Kinda sounds like Ataturk's speech at Gallipoli, "I am not ordering you to attack today, I am ordering you to die. By the time we die reinforcements and other commanders will have come to take our place."
Also I think Gaunt's Ghost book series (Imperial Guard) would be up your alley. Think Band of Brothers in 40k and Dick Winters in a Commisar Cap with a chainsword.
It's pretty blatantly a take on the Sharpe novels, even right down to copying the gag of having the protagonists hair color be different on the covers and official artwork compared to how it's actually described in the novels themselves.
I think you would greatly enjoy the Gaunts Ghosts series of novels by Dan Abnett. It has a Band of Brothers meets Sharpe feel to it, expertly capturing the esprit de corps of fighting men and making combat in the insane setting of Warhammer 40K feel surprisingly believable and 'real' from the perspective of boots on the ground infantrymen.
Gaunt's Ghosts is definitely on my list now. I'll probably be alternating between Warhammer novels and everything else I want to read for quite a while.
@@feralhistorian Careful - Games Workshop has its own in house publishing arm called Black Library that has been around for decades, and it has published huge numbers of books both for 40K and the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Once you start down that rabbit hole, you may never find your way out again. If you are prepared to brave that risk, and fancy dipping your toe into a pulp series of stories from the fantasy arm of Games Workshop's IP that are huge fun, may I also recommend the Gotrek and Felix novels, starting with Trollslayer by William King? Most of those novels are available as audiobooks on Audible now, voiced by the ever excellent Jonathan Keeble, and pretty much cover the journeys and adventures of the Old World's angriest doom seeking Dwarf and his human Rememberer, who is essentially a chronicler of his quest to find honourable death in battle to expunge a personal shame. The dynamic between the two characters varies from hilarious to at times actually rather poignant. Felix Jaeger may be the most relatable character from fantasy fiction I have ever read, and the older I get the more relatable I find him to be.
@@feralhistorian For a lighter take, the Ciaphas Cain novels are more-or-less Flashman in 40k. All the grimdark is there, of course, but since the story is first person the narrator is rather blase about features of the setting that grate against modern sensibilities.
You've absolutely found the correct metaphorical nail and slammed it home with the eponymous Warhammer: none of Games Workshop's settings, not a single one no matter how dark, is *completely* hopeless. They've made decades-long art of stacking the odds against everyone and refined it to near sublimity, such that no matter which game-world you read about or play, which faction you choose to champion and which characters you find most compelling, they're all fighting for *something worthwhile* against the kind of resistance that makes one despair of victory. But there is always that sliver of hope.
Everything is always on the verge of collapse, but it's always on the edge, and the sacrifice and costly victories of millions every day push Mankind's extinction from tomorrow to the next day. Not completely hopeless, but with not a gram more hope than what's needed to sustain the endless fight.
@@Sara3346 The Skaven just fight because its in their Nature, which could be seen as a reason technically. Theyre Fight is simply about surviving.... By creating horrible abominations. And cracking open the moon apparently.
@@Sara3346 And Tyranids. They literally just want to eat you. Same for Necrons prior to their Wardian retcon: they wanted to feed souls to their gods. Chaos is also pure nihilism on purpose. So yeah, 40k has (or had) at least 3 factions that don't really despair of victory or care about hope. They're the ever-present threats that everyone else has to hope to survive against.
For those looking for more humanity and, yes, a light in the darkness of 40k...I highly endorse Dan Abnett's work, particularly the Gaunt's Ghosts series. He has a knack for making such a silly setting seem real, filled with real people. Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain books are flat out humorous and if you don't mind the wholesale theft of George MacDonald Fraser's 'Flashman' reskinned, they're good too.
Cai Cai Caiaphas Cain hero of the Imperi-UM. And Jurgen. Love the books and think they are better than Gaunts Ghosts , in that they have characters that act more realisticly in situations as a person would. They are fantastically over the top in a boys own style of way too. Sort of black adder in 40K.
"In ancient times, men built wonders, laid claim to the stars and sought to better themselves for the good of all. But we are much wiser now." Archmagos Ultima Cryol - "Speculations On Pre-Imperial History"
The irony and satire are still there, though its been covered over a bit through the years. One of my favorites is that in the end, humanity turned the Emperor into a Servitor. A cyborg zombie tasked with a function, regardless of the underlying subject's pain. Servitors are everywhere in the imperium, people broken down into nothing but tools. So of course, that is what the creator of the Imperium was transformed into. It's a beautiful kind of irony, and a statement about how bureaucracy so often ends up consuming its own purpose.
No, not really. The Emperor is both conscious and chose/endures the eternal torture of the Golden Throne willingly for the sake of Mankind's ultimate salvation from Chaos. It's much more reflective of Christian thematic imagery (something 40K tends to do quite blatantly at times) than anything else.
@@CanadianPaleIf anything the servitors are a reflection of the GE's willingness to suffer tens of thousands of years holding the Imperium together, as the sentencing of servitude is one granted to "make amends" for ones wrong doings. Except its not a choice for the common criminal, heretic or political dissident
@@Dogman262 common criminals don't become servitors. It's normally only used as a punishment for really severe (i. e. _dangerous_ ) acts of tech-heresy, so the comparison falls apart again there.
Thanks for the upload. My own, meandering thoughts on 40K are broadly similar, and often in conflict with the more nihilistic perspectives prevalent in some quarters (Reddit in particular seems to be a hotbed of such), so it's heartening to see a more optimistic take on the universe discussed at length here for public edification. That said, there are a couple of quibbles I have with some of the points presented: First is the idea that the Imperium are not "the good guys," which I've always found curious. From our perspective here in the comparatively cozy 2nd Millennium, the Imperium of course appears horrifying, but while it may be "the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable," it's ultimately cruel to be kind, so to speak. Everything the Imperium does is dictated by the singular, all-consuming goal of preserving Mankind's existence in a universe stuffed to bursting with genocidal alien monsters and daemons thirsting for human souls, a universe where "we had to destroy the village to save it" is not Orwellian doublethink but a bald statement of fact that could mean the difference between a few souls being prematurely sent to the Emperor's Realm and the loss of an entire planet inhabited by billions (a recent Warhammer + animated short had a nice take on this in the context of a Genstealer cult and a Tyranid invasion). Second is the degree of corruption in the Imperium. While we definitely see corrupt officials in the fluff (and Imperial bureaucratic shenanigans _are_ often darkly humorous), I'm not convinced that the Imperium (as distinct from its constituent planetary governments) is _especially_ corrupt by any reasonable standard for a more-or-less feudal polity that has ruled over millions of planets for the better part of 10,000 years. Obviously, the system works, in-universe, and is robust enough to have kept working for almost 10 millennia, though it is true that the Administratum is inefficient. That, however, is in large part because it was designed to be so; after the Horus Heresy, and then again, after the reign of Goge Vandire, the apparatus of government was redesigned with the goal of making it as difficult as possible for a single person to quickly exercise absolute and unimpeded power throughout the Imperium. But again, thank you for articulating your thoughts on the oft-overlooked or downplayed optimism of 40K, the slender thread which, as you note, serves to strengthen the universe as a whole. Whether it be Space Marine Ragnar Blackmane getting snapped out of a Chaos-induced stupor by some indescribable force of goodness radiating directly from Holy Terra, Euphrati Keeler banishing daemons in the name of the Emperor, slain Imperial Guardsmen reuniting with their comrades in the afterlife, or the Primarchs gradually returning, in the grim darkness of the far future, there is still hope.
There have been occasional hiccups in those 10,000 years though, like the Age of Apostasy, but yeah, broadly speaking the Imperium keeps trucking on, bumps in the road not withstanding.
I have to broadly agree. If the Imperium was as overwhelmingly incompetent as it’s often suggested by parts of the fan base, it would have collapsed millennia ago. Aldo Reddit being nihilistic is a major reason I don’t go there except for answers to technical questions. Place is a self-indulgent dumpster fire.
In the original lore the empire was in crisis entirely due to its own incompetence. One of the major issues when discussing 40k is that it has changed so much with time and everyone on boarded with different ideas of what it was all about.
@@CarrotConsumer _In the original lore the empire was in crisis entirely due to its own incompetence._ I'm in the process of reading through the very first 40K sourcebook (i.e. _Rogue Trader_ from 1987) and I don't believe I've come across any such statement with regard to the Imperium. _One of the major issues when discussing 40k is that it has changed so much with time..._ I'm not sure it actually has, all that much. Not after 1st Edition, anyway. _everyone on boarded with different ideas of what it was all about._ I blame "If The Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device" and the weird tendency of certain people to recommend it as a sort of 40K primer for the uninitiated.
On the subject of humanity's psychic evolution, there's a moment in the audio drama "Agent of the Throne: Truth and Dreams", which discusses this, although from a far more pessimistic point of view than the way you've described it. Our narrator is an Inquisitorial agent named Ianthe, and one of her duties is to track down rogue psykers. The line goes something like this: "Humanity is dead. The trigger's already been pulled, bullet coming down the barrel. It won't be the xenos. It won't even be the foul traitors. It'll be us." What Ianthe means by this is that even relatively weak psykers are hellishly difficult to track down and control, and can cause cataclysmic amounts of damage if allowed to operate unchecked. She can see enough of the big picture to recognise that there's more of them every year, that humanity's psychic evolution is likely to be its destruction. There's something bleakly poetic in that: that, despite a galaxy of horrors, we are our own worst enemy.
I'd recommend checking out the Ciaphas Cain books for some good humor in the setting, as well as the lore of the Salamanders for one of the best examples of the 'good guys' of the setting. Isyander and Coda have some great lore videos on 40K as well that really does work for the layman just getting into the series.
As an outsider, the "Space Marine controversy" was very entertaining to watch. My familiarity, such as it is, with WH40K is solely what I've picked up from subcultural osmosis; even so, I know that the setting is intentionally, explicitly made to be as horrific as the writers can imagine. So I find it hilarious that anyone would want to "see themselves" in _that._
The whole controversy is, excuse my French, ret*rded af. Space Marines are not just super soldiers, they´re basically "warrior monks". And there are also "warrior nuns" in 40k, the Adepta Sororitas or "Sisters of Battle". They lack the genetic/cybernetic enhancements of the Astartes, but this is balanced out by their faith in the Emperor being so strong, that it enables them to perform superhuman feats. One could argue, that the Sororitas are even more "badass" than the Astartes, because they manage to go out and successfully fight all kinds of horrible Chaos Daemons, Traitor Marines, Xenos and heretics, WITHOUT having all genetic/cybernetic crap showed into their bodies. You want to "identify" with a faction? Well, 40k gives you plenty of options to choose. But that´s not what this is all about. This is just more cultural marxist BS, as we have seen it in various other hobbies and entertainment.
@doublep1980 but, the question is, why do you care so much? how many models you own? how many rulebooks? if youve been playing for a long time, you know that the game never took itself as seriously as you are now... another thing, nothing is canon. every rulebook has retconned and changed loads of stuff. so again, the question is,, right noq, why do you care? why does it actually matter, if there can be female space marines? there are plenty of other brotherhoods and groups in 40k that _arnt_ space marines, still totally emasculated. yet only one female centered one... why cant there be some more stuff thats slightly more female oriented?
@@Rexini_Kobalt no, the question is why you think mere growth is a greater good than preserving the integrity of the lore. You're expressing the values of a cancer LOL. 😏
The quote about growing numbers of Psyker and mankind just needing to hold on through these growing pains also reminds me if a line used for "Darkhammer" a 40K fanmade variant that skews a little more towards hopeful. "The night is long and full of horrors, but the dawn is coming and it will be glorious. All we need do is survive."
Outside the more rigid tournament scene end of the 40K hobby, Game Workshop have repeatedly stated that the rules in more casual games should be treated as simply a broad framework, a general guide that you can modify and tweak in whatever way you like as you work with your opponent to set up the sort of enjoyable, memorable game you both want. If you fancy a last stand against the odds, a fighting retreat, a death or glory charge, holding the line until reinforcements arrive, or any other sort of game scenario, then it can be done simply by modifying the missions already in the rulebook a bit or by agreeing with your opponent ahead of time how you want to arrange things.
@@seand.g423 I don't see how any controlling tendencies of GW could apply to casual games. You can modify the rules any way you want to have the game you choose to have with your opponent. It is not as though GW's secret police are going to kick down your door at three in the morning and drag you off to slave in the Forgeworld resin mines for the crime of using house rules in a casual game between friends...
Cool video as always! I was kind of hoping you'd cover this sooner or later, since it seems to be in your wheel house! Personally, I got turned off of 40K years ago when I attended a gaming convention and saw two grown men in 45 minute screaming match over who was in possession of a square inch. All the miniatures looked cool. But further got turned off by all the painting and expense involved. Oh, and not to mention all the rules and books you need to read. So I guess it boils down to Money, time, and patience which are all finite resources that I can't manage for shit! Oh well... At least the art is cool!
Yeah, some people take their gaming way too seriously and 40K makes it really easy to find things to argue about. Just recently I ran a small experimental game, using roughly 40K rules but I DMed it like a D&D campaign. There was a story to the mission, the objectives where actually things that made sense rather than arbitrary markers, and periodic "intel updates" that moved the story along. It was really bare-bones but I would absolutely do it again.
@@feralhistorian I mean that is where Warhammer came from. GW originally were the European reseller for D&D and when they wrote Rogue Trader, it was heavily influenced by D&D and It required three people to play properly... the two opponents and a GM to set the game up and its rules.
@feralhistorian There are warhammer rpgs, I have gmed dark heresy and played in a few others. They're quite fun, but the rules are crunchy. I've heard that newer ones are simplified like dnd 5ed, but haven't played them. The ones I played have hilariously lurid descriptions of how the enemy dies in the critical effects chart for different damage types.
3rd Ed Rulebook had some great quotes. "An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded." "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment"
As a BIG fan of 40k I love your peel back of the veil in how you describe the world of Warhammer. And your deeper look into why people within the world keep going without giving up.
Yeah, I'm not a player of WH40K as it doesn't scratch my itch, though I like what I think the original inspiration was Nemesis the Warlock from 2000AD. OTOH the Ciaphas Cain books by Sandy Mitchell are a homage to the Flashman series.
Warhammer 40k is ultimately a story about Hope. Mankind survived the Cybernetic Revolt and Old Night. It's currently fighting off multiple extinction level events. Though trillions may die... The species will survive.
Happy reading! The books by Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Graham McNeill, Chris Wraight, are all good stuff. Of course there are lots more other Warhammer writers worth checking out...
"Warhammer 40k: Darktide" is what you're looking for. Its a horde shooter (with a fantastic melee and ranged system). As such, it is replete with last stands against unending hordes. My teams of four have routinely killed 900-2,500 Nurlge-worshipping heretics in a ~20 minute round. Pretty easy to get into if you have played a shooter before. Tip: Teamplay is overpowered. If you're getting overwhelmed, work as a team.
As a German I appreciate and thank you for comparison. And I like to mention a lot of our production and research facilities were captured and relocated by allied forces ( especially the russian sector )and that certain transatlantic nations still use our country as staging ground. As for the britsh coloration of the Universe . In many ways the Brits are more similiar to us than the US.
Good analysis, enjoyed. I was once invited to play in a 40k Black Crusade tabletop RPG group. I didn't quite like the idea of working for chaos, but I liked the group, so I thought something up. I didn't want to fall into any of the memes, 'blood for the blood god' or whatnot, I'm generally trying to find some believable human emotion to sit down and channel at an RPG session. So I settled on, paradoxically, a very faithful, Emperor-loving, noble soul. ... who happened to be a psyker. Immediately picked up by the black ships to be carted off to the golden throne to be sacrificed. That too would be fine, for to die for the Emperor is a noble end, but... Then my character was radicalized by a thought, "Hey, the Emperor is a psyker too. Why does the Ecclesiarchy hate us so? Are the high lords running the show simply corrupt, jealous cretins trying to cling to power by holding back the evolution of man to a more perfect existence, like that of our god-emperor?" The answers seemed obvious, when one discarded the complexities and the dangers of untrained psionics. So my character escaped, firmly believing the Imperium as a whole to be corrupt, his cult holding humanity hostage in an attempt to hold back the inevitable. To hold back... change. That was compelling. That was enough to get me on board with embracing Tzeentch and trying to free my fellow persecuted brothers and sisters. Listening to your conclusion, I couldn't help but think on it again.
We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are--- One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Seeing 40K as the subject of one of your videos is quite the gift you give us. Not to pile onto your reading list, but Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden does a fantastic job of conveying how dissimilar Astartes psychology is to baseline humans, and also that theme of fighting tooth and nail despite already knowing the outcome " 'Hero of Helsreach!' the crowd cheers. As if there is only one."
As a practicing tax attorney, I disagree with his quip that the 40K rules are the bastard son of the tax code. 40K's rules and lore are far, far more complex.
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That’s because you haven’t heard about the Brazilian tax system
This is probably the best explanation of W40K that I've ever heard. Though I'm not a gamer - the rules for this game in particular would make the Federal Income Tax Codes look straightforward in comparison - I am a model builder, and I've built some Games Workshop kits as a 'break' from yet another Panzer IV or P-51. I find them to be highly detailed, with numerous options provided. The only real drawback is the price of these bespoke kits. About a year ago, I picked up a Rogal Dorn tank to be modified as the basis for a Draka Hond. That idea was abandoned when I saw your own - and much better - interpretation of S. M. Stirling's creation. Thanks for doing the research to make this for us! 775th Like.
Male-strom More seriously, most any books by Abnett, Dembski-Bowden, and French are interesting stories in the setting with interesting takes on how it all works. Keep these up, so well done!
it would be really cool if you looked at the Mechanicum of Mars specifically. Also the Ciaphas Cain series would be a good read, it's actually a bit more light hearted, but that grimdarkness of the setting always feels like it's hovering just out of sight in the background, it's still there, but the curtain of humanity hides it.
If you can find the time, you should read through the original 1st Edition Rogue Trader manual. Maybe skip the game rules since they're irrelevant now anyway, though they do resemble your D&D experimental hybrid game in practice since the game was a lot smaller scale back then. Anyway, the setting used to be a lot more on the nose and satirical. It also shares heavy influence from Judge Dredd since GW had the license to produce the miniatures game and John Wagner worked on Warhammer Fantasy for awhile. Most of its been retconned but it explains a lot about how the modern grimdark 40k is often so silly at times.
Im not from the US but I would more than welcome a duel of wits against you on a Warhammer table, it would inspire such an interesting exchange of ideas, I would love it, amazing video, take care.
This is awesome. I have to agree - mostly; I've not finished the video, but felt the need to comment. The astarte battlecry: "I shall know no fear;" and the ponderance: "Is it better to live for yourself, or die for The Emperor?" both made me question how 40k is perceived. I feel like these, alone, show a positive, empowering piece of media. It's wholly better "to die for The Emperor" - as in: it's better to die for something greater, to do as Bukowski said: "Find what you love and let it kill you." This is, of course, versus the former half: "to live for yourself", to be a selfish, entitled jagweed who never gives back to society. I see the latter implying it's a much more fulfilling life to be invested in your community. Great video, definitely subbing and looking forward to the next essay.
I hope that the next time you talk about warhammer 40k, you might consider talking about the realm of Ultramar, "The empire within an empire". I know some people might role their eyes given its connection to the poster boys of the setting, the Ultramarines, but i can't help but wonder if its very existence has something deeper to say about the larger story of this GrimDark setting. This last bastion of light in a galaxy of darkness, fighting not just to survive but trying to keep the foundings principles of the original dream of the Imperium alive, hoping the embers of hope from its core may one day spread a fire to the rest of the Imperium if they just hold on long enough.
"Somehow the slenderness of that thread makes it feel that much stronger." Though it has in no way been made greater, a candle shines brightest in complete darkness. Edit: If you want to just have fun, play against an Ork player. The Orks are the essence of "Random bullshit GO!" and there's no such thing as a salty Ork player.
It's the resonance of human history that made me develope an obsession with the 40K univerese lore only a few years ago. If you read history and refelct upon the the patterns of war, rise, war, fall and some war during and between all of that, you can easily see what kind of gestalt of mostly western history trauma the grand narrative of 40K is processing. I think the indoeuropean perspective on the human condition especially is one of constant, inavoidable war due to the nature of mens chaotic primodial demons.
If you want a good book from the perspective of one of the alien species of the franchise, one of the highest regarded books is "The Infinite and The Divine". Of note, one of the titular characters, Trazyn the Infinite, is a Necron Historian/Museum Curator. Admittedly, one that takes a more collector approach than that of on-site preservation.
I've not played 40K since 3rd ed back in the 90s, but I still check in on the lore from time to time. I do think that the publisher has, over the last couple editions, been trying to slowly move away from "the Imperium is an awful place, there are no good guys, everyone sucks" to something with a more identifiable and sympathetic protagonist faction. Your quote fits into that trend, in my opinion. Still, the comparison to 1944/45 Germany is thought-provoking, in a good way. My formal history training is only a BA, but my 400 level coursers were split pretty evenly between Canadian Indigenious history and WW2 from an Axis perspective. (I even had the chance to study the rise of Mussolini and big-F Fascism *in* Italy, taught by an Italian.) So I've got a lot of context for that time period - well, as much as any Gen-Y sixth-generation Canadian can. Anyway, I've got thoughts tumbling through my head now, which is surely the goal of any video doing a historical/philsophical analysis of 40K.
A fun aside, Ultramar also has a beacon that can pierce the warp and provide guidance. A delightful setup for civil war if GW gets over it's current fascination with culture bombing the lore and decides to be serious about the narrative again. Excellent video! o7
The part about Germany reminds me of some old germans telling me about what they did during ww2...bombed cities reduced to dust, random air raids and running into forest for cover, burning corpse at the crossroad, kids serving in militia being engaged in actual combat. Just recently not far from where i work they found the airbomb while digging at some construction site which meant those disaster allerts to phones and evacuation of the small town. I did ask about you know what, but they didn't tell me much and i cant tell if thats intentional.
What’s funny and no one ever mentions it too much or thinks about it is they sacrifice people to him to keep his energy alive. Psykers are taken in the black ships to be sacrificed to him. This keeps his psychic energy alive.
The Imperium doesn't actually like psykers. If they cannot become sanctioned and cannot be shipped to Terra, they are delt with. As for Space Marines, a good number of loyalist factions have end time legends. 2 of these have come true so far.
Black stands out against a light backdrop, so does light against darkness. Grimdark is best when it highlights the little moments of common humanity, which no tragedy can undo. The act may be forgotten, but it still happened.
I have always thought that the Orcs aren’t “good” but more innocent. They don’t understand why humans scream when being torn apart. They need to fight to grow and even reproduce. They were built for war. Built to be a near perfect living weapon.
I have been a fan since the 1st edition Rogue Trader in the late 80’s. I too think that for all the darkness and suffering, people at least have a clear purpose: humanity’s survival. Not that most of them would know anything about chaos, so for them there is no purpose as far as they know. I once interviewed Rick Priestly and he said that 40K is in large parts based on his own experience on living in the decayin ruins of once great empire (UK). That WW2 reference of your… it was a fight for survival for the Soviets too. And the Poles. And us Finns. And many more. In that example though the evil (chaos) was defeated.
Hope you found some stuff you like, and honestly- the modeling and stuff is the best part for me. Game is just a formality so I don't have 'toys', have wargame models.
I do feel the Germany allegory could’ve been worded a tiny bit better, but as a long time 40k fan i never even knew about that passage and it’s given me a bit of a different perspective on the whole thing
I want to see you do a video on the Tau and their ideology. They originally appealed to me because they are supposed to be the “good guys” ideologically but are actually pretty evil and creepy in my opinion .
I had never read or looked into Warhammer, but a recent space opera short story I wrote was compared to it. So I started looking into it a little and it seems to borrow extensively from SFs back catalogue and history, and with great results.
I highly recommend the Night Lords trilogy of books by Aaron Dembsky Bowden, I really think it takes everything great about the 40k universe and turns it to 11. And it's beautifully written.
@@feralhistorian Haha I just finished Blood Reaver last night! And I read Necropolis last month. If you're interested, the RUclips channel ArbitorIan has a good book club series which follow many of the most popular lore books, including Gaunt's Ghosts. I'm like you and have never played an actual game of Warhammer but I find its world incredibly engaging. I think the struggle to maintain one's humanity in the grim setting is particularly captivating. I really liked your essay, too!
A good suggestion would be to have a look at WK40K tabletop roleplaying games 'Dark Heresy(1st ed)' by Black Industries / Fantasy Flight Games and 'Rogue Trader' by Fantasy Flight games. They give a nice view and background of life on the edge of the Empire of Man and just beyond.
I recommend reading the Ciaphas Cain series, the Gaunts Ghosts series, Helsreach, Rynn's World the Eisenhorn Series and if you are willing to mire yourself in the clusterfuck of managing the book order the entirety of the Horus Heresy. But I implore you, if you see or hear the words "Daemonculaba" DO. NOT. CONTINUE.
I would strongly suggest you watch "If the Emperor Had a Text To Speech Device." It's a fan made series that sadly will more than likely never be finished due to legal issues; yet it explains 40k really well in an entertaining way. Its depiction of the Emperor and his views on the current Imperium are pretty lore accurate as well, personality and humor aside. It's what I suggest people watch when I want to show them the better (as in less grimdark) aspects of 40k because it shows what would happen if Big E actually did get off his throne.
2nd edition 40k is a hell of a good time and third edition still has some of the tongue on cheek of the earlier editions and self awareness to know where they stole their lore from and pay homage to it. I love the fact that they brought back Necromunda (my game of choice) and Kill Team is its own thing now. If you want some awesome quick skirmish gaming those are hard to beat.
upon further consumption of your content, I see that it is your verbiage and script structure that is truly top notch. A writer to be sure, perhaps a modern day Plutarch or Ovid, the writer Historian hybrid creature. That surely must be heretical.
It’s not a nice universe, but hell it’s so much fun too get into and once you go down the 40 k rabbit hole your life changes forever . Haven’t played for over 10 years but I still watch read and yes I played the space marine games . (It was difficult and I felt dirty as my army was always space orkz… wwwwwwaaaaaaaaaggggghhhh) Thanks again feral !!
You should check out Ciaphas Cain. Either it’s the adventures of Harry Flashman in the 41st millennium, or one man’s epic of greatness brought on by crippling impostor syndrome.
There is a question that certain people keep asking; why do you care so much(about your fictional world)? I pity that person. They have missed the point entirely and cannot, will not ever see that forest for the trees.
Dude what a good sense of what 40k is. Its not about the hyper male fantasy. Its about the sacrifice that men will do for the good of all. Sacrifice is what men are born to do. Its our duty. That is why we are now dropping out of society. If even our willing to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others cant even give us any credit. Then why do it? I will do chems and play games and enjoy my life.
One of the most absurd things i have ever heard was when feminists say that Men were the ones that ruled a household with a iron fist. And women were oppressed. To me that is like saying your plow horse is the one that is actually in charge. As he works and breaks his back to plow the field. And even the plow horse would be looked upon more kindly. A man came home and maybe read the paper ate some dinner and went to sleep before waking up and going to work again. Sacrificing himself on the alter of his wife and children. And to these feminists that isnt enough. We should also come home and do all the work they dont wish to do.
@@VirtualHolocaust And if you ask them what their role is to play in a relationship, what their sacrifice would be, what should be expected of them? Well, you are going to get Hell for that. They believe it should cost them nothing.
For more deep lore, I recommend viewing The Pontius channel. Be warned, his accent is 🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌/5 Italian. He's just getting started, but man he knows his facts.
You've done it Feral. You've won.
You really are Warhammer 40k...
*”Where I fall ten more shall take my place! And a **_hundred_** each one of them! So strike me down, I am only the harbinger!!”*
Kinda sounds like Ataturk's speech at Gallipoli, "I am not ordering you to attack today, I am ordering you to die. By the time we die reinforcements and other commanders will have come to take our place."
Also I think Gaunt's Ghost book series (Imperial Guard) would be up your alley.
Think Band of Brothers in 40k and Dick Winters in a Commisar Cap with a chainsword.
It's pretty blatantly a take on the Sharpe novels, even right down to copying the gag of having the protagonists hair color be different on the covers and official artwork compared to how it's actually described in the novels themselves.
Dan Abbett admitted himself he was ripping off Sharpe
Dan Abnett's work is awesome.
I think you would greatly enjoy the Gaunts Ghosts series of novels by Dan Abnett. It has a Band of Brothers meets Sharpe feel to it, expertly capturing the esprit de corps of fighting men and making combat in the insane setting of Warhammer 40K feel surprisingly believable and 'real' from the perspective of boots on the ground infantrymen.
Gaunt's Ghosts is definitely on my list now. I'll probably be alternating between Warhammer novels and everything else I want to read for quite a while.
@@feralhistorian Careful - Games Workshop has its own in house publishing arm called Black Library that has been around for decades, and it has published huge numbers of books both for 40K and the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Once you start down that rabbit hole, you may never find your way out again.
If you are prepared to brave that risk, and fancy dipping your toe into a pulp series of stories from the fantasy arm of Games Workshop's IP that are huge fun, may I also recommend the Gotrek and Felix novels, starting with Trollslayer by William King? Most of those novels are available as audiobooks on Audible now, voiced by the ever excellent Jonathan Keeble, and pretty much cover the journeys and adventures of the Old World's angriest doom seeking Dwarf and his human Rememberer, who is essentially a chronicler of his quest to find honourable death in battle to expunge a personal shame. The dynamic between the two characters varies from hilarious to at times actually rather poignant. Felix Jaeger may be the most relatable character from fantasy fiction I have ever read, and the older I get the more relatable I find him to be.
@@feralhistorian For a lighter take, the Ciaphas Cain novels are more-or-less Flashman in 40k. All the grimdark is there, of course, but since the story is first person the narrator is rather blase about features of the setting that grate against modern sensibilities.
@@feralhistorian And also the Eisenhorn Trilogy by the same author is very good.
Nobody going to suggest that he reads the Horus Heresy series? 😂
You've absolutely found the correct metaphorical nail and slammed it home with the eponymous Warhammer: none of Games Workshop's settings, not a single one no matter how dark, is *completely* hopeless. They've made decades-long art of stacking the odds against everyone and refined it to near sublimity, such that no matter which game-world you read about or play, which faction you choose to champion and which characters you find most compelling, they're all fighting for *something worthwhile* against the kind of resistance that makes one despair of victory.
But there is always that sliver of hope.
Everything is always on the verge of collapse, but it's always on the edge, and the sacrifice and costly victories of millions every day push Mankind's extinction from tomorrow to the next day. Not completely hopeless, but with not a gram more hope than what's needed to sustain the endless fight.
Excepting the skaven of course, as much as I love them they aren't fighting for anything worth having.
@@Sara3346 The Skaven just fight because its in their Nature, which could be seen as a reason technically. Theyre Fight is simply about surviving.... By creating horrible abominations. And cracking open the moon apparently.
@@Sara3346 And Tyranids. They literally just want to eat you. Same for Necrons prior to their Wardian retcon: they wanted to feed souls to their gods. Chaos is also pure nihilism on purpose.
So yeah, 40k has (or had) at least 3 factions that don't really despair of victory or care about hope. They're the ever-present threats that everyone else has to hope to survive against.
For those looking for more humanity and, yes, a light in the darkness of 40k...I highly endorse Dan Abnett's work, particularly the Gaunt's Ghosts series. He has a knack for making such a silly setting seem real, filled with real people.
Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain books are flat out humorous and if you don't mind the wholesale theft of George MacDonald Fraser's 'Flashman' reskinned, they're good too.
I love Gaunt's Ghosts, but Cai, Cai Caiphus Cain is the hero of the Imperium!
Cai Cai Caiaphas Cain hero of the Imperi-UM.
And Jurgen.
Love the books and think they are better than Gaunts Ghosts , in that they have characters that act more realisticly in situations as a person would. They are fantastically over the top in a boys own style of way too. Sort of black adder in 40K.
"In ancient times, men built wonders, laid claim to the stars and sought to better themselves for the good of all.
But we are much wiser now."
Archmagos Ultima Cryol - "Speculations On Pre-Imperial History"
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
FOR THE EMPEROR!
DEUS VULT!
in the name of our beloved god emperor - praise Feral. He has served Terra well
The irony and satire are still there, though its been covered over a bit through the years. One of my favorites is that in the end, humanity turned the Emperor into a Servitor. A cyborg zombie tasked with a function, regardless of the underlying subject's pain. Servitors are everywhere in the imperium, people broken down into nothing but tools. So of course, that is what the creator of the Imperium was transformed into. It's a beautiful kind of irony, and a statement about how bureaucracy so often ends up consuming its own purpose.
No, not really. The Emperor is both conscious and chose/endures the eternal torture of the Golden Throne willingly for the sake of Mankind's ultimate salvation from Chaos. It's much more reflective of Christian thematic imagery (something 40K tends to do quite blatantly at times) than anything else.
@@CanadianPaleIf anything the servitors are a reflection of the GE's willingness to suffer tens of thousands of years holding the Imperium together, as the sentencing of servitude is one granted to "make amends" for ones wrong doings. Except its not a choice for the common criminal, heretic or political dissident
@@Dogman262 common criminals don't become servitors. It's normally only used as a punishment for really severe (i. e. _dangerous_ ) acts of tech-heresy, so the comparison falls apart again there.
@@CanadianPale Yeah man whatever ig
@@Dogman262 go in peace, my son. The Emperor Protects.
Thanks for the upload. My own, meandering thoughts on 40K are broadly similar, and often in conflict with the more nihilistic perspectives prevalent in some quarters (Reddit in particular seems to be a hotbed of such), so it's heartening to see a more optimistic take on the universe discussed at length here for public edification. That said, there are a couple of quibbles I have with some of the points presented:
First is the idea that the Imperium are not "the good guys," which I've always found curious. From our perspective here in the comparatively cozy 2nd Millennium, the Imperium of course appears horrifying, but while it may be "the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable," it's ultimately cruel to be kind, so to speak. Everything the Imperium does is dictated by the singular, all-consuming goal of preserving Mankind's existence in a universe stuffed to bursting with genocidal alien monsters and daemons thirsting for human souls, a universe where "we had to destroy the village to save it" is not Orwellian doublethink but a bald statement of fact that could mean the difference between a few souls being prematurely sent to the Emperor's Realm and the loss of an entire planet inhabited by billions (a recent Warhammer + animated short had a nice take on this in the context of a Genstealer cult and a Tyranid invasion).
Second is the degree of corruption in the Imperium. While we definitely see corrupt officials in the fluff (and Imperial bureaucratic shenanigans _are_ often darkly humorous), I'm not convinced that the Imperium (as distinct from its constituent planetary governments) is _especially_ corrupt by any reasonable standard for a more-or-less feudal polity that has ruled over millions of planets for the better part of 10,000 years. Obviously, the system works, in-universe, and is robust enough to have kept working for almost 10 millennia, though it is true that the Administratum is inefficient. That, however, is in large part because it was designed to be so; after the Horus Heresy, and then again, after the reign of Goge Vandire, the apparatus of government was redesigned with the goal of making it as difficult as possible for a single person to quickly exercise absolute and unimpeded power throughout the Imperium.
But again, thank you for articulating your thoughts on the oft-overlooked or downplayed optimism of 40K, the slender thread which, as you note, serves to strengthen the universe as a whole. Whether it be Space Marine Ragnar Blackmane getting snapped out of a Chaos-induced stupor by some indescribable force of goodness radiating directly from Holy Terra, Euphrati Keeler banishing daemons in the name of the Emperor, slain Imperial Guardsmen reuniting with their comrades in the afterlife, or the Primarchs gradually returning, in the grim darkness of the far future, there is still hope.
There have been occasional hiccups in those 10,000 years though, like the Age of Apostasy, but yeah, broadly speaking the Imperium keeps trucking on, bumps in the road not withstanding.
I have to broadly agree. If the Imperium was as overwhelmingly incompetent as it’s often suggested by parts of the fan base, it would have collapsed millennia ago.
Aldo Reddit being nihilistic is a major reason I don’t go there except for answers to technical questions. Place is a self-indulgent dumpster fire.
In the original lore the empire was in crisis entirely due to its own incompetence. One of the major issues when discussing 40k is that it has changed so much with time and everyone on boarded with different ideas of what it was all about.
@@CarrotConsumer _In the original lore the empire was in crisis entirely due to its own incompetence._
I'm in the process of reading through the very first 40K sourcebook (i.e. _Rogue Trader_ from 1987) and I don't believe I've come across any such statement with regard to the Imperium.
_One of the major issues when discussing 40k is that it has changed so much with time..._
I'm not sure it actually has, all that much. Not after 1st Edition, anyway.
_everyone on boarded with different ideas of what it was all about._
I blame "If The Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device" and the weird tendency of certain people to recommend it as a sort of 40K primer for the uninitiated.
An open algorithm is like a fortress with it's gates unbarred and unguarded
ISWYDT
@@MarkAndrewEdwards did you hear it in the right voice too?
@@KatanamasterV Aye, I do love me some Dawn of War.
@@MarkAndrewEdwards nice
Suffer not the like button unsmashed
On the subject of humanity's psychic evolution, there's a moment in the audio drama "Agent of the Throne: Truth and Dreams", which discusses this, although from a far more pessimistic point of view than the way you've described it. Our narrator is an Inquisitorial agent named Ianthe, and one of her duties is to track down rogue psykers. The line goes something like this:
"Humanity is dead. The trigger's already been pulled, bullet coming down the barrel. It won't be the xenos. It won't even be the foul traitors. It'll be us."
What Ianthe means by this is that even relatively weak psykers are hellishly difficult to track down and control, and can cause cataclysmic amounts of damage if allowed to operate unchecked. She can see enough of the big picture to recognise that there's more of them every year, that humanity's psychic evolution is likely to be its destruction. There's something bleakly poetic in that: that, despite a galaxy of horrors, we are our own worst enemy.
I'd recommend checking out the Ciaphas Cain books for some good humor in the setting, as well as the lore of the Salamanders for one of the best examples of the 'good guys' of the setting. Isyander and Coda have some great lore videos on 40K as well that really does work for the layman just getting into the series.
just wanted to mention that. Yes, Ciaphas Cain makes the whole Warhammer universe more lighthearted.
Your one of the few people who have run into who not only even heard of the Morganthou Plan, but are aware of it's ramifications. Great job! 👍
You really realize there was another totalitarian regime in WW2 when you learn about that.
As an outsider, the "Space Marine controversy" was very entertaining to watch. My familiarity, such as it is, with WH40K is solely what I've picked up from subcultural osmosis; even so, I know that the setting is intentionally, explicitly made to be as horrific as the writers can imagine. So I find it hilarious that anyone would want to "see themselves" in _that._
You'd be surprised...😉
@@CanadianPale Sadly, I would not. But I still find it amusing.
The whole controversy is, excuse my French, ret*rded af.
Space Marines are not just super soldiers, they´re basically "warrior monks".
And there are also "warrior nuns" in 40k, the Adepta Sororitas or "Sisters of Battle".
They lack the genetic/cybernetic enhancements of the Astartes, but this is balanced out by their faith in the Emperor being so strong, that it enables them to perform superhuman feats.
One could argue, that the Sororitas are even more "badass" than the Astartes, because they manage to go out and successfully fight all kinds of horrible Chaos Daemons, Traitor Marines, Xenos and heretics, WITHOUT having all genetic/cybernetic crap showed into their bodies.
You want to "identify" with a faction? Well, 40k gives you plenty of options to choose.
But that´s not what this is all about. This is just more cultural marxist BS, as we have seen it in various other hobbies and entertainment.
@doublep1980 but, the question is, why do you care so much? how many models you own? how many rulebooks? if youve been playing for a long time, you know that the game never took itself as seriously as you are now... another thing, nothing is canon. every rulebook has retconned and changed loads of stuff. so again, the question is,, right noq, why do you care? why does it actually matter, if there can be female space marines? there are plenty of other brotherhoods and groups in 40k that _arnt_ space marines, still totally emasculated. yet only one female centered one... why cant there be some more stuff thats slightly more female oriented?
@@Rexini_Kobalt no, the question is why you think mere growth is a greater good than preserving the integrity of the lore. You're expressing the values of a cancer LOL. 😏
“The rules are a bastard son of the tax code…”
That’s putting it….**gently.**
You'd think after TEN EDITIONS of the 40K rules they'd have figured it out.
The quote about growing numbers of Psyker and mankind just needing to hold on through these growing pains also reminds me if a line used for "Darkhammer" a 40K fanmade variant that skews a little more towards hopeful.
"The night is long and full of horrors, but the dawn is coming and it will be glorious. All we need do is survive."
Outside the more rigid tournament scene end of the 40K hobby, Game Workshop have repeatedly stated that the rules in more casual games should be treated as simply a broad framework, a general guide that you can modify and tweak in whatever way you like as you work with your opponent to set up the sort of enjoyable, memorable game you both want. If you fancy a last stand against the odds, a fighting retreat, a death or glory charge, holding the line until reinforcements arrive, or any other sort of game scenario, then it can be done simply by modifying the missions already in the rulebook a bit or by agreeing with your opponent ahead of time how you want to arrange things.
I think we've _all_ seen what GW of all things mean by "a framework", tho...
@@seand.g423 I don't see how any controlling tendencies of GW could apply to casual games. You can modify the rules any way you want to have the game you choose to have with your opponent. It is not as though GW's secret police are going to kick down your door at three in the morning and drag you off to slave in the Forgeworld resin mines for the crime of using house rules in a casual game between friends...
Holy smokes, I never would have thought this would be a video you'd ever make! This is awesome.
Cool video as always! I was kind of hoping you'd cover this sooner or later, since it seems to be in your wheel house!
Personally, I got turned off of 40K years ago when I attended a gaming convention and saw two grown men in 45 minute screaming match over who was in possession of a square inch. All the miniatures looked cool. But further got turned off by all the painting and expense involved. Oh, and not to mention all the rules and books you need to read. So I guess it boils down to Money, time, and patience which are all finite resources that I can't manage for shit! Oh well... At least the art is cool!
Yeah, some people take their gaming way too seriously and 40K makes it really easy to find things to argue about.
Just recently I ran a small experimental game, using roughly 40K rules but I DMed it like a D&D campaign. There was a story to the mission, the objectives where actually things that made sense rather than arbitrary markers, and periodic "intel updates" that moved the story along. It was really bare-bones but I would absolutely do it again.
@@feralhistorian I mean that is where Warhammer came from. GW originally were the European reseller for D&D and when they wrote Rogue Trader, it was heavily influenced by D&D and It required three people to play properly... the two opponents and a GM to set the game up and its rules.
@feralhistorian There are warhammer rpgs, I have gmed dark heresy and played in a few others. They're quite fun, but the rules are crunchy. I've heard that newer ones are simplified like dnd 5ed, but haven't played them. The ones I played have hilariously lurid descriptions of how the enemy dies in the critical effects chart for different damage types.
3rd Ed Rulebook had some great quotes.
"An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded."
"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment"
You forgot to mention or perhaps purposefully omitted to mention all the humor that is baked into the setting's layers. Like a cake.
Ever since the orginal Rogue Trader rulebook back in 80s
@@derekmcmanus8615 I play Orks, Imperial Guard and Dark Angels. You?
As a BIG fan of 40k I love your peel back of the veil in how you describe the world of Warhammer. And your deeper look into why people within the world keep going without giving up.
Yeah, I'm not a player of WH40K as it doesn't scratch my itch, though I like what I think the original inspiration was Nemesis the Warlock from 2000AD. OTOH the Ciaphas Cain books by Sandy Mitchell are a homage to the Flashman series.
Warhammer 40k is ultimately a story about Hope.
Mankind survived the Cybernetic Revolt and Old Night.
It's currently fighting off multiple extinction level events.
Though trillions may die... The species will survive.
Well, the orks are having fun at least.
more dakka is always fun.
Happy reading! The books by Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Graham McNeill, Chris Wraight, are all good stuff. Of course there are lots more other Warhammer writers worth checking out...
Chris Wraight? "Unaugmented human female effortlessly lifts and wields a Space Marine Chaplain's crozius" Chris Wraight? LMAO...
"Warhammer 40k: Darktide" is what you're looking for. Its a horde shooter (with a fantastic melee and ranged system). As such, it is replete with last stands against unending hordes. My teams of four have routinely killed 900-2,500 Nurlge-worshipping heretics in a ~20 minute round. Pretty easy to get into if you have played a shooter before. Tip: Teamplay is overpowered. If you're getting overwhelmed, work as a team.
Our group ditched the offical rule set comletely, opting for the One Page Rules instead. But we keeo to the lore. It helps, a lot.
As a German I appreciate and thank you for comparison. And I like to mention a lot of our production and research facilities were captured and relocated by allied forces ( especially the russian sector )and that certain transatlantic nations still use our country as staging ground.
As for the britsh coloration of the Universe . In many ways the Brits are more similiar to us than the US.
Cry about it kraut.
Good analysis, enjoyed.
I was once invited to play in a 40k Black Crusade tabletop RPG group. I didn't quite like the idea of working for chaos, but I liked the group, so I thought something up. I didn't want to fall into any of the memes, 'blood for the blood god' or whatnot, I'm generally trying to find some believable human emotion to sit down and channel at an RPG session. So I settled on, paradoxically, a very faithful, Emperor-loving, noble soul.
... who happened to be a psyker. Immediately picked up by the black ships to be carted off to the golden throne to be sacrificed. That too would be fine, for to die for the Emperor is a noble end, but... Then my character was radicalized by a thought, "Hey, the Emperor is a psyker too. Why does the Ecclesiarchy hate us so? Are the high lords running the show simply corrupt, jealous cretins trying to cling to power by holding back the evolution of man to a more perfect existence, like that of our god-emperor?" The answers seemed obvious, when one discarded the complexities and the dangers of untrained psionics.
So my character escaped, firmly believing the Imperium as a whole to be corrupt, his cult holding humanity hostage in an attempt to hold back the inevitable. To hold back... change. That was compelling. That was enough to get me on board with embracing Tzeentch and trying to free my fellow persecuted brothers and sisters. Listening to your conclusion, I couldn't help but think on it again.
There is an underlying hope in many of the imperium’s cadre of characters. They acknowledge the direness of their lives and press in.
Kudos to Feral for observing that 40K is not satire, and explaining why. 🤜🤛
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are---
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
... A Light Against the Darkness?
@Hypogean7 Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Seeing 40K as the subject of one of your videos is quite the gift you give us.
Not to pile onto your reading list, but Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden does a fantastic job of conveying how dissimilar Astartes psychology is to baseline humans, and also that theme of fighting tooth and nail despite already knowing the outcome
" 'Hero of Helsreach!' the crowd cheers. As if there is only one."
As a practicing tax attorney, I disagree with his quip that the 40K rules are the bastard son of the tax code. 40K's rules and lore are far, far more complex.
That’s because you haven’t heard about the Brazilian tax system
I’ve been playing 40K since middle school (over 30 years now), and you nailed it! 💀🖤👍
9:43: that woman in the black dress! 🤣
Some things are universal.
This is probably the best explanation of W40K that I've ever heard. Though I'm not a gamer - the rules for this game in particular would make the Federal Income Tax Codes look straightforward in comparison - I am a model builder, and I've built some Games Workshop kits as a 'break' from yet another Panzer IV or P-51. I find them to be highly detailed, with numerous options provided. The only real drawback is the price of these bespoke kits.
About a year ago, I picked up a Rogal Dorn tank to be modified as the basis for a Draka Hond. That idea was abandoned when I saw your own - and much better - interpretation of S. M. Stirling's creation.
Thanks for doing the research to make this for us!
775th Like.
Male-strom
More seriously, most any books by Abnett, Dembski-Bowden, and French are interesting stories in the setting with interesting takes on how it all works. Keep these up, so well done!
The books "Scars" and "Warhawk" are favourites among the fandom, and for good reason.
You're totally right. In this world of finite resources we're all just people.
it would be really cool if you looked at the Mechanicum of Mars specifically. Also the Ciaphas Cain series would be a good read, it's actually a bit more light hearted, but that grimdarkness of the setting always feels like it's hovering just out of sight in the background, it's still there, but the curtain of humanity hides it.
Another great video! I used to play a lot of 40K but not for many years. Like third and fourth edition. I mostly play historical miniature games now.
If you can find the time, you should read through the original 1st Edition Rogue Trader manual. Maybe skip the game rules since they're irrelevant now anyway, though they do resemble your D&D experimental hybrid game in practice since the game was a lot smaller scale back then. Anyway, the setting used to be a lot more on the nose and satirical. It also shares heavy influence from Judge Dredd since GW had the license to produce the miniatures game and John Wagner worked on Warhammer Fantasy for awhile. Most of its been retconned but it explains a lot about how the modern grimdark 40k is often so silly at times.
I belive that the maker of event horison have said that he was a 40k fan.
And i would recommend the gaunts ghost and cain books
He's probably also a big fan of the Hellraiser movies.
Feral Historian is an agent of Chaos, I would say Tzeentch.
Im not from the US but I would more than welcome a duel of wits against you on a Warhammer table, it would inspire such an interesting exchange of ideas, I would love it, amazing video, take care.
Haha! Chipmunks are definitely Chaos demons! That's a great line.
This is awesome. I have to agree - mostly; I've not finished the video, but felt the need to comment. The astarte battlecry: "I shall know no fear;" and the ponderance: "Is it better to live for yourself, or die for The Emperor?" both made me question how 40k is perceived. I feel like these, alone, show a positive, empowering piece of media. It's wholly better "to die for The Emperor" - as in: it's better to die for something greater, to do as Bukowski said: "Find what you love and let it kill you." This is, of course, versus the former half: "to live for yourself", to be a selfish, entitled jagweed who never gives back to society. I see the latter implying it's a much more fulfilling life to be invested in your community. Great video, definitely subbing and looking forward to the next essay.
5:00 there is, is an anime and manga called claymore.
I hope that the next time you talk about warhammer 40k, you might consider talking about the realm of Ultramar, "The empire within an empire". I know some people might role their eyes given its connection to the poster boys of the setting, the Ultramarines, but i can't help but wonder if its very existence has something deeper to say about the larger story of this GrimDark setting. This last bastion of light in a galaxy of darkness, fighting not just to survive but trying to keep the foundings principles of the original dream of the Imperium alive, hoping the embers of hope from its core may one day spread a fire to the rest of the Imperium if they just hold on long enough.
"Somehow the slenderness of that thread makes it feel that much stronger."
Though it has in no way been made greater, a candle shines brightest in complete darkness.
Edit: If you want to just have fun, play against an Ork player. The Orks are the essence of "Random bullshit GO!" and there's no such thing as a salty Ork player.
It's the resonance of human history that made me develope an obsession with the 40K univerese lore only a few years ago. If you read history and refelct upon the the patterns of war, rise, war, fall and some war during and between all of that, you can easily see what kind of gestalt of mostly western history trauma the grand narrative of 40K is processing.
I think the indoeuropean perspective on the human condition especially is one of constant, inavoidable war due to the nature of mens chaotic primodial demons.
If you want a good book from the perspective of one of the alien species of the franchise, one of the highest regarded books is "The Infinite and The Divine". Of note, one of the titular characters, Trazyn the Infinite, is a Necron Historian/Museum Curator. Admittedly, one that takes a more collector approach than that of on-site preservation.
I imagine a Necron historian would have some stories to tell. Added to the list.
I've not played 40K since 3rd ed back in the 90s, but I still check in on the lore from time to time. I do think that the publisher has, over the last couple editions, been trying to slowly move away from "the Imperium is an awful place, there are no good guys, everyone sucks" to something with a more identifiable and sympathetic protagonist faction. Your quote fits into that trend, in my opinion.
Still, the comparison to 1944/45 Germany is thought-provoking, in a good way. My formal history training is only a BA, but my 400 level coursers were split pretty evenly between Canadian Indigenious history and WW2 from an Axis perspective. (I even had the chance to study the rise of Mussolini and big-F Fascism *in* Italy, taught by an Italian.) So I've got a lot of context for that time period - well, as much as any Gen-Y sixth-generation Canadian can.
Anyway, I've got thoughts tumbling through my head now, which is surely the goal of any video doing a historical/philsophical analysis of 40K.
12:43 "a bastard son of the..." fething peak! 😂
A fun aside, Ultramar also has a beacon that can pierce the warp and provide guidance. A delightful setup for civil war if GW gets over it's current fascination with culture bombing the lore and decides to be serious about the narrative again. Excellent video! o7
The part about Germany reminds me of some old germans telling me about what they did during ww2...bombed cities reduced to dust, random air raids and running into forest for cover, burning corpse at the crossroad, kids serving in militia being engaged in actual combat.
Just recently not far from where i work they found the airbomb while digging at some construction site which meant those disaster allerts to phones and evacuation of the small town.
I did ask about you know what, but they didn't tell me much and i cant tell if thats intentional.
What’s funny and no one ever mentions it too much or thinks about it is they sacrifice people to him to keep his energy alive. Psykers are taken in the black ships to be sacrificed to him. This keeps his psychic energy alive.
Ok Lord Feral, I have watched two of your videos. I may be hooked.
The Imperium doesn't actually like psykers. If they cannot become sanctioned and cannot be shipped to Terra, they are delt with.
As for Space Marines, a good number of loyalist factions have end time legends. 2 of these have come true so far.
Nice video. The game actually started with much more satire and was funny, for some reason it got way more serious in the last 20 years.
Black stands out against a light backdrop, so does light against darkness. Grimdark is best when it highlights the little moments of common humanity, which no tragedy can undo. The act may be forgotten, but it still happened.
“They call me hero of helsreach. As if there was only one…”
I have always thought that the Orcs aren’t “good” but more innocent. They don’t understand why humans scream when being torn apart. They need to fight to grow and even reproduce. They were built for war. Built to be a near perfect living weapon.
They are cruel blokes who think it is fun to beat another blokes teeth in and do so with an absence of reflection.
They just wanna have fun is all. Play the funnest game with their frenz. And the umgies are there bestest frenz.
I have been a fan since the 1st edition Rogue Trader in the late 80’s. I too think that for all the darkness and suffering, people at least have a clear purpose: humanity’s survival. Not that most of them would know anything about chaos, so for them there is no purpose as far as they know.
I once interviewed Rick Priestly and he said that 40K is in large parts based on his own experience on living in the decayin ruins of once great empire (UK).
That WW2 reference of your… it was a fight for survival for the Soviets too. And the Poles. And us Finns. And many more. In that example though the evil (chaos) was defeated.
Hope you found some stuff you like, and honestly- the modeling and stuff is the best part for me.
Game is just a formality so I don't have 'toys', have wargame models.
I do feel the Germany allegory could’ve been worded a tiny bit better, but as a long time 40k fan i never even knew about that passage and it’s given me a bit of a different perspective on the whole thing
I want to see you do a video on the Tau and their ideology. They originally appealed to me because they are supposed to be the “good guys” ideologically but are actually pretty evil and creepy in my opinion .
They used to be good guys until they added the whole mind control thing.
Henry Cavill is a big Warhammer 40K player.
his shininess 😂
I had never read or looked into Warhammer, but a recent space opera short story I wrote was compared to it. So I started looking into it a little and it seems to borrow extensively from SFs back catalogue and history, and with great results.
This is a setting that you should explor further for sure.
4:15
Yes their dingus work
hey farel historian what do you think about maybe doing comparison between the A24 civil war 2024 and the 1997 The Second Civil War movies
That could happen. Several months ago I rewatched Second Civil War but never did anything with it. Haven't seen the A24 film yet, but eventually.
Finally !
My man review 40k!
I highly recommend the Night Lords trilogy of books by Aaron Dembsky Bowden, I really think it takes everything great about the 40k universe and turns it to 11. And it's beautifully written.
I recently read the first two books of the trilogy, and I see exactly what you mean. I'll come back for 3 after finishing Gaunt's Ghosts.
@@feralhistorian Haha I just finished Blood Reaver last night! And I read Necropolis last month. If you're interested, the RUclips channel ArbitorIan has a good book club series which follow many of the most popular lore books, including Gaunt's Ghosts. I'm like you and have never played an actual game of Warhammer but I find its world incredibly engaging. I think the struggle to maintain one's humanity in the grim setting is particularly captivating. I really liked your essay, too!
Astarte was the last name of a scientist who worked on the primarch and marine projects if i remember correctly.
Sysiphis with a Lasgun?
A good suggestion would be to have a look at WK40K tabletop roleplaying games 'Dark Heresy(1st ed)' by Black Industries / Fantasy Flight Games and 'Rogue Trader' by Fantasy Flight games. They give a nice view and background of life on the edge of the Empire of Man and just beyond.
Reject the meta.
Embrace the Guard.
If you are looking for a rule set that sheds all the 40k bloat, try Xenos Rampant.
I recommend reading the Ciaphas Cain series, the Gaunts Ghosts series, Helsreach, Rynn's World the Eisenhorn Series and if you are willing to mire yourself in the clusterfuck of managing the book order the entirety of the Horus Heresy. But I implore you, if you see or hear the words "Daemonculaba" DO. NOT. CONTINUE.
I would strongly suggest you watch "If the Emperor Had a Text To Speech Device." It's a fan made series that sadly will more than likely never be finished due to legal issues; yet it explains 40k really well in an entertaining way. Its depiction of the Emperor and his views on the current Imperium are pretty lore accurate as well, personality and humor aside. It's what I suggest people watch when I want to show them the better (as in less grimdark) aspects of 40k because it shows what would happen if Big E actually did get off his throne.
Pretty lore-accurate if you're a Redditor whose main source of info is corpse-starch memes...😆
@Feral Historian the only Space Marine Chapter that discovered their man parts work are The Space Wolves.
2nd edition 40k is a hell of a good time and third edition still has some of the tongue on cheek of the earlier editions and self awareness to know where they stole their lore from and pay homage to it. I love the fact that they brought back Necromunda (my game of choice) and Kill Team is its own thing now. If you want some awesome quick skirmish gaming those are hard to beat.
i just found your channle and im loving these talks
This is why I like the Night Lords. Un-apologetically themselves when all others claimed they were the honorable, duteous sons.
upon further consumption of your content, I see that it is your verbiage and script structure that is truly top notch. A writer to be sure, perhaps a modern day Plutarch or Ovid, the writer Historian hybrid creature. That surely must be heretical.
It’s not a nice universe, but hell it’s so much fun too get into and once you go down the 40 k rabbit hole your life changes forever .
Haven’t played for over 10 years but I still watch read and yes I played the space marine games . (It was difficult and I felt dirty as my army was always space orkz… wwwwwwaaaaaaaaaggggghhhh)
Thanks again feral !!
If heresy grows from idleness you have nothing to worry about.
"they all have their own lore, characters and special, bullshit moves" LOL 10/10 would chuckle again.
You should check out Ciaphas Cain. Either it’s the adventures of Harry Flashman in the 41st millennium, or one man’s epic of greatness brought on by crippling impostor syndrome.
There is a question that certain people keep asking; why do you care so much(about your fictional world)?
I pity that person. They have missed the point entirely and cannot, will not ever see that forest for the trees.
Dude what a good sense of what 40k is. Its not about the hyper male fantasy. Its about the sacrifice that men will do for the good of all. Sacrifice is what men are born to do. Its our duty. That is why we are now dropping out of society. If even our willing to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others cant even give us any credit. Then why do it? I will do chems and play games and enjoy my life.
One of the most absurd things i have ever heard was when feminists say that Men were the ones that ruled a household with a iron fist. And women were oppressed. To me that is like saying your plow horse is the one that is actually in charge. As he works and breaks his back to plow the field. And even the plow horse would be looked upon more kindly. A man came home and maybe read the paper ate some dinner and went to sleep before waking up and going to work again. Sacrificing himself on the alter of his wife and children. And to these feminists that isnt enough. We should also come home and do all the work they dont wish to do.
@@VirtualHolocaust And if you ask them what their role is to play in a relationship, what their sacrifice would be, what should be expected of them? Well, you are going to get Hell for that. They believe it should cost them nothing.
@@metalrules1135 100% no accountability. They are like children. Thats why they shouldnt vote.
Every sentence you wrote is wrong. Impressive.
1:00 don't forget they have to drain the minds of a thousand living people every day just to keep the Emperor only almost-dead
For more deep lore, I recommend viewing The Pontius channel. Be warned, his accent is 🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌/5 Italian. He's just getting started, but man he knows his facts.
6:39 Smells like Tzeentch Spirit