Warhammer 40K’s new status quo is absolutely wild

The universe of Warhammer 40,000 is almost impossibly vast, with 40 years canon distributed among playbooks, novels, animated shorts, universal documents, and video games. There is no narrative; Instead, this is truly a galaxy of protagonists with their own stories, most of which are cut short when someone is eaten by a space bug, kidnapped by a sadistic space elf, or corrupted by the extradimensional forces of Chaos.

There have been some very interesting plot developments in recent years. The God-Emperor, his primarch sons, and other key figures begin to emerge from stasis. The galaxy has now cracked in half, a chaotic maelstrom tearing across the stars. The Empire is under new management, with a very stressed and sad man named Roboute Guilliman taking the helm. The God-Emperor has even gathered enough strength to burn down the gardens of Nurgle, a Chaos god of rot and decay. What inspired all these changes and what does that mean for the 40K setting?

Meet the Emperor

If there’s anything that comes close to a main character in 40K, the closest thing to humanity would be the Emperor. He is a carrion lord on a throne of gold, a rotting corpse barely kept alive by faith, ancient technology, constant human sacrifice, and sheer willpower. Although the Emperor was a secularist in his time, he is worshiped as a god from the far reaches empire of man who rules the stars. If the Emperor fails, humanity will fail with him as he powers the cosmic lighthouse that lets ships navigate the stars. He can only communicate with humanity fleetingly, through tarot readings and visions.

A common snippet of text, often published as a preface in most 40,000 novels, describes the setting as such:

To be a man at such a time is to be one among untold billions. It means living under the most cruel and bloody regime imaginable. Those are the stories from back then. Forget the power of technology and science, because so much has been forgotten, never to be learned again. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace between the stars, only an eternity of slaughter and carnage and the laughter of thirsting gods.

Not good! Has it always been this bad?

Everyone in the family

Image: Games workshop

Over 10,000 years ago, the emperor was much closer to a real man. He genetically engineered 20 sons to serve as his primarchs, generals for his armies, and extensions of his will. Two of them were banished under mysterious circumstances and nine fell victim to the corruption of Chaos. (As it turns out, the Emperor isn’t an ambitious figure — he’s an abusive father and a cruel dictator who was so terrible that half his sons decided they’d rather deal with demons than continue to serve him.)

The loyalist primarchs were largely lost – dead, gone, or otherwise unavailable. While the Horus Heresy novels (running since 2006) explore these characters in depth, in modern times the Primarchs are largely figures of myth and legend. That all changed in 2018 when Horus’ successor, Abaddon the Despoiler, appeared out of nowhere with the metaphorical steel chair. He destroyed the world of Cadia, the Imperial world that held back chaos, and opened up a great rift across the galaxy. Oh cool! Now it’s even worse for everyone!

prodigal son

Image: Games workshop

There was a benefit of the 13th Black Crusade and the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Great Rift imbued with chaos energy from the mysterious realm called the Warp. Roboute Guilliman, the primarch of the Ultramarines – affectionately nicknamed by fans like Bobby G or Papa Smurf – has been restored from stasis. Guilliman was put on hold thousands of years ago after an injury brought him to the brink of death, but now he’s back – and he absolutely hates everything about the Empire. He is angry with his father, the Emperor; he thinks this whole “God” thing is pretty messed up; and generally he would prefer the Empire to give a little less priority to the accumulation of skulls.

Sealed in the Armor of Fate to keep him alive, Guilliman is viewed as a demigod by all around him. Meanwhile, he tries to solve worries like picking up paper with his clunky war gloves or finding a chair that suits him. He must also contend with the fact that his father’s empire is now divided in two, with a “Dark Empire” on the other side of the Rift, cut off and under attack from Chaos.

Image: Games workshop

For the past few years, Guilliman has led an Indomitus Crusade across the stars to try to restore the Empire. Unfortunately, he’s the only loyalist primarch left in the area (…at least for now) and so his demonic primarch brothers will target him for their revenge. The downside is that the Cicatrix Maledictum, combined with 10,000 years of worship by trillions of human souls, seems to have pumped the Emperor full of power. In the book god fireGuillimans Primarch Brother Mortarion dragged him into the warp to kill him in Nurgle’s Garden. But the Emperor was able to heal Guilliman, use him as a vessel to burn down Nurgle’s gardens, and then fully revive his son – which is a power play we’re not used to seeing the big guy do.

The story of Arks of Omen, together with the Boarding Actions game mode, seems to open the next chapter of this story. Angron, another Daemon Primarch, will star in his own book, Arks of Omen, along with Abaddon the Despoiler and Vashtorr the Arkifane. Fulgrim, a Daemon Primarch of Slaanesh, is also apparently active in the galaxy. On the other hand, it looks like the scene is set for the return of other loyalist primarchs, like the Dark Angels’ Lion El’Jonson. The plot of Warhammer 40,000 moves very slowly, but maybe we’ll see a big old family reunion in the years to come. Chances are, similar to anything else in 40K, some will go horribly wrong, grim and dark.