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Amberley Vail

2016-06-12T08:56:06Z

2A02:FE0:C100:3:5C4D:1492:753E:9E71:

[[File:Amberley Vail.jpg|thumb|right|Inquisitor Lilith Abfequarn. Apparently standing in for Amberly Vale...]]

Amberley Vail is a member of the [[Alienhunters| Ordo Xenos]] of the [[Inquisition]] and the lover of [[Commissar]] [[Ciaphas Cain]], '''HERO OF THE [[Imperium of Man|IMPERIUM]]'''! Unique among the members of the Inquisition, she not only displays sanity, but also self-awareness of just how off their rocker everyone else in the Inquisition can be. She goes about the galaxy fighting aliens with a quip and perky sense of humour. But don't let her light air fool you, as she can be as deadly as her position demands. She was the one who realized that [[Jurgen]] was a [[blank]], after her sanctioned [[psyker]] Rakel had an extreme reaction to physical contact with him. She would later go on to edit the Cain Archives, detail Cain's private memoirs for use by the Inquisition (after we assume his death given his [[Exterminatus|Admissions]] in these). Her edits consist of inserting a few other sources of relevant information to provide perspective, and a large number of footnotes whenever she feels she needs to elaborate on something or make additional commentary. As often as not, she just uses them as an excuse to take jabs at the Radicals and members of the [[Daemonhunters| Ordo Malleus]] or defend her vanity when it is implied she ate too much (only once). Whenever the Cain archive goes into times before he met her, she ''also'' is prone to insulting (either directly or indirectly) Cain's prior paramours, and may edit out any family-unfriendly information regarding his liaisons with her and others.

She tends to take a light-handed approach to executing her Inquisitorial duties, often simply arranging to have the appropriate people in the appropriate places at the right time to make a difference. Cain and Jurgen often end up crossing paths with her when she makes sure their regiment is the one to arrive at a conflict that calls for their talents. However, she is also comfortable getting stuck in when need be, and owns a set of ornate power armor that (according to Cain) would make a [[Techmarine]] jealous. Apparently, she is pretty good at purging [[Genestealer]] nests with it.

As expected for an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, she knows a few non-human languages. She is functionally conversant in [[Tau]], knows a little [[Eldar]], and is fully fluent in [[Ork]]ish (though she admits that is not hard since Orkish apparently consists mainly of a few guttural bellows and smacks to the head for emphasis.)

[[Category:Inquisition]]
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Amberley Vail

2016-06-12T08:55:51Z

2A02:FE0:C100:3:5C4D:1492:753E:9E71:

Ciaphas Cain

2016-06-12T08:48:41Z

2A02:FE0:C100:3:5C4D:1492:753E:9E71:

[[Image:cain.jpg|thumb|right|Hero of the Imperium, fighting the grim-derp since 2002]]

''"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."''

-Nelson Mandela

'''Ciaphas Cain, (Accidental) [[Hero of the Imperium|HERO OF THE IMPERIUM]]!!!''' was a famous [[Commissar]] of the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium]] and is the protagonist of the eponymous series of novels by [[Sandy Mitchell]]. The GRIMDARK Flashman to [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt|Gaunt's]] Sharpe. He spent most of his career in active service attached to [[Imperial Guard]] regiments from the ice world of [[Valhalla]]—most notably the 597th, and accompanied by his aide [[Jurgen]]. He retired to become a professor at a [[Schola Progenium]] later in life, but this did not mark the end of his exploits, being recalled into active service during the [[Black Crusade#13th Black Crusade|13th Black Crusade]]. He was also called upon at many points throughout his life to assist the [[Alienhunters|Ordos Xenos]] [[Inquisitor]] [[Amberley Vail]], who is almost certainly his lover.

The novels are presented as extracts from Cain's personal, unofficial memoirs, edited by Amberley—published only to and kept under lock and key by the [[Inquisition]] as they present a vastly different story to all the official Imperial propaganda about his adventures. Contrary to the heroic image he cultivated to the Imperium at large, Cain described himself as a self-serving coward in his memoirs, spending most of his time trying to ensure his own comfort and survival, only becoming a hero by accident. However, despite his self-deprecation, he routinely demonstrates great bravery and compassion in the stories, leading many to believe he is a much better person than he would admit to himself. In any event, he always subscribed to the long-term version of cowardice, often taking courses of action that appeared extremely dangerous on the basis that they gave him a better chance of survival in the long term, if not the short one.

He is also well known for being one of the few commissars to earn the trust and respect of the Guardsmen he served with—aided by his heroic reputation, but mainly because he persistently demonstrated care and concern for the soldiers of his regiment. Despite repeated insistence in his memoirs he merely did this to get on their good sides, there's a great deal of evidence that his feelings were genuine.

Cain himself was an extremely skilled combatant, being an excellent shot with his trusty [[laspistol]] and highly proficient in the use of his [[chainsword]] in melee. Amongst other things, he defeated an [[Ork]] [[warboss]] and stood up to two [[Chaos Space Marines]] in single combat, both incredible feats for an ordinary man, especially as the only bionics he possessed were a few replacement fingers. Not to mention going toe to toe with ''two'' [[Tyranid]] [[Hive Tyrant]]s, and wounding them both before his men can help him. Mind you, even ranged Hive Tyrants can rip up an [[Assault Squad|Assault Marine]] and eat him without too much effort. Further exploits include holding his own against a fucking [[Daemon]] Princess pretty well (with Jurgen's help, but still he did better than most would have), defeating [[Genestealer]]s in close combat (one of which could kill two [[Word Bearers]] and severely injure a third in a matter of seconds), and standing his ground against a fucking Genestealer Patriarch/[[Broodlord]]. He also has the honour of being forever listed on "Active Battle Duty", according to official records, despite being buried with full battle honours in the early M42's; this is because, in the course of his exploits, he had been assumed to have died only to reappear later so many times that the [[Administratum]] couldn't keep up with the paperwork and simply issued a general order that his recorded status not be changed despite any evidence apparently to the contrary. Of course, his legacy is such that saying he's still in service to the Imperium wouldn't be far wrong...

==Das Novels==
Essentially, George MacDonald Fraser's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Paget_Flashman The Flashman Papers] and McAuslan stories transplanted into the 41st Millennium, though, while Cain is more of a Coward with a Heart of Gold, Flashman can best be described as a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, Braised in a Jamaican Jerk Sauce, then Dried out into Jerked Jerk Jerky.

Whilst the books are quite well-written, [[Sandy Mitchell]] is a big fan of recycling - even down to specific sentences. Hence each book ''is guaranteed'' to feature exactly the same descriptions of his aide [[Jurgen]] as all the others, someone doing something with "almost indecent haste", and about half a dozen variations on the theme, "Of course, if I knew what I was getting myself into by doing [x], I'd have rather charged into the [[Eye of Terror]] with nothing but a rusty fork."

They are also notable for the Jurgen Ex Machina, where most of the dramatic fights are ended by the intervention of Cain's aide Jurgen armed with a [[melta]]gun and his powers as a [[psyker]]-disrupting "[[blank]]". Over the course of the series, Jurgen has racked up more kills than the rest of the Valhallan 597th put together, and has yet to have any character development whatsoever. But that's fine, because Jurgen is 125% distilled [[awesome]].

Also features psychotic lesbian Valhallans, Orky Gargants crumpin' dose [[Necron]] gits, a grinning, friendly neighborhood Inquisitor (who you should flee from at all costs), psychotic psykers who wear dresses too small, savants that are barred from entering casinos, [[World Eaters]] getting killed by "mere" humans, surviving a starship crash, playing ''[[Space Hulk]]'' for real, blue facepainted [[Tau]] supporters yelling that you can take their lives, but not their freedom, and the Harriers getting the goddamn cup. [[Awesome|And Space Daemon Werewolf Psyker Hitler being kicked over a dam by a solid boot to the arse]].

==Cain Books and Collected Short Stories==
[[File:CAIN-TRUEHERO.jpg|thumb|right|Cain, summed up in all his glory. (The actual SCENE is from ''The Traitor's Hand''.)]]
*''Hero of the Imperium'' (Contains ''For the Emperor'', ''Caves of Ice'', and ''The Traitor's Hand'', as well as three short stories)
**''For the Emperor!''
**''Caves of Ice''
**''The Traitor's Hand''
**''The Beguiling''
**''Fight or Flight''
**''Echoes of the Tomb''
*''Defender of the Imperium'' (Contains ''Death or Glory'', ''Duty Calls'', and ''Cain's Last Stand'', as well as two short stories)
**''Death or Glory''
**''Duty Calls''
**''Cain's Last Stand''
**''Traitor's Gambit''
**''Sector Thirteen''
*''The Emperor's Finest''
*''The Last Ditch''
*''The Greater Good''
*''The Smallest Detail'' is a standalone short (9 pages) story starring Jurgen, rather than Cain himself.

==Trivia==
*He is essentially the "Edmund Blackadder" of the ''Warhammer 40k'' universe. Jurgen can be considered as Cain's "Baldrick" - dirty, disregarded, not all that bright but a good dogsbody to Cain. (Though a slightly more intelligent and significantly more badass Baldrick; think a cross between Baldrick from series 1 and the later Baldricks, but with a melta. Also, Cain respects Jurgen.)
*More specifically, he is the Captain Edmund Blackadder of ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' for ''Warhammer 40k'' universe. Like Captain Blackadder, he is always trying to avoid combat, escape death, and retire from the Imperial Guard.
*Alternately, he is the Sir Harry Paget Flashman (VC KCB KCIE) of the 'Flashman' series of novels for the ''Warhammer 40k'' universe. Flashman was a key inspiration for Edmund Blackadder (although not of the first series; that was different). Seriously, look those books up. They're fantastic.
*Jurgen can be thought of as Fraser's other classic character Private McAuslan, J., 2nd Gordon Highlanders, Dirtiest Soldier in the World, the Tartan Caliban and the Highland Division's Answer to Peking Man. Think Pigpen in a kilt. Jurgen, however, appears to be smarter and has a Russian rather than a Glaswegian accent.
*According to the narrator of his books (no, really) he uses the Lord Commissar rules on the tabletop.
*He is so [[awesome]] that to this day he remains the only entity in the galaxy to bypass [[Games Workshop]]'s invisible barrier on moving the setting forward to the 42nd Millennium.
*He is also so awesome, that even when dead and buried in front of thousands as a war hero, he is permanently marked as being on active duty because of the number of times he was believed to be dead only to come back from Emperor knows where.
*A pretty good fanfic called ''Tales from the Black Millennium'' has Edmund Blackadder in command of an Imperial Guard regiment. Its sadly unfinished sequel ''More Tales from the Black Millennium'' drags Ciaphas Cain into the mix.

==Stats==
===Commissar Ciaphas Cain, Hero of the Imperium!===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left"
!
!Pts
! WS
! BS
! S
! T
! W
! I
! A
! Ld
! Sv
! Unit Type
! Composition
|-
| Ciaphas Cain
| 175
| 6
| 5
| 3
| 3
| 3
| 3
| 3
| 10
| 4+
| Infantry (IC)
| 1 Lord Commissar
|-
|}
<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" />
*'''Unit Type:''' Infantry (unique) ((uses the Lord Commissar special rules along with those listed here.))
*'''Wargear:''' Carapace armour, Laspistol, Cain's Chainsword, Refractor Field.
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left"
!
!S
!AP
|-
| Cain's Chainsword
| +2
| 3
|-
|}
<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" />
*'''Special Rules:'''
**'''Aura of Discipline, Eternal Warrior, Independent Character, Night Vision, infiltrate'''
**'''Hero of the Imperium!:''' Ciaphas Cain's heroic reputation (regardless of whether it is fraudulent or not) inspires those around him to follow his example. When accompanying a unit, Ciaphas Cain, and the unit he accompanies, are Stubborn. Additionally, all units within 12" of Cain (including one he accompanies) automatically pass tests to Regroup, and may move, shoot (or Run), and declare charges normally in the turn in which they Regroup.
**'''Leader of Men:''' Even though he is a Commissar, Ciaphas Cain can never use Summary Execution, as this would mean one less body standing between him and danger. He may still execute a Psyker that failed Perils of the Warp test, as per the It's For Your Own Good rule.
**'''Pintle Gunner:''' While Ciaphas Cain is embarked on a transport vehicle, that vehicle may fire one pintle weapon using Ciaphas Cain's Ballistic Skill, even if the weapon would otherwise fire at Ballistic Skill 1 (firing snap shots, for instance). The other weapons it is normally allowed to fire do so at their normal Ballistic Skill.
**'''Survival Instincts:''' Commissar Cain's focus on personal safety, and experience in surviving dangerous situations allows him, and any unit he joins, to avoid danger. Cain and any unit he is attached to add 1 to their cover saves. This operates as, and stacks with, the stealth special rule. When he is embarked on a transport, the transport gets the same benefit. The transport may not gain 6+ cover save if it does not have one.
**'''Defensive Fencing Technique:''' Ciaphas Cain developed his own unique fencing style, which revolves around defensive stances, evasion, counter-attack, and running away. Ciaphas Cain adds 4 to his WS when determining how difficult he is to hit in melee. Furthermore, anyone attempting a Glorious Intervention to get him out of a challenge automatically succeeds.
**'''Run Like Frak!''' - Ciaphas Cain, and any unit he is attached to, has the Hit and Run special rule, except that they only roll 2d6 inches for the fleeing distance (he can only run so fast!) and always use Cain's Initiative +2 for the test (he's *always* ready to leg it).
*'''Options:''' Commissar Ciaphas Cain may be accompanied by Gunner Jurgen (130 pts.)
*'''Transport:''' Commissar Ciaphas Cain may take a Chimera or a Salamander as dedicated transport.

===Gunner Jurgen===
130 pts
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left"
!
!Pts
! WS
! BS
! S
! T
! W
! I
! A
! Ld
! Sv
! Unit Type
! Composition
|-
| Gunner Jurgen
| 130
| 3
| 4
| 3
| 3
| 2
| 3
| 1
| 9
| 4+
| Infantry (IC)
| 1
|-
|}
<br style="clear: both; height: 0px;" />
*'''Unit Type:''' Infantry (unique)
*'''Wargear:''' Carapace armour, Lasgun, Meltagun, Frag and Krak grenades.
*'''Special Rules:'''
**'''Look Out - Aargh!, Preferred Enemy (Orks)'''
**'''Commissar's Aide:''' Gunner Jurgen counts as an Independent Character, but must always accompany Ciaphas Cain, joining and leaving units together with him. If Cain is removed as a casualty, Jurgen drags him off the field, and is also removed.
**'''Inconspicuous:''' Gunner Jurgen may not issue challenges, or be the target of a challenge. He may only enter a challenge via the Stand Back, Commissar rule below.
**'''Robust Driving Style:''' While Jurgen is embarked in a transport vehicle, that vehicle is not required to take difficult terrain tests, and treats dangerous terrain as difficult. Additionally, the vehicle may move an additional 3" during its movement phase, and is a Tank if it was not one already.
**'''Robust Body Odor and Psoriasis:''' When a unit successfully Falls Back from melee with Jurgen or a unit he is attached to, it adds 1" to the distance it flees.
**'''Psychic Blank:''' Psykers and Daemons, friend or foe, within 12" of Gunner Jurgen have -3 Leadership, do not generate any Warp Charge (i.e. they do not add dice to their owning player’s Warp Charge Pool in the Psychic phase) and only harness Warp Charge points on a 6.
**'''Stand Back, Commissar (aka Jurgen Ex Machina):''' Gunner Jurgen may not enter a challenge other than through Glorious Intervention to replace Commissar Ciaphas Cain, and he automatically passes the Initiative test to do so. Instead of making a close combat attack, at Jurgen's Initiative turn, he may make a ranged attack with his meltagun. Note that since the enemy will be within 2" of Jurgen, Melta rule for target within 1/2 weapon range applies.
**'''Scrounger:''' Jurgen's voluminous collection of odds and ends can come in handy for offering that one unexpected edge. Once per game, Ciaphas or Jurgen may reroll any one die they are called upon to roll.

==See Also==
[[If I Had Known...]] - A tentative story about Warhammer 40k's three most famous Commissars (Incomplete: Still at Prologue)

==External Links==
*[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ciaphas_Cain Lexicanum page on Cain]

{{IG-Characters}}

[[Category:Commissars]][[category:Literature]]

Your Dudes

2016-06-12T08:45:48Z

2A02:FE0:C100:3:5C4D:1492:753E:9E71:

{{greentext|It just seems like there's never any lasting damage done when shit hits the fan. Yeah, that one planet in [[Ultramar]] got OM NOM NOMMED by the [[Tyranids|'Nids]], but we don't have a stake in anyone who died during the Wars.}}

{{greentext|I dunno, I guess I just want shit to happen to somebody and for it to STICK. Like, if [[Marneus Calgar|Calgar]] got OMGFUCKED by the 'Nids or something, he'd end up in a [[Dreadnought]]. Just little changes to show that the major factions aren't static.}}

That's never going to happen to a major character of ANY FACTION.

Here is what [[Warhammer 40,000 | 40K]] is about. Are you ready? Write this down, because it is important.

'''40K is about your own group of soldiers.'''

I don't care what faction you play or what lists you use. I don't care if you're an existing unit or you make up your own. 40k is about your dudes. It is about YOUR GUYS.

Let me tell you a story about one [[Erasmus Tycho]]:

Erasmus Tycho was a captain in an early after-action report in [[White Dwarf]]. At one point he got KOed by a Weirdboy's psychic blast. This was fluffed as him being severely injured, and that affected his characterization and what would become of him. In-game events were strung together and then logically connected to a potential story - an EMERGENT story based on the guided events of the gameplay.

Do you see what that is? ''THAT IS AN EVOLVING STORY. THAT IS THE KIND OF THING YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR GUYS''. You can give your dudes names and grow attached to them in the same way that you can with [[X-Com|X-COM]] or Final Fantasy Tactics or any other game where you have generic dudes.

Hell, if you played [[Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate|Chaos Gate]], that was basically the game! The last time someone played it for /tg/, there was a dude named APEMANTUS who was badass (based on in-game events), was killed (as an in-game event), and was brought back as a dreadnought (a stretch of the imagination that was connected to in-game events).

That's the kind of stuff 40k should be about. Evolving stories based on what you did, and how a battle went. It's what [[Necromunda]] does, it's what [[Mordheim]] does, and it's what every strategy game ought to do.

Don't worry about "the [[fluff]]". The fluff is background material. It exists to provide context for your own story. Worrying about fluff is like worrying about [[Drizzt]] and [[Elminster]] in the [[Forgotten Realms]] - it shouldn't be about them, it should be about your party. The same thing applies to 40k. Become the change you want. Just as planned.

== See also ==

*[[Advancing the Storyline]]
*[[Kill Team]] - Though usually regarded as a game made to play smaller games rather than a fullblown battle, Kill Team allows for stories more based around Your Dudes - When you only have a handful of soldiers on the table, it's easier to make them unique in both looks and background. Furthermore, the offical game allows for you to make three models "specialists", who has extra abilities alongside their normal set, which can be an endless source of Your Dudes-like inspiration for modelling. Heralds of Ruin also has their own Kill Team game, which tend to become something akin to [[Mordheim]] or [[Necromunda]] when playing Campaign. It even allows for personal Hero characters!

== External Links ==

* [https://archive.foolz.us/tg/thread/14029748/#14031731 The archived thread containing these posts.]

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Advancing the Storyline

2016-06-12T08:41:44Z

2A02:FE0:C100:3:5C4D:1492:753E:9E71:

'''Advancing the Storyline''' is what a great number of [[neckbeards]] believe that [[Games Workshop]] needs to do with [[Warhammer 40,000]]. On [[/tg/]], [[Warseer]], [[Bolter and Chainsword]], and [[Dakka Dakka]], people complain and grumble about how the storyline never moves beyond the year 999.M41, with [[Abaddon the Despoiler]]'s 13th [[Black Crusade]] on the very brink of taking [[Cadia]], ''for real this time'', the [[Tyranid]] [[Hive Fleet]]s closing in on [[Terra]], the [[Astronomican]] flickering and fading, and the [[Golden Throne]] one [[Adeptus Custodes]]' sneeze away from shutting down permanently.

==Why they're wrong==

Some people—[[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Daddy Issues Dembski]] being one of its most frequent proponents—hold the view that this attitude is a load of shit, and that it completely misunderstands the nature of the 40k setting.

This is because 40k isn't a story, and in fact, doesn't have a "storyline"; while events from it, such as the [[Black Crusade]]s and the [[Badab War]], have had their stories told, there's no single, overarching story that the setting exists to tell (unlike universes such as those of [[Star Wars]] or [[Doctor Who]]; even though other stories exist in those settings, they're anchored in a central, unifying one). 40k is simply a setting in which stories take place, and has ten thousand years and a whole galaxy in which to set them, so expecting the timeline to "advance" to "continue" or "finish" the "story" is a stupid idea.

The other, more practical issue with advancing the storyline is that a major change to it is likely to have severe reprecussions on one or more of the different factions, which may not always be welcome changes. To use the most obvious example, consider what effect story progression would have on the Imperium of Man. The majority of 40k players favor one of the many Imperium-aligned factions. Assuming that the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|God-Emperor]] doesn't get resurrected and the Golden Throne isn't fixed before it fails (which itself is rather unlikely and has a good chance of causing problems of its own), the sheer number of threats that the [[Imperium]] faces on a constant basis will tear it apart as soon as the Emperor snuffs it, leading to the enslavement and/or destruction of humanity. And no Imperium means that about half of the armies currently in the game will no longer exist, leaving numerous [[fa/tg/uys]] stuck with unusable armies and a serious grudge over being given the [[Squat]] treatment. Needless to say, Games Workshop's profits would be hit incredibly hard by the departure of so many paying customers, so they have no choice but to keep the Imperium afloat. Although this has the infuriating side effect of causing the setting to grow stagnant and unchanging (much like the Imperium itself), GW can't afford to appease one group of complaining neckbeards over another which would complain even more loudly if their armies were suddenly made unusable.

At the same time, it would be equally risky for GW to risk upsetting the status quo for any other race. For example, if the [[Tyranids]] started arriving in full force, the [[Tau]] would cease to exist as well because they'd be the first to get nommed; naturally, this would infuriate Tau players. The [[Eldar]] dying out completely and forming [[Ynnead]] would meet with an equally chilly reception from both Eldar and [[Slaanesh]] players. Similarly, reunited [[Necrons]] would be such a juggernaut that they'd be able to wipe out all other factions effortlessly, which is also something GW wants to avoid. If the removal of the Squats (which were always a rather small army with only a handful of players) was enough to produce a major outcry, then the [[rage]] produced by the removal of a major faction will be truly unimaginable.

Basically, in order to keep everyone happy, any advancement of the status quo in 40k would have to result in all the factions still being more or less equally matched. That is, the same essential status quo would have to be maintained, making the plot advancement meaningless. Meaningfully advancing the story would logically spell death for a playable faction, and GeeDubs has no financial incentive to kill off a playable faction. Would you want to play a faction that gets canonically boned no matter how well you play? No, no you would not, <s>and GeeDubs won't ever do that to you.</s> WRONG, see the End Times below.

==Why they're right==

On the other hand, [[Privateer Press]] has managed to pull off a metaplot in a wargame just fine with [[WARMACHINE]] and [[Hordes]], and there's no reason that it should be any different for 40k. Besides, given the fact that GW is already expanding the scope of the game to include the previously untouchable events of the [[Horus Heresy]], it's perfectly possible for them (and probably quite profitable since it would give them an excuse to make a new line of minis) to start encompassing events further into the future as well as into the past of the setting. (Some can say that they're already doing so now with the increased emphasis on the "[[Time of Ending]]" in the current codices.)

On top of that, it can be argued that the central story of 40k is the story of the Imperium's fall from glory and slow decline, which must by definition end with either the Emperor getting revived or the destruction of the Imperium of Man, and failing to resolve this central storyline is slowly causing the whole story to stagnate as it runs out of events and gaps to fill in. Even the evolving stories that [[your dudes]] were once capable of creating can no longer exist because there is simply nothing left to evolve. Remember how the [[Eye of Terror]] Campaign ended in a victory for Chaos? Instead of allowing its results to change the background (via [[Abbadon]] taking [[Cadia]]), GW instead decided to backpedal in a way that ultimately made the events of the campaign utterly meaningless. How can you have an emergent narrative take place when any sign that it might upset the way things are now results in it being retconned or otherwise made insignificant?

Another major problem caused by the setting's stagnation is the presence of numerous plotholes which form as a byproduct of GW's insistence in squeezing the shit out of 999.M41. A good example of this is the [[Knights of Blood]] defending [[Baal]] AND attacking the [[Farsight]] Enclaves in the same year despite the fact that they are on opposite sides of the galaxy. The only way to fix that would be to retcon the date, which would create problems of its own depending on where they inserted the new date, or to use warp fuckery since warp travel occasionally has you appear at your destination some time before you left, and because there's always a helpful retcon lying around.

The biggest problem is that Games Workshop loves their status quo. They'll advance the story in bits and pieces but never anything that changes the status quo. In 40K, in Games Workshop's vision:

* The [[Imperium]] will always be stagnant and rotting, but they'll never be destroyed or fractured (helps that they're a Creator's Pet and, due to all the updates and attention from GW, the bestselling faction).
* The [[Eldar]] will always be full of arrogant people, dying and trying to rebuild their empire, but never progress, succeed or go extinct.
* The [[Tau]] will always be a new, expanding empire with hints of [[grimdark]] beneath their benevolent façade, but never get too grimdark or expand to the point where they threaten the Imperium.
* The [[Chaos Space Marines]] will always be trying to overthrow the Imperium, have a grudge against it and be under Abbadon's leadership, but never succeed in a way that puts the Imperium in jeopardy or puts someone besides Abbadon in charge.
* The [[Chaos Daemons]] will always be corrupting things and fighting, but never win a lasting victory or suffer a permanent setback.
* The [[Necrons]] will always be an ancient empire slowly reawakening with each faction following the dictates of their Overlord, with the C'tan either enslaved or in hiding and planning to restore themselves to their former might; but never fully awaken, fully be destroyed, or fully unite, and the C'tan will never be completely enslaved to the Necrons or completely free.
* The [[Tyranids]] will always be a major galactic threat answerable only to the [[Hive Mind]] and will never ally with non-Tyranids, but will never win, be wiped out or wipe out or weaken a playable faction.
* The non-playable factions will always get a token mention, but never get time in the limelight or become powerful enough to challenge a major faction.

It was thought the [[Orks]] would always just wage wars for fun, but never unite to pose a threat to the galaxy, and given Ork nature, this actually makes sense. However, the [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Orks(7E)|7th Edition]] Ork Codex advances [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]]'s storyline, describing how he broke off from his wars with [[Helbrecht]] and [[Yarrick]] to bring all other Orks together in one, galaxy-spanning [[WAAAGH]]. So canonically, the Orks are actually getting their shit together, though this hypothetical WAAAGH of Thraka's will likely be stuck forever in the process of being formed.

===Other points===
There is also the matter that some of the [[Ciaphas Cain]] books take place in the early years of M42 (though his adventures are not exactly Imperium-shaking events). If those can be considered part of the fluff now, what's to stop it from going further than that?

It also bears mentioning that changes can be made to the storyline without altering the tabletop. [[Warhammer Fantasy]] kills off major characters (for example all the named characters currently available to the [[Vampire Counts]] army, and half of the Orcs and Goblins characters) and they are still fieldable in the game. The plot of the setting progresses beyond that point and introduces new characters, encouraging players to not simply play "in the present" but instead just pick someplace in the timeline for their battle. Sure you run into inconsistencies when someone long dead is fighting the army of someone not even born when they were alive. But hey! Necromancy, gods intervening, and Chaos fuckery make a good explanation, as does the age-old rationalization of "shut up and just play the game". If one were to take that approach to 40k via advanced technology of some kind, Warp-related time distortions, or the aforementioned Chaos fuckery, then anyone can appear at any time if the players wish it despite them being killed off in canon. Plot can progress, everyone gets to keep their favorite canon from the past, everyone wins. In fact, this has already happened in canon- Captain Tycho has been dead since the Third War for Armageddon, as is Lord Solar Macharius, but that doesn't stop either of them from being playable. Hell, even [[Eldrad]] was dead for a while before the retcon hit.

TL;DR- While shaking up the setting some might leave some people rather grumpy, making significant changes has just as good of a chance of making things better instead of worse for the players, and if handled well those chances go up. Unfortunately, GW is really, really bad at it.

== Beyond the 41st Millennium ==

Of course, while Games Workshop may never enter the 42nd Millennium, that doesn't stop us from writing up fanfics that do so (or from bickering over which possible portrayal is more likely to actually occur).

* [[The ship moves]], a setting where, in the grim darkness of the 51st Millennium, the God-Emperor of Mankind orders the construction of a giant ark to leave the failing [[Imperium]] behind.
* [[Story:The Shape Of The Nightmare To Come 50k]], a plot that manages to become even ''MORE'' grimdark than it already was, with the Emprah croaking, the Imperium splintered into [[Khaine]]-knows-how-many pieces, and several other incredibly crappy things changing the universe even further.
* [[Return of the Primarchs]], where the fall of Cadia coincides with the fleets of the fallen/dead Primarchs from before the HH, the Lost Primarchs get found and they all band together to help the living ones get up and bring the Imperium to a more presentable state.
* [[End Times]], Emps dies and is re-incarnated as a woman

==Fundamental Misunderstandings==

The problem in 40k is basically the date. That's it. The fluff writers can really can just play grab ass going back and forth over and over for another ten thousand years with no real setting defining changes easily enough. After all they've already done that once - The whole timeline from the heresy to today has resulted in basically no major changes but has still felt interesting. The status quo doesn't need to change, but there really does need to be some space for new fluff going forward so it's not just being stuffed in around existing events. We already have canon conflicts, and it'll only get worse to the point where everyone in the fluff is established as being at one specific place in 999.M41 and that's it. No more new fluff. You can leave out the major events, just takes us some number of years forward so things are actually interesting again. Or, hell, go BACK. There's absolutely nothing wrong with filling in TEN THOUSAND YEARS of time over a galaxy of space to make an interesting story!

==Warhammer Fantasy==

Unlike Warhammer 40k, the plotline of [[Warhammer Fantasy]] does advance, but in small increments (which adds up to something big). Each edition and army book usually adds a little more fluff to the past (and maybe a retcon or two), rarely an update to the big prophesied battle between good and evil that decides the settings future, and a plot hook in the present.
For example, the 8th edition [[Vampire Counts]] and [[High Elves]] army books ([[Codex]] for 40k players) added a new story to the end of the army timelines that mentions how [[Mannfred von Carstein]] kidnapped the [[Everqueen]]'s daughter Aliathra, and is going to sacrifice her like a Frazetta painting to bring back the settings big BIG bad [[Nagash]] and that the greatest hero of the High Elves, Tyrion, has saved her and is riding at the head of a large High Elf army about to clash with a large Undead army.

Smaller updates (mainly gimmicks to sell a book and some models) like [[Storm of Magic]] will add a whole new event that extends the "present day" by a few months to a year. The infamous [[Warhammer Online]] was entirely non-canon which may have been what doomed it from the start. Regardless, Fantasy isn't THAT adventurous about advancing its plotline, but advancing it ''some'' hasn't sunk the ship.

===[[The End Times]] and [[Age of Sigmar]]: The Ultimate Arguments against Advancing the Storyline===
In late 2014, GW finally decided to advance the storyline just as the players wished. The general consensus of this was that it was pretty cool. The fools...

The Nagash book introduced these major changes by bringing back [[Nagash]] as a superpower in his own right. Heroes were killed and Chaos was for once not the big title threat, except to the Empire, since Nagash was getting ready to kick them out and take the world for himself. Many non-playable human nations were decimated and Nagash led all the Vampire Counts to Nehekhara. After a series of lengthy battles he overthrew Settra, forced most of the Tomb Kings to serve him and effectively destroyed Nehekhara's cities so it ceased to exist as a nation.

The Glottkin book saw the Empire become leveled between the titular triplets, Festus, and the others, and little else happened except an undead cameo with Vlad laying the groundwork to become Vampire Emperor. It...didn't work though he made progress.

The Khaine book was the book where the outlook of the End Times started whipping around. All of a sudden, Teclis became a master manipulator bar none, [[Malekith]] was revealed to be the true king all along and everyone was just a usurper. Tyron became an utter asshole and turned into Khaine incarnate, only to die like a bitch to Malekith and Alith Anar. The end result meant that all the elves got slapped into a single army, which caused frustration among the separate bases.

Thanquol just made things even worse, as the rest of the Empire finally collapsed with [[Valten]]'s death, Lustria gets blasted by meteors, the surviving Lizardmen go "Thanks for all the fish" and fly off into space, the Skaven destroy everyone who isn't the Empire or Bretonnia offscreen (and Bretonnia is also destroyed offscreen as well), and more Dwarfs get chopped. Also Gobbla got eaten, cue Goblin tears. We close with Skaven allying with the forces of Chaos.

Now Archaon was where shit broke. To make a long story short, Chaos wins and everyone dies, and there wasn't a damned thing anyone could do to stop it. And that they had been doing this to every universe that had preceded the then-current one, so they would just keep winning over and over again no matter what anyone did about it. By the end of the book, the entire Warhammer World had ceased to exist and every army and named character was killed off if they weren't already dead. In short, it was what GW wanted Storm of Chaos to be, but without that irritating "player interaction" messing up the plot they had planned out.

In a sense, one could see this as a monkey's paw wish; the fanbase finally got the Fantasy setting to advance, but it led to said setting being destroyed and replaced by a completely different setting. One could fearfully wonder now just what would happen if the End Times treatment happened to 40K, and the general consensus is "even the complete stagnation we have now is better than their insane ideas of progression. But if Games Workshop does the same to 40k, it likely means they're going out of business, because that setting has, among other things, their [[Space Marines|creator's pets]]."

Age of Sigmar added another monkey wrench into the works; while the plot is nominally progressing with the promise of further developments in the future, it's not necessarily going to be a good thing given GW's track record thus far, and beyond a few shared characters who lack most of their original defining characteristics, most of the "new" Warhammer setting is barely recognizable as being connected to the old one at all. And that's not even taking into account how they somehow managed to add Space Marines to what's supposed to be a fantasy setting and effectively removed Slaanesh '''in a fucking SIDEBAR'''. But that's more than the Tomb Kings got; [[FAIL|they were squatted without even an explanation]]. In short, advancing the storyline only works when the people writing it aren't absolutely clueless on how to do so, and GW isn't nearly that competent. Better to have a stagnant setting that actually works than changes that ultimately do more harm than good.

==See Also==
*[[Your dudes]]

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]