Editing Warhammer Meta-Setting (section)

== Theories ==

As a surprise to no one, a lot of theories began popping up the instant we began knowing about the inner workings of the Warhams - In fact, they had been there all the time.

=== The Dracothion is a [[C'tan]] ===

In the [[Age of Sigmar]] rulebook, it is explained that [[Sigmar]] held fast to the core of the old [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle#Setting|Warhammer World]] after Chaos consumed it, and flew through nothingness until it stumbled across the [[Dracothion]], a "dragon made of starlight". This seemingly immortal being gave [[Sigmar|Sigs]] a manual with information on how to make new things out of nothing with cheat codes and console commands. Together, they began creating the new world, shaping the Winds into shape and creating [[Sigmar|Sigs]]' new clubhouse for his "We hate Chaos" club. 

What is striking about the [[Dracothion]] is that it shares a lot of similarities with another "dragon", namely the [[Mag'ladroth|Void Dragon]]. Both are described as being "light" in their physical forms (the [[Dracothion]] being "made of starlight", and [[Mag'ladroth|the Void Dragon]] looking like "dark light" when consuming stars, and having the light of devoured stars within it, and both described as "dragons" for reasons or other (the [[Dracothion]] physically resembling a dragon, and the [[Mag'ladroth|Void Dragon]] remembering itself taking that form when it was defeated on Earth by the Emperor).

The most interesting part of this theory is that, if the [[Mag'ladroth|Void Dragon]] can do the same rebuilding shit as the [[Dracothion]], what does it mean that the Emperor put it to sleep? It would imply that the Emperor didn't wanted it to recreate the world, and that there was the risk of it doing it... The [[Mag'ladroth|Void Dragon]] also supposedly allows the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] to control machinery, and it's canon that the [[Mag'ladroth|Void Dragon]] can control machines. This doesn't sound much like what the [[Dracothion]] does (creating new worlds and stuff) but, think about this: The [[Dracothion]] can literally create things in the setting, and is outside the powers within the setting (being immortal and untouchable by Chaos), which could mean that it simply has control of the setting's "core programming". Programming. Which machines use.

So the Emperor has essentially made it so the future of the setting is in the hands of [[Techpriest|technophiles who have no idea what they're doing]]. 

But all of this begs the obvious question: if [[Dracothion]] really is a [[C'tan]], why is it the only one who has the power to create new life and new worlds, and why does it care so little about the rest of existence when other [[C'tan]] would have used that power to enslave the material universe several times over? For all we know, it's just a really weird dragon with too much time on its hands.  This theory is further undermined by the fact that [[Dracothion]] clearly has supernatural powers while the [[C'tan]] have complete mastery of the physical universe, but react to supernatural power like vampires react to garlic.

Furthermore, the discovery that [[Dracothion]] was just one of many "[[Godbeast|Godbeasts]]" has all but torpedoed this theory. The other [[Godbeast|Godbeasts]] that have been described are explicitly said to be mortal (and several of them were killed by [[Sigmar]] in the [[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar#Age of Myth|Age of Myth]]) and vulnerable to being corrupted by Chaos- both of which are known to be untrue for the [[C'tan]]. Additionally, out of all the [[Godbeast|Godbeasts]] only [[Dracothion]] is clearly shown to be sentient- the rest of them seem to be little more than extremely powerful monsters, but this may just be due to our lack of background information on them.

=== 40k goes through the same cycles as fantasy, but internally===

Stop me if You've heard this before. [[Sigmar| There was an human]] [[God-Emperor of Mankind|ruler who would be worshiped as a god]], who created a [[Imperium of Man|mighty]] [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|empire]], but then the ruler was [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Sigmar#Abdication trapped]/[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/File:God-Emperor_Goldlich.jpg crippled by chaos]. Without the ruler the man's empire had good times, and bad times, but slowly slide backwards into darkness. Then there is [[The End Times|a big battle]] [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Cadia#The_Fall_of_Cadia with chaos], the empire loses, a planet is destroyed and [[Great Rift|chaos]] [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer:_Age_of_Sigmar#The_Age_of_Chaos spreads]. To fight Chaos a [[Sigmar|great]] [[Roboute Guilliman|hero]] thought gone returns, and creates a [[Primaris Marines| new type]] of [[Stormcast Eternals|soldier]] to fight Chaos as he leads the nation back to it's former glory.

As George Lucas said: ''"It's like poetry... It rhymes."'' The plot points and exact details are hardly 1:1 but they do rhyme at least. 40k definitely experiences cycles similar to fantasy, in fact if one looks closely enough one could probably postulate that the rise of the Emperor himself marks the closing of one cycle, the [[Dark Age of Technology]] and the start of cycle/age of the Imperium which spans from [[Great Crusade|M31]]-[[Age of the Dark Imperium|M42]]. In M42 though Guilliman rise marks the close of the Imperial cycle and the start of a new one. The only difference is with so many more planets, they can afford to have a few ([[grimdark|hundred]]) blown up or lost to mark the change from one cycle to the next without the galaxy going suffering from a divide by zero function.

The [[Horus Heresy]] novels ''Vengeful Spirit'' and ''Wolfsbane'' seem to have the Warp run on Fantasy rules, with Big E and Horus going to Age of Sigmar-style mortal realms that just seem to exist in the Warp alongside the realms of Chaos. Both built an army of mortal followers before discarding them under unknown contexts.

However considering Slaanesh was born in 40k (while in Fantasy it merely...existed) this could indicate the 40k universe to be the first in the cycle (or at least precede Fantasy and AoS) or Fantasy/AoS takes place sometime after the birth of Slaanesh in some corner of the Warp. Alternatively, 40k which is stated to take place in our far future is separate to the Fantasy/AoS universe but connected by the Warp.

Rise of Ynnari sort of retcons the War in Heaven to make it closer to the Coming of Chaos in Fantasy. Chaos Daemons were a huge threat during that conflict forcing the Eldar Empire to ally with certain Necron Dynasties just to fight back (definitely not permanently though).

The Parallels between the Vortex and the Pylons become more apparent after the Great Rift. Also the birth of Slaanesh is only relevant to the material world as time is essentially nothing to the Chaos Realm, applying the existence of Slaanesh retroactively.

If the connected by the Warp assumption is correct, the Old Ones presumably used Mallus, formed by the survivors of the Proto-Cycle who ascended to godhood, as a testing ground for anti-Chaos measures and were forced to abandon it during the War in Heaven while the Slann and the survivors were left alone. They held out until the End Times and Dracothion rebuilt the realms in such a way that Chaos cannot permanently kill them, while the Slann and the Mallus survivors who ascended to godhood can at least guarantee an eternal stalemate like with 40k, giving the Chaos Gods permanent sustenance in an extremely fucked up symbiosis of mutual eternal survival, [[Grimdark|while the mortals suffer]].
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]