Brief History

...of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K universe

by Dave McAwesome

This is a very brief overview of the backstory of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. What Games Workshop does is they put historical nuggets in the rulebooks and White Dwarf magazine, often in great detail (even listing all the units involved in such and such a battle) and then use the novels to tell a story about a particular unit (the novels--and any of the longer fiction for that matter--are rubbish and not worth reading; all they do is dilute the mystery). The rulebooks are interspersed with little quotes and bits like "There is no hope," and this one--the words of a demon-inhabited sword to its wielder, "Willingly you picked me up. Your first mistake. Willingly you drew me. Your second mistake. I do not allow my servants to make three mistakes, foolish mortal." The only event that is hard to include in the bit below (in the interest of brevity) is that sometime prior to creating the Primarchs, the Empire went through a dark age in which much technology was lost.

The God-Emperor of Man

Long ago on Earth, probably around the time the Egyptian pyramids were built, the Emperor was born. He once had a name, and when he outlived all his family and friends, he assumed another name. He has risen to power many times over in many different countries and has laid claim to so many names that none better fits than the Emperor. Many millennia passed and in that time he amassed a great deal of knowledge. One day he sensed something stirring in the warp. He swiftly united and/or conquered the rival factions on Earth and created the Imperium.

The warp

Real space is traversable only by navigating through the warp (essentially an immaterial realm of raw energy). Interstellar navigators are genetic mutants who are psychically attuned to the warp. Without this mutation, travel between worlds is impossible. The Emperor is a psychic without par. His psychic signal acts as a beacon for other navigators to use in piloting their ships through the chaotic warp. Vast numbers of mutant psychics who do not have the discipline or ability to use their powers are sacrificially fed to the Emperor to fuel the beacon.

A tremor in the warp

Sensing the danger humanity faced from the warp as the race began to emerge as a psychically aware people, the Emperor created 20 Primarchs, super human beings who would each lead a legion of super human warriors, each genetically tied to their Primarch. These super humans--Adeptus Astartes or space marines--would form the elite shock troops of the Imperium designed to fight the great enemies of humanity: Chaos demons, alien Orks and Eldar. The bulk of the human populace, even many of its armies were hidden behind a veil of ignorance in regards to these dangers. But before the Primarchs were 'born,' the four Chaos gods scattered them to the galactic winds. Undeterred, the Emperor himself led his 20 legions of space marines on a Great Crusade, liberating worlds for human civilization. During this time, each of the 20 Primarchs grew up on individual worlds--mostly barbaric human tribes lost to the civilized Empire. Each inevitably came to rule his world. One by one, the Emperor found his lost children. Descending from a pillar of light reaching up to the sky, the Emperor would meet a lost Primarch, invite him to lead a legion of supermen, and carry him away to the stars. In time, all 20 Primarchs carried on the Great Crusade, competing to see who could expand the Empire the furthest. Horus was the Emperor's most favored son. But he hid a terrible flaw: pride. At night the Chaos gods would whisper to him. In time, Horus began to listen.

The Horus Heresy

Horus and four other Primarchs, succumbing to their own darkest desires, turned their separatist traitor Legions to Earth. With them came forth untold masses of demonic filth. The remaining loyalist Legions defended the Emperor's enormous palace, but were undermanned (many were fighting in disparate parts of the galaxy and were unable to reach Earth in time) and fighting more of a stalling action than an actual defense. The Emperor teleported himself, two loyal Primarchs and a few elite bodyguards onto Horus' battlebarge. The Emperor triumphed, but at a heavy price. Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists, found the Emperor’s broken body. He knelt to hear the Emperor's faintly whispered wishes. The forces of Chaos, shaken by the death of Horus, were flanked and routed by mobile forces of space marines attempting to break the siege. The traitor marines fled into the Eye of Terror, the largest warp storm in the galactic core.

The Golden Throne

Instructed by the Emperor, Dorn built the Golden Throne to house the shattered mortal body of his father. The Emperor, by now the Emperor-God of humanity, split the Legions of space marines so that no one man would ever wield so much power. The Legions became Chapters, each with 1,000 marines or so (plus support personnel and tanks).

There is no consensus on the significance of the Emperor. Some contend that should the Emperor die, humanity will be washed away by a sea of Chaos. Others believe that when the mortal body of the Emperor dies, the Star Child--a god on par with the powers of Chaos--will be born to protect humanity.