics in comparison to other games (see [[Tarpit]]). Psychology is a major factor in Fantasy as few battles (barring Undead on Undead slapfests or Daemon infighting) will progress without something fleeing or even disintegrating due to a failed Leadership roll. Fantasy puts more models on the field, but most of them are rank and file redshirts. Perhaps most blessedly, Fantasy lacks the $400+ models other gaming systems do. If you want an [[Apocalypse]] level battle, you bring a fucking sea of 1 hit point soldiers lead by one single model so fucking badass that Kenshiro bows in respect as it passes him.

Magic is a big deal in the game, and has its own phase during each turn. Other than gentlemanly games between you and your opponent, you ARE taking a spellcaster even if their only job is to fuck up the enemy's magic phase (some armies in fact require a spellcaster in the army, both of them Undead armies requiring someone to keep the corpse feet-plodding). Models may gain positive effects, or more likely negative ones during the battle so notes may need to be taken beyond just Victory Points. You have to know the ins and outs of your troops, and you'd be better served knowing your enemy's rulebook as well since things don't change much in their roles in the battle. Planning is everything, but ultimately the field of battle is chaotic and thus you'll need to be able to adapt to win ([[Nurgle]] and [[Tzeentch]] enjoy the gameplay aspect of Fantasy in different ways).

As far as models go, Fantasy is a bit liberated. With no rules requiring measuring from a gun, or an exact model footprint, you instead rely on the plastic base as an indicator of who you're fighting and if you can be hit.
This means that the only requirement is to have a little plastic square or rectangle base in the correct size. What is actually ON that base doesn't matter, unless you play at a GW shop in which case the only requirement is that they made whatever is on that base. Want to play one faction, but you only own another? So long as your opponent isn't a dick you can just use your army as the army you want to play now. Fantasy has it literally stated in the rulebooks that it's a big world (same basic geography as ours, but scaled up to a ridiculous size of a planet) and thus there's plenty of unexplored places where anything is possible. So when you field your first army as your second, you can provide a legitimate fluff explanation (Vampire Dwarfs, Lawful Good Chaos Gods, redneck Elves, Undead who are not soulless killing machines but instead have simply had their invitation to your opponent's army to a Wednesday teatime rejected for the last fucking time, and so on).
Unit fillers are a popular option for people making a new army in Fantasy. Instead of buying 60+ foot soldiers for the army of your choice, you can buy some extra bases and glue them together (for example a 3 by 2 grouping of 6 bases) then put something on top of them (a balsa-wood cart, an older model from another edition that was removed, an army specific thing like a hole in the ground that appears to be where the Skaven are coming out from or a statue of a hero for Empire) and stick it in the middle of the group. Boom, instantly you have to buy 4-8 less troops. As for those "GW-made at GW shops" rules? Clip sprues, make a fence, glue it to a base. Voila, instant unit filler.

Fantasy models DO have to fit close together unlike models in other games, so they tend to be a bit less wild with poses (some see this as a plus). Big models tend to have a lot of detail, and almost no armies share models so there's quite a bit of variation on the field. Also there's generally less spikes everywhere, actual exposed breasts on some models, and FAR more skulls ([[Khorne]] and [[Slaanesh]] both approve!).

Those guys who made the Total War games have said that they'll make computer games based on it. Feel free to have a nerdgasm, or a [[Rage|RAGEGASM]], as <s>Creative Assembly</s> Sega [[Games Workshop]] has locked away every other faction besides Empire, Dwarfs, Bretonnia, Vampire Counts, Orcs & Goblins, and Chaos (if you were an early buyer of the game) behind a DLC paywall. But there are two or more legendary faction leaders which can change up the game. Either way, Warhammer fans who own it are fairly happy with it. Similarly, [[Blood Bowl]] was a specialist game set in an alternate universe where American football replaced war and has a vidya and a sequel, while the other specialist game [[Mordheim]] which was a skirmish game got the Xcom-like [[Mordheim: City Of The Damned]] that is available now on top of [[Man O' War: Corsair]] which is loosely based on the [[Man O' War]] tabletop (so out of a game about fleet management, you get the bastard offspring of Mount & Blade and Sid Meier's Pirates! somehow) that was launched as an alpha access game. On top of that, a hack-n-slash multiplayer game was made [[Vermintide]], where a marriage of the combat of Mount & Blade and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare meets the structure of Left 4 Dead to massacre Skaven.

==Setting==
Warhammer is, in most places, set in a period reminiscent of early Renaissance Europe, only much, much worse. If you know anything about history, you'll know that's saying something. Nearly everything has some kind of historical analogy, at least within the human nations. Everywhere is a shit place to live for one reason or another. [[Warhammer 40,000|But unlike a certain other setting]], this has a lot more to do with being subject to multiple clashing interests in the backstory, rather than thematic contrivances that are often poorly explained or barely touched upon.

As an interested note, the Warhammer world, or at least what remains of it in [[Age of Sigmar]], is named Mallus, which in GeeDubs latin would be "Hammer".

===Human nations===
====The Empire====
[[File:Empire-Halberdiers.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Human troops with Strength 4. Halberdiers motherfucker.]]
{{Main|The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)}}

The '''Empire''' is usually the center of attention in the Warhammer world. It's basically a fantasy version of the Holy Roman Empire, meaning its warriors are very angry Germans wielding swords, muskets, and bibles, as well as having [[METAL BOXES|steam tanks]] and magic. It is ruled by a mortal Emperor (who is succeeded upon death, meaning there's no need for a corrupt council to do anything more than annoy him). He is elected from amongst the ranks of the Elector Counts, who govern the different provinces of the Empire in their own special way and wield badass swords called Runefangs which represent their office (when a Runefang is lost, there's one less member of the council). They are the closest WHFB has to a "main character" faction. All good-aligned races usually converge around the Empire when shit hits the fan, and all Chaos-aligned races make a beeline praying for Slaanesh to guide their cocks into an un-lubed Kraut's cannonhole.

The first Emperor was a guy named [[Sigmar]]. He was fucking hardcore (think a combination of Thor, Charlemagne, and [[Conan the Barbarian]]). After becoming the head of his tribe, he made friends with the Dwarfs by saving their king by killing [[Orcs & Goblins|greenskins]] (all before he became an adult even). After that, the Dwarfs and Germans hung out a lot which resulted in Germans getting all the same advances Dwarfs make and pushing it even further because Dwarfs reserved about new things. Sigmar then brought the Polish and some Russians into his clan, and founded The Empire. Sigmar got involved in a war down in Egypt's analogue in the setting, Nehekhara, against the Undead which resulted in Sigmar making the decision that if he were ever being kept alive artificially he wanted the plug pulled. Eventually, Sigmar got bored with politics and pulled a walkout, heading eastwards to fight some new beasties...and was promptly never heard from again. For some reason, people began worshiping him as a god and now he is the main god in the Empire. However, the more reasonable conclusion is that he's long dead and Ulric, the number two god of the Empire and the god that Sigmar worshiped in life, handles the prayers of the Sigmarite priests, that or probably made Sigmar into a God after he died or when he reached the World's Edge Mountains in the east. Turns out he became a god through sheer force of will but got stuck in the wind of Azyr because of Tzeentch being a dick.
Although the Empire was, in large part, the inspiration for the [[Imperium]] in 40k, there are some major differences. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, [[xenos|the other races]] (like Dwarfs and High Elves) are not only accepted but considered trusted allies (despite being arrogant douches). Additionally, though kept on a tight leash, magic is largely accepted (thanks to the Colleges of Magic the Elves set up, so wizards don't accidentally summon daemons every five seconds), and the Empire is fully polytheistic (although worshiping gods that own property in the [[Warp|Realm of Chaos]] is still a big no-no, despite Witch Hunters doing it (he's a Chaos God of Order though, so it's alright)), although Sigmar is the patron deity of the Empire and generally given the most respect. Second is [[Morr]], who provides the mortal races of the world with a legit Chaos-free afterlife.
Also, all forms of [[Undead|Undeath]] are heretical, which is totally encouraged in the Imperium. The Empire isn't totally shit and if you can get a good job you can live a pretty good life, just keep a gun under your pillow every night.
They're even advancing pretty fast and, if it weren't for the constant Chaos and undead invasions, they'd probably be advancing into an Industrial Revolution right about now.

The Empire also counts the allied nation of [[Kislev]] among its forces as they supply it with cannons, and it supplies them with more men but especially lancer calvary. Kislev is mostly Russia during the era of Catherine the Great with a pinch of Poland mixed in, and consists of vodka swilling peasants armed with spears, lance cav and being lead by bear cavalry and their ice-wizard queen to defend the frost-covered land that never smiles. They are more prone to mutation due to living where the winds from the Warp Gates blows. The primary Kislevite battle tactic is to assemble against Khornate Daemonhosts or Chaos Viking hordes that outnumber them 100-1 all while standing barefoot in the snow armed only with rocks AND FUCKING WIN THE BATTLE. Kislevite women consist of the hottest girls in the setting and hardcore bitches who will crack open a chaos warrior's skull and use it's mashed brain as baby food depending on how old they are.

[[Halfling|Halflings]] from the Moot are considered members of the Empire, although they contribute little other than food (particularly since the newer editions removed all Halfling fieldable models from the game).

The current Emprah is a guy named Karl Franz. He's pretty awesome too, he actually has a political and militaristic stance and he [[gets shit done]]. He rides a giant fucking griffon that eats people and owns the one fucking dragon in the entire damn Empire that doesn't act like a taxi for some batshit insane wizard or elf. It eats people too. He's got a fancy suit of ornate gilded armor, cool bling, and a hammer (again, THE Warhammer). Not a fool to be messed with.

Generally speaking, the forces of the Empire consist of cannons, Landsknechts with halberds, cannons, Landsknechts with claymores, cannons, musketmen, cannons, wizards, cannons, crossbowmen, cannons, pikemen, cannons, Russians, cannons, [[Steam Tank|steamtanks]], cannons, knights, cannons, [[inquisitors]], cannons, and mortars. Plus [[Sisters of Sigmar|nuns with guns]] and rioting peasants.

The Emperor has to put up with a lot of bullshit: Vampires, Daemons, Orcs, Skaven, Mummies, Beastmen, Elves, and other Humans. If you can think of it, the Empire has gone to war with it at least once. Its even gone to war with itself <strike>a couple of times</strike> almost every time that the Emprah seat becames vacant, which at one point, resulted in a [[Fail|thousand year long civil war.]] Its continued success in managing to keep from falling apart is as much of a mystery as Dwarfs finding the Humans of The Empire to be worthy of respect (maybe because Games Workshop has a hard-on for [[Imperium of Man|Imperialism]]).

====Bretonnia====
[[File:Breton.jpeg|right|thumb|400px|[[Bretonnia|Monty Python humans!]]]]
{{Main|Bretonnia}}

Bretonnia is the other major Human nation of the Warhammer world. Knights, chivalry, all that King Arthur bullshit. All while being pseudo-Frenchmen nobles with pseudo-English peasants. With the addition of worshiping a Lovecraftian goddess in the guise of a bitch with a magic chalice that's manipulated by baby-eating forest elves to get the Bretonnians to do their bidding (the Brets don't know that last part though!).
The peasants in Bretonnia somehow have it worse than the worse off peasants in the Empire since at least a peasant in The Empire has held a piece of currency at some point in their life. It's pretty much medieval France, only worse. They have a lot of knights, the lowest of which are Knights Errant who have turned into glory hunting idiots since they got their armor, then Realm Knights, then Questing Knights who seek the blessing of the [[Lady of the Lake]], and finally Grail Knights before whom the Lady appeared and let them drink from her magic chalice (hue hue hue).

Peasants are almost completely useless both in crunch and fluff other than as archers or cannon fodder, except for the peasant monks that are in fact carrying a dead and skeletal Grail Knight as if he's alive. But, since they're more French than they are English, this does kinda make sense...
Small numbers of Bretonnian women are considered blessed by the Lady enough to wield magic, but in truth most of them just have fey blood.

Bretonnian culture is based on High Elf culture, since the Franks hid from marauding Daemons while the world was in its very first apocalypse scenario within the ruins of High Elf colonies, and flipping through <strike>ancient tomes</strike> Elf childrens books depicting High Elf Silver Helms (AKA elfknights) killing Orcs and saving princesses inspired them to put on a cosplay that never ended.
Bretonnians used to be on the verge of conquering The Empire in older editions of the game, but that plot was dropped when The Empire was put front and center as the posterboys of the game. [[Ultramarines|40k fans may be able to relate.]]

Bretonnian nobles are bred from "superior" stock from the rest of the Human race, and are attractive even by Elf standards. [[Space Marines|Completion of their training and their missions allows them to further enhance themselves with magic, making their bodies resistant to poison and mutation and all around tougher.]] [[Orks|Their faith is so powerful they're literally able to will bullets into being less damaging to them than arrows, and to perform reality-defying feats simply because they think they can.]] Too bad they worship an Elf*.

Bretonnia is one of the more neglected armies in the game, once again proving the tradition that [[Sisters of Battle|any faction that makes frequent use of the Fleur-de-lys]] is on [[Games Workshop|GW's]] back burner.

====Other human nations====
Other human nations, which don't warrant an army book include:
*[[Albion]], the British Isles back in Celtic days where tribal shamans and intelligent rock giants protect human-made waystones and Old One artifacts from just about every faction in the game.
*[[Amazon]]s, a possibly immortal all-women civilization in [[Lustria]] whose ancestors served the Slaan but became a separate civilization after the Warp-Gates collapsed.
*[[Araby]], Middle East fantasy equivalent whose magicians can enslave [[Genie|Chaos spirits]] and are immensely rich from trade.
*[[Border Princes]], Balkans in its natural state of conflict. Group of small nations to the south of the Empire, home to Lietpold the Black and other rogues.
*[[Cathay]], incredibly large eastern empire which has magical robot terracotta warriors and non-Chaos spellcasters who are actively stealing power directly from the Chaos Gods (especially Tzeentch) and are led by their supreme dragon Emprah. Has the Great Wall of China, but is called the Great Bastion for some reason. All they ever do for the plot is occupy all of the fucking Chaos Huns/Mongols and Steppe Nomads which would otherwise be attacking The Empire, which is quite significant actually considering how just how fucking many Chaos Nomads there are.
*[[Estalia]] (Spain), produces Conquistadors and the world's supply of human murderhobos.
*[[Ind]], fantasy India which has '''ALL''' of Indian Mythology living in it's borders. Constantly under invasion by eastern flavored Beastmen.
*[[Kislev]], pre-Peter Russian Empire, Poland and Mongols all combined into one. Constantly getting [[Rape|buttfucked]] by Chaos.
*[[Nippon]] ([[Weeaboo|Japan]]), taught Skaven how to be ninjas and otherwise is so reclusive we know nothing about them (and why the fuck did they think teaching evil rat men more sneaky way to murder millions was a good idea?).
*[[Tilea]] (pre-unification Italy), a large number of city-states and kingdoms that ally with other civilizations in the world like an army of mercenaries that can range from [[Warforged]] to Greek Hoplites using flying machines. They are the main source of human mercenaries for the Old World.

===[[Elf|Elves]]===
====High Elves====
[[File:Adrian smith high elf warriors.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Somehow the actual elves look more alien than the [[Eldar|alien elves]]]]
{{Main|High Elves (Warhammer)}}

'''OH BOY, HERE WE GO'''...The "good guys" of WHFB. Although as a group they're dickish in the extreme like you'd expect, many of them are quite bro-tier and the reason the race is diminishing is because they overtax themselves to save the world every time they can from everyone they can, and humans are usually what counts as part of the world (except ones tainted by chaos of course).
They have the strongest navy in the world, wear red/white/blue, bring giant eagles to battle, are snobby, the average citizen can't even name the leader of their closest ally, they send in their marines to unwinnable conflicts, they saved the collective ass of the [[Old World]] twice, their head of government is democratically elected...

Many 40k fans mistakenly confuse the Eldar lore with Elf lore. This is a major mistake, as Eldar are characterized as [[Eldrad|ultra-dick failures]] while no faction has a bigger ass-kicking and ass-saving record than the High Elves.

High Elves defeated the first Chaos invasion into the world (unknown to themselves that they had distant magical help from the [[Lizardmen]]) and every invasion since. They established a network of [[Waystone|Waystones]] which pull the excess magic (which Daemons use to manifest) into Ulthuan and shoot it back into the Warp.
High Elves taught the Empire magic, and save the ass of Bretonnia every time it gets invaded by something they can't beat. They patrol the world oceans in giant magical aircraft carriers that launch dragons, and wreck the shit of anyone trying to launch a Black Crusade. They single-handedly keep the world from being swallowed into the Warp and all the good factions respect them for it (even if that's the ONLY thing Dwarfs respect about them).

The Everqueen of the High Elves and the hereditary ruler (who co-rules with her democratically elected male counterpart, the Phoenix King), is a being of IMMENSE magical power whose soul is made up of the combined souls of all her mothers leading back to the first Everqueen, who was the second daughter of [[Isha]]. The souls themselves reside with Isha, and as a whole they make up the Everqueen entity.
Chaos is afraid of her (read that again: Chaos Gods in 40k only ''respect'' the God Emprah as their greatest enemy and an equal, but they're actually '''afraid''' of the Everqueen), and she can cleanse anything the Chaos Gods can corrupt. Her only weaknesses are that sadness saps her energy (you do NOT want to piss her off though) and the fact she's mortal means her daughter has to be protected.

High Elves are ethnically divided into ten major groups by region. Some are such pricks who treat even other High Elves like Eldar treat the Mon'keigh, some are fatalistic jackasses with the personality of a secret service agent, some are revenge-obsessed sociopaths who make the Inquisition look like Lawful Good Paladins, some are <strike>nutty professors</strike> wizards, and some are <strike>hippies</strike> murderhobo [[Bard]]s who are willing to make love AND war as the situation requires. In addition, High Elves have districts within major trade cities in all the good factions.

High Elves would rather walk willingly into Slaanesh's open mouth than do anything beneficial to a Dark Elf and vice versa, running a contrast to Eldar/Dark Eldar relations.
When they die, High Elves are first nabbed by their patron god if said god liked them enough. Next, they can corpse-run to a Waystone (giant magical structures set up all over the world by their race to weaken Chaos and keep Daemons from manifesting) where they get to chill and manifest semi-solid bodies (which they will usually use to pick off troops from any evil races that wander by). Then, there's an evil goddess who got punished by [[Asuryan]] for trying to rape him while he was asleep and gets back at his rejection by taking High Elf souls (she doesn't care about any other Elf subraces) to torture like it's Christian hell. Final thing that can happen is Slaanesh manages to snatch them from the material plane and either eats them or turns them into [[Daemonette]]s (yes, in Fantasy he still does this). All of Slaanesh's Greater Daemons are elves who in one way or another wound up in his employ (from [[N'kari]] who was an insipid noblewoman who wanted to be the center of attention, to Dechala who was virgin sacrificed by her parents to Slaanesh for mercy and came back as a pissed off Medusa with an army of Daemonettes to butcher them).
While Eldar must use soulstones to keep their soul safe, High Elves use them only to guard them in combat against Daemons and those who worship them. Otherwise, their only use is to link to the Waystone network and provide GPS navigation for the elves.

[[Ulthuan]] is like paradise (for the most part, there's Chaos corrupted areas and random encounter tables of course) and elves will fuck, sing and enjoy the splendors of life without fear of taint as they must give themselves willingly to Chaos to be corrupted. The Cult of Pleasure, Slaanesh's Elf cult, takes root like Chaos cults in the [[Imperium]] and have to be [[Blam|purged]] by the High Elf [[Inquisition]] who are kung fu Elves in light armor who have swords as tall as their body but don't look weaboo.

Eldar are all-powerful psykers, although humanity has potential to make stronger psykers than the average Eldar. High Elves on the other hand are constantly bathed in magical energy, more so than the rest of the world, but you have to actually LEARN to be a <strike>psyker</strike> wizard. Since High Elves have public education and being a wizard is a great job, there's more Elf wizards than human ones (in fact, the fact you have to LEARN to be a wizard means that the only humans who can come close to badass Elf Loremasters are prodigies of Mary Sue proportions). Of course, one of the 10 High Elf ethnic groups have the old fashioned "every Elf is also a level 1 wizard" feature, but that's just them.

Eldar have a multitude of different styles of combat and war, and a multitude of different philosophies related to them. High Elves have three basic flavours of badass warriors: stoic summabitch priests who shrug off cannonballs to the face, guy with giant axe who wrestles monsters then goes for an ale, and Witch Hunters with giant swords

High Elves are, to the very last, soldiers. Every poet is also a Spear<strike>man</strike>elf, every baker is also a wizard, and every secretary loads giant bolt throwers. They passed the point of desperation tens of thousands of years ago, putting High Elves in the position of Israelis.

====Dark Elves====
[[File:DE.png|right|thumb|400px|"We are the most civilized race in the entire world. We have more exquisite ways to kill than any other"]]
{{Main|Dark Elves (Warhammer)}}

Edgier elves who get shit done [[Dark Eldar|without drugs and soul torture]]. Dark Elves manage to maintain the awesomeness and jack it up to a new level while still at the same time being made of the kind of fail you'd expect from a fantasy Dark Elf race. How do they do this you might ask? By taking the next logical step in the elven belief of "we're better than everyone" over to "so we should be allowed to kill them for sport". They have a history of using slavery, violently suppressed the indigenous population when they colonized their new homeland, have no respect for the rest of the world, are embroiled in an ongoing war with a foreign nation, they spy on everyone including themselves, citizens can easily gain access to deadly weapons, their government is corrupt, they built <s>a fence</s> <s>a wall</s> towers to keep people from a bordering nation out...

After being driven out of Ulthuan by the High Elves they fled to a new land they named Naggaroth (in memory of their old homeland Nagarythe). Naggaroth is Warhammer North America but very cold with a network of underground rivers and a sea in the middle. The topography of the land is half mountains, half flat plains which are mostly covered in forests. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. The land is infested with all sorts of monsters, from Harpies and Cold Ones to Manticores and Hydras. Even worse than them are populations of Orcs (descended from the spores of Orcs Dark Elves tried to use against the High Elves as slave soldiers), Beastmen (because Chaos) and Skaven (because the rats can tunnel under oceans apparently, though the Dark Elves have a treaty with them).

Their entire culture is built around "if you died, you were too fucking weak/stupid to stay alive". They have no protections for their souls because none of them admit they could die because that would mean admitting you are possibly less awesome than you tell everyone you are (because they'll kill you for lulz if you don't pretend to be more awesome than they're pretending to be). When Dark Elves die, they go first to their patron elf god if they manage to impress them (unlike High Elves they worship the nastier elf gods, collectively called the Cytharai) then to the same elf goddess who tried to seduce Asuryan then straight to Slaanesh. The third is okay, because some Dark Elves FUCKING WORSHIP SLAANESH (only in secret - in public they worship [[Khaine]] the lord of murder and the other Cytharai for fear of [[Blam|Malekith's reaction]]).

[[Malekith|Their king]] is the second son of the elves' greatest hero, but grew up to fuck up the world almost as bad as Daemons did the first time they invaded the material plane, and is the settings resident Doctor Doom. (The only non-Chaos threat to the world greater than him is [[Nagash]], the Apocalypse to Malekith's Doctor Doom). Their queen [[Morathi]] is Slaanesh's high priestess and the queen mother; she's been fucking her son since he was old enough to have his hips move by themselves. Oh, and that son/mother couple have been plotting to kill each other and take over control of the Dark Elves for thousands of years, with each gambit resulting in mass Dark Elf casualties and a "kiss and make up" moment from the two. Morathi is the single oldest living being in the setting (except most Slann and a few Saurus are as old if not older, plus [[Drachenfels]] if you consider him canon, but whatever), and it's all because she bathes in Daemonette jizz (literally, Dark Elves like to summon Daemonettes to parties, with said parties having low survival rates and Morathi keeps Daemon servants with her at all times) and the blood of newborn elves.

Fun fact: each year the craziest of the crazy, the Witch Elves (female berserkers in chainmail bikinis with poisoned blades) who worship Khaine, have a ten day holiday called "Death Night" where they just rampage through Dark Elf cities and kill whoever they want, unless said person can buy their lives in double digit amounts of slaves. They recruit into their ranks by stealing babies and very young children. The girls are automatically raised as Witch Elves while [[Grimdark|the boys are thrown into a cauldron of boiling blood]], those that survive are trained as assassins.

The Dark Elves raid the entire fucking world, constantly. They're the pirates that piss everyone off. They've managed to steal a [[Slann]] by lobotomizing it, then they turned it into fireworks (massive Dark Elf casualties). They plan safaris into the Chaos Wastes to shoot [[Warriors of Chaos|Norsemen]] and bring them home to be stuffed and turned into trophies. As long as they've existed, Dark Elves have been at a war of genocide with the High Elves. Every battle both sides suffer massive casualties, as Malekith is fighting the war mostly for the sake of pride and sends his men at fortresses that have never fallen because he wants to be the one to make them fall (he'll do this every year for thousands of years without learning a damn thing).

But somehow, Dark Elves DO manage to replenish their population pretty good. Every time they attack High Elves they suffer MASSIVE casualties in comparison to their enemies, and still go back to full strength in a few months. While the fluff implies that the Dark Elves kidnap High Elf children to raise as Dark Elves along with their numbers being boosted High Elf defectors fleeing to Naggaroth, there is a much simpler reason; Games Workshop has admitted that they don't deal in concrete figures and there are as many elves as the plot demands, so illogical writing is the reason they can replenish their numbers so easily despite elves being a dying race.

====Wood Elves====
[[File:Wood-Elf-Armybook-Art.jpg|thumb|right|450px|They do say nature is a mother, after all. And this mother is a colossal bitch.]]
{{Main|Wood Elves (Warhammer)}}

During the heyday of the High Elves, before Chaos first invaded the world, the High Elves had established colonies in Warhammer France. Generations passed, and these elves knew little to nothing of the homeland save for what news traders brought them.
When Daemons first invaded they were left to their own devices for defense, but utilizing the primitive stone-age humans were able to hold their own. Shortly after, architects were sent to establish Waystones in their lands and rekindle ties. Once again however, they were abandoned to their fates when Dark Elves first started the big never-ending civil war, then after a short period of being in touch with the homeland again were subject to the brutality of the Dwarfs after the Phoenix King of the time went full retard and pissed the Dwarfs off (of course, Dwarfs neither know the difference in ethnicities nor cared as it was all just knife-ears and keebs to them). After being told to evacuate and leave everything behind to go home and fight the war against the Dark Elves, the colonists burned their draft cards and fled to the sentient forest to become '''Wood Elves'''.

They then turned into a pack of insane dicks.

So that forest they fled to is [[Athel Loren]]. Athel Loren is, in theory, a bastion of life and anti-Chaos in the world. In practice, is a giant forest that plays by it's own rules and is fucking expanding to the point it's theoretically possible it can overtake the rest of the world. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. It is a forest full of unmentionable terrors of all shapes and sizes who will FUCKING VIOLATE YOU AND EAT YOU live there. But they're not evil. They're made that way/too dumb to understand alignment/a natural force of destruction, not a malicious one. So they're horrible and evil but their actual alignment is nicely True Neutral.

The actual elves live in the parts of Athel Loren in Bretonnia. Said forest existed way before the coming of Daemons & Aenarion, being much, much, MUCH larger than today, which in turn means that Bretonnia is actually living on what was once said forest. They smoke weed, have /ss/ and /ll/ and /sm/ with kidnapped Bretonnian noble children, hunt humans like animals using giant hunting dogs every summer when their king awakens from his winter sleep after they tie a Bretonnian maiden to a tree naked and shoot her full of arrows. They also manipulate the Bretonnian nobles into becoming more superior elf-like humans by manipulating an entity so ancient and unknowable that even THEY have no idea what she is. Said entity appears before humans that are badass and gives them geneseed cider to drink, which turns them into living Superman.

Culturally, the Asrai are a mix of High and Dark Elves with a mix of batshit insane dark evil with noblebright altruism. Some do random shit like decide to hold impromptu celebrations and plays because of a smell on the wind and re-enact battles that may or may not have actually happened but with actual killing. During the performance, they are literally holding their entrails in with their hands while giggling and teasing the dead, dying, and still up and killing for forgetting their lines because they're fucking crazy like that. When they have festivals, some elves will have a dance contest with ''invited'' humans. Sort of like Dance-Dance Evolution. The bets are usually on how long the human will last, before he/she becomes too... ''tired'' to continue. Some Elves invite you to peacefully feast and drink and have fun in their woody halls. In exchange they feed you to Daemons and monsters when you fall asleep. If you're lucky they'll let you leave after the party, but you'll find out that a few days in Athel Loren can be a hundred years outside and it catches up to you so you rapidly age and die. Seriously, Wood Elves are fucking scary.

Their king became the avatar of [[Kurnous]] and reincarnates (via virgin sacrifice) every year (during which he usually kills the shit out of Bretonnians because 'why the fuck not?'), while their queen claims to be the REAL avatar of Isha and uses prophesy and scrying to figure out what's going on in the rest of the world.
For some context: Alarielle, the Everqueen of the High Elves, is the God Emprahss of Elfkind. Chaos Gods are scared of her, she can look Slaanesh in the eye and cause Slaanesh to blink. '''Alarielle is fucking scared of the Wood Elves''', and notices that her Wood Elf counterpart, Ariel, is changing into something far more feral than the world has ever known and that the rest of the Asrai are too.

Wood Elves have a different view on the world than the other two races; while High Elves see themselves as masters of the world's fate and see the future as a great battle between good and evil and Dark Elves see the world as their playground with no regard for who came before or who comes after, the Wood Elves believe that fate has already decided. They believe that Chaos is coming, and in the end thanks to the manipulations of Ariel the entire rest of the world other than Athel Loren will be swallowed into the Warp, leaving the Wood Elves as the ultimate winners of the world conflicts when they alone inhabit the material plane. As such, their fluff is quite grim and full of determinism and in-universe the Wood Elves are more or less Eldar. They also claim that the elf gods have already staged the final battle against Chaos, lost it, and are slowly being consumed by Chaos until they will fade away forever. Since this is not mentioned within the fluff of the other two races it can be assumed this is the Wood Elf perspective rather than the outright canon.

But that's just the Wood Elves. The rest of the "Wood Elves" army? Treekin. Not Treebeard (who will tell you a story while he smooshes Orcs), not Old Man Willow (who hates you and will put you to sleep forever), and not the kind of Dryads who get raped by Satyrs ([[FATAL|but actually enjoy it because they're that horny, either meaning it's not rape or that that was how the ancient Greeks thought rape worked]]). No, these are like Hills Have Eyes tree people. Some of them march to war with the Wood Elves because they recognize kindred spirits. Some rampage against all non-tree life in the forest. Some of them are so batshit insane that they attack everything, constantly in giant tree battles where the splinters grow into new Dryads and Treekin who then jump straight into the fray like hard-skinned [[Orks]]. That ain't Chaos corruption either, it's their natural state. Regardless of sanity, ALL Athel Loren Treekin are infested with angry chittering forest spirits that will eat you like flying pirahnas. Elves who die in the forest can become angry bitter trees that don't remember anything, unless you're raped by hermaphrodite daemons who then kill you when they get bored, so yes, you fucking come back to life by inhabiting a dead tree, so you can fucking show those fucking skanks HOW IT FEELS WHEN THE FUCKING FAVOR IS RETURNED! WITH INTEREST/SPLINTERS!! FUCK!!! They also decorate themselves with entrails and skeletons like a decorator crab.

Oh, and the leader of these insane fucking scary tree people? [[Drycha]]. Insane forest treegirl. Drycha is crazy, by any standards of crazy. She's a tree woman with acorn nipples that dribble syrup. She's perhaps one of the most terrifying beings in the setting, and that's saying a lot. Luckily, (if you're not Asrai) she's mostly against the Wood Elves since she thinks they're the ones responsible for everything going wrong with the world (Get out of my swamp you kids!).
8E re-introduced a male counterpart, Durthu, a Wood Elf Treeman character back from 5E who is similar to Drycha except that he only hates Dwarfs while being bitter against everyone else. He now wields a giant amber sword forged by an elf, and is revealed to have been the one who saved an infant Everqueen and her brother in Ulthuan thousands of years ago.

Athel Loren doesn't expand naturally. It's suddenly appeared on islands in the sea. When you wander into those forests looking for coconuts, you suddenly find yourself in the midst of a forest from hell somewhere around Alsace-Lorraine, with Drycha and a hundred or so Dryads decorated in greenskin, Dwarf, Elf, and Human bodies all staring down at you. Athel Loren has worldroots connected to many different forest around the world. Which means you will never be safe, my little ''porcupine butts''

tl:dr Wood Elves live in Athel Loren which is between Bretonnia and The Empire, which is both alive, and akin to a forest in Soviet Russia - where forest cuts down you! The Elves are crazy insane rapists, and the tree people are fucking xenomorphs. You're either a tool to them that will be destroyed when you are no longer useful, or are a plaything for their amusement.

===DWARFS===
[[File:69180f7a9e6a20e2ffb7544531f50bde.jpg|thumb|left|400px|BEARDS AXES BEARDS BEARDS GRUDGES HAMMERS BEARDS]]
{{Main|Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)}}

Same old [[Lord of the Rings|cliché]] Dwarfs (as used in Warhammer Fantasy, as the term "Dwarves" is rarely used) in a lot of ways, with some fun twists.
The Dwarfs have this thing about holding grudges forever. Their language has no word for forgiveness, there's a story where a Warhammer Dwarf outright says forgiveness is not in their nature and [[Book of Grudges|one of their most sacred artifacts is the "Dammaz Kron" which is a GIANT golden book which is inked in blood and lists every slight]], however small, against the Dwaarfish race {{BLAM|Misspell Dwarfish will ya? THAT'S GOIN IN THE BOOK LAD!!!}}.
Dwarfs are required by their gods to avenge even the slightest insult in blood; a story in old Warhammer comics involves two Dwarf Thanes being about to lead the last of their clans (consisting of women and children only at this point) against each other while greenskins are about to breach the fortress walls. The two Thanes, in the middle of a battle, realize they no longer know what the original feud was about and make peace...only for their gods to crush both under a giant statue, causing the clans to wipe each other out and the greenskins to take over.
Another story involves Dwarfs building an impenetrable fortress for a human king. After receiving their payment, they found they were a few coins short (the dwarfs thought they were scammed, in reality there was just a counting error). The Dwarfish response was to muster the full strength of their nation to invade, slaughter every man woman and child inside, and raze every last stone into powder.

So not only does the race tend towards Lawful Stupid, they are punished divinely for not acting in the Lawful Stupid way.

Dwarf pre-Chaos history involved the entire race united as one giant clan, producing master works from their GIANT fortress that spanned half the mountains of Europe and Asia. After Chaos invaded, they simply shut their walls and waited the whole thing out.
After the High Elves defeated Chaos the first time, they befriended the Dwarfs and swore to be best friends forever. Then after the first battles of the Elf civil war, the newly-separated Dark Elves manipulated the two races into war with each other (taking advantage both of the High Elf arrogance that rears its head <s>every other</s> every generation, and of the fact Dwarfs are absolute racist fuckheads who take the actions of a single individual as the standard for the whole race (the Warhammer Dwarf word for "inferior" is actually their word for "human")). So Dwarfs were pissed at Elves right up until the modern day, where they started to realize Elves come in different flavors than just "Keeb Scum".
Not long after this, the Lizardmen attempted to enact a prophesy from the Old Ones that they believed would weaken Chaos. Instead, it caused giant earthquakes which wiped out most of the Dwarf race and turned their fuck-huge city into thousands of thousands of small fortresses isolated from each other by giant cave-ins.However, the same even is said to be a Skaven machination to expand Skavenblihght gone horribly wrong/right. This was followed by Orcs and Goblins getting underground, and taking many fortresses from which they now wage war against the entire Dwarfish race.
More recently (from the Dwarf perspective) they befriended humanity after Sigmar Heldenhammer saved one of their Thanes. The hammer from which the Warhammer games derive their name was forged, and given to Sigmar as a symbol of eternal friendship between the two groups (thankfully now the Dwarfs can tell apart evil from good, and know not to blame the Empire for the actions of the rape-vikings). Dwarfs taught the Empire about machines and technology, leading to the current state of the Empire.

Currently, Dwarfs are constantly fighting a losing war against Skaven and Night Goblins (and just Greenskins in general) for control of the deep craves, tunnels, passages and mines below the surface of the world. Without the Dwarfs keeping things that dwell down in the dark at bay, the lands of men would be overrun from beneath; though the 8th Edition book sees them becoming a Rape-Train against Hordes, and in the fluff the High Elves attacked WAAAGH!s that have raged without stop since the fall of the Dwarf Fortresses from behind and destroyed them while the current Dwarf High King has mustered a fuckhuge army to end those that remain.

In canon, Dwarfs fight very different hold to hold, with some being the classic hammer+axe Dwarf warriors with others (those you'll almost always see on the tabletop) fighting as Napoleonic armies with more cannons than most armies have horses.

What else is there to say about Dwarfs? Gyrocopters and death cults. There is nothing that isn't improved through the addition of flying machines and death cults. The dwarfs have zero magic. No, scratch that, they have even less than zero magic. It tends to fuck up when they're around, and everyone can use magic but them. Not that this stopped Dwarfs though. They just grabbed magic by the balls, put its balls on the anvil, and hammered it into runic items. Because they're stubborn like that. As a result, Dwarfs have the best magic items bar none. They also compensate for their lack of magic by building giant fucking machines instead. Flamethrowers, helicopters, organ guns, and pretty much any other variant of carnage that can be moshed together with enough steam, alcohol, and gunpowder. They build them smaller but they build them better, and they're all fueled by alcohol. The traditional Dwarfs don't like the Engineers and their machines that much, and anything that hasn't been in the blueprint stage for a thousand years before a prototype stage was even thought about is borderline heretical technology (not that they will refuse to use it, they'll just bitch about it worse than even a real life Scotsman would). [[Slayer|The death cults are crazy naked dwarfs that have in some way shamed themselves or broken an oath, and as a result they shave and dye their hair into a red mohawk and go on a quest to die an honorable death]] (so Repentia/Penitent Engines for any 40k players reading this).

====[[Chaos Dwarfs]]====
[[Image:Dorf hats.jpg|thumb|right|[[Hat|HAT]]!!!]]
There are also evil dwarfs called [[Chaos Dwarfs]]. During the first Chaos incursion while some Dwarfs decided to hide in their fortress and wait for the whole thing to blow over, some decided to flee (or explore and look for safe haven elsewhere). After heavy losses among the Dwarfs, the Chaos Gods decided to throw them a bone, and the rest is history. Regular Dwarfs hate them above all others (even moreso than elves) and claim they have sworn eternal vengeance and genocide on them (in practice they pretend Chaos Dwarfs don't exist and woe betide the non-Dwarf who brings them up!)

They used to be an interesting and unique faction that resembled an even more grimdark ancient Babylon, their corrupting magic slowly turning their evil sorcerers to stone (dorfs ain't meant to magic it up) while creating Daemonic machines that would make Chaos Spaaaaaace Marines drool (instead of grabbing magic by the balls and hammering it into runes, they grab deamons by the balls and hammer ''them'' into daemonic warmachines). Then they became like normal dwarfs, but dressed in black. Then they up and vanished for a while. Nowadays, [[Forge World]] has made them ''back'' into their first, awesome thing again - half-Baylonian, half-stripped down industrialist assholes a la Isengard.

Their favorite pastimes are drinkin', fightin' and [[Touhou|wearing silly hats for no adequately explained reason]].

===Chaos===
Back in the day, there was only one Chaos army. Since then they have been split into Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, and Daemons of Chaos.

====Warriors of Chaos====
[[File:Warriors of chaos.jpg|thumb|right|380px|What one would call "the good shit". Or the bad shit, if you catch my cold.]]
{{Main|Warriors of Chaos}}

The Warriors are Nordic (literally, they are called the Norse in the canon). Beardy, berserking [[Vikings]]/[[Pan-Tang]] rip-offs clad in Unholy Chaos Plate and blessed with the Marks of the Chaos Gods personify this faction, and basically granted Warhammer Fantasy it's popularity back in the 80's/90's.
The Warriors of Chaos represent a multitude of tribes and clans, in varying cultures and degrees of civilization (mostly being Scandinavians and Mongols however) all of whom live in the giant North Pole around the Warp Gate there, which is basically an Eye of Terror.
Mostly, they revere the Chaos Gods as their masters although they have different pantheons (sometimes to be able to avoid saying the name of the Chaos Gods directly to avoid getting sudden attention and turning into..one of [[Chaos Spawn|"those things"]], sometimes of other Chaos Gods, and rarely of ascended mortals like [[Bel'akor]]).
Warriors make up the primary bad guys of the setting, and raid the fuck out of the world for shits and giggles. Games Workshop loves to throw them constantly into almost every canon, to the point anything major involving someone who ISN'T Chaos is a huge fucking deal.

Unlike in 40k where Chaos Space Marines <s>actually get shit done</s> possibly fucked up 12 times under the same leader, Warriors have gone through multiple Everchosens who <s>keep getting killed by reincarnations of Sigmar</s> keep getting killed in various ways (sometimes even by Daemons) and are replaced in the hopes that the next one will get it right (and one even went "fuck this shit" and went to non-Chaos Valhalla on the eve of his victory). Despite this, they look no less awesome for it, and the [[Archaon|current one]] [[Storm of Chaos|managed to beat and cripple his good counterpart before losing the war thanks to Orc shenanigans.]]

====Daemons of Chaos====
{{Main|Chaos}}

As in 40k, but as mentioned before are much weaker.
[[Khorne]] mostly just watches his servants fight each other and sometimes other factions when that shit gets boring. Loves trapping his champions in time loops where they kill their older selves. <br/>
[[Nurgle]] loves Isha from afar, who may be unaware he even exists. He maintains a circus (a literal circus, with tents and candy and performers and clowns) which travels through the Old World, bringing in plagues and taking in followers. <br/>
[[Tzeentch]] doesn't do jack shit. EVER. He doesn't own a monopoly on bird iconography as that's mostly owned by mortal gods like [[Morr]] and [[Morai-Heg]]. The Chinese siphon magic from him without retaliation. His champions are mostly stuck being the spellcasting bitch to whatever Everchosen or other god's champion didn't take a wizard in their army list. As a result, he likes to spread rumors like "all magic is me!" and "everything is going according to plan" despite everyone calling bullshit and his prophesies actually being wrong most of the time.<br/>
[[Slaanesh]] spends most of his time corrupting individuals in the Empire and High Elves for shits and giggles, as well as watching his champions wander the world and do stupid shit like it's a giant reality show. He likes to try to nab elf souls like his 40k counterpart, but instead of mindlessly eating them he makes quite a few of them Daemonettes. He also has a permanent scar, no matter what shape he takes, because Khaine fucked him up good. <br/>

There's a multitude of other gods as well, including multiple Chaos Gods of Order. To those who claim that makes no sense, remember that Chaos is pure potential, not contradictory pants-on-head retardedness that you can't comprehend (although it certainly becomes that often enough). One of them blesses Witch Hunters and other forms of Inquisitors in their fights against everything Chaos (so like [[Malice]], but without malice). Another is a Snow White figure, being locked in a glass coffin in stasis by Tzeentch and dropped in the mortal world because he's terrified of her.

Daemons themselves tend to be fucked over royally as they can be perma-killed in Fantasy in various ways, and are VERY prone to being used as the power source for magical artifacts and weapons.

====Beastmen====
[[File:BeastmenChallenge.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Horns, sharp teeth and hooves, oh my!]]
{{Main|Beastmen}}

Representing the non-Skaven Chaos mutants of the world, Beastmen are a group of pagan style animal mutants living in the forests and wilderness of the world. Beastmen are wild and crude creatures embodying all the negative aspects of animals combined with human-level intelligence. They are truly repugnant to behold, let alone to smell, for they are a twisted reflection of the base and barbaric aspects of nature. Beastmen are Neutral Evil to the core, the only thing stopping them from being Chaotic Evil is their reverence of Bray-Shamans and the Chaos Gods. The carnage and despair they spread across the land is a malevolent and deliberate attempt to wreck anything beautiful or stable for the lulz. Bitterness and spite simmers in the heart of every Beastman; it takes little more than a few well-chosen words to spur a Gor into a frenzy of unrestrained rage. The sounds of distant battle will cause a Beastman to prick up his tufted ears in an instant; a fight or duel upon a woodland path will invariably bring dozens of Beastmen from all about in a very short space of time. Even when gathered in their torrid encampments the Beastmen spend their time fighting, fucking or feasting. The only time they don't is when a particularly strong Beastman knocks a sense of purpose into them (sometimes literally) or a Bray-Shaman calls on the Chaos Gods.

Beastmen HATE civilization. Anything that looks like it was made intentionally is broken, anything that can't be broken is tied to a stick and used as a weapon to kill the fuck out of more civilizationfags. Although Beastmen tend to come in specific flavors (Satyr, Minotaur, and Dire animals) they mutate even further into grotesque and scarred monsters of utter evil when they attract the attention of the Chaos Gods. Which they spend most of their time seeking to do in various ways, despite the fact that Chaos rarely if ever tosses them even a minor blessing.

So all in all, they're a race of furry [[Cultist-Chan]]s.

Three odd points in fluff relate to Beastmen; in one old story from White Dwarf, a human father spends time teaching his son how to survive in the forest using navigation, tracking, and fighting. Said son is revealed to be a mutant that the father is taking to the Beastmen, who accept him immediately. In another, Beastmen females are mentioned as existing (previously, the fact the only references were to males leading people to assume they breed through rape exclusively) and as being "extremely docile". Finally, in most Beastmen fluff it is mentioned time and time again how shit factors in heavily to their culture (literal fecal matter), and Beastmen smear EVERYTHING in it (This only showed up in the 7th ed book, but the pages are swimming in it. Make of that sentence what you will).
So while most fluff portrays them as monstrously evil and unsexy as possible, there's still bait for furfags!

===Lizardmen===
[[File:Lizardmen_Art_1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Life finds a ''fucking'' way.]]
{{Main|Lizardmen}}

The arch-enemies of Chaos. When the Old Ones first arrived on the world from nobody knows where, they created spawning pools that continually pump out Lizardmen.

The first type were the [[Slann]], who were Old Ones in miniature although greatly less intelligent (still LEAGUES above even elves though). The Slann were extremely magically gifted beings, and were the assistants to the Old Ones. They resemble grotesque and fat toad creatures who ride floating stone chairs like upright Jabba the Hutts with legs. The second type, the Saurus, were their muscle. Saurus have few thoughts beyond what they were created to do, and mostly exist as soldiers and guards. Finally, Skinks were made. Skinks are small chameleon-like humanoids who serve the Slann as assistants. They also created the kroxigor; large bipedal crocodile-like creatures designed for heavy lifting. The Skinks and Kroxigors have an affinity for each other, sharing similar birthing methods (see below) and both can breathe underwater (though the Kroxigors prefer to ambush their prey or enemies crocodile-style)

They live in the jungle kingdoms of Lustria and the Southlands, the former is so hostile to non-Lizardmen it's said to be the most dangerous place in Warhammer outside the Chaos Wastes. Their culture and society are heavily based off the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. If that offends you, you're playing the wrong game and it's hard to believe you've read this far already.

They have, and seek out, thousands of writings from the Old Ones inscribed on golden tablets which the Slann spend most of their time poring over in an attempt to discover what the next move against Chaos should be or what the Old Ones wanted to do that hasn't been done yet. However, the Slann have...difficulty in this endeavor, and are prone to interpreting "Milk, Eggs, Butter, Bacon" as "Destroy the Dwarfs, Make Party Hats For Amazons, Do the Dinosaur, Have A Skaven and Manflesh Barbecue". Another problem is the material. The Lizardmen use gold for their plaques because it doesn't deteriorate and a humid, tropical jungle is not a place where paper can be safely preserved (the bright color would also make them stand out among foliage, making them easier to to find). But the other races see their color and shininess for its aesthetic value and decide to take them for themselves. To say the Lizardmen don't like anyone else touching their plaques would be like saying that Khorne has a bit of a temper.

They have the most powerful wizards and one of the most powerful fighting units, including Stargate-style magitech that they use as altars which shoot lasers.

Some could argue that they're furfag bait for the scalies. They can just fuck right off 'cause Lizardmen are awesome, and no scalie shit here; they're as ugly and unappealing as real lizard people would be, and have no genders as they walk out of magic spawning pools as adults. In fact, the few Lizardmen who learned about genders and sex (from human guests they were interviewing) considered it weird and irrelevant to their interests.

In the modern canon, most of the Slann are dead and they can no longer be spawned as their specific Slann-spawning pools were destroyed by Daemons. Not 'undead' Slann, just dead. Except for [[Lord Kroak]], but he doesn't really count as [[Emperor|his body is 100% dead despite his spirit just refusing to leave it]].

Oh, and if you haven't figured it out by now they are dinosaur men that ride dinosaurs such as Therapods, Thyreophorans and Ceratopsians. Who would have guessed. In fact one of said therapod species, the Carnosaurs, were dangerous enough to threaten and scare DRAGONS despite lacking wings or a breath weapon; there's no dragons in Lustria because the Carnosaurs hunted them to the point that the surviving dragons fled and settled elsewhere.

===Undead===
Much like Chaos, these guys used to be one army but have gotten split up into two. NOT ANYMORE! Now you can combine them in in a single army led by nagash!

====Tomb Kings====
[[File:M1650075a P1Mb1.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Egyptian, sentient skeletons, yet still both spooky and scary.]]
{{Main|Tomb Kings}}

The undead people from the ancient civilization of Nehekhara (Not-Egypt). How ancient? Before Sigmar lived and most humans considered the bow and arrow an innovative new weapon, Cathay was new to the civilization thing and didn't have a Dragon Emperor, Bretonnia, Giants, and Skaven didn't exist, Skytitans still roamed the Mourn Mountains, The Great Maw didn't exist, Tylos was the only city in the Old World, Dorfs were in their prime and friends with Elves, and Elves were still one race and were only then achieving the level of technology they've spent most of their history stuck at.

Nehekhara had all the best aspects of ancient Egypt and Middle-Eastern civilizations; they had many things such as golems, huge wonders, light systems, chariots, and even hot-air balloons! Most of their history was spent like Mesopotamian history, with each city being a kingdom ruled by one monarch (usually, but not always, male). Said kingdoms warred with each other constantly. Then, one day, a badass was born. [[Settra the Imperishable|Settra]] managed to unite the entirety of Nehekhara under his rule, but became obsessed with death because it would stop him from getting shit done. He commanded his priests discover immortality, and although they failed in this they figured out ways to preserve the body with the soul within and the flesh un-damaged. They entombed him this way for storage until they discovered a way to give their kings living flesh of gold.

The cities immediately become independent again, warring with each other but now building fuckhuge tomb cities to house all dead Nehekharans in suspended animation that were larger than their living cities.

Eventually, Nehekhara produced [[Nagash]], the Warhammer Fantasy answer to [[Sauron]] and [[Vecna]], who killed his brother and became fantastically evil until the cities united against him and forced him into the desert. After deciding that dying was for suckers and turning into a skeleton, he found that centuries has passed and some little punk ass upstarts calling themselves "vampires" had read his diary. He told them to make themselves useful and keep the humans away while he tried to figure out a way to make the whole world into undead skeleton slaves in one spell. Then shortly after, humans defeated his army and entered his sanctum; he unleashed what he had of his spell, killing EVERYTHING in Nehekhara before he was beaten. This awakened the entombed kings, who were fucking PISSED to find their empire had disintegrated. But on the plus side, they were still "alive" and Tomb Kings cannot perma-die so they had obtained the immortality aspect at the very least. They also had the people who had died in their time period as servants still, who despite still having souls lost much of their sapience (as the degree to which they survived depended greatly on how well they were preserved) so many of them (but FAR from all) became semi-mindless robot-like skeletons animated only by the order of their King.
So immediately all the Tomb Kings went back to war, but this time in a far worse way; every child who had EVER lived was now alive again, with thousands of generations of spoiled manchildren fighting for a single fucking throne in a single fucking city, as well as being pissed about later TK's looting the tombs of their ancestors for their own ones.
The priests of all the generations realized shit was going nowhere fast (as nobody can perma-die) and awakened Settra. Settra immediately slapped everyone's collective shit, and although everyone swears allegiance to him they still fight like punks constantly.
Generally speaking, all Tomb Kings (other than [[Queen Khalida]], who HATES vampires) give no fucks, shits, or damns about the outside world. Mostly. They are also very rich because being undead means they don't have to worry about buying food, medicine or things to impress potential sexual partners. Because mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the mummies a nice option of veteran human troops as well; there's also the added bonus that unlike vamps (see below), the Tomb Kings won't ever turn the mercs into snacks.

Now they're armies of skeletons (on foot, horse or chariot) led by Egyptian mummies! With Anubis warriors and BONE SCORPIONS! Their artillery are MUTHA FUCKEN SKULL CATAPULTS! If you take a shot every time you see a Khopesh or read the word in relation to Tomb Kings, you'll pass out drunk before you're done. Plus their elites ride around on snake statues or GIANT STONE LOLCATS that breath fire and crush stuff. They even have GIANT GOD STATUES that shoot DEATH LASERS from their eyes and give <s>their gods</s> Nagash a live-action feed of what's going on in the world. Some Tomb Kings even have skull-covered rip-offs of the Ark of the Covenant holding the souls of slain enemies that they use to kill more enemies.

So totally fucking awesome.

====Vampire Counts====
[[File:M1037820 VampireCounts cover.jpg|thumb|right|450px|Nothing says [[Slaanesh|"shoot me with that big-ass cannon of yours"]] like bright red armor in an army of grimy, thin skeletons.]]
{{Main|Vampire Counts}}

Vampires. But not the Twilight kind, nor the Interview kind (for the most part).
Straight up Gothic Horror vampires. As in, still cool.
So a long time ago, during the time of ancient Egypt (pre-Tomb King) there was an evil bisexual queen. She stole the first Necromancer/Lich's autobiography, and invented a drink that turns humans into vampires.
She let her court all take a sip, then they acted like a bunch of little shits until all of Egypt united against them. They tried to ally with the NecroLich, but <s>lost the big battle</s> pussied out and fled to the Old World.

Those vamps all founded Bloodlines, which make up most of the race.
The first group is those lead by the queen which created vampires, the [[Queen Neferata|Lahmians]]. Mostly consist of magic-using spy vampiresses (and some of their gay friends) who are controlling the world like Illuminati.
The second are the Hills Have Eyes/The Descent vampires, who after years of being the whipping boys of fate as well as getting tortured and fucked over by every human and other vampire they met, turned into the vampire equivalent of ghouls. They as a result mostly hang out with ghouls. They are the [[Ushoran|Strigoi]]. The saner ones behave a lot like Nosferatu.
The next are lawful evil/neutral badass vampire knights who ride around looking for a challenge, and fight anyone they think is worth fighting. They are the [[Abhorash|Blood Dragons]].
Next is the [[W'soran/Melchior|Necrarchs]], who mostly look like Nosferatu vampires. They are the mad scientist Bloodline, spending centuries trying to come up with new kinds of Flesh Golems and similar atrocities to create. Mostly end up as sidekicks to the other Bloodlines.
Finally, the true Dracula Bloodline; the von Carsteins. Only appearing in recent history, [[Vlad von Carstein]] and his wife [[Isabella von Carstein]] attempted to get elected as Emperor of the Empire through political manipulation, and having failed that, attempted to take over by force. After the two were beaten, one of their turned "sons" [[Konrad von Carstein]] tried to destroy the Empire, but lost in an embarrassing way since he was fucking insane and dumb as a rock. Finally, [[Mannfred von Carstein]] took control of the Bloodline and repeatedly has tried to destroy the Empire. Although Manny keeps losing, he's dedicated himself to Nagash and has finally started getting to be a bigger threat to the world. As a result of this, the von Carsteins have become the posterboy army for the Vampire Counts, who are the villains when Chaos isn't.

All of the Bloodlines can raise hordes of undead, and use shit like Zombies, Ray Harryhausen Skeletons, and Ghouls as soldiers. They also bring along ghosts, and giant fucking bat monsters of different kinds. Also, bats are EVERY-FUCKING-WHERE, and not the kind that scare you when you open the closet, then fly of into the night - think piranhas with wings and a fucking attitude (which vary in size from the size of your hand to the size of a car). Creepy as all fuck. No Anne Rice, ''Angel'' bullshit, these guys are fucking evil. While they won't save you from being hit by a car, they will creep into your room at night... only to throw you out the window before draining the blood from your loved ones while their zombie driver runs you down with a car. They are also very rich because they don't have to buy food and interest rates on savings accounts add up over a few centuries of undeath. Since mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the vamps a nice option of veteran human troops as well, with the benefit that some vampires '''might''' exercise enough restraint to not turn the living troops into snacks or mindless undead.

So, our conclusion is that Vampire Counts are fucking badass.
According to an ongoing poll in /tg/ Warhammer Fantasy Generals, Vampire Counts come in as the #1 most played army.

===Skaven===
[[File:39-Skaven Jungle.jpg|thumb|left|400px|The [[grimdark]] version of Ratatoille.GET MAN -THING!]]
{{Main|Skaven}}

Technologically advanced rat people.
Created when the [[Horned Rat]] decided to become a Chaos God and mutated a group of humans. He has spent most of his time since hiding in a nest, and sometimes popping into the mortal world to eat a few of his servants.
Again, no furry shit here. These guys are ugly, fucking foul creatures who keep their women folk, otherwise known as "their bloated, scab-ridden, nipple-covered, maggot-like baby factories" locked away for the sole purpose of mass-reproducing thousands upon thousands of future vermin-men.
Ew.
The leaders of the species are a motley bunch, composed of batshit crazy scientists, ninja-like assassins, and bio-terrorists. Everything else is either slave cannon fodder or a mutant abomination.

They love their hordes almost as much as they love their World War 1/2 style tech that's powered by pure Chaos energy. Also, puns. Fucktons of puns come with these guys, they love their puns. They're all addicted to warpstone, which is pretty much a combination of dark magic, radioactive waste and [[Doomrider|cocaine.]] They made a nuke once, but it failed to detonate and now it sits under the biggest city in the Empire. Most of their schemes (they love scheming!) involved taking down the humans and conquering the world. They keep the races of the world fighting to keep anyone from becoming too powerful, and they consider it rude and perverse to NOT backstab someone (regardless of whether it fucks themselves over later or not).
They're like a cross between Pinky and the Brain, the rats from Redwall, & the rats from NIMH, (but with flame throwers, tesla coils, thousands of minions, and no arsing about on the subject). Also, [[DOOMWHEELS|WEAPONIZED HAMSTER WHEELS.]]

Their technology is mainly grasped through warpstone which will power their machines or devices, they almost always rely on warpstone to power their devices or fuel them. Each clanrat belongs to a clan, and their location are found all over the old world. Many are located in Skavenblight (The largest shithole in the Old World) which is their capital city or what ever thing you call what rats live in. Not all Skaven clans live in Skavenblight; most skaven clans live in lairs which are located all over the ol world, some like Clan Scurvy are located on the many oceans of the Old World, or be like Clan Skrapp and live in the blighted marshes. How the fuck they manage to pull it off but some clans live in fucking volcanoes and use obsidian weapons which is pretty cool. There is a lot of more information about Skaven clans available in the codex and heraldry books, which considering my fingers hurt from typing i suggest you move your fa/tg/uy ass to read. Skaven love screeching things as loud as they can, and they say verbs (or just plain words they like) twice. Since they respect no other race as worthy of life, they call other races "things".
Example: "MOVEMOVE, WE MARCH! ONWARDS TO KILLSLAY THE MANTHINGS AND THE DWARFTHINGS!"

They have also now kind of taken over the [[Awesome|WHOLE UNIVERSE]] and according to one [[Age of Sigmar]] drawing, the [[warp]] is a VERY VERY BIG RAT.

===Orcs and Goblins===
[[File:Bd7b78634da60515f8b7bb89a42cc72a.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Orc is spelled with C, for *crunch*.]]
{{Main|Orcs & Goblins}}

You've all seen the [[Orks]] and [[Gretchin]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]]. Orcs and Goblins are much the same, except here the goblins represent a full half of the army. Or perhaps we should say that the Orks are much the same as the Orcs, since it was the Orcs who came first.
Now add trolls and giants and occasionally ogres into the mix as well. Except here they have Night Goblin Fanatics popping out of the ranks, which could cause your deathstar unit to panic off the table if it wasn't for the cavalry driving them out first. Because you took light cavalry, right?

There's not much to say other than that. They spend most of their time trying to wipe out Dwarfs. Humans dislike them, High Elves are trying to [[Exterminatus|wipe them out]], Lizardmen were tasked with wiping them out by the Old Ones, Tomb Kings hunt them for sport, Strigoi vampires fucking HATE them since they caused their fall from grace, Warriors of Chaos dedicated to Khorne know no shame greater than being beaten by them, [[Gork]] and [[Mork]] are totally real beings who beat the shit out of Khorne once, and there's goblins who worship Spiders in Athel Loren.

===Ogre Kingdoms===
[[File:Thundertusk miniature model ogre artwork.JPG|thumb|right|235px|Brain over brawn, brawn over brain... Well know that it's really blubber over everything.]]
{{Main|Ogre Kingdoms}}

FUCKHUEG sumo wrestler-types with [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katanas]], frying pans strapped to their gullets and a [[Neckbeard|mean streak as big as their enormously fat asses]]. Will eat ANYTHING, including all the courses at a restaurant, the plates, the table, the chef and the fucking bundle of forks (and if they're still feeling peckish, the waiter too).

They ride large beasts resembling mammoths and saber-tooth tigers. They think with their stomachs, which shows how fucking intelligent they are, plus their shaman-cooks use a very specific "gut magic", that mostly consists of shoving all kinds of inedible stuff down their own throats. Each and every one of the fuckers is obsessed with stuffing his face full o' your innards. Heck, they even worship a giant, fuck-off sky mouth. Ogres are often considered to be a "neutral" army and can end up fighting for any side since they hire themselves out as mercenaries to whoever can pay them in piles of [[List of /tg/ Cuisine|food]].

The last race created by the Old Ones, the one that could have actually beaten and destroyed Chaos, they were left unfinished (mostly mentally) in an environment that couldn't support them. As a result, they spread all over the world and now work for and with (and against) every single faction in the game. Along with the Skaven, the fact Ogres fight everywhere is what enforces the status quo of the canon.

==Meta History==
[[File:Warhammer History Shorthand.png|thumb|right|500px|tl;dr]]

===Prehistory===

===Proto-Warhammer===

===1e===

===2e===

===3e===

===4e===

===5e===

===6e===

===7e===

===8e===

===[[The End Times]]===

This period is also known as when everything literally goes tits up. Games Workshop, fed up of being the players whining that the game was stuck dead in its canon, said "enough" and decided to give the players what they wanted. Thus did they make the End Times towards the end of the 8th edition, a supplement to existing armies which fluff-wise tells how everything is now moving to a grand finale. Check out the [[The_End_Times|End Times]] page for more details, but to summarise:

- Mannfred von Carstein resurrects Nagash, making a world conquering host of the undead while also slowly becoming an ultimate god of death and undeath with eyes on the prize of kicking the chaos gods out of the warp and taking their place. In order to do this, he nerfed the Tomb Kings and absorbed them into the Vampire Counts to create his own army - '''the Undead Legion'''.

- The Empire has been overrun by the forces of Chaos, but at the last moment Karl Franz becomes the living avatar of Sigmar and the wind of heavens and burns all Chaos from Altdorf to pieces. Much later on, he is revealed not to be an avatar of Sigmar but Sigmar himself.

- The Orks and Goblins do what they always do and get ready for a big fight, wiping out the Chaos Dwarfs and several minor human kingdoms.

- Malekith turns out to be the rightful king of the elves, and following a civil war culminating in the deaths of several Elf gods the three Elf races have reunited into a single force. The Vortex is unbound, Ulthuan and Naggaroth have respectively sunk and been overrun by Chaos, and now all the elves are living together in Athel Loren. Teclis reveals his master plan to bind the Winds of magic into specific people. These Incarnates would be empowered by their respective Winds to the point where they can stand a chance against the full power of the Chaos Gods.

- The Dwarfs can't decide what the hell they are doing besides chewing their beards and drinking at first, but eventually end up joining the Empire.

- The Skaven have [[Tyranid|nommed]] pretty much all the minor human kingdoms and are rising in one super ratty horde to take over the world. They also '''blow up the Chaos Moon''' in a display of awe-inspiring idiocy that horrifies even the Daemons of Chaos.

- After most of the Lizardmen sacrifice themselves stopping most of the Warhammer world from becoming a smoldering crater, the survivors go 'fuck this' and fly off into space.

- The Ogre kingdoms have blown up with every volcano erupting at the same time and so they are mass-migrating again.

- Everyone who isn't with Chaos is forced to join their forces with the Incarnates in a last stand at Middenheim, where a third Warp Gate was hidden. Mannfred ruins the ritual that would have saved the Warhammer world from annihilation, and the Chaos Gods manifest to personally fuck everything up. The world is destroyed, and the stage is set for [[Age of Sigmar]].

==The World That Was==
In [[Age of Sigmar]], the age of Warhammer Fantasy is referred to as "The World-That-Was". Despite what you may think, it's actually kind of common knowledge in-universe that there was another existence before the Realms of Age of Sigmar, sort of in the same way that most know that [[Lizardmen|dinos]] ruled the Earth before mammals took over. Remnants of Warhammer Fantasy exists here and there, either like forgotten scraps of roastbeef between the teeth of the Chaos Gods or just as reformed ruins of what existed once. There may also be hints that the reason why Age of Sigmar doesn't deviate too much design-wise from Warhammer Fantasy is because the World-That-Was isn't a forgotten world by many of the gods and creatures that exists now (it's not because we just reuse the old models for AoS, we swear). To be fair there are many from Warhammer Fantasy who made it to AoS and would definitely remember those days.

Recently the World-That-Was is being referenced more and more, becoming more relevant for the overall plot of Age of Sigmar. The Malign Portents plot pretty much directly references Nagash' way of dealing with all problems way back when; with huge-ass black pyramids that get fucked over by oversized vermin.

The [[Warhammer Community]] team also uses the World-That-Was whenever they reference Warhammer Fantasy. Maybe they fear that Warhammer Fantasy will appear if you beckon it or something like Candlejack, Bettlejuice or Bloody Mary.

===The Old World (Full Circle)===
On November 15 2019, Warhammer Community revealed the existence of a new game called [[Warhammer: The Old World]]. While nothing has been seen of it beyond a logo, it has been explicitly stated to take place in the World-That-Was. Although it is unlikely to be released anytime soon by their own admission, the fact that Fantasy may be making a comeback is shocking in itself.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/03/23/the-old-world-ice-guard-of-kislevgw-homepage-post-4fw-homepage-post-2/ The first preview] showed Geedubs is making changes for The Old World instead of just bringing back Warhhammer Fantasy as it was by bringing back [[Kislev]] with new units, which wasn't an army since 6th edition. We already have a fan debate too, as many consider the ONE piece of art we've seen to be "Too AOS-y".

==The appeal of Warhammer Fantasy==
Some works of fiction are serious and many serious works are calm, subdued and dignified, giving events the gravity of all their implications. Some works of fiction are over the top and have a tendency towards being farcical and easy going were things often might not make sense, but you roll with it for a laugh. Warhammer manages to be both largely Serious and Over the Top at the same time. It can pull off outright farce, over the top heavy metal action, subtle academic humor and dark fantasy melodrama without missing a beat, and that's not even the truly impressive part! That's that WFB combines all of these facets constantly without diminishing any of the individual themes. You see a [[Lizardmen|fat aztec frogman]] blast a [[Lord of Change|blue, flaming hellchicken with a staff]] while fast asleep, and there's nothing wrong with it! But imagine something like that in [[LOTR]]; that shit just wouldn't fly.

It does in Fantasy because the Serious is Over the Top and silly, while the Over the Top stuff is taken seriously. Unlike 40k, Fantasy isn't overtly a pastiche of tropes and a parody of so many things - it is a coherent world where things matter. Small enough that individuals can make a mark on the world and their heroics can change the course of history, but large enough that it can be filled with all sorts of beings and cultures.

In addition, Warhammer was made by History Nerds for History Nerds. It appeals to the sort of person who, when asked "''what do you think about the middle ages''?" would reply "''where and what century''?". The world is old, and the history is actually pretty detailed for the factions for whom history matters, like the [[High Elves]], the [[Dwarfs]] and [[The Empire]]. The development of the factions in the world matters quite a lot and the ramification of wars in the past affect the world in the present. The culture of the factions in play wasn't just invented because it's cool; they developed over time, and for most of it, in a way that makes sense.

In contrast to 40,000, Fantasy is a bit less grimdark. Not because of the villains (who are about as bad; which is to say, very fucking bad) but because the heroic side is a bit more genuinely heroic. Even though they may be assholes, they still face great and terrible threats for the good of [[Karl Franz|the nation]], [[Teclis|the world at large]] and their [[Gotrek & Felix|friends]]. They're not all [[Sisters of Battle|catholic]] [[Inquisition|space nazis]] indoctrinated to do what they are needed to do; they're people, real humane people with human desires - and that includes pretty much all the mortal creatures in the setting.

Take [[Volkmar|Volkmar the Grim]]. This is a dark character, entirely dedicated to his faith to a fanatical level. He burns heretics, bashes cultists and doesn't afraid of anything - but his faith is genuinely good in nature. He protects the Empire because he loves it and the people in it, and while he may disagree with the followers of Ulric, he recognizes them as allies in the fight [[Chaos|against the true evil.]] Shit, he has a hunk of ''concentrated fucking evil on his chest'' at all times, and it doesn't affect him at all - as in, no mention that he may be getting crazier with age or that he makes deals with entities no one knows about. Nope, he's just that fucking dedicated to his faith and genuinely believes in it with the full, naked force of the human soul and heart. ''That's'' a proper Warhammer Fantasy character - skilled beyond belief and likely pretty darn grim or extreme, but with an edge of humanity and personality. They aren't just a [[Mephiston|vessel for a cool trope]] or [[Creed|an exemplar of the faction they represent]], but a fully-fledged character with needs and wants, tempered with a heroic choice to sacrifice personal safety to change the world.

==Tabletop==
===Gameplay===
''Warhammer'' is a tabletop wargame where two or more players compete against each other with "armies" of 20 mm - 50 mm heroic scale miniatures. Games may be played on any appropriate surface, although the standard is a 6 ft by 4 ft tabletop decorated with model scenery in scale with the miniatures. If you're [[Games Workshop]]'s bitch-boy and have no imagination of your own you will buy the ridiculously overpriced [[Citadel Miniatures|Citadel]] [[Realm of Battle]] tabletop and have a scenery collection made of boring plastic pieces bought entirely from GW, but REAL players make their own gaming tables (saving a fuck-ton of money in the process). Games Workshop used to encourage this until they sold their souls for money.

Gameplay follows a turn structure in which one player completes all movement for troops, then simulates casting spells (when spell-using units are available), uses all ranged or missile weapons in the army such as bows and handguns, then any units touching fight in melee or close-combat. After finishing, the second player does the same. The winner is often determined by victory points; earning a number equal to the value of enemy units killed. Special objectives can add or subtract from this total based on predefined goals, usually holding parts of the battlefield or killing powerful units (such as the enemy general).

===Magic===
Perhaps the thing that separates ''Warhammer Fantasy'' from ''40k'' the most, aside from the obvious, is the use of magic. Each army (with the exception of the dwarfs) has at least one unit that can use magic, often in the form of an independent wizard. When magic units are present on the battlefield, they're given their own turn separate from the shooting, moving and melee phases to cast their spells. There are several kinds of magic but most magicians are able to use only a single form.

* Dark Magic, used by Dark Elves and Wood Elves
* High Magic, used by the [[Slann]], Wood Elves and the [[High Elves (Warhammer)|High Elves]].
* Nehekharan Incantations, Used exclusively by [[Tomb Kings]] Liche Priests and High Liche Priests (and Settra)
* Light: Wind of Hysh, Lore of Light. Basically healing and shit, plus doing extra damage to daemons and undead.
* Gold: Wind of Chamon, Lore of Metal and Alchemy. Basically armour buffs and debuffs, with their offensive spells doing more damage the higher your armour save is. [[Troll|Problem, Knights?]]
* Jade: Wind of Ghyran, Lore of Life. Basically lots and lots of buffs, making your own units harder to kill. They look like hippies, but don't tell them that, [[RAGE|they'll fucking murder you]].
* Celestial: Wind of Azyr, Lore of the Heavens. Lets people tell the future and stuff, plus they can summon lightning and meteorites that really hurt flying units.
* Grey: Wind of Ulgu, Lore of Shadows. Basically misdirection and illusions, relying on Leadership tests. They can also teleport every time they use a spell.
* Amethyst: Wind of Shysh, Lore of Death. Basically the Lore of Fire, except more killy and shorter-ranged.
* Bright: Wind of Aqshy. Lore of Fire. Basically the ammunition of the Fire obsessed psychopaths known as the Bright Wizards.
* Amber: Wind of Ghur, Lore of Beasts. Basically a Radagast rip off. WHO IS RADAGAST?!?!? [[The Lord of the Rings|RTFM!!!]]
* Daemon Magic: Used by... well, daemons. Broken into three categories - one for each of the gods that give a shit about lasers - [[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi]] [Indulgent, relies on enemy Ld], [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] [decay, revolves around enemy S/T scores], and [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] [OMG FIRES]. [[Khorne]] is too awesome for magic; he'd much rather crush skulls with his bare <s>thighs</s> HANDS and anything less makes you dangerously unmanly and at the absolute least bicurious.
* Necromancy: Used exclusively by [[Vampire_Counts|Vampires]] and Necromancers, as the name "Lore of the Vampires" would suggest.
* Spells of Plague and Ruin: used exclusively by the [[Skaven]].
* Gut Magic: Also known as the Lore of the Great Maw. Used exclusively by the Ogre Butchers.
* Waaagh Magic: Used exclusively by [[Orcs]] and Goblins. Comes in Big and Little flavors. Has a very high chance of making the user's head asplode.
* Athel Loren Magic: Used exclusively by Wood Elves. Moves forests, or move folks through forests.
* Ice/Winter Magic: Used exclusively by the Tzar of Russi- er, Kislev. It gets bonuses or penalties [[What|based on whether your models have snow on the bases and what the weather outside is like.]] Has since been discontinued for being as stupidly designed as it sounds.
* Lizard Magic: Used by [[lizardmen]], it has only one spell, called "Fuck you, I'm an Aztec dinosaur, therefore awesome."
* [[Chaos Gods#The Other Ones|Hashut]] Magic: Used exclusively by the [[Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Legion of Azgorh|Chaos Dwarfs]], the Lore of Hashut consists primarily of buffing spells that work well with the ungodly amount of flaming weaponry that the Chaos Dwarfs have access to.

[[Warhammer Magic]] is powerful, very powerful. A lone unit can wipe out half the opposing army with the right spell at the right time. Magic can also misfire, badly. This adds an element of unpredictability to its use, making it much more dangerous to the user and therefore, much less broken.

GW also recently released an expansion to WFB with a bigger focus on magic, called [[Storm of Magic]]. Which turns magic from regular broken into <s>DOUBLE</s> TRIPLE BROKEN, but misfiring will fuck your mage up in 12 different ways, [[lulz|and then Khorne will throw giant brass kull at him/her/it]].

==Significant Personage Of Warhammer==
* '''[[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]]:''' Born some random tribesman, <s>Conan</s> Sigmar united the squabbling human tribes in what would become known as the Empire and killed a ton of Orcs. Saved some random ass dwarf after this and the Dwarf High King gifted him Ghal Maraz, a super-duper powerful warhammer. Also the dwarfs helped him defend Black Fire Pass from a massive WAAAGH! . He was the first Emperor of the [[Empire]], but he got bored and disappeared on a journey to find something interesting to do. The Empire canonized him as a god, and today the Church of Sigmar is the largest and most powerful faith in the Empire (although only one among many). Some believed him to be one of the missing [[Primarch]]s, given how badass he was, but this has been disputed by newer [[fluff]] detailing his birth and family life. Returned during the End Times, and there was much rejoicing.
* '''[[Karl Franz]]:''' This guy is the current Emperor of the Empire. He owns Ghal Maraz now, as well as the biggest motherfucking <strike>Hippogryph</strike> Gryphon, named DEATHCLAW, who he rides while [[rape|assraping]] bitches who try to invade Imperial soil. And he has a fucking dragon. As of [[The End Times]], he was missing, but returned, was killed, and became [[Awesome|Sigmar-Jesus]].
* '''Magnus the Pious''': Greatest Emperor since [[Sigmar]]. Also one of the few who wasn't morally bankrupt.
* '''Volkmar the Grim''': Grand Theogonist of the Empire. Quite a stern faced fellow; he was once chained up to a daemonic standard by [[Chaos Gods|Be'Lakor]], but simply [[Awesome|broke himself off, murdered the daemons surrounding him, and marched through the Chaos wastes to get back to the Empire]]. <s>[[Derp|This has since been retconned]].</s> Not according to Chris Wraight's Sword of Vengeance. As reward for his sheer badassery, he gets captured by mannfred Von Carstein and is tortured until he is a mere shell of his former self. Arkhan the Black then uses his body as the vessel in which Nagash returns to the world in a ritual so sickening that even Mannfred feels bad for him. Truly grimdark.
* '''[[Gotrek & Felix]]''': Adventuring duo, have a lot of books based on them. Gotrek is a dwarf Slayer who is terrible at his job, because between his magic super-axe and ''insane badassery'' he's nigh-unkillable. Felix is some random bard who found a sword that really wants to kill dragons somewhere. Together, they <strike>fight crime</strike> look for something powerful enough to finally kill Gotrek. Gotrek tolerates Felix traveling with him because he needs someone to pen the mighty tale of his epic doom. In recent times their relation have come close to a bro-friendship and they trusts each other completely. While he's not in it for the chicks, Felix goes through them at a rate of 1-2 per two books. To put it simply if there is more than two of it Gotrek has probably killed one.
* '''Kurt Helborg''': Captain of the Reiksguard and [[Ultramarines|second to the Emperor]] in military terms. Also a badass moustache.
* '''Ar-Ulric Valgeir''': The Viking leader of the Cult to Ulric, the [[Spaaaaaace Wolves|wolf god]].
* '''[[Boris Todbringer]]''': The Elector Count of Middenland.
* '''Luthor Huss''': Crazy ass preacher. [[Awesome]] in the way to show the middle finger to those over-fat, political fuckwits of the Sigmar cult of the capital and take the "Fight Chaos to death" thing personally... with a huge hammer.
* '''[[Balthasar Gelt]]''': Empire Wizard, looks like Dr. Doom. Rides a white pegasus and wears such gaudy clothing that Lady Gaga looks frumpy by comparison. Possibly Elton John without the singing voice.
* '''Valten''': Reincarnation of Sigmar. Got ganked by a Skaven, probably Snitkch, but the lack of gore makes it hard to tell. RETCONNED! Now he is very much alive, and keeping the forces of the empire from being completely buttfucked by Archaon. Sad news is that still got ganked by Skaven...at least this time, he was sniped by a Verminlord while honourably dueling Archaon.
* '''Louen Leoncour''': King of [[Bretonnia]]. Believes in the Feudal system, also believes that a 300% tax rate for the peasantry promotes economic growth, also believes that knights are of infallible morality, also believes that guns are weaker than bows , also believes people of the Empire would prefer a system of governance that emphasizes crushing their hopes and dreams, also believes that a pig and 12 Bretonnian coppers (which exchanges for less than half an Empire copper on a good day) is an excessive reward for saving his nation. In the same support group for ludicrous theme naming as [[Canis Wolfborn]].
* [[Lady of the Lake]]: Creepy cannibal spirit of Bretonnia. A fine piece of ass regardless of diet. May be an elf in disguise.
* '''[[The Green Knight | Green Knight]]''': Bretonnian Holy Warrior and professional ass rapist. In the End Times he is revealed to be Guilles de Breton, founder of Bretonnia and basically their version of Sigmar.
* '''[[Katarin the Ice Queen]]''': Tzarina of Kislev. One of maybe a handful of people in the setting who can use Ice Magic.
* '''[[Teclis]]''': Mage of the High Elves. Pathetic weakling that drinks magic potions like an alcoholic and falls over in a breeze, although he's also one of the few non-Slann mages capable of nuking cities. Considered a Mary Sue by some but they are mistaken, his brother Tyrion is the Mary Sue. Teclis also taught the Empire how to use magic and founded their fancy colleges, being one of the few elves to realize and respect the potential of non-elves. Eldrad - dickery = Teclis. According to his cameo in the Gotrek and Felix series, most elf women are so-so towards him (being haughty bitches), but human women are wet for him. Becomes extremely grey in the End times and essentially Sacrifices his niece to Mannfred to allow Nagash to return, showing that he is very capable of eldrad levels of dickery.
* '''[[Tyrion]]''': Teclis' twin brother and a fuckawesome warrior. May in fact be aroused by killing; it's hard to tell because he won't stop to answer questions. Also happens to be a bigger Mary Sue than [[Kaldor Draigo]] and a bigger dick than [[Eldrad]]. For instance, in 'Blood of Aenarion' he matches veteran warriors with a blade even though he's young and barely practiced himself. Women flock to his bed ([[FATAL|including his own cousin]]) and everyone treats him like a hero even though he hasn't done anything heroic yet (being a descendant of one doesn't count, you have to earn it). Also has the supposed flaw of not being good at anything outside of war. "Supposed" because the flaw never affects him when it should harm him. Matt Ward, of all people, reduced his Mary Sueness a little by making him moody and giving him a short temper as early signs of Aenarion's curse.
* '''[[Ariel]]''': God Queen of the Wood Elves, revealed to be fucking Isha herself who was slowly wasting away as her daughter [[Lileath]] poisoned her with magical ice. Had fairy wings.
* '''[[Orion]]''': Consort King of the Wood Elves, revealed to be [[Kurnous]] AKA the father of all Elves and the wild manly forest beings. Rides through Bretonnia every summer and kills everybody who runs from him because...reasons! Looks like the child of a centaur and a satyr.
* '''[[Thorgrim Grudgebearer]]''': Dwarf High King, very angry, very angry indeed. He carries a book called "The Great Book of Grudges", where EVERY single fault aganist the [[Dorf]] people (THAT'S GOIN' IN THE BOOK, LADDIE!) is noted and taken into account when the time of skullcrushing comes, hence his angriness. He wants to avenge them ALL, and sort of cheats at it by considering all the Grudges fulfilled in the last battle between Chaos and the world it was consuming.
* '''[[Josef Bugman]]''': Dwarf brewer and 200% Awesome. After his brewery got burned down by some goblins he began an impossible mission to kill the tribe that decided the world didn't need anymore Bugman's XXXXX. Now he roams the world with his surviving employees and family fucking shit up. His booze is literally legendary, and possession of some is about on-par with having a giant magical sword forged by a Chaos God's buttcrack or what have you.
* '''[[Grombrindal]]''': The [[White Dwarf]] (yeah, he's the mascot of the Magazine). A mysterious warrior who was apparently friends with pre-charbroil Malekith and now fights endlessly against the enemies of Dorfkind by just appearing and helping out randomly. Like Kaldor Draigo, but as an undead instead of a mortal lost in the Warp.
* ''' [[Long Drong]]''': A Dorf pirate who was apparently important enough to get a unit, a part in the [[Awesome|all-destroying dwarf army of slayer flavoured-doom]]. He even got his own campaign book for God's sake! Why?!
* '''[[Lord Mazdamundi]]''': Most powerful and influential [[Slann]] alive, unnecessarily rides on a dinosaur and gets the bloated toad-alien equivalent to a raging hard-on every time he nukes a city and/or non-Lizardmen species into dust. Also leads the Lizardmen equivalent to the Klan and was one of the brilliant minds behind a plan for a redecorating of the world's volcanic system, this also resulted in the Dwarfs being marginalised close to the point of extinction. And then he fapped to it.
* '''[[Lord Kroak|Venerable Lord Kroak]]''': Most powerful and influential Slann formerly alive. Most powerful magic-user of the entire setting after the gods themselves, he has been dead for thousands of years and can't even move by himself. His corpse is taken in battle because he is made of localized nuclear explosion and levels cities pretty much every. fucking. turn. Probably the most powerful entity because even being a [[Emperor|dead, inanimate corpse,]] he has killed more shit than anyone else on this list, except for maybe Nagash, even then it's too close to make a call, except that he probably will kill Nagash if they meet and would just blink the guy out of existence if they had met when he was alive. He also gets bonus points for not having actually being reanimated, vampirised or any other kind of weird back from the death shit. He is straight up dead. And his rotting corpse is still more magic than the magicest anything else in the universe. In short, he's the grand toad poohbah of lizardkind, and he's on a hoverchair, kinda like a badassed version of [[Tau|Aun'Va]]. Not dissimilar to a Dalek in this regard.
* '''[[Archaon]]''': Lord of the End Time, the Ever Chosen and second most powerful warrior in the setting. Beat all four of the greatest Champions of the Empire in single fight during the Storms of Chaos Campaign But got bashed about badly by Grimgor who headbutted his teeth out of his face. Grimgor iz da best! Later on, he destroyed the world entirely.
* '''The [[Glottkin]] (Otto, Ethrac, Ghurk)''': Triplet sons who became Nurgle's top champions and mutated into a warrior, a smelly wizard, and a giant fucking blob of pestilence. Their parents were priests of Sigmar that tried to live among, and convert, the Chaos worshipers until they were murdered by the Empire by mistake, and the sons began looking for vengeance. Lucky for them, Archaon decided to make them his new vanguard and sent them to blow up the city of Altdorf. These guys are the basis of the second part of [[The End Times]] as the biggest threats of Chaos. Get beat pretty hard, turned into flies by Nurgle to save them but he put them in a jar as punishment.
* '''[[Wulfrik the World-Walker]]''': Chaos Lord, executioner of the Gods and consummate smack-talker of the Warhammer world.
* '''[[Aekold Hellbrass]]''': AWESOME Tzeentchian Champion.
* '''[[Arbaal the Undefeated]]''': All mighty Champion of Khorne. Another one of the greatest warriors in the setting. Obviously, being a favored champion of the Ultimate God of War. Was with Asavar Kul when Praag was destroyed, fled the battle after he died at Russia, likely to assume Khorne ain't very happy with him. Also destroyed the gates of Praag with a single strike from his sword. (badass) Angron probably got his inspiration from this guy. Is he as fun to be around as [[Kharn]]?
* '''[[Asavar Kul]]''': Greatest Champion of Chaos. Greatest warrior in the setting. Almost destroyed the Empire. 'Nuff said.
* '''[[Harry the Hammer]]''': Oldfluff character whose warhammer the setting is named after. Allegedly.
* '''Vardek CROM!''': Archaon's lieutenant and King of the tribe of Asavar Kul. Was man handled by Archaon once and beat Grimgor once.
* '''[[Chaos Gods#Be'lakor|Be'lakor the Dark Master]]''': The only Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided and chooser of the Everchosen....though not by choice. He's a scheming sonuvabitch that tries to kill every other champion of Chaos so he can get his parents' attention back. Oh, and he's also [[Warhammer 40K|in the spaaaaaace-future of the 41st millennium]]. Technically invented Chaos worship by being the first mortal in Fantasy to be uplifted by them, and served as the middle man between the material plane and Warp entities until the Chaos Gods discovered they could have their own champions rather than just sharing one. Has been a pissy fuck ever since.
* '''[[Valkia the Bloody]]''': The world's most badass woman and Khorne's personal bitch. A monster of a woman who killed so much that everyone's favorite Blood God got smitten and made her more than human. Now she chooses who lives and who dies to join Khorne in the afterlife.
* '''[[Grimgor Ironhide]]''': Orc Warlord, one of the most powerful warriors in the setting. Got his ass handed to him once by Archaon's lieutenant, Vardek CROM!!! Grimgor swore to prove he was the best in any case and did it beating Archaon himself in singular duel (via headbutt to the Chaos-armored testicles). Was determined to be the avatar of [[Gork]] himself. One of the most badass robots from [[Transformers]] was named after him.
* '''[[Skarsnik]]''': Head of the [[Night Goblins]], intent on taking over the Eight Peaks and wiping out the Dwarfs. Extremely clever, extremely cruel even by Warhammer standards, but canonically loves his Squig companion Gobbla. He speaks several languages too.
* '''[[Wurrzag|Wurrzag, Da Great Green Prophet]]''': Orc Moses. Turns enemy Wizards into Squigs. His mental energy makes those he doesn't turn into Squigs suffer an improved chance of a miscast. Never stops dancing. EVER. On a lifelong journey to find the avatars of Gork and Mork. It actually took him awhile to figure out he needed to find two Greenskins instead of one. One was [[Grimgor Ironhide|an ultraviolent Black Orc]], the other [[Skarsnik|a tactically-brilliant Night Goblin]].
* '''[[Grom the Paunch]]''': Former Goblin Warlord. Famous for being obese, no joke. Also for near DESTROYING the Empire, oh, AND Ulthuan (imagine a Grot almost destroying Terra until he got bored and decided to destroy every Craftworld, almost succeeding). Not bad for a Gobbo. No one knows where is he now, <s>but it is unlikely that, whrerever he is, is alive (his wars was a hundred yeras before current era).</s> <span style="color:#80FF00">GROM LIVES, ya' git! An' when da waaaghboz returnz, wi'll stomp da humies an el's an' orcs fo' good! WAAAA-</span><span style="color:green">'''STOMP!''' Where ya been? Get back to camp an' start to load rukks in da... um... "thing", ya squishy git!</span>
* '''[[Thanquol]]''': Skaven grey seer and archenemy of Gotrek. He does lines of warpstone powder which is to cocaine what a monster truck is to a pair of baby's first rollerskates. Also he managed to escape from the prophet of Sotek, who after losing his sacrifice to his awesomic god, <strike>takes a nap</strike> meditates, despise the fact that he is a skink. Forever. Thanquol is such a colossal fuckup that it was determined the Lizardmen should let him live because he was ''that much'' of a liability to his own people. Spends all his time with his Frankenstein's Monster buddy [[Boneripper]].
* '''[[Deathmaster Snikch]]''': Skaven ninja-assassin. Uses three scimitars at once to lop off limbs from his target, doesn't so much as assassinate people as shred them into little pieces.
* '''[[Malekith]]''': Lord of the Dark Elves; master of Dark Magic, uses a shield that can asplode your brain from a distance, and rides a giant-ass black dragon. Still lives with his mom. Also considered a whiny emo git who costs so much no one will ever use the Malekeith on a Dragon model because they'd rather finish the game before the entropic heat death of the universe. GW retconned it so he was the chosen one and everyone who doubted him was wrong, making his transformation into Anakin Skywalker complete.
* '''[[Morathi]]''': Malekith's mom. In old editions she was the highest ranking Slaaneshi in the world and one of the primary players in the game of global domination; now she's just a crazy supreme witch with Alzheimer's who thinks everyone is her old hubby Aenarion. Fortunately, they fixed that in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|the video game]].
* '''[[Malus Darkblade]]''': The Starscream of Warhammer.
* '''[[Gorthor|Gorthor the Beastlord]]''': A Beastman Everchosen, one of a handful of Beastmen who successfully caught the eyes of the Chaos Gods in more than a passing capacity. Whipped up on the Empire for a while before dying. Depopulated the Drakwald while he was at it. Even by Beastmen standards this guy was a monster.
* '''[[Khazrak The One-Eye]]''': The most cunning Beastman. He and Boris Todbringer stabbed each other's eyes out, leaving one with an eyepatch and one with a constantly blood-and-puss bleeding empty socket. Hence his title, obviously. Loves messing with Todbringer.
* '''[[Morghur|Morghur, Master of Skulls]]''': A creature so close to Chaos that stuff he touches becomes [[Chaos Spawn|You-Know-Whats]]. He's classified as a Beastman, but that's mere approximation; it'd be more accurate to call him a pure, sentient mass of Chaos energy given flesh. Perhaps that's why he never stays dead?
* '''[[Nagash]]''': Supreme Lord and Creator of Undead, with his autographed book series inspiring the creation of Vampires by Neferata. Also [[Eldrad|Supreme Asshole]]. Was pissed his brother got to be Pharoah while he was stuck as a priest, so he tortured Dark Elves until they taught him black magic that he turned into the first true Necromancy. Killed his brother and got creepy with his brother's life, kept trying to take over Warhammer Egypt from his giant Warpstone flying pyramid and kept getting his ass kicked because Chaos, humanity, and even Skaven were all afraid that he'd become supreme ruler of reality if left un-sabotaged/smote. Supposedly the strongest wizard ever, has fought Sigmar himself and almost won. Became the supreme god of death by becoming Death itself via making death magic his bitch/part of his soul, now gets every soul that Chaos doesn't.
* '''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Nagash's right-hand man. Spent his life in defending Nagash and was resurrected to continue doing it as a skeleton sorcerer. nlike Mannfred, he's serving Nagash out of loyalty that didn't even end in death although in some versions he's getting a bit tired of Nagash's abrasive personality. Had an on-again off-again romance with Neferata despite being a skeleton.
* '''[[Heinrich Kemmler]]''': An insane Necromancer who dabbled in all sorts of dark arts, eventually becoming a believer in Chaos. Was the very first still-canon Warhammer character ever created.
* '''[[Krell]]''': [[Chaos Lord]] turned undead Wight. Everyone thought he was a mindless minion of Kemmler, but he actually changed allegiance from Khorne to Nagash long ago.
* '''[[Queen Neferata|Neferata]]''': The first Vampire and last ruler of the ancient city of Lahmia. Militant bisexual necromancer with a spy network that goes around manipulating events across the world behind the scenes. Pays lip service to Nagash but wants to become a proper queen again. Tried to make her cousin Khalida a Vampire, caused Khalida to hate them as a result.
* '''[[Vlad von Carstein]]''': The first Von Carstein who almost became Emperor of the Empire but was betrayed by Mannfred. Husband of the original Vampire, but all of his character motivation is being a lovey-dovey couple with his new wife. Resurrected by Nagash in the End Times to continue making Mannfred look bad.
* '''[[Isabella von Carstein]]''': New wife of Vlad, helps keep him from going full-retard when he gets too pissed off and is a big part of his longterm planning but once he died the first time she suicided. Possessed by a Nurgle Daemon in End Times, Vlad killed himself again to use his ring to kill the Daemon but have her survive.
* '''[[Mannfred von Carstein]]''': Vampire Lord, a "son" of Vlad. Helped end Vlad's attempt at taking over the world with his involvement in the theft of the Ring of Supreme Badassery, traveled the world like Eurotrash then tried to launch a similar invasion of his own using the ring. Got his ass kicked, became a slave to Nagash to attempt to carve out his own chunk of the world but got pissed when Nagash resurrected Vlad to be the HNIC Old World Vampire. Decided to go full-retard and ended the world by stabbing one of the guys using magic to make it not get swallowed by the Warp. /tg/ calls him "Mannlet Von Carstein" to reflect his character motivation of having daddy issues.
* '''[[Konrad von Carstein]]''': Bat-Shit crazy Vampire Lord, "son" of Vlad. Not good with magic, after pissing off his Necromancers they abandoned him and the stress of controlling a zombie apocalypse made him lose his shit and wander off into a forest muttering to himself where he was promptly tackled by Gotrek and stabbed in the heart with the Elector Count of Ostland's Runefang by Felix. [[Twilight|Total "pants-on-head" retarded vampire noob.]]
* '''[[Settra the Imperishable]]''': Greatest of the Tomb Kings. Fights upon a pimped out chariot. Was offered literally everything by the Chaos Gods themselves if he'd serve, yelled "SETTRA DOES NOT SERVE. SETTRA RULES!" and decided to spend his unlife trying to fucking kill Chaos.
* '''[[Queen Khalida]]''': Freaky mummy-chick blessed with the powers of a snake. Fucking hates Vampires, before Twilight made that cool.
* '''[[Greasus Goldtooth|Overtyrant Tradelord Greasus Tribestealer Drakecrush Hoardmaster Goldtooth the Shockingly Obese]]''': A huge motherfucker that weighs more than a pile of corpses made from giants. He loves eating almost as much as he loves killing. His name is also really, really long. Ogres are impressed by his name and he probably gets a shitload of tail. But he's a huge lardass who costs 565 points and makes ogres more awesome and enemy units pant-shittingly stupid.
* '''[[Golgfag Maneater]]''': An Ogre mercenary, established the Ogre mercenary archetype and was the best Ogre [[Murderhobo]] there ever was. Notorious for doing pretty much everything. Example: your mom.
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]]''': A Skaven with surprisingly decent martial skill, bright red armour and a huge pole on his back covered in skulls. Warlord of [[Clan Mors]], the largest of the Clans that aren't the main four. His name sounds like Squeak, as GW still doesn't take the Skaven too seriously.

==See Also==
*[[Army compatibility between Warhammer settings]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YgLWdIjGE Song for Warhammer Fantasy]
*[http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page Warhammer Lexicanum (It is badly in need of more articles)]
*[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Category:Warhammer/Tactics Warhammer Fantasy Battles Tactics]
*[http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com (More prosaic than the Lexicanum, but strangely has content the Lex doesn't, and vice-versa)]

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}

[[Category:Wargames]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Games Workshop]]

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

2020-05-07T12:19:00Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* In A World Of War */

[[Image:WHFBlogo.gif|center]]
<br>
[[Image:Empire Daemons.jpg|lright|thumb|600px|Where SAN saves are automatically passed while your flag still stands. Where a single greenskin can beat Chaos Undivided at its strongest. Where Liches can order around Chaos Gods like bitches. Where American football takes precedence over ONLYWAR. This <s>was</s> '''IS''' Warhammer Fantasy.]]
{{Topquote|There was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars.|Robert E. Howard}}
{{Topquote|To this day, I have the most fond memories of some of my old toys.|Michael Keaton}}
{{Topquote|Every parting gives a [[The End Times|foretaste of death]], [[Total War: WARHAMMER|every reunion a hint of ]][[Warhammer: The Old World|the resurrection.]]|Arthur Schopenhauer}}
Warhammer is dead! Long live Warhammer! It has been replaced with [[Age of Sigmar]] by GW with a continuation of the canon storylines. For the supplement where the [[Squat|world is destroyed]], see [[The End Times]]. To see the fan revolt continuation of the game, see [[The 9th Age]] or [[Warhammer Armies Project]]. To see the video game adaption, see [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: Warhammer]]. There's also the [[Endhammer]] project.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/11/15/old-world-new-warhammer/ WARHAMMER LIVES!''' STOMP STOMP.''']

Warhammer Fantasy '''IS''' a traditional Fantasy world created in the days when metal hair was all the rage and Dungeons and Dragon was still a new and strange concept. A somewhat darker take on the age-old Fantasy set forth by earlier writers such as Tolkien where the forces of man are almost constantly on the defense, Fantasy is a place where MEN are MEN, and ELVES are MEN, and DWARFS are MEN-MEN, (and Skaven are Man-Things). The entire world is constantly saturated in ancient and warping magic to the point that giant skulls are natural formations in rock, flora sometimes grows eyeballs and genitals, nobody stays dead, and the whole planet is some part of the [[Old Ones]]' last-minute emergency anti-Chaos plan.
It also has many more dead-hard, beardy [[Vikings]] killing, raping, and pillaging.

==In A World Of War==
[[File:3697970-3704646247-Warha.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Back when [[Power Armor|unnaturally powerful armour]] was exclusive to the bad guys.]]
Warhammer is about peasants living in shit, dying in shit, and the thousands of perils that befall them. Which are often covered in shit. It is not a fun place to be, [[Warhammer_40k|though there are worse]]. You have the standard three races of human, elf and dwarf... and none of them a united front. Your average soldier of the Empire is armed with a sword, a musket, and maybe a uniform which comes with a cheap piece of armor that couldn't stop an untipped arrow. Thusly equipped, he is expected to go toe-to-toe with a Daemon. Or a 9-foot-tall daemonically enhanced steel/daemon/*insert Chaotic thing* [[Warriors of Chaos|metal clad super Viking]]. Or a giant, many of which prefer to stuff opponents down their pants or [[Ogre Kingdoms|boil you/mash you/stick you in a stew]]. Or a [[Lizardmen|battle-trained whatsit-a-saurus]]. Or a [[Skaven|rat-man armed with a flame thrower and a machine gun while leading a colossal goddamn steampunk frankenstein rodent abomination]]. Or a [[Beastmen|half man/half goat eight-foot-tall killing and raping machine]]… and that's not even getting into the [[Chaos Dwarfs|Chaos-worshipping Dwarfs]] or the [[Dark Elves (Warhammer)|Chaos-influenced elves]]. Long story short, nothing nice ever comes out of the Chaos Wastes. [[Humanity_Fuck_Yeah|And to top it all off, the madmen actually manage it!]] The one good thing for humanity is that the various factions and races have enough sense to set aside their differences to avoid total annihilation, and succeed at this with stunning regularity.

Of course, once the threat of turning into some Daemon's bitch passes, the various races get right back to smacking the living shit out of each other. Throw in lots of undead in Gothic and Ancient Egyptian flavors, ratmen, omnivorous in every sense of the word Ogres and a race of lizard precursors and we have our setting. However unlike the 40k counterparts, the Empire has ties to both elf and dwarf, both ties have grown stronger over the centuries and usually what gets the 2 races from tearing each other to pieces, in fact the Elves are the ones who taught humanity to wield magic, while the dwarfs taught them mechanics and engineering, which both have resulted in The Empire creating some pretty badass warmachines and devices.

In short, there is a thicker line in terms of Good vs Evil, sure its hindered by the dirty mistakes in the history of big 3 (Man, Dwarf, and Elf) but it's still so much better than the <s>xenophobic</s> righteous alien smashing of 40k.

==WFB crunch in a nutshell==
[[File:M2180130 P1Mb2.jpg|left|thumb|600px|Contrary to popular belief, engaging an enemy army from the flank isn't that good an idea. Makes for cool shots though.]]
As for actual tabletop performance, some argue WHFB requires more tactical skill from the player; however, this is probably because it's not as widely discussed and is more often played by an older audience that was introduced to the setting during the glory-years of the fantasy genre. The game certainly does require more memorization (or reference at least) of rules, although listbuilding factors in less than actual field tactics in comparison to other games (see [[Tarpit]]). Psychology is a major factor in Fantasy as few battles (barring Undead on Undead slapfests or Daemon infighting) will progress without something fleeing or even disintegrating due to a failed Leadership roll. Fantasy puts more models on the field, but most of them are rank and file redshirts. Perhaps most blessedly, Fantasy lacks the $400+ models other gaming systems do. If you want an [[Apocalypse]] level battle, you bring a fucking sea of 1 hit point soldiers lead by one single model so fucking badass that Kenshiro bows in respect as it passes him.

Magic is a big deal in the game, and has its own phase during each turn. Other than gentlemanly games between you and your opponent, you ARE taking a spellcaster even if their only job is to fuck up the enemy's magic phase (some armies in fact require a spellcaster in the army, both of them Undead armies requiring someone to keep the corpse feet-plodding). Models may gain positive effects, or more likely negative ones during the battle so notes may need to be taken beyond just Victory Points. You have to know the ins and outs of your troops, and you'd be better served knowing your enemy's rulebook as well since things don't change much in their roles in the battle. Planning is everything, but ultimately the field of battle is chaotic and thus you'll need to be able to adapt to win ([[Nurgle]] and [[Tzeentch]] enjoy the gameplay aspect of Fantasy in different ways).

As far as models go, Fantasy is a bit liberated. With no rules requiring measuring from a gun, or an exact model footprint, you instead rely on the plastic base as an indicator of who you're fighting and if you can be hit.
This means that the only requirement is to have a little plastic square or rectangle base in the correct size. What is actually ON that base doesn't matter, unless you play at a GW shop in which case the only requirement is that they made whatever is on that base. Want to play one faction, but you only own another? So long as your opponent isn't a dick you can just use your army as the army you want to play now. Fantasy has it literally stated in the rulebooks that it's a big world (same basic geography as ours, but scaled up to a ridiculous size of a planet) and thus there's plenty of unexplored places where anything is possible. So when you field your first army as your second, you can provide a legitimate fluff explanation (Vampire Dwarfs, Lawful Good Chaos Gods, redneck Elves, Undead who are not soulless killing machines but instead have simply had their invitation to your opponent's army to a Wednesday teatime rejected for the last fucking time, and so on).
Unit fillers are a popular option for people making a new army in Fantasy. Instead of buying 60+ foot soldiers for the army of your choice, you can buy some extra bases and glue them together (for example a 3 by 2 grouping of 6 bases) then put something on top of them (a balsa-wood cart, an older model from another edition that was removed, an army specific thing like a hole in the ground that appears to be where the Skaven are coming out from or a statue of a hero for Empire) and stick it in the middle of the group. Boom, instantly you have to buy 4-8 less troops. As for those "GW-made at GW shops" rules? Clip sprues, make a fence, glue it to a base. Voila, instant unit filler.

Fantasy models DO have to fit close together unlike models in other games, so they tend to be a bit less wild with poses (some see this as a plus). Big models tend to have a lot of detail, and almost no armies share models so there's quite a bit of variation on the field. Also there's generally less spikes everywhere, actual exposed breasts on some models, and FAR more skulls ([[Khorne]] and [[Slaanesh]] both approve!).

Those guys who made the Total War games have said that they'll make computer games based on it. Feel free to have a nerdgasm, or a [[Rage|RAGEGASM]], as <s>Creative Assembly</s> Sega [[Games Workshop]] has locked away every other faction besides Empire, Dwarfs, Bretonnia, Vampire Counts, Orcs & Goblins, and Chaos (if you were an early buyer of the game) behind a DLC paywall. But there are two or more legendary faction leaders which can change up the game. Either way, Warhammer fans who own it are fairly happy with it. Similarly, [[Blood Bowl]] was a specialist game set in an alternate universe where American football replaced war and has a vidya and a sequel, while the other specialist game [[Mordheim]] which was a skirmish game got the Xcom-like [[Mordheim: City Of The Damned]] that is available now on top of [[Man O' War: Corsair]] which is loosely based on the [[Man O' War]] tabletop (so out of a game about fleet management, you get the bastard offspring of Mount & Blade and Sid Meier's Pirates! somehow) that was launched as an alpha access game. On top of that, a hack-n-slash multiplayer game was made [[Vermintide]], where a marriage of the combat of Mount & Blade and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare meets the structure of Left 4 Dead to massacre Skaven.

==Setting==
Warhammer is, in most places, set in a period reminiscent of early Renaissance Europe, only much, much worse. If you know anything about history, you'll know that's saying something. Nearly everything has some kind of historical analogy, at least within the human nations. Everywhere is a shit place to live for one reason or another. [[Warhammer 40,000|But unlike a certain other setting]], this has a lot more to do with being subject to multiple clashing interests in the backstory, rather than thematic contrivances that are often poorly explained or barely touched upon.

As an interested note, the Warhammer world, or at least what remains of it in [[Age of Sigmar]], is named Mallus, which in GeeDubs latin would be "Hammer".

===Human nations===
====The Empire====
[[File:Empire-Halberdiers.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Human troops with Strength 4. Halberdiers motherfucker.]]
{{Main|The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)}}

The '''Empire''' is usually the center of attention in the Warhammer world. It's basically a fantasy version of the Holy Roman Empire, meaning its warriors are very angry Germans wielding swords, muskets, and bibles, as well as having [[METAL BOXES|steam tanks]] and magic. It is ruled by a mortal Emperor (who is succeeded upon death, meaning there's no need for a corrupt council to do anything more than annoy him). He is elected from amongst the ranks of the Elector Counts, who govern the different provinces of the Empire in their own special way and wield badass swords called Runefangs which represent their office (when a Runefang is lost, there's one less member of the council). They are the closest WHFB has to a "main character" faction. All good-aligned races usually converge around the Empire when shit hits the fan, and all Chaos-aligned races make a beeline praying for Slaanesh to guide their cocks into an un-lubed Kraut's cannonhole.

The first Emperor was a guy named [[Sigmar]]. He was fucking hardcore (think a combination of Thor, Charlemagne, and [[Conan the Barbarian]]). After becoming the head of his tribe, he made friends with the Dwarfs by saving their king by killing [[Orcs & Goblins|greenskins]] (all before he became an adult even). After that, the Dwarfs and Germans hung out a lot which resulted in Germans getting all the same advances Dwarfs make and pushing it even further because Dwarfs reserved about new things. Sigmar then brought the Polish and some Russians into his clan, and founded The Empire. Sigmar got involved in a war down in Egypt's analogue in the setting, Nehekhara, against the Undead which resulted in Sigmar making the decision that if he were ever being kept alive artificially he wanted the plug pulled. Eventually, Sigmar got bored with politics and pulled a walkout, heading eastwards to fight some new beasties...and was promptly never heard from again. For some reason, people began worshiping him as a god and now he is the main god in the Empire. However, the more reasonable conclusion is that he's long dead and Ulric, the number two god of the Empire and the god that Sigmar worshiped in life, handles the prayers of the Sigmarite priests, that or probably made Sigmar into a God after he died or when he reached the World's Edge Mountains in the east. Turns out he became a god through sheer force of will but got stuck in the wind of Azyr because of Tzeentch being a dick.
Although the Empire was, in large part, the inspiration for the [[Imperium]] in 40k, there are some major differences. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, [[xenos|the other races]] (like Dwarfs and High Elves) are not only accepted but considered trusted allies (despite being arrogant douches). Additionally, though kept on a tight leash, magic is largely accepted (thanks to the Colleges of Magic the Elves set up, so wizards don't accidentally summon daemons every five seconds), and the Empire is fully polytheistic (although worshiping gods that own property in the [[Warp|Realm of Chaos]] is still a big no-no, despite Witch Hunters doing it (he's a Chaos God of Order though, so it's alright)), although Sigmar is the patron deity of the Empire and generally given the most respect. Second is [[Morr]], who provides the mortal races of the world with a legit Chaos-free afterlife.
Also, all forms of [[Undead|Undeath]] are heretical, which is totally encouraged in the Imperium. The Empire isn't totally shit and if you can get a good job you can live a pretty good life, just keep a gun under your pillow every night.
They're even advancing pretty fast and, if it weren't for the constant Chaos and undead invasions, they'd probably be advancing into an Industrial Revolution right about now.

The Empire also counts the allied nation of [[Kislev]] among its forces as they supply it with cannons, and it supplies them with more men but especially lancer calvary. Kislev is mostly Russia during the era of Catherine the Great with a pinch of Poland mixed in, and consists of vodka swilling peasants armed with spears, lance cav and being lead by bear cavalry and their ice-wizard queen to defend the frost-covered land that never smiles. They are more prone to mutation due to living where the winds from the Warp Gates blows. The primary Kislevite battle tactic is to assemble against Khornate Daemonhosts or Chaos Viking hordes that outnumber them 100-1 all while standing barefoot in the snow armed only with rocks AND FUCKING WIN THE BATTLE. Kislevite women consist of the hottest girls in the setting and hardcore bitches who will crack open a chaos warrior's skull and use it's mashed brain as baby food depending on how old they are.

[[Halfling|Halflings]] from the Moot are considered members of the Empire, although they contribute little other than food (particularly since the newer editions removed all Halfling fieldable models from the game).

The current Emprah is a guy named Karl Franz. He's pretty awesome too, he actually has a political and militaristic stance and he [[gets shit done]]. He rides a giant fucking griffon that eats people and owns the one fucking dragon in the entire damn Empire that doesn't act like a taxi for some batshit insane wizard or elf. It eats people too. He's got a fancy suit of ornate gilded armor, cool bling, and a hammer (again, THE Warhammer). Not a fool to be messed with.

Generally speaking, the forces of the Empire consist of cannons, Landsknechts with halberds, cannons, Landsknechts with claymores, cannons, musketmen, cannons, wizards, cannons, crossbowmen, cannons, pikemen, cannons, Russians, cannons, [[Steam Tank|steamtanks]], cannons, knights, cannons, [[inquisitors]], cannons, and mortars. Plus [[Sisters of Sigmar|nuns with guns]] and rioting peasants.

The Emperor has to put up with a lot of bullshit: Vampires, Daemons, Orcs, Skaven, Mummies, Beastmen, Elves, and other Humans. If you can think of it, the Empire has gone to war with it at least once. Its even gone to war with itself <strike>a couple of times</strike> almost every time that the Emprah seat becames vacant, which at one point, resulted in a [[Fail|thousand year long civil war.]] Its continued success in managing to keep from falling apart is as much of a mystery as Dwarfs finding the Humans of The Empire to be worthy of respect (maybe because Games Workshop has a hard-on for [[Imperium of Man|Imperialism]]).

====Bretonnia====
[[File:Breton.jpeg|right|thumb|400px|[[Bretonnia|Monty Python humans!]]]]
{{Main|Bretonnia}}

Bretonnia is the other major Human nation of the Warhammer world. Knights, chivalry, all that King Arthur bullshit. All while being pseudo-Frenchmen nobles with pseudo-English peasants. With the addition of worshiping a Lovecraftian goddess in the guise of a bitch with a magic chalice that's manipulated by baby-eating forest elves to get the Bretonnians to do their bidding (the Brets don't know that last part though!).
The peasants in Bretonnia somehow have it worse than the worse off peasants in the Empire since at least a peasant in The Empire has held a piece of currency at some point in their life. It's pretty much medieval France, only worse. They have a lot of knights, the lowest of which are Knights Errant who have turned into glory hunting idiots since they got their armor, then Realm Knights, then Questing Knights who seek the blessing of the [[Lady of the Lake]], and finally Grail Knights before whom the Lady appeared and let them drink from her magic chalice (hue hue hue).

Peasants are almost completely useless both in crunch and fluff other than as archers or cannon fodder, except for the peasant monks that are in fact carrying a dead and skeletal Grail Knight as if he's alive. But, since they're more French than they are English, this does kinda make sense...
Small numbers of Bretonnian women are considered blessed by the Lady enough to wield magic, but in truth most of them just have fey blood.

Bretonnian culture is based on High Elf culture, since the Franks hid from marauding Daemons while the world was in its very first apocalypse scenario within the ruins of High Elf colonies, and flipping through <strike>ancient tomes</strike> Elf childrens books depicting High Elf Silver Helms (AKA elfknights) killing Orcs and saving princesses inspired them to put on a cosplay that never ended.
Bretonnians used to be on the verge of conquering The Empire in older editions of the game, but that plot was dropped when The Empire was put front and center as the posterboys of the game. [[Ultramarines|40k fans may be able to relate.]]

Bretonnian nobles are bred from "superior" stock from the rest of the Human race, and are attractive even by Elf standards. [[Space Marines|Completion of their training and their missions allows them to further enhance themselves with magic, making their bodies resistant to poison and mutation and all around tougher.]] [[Orks|Their faith is so powerful they're literally able to will bullets into being less damaging to them than arrows, and to perform reality-defying feats simply because they think they can.]] Too bad they worship an Elf*.

Bretonnia is one of the more neglected armies in the game, once again proving the tradition that [[Sisters of Battle|any faction that makes frequent use of the Fleur-de-lys]] is on [[Games Workshop|GW's]] back burner.

====Other human nations====
Other human nations, which don't warrant an army book include:
*[[Albion]], the British Isles back in Celtic days where tribal shamans and intelligent rock giants protect human-made waystones and Old One artifacts from just about every faction in the game.
*[[Amazon]]s, a possibly immortal all-women civilization in [[Lustria]] whose ancestors served the Slaan but became a separate civilization after the Warp-Gates collapsed.
*[[Araby]], Middle East fantasy equivalent whose magicians can enslave [[Genie|Chaos spirits]] and are immensely rich from trade.
*[[Border Princes]], Balkans in its natural state of conflict. Group of small nations to the south of the Empire, home to Lietpold the Black and other rogues.
*[[Cathay]], incredibly large eastern empire which has magical robot terracotta warriors and non-Chaos spellcasters who are actively stealing power directly from the Chaos Gods (especially Tzeentch) and are led by their supreme dragon Emprah. Has the Great Wall of China, but is called the Great Bastion for some reason. All they ever do for the plot is occupy all of the fucking Chaos Huns/Mongols and Steppe Nomads which would otherwise be attacking The Empire, which is quite significant actually considering how just how fucking many Chaos Nomads there are.
*[[Estalia]] (Spain), produces Conquistadors and the world's supply of human murderhobos.
*[[Ind]], fantasy India which has '''ALL''' of Indian Mythology living in it's borders. Constantly under invasion by eastern flavored Beastmen.
*[[Kislev]], pre-Peter Russian Empire, Poland and Mongols all combined into one. Constantly getting [[Rape|buttfucked]] by Chaos.
*[[Nippon]] ([[Weeaboo|Japan]]), taught Skaven how to be ninjas and otherwise is so reclusive we know nothing about them (and why the fuck did they think teaching evil rat men more sneaky way to murder millions was a good idea?).
*[[Tilea]] (pre-unification Italy), a large number of city-states and kingdoms that ally with other civilizations in the world like an army of mercenaries that can range from [[Warforged]] to Greek Hoplites using flying machines. They are the main source of human mercenaries for the Old World.

===[[Elf|Elves]]===
====High Elves====
[[File:Adrian smith high elf warriors.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Somehow the actual elves look more alien than the [[Eldar|alien elves]]]]
{{Main|High Elves (Warhammer)}}

'''OH BOY, HERE WE GO'''...The "good guys" of WHFB. Although as a group they're dickish in the extreme like you'd expect, many of them are quite bro-tier and the reason the race is diminishing is because they overtax themselves to save the world every time they can from everyone they can, and humans are usually what counts as part of the world (except ones tainted by chaos of course).
They have the strongest navy in the world, wear red/white/blue, bring giant eagles to battle, are snobby, the average citizen can't even name the leader of their closest ally, they send in their marines to unwinnable conflicts, they saved the collective ass of the [[Old World]] twice, their head of government is democratically elected...

Many 40k fans mistakenly confuse the Eldar lore with Elf lore. This is a major mistake, as Eldar are characterized as [[Eldrad|ultra-dick failures]] while no faction has a bigger ass-kicking and ass-saving record than the High Elves.

High Elves defeated the first Chaos invasion into the world (unknown to themselves that they had distant magical help from the [[Lizardmen]]) and every invasion since. They established a network of [[Waystone|Waystones]] which pull the excess magic (which Daemons use to manifest) into Ulthuan and shoot it back into the Warp.
High Elves taught the Empire magic, and save the ass of Bretonnia every time it gets invaded by something they can't beat. They patrol the world oceans in giant magical aircraft carriers that launch dragons, and wreck the shit of anyone trying to launch a Black Crusade. They single-handedly keep the world from being swallowed into the Warp and all the good factions respect them for it (even if that's the ONLY thing Dwarfs respect about them).

The Everqueen of the High Elves and the hereditary ruler (who co-rules with her democratically elected male counterpart, the Phoenix King), is a being of IMMENSE magical power whose soul is made up of the combined souls of all her mothers leading back to the first Everqueen, who was the second daughter of [[Isha]]. The souls themselves reside with Isha, and as a whole they make up the Everqueen entity.
Chaos is afraid of her (read that again: Chaos Gods in 40k only ''respect'' the God Emprah as their greatest enemy and an equal, but they're actually '''afraid''' of the Everqueen), and she can cleanse anything the Chaos Gods can corrupt. Her only weaknesses are that sadness saps her energy (you do NOT want to piss her off though) and the fact she's mortal means her daughter has to be protected.

High Elves are ethnically divided into ten major groups by region. Some are such pricks who treat even other High Elves like Eldar treat the Mon'keigh, some are fatalistic jackasses with the personality of a secret service agent, some are revenge-obsessed sociopaths who make the Inquisition look like Lawful Good Paladins, some are <strike>nutty professors</strike> wizards, and some are <strike>hippies</strike> murderhobo [[Bard]]s who are willing to make love AND war as the situation requires. In addition, High Elves have districts within major trade cities in all the good factions.

High Elves would rather walk willingly into Slaanesh's open mouth than do anything beneficial to a Dark Elf and vice versa, running a contrast to Eldar/Dark Eldar relations.
When they die, High Elves are first nabbed by their patron god if said god liked them enough. Next, they can corpse-run to a Waystone (giant magical structures set up all over the world by their race to weaken Chaos and keep Daemons from manifesting) where they get to chill and manifest semi-solid bodies (which they will usually use to pick off troops from any evil races that wander by). Then, there's an evil goddess who got punished by [[Asuryan]] for trying to rape him while he was asleep and gets back at his rejection by taking High Elf souls (she doesn't care about any other Elf subraces) to torture like it's Christian hell. Final thing that can happen is Slaanesh manages to snatch them from the material plane and either eats them or turns them into [[Daemonette]]s (yes, in Fantasy he still does this). All of Slaanesh's Greater Daemons are elves who in one way or another wound up in his employ (from [[N'kari]] who was an insipid noblewoman who wanted to be the center of attention, to Dechala who was virgin sacrificed by her parents to Slaanesh for mercy and came back as a pissed off Medusa with an army of Daemonettes to butcher them).
While Eldar must use soulstones to keep their soul safe, High Elves use them only to guard them in combat against Daemons and those who worship them. Otherwise, their only use is to link to the Waystone network and provide GPS navigation for the elves.

[[Ulthuan]] is like paradise (for the most part, there's Chaos corrupted areas and random encounter tables of course) and elves will fuck, sing and enjoy the splendors of life without fear of taint as they must give themselves willingly to Chaos to be corrupted. The Cult of Pleasure, Slaanesh's Elf cult, takes root like Chaos cults in the [[Imperium]] and have to be [[Blam|purged]] by the High Elf [[Inquisition]] who are kung fu Elves in light armor who have swords as tall as their body but don't look weaboo.

Eldar are all-powerful psykers, although humanity has potential to make stronger psykers than the average Eldar. High Elves on the other hand are constantly bathed in magical energy, more so than the rest of the world, but you have to actually LEARN to be a <strike>psyker</strike> wizard. Since High Elves have public education and being a wizard is a great job, there's more Elf wizards than human ones (in fact, the fact you have to LEARN to be a wizard means that the only humans who can come close to badass Elf Loremasters are prodigies of Mary Sue proportions). Of course, one of the 10 High Elf ethnic groups have the old fashioned "every Elf is also a level 1 wizard" feature, but that's just them.

Eldar have a multitude of different styles of combat and war, and a multitude of different philosophies related to them. High Elves have three basic flavours of badass warriors: stoic summabitch priests who shrug off cannonballs to the face, guy with giant axe who wrestles monsters then goes for an ale, and Witch Hunters with giant swords

High Elves are, to the very last, soldiers. Every poet is also a Spear<strike>man</strike>elf, every baker is also a wizard, and every secretary loads giant bolt throwers. They passed the point of desperation tens of thousands of years ago, putting High Elves in the position of Israelis.

====Dark Elves====
[[File:DE.png|right|thumb|400px|"We are the most civilized race in the entire world. We have more exquisite ways to kill than any other"]]
{{Main|Dark Elves (Warhammer)}}

Edgier elves who get shit done [[Dark Eldar|without drugs and soul torture]]. Dark Elves manage to maintain the awesomeness and jack it up to a new level while still at the same time being made of the kind of fail you'd expect from a fantasy Dark Elf race. How do they do this you might ask? By taking the next logical step in the elven belief of "we're better than everyone" over to "so we should be allowed to kill them for sport". They have a history of using slavery, violently suppressed the indigenous population when they colonized their new homeland, have no respect for the rest of the world, are embroiled in an ongoing war with a foreign nation, they spy on everyone including themselves, citizens can easily gain access to deadly weapons, their government is corrupt, they built <s>a fence</s> <s>a wall</s> towers to keep people from a bordering nation out...

After being driven out of Ulthuan by the High Elves they fled to a new land they named Naggaroth (in memory of their old homeland Nagarythe). Naggaroth is Warhammer North America but very cold with a network of underground rivers and a sea in the middle. The topography of the land is half mountains, half flat plains which are mostly covered in forests. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. The land is infested with all sorts of monsters, from Harpies and Cold Ones to Manticores and Hydras. Even worse than them are populations of Orcs (descended from the spores of Orcs Dark Elves tried to use against the High Elves as slave soldiers), Beastmen (because Chaos) and Skaven (because the rats can tunnel under oceans apparently, though the Dark Elves have a treaty with them).

Their entire culture is built around "if you died, you were too fucking weak/stupid to stay alive". They have no protections for their souls because none of them admit they could die because that would mean admitting you are possibly less awesome than you tell everyone you are (because they'll kill you for lulz if you don't pretend to be more awesome than they're pretending to be). When Dark Elves die, they go first to their patron elf god if they manage to impress them (unlike High Elves they worship the nastier elf gods, collectively called the Cytharai) then to the same elf goddess who tried to seduce Asuryan then straight to Slaanesh. The third is okay, because some Dark Elves FUCKING WORSHIP SLAANESH (only in secret - in public they worship [[Khaine]] the lord of murder and the other Cytharai for fear of [[Blam|Malekith's reaction]]).

[[Malekith|Their king]] is the second son of the elves' greatest hero, but grew up to fuck up the world almost as bad as Daemons did the first time they invaded the material plane, and is the settings resident Doctor Doom. (The only non-Chaos threat to the world greater than him is [[Nagash]], the Apocalypse to Malekith's Doctor Doom). Their queen [[Morathi]] is Slaanesh's high priestess and the queen mother; she's been fucking her son since he was old enough to have his hips move by themselves. Oh, and that son/mother couple have been plotting to kill each other and take over control of the Dark Elves for thousands of years, with each gambit resulting in mass Dark Elf casualties and a "kiss and make up" moment from the two. Morathi is the single oldest living being in the setting (except most Slann and a few Saurus are as old if not older, plus [[Drachenfels]] if you consider him canon, but whatever), and it's all because she bathes in Daemonette jizz (literally, Dark Elves like to summon Daemonettes to parties, with said parties having low survival rates and Morathi keeps Daemon servants with her at all times) and the blood of newborn elves.

Fun fact: each year the craziest of the crazy, the Witch Elves (female berserkers in chainmail bikinis with poisoned blades) who worship Khaine, have a ten day holiday called "Death Night" where they just rampage through Dark Elf cities and kill whoever they want, unless said person can buy their lives in double digit amounts of slaves. They recruit into their ranks by stealing babies and very young children. The girls are automatically raised as Witch Elves while [[Grimdark|the boys are thrown into a cauldron of boiling blood]], those that survive are trained as assassins.

The Dark Elves raid the entire fucking world, constantly. They're the pirates that piss everyone off. They've managed to steal a [[Slann]] by lobotomizing it, then they turned it into fireworks (massive Dark Elf casualties). They plan safaris into the Chaos Wastes to shoot [[Warriors of Chaos|Norsemen]] and bring them home to be stuffed and turned into trophies. As long as they've existed, Dark Elves have been at a war of genocide with the High Elves. Every battle both sides suffer massive casualties, as Malekith is fighting the war mostly for the sake of pride and sends his men at fortresses that have never fallen because he wants to be the one to make them fall (he'll do this every year for thousands of years without learning a damn thing).

But somehow, Dark Elves DO manage to replenish their population pretty good. Every time they attack High Elves they suffer MASSIVE casualties in comparison to their enemies, and still go back to full strength in a few months. While the fluff implies that the Dark Elves kidnap High Elf children to raise as Dark Elves along with their numbers being boosted High Elf defectors fleeing to Naggaroth, there is a much simpler reason; Games Workshop has admitted that they don't deal in concrete figures and there are as many elves as the plot demands, so illogical writing is the reason they can replenish their numbers so easily despite elves being a dying race.

====Wood Elves====
[[File:Wood-Elf-Armybook-Art.jpg|thumb|right|450px|They do say nature is a mother, after all. And this mother is a colossal bitch.]]
{{Main|Wood Elves (Warhammer)}}

During the heyday of the High Elves, before Chaos first invaded the world, the High Elves had established colonies in Warhammer France. Generations passed, and these elves knew little to nothing of the homeland save for what news traders brought them.
When Daemons first invaded they were left to their own devices for defense, but utilizing the primitive stone-age humans were able to hold their own. Shortly after, architects were sent to establish Waystones in their lands and rekindle ties. Once again however, they were abandoned to their fates when Dark Elves first started the big never-ending civil war, then after a short period of being in touch with the homeland again were subject to the brutality of the Dwarfs after the Phoenix King of the time went full retard and pissed the Dwarfs off (of course, Dwarfs neither know the difference in ethnicities nor cared as it was all just knife-ears and keebs to them). After being told to evacuate and leave everything behind to go home and fight the war against the Dark Elves, the colonists burned their draft cards and fled to the sentient forest to become '''Wood Elves'''.

They then turned into a pack of insane dicks.

So that forest they fled to is [[Athel Loren]]. Athel Loren is, in theory, a bastion of life and anti-Chaos in the world. In practice, is a giant forest that plays by it's own rules and is fucking expanding to the point it's theoretically possible it can overtake the rest of the world. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. It is a forest full of unmentionable terrors of all shapes and sizes who will FUCKING VIOLATE YOU AND EAT YOU live there. But they're not evil. They're made that way/too dumb to understand alignment/a natural force of destruction, not a malicious one. So they're horrible and evil but their actual alignment is nicely True Neutral.

The actual elves live in the parts of Athel Loren in Bretonnia. Said forest existed way before the coming of Daemons & Aenarion, being much, much, MUCH larger than today, which in turn means that Bretonnia is actually living on what was once said forest. They smoke weed, have /ss/ and /ll/ and /sm/ with kidnapped Bretonnian noble children, hunt humans like animals using giant hunting dogs every summer when their king awakens from his winter sleep after they tie a Bretonnian maiden to a tree naked and shoot her full of arrows. They also manipulate the Bretonnian nobles into becoming more superior elf-like humans by manipulating an entity so ancient and unknowable that even THEY have no idea what she is. Said entity appears before humans that are badass and gives them geneseed cider to drink, which turns them into living Superman.

Culturally, the Asrai are a mix of High and Dark Elves with a mix of batshit insane dark evil with noblebright altruism. Some do random shit like decide to hold impromptu celebrations and plays because of a smell on the wind and re-enact battles that may or may not have actually happened but with actual killing. During the performance, they are literally holding their entrails in with their hands while giggling and teasing the dead, dying, and still up and killing for forgetting their lines because they're fucking crazy like that. When they have festivals, some elves will have a dance contest with ''invited'' humans. Sort of like Dance-Dance Evolution. The bets are usually on how long the human will last, before he/she becomes too... ''tired'' to continue. Some Elves invite you to peacefully feast and drink and have fun in their woody halls. In exchange they feed you to Daemons and monsters when you fall asleep. If you're lucky they'll let you leave after the party, but you'll find out that a few days in Athel Loren can be a hundred years outside and it catches up to you so you rapidly age and die. Seriously, Wood Elves are fucking scary.

Their king became the avatar of [[Kurnous]] and reincarnates (via virgin sacrifice) every year (during which he usually kills the shit out of Bretonnians because 'why the fuck not?'), while their queen claims to be the REAL avatar of Isha and uses prophesy and scrying to figure out what's going on in the rest of the world.
For some context: Alarielle, the Everqueen of the High Elves, is the God Emprahss of Elfkind. Chaos Gods are scared of her, she can look Slaanesh in the eye and cause Slaanesh to blink. '''Alarielle is fucking scared of the Wood Elves''', and notices that her Wood Elf counterpart, Ariel, is changing into something far more feral than the world has ever known and that the rest of the Asrai are too.

Wood Elves have a different view on the world than the other two races; while High Elves see themselves as masters of the world's fate and see the future as a great battle between good and evil and Dark Elves see the world as their playground with no regard for who came before or who comes after, the Wood Elves believe that fate has already decided. They believe that Chaos is coming, and in the end thanks to the manipulations of Ariel the entire rest of the world other than Athel Loren will be swallowed into the Warp, leaving the Wood Elves as the ultimate winners of the world conflicts when they alone inhabit the material plane. As such, their fluff is quite grim and full of determinism and in-universe the Wood Elves are more or less Eldar. They also claim that the elf gods have already staged the final battle against Chaos, lost it, and are slowly being consumed by Chaos until they will fade away forever. Since this is not mentioned within the fluff of the other two races it can be assumed this is the Wood Elf perspective rather than the outright canon.

But that's just the Wood Elves. The rest of the "Wood Elves" army? Treekin. Not Treebeard (who will tell you a story while he smooshes Orcs), not Old Man Willow (who hates you and will put you to sleep forever), and not the kind of Dryads who get raped by Satyrs ([[FATAL|but actually enjoy it because they're that horny, either meaning it's not rape or that that was how the ancient Greeks thought rape worked]]). No, these are like Hills Have Eyes tree people. Some of them march to war with the Wood Elves because they recognize kindred spirits. Some rampage against all non-tree life in the forest. Some of them are so batshit insane that they attack everything, constantly in giant tree battles where the splinters grow into new Dryads and Treekin who then jump straight into the fray like hard-skinned [[Orks]]. That ain't Chaos corruption either, it's their natural state. Regardless of sanity, ALL Athel Loren Treekin are infested with angry chittering forest spirits that will eat you like flying pirahnas. Elves who die in the forest can become angry bitter trees that don't remember anything, unless you're raped by hermaphrodite daemons who then kill you when they get bored, so yes, you fucking come back to life by inhabiting a dead tree, so you can fucking show those fucking skanks HOW IT FEELS WHEN THE FUCKING FAVOR IS RETURNED! WITH INTEREST/SPLINTERS!! FUCK!!! They also decorate themselves with entrails and skeletons like a decorator crab.

Oh, and the leader of these insane fucking scary tree people? [[Drycha]]. Insane forest treegirl. Drycha is crazy, by any standards of crazy. She's a tree woman with acorn nipples that dribble syrup. She's perhaps one of the most terrifying beings in the setting, and that's saying a lot. Luckily, (if you're not Asrai) she's mostly against the Wood Elves since she thinks they're the ones responsible for everything going wrong with the world (Get out of my swamp you kids!).
8E re-introduced a male counterpart, Durthu, a Wood Elf Treeman character back from 5E who is similar to Drycha except that he only hates Dwarfs while being bitter against everyone else. He now wields a giant amber sword forged by an elf, and is revealed to have been the one who saved an infant Everqueen and her brother in Ulthuan thousands of years ago.

Athel Loren doesn't expand naturally. It's suddenly appeared on islands in the sea. When you wander into those forests looking for coconuts, you suddenly find yourself in the midst of a forest from hell somewhere around Alsace-Lorraine, with Drycha and a hundred or so Dryads decorated in greenskin, Dwarf, Elf, and Human bodies all staring down at you. Athel Loren has worldroots connected to many different forest around the world. Which means you will never be safe, my little ''porcupine butts''

tl:dr Wood Elves live in Athel Loren which is between Bretonnia and The Empire, which is both alive, and akin to a forest in Soviet Russia - where forest cuts down you! The Elves are crazy insane rapists, and the tree people are fucking xenomorphs. You're either a tool to them that will be destroyed when you are no longer useful, or are a plaything for their amusement.

===DWARFS===
[[File:69180f7a9e6a20e2ffb7544531f50bde.jpg|thumb|left|400px|BEARDS AXES BEARDS BEARDS GRUDGES HAMMERS BEARDS]]
{{Main|Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)}}

Same old [[Lord of the Rings|cliché]] Dwarfs (as used in Warhammer Fantasy, as the term "Dwarves" is rarely used) in a lot of ways, with some fun twists.
The Dwarfs have this thing about holding grudges forever. Their language has no word for forgiveness, there's a story where a Warhammer Dwarf outright says forgiveness is not in their nature and [[Book of Grudges|one of their most sacred artifacts is the "Dammaz Kron" which is a GIANT golden book which is inked in blood and lists every slight]], however small, against the Dwaarfish race {{BLAM|Misspell Dwarfish will ya? THAT'S GOIN IN THE BOOK LAD!!!}}.
Dwarfs are required by their gods to avenge even the slightest insult in blood; a story in old Warhammer comics involves two Dwarf Thanes being about to lead the last of their clans (consisting of women and children only at this point) against each other while greenskins are about to breach the fortress walls. The two Thanes, in the middle of a battle, realize they no longer know what the original feud was about and make peace...only for their gods to crush both under a giant statue, causing the clans to wipe each other out and the greenskins to take over.
Another story involves Dwarfs building an impenetrable fortress for a human king. After receiving their payment, they found they were a few coins short (the dwarfs thought they were scammed, in reality there was just a counting error). The Dwarfish response was to muster the full strength of their nation to invade, slaughter every man woman and child inside, and raze every last stone into powder.

So not only does the race tend towards Lawful Stupid, they are punished divinely for not acting in the Lawful Stupid way.

Dwarf pre-Chaos history involved the entire race united as one giant clan, producing master works from their GIANT fortress that spanned half the mountains of Europe and Asia. After Chaos invaded, they simply shut their walls and waited the whole thing out.
After the High Elves defeated Chaos the first time, they befriended the Dwarfs and swore to be best friends forever. Then after the first battles of the Elf civil war, the newly-separated Dark Elves manipulated the two races into war with each other (taking advantage both of the High Elf arrogance that rears its head <s>every other</s> every generation, and of the fact Dwarfs are absolute racist fuckheads who take the actions of a single individual as the standard for the whole race (the Warhammer Dwarf word for "inferior" is actually their word for "human")). So Dwarfs were pissed at Elves right up until the modern day, where they started to realize Elves come in different flavors than just "Keeb Scum".
Not long after this, the Lizardmen attempted to enact a prophesy from the Old Ones that they believed would weaken Chaos. Instead, it caused giant earthquakes which wiped out most of the Dwarf race and turned their fuck-huge city into thousands of thousands of small fortresses isolated from each other by giant cave-ins.However, the same even is said to be a Skaven machination to expand Skavenblihght gone horribly wrong/right. This was followed by Orcs and Goblins getting underground, and taking many fortresses from which they now wage war against the entire Dwarfish race.
More recently (from the Dwarf perspective) they befriended humanity after Sigmar Heldenhammer saved one of their Thanes. The hammer from which the Warhammer games derive their name was forged, and given to Sigmar as a symbol of eternal friendship between the two groups (thankfully now the Dwarfs can tell apart evil from good, and know not to blame the Empire for the actions of the rape-vikings). Dwarfs taught the Empire about machines and technology, leading to the current state of the Empire.

Currently, Dwarfs are constantly fighting a losing war against Skaven and Night Goblins (and just Greenskins in general) for control of the deep craves, tunnels, passages and mines below the surface of the world. Without the Dwarfs keeping things that dwell down in the dark at bay, the lands of men would be overrun from beneath; though the 8th Edition book sees them becoming a Rape-Train against Hordes, and in the fluff the High Elves attacked WAAAGH!s that have raged without stop since the fall of the Dwarf Fortresses from behind and destroyed them while the current Dwarf High King has mustered a fuckhuge army to end those that remain.

In canon, Dwarfs fight very different hold to hold, with some being the classic hammer+axe Dwarf warriors with others (those you'll almost always see on the tabletop) fighting as Napoleonic armies with more cannons than most armies have horses.

What else is there to say about Dwarfs? Gyrocopters and death cults. There is nothing that isn't improved through the addition of flying machines and death cults. The dwarfs have zero magic. No, scratch that, they have even less than zero magic. It tends to fuck up when they're around, and everyone can use magic but them. Not that this stopped Dwarfs though. They just grabbed magic by the balls, put its balls on the anvil, and hammered it into runic items. Because they're stubborn like that. As a result, Dwarfs have the best magic items bar none. They also compensate for their lack of magic by building giant fucking machines instead. Flamethrowers, helicopters, organ guns, and pretty much any other variant of carnage that can be moshed together with enough steam, alcohol, and gunpowder. They build them smaller but they build them better, and they're all fueled by alcohol. The traditional Dwarfs don't like the Engineers and their machines that much, and anything that hasn't been in the blueprint stage for a thousand years before a prototype stage was even thought about is borderline heretical technology (not that they will refuse to use it, they'll just bitch about it worse than even a real life Scotsman would). [[Slayer|The death cults are crazy naked dwarfs that have in some way shamed themselves or broken an oath, and as a result they shave and dye their hair into a red mohawk and go on a quest to die an honorable death]] (so Repentia/Penitent Engines for any 40k players reading this).

====[[Chaos Dwarfs]]====
[[Image:Dorf hats.jpg|thumb|right|[[Hat|HAT]]!!!]]
There are also evil dwarfs called [[Chaos Dwarfs]]. During the first Chaos incursion while some Dwarfs decided to hide in their fortress and wait for the whole thing to blow over, some decided to flee (or explore and look for safe haven elsewhere). After heavy losses among the Dwarfs, the Chaos Gods decided to throw them a bone, and the rest is history. Regular Dwarfs hate them above all others (even moreso than elves) and claim they have sworn eternal vengeance and genocide on them (in practice they pretend Chaos Dwarfs don't exist and woe betide the non-Dwarf who brings them up!)

They used to be an interesting and unique faction that resembled an even more grimdark ancient Babylon, their corrupting magic slowly turning their evil sorcerers to stone (dorfs ain't meant to magic it up) while creating Daemonic machines that would make Chaos Spaaaaaace Marines drool (instead of grabbing magic by the balls and hammering it into runes, they grab deamons by the balls and hammer ''them'' into daemonic warmachines). Then they became like normal dwarfs, but dressed in black. Then they up and vanished for a while. Nowadays, [[Forge World]] has made them ''back'' into their first, awesome thing again - half-Baylonian, half-stripped down industrialist assholes a la Isengard.

Their favorite pastimes are drinkin', fightin' and [[Touhou|wearing silly hats for no adequately explained reason]].

===Chaos===
Back in the day, there was only one Chaos army. Since then they have been split into Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, and Daemons of Chaos.

====Warriors of Chaos====
[[File:Warriors of chaos.jpg|thumb|right|380px|What one would call "the good shit". Or the bad shit, if you catch my cold.]]
{{Main|Warriors of Chaos}}

The Warriors are Nordic (literally, they are called the Norse in the canon). Beardy, berserking [[Vikings]]/[[Pan-Tang]] rip-offs clad in Unholy Chaos Plate and blessed with the Marks of the Chaos Gods personify this faction, and basically granted Warhammer Fantasy it's popularity back in the 80's/90's.
The Warriors of Chaos represent a multitude of tribes and clans, in varying cultures and degrees of civilization (mostly being Scandinavians and Mongols however) all of whom live in the giant North Pole around the Warp Gate there, which is basically an Eye of Terror.
Mostly, they revere the Chaos Gods as their masters although they have different pantheons (sometimes to be able to avoid saying the name of the Chaos Gods directly to avoid getting sudden attention and turning into..one of [[Chaos Spawn|"those things"]], sometimes of other Chaos Gods, and rarely of ascended mortals like [[Bel'akor]]).
Warriors make up the primary bad guys of the setting, and raid the fuck out of the world for shits and giggles. Games Workshop loves to throw them constantly into almost every canon, to the point anything major involving someone who ISN'T Chaos is a huge fucking deal.

Unlike in 40k where Chaos Space Marines <s>actually get shit done</s> possibly fucked up 12 times under the same leader, Warriors have gone through multiple Everchosens who <s>keep getting killed by reincarnations of Sigmar</s> keep getting killed in various ways (sometimes even by Daemons) and are replaced in the hopes that the next one will get it right (and one even went "fuck this shit" and went to non-Chaos Valhalla on the eve of his victory). Despite this, they look no less awesome for it, and the [[Archaon|current one]] [[Storm of Chaos|managed to beat and cripple his good counterpart before losing the war thanks to Orc shenanigans.]]

====Daemons of Chaos====
{{Main|Chaos}}

As in 40k, but as mentioned before are much weaker.
[[Khorne]] mostly just watches his servants fight each other and sometimes other factions when that shit gets boring. Loves trapping his champions in time loops where they kill their older selves. <br/>
[[Nurgle]] loves Isha from afar, who may be unaware he even exists. He maintains a circus (a literal circus, with tents and candy and performers and clowns) which travels through the Old World, bringing in plagues and taking in followers. <br/>
[[Tzeentch]] doesn't do jack shit. EVER. He doesn't own a monopoly on bird iconography as that's mostly owned by mortal gods like [[Morr]] and [[Morai-Heg]]. The Chinese siphon magic from him without retaliation. His champions are mostly stuck being the spellcasting bitch to whatever Everchosen or other god's champion didn't take a wizard in their army list. As a result, he likes to spread rumors like "all magic is me!" and "everything is going according to plan" despite everyone calling bullshit and his prophesies actually being wrong most of the time.<br/>
[[Slaanesh]] spends most of his time corrupting individuals in the Empire and High Elves for shits and giggles, as well as watching his champions wander the world and do stupid shit like it's a giant reality show. He likes to try to nab elf souls like his 40k counterpart, but instead of mindlessly eating them he makes quite a few of them Daemonettes. He also has a permanent scar, no matter what shape he takes, because Khaine fucked him up good. <br/>

There's a multitude of other gods as well, including multiple Chaos Gods of Order. To those who claim that makes no sense, remember that Chaos is pure potential, not contradictory pants-on-head retardedness that you can't comprehend (although it certainly becomes that often enough). One of them blesses Witch Hunters and other forms of Inquisitors in their fights against everything Chaos (so like [[Malice]], but without malice). Another is a Snow White figure, being locked in a glass coffin in stasis by Tzeentch and dropped in the mortal world because he's terrified of her.

Daemons themselves tend to be fucked over royally as they can be perma-killed in Fantasy in various ways, and are VERY prone to being used as the power source for magical artifacts and weapons.

====Beastmen====
[[File:BeastmenChallenge.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Horns, sharp teeth and hooves, oh my!]]
{{Main|Beastmen}}

Representing the non-Skaven Chaos mutants of the world, Beastmen are a group of pagan style animal mutants living in the forests and wilderness of the world. Beastmen are wild and crude creatures embodying all the negative aspects of animals combined with human-level intelligence. They are truly repugnant to behold, let alone to smell, for they are a twisted reflection of the base and barbaric aspects of nature. Beastmen are Neutral Evil to the core, the only thing stopping them from being Chaotic Evil is their reverence of Bray-Shamans and the Chaos Gods. The carnage and despair they spread across the land is a malevolent and deliberate attempt to wreck anything beautiful or stable for the lulz. Bitterness and spite simmers in the heart of every Beastman; it takes little more than a few well-chosen words to spur a Gor into a frenzy of unrestrained rage. The sounds of distant battle will cause a Beastman to prick up his tufted ears in an instant; a fight or duel upon a woodland path will invariably bring dozens of Beastmen from all about in a very short space of time. Even when gathered in their torrid encampments the Beastmen spend their time fighting, fucking or feasting. The only time they don't is when a particularly strong Beastman knocks a sense of purpose into them (sometimes literally) or a Bray-Shaman calls on the Chaos Gods.

Beastmen HATE civilization. Anything that looks like it was made intentionally is broken, anything that can't be broken is tied to a stick and used as a weapon to kill the fuck out of more civilizationfags. Although Beastmen tend to come in specific flavors (Satyr, Minotaur, and Dire animals) they mutate even further into grotesque and scarred monsters of utter evil when they attract the attention of the Chaos Gods. Which they spend most of their time seeking to do in various ways, despite the fact that Chaos rarely if ever tosses them even a minor blessing.

So all in all, they're a race of furry [[Cultist-Chan]]s.

Three odd points in fluff relate to Beastmen; in one old story from White Dwarf, a human father spends time teaching his son how to survive in the forest using navigation, tracking, and fighting. Said son is revealed to be a mutant that the father is taking to the Beastmen, who accept him immediately. In another, Beastmen females are mentioned as existing (previously, the fact the only references were to males leading people to assume they breed through rape exclusively) and as being "extremely docile". Finally, in most Beastmen fluff it is mentioned time and time again how shit factors in heavily to their culture (literal fecal matter), and Beastmen smear EVERYTHING in it (This only showed up in the 7th ed book, but the pages are swimming in it. Make of that sentence what you will).
So while most fluff portrays them as monstrously evil and unsexy as possible, there's still bait for furfags!

===Lizardmen===
[[File:Lizardmen_Art_1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Life finds a ''fucking'' way.]]
{{Main|Lizardmen}}

The arch-enemies of Chaos. When the Old Ones first arrived on the world from nobody knows where, they created spawning pools that continually pump out Lizardmen.

The first type were the [[Slann]], who were Old Ones in miniature although greatly less intelligent (still LEAGUES above even elves though). The Slann were extremely magically gifted beings, and were the assistants to the Old Ones. They resemble grotesque and fat toad creatures who ride floating stone chairs like upright Jabba the Hutts with legs. The second type, the Saurus, were their muscle. Saurus have few thoughts beyond what they were created to do, and mostly exist as soldiers and guards. Finally, Skinks were made. Skinks are small chameleon-like humanoids who serve the Slann as assistants. They also created the kroxigor; large bipedal crocodile-like creatures designed for heavy lifting. The Skinks and Kroxigors have an affinity for each other, sharing similar birthing methods (see below) and both can breathe underwater (though the Kroxigors prefer to ambush their prey or enemies crocodile-style)

They live in the jungle kingdoms of Lustria and the Southlands, the former is so hostile to non-Lizardmen it's said to be the most dangerous place in Warhammer outside the Chaos Wastes. Their culture and society are heavily based off the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. If that offends you, you're playing the wrong game and it's hard to believe you've read this far already.

They have, and seek out, thousands of writings from the Old Ones inscribed on golden tablets which the Slann spend most of their time poring over in an attempt to discover what the next move against Chaos should be or what the Old Ones wanted to do that hasn't been done yet. However, the Slann have...difficulty in this endeavor, and are prone to interpreting "Milk, Eggs, Butter, Bacon" as "Destroy the Dwarfs, Make Party Hats For Amazons, Do the Dinosaur, Have A Skaven and Manflesh Barbecue". Another problem is the material. The Lizardmen use gold for their plaques because it doesn't deteriorate and a humid, tropical jungle is not a place where paper can be safely preserved (the bright color would also make them stand out among foliage, making them easier to to find). But the other races see their color and shininess for its aesthetic value and decide to take them for themselves. To say the Lizardmen don't like anyone else touching their plaques would be like saying that Khorne has a bit of a temper.

They have the most powerful wizards and one of the most powerful fighting units, including Stargate-style magitech that they use as altars which shoot lasers.

Some could argue that they're furfag bait for the scalies. They can just fuck right off 'cause Lizardmen are awesome, and no scalie shit here; they're as ugly and unappealing as real lizard people would be, and have no genders as they walk out of magic spawning pools as adults. In fact, the few Lizardmen who learned about genders and sex (from human guests they were interviewing) considered it weird and irrelevant to their interests.

In the modern canon, most of the Slann are dead and they can no longer be spawned as their specific Slann-spawning pools were destroyed by Daemons. Not 'undead' Slann, just dead. Except for [[Lord Kroak]], but he doesn't really count as [[Emperor|his body is 100% dead despite his spirit just refusing to leave it]].

Oh, and if you haven't figured it out by now they are dinosaur men that ride dinosaurs such as Therapods, Thyreophorans and Ceratopsians. Who would have guessed. In fact one of said therapod species, the Carnosaurs, were dangerous enough to threaten and scare DRAGONS despite lacking wings or a breath weapon; there's no dragons in Lustria because the Carnosaurs hunted them to the point that the surviving dragons fled and settled elsewhere.

===Undead===
Much like Chaos, these guys used to be one army but have gotten split up into two. NOT ANYMORE! Now you can combine them in in a single army led by nagash!

====Tomb Kings====
[[File:M1650075a P1Mb1.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Egyptian, sentient skeletons, yet still both spooky and scary.]]
{{Main|Tomb Kings}}

The undead people from the ancient civilization of Nehekhara (Not-Egypt). How ancient? Before Sigmar lived and most humans considered the bow and arrow an innovative new weapon, Cathay was new to the civilization thing and didn't have a Dragon Emperor, Bretonnia, Giants, and Skaven didn't exist, Skytitans still roamed the Mourn Mountains, The Great Maw didn't exist, Tylos was the only city in the Old World, Dorfs were in their prime and friends with Elves, and Elves were still one race and were only then achieving the level of technology they've spent most of their history stuck at.

Nehekhara had all the best aspects of ancient Egypt and Middle-Eastern civilizations; they had many things such as golems, huge wonders, light systems, chariots, and even hot-air balloons! Most of their history was spent like Mesopotamian history, with each city being a kingdom ruled by one monarch (usually, but not always, male). Said kingdoms warred with each other constantly. Then, one day, a badass was born. [[Settra the Imperishable|Settra]] managed to unite the entirety of Nehekhara under his rule, but became obsessed with death because it would stop him from getting shit done. He commanded his priests discover immortality, and although they failed in this they figured out ways to preserve the body with the soul within and the flesh un-damaged. They entombed him this way for storage until they discovered a way to give their kings living flesh of gold.

The cities immediately become independent again, warring with each other but now building fuckhuge tomb cities to house all dead Nehekharans in suspended animation that were larger than their living cities.

Eventually, Nehekhara produced [[Nagash]], the Warhammer Fantasy answer to [[Sauron]] and [[Vecna]], who killed his brother and became fantastically evil until the cities united against him and forced him into the desert. After deciding that dying was for suckers and turning into a skeleton, he found that centuries has passed and some little punk ass upstarts calling themselves "vampires" had read his diary. He told them to make themselves useful and keep the humans away while he tried to figure out a way to make the whole world into undead skeleton slaves in one spell. Then shortly after, humans defeated his army and entered his sanctum; he unleashed what he had of his spell, killing EVERYTHING in Nehekhara before he was beaten. This awakened the entombed kings, who were fucking PISSED to find their empire had disintegrated. But on the plus side, they were still "alive" and Tomb Kings cannot perma-die so they had obtained the immortality aspect at the very least. They also had the people who had died in their time period as servants still, who despite still having souls lost much of their sapience (as the degree to which they survived depended greatly on how well they were preserved) so many of them (but FAR from all) became semi-mindless robot-like skeletons animated only by the order of their King.
So immediately all the Tomb Kings went back to war, but this time in a far worse way; every child who had EVER lived was now alive again, with thousands of generations of spoiled manchildren fighting for a single fucking throne in a single fucking city, as well as being pissed about later TK's looting the tombs of their ancestors for their own ones.
The priests of all the generations realized shit was going nowhere fast (as nobody can perma-die) and awakened Settra. Settra immediately slapped everyone's collective shit, and although everyone swears allegiance to him they still fight like punks constantly.
Generally speaking, all Tomb Kings (other than [[Queen Khalida]], who HATES vampires) give no fucks, shits, or damns about the outside world. Mostly. They are also very rich because being undead means they don't have to worry about buying food, medicine or things to impress potential sexual partners. Because mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the mummies a nice option of veteran human troops as well; there's also the added bonus that unlike vamps (see below), the Tomb Kings won't ever turn the mercs into snacks.

Now they're armies of skeletons (on foot, horse or chariot) led by Egyptian mummies! With Anubis warriors and BONE SCORPIONS! Their artillery are MUTHA FUCKEN SKULL CATAPULTS! If you take a shot every time you see a Khopesh or read the word in relation to Tomb Kings, you'll pass out drunk before you're done. Plus their elites ride around on snake statues or GIANT STONE LOLCATS that breath fire and crush stuff. They even have GIANT GOD STATUES that shoot DEATH LASERS from their eyes and give <s>their gods</s> Nagash a live-action feed of what's going on in the world. Some Tomb Kings even have skull-covered rip-offs of the Ark of the Covenant holding the souls of slain enemies that they use to kill more enemies.

So totally fucking awesome.

====Vampire Counts====
[[File:M1037820 VampireCounts cover.jpg|thumb|right|450px|Nothing says [[Slaanesh|"shoot me with that big-ass cannon of yours"]] like bright red armor in an army of grimy, thin skeletons.]]
{{Main|Vampire Counts}}

Vampires. But not the Twilight kind, nor the Interview kind (for the most part).
Straight up Gothic Horror vampires. As in, still cool.
So a long time ago, during the time of ancient Egypt (pre-Tomb King) there was an evil bisexual queen. She stole the first Necromancer/Lich's autobiography, and invented a drink that turns humans into vampires.
She let her court all take a sip, then they acted like a bunch of little shits until all of Egypt united against them. They tried to ally with the NecroLich, but <s>lost the big battle</s> pussied out and fled to the Old World.

Those vamps all founded Bloodlines, which make up most of the race.
The first group is those lead by the queen which created vampires, the [[Queen Neferata|Lahmians]]. Mostly consist of magic-using spy vampiresses (and some of their gay friends) who are controlling the world like Illuminati.
The second are the Hills Have Eyes/The Descent vampires, who after years of being the whipping boys of fate as well as getting tortured and fucked over by every human and other vampire they met, turned into the vampire equivalent of ghouls. They as a result mostly hang out with ghouls. They are the [[Ushoran|Strigoi]]. The saner ones behave a lot like Nosferatu.
The next are lawful evil/neutral badass vampire knights who ride around looking for a challenge, and fight anyone they think is worth fighting. They are the [[Abhorash|Blood Dragons]].
Next is the [[W'soran/Melchior|Necrarchs]], who mostly look like Nosferatu vampires. They are the mad scientist Bloodline, spending centuries trying to come up with new kinds of Flesh Golems and similar atrocities to create. Mostly end up as sidekicks to the other Bloodlines.
Finally, the true Dracula Bloodline; the von Carsteins. Only appearing in recent history, [[Vlad von Carstein]] and his wife [[Isabella von Carstein]] attempted to get elected as Emperor of the Empire through political manipulation, and having failed that, attempted to take over by force. After the two were beaten, one of their turned "sons" [[Konrad von Carstein]] tried to destroy the Empire, but lost in an embarrassing way since he was fucking insane and dumb as a rock. Finally, [[Mannfred von Carstein]] took control of the Bloodline and repeatedly has tried to destroy the Empire. Although Manny keeps losing, he's dedicated himself to Nagash and has finally started getting to be a bigger threat to the world. As a result of this, the von Carsteins have become the posterboy army for the Vampire Counts, who are the villains when Chaos isn't.

All of the Bloodlines can raise hordes of undead, and use shit like Zombies, Ray Harryhausen Skeletons, and Ghouls as soldiers. They also bring along ghosts, and giant fucking bat monsters of different kinds. Also, bats are EVERY-FUCKING-WHERE, and not the kind that scare you when you open the closet, then fly of into the night - think piranhas with wings and a fucking attitude (which vary in size from the size of your hand to the size of a car). Creepy as all fuck. No Anne Rice, ''Angel'' bullshit, these guys are fucking evil. While they won't save you from being hit by a car, they will creep into your room at night... only to throw you out the window before draining the blood from your loved ones while their zombie driver runs you down with a car. They are also very rich because they don't have to buy food and interest rates on savings accounts add up over a few centuries of undeath. Since mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the vamps a nice option of veteran human troops as well, with the benefit that some vampires '''might''' exercise enough restraint to not turn the living troops into snacks or mindless undead.

So, our conclusion is that Vampire Counts are fucking badass.
According to an ongoing poll in /tg/ Warhammer Fantasy Generals, Vampire Counts come in as the #1 most played army.

===Skaven===
[[File:39-Skaven Jungle.jpg|thumb|left|400px|The [[grimdark]] version of Ratatoille.GET MAN -THING!]]
{{Main|Skaven}}

Technologically advanced rat people.
Created when the [[Horned Rat]] decided to become a Chaos God and mutated a group of humans. He has spent most of his time since hiding in a nest, and sometimes popping into the mortal world to eat a few of his servants.
Again, no furry shit here. These guys are ugly, fucking foul creatures who keep their women folk, otherwise known as "their bloated, scab-ridden, nipple-covered, maggot-like baby factories" locked away for the sole purpose of mass-reproducing thousands upon thousands of future vermin-men.
Ew.
The leaders of the species are a motley bunch, composed of batshit crazy scientists, ninja-like assassins, and bio-terrorists. Everything else is either slave cannon fodder or a mutant abomination.

They love their hordes almost as much as they love their World War 1/2 style tech that's powered by pure Chaos energy. Also, puns. Fucktons of puns come with these guys, they love their puns. They're all addicted to warpstone, which is pretty much a combination of dark magic, radioactive waste and [[Doomrider|cocaine.]] They made a nuke once, but it failed to detonate and now it sits under the biggest city in the Empire. Most of their schemes (they love scheming!) involved taking down the humans and conquering the world. They keep the races of the world fighting to keep anyone from becoming too powerful, and they consider it rude and perverse to NOT backstab someone (regardless of whether it fucks themselves over later or not).
They're like a cross between Pinky and the Brain, the rats from Redwall, & the rats from NIMH, (but with flame throwers, tesla coils, thousands of minions, and no arsing about on the subject). Also, [[DOOMWHEELS|WEAPONIZED HAMSTER WHEELS.]]

Their technology is mainly grasped through warpstone which will power their machines or devices, they almost always rely on warpstone to power their devices or fuel them. Each clanrat belongs to a clan, and their location are found all over the old world. Many are located in Skavenblight (The largest shithole in the Old World) which is their capital city or what ever thing you call what rats live in. Not all Skaven clans live in Skavenblight; most skaven clans live in lairs which are located all over the ol world, some like Clan Scurvy are located on the many oceans of the Old World, or be like Clan Skrapp and live in the blighted marshes. How the fuck they manage to pull it off but some clans live in fucking volcanoes and use obsidian weapons which is pretty cool. There is a lot of more information about Skaven clans available in the codex and heraldry books, which considering my fingers hurt from typing i suggest you move your fa/tg/uy ass to read. Skaven love screeching things as loud as they can, and they say verbs (or just plain words they like) twice. Since they respect no other race as worthy of life, they call other races "things".
Example: "MOVEMOVE, WE MARCH! ONWARDS TO KILLSLAY THE MANTHINGS AND THE DWARFTHINGS!"

They have also now kind of taken over the [[Awesome|WHOLE UNIVERSE]] and according to one [[Age of Sigmar]] drawing, the [[warp]] is a VERY VERY BIG RAT.

===Orcs and Goblins===
[[File:Bd7b78634da60515f8b7bb89a42cc72a.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Orc is spelled with C, for *crunch*.]]
{{Main|Orcs & Goblins}}

You've all seen the [[Orks]] and [[Gretchin]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]]. Orcs and Goblins are much the same, except here the goblins represent a full half of the army. Or perhaps we should say that the Orks are much the same as the Orcs, since it was the Orcs who came first.
Now add trolls and giants and occasionally ogres into the mix as well. Except here they have Night Goblin Fanatics popping out of the ranks, which could cause your deathstar unit to panic off the table if it wasn't for the cavalry driving them out first. Because you took light cavalry, right?

There's not much to say other than that. They spend most of their time trying to wipe out Dwarfs. Humans dislike them, High Elves are trying to [[Exterminatus|wipe them out]], Lizardmen were tasked with wiping them out by the Old Ones, Tomb Kings hunt them for sport, Strigoi vampires fucking HATE them since they caused their fall from grace, Warriors of Chaos dedicated to Khorne know no shame greater than being beaten by them, [[Gork]] and [[Mork]] are totally real beings who beat the shit out of Khorne once, and there's goblins who worship Spiders in Athel Loren.

===Ogre Kingdoms===
[[File:Thundertusk miniature model ogre artwork.JPG|thumb|right|235px|Brain over brawn, brawn over brain... Well know that it's really blubber over everything.]]
{{Main|Ogre Kingdoms}}

FUCKHUEG sumo wrestler-types with [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katanas]], frying pans strapped to their gullets and a [[Neckbeard|mean streak as big as their enormously fat asses]]. Will eat ANYTHING, including all the courses at a restaurant, the plates, the table, the chef and the fucking bundle of forks (and if they're still feeling peckish, the waiter too).

They ride large beasts resembling mammoths and saber-tooth tigers. They think with their stomachs, which shows how fucking intelligent they are, plus their shaman-cooks use a very specific "gut magic", that mostly consists of shoving all kinds of inedible stuff down their own throats. Each and every one of the fuckers is obsessed with stuffing his face full o' your innards. Heck, they even worship a giant, fuck-off sky mouth. Ogres are often considered to be a "neutral" army and can end up fighting for any side since they hire themselves out as mercenaries to whoever can pay them in piles of [[List of /tg/ Cuisine|food]].

The last race created by the Old Ones, the one that could have actually beaten and destroyed Chaos, they were left unfinished (mostly mentally) in an environment that couldn't support them. As a result, they spread all over the world and now work for and with (and against) every single faction in the game. Along with the Skaven, the fact Ogres fight everywhere is what enforces the status quo of the canon.

==Meta History==
[[File:Warhammer History Shorthand.png|thumb|right|500px|tl;dr]]

===Prehistory===

===Proto-Warhammer===

===1e===

===2e===

===3e===

===4e===

===5e===

===6e===

===7e===

===8e===

===[[The End Times]]===

This period is also known as when everything literally goes tits up. Games Workshop, fed up of being the players whining that the game was stuck dead in its canon, said "enough" and decided to give the players what they wanted. Thus did they make the End Times towards the end of the 8th edition, a supplement to existing armies which fluff-wise tells how everything is now moving to a grand finale. Check out the [[The_End_Times|End Times]] page for more details, but to summarise:

- Mannfred von Carstein resurrects Nagash, making a world conquering host of the undead while also slowly becoming an ultimate god of death and undeath with eyes on the prize of kicking the chaos gods out of the warp and taking their place. In order to do this, he nerfed the Tomb Kings and absorbed them into the Vampire Counts to create his own army - '''the Undead Legion'''.

- The Empire has been overrun by the forces of Chaos, but at the last moment Karl Franz becomes the living avatar of Sigmar and the wind of heavens and burns all Chaos from Altdorf to pieces. Much later on, he is revealed not to be an avatar of Sigmar but Sigmar himself.

- The Orks and Goblins do what they always do and get ready for a big fight, wiping out the Chaos Dwarfs and several minor human kingdoms.

- Malekith turns out to be the rightful king of the elves, and following a civil war culminating in the deaths of several Elf gods the three Elf races have reunited into a single force. The Vortex is unbound, Ulthuan and Naggaroth have respectively sunk and been overrun by Chaos, and now all the elves are living together in Athel Loren. Teclis reveals his master plan to bind the Winds of magic into specific people. These Incarnates would be empowered by their respective Winds to the point where they can stand a chance against the full power of the Chaos Gods.

- The Dwarfs can't decide what the hell they are doing besides chewing their beards and drinking at first, but eventually end up joining the Empire.

- The Skaven have [[Tyranid|nommed]] pretty much all the minor human kingdoms and are rising in one super ratty horde to take over the world. They also '''blow up the Chaos Moon''' in a display of awe-inspiring idiocy that horrifies even the Daemons of Chaos.

- After most of the Lizardmen sacrifice themselves stopping most of the Warhammer world from becoming a smoldering crater, the survivors go 'fuck this' and fly off into space.

- The Ogre kingdoms have blown up with every volcano erupting at the same time and so they are mass-migrating again.

- Everyone who isn't with Chaos is forced to join their forces with the Incarnates in a last stand at Middenheim, where a third Warp Gate was hidden. Mannfred ruins the ritual that would have saved the Warhammer world from annihilation, and the Chaos Gods manifest to personally fuck everything up. The world is destroyed, and the stage is set for [[Age of Sigmar]].

==The World That Was==
In [[Age of Sigmar]], the age of Warhammer Fantasy is referred to as "The World-That-Was". Despite what you may think, it's actually kind of common knowledge in-universe that there was another existence before the Realms of Age of Sigmar, sort of in the same way that most know that [[Lizardmen|dinos]] ruled the Earth before mammals took over. Remnants of Warhammer Fantasy exists here and there, either like forgotten scraps of roastbeef between the teeth of the Chaos Gods or just as reformed ruins of what existed once. There may also be hints that the reason why Age of Sigmar doesn't deviate too much design-wise from Warhammer Fantasy is because the World-That-Was isn't a forgotten world by many of the gods and creatures that exists now (it's not because we just reuse the old models for AoS, we swear). To be fair there are many from Warhammer Fantasy who made it to AoS and would definitely remember those days.

Recently the World-That-Was is being referenced more and more, becoming more relevant for the overall plot of Age of Sigmar. The Malign Portents plot pretty much directly references Nagash' way of dealing with all problems way back when; with huge-ass black pyramids that get fucked over by oversized vermin.

The [[Warhammer Community]] team also uses the World-That-Was whenever they reference Warhammer Fantasy. Maybe they fear that Warhammer Fantasy will appear if you beckon it or something like Candlejack, Bettlejuice or Bloody Mary.

===The Old World (Full Circle)===
On November 15 2019, Warhammer Community revealed the existence of a new game called [[Warhammer: The Old World]]. While nothing has been seen of it beyond a logo, it has been explicitly stated to take place in the World-That-Was. Although it is unlikely to be released anytime soon by their own admission, the fact that Fantasy may be making a comeback is shocking in itself.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/03/23/the-old-world-ice-guard-of-kislevgw-homepage-post-4fw-homepage-post-2/ The first preview] showed Geedubs is making changes for The Old World instead of just bringing back Warhhammer Fantasy as it was by bringing back [[Kislev]] with new units, which wasn't an army since 6th edition. We already have a fan debate too, as many consider the ONE piece of art we've seen to be "Too AOS-y".

==The appeal of Warhammer Fantasy==
Some works of fiction are serious and many serious works are calm, subdued and dignified, giving events the gravity of all their implications. Some works of fiction are over the top and have a tendency towards being farcical and easy going were things often might not make sense, but you roll with it for a laugh. Warhammer manages to be both largely Serious and Over the Top at the same time. It can pull off outright farce, over the top heavy metal action, subtle academic humor and dark fantasy melodrama without missing a beat, and that's not even the truly impressive part! That's that WFB combines all of these facets constantly without diminishing any of the individual themes. You see a [[Lizardmen|fat aztec frogman]] blast a [[Lord of Change|blue, flaming hellchicken with a staff]] while fast asleep, and there's nothing wrong with it! But imagine something like that in [[LOTR]]; that shit just wouldn't fly.

It does in Fantasy because the Serious is Over the Top and silly, while the Over the Top stuff is taken seriously. Unlike 40k, Fantasy isn't overtly a pastiche of tropes and a parody of so many things - it is a coherent world where things matter. Small enough that individuals can make a mark on the world and their heroics can change the course of history, but large enough that it can be filled with all sorts of beings and cultures.

In addition, Warhammer was made by History Nerds for History Nerds. It appeals to the sort of person who, when asked "''what do you think about the middle ages''?" would reply "''where and what century''?". The world is old, and the history is actually pretty detailed for the factions for whom history matters, like the [[High Elves]], the [[Dwarfs]] and [[The Empire]]. The development of the factions in the world matters quite a lot and the ramification of wars in the past affect the world in the present. The culture of the factions in play wasn't just invented because it's cool; they developed over time, and for most of it, in a way that makes sense.

In contrast to 40,000, Fantasy is a bit less grimdark. Not because of the villains (who are about as bad; which is to say, very fucking bad) but because the heroic side is a bit more genuinely heroic. Even though they may be assholes, they still face great and terrible threats for the good of [[Karl Franz|the nation]], [[Teclis|the world at large]] and their [[Gotrek & Felix|friends]]. They're not all [[Sisters of Battle|catholic]] [[Inquisition|space nazis]] indoctrinated to do what they are needed to do; they're people, real humane people with human desires - and that includes pretty much all the mortal creatures in the setting.

Take [[Volkmar|Volkmar the Grim]]. This is a dark character, entirely dedicated to his faith to a fanatical level. He burns heretics, bashes cultists and doesn't afraid of anything - but his faith is genuinely good in nature. He protects the Empire because he loves it and the people in it, and while he may disagree with the followers of Ulric, he recognizes them as allies in the fight [[Chaos|against the true evil.]] Shit, he has a hunk of ''concentrated fucking evil on his chest'' at all times, and it doesn't affect him at all - as in, no mention that he may be getting crazier with age or that he makes deals with entities no one knows about. Nope, he's just that fucking dedicated to his faith and genuinely believes in it with the full, naked force of the human soul and heart. ''That's'' a proper Warhammer Fantasy character - skilled beyond belief and likely pretty darn grim or extreme, but with an edge of humanity and personality. They aren't just a [[Mephiston|vessel for a cool trope]] or [[Creed|an exemplar of the faction they represent]], but a fully-fledged character with needs and wants, tempered with a heroic choice to sacrifice personal safety to change the world.

==Tabletop==
===Gameplay===
''Warhammer'' is a tabletop wargame where two or more players compete against each other with "armies" of 20 mm - 50 mm heroic scale miniatures. Games may be played on any appropriate surface, although the standard is a 6 ft by 4 ft tabletop decorated with model scenery in scale with the miniatures. If you're [[Games Workshop]]'s bitch-boy and have no imagination of your own you will buy the ridiculously overpriced [[Citadel Miniatures|Citadel]] [[Realm of Battle]] tabletop and have a scenery collection made of boring plastic pieces bought entirely from GW, but REAL players make their own gaming tables (saving a fuck-ton of money in the process). Games Workshop used to encourage this until they sold their souls for money.

Gameplay follows a turn structure in which one player completes all movement for troops, then simulates casting spells (when spell-using units are available), uses all ranged or missile weapons in the army such as bows and handguns, then any units touching fight in melee or close-combat. After finishing, the second player does the same. The winner is often determined by victory points; earning a number equal to the value of enemy units killed. Special objectives can add or subtract from this total based on predefined goals, usually holding parts of the battlefield or killing powerful units (such as the enemy general).

===Magic===
Perhaps the thing that separates ''Warhammer Fantasy'' from ''40k'' the most, aside from the obvious, is the use of magic. Each army (with the exception of the dwarfs) has at least one unit that can use magic, often in the form of an independent wizard. When magic units are present on the battlefield, they're given their own turn separate from the shooting, moving and melee phases to cast their spells. There are several kinds of magic but most magicians are able to use only a single form.

* Dark Magic, used by Dark Elves and Wood Elves
* High Magic, used by the [[Slann]], Wood Elves and the [[High Elves (Warhammer)|High Elves]].
* Nehekharan Incantations, Used exclusively by [[Tomb Kings]] Liche Priests and High Liche Priests (and Settra)
* Light: Wind of Hysh, Lore of Light. Basically healing and shit, plus doing extra damage to daemons and undead.
* Gold: Wind of Chamon, Lore of Metal and Alchemy. Basically armour buffs and debuffs, with their offensive spells doing more damage the higher your armour save is. [[Troll|Problem, Knights?]]
* Jade: Wind of Ghyran, Lore of Life. Basically lots and lots of buffs, making your own units harder to kill. They look like hippies, but don't tell them that, [[RAGE|they'll fucking murder you]].
* Celestial: Wind of Azyr, Lore of the Heavens. Lets people tell the future and stuff, plus they can summon lightning and meteorites that really hurt flying units.
* Grey: Wind of Ulgu, Lore of Shadows. Basically misdirection and illusions, relying on Leadership tests. They can also teleport every time they use a spell.
* Amethyst: Wind of Shysh, Lore of Death. Basically the Lore of Fire, except more killy and shorter-ranged.
* Bright: Wind of Aqshy. Lore of Fire. Basically the ammunition of the Fire obsessed psychopaths known as the Bright Wizards.
* Amber: Wind of Ghur, Lore of Beasts. Basically a Radagast rip off. WHO IS RADAGAST?!?!? [[The Lord of the Rings|RTFM!!!]]
* Daemon Magic: Used by... well, daemons. Broken into three categories - one for each of the gods that give a shit about lasers - [[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi]] [Indulgent, relies on enemy Ld], [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] [decay, revolves around enemy S/T scores], and [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] [OMG FIRES]. [[Khorne]] is too awesome for magic; he'd much rather crush skulls with his bare <s>thighs</s> HANDS and anything less makes you dangerously unmanly and at the absolute least bicurious.
* Necromancy: Used exclusively by [[Vampire_Counts|Vampires]] and Necromancers, as the name "Lore of the Vampires" would suggest.
* Spells of Plague and Ruin: used exclusively by the [[Skaven]].
* Gut Magic: Also known as the Lore of the Great Maw. Used exclusively by the Ogre Butchers.
* Waaagh Magic: Used exclusively by [[Orcs]] and Goblins. Comes in Big and Little flavors. Has a very high chance of making the user's head asplode.
* Athel Loren Magic: Used exclusively by Wood Elves. Moves forests, or move folks through forests.
* Ice/Winter Magic: Used exclusively by the Tzar of Russi- er, Kislev. It gets bonuses or penalties [[What|based on whether your models have snow on the bases and what the weather outside is like.]] Has since been discontinued for being as stupidly designed as it sounds.
* Lizard Magic: Used by [[lizardmen]], it has only one spell, called "Fuck you, I'm an Aztec dinosaur, therefore awesome."
* [[Chaos Gods#The Other Ones|Hashut]] Magic: Used exclusively by the [[Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Legion of Azgorh|Chaos Dwarfs]], the Lore of Hashut consists primarily of buffing spells that work well with the ungodly amount of flaming weaponry that the Chaos Dwarfs have access to.

[[Warhammer Magic]] is powerful, very powerful. A lone unit can wipe out half the opposing army with the right spell at the right time. Magic can also misfire, badly. This adds an element of unpredictability to its use, making it much more dangerous to the user and therefore, much less broken.

GW also recently released an expansion to WFB with a bigger focus on magic, called [[Storm of Magic]]. Which turns magic from regular broken into <s>DOUBLE</s> TRIPLE BROKEN, but misfiring will fuck your mage up in 12 different ways, [[lulz|and then Khorne will throw giant brass kull at him/her/it]].

==Significant Personage Of Warhammer==
* '''[[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]]:''' Born some random tribesman, <s>Conan</s> Sigmar united the squabbling human tribes in what would become known as the Empire and killed a ton of Orcs. Saved some random ass dwarf after this and the Dwarf High King gifted him Ghal Maraz, a super-duper powerful warhammer. Also the dwarfs helped him defend Black Fire Pass from a massive WAAAGH! . He was the first Emperor of the [[Empire]], but he got bored and disappeared on a journey to find something interesting to do. The Empire canonized him as a god, and today the Church of Sigmar is the largest and most powerful faith in the Empire (although only one among many). Some believed him to be one of the missing [[Primarch]]s, given how badass he was, but this has been disputed by newer [[fluff]] detailing his birth and family life. Returned during the End Times, and there was much rejoicing.
* '''[[Karl Franz]]:''' This guy is the current Emperor of the Empire. He owns Ghal Maraz now, as well as the biggest motherfucking <strike>Hippogryph</strike> Gryphon, named DEATHCLAW, who he rides while [[rape|assraping]] bitches who try to invade Imperial soil. And he has a fucking dragon. As of [[The End Times]], he was missing, but returned, was killed, and became [[Awesome|Sigmar-Jesus]].
* '''Magnus the Pious''': Greatest Emperor since [[Sigmar]]. Also one of the few who wasn't morally bankrupt.
* '''Volkmar the Grim''': Grand Theogonist of the Empire. Quite a stern faced fellow; he was once chained up to a daemonic standard by [[Chaos Gods|Be'Lakor]], but simply [[Awesome|broke himself off, murdered the daemons surrounding him, and marched through the Chaos wastes to get back to the Empire]]. <s>[[Derp|This has since been retconned]].</s> Not according to Chris Wraight's Sword of Vengeance. As reward for his sheer badassery, he gets captured by mannfred Von Carstein and is tortured until he is a mere shell of his former self. Arkhan the Black then uses his body as the vessel in which Nagash returns to the world in a ritual so sickening that even Mannfred feels bad for him. Truly grimdark.
* '''[[Gotrek & Felix]]''': Adventuring duo, have a lot of books based on them. Gotrek is a dwarf Slayer who is terrible at his job, because between his magic super-axe and ''insane badassery'' he's nigh-unkillable. Felix is some random bard who found a sword that really wants to kill dragons somewhere. Together, they <strike>fight crime</strike> look for something powerful enough to finally kill Gotrek. Gotrek tolerates Felix traveling with him because he needs someone to pen the mighty tale of his epic doom. In recent times their relation have come close to a bro-friendship and they trusts each other completely. While he's not in it for the chicks, Felix goes through them at a rate of 1-2 per two books. To put it simply if there is more than two of it Gotrek has probably killed one.
* '''Kurt Helborg''': Captain of the Reiksguard and [[Ultramarines|second to the Emperor]] in military terms. Also a badass moustache.
* '''Ar-Ulric Valgeir''': The Viking leader of the Cult to Ulric, the [[Spaaaaaace Wolves|wolf god]].
* '''[[Boris Todbringer]]''': The Elector Count of Middenland.
* '''Luthor Huss''': Crazy ass preacher. [[Awesome]] in the way to show the middle finger to those over-fat, political fuckwits of the Sigmar cult of the capital and take the "Fight Chaos to death" thing personally... with a huge hammer.
* '''[[Balthasar Gelt]]''': Empire Wizard, looks like Dr. Doom. Rides a white pegasus and wears such gaudy clothing that Lady Gaga looks frumpy by comparison. Possibly Elton John without the singing voice.
* '''Valten''': Reincarnation of Sigmar. Got ganked by a Skaven, probably Snitkch, but the lack of gore makes it hard to tell. RETCONNED! Now he is very much alive, and keeping the forces of the empire from being completely buttfucked by Archaon. Sad news is that still got ganked by Skaven...at least this time, he was sniped by a Verminlord while honourably dueling Archaon.
* '''Louen Leoncour''': King of [[Bretonnia]]. Believes in the Feudal system, also believes that a 300% tax rate for the peasantry promotes economic growth, also believes that knights are of infallible morality, also believes that guns are weaker than bows , also believes people of the Empire would prefer a system of governance that emphasizes crushing their hopes and dreams, also believes that a pig and 12 Bretonnian coppers (which exchanges for less than half an Empire copper on a good day) is an excessive reward for saving his nation. In the same support group for ludicrous theme naming as [[Canis Wolfborn]].
* [[Lady of the Lake]]: Creepy cannibal spirit of Bretonnia. A fine piece of ass regardless of diet. May be an elf in disguise.
* '''[[The Green Knight | Green Knight]]''': Bretonnian Holy Warrior and professional ass rapist. In the End Times he is revealed to be Guilles de Breton, founder of Bretonnia and basically their version of Sigmar.
* '''[[Katarin the Ice Queen]]''': Tzarina of Kislev. One of maybe a handful of people in the setting who can use Ice Magic.
* '''[[Teclis]]''': Mage of the High Elves. Pathetic weakling that drinks magic potions like an alcoholic and falls over in a breeze, although he's also one of the few non-Slann mages capable of nuking cities. Considered a Mary Sue by some but they are mistaken, his brother Tyrion is the Mary Sue. Teclis also taught the Empire how to use magic and founded their fancy colleges, being one of the few elves to realize and respect the potential of non-elves. Eldrad - dickery = Teclis. According to his cameo in the Gotrek and Felix series, most elf women are so-so towards him (being haughty bitches), but human women are wet for him. Becomes extremely grey in the End times and essentially Sacrifices his niece to Mannfred to allow Nagash to return, showing that he is very capable of eldrad levels of dickery.
* '''[[Tyrion]]''': Teclis' twin brother and a fuckawesome warrior. May in fact be aroused by killing; it's hard to tell because he won't stop to answer questions. Also happens to be a bigger Mary Sue than [[Kaldor Draigo]] and a bigger dick than [[Eldrad]]. For instance, in 'Blood of Aenarion' he matches veteran warriors with a blade even though he's young and barely practiced himself. Women flock to his bed ([[FATAL|including his own cousin]]) and everyone treats him like a hero even though he hasn't done anything heroic yet (being a descendant of one doesn't count, you have to earn it). Also has the supposed flaw of not being good at anything outside of war. "Supposed" because the flaw never affects him when it should harm him. Matt Ward, of all people, reduced his Mary Sueness a little by making him moody and giving him a short temper as early signs of Aenarion's curse.
* '''[[Ariel]]''': God Queen of the Wood Elves, revealed to be fucking Isha herself who was slowly wasting away as her daughter [[Lileath]] poisoned her with magical ice. Had fairy wings.
* '''[[Orion]]''': Consort King of the Wood Elves, revealed to be [[Kurnous]] AKA the father of all Elves and the wild manly forest beings. Rides through Bretonnia every summer and kills everybody who runs from him because...reasons! Looks like the child of a centaur and a satyr.
* '''[[Thorgrim Grudgebearer]]''': Dwarf High King, very angry, very angry indeed. He carries a book called "The Great Book of Grudges", where EVERY single fault aganist the [[Dorf]] people (THAT'S GOIN' IN THE BOOK, LADDIE!) is noted and taken into account when the time of skullcrushing comes, hence his angriness. He wants to avenge them ALL, and sort of cheats at it by considering all the Grudges fulfilled in the last battle between Chaos and the world it was consuming.
* '''[[Josef Bugman]]''': Dwarf brewer and 200% Awesome. After his brewery got burned down by some goblins he began an impossible mission to kill the tribe that decided the world didn't need anymore Bugman's XXXXX. Now he roams the world with his surviving employees and family fucking shit up. His booze is literally legendary, and possession of some is about on-par with having a giant magical sword forged by a Chaos God's buttcrack or what have you.
* '''[[Grombrindal]]''': The [[White Dwarf]] (yeah, he's the mascot of the Magazine). A mysterious warrior who was apparently friends with pre-charbroil Malekith and now fights endlessly against the enemies of Dorfkind by just appearing and helping out randomly. Like Kaldor Draigo, but as an undead instead of a mortal lost in the Warp.
* ''' [[Long Drong]]''': A Dorf pirate who was apparently important enough to get a unit, a part in the [[Awesome|all-destroying dwarf army of slayer flavoured-doom]]. He even got his own campaign book for God's sake! Why?!
* '''[[Lord Mazdamundi]]''': Most powerful and influential [[Slann]] alive, unnecessarily rides on a dinosaur and gets the bloated toad-alien equivalent to a raging hard-on every time he nukes a city and/or non-Lizardmen species into dust. Also leads the Lizardmen equivalent to the Klan and was one of the brilliant minds behind a plan for a redecorating of the world's volcanic system, this also resulted in the Dwarfs being marginalised close to the point of extinction. And then he fapped to it.
* '''[[Lord Kroak|Venerable Lord Kroak]]''': Most powerful and influential Slann formerly alive. Most powerful magic-user of the entire setting after the gods themselves, he has been dead for thousands of years and can't even move by himself. His corpse is taken in battle because he is made of localized nuclear explosion and levels cities pretty much every. fucking. turn. Probably the most powerful entity because even being a [[Emperor|dead, inanimate corpse,]] he has killed more shit than anyone else on this list, except for maybe Nagash, even then it's too close to make a call, except that he probably will kill Nagash if they meet and would just blink the guy out of existence if they had met when he was alive. He also gets bonus points for not having actually being reanimated, vampirised or any other kind of weird back from the death shit. He is straight up dead. And his rotting corpse is still more magic than the magicest anything else in the universe. In short, he's the grand toad poohbah of lizardkind, and he's on a hoverchair, kinda like a badassed version of [[Tau|Aun'Va]]. Not dissimilar to a Dalek in this regard.
* '''[[Archaon]]''': Lord of the End Time, the Ever Chosen and second most powerful warrior in the setting. Beat all four of the greatest Champions of the Empire in single fight during the Storms of Chaos Campaign But got bashed about badly by Grimgor who headbutted his teeth out of his face. Grimgor iz da best! Later on, he destroyed the world entirely.
* '''The [[Glottkin]] (Otto, Ethrac, Ghurk)''': Triplet sons who became Nurgle's top champions and mutated into a warrior, a smelly wizard, and a giant fucking blob of pestilence. Their parents were priests of Sigmar that tried to live among, and convert, the Chaos worshipers until they were murdered by the Empire by mistake, and the sons began looking for vengeance. Lucky for them, Archaon decided to make them his new vanguard and sent them to blow up the city of Altdorf. These guys are the basis of the second part of [[The End Times]] as the biggest threats of Chaos. Get beat pretty hard, turned into flies by Nurgle to save them but he put them in a jar as punishment.
* '''[[Wulfrik the World-Walker]]''': Chaos Lord, executioner of the Gods and consummate smack-talker of the Warhammer world.
* '''[[Aekold Hellbrass]]''': AWESOME Tzeentchian Champion.
* '''[[Arbaal the Undefeated]]''': All mighty Champion of Khorne. Another one of the greatest warriors in the setting. Obviously, being a favored champion of the Ultimate God of War. Was with Asavar Kul when Praag was destroyed, fled the battle after he died at Russia, likely to assume Khorne ain't very happy with him. Also destroyed the gates of Praag with a single strike from his sword. (badass) Angron probably got his inspiration from this guy. Is he as fun to be around as [[Kharn]]?
* '''[[Asavar Kul]]''': Greatest Champion of Chaos. Greatest warrior in the setting. Almost destroyed the Empire. 'Nuff said.
* '''[[Harry the Hammer]]''': Oldfluff character whose warhammer the setting is named after. Allegedly.
* '''Vardek CROM!''': Archaon's lieutenant and King of the tribe of Asavar Kul. Was man handled by Archaon once and beat Grimgor once.
* '''[[Chaos Gods#Be'lakor|Be'lakor the Dark Master]]''': The only Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided and chooser of the Everchosen....though not by choice. He's a scheming sonuvabitch that tries to kill every other champion of Chaos so he can get his parents' attention back. Oh, and he's also [[Warhammer 40K|in the spaaaaaace-future of the 41st millennium]]. Technically invented Chaos worship by being the first mortal in Fantasy to be uplifted by them, and served as the middle man between the material plane and Warp entities until the Chaos Gods discovered they could have their own champions rather than just sharing one. Has been a pissy fuck ever since.
* '''[[Valkia the Bloody]]''': The world's most badass woman and Khorne's personal bitch. A monster of a woman who killed so much that everyone's favorite Blood God got smitten and made her more than human. Now she chooses who lives and who dies to join Khorne in the afterlife.
* '''[[Grimgor Ironhide]]''': Orc Warlord, one of the most powerful warriors in the setting. Got his ass handed to him once by Archaon's lieutenant, Vardek CROM!!! Grimgor swore to prove he was the best in any case and did it beating Archaon himself in singular duel (via headbutt to the Chaos-armored testicles). Was determined to be the avatar of [[Gork]] himself. One of the most badass robots from [[Transformers]] was named after him.
* '''[[Skarsnik]]''': Head of the [[Night Goblins]], intent on taking over the Eight Peaks and wiping out the Dwarfs. Extremely clever, extremely cruel even by Warhammer standards, but canonically loves his Squig companion Gobbla. He speaks several languages too.
* '''[[Wurrzag|Wurrzag, Da Great Green Prophet]]''': Orc Moses. Turns enemy Wizards into Squigs. His mental energy makes those he doesn't turn into Squigs suffer an improved chance of a miscast. Never stops dancing. EVER. On a lifelong journey to find the avatars of Gork and Mork. It actually took him awhile to figure out he needed to find two Greenskins instead of one. One was [[Grimgor Ironhide|an ultraviolent Black Orc]], the other [[Skarsnik|a tactically-brilliant Night Goblin]].
* '''[[Grom the Paunch]]''': Former Goblin Warlord. Famous for being obese, no joke. Also for near DESTROYING the Empire, oh, AND Ulthuan (imagine a Grot almost destroying Terra until he got bored and decided to destroy every Craftworld, almost succeeding). Not bad for a Gobbo. No one knows where is he now, <s>but it is unlikely that, whrerever he is, is alive (his wars was a hundred yeras before current era).</s> <span style="color:#80FF00">GROM LIVES, ya' git! An' when da waaaghboz returnz, wi'll stomp da humies an el's an' orcs fo' good! WAAAA-</span><span style="color:green">'''STOMP!''' Where ya been? Get back to camp an' start to load rukks in da... um... "thing", ya squishy git!</span>
* '''[[Thanquol]]''': Skaven grey seer and archenemy of Gotrek. He does lines of warpstone powder which is to cocaine what a monster truck is to a pair of baby's first rollerskates. Also he managed to escape from the prophet of Sotek, who after losing his sacrifice to his awesomic god, <strike>takes a nap</strike> meditates, despise the fact that he is a skink. Forever. Thanquol is such a colossal fuckup that it was determined the Lizardmen should let him live because he was ''that much'' of a liability to his own people. Spends all his time with his Frankenstein's Monster buddy [[Boneripper]].
* '''[[Deathmaster Snikch]]''': Skaven ninja-assassin. Uses three scimitars at once to lop off limbs from his target, doesn't so much as assassinate people as shred them into little pieces.
* '''[[Malekith]]''': Lord of the Dark Elves; master of Dark Magic, uses a shield that can asplode your brain from a distance, and rides a giant-ass black dragon. Still lives with his mom. Also considered a whiny emo git who costs so much no one will ever use the Malekeith on a Dragon model because they'd rather finish the game before the entropic heat death of the universe. GW retconned it so he was the chosen one and everyone who doubted him was wrong, making his transformation into Anakin Skywalker complete.
* '''[[Morathi]]''': Malekith's mom. In old editions she was the highest ranking Slaaneshi in the world and one of the primary players in the game of global domination; now she's just a crazy supreme witch with Alzheimer's who thinks everyone is her old hubby Aenarion. Fortunately, they fixed that in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|the video game]].
* '''[[Malus Darkblade]]''': The Starscream of Warhammer.
* '''[[Gorthor|Gorthor the Beastlord]]''': A Beastman Everchosen, one of a handful of Beastmen who successfully caught the eyes of the Chaos Gods in more than a passing capacity. Whipped up on the Empire for a while before dying. Depopulated the Drakwald while he was at it. Even by Beastmen standards this guy was a monster.
* '''[[Khazrak The One-Eye]]''': The most cunning Beastman. He and Boris Todbringer stabbed each other's eyes out, leaving one with an eyepatch and one with a constantly blood-and-puss bleeding empty socket. Hence his title, obviously. Loves messing with Todbringer.
* '''[[Morghur|Morghur, Master of Skulls]]''': A creature so close to Chaos that stuff he touches becomes [[Chaos Spawn|You-Know-Whats]]. He's classified as a Beastman, but that's mere approximation; it'd be more accurate to call him a pure, sentient mass of Chaos energy given flesh. Perhaps that's why he never stays dead?
* '''[[Nagash]]''': Supreme Lord and Creator of Undead, with his autographed book series inspiring the creation of Vampires by Neferata. Also [[Eldrad|Supreme Asshole]]. Was pissed his brother got to be Pharoah while he was stuck as a priest, so he tortured Dark Elves until they taught him black magic that he turned into the first true Necromancy. Killed his brother and got creepy with his brother's life, kept trying to take over Warhammer Egypt from his giant Warpstone flying pyramid and kept getting his ass kicked because Chaos, humanity, and even Skaven were all afraid that he'd become supreme ruler of reality if left un-sabotaged/smote. Supposedly the strongest wizard ever, has fought Sigmar himself and almost won. Became the supreme god of death by becoming Death itself via making death magic his bitch/part of his soul, now gets every soul that Chaos doesn't.
* '''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Nagash's right-hand man. Spent his life in defending Nagash and was resurrected to continue doing it as a skeleton sorcerer. nlike Mannfred, he's serving Nagash out of loyalty that didn't even end in death although in some versions he's getting a bit tired of Nagash's abrasive personality. Had an on-again off-again romance with Neferata despite being a skeleton.
* '''[[Heinrich Kemmler]]''': An insane Necromancer who dabbled in all sorts of dark arts, eventually becoming a believer in Chaos. Was the very first still-canon Warhammer character ever created.
* '''[[Krell]]''': [[Chaos Lord]] turned undead Wight. Everyone thought he was a mindless minion of Kemmler, but he actually changed allegiance from Khorne to Nagash long ago.
* '''[[Queen Neferata|Neferata]]''': The first Vampire and last ruler of the ancient city of Lahmia. Militant bisexual necromancer with a spy network that goes around manipulating events across the world behind the scenes. Pays lip service to Nagash but wants to become a proper queen again. Tried to make her cousin Khalida a Vampire, caused Khalida to hate them as a result.
* '''[[Vlad von Carstein]]''': The first Von Carstein who almost became Emperor of the Empire but was betrayed by Mannfred. Husband of the original Vampire, but all of his character motivation is being a lovey-dovey couple with his new wife. Resurrected by Nagash in the End Times to continue making Mannfred look bad.
* '''[[Isabella von Carstein]]''': New wife of Vlad, helps keep him from going full-retard when he gets too pissed off and is a big part of his longterm planning but once he died the first time she suicided. Possessed by a Nurgle Daemon in End Times, Vlad killed himself again to use his ring to kill the Daemon but have her survive.
* '''[[Mannfred von Carstein]]''': Vampire Lord, a "son" of Vlad. Helped end Vlad's attempt at taking over the world with his involvement in the theft of the Ring of Supreme Badassery, traveled the world like Eurotrash then tried to launch a similar invasion of his own using the ring. Got his ass kicked, became a slave to Nagash to attempt to carve out his own chunk of the world but got pissed when Nagash resurrected Vlad to be the HNIC Old World Vampire. Decided to go full-retard and ended the world by stabbing one of the guys using magic to make it not get swallowed by the Warp. /tg/ calls him "Mannlet Von Carstein" to reflect his character motivation of having daddy issues.
* '''[[Konrad von Carstein]]''': Bat-Shit crazy Vampire Lord, "son" of Vlad. Not good with magic, after pissing off his Necromancers they abandoned him and the stress of controlling a zombie apocalypse made him lose his shit and wander off into a forest muttering to himself where he was promptly tackled by Gotrek and stabbed in the heart with the Elector Count of Ostland's Runefang by Felix. [[Twilight|Total "pants-on-head" retarded vampire noob.]]
* '''[[Settra the Imperishable]]''': Greatest of the Tomb Kings. Fights upon a pimped out chariot. Was offered literally everything by the Chaos Gods themselves if he'd serve, yelled "SETTRA DOES NOT SERVE. SETTRA RULES!" and decided to spend his unlife trying to fucking kill Chaos.
* '''[[Queen Khalida]]''': Freaky mummy-chick blessed with the powers of a snake. Fucking hates Vampires, before Twilight made that cool.
* '''[[Greasus Goldtooth|Overtyrant Tradelord Greasus Tribestealer Drakecrush Hoardmaster Goldtooth the Shockingly Obese]]''': A huge motherfucker that weighs more than a pile of corpses made from giants. He loves eating almost as much as he loves killing. His name is also really, really long. Ogres are impressed by his name and he probably gets a shitload of tail. But he's a huge lardass who costs 565 points and makes ogres more awesome and enemy units pant-shittingly stupid.
* '''[[Golgfag Maneater]]''': An Ogre mercenary, established the Ogre mercenary archetype and was the best Ogre [[Murderhobo]] there ever was. Notorious for doing pretty much everything. Example: your mom.
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]]''': A Skaven with surprisingly decent martial skill, bright red armour and a huge pole on his back covered in skulls. Warlord of [[Clan Mors]], the largest of the Clans that aren't the main four. His name sounds like Squeak, as GW still doesn't take the Skaven too seriously.

==See Also==
*[[Army compatibility between Warhammer settings]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YgLWdIjGE Song for Warhammer Fantasy]
*[http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page Warhammer Lexicanum (It is badly in need of more articles)]
*[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Category:Warhammer/Tactics Warhammer Fantasy Battles Tactics]
*[http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com (More prosaic than the Lexicanum, but strangely has content the Lex doesn't, and vice-versa)]

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}

[[Category:Wargames]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Games Workshop]]

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

2020-05-07T12:16:41Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* In A World Of War */

[[Image:WHFBlogo.gif|center]]
<br>
[[Image:Empire Daemons.jpg|lright|thumb|600px|Where SAN saves are automatically passed while your flag still stands. Where a single greenskin can beat Chaos Undivided at its strongest. Where Liches can order around Chaos Gods like bitches. Where American football takes precedence over ONLYWAR. This <s>was</s> '''IS''' Warhammer Fantasy.]]
{{Topquote|There was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars.|Robert E. Howard}}
{{Topquote|To this day, I have the most fond memories of some of my old toys.|Michael Keaton}}
{{Topquote|Every parting gives a [[The End Times|foretaste of death]], [[Total War: WARHAMMER|every reunion a hint of ]][[Warhammer: The Old World|the resurrection.]]|Arthur Schopenhauer}}
Warhammer is dead! Long live Warhammer! It has been replaced with [[Age of Sigmar]] by GW with a continuation of the canon storylines. For the supplement where the [[Squat|world is destroyed]], see [[The End Times]]. To see the fan revolt continuation of the game, see [[The 9th Age]] or [[Warhammer Armies Project]]. To see the video game adaption, see [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: Warhammer]]. There's also the [[Endhammer]] project.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/11/15/old-world-new-warhammer/ WARHAMMER LIVES!''' STOMP STOMP.''']

Warhammer Fantasy '''IS''' a traditional Fantasy world created in the days when metal hair was all the rage and Dungeons and Dragon was still a new and strange concept. A somewhat darker take on the age-old Fantasy set forth by earlier writers such as Tolkien where the forces of man are almost constantly on the defense, Fantasy is a place where MEN are MEN, and ELVES are MEN, and DWARFS are MEN-MEN, (and Skaven are Man-Things). The entire world is constantly saturated in ancient and warping magic to the point that giant skulls are natural formations in rock, flora sometimes grows eyeballs and genitals, nobody stays dead, and the whole planet is some part of the [[Old Ones]]' last-minute emergency anti-Chaos plan.
It also has many more dead-hard, beardy [[Vikings]] killing, raping, and pillaging.

==In A World Of War==
[[File:3697970-3704646247-Warha.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Back when [[Power Armor|unnaturally powerful armour]] was exclusive to the bad guys.]]
Warhammer is about peasants living in shit, dying in shit, and the thousands of perils that befall them. Which are often covered in shit. It is not a fun place to be, [[Warhammer_40k|though there are worse]]. You have the standard three races of human, elf and dwarf... and none of them a united front (and that's ''before'' factoring in the Norsii, Chaos Dwarfs or Dark Elves). Your average soldier of the Empire is armed with a sword, a musket, and maybe a uniform which comes with a cheap piece of armor that couldn't stop an untipped arrow. Thusly equipped, he is expected to go toe-to-toe with a Daemon. Or a 9-foot-tall daemonically enhanced steel/daemon/*insert Chaotic thing* [[Warriors of Chaos|metal clad super Viking]]. Or a giant, many of which prefer to stuff opponents down their pants or [[Ogre Kingdoms|boil you/mash you/stick you in a stew]]. Or a [[Lizardmen|battle-trained whatsit-a-saurus]]. Or a [[Skaven|rat-man armed with a flame thrower and a machine gun while leading a colossal goddamn steampunk frankenstein rodent abomination]]. Or a [[Beastmen|half man/half goat eight-foot-tall killing and raping machine]]. Or... well, let's just say nothing nice ever comes out of the Chaos Wastes. [[Humanity_Fuck_Yeah|And to top it all off, the madmen actually manage it!]] The one good thing for humanity is that the various factions and races have enough sense to set aside their differences to avoid total annihilation, and succeed at this with stunning regularity.

Of course, once the threat of turning into some Daemon's bitch passes, the various races get right back to smacking the living shit out of each other. Throw in lots of undead in Gothic and Ancient Egyptian flavors, ratmen, omnivorous in every sense of the word Ogres and a race of lizard precursors and we have our setting. However unlike the 40k counterparts, the Empire has ties to both elf and dwarf, both ties have grown stronger over the centuries and usually what gets the 2 races from tearing each other to pieces, in fact the Elves are the ones who taught humanity to wield magic, while the dwarfs taught them mechanics and engineering, which both have resulted in The Empire creating some pretty badass warmachines and devices.

In short, there is a thicker line in terms of Good vs Evil, sure its hindered by the dirty mistakes in the history of big 3 (Man, Dwarf, and Elf) but it's still so much better than the <s>xenophobic</s> righteous alien smashing of 40k.

==WFB crunch in a nutshell==
[[File:M2180130 P1Mb2.jpg|left|thumb|600px|Contrary to popular belief, engaging an enemy army from the flank isn't that good an idea. Makes for cool shots though.]]
As for actual tabletop performance, some argue WHFB requires more tactical skill from the player; however, this is probably because it's not as widely discussed and is more often played by an older audience that was introduced to the setting during the glory-years of the fantasy genre. The game certainly does require more memorization (or reference at least) of rules, although listbuilding factors in less than actual field tactics in comparison to other games (see [[Tarpit]]). Psychology is a major factor in Fantasy as few battles (barring Undead on Undead slapfests or Daemon infighting) will progress without something fleeing or even disintegrating due to a failed Leadership roll. Fantasy puts more models on the field, but most of them are rank and file redshirts. Perhaps most blessedly, Fantasy lacks the $400+ models other gaming systems do. If you want an [[Apocalypse]] level battle, you bring a fucking sea of 1 hit point soldiers lead by one single model so fucking badass that Kenshiro bows in respect as it passes him.

Magic is a big deal in the game, and has its own phase during each turn. Other than gentlemanly games between you and your opponent, you ARE taking a spellcaster even if their only job is to fuck up the enemy's magic phase (some armies in fact require a spellcaster in the army, both of them Undead armies requiring someone to keep the corpse feet-plodding). Models may gain positive effects, or more likely negative ones during the battle so notes may need to be taken beyond just Victory Points. You have to know the ins and outs of your troops, and you'd be better served knowing your enemy's rulebook as well since things don't change much in their roles in the battle. Planning is everything, but ultimately the field of battle is chaotic and thus you'll need to be able to adapt to win ([[Nurgle]] and [[Tzeentch]] enjoy the gameplay aspect of Fantasy in different ways).

As far as models go, Fantasy is a bit liberated. With no rules requiring measuring from a gun, or an exact model footprint, you instead rely on the plastic base as an indicator of who you're fighting and if you can be hit.
This means that the only requirement is to have a little plastic square or rectangle base in the correct size. What is actually ON that base doesn't matter, unless you play at a GW shop in which case the only requirement is that they made whatever is on that base. Want to play one faction, but you only own another? So long as your opponent isn't a dick you can just use your army as the army you want to play now. Fantasy has it literally stated in the rulebooks that it's a big world (same basic geography as ours, but scaled up to a ridiculous size of a planet) and thus there's plenty of unexplored places where anything is possible. So when you field your first army as your second, you can provide a legitimate fluff explanation (Vampire Dwarfs, Lawful Good Chaos Gods, redneck Elves, Undead who are not soulless killing machines but instead have simply had their invitation to your opponent's army to a Wednesday teatime rejected for the last fucking time, and so on).
Unit fillers are a popular option for people making a new army in Fantasy. Instead of buying 60+ foot soldiers for the army of your choice, you can buy some extra bases and glue them together (for example a 3 by 2 grouping of 6 bases) then put something on top of them (a balsa-wood cart, an older model from another edition that was removed, an army specific thing like a hole in the ground that appears to be where the Skaven are coming out from or a statue of a hero for Empire) and stick it in the middle of the group. Boom, instantly you have to buy 4-8 less troops. As for those "GW-made at GW shops" rules? Clip sprues, make a fence, glue it to a base. Voila, instant unit filler.

Fantasy models DO have to fit close together unlike models in other games, so they tend to be a bit less wild with poses (some see this as a plus). Big models tend to have a lot of detail, and almost no armies share models so there's quite a bit of variation on the field. Also there's generally less spikes everywhere, actual exposed breasts on some models, and FAR more skulls ([[Khorne]] and [[Slaanesh]] both approve!).

Those guys who made the Total War games have said that they'll make computer games based on it. Feel free to have a nerdgasm, or a [[Rage|RAGEGASM]], as <s>Creative Assembly</s> Sega [[Games Workshop]] has locked away every other faction besides Empire, Dwarfs, Bretonnia, Vampire Counts, Orcs & Goblins, and Chaos (if you were an early buyer of the game) behind a DLC paywall. But there are two or more legendary faction leaders which can change up the game. Either way, Warhammer fans who own it are fairly happy with it. Similarly, [[Blood Bowl]] was a specialist game set in an alternate universe where American football replaced war and has a vidya and a sequel, while the other specialist game [[Mordheim]] which was a skirmish game got the Xcom-like [[Mordheim: City Of The Damned]] that is available now on top of [[Man O' War: Corsair]] which is loosely based on the [[Man O' War]] tabletop (so out of a game about fleet management, you get the bastard offspring of Mount & Blade and Sid Meier's Pirates! somehow) that was launched as an alpha access game. On top of that, a hack-n-slash multiplayer game was made [[Vermintide]], where a marriage of the combat of Mount & Blade and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare meets the structure of Left 4 Dead to massacre Skaven.

==Setting==
Warhammer is, in most places, set in a period reminiscent of early Renaissance Europe, only much, much worse. If you know anything about history, you'll know that's saying something. Nearly everything has some kind of historical analogy, at least within the human nations. Everywhere is a shit place to live for one reason or another. [[Warhammer 40,000|But unlike a certain other setting]], this has a lot more to do with being subject to multiple clashing interests in the backstory, rather than thematic contrivances that are often poorly explained or barely touched upon.

As an interested note, the Warhammer world, or at least what remains of it in [[Age of Sigmar]], is named Mallus, which in GeeDubs latin would be "Hammer".

===Human nations===
====The Empire====
[[File:Empire-Halberdiers.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Human troops with Strength 4. Halberdiers motherfucker.]]
{{Main|The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)}}

The '''Empire''' is usually the center of attention in the Warhammer world. It's basically a fantasy version of the Holy Roman Empire, meaning its warriors are very angry Germans wielding swords, muskets, and bibles, as well as having [[METAL BOXES|steam tanks]] and magic. It is ruled by a mortal Emperor (who is succeeded upon death, meaning there's no need for a corrupt council to do anything more than annoy him). He is elected from amongst the ranks of the Elector Counts, who govern the different provinces of the Empire in their own special way and wield badass swords called Runefangs which represent their office (when a Runefang is lost, there's one less member of the council). They are the closest WHFB has to a "main character" faction. All good-aligned races usually converge around the Empire when shit hits the fan, and all Chaos-aligned races make a beeline praying for Slaanesh to guide their cocks into an un-lubed Kraut's cannonhole.

The first Emperor was a guy named [[Sigmar]]. He was fucking hardcore (think a combination of Thor, Charlemagne, and [[Conan the Barbarian]]). After becoming the head of his tribe, he made friends with the Dwarfs by saving their king by killing [[Orcs & Goblins|greenskins]] (all before he became an adult even). After that, the Dwarfs and Germans hung out a lot which resulted in Germans getting all the same advances Dwarfs make and pushing it even further because Dwarfs reserved about new things. Sigmar then brought the Polish and some Russians into his clan, and founded The Empire. Sigmar got involved in a war down in Egypt's analogue in the setting, Nehekhara, against the Undead which resulted in Sigmar making the decision that if he were ever being kept alive artificially he wanted the plug pulled. Eventually, Sigmar got bored with politics and pulled a walkout, heading eastwards to fight some new beasties...and was promptly never heard from again. For some reason, people began worshiping him as a god and now he is the main god in the Empire. However, the more reasonable conclusion is that he's long dead and Ulric, the number two god of the Empire and the god that Sigmar worshiped in life, handles the prayers of the Sigmarite priests, that or probably made Sigmar into a God after he died or when he reached the World's Edge Mountains in the east. Turns out he became a god through sheer force of will but got stuck in the wind of Azyr because of Tzeentch being a dick.
Although the Empire was, in large part, the inspiration for the [[Imperium]] in 40k, there are some major differences. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, [[xenos|the other races]] (like Dwarfs and High Elves) are not only accepted but considered trusted allies (despite being arrogant douches). Additionally, though kept on a tight leash, magic is largely accepted (thanks to the Colleges of Magic the Elves set up, so wizards don't accidentally summon daemons every five seconds), and the Empire is fully polytheistic (although worshiping gods that own property in the [[Warp|Realm of Chaos]] is still a big no-no, despite Witch Hunters doing it (he's a Chaos God of Order though, so it's alright)), although Sigmar is the patron deity of the Empire and generally given the most respect. Second is [[Morr]], who provides the mortal races of the world with a legit Chaos-free afterlife.
Also, all forms of [[Undead|Undeath]] are heretical, which is totally encouraged in the Imperium. The Empire isn't totally shit and if you can get a good job you can live a pretty good life, just keep a gun under your pillow every night.
They're even advancing pretty fast and, if it weren't for the constant Chaos and undead invasions, they'd probably be advancing into an Industrial Revolution right about now.

The Empire also counts the allied nation of [[Kislev]] among its forces as they supply it with cannons, and it supplies them with more men but especially lancer calvary. Kislev is mostly Russia during the era of Catherine the Great with a pinch of Poland mixed in, and consists of vodka swilling peasants armed with spears, lance cav and being lead by bear cavalry and their ice-wizard queen to defend the frost-covered land that never smiles. They are more prone to mutation due to living where the winds from the Warp Gates blows. The primary Kislevite battle tactic is to assemble against Khornate Daemonhosts or Chaos Viking hordes that outnumber them 100-1 all while standing barefoot in the snow armed only with rocks AND FUCKING WIN THE BATTLE. Kislevite women consist of the hottest girls in the setting and hardcore bitches who will crack open a chaos warrior's skull and use it's mashed brain as baby food depending on how old they are.

[[Halfling|Halflings]] from the Moot are considered members of the Empire, although they contribute little other than food (particularly since the newer editions removed all Halfling fieldable models from the game).

The current Emprah is a guy named Karl Franz. He's pretty awesome too, he actually has a political and militaristic stance and he [[gets shit done]]. He rides a giant fucking griffon that eats people and owns the one fucking dragon in the entire damn Empire that doesn't act like a taxi for some batshit insane wizard or elf. It eats people too. He's got a fancy suit of ornate gilded armor, cool bling, and a hammer (again, THE Warhammer). Not a fool to be messed with.

Generally speaking, the forces of the Empire consist of cannons, Landsknechts with halberds, cannons, Landsknechts with claymores, cannons, musketmen, cannons, wizards, cannons, crossbowmen, cannons, pikemen, cannons, Russians, cannons, [[Steam Tank|steamtanks]], cannons, knights, cannons, [[inquisitors]], cannons, and mortars. Plus [[Sisters of Sigmar|nuns with guns]] and rioting peasants.

The Emperor has to put up with a lot of bullshit: Vampires, Daemons, Orcs, Skaven, Mummies, Beastmen, Elves, and other Humans. If you can think of it, the Empire has gone to war with it at least once. Its even gone to war with itself <strike>a couple of times</strike> almost every time that the Emprah seat becames vacant, which at one point, resulted in a [[Fail|thousand year long civil war.]] Its continued success in managing to keep from falling apart is as much of a mystery as Dwarfs finding the Humans of The Empire to be worthy of respect (maybe because Games Workshop has a hard-on for [[Imperium of Man|Imperialism]]).

====Bretonnia====
[[File:Breton.jpeg|right|thumb|400px|[[Bretonnia|Monty Python humans!]]]]
{{Main|Bretonnia}}

Bretonnia is the other major Human nation of the Warhammer world. Knights, chivalry, all that King Arthur bullshit. All while being pseudo-Frenchmen nobles with pseudo-English peasants. With the addition of worshiping a Lovecraftian goddess in the guise of a bitch with a magic chalice that's manipulated by baby-eating forest elves to get the Bretonnians to do their bidding (the Brets don't know that last part though!).
The peasants in Bretonnia somehow have it worse than the worse off peasants in the Empire since at least a peasant in The Empire has held a piece of currency at some point in their life. It's pretty much medieval France, only worse. They have a lot of knights, the lowest of which are Knights Errant who have turned into glory hunting idiots since they got their armor, then Realm Knights, then Questing Knights who seek the blessing of the [[Lady of the Lake]], and finally Grail Knights before whom the Lady appeared and let them drink from her magic chalice (hue hue hue).

Peasants are almost completely useless both in crunch and fluff other than as archers or cannon fodder, except for the peasant monks that are in fact carrying a dead and skeletal Grail Knight as if he's alive. But, since they're more French than they are English, this does kinda make sense...
Small numbers of Bretonnian women are considered blessed by the Lady enough to wield magic, but in truth most of them just have fey blood.

Bretonnian culture is based on High Elf culture, since the Franks hid from marauding Daemons while the world was in its very first apocalypse scenario within the ruins of High Elf colonies, and flipping through <strike>ancient tomes</strike> Elf childrens books depicting High Elf Silver Helms (AKA elfknights) killing Orcs and saving princesses inspired them to put on a cosplay that never ended.
Bretonnians used to be on the verge of conquering The Empire in older editions of the game, but that plot was dropped when The Empire was put front and center as the posterboys of the game. [[Ultramarines|40k fans may be able to relate.]]

Bretonnian nobles are bred from "superior" stock from the rest of the Human race, and are attractive even by Elf standards. [[Space Marines|Completion of their training and their missions allows them to further enhance themselves with magic, making their bodies resistant to poison and mutation and all around tougher.]] [[Orks|Their faith is so powerful they're literally able to will bullets into being less damaging to them than arrows, and to perform reality-defying feats simply because they think they can.]] Too bad they worship an Elf*.

Bretonnia is one of the more neglected armies in the game, once again proving the tradition that [[Sisters of Battle|any faction that makes frequent use of the Fleur-de-lys]] is on [[Games Workshop|GW's]] back burner.

====Other human nations====
Other human nations, which don't warrant an army book include:
*[[Albion]], the British Isles back in Celtic days where tribal shamans and intelligent rock giants protect human-made waystones and Old One artifacts from just about every faction in the game.
*[[Amazon]]s, a possibly immortal all-women civilization in [[Lustria]] whose ancestors served the Slaan but became a separate civilization after the Warp-Gates collapsed.
*[[Araby]], Middle East fantasy equivalent whose magicians can enslave [[Genie|Chaos spirits]] and are immensely rich from trade.
*[[Border Princes]], Balkans in its natural state of conflict. Group of small nations to the south of the Empire, home to Lietpold the Black and other rogues.
*[[Cathay]], incredibly large eastern empire which has magical robot terracotta warriors and non-Chaos spellcasters who are actively stealing power directly from the Chaos Gods (especially Tzeentch) and are led by their supreme dragon Emprah. Has the Great Wall of China, but is called the Great Bastion for some reason. All they ever do for the plot is occupy all of the fucking Chaos Huns/Mongols and Steppe Nomads which would otherwise be attacking The Empire, which is quite significant actually considering how just how fucking many Chaos Nomads there are.
*[[Estalia]] (Spain), produces Conquistadors and the world's supply of human murderhobos.
*[[Ind]], fantasy India which has '''ALL''' of Indian Mythology living in it's borders. Constantly under invasion by eastern flavored Beastmen.
*[[Kislev]], pre-Peter Russian Empire, Poland and Mongols all combined into one. Constantly getting [[Rape|buttfucked]] by Chaos.
*[[Nippon]] ([[Weeaboo|Japan]]), taught Skaven how to be ninjas and otherwise is so reclusive we know nothing about them (and why the fuck did they think teaching evil rat men more sneaky way to murder millions was a good idea?).
*[[Tilea]] (pre-unification Italy), a large number of city-states and kingdoms that ally with other civilizations in the world like an army of mercenaries that can range from [[Warforged]] to Greek Hoplites using flying machines. They are the main source of human mercenaries for the Old World.

===[[Elf|Elves]]===
====High Elves====
[[File:Adrian smith high elf warriors.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Somehow the actual elves look more alien than the [[Eldar|alien elves]]]]
{{Main|High Elves (Warhammer)}}

'''OH BOY, HERE WE GO'''...The "good guys" of WHFB. Although as a group they're dickish in the extreme like you'd expect, many of them are quite bro-tier and the reason the race is diminishing is because they overtax themselves to save the world every time they can from everyone they can, and humans are usually what counts as part of the world (except ones tainted by chaos of course).
They have the strongest navy in the world, wear red/white/blue, bring giant eagles to battle, are snobby, the average citizen can't even name the leader of their closest ally, they send in their marines to unwinnable conflicts, they saved the collective ass of the [[Old World]] twice, their head of government is democratically elected...

Many 40k fans mistakenly confuse the Eldar lore with Elf lore. This is a major mistake, as Eldar are characterized as [[Eldrad|ultra-dick failures]] while no faction has a bigger ass-kicking and ass-saving record than the High Elves.

High Elves defeated the first Chaos invasion into the world (unknown to themselves that they had distant magical help from the [[Lizardmen]]) and every invasion since. They established a network of [[Waystone|Waystones]] which pull the excess magic (which Daemons use to manifest) into Ulthuan and shoot it back into the Warp.
High Elves taught the Empire magic, and save the ass of Bretonnia every time it gets invaded by something they can't beat. They patrol the world oceans in giant magical aircraft carriers that launch dragons, and wreck the shit of anyone trying to launch a Black Crusade. They single-handedly keep the world from being swallowed into the Warp and all the good factions respect them for it (even if that's the ONLY thing Dwarfs respect about them).

The Everqueen of the High Elves and the hereditary ruler (who co-rules with her democratically elected male counterpart, the Phoenix King), is a being of IMMENSE magical power whose soul is made up of the combined souls of all her mothers leading back to the first Everqueen, who was the second daughter of [[Isha]]. The souls themselves reside with Isha, and as a whole they make up the Everqueen entity.
Chaos is afraid of her (read that again: Chaos Gods in 40k only ''respect'' the God Emprah as their greatest enemy and an equal, but they're actually '''afraid''' of the Everqueen), and she can cleanse anything the Chaos Gods can corrupt. Her only weaknesses are that sadness saps her energy (you do NOT want to piss her off though) and the fact she's mortal means her daughter has to be protected.

High Elves are ethnically divided into ten major groups by region. Some are such pricks who treat even other High Elves like Eldar treat the Mon'keigh, some are fatalistic jackasses with the personality of a secret service agent, some are revenge-obsessed sociopaths who make the Inquisition look like Lawful Good Paladins, some are <strike>nutty professors</strike> wizards, and some are <strike>hippies</strike> murderhobo [[Bard]]s who are willing to make love AND war as the situation requires. In addition, High Elves have districts within major trade cities in all the good factions.

High Elves would rather walk willingly into Slaanesh's open mouth than do anything beneficial to a Dark Elf and vice versa, running a contrast to Eldar/Dark Eldar relations.
When they die, High Elves are first nabbed by their patron god if said god liked them enough. Next, they can corpse-run to a Waystone (giant magical structures set up all over the world by their race to weaken Chaos and keep Daemons from manifesting) where they get to chill and manifest semi-solid bodies (which they will usually use to pick off troops from any evil races that wander by). Then, there's an evil goddess who got punished by [[Asuryan]] for trying to rape him while he was asleep and gets back at his rejection by taking High Elf souls (she doesn't care about any other Elf subraces) to torture like it's Christian hell. Final thing that can happen is Slaanesh manages to snatch them from the material plane and either eats them or turns them into [[Daemonette]]s (yes, in Fantasy he still does this). All of Slaanesh's Greater Daemons are elves who in one way or another wound up in his employ (from [[N'kari]] who was an insipid noblewoman who wanted to be the center of attention, to Dechala who was virgin sacrificed by her parents to Slaanesh for mercy and came back as a pissed off Medusa with an army of Daemonettes to butcher them).
While Eldar must use soulstones to keep their soul safe, High Elves use them only to guard them in combat against Daemons and those who worship them. Otherwise, their only use is to link to the Waystone network and provide GPS navigation for the elves.

[[Ulthuan]] is like paradise (for the most part, there's Chaos corrupted areas and random encounter tables of course) and elves will fuck, sing and enjoy the splendors of life without fear of taint as they must give themselves willingly to Chaos to be corrupted. The Cult of Pleasure, Slaanesh's Elf cult, takes root like Chaos cults in the [[Imperium]] and have to be [[Blam|purged]] by the High Elf [[Inquisition]] who are kung fu Elves in light armor who have swords as tall as their body but don't look weaboo.

Eldar are all-powerful psykers, although humanity has potential to make stronger psykers than the average Eldar. High Elves on the other hand are constantly bathed in magical energy, more so than the rest of the world, but you have to actually LEARN to be a <strike>psyker</strike> wizard. Since High Elves have public education and being a wizard is a great job, there's more Elf wizards than human ones (in fact, the fact you have to LEARN to be a wizard means that the only humans who can come close to badass Elf Loremasters are prodigies of Mary Sue proportions). Of course, one of the 10 High Elf ethnic groups have the old fashioned "every Elf is also a level 1 wizard" feature, but that's just them.

Eldar have a multitude of different styles of combat and war, and a multitude of different philosophies related to them. High Elves have three basic flavours of badass warriors: stoic summabitch priests who shrug off cannonballs to the face, guy with giant axe who wrestles monsters then goes for an ale, and Witch Hunters with giant swords

High Elves are, to the very last, soldiers. Every poet is also a Spear<strike>man</strike>elf, every baker is also a wizard, and every secretary loads giant bolt throwers. They passed the point of desperation tens of thousands of years ago, putting High Elves in the position of Israelis.

====Dark Elves====
[[File:DE.png|right|thumb|400px|"We are the most civilized race in the entire world. We have more exquisite ways to kill than any other"]]
{{Main|Dark Elves (Warhammer)}}

Edgier elves who get shit done [[Dark Eldar|without drugs and soul torture]]. Dark Elves manage to maintain the awesomeness and jack it up to a new level while still at the same time being made of the kind of fail you'd expect from a fantasy Dark Elf race. How do they do this you might ask? By taking the next logical step in the elven belief of "we're better than everyone" over to "so we should be allowed to kill them for sport". They have a history of using slavery, violently suppressed the indigenous population when they colonized their new homeland, have no respect for the rest of the world, are embroiled in an ongoing war with a foreign nation, they spy on everyone including themselves, citizens can easily gain access to deadly weapons, their government is corrupt, they built <s>a fence</s> <s>a wall</s> towers to keep people from a bordering nation out...

After being driven out of Ulthuan by the High Elves they fled to a new land they named Naggaroth (in memory of their old homeland Nagarythe). Naggaroth is Warhammer North America but very cold with a network of underground rivers and a sea in the middle. The topography of the land is half mountains, half flat plains which are mostly covered in forests. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. The land is infested with all sorts of monsters, from Harpies and Cold Ones to Manticores and Hydras. Even worse than them are populations of Orcs (descended from the spores of Orcs Dark Elves tried to use against the High Elves as slave soldiers), Beastmen (because Chaos) and Skaven (because the rats can tunnel under oceans apparently, though the Dark Elves have a treaty with them).

Their entire culture is built around "if you died, you were too fucking weak/stupid to stay alive". They have no protections for their souls because none of them admit they could die because that would mean admitting you are possibly less awesome than you tell everyone you are (because they'll kill you for lulz if you don't pretend to be more awesome than they're pretending to be). When Dark Elves die, they go first to their patron elf god if they manage to impress them (unlike High Elves they worship the nastier elf gods, collectively called the Cytharai) then to the same elf goddess who tried to seduce Asuryan then straight to Slaanesh. The third is okay, because some Dark Elves FUCKING WORSHIP SLAANESH (only in secret - in public they worship [[Khaine]] the lord of murder and the other Cytharai for fear of [[Blam|Malekith's reaction]]).

[[Malekith|Their king]] is the second son of the elves' greatest hero, but grew up to fuck up the world almost as bad as Daemons did the first time they invaded the material plane, and is the settings resident Doctor Doom. (The only non-Chaos threat to the world greater than him is [[Nagash]], the Apocalypse to Malekith's Doctor Doom). Their queen [[Morathi]] is Slaanesh's high priestess and the queen mother; she's been fucking her son since he was old enough to have his hips move by themselves. Oh, and that son/mother couple have been plotting to kill each other and take over control of the Dark Elves for thousands of years, with each gambit resulting in mass Dark Elf casualties and a "kiss and make up" moment from the two. Morathi is the single oldest living being in the setting (except most Slann and a few Saurus are as old if not older, plus [[Drachenfels]] if you consider him canon, but whatever), and it's all because she bathes in Daemonette jizz (literally, Dark Elves like to summon Daemonettes to parties, with said parties having low survival rates and Morathi keeps Daemon servants with her at all times) and the blood of newborn elves.

Fun fact: each year the craziest of the crazy, the Witch Elves (female berserkers in chainmail bikinis with poisoned blades) who worship Khaine, have a ten day holiday called "Death Night" where they just rampage through Dark Elf cities and kill whoever they want, unless said person can buy their lives in double digit amounts of slaves. They recruit into their ranks by stealing babies and very young children. The girls are automatically raised as Witch Elves while [[Grimdark|the boys are thrown into a cauldron of boiling blood]], those that survive are trained as assassins.

The Dark Elves raid the entire fucking world, constantly. They're the pirates that piss everyone off. They've managed to steal a [[Slann]] by lobotomizing it, then they turned it into fireworks (massive Dark Elf casualties). They plan safaris into the Chaos Wastes to shoot [[Warriors of Chaos|Norsemen]] and bring them home to be stuffed and turned into trophies. As long as they've existed, Dark Elves have been at a war of genocide with the High Elves. Every battle both sides suffer massive casualties, as Malekith is fighting the war mostly for the sake of pride and sends his men at fortresses that have never fallen because he wants to be the one to make them fall (he'll do this every year for thousands of years without learning a damn thing).

But somehow, Dark Elves DO manage to replenish their population pretty good. Every time they attack High Elves they suffer MASSIVE casualties in comparison to their enemies, and still go back to full strength in a few months. While the fluff implies that the Dark Elves kidnap High Elf children to raise as Dark Elves along with their numbers being boosted High Elf defectors fleeing to Naggaroth, there is a much simpler reason; Games Workshop has admitted that they don't deal in concrete figures and there are as many elves as the plot demands, so illogical writing is the reason they can replenish their numbers so easily despite elves being a dying race.

====Wood Elves====
[[File:Wood-Elf-Armybook-Art.jpg|thumb|right|450px|They do say nature is a mother, after all. And this mother is a colossal bitch.]]
{{Main|Wood Elves (Warhammer)}}

During the heyday of the High Elves, before Chaos first invaded the world, the High Elves had established colonies in Warhammer France. Generations passed, and these elves knew little to nothing of the homeland save for what news traders brought them.
When Daemons first invaded they were left to their own devices for defense, but utilizing the primitive stone-age humans were able to hold their own. Shortly after, architects were sent to establish Waystones in their lands and rekindle ties. Once again however, they were abandoned to their fates when Dark Elves first started the big never-ending civil war, then after a short period of being in touch with the homeland again were subject to the brutality of the Dwarfs after the Phoenix King of the time went full retard and pissed the Dwarfs off (of course, Dwarfs neither know the difference in ethnicities nor cared as it was all just knife-ears and keebs to them). After being told to evacuate and leave everything behind to go home and fight the war against the Dark Elves, the colonists burned their draft cards and fled to the sentient forest to become '''Wood Elves'''.

They then turned into a pack of insane dicks.

So that forest they fled to is [[Athel Loren]]. Athel Loren is, in theory, a bastion of life and anti-Chaos in the world. In practice, is a giant forest that plays by it's own rules and is fucking expanding to the point it's theoretically possible it can overtake the rest of the world. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. It is a forest full of unmentionable terrors of all shapes and sizes who will FUCKING VIOLATE YOU AND EAT YOU live there. But they're not evil. They're made that way/too dumb to understand alignment/a natural force of destruction, not a malicious one. So they're horrible and evil but their actual alignment is nicely True Neutral.

The actual elves live in the parts of Athel Loren in Bretonnia. Said forest existed way before the coming of Daemons & Aenarion, being much, much, MUCH larger than today, which in turn means that Bretonnia is actually living on what was once said forest. They smoke weed, have /ss/ and /ll/ and /sm/ with kidnapped Bretonnian noble children, hunt humans like animals using giant hunting dogs every summer when their king awakens from his winter sleep after they tie a Bretonnian maiden to a tree naked and shoot her full of arrows. They also manipulate the Bretonnian nobles into becoming more superior elf-like humans by manipulating an entity so ancient and unknowable that even THEY have no idea what she is. Said entity appears before humans that are badass and gives them geneseed cider to drink, which turns them into living Superman.

Culturally, the Asrai are a mix of High and Dark Elves with a mix of batshit insane dark evil with noblebright altruism. Some do random shit like decide to hold impromptu celebrations and plays because of a smell on the wind and re-enact battles that may or may not have actually happened but with actual killing. During the performance, they are literally holding their entrails in with their hands while giggling and teasing the dead, dying, and still up and killing for forgetting their lines because they're fucking crazy like that. When they have festivals, some elves will have a dance contest with ''invited'' humans. Sort of like Dance-Dance Evolution. The bets are usually on how long the human will last, before he/she becomes too... ''tired'' to continue. Some Elves invite you to peacefully feast and drink and have fun in their woody halls. In exchange they feed you to Daemons and monsters when you fall asleep. If you're lucky they'll let you leave after the party, but you'll find out that a few days in Athel Loren can be a hundred years outside and it catches up to you so you rapidly age and die. Seriously, Wood Elves are fucking scary.

Their king became the avatar of [[Kurnous]] and reincarnates (via virgin sacrifice) every year (during which he usually kills the shit out of Bretonnians because 'why the fuck not?'), while their queen claims to be the REAL avatar of Isha and uses prophesy and scrying to figure out what's going on in the rest of the world.
For some context: Alarielle, the Everqueen of the High Elves, is the God Emprahss of Elfkind. Chaos Gods are scared of her, she can look Slaanesh in the eye and cause Slaanesh to blink. '''Alarielle is fucking scared of the Wood Elves''', and notices that her Wood Elf counterpart, Ariel, is changing into something far more feral than the world has ever known and that the rest of the Asrai are too.

Wood Elves have a different view on the world than the other two races; while High Elves see themselves as masters of the world's fate and see the future as a great battle between good and evil and Dark Elves see the world as their playground with no regard for who came before or who comes after, the Wood Elves believe that fate has already decided. They believe that Chaos is coming, and in the end thanks to the manipulations of Ariel the entire rest of the world other than Athel Loren will be swallowed into the Warp, leaving the Wood Elves as the ultimate winners of the world conflicts when they alone inhabit the material plane. As such, their fluff is quite grim and full of determinism and in-universe the Wood Elves are more or less Eldar. They also claim that the elf gods have already staged the final battle against Chaos, lost it, and are slowly being consumed by Chaos until they will fade away forever. Since this is not mentioned within the fluff of the other two races it can be assumed this is the Wood Elf perspective rather than the outright canon.

But that's just the Wood Elves. The rest of the "Wood Elves" army? Treekin. Not Treebeard (who will tell you a story while he smooshes Orcs), not Old Man Willow (who hates you and will put you to sleep forever), and not the kind of Dryads who get raped by Satyrs ([[FATAL|but actually enjoy it because they're that horny, either meaning it's not rape or that that was how the ancient Greeks thought rape worked]]). No, these are like Hills Have Eyes tree people. Some of them march to war with the Wood Elves because they recognize kindred spirits. Some rampage against all non-tree life in the forest. Some of them are so batshit insane that they attack everything, constantly in giant tree battles where the splinters grow into new Dryads and Treekin who then jump straight into the fray like hard-skinned [[Orks]]. That ain't Chaos corruption either, it's their natural state. Regardless of sanity, ALL Athel Loren Treekin are infested with angry chittering forest spirits that will eat you like flying pirahnas. Elves who die in the forest can become angry bitter trees that don't remember anything, unless you're raped by hermaphrodite daemons who then kill you when they get bored, so yes, you fucking come back to life by inhabiting a dead tree, so you can fucking show those fucking skanks HOW IT FEELS WHEN THE FUCKING FAVOR IS RETURNED! WITH INTEREST/SPLINTERS!! FUCK!!! They also decorate themselves with entrails and skeletons like a decorator crab.

Oh, and the leader of these insane fucking scary tree people? [[Drycha]]. Insane forest treegirl. Drycha is crazy, by any standards of crazy. She's a tree woman with acorn nipples that dribble syrup. She's perhaps one of the most terrifying beings in the setting, and that's saying a lot. Luckily, (if you're not Asrai) she's mostly against the Wood Elves since she thinks they're the ones responsible for everything going wrong with the world (Get out of my swamp you kids!).
8E re-introduced a male counterpart, Durthu, a Wood Elf Treeman character back from 5E who is similar to Drycha except that he only hates Dwarfs while being bitter against everyone else. He now wields a giant amber sword forged by an elf, and is revealed to have been the one who saved an infant Everqueen and her brother in Ulthuan thousands of years ago.

Athel Loren doesn't expand naturally. It's suddenly appeared on islands in the sea. When you wander into those forests looking for coconuts, you suddenly find yourself in the midst of a forest from hell somewhere around Alsace-Lorraine, with Drycha and a hundred or so Dryads decorated in greenskin, Dwarf, Elf, and Human bodies all staring down at you. Athel Loren has worldroots connected to many different forest around the world. Which means you will never be safe, my little ''porcupine butts''

tl:dr Wood Elves live in Athel Loren which is between Bretonnia and The Empire, which is both alive, and akin to a forest in Soviet Russia - where forest cuts down you! The Elves are crazy insane rapists, and the tree people are fucking xenomorphs. You're either a tool to them that will be destroyed when you are no longer useful, or are a plaything for their amusement.

===DWARFS===
[[File:69180f7a9e6a20e2ffb7544531f50bde.jpg|thumb|left|400px|BEARDS AXES BEARDS BEARDS GRUDGES HAMMERS BEARDS]]
{{Main|Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)}}

Same old [[Lord of the Rings|cliché]] Dwarfs (as used in Warhammer Fantasy, as the term "Dwarves" is rarely used) in a lot of ways, with some fun twists.
The Dwarfs have this thing about holding grudges forever. Their language has no word for forgiveness, there's a story where a Warhammer Dwarf outright says forgiveness is not in their nature and [[Book of Grudges|one of their most sacred artifacts is the "Dammaz Kron" which is a GIANT golden book which is inked in blood and lists every slight]], however small, against the Dwaarfish race {{BLAM|Misspell Dwarfish will ya? THAT'S GOIN IN THE BOOK LAD!!!}}.
Dwarfs are required by their gods to avenge even the slightest insult in blood; a story in old Warhammer comics involves two Dwarf Thanes being about to lead the last of their clans (consisting of women and children only at this point) against each other while greenskins are about to breach the fortress walls. The two Thanes, in the middle of a battle, realize they no longer know what the original feud was about and make peace...only for their gods to crush both under a giant statue, causing the clans to wipe each other out and the greenskins to take over.
Another story involves Dwarfs building an impenetrable fortress for a human king. After receiving their payment, they found they were a few coins short (the dwarfs thought they were scammed, in reality there was just a counting error). The Dwarfish response was to muster the full strength of their nation to invade, slaughter every man woman and child inside, and raze every last stone into powder.

So not only does the race tend towards Lawful Stupid, they are punished divinely for not acting in the Lawful Stupid way.

Dwarf pre-Chaos history involved the entire race united as one giant clan, producing master works from their GIANT fortress that spanned half the mountains of Europe and Asia. After Chaos invaded, they simply shut their walls and waited the whole thing out.
After the High Elves defeated Chaos the first time, they befriended the Dwarfs and swore to be best friends forever. Then after the first battles of the Elf civil war, the newly-separated Dark Elves manipulated the two races into war with each other (taking advantage both of the High Elf arrogance that rears its head <s>every other</s> every generation, and of the fact Dwarfs are absolute racist fuckheads who take the actions of a single individual as the standard for the whole race (the Warhammer Dwarf word for "inferior" is actually their word for "human")). So Dwarfs were pissed at Elves right up until the modern day, where they started to realize Elves come in different flavors than just "Keeb Scum".
Not long after this, the Lizardmen attempted to enact a prophesy from the Old Ones that they believed would weaken Chaos. Instead, it caused giant earthquakes which wiped out most of the Dwarf race and turned their fuck-huge city into thousands of thousands of small fortresses isolated from each other by giant cave-ins.However, the same even is said to be a Skaven machination to expand Skavenblihght gone horribly wrong/right. This was followed by Orcs and Goblins getting underground, and taking many fortresses from which they now wage war against the entire Dwarfish race.
More recently (from the Dwarf perspective) they befriended humanity after Sigmar Heldenhammer saved one of their Thanes. The hammer from which the Warhammer games derive their name was forged, and given to Sigmar as a symbol of eternal friendship between the two groups (thankfully now the Dwarfs can tell apart evil from good, and know not to blame the Empire for the actions of the rape-vikings). Dwarfs taught the Empire about machines and technology, leading to the current state of the Empire.

Currently, Dwarfs are constantly fighting a losing war against Skaven and Night Goblins (and just Greenskins in general) for control of the deep craves, tunnels, passages and mines below the surface of the world. Without the Dwarfs keeping things that dwell down in the dark at bay, the lands of men would be overrun from beneath; though the 8th Edition book sees them becoming a Rape-Train against Hordes, and in the fluff the High Elves attacked WAAAGH!s that have raged without stop since the fall of the Dwarf Fortresses from behind and destroyed them while the current Dwarf High King has mustered a fuckhuge army to end those that remain.

In canon, Dwarfs fight very different hold to hold, with some being the classic hammer+axe Dwarf warriors with others (those you'll almost always see on the tabletop) fighting as Napoleonic armies with more cannons than most armies have horses.

What else is there to say about Dwarfs? Gyrocopters and death cults. There is nothing that isn't improved through the addition of flying machines and death cults. The dwarfs have zero magic. No, scratch that, they have even less than zero magic. It tends to fuck up when they're around, and everyone can use magic but them. Not that this stopped Dwarfs though. They just grabbed magic by the balls, put its balls on the anvil, and hammered it into runic items. Because they're stubborn like that. As a result, Dwarfs have the best magic items bar none. They also compensate for their lack of magic by building giant fucking machines instead. Flamethrowers, helicopters, organ guns, and pretty much any other variant of carnage that can be moshed together with enough steam, alcohol, and gunpowder. They build them smaller but they build them better, and they're all fueled by alcohol. The traditional Dwarfs don't like the Engineers and their machines that much, and anything that hasn't been in the blueprint stage for a thousand years before a prototype stage was even thought about is borderline heretical technology (not that they will refuse to use it, they'll just bitch about it worse than even a real life Scotsman would). [[Slayer|The death cults are crazy naked dwarfs that have in some way shamed themselves or broken an oath, and as a result they shave and dye their hair into a red mohawk and go on a quest to die an honorable death]] (so Repentia/Penitent Engines for any 40k players reading this).

====[[Chaos Dwarfs]]====
[[Image:Dorf hats.jpg|thumb|right|[[Hat|HAT]]!!!]]
There are also evil dwarfs called [[Chaos Dwarfs]]. During the first Chaos incursion while some Dwarfs decided to hide in their fortress and wait for the whole thing to blow over, some decided to flee (or explore and look for safe haven elsewhere). After heavy losses among the Dwarfs, the Chaos Gods decided to throw them a bone, and the rest is history. Regular Dwarfs hate them above all others (even moreso than elves) and claim they have sworn eternal vengeance and genocide on them (in practice they pretend Chaos Dwarfs don't exist and woe betide the non-Dwarf who brings them up!)

They used to be an interesting and unique faction that resembled an even more grimdark ancient Babylon, their corrupting magic slowly turning their evil sorcerers to stone (dorfs ain't meant to magic it up) while creating Daemonic machines that would make Chaos Spaaaaaace Marines drool (instead of grabbing magic by the balls and hammering it into runes, they grab deamons by the balls and hammer ''them'' into daemonic warmachines). Then they became like normal dwarfs, but dressed in black. Then they up and vanished for a while. Nowadays, [[Forge World]] has made them ''back'' into their first, awesome thing again - half-Baylonian, half-stripped down industrialist assholes a la Isengard.

Their favorite pastimes are drinkin', fightin' and [[Touhou|wearing silly hats for no adequately explained reason]].

===Chaos===
Back in the day, there was only one Chaos army. Since then they have been split into Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, and Daemons of Chaos.

====Warriors of Chaos====
[[File:Warriors of chaos.jpg|thumb|right|380px|What one would call "the good shit". Or the bad shit, if you catch my cold.]]
{{Main|Warriors of Chaos}}

The Warriors are Nordic (literally, they are called the Norse in the canon). Beardy, berserking [[Vikings]]/[[Pan-Tang]] rip-offs clad in Unholy Chaos Plate and blessed with the Marks of the Chaos Gods personify this faction, and basically granted Warhammer Fantasy it's popularity back in the 80's/90's.
The Warriors of Chaos represent a multitude of tribes and clans, in varying cultures and degrees of civilization (mostly being Scandinavians and Mongols however) all of whom live in the giant North Pole around the Warp Gate there, which is basically an Eye of Terror.
Mostly, they revere the Chaos Gods as their masters although they have different pantheons (sometimes to be able to avoid saying the name of the Chaos Gods directly to avoid getting sudden attention and turning into..one of [[Chaos Spawn|"those things"]], sometimes of other Chaos Gods, and rarely of ascended mortals like [[Bel'akor]]).
Warriors make up the primary bad guys of the setting, and raid the fuck out of the world for shits and giggles. Games Workshop loves to throw them constantly into almost every canon, to the point anything major involving someone who ISN'T Chaos is a huge fucking deal.

Unlike in 40k where Chaos Space Marines <s>actually get shit done</s> possibly fucked up 12 times under the same leader, Warriors have gone through multiple Everchosens who <s>keep getting killed by reincarnations of Sigmar</s> keep getting killed in various ways (sometimes even by Daemons) and are replaced in the hopes that the next one will get it right (and one even went "fuck this shit" and went to non-Chaos Valhalla on the eve of his victory). Despite this, they look no less awesome for it, and the [[Archaon|current one]] [[Storm of Chaos|managed to beat and cripple his good counterpart before losing the war thanks to Orc shenanigans.]]

====Daemons of Chaos====
{{Main|Chaos}}

As in 40k, but as mentioned before are much weaker.
[[Khorne]] mostly just watches his servants fight each other and sometimes other factions when that shit gets boring. Loves trapping his champions in time loops where they kill their older selves. <br/>
[[Nurgle]] loves Isha from afar, who may be unaware he even exists. He maintains a circus (a literal circus, with tents and candy and performers and clowns) which travels through the Old World, bringing in plagues and taking in followers. <br/>
[[Tzeentch]] doesn't do jack shit. EVER. He doesn't own a monopoly on bird iconography as that's mostly owned by mortal gods like [[Morr]] and [[Morai-Heg]]. The Chinese siphon magic from him without retaliation. His champions are mostly stuck being the spellcasting bitch to whatever Everchosen or other god's champion didn't take a wizard in their army list. As a result, he likes to spread rumors like "all magic is me!" and "everything is going according to plan" despite everyone calling bullshit and his prophesies actually being wrong most of the time.<br/>
[[Slaanesh]] spends most of his time corrupting individuals in the Empire and High Elves for shits and giggles, as well as watching his champions wander the world and do stupid shit like it's a giant reality show. He likes to try to nab elf souls like his 40k counterpart, but instead of mindlessly eating them he makes quite a few of them Daemonettes. He also has a permanent scar, no matter what shape he takes, because Khaine fucked him up good. <br/>

There's a multitude of other gods as well, including multiple Chaos Gods of Order. To those who claim that makes no sense, remember that Chaos is pure potential, not contradictory pants-on-head retardedness that you can't comprehend (although it certainly becomes that often enough). One of them blesses Witch Hunters and other forms of Inquisitors in their fights against everything Chaos (so like [[Malice]], but without malice). Another is a Snow White figure, being locked in a glass coffin in stasis by Tzeentch and dropped in the mortal world because he's terrified of her.

Daemons themselves tend to be fucked over royally as they can be perma-killed in Fantasy in various ways, and are VERY prone to being used as the power source for magical artifacts and weapons.

====Beastmen====
[[File:BeastmenChallenge.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Horns, sharp teeth and hooves, oh my!]]
{{Main|Beastmen}}

Representing the non-Skaven Chaos mutants of the world, Beastmen are a group of pagan style animal mutants living in the forests and wilderness of the world. Beastmen are wild and crude creatures embodying all the negative aspects of animals combined with human-level intelligence. They are truly repugnant to behold, let alone to smell, for they are a twisted reflection of the base and barbaric aspects of nature. Beastmen are Neutral Evil to the core, the only thing stopping them from being Chaotic Evil is their reverence of Bray-Shamans and the Chaos Gods. The carnage and despair they spread across the land is a malevolent and deliberate attempt to wreck anything beautiful or stable for the lulz. Bitterness and spite simmers in the heart of every Beastman; it takes little more than a few well-chosen words to spur a Gor into a frenzy of unrestrained rage. The sounds of distant battle will cause a Beastman to prick up his tufted ears in an instant; a fight or duel upon a woodland path will invariably bring dozens of Beastmen from all about in a very short space of time. Even when gathered in their torrid encampments the Beastmen spend their time fighting, fucking or feasting. The only time they don't is when a particularly strong Beastman knocks a sense of purpose into them (sometimes literally) or a Bray-Shaman calls on the Chaos Gods.

Beastmen HATE civilization. Anything that looks like it was made intentionally is broken, anything that can't be broken is tied to a stick and used as a weapon to kill the fuck out of more civilizationfags. Although Beastmen tend to come in specific flavors (Satyr, Minotaur, and Dire animals) they mutate even further into grotesque and scarred monsters of utter evil when they attract the attention of the Chaos Gods. Which they spend most of their time seeking to do in various ways, despite the fact that Chaos rarely if ever tosses them even a minor blessing.

So all in all, they're a race of furry [[Cultist-Chan]]s.

Three odd points in fluff relate to Beastmen; in one old story from White Dwarf, a human father spends time teaching his son how to survive in the forest using navigation, tracking, and fighting. Said son is revealed to be a mutant that the father is taking to the Beastmen, who accept him immediately. In another, Beastmen females are mentioned as existing (previously, the fact the only references were to males leading people to assume they breed through rape exclusively) and as being "extremely docile". Finally, in most Beastmen fluff it is mentioned time and time again how shit factors in heavily to their culture (literal fecal matter), and Beastmen smear EVERYTHING in it (This only showed up in the 7th ed book, but the pages are swimming in it. Make of that sentence what you will).
So while most fluff portrays them as monstrously evil and unsexy as possible, there's still bait for furfags!

===Lizardmen===
[[File:Lizardmen_Art_1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Life finds a ''fucking'' way.]]
{{Main|Lizardmen}}

The arch-enemies of Chaos. When the Old Ones first arrived on the world from nobody knows where, they created spawning pools that continually pump out Lizardmen.

The first type were the [[Slann]], who were Old Ones in miniature although greatly less intelligent (still LEAGUES above even elves though). The Slann were extremely magically gifted beings, and were the assistants to the Old Ones. They resemble grotesque and fat toad creatures who ride floating stone chairs like upright Jabba the Hutts with legs. The second type, the Saurus, were their muscle. Saurus have few thoughts beyond what they were created to do, and mostly exist as soldiers and guards. Finally, Skinks were made. Skinks are small chameleon-like humanoids who serve the Slann as assistants. They also created the kroxigor; large bipedal crocodile-like creatures designed for heavy lifting. The Skinks and Kroxigors have an affinity for each other, sharing similar birthing methods (see below) and both can breathe underwater (though the Kroxigors prefer to ambush their prey or enemies crocodile-style)

They live in the jungle kingdoms of Lustria and the Southlands, the former is so hostile to non-Lizardmen it's said to be the most dangerous place in Warhammer outside the Chaos Wastes. Their culture and society are heavily based off the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. If that offends you, you're playing the wrong game and it's hard to believe you've read this far already.

They have, and seek out, thousands of writings from the Old Ones inscribed on golden tablets which the Slann spend most of their time poring over in an attempt to discover what the next move against Chaos should be or what the Old Ones wanted to do that hasn't been done yet. However, the Slann have...difficulty in this endeavor, and are prone to interpreting "Milk, Eggs, Butter, Bacon" as "Destroy the Dwarfs, Make Party Hats For Amazons, Do the Dinosaur, Have A Skaven and Manflesh Barbecue". Another problem is the material. The Lizardmen use gold for their plaques because it doesn't deteriorate and a humid, tropical jungle is not a place where paper can be safely preserved (the bright color would also make them stand out among foliage, making them easier to to find). But the other races see their color and shininess for its aesthetic value and decide to take them for themselves. To say the Lizardmen don't like anyone else touching their plaques would be like saying that Khorne has a bit of a temper.

They have the most powerful wizards and one of the most powerful fighting units, including Stargate-style magitech that they use as altars which shoot lasers.

Some could argue that they're furfag bait for the scalies. They can just fuck right off 'cause Lizardmen are awesome, and no scalie shit here; they're as ugly and unappealing as real lizard people would be, and have no genders as they walk out of magic spawning pools as adults. In fact, the few Lizardmen who learned about genders and sex (from human guests they were interviewing) considered it weird and irrelevant to their interests.

In the modern canon, most of the Slann are dead and they can no longer be spawned as their specific Slann-spawning pools were destroyed by Daemons. Not 'undead' Slann, just dead. Except for [[Lord Kroak]], but he doesn't really count as [[Emperor|his body is 100% dead despite his spirit just refusing to leave it]].

Oh, and if you haven't figured it out by now they are dinosaur men that ride dinosaurs such as Therapods, Thyreophorans and Ceratopsians. Who would have guessed. In fact one of said therapod species, the Carnosaurs, were dangerous enough to threaten and scare DRAGONS despite lacking wings or a breath weapon; there's no dragons in Lustria because the Carnosaurs hunted them to the point that the surviving dragons fled and settled elsewhere.

===Undead===
Much like Chaos, these guys used to be one army but have gotten split up into two. NOT ANYMORE! Now you can combine them in in a single army led by nagash!

====Tomb Kings====
[[File:M1650075a P1Mb1.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Egyptian, sentient skeletons, yet still both spooky and scary.]]
{{Main|Tomb Kings}}

The undead people from the ancient civilization of Nehekhara (Not-Egypt). How ancient? Before Sigmar lived and most humans considered the bow and arrow an innovative new weapon, Cathay was new to the civilization thing and didn't have a Dragon Emperor, Bretonnia, Giants, and Skaven didn't exist, Skytitans still roamed the Mourn Mountains, The Great Maw didn't exist, Tylos was the only city in the Old World, Dorfs were in their prime and friends with Elves, and Elves were still one race and were only then achieving the level of technology they've spent most of their history stuck at.

Nehekhara had all the best aspects of ancient Egypt and Middle-Eastern civilizations; they had many things such as golems, huge wonders, light systems, chariots, and even hot-air balloons! Most of their history was spent like Mesopotamian history, with each city being a kingdom ruled by one monarch (usually, but not always, male). Said kingdoms warred with each other constantly. Then, one day, a badass was born. [[Settra the Imperishable|Settra]] managed to unite the entirety of Nehekhara under his rule, but became obsessed with death because it would stop him from getting shit done. He commanded his priests discover immortality, and although they failed in this they figured out ways to preserve the body with the soul within and the flesh un-damaged. They entombed him this way for storage until they discovered a way to give their kings living flesh of gold.

The cities immediately become independent again, warring with each other but now building fuckhuge tomb cities to house all dead Nehekharans in suspended animation that were larger than their living cities.

Eventually, Nehekhara produced [[Nagash]], the Warhammer Fantasy answer to [[Sauron]] and [[Vecna]], who killed his brother and became fantastically evil until the cities united against him and forced him into the desert. After deciding that dying was for suckers and turning into a skeleton, he found that centuries has passed and some little punk ass upstarts calling themselves "vampires" had read his diary. He told them to make themselves useful and keep the humans away while he tried to figure out a way to make the whole world into undead skeleton slaves in one spell. Then shortly after, humans defeated his army and entered his sanctum; he unleashed what he had of his spell, killing EVERYTHING in Nehekhara before he was beaten. This awakened the entombed kings, who were fucking PISSED to find their empire had disintegrated. But on the plus side, they were still "alive" and Tomb Kings cannot perma-die so they had obtained the immortality aspect at the very least. They also had the people who had died in their time period as servants still, who despite still having souls lost much of their sapience (as the degree to which they survived depended greatly on how well they were preserved) so many of them (but FAR from all) became semi-mindless robot-like skeletons animated only by the order of their King.
So immediately all the Tomb Kings went back to war, but this time in a far worse way; every child who had EVER lived was now alive again, with thousands of generations of spoiled manchildren fighting for a single fucking throne in a single fucking city, as well as being pissed about later TK's looting the tombs of their ancestors for their own ones.
The priests of all the generations realized shit was going nowhere fast (as nobody can perma-die) and awakened Settra. Settra immediately slapped everyone's collective shit, and although everyone swears allegiance to him they still fight like punks constantly.
Generally speaking, all Tomb Kings (other than [[Queen Khalida]], who HATES vampires) give no fucks, shits, or damns about the outside world. Mostly. They are also very rich because being undead means they don't have to worry about buying food, medicine or things to impress potential sexual partners. Because mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the mummies a nice option of veteran human troops as well; there's also the added bonus that unlike vamps (see below), the Tomb Kings won't ever turn the mercs into snacks.

Now they're armies of skeletons (on foot, horse or chariot) led by Egyptian mummies! With Anubis warriors and BONE SCORPIONS! Their artillery are MUTHA FUCKEN SKULL CATAPULTS! If you take a shot every time you see a Khopesh or read the word in relation to Tomb Kings, you'll pass out drunk before you're done. Plus their elites ride around on snake statues or GIANT STONE LOLCATS that breath fire and crush stuff. They even have GIANT GOD STATUES that shoot DEATH LASERS from their eyes and give <s>their gods</s> Nagash a live-action feed of what's going on in the world. Some Tomb Kings even have skull-covered rip-offs of the Ark of the Covenant holding the souls of slain enemies that they use to kill more enemies.

So totally fucking awesome.

====Vampire Counts====
[[File:M1037820 VampireCounts cover.jpg|thumb|right|450px|Nothing says [[Slaanesh|"shoot me with that big-ass cannon of yours"]] like bright red armor in an army of grimy, thin skeletons.]]
{{Main|Vampire Counts}}

Vampires. But not the Twilight kind, nor the Interview kind (for the most part).
Straight up Gothic Horror vampires. As in, still cool.
So a long time ago, during the time of ancient Egypt (pre-Tomb King) there was an evil bisexual queen. She stole the first Necromancer/Lich's autobiography, and invented a drink that turns humans into vampires.
She let her court all take a sip, then they acted like a bunch of little shits until all of Egypt united against them. They tried to ally with the NecroLich, but <s>lost the big battle</s> pussied out and fled to the Old World.

Those vamps all founded Bloodlines, which make up most of the race.
The first group is those lead by the queen which created vampires, the [[Queen Neferata|Lahmians]]. Mostly consist of magic-using spy vampiresses (and some of their gay friends) who are controlling the world like Illuminati.
The second are the Hills Have Eyes/The Descent vampires, who after years of being the whipping boys of fate as well as getting tortured and fucked over by every human and other vampire they met, turned into the vampire equivalent of ghouls. They as a result mostly hang out with ghouls. They are the [[Ushoran|Strigoi]]. The saner ones behave a lot like Nosferatu.
The next are lawful evil/neutral badass vampire knights who ride around looking for a challenge, and fight anyone they think is worth fighting. They are the [[Abhorash|Blood Dragons]].
Next is the [[W'soran/Melchior|Necrarchs]], who mostly look like Nosferatu vampires. They are the mad scientist Bloodline, spending centuries trying to come up with new kinds of Flesh Golems and similar atrocities to create. Mostly end up as sidekicks to the other Bloodlines.
Finally, the true Dracula Bloodline; the von Carsteins. Only appearing in recent history, [[Vlad von Carstein]] and his wife [[Isabella von Carstein]] attempted to get elected as Emperor of the Empire through political manipulation, and having failed that, attempted to take over by force. After the two were beaten, one of their turned "sons" [[Konrad von Carstein]] tried to destroy the Empire, but lost in an embarrassing way since he was fucking insane and dumb as a rock. Finally, [[Mannfred von Carstein]] took control of the Bloodline and repeatedly has tried to destroy the Empire. Although Manny keeps losing, he's dedicated himself to Nagash and has finally started getting to be a bigger threat to the world. As a result of this, the von Carsteins have become the posterboy army for the Vampire Counts, who are the villains when Chaos isn't.

All of the Bloodlines can raise hordes of undead, and use shit like Zombies, Ray Harryhausen Skeletons, and Ghouls as soldiers. They also bring along ghosts, and giant fucking bat monsters of different kinds. Also, bats are EVERY-FUCKING-WHERE, and not the kind that scare you when you open the closet, then fly of into the night - think piranhas with wings and a fucking attitude (which vary in size from the size of your hand to the size of a car). Creepy as all fuck. No Anne Rice, ''Angel'' bullshit, these guys are fucking evil. While they won't save you from being hit by a car, they will creep into your room at night... only to throw you out the window before draining the blood from your loved ones while their zombie driver runs you down with a car. They are also very rich because they don't have to buy food and interest rates on savings accounts add up over a few centuries of undeath. Since mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the vamps a nice option of veteran human troops as well, with the benefit that some vampires '''might''' exercise enough restraint to not turn the living troops into snacks or mindless undead.

So, our conclusion is that Vampire Counts are fucking badass.
According to an ongoing poll in /tg/ Warhammer Fantasy Generals, Vampire Counts come in as the #1 most played army.

===Skaven===
[[File:39-Skaven Jungle.jpg|thumb|left|400px|The [[grimdark]] version of Ratatoille.GET MAN -THING!]]
{{Main|Skaven}}

Technologically advanced rat people.
Created when the [[Horned Rat]] decided to become a Chaos God and mutated a group of humans. He has spent most of his time since hiding in a nest, and sometimes popping into the mortal world to eat a few of his servants.
Again, no furry shit here. These guys are ugly, fucking foul creatures who keep their women folk, otherwise known as "their bloated, scab-ridden, nipple-covered, maggot-like baby factories" locked away for the sole purpose of mass-reproducing thousands upon thousands of future vermin-men.
Ew.
The leaders of the species are a motley bunch, composed of batshit crazy scientists, ninja-like assassins, and bio-terrorists. Everything else is either slave cannon fodder or a mutant abomination.

They love their hordes almost as much as they love their World War 1/2 style tech that's powered by pure Chaos energy. Also, puns. Fucktons of puns come with these guys, they love their puns. They're all addicted to warpstone, which is pretty much a combination of dark magic, radioactive waste and [[Doomrider|cocaine.]] They made a nuke once, but it failed to detonate and now it sits under the biggest city in the Empire. Most of their schemes (they love scheming!) involved taking down the humans and conquering the world. They keep the races of the world fighting to keep anyone from becoming too powerful, and they consider it rude and perverse to NOT backstab someone (regardless of whether it fucks themselves over later or not).
They're like a cross between Pinky and the Brain, the rats from Redwall, & the rats from NIMH, (but with flame throwers, tesla coils, thousands of minions, and no arsing about on the subject). Also, [[DOOMWHEELS|WEAPONIZED HAMSTER WHEELS.]]

Their technology is mainly grasped through warpstone which will power their machines or devices, they almost always rely on warpstone to power their devices or fuel them. Each clanrat belongs to a clan, and their location are found all over the old world. Many are located in Skavenblight (The largest shithole in the Old World) which is their capital city or what ever thing you call what rats live in. Not all Skaven clans live in Skavenblight; most skaven clans live in lairs which are located all over the ol world, some like Clan Scurvy are located on the many oceans of the Old World, or be like Clan Skrapp and live in the blighted marshes. How the fuck they manage to pull it off but some clans live in fucking volcanoes and use obsidian weapons which is pretty cool. There is a lot of more information about Skaven clans available in the codex and heraldry books, which considering my fingers hurt from typing i suggest you move your fa/tg/uy ass to read. Skaven love screeching things as loud as they can, and they say verbs (or just plain words they like) twice. Since they respect no other race as worthy of life, they call other races "things".
Example: "MOVEMOVE, WE MARCH! ONWARDS TO KILLSLAY THE MANTHINGS AND THE DWARFTHINGS!"

They have also now kind of taken over the [[Awesome|WHOLE UNIVERSE]] and according to one [[Age of Sigmar]] drawing, the [[warp]] is a VERY VERY BIG RAT.

===Orcs and Goblins===
[[File:Bd7b78634da60515f8b7bb89a42cc72a.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Orc is spelled with C, for *crunch*.]]
{{Main|Orcs & Goblins}}

You've all seen the [[Orks]] and [[Gretchin]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]]. Orcs and Goblins are much the same, except here the goblins represent a full half of the army. Or perhaps we should say that the Orks are much the same as the Orcs, since it was the Orcs who came first.
Now add trolls and giants and occasionally ogres into the mix as well. Except here they have Night Goblin Fanatics popping out of the ranks, which could cause your deathstar unit to panic off the table if it wasn't for the cavalry driving them out first. Because you took light cavalry, right?

There's not much to say other than that. They spend most of their time trying to wipe out Dwarfs. Humans dislike them, High Elves are trying to [[Exterminatus|wipe them out]], Lizardmen were tasked with wiping them out by the Old Ones, Tomb Kings hunt them for sport, Strigoi vampires fucking HATE them since they caused their fall from grace, Warriors of Chaos dedicated to Khorne know no shame greater than being beaten by them, [[Gork]] and [[Mork]] are totally real beings who beat the shit out of Khorne once, and there's goblins who worship Spiders in Athel Loren.

===Ogre Kingdoms===
[[File:Thundertusk miniature model ogre artwork.JPG|thumb|right|235px|Brain over brawn, brawn over brain... Well know that it's really blubber over everything.]]
{{Main|Ogre Kingdoms}}

FUCKHUEG sumo wrestler-types with [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katanas]], frying pans strapped to their gullets and a [[Neckbeard|mean streak as big as their enormously fat asses]]. Will eat ANYTHING, including all the courses at a restaurant, the plates, the table, the chef and the fucking bundle of forks (and if they're still feeling peckish, the waiter too).

They ride large beasts resembling mammoths and saber-tooth tigers. They think with their stomachs, which shows how fucking intelligent they are, plus their shaman-cooks use a very specific "gut magic", that mostly consists of shoving all kinds of inedible stuff down their own throats. Each and every one of the fuckers is obsessed with stuffing his face full o' your innards. Heck, they even worship a giant, fuck-off sky mouth. Ogres are often considered to be a "neutral" army and can end up fighting for any side since they hire themselves out as mercenaries to whoever can pay them in piles of [[List of /tg/ Cuisine|food]].

The last race created by the Old Ones, the one that could have actually beaten and destroyed Chaos, they were left unfinished (mostly mentally) in an environment that couldn't support them. As a result, they spread all over the world and now work for and with (and against) every single faction in the game. Along with the Skaven, the fact Ogres fight everywhere is what enforces the status quo of the canon.

==Meta History==
[[File:Warhammer History Shorthand.png|thumb|right|500px|tl;dr]]

===Prehistory===

===Proto-Warhammer===

===1e===

===2e===

===3e===

===4e===

===5e===

===6e===

===7e===

===8e===

===[[The End Times]]===

This period is also known as when everything literally goes tits up. Games Workshop, fed up of being the players whining that the game was stuck dead in its canon, said "enough" and decided to give the players what they wanted. Thus did they make the End Times towards the end of the 8th edition, a supplement to existing armies which fluff-wise tells how everything is now moving to a grand finale. Check out the [[The_End_Times|End Times]] page for more details, but to summarise:

- Mannfred von Carstein resurrects Nagash, making a world conquering host of the undead while also slowly becoming an ultimate god of death and undeath with eyes on the prize of kicking the chaos gods out of the warp and taking their place. In order to do this, he nerfed the Tomb Kings and absorbed them into the Vampire Counts to create his own army - '''the Undead Legion'''.

- The Empire has been overrun by the forces of Chaos, but at the last moment Karl Franz becomes the living avatar of Sigmar and the wind of heavens and burns all Chaos from Altdorf to pieces. Much later on, he is revealed not to be an avatar of Sigmar but Sigmar himself.

- The Orks and Goblins do what they always do and get ready for a big fight, wiping out the Chaos Dwarfs and several minor human kingdoms.

- Malekith turns out to be the rightful king of the elves, and following a civil war culminating in the deaths of several Elf gods the three Elf races have reunited into a single force. The Vortex is unbound, Ulthuan and Naggaroth have respectively sunk and been overrun by Chaos, and now all the elves are living together in Athel Loren. Teclis reveals his master plan to bind the Winds of magic into specific people. These Incarnates would be empowered by their respective Winds to the point where they can stand a chance against the full power of the Chaos Gods.

- The Dwarfs can't decide what the hell they are doing besides chewing their beards and drinking at first, but eventually end up joining the Empire.

- The Skaven have [[Tyranid|nommed]] pretty much all the minor human kingdoms and are rising in one super ratty horde to take over the world. They also '''blow up the Chaos Moon''' in a display of awe-inspiring idiocy that horrifies even the Daemons of Chaos.

- After most of the Lizardmen sacrifice themselves stopping most of the Warhammer world from becoming a smoldering crater, the survivors go 'fuck this' and fly off into space.

- The Ogre kingdoms have blown up with every volcano erupting at the same time and so they are mass-migrating again.

- Everyone who isn't with Chaos is forced to join their forces with the Incarnates in a last stand at Middenheim, where a third Warp Gate was hidden. Mannfred ruins the ritual that would have saved the Warhammer world from annihilation, and the Chaos Gods manifest to personally fuck everything up. The world is destroyed, and the stage is set for [[Age of Sigmar]].

==The World That Was==
In [[Age of Sigmar]], the age of Warhammer Fantasy is referred to as "The World-That-Was". Despite what you may think, it's actually kind of common knowledge in-universe that there was another existence before the Realms of Age of Sigmar, sort of in the same way that most know that [[Lizardmen|dinos]] ruled the Earth before mammals took over. Remnants of Warhammer Fantasy exists here and there, either like forgotten scraps of roastbeef between the teeth of the Chaos Gods or just as reformed ruins of what existed once. There may also be hints that the reason why Age of Sigmar doesn't deviate too much design-wise from Warhammer Fantasy is because the World-That-Was isn't a forgotten world by many of the gods and creatures that exists now (it's not because we just reuse the old models for AoS, we swear). To be fair there are many from Warhammer Fantasy who made it to AoS and would definitely remember those days.

Recently the World-That-Was is being referenced more and more, becoming more relevant for the overall plot of Age of Sigmar. The Malign Portents plot pretty much directly references Nagash' way of dealing with all problems way back when; with huge-ass black pyramids that get fucked over by oversized vermin.

The [[Warhammer Community]] team also uses the World-That-Was whenever they reference Warhammer Fantasy. Maybe they fear that Warhammer Fantasy will appear if you beckon it or something like Candlejack, Bettlejuice or Bloody Mary.

===The Old World (Full Circle)===
On November 15 2019, Warhammer Community revealed the existence of a new game called [[Warhammer: The Old World]]. While nothing has been seen of it beyond a logo, it has been explicitly stated to take place in the World-That-Was. Although it is unlikely to be released anytime soon by their own admission, the fact that Fantasy may be making a comeback is shocking in itself.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/03/23/the-old-world-ice-guard-of-kislevgw-homepage-post-4fw-homepage-post-2/ The first preview] showed Geedubs is making changes for The Old World instead of just bringing back Warhhammer Fantasy as it was by bringing back [[Kislev]] with new units, which wasn't an army since 6th edition. We already have a fan debate too, as many consider the ONE piece of art we've seen to be "Too AOS-y".

==The appeal of Warhammer Fantasy==
Some works of fiction are serious and many serious works are calm, subdued and dignified, giving events the gravity of all their implications. Some works of fiction are over the top and have a tendency towards being farcical and easy going were things often might not make sense, but you roll with it for a laugh. Warhammer manages to be both largely Serious and Over the Top at the same time. It can pull off outright farce, over the top heavy metal action, subtle academic humor and dark fantasy melodrama without missing a beat, and that's not even the truly impressive part! That's that WFB combines all of these facets constantly without diminishing any of the individual themes. You see a [[Lizardmen|fat aztec frogman]] blast a [[Lord of Change|blue, flaming hellchicken with a staff]] while fast asleep, and there's nothing wrong with it! But imagine something like that in [[LOTR]]; that shit just wouldn't fly.

It does in Fantasy because the Serious is Over the Top and silly, while the Over the Top stuff is taken seriously. Unlike 40k, Fantasy isn't overtly a pastiche of tropes and a parody of so many things - it is a coherent world where things matter. Small enough that individuals can make a mark on the world and their heroics can change the course of history, but large enough that it can be filled with all sorts of beings and cultures.

In addition, Warhammer was made by History Nerds for History Nerds. It appeals to the sort of person who, when asked "''what do you think about the middle ages''?" would reply "''where and what century''?". The world is old, and the history is actually pretty detailed for the factions for whom history matters, like the [[High Elves]], the [[Dwarfs]] and [[The Empire]]. The development of the factions in the world matters quite a lot and the ramification of wars in the past affect the world in the present. The culture of the factions in play wasn't just invented because it's cool; they developed over time, and for most of it, in a way that makes sense.

In contrast to 40,000, Fantasy is a bit less grimdark. Not because of the villains (who are about as bad; which is to say, very fucking bad) but because the heroic side is a bit more genuinely heroic. Even though they may be assholes, they still face great and terrible threats for the good of [[Karl Franz|the nation]], [[Teclis|the world at large]] and their [[Gotrek & Felix|friends]]. They're not all [[Sisters of Battle|catholic]] [[Inquisition|space nazis]] indoctrinated to do what they are needed to do; they're people, real humane people with human desires - and that includes pretty much all the mortal creatures in the setting.

Take [[Volkmar|Volkmar the Grim]]. This is a dark character, entirely dedicated to his faith to a fanatical level. He burns heretics, bashes cultists and doesn't afraid of anything - but his faith is genuinely good in nature. He protects the Empire because he loves it and the people in it, and while he may disagree with the followers of Ulric, he recognizes them as allies in the fight [[Chaos|against the true evil.]] Shit, he has a hunk of ''concentrated fucking evil on his chest'' at all times, and it doesn't affect him at all - as in, no mention that he may be getting crazier with age or that he makes deals with entities no one knows about. Nope, he's just that fucking dedicated to his faith and genuinely believes in it with the full, naked force of the human soul and heart. ''That's'' a proper Warhammer Fantasy character - skilled beyond belief and likely pretty darn grim or extreme, but with an edge of humanity and personality. They aren't just a [[Mephiston|vessel for a cool trope]] or [[Creed|an exemplar of the faction they represent]], but a fully-fledged character with needs and wants, tempered with a heroic choice to sacrifice personal safety to change the world.

==Tabletop==
===Gameplay===
''Warhammer'' is a tabletop wargame where two or more players compete against each other with "armies" of 20 mm - 50 mm heroic scale miniatures. Games may be played on any appropriate surface, although the standard is a 6 ft by 4 ft tabletop decorated with model scenery in scale with the miniatures. If you're [[Games Workshop]]'s bitch-boy and have no imagination of your own you will buy the ridiculously overpriced [[Citadel Miniatures|Citadel]] [[Realm of Battle]] tabletop and have a scenery collection made of boring plastic pieces bought entirely from GW, but REAL players make their own gaming tables (saving a fuck-ton of money in the process). Games Workshop used to encourage this until they sold their souls for money.

Gameplay follows a turn structure in which one player completes all movement for troops, then simulates casting spells (when spell-using units are available), uses all ranged or missile weapons in the army such as bows and handguns, then any units touching fight in melee or close-combat. After finishing, the second player does the same. The winner is often determined by victory points; earning a number equal to the value of enemy units killed. Special objectives can add or subtract from this total based on predefined goals, usually holding parts of the battlefield or killing powerful units (such as the enemy general).

===Magic===
Perhaps the thing that separates ''Warhammer Fantasy'' from ''40k'' the most, aside from the obvious, is the use of magic. Each army (with the exception of the dwarfs) has at least one unit that can use magic, often in the form of an independent wizard. When magic units are present on the battlefield, they're given their own turn separate from the shooting, moving and melee phases to cast their spells. There are several kinds of magic but most magicians are able to use only a single form.

* Dark Magic, used by Dark Elves and Wood Elves
* High Magic, used by the [[Slann]], Wood Elves and the [[High Elves (Warhammer)|High Elves]].
* Nehekharan Incantations, Used exclusively by [[Tomb Kings]] Liche Priests and High Liche Priests (and Settra)
* Light: Wind of Hysh, Lore of Light. Basically healing and shit, plus doing extra damage to daemons and undead.
* Gold: Wind of Chamon, Lore of Metal and Alchemy. Basically armour buffs and debuffs, with their offensive spells doing more damage the higher your armour save is. [[Troll|Problem, Knights?]]
* Jade: Wind of Ghyran, Lore of Life. Basically lots and lots of buffs, making your own units harder to kill. They look like hippies, but don't tell them that, [[RAGE|they'll fucking murder you]].
* Celestial: Wind of Azyr, Lore of the Heavens. Lets people tell the future and stuff, plus they can summon lightning and meteorites that really hurt flying units.
* Grey: Wind of Ulgu, Lore of Shadows. Basically misdirection and illusions, relying on Leadership tests. They can also teleport every time they use a spell.
* Amethyst: Wind of Shysh, Lore of Death. Basically the Lore of Fire, except more killy and shorter-ranged.
* Bright: Wind of Aqshy. Lore of Fire. Basically the ammunition of the Fire obsessed psychopaths known as the Bright Wizards.
* Amber: Wind of Ghur, Lore of Beasts. Basically a Radagast rip off. WHO IS RADAGAST?!?!? [[The Lord of the Rings|RTFM!!!]]
* Daemon Magic: Used by... well, daemons. Broken into three categories - one for each of the gods that give a shit about lasers - [[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi]] [Indulgent, relies on enemy Ld], [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] [decay, revolves around enemy S/T scores], and [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] [OMG FIRES]. [[Khorne]] is too awesome for magic; he'd much rather crush skulls with his bare <s>thighs</s> HANDS and anything less makes you dangerously unmanly and at the absolute least bicurious.
* Necromancy: Used exclusively by [[Vampire_Counts|Vampires]] and Necromancers, as the name "Lore of the Vampires" would suggest.
* Spells of Plague and Ruin: used exclusively by the [[Skaven]].
* Gut Magic: Also known as the Lore of the Great Maw. Used exclusively by the Ogre Butchers.
* Waaagh Magic: Used exclusively by [[Orcs]] and Goblins. Comes in Big and Little flavors. Has a very high chance of making the user's head asplode.
* Athel Loren Magic: Used exclusively by Wood Elves. Moves forests, or move folks through forests.
* Ice/Winter Magic: Used exclusively by the Tzar of Russi- er, Kislev. It gets bonuses or penalties [[What|based on whether your models have snow on the bases and what the weather outside is like.]] Has since been discontinued for being as stupidly designed as it sounds.
* Lizard Magic: Used by [[lizardmen]], it has only one spell, called "Fuck you, I'm an Aztec dinosaur, therefore awesome."
* [[Chaos Gods#The Other Ones|Hashut]] Magic: Used exclusively by the [[Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Legion of Azgorh|Chaos Dwarfs]], the Lore of Hashut consists primarily of buffing spells that work well with the ungodly amount of flaming weaponry that the Chaos Dwarfs have access to.

[[Warhammer Magic]] is powerful, very powerful. A lone unit can wipe out half the opposing army with the right spell at the right time. Magic can also misfire, badly. This adds an element of unpredictability to its use, making it much more dangerous to the user and therefore, much less broken.

GW also recently released an expansion to WFB with a bigger focus on magic, called [[Storm of Magic]]. Which turns magic from regular broken into <s>DOUBLE</s> TRIPLE BROKEN, but misfiring will fuck your mage up in 12 different ways, [[lulz|and then Khorne will throw giant brass kull at him/her/it]].

==Significant Personage Of Warhammer==
* '''[[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]]:''' Born some random tribesman, <s>Conan</s> Sigmar united the squabbling human tribes in what would become known as the Empire and killed a ton of Orcs. Saved some random ass dwarf after this and the Dwarf High King gifted him Ghal Maraz, a super-duper powerful warhammer. Also the dwarfs helped him defend Black Fire Pass from a massive WAAAGH! . He was the first Emperor of the [[Empire]], but he got bored and disappeared on a journey to find something interesting to do. The Empire canonized him as a god, and today the Church of Sigmar is the largest and most powerful faith in the Empire (although only one among many). Some believed him to be one of the missing [[Primarch]]s, given how badass he was, but this has been disputed by newer [[fluff]] detailing his birth and family life. Returned during the End Times, and there was much rejoicing.
* '''[[Karl Franz]]:''' This guy is the current Emperor of the Empire. He owns Ghal Maraz now, as well as the biggest motherfucking <strike>Hippogryph</strike> Gryphon, named DEATHCLAW, who he rides while [[rape|assraping]] bitches who try to invade Imperial soil. And he has a fucking dragon. As of [[The End Times]], he was missing, but returned, was killed, and became [[Awesome|Sigmar-Jesus]].
* '''Magnus the Pious''': Greatest Emperor since [[Sigmar]]. Also one of the few who wasn't morally bankrupt.
* '''Volkmar the Grim''': Grand Theogonist of the Empire. Quite a stern faced fellow; he was once chained up to a daemonic standard by [[Chaos Gods|Be'Lakor]], but simply [[Awesome|broke himself off, murdered the daemons surrounding him, and marched through the Chaos wastes to get back to the Empire]]. <s>[[Derp|This has since been retconned]].</s> Not according to Chris Wraight's Sword of Vengeance. As reward for his sheer badassery, he gets captured by mannfred Von Carstein and is tortured until he is a mere shell of his former self. Arkhan the Black then uses his body as the vessel in which Nagash returns to the world in a ritual so sickening that even Mannfred feels bad for him. Truly grimdark.
* '''[[Gotrek & Felix]]''': Adventuring duo, have a lot of books based on them. Gotrek is a dwarf Slayer who is terrible at his job, because between his magic super-axe and ''insane badassery'' he's nigh-unkillable. Felix is some random bard who found a sword that really wants to kill dragons somewhere. Together, they <strike>fight crime</strike> look for something powerful enough to finally kill Gotrek. Gotrek tolerates Felix traveling with him because he needs someone to pen the mighty tale of his epic doom. In recent times their relation have come close to a bro-friendship and they trusts each other completely. While he's not in it for the chicks, Felix goes through them at a rate of 1-2 per two books. To put it simply if there is more than two of it Gotrek has probably killed one.
* '''Kurt Helborg''': Captain of the Reiksguard and [[Ultramarines|second to the Emperor]] in military terms. Also a badass moustache.
* '''Ar-Ulric Valgeir''': The Viking leader of the Cult to Ulric, the [[Spaaaaaace Wolves|wolf god]].
* '''[[Boris Todbringer]]''': The Elector Count of Middenland.
* '''Luthor Huss''': Crazy ass preacher. [[Awesome]] in the way to show the middle finger to those over-fat, political fuckwits of the Sigmar cult of the capital and take the "Fight Chaos to death" thing personally... with a huge hammer.
* '''[[Balthasar Gelt]]''': Empire Wizard, looks like Dr. Doom. Rides a white pegasus and wears such gaudy clothing that Lady Gaga looks frumpy by comparison. Possibly Elton John without the singing voice.
* '''Valten''': Reincarnation of Sigmar. Got ganked by a Skaven, probably Snitkch, but the lack of gore makes it hard to tell. RETCONNED! Now he is very much alive, and keeping the forces of the empire from being completely buttfucked by Archaon. Sad news is that still got ganked by Skaven...at least this time, he was sniped by a Verminlord while honourably dueling Archaon.
* '''Louen Leoncour''': King of [[Bretonnia]]. Believes in the Feudal system, also believes that a 300% tax rate for the peasantry promotes economic growth, also believes that knights are of infallible morality, also believes that guns are weaker than bows , also believes people of the Empire would prefer a system of governance that emphasizes crushing their hopes and dreams, also believes that a pig and 12 Bretonnian coppers (which exchanges for less than half an Empire copper on a good day) is an excessive reward for saving his nation. In the same support group for ludicrous theme naming as [[Canis Wolfborn]].
* [[Lady of the Lake]]: Creepy cannibal spirit of Bretonnia. A fine piece of ass regardless of diet. May be an elf in disguise.
* '''[[The Green Knight | Green Knight]]''': Bretonnian Holy Warrior and professional ass rapist. In the End Times he is revealed to be Guilles de Breton, founder of Bretonnia and basically their version of Sigmar.
* '''[[Katarin the Ice Queen]]''': Tzarina of Kislev. One of maybe a handful of people in the setting who can use Ice Magic.
* '''[[Teclis]]''': Mage of the High Elves. Pathetic weakling that drinks magic potions like an alcoholic and falls over in a breeze, although he's also one of the few non-Slann mages capable of nuking cities. Considered a Mary Sue by some but they are mistaken, his brother Tyrion is the Mary Sue. Teclis also taught the Empire how to use magic and founded their fancy colleges, being one of the few elves to realize and respect the potential of non-elves. Eldrad - dickery = Teclis. According to his cameo in the Gotrek and Felix series, most elf women are so-so towards him (being haughty bitches), but human women are wet for him. Becomes extremely grey in the End times and essentially Sacrifices his niece to Mannfred to allow Nagash to return, showing that he is very capable of eldrad levels of dickery.
* '''[[Tyrion]]''': Teclis' twin brother and a fuckawesome warrior. May in fact be aroused by killing; it's hard to tell because he won't stop to answer questions. Also happens to be a bigger Mary Sue than [[Kaldor Draigo]] and a bigger dick than [[Eldrad]]. For instance, in 'Blood of Aenarion' he matches veteran warriors with a blade even though he's young and barely practiced himself. Women flock to his bed ([[FATAL|including his own cousin]]) and everyone treats him like a hero even though he hasn't done anything heroic yet (being a descendant of one doesn't count, you have to earn it). Also has the supposed flaw of not being good at anything outside of war. "Supposed" because the flaw never affects him when it should harm him. Matt Ward, of all people, reduced his Mary Sueness a little by making him moody and giving him a short temper as early signs of Aenarion's curse.
* '''[[Ariel]]''': God Queen of the Wood Elves, revealed to be fucking Isha herself who was slowly wasting away as her daughter [[Lileath]] poisoned her with magical ice. Had fairy wings.
* '''[[Orion]]''': Consort King of the Wood Elves, revealed to be [[Kurnous]] AKA the father of all Elves and the wild manly forest beings. Rides through Bretonnia every summer and kills everybody who runs from him because...reasons! Looks like the child of a centaur and a satyr.
* '''[[Thorgrim Grudgebearer]]''': Dwarf High King, very angry, very angry indeed. He carries a book called "The Great Book of Grudges", where EVERY single fault aganist the [[Dorf]] people (THAT'S GOIN' IN THE BOOK, LADDIE!) is noted and taken into account when the time of skullcrushing comes, hence his angriness. He wants to avenge them ALL, and sort of cheats at it by considering all the Grudges fulfilled in the last battle between Chaos and the world it was consuming.
* '''[[Josef Bugman]]''': Dwarf brewer and 200% Awesome. After his brewery got burned down by some goblins he began an impossible mission to kill the tribe that decided the world didn't need anymore Bugman's XXXXX. Now he roams the world with his surviving employees and family fucking shit up. His booze is literally legendary, and possession of some is about on-par with having a giant magical sword forged by a Chaos God's buttcrack or what have you.
* '''[[Grombrindal]]''': The [[White Dwarf]] (yeah, he's the mascot of the Magazine). A mysterious warrior who was apparently friends with pre-charbroil Malekith and now fights endlessly against the enemies of Dorfkind by just appearing and helping out randomly. Like Kaldor Draigo, but as an undead instead of a mortal lost in the Warp.
* ''' [[Long Drong]]''': A Dorf pirate who was apparently important enough to get a unit, a part in the [[Awesome|all-destroying dwarf army of slayer flavoured-doom]]. He even got his own campaign book for God's sake! Why?!
* '''[[Lord Mazdamundi]]''': Most powerful and influential [[Slann]] alive, unnecessarily rides on a dinosaur and gets the bloated toad-alien equivalent to a raging hard-on every time he nukes a city and/or non-Lizardmen species into dust. Also leads the Lizardmen equivalent to the Klan and was one of the brilliant minds behind a plan for a redecorating of the world's volcanic system, this also resulted in the Dwarfs being marginalised close to the point of extinction. And then he fapped to it.
* '''[[Lord Kroak|Venerable Lord Kroak]]''': Most powerful and influential Slann formerly alive. Most powerful magic-user of the entire setting after the gods themselves, he has been dead for thousands of years and can't even move by himself. His corpse is taken in battle because he is made of localized nuclear explosion and levels cities pretty much every. fucking. turn. Probably the most powerful entity because even being a [[Emperor|dead, inanimate corpse,]] he has killed more shit than anyone else on this list, except for maybe Nagash, even then it's too close to make a call, except that he probably will kill Nagash if they meet and would just blink the guy out of existence if they had met when he was alive. He also gets bonus points for not having actually being reanimated, vampirised or any other kind of weird back from the death shit. He is straight up dead. And his rotting corpse is still more magic than the magicest anything else in the universe. In short, he's the grand toad poohbah of lizardkind, and he's on a hoverchair, kinda like a badassed version of [[Tau|Aun'Va]]. Not dissimilar to a Dalek in this regard.
* '''[[Archaon]]''': Lord of the End Time, the Ever Chosen and second most powerful warrior in the setting. Beat all four of the greatest Champions of the Empire in single fight during the Storms of Chaos Campaign But got bashed about badly by Grimgor who headbutted his teeth out of his face. Grimgor iz da best! Later on, he destroyed the world entirely.
* '''The [[Glottkin]] (Otto, Ethrac, Ghurk)''': Triplet sons who became Nurgle's top champions and mutated into a warrior, a smelly wizard, and a giant fucking blob of pestilence. Their parents were priests of Sigmar that tried to live among, and convert, the Chaos worshipers until they were murdered by the Empire by mistake, and the sons began looking for vengeance. Lucky for them, Archaon decided to make them his new vanguard and sent them to blow up the city of Altdorf. These guys are the basis of the second part of [[The End Times]] as the biggest threats of Chaos. Get beat pretty hard, turned into flies by Nurgle to save them but he put them in a jar as punishment.
* '''[[Wulfrik the World-Walker]]''': Chaos Lord, executioner of the Gods and consummate smack-talker of the Warhammer world.
* '''[[Aekold Hellbrass]]''': AWESOME Tzeentchian Champion.
* '''[[Arbaal the Undefeated]]''': All mighty Champion of Khorne. Another one of the greatest warriors in the setting. Obviously, being a favored champion of the Ultimate God of War. Was with Asavar Kul when Praag was destroyed, fled the battle after he died at Russia, likely to assume Khorne ain't very happy with him. Also destroyed the gates of Praag with a single strike from his sword. (badass) Angron probably got his inspiration from this guy. Is he as fun to be around as [[Kharn]]?
* '''[[Asavar Kul]]''': Greatest Champion of Chaos. Greatest warrior in the setting. Almost destroyed the Empire. 'Nuff said.
* '''[[Harry the Hammer]]''': Oldfluff character whose warhammer the setting is named after. Allegedly.
* '''Vardek CROM!''': Archaon's lieutenant and King of the tribe of Asavar Kul. Was man handled by Archaon once and beat Grimgor once.
* '''[[Chaos Gods#Be'lakor|Be'lakor the Dark Master]]''': The only Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided and chooser of the Everchosen....though not by choice. He's a scheming sonuvabitch that tries to kill every other champion of Chaos so he can get his parents' attention back. Oh, and he's also [[Warhammer 40K|in the spaaaaaace-future of the 41st millennium]]. Technically invented Chaos worship by being the first mortal in Fantasy to be uplifted by them, and served as the middle man between the material plane and Warp entities until the Chaos Gods discovered they could have their own champions rather than just sharing one. Has been a pissy fuck ever since.
* '''[[Valkia the Bloody]]''': The world's most badass woman and Khorne's personal bitch. A monster of a woman who killed so much that everyone's favorite Blood God got smitten and made her more than human. Now she chooses who lives and who dies to join Khorne in the afterlife.
* '''[[Grimgor Ironhide]]''': Orc Warlord, one of the most powerful warriors in the setting. Got his ass handed to him once by Archaon's lieutenant, Vardek CROM!!! Grimgor swore to prove he was the best in any case and did it beating Archaon himself in singular duel (via headbutt to the Chaos-armored testicles). Was determined to be the avatar of [[Gork]] himself. One of the most badass robots from [[Transformers]] was named after him.
* '''[[Skarsnik]]''': Head of the [[Night Goblins]], intent on taking over the Eight Peaks and wiping out the Dwarfs. Extremely clever, extremely cruel even by Warhammer standards, but canonically loves his Squig companion Gobbla. He speaks several languages too.
* '''[[Wurrzag|Wurrzag, Da Great Green Prophet]]''': Orc Moses. Turns enemy Wizards into Squigs. His mental energy makes those he doesn't turn into Squigs suffer an improved chance of a miscast. Never stops dancing. EVER. On a lifelong journey to find the avatars of Gork and Mork. It actually took him awhile to figure out he needed to find two Greenskins instead of one. One was [[Grimgor Ironhide|an ultraviolent Black Orc]], the other [[Skarsnik|a tactically-brilliant Night Goblin]].
* '''[[Grom the Paunch]]''': Former Goblin Warlord. Famous for being obese, no joke. Also for near DESTROYING the Empire, oh, AND Ulthuan (imagine a Grot almost destroying Terra until he got bored and decided to destroy every Craftworld, almost succeeding). Not bad for a Gobbo. No one knows where is he now, <s>but it is unlikely that, whrerever he is, is alive (his wars was a hundred yeras before current era).</s> <span style="color:#80FF00">GROM LIVES, ya' git! An' when da waaaghboz returnz, wi'll stomp da humies an el's an' orcs fo' good! WAAAA-</span><span style="color:green">'''STOMP!''' Where ya been? Get back to camp an' start to load rukks in da... um... "thing", ya squishy git!</span>
* '''[[Thanquol]]''': Skaven grey seer and archenemy of Gotrek. He does lines of warpstone powder which is to cocaine what a monster truck is to a pair of baby's first rollerskates. Also he managed to escape from the prophet of Sotek, who after losing his sacrifice to his awesomic god, <strike>takes a nap</strike> meditates, despise the fact that he is a skink. Forever. Thanquol is such a colossal fuckup that it was determined the Lizardmen should let him live because he was ''that much'' of a liability to his own people. Spends all his time with his Frankenstein's Monster buddy [[Boneripper]].
* '''[[Deathmaster Snikch]]''': Skaven ninja-assassin. Uses three scimitars at once to lop off limbs from his target, doesn't so much as assassinate people as shred them into little pieces.
* '''[[Malekith]]''': Lord of the Dark Elves; master of Dark Magic, uses a shield that can asplode your brain from a distance, and rides a giant-ass black dragon. Still lives with his mom. Also considered a whiny emo git who costs so much no one will ever use the Malekeith on a Dragon model because they'd rather finish the game before the entropic heat death of the universe. GW retconned it so he was the chosen one and everyone who doubted him was wrong, making his transformation into Anakin Skywalker complete.
* '''[[Morathi]]''': Malekith's mom. In old editions she was the highest ranking Slaaneshi in the world and one of the primary players in the game of global domination; now she's just a crazy supreme witch with Alzheimer's who thinks everyone is her old hubby Aenarion. Fortunately, they fixed that in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|the video game]].
* '''[[Malus Darkblade]]''': The Starscream of Warhammer.
* '''[[Gorthor|Gorthor the Beastlord]]''': A Beastman Everchosen, one of a handful of Beastmen who successfully caught the eyes of the Chaos Gods in more than a passing capacity. Whipped up on the Empire for a while before dying. Depopulated the Drakwald while he was at it. Even by Beastmen standards this guy was a monster.
* '''[[Khazrak The One-Eye]]''': The most cunning Beastman. He and Boris Todbringer stabbed each other's eyes out, leaving one with an eyepatch and one with a constantly blood-and-puss bleeding empty socket. Hence his title, obviously. Loves messing with Todbringer.
* '''[[Morghur|Morghur, Master of Skulls]]''': A creature so close to Chaos that stuff he touches becomes [[Chaos Spawn|You-Know-Whats]]. He's classified as a Beastman, but that's mere approximation; it'd be more accurate to call him a pure, sentient mass of Chaos energy given flesh. Perhaps that's why he never stays dead?
* '''[[Nagash]]''': Supreme Lord and Creator of Undead, with his autographed book series inspiring the creation of Vampires by Neferata. Also [[Eldrad|Supreme Asshole]]. Was pissed his brother got to be Pharoah while he was stuck as a priest, so he tortured Dark Elves until they taught him black magic that he turned into the first true Necromancy. Killed his brother and got creepy with his brother's life, kept trying to take over Warhammer Egypt from his giant Warpstone flying pyramid and kept getting his ass kicked because Chaos, humanity, and even Skaven were all afraid that he'd become supreme ruler of reality if left un-sabotaged/smote. Supposedly the strongest wizard ever, has fought Sigmar himself and almost won. Became the supreme god of death by becoming Death itself via making death magic his bitch/part of his soul, now gets every soul that Chaos doesn't.
* '''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Nagash's right-hand man. Spent his life in defending Nagash and was resurrected to continue doing it as a skeleton sorcerer. nlike Mannfred, he's serving Nagash out of loyalty that didn't even end in death although in some versions he's getting a bit tired of Nagash's abrasive personality. Had an on-again off-again romance with Neferata despite being a skeleton.
* '''[[Heinrich Kemmler]]''': An insane Necromancer who dabbled in all sorts of dark arts, eventually becoming a believer in Chaos. Was the very first still-canon Warhammer character ever created.
* '''[[Krell]]''': [[Chaos Lord]] turned undead Wight. Everyone thought he was a mindless minion of Kemmler, but he actually changed allegiance from Khorne to Nagash long ago.
* '''[[Queen Neferata|Neferata]]''': The first Vampire and last ruler of the ancient city of Lahmia. Militant bisexual necromancer with a spy network that goes around manipulating events across the world behind the scenes. Pays lip service to Nagash but wants to become a proper queen again. Tried to make her cousin Khalida a Vampire, caused Khalida to hate them as a result.
* '''[[Vlad von Carstein]]''': The first Von Carstein who almost became Emperor of the Empire but was betrayed by Mannfred. Husband of the original Vampire, but all of his character motivation is being a lovey-dovey couple with his new wife. Resurrected by Nagash in the End Times to continue making Mannfred look bad.
* '''[[Isabella von Carstein]]''': New wife of Vlad, helps keep him from going full-retard when he gets too pissed off and is a big part of his longterm planning but once he died the first time she suicided. Possessed by a Nurgle Daemon in End Times, Vlad killed himself again to use his ring to kill the Daemon but have her survive.
* '''[[Mannfred von Carstein]]''': Vampire Lord, a "son" of Vlad. Helped end Vlad's attempt at taking over the world with his involvement in the theft of the Ring of Supreme Badassery, traveled the world like Eurotrash then tried to launch a similar invasion of his own using the ring. Got his ass kicked, became a slave to Nagash to attempt to carve out his own chunk of the world but got pissed when Nagash resurrected Vlad to be the HNIC Old World Vampire. Decided to go full-retard and ended the world by stabbing one of the guys using magic to make it not get swallowed by the Warp. /tg/ calls him "Mannlet Von Carstein" to reflect his character motivation of having daddy issues.
* '''[[Konrad von Carstein]]''': Bat-Shit crazy Vampire Lord, "son" of Vlad. Not good with magic, after pissing off his Necromancers they abandoned him and the stress of controlling a zombie apocalypse made him lose his shit and wander off into a forest muttering to himself where he was promptly tackled by Gotrek and stabbed in the heart with the Elector Count of Ostland's Runefang by Felix. [[Twilight|Total "pants-on-head" retarded vampire noob.]]
* '''[[Settra the Imperishable]]''': Greatest of the Tomb Kings. Fights upon a pimped out chariot. Was offered literally everything by the Chaos Gods themselves if he'd serve, yelled "SETTRA DOES NOT SERVE. SETTRA RULES!" and decided to spend his unlife trying to fucking kill Chaos.
* '''[[Queen Khalida]]''': Freaky mummy-chick blessed with the powers of a snake. Fucking hates Vampires, before Twilight made that cool.
* '''[[Greasus Goldtooth|Overtyrant Tradelord Greasus Tribestealer Drakecrush Hoardmaster Goldtooth the Shockingly Obese]]''': A huge motherfucker that weighs more than a pile of corpses made from giants. He loves eating almost as much as he loves killing. His name is also really, really long. Ogres are impressed by his name and he probably gets a shitload of tail. But he's a huge lardass who costs 565 points and makes ogres more awesome and enemy units pant-shittingly stupid.
* '''[[Golgfag Maneater]]''': An Ogre mercenary, established the Ogre mercenary archetype and was the best Ogre [[Murderhobo]] there ever was. Notorious for doing pretty much everything. Example: your mom.
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]]''': A Skaven with surprisingly decent martial skill, bright red armour and a huge pole on his back covered in skulls. Warlord of [[Clan Mors]], the largest of the Clans that aren't the main four. His name sounds like Squeak, as GW still doesn't take the Skaven too seriously.

==See Also==
*[[Army compatibility between Warhammer settings]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YgLWdIjGE Song for Warhammer Fantasy]
*[http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page Warhammer Lexicanum (It is badly in need of more articles)]
*[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Category:Warhammer/Tactics Warhammer Fantasy Battles Tactics]
*[http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com (More prosaic than the Lexicanum, but strangely has content the Lex doesn't, and vice-versa)]

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}

[[Category:Wargames]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Games Workshop]]

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

2020-05-07T12:14:31Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* In A World Of War */

[[Image:WHFBlogo.gif|center]]
<br>
[[Image:Empire Daemons.jpg|lright|thumb|600px|Where SAN saves are automatically passed while your flag still stands. Where a single greenskin can beat Chaos Undivided at its strongest. Where Liches can order around Chaos Gods like bitches. Where American football takes precedence over ONLYWAR. This <s>was</s> '''IS''' Warhammer Fantasy.]]
{{Topquote|There was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars.|Robert E. Howard}}
{{Topquote|To this day, I have the most fond memories of some of my old toys.|Michael Keaton}}
{{Topquote|Every parting gives a [[The End Times|foretaste of death]], [[Total War: WARHAMMER|every reunion a hint of ]][[Warhammer: The Old World|the resurrection.]]|Arthur Schopenhauer}}
Warhammer is dead! Long live Warhammer! It has been replaced with [[Age of Sigmar]] by GW with a continuation of the canon storylines. For the supplement where the [[Squat|world is destroyed]], see [[The End Times]]. To see the fan revolt continuation of the game, see [[The 9th Age]] or [[Warhammer Armies Project]]. To see the video game adaption, see [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: Warhammer]]. There's also the [[Endhammer]] project.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/11/15/old-world-new-warhammer/ WARHAMMER LIVES!''' STOMP STOMP.''']

Warhammer Fantasy '''IS''' a traditional Fantasy world created in the days when metal hair was all the rage and Dungeons and Dragon was still a new and strange concept. A somewhat darker take on the age-old Fantasy set forth by earlier writers such as Tolkien where the forces of man are almost constantly on the defense, Fantasy is a place where MEN are MEN, and ELVES are MEN, and DWARFS are MEN-MEN, (and Skaven are Man-Things). The entire world is constantly saturated in ancient and warping magic to the point that giant skulls are natural formations in rock, flora sometimes grows eyeballs and genitals, nobody stays dead, and the whole planet is some part of the [[Old Ones]]' last-minute emergency anti-Chaos plan.
It also has many more dead-hard, beardy [[Vikings]] killing, raping, and pillaging.

==In A World Of War==
[[File:3697970-3704646247-Warha.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Back when [[Power Armor|unnaturally powerful armour]] was exclusive to the bad guys.]]
Warhammer is about peasants living in shit, dying in shit, and the thousands of perils that befall them. Which are often covered in shit. It is not a fun place to be, [[Warhammer_40k|though there are worse]]. You have the standard three races of human, elf and dwarf... and they are not a united front, the latter two even have their own [[Dark Elves|evil]] [[Chaos Dwarfs|off-shoot]] nations. Your average soldier of the Empire is armed with a sword, a musket, and maybe a uniform which comes with a cheap piece of armor that couldn't stop an untipped arrow. Thusly equipped, he is expected to go toe-to-toe with a Daemon. Or a 9-foot-tall daemonically enhanced steel/daemon/*insert Chaotic thing* [[Warriors of Chaos|metal clad super Viking]]. Or a giant, many of which prefer to stuff opponents down their pants or [[Ogre Kingdoms|boil you/mash you/stick you in a stew]]. Or a [[Lizardmen|battle-trained whatsit-a-saurus]]. Or a [[Skaven|rat-man armed with a flame thrower and a machine gun while leading a colossal goddamn steampunk frankenstein rodent abomination]]. Or a [[Beastmen|half man/half goat eight-foot-tall killing and raping machine]]. Or... well, let's just say nothing nice ever comes out of the Chaos Wastes. [[Humanity_Fuck_Yeah|And to top it all off, the madmen actually manage it!]] The one good thing for humanity is that the various factions and races have enough sense to set aside their differences to avoid total annihilation, and succeed at this with stunning regularity.

Of course, once the threat of turning into some Daemon's bitch passes, the various races get right back to smacking the living shit out of each other. Throw in lots of undead in Gothic and Ancient Egyptian flavors, ratmen, omnivorous in every sense of the word Ogres and a race of lizard precursors and we have our setting. However unlike the 40k counterparts, the Empire has ties to both elf and dwarf, both ties have grown stronger over the centuries and usually what gets the 2 races from tearing each other to pieces, in fact the Elves are the ones who taught humanity to wield magic, while the dwarfs taught them mechanics and engineering, which both have resulted in The Empire creating some pretty badass warmachines and devices.

In short, there is a thicker line in terms of Good vs Evil, sure its hindered by the dirty mistakes in the history of big 3 (Man, Dwarf, and Elf) but it's still so much better than the <s>xenophobic</s> righteous alien smashing of 40k.

==WFB crunch in a nutshell==
[[File:M2180130 P1Mb2.jpg|left|thumb|600px|Contrary to popular belief, engaging an enemy army from the flank isn't that good an idea. Makes for cool shots though.]]
As for actual tabletop performance, some argue WHFB requires more tactical skill from the player; however, this is probably because it's not as widely discussed and is more often played by an older audience that was introduced to the setting during the glory-years of the fantasy genre. The game certainly does require more memorization (or reference at least) of rules, although listbuilding factors in less than actual field tactics in comparison to other games (see [[Tarpit]]). Psychology is a major factor in Fantasy as few battles (barring Undead on Undead slapfests or Daemon infighting) will progress without something fleeing or even disintegrating due to a failed Leadership roll. Fantasy puts more models on the field, but most of them are rank and file redshirts. Perhaps most blessedly, Fantasy lacks the $400+ models other gaming systems do. If you want an [[Apocalypse]] level battle, you bring a fucking sea of 1 hit point soldiers lead by one single model so fucking badass that Kenshiro bows in respect as it passes him.

Magic is a big deal in the game, and has its own phase during each turn. Other than gentlemanly games between you and your opponent, you ARE taking a spellcaster even if their only job is to fuck up the enemy's magic phase (some armies in fact require a spellcaster in the army, both of them Undead armies requiring someone to keep the corpse feet-plodding). Models may gain positive effects, or more likely negative ones during the battle so notes may need to be taken beyond just Victory Points. You have to know the ins and outs of your troops, and you'd be better served knowing your enemy's rulebook as well since things don't change much in their roles in the battle. Planning is everything, but ultimately the field of battle is chaotic and thus you'll need to be able to adapt to win ([[Nurgle]] and [[Tzeentch]] enjoy the gameplay aspect of Fantasy in different ways).

As far as models go, Fantasy is a bit liberated. With no rules requiring measuring from a gun, or an exact model footprint, you instead rely on the plastic base as an indicator of who you're fighting and if you can be hit.
This means that the only requirement is to have a little plastic square or rectangle base in the correct size. What is actually ON that base doesn't matter, unless you play at a GW shop in which case the only requirement is that they made whatever is on that base. Want to play one faction, but you only own another? So long as your opponent isn't a dick you can just use your army as the army you want to play now. Fantasy has it literally stated in the rulebooks that it's a big world (same basic geography as ours, but scaled up to a ridiculous size of a planet) and thus there's plenty of unexplored places where anything is possible. So when you field your first army as your second, you can provide a legitimate fluff explanation (Vampire Dwarfs, Lawful Good Chaos Gods, redneck Elves, Undead who are not soulless killing machines but instead have simply had their invitation to your opponent's army to a Wednesday teatime rejected for the last fucking time, and so on).
Unit fillers are a popular option for people making a new army in Fantasy. Instead of buying 60+ foot soldiers for the army of your choice, you can buy some extra bases and glue them together (for example a 3 by 2 grouping of 6 bases) then put something on top of them (a balsa-wood cart, an older model from another edition that was removed, an army specific thing like a hole in the ground that appears to be where the Skaven are coming out from or a statue of a hero for Empire) and stick it in the middle of the group. Boom, instantly you have to buy 4-8 less troops. As for those "GW-made at GW shops" rules? Clip sprues, make a fence, glue it to a base. Voila, instant unit filler.

Fantasy models DO have to fit close together unlike models in other games, so they tend to be a bit less wild with poses (some see this as a plus). Big models tend to have a lot of detail, and almost no armies share models so there's quite a bit of variation on the field. Also there's generally less spikes everywhere, actual exposed breasts on some models, and FAR more skulls ([[Khorne]] and [[Slaanesh]] both approve!).

Those guys who made the Total War games have said that they'll make computer games based on it. Feel free to have a nerdgasm, or a [[Rage|RAGEGASM]], as <s>Creative Assembly</s> Sega [[Games Workshop]] has locked away every other faction besides Empire, Dwarfs, Bretonnia, Vampire Counts, Orcs & Goblins, and Chaos (if you were an early buyer of the game) behind a DLC paywall. But there are two or more legendary faction leaders which can change up the game. Either way, Warhammer fans who own it are fairly happy with it. Similarly, [[Blood Bowl]] was a specialist game set in an alternate universe where American football replaced war and has a vidya and a sequel, while the other specialist game [[Mordheim]] which was a skirmish game got the Xcom-like [[Mordheim: City Of The Damned]] that is available now on top of [[Man O' War: Corsair]] which is loosely based on the [[Man O' War]] tabletop (so out of a game about fleet management, you get the bastard offspring of Mount & Blade and Sid Meier's Pirates! somehow) that was launched as an alpha access game. On top of that, a hack-n-slash multiplayer game was made [[Vermintide]], where a marriage of the combat of Mount & Blade and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare meets the structure of Left 4 Dead to massacre Skaven.

==Setting==
Warhammer is, in most places, set in a period reminiscent of early Renaissance Europe, only much, much worse. If you know anything about history, you'll know that's saying something. Nearly everything has some kind of historical analogy, at least within the human nations. Everywhere is a shit place to live for one reason or another. [[Warhammer 40,000|But unlike a certain other setting]], this has a lot more to do with being subject to multiple clashing interests in the backstory, rather than thematic contrivances that are often poorly explained or barely touched upon.

As an interested note, the Warhammer world, or at least what remains of it in [[Age of Sigmar]], is named Mallus, which in GeeDubs latin would be "Hammer".

===Human nations===
====The Empire====
[[File:Empire-Halberdiers.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Human troops with Strength 4. Halberdiers motherfucker.]]
{{Main|The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)}}

The '''Empire''' is usually the center of attention in the Warhammer world. It's basically a fantasy version of the Holy Roman Empire, meaning its warriors are very angry Germans wielding swords, muskets, and bibles, as well as having [[METAL BOXES|steam tanks]] and magic. It is ruled by a mortal Emperor (who is succeeded upon death, meaning there's no need for a corrupt council to do anything more than annoy him). He is elected from amongst the ranks of the Elector Counts, who govern the different provinces of the Empire in their own special way and wield badass swords called Runefangs which represent their office (when a Runefang is lost, there's one less member of the council). They are the closest WHFB has to a "main character" faction. All good-aligned races usually converge around the Empire when shit hits the fan, and all Chaos-aligned races make a beeline praying for Slaanesh to guide their cocks into an un-lubed Kraut's cannonhole.

The first Emperor was a guy named [[Sigmar]]. He was fucking hardcore (think a combination of Thor, Charlemagne, and [[Conan the Barbarian]]). After becoming the head of his tribe, he made friends with the Dwarfs by saving their king by killing [[Orcs & Goblins|greenskins]] (all before he became an adult even). After that, the Dwarfs and Germans hung out a lot which resulted in Germans getting all the same advances Dwarfs make and pushing it even further because Dwarfs reserved about new things. Sigmar then brought the Polish and some Russians into his clan, and founded The Empire. Sigmar got involved in a war down in Egypt's analogue in the setting, Nehekhara, against the Undead which resulted in Sigmar making the decision that if he were ever being kept alive artificially he wanted the plug pulled. Eventually, Sigmar got bored with politics and pulled a walkout, heading eastwards to fight some new beasties...and was promptly never heard from again. For some reason, people began worshiping him as a god and now he is the main god in the Empire. However, the more reasonable conclusion is that he's long dead and Ulric, the number two god of the Empire and the god that Sigmar worshiped in life, handles the prayers of the Sigmarite priests, that or probably made Sigmar into a God after he died or when he reached the World's Edge Mountains in the east. Turns out he became a god through sheer force of will but got stuck in the wind of Azyr because of Tzeentch being a dick.
Although the Empire was, in large part, the inspiration for the [[Imperium]] in 40k, there are some major differences. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, [[xenos|the other races]] (like Dwarfs and High Elves) are not only accepted but considered trusted allies (despite being arrogant douches). Additionally, though kept on a tight leash, magic is largely accepted (thanks to the Colleges of Magic the Elves set up, so wizards don't accidentally summon daemons every five seconds), and the Empire is fully polytheistic (although worshiping gods that own property in the [[Warp|Realm of Chaos]] is still a big no-no, despite Witch Hunters doing it (he's a Chaos God of Order though, so it's alright)), although Sigmar is the patron deity of the Empire and generally given the most respect. Second is [[Morr]], who provides the mortal races of the world with a legit Chaos-free afterlife.
Also, all forms of [[Undead|Undeath]] are heretical, which is totally encouraged in the Imperium. The Empire isn't totally shit and if you can get a good job you can live a pretty good life, just keep a gun under your pillow every night.
They're even advancing pretty fast and, if it weren't for the constant Chaos and undead invasions, they'd probably be advancing into an Industrial Revolution right about now.

The Empire also counts the allied nation of [[Kislev]] among its forces as they supply it with cannons, and it supplies them with more men but especially lancer calvary. Kislev is mostly Russia during the era of Catherine the Great with a pinch of Poland mixed in, and consists of vodka swilling peasants armed with spears, lance cav and being lead by bear cavalry and their ice-wizard queen to defend the frost-covered land that never smiles. They are more prone to mutation due to living where the winds from the Warp Gates blows. The primary Kislevite battle tactic is to assemble against Khornate Daemonhosts or Chaos Viking hordes that outnumber them 100-1 all while standing barefoot in the snow armed only with rocks AND FUCKING WIN THE BATTLE. Kislevite women consist of the hottest girls in the setting and hardcore bitches who will crack open a chaos warrior's skull and use it's mashed brain as baby food depending on how old they are.

[[Halfling|Halflings]] from the Moot are considered members of the Empire, although they contribute little other than food (particularly since the newer editions removed all Halfling fieldable models from the game).

The current Emprah is a guy named Karl Franz. He's pretty awesome too, he actually has a political and militaristic stance and he [[gets shit done]]. He rides a giant fucking griffon that eats people and owns the one fucking dragon in the entire damn Empire that doesn't act like a taxi for some batshit insane wizard or elf. It eats people too. He's got a fancy suit of ornate gilded armor, cool bling, and a hammer (again, THE Warhammer). Not a fool to be messed with.

Generally speaking, the forces of the Empire consist of cannons, Landsknechts with halberds, cannons, Landsknechts with claymores, cannons, musketmen, cannons, wizards, cannons, crossbowmen, cannons, pikemen, cannons, Russians, cannons, [[Steam Tank|steamtanks]], cannons, knights, cannons, [[inquisitors]], cannons, and mortars. Plus [[Sisters of Sigmar|nuns with guns]] and rioting peasants.

The Emperor has to put up with a lot of bullshit: Vampires, Daemons, Orcs, Skaven, Mummies, Beastmen, Elves, and other Humans. If you can think of it, the Empire has gone to war with it at least once. Its even gone to war with itself <strike>a couple of times</strike> almost every time that the Emprah seat becames vacant, which at one point, resulted in a [[Fail|thousand year long civil war.]] Its continued success in managing to keep from falling apart is as much of a mystery as Dwarfs finding the Humans of The Empire to be worthy of respect (maybe because Games Workshop has a hard-on for [[Imperium of Man|Imperialism]]).

====Bretonnia====
[[File:Breton.jpeg|right|thumb|400px|[[Bretonnia|Monty Python humans!]]]]
{{Main|Bretonnia}}

Bretonnia is the other major Human nation of the Warhammer world. Knights, chivalry, all that King Arthur bullshit. All while being pseudo-Frenchmen nobles with pseudo-English peasants. With the addition of worshiping a Lovecraftian goddess in the guise of a bitch with a magic chalice that's manipulated by baby-eating forest elves to get the Bretonnians to do their bidding (the Brets don't know that last part though!).
The peasants in Bretonnia somehow have it worse than the worse off peasants in the Empire since at least a peasant in The Empire has held a piece of currency at some point in their life. It's pretty much medieval France, only worse. They have a lot of knights, the lowest of which are Knights Errant who have turned into glory hunting idiots since they got their armor, then Realm Knights, then Questing Knights who seek the blessing of the [[Lady of the Lake]], and finally Grail Knights before whom the Lady appeared and let them drink from her magic chalice (hue hue hue).

Peasants are almost completely useless both in crunch and fluff other than as archers or cannon fodder, except for the peasant monks that are in fact carrying a dead and skeletal Grail Knight as if he's alive. But, since they're more French than they are English, this does kinda make sense...
Small numbers of Bretonnian women are considered blessed by the Lady enough to wield magic, but in truth most of them just have fey blood.

Bretonnian culture is based on High Elf culture, since the Franks hid from marauding Daemons while the world was in its very first apocalypse scenario within the ruins of High Elf colonies, and flipping through <strike>ancient tomes</strike> Elf childrens books depicting High Elf Silver Helms (AKA elfknights) killing Orcs and saving princesses inspired them to put on a cosplay that never ended.
Bretonnians used to be on the verge of conquering The Empire in older editions of the game, but that plot was dropped when The Empire was put front and center as the posterboys of the game. [[Ultramarines|40k fans may be able to relate.]]

Bretonnian nobles are bred from "superior" stock from the rest of the Human race, and are attractive even by Elf standards. [[Space Marines|Completion of their training and their missions allows them to further enhance themselves with magic, making their bodies resistant to poison and mutation and all around tougher.]] [[Orks|Their faith is so powerful they're literally able to will bullets into being less damaging to them than arrows, and to perform reality-defying feats simply because they think they can.]] Too bad they worship an Elf*.

Bretonnia is one of the more neglected armies in the game, once again proving the tradition that [[Sisters of Battle|any faction that makes frequent use of the Fleur-de-lys]] is on [[Games Workshop|GW's]] back burner.

====Other human nations====
Other human nations, which don't warrant an army book include:
*[[Albion]], the British Isles back in Celtic days where tribal shamans and intelligent rock giants protect human-made waystones and Old One artifacts from just about every faction in the game.
*[[Amazon]]s, a possibly immortal all-women civilization in [[Lustria]] whose ancestors served the Slaan but became a separate civilization after the Warp-Gates collapsed.
*[[Araby]], Middle East fantasy equivalent whose magicians can enslave [[Genie|Chaos spirits]] and are immensely rich from trade.
*[[Border Princes]], Balkans in its natural state of conflict. Group of small nations to the south of the Empire, home to Lietpold the Black and other rogues.
*[[Cathay]], incredibly large eastern empire which has magical robot terracotta warriors and non-Chaos spellcasters who are actively stealing power directly from the Chaos Gods (especially Tzeentch) and are led by their supreme dragon Emprah. Has the Great Wall of China, but is called the Great Bastion for some reason. All they ever do for the plot is occupy all of the fucking Chaos Huns/Mongols and Steppe Nomads which would otherwise be attacking The Empire, which is quite significant actually considering how just how fucking many Chaos Nomads there are.
*[[Estalia]] (Spain), produces Conquistadors and the world's supply of human murderhobos.
*[[Ind]], fantasy India which has '''ALL''' of Indian Mythology living in it's borders. Constantly under invasion by eastern flavored Beastmen.
*[[Kislev]], pre-Peter Russian Empire, Poland and Mongols all combined into one. Constantly getting [[Rape|buttfucked]] by Chaos.
*[[Nippon]] ([[Weeaboo|Japan]]), taught Skaven how to be ninjas and otherwise is so reclusive we know nothing about them (and why the fuck did they think teaching evil rat men more sneaky way to murder millions was a good idea?).
*[[Tilea]] (pre-unification Italy), a large number of city-states and kingdoms that ally with other civilizations in the world like an army of mercenaries that can range from [[Warforged]] to Greek Hoplites using flying machines. They are the main source of human mercenaries for the Old World.

===[[Elf|Elves]]===
====High Elves====
[[File:Adrian smith high elf warriors.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Somehow the actual elves look more alien than the [[Eldar|alien elves]]]]
{{Main|High Elves (Warhammer)}}

'''OH BOY, HERE WE GO'''...The "good guys" of WHFB. Although as a group they're dickish in the extreme like you'd expect, many of them are quite bro-tier and the reason the race is diminishing is because they overtax themselves to save the world every time they can from everyone they can, and humans are usually what counts as part of the world (except ones tainted by chaos of course).
They have the strongest navy in the world, wear red/white/blue, bring giant eagles to battle, are snobby, the average citizen can't even name the leader of their closest ally, they send in their marines to unwinnable conflicts, they saved the collective ass of the [[Old World]] twice, their head of government is democratically elected...

Many 40k fans mistakenly confuse the Eldar lore with Elf lore. This is a major mistake, as Eldar are characterized as [[Eldrad|ultra-dick failures]] while no faction has a bigger ass-kicking and ass-saving record than the High Elves.

High Elves defeated the first Chaos invasion into the world (unknown to themselves that they had distant magical help from the [[Lizardmen]]) and every invasion since. They established a network of [[Waystone|Waystones]] which pull the excess magic (which Daemons use to manifest) into Ulthuan and shoot it back into the Warp.
High Elves taught the Empire magic, and save the ass of Bretonnia every time it gets invaded by something they can't beat. They patrol the world oceans in giant magical aircraft carriers that launch dragons, and wreck the shit of anyone trying to launch a Black Crusade. They single-handedly keep the world from being swallowed into the Warp and all the good factions respect them for it (even if that's the ONLY thing Dwarfs respect about them).

The Everqueen of the High Elves and the hereditary ruler (who co-rules with her democratically elected male counterpart, the Phoenix King), is a being of IMMENSE magical power whose soul is made up of the combined souls of all her mothers leading back to the first Everqueen, who was the second daughter of [[Isha]]. The souls themselves reside with Isha, and as a whole they make up the Everqueen entity.
Chaos is afraid of her (read that again: Chaos Gods in 40k only ''respect'' the God Emprah as their greatest enemy and an equal, but they're actually '''afraid''' of the Everqueen), and she can cleanse anything the Chaos Gods can corrupt. Her only weaknesses are that sadness saps her energy (you do NOT want to piss her off though) and the fact she's mortal means her daughter has to be protected.

High Elves are ethnically divided into ten major groups by region. Some are such pricks who treat even other High Elves like Eldar treat the Mon'keigh, some are fatalistic jackasses with the personality of a secret service agent, some are revenge-obsessed sociopaths who make the Inquisition look like Lawful Good Paladins, some are <strike>nutty professors</strike> wizards, and some are <strike>hippies</strike> murderhobo [[Bard]]s who are willing to make love AND war as the situation requires. In addition, High Elves have districts within major trade cities in all the good factions.

High Elves would rather walk willingly into Slaanesh's open mouth than do anything beneficial to a Dark Elf and vice versa, running a contrast to Eldar/Dark Eldar relations.
When they die, High Elves are first nabbed by their patron god if said god liked them enough. Next, they can corpse-run to a Waystone (giant magical structures set up all over the world by their race to weaken Chaos and keep Daemons from manifesting) where they get to chill and manifest semi-solid bodies (which they will usually use to pick off troops from any evil races that wander by). Then, there's an evil goddess who got punished by [[Asuryan]] for trying to rape him while he was asleep and gets back at his rejection by taking High Elf souls (she doesn't care about any other Elf subraces) to torture like it's Christian hell. Final thing that can happen is Slaanesh manages to snatch them from the material plane and either eats them or turns them into [[Daemonette]]s (yes, in Fantasy he still does this). All of Slaanesh's Greater Daemons are elves who in one way or another wound up in his employ (from [[N'kari]] who was an insipid noblewoman who wanted to be the center of attention, to Dechala who was virgin sacrificed by her parents to Slaanesh for mercy and came back as a pissed off Medusa with an army of Daemonettes to butcher them).
While Eldar must use soulstones to keep their soul safe, High Elves use them only to guard them in combat against Daemons and those who worship them. Otherwise, their only use is to link to the Waystone network and provide GPS navigation for the elves.

[[Ulthuan]] is like paradise (for the most part, there's Chaos corrupted areas and random encounter tables of course) and elves will fuck, sing and enjoy the splendors of life without fear of taint as they must give themselves willingly to Chaos to be corrupted. The Cult of Pleasure, Slaanesh's Elf cult, takes root like Chaos cults in the [[Imperium]] and have to be [[Blam|purged]] by the High Elf [[Inquisition]] who are kung fu Elves in light armor who have swords as tall as their body but don't look weaboo.

Eldar are all-powerful psykers, although humanity has potential to make stronger psykers than the average Eldar. High Elves on the other hand are constantly bathed in magical energy, more so than the rest of the world, but you have to actually LEARN to be a <strike>psyker</strike> wizard. Since High Elves have public education and being a wizard is a great job, there's more Elf wizards than human ones (in fact, the fact you have to LEARN to be a wizard means that the only humans who can come close to badass Elf Loremasters are prodigies of Mary Sue proportions). Of course, one of the 10 High Elf ethnic groups have the old fashioned "every Elf is also a level 1 wizard" feature, but that's just them.

Eldar have a multitude of different styles of combat and war, and a multitude of different philosophies related to them. High Elves have three basic flavours of badass warriors: stoic summabitch priests who shrug off cannonballs to the face, guy with giant axe who wrestles monsters then goes for an ale, and Witch Hunters with giant swords

High Elves are, to the very last, soldiers. Every poet is also a Spear<strike>man</strike>elf, every baker is also a wizard, and every secretary loads giant bolt throwers. They passed the point of desperation tens of thousands of years ago, putting High Elves in the position of Israelis.

====Dark Elves====
[[File:DE.png|right|thumb|400px|"We are the most civilized race in the entire world. We have more exquisite ways to kill than any other"]]
{{Main|Dark Elves (Warhammer)}}

Edgier elves who get shit done [[Dark Eldar|without drugs and soul torture]]. Dark Elves manage to maintain the awesomeness and jack it up to a new level while still at the same time being made of the kind of fail you'd expect from a fantasy Dark Elf race. How do they do this you might ask? By taking the next logical step in the elven belief of "we're better than everyone" over to "so we should be allowed to kill them for sport". They have a history of using slavery, violently suppressed the indigenous population when they colonized their new homeland, have no respect for the rest of the world, are embroiled in an ongoing war with a foreign nation, they spy on everyone including themselves, citizens can easily gain access to deadly weapons, their government is corrupt, they built <s>a fence</s> <s>a wall</s> towers to keep people from a bordering nation out...

After being driven out of Ulthuan by the High Elves they fled to a new land they named Naggaroth (in memory of their old homeland Nagarythe). Naggaroth is Warhammer North America but very cold with a network of underground rivers and a sea in the middle. The topography of the land is half mountains, half flat plains which are mostly covered in forests. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. The land is infested with all sorts of monsters, from Harpies and Cold Ones to Manticores and Hydras. Even worse than them are populations of Orcs (descended from the spores of Orcs Dark Elves tried to use against the High Elves as slave soldiers), Beastmen (because Chaos) and Skaven (because the rats can tunnel under oceans apparently, though the Dark Elves have a treaty with them).

Their entire culture is built around "if you died, you were too fucking weak/stupid to stay alive". They have no protections for their souls because none of them admit they could die because that would mean admitting you are possibly less awesome than you tell everyone you are (because they'll kill you for lulz if you don't pretend to be more awesome than they're pretending to be). When Dark Elves die, they go first to their patron elf god if they manage to impress them (unlike High Elves they worship the nastier elf gods, collectively called the Cytharai) then to the same elf goddess who tried to seduce Asuryan then straight to Slaanesh. The third is okay, because some Dark Elves FUCKING WORSHIP SLAANESH (only in secret - in public they worship [[Khaine]] the lord of murder and the other Cytharai for fear of [[Blam|Malekith's reaction]]).

[[Malekith|Their king]] is the second son of the elves' greatest hero, but grew up to fuck up the world almost as bad as Daemons did the first time they invaded the material plane, and is the settings resident Doctor Doom. (The only non-Chaos threat to the world greater than him is [[Nagash]], the Apocalypse to Malekith's Doctor Doom). Their queen [[Morathi]] is Slaanesh's high priestess and the queen mother; she's been fucking her son since he was old enough to have his hips move by themselves. Oh, and that son/mother couple have been plotting to kill each other and take over control of the Dark Elves for thousands of years, with each gambit resulting in mass Dark Elf casualties and a "kiss and make up" moment from the two. Morathi is the single oldest living being in the setting (except most Slann and a few Saurus are as old if not older, plus [[Drachenfels]] if you consider him canon, but whatever), and it's all because she bathes in Daemonette jizz (literally, Dark Elves like to summon Daemonettes to parties, with said parties having low survival rates and Morathi keeps Daemon servants with her at all times) and the blood of newborn elves.

Fun fact: each year the craziest of the crazy, the Witch Elves (female berserkers in chainmail bikinis with poisoned blades) who worship Khaine, have a ten day holiday called "Death Night" where they just rampage through Dark Elf cities and kill whoever they want, unless said person can buy their lives in double digit amounts of slaves. They recruit into their ranks by stealing babies and very young children. The girls are automatically raised as Witch Elves while [[Grimdark|the boys are thrown into a cauldron of boiling blood]], those that survive are trained as assassins.

The Dark Elves raid the entire fucking world, constantly. They're the pirates that piss everyone off. They've managed to steal a [[Slann]] by lobotomizing it, then they turned it into fireworks (massive Dark Elf casualties). They plan safaris into the Chaos Wastes to shoot [[Warriors of Chaos|Norsemen]] and bring them home to be stuffed and turned into trophies. As long as they've existed, Dark Elves have been at a war of genocide with the High Elves. Every battle both sides suffer massive casualties, as Malekith is fighting the war mostly for the sake of pride and sends his men at fortresses that have never fallen because he wants to be the one to make them fall (he'll do this every year for thousands of years without learning a damn thing).

But somehow, Dark Elves DO manage to replenish their population pretty good. Every time they attack High Elves they suffer MASSIVE casualties in comparison to their enemies, and still go back to full strength in a few months. While the fluff implies that the Dark Elves kidnap High Elf children to raise as Dark Elves along with their numbers being boosted High Elf defectors fleeing to Naggaroth, there is a much simpler reason; Games Workshop has admitted that they don't deal in concrete figures and there are as many elves as the plot demands, so illogical writing is the reason they can replenish their numbers so easily despite elves being a dying race.

====Wood Elves====
[[File:Wood-Elf-Armybook-Art.jpg|thumb|right|450px|They do say nature is a mother, after all. And this mother is a colossal bitch.]]
{{Main|Wood Elves (Warhammer)}}

During the heyday of the High Elves, before Chaos first invaded the world, the High Elves had established colonies in Warhammer France. Generations passed, and these elves knew little to nothing of the homeland save for what news traders brought them.
When Daemons first invaded they were left to their own devices for defense, but utilizing the primitive stone-age humans were able to hold their own. Shortly after, architects were sent to establish Waystones in their lands and rekindle ties. Once again however, they were abandoned to their fates when Dark Elves first started the big never-ending civil war, then after a short period of being in touch with the homeland again were subject to the brutality of the Dwarfs after the Phoenix King of the time went full retard and pissed the Dwarfs off (of course, Dwarfs neither know the difference in ethnicities nor cared as it was all just knife-ears and keebs to them). After being told to evacuate and leave everything behind to go home and fight the war against the Dark Elves, the colonists burned their draft cards and fled to the sentient forest to become '''Wood Elves'''.

They then turned into a pack of insane dicks.

So that forest they fled to is [[Athel Loren]]. Athel Loren is, in theory, a bastion of life and anti-Chaos in the world. In practice, is a giant forest that plays by it's own rules and is fucking expanding to the point it's theoretically possible it can overtake the rest of the world. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. It is a forest full of unmentionable terrors of all shapes and sizes who will FUCKING VIOLATE YOU AND EAT YOU live there. But they're not evil. They're made that way/too dumb to understand alignment/a natural force of destruction, not a malicious one. So they're horrible and evil but their actual alignment is nicely True Neutral.

The actual elves live in the parts of Athel Loren in Bretonnia. Said forest existed way before the coming of Daemons & Aenarion, being much, much, MUCH larger than today, which in turn means that Bretonnia is actually living on what was once said forest. They smoke weed, have /ss/ and /ll/ and /sm/ with kidnapped Bretonnian noble children, hunt humans like animals using giant hunting dogs every summer when their king awakens from his winter sleep after they tie a Bretonnian maiden to a tree naked and shoot her full of arrows. They also manipulate the Bretonnian nobles into becoming more superior elf-like humans by manipulating an entity so ancient and unknowable that even THEY have no idea what she is. Said entity appears before humans that are badass and gives them geneseed cider to drink, which turns them into living Superman.

Culturally, the Asrai are a mix of High and Dark Elves with a mix of batshit insane dark evil with noblebright altruism. Some do random shit like decide to hold impromptu celebrations and plays because of a smell on the wind and re-enact battles that may or may not have actually happened but with actual killing. During the performance, they are literally holding their entrails in with their hands while giggling and teasing the dead, dying, and still up and killing for forgetting their lines because they're fucking crazy like that. When they have festivals, some elves will have a dance contest with ''invited'' humans. Sort of like Dance-Dance Evolution. The bets are usually on how long the human will last, before he/she becomes too... ''tired'' to continue. Some Elves invite you to peacefully feast and drink and have fun in their woody halls. In exchange they feed you to Daemons and monsters when you fall asleep. If you're lucky they'll let you leave after the party, but you'll find out that a few days in Athel Loren can be a hundred years outside and it catches up to you so you rapidly age and die. Seriously, Wood Elves are fucking scary.

Their king became the avatar of [[Kurnous]] and reincarnates (via virgin sacrifice) every year (during which he usually kills the shit out of Bretonnians because 'why the fuck not?'), while their queen claims to be the REAL avatar of Isha and uses prophesy and scrying to figure out what's going on in the rest of the world.
For some context: Alarielle, the Everqueen of the High Elves, is the God Emprahss of Elfkind. Chaos Gods are scared of her, she can look Slaanesh in the eye and cause Slaanesh to blink. '''Alarielle is fucking scared of the Wood Elves''', and notices that her Wood Elf counterpart, Ariel, is changing into something far more feral than the world has ever known and that the rest of the Asrai are too.

Wood Elves have a different view on the world than the other two races; while High Elves see themselves as masters of the world's fate and see the future as a great battle between good and evil and Dark Elves see the world as their playground with no regard for who came before or who comes after, the Wood Elves believe that fate has already decided. They believe that Chaos is coming, and in the end thanks to the manipulations of Ariel the entire rest of the world other than Athel Loren will be swallowed into the Warp, leaving the Wood Elves as the ultimate winners of the world conflicts when they alone inhabit the material plane. As such, their fluff is quite grim and full of determinism and in-universe the Wood Elves are more or less Eldar. They also claim that the elf gods have already staged the final battle against Chaos, lost it, and are slowly being consumed by Chaos until they will fade away forever. Since this is not mentioned within the fluff of the other two races it can be assumed this is the Wood Elf perspective rather than the outright canon.

But that's just the Wood Elves. The rest of the "Wood Elves" army? Treekin. Not Treebeard (who will tell you a story while he smooshes Orcs), not Old Man Willow (who hates you and will put you to sleep forever), and not the kind of Dryads who get raped by Satyrs ([[FATAL|but actually enjoy it because they're that horny, either meaning it's not rape or that that was how the ancient Greeks thought rape worked]]). No, these are like Hills Have Eyes tree people. Some of them march to war with the Wood Elves because they recognize kindred spirits. Some rampage against all non-tree life in the forest. Some of them are so batshit insane that they attack everything, constantly in giant tree battles where the splinters grow into new Dryads and Treekin who then jump straight into the fray like hard-skinned [[Orks]]. That ain't Chaos corruption either, it's their natural state. Regardless of sanity, ALL Athel Loren Treekin are infested with angry chittering forest spirits that will eat you like flying pirahnas. Elves who die in the forest can become angry bitter trees that don't remember anything, unless you're raped by hermaphrodite daemons who then kill you when they get bored, so yes, you fucking come back to life by inhabiting a dead tree, so you can fucking show those fucking skanks HOW IT FEELS WHEN THE FUCKING FAVOR IS RETURNED! WITH INTEREST/SPLINTERS!! FUCK!!! They also decorate themselves with entrails and skeletons like a decorator crab.

Oh, and the leader of these insane fucking scary tree people? [[Drycha]]. Insane forest treegirl. Drycha is crazy, by any standards of crazy. She's a tree woman with acorn nipples that dribble syrup. She's perhaps one of the most terrifying beings in the setting, and that's saying a lot. Luckily, (if you're not Asrai) she's mostly against the Wood Elves since she thinks they're the ones responsible for everything going wrong with the world (Get out of my swamp you kids!).
8E re-introduced a male counterpart, Durthu, a Wood Elf Treeman character back from 5E who is similar to Drycha except that he only hates Dwarfs while being bitter against everyone else. He now wields a giant amber sword forged by an elf, and is revealed to have been the one who saved an infant Everqueen and her brother in Ulthuan thousands of years ago.

Athel Loren doesn't expand naturally. It's suddenly appeared on islands in the sea. When you wander into those forests looking for coconuts, you suddenly find yourself in the midst of a forest from hell somewhere around Alsace-Lorraine, with Drycha and a hundred or so Dryads decorated in greenskin, Dwarf, Elf, and Human bodies all staring down at you. Athel Loren has worldroots connected to many different forest around the world. Which means you will never be safe, my little ''porcupine butts''

tl:dr Wood Elves live in Athel Loren which is between Bretonnia and The Empire, which is both alive, and akin to a forest in Soviet Russia - where forest cuts down you! The Elves are crazy insane rapists, and the tree people are fucking xenomorphs. You're either a tool to them that will be destroyed when you are no longer useful, or are a plaything for their amusement.

===DWARFS===
[[File:69180f7a9e6a20e2ffb7544531f50bde.jpg|thumb|left|400px|BEARDS AXES BEARDS BEARDS GRUDGES HAMMERS BEARDS]]
{{Main|Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)}}

Same old [[Lord of the Rings|cliché]] Dwarfs (as used in Warhammer Fantasy, as the term "Dwarves" is rarely used) in a lot of ways, with some fun twists.
The Dwarfs have this thing about holding grudges forever. Their language has no word for forgiveness, there's a story where a Warhammer Dwarf outright says forgiveness is not in their nature and [[Book of Grudges|one of their most sacred artifacts is the "Dammaz Kron" which is a GIANT golden book which is inked in blood and lists every slight]], however small, against the Dwaarfish race {{BLAM|Misspell Dwarfish will ya? THAT'S GOIN IN THE BOOK LAD!!!}}.
Dwarfs are required by their gods to avenge even the slightest insult in blood; a story in old Warhammer comics involves two Dwarf Thanes being about to lead the last of their clans (consisting of women and children only at this point) against each other while greenskins are about to breach the fortress walls. The two Thanes, in the middle of a battle, realize they no longer know what the original feud was about and make peace...only for their gods to crush both under a giant statue, causing the clans to wipe each other out and the greenskins to take over.
Another story involves Dwarfs building an impenetrable fortress for a human king. After receiving their payment, they found they were a few coins short (the dwarfs thought they were scammed, in reality there was just a counting error). The Dwarfish response was to muster the full strength of their nation to invade, slaughter every man woman and child inside, and raze every last stone into powder.

So not only does the race tend towards Lawful Stupid, they are punished divinely for not acting in the Lawful Stupid way.

Dwarf pre-Chaos history involved the entire race united as one giant clan, producing master works from their GIANT fortress that spanned half the mountains of Europe and Asia. After Chaos invaded, they simply shut their walls and waited the whole thing out.
After the High Elves defeated Chaos the first time, they befriended the Dwarfs and swore to be best friends forever. Then after the first battles of the Elf civil war, the newly-separated Dark Elves manipulated the two races into war with each other (taking advantage both of the High Elf arrogance that rears its head <s>every other</s> every generation, and of the fact Dwarfs are absolute racist fuckheads who take the actions of a single individual as the standard for the whole race (the Warhammer Dwarf word for "inferior" is actually their word for "human")). So Dwarfs were pissed at Elves right up until the modern day, where they started to realize Elves come in different flavors than just "Keeb Scum".
Not long after this, the Lizardmen attempted to enact a prophesy from the Old Ones that they believed would weaken Chaos. Instead, it caused giant earthquakes which wiped out most of the Dwarf race and turned their fuck-huge city into thousands of thousands of small fortresses isolated from each other by giant cave-ins.However, the same even is said to be a Skaven machination to expand Skavenblihght gone horribly wrong/right. This was followed by Orcs and Goblins getting underground, and taking many fortresses from which they now wage war against the entire Dwarfish race.
More recently (from the Dwarf perspective) they befriended humanity after Sigmar Heldenhammer saved one of their Thanes. The hammer from which the Warhammer games derive their name was forged, and given to Sigmar as a symbol of eternal friendship between the two groups (thankfully now the Dwarfs can tell apart evil from good, and know not to blame the Empire for the actions of the rape-vikings). Dwarfs taught the Empire about machines and technology, leading to the current state of the Empire.

Currently, Dwarfs are constantly fighting a losing war against Skaven and Night Goblins (and just Greenskins in general) for control of the deep craves, tunnels, passages and mines below the surface of the world. Without the Dwarfs keeping things that dwell down in the dark at bay, the lands of men would be overrun from beneath; though the 8th Edition book sees them becoming a Rape-Train against Hordes, and in the fluff the High Elves attacked WAAAGH!s that have raged without stop since the fall of the Dwarf Fortresses from behind and destroyed them while the current Dwarf High King has mustered a fuckhuge army to end those that remain.

In canon, Dwarfs fight very different hold to hold, with some being the classic hammer+axe Dwarf warriors with others (those you'll almost always see on the tabletop) fighting as Napoleonic armies with more cannons than most armies have horses.

What else is there to say about Dwarfs? Gyrocopters and death cults. There is nothing that isn't improved through the addition of flying machines and death cults. The dwarfs have zero magic. No, scratch that, they have even less than zero magic. It tends to fuck up when they're around, and everyone can use magic but them. Not that this stopped Dwarfs though. They just grabbed magic by the balls, put its balls on the anvil, and hammered it into runic items. Because they're stubborn like that. As a result, Dwarfs have the best magic items bar none. They also compensate for their lack of magic by building giant fucking machines instead. Flamethrowers, helicopters, organ guns, and pretty much any other variant of carnage that can be moshed together with enough steam, alcohol, and gunpowder. They build them smaller but they build them better, and they're all fueled by alcohol. The traditional Dwarfs don't like the Engineers and their machines that much, and anything that hasn't been in the blueprint stage for a thousand years before a prototype stage was even thought about is borderline heretical technology (not that they will refuse to use it, they'll just bitch about it worse than even a real life Scotsman would). [[Slayer|The death cults are crazy naked dwarfs that have in some way shamed themselves or broken an oath, and as a result they shave and dye their hair into a red mohawk and go on a quest to die an honorable death]] (so Repentia/Penitent Engines for any 40k players reading this).

====[[Chaos Dwarfs]]====
[[Image:Dorf hats.jpg|thumb|right|[[Hat|HAT]]!!!]]
There are also evil dwarfs called [[Chaos Dwarfs]]. During the first Chaos incursion while some Dwarfs decided to hide in their fortress and wait for the whole thing to blow over, some decided to flee (or explore and look for safe haven elsewhere). After heavy losses among the Dwarfs, the Chaos Gods decided to throw them a bone, and the rest is history. Regular Dwarfs hate them above all others (even moreso than elves) and claim they have sworn eternal vengeance and genocide on them (in practice they pretend Chaos Dwarfs don't exist and woe betide the non-Dwarf who brings them up!)

They used to be an interesting and unique faction that resembled an even more grimdark ancient Babylon, their corrupting magic slowly turning their evil sorcerers to stone (dorfs ain't meant to magic it up) while creating Daemonic machines that would make Chaos Spaaaaaace Marines drool (instead of grabbing magic by the balls and hammering it into runes, they grab deamons by the balls and hammer ''them'' into daemonic warmachines). Then they became like normal dwarfs, but dressed in black. Then they up and vanished for a while. Nowadays, [[Forge World]] has made them ''back'' into their first, awesome thing again - half-Baylonian, half-stripped down industrialist assholes a la Isengard.

Their favorite pastimes are drinkin', fightin' and [[Touhou|wearing silly hats for no adequately explained reason]].

===Chaos===
Back in the day, there was only one Chaos army. Since then they have been split into Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, and Daemons of Chaos.

====Warriors of Chaos====
[[File:Warriors of chaos.jpg|thumb|right|380px|What one would call "the good shit". Or the bad shit, if you catch my cold.]]
{{Main|Warriors of Chaos}}

The Warriors are Nordic (literally, they are called the Norse in the canon). Beardy, berserking [[Vikings]]/[[Pan-Tang]] rip-offs clad in Unholy Chaos Plate and blessed with the Marks of the Chaos Gods personify this faction, and basically granted Warhammer Fantasy it's popularity back in the 80's/90's.
The Warriors of Chaos represent a multitude of tribes and clans, in varying cultures and degrees of civilization (mostly being Scandinavians and Mongols however) all of whom live in the giant North Pole around the Warp Gate there, which is basically an Eye of Terror.
Mostly, they revere the Chaos Gods as their masters although they have different pantheons (sometimes to be able to avoid saying the name of the Chaos Gods directly to avoid getting sudden attention and turning into..one of [[Chaos Spawn|"those things"]], sometimes of other Chaos Gods, and rarely of ascended mortals like [[Bel'akor]]).
Warriors make up the primary bad guys of the setting, and raid the fuck out of the world for shits and giggles. Games Workshop loves to throw them constantly into almost every canon, to the point anything major involving someone who ISN'T Chaos is a huge fucking deal.

Unlike in 40k where Chaos Space Marines <s>actually get shit done</s> possibly fucked up 12 times under the same leader, Warriors have gone through multiple Everchosens who <s>keep getting killed by reincarnations of Sigmar</s> keep getting killed in various ways (sometimes even by Daemons) and are replaced in the hopes that the next one will get it right (and one even went "fuck this shit" and went to non-Chaos Valhalla on the eve of his victory). Despite this, they look no less awesome for it, and the [[Archaon|current one]] [[Storm of Chaos|managed to beat and cripple his good counterpart before losing the war thanks to Orc shenanigans.]]

====Daemons of Chaos====
{{Main|Chaos}}

As in 40k, but as mentioned before are much weaker.
[[Khorne]] mostly just watches his servants fight each other and sometimes other factions when that shit gets boring. Loves trapping his champions in time loops where they kill their older selves. <br/>
[[Nurgle]] loves Isha from afar, who may be unaware he even exists. He maintains a circus (a literal circus, with tents and candy and performers and clowns) which travels through the Old World, bringing in plagues and taking in followers. <br/>
[[Tzeentch]] doesn't do jack shit. EVER. He doesn't own a monopoly on bird iconography as that's mostly owned by mortal gods like [[Morr]] and [[Morai-Heg]]. The Chinese siphon magic from him without retaliation. His champions are mostly stuck being the spellcasting bitch to whatever Everchosen or other god's champion didn't take a wizard in their army list. As a result, he likes to spread rumors like "all magic is me!" and "everything is going according to plan" despite everyone calling bullshit and his prophesies actually being wrong most of the time.<br/>
[[Slaanesh]] spends most of his time corrupting individuals in the Empire and High Elves for shits and giggles, as well as watching his champions wander the world and do stupid shit like it's a giant reality show. He likes to try to nab elf souls like his 40k counterpart, but instead of mindlessly eating them he makes quite a few of them Daemonettes. He also has a permanent scar, no matter what shape he takes, because Khaine fucked him up good. <br/>

There's a multitude of other gods as well, including multiple Chaos Gods of Order. To those who claim that makes no sense, remember that Chaos is pure potential, not contradictory pants-on-head retardedness that you can't comprehend (although it certainly becomes that often enough). One of them blesses Witch Hunters and other forms of Inquisitors in their fights against everything Chaos (so like [[Malice]], but without malice). Another is a Snow White figure, being locked in a glass coffin in stasis by Tzeentch and dropped in the mortal world because he's terrified of her.

Daemons themselves tend to be fucked over royally as they can be perma-killed in Fantasy in various ways, and are VERY prone to being used as the power source for magical artifacts and weapons.

====Beastmen====
[[File:BeastmenChallenge.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Horns, sharp teeth and hooves, oh my!]]
{{Main|Beastmen}}

Representing the non-Skaven Chaos mutants of the world, Beastmen are a group of pagan style animal mutants living in the forests and wilderness of the world. Beastmen are wild and crude creatures embodying all the negative aspects of animals combined with human-level intelligence. They are truly repugnant to behold, let alone to smell, for they are a twisted reflection of the base and barbaric aspects of nature. Beastmen are Neutral Evil to the core, the only thing stopping them from being Chaotic Evil is their reverence of Bray-Shamans and the Chaos Gods. The carnage and despair they spread across the land is a malevolent and deliberate attempt to wreck anything beautiful or stable for the lulz. Bitterness and spite simmers in the heart of every Beastman; it takes little more than a few well-chosen words to spur a Gor into a frenzy of unrestrained rage. The sounds of distant battle will cause a Beastman to prick up his tufted ears in an instant; a fight or duel upon a woodland path will invariably bring dozens of Beastmen from all about in a very short space of time. Even when gathered in their torrid encampments the Beastmen spend their time fighting, fucking or feasting. The only time they don't is when a particularly strong Beastman knocks a sense of purpose into them (sometimes literally) or a Bray-Shaman calls on the Chaos Gods.

Beastmen HATE civilization. Anything that looks like it was made intentionally is broken, anything that can't be broken is tied to a stick and used as a weapon to kill the fuck out of more civilizationfags. Although Beastmen tend to come in specific flavors (Satyr, Minotaur, and Dire animals) they mutate even further into grotesque and scarred monsters of utter evil when they attract the attention of the Chaos Gods. Which they spend most of their time seeking to do in various ways, despite the fact that Chaos rarely if ever tosses them even a minor blessing.

So all in all, they're a race of furry [[Cultist-Chan]]s.

Three odd points in fluff relate to Beastmen; in one old story from White Dwarf, a human father spends time teaching his son how to survive in the forest using navigation, tracking, and fighting. Said son is revealed to be a mutant that the father is taking to the Beastmen, who accept him immediately. In another, Beastmen females are mentioned as existing (previously, the fact the only references were to males leading people to assume they breed through rape exclusively) and as being "extremely docile". Finally, in most Beastmen fluff it is mentioned time and time again how shit factors in heavily to their culture (literal fecal matter), and Beastmen smear EVERYTHING in it (This only showed up in the 7th ed book, but the pages are swimming in it. Make of that sentence what you will).
So while most fluff portrays them as monstrously evil and unsexy as possible, there's still bait for furfags!

===Lizardmen===
[[File:Lizardmen_Art_1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Life finds a ''fucking'' way.]]
{{Main|Lizardmen}}

The arch-enemies of Chaos. When the Old Ones first arrived on the world from nobody knows where, they created spawning pools that continually pump out Lizardmen.

The first type were the [[Slann]], who were Old Ones in miniature although greatly less intelligent (still LEAGUES above even elves though). The Slann were extremely magically gifted beings, and were the assistants to the Old Ones. They resemble grotesque and fat toad creatures who ride floating stone chairs like upright Jabba the Hutts with legs. The second type, the Saurus, were their muscle. Saurus have few thoughts beyond what they were created to do, and mostly exist as soldiers and guards. Finally, Skinks were made. Skinks are small chameleon-like humanoids who serve the Slann as assistants. They also created the kroxigor; large bipedal crocodile-like creatures designed for heavy lifting. The Skinks and Kroxigors have an affinity for each other, sharing similar birthing methods (see below) and both can breathe underwater (though the Kroxigors prefer to ambush their prey or enemies crocodile-style)

They live in the jungle kingdoms of Lustria and the Southlands, the former is so hostile to non-Lizardmen it's said to be the most dangerous place in Warhammer outside the Chaos Wastes. Their culture and society are heavily based off the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. If that offends you, you're playing the wrong game and it's hard to believe you've read this far already.

They have, and seek out, thousands of writings from the Old Ones inscribed on golden tablets which the Slann spend most of their time poring over in an attempt to discover what the next move against Chaos should be or what the Old Ones wanted to do that hasn't been done yet. However, the Slann have...difficulty in this endeavor, and are prone to interpreting "Milk, Eggs, Butter, Bacon" as "Destroy the Dwarfs, Make Party Hats For Amazons, Do the Dinosaur, Have A Skaven and Manflesh Barbecue". Another problem is the material. The Lizardmen use gold for their plaques because it doesn't deteriorate and a humid, tropical jungle is not a place where paper can be safely preserved (the bright color would also make them stand out among foliage, making them easier to to find). But the other races see their color and shininess for its aesthetic value and decide to take them for themselves. To say the Lizardmen don't like anyone else touching their plaques would be like saying that Khorne has a bit of a temper.

They have the most powerful wizards and one of the most powerful fighting units, including Stargate-style magitech that they use as altars which shoot lasers.

Some could argue that they're furfag bait for the scalies. They can just fuck right off 'cause Lizardmen are awesome, and no scalie shit here; they're as ugly and unappealing as real lizard people would be, and have no genders as they walk out of magic spawning pools as adults. In fact, the few Lizardmen who learned about genders and sex (from human guests they were interviewing) considered it weird and irrelevant to their interests.

In the modern canon, most of the Slann are dead and they can no longer be spawned as their specific Slann-spawning pools were destroyed by Daemons. Not 'undead' Slann, just dead. Except for [[Lord Kroak]], but he doesn't really count as [[Emperor|his body is 100% dead despite his spirit just refusing to leave it]].

Oh, and if you haven't figured it out by now they are dinosaur men that ride dinosaurs such as Therapods, Thyreophorans and Ceratopsians. Who would have guessed. In fact one of said therapod species, the Carnosaurs, were dangerous enough to threaten and scare DRAGONS despite lacking wings or a breath weapon; there's no dragons in Lustria because the Carnosaurs hunted them to the point that the surviving dragons fled and settled elsewhere.

===Undead===
Much like Chaos, these guys used to be one army but have gotten split up into two. NOT ANYMORE! Now you can combine them in in a single army led by nagash!

====Tomb Kings====
[[File:M1650075a P1Mb1.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Egyptian, sentient skeletons, yet still both spooky and scary.]]
{{Main|Tomb Kings}}

The undead people from the ancient civilization of Nehekhara (Not-Egypt). How ancient? Before Sigmar lived and most humans considered the bow and arrow an innovative new weapon, Cathay was new to the civilization thing and didn't have a Dragon Emperor, Bretonnia, Giants, and Skaven didn't exist, Skytitans still roamed the Mourn Mountains, The Great Maw didn't exist, Tylos was the only city in the Old World, Dorfs were in their prime and friends with Elves, and Elves were still one race and were only then achieving the level of technology they've spent most of their history stuck at.

Nehekhara had all the best aspects of ancient Egypt and Middle-Eastern civilizations; they had many things such as golems, huge wonders, light systems, chariots, and even hot-air balloons! Most of their history was spent like Mesopotamian history, with each city being a kingdom ruled by one monarch (usually, but not always, male). Said kingdoms warred with each other constantly. Then, one day, a badass was born. [[Settra the Imperishable|Settra]] managed to unite the entirety of Nehekhara under his rule, but became obsessed with death because it would stop him from getting shit done. He commanded his priests discover immortality, and although they failed in this they figured out ways to preserve the body with the soul within and the flesh un-damaged. They entombed him this way for storage until they discovered a way to give their kings living flesh of gold.

The cities immediately become independent again, warring with each other but now building fuckhuge tomb cities to house all dead Nehekharans in suspended animation that were larger than their living cities.

Eventually, Nehekhara produced [[Nagash]], the Warhammer Fantasy answer to [[Sauron]] and [[Vecna]], who killed his brother and became fantastically evil until the cities united against him and forced him into the desert. After deciding that dying was for suckers and turning into a skeleton, he found that centuries has passed and some little punk ass upstarts calling themselves "vampires" had read his diary. He told them to make themselves useful and keep the humans away while he tried to figure out a way to make the whole world into undead skeleton slaves in one spell. Then shortly after, humans defeated his army and entered his sanctum; he unleashed what he had of his spell, killing EVERYTHING in Nehekhara before he was beaten. This awakened the entombed kings, who were fucking PISSED to find their empire had disintegrated. But on the plus side, they were still "alive" and Tomb Kings cannot perma-die so they had obtained the immortality aspect at the very least. They also had the people who had died in their time period as servants still, who despite still having souls lost much of their sapience (as the degree to which they survived depended greatly on how well they were preserved) so many of them (but FAR from all) became semi-mindless robot-like skeletons animated only by the order of their King.
So immediately all the Tomb Kings went back to war, but this time in a far worse way; every child who had EVER lived was now alive again, with thousands of generations of spoiled manchildren fighting for a single fucking throne in a single fucking city, as well as being pissed about later TK's looting the tombs of their ancestors for their own ones.
The priests of all the generations realized shit was going nowhere fast (as nobody can perma-die) and awakened Settra. Settra immediately slapped everyone's collective shit, and although everyone swears allegiance to him they still fight like punks constantly.
Generally speaking, all Tomb Kings (other than [[Queen Khalida]], who HATES vampires) give no fucks, shits, or damns about the outside world. Mostly. They are also very rich because being undead means they don't have to worry about buying food, medicine or things to impress potential sexual partners. Because mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the mummies a nice option of veteran human troops as well; there's also the added bonus that unlike vamps (see below), the Tomb Kings won't ever turn the mercs into snacks.

Now they're armies of skeletons (on foot, horse or chariot) led by Egyptian mummies! With Anubis warriors and BONE SCORPIONS! Their artillery are MUTHA FUCKEN SKULL CATAPULTS! If you take a shot every time you see a Khopesh or read the word in relation to Tomb Kings, you'll pass out drunk before you're done. Plus their elites ride around on snake statues or GIANT STONE LOLCATS that breath fire and crush stuff. They even have GIANT GOD STATUES that shoot DEATH LASERS from their eyes and give <s>their gods</s> Nagash a live-action feed of what's going on in the world. Some Tomb Kings even have skull-covered rip-offs of the Ark of the Covenant holding the souls of slain enemies that they use to kill more enemies.

So totally fucking awesome.

====Vampire Counts====
[[File:M1037820 VampireCounts cover.jpg|thumb|right|450px|Nothing says [[Slaanesh|"shoot me with that big-ass cannon of yours"]] like bright red armor in an army of grimy, thin skeletons.]]
{{Main|Vampire Counts}}

Vampires. But not the Twilight kind, nor the Interview kind (for the most part).
Straight up Gothic Horror vampires. As in, still cool.
So a long time ago, during the time of ancient Egypt (pre-Tomb King) there was an evil bisexual queen. She stole the first Necromancer/Lich's autobiography, and invented a drink that turns humans into vampires.
She let her court all take a sip, then they acted like a bunch of little shits until all of Egypt united against them. They tried to ally with the NecroLich, but <s>lost the big battle</s> pussied out and fled to the Old World.

Those vamps all founded Bloodlines, which make up most of the race.
The first group is those lead by the queen which created vampires, the [[Queen Neferata|Lahmians]]. Mostly consist of magic-using spy vampiresses (and some of their gay friends) who are controlling the world like Illuminati.
The second are the Hills Have Eyes/The Descent vampires, who after years of being the whipping boys of fate as well as getting tortured and fucked over by every human and other vampire they met, turned into the vampire equivalent of ghouls. They as a result mostly hang out with ghouls. They are the [[Ushoran|Strigoi]]. The saner ones behave a lot like Nosferatu.
The next are lawful evil/neutral badass vampire knights who ride around looking for a challenge, and fight anyone they think is worth fighting. They are the [[Abhorash|Blood Dragons]].
Next is the [[W'soran/Melchior|Necrarchs]], who mostly look like Nosferatu vampires. They are the mad scientist Bloodline, spending centuries trying to come up with new kinds of Flesh Golems and similar atrocities to create. Mostly end up as sidekicks to the other Bloodlines.
Finally, the true Dracula Bloodline; the von Carsteins. Only appearing in recent history, [[Vlad von Carstein]] and his wife [[Isabella von Carstein]] attempted to get elected as Emperor of the Empire through political manipulation, and having failed that, attempted to take over by force. After the two were beaten, one of their turned "sons" [[Konrad von Carstein]] tried to destroy the Empire, but lost in an embarrassing way since he was fucking insane and dumb as a rock. Finally, [[Mannfred von Carstein]] took control of the Bloodline and repeatedly has tried to destroy the Empire. Although Manny keeps losing, he's dedicated himself to Nagash and has finally started getting to be a bigger threat to the world. As a result of this, the von Carsteins have become the posterboy army for the Vampire Counts, who are the villains when Chaos isn't.

All of the Bloodlines can raise hordes of undead, and use shit like Zombies, Ray Harryhausen Skeletons, and Ghouls as soldiers. They also bring along ghosts, and giant fucking bat monsters of different kinds. Also, bats are EVERY-FUCKING-WHERE, and not the kind that scare you when you open the closet, then fly of into the night - think piranhas with wings and a fucking attitude (which vary in size from the size of your hand to the size of a car). Creepy as all fuck. No Anne Rice, ''Angel'' bullshit, these guys are fucking evil. While they won't save you from being hit by a car, they will creep into your room at night... only to throw you out the window before draining the blood from your loved ones while their zombie driver runs you down with a car. They are also very rich because they don't have to buy food and interest rates on savings accounts add up over a few centuries of undeath. Since mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the vamps a nice option of veteran human troops as well, with the benefit that some vampires '''might''' exercise enough restraint to not turn the living troops into snacks or mindless undead.

So, our conclusion is that Vampire Counts are fucking badass.
According to an ongoing poll in /tg/ Warhammer Fantasy Generals, Vampire Counts come in as the #1 most played army.

===Skaven===
[[File:39-Skaven Jungle.jpg|thumb|left|400px|The [[grimdark]] version of Ratatoille.GET MAN -THING!]]
{{Main|Skaven}}

Technologically advanced rat people.
Created when the [[Horned Rat]] decided to become a Chaos God and mutated a group of humans. He has spent most of his time since hiding in a nest, and sometimes popping into the mortal world to eat a few of his servants.
Again, no furry shit here. These guys are ugly, fucking foul creatures who keep their women folk, otherwise known as "their bloated, scab-ridden, nipple-covered, maggot-like baby factories" locked away for the sole purpose of mass-reproducing thousands upon thousands of future vermin-men.
Ew.
The leaders of the species are a motley bunch, composed of batshit crazy scientists, ninja-like assassins, and bio-terrorists. Everything else is either slave cannon fodder or a mutant abomination.

They love their hordes almost as much as they love their World War 1/2 style tech that's powered by pure Chaos energy. Also, puns. Fucktons of puns come with these guys, they love their puns. They're all addicted to warpstone, which is pretty much a combination of dark magic, radioactive waste and [[Doomrider|cocaine.]] They made a nuke once, but it failed to detonate and now it sits under the biggest city in the Empire. Most of their schemes (they love scheming!) involved taking down the humans and conquering the world. They keep the races of the world fighting to keep anyone from becoming too powerful, and they consider it rude and perverse to NOT backstab someone (regardless of whether it fucks themselves over later or not).
They're like a cross between Pinky and the Brain, the rats from Redwall, & the rats from NIMH, (but with flame throwers, tesla coils, thousands of minions, and no arsing about on the subject). Also, [[DOOMWHEELS|WEAPONIZED HAMSTER WHEELS.]]

Their technology is mainly grasped through warpstone which will power their machines or devices, they almost always rely on warpstone to power their devices or fuel them. Each clanrat belongs to a clan, and their location are found all over the old world. Many are located in Skavenblight (The largest shithole in the Old World) which is their capital city or what ever thing you call what rats live in. Not all Skaven clans live in Skavenblight; most skaven clans live in lairs which are located all over the ol world, some like Clan Scurvy are located on the many oceans of the Old World, or be like Clan Skrapp and live in the blighted marshes. How the fuck they manage to pull it off but some clans live in fucking volcanoes and use obsidian weapons which is pretty cool. There is a lot of more information about Skaven clans available in the codex and heraldry books, which considering my fingers hurt from typing i suggest you move your fa/tg/uy ass to read. Skaven love screeching things as loud as they can, and they say verbs (or just plain words they like) twice. Since they respect no other race as worthy of life, they call other races "things".
Example: "MOVEMOVE, WE MARCH! ONWARDS TO KILLSLAY THE MANTHINGS AND THE DWARFTHINGS!"

They have also now kind of taken over the [[Awesome|WHOLE UNIVERSE]] and according to one [[Age of Sigmar]] drawing, the [[warp]] is a VERY VERY BIG RAT.

===Orcs and Goblins===
[[File:Bd7b78634da60515f8b7bb89a42cc72a.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Orc is spelled with C, for *crunch*.]]
{{Main|Orcs & Goblins}}

You've all seen the [[Orks]] and [[Gretchin]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]]. Orcs and Goblins are much the same, except here the goblins represent a full half of the army. Or perhaps we should say that the Orks are much the same as the Orcs, since it was the Orcs who came first.
Now add trolls and giants and occasionally ogres into the mix as well. Except here they have Night Goblin Fanatics popping out of the ranks, which could cause your deathstar unit to panic off the table if it wasn't for the cavalry driving them out first. Because you took light cavalry, right?

There's not much to say other than that. They spend most of their time trying to wipe out Dwarfs. Humans dislike them, High Elves are trying to [[Exterminatus|wipe them out]], Lizardmen were tasked with wiping them out by the Old Ones, Tomb Kings hunt them for sport, Strigoi vampires fucking HATE them since they caused their fall from grace, Warriors of Chaos dedicated to Khorne know no shame greater than being beaten by them, [[Gork]] and [[Mork]] are totally real beings who beat the shit out of Khorne once, and there's goblins who worship Spiders in Athel Loren.

===Ogre Kingdoms===
[[File:Thundertusk miniature model ogre artwork.JPG|thumb|right|235px|Brain over brawn, brawn over brain... Well know that it's really blubber over everything.]]
{{Main|Ogre Kingdoms}}

FUCKHUEG sumo wrestler-types with [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katanas]], frying pans strapped to their gullets and a [[Neckbeard|mean streak as big as their enormously fat asses]]. Will eat ANYTHING, including all the courses at a restaurant, the plates, the table, the chef and the fucking bundle of forks (and if they're still feeling peckish, the waiter too).

They ride large beasts resembling mammoths and saber-tooth tigers. They think with their stomachs, which shows how fucking intelligent they are, plus their shaman-cooks use a very specific "gut magic", that mostly consists of shoving all kinds of inedible stuff down their own throats. Each and every one of the fuckers is obsessed with stuffing his face full o' your innards. Heck, they even worship a giant, fuck-off sky mouth. Ogres are often considered to be a "neutral" army and can end up fighting for any side since they hire themselves out as mercenaries to whoever can pay them in piles of [[List of /tg/ Cuisine|food]].

The last race created by the Old Ones, the one that could have actually beaten and destroyed Chaos, they were left unfinished (mostly mentally) in an environment that couldn't support them. As a result, they spread all over the world and now work for and with (and against) every single faction in the game. Along with the Skaven, the fact Ogres fight everywhere is what enforces the status quo of the canon.

==Meta History==
[[File:Warhammer History Shorthand.png|thumb|right|500px|tl;dr]]

===Prehistory===

===Proto-Warhammer===

===1e===

===2e===

===3e===

===4e===

===5e===

===6e===

===7e===

===8e===

===[[The End Times]]===

This period is also known as when everything literally goes tits up. Games Workshop, fed up of being the players whining that the game was stuck dead in its canon, said "enough" and decided to give the players what they wanted. Thus did they make the End Times towards the end of the 8th edition, a supplement to existing armies which fluff-wise tells how everything is now moving to a grand finale. Check out the [[The_End_Times|End Times]] page for more details, but to summarise:

- Mannfred von Carstein resurrects Nagash, making a world conquering host of the undead while also slowly becoming an ultimate god of death and undeath with eyes on the prize of kicking the chaos gods out of the warp and taking their place. In order to do this, he nerfed the Tomb Kings and absorbed them into the Vampire Counts to create his own army - '''the Undead Legion'''.

- The Empire has been overrun by the forces of Chaos, but at the last moment Karl Franz becomes the living avatar of Sigmar and the wind of heavens and burns all Chaos from Altdorf to pieces. Much later on, he is revealed not to be an avatar of Sigmar but Sigmar himself.

- The Orks and Goblins do what they always do and get ready for a big fight, wiping out the Chaos Dwarfs and several minor human kingdoms.

- Malekith turns out to be the rightful king of the elves, and following a civil war culminating in the deaths of several Elf gods the three Elf races have reunited into a single force. The Vortex is unbound, Ulthuan and Naggaroth have respectively sunk and been overrun by Chaos, and now all the elves are living together in Athel Loren. Teclis reveals his master plan to bind the Winds of magic into specific people. These Incarnates would be empowered by their respective Winds to the point where they can stand a chance against the full power of the Chaos Gods.

- The Dwarfs can't decide what the hell they are doing besides chewing their beards and drinking at first, but eventually end up joining the Empire.

- The Skaven have [[Tyranid|nommed]] pretty much all the minor human kingdoms and are rising in one super ratty horde to take over the world. They also '''blow up the Chaos Moon''' in a display of awe-inspiring idiocy that horrifies even the Daemons of Chaos.

- After most of the Lizardmen sacrifice themselves stopping most of the Warhammer world from becoming a smoldering crater, the survivors go 'fuck this' and fly off into space.

- The Ogre kingdoms have blown up with every volcano erupting at the same time and so they are mass-migrating again.

- Everyone who isn't with Chaos is forced to join their forces with the Incarnates in a last stand at Middenheim, where a third Warp Gate was hidden. Mannfred ruins the ritual that would have saved the Warhammer world from annihilation, and the Chaos Gods manifest to personally fuck everything up. The world is destroyed, and the stage is set for [[Age of Sigmar]].

==The World That Was==
In [[Age of Sigmar]], the age of Warhammer Fantasy is referred to as "The World-That-Was". Despite what you may think, it's actually kind of common knowledge in-universe that there was another existence before the Realms of Age of Sigmar, sort of in the same way that most know that [[Lizardmen|dinos]] ruled the Earth before mammals took over. Remnants of Warhammer Fantasy exists here and there, either like forgotten scraps of roastbeef between the teeth of the Chaos Gods or just as reformed ruins of what existed once. There may also be hints that the reason why Age of Sigmar doesn't deviate too much design-wise from Warhammer Fantasy is because the World-That-Was isn't a forgotten world by many of the gods and creatures that exists now (it's not because we just reuse the old models for AoS, we swear). To be fair there are many from Warhammer Fantasy who made it to AoS and would definitely remember those days.

Recently the World-That-Was is being referenced more and more, becoming more relevant for the overall plot of Age of Sigmar. The Malign Portents plot pretty much directly references Nagash' way of dealing with all problems way back when; with huge-ass black pyramids that get fucked over by oversized vermin.

The [[Warhammer Community]] team also uses the World-That-Was whenever they reference Warhammer Fantasy. Maybe they fear that Warhammer Fantasy will appear if you beckon it or something like Candlejack, Bettlejuice or Bloody Mary.

===The Old World (Full Circle)===
On November 15 2019, Warhammer Community revealed the existence of a new game called [[Warhammer: The Old World]]. While nothing has been seen of it beyond a logo, it has been explicitly stated to take place in the World-That-Was. Although it is unlikely to be released anytime soon by their own admission, the fact that Fantasy may be making a comeback is shocking in itself.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/03/23/the-old-world-ice-guard-of-kislevgw-homepage-post-4fw-homepage-post-2/ The first preview] showed Geedubs is making changes for The Old World instead of just bringing back Warhhammer Fantasy as it was by bringing back [[Kislev]] with new units, which wasn't an army since 6th edition. We already have a fan debate too, as many consider the ONE piece of art we've seen to be "Too AOS-y".

==The appeal of Warhammer Fantasy==
Some works of fiction are serious and many serious works are calm, subdued and dignified, giving events the gravity of all their implications. Some works of fiction are over the top and have a tendency towards being farcical and easy going were things often might not make sense, but you roll with it for a laugh. Warhammer manages to be both largely Serious and Over the Top at the same time. It can pull off outright farce, over the top heavy metal action, subtle academic humor and dark fantasy melodrama without missing a beat, and that's not even the truly impressive part! That's that WFB combines all of these facets constantly without diminishing any of the individual themes. You see a [[Lizardmen|fat aztec frogman]] blast a [[Lord of Change|blue, flaming hellchicken with a staff]] while fast asleep, and there's nothing wrong with it! But imagine something like that in [[LOTR]]; that shit just wouldn't fly.

It does in Fantasy because the Serious is Over the Top and silly, while the Over the Top stuff is taken seriously. Unlike 40k, Fantasy isn't overtly a pastiche of tropes and a parody of so many things - it is a coherent world where things matter. Small enough that individuals can make a mark on the world and their heroics can change the course of history, but large enough that it can be filled with all sorts of beings and cultures.

In addition, Warhammer was made by History Nerds for History Nerds. It appeals to the sort of person who, when asked "''what do you think about the middle ages''?" would reply "''where and what century''?". The world is old, and the history is actually pretty detailed for the factions for whom history matters, like the [[High Elves]], the [[Dwarfs]] and [[The Empire]]. The development of the factions in the world matters quite a lot and the ramification of wars in the past affect the world in the present. The culture of the factions in play wasn't just invented because it's cool; they developed over time, and for most of it, in a way that makes sense.

In contrast to 40,000, Fantasy is a bit less grimdark. Not because of the villains (who are about as bad; which is to say, very fucking bad) but because the heroic side is a bit more genuinely heroic. Even though they may be assholes, they still face great and terrible threats for the good of [[Karl Franz|the nation]], [[Teclis|the world at large]] and their [[Gotrek & Felix|friends]]. They're not all [[Sisters of Battle|catholic]] [[Inquisition|space nazis]] indoctrinated to do what they are needed to do; they're people, real humane people with human desires - and that includes pretty much all the mortal creatures in the setting.

Take [[Volkmar|Volkmar the Grim]]. This is a dark character, entirely dedicated to his faith to a fanatical level. He burns heretics, bashes cultists and doesn't afraid of anything - but his faith is genuinely good in nature. He protects the Empire because he loves it and the people in it, and while he may disagree with the followers of Ulric, he recognizes them as allies in the fight [[Chaos|against the true evil.]] Shit, he has a hunk of ''concentrated fucking evil on his chest'' at all times, and it doesn't affect him at all - as in, no mention that he may be getting crazier with age or that he makes deals with entities no one knows about. Nope, he's just that fucking dedicated to his faith and genuinely believes in it with the full, naked force of the human soul and heart. ''That's'' a proper Warhammer Fantasy character - skilled beyond belief and likely pretty darn grim or extreme, but with an edge of humanity and personality. They aren't just a [[Mephiston|vessel for a cool trope]] or [[Creed|an exemplar of the faction they represent]], but a fully-fledged character with needs and wants, tempered with a heroic choice to sacrifice personal safety to change the world.

==Tabletop==
===Gameplay===
''Warhammer'' is a tabletop wargame where two or more players compete against each other with "armies" of 20 mm - 50 mm heroic scale miniatures. Games may be played on any appropriate surface, although the standard is a 6 ft by 4 ft tabletop decorated with model scenery in scale with the miniatures. If you're [[Games Workshop]]'s bitch-boy and have no imagination of your own you will buy the ridiculously overpriced [[Citadel Miniatures|Citadel]] [[Realm of Battle]] tabletop and have a scenery collection made of boring plastic pieces bought entirely from GW, but REAL players make their own gaming tables (saving a fuck-ton of money in the process). Games Workshop used to encourage this until they sold their souls for money.

Gameplay follows a turn structure in which one player completes all movement for troops, then simulates casting spells (when spell-using units are available), uses all ranged or missile weapons in the army such as bows and handguns, then any units touching fight in melee or close-combat. After finishing, the second player does the same. The winner is often determined by victory points; earning a number equal to the value of enemy units killed. Special objectives can add or subtract from this total based on predefined goals, usually holding parts of the battlefield or killing powerful units (such as the enemy general).

===Magic===
Perhaps the thing that separates ''Warhammer Fantasy'' from ''40k'' the most, aside from the obvious, is the use of magic. Each army (with the exception of the dwarfs) has at least one unit that can use magic, often in the form of an independent wizard. When magic units are present on the battlefield, they're given their own turn separate from the shooting, moving and melee phases to cast their spells. There are several kinds of magic but most magicians are able to use only a single form.

* Dark Magic, used by Dark Elves and Wood Elves
* High Magic, used by the [[Slann]], Wood Elves and the [[High Elves (Warhammer)|High Elves]].
* Nehekharan Incantations, Used exclusively by [[Tomb Kings]] Liche Priests and High Liche Priests (and Settra)
* Light: Wind of Hysh, Lore of Light. Basically healing and shit, plus doing extra damage to daemons and undead.
* Gold: Wind of Chamon, Lore of Metal and Alchemy. Basically armour buffs and debuffs, with their offensive spells doing more damage the higher your armour save is. [[Troll|Problem, Knights?]]
* Jade: Wind of Ghyran, Lore of Life. Basically lots and lots of buffs, making your own units harder to kill. They look like hippies, but don't tell them that, [[RAGE|they'll fucking murder you]].
* Celestial: Wind of Azyr, Lore of the Heavens. Lets people tell the future and stuff, plus they can summon lightning and meteorites that really hurt flying units.
* Grey: Wind of Ulgu, Lore of Shadows. Basically misdirection and illusions, relying on Leadership tests. They can also teleport every time they use a spell.
* Amethyst: Wind of Shysh, Lore of Death. Basically the Lore of Fire, except more killy and shorter-ranged.
* Bright: Wind of Aqshy. Lore of Fire. Basically the ammunition of the Fire obsessed psychopaths known as the Bright Wizards.
* Amber: Wind of Ghur, Lore of Beasts. Basically a Radagast rip off. WHO IS RADAGAST?!?!? [[The Lord of the Rings|RTFM!!!]]
* Daemon Magic: Used by... well, daemons. Broken into three categories - one for each of the gods that give a shit about lasers - [[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi]] [Indulgent, relies on enemy Ld], [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] [decay, revolves around enemy S/T scores], and [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] [OMG FIRES]. [[Khorne]] is too awesome for magic; he'd much rather crush skulls with his bare <s>thighs</s> HANDS and anything less makes you dangerously unmanly and at the absolute least bicurious.
* Necromancy: Used exclusively by [[Vampire_Counts|Vampires]] and Necromancers, as the name "Lore of the Vampires" would suggest.
* Spells of Plague and Ruin: used exclusively by the [[Skaven]].
* Gut Magic: Also known as the Lore of the Great Maw. Used exclusively by the Ogre Butchers.
* Waaagh Magic: Used exclusively by [[Orcs]] and Goblins. Comes in Big and Little flavors. Has a very high chance of making the user's head asplode.
* Athel Loren Magic: Used exclusively by Wood Elves. Moves forests, or move folks through forests.
* Ice/Winter Magic: Used exclusively by the Tzar of Russi- er, Kislev. It gets bonuses or penalties [[What|based on whether your models have snow on the bases and what the weather outside is like.]] Has since been discontinued for being as stupidly designed as it sounds.
* Lizard Magic: Used by [[lizardmen]], it has only one spell, called "Fuck you, I'm an Aztec dinosaur, therefore awesome."
* [[Chaos Gods#The Other Ones|Hashut]] Magic: Used exclusively by the [[Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Legion of Azgorh|Chaos Dwarfs]], the Lore of Hashut consists primarily of buffing spells that work well with the ungodly amount of flaming weaponry that the Chaos Dwarfs have access to.

[[Warhammer Magic]] is powerful, very powerful. A lone unit can wipe out half the opposing army with the right spell at the right time. Magic can also misfire, badly. This adds an element of unpredictability to its use, making it much more dangerous to the user and therefore, much less broken.

GW also recently released an expansion to WFB with a bigger focus on magic, called [[Storm of Magic]]. Which turns magic from regular broken into <s>DOUBLE</s> TRIPLE BROKEN, but misfiring will fuck your mage up in 12 different ways, [[lulz|and then Khorne will throw giant brass kull at him/her/it]].

==Significant Personage Of Warhammer==
* '''[[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]]:''' Born some random tribesman, <s>Conan</s> Sigmar united the squabbling human tribes in what would become known as the Empire and killed a ton of Orcs. Saved some random ass dwarf after this and the Dwarf High King gifted him Ghal Maraz, a super-duper powerful warhammer. Also the dwarfs helped him defend Black Fire Pass from a massive WAAAGH! . He was the first Emperor of the [[Empire]], but he got bored and disappeared on a journey to find something interesting to do. The Empire canonized him as a god, and today the Church of Sigmar is the largest and most powerful faith in the Empire (although only one among many). Some believed him to be one of the missing [[Primarch]]s, given how badass he was, but this has been disputed by newer [[fluff]] detailing his birth and family life. Returned during the End Times, and there was much rejoicing.
* '''[[Karl Franz]]:''' This guy is the current Emperor of the Empire. He owns Ghal Maraz now, as well as the biggest motherfucking <strike>Hippogryph</strike> Gryphon, named DEATHCLAW, who he rides while [[rape|assraping]] bitches who try to invade Imperial soil. And he has a fucking dragon. As of [[The End Times]], he was missing, but returned, was killed, and became [[Awesome|Sigmar-Jesus]].
* '''Magnus the Pious''': Greatest Emperor since [[Sigmar]]. Also one of the few who wasn't morally bankrupt.
* '''Volkmar the Grim''': Grand Theogonist of the Empire. Quite a stern faced fellow; he was once chained up to a daemonic standard by [[Chaos Gods|Be'Lakor]], but simply [[Awesome|broke himself off, murdered the daemons surrounding him, and marched through the Chaos wastes to get back to the Empire]]. <s>[[Derp|This has since been retconned]].</s> Not according to Chris Wraight's Sword of Vengeance. As reward for his sheer badassery, he gets captured by mannfred Von Carstein and is tortured until he is a mere shell of his former self. Arkhan the Black then uses his body as the vessel in which Nagash returns to the world in a ritual so sickening that even Mannfred feels bad for him. Truly grimdark.
* '''[[Gotrek & Felix]]''': Adventuring duo, have a lot of books based on them. Gotrek is a dwarf Slayer who is terrible at his job, because between his magic super-axe and ''insane badassery'' he's nigh-unkillable. Felix is some random bard who found a sword that really wants to kill dragons somewhere. Together, they <strike>fight crime</strike> look for something powerful enough to finally kill Gotrek. Gotrek tolerates Felix traveling with him because he needs someone to pen the mighty tale of his epic doom. In recent times their relation have come close to a bro-friendship and they trusts each other completely. While he's not in it for the chicks, Felix goes through them at a rate of 1-2 per two books. To put it simply if there is more than two of it Gotrek has probably killed one.
* '''Kurt Helborg''': Captain of the Reiksguard and [[Ultramarines|second to the Emperor]] in military terms. Also a badass moustache.
* '''Ar-Ulric Valgeir''': The Viking leader of the Cult to Ulric, the [[Spaaaaaace Wolves|wolf god]].
* '''[[Boris Todbringer]]''': The Elector Count of Middenland.
* '''Luthor Huss''': Crazy ass preacher. [[Awesome]] in the way to show the middle finger to those over-fat, political fuckwits of the Sigmar cult of the capital and take the "Fight Chaos to death" thing personally... with a huge hammer.
* '''[[Balthasar Gelt]]''': Empire Wizard, looks like Dr. Doom. Rides a white pegasus and wears such gaudy clothing that Lady Gaga looks frumpy by comparison. Possibly Elton John without the singing voice.
* '''Valten''': Reincarnation of Sigmar. Got ganked by a Skaven, probably Snitkch, but the lack of gore makes it hard to tell. RETCONNED! Now he is very much alive, and keeping the forces of the empire from being completely buttfucked by Archaon. Sad news is that still got ganked by Skaven...at least this time, he was sniped by a Verminlord while honourably dueling Archaon.
* '''Louen Leoncour''': King of [[Bretonnia]]. Believes in the Feudal system, also believes that a 300% tax rate for the peasantry promotes economic growth, also believes that knights are of infallible morality, also believes that guns are weaker than bows , also believes people of the Empire would prefer a system of governance that emphasizes crushing their hopes and dreams, also believes that a pig and 12 Bretonnian coppers (which exchanges for less than half an Empire copper on a good day) is an excessive reward for saving his nation. In the same support group for ludicrous theme naming as [[Canis Wolfborn]].
* [[Lady of the Lake]]: Creepy cannibal spirit of Bretonnia. A fine piece of ass regardless of diet. May be an elf in disguise.
* '''[[The Green Knight | Green Knight]]''': Bretonnian Holy Warrior and professional ass rapist. In the End Times he is revealed to be Guilles de Breton, founder of Bretonnia and basically their version of Sigmar.
* '''[[Katarin the Ice Queen]]''': Tzarina of Kislev. One of maybe a handful of people in the setting who can use Ice Magic.
* '''[[Teclis]]''': Mage of the High Elves. Pathetic weakling that drinks magic potions like an alcoholic and falls over in a breeze, although he's also one of the few non-Slann mages capable of nuking cities. Considered a Mary Sue by some but they are mistaken, his brother Tyrion is the Mary Sue. Teclis also taught the Empire how to use magic and founded their fancy colleges, being one of the few elves to realize and respect the potential of non-elves. Eldrad - dickery = Teclis. According to his cameo in the Gotrek and Felix series, most elf women are so-so towards him (being haughty bitches), but human women are wet for him. Becomes extremely grey in the End times and essentially Sacrifices his niece to Mannfred to allow Nagash to return, showing that he is very capable of eldrad levels of dickery.
* '''[[Tyrion]]''': Teclis' twin brother and a fuckawesome warrior. May in fact be aroused by killing; it's hard to tell because he won't stop to answer questions. Also happens to be a bigger Mary Sue than [[Kaldor Draigo]] and a bigger dick than [[Eldrad]]. For instance, in 'Blood of Aenarion' he matches veteran warriors with a blade even though he's young and barely practiced himself. Women flock to his bed ([[FATAL|including his own cousin]]) and everyone treats him like a hero even though he hasn't done anything heroic yet (being a descendant of one doesn't count, you have to earn it). Also has the supposed flaw of not being good at anything outside of war. "Supposed" because the flaw never affects him when it should harm him. Matt Ward, of all people, reduced his Mary Sueness a little by making him moody and giving him a short temper as early signs of Aenarion's curse.
* '''[[Ariel]]''': God Queen of the Wood Elves, revealed to be fucking Isha herself who was slowly wasting away as her daughter [[Lileath]] poisoned her with magical ice. Had fairy wings.
* '''[[Orion]]''': Consort King of the Wood Elves, revealed to be [[Kurnous]] AKA the father of all Elves and the wild manly forest beings. Rides through Bretonnia every summer and kills everybody who runs from him because...reasons! Looks like the child of a centaur and a satyr.
* '''[[Thorgrim Grudgebearer]]''': Dwarf High King, very angry, very angry indeed. He carries a book called "The Great Book of Grudges", where EVERY single fault aganist the [[Dorf]] people (THAT'S GOIN' IN THE BOOK, LADDIE!) is noted and taken into account when the time of skullcrushing comes, hence his angriness. He wants to avenge them ALL, and sort of cheats at it by considering all the Grudges fulfilled in the last battle between Chaos and the world it was consuming.
* '''[[Josef Bugman]]''': Dwarf brewer and 200% Awesome. After his brewery got burned down by some goblins he began an impossible mission to kill the tribe that decided the world didn't need anymore Bugman's XXXXX. Now he roams the world with his surviving employees and family fucking shit up. His booze is literally legendary, and possession of some is about on-par with having a giant magical sword forged by a Chaos God's buttcrack or what have you.
* '''[[Grombrindal]]''': The [[White Dwarf]] (yeah, he's the mascot of the Magazine). A mysterious warrior who was apparently friends with pre-charbroil Malekith and now fights endlessly against the enemies of Dorfkind by just appearing and helping out randomly. Like Kaldor Draigo, but as an undead instead of a mortal lost in the Warp.
* ''' [[Long Drong]]''': A Dorf pirate who was apparently important enough to get a unit, a part in the [[Awesome|all-destroying dwarf army of slayer flavoured-doom]]. He even got his own campaign book for God's sake! Why?!
* '''[[Lord Mazdamundi]]''': Most powerful and influential [[Slann]] alive, unnecessarily rides on a dinosaur and gets the bloated toad-alien equivalent to a raging hard-on every time he nukes a city and/or non-Lizardmen species into dust. Also leads the Lizardmen equivalent to the Klan and was one of the brilliant minds behind a plan for a redecorating of the world's volcanic system, this also resulted in the Dwarfs being marginalised close to the point of extinction. And then he fapped to it.
* '''[[Lord Kroak|Venerable Lord Kroak]]''': Most powerful and influential Slann formerly alive. Most powerful magic-user of the entire setting after the gods themselves, he has been dead for thousands of years and can't even move by himself. His corpse is taken in battle because he is made of localized nuclear explosion and levels cities pretty much every. fucking. turn. Probably the most powerful entity because even being a [[Emperor|dead, inanimate corpse,]] he has killed more shit than anyone else on this list, except for maybe Nagash, even then it's too close to make a call, except that he probably will kill Nagash if they meet and would just blink the guy out of existence if they had met when he was alive. He also gets bonus points for not having actually being reanimated, vampirised or any other kind of weird back from the death shit. He is straight up dead. And his rotting corpse is still more magic than the magicest anything else in the universe. In short, he's the grand toad poohbah of lizardkind, and he's on a hoverchair, kinda like a badassed version of [[Tau|Aun'Va]]. Not dissimilar to a Dalek in this regard.
* '''[[Archaon]]''': Lord of the End Time, the Ever Chosen and second most powerful warrior in the setting. Beat all four of the greatest Champions of the Empire in single fight during the Storms of Chaos Campaign But got bashed about badly by Grimgor who headbutted his teeth out of his face. Grimgor iz da best! Later on, he destroyed the world entirely.
* '''The [[Glottkin]] (Otto, Ethrac, Ghurk)''': Triplet sons who became Nurgle's top champions and mutated into a warrior, a smelly wizard, and a giant fucking blob of pestilence. Their parents were priests of Sigmar that tried to live among, and convert, the Chaos worshipers until they were murdered by the Empire by mistake, and the sons began looking for vengeance. Lucky for them, Archaon decided to make them his new vanguard and sent them to blow up the city of Altdorf. These guys are the basis of the second part of [[The End Times]] as the biggest threats of Chaos. Get beat pretty hard, turned into flies by Nurgle to save them but he put them in a jar as punishment.
* '''[[Wulfrik the World-Walker]]''': Chaos Lord, executioner of the Gods and consummate smack-talker of the Warhammer world.
* '''[[Aekold Hellbrass]]''': AWESOME Tzeentchian Champion.
* '''[[Arbaal the Undefeated]]''': All mighty Champion of Khorne. Another one of the greatest warriors in the setting. Obviously, being a favored champion of the Ultimate God of War. Was with Asavar Kul when Praag was destroyed, fled the battle after he died at Russia, likely to assume Khorne ain't very happy with him. Also destroyed the gates of Praag with a single strike from his sword. (badass) Angron probably got his inspiration from this guy. Is he as fun to be around as [[Kharn]]?
* '''[[Asavar Kul]]''': Greatest Champion of Chaos. Greatest warrior in the setting. Almost destroyed the Empire. 'Nuff said.
* '''[[Harry the Hammer]]''': Oldfluff character whose warhammer the setting is named after. Allegedly.
* '''Vardek CROM!''': Archaon's lieutenant and King of the tribe of Asavar Kul. Was man handled by Archaon once and beat Grimgor once.
* '''[[Chaos Gods#Be'lakor|Be'lakor the Dark Master]]''': The only Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided and chooser of the Everchosen....though not by choice. He's a scheming sonuvabitch that tries to kill every other champion of Chaos so he can get his parents' attention back. Oh, and he's also [[Warhammer 40K|in the spaaaaaace-future of the 41st millennium]]. Technically invented Chaos worship by being the first mortal in Fantasy to be uplifted by them, and served as the middle man between the material plane and Warp entities until the Chaos Gods discovered they could have their own champions rather than just sharing one. Has been a pissy fuck ever since.
* '''[[Valkia the Bloody]]''': The world's most badass woman and Khorne's personal bitch. A monster of a woman who killed so much that everyone's favorite Blood God got smitten and made her more than human. Now she chooses who lives and who dies to join Khorne in the afterlife.
* '''[[Grimgor Ironhide]]''': Orc Warlord, one of the most powerful warriors in the setting. Got his ass handed to him once by Archaon's lieutenant, Vardek CROM!!! Grimgor swore to prove he was the best in any case and did it beating Archaon himself in singular duel (via headbutt to the Chaos-armored testicles). Was determined to be the avatar of [[Gork]] himself. One of the most badass robots from [[Transformers]] was named after him.
* '''[[Skarsnik]]''': Head of the [[Night Goblins]], intent on taking over the Eight Peaks and wiping out the Dwarfs. Extremely clever, extremely cruel even by Warhammer standards, but canonically loves his Squig companion Gobbla. He speaks several languages too.
* '''[[Wurrzag|Wurrzag, Da Great Green Prophet]]''': Orc Moses. Turns enemy Wizards into Squigs. His mental energy makes those he doesn't turn into Squigs suffer an improved chance of a miscast. Never stops dancing. EVER. On a lifelong journey to find the avatars of Gork and Mork. It actually took him awhile to figure out he needed to find two Greenskins instead of one. One was [[Grimgor Ironhide|an ultraviolent Black Orc]], the other [[Skarsnik|a tactically-brilliant Night Goblin]].
* '''[[Grom the Paunch]]''': Former Goblin Warlord. Famous for being obese, no joke. Also for near DESTROYING the Empire, oh, AND Ulthuan (imagine a Grot almost destroying Terra until he got bored and decided to destroy every Craftworld, almost succeeding). Not bad for a Gobbo. No one knows where is he now, <s>but it is unlikely that, whrerever he is, is alive (his wars was a hundred yeras before current era).</s> <span style="color:#80FF00">GROM LIVES, ya' git! An' when da waaaghboz returnz, wi'll stomp da humies an el's an' orcs fo' good! WAAAA-</span><span style="color:green">'''STOMP!''' Where ya been? Get back to camp an' start to load rukks in da... um... "thing", ya squishy git!</span>
* '''[[Thanquol]]''': Skaven grey seer and archenemy of Gotrek. He does lines of warpstone powder which is to cocaine what a monster truck is to a pair of baby's first rollerskates. Also he managed to escape from the prophet of Sotek, who after losing his sacrifice to his awesomic god, <strike>takes a nap</strike> meditates, despise the fact that he is a skink. Forever. Thanquol is such a colossal fuckup that it was determined the Lizardmen should let him live because he was ''that much'' of a liability to his own people. Spends all his time with his Frankenstein's Monster buddy [[Boneripper]].
* '''[[Deathmaster Snikch]]''': Skaven ninja-assassin. Uses three scimitars at once to lop off limbs from his target, doesn't so much as assassinate people as shred them into little pieces.
* '''[[Malekith]]''': Lord of the Dark Elves; master of Dark Magic, uses a shield that can asplode your brain from a distance, and rides a giant-ass black dragon. Still lives with his mom. Also considered a whiny emo git who costs so much no one will ever use the Malekeith on a Dragon model because they'd rather finish the game before the entropic heat death of the universe. GW retconned it so he was the chosen one and everyone who doubted him was wrong, making his transformation into Anakin Skywalker complete.
* '''[[Morathi]]''': Malekith's mom. In old editions she was the highest ranking Slaaneshi in the world and one of the primary players in the game of global domination; now she's just a crazy supreme witch with Alzheimer's who thinks everyone is her old hubby Aenarion. Fortunately, they fixed that in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|the video game]].
* '''[[Malus Darkblade]]''': The Starscream of Warhammer.
* '''[[Gorthor|Gorthor the Beastlord]]''': A Beastman Everchosen, one of a handful of Beastmen who successfully caught the eyes of the Chaos Gods in more than a passing capacity. Whipped up on the Empire for a while before dying. Depopulated the Drakwald while he was at it. Even by Beastmen standards this guy was a monster.
* '''[[Khazrak The One-Eye]]''': The most cunning Beastman. He and Boris Todbringer stabbed each other's eyes out, leaving one with an eyepatch and one with a constantly blood-and-puss bleeding empty socket. Hence his title, obviously. Loves messing with Todbringer.
* '''[[Morghur|Morghur, Master of Skulls]]''': A creature so close to Chaos that stuff he touches becomes [[Chaos Spawn|You-Know-Whats]]. He's classified as a Beastman, but that's mere approximation; it'd be more accurate to call him a pure, sentient mass of Chaos energy given flesh. Perhaps that's why he never stays dead?
* '''[[Nagash]]''': Supreme Lord and Creator of Undead, with his autographed book series inspiring the creation of Vampires by Neferata. Also [[Eldrad|Supreme Asshole]]. Was pissed his brother got to be Pharoah while he was stuck as a priest, so he tortured Dark Elves until they taught him black magic that he turned into the first true Necromancy. Killed his brother and got creepy with his brother's life, kept trying to take over Warhammer Egypt from his giant Warpstone flying pyramid and kept getting his ass kicked because Chaos, humanity, and even Skaven were all afraid that he'd become supreme ruler of reality if left un-sabotaged/smote. Supposedly the strongest wizard ever, has fought Sigmar himself and almost won. Became the supreme god of death by becoming Death itself via making death magic his bitch/part of his soul, now gets every soul that Chaos doesn't.
* '''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Nagash's right-hand man. Spent his life in defending Nagash and was resurrected to continue doing it as a skeleton sorcerer. nlike Mannfred, he's serving Nagash out of loyalty that didn't even end in death although in some versions he's getting a bit tired of Nagash's abrasive personality. Had an on-again off-again romance with Neferata despite being a skeleton.
* '''[[Heinrich Kemmler]]''': An insane Necromancer who dabbled in all sorts of dark arts, eventually becoming a believer in Chaos. Was the very first still-canon Warhammer character ever created.
* '''[[Krell]]''': [[Chaos Lord]] turned undead Wight. Everyone thought he was a mindless minion of Kemmler, but he actually changed allegiance from Khorne to Nagash long ago.
* '''[[Queen Neferata|Neferata]]''': The first Vampire and last ruler of the ancient city of Lahmia. Militant bisexual necromancer with a spy network that goes around manipulating events across the world behind the scenes. Pays lip service to Nagash but wants to become a proper queen again. Tried to make her cousin Khalida a Vampire, caused Khalida to hate them as a result.
* '''[[Vlad von Carstein]]''': The first Von Carstein who almost became Emperor of the Empire but was betrayed by Mannfred. Husband of the original Vampire, but all of his character motivation is being a lovey-dovey couple with his new wife. Resurrected by Nagash in the End Times to continue making Mannfred look bad.
* '''[[Isabella von Carstein]]''': New wife of Vlad, helps keep him from going full-retard when he gets too pissed off and is a big part of his longterm planning but once he died the first time she suicided. Possessed by a Nurgle Daemon in End Times, Vlad killed himself again to use his ring to kill the Daemon but have her survive.
* '''[[Mannfred von Carstein]]''': Vampire Lord, a "son" of Vlad. Helped end Vlad's attempt at taking over the world with his involvement in the theft of the Ring of Supreme Badassery, traveled the world like Eurotrash then tried to launch a similar invasion of his own using the ring. Got his ass kicked, became a slave to Nagash to attempt to carve out his own chunk of the world but got pissed when Nagash resurrected Vlad to be the HNIC Old World Vampire. Decided to go full-retard and ended the world by stabbing one of the guys using magic to make it not get swallowed by the Warp. /tg/ calls him "Mannlet Von Carstein" to reflect his character motivation of having daddy issues.
* '''[[Konrad von Carstein]]''': Bat-Shit crazy Vampire Lord, "son" of Vlad. Not good with magic, after pissing off his Necromancers they abandoned him and the stress of controlling a zombie apocalypse made him lose his shit and wander off into a forest muttering to himself where he was promptly tackled by Gotrek and stabbed in the heart with the Elector Count of Ostland's Runefang by Felix. [[Twilight|Total "pants-on-head" retarded vampire noob.]]
* '''[[Settra the Imperishable]]''': Greatest of the Tomb Kings. Fights upon a pimped out chariot. Was offered literally everything by the Chaos Gods themselves if he'd serve, yelled "SETTRA DOES NOT SERVE. SETTRA RULES!" and decided to spend his unlife trying to fucking kill Chaos.
* '''[[Queen Khalida]]''': Freaky mummy-chick blessed with the powers of a snake. Fucking hates Vampires, before Twilight made that cool.
* '''[[Greasus Goldtooth|Overtyrant Tradelord Greasus Tribestealer Drakecrush Hoardmaster Goldtooth the Shockingly Obese]]''': A huge motherfucker that weighs more than a pile of corpses made from giants. He loves eating almost as much as he loves killing. His name is also really, really long. Ogres are impressed by his name and he probably gets a shitload of tail. But he's a huge lardass who costs 565 points and makes ogres more awesome and enemy units pant-shittingly stupid.
* '''[[Golgfag Maneater]]''': An Ogre mercenary, established the Ogre mercenary archetype and was the best Ogre [[Murderhobo]] there ever was. Notorious for doing pretty much everything. Example: your mom.
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]]''': A Skaven with surprisingly decent martial skill, bright red armour and a huge pole on his back covered in skulls. Warlord of [[Clan Mors]], the largest of the Clans that aren't the main four. His name sounds like Squeak, as GW still doesn't take the Skaven too seriously.

==See Also==
*[[Army compatibility between Warhammer settings]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YgLWdIjGE Song for Warhammer Fantasy]
*[http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page Warhammer Lexicanum (It is badly in need of more articles)]
*[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Category:Warhammer/Tactics Warhammer Fantasy Battles Tactics]
*[http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com (More prosaic than the Lexicanum, but strangely has content the Lex doesn't, and vice-versa)]

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}

[[Category:Wargames]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Games Workshop]]

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

2020-05-07T12:14:16Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* In A World Of War */

[[Image:WHFBlogo.gif|center]]
<br>
[[Image:Empire Daemons.jpg|lright|thumb|600px|Where SAN saves are automatically passed while your flag still stands. Where a single greenskin can beat Chaos Undivided at its strongest. Where Liches can order around Chaos Gods like bitches. Where American football takes precedence over ONLYWAR. This <s>was</s> '''IS''' Warhammer Fantasy.]]
{{Topquote|There was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars.|Robert E. Howard}}
{{Topquote|To this day, I have the most fond memories of some of my old toys.|Michael Keaton}}
{{Topquote|Every parting gives a [[The End Times|foretaste of death]], [[Total War: WARHAMMER|every reunion a hint of ]][[Warhammer: The Old World|the resurrection.]]|Arthur Schopenhauer}}
Warhammer is dead! Long live Warhammer! It has been replaced with [[Age of Sigmar]] by GW with a continuation of the canon storylines. For the supplement where the [[Squat|world is destroyed]], see [[The End Times]]. To see the fan revolt continuation of the game, see [[The 9th Age]] or [[Warhammer Armies Project]]. To see the video game adaption, see [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: Warhammer]]. There's also the [[Endhammer]] project.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/11/15/old-world-new-warhammer/ WARHAMMER LIVES!''' STOMP STOMP.''']

Warhammer Fantasy '''IS''' a traditional Fantasy world created in the days when metal hair was all the rage and Dungeons and Dragon was still a new and strange concept. A somewhat darker take on the age-old Fantasy set forth by earlier writers such as Tolkien where the forces of man are almost constantly on the defense, Fantasy is a place where MEN are MEN, and ELVES are MEN, and DWARFS are MEN-MEN, (and Skaven are Man-Things). The entire world is constantly saturated in ancient and warping magic to the point that giant skulls are natural formations in rock, flora sometimes grows eyeballs and genitals, nobody stays dead, and the whole planet is some part of the [[Old Ones]]' last-minute emergency anti-Chaos plan.
It also has many more dead-hard, beardy [[Vikings]] killing, raping, and pillaging.

==In A World Of War==
[[File:3697970-3704646247-Warha.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Back when [[Power Armor|unnaturally powerful armour]] was exclusive to the bad guys.]]
Warhammer is about peasants living in shit, dying in shit, and the thousands of perils that befall them. Which are often covered in shit. It is not a fun place to be, [[Warhammer_40k|though there are worse]]. You have the standard three races of human, elf and dwarf... and they are not a united front, the latter two even have their own [[Dark Elves|evil]] [[Chaos Dwarfs|off-shoot]]nations. Your average soldier of the Empire is armed with a sword, a musket, and maybe a uniform which comes with a cheap piece of armor that couldn't stop an untipped arrow. Thusly equipped, he is expected to go toe-to-toe with a Daemon. Or a 9-foot-tall daemonically enhanced steel/daemon/*insert Chaotic thing* [[Warriors of Chaos|metal clad super Viking]]. Or a giant, many of which prefer to stuff opponents down their pants or [[Ogre Kingdoms|boil you/mash you/stick you in a stew]]. Or a [[Lizardmen|battle-trained whatsit-a-saurus]]. Or a [[Skaven|rat-man armed with a flame thrower and a machine gun while leading a colossal goddamn steampunk frankenstein rodent abomination]]. Or a [[Beastmen|half man/half goat eight-foot-tall killing and raping machine]]. Or... well, let's just say nothing nice ever comes out of the Chaos Wastes. [[Humanity_Fuck_Yeah|And to top it all off, the madmen actually manage it!]] The one good thing for humanity is that the various factions and races have enough sense to set aside their differences to avoid total annihilation, and succeed at this with stunning regularity.

Of course, once the threat of turning into some Daemon's bitch passes, the various races get right back to smacking the living shit out of each other. Throw in lots of undead in Gothic and Ancient Egyptian flavors, ratmen, omnivorous in every sense of the word Ogres and a race of lizard precursors and we have our setting. However unlike the 40k counterparts, the Empire has ties to both elf and dwarf, both ties have grown stronger over the centuries and usually what gets the 2 races from tearing each other to pieces, in fact the Elves are the ones who taught humanity to wield magic, while the dwarfs taught them mechanics and engineering, which both have resulted in The Empire creating some pretty badass warmachines and devices.

In short, there is a thicker line in terms of Good vs Evil, sure its hindered by the dirty mistakes in the history of big 3 (Man, Dwarf, and Elf) but it's still so much better than the <s>xenophobic</s> righteous alien smashing of 40k.

==WFB crunch in a nutshell==
[[File:M2180130 P1Mb2.jpg|left|thumb|600px|Contrary to popular belief, engaging an enemy army from the flank isn't that good an idea. Makes for cool shots though.]]
As for actual tabletop performance, some argue WHFB requires more tactical skill from the player; however, this is probably because it's not as widely discussed and is more often played by an older audience that was introduced to the setting during the glory-years of the fantasy genre. The game certainly does require more memorization (or reference at least) of rules, although listbuilding factors in less than actual field tactics in comparison to other games (see [[Tarpit]]). Psychology is a major factor in Fantasy as few battles (barring Undead on Undead slapfests or Daemon infighting) will progress without something fleeing or even disintegrating due to a failed Leadership roll. Fantasy puts more models on the field, but most of them are rank and file redshirts. Perhaps most blessedly, Fantasy lacks the $400+ models other gaming systems do. If you want an [[Apocalypse]] level battle, you bring a fucking sea of 1 hit point soldiers lead by one single model so fucking badass that Kenshiro bows in respect as it passes him.

Magic is a big deal in the game, and has its own phase during each turn. Other than gentlemanly games between you and your opponent, you ARE taking a spellcaster even if their only job is to fuck up the enemy's magic phase (some armies in fact require a spellcaster in the army, both of them Undead armies requiring someone to keep the corpse feet-plodding). Models may gain positive effects, or more likely negative ones during the battle so notes may need to be taken beyond just Victory Points. You have to know the ins and outs of your troops, and you'd be better served knowing your enemy's rulebook as well since things don't change much in their roles in the battle. Planning is everything, but ultimately the field of battle is chaotic and thus you'll need to be able to adapt to win ([[Nurgle]] and [[Tzeentch]] enjoy the gameplay aspect of Fantasy in different ways).

As far as models go, Fantasy is a bit liberated. With no rules requiring measuring from a gun, or an exact model footprint, you instead rely on the plastic base as an indicator of who you're fighting and if you can be hit.
This means that the only requirement is to have a little plastic square or rectangle base in the correct size. What is actually ON that base doesn't matter, unless you play at a GW shop in which case the only requirement is that they made whatever is on that base. Want to play one faction, but you only own another? So long as your opponent isn't a dick you can just use your army as the army you want to play now. Fantasy has it literally stated in the rulebooks that it's a big world (same basic geography as ours, but scaled up to a ridiculous size of a planet) and thus there's plenty of unexplored places where anything is possible. So when you field your first army as your second, you can provide a legitimate fluff explanation (Vampire Dwarfs, Lawful Good Chaos Gods, redneck Elves, Undead who are not soulless killing machines but instead have simply had their invitation to your opponent's army to a Wednesday teatime rejected for the last fucking time, and so on).
Unit fillers are a popular option for people making a new army in Fantasy. Instead of buying 60+ foot soldiers for the army of your choice, you can buy some extra bases and glue them together (for example a 3 by 2 grouping of 6 bases) then put something on top of them (a balsa-wood cart, an older model from another edition that was removed, an army specific thing like a hole in the ground that appears to be where the Skaven are coming out from or a statue of a hero for Empire) and stick it in the middle of the group. Boom, instantly you have to buy 4-8 less troops. As for those "GW-made at GW shops" rules? Clip sprues, make a fence, glue it to a base. Voila, instant unit filler.

Fantasy models DO have to fit close together unlike models in other games, so they tend to be a bit less wild with poses (some see this as a plus). Big models tend to have a lot of detail, and almost no armies share models so there's quite a bit of variation on the field. Also there's generally less spikes everywhere, actual exposed breasts on some models, and FAR more skulls ([[Khorne]] and [[Slaanesh]] both approve!).

Those guys who made the Total War games have said that they'll make computer games based on it. Feel free to have a nerdgasm, or a [[Rage|RAGEGASM]], as <s>Creative Assembly</s> Sega [[Games Workshop]] has locked away every other faction besides Empire, Dwarfs, Bretonnia, Vampire Counts, Orcs & Goblins, and Chaos (if you were an early buyer of the game) behind a DLC paywall. But there are two or more legendary faction leaders which can change up the game. Either way, Warhammer fans who own it are fairly happy with it. Similarly, [[Blood Bowl]] was a specialist game set in an alternate universe where American football replaced war and has a vidya and a sequel, while the other specialist game [[Mordheim]] which was a skirmish game got the Xcom-like [[Mordheim: City Of The Damned]] that is available now on top of [[Man O' War: Corsair]] which is loosely based on the [[Man O' War]] tabletop (so out of a game about fleet management, you get the bastard offspring of Mount & Blade and Sid Meier's Pirates! somehow) that was launched as an alpha access game. On top of that, a hack-n-slash multiplayer game was made [[Vermintide]], where a marriage of the combat of Mount & Blade and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare meets the structure of Left 4 Dead to massacre Skaven.

==Setting==
Warhammer is, in most places, set in a period reminiscent of early Renaissance Europe, only much, much worse. If you know anything about history, you'll know that's saying something. Nearly everything has some kind of historical analogy, at least within the human nations. Everywhere is a shit place to live for one reason or another. [[Warhammer 40,000|But unlike a certain other setting]], this has a lot more to do with being subject to multiple clashing interests in the backstory, rather than thematic contrivances that are often poorly explained or barely touched upon.

As an interested note, the Warhammer world, or at least what remains of it in [[Age of Sigmar]], is named Mallus, which in GeeDubs latin would be "Hammer".

===Human nations===
====The Empire====
[[File:Empire-Halberdiers.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Human troops with Strength 4. Halberdiers motherfucker.]]
{{Main|The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)}}

The '''Empire''' is usually the center of attention in the Warhammer world. It's basically a fantasy version of the Holy Roman Empire, meaning its warriors are very angry Germans wielding swords, muskets, and bibles, as well as having [[METAL BOXES|steam tanks]] and magic. It is ruled by a mortal Emperor (who is succeeded upon death, meaning there's no need for a corrupt council to do anything more than annoy him). He is elected from amongst the ranks of the Elector Counts, who govern the different provinces of the Empire in their own special way and wield badass swords called Runefangs which represent their office (when a Runefang is lost, there's one less member of the council). They are the closest WHFB has to a "main character" faction. All good-aligned races usually converge around the Empire when shit hits the fan, and all Chaos-aligned races make a beeline praying for Slaanesh to guide their cocks into an un-lubed Kraut's cannonhole.

The first Emperor was a guy named [[Sigmar]]. He was fucking hardcore (think a combination of Thor, Charlemagne, and [[Conan the Barbarian]]). After becoming the head of his tribe, he made friends with the Dwarfs by saving their king by killing [[Orcs & Goblins|greenskins]] (all before he became an adult even). After that, the Dwarfs and Germans hung out a lot which resulted in Germans getting all the same advances Dwarfs make and pushing it even further because Dwarfs reserved about new things. Sigmar then brought the Polish and some Russians into his clan, and founded The Empire. Sigmar got involved in a war down in Egypt's analogue in the setting, Nehekhara, against the Undead which resulted in Sigmar making the decision that if he were ever being kept alive artificially he wanted the plug pulled. Eventually, Sigmar got bored with politics and pulled a walkout, heading eastwards to fight some new beasties...and was promptly never heard from again. For some reason, people began worshiping him as a god and now he is the main god in the Empire. However, the more reasonable conclusion is that he's long dead and Ulric, the number two god of the Empire and the god that Sigmar worshiped in life, handles the prayers of the Sigmarite priests, that or probably made Sigmar into a God after he died or when he reached the World's Edge Mountains in the east. Turns out he became a god through sheer force of will but got stuck in the wind of Azyr because of Tzeentch being a dick.
Although the Empire was, in large part, the inspiration for the [[Imperium]] in 40k, there are some major differences. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, [[xenos|the other races]] (like Dwarfs and High Elves) are not only accepted but considered trusted allies (despite being arrogant douches). Additionally, though kept on a tight leash, magic is largely accepted (thanks to the Colleges of Magic the Elves set up, so wizards don't accidentally summon daemons every five seconds), and the Empire is fully polytheistic (although worshiping gods that own property in the [[Warp|Realm of Chaos]] is still a big no-no, despite Witch Hunters doing it (he's a Chaos God of Order though, so it's alright)), although Sigmar is the patron deity of the Empire and generally given the most respect. Second is [[Morr]], who provides the mortal races of the world with a legit Chaos-free afterlife.
Also, all forms of [[Undead|Undeath]] are heretical, which is totally encouraged in the Imperium. The Empire isn't totally shit and if you can get a good job you can live a pretty good life, just keep a gun under your pillow every night.
They're even advancing pretty fast and, if it weren't for the constant Chaos and undead invasions, they'd probably be advancing into an Industrial Revolution right about now.

The Empire also counts the allied nation of [[Kislev]] among its forces as they supply it with cannons, and it supplies them with more men but especially lancer calvary. Kislev is mostly Russia during the era of Catherine the Great with a pinch of Poland mixed in, and consists of vodka swilling peasants armed with spears, lance cav and being lead by bear cavalry and their ice-wizard queen to defend the frost-covered land that never smiles. They are more prone to mutation due to living where the winds from the Warp Gates blows. The primary Kislevite battle tactic is to assemble against Khornate Daemonhosts or Chaos Viking hordes that outnumber them 100-1 all while standing barefoot in the snow armed only with rocks AND FUCKING WIN THE BATTLE. Kislevite women consist of the hottest girls in the setting and hardcore bitches who will crack open a chaos warrior's skull and use it's mashed brain as baby food depending on how old they are.

[[Halfling|Halflings]] from the Moot are considered members of the Empire, although they contribute little other than food (particularly since the newer editions removed all Halfling fieldable models from the game).

The current Emprah is a guy named Karl Franz. He's pretty awesome too, he actually has a political and militaristic stance and he [[gets shit done]]. He rides a giant fucking griffon that eats people and owns the one fucking dragon in the entire damn Empire that doesn't act like a taxi for some batshit insane wizard or elf. It eats people too. He's got a fancy suit of ornate gilded armor, cool bling, and a hammer (again, THE Warhammer). Not a fool to be messed with.

Generally speaking, the forces of the Empire consist of cannons, Landsknechts with halberds, cannons, Landsknechts with claymores, cannons, musketmen, cannons, wizards, cannons, crossbowmen, cannons, pikemen, cannons, Russians, cannons, [[Steam Tank|steamtanks]], cannons, knights, cannons, [[inquisitors]], cannons, and mortars. Plus [[Sisters of Sigmar|nuns with guns]] and rioting peasants.

The Emperor has to put up with a lot of bullshit: Vampires, Daemons, Orcs, Skaven, Mummies, Beastmen, Elves, and other Humans. If you can think of it, the Empire has gone to war with it at least once. Its even gone to war with itself <strike>a couple of times</strike> almost every time that the Emprah seat becames vacant, which at one point, resulted in a [[Fail|thousand year long civil war.]] Its continued success in managing to keep from falling apart is as much of a mystery as Dwarfs finding the Humans of The Empire to be worthy of respect (maybe because Games Workshop has a hard-on for [[Imperium of Man|Imperialism]]).

====Bretonnia====
[[File:Breton.jpeg|right|thumb|400px|[[Bretonnia|Monty Python humans!]]]]
{{Main|Bretonnia}}

Bretonnia is the other major Human nation of the Warhammer world. Knights, chivalry, all that King Arthur bullshit. All while being pseudo-Frenchmen nobles with pseudo-English peasants. With the addition of worshiping a Lovecraftian goddess in the guise of a bitch with a magic chalice that's manipulated by baby-eating forest elves to get the Bretonnians to do their bidding (the Brets don't know that last part though!).
The peasants in Bretonnia somehow have it worse than the worse off peasants in the Empire since at least a peasant in The Empire has held a piece of currency at some point in their life. It's pretty much medieval France, only worse. They have a lot of knights, the lowest of which are Knights Errant who have turned into glory hunting idiots since they got their armor, then Realm Knights, then Questing Knights who seek the blessing of the [[Lady of the Lake]], and finally Grail Knights before whom the Lady appeared and let them drink from her magic chalice (hue hue hue).

Peasants are almost completely useless both in crunch and fluff other than as archers or cannon fodder, except for the peasant monks that are in fact carrying a dead and skeletal Grail Knight as if he's alive. But, since they're more French than they are English, this does kinda make sense...
Small numbers of Bretonnian women are considered blessed by the Lady enough to wield magic, but in truth most of them just have fey blood.

Bretonnian culture is based on High Elf culture, since the Franks hid from marauding Daemons while the world was in its very first apocalypse scenario within the ruins of High Elf colonies, and flipping through <strike>ancient tomes</strike> Elf childrens books depicting High Elf Silver Helms (AKA elfknights) killing Orcs and saving princesses inspired them to put on a cosplay that never ended.
Bretonnians used to be on the verge of conquering The Empire in older editions of the game, but that plot was dropped when The Empire was put front and center as the posterboys of the game. [[Ultramarines|40k fans may be able to relate.]]

Bretonnian nobles are bred from "superior" stock from the rest of the Human race, and are attractive even by Elf standards. [[Space Marines|Completion of their training and their missions allows them to further enhance themselves with magic, making their bodies resistant to poison and mutation and all around tougher.]] [[Orks|Their faith is so powerful they're literally able to will bullets into being less damaging to them than arrows, and to perform reality-defying feats simply because they think they can.]] Too bad they worship an Elf*.

Bretonnia is one of the more neglected armies in the game, once again proving the tradition that [[Sisters of Battle|any faction that makes frequent use of the Fleur-de-lys]] is on [[Games Workshop|GW's]] back burner.

====Other human nations====
Other human nations, which don't warrant an army book include:
*[[Albion]], the British Isles back in Celtic days where tribal shamans and intelligent rock giants protect human-made waystones and Old One artifacts from just about every faction in the game.
*[[Amazon]]s, a possibly immortal all-women civilization in [[Lustria]] whose ancestors served the Slaan but became a separate civilization after the Warp-Gates collapsed.
*[[Araby]], Middle East fantasy equivalent whose magicians can enslave [[Genie|Chaos spirits]] and are immensely rich from trade.
*[[Border Princes]], Balkans in its natural state of conflict. Group of small nations to the south of the Empire, home to Lietpold the Black and other rogues.
*[[Cathay]], incredibly large eastern empire which has magical robot terracotta warriors and non-Chaos spellcasters who are actively stealing power directly from the Chaos Gods (especially Tzeentch) and are led by their supreme dragon Emprah. Has the Great Wall of China, but is called the Great Bastion for some reason. All they ever do for the plot is occupy all of the fucking Chaos Huns/Mongols and Steppe Nomads which would otherwise be attacking The Empire, which is quite significant actually considering how just how fucking many Chaos Nomads there are.
*[[Estalia]] (Spain), produces Conquistadors and the world's supply of human murderhobos.
*[[Ind]], fantasy India which has '''ALL''' of Indian Mythology living in it's borders. Constantly under invasion by eastern flavored Beastmen.
*[[Kislev]], pre-Peter Russian Empire, Poland and Mongols all combined into one. Constantly getting [[Rape|buttfucked]] by Chaos.
*[[Nippon]] ([[Weeaboo|Japan]]), taught Skaven how to be ninjas and otherwise is so reclusive we know nothing about them (and why the fuck did they think teaching evil rat men more sneaky way to murder millions was a good idea?).
*[[Tilea]] (pre-unification Italy), a large number of city-states and kingdoms that ally with other civilizations in the world like an army of mercenaries that can range from [[Warforged]] to Greek Hoplites using flying machines. They are the main source of human mercenaries for the Old World.

===[[Elf|Elves]]===
====High Elves====
[[File:Adrian smith high elf warriors.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Somehow the actual elves look more alien than the [[Eldar|alien elves]]]]
{{Main|High Elves (Warhammer)}}

'''OH BOY, HERE WE GO'''...The "good guys" of WHFB. Although as a group they're dickish in the extreme like you'd expect, many of them are quite bro-tier and the reason the race is diminishing is because they overtax themselves to save the world every time they can from everyone they can, and humans are usually what counts as part of the world (except ones tainted by chaos of course).
They have the strongest navy in the world, wear red/white/blue, bring giant eagles to battle, are snobby, the average citizen can't even name the leader of their closest ally, they send in their marines to unwinnable conflicts, they saved the collective ass of the [[Old World]] twice, their head of government is democratically elected...

Many 40k fans mistakenly confuse the Eldar lore with Elf lore. This is a major mistake, as Eldar are characterized as [[Eldrad|ultra-dick failures]] while no faction has a bigger ass-kicking and ass-saving record than the High Elves.

High Elves defeated the first Chaos invasion into the world (unknown to themselves that they had distant magical help from the [[Lizardmen]]) and every invasion since. They established a network of [[Waystone|Waystones]] which pull the excess magic (which Daemons use to manifest) into Ulthuan and shoot it back into the Warp.
High Elves taught the Empire magic, and save the ass of Bretonnia every time it gets invaded by something they can't beat. They patrol the world oceans in giant magical aircraft carriers that launch dragons, and wreck the shit of anyone trying to launch a Black Crusade. They single-handedly keep the world from being swallowed into the Warp and all the good factions respect them for it (even if that's the ONLY thing Dwarfs respect about them).

The Everqueen of the High Elves and the hereditary ruler (who co-rules with her democratically elected male counterpart, the Phoenix King), is a being of IMMENSE magical power whose soul is made up of the combined souls of all her mothers leading back to the first Everqueen, who was the second daughter of [[Isha]]. The souls themselves reside with Isha, and as a whole they make up the Everqueen entity.
Chaos is afraid of her (read that again: Chaos Gods in 40k only ''respect'' the God Emprah as their greatest enemy and an equal, but they're actually '''afraid''' of the Everqueen), and she can cleanse anything the Chaos Gods can corrupt. Her only weaknesses are that sadness saps her energy (you do NOT want to piss her off though) and the fact she's mortal means her daughter has to be protected.

High Elves are ethnically divided into ten major groups by region. Some are such pricks who treat even other High Elves like Eldar treat the Mon'keigh, some are fatalistic jackasses with the personality of a secret service agent, some are revenge-obsessed sociopaths who make the Inquisition look like Lawful Good Paladins, some are <strike>nutty professors</strike> wizards, and some are <strike>hippies</strike> murderhobo [[Bard]]s who are willing to make love AND war as the situation requires. In addition, High Elves have districts within major trade cities in all the good factions.

High Elves would rather walk willingly into Slaanesh's open mouth than do anything beneficial to a Dark Elf and vice versa, running a contrast to Eldar/Dark Eldar relations.
When they die, High Elves are first nabbed by their patron god if said god liked them enough. Next, they can corpse-run to a Waystone (giant magical structures set up all over the world by their race to weaken Chaos and keep Daemons from manifesting) where they get to chill and manifest semi-solid bodies (which they will usually use to pick off troops from any evil races that wander by). Then, there's an evil goddess who got punished by [[Asuryan]] for trying to rape him while he was asleep and gets back at his rejection by taking High Elf souls (she doesn't care about any other Elf subraces) to torture like it's Christian hell. Final thing that can happen is Slaanesh manages to snatch them from the material plane and either eats them or turns them into [[Daemonette]]s (yes, in Fantasy he still does this). All of Slaanesh's Greater Daemons are elves who in one way or another wound up in his employ (from [[N'kari]] who was an insipid noblewoman who wanted to be the center of attention, to Dechala who was virgin sacrificed by her parents to Slaanesh for mercy and came back as a pissed off Medusa with an army of Daemonettes to butcher them).
While Eldar must use soulstones to keep their soul safe, High Elves use them only to guard them in combat against Daemons and those who worship them. Otherwise, their only use is to link to the Waystone network and provide GPS navigation for the elves.

[[Ulthuan]] is like paradise (for the most part, there's Chaos corrupted areas and random encounter tables of course) and elves will fuck, sing and enjoy the splendors of life without fear of taint as they must give themselves willingly to Chaos to be corrupted. The Cult of Pleasure, Slaanesh's Elf cult, takes root like Chaos cults in the [[Imperium]] and have to be [[Blam|purged]] by the High Elf [[Inquisition]] who are kung fu Elves in light armor who have swords as tall as their body but don't look weaboo.

Eldar are all-powerful psykers, although humanity has potential to make stronger psykers than the average Eldar. High Elves on the other hand are constantly bathed in magical energy, more so than the rest of the world, but you have to actually LEARN to be a <strike>psyker</strike> wizard. Since High Elves have public education and being a wizard is a great job, there's more Elf wizards than human ones (in fact, the fact you have to LEARN to be a wizard means that the only humans who can come close to badass Elf Loremasters are prodigies of Mary Sue proportions). Of course, one of the 10 High Elf ethnic groups have the old fashioned "every Elf is also a level 1 wizard" feature, but that's just them.

Eldar have a multitude of different styles of combat and war, and a multitude of different philosophies related to them. High Elves have three basic flavours of badass warriors: stoic summabitch priests who shrug off cannonballs to the face, guy with giant axe who wrestles monsters then goes for an ale, and Witch Hunters with giant swords

High Elves are, to the very last, soldiers. Every poet is also a Spear<strike>man</strike>elf, every baker is also a wizard, and every secretary loads giant bolt throwers. They passed the point of desperation tens of thousands of years ago, putting High Elves in the position of Israelis.

====Dark Elves====
[[File:DE.png|right|thumb|400px|"We are the most civilized race in the entire world. We have more exquisite ways to kill than any other"]]
{{Main|Dark Elves (Warhammer)}}

Edgier elves who get shit done [[Dark Eldar|without drugs and soul torture]]. Dark Elves manage to maintain the awesomeness and jack it up to a new level while still at the same time being made of the kind of fail you'd expect from a fantasy Dark Elf race. How do they do this you might ask? By taking the next logical step in the elven belief of "we're better than everyone" over to "so we should be allowed to kill them for sport". They have a history of using slavery, violently suppressed the indigenous population when they colonized their new homeland, have no respect for the rest of the world, are embroiled in an ongoing war with a foreign nation, they spy on everyone including themselves, citizens can easily gain access to deadly weapons, their government is corrupt, they built <s>a fence</s> <s>a wall</s> towers to keep people from a bordering nation out...

After being driven out of Ulthuan by the High Elves they fled to a new land they named Naggaroth (in memory of their old homeland Nagarythe). Naggaroth is Warhammer North America but very cold with a network of underground rivers and a sea in the middle. The topography of the land is half mountains, half flat plains which are mostly covered in forests. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. The land is infested with all sorts of monsters, from Harpies and Cold Ones to Manticores and Hydras. Even worse than them are populations of Orcs (descended from the spores of Orcs Dark Elves tried to use against the High Elves as slave soldiers), Beastmen (because Chaos) and Skaven (because the rats can tunnel under oceans apparently, though the Dark Elves have a treaty with them).

Their entire culture is built around "if you died, you were too fucking weak/stupid to stay alive". They have no protections for their souls because none of them admit they could die because that would mean admitting you are possibly less awesome than you tell everyone you are (because they'll kill you for lulz if you don't pretend to be more awesome than they're pretending to be). When Dark Elves die, they go first to their patron elf god if they manage to impress them (unlike High Elves they worship the nastier elf gods, collectively called the Cytharai) then to the same elf goddess who tried to seduce Asuryan then straight to Slaanesh. The third is okay, because some Dark Elves FUCKING WORSHIP SLAANESH (only in secret - in public they worship [[Khaine]] the lord of murder and the other Cytharai for fear of [[Blam|Malekith's reaction]]).

[[Malekith|Their king]] is the second son of the elves' greatest hero, but grew up to fuck up the world almost as bad as Daemons did the first time they invaded the material plane, and is the settings resident Doctor Doom. (The only non-Chaos threat to the world greater than him is [[Nagash]], the Apocalypse to Malekith's Doctor Doom). Their queen [[Morathi]] is Slaanesh's high priestess and the queen mother; she's been fucking her son since he was old enough to have his hips move by themselves. Oh, and that son/mother couple have been plotting to kill each other and take over control of the Dark Elves for thousands of years, with each gambit resulting in mass Dark Elf casualties and a "kiss and make up" moment from the two. Morathi is the single oldest living being in the setting (except most Slann and a few Saurus are as old if not older, plus [[Drachenfels]] if you consider him canon, but whatever), and it's all because she bathes in Daemonette jizz (literally, Dark Elves like to summon Daemonettes to parties, with said parties having low survival rates and Morathi keeps Daemon servants with her at all times) and the blood of newborn elves.

Fun fact: each year the craziest of the crazy, the Witch Elves (female berserkers in chainmail bikinis with poisoned blades) who worship Khaine, have a ten day holiday called "Death Night" where they just rampage through Dark Elf cities and kill whoever they want, unless said person can buy their lives in double digit amounts of slaves. They recruit into their ranks by stealing babies and very young children. The girls are automatically raised as Witch Elves while [[Grimdark|the boys are thrown into a cauldron of boiling blood]], those that survive are trained as assassins.

The Dark Elves raid the entire fucking world, constantly. They're the pirates that piss everyone off. They've managed to steal a [[Slann]] by lobotomizing it, then they turned it into fireworks (massive Dark Elf casualties). They plan safaris into the Chaos Wastes to shoot [[Warriors of Chaos|Norsemen]] and bring them home to be stuffed and turned into trophies. As long as they've existed, Dark Elves have been at a war of genocide with the High Elves. Every battle both sides suffer massive casualties, as Malekith is fighting the war mostly for the sake of pride and sends his men at fortresses that have never fallen because he wants to be the one to make them fall (he'll do this every year for thousands of years without learning a damn thing).

But somehow, Dark Elves DO manage to replenish their population pretty good. Every time they attack High Elves they suffer MASSIVE casualties in comparison to their enemies, and still go back to full strength in a few months. While the fluff implies that the Dark Elves kidnap High Elf children to raise as Dark Elves along with their numbers being boosted High Elf defectors fleeing to Naggaroth, there is a much simpler reason; Games Workshop has admitted that they don't deal in concrete figures and there are as many elves as the plot demands, so illogical writing is the reason they can replenish their numbers so easily despite elves being a dying race.

====Wood Elves====
[[File:Wood-Elf-Armybook-Art.jpg|thumb|right|450px|They do say nature is a mother, after all. And this mother is a colossal bitch.]]
{{Main|Wood Elves (Warhammer)}}

During the heyday of the High Elves, before Chaos first invaded the world, the High Elves had established colonies in Warhammer France. Generations passed, and these elves knew little to nothing of the homeland save for what news traders brought them.
When Daemons first invaded they were left to their own devices for defense, but utilizing the primitive stone-age humans were able to hold their own. Shortly after, architects were sent to establish Waystones in their lands and rekindle ties. Once again however, they were abandoned to their fates when Dark Elves first started the big never-ending civil war, then after a short period of being in touch with the homeland again were subject to the brutality of the Dwarfs after the Phoenix King of the time went full retard and pissed the Dwarfs off (of course, Dwarfs neither know the difference in ethnicities nor cared as it was all just knife-ears and keebs to them). After being told to evacuate and leave everything behind to go home and fight the war against the Dark Elves, the colonists burned their draft cards and fled to the sentient forest to become '''Wood Elves'''.

They then turned into a pack of insane dicks.

So that forest they fled to is [[Athel Loren]]. Athel Loren is, in theory, a bastion of life and anti-Chaos in the world. In practice, is a giant forest that plays by it's own rules and is fucking expanding to the point it's theoretically possible it can overtake the rest of the world. Parts of it are Chaos corrupted or dead, and those are probably the LEAST dangerous places to explore. It is a forest full of unmentionable terrors of all shapes and sizes who will FUCKING VIOLATE YOU AND EAT YOU live there. But they're not evil. They're made that way/too dumb to understand alignment/a natural force of destruction, not a malicious one. So they're horrible and evil but their actual alignment is nicely True Neutral.

The actual elves live in the parts of Athel Loren in Bretonnia. Said forest existed way before the coming of Daemons & Aenarion, being much, much, MUCH larger than today, which in turn means that Bretonnia is actually living on what was once said forest. They smoke weed, have /ss/ and /ll/ and /sm/ with kidnapped Bretonnian noble children, hunt humans like animals using giant hunting dogs every summer when their king awakens from his winter sleep after they tie a Bretonnian maiden to a tree naked and shoot her full of arrows. They also manipulate the Bretonnian nobles into becoming more superior elf-like humans by manipulating an entity so ancient and unknowable that even THEY have no idea what she is. Said entity appears before humans that are badass and gives them geneseed cider to drink, which turns them into living Superman.

Culturally, the Asrai are a mix of High and Dark Elves with a mix of batshit insane dark evil with noblebright altruism. Some do random shit like decide to hold impromptu celebrations and plays because of a smell on the wind and re-enact battles that may or may not have actually happened but with actual killing. During the performance, they are literally holding their entrails in with their hands while giggling and teasing the dead, dying, and still up and killing for forgetting their lines because they're fucking crazy like that. When they have festivals, some elves will have a dance contest with ''invited'' humans. Sort of like Dance-Dance Evolution. The bets are usually on how long the human will last, before he/she becomes too... ''tired'' to continue. Some Elves invite you to peacefully feast and drink and have fun in their woody halls. In exchange they feed you to Daemons and monsters when you fall asleep. If you're lucky they'll let you leave after the party, but you'll find out that a few days in Athel Loren can be a hundred years outside and it catches up to you so you rapidly age and die. Seriously, Wood Elves are fucking scary.

Their king became the avatar of [[Kurnous]] and reincarnates (via virgin sacrifice) every year (during which he usually kills the shit out of Bretonnians because 'why the fuck not?'), while their queen claims to be the REAL avatar of Isha and uses prophesy and scrying to figure out what's going on in the rest of the world.
For some context: Alarielle, the Everqueen of the High Elves, is the God Emprahss of Elfkind. Chaos Gods are scared of her, she can look Slaanesh in the eye and cause Slaanesh to blink. '''Alarielle is fucking scared of the Wood Elves''', and notices that her Wood Elf counterpart, Ariel, is changing into something far more feral than the world has ever known and that the rest of the Asrai are too.

Wood Elves have a different view on the world than the other two races; while High Elves see themselves as masters of the world's fate and see the future as a great battle between good and evil and Dark Elves see the world as their playground with no regard for who came before or who comes after, the Wood Elves believe that fate has already decided. They believe that Chaos is coming, and in the end thanks to the manipulations of Ariel the entire rest of the world other than Athel Loren will be swallowed into the Warp, leaving the Wood Elves as the ultimate winners of the world conflicts when they alone inhabit the material plane. As such, their fluff is quite grim and full of determinism and in-universe the Wood Elves are more or less Eldar. They also claim that the elf gods have already staged the final battle against Chaos, lost it, and are slowly being consumed by Chaos until they will fade away forever. Since this is not mentioned within the fluff of the other two races it can be assumed this is the Wood Elf perspective rather than the outright canon.

But that's just the Wood Elves. The rest of the "Wood Elves" army? Treekin. Not Treebeard (who will tell you a story while he smooshes Orcs), not Old Man Willow (who hates you and will put you to sleep forever), and not the kind of Dryads who get raped by Satyrs ([[FATAL|but actually enjoy it because they're that horny, either meaning it's not rape or that that was how the ancient Greeks thought rape worked]]). No, these are like Hills Have Eyes tree people. Some of them march to war with the Wood Elves because they recognize kindred spirits. Some rampage against all non-tree life in the forest. Some of them are so batshit insane that they attack everything, constantly in giant tree battles where the splinters grow into new Dryads and Treekin who then jump straight into the fray like hard-skinned [[Orks]]. That ain't Chaos corruption either, it's their natural state. Regardless of sanity, ALL Athel Loren Treekin are infested with angry chittering forest spirits that will eat you like flying pirahnas. Elves who die in the forest can become angry bitter trees that don't remember anything, unless you're raped by hermaphrodite daemons who then kill you when they get bored, so yes, you fucking come back to life by inhabiting a dead tree, so you can fucking show those fucking skanks HOW IT FEELS WHEN THE FUCKING FAVOR IS RETURNED! WITH INTEREST/SPLINTERS!! FUCK!!! They also decorate themselves with entrails and skeletons like a decorator crab.

Oh, and the leader of these insane fucking scary tree people? [[Drycha]]. Insane forest treegirl. Drycha is crazy, by any standards of crazy. She's a tree woman with acorn nipples that dribble syrup. She's perhaps one of the most terrifying beings in the setting, and that's saying a lot. Luckily, (if you're not Asrai) she's mostly against the Wood Elves since she thinks they're the ones responsible for everything going wrong with the world (Get out of my swamp you kids!).
8E re-introduced a male counterpart, Durthu, a Wood Elf Treeman character back from 5E who is similar to Drycha except that he only hates Dwarfs while being bitter against everyone else. He now wields a giant amber sword forged by an elf, and is revealed to have been the one who saved an infant Everqueen and her brother in Ulthuan thousands of years ago.

Athel Loren doesn't expand naturally. It's suddenly appeared on islands in the sea. When you wander into those forests looking for coconuts, you suddenly find yourself in the midst of a forest from hell somewhere around Alsace-Lorraine, with Drycha and a hundred or so Dryads decorated in greenskin, Dwarf, Elf, and Human bodies all staring down at you. Athel Loren has worldroots connected to many different forest around the world. Which means you will never be safe, my little ''porcupine butts''

tl:dr Wood Elves live in Athel Loren which is between Bretonnia and The Empire, which is both alive, and akin to a forest in Soviet Russia - where forest cuts down you! The Elves are crazy insane rapists, and the tree people are fucking xenomorphs. You're either a tool to them that will be destroyed when you are no longer useful, or are a plaything for their amusement.

===DWARFS===
[[File:69180f7a9e6a20e2ffb7544531f50bde.jpg|thumb|left|400px|BEARDS AXES BEARDS BEARDS GRUDGES HAMMERS BEARDS]]
{{Main|Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)}}

Same old [[Lord of the Rings|cliché]] Dwarfs (as used in Warhammer Fantasy, as the term "Dwarves" is rarely used) in a lot of ways, with some fun twists.
The Dwarfs have this thing about holding grudges forever. Their language has no word for forgiveness, there's a story where a Warhammer Dwarf outright says forgiveness is not in their nature and [[Book of Grudges|one of their most sacred artifacts is the "Dammaz Kron" which is a GIANT golden book which is inked in blood and lists every slight]], however small, against the Dwaarfish race {{BLAM|Misspell Dwarfish will ya? THAT'S GOIN IN THE BOOK LAD!!!}}.
Dwarfs are required by their gods to avenge even the slightest insult in blood; a story in old Warhammer comics involves two Dwarf Thanes being about to lead the last of their clans (consisting of women and children only at this point) against each other while greenskins are about to breach the fortress walls. The two Thanes, in the middle of a battle, realize they no longer know what the original feud was about and make peace...only for their gods to crush both under a giant statue, causing the clans to wipe each other out and the greenskins to take over.
Another story involves Dwarfs building an impenetrable fortress for a human king. After receiving their payment, they found they were a few coins short (the dwarfs thought they were scammed, in reality there was just a counting error). The Dwarfish response was to muster the full strength of their nation to invade, slaughter every man woman and child inside, and raze every last stone into powder.

So not only does the race tend towards Lawful Stupid, they are punished divinely for not acting in the Lawful Stupid way.

Dwarf pre-Chaos history involved the entire race united as one giant clan, producing master works from their GIANT fortress that spanned half the mountains of Europe and Asia. After Chaos invaded, they simply shut their walls and waited the whole thing out.
After the High Elves defeated Chaos the first time, they befriended the Dwarfs and swore to be best friends forever. Then after the first battles of the Elf civil war, the newly-separated Dark Elves manipulated the two races into war with each other (taking advantage both of the High Elf arrogance that rears its head <s>every other</s> every generation, and of the fact Dwarfs are absolute racist fuckheads who take the actions of a single individual as the standard for the whole race (the Warhammer Dwarf word for "inferior" is actually their word for "human")). So Dwarfs were pissed at Elves right up until the modern day, where they started to realize Elves come in different flavors than just "Keeb Scum".
Not long after this, the Lizardmen attempted to enact a prophesy from the Old Ones that they believed would weaken Chaos. Instead, it caused giant earthquakes which wiped out most of the Dwarf race and turned their fuck-huge city into thousands of thousands of small fortresses isolated from each other by giant cave-ins.However, the same even is said to be a Skaven machination to expand Skavenblihght gone horribly wrong/right. This was followed by Orcs and Goblins getting underground, and taking many fortresses from which they now wage war against the entire Dwarfish race.
More recently (from the Dwarf perspective) they befriended humanity after Sigmar Heldenhammer saved one of their Thanes. The hammer from which the Warhammer games derive their name was forged, and given to Sigmar as a symbol of eternal friendship between the two groups (thankfully now the Dwarfs can tell apart evil from good, and know not to blame the Empire for the actions of the rape-vikings). Dwarfs taught the Empire about machines and technology, leading to the current state of the Empire.

Currently, Dwarfs are constantly fighting a losing war against Skaven and Night Goblins (and just Greenskins in general) for control of the deep craves, tunnels, passages and mines below the surface of the world. Without the Dwarfs keeping things that dwell down in the dark at bay, the lands of men would be overrun from beneath; though the 8th Edition book sees them becoming a Rape-Train against Hordes, and in the fluff the High Elves attacked WAAAGH!s that have raged without stop since the fall of the Dwarf Fortresses from behind and destroyed them while the current Dwarf High King has mustered a fuckhuge army to end those that remain.

In canon, Dwarfs fight very different hold to hold, with some being the classic hammer+axe Dwarf warriors with others (those you'll almost always see on the tabletop) fighting as Napoleonic armies with more cannons than most armies have horses.

What else is there to say about Dwarfs? Gyrocopters and death cults. There is nothing that isn't improved through the addition of flying machines and death cults. The dwarfs have zero magic. No, scratch that, they have even less than zero magic. It tends to fuck up when they're around, and everyone can use magic but them. Not that this stopped Dwarfs though. They just grabbed magic by the balls, put its balls on the anvil, and hammered it into runic items. Because they're stubborn like that. As a result, Dwarfs have the best magic items bar none. They also compensate for their lack of magic by building giant fucking machines instead. Flamethrowers, helicopters, organ guns, and pretty much any other variant of carnage that can be moshed together with enough steam, alcohol, and gunpowder. They build them smaller but they build them better, and they're all fueled by alcohol. The traditional Dwarfs don't like the Engineers and their machines that much, and anything that hasn't been in the blueprint stage for a thousand years before a prototype stage was even thought about is borderline heretical technology (not that they will refuse to use it, they'll just bitch about it worse than even a real life Scotsman would). [[Slayer|The death cults are crazy naked dwarfs that have in some way shamed themselves or broken an oath, and as a result they shave and dye their hair into a red mohawk and go on a quest to die an honorable death]] (so Repentia/Penitent Engines for any 40k players reading this).

====[[Chaos Dwarfs]]====
[[Image:Dorf hats.jpg|thumb|right|[[Hat|HAT]]!!!]]
There are also evil dwarfs called [[Chaos Dwarfs]]. During the first Chaos incursion while some Dwarfs decided to hide in their fortress and wait for the whole thing to blow over, some decided to flee (or explore and look for safe haven elsewhere). After heavy losses among the Dwarfs, the Chaos Gods decided to throw them a bone, and the rest is history. Regular Dwarfs hate them above all others (even moreso than elves) and claim they have sworn eternal vengeance and genocide on them (in practice they pretend Chaos Dwarfs don't exist and woe betide the non-Dwarf who brings them up!)

They used to be an interesting and unique faction that resembled an even more grimdark ancient Babylon, their corrupting magic slowly turning their evil sorcerers to stone (dorfs ain't meant to magic it up) while creating Daemonic machines that would make Chaos Spaaaaaace Marines drool (instead of grabbing magic by the balls and hammering it into runes, they grab deamons by the balls and hammer ''them'' into daemonic warmachines). Then they became like normal dwarfs, but dressed in black. Then they up and vanished for a while. Nowadays, [[Forge World]] has made them ''back'' into their first, awesome thing again - half-Baylonian, half-stripped down industrialist assholes a la Isengard.

Their favorite pastimes are drinkin', fightin' and [[Touhou|wearing silly hats for no adequately explained reason]].

===Chaos===
Back in the day, there was only one Chaos army. Since then they have been split into Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, and Daemons of Chaos.

====Warriors of Chaos====
[[File:Warriors of chaos.jpg|thumb|right|380px|What one would call "the good shit". Or the bad shit, if you catch my cold.]]
{{Main|Warriors of Chaos}}

The Warriors are Nordic (literally, they are called the Norse in the canon). Beardy, berserking [[Vikings]]/[[Pan-Tang]] rip-offs clad in Unholy Chaos Plate and blessed with the Marks of the Chaos Gods personify this faction, and basically granted Warhammer Fantasy it's popularity back in the 80's/90's.
The Warriors of Chaos represent a multitude of tribes and clans, in varying cultures and degrees of civilization (mostly being Scandinavians and Mongols however) all of whom live in the giant North Pole around the Warp Gate there, which is basically an Eye of Terror.
Mostly, they revere the Chaos Gods as their masters although they have different pantheons (sometimes to be able to avoid saying the name of the Chaos Gods directly to avoid getting sudden attention and turning into..one of [[Chaos Spawn|"those things"]], sometimes of other Chaos Gods, and rarely of ascended mortals like [[Bel'akor]]).
Warriors make up the primary bad guys of the setting, and raid the fuck out of the world for shits and giggles. Games Workshop loves to throw them constantly into almost every canon, to the point anything major involving someone who ISN'T Chaos is a huge fucking deal.

Unlike in 40k where Chaos Space Marines <s>actually get shit done</s> possibly fucked up 12 times under the same leader, Warriors have gone through multiple Everchosens who <s>keep getting killed by reincarnations of Sigmar</s> keep getting killed in various ways (sometimes even by Daemons) and are replaced in the hopes that the next one will get it right (and one even went "fuck this shit" and went to non-Chaos Valhalla on the eve of his victory). Despite this, they look no less awesome for it, and the [[Archaon|current one]] [[Storm of Chaos|managed to beat and cripple his good counterpart before losing the war thanks to Orc shenanigans.]]

====Daemons of Chaos====
{{Main|Chaos}}

As in 40k, but as mentioned before are much weaker.
[[Khorne]] mostly just watches his servants fight each other and sometimes other factions when that shit gets boring. Loves trapping his champions in time loops where they kill their older selves. <br/>
[[Nurgle]] loves Isha from afar, who may be unaware he even exists. He maintains a circus (a literal circus, with tents and candy and performers and clowns) which travels through the Old World, bringing in plagues and taking in followers. <br/>
[[Tzeentch]] doesn't do jack shit. EVER. He doesn't own a monopoly on bird iconography as that's mostly owned by mortal gods like [[Morr]] and [[Morai-Heg]]. The Chinese siphon magic from him without retaliation. His champions are mostly stuck being the spellcasting bitch to whatever Everchosen or other god's champion didn't take a wizard in their army list. As a result, he likes to spread rumors like "all magic is me!" and "everything is going according to plan" despite everyone calling bullshit and his prophesies actually being wrong most of the time.<br/>
[[Slaanesh]] spends most of his time corrupting individuals in the Empire and High Elves for shits and giggles, as well as watching his champions wander the world and do stupid shit like it's a giant reality show. He likes to try to nab elf souls like his 40k counterpart, but instead of mindlessly eating them he makes quite a few of them Daemonettes. He also has a permanent scar, no matter what shape he takes, because Khaine fucked him up good. <br/>

There's a multitude of other gods as well, including multiple Chaos Gods of Order. To those who claim that makes no sense, remember that Chaos is pure potential, not contradictory pants-on-head retardedness that you can't comprehend (although it certainly becomes that often enough). One of them blesses Witch Hunters and other forms of Inquisitors in their fights against everything Chaos (so like [[Malice]], but without malice). Another is a Snow White figure, being locked in a glass coffin in stasis by Tzeentch and dropped in the mortal world because he's terrified of her.

Daemons themselves tend to be fucked over royally as they can be perma-killed in Fantasy in various ways, and are VERY prone to being used as the power source for magical artifacts and weapons.

====Beastmen====
[[File:BeastmenChallenge.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Horns, sharp teeth and hooves, oh my!]]
{{Main|Beastmen}}

Representing the non-Skaven Chaos mutants of the world, Beastmen are a group of pagan style animal mutants living in the forests and wilderness of the world. Beastmen are wild and crude creatures embodying all the negative aspects of animals combined with human-level intelligence. They are truly repugnant to behold, let alone to smell, for they are a twisted reflection of the base and barbaric aspects of nature. Beastmen are Neutral Evil to the core, the only thing stopping them from being Chaotic Evil is their reverence of Bray-Shamans and the Chaos Gods. The carnage and despair they spread across the land is a malevolent and deliberate attempt to wreck anything beautiful or stable for the lulz. Bitterness and spite simmers in the heart of every Beastman; it takes little more than a few well-chosen words to spur a Gor into a frenzy of unrestrained rage. The sounds of distant battle will cause a Beastman to prick up his tufted ears in an instant; a fight or duel upon a woodland path will invariably bring dozens of Beastmen from all about in a very short space of time. Even when gathered in their torrid encampments the Beastmen spend their time fighting, fucking or feasting. The only time they don't is when a particularly strong Beastman knocks a sense of purpose into them (sometimes literally) or a Bray-Shaman calls on the Chaos Gods.

Beastmen HATE civilization. Anything that looks like it was made intentionally is broken, anything that can't be broken is tied to a stick and used as a weapon to kill the fuck out of more civilizationfags. Although Beastmen tend to come in specific flavors (Satyr, Minotaur, and Dire animals) they mutate even further into grotesque and scarred monsters of utter evil when they attract the attention of the Chaos Gods. Which they spend most of their time seeking to do in various ways, despite the fact that Chaos rarely if ever tosses them even a minor blessing.

So all in all, they're a race of furry [[Cultist-Chan]]s.

Three odd points in fluff relate to Beastmen; in one old story from White Dwarf, a human father spends time teaching his son how to survive in the forest using navigation, tracking, and fighting. Said son is revealed to be a mutant that the father is taking to the Beastmen, who accept him immediately. In another, Beastmen females are mentioned as existing (previously, the fact the only references were to males leading people to assume they breed through rape exclusively) and as being "extremely docile". Finally, in most Beastmen fluff it is mentioned time and time again how shit factors in heavily to their culture (literal fecal matter), and Beastmen smear EVERYTHING in it (This only showed up in the 7th ed book, but the pages are swimming in it. Make of that sentence what you will).
So while most fluff portrays them as monstrously evil and unsexy as possible, there's still bait for furfags!

===Lizardmen===
[[File:Lizardmen_Art_1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Life finds a ''fucking'' way.]]
{{Main|Lizardmen}}

The arch-enemies of Chaos. When the Old Ones first arrived on the world from nobody knows where, they created spawning pools that continually pump out Lizardmen.

The first type were the [[Slann]], who were Old Ones in miniature although greatly less intelligent (still LEAGUES above even elves though). The Slann were extremely magically gifted beings, and were the assistants to the Old Ones. They resemble grotesque and fat toad creatures who ride floating stone chairs like upright Jabba the Hutts with legs. The second type, the Saurus, were their muscle. Saurus have few thoughts beyond what they were created to do, and mostly exist as soldiers and guards. Finally, Skinks were made. Skinks are small chameleon-like humanoids who serve the Slann as assistants. They also created the kroxigor; large bipedal crocodile-like creatures designed for heavy lifting. The Skinks and Kroxigors have an affinity for each other, sharing similar birthing methods (see below) and both can breathe underwater (though the Kroxigors prefer to ambush their prey or enemies crocodile-style)

They live in the jungle kingdoms of Lustria and the Southlands, the former is so hostile to non-Lizardmen it's said to be the most dangerous place in Warhammer outside the Chaos Wastes. Their culture and society are heavily based off the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. If that offends you, you're playing the wrong game and it's hard to believe you've read this far already.

They have, and seek out, thousands of writings from the Old Ones inscribed on golden tablets which the Slann spend most of their time poring over in an attempt to discover what the next move against Chaos should be or what the Old Ones wanted to do that hasn't been done yet. However, the Slann have...difficulty in this endeavor, and are prone to interpreting "Milk, Eggs, Butter, Bacon" as "Destroy the Dwarfs, Make Party Hats For Amazons, Do the Dinosaur, Have A Skaven and Manflesh Barbecue". Another problem is the material. The Lizardmen use gold for their plaques because it doesn't deteriorate and a humid, tropical jungle is not a place where paper can be safely preserved (the bright color would also make them stand out among foliage, making them easier to to find). But the other races see their color and shininess for its aesthetic value and decide to take them for themselves. To say the Lizardmen don't like anyone else touching their plaques would be like saying that Khorne has a bit of a temper.

They have the most powerful wizards and one of the most powerful fighting units, including Stargate-style magitech that they use as altars which shoot lasers.

Some could argue that they're furfag bait for the scalies. They can just fuck right off 'cause Lizardmen are awesome, and no scalie shit here; they're as ugly and unappealing as real lizard people would be, and have no genders as they walk out of magic spawning pools as adults. In fact, the few Lizardmen who learned about genders and sex (from human guests they were interviewing) considered it weird and irrelevant to their interests.

In the modern canon, most of the Slann are dead and they can no longer be spawned as their specific Slann-spawning pools were destroyed by Daemons. Not 'undead' Slann, just dead. Except for [[Lord Kroak]], but he doesn't really count as [[Emperor|his body is 100% dead despite his spirit just refusing to leave it]].

Oh, and if you haven't figured it out by now they are dinosaur men that ride dinosaurs such as Therapods, Thyreophorans and Ceratopsians. Who would have guessed. In fact one of said therapod species, the Carnosaurs, were dangerous enough to threaten and scare DRAGONS despite lacking wings or a breath weapon; there's no dragons in Lustria because the Carnosaurs hunted them to the point that the surviving dragons fled and settled elsewhere.

===Undead===
Much like Chaos, these guys used to be one army but have gotten split up into two. NOT ANYMORE! Now you can combine them in in a single army led by nagash!

====Tomb Kings====
[[File:M1650075a P1Mb1.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Egyptian, sentient skeletons, yet still both spooky and scary.]]
{{Main|Tomb Kings}}

The undead people from the ancient civilization of Nehekhara (Not-Egypt). How ancient? Before Sigmar lived and most humans considered the bow and arrow an innovative new weapon, Cathay was new to the civilization thing and didn't have a Dragon Emperor, Bretonnia, Giants, and Skaven didn't exist, Skytitans still roamed the Mourn Mountains, The Great Maw didn't exist, Tylos was the only city in the Old World, Dorfs were in their prime and friends with Elves, and Elves were still one race and were only then achieving the level of technology they've spent most of their history stuck at.

Nehekhara had all the best aspects of ancient Egypt and Middle-Eastern civilizations; they had many things such as golems, huge wonders, light systems, chariots, and even hot-air balloons! Most of their history was spent like Mesopotamian history, with each city being a kingdom ruled by one monarch (usually, but not always, male). Said kingdoms warred with each other constantly. Then, one day, a badass was born. [[Settra the Imperishable|Settra]] managed to unite the entirety of Nehekhara under his rule, but became obsessed with death because it would stop him from getting shit done. He commanded his priests discover immortality, and although they failed in this they figured out ways to preserve the body with the soul within and the flesh un-damaged. They entombed him this way for storage until they discovered a way to give their kings living flesh of gold.

The cities immediately become independent again, warring with each other but now building fuckhuge tomb cities to house all dead Nehekharans in suspended animation that were larger than their living cities.

Eventually, Nehekhara produced [[Nagash]], the Warhammer Fantasy answer to [[Sauron]] and [[Vecna]], who killed his brother and became fantastically evil until the cities united against him and forced him into the desert. After deciding that dying was for suckers and turning into a skeleton, he found that centuries has passed and some little punk ass upstarts calling themselves "vampires" had read his diary. He told them to make themselves useful and keep the humans away while he tried to figure out a way to make the whole world into undead skeleton slaves in one spell. Then shortly after, humans defeated his army and entered his sanctum; he unleashed what he had of his spell, killing EVERYTHING in Nehekhara before he was beaten. This awakened the entombed kings, who were fucking PISSED to find their empire had disintegrated. But on the plus side, they were still "alive" and Tomb Kings cannot perma-die so they had obtained the immortality aspect at the very least. They also had the people who had died in their time period as servants still, who despite still having souls lost much of their sapience (as the degree to which they survived depended greatly on how well they were preserved) so many of them (but FAR from all) became semi-mindless robot-like skeletons animated only by the order of their King.
So immediately all the Tomb Kings went back to war, but this time in a far worse way; every child who had EVER lived was now alive again, with thousands of generations of spoiled manchildren fighting for a single fucking throne in a single fucking city, as well as being pissed about later TK's looting the tombs of their ancestors for their own ones.
The priests of all the generations realized shit was going nowhere fast (as nobody can perma-die) and awakened Settra. Settra immediately slapped everyone's collective shit, and although everyone swears allegiance to him they still fight like punks constantly.
Generally speaking, all Tomb Kings (other than [[Queen Khalida]], who HATES vampires) give no fucks, shits, or damns about the outside world. Mostly. They are also very rich because being undead means they don't have to worry about buying food, medicine or things to impress potential sexual partners. Because mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the mummies a nice option of veteran human troops as well; there's also the added bonus that unlike vamps (see below), the Tomb Kings won't ever turn the mercs into snacks.

Now they're armies of skeletons (on foot, horse or chariot) led by Egyptian mummies! With Anubis warriors and BONE SCORPIONS! Their artillery are MUTHA FUCKEN SKULL CATAPULTS! If you take a shot every time you see a Khopesh or read the word in relation to Tomb Kings, you'll pass out drunk before you're done. Plus their elites ride around on snake statues or GIANT STONE LOLCATS that breath fire and crush stuff. They even have GIANT GOD STATUES that shoot DEATH LASERS from their eyes and give <s>their gods</s> Nagash a live-action feed of what's going on in the world. Some Tomb Kings even have skull-covered rip-offs of the Ark of the Covenant holding the souls of slain enemies that they use to kill more enemies.

So totally fucking awesome.

====Vampire Counts====
[[File:M1037820 VampireCounts cover.jpg|thumb|right|450px|Nothing says [[Slaanesh|"shoot me with that big-ass cannon of yours"]] like bright red armor in an army of grimy, thin skeletons.]]
{{Main|Vampire Counts}}

Vampires. But not the Twilight kind, nor the Interview kind (for the most part).
Straight up Gothic Horror vampires. As in, still cool.
So a long time ago, during the time of ancient Egypt (pre-Tomb King) there was an evil bisexual queen. She stole the first Necromancer/Lich's autobiography, and invented a drink that turns humans into vampires.
She let her court all take a sip, then they acted like a bunch of little shits until all of Egypt united against them. They tried to ally with the NecroLich, but <s>lost the big battle</s> pussied out and fled to the Old World.

Those vamps all founded Bloodlines, which make up most of the race.
The first group is those lead by the queen which created vampires, the [[Queen Neferata|Lahmians]]. Mostly consist of magic-using spy vampiresses (and some of their gay friends) who are controlling the world like Illuminati.
The second are the Hills Have Eyes/The Descent vampires, who after years of being the whipping boys of fate as well as getting tortured and fucked over by every human and other vampire they met, turned into the vampire equivalent of ghouls. They as a result mostly hang out with ghouls. They are the [[Ushoran|Strigoi]]. The saner ones behave a lot like Nosferatu.
The next are lawful evil/neutral badass vampire knights who ride around looking for a challenge, and fight anyone they think is worth fighting. They are the [[Abhorash|Blood Dragons]].
Next is the [[W'soran/Melchior|Necrarchs]], who mostly look like Nosferatu vampires. They are the mad scientist Bloodline, spending centuries trying to come up with new kinds of Flesh Golems and similar atrocities to create. Mostly end up as sidekicks to the other Bloodlines.
Finally, the true Dracula Bloodline; the von Carsteins. Only appearing in recent history, [[Vlad von Carstein]] and his wife [[Isabella von Carstein]] attempted to get elected as Emperor of the Empire through political manipulation, and having failed that, attempted to take over by force. After the two were beaten, one of their turned "sons" [[Konrad von Carstein]] tried to destroy the Empire, but lost in an embarrassing way since he was fucking insane and dumb as a rock. Finally, [[Mannfred von Carstein]] took control of the Bloodline and repeatedly has tried to destroy the Empire. Although Manny keeps losing, he's dedicated himself to Nagash and has finally started getting to be a bigger threat to the world. As a result of this, the von Carsteins have become the posterboy army for the Vampire Counts, who are the villains when Chaos isn't.

All of the Bloodlines can raise hordes of undead, and use shit like Zombies, Ray Harryhausen Skeletons, and Ghouls as soldiers. They also bring along ghosts, and giant fucking bat monsters of different kinds. Also, bats are EVERY-FUCKING-WHERE, and not the kind that scare you when you open the closet, then fly of into the night - think piranhas with wings and a fucking attitude (which vary in size from the size of your hand to the size of a car). Creepy as all fuck. No Anne Rice, ''Angel'' bullshit, these guys are fucking evil. While they won't save you from being hit by a car, they will creep into your room at night... only to throw you out the window before draining the blood from your loved ones while their zombie driver runs you down with a car. They are also very rich because they don't have to buy food and interest rates on savings accounts add up over a few centuries of undeath. Since mercenaries like money, the mercs are happy to fight for them, giving the vamps a nice option of veteran human troops as well, with the benefit that some vampires '''might''' exercise enough restraint to not turn the living troops into snacks or mindless undead.

So, our conclusion is that Vampire Counts are fucking badass.
According to an ongoing poll in /tg/ Warhammer Fantasy Generals, Vampire Counts come in as the #1 most played army.

===Skaven===
[[File:39-Skaven Jungle.jpg|thumb|left|400px|The [[grimdark]] version of Ratatoille.GET MAN -THING!]]
{{Main|Skaven}}

Technologically advanced rat people.
Created when the [[Horned Rat]] decided to become a Chaos God and mutated a group of humans. He has spent most of his time since hiding in a nest, and sometimes popping into the mortal world to eat a few of his servants.
Again, no furry shit here. These guys are ugly, fucking foul creatures who keep their women folk, otherwise known as "their bloated, scab-ridden, nipple-covered, maggot-like baby factories" locked away for the sole purpose of mass-reproducing thousands upon thousands of future vermin-men.
Ew.
The leaders of the species are a motley bunch, composed of batshit crazy scientists, ninja-like assassins, and bio-terrorists. Everything else is either slave cannon fodder or a mutant abomination.

They love their hordes almost as much as they love their World War 1/2 style tech that's powered by pure Chaos energy. Also, puns. Fucktons of puns come with these guys, they love their puns. They're all addicted to warpstone, which is pretty much a combination of dark magic, radioactive waste and [[Doomrider|cocaine.]] They made a nuke once, but it failed to detonate and now it sits under the biggest city in the Empire. Most of their schemes (they love scheming!) involved taking down the humans and conquering the world. They keep the races of the world fighting to keep anyone from becoming too powerful, and they consider it rude and perverse to NOT backstab someone (regardless of whether it fucks themselves over later or not).
They're like a cross between Pinky and the Brain, the rats from Redwall, & the rats from NIMH, (but with flame throwers, tesla coils, thousands of minions, and no arsing about on the subject). Also, [[DOOMWHEELS|WEAPONIZED HAMSTER WHEELS.]]

Their technology is mainly grasped through warpstone which will power their machines or devices, they almost always rely on warpstone to power their devices or fuel them. Each clanrat belongs to a clan, and their location are found all over the old world. Many are located in Skavenblight (The largest shithole in the Old World) which is their capital city or what ever thing you call what rats live in. Not all Skaven clans live in Skavenblight; most skaven clans live in lairs which are located all over the ol world, some like Clan Scurvy are located on the many oceans of the Old World, or be like Clan Skrapp and live in the blighted marshes. How the fuck they manage to pull it off but some clans live in fucking volcanoes and use obsidian weapons which is pretty cool. There is a lot of more information about Skaven clans available in the codex and heraldry books, which considering my fingers hurt from typing i suggest you move your fa/tg/uy ass to read. Skaven love screeching things as loud as they can, and they say verbs (or just plain words they like) twice. Since they respect no other race as worthy of life, they call other races "things".
Example: "MOVEMOVE, WE MARCH! ONWARDS TO KILLSLAY THE MANTHINGS AND THE DWARFTHINGS!"

They have also now kind of taken over the [[Awesome|WHOLE UNIVERSE]] and according to one [[Age of Sigmar]] drawing, the [[warp]] is a VERY VERY BIG RAT.

===Orcs and Goblins===
[[File:Bd7b78634da60515f8b7bb89a42cc72a.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Orc is spelled with C, for *crunch*.]]
{{Main|Orcs & Goblins}}

You've all seen the [[Orks]] and [[Gretchin]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]]. Orcs and Goblins are much the same, except here the goblins represent a full half of the army. Or perhaps we should say that the Orks are much the same as the Orcs, since it was the Orcs who came first.
Now add trolls and giants and occasionally ogres into the mix as well. Except here they have Night Goblin Fanatics popping out of the ranks, which could cause your deathstar unit to panic off the table if it wasn't for the cavalry driving them out first. Because you took light cavalry, right?

There's not much to say other than that. They spend most of their time trying to wipe out Dwarfs. Humans dislike them, High Elves are trying to [[Exterminatus|wipe them out]], Lizardmen were tasked with wiping them out by the Old Ones, Tomb Kings hunt them for sport, Strigoi vampires fucking HATE them since they caused their fall from grace, Warriors of Chaos dedicated to Khorne know no shame greater than being beaten by them, [[Gork]] and [[Mork]] are totally real beings who beat the shit out of Khorne once, and there's goblins who worship Spiders in Athel Loren.

===Ogre Kingdoms===
[[File:Thundertusk miniature model ogre artwork.JPG|thumb|right|235px|Brain over brawn, brawn over brain... Well know that it's really blubber over everything.]]
{{Main|Ogre Kingdoms}}

FUCKHUEG sumo wrestler-types with [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|katanas]], frying pans strapped to their gullets and a [[Neckbeard|mean streak as big as their enormously fat asses]]. Will eat ANYTHING, including all the courses at a restaurant, the plates, the table, the chef and the fucking bundle of forks (and if they're still feeling peckish, the waiter too).

They ride large beasts resembling mammoths and saber-tooth tigers. They think with their stomachs, which shows how fucking intelligent they are, plus their shaman-cooks use a very specific "gut magic", that mostly consists of shoving all kinds of inedible stuff down their own throats. Each and every one of the fuckers is obsessed with stuffing his face full o' your innards. Heck, they even worship a giant, fuck-off sky mouth. Ogres are often considered to be a "neutral" army and can end up fighting for any side since they hire themselves out as mercenaries to whoever can pay them in piles of [[List of /tg/ Cuisine|food]].

The last race created by the Old Ones, the one that could have actually beaten and destroyed Chaos, they were left unfinished (mostly mentally) in an environment that couldn't support them. As a result, they spread all over the world and now work for and with (and against) every single faction in the game. Along with the Skaven, the fact Ogres fight everywhere is what enforces the status quo of the canon.

==Meta History==
[[File:Warhammer History Shorthand.png|thumb|right|500px|tl;dr]]

===Prehistory===

===Proto-Warhammer===

===1e===

===2e===

===3e===

===4e===

===5e===

===6e===

===7e===

===8e===

===[[The End Times]]===

This period is also known as when everything literally goes tits up. Games Workshop, fed up of being the players whining that the game was stuck dead in its canon, said "enough" and decided to give the players what they wanted. Thus did they make the End Times towards the end of the 8th edition, a supplement to existing armies which fluff-wise tells how everything is now moving to a grand finale. Check out the [[The_End_Times|End Times]] page for more details, but to summarise:

- Mannfred von Carstein resurrects Nagash, making a world conquering host of the undead while also slowly becoming an ultimate god of death and undeath with eyes on the prize of kicking the chaos gods out of the warp and taking their place. In order to do this, he nerfed the Tomb Kings and absorbed them into the Vampire Counts to create his own army - '''the Undead Legion'''.

- The Empire has been overrun by the forces of Chaos, but at the last moment Karl Franz becomes the living avatar of Sigmar and the wind of heavens and burns all Chaos from Altdorf to pieces. Much later on, he is revealed not to be an avatar of Sigmar but Sigmar himself.

- The Orks and Goblins do what they always do and get ready for a big fight, wiping out the Chaos Dwarfs and several minor human kingdoms.

- Malekith turns out to be the rightful king of the elves, and following a civil war culminating in the deaths of several Elf gods the three Elf races have reunited into a single force. The Vortex is unbound, Ulthuan and Naggaroth have respectively sunk and been overrun by Chaos, and now all the elves are living together in Athel Loren. Teclis reveals his master plan to bind the Winds of magic into specific people. These Incarnates would be empowered by their respective Winds to the point where they can stand a chance against the full power of the Chaos Gods.

- The Dwarfs can't decide what the hell they are doing besides chewing their beards and drinking at first, but eventually end up joining the Empire.

- The Skaven have [[Tyranid|nommed]] pretty much all the minor human kingdoms and are rising in one super ratty horde to take over the world. They also '''blow up the Chaos Moon''' in a display of awe-inspiring idiocy that horrifies even the Daemons of Chaos.

- After most of the Lizardmen sacrifice themselves stopping most of the Warhammer world from becoming a smoldering crater, the survivors go 'fuck this' and fly off into space.

- The Ogre kingdoms have blown up with every volcano erupting at the same time and so they are mass-migrating again.

- Everyone who isn't with Chaos is forced to join their forces with the Incarnates in a last stand at Middenheim, where a third Warp Gate was hidden. Mannfred ruins the ritual that would have saved the Warhammer world from annihilation, and the Chaos Gods manifest to personally fuck everything up. The world is destroyed, and the stage is set for [[Age of Sigmar]].

==The World That Was==
In [[Age of Sigmar]], the age of Warhammer Fantasy is referred to as "The World-That-Was". Despite what you may think, it's actually kind of common knowledge in-universe that there was another existence before the Realms of Age of Sigmar, sort of in the same way that most know that [[Lizardmen|dinos]] ruled the Earth before mammals took over. Remnants of Warhammer Fantasy exists here and there, either like forgotten scraps of roastbeef between the teeth of the Chaos Gods or just as reformed ruins of what existed once. There may also be hints that the reason why Age of Sigmar doesn't deviate too much design-wise from Warhammer Fantasy is because the World-That-Was isn't a forgotten world by many of the gods and creatures that exists now (it's not because we just reuse the old models for AoS, we swear). To be fair there are many from Warhammer Fantasy who made it to AoS and would definitely remember those days.

Recently the World-That-Was is being referenced more and more, becoming more relevant for the overall plot of Age of Sigmar. The Malign Portents plot pretty much directly references Nagash' way of dealing with all problems way back when; with huge-ass black pyramids that get fucked over by oversized vermin.

The [[Warhammer Community]] team also uses the World-That-Was whenever they reference Warhammer Fantasy. Maybe they fear that Warhammer Fantasy will appear if you beckon it or something like Candlejack, Bettlejuice or Bloody Mary.

===The Old World (Full Circle)===
On November 15 2019, Warhammer Community revealed the existence of a new game called [[Warhammer: The Old World]]. While nothing has been seen of it beyond a logo, it has been explicitly stated to take place in the World-That-Was. Although it is unlikely to be released anytime soon by their own admission, the fact that Fantasy may be making a comeback is shocking in itself.

[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/03/23/the-old-world-ice-guard-of-kislevgw-homepage-post-4fw-homepage-post-2/ The first preview] showed Geedubs is making changes for The Old World instead of just bringing back Warhhammer Fantasy as it was by bringing back [[Kislev]] with new units, which wasn't an army since 6th edition. We already have a fan debate too, as many consider the ONE piece of art we've seen to be "Too AOS-y".

==The appeal of Warhammer Fantasy==
Some works of fiction are serious and many serious works are calm, subdued and dignified, giving events the gravity of all their implications. Some works of fiction are over the top and have a tendency towards being farcical and easy going were things often might not make sense, but you roll with it for a laugh. Warhammer manages to be both largely Serious and Over the Top at the same time. It can pull off outright farce, over the top heavy metal action, subtle academic humor and dark fantasy melodrama without missing a beat, and that's not even the truly impressive part! That's that WFB combines all of these facets constantly without diminishing any of the individual themes. You see a [[Lizardmen|fat aztec frogman]] blast a [[Lord of Change|blue, flaming hellchicken with a staff]] while fast asleep, and there's nothing wrong with it! But imagine something like that in [[LOTR]]; that shit just wouldn't fly.

It does in Fantasy because the Serious is Over the Top and silly, while the Over the Top stuff is taken seriously. Unlike 40k, Fantasy isn't overtly a pastiche of tropes and a parody of so many things - it is a coherent world where things matter. Small enough that individuals can make a mark on the world and their heroics can change the course of history, but large enough that it can be filled with all sorts of beings and cultures.

In addition, Warhammer was made by History Nerds for History Nerds. It appeals to the sort of person who, when asked "''what do you think about the middle ages''?" would reply "''where and what century''?". The world is old, and the history is actually pretty detailed for the factions for whom history matters, like the [[High Elves]], the [[Dwarfs]] and [[The Empire]]. The development of the factions in the world matters quite a lot and the ramification of wars in the past affect the world in the present. The culture of the factions in play wasn't just invented because it's cool; they developed over time, and for most of it, in a way that makes sense.

In contrast to 40,000, Fantasy is a bit less grimdark. Not because of the villains (who are about as bad; which is to say, very fucking bad) but because the heroic side is a bit more genuinely heroic. Even though they may be assholes, they still face great and terrible threats for the good of [[Karl Franz|the nation]], [[Teclis|the world at large]] and their [[Gotrek & Felix|friends]]. They're not all [[Sisters of Battle|catholic]] [[Inquisition|space nazis]] indoctrinated to do what they are needed to do; they're people, real humane people with human desires - and that includes pretty much all the mortal creatures in the setting.

Take [[Volkmar|Volkmar the Grim]]. This is a dark character, entirely dedicated to his faith to a fanatical level. He burns heretics, bashes cultists and doesn't afraid of anything - but his faith is genuinely good in nature. He protects the Empire because he loves it and the people in it, and while he may disagree with the followers of Ulric, he recognizes them as allies in the fight [[Chaos|against the true evil.]] Shit, he has a hunk of ''concentrated fucking evil on his chest'' at all times, and it doesn't affect him at all - as in, no mention that he may be getting crazier with age or that he makes deals with entities no one knows about. Nope, he's just that fucking dedicated to his faith and genuinely believes in it with the full, naked force of the human soul and heart. ''That's'' a proper Warhammer Fantasy character - skilled beyond belief and likely pretty darn grim or extreme, but with an edge of humanity and personality. They aren't just a [[Mephiston|vessel for a cool trope]] or [[Creed|an exemplar of the faction they represent]], but a fully-fledged character with needs and wants, tempered with a heroic choice to sacrifice personal safety to change the world.

==Tabletop==
===Gameplay===
''Warhammer'' is a tabletop wargame where two or more players compete against each other with "armies" of 20 mm - 50 mm heroic scale miniatures. Games may be played on any appropriate surface, although the standard is a 6 ft by 4 ft tabletop decorated with model scenery in scale with the miniatures. If you're [[Games Workshop]]'s bitch-boy and have no imagination of your own you will buy the ridiculously overpriced [[Citadel Miniatures|Citadel]] [[Realm of Battle]] tabletop and have a scenery collection made of boring plastic pieces bought entirely from GW, but REAL players make their own gaming tables (saving a fuck-ton of money in the process). Games Workshop used to encourage this until they sold their souls for money.

Gameplay follows a turn structure in which one player completes all movement for troops, then simulates casting spells (when spell-using units are available), uses all ranged or missile weapons in the army such as bows and handguns, then any units touching fight in melee or close-combat. After finishing, the second player does the same. The winner is often determined by victory points; earning a number equal to the value of enemy units killed. Special objectives can add or subtract from this total based on predefined goals, usually holding parts of the battlefield or killing powerful units (such as the enemy general).

===Magic===
Perhaps the thing that separates ''Warhammer Fantasy'' from ''40k'' the most, aside from the obvious, is the use of magic. Each army (with the exception of the dwarfs) has at least one unit that can use magic, often in the form of an independent wizard. When magic units are present on the battlefield, they're given their own turn separate from the shooting, moving and melee phases to cast their spells. There are several kinds of magic but most magicians are able to use only a single form.

* Dark Magic, used by Dark Elves and Wood Elves
* High Magic, used by the [[Slann]], Wood Elves and the [[High Elves (Warhammer)|High Elves]].
* Nehekharan Incantations, Used exclusively by [[Tomb Kings]] Liche Priests and High Liche Priests (and Settra)
* Light: Wind of Hysh, Lore of Light. Basically healing and shit, plus doing extra damage to daemons and undead.
* Gold: Wind of Chamon, Lore of Metal and Alchemy. Basically armour buffs and debuffs, with their offensive spells doing more damage the higher your armour save is. [[Troll|Problem, Knights?]]
* Jade: Wind of Ghyran, Lore of Life. Basically lots and lots of buffs, making your own units harder to kill. They look like hippies, but don't tell them that, [[RAGE|they'll fucking murder you]].
* Celestial: Wind of Azyr, Lore of the Heavens. Lets people tell the future and stuff, plus they can summon lightning and meteorites that really hurt flying units.
* Grey: Wind of Ulgu, Lore of Shadows. Basically misdirection and illusions, relying on Leadership tests. They can also teleport every time they use a spell.
* Amethyst: Wind of Shysh, Lore of Death. Basically the Lore of Fire, except more killy and shorter-ranged.
* Bright: Wind of Aqshy. Lore of Fire. Basically the ammunition of the Fire obsessed psychopaths known as the Bright Wizards.
* Amber: Wind of Ghur, Lore of Beasts. Basically a Radagast rip off. WHO IS RADAGAST?!?!? [[The Lord of the Rings|RTFM!!!]]
* Daemon Magic: Used by... well, daemons. Broken into three categories - one for each of the gods that give a shit about lasers - [[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi]] [Indulgent, relies on enemy Ld], [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] [decay, revolves around enemy S/T scores], and [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] [OMG FIRES]. [[Khorne]] is too awesome for magic; he'd much rather crush skulls with his bare <s>thighs</s> HANDS and anything less makes you dangerously unmanly and at the absolute least bicurious.
* Necromancy: Used exclusively by [[Vampire_Counts|Vampires]] and Necromancers, as the name "Lore of the Vampires" would suggest.
* Spells of Plague and Ruin: used exclusively by the [[Skaven]].
* Gut Magic: Also known as the Lore of the Great Maw. Used exclusively by the Ogre Butchers.
* Waaagh Magic: Used exclusively by [[Orcs]] and Goblins. Comes in Big and Little flavors. Has a very high chance of making the user's head asplode.
* Athel Loren Magic: Used exclusively by Wood Elves. Moves forests, or move folks through forests.
* Ice/Winter Magic: Used exclusively by the Tzar of Russi- er, Kislev. It gets bonuses or penalties [[What|based on whether your models have snow on the bases and what the weather outside is like.]] Has since been discontinued for being as stupidly designed as it sounds.
* Lizard Magic: Used by [[lizardmen]], it has only one spell, called "Fuck you, I'm an Aztec dinosaur, therefore awesome."
* [[Chaos Gods#The Other Ones|Hashut]] Magic: Used exclusively by the [[Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Legion of Azgorh|Chaos Dwarfs]], the Lore of Hashut consists primarily of buffing spells that work well with the ungodly amount of flaming weaponry that the Chaos Dwarfs have access to.

[[Warhammer Magic]] is powerful, very powerful. A lone unit can wipe out half the opposing army with the right spell at the right time. Magic can also misfire, badly. This adds an element of unpredictability to its use, making it much more dangerous to the user and therefore, much less broken.

GW also recently released an expansion to WFB with a bigger focus on magic, called [[Storm of Magic]]. Which turns magic from regular broken into <s>DOUBLE</s> TRIPLE BROKEN, but misfiring will fuck your mage up in 12 different ways, [[lulz|and then Khorne will throw giant brass kull at him/her/it]].

==Significant Personage Of Warhammer==
* '''[[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]]:''' Born some random tribesman, <s>Conan</s> Sigmar united the squabbling human tribes in what would become known as the Empire and killed a ton of Orcs. Saved some random ass dwarf after this and the Dwarf High King gifted him Ghal Maraz, a super-duper powerful warhammer. Also the dwarfs helped him defend Black Fire Pass from a massive WAAAGH! . He was the first Emperor of the [[Empire]], but he got bored and disappeared on a journey to find something interesting to do. The Empire canonized him as a god, and today the Church of Sigmar is the largest and most powerful faith in the Empire (although only one among many). Some believed him to be one of the missing [[Primarch]]s, given how badass he was, but this has been disputed by newer [[fluff]] detailing his birth and family life. Returned during the End Times, and there was much rejoicing.
* '''[[Karl Franz]]:''' This guy is the current Emperor of the Empire. He owns Ghal Maraz now, as well as the biggest motherfucking <strike>Hippogryph</strike> Gryphon, named DEATHCLAW, who he rides while [[rape|assraping]] bitches who try to invade Imperial soil. And he has a fucking dragon. As of [[The End Times]], he was missing, but returned, was killed, and became [[Awesome|Sigmar-Jesus]].
* '''Magnus the Pious''': Greatest Emperor since [[Sigmar]]. Also one of the few who wasn't morally bankrupt.
* '''Volkmar the Grim''': Grand Theogonist of the Empire. Quite a stern faced fellow; he was once chained up to a daemonic standard by [[Chaos Gods|Be'Lakor]], but simply [[Awesome|broke himself off, murdered the daemons surrounding him, and marched through the Chaos wastes to get back to the Empire]]. <s>[[Derp|This has since been retconned]].</s> Not according to Chris Wraight's Sword of Vengeance. As reward for his sheer badassery, he gets captured by mannfred Von Carstein and is tortured until he is a mere shell of his former self. Arkhan the Black then uses his body as the vessel in which Nagash returns to the world in a ritual so sickening that even Mannfred feels bad for him. Truly grimdark.
* '''[[Gotrek & Felix]]''': Adventuring duo, have a lot of books based on them. Gotrek is a dwarf Slayer who is terrible at his job, because between his magic super-axe and ''insane badassery'' he's nigh-unkillable. Felix is some random bard who found a sword that really wants to kill dragons somewhere. Together, they <strike>fight crime</strike> look for something powerful enough to finally kill Gotrek. Gotrek tolerates Felix traveling with him because he needs someone to pen the mighty tale of his epic doom. In recent times their relation have come close to a bro-friendship and they trusts each other completely. While he's not in it for the chicks, Felix goes through them at a rate of 1-2 per two books. To put it simply if there is more than two of it Gotrek has probably killed one.
* '''Kurt Helborg''': Captain of the Reiksguard and [[Ultramarines|second to the Emperor]] in military terms. Also a badass moustache.
* '''Ar-Ulric Valgeir''': The Viking leader of the Cult to Ulric, the [[Spaaaaaace Wolves|wolf god]].
* '''[[Boris Todbringer]]''': The Elector Count of Middenland.
* '''Luthor Huss''': Crazy ass preacher. [[Awesome]] in the way to show the middle finger to those over-fat, political fuckwits of the Sigmar cult of the capital and take the "Fight Chaos to death" thing personally... with a huge hammer.
* '''[[Balthasar Gelt]]''': Empire Wizard, looks like Dr. Doom. Rides a white pegasus and wears such gaudy clothing that Lady Gaga looks frumpy by comparison. Possibly Elton John without the singing voice.
* '''Valten''': Reincarnation of Sigmar. Got ganked by a Skaven, probably Snitkch, but the lack of gore makes it hard to tell. RETCONNED! Now he is very much alive, and keeping the forces of the empire from being completely buttfucked by Archaon. Sad news is that still got ganked by Skaven...at least this time, he was sniped by a Verminlord while honourably dueling Archaon.
* '''Louen Leoncour''': King of [[Bretonnia]]. Believes in the Feudal system, also believes that a 300% tax rate for the peasantry promotes economic growth, also believes that knights are of infallible morality, also believes that guns are weaker than bows , also believes people of the Empire would prefer a system of governance that emphasizes crushing their hopes and dreams, also believes that a pig and 12 Bretonnian coppers (which exchanges for less than half an Empire copper on a good day) is an excessive reward for saving his nation. In the same support group for ludicrous theme naming as [[Canis Wolfborn]].
* [[Lady of the Lake]]: Creepy cannibal spirit of Bretonnia. A fine piece of ass regardless of diet. May be an elf in disguise.
* '''[[The Green Knight | Green Knight]]''': Bretonnian Holy Warrior and professional ass rapist. In the End Times he is revealed to be Guilles de Breton, founder of Bretonnia and basically their version of Sigmar.
* '''[[Katarin the Ice Queen]]''': Tzarina of Kislev. One of maybe a handful of people in the setting who can use Ice Magic.
* '''[[Teclis]]''': Mage of the High Elves. Pathetic weakling that drinks magic potions like an alcoholic and falls over in a breeze, although he's also one of the few non-Slann mages capable of nuking cities. Considered a Mary Sue by some but they are mistaken, his brother Tyrion is the Mary Sue. Teclis also taught the Empire how to use magic and founded their fancy colleges, being one of the few elves to realize and respect the potential of non-elves. Eldrad - dickery = Teclis. According to his cameo in the Gotrek and Felix series, most elf women are so-so towards him (being haughty bitches), but human women are wet for him. Becomes extremely grey in the End times and essentially Sacrifices his niece to Mannfred to allow Nagash to return, showing that he is very capable of eldrad levels of dickery.
* '''[[Tyrion]]''': Teclis' twin brother and a fuckawesome warrior. May in fact be aroused by killing; it's hard to tell because he won't stop to answer questions. Also happens to be a bigger Mary Sue than [[Kaldor Draigo]] and a bigger dick than [[Eldrad]]. For instance, in 'Blood of Aenarion' he matches veteran warriors with a blade even though he's young and barely practiced himself. Women flock to his bed ([[FATAL|including his own cousin]]) and everyone treats him like a hero even though he hasn't done anything heroic yet (being a descendant of one doesn't count, you have to earn it). Also has the supposed flaw of not being good at anything outside of war. "Supposed" because the flaw never affects him when it should harm him. Matt Ward, of all people, reduced his Mary Sueness a little by making him moody and giving him a short temper as early signs of Aenarion's curse.
* '''[[Ariel]]''': God Queen of the Wood Elves, revealed to be fucking Isha herself who was slowly wasting away as her daughter [[Lileath]] poisoned her with magical ice. Had fairy wings.
* '''[[Orion]]''': Consort King of the Wood Elves, revealed to be [[Kurnous]] AKA the father of all Elves and the wild manly forest beings. Rides through Bretonnia every summer and kills everybody who runs from him because...reasons! Looks like the child of a centaur and a satyr.
* '''[[Thorgrim Grudgebearer]]''': Dwarf High King, very angry, very angry indeed. He carries a book called "The Great Book of Grudges", where EVERY single fault aganist the [[Dorf]] people (THAT'S GOIN' IN THE BOOK, LADDIE!) is noted and taken into account when the time of skullcrushing comes, hence his angriness. He wants to avenge them ALL, and sort of cheats at it by considering all the Grudges fulfilled in the last battle between Chaos and the world it was consuming.
* '''[[Josef Bugman]]''': Dwarf brewer and 200% Awesome. After his brewery got burned down by some goblins he began an impossible mission to kill the tribe that decided the world didn't need anymore Bugman's XXXXX. Now he roams the world with his surviving employees and family fucking shit up. His booze is literally legendary, and possession of some is about on-par with having a giant magical sword forged by a Chaos God's buttcrack or what have you.
* '''[[Grombrindal]]''': The [[White Dwarf]] (yeah, he's the mascot of the Magazine). A mysterious warrior who was apparently friends with pre-charbroil Malekith and now fights endlessly against the enemies of Dorfkind by just appearing and helping out randomly. Like Kaldor Draigo, but as an undead instead of a mortal lost in the Warp.
* ''' [[Long Drong]]''': A Dorf pirate who was apparently important enough to get a unit, a part in the [[Awesome|all-destroying dwarf army of slayer flavoured-doom]]. He even got his own campaign book for God's sake! Why?!
* '''[[Lord Mazdamundi]]''': Most powerful and influential [[Slann]] alive, unnecessarily rides on a dinosaur and gets the bloated toad-alien equivalent to a raging hard-on every time he nukes a city and/or non-Lizardmen species into dust. Also leads the Lizardmen equivalent to the Klan and was one of the brilliant minds behind a plan for a redecorating of the world's volcanic system, this also resulted in the Dwarfs being marginalised close to the point of extinction. And then he fapped to it.
* '''[[Lord Kroak|Venerable Lord Kroak]]''': Most powerful and influential Slann formerly alive. Most powerful magic-user of the entire setting after the gods themselves, he has been dead for thousands of years and can't even move by himself. His corpse is taken in battle because he is made of localized nuclear explosion and levels cities pretty much every. fucking. turn. Probably the most powerful entity because even being a [[Emperor|dead, inanimate corpse,]] he has killed more shit than anyone else on this list, except for maybe Nagash, even then it's too close to make a call, except that he probably will kill Nagash if they meet and would just blink the guy out of existence if they had met when he was alive. He also gets bonus points for not having actually being reanimated, vampirised or any other kind of weird back from the death shit. He is straight up dead. And his rotting corpse is still more magic than the magicest anything else in the universe. In short, he's the grand toad poohbah of lizardkind, and he's on a hoverchair, kinda like a badassed version of [[Tau|Aun'Va]]. Not dissimilar to a Dalek in this regard.
* '''[[Archaon]]''': Lord of the End Time, the Ever Chosen and second most powerful warrior in the setting. Beat all four of the greatest Champions of the Empire in single fight during the Storms of Chaos Campaign But got bashed about badly by Grimgor who headbutted his teeth out of his face. Grimgor iz da best! Later on, he destroyed the world entirely.
* '''The [[Glottkin]] (Otto, Ethrac, Ghurk)''': Triplet sons who became Nurgle's top champions and mutated into a warrior, a smelly wizard, and a giant fucking blob of pestilence. Their parents were priests of Sigmar that tried to live among, and convert, the Chaos worshipers until they were murdered by the Empire by mistake, and the sons began looking for vengeance. Lucky for them, Archaon decided to make them his new vanguard and sent them to blow up the city of Altdorf. These guys are the basis of the second part of [[The End Times]] as the biggest threats of Chaos. Get beat pretty hard, turned into flies by Nurgle to save them but he put them in a jar as punishment.
* '''[[Wulfrik the World-Walker]]''': Chaos Lord, executioner of the Gods and consummate smack-talker of the Warhammer world.
* '''[[Aekold Hellbrass]]''': AWESOME Tzeentchian Champion.
* '''[[Arbaal the Undefeated]]''': All mighty Champion of Khorne. Another one of the greatest warriors in the setting. Obviously, being a favored champion of the Ultimate God of War. Was with Asavar Kul when Praag was destroyed, fled the battle after he died at Russia, likely to assume Khorne ain't very happy with him. Also destroyed the gates of Praag with a single strike from his sword. (badass) Angron probably got his inspiration from this guy. Is he as fun to be around as [[Kharn]]?
* '''[[Asavar Kul]]''': Greatest Champion of Chaos. Greatest warrior in the setting. Almost destroyed the Empire. 'Nuff said.
* '''[[Harry the Hammer]]''': Oldfluff character whose warhammer the setting is named after. Allegedly.
* '''Vardek CROM!''': Archaon's lieutenant and King of the tribe of Asavar Kul. Was man handled by Archaon once and beat Grimgor once.
* '''[[Chaos Gods#Be'lakor|Be'lakor the Dark Master]]''': The only Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided and chooser of the Everchosen....though not by choice. He's a scheming sonuvabitch that tries to kill every other champion of Chaos so he can get his parents' attention back. Oh, and he's also [[Warhammer 40K|in the spaaaaaace-future of the 41st millennium]]. Technically invented Chaos worship by being the first mortal in Fantasy to be uplifted by them, and served as the middle man between the material plane and Warp entities until the Chaos Gods discovered they could have their own champions rather than just sharing one. Has been a pissy fuck ever since.
* '''[[Valkia the Bloody]]''': The world's most badass woman and Khorne's personal bitch. A monster of a woman who killed so much that everyone's favorite Blood God got smitten and made her more than human. Now she chooses who lives and who dies to join Khorne in the afterlife.
* '''[[Grimgor Ironhide]]''': Orc Warlord, one of the most powerful warriors in the setting. Got his ass handed to him once by Archaon's lieutenant, Vardek CROM!!! Grimgor swore to prove he was the best in any case and did it beating Archaon himself in singular duel (via headbutt to the Chaos-armored testicles). Was determined to be the avatar of [[Gork]] himself. One of the most badass robots from [[Transformers]] was named after him.
* '''[[Skarsnik]]''': Head of the [[Night Goblins]], intent on taking over the Eight Peaks and wiping out the Dwarfs. Extremely clever, extremely cruel even by Warhammer standards, but canonically loves his Squig companion Gobbla. He speaks several languages too.
* '''[[Wurrzag|Wurrzag, Da Great Green Prophet]]''': Orc Moses. Turns enemy Wizards into Squigs. His mental energy makes those he doesn't turn into Squigs suffer an improved chance of a miscast. Never stops dancing. EVER. On a lifelong journey to find the avatars of Gork and Mork. It actually took him awhile to figure out he needed to find two Greenskins instead of one. One was [[Grimgor Ironhide|an ultraviolent Black Orc]], the other [[Skarsnik|a tactically-brilliant Night Goblin]].
* '''[[Grom the Paunch]]''': Former Goblin Warlord. Famous for being obese, no joke. Also for near DESTROYING the Empire, oh, AND Ulthuan (imagine a Grot almost destroying Terra until he got bored and decided to destroy every Craftworld, almost succeeding). Not bad for a Gobbo. No one knows where is he now, <s>but it is unlikely that, whrerever he is, is alive (his wars was a hundred yeras before current era).</s> <span style="color:#80FF00">GROM LIVES, ya' git! An' when da waaaghboz returnz, wi'll stomp da humies an el's an' orcs fo' good! WAAAA-</span><span style="color:green">'''STOMP!''' Where ya been? Get back to camp an' start to load rukks in da... um... "thing", ya squishy git!</span>
* '''[[Thanquol]]''': Skaven grey seer and archenemy of Gotrek. He does lines of warpstone powder which is to cocaine what a monster truck is to a pair of baby's first rollerskates. Also he managed to escape from the prophet of Sotek, who after losing his sacrifice to his awesomic god, <strike>takes a nap</strike> meditates, despise the fact that he is a skink. Forever. Thanquol is such a colossal fuckup that it was determined the Lizardmen should let him live because he was ''that much'' of a liability to his own people. Spends all his time with his Frankenstein's Monster buddy [[Boneripper]].
* '''[[Deathmaster Snikch]]''': Skaven ninja-assassin. Uses three scimitars at once to lop off limbs from his target, doesn't so much as assassinate people as shred them into little pieces.
* '''[[Malekith]]''': Lord of the Dark Elves; master of Dark Magic, uses a shield that can asplode your brain from a distance, and rides a giant-ass black dragon. Still lives with his mom. Also considered a whiny emo git who costs so much no one will ever use the Malekeith on a Dragon model because they'd rather finish the game before the entropic heat death of the universe. GW retconned it so he was the chosen one and everyone who doubted him was wrong, making his transformation into Anakin Skywalker complete.
* '''[[Morathi]]''': Malekith's mom. In old editions she was the highest ranking Slaaneshi in the world and one of the primary players in the game of global domination; now she's just a crazy supreme witch with Alzheimer's who thinks everyone is her old hubby Aenarion. Fortunately, they fixed that in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|the video game]].
* '''[[Malus Darkblade]]''': The Starscream of Warhammer.
* '''[[Gorthor|Gorthor the Beastlord]]''': A Beastman Everchosen, one of a handful of Beastmen who successfully caught the eyes of the Chaos Gods in more than a passing capacity. Whipped up on the Empire for a while before dying. Depopulated the Drakwald while he was at it. Even by Beastmen standards this guy was a monster.
* '''[[Khazrak The One-Eye]]''': The most cunning Beastman. He and Boris Todbringer stabbed each other's eyes out, leaving one with an eyepatch and one with a constantly blood-and-puss bleeding empty socket. Hence his title, obviously. Loves messing with Todbringer.
* '''[[Morghur|Morghur, Master of Skulls]]''': A creature so close to Chaos that stuff he touches becomes [[Chaos Spawn|You-Know-Whats]]. He's classified as a Beastman, but that's mere approximation; it'd be more accurate to call him a pure, sentient mass of Chaos energy given flesh. Perhaps that's why he never stays dead?
* '''[[Nagash]]''': Supreme Lord and Creator of Undead, with his autographed book series inspiring the creation of Vampires by Neferata. Also [[Eldrad|Supreme Asshole]]. Was pissed his brother got to be Pharoah while he was stuck as a priest, so he tortured Dark Elves until they taught him black magic that he turned into the first true Necromancy. Killed his brother and got creepy with his brother's life, kept trying to take over Warhammer Egypt from his giant Warpstone flying pyramid and kept getting his ass kicked because Chaos, humanity, and even Skaven were all afraid that he'd become supreme ruler of reality if left un-sabotaged/smote. Supposedly the strongest wizard ever, has fought Sigmar himself and almost won. Became the supreme god of death by becoming Death itself via making death magic his bitch/part of his soul, now gets every soul that Chaos doesn't.
* '''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Nagash's right-hand man. Spent his life in defending Nagash and was resurrected to continue doing it as a skeleton sorcerer. nlike Mannfred, he's serving Nagash out of loyalty that didn't even end in death although in some versions he's getting a bit tired of Nagash's abrasive personality. Had an on-again off-again romance with Neferata despite being a skeleton.
* '''[[Heinrich Kemmler]]''': An insane Necromancer who dabbled in all sorts of dark arts, eventually becoming a believer in Chaos. Was the very first still-canon Warhammer character ever created.
* '''[[Krell]]''': [[Chaos Lord]] turned undead Wight. Everyone thought he was a mindless minion of Kemmler, but he actually changed allegiance from Khorne to Nagash long ago.
* '''[[Queen Neferata|Neferata]]''': The first Vampire and last ruler of the ancient city of Lahmia. Militant bisexual necromancer with a spy network that goes around manipulating events across the world behind the scenes. Pays lip service to Nagash but wants to become a proper queen again. Tried to make her cousin Khalida a Vampire, caused Khalida to hate them as a result.
* '''[[Vlad von Carstein]]''': The first Von Carstein who almost became Emperor of the Empire but was betrayed by Mannfred. Husband of the original Vampire, but all of his character motivation is being a lovey-dovey couple with his new wife. Resurrected by Nagash in the End Times to continue making Mannfred look bad.
* '''[[Isabella von Carstein]]''': New wife of Vlad, helps keep him from going full-retard when he gets too pissed off and is a big part of his longterm planning but once he died the first time she suicided. Possessed by a Nurgle Daemon in End Times, Vlad killed himself again to use his ring to kill the Daemon but have her survive.
* '''[[Mannfred von Carstein]]''': Vampire Lord, a "son" of Vlad. Helped end Vlad's attempt at taking over the world with his involvement in the theft of the Ring of Supreme Badassery, traveled the world like Eurotrash then tried to launch a similar invasion of his own using the ring. Got his ass kicked, became a slave to Nagash to attempt to carve out his own chunk of the world but got pissed when Nagash resurrected Vlad to be the HNIC Old World Vampire. Decided to go full-retard and ended the world by stabbing one of the guys using magic to make it not get swallowed by the Warp. /tg/ calls him "Mannlet Von Carstein" to reflect his character motivation of having daddy issues.
* '''[[Konrad von Carstein]]''': Bat-Shit crazy Vampire Lord, "son" of Vlad. Not good with magic, after pissing off his Necromancers they abandoned him and the stress of controlling a zombie apocalypse made him lose his shit and wander off into a forest muttering to himself where he was promptly tackled by Gotrek and stabbed in the heart with the Elector Count of Ostland's Runefang by Felix. [[Twilight|Total "pants-on-head" retarded vampire noob.]]
* '''[[Settra the Imperishable]]''': Greatest of the Tomb Kings. Fights upon a pimped out chariot. Was offered literally everything by the Chaos Gods themselves if he'd serve, yelled "SETTRA DOES NOT SERVE. SETTRA RULES!" and decided to spend his unlife trying to fucking kill Chaos.
* '''[[Queen Khalida]]''': Freaky mummy-chick blessed with the powers of a snake. Fucking hates Vampires, before Twilight made that cool.
* '''[[Greasus Goldtooth|Overtyrant Tradelord Greasus Tribestealer Drakecrush Hoardmaster Goldtooth the Shockingly Obese]]''': A huge motherfucker that weighs more than a pile of corpses made from giants. He loves eating almost as much as he loves killing. His name is also really, really long. Ogres are impressed by his name and he probably gets a shitload of tail. But he's a huge lardass who costs 565 points and makes ogres more awesome and enemy units pant-shittingly stupid.
* '''[[Golgfag Maneater]]''': An Ogre mercenary, established the Ogre mercenary archetype and was the best Ogre [[Murderhobo]] there ever was. Notorious for doing pretty much everything. Example: your mom.
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]]''': A Skaven with surprisingly decent martial skill, bright red armour and a huge pole on his back covered in skulls. Warlord of [[Clan Mors]], the largest of the Clans that aren't the main four. His name sounds like Squeak, as GW still doesn't take the Skaven too seriously.

==See Also==
*[[Army compatibility between Warhammer settings]]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YgLWdIjGE Song for Warhammer Fantasy]
*[http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page Warhammer Lexicanum (It is badly in need of more articles)]
*[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Category:Warhammer/Tactics Warhammer Fantasy Battles Tactics]
*[http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com (More prosaic than the Lexicanum, but strangely has content the Lex doesn't, and vice-versa)]

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}

[[Category:Wargames]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Games Workshop]]

Star Wars

2020-05-07T07:13:53Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* Disney Canon */

{{Star Wars}}
[[File:Star-Wars-Logo (1).jpg|center|500px|]]

{{Topquote|A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....|Star Wars opening text}}
'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D0ZQPqeJkk/ Star Wars]''' is one of, if not ''the'', most influential media franchises of modern times, let alone its effect on science-fiction and fantasy. Indeed, among [[/tg/|nerddom]], it is challenged by only a few others, like [[Star Trek]] and [[The Lord of the Rings]].

The incredibly ardent fandom is spread worldwide and has a strong presence in popular culture. Many of the characters, like Darth Vader and Yoda, are iconic even to the general public. John Williams' score for the original trilogy is probably the best-known film score of all time. The universe has spawned numerous video games, hundreds of novels, multiple TV shows, one of the largest merchandising franchises ever, and, relevant to /tg/, a whole bunch of board, card, and roleplaying games.

It is also the current leading world source of [[Skub]].

==The Basic Concept==
Star Wars was originally a series of epic science-fantasy "space operas" that roughly followed the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. They're set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," [Note: this makes the entire series a fairy tale] where a mysterious life force called (reasonably enough) the Force permeates everything. This, in turn, can be wielded by certain people, giving them pseudo-magical abilities; thank the Emperor ([[Emperor|no, the other one]]) there were no Commissars in that universe. Those who use it for good become mystical, selfless warrior monks called Jedi, whereas those who use it for evil are ruthless, self-serving bastards called Sith. However, the Force must always be in balance, so any time the Sith arise to cause imbalance, the Jedi have to pull together and take them out to restore the natural order.

The so-called Original Trilogy (made up of films IV through VI, released from 1977 to 1983) followed a young man named Luke Skywalker who becomes a Jedi and re-balances the Force. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance is fighting to end the oppressive Galactic Empire, which is secretly led by the Sith. Luke and his Rebel companions eventually defeat the evil Emperor Palpatine, but along the way they discover that his lieutenant, Darth Vader, is actually Luke's father. A financial, critical, popular and cultural H-bomb, these movies are basically the filter through which Generation X perceives the world... for better or worse.

The so-called Prequel Trilogy (made up of films I through III, released from 1999 to 2005) explained how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and how the Galactic Empire was established. This involves a lot of convoluted politicking in the Republic, which is then torn apart in the Clone Wars, where the Republic (with an army of clones led by the Jedi) fights against the Confederacy (with an army of robots led by [[Necrons|General Grievous]] and secretly controlled by the Sith). It was not as well received as the first trilogy, for reasons we'll talk about below.

There's also a so-called Sequel Trilogy (made up of film VII and presumably films VIII and IX), which started in 2015 and picked up the story some three decades after the Emperor's defeat with a new generation of heroes taking on the remains of the evil Empire, which is a group of extremist former Imperials calling themselves the First Order. However, Episode VII aka ''The Force Awakens'', was directed by J.J. Abrams, who's mostly known for the [[skub|skubtastic]] [[Star Trek]] reboot, while Episode VIII was written and directed by Ryan Johnson who was a young director known for plot twists and genre experimentation on a handful of movies and television episodes that openly said he wanted to "subvert expectations" and make half of viewers dislike his work, then got pissed when half of them disliked his work. The result managed to fracture the Star Wars fanbase over issues of dull rehashing for VII and a whole laundry list of reasons for VIII (ranging from small ones such as it being too different, to major issues like half the movie being filler), as well as those who still enjoyed them and very little common ground between the three groups.

Finally, there are the so-called Anthology movies, standalone one-shots involving characters and plotlines that aren't a part of the main "Saga" films, except they kind of are. The first, Rogue One (2016), is an immediate prequel to Episode IV that follows those Rebel spies who stole the Death Star plans. The second film follows a young Han Solo and pals Chewie and Lando. A third rumored one follows Boba Fett.

There are also three separate TV series. The first one, ''Clone Wars'', was based on traditional animation, whereas the later one, '''''The''' Clone Wars'', was a weird 3D animation. They're both pretty good. There was also a terrible theatrical release that was basically just an advertisement for ''The Clone Wars'', but, since it's even worse than the Prequel Trilogy (hint: babysitting Jabba the Hutt's kid), nobody talks about it much. The third series is Disney's ''"Rebels"'' which is set between Episodes III-IV and it takes itself far less seriously than Clone Wars did, and is more of a homage to the original trilogy since not every character in the series is the owner of a lightsaber nor are they constantly talking about grown-up politics, senators and trade embargoes... pretty much the things that clogged up the plot of the prequel trilogy.

And then there's the whole Expanded Universe, which covers pretty much everything not covered by the films, like the Old Republic (set thousands of years before the prequel trilogy, when there were a hell of a lot more Sith and Jedi around) and the New Republic (set immediately after the original trilogy, explaining what became of all the characters. It could also reach 40k levels of grimdark with races like the [[Dark Eldar|Yuuzhan]] [[Tyranids|Vong]] characters like [[Vampire|Darth Nihilus]] and beings like [[Old Ones|Abeloth]].

The EU is no longer considered in the main canon of the films and TV series, due to the new sequel trilogy which does not follow EU, the reason for this being, according to Disney, that following EU would restrict their creative freedom. The reaction to this was, well, [[skub|mixed, for lack of a better word.]] They've since noted that they'll slot ''some'' of it in on a case-by-case basis, but the canon is in a highly fluid state at the moment. EU is now officially called Star Wars Legends, though most fans still refer to it as EU.

==Why is it so popular?==

Star Wars is as accessible as science fiction gets. It doesn't require extensive knowledge of a fictional world (a la ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' or ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'') or cultural background (as ''[[Star Trek]]'' sometimes does) to make sense. Those elements are present for those who want them, but they largely stay in the (very rich and vibrant) background. It has well-shot action and good ''enough'' dialogue to make it interesting for both kids and adults (as well as allowing parents who grew up with it to watch it with their children, thereby hooking the next generation of viewers). It has simple, good-vs.-evil themes that resonate with almost anyone, anywhere, at any time. The science fiction elements are generally handled well if you don't obsess over making science fiction realistic and hard. It's a prime gateway drug for sci-fi which still holds up to the experienced eye, [[Isaac Asimov]] saw and rather enjoyed the films. All in Fourteen hours of cinema, plus optional sides for those who want it.

There's a ton of merchandise that is, of course, really cool. Also, given it's crossed over into the mainstream, many people feel comfortable being part of the community without feeling judged as "nerds" (as they might with ''Lord of the Rings'', ''D&D'', ''Star Trek'', ''Warhammer'', etc.).

Again, they roughly follow the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. If you think about it, 6 of the 9 films can be summarized as: hero begins his journey under the tutelage of a wise (more or less) man, they encounter a threat which has captured/enslaved a princess/girl, who was in one way or another connected to an important secret (usually a superweapon but could be the identity of a political figure or the location of someone); the heroes save the princess/girl but someone dies tragically in a battle against the villain while someone else is blowing up a space station or a spaceship afterwards they are happy, they celebrate and mourn the loss of the poor bloke who died.

Additionally, the first film can be summarized as a samurai and a gunslinger team up to save a princess from Nazis in space. That is multiple cinematic genres at once, following the style of the epic myth.

==Setting==
Due to article bloat, [[Star Wars Setting]] is now its own page.

==The rise of the original trilogy==

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away....etc etc you all know the lines.

A man called George Lucas had the idea to create a series of epic sci-fi space operas that would become so successful that Disney would take notice and give it the franchise fluttering eye lashes, trying to seduce it.

They would be called... ''Flash Gordon''.

Unfortunately for Georgie boy, and fortunately for modern nerddom, Dino de Laurentiis already owned ''Flash Gordon'', and were busy making their own, hilariously eighties version, so he said, screw it, I'll make my own!

He decided to start with the fourth movie in the series he envisioned, for at the time he didn't have the special effects to create the first three to the standard he wanted, and/or he just kinda made up the first movie as he went along (drawing heavily on Akira Kurosawa's seminal samurai action film, ''Hidden Fortress'' in the process as well as the book [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces''], a complex 1949 Joseph Campbell analysis of the various mythologies of human history all boiled down into the basic archtypes and elements required in heroic myth). So Episode Four ''A New Hope'' was created (simply titled ''Star Wars'' at the time) and it is not an exaggeration to say it changed the face of sci-fi and general moviemaking forever, bringing a new era of special effects and imagination to cinema and changing the lives of many who would go onto to become dedicated fan boys.

Originally, the studio had forced Lucas to take ever-increasing paycuts for what they were sure was going to be a flop, and only let him keep merchandising rights. However, whatever his flaws, George Lucas was a man of vision. Having helped pioneer the summer blockbuster, he went on to do the same to ginormous piles of movie-tie-in memorabilia. His production company, Lucasfilm ended up rolling in dosh, and with Episode Five ''The Empire Strikes Back'' and Episode Six ''The Return of the Jedi'', the legend of Star Wars and its place in cultural history was assured.

tl;dr: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij4w7ChpuaM Pretty much this.]

==The coming of the prequel trilogy==
With the year 2000 coming, George Lucas felt that special effects technology had reached the level he wanted and began to create the first three movies in the star wars story he had envisioned. (As a side-note, he also made some touch-ups to the three original films, re-mastering them with special effects and a couple of extra scenes that weren't doable with the eighties' animatronics. But those were mostly accepted/shrugged away since they didn't deeply modify anything.)

The hype for the movies was immense.

And then the first movie, Episode One ''The Phantom Menace'' came out.....and there was nerd rage beyond expectation.

Part of the problem was that the immense expectations of the fandom had grown until anything less-than-perfect simply would not do, so perhaps that is somewhat to blame for the reaction to the prequel trilogy. In a vacuum one has to admit that they aren't completely ''[[Twilight|terrible films]]'' .

Episode Two ''Attack of the Clones'' and Episode Three ''Revenge of the Sith'' followed after a few years each and didn't garner nearly as much hatred, though fans complained they didn't match the greatness of the original trilogy, more concerned with flashy action and effects than competent story-telling; but hooo-boy did it deliver in flashy action, with laser armed [[MI-24 Hind|MI-24's]] full of <s>storm</s>troopers extracting jedi from a coliseum full of shooty killbots.

''Revenge of the Sith'' did, however, receive higher ratings than ''Return of the Jedi'', and is generally seen as the best and most-complete of the three prequel films as a story. Unusually the novelization alters some details and is considered a legitimately good book on its own merits.

What was generally more well received (despite a rocky start with a two hour pilot being pressed into service as a movie and an art style that took some time to gel) during this time for Star Wars was the Clone Wars animated series (both the traditionally-animated ''Clone Wars'' and the later seasons of the CGI show '''''The''' Clone Wars'', the latter which most everyone agrees is what the prequels should have been), following the war between the Republic and the Confederacy that sprung up during the time between the second and third of the prequels.

It'd be ''really'' hard to find a group of movies more skubtastic than the prequel trilogy, and saying a good or bad thing about it in front of the wrong crowd's sure to provoke huge amounts of nerdrage. In defense of the prequel trilogy's sins, they did at least do their own thing. Because of how much money the original trilogy made, practically every form of media in the 80s and 90s aped it to some form or another, and instead of falling back on the same old shit the prequels branched out and tried to get out of the franchise's comfort zone a bit. While a lot of it sucked, it blazed a trail for better writers to follow and helped liven up the universe by showing us the galaxy beyond fuckhueg spaceships and faux-Western shitholes like Tatooine. And all but the most [[Neckbeard|diehard OT purists]] can get behind shit like Naboo architecture, the Clone Army and Mace "The Ace" Windu. From a story perspective the worst sin of the prequels was demystifying the force, and subsequent works have largely swept that detail under the carpet.

==Disney and the sequel trilogy==

Finally, all the efforts by Disney to woo George Lucas paid off and in 2012 Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise for 4 billion dollars and immediately announced they would produce a new trilogy of films set after the original trilogy.

Expectations were almost as high as the private fears of the fans. Bringing on the creative talent behind the [[skub|skubtastic]] ''[[Star Trek]]'' reboot was equally... well, [[skub|take a wild guess]]. The end result saw millions of voices cry out in terror, and were suddenly subsumed into hitherto unseen levels of [[Skub]].

For sake of sanity, these section have been condensed. Read at your own peril.
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===Episode 7: The Mouse Awakens===
''Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens'' debuted in December of 2015, and reception was what you would expect: the film was immediately a massive success from a monetary standpoint as everyone ([[China|almost]]) everywhere rushed to the theaters in response to the hype, with children engaging in as many repeat viewings as their parent's money could allow as fans did the same thing with their own. It has become a financial hit with the general public and a (critically) generally well-reviewed piece, with decent cinematography, special effects, technical stuff, etc. It also went on to become the third biggest financial success in film history (at the time), when not adjusted for inflation.
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Fan response was a good deal more mixed. Many criticize the plot for rehashing Episode IV, without doing anything to establish its own identity and claim that it had a bland main character, [[Mary Sue|who had too many abilities]] whereas others find the replication of ''Star Wars'' feel an acceptable trade and praise it for being a decent action film, [[skub|and claim the lead doesn't outdo any of the previous main characters]].

Some would argue that by rehashing the original trilogy it basically nullified the accomplishments of the original crew; the Empire's still around, they've got yet another superweapon, Han & Leia split up, Luke failed to rebuild the Jedi, etc. Other fans praised it simply for being a new Star Wars that was better than the prequel trilogy (expectations were lowered due to those, to be honest). Some see poor storytelling when there was no proper showing of what went on in the galaxy 3 decades since Palpatine died, and not explaining what caused big character changes like why Han returned to his old ways or Luke ran from his friends was critical. Other say this is going to be explained in the next film and people should keep their curiosity. Some argue even with their superweapon, none of the villains feel threatening. Others argue the incompetence of the main villain is a fresh change and the point of the plot will be to see him change, to be more competent, or even learn to become good.

Overall, those against argued JJ Abrams' mystery box approach may do well for a TV series but does not mesh with films that take years to make. Defendants held the position that fans should wait to see whether the next film will do anything with the unexplained plot points.

Coincidentally, when Hamill and Fisher were originally approached by Disney to reprise their roles as Luke and Leia, they ''didn't want to do it'' right from the start. But, they didn't want to give an out-and-out "no" answer either, so they told Disney they'd return if Harrison Ford agreed to return as Han Solo as well. Knowing how much Ford ''hated'' Solo, Hamill and Fisher figured they were safe, until Disney irresistibly sweetened the deal for Ford by agreeing to kill off his character, thus forcing a reluctant Hamill and Fisher to make good on their deal... [[skub|only for the three characters to never appear on the screen at the same time.]] To be fair, Hamill has a history of saying he won’t do something only to immediately agree like he’s making a standard sitcom gag in real life, even if that usually just applies to still voicing the Joker in Batman media.
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===Star Wars Rebels===
Disney also released their own CGI series: ''Star Wars: Rebels'', which is actually pretty ok (considering that it airs on Disney XD, it should be no surprise that they've toned down the graphic depictions of gratuitous violence, much to the chagrin of [[Neckbeards|those who love overly gory deaths]]). It focuses less on the Jedi that have come to dominate the franchise and more on the "boots on the ground" experience of the average characters, and while the show started slow and small, the plot gained momentum as the series progressed, especially after the first season.
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The Rebel movement starts to grow, several characters return from ''The Clone Wars'', and the enemies the main characters have to face steadily get darker and more dangerous as more of the Empire’s attention gets attracted. When Darth Vader gets involved (played by none other than [[Awesome|James Earl Jones himself]]) he immediately proceeds to [[Awesome|open a 24-pack of unstoppable whoop-ass on the rebel scum]]. The return of Maul resulted in three character deaths (possibly four), the crippling of one main character with another well on his way down the dark side, and to top it all off Maul himself was on the loose once again. Things did not turn out so well [[Grimdark|last time that happened]], so expect the body count to rise, especially with [[Creed|Grand Admiral Thrawn]] now also coming onto the scene. The show also continues the trend set by ''The Clone Wars'' in making the Force mystical again, though whether this is a good or bad thing depends on how you felt about the <s>bullshit</s> <s>scientific</s> [[Skub|skubtastic]] midichlorian explanation of the Prequels. The animation is on point with ''The Clone Wars'', which considering it's Disney should surprise less than nobody. Oh, and Steve Blum voices one of the main characters. However, it is also noted that Star Wars Rebels may indeed have [[Grimdark|dark ending]]. Which, to a degree, it did. An important character dies, and his padawan flees into the unknown regions, leaving us with two other characters to go look for him after the second Death Star blows up.

[[Skub|The way that Filoni (the creator of Rebels and The Clone Wars) has handled the Mandalorians, a fan-favorite warrior-culture based upon the Scots and Vikings, has either been met with praise from those who despised Traviss and her overpowering of said culture, or utter RAGE that he turned many of them into either pacifist morons or bloodthirsty barbarians- usually that particular criticism comes from the Traviss fanboys]]. Do take note, however, that the old ways for the Mandalorians are making their way back into canon, such as the language, the emphasis on martial honor, and the decentralized nature of their government.
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===Star Wars: Rogue One===
December of 2016 brought us the first standalone Star Wars movie, "Rogue One", showing the theft of the original Death Star plans.
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While "Rogue One" can be justly criticized for lacking in character development, that was basically mandated by being set just before another movie whose actors were now 40 years too old to reprise their previous roles. The cast of the movie includes almost no one who appears in Episode IV, and the few familiar faces who do appear show up as cameos. (Fair warning: spoilers)

Accordingly, every main character dies by the end. It still manages to pack quite a lot of [[awesome]] into the movie, with Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk and Darth Vader all used to great effect. Rogue One also answers several questions, plugs several plot holes, and just generally makes A New Hope make a lot more sense in retrospect. (No wonder Vader wasn't impressed when Leia claimed to be on a "diplomatic mission.") It also has the distinctions of being the only Star Wars movie to focus on regular soldiers instead of Jedi, and being more like the original Star Wars than any of the sequels, including the other two of the main trilogy. (The original, back before it was "A New Hope", was a genre mashup of samurai + gunslinger rescue princess from space Nazis, then team up for a World War II dogfight. This one is wuxia cast + heist crew do a heist in a WWII trench warfare war zone. There's surprisingly little 'War' in Star Wars.) Much, much [[Skub]] still exists of course, since no Star Wars movie will ever please all the neckbeards but out of the five post-Disney Star Wars movies released so far, this one is definitely the least divisive and arguably the best of the bunch.
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===Episode 8: The Last Royalty Check (aka zomg Luke dies!)===
On December 14 2017, ''Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi'' was released world wide. The critical reception was [[Bullshit|extremely positive]], with many critics considering it the best movie in the series since The Empire Strikes Back. The fan reception has been a great deal more negative and [[Skub|mixed]], and a number of fans are convinced that Disney leaned on media outlets to shill the new movie or else. If you have watched the Empire Strikes Back, you ''WILL'' be [[Rage|disappointed at best]], if you want to see a Star Wars film that would finally expand the characters of Kylo Ren and Rey, you ''WILL'' be satisfied and disappointed at the same time, if you want to watch the film because it is the last film starring the great and wonderful Carrie Fisher, you ''WILL'' feel hollow and sad inside, and if you came to see a pair of lightsaber-wielding punks involved in one of the greatest lightsaber battles of the franchise, you ''WILL'' be pleased. The Last Jedi is seen as one of the most divisive films in the franchise by the fandom, [[FAIL|which is one hell of an achievement]] considering other films.
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The complaints about The Last Jedi are many: the treatment of Luke (which even his actor, Mark Hamill, hated, to the point that he has no interest in playing Luke again), Leia's Superman asspull, Finn's plot arc that serves practically zero purpose and has him undergo the same character arc as the last movie, the forced humor, the complete disregard for established [[fluff]], disregard for even the most basic laws of physics, the fact that the central conflict is essentially the same as the one in the originals right down to the last stand ripped straight out of ''Empire'', the PC bullshit (a hipster admiral who the plot always treats as being in the right despite killing 90% of the Resistance, the Gilded Age planet arc that [[Namek|sucks up a third of the movie to no benefit,]] Rose expressing her desire to get BLACKED with a horrendous and forced #LoveTrumpsHate one-liner in the final act) added solely to virtue-signal and the whole thing being basically a 2,5h screed against the franchise it belongs to and the culture which spawned it.

Fans have also criticized the movie for dropping or discarding major plot points from TFA and repeatedly invoking Shamalamadingdong-tier plot twists for cheap gotchas that are somehow less interesting than the recycled cliches they play off of. Director Rian Johnson has responded by shitting on said critics and trying to defend the film on social media like something out of an ED or RW article. (Important note: George Lucas never tried to defend the prequels, despite the huge backlash at the time, and he agreed with fans that [[C.S Goto|The Star Wars Holiday Special]] was an abomination.) It later came out that Johnson had not been given any kind of roadmap beyond Lucas' old and unfinished concept scripts and was not allowed to see what Abrams had done until TLJ was too far into production to write in most of the previous movie's plot points, which makes the fail Disney's fault just as much as it is Johnson's. Except we also know that he had at least a modicum of influence over the ending of TFA, so they must have talked on at least some degree. As with TFA Lucasfilm has tried to paper over the holes with tie-in material, and just like TFA the fans recognize the damage control.

The Last Jedi has without a doubt torn the fanbase apart in ways even the prequels didn't come close to, with many fans declaring that they have dropped the sequel trilogy. Even Star Wars' famous merchandising has taken a mauling, as [[/toy/]] giggles at Rose Tico and General Hux figures warming shelves while new product shipments go straight from the transport case to the clearance bin.
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===[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg_FoEy8T_A I'm Solo, Han Solo, Han Solo]===
On May 25th 2018, the 41st anniversary of the franchise, ''Solo: A Star Wars Story'' was released. The general consensus seems to be that it is the most average film in the series. At the very least, most people agree that it is at least better than The Last Jedi (if barely) and the backlash from that movie can be felt even in Solo: many fans have chosen to boycott the movie. Even before release, many fans had derided the whole affair as unnecessary: no one was really asking for a Han Solo origin movie, particularly one without Harrison Ford. Han Solo's entire life history had already been explored thoroughly in EU novels and comics, so the movie could only be a retread or a retcon, both things most fanbases tend to disapprove of.
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Whether it is because of this boycott or not, [[Not as planned|something no one expected happened:]] ''Solo'' was a box office bomb. Its opening weekend performed way below expectations and as of this writing, it has only made half of the money it needs for it to break even. Disney still continued to labor under the delusion that China would save their bottom line regardless of the fact that Star Wars has never been popular in China.

So what is it like? Well, rather than being a space opera like the other films, this is a space Western. Rather than being about large-scale battles and saving the galaxy from tyranny, it's about heists and the galactic underworld. (Except for the Mimban sequence, which you'd swear was lifted from a live-action Imperial Guard movie.) It's essentially Disney's reboot/retcon of the old EU Han Solo novels, taking things that were mentioned offhand in the original trilogy (like how Han did the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs) and making that the subject of an entire movie. The film was perhaps cursed from the beginning due to its [[Fail|troubled production.]] How troubled? The lead needed an acting coach to get through his shoots (Han may have walked away with the Falcon, but Danny Glover's Lando stole the spotlight every time) and 70% of the movie had to be reshot by a different director due to [[Butthurt|creative differences]] between Lucasfilm and the original directors.

The fail only compounded when it premiered and fans got to see what those "creative differences" may have wrought: the writing staff started spewing bullshit to the press about Lando being "pansexual" with no precedent in any Star Wars production including ''Solo'', the film's tone is a schizophrenic nightmare to the last-minute reshoots and Han's sidekick for most of the movie is [[What|a self-built female droid social justice warrior]] named [[/v/|L3-37]]. Audiences ''cheered and applauded'' when that <s>man</s>human-hating self-insert character finally fucking died. Perhaps the most damning sin is that these are the movie's only notable qualities: take them away and you're left with a movie that would make you think "Huh, that was okay," and then never think about it again for the rest of your life, were it not for the crippling disappointment of seeing one of the most beloved franchises in the world fall so far. Between the boycotts, the mediocrity of the movie itself, and [https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Gawker certain news outlets] claiming that the driving force behind said boycotts was [[/pol/]], ''Solo'' cratered so badly that [[Exterminatus|all non-''Episode 9'' Star Wars movies were for a short time shelved indefinitely, and the only side-movie still being worked on is the obligatory Boba Fett origin movie, which is more likely to sell tickets based on the name alone.]] Incidentally, one of the writers picked by Lucasfilm to handle ''Solo'''s tie-in content, Cavan Scott, has been hired by [[Games Workshop]] for the [[Warhammer Adventures]] series.
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===Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker (aka Plan Palpa-Nine from Outer Space)===
Your opinion of this movie is very easy to predict based on what you thought of the others; if you found The Last Jedi to be "refreshing", you'll absolutely HATE this one. If you hate all Disney content aside from ''maybe'' The Mandalorian, you'll hate this one as much as the others. If you absolutely detested The Last Jedi but have mixed opinions of the rest, you'll probably consider this to be the best of the new movies to varying degrees of actual enthusiasm. The movie largely undoes or ignores swathes of the previous one.
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After finishing shooting, the film was shown to test audiences (which JJ Abrams lied never happened). The film was extremely poorly received, one of many reasons being because it had [[Mary Sue|Rey curb-stomping Palpatine by herself in the final battle]] (test audiences reportedly either laughed at the film or had to be stopped from walking out of the test screenings). The poor showing made (then) Disney CEO Bob Iger - who was overseeing the screening - furious, and he immediately ordered the film to be reshot. The resulting reshoots were so extensive, [http://archive.ph/RLj94 they spanned months and the film didn't have a final edit till December 2019, the month of release], causing trailers to be so desperate for footage that wouldn't be cut they had to fill half the length with footage from prior films and stuff used in prior trailers. To make matters worse for Disney, the plot was leaked months before release, and said plot turned out to be ''very stupid''. Despite Disney spokespeople and media outlets extensively denying the leaks, the leaks were proven correct by getting then unrevealed names and plot objects right. Camera leaks the week before release showed very little of the fantastically stupid content leaked months beforehand was changed, only minor details.

Before reading on, be aware that Rey and Kylo are no longer movie-type Force users, they have been changed to video game characters. Like KOTOR and Jedi Academy type where you just get powers by killing enough dudes. None of the powers are new to the franchise, but have been rarely seen and in some cases never before have in movies. You should also know that unlike the first Visual Dictionary that mostly just gave little prop trivia and plot hooks for other works, and the second which was mostly irrelevant until it gets referenced in a decade or two, the final Visual Dictionary is damn near required reading (this shit will get a "VD" to indicate it) since a lot of explanations were cut in the reshoots and recuts. Like for example the connection between Rey and Kylo is a "Force Dyad", basically one soul in the Force that inhabits two bodies (setting up a bit of a snarl what happens when one dies and not the other, and implying the personality is mostly in the brain which is why they can have unique experiences, but whatever) and warps space/time. This is why Rey was inexplicably powerful and knew how to do shit instinctively, because Kylo's training passed onto her, and likewise her nonstop playing with X-Wing training sims as a child made him a badass pilot. Dyads used to be far more common in the KOTOR era, and were apparently the inspiration for the Sith Rule Of Two. This is never mentioned in the final cut of the film, but leaks show it was in one of the earlier ones.

The movie pressed on with breakneck speed that doesn't have time for musical interludes or wipe transitions, the opening crawl informing you that Palpatine has somehow returned and sent a message to the galaxy with the Resistance trying to rebuild and gather information, Rey being trained by Leia on the planet Ajan Kloss (AKA not!Yavin #2, VD) after repairing Anakin's lightsaber (VD) who had received partial training from Luke before stopping for reasons explained later in the movie and supplementing the rest with her pouring over the Jedi texts, and Kylo Ren trying to find Palpatine because his existence is a threat to his rule. The movie takes a lot of inspiration from KOTOR era lore with Ren finding a Sith McGuffin Holocron-type navigation device on Mustafar (VD) showing him the secret planet of the Sith (not Korriban/Pesegam/Moraband, this one is a planet in a red nebula that is under constant lightning storms called Exegol). There he finds a MASSIVE Sith cult that has kept itself secret and managed to not only build a fucking massive fleet of Star Destroyers equipped with planetkiller guns like something straight out of the old canon, but divisions of Stormtroopers, technicians, and officers to fill them along with the typical cultists in robes who administer to keeping Palpatine alive and seeing to his Sith alchemy shit...which includes tanks containing multiple clones of Snoke, revealing the guy was literally born looking like that with a manufactured backstory all so Palpatine could use him as a puppet to create the First Order (which is almost a meta commentary about the backstory controversy).

Kylo is offered the chance to be the new Emperor by Palpatine, who is a corpse kept barely alive through methods some would consider... Unnatural, while strapped to a machine with [[Lord Kroak|his spirit sticking nearby]] (the filmmakers zig-zagged on the nature of this; first it was the original Palpatine who had somehow duped everyone in ''Return of the Jedi'' with a clone stand in, then the reshoots changed it to the original's zombie-like rotting corpse animated by his lingering spirit and Lucasfilm later retconned him to be a zombie-like clone of Palpatine after the film's release). The only requirement for Palps to pass him Emperorship is killing Rey, although Ren is immediately suspicious of the other strings attached (including choking a guy in a hissyfit when that concern is voiced) and decides instead to recruit Rey again, this time as a co-Emperor.

Finn and Poe obtain information about a spy within the First Order (yeah, you know its fucking Hux even before they say there is a spy at all) while Rey gets visions during her training with Leia. The spy confirms that Palpatine is legit and the info about the fuckmassive deathfleet is legit, and Rey finds the Jedi texts contain notes from Luke about his search for that planet. They go to his last clue, a desert planet that isn't Tatooine and is the middle of a festival where they find Lando has been holed up enjoying himself since him and Luke traveled there. They are immediately spotted by the First Order and escape from them to find the ship of one of Palpatine's servants who had last been seen there. They fall into sinkholes around the ship created by giant tunneling worms, and find the skeleton of Sheev's boy as well as a Sith dagger. 3PO is programmed with the Sith language, but his programming from the Old Republic era forbids him from giving the translation to civilians. Rey manages to get the sand worms to leave them alone by using Force powers to heal one's wound, and they attempt to get the Sheev's servant's ship up and running before they are attacked by the First Order. Chewie is taken prisoner and Rey wrecks Kylo's TIE Fighter before the two engage in a Force tug of war to pull the transport Chewie is on, which ends in Rey accidentally Force Lightning it and causing it to explode when she becomes frustrated with the stalemate. Chewie is revealed to have been on another transport and is taken to Ren's flagship Star Destroyer while the heroes, instead of do something sensible like seek a Rebel leader who can give security clearance for 3PO's protocol (Leia's the obvious choice), they head to a planet under VERY Nazi-like occupation to find a droid technician who can hack 3PO's memory. They encounter a woman from Poe's past, revealing he was a former spice smuggler like Han until abandoning his crew (causing them to fall into debt and become bitter at him) to join the Resistance. She threatens to turn the group in to pay off their debt [[Mary Sue| but Rey kicks her ass, earning her respect and she takes them to the technician without further incident.]] The technician unlocks 3PO's memory at the cost of wiping him. The translation reveals the dagger is the key to finding the Sith navigation McGuffin they are looking for. During this BB-8 reactivates Sheev's servant's old droid, who doesn't do much.

The heroes proceed to board Ren's flagship with the help of a First Order officer's badge, and shoot their way through as they free Chewie. Rey and Ren have another linked vision where her parents are revealed to have attempted to hide her from her grandfather Palpatine, who wanted to merge the souls of himself and '''ALL''' other preceding Sith (presumably not Revan, since his redemption is canon) while he discovers they are on his ship and orders it put on lockdown. Rey is confronted in the hangar by Ren, who offers her to join him again. She refuses and the Falcon appears, the engines blowing away the Stormtroopers while Rey jumps aboard. The crew head to Endor after finding out from Sheev's servant's old droid that it was where he was going to go next (this is the only thing the droid does other than serve as a "pet the dog moment" for the cast a few times) where the Death Star wreckage of the disk and throne room landed, encountering a division of former child-soldier Stormtroopers like Finn who went AWOL. The dagger has a slide-out metal prong from the handle which perfectly lines up with the corridor leading to Sheev's throne room. The team work on repairing the Falcon while Rey presses on ahead, alone, to the Death Star wreckage. Once in the throne room a hidden door opens, revealing a sanctum full of crystal mirrors that are the same as the ones she saw in her vision in Force Awakens (the scene where she snaps her fingers and all the mirrored ones do as well). There she finds the Sith McGuffin and gets a "The Cave" vision of herself as a Sith with a red double-bladed lightsaber which she fights. Kylo is waiting for her in the throne room, and crushes the Sith McGuffin in his hand before informing her they are linked in the Force as one soul inhabiting two bodies and offering her again to be the Vader to her Palpatine which she again refuses. The two fight while Finn and one of the Stormtroopers try to rescue her. They fight their way onto the remnants of the Death Star hangar, reminiscent of Anakin and Obi-wan in Revenge Of The Sith with water instead of lava, before Ren freezes as he senses his mother start to die. This pause gives Rey time to grab his lightsaber and stab him before she freezes sensing Leia actually pass away. Rey uses the Force to heal him, then steals his TIE Fighter while Poe and Finn return to the Resistance base. Rey initially attempts to hide on Luke's monastery to let Palpatine's bloodline die with her, but after lighting Kylo's TIE on fire (so she's destroyed 2 of his personal TIE at this point) Luke appears as a Force ghost to tell her <strike>Rian Johnson</strike> he was wrong, and was motivated by fear when he tried to hide. He reveals that all the Jedi who came before are rooting for her, and tells her where Leia's lightsaber is hidden. He reveals she stopped her training because in a vision she saw that her son would be destroyed by the Dark Side, and a Light Side counterpart would take up her blade instead. Meanwhile, Kylo is visited by the memory of Han. The two reenact the scene from Force Awakens, only this time Kylo throws his lightsaber into the sea and renounces the name Kylo Ren to become simply Ben again. Meanwhile the First Order blow up Poe's home planet where the droid technician and Poe's old crew were, although they had managed to get offworld by that point. Also, R2-D2 restores C-3PO's memory wipe by finding a backup which contains everything from before the mission.

Luke lifts his X-Wing from the waves and Rey scavenges the Sith McGuffin from the flaming wreck of Kylo's ship. As she proceeds to the Sith planet she sends out a beacon to track her progress, giving the entire galaxy a map to the Sith fleet. Poe, now leader of the Resistance, sends Lando with the Falcon and Nien Nunb to gather any forces they can, all the ones who refused to aid them in The Last Jedi, while the rest of the Resistance gears up to attack Sheev's fleet before they can leave the storm cloud. The initial plan is to destroy the navigation device which orients them to the rest of the galaxy without which the fleet cannot leave, until the commander of the flagship (a former Imperial officer) realizes what they are doing and orders it to be shut down so his own ship could serve as the navigation for the rest. Rey confronts Sheev in a coliseum/throne room full of the Cultist parents of the personnel of the fleet (VD) and is informed of his plan to have her kill him so all the Sith could merge with her and rule as basically the God Emperor of Star Wars. She raises her lightsaber before using the strange wormhole Force connection thing they have to pass it to Ben, who had gotten there with a salvaged TIE from the Death Star wreckage and was being beaten by his former servants, the Knights Of Ren. Armed with Luke's old lightsaber he kills them and proceeds to the throne room. Ben arrives and the two attempt to fight him. He simply Force Pushes them back and forces them to kneel before draining a portion of their souls, the "two bodies one soul" thing apparently being a massive source of Force power he can heal himself with to rule in his own rejuvenated body again (but with Darth Maul eyes) rather than Rey's. Meanwhile, the ex-Stormtroopers and Resistance ground personnel lead by Finn land on the flagship Star Destroyer (its still in the atmosphere of the Sith planet, thus gravity and breathable air applies) and due to bringing goat-horse things from Endor are not affected by onboard EMP that would otherwise short out speeders and tanks (which is a thing from past canon, mostly comics and novels, which they use to explain why such a thing doesn't happen more often). Meanwhile, Lando appears with a fucking enormous fleet (remember the backstory that the New Republic didn't have a fleet, instead paying for every planet to have a militia of their own which would unite when there was a big enough threat? Well, JJ finally remembered because all those fucks show up alongside a neat little game of "spot that ship from the series you know" in a few shots). They begin attacking the superweapons underneath the Star Destroyers directly, causing chain reactions that blow the entire ship.

Ben is Force-pushed by Sheev into a pit as revenge for how Vader did the same thing to him before taunting the dying Rey and unleashing a MASSIVE Force Lightning storm which shorts out the fleet. While this is going on the spirits of all the dead Jedi (like pretty much anyone they could find to record a line from any of the past movies or shows, including Ahsoka; which is pretty lame since it means she was killed off-screen, with natural causes being unlikely since Ahsoka wouldn't have been 80 yet, and even that's below the average Togruta life expectancy, though this may not necessarily be the case according to Filoni) who inhabit her body the same way that Palpatine is currently full of all the Sith. Rey manages to stand and deflects his Force Lightning with Leia's lightsaber, which isn't enough until Ben manages to climb out of the pit and throw her Luke's lightsaber; with the two together she's able to walk close enough to Sheev for his Force Lightning to burn him, and despite this being the third fucking time this has happened he does not turn off the lightning and instead Raiders Of The Lost Ark's himself into a skeleton before blowing up and destroying not only himself but the spirits of all the past Sith. Despite Palpatine's plan being to possess Rey when she kills him, for some reason he doesn't do so. The Jedi spirits leave Rey and she dies, with the barely lingering on Ben healing her. They share a kiss (reminder that since Sheev created Anakin, they're basically cousins, and their relationship is so adversarial it makes Edward and Bella's from Twilight look healthy, something the novelization tries to claim is "purely platonic") before Ben dies. His body vanishes, as does Leia's. The Resistance/Militia fleet destroy all the Star Destroyers after Finn's ground crew hijacks one of the cannons of the flagship to shoot at the ship bridge, killing the last of the old Empire and First Order leadership.

The heroes return to the Resistance planet where they celebrate, scenes showing the rest of the galaxy shooting the last of the First Order Star Destroyers play, Chewie is given Han's old medal from A New Hope, and the ex-Stormtrooper leader is hinted to be Lando's daughter or grandaughter implying a spinoff with the two (also shares a gay kiss with another woman... which was cut to appease China's and Singapore's media watchdogs). After the celebrations Rey returns to Luke's old home on Tatooine where she buries Anakin and Leia's lightsabers, revealing she built her own from her Force vision only with yellow blades instead of red ones. An old woman who was a neighbor of Owen and Beru comments nobody had been to that place in years and asks Rey's name. Seeing the Force Ghosts of Luke and Leia, she tells the woman her name is Rey Skywalker. The End.

Because the fandom has become fractured like never before, there was immediately fan wars going on everywhere Star Wars fans are found. Fans accused haters of review bombing, those who hated the movie claimed the critic score (which, if you recall, is mostly people who liked The Last Jedi and hate this movie for doing a U-turn on it) vindicates them. The fan fighting probably won't ever end, since now we apparently have to reevaluate if A New Hope and the Kenner Star Wars toys were ever good in the first place because some contrarians now claim the prequels are the pinnacle of Star Wars. Whatever the case, Disney CEO Bob Iger resigned in the middle of the work week in late February 2020, before coming a couple of months later, with insiders saying he's "livid" over certain changes.
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==Expanded Universe==

It can be said what makes a franchise into a long term lasting thing is when a wealth of extra story and background is created that expands on the original story far beyond what there was. It could be argued Star Wars leads the race in this, as the sheer amount of extra novels, graphic novels and games based on Star Wars can and does overwhelm the ordinary fan.

===The original EU/Star Wars "Legends"===

[[Image: Choices_of_One_PB_art.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Before Cara, before Rey, before Darth Talon or Padme... there was Mara Jade]]
The background has expanded into the distant past before the founding of the current Jedi and Sith orders and into the (not-quite-so) far future looking at the descendants of Luke Skywalker and other popular characters. Uniquely, especially considering [[Warhammer 40K|other]] [[Star Trek|franchises']] track records, the Star Wars Expanded Universe is <strike>remarkably</strike> <strike>sorta</strike> sometimes internally consistent, both with other sources within the universe and with the films themselves, at least in comparison to other comparable settings. Of course, it's got plenty of its own [[C. S. Goto|problem children]] that slipped through, and the [[skub]] mine of it all isn't much shallower than that of 40K. Good portions of it do hold up well, largely due to the efforts of Lucas' company's continuity department leaning on everyone to hold it together. One thing that greatly helps is continuity books and articles aren't afraid to make small retcons to make even the most obscure and shitty sources (like that terrible PS1 fighting game) seem like part of an organized plot. Particularly well-loved parts include characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn (a rare alien officer in the Empire and popular enough that Disney brought him back to the canon from the EU) and Mara Jade (a Force-using former agent of Emperor Palpatine who later turned good, became a Jedi Master, married Luke and had a son with him) - interestingly both were created by the same author [[Timothy Zahn]].

Upon their acquisition, Disney said "fuck it" and threw out everything but the films and the Clone Wars cartoons. Some popular old stuff got mentions or appearances (and Thrawn got to be a major character), but the overall quality is even lower than the old EU. What was set up as a major book contains phrases like "The TIE wibbles and wobbles through the air" and random virtue signalling. As though to top the previous, Disney literally published a book with an entire chapter about mass wedding farts (Yes. Really.). The only good stuff is from established EU authors writing stuff far away from era of the Disney films.

The [[rage]] over the EU's scrapping was major among many fans of it, but for all Disney's shortcomings, they were in a tight spot. Towards the end all that continuity and consistency got thrown out the airlock for increasingly dumb and disjointed narratives and garbled plot threads to the point that the Star Wars logo was just about as much a sign of quality as the Nintendo approval stamp on shitty SNES games.

Another problem was that Disney is mostly family-friendly, and some of the Star Wars EU could get really dark. As in Warhammer 40k levels of grimdark. Examples of this are the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong - forcenull space-Druchii (no no, not Comorrites though they have the pain and body modification fetishes for it, space-'''Druchii''', riding enslaved tyranid bioships) from another galaxy, Mnggal-Mnggal - mindraping gelatin lost on its way to Star Trek, and Abeloth - an ancient (she predates the Jedi and the Sith) yandere Force entity more like something from the Cthulhu Mythos and is so dangerous the Jedi and the Sith '''joined forces''' to fight her. It's difficult to envision how Disney could have kept the EU when even before all that it was struggling to find a market beyond the most [[neckbeards|dedicated fans]].

===The Books===

'''The Good EU'''
[[Image: Heir-to-the-empire-cover.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Heir to the Empire (1991): The book that started it all]]
* '''The Thrawn Trilogy''': The origination point for the EU, and focuses on the conflict with the Imperial remnants left over after RotJ. Named for the main villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who went on to become one of Star Wars most well-loved characters. Basically the story "The Force Awakens" wishes it was. Also introduced Mara Jade, a sexy redhead that's everything Disney wishes Rey was and more.
* '''The Han Solo Adventures''': Star's End was the second spinoff book written and the first good one. Han and Chewie are trying to get some work done on the Falcon and wind up having to bust out some political prisoners to pay for it. Would have made for a better film than ''Solo'' did.
* '''Shadows of the Empire''': Shadows is set between ESB and RotJ and fills in the details of getting the Death Star II's plans, finding out where Han was taken, Luke building his own saber, etc by the introduction of another bounty hunter by the name of Dash Rendar. The Special Edition rerelease of ''A New Hope'' added the Outrider to the background of one scene. Most notable for the fact that it was also adapted into a video game for the N64 and PC.
*'''The Darth Bane Trilogy''': The origin of the Rule of Two for the Sith, along with a compelling protagonist and his apprentice.
* '''Revenge of the Sith''': The novelization is actually considered a serious improvement over the movie itself.

'''The Bad EU'''
* '''Jedi Academy Trilogy''': Luke sets up his academy on Yavin IV and tries to teach [[Rage|Kyp Durron]]. Imperial remnant superweapons hit ludicrous territory with the sun crusher. This was the beginning of Kevin J Anderson hammering out a couple dozen Star Wars books over about four years.
* '''Young Jedi Knights Series''': Set between Jedi Academy and New Jedi Order, mostly follows Han & Leia's kids.
* '''I, Jedi''': A retelling of the Jedi Academy Trilogy (see above) with more of Corran Horn from the first set of X-Wing books. Less derp in general but significantly more [[Mary Sue]]age of Horn.
* '''Legacy of the Force''': The survivors of the Yuuzhan Vong War are trying to rebuild the galaxy, but Jacen Solo turns Sith and becomes the main villain. The book series is infamous for nearly killing the Star Wars EU, threatening the franchise and issues between various writers years before Disney went down the same road (Jacen Solo was also a major influence for Kylo Ren). The biggest complaints were Jacen killing Mara, the heroes becoming idiots whenever they could've stopped the villains, poor dialogue, long-winded writing and the story being overstuffed with allusions to post 9/11 United States.

'''The [[Skub]] EU'''
[[Image: Yuuzhan-vong-eu2_bg.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The Yuuzhan Vong, [[Skub|either badass and interesting or grimderp canon-defiling villains]]]]
* '''New Jedi Order''': The longest-running (19 books long) and most divisive story of the EU. Luke's married to Mara and they're rebuilding the Jedi Order while Han and Leia are trying to reconcile the New Republic and Imperial Remnants. Han and Leia are also raising three kids and Mara's got a terminal illness. Then extragalactic aliens called Yuuzhan Vong - [[Imperium of Man|religious fanatics]] with [[Tyranids|organic technology]], a thing for [[Dark Eldar|pain and body modification]] along with [[Culexus|partial immunity to The Force]] - invade to take over the Star Wars Galaxy. Chewie dies Majora's Mask style, Mara's illness is cured and she gives birth to Ben Skywalker, the Vong take over Coruscant, lots is learned about the Force and the bodycount goes so high it could give Warhammer 40k a run for its money (365 TRILLION; only the War in Heaven or the Fall of the Eldar had anywhere near that many deaths in one event). A real love-it-or-hate-it series, some parts were good, some were bad and some were weird.
* '''Dark Empire''': Palpatine's back to save a dying franchise decades before Disney tried it. He even uses clone bodies to do so (but unlike Disney, Dark Horse didn't flip-flop on the lore), wrecks a fleet of enemy ships using the Force and at some point has his power reflected back at him. Starts off good, falls apart fast. Known for its love-it-or-hate-it artstyle and dialogue.
* '''Courtship of Princess Leia''': Deals with another Imperial remnant, where a Queen who could be potential ally against the Imperials offers a deal which hinges on Leia marrying her son. Meanwhile Luke and R2-D2 are working with a prince who was the original recipient of the offer. This one has force witches, who are encountered when Han tricked Leia into in an attempt to win her heart... it is ''really'' silly. If you like that, raise this higher. If not, it might even drop lower.
* '''Fate of the Jedi''': Want some Cthulhu with your Star Wars? People are growing dissatisfied with the Jedi Order following LotF. Luke, Ben and the remaining Jedi are trying to keep the Jedi Order in check while several Jedi are wracked with a mysterious psychosis and a ancient Sith Tribe emerges from hiding. Han and Leia are looking after the political side of things while also becoming grandparents. Things take a turn for cosmic horror when a yandere, Force-using eldritch abomination who could doom the galaxy escapes her prison. During the conflict, Sith apprentice Vestara rises through the ranks and finds herself in a Catwoman/Batman situation with Ben Skywalker. While being an OoM better than the preceding trilogy, FotJ has a very divided opinion among SW fans.

=== Disney Canon ===
[[Image:Star_Wars_Disney_Princesses.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Love it or hate it, they are now official ''Disney Princesses''.]]
It's still [[skub|debatable]] whether or not the new Canon holds up to the old EU, or learns to fix the problems that plagued it. We probably won't see what comes of it for decades to come. Disney Canon, as of 2020, seems to largely be built around the nine main movies (of course), with shows like Rebels and Clone Wars alongside anthology movies fleshing out stories that had been told in comics and books back before the Disney buy-up, but can now be seen on film.

A curious thing that has begun happening: Certain elements of the old EU is slipping into the Disney Canon. Plotlines like the Emperor returning, the Death Star plans heist and Han's path to become the smuggler we know him as all have bits and pieces from EU canon in them. In some cases, whole characters are ported in; the best example is Admiral Thrawn, who appears in Rebels. Other times, popular characters has their traits or stories ported into new ones (Finn and Cassian are both expies of Kyle Katarn, for example). This gives some credence to the argument that Lucasfilms and Disney wanted to wipe the slate with all the stories that had been told in the EU, so they could create their own, fully realized canon Star Wars setting that one could make movies - ''many'' movies - from. Considering the amount of shitty fan-fiction-esque stories the EU had, this may be for the best, but of course, storylines that people have loved for ages are also thrown out with the bathwater.

Detractors of Disney-era Star Wars often talk loads about how the sequel trilogy invalidates the original trilogy. Other complaints raised are how Disney screwed over Luke and how many cool characters are either passed over (like Kyle Katarn) or deliberately cut (like Mara Jade). These are semi-valid arguments of course, but they ignore some of the biggest issues with the EU originally - it wasn't sponsored by George Lucas and Lucasfilms. They were sponsored fan-fiction in a sense, semi-canon from the outset and not really something that could be considered a part of the Star Wars setting, though George Lucas did work with the writers to a point, such as with the New Jedi Order book series (he gave them permission to kill off Chewbacca in the story). In fact, George never really considered them real stories; more like a parallel universe of his own Star Wars works. He accepted it because they bring in the big bucks when people would beg to have the official Star Wars logo on anything they produced.

That, and the sequel trilogy, underwhelming as it may be, was George's idea in broad strokes. The series was always going to have a sequel trilogy, and while the outcome isn't exactly what he (or we) wanted, quite a lot of it is. Luke being an exile on a far-away planet, who has to be roused to fight by a new, female Jedi? George's idea, not Disney's. A son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side? Also George's idea (though Disney lifted a lot form the original version - Jacen Solo - for Kylo Ren). If anything, much of the direction comes from Lucasfilms; Disney just wants the movie to sell well. It's similar with Marvel nowadays.

So for better or worse, the Disney Canon is the first time the wider setting of Star Wars beyond the series and movies have become irrevocably canon, rather than "kinda-sorta-canon". Much of what we've gotten that is new is based roughly on George's own work as well. Remember this when discussing EU vs Disney in Star Wars - Either setting is cool for their own reasons, but the Mouse got little to do with it - and if you don't like it, bring it up with big man Lucas. Whatever the case, with Bob Iger's resignation as CEO from Disney (likely not on his terms, as he stated multiple times he would retire in 2021), things are changing (for better or worse).

==Star Wars:The Television Shows==
===Star Wars: The Clone Wars===
Technically, there are two series called similar titles. The first was 2004's ''Star Wars: Clone Wars'', an animated miniseries made by Genndy Tartakovsky (He of Dexter's Lab and [[Samurai Jack]] fame) chronicling, among other things, the titular Clone Wars and introducing a much more sinister General Grievous to the world.

But then we have ''The Clone Wars'', a CGI animated series (and tie-in movie) that we'll be talking about more and contributed more to the EU. One of the most universally known and loved parts of Star Wars, most fans worth their action figures and limited edition movie sets have watched the show and have an opinion on it one way or another. Some of the most notable characteristics are:

* The Clone Troopers are fleshed out,and we see that they are manly motherfuckers who make Guardsmen's balls of steel look like the cardboard their armor is made out of (seriously, in the movie, they literally charge straight into close combat with ''giant armored walkers with large guns'' and jump off roofs to get top of them to shoot them point blank, and punch droids in the face)
* Anakin Skywalker is actually a good, fleshed out character, with a good voice actor and shows his descent to child-murdering Force-choking asshat wasn't just him going 'welp, guess I'll fall to the Dark Side.' There was a fair amount of bad-cop “it was him or me” murder to get there.
* Introduces Ashoka Tano, a major character who's a female Togruta Jedi that's well-written, non-OP, non-Mary Sue and doesn't invalidate characters from the movies. Starts off a bit annoying in the Clone Wars movie, but manages to do something truly special: she ''learns''. Over the course of Clone Wars and Rebels, Ashoka probably has the most character development out of any other Star Wars character.
* Obi-Wan being a sexy one-liner spouting sarcastic badass.
* And many others.

However, there were some pretty derp moments too, such as

* Babysitting episode/movie.
* D-squad, where a bunch of droids become heroes of the Republic.
* Mandalore and how it's fluff was basically screwed 180 degrees, and then some.
* Droids were comic relief of the first and second seasons. It was annoying.

All in all, it was an good show that took some time to find it's feet.

After many years, a seventh season was been announced in an attempt to take away from ''The Last Jedi'' being shit and add ''something'' to the empty Disney Plus lineup. At least some of the episodes will be ones that were in production when the show ended. It promptly disappeared after that announcement for a couple years till it was announced it's coming out in 2019.

===Star Wars: Rebels===
[[Image:WomanYellingAtLothcat.jpeg|right|400px|thumb|''Stop fooling our plan, you rebel scum!'']]
Now that Disney owns Star Wars they can't go a season without something new to run on Disney XD, so after ''The Clone Wars'' ended they needed a series to milk episodes out of and launched ''Rebels''. ''Rebels'' is set a few years before ''A New Hope'' and covers the early formation of the rebellion from the perspective of one cell focused on the planet Lothal. If you liked ''Rogue One'' but thought it should be about 25 hours long and done in cartoony CGI then this is the show for you.

So what did we see in ''Rebels''?

* Grand Admiral Thrawn makes his debut in Disney Star Wars, along with the TIE Defender project. The character doesn’t lose much in the translation, and later on is arguably treated better than the source.
* The bearded old guy in the Endor strike team in RotJ turns out to be Captain Rex. Fan theory at first, later confirmed.
* You CAN [[combi-weapon]] a lightsaber and a blaster, and it's OP as shit
* Force wolves (no, not [[Rune Priest|those force wolves]])
* [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Game of Thrones-style]] Mandos (Krownest is pretty much Space-Winterfell).
* Imperial Inquisitors. Sure they don’t last long, but they were intimidating while they were, and it planted the seed that was used elsewhere.
* Some good appearances by Darth Vader.

So about the wolves... ''Rebels'' turns the force mysticism up past 11. Forget just being precog space monks with laser swords; as far as ''Rebels'' is concerned the Jedi are [[craftworld]] [[eldar]] without the racism. Rebels picks up the torch of the Clone Wars “Force Gods” and mixes in some of the straight-up fantasy shit from the Lucas era novels and the KOTOR/Old Republic Jedi philosophy schools and heresies beyond just “Light good, Dark bad”.

However, there were levels of derp that we got to see in this show, such as the following:

* Since this is a Disney cartoon, the bad guys can't have even a temporary victory. This changes Thrawn and the other Imperials from an imposing force to [[Abbadon|cartoon villains]], although Rebels villains manage to stay intimidating more than Grievous did in Clone Wars.
* Battles slower paced than a Death Guard movement phase. Enjoy characters having full conversations in cover-based shooting when everyone has Stormtrooper aim.
* Lightsabers the shape of toothpicks.
* [[Bullshit|Helicopter lightsabers]]
* Complete bipolarity in tone. This can create some great moments, but invariably ruins the mood episode by episode, or between the A and B plots.
* Iron Squadron. Just...fucking [[Rage|Iron Squadron]]
* Star Destroyers look terrible, mostly due to their bridge towers being way taller than they should be.

All in all, it depends on your preference.

Since the show does have a fair amount of dedicated fans, <strike>likely</strike> possibly more than the sequel trilogy itself, Disney has made a habit of planting Easter Egg references to Rebels in basically everything moving forward, usually in the form of an appearance by the iconic ship The Ghost or the friendly-ish space pirate character Hondo Ohnaka.

===Star Wars: Resistance===
Annnd they had to go and change things again. With ''Rebels'' coming to a close and a burning need to keep Star Wars on their lineup, Disney had a choice: find a new plot and setting for a formula and art style that had produced two successful multi-season shows, or throw it all out and start from scratch. Remember, this is Disney we're talking about, the company that once [[Fail|paid a quarter billion dollars to fire the producer who made ''The Little Mermaid'', ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''Aladdin'', and ''The Lion King'']] only for him to go and [[profit|found Dreamworks]] out of spite.

Like its predecessor, ''Star Wars: Resistance'' sets itself up as a prequel to a trilogy, in this case following the early days of the Resistance in its fight against the First Order. Where it differs from ''Rebels'' is that ''Resistance'' is playing the warm up act for a trilogy that nobody likes. On top of which, the creators abandoned the 3D style that ''Rebels'' inherited from ''The Clone Wars'', and replaced it with a cel style that's half ''Treasure Planet'', half ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and all ''RWBY''.

To be blunt, this show is 100% pure crystal derp. Our star is Kazuda Xiono, a manic depressive who literally fanboy-ed his way into being a spy under the cover story of being a mechanic, two jobs he is not qualified for. This kid is the Invader Zim of Star Wars. Filling out the cast we have the original only cockney girl in space, an autistic alien, their widower boss who is definitely gonna die, D.Va and her ex-imperial officer dad, and BB-8. Poe Dameron shows up regularly so he can be Ace Fucking Rimmer without having to compete against Rey for the TOP SUE trophy. Reception was so terrible it was confirmed canceled at 2 seasons before the second season even started.

Part of the problem with ''Resistance'' is that the First Order has a doomfort that can frag planets across the galaxy, yet has to resort to hiring pirates to encourage settlements into accepting the First Order's protection racket. Palpy's empire was a model of efficient, heavy handed governance; its evil intent veiled from the masses who mostly resent it for bringing order. The First Order on the other hand is basically just Cobra Command, a font of evil hamstrung by flailing incompetence. As mentioned earlier, the backstory for the Resistance and First Order is basically that the First Order are a mobile pirate fleet with one untested secret base weapon lead by old farts of dubious actual leadership abilities from the Empire and their fanatical children with grunts made up of brainwashed child soldiers kidnapped from pioneer settlements while the Resistance is just a tiny militia that is so poorly funded they don’t even qualify as a single fleet since their few outdated capital ships are crewed by outdated droids and they don’t even have enough fighters to protect them, but rather than depict the potentially interesting dynamic this suggests the series just tries to be Rebels again, the same path the movies took even though at this point both factions are even smaller than they were in the movies.

===Star Wars: The Mandalorian===

[[Image:The_mandalorian.jpg|right|200px|thumb|[[Goblin Slayer|''Bounties?'']]]]
Because Disney didn't have enough money, they decided to try their hand at streaming services (despite already owning Hulu), and created Disney+ as a collection of their shows and movies. And with any streaming service, you need a flagship title. Thus, ''The Mandalorian'', the first live action Star Wars television series.

The show itself lives and breaths off your nostalgia for the Fetts, giving you a new lead character wearing the cool ass armor, bounty hunting, getting in gunfights, et cetera. The show's set five years after ''Return of the Jedi'', and leans into spaghetti western's so hard you wonder why Clint Eastwood hasn't shown up. Whether you like this show pretty much comes down to the question of can you accept [[Goblin Slayer|a show where the main character's face is never seen]] and whose name is almost never spoken (probably, considering this site's demographics), and can you stand a story wrapped entirely around the finger of a baby yoda who is the most well know spoiler since (joke.exe).

If you like the 2012 [[Adeptus_Arbites|Judge Dredd]] movie you will like the show. It also might be one of the closest depictions of a Space Marine we are going to get for the foreseeable future on the "big screen". The Mandalorians (this group at least) have become almost a cult regarding "The Way" their warrior code. Highlights include a [[Looted]] [[All_Terrain_Soup|AT-ST]], getting to watch a [[Men_of_Iron|IG-11]] aimbot entire groups of hostiles multiple times, (hell just watching IG-11 ''move'' is amazing). The final two episodes are a callback to almost every episode except "The Prisoner" & "The Gunslinger" and numerous characters return and get to be their own brand awesome.

There are several hiccups in writing but those might be smoothed out later, or can just be written off as the galaxy being just that big and individuals not having the same info as the audience. Overall it is the most well received addition to Star Wars since ''Jedi''. With the show actually understanding why and how certain reveals should work, ie. not making there be anything special to us (the audience) about the Mandalorian's face/name, it is special because of his code not because he has laser eyes or something.

==Wookieepedia==
One of the largest fan wikis ever created, this bad boy is extensively cited, has enormous variety, and has page upon page of talk. It was if Lexicanum, the 40k fan wiki, and our own glorious site were fused into a terrible beast.

==Impact on 1d4chan and associated games etc==

Star Wars has had subtle and clear impacts on a number of other franchises and genres and it can be ''incredibly'' hard to gauge the extent of it all. Certainly it didn't create the concepts of sci-fi, space battles, sweeping storylines, and a blending of mystical and scientific ideas, but it certainly popularized them during the years of the original trilogy and influenced many people that would go on to have interests in sci-fi, fantasy and epic adventure today.

Hell, look me in the eye and tell me that the lightsaber didn't give us the [[power weapon]]. But then again, magic weapons.
==Sabacc and Pazaak==
A rather unusual entry here but it's well in line, Sabacc is an actual tabletop card game from the Star Wars universe which is basically a hybrid of Poker and Blackjack. A Sabacc Deck has 76 cards, most of which in four suits of 16 cards numbered one to 16, plus sixteen wildcards in two sets with values that were either negative or (in the case of the Idiot) Zero. The goal of the game is to have a set of three cards who's total as close as possible to, but not over, 23 or -23. If you got 23/-23 (Pure Sabacc) which could only be beaten by an Idiot's Array (One Idiot, a two and a three, thus 23). The stakes are raised every cycle until the cards go down or one player is left standing who gets the pot.

The notable thing about Sabacc that sets it apart from real world card games is that the Cards can change value every turn. A Pure Sabacc can easily become an instant lose 25 and an absolutely lousy hand can become an Idiot's Array. They can be stabilized to fix their value, but everyone knows when you do so. This feature has so far prevented Sabacc from being released in tabletop form as of yet. ''(Of course, there are ways to deal with this, such as simply re-dealing unfixed cards, but never let it be said that nerds will choose practicality over purity.)''

In universe, Han Solo won the Millenium Falcon off Lando in a game of Sabacc.

Pazaak is an older game from an in-universe perspective, similar to Blackjack but its player versus player rather than player versus dealer and also has some aspects of a collectible card game. Goal of the game is to raise cards from the main deck until their total value is 20 or they can also choose to stand if they get close but don't want to risk it. Best out of five wins.

CCG-aspect of Pazaak comes from the sidedeck: both players collect ten cards for their side deck and then randomly take four cards from their side deck to their hand in the beginning of the game. Hand cards are used to either lower or raise the total value: so if the player raises cards from the main deck to the total value of 25, they can prevent dropping out if they have a -5 card or higher in their hand.
Cards which only either raise or lower the value are the most common of the side cards.
More rarer are cards which can be used to both raise and lower the value.
Then there are flip cards, which change certain main deck cards on the table to negative ones. So if the player plays a 2&4 flip card, all 2:s and 4:s on the table become -2:s and -4:s. Flip cards exist in 2&4:s and 3&6:s.
Then there is the double card, which doubles the value of the last played card. So if the player raises a 5 from the main deck, playing the double card would turn it into a 10.
Finally, the rarest side deck card is the tiebreaker, which grants the player a win if the game would otherwise end in a tie.

==Tabletop games for Star Wars==

=== Role-playing Games ===

[[West End Games]] made a Star Wars [[role-playing game]] called [[Star Wars RPG|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game]] AKA '''Star Wars D6'''. Like many West End products, it's a good game with the great misfortune of being published by West End games.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] picked up the license later and made two distinct RPGs based on their [[d20 System]], called [[Star Wars D20]] (imaginatively). Could be fun, but generally broken as hell, much like [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|its parent game]]. It was then utterly revised that into what they called the '''Saga Edition''', which is relatively balanced and pretty good.

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars Roleplaying Game|a whole line of Star Wars-themed RPGs]], each one focusing on a specific style of play. You want to play a bunch of scruffy space outlaws (Edge of the Empire), members of the nascent Rebellion (Age of Rebellion), or exiled Jedi Knights (Force and Dedtiny), then they got you covered. Unlike their [[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]] games, which are all ''juuuuust'' different enough from one another to completely buttfuck any attempts at blending, all three gamelines use identical mechanics and are fully cross-compatible. Uses symbol-counting [[dice pool]]s with ludicrously overpriced custom dice.
Like the other RPGs they decided with the retardedly similar name, and thus this one is sometimes called '''Star Wars FFG''' to avoid confusion.

FFG have kept milking the franchise and in summer 2017, decided to [[Necromancer | reanimate]] the [[Star Wars RPG|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game]] with a "30th Year Anniversary Edition" print of the original game. It '''''finally''''' shipped in July 2018 after spending a year in limbo.

=== Card Games ===

The big [[card game]] set in the Star Wars universe is the [[Star Wars Customizable Card Game]]. It's no longer produced by Decipher, but there is still a sufficiently large player community to organize annual tournaments, rule on cards, and so on. SWCCG was radically different from the norm of card games, being divided into light and dark side cards with different backings, with light and dark always playing against each other. For tournament play a player would need both a light and dark deck.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] made the [[Star Wars Trading Card Game]].

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars: The Card Game]].

Obviously, nobody is capable of creating a Star Wars card game with an interesting name.

Aside from the real, physical, games there was also ''Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game''. It was a real, functioning, card game within the MMO that used all virtual cards. Unfortunately no server emulators have implemented it yet.

=== Miniature Games ===
[[Wizards of the Coast]] did a tabletop battles game imaginatively called Star Wars: Miniatures, based on an extremely dumbed down version of the D&D ruleset. The figures were meant to tie in with the Saga edition RPG, it wasn't terrible on its own, just impossible to collect for competitive play since figures came in random booster packs so you never know what you were getting for what faction. Who could possibly stand for that?

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is producing the [[X-Wing]] miniatures game based on individual starfighter combat (because, let's be honest, that's what ''Star'' Wars is all about). They have also released [[Star Wars: Armada]] which is a larger scale "fleet" combat simulator, using capital ships and squadrons of starfighters.

'''Star Wars: Imperial Assault'''

The latest [[Fantasy Flight Games]] addition to its Star Wars related games is a mix between a miniature board game and a skirmish wargame. It has two play modes:

One for campaign play where 1-4 players control a team of Rebel heroes and another player has the role of the DM, who controls the Imperial forces. The campaign, as the name suggests, focuses on character personalization, xp gain and the like, which you can find in any light RPG-esque (board)game. The main goal is to get a few friends together and casually play through the missions. Think of it as a Star Wars version of the original [[Hero Quest]].

The other play mode is skirmish play, where two players each get to assemble a team of miniatures plus a command deck (cards that have specific effects when played) and play against each other in an open-play scenario. The play area is still very limited to a few game tiles (as in a campaign mission) but players are free to bring whatever they want (with a few limitations of course). The skirmish part of Imperial assault is as close as you can get to an actual Star Wars skirmish wargame, but it is a missed opportunity from Fantasy Flight to create a true skirmish wargame (ala [[Infinity (wargame)|Infinity]]), not based on tiles and so confined spaces. Who knows what they have plans for though...

'''Star Wars Legion'''

And Fantasy Flight have now given us a fully fledged wargame, complete with AT-ST in the first wave. (They're 32mm scale, which means [[Games Workshop|no reusing your Imperial Assault miniatures]].) Legion has an integrated turn system, and the usual FF custom dice and forest worth of dead trees in cards and tokens that will be familiar to X-Wing and Armada players. The miniatures are PVC, reasonably detailed, easy to assemble pieces. A standard battle is 800 points, which could be anywhere from half a dozen to 16 units on the field, with an average army fielding 8-12 units comprising 30-ish models.

=== Board Games ===

The most famous and arguably best one is [[Star Wars: Rebellion]], an asymmetric two-player game that plays through the Original Trilogy in a wargame/worker placement-esque game. The Empire player must expand their already huge military base over the galaxy to build more ships and huge superweapons while searching for the Rebel Base, while the Rebels do their best to bite them in their heel, obscuring their movements and annoying the Empire until they have enough support to overthrow the Empire. As a [[Fantasy Flight Games|FFG]] boardgame, it's filled with a ludicrous amount of bits and pieces (including sweet models of Star Destroyers, Death Stars and Calamari Cruisers), as well as the trademark filled-with-small-exceptions ruleset. It's pretty sweet and still considered one of the best board games of its kind.

=== Card Miniature Games ===

In the late 00's, WizKids produced a short lived construct-able miniatures Star Wars game based on their styrene card system for Pirates of the Spanish Main. Although the game sold well, when NECA bought WizKids from Topps the rights did not transfer and it went out of print.

==Video Games for Star Wars==

To put it bluntly, every game which could possibly have ''Star Wars'' slapped onto it, exists. Flight simulators. Racers. Rail shooters. Doom clones. MMOs. Age of Empires reskins. Hell, there's even a Kinect variety game. Here's a few standouts...

* '''Knights of the Old Republic''': A pair of single player RPGs depicting a Sith war several thousand years before ''A New Hope''. KotOR is widely regarded as the best Star Wars video game ever, and was the framework for BioWare's ''Mass Effect'' series. Of all the Legends stuff, KotOR appears to still be in good standing with Disney since they continue to borrow from it. The sequel by Obsidian was the original skubtastic take on the franchise TLJ wanted to be but failed miserably. Got an MMO simply called "Old Republic" (since you can play as things other than Jedi and Sith) that is the sequel, which had a very rough start but stabilized enough to still survive to this day somehow). Possibly still canon in the Disney continuity since a lot of things get borrowed or referenced from it. Also the only thing in the EU to still receive new content.

* '''Jedi Knight:''' A series that started of as an early FPS named Dark Forces (so early that it was the time when FPS games were still known as [[Doom]]-clones) but Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight had the protagonist become a Jedi. The Dark Forces name was dropped in favor of Jedi Knight after this. The series combines surprisingly deep lightsaber combat with standard shooting, though the levels can get very mazy at times. Introduced Kyle Katarn, one of the most popular characters from EU. Unfortunately, there has not been a new game since 2003's ''Jedi Academy'' and likely will never be thanks to Disney.

* '''Republic Commando''': An FPS that has the player command a squad of commandos. Its a great shooter but unfortunately, it never received a sequel and to make things worse, ended on a cliffhanger. The second act of the game, set entirely on a drifting Acclamator-class assault ship is particularly memorable and highly atmospheric. If one can look past outdated graphics, its worth trying out for anyone who wants a good FPS experience.

* '''Empire at War''': Made by the original developers of [[Command and Conquer]], it is the most notable strategy game to have come out of Star Wars. Notable for featuring three different modes of play: ground battles, space battles and galactic conquest map. Though ground battles are a bit meh, the space battles are great and the galactic conquest is certainly more interesting than only playing random skirmish matches. Even though its over 10 years old, it has a very active modding community. Republic at War, which changes the games Galactic Civil War setting to Clone Wars and Thrawns Revenge, set much further into the Galactic Civil War than portrayed in the films, are particularly great. There is also a remake mod in the works, aiming to bring the game up to modern standards in terms of visuals, sound and UI and the results do look good. Unfortunately, no great 40k mod.

* '''Star Wars Galaxies''': An early MMO, launched after ''Everquest'' but before ''WoW''. Galaxies is noteworthy for making force powers a prestige achievement requiring enormous in-game effort to unlock. The first expansion pack added a subgame that's a pretty solid flight game in its own right and the game eventually added an original, fully playable, trading card game that sadly has not yet been implemented in any simulator. Then ''World of Warcraft'' hit, Sony panicked and made Jedi a starting class and replaced the skill system with massive level grind, and offered refunds to the raging army of neckbeards. Subscription numbers tanked and never recovered. It would effectively be replaced by ''The Old Republic'', an MMO using the acclaimed KotOR setting. Like most "dead" MMOs that people loved it still lives on through illegal private servers (don't worry, the guys providing it would get busted, not people playing on it).

* '''X-Wing (and TIE Fighter)''': A series of ''Wing Commander'' clones released in the 90's. While badly dated today, they were the best fighter sims of their time, and if you can get past the highly primitive graphics some people still consider them to be the best to this day. Interestingly, TIE Fighter is largely seen as the best of the series while the N64 era Rogue Squadron and Shadows Of The Empire games are seen as being far more visually modern but largely inferior sequels. Did we mention you had to use a flight stick controller basically made for these games to really do well at these?

* '''Star Wars Battlefront II (2005)''': Not to be confused with the one released by EA in 2017. Solid game from the new-defunct Pandemic studio (fuck you, EA) in 2005 told from the perspective of a clone trooper that survived all the way up to the battle of Hoth, with a very down to earth boots on the ground approach. Also, just being thrown into random matches as a soldier because fun. Despite some issues, it remains the high point of the Battlefront series as well as the entire PS2 era, and on PC still has fans via an active modding community to this day. There is of course also the original one but the second one pretty much completely overshadowed it.

* '''Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)''': The one by EA. You've probably heard everything important. An absolute mess at launch due to its lootbox-heavy progression system, so much so that it started discussion even on government level about lootboxes that continues to this day. A comment by EA that became the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. Yet despite all this, two years later, the game is arguably one of the best Star Wars experiences one can have and an Anakin-level redemption story. Like the previous Battlefront II, it completely overshadowed its predecessor.

* '''Jedi: Fallen Order''': It took them years but finally, EA managed to deliver a Star Wars game that is great on launch without cramming it with e-transactions. Its plot focuses on an unfortunate Jedi renegade between ''Revenge'' and ''A New Hope'' who's on the hunt for a hidden database that might document all the Force-sensitive individuals in the galaxy. A game inspired primarily by games such as Dark Souls and Uncharted, its a great action-adventure game in its own right and a must-play for any Star Wars fan.

* '''Monopoly Star Wars''': Its Star Wars Monopoly. With 90's FMV that plays for every square you land on. On floppy disks. Considered fucking amazing at the time, its too strange and tabletop to not mention. Also one of the last pre-Prequel things released.

* '''Super Star Wars''': A heavily modified retelling of the original trilogy (what, you don't remember how Luke chased down the Sandcrawler and murdered all the Jawas as well as their giant rat god in order to rescue R2-D2?) that was one of the ways to say "hard as fuck" by namedropping a game prior to Dark Souls existing. Amusing for the insanity of the added content in order to make a platformer sidescrolling beat'em'up as well as how neckbeardy you have to be to punish yourself trying to beat it without cheating. Sequels were made for Empire and Jedi, which slightly dialed back the difficulty.

* '''Star Wars: Yoda Stories''': A game geared for kids, released the same year as Monopoly above. Players play as Luke sometime after Empire Strikes Back, although an odd alternate version where Han sometimes is free from carbonite and Boba Fett and sometimes is not. They are assigned a quest by Yoda which requires them to traverse one or more procedurally generated planets doing whatever odd crap Yoda felt was necessary, including sometimes fighting Vader. Recieved middling scores as a PC release, with some individuals HATING the game and using it as a benchmark for how much they hate something when comparing the two, although to be fair that is because distributors tried to sell it like a full game when in reality its supposed to just be freebie software that came with other purchases and was meant to go with Solitaire and space pinball as default games on a computer to waste time with. It has lapsed into obscurity thanks to even those reviewers largely being forgotten on the modern internet. Noteworthy for being played on a grid with simultaneous turn-based movement with all enemies and NPCs on a screen, feeling very much like a tabletop game at times. A simple puzzle game, where getting blocked in a corner without enough space to pass the time by an idiot NPC is more dangerous than any foe.

*'''Shadows of the Empire''': Made on the Nintendo 64 and Windows PC, you play as Dash Rendar, a scoundrel in a ship like Han Solo working for the Rebellion. Takes place during Episode V as a side story. Despite being much beloved by fans for years and years, it's sadly not aged well thanks to the rather peculiar control scheme of the N64 and the graphics not having aged like cheap cheese in the sun. Main enemy of the game is a xeno named Xisor who is just a real uppity crime boss (and apparently a prince). This game has an absolute great opening first part where you're flying in a Snowspeeder on Hoth killing Imperials left and right while trying to use the cables to crash the AT-ATs like in the movie. After that the game begins to kinda just carry on with awkward controls.

==Assorted list of Awesome From Star Wars==
* Fucking ''[[Lightsaber|Lightsabers!]]''
* The fucking [[Approved music|OST]]
* What is likely the greatest duel in cinematic history, that takes place on a [[Death World|lava planet.]]
* Deathly Stormtroopers, heroic Clonetroopers or sinister First Order troopers; whatever they're called, stormtroopers are awesome!
* Darth Vader whenever he gets a speaking line or to murder rebel scum - that is to say, all the time.
* Darth Maul in both The Phantom Menace and TCW.
* Lightsaber Rifles
* The entirety of the Umbara campaign, where <s>Imperial Guardsmen</s> Clone Troopers die in the dozens attempting to win some godforsaken planet, earning them balls of titanium that make the guard look ba- {{BLAM| '''*BLAM*''' Heresy!}}
* 97% of the Creatures.
* 98% of the Starfighter designs.
* Costumes that mix about every possible inspiration, Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, Ancient Greece and Rome, Elizabethan, Moebius or Pulp Sci-Fi from the 60's, giving the whole series a distinctive style and gives Padme Amidala an excuse to show off with all her dresses.
* Boba and Jango Fett and the rest of the Mandalorians.
* KOTOR (both games) plot making you think this shit is actually logical and has so much philosophical background. One of the creepiest depictions of the Universe. Everything is brutal, with big vibrating knives, blood, those machines for Sith snuff movies, more blood, bastards, badass bastards and so on. Everything while somebody is talking with you about existence.
* Our saviour Lord Revan. He's like if [[Horus|fucking Horus]] just became [[Big Bad Evil Guy|fucking bad]] (but not that [[Erebus|bad]]) to fucking destroy the [[Chaos Gods|Dark Gods]] so he can solve his daddy issues.
**but he's more virile, deadly, powerful, charismatic and cool.
* Lightsabers.
* Obi-Wan Kenobi.
* The High Ground.
* TIE fighters. They have the most distinctive scream of any fighter in cinematic history that just yells "I'm evil!". Tell me I'm wrong. I'll wait.
** The fact that they managed to do that using what is essentially a shitty visual pun.
* Most of Episode 3.
* The entirety of Anakin's story, especially when you add the Clone Wars and prequels. While you're at it, watch CinemaWins' perspective on it the series.
* Admiral Ackbar the Memeable!
* Palpatine getting into some Tzeentchian-level scheming and backstabbing in order to overthrow the Jedi and the Republic.
* Grand Admiral Thrawn: So awesome that he rose to a high rank in the anthropocentric Empire despite being an alien and was one of the first (and rare few) things to be imported straight from Legends to Disney.
* Imperial Pilots get a mention, seeing as they fly literal garbage fighters against superior rebel fighters. By garbage, we mean that even the Imperium have better fighter designs than these guys. At least Imperial fighters conserve the life of the fucking pilot.
* Obi-Wan Kenobi again.
* Princess, later Senator Leia Organa; the original badass-yet-hot boss lady in space. Ends up leading two separate, successful underground freedom movements against impossible odds. Did we mention she's a Jedi in both canons?
* Han Solo, who is so badass that hot Leia falls in love. He has the smuggler's best friend, a Wookie, who is also the worst opponent you can face in a [[Chess|Dejarik match]].
* Just... Star Destroyers. When you see a huge, imposing warship from an evil Empire, this is the granddaddy they all look up to.
* Oh, did we mention the lightsabers ?

== See Also: ==
* ''[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/ Darths & Droids]'': A webcomic, made using photo-stills of the ''Star Wars'' movies to tell a story about gamers blundering through each of the six movies in sequence... though not quite exactly how you might expect. Think ''DM of the Rings'' in overall visual style, though unlike ''DM of the Rings'', ''Darths & Droids'' features several heavy twists on the actual events of the films, subplots about the players and their lives outside the game alongside the campaign, and a better overall quality of gamer.
* "[http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html/ Endor Holocaust]": An excellent example of the [[skub]] Star Wars can create. Rebuttal: "[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/fanart/endortruth20040810.pdf Endor Rebuttal]"
*[[Timothy Zahn]]
*[[Star Wars:The Clone Wars]]
*[[Star Wars:Rebels]]
*[[Star Wars:Resistance]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

Star Wars

2020-05-07T07:11:31Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* Disney Canon */

{{Star Wars}}
[[File:Star-Wars-Logo (1).jpg|center|500px|]]

{{Topquote|A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....|Star Wars opening text}}
'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D0ZQPqeJkk/ Star Wars]''' is one of, if not ''the'', most influential media franchises of modern times, let alone its effect on science-fiction and fantasy. Indeed, among [[/tg/|nerddom]], it is challenged by only a few others, like [[Star Trek]] and [[The Lord of the Rings]].

The incredibly ardent fandom is spread worldwide and has a strong presence in popular culture. Many of the characters, like Darth Vader and Yoda, are iconic even to the general public. John Williams' score for the original trilogy is probably the best-known film score of all time. The universe has spawned numerous video games, hundreds of novels, multiple TV shows, one of the largest merchandising franchises ever, and, relevant to /tg/, a whole bunch of board, card, and roleplaying games.

It is also the current leading world source of [[Skub]].

==The Basic Concept==
Star Wars was originally a series of epic science-fantasy "space operas" that roughly followed the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. They're set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," [Note: this makes the entire series a fairy tale] where a mysterious life force called (reasonably enough) the Force permeates everything. This, in turn, can be wielded by certain people, giving them pseudo-magical abilities; thank the Emperor ([[Emperor|no, the other one]]) there were no Commissars in that universe. Those who use it for good become mystical, selfless warrior monks called Jedi, whereas those who use it for evil are ruthless, self-serving bastards called Sith. However, the Force must always be in balance, so any time the Sith arise to cause imbalance, the Jedi have to pull together and take them out to restore the natural order.

The so-called Original Trilogy (made up of films IV through VI, released from 1977 to 1983) followed a young man named Luke Skywalker who becomes a Jedi and re-balances the Force. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance is fighting to end the oppressive Galactic Empire, which is secretly led by the Sith. Luke and his Rebel companions eventually defeat the evil Emperor Palpatine, but along the way they discover that his lieutenant, Darth Vader, is actually Luke's father. A financial, critical, popular and cultural H-bomb, these movies are basically the filter through which Generation X perceives the world... for better or worse.

The so-called Prequel Trilogy (made up of films I through III, released from 1999 to 2005) explained how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and how the Galactic Empire was established. This involves a lot of convoluted politicking in the Republic, which is then torn apart in the Clone Wars, where the Republic (with an army of clones led by the Jedi) fights against the Confederacy (with an army of robots led by [[Necrons|General Grievous]] and secretly controlled by the Sith). It was not as well received as the first trilogy, for reasons we'll talk about below.

There's also a so-called Sequel Trilogy (made up of film VII and presumably films VIII and IX), which started in 2015 and picked up the story some three decades after the Emperor's defeat with a new generation of heroes taking on the remains of the evil Empire, which is a group of extremist former Imperials calling themselves the First Order. However, Episode VII aka ''The Force Awakens'', was directed by J.J. Abrams, who's mostly known for the [[skub|skubtastic]] [[Star Trek]] reboot, while Episode VIII was written and directed by Ryan Johnson who was a young director known for plot twists and genre experimentation on a handful of movies and television episodes that openly said he wanted to "subvert expectations" and make half of viewers dislike his work, then got pissed when half of them disliked his work. The result managed to fracture the Star Wars fanbase over issues of dull rehashing for VII and a whole laundry list of reasons for VIII (ranging from small ones such as it being too different, to major issues like half the movie being filler), as well as those who still enjoyed them and very little common ground between the three groups.

Finally, there are the so-called Anthology movies, standalone one-shots involving characters and plotlines that aren't a part of the main "Saga" films, except they kind of are. The first, Rogue One (2016), is an immediate prequel to Episode IV that follows those Rebel spies who stole the Death Star plans. The second film follows a young Han Solo and pals Chewie and Lando. A third rumored one follows Boba Fett.

There are also three separate TV series. The first one, ''Clone Wars'', was based on traditional animation, whereas the later one, '''''The''' Clone Wars'', was a weird 3D animation. They're both pretty good. There was also a terrible theatrical release that was basically just an advertisement for ''The Clone Wars'', but, since it's even worse than the Prequel Trilogy (hint: babysitting Jabba the Hutt's kid), nobody talks about it much. The third series is Disney's ''"Rebels"'' which is set between Episodes III-IV and it takes itself far less seriously than Clone Wars did, and is more of a homage to the original trilogy since not every character in the series is the owner of a lightsaber nor are they constantly talking about grown-up politics, senators and trade embargoes... pretty much the things that clogged up the plot of the prequel trilogy.

And then there's the whole Expanded Universe, which covers pretty much everything not covered by the films, like the Old Republic (set thousands of years before the prequel trilogy, when there were a hell of a lot more Sith and Jedi around) and the New Republic (set immediately after the original trilogy, explaining what became of all the characters. It could also reach 40k levels of grimdark with races like the [[Dark Eldar|Yuuzhan]] [[Tyranids|Vong]] characters like [[Vampire|Darth Nihilus]] and beings like [[Old Ones|Abeloth]].

The EU is no longer considered in the main canon of the films and TV series, due to the new sequel trilogy which does not follow EU, the reason for this being, according to Disney, that following EU would restrict their creative freedom. The reaction to this was, well, [[skub|mixed, for lack of a better word.]] They've since noted that they'll slot ''some'' of it in on a case-by-case basis, but the canon is in a highly fluid state at the moment. EU is now officially called Star Wars Legends, though most fans still refer to it as EU.

==Why is it so popular?==

Star Wars is as accessible as science fiction gets. It doesn't require extensive knowledge of a fictional world (a la ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' or ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'') or cultural background (as ''[[Star Trek]]'' sometimes does) to make sense. Those elements are present for those who want them, but they largely stay in the (very rich and vibrant) background. It has well-shot action and good ''enough'' dialogue to make it interesting for both kids and adults (as well as allowing parents who grew up with it to watch it with their children, thereby hooking the next generation of viewers). It has simple, good-vs.-evil themes that resonate with almost anyone, anywhere, at any time. The science fiction elements are generally handled well if you don't obsess over making science fiction realistic and hard. It's a prime gateway drug for sci-fi which still holds up to the experienced eye, [[Isaac Asimov]] saw and rather enjoyed the films. All in Fourteen hours of cinema, plus optional sides for those who want it.

There's a ton of merchandise that is, of course, really cool. Also, given it's crossed over into the mainstream, many people feel comfortable being part of the community without feeling judged as "nerds" (as they might with ''Lord of the Rings'', ''D&D'', ''Star Trek'', ''Warhammer'', etc.).

Again, they roughly follow the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. If you think about it, 6 of the 9 films can be summarized as: hero begins his journey under the tutelage of a wise (more or less) man, they encounter a threat which has captured/enslaved a princess/girl, who was in one way or another connected to an important secret (usually a superweapon but could be the identity of a political figure or the location of someone); the heroes save the princess/girl but someone dies tragically in a battle against the villain while someone else is blowing up a space station or a spaceship afterwards they are happy, they celebrate and mourn the loss of the poor bloke who died.

Additionally, the first film can be summarized as a samurai and a gunslinger team up to save a princess from Nazis in space. That is multiple cinematic genres at once, following the style of the epic myth.

==Setting==
Due to article bloat, [[Star Wars Setting]] is now its own page.

==The rise of the original trilogy==

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away....etc etc you all know the lines.

A man called George Lucas had the idea to create a series of epic sci-fi space operas that would become so successful that Disney would take notice and give it the franchise fluttering eye lashes, trying to seduce it.

They would be called... ''Flash Gordon''.

Unfortunately for Georgie boy, and fortunately for modern nerddom, Dino de Laurentiis already owned ''Flash Gordon'', and were busy making their own, hilariously eighties version, so he said, screw it, I'll make my own!

He decided to start with the fourth movie in the series he envisioned, for at the time he didn't have the special effects to create the first three to the standard he wanted, and/or he just kinda made up the first movie as he went along (drawing heavily on Akira Kurosawa's seminal samurai action film, ''Hidden Fortress'' in the process as well as the book [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces''], a complex 1949 Joseph Campbell analysis of the various mythologies of human history all boiled down into the basic archtypes and elements required in heroic myth). So Episode Four ''A New Hope'' was created (simply titled ''Star Wars'' at the time) and it is not an exaggeration to say it changed the face of sci-fi and general moviemaking forever, bringing a new era of special effects and imagination to cinema and changing the lives of many who would go onto to become dedicated fan boys.

Originally, the studio had forced Lucas to take ever-increasing paycuts for what they were sure was going to be a flop, and only let him keep merchandising rights. However, whatever his flaws, George Lucas was a man of vision. Having helped pioneer the summer blockbuster, he went on to do the same to ginormous piles of movie-tie-in memorabilia. His production company, Lucasfilm ended up rolling in dosh, and with Episode Five ''The Empire Strikes Back'' and Episode Six ''The Return of the Jedi'', the legend of Star Wars and its place in cultural history was assured.

tl;dr: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij4w7ChpuaM Pretty much this.]

==The coming of the prequel trilogy==
With the year 2000 coming, George Lucas felt that special effects technology had reached the level he wanted and began to create the first three movies in the star wars story he had envisioned. (As a side-note, he also made some touch-ups to the three original films, re-mastering them with special effects and a couple of extra scenes that weren't doable with the eighties' animatronics. But those were mostly accepted/shrugged away since they didn't deeply modify anything.)

The hype for the movies was immense.

And then the first movie, Episode One ''The Phantom Menace'' came out.....and there was nerd rage beyond expectation.

Part of the problem was that the immense expectations of the fandom had grown until anything less-than-perfect simply would not do, so perhaps that is somewhat to blame for the reaction to the prequel trilogy. In a vacuum one has to admit that they aren't completely ''[[Twilight|terrible films]]'' .

Episode Two ''Attack of the Clones'' and Episode Three ''Revenge of the Sith'' followed after a few years each and didn't garner nearly as much hatred, though fans complained they didn't match the greatness of the original trilogy, more concerned with flashy action and effects than competent story-telling; but hooo-boy did it deliver in flashy action, with laser armed [[MI-24 Hind|MI-24's]] full of <s>storm</s>troopers extracting jedi from a coliseum full of shooty killbots.

''Revenge of the Sith'' did, however, receive higher ratings than ''Return of the Jedi'', and is generally seen as the best and most-complete of the three prequel films as a story. Unusually the novelization alters some details and is considered a legitimately good book on its own merits.

What was generally more well received (despite a rocky start with a two hour pilot being pressed into service as a movie and an art style that took some time to gel) during this time for Star Wars was the Clone Wars animated series (both the traditionally-animated ''Clone Wars'' and the later seasons of the CGI show '''''The''' Clone Wars'', the latter which most everyone agrees is what the prequels should have been), following the war between the Republic and the Confederacy that sprung up during the time between the second and third of the prequels.

It'd be ''really'' hard to find a group of movies more skubtastic than the prequel trilogy, and saying a good or bad thing about it in front of the wrong crowd's sure to provoke huge amounts of nerdrage. In defense of the prequel trilogy's sins, they did at least do their own thing. Because of how much money the original trilogy made, practically every form of media in the 80s and 90s aped it to some form or another, and instead of falling back on the same old shit the prequels branched out and tried to get out of the franchise's comfort zone a bit. While a lot of it sucked, it blazed a trail for better writers to follow and helped liven up the universe by showing us the galaxy beyond fuckhueg spaceships and faux-Western shitholes like Tatooine. And all but the most [[Neckbeard|diehard OT purists]] can get behind shit like Naboo architecture, the Clone Army and Mace "The Ace" Windu. From a story perspective the worst sin of the prequels was demystifying the force, and subsequent works have largely swept that detail under the carpet.

==Disney and the sequel trilogy==

Finally, all the efforts by Disney to woo George Lucas paid off and in 2012 Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise for 4 billion dollars and immediately announced they would produce a new trilogy of films set after the original trilogy.

Expectations were almost as high as the private fears of the fans. Bringing on the creative talent behind the [[skub|skubtastic]] ''[[Star Trek]]'' reboot was equally... well, [[skub|take a wild guess]]. The end result saw millions of voices cry out in terror, and were suddenly subsumed into hitherto unseen levels of [[Skub]].

For sake of sanity, these section have been condensed. Read at your own peril.
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===Episode 7: The Mouse Awakens===
''Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens'' debuted in December of 2015, and reception was what you would expect: the film was immediately a massive success from a monetary standpoint as everyone ([[China|almost]]) everywhere rushed to the theaters in response to the hype, with children engaging in as many repeat viewings as their parent's money could allow as fans did the same thing with their own. It has become a financial hit with the general public and a (critically) generally well-reviewed piece, with decent cinematography, special effects, technical stuff, etc. It also went on to become the third biggest financial success in film history (at the time), when not adjusted for inflation.
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Fan response was a good deal more mixed. Many criticize the plot for rehashing Episode IV, without doing anything to establish its own identity and claim that it had a bland main character, [[Mary Sue|who had too many abilities]] whereas others find the replication of ''Star Wars'' feel an acceptable trade and praise it for being a decent action film, [[skub|and claim the lead doesn't outdo any of the previous main characters]].

Some would argue that by rehashing the original trilogy it basically nullified the accomplishments of the original crew; the Empire's still around, they've got yet another superweapon, Han & Leia split up, Luke failed to rebuild the Jedi, etc. Other fans praised it simply for being a new Star Wars that was better than the prequel trilogy (expectations were lowered due to those, to be honest). Some see poor storytelling when there was no proper showing of what went on in the galaxy 3 decades since Palpatine died, and not explaining what caused big character changes like why Han returned to his old ways or Luke ran from his friends was critical. Other say this is going to be explained in the next film and people should keep their curiosity. Some argue even with their superweapon, none of the villains feel threatening. Others argue the incompetence of the main villain is a fresh change and the point of the plot will be to see him change, to be more competent, or even learn to become good.

Overall, those against argued JJ Abrams' mystery box approach may do well for a TV series but does not mesh with films that take years to make. Defendants held the position that fans should wait to see whether the next film will do anything with the unexplained plot points.

Coincidentally, when Hamill and Fisher were originally approached by Disney to reprise their roles as Luke and Leia, they ''didn't want to do it'' right from the start. But, they didn't want to give an out-and-out "no" answer either, so they told Disney they'd return if Harrison Ford agreed to return as Han Solo as well. Knowing how much Ford ''hated'' Solo, Hamill and Fisher figured they were safe, until Disney irresistibly sweetened the deal for Ford by agreeing to kill off his character, thus forcing a reluctant Hamill and Fisher to make good on their deal... [[skub|only for the three characters to never appear on the screen at the same time.]] To be fair, Hamill has a history of saying he won’t do something only to immediately agree like he’s making a standard sitcom gag in real life, even if that usually just applies to still voicing the Joker in Batman media.
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===Star Wars Rebels===
Disney also released their own CGI series: ''Star Wars: Rebels'', which is actually pretty ok (considering that it airs on Disney XD, it should be no surprise that they've toned down the graphic depictions of gratuitous violence, much to the chagrin of [[Neckbeards|those who love overly gory deaths]]). It focuses less on the Jedi that have come to dominate the franchise and more on the "boots on the ground" experience of the average characters, and while the show started slow and small, the plot gained momentum as the series progressed, especially after the first season.
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The Rebel movement starts to grow, several characters return from ''The Clone Wars'', and the enemies the main characters have to face steadily get darker and more dangerous as more of the Empire’s attention gets attracted. When Darth Vader gets involved (played by none other than [[Awesome|James Earl Jones himself]]) he immediately proceeds to [[Awesome|open a 24-pack of unstoppable whoop-ass on the rebel scum]]. The return of Maul resulted in three character deaths (possibly four), the crippling of one main character with another well on his way down the dark side, and to top it all off Maul himself was on the loose once again. Things did not turn out so well [[Grimdark|last time that happened]], so expect the body count to rise, especially with [[Creed|Grand Admiral Thrawn]] now also coming onto the scene. The show also continues the trend set by ''The Clone Wars'' in making the Force mystical again, though whether this is a good or bad thing depends on how you felt about the <s>bullshit</s> <s>scientific</s> [[Skub|skubtastic]] midichlorian explanation of the Prequels. The animation is on point with ''The Clone Wars'', which considering it's Disney should surprise less than nobody. Oh, and Steve Blum voices one of the main characters. However, it is also noted that Star Wars Rebels may indeed have [[Grimdark|dark ending]]. Which, to a degree, it did. An important character dies, and his padawan flees into the unknown regions, leaving us with two other characters to go look for him after the second Death Star blows up.

[[Skub|The way that Filoni (the creator of Rebels and The Clone Wars) has handled the Mandalorians, a fan-favorite warrior-culture based upon the Scots and Vikings, has either been met with praise from those who despised Traviss and her overpowering of said culture, or utter RAGE that he turned many of them into either pacifist morons or bloodthirsty barbarians- usually that particular criticism comes from the Traviss fanboys]]. Do take note, however, that the old ways for the Mandalorians are making their way back into canon, such as the language, the emphasis on martial honor, and the decentralized nature of their government.
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===Star Wars: Rogue One===
December of 2016 brought us the first standalone Star Wars movie, "Rogue One", showing the theft of the original Death Star plans.
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While "Rogue One" can be justly criticized for lacking in character development, that was basically mandated by being set just before another movie whose actors were now 40 years too old to reprise their previous roles. The cast of the movie includes almost no one who appears in Episode IV, and the few familiar faces who do appear show up as cameos. (Fair warning: spoilers)

Accordingly, every main character dies by the end. It still manages to pack quite a lot of [[awesome]] into the movie, with Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk and Darth Vader all used to great effect. Rogue One also answers several questions, plugs several plot holes, and just generally makes A New Hope make a lot more sense in retrospect. (No wonder Vader wasn't impressed when Leia claimed to be on a "diplomatic mission.") It also has the distinctions of being the only Star Wars movie to focus on regular soldiers instead of Jedi, and being more like the original Star Wars than any of the sequels, including the other two of the main trilogy. (The original, back before it was "A New Hope", was a genre mashup of samurai + gunslinger rescue princess from space Nazis, then team up for a World War II dogfight. This one is wuxia cast + heist crew do a heist in a WWII trench warfare war zone. There's surprisingly little 'War' in Star Wars.) Much, much [[Skub]] still exists of course, since no Star Wars movie will ever please all the neckbeards but out of the five post-Disney Star Wars movies released so far, this one is definitely the least divisive and arguably the best of the bunch.
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===Episode 8: The Last Royalty Check (aka zomg Luke dies!)===
On December 14 2017, ''Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi'' was released world wide. The critical reception was [[Bullshit|extremely positive]], with many critics considering it the best movie in the series since The Empire Strikes Back. The fan reception has been a great deal more negative and [[Skub|mixed]], and a number of fans are convinced that Disney leaned on media outlets to shill the new movie or else. If you have watched the Empire Strikes Back, you ''WILL'' be [[Rage|disappointed at best]], if you want to see a Star Wars film that would finally expand the characters of Kylo Ren and Rey, you ''WILL'' be satisfied and disappointed at the same time, if you want to watch the film because it is the last film starring the great and wonderful Carrie Fisher, you ''WILL'' feel hollow and sad inside, and if you came to see a pair of lightsaber-wielding punks involved in one of the greatest lightsaber battles of the franchise, you ''WILL'' be pleased. The Last Jedi is seen as one of the most divisive films in the franchise by the fandom, [[FAIL|which is one hell of an achievement]] considering other films.
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The complaints about The Last Jedi are many: the treatment of Luke (which even his actor, Mark Hamill, hated, to the point that he has no interest in playing Luke again), Leia's Superman asspull, Finn's plot arc that serves practically zero purpose and has him undergo the same character arc as the last movie, the forced humor, the complete disregard for established [[fluff]], disregard for even the most basic laws of physics, the fact that the central conflict is essentially the same as the one in the originals right down to the last stand ripped straight out of ''Empire'', the PC bullshit (a hipster admiral who the plot always treats as being in the right despite killing 90% of the Resistance, the Gilded Age planet arc that [[Namek|sucks up a third of the movie to no benefit,]] Rose expressing her desire to get BLACKED with a horrendous and forced #LoveTrumpsHate one-liner in the final act) added solely to virtue-signal and the whole thing being basically a 2,5h screed against the franchise it belongs to and the culture which spawned it.

Fans have also criticized the movie for dropping or discarding major plot points from TFA and repeatedly invoking Shamalamadingdong-tier plot twists for cheap gotchas that are somehow less interesting than the recycled cliches they play off of. Director Rian Johnson has responded by shitting on said critics and trying to defend the film on social media like something out of an ED or RW article. (Important note: George Lucas never tried to defend the prequels, despite the huge backlash at the time, and he agreed with fans that [[C.S Goto|The Star Wars Holiday Special]] was an abomination.) It later came out that Johnson had not been given any kind of roadmap beyond Lucas' old and unfinished concept scripts and was not allowed to see what Abrams had done until TLJ was too far into production to write in most of the previous movie's plot points, which makes the fail Disney's fault just as much as it is Johnson's. Except we also know that he had at least a modicum of influence over the ending of TFA, so they must have talked on at least some degree. As with TFA Lucasfilm has tried to paper over the holes with tie-in material, and just like TFA the fans recognize the damage control.

The Last Jedi has without a doubt torn the fanbase apart in ways even the prequels didn't come close to, with many fans declaring that they have dropped the sequel trilogy. Even Star Wars' famous merchandising has taken a mauling, as [[/toy/]] giggles at Rose Tico and General Hux figures warming shelves while new product shipments go straight from the transport case to the clearance bin.
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===[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg_FoEy8T_A I'm Solo, Han Solo, Han Solo]===
On May 25th 2018, the 41st anniversary of the franchise, ''Solo: A Star Wars Story'' was released. The general consensus seems to be that it is the most average film in the series. At the very least, most people agree that it is at least better than The Last Jedi (if barely) and the backlash from that movie can be felt even in Solo: many fans have chosen to boycott the movie. Even before release, many fans had derided the whole affair as unnecessary: no one was really asking for a Han Solo origin movie, particularly one without Harrison Ford. Han Solo's entire life history had already been explored thoroughly in EU novels and comics, so the movie could only be a retread or a retcon, both things most fanbases tend to disapprove of.
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Whether it is because of this boycott or not, [[Not as planned|something no one expected happened:]] ''Solo'' was a box office bomb. Its opening weekend performed way below expectations and as of this writing, it has only made half of the money it needs for it to break even. Disney still continued to labor under the delusion that China would save their bottom line regardless of the fact that Star Wars has never been popular in China.

So what is it like? Well, rather than being a space opera like the other films, this is a space Western. Rather than being about large-scale battles and saving the galaxy from tyranny, it's about heists and the galactic underworld. (Except for the Mimban sequence, which you'd swear was lifted from a live-action Imperial Guard movie.) It's essentially Disney's reboot/retcon of the old EU Han Solo novels, taking things that were mentioned offhand in the original trilogy (like how Han did the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs) and making that the subject of an entire movie. The film was perhaps cursed from the beginning due to its [[Fail|troubled production.]] How troubled? The lead needed an acting coach to get through his shoots (Han may have walked away with the Falcon, but Danny Glover's Lando stole the spotlight every time) and 70% of the movie had to be reshot by a different director due to [[Butthurt|creative differences]] between Lucasfilm and the original directors.

The fail only compounded when it premiered and fans got to see what those "creative differences" may have wrought: the writing staff started spewing bullshit to the press about Lando being "pansexual" with no precedent in any Star Wars production including ''Solo'', the film's tone is a schizophrenic nightmare to the last-minute reshoots and Han's sidekick for most of the movie is [[What|a self-built female droid social justice warrior]] named [[/v/|L3-37]]. Audiences ''cheered and applauded'' when that <s>man</s>human-hating self-insert character finally fucking died. Perhaps the most damning sin is that these are the movie's only notable qualities: take them away and you're left with a movie that would make you think "Huh, that was okay," and then never think about it again for the rest of your life, were it not for the crippling disappointment of seeing one of the most beloved franchises in the world fall so far. Between the boycotts, the mediocrity of the movie itself, and [https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Gawker certain news outlets] claiming that the driving force behind said boycotts was [[/pol/]], ''Solo'' cratered so badly that [[Exterminatus|all non-''Episode 9'' Star Wars movies were for a short time shelved indefinitely, and the only side-movie still being worked on is the obligatory Boba Fett origin movie, which is more likely to sell tickets based on the name alone.]] Incidentally, one of the writers picked by Lucasfilm to handle ''Solo'''s tie-in content, Cavan Scott, has been hired by [[Games Workshop]] for the [[Warhammer Adventures]] series.
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===Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker (aka Plan Palpa-Nine from Outer Space)===
Your opinion of this movie is very easy to predict based on what you thought of the others; if you found The Last Jedi to be "refreshing", you'll absolutely HATE this one. If you hate all Disney content aside from ''maybe'' The Mandalorian, you'll hate this one as much as the others. If you absolutely detested The Last Jedi but have mixed opinions of the rest, you'll probably consider this to be the best of the new movies to varying degrees of actual enthusiasm. The movie largely undoes or ignores swathes of the previous one.
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After finishing shooting, the film was shown to test audiences (which JJ Abrams lied never happened). The film was extremely poorly received, one of many reasons being because it had [[Mary Sue|Rey curb-stomping Palpatine by herself in the final battle]] (test audiences reportedly either laughed at the film or had to be stopped from walking out of the test screenings). The poor showing made (then) Disney CEO Bob Iger - who was overseeing the screening - furious, and he immediately ordered the film to be reshot. The resulting reshoots were so extensive, [http://archive.ph/RLj94 they spanned months and the film didn't have a final edit till December 2019, the month of release], causing trailers to be so desperate for footage that wouldn't be cut they had to fill half the length with footage from prior films and stuff used in prior trailers. To make matters worse for Disney, the plot was leaked months before release, and said plot turned out to be ''very stupid''. Despite Disney spokespeople and media outlets extensively denying the leaks, the leaks were proven correct by getting then unrevealed names and plot objects right. Camera leaks the week before release showed very little of the fantastically stupid content leaked months beforehand was changed, only minor details.

Before reading on, be aware that Rey and Kylo are no longer movie-type Force users, they have been changed to video game characters. Like KOTOR and Jedi Academy type where you just get powers by killing enough dudes. None of the powers are new to the franchise, but have been rarely seen and in some cases never before have in movies. You should also know that unlike the first Visual Dictionary that mostly just gave little prop trivia and plot hooks for other works, and the second which was mostly irrelevant until it gets referenced in a decade or two, the final Visual Dictionary is damn near required reading (this shit will get a "VD" to indicate it) since a lot of explanations were cut in the reshoots and recuts. Like for example the connection between Rey and Kylo is a "Force Dyad", basically one soul in the Force that inhabits two bodies (setting up a bit of a snarl what happens when one dies and not the other, and implying the personality is mostly in the brain which is why they can have unique experiences, but whatever) and warps space/time. This is why Rey was inexplicably powerful and knew how to do shit instinctively, because Kylo's training passed onto her, and likewise her nonstop playing with X-Wing training sims as a child made him a badass pilot. Dyads used to be far more common in the KOTOR era, and were apparently the inspiration for the Sith Rule Of Two. This is never mentioned in the final cut of the film, but leaks show it was in one of the earlier ones.

The movie pressed on with breakneck speed that doesn't have time for musical interludes or wipe transitions, the opening crawl informing you that Palpatine has somehow returned and sent a message to the galaxy with the Resistance trying to rebuild and gather information, Rey being trained by Leia on the planet Ajan Kloss (AKA not!Yavin #2, VD) after repairing Anakin's lightsaber (VD) who had received partial training from Luke before stopping for reasons explained later in the movie and supplementing the rest with her pouring over the Jedi texts, and Kylo Ren trying to find Palpatine because his existence is a threat to his rule. The movie takes a lot of inspiration from KOTOR era lore with Ren finding a Sith McGuffin Holocron-type navigation device on Mustafar (VD) showing him the secret planet of the Sith (not Korriban/Pesegam/Moraband, this one is a planet in a red nebula that is under constant lightning storms called Exegol). There he finds a MASSIVE Sith cult that has kept itself secret and managed to not only build a fucking massive fleet of Star Destroyers equipped with planetkiller guns like something straight out of the old canon, but divisions of Stormtroopers, technicians, and officers to fill them along with the typical cultists in robes who administer to keeping Palpatine alive and seeing to his Sith alchemy shit...which includes tanks containing multiple clones of Snoke, revealing the guy was literally born looking like that with a manufactured backstory all so Palpatine could use him as a puppet to create the First Order (which is almost a meta commentary about the backstory controversy).

Kylo is offered the chance to be the new Emperor by Palpatine, who is a corpse kept barely alive through methods some would consider... Unnatural, while strapped to a machine with [[Lord Kroak|his spirit sticking nearby]] (the filmmakers zig-zagged on the nature of this; first it was the original Palpatine who had somehow duped everyone in ''Return of the Jedi'' with a clone stand in, then the reshoots changed it to the original's zombie-like rotting corpse animated by his lingering spirit and Lucasfilm later retconned him to be a zombie-like clone of Palpatine after the film's release). The only requirement for Palps to pass him Emperorship is killing Rey, although Ren is immediately suspicious of the other strings attached (including choking a guy in a hissyfit when that concern is voiced) and decides instead to recruit Rey again, this time as a co-Emperor.

Finn and Poe obtain information about a spy within the First Order (yeah, you know its fucking Hux even before they say there is a spy at all) while Rey gets visions during her training with Leia. The spy confirms that Palpatine is legit and the info about the fuckmassive deathfleet is legit, and Rey finds the Jedi texts contain notes from Luke about his search for that planet. They go to his last clue, a desert planet that isn't Tatooine and is the middle of a festival where they find Lando has been holed up enjoying himself since him and Luke traveled there. They are immediately spotted by the First Order and escape from them to find the ship of one of Palpatine's servants who had last been seen there. They fall into sinkholes around the ship created by giant tunneling worms, and find the skeleton of Sheev's boy as well as a Sith dagger. 3PO is programmed with the Sith language, but his programming from the Old Republic era forbids him from giving the translation to civilians. Rey manages to get the sand worms to leave them alone by using Force powers to heal one's wound, and they attempt to get the Sheev's servant's ship up and running before they are attacked by the First Order. Chewie is taken prisoner and Rey wrecks Kylo's TIE Fighter before the two engage in a Force tug of war to pull the transport Chewie is on, which ends in Rey accidentally Force Lightning it and causing it to explode when she becomes frustrated with the stalemate. Chewie is revealed to have been on another transport and is taken to Ren's flagship Star Destroyer while the heroes, instead of do something sensible like seek a Rebel leader who can give security clearance for 3PO's protocol (Leia's the obvious choice), they head to a planet under VERY Nazi-like occupation to find a droid technician who can hack 3PO's memory. They encounter a woman from Poe's past, revealing he was a former spice smuggler like Han until abandoning his crew (causing them to fall into debt and become bitter at him) to join the Resistance. She threatens to turn the group in to pay off their debt [[Mary Sue| but Rey kicks her ass, earning her respect and she takes them to the technician without further incident.]] The technician unlocks 3PO's memory at the cost of wiping him. The translation reveals the dagger is the key to finding the Sith navigation McGuffin they are looking for. During this BB-8 reactivates Sheev's servant's old droid, who doesn't do much.

The heroes proceed to board Ren's flagship with the help of a First Order officer's badge, and shoot their way through as they free Chewie. Rey and Ren have another linked vision where her parents are revealed to have attempted to hide her from her grandfather Palpatine, who wanted to merge the souls of himself and '''ALL''' other preceding Sith (presumably not Revan, since his redemption is canon) while he discovers they are on his ship and orders it put on lockdown. Rey is confronted in the hangar by Ren, who offers her to join him again. She refuses and the Falcon appears, the engines blowing away the Stormtroopers while Rey jumps aboard. The crew head to Endor after finding out from Sheev's servant's old droid that it was where he was going to go next (this is the only thing the droid does other than serve as a "pet the dog moment" for the cast a few times) where the Death Star wreckage of the disk and throne room landed, encountering a division of former child-soldier Stormtroopers like Finn who went AWOL. The dagger has a slide-out metal prong from the handle which perfectly lines up with the corridor leading to Sheev's throne room. The team work on repairing the Falcon while Rey presses on ahead, alone, to the Death Star wreckage. Once in the throne room a hidden door opens, revealing a sanctum full of crystal mirrors that are the same as the ones she saw in her vision in Force Awakens (the scene where she snaps her fingers and all the mirrored ones do as well). There she finds the Sith McGuffin and gets a "The Cave" vision of herself as a Sith with a red double-bladed lightsaber which she fights. Kylo is waiting for her in the throne room, and crushes the Sith McGuffin in his hand before informing her they are linked in the Force as one soul inhabiting two bodies and offering her again to be the Vader to her Palpatine which she again refuses. The two fight while Finn and one of the Stormtroopers try to rescue her. They fight their way onto the remnants of the Death Star hangar, reminiscent of Anakin and Obi-wan in Revenge Of The Sith with water instead of lava, before Ren freezes as he senses his mother start to die. This pause gives Rey time to grab his lightsaber and stab him before she freezes sensing Leia actually pass away. Rey uses the Force to heal him, then steals his TIE Fighter while Poe and Finn return to the Resistance base. Rey initially attempts to hide on Luke's monastery to let Palpatine's bloodline die with her, but after lighting Kylo's TIE on fire (so she's destroyed 2 of his personal TIE at this point) Luke appears as a Force ghost to tell her <strike>Rian Johnson</strike> he was wrong, and was motivated by fear when he tried to hide. He reveals that all the Jedi who came before are rooting for her, and tells her where Leia's lightsaber is hidden. He reveals she stopped her training because in a vision she saw that her son would be destroyed by the Dark Side, and a Light Side counterpart would take up her blade instead. Meanwhile, Kylo is visited by the memory of Han. The two reenact the scene from Force Awakens, only this time Kylo throws his lightsaber into the sea and renounces the name Kylo Ren to become simply Ben again. Meanwhile the First Order blow up Poe's home planet where the droid technician and Poe's old crew were, although they had managed to get offworld by that point. Also, R2-D2 restores C-3PO's memory wipe by finding a backup which contains everything from before the mission.

Luke lifts his X-Wing from the waves and Rey scavenges the Sith McGuffin from the flaming wreck of Kylo's ship. As she proceeds to the Sith planet she sends out a beacon to track her progress, giving the entire galaxy a map to the Sith fleet. Poe, now leader of the Resistance, sends Lando with the Falcon and Nien Nunb to gather any forces they can, all the ones who refused to aid them in The Last Jedi, while the rest of the Resistance gears up to attack Sheev's fleet before they can leave the storm cloud. The initial plan is to destroy the navigation device which orients them to the rest of the galaxy without which the fleet cannot leave, until the commander of the flagship (a former Imperial officer) realizes what they are doing and orders it to be shut down so his own ship could serve as the navigation for the rest. Rey confronts Sheev in a coliseum/throne room full of the Cultist parents of the personnel of the fleet (VD) and is informed of his plan to have her kill him so all the Sith could merge with her and rule as basically the God Emperor of Star Wars. She raises her lightsaber before using the strange wormhole Force connection thing they have to pass it to Ben, who had gotten there with a salvaged TIE from the Death Star wreckage and was being beaten by his former servants, the Knights Of Ren. Armed with Luke's old lightsaber he kills them and proceeds to the throne room. Ben arrives and the two attempt to fight him. He simply Force Pushes them back and forces them to kneel before draining a portion of their souls, the "two bodies one soul" thing apparently being a massive source of Force power he can heal himself with to rule in his own rejuvenated body again (but with Darth Maul eyes) rather than Rey's. Meanwhile, the ex-Stormtroopers and Resistance ground personnel lead by Finn land on the flagship Star Destroyer (its still in the atmosphere of the Sith planet, thus gravity and breathable air applies) and due to bringing goat-horse things from Endor are not affected by onboard EMP that would otherwise short out speeders and tanks (which is a thing from past canon, mostly comics and novels, which they use to explain why such a thing doesn't happen more often). Meanwhile, Lando appears with a fucking enormous fleet (remember the backstory that the New Republic didn't have a fleet, instead paying for every planet to have a militia of their own which would unite when there was a big enough threat? Well, JJ finally remembered because all those fucks show up alongside a neat little game of "spot that ship from the series you know" in a few shots). They begin attacking the superweapons underneath the Star Destroyers directly, causing chain reactions that blow the entire ship.

Ben is Force-pushed by Sheev into a pit as revenge for how Vader did the same thing to him before taunting the dying Rey and unleashing a MASSIVE Force Lightning storm which shorts out the fleet. While this is going on the spirits of all the dead Jedi (like pretty much anyone they could find to record a line from any of the past movies or shows, including Ahsoka; which is pretty lame since it means she was killed off-screen, with natural causes being unlikely since Ahsoka wouldn't have been 80 yet, and even that's below the average Togruta life expectancy, though this may not necessarily be the case according to Filoni) who inhabit her body the same way that Palpatine is currently full of all the Sith. Rey manages to stand and deflects his Force Lightning with Leia's lightsaber, which isn't enough until Ben manages to climb out of the pit and throw her Luke's lightsaber; with the two together she's able to walk close enough to Sheev for his Force Lightning to burn him, and despite this being the third fucking time this has happened he does not turn off the lightning and instead Raiders Of The Lost Ark's himself into a skeleton before blowing up and destroying not only himself but the spirits of all the past Sith. Despite Palpatine's plan being to possess Rey when she kills him, for some reason he doesn't do so. The Jedi spirits leave Rey and she dies, with the barely lingering on Ben healing her. They share a kiss (reminder that since Sheev created Anakin, they're basically cousins, and their relationship is so adversarial it makes Edward and Bella's from Twilight look healthy, something the novelization tries to claim is "purely platonic") before Ben dies. His body vanishes, as does Leia's. The Resistance/Militia fleet destroy all the Star Destroyers after Finn's ground crew hijacks one of the cannons of the flagship to shoot at the ship bridge, killing the last of the old Empire and First Order leadership.

The heroes return to the Resistance planet where they celebrate, scenes showing the rest of the galaxy shooting the last of the First Order Star Destroyers play, Chewie is given Han's old medal from A New Hope, and the ex-Stormtrooper leader is hinted to be Lando's daughter or grandaughter implying a spinoff with the two (also shares a gay kiss with another woman... which was cut to appease China's and Singapore's media watchdogs). After the celebrations Rey returns to Luke's old home on Tatooine where she buries Anakin and Leia's lightsabers, revealing she built her own from her Force vision only with yellow blades instead of red ones. An old woman who was a neighbor of Owen and Beru comments nobody had been to that place in years and asks Rey's name. Seeing the Force Ghosts of Luke and Leia, she tells the woman her name is Rey Skywalker. The End.

Because the fandom has become fractured like never before, there was immediately fan wars going on everywhere Star Wars fans are found. Fans accused haters of review bombing, those who hated the movie claimed the critic score (which, if you recall, is mostly people who liked The Last Jedi and hate this movie for doing a U-turn on it) vindicates them. The fan fighting probably won't ever end, since now we apparently have to reevaluate if A New Hope and the Kenner Star Wars toys were ever good in the first place because some contrarians now claim the prequels are the pinnacle of Star Wars. Whatever the case, Disney CEO Bob Iger resigned in the middle of the work week in late February 2020, before coming a couple of months later, with insiders saying he's "livid" over certain changes.
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==Expanded Universe==

It can be said what makes a franchise into a long term lasting thing is when a wealth of extra story and background is created that expands on the original story far beyond what there was. It could be argued Star Wars leads the race in this, as the sheer amount of extra novels, graphic novels and games based on Star Wars can and does overwhelm the ordinary fan.

===The original EU/Star Wars "Legends"===

[[Image: Choices_of_One_PB_art.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Before Cara, before Rey, before Darth Talon or Padme... there was Mara Jade]]
The background has expanded into the distant past before the founding of the current Jedi and Sith orders and into the (not-quite-so) far future looking at the descendants of Luke Skywalker and other popular characters. Uniquely, especially considering [[Warhammer 40K|other]] [[Star Trek|franchises']] track records, the Star Wars Expanded Universe is <strike>remarkably</strike> <strike>sorta</strike> sometimes internally consistent, both with other sources within the universe and with the films themselves, at least in comparison to other comparable settings. Of course, it's got plenty of its own [[C. S. Goto|problem children]] that slipped through, and the [[skub]] mine of it all isn't much shallower than that of 40K. Good portions of it do hold up well, largely due to the efforts of Lucas' company's continuity department leaning on everyone to hold it together. One thing that greatly helps is continuity books and articles aren't afraid to make small retcons to make even the most obscure and shitty sources (like that terrible PS1 fighting game) seem like part of an organized plot. Particularly well-loved parts include characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn (a rare alien officer in the Empire and popular enough that Disney brought him back to the canon from the EU) and Mara Jade (a Force-using former agent of Emperor Palpatine who later turned good, became a Jedi Master, married Luke and had a son with him) - interestingly both were created by the same author [[Timothy Zahn]].

Upon their acquisition, Disney said "fuck it" and threw out everything but the films and the Clone Wars cartoons. Some popular old stuff got mentions or appearances (and Thrawn got to be a major character), but the overall quality is even lower than the old EU. What was set up as a major book contains phrases like "The TIE wibbles and wobbles through the air" and random virtue signalling. As though to top the previous, Disney literally published a book with an entire chapter about mass wedding farts (Yes. Really.). The only good stuff is from established EU authors writing stuff far away from era of the Disney films.

The [[rage]] over the EU's scrapping was major among many fans of it, but for all Disney's shortcomings, they were in a tight spot. Towards the end all that continuity and consistency got thrown out the airlock for increasingly dumb and disjointed narratives and garbled plot threads to the point that the Star Wars logo was just about as much a sign of quality as the Nintendo approval stamp on shitty SNES games.

Another problem was that Disney is mostly family-friendly, and some of the Star Wars EU could get really dark. As in Warhammer 40k levels of grimdark. Examples of this are the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong - forcenull space-Druchii (no no, not Comorrites though they have the pain and body modification fetishes for it, space-'''Druchii''', riding enslaved tyranid bioships) from another galaxy, Mnggal-Mnggal - mindraping gelatin lost on its way to Star Trek, and Abeloth - an ancient (she predates the Jedi and the Sith) yandere Force entity more like something from the Cthulhu Mythos and is so dangerous the Jedi and the Sith '''joined forces''' to fight her. It's difficult to envision how Disney could have kept the EU when even before all that it was struggling to find a market beyond the most [[neckbeards|dedicated fans]].

===The Books===

'''The Good EU'''
[[Image: Heir-to-the-empire-cover.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Heir to the Empire (1991): The book that started it all]]
* '''The Thrawn Trilogy''': The origination point for the EU, and focuses on the conflict with the Imperial remnants left over after RotJ. Named for the main villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who went on to become one of Star Wars most well-loved characters. Basically the story "The Force Awakens" wishes it was. Also introduced Mara Jade, a sexy redhead that's everything Disney wishes Rey was and more.
* '''The Han Solo Adventures''': Star's End was the second spinoff book written and the first good one. Han and Chewie are trying to get some work done on the Falcon and wind up having to bust out some political prisoners to pay for it. Would have made for a better film than ''Solo'' did.
* '''Shadows of the Empire''': Shadows is set between ESB and RotJ and fills in the details of getting the Death Star II's plans, finding out where Han was taken, Luke building his own saber, etc by the introduction of another bounty hunter by the name of Dash Rendar. The Special Edition rerelease of ''A New Hope'' added the Outrider to the background of one scene. Most notable for the fact that it was also adapted into a video game for the N64 and PC.
*'''The Darth Bane Trilogy''': The origin of the Rule of Two for the Sith, along with a compelling protagonist and his apprentice.
* '''Revenge of the Sith''': The novelization is actually considered a serious improvement over the movie itself.

'''The Bad EU'''
* '''Jedi Academy Trilogy''': Luke sets up his academy on Yavin IV and tries to teach [[Rage|Kyp Durron]]. Imperial remnant superweapons hit ludicrous territory with the sun crusher. This was the beginning of Kevin J Anderson hammering out a couple dozen Star Wars books over about four years.
* '''Young Jedi Knights Series''': Set between Jedi Academy and New Jedi Order, mostly follows Han & Leia's kids.
* '''I, Jedi''': A retelling of the Jedi Academy Trilogy (see above) with more of Corran Horn from the first set of X-Wing books. Less derp in general but significantly more [[Mary Sue]]age of Horn.
* '''Legacy of the Force''': The survivors of the Yuuzhan Vong War are trying to rebuild the galaxy, but Jacen Solo turns Sith and becomes the main villain. The book series is infamous for nearly killing the Star Wars EU, threatening the franchise and issues between various writers years before Disney went down the same road (Jacen Solo was also a major influence for Kylo Ren). The biggest complaints were Jacen killing Mara, the heroes becoming idiots whenever they could've stopped the villains, poor dialogue, long-winded writing and the story being overstuffed with allusions to post 9/11 United States.

'''The [[Skub]] EU'''
[[Image: Yuuzhan-vong-eu2_bg.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The Yuuzhan Vong, [[Skub|either badass and interesting or grimderp canon-defiling villains]]]]
* '''New Jedi Order''': The longest-running (19 books long) and most divisive story of the EU. Luke's married to Mara and they're rebuilding the Jedi Order while Han and Leia are trying to reconcile the New Republic and Imperial Remnants. Han and Leia are also raising three kids and Mara's got a terminal illness. Then extragalactic aliens called Yuuzhan Vong - [[Imperium of Man|religious fanatics]] with [[Tyranids|organic technology]], a thing for [[Dark Eldar|pain and body modification]] along with [[Culexus|partial immunity to The Force]] - invade to take over the Star Wars Galaxy. Chewie dies Majora's Mask style, Mara's illness is cured and she gives birth to Ben Skywalker, the Vong take over Coruscant, lots is learned about the Force and the bodycount goes so high it could give Warhammer 40k a run for its money (365 TRILLION; only the War in Heaven or the Fall of the Eldar had anywhere near that many deaths in one event). A real love-it-or-hate-it series, some parts were good, some were bad and some were weird.
* '''Dark Empire''': Palpatine's back to save a dying franchise decades before Disney tried it. He even uses clone bodies to do so (but unlike Disney, Dark Horse didn't flip-flop on the lore), wrecks a fleet of enemy ships using the Force and at some point has his power reflected back at him. Starts off good, falls apart fast. Known for its love-it-or-hate-it artstyle and dialogue.
* '''Courtship of Princess Leia''': Deals with another Imperial remnant, where a Queen who could be potential ally against the Imperials offers a deal which hinges on Leia marrying her son. Meanwhile Luke and R2-D2 are working with a prince who was the original recipient of the offer. This one has force witches, who are encountered when Han tricked Leia into in an attempt to win her heart... it is ''really'' silly. If you like that, raise this higher. If not, it might even drop lower.
* '''Fate of the Jedi''': Want some Cthulhu with your Star Wars? People are growing dissatisfied with the Jedi Order following LotF. Luke, Ben and the remaining Jedi are trying to keep the Jedi Order in check while several Jedi are wracked with a mysterious psychosis and a ancient Sith Tribe emerges from hiding. Han and Leia are looking after the political side of things while also becoming grandparents. Things take a turn for cosmic horror when a yandere, Force-using eldritch abomination who could doom the galaxy escapes her prison. During the conflict, Sith apprentice Vestara rises through the ranks and finds herself in a Catwoman/Batman situation with Ben Skywalker. While being an OoM better than the preceding trilogy, FotJ has a very divided opinion among SW fans.

=== Disney Canon ===
[[Image:Star_Wars_Disney_Princesses.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Love it or hate it, they are now official ''Disney Princesses''.]]
It's still [[skub|debatable]] whether or not the new Canon holds up to the old EU, or learns to fix the problems that plagued it. We probably won't see what comes of it for decades to come. Disney Canon, as of 2020, seems to largely be built around the nine main movies (of course), with shows like Rebels and Clone Wars alongside anthology movies fleshing out stories that had been told in comics and books back before the Disney buy-up, but can now be seen on film.

A curious thing that has begun happening: Certain elements of the old EU is slipping into the Disney Canon. Plotlines like the Emperor returning, the Death Star plans heist and Han's path to become the smuggler we know him as all have bits and pieces from EU canon in them. In some cases, whole characters are ported in; the best example is Admiral Thrawn, who appears in Rebels. Other times, popular characters has their traits or stories ported into new ones (Finn and Cassian are both expies of Kyle Katarn, for example). This gives some credence to the argument that Lucasfilms and Disney wanted to wipe the slate with all the stories that had been told in the EU, so they could create their own, fully realized canon Star Wars setting that one could make movies - ''many'' movies - from. Considering the amount of shitty fan-fiction-esque stories the EU had, this may be for the best, but of course, storylines that people have loved for ages are also thrown out with the bathwater.

Detractors of Disney-era Star Wars often talk loads about how the sequel trilogy invalidates the original trilogy, or how Disney screwed over Luke or ignored cool characters like Kyle Katarn or Mara Jade. These are semi-valid arguments of course, but they ignore some of the biggest issues with the EU originally - it wasn't sponsored by George Lucas and Lucasfilms. They were sponsored fan-fiction in a sense, semi-canon from the outset and not really something that could be considered a part of the Star Wars setting, though George Lucas did work with the writers to a point, such as with the New Jedi Order book series (he gave them permission to kill off Chewbacca in the story). In fact, George never really considered them real stories; more like a parallel universe of his own Star Wars works. He accepted it because they bring in the big bucks when people would beg to have the official Star Wars logo on anything they produced.

That, and the sequel trilogy, underwhelming as it may be, was George's idea in broad strokes. The series was always going to have a sequel trilogy, and while the outcome isn't exactly what he (or we) wanted, quite a lot of it is. Luke being an exile on a far-away planet, who has to be roused to fight by a new, female Jedi? George's idea, not Disney's. A son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side? Also George's idea (though Disney lifted a lot form the original version - Jacen Solo - for Kylo Ren). If anything, much of the direction comes from Lucasfilms; Disney just wants the movie to sell well. It's similar with Marvel nowadays.

So for better or worse, the Disney Canon is the first time the wider setting of Star Wars beyond the series and movies have become irrevocably canon, rather than "kinda-sorta-canon". Much of what we've gotten that is new is based roughly on George's own work as well. Remember this when discussing EU vs Disney in Star Wars - Either setting is cool for their own reasons, but the Mouse got little to do with it - and if you don't like it, bring it up with big man Lucas. Whatever the case, with Bob Iger's resignation as CEO from Disney (likely not on his terms, as he stated multiple times he would retire in 2021), things are changing (for better or worse).

==Star Wars:The Television Shows==
===Star Wars: The Clone Wars===
Technically, there are two series called similar titles. The first was 2004's ''Star Wars: Clone Wars'', an animated miniseries made by Genndy Tartakovsky (He of Dexter's Lab and [[Samurai Jack]] fame) chronicling, among other things, the titular Clone Wars and introducing a much more sinister General Grievous to the world.

But then we have ''The Clone Wars'', a CGI animated series (and tie-in movie) that we'll be talking about more and contributed more to the EU. One of the most universally known and loved parts of Star Wars, most fans worth their action figures and limited edition movie sets have watched the show and have an opinion on it one way or another. Some of the most notable characteristics are:

* The Clone Troopers are fleshed out,and we see that they are manly motherfuckers who make Guardsmen's balls of steel look like the cardboard their armor is made out of (seriously, in the movie, they literally charge straight into close combat with ''giant armored walkers with large guns'' and jump off roofs to get top of them to shoot them point blank, and punch droids in the face)
* Anakin Skywalker is actually a good, fleshed out character, with a good voice actor and shows his descent to child-murdering Force-choking asshat wasn't just him going 'welp, guess I'll fall to the Dark Side.' There was a fair amount of bad-cop “it was him or me” murder to get there.
* Introduces Ashoka Tano, a major character who's a female Togruta Jedi that's well-written, non-OP, non-Mary Sue and doesn't invalidate characters from the movies. Starts off a bit annoying in the Clone Wars movie, but manages to do something truly special: she ''learns''. Over the course of Clone Wars and Rebels, Ashoka probably has the most character development out of any other Star Wars character.
* Obi-Wan being a sexy one-liner spouting sarcastic badass.
* And many others.

However, there were some pretty derp moments too, such as

* Babysitting episode/movie.
* D-squad, where a bunch of droids become heroes of the Republic.
* Mandalore and how it's fluff was basically screwed 180 degrees, and then some.
* Droids were comic relief of the first and second seasons. It was annoying.

All in all, it was an good show that took some time to find it's feet.

After many years, a seventh season was been announced in an attempt to take away from ''The Last Jedi'' being shit and add ''something'' to the empty Disney Plus lineup. At least some of the episodes will be ones that were in production when the show ended. It promptly disappeared after that announcement for a couple years till it was announced it's coming out in 2019.

===Star Wars: Rebels===
[[Image:WomanYellingAtLothcat.jpeg|right|400px|thumb|''Stop fooling our plan, you rebel scum!'']]
Now that Disney owns Star Wars they can't go a season without something new to run on Disney XD, so after ''The Clone Wars'' ended they needed a series to milk episodes out of and launched ''Rebels''. ''Rebels'' is set a few years before ''A New Hope'' and covers the early formation of the rebellion from the perspective of one cell focused on the planet Lothal. If you liked ''Rogue One'' but thought it should be about 25 hours long and done in cartoony CGI then this is the show for you.

So what did we see in ''Rebels''?

* Grand Admiral Thrawn makes his debut in Disney Star Wars, along with the TIE Defender project. The character doesn’t lose much in the translation, and later on is arguably treated better than the source.
* The bearded old guy in the Endor strike team in RotJ turns out to be Captain Rex. Fan theory at first, later confirmed.
* You CAN [[combi-weapon]] a lightsaber and a blaster, and it's OP as shit
* Force wolves (no, not [[Rune Priest|those force wolves]])
* [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Game of Thrones-style]] Mandos (Krownest is pretty much Space-Winterfell).
* Imperial Inquisitors. Sure they don’t last long, but they were intimidating while they were, and it planted the seed that was used elsewhere.
* Some good appearances by Darth Vader.

So about the wolves... ''Rebels'' turns the force mysticism up past 11. Forget just being precog space monks with laser swords; as far as ''Rebels'' is concerned the Jedi are [[craftworld]] [[eldar]] without the racism. Rebels picks up the torch of the Clone Wars “Force Gods” and mixes in some of the straight-up fantasy shit from the Lucas era novels and the KOTOR/Old Republic Jedi philosophy schools and heresies beyond just “Light good, Dark bad”.

However, there were levels of derp that we got to see in this show, such as the following:

* Since this is a Disney cartoon, the bad guys can't have even a temporary victory. This changes Thrawn and the other Imperials from an imposing force to [[Abbadon|cartoon villains]], although Rebels villains manage to stay intimidating more than Grievous did in Clone Wars.
* Battles slower paced than a Death Guard movement phase. Enjoy characters having full conversations in cover-based shooting when everyone has Stormtrooper aim.
* Lightsabers the shape of toothpicks.
* [[Bullshit|Helicopter lightsabers]]
* Complete bipolarity in tone. This can create some great moments, but invariably ruins the mood episode by episode, or between the A and B plots.
* Iron Squadron. Just...fucking [[Rage|Iron Squadron]]
* Star Destroyers look terrible, mostly due to their bridge towers being way taller than they should be.

All in all, it depends on your preference.

Since the show does have a fair amount of dedicated fans, <strike>likely</strike> possibly more than the sequel trilogy itself, Disney has made a habit of planting Easter Egg references to Rebels in basically everything moving forward, usually in the form of an appearance by the iconic ship The Ghost or the friendly-ish space pirate character Hondo Ohnaka.

===Star Wars: Resistance===
Annnd they had to go and change things again. With ''Rebels'' coming to a close and a burning need to keep Star Wars on their lineup, Disney had a choice: find a new plot and setting for a formula and art style that had produced two successful multi-season shows, or throw it all out and start from scratch. Remember, this is Disney we're talking about, the company that once [[Fail|paid a quarter billion dollars to fire the producer who made ''The Little Mermaid'', ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''Aladdin'', and ''The Lion King'']] only for him to go and [[profit|found Dreamworks]] out of spite.

Like its predecessor, ''Star Wars: Resistance'' sets itself up as a prequel to a trilogy, in this case following the early days of the Resistance in its fight against the First Order. Where it differs from ''Rebels'' is that ''Resistance'' is playing the warm up act for a trilogy that nobody likes. On top of which, the creators abandoned the 3D style that ''Rebels'' inherited from ''The Clone Wars'', and replaced it with a cel style that's half ''Treasure Planet'', half ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and all ''RWBY''.

To be blunt, this show is 100% pure crystal derp. Our star is Kazuda Xiono, a manic depressive who literally fanboy-ed his way into being a spy under the cover story of being a mechanic, two jobs he is not qualified for. This kid is the Invader Zim of Star Wars. Filling out the cast we have the original only cockney girl in space, an autistic alien, their widower boss who is definitely gonna die, D.Va and her ex-imperial officer dad, and BB-8. Poe Dameron shows up regularly so he can be Ace Fucking Rimmer without having to compete against Rey for the TOP SUE trophy. Reception was so terrible it was confirmed canceled at 2 seasons before the second season even started.

Part of the problem with ''Resistance'' is that the First Order has a doomfort that can frag planets across the galaxy, yet has to resort to hiring pirates to encourage settlements into accepting the First Order's protection racket. Palpy's empire was a model of efficient, heavy handed governance; its evil intent veiled from the masses who mostly resent it for bringing order. The First Order on the other hand is basically just Cobra Command, a font of evil hamstrung by flailing incompetence. As mentioned earlier, the backstory for the Resistance and First Order is basically that the First Order are a mobile pirate fleet with one untested secret base weapon lead by old farts of dubious actual leadership abilities from the Empire and their fanatical children with grunts made up of brainwashed child soldiers kidnapped from pioneer settlements while the Resistance is just a tiny militia that is so poorly funded they don’t even qualify as a single fleet since their few outdated capital ships are crewed by outdated droids and they don’t even have enough fighters to protect them, but rather than depict the potentially interesting dynamic this suggests the series just tries to be Rebels again, the same path the movies took even though at this point both factions are even smaller than they were in the movies.

===Star Wars: The Mandalorian===

[[Image:The_mandalorian.jpg|right|200px|thumb|[[Goblin Slayer|''Bounties?'']]]]
Because Disney didn't have enough money, they decided to try their hand at streaming services (despite already owning Hulu), and created Disney+ as a collection of their shows and movies. And with any streaming service, you need a flagship title. Thus, ''The Mandalorian'', the first live action Star Wars television series.

The show itself lives and breaths off your nostalgia for the Fetts, giving you a new lead character wearing the cool ass armor, bounty hunting, getting in gunfights, et cetera. The show's set five years after ''Return of the Jedi'', and leans into spaghetti western's so hard you wonder why Clint Eastwood hasn't shown up. Whether you like this show pretty much comes down to the question of can you accept [[Goblin Slayer|a show where the main character's face is never seen]] and whose name is almost never spoken (probably, considering this site's demographics), and can you stand a story wrapped entirely around the finger of a baby yoda who is the most well know spoiler since (joke.exe).

If you like the 2012 [[Adeptus_Arbites|Judge Dredd]] movie you will like the show. It also might be one of the closest depictions of a Space Marine we are going to get for the foreseeable future on the "big screen". The Mandalorians (this group at least) have become almost a cult regarding "The Way" their warrior code. Highlights include a [[Looted]] [[All_Terrain_Soup|AT-ST]], getting to watch a [[Men_of_Iron|IG-11]] aimbot entire groups of hostiles multiple times, (hell just watching IG-11 ''move'' is amazing). The final two episodes are a callback to almost every episode except "The Prisoner" & "The Gunslinger" and numerous characters return and get to be their own brand awesome.

There are several hiccups in writing but those might be smoothed out later, or can just be written off as the galaxy being just that big and individuals not having the same info as the audience. Overall it is the most well received addition to Star Wars since ''Jedi''. With the show actually understanding why and how certain reveals should work, ie. not making there be anything special to us (the audience) about the Mandalorian's face/name, it is special because of his code not because he has laser eyes or something.

==Wookieepedia==
One of the largest fan wikis ever created, this bad boy is extensively cited, has enormous variety, and has page upon page of talk. It was if Lexicanum, the 40k fan wiki, and our own glorious site were fused into a terrible beast.

==Impact on 1d4chan and associated games etc==

Star Wars has had subtle and clear impacts on a number of other franchises and genres and it can be ''incredibly'' hard to gauge the extent of it all. Certainly it didn't create the concepts of sci-fi, space battles, sweeping storylines, and a blending of mystical and scientific ideas, but it certainly popularized them during the years of the original trilogy and influenced many people that would go on to have interests in sci-fi, fantasy and epic adventure today.

Hell, look me in the eye and tell me that the lightsaber didn't give us the [[power weapon]]. But then again, magic weapons.
==Sabacc and Pazaak==
A rather unusual entry here but it's well in line, Sabacc is an actual tabletop card game from the Star Wars universe which is basically a hybrid of Poker and Blackjack. A Sabacc Deck has 76 cards, most of which in four suits of 16 cards numbered one to 16, plus sixteen wildcards in two sets with values that were either negative or (in the case of the Idiot) Zero. The goal of the game is to have a set of three cards who's total as close as possible to, but not over, 23 or -23. If you got 23/-23 (Pure Sabacc) which could only be beaten by an Idiot's Array (One Idiot, a two and a three, thus 23). The stakes are raised every cycle until the cards go down or one player is left standing who gets the pot.

The notable thing about Sabacc that sets it apart from real world card games is that the Cards can change value every turn. A Pure Sabacc can easily become an instant lose 25 and an absolutely lousy hand can become an Idiot's Array. They can be stabilized to fix their value, but everyone knows when you do so. This feature has so far prevented Sabacc from being released in tabletop form as of yet. ''(Of course, there are ways to deal with this, such as simply re-dealing unfixed cards, but never let it be said that nerds will choose practicality over purity.)''

In universe, Han Solo won the Millenium Falcon off Lando in a game of Sabacc.

Pazaak is an older game from an in-universe perspective, similar to Blackjack but its player versus player rather than player versus dealer and also has some aspects of a collectible card game. Goal of the game is to raise cards from the main deck until their total value is 20 or they can also choose to stand if they get close but don't want to risk it. Best out of five wins.

CCG-aspect of Pazaak comes from the sidedeck: both players collect ten cards for their side deck and then randomly take four cards from their side deck to their hand in the beginning of the game. Hand cards are used to either lower or raise the total value: so if the player raises cards from the main deck to the total value of 25, they can prevent dropping out if they have a -5 card or higher in their hand.
Cards which only either raise or lower the value are the most common of the side cards.
More rarer are cards which can be used to both raise and lower the value.
Then there are flip cards, which change certain main deck cards on the table to negative ones. So if the player plays a 2&4 flip card, all 2:s and 4:s on the table become -2:s and -4:s. Flip cards exist in 2&4:s and 3&6:s.
Then there is the double card, which doubles the value of the last played card. So if the player raises a 5 from the main deck, playing the double card would turn it into a 10.
Finally, the rarest side deck card is the tiebreaker, which grants the player a win if the game would otherwise end in a tie.

==Tabletop games for Star Wars==

=== Role-playing Games ===

[[West End Games]] made a Star Wars [[role-playing game]] called [[Star Wars RPG|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game]] AKA '''Star Wars D6'''. Like many West End products, it's a good game with the great misfortune of being published by West End games.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] picked up the license later and made two distinct RPGs based on their [[d20 System]], called [[Star Wars D20]] (imaginatively). Could be fun, but generally broken as hell, much like [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|its parent game]]. It was then utterly revised that into what they called the '''Saga Edition''', which is relatively balanced and pretty good.

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars Roleplaying Game|a whole line of Star Wars-themed RPGs]], each one focusing on a specific style of play. You want to play a bunch of scruffy space outlaws (Edge of the Empire), members of the nascent Rebellion (Age of Rebellion), or exiled Jedi Knights (Force and Dedtiny), then they got you covered. Unlike their [[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]] games, which are all ''juuuuust'' different enough from one another to completely buttfuck any attempts at blending, all three gamelines use identical mechanics and are fully cross-compatible. Uses symbol-counting [[dice pool]]s with ludicrously overpriced custom dice.
Like the other RPGs they decided with the retardedly similar name, and thus this one is sometimes called '''Star Wars FFG''' to avoid confusion.

FFG have kept milking the franchise and in summer 2017, decided to [[Necromancer | reanimate]] the [[Star Wars RPG|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game]] with a "30th Year Anniversary Edition" print of the original game. It '''''finally''''' shipped in July 2018 after spending a year in limbo.

=== Card Games ===

The big [[card game]] set in the Star Wars universe is the [[Star Wars Customizable Card Game]]. It's no longer produced by Decipher, but there is still a sufficiently large player community to organize annual tournaments, rule on cards, and so on. SWCCG was radically different from the norm of card games, being divided into light and dark side cards with different backings, with light and dark always playing against each other. For tournament play a player would need both a light and dark deck.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] made the [[Star Wars Trading Card Game]].

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars: The Card Game]].

Obviously, nobody is capable of creating a Star Wars card game with an interesting name.

Aside from the real, physical, games there was also ''Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game''. It was a real, functioning, card game within the MMO that used all virtual cards. Unfortunately no server emulators have implemented it yet.

=== Miniature Games ===
[[Wizards of the Coast]] did a tabletop battles game imaginatively called Star Wars: Miniatures, based on an extremely dumbed down version of the D&D ruleset. The figures were meant to tie in with the Saga edition RPG, it wasn't terrible on its own, just impossible to collect for competitive play since figures came in random booster packs so you never know what you were getting for what faction. Who could possibly stand for that?

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is producing the [[X-Wing]] miniatures game based on individual starfighter combat (because, let's be honest, that's what ''Star'' Wars is all about). They have also released [[Star Wars: Armada]] which is a larger scale "fleet" combat simulator, using capital ships and squadrons of starfighters.

'''Star Wars: Imperial Assault'''

The latest [[Fantasy Flight Games]] addition to its Star Wars related games is a mix between a miniature board game and a skirmish wargame. It has two play modes:

One for campaign play where 1-4 players control a team of Rebel heroes and another player has the role of the DM, who controls the Imperial forces. The campaign, as the name suggests, focuses on character personalization, xp gain and the like, which you can find in any light RPG-esque (board)game. The main goal is to get a few friends together and casually play through the missions. Think of it as a Star Wars version of the original [[Hero Quest]].

The other play mode is skirmish play, where two players each get to assemble a team of miniatures plus a command deck (cards that have specific effects when played) and play against each other in an open-play scenario. The play area is still very limited to a few game tiles (as in a campaign mission) but players are free to bring whatever they want (with a few limitations of course). The skirmish part of Imperial assault is as close as you can get to an actual Star Wars skirmish wargame, but it is a missed opportunity from Fantasy Flight to create a true skirmish wargame (ala [[Infinity (wargame)|Infinity]]), not based on tiles and so confined spaces. Who knows what they have plans for though...

'''Star Wars Legion'''

And Fantasy Flight have now given us a fully fledged wargame, complete with AT-ST in the first wave. (They're 32mm scale, which means [[Games Workshop|no reusing your Imperial Assault miniatures]].) Legion has an integrated turn system, and the usual FF custom dice and forest worth of dead trees in cards and tokens that will be familiar to X-Wing and Armada players. The miniatures are PVC, reasonably detailed, easy to assemble pieces. A standard battle is 800 points, which could be anywhere from half a dozen to 16 units on the field, with an average army fielding 8-12 units comprising 30-ish models.

=== Board Games ===

The most famous and arguably best one is [[Star Wars: Rebellion]], an asymmetric two-player game that plays through the Original Trilogy in a wargame/worker placement-esque game. The Empire player must expand their already huge military base over the galaxy to build more ships and huge superweapons while searching for the Rebel Base, while the Rebels do their best to bite them in their heel, obscuring their movements and annoying the Empire until they have enough support to overthrow the Empire. As a [[Fantasy Flight Games|FFG]] boardgame, it's filled with a ludicrous amount of bits and pieces (including sweet models of Star Destroyers, Death Stars and Calamari Cruisers), as well as the trademark filled-with-small-exceptions ruleset. It's pretty sweet and still considered one of the best board games of its kind.

=== Card Miniature Games ===

In the late 00's, WizKids produced a short lived construct-able miniatures Star Wars game based on their styrene card system for Pirates of the Spanish Main. Although the game sold well, when NECA bought WizKids from Topps the rights did not transfer and it went out of print.

==Video Games for Star Wars==

To put it bluntly, every game which could possibly have ''Star Wars'' slapped onto it, exists. Flight simulators. Racers. Rail shooters. Doom clones. MMOs. Age of Empires reskins. Hell, there's even a Kinect variety game. Here's a few standouts...

* '''Knights of the Old Republic''': A pair of single player RPGs depicting a Sith war several thousand years before ''A New Hope''. KotOR is widely regarded as the best Star Wars video game ever, and was the framework for BioWare's ''Mass Effect'' series. Of all the Legends stuff, KotOR appears to still be in good standing with Disney since they continue to borrow from it. The sequel by Obsidian was the original skubtastic take on the franchise TLJ wanted to be but failed miserably. Got an MMO simply called "Old Republic" (since you can play as things other than Jedi and Sith) that is the sequel, which had a very rough start but stabilized enough to still survive to this day somehow). Possibly still canon in the Disney continuity since a lot of things get borrowed or referenced from it. Also the only thing in the EU to still receive new content.

* '''Jedi Knight:''' A series that started of as an early FPS named Dark Forces (so early that it was the time when FPS games were still known as [[Doom]]-clones) but Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight had the protagonist become a Jedi. The Dark Forces name was dropped in favor of Jedi Knight after this. The series combines surprisingly deep lightsaber combat with standard shooting, though the levels can get very mazy at times. Introduced Kyle Katarn, one of the most popular characters from EU. Unfortunately, there has not been a new game since 2003's ''Jedi Academy'' and likely will never be thanks to Disney.

* '''Republic Commando''': An FPS that has the player command a squad of commandos. Its a great shooter but unfortunately, it never received a sequel and to make things worse, ended on a cliffhanger. The second act of the game, set entirely on a drifting Acclamator-class assault ship is particularly memorable and highly atmospheric. If one can look past outdated graphics, its worth trying out for anyone who wants a good FPS experience.

* '''Empire at War''': Made by the original developers of [[Command and Conquer]], it is the most notable strategy game to have come out of Star Wars. Notable for featuring three different modes of play: ground battles, space battles and galactic conquest map. Though ground battles are a bit meh, the space battles are great and the galactic conquest is certainly more interesting than only playing random skirmish matches. Even though its over 10 years old, it has a very active modding community. Republic at War, which changes the games Galactic Civil War setting to Clone Wars and Thrawns Revenge, set much further into the Galactic Civil War than portrayed in the films, are particularly great. There is also a remake mod in the works, aiming to bring the game up to modern standards in terms of visuals, sound and UI and the results do look good. Unfortunately, no great 40k mod.

* '''Star Wars Galaxies''': An early MMO, launched after ''Everquest'' but before ''WoW''. Galaxies is noteworthy for making force powers a prestige achievement requiring enormous in-game effort to unlock. The first expansion pack added a subgame that's a pretty solid flight game in its own right and the game eventually added an original, fully playable, trading card game that sadly has not yet been implemented in any simulator. Then ''World of Warcraft'' hit, Sony panicked and made Jedi a starting class and replaced the skill system with massive level grind, and offered refunds to the raging army of neckbeards. Subscription numbers tanked and never recovered. It would effectively be replaced by ''The Old Republic'', an MMO using the acclaimed KotOR setting. Like most "dead" MMOs that people loved it still lives on through illegal private servers (don't worry, the guys providing it would get busted, not people playing on it).

* '''X-Wing (and TIE Fighter)''': A series of ''Wing Commander'' clones released in the 90's. While badly dated today, they were the best fighter sims of their time, and if you can get past the highly primitive graphics some people still consider them to be the best to this day. Interestingly, TIE Fighter is largely seen as the best of the series while the N64 era Rogue Squadron and Shadows Of The Empire games are seen as being far more visually modern but largely inferior sequels. Did we mention you had to use a flight stick controller basically made for these games to really do well at these?

* '''Star Wars Battlefront II (2005)''': Not to be confused with the one released by EA in 2017. Solid game from the new-defunct Pandemic studio (fuck you, EA) in 2005 told from the perspective of a clone trooper that survived all the way up to the battle of Hoth, with a very down to earth boots on the ground approach. Also, just being thrown into random matches as a soldier because fun. Despite some issues, it remains the high point of the Battlefront series as well as the entire PS2 era, and on PC still has fans via an active modding community to this day. There is of course also the original one but the second one pretty much completely overshadowed it.

* '''Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)''': The one by EA. You've probably heard everything important. An absolute mess at launch due to its lootbox-heavy progression system, so much so that it started discussion even on government level about lootboxes that continues to this day. A comment by EA that became the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. Yet despite all this, two years later, the game is arguably one of the best Star Wars experiences one can have and an Anakin-level redemption story. Like the previous Battlefront II, it completely overshadowed its predecessor.

* '''Jedi: Fallen Order''': It took them years but finally, EA managed to deliver a Star Wars game that is great on launch without cramming it with e-transactions. Its plot focuses on an unfortunate Jedi renegade between ''Revenge'' and ''A New Hope'' who's on the hunt for a hidden database that might document all the Force-sensitive individuals in the galaxy. A game inspired primarily by games such as Dark Souls and Uncharted, its a great action-adventure game in its own right and a must-play for any Star Wars fan.

* '''Monopoly Star Wars''': Its Star Wars Monopoly. With 90's FMV that plays for every square you land on. On floppy disks. Considered fucking amazing at the time, its too strange and tabletop to not mention. Also one of the last pre-Prequel things released.

* '''Super Star Wars''': A heavily modified retelling of the original trilogy (what, you don't remember how Luke chased down the Sandcrawler and murdered all the Jawas as well as their giant rat god in order to rescue R2-D2?) that was one of the ways to say "hard as fuck" by namedropping a game prior to Dark Souls existing. Amusing for the insanity of the added content in order to make a platformer sidescrolling beat'em'up as well as how neckbeardy you have to be to punish yourself trying to beat it without cheating. Sequels were made for Empire and Jedi, which slightly dialed back the difficulty.

* '''Star Wars: Yoda Stories''': A game geared for kids, released the same year as Monopoly above. Players play as Luke sometime after Empire Strikes Back, although an odd alternate version where Han sometimes is free from carbonite and Boba Fett and sometimes is not. They are assigned a quest by Yoda which requires them to traverse one or more procedurally generated planets doing whatever odd crap Yoda felt was necessary, including sometimes fighting Vader. Recieved middling scores as a PC release, with some individuals HATING the game and using it as a benchmark for how much they hate something when comparing the two, although to be fair that is because distributors tried to sell it like a full game when in reality its supposed to just be freebie software that came with other purchases and was meant to go with Solitaire and space pinball as default games on a computer to waste time with. It has lapsed into obscurity thanks to even those reviewers largely being forgotten on the modern internet. Noteworthy for being played on a grid with simultaneous turn-based movement with all enemies and NPCs on a screen, feeling very much like a tabletop game at times. A simple puzzle game, where getting blocked in a corner without enough space to pass the time by an idiot NPC is more dangerous than any foe.

*'''Shadows of the Empire''': Made on the Nintendo 64 and Windows PC, you play as Dash Rendar, a scoundrel in a ship like Han Solo working for the Rebellion. Takes place during Episode V as a side story. Despite being much beloved by fans for years and years, it's sadly not aged well thanks to the rather peculiar control scheme of the N64 and the graphics not having aged like cheap cheese in the sun. Main enemy of the game is a xeno named Xisor who is just a real uppity crime boss (and apparently a prince). This game has an absolute great opening first part where you're flying in a Snowspeeder on Hoth killing Imperials left and right while trying to use the cables to crash the AT-ATs like in the movie. After that the game begins to kinda just carry on with awkward controls.

==Assorted list of Awesome From Star Wars==
* Fucking ''[[Lightsaber|Lightsabers!]]''
* The fucking [[Approved music|OST]]
* What is likely the greatest duel in cinematic history, that takes place on a [[Death World|lava planet.]]
* Deathly Stormtroopers, heroic Clonetroopers or sinister First Order troopers; whatever they're called, stormtroopers are awesome!
* Darth Vader whenever he gets a speaking line or to murder rebel scum - that is to say, all the time.
* Darth Maul in both The Phantom Menace and TCW.
* Lightsaber Rifles
* The entirety of the Umbara campaign, where <s>Imperial Guardsmen</s> Clone Troopers die in the dozens attempting to win some godforsaken planet, earning them balls of titanium that make the guard look ba- {{BLAM| '''*BLAM*''' Heresy!}}
* 97% of the Creatures.
* 98% of the Starfighter designs.
* Costumes that mix about every possible inspiration, Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, Ancient Greece and Rome, Elizabethan, Moebius or Pulp Sci-Fi from the 60's, giving the whole series a distinctive style and gives Padme Amidala an excuse to show off with all her dresses.
* Boba and Jango Fett and the rest of the Mandalorians.
* KOTOR (both games) plot making you think this shit is actually logical and has so much philosophical background. One of the creepiest depictions of the Universe. Everything is brutal, with big vibrating knives, blood, those machines for Sith snuff movies, more blood, bastards, badass bastards and so on. Everything while somebody is talking with you about existence.
* Our saviour Lord Revan. He's like if [[Horus|fucking Horus]] just became [[Big Bad Evil Guy|fucking bad]] (but not that [[Erebus|bad]]) to fucking destroy the [[Chaos Gods|Dark Gods]] so he can solve his daddy issues.
**but he's more virile, deadly, powerful, charismatic and cool.
* Lightsabers.
* Obi-Wan Kenobi.
* The High Ground.
* TIE fighters. They have the most distinctive scream of any fighter in cinematic history that just yells "I'm evil!". Tell me I'm wrong. I'll wait.
** The fact that they managed to do that using what is essentially a shitty visual pun.
* Most of Episode 3.
* The entirety of Anakin's story, especially when you add the Clone Wars and prequels. While you're at it, watch CinemaWins' perspective on it the series.
* Admiral Ackbar the Memeable!
* Palpatine getting into some Tzeentchian-level scheming and backstabbing in order to overthrow the Jedi and the Republic.
* Grand Admiral Thrawn: So awesome that he rose to a high rank in the anthropocentric Empire despite being an alien and was one of the first (and rare few) things to be imported straight from Legends to Disney.
* Imperial Pilots get a mention, seeing as they fly literal garbage fighters against superior rebel fighters. By garbage, we mean that even the Imperium have better fighter designs than these guys. At least Imperial fighters conserve the life of the fucking pilot.
* Obi-Wan Kenobi again.
* Princess, later Senator Leia Organa; the original badass-yet-hot boss lady in space. Ends up leading two separate, successful underground freedom movements against impossible odds. Did we mention she's a Jedi in both canons?
* Han Solo, who is so badass that hot Leia falls in love. He has the smuggler's best friend, a Wookie, who is also the worst opponent you can face in a [[Chess|Dejarik match]].
* Just... Star Destroyers. When you see a huge, imposing warship from an evil Empire, this is the granddaddy they all look up to.
* Oh, did we mention the lightsabers ?

== See Also: ==
* ''[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/ Darths & Droids]'': A webcomic, made using photo-stills of the ''Star Wars'' movies to tell a story about gamers blundering through each of the six movies in sequence... though not quite exactly how you might expect. Think ''DM of the Rings'' in overall visual style, though unlike ''DM of the Rings'', ''Darths & Droids'' features several heavy twists on the actual events of the films, subplots about the players and their lives outside the game alongside the campaign, and a better overall quality of gamer.
* "[http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html/ Endor Holocaust]": An excellent example of the [[skub]] Star Wars can create. Rebuttal: "[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/fanart/endortruth20040810.pdf Endor Rebuttal]"
*[[Timothy Zahn]]
*[[Star Wars:The Clone Wars]]
*[[Star Wars:Rebels]]
*[[Star Wars:Resistance]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

Star Wars

2020-05-07T07:10:25Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker (aka Plan Palpa-Nine from Outer Space) */

{{Star Wars}}
[[File:Star-Wars-Logo (1).jpg|center|500px|]]

{{Topquote|A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....|Star Wars opening text}}
'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D0ZQPqeJkk/ Star Wars]''' is one of, if not ''the'', most influential media franchises of modern times, let alone its effect on science-fiction and fantasy. Indeed, among [[/tg/|nerddom]], it is challenged by only a few others, like [[Star Trek]] and [[The Lord of the Rings]].

The incredibly ardent fandom is spread worldwide and has a strong presence in popular culture. Many of the characters, like Darth Vader and Yoda, are iconic even to the general public. John Williams' score for the original trilogy is probably the best-known film score of all time. The universe has spawned numerous video games, hundreds of novels, multiple TV shows, one of the largest merchandising franchises ever, and, relevant to /tg/, a whole bunch of board, card, and roleplaying games.

It is also the current leading world source of [[Skub]].

==The Basic Concept==
Star Wars was originally a series of epic science-fantasy "space operas" that roughly followed the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. They're set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," [Note: this makes the entire series a fairy tale] where a mysterious life force called (reasonably enough) the Force permeates everything. This, in turn, can be wielded by certain people, giving them pseudo-magical abilities; thank the Emperor ([[Emperor|no, the other one]]) there were no Commissars in that universe. Those who use it for good become mystical, selfless warrior monks called Jedi, whereas those who use it for evil are ruthless, self-serving bastards called Sith. However, the Force must always be in balance, so any time the Sith arise to cause imbalance, the Jedi have to pull together and take them out to restore the natural order.

The so-called Original Trilogy (made up of films IV through VI, released from 1977 to 1983) followed a young man named Luke Skywalker who becomes a Jedi and re-balances the Force. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance is fighting to end the oppressive Galactic Empire, which is secretly led by the Sith. Luke and his Rebel companions eventually defeat the evil Emperor Palpatine, but along the way they discover that his lieutenant, Darth Vader, is actually Luke's father. A financial, critical, popular and cultural H-bomb, these movies are basically the filter through which Generation X perceives the world... for better or worse.

The so-called Prequel Trilogy (made up of films I through III, released from 1999 to 2005) explained how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and how the Galactic Empire was established. This involves a lot of convoluted politicking in the Republic, which is then torn apart in the Clone Wars, where the Republic (with an army of clones led by the Jedi) fights against the Confederacy (with an army of robots led by [[Necrons|General Grievous]] and secretly controlled by the Sith). It was not as well received as the first trilogy, for reasons we'll talk about below.

There's also a so-called Sequel Trilogy (made up of film VII and presumably films VIII and IX), which started in 2015 and picked up the story some three decades after the Emperor's defeat with a new generation of heroes taking on the remains of the evil Empire, which is a group of extremist former Imperials calling themselves the First Order. However, Episode VII aka ''The Force Awakens'', was directed by J.J. Abrams, who's mostly known for the [[skub|skubtastic]] [[Star Trek]] reboot, while Episode VIII was written and directed by Ryan Johnson who was a young director known for plot twists and genre experimentation on a handful of movies and television episodes that openly said he wanted to "subvert expectations" and make half of viewers dislike his work, then got pissed when half of them disliked his work. The result managed to fracture the Star Wars fanbase over issues of dull rehashing for VII and a whole laundry list of reasons for VIII (ranging from small ones such as it being too different, to major issues like half the movie being filler), as well as those who still enjoyed them and very little common ground between the three groups.

Finally, there are the so-called Anthology movies, standalone one-shots involving characters and plotlines that aren't a part of the main "Saga" films, except they kind of are. The first, Rogue One (2016), is an immediate prequel to Episode IV that follows those Rebel spies who stole the Death Star plans. The second film follows a young Han Solo and pals Chewie and Lando. A third rumored one follows Boba Fett.

There are also three separate TV series. The first one, ''Clone Wars'', was based on traditional animation, whereas the later one, '''''The''' Clone Wars'', was a weird 3D animation. They're both pretty good. There was also a terrible theatrical release that was basically just an advertisement for ''The Clone Wars'', but, since it's even worse than the Prequel Trilogy (hint: babysitting Jabba the Hutt's kid), nobody talks about it much. The third series is Disney's ''"Rebels"'' which is set between Episodes III-IV and it takes itself far less seriously than Clone Wars did, and is more of a homage to the original trilogy since not every character in the series is the owner of a lightsaber nor are they constantly talking about grown-up politics, senators and trade embargoes... pretty much the things that clogged up the plot of the prequel trilogy.

And then there's the whole Expanded Universe, which covers pretty much everything not covered by the films, like the Old Republic (set thousands of years before the prequel trilogy, when there were a hell of a lot more Sith and Jedi around) and the New Republic (set immediately after the original trilogy, explaining what became of all the characters. It could also reach 40k levels of grimdark with races like the [[Dark Eldar|Yuuzhan]] [[Tyranids|Vong]] characters like [[Vampire|Darth Nihilus]] and beings like [[Old Ones|Abeloth]].

The EU is no longer considered in the main canon of the films and TV series, due to the new sequel trilogy which does not follow EU, the reason for this being, according to Disney, that following EU would restrict their creative freedom. The reaction to this was, well, [[skub|mixed, for lack of a better word.]] They've since noted that they'll slot ''some'' of it in on a case-by-case basis, but the canon is in a highly fluid state at the moment. EU is now officially called Star Wars Legends, though most fans still refer to it as EU.

==Why is it so popular?==

Star Wars is as accessible as science fiction gets. It doesn't require extensive knowledge of a fictional world (a la ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' or ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'') or cultural background (as ''[[Star Trek]]'' sometimes does) to make sense. Those elements are present for those who want them, but they largely stay in the (very rich and vibrant) background. It has well-shot action and good ''enough'' dialogue to make it interesting for both kids and adults (as well as allowing parents who grew up with it to watch it with their children, thereby hooking the next generation of viewers). It has simple, good-vs.-evil themes that resonate with almost anyone, anywhere, at any time. The science fiction elements are generally handled well if you don't obsess over making science fiction realistic and hard. It's a prime gateway drug for sci-fi which still holds up to the experienced eye, [[Isaac Asimov]] saw and rather enjoyed the films. All in Fourteen hours of cinema, plus optional sides for those who want it.

There's a ton of merchandise that is, of course, really cool. Also, given it's crossed over into the mainstream, many people feel comfortable being part of the community without feeling judged as "nerds" (as they might with ''Lord of the Rings'', ''D&D'', ''Star Trek'', ''Warhammer'', etc.).

Again, they roughly follow the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. If you think about it, 6 of the 9 films can be summarized as: hero begins his journey under the tutelage of a wise (more or less) man, they encounter a threat which has captured/enslaved a princess/girl, who was in one way or another connected to an important secret (usually a superweapon but could be the identity of a political figure or the location of someone); the heroes save the princess/girl but someone dies tragically in a battle against the villain while someone else is blowing up a space station or a spaceship afterwards they are happy, they celebrate and mourn the loss of the poor bloke who died.

Additionally, the first film can be summarized as a samurai and a gunslinger team up to save a princess from Nazis in space. That is multiple cinematic genres at once, following the style of the epic myth.

==Setting==
Due to article bloat, [[Star Wars Setting]] is now its own page.

==The rise of the original trilogy==

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away....etc etc you all know the lines.

A man called George Lucas had the idea to create a series of epic sci-fi space operas that would become so successful that Disney would take notice and give it the franchise fluttering eye lashes, trying to seduce it.

They would be called... ''Flash Gordon''.

Unfortunately for Georgie boy, and fortunately for modern nerddom, Dino de Laurentiis already owned ''Flash Gordon'', and were busy making their own, hilariously eighties version, so he said, screw it, I'll make my own!

He decided to start with the fourth movie in the series he envisioned, for at the time he didn't have the special effects to create the first three to the standard he wanted, and/or he just kinda made up the first movie as he went along (drawing heavily on Akira Kurosawa's seminal samurai action film, ''Hidden Fortress'' in the process as well as the book [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces''], a complex 1949 Joseph Campbell analysis of the various mythologies of human history all boiled down into the basic archtypes and elements required in heroic myth). So Episode Four ''A New Hope'' was created (simply titled ''Star Wars'' at the time) and it is not an exaggeration to say it changed the face of sci-fi and general moviemaking forever, bringing a new era of special effects and imagination to cinema and changing the lives of many who would go onto to become dedicated fan boys.

Originally, the studio had forced Lucas to take ever-increasing paycuts for what they were sure was going to be a flop, and only let him keep merchandising rights. However, whatever his flaws, George Lucas was a man of vision. Having helped pioneer the summer blockbuster, he went on to do the same to ginormous piles of movie-tie-in memorabilia. His production company, Lucasfilm ended up rolling in dosh, and with Episode Five ''The Empire Strikes Back'' and Episode Six ''The Return of the Jedi'', the legend of Star Wars and its place in cultural history was assured.

tl;dr: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij4w7ChpuaM Pretty much this.]

==The coming of the prequel trilogy==
With the year 2000 coming, George Lucas felt that special effects technology had reached the level he wanted and began to create the first three movies in the star wars story he had envisioned. (As a side-note, he also made some touch-ups to the three original films, re-mastering them with special effects and a couple of extra scenes that weren't doable with the eighties' animatronics. But those were mostly accepted/shrugged away since they didn't deeply modify anything.)

The hype for the movies was immense.

And then the first movie, Episode One ''The Phantom Menace'' came out.....and there was nerd rage beyond expectation.

Part of the problem was that the immense expectations of the fandom had grown until anything less-than-perfect simply would not do, so perhaps that is somewhat to blame for the reaction to the prequel trilogy. In a vacuum one has to admit that they aren't completely ''[[Twilight|terrible films]]'' .

Episode Two ''Attack of the Clones'' and Episode Three ''Revenge of the Sith'' followed after a few years each and didn't garner nearly as much hatred, though fans complained they didn't match the greatness of the original trilogy, more concerned with flashy action and effects than competent story-telling; but hooo-boy did it deliver in flashy action, with laser armed [[MI-24 Hind|MI-24's]] full of <s>storm</s>troopers extracting jedi from a coliseum full of shooty killbots.

''Revenge of the Sith'' did, however, receive higher ratings than ''Return of the Jedi'', and is generally seen as the best and most-complete of the three prequel films as a story. Unusually the novelization alters some details and is considered a legitimately good book on its own merits.

What was generally more well received (despite a rocky start with a two hour pilot being pressed into service as a movie and an art style that took some time to gel) during this time for Star Wars was the Clone Wars animated series (both the traditionally-animated ''Clone Wars'' and the later seasons of the CGI show '''''The''' Clone Wars'', the latter which most everyone agrees is what the prequels should have been), following the war between the Republic and the Confederacy that sprung up during the time between the second and third of the prequels.

It'd be ''really'' hard to find a group of movies more skubtastic than the prequel trilogy, and saying a good or bad thing about it in front of the wrong crowd's sure to provoke huge amounts of nerdrage. In defense of the prequel trilogy's sins, they did at least do their own thing. Because of how much money the original trilogy made, practically every form of media in the 80s and 90s aped it to some form or another, and instead of falling back on the same old shit the prequels branched out and tried to get out of the franchise's comfort zone a bit. While a lot of it sucked, it blazed a trail for better writers to follow and helped liven up the universe by showing us the galaxy beyond fuckhueg spaceships and faux-Western shitholes like Tatooine. And all but the most [[Neckbeard|diehard OT purists]] can get behind shit like Naboo architecture, the Clone Army and Mace "The Ace" Windu. From a story perspective the worst sin of the prequels was demystifying the force, and subsequent works have largely swept that detail under the carpet.

==Disney and the sequel trilogy==

Finally, all the efforts by Disney to woo George Lucas paid off and in 2012 Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise for 4 billion dollars and immediately announced they would produce a new trilogy of films set after the original trilogy.

Expectations were almost as high as the private fears of the fans. Bringing on the creative talent behind the [[skub|skubtastic]] ''[[Star Trek]]'' reboot was equally... well, [[skub|take a wild guess]]. The end result saw millions of voices cry out in terror, and were suddenly subsumed into hitherto unseen levels of [[Skub]].

For sake of sanity, these section have been condensed. Read at your own peril.
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===Episode 7: The Mouse Awakens===
''Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens'' debuted in December of 2015, and reception was what you would expect: the film was immediately a massive success from a monetary standpoint as everyone ([[China|almost]]) everywhere rushed to the theaters in response to the hype, with children engaging in as many repeat viewings as their parent's money could allow as fans did the same thing with their own. It has become a financial hit with the general public and a (critically) generally well-reviewed piece, with decent cinematography, special effects, technical stuff, etc. It also went on to become the third biggest financial success in film history (at the time), when not adjusted for inflation.
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Fan response was a good deal more mixed. Many criticize the plot for rehashing Episode IV, without doing anything to establish its own identity and claim that it had a bland main character, [[Mary Sue|who had too many abilities]] whereas others find the replication of ''Star Wars'' feel an acceptable trade and praise it for being a decent action film, [[skub|and claim the lead doesn't outdo any of the previous main characters]].

Some would argue that by rehashing the original trilogy it basically nullified the accomplishments of the original crew; the Empire's still around, they've got yet another superweapon, Han & Leia split up, Luke failed to rebuild the Jedi, etc. Other fans praised it simply for being a new Star Wars that was better than the prequel trilogy (expectations were lowered due to those, to be honest). Some see poor storytelling when there was no proper showing of what went on in the galaxy 3 decades since Palpatine died, and not explaining what caused big character changes like why Han returned to his old ways or Luke ran from his friends was critical. Other say this is going to be explained in the next film and people should keep their curiosity. Some argue even with their superweapon, none of the villains feel threatening. Others argue the incompetence of the main villain is a fresh change and the point of the plot will be to see him change, to be more competent, or even learn to become good.

Overall, those against argued JJ Abrams' mystery box approach may do well for a TV series but does not mesh with films that take years to make. Defendants held the position that fans should wait to see whether the next film will do anything with the unexplained plot points.

Coincidentally, when Hamill and Fisher were originally approached by Disney to reprise their roles as Luke and Leia, they ''didn't want to do it'' right from the start. But, they didn't want to give an out-and-out "no" answer either, so they told Disney they'd return if Harrison Ford agreed to return as Han Solo as well. Knowing how much Ford ''hated'' Solo, Hamill and Fisher figured they were safe, until Disney irresistibly sweetened the deal for Ford by agreeing to kill off his character, thus forcing a reluctant Hamill and Fisher to make good on their deal... [[skub|only for the three characters to never appear on the screen at the same time.]] To be fair, Hamill has a history of saying he won’t do something only to immediately agree like he’s making a standard sitcom gag in real life, even if that usually just applies to still voicing the Joker in Batman media.
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===Star Wars Rebels===
Disney also released their own CGI series: ''Star Wars: Rebels'', which is actually pretty ok (considering that it airs on Disney XD, it should be no surprise that they've toned down the graphic depictions of gratuitous violence, much to the chagrin of [[Neckbeards|those who love overly gory deaths]]). It focuses less on the Jedi that have come to dominate the franchise and more on the "boots on the ground" experience of the average characters, and while the show started slow and small, the plot gained momentum as the series progressed, especially after the first season.
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The Rebel movement starts to grow, several characters return from ''The Clone Wars'', and the enemies the main characters have to face steadily get darker and more dangerous as more of the Empire’s attention gets attracted. When Darth Vader gets involved (played by none other than [[Awesome|James Earl Jones himself]]) he immediately proceeds to [[Awesome|open a 24-pack of unstoppable whoop-ass on the rebel scum]]. The return of Maul resulted in three character deaths (possibly four), the crippling of one main character with another well on his way down the dark side, and to top it all off Maul himself was on the loose once again. Things did not turn out so well [[Grimdark|last time that happened]], so expect the body count to rise, especially with [[Creed|Grand Admiral Thrawn]] now also coming onto the scene. The show also continues the trend set by ''The Clone Wars'' in making the Force mystical again, though whether this is a good or bad thing depends on how you felt about the <s>bullshit</s> <s>scientific</s> [[Skub|skubtastic]] midichlorian explanation of the Prequels. The animation is on point with ''The Clone Wars'', which considering it's Disney should surprise less than nobody. Oh, and Steve Blum voices one of the main characters. However, it is also noted that Star Wars Rebels may indeed have [[Grimdark|dark ending]]. Which, to a degree, it did. An important character dies, and his padawan flees into the unknown regions, leaving us with two other characters to go look for him after the second Death Star blows up.

[[Skub|The way that Filoni (the creator of Rebels and The Clone Wars) has handled the Mandalorians, a fan-favorite warrior-culture based upon the Scots and Vikings, has either been met with praise from those who despised Traviss and her overpowering of said culture, or utter RAGE that he turned many of them into either pacifist morons or bloodthirsty barbarians- usually that particular criticism comes from the Traviss fanboys]]. Do take note, however, that the old ways for the Mandalorians are making their way back into canon, such as the language, the emphasis on martial honor, and the decentralized nature of their government.
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===Star Wars: Rogue One===
December of 2016 brought us the first standalone Star Wars movie, "Rogue One", showing the theft of the original Death Star plans.
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While "Rogue One" can be justly criticized for lacking in character development, that was basically mandated by being set just before another movie whose actors were now 40 years too old to reprise their previous roles. The cast of the movie includes almost no one who appears in Episode IV, and the few familiar faces who do appear show up as cameos. (Fair warning: spoilers)

Accordingly, every main character dies by the end. It still manages to pack quite a lot of [[awesome]] into the movie, with Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk and Darth Vader all used to great effect. Rogue One also answers several questions, plugs several plot holes, and just generally makes A New Hope make a lot more sense in retrospect. (No wonder Vader wasn't impressed when Leia claimed to be on a "diplomatic mission.") It also has the distinctions of being the only Star Wars movie to focus on regular soldiers instead of Jedi, and being more like the original Star Wars than any of the sequels, including the other two of the main trilogy. (The original, back before it was "A New Hope", was a genre mashup of samurai + gunslinger rescue princess from space Nazis, then team up for a World War II dogfight. This one is wuxia cast + heist crew do a heist in a WWII trench warfare war zone. There's surprisingly little 'War' in Star Wars.) Much, much [[Skub]] still exists of course, since no Star Wars movie will ever please all the neckbeards but out of the five post-Disney Star Wars movies released so far, this one is definitely the least divisive and arguably the best of the bunch.
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===Episode 8: The Last Royalty Check (aka zomg Luke dies!)===
On December 14 2017, ''Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi'' was released world wide. The critical reception was [[Bullshit|extremely positive]], with many critics considering it the best movie in the series since The Empire Strikes Back. The fan reception has been a great deal more negative and [[Skub|mixed]], and a number of fans are convinced that Disney leaned on media outlets to shill the new movie or else. If you have watched the Empire Strikes Back, you ''WILL'' be [[Rage|disappointed at best]], if you want to see a Star Wars film that would finally expand the characters of Kylo Ren and Rey, you ''WILL'' be satisfied and disappointed at the same time, if you want to watch the film because it is the last film starring the great and wonderful Carrie Fisher, you ''WILL'' feel hollow and sad inside, and if you came to see a pair of lightsaber-wielding punks involved in one of the greatest lightsaber battles of the franchise, you ''WILL'' be pleased. The Last Jedi is seen as one of the most divisive films in the franchise by the fandom, [[FAIL|which is one hell of an achievement]] considering other films.
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The complaints about The Last Jedi are many: the treatment of Luke (which even his actor, Mark Hamill, hated, to the point that he has no interest in playing Luke again), Leia's Superman asspull, Finn's plot arc that serves practically zero purpose and has him undergo the same character arc as the last movie, the forced humor, the complete disregard for established [[fluff]], disregard for even the most basic laws of physics, the fact that the central conflict is essentially the same as the one in the originals right down to the last stand ripped straight out of ''Empire'', the PC bullshit (a hipster admiral who the plot always treats as being in the right despite killing 90% of the Resistance, the Gilded Age planet arc that [[Namek|sucks up a third of the movie to no benefit,]] Rose expressing her desire to get BLACKED with a horrendous and forced #LoveTrumpsHate one-liner in the final act) added solely to virtue-signal and the whole thing being basically a 2,5h screed against the franchise it belongs to and the culture which spawned it.

Fans have also criticized the movie for dropping or discarding major plot points from TFA and repeatedly invoking Shamalamadingdong-tier plot twists for cheap gotchas that are somehow less interesting than the recycled cliches they play off of. Director Rian Johnson has responded by shitting on said critics and trying to defend the film on social media like something out of an ED or RW article. (Important note: George Lucas never tried to defend the prequels, despite the huge backlash at the time, and he agreed with fans that [[C.S Goto|The Star Wars Holiday Special]] was an abomination.) It later came out that Johnson had not been given any kind of roadmap beyond Lucas' old and unfinished concept scripts and was not allowed to see what Abrams had done until TLJ was too far into production to write in most of the previous movie's plot points, which makes the fail Disney's fault just as much as it is Johnson's. Except we also know that he had at least a modicum of influence over the ending of TFA, so they must have talked on at least some degree. As with TFA Lucasfilm has tried to paper over the holes with tie-in material, and just like TFA the fans recognize the damage control.

The Last Jedi has without a doubt torn the fanbase apart in ways even the prequels didn't come close to, with many fans declaring that they have dropped the sequel trilogy. Even Star Wars' famous merchandising has taken a mauling, as [[/toy/]] giggles at Rose Tico and General Hux figures warming shelves while new product shipments go straight from the transport case to the clearance bin.
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===[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg_FoEy8T_A I'm Solo, Han Solo, Han Solo]===
On May 25th 2018, the 41st anniversary of the franchise, ''Solo: A Star Wars Story'' was released. The general consensus seems to be that it is the most average film in the series. At the very least, most people agree that it is at least better than The Last Jedi (if barely) and the backlash from that movie can be felt even in Solo: many fans have chosen to boycott the movie. Even before release, many fans had derided the whole affair as unnecessary: no one was really asking for a Han Solo origin movie, particularly one without Harrison Ford. Han Solo's entire life history had already been explored thoroughly in EU novels and comics, so the movie could only be a retread or a retcon, both things most fanbases tend to disapprove of.
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Whether it is because of this boycott or not, [[Not as planned|something no one expected happened:]] ''Solo'' was a box office bomb. Its opening weekend performed way below expectations and as of this writing, it has only made half of the money it needs for it to break even. Disney still continued to labor under the delusion that China would save their bottom line regardless of the fact that Star Wars has never been popular in China.

So what is it like? Well, rather than being a space opera like the other films, this is a space Western. Rather than being about large-scale battles and saving the galaxy from tyranny, it's about heists and the galactic underworld. (Except for the Mimban sequence, which you'd swear was lifted from a live-action Imperial Guard movie.) It's essentially Disney's reboot/retcon of the old EU Han Solo novels, taking things that were mentioned offhand in the original trilogy (like how Han did the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs) and making that the subject of an entire movie. The film was perhaps cursed from the beginning due to its [[Fail|troubled production.]] How troubled? The lead needed an acting coach to get through his shoots (Han may have walked away with the Falcon, but Danny Glover's Lando stole the spotlight every time) and 70% of the movie had to be reshot by a different director due to [[Butthurt|creative differences]] between Lucasfilm and the original directors.

The fail only compounded when it premiered and fans got to see what those "creative differences" may have wrought: the writing staff started spewing bullshit to the press about Lando being "pansexual" with no precedent in any Star Wars production including ''Solo'', the film's tone is a schizophrenic nightmare to the last-minute reshoots and Han's sidekick for most of the movie is [[What|a self-built female droid social justice warrior]] named [[/v/|L3-37]]. Audiences ''cheered and applauded'' when that <s>man</s>human-hating self-insert character finally fucking died. Perhaps the most damning sin is that these are the movie's only notable qualities: take them away and you're left with a movie that would make you think "Huh, that was okay," and then never think about it again for the rest of your life, were it not for the crippling disappointment of seeing one of the most beloved franchises in the world fall so far. Between the boycotts, the mediocrity of the movie itself, and [https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Gawker certain news outlets] claiming that the driving force behind said boycotts was [[/pol/]], ''Solo'' cratered so badly that [[Exterminatus|all non-''Episode 9'' Star Wars movies were for a short time shelved indefinitely, and the only side-movie still being worked on is the obligatory Boba Fett origin movie, which is more likely to sell tickets based on the name alone.]] Incidentally, one of the writers picked by Lucasfilm to handle ''Solo'''s tie-in content, Cavan Scott, has been hired by [[Games Workshop]] for the [[Warhammer Adventures]] series.
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===Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker (aka Plan Palpa-Nine from Outer Space)===
Your opinion of this movie is very easy to predict based on what you thought of the others; if you found The Last Jedi to be "refreshing", you'll absolutely HATE this one. If you hate all Disney content aside from ''maybe'' The Mandalorian, you'll hate this one as much as the others. If you absolutely detested The Last Jedi but have mixed opinions of the rest, you'll probably consider this to be the best of the new movies to varying degrees of actual enthusiasm. The movie largely undoes or ignores swathes of the previous one.
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After finishing shooting, the film was shown to test audiences (which JJ Abrams lied never happened). The film was extremely poorly received, one of many reasons being because it had [[Mary Sue|Rey curb-stomping Palpatine by herself in the final battle]] (test audiences reportedly either laughed at the film or had to be stopped from walking out of the test screenings). The poor showing made (then) Disney CEO Bob Iger - who was overseeing the screening - furious, and he immediately ordered the film to be reshot. The resulting reshoots were so extensive, [http://archive.ph/RLj94 they spanned months and the film didn't have a final edit till December 2019, the month of release], causing trailers to be so desperate for footage that wouldn't be cut they had to fill half the length with footage from prior films and stuff used in prior trailers. To make matters worse for Disney, the plot was leaked months before release, and said plot turned out to be ''very stupid''. Despite Disney spokespeople and media outlets extensively denying the leaks, the leaks were proven correct by getting then unrevealed names and plot objects right. Camera leaks the week before release showed very little of the fantastically stupid content leaked months beforehand was changed, only minor details.

Before reading on, be aware that Rey and Kylo are no longer movie-type Force users, they have been changed to video game characters. Like KOTOR and Jedi Academy type where you just get powers by killing enough dudes. None of the powers are new to the franchise, but have been rarely seen and in some cases never before have in movies. You should also know that unlike the first Visual Dictionary that mostly just gave little prop trivia and plot hooks for other works, and the second which was mostly irrelevant until it gets referenced in a decade or two, the final Visual Dictionary is damn near required reading (this shit will get a "VD" to indicate it) since a lot of explanations were cut in the reshoots and recuts. Like for example the connection between Rey and Kylo is a "Force Dyad", basically one soul in the Force that inhabits two bodies (setting up a bit of a snarl what happens when one dies and not the other, and implying the personality is mostly in the brain which is why they can have unique experiences, but whatever) and warps space/time. This is why Rey was inexplicably powerful and knew how to do shit instinctively, because Kylo's training passed onto her, and likewise her nonstop playing with X-Wing training sims as a child made him a badass pilot. Dyads used to be far more common in the KOTOR era, and were apparently the inspiration for the Sith Rule Of Two. This is never mentioned in the final cut of the film, but leaks show it was in one of the earlier ones.

The movie pressed on with breakneck speed that doesn't have time for musical interludes or wipe transitions, the opening crawl informing you that Palpatine has somehow returned and sent a message to the galaxy with the Resistance trying to rebuild and gather information, Rey being trained by Leia on the planet Ajan Kloss (AKA not!Yavin #2, VD) after repairing Anakin's lightsaber (VD) who had received partial training from Luke before stopping for reasons explained later in the movie and supplementing the rest with her pouring over the Jedi texts, and Kylo Ren trying to find Palpatine because his existence is a threat to his rule. The movie takes a lot of inspiration from KOTOR era lore with Ren finding a Sith McGuffin Holocron-type navigation device on Mustafar (VD) showing him the secret planet of the Sith (not Korriban/Pesegam/Moraband, this one is a planet in a red nebula that is under constant lightning storms called Exegol). There he finds a MASSIVE Sith cult that has kept itself secret and managed to not only build a fucking massive fleet of Star Destroyers equipped with planetkiller guns like something straight out of the old canon, but divisions of Stormtroopers, technicians, and officers to fill them along with the typical cultists in robes who administer to keeping Palpatine alive and seeing to his Sith alchemy shit...which includes tanks containing multiple clones of Snoke, revealing the guy was literally born looking like that with a manufactured backstory all so Palpatine could use him as a puppet to create the First Order (which is almost a meta commentary about the backstory controversy).

Kylo is offered the chance to be the new Emperor by Palpatine, who is a corpse kept barely alive through methods some would consider... Unnatural, while strapped to a machine with [[Lord Kroak|his spirit sticking nearby]] (the filmmakers zig-zagged on the nature of this; first it was the original Palpatine who had somehow duped everyone in ''Return of the Jedi'' with a clone stand in, then the reshoots changed it to the original's zombie-like rotting corpse animated by his lingering spirit and Lucasfilm later retconned him to be a zombie-like clone of Palpatine after the film's release). The only requirement for Palps to pass him Emperorship is killing Rey, although Ren is immediately suspicious of the other strings attached (including choking a guy in a hissyfit when that concern is voiced) and decides instead to recruit Rey again, this time as a co-Emperor.

Finn and Poe obtain information about a spy within the First Order (yeah, you know its fucking Hux even before they say there is a spy at all) while Rey gets visions during her training with Leia. The spy confirms that Palpatine is legit and the info about the fuckmassive deathfleet is legit, and Rey finds the Jedi texts contain notes from Luke about his search for that planet. They go to his last clue, a desert planet that isn't Tatooine and is the middle of a festival where they find Lando has been holed up enjoying himself since him and Luke traveled there. They are immediately spotted by the First Order and escape from them to find the ship of one of Palpatine's servants who had last been seen there. They fall into sinkholes around the ship created by giant tunneling worms, and find the skeleton of Sheev's boy as well as a Sith dagger. 3PO is programmed with the Sith language, but his programming from the Old Republic era forbids him from giving the translation to civilians. Rey manages to get the sand worms to leave them alone by using Force powers to heal one's wound, and they attempt to get the Sheev's servant's ship up and running before they are attacked by the First Order. Chewie is taken prisoner and Rey wrecks Kylo's TIE Fighter before the two engage in a Force tug of war to pull the transport Chewie is on, which ends in Rey accidentally Force Lightning it and causing it to explode when she becomes frustrated with the stalemate. Chewie is revealed to have been on another transport and is taken to Ren's flagship Star Destroyer while the heroes, instead of do something sensible like seek a Rebel leader who can give security clearance for 3PO's protocol (Leia's the obvious choice), they head to a planet under VERY Nazi-like occupation to find a droid technician who can hack 3PO's memory. They encounter a woman from Poe's past, revealing he was a former spice smuggler like Han until abandoning his crew (causing them to fall into debt and become bitter at him) to join the Resistance. She threatens to turn the group in to pay off their debt [[Mary Sue| but Rey kicks her ass, earning her respect and she takes them to the technician without further incident.]] The technician unlocks 3PO's memory at the cost of wiping him. The translation reveals the dagger is the key to finding the Sith navigation McGuffin they are looking for. During this BB-8 reactivates Sheev's servant's old droid, who doesn't do much.

The heroes proceed to board Ren's flagship with the help of a First Order officer's badge, and shoot their way through as they free Chewie. Rey and Ren have another linked vision where her parents are revealed to have attempted to hide her from her grandfather Palpatine, who wanted to merge the souls of himself and '''ALL''' other preceding Sith (presumably not Revan, since his redemption is canon) while he discovers they are on his ship and orders it put on lockdown. Rey is confronted in the hangar by Ren, who offers her to join him again. She refuses and the Falcon appears, the engines blowing away the Stormtroopers while Rey jumps aboard. The crew head to Endor after finding out from Sheev's servant's old droid that it was where he was going to go next (this is the only thing the droid does other than serve as a "pet the dog moment" for the cast a few times) where the Death Star wreckage of the disk and throne room landed, encountering a division of former child-soldier Stormtroopers like Finn who went AWOL. The dagger has a slide-out metal prong from the handle which perfectly lines up with the corridor leading to Sheev's throne room. The team work on repairing the Falcon while Rey presses on ahead, alone, to the Death Star wreckage. Once in the throne room a hidden door opens, revealing a sanctum full of crystal mirrors that are the same as the ones she saw in her vision in Force Awakens (the scene where she snaps her fingers and all the mirrored ones do as well). There she finds the Sith McGuffin and gets a "The Cave" vision of herself as a Sith with a red double-bladed lightsaber which she fights. Kylo is waiting for her in the throne room, and crushes the Sith McGuffin in his hand before informing her they are linked in the Force as one soul inhabiting two bodies and offering her again to be the Vader to her Palpatine which she again refuses. The two fight while Finn and one of the Stormtroopers try to rescue her. They fight their way onto the remnants of the Death Star hangar, reminiscent of Anakin and Obi-wan in Revenge Of The Sith with water instead of lava, before Ren freezes as he senses his mother start to die. This pause gives Rey time to grab his lightsaber and stab him before she freezes sensing Leia actually pass away. Rey uses the Force to heal him, then steals his TIE Fighter while Poe and Finn return to the Resistance base. Rey initially attempts to hide on Luke's monastery to let Palpatine's bloodline die with her, but after lighting Kylo's TIE on fire (so she's destroyed 2 of his personal TIE at this point) Luke appears as a Force ghost to tell her <strike>Rian Johnson</strike> he was wrong, and was motivated by fear when he tried to hide. He reveals that all the Jedi who came before are rooting for her, and tells her where Leia's lightsaber is hidden. He reveals she stopped her training because in a vision she saw that her son would be destroyed by the Dark Side, and a Light Side counterpart would take up her blade instead. Meanwhile, Kylo is visited by the memory of Han. The two reenact the scene from Force Awakens, only this time Kylo throws his lightsaber into the sea and renounces the name Kylo Ren to become simply Ben again. Meanwhile the First Order blow up Poe's home planet where the droid technician and Poe's old crew were, although they had managed to get offworld by that point. Also, R2-D2 restores C-3PO's memory wipe by finding a backup which contains everything from before the mission.

Luke lifts his X-Wing from the waves and Rey scavenges the Sith McGuffin from the flaming wreck of Kylo's ship. As she proceeds to the Sith planet she sends out a beacon to track her progress, giving the entire galaxy a map to the Sith fleet. Poe, now leader of the Resistance, sends Lando with the Falcon and Nien Nunb to gather any forces they can, all the ones who refused to aid them in The Last Jedi, while the rest of the Resistance gears up to attack Sheev's fleet before they can leave the storm cloud. The initial plan is to destroy the navigation device which orients them to the rest of the galaxy without which the fleet cannot leave, until the commander of the flagship (a former Imperial officer) realizes what they are doing and orders it to be shut down so his own ship could serve as the navigation for the rest. Rey confronts Sheev in a coliseum/throne room full of the Cultist parents of the personnel of the fleet (VD) and is informed of his plan to have her kill him so all the Sith could merge with her and rule as basically the God Emperor of Star Wars. She raises her lightsaber before using the strange wormhole Force connection thing they have to pass it to Ben, who had gotten there with a salvaged TIE from the Death Star wreckage and was being beaten by his former servants, the Knights Of Ren. Armed with Luke's old lightsaber he kills them and proceeds to the throne room. Ben arrives and the two attempt to fight him. He simply Force Pushes them back and forces them to kneel before draining a portion of their souls, the "two bodies one soul" thing apparently being a massive source of Force power he can heal himself with to rule in his own rejuvenated body again (but with Darth Maul eyes) rather than Rey's. Meanwhile, the ex-Stormtroopers and Resistance ground personnel lead by Finn land on the flagship Star Destroyer (its still in the atmosphere of the Sith planet, thus gravity and breathable air applies) and due to bringing goat-horse things from Endor are not affected by onboard EMP that would otherwise short out speeders and tanks (which is a thing from past canon, mostly comics and novels, which they use to explain why such a thing doesn't happen more often). Meanwhile, Lando appears with a fucking enormous fleet (remember the backstory that the New Republic didn't have a fleet, instead paying for every planet to have a militia of their own which would unite when there was a big enough threat? Well, JJ finally remembered because all those fucks show up alongside a neat little game of "spot that ship from the series you know" in a few shots). They begin attacking the superweapons underneath the Star Destroyers directly, causing chain reactions that blow the entire ship.

Ben is Force-pushed by Sheev into a pit as revenge for how Vader did the same thing to him before taunting the dying Rey and unleashing a MASSIVE Force Lightning storm which shorts out the fleet. While this is going on the spirits of all the dead Jedi (like pretty much anyone they could find to record a line from any of the past movies or shows, including Ahsoka; which is pretty lame since it means she was killed off-screen, with natural causes being unlikely since Ahsoka wouldn't have been 80 yet, and even that's below the average Togruta life expectancy, though this may not necessarily be the case according to Filoni) who inhabit her body the same way that Palpatine is currently full of all the Sith. Rey manages to stand and deflects his Force Lightning with Leia's lightsaber, which isn't enough until Ben manages to climb out of the pit and throw her Luke's lightsaber; with the two together she's able to walk close enough to Sheev for his Force Lightning to burn him, and despite this being the third fucking time this has happened he does not turn off the lightning and instead Raiders Of The Lost Ark's himself into a skeleton before blowing up and destroying not only himself but the spirits of all the past Sith. Despite Palpatine's plan being to possess Rey when she kills him, for some reason he doesn't do so. The Jedi spirits leave Rey and she dies, with the barely lingering on Ben healing her. They share a kiss (reminder that since Sheev created Anakin, they're basically cousins, and their relationship is so adversarial it makes Edward and Bella's from Twilight look healthy, something the novelization tries to claim is "purely platonic") before Ben dies. His body vanishes, as does Leia's. The Resistance/Militia fleet destroy all the Star Destroyers after Finn's ground crew hijacks one of the cannons of the flagship to shoot at the ship bridge, killing the last of the old Empire and First Order leadership.

The heroes return to the Resistance planet where they celebrate, scenes showing the rest of the galaxy shooting the last of the First Order Star Destroyers play, Chewie is given Han's old medal from A New Hope, and the ex-Stormtrooper leader is hinted to be Lando's daughter or grandaughter implying a spinoff with the two (also shares a gay kiss with another woman... which was cut to appease China's and Singapore's media watchdogs). After the celebrations Rey returns to Luke's old home on Tatooine where she buries Anakin and Leia's lightsabers, revealing she built her own from her Force vision only with yellow blades instead of red ones. An old woman who was a neighbor of Owen and Beru comments nobody had been to that place in years and asks Rey's name. Seeing the Force Ghosts of Luke and Leia, she tells the woman her name is Rey Skywalker. The End.

Because the fandom has become fractured like never before, there was immediately fan wars going on everywhere Star Wars fans are found. Fans accused haters of review bombing, those who hated the movie claimed the critic score (which, if you recall, is mostly people who liked The Last Jedi and hate this movie for doing a U-turn on it) vindicates them. The fan fighting probably won't ever end, since now we apparently have to reevaluate if A New Hope and the Kenner Star Wars toys were ever good in the first place because some contrarians now claim the prequels are the pinnacle of Star Wars. Whatever the case, Disney CEO Bob Iger resigned in the middle of the work week in late February 2020, before coming a couple of months later, with insiders saying he's "livid" over certain changes.
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==Expanded Universe==

It can be said what makes a franchise into a long term lasting thing is when a wealth of extra story and background is created that expands on the original story far beyond what there was. It could be argued Star Wars leads the race in this, as the sheer amount of extra novels, graphic novels and games based on Star Wars can and does overwhelm the ordinary fan.

===The original EU/Star Wars "Legends"===

[[Image: Choices_of_One_PB_art.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Before Cara, before Rey, before Darth Talon or Padme... there was Mara Jade]]
The background has expanded into the distant past before the founding of the current Jedi and Sith orders and into the (not-quite-so) far future looking at the descendants of Luke Skywalker and other popular characters. Uniquely, especially considering [[Warhammer 40K|other]] [[Star Trek|franchises']] track records, the Star Wars Expanded Universe is <strike>remarkably</strike> <strike>sorta</strike> sometimes internally consistent, both with other sources within the universe and with the films themselves, at least in comparison to other comparable settings. Of course, it's got plenty of its own [[C. S. Goto|problem children]] that slipped through, and the [[skub]] mine of it all isn't much shallower than that of 40K. Good portions of it do hold up well, largely due to the efforts of Lucas' company's continuity department leaning on everyone to hold it together. One thing that greatly helps is continuity books and articles aren't afraid to make small retcons to make even the most obscure and shitty sources (like that terrible PS1 fighting game) seem like part of an organized plot. Particularly well-loved parts include characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn (a rare alien officer in the Empire and popular enough that Disney brought him back to the canon from the EU) and Mara Jade (a Force-using former agent of Emperor Palpatine who later turned good, became a Jedi Master, married Luke and had a son with him) - interestingly both were created by the same author [[Timothy Zahn]].

Upon their acquisition, Disney said "fuck it" and threw out everything but the films and the Clone Wars cartoons. Some popular old stuff got mentions or appearances (and Thrawn got to be a major character), but the overall quality is even lower than the old EU. What was set up as a major book contains phrases like "The TIE wibbles and wobbles through the air" and random virtue signalling. As though to top the previous, Disney literally published a book with an entire chapter about mass wedding farts (Yes. Really.). The only good stuff is from established EU authors writing stuff far away from era of the Disney films.

The [[rage]] over the EU's scrapping was major among many fans of it, but for all Disney's shortcomings, they were in a tight spot. Towards the end all that continuity and consistency got thrown out the airlock for increasingly dumb and disjointed narratives and garbled plot threads to the point that the Star Wars logo was just about as much a sign of quality as the Nintendo approval stamp on shitty SNES games.

Another problem was that Disney is mostly family-friendly, and some of the Star Wars EU could get really dark. As in Warhammer 40k levels of grimdark. Examples of this are the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong - forcenull space-Druchii (no no, not Comorrites though they have the pain and body modification fetishes for it, space-'''Druchii''', riding enslaved tyranid bioships) from another galaxy, Mnggal-Mnggal - mindraping gelatin lost on its way to Star Trek, and Abeloth - an ancient (she predates the Jedi and the Sith) yandere Force entity more like something from the Cthulhu Mythos and is so dangerous the Jedi and the Sith '''joined forces''' to fight her. It's difficult to envision how Disney could have kept the EU when even before all that it was struggling to find a market beyond the most [[neckbeards|dedicated fans]].

===The Books===

'''The Good EU'''
[[Image: Heir-to-the-empire-cover.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Heir to the Empire (1991): The book that started it all]]
* '''The Thrawn Trilogy''': The origination point for the EU, and focuses on the conflict with the Imperial remnants left over after RotJ. Named for the main villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who went on to become one of Star Wars most well-loved characters. Basically the story "The Force Awakens" wishes it was. Also introduced Mara Jade, a sexy redhead that's everything Disney wishes Rey was and more.
* '''The Han Solo Adventures''': Star's End was the second spinoff book written and the first good one. Han and Chewie are trying to get some work done on the Falcon and wind up having to bust out some political prisoners to pay for it. Would have made for a better film than ''Solo'' did.
* '''Shadows of the Empire''': Shadows is set between ESB and RotJ and fills in the details of getting the Death Star II's plans, finding out where Han was taken, Luke building his own saber, etc by the introduction of another bounty hunter by the name of Dash Rendar. The Special Edition rerelease of ''A New Hope'' added the Outrider to the background of one scene. Most notable for the fact that it was also adapted into a video game for the N64 and PC.
*'''The Darth Bane Trilogy''': The origin of the Rule of Two for the Sith, along with a compelling protagonist and his apprentice.
* '''Revenge of the Sith''': The novelization is actually considered a serious improvement over the movie itself.

'''The Bad EU'''
* '''Jedi Academy Trilogy''': Luke sets up his academy on Yavin IV and tries to teach [[Rage|Kyp Durron]]. Imperial remnant superweapons hit ludicrous territory with the sun crusher. This was the beginning of Kevin J Anderson hammering out a couple dozen Star Wars books over about four years.
* '''Young Jedi Knights Series''': Set between Jedi Academy and New Jedi Order, mostly follows Han & Leia's kids.
* '''I, Jedi''': A retelling of the Jedi Academy Trilogy (see above) with more of Corran Horn from the first set of X-Wing books. Less derp in general but significantly more [[Mary Sue]]age of Horn.
* '''Legacy of the Force''': The survivors of the Yuuzhan Vong War are trying to rebuild the galaxy, but Jacen Solo turns Sith and becomes the main villain. The book series is infamous for nearly killing the Star Wars EU, threatening the franchise and issues between various writers years before Disney went down the same road (Jacen Solo was also a major influence for Kylo Ren). The biggest complaints were Jacen killing Mara, the heroes becoming idiots whenever they could've stopped the villains, poor dialogue, long-winded writing and the story being overstuffed with allusions to post 9/11 United States.

'''The [[Skub]] EU'''
[[Image: Yuuzhan-vong-eu2_bg.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The Yuuzhan Vong, [[Skub|either badass and interesting or grimderp canon-defiling villains]]]]
* '''New Jedi Order''': The longest-running (19 books long) and most divisive story of the EU. Luke's married to Mara and they're rebuilding the Jedi Order while Han and Leia are trying to reconcile the New Republic and Imperial Remnants. Han and Leia are also raising three kids and Mara's got a terminal illness. Then extragalactic aliens called Yuuzhan Vong - [[Imperium of Man|religious fanatics]] with [[Tyranids|organic technology]], a thing for [[Dark Eldar|pain and body modification]] along with [[Culexus|partial immunity to The Force]] - invade to take over the Star Wars Galaxy. Chewie dies Majora's Mask style, Mara's illness is cured and she gives birth to Ben Skywalker, the Vong take over Coruscant, lots is learned about the Force and the bodycount goes so high it could give Warhammer 40k a run for its money (365 TRILLION; only the War in Heaven or the Fall of the Eldar had anywhere near that many deaths in one event). A real love-it-or-hate-it series, some parts were good, some were bad and some were weird.
* '''Dark Empire''': Palpatine's back to save a dying franchise decades before Disney tried it. He even uses clone bodies to do so (but unlike Disney, Dark Horse didn't flip-flop on the lore), wrecks a fleet of enemy ships using the Force and at some point has his power reflected back at him. Starts off good, falls apart fast. Known for its love-it-or-hate-it artstyle and dialogue.
* '''Courtship of Princess Leia''': Deals with another Imperial remnant, where a Queen who could be potential ally against the Imperials offers a deal which hinges on Leia marrying her son. Meanwhile Luke and R2-D2 are working with a prince who was the original recipient of the offer. This one has force witches, who are encountered when Han tricked Leia into in an attempt to win her heart... it is ''really'' silly. If you like that, raise this higher. If not, it might even drop lower.
* '''Fate of the Jedi''': Want some Cthulhu with your Star Wars? People are growing dissatisfied with the Jedi Order following LotF. Luke, Ben and the remaining Jedi are trying to keep the Jedi Order in check while several Jedi are wracked with a mysterious psychosis and a ancient Sith Tribe emerges from hiding. Han and Leia are looking after the political side of things while also becoming grandparents. Things take a turn for cosmic horror when a yandere, Force-using eldritch abomination who could doom the galaxy escapes her prison. During the conflict, Sith apprentice Vestara rises through the ranks and finds herself in a Catwoman/Batman situation with Ben Skywalker. While being an OoM better than the preceding trilogy, FotJ has a very divided opinion among SW fans.

=== Disney Canon ===
[[Image:Star_Wars_Disney_Princesses.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Love it or hate it, they are now official ''Disney Princesses''.]]
It's still [[skub|debatable]] whether or not the new Canon holds up to the old EU, or learns to fix the problems that plagued it. We probably won't see what comes of it for decades to come. Disney Canon, as of 2020, seems to largely be built around the nine main movies (of course), with shows like Rebels and Clone Wars alongside anthology movies fleshing out stories that had been told in comics and books back before the Disney buy-up, but can now be seen on film.

A curious thing that has begun happening: Certain elements of the old EU is slipping into the Disney Canon. Plotlines like the Emperor returning, the Death Star plans heist and Han's path to become the smuggler we know him as all have bits and pieces from EU canon in them. In some cases, whole characters are ported in; the best example is Admiral Thrawn, who appears in Rebels. Other times, popular characters has their traits or stories ported into new ones (Finn and Cassian are both expies of Kyle Katarn, for example). This gives some credence to the argument that Lucasfilms and Disney wanted to wipe the slate with all the stories that had been told in the EU, so they could create their own, fully realized canon Star Wars setting that one could make movies - ''many'' movies - from. Considering the amount of shitty fan-fiction-esque stories the EU had, this may be for the best, but of course, storylines that people have loved for ages are also thrown out with the bathwater.

Now. Detractors of Disney-era Star Wars often talk loads about how the sequel trilogy invalidates the original trilogy, or how Disney screwed over Luke or ignored cool characters like Kyle Katarn. These are semi-valid arguments of course, but they ignore some of the biggest issues with the EU originally - it wasn't sponsored by George Lucas and Lucasfilms. They were sponsored fan-fiction in a sense, semi-canon from the outset and not really something that could be considered a part of the Star Wars setting, though George Lucas did work with the writers to a point, such as with the New Jedi Order book series (he gave them permission to kill off Chewbacca in the story). In fact, George never really considered them real stories; more like a parallel universe of his own Star Wars works. He accepted it because they bring in the big bucks when people would beg to have the official Star Wars logo on anything they produced.

That, and the sequel trilogy, underwhelming as it may be, was George's idea in broad strokes. The series was always going to have a sequel trilogy, and while the outcome isn't exactly what he (or we) wanted, quite a lot of it is. Luke being an exile on a far-away planet, who has to be roused to fight by a new, female Jedi? George's idea, not Disney's. A son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side? Also George's idea (though Disney lifted a lot form the original version - Jacen Solo - for Kylo Ren). If anything, much of the direction comes from Lucasfilms; Disney just wants the movie to sell well. It's similar with Marvel nowadays.

So for better or worse, the Disney Canon is the first time the wider setting of Star Wars beyond the series and movies have become irrevocably canon, rather than "kinda-sorta-canon". Much of what we've gotten that is new is based roughly on George's own work as well. Remember this when discussing EU vs Disney in Star Wars - Either setting is cool for their own reasons, but the Mouse got little to do with it - and if you don't like it, bring it up with big man Lucas. Whatever the case, with Bob Iger's resignation as CEO from Disney (likely not on his terms, as he stated multiple times he would retire in 2021), things are changing (for better or worse).

==Star Wars:The Television Shows==
===Star Wars: The Clone Wars===
Technically, there are two series called similar titles. The first was 2004's ''Star Wars: Clone Wars'', an animated miniseries made by Genndy Tartakovsky (He of Dexter's Lab and [[Samurai Jack]] fame) chronicling, among other things, the titular Clone Wars and introducing a much more sinister General Grievous to the world.

But then we have ''The Clone Wars'', a CGI animated series (and tie-in movie) that we'll be talking about more and contributed more to the EU. One of the most universally known and loved parts of Star Wars, most fans worth their action figures and limited edition movie sets have watched the show and have an opinion on it one way or another. Some of the most notable characteristics are:

* The Clone Troopers are fleshed out,and we see that they are manly motherfuckers who make Guardsmen's balls of steel look like the cardboard their armor is made out of (seriously, in the movie, they literally charge straight into close combat with ''giant armored walkers with large guns'' and jump off roofs to get top of them to shoot them point blank, and punch droids in the face)
* Anakin Skywalker is actually a good, fleshed out character, with a good voice actor and shows his descent to child-murdering Force-choking asshat wasn't just him going 'welp, guess I'll fall to the Dark Side.' There was a fair amount of bad-cop “it was him or me” murder to get there.
* Introduces Ashoka Tano, a major character who's a female Togruta Jedi that's well-written, non-OP, non-Mary Sue and doesn't invalidate characters from the movies. Starts off a bit annoying in the Clone Wars movie, but manages to do something truly special: she ''learns''. Over the course of Clone Wars and Rebels, Ashoka probably has the most character development out of any other Star Wars character.
* Obi-Wan being a sexy one-liner spouting sarcastic badass.
* And many others.

However, there were some pretty derp moments too, such as

* Babysitting episode/movie.
* D-squad, where a bunch of droids become heroes of the Republic.
* Mandalore and how it's fluff was basically screwed 180 degrees, and then some.
* Droids were comic relief of the first and second seasons. It was annoying.

All in all, it was an good show that took some time to find it's feet.

After many years, a seventh season was been announced in an attempt to take away from ''The Last Jedi'' being shit and add ''something'' to the empty Disney Plus lineup. At least some of the episodes will be ones that were in production when the show ended. It promptly disappeared after that announcement for a couple years till it was announced it's coming out in 2019.

===Star Wars: Rebels===
[[Image:WomanYellingAtLothcat.jpeg|right|400px|thumb|''Stop fooling our plan, you rebel scum!'']]
Now that Disney owns Star Wars they can't go a season without something new to run on Disney XD, so after ''The Clone Wars'' ended they needed a series to milk episodes out of and launched ''Rebels''. ''Rebels'' is set a few years before ''A New Hope'' and covers the early formation of the rebellion from the perspective of one cell focused on the planet Lothal. If you liked ''Rogue One'' but thought it should be about 25 hours long and done in cartoony CGI then this is the show for you.

So what did we see in ''Rebels''?

* Grand Admiral Thrawn makes his debut in Disney Star Wars, along with the TIE Defender project. The character doesn’t lose much in the translation, and later on is arguably treated better than the source.
* The bearded old guy in the Endor strike team in RotJ turns out to be Captain Rex. Fan theory at first, later confirmed.
* You CAN [[combi-weapon]] a lightsaber and a blaster, and it's OP as shit
* Force wolves (no, not [[Rune Priest|those force wolves]])
* [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Game of Thrones-style]] Mandos (Krownest is pretty much Space-Winterfell).
* Imperial Inquisitors. Sure they don’t last long, but they were intimidating while they were, and it planted the seed that was used elsewhere.
* Some good appearances by Darth Vader.

So about the wolves... ''Rebels'' turns the force mysticism up past 11. Forget just being precog space monks with laser swords; as far as ''Rebels'' is concerned the Jedi are [[craftworld]] [[eldar]] without the racism. Rebels picks up the torch of the Clone Wars “Force Gods” and mixes in some of the straight-up fantasy shit from the Lucas era novels and the KOTOR/Old Republic Jedi philosophy schools and heresies beyond just “Light good, Dark bad”.

However, there were levels of derp that we got to see in this show, such as the following:

* Since this is a Disney cartoon, the bad guys can't have even a temporary victory. This changes Thrawn and the other Imperials from an imposing force to [[Abbadon|cartoon villains]], although Rebels villains manage to stay intimidating more than Grievous did in Clone Wars.
* Battles slower paced than a Death Guard movement phase. Enjoy characters having full conversations in cover-based shooting when everyone has Stormtrooper aim.
* Lightsabers the shape of toothpicks.
* [[Bullshit|Helicopter lightsabers]]
* Complete bipolarity in tone. This can create some great moments, but invariably ruins the mood episode by episode, or between the A and B plots.
* Iron Squadron. Just...fucking [[Rage|Iron Squadron]]
* Star Destroyers look terrible, mostly due to their bridge towers being way taller than they should be.

All in all, it depends on your preference.

Since the show does have a fair amount of dedicated fans, <strike>likely</strike> possibly more than the sequel trilogy itself, Disney has made a habit of planting Easter Egg references to Rebels in basically everything moving forward, usually in the form of an appearance by the iconic ship The Ghost or the friendly-ish space pirate character Hondo Ohnaka.

===Star Wars: Resistance===
Annnd they had to go and change things again. With ''Rebels'' coming to a close and a burning need to keep Star Wars on their lineup, Disney had a choice: find a new plot and setting for a formula and art style that had produced two successful multi-season shows, or throw it all out and start from scratch. Remember, this is Disney we're talking about, the company that once [[Fail|paid a quarter billion dollars to fire the producer who made ''The Little Mermaid'', ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''Aladdin'', and ''The Lion King'']] only for him to go and [[profit|found Dreamworks]] out of spite.

Like its predecessor, ''Star Wars: Resistance'' sets itself up as a prequel to a trilogy, in this case following the early days of the Resistance in its fight against the First Order. Where it differs from ''Rebels'' is that ''Resistance'' is playing the warm up act for a trilogy that nobody likes. On top of which, the creators abandoned the 3D style that ''Rebels'' inherited from ''The Clone Wars'', and replaced it with a cel style that's half ''Treasure Planet'', half ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and all ''RWBY''.

To be blunt, this show is 100% pure crystal derp. Our star is Kazuda Xiono, a manic depressive who literally fanboy-ed his way into being a spy under the cover story of being a mechanic, two jobs he is not qualified for. This kid is the Invader Zim of Star Wars. Filling out the cast we have the original only cockney girl in space, an autistic alien, their widower boss who is definitely gonna die, D.Va and her ex-imperial officer dad, and BB-8. Poe Dameron shows up regularly so he can be Ace Fucking Rimmer without having to compete against Rey for the TOP SUE trophy. Reception was so terrible it was confirmed canceled at 2 seasons before the second season even started.

Part of the problem with ''Resistance'' is that the First Order has a doomfort that can frag planets across the galaxy, yet has to resort to hiring pirates to encourage settlements into accepting the First Order's protection racket. Palpy's empire was a model of efficient, heavy handed governance; its evil intent veiled from the masses who mostly resent it for bringing order. The First Order on the other hand is basically just Cobra Command, a font of evil hamstrung by flailing incompetence. As mentioned earlier, the backstory for the Resistance and First Order is basically that the First Order are a mobile pirate fleet with one untested secret base weapon lead by old farts of dubious actual leadership abilities from the Empire and their fanatical children with grunts made up of brainwashed child soldiers kidnapped from pioneer settlements while the Resistance is just a tiny militia that is so poorly funded they don’t even qualify as a single fleet since their few outdated capital ships are crewed by outdated droids and they don’t even have enough fighters to protect them, but rather than depict the potentially interesting dynamic this suggests the series just tries to be Rebels again, the same path the movies took even though at this point both factions are even smaller than they were in the movies.

===Star Wars: The Mandalorian===

[[Image:The_mandalorian.jpg|right|200px|thumb|[[Goblin Slayer|''Bounties?'']]]]
Because Disney didn't have enough money, they decided to try their hand at streaming services (despite already owning Hulu), and created Disney+ as a collection of their shows and movies. And with any streaming service, you need a flagship title. Thus, ''The Mandalorian'', the first live action Star Wars television series.

The show itself lives and breaths off your nostalgia for the Fetts, giving you a new lead character wearing the cool ass armor, bounty hunting, getting in gunfights, et cetera. The show's set five years after ''Return of the Jedi'', and leans into spaghetti western's so hard you wonder why Clint Eastwood hasn't shown up. Whether you like this show pretty much comes down to the question of can you accept [[Goblin Slayer|a show where the main character's face is never seen]] and whose name is almost never spoken (probably, considering this site's demographics), and can you stand a story wrapped entirely around the finger of a baby yoda who is the most well know spoiler since (joke.exe).

If you like the 2012 [[Adeptus_Arbites|Judge Dredd]] movie you will like the show. It also might be one of the closest depictions of a Space Marine we are going to get for the foreseeable future on the "big screen". The Mandalorians (this group at least) have become almost a cult regarding "The Way" their warrior code. Highlights include a [[Looted]] [[All_Terrain_Soup|AT-ST]], getting to watch a [[Men_of_Iron|IG-11]] aimbot entire groups of hostiles multiple times, (hell just watching IG-11 ''move'' is amazing). The final two episodes are a callback to almost every episode except "The Prisoner" & "The Gunslinger" and numerous characters return and get to be their own brand awesome.

There are several hiccups in writing but those might be smoothed out later, or can just be written off as the galaxy being just that big and individuals not having the same info as the audience. Overall it is the most well received addition to Star Wars since ''Jedi''. With the show actually understanding why and how certain reveals should work, ie. not making there be anything special to us (the audience) about the Mandalorian's face/name, it is special because of his code not because he has laser eyes or something.

==Wookieepedia==
One of the largest fan wikis ever created, this bad boy is extensively cited, has enormous variety, and has page upon page of talk. It was if Lexicanum, the 40k fan wiki, and our own glorious site were fused into a terrible beast.

==Impact on 1d4chan and associated games etc==

Star Wars has had subtle and clear impacts on a number of other franchises and genres and it can be ''incredibly'' hard to gauge the extent of it all. Certainly it didn't create the concepts of sci-fi, space battles, sweeping storylines, and a blending of mystical and scientific ideas, but it certainly popularized them during the years of the original trilogy and influenced many people that would go on to have interests in sci-fi, fantasy and epic adventure today.

Hell, look me in the eye and tell me that the lightsaber didn't give us the [[power weapon]]. But then again, magic weapons.
==Sabacc and Pazaak==
A rather unusual entry here but it's well in line, Sabacc is an actual tabletop card game from the Star Wars universe which is basically a hybrid of Poker and Blackjack. A Sabacc Deck has 76 cards, most of which in four suits of 16 cards numbered one to 16, plus sixteen wildcards in two sets with values that were either negative or (in the case of the Idiot) Zero. The goal of the game is to have a set of three cards who's total as close as possible to, but not over, 23 or -23. If you got 23/-23 (Pure Sabacc) which could only be beaten by an Idiot's Array (One Idiot, a two and a three, thus 23). The stakes are raised every cycle until the cards go down or one player is left standing who gets the pot.

The notable thing about Sabacc that sets it apart from real world card games is that the Cards can change value every turn. A Pure Sabacc can easily become an instant lose 25 and an absolutely lousy hand can become an Idiot's Array. They can be stabilized to fix their value, but everyone knows when you do so. This feature has so far prevented Sabacc from being released in tabletop form as of yet. ''(Of course, there are ways to deal with this, such as simply re-dealing unfixed cards, but never let it be said that nerds will choose practicality over purity.)''

In universe, Han Solo won the Millenium Falcon off Lando in a game of Sabacc.

Pazaak is an older game from an in-universe perspective, similar to Blackjack but its player versus player rather than player versus dealer and also has some aspects of a collectible card game. Goal of the game is to raise cards from the main deck until their total value is 20 or they can also choose to stand if they get close but don't want to risk it. Best out of five wins.

CCG-aspect of Pazaak comes from the sidedeck: both players collect ten cards for their side deck and then randomly take four cards from their side deck to their hand in the beginning of the game. Hand cards are used to either lower or raise the total value: so if the player raises cards from the main deck to the total value of 25, they can prevent dropping out if they have a -5 card or higher in their hand.
Cards which only either raise or lower the value are the most common of the side cards.
More rarer are cards which can be used to both raise and lower the value.
Then there are flip cards, which change certain main deck cards on the table to negative ones. So if the player plays a 2&4 flip card, all 2:s and 4:s on the table become -2:s and -4:s. Flip cards exist in 2&4:s and 3&6:s.
Then there is the double card, which doubles the value of the last played card. So if the player raises a 5 from the main deck, playing the double card would turn it into a 10.
Finally, the rarest side deck card is the tiebreaker, which grants the player a win if the game would otherwise end in a tie.

==Tabletop games for Star Wars==

=== Role-playing Games ===

[[West End Games]] made a Star Wars [[role-playing game]] called [[Star Wars RPG|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game]] AKA '''Star Wars D6'''. Like many West End products, it's a good game with the great misfortune of being published by West End games.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] picked up the license later and made two distinct RPGs based on their [[d20 System]], called [[Star Wars D20]] (imaginatively). Could be fun, but generally broken as hell, much like [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|its parent game]]. It was then utterly revised that into what they called the '''Saga Edition''', which is relatively balanced and pretty good.

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars Roleplaying Game|a whole line of Star Wars-themed RPGs]], each one focusing on a specific style of play. You want to play a bunch of scruffy space outlaws (Edge of the Empire), members of the nascent Rebellion (Age of Rebellion), or exiled Jedi Knights (Force and Dedtiny), then they got you covered. Unlike their [[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]] games, which are all ''juuuuust'' different enough from one another to completely buttfuck any attempts at blending, all three gamelines use identical mechanics and are fully cross-compatible. Uses symbol-counting [[dice pool]]s with ludicrously overpriced custom dice.
Like the other RPGs they decided with the retardedly similar name, and thus this one is sometimes called '''Star Wars FFG''' to avoid confusion.

FFG have kept milking the franchise and in summer 2017, decided to [[Necromancer | reanimate]] the [[Star Wars RPG|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game]] with a "30th Year Anniversary Edition" print of the original game. It '''''finally''''' shipped in July 2018 after spending a year in limbo.

=== Card Games ===

The big [[card game]] set in the Star Wars universe is the [[Star Wars Customizable Card Game]]. It's no longer produced by Decipher, but there is still a sufficiently large player community to organize annual tournaments, rule on cards, and so on. SWCCG was radically different from the norm of card games, being divided into light and dark side cards with different backings, with light and dark always playing against each other. For tournament play a player would need both a light and dark deck.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] made the [[Star Wars Trading Card Game]].

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars: The Card Game]].

Obviously, nobody is capable of creating a Star Wars card game with an interesting name.

Aside from the real, physical, games there was also ''Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game''. It was a real, functioning, card game within the MMO that used all virtual cards. Unfortunately no server emulators have implemented it yet.

=== Miniature Games ===
[[Wizards of the Coast]] did a tabletop battles game imaginatively called Star Wars: Miniatures, based on an extremely dumbed down version of the D&D ruleset. The figures were meant to tie in with the Saga edition RPG, it wasn't terrible on its own, just impossible to collect for competitive play since figures came in random booster packs so you never know what you were getting for what faction. Who could possibly stand for that?

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is producing the [[X-Wing]] miniatures game based on individual starfighter combat (because, let's be honest, that's what ''Star'' Wars is all about). They have also released [[Star Wars: Armada]] which is a larger scale "fleet" combat simulator, using capital ships and squadrons of starfighters.

'''Star Wars: Imperial Assault'''

The latest [[Fantasy Flight Games]] addition to its Star Wars related games is a mix between a miniature board game and a skirmish wargame. It has two play modes:

One for campaign play where 1-4 players control a team of Rebel heroes and another player has the role of the DM, who controls the Imperial forces. The campaign, as the name suggests, focuses on character personalization, xp gain and the like, which you can find in any light RPG-esque (board)game. The main goal is to get a few friends together and casually play through the missions. Think of it as a Star Wars version of the original [[Hero Quest]].

The other play mode is skirmish play, where two players each get to assemble a team of miniatures plus a command deck (cards that have specific effects when played) and play against each other in an open-play scenario. The play area is still very limited to a few game tiles (as in a campaign mission) but players are free to bring whatever they want (with a few limitations of course). The skirmish part of Imperial assault is as close as you can get to an actual Star Wars skirmish wargame, but it is a missed opportunity from Fantasy Flight to create a true skirmish wargame (ala [[Infinity (wargame)|Infinity]]), not based on tiles and so confined spaces. Who knows what they have plans for though...

'''Star Wars Legion'''

And Fantasy Flight have now given us a fully fledged wargame, complete with AT-ST in the first wave. (They're 32mm scale, which means [[Games Workshop|no reusing your Imperial Assault miniatures]].) Legion has an integrated turn system, and the usual FF custom dice and forest worth of dead trees in cards and tokens that will be familiar to X-Wing and Armada players. The miniatures are PVC, reasonably detailed, easy to assemble pieces. A standard battle is 800 points, which could be anywhere from half a dozen to 16 units on the field, with an average army fielding 8-12 units comprising 30-ish models.

=== Board Games ===

The most famous and arguably best one is [[Star Wars: Rebellion]], an asymmetric two-player game that plays through the Original Trilogy in a wargame/worker placement-esque game. The Empire player must expand their already huge military base over the galaxy to build more ships and huge superweapons while searching for the Rebel Base, while the Rebels do their best to bite them in their heel, obscuring their movements and annoying the Empire until they have enough support to overthrow the Empire. As a [[Fantasy Flight Games|FFG]] boardgame, it's filled with a ludicrous amount of bits and pieces (including sweet models of Star Destroyers, Death Stars and Calamari Cruisers), as well as the trademark filled-with-small-exceptions ruleset. It's pretty sweet and still considered one of the best board games of its kind.

=== Card Miniature Games ===

In the late 00's, WizKids produced a short lived construct-able miniatures Star Wars game based on their styrene card system for Pirates of the Spanish Main. Although the game sold well, when NECA bought WizKids from Topps the rights did not transfer and it went out of print.

==Video Games for Star Wars==

To put it bluntly, every game which could possibly have ''Star Wars'' slapped onto it, exists. Flight simulators. Racers. Rail shooters. Doom clones. MMOs. Age of Empires reskins. Hell, there's even a Kinect variety game. Here's a few standouts...

* '''Knights of the Old Republic''': A pair of single player RPGs depicting a Sith war several thousand years before ''A New Hope''. KotOR is widely regarded as the best Star Wars video game ever, and was the framework for BioWare's ''Mass Effect'' series. Of all the Legends stuff, KotOR appears to still be in good standing with Disney since they continue to borrow from it. The sequel by Obsidian was the original skubtastic take on the franchise TLJ wanted to be but failed miserably. Got an MMO simply called "Old Republic" (since you can play as things other than Jedi and Sith) that is the sequel, which had a very rough start but stabilized enough to still survive to this day somehow). Possibly still canon in the Disney continuity since a lot of things get borrowed or referenced from it. Also the only thing in the EU to still receive new content.

* '''Jedi Knight:''' A series that started of as an early FPS named Dark Forces (so early that it was the time when FPS games were still known as [[Doom]]-clones) but Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight had the protagonist become a Jedi. The Dark Forces name was dropped in favor of Jedi Knight after this. The series combines surprisingly deep lightsaber combat with standard shooting, though the levels can get very mazy at times. Introduced Kyle Katarn, one of the most popular characters from EU. Unfortunately, there has not been a new game since 2003's ''Jedi Academy'' and likely will never be thanks to Disney.

* '''Republic Commando''': An FPS that has the player command a squad of commandos. Its a great shooter but unfortunately, it never received a sequel and to make things worse, ended on a cliffhanger. The second act of the game, set entirely on a drifting Acclamator-class assault ship is particularly memorable and highly atmospheric. If one can look past outdated graphics, its worth trying out for anyone who wants a good FPS experience.

* '''Empire at War''': Made by the original developers of [[Command and Conquer]], it is the most notable strategy game to have come out of Star Wars. Notable for featuring three different modes of play: ground battles, space battles and galactic conquest map. Though ground battles are a bit meh, the space battles are great and the galactic conquest is certainly more interesting than only playing random skirmish matches. Even though its over 10 years old, it has a very active modding community. Republic at War, which changes the games Galactic Civil War setting to Clone Wars and Thrawns Revenge, set much further into the Galactic Civil War than portrayed in the films, are particularly great. There is also a remake mod in the works, aiming to bring the game up to modern standards in terms of visuals, sound and UI and the results do look good. Unfortunately, no great 40k mod.

* '''Star Wars Galaxies''': An early MMO, launched after ''Everquest'' but before ''WoW''. Galaxies is noteworthy for making force powers a prestige achievement requiring enormous in-game effort to unlock. The first expansion pack added a subgame that's a pretty solid flight game in its own right and the game eventually added an original, fully playable, trading card game that sadly has not yet been implemented in any simulator. Then ''World of Warcraft'' hit, Sony panicked and made Jedi a starting class and replaced the skill system with massive level grind, and offered refunds to the raging army of neckbeards. Subscription numbers tanked and never recovered. It would effectively be replaced by ''The Old Republic'', an MMO using the acclaimed KotOR setting. Like most "dead" MMOs that people loved it still lives on through illegal private servers (don't worry, the guys providing it would get busted, not people playing on it).

* '''X-Wing (and TIE Fighter)''': A series of ''Wing Commander'' clones released in the 90's. While badly dated today, they were the best fighter sims of their time, and if you can get past the highly primitive graphics some people still consider them to be the best to this day. Interestingly, TIE Fighter is largely seen as the best of the series while the N64 era Rogue Squadron and Shadows Of The Empire games are seen as being far more visually modern but largely inferior sequels. Did we mention you had to use a flight stick controller basically made for these games to really do well at these?

* '''Star Wars Battlefront II (2005)''': Not to be confused with the one released by EA in 2017. Solid game from the new-defunct Pandemic studio (fuck you, EA) in 2005 told from the perspective of a clone trooper that survived all the way up to the battle of Hoth, with a very down to earth boots on the ground approach. Also, just being thrown into random matches as a soldier because fun. Despite some issues, it remains the high point of the Battlefront series as well as the entire PS2 era, and on PC still has fans via an active modding community to this day. There is of course also the original one but the second one pretty much completely overshadowed it.

* '''Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)''': The one by EA. You've probably heard everything important. An absolute mess at launch due to its lootbox-heavy progression system, so much so that it started discussion even on government level about lootboxes that continues to this day. A comment by EA that became the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. Yet despite all this, two years later, the game is arguably one of the best Star Wars experiences one can have and an Anakin-level redemption story. Like the previous Battlefront II, it completely overshadowed its predecessor.

* '''Jedi: Fallen Order''': It took them years but finally, EA managed to deliver a Star Wars game that is great on launch without cramming it with e-transactions. Its plot focuses on an unfortunate Jedi renegade between ''Revenge'' and ''A New Hope'' who's on the hunt for a hidden database that might document all the Force-sensitive individuals in the galaxy. A game inspired primarily by games such as Dark Souls and Uncharted, its a great action-adventure game in its own right and a must-play for any Star Wars fan.

* '''Monopoly Star Wars''': Its Star Wars Monopoly. With 90's FMV that plays for every square you land on. On floppy disks. Considered fucking amazing at the time, its too strange and tabletop to not mention. Also one of the last pre-Prequel things released.

* '''Super Star Wars''': A heavily modified retelling of the original trilogy (what, you don't remember how Luke chased down the Sandcrawler and murdered all the Jawas as well as their giant rat god in order to rescue R2-D2?) that was one of the ways to say "hard as fuck" by namedropping a game prior to Dark Souls existing. Amusing for the insanity of the added content in order to make a platformer sidescrolling beat'em'up as well as how neckbeardy you have to be to punish yourself trying to beat it without cheating. Sequels were made for Empire and Jedi, which slightly dialed back the difficulty.

* '''Star Wars: Yoda Stories''': A game geared for kids, released the same year as Monopoly above. Players play as Luke sometime after Empire Strikes Back, although an odd alternate version where Han sometimes is free from carbonite and Boba Fett and sometimes is not. They are assigned a quest by Yoda which requires them to traverse one or more procedurally generated planets doing whatever odd crap Yoda felt was necessary, including sometimes fighting Vader. Recieved middling scores as a PC release, with some individuals HATING the game and using it as a benchmark for how much they hate something when comparing the two, although to be fair that is because distributors tried to sell it like a full game when in reality its supposed to just be freebie software that came with other purchases and was meant to go with Solitaire and space pinball as default games on a computer to waste time with. It has lapsed into obscurity thanks to even those reviewers largely being forgotten on the modern internet. Noteworthy for being played on a grid with simultaneous turn-based movement with all enemies and NPCs on a screen, feeling very much like a tabletop game at times. A simple puzzle game, where getting blocked in a corner without enough space to pass the time by an idiot NPC is more dangerous than any foe.

*'''Shadows of the Empire''': Made on the Nintendo 64 and Windows PC, you play as Dash Rendar, a scoundrel in a ship like Han Solo working for the Rebellion. Takes place during Episode V as a side story. Despite being much beloved by fans for years and years, it's sadly not aged well thanks to the rather peculiar control scheme of the N64 and the graphics not having aged like cheap cheese in the sun. Main enemy of the game is a xeno named Xisor who is just a real uppity crime boss (and apparently a prince). This game has an absolute great opening first part where you're flying in a Snowspeeder on Hoth killing Imperials left and right while trying to use the cables to crash the AT-ATs like in the movie. After that the game begins to kinda just carry on with awkward controls.

==Assorted list of Awesome From Star Wars==
* Fucking ''[[Lightsaber|Lightsabers!]]''
* The fucking [[Approved music|OST]]
* What is likely the greatest duel in cinematic history, that takes place on a [[Death World|lava planet.]]
* Deathly Stormtroopers, heroic Clonetroopers or sinister First Order troopers; whatever they're called, stormtroopers are awesome!
* Darth Vader whenever he gets a speaking line or to murder rebel scum - that is to say, all the time.
* Darth Maul in both The Phantom Menace and TCW.
* Lightsaber Rifles
* The entirety of the Umbara campaign, where <s>Imperial Guardsmen</s> Clone Troopers die in the dozens attempting to win some godforsaken planet, earning them balls of titanium that make the guard look ba- {{BLAM| '''*BLAM*''' Heresy!}}
* 97% of the Creatures.
* 98% of the Starfighter designs.
* Costumes that mix about every possible inspiration, Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, Ancient Greece and Rome, Elizabethan, Moebius or Pulp Sci-Fi from the 60's, giving the whole series a distinctive style and gives Padme Amidala an excuse to show off with all her dresses.
* Boba and Jango Fett and the rest of the Mandalorians.
* KOTOR (both games) plot making you think this shit is actually logical and has so much philosophical background. One of the creepiest depictions of the Universe. Everything is brutal, with big vibrating knives, blood, those machines for Sith snuff movies, more blood, bastards, badass bastards and so on. Everything while somebody is talking with you about existence.
* Our saviour Lord Revan. He's like if [[Horus|fucking Horus]] just became [[Big Bad Evil Guy|fucking bad]] (but not that [[Erebus|bad]]) to fucking destroy the [[Chaos Gods|Dark Gods]] so he can solve his daddy issues.
**but he's more virile, deadly, powerful, charismatic and cool.
* Lightsabers.
* Obi-Wan Kenobi.
* The High Ground.
* TIE fighters. They have the most distinctive scream of any fighter in cinematic history that just yells "I'm evil!". Tell me I'm wrong. I'll wait.
** The fact that they managed to do that using what is essentially a shitty visual pun.
* Most of Episode 3.
* The entirety of Anakin's story, especially when you add the Clone Wars and prequels. While you're at it, watch CinemaWins' perspective on it the series.
* Admiral Ackbar the Memeable!
* Palpatine getting into some Tzeentchian-level scheming and backstabbing in order to overthrow the Jedi and the Republic.
* Grand Admiral Thrawn: So awesome that he rose to a high rank in the anthropocentric Empire despite being an alien and was one of the first (and rare few) things to be imported straight from Legends to Disney.
* Imperial Pilots get a mention, seeing as they fly literal garbage fighters against superior rebel fighters. By garbage, we mean that even the Imperium have better fighter designs than these guys. At least Imperial fighters conserve the life of the fucking pilot.
* Obi-Wan Kenobi again.
* Princess, later Senator Leia Organa; the original badass-yet-hot boss lady in space. Ends up leading two separate, successful underground freedom movements against impossible odds. Did we mention she's a Jedi in both canons?
* Han Solo, who is so badass that hot Leia falls in love. He has the smuggler's best friend, a Wookie, who is also the worst opponent you can face in a [[Chess|Dejarik match]].
* Just... Star Destroyers. When you see a huge, imposing warship from an evil Empire, this is the granddaddy they all look up to.
* Oh, did we mention the lightsabers ?

== See Also: ==
* ''[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/ Darths & Droids]'': A webcomic, made using photo-stills of the ''Star Wars'' movies to tell a story about gamers blundering through each of the six movies in sequence... though not quite exactly how you might expect. Think ''DM of the Rings'' in overall visual style, though unlike ''DM of the Rings'', ''Darths & Droids'' features several heavy twists on the actual events of the films, subplots about the players and their lives outside the game alongside the campaign, and a better overall quality of gamer.
* "[http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html/ Endor Holocaust]": An excellent example of the [[skub]] Star Wars can create. Rebuttal: "[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/fanart/endortruth20040810.pdf Endor Rebuttal]"
*[[Timothy Zahn]]
*[[Star Wars:The Clone Wars]]
*[[Star Wars:Rebels]]
*[[Star Wars:Resistance]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

Star Wars

2020-05-07T06:56:58Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* Disney and the sequel trilogy */

{{Star Wars}}
[[File:Star-Wars-Logo (1).jpg|center|500px|]]

{{Topquote|A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....|Star Wars opening text}}
'''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D0ZQPqeJkk/ Star Wars]''' is one of, if not ''the'', most influential media franchises of modern times, let alone its effect on science-fiction and fantasy. Indeed, among [[/tg/|nerddom]], it is challenged by only a few others, like [[Star Trek]] and [[The Lord of the Rings]].

The incredibly ardent fandom is spread worldwide and has a strong presence in popular culture. Many of the characters, like Darth Vader and Yoda, are iconic even to the general public. John Williams' score for the original trilogy is probably the best-known film score of all time. The universe has spawned numerous video games, hundreds of novels, multiple TV shows, one of the largest merchandising franchises ever, and, relevant to /tg/, a whole bunch of board, card, and roleplaying games.

It is also the current leading world source of [[Skub]].

==The Basic Concept==
Star Wars was originally a series of epic science-fantasy "space operas" that roughly followed the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. They're set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," [Note: this makes the entire series a fairy tale] where a mysterious life force called (reasonably enough) the Force permeates everything. This, in turn, can be wielded by certain people, giving them pseudo-magical abilities; thank the Emperor ([[Emperor|no, the other one]]) there were no Commissars in that universe. Those who use it for good become mystical, selfless warrior monks called Jedi, whereas those who use it for evil are ruthless, self-serving bastards called Sith. However, the Force must always be in balance, so any time the Sith arise to cause imbalance, the Jedi have to pull together and take them out to restore the natural order.

The so-called Original Trilogy (made up of films IV through VI, released from 1977 to 1983) followed a young man named Luke Skywalker who becomes a Jedi and re-balances the Force. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance is fighting to end the oppressive Galactic Empire, which is secretly led by the Sith. Luke and his Rebel companions eventually defeat the evil Emperor Palpatine, but along the way they discover that his lieutenant, Darth Vader, is actually Luke's father. A financial, critical, popular and cultural H-bomb, these movies are basically the filter through which Generation X perceives the world... for better or worse.

The so-called Prequel Trilogy (made up of films I through III, released from 1999 to 2005) explained how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and how the Galactic Empire was established. This involves a lot of convoluted politicking in the Republic, which is then torn apart in the Clone Wars, where the Republic (with an army of clones led by the Jedi) fights against the Confederacy (with an army of robots led by [[Necrons|General Grievous]] and secretly controlled by the Sith). It was not as well received as the first trilogy, for reasons we'll talk about below.

There's also a so-called Sequel Trilogy (made up of film VII and presumably films VIII and IX), which started in 2015 and picked up the story some three decades after the Emperor's defeat with a new generation of heroes taking on the remains of the evil Empire, which is a group of extremist former Imperials calling themselves the First Order. However, Episode VII aka ''The Force Awakens'', was directed by J.J. Abrams, who's mostly known for the [[skub|skubtastic]] [[Star Trek]] reboot, while Episode VIII was written and directed by Ryan Johnson who was a young director known for plot twists and genre experimentation on a handful of movies and television episodes that openly said he wanted to "subvert expectations" and make half of viewers dislike his work, then got pissed when half of them disliked his work. The result managed to fracture the Star Wars fanbase over issues of dull rehashing for VII and a whole laundry list of reasons for VIII (ranging from small ones such as it being too different, to major issues like half the movie being filler), as well as those who still enjoyed them and very little common ground between the three groups.

Finally, there are the so-called Anthology movies, standalone one-shots involving characters and plotlines that aren't a part of the main "Saga" films, except they kind of are. The first, Rogue One (2016), is an immediate prequel to Episode IV that follows those Rebel spies who stole the Death Star plans. The second film follows a young Han Solo and pals Chewie and Lando. A third rumored one follows Boba Fett.

There are also three separate TV series. The first one, ''Clone Wars'', was based on traditional animation, whereas the later one, '''''The''' Clone Wars'', was a weird 3D animation. They're both pretty good. There was also a terrible theatrical release that was basically just an advertisement for ''The Clone Wars'', but, since it's even worse than the Prequel Trilogy (hint: babysitting Jabba the Hutt's kid), nobody talks about it much. The third series is Disney's ''"Rebels"'' which is set between Episodes III-IV and it takes itself far less seriously than Clone Wars did, and is more of a homage to the original trilogy since not every character in the series is the owner of a lightsaber nor are they constantly talking about grown-up politics, senators and trade embargoes... pretty much the things that clogged up the plot of the prequel trilogy.

And then there's the whole Expanded Universe, which covers pretty much everything not covered by the films, like the Old Republic (set thousands of years before the prequel trilogy, when there were a hell of a lot more Sith and Jedi around) and the New Republic (set immediately after the original trilogy, explaining what became of all the characters. It could also reach 40k levels of grimdark with races like the [[Dark Eldar|Yuuzhan]] [[Tyranids|Vong]] characters like [[Vampire|Darth Nihilus]] and beings like [[Old Ones|Abeloth]].

The EU is no longer considered in the main canon of the films and TV series, due to the new sequel trilogy which does not follow EU, the reason for this being, according to Disney, that following EU would restrict their creative freedom. The reaction to this was, well, [[skub|mixed, for lack of a better word.]] They've since noted that they'll slot ''some'' of it in on a case-by-case basis, but the canon is in a highly fluid state at the moment. EU is now officially called Star Wars Legends, though most fans still refer to it as EU.

==Why is it so popular?==

Star Wars is as accessible as science fiction gets. It doesn't require extensive knowledge of a fictional world (a la ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' or ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'') or cultural background (as ''[[Star Trek]]'' sometimes does) to make sense. Those elements are present for those who want them, but they largely stay in the (very rich and vibrant) background. It has well-shot action and good ''enough'' dialogue to make it interesting for both kids and adults (as well as allowing parents who grew up with it to watch it with their children, thereby hooking the next generation of viewers). It has simple, good-vs.-evil themes that resonate with almost anyone, anywhere, at any time. The science fiction elements are generally handled well if you don't obsess over making science fiction realistic and hard. It's a prime gateway drug for sci-fi which still holds up to the experienced eye, [[Isaac Asimov]] saw and rather enjoyed the films. All in Fourteen hours of cinema, plus optional sides for those who want it.

There's a ton of merchandise that is, of course, really cool. Also, given it's crossed over into the mainstream, many people feel comfortable being part of the community without feeling judged as "nerds" (as they might with ''Lord of the Rings'', ''D&D'', ''Star Trek'', ''Warhammer'', etc.).

Again, they roughly follow the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. If you think about it, 6 of the 9 films can be summarized as: hero begins his journey under the tutelage of a wise (more or less) man, they encounter a threat which has captured/enslaved a princess/girl, who was in one way or another connected to an important secret (usually a superweapon but could be the identity of a political figure or the location of someone); the heroes save the princess/girl but someone dies tragically in a battle against the villain while someone else is blowing up a space station or a spaceship afterwards they are happy, they celebrate and mourn the loss of the poor bloke who died.

Additionally, the first film can be summarized as a samurai and a gunslinger team up to save a princess from Nazis in space. That is multiple cinematic genres at once, following the style of the epic myth.

==Setting==
Due to article bloat, [[Star Wars Setting]] is now its own page.

==The rise of the original trilogy==

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away....etc etc you all know the lines.

A man called George Lucas had the idea to create a series of epic sci-fi space operas that would become so successful that Disney would take notice and give it the franchise fluttering eye lashes, trying to seduce it.

They would be called... ''Flash Gordon''.

Unfortunately for Georgie boy, and fortunately for modern nerddom, Dino de Laurentiis already owned ''Flash Gordon'', and were busy making their own, hilariously eighties version, so he said, screw it, I'll make my own!

He decided to start with the fourth movie in the series he envisioned, for at the time he didn't have the special effects to create the first three to the standard he wanted, and/or he just kinda made up the first movie as he went along (drawing heavily on Akira Kurosawa's seminal samurai action film, ''Hidden Fortress'' in the process as well as the book [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces''], a complex 1949 Joseph Campbell analysis of the various mythologies of human history all boiled down into the basic archtypes and elements required in heroic myth). So Episode Four ''A New Hope'' was created (simply titled ''Star Wars'' at the time) and it is not an exaggeration to say it changed the face of sci-fi and general moviemaking forever, bringing a new era of special effects and imagination to cinema and changing the lives of many who would go onto to become dedicated fan boys.

Originally, the studio had forced Lucas to take ever-increasing paycuts for what they were sure was going to be a flop, and only let him keep merchandising rights. However, whatever his flaws, George Lucas was a man of vision. Having helped pioneer the summer blockbuster, he went on to do the same to ginormous piles of movie-tie-in memorabilia. His production company, Lucasfilm ended up rolling in dosh, and with Episode Five ''The Empire Strikes Back'' and Episode Six ''The Return of the Jedi'', the legend of Star Wars and its place in cultural history was assured.

tl;dr: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij4w7ChpuaM Pretty much this.]

==The coming of the prequel trilogy==
With the year 2000 coming, George Lucas felt that special effects technology had reached the level he wanted and began to create the first three movies in the star wars story he had envisioned. (As a side-note, he also made some touch-ups to the three original films, re-mastering them with special effects and a couple of extra scenes that weren't doable with the eighties' animatronics. But those were mostly accepted/shrugged away since they didn't deeply modify anything.)

The hype for the movies was immense.

And then the first movie, Episode One ''The Phantom Menace'' came out.....and there was nerd rage beyond expectation.

Part of the problem was that the immense expectations of the fandom had grown until anything less-than-perfect simply would not do, so perhaps that is somewhat to blame for the reaction to the prequel trilogy. In a vacuum one has to admit that they aren't completely ''[[Twilight|terrible films]]'' .

Episode Two ''Attack of the Clones'' and Episode Three ''Revenge of the Sith'' followed after a few years each and didn't garner nearly as much hatred, though fans complained they didn't match the greatness of the original trilogy, more concerned with flashy action and effects than competent story-telling; but hooo-boy did it deliver in flashy action, with laser armed [[MI-24 Hind|MI-24's]] full of <s>storm</s>troopers extracting jedi from a coliseum full of shooty killbots.

''Revenge of the Sith'' did, however, receive higher ratings than ''Return of the Jedi'', and is generally seen as the best and most-complete of the three prequel films as a story. Unusually the novelization alters some details and is considered a legitimately good book on its own merits.

What was generally more well received (despite a rocky start with a two hour pilot being pressed into service as a movie and an art style that took some time to gel) during this time for Star Wars was the Clone Wars animated series (both the traditionally-animated ''Clone Wars'' and the later seasons of the CGI show '''''The''' Clone Wars'', the latter which most everyone agrees is what the prequels should have been), following the war between the Republic and the Confederacy that sprung up during the time between the second and third of the prequels.

It'd be ''really'' hard to find a group of movies more skubtastic than the prequel trilogy, and saying a good or bad thing about it in front of the wrong crowd's sure to provoke huge amounts of nerdrage. In defense of the prequel trilogy's sins, they did at least do their own thing. Because of how much money the original trilogy made, practically every form of media in the 80s and 90s aped it to some form or another, and instead of falling back on the same old shit the prequels branched out and tried to get out of the franchise's comfort zone a bit. While a lot of it sucked, it blazed a trail for better writers to follow and helped liven up the universe by showing us the galaxy beyond fuckhueg spaceships and faux-Western shitholes like Tatooine. And all but the most [[Neckbeard|diehard OT purists]] can get behind shit like Naboo architecture, the Clone Army and Mace "The Ace" Windu. From a story perspective the worst sin of the prequels was demystifying the force, and subsequent works have largely swept that detail under the carpet.

==Disney and the sequel trilogy==

Finally, all the efforts by Disney to woo George Lucas paid off and in 2012 Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise for 4 billion dollars and immediately announced they would produce a new trilogy of films set after the original trilogy.

Expectations were almost as high as the private fears of the fans. Bringing on the creative talent behind the [[skub|skubtastic]] ''[[Star Trek]]'' reboot was equally... well, [[skub|take a wild guess]]. The end result saw millions of voices cry out in terror, and were suddenly subsumed into hitherto unseen levels of [[Skub]].

For sake of sanity, these section have been condensed. Read at your own peril.
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===Episode 7: The Mouse Awakens===
''Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens'' debuted in December of 2015, and reception was what you would expect: the film was immediately a massive success from a monetary standpoint as everyone ([[China|almost]]) everywhere rushed to the theaters in response to the hype, with children engaging in as many repeat viewings as their parent's money could allow as fans did the same thing with their own. It has become a financial hit with the general public and a (critically) generally well-reviewed piece, with decent cinematography, special effects, technical stuff, etc. It also went on to become the third biggest financial success in film history (at the time), when not adjusted for inflation.
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Fan response was a good deal more mixed. Many criticize the plot for rehashing Episode IV, without doing anything to establish its own identity and claim that it had a bland main character, [[Mary Sue|who had too many abilities]] whereas others find the replication of ''Star Wars'' feel an acceptable trade and praise it for being a decent action film, [[skub|and claim the lead doesn't outdo any of the previous main characters]].

Some would argue that by rehashing the original trilogy it basically nullified the accomplishments of the original crew; the Empire's still around, they've got yet another superweapon, Han & Leia split up, Luke failed to rebuild the Jedi, etc. Other fans praised it simply for being a new Star Wars that was better than the prequel trilogy (expectations were lowered due to those, to be honest). Some see poor storytelling when there was no proper showing of what went on in the galaxy 3 decades since Palpatine died, and not explaining what caused big character changes like why Han returned to his old ways or Luke ran from his friends was critical. Other say this is going to be explained in the next film and people should keep their curiosity. Some argue even with their superweapon, none of the villains feel threatening. Others argue the incompetence of the main villain is a fresh change and the point of the plot will be to see him change, to be more competent, or even learn to become good.

Overall, those against argued JJ Abrams' mystery box approach may do well for a TV series but does not mesh with films that take years to make. Defendants held the position that fans should wait to see whether the next film will do anything with the unexplained plot points.

Coincidentally, when Hamill and Fisher were originally approached by Disney to reprise their roles as Luke and Leia, they ''didn't want to do it'' right from the start. But, they didn't want to give an out-and-out "no" answer either, so they told Disney they'd return if Harrison Ford agreed to return as Han Solo as well. Knowing how much Ford ''hated'' Solo, Hamill and Fisher figured they were safe, until Disney irresistibly sweetened the deal for Ford by agreeing to kill off his character, thus forcing a reluctant Hamill and Fisher to make good on their deal... [[skub|only for the three characters to never appear on the screen at the same time.]] To be fair, Hamill has a history of saying he won’t do something only to immediately agree like he’s making a standard sitcom gag in real life, even if that usually just applies to still voicing the Joker in Batman media.
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===Star Wars Rebels===
Disney also released their own CGI series: ''Star Wars: Rebels'', which is actually pretty ok (considering that it airs on Disney XD, it should be no surprise that they've toned down the graphic depictions of gratuitous violence, much to the chagrin of [[Neckbeards|those who love overly gory deaths]]). It focuses less on the Jedi that have come to dominate the franchise and more on the "boots on the ground" experience of the average characters, and while the show started slow and small, the plot gained momentum as the series progressed, especially after the first season.
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The Rebel movement starts to grow, several characters return from ''The Clone Wars'', and the enemies the main characters have to face steadily get darker and more dangerous as more of the Empire’s attention gets attracted. When Darth Vader gets involved (played by none other than [[Awesome|James Earl Jones himself]]) he immediately proceeds to [[Awesome|open a 24-pack of unstoppable whoop-ass on the rebel scum]]. The return of Maul resulted in three character deaths (possibly four), the crippling of one main character with another well on his way down the dark side, and to top it all off Maul himself was on the loose once again. Things did not turn out so well [[Grimdark|last time that happened]], so expect the body count to rise, especially with [[Creed|Grand Admiral Thrawn]] now also coming onto the scene. The show also continues the trend set by ''The Clone Wars'' in making the Force mystical again, though whether this is a good or bad thing depends on how you felt about the <s>bullshit</s> <s>scientific</s> [[Skub|skubtastic]] midichlorian explanation of the Prequels. The animation is on point with ''The Clone Wars'', which considering it's Disney should surprise less than nobody. Oh, and Steve Blum voices one of the main characters. However, it is also noted that Star Wars Rebels may indeed have [[Grimdark|dark ending]]. Which, to a degree, it did. An important character dies, and his padawan flees into the unknown regions, leaving us with two other characters to go look for him after the second Death Star blows up.

[[Skub|The way that Filoni (the creator of Rebels and The Clone Wars) has handled the Mandalorians, a fan-favorite warrior-culture based upon the Scots and Vikings, has either been met with praise from those who despised Traviss and her overpowering of said culture, or utter RAGE that he turned many of them into either pacifist morons or bloodthirsty barbarians- usually that particular criticism comes from the Traviss fanboys]]. Do take note, however, that the old ways for the Mandalorians are making their way back into canon, such as the language, the emphasis on martial honor, and the decentralized nature of their government.
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===Star Wars: Rogue One===
December of 2016 brought us the first standalone Star Wars movie, "Rogue One", showing the theft of the original Death Star plans.
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While "Rogue One" can be justly criticized for lacking in character development, that was basically mandated by being set just before another movie whose actors were now 40 years too old to reprise their previous roles. The cast of the movie includes almost no one who appears in Episode IV, and the few familiar faces who do appear show up as cameos. (Fair warning: spoilers)

Accordingly, every main character dies by the end. It still manages to pack quite a lot of [[awesome]] into the movie, with Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk and Darth Vader all used to great effect. Rogue One also answers several questions, plugs several plot holes, and just generally makes A New Hope make a lot more sense in retrospect. (No wonder Vader wasn't impressed when Leia claimed to be on a "diplomatic mission.") It also has the distinctions of being the only Star Wars movie to focus on regular soldiers instead of Jedi, and being more like the original Star Wars than any of the sequels, including the other two of the main trilogy. (The original, back before it was "A New Hope", was a genre mashup of samurai + gunslinger rescue princess from space Nazis, then team up for a World War II dogfight. This one is wuxia cast + heist crew do a heist in a WWII trench warfare war zone. There's surprisingly little 'War' in Star Wars.) Much, much [[Skub]] still exists of course, since no Star Wars movie will ever please all the neckbeards but out of the five post-Disney Star Wars movies released so far, this one is definitely the least divisive and arguably the best of the bunch.
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===Episode 8: The Last Royalty Check (aka zomg Luke dies!)===
On December 14 2017, ''Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi'' was released world wide. The critical reception was [[Bullshit|extremely positive]], with many critics considering it the best movie in the series since The Empire Strikes Back. The fan reception has been a great deal more negative and [[Skub|mixed]], and a number of fans are convinced that Disney leaned on media outlets to shill the new movie or else. If you have watched the Empire Strikes Back, you ''WILL'' be [[Rage|disappointed at best]], if you want to see a Star Wars film that would finally expand the characters of Kylo Ren and Rey, you ''WILL'' be satisfied and disappointed at the same time, if you want to watch the film because it is the last film starring the great and wonderful Carrie Fisher, you ''WILL'' feel hollow and sad inside, and if you came to see a pair of lightsaber-wielding punks involved in one of the greatest lightsaber battles of the franchise, you ''WILL'' be pleased. The Last Jedi is seen as one of the most divisive films in the franchise by the fandom, [[FAIL|which is one hell of an achievement]] considering other films.
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The complaints about The Last Jedi are many: the treatment of Luke (which even his actor, Mark Hamill, hated, to the point that he has no interest in playing Luke again), Leia's Superman asspull, Finn's plot arc that serves practically zero purpose and has him undergo the same character arc as the last movie, the forced humor, the complete disregard for established [[fluff]], disregard for even the most basic laws of physics, the fact that the central conflict is essentially the same as the one in the originals right down to the last stand ripped straight out of ''Empire'', the PC bullshit (a hipster admiral who the plot always treats as being in the right despite killing 90% of the Resistance, the Gilded Age planet arc that [[Namek|sucks up a third of the movie to no benefit,]] Rose expressing her desire to get BLACKED with a horrendous and forced #LoveTrumpsHate one-liner in the final act) added solely to virtue-signal and the whole thing being basically a 2,5h screed against the franchise it belongs to and the culture which spawned it.

Fans have also criticized the movie for dropping or discarding major plot points from TFA and repeatedly invoking Shamalamadingdong-tier plot twists for cheap gotchas that are somehow less interesting than the recycled cliches they play off of. Director Rian Johnson has responded by shitting on said critics and trying to defend the film on social media like something out of an ED or RW article. (Important note: George Lucas never tried to defend the prequels, despite the huge backlash at the time, and he agreed with fans that [[C.S Goto|The Star Wars Holiday Special]] was an abomination.) It later came out that Johnson had not been given any kind of roadmap beyond Lucas' old and unfinished concept scripts and was not allowed to see what Abrams had done until TLJ was too far into production to write in most of the previous movie's plot points, which makes the fail Disney's fault just as much as it is Johnson's. Except we also know that he had at least a modicum of influence over the ending of TFA, so they must have talked on at least some degree. As with TFA Lucasfilm has tried to paper over the holes with tie-in material, and just like TFA the fans recognize the damage control.

The Last Jedi has without a doubt torn the fanbase apart in ways even the prequels didn't come close to, with many fans declaring that they have dropped the sequel trilogy. Even Star Wars' famous merchandising has taken a mauling, as [[/toy/]] giggles at Rose Tico and General Hux figures warming shelves while new product shipments go straight from the transport case to the clearance bin.
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===[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg_FoEy8T_A I'm Solo, Han Solo, Han Solo]===
On May 25th 2018, the 41st anniversary of the franchise, ''Solo: A Star Wars Story'' was released. The general consensus seems to be that it is the most average film in the series. At the very least, most people agree that it is at least better than The Last Jedi (if barely) and the backlash from that movie can be felt even in Solo: many fans have chosen to boycott the movie. Even before release, many fans had derided the whole affair as unnecessary: no one was really asking for a Han Solo origin movie, particularly one without Harrison Ford. Han Solo's entire life history had already been explored thoroughly in EU novels and comics, so the movie could only be a retread or a retcon, both things most fanbases tend to disapprove of.
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Whether it is because of this boycott or not, [[Not as planned|something no one expected happened:]] ''Solo'' was a box office bomb. Its opening weekend performed way below expectations and as of this writing, it has only made half of the money it needs for it to break even. Disney still continued to labor under the delusion that China would save their bottom line regardless of the fact that Star Wars has never been popular in China.

So what is it like? Well, rather than being a space opera like the other films, this is a space Western. Rather than being about large-scale battles and saving the galaxy from tyranny, it's about heists and the galactic underworld. (Except for the Mimban sequence, which you'd swear was lifted from a live-action Imperial Guard movie.) It's essentially Disney's reboot/retcon of the old EU Han Solo novels, taking things that were mentioned offhand in the original trilogy (like how Han did the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs) and making that the subject of an entire movie. The film was perhaps cursed from the beginning due to its [[Fail|troubled production.]] How troubled? The lead needed an acting coach to get through his shoots (Han may have walked away with the Falcon, but Danny Glover's Lando stole the spotlight every time) and 70% of the movie had to be reshot by a different director due to [[Butthurt|creative differences]] between Lucasfilm and the original directors.

The fail only compounded when it premiered and fans got to see what those "creative differences" may have wrought: the writing staff started spewing bullshit to the press about Lando being "pansexual" with no precedent in any Star Wars production including ''Solo'', the film's tone is a schizophrenic nightmare to the last-minute reshoots and Han's sidekick for most of the movie is [[What|a self-built female droid social justice warrior]] named [[/v/|L3-37]]. Audiences ''cheered and applauded'' when that <s>man</s>human-hating self-insert character finally fucking died. Perhaps the most damning sin is that these are the movie's only notable qualities: take them away and you're left with a movie that would make you think "Huh, that was okay," and then never think about it again for the rest of your life, were it not for the crippling disappointment of seeing one of the most beloved franchises in the world fall so far. Between the boycotts, the mediocrity of the movie itself, and [https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Gawker certain news outlets] claiming that the driving force behind said boycotts was [[/pol/]], ''Solo'' cratered so badly that [[Exterminatus|all non-''Episode 9'' Star Wars movies were for a short time shelved indefinitely, and the only side-movie still being worked on is the obligatory Boba Fett origin movie, which is more likely to sell tickets based on the name alone.]] Incidentally, one of the writers picked by Lucasfilm to handle ''Solo'''s tie-in content, Cavan Scott, has been hired by [[Games Workshop]] for the [[Warhammer Adventures]] series.
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===Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker (aka Plan Palpa-Nine from Outer Space)===
Your opinion of this movie is very easy to predict based on what you thought of the others; if you found The Last Jedi to be "refreshing", you'll absolutely HATE this one. If you hate all Disney content aside from ''maybe'' The Mandalorian, you'll hate this one as much as the others. If you absolutely detested The Last Jedi but have mixed opinions of the rest, you'll probably consider this to be the best of the new movies to varying degrees of actual enthusiasm. The movie largely undoes or ignores swathes of the previous one.
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After finishing shooting, the film was shown to test audiences (which JJ Abrams lied never happened). The film was extremely poorly received, one of many reasons being because it had [[Mary Sue|Rey curb-stomping Palpatine by herself in the final battle]] (test audiences reportedly either laughing at the film or had to be stopped from walking out of the test screenings). The poor showing made (then) Disney CEO Bob Iger - who was overseeing the screening - furious, and he immediately ordered the film to be reshot. The resulting reshoots were so extensive, [http://archive.ph/RLj94 they spanned months and the film didn't have a final edit till December 2019, the month of release], causing trailers to be so desperate for footage that wouldn't be cut they had to fill half the length with footage from prior films and stuff used in prior trailers. Further complicating matters was that the ''very stupid'' plot was leaked months before release. Despite extensive denials from Disney and media outlets, the leaks were proven correct by getting then unrevealed names and plot objects right. Camera leaks the week before release showed very little of the fantastically stupid content leaked months beforehand was changed, only minor details.

Before reading on, be aware that Rey and Kylo are no longer movie-type Force users, they have been changed to video game characters. Like KOTOR and Jedi Academy type where you just get powers by killing enough dudes. None of the powers are new to the franchise, but have been rarely seen and in some cases never before have in movies. You should also know that unlike the first Visual Dictionary that mostly just gave little prop trivia and plot hooks for other works, and the second which was mostly irrelevant until it gets referenced in a decade or two, the final Visual Dictionary is damn near required reading (this shit will get a "VD" to indicate it) since a lot of explanations were cut in the reshoots and recuts. Like for example the connection between Rey and Kylo is a "Force Dyad", basically one soul in the Force that inhabits two bodies (setting up a bit of a snarl what happens when one dies and not the other, and implying the personality is mostly in the brain which is why they can have unique experiences, but whatever) and warps space/time. This is why Rey was inexplicably powerful and knew how to do shit instinctively, because Kylo's training passed onto her, and likewise her nonstop playing with X-Wing training sims as a child made him a badass pilot. Dyads used to be far more common in the KOTOR era, and were apparently the inspiration for the Sith Rule Of Two. This is never mentioned in the final cut of the film, but leaks show it was in one of the earlier ones.

The movie pressed on with breakneck speed that doesn't have time for musical interludes or wipe transitions, the opening crawl informing you that Palpatine has somehow returned and sent a message to the galaxy with the Resistance trying to rebuild and gather information, Rey being trained by Leia on the planet Ajan Kloss (AKA not!Yavin #2, VD) after repairing Anakin's lightsaber (VD) who had received partial training from Luke before stopping for reasons explained later in the movie and supplementing the rest with her pouring over the Jedi texts, and Kylo Ren trying to find Palpatine because his existence is a threat to his rule. The movie takes a lot of inspiration from KOTOR era lore with Ren finding a Sith McGuffin Holocron-type navigation device on Mustafar (VD) showing him the secret planet of the Sith (not Korriban/Pesegam/Moraband, this one is a planet in a red nebula that is under constant lightning storms called Exegol). There he finds a MASSIVE Sith cult that has kept itself secret and managed to not only build a fucking massive fleet of Star Destroyers equipped with planetkiller guns like something straight out of the old canon, but divisions of Stormtroopers, technicians, and officers to fill them along with the typical cultists in robes who administer to keeping Palpatine alive and seeing to his Sith alchemy shit...which includes tanks containing multiple clones of Snoke, revealing the guy was literally born looking like that with a manufactured backstory all so Palpatine could use him as a puppet to create the First Order (which is almost a meta commentary about the backstory controversy).

Kylo is offered the chance to be the new Emperor by Palpatine, who is a corpse kept barely alive through methods some would consider... Unnatural, while strapped to a machine with [[Lord Kroak|his spirit sticking nearby]] (the filmmakers zig-zagged on the nature of this; first it was the original Palpatine who had somehow duped everyone in ''Return of the Jedi'' with a clone stand in, then the reshoots changed it to the original's zombie-like rotting corpse animated by his lingering spirit and Lucasfilm later retconned him to be a zombie-like clone of Palpatine after the film's release). The only requirement for Palps to pass him Emperorship is killing Rey, although Ren is immediately suspicious of the other strings attached (including choking a guy in a hissyfit when that concern is voiced) and decides instead to recruit Rey again, this time as a co-Emperor.

Finn and Poe obtain information about a spy within the First Order (yeah, you know its fucking Hux even before they say there is a spy at all) while Rey gets visions during her training with Leia. The spy confirms that Palpatine is legit and the info about the fuckmassive deathfleet is legit, and Rey finds the Jedi texts contain notes from Luke about his search for that planet. They go to his last clue, a desert planet that isn't Tatooine and is the middle of a festival where they find Lando has been holed up enjoying himself since him and Luke traveled there. They are immediately spotted by the First Order and escape from them to find the ship of one of Palpatine's servants who had last been seen there. They fall into sinkholes around the ship created by giant tunneling worms, and find the skeleton of Sheev's boy as well as a Sith dagger. 3PO is programmed with the Sith language, but his programming from the Old Republic era forbids him from giving the translation to civilians. Rey manages to get the sand worms to leave them alone by using Force powers to heal one's wound, and they attempt to get the Sheev's servant's ship up and running before they are attacked by the First Order. Chewie is taken prisoner and Rey wrecks Kylo's TIE Fighter before the two engage in a Force tug of war to pull the transport Chewie is on, which ends in Rey accidentally Force Lightning it and causing it to explode when she becomes frustrated with the stalemate. Chewie is revealed to have been on another transport and is taken to Ren's flagship Star Destroyer while the heroes, instead of do something sensible like seek a Rebel leader who can give security clearance for 3PO's protocol (Leia's the obvious choice), they head to a planet under VERY Nazi-like occupation to find a droid technician who can hack 3PO's memory. They encounter a woman from Poe's past, revealing he was a former spice smuggler like Han until abandoning his crew (causing them to fall into debt and become bitter at him) to join the Resistance. She threatens to turn the group in to pay off their debt [[Mary Sue| but Rey kicks her ass, earning her respect and she takes them to the technician without further incident.]] The technician unlocks 3PO's memory at the cost of wiping him. The translation reveals the dagger is the key to finding the Sith navigation McGuffin they are looking for. During this BB-8 reactivates Sheev's servant's old droid, who doesn't do much.

The heroes proceed to board Ren's flagship with the help of a First Order officer's badge, and shoot their way through as they free Chewie. Rey and Ren have another linked vision where her parents are revealed to have attempted to hide her from her grandfather Palpatine, who wanted to merge the souls of himself and '''ALL''' other preceding Sith (presumably not Revan, since his redemption is canon) while he discovers they are on his ship and orders it put on lockdown. Rey is confronted in the hangar by Ren, who offers her to join him again. She refuses and the Falcon appears, the engines blowing away the Stormtroopers while Rey jumps aboard. The crew head to Endor after finding out from Sheev's servant's old droid that it was where he was going to go next (this is the only thing the droid does other than serve as a "pet the dog moment" for the cast a few times) where the Death Star wreckage of the disk and throne room landed, encountering a division of former child-soldier Stormtroopers like Finn who went AWOL. The dagger has a slide-out metal prong from the handle which perfectly lines up with the corridor leading to Sheev's throne room. The team work on repairing the Falcon while Rey presses on ahead, alone, to the Death Star wreckage. Once in the throne room a hidden door opens, revealing a sanctum full of crystal mirrors that are the same as the ones she saw in her vision in Force Awakens (the scene where she snaps her fingers and all the mirrored ones do as well). There she finds the Sith McGuffin and gets a "The Cave" vision of herself as a Sith with a red double-bladed lightsaber which she fights. Kylo is waiting for her in the throne room, and crushes the Sith McGuffin in his hand before informing her they are linked in the Force as one soul inhabiting two bodies and offering her again to be the Vader to her Palpatine which she again refuses. The two fight while Finn and one of the Stormtroopers try to rescue her. They fight their way onto the remnants of the Death Star hangar, reminiscent of Anakin and Obi-wan in Revenge Of The Sith with water instead of lava, before Ren freezes as he senses his mother start to die. This pause gives Rey time to grab his lightsaber and stab him before she freezes sensing Leia actually pass away. Rey uses the Force to heal him, then steals his TIE Fighter while Poe and Finn return to the Resistance base. Rey initially attempts to hide on Luke's monastery to let Palpatine's bloodline die with her, but after lighting Kylo's TIE on fire (so she's destroyed 2 of his personal TIE at this point) Luke appears as a Force ghost to tell her <strike>Rian Johnson</strike> he was wrong, and was motivated by fear when he tried to hide. He reveals that all the Jedi who came before are rooting for her, and tells her where Leia's lightsaber is hidden. He reveals she stopped her training because in a vision she saw that her son would be destroyed by the Dark Side, and a Light Side counterpart would take up her blade instead. Meanwhile, Kylo is visited by the memory of Han. The two reenact the scene from Force Awakens, only this time Kylo throws his lightsaber into the sea and renounces the name Kylo Ren to become simply Ben again. Meanwhile the First Order blow up Poe's home planet where the droid technician and Poe's old crew were, although they had managed to get offworld by that point. Also, R2-D2 restores C-3PO's memory wipe by finding a backup which contains everything from before the mission.

Luke lifts his X-Wing from the waves and Rey scavenges the Sith McGuffin from the flaming wreck of Kylo's ship. As she proceeds to the Sith planet she sends out a beacon to track her progress, giving the entire galaxy a map to the Sith fleet. Poe, now leader of the Resistance, sends Lando with the Falcon and Nien Nunb to gather any forces they can, all the ones who refused to aid them in The Last Jedi, while the rest of the Resistance gears up to attack Sheev's fleet before they can leave the storm cloud. The initial plan is to destroy the navigation device which orients them to the rest of the galaxy without which the fleet cannot leave, until the commander of the flagship (a former Imperial officer) realizes what they are doing and orders it to be shut down so his own ship could serve as the navigation for the rest. Rey confronts Sheev in a coliseum/throne room full of the Cultist parents of the personnel of the fleet (VD) and is informed of his plan to have her kill him so all the Sith could merge with her and rule as basically the God Emperor of Star Wars. She raises her lightsaber before using the strange wormhole Force connection thing they have to pass it to Ben, who had gotten there with a salvaged TIE from the Death Star wreckage and was being beaten by his former servants, the Knights Of Ren. Armed with Luke's old lightsaber he kills them and proceeds to the throne room. Ben arrives and the two attempt to fight him. He simply Force Pushes them back and forces them to kneel before draining a portion of their souls, the "two bodies one soul" thing apparently being a massive source of Force power he can heal himself with to rule in his own rejuvenated body again (but with Darth Maul eyes) rather than Rey's. Meanwhile, the ex-Stormtroopers and Resistance ground personnel lead by Finn land on the flagship Star Destroyer (its still in the atmosphere of the Sith planet, thus gravity and breathable air applies) and due to bringing goat-horse things from Endor are not affected by onboard EMP that would otherwise short out speeders and tanks (which is a thing from past canon, mostly comics and novels, which they use to explain why such a thing doesn't happen more often). Meanwhile, Lando appears with a fucking enormous fleet (remember the backstory that the New Republic didn't have a fleet, instead paying for every planet to have a militia of their own which would unite when there was a big enough threat? Well, JJ finally remembered because all those fucks show up alongside a neat little game of "spot that ship from the series you know" in a few shots). They begin attacking the superweapons underneath the Star Destroyers directly, causing chain reactions that blow the entire ship.

Ben is Force-pushed by Sheev into a pit as revenge for how Vader did the same thing to him before taunting the dying Rey and unleashing a MASSIVE Force Lightning storm which shorts out the fleet. While this is going on the spirits of all the dead Jedi (like pretty much anyone they could find to record a line from any of the past movies or shows, including Ahsoka; which is pretty lame since it means she was killed off-screen, with natural causes being unlikely since Ahsoka wouldn't have been 80 yet, and even that's below the average Togruta life expectancy, though this may not necessarily be the case according to Filoni) who inhabit her body the same way that Palpatine is currently full of all the Sith. Rey manages to stand and deflects his Force Lightning with Leia's lightsaber, which isn't enough until Ben manages to climb out of the pit and throw her Luke's lightsaber; with the two together she's able to walk close enough to Sheev for his Force Lightning to burn him, and despite this being the third fucking time this has happened he does not turn off the lightning and instead Raiders Of The Lost Ark's himself into a skeleton before blowing up and destroying not only himself but the spirits of all the past Sith. Despite Palpatine's plan being to possess Rey when she kills him, for some reason he doesn't do so. The Jedi spirits leave Rey and she dies, with the barely lingering on Ben healing her. They share a kiss (reminder that since Sheev created Anakin, they're basically cousins, and their relationship is so adversarial it makes Edward and Bella's from Twilight look healthy, something the novelization tries to claim is "purely platonic") before Ben dies. His body vanishes, as does Leia's. The Resistance/Militia fleet destroy all the Star Destroyers after Finn's ground crew hijacks one of the cannons of the flagship to shoot at the ship bridge, killing the last of the old Empire and First Order leadership.

The heroes return to the Resistance planet where they celebrate, scenes showing the rest of the galaxy shooting the last of the First Order Star Destroyers play, Chewie is given Han's old medal from A New Hope, and the ex-Stormtrooper leader is hinted to be Lando's daughter or grandaughter implying a spinoff with the two. After the celebrations Rey returns to Luke's old home on Tatooine where she buries Anakin and Leia's lightsabers, revealing she built her own from her Force vision only with yellow blades instead of red ones. An old woman who was a neighbor of Owen and Beru comments nobody had been to that place in years and asks Rey's name. Seeing the Force Ghosts of Luke and Leia, she tells the woman her name is Rey Skywalker. The End.

Because god knows this fandom can no longer agree on fucking anything anymore, there was immediately fan wars going on everywhere Star Wars fans are found. Fans accused haters of review bombing, those who hated the movie claimed the critic score (which, if you recall, is mostly people who liked The Last Jedi and hate this movie for doing a U-turn on it) vindicates them. The fan fighting probably won't ever end, since now we apparently have to reevaluate if A New Hope and the Kenner Star Wars toys were ever good in the first place because some contrarians now claim the prequels are the pinnacle of Star Wars. Whatever the case, Disney CEO Bob Iger resigned in the middle of the work week in late February 2020, indicating that the backlash and fan alienation had a deeper impact than anticipated.
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==Expanded Universe==

It can be said what makes a franchise into a long term lasting thing is when a wealth of extra story and background is created that expands on the original story far beyond what there was. It could be argued Star Wars leads the race in this, as the sheer amount of extra novels, graphic novels and games based on Star Wars can and does overwhelm the ordinary fan.

===The original EU/Star Wars "Legends"===

[[Image: Choices_of_One_PB_art.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Before Cara, before Rey, before Darth Talon or Padme... there was Mara Jade]]
The background has expanded into the distant past before the founding of the current Jedi and Sith orders and into the (not-quite-so) far future looking at the descendants of Luke Skywalker and other popular characters. Uniquely, especially considering [[Warhammer 40K|other]] [[Star Trek|franchises']] track records, the Star Wars Expanded Universe is <strike>remarkably</strike> <strike>sorta</strike> sometimes internally consistent, both with other sources within the universe and with the films themselves, at least in comparison to other comparable settings. Of course, it's got plenty of its own [[C. S. Goto|problem children]] that slipped through, and the [[skub]] mine of it all isn't much shallower than that of 40K. Good portions of it do hold up well, largely due to the efforts of Lucas' company's continuity department leaning on everyone to hold it together. One thing that greatly helps is continuity books and articles aren't afraid to make small retcons to make even the most obscure and shitty sources (like that terrible PS1 fighting game) seem like part of an organized plot. Particularly well-loved parts include characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn (a rare alien officer in the Empire and popular enough that Disney brought him back to the canon from the EU) and Mara Jade (a Force-using former agent of Emperor Palpatine who later turned good, became a Jedi Master, married Luke and had a son with him) - interestingly both were created by the same author [[Timothy Zahn]].

Upon their acquisition, Disney said "fuck it" and threw out everything but the films and the Clone Wars cartoons. Some popular old stuff got mentions or appearances (and Thrawn got to be a major character), but the overall quality is even lower than the old EU. What was set up as a major book contains phrases like "The TIE wibbles and wobbles through the air" and random virtue signalling. As though to top the previous, Disney literally published a book with an entire chapter about mass wedding farts (Yes. Really.). The only good stuff is from established EU authors writing stuff far away from era of the Disney films.

The [[rage]] over the EU's scrapping was major among many fans of it, but for all Disney's shortcomings, they were in a tight spot. Towards the end all that continuity and consistency got thrown out the airlock for increasingly dumb and disjointed narratives and garbled plot threads to the point that the Star Wars logo was just about as much a sign of quality as the Nintendo approval stamp on shitty SNES games.

Another problem was that Disney is mostly family-friendly, and some of the Star Wars EU could get really dark. As in Warhammer 40k levels of grimdark. Examples of this are the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong - forcenull space-Druchii (no no, not Comorrites though they have the pain and body modification fetishes for it, space-'''Druchii''', riding enslaved tyranid bioships) from another galaxy, Mnggal-Mnggal - mindraping gelatin lost on its way to Star Trek, and Abeloth - an ancient (she predates the Jedi and the Sith) yandere Force entity more like something from the Cthulhu Mythos and is so dangerous the Jedi and the Sith '''joined forces''' to fight her. It's difficult to envision how Disney could have kept the EU when even before all that it was struggling to find a market beyond the most [[neckbeards|dedicated fans]].

===The Books===

'''The Good EU'''
[[Image: Heir-to-the-empire-cover.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Heir to the Empire (1991): The book that started it all]]
* '''The Thrawn Trilogy''': The origination point for the EU, and focuses on the conflict with the Imperial remnants left over after RotJ. Named for the main villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who went on to become one of Star Wars most well-loved characters. Basically the story "The Force Awakens" wishes it was. Also introduced Mara Jade, a sexy redhead that's everything Disney wishes Rey was and more.
* '''The Han Solo Adventures''': Star's End was the second spinoff book written and the first good one. Han and Chewie are trying to get some work done on the Falcon and wind up having to bust out some political prisoners to pay for it. Would have made for a better film than ''Solo'' did.
* '''Shadows of the Empire''': Shadows is set between ESB and RotJ and fills in the details of getting the Death Star II's plans, finding out where Han was taken, Luke building his own saber, etc by the introduction of another bounty hunter by the name of Dash Rendar. The Special Edition rerelease of ''A New Hope'' added the Outrider to the background of one scene. Most notable for the fact that it was also adapted into a video game for the N64 and PC.
*'''The Darth Bane Trilogy''': The origin of the Rule of Two for the Sith, along with a compelling protagonist and his apprentice.
* '''Revenge of the Sith''': The novelization is actually considered a serious improvement over the movie itself.

'''The Bad EU'''
* '''Jedi Academy Trilogy''': Luke sets up his academy on Yavin IV and tries to teach [[Rage|Kyp Durron]]. Imperial remnant superweapons hit ludicrous territory with the sun crusher. This was the beginning of Kevin J Anderson hammering out a couple dozen Star Wars books over about four years.
* '''Young Jedi Knights Series''': Set between Jedi Academy and New Jedi Order, mostly follows Han & Leia's kids.
* '''I, Jedi''': A retelling of the Jedi Academy Trilogy (see above) with more of Corran Horn from the first set of X-Wing books. Less derp in general but significantly more [[Mary Sue]]age of Horn.
* '''Legacy of the Force''': The survivors of the Yuuzhan Vong War are trying to rebuild the galaxy, but Jacen Solo turns Sith and becomes the main villain. The book series is infamous for nearly killing the Star Wars EU, threatening the franchise and issues between various writers years before Disney went down the same road (Jacen Solo was also a major influence for Kylo Ren). The biggest complaints were Jacen killing Mara, the heroes becoming idiots whenever they could've stopped the villains, poor dialogue, long-winded writing and the story being overstuffed with allusions to post 9/11 United States.

'''The [[Skub]] EU'''
[[Image: Yuuzhan-vong-eu2_bg.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The Yuuzhan Vong, [[Skub|either badass and interesting or grimderp canon-defiling villains]]]]
* '''New Jedi Order''': The longest-running (19 books long) and most divisive story of the EU. Luke's married to Mara and they're rebuilding the Jedi Order while Han and Leia are trying to reconcile the New Republic and Imperial Remnants. Han and Leia are also raising three kids and Mara's got a terminal illness. Then extragalactic aliens called Yuuzhan Vong - [[Imperium of Man|religious fanatics]] with [[Tyranids|organic technology]], a thing for [[Dark Eldar|pain and body modification]] along with [[Culexus|partial immunity to The Force]] - invade to take over the Star Wars Galaxy. Chewie dies Majora's Mask style, Mara's illness is cured and she gives birth to Ben Skywalker, the Vong take over Coruscant, lots is learned about the Force and the bodycount goes so high it could give Warhammer 40k a run for its money (365 TRILLION; only the War in Heaven or the Fall of the Eldar had anywhere near that many deaths in one event). A real love-it-or-hate-it series, some parts were good, some were bad and some were weird.
* '''Dark Empire''': Palpatine's back to save a dying franchise decades before Disney tried it. He even uses clone bodies to do so (but unlike Disney, Dark Horse didn't flip-flop on the lore), wrecks a fleet of enemy ships using the Force and at some point has his power reflected back at him. Starts off good, falls apart fast. Known for its love-it-or-hate-it artstyle and dialogue.
* '''Courtship of Princess Leia''': Deals with another Imperial remnant, where a Queen who could be potential ally against the Imperials offers a deal which hinges on Leia marrying her son. Meanwhile Luke and R2-D2 are working with a prince who was the original recipient of the offer. This one has force witches, who are encountered when Han tricked Leia into in an attempt to win her heart... it is ''really'' silly. If you like that, raise this higher. If not, it might even drop lower.
* '''Fate of the Jedi''': Want some Cthulhu with your Star Wars? People are growing dissatisfied with the Jedi Order following LotF. Luke, Ben and the remaining Jedi are trying to keep the Jedi Order in check while several Jedi are wracked with a mysterious psychosis and a ancient Sith Tribe emerges from hiding. Han and Leia are looking after the political side of things while also becoming grandparents. Things take a turn for cosmic horror when a yandere, Force-using eldritch abomination who could doom the galaxy escapes her prison. During the conflict, Sith apprentice Vestara rises through the ranks and finds herself in a Catwoman/Batman situation with Ben Skywalker. While being an OoM better than the preceding trilogy, FotJ has a very divided opinion among SW fans.

=== Disney Canon ===
[[Image:Star_Wars_Disney_Princesses.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Love it or hate it, they are now official ''Disney Princesses''.]]
It's still [[skub|debatable]] whether or not the new Canon holds up to the old EU, or learns to fix the problems that plagued it. We probably won't see what comes of it for decades to come. Disney Canon, as of 2020, seems to largely be built around the nine main movies (of course), with shows like Rebels and Clone Wars alongside anthology movies fleshing out stories that had been told in comics and books back before the Disney buy-up, but can now be seen on film.

A curious thing that has begun happening: Certain elements of the old EU is slipping into the Disney Canon. Plotlines like the Emperor returning, the Death Star plans heist and Han's path to become the smuggler we know him as all have bits and pieces from EU canon in them. In some cases, whole characters are ported in; the best example is Admiral Thrawn, who appears in Rebels. Other times, popular characters has their traits or stories ported into new ones (Finn and Cassian are both expies of Kyle Katarn, for example). This gives some credence to the argument that Lucasfilms and Disney wanted to wipe the slate with all the stories that had been told in the EU, so they could create their own, fully realized canon Star Wars setting that one could make movies - ''many'' movies - from. Considering the amount of shitty fan-fiction-esque stories the EU had, this may be for the best, but of course, storylines that people have loved for ages are also thrown out with the bathwater.

Now. Detractors of Disney-era Star Wars often talk loads about how the sequel trilogy invalidates the original trilogy, or how Disney screwed over Luke or ignored cool characters like Kyle Katarn. These are semi-valid arguments of course, but they ignore some of the biggest issues with the EU originally - it wasn't sponsored by George Lucas and Lucasfilms. They were sponsored fan-fiction in a sense, semi-canon from the outset and not really something that could be considered a part of the Star Wars setting, though George Lucas did work with the writers to a point, such as with the New Jedi Order book series (he gave them permission to kill off Chewbacca in the story). In fact, George never really considered them real stories; more like a parallel universe of his own Star Wars works. He accepted it because they bring in the big bucks when people would beg to have the official Star Wars logo on anything they produced.

That, and the sequel trilogy, underwhelming as it may be, was George's idea in broad strokes. The series was always going to have a sequel trilogy, and while the outcome isn't exactly what he (or we) wanted, quite a lot of it is. Luke being an exile on a far-away planet, who has to be roused to fight by a new, female Jedi? George's idea, not Disney's. A son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side? Also George's idea (though Disney lifted a lot form the original version - Jacen Solo - for Kylo Ren). If anything, much of the direction comes from Lucasfilms; Disney just wants the movie to sell well. It's similar with Marvel nowadays.

So for better or worse, the Disney Canon is the first time the wider setting of Star Wars beyond the series and movies have become irrevocably canon, rather than "kinda-sorta-canon". Much of what we've gotten that is new is based roughly on George's own work as well. Remember this when discussing EU vs Disney in Star Wars - Either setting is cool for their own reasons, but the Mouse got little to do with it - and if you don't like it, bring it up with big man Lucas. Whatever the case, with Bob Iger's resignation as CEO from Disney (likely not on his terms, as he stated multiple times he would retire in 2021), things are changing (for better or worse).

==Star Wars:The Television Shows==
===Star Wars: The Clone Wars===
Technically, there are two series called similar titles. The first was 2004's ''Star Wars: Clone Wars'', an animated miniseries made by Genndy Tartakovsky (He of Dexter's Lab and [[Samurai Jack]] fame) chronicling, among other things, the titular Clone Wars and introducing a much more sinister General Grievous to the world.

But then we have ''The Clone Wars'', a CGI animated series (and tie-in movie) that we'll be talking about more and contributed more to the EU. One of the most universally known and loved parts of Star Wars, most fans worth their action figures and limited edition movie sets have watched the show and have an opinion on it one way or another. Some of the most notable characteristics are:

* The Clone Troopers are fleshed out,and we see that they are manly motherfuckers who make Guardsmen's balls of steel look like the cardboard their armor is made out of (seriously, in the movie, they literally charge straight into close combat with ''giant armored walkers with large guns'' and jump off roofs to get top of them to shoot them point blank, and punch droids in the face)
* Anakin Skywalker is actually a good, fleshed out character, with a good voice actor and shows his descent to child-murdering Force-choking asshat wasn't just him going 'welp, guess I'll fall to the Dark Side.' There was a fair amount of bad-cop “it was him or me” murder to get there.
* Introduces Ashoka Tano, a major character who's a female Togruta Jedi that's well-written, non-OP, non-Mary Sue and doesn't invalidate characters from the movies. Starts off a bit annoying in the Clone Wars movie, but manages to do something truly special: she ''learns''. Over the course of Clone Wars and Rebels, Ashoka probably has the most character development out of any other Star Wars character.
* Obi-Wan being a sexy one-liner spouting sarcastic badass.
* And many others.

However, there were some pretty derp moments too, such as

* Babysitting episode/movie.
* D-squad, where a bunch of droids become heroes of the Republic.
* Mandalore and how it's fluff was basically screwed 180 degrees, and then some.
* Droids were comic relief of the first and second seasons. It was annoying.

All in all, it was an good show that took some time to find it's feet.

After many years, a seventh season was been announced in an attempt to take away from ''The Last Jedi'' being shit and add ''something'' to the empty Disney Plus lineup. At least some of the episodes will be ones that were in production when the show ended. It promptly disappeared after that announcement for a couple years till it was announced it's coming out in 2019.

===Star Wars: Rebels===
[[Image:WomanYellingAtLothcat.jpeg|right|400px|thumb|''Stop fooling our plan, you rebel scum!'']]
Now that Disney owns Star Wars they can't go a season without something new to run on Disney XD, so after ''The Clone Wars'' ended they needed a series to milk episodes out of and launched ''Rebels''. ''Rebels'' is set a few years before ''A New Hope'' and covers the early formation of the rebellion from the perspective of one cell focused on the planet Lothal. If you liked ''Rogue One'' but thought it should be about 25 hours long and done in cartoony CGI then this is the show for you.

So what did we see in ''Rebels''?

* Grand Admiral Thrawn makes his debut in Disney Star Wars, along with the TIE Defender project. The character doesn’t lose much in the translation, and later on is arguably treated better than the source.
* The bearded old guy in the Endor strike team in RotJ turns out to be Captain Rex. Fan theory at first, later confirmed.
* You CAN [[combi-weapon]] a lightsaber and a blaster, and it's OP as shit
* Force wolves (no, not [[Rune Priest|those force wolves]])
* [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Game of Thrones-style]] Mandos (Krownest is pretty much Space-Winterfell).
* Imperial Inquisitors. Sure they don’t last long, but they were intimidating while they were, and it planted the seed that was used elsewhere.
* Some good appearances by Darth Vader.

So about the wolves... ''Rebels'' turns the force mysticism up past 11. Forget just being precog space monks with laser swords; as far as ''Rebels'' is concerned the Jedi are [[craftworld]] [[eldar]] without the racism. Rebels picks up the torch of the Clone Wars “Force Gods” and mixes in some of the straight-up fantasy shit from the Lucas era novels and the KOTOR/Old Republic Jedi philosophy schools and heresies beyond just “Light good, Dark bad”.

However, there were levels of derp that we got to see in this show, such as the following:

* Since this is a Disney cartoon, the bad guys can't have even a temporary victory. This changes Thrawn and the other Imperials from an imposing force to [[Abbadon|cartoon villains]], although Rebels villains manage to stay intimidating more than Grievous did in Clone Wars.
* Battles slower paced than a Death Guard movement phase. Enjoy characters having full conversations in cover-based shooting when everyone has Stormtrooper aim.
* Lightsabers the shape of toothpicks.
* [[Bullshit|Helicopter lightsabers]]
* Complete bipolarity in tone. This can create some great moments, but invariably ruins the mood episode by episode, or between the A and B plots.
* Iron Squadron. Just...fucking [[Rage|Iron Squadron]]
* Star Destroyers look terrible, mostly due to their bridge towers being way taller than they should be.

All in all, it depends on your preference.

Since the show does have a fair amount of dedicated fans, <strike>likely</strike> possibly more than the sequel trilogy itself, Disney has made a habit of planting Easter Egg references to Rebels in basically everything moving forward, usually in the form of an appearance by the iconic ship The Ghost or the friendly-ish space pirate character Hondo Ohnaka.

===Star Wars: Resistance===
Annnd they had to go and change things again. With ''Rebels'' coming to a close and a burning need to keep Star Wars on their lineup, Disney had a choice: find a new plot and setting for a formula and art style that had produced two successful multi-season shows, or throw it all out and start from scratch. Remember, this is Disney we're talking about, the company that once [[Fail|paid a quarter billion dollars to fire the producer who made ''The Little Mermaid'', ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''Aladdin'', and ''The Lion King'']] only for him to go and [[profit|found Dreamworks]] out of spite.

Like its predecessor, ''Star Wars: Resistance'' sets itself up as a prequel to a trilogy, in this case following the early days of the Resistance in its fight against the First Order. Where it differs from ''Rebels'' is that ''Resistance'' is playing the warm up act for a trilogy that nobody likes. On top of which, the creators abandoned the 3D style that ''Rebels'' inherited from ''The Clone Wars'', and replaced it with a cel style that's half ''Treasure Planet'', half ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and all ''RWBY''.

To be blunt, this show is 100% pure crystal derp. Our star is Kazuda Xiono, a manic depressive who literally fanboy-ed his way into being a spy under the cover story of being a mechanic, two jobs he is not qualified for. This kid is the Invader Zim of Star Wars. Filling out the cast we have the original only cockney girl in space, an autistic alien, their widower boss who is definitely gonna die, D.Va and her ex-imperial officer dad, and BB-8. Poe Dameron shows up regularly so he can be Ace Fucking Rimmer without having to compete against Rey for the TOP SUE trophy. Reception was so terrible it was confirmed canceled at 2 seasons before the second season even started.

Part of the problem with ''Resistance'' is that the First Order has a doomfort that can frag planets across the galaxy, yet has to resort to hiring pirates to encourage settlements into accepting the First Order's protection racket. Palpy's empire was a model of efficient, heavy handed governance; its evil intent veiled from the masses who mostly resent it for bringing order. The First Order on the other hand is basically just Cobra Command, a font of evil hamstrung by flailing incompetence. As mentioned earlier, the backstory for the Resistance and First Order is basically that the First Order are a mobile pirate fleet with one untested secret base weapon lead by old farts of dubious actual leadership abilities from the Empire and their fanatical children with grunts made up of brainwashed child soldiers kidnapped from pioneer settlements while the Resistance is just a tiny militia that is so poorly funded they don’t even qualify as a single fleet since their few outdated capital ships are crewed by outdated droids and they don’t even have enough fighters to protect them, but rather than depict the potentially interesting dynamic this suggests the series just tries to be Rebels again, the same path the movies took even though at this point both factions are even smaller than they were in the movies.

===Star Wars: The Mandalorian===

[[Image:The_mandalorian.jpg|right|200px|thumb|[[Goblin Slayer|''Bounties?'']]]]
Because Disney didn't have enough money, they decided to try their hand at streaming services (despite already owning Hulu), and created Disney+ as a collection of their shows and movies. And with any streaming service, you need a flagship title. Thus, ''The Mandalorian'', the first live action Star Wars television series.

The show itself lives and breaths off your nostalgia for the Fetts, giving you a new lead character wearing the cool ass armor, bounty hunting, getting in gunfights, et cetera. The show's set five years after ''Return of the Jedi'', and leans into spaghetti western's so hard you wonder why Clint Eastwood hasn't shown up. Whether you like this show pretty much comes down to the question of can you accept [[Goblin Slayer|a show where the main character's face is never seen]] and whose name is almost never spoken (probably, considering this site's demographics), and can you stand a story wrapped entirely around the finger of a baby yoda who is the most well know spoiler since (joke.exe).

If you like the 2012 [[Adeptus_Arbites|Judge Dredd]] movie you will like the show. It also might be one of the closest depictions of a Space Marine we are going to get for the foreseeable future on the "big screen". The Mandalorians (this group at least) have become almost a cult regarding "The Way" their warrior code. Highlights include a [[Looted]] [[All_Terrain_Soup|AT-ST]], getting to watch a [[Men_of_Iron|IG-11]] aimbot entire groups of hostiles multiple times, (hell just watching IG-11 ''move'' is amazing). The final two episodes are a callback to almost every episode except "The Prisoner" & "The Gunslinger" and numerous characters return and get to be their own brand awesome.

There are several hiccups in writing but those might be smoothed out later, or can just be written off as the galaxy being just that big and individuals not having the same info as the audience. Overall it is the most well received addition to Star Wars since ''Jedi''. With the show actually understanding why and how certain reveals should work, ie. not making there be anything special to us (the audience) about the Mandalorian's face/name, it is special because of his code not because he has laser eyes or something.

==Wookieepedia==
One of the largest fan wikis ever created, this bad boy is extensively cited, has enormous variety, and has page upon page of talk. It was if Lexicanum, the 40k fan wiki, and our own glorious site were fused into a terrible beast.

==Impact on 1d4chan and associated games etc==

Star Wars has had subtle and clear impacts on a number of other franchises and genres and it can be ''incredibly'' hard to gauge the extent of it all. Certainly it didn't create the concepts of sci-fi, space battles, sweeping storylines, and a blending of mystical and scientific ideas, but it certainly popularized them during the years of the original trilogy and influenced many people that would go on to have interests in sci-fi, fantasy and epic adventure today.

Hell, look me in the eye and tell me that the lightsaber didn't give us the [[power weapon]]. But then again, magic weapons.
==Sabacc and Pazaak==
A rather unusual entry here but it's well in line, Sabacc is an actual tabletop card game from the Star Wars universe which is basically a hybrid of Poker and Blackjack. A Sabacc Deck has 76 cards, most of which in four suits of 16 cards numbered one to 16, plus sixteen wildcards in two sets with values that were either negative or (in the case of the Idiot) Zero. The goal of the game is to have a set of three cards who's total as close as possible to, but not over, 23 or -23. If you got 23/-23 (Pure Sabacc) which could only be beaten by an Idiot's Array (One Idiot, a two and a three, thus 23). The stakes are raised every cycle until the cards go down or one player is left standing who gets the pot.

The notable thing about Sabacc that sets it apart from real world card games is that the Cards can change value every turn. A Pure Sabacc can easily become an instant lose 25 and an absolutely lousy hand can become an Idiot's Array. They can be stabilized to fix their value, but everyone knows when you do so. This feature has so far prevented Sabacc from being released in tabletop form as of yet. ''(Of course, there are ways to deal with this, such as simply re-dealing unfixed cards, but never let it be said that nerds will choose practicality over purity.)''

In universe, Han Solo won the Millenium Falcon off Lando in a game of Sabacc.

Pazaak is an older game from an in-universe perspective, similar to Blackjack but its player versus player rather than player versus dealer and also has some aspects of a collectible card game. Goal of the game is to raise cards from the main deck until their total value is 20 or they can also choose to stand if they get close but don't want to risk it. Best out of five wins.

CCG-aspect of Pazaak comes from the sidedeck: both players collect ten cards for their side deck and then randomly take four cards from their side deck to their hand in the beginning of the game. Hand cards are used to either lower or raise the total value: so if the player raises cards from the main deck to the total value of 25, they can prevent dropping out if they have a -5 card or higher in their hand.
Cards which only either raise or lower the value are the most common of the side cards.
More rarer are cards which can be used to both raise and lower the value.
Then there are flip cards, which change certain main deck cards on the table to negative ones. So if the player plays a 2&4 flip card, all 2:s and 4:s on the table become -2:s and -4:s. Flip cards exist in 2&4:s and 3&6:s.
Then there is the double card, which doubles the value of the last played card. So if the player raises a 5 from the main deck, playing the double card would turn it into a 10.
Finally, the rarest side deck card is the tiebreaker, which grants the player a win if the game would otherwise end in a tie.

==Tabletop games for Star Wars==

=== Role-playing Games ===

[[West End Games]] made a Star Wars [[role-playing game]] called [[Star Wars RPG|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game]] AKA '''Star Wars D6'''. Like many West End products, it's a good game with the great misfortune of being published by West End games.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] picked up the license later and made two distinct RPGs based on their [[d20 System]], called [[Star Wars D20]] (imaginatively). Could be fun, but generally broken as hell, much like [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|its parent game]]. It was then utterly revised that into what they called the '''Saga Edition''', which is relatively balanced and pretty good.

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars Roleplaying Game|a whole line of Star Wars-themed RPGs]], each one focusing on a specific style of play. You want to play a bunch of scruffy space outlaws (Edge of the Empire), members of the nascent Rebellion (Age of Rebellion), or exiled Jedi Knights (Force and Dedtiny), then they got you covered. Unlike their [[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]] games, which are all ''juuuuust'' different enough from one another to completely buttfuck any attempts at blending, all three gamelines use identical mechanics and are fully cross-compatible. Uses symbol-counting [[dice pool]]s with ludicrously overpriced custom dice.
Like the other RPGs they decided with the retardedly similar name, and thus this one is sometimes called '''Star Wars FFG''' to avoid confusion.

FFG have kept milking the franchise and in summer 2017, decided to [[Necromancer | reanimate]] the [[Star Wars RPG|Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game]] with a "30th Year Anniversary Edition" print of the original game. It '''''finally''''' shipped in July 2018 after spending a year in limbo.

=== Card Games ===

The big [[card game]] set in the Star Wars universe is the [[Star Wars Customizable Card Game]]. It's no longer produced by Decipher, but there is still a sufficiently large player community to organize annual tournaments, rule on cards, and so on. SWCCG was radically different from the norm of card games, being divided into light and dark side cards with different backings, with light and dark always playing against each other. For tournament play a player would need both a light and dark deck.

[[Wizards of the Coast]] made the [[Star Wars Trading Card Game]].

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is presently selling [[Star Wars: The Card Game]].

Obviously, nobody is capable of creating a Star Wars card game with an interesting name.

Aside from the real, physical, games there was also ''Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game''. It was a real, functioning, card game within the MMO that used all virtual cards. Unfortunately no server emulators have implemented it yet.

=== Miniature Games ===
[[Wizards of the Coast]] did a tabletop battles game imaginatively called Star Wars: Miniatures, based on an extremely dumbed down version of the D&D ruleset. The figures were meant to tie in with the Saga edition RPG, it wasn't terrible on its own, just impossible to collect for competitive play since figures came in random booster packs so you never know what you were getting for what faction. Who could possibly stand for that?

[[Fantasy Flight Games]] is producing the [[X-Wing]] miniatures game based on individual starfighter combat (because, let's be honest, that's what ''Star'' Wars is all about). They have also released [[Star Wars: Armada]] which is a larger scale "fleet" combat simulator, using capital ships and squadrons of starfighters.

'''Star Wars: Imperial Assault'''

The latest [[Fantasy Flight Games]] addition to its Star Wars related games is a mix between a miniature board game and a skirmish wargame. It has two play modes:

One for campaign play where 1-4 players control a team of Rebel heroes and another player has the role of the DM, who controls the Imperial forces. The campaign, as the name suggests, focuses on character personalization, xp gain and the like, which you can find in any light RPG-esque (board)game. The main goal is to get a few friends together and casually play through the missions. Think of it as a Star Wars version of the original [[Hero Quest]].

The other play mode is skirmish play, where two players each get to assemble a team of miniatures plus a command deck (cards that have specific effects when played) and play against each other in an open-play scenario. The play area is still very limited to a few game tiles (as in a campaign mission) but players are free to bring whatever they want (with a few limitations of course). The skirmish part of Imperial assault is as close as you can get to an actual Star Wars skirmish wargame, but it is a missed opportunity from Fantasy Flight to create a true skirmish wargame (ala [[Infinity (wargame)|Infinity]]), not based on tiles and so confined spaces. Who knows what they have plans for though...

'''Star Wars Legion'''

And Fantasy Flight have now given us a fully fledged wargame, complete with AT-ST in the first wave. (They're 32mm scale, which means [[Games Workshop|no reusing your Imperial Assault miniatures]].) Legion has an integrated turn system, and the usual FF custom dice and forest worth of dead trees in cards and tokens that will be familiar to X-Wing and Armada players. The miniatures are PVC, reasonably detailed, easy to assemble pieces. A standard battle is 800 points, which could be anywhere from half a dozen to 16 units on the field, with an average army fielding 8-12 units comprising 30-ish models.

=== Board Games ===

The most famous and arguably best one is [[Star Wars: Rebellion]], an asymmetric two-player game that plays through the Original Trilogy in a wargame/worker placement-esque game. The Empire player must expand their already huge military base over the galaxy to build more ships and huge superweapons while searching for the Rebel Base, while the Rebels do their best to bite them in their heel, obscuring their movements and annoying the Empire until they have enough support to overthrow the Empire. As a [[Fantasy Flight Games|FFG]] boardgame, it's filled with a ludicrous amount of bits and pieces (including sweet models of Star Destroyers, Death Stars and Calamari Cruisers), as well as the trademark filled-with-small-exceptions ruleset. It's pretty sweet and still considered one of the best board games of its kind.

=== Card Miniature Games ===

In the late 00's, WizKids produced a short lived construct-able miniatures Star Wars game based on their styrene card system for Pirates of the Spanish Main. Although the game sold well, when NECA bought WizKids from Topps the rights did not transfer and it went out of print.

==Video Games for Star Wars==

To put it bluntly, every game which could possibly have ''Star Wars'' slapped onto it, exists. Flight simulators. Racers. Rail shooters. Doom clones. MMOs. Age of Empires reskins. Hell, there's even a Kinect variety game. Here's a few standouts...

* '''Knights of the Old Republic''': A pair of single player RPGs depicting a Sith war several thousand years before ''A New Hope''. KotOR is widely regarded as the best Star Wars video game ever, and was the framework for BioWare's ''Mass Effect'' series. Of all the Legends stuff, KotOR appears to still be in good standing with Disney since they continue to borrow from it. The sequel by Obsidian was the original skubtastic take on the franchise TLJ wanted to be but failed miserably. Got an MMO simply called "Old Republic" (since you can play as things other than Jedi and Sith) that is the sequel, which had a very rough start but stabilized enough to still survive to this day somehow). Possibly still canon in the Disney continuity since a lot of things get borrowed or referenced from it. Also the only thing in the EU to still receive new content.

* '''Jedi Knight:''' A series that started of as an early FPS named Dark Forces (so early that it was the time when FPS games were still known as [[Doom]]-clones) but Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight had the protagonist become a Jedi. The Dark Forces name was dropped in favor of Jedi Knight after this. The series combines surprisingly deep lightsaber combat with standard shooting, though the levels can get very mazy at times. Introduced Kyle Katarn, one of the most popular characters from EU. Unfortunately, there has not been a new game since 2003's ''Jedi Academy'' and likely will never be thanks to Disney.

* '''Republic Commando''': An FPS that has the player command a squad of commandos. Its a great shooter but unfortunately, it never received a sequel and to make things worse, ended on a cliffhanger. The second act of the game, set entirely on a drifting Acclamator-class assault ship is particularly memorable and highly atmospheric. If one can look past outdated graphics, its worth trying out for anyone who wants a good FPS experience.

* '''Empire at War''': Made by the original developers of [[Command and Conquer]], it is the most notable strategy game to have come out of Star Wars. Notable for featuring three different modes of play: ground battles, space battles and galactic conquest map. Though ground battles are a bit meh, the space battles are great and the galactic conquest is certainly more interesting than only playing random skirmish matches. Even though its over 10 years old, it has a very active modding community. Republic at War, which changes the games Galactic Civil War setting to Clone Wars and Thrawns Revenge, set much further into the Galactic Civil War than portrayed in the films, are particularly great. There is also a remake mod in the works, aiming to bring the game up to modern standards in terms of visuals, sound and UI and the results do look good. Unfortunately, no great 40k mod.

* '''Star Wars Galaxies''': An early MMO, launched after ''Everquest'' but before ''WoW''. Galaxies is noteworthy for making force powers a prestige achievement requiring enormous in-game effort to unlock. The first expansion pack added a subgame that's a pretty solid flight game in its own right and the game eventually added an original, fully playable, trading card game that sadly has not yet been implemented in any simulator. Then ''World of Warcraft'' hit, Sony panicked and made Jedi a starting class and replaced the skill system with massive level grind, and offered refunds to the raging army of neckbeards. Subscription numbers tanked and never recovered. It would effectively be replaced by ''The Old Republic'', an MMO using the acclaimed KotOR setting. Like most "dead" MMOs that people loved it still lives on through illegal private servers (don't worry, the guys providing it would get busted, not people playing on it).

* '''X-Wing (and TIE Fighter)''': A series of ''Wing Commander'' clones released in the 90's. While badly dated today, they were the best fighter sims of their time, and if you can get past the highly primitive graphics some people still consider them to be the best to this day. Interestingly, TIE Fighter is largely seen as the best of the series while the N64 era Rogue Squadron and Shadows Of The Empire games are seen as being far more visually modern but largely inferior sequels. Did we mention you had to use a flight stick controller basically made for these games to really do well at these?

* '''Star Wars Battlefront II (2005)''': Not to be confused with the one released by EA in 2017. Solid game from the new-defunct Pandemic studio (fuck you, EA) in 2005 told from the perspective of a clone trooper that survived all the way up to the battle of Hoth, with a very down to earth boots on the ground approach. Also, just being thrown into random matches as a soldier because fun. Despite some issues, it remains the high point of the Battlefront series as well as the entire PS2 era, and on PC still has fans via an active modding community to this day. There is of course also the original one but the second one pretty much completely overshadowed it.

* '''Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)''': The one by EA. You've probably heard everything important. An absolute mess at launch due to its lootbox-heavy progression system, so much so that it started discussion even on government level about lootboxes that continues to this day. A comment by EA that became the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. Yet despite all this, two years later, the game is arguably one of the best Star Wars experiences one can have and an Anakin-level redemption story. Like the previous Battlefront II, it completely overshadowed its predecessor.

* '''Jedi: Fallen Order''': It took them years but finally, EA managed to deliver a Star Wars game that is great on launch without cramming it with e-transactions. Its plot focuses on an unfortunate Jedi renegade between ''Revenge'' and ''A New Hope'' who's on the hunt for a hidden database that might document all the Force-sensitive individuals in the galaxy. A game inspired primarily by games such as Dark Souls and Uncharted, its a great action-adventure game in its own right and a must-play for any Star Wars fan.

* '''Monopoly Star Wars''': Its Star Wars Monopoly. With 90's FMV that plays for every square you land on. On floppy disks. Considered fucking amazing at the time, its too strange and tabletop to not mention. Also one of the last pre-Prequel things released.

* '''Super Star Wars''': A heavily modified retelling of the original trilogy (what, you don't remember how Luke chased down the Sandcrawler and murdered all the Jawas as well as their giant rat god in order to rescue R2-D2?) that was one of the ways to say "hard as fuck" by namedropping a game prior to Dark Souls existing. Amusing for the insanity of the added content in order to make a platformer sidescrolling beat'em'up as well as how neckbeardy you have to be to punish yourself trying to beat it without cheating. Sequels were made for Empire and Jedi, which slightly dialed back the difficulty.

* '''Star Wars: Yoda Stories''': A game geared for kids, released the same year as Monopoly above. Players play as Luke sometime after Empire Strikes Back, although an odd alternate version where Han sometimes is free from carbonite and Boba Fett and sometimes is not. They are assigned a quest by Yoda which requires them to traverse one or more procedurally generated planets doing whatever odd crap Yoda felt was necessary, including sometimes fighting Vader. Recieved middling scores as a PC release, with some individuals HATING the game and using it as a benchmark for how much they hate something when comparing the two, although to be fair that is because distributors tried to sell it like a full game when in reality its supposed to just be freebie software that came with other purchases and was meant to go with Solitaire and space pinball as default games on a computer to waste time with. It has lapsed into obscurity thanks to even those reviewers largely being forgotten on the modern internet. Noteworthy for being played on a grid with simultaneous turn-based movement with all enemies and NPCs on a screen, feeling very much like a tabletop game at times. A simple puzzle game, where getting blocked in a corner without enough space to pass the time by an idiot NPC is more dangerous than any foe.

*'''Shadows of the Empire''': Made on the Nintendo 64 and Windows PC, you play as Dash Rendar, a scoundrel in a ship like Han Solo working for the Rebellion. Takes place during Episode V as a side story. Despite being much beloved by fans for years and years, it's sadly not aged well thanks to the rather peculiar control scheme of the N64 and the graphics not having aged like cheap cheese in the sun. Main enemy of the game is a xeno named Xisor who is just a real uppity crime boss (and apparently a prince). This game has an absolute great opening first part where you're flying in a Snowspeeder on Hoth killing Imperials left and right while trying to use the cables to crash the AT-ATs like in the movie. After that the game begins to kinda just carry on with awkward controls.

==Assorted list of Awesome From Star Wars==
* Fucking ''[[Lightsaber|Lightsabers!]]''
* The fucking [[Approved music|OST]]
* What is likely the greatest duel in cinematic history, that takes place on a [[Death World|lava planet.]]
* Deathly Stormtroopers, heroic Clonetroopers or sinister First Order troopers; whatever they're called, stormtroopers are awesome!
* Darth Vader whenever he gets a speaking line or to murder rebel scum - that is to say, all the time.
* Darth Maul in both The Phantom Menace and TCW.
* Lightsaber Rifles
* The entirety of the Umbara campaign, where <s>Imperial Guardsmen</s> Clone Troopers die in the dozens attempting to win some godforsaken planet, earning them balls of titanium that make the guard look ba- {{BLAM| '''*BLAM*''' Heresy!}}
* 97% of the Creatures.
* 98% of the Starfighter designs.
* Costumes that mix about every possible inspiration, Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, Ancient Greece and Rome, Elizabethan, Moebius or Pulp Sci-Fi from the 60's, giving the whole series a distinctive style and gives Padme Amidala an excuse to show off with all her dresses.
* Boba and Jango Fett and the rest of the Mandalorians.
* KOTOR (both games) plot making you think this shit is actually logical and has so much philosophical background. One of the creepiest depictions of the Universe. Everything is brutal, with big vibrating knives, blood, those machines for Sith snuff movies, more blood, bastards, badass bastards and so on. Everything while somebody is talking with you about existence.
* Our saviour Lord Revan. He's like if [[Horus|fucking Horus]] just became [[Big Bad Evil Guy|fucking bad]] (but not that [[Erebus|bad]]) to fucking destroy the [[Chaos Gods|Dark Gods]] so he can solve his daddy issues.
**but he's more virile, deadly, powerful, charismatic and cool.
* Lightsabers.
* Obi-Wan Kenobi.
* The High Ground.
* TIE fighters. They have the most distinctive scream of any fighter in cinematic history that just yells "I'm evil!". Tell me I'm wrong. I'll wait.
** The fact that they managed to do that using what is essentially a shitty visual pun.
* Most of Episode 3.
* The entirety of Anakin's story, especially when you add the Clone Wars and prequels. While you're at it, watch CinemaWins' perspective on it the series.
* Admiral Ackbar the Memeable!
* Palpatine getting into some Tzeentchian-level scheming and backstabbing in order to overthrow the Jedi and the Republic.
* Grand Admiral Thrawn: So awesome that he rose to a high rank in the anthropocentric Empire despite being an alien and was one of the first (and rare few) things to be imported straight from Legends to Disney.
* Imperial Pilots get a mention, seeing as they fly literal garbage fighters against superior rebel fighters. By garbage, we mean that even the Imperium have better fighter designs than these guys. At least Imperial fighters conserve the life of the fucking pilot.
* Obi-Wan Kenobi again.
* Princess, later Senator Leia Organa; the original badass-yet-hot boss lady in space. Ends up leading two separate, successful underground freedom movements against impossible odds. Did we mention she's a Jedi in both canons?
* Han Solo, who is so badass that hot Leia falls in love. He has the smuggler's best friend, a Wookie, who is also the worst opponent you can face in a [[Chess|Dejarik match]].
* Just... Star Destroyers. When you see a huge, imposing warship from an evil Empire, this is the granddaddy they all look up to.
* Oh, did we mention the lightsabers ?

== See Also: ==
* ''[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/ Darths & Droids]'': A webcomic, made using photo-stills of the ''Star Wars'' movies to tell a story about gamers blundering through each of the six movies in sequence... though not quite exactly how you might expect. Think ''DM of the Rings'' in overall visual style, though unlike ''DM of the Rings'', ''Darths & Droids'' features several heavy twists on the actual events of the films, subplots about the players and their lives outside the game alongside the campaign, and a better overall quality of gamer.
* "[http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html/ Endor Holocaust]": An excellent example of the [[skub]] Star Wars can create. Rebuttal: "[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/fanart/endortruth20040810.pdf Endor Rebuttal]"
*[[Timothy Zahn]]
*[[Star Wars:The Clone Wars]]
*[[Star Wars:Rebels]]
*[[Star Wars:Resistance]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

Vargard Obyron

2020-05-07T06:52:50Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60:

{{cleanup}}
[[File:Vargard Obyron miniature.jpg|300px|thumb|The [[Star Wars|General Grievous]] of the Necrons. The cool one, from the Tartakovsky cartoon of course.]]
'''Obyron''' is the head [[Lychguard]] to [[Nemesor Zahndrekh]], a title he earned during their very first campaign together, back when the Necrons were still flesh-and-blood Necrontyr. The Royal Vargard has taken it upon himself to ensure that the prisoners/guests the eccentric Zahndrekh treats with undue honor are killed whilst 'trying to escape', something he attempted with figures such as [[Illic Nightspear]] and [[Kor'sarro Khan]] of the White Scars, though in that instance coming up short (though Obyron was about to kill Kor'sarro, and only spared him due to direct order from Zahndrekh because the latter was impressed with Kor'sarro's valor).

His other responsibilities include making sure the Nemesor's Royal Court is corruption-free, by either making court members 'disappear' should they start to plot to overthrow the Nemesor or by Obyron simply beating the Lord in combat once challenged. The result is that in practice, Obyron is the real power in Zahndrekh's court, but remains loyal to the Nemesor.

Unlike the Nemesor, he openly acknowledges the changes in the Necrontyr. Originally, Zahndrekh was oblivious, and Obyron's attempts to make Zahndrekh aware of these changes didn't work. Post-retcon, Zahndrekh pretends to be senile and Obyron plays along. With Zahndrekh playing the crazy old coot, Obyron is left as the loyal and sensible servant simply following orders, asking for no reward beyond continued service.

He is named for King Oberon from Renaissance literature (most famously A Midsummer Night's Dream) but this seems to have no bearing on his character.

== On the Tabletop ==
On the table, Vargard Obyron is a force to be reckoned with; he has all the resilience of an [[Necron Overlord|Overlord]]/Lord (Sempiternal Weave bitches!), his personal weapon of choice is the same Landraider-opening Warscythe most Overlords use, and because he IS the definition of a Close Combat Lunatic he has a very high Weapon Skill. Despite Obyron's comparatively low initiative, the power weapon nerf has made him even more devastating.

His 'Cleaving Counterblow' is able to make a grand total of 9 (10 if charged or using the Counter-Attack rule - Courtesy of Zahndrekh!) attacks, because of this he is likely to tear most TEQ and [[MEQ]] apart. This being restricted challenges is kind of a downer, but his ability to massacre sergeants and [[Nob|nobs]] far outweighs his points cost, and the remaining wounds after his challenger is bisected by him are carried to his unit. Obyron also has a special Veil of Darkness called the 'Ghostwalk Mantle', which operates exactly like the Veil of Darkness in the 3rd Edition (He can teleport anywhere using the Deep-Strike rule, does not scatter if he arrives within 6" of Zahndrekh and can also teleport out of combat in his turn, rather than attack). Should Zahndrekh be in combat with an enemy unit, Obyron uses his 'Ghostwalk Mantle' to appear right next to him in combat, talk about loyal! Obyron and Zahndrek make a very statistically solid pair: Zahndrekh can tank anything capable of ignoring 2+ armor, and anything that can't is meat for Obyron. Meanwhile, Obyron is precisely the right person to benefit from Zahndrekh's buffs.

===In 8th Edition===
8th Edition saw a retooling of his rules. Cleaving Counterblow now means that he can keep fighting for one fight phase even if he is killed during it, all units within 6" of him can reroll morale (re-roll wound rolls of 1 in the codex), the Ghostwalk Mantle still works the same and when he's within 3" of Zahndrekh he can turn wounds on his Overlord into mortal wounds for himself on a 2+. Obyron is still a beast in combat, even with his number of attacks being gimped: 3 attacks (4 in the codex) at Strength 7 AP-4 D2 is more effective against large and tough units this time around rather than him being the horde buzzsaw of before.

{{Necrons-Characters}}

Vargard Obyron

2020-05-07T06:51:33Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60:

{{cleanup}}
[[File:Vargard Obyron miniature.jpg|300px|thumb|The [[Star Wars|General Grievous]] of the Necrons. The cool one, from the Tartakovsky cartoon of course.]]
'''Obyron''' is the head [[Lychguard]] to [[Nemesor Zahndrekh]], a title he earned during their very first campaign together, back when the Necrons were still flesh-and-blood Necrontyr. The Royal Vargard has taken it upon himself to ensure that the prisoners/guests the eccentric Zahndrekh treats with undue honor are killed whilst 'trying to escape', something he attempted with figures such as [[Illic Nightspear]] and [[Kor'sarro Khan]] of the White Scars, though in that instance coming up short (though Obyron was about to kill Kor'sarro, and only spared him due to direct order from Zahndrekh because the latter was impressed with Kor'sarro's valor).

His other responsibilities include making sure the Nemesor's Royal Court is corruption-free, by either making court members 'disappear' should they start to plot to overthrow the Nemesor or by Obyron simply beating the Lord in combat once challenged. The result is that in practice, Obyron is the real power in Zahndrekh's court, but remains loyal to the Nemesor.

Unlike the Nemesor, he openly acknowledges the changes in the Necrontyr. Whilst Zahndrekh remains oblivious, Obyron attempts to make Zahndrekh aware of these changes, making no progress. With Zahndrekh playing the crazy old coot, Obyron is left as the loyal and sensible servant simply following orders, asking for no reward beyond continued service.

He is named for King Oberon from Renaissance literature (most famously A Midsummer Night's Dream) but this seems to have no bearing on his character.

== On the Tabletop ==
On the table, Vargard Obyron is a force to be reckoned with; he has all the resilience of an [[Necron Overlord|Overlord]]/Lord (Sempiternal Weave bitches!), his personal weapon of choice is the same Landraider-opening Warscythe most Overlords use, and because he IS the definition of a Close Combat Lunatic he has a very high Weapon Skill. Despite Obyron's comparatively low initiative, the power weapon nerf has made him even more devastating.

His 'Cleaving Counterblow' is able to make a grand total of 9 (10 if charged or using the Counter-Attack rule - Courtesy of Zahndrekh!) attacks, because of this he is likely to tear most TEQ and [[MEQ]] apart. This being restricted challenges is kind of a downer, but his ability to massacre sergeants and [[Nob|nobs]] far outweighs his points cost, and the remaining wounds after his challenger is bisected by him are carried to his unit. Obyron also has a special Veil of Darkness called the 'Ghostwalk Mantle', which operates exactly like the Veil of Darkness in the 3rd Edition (He can teleport anywhere using the Deep-Strike rule, does not scatter if he arrives within 6" of Zahndrekh and can also teleport out of combat in his turn, rather than attack). Should Zahndrekh be in combat with an enemy unit, Obyron uses his 'Ghostwalk Mantle' to appear right next to him in combat, talk about loyal! Obyron and Zahndrek make a very statistically solid pair: Zahndrekh can tank anything capable of ignoring 2+ armor, and anything that can't is meat for Obyron. Meanwhile, Obyron is precisely the right person to benefit from Zahndrekh's buffs.

===In 8th Edition===
8th Edition saw a retooling of his rules. Cleaving Counterblow now means that he can keep fighting for one fight phase even if he is killed during it, all units within 6" of him can reroll morale (re-roll wound rolls of 1 in the codex), the Ghostwalk Mantle still works the same and when he's within 3" of Zahndrekh he can turn wounds on his Overlord into mortal wounds for himself on a 2+. Obyron is still a beast in combat, even with his number of attacks being gimped: 3 attacks (4 in the codex) at Strength 7 AP-4 D2 is more effective against large and tough units this time around rather than him being the horde buzzsaw of before.

{{Necrons-Characters}}

Orikan the Diviner

2020-05-07T06:47:21Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* Lore */

{{cleanup}}
[[File:Orikan miniature.jpg|thumb|I WARNED YOU ABOUT THE BIOTRANSFER, SZAREKH! I TOLD YOU, BRO!!!]]

'''Orikan the Diviner''' is one of the most powerful [[Cryptek]]s in the entire [[Necron]] Empire. In particular, he is an astromancer, specializing in [[What|reading the future from the patterns and motions of the stars]].

==Lore==
He is acknowledged as the very best in his field. Apparently, he was able to predict the Fall of the [[Eldar]], the [[Horus Heresy]], and the coming of the [[Tyranids]] sixty million years in advance, which gives him a massive ego. He has no respect for the nobles who hire him, but his reputation renders him effectively immune from punishment, because any [[Necron Overlord|Overlord]] who wishes to harm him is paralyzed by the thought that Orikan must have foreseen that sequence of events and taken steps to prevent it or take pre-emptive vengeance.

In reality, Orikan is not quite as good a forecaster as the Necron nobles think he is. He can predict events in more detail than any other astromancer, but even he makes mistakes. He makes up for this with his mastery of time travel -- if his prediction is erroneous, he goes back in time and manipulates events to conform to the prediction (in spite of the unforseen events that this can bring about later). Why he doesn't just go back in time to tell himself what will happen, a far easier activity than determining what's going to happen from the most subtle manipulations of the universe is another mystery of stupid writing in 40k. On the other hand, any Back to the Future fan worth his salt would probably tell you that it's most likely because doing so would create a HUGE temporal paradox, [[Grimdark|and the universe is messed up enough as it is]].

Currently, Orikan is not powerful enough to fully utilize his time-travel and time-predicting powers as he very rarely uses them and never against Chaos, which is a good thing, since the Chaos gods could easily capture him and subject him to an eternity of horrific torture. How one would go about torturing a Necron is something to wonder about, but it's the Chaos gods- they'd figure it out pretty quickly (especially since [[Tzeentch|the big blue bird]] could mess with his mind, and nothing is beyond the lust of [[Slaanesh|the colossal pervert]])

==Tabletop==
Orikan's big plan is to somehow harness the power of the alignment of the stars in the indeterminate future. He has a chance of doing this in miniature during games of [[Warhammer 40,000]] with a special rule called "The Stars Are Right" (feel free to make [[Cthulhu]] jokes as desired). He gains a hefty stat boost if you roll equal to or under the current turn number (and he no longer reverts if this roll succeeds again). For maximum nostalgia, go full Mumm-Ra and "invoke the ancient spirits of evil" whenever you roll that die (the rule actually includes evil laughter: "Bwahahaha!").

There is strong evidence to suggest Orikan is a [[C'tan]] who managed to avoid the Poké Ball prison: his complete disregard for the necron nobility, the fact he's actively avoiding close scrutiny, and the small tidbit about '''his empowered stats being identical to that of a C'tan Shard'''. His equipment helps align him even further, giving him their trademark 4++ and AP2. However, that would also mean that he's one of the weakest C'tan in existence since at his most powerful he's only as strong as a small piece of the rest of the other C'tan. Maybe he is a freed shard or something, but minor shards only have intellect on par with simple animals, and masquerading as a brilliant scientist is way above their capabilities. Or maybe Orikan Empowered is just the Necron equivalent of [[Daemon Prince|Daemon Princedom]]. Or maybe he's really [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Dio]].

{{Necrons-Characters}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Necrons]]

Orikan the Diviner

2020-05-07T06:47:11Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* Lore */

{{cleanup}}
[[File:Orikan miniature.jpg|thumb|I WARNED YOU ABOUT THE BIOTRANSFER, SZAREKH! I TOLD YOU, BRO!!!]]

'''Orikan the Diviner''' is one of the most powerful [[Cryptek]]s in the entire [[Necron]] Empire. In particular, he is an astromancer, specializing in [[What|reading the future from the patterns and motions of the stars]].

==Lore==
He is acknowledged as the very best in his field. Apparently, he was able to predict the Fall of the [[Eldar]], the [[Horus Heresy]], and the coming of the [[Tyranids]] sixty million years in advance, which gives him a massive ego. He has no respect for the nobles who hire him, but his reputation renders him effectively immune from punishment, because any [[Necron Overlord|Overlord]] who wishes to harm him is paralyzed by the thought that Orikan must have foreseen that sequence of events and taken steps to prevent it or take pre-emptive vengeance.

In reality, Orikan is not quite as good a forecaster as the Necron nobles think he is. He can predict events in more detail than any other astromancer, but even he makes mistakes. He makes up for this with his mastery of time travel -- if his prediction is erroneous, he goes back in time and manipulates events to conform to the prediction (in spite of the unforseen events that this can bring about later). Why he doesn't just go back in time to tell himself what will happen, a far easier activity than determining what's going to happen from the most subtle manipulations of the universe is another mystery of stupid writing in 40k. On the other hand, any Back to the Future fan worth his salt would probably tell you that it's most likely because doing so would create a HUGE temporal paradox, [[Grimdark|and the universe is messed up enough as it is]].

Currently, Orikan is not powerful enough to fully utilize his time-travel and time-predicting powers as he very rarely uses them and never against Chaos, which is a good thing, since the Chaos gods could easily capture him and subject him to an eternity of horrific torture. How one would go about torturing a Necron is something to wonder about, but it's the Chaos gods- they'd figure it out pretty quickly (especially since [[Tzeentch|the big blue bird]] could mess with his mind, and nothing is beyond the lust of [[Slannesh|the colossal pervert]])

==Tabletop==
Orikan's big plan is to somehow harness the power of the alignment of the stars in the indeterminate future. He has a chance of doing this in miniature during games of [[Warhammer 40,000]] with a special rule called "The Stars Are Right" (feel free to make [[Cthulhu]] jokes as desired). He gains a hefty stat boost if you roll equal to or under the current turn number (and he no longer reverts if this roll succeeds again). For maximum nostalgia, go full Mumm-Ra and "invoke the ancient spirits of evil" whenever you roll that die (the rule actually includes evil laughter: "Bwahahaha!").

There is strong evidence to suggest Orikan is a [[C'tan]] who managed to avoid the Poké Ball prison: his complete disregard for the necron nobility, the fact he's actively avoiding close scrutiny, and the small tidbit about '''his empowered stats being identical to that of a C'tan Shard'''. His equipment helps align him even further, giving him their trademark 4++ and AP2. However, that would also mean that he's one of the weakest C'tan in existence since at his most powerful he's only as strong as a small piece of the rest of the other C'tan. Maybe he is a freed shard or something, but minor shards only have intellect on par with simple animals, and masquerading as a brilliant scientist is way above their capabilities. Or maybe Orikan Empowered is just the Necron equivalent of [[Daemon Prince|Daemon Princedom]]. Or maybe he's really [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Dio]].

{{Necrons-Characters}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Necrons]]

Mary Sue

2020-05-07T03:32:35Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* Gallery */

[[Category:Mary Sue]]
{{HurfDurf}}

[[Image:Marysuetest.jpg|500px|thumb|right|The perfectly sound and entirely reasonable logic of [[Internet Troll|many well-respected and completely honest critics]].]]

Overall, a '''Mary Sue''' is a character that is shamelessly self-inserted, fawned over by the canon characters, poorly developed, without flaws, and/or stupidly overpowered, who the story focuses on at the expense of the actual regular main characters. [[/tg/]] hates [[:Category:Mary Sue|Mary Sues]].

Unfortunately, after so much [[rage]] and so many [[troll]] threads, /tg/'s definition of Mary Sue has become blurred to the point that any character at all can be (and probably has been) accused of being a Mary Sue on even the flimsiest of pretenses.

Some accept nothing less than the above description, and will sooner gut you then look twice if you say it's anything else. Others prefer a more generalized definition, which refers to an overly-idealized character who exerts an unjust amount of influence upon their respective setting or story. Others still carry this meaning out to extremes and use the term to describe anyone who isn't a homeless junkie or a brooding sociopath with an alignment of Chaotic Batshit Insane.

However, there is a conundrum regarding the definition. If the character is overpowered, idealized and part of an established story (such as some portrayals of Wolverine and Batman), some say that this is not a Mary Sue, as they are a canon character in an original story. For them, the term "Canon Sue" is used. The only difference between a Mary Sue and a Canon Sue (I'd like to take the time to apologize to any real-life people named "Sue" who are reading this) is a Canon Sue is an established character in the story/wish-fulfillment for the creator of the story (NOTE: few people will admit if the fictional character they create is for wish-fulfillment). For the sake of this page, the definition of Mary Sue will also include Canon Sues.

Another problem is when people use the term "Mary Sue" to refer to a "creator's pet"; a character that part of the fanbase dislikes but is adored by the creator of the character and gets treatment such as increasing focus, magnifying the importance of their role, and having the other characters talk about how awesome they are in painful ignorance — or sometimes in spite — of the fans' obvious hatred. This is not a Mary Sue though a character can be both; the two types share common traits and a Creator's Pet is more easily defined. For example; [[Marneus Calgar]] is a creator's pet, while one character who is a Mary Sues and a creator's pet is Wesley Crusher from Star Trek.

It is worth noting, however, that very rarely, authors have the skill to pull off the Mary Sue, creating a character of such epic awesomeness (e.g. [[Star Trek|Jean Luc Picard]]) that no one gives a shit.

Before you ask: Male versions of Mary Sue (and there are plenty) are known as Gary Stu or Marty Stu (both work, with usage depending on whether you prefer it to share initials or to rhyme), although for the purposes of sanity, we'll default to "Mary Sue" when referring to them.

==So, what's this "Mary Sue" thing got to do with /tg/?==

In short: [[NPC|GMPCs]], [[Elminster]]-types, [[Matt Ward]]-types, and [[Elf]]aboos.

# GMPCs have their own section in our [[NPC]] article, so we'll direct you there.
# Settings have a tendency to grow Sue-level characters if they have a sufficient number of high-powered NPCs. This is because an author needs ''somebody'' to impose some stability to the setting, and so you usually wind up needing a character that has many traits of the Mary Sue. And from there, it only takes a few writing mistakes to go into Mary Sue territory head first.
# Certain authors (and any setting with many authors will probably eventually find themselves with at least one of these) want to include Perfect Heroes or Perfect Villains in their settings. The problem with Perfect Heroes is that they tend to be just one or two steps from Mary Suedom, and these authors are usually bad enough writers that the resulting "Hero" goes veering off into Suedom like a plane that loses both wings goes veering off into the ground.
#* A somewhat common subspecies of 3 is the "[[Waifu]]" Sue author. He wants to create his perfect Waifu, and the result is usually among the Suiest Sues Who Ever Sued. (Husbando-perpetrating female authors exist, as do gay and lesbian authors who do it for the appropriate sex, but Waifuing male authors are the most common subset to get called out, for various subtly obvious reasons.)
# When imagining a species or race, some authors lose sight of the concepts of competitive balance and competitive advantage and make one race superior to all the others, forgetting that the rule in good storytelling is [[Sanderson's laws|that flaws and limitations are more interesting than powers]]. For example, any given Superman (the character, not the book) story is not that interesting unless you either introduce an equal (or more powerful) and opposite threat (such as General Zod or Darkseid), or lean heavily on either his morality, secret identity, or kryptonite, all of which act as constraints on his power. The most common race to get this treatment are [[Elf]]s, but [[Chakat|other examples exist]].
#*Humanity gets both ends of this frequently: Depending on the bad writer in question, we can either be [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|the best thing ever]], or utter shit compared to their perfect Mai Waifu Master Race.

(Points 2 and 3 overlap, but are distinct enough in cause that they're worth separating.)

==Origin of the Concept==
The name "Mary Sue" comes from a parody of shitty [[Star Trek]] fanfiction called [http://www.wiccananime.com/amslt/amslttrekkiestale ''A Trekkie's Tale''] (no, seriously, that's the origin, look it up if you don't believe me.) First written in [[Old School Roleplaying|1974]] by Paula Smith, the original Lieutenant Mary Sue was a parody of the half-Vulcan jailbait and other shameless self-inserts that had been clogging up the Star Trek fanfic magazines. The trolling was so epic that her name became permanently ingrained in the vocabulary of every fandom on the planet, and this makes Paula Smith a paragon of trolls.

The term is commonly used by [[troll]]s, and can most easily be spotted by a blanket accusation of a character being a Sue without attempting to justify actual reasons behind it. More clever trolls will attempt to offer some explanation that is deliberately intended to get under the offended party's skin.

==A Few Special Cases of Sues==
Here are a few complicating factors in any simple definition of what "Mary Sue" means, because critics are mean like that:

===Villain Sues===
Note that the Mary Sue need not be the hero of the piece. A large minority of Sues are villains (either protagonist or antagonist).

Some well-known characters with a tendency in the hands of bad writers to become Villain Sues include [[Batman | The Joker]], Magneto, Doctor Doom, and [[Star Wars | Admiral Thrawn]]. And then there's the flat-out Villain Sues in a single writer's canon, such as Red Hulk's initial appearances, or the show version of Ramsay Bolton. Or, to be more directly /tg/ relevant, [[Fabius Bile]] and [[World of Darkness | Samuel Haight]].

===Sue Species And Orders===
Further, it's possible for the Sueness to be spread across an entire species or other group of people. The accusation is more commonly (and more properly) thrown around on the species side of that line (Internalized Fantastic Racism be a Real World thing, yo). The best-known cases of species-wide-Suedom are probably [[Chakats]] and any given [[Elf]]aboos' version of Elves. The best known case of a Sue Organization or Order are the [[Ultramarines|Ultrasmurfs]].

===The AntiSue and Sympathy Sue===
You'd think that the opposite of a Mary Sue wouldn't be a kind of Mary Sue all its own? Well, you'd be wrong. Comes in two flavors:

* The perpetrator of the Sue might think "I'll just pull a George Costanza, and do the opposite of my instincts!", not recognizing that what made their instincts bad was more in amplitude than in direction. There are two subflavors of this:
** Characters who are Just The Worst in some way (ugly/stupid/unpopular/what-have-you), but is still recognizably a Sue (see, for reference, the worse Neelix episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, or Bella Swan from [[Twilight]])
** There's also the "Butt Monkey" type, where the character is essentially just a Mary Sue in full reverse; there's the same "the plot entirely revolves around the main character" problem, the same "that makes no sense" and "things that only happened because the Author said so" plots, the same "there must be mind control involved" character reactions, just set to negative instead of positive. This version's inclusion in Suedom is rather more controversial, as so much is mirrored that it's hard to differentiate the "real Sues" from just "the author's chew toy". The result is still bad writing; it's just that there is some debate about whether it counts as "Mary Sue Bad Writing" or just "Bad Writing". <sup>[1]</sup>
* The perpetrator of the Sue is going for Sympathy. Which, again, is only a change in direction, not in amplitude.

The "Butt Monkey" case results in an extremely noticeable character archetype that is not usually called a Mary Sue, but is just as annoying: the one guy who is theoretically on the side of the heroes, but is useless, wrong about everything, an asshole, and generally disliked by the rest of the heroes, and who spends all of his or her time complaining or offering obviously stupid ideas. Remember Eric the Cavalier from the 1980s D&D cartoon? How about Nathan Ramsey from Seven Days? The Grand Vizier from War Planets? The magical ragdoll character "One" from the movie "9"? Avoid writing characters like this. Please.

<sup>[1]</sup> <small>To repeat the message of this entire collection of Sue types: The definition of "Mary Sue" can be rather slippery, even when ignoring internet trolls.</small>

===The Comedy Sue===
This is where a Character is a Sue and they are utterly perfect, but the audience is not supposed to be in awe of how good they are, we are supposed to laugh at the ridiculousness of it.

This kind of Sue can actually work; for examples, see the anime "Haven't You Heard I'm Sakamoto" and to a lesser extent "One Punch Man" or even Popeye at times for examples of this kind of Sue. They never fail, but we're suppose to laugh at them doing it.

The methods used for this humor range from deconstructive parodies (e.g. "We've needed a new house here at Hogwarts to accommodate all the...special girls, so welcome to House Sparklypoo!") to straight deconstruction (Take One Punch Man's Caped Baldy: instead of people fawning over him, nobody believes his feats and call him a fraud, while he's also constantly frustrated by the lack of a good challenge) to anti-climax (God-Man, pictured below in this article) to the whole thing being a mere joke delivery system (classic Bugs Bunny or Popeye cartoons).

'''''However''''', in order for this to work you need your tongue so far up your cheek it's basically bored out through the other sides, and you actually need ''''' talent. ''''' And the talent part applies even when the character exists solely for joke delivery (and thus requires no characterization beyond a couple of basic traits).

===Mary Suetopia===
For that extra bit of mind screw: There are cases of the "Mary Sue" accusation being thrown, with some justice, at entire ''civilizations''. [[TVTropes]] calls this particular variant "Mary Suetopia". Just about any Utopian work, and many a Dystopian work (*cough*Draka*cough*) can have this accusation thrown at them; commonly comes in three subspecies:

# Pure Preaching. Not just religious, but, in the story, any ideology that the author thinks knows The One True Path To (Happiness/Truth/God/Prosperity/etc.). Usually the most Sueish of the lot.
# Stories about or involving the Fall of such a civilization (sometimes incidentally; see, for example, many interpretations of [[Superman|Krypton]], where the only important part about the place is that it blew up after sending one last ship out to Earth), or about the conflict between two civilizations, one of whom is theoretically "better" than the other (e.g., some of the Culture books, or, on the flip side, [[Orks]] vs. just about anybody else). Can be Sueish, but can also avoid it, depending on the focus, nature, and quality of the work.
# Social Satire/Commentary. Here, the point of the work was less on how perfect this civilization is, and more on using it to comment on the culture in which it was written, or the state of the world at the time. Think 1984, Gulliver's Travels, Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange, the original ''Utopia'', and so on. Can be the least Sueish of the three, depending on writing quality.

(As a side note, this version of Suedom is particularly /tg/ relevant; each version of Warhammer alone has vast amounts of the latter two (although admittedly in a usually fairly non-Sueish way), and there are too many cases of the first case in Science Fiction settings.)

==Watsonian vs. Doylist definition of "Sue"==

A futher complicating factor in any definition of "Mary Sue" is the Watsonian vs. Doylist definition problem.

For the unfamiliar, criticism sometimes differentiate between a "Watsonian", or "in-universe based" explanation of something (e.g., "Superpowerman got beaten by Evilvillianman because he had the flu!") and a "Doylist", or "author-centered" explanation (e.g., "Superpowerman got beaten by Evilvillianman because the rest of the story doesn't work if Superpowerman wins that fight.") "Watsonian" and "Doylist" are named for the fictional and real life authors of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Dr. John Watson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle respectively. Holmes fans being really creepily fond of coming up with Watsonian explanations for plot holes probably helps.

How does this relate to Mary Sue definitions? Well, the two common ways of describing a Sue are Watsonian, where being Overpowered and Always Right is the relevant problem, and the Doylist definition, where the relationship of the author to the character is the relevant problem. We employ a mixture of the two, because guessing what the author was thinking can get very unreliable very quickly and even when they're questioned about this authors - like any other people - can be blind to their biases or lie. Regardless, the purely power-and-rightness-based definition can easily start returning false results if context and sanity are not considered.

==How Can I Tell If My Character Is A Mary Sue?==
Each "Yes" answer gives your character a piece of Mary Sueness.
[[File:God-Man.gif|thumb|300px|right|God-Man, providing a particularly extreme example (albeit a parody)]]
* Does their personal morality always perfectly match objective reality? To put it another way, is there no difference between describing their opinion and simply narrating what was actually going on in a scene?
* Do they start the story at the pinnacle of achievement and have no way to grow or improve?
** Or do their new skills and abilities come from your ass at just the time they need them?
* Do they have unexplained frequent good luck, even when by all logic they should fail in that area?
* Is it a fan character that is better than the canon characters? (As in, "more powerful and gets all the attention", not "better written". If it's the latter, all the power to you.)
* Do they have physical features, powers or items that are impossible to have or extremely rare going by the rules of the setting (ie; a human with cat eyes and wings with no explanation in real-world based fiction, or a ridiculous item such as a weapon which is [[Noise Marines|chainsaw, electric-guitar and machine-gun combined]] in a swords-and-sorcery setting)?
* Do they have the most powerful ability or power in a setting, without any sacrifices? (For example, a character that can use magic which would destroy any enemy, without any negative effects. But if a character has that ability, and it reduces his lifespan, damages him forever and/or kills everyone including his comrades, it's not ''that'' overpowered.)
* Are they connected to the canon characters or do they become connected to them? This usually takes the form of being a "long-lost" relative or love interest to a canon character.
* Do they get a lot of shilling? For example; do all the canon characters suddenly start talking about a fan character, with their presence in the story largely relegated to providing opportunities for the new character to show how pure, powerful, good-hearted, etc they are?
* Do you never allow other characters to dislike them?
** [[Eragon|Or do you punish those other characters for disliking your character by portraying them negatively and/or making something terrible happen to them]]? (For example; making them unlikable, a secondary villain, or having the one character that dislikes the Mary Sue "coincidentally" have their home destroyed)
* Are they someone's self-proclaimed [[furry|fursona]]? (If so, stop reading this list and burn them for [[heresy]]).
** The Sonichu exception: If the author is making fun of ''somebody else's'' fursona, and isn't a furry themselves, everything is perfectly fine, at least as far as Mary Suedom is concerned.
* Do they always make good decisions? And/or bad ones that are suddenly revealed to have been a good choice?
* Do you use absolutes like "always," "everybody," or "never" when describing their ''abilities''? (Those word being used to describe their ''behavior'' are usually okay, if slightly suspect (bad writers have an attraction to absolutes).)
* Do they feature an entirely contrived "weakness" that doesn't affect them any time it would harm them (such as being clumsy ''unless'' they are required to perform a great feat of athleticism) or isn't really a weakness (such as being too kind or righteous "for their own good") which was clearly added solely so the author could point to it when accused of writing a Sue?
* Is the main problem in the story one that this character can easily fix or solve on their own? (Doesn't count if they're the only character in the story).
*Do they have powers that no-one else has.
* Is it a protagonist character written by Matt Ward, Kim Dal Young, Stephenie Mayer, Karen Traviss, Onision, Ayn Rand or Terry <del>Good</del>Badkind? (Note, a Mary Sue can be written by someone who's none of these people.)

Since then, it's been realized that a character doesn't need to be a self-insert to be a Mary Sue, but it helps. Everyone has their own criteria for what makes one, but the big three traits are:
#They are super-powerful/hyper-competent. In established settings, usually more so than canon characters. Better leadership skills than a McDohl, faster than Sonic, etc.
#The story completely revolves around them, even in... no, ESPECIALLY in established settings.
#They can do no wrong. Everyone loves the Mary Sue and defends them even against perfectly reasonable concerns, invariably demonizing people that make these concerns.

Bonus points:
#The Mary Sue's competence doesn't match the creator's knowledge, leading to things like "The greatest Scorpion Clan shinobi EVAR" walking around in broad daylight in stereotypical ninja gear.
#The Mary Sue is a hypocritical monster and the creator is totally blind to this fact.
#Other characters comment on how much better at their own skills the Mary Sue is like they're happy for her, even if the character is known for being arrogant and standoff-ish.
#Characters that don't react well to the Sue's 'harmless pranks' see the light and begin to love the Mary Sue as well.
#Those that don't turn out to be evil spies or something.

A lot of traits (e.g. too-long-names and heterochrome eyes) are assumed to be signs of Mary Sues, but in themselves don't make a character one. This is because the "But I'm '''''Specul'''''" features are more a symptom than a cause, and all of them can be used in a non-Sueish manner (for example, a character with a twenty-part name is meant by the author to be taken as overly pretentious, and is reacted to in-universe as such).
<br clear=all>

=="I Hate This Competent Character"-Syndrome==
Believe it or not, of the vast majority of characters called Mary Sues or Gary Stues in fandoms, only a small handful will actually qualify as a true Mary Sue. Remember, one of the defining traits of Mary Sue is in their relation to the author; either the author sees them as herself/himself, or views them as fap or schlick material (or worse, [[waifu]] material). As a general rule: If the character makes a mistake, and it's clear that '''the author''' understands that the decision is a mistake, then they're probably not fully a Mary Sue.

The rest are what could be called "I Hate This Competent Character"-syndrome. This happens when a character, usually in the spotlight (so not the background character that has no bearing on the story), is widely disliked by a large part of a fandom, but with no tangible thing to latch that hate unto. What happens is that the character gets called a Mary Sue for being too competent, but this accusation has some issues of its own. One, as we've seen in this page, a true Mary Sue is a self-insert (and if the character is a super-naturally competent self-insert; yep that's most likely a Mary Sue), and a competent character need not be.

Second, in all the fiction we so love, like [[Setting Aesthetics|fantasy, sci-fi and all the rest]], main and side characters are ''ridiculously'' competent, sometimes as a byproduct of what kind of setting it is. That is why settings like [[A Song of Ice and Fire]] is notable for deconstructing competence, showing that a sword in hand does not a hero make - but that's a deconstruction. In most settings, heroes just are competent; the real sense of adversity and challenge usually comes from something else, like emotional struggles, political or societal issues and other faults. Even if there's a plotpoint about a hero being too weak to beat their enemy in one-to-one combat, chances are the main feature of that story arch is how the hero ''feels'' about it, rather than the struggle itself. Yeah sure, our hero learns the cool "I Win" technique, but that's not the important part; the important part is what kept them from learning it in the first place. Is it too dangerous? Did they damage themselves or friends with it once? Does it take them too close to the enemy they hate? And so on.

Let's take a classic, Superman. Superman is hyper-over-the-top-super competent, being so strong, resilient and fast that no one can stand up to him - but it works, because his challenges lies in how he utilizes that power, and how he relates to a mostly muggle world. So the character isn't a Mary Sue - but if you do not like Superman, maybe you wanna latch unto something to hate on... And that is likely this competence.

It's especially notable in settings where characters are automatically assumed to be competent if they are a main character. Examples like [[Star Wars]], [[Bioware|Mass Effect]], [[Dungeons and Dragons]] (depending on the whims of the GM), [[Lord of the Rings]] and other magical settings are filled with characters who are just competent by being a hero.

Good examples of "I Hate This Competent Character"-syndrome are characters like James Bond, [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Jon Snow]], [[Eldrad]], [[World of Warcraft|Thrall]], [[Batman]], and Rick Sanchez; all main-ish characters who are competent and may be dislikable for various different reasons... And if you dislike or even hate some of these characters? ''That's totally fucking fine.'' But make sure to actually use your ding dang words rather than hop on the bandwagon and use a term that doesn't mean what you think it does.

We all love and hate different characters, that's called taste. But competence, even relatively unexplained competence, is not a marker that indicates Mary Suedom.

===Bad Writer (Sub-)Syndrome===

A further note to the above: There are a non-trivial number of these type of characters who pass through the hands of a lot of writers; in this case, they can be Sues, '''but only when in the hands of unskilled writers'''. A bad writer will focus on the awesome, not on the structure and contrast that support it.

For example, hypercompetent characters like Batman or The Doctor are usually only interesting in scenarios that ''actually call for'' that hypercompetence. In that case, if the audience can see the solution a mile away, or can see an obviously better solution to the situation, the result is usually not as "awesome" as the author desires--unless the point is to demonstrate the flaws of the character, in which case, we're still moving away from "awesome", but ''intentionally'' this time.

If this is happening, just relax, and let the Dork Age pass, hoping that the next writer will actually be competent.

== Mary Sues in Roleplaying Games ==
It is important to realize that when playing an RPG, either as a player or as a DM, the standards for "unacceptable Mary Sue" change dramatically. Unlike if you are writing a novel, you are not the sole author of the story, nor are you the only main character. Thus certain traits that are completely fine for a character in a novel become become thing to avoid when making a character (NPC or PC) in an RPG. A good example of this would be Harry Potter. As the main character in a series of novels, making him the Chosen One is perfectly fine, because the story literally revolves around him, and the reader is meant to identify with him. If someone where to make Harry Potter in an RPG, it could easily become a problem, since him being "The Chosen One" by definition overshadows everyone else's characters. That is not to say that it should ''never'' be done, but it is something that should be discussed and agreed upon by the entire group beforehand. The reverse can also be true: what makes for a good RPG character does not always make for a good character in a novel (or, more accurately, ''unless well written'', certain traits common in RPG characters do not always make for a good character in a novel.) This is even more important when you are the DM; the players are the main characters, not the NPCs, and trying to pretend otherwise (usually via DMPCs) is one of the quickest ways to ruin a campaign.

For our purposes, we at 1d4chan try to keep our focus more on the tropes related to Suedom, and specific examples (usually Warhammer related). If you have a story of a specific Sue-abusing player or DM, there's probably a thread in [https://boards.4channel.org/tg/ the obvious place]. Go bore us there (where we can ignore you) instead of boring us here (where we'll need to revert you).

==Negating the Mary Sue==
Interestingly, there hasn't been really much written about how to defeat a May Sue aside from trolling, but we may identify a few ways to deal with Mary Sues and even Canon Sues:
*The first one, and quite accessible is character development, while this implies a risk of expanding the infection it is possible to remove a Sue status with a good writer either making fanfiction or a spin-off where the Mary Sue is changed for the better. Examples of this has been seen in long-existent characters which, due to good writing, become more down to earth, with the added bonus of annoying fans of the Sue period of time to no end. After all, one fanfic denies another.
*The second one is retcon, as the easiest way to annihilate a Mary Sue is to achieve the general consensus that it never happened. This is harder of course, as it requires the creators recognizing they made the wrong decisions or at least conceding to the fans. It can happen, but it can only be through official involvement, which requires a lot of fan reaction to happen.
*Third, have them operate in something resembling the real world; their impossible perfectness is treated as impossible by the people within the setting, and their actions have unforeseen consequences. (See, for reference, good quality [[Superman]] and [[Batman]] stories that don't focus on making either character more "human". Or the two protagonists from One-Punch Man, who are very much overpowered, but the focus of the series is a comedy based on ''how little satisfaction'' they find ''due to their overpoweredness''. The comic book Irredeemable is another good example, as the Plutonian comes across as a deconstruction of this character, showing how he uses his powers like an immature man-child and wipes out an entire country all because the entire world doesn't love him completely and adore him, demonstrating how much of a dick he is.)
*Finally, when it comes to reality, badly written characters end falling by their own weight. This is the reason no one remembers most of the overpowered characters added in fanfiction.net while everyone remembers cool, well-molded characters - after all, reality ensues.

Note that like overpoweredness, Mary Suedom is relative to the context of the work. Much like how if in a game everybody is overpowered, nobody actually is; if you are describing everyone in a setting as a Mary Sue, more than likely you're just in a "cast of snowflakes" setting, like superhero comics or transformers. Here, everyone of import is super amazing and special with a lot of weight put on their decisions and actions. (Exception: If one side of the conflict has a monopoly on both awesome and author-intended-sympathy, the "Sue" accusation starts becoming more relevant again.)

[[Troll|Or maybe you're just a dumbass flinging around buzzwords at things you don't like.]]

==Hard Men Making Hard Decisions (While Hard)==

A side note: A specific kind of male version of Mary Sue is also well known. He is usually described as a "Hard Man making Hard Decisions", but works using that description are usually sufficiently closer to "porn logic" than actual human logic that it's usually called "Wank material". (Note that "Hard Women making Hard Decisions" is also very much a thing, but tends to be less common for various reasons.)

Note that not all "Gary"/"Marty Stu"s are Hard Men Making Hard Decisions (While Hard); there exist Stus who are diplomatic or are idealistic but no less annoying. It's just that HMMHD(WH) are the subset that's the most predictable (and thus describable); other equally common types are the kind who makes all female characters want to sleep with him, or otherwise just gender-swapped versions of other Mary Sue archetypes.

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Image:Bloody_Mary_Sues.jpg|Get rid of them before they lay eggs.
File:Marysue_1517.jpg|Another way to bring Marvel and DC together again.
Image:Avatar shoopface by vfalconi.jpg|How it works.
File:Sparklypoo.jpg|What happens when Mary Sues meet each other.
File:Ma-Rey-Sue.jpg|The queen of Skub, thanks to the SJWs and vocal Red Pill advocates involved. Both sides are wrong and stupid in different ways.
</gallery>

=See Also=
[[List of Mary Sues]] WARNING: [[Skub|Opinions]]

=External Links=
*[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue TVTropes' article on Mary Sues], that discusses the phenomenon and its many forms in detail.
*[http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/1379217 sup/tg/ archive] of a hilarious thread with ultimate Mary Sue and PURE ENERGY in it.
*[http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/1383654 sup/tg/ archive] of the Ultimate Mary Sue thread continued.
*[http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/13722924/ sup/tg/ archive]; [[ITT]], the most grimdark setting ever conceived.
*[http://www.big-metto.net/RP_Wiki/index.php?title=Mirabelle_Armitage Mirabelle Armitage, D&D Mary Sure beyond Drizzt.]
*[http://www.ongoingworlds.com/blog/2011/04/the-many-different-types-of-mary-sue/ The many different types of Mary Sue]

Religion

2020-05-07T03:22:41Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* Somewhat special cases */

{{topquote|Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.|Martin Luther King, Jr}}

:'''Dracula''': ''I was called here by, huuuuumans, who wish to pay me tribute!''
:'''Richter Belmont''': ''Tribute?! You steal men's souls! And make them your slaves!''
:'''Dracula''': ''Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.''
::--An excerpt from the infamous exchange that also gave us "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets" in [[Castlevania#Castlevania:_Symphony_Of_The_Night_.28Castlevania_9.29|Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.]]

Because it's important to several settings and RPG systems, particularly ones that are high-profile or relevant to /tg/, we have a religion article. Let's try and keep it focused on the directly-related-to-/tg/ stuff and not descend into the pure [[skub]] that can arise in discussions of real-life religions, okay?

==Definition of Religion==
Almost since the inception of the term, scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. While there are some belief systems that always count as religions, some have applied the term to various things such as political ideologies, or groups when they reach a certain point. There are however two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical.

The two most widely accepted are:
* "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them."
* "a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted".

As stated before, one common element that every religion which fits the criteria has is humanity's relation to supernatural forces, as all of them have at least one [[God|god]] and/or an afterlife even where there are exceptions; Buddhism doesn't have any gods but has afterlives, and Taoism doesn't have an afterlife but does have a pantheistic concept of a god as a supernatural force.

Like other terms for heavily [[SJW|debated]] [[communism|subjects]], religion and religious have also been used as insults or Snarl Words in social and political discussions (especially from the 20th century and onwards) to ridicule groups openly promoting something the user disagrees with. This snarl creates a caricature of the group to smear them by association with the worst excesses/negative stereotypes of real-world religious people (like being too preachy, judgmental, irrational, hypocritical, or pressuring everyone to convert).

==Religion vs. Mythology==
While [[Mythology|mythologies]] aren't religions in and of themselves, every religion has a mythology. While mythologies are merely the accounts of supernatural events, religions add rituals and practices that link those mythologies directly to the lives of their believers in one form or another, typically by describing how to properly serve to a god (or multiple gods, it depends) a significant role in the mythology a given religion is derived from. [[Skub|Whatever the source]], the mythology almost always predates the religion. As a result, especially since the Fantasy genre deals in supernatural beings and forces, most if not all fantasy settings have religions. Science fiction does to a lesser degree, mostly because during the Golden Age of sci-fi empiricists and secular humanists were attracted to the genre and their views often seeped into their stories. Despite this, given that most real-life societies have had religions playing a role in or since their founding, religions are still found in sci-fi.

Religions involves belief systems and practices, where an adherent can call upon the power/being the religion is focused on to give them aid in [[cleric|various]] [[Paladin|ways]], depending at the very least on the religion and the task in question. Given that religions are about people's place in the world, how it was made, ideas on how life should be lived and how humans should relate to the supernatural, they have major implications for societies. Given that people can become [[Exarch|dangerously single-minded]] about a cause, people can be become extremists about their religion, regardless of the fact that [[Heironeous|some]] are more benevolent than [[Asmodeus|others]] and in numerous cases even [[Heresy|if it involves going against the religion's teachings]]; in conjunction with the above this means religious conflicts can become widespread, long-lasting, cause carnage and also involve other elements such as politics- both in fantasy and in the real world.

==Role in Society==
A person's belief (for or against) any or all religions is a major factor in their worldview, and as such often serves as the undercurrent for all others. This is because this belief shapes people's views on the big things such as the purpose of life, how life should be lived in relation to oneself and others and what happens to people after they die. On the upside, this often leads to teachings with the goal of unity, peace, charity and co-operation as per the teachings of most religions, some of which are adapted by or also found among non-religious systems. On the downside, this can lead to clashes over how the people involved do the will of whichever beings or forces they follow, which religion should be followed or whether or not people should follow a god or religion at all. This can involve arguments and factionalizing, or in some cases worse things like pogroms and wars. Since they are an overarching and fairly common element in cultures, they often appear or are referenced in fiction.

The most common religious belief systems are the Abrahamic family of religions (primarily Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which are Monotheistic (belief in a singular God) and share many common elements and root, with - at the time this was written - Christianity being the most followed religion globally. Historically, these and other religions were frequently enshrined in law as the "state religion", giving them special privileges such as extensive influence over the government or tax exemptions. In some cases, they even took over the functions of the government entirely in a system known as theocracy; while uncommon in the present day, theocracies are still in use in places such as the Vatican and Saudi Arabia.

Within the last few centuries, due to events such as the French Revolution, there has also been a significant amount of anti-religious sentiment, which regards religion as at best redundant and at worst destructive (beyond historical grievances with specific groups within religions, reasons for this view and whether or not those arguments have any merit, shall not be discussed here). For the most part, a combination of people identifying more with their culture or nation than their religion and the concept that religion and functions of state should not interfere with each other has turned into more of a "live and let live" mentality that doesn't really support or oppose any one religion and only reacts when said religions begin actively defying the state.

Interestingly, numerous tyrannical regimes have tried to restrict or stamp out religions. This is because religious teachings put the figure/object of worship before the state in a conflict of interest, most religions teachings condemn many of the things tyrannical leaders indulge in, tyrants dislike competition for their subjects' fealty, tyrants dislike being answerable to anyone besides themselves, the tyrant may be prejudiced, or any combo of the above. While nations have ususlly tried to block specific religions deemed "false" (read: religions opposing the state-sponsored religion in any way), several nations (usually [[Communism|Communist]] states which took Marx's "religion is the opiate of the masses" quote out of context, as Marx viewed religion was a sort of protest against oppression that relieved people's immediate suffering and gave them the strength to go on living while also drawing their attention away from the class system that produced their oppression; subsequently, he believed that following the establishment of a communist society, religion would disappear as it would no longer be needed) have tried to get rid of religion altogether, albeit with horrifying [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Militant_Atheists results] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Religious_communities each] time. Best case scenario, they sidegrade from one set of problems to another as cults of personality (commonly ones based on the ruler in charge) spring up to exploit the newly created power vacuum formerly filled by an established religion while believers who manage to survive the regime try to continue their activities in secret.

Unsurprisingly, the most religious nations are theocracies such as the Catholic theocracy running Vatican City and the Islamic theocracy running Saudi Arabia. China is - at the time this was written - the world's least religious and most atheistic country (the situation around North Korea is [[Skub|debatable]], since even though they violently supress religions [https://www.foxnews.com/world/north-korea-publicly-executes-80-some-for-videos-or-bibles-report-says to the point that merely having copies of religious texts can be grounds for execution], they also have the Kim Cult blended with the Marxist offshoot ideology Juche).

==How this impacts /tg/==
A few major ways. Since most if not every society in real-life has had religion either be the basis for its founding or play a role in it, religion is just as involved in the backstory or current lore of settings. There are three major "modes" of /tg/ settings and related fictions:
* The purely functional where religions are a story device.
* Religions and/or those they worship are portrayed positively as some sort of endorsement of religiosity.
* Religions and/or those they worship are portrayed negatively as some sort of criticism of religiosity.

===Religion as a story device===
Compared to the two types of writers found below, these writers are usually just attempting to model their work after real-world [[Mythology]] and are frequently attempting to keep their views of Religion separate from their work. Frequently comes in one of two subspecies:
* The [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] default: The world is ruled by an ordinary polytheistic pantheon, usually close to some admixture of Norse and Greek mythologies. Some of them also have a Top God - one more powerful than all the others and maybe the in-universe creator of everything - who is mostly hands-off in cosmic affairs. The gods of these religions tend to focus on specific areas (gods of [[Paladin|Justice]] and [[Druid|Nature]] are common, for subtly obvious reasons) and frequently want their followers to propagate or promote these things.
* The kind of setting they wanted to make dictated the nature of the divine. For example, in [[Exalted]] just about all the figures anybody would call a "God" (besides the Exalted) are Useless, because the Exalted (which includes the Player Characters) are the guys who were made specifically to do whatever the gods needed them to do for reasons inherent to the setting, to go with the main theme of the setting for the PCs: "You can do '''almost anything''', except ''avoid the consequences of being the one who did that anything''".

===Religion as a Bad Thing===
There are several writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy that are of the opinion "Religion Is Bad", often alongside having an axe to grind (sometimes warranted, sometimes not) with either one or more specific real-life religions. This is more common in Sci-Fi than fantasy because the focus on science appeals to the naturalist, empiricist and/or humanist worldview of such writers, with the supernatural being seen as an obstacle to that. Despite that, the view is found among some fantasy authors as well, such as the author of the book series "His Dark Materials", Philip Pullman (he wrote it as an anti-theistic and anti-religious response to C.S Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" series). Whatever the genre, this comes in flavors of either "The Gods Don't Exist", "The Gods are Incompetent" (more on that below) or "The Gods are Evil". Cosmic Horror also tends to use the "Gods Don't Exist" or "Gods are Evil" route, or combine them into "The Gods are actually Incomprehensible and Destructive Aliens" (for example; the author who codified the genre, [[H.P. Lovecraft]], was an avowed anti-religious atheist). This also has the side effect of inclining science fiction towards an atheistic perspective.

Another major component is personal issues of the author such as grievance or prejudice, but that's case-by-case and a major can of worms. Worst case scenario, the story is a wish fulfillment power fantasy against a religion or specific religious people - such as Frank Miller's "Holy Terror" comics against Islam and Garth Ennis' "Preacher" comics (and their live-action adaptation) against Christianity. Whatever the motivation, writers saying this message often model their fictional religions on the - occasionally exaggerated - worst excesses of real world religious people and lift imagery from those religions or groups among them. Popular targets are Christianity, Islam, any faith that practiced human sacrifice (such as the Aztec religious practices), and Scientology. Cults, especially those with beliefs that mainstream religions consider unorthodox or outright heretical, are especially fertile ground for this message, albeit running the risk of being misapplied to tar other groups with the same brush.

===Religion as a Good Thing===
There are several religious Science Fiction and Fantasy writers who either want to promote their worldview, look upon religion positively and put that into the story (who may or may not be religious themselves) or both. This is more common in Fantasy than Sci-fi, partly because with the supernatural being THE fundamental element of the genre this opens opportunities to explore many aspects of religiosity. This is less common in science-fiction, but not unheard of, such as Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" where God's signature is found in the digits of pi. These authors usually put more thought into their fictional religion plus its central figure (although they have a tendency to go all "Crystal Dragon Jesus"), and try and have it be at least a somewhat good influence, although religious institutions and leaders are usually hit-and-miss affairs.

Some people make a fictional setting with figures from real-world religions, either in the real-world or [[CS Lewis|an alternate world (such as Narnia)]]. Others use fictional religions that either visually resemble real-life religions or figures from them; religions that often get this treatment are the Abrahamic faiths (most often Christianity), Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology and Norse mythology (albeit often a sanitized version of the latter three). In other cases they all but abandon any form of subtlety, with the fictional religion being distinguished from the real-world religion the author follows by only a handful of minor changes. Naturally, those kinds of works tend to come off as preachy, to say the least.

Another route this uses is the route that faith itself provides the power; think of Morpheus' "your mind makes it real" quote, or the "[[Belief Function|Clap Your Hands If you Believe]]" trope. In fact, Warhammer often goes the route that the gods are powered by faith as well as from their sphere of influence which has either [[Sigmar|caused some people have risen to godhood]] or [[Ynnead|caused new gods to be born in the setting]]. In fact, this has proven the greatest weapon against Chaos in every Warhammer setting (and why the Emperor's plan to starve the Chaos Gods with atheism was doomed to fail from the start).

===Somewhat special cases===

One somewhat special case is the "Religion of Evil"; in many settings, there is a religion that is explicitly capital E Evil and seeks one of the usual "Card Carrying Villain" goals of Control, Conquest, Corruption, or Destruction. Frequently has some admixture of the worst aspects of Roman Paganism, Norse practices, the Aztec, Scientology and/or the various Abrahamic religions. They also often draw from those found in the writings of H.P Lovecraft. If this cult directly worships an individual Evil God, expect whatever makes sense for that deity to be some form of destructive activity--e.g., the cult of the God of Murder demands human sacrifice on a regular basis, with a certain portion of that explicitly being not-careful-enough cultists. Regardless, Religions of Evil can show up in all three above modes, and usually has a special purpose in all three:

* Functionalists (and, for that matter, all three) need bad guys. In particular, a group who by definition is Evil is always good for some no-need-to-worry-about-the-ethics-or-morality-of-killing fodder (based on the idea that everyone in is group is evil because you have to do evil to be part of the group).
* Religion is Bad types tend to use them to say either "while they're all Bad, some are worse then others", that "Religion can be used to justify anything", use it as a strawman to tar all with the same brush, or they have a specific axe to grind (either against an entire religion, a group within that religion or individual adherents the author personally dislikes).
* The sincerely religious tend to use them as analogies with fanaticism, criticize Real World cults, compare different beliefs or deal with negative aspects of religion (occasionally making jabs at competitive religions, or fellow believers the author disagrees with).
** As a side note, a lot of fantasy has moved slightly away from pure Religions of Evil, for much the same reason as [[Always Chaotic Evil]] races (audiences and authors nowdays demand more motive for their villains). While there are still plenty of them, they usually add some nuance that makes them at least morally neutral under their own lights. Popular options are for them to be an off-shoot/denomination/subset of another religion and/or be taking vengeance for a real or perceived wrong or injustice (which has '''plenty''' of real-life precedent).

[[Urban Fantasy]] writers are another special case, since almost all Urban Fantasy is set in something that might be called "the real world with a twist", with all the usual political trouble that implies. As a result, they can take one of a few routes:
* The most common route is "there are many possible explanations" and vague things up as much as possible ([[True Faith|Faith]] being the power that repels [[Vampire]]s rather than than a cross having any actual connection to a deity is a popular one).
* The second most common route (which is rarer outside of Cosmic Horror) is the "Religion as a Bad Thing" route from above. The story is straight up atheistic/"Religion is Bad" [[Imperial Truth|propaganda]], and in practice the writer often has an axe to grind against a specific religion. It's a popular choice for writers trying to be [[Edgy]] who want to include religious subject matter in their stories, and they almost exclusively go after the most established religion in the area or any new cults that have emerged at the time. Furthermore, any fictional religions will most likely be thinly-veiled stand-ins for real life religions.
* Some Urban Fantasy works with a clear correct religion exist thanks to the above mentioned sincerely religious authors, which are typically [[Chick Tracts|barely veiled proselytizing]] or [[Twilight|just straight up terrible]], though [[Monster Hunter International|there are some good ones]].
* The fourth route, taken most notably by [[Supers|DC and Marvel comics]] among others, is to take an "All Myths are True" approach: All religions are sort of true, but none have any exclusivity to the Truth, so Thor and Athena might have the Archangel Michael on speeddial when the Orochi teams up with Apep to start making trouble in their neighborhoods (because "Mikey really likes kicking serpent tail, and gets annoyed when we don't at least try to invite him to an evil serpent ass-kicking."). Differs from the "vague things up" route by being clearer on some details, and also much more gonzo. The Abrahamic God is the exception here: He's usually kept especially vague, albeit more powerful (and yet infinitely less accessible) than anyone else in the setting, and only referred to by some codephrase (Marvel likes "The One Above All", DC generally goes for "The Presence" or "whatever is behind the Source Wall").

===Miscellaneous Observations===

Doing the "The Gods are Incompetent" thing (the similar but different "The Gods are Insane", "The Gods Are Assholes" and "The Gods Don't Actually Do Anything" routes also falls under this umbrella) can go into any of the three modes; in a sincere monotheist's (such as Christian) work, it can be a "Take That" to polytheistic religions; in a "Religion is Bad" atheist's, it can be one to religion in general; in a Buddhist-influenced work, it can be a part of the whole "even the Gods are tied up in the Wheel of Karma" concept; and, even if the author is not pushing any religious message in any way, there's a neutral, plot-structural reason to go "Incompetent Gods": it can make the adventurers the Most Competent People Available since if that wasn't the case there wouldn't be anything for the adventurers to do.

If a work has multiple writers, (as frequently happens with RPG and Wargame settings, and quite a few popular SciFi/Fantasy ones as well) there's a tendency for the writers to try and pull the setting into one of the other two "modes" depending on their personal views. This leads to the theme changing from one side to the other as the story progresses. A recent example is [[World of Warcraft|the spate of retcons to the cosmology of the Warcraft universe]] and the morality of its fundamental forces/dominant higher powers, the Light and the Void. If the story doesn't get focused on a pro-religion or anti-religion message, it may end up swinging back and forth between both sides or settle in a mid-point which doesn't take a strong stance either way.

Note that members of the "Religion is Bad" and "Religion is Good" brigades will get involved in arguments over the relative morality or "goodness" of various factions in the story and the accuracy of any messages a writer presents. Often history buffs will throw their hat into the ring as well.

==Examples of /tg/ connected fictional religions==
===Warhammer 40k===
* The [[Imperial Truth]] was originally the Emperor's plan on beliefs, which he and his servants propagated throughout the galaxy during the Great Crusade. Attempting to wean mankind away from Chaos and being a firm member of the "Religion is Bad" brigade, the Emperor proclaimed there are no gods, and religion had to be abolished willingly or by force while science or reason are to be used for explaining the universe and morality. Everything transpired according to his design, except theistic religiosity in the 40k universe is the best weapon against Chaos so Emp's interstellar state atheism policy gave them a major opening. Things went from bad to worse when people started looking up to the Emperor as a god himself and [[Exterminatus|he responded accordingly]]. After the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's removal from galactic politics: the Imperial Truth was slowly shelved in favor of the Imperial Cult, to the point that espousing the teachings of the Truth is ironically considered heresy. Only a few practitioners of the Imperial Truth remain, most notably the Custodes and the Space Marines (both of whom know The Emperor better than anybody to worship him as a god. Plus, their religious autonomy.).
** The [[Imperial Cult]] is the present-day religion of the Imperium of Man, and is a mix of several Abrahamic Religions along with copious amounts of warmongering, fanaticism and xenophobia. Derived from the Lectitio Divinatus penned by [[Lorgar]] pre-HH, the Cult decrees that because the Emperor is capable of all these miracles and power: he ''must'' be a god, and why you should worship and pledge loyalty to him. Its a complete 180 from the Emperor's original teachings, and has simultaneously been responsible for damning and saving the Imperium past the clusterfuck of the Horus Heresy. It's unknown whether the Emperor still abhors godhood and religion and would abolish it the moment he could, or if he's resigned himself to becoming the very thing he fought against for mankind to persevere in these trying times. Whatever the case, he didn't want to be a god, but now he has no choice but to become one.
** The [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Cult Mechanicus]] (Machine Cult) is the religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus, placing a heavy emphasis on machines, viewing them as gifts from the Machine God called "The Omnissiah" Officially, the Omnissiah is The Emperor, which allows the Mechanicus to sidestep the more puritan pundits of the Imperial Cult (we worship The Emprah, just not how you do it). Unofficially, the Omnissiah may or may not be the C'tan god: The Void Dragon. It also has a high emphasis on the collection of knowledge, and one of the Admech's roles in the galaxy is to explore remote and uncharted regions of space to find and search for knowledge that has been lost throughout the millennia. The last of these, is guidelines on machines and knowledge. Officially, heretic(tek) and xeno works are to be abhorred and disposed of, viewing them as perversions of the holy Machine God's works. Unofficially however, more liberally-minded and higher-ranked Magos would happily hoard heretek/xeno works, seeing their potential over the more restricted and constrained works of the Mechanicus.

* Chaos is a violent and complicated henotheistic (believing in multiple gods but only worshipping one) or polytheistic religion with dozens, if not hundreds of interpretations. Even then, there's more sub-cults that worship their particular god in a specific way, either minutely or vastly different from everyone else among followers of the Big 4. And this doesn't even get into the realm of Chaos Undivided (which worships the concept of Chaos itself, instead of the individual gods) and [[Malal]]. Chaos has very little established guidelines regarding worship, apart from their patron god's/gods' general likes/dislikes, so any religious practices or rituals are either based on commands from the god/s or up to the imagination of the cult.
** Interestingly, there is a Space Marine of the Chaos faction who follows the Imperial Truth, and that is [[Fabius Bile]].

* All Greenskins worship Gork and Mork (jury's out on whether the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] do), but are too disorganized to have anything like a formal religion, though they do make effigies of Gork and Mork and call on them. The closest thing they have to tenants is that Gork favors violence, Mork favors cunning. Greenskins have gotten into fights over this, but violence is part of their nature and that of their gods. While they fight over religion, they also fight over almost any dispute anyway, and may even start a religious argument just to enjoy a good fight among themselves (though the only theological argument they can formulate is "is Gork the god of cunning or is Mork?" or vica versa). Religion doesn't play a significant role in Ork society compared to the other races.

* The Tau's creed "The [[Greater Good]]" is a specie-wide philosophy that was adopted ever since the initial unification of the Tau in the olden days. In a nutshell, the Greater Good emphasizes the co-existence of all Tau and sapient life in general into working together for a common goal to further the Tau's progress, seeing everyone's potential and hoping to utilize that for an, ahem, greater good. Personal religion isn't forbidden, but it must not contradict or override The Greater Good, and must be disregarded if it ever does so. Technically, this means Tau can be religious or non-religious, as the Greater Good is not a religion (due to lacking an afterlife and supernatural aspects, with the closest things to figures of worship being the Ethereals). This sounds all fine and dandy, but the Ethereal class, who are responsible for maintaining The Greater Good, have been shown to be less benevolent than believed and have been using their unnaturally powerful charisma to subtly oppress the Tau and use them to further their own agendas.
**The Farsight Enclaves, who have thrown off Ethereal rule, are the exception in that they have rejected The Greater Good, seeing it as the method of oppression used to keep the T'au under complete control of the ethereals. Due to this, if one considers the Greater Good a religion, The Enclaves are irreligious.
**As of the 4th Sphere Expansion disaster, Chaos Tau are starting to become a thing.
**At one point, the Earth Caste gathered Genestealer-infected Tau and studied them to see what would happen. Of course, a Genestealer cult developed and naturally they violently escaped control and surveillance. According to rumors, they've even produced a Genestealer-infected Ethereal.

* The Eldar have varying views on religiosity depending on their type. Their religion is polytheistic, with henotheistic offshoots, and Ausryan was the highest ranking god. However all of the Eldar gods were murder-raped to death by Slaanesh except for Isha (taken by Nurgle), Khaine (shattered and flung into realspace), Cegorach (hiding in the Webway) and Ynnead (born long after Slaanesh's birth). Their Pantheon's religious practices aren't fleshed out save for those of Cegorach, Isha, and Khaine, via the Harlequins and Aspect Warriors. With most of their gods out of commission, Eldar religious worship is of a deistic bent.
** Craftworlders and Exodites almost exclusively worship the original Eldar pantheon, though some engage in henotheistic worship of only one of the gods. Asuryan is more popular among Craftworlders while Isha is among Exodites, though nearly all give Khaine some tribute during war.
** Corsairs are all over the place, though Khaine is a popular choice given their more militant nature.
** Being agents of the Laughing God himself, the Harlequins' worship is centered around [[Cegorach]], whilst still paying minor tribute to the other gods.
** The new faith around Ynnead, the Ynnari, is rapidly growing but have yet to establish teachings or rituals.
** Unique among the Eldar, the Dark Eldar are irreligious for the most part and while they believe some gods exist they're too self-centered to worship them (this is canon). They're often also anti-religious to boot; a major landmark of Commorragh is a landfill of religious icons called Iconoclast's Mound, and one Wych cult - the Pain Eternal - revolves around killing religious people and destroying shrines and holy sites. The sole exception, except for Dark Eldar who stop being Dark Eldar, are the [[Incubi]] who hold [[Khaine]] in high regard.
** There are numerous rumors of a very small number of Chaos Eldar, but these are barely fleshed out and heavily classified in-universe. There have been verified Nurgle-worshipping Eldar and persistent rumors that some have embraced Slaanesh without becoming soul-food. Apart from this, some Dark Eldar have been willing to summon Chaos Daemons or work with Chaos worshippers ([[Fabius Bile|or allies of Chaos]]) to further their own ends.

* While the Necrontyr had religions before certain [[C'tan|star entities]] [[Necrons|roboticizied them]], those aren't fleshed out or detailed. Its also heavily implied the C'tan co-opted the Necrontyr religion beforehand. With the change to Necrons taking the higher though processes of most of them, any Necrons who can comprehend faith and religiosity either worship the C'tan or have become irreligious.

* The Tyranids themselves are irreligious, being spehss bugs and all, but understand at least a few of the advantages of religion. [[Genestealer]]s infect people and together they establish cults on targeted worlds, such as one worshipping "Children of the Stars", a perversion of the Imperial Cult (such as one that worships a [[Swarmlord|four-armed]] version of the Emperor) or something else like "Celebrants of Nihilism" (yes, that's a canon Genestealer cult name). Psychic influence is often involved and, notably, the Genestealers do not consider themselves gods. Once the Tyranids arrive en-masse, the cult-gets assimilated along with all non-Tyranids willingly or not. An interesting tidbit is that the Hive Mind stops the Tyranids from attacking the cultists in early stages of the invasion and leads them on, only to later override the Genestealers' wills and and make them slaughter the cultists.

===Dungeons and Dragons===
* Among Dungeons and Dragons settings, [[Planescape]], [[Eberron]], and [[Pathfinder]] are notable for having some coherent things that could be called "Religions", rather then the usual generic Pantheism.
** Most of Planescape's Factions effectively count as religions, to the point they can produce [[Cleric]]s ([[Planescape: Torment#Fall-From-Grace|Atheist ones at that]]). Yes, even the Athar. (Perhaps ''especially'' the Athar.)
** Half of Eberron's religions aren't worship of deities. The [[Blood of Vol]] seeks to unlock the divinity within one's self and rejects the gods (if they even exist) and the [[Path of Inspiration]] seeks to improve their next reincarnation. The Undying Court worships not gods but their undead ancestors that make up their government. The [[Path of Light]], [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Becoming_God|Becoming God]] and [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Reforged|Reforged]] all seek to ''create'' a deity. Even some interpretations of the [[Sovereign Host]], like the one most common among dragons, don't worship them as deities. Due to the way divine casting works in Eberron, all of these can produce divine casters.
** There's a handful of religions on [[Golarion]] that aren't merely worship of pantheons. The most prominent (read: Actually has mechanical support) is the [[Prophecies of Kalistrade]], which is basically fantasy [[Star Trek|Ferengi]].

* [[D20 Modern]]'s [[Urban Arcana]], unusually for urban fantasy, has D&D deities bleed into reality alongside the monsters. You are still able to play a <s>cleric</s> "acolyte" of any real world deity despite this.

===Star Wars===
* [[Star Wars]] is inconsistent on if the [[The Force]] is a religion. The Jedi and the Sith ''could'' both be considered religions as they are considered monastic, but mix in several other traits such as being meritocratic (Jedi) and kraterocratic (Sith) and Lucas himself has axed at least one prototyped book for portraying them too much as a religion. It's also notable that the Sith were former Jedi who left the Jedi path for several reasons including [[Heresy|disagreements over the teachings of that creed]]. Aside from that, religion is nearly always a non-human tradition, something noted in a culture's historical background and never seen implying its extinction, or a scam. The religiously linked "damn" and "hell" are the two real world swear words that exist in-universe, purely because Han Solo used them in the films, and some concept of an "angel" exists because a young Anakin told Padme about them in the prequel trilogy films.
** There are rare exceptions where a religion is fleshed out and explored, and the writing goes various directions for better or worse. A notable example is the aggressive polytheistic religion of the antagonistic Yuuzhan Vong from the EU (which the story gradually revealed was long ago perverted from benevolent roots, and this perverted form takes a few cues from Islam and Aztec mythology).

===Star Trek===
* Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had a low opinion of religion and in his vision humanity had done away with it and was better off for it and he had no interest in adding it to the aliens. However, some of the cast and crew disagreed and occasionally references and religions found their way into the show, which increased after Roddenberry's death. The Federation's culture is distinctly humanistic (extending the concept to alien species) in it's outlook in which religion is regarded as a thing of the past.
** While there are plenty of "Godlike" entities in Star Trek, almost all are treated as Sufficiently Advanced Aliens in the Arthur C. Clarke sense--and in particular, in ST:TNG, the flip side, that Picard and his crew are frequently shown to look like Gods to sufficiently primitive aliens, is gone into in more than one episode.
** The Bajorans are a highly religious alien race, with the majority following peaceful teachings and a minority of violent extremists.
*** Of some note, the Bajoran religion is of interest because their "Gods" actually exist, and can be (somewhat incomprehensibly) talked to (a rarity outside of [[Science Fantasy]]). In other words, they were frequently a method of having some religion vs. science debates where the divine entity (A) explicitly exists, (B) is explainable as "sufficiently advanced and unusual aliens", and (C) aren't jerks, just bad at communication with those of us who experience time linearly--in other words, with a deck that wasn't quite as badly stacked. The religiosity was meant to be as a way of contrasting the Starfleet personnel with the native population and to draw a parallel between Bajorans under the Cardassian Occupation and various real world recently freed oppressed religious-slash-ethnic groups.
** <s>In the fifth Star Trek movie, ''"The Final Frontier"'', some of the crew steal the Enterprise to look for God and instead find a powerful alien being impersonating God in the center of the universe</s> '''Just like there is no live-action movie of Avatar: The Last Airbender, there is totally no Star Trek 5!'''

===World of Darkness===
* Very large books could be written about religion and [[World of Darkness]]/Chronicles of Darkness. We'll just cover a few highlights:
** From [[Vampire: The Requiem]], there's the the Lancea et Sanctum, which might be best described as "Christianity for Vampires", and the Circle of the Crone, which is "Pagan Vampires". Both have Vampire miracles on tap (pun intended).
** [[Hunter: The Vigil]] has various religious organizations among the Compacts and Conspiracies, some very similar to real world ones, others...not so much.
** [[Mage: The Ascension]] has various religious Traditions, portrayed in that highly-stereotypical and highly-depending-on-the-author way typical of old WoD.

==See also==
* [[Mythology]]

[[Category:Not related]]
[[Category:History]]

Religion

2020-05-07T03:13:34Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* Religion as a Bad Thing */

{{topquote|Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.|Martin Luther King, Jr}}

:'''Dracula''': ''I was called here by, huuuuumans, who wish to pay me tribute!''
:'''Richter Belmont''': ''Tribute?! You steal men's souls! And make them your slaves!''
:'''Dracula''': ''Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.''
::--An excerpt from the infamous exchange that also gave us "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets" in [[Castlevania#Castlevania:_Symphony_Of_The_Night_.28Castlevania_9.29|Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.]]

Because it's important to several settings and RPG systems, particularly ones that are high-profile or relevant to /tg/, we have a religion article. Let's try and keep it focused on the directly-related-to-/tg/ stuff and not descend into the pure [[skub]] that can arise in discussions of real-life religions, okay?

==Definition of Religion==
Almost since the inception of the term, scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. While there are some belief systems that always count as religions, some have applied the term to various things such as political ideologies, or groups when they reach a certain point. There are however two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical.

The two most widely accepted are:
* "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them."
* "a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted".

As stated before, one common element that every religion which fits the criteria has is humanity's relation to supernatural forces, as all of them have at least one [[God|god]] and/or an afterlife even where there are exceptions; Buddhism doesn't have any gods but has afterlives, and Taoism doesn't have an afterlife but does have a pantheistic concept of a god as a supernatural force.

Like other terms for heavily [[SJW|debated]] [[communism|subjects]], religion and religious have also been used as insults or Snarl Words in social and political discussions (especially from the 20th century and onwards) to ridicule groups openly promoting something the user disagrees with. This snarl creates a caricature of the group to smear them by association with the worst excesses/negative stereotypes of real-world religious people (like being too preachy, judgmental, irrational, hypocritical, or pressuring everyone to convert).

==Religion vs. Mythology==
While [[Mythology|mythologies]] aren't religions in and of themselves, every religion has a mythology. While mythologies are merely the accounts of supernatural events, religions add rituals and practices that link those mythologies directly to the lives of their believers in one form or another, typically by describing how to properly serve to a god (or multiple gods, it depends) a significant role in the mythology a given religion is derived from. [[Skub|Whatever the source]], the mythology almost always predates the religion. As a result, especially since the Fantasy genre deals in supernatural beings and forces, most if not all fantasy settings have religions. Science fiction does to a lesser degree, mostly because during the Golden Age of sci-fi empiricists and secular humanists were attracted to the genre and their views often seeped into their stories. Despite this, given that most real-life societies have had religions playing a role in or since their founding, religions are still found in sci-fi.

Religions involves belief systems and practices, where an adherent can call upon the power/being the religion is focused on to give them aid in [[cleric|various]] [[Paladin|ways]], depending at the very least on the religion and the task in question. Given that religions are about people's place in the world, how it was made, ideas on how life should be lived and how humans should relate to the supernatural, they have major implications for societies. Given that people can become [[Exarch|dangerously single-minded]] about a cause, people can be become extremists about their religion, regardless of the fact that [[Heironeous|some]] are more benevolent than [[Asmodeus|others]] and in numerous cases even [[Heresy|if it involves going against the religion's teachings]]; in conjunction with the above this means religious conflicts can become widespread, long-lasting, cause carnage and also involve other elements such as politics- both in fantasy and in the real world.

==Role in Society==
A person's belief (for or against) any or all religions is a major factor in their worldview, and as such often serves as the undercurrent for all others. This is because this belief shapes people's views on the big things such as the purpose of life, how life should be lived in relation to oneself and others and what happens to people after they die. On the upside, this often leads to teachings with the goal of unity, peace, charity and co-operation as per the teachings of most religions, some of which are adapted by or also found among non-religious systems. On the downside, this can lead to clashes over how the people involved do the will of whichever beings or forces they follow, which religion should be followed or whether or not people should follow a god or religion at all. This can involve arguments and factionalizing, or in some cases worse things like pogroms and wars. Since they are an overarching and fairly common element in cultures, they often appear or are referenced in fiction.

The most common religious belief systems are the Abrahamic family of religions (primarily Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which are Monotheistic (belief in a singular God) and share many common elements and root, with - at the time this was written - Christianity being the most followed religion globally. Historically, these and other religions were frequently enshrined in law as the "state religion", giving them special privileges such as extensive influence over the government or tax exemptions. In some cases, they even took over the functions of the government entirely in a system known as theocracy; while uncommon in the present day, theocracies are still in use in places such as the Vatican and Saudi Arabia.

Within the last few centuries, due to events such as the French Revolution, there has also been a significant amount of anti-religious sentiment, which regards religion as at best redundant and at worst destructive (beyond historical grievances with specific groups within religions, reasons for this view and whether or not those arguments have any merit, shall not be discussed here). For the most part, a combination of people identifying more with their culture or nation than their religion and the concept that religion and functions of state should not interfere with each other has turned into more of a "live and let live" mentality that doesn't really support or oppose any one religion and only reacts when said religions begin actively defying the state.

Interestingly, numerous tyrannical regimes have tried to restrict or stamp out religions. This is because religious teachings put the figure/object of worship before the state in a conflict of interest, most religions teachings condemn many of the things tyrannical leaders indulge in, tyrants dislike competition for their subjects' fealty, tyrants dislike being answerable to anyone besides themselves, the tyrant may be prejudiced, or any combo of the above. While nations have ususlly tried to block specific religions deemed "false" (read: religions opposing the state-sponsored religion in any way), several nations (usually [[Communism|Communist]] states which took Marx's "religion is the opiate of the masses" quote out of context, as Marx viewed religion was a sort of protest against oppression that relieved people's immediate suffering and gave them the strength to go on living while also drawing their attention away from the class system that produced their oppression; subsequently, he believed that following the establishment of a communist society, religion would disappear as it would no longer be needed) have tried to get rid of religion altogether, albeit with horrifying [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Militant_Atheists results] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Religious_communities each] time. Best case scenario, they sidegrade from one set of problems to another as cults of personality (commonly ones based on the ruler in charge) spring up to exploit the newly created power vacuum formerly filled by an established religion while believers who manage to survive the regime try to continue their activities in secret.

Unsurprisingly, the most religious nations are theocracies such as the Catholic theocracy running Vatican City and the Islamic theocracy running Saudi Arabia. China is - at the time this was written - the world's least religious and most atheistic country (the situation around North Korea is [[Skub|debatable]], since even though they violently supress religions [https://www.foxnews.com/world/north-korea-publicly-executes-80-some-for-videos-or-bibles-report-says to the point that merely having copies of religious texts can be grounds for execution], they also have the Kim Cult blended with the Marxist offshoot ideology Juche).

==How this impacts /tg/==
A few major ways. Since most if not every society in real-life has had religion either be the basis for its founding or play a role in it, religion is just as involved in the backstory or current lore of settings. There are three major "modes" of /tg/ settings and related fictions:
* The purely functional where religions are a story device.
* Religions and/or those they worship are portrayed positively as some sort of endorsement of religiosity.
* Religions and/or those they worship are portrayed negatively as some sort of criticism of religiosity.

===Religion as a story device===
Compared to the two types of writers found below, these writers are usually just attempting to model their work after real-world [[Mythology]] and are frequently attempting to keep their views of Religion separate from their work. Frequently comes in one of two subspecies:
* The [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] default: The world is ruled by an ordinary polytheistic pantheon, usually close to some admixture of Norse and Greek mythologies. Some of them also have a Top God - one more powerful than all the others and maybe the in-universe creator of everything - who is mostly hands-off in cosmic affairs. The gods of these religions tend to focus on specific areas (gods of [[Paladin|Justice]] and [[Druid|Nature]] are common, for subtly obvious reasons) and frequently want their followers to propagate or promote these things.
* The kind of setting they wanted to make dictated the nature of the divine. For example, in [[Exalted]] just about all the figures anybody would call a "God" (besides the Exalted) are Useless, because the Exalted (which includes the Player Characters) are the guys who were made specifically to do whatever the gods needed them to do for reasons inherent to the setting, to go with the main theme of the setting for the PCs: "You can do '''almost anything''', except ''avoid the consequences of being the one who did that anything''".

===Religion as a Bad Thing===
There are several writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy that are of the opinion "Religion Is Bad", often alongside having an axe to grind (sometimes warranted, sometimes not) with either one or more specific real-life religions. This is more common in Sci-Fi than fantasy because the focus on science appeals to the naturalist, empiricist and/or humanist worldview of such writers, with the supernatural being seen as an obstacle to that. Despite that, the view is found among some fantasy authors as well, such as the author of the book series "His Dark Materials", Philip Pullman (he wrote it as an anti-theistic and anti-religious response to C.S Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" series). Whatever the genre, this comes in flavors of either "The Gods Don't Exist", "The Gods are Incompetent" (more on that below) or "The Gods are Evil". Cosmic Horror also tends to use the "Gods Don't Exist" or "Gods are Evil" route, or combine them into "The Gods are actually Incomprehensible and Destructive Aliens" (for example; the author who codified the genre, [[H.P. Lovecraft]], was an avowed anti-religious atheist). This also has the side effect of inclining science fiction towards an atheistic perspective.

Another major component is personal issues of the author such as grievance or prejudice, but that's case-by-case and a major can of worms. Worst case scenario, the story is a wish fulfillment power fantasy against a religion or specific religious people - such as Frank Miller's "Holy Terror" comics against Islam and Garth Ennis' "Preacher" comics (and their live-action adaptation) against Christianity. Whatever the motivation, writers saying this message often model their fictional religions on the - occasionally exaggerated - worst excesses of real world religious people and lift imagery from those religions or groups among them. Popular targets are Christianity, Islam, any faith that practiced human sacrifice (such as the Aztec religious practices), and Scientology. Cults, especially those with beliefs that mainstream religions consider unorthodox or outright heretical, are especially fertile ground for this message, albeit running the risk of being misapplied to tar other groups with the same brush.

===Religion as a Good Thing===
There are several religious Science Fiction and Fantasy writers who either want to promote their worldview, look upon religion positively and put that into the story (who may or may not be religious themselves) or both. This is more common in Fantasy than Sci-fi, partly because with the supernatural being THE fundamental element of the genre this opens opportunities to explore many aspects of religiosity. This is less common in science-fiction, but not unheard of, such as Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" where God's signature is found in the digits of pi. These authors usually put more thought into their fictional religion plus its central figure (although they have a tendency to go all "Crystal Dragon Jesus"), and try and have it be at least a somewhat good influence, although religious institutions and leaders are usually hit-and-miss affairs.

Some people make a fictional setting with figures from real-world religions, either in the real-world or [[CS Lewis|an alternate world (such as Narnia)]]. Others use fictional religions that either visually resemble real-life religions or figures from them; religions that often get this treatment are the Abrahamic faiths (most often Christianity), Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology and Norse mythology (albeit often a sanitized version of the latter three). In other cases they all but abandon any form of subtlety, with the fictional religion being distinguished from the real-world religion the author follows by only a handful of minor changes. Naturally, those kinds of works tend to come off as preachy, to say the least.

Another route this uses is the route that faith itself provides the power; think of Morpheus' "your mind makes it real" quote, or the "[[Belief Function|Clap Your Hands If you Believe]]" trope. In fact, Warhammer often goes the route that the gods are powered by faith as well as from their sphere of influence which has either [[Sigmar|caused some people have risen to godhood]] or [[Ynnead|caused new gods to be born in the setting]]. In fact, this has proven the greatest weapon against Chaos in every Warhammer setting (and why the Emperor's plan to starve the Chaos Gods with atheism was doomed to fail from the start).

===Somewhat special cases===

One somewhat special case is the "Religion of Evil"; in many settings, there is a religion that is explicitly capital E Evil and seeks one of the usual "Card Carrying Villain" goals of Control, Conquest, Corruption, or Destruction. Frequently has some admixture of the worst aspects of Roman Paganism, Norse practices, the Aztec, Scientology and/or the various Abrahamic religions. They also often draw from those found in the writings of H.P Lovecraft. If this cult directly worships an individual Evil God, expect whatever makes sense for that deity to be some form of destructive activity--e.g., the cult of the God of Murder demands human sacrifice on a regular basis, with a certain portion of that explicitly being not-careful-enough cultists. Regardless, Religions of Evil can show up in all three above modes, and usually has a special purpose in all three:

* Functionalists (and, for that matter, all three) need bad guys. In particular, a group who by definition is Evil is always good for some no-need-to-worry-about-the-ethics-or-morality-of-killing fodder (based on the idea that everyone in is group is evil because you have to do evil to be part of the group).
* Religion is Bad types tend to use them to say either "while they're all Bad, some are worse then others", or say "Religion can be used to justify anything". Occasionally a prejudiced writer uses it as a strawman to tar all with the same brush or they have an axe to grind against a specific real-life religion and/or its followers.
* The sincerely religious tend to use them as analogies with fanaticism, criticize Real World cults, compare different beliefs or deal with negative aspects of religion (occasionally making jabs at competitive religions, or fellow believers the author disagrees with).
** As a side note, a lot of fantasy has moved slightly away from pure Religions of Evil, for much the same reason as [[Always Chaotic Evil]] races (audiences and authors nowdays demand more motive for their villains). While there are still plenty of them, they usually add some nuance that makes them at least morally neutral under their own lights. Popular options are for them to be an off-shoot/denomination/subset of another religion and/or be taking vengeance for a real or perceived wrong or injustice (which has '''plenty''' of real-life precedent).

[[Urban Fantasy]] writers are another special case, since almost all Urban Fantasy is set in something that might be called "the real world with a twist", with all the usual political trouble that implies. As a result, they can take one of a few routes:
* The most common route is "there are many possible explanations" and vague things up as much as possible ([[True Faith|Faith]] being the power that repels [[Vampire]]s rather than than a cross having any actual connection to a deity is a popular one).
* The second most common route (which is rarer outside of Cosmic Horror) is the "Religion as a Bad Thing" route from above. The story is straight up atheistic/"Religion is Bad" [[Imperial Truth|propaganda]], and in practice the writer often has an axe to grind against a specific religion. It's a popular choice for writers trying to be [[Edgy]] who want to include religious subject matter in their stories, and they almost exclusively go after the most established religion in the area or any new cults that have emerged at the time. Furthermore, any fictional religions will most likely be thinly-veiled stand-ins for real life religions.
* Some Urban Fantasy works with a clear correct religion exist thanks to the above mentioned sincerely religious authors, which are typically [[Chick Tracts|barely veiled proselytizing]] or [[Twilight|just straight up terrible]], though [[Monster Hunter International|there are some good ones]].
* The fourth route, taken most notably by [[Supers|DC and Marvel comics]] among others, is to take an "All Myths are True" approach: All religions are sort of true, but none have any exclusivity to the Truth, so Thor and Athena might have the Archangel Michael on speeddial when the Orochi teams up with Apep to start making trouble in their neighborhoods (because "Mikey really likes kicking serpent tail, and gets annoyed when we don't at least try to invite him to an evil serpent ass-kicking."). Differs from the "vague things up" route by being clearer on some details, and also much more gonzo. The Abrahamic God is the exception here: He's usually kept especially vague, albeit more powerful (and yet infinitely less accessible) than anyone else in the setting, and only referred to by some codephrase (Marvel likes "The One Above All", DC generally goes for "The Presence" or "whatever is behind the Source Wall").

===Miscellaneous Observations===

Doing the "The Gods are Incompetent" thing (the similar but different "The Gods are Insane", "The Gods Are Assholes" and "The Gods Don't Actually Do Anything" routes also falls under this umbrella) can go into any of the three modes; in a sincere monotheist's (such as Christian) work, it can be a "Take That" to polytheistic religions; in a "Religion is Bad" atheist's, it can be one to religion in general; in a Buddhist-influenced work, it can be a part of the whole "even the Gods are tied up in the Wheel of Karma" concept; and, even if the author is not pushing any religious message in any way, there's a neutral, plot-structural reason to go "Incompetent Gods": it can make the adventurers the Most Competent People Available since if that wasn't the case there wouldn't be anything for the adventurers to do.

If a work has multiple writers, (as frequently happens with RPG and Wargame settings, and quite a few popular SciFi/Fantasy ones as well) there's a tendency for the writers to try and pull the setting into one of the other two "modes" depending on their personal views. This leads to the theme changing from one side to the other as the story progresses. A recent example is [[World of Warcraft|the spate of retcons to the cosmology of the Warcraft universe]] and the morality of its fundamental forces/dominant higher powers, the Light and the Void. If the story doesn't get focused on a pro-religion or anti-religion message, it may end up swinging back and forth between both sides or settle in a mid-point which doesn't take a strong stance either way.

Note that members of the "Religion is Bad" and "Religion is Good" brigades will get involved in arguments over the relative morality or "goodness" of various factions in the story and the accuracy of any messages a writer presents. Often history buffs will throw their hat into the ring as well.

==Examples of /tg/ connected fictional religions==
===Warhammer 40k===
* The [[Imperial Truth]] was originally the Emperor's plan on beliefs, which he and his servants propagated throughout the galaxy during the Great Crusade. Attempting to wean mankind away from Chaos and being a firm member of the "Religion is Bad" brigade, the Emperor proclaimed there are no gods, and religion had to be abolished willingly or by force while science or reason are to be used for explaining the universe and morality. Everything transpired according to his design, except theistic religiosity in the 40k universe is the best weapon against Chaos so Emp's interstellar state atheism policy gave them a major opening. Things went from bad to worse when people started looking up to the Emperor as a god himself and [[Exterminatus|he responded accordingly]]. After the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's removal from galactic politics: the Imperial Truth was slowly shelved in favor of the Imperial Cult, to the point that espousing the teachings of the Truth is ironically considered heresy. Only a few practitioners of the Imperial Truth remain, most notably the Custodes and the Space Marines (both of whom know The Emperor better than anybody to worship him as a god. Plus, their religious autonomy.).
** The [[Imperial Cult]] is the present-day religion of the Imperium of Man, and is a mix of several Abrahamic Religions along with copious amounts of warmongering, fanaticism and xenophobia. Derived from the Lectitio Divinatus penned by [[Lorgar]] pre-HH, the Cult decrees that because the Emperor is capable of all these miracles and power: he ''must'' be a god, and why you should worship and pledge loyalty to him. Its a complete 180 from the Emperor's original teachings, and has simultaneously been responsible for damning and saving the Imperium past the clusterfuck of the Horus Heresy. It's unknown whether the Emperor still abhors godhood and religion and would abolish it the moment he could, or if he's resigned himself to becoming the very thing he fought against for mankind to persevere in these trying times. Whatever the case, he didn't want to be a god, but now he has no choice but to become one.
** The [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Cult Mechanicus]] (Machine Cult) is the religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus, placing a heavy emphasis on machines, viewing them as gifts from the Machine God called "The Omnissiah" Officially, the Omnissiah is The Emperor, which allows the Mechanicus to sidestep the more puritan pundits of the Imperial Cult (we worship The Emprah, just not how you do it). Unofficially, the Omnissiah may or may not be the C'tan god: The Void Dragon. It also has a high emphasis on the collection of knowledge, and one of the Admech's roles in the galaxy is to explore remote and uncharted regions of space to find and search for knowledge that has been lost throughout the millennia. The last of these, is guidelines on machines and knowledge. Officially, heretic(tek) and xeno works are to be abhorred and disposed of, viewing them as perversions of the holy Machine God's works. Unofficially however, more liberally-minded and higher-ranked Magos would happily hoard heretek/xeno works, seeing their potential over the more restricted and constrained works of the Mechanicus.

* Chaos is a violent and complicated henotheistic (believing in multiple gods but only worshipping one) or polytheistic religion with dozens, if not hundreds of interpretations. Even then, there's more sub-cults that worship their particular god in a specific way, either minutely or vastly different from everyone else among followers of the Big 4. And this doesn't even get into the realm of Chaos Undivided (which worships the concept of Chaos itself, instead of the individual gods) and [[Malal]]. Chaos has very little established guidelines regarding worship, apart from their patron god's/gods' general likes/dislikes, so any religious practices or rituals are either based on commands from the god/s or up to the imagination of the cult.
** Interestingly, there is a Space Marine of the Chaos faction who follows the Imperial Truth, and that is [[Fabius Bile]].

* All Greenskins worship Gork and Mork (jury's out on whether the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] do), but are too disorganized to have anything like a formal religion, though they do make effigies of Gork and Mork and call on them. The closest thing they have to tenants is that Gork favors violence, Mork favors cunning. Greenskins have gotten into fights over this, but violence is part of their nature and that of their gods. While they fight over religion, they also fight over almost any dispute anyway, and may even start a religious argument just to enjoy a good fight among themselves (though the only theological argument they can formulate is "is Gork the god of cunning or is Mork?" or vica versa). Religion doesn't play a significant role in Ork society compared to the other races.

* The Tau's creed "The [[Greater Good]]" is a specie-wide philosophy that was adopted ever since the initial unification of the Tau in the olden days. In a nutshell, the Greater Good emphasizes the co-existence of all Tau and sapient life in general into working together for a common goal to further the Tau's progress, seeing everyone's potential and hoping to utilize that for an, ahem, greater good. Personal religion isn't forbidden, but it must not contradict or override The Greater Good, and must be disregarded if it ever does so. Technically, this means Tau can be religious or non-religious, as the Greater Good is not a religion (due to lacking an afterlife and supernatural aspects, with the closest things to figures of worship being the Ethereals). This sounds all fine and dandy, but the Ethereal class, who are responsible for maintaining The Greater Good, have been shown to be less benevolent than believed and have been using their unnaturally powerful charisma to subtly oppress the Tau and use them to further their own agendas.
**The Farsight Enclaves, who have thrown off Ethereal rule, are the exception in that they have rejected The Greater Good, seeing it as the method of oppression used to keep the T'au under complete control of the ethereals. Due to this, if one considers the Greater Good a religion, The Enclaves are irreligious.
**As of the 4th Sphere Expansion disaster, Chaos Tau are starting to become a thing.
**At one point, the Earth Caste gathered Genestealer-infected Tau and studied them to see what would happen. Of course, a Genestealer cult developed and naturally they violently escaped control and surveillance. According to rumors, they've even produced a Genestealer-infected Ethereal.

* The Eldar have varying views on religiosity depending on their type. Their religion is polytheistic, with henotheistic offshoots, and Ausryan was the highest ranking god. However all of the Eldar gods were murder-raped to death by Slaanesh except for Isha (taken by Nurgle), Khaine (shattered and flung into realspace), Cegorach (hiding in the Webway) and Ynnead (born long after Slaanesh's birth). Their Pantheon's religious practices aren't fleshed out save for those of Cegorach, Isha, and Khaine, via the Harlequins and Aspect Warriors. With most of their gods out of commission, Eldar religious worship is of a deistic bent.
** Craftworlders and Exodites almost exclusively worship the original Eldar pantheon, though some engage in henotheistic worship of only one of the gods. Asuryan is more popular among Craftworlders while Isha is among Exodites, though nearly all give Khaine some tribute during war.
** Corsairs are all over the place, though Khaine is a popular choice given their more militant nature.
** Being agents of the Laughing God himself, the Harlequins' worship is centered around [[Cegorach]], whilst still paying minor tribute to the other gods.
** The new faith around Ynnead, the Ynnari, is rapidly growing but have yet to establish teachings or rituals.
** Unique among the Eldar, the Dark Eldar are irreligious for the most part and while they believe some gods exist they're too self-centered to worship them (this is canon). They're often also anti-religious to boot; a major landmark of Commorragh is a landfill of religious icons called Iconoclast's Mound, and one Wych cult - the Pain Eternal - revolves around killing religious people and destroying shrines and holy sites. The sole exception, except for Dark Eldar who stop being Dark Eldar, are the [[Incubi]] who hold [[Khaine]] in high regard.
** There are numerous rumors of a very small number of Chaos Eldar, but these are barely fleshed out and heavily classified in-universe. There have been verified Nurgle-worshipping Eldar and persistent rumors that some have embraced Slaanesh without becoming soul-food. Apart from this, some Dark Eldar have been willing to summon Chaos Daemons or work with Chaos worshippers ([[Fabius Bile|or allies of Chaos]]) to further their own ends.

* While the Necrontyr had religions before certain [[C'tan|star entities]] [[Necrons|roboticizied them]], those aren't fleshed out or detailed. Its also heavily implied the C'tan co-opted the Necrontyr religion beforehand. With the change to Necrons taking the higher though processes of most of them, any Necrons who can comprehend faith and religiosity either worship the C'tan or have become irreligious.

* The Tyranids themselves are irreligious, being spehss bugs and all, but understand at least a few of the advantages of religion. [[Genestealer]]s infect people and together they establish cults on targeted worlds, such as one worshipping "Children of the Stars", a perversion of the Imperial Cult (such as one that worships a [[Swarmlord|four-armed]] version of the Emperor) or something else like "Celebrants of Nihilism" (yes, that's a canon Genestealer cult name). Psychic influence is often involved and, notably, the Genestealers do not consider themselves gods. Once the Tyranids arrive en-masse, the cult-gets assimilated along with all non-Tyranids willingly or not. An interesting tidbit is that the Hive Mind stops the Tyranids from attacking the cultists in early stages of the invasion and leads them on, only to later override the Genestealers' wills and and make them slaughter the cultists.

===Dungeons and Dragons===
* Among Dungeons and Dragons settings, [[Planescape]], [[Eberron]], and [[Pathfinder]] are notable for having some coherent things that could be called "Religions", rather then the usual generic Pantheism.
** Most of Planescape's Factions effectively count as religions, to the point they can produce [[Cleric]]s ([[Planescape: Torment#Fall-From-Grace|Atheist ones at that]]). Yes, even the Athar. (Perhaps ''especially'' the Athar.)
** Half of Eberron's religions aren't worship of deities. The [[Blood of Vol]] seeks to unlock the divinity within one's self and rejects the gods (if they even exist) and the [[Path of Inspiration]] seeks to improve their next reincarnation. The Undying Court worships not gods but their undead ancestors that make up their government. The [[Path of Light]], [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Becoming_God|Becoming God]] and [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Reforged|Reforged]] all seek to ''create'' a deity. Even some interpretations of the [[Sovereign Host]], like the one most common among dragons, don't worship them as deities. Due to the way divine casting works in Eberron, all of these can produce divine casters.
** There's a handful of religions on [[Golarion]] that aren't merely worship of pantheons. The most prominent (read: Actually has mechanical support) is the [[Prophecies of Kalistrade]], which is basically fantasy [[Star Trek|Ferengi]].

* [[D20 Modern]]'s [[Urban Arcana]], unusually for urban fantasy, has D&D deities bleed into reality alongside the monsters. You are still able to play a <s>cleric</s> "acolyte" of any real world deity despite this.

===Star Wars===
* [[Star Wars]] is inconsistent on if the [[The Force]] is a religion. The Jedi and the Sith ''could'' both be considered religions as they are considered monastic, but mix in several other traits such as being meritocratic (Jedi) and kraterocratic (Sith) and Lucas himself has axed at least one prototyped book for portraying them too much as a religion. It's also notable that the Sith were former Jedi who left the Jedi path for several reasons including [[Heresy|disagreements over the teachings of that creed]]. Aside from that, religion is nearly always a non-human tradition, something noted in a culture's historical background and never seen implying its extinction, or a scam. The religiously linked "damn" and "hell" are the two real world swear words that exist in-universe, purely because Han Solo used them in the films, and some concept of an "angel" exists because a young Anakin told Padme about them in the prequel trilogy films.
** There are rare exceptions where a religion is fleshed out and explored, and the writing goes various directions for better or worse. A notable example is the aggressive polytheistic religion of the antagonistic Yuuzhan Vong from the EU (which the story gradually revealed was long ago perverted from benevolent roots, and this perverted form takes a few cues from Islam and Aztec mythology).

===Star Trek===
* Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had a low opinion of religion and in his vision humanity had done away with it and was better off for it and he had no interest in adding it to the aliens. However, some of the cast and crew disagreed and occasionally references and religions found their way into the show, which increased after Roddenberry's death. The Federation's culture is distinctly humanistic (extending the concept to alien species) in it's outlook in which religion is regarded as a thing of the past.
** While there are plenty of "Godlike" entities in Star Trek, almost all are treated as Sufficiently Advanced Aliens in the Arthur C. Clarke sense--and in particular, in ST:TNG, the flip side, that Picard and his crew are frequently shown to look like Gods to sufficiently primitive aliens, is gone into in more than one episode.
** The Bajorans are a highly religious alien race, with the majority following peaceful teachings and a minority of violent extremists.
*** Of some note, the Bajoran religion is of interest because their "Gods" actually exist, and can be (somewhat incomprehensibly) talked to (a rarity outside of [[Science Fantasy]]). In other words, they were frequently a method of having some religion vs. science debates where the divine entity (A) explicitly exists, (B) is explainable as "sufficiently advanced and unusual aliens", and (C) aren't jerks, just bad at communication with those of us who experience time linearly--in other words, with a deck that wasn't quite as badly stacked. The religiosity was meant to be as a way of contrasting the Starfleet personnel with the native population and to draw a parallel between Bajorans under the Cardassian Occupation and various real world recently freed oppressed religious-slash-ethnic groups.
** <s>In the fifth Star Trek movie, ''"The Final Frontier"'', some of the crew steal the Enterprise to look for God and instead find a powerful alien being impersonating God in the center of the universe</s> '''Just like there is no live-action movie of Avatar: The Last Airbender, there is totally no Star Trek 5!'''

===World of Darkness===
* Very large books could be written about religion and [[World of Darkness]]/Chronicles of Darkness. We'll just cover a few highlights:
** From [[Vampire: The Requiem]], there's the the Lancea et Sanctum, which might be best described as "Christianity for Vampires", and the Circle of the Crone, which is "Pagan Vampires". Both have Vampire miracles on tap (pun intended).
** [[Hunter: The Vigil]] has various religious organizations among the Compacts and Conspiracies, some very similar to real world ones, others...not so much.
** [[Mage: The Ascension]] has various religious Traditions, portrayed in that highly-stereotypical and highly-depending-on-the-author way typical of old WoD.

==See also==
* [[Mythology]]

[[Category:Not related]]
[[Category:History]]

Star Trek

2020-05-07T02:54:46Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* The Orville */

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[[File:Enterprise.jpg|thumb|500px|right|If you aren't already hearing the theme song you might not belong here.]]

{{Topquote|Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!|James T. Kirk, <s>third</s> captain of the starship USS Enterprise}}

'''''Star Trek''''' is a multimedia science-fiction series and one of the cornerstones of nerdy media properties (in fact, Klingon is the most learned fictional language, and the only one to surpass Tolkien's elvish in popularity), and one of the few to crossover into mainstream popularity (alongside ''[[Star Wars]]'', ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and a few others). It's also one of the longest-running science fiction franchises, as it began when the the first episode of The Original Series aired in 1966, and since then has had over 50 years of geek history spanning several generations. Needless to say, it's had a huge influence on all things sci-fi, and, by extension, [[/tg/]].

Originally, ''Star Trek'' was [[noblebright]] beyond noblebright and, in many ways, was the polar opposite of ''[[Warhammer 40,000|Warhammer 40K's]]'' [[grimdark]]. The more recent reboot films, however, have taken a much, ''much'' more grimdark tone, which is delightfully [[skub]]tastic.

== Games ==
There's been plenty of tabletop games and [[/v/|vidya gaems]] featuring ''Star Trek'' without being merchandising bullshit (see: themed ''[[Monopoly]]'' sets), including one of the earliest action multiplayer wargame: ''Netrek''.

*'''''Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier''''' (1978) The very first Trek tabletop [[RPG]]. Written by, I shit you not, Michael Scott. Groggy (grokky?) as all hell, and due for an OSR.
* '''''[[Star Fleet Battles]] (SFB)''''' (1979-) The crunchiest starship combat game you're ever going to find outside of a computer. Based on the original series and not any of the later series, for licensing reasons. Takes some liberties with the setting, which (combined with the aforementioned licensing) is why "''Star Trek''" isn't actually in the title. It's had its own video game spinoff in the form of Starfleet Command. The series died when the last company owned by Interplay broke up in the early 2000s.
* '''''Star Trek: The Role Playing Game''''' (1982-1989) Made by [[FASA]], essentially ''[[Traveller]]''-lite, or a happier, shinier ''[[Rogue Trader]]''. Hasn't aged terribly well, what with having been made when the only canonical ''Star Trek'' materials to work with were the original and animated series, the first four films, and a couple of now non-canon novels. If you try to dust it off, expect tons of conflict with the rest of the show. Died as they were trying to update it for ''TNG'', because Paramount's corporate suits (surprise, surprise) had no idea what an RPG actually entailed and were worried about violence, and getting their cut, and... oh you know the drill by now. Welcome to the 80's.
* '''''Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator''''' (1983) FASA designed this, so it feels like ''[[Battletech]]'' but not as good.
* '''''Prime Directive''''' (1993-2008) The most successful tabletop RPG line (but that's not saying much), it's actually still in print. Produced by Amarillo Design Bureau, so again no direct name-dropping of "''Star Trek''." Lasted as long as it did by constantly evolving, in Borg-like fashion, to adapt to the current zeitgeist. Has had 4 editions, with the second using [[GURPS]], the third using [[Wizards of the Coast|d20]], and the fourth [[d20 Modern]].
* '''''Star Trek [[Card_Game|CCG]]''''' (1994-2007, 2011-2014, 2013-2015, 2018-) There's been a few of these, most notably the games released by [[Decipher]], but never globally popular. They also suffered from game balance problems from fans wanting their fave character, but needing extra rules for their quirks. There's also the problem of putting numbers to character stats, such as one game that asserted that [[Heresy|Picard having about twice the integrity of a Klingon pig]]. Later versions are "deck-building" games to try to cash in on the popularity of ''[[Dominion]]'' and ''[[Thunderstone]]''. And now virtual CCGs are the order of the day.
* '''''Star Trek: The Next Generation Role Playing Game''''' (1998-1999) The next attempt, made by Last Unicorn Games. Won an award for best new game, which makes it a complete shame that no one has ever played it.
* '''''Star Trek Red Alert''''' (2000) A Diskwars game themed to ''Star Trek''.
* '''''Star Trek Roleplaying Game''''' (2002-2005) When [[Decipher]] had the CCG license, they decided, "What the hell, let's make an RPG, too." It, like so many of its predecessors, died unnoticed and unmourned.
* '''''Star Trek Online''''' (2010-) An [[MMORPG|MMO]]. Decent gameplay mechanics, especially starship combat. Storyline leaves something to be desired, especially when the ostensibly [[Noblebright|peaceful]] Federation trades shots at least once with every other faction in the galaxy.
* '''''Call To Arms: Star Trek''''' (2011) [[Mongoose_Publishing|Mongoose]]'s license for ''Babylon 5'' expired, so they collaborated with Amarillo Design Bureau (the ''Star Fleet Battles'' guys), re-themed the game to Star Trek along with improving the system to make it more nifty. Less micro-management than SFB, and ships get some cinematic feats.
* '''''Star Trek: Expeditions''''' (2011) Ignore the tie-ins to the movie, Reiner Knizia designed this. Explore the gameboard, flip over missions, try to have the proper crew to get victory points.
* '''''Star Trek: Fleet Captains''''' (2011) Tile flipping, exploring, and spaceships fighting over resources
* '''''Star Trek: Attack Wing''''' (2013-) [[WizKids]] license the flightpath system from [[Fantasy Flight Games]] and adds ''Star Trek'' to the mix, [[Skub]] ensues. The game has been consistently plagued with balance issues, to the point that the rules errata is more than ten times longer than the actual rules. The actual current rules for things like the Borg special movement and fighter squadrons are completely different than the rules as written.
* '''''Star Trek: Ascendancy''''' (2016-) 4X table top boardgame from GaleForce9. Most of the races are represented, though the base set only has the Federation, Klingons and Romulans. Andorians, Vulcans, Cardassians and Ferengi can be purchased as expansions. There is even a Borg expansion that turns the game semi-coop as everyone tries real hard not to be assimilated.
* '''''Star Trek Adventures''''' (2017-) The latest attempt at an RPG, by Modiphius, coming out soon to tentative praise. It also comes with a whole range of miniatures of the various crews from the show.

== So why should I care? ==
Because between them, these six TV series and their assorted spinoff movies, books, etc. can provide inspiration for any sci-fi game you could care to run. If you want light-hearted action, look at the sort of things that happened in ''TOS'' or ''DS9'' to get the crew into some dangerous situation. If you want a charismatic villain, look at Gul Dukat or the Borg Queen. More serious issues are often handled with various degrees of success. While many science fiction series deal with a wide range of topics, Star Trek does so as aspects of a greater world. Like [[Tolkien]] is to fantasy it's a prime gateway drug to science fiction and especially science fiction which is more than "action movie IN SPACE!"

Not to mention in any sci-fi RPG with remotely free-form rules you're likely to encounter ''Star Trek'' fanboys, so you might as well know what they're talking about. The unholy spawn of a Trekkie and a [[Furry]] is known as a [[Chakat]], and you should fear it.

At its best ''Star Trek'' is thoughtful, optimistic futurism with a positive human element and brings you to strange new worlds in the grand tradition of speculative fiction which is accessible to even the layman. At its worst ''Star Trek'' is arrogant, smug, hypocritical, preachy, dull, sloppy and prone to the strawman fallacy.

== Setting ==
Here's the Cliff's Notes on ''Star Trek''. A couple of general warnings; firstly, ''Star Trek'' likes to ''really'' take its "racial themes" bits just a little too far. Second, despite this, it's rare for an entire race to be completely irredeemable the way many fictional aliens are: there are heroic and sympathetic characters from nearly every race listed below, able to put more-positive spins on their racial themes. Thirdly, aside from very occasional appearances by [[H.P. Lovecraft|aliens who are so bizarre that humankind can barely comprehend them]], all of the aliens look like dudes with rubber masks on (because they are). In real life, this was because there was no budget for anything else, but in-universe it's been explained by some kind of [[Old Ones|Precursor]] race who seeded all of the planets with their broadly humanoid DNA, and every race evolved slightly differently from there. There isn't much [[fluff]] on what these precursors were like, and some of it was contradictory, and Gene Roddenberry didn't like the idea (although he still had to work with the rubber forehead stuff). The good news for fa/tg/uys who like [[homebrew]] is that this makes it fairly easy to write [[d20 system]] rules for all of the races - after all, most ''D&D'' races are just humans with rubber masks on...

=== A Composite Creation ===
This is a general note that one should consider: Star Trek was created in pretty much the opposite way as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien worked out a bunch of linguistic stuff and general history of Arda in his spare time, then decided to use that as the basis for some stories that he eventually gave to some publishers which in the end sold quite well.

Roddenberry by contrast pitched a very broad general idea (it's the future, things are good, we got guys some on a ship exploring space; a "wagon train to the stars") to the networks and eventually Lucy from "I love Lucy" took it up on it and had him work with a variety of writers and actors who added to this rough skeleton of an idea in a process that would continue on to this day.

This is not to knock either approach, but both have their advantages and disadvantages. In regards to Star Trek, a franchise which relies mostly on an episode of the week format that's been going on for more than half a century this means that the canon is a fucking mess. There were numerous people at the helm and many of them had often very different ideas about what should be done that were just thrown out to see what stuck, many of which were contradictory and some of which we'd frankly rather forget. In general fans and fluff writers have been spending a whole lot of time trying to straighten out things and much of the lore is basically a rough consensus of what people like and what fits in with it. Later series got more systematic about this, but there are still points of contention and a lot of flat out contradictions due to its scattershot nature.

You know, like [[/co/| comic books]].

=== Factions ===
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'''The Federation'''
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[[File:Federation_Ships.jpg|thumb|500px|left|Starfleet's ships of the Line (original universe/canon)]]
Might as well talk about that main faction. The United Federation of Planets is what the [[Tau]] think they are. Its backstory is that in the distant future of the 1990s, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|übermensch]] [[Space Marines|created by genetic engineering]] began conquering the Earth. The [[Imperial Guard|normies]] fought back and won through sheer numbers, cryogenically freezing the Augments and kicking them out of Earth, but the damage and mass political unrest of World War III got half the planet nuked. This was why genetic engineering was banned. Fortunately, in 2063, a <s>drunken asshole</s> heroic visionary named Zefram Cochrane created humanity's first warp drive (though it functioned based on the principle that gravity bends space-time, and was therefore more akin to an Alcubierre drive than anything that's dependent on the [[Warp]]) and made first contact with the Vulcans. The Vulcans eventually helped humanity rebuild and overcome poverty, disease, war and hunger. With its Earthly problems solved, man turned to the stars and found out its three closest neighbors were [[Imperium of Man|racist xenophobic dicks trying to murder each other]]. Since any war between them would've swept up puny little Earth and gotten it glassed, humans decided to force their neighbors to sit down and talk things out. Incredibly, it worked, and the United Federation of Planets was born.

The Federation is a commie [[noblebright]] hippieland society with a post-scarcity economy and a strong democratic government ([[Mary Sue|pretty much Roddenberry's idea of utopia]]). As a result, Federation citizens work not because they have to, but because they want to. However, despite their advanced technology, transhumanism, that is intentionally making [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] and mutants like the infamous antagonist Khan Noonien Singh, is illegal.

The Federation's Navy is almost always called Starfleet. It's a mix between a military, a coast guard and a space agency, and usually rates scientific research as a higher priority than defense. One of its quirks is that it doesn't subscribe to the "bigger is better" policy used in most [[Warhammer 40K|sci-fi]], and even by most of the other ''Star Trek factions''. If the Federation ''does'' make a large ship, it's because they want it to have a daycare, swimming pool and ice cream bar. If they want a warship, they'll take a little gunship half the size of a modern day destroyer and pack it with enough antimatter nukes and guns to exterminate a solar system. In some cases, especially when dealing with ships from several centuries into the future, the ship is bigger on the inside than on the outside [[Creed|allowing it to hide a vast array of powerful armaments, ''space-bending'' equipment, and even whole planetary landscapes]]. They can get away with this because they out-tech almost everyone else by a country mile. The reason for the series' infamous "technobabble" is that <s>even ''they'' don't know everything their tech can do!</s> their technology is always evolving, and they know it so well that they can often use it in ways that even the original in-show design schematics did not intend.

In theory, Starfleet follows a rule called the "Prime Directive", which says that you're not allowed to interfere with low-tech races ("low-tech" being defined as "not having invented the warp drive", since warp technology apparently follows naturally from the laws of physics) or else things like turning the locals into Nazis might happen. The Original Series talked about this rule all the time, and Captain Kirk threw it aside whenever there was a sexy alien babe in sight. From ''TNG'' onward, it tended to instead be brought up whenever a hack writer needed a reason for the heroes to ''not'' instantly resolve a given problem with their superior technology or a way of making our heroes look like assholes for following it rigidly (yes, we could save this species from extinction but that would be interfering with the cosmic plan!), though there were a few good episodes that took it seriously.

Some of the more important member races are:

'''Founding members:'''
* [[Humans]]: You know 'em, you love 'em. Comprise seemingly 90% of Starfleet for reasons in no way related to the cost of makeup/CGI.
* [[Vulcan]]: The Original [[Eldar|Space Elves]], very emotional, especially during "pon'farr" (see below), who followed the teachings of an enlightened sage and embraced logic and rationalism after their emotions nearly led to them [[Slaanesh|wiping themselves out]]. They are what the average race of fantasy elves think they are, except on ''Enterprise'' because the writers wanted to artificially inject tension into the show (some of that was retconned to be a Romulan plot). Occasionally enter a state called "pon'farr," where they need to either [[Dark Eldar| fuck something half to death]], kill it with the nearest sharp object, or die of a brain aneurysm to let out all that pent-up emotional tension. Fa/tg/uys may recognize this as the sensation they feel every time [[Games Workshop]] puts out a new army book. Pretty bro-tier overall.
* Andorians: Blue dudes with antennae and constant fits of passion, the polar opposite of Vulcans and their one time foes. Pretty much fa/tg/uys, right down to the romantic streak, in the technical sense. Also, they live underground on a diet of meatbread and rage. Most of what defined them happened in Enterprise as they rarely showed up in the TNG-era, and even then did so as set dressing, allegedly because one of the showrunners hated their antennae and banned anyone from using them.
* Tellarites: Space [[Dwarf|Dorfs]]; like insulting everyone and arguing a lot (no, really, petty insults are considered a polite gesture in Tellarite culture), mostly because the very first tellarite ever shown in the series got in an argument with Spock's dad and now it's their whole racial thing. “Sarek said something in a scene once that was meant to demonstrate that he was stand-offish and kinda rude, but we like Sarek so it's now the defining attribute of this species.” It's all in good fun you understand, your confidence in your ideas and actions should be sturdy enough to withstand honest assessment and critique.
'''Notable Additional Members:'''
* Betazoids: Invariably attractive humanoid aliens with telepathic powers. Half-betazoid, half-humans apparently only have "empathic" powers, so they are well-regarded by Starfleet captains for their ability to point out the obvious and fill out the tight bodygloves that make up the Starfleet uniform in a pleasing manner, especially since theirs seem to come in a custom cut for reasons entirely unrelated to Roddenberry's erection. Their homeworld is like dropping a really hippie college and Space Vegas into a blender. They were taken over during The Dominion war because Earth or Vulcan would be seen as bullshit due to their large post Borg attack defense fleets/ship yards. While the writers would have to actually add new characters for the Andorians and Tellarites(such as Ambassadors for a government in exile). So Betazoid took the hit to raise the stakes.
* Trill: Originally a one-off race introduced as a sapient parasite that possesses and controls a barely, or even unintelligent humanoid host, they were radically reworked in ''Deep Space Nine'', right down to losing their rubber foreheads in favor of spots. Now, the host is itself an intelligent humanoid, and some, but not all, of their kind are able to willingly merge with a symbiont (because someone can't spell) that allows them to access a mixture of the memories and personalities of all previous hosts, though in a way that, theoretically, enhances the host's personality rather than destroying it or subsuming it. Then, when they die, they can pass on the symbiont to another host, theoretically, one they mentored. They went from having a rubber forehead to some spots because Terry Farrell had a allergic reaction to the make-up.
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'''The Klingon Empire'''
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[[Image:Batleth.jpg|thumb|right|A Bat'Leth (sword of honor), one of several types of Klingon bladed weapons. Frequently mocked IRL for being a poorly designed weapon.]]
[[Commissar|''"It is a good day to die!"'']]

The Federation's main rival and (movie era and afterward) the quintessential ''Star Trek'' race of lumpy foreheaded aliens. Originally they were a rough analog to the Russians (though they took some elements from [[Communism|communist China]]) in a rough cold war allegory with the Federation (even though the Federation are as commie as they come, though admittedly much of that came around in the TNG era). Their defining feature was that they were militaristic and imperialistic while the Federation was scholarly and respected liberty. This gradually moved more and more into them becoming Imperial Japan/[[Vikings]] In SPESSS obsessed with honor, fighting and dying honorably in battle while worshiping at the altar of [[Sigmar|warrior Jesus]], even as they turned from the Federation's bitter enemies into that friend who's fun to be around when he's not getting into drunken bar fights. You see shades of it during the movie era and it became more and more prominent through ''TNG'', culminating in ''DS9''. Do not make the mistake of thinking that Klingons are nothing more than barbaric savages, however; with Worf being part of the crew, and with ''DS9'' dealing with Klingon politics an awful lot we can see Klingon society as it truly is. Even so, they do often wander into self-parody territory.

The Klingons, in their current iteration, are a feudal society ruled by a council made up of the most powerful families. Klingon society holds very little value on things such as currency and material gain (which results in the Klingon empire [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65l7RHUx2A having a very simplistic understanding of economics]), believing that anything you acquire without some form of blood, sweat and/or tears on your part is a pathetic and dishonorable way of going about things, much the same way many cultures used to hurl abuse at merchants and bankers. Another thing to keep in mind is that a Klingon's reputation is literally everything. This can be easily seen in the episode "The House Of Quark" where dying honorably can literally change the outcome of an entire noble house, later when the Grand Council is visibly disgusted at D'Ghor. No respectable Klingon uses ''money'' to defeat his opponents. And no respectable Klingon would be so eager to perform an execution of an unarmed Ferengi in what was supposed to be an honorable duel. Klingons are still capable of being cunning and crafty, however, and having a high diplomacy score is viewed as honorable as they still have examples of cunning and clever heroes tricking boorish and stupid monsters.

[[Warhammer 40000|Klingons often carry swords into battle in an age of energy beam guns]]. In-universe, this is less suicidal than it sounds in the context of boarding actions and tight starship corridors. The Bat'leth is actually a rather shitty weapon. The Mek'leth is noted to be better in most situations. They use the same Disruptor weapons as the Romulans, and at one point used similar starship designs. While is explained as the result of a temporary and unholy alliance, given the eventual animosity between the two races, it was just an excuse to reuse props on a limited budget.

The Klingons are tied with the Vulcans and the Borg as being the most prominent and recognizable non-human species in Star Trek. Beloved of the Internet and the general public, to the point that there are published books like "A Klingon Christmas" in the world. The Klingons have their own constructed language. If you are ever worrying that you might not be a nerd, learning Klingon will solve that problem for you. Please note that this is in general considered by experts to be pathognomonic of [[Chris Chan|autism]]. You have not experienced Shakespeare until you hear it in the original Klingon.
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'''The Romulan Star Empire'''
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''"It's always chess with the Romulans"''

You know those [[Eldar|Vulcans]]? Well a few thousand years ago, as their planet was ravaged by war, some of them turned to intense emotional control and logic to tame their murderous passions, while most others left the planet altogether, founding a colony on the planet Romulus and dubbing themselves [[Dark Eldar|Romulans]]. Since said planet shares a name with a mythical figure known for founding [[Roman Empire|a city which built a vast empire]], and they had warp drive while those around them did not, you probably know that they turned to building an empire of their own. They hold the second place of prominence as immediate rivals to the Federation. Comically, they actually have better emotional control than the average Vulcan, since they gene-engineered most of their problems away years ago, and don't have to deal with the emotional blowback from pon'farr. The downside is that they lost some of their cousins' niftier powers, like mind-reading and being able to transfer their soul into another person for safekeeping. Although Star Trek Online also revealed that their trip to Romulus was a terrible ordeal, and their gene-engineering was taking during that time resulting in them losing most emotions save for bitterness of being "forced out".

The difference between the Klingons and the Romulans is basically the difference between Gork and Mork, or Khorne and Tzeentch. Klingons will fight you up front with simple brute force. Romulans are sneakier guys, preferring to fight you when you're not looking with spies, cloaked ships and complex plots behind the scenes and playing the long game. There is a lot of political infighting among them, though where the Klingons would duel to the death Romulans would seek to discredit their rivals, have them die in unfortunate "accidents" or disappear. This difference has left both Romulans and Klingons with a big hate-boner for each other, to the Romulans the Klingons are crude brutish barbarians and to the Klingons the Romulans are a pack of scheming cowardly weaklings.

Like the Klingons, they served as a rough Cold War allegory. In this case, they were rough analogs to Communist China (as seen by 1960s Americans), a distant horde of inscrutable and potentially dangerous Orientals who generally were unseen and projecting vague menace, but when encountered face-to-face could pack quite a punch indeed: the first major Interstellar War that Star Trek Earth fought was with the Romulans, which was fought entirely in space with neither side ever seeing the other face to face. Afterward, they set up a 'Neutral Zone' between the Federation and the Romulan Empire that no one even tried to cross for a century. From the Original Series onward, they frequently squabble and bicker with the Federation, before joining forces with them to fight the Dominion in ''Deep Space Nine'' and having their government devastated in ''Nemesis''.

In one of the two alternate universes created by J.J.Abrams movies, the so-called "Prime Universe", Romulus itself got caught in a supernova as part of the Abramsverse's backstory. ''Picard'' has revealed that Starfleet was going to help evacuate Romulus before the nova hit, but then some rogue androids destroyed the shipyards that the rescue fleet was being built at, so the Federation shrugged, flipped the Romulans the bird, and let them get blown up. The Romulan Star Empire collapsed in the aftermath, with the surviving Romulans are now scattered across half the galaxy. Most of the former Romulan colonies are now officially governed by the Romulan Free State, but their ability to exert their authority is implied to be limited at best and non-existent at worst. The Neutral Zone, in particular, collapsed into near lawlessness. Some of them have got hold of a Borg cube and are presumably up to some nefarious shit with it.
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'''The Ferengi Alliance'''
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[[Image:GW_Ferengi.jpg|thumb|left|A typical ferengi engaged in typical ferengi activities]]
''"A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all."''-Eighteenth Rule of Acquisition

Introduced in ''TNG's'' early days as the villains for the series, and what [[/pol/]] thinks Jews are. Some Jewish people have actually complained about their being subliminally Jewish and thus anti-Semetic, specifically mentioning that they were moneyhungry, lascivious, and ugly, and their large ear lobes were stand-ins for the sterotypical Jewish nose ([https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/08/14/science-fictions-anti-semitism-problem/?noredirect=on more on that here, we're not shitting you]), based on an old medieval stereotype that was enforced to prevent them owning land or assets. The idea was to make a caricature of capitalism as a contrast with the techno-communist Federation. This might have worked if these were not [[FAIL|''TNG's'' early days]]. Instead they overshot the mark by a light year or so, on top of other bad decisions, and you got a race of short (Gene wanted to make an evil short race as big evil races were overplayed), big-eared, [[goblin]]-like losers about as threatening as a grumpy pug. Over the first and second seasons they tried to make these guys threatening, but they fell flat on their face every time. Eventually the writers just said "fuck it" and the Ferengi got demoted to comic relief species, and their status as terrible enemies was demoted to propaganda designed to scare the Federation while the Ferengi government tried to figure out what to make of a species that rejected the acquisition of wealth as a goal. The Ferengi had some good moments in the later seasons of ''TNG'', but most of the best stuff that fleshed them out came from ''DS9'', which had an [[awesome]] Ferengi bartender named Quark as a major character. For an idea of what the Ferengi might have been like if the writers had their shit together, look up the Druuge of [[Star Control|Star Control II]] or the Magog Cartel from Oddworld.

Ferengi religion is only hinted upon in ''DS9'', but what is seen implies a simplistic system based on financial success. Ferengi all follow a rulebook/canon known as the Rules of Acquisition, which can be described as Ayn Rand IN SPACE and condensed into the form of Confucius' Analects. There are 285 of these, each a short piece of advice on how to stay in the black. Examples include "Peace is good for business," "War is good for business," "Never have sex with the boss's daughter," and "Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack." The first, and most important, of these is "Once you have their money, you never give it back." Sometimes, the Ferengi Randian spirituality extends into outright interpretations of the afterlife: according to some, the afterlife consists of the Divine Treasury and the Vault of Eternal Destitution, which are respectively analogous to Heaven and Hell. Entrance into one or the other depends on one's business ventures at the time of death; those that were turning a profit are allowed to enter the Divine Treasury, and the rest are damned to the Vault.

Ferengi government is ruled over by a Grand Nagus, a mix between a <s>pope</s>chief rabbi and a CEO, and he basically treats his civilization like some sort of company, with citizens regarded as workers. Directly below him is the Ferengi Commerce Authority, a [[what|quasi-religious]] organization dedicated to ensuring that correct business practices were followed and correct moral behavior was shown (including keeping the proles in line), although to the Ferengi, these are one and the same. The agents of the FCA are the Liquidators, who are essentially Inquisitors crossed with IRS auditors on steroids. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Ferengi females have no rights and are mentioned as [[PROMOTIONS|not even being allowed to wear clothes]], which leads to [[That Guy|boorish behavior]] on the part of Ferengi towards just about any species. Of course, we see female Ferengi on the show who push that envelope, but it seems that overall "regressive" does not even begin to describe the gender relationships in their culture. Quark's mother, a social climber who marries the head of their government, begins pushing through a women's rights movement during DS9, which proves more successful as time goes on.
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'''The Borg Collective'''
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[[Image:Borg cube.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The Borg have assimilated and improved your [[d6|die]]. It always rolls six. Crap your pants, 'cause resistance is futile.]]
{{Topquote|We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture shall adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.|The Borg's opening hail. This is not a boast or a brag, it's them simply explaining you how things are going to go down.}}
{{Topquote|One other thing. You may encounter Enterprise crew members who've already been assimilated. Don't hesitate to fire. Believe me, you'll be doing them a favour.|Picard going full [[grimdark]].}}

The Ferengi were utter failures as serious villains, so they needed something to fill that gap. Thus they made the Borg, an aggressive [[Tyranid|hive-minded]] collective of hyper-adaptive, [[Necron|regenerating]] cyborgs that assimilates entire species into itself in its attempt to improve and evolve. Shit, that's like coming up with [[Warforged]] while trying to replace [[Kender]].

In many ways, the Borg are the truest dark reflection of the Federation, and despite their name, they're not Swedish. While the Feds want you to join their little club on your own, to "add your culture to the galactic community," the Prime Directive means they will ultimately accept you turning them down, even if you have shit they really want. The Borg say "fuck that" and just absorb you. While the Federation believes everyone should work together [[Tau|for the greater good]], they still have a very strong sense of individualism and a culture of personal accomplishment (unless your individual belief happens to run counter to the Federation's principles anyway, in which case you're just WRONG because the Federation is the best). The Borg pool all their minds together into a massive collective consciousness in the pursuit of group perfection, becoming an almost-literal personification of techno-capital. The Federation is all about beauty and tranquility and all that hippie stuff, and their tech is eco-friendly and dolphin-safe. Borg [[Tyranids|strip mine entire planets and drain entire oceans]] in the name of growth and efficiency.

Your standard Borg [[cube]] is a huge multi-kilometer [[Firaeveus Carron|metal box]] (yes, bigger than most [[Imperial Navy]] cruisers) able to go up against an entire Federation warfleet and win. That's right, one of their ships could threaten the entire Federation and [[Exterminatus]] Earth. When done right, [[Necron|they are a cold, calculating, nigh-unstoppable force, a threat to all life]] that wants to retain free and distinct personalities (although they will ignore a single person if not on an assimilation mission, as what they really want is to absorb whole civilizations). Apparently, in Picard's nightmare in ''First Contact'', the Borg assimilation process includes a surgical [[Grimdark|drill through the eye. While awake.]] Of all the stuff to come out of the TNG Era they are undoubtedly the most well recognized in mass pop culture.

Unfortunately the got a bad downgrade during ''Voyager'' (the Borg Queen blew up cubes full of tens of thousands of drones because a few of them have been severed from the Hive Mind), but even there they were frequently not to be messed with. One amusing thing to note for people that haven't watched ''TNG'': the Borg were actually only in six episodes (and three were breakaway drones) and one movie, yet they're arguably the franchise's most famous pure villains aside from Khan. Goes to show how good they were when written properly. Then in ''Voyager'' they get their shit completely pushed in when they discover a new race of extradimensional aliens which they label Species 8472, which were immune to being assimilated, and had to ask the Federation for help in dealing with them. [[Necron#Regarding_Fluff_Change_-_Sore_Butts_Everywhere.|Wait, this sounds familiar...]]
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'''The Cardassian Union'''
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Introduced in ''TNG'', they are third fiddle to the Klingons and the Romulans. If the Klingons are hypothetically-honorable techno-barbarian warriors and the Romulans are an empire of civilized and refined but sly and ruthless expansionists, the Cardassians are essentially scaly fascists re-enacting ''[[1984]]'' IN SPACE. Their trials announce the outcome at the beginning, and the defense attorney is executed if he wins. Also, THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!

Originally a race of peaceable, spiritual artists called the Hebitians (ironically not dissimilar to the Bajorans), modern Cardassia was born in hunger and desperation when their homeworld began to suffer simultaneous mass famine, pandemic, resource depletion, and ecological collapse. A military junta seized power, figuratively and literally auctioned off the soul of their culture through liquidating all the planet's art and religious artifacts into cold hard cash, and turned the Cardassians into the opportunistic imperialists they are today.

Despite being a whole lot weaker than the Federation, the Cardassians manage to hold their own, partly because what they lack in resources and raw power is made up for by a combination of intense cunning and high charisma stats. Compared to the equally deceptive Romulans, the Cardies are more likely to flash you a smile while tickling your ribs with a knife. They'll use any tool they can to gain the upper hand and while that often means unpleasant and terminal sessions in dark rooms, strip mined planets and the enslavement of entire species, they'll gladly become your bestest buddy if it would achieve their goals. Their intelligence service, the Obsidian Order, is also one of the most ruthlessly efficient organizations in the entire sector, managing to outscale the Romulan Tal Shiar when it comes to producing magnificent bastards and manipulating the politics of entire worlds to their advantage. Unlike the Romulans or the Klingons, they don't tolerate the sort of literal infighting that is rampant in both those states, that shit only serves to weaken '''GLORIOUS CARDASSIA''' and needs to be stamped out with ruthless efficiency. Exposing that someone who just happens to be your enemy as being a dangerous subversive is just a benefit, although this can result in both sides of a conflict shouting "For Cardassia!" as they charge each other. Sort of how Democrats and Republicans are both for America, yet oppose each other.

Cardassia has a very fluid hierarchical government, similar to the political realities of post-Stalin but pre-Collaspe Soviet Russia. Broadly speaking, there are three different facets of the government: the Central Command (which holds all the power) the Obsidian Order (who holds the least amount of power, but controls the most puppets) and the Detapa Council (similar to the [[High Lords of Terra]] and just as worthless). Cardassian society holds a very strict view of family, placing family just below the needs of the State.

The State holds a semi-divine mythical status in the eyes of its citizens, with it being viewed as impossible for the State to ever make mistakes. The ideal Cardassian life was one of complete loyalty and servitude to the State and family, with the "repetitive epic," detailing how generations of Cardassians go on to serve both in exactly the same way over and over seen as the height of their culture. The Cardassian government is assumed to be omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent by pretty much every Cardassian, with all Cadassians gladly giving of themselves to the State. Such was this level of belief that when Picard was tortured by the Obsidian order, the torturer saw nothing wrong with bringing his daughter to work because he was working for the State, and therefore the torture of Picard could never be disturbing or wrong. That's why their trials announce their sentences at the beginning and execute the defense attorney if he wins; their "trials" are more excuses to show off the power and infallibility of the State to the masses than actually determine guilt or innocence.

As far as plot significant activities went, they had a war with the Federation a few years before ''TNG'' which ended in the creation of a Demilitarized Zone between the two powers and (significant to ''Deep Space Nine'') abandoning the previously occupied planet of Bajor they had exploited for resources. After a disastrous war with the Klingons and The Maquis led to a popular revolution and overthrow of the existing government, one leader seized power, declared himself absolute leader, and joined the Dominion towards the end of ''DS9'', which was some serious bad news for the ''DS9'' crew.
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'''The Bajoran Republic'''
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The Bajorans are a species native to the Planet Bajor. They were, until shortly before the events of ''Deep Space Nine'', under a brutal occupation by the Cardassians who strip mined their planet. They had a fighting resistance which veered in and out of being considered terrorists and all in all were often represented as Palestinians IN SPEHSS. After that, they got their independence, although they're thinking about joining the Federation. The Bajorans have one system and are technologically backwards; the Federation is technically breaking the Prime Directive by interacting with them, but as they've spent years under the oppression of a warp-capable species, they can probably handle it. Also ''DS9'' proves that ancient Bajorans managed to travel at warp speeds to Cardassia using solar sails and an enormous amount of luck, which technically makes them a warp-capable species. The only reason why they are significant in terms of the politics of ''Star Trek'' is that they have a wormhole near their planet, which has some timey-wimey aliens living it that they worship as gods, and serves as the only way to get to or from the Gamma Quadrant that won't take decades, making it strategically priceless. Hilariously, this was discovered almost immediately after the Cardassians ''thought'' they'd extracted everything of value from the Bajorans and peace'd out, certain that the system was no longer worth the PR hit they were taking from it, only to get burned by some harsh seller's remorse. Also, their species has the oldest civilization (roughly a half-million years) of any major ''Star Trek'' race, and the wormhole aliens have gifted them some cool shit, like the Orb of Time.

The big thing that makes the Bajorans unique is that they actually have a serious religion going on -the human race is depicted as mostly non-religious. They're also probably one of the most accurate depictions of any highly religious alien race in a sci-fi franchise, because they are divided between the majority who interpret their religion as [[Noblebright|peace and love]], and a small but loud minority of bastards who interpret it as [[Grimdark|condoning acts of terrorism]]. A blatant attempt to simulate Israelis for criticism, although that can apply to many religions nowadays.
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'''The Dominion'''
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A vast empire which exists on the other side of the galaxy in the Gamma Quadrant. The Dominion is ruled over by a species of liquid shapeshifters called The Founders.(aka Changlings aka Odo's people) They have at their disposal a military composed of two genetically engineered species that worship the Founders as gods: the short and articulate Vorta who serve as ambassadors, bureaucrats, and political commisars and the big brutal Jem'hadar, who are vat grown, drug addicted, cannon fodder. These oversee a large number of vassal races, including (as of later seasons of ''DS9'') the Cardassians.

The Founders were once (according to them anyway) a peaceful, kind civilization of explorers who wished to see the galaxy, explore strange new worlds, and seek out new forms of life. Unfortunately, they did this in the wrong neighborhood, and quickly ran into species who did not tolerate others. The fact that the Founders were shapeshifters capable of mimicking almost anyone did not help either. Paranoia, mutual mistrust, and some very bad things eventually led to the Founders deciding "fuck this" and moving their planet into a nebula so nobody would bother them. So more or less, a [[Grimdark|grimmer]], [[Grimdark|darker]], counterpart to the Federation, but with spookier Real Aliens.

The Founders are obsessed with order and are both extremely racist and xenophobic, and believe that all alien life is inherently untrustworthy and evil, and the best thing to do is conquer/enslave them before they do the same to them. They don't care about the rights of "Solids", and will happily ignore any sense of decency when convenient. This can be seen when The Dominion runs a simulation of the Dominion dominating the Alpha Quadrant. When O'Brien is assaulted by a Jem'Hadar and severely beaten to the point of needing emergency teleportation to medical (the crime being "disrespectful"), the Founders (disguised as Federation Officers) do not press charges, and when Sisko comes barging in demanding answers, dismiss him with little concern about their own soldiers brutalizing citizens. Their overall ideology could be thought of as Qin legalism IN SPACE: people are inherently evil and the only way to make a better world is to impose order upon them through brute force from a position of absolute, unquestioned power.

The Founders, when not wandering around in various forms, tend to spend their time in a massive ocean literally made up of countless billions of Founders, something which is referred to as the Great Link. According to the Founders, this allows them to share information with each other and come to peaceful decisions. This is rapidly proved to be bullshit; when a separated-at-birth one of their own merged into the Great Link to share his memories of the Federation as peaceful and tolerant space hippies, not only did the Founders ignore his memories, but actively fucked with his mind in an attempt to turn him into a sleeper agent. And even if it weren't, it shows their hypocrisy through their willingness to share freedom and liberty among themselves while depriving all their various slaves and conquered peoples of the same.

The Founders are massive dicks, even to their own people. Failure among Jem'Hadar is rewarded with slow and painful death from deprivation of the drug they're created to need and their lifespans are incredibly short. To be even bigger dicks, the Vorta have no sense of taste and can't appreciate beauty. Not to make them better diplomats, but because they were raised from a primitive stone-age ape tribe, and the Founders think they shouldn't be ever allowed to forget that. (On the plus side, they did give the Vorta an immunity to poison that would make [[Mortarion]] himself jealous. [https://youtu.be/rACCZaBcq1g?t=1m29s Observe.]) This may also stem from their own neuroses: the Founders themselves have almost no bodily needs at all and require no nourishment, so they design their slaves to be like them. Notably, Vorta tend to come in [[Paranoia|packs of clones; a new one is activated when an old one dies, and they retain some memories and personality between "lives,"]] further hammering home how expendable they are to their makers.

And both races are literally engineered to love their makers for what they have done to them and worship and revere them as gods.

Continuing from the Cardassian Union section because the fate of both powers are linked in DS9. After joining the The Dominion. Everything was going seemingly for them and their leader Gul Dukat. They figured out how to bring down the minefield created by the Starfleet crew of Deep Space Nine to block access to the wormhole. (The Cardassians use its old name Terok Nor while in charge.)

However during the start of the sixth season the Founders learn that their not the only "gods" in the Galaxy. As the Sisko convinces the Bajoran Prophets to remove the Jem'Hadar reinforcements in transit. Forcing them to retreat back to Cardassian Space and Dukat's old friend Damar shoots Dukat's half Bajorion daughter Ziyal. This makes Dukat jump off the deep end as the sod loses his sanity and than goes full nutcase after his rehab transport is destroyed by the Jem Hadar, and ends up fighting an injured Benjamin Sisko after hiding inside some caverns on a hell planet for a few days.

After escaping he allows one of the evil wormhole aliens to possess him, kills Jadzia Dax, forgives Damar for killing a family member. Creates a cult of Bajorions dedicated to the Pai-Wraths,than abandons the cult when Major Kira knocks over the suicide pill jar that mixes it in with his fake. Than has sex with an old woman and becomes a demi-god. Bent on buring the universe despite the fact that his own people suffered heavily under the rule of the Dominion. After getting a final bitch slap from the Sisko who gets to have a happy ending living with his god alien parents. At the same time teaching them not to be huge dicks. While Dukat himself is trapped in the Fire Caves on Bajor.

His old friend Damar despite murdering a half breed woman is a lot more sane. Lacking Dukat's crimisa, things get worse for him and the Cardassians under Dominion rule. Most of their victories are off screen such as taking over Betazed. One of the none few major non founding planets of the Federation. This forces the Sisko to bring the Romulans into the war on the side of the Klingon-Federation alliance. With some underhanded methods from a former member of the Cassidian Obsidian Order(Elim Garak). I.e. blow up a Romulan Senator's shuttlecraft and tricking the pointy ears into thinking a damaged but fake datarod(an advanced form of Solid State Drive) was the real deal.

Thus the blame for his death will be switched from the Feds and pals are shifted to the Cardassians. By the final season this leads to the Dominion finding new best buds in the form of The Breen. Damar decides he has enough of the bullshit and in the ultimate irony realizes that the status of his people are now no different from the Cardassian occupied Bajor.

So after the Breen score the Domain a temporary victory over the Federation Alliance. Damar and his Cardi buds destroy a Dominion cloning facility while their backs are turned. Just so he can stick it to his "friend" the Vorta, Weyoun 8. Leaving them and the Klingons being the only thing stopping The Dominion from steamrolling over the Alpha Quadrant. As one Bird of Prey(doesn't say if its the frigate sized B'rel or Light Cruiser sized K'vort class. Though DS9 almost always used the former) was immune to the Breen energy dampening weapon due to modding its warp core. Gowron, due to being a moron who did nothing to change course after his most trusted advisor(Martok) turned out to be a Founder and the first time the Jem Hadar kicked their asses during the Klingon-Cardassian War. Decides to take glory for himself and discredit General Martok(who now how his pre Dominion internment job). This goes as badly as your thinking. Forcing Worf(now a legitimate badass compared to his TNG days) to kill him and turning the role of Chancellor to Martok.

Meanwhile the Feds decided to help out Damar's resistance by sending him Colonel Kira(who now has the rank of a Starfleet Commander), Odo and Garak(Ziyal's former simi-boyfriend). The resistance eventually get their hands on one of the Breen Energy Dampeners. During some infighting Damar realizes that the restoring the old Cardassia is pointless. Killing one of his old friends. The Breen and Jem'hadar do eventually one up the resistance. But not before their brutality turns more Cardassian against them. So during the final space battle this makes the Cardi military switch sides.
Damar is killed during the final raid on the Dominion HQ. Focing Kira and Garak to lead the final push into the compound.
The War between the Alpha Quadrant Alliance and The Dominion ends when Odo offers to share the cure to the disease created by Section 31(the Federation's answer to the Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order) which he passed onto them after the Founders also infected him with something that forced him to return to the Great Link the first time. He also promises to rejoin the Great Link so the Founders will learn not to be paranoid assholes.
It's difficult to say who are the bigger dicks here. The Founders for having Wayoon 4 infect Odo to return and turned him into into a solid(who was restored because dying a Changeling baby merged with him a season later) for killing a Founder who hacked the Defiant and almost succeeded at starting a war in the Alpha Quadrant. Or Section 31 for making the disease in the first place.

With all their advanced technology. One would think the Founders would have discovered a cure before being handed one. But the bad guys being just as flawed as everyone else is a common theme in Star Trek. Even in Star Trek Online despiste Odo being the one in charge a few decades later. As their Ambassador to the Federation. The experiments of the Founders sketchy past cause them and everyone else huge headaches including the dishonorable mention of the revived True Way movement.(i.e. the guys who hated that fact that the civilian Detapa Council ran Cadassaia.)

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'''Species 8472 / Undine'''
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The one and only race in the galaxy even the Borg don't want to fuck with. Introduced in Voyager, Species 8472 are three-legged creatures that live in a space called Fluid Space. It's similar to the [[Eye of Terror]] for the fact that it connects to an alternate dimension and [[Khorne|everyone will be ripped apart upon entering.]]

When the Borg first came around to try and assimilate them they were completely obliterated in a war in which 4 million Borg were killed in the first few days at the cost of almost no members of Species 8472. This war was such a roflstomp that the Borg were forced to call on the Federation for help. [[Tau|The Federation being the better people swallowed their pride and decided to help their sworn enemies,]] [[Eldrad|but were dicks and sent only one ship.]]

Species 8472 fought with fast moving, small ships and devastating beam weapons so the small ship of the Federation could keep up with them and helped the Borg force the species back into Fluid Space. The Federation were the villains on this one. That said, they eventually came to an accord with Species 8472, preventing further wars between the denizens of Fluid Space, except in lots and lots of video games that want to use a fresh antagonist.

That and that in ''Star Trek Online'', [[Awesome|they look like the fucking Predator.]]
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===The Q===

The Q are a race of beings who have elevated themselves to the point where they are basically gods. Most of them do not interact directly with the younger races, who they tend to consider with disdain- if they consider them at all. However a few of them take a more enlightened view, and one in particular has been known to fuck with individual humans from time time. They are mostly a TNG thing, and even there they work mostly by grace of John de Lancie's acting chops as a counterpoint to the charisma of Patrick Stewart, as de Lancie played the ''character'' Q, an all-powerful epic [[troll]] (no, not the fantasy kind) who's occasionally [[Tzeentch]]ian games sometimes appeared to be for his own amusement and sometimes acted as education or event protection to the human race. Various subplots involving the Q ''species'' range from somewhat thought provoking to mildly entertaining to ridiculous and banal, but the classic episodes that highlighted the charisma and chemistry of the two actors were often quite excellent.

=== The Mirror Universe ===
Not so much of a faction as an alternate setting, this is a parallel universe in which [[Alternate History|things have gone differently]] in Earth's History. The main point of divergence appears to occur when the Vulcan scientists who landed at Bozeman, Montana in 2063 are not welcomed with alcohol and music but instead are killed and have their ship looted. It is equally clear that where the main universe is Noblebright the Mirror Universe is Grimdark. Instead of a peace loving Federation searching for knowledge and friendly cooperation for the betterment of all, Earth gave rise to the ''Terran Empire'' which seeks out new life and civilizations to conquer and enslave, as it had done with the Klingons. Pretty much it's the PG-13 version of the Imperium of Man with a bit more Grimderp. Junior officers get promoted by killing their superiors, those that fail at that get thrown in the agony booth for their troubles and Emperor gets the job by usurping the previous incumbent. In general everyone in the Mirror Universe is a selfish asshole version of themselves and following comic book logic the uniforms for the female characters are more revealing. Occasionally people can cross over from one universe to the next due to technobabble and cause mischief in either realm.

Originally it was a one off TOS setting for an episode of the week, but it was brought back in a few novels and some romps in Deep Space Nine in which [[Fail|the Terran Empire had fallen]]. In Enterprise's fourth season it got a two parter that was pretty good and would have been an annual thing if the show had been renewed, this one having little crossover with the main universe (a ship from TOS ended up in the Mirror Universe and is salvaged after all it's crew have died). We also went there in Discovery, for better or worse. Voyager never did the mirror universe, but instead got a homage episode with some alien historians in the far future getting the details wrong like historians tend to.

== The Star Trek Crew ==
Whether the focus of the show is exploration, manning a space station in an important locale or trying to get home, all Star Trek series have a basic set up of casting and focus: namely on a collection of people who are usually the senior most officers on the ship. If you decide to make a Star Trek inspired game take this into consideration.

* '''The Captain''': Big cheese. Makes the hard decisions. Needs to be able to talk, think or fight out of situations as needed. The third option fetishist finding the balance between empathy and reason. (Two least skubby examples: Kirk and Picard, but the skub will fly hard if you say one is better than the other, sufficed to say that people like both of them alot but for different reasons)
* '''The First Officer''': Second in command and trusted advisor. Added after the original series, where the role was combined with and split between two others. (Two least skubby examples: Riker and Kira)
* '''The Science Officer''': Got high Int stats. Can analyze the situation and work out solutions. The voice of reason. Almost never human. (Two least skubby examples: Data and Spock)
* '''The Engineer''': Hard working technically minded guy who gets shit done. (Two least skubby examples: Scotty and Geordi)
* '''The Doctor''': Ship's healer with a secondary scientific role. The voice of empathy, whether prickly or serene. (Two least skubby examples: Bones and the EMH Doctor)
* '''The Security Officer''': Rough and tumble no-nonsense sort whose job it is to keep these guys alive when diplomacy fails, which it often does. Often has to juggle providing ship's security with working the tactical station on the bridge in a crisis. (Two least skubby examples: Worf and Odo)
* '''The Helmsman''': Got mad spacecraft piloting skills, either full-sized starships, shuttles, or fighters. (Two least skubby examples: Sulu and Tom Paris)
* '''The Other Guy''': A crewmember whose role doesn't cleanly map onto other positions, a role often restricted to a single show. Example positions include communications officer, ship's councilor, transporter chief, and linguist. (Two Least skubby examples: Uhura and Troi)
* '''The Outsider''': Someone who is a passenger and regular cast member, but exists outside the organization, looking in and commenting. Usually works a side-job, like tailor, bartender, or cook. Either a beloved fan-favorite or utterly despised, there is no middle ground. (Two Least skubby examples: Guinan and Quark)

Some of these hats may be worn by more than one character, some may be worn by no one at all. This is especially true in the original series, which had a smaller cast overall, and which put less emphasis on an ensemble and more on the main trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The usual roles and character dynamics were instead set down by ''The Next Generation'', which later series generally copied.

== The Shows ==
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===''The Original Series''===
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Created in 1966 by legendary sci-fi [[spiritual liege]] and money-grubbing sexist lounge lizard Gene Roddenberry and pitched as a "Wagon Train to the stars", it's a pulpy adventure sci-fi, full of fistfights, sword fights, and hammy speeches. (The guns never work.)

The USS ''Enterprise'' is tasked by the Federation to go on a five year mission to explore space: the final frontier, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations and boldly go where no man has gone before, though due to budget constraints, her crew often finds that man has in fact gone there before. Or at least something that looks exactly like a man but is actually an [[Xenos|alien]]; most episodes split the difference. James T. Kirk sleeps with [[Hot Chicks|hot alien babes]] who either die tragically or leave tearfully at the end of the episode, but it's 'k because he's too in love with the Enterprise to ever love a mere ''woman'' more. Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy are cold and logical and rash and emotional respectively, and their constant friction must be resulting in the best make-up sex in the world, Mr. Sulu and Lieutenant Uhura wait in vain for focus episodes that never come, Ensign Chekhov suffers horribly to the approval of American Cold War audiences, and Scotty [[gets shit done]]. Uniforms, while iconic, tend to look a bit civilian though. Miniskirts are apparently mandated attire for the ship's fan-servicey female "yeomen" and others, because 1966. The civilian nature of the attire (including, one must assume, the miniskirts, but they had a visual appeal all their own) were apparently an intentional design decision by Roddenberry who didn't want uniforms to look military. Further specialness on the part of Roddenberry demanded phasers not look like guns, instead looking like nothing in particular at all (although looking back at them today they look sort of like TV remotes, which would be invented much later), and also (probably the only sensible decision in this category) ships that didn't look like rockets, giving ships their distinctive and iconic saucer-engineering-nacelles look that still stands out today.

The Original Series frequently ran out of budget and entire episodes were filmed using spare costumes belonging to the production company, resulting in a series of extremely goofy excuses to go to planets full of gangsters or [[Nazi]]s. This is often copied by shows who don't realize it was done out of pure expediency, and nowadays this [[TVTropes|"Planet of Hats"]] gimmick is practically a box to check off when doing sci-fi adventure. The lack of budget also resulted in one of the more memorable inventions; unable to budget for a sequence showing the ''Enterprise'' or a shuttle landing on a new planet every week, the writers instead decided to invent the transporter to "beam" the crew down to planets or between starships. Also worth noting: despite its mediocre critical reception, ratings and eventual cancellation, not to forget the uneven quality of many episodes, especially in the Roddenberry-less third season where poor Fred Freiberger had to come onto a show he didn't understand and try to get better ratings with less money, ''TOS'' had a hell of a cultural impact thanks to syndication and it has been said that since it entered syndication in 1969, there hasn't been a 24-hour period without some TV station, in some country, playing Star Trek. Cancellation of The Original Series is now considered one of the worst decisions in TV history, and while much of its silly 60's campiness is now laughable, it often still manages to teach relevant and important lessons today.

Fun fact: the ''Enterprise'' and each of her 11 sister ships have enough firepower to [[Exterminatus]] a planet by themselves, after getting issued an order called General Order 24. This however is likely a time-consuming task. According to a later DS9 episode, it takes a fleet of 20 warships 1 hour of sustained bombardment to destroy a planets crust and 5 hours of sustained bombardment to destroy a planet down to its mantle. These 20 ships were also in service 100 years after the Enterprise so they were also more powerful.
Kirk has the distinction of being the only known captain to issue a [[Exterminatus|General Order 24]], because a planet was ''too'' much into wargames (he changed his mind after they dropped wargaming).
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===''The Animated Series''===
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The often forgotten middle child. More or less "seasons 4-5" of ''TOS'' with the same writing staff and actors, sans poor Walter Koenig. He was replaced by a weird camel person. He learned this at a convention, from a fan, while he was trying to announce he'd be writing an episode, which Gene promptly demanded he rewrite over and over. Classy.

Being animated allowed the staff to get a lot more creative with the alien designs and plots, and the writing and acting remain... well, top notch is a stretch, but certainly at the same levels as ''The Original Series'', with the occasional low point. Not ''nearly'' as bad as you're probably picturing from the name, although still limited by the low budget and primitive, cheap animation techniques of the television era it was aired in. Notably some sci-fi novelists were brought in to write some episodes, such as Larry Niven, and at least one episode, "Yesteryear," is considered such a pivotal moment in Spock's development that even people who hate the series enough to consider it all non-canon often make an exception just for that one.

Also, since the series now has no excuse for throwing in lots of Space Puritans and Space Wizards, it of course continued to do so to derptastic results, because by this point it had become traditional. The presence of a straight-up [[furry]] on the bridge, however, is downright unacceptable.
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===''The Next Generation''===
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Here's where it starts getting a little deeper and a little darker, although with a lot of left-wing political subtext turned up to 11. The USS ''Enterprise-D'' (the original and C were destroyed in action while A and B were retired) is, like its predecessor, tasked with going where no-one has gone before, but this time around the problems are less likely to be solved in a single episode. Jean-Luc Picard is the captain and he plots and negotiates his way to victory; Mr. Data is cold and unemotional, though not by choice - as an android, he'd very much like to change that; Riker takes over the captain's "sleep with alien babes" duties since Picard is married to the job; Worf the Klingon gets beaten up by monsters to show how tough the monsters are, meaning that Worf winds up looking incredibly weak by the end of the show's run and doesn't regain his badassery until his run on ''DS9''; Dr. Beverly Crusher is good old Bones minus his temper; Dr. Pulaski is Bones ''plus'' temper; Counsellor Troy is so badly written she becomes a running joke; and Geordi LaForge [[gets shit done]]. Only two things need to be said about helmsman Wesley Crusher: he was [[Mary Sue|Gene Wesley Roddenberry's shitty self-insert fanfic character]], and his sueness got to the point that even his actor started to hate him within the first season of the show.

Due to the massive success of The Original Series in syndication (and Paramount being [[Rage|pissed off]] by broadcast networks treating their most valuable IP like any other show), TNG was aired through syndication from the beginning. Although the first two seasons were laughably bad, the quality began to improve dramatically after an increasingly cocaine-addled Gene Roddenberry got too sick to keep ruining it and his partner-in-crime Maurice Hurley was thrown out on his ass, a moment often pinpointed via looking for when [[Meme|Riker grew a beard.]] The later seasons are widely considered to represent the apex of the franchise's episodic formula on the small screen (although ''DS9'' gave it a run for its money with a more serialized approach); sadly, this series only got one good movie.
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===''Deep Space Nine''===
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Unlike all the other series so far, ''Deep Space Nine'' primarily takes place in a fixed location - the titular space station Deep Space Nine, out near the borders of Federation Space. Said space station is near Bajor, which was recently freed from Cardassian occupation, and a wormhole to the other side of the galaxy which allows [[Warp|all sorts of of crazy shit to go down]]. If the other shows are a wagon train, this one's a border fort.

Benjamin Sisko is the captain, declared Emissary by the nearby Bajorans for making contact with the wormhole aliens they worship, and he successfully hybridizes the blow-the-shit-out-of-whatever-you-can't-punch Kirk approach with the talk-in-a-very-dignified-way-about-the-philosophy-of-the-thing-and-win-by-rhetoric Picard maneuver, in his ultimately-successful quest to become the baddest motherfucker in space, then literally becomes a space god. Kira the Bajoran ex-<s>terrorist</s> <S>''noble freedom fighter''</s> (who are we kidding she calls herself a terrorist) struggles to free and rebuild her people while coming to terms with the moral ambiguities of situations she prefers to see in black-and-white, Dr. Bashir works to find his character for several seasons before becoming a highlight, Dax gets often written poorly and has to switch bodies doing it, Odo IS ''Liquid Space Cop'', Quark runs his bar and [[troll|heckles]] the Federation, Garak pretends to be a tailor while definitely not being a super-spy and dropping killer lines, and Miles O'Brien [[gets shit done]]. Also, Worf wanders in halfway through, and actually gets to punch things instead of just getting punched by them. It's also a lot more political than other series (though ''TNG'' and ''Voyager'' have their moments) and the last series to have Gene Roddenberry's involvement (with less enthusiasm, in fact often much to the benefit of this particular series thematically, although Roddenberry's complete departure did not necessarily bode well for the franchise in general.)

It's the closest the pre-Kelvin series ever get to [[grimdark]], especially when the Dominion show up. The show has aged remarkably well and the terrorist/freedom fighter debate was repeatedly explored in a very mature and honest way. ''DS9'' is the most serialized of all Trek shows and could be considered a forerunner to the golden age of television with its long story arcs and deep character development. Overall, ''DS9'' has to be considered the most consistently good Trek show thanks to the excellent writing and fantastic performances from a truly wonderful ensemble cast. At least until the final season, when the writers who made it good were pulled to try and fail to make good movies, heralding the failure that was ''Voyager''. The finale episodes were mostly okay and tied up the story semi-satisfyingly, though a few die-hard subplots fell flat.

It wasn't without its controversies however. The show was airing around the same time as another thematically similar sci-fi show, ''Babylon 5''. Not only that but characters also shared similarities, as did the episodes. Interestingly, beginning of both series, introduction of characters and airing of similar episodes were often too close to each other for one show to copy the other but this did not stop massive [[Rage]] and [[/v/|fanboy wars]] from starting between fans of the two series accusing one another of plagiarism and having an inferior product. Happily, as time went on and both shows evolved, these hurt feelings have mostly faded.

How good is ''Deep Space Nine''? Every Star Trek series and even the reboot movies have pretty much ripped off ideas and concepts established during the series. Famously, within the "Trekker/Trekie" fan community, there's a little cell of fans who like it better than most other ''Star Trek''; these fans are typically called "Niners."
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===''Voyager''===
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Star Trek: Voyager centers around the eponymous USS ''Voyager'', a smallish ship which gets teleported over to the other side of the galaxy. The plot of the series centers on the crew's efforts to get back home, which COULD have made for an excellent premise. Unfortunately, there were few lasting story arcs, with most episodes being fully self-contained (as well as being littered with far too many episodes featuring holodeck or transporter incidents). As a consequence, despite being completely isolated from the Federation, no matter how bad things got Voyager always appeared in the next episode without a scratch, fully supplied, and with all its shuttlecraft intact. Think ''Gilligan's Island'' on a starship.

Like ''TNG'' and ''DS9'' it's a character-driven drama just as often as it is a sci-fi adventure romp, although compared to TNG only a few of the characters are particularly memorable. The captain and arguable "main character" is Kathryn Janeway, a Katharine Hepburn lookalike (I see what you did there) who is stern without being cold, and principled without being inflexible. The fan favorite is a character called "The Doctor" ([[Doctor Who|No relation]]); he's the solid-light hologram representative of the ship's emergency medical computer, who has to take on actual medical duties when their chief medical officer was conveniently killed in the pilot episode. Other than this, Chakotay is a peace-loving and spiritually rich indian <s>freedom fighter</s> <s>terrorist</s> [[FAIL|who was written with the help of a special cherokee consultant so native his name was Jamake Highwater and it turned out later on that he was actually jewish and didn't know dick about native cultures so he made everything up resulting in Chakotay basically being a borderline racist caricature of what you think indians are like. Akoochimoya.]] Tom Paris is an annoying jerk and is counterbalanced by Harry Kim who is the ideal boy-scout, making him only half as annoying and twice as boring. B'elanna Torres tries to perpetuate a lineage of dudes getting shit done but ends up blankly reciting her technobabble, having second degree plasma burns and – worst of all – systematically fails to get shit done whenever the warp core goes nuts. Tuvok tries hard to be as cool as Spock but ends up being a lame version of the n°1 Vulcan who uses logic to justify everything and makes it short for "you are wrong, I am right because I said so." Kes is passed as a fragile and nice character but it takes a couple of episodes to realize that having a short lifespan does not change the facts: [[powergamer|when you can boil someone to death from the inside of their body, drain life from everything around you to become stronger and do anything you want without knowing how, just by thinking of it]], you are a goddamn Mary Sue. From the fourth season onwards the only character the writers seemed to care about are Seven of Nine, [[Mary Sue|a human woman who recently escaped from Borg control and kept all of her cyborg enhancements but regained her free will]]; another Mary Sue, to be sure, but she's [[Hot Chicks|hot]], and the other characters are much worse, so that's not really a bad thing. Fortunately, The Doctor still received a lot of attention from the writers and almost single-handedly made the show watchable. There was also Neelix, who was the apparent inspiration for Jar-Jar Binks, and any sane crew would have pushed him out of an airlock on the first episode. Fans who stuck with the show despite its glaring failings were given one final slap in the face with the <s>controversial</s> shit final season, in which the producers decided "screw steadily crafting a satisfying conclusion to a story which we have wasted for most of the last seven years anyway; lets just ignore it until the final episode and then throw in some shit about trans-warp conduits and time travel, bitches love time travel!" If you did not care about any of the characters or the subplots or time travel making sense (the writers sure didn't), then the final episode was explosions (and the Borg got a major setback, just don't think about the setup too hard).

The Doctor never once stopped being totally fucking awesome though (enough so to even earn a cameo in First Contact), and the great acting from the cast carries the series from being horrific to ''occasionally'' watchable. Just goes to show that no matter how good your actors are, they can't make diamonds out of shit.

Overall, most Star Trek fans view Voyager's legacy with a shrug and a "meh." Unfortunately, hopes that Voyager's successor would revitalize the franchise would soon prove to be overly optimistic.

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===''Enterprise''===
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From the minute the Nickelback-tier theme tune started, Enterprise attempted to take Star Trek in a new direction and was only partially successful in doing so. The series never quite caught its footing, although it still managed to have some enjoyable moments. It was most notable for providing a first-hand view of the key events that directly led to the formation of the Federation. The Federation's founding races were also featured heavily, with Andorians, Tellarites, and Vulcans all enjoying significant screen time alongside the human characters.

It's a prequel to the rest of the canon, taking place on the first ''Enterprise'', before the Federation was founded and during the period when Earth was still an independent power- so there's a lot of primitive versions of things from other series. At least the uniforms were pretty cool in an Air Force sort of way. Captained by <s>that guy from ''Quantum Leap''</s> Jonathan Archer, in hindsight the fact that they had to rename him from their original choice of Jeffrey Archer to avoid confusion with the disgraced British MP and author of the same name probably cursed the series with bad karma before it had even begun shooting. In an unusual twist for a ''Trek'' series, his first officer isn't a <s>terrorist</s> ''noble freedom fighter,'' however she does share a trait with her ''Voyager'' predecessor in that the actress who portrayed her frequently criticized the show's writers in interviews. Other than that, well, Hoshi Sato screams a lot, Travis Mayweather was so dull even the writers forgot he existed, the resident Vulcan T'Pol serves as both the Science Officer and source of sexy fanservice, Malcolm Reed has an accent, Dr Phlox is a weird creepy alien with weird creepy alien moral (and gets surprisingly interesting when given enough screentime, which hardly happened), and Trip also has an accent and [[gets shit done]].

Was retooled twice, the third season tries to be ''24'' IN SPACE (stop some guys the Xindi from blowing up Earth) while the 4th season is a massive apology about the last three seasons that tries to fix all the problems they had, and as a result, the only season that's close to being good.

Unfortunately, the poorly-received final episode is set on the holodeck of the Enterprise-D, which leaves us with the firm impression that the producers would have much rather have just continued making ''The Next Generation''. Considering the mediocre quality of the ''TNG'' movies we got instead, this probably would have worked out better for all involved (Or not since ''Voyager'' was that; its first episode was even numbered 901, as in Season 9 Episode 1).

Yet despite all this bad directing, subpar plots, and frankly boring episodes, ''Enterprise'' still manages to be moderately enjoyable with occasional moments of awesomeness if you can suffer through a fair few awful spots and aggressive mediocrity almost everywhere else. The focus on founding Federation races like the Andorans was refreshing and the technology level, being somewhere between the original series and the real world present-day, was quite interesting. We also got to see the Vulcans portrayed as arrogant, superior dicks. Which makes a lot more sense than the way they're usually portrayed as fairly submissive towards humans because they are, obviously and objectively, the superior race. The Klingons certainly still considered themselves to be honorable but the show made it clear that the Klingon notion of honor is rarely analogous to the human concept which was interesting as all hell to watch. There have been a few small nods to it in discovery and the abrams movies.

And let's be fucking honest, [[/tg/]] loves 40k and the Xindi arc was about as grimdark as shit gets. And that was awesome.

Also makes a neat pairing with ''Voyager'' in that they really mess with the Prime Directive and question the Federation.
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===''Discovery''===
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----
<s>A LOAD OF SOCIAL JUSTICE SHIT!</s> Ahem, let's start again, shall we?

A new "prequel" series set 10 years before ''The Original Series.'' Again. Run exclusively on CBS' paid streaming service (unless you live outside the US and Canada, in which case you can get it on Netflix) to try and drum up sign-ups and revenue, it features a mix of ''Enterprise'' and Abramstrek aesthetics despite supposedly taking place in parallel to the TOS "The Cage" pilot while [[what|having technology superior to late DS9]] and introducing [[dune|mushroom-based space travel]] that would imply [[retcon|all later events and warp travel would be outdated]]. The trailer has attracted a lot of concern over the fact that Klingons have been completely redesigned to look like slit-nosed ogres wearing ancient Egyptian cosplay, and rumors that the Klingons shown were [[Racial Holy War|primitives who had been trapped in stasis]] proved to be unfounded, so there is no excuse. Not having a cold war to posture about, the new villains are based off of Trump-inspired xenophobia by the admission of the authors. Also the lead character is Spock's human sister that he never mentioned before, aka the ''exact'' origin of the [[Mary Sue]] which is just fucking depressing. To further reinforce this, there are ''numerous'' examples of dialogue and exposition that serve only to show how the Mary Sue main character was right all along, usually in conjunction with the death of the character that had foolishly disagreed with her. Want a new Star Trek episode about racism and immigration? Try the now-banned [https://youtu.be/3VEZH8bqytA Star Trek Continues]. Want Star Trek with humor, keep an eye out for the upcoming [https://ew-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/ew.com/tv/2018/10/25/star-trek-animated-comedy/amp/?fbclid=IwAR2WN6auDNm5YiunYhaqiu7vt9f-P08AuUjMpLA5LlpUgvTm9_xloJNRYb0 Star Trek: Lower Decks]; want a pseudo-Star Trek show about other modern issues? Try ''The Orville'' below; that's right, American Dad In Space may right now be a better Star Trek than an actual Star Trek series.

Initial reviews have been... well, it's shit. The writing is overly convoluted, the massive injection of grimdark into pre-TOS continuity is anathema to the hardcore fans (the ''human'' characters are often the ones doing the nastiest shit, including [[Marines Malevolent|trying to kill a Klingon party by planting an explosive on the corpse of one of their comrades for when they came to collect the dead]]) and the Klingons are so flat and devoid of characterization that they might as well be Larry the Cable Guy lookalikes wearing Trump hats. This is a massive disappointment for a series that promised to put a spotlight on Klingon culture but ended up retconning all the characterization that happened in TNG and DS9. It ''may'' get better with time (remember that it took two seasons for TNG to get really good) but given the release schedule (split between 2017 and 2018 with a long break) it may come too late for the fanbase to care. Currently it's cause for more fans to lose their shit over whether it's better or worse than the Abrams movies, which is a new record of [[Skub|Trek Skub]]. Releasing the show on CBS All Access instead of cable or broadcast TV makes it seem that executives don't really give a shit if the show succeeds or fails, bringing up the question of [[Bioware|whether they're deliberately putting Star Trek: Discovery in a no-win scenario where, no matter what happens, the executives have an excuse to cancel Star Trek altogether]].

Another stupid decision was not shelling out the cash to bring back Bruce Greenwood and Zachary Quinto as Captain Pike and Spock, respectively. Their ages wouldn't have mattered either if CBS and Paramount weren't too cheap to use the anti-aging CGI tech that is so commonplace these days. That being said, Anson Mount's portrayal of Captain Pike was a revelation that was BY FAR the most well-received aspect of Season 2.

There were also allegations that large chunks of the plot were stolen from previews of an in-development indie game (the unreleased 2014 game featured giant Tardigrades that had the ability to use an interstellar network to travel anywhere they wanted to- sound familiar?).

While Season 2 had some watchable moments, it was still middling at best, and nobody is ''ever'' going to let this series live down the garbage fire that was Season 1.
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===''Picard''===
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Set to be a continuation of the original timeline, featuring old man Picard with Patrick Stewart reprising the role. Hopes are not high, but at the very least Patrick Stewart's presence should make it watchable if nothing else.

The story so far: Picard ragequit Starfleet after they sat back and let the Romulans get blown up by the supernova mentioned in the first Abrams movie. This happened because some rogue androids orbitally bombarded Mars and blew up the rescue fleet that was being built there, so the Federation has banned all R&D on synthetic lifeforms and subsequently become [[Imperium of Man|isolationist, racist and xenophobic]] (does this remind you of anything?). Picard has been living in his family chateau ever since, making wine and hanging out with his dog and his Romulan housekeepers. Then a scared girl named Dahj turns up on his doorstep, and it turns out she's a highly advanced biological android constructed from the surviving bits of Data's positronic brain by the guy who wanted to dismantle Data in that episode "The Measure of a Man." Before Picard can really figure out what to do about her, she gets killed by a secret society of Luddite anti-Android Romulan assholes, but it turns it that's okay because she has a twin "sister" named Soji who is working with some other Romulans on a derelict Borg cube. Picard decides it's time to saddle up and go be a hero again. He starts putting together a crew that includes Agnes Jurati, a former cyberneticist; Raffi Musiker, his last executive officer, [[What|who is now an alcoholic drug-vaping hermit]] after getting kicked out of Starfleet; Cristobal Rios, a scruffy merc pilot whose ship is staffed entirely by holograms of himself; Elnor, a Romulan warrior monk raised by Romulan warrior nuns; and Seven of Nine, who has become a kickass pilot and is no longer wearing her infamous catsuit. Together, they're out to save Soji, stop the Romulans, and be the good guys in a galaxy that needs heroes, etc etc.

Key storytelling criticisms of the show include the idea that the Romulan Empire should have had enough infrastructure to effect an evacuation without help, and that even if they didn't, the Federation would ''never'' abandon a neighbor who was asking for help- not even a former enemy, and not even when doing so became difficult or inconvenient. Even dumber the executives wanted to avoid continuity lockout and ordered the showrunner to remove references to previous shows. This meant they couldn't mention the Dominion War and its impact on the Federation. As during DS9, Starfleet actually has space carriers that can move tons of people and equipment quickly like their IRL counterparts in the Akira class.
Whether you like the series or not, it's clear that this series is not taking place in Gene Roddenberry's noblebright vision of the Federation, and the fact that it is yet another grim, sometimes violent entry into the franchise is a point that has sharply [[skub|divided]] reviews of the show. However most Star Trek fans will admit that the first seasons of a series are almost always stinkers.

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== Homages ==
Being such a long-running franchise with a wide audience, Star Trek has gained enough pop-culture recognition that it is often referenced in other works. In a few cases entire projects are made to pay homage Star Trek. Here are some examples.

=== Galaxy Quest ===
A sci-fi/comedy film released in 1999, directed by Dean Parisot. It parodies science fiction films and series in general, but particularly ''Star Trek'' and its fandom. The film stars big name actors including Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and the late Alan Rickman. The plot revolves around the cast of a defunct cult television series called Galaxy Quest (for example, Tim Allen played the Kirk/Shatner expy and Alan Rickman played the Spock/Nimoy expy). They're also suffering fatigue that mirrors the experiences of the actual Star Trek actors (Rickman's character is typecast with his Galaxy Quest character and laments it, similar to how these things happened to the late, great Leonard Nimoy).

The cast are suddenly visited by actual aliens, the Thermians, who believe the series to be an accurate documentary (they have no concept of fiction and only the most bare bones idea of lying) and seek their help. The Thermians take the actors with them, who find themselves involved in a very real, and dangerous, intergalactic conflict, and unlike the show where it all wrapped up quickly they struggle to learn about and relate to the aliens. Speaking of the aliens, in a witty nod to the "rubber forehead aliens" so common in Star Trek, the Thermians first appear to resemble humans with unnaturally pale skin and straight hair, but that's revealed to be a holographic disguise and their true forms are squid-like. Can these actors find greatness within themselves, and possibly personal redemption? (Spoiler: yes, and it is incredible.)

Built around the basic premise of "What if the cast of ''Star Trek'' ended up on a real spaceship and had to actually do the shit they did in the show?" Featuring a veritable all-star cast of talented comedians and character actors, this is one of the best parodies ever made, and an affectionate love-letter to the franchise as a whole.

===Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning===
Another parody, parodying not only ''Star Trek'' but ''Babylon 5'' as well. The seventh in a series fan movies released in 2005, it's about Captain Pirk builds a starship called CPP ''Kickstart'', allies with Russia and takes over the world. He wants to take over more planets but the ships of his P-Fleet aren't fast enough to travel outside the Solar system. A maggot hole opens and it leads to an alternate reality. Pirk wants to take over the Earth of this reality, which leads to an [[awesome]] space battle between the P-Fleet and the fleet of the space station Babel 13 led by Johnny Sherrypie. The movie features some of the best special effects ever put in a sci-fi movie, which is pretty impressive, considering that this is an amateur film with a very low budget and was rendered in five years in someone's bedroom. The film is spoken in Finnish but subtitles are available for a wide variety of languages, including Klingon. They also made [https://web.archive.org/web/20070828010927/http://rpg.starwreck.com/ a role-playing game based on it], where your character [[Truenamer|becomes more incompetent]] [[Page 42|as he levels up]].

===Star Trek: Renegades===
Kickstarter Trek. The makers submitted their made-for-TV movie pilot to CBS in an attempt to get it made into a legit on-the-air series (and by god it shows), but they were not successful. As a result, while the project limped along for a few years afterward, it has good and bad in equal measure. As a non-official product it also cannot be considered canon. Some characters are actually interesting (about time we saw more of the Breen!) while others are pure Mary Sues (including a male Seven of Nine with a built-in Borg-gun/personal shield/fully-functional hand). Some of the ideas are interesting while others are boring or already-been-done. The CGI is all Hollywood-quality, but the practical effects are okay at best.
It's obvious that they made this without knowing that they were going to be able to make a TV show or not, and tried to cram the sort of build-up and intrigue we saw in DS9 into a span of 90 minutes. For now though, it's decidedly meh, and probably a dead project as well since it hasn't been mentioned on the maker's website in over a year as of late 2019.

===Star Trek Continues===
Of all the offerings listed here, Star Trek Continues is BY FAR the closest in theme and tone to the original 1960's series. Indeed, this is the whole point: from its inception, this fan-funded project was intended to represent a what-if "4th Season" of the Original Series, ending with the conclusion of the Enterprise's 5-year mission. It is surprisingly and at times ''delightfully'' watchable, with strong stories, consequences and arcs that carry over to later episodes, tons of attention to detail, unexpected cameos, and a cast that really came together, particularly in later episodes. It also delicately navigated a line between viewing female characters through the lens of a show that was rooted in 1960's culture while also not treating them as weak children dependent on men for protection. Star Trek Continues successfully concluded its "season" with all 11 episodes gradually released from 2014 to 2018, to heaps of industry awards and wide praise (including a personal endorsement from Gene Roddenberry's son, who said his father would've approved).

=== The Orville ===
<s>Star Trek fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off</s> A comedy drama sci-fi television series that began as a homage to Star Trek, created by and starring Seth MacFarlane of ''Family Guy'' infamy-- [[Skub|No wait, come back!]] The guy's a huge Trekkie and felt too many shows were up in their ass with grimdark, so he pitched his idea to the execs to make a loving comedic sendup of The Next Generation. Many of the executive producers and developers are notable industry Trekkies such as David Goodman (who wrote the ''Futurama'' Trek parody episode), or Trek alumni such as Brannon Braga. First airing in 2017, the series is about the strung-out not-Picard protagonist Captain Edward Mercer, played by MacFarlane himself, of the eponymous not-Enterprise spaceship "The Orville" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Orville likely named after one of the Wright Brothers]). His ex-wife Kelly is the first officer while the crew includes the not-T'Pol alien security officer Alara, gay beefy not-Worf alien Bortus, asshole not-Lore android Isaac, and John LaMarr and Gordon Malloy - an even more ridiculous parody of Harry Kim and Tom Paris. They explore the galaxy while dealing with personal problems and fighting various bad guys.

The show began with a mix of drama, comedy and commentary on real world issues (a given between being Star Trek inspired and who the showrunner is). Ed and Kelly reconciled as co-workers in the pilot, the episode "Majority Rule" has good commentary on social currency systems (despite its similarity to Black Mirror's episode "Nosedive") and the episode "About a Girl" is a Bortus-centered story about gender-fluid/sex-changing aliens (surprisingly well-done though it trod [[SJW|certain waters]]). Being a Seth MacFarlane show, there's one subject The Orville is very preachy - pun intended - about, that makes Star Trek look like [[CS Lewis|The Chronicles of Narnia]]; atheism. A quarter of Season 1 episodes revolve around beating the “Religion is Bad” drum - "If Stars Should Appear", "Mad Idolatry" and "Krill", the lattermost named for the only religious race in the setting, who ''of course'' are fanatical devotees of a dangerous religion which made them seem set as <s>Seth's</s> the show's go-to bad guys. The first season ran for 12 episodes, and the show was greenlit for a second season.

In the second season, Alara was written out of the show halfway through. The character's actress, Halston Sage, was rumoured to be dating Seth MacFarlane and given the apparent distance between them later, this may have indicated a breakup. If the rumor is true, this likely factored into writing Alara out because [[Derp|dating a co-worker and subordinate 20 years younger than you almost never ends well]] (which may come back to haunt them as she was one of the better received characters). Throughout the Season Isaac gradually turned good, becoming the crew's not-Data member. One episode has a plot hole where a Krill captured and imprisoned by Mercer and co. in Season 1 returns as part of a strike force targeting Ed with no explanation for her escape. Speaking of the Krill, they become the "lesser villains that need to team up with the good guys to fight worse villains" cliché, in a possible asspull given all the villainous setup they got (such as their reptilian design which deliberately invoked Nosferatu to the point that sunlight kills them too). The team up happens because the rest of Issac's robotic race, the Kaylons, have gone [[Necrons|Full Skynet]] against organic life. The cast seems to be gelling better - rumoured situation between Seth and Halston aside, the writers have a better idea of what the show should be and the humour is now used in service of the stories. The criticized elements were dialed back but still remain (eg; atheistic preachiness went down form 1-in-4 to 1-in-7 episodes), and while the show is getting a third season, it was moved from TV to streaming service Hulu.

Some commend The Orville as a witty breath of [[Noblebright|fresh air]] in an overly [[Grimdark|stagnant]] genre with good special effects, music and a side of nostalgia. Others denounce The Orville as derivative, sophomoric, vain (some consider MacFarlane's stunt-casting himself as the main character the height of vanity, especially given his tendency to push his views in his works) and uncomfortable (how many view Mercer's interactions with ex-wife character Kelly since the beginning). Some think both sides have a point. Trekkies are equally divided on the show; many Trekkies [[butthurt]] over Discovery endorse The Orville, a significant number of Discovery fans hate The Orville, and a small and overlooked group quietly enjoys both.

As always, stay tuned for how this turns out.

== Films ==
As a general rule, the even-numbered ones aren't complete shit.

* '''''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''''': AKA: The Slow Motion Picture, or the Motionless Picture. A giant space whatsit is flying towards Earth, the mostly-retired crew has to go figure out what's going on and stop it. Old school sci-fi geeks like the ideas, but terrible pace and interminable special effects that were clearly meant to capitalize on ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' while failing to understand what people like about that movie kill them dead for everyone else. Besides the uniform worn by Kirk, the uniforms also look like pajamas. So no wonder they were changed only a movie later. Features an entirely bald female alien who is [[What|so good at sex that she has to swear an oath not to get it on with the crew]]. Really. This is canon.
* '''''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''''': As Kirk starts to feel his age, a one-off villain from the show makes a dramatic reapperance: [[Meme|KKKHHHAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!]] Widely considered the best of all the films, and the only one considered a straight up great film, no qualifiers. If you haven't seen it, see it. So good many later movies in the franchise just try to rip it off instead of finding their own identities. Interesting fact: due to time constraints, actors of Kirk and Khan weren't available at the same time. So the entire script was written so that Kirk and Khan never need to meet face-to-face. But you'd never notice if it weren't pointed out to you. Roddenberry screeched autistically and objected to some of the actions of his characters, including Kirk shooting a [[Enslavers|brain eating space parasite]] rather than "[[Noblebright|keeping it for study]]." The fact that his strongest objections came to the most [[win]] of the films says a great deal about his deprecating value to the franchise around the TNG era.
* '''''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock''''': Where is Spock? ''He's on Genesis.'' ALL AHEAD FULL! Not really bad, just mediocre and run of the mill compared to the superior films that surround it. It was also saddled with the misfortune of undoing some of the previous film's more-daring decisions, and having its only daring decision reversed a film later. If you had to say that any film broke the "odd numbers suck" rule, it would be this one.
* '''''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home''''': The crew of the ''Enterprise'' travels back in time to save the whales. No, literally and unironically. Scott tries to talk to a computer through the mouse, Spock nerve-pinches a punk on a bus in San Francisco, and somehow it works, creating something perhaps not quite in the genre intended but a classic in sci-fi dramedy. ''The Voyage Home'' is a zany comedy romp beloved by the general public and fandom alike, leaving only the most intractable fanbois to bitch and moan. Nimoy directed this one but there was a contract stipulation that Shatner would get whatever Nimoy got, thus leading to...
* <del>'''''Star Trek V: The Final Frontier''''':</del> <s>The epitome of the "odd-numbered Star Trek films suck" rule.</s> {{BLAM|Lies! There is no}} '''''Star Trek V'''''{{BLAM|! It was not called}} '''''The Final Frontier'''''{{BLAM|! It was not directed by Kirk's egotistical actor and did not have a plot that could literally be summarized as "Kirk is betrayed by his incompetent crew, yet goes on to fight God and win!" The films mysteriously moved from four to six and ''we are all improved because of this!''}}
* '''''Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country''''': The Space Cold War ends amidst searing mystery and drama. The sendoff for the original cast, except Kirk who got a worse send-off a movie later. Gene Roddenberry watched it, hated it, and was going to seek legal advice but died a week later. And good riddance to that, because it's a pretty sweet political thriller if your hippie-panties don't get into a twist at the thought that the Federation isn't a perfect place full of perfect people.
* '''''Star Trek Generations''''': Malcolm McDowell blows up planets to get into a magic space ribbon to live forever, no it does not make any more sense in context. An already-weak story hamstrung by its obsession with being daring and unconventional rather than good. Also, Kirk dies on the bridge in the most face-palming manner possible.
* '''''Star Trek First Contact''''': The ''TNG'' crew face off with the Borg to ensure the future happens. Lots of action, a script that sparks with energy and snark, and some quite effective performances make this the only good ''TNG'' movie (we don't blame you TNG cast). It sadly is also the only appearance of the Defiant on screen, doing a pretty decent job of fighting the Borg before the Enterprise E saves the day of course. The Borg Queen was also introduced here before Voyager, ruining what could have been a good idea.
* '''''Star Trek Insurrection''''': If you thought the [[Avatar|Na'vi]] were a bunch of badly-written [[Mary Sue]]s, you ain't seen nothing yet! B-b-b-baby you ain't seen n-n-n-nothing yet! Also, Riker shaves his beard, and that's basically a war crime. Aged from terrible to forgettably bad thanks to that one scene of Picard and Data singing ''HMS Pinafore'' going memetic.
* '''''Star Trek Nemesis''''': The last stand of the ''TNG'' cast, ending not with a bang but a whimper. It also required amending the even=good/odd=bad rule to "''Galaxy Quest'' counts as a ''Star Trek'' film so this one is also odd."
* '''''Star Trek''''' (2009): Alternate timeline "reboot" (sideboot?) with the original crew, albeit with new younger actors. Timey-wimey shit happens and old prime timeline Spock (reprised by old Leonard Nemoy) is hurled back in time along with a bunch of Romulan assholes. The dickbag Romulans begin fucking shit up, slightly altering history in a way that ensures gratuitous lens flare. [[skub| Skubtastic]], but at least watchable (if a shiny CGI filled, non-moral space action means watchable for you), which is more than ''most'' odd-numbered films can muster. If you still even count it as odd, without the ''Galaxy Quest''-amendment.
* '''''Star Trek Into Darkness''''': Some [[edgy]] shit. The second of the alternate timeline ''Trek'' films. Terrorism, conspiracy and flapdoodle. Even more skubtastic, but generally considered worse than its predecessor, partially because (like ''Nemesis'') it tries to be a remake of ''The Wrath of Khan'' and having Kirk at his most punchable.
* '''''Star Trek Beyond''''': Controversial, but more in a question of whether it's decent or quite good. Lots of good character stuff and a decent story revolving around a race of mysterious space pirates trying to conquer a colony, but the action photography is poorly-lit shaky-cam horseshit and the sound work is awful. If it's the last "Kelvin Timeline" movie, as it seems it will be, at least it ended on a good note.

== Novels ==
Like most long time franchises ''Star Trek'' has a massive line of books. Unlike most they're basically just fanfics as nothing but the show and the movies is canon so the writers can do whatever they want. This changed after ''Nemesis'' since they might never have another show or movie in the "Prime" universe, so the writers got their shit together and wrote a group of books as a tight community very close to the shows. The relaunch novels are a continuation of the show they're about. Also there's the ''Titan'' book series which is about Riker and Troi getting their own ship, which happens to be staffed by every race in the Federation including living rocks, [[awesome|space dinosaurs]] that smell like [[meatbread|toast]] and a [[what|space cyborg ostrich]].

During yet another novel continuity (Star Trek: Destiny), the Borg go nuts and eat Pluto... yeah... and then they finally get sick of the Federation somehow managing to not get assimilated all the time, so they finally just send every last cube they have with orders to Exterminatus the absolute SHIT out of the entire Alpha Quadrant. Pretty much every important character from TNG, DS9, and Voyager has to team up to stop them, and even then the Federation still gets its shit kicked in and winds up having to rely on a vaguely ridiculous deus ex machina to win, and [[Grimdark|billions of people still die and dozens of planets are blown to shit]]. It was pretty insane.

Then all the Federation's main enemies get together to form an anti-Federation and start poking the bear, all the while telling their allies that they're somehow warmongering dicks, Section 31 gets its cover blown in a big way, and Riker gets promoted to Admiral. Also, a lot of the newer TNG novels have been devoted to following up on one-shot aliens from the show, like the guys that sent out the probe that made Barclay super-smart and those fish monks that were abducting crewmembers for experiments. Now that the Picard show is coming out, though, this will all presumably be chucked in the dustbin.

== Video Games ==
=== Star Trek Online ===
''Star Trek Online'' is the free-to-play online game built by Cryptic Studios and run by Perfect World. With an official license CBS, recurring characters voiced by various Trek alumni, and recently a license to include references to the reboot chronology (officially known as the "Kelvin Timeline"), it's the closest existing thing to an "official" continuation of the "Prime" timeline, and contains history and fluff extending nearly 40 years from the end of Star Trek: Nemesis.

Taking place in the 25th century (around the year 2409-2410), the Hobus supernova (the event that kicked Nero and Spock into the past during Star Trek 2009) has devastated the Romulans, and its near-collapse and fragmentation causes tensions between a resurgent Klingon Empire and the Federation. The tensions blow up into a war, with members of a new, nicer, breakaway Romulan Republic playing both sides in exchange for development aid.

The game contains deep cuts from all over Trek lore, and answers questions about what happened to various key characters, including Data (took over the Enterprise-E, then retired), the Enterprise (now an even bigger ship run by Andorian captain Shon), and the Voyager crew (it took Harry Kim 30 years to make Captain lol). Raises barely-shown, unnamed, and otherwise obscure races to new prominence as big bad foes, including the Iconians (ancient aliens with god complexes who mutated into energy beings, currently live in dyson spheres and were only defeated by predestination paradox), Tzenkethi (4-armed halo guys whose weak points are the FRONT of their shields), and Na'kuhl (the alien nazis from Enterprise as time-traveling terrorists who blame the Federation for a throwaway event that happened in TNG's beach episode).

Ostensibly free to play, but don't let that fool you... the ''not-so-micro''transactions are the only reason the lights stay on.

=== Starfleet Command ===

''Starfleet Command'' was a series real time space battle games by Interplay based on the much older tabletop game Star Fleet Battles. It came out in 1999 and was followed by several sequels and expansions. Gameplay was much like ''Battlefleet Gothic'', but with the player only controlling one ship. SFC remains Interplay's best selling game, topping even ''Baldur's Gate''.

=== Armada ===

A series of low effort RTS's churned out by Activision in 2000. Tried to take on both ''Homeworld'' and ''Age of Empires'', both of which have recently gotten HD remakes and ''Armada'' hasn't so that should tell you all you need to know. However, for one of the first 3D model space RTS's it was surprisingly easy to mod, resulting in many ship mod packs being made for it.

== Would you like to know more? ==
And oh Lordy, is there more...
*[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/ Main Memory Alpha: A ''Star Trek'' wiki]
*[http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/ Main Memory Beta: The flip-side of Memory Alpha for the less than official stuff]
*[http://sfdebris.com/ SF Debris: opinionated episode reviews, has some non ''Trek'' stuff as well]

[[Category: Television]]

Star Trek

2020-05-07T02:41:44Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:309B:88CF:3AA4:8D60: /* The Orville */

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[[File:Enterprise.jpg|thumb|500px|right|If you aren't already hearing the theme song you might not belong here.]]

{{Topquote|Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!|James T. Kirk, <s>third</s> captain of the starship USS Enterprise}}

'''''Star Trek''''' is a multimedia science-fiction series and one of the cornerstones of nerdy media properties (in fact, Klingon is the most learned fictional language, and the only one to surpass Tolkien's elvish in popularity), and one of the few to crossover into mainstream popularity (alongside ''[[Star Wars]]'', ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and a few others). It's also one of the longest-running science fiction franchises, as it began when the the first episode of The Original Series aired in 1966, and since then has had over 50 years of geek history spanning several generations. Needless to say, it's had a huge influence on all things sci-fi, and, by extension, [[/tg/]].

Originally, ''Star Trek'' was [[noblebright]] beyond noblebright and, in many ways, was the polar opposite of ''[[Warhammer 40,000|Warhammer 40K's]]'' [[grimdark]]. The more recent reboot films, however, have taken a much, ''much'' more grimdark tone, which is delightfully [[skub]]tastic.

== Games ==
There's been plenty of tabletop games and [[/v/|vidya gaems]] featuring ''Star Trek'' without being merchandising bullshit (see: themed ''[[Monopoly]]'' sets), including one of the earliest action multiplayer wargame: ''Netrek''.

*'''''Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier''''' (1978) The very first Trek tabletop [[RPG]]. Written by, I shit you not, Michael Scott. Groggy (grokky?) as all hell, and due for an OSR.
* '''''[[Star Fleet Battles]] (SFB)''''' (1979-) The crunchiest starship combat game you're ever going to find outside of a computer. Based on the original series and not any of the later series, for licensing reasons. Takes some liberties with the setting, which (combined with the aforementioned licensing) is why "''Star Trek''" isn't actually in the title. It's had its own video game spinoff in the form of Starfleet Command. The series died when the last company owned by Interplay broke up in the early 2000s.
* '''''Star Trek: The Role Playing Game''''' (1982-1989) Made by [[FASA]], essentially ''[[Traveller]]''-lite, or a happier, shinier ''[[Rogue Trader]]''. Hasn't aged terribly well, what with having been made when the only canonical ''Star Trek'' materials to work with were the original and animated series, the first four films, and a couple of now non-canon novels. If you try to dust it off, expect tons of conflict with the rest of the show. Died as they were trying to update it for ''TNG'', because Paramount's corporate suits (surprise, surprise) had no idea what an RPG actually entailed and were worried about violence, and getting their cut, and... oh you know the drill by now. Welcome to the 80's.
* '''''Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator''''' (1983) FASA designed this, so it feels like ''[[Battletech]]'' but not as good.
* '''''Prime Directive''''' (1993-2008) The most successful tabletop RPG line (but that's not saying much), it's actually still in print. Produced by Amarillo Design Bureau, so again no direct name-dropping of "''Star Trek''." Lasted as long as it did by constantly evolving, in Borg-like fashion, to adapt to the current zeitgeist. Has had 4 editions, with the second using [[GURPS]], the third using [[Wizards of the Coast|d20]], and the fourth [[d20 Modern]].
* '''''Star Trek [[Card_Game|CCG]]''''' (1994-2007, 2011-2014, 2013-2015, 2018-) There's been a few of these, most notably the games released by [[Decipher]], but never globally popular. They also suffered from game balance problems from fans wanting their fave character, but needing extra rules for their quirks. There's also the problem of putting numbers to character stats, such as one game that asserted that [[Heresy|Picard having about twice the integrity of a Klingon pig]]. Later versions are "deck-building" games to try to cash in on the popularity of ''[[Dominion]]'' and ''[[Thunderstone]]''. And now virtual CCGs are the order of the day.
* '''''Star Trek: The Next Generation Role Playing Game''''' (1998-1999) The next attempt, made by Last Unicorn Games. Won an award for best new game, which makes it a complete shame that no one has ever played it.
* '''''Star Trek Red Alert''''' (2000) A Diskwars game themed to ''Star Trek''.
* '''''Star Trek Roleplaying Game''''' (2002-2005) When [[Decipher]] had the CCG license, they decided, "What the hell, let's make an RPG, too." It, like so many of its predecessors, died unnoticed and unmourned.
* '''''Star Trek Online''''' (2010-) An [[MMORPG|MMO]]. Decent gameplay mechanics, especially starship combat. Storyline leaves something to be desired, especially when the ostensibly [[Noblebright|peaceful]] Federation trades shots at least once with every other faction in the galaxy.
* '''''Call To Arms: Star Trek''''' (2011) [[Mongoose_Publishing|Mongoose]]'s license for ''Babylon 5'' expired, so they collaborated with Amarillo Design Bureau (the ''Star Fleet Battles'' guys), re-themed the game to Star Trek along with improving the system to make it more nifty. Less micro-management than SFB, and ships get some cinematic feats.
* '''''Star Trek: Expeditions''''' (2011) Ignore the tie-ins to the movie, Reiner Knizia designed this. Explore the gameboard, flip over missions, try to have the proper crew to get victory points.
* '''''Star Trek: Fleet Captains''''' (2011) Tile flipping, exploring, and spaceships fighting over resources
* '''''Star Trek: Attack Wing''''' (2013-) [[WizKids]] license the flightpath system from [[Fantasy Flight Games]] and adds ''Star Trek'' to the mix, [[Skub]] ensues. The game has been consistently plagued with balance issues, to the point that the rules errata is more than ten times longer than the actual rules. The actual current rules for things like the Borg special movement and fighter squadrons are completely different than the rules as written.
* '''''Star Trek: Ascendancy''''' (2016-) 4X table top boardgame from GaleForce9. Most of the races are represented, though the base set only has the Federation, Klingons and Romulans. Andorians, Vulcans, Cardassians and Ferengi can be purchased as expansions. There is even a Borg expansion that turns the game semi-coop as everyone tries real hard not to be assimilated.
* '''''Star Trek Adventures''''' (2017-) The latest attempt at an RPG, by Modiphius, coming out soon to tentative praise. It also comes with a whole range of miniatures of the various crews from the show.

== So why should I care? ==
Because between them, these six TV series and their assorted spinoff movies, books, etc. can provide inspiration for any sci-fi game you could care to run. If you want light-hearted action, look at the sort of things that happened in ''TOS'' or ''DS9'' to get the crew into some dangerous situation. If you want a charismatic villain, look at Gul Dukat or the Borg Queen. More serious issues are often handled with various degrees of success. While many science fiction series deal with a wide range of topics, Star Trek does so as aspects of a greater world. Like [[Tolkien]] is to fantasy it's a prime gateway drug to science fiction and especially science fiction which is more than "action movie IN SPACE!"

Not to mention in any sci-fi RPG with remotely free-form rules you're likely to encounter ''Star Trek'' fanboys, so you might as well know what they're talking about. The unholy spawn of a Trekkie and a [[Furry]] is known as a [[Chakat]], and you should fear it.

At its best ''Star Trek'' is thoughtful, optimistic futurism with a positive human element and brings you to strange new worlds in the grand tradition of speculative fiction which is accessible to even the layman. At its worst ''Star Trek'' is arrogant, smug, hypocritical, preachy, dull, sloppy and prone to the strawman fallacy.

== Setting ==
Here's the Cliff's Notes on ''Star Trek''. A couple of general warnings; firstly, ''Star Trek'' likes to ''really'' take its "racial themes" bits just a little too far. Second, despite this, it's rare for an entire race to be completely irredeemable the way many fictional aliens are: there are heroic and sympathetic characters from nearly every race listed below, able to put more-positive spins on their racial themes. Thirdly, aside from very occasional appearances by [[H.P. Lovecraft|aliens who are so bizarre that humankind can barely comprehend them]], all of the aliens look like dudes with rubber masks on (because they are). In real life, this was because there was no budget for anything else, but in-universe it's been explained by some kind of [[Old Ones|Precursor]] race who seeded all of the planets with their broadly humanoid DNA, and every race evolved slightly differently from there. There isn't much [[fluff]] on what these precursors were like, and some of it was contradictory, and Gene Roddenberry didn't like the idea (although he still had to work with the rubber forehead stuff). The good news for fa/tg/uys who like [[homebrew]] is that this makes it fairly easy to write [[d20 system]] rules for all of the races - after all, most ''D&D'' races are just humans with rubber masks on...

=== A Composite Creation ===
This is a general note that one should consider: Star Trek was created in pretty much the opposite way as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien worked out a bunch of linguistic stuff and general history of Arda in his spare time, then decided to use that as the basis for some stories that he eventually gave to some publishers which in the end sold quite well.

Roddenberry by contrast pitched a very broad general idea (it's the future, things are good, we got guys some on a ship exploring space; a "wagon train to the stars") to the networks and eventually Lucy from "I love Lucy" took it up on it and had him work with a variety of writers and actors who added to this rough skeleton of an idea in a process that would continue on to this day.

This is not to knock either approach, but both have their advantages and disadvantages. In regards to Star Trek, a franchise which relies mostly on an episode of the week format that's been going on for more than half a century this means that the canon is a fucking mess. There were numerous people at the helm and many of them had often very different ideas about what should be done that were just thrown out to see what stuck, many of which were contradictory and some of which we'd frankly rather forget. In general fans and fluff writers have been spending a whole lot of time trying to straighten out things and much of the lore is basically a rough consensus of what people like and what fits in with it. Later series got more systematic about this, but there are still points of contention and a lot of flat out contradictions due to its scattershot nature.

You know, like [[/co/| comic books]].

=== Factions ===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
'''The Federation'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
[[File:Federation_Ships.jpg|thumb|500px|left|Starfleet's ships of the Line (original universe/canon)]]
Might as well talk about that main faction. The United Federation of Planets is what the [[Tau]] think they are. Its backstory is that in the distant future of the 1990s, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|übermensch]] [[Space Marines|created by genetic engineering]] began conquering the Earth. The [[Imperial Guard|normies]] fought back and won through sheer numbers, cryogenically freezing the Augments and kicking them out of Earth, but the damage and mass political unrest of World War III got half the planet nuked. This was why genetic engineering was banned. Fortunately, in 2063, a <s>drunken asshole</s> heroic visionary named Zefram Cochrane created humanity's first warp drive (though it functioned based on the principle that gravity bends space-time, and was therefore more akin to an Alcubierre drive than anything that's dependent on the [[Warp]]) and made first contact with the Vulcans. The Vulcans eventually helped humanity rebuild and overcome poverty, disease, war and hunger. With its Earthly problems solved, man turned to the stars and found out its three closest neighbors were [[Imperium of Man|racist xenophobic dicks trying to murder each other]]. Since any war between them would've swept up puny little Earth and gotten it glassed, humans decided to force their neighbors to sit down and talk things out. Incredibly, it worked, and the United Federation of Planets was born.

The Federation is a commie [[noblebright]] hippieland society with a post-scarcity economy and a strong democratic government ([[Mary Sue|pretty much Roddenberry's idea of utopia]]). As a result, Federation citizens work not because they have to, but because they want to. However, despite their advanced technology, transhumanism, that is intentionally making [[Space Marines|SPESS MEHREENS]] and mutants like the infamous antagonist Khan Noonien Singh, is illegal.

The Federation's Navy is almost always called Starfleet. It's a mix between a military, a coast guard and a space agency, and usually rates scientific research as a higher priority than defense. One of its quirks is that it doesn't subscribe to the "bigger is better" policy used in most [[Warhammer 40K|sci-fi]], and even by most of the other ''Star Trek factions''. If the Federation ''does'' make a large ship, it's because they want it to have a daycare, swimming pool and ice cream bar. If they want a warship, they'll take a little gunship half the size of a modern day destroyer and pack it with enough antimatter nukes and guns to exterminate a solar system. In some cases, especially when dealing with ships from several centuries into the future, the ship is bigger on the inside than on the outside [[Creed|allowing it to hide a vast array of powerful armaments, ''space-bending'' equipment, and even whole planetary landscapes]]. They can get away with this because they out-tech almost everyone else by a country mile. The reason for the series' infamous "technobabble" is that <s>even ''they'' don't know everything their tech can do!</s> their technology is always evolving, and they know it so well that they can often use it in ways that even the original in-show design schematics did not intend.

In theory, Starfleet follows a rule called the "Prime Directive", which says that you're not allowed to interfere with low-tech races ("low-tech" being defined as "not having invented the warp drive", since warp technology apparently follows naturally from the laws of physics) or else things like turning the locals into Nazis might happen. The Original Series talked about this rule all the time, and Captain Kirk threw it aside whenever there was a sexy alien babe in sight. From ''TNG'' onward, it tended to instead be brought up whenever a hack writer needed a reason for the heroes to ''not'' instantly resolve a given problem with their superior technology or a way of making our heroes look like assholes for following it rigidly (yes, we could save this species from extinction but that would be interfering with the cosmic plan!), though there were a few good episodes that took it seriously.

Some of the more important member races are:

'''Founding members:'''
* [[Humans]]: You know 'em, you love 'em. Comprise seemingly 90% of Starfleet for reasons in no way related to the cost of makeup/CGI.
* [[Vulcan]]: The Original [[Eldar|Space Elves]], very emotional, especially during "pon'farr" (see below), who followed the teachings of an enlightened sage and embraced logic and rationalism after their emotions nearly led to them [[Slaanesh|wiping themselves out]]. They are what the average race of fantasy elves think they are, except on ''Enterprise'' because the writers wanted to artificially inject tension into the show (some of that was retconned to be a Romulan plot). Occasionally enter a state called "pon'farr," where they need to either [[Dark Eldar| fuck something half to death]], kill it with the nearest sharp object, or die of a brain aneurysm to let out all that pent-up emotional tension. Fa/tg/uys may recognize this as the sensation they feel every time [[Games Workshop]] puts out a new army book. Pretty bro-tier overall.
* Andorians: Blue dudes with antennae and constant fits of passion, the polar opposite of Vulcans and their one time foes. Pretty much fa/tg/uys, right down to the romantic streak, in the technical sense. Also, they live underground on a diet of meatbread and rage. Most of what defined them happened in Enterprise as they rarely showed up in the TNG-era, and even then did so as set dressing, allegedly because one of the showrunners hated their antennae and banned anyone from using them.
* Tellarites: Space [[Dwarf|Dorfs]]; like insulting everyone and arguing a lot (no, really, petty insults are considered a polite gesture in Tellarite culture), mostly because the very first tellarite ever shown in the series got in an argument with Spock's dad and now it's their whole racial thing. “Sarek said something in a scene once that was meant to demonstrate that he was stand-offish and kinda rude, but we like Sarek so it's now the defining attribute of this species.” It's all in good fun you understand, your confidence in your ideas and actions should be sturdy enough to withstand honest assessment and critique.
'''Notable Additional Members:'''
* Betazoids: Invariably attractive humanoid aliens with telepathic powers. Half-betazoid, half-humans apparently only have "empathic" powers, so they are well-regarded by Starfleet captains for their ability to point out the obvious and fill out the tight bodygloves that make up the Starfleet uniform in a pleasing manner, especially since theirs seem to come in a custom cut for reasons entirely unrelated to Roddenberry's erection. Their homeworld is like dropping a really hippie college and Space Vegas into a blender. They were taken over during The Dominion war because Earth or Vulcan would be seen as bullshit due to their large post Borg attack defense fleets/ship yards. While the writers would have to actually add new characters for the Andorians and Tellarites(such as Ambassadors for a government in exile). So Betazoid took the hit to raise the stakes.
* Trill: Originally a one-off race introduced as a sapient parasite that possesses and controls a barely, or even unintelligent humanoid host, they were radically reworked in ''Deep Space Nine'', right down to losing their rubber foreheads in favor of spots. Now, the host is itself an intelligent humanoid, and some, but not all, of their kind are able to willingly merge with a symbiont (because someone can't spell) that allows them to access a mixture of the memories and personalities of all previous hosts, though in a way that, theoretically, enhances the host's personality rather than destroying it or subsuming it. Then, when they die, they can pass on the symbiont to another host, theoretically, one they mentored. They went from having a rubber forehead to some spots because Terry Farrell had a allergic reaction to the make-up.
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'''The Klingon Empire'''
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[[Image:Batleth.jpg|thumb|right|A Bat'Leth (sword of honor), one of several types of Klingon bladed weapons. Frequently mocked IRL for being a poorly designed weapon.]]
[[Commissar|''"It is a good day to die!"'']]

The Federation's main rival and (movie era and afterward) the quintessential ''Star Trek'' race of lumpy foreheaded aliens. Originally they were a rough analog to the Russians (though they took some elements from [[Communism|communist China]]) in a rough cold war allegory with the Federation (even though the Federation are as commie as they come, though admittedly much of that came around in the TNG era). Their defining feature was that they were militaristic and imperialistic while the Federation was scholarly and respected liberty. This gradually moved more and more into them becoming Imperial Japan/[[Vikings]] In SPESSS obsessed with honor, fighting and dying honorably in battle while worshiping at the altar of [[Sigmar|warrior Jesus]], even as they turned from the Federation's bitter enemies into that friend who's fun to be around when he's not getting into drunken bar fights. You see shades of it during the movie era and it became more and more prominent through ''TNG'', culminating in ''DS9''. Do not make the mistake of thinking that Klingons are nothing more than barbaric savages, however; with Worf being part of the crew, and with ''DS9'' dealing with Klingon politics an awful lot we can see Klingon society as it truly is. Even so, they do often wander into self-parody territory.

The Klingons, in their current iteration, are a feudal society ruled by a council made up of the most powerful families. Klingon society holds very little value on things such as currency and material gain (which results in the Klingon empire [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65l7RHUx2A having a very simplistic understanding of economics]), believing that anything you acquire without some form of blood, sweat and/or tears on your part is a pathetic and dishonorable way of going about things, much the same way many cultures used to hurl abuse at merchants and bankers. Another thing to keep in mind is that a Klingon's reputation is literally everything. This can be easily seen in the episode "The House Of Quark" where dying honorably can literally change the outcome of an entire noble house, later when the Grand Council is visibly disgusted at D'Ghor. No respectable Klingon uses ''money'' to defeat his opponents. And no respectable Klingon would be so eager to perform an execution of an unarmed Ferengi in what was supposed to be an honorable duel. Klingons are still capable of being cunning and crafty, however, and having a high diplomacy score is viewed as honorable as they still have examples of cunning and clever heroes tricking boorish and stupid monsters.

[[Warhammer 40000|Klingons often carry swords into battle in an age of energy beam guns]]. In-universe, this is less suicidal than it sounds in the context of boarding actions and tight starship corridors. The Bat'leth is actually a rather shitty weapon. The Mek'leth is noted to be better in most situations. They use the same Disruptor weapons as the Romulans, and at one point used similar starship designs. While is explained as the result of a temporary and unholy alliance, given the eventual animosity between the two races, it was just an excuse to reuse props on a limited budget.

The Klingons are tied with the Vulcans and the Borg as being the most prominent and recognizable non-human species in Star Trek. Beloved of the Internet and the general public, to the point that there are published books like "A Klingon Christmas" in the world. The Klingons have their own constructed language. If you are ever worrying that you might not be a nerd, learning Klingon will solve that problem for you. Please note that this is in general considered by experts to be pathognomonic of [[Chris Chan|autism]]. You have not experienced Shakespeare until you hear it in the original Klingon.
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'''The Romulan Star Empire'''
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''"It's always chess with the Romulans"''

You know those [[Eldar|Vulcans]]? Well a few thousand years ago, as their planet was ravaged by war, some of them turned to intense emotional control and logic to tame their murderous passions, while most others left the planet altogether, founding a colony on the planet Romulus and dubbing themselves [[Dark Eldar|Romulans]]. Since said planet shares a name with a mythical figure known for founding [[Roman Empire|a city which built a vast empire]], and they had warp drive while those around them did not, you probably know that they turned to building an empire of their own. They hold the second place of prominence as immediate rivals to the Federation. Comically, they actually have better emotional control than the average Vulcan, since they gene-engineered most of their problems away years ago, and don't have to deal with the emotional blowback from pon'farr. The downside is that they lost some of their cousins' niftier powers, like mind-reading and being able to transfer their soul into another person for safekeeping. Although Star Trek Online also revealed that their trip to Romulus was a terrible ordeal, and their gene-engineering was taking during that time resulting in them losing most emotions save for bitterness of being "forced out".

The difference between the Klingons and the Romulans is basically the difference between Gork and Mork, or Khorne and Tzeentch. Klingons will fight you up front with simple brute force. Romulans are sneakier guys, preferring to fight you when you're not looking with spies, cloaked ships and complex plots behind the scenes and playing the long game. There is a lot of political infighting among them, though where the Klingons would duel to the death Romulans would seek to discredit their rivals, have them die in unfortunate "accidents" or disappear. This difference has left both Romulans and Klingons with a big hate-boner for each other, to the Romulans the Klingons are crude brutish barbarians and to the Klingons the Romulans are a pack of scheming cowardly weaklings.

Like the Klingons, they served as a rough Cold War allegory. In this case, they were rough analogs to Communist China (as seen by 1960s Americans), a distant horde of inscrutable and potentially dangerous Orientals who generally were unseen and projecting vague menace, but when encountered face-to-face could pack quite a punch indeed: the first major Interstellar War that Star Trek Earth fought was with the Romulans, which was fought entirely in space with neither side ever seeing the other face to face. Afterward, they set up a 'Neutral Zone' between the Federation and the Romulan Empire that no one even tried to cross for a century. From the Original Series onward, they frequently squabble and bicker with the Federation, before joining forces with them to fight the Dominion in ''Deep Space Nine'' and having their government devastated in ''Nemesis''.

In one of the two alternate universes created by J.J.Abrams movies, the so-called "Prime Universe", Romulus itself got caught in a supernova as part of the Abramsverse's backstory. ''Picard'' has revealed that Starfleet was going to help evacuate Romulus before the nova hit, but then some rogue androids destroyed the shipyards that the rescue fleet was being built at, so the Federation shrugged, flipped the Romulans the bird, and let them get blown up. The Romulan Star Empire collapsed in the aftermath, with the surviving Romulans are now scattered across half the galaxy. Most of the former Romulan colonies are now officially governed by the Romulan Free State, but their ability to exert their authority is implied to be limited at best and non-existent at worst. The Neutral Zone, in particular, collapsed into near lawlessness. Some of them have got hold of a Borg cube and are presumably up to some nefarious shit with it.
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'''The Ferengi Alliance'''
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[[Image:GW_Ferengi.jpg|thumb|left|A typical ferengi engaged in typical ferengi activities]]
''"A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all."''-Eighteenth Rule of Acquisition

Introduced in ''TNG's'' early days as the villains for the series, and what [[/pol/]] thinks Jews are. Some Jewish people have actually complained about their being subliminally Jewish and thus anti-Semetic, specifically mentioning that they were moneyhungry, lascivious, and ugly, and their large ear lobes were stand-ins for the sterotypical Jewish nose ([https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/08/14/science-fictions-anti-semitism-problem/?noredirect=on more on that here, we're not shitting you]), based on an old medieval stereotype that was enforced to prevent them owning land or assets. The idea was to make a caricature of capitalism as a contrast with the techno-communist Federation. This might have worked if these were not [[FAIL|''TNG's'' early days]]. Instead they overshot the mark by a light year or so, on top of other bad decisions, and you got a race of short (Gene wanted to make an evil short race as big evil races were overplayed), big-eared, [[goblin]]-like losers about as threatening as a grumpy pug. Over the first and second seasons they tried to make these guys threatening, but they fell flat on their face every time. Eventually the writers just said "fuck it" and the Ferengi got demoted to comic relief species, and their status as terrible enemies was demoted to propaganda designed to scare the Federation while the Ferengi government tried to figure out what to make of a species that rejected the acquisition of wealth as a goal. The Ferengi had some good moments in the later seasons of ''TNG'', but most of the best stuff that fleshed them out came from ''DS9'', which had an [[awesome]] Ferengi bartender named Quark as a major character. For an idea of what the Ferengi might have been like if the writers had their shit together, look up the Druuge of [[Star Control|Star Control II]] or the Magog Cartel from Oddworld.

Ferengi religion is only hinted upon in ''DS9'', but what is seen implies a simplistic system based on financial success. Ferengi all follow a rulebook/canon known as the Rules of Acquisition, which can be described as Ayn Rand IN SPACE and condensed into the form of Confucius' Analects. There are 285 of these, each a short piece of advice on how to stay in the black. Examples include "Peace is good for business," "War is good for business," "Never have sex with the boss's daughter," and "Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack." The first, and most important, of these is "Once you have their money, you never give it back." Sometimes, the Ferengi Randian spirituality extends into outright interpretations of the afterlife: according to some, the afterlife consists of the Divine Treasury and the Vault of Eternal Destitution, which are respectively analogous to Heaven and Hell. Entrance into one or the other depends on one's business ventures at the time of death; those that were turning a profit are allowed to enter the Divine Treasury, and the rest are damned to the Vault.

Ferengi government is ruled over by a Grand Nagus, a mix between a <s>pope</s>chief rabbi and a CEO, and he basically treats his civilization like some sort of company, with citizens regarded as workers. Directly below him is the Ferengi Commerce Authority, a [[what|quasi-religious]] organization dedicated to ensuring that correct business practices were followed and correct moral behavior was shown (including keeping the proles in line), although to the Ferengi, these are one and the same. The agents of the FCA are the Liquidators, who are essentially Inquisitors crossed with IRS auditors on steroids. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Ferengi females have no rights and are mentioned as [[PROMOTIONS|not even being allowed to wear clothes]], which leads to [[That Guy|boorish behavior]] on the part of Ferengi towards just about any species. Of course, we see female Ferengi on the show who push that envelope, but it seems that overall "regressive" does not even begin to describe the gender relationships in their culture. Quark's mother, a social climber who marries the head of their government, begins pushing through a women's rights movement during DS9, which proves more successful as time goes on.
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'''The Borg Collective'''
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[[Image:Borg cube.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The Borg have assimilated and improved your [[d6|die]]. It always rolls six. Crap your pants, 'cause resistance is futile.]]
{{Topquote|We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture shall adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.|The Borg's opening hail. This is not a boast or a brag, it's them simply explaining you how things are going to go down.}}
{{Topquote|One other thing. You may encounter Enterprise crew members who've already been assimilated. Don't hesitate to fire. Believe me, you'll be doing them a favour.|Picard going full [[grimdark]].}}

The Ferengi were utter failures as serious villains, so they needed something to fill that gap. Thus they made the Borg, an aggressive [[Tyranid|hive-minded]] collective of hyper-adaptive, [[Necron|regenerating]] cyborgs that assimilates entire species into itself in its attempt to improve and evolve. Shit, that's like coming up with [[Warforged]] while trying to replace [[Kender]].

In many ways, the Borg are the truest dark reflection of the Federation, and despite their name, they're not Swedish. While the Feds want you to join their little club on your own, to "add your culture to the galactic community," the Prime Directive means they will ultimately accept you turning them down, even if you have shit they really want. The Borg say "fuck that" and just absorb you. While the Federation believes everyone should work together [[Tau|for the greater good]], they still have a very strong sense of individualism and a culture of personal accomplishment (unless your individual belief happens to run counter to the Federation's principles anyway, in which case you're just WRONG because the Federation is the best). The Borg pool all their minds together into a massive collective consciousness in the pursuit of group perfection, becoming an almost-literal personification of techno-capital. The Federation is all about beauty and tranquility and all that hippie stuff, and their tech is eco-friendly and dolphin-safe. Borg [[Tyranids|strip mine entire planets and drain entire oceans]] in the name of growth and efficiency.

Your standard Borg [[cube]] is a huge multi-kilometer [[Firaeveus Carron|metal box]] (yes, bigger than most [[Imperial Navy]] cruisers) able to go up against an entire Federation warfleet and win. That's right, one of their ships could threaten the entire Federation and [[Exterminatus]] Earth. When done right, [[Necron|they are a cold, calculating, nigh-unstoppable force, a threat to all life]] that wants to retain free and distinct personalities (although they will ignore a single person if not on an assimilation mission, as what they really want is to absorb whole civilizations). Apparently, in Picard's nightmare in ''First Contact'', the Borg assimilation process includes a surgical [[Grimdark|drill through the eye. While awake.]] Of all the stuff to come out of the TNG Era they are undoubtedly the most well recognized in mass pop culture.

Unfortunately the got a bad downgrade during ''Voyager'' (the Borg Queen blew up cubes full of tens of thousands of drones because a few of them have been severed from the Hive Mind), but even there they were frequently not to be messed with. One amusing thing to note for people that haven't watched ''TNG'': the Borg were actually only in six episodes (and three were breakaway drones) and one movie, yet they're arguably the franchise's most famous pure villains aside from Khan. Goes to show how good they were when written properly. Then in ''Voyager'' they get their shit completely pushed in when they discover a new race of extradimensional aliens which they label Species 8472, which were immune to being assimilated, and had to ask the Federation for help in dealing with them. [[Necron#Regarding_Fluff_Change_-_Sore_Butts_Everywhere.|Wait, this sounds familiar...]]
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'''The Cardassian Union'''
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Introduced in ''TNG'', they are third fiddle to the Klingons and the Romulans. If the Klingons are hypothetically-honorable techno-barbarian warriors and the Romulans are an empire of civilized and refined but sly and ruthless expansionists, the Cardassians are essentially scaly fascists re-enacting ''[[1984]]'' IN SPACE. Their trials announce the outcome at the beginning, and the defense attorney is executed if he wins. Also, THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!

Originally a race of peaceable, spiritual artists called the Hebitians (ironically not dissimilar to the Bajorans), modern Cardassia was born in hunger and desperation when their homeworld began to suffer simultaneous mass famine, pandemic, resource depletion, and ecological collapse. A military junta seized power, figuratively and literally auctioned off the soul of their culture through liquidating all the planet's art and religious artifacts into cold hard cash, and turned the Cardassians into the opportunistic imperialists they are today.

Despite being a whole lot weaker than the Federation, the Cardassians manage to hold their own, partly because what they lack in resources and raw power is made up for by a combination of intense cunning and high charisma stats. Compared to the equally deceptive Romulans, the Cardies are more likely to flash you a smile while tickling your ribs with a knife. They'll use any tool they can to gain the upper hand and while that often means unpleasant and terminal sessions in dark rooms, strip mined planets and the enslavement of entire species, they'll gladly become your bestest buddy if it would achieve their goals. Their intelligence service, the Obsidian Order, is also one of the most ruthlessly efficient organizations in the entire sector, managing to outscale the Romulan Tal Shiar when it comes to producing magnificent bastards and manipulating the politics of entire worlds to their advantage. Unlike the Romulans or the Klingons, they don't tolerate the sort of literal infighting that is rampant in both those states, that shit only serves to weaken '''GLORIOUS CARDASSIA''' and needs to be stamped out with ruthless efficiency. Exposing that someone who just happens to be your enemy as being a dangerous subversive is just a benefit, although this can result in both sides of a conflict shouting "For Cardassia!" as they charge each other. Sort of how Democrats and Republicans are both for America, yet oppose each other.

Cardassia has a very fluid hierarchical government, similar to the political realities of post-Stalin but pre-Collaspe Soviet Russia. Broadly speaking, there are three different facets of the government: the Central Command (which holds all the power) the Obsidian Order (who holds the least amount of power, but controls the most puppets) and the Detapa Council (similar to the [[High Lords of Terra]] and just as worthless). Cardassian society holds a very strict view of family, placing family just below the needs of the State.

The State holds a semi-divine mythical status in the eyes of its citizens, with it being viewed as impossible for the State to ever make mistakes. The ideal Cardassian life was one of complete loyalty and servitude to the State and family, with the "repetitive epic," detailing how generations of Cardassians go on to serve both in exactly the same way over and over seen as the height of their culture. The Cardassian government is assumed to be omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent by pretty much every Cardassian, with all Cadassians gladly giving of themselves to the State. Such was this level of belief that when Picard was tortured by the Obsidian order, the torturer saw nothing wrong with bringing his daughter to work because he was working for the State, and therefore the torture of Picard could never be disturbing or wrong. That's why their trials announce their sentences at the beginning and execute the defense attorney if he wins; their "trials" are more excuses to show off the power and infallibility of the State to the masses than actually determine guilt or innocence.

As far as plot significant activities went, they had a war with the Federation a few years before ''TNG'' which ended in the creation of a Demilitarized Zone between the two powers and (significant to ''Deep Space Nine'') abandoning the previously occupied planet of Bajor they had exploited for resources. After a disastrous war with the Klingons and The Maquis led to a popular revolution and overthrow of the existing government, one leader seized power, declared himself absolute leader, and joined the Dominion towards the end of ''DS9'', which was some serious bad news for the ''DS9'' crew.
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'''The Bajoran Republic'''
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The Bajorans are a species native to the Planet Bajor. They were, until shortly before the events of ''Deep Space Nine'', under a brutal occupation by the Cardassians who strip mined their planet. They had a fighting resistance which veered in and out of being considered terrorists and all in all were often represented as Palestinians IN SPEHSS. After that, they got their independence, although they're thinking about joining the Federation. The Bajorans have one system and are technologically backwards; the Federation is technically breaking the Prime Directive by interacting with them, but as they've spent years under the oppression of a warp-capable species, they can probably handle it. Also ''DS9'' proves that ancient Bajorans managed to travel at warp speeds to Cardassia using solar sails and an enormous amount of luck, which technically makes them a warp-capable species. The only reason why they are significant in terms of the politics of ''Star Trek'' is that they have a wormhole near their planet, which has some timey-wimey aliens living it that they worship as gods, and serves as the only way to get to or from the Gamma Quadrant that won't take decades, making it strategically priceless. Hilariously, this was discovered almost immediately after the Cardassians ''thought'' they'd extracted everything of value from the Bajorans and peace'd out, certain that the system was no longer worth the PR hit they were taking from it, only to get burned by some harsh seller's remorse. Also, their species has the oldest civilization (roughly a half-million years) of any major ''Star Trek'' race, and the wormhole aliens have gifted them some cool shit, like the Orb of Time.

The big thing that makes the Bajorans unique is that they actually have a serious religion going on -the human race is depicted as mostly non-religious. They're also probably one of the most accurate depictions of any highly religious alien race in a sci-fi franchise, because they are divided between the majority who interpret their religion as [[Noblebright|peace and love]], and a small but loud minority of bastards who interpret it as [[Grimdark|condoning acts of terrorism]]. A blatant attempt to simulate Israelis for criticism, although that can apply to many religions nowadays.
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'''The Dominion'''
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A vast empire which exists on the other side of the galaxy in the Gamma Quadrant. The Dominion is ruled over by a species of liquid shapeshifters called The Founders.(aka Changlings aka Odo's people) They have at their disposal a military composed of two genetically engineered species that worship the Founders as gods: the short and articulate Vorta who serve as ambassadors, bureaucrats, and political commisars and the big brutal Jem'hadar, who are vat grown, drug addicted, cannon fodder. These oversee a large number of vassal races, including (as of later seasons of ''DS9'') the Cardassians.

The Founders were once (according to them anyway) a peaceful, kind civilization of explorers who wished to see the galaxy, explore strange new worlds, and seek out new forms of life. Unfortunately, they did this in the wrong neighborhood, and quickly ran into species who did not tolerate others. The fact that the Founders were shapeshifters capable of mimicking almost anyone did not help either. Paranoia, mutual mistrust, and some very bad things eventually led to the Founders deciding "fuck this" and moving their planet into a nebula so nobody would bother them. So more or less, a [[Grimdark|grimmer]], [[Grimdark|darker]], counterpart to the Federation, but with spookier Real Aliens.

The Founders are obsessed with order and are both extremely racist and xenophobic, and believe that all alien life is inherently untrustworthy and evil, and the best thing to do is conquer/enslave them before they do the same to them. They don't care about the rights of "Solids", and will happily ignore any sense of decency when convenient. This can be seen when The Dominion runs a simulation of the Dominion dominating the Alpha Quadrant. When O'Brien is assaulted by a Jem'Hadar and severely beaten to the point of needing emergency teleportation to medical (the crime being "disrespectful"), the Founders (disguised as Federation Officers) do not press charges, and when Sisko comes barging in demanding answers, dismiss him with little concern about their own soldiers brutalizing citizens. Their overall ideology could be thought of as Qin legalism IN SPACE: people are inherently evil and the only way to make a better world is to impose order upon them through brute force from a position of absolute, unquestioned power.

The Founders, when not wandering around in various forms, tend to spend their time in a massive ocean literally made up of countless billions of Founders, something which is referred to as the Great Link. According to the Founders, this allows them to share information with each other and come to peaceful decisions. This is rapidly proved to be bullshit; when a separated-at-birth one of their own merged into the Great Link to share his memories of the Federation as peaceful and tolerant space hippies, not only did the Founders ignore his memories, but actively fucked with his mind in an attempt to turn him into a sleeper agent. And even if it weren't, it shows their hypocrisy through their willingness to share freedom and liberty among themselves while depriving all their various slaves and conquered peoples of the same.

The Founders are massive dicks, even to their own people. Failure among Jem'Hadar is rewarded with slow and painful death from deprivation of the drug they're created to need and their lifespans are incredibly short. To be even bigger dicks, the Vorta have no sense of taste and can't appreciate beauty. Not to make them better diplomats, but because they were raised from a primitive stone-age ape tribe, and the Founders think they shouldn't be ever allowed to forget that. (On the plus side, they did give the Vorta an immunity to poison that would make [[Mortarion]] himself jealous. [https://youtu.be/rACCZaBcq1g?t=1m29s Observe.]) This may also stem from their own neuroses: the Founders themselves have almost no bodily needs at all and require no nourishment, so they design their slaves to be like them. Notably, Vorta tend to come in [[Paranoia|packs of clones; a new one is activated when an old one dies, and they retain some memories and personality between "lives,"]] further hammering home how expendable they are to their makers.

And both races are literally engineered to love their makers for what they have done to them and worship and revere them as gods.

Continuing from the Cardassian Union section because the fate of both powers are linked in DS9. After joining the The Dominion. Everything was going seemingly for them and their leader Gul Dukat. They figured out how to bring down the minefield created by the Starfleet crew of Deep Space Nine to block access to the wormhole. (The Cardassians use its old name Terok Nor while in charge.)

However during the start of the sixth season the Founders learn that their not the only "gods" in the Galaxy. As the Sisko convinces the Bajoran Prophets to remove the Jem'Hadar reinforcements in transit. Forcing them to retreat back to Cardassian Space and Dukat's old friend Damar shoots Dukat's half Bajorion daughter Ziyal. This makes Dukat jump off the deep end as the sod loses his sanity and than goes full nutcase after his rehab transport is destroyed by the Jem Hadar, and ends up fighting an injured Benjamin Sisko after hiding inside some caverns on a hell planet for a few days.

After escaping he allows one of the evil wormhole aliens to possess him, kills Jadzia Dax, forgives Damar for killing a family member. Creates a cult of Bajorions dedicated to the Pai-Wraths,than abandons the cult when Major Kira knocks over the suicide pill jar that mixes it in with his fake. Than has sex with an old woman and becomes a demi-god. Bent on buring the universe despite the fact that his own people suffered heavily under the rule of the Dominion. After getting a final bitch slap from the Sisko who gets to have a happy ending living with his god alien parents. At the same time teaching them not to be huge dicks. While Dukat himself is trapped in the Fire Caves on Bajor.

His old friend Damar despite murdering a half breed woman is a lot more sane. Lacking Dukat's crimisa, things get worse for him and the Cardassians under Dominion rule. Most of their victories are off screen such as taking over Betazed. One of the none few major non founding planets of the Federation. This forces the Sisko to bring the Romulans into the war on the side of the Klingon-Federation alliance. With some underhanded methods from a former member of the Cassidian Obsidian Order(Elim Garak). I.e. blow up a Romulan Senator's shuttlecraft and tricking the pointy ears into thinking a damaged but fake datarod(an advanced form of Solid State Drive) was the real deal.

Thus the blame for his death will be switched from the Feds and pals are shifted to the Cardassians. By the final season this leads to the Dominion finding new best buds in the form of The Breen. Damar decides he has enough of the bullshit and in the ultimate irony realizes that the status of his people are now no different from the Cardassian occupied Bajor.

So after the Breen score the Domain a temporary victory over the Federation Alliance. Damar and his Cardi buds destroy a Dominion cloning facility while their backs are turned. Just so he can stick it to his "friend" the Vorta, Weyoun 8. Leaving them and the Klingons being the only thing stopping The Dominion from steamrolling over the Alpha Quadrant. As one Bird of Prey(doesn't say if its the frigate sized B'rel or Light Cruiser sized K'vort class. Though DS9 almost always used the former) was immune to the Breen energy dampening weapon due to modding its warp core. Gowron, due to being a moron who did nothing to change course after his most trusted advisor(Martok) turned out to be a Founder and the first time the Jem Hadar kicked their asses during the Klingon-Cardassian War. Decides to take glory for himself and discredit General Martok(who now how his pre Dominion internment job). This goes as badly as your thinking. Forcing Worf(now a legitimate badass compared to his TNG days) to kill him and turning the role of Chancellor to Martok.

Meanwhile the Feds decided to help out Damar's resistance by sending him Colonel Kira(who now has the rank of a Starfleet Commander), Odo and Garak(Ziyal's former simi-boyfriend). The resistance eventually get their hands on one of the Breen Energy Dampeners. During some infighting Damar realizes that the restoring the old Cardassia is pointless. Killing one of his old friends. The Breen and Jem'hadar do eventually one up the resistance. But not before their brutality turns more Cardassian against them. So during the final space battle this makes the Cardi military switch sides.
Damar is killed during the final raid on the Dominion HQ. Focing Kira and Garak to lead the final push into the compound.
The War between the Alpha Quadrant Alliance and The Dominion ends when Odo offers to share the cure to the disease created by Section 31(the Federation's answer to the Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order) which he passed onto them after the Founders also infected him with something that forced him to return to the Great Link the first time. He also promises to rejoin the Great Link so the Founders will learn not to be paranoid assholes.
It's difficult to say who are the bigger dicks here. The Founders for having Wayoon 4 infect Odo to return and turned him into into a solid(who was restored because dying a Changeling baby merged with him a season later) for killing a Founder who hacked the Defiant and almost succeeded at starting a war in the Alpha Quadrant. Or Section 31 for making the disease in the first place.

With all their advanced technology. One would think the Founders would have discovered a cure before being handed one. But the bad guys being just as flawed as everyone else is a common theme in Star Trek. Even in Star Trek Online despiste Odo being the one in charge a few decades later. As their Ambassador to the Federation. The experiments of the Founders sketchy past cause them and everyone else huge headaches including the dishonorable mention of the revived True Way movement.(i.e. the guys who hated that fact that the civilian Detapa Council ran Cadassaia.)

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'''Species 8472 / Undine'''
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The one and only race in the galaxy even the Borg don't want to fuck with. Introduced in Voyager, Species 8472 are three-legged creatures that live in a space called Fluid Space. It's similar to the [[Eye of Terror]] for the fact that it connects to an alternate dimension and [[Khorne|everyone will be ripped apart upon entering.]]

When the Borg first came around to try and assimilate them they were completely obliterated in a war in which 4 million Borg were killed in the first few days at the cost of almost no members of Species 8472. This war was such a roflstomp that the Borg were forced to call on the Federation for help. [[Tau|The Federation being the better people swallowed their pride and decided to help their sworn enemies,]] [[Eldrad|but were dicks and sent only one ship.]]

Species 8472 fought with fast moving, small ships and devastating beam weapons so the small ship of the Federation could keep up with them and helped the Borg force the species back into Fluid Space. The Federation were the villains on this one. That said, they eventually came to an accord with Species 8472, preventing further wars between the denizens of Fluid Space, except in lots and lots of video games that want to use a fresh antagonist.

That and that in ''Star Trek Online'', [[Awesome|they look like the fucking Predator.]]
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===The Q===

The Q are a race of beings who have elevated themselves to the point where they are basically gods. Most of them do not interact directly with the younger races, who they tend to consider with disdain- if they consider them at all. However a few of them take a more enlightened view, and one in particular has been known to fuck with individual humans from time time. They are mostly a TNG thing, and even there they work mostly by grace of John de Lancie's acting chops as a counterpoint to the charisma of Patrick Stewart, as de Lancie played the ''character'' Q, an all-powerful epic [[troll]] (no, not the fantasy kind) who's occasionally [[Tzeentch]]ian games sometimes appeared to be for his own amusement and sometimes acted as education or event protection to the human race. Various subplots involving the Q ''species'' range from somewhat thought provoking to mildly entertaining to ridiculous and banal, but the classic episodes that highlighted the charisma and chemistry of the two actors were often quite excellent.

=== The Mirror Universe ===
Not so much of a faction as an alternate setting, this is a parallel universe in which [[Alternate History|things have gone differently]] in Earth's History. The main point of divergence appears to occur when the Vulcan scientists who landed at Bozeman, Montana in 2063 are not welcomed with alcohol and music but instead are killed and have their ship looted. It is equally clear that where the main universe is Noblebright the Mirror Universe is Grimdark. Instead of a peace loving Federation searching for knowledge and friendly cooperation for the betterment of all, Earth gave rise to the ''Terran Empire'' which seeks out new life and civilizations to conquer and enslave, as it had done with the Klingons. Pretty much it's the PG-13 version of the Imperium of Man with a bit more Grimderp. Junior officers get promoted by killing their superiors, those that fail at that get thrown in the agony booth for their troubles and Emperor gets the job by usurping the previous incumbent. In general everyone in the Mirror Universe is a selfish asshole version of themselves and following comic book logic the uniforms for the female characters are more revealing. Occasionally people can cross over from one universe to the next due to technobabble and cause mischief in either realm.

Originally it was a one off TOS setting for an episode of the week, but it was brought back in a few novels and some romps in Deep Space Nine in which [[Fail|the Terran Empire had fallen]]. In Enterprise's fourth season it got a two parter that was pretty good and would have been an annual thing if the show had been renewed, this one having little crossover with the main universe (a ship from TOS ended up in the Mirror Universe and is salvaged after all it's crew have died). We also went there in Discovery, for better or worse. Voyager never did the mirror universe, but instead got a homage episode with some alien historians in the far future getting the details wrong like historians tend to.

== The Star Trek Crew ==
Whether the focus of the show is exploration, manning a space station in an important locale or trying to get home, all Star Trek series have a basic set up of casting and focus: namely on a collection of people who are usually the senior most officers on the ship. If you decide to make a Star Trek inspired game take this into consideration.

* '''The Captain''': Big cheese. Makes the hard decisions. Needs to be able to talk, think or fight out of situations as needed. The third option fetishist finding the balance between empathy and reason. (Two least skubby examples: Kirk and Picard, but the skub will fly hard if you say one is better than the other, sufficed to say that people like both of them alot but for different reasons)
* '''The First Officer''': Second in command and trusted advisor. Added after the original series, where the role was combined with and split between two others. (Two least skubby examples: Riker and Kira)
* '''The Science Officer''': Got high Int stats. Can analyze the situation and work out solutions. The voice of reason. Almost never human. (Two least skubby examples: Data and Spock)
* '''The Engineer''': Hard working technically minded guy who gets shit done. (Two least skubby examples: Scotty and Geordi)
* '''The Doctor''': Ship's healer with a secondary scientific role. The voice of empathy, whether prickly or serene. (Two least skubby examples: Bones and the EMH Doctor)
* '''The Security Officer''': Rough and tumble no-nonsense sort whose job it is to keep these guys alive when diplomacy fails, which it often does. Often has to juggle providing ship's security with working the tactical station on the bridge in a crisis. (Two least skubby examples: Worf and Odo)
* '''The Helmsman''': Got mad spacecraft piloting skills, either full-sized starships, shuttles, or fighters. (Two least skubby examples: Sulu and Tom Paris)
* '''The Other Guy''': A crewmember whose role doesn't cleanly map onto other positions, a role often restricted to a single show. Example positions include communications officer, ship's councilor, transporter chief, and linguist. (Two Least skubby examples: Uhura and Troi)
* '''The Outsider''': Someone who is a passenger and regular cast member, but exists outside the organization, looking in and commenting. Usually works a side-job, like tailor, bartender, or cook. Either a beloved fan-favorite or utterly despised, there is no middle ground. (Two Least skubby examples: Guinan and Quark)

Some of these hats may be worn by more than one character, some may be worn by no one at all. This is especially true in the original series, which had a smaller cast overall, and which put less emphasis on an ensemble and more on the main trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The usual roles and character dynamics were instead set down by ''The Next Generation'', which later series generally copied.

== The Shows ==
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===''The Original Series''===
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Created in 1966 by legendary sci-fi [[spiritual liege]] and money-grubbing sexist lounge lizard Gene Roddenberry and pitched as a "Wagon Train to the stars", it's a pulpy adventure sci-fi, full of fistfights, sword fights, and hammy speeches. (The guns never work.)

The USS ''Enterprise'' is tasked by the Federation to go on a five year mission to explore space: the final frontier, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations and boldly go where no man has gone before, though due to budget constraints, her crew often finds that man has in fact gone there before. Or at least something that looks exactly like a man but is actually an [[Xenos|alien]]; most episodes split the difference. James T. Kirk sleeps with [[Hot Chicks|hot alien babes]] who either die tragically or leave tearfully at the end of the episode, but it's 'k because he's too in love with the Enterprise to ever love a mere ''woman'' more. Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy are cold and logical and rash and emotional respectively, and their constant friction must be resulting in the best make-up sex in the world, Mr. Sulu and Lieutenant Uhura wait in vain for focus episodes that never come, Ensign Chekhov suffers horribly to the approval of American Cold War audiences, and Scotty [[gets shit done]]. Uniforms, while iconic, tend to look a bit civilian though. Miniskirts are apparently mandated attire for the ship's fan-servicey female "yeomen" and others, because 1966. The civilian nature of the attire (including, one must assume, the miniskirts, but they had a visual appeal all their own) were apparently an intentional design decision by Roddenberry who didn't want uniforms to look military. Further specialness on the part of Roddenberry demanded phasers not look like guns, instead looking like nothing in particular at all (although looking back at them today they look sort of like TV remotes, which would be invented much later), and also (probably the only sensible decision in this category) ships that didn't look like rockets, giving ships their distinctive and iconic saucer-engineering-nacelles look that still stands out today.

The Original Series frequently ran out of budget and entire episodes were filmed using spare costumes belonging to the production company, resulting in a series of extremely goofy excuses to go to planets full of gangsters or [[Nazi]]s. This is often copied by shows who don't realize it was done out of pure expediency, and nowadays this [[TVTropes|"Planet of Hats"]] gimmick is practically a box to check off when doing sci-fi adventure. The lack of budget also resulted in one of the more memorable inventions; unable to budget for a sequence showing the ''Enterprise'' or a shuttle landing on a new planet every week, the writers instead decided to invent the transporter to "beam" the crew down to planets or between starships. Also worth noting: despite its mediocre critical reception, ratings and eventual cancellation, not to forget the uneven quality of many episodes, especially in the Roddenberry-less third season where poor Fred Freiberger had to come onto a show he didn't understand and try to get better ratings with less money, ''TOS'' had a hell of a cultural impact thanks to syndication and it has been said that since it entered syndication in 1969, there hasn't been a 24-hour period without some TV station, in some country, playing Star Trek. Cancellation of The Original Series is now considered one of the worst decisions in TV history, and while much of its silly 60's campiness is now laughable, it often still manages to teach relevant and important lessons today.

Fun fact: the ''Enterprise'' and each of her 11 sister ships have enough firepower to [[Exterminatus]] a planet by themselves, after getting issued an order called General Order 24. This however is likely a time-consuming task. According to a later DS9 episode, it takes a fleet of 20 warships 1 hour of sustained bombardment to destroy a planets crust and 5 hours of sustained bombardment to destroy a planet down to its mantle. These 20 ships were also in service 100 years after the Enterprise so they were also more powerful.
Kirk has the distinction of being the only known captain to issue a [[Exterminatus|General Order 24]], because a planet was ''too'' much into wargames (he changed his mind after they dropped wargaming).
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===''The Animated Series''===
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The often forgotten middle child. More or less "seasons 4-5" of ''TOS'' with the same writing staff and actors, sans poor Walter Koenig. He was replaced by a weird camel person. He learned this at a convention, from a fan, while he was trying to announce he'd be writing an episode, which Gene promptly demanded he rewrite over and over. Classy.

Being animated allowed the staff to get a lot more creative with the alien designs and plots, and the writing and acting remain... well, top notch is a stretch, but certainly at the same levels as ''The Original Series'', with the occasional low point. Not ''nearly'' as bad as you're probably picturing from the name, although still limited by the low budget and primitive, cheap animation techniques of the television era it was aired in. Notably some sci-fi novelists were brought in to write some episodes, such as Larry Niven, and at least one episode, "Yesteryear," is considered such a pivotal moment in Spock's development that even people who hate the series enough to consider it all non-canon often make an exception just for that one.

Also, since the series now has no excuse for throwing in lots of Space Puritans and Space Wizards, it of course continued to do so to derptastic results, because by this point it had become traditional. The presence of a straight-up [[furry]] on the bridge, however, is downright unacceptable.
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===''The Next Generation''===
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Here's where it starts getting a little deeper and a little darker, although with a lot of left-wing political subtext turned up to 11. The USS ''Enterprise-D'' (the original and C were destroyed in action while A and B were retired) is, like its predecessor, tasked with going where no-one has gone before, but this time around the problems are less likely to be solved in a single episode. Jean-Luc Picard is the captain and he plots and negotiates his way to victory; Mr. Data is cold and unemotional, though not by choice - as an android, he'd very much like to change that; Riker takes over the captain's "sleep with alien babes" duties since Picard is married to the job; Worf the Klingon gets beaten up by monsters to show how tough the monsters are, meaning that Worf winds up looking incredibly weak by the end of the show's run and doesn't regain his badassery until his run on ''DS9''; Dr. Beverly Crusher is good old Bones minus his temper; Dr. Pulaski is Bones ''plus'' temper; Counsellor Troy is so badly written she becomes a running joke; and Geordi LaForge [[gets shit done]]. Only two things need to be said about helmsman Wesley Crusher: he was [[Mary Sue|Gene Wesley Roddenberry's shitty self-insert fanfic character]], and his sueness got to the point that even his actor started to hate him within the first season of the show.

Due to the massive success of The Original Series in syndication (and Paramount being [[Rage|pissed off]] by broadcast networks treating their most valuable IP like any other show), TNG was aired through syndication from the beginning. Although the first two seasons were laughably bad, the quality began to improve dramatically after an increasingly cocaine-addled Gene Roddenberry got too sick to keep ruining it and his partner-in-crime Maurice Hurley was thrown out on his ass, a moment often pinpointed via looking for when [[Meme|Riker grew a beard.]] The later seasons are widely considered to represent the apex of the franchise's episodic formula on the small screen (although ''DS9'' gave it a run for its money with a more serialized approach); sadly, this series only got one good movie.
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===''Deep Space Nine''===
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Unlike all the other series so far, ''Deep Space Nine'' primarily takes place in a fixed location - the titular space station Deep Space Nine, out near the borders of Federation Space. Said space station is near Bajor, which was recently freed from Cardassian occupation, and a wormhole to the other side of the galaxy which allows [[Warp|all sorts of of crazy shit to go down]]. If the other shows are a wagon train, this one's a border fort.

Benjamin Sisko is the captain, declared Emissary by the nearby Bajorans for making contact with the wormhole aliens they worship, and he successfully hybridizes the blow-the-shit-out-of-whatever-you-can't-punch Kirk approach with the talk-in-a-very-dignified-way-about-the-philosophy-of-the-thing-and-win-by-rhetoric Picard maneuver, in his ultimately-successful quest to become the baddest motherfucker in space, then literally becomes a space god. Kira the Bajoran ex-<s>terrorist</s> <S>''noble freedom fighter''</s> (who are we kidding she calls herself a terrorist) struggles to free and rebuild her people while coming to terms with the moral ambiguities of situations she prefers to see in black-and-white, Dr. Bashir works to find his character for several seasons before becoming a highlight, Dax gets often written poorly and has to switch bodies doing it, Odo IS ''Liquid Space Cop'', Quark runs his bar and [[troll|heckles]] the Federation, Garak pretends to be a tailor while definitely not being a super-spy and dropping killer lines, and Miles O'Brien [[gets shit done]]. Also, Worf wanders in halfway through, and actually gets to punch things instead of just getting punched by them. It's also a lot more political than other series (though ''TNG'' and ''Voyager'' have their moments) and the last series to have Gene Roddenberry's involvement (with less enthusiasm, in fact often much to the benefit of this particular series thematically, although Roddenberry's complete departure did not necessarily bode well for the franchise in general.)

It's the closest the pre-Kelvin series ever get to [[grimdark]], especially when the Dominion show up. The show has aged remarkably well and the terrorist/freedom fighter debate was repeatedly explored in a very mature and honest way. ''DS9'' is the most serialized of all Trek shows and could be considered a forerunner to the golden age of television with its long story arcs and deep character development. Overall, ''DS9'' has to be considered the most consistently good Trek show thanks to the excellent writing and fantastic performances from a truly wonderful ensemble cast. At least until the final season, when the writers who made it good were pulled to try and fail to make good movies, heralding the failure that was ''Voyager''. The finale episodes were mostly okay and tied up the story semi-satisfyingly, though a few die-hard subplots fell flat.

It wasn't without its controversies however. The show was airing around the same time as another thematically similar sci-fi show, ''Babylon 5''. Not only that but characters also shared similarities, as did the episodes. Interestingly, beginning of both series, introduction of characters and airing of similar episodes were often too close to each other for one show to copy the other but this did not stop massive [[Rage]] and [[/v/|fanboy wars]] from starting between fans of the two series accusing one another of plagiarism and having an inferior product. Happily, as time went on and both shows evolved, these hurt feelings have mostly faded.

How good is ''Deep Space Nine''? Every Star Trek series and even the reboot movies have pretty much ripped off ideas and concepts established during the series. Famously, within the "Trekker/Trekie" fan community, there's a little cell of fans who like it better than most other ''Star Trek''; these fans are typically called "Niners."
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===''Voyager''===
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Star Trek: Voyager centers around the eponymous USS ''Voyager'', a smallish ship which gets teleported over to the other side of the galaxy. The plot of the series centers on the crew's efforts to get back home, which COULD have made for an excellent premise. Unfortunately, there were few lasting story arcs, with most episodes being fully self-contained (as well as being littered with far too many episodes featuring holodeck or transporter incidents). As a consequence, despite being completely isolated from the Federation, no matter how bad things got Voyager always appeared in the next episode without a scratch, fully supplied, and with all its shuttlecraft intact. Think ''Gilligan's Island'' on a starship.

Like ''TNG'' and ''DS9'' it's a character-driven drama just as often as it is a sci-fi adventure romp, although compared to TNG only a few of the characters are particularly memorable. The captain and arguable "main character" is Kathryn Janeway, a Katharine Hepburn lookalike (I see what you did there) who is stern without being cold, and principled without being inflexible. The fan favorite is a character called "The Doctor" ([[Doctor Who|No relation]]); he's the solid-light hologram representative of the ship's emergency medical computer, who has to take on actual medical duties when their chief medical officer was conveniently killed in the pilot episode. Other than this, Chakotay is a peace-loving and spiritually rich indian <s>freedom fighter</s> <s>terrorist</s> [[FAIL|who was written with the help of a special cherokee consultant so native his name was Jamake Highwater and it turned out later on that he was actually jewish and didn't know dick about native cultures so he made everything up resulting in Chakotay basically being a borderline racist caricature of what you think indians are like. Akoochimoya.]] Tom Paris is an annoying jerk and is counterbalanced by Harry Kim who is the ideal boy-scout, making him only half as annoying and twice as boring. B'elanna Torres tries to perpetuate a lineage of dudes getting shit done but ends up blankly reciting her technobabble, having second degree plasma burns and – worst of all – systematically fails to get shit done whenever the warp core goes nuts. Tuvok tries hard to be as cool as Spock but ends up being a lame version of the n°1 Vulcan who uses logic to justify everything and makes it short for "you are wrong, I am right because I said so." Kes is passed as a fragile and nice character but it takes a couple of episodes to realize that having a short lifespan does not change the facts: [[powergamer|when you can boil someone to death from the inside of their body, drain life from everything around you to become stronger and do anything you want without knowing how, just by thinking of it]], you are a goddamn Mary Sue. From the fourth season onwards the only character the writers seemed to care about are Seven of Nine, [[Mary Sue|a human woman who recently escaped from Borg control and kept all of her cyborg enhancements but regained her free will]]; another Mary Sue, to be sure, but she's [[Hot Chicks|hot]], and the other characters are much worse, so that's not really a bad thing. Fortunately, The Doctor still received a lot of attention from the writers and almost single-handedly made the show watchable. There was also Neelix, who was the apparent inspiration for Jar-Jar Binks, and any sane crew would have pushed him out of an airlock on the first episode. Fans who stuck with the show despite its glaring failings were given one final slap in the face with the <s>controversial</s> shit final season, in which the producers decided "screw steadily crafting a satisfying conclusion to a story which we have wasted for most of the last seven years anyway; lets just ignore it until the final episode and then throw in some shit about trans-warp conduits and time travel, bitches love time travel!" If you did not care about any of the characters or the subplots or time travel making sense (the writers sure didn't), then the final episode was explosions (and the Borg got a major setback, just don't think about the setup too hard).

The Doctor never once stopped being totally fucking awesome though (enough so to even earn a cameo in First Contact), and the great acting from the cast carries the series from being horrific to ''occasionally'' watchable. Just goes to show that no matter how good your actors are, they can't make diamonds out of shit.

Overall, most Star Trek fans view Voyager's legacy with a shrug and a "meh." Unfortunately, hopes that Voyager's successor would revitalize the franchise would soon prove to be overly optimistic.

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===''Enterprise''===
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From the minute the Nickelback-tier theme tune started, Enterprise attempted to take Star Trek in a new direction and was only partially successful in doing so. The series never quite caught its footing, although it still managed to have some enjoyable moments. It was most notable for providing a first-hand view of the key events that directly led to the formation of the Federation. The Federation's founding races were also featured heavily, with Andorians, Tellarites, and Vulcans all enjoying significant screen time alongside the human characters.

It's a prequel to the rest of the canon, taking place on the first ''Enterprise'', before the Federation was founded and during the period when Earth was still an independent power- so there's a lot of primitive versions of things from other series. At least the uniforms were pretty cool in an Air Force sort of way. Captained by <s>that guy from ''Quantum Leap''</s> Jonathan Archer, in hindsight the fact that they had to rename him from their original choice of Jeffrey Archer to avoid confusion with the disgraced British MP and author of the same name probably cursed the series with bad karma before it had even begun shooting. In an unusual twist for a ''Trek'' series, his first officer isn't a <s>terrorist</s> ''noble freedom fighter,'' however she does share a trait with her ''Voyager'' predecessor in that the actress who portrayed her frequently criticized the show's writers in interviews. Other than that, well, Hoshi Sato screams a lot, Travis Mayweather was so dull even the writers forgot he existed, the resident Vulcan T'Pol serves as both the Science Officer and source of sexy fanservice, Malcolm Reed has an accent, Dr Phlox is a weird creepy alien with weird creepy alien moral (and gets surprisingly interesting when given enough screentime, which hardly happened), and Trip also has an accent and [[gets shit done]].

Was retooled twice, the third season tries to be ''24'' IN SPACE (stop some guys the Xindi from blowing up Earth) while the 4th season is a massive apology about the last three seasons that tries to fix all the problems they had, and as a result, the only season that's close to being good.

Unfortunately, the poorly-received final episode is set on the holodeck of the Enterprise-D, which leaves us with the firm impression that the producers would have much rather have just continued making ''The Next Generation''. Considering the mediocre quality of the ''TNG'' movies we got instead, this probably would have worked out better for all involved (Or not since ''Voyager'' was that; its first episode was even numbered 901, as in Season 9 Episode 1).

Yet despite all this bad directing, subpar plots, and frankly boring episodes, ''Enterprise'' still manages to be moderately enjoyable with occasional moments of awesomeness if you can suffer through a fair few awful spots and aggressive mediocrity almost everywhere else. The focus on founding Federation races like the Andorans was refreshing and the technology level, being somewhere between the original series and the real world present-day, was quite interesting. We also got to see the Vulcans portrayed as arrogant, superior dicks. Which makes a lot more sense than the way they're usually portrayed as fairly submissive towards humans because they are, obviously and objectively, the superior race. The Klingons certainly still considered themselves to be honorable but the show made it clear that the Klingon notion of honor is rarely analogous to the human concept which was interesting as all hell to watch. There have been a few small nods to it in discovery and the abrams movies.

And let's be fucking honest, [[/tg/]] loves 40k and the Xindi arc was about as grimdark as shit gets. And that was awesome.

Also makes a neat pairing with ''Voyager'' in that they really mess with the Prime Directive and question the Federation.
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===''Discovery''===
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<s>A LOAD OF SOCIAL JUSTICE SHIT!</s> Ahem, let's start again, shall we?

A new "prequel" series set 10 years before ''The Original Series.'' Again. Run exclusively on CBS' paid streaming service (unless you live outside the US and Canada, in which case you can get it on Netflix) to try and drum up sign-ups and revenue, it features a mix of ''Enterprise'' and Abramstrek aesthetics despite supposedly taking place in parallel to the TOS "The Cage" pilot while [[what|having technology superior to late DS9]] and introducing [[dune|mushroom-based space travel]] that would imply [[retcon|all later events and warp travel would be outdated]]. The trailer has attracted a lot of concern over the fact that Klingons have been completely redesigned to look like slit-nosed ogres wearing ancient Egyptian cosplay, and rumors that the Klingons shown were [[Racial Holy War|primitives who had been trapped in stasis]] proved to be unfounded, so there is no excuse. Not having a cold war to posture about, the new villains are based off of Trump-inspired xenophobia by the admission of the authors. Also the lead character is Spock's human sister that he never mentioned before, aka the ''exact'' origin of the [[Mary Sue]] which is just fucking depressing. To further reinforce this, there are ''numerous'' examples of dialogue and exposition that serve only to show how the Mary Sue main character was right all along, usually in conjunction with the death of the character that had foolishly disagreed with her. Want a new Star Trek episode about racism and immigration? Try the now-banned [https://youtu.be/3VEZH8bqytA Star Trek Continues]. Want Star Trek with humor, keep an eye out for the upcoming [https://ew-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/ew.com/tv/2018/10/25/star-trek-animated-comedy/amp/?fbclid=IwAR2WN6auDNm5YiunYhaqiu7vt9f-P08AuUjMpLA5LlpUgvTm9_xloJNRYb0 Star Trek: Lower Decks]; want a pseudo-Star Trek show about other modern issues? Try ''The Orville'' below; that's right, American Dad In Space may right now be a better Star Trek than an actual Star Trek series.

Initial reviews have been... well, it's shit. The writing is overly convoluted, the massive injection of grimdark into pre-TOS continuity is anathema to the hardcore fans (the ''human'' characters are often the ones doing the nastiest shit, including [[Marines Malevolent|trying to kill a Klingon party by planting an explosive on the corpse of one of their comrades for when they came to collect the dead]]) and the Klingons are so flat and devoid of characterization that they might as well be Larry the Cable Guy lookalikes wearing Trump hats. This is a massive disappointment for a series that promised to put a spotlight on Klingon culture but ended up retconning all the characterization that happened in TNG and DS9. It ''may'' get better with time (remember that it took two seasons for TNG to get really good) but given the release schedule (split between 2017 and 2018 with a long break) it may come too late for the fanbase to care. Currently it's cause for more fans to lose their shit over whether it's better or worse than the Abrams movies, which is a new record of [[Skub|Trek Skub]]. Releasing the show on CBS All Access instead of cable or broadcast TV makes it seem that executives don't really give a shit if the show succeeds or fails, bringing up the question of [[Bioware|whether they're deliberately putting Star Trek: Discovery in a no-win scenario where, no matter what happens, the executives have an excuse to cancel Star Trek altogether]].

Another stupid decision was not shelling out the cash to bring back Bruce Greenwood and Zachary Quinto as Captain Pike and Spock, respectively. Their ages wouldn't have mattered either if CBS and Paramount weren't too cheap to use the anti-aging CGI tech that is so commonplace these days. That being said, Anson Mount's portrayal of Captain Pike was a revelation that was BY FAR the most well-received aspect of Season 2.

There were also allegations that large chunks of the plot were stolen from previews of an in-development indie game (the unreleased 2014 game featured giant Tardigrades that had the ability to use an interstellar network to travel anywhere they wanted to- sound familiar?).

While Season 2 had some watchable moments, it was still middling at best, and nobody is ''ever'' going to let this series live down the garbage fire that was Season 1.
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===''Picard''===
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Set to be a continuation of the original timeline, featuring old man Picard with Patrick Stewart reprising the role. Hopes are not high, but at the very least Patrick Stewart's presence should make it watchable if nothing else.

The story so far: Picard ragequit Starfleet after they sat back and let the Romulans get blown up by the supernova mentioned in the first Abrams movie. This happened because some rogue androids orbitally bombarded Mars and blew up the rescue fleet that was being built there, so the Federation has banned all R&D on synthetic lifeforms and subsequently become [[Imperium of Man|isolationist, racist and xenophobic]] (does this remind you of anything?). Picard has been living in his family chateau ever since, making wine and hanging out with his dog and his Romulan housekeepers. Then a scared girl named Dahj turns up on his doorstep, and it turns out she's a highly advanced biological android constructed from the surviving bits of Data's positronic brain by the guy who wanted to dismantle Data in that episode "The Measure of a Man." Before Picard can really figure out what to do about her, she gets killed by a secret society of Luddite anti-Android Romulan assholes, but it turns it that's okay because she has a twin "sister" named Soji who is working with some other Romulans on a derelict Borg cube. Picard decides it's time to saddle up and go be a hero again. He starts putting together a crew that includes Agnes Jurati, a former cyberneticist; Raffi Musiker, his last executive officer, [[What|who is now an alcoholic drug-vaping hermit]] after getting kicked out of Starfleet; Cristobal Rios, a scruffy merc pilot whose ship is staffed entirely by holograms of himself; Elnor, a Romulan warrior monk raised by Romulan warrior nuns; and Seven of Nine, who has become a kickass pilot and is no longer wearing her infamous catsuit. Together, they're out to save Soji, stop the Romulans, and be the good guys in a galaxy that needs heroes, etc etc.

Key storytelling criticisms of the show include the idea that the Romulan Empire should have had enough infrastructure to effect an evacuation without help, and that even if they didn't, the Federation would ''never'' abandon a neighbor who was asking for help- not even a former enemy, and not even when doing so became difficult or inconvenient. Even dumber the executives wanted to avoid continuity lockout and ordered the showrunner to remove references to previous shows. This meant they couldn't mention the Dominion War and its impact on the Federation. As during DS9, Starfleet actually has space carriers that can move tons of people and equipment quickly like their IRL counterparts in the Akira class.
Whether you like the series or not, it's clear that this series is not taking place in Gene Roddenberry's noblebright vision of the Federation, and the fact that it is yet another grim, sometimes violent entry into the franchise is a point that has sharply [[skub|divided]] reviews of the show. However most Star Trek fans will admit that the first seasons of a series are almost always stinkers.

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== Homages ==
Being such a long-running franchise with a wide audience, Star Trek has gained enough pop-culture recognition that it is often referenced in other works. In a few cases entire projects are made to pay homage Star Trek. Here are some examples.

=== Galaxy Quest ===
A sci-fi/comedy film released in 1999, directed by Dean Parisot. It parodies science fiction films and series in general, but particularly ''Star Trek'' and its fandom. The film stars big name actors including Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and the late Alan Rickman. The plot revolves around the cast of a defunct cult television series called Galaxy Quest (for example, Tim Allen played the Kirk/Shatner expy and Alan Rickman played the Spock/Nimoy expy). They're also suffering fatigue that mirrors the experiences of the actual Star Trek actors (Rickman's character is typecast with his Galaxy Quest character and laments it, similar to how these things happened to the late, great Leonard Nimoy).

The cast are suddenly visited by actual aliens, the Thermians, who believe the series to be an accurate documentary (they have no concept of fiction and only the most bare bones idea of lying) and seek their help. The Thermians take the actors with them, who find themselves involved in a very real, and dangerous, intergalactic conflict, and unlike the show where it all wrapped up quickly they struggle to learn about and relate to the aliens. Speaking of the aliens, in a witty nod to the "rubber forehead aliens" so common in Star Trek, the Thermians first appear to resemble humans with unnaturally pale skin and straight hair, but that's revealed to be a holographic disguise and their true forms are squid-like. Can these actors find greatness within themselves, and possibly personal redemption? (Spoiler: yes, and it is incredible.)

Built around the basic premise of "What if the cast of ''Star Trek'' ended up on a real spaceship and had to actually do the shit they did in the show?" Featuring a veritable all-star cast of talented comedians and character actors, this is one of the best parodies ever made, and an affectionate love-letter to the franchise as a whole.

===Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning===
Another parody, parodying not only ''Star Trek'' but ''Babylon 5'' as well. The seventh in a series fan movies released in 2005, it's about Captain Pirk builds a starship called CPP ''Kickstart'', allies with Russia and takes over the world. He wants to take over more planets but the ships of his P-Fleet aren't fast enough to travel outside the Solar system. A maggot hole opens and it leads to an alternate reality. Pirk wants to take over the Earth of this reality, which leads to an [[awesome]] space battle between the P-Fleet and the fleet of the space station Babel 13 led by Johnny Sherrypie. The movie features some of the best special effects ever put in a sci-fi movie, which is pretty impressive, considering that this is an amateur film with a very low budget and was rendered in five years in someone's bedroom. The film is spoken in Finnish but subtitles are available for a wide variety of languages, including Klingon. They also made [https://web.archive.org/web/20070828010927/http://rpg.starwreck.com/ a role-playing game based on it], where your character [[Truenamer|becomes more incompetent]] [[Page 42|as he levels up]].

===Star Trek: Renegades===
Kickstarter Trek. The makers submitted their made-for-TV movie pilot to CBS in an attempt to get it made into a legit on-the-air series (and by god it shows), but they were not successful. As a result, while the project limped along for a few years afterward, it has good and bad in equal measure. As a non-official product it also cannot be considered canon. Some characters are actually interesting (about time we saw more of the Breen!) while others are pure Mary Sues (including a male Seven of Nine with a built-in Borg-gun/personal shield/fully-functional hand). Some of the ideas are interesting while others are boring or already-been-done. The CGI is all Hollywood-quality, but the practical effects are okay at best.
It's obvious that they made this without knowing that they were going to be able to make a TV show or not, and tried to cram the sort of build-up and intrigue we saw in DS9 into a span of 90 minutes. For now though, it's decidedly meh, and probably a dead project as well since it hasn't been mentioned on the maker's website in over a year as of late 2019.

===Star Trek Continues===
Of all the offerings listed here, Star Trek Continues is BY FAR the closest in theme and tone to the original 1960's series. Indeed, this is the whole point: from its inception, this fan-funded project was intended to represent a what-if "4th Season" of the Original Series, ending with the conclusion of the Enterprise's 5-year mission. It is surprisingly and at times ''delightfully'' watchable, with strong stories, consequences and arcs that carry over to later episodes, tons of attention to detail, unexpected cameos, and a cast that really came together, particularly in later episodes. It also delicately navigated a line between viewing female characters through the lens of a show that was rooted in 1960's culture while also not treating them as weak children dependent on men for protection. Star Trek Continues successfully concluded its "season" with all 11 episodes gradually released from 2014 to 2018, to heaps of industry awards and wide praise (including a personal endorsement from Gene Roddenberry's son, who said his father would've approved).

=== The Orville ===
<s>Star Trek fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off</s> A comedy drama sci-fi television series that began as a homage to Star Trek, created by and starring Seth MacFarlane of ''Family Guy'' infamy-- [[Skub|No wait, come back!]] The guy's a huge Trekkie and felt too many shows were up in their ass with grimdark, so he pitched his idea to the execs to make a loving comedic sendup of The Next Generation. Many of the executive producers and developers are notable industry Trekkies such as David Goodman (who wrote the ''Futurama'' Trek parody episode), or Trek alumni such as Brannon Braga. First airing in 2017, the series is about the strung-out not-Picard protagonist Captain Edward Mercer, played by MacFarlane himself, of the eponymous not-Enterprise spaceship "The Orville" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Orville likely named after one of the Wright Brothers]). His ex-wife Kelly is the first officer while the crew includes the not-T'Pol alien security officer Alara, gay beefy not-Worf alien Bortus, asshole not-Lore android Isaac, and John LaMarr and Gordon Malloy - an even more ridiculous parody of Harry Kim and Tom Paris. They explore the galaxy while dealing with personal problems and fighting various bad guys.

The show began with a mix of drama, comedy and commentary on real world issues (a given between being Star Trek inspired and who the showrunner is). Ed and Kelly reconciled as co-workers in the pilot, the episode "Majority Rule" has good commentary on social currency systems (despite its similarity to Black Mirror's episode "Nosedive") and the episode "About a Girl" is a Bortus-centered story about gender-fluid/sex-changing aliens (surprisingly well-done though it trod [[SJW|certain waters]]). Being a Seth MacFarlane show, there's one subject The Orville is very preachy - pun intended - about, that makes Star Trek look like [[CS Lewis|The Chronicles of Narnia]]; atheism. A quarter of Season 1 episodes revolve around beating the “Religion is Bad” drum - "If Stars Should Appear", "Mad Idolatry" and "Krill", the lattermost named for the only religious race in the setting, who ''of course'' are fanatical devotees of a dangerous religion which made them seem set as <s>Seth's</s> the show's go-to bad guys. The first season ran for 12 episodes, and the show was greenlit for a second season.

In the second season, Alara was written out of the show halfway through. The character's actress, Halston Sage, was rumoured to be dating Seth MacFarlane and given the apparent distance between them later, this may have indicated a breakup. If the rumor is true, this likely factored into writing Alara out because [[Derp|dating a co-worker and subordinate 20 years younger than you almost never ends well]] (which may come back to haunt them as she was one of the better received characters). In other events, Issac turns good at the last minute (becoming not-Data instead of not-Lore). One episode has a plot hole where a Krill captured and imprisoned by Mercer and co. in Season 1 comes back as part of a strike force targeting Ed with no explanation for her escape. Speaking of the Krill, they become the "lesser villains that need to team up with the good guys to fight worse villains" cliché, in a possible asspull given all the villainous setup they got (such as their reptilian design which deliberately invoked Nosferatu to the point that sunlight kills them too). The team up happens because the rest of Issac's robotic race, the Kaylons, have gone [[Necrons|Full Skynet]] against organic life. The cast seems to be gelling better (rumoured situation between Seth and Halston aside), the writers have a better idea of what the show should be and the humour is now used in service of the stories. The criticized elements were dialed back but still remain, and while the show is getting a third season, it was moved from TV to streaming service Hulu.

Ultimately, some commend The Orville as a witty, retro breath of [[Noblebright|fresh air]] in an overly [[Grimdark|stagnant]] genre with good special effects and music. Others denounce The Orville as derivative, sophomoric, preachy, vain (some consider MacFarlane's stunt-casting himself as the main character the height of vanity) and uncomfortable (how many view Mercer's interactions with ex-wife character Kelly since the beginning). Some think both sides have a point. Trekkies are equally divided on the show; many Trekkies [[butthurt]] over Discovery endorse The Orville, a significant number of Discovery fans hate The Orville, and a small and overlooked group quietly enjoys both.

As always, stay tuned for how this turns out.

== Films ==
As a general rule, the even-numbered ones aren't complete shit.

* '''''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''''': AKA: The Slow Motion Picture, or the Motionless Picture. A giant space whatsit is flying towards Earth, the mostly-retired crew has to go figure out what's going on and stop it. Old school sci-fi geeks like the ideas, but terrible pace and interminable special effects that were clearly meant to capitalize on ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' while failing to understand what people like about that movie kill them dead for everyone else. Besides the uniform worn by Kirk, the uniforms also look like pajamas. So no wonder they were changed only a movie later. Features an entirely bald female alien who is [[What|so good at sex that she has to swear an oath not to get it on with the crew]]. Really. This is canon.
* '''''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''''': As Kirk starts to feel his age, a one-off villain from the show makes a dramatic reapperance: [[Meme|KKKHHHAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!]] Widely considered the best of all the films, and the only one considered a straight up great film, no qualifiers. If you haven't seen it, see it. So good many later movies in the franchise just try to rip it off instead of finding their own identities. Interesting fact: due to time constraints, actors of Kirk and Khan weren't available at the same time. So the entire script was written so that Kirk and Khan never need to meet face-to-face. But you'd never notice if it weren't pointed out to you. Roddenberry screeched autistically and objected to some of the actions of his characters, including Kirk shooting a [[Enslavers|brain eating space parasite]] rather than "[[Noblebright|keeping it for study]]." The fact that his strongest objections came to the most [[win]] of the films says a great deal about his deprecating value to the franchise around the TNG era.
* '''''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock''''': Where is Spock? ''He's on Genesis.'' ALL AHEAD FULL! Not really bad, just mediocre and run of the mill compared to the superior films that surround it. It was also saddled with the misfortune of undoing some of the previous film's more-daring decisions, and having its only daring decision reversed a film later. If you had to say that any film broke the "odd numbers suck" rule, it would be this one.
* '''''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home''''': The crew of the ''Enterprise'' travels back in time to save the whales. No, literally and unironically. Scott tries to talk to a computer through the mouse, Spock nerve-pinches a punk on a bus in San Francisco, and somehow it works, creating something perhaps not quite in the genre intended but a classic in sci-fi dramedy. ''The Voyage Home'' is a zany comedy romp beloved by the general public and fandom alike, leaving only the most intractable fanbois to bitch and moan. Nimoy directed this one but there was a contract stipulation that Shatner would get whatever Nimoy got, thus leading to...
* <del>'''''Star Trek V: The Final Frontier''''':</del> <s>The epitome of the "odd-numbered Star Trek films suck" rule.</s> {{BLAM|Lies! There is no}} '''''Star Trek V'''''{{BLAM|! It was not called}} '''''The Final Frontier'''''{{BLAM|! It was not directed by Kirk's egotistical actor and did not have a plot that could literally be summarized as "Kirk is betrayed by his incompetent crew, yet goes on to fight God and win!" The films mysteriously moved from four to six and ''we are all improved because of this!''}}
* '''''Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country''''': The Space Cold War ends amidst searing mystery and drama. The sendoff for the original cast, except Kirk who got a worse send-off a movie later. Gene Roddenberry watched it, hated it, and was going to seek legal advice but died a week later. And good riddance to that, because it's a pretty sweet political thriller if your hippie-panties don't get into a twist at the thought that the Federation isn't a perfect place full of perfect people.
* '''''Star Trek Generations''''': Malcolm McDowell blows up planets to get into a magic space ribbon to live forever, no it does not make any more sense in context. An already-weak story hamstrung by its obsession with being daring and unconventional rather than good. Also, Kirk dies on the bridge in the most face-palming manner possible.
* '''''Star Trek First Contact''''': The ''TNG'' crew face off with the Borg to ensure the future happens. Lots of action, a script that sparks with energy and snark, and some quite effective performances make this the only good ''TNG'' movie (we don't blame you TNG cast). It sadly is also the only appearance of the Defiant on screen, doing a pretty decent job of fighting the Borg before the Enterprise E saves the day of course. The Borg Queen was also introduced here before Voyager, ruining what could have been a good idea.
* '''''Star Trek Insurrection''''': If you thought the [[Avatar|Na'vi]] were a bunch of badly-written [[Mary Sue]]s, you ain't seen nothing yet! B-b-b-baby you ain't seen n-n-n-nothing yet! Also, Riker shaves his beard, and that's basically a war crime. Aged from terrible to forgettably bad thanks to that one scene of Picard and Data singing ''HMS Pinafore'' going memetic.
* '''''Star Trek Nemesis''''': The last stand of the ''TNG'' cast, ending not with a bang but a whimper. It also required amending the even=good/odd=bad rule to "''Galaxy Quest'' counts as a ''Star Trek'' film so this one is also odd."
* '''''Star Trek''''' (2009): Alternate timeline "reboot" (sideboot?) with the original crew, albeit with new younger actors. Timey-wimey shit happens and old prime timeline Spock (reprised by old Leonard Nemoy) is hurled back in time along with a bunch of Romulan assholes. The dickbag Romulans begin fucking shit up, slightly altering history in a way that ensures gratuitous lens flare. [[skub| Skubtastic]], but at least watchable (if a shiny CGI filled, non-moral space action means watchable for you), which is more than ''most'' odd-numbered films can muster. If you still even count it as odd, without the ''Galaxy Quest''-amendment.
* '''''Star Trek Into Darkness''''': Some [[edgy]] shit. The second of the alternate timeline ''Trek'' films. Terrorism, conspiracy and flapdoodle. Even more skubtastic, but generally considered worse than its predecessor, partially because (like ''Nemesis'') it tries to be a remake of ''The Wrath of Khan'' and having Kirk at his most punchable.
* '''''Star Trek Beyond''''': Controversial, but more in a question of whether it's decent or quite good. Lots of good character stuff and a decent story revolving around a race of mysterious space pirates trying to conquer a colony, but the action photography is poorly-lit shaky-cam horseshit and the sound work is awful. If it's the last "Kelvin Timeline" movie, as it seems it will be, at least it ended on a good note.

== Novels ==
Like most long time franchises ''Star Trek'' has a massive line of books. Unlike most they're basically just fanfics as nothing but the show and the movies is canon so the writers can do whatever they want. This changed after ''Nemesis'' since they might never have another show or movie in the "Prime" universe, so the writers got their shit together and wrote a group of books as a tight community very close to the shows. The relaunch novels are a continuation of the show they're about. Also there's the ''Titan'' book series which is about Riker and Troi getting their own ship, which happens to be staffed by every race in the Federation including living rocks, [[awesome|space dinosaurs]] that smell like [[meatbread|toast]] and a [[what|space cyborg ostrich]].

During yet another novel continuity (Star Trek: Destiny), the Borg go nuts and eat Pluto... yeah... and then they finally get sick of the Federation somehow managing to not get assimilated all the time, so they finally just send every last cube they have with orders to Exterminatus the absolute SHIT out of the entire Alpha Quadrant. Pretty much every important character from TNG, DS9, and Voyager has to team up to stop them, and even then the Federation still gets its shit kicked in and winds up having to rely on a vaguely ridiculous deus ex machina to win, and [[Grimdark|billions of people still die and dozens of planets are blown to shit]]. It was pretty insane.

Then all the Federation's main enemies get together to form an anti-Federation and start poking the bear, all the while telling their allies that they're somehow warmongering dicks, Section 31 gets its cover blown in a big way, and Riker gets promoted to Admiral. Also, a lot of the newer TNG novels have been devoted to following up on one-shot aliens from the show, like the guys that sent out the probe that made Barclay super-smart and those fish monks that were abducting crewmembers for experiments. Now that the Picard show is coming out, though, this will all presumably be chucked in the dustbin.

== Video Games ==
=== Star Trek Online ===
''Star Trek Online'' is the free-to-play online game built by Cryptic Studios and run by Perfect World. With an official license CBS, recurring characters voiced by various Trek alumni, and recently a license to include references to the reboot chronology (officially known as the "Kelvin Timeline"), it's the closest existing thing to an "official" continuation of the "Prime" timeline, and contains history and fluff extending nearly 40 years from the end of Star Trek: Nemesis.

Taking place in the 25th century (around the year 2409-2410), the Hobus supernova (the event that kicked Nero and Spock into the past during Star Trek 2009) has devastated the Romulans, and its near-collapse and fragmentation causes tensions between a resurgent Klingon Empire and the Federation. The tensions blow up into a war, with members of a new, nicer, breakaway Romulan Republic playing both sides in exchange for development aid.

The game contains deep cuts from all over Trek lore, and answers questions about what happened to various key characters, including Data (took over the Enterprise-E, then retired), the Enterprise (now an even bigger ship run by Andorian captain Shon), and the Voyager crew (it took Harry Kim 30 years to make Captain lol). Raises barely-shown, unnamed, and otherwise obscure races to new prominence as big bad foes, including the Iconians (ancient aliens with god complexes who mutated into energy beings, currently live in dyson spheres and were only defeated by predestination paradox), Tzenkethi (4-armed halo guys whose weak points are the FRONT of their shields), and Na'kuhl (the alien nazis from Enterprise as time-traveling terrorists who blame the Federation for a throwaway event that happened in TNG's beach episode).

Ostensibly free to play, but don't let that fool you... the ''not-so-micro''transactions are the only reason the lights stay on.

=== Starfleet Command ===

''Starfleet Command'' was a series real time space battle games by Interplay based on the much older tabletop game Star Fleet Battles. It came out in 1999 and was followed by several sequels and expansions. Gameplay was much like ''Battlefleet Gothic'', but with the player only controlling one ship. SFC remains Interplay's best selling game, topping even ''Baldur's Gate''.

=== Armada ===

A series of low effort RTS's churned out by Activision in 2000. Tried to take on both ''Homeworld'' and ''Age of Empires'', both of which have recently gotten HD remakes and ''Armada'' hasn't so that should tell you all you need to know. However, for one of the first 3D model space RTS's it was surprisingly easy to mod, resulting in many ship mod packs being made for it.

== Would you like to know more? ==
And oh Lordy, is there more...
*[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/ Main Memory Alpha: A ''Star Trek'' wiki]
*[http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/ Main Memory Beta: The flip-side of Memory Alpha for the less than official stuff]
*[http://sfdebris.com/ SF Debris: opinionated episode reviews, has some non ''Trek'' stuff as well]

[[Category: Television]]