Psychic Awakening

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The Psychic Awakening is the name of an event in the Warhammer 40k timeline, taking place during the Age of the Dark Imperium. The Galaxy, split asunder by the Great Rift, sees basically every faction in the galaxy affected in some way, either by a sudden influx of newer, powerful psykers, or by political and cultural changes as the events of the Age of the Dark Imperium causes shakeups in the status quo.

Yes, that's right, GW seems to be Advancing the Storyline, with Psychic Awakening following a similar narrative event that occurred earlier in 2019, the War of Beasts (aka Vigilus Defiant / Vigilus Ablaze).

There are rumors that Psychic Awakening will be followed -- or will be released alongside -- a new "8.5 edition" with the main rulebook being updated, as it is over two and a half years old now. (Confirmed!) In addition, there are rumors of "Codex 2.0" releases, with this being propped up perhaps in part by the Space Marines codex refresh that launched right around the time that Psychic Awakening was announced as well as the Chaos Space Marines codex released around the same time as Vigilus Ablaze. Each book effectively gives rules update to each of the factions featured in it, for example Tyranids being given the "build your own hive fleet" rules that the Space Marine successor chapters had. Codex 2.0 compiling these updates is likely.

Regardless of "8.5" or "Codex 2.0," GW has confirmed that there will be new rules for each existing faction, with "Each psychic Awakening expansion [focusing] on a different war zone," with each book having fluff and rules updates "for at least 2 factions." This suggests at least one of the books has only two factions, and with GW considering, say, Dark Angels and Blood Angels to be two different Factions, we could see upwards of 11 books out of this. GW has further clarified at Open Day 2019 that the general plan is to add one "reborn, reimagined, (or) brand-new" character for each book (or faction), which they have generally stuck to so far.

This style of narrative updates and a somewhat stable core set of rules with updating codexes would put 40k roughly similar to the model that GW is using for AoS, for good and bad. (Mostly good.)

Psychic Awakening will be followed up with 9th edition, alongside the "Dawn of Fire," a new novel series by Black Library and Citadel that is intended to release alongside, and tie together, the plot threads from the various boxed sets, campaign books, and codexes going forward. This is similar to how MTG handles their fluff, for good and bad. (PA books, alongside the codexes, are apparently compatible, meaning this is closer to an "8.5e" than a true 9th edition.)

Factions

The updated Race Icons sheet lists 24 factions. As of Saga of the Beasts' release (Mar 2020), 14 factions have seen PA updates, with 6 having known upcoming PA books (War of the Spider / Engine War), and 4 factions remaining for new books -- The Harlequins, Deathwatch, Necrons, Death Guard, Sisters of Battle, and Talons of the Emperor. But then War of the Spider seems to be breaking the rules a bit, announced to include Death Guard, Talons of the Emperor, Imperial Assassins and a Fabius Bile themed subfaction for chaos marines meaning it's added a faction that didn't appear among the original 24 and has included a faction which has already received extra rules in a previous book. GW have now dropped that Sisters of Battle and Necrons will be the topic of the book 'Pariah' whereas Harlequins and Deathwatch will have rules released in a White Dwarf issue.

• Space Marines (Faith and Fury)
• Chaos Space Marines (Mostly Faith and Fury with one Fabius Bile themed subfaction, 'Agents of Bile' in War of the Spider)
• Eldar (Phoenix Rising)
• Dark Eldar (Phoenix Rising)
• Harlequins (White Dwarf)
• Deathwatch (White Dwarf)
• Grey Knights (Ritual of the Damned)
• Talons of the Emperor (Confirmed to not just be Custodes -- Sisters of Silence are back! ) (War of the Spider)
• Thousand Sons (Ritual of the Damned)
• Death Guard (War of the Spider)
• Genestealer Cults (The Greater Good)
• Imperial Guard (The Greater Good)
• Imperial Knights (Engine War)
• Chaos Knights (Engine War)
• Orks (Saga of the Beast)
• Necrons (Pariah)
• Tau (The Greater Good)
• Chaos Daemons (Engine War)
• AdMech (Engine War)
• Blood Angels (Blood of Baal)
• Sisters of Battle (Pariah)
• Tyranids (Blood of Baal)
• Space Wolves (Saga of the Beast)
• Dark Angels (Ritual of the Damned)

Factions that were not in the official image but were nonetheless added:

• Imperial Guard: 'Militarum Tempestus' (The Greater Good)
• Chaos Space Marines: 'Agents of Bile' (War of the Spider)
• Officio Assassinorum (War of the Spider)

Phoenix Rising

The Aeldari are a psychically sensitive race, and the fragile balance between these disparate cultures has been disturbed by the Psychic Awakening. These factions have become embroiled in a full-scale internecine war for the future of their people.

Phoenix Rising is the first event listed as part of the Psychic Awakening and focuses on how the Great Rift has made things harder for the Aeldari -- the Asuryani, the Drukhari, the Harlequins, and the Ynnari. Among other events, we have Drazhar deciding that a Phoenix Lord's head would look good in his trophy room and settling on Jain Zar to be the lucky donor, but the main focus is on the Ynnari, as Slaanesh moves to thwart their attempts to awaken the God of the Dead. Yvraine learns that the final Cronesword is in Slaanesh's clutches and just barely survives a confrontation with the Keeper of Secrets Shalaxi Helbane - only to learn that the daemon was holding back just to fuck with her. In terms of crunch, the book includes some campaign missions, new "Successor Chapter"-like rules that let you piecemeal together new properties for custom Craftworlds, Kabals, Wych Cults, and Covens, new Exarch Powers for Craftworld aspect warriors and lastly a reprinting of the Ynnari rules first published through White Dwarf.

The accompanying Box Set Blood of the Phoenix provides new Plastic Howling Banshees, including both masked and unmasked variants depending on if you want them to represent the Ynnari, "for they walk a very different path to their Craftworld cousins". Jain Zar also takes the stage as the first Phoenix Lord to get a new plastic kit. New Drukhari models and rules in the form of the Incubi along with Drazhar accompany their Craftworld cousins, though they don't seem to have any new wargear or rules for the Klaivex. Also included with the set are a Vyper, some Hellions and Scourges, as well as two transports: A Falcon and a Venom.

Faith & Fury

The Sisters of Battle and Astra Militarum – bolstered by a massive strike force of Adeptus Astartes led by the Black Templars – stand firm in their creed to defend Humanity, at any cost...

As part of GW's reminder that Sisters of Battle exist, Faith and Fury sees Kor Phaeron of the Word Bearers, alongside members of 5 other Chaos Space Marine legions, attacking the Talledus system, a region of great importance to the Ecclesiarchy on account of its ties to Sebastian Thor. Defending Talledus is the Sisters of Battle, the Black Templars, the Salamanders, the White Scars, and the Imperial Guard, although this is not the Imperial Guard's book.

Content includes updates for the Black Templars (who were not included in the Imperial Fists Supplement of the 8.5 Marines Codex), "Chapter Litanies" and updates to Space Marine "Heroes" (such as Chaplains or Librarians) allowing them to take new relics and warlord traits with the use of a specific Stratagem, as well as updated rules for the Word Bearers, Night Lords, Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors, Emperor's Children, and World Eaters. New model releases include a new Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer.

What is notably absent are PA rules for the Sisters of Battle, which GW has confirmed will still be getting in the future, presumably this means that Faith and Fury is not, in fact, the SoB PA book after all.

Fluff updates include the Word Bearers trying to corrupt Imperial Cults only to see the Great Rift's energies causing weird shit like Flocks of Golden Eagles or Pillars of Golden Flame to appear, which restore faith in the Emperor when they're seen -- basically, Chaos no longer has a monopoly on warp fuckery, pious Imperials can do it too, now. This culminates during the battle of Talledus when "golden faced spirits" are summoned out of the Sisters of Battles tombs, creating a shield that instantly burns any demon that touches it to ash while also repairing the walls of the immaterium (de-Chaosifying the area, like a Blank) and generally screwing Kor Phaeron over, leaving him looking stupid and calling for reinforcements.

This is further expanded upon in a collector's edition exclusive chapter that covers the Alpha legion turning an entire planet of normal humans instantly into Psykers, except their faith causes them to summon the aforementioned "good warp stuff" like flocks of golden eagles and the like, as well as the Emperor Angelic, a psychic manifestation of the Emperor that promptly fucks the Alpha Legion up. The psykers on the planet are also turned into Emperor-empowered super-psykers called the "Humble Saints" which can nuke the Alpha Legion's psykers and daemons with a wave of their fingers. But because it's still Grimdark, the Iron Hands demand these new psychic superhumans be purged and call in the Sisters of Silence and Inquisition to do so when the Sisters of Battle refuse to let them.

tl;dr: The Word Bearers discover that Imperial Faith is now summoning their own warp entities -- Golden Eagles, Pillars of Golden Flame, Golden Faced Saints, and a psychic manifestation of the Emperor himself. The Alpha Legion has a way to turn normal humans into Psykers en mass, except Chaos no longer has a monopoly on psykers.

Blood of Baal

In these dark and desperate times, far from the guiding light of the Astronomican, only heroes such as Commander Dante, Mephiston and Gabriel Seth of the Flesh Tearers were able to hold the defenders of Baal together.

Blood Angels vs. Tyranids, Round 2 Biomass Boogaloo. Hive Fleet Leviathan may have been sent reeling with the Great Rift's opening, but they still held a great many key locations that the sons of Sanguinius needed. Even more troubling is that there are an increasing number of psykers appearing within the local region, (uncollected thanks to the Black Ships vanishing) and their interaction with the Shadow in the Warp is triggering strange psychic phenomena that appear to be strengthening the Tyranids. Dante and (now Primaris) Mephiston lead the chapter to the funeral world of Kheru to oust the nids from there before they eat up everything, Seth and his chapter go to the industrial world of Ashallon and get reamed until they slay the psychic beacon on the planet.

Rules-wise, this granted the Blood Angels the tools that the 8.5 Marine codex has, making them even more of a chapter of walking blenders, with the Flesh Tearers gaining a few tools as well. The Tyranids, on the other hand, get to ride the "Custom Hive Fleet Rules" train that proved wildly popular elsewhere alongside a bundle of other rules to keep up with everyone else and a new "Adaptive Physiology" ability that lets them add a Warlord Trait equivalent to a generic infantry squad or monster. Model-wise, a new Primaris Mephiston accompanies this release.

Ritual of the Damned

From the boiling bowels of the warp, the Planet of Sorcerers has vomited forth into realspace. [...] Magnus the Red, Sorcerer King of Prospero, seeks to bring about the ruination of Mankind. [...] We must halt this ritual of the damned.

Thousand Sons, Dark Angels, and Grey Knights. Magnus is back from his trip to the Webway, and he's gathering tons of psykers for a ritual to rapidly accelerate the rate at which humans are becoming psychic. Thereby giving the event title Psychic Awakening some direct meaning. Thus, Dark Angels and Grey Knights are sent to foil the ritual. Ends on an ambiguous note, with the Imperial forces breeching Magnus's psychic disruptions in order to call down Orbital Bombardment, but unable to tell for the time being whether the ritual was halted, stunted, or potentially completed. And in the meantime the survivors have their hands full: the Thousand Sons' attacks on the Imperium have grown even more intense. The action takes place around Sortiarius, with the trailer showing a massive Imperial fleet going towards the Planet of Sorcerers. This time, the new model is Master Lazarus - previously a Dark Angels Sergeant, he's been promoted to Captain of the 5th Company and undergone the Rubicon Primaris after the events of Wrath of Magnus, incidentally making him the first Primaris to become part of the Inner Circle.

Rules-wise, this book grants the Dark Angels the new shiny Primaris toys from the 8.5 Edition Space Marine Codex, as well as rules for the Deathwing and Ravenwing, while the Grey Knights gain a new ability - Masters of the Warp - if they take a dedicated army of Grey Knights. Will this see the Grey Knights actually fixed? Unlikely, but faith in the Emperor is it's own reward. As for the Thousand Sons, they can now dedicate their army towards one of nine Cults of the Legion in a move reminiscent of their Horus Heresy equivalent.

The Greater Good

This is O’Shaserra speaking. I hope this message arrives in time for you to be warned. In time for you to act.

The Tau, facing the wormhole they accidentally created in the Fourth Sphere Expansion alongside the human-hating, xenophobic Fourth Sphere remnants, continue to expand into the Chalnath Expanse. It isn't long until the Fifth Sphere's expansion is interrupted by reports of something they weren't aware of -- corrupted, mutated Gue’ron’sha swarming the Startide Nexus, beating the Fifth Sphere navy back. Calling themselves the Death Guard, the Tau have no idea what they are facing, although they're learning very quickly indeed. The Death Guard nearly push through the Startide Nexus but suddenly retreat just as their victory seems certain, leaving the Tau panicked about their potential return and confused about what their goals really were.

At the same time, Grezum, a planet the Tau are infiltrating with their Greater Good indoctrination, has a Genestealer cult called the Mindchord rebelling at the same time. And let's not forget the Imperial Guard trying to fend off both the Tau and the Genestealers and trying to desperately keep the region under control.

Part of the fun of the fluff released so far is the Tau's complete cluelessness about the danger that this strange "Nurg'hel" creature and his Gue’ron’sha army represent; lets also not forget that the Tau have intentionally infested one of their own worlds with a Genestealer Cult infestation to see what would happen, which may have infected an Ethereal. The new model this time around is Commander Shadowsun, equipped with a newer variant of her battlesuit.

But none of that really matters. Instead, the book focuses on the conflict around the Chalnath Expanse, a region that was already in bad shape even before the Tau arrived due to all manner of Xenos invaders - from Ork Freebooters to Tyranid Hive Fleet elements raiding the system. The Genestealer Cults in the region begin their uprising at about the same time, due to the increased numbers of Psykers being born being seen as an expression of displeasure from their Star-Gods. Also, the Tau get to experience the newfangled Imperial miracles from Faith & Fury firsthand, as flying Priests do battle with Tau Battlesuits and summon blinding lights to blind Fire Warriors before carving them up in hand-to-hand combat. Witnessing these same miracles also cause some units of Gue'Vesa to seek repentance by fighting the Tau.

In the end, the system is in a worse state than it started in. The T'au manage to secure a foothold on the system's cardinal world, but Imperial forces continue to fight them relentlessly despite Shadowsun's attempts to break their will. Another planet has it's Genestealer Cult destroyed by Imperial forces, but the Tau are set to invade the planet after the Governor refused to allow the Tau to help them with the Genestealer Cult infestation, and a third and final planet remains in a three way stalemate between the GSC, Tau and Imperial forces.

Rules wise, the Imperial Guard, Tau and Genestealer Cults all received new stratagems, wargear and got to join the custom Guard Regiment/Tau Sept/Cult Creed club. It also included rules for several Militarum Tempestus regiments - including new relics, stratagems and even regimental doctrines for six of the most famous regiments, essentially making them their own faction within a faction.

You might have noticed that despite being featured in their promo material and background lore, the Death Guard are notably absent from the rules since their appearance was limited to a series of space battles and that's not covered by 40k rules. They would later be included in War of the Spider as one of the factions, working against Fabius Bile.

Saga of The Beast

Space Wolves and Orks. The Orks are starting to act with a lot more co-ordination and purpose not seen in many millennia. With Imperial forces stretched fighting the Tau, Tyranids and Chaos, the Space Wolves take it upon themselves to hunt and slay the Warboss of this massive Waaagh!. Ragnar Blackmane is able to decapitate Ghazghkull but is badly wounded himself. Headlessness Bodilessness turns out to be only a minor setback for the Warboss though, as Mad Dok Grotsnik somehow manages to revive him with a new, better body.

The new models this time around are Makari, who apparently got better after being sat on. Oh, and his big green friend too, as well as Ragnar Blackmane, who is now in Primaris flavour following his duel with Ghazghkull.

Engine War

AdMech, Daemons, and both flavors of Knights. Tech-Priest Dominus Kroll and his reclamation fleet have been drawn to Ordex-Thaag by a mysterious signal of unknown origin. Upon arriving there, he finds that the planet - once a vassal Forge World of Mars - has been corrupted by Chaos, and thus he decides the only sensible course of action is to scourge and purge the place. Things may not be as straightforward as they seem however, as Kroll is going to great lengths to protect something called the Varlian Device. Oddly, the loyalist Knights involved appear to be House Terryn, as opposed to a Mechanicum aligned house like House Taranis.

Instead of getting a new character, Engine War has seen fit to gift AdMech players with new units. These include the Serberys Cavalry, cyber-horse riding cowboys promoted from the ranks of the Skitarii Vanguard and Rangers to join either the Serberys Raiders (fast scouts and harassers) or Serberys Sulphurhounds (shock cavalry), the Archaeopter, an ornithopter-like vehicle (with gunner, bomber and transport options), and the Pteraxii, modified Sicarians equipped for flight and armed with Fletchette Carbines (Skystalkers) or Flamers (Sterylizors).

Engine War was originally planned for an April 2020 release, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has shut down, well, everything, including GW. Thanks, Grandfather Nurgle. The Games Workshop webstore has started taking online orders again from 1st May 2020, so it would make sense for Engine War to be released at the end of May and the release schedule simply be pushed a month.

War of the Spider

Talons of the Emperor (Custodes and Sisters of Silence, together in 40K at last!) and the Officio Assassinorum face off against the Death Guard and Fabulous Bill's own horrors, a new Chaos Sub-faction called the Agents of Bile. It's a three-way conflict where the Death Guard and Fabius Bile are also fighting each other, no thanks to Bile stealing a particularly valuable relic of theirs. Turns out that Bile wants to turn the entire Cadian sector into his personal laboratory, and the forces hounding him are his new test subjects... and judging from the preview video for the book, the source of research material.

New rules include finally bringing the Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence together as one faction, the introduction of Bile's new Sub-Faction and rules for the seven Plague Companies of the Death Guard, following in similar footsteps to their cousins from Prospero. Needless to say, Fabius Bile is the one getting a new model this time.

Pariah

Sisters of Battle, Inquisition and Necrons. The models this time are Ephrael Stern, Kyganil, Illuminor Szeras and Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus. It seems likely the Inquisition rules from White Dwarf will feature here along with Draxus' datasheet. Sisters are a featured faction, but despite Kyganil being here, Harlequins are in a White Dwarf rather than the Pariah book.

White Dwarf

The online preview from April 4th confirmed that Deathwatch and Harlequins are getting plopped in White Dwarf. Based on the April 10th Deathwatch Preview, the Deathwatch are getting Combat Doctrines and the other doodads the other Loyalist Chapters got earlier so they're not left behind, except for Vanguard Primaris Marines. The Harlequin characters will be receiving new "Pivotal Role" abilities that function like the Craftworlder's Exarch Powers; they may replace their default abilities for another or use a stratagem to pair a new one with the original. A host of additional stratagems and relics will also be added, but it doesn't seem like they'll be receiving any custom attributes or psychic powers.

Reception

For the most part, the entire Psychic Awakening event has been met with mixed results. In regards to the stories that they each tell within, they, for the most part, come off with the same old "status quo" storytelling that GW used to tell, with there being no clear winner in most books, and no groundbreaking changes for the factions involved within them. (Part of this is because GW has started taking a "no exact dates" policy with the lore; to wit, none of the PA books state any specific date, and current lore is that thanks to the Great Rift endlessly fucking with time there's no way to know for sure when anything happens. It's hinted that PA events happened before/during/after the Indomitus Crusade, depending on the exact book and events.)

As for army updates, while every faction has walked out of it better off then they did going into it, for the most part, there is clear and obvious disparity between who got more love from GW's game designers. Take for example Grey Knights and Genestealer Cults. For the latter, the Grey Knights were effectively brought back from the dead: they received such a boon in terms of buffs and new mechanics that they can now hold their own against most anyone, not just daemons now. Are they competitive? Not really, but they're in a far better place than they were before (excepting the Psi-Bolts Bolter Discipline cheese). Now, as for Genestealer Cults, they ostensibly received the same treatment that other factions got - custom cult abilities, new psychic powers, and stratagems - and yet theirs were of such lower quality that they were practically unusable in comparison to the options found in their main codex. The Dark Eldar fared even worse with no usable custom obsessions, no psychic powers (not that they had any anyways) and no stratagems at all, only receiving a slight tweak to Drazhar's profile and a weapon option for the Klaivex which already existed in the Index. The Deathwatch and Harlequins also got somewhat shafted, since GW decided they weren't worth making an actual book for (or even a single new model between them) and had their respective rules shunted to two separate White Dwarf articles in what legitimately feels like an afterthought addendum.

In regards to new/updated model releases, GW also hasn't exactly been equally considerate of each faction. Outside of Phoenix Rising, Saga of the Beast, Engine War and Pariah, most Psychic Awakenings only released a single new model per entry, most of which are simply updated versions of existing named characters (a welcome change, to be sure, but still a touch lackluster). Thus far, the only faction to actually get anything strictly new is the Adeptus Mechanicus, who will be receiving three kits split into seven brand new units for their army. Contrast this with factions like the Imperial Guard, Tyranids, Genestealers, Death Guard and Thousand Sons who received squat and it's not hard to feel left out (especially Imperial Guard, losing their rough riders to Legends only for the Ad Mech of all factions to suddenly get two cavalry options). Especially when some of these aforementioned factions had mediocre-at-best army updates to begin with.

As of the time of adding this section, Engine War has yet to be released, and so there are still plenty of factions left to get special treatment. Hopefully those factions get worthwhile options, and aren't flops. Worst case scenario, at least they're releasing new rules and models without making us wait for 9e first.