"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."

"Drive me closer! I want to hit them with my sword!"

"Why do I still live? What more do you want from me? I gave everything I had to you, to them. Look what they've made of our dream. This bloated, rotting carcass of an empire is driven not by reason and hope but by fear, hate and ignorance. Better that we had all burned in the fires of Horus' ambition than live to see this."

"But you're forgetting one thing..."

"What's that, brother?"

"It's also a hammer."

Discussion thread for the Black Library books and generally the lores of Warhammer 40K

Trending series:

Siege of Terra

Psychic Awakening

9th Edition looms...

IN.

@LuJo

Eisenhorn the GOAT

I saw Humble Bundle had a few starter books, but I didn't get them

I assume ebooks

Been meaning to check out their audiobooks lineup too

9th could actually be really amazing more than 8th if they focus more on the xenos and not just poster faction Imperium (and Chaos) and things seem to suggest this is what it going to be

I'm too poor to actually do Warhammer as a lobby but I love the lore. What's a good series to start. Preferably nothing focusing on Space Marines and their offshoots as the main protagonists lmao f*** those guys boring as hell. Chaos Space Marines are ight though.

Don't have to be invested in the tabletop to get into the lore, I get you though cus that stuff can get super expensive lmao

Check out Black Legion series as it revolves around the traitor forces. has great insights and adds interesting nuances to them. Plus the author is one of the recognized greats too from the whole roster

I must say though the best entry point getting into the universe is Horus Heresy event. S***s the equivalent of Berserk's Golden Age arc

Ya, I used to download the Codexes and read the unit pages to get some lore about all the different factions about the leaders and parts of each army lol.

I'll go check out your recs.

Neat. For me though what actually convinced me to become a lore buff is the sub r/40klore. They post excerpts, questions, meta talks and my fav: theories. People come up with the most fascinating (also compelling) things honestly

Also 4chans own wiki 1d4chan is amazing source when you need to check smth. Entries there don't read like a textbook and always are fun reads in their own way. Not trying to discredit the other wiki sites ofc

Played fantasy growing up
Shouts out buying s*** off ebay lmao

Still have my 5000pt army

"Knowledge is power, and with the key to the Black Library I shall claim it all"

Bout to read the Night Lords omnibus

Black Legion book excerpt

~

'Tell me something,' I said, 'before I leave.'

'Speak.'

'Sigismund. How did he wound you?'

Abaddon fell silent, the vicious vitality of ambition bleeding away. The black rebreather covered much of his face and the murk occluded some of his expression, but I believe for the very first time I saw something like shame flicker across my lord's face.

How curious.

'He wouldn't die,' Abaddon said at last, thoughtful and low. 'He just wouldn't die.'

I did not need to skim his mind of insight. Just from his tone, I knew what had happened. 'He baited you. You were lost to rage.'

I saw the muscles of Abaddon's jaw and throat clench as he ground his teeth. 'It was over before I knew he had struck me. I couldn't breathe. I felt no pain, but I couldn't breathe. The Black Sword was buried to the hilt, like the old man had sheathed it inside my chest.'

Ezekyle's voice was soft across the speakers, cushioned by the bitterness and fascination of reflection. His words were almost staccato whispers, each one a drop of acid on bare flesh. 'The only way to kill me was to welcome his own death, and he did it the moment the chance arose. We were face to face like that, with his blade through my body. My armour sparked. It failed. I lashed back. His blood soaked the Talon. He fell.'

I remained quiet, letting Abaddon's tale unspool. His eyes were looking through me, not seeing what was, but what had been.

'He wasn't dead Khayon. He was on the floor, sprawled like a corpse, disemboweled and town in two, but he still lived. I was on my knees, forcing my dead lungs to keep breathing, kneeling over him like an Apothecary. The black sword was still through me. Our eyes met. He spoke.'

I did not ask Abaddon to tell me. I reached into his thoughts then, tentatively at first in case he rebuffed my presence.

Then I closed my eyes, and I saw.

The black knight, fallen and ripped apart. His Sword Brethren gone or dead, I did not know which. Red staining Sigismund's tabard, red decorating the deck beneath and around him; red in Abaddon's eyes, misting his sight.

Blood. So much blood.

Here at the last, he looked every one of his years, with time's lines cracking his face. He looked upwards at the chamber's ornate ceiling, his eyes lifted as if in reverence to the Master of Mankind upon His throne of hold.

Sigismund's hand trembled, still twitching, seeking his fallen sword.

'No,' Abaddon murmured with brotherly gentleness, through the running of his blood and the heaving of his chest. 'No. It's over. Sleep now, in the failure you have earned.'

The knight's fingertips scraped the hilt of his blade. So very close, yet he lacked the strength to move even that far. His face was the bloodless blue of the newly dead, yet still he breathed.

'Sigismund,' Abaddon said, through lips darkened by his own lifeblood, 'This claw has killed two primarchs. It wounded the Emperor unto death. I would have spared it the taste of your life as well. If you could have only seen what I have seen.'

As I stared through Abaddon's eyes, I confess I expected the triteness of some knightly oath, or a final murmur in the Emperor's name. Instead, the ruined thing that had been the First Captain of the Imperial Fists and High Marshal of the Black Templars spoke through a mouthful of blood, committing the last of his life to biting off each word, ensuring he spoke each one in shivering, sanguine clarity.

'You will die as your weakling father died. Soulless. Honourless. Weeping. Ashamed.'

Sigismund's last word was also his last breath. It sighed out of his mouth, taking his soul with it.

~

man these last 3 days I just been watching a whole lotta 40k lore videos on youtube. Of all the factions I've heard about so far, my top 3 probably Tau, Necron, and the Eccesiarchy.

Might end up getting an audiobook or two

I watched that Astartes fan film, that s*** was dope af.

Issa a whole feast! I been keeping up with the lore and still feel I barely covered the entire thing. Always some new boggling things happening (gets known) every other week and reading fan theories had me absorbed often too

The necrons are getting major focus in the next update (latest timeline) but focus is now on entering the endgame of the Horus Heresy

I've heard great things about the audiobooks but I've never actually tried that format lol

The lore in Warhammer is so cool i wish we could get a quality movie series of this universe

Just peeped this earlier. I highly recommend for the sound design work alone and this a good watch for lore buff, not so much for the philosophical discussion

Mood

Orks for the win

40k orks the best representation tbh

I love them, their lore is fun and is like the only "light hearted" story in 40k

Their whole make believe thing is nuts

Prob like the only faction thats already "won" too cus of the kind of setting it is now

Yeah they actually can only win since even if they die in battle they'll be laughing until the end