The idea of moving fantasy races and rules into the future is not new. Many universes have tried to pull it off, but Warhammer 40,000 was one of the few that did it organically. Over the years, the world was polished and filled with details, which is what made it so popular. And eventually, it turned into a huge tangle of knowledge that not everyone can untangle. But today we will try to cover the basics and prepare you for the upcoming Space Marine 2.
On the influence of modern and futuristic weapons on the atmosphere
In Warhammer 40,000, one of the main parties to the conflict is the Imperium of Mankind. These are people intolerant of heretics, mutants and xenos (aliens). They have millions of planets at their disposal, which supply trillions of soldiers to the crucible of endless war.
The soldiers’ armament consists of both guns similar to those we are used to, and laser rifles and plasma guns. In battle, they are covered by equipment, artillery and aviation. If the situation is especially difficult, then great titans – multi-meter weapons of death – rush into battle. And the ships that dominate the void of space are able to conduct orbital bombardment and deliver reinforcements.
Image courtesy of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2’s Steam page
It would seem that with such weapons, the victory of the Imperium is guaranteed. However, reality has shown many times that the enemies of humanity have enough arguments in the confrontation. In such moments, warriors can only count on their own courage and faith in the Emperor.
A prime example is when loyalist forces launched an orbital bombardment on a planet. And the planet parried the attack! Or when the enemy fortification problem was solved by launching a piece of the sun at them.
Soldiers with futuristic weapons are a common sight only for players. Often, worlds cannot even afford automatic weapons. Planets can be so backward that they have to fight monsters with swords, spears and cavalry – like in the old and bad times.
If in the medieval world physical characteristics give an advantage to certain races, then modern and futuristic weapons equalize these characteristics. But not in this case, when physical characteristics and heretical tricks can give xenos and heretics an advantage over the weapons and discipline of humans. All this shows that an organic transfer of fantasy races, which are the basis of Warhammer, into the future is possible – even taking into account technological progress.
The organic nature of this shift is especially impressive in the context of failures, when technological progress kills the best elements of fantasy. A great example is the game Fear and Hunger 2 . In it, you quickly understand that firearms are very effective against monsters and chthonic creatures – such an advantage relieves the pressure and fear that simply suffocated in the first part. An example of a terrible balance in this approach is the anime Gate . According to the plot, fantasy troops invaded the modern world, and they were opposed by the self-defense forces of the armed forces of Japan, who simply shot people, monsters and legendary beasts.
Image courtesy of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2’s Steam page
The point of magic and legendary monsters is that they are incredibly cool. When you meet them, your breath catches and your knees tremble. Victory in confrontation comes at a huge cost, and that’s why it’s so sweet. And if they are so easy to destroy, then the battles become boring and insipid.
Preserving the uniqueness of races
When transferred to the future, fantasy races lose their uniqueness. Their lifestyle and warfare are equated with humans. When trying to change their unique features, the designers’ imagination is limited to medieval weapons, which are illuminated like a Christmas tree. Warhammer 40,000 has much less problems with this.
Necrons
The raised dead are among the main threats in fantasy worlds. The decaying armies know no fatigue or fear. With each enemy killed, they gain a warrior for the horde, which destroys everything in its path. And because of the curse of the necromancers, “crops are dying, there is plague and famine all around. And the visiting winds bring terrible cold.”
Necrons are the dead, encased in living metal. They are extremely difficult to destroy, and a fallen Necron will eventually be reanimated. They are unable to replenish their ranks with the help of the dead – as their fantasy counterparts do. But this disadvantage is more than compensated by technology of an incomprehensible level. In the past, this technology allowed the gods who enslaved the Necrons to be torn apart, and their remains were used to wage wars against other races in the Warhammer universe.
Images taken from Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus Steam page
Orcs
A large and muscular hybrid of animal and fungus – this is how you can define an Orc. From the outside, Orcs seem like mindless savages, incapable of intelligent warfare. This is partly true. However, the habit of underestimating greenskins often cuts short the lives of overconfident commanders. Orcs are strong; cunning; capable of creating technical wonders from garbage; they grow after each battle, and their faith becomes reality. This is a dangerous and unpredictable enemy, who is not averse to “shepherding with the Humies”!
In Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm, humans laughed at the savage crowds. Their fun ended when a sea of green engulfed the defenders and tanks began to lose their turrets to the boom-booms of the Orks.
Images taken from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Steam page
Eldars
Space Elves have a lot in common with your typical fantasy Elves: tall and slender body; lightning-fast reflexes; inhuman accuracy; heightened predisposition to magic; longevity; a way of thinking that is incomprehensible to humans; being on the brink of extinction. Eldar create their buildings and tools using rituals and songs. And they poop crystals. Games Workshop has done a great job of showing that Eldar are not just another variation of humans.
In the past, the Eldar ruled the galaxy. However, rampant hedonism awakened the Devil in the Warhammer universe, which led to their current state. The disaster taught the survivors nothing – they remained narcissistic upstarts. For every question from the inferior (in their opinion) races, the Eldar give three answers – each of which is a mixture of insult, inflated self-importance and blatant lies. Therefore, one can only praise the ability of human diplomats to prevail in negotiations with the Eldar. And this is not about their dark relatives, who not only did not abandon sodomy, but made it the basis of their culture.
Image taken from warhammer40k.fandom.com
Squats
There are plenty of representatives of fantasy races in the human army: ratlings (hobbits of the future); ogryns (ogres of the future), and even catmen. But the most unique were the squats (dwarves of the future). Their appearance and equipment perfectly matched the realities of the dark future. The squats loved to play “who will build a big gun”, and the result exceeded all expectations. Alas, but “for lack of originality”, almost all space dwarves were eaten by tyranids (cunning space bugs).
According to Games Workshop, the “original” replacement for the Squats is the League of Wotan. Essentially, it’s a lazy mix of Starcraft marines and Warhammer Fantasy dwarves .
Image taken from warhammer40k.fandom.com
Space Marines
His Angels of Death are superhumans clad in power armor. In standard fantasy, their equivalent would be knights without fear or reproach, who defeat monsters with enchanted weapons. In the darkness of a grim future, Space Marines are created from selected young men who are given additional organs. Each augmentation brings the future Angel of Death closer to the peak of human development. The result is a pile of super-strong bones and iron-hard muscles, burning with righteous anger, up to 230 centimeters tall and weighing 350 kilograms.
Centuries of countless wars and training have made Space Marines the perfect killing machines. They are skilled in the use of vehicles and ranged weapons. Many prefer to use claws, power hammers, spears and swords in combat. To their enemies, such Space Marines look like very angry tanks, which are approaching their fortifications at an alarming speed. In such a situation, it is foolish for mortals to hope for the superiority of ranged weapons.
Space Marines must fight not only the enemies of humanity, but also their inherent flaws. The various Chapters must deal with bloodlust; unbridled rage; black skin and red eyes; mutations; beast transformation; negative luck. Many Inquisitors dream of destroying the Space Marines for such differences, but the balance of power prevents them from doing so.
Images taken from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam page
Tyranids
Of all the existing races, the Tyranids stand out the most – of the fantasy analogues, perhaps the Silithids from World of Warcraft come to mind .
The Tyranids are a never-ending horde of xenos. Their insatiable hunger drives them to devour everything in their path, leaving planets in their wake. Their harbingers are the Lictors and Genestealer Cults, which act as scouts and beacons. Arriving at the “dinner invitation”, the masters destroy resistance through sheer numbers, the ability to adapt to threats, and the ability to block distress signals.
Tyranids are so terrifying that Games Workshop likes to use them to exterminate disgraced races (like the unfortunate Squats). When the Tyranids launch a full-fledged invasion, the Imperium will have to arm all its subjects – including the elderly and children.
And while the Tyranids are scary, the reality of the future is so thin that even biological weapons can penetrate. This happened to a tendril of the Tyranid hive fleet that moved through the Ghoul Stars – a place with a telling name. The devilry happening there turned out to be more terrible than the eternally hungry monsters and even scared them.
Tyranids are also the inspiration for the Zerg from Starcraft and the heterosexual inspiration for the Zerg from Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm .
Images taken from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam page
This is real hell
In the reality of the dark future, the Devil exists and has five varieties. All thoughts and desires of the inhabitants of the galaxy, whether conscious or subconscious, take shape in the warp (a psychic dimension parallel to the real world).
The most powerful emotions gave birth to the Chaos Gods: Khorne, Slaanesh, Tzeentch and Nurgle. They represent: anger, fear of death and pain; the desire for pleasure; ambition, as well as nobility; the joys of life; consolation; change. However, the twisted nature of Chaos is such that these aspects are taken to the extreme. Without proper control, they end only in grief and destruction.
Image courtesy of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s Steam page
The Chaos Gods give birth to Daemons that reap a bloody harvest. The gifts of the Lords make Daemons unrivaled; swift and seductive; incredibly resilient; cunning. The thinning of the Warp Veil allows Daemons to penetrate reality. They will rage until they are banished or the power to sustain them is exhausted.
The greatest danger of Chaos is its ability to corrupt. It is a long process where the victim is influenced by everyday objects, whispers in the head and visions. Under the corrupting influence, the loyal servants of the Emperor begin to have suspicious statues and tattoos. Their prayers become much more aggressive. If the problem is not detected in time, once loyal troops will side with the enemy, and pious workers will turn into mad cultists.
The power of corruption is so great that it can even convert legions of Space Marines – this happened during the Horus Heresy, the main mythologem of the Warhammer 40,000 world. Traitors serve their new masters faithfully and accept unholy gifts as a reward. These gifts make them similar to Daemons in appearance and abilities. Chaos Space Marines and Daemons can form a symbiosis, which makes them even more dangerous. The fantasy analogue for Chaos Space Marines are dark knights in the service of evil, who lead hordes of monsters into battle.
Images taken from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam page
But psykers (magicians of the future) are also connected to the Warp and Chaos – they are even part of the Imperium. Their power can manifest itself in anything from levitation to blowing up the heads of entire armies. Psykers are disliked for their habit of spontaneously exploding and leaving behind a portal to hell. If the nature of the magic used by fantasy mages is rarely revealed, then the source of the psykers’ power is well thought out and clear – through them, the warp itself takes shape.
Save Marina
The game Space Marine combines all of the above perfectly – it’s a great entry point into the universe for those who are not familiar with it. There you can destroy in droves both Orks rushing to attack, and Chaos Space Marines, and Khorne demons moving at inhuman speed. And for destruction, you are provided with an arsenal of both long-range weapons and melee weapons. And it’s very pleasant to use!
Space Marine 2 promises more unbridled fun. There, the enemies are hordes of the aforementioned Tyranids. You will also have to face the Thousand Sons order – Chaos Space Marines, who used to be the legion of Magnus the Red (yes, that guy from the memes who “did not betray!”), who specialize in magic. They are both skilled warriors and experienced sorcerers.
Images taken from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam page
The only thing that worries me is that the plot of the first part takes many liberties. Here you have the order of the Black Templars, who are in the service of the Inquisition – they are, to put it mildly, not friends with each other. And Captain Titus (the main character), who communicates as an equal with a representative of the Imperial Guard. If he were from the order of the Salamanders, then this would still be normal, but he belongs to the order of the Ultramarines – these guys do not treat mortals like that.
In Space Marine 2, the main stumbling block for someone deeply and long familiar with the lore is the fact that you have to play as Primaris Space Marines. Many fans of the franchise have a negative attitude towards the Primaris because they are one of the questionable innovations of Games Workshop .
Games Workshop has been doing everything they can to tarnish the name of the Human Emperor lately. They’ve given him a name; a rather silly backstory; a nagging wife, and taken away many of his personal achievements. None of these additions expand the game’s universe and only serve to irritate fans.
But Games Workshop went further and introduced the Primaris in order to sell figures of the same Space Marines for the second time. According to the lore, the Primaris are larger and stronger than the standard Space Marines (one of the best creations of the Emperor), and have greater resistance to the perverting forces of chaos. They also do not have the innate flaws and curses of the Chapters that made them unique – we mentioned this above.
Images taken from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam page
The addition of Primaris to the Chapters has put an end to many Chapter histories that have been desperately trying to survive all this time. It is also disconcerting that they were accepted into the ranks of the Dark Angels and Black Templars – the last of the Chapters that would have let in outsiders according to the old lore.
On the other hand, Space Marine 2 so far looks like the “perfect Warhammer game” that fans of the universe have been waiting for for 13 years. I want to believe that this will be the case when it’s released.
Analysis
Moving fantasy races into the future organically is a significant achievement. Warhammer 40,000 succeeds by not downplaying the fantasy element of the universe. There are massive futuristic battles, as well as the use of magic, fighting monsters and demons, and knightly duels. Often these elements are mixed together, and they do so quite naturally.
Warhammer 40,000 managed to do something unique, transferring fantasy into the world of the future without going overboard. And we hope that we could at least slightly lift the veil of secrecy for you and explain what kind of universe this “Waha” is!
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Preview image taken from warhammer40k.fandom.com
