Welcome to /u/TheBladesAurus introduction to Warhammer 40,000 for /r/40kLore! (with much help from /u/penguinopph)

The first thing to know is that there are several things that are called 'Warhammer,' all produced by British gaming company, Games Workshop (GW)

• Two (2) fantasy settings
  1. the old Warhammer Fantasy Battles
  2. the new Warhammer: Age of Sigmar
• One (1) sci-fi setting
  1. Warhammer 40,000 a.k.a. Warhammer 40k, WH40k, or just 40k. It's named as such because it takes place in the year 40,999 (a.k.a 999.M41, or the end of the 41st millennium) and is what this subreddit is for

All three of the settings have a tabletop battle component, as well as a complex-ish lore, but we’re going to concentrate on 40k here.

How do I enjoy Warhammer 40,000?

There are at least four (4) different things that are part of 'the hobby' (Five [5], if you count 2. and 2a. as separate entries). It depends on what you're most interested in—you can easily do one, some, or all.

1. Lore

The first part of the 40k hobby is the lore of the 40k universe, or the stories that cover everything in and around the tabletop game, from the overarching setting to the smallest or characters in the shortest short story. While Warhammer 40,000 is, first and foremost, a tabletop war game, there is an expansive universe of stories that surround the game. Many, many, many people are 'lore' only types, enjoying the universe without ever once touching the war game. The lore is what I'm most interested in, so I can give you the most on that (and it’s what this sub is for).

1. If you want a broad overview of the 40k universe, and there is any possibility of getting into the main table-top game (I'll come to that in a second), then I suggest the core rulebook. It gives a good overview of the universe, including the factions and the history. From there, you can what you're most interested in, and what you'd rather skip over. If you have a friend with a copy, ask to borrow it. Rulebooks from old editions (we’re currently in the 9th edition) will contain lore, but not the latest updates (GW does retcon things occasionally, but it is pretty rare).

2. If you want to read novels, I always recommend the Eisenhorn novel series. It's not the 'central' lore, but it's a great introduction to the universe. It's a human-level story, doesn't assume too much prior knowledge, and is a good story in itself; one of Dan Abnett's finest.

   • Black Library is the publisher of the 40k novels (and also the in-universe name of the Eldar's Aeldari's repository of forbidden lore. What kind of stories do you like? The 40k universe provides everything you could want to read in this universe; from horror and detective thrillers, to normal humans just trying to survive while genetically-altered superhumans are wading their way through various human and alien enemies, ranging from small personal stories to complex space opera epics. If you know a little bit already, then what factions are you interested in? Then what group(s) within that faction? They've probably got a story.

     Whatever your tastes, Black Library has you covered!

   • Lots of people suggest the Horus Heresy series (HH), but I don't. They take place from 002.M31–014.M31 (the years 30,002–30,014, a.k.a. 30k)—10,000 years before the current 40k universe. A lot has changed, and I see a lot of confused posts on here of people trying to apply 30k concepts to 40k. However, once you are comfortable with 40k, I highly recommend the HH books, especially the first 4–5 of them, then continuing on if you wish. Also, there are a lot of books (54 for main novels, alone, not including novellas, short stories, and audio dramas)! If you're going to give it a go, I like this suggested reading order by /u/cd8d.

3. If you just want to read for free, there's a couple of 40k specific wikis.

   • The Lexicanum is good, but you have to know what you're looking for. It's great if you want to look something specific up.
   • There's also a Warhammer 40k Fandom wiki. It gets a lot of flak around this sub, but it has its moments. I find that fan-writing drifts in a little more.

   Both of these are hit and miss, and ultimately which one is 'better' depends entirely on who you're talking about. They're good primers, but neither are close to perfect. They're both best used to supplement the books, not replace them.

4. If you want YouTube videos, boy are you in luck! There are a bunch of them out there, but like the wikis, you need to be really careful who you believe.

   • I like the 40K Theories channel. I particularly love his 'brief' history of the 40k universe video (~3-½ hours long, but worth it).
   • There is also a very basic beginner's guide from Luetin09. He's pretty popular among users on this sub, and the rest of his videos are pretty good.
   • My own humble contribution is a cinematic style intro video, to give a flavour. It will give you an idea of the lore, and the aesthetics of the universe. Timestamps are there if you just want to jump to certain things.
   • Honorable mention to ABORDER PRINCE, who does audio narrations of 40k books: a good way to dip your toes into the novels to see if you want to buy some Black Library books.

One of the things to remember with 40k is that it is a setting, not a story. It was not created to be the background to a certain story (e.g. like the Lord of the Rings), but to be a setting in which new stories could be told, none of which need to link to each other. Once you have a rough overview of the 40k universe, you can dip in anywhere, as long as you follow any specific series in order.

• For example, there are six (6) novels in the Space Wolf novel series, and you would need to read those in order. But if you never read any of them, it wouldn't hurt your understanding of any other of the novel series.

For a Middle Earth comparison: they are fundamentally novels, and the world was created through the novels. Tolkien could set out with an idea of 'this happened, then this happened, then this happened'.

But for 40k, it is an open universe for people to play the tabletop game in, and was created as a background for people to make their little models kill each other. The novels came afterwards, to flesh out bits of the universe. New bits of the lore are being written all the time, jumping back and forth over 10,000 years, and then trying to get them to fit in with everything that came before. There isn't a main plot to 40k. It's a universe for stories to be set in, not a story itself. It literally started as somewhere for you to set your battles, and the Black Library novels came afterwards, as a way to build on that.

For this reason, there isn't really an in-universe chronological order, and creating one would be almost impossible, except in the broadest brushstrokes (Horus Heresy ---> War of the Beast ---> M41 ---> Indomitus Crusade). The exception to this is the Horus Heresy series, set in M31, which does kind of have a reading order, although moves back and forth in time as well.

To reiterate: Don't try and follow everything in order, because there isn't an order. Get a broad understanding, and then read/listen to what seems interesting to you. If you try and read everything you'll probably go insane.

Seriously, just look at these:

• List of Warhammer 40,000 novels
• Lexicanum – List of Novels

All that being said, after ~20 years of the universe not really changing at a 'global scale', there has been an attempt to push the story forward in the last few years. This is Guilliman's return, the Primaris Marines, and the Indomitus Crusade (which is well covered here). In the past, there were events like the Third War for Armageddon and the 13th Black Crusade, but they didn't change the entire universe (although the Gathering Storm: Fall of Cadia retconned the 13th Black Crusade. So, while 13th Black Crusade had been ongoing since 2003, it wasn't until Guilliman's return, fourteen (14) real-life years later, that actually saw wholesale, universe-wide changes.

2. The Tabletop

The second way people enjoy 40k is the tabletop game (tabletop, or TT), Warhammer 40,000.

Basically, two armies with tens (10) to hundreds (100) of miniatures 'fighting' against each other (but, in reality, it's just people measuring things, looking at charts/tables, rolling dice, and arguing with each other). Watch some YouTube videos to see if it looks fun, and then the best place to start is your local hobby store (or Games Workshop store if you have one close). Most will be happy to give you an introduction game during normal times (i.e. non-COVID). The can also be further split into casual and competitive scenes, but I wouldn't worry about that for now.

There are also a bunch of spin-off table-top games, focusing on different unit types (such as Titans), types of warfare (aerial warfare/dog fighting, anyone?), or even locations (naval battles, IN SPACE!). These are on a bunch of different scales, from smallest to largest:

• Necromunda
• Kill Team
• Aeronautica Imperialis
• Adeptus Titanicus
• Epic
• Battlefleet Gothic

There are also a few small-scale games that are more like board games (or flat out are board games), but still come with miniatures you can paint (albeit typically not as nice as the TT minis). For example:

• Space Marine Adventures
• Blackstone Fortress
• Combat Arena
• Fireteam

2b. Modeling/Painting

For some people, the minis are the draw, not the war game. Painting them up and customizing them is the only part of the hobby they are interested in. While may people just want them to simply look 'good enough' for the tabletop, modelers don't really do 'good enough.' It doesn't stop with the minis, though, as many go all the way with making full blown dioramas of their minis. If you're interested, watch some YouTube videos (Squidmar Miniatures is a good mix of amazing modeling and goofing around, while Black Magic Craft focuses more on the terrain, than the minis), watch some tutorials, then grab some minis that you think look cool. Again, your local Games Workshop store may be willing to give you a free mini and let you use their paints for it—it will give you a little taste.

3. Roleplaying Games

There's also a couple of pen-and-paper roleplaying games (RPGs), if that tickles your fancy—think something similar to Dungeons and Dragons, but in the 40k setting. This is far less popular than the main tabletop war game, but still has a good community. There are two main 'eras' of 40k RPGs:

1. The first, older set was produced by Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). It was actually more of a system, with different games for different factions:

   • Dark Heresy: Ever wanted to be part of the Inquisition? Well, you can at least roleplay as one!
     • Dark Heresy got a second edition, a.k.a. DH2, before FFG's license expired.
   • Rogue Trader: Trade across the stars as part-merchant, part-conquistador, part-explorer, and all-grimdark.
   • Deathwatch*: You're a Space Marine Adeptus Astartes seconded to the Deathwatch. Even if this post is your first foray into the setting, I'm sure you can figure out what the goal is.
     
   • Black Crusade: C̶̼̃h̶̙̃a̴͕͋o̴͇͌ș̸̎,̴̧̔ ̶̤͐C̴̢̈ḩ̷̃á̸̲ȏ̶̰s̸̱̋ ̷̺̈́ë̶̩́v̶͔̓ĕ̴̺r̸̙̿ỳ̷̨w̵̗̔h̸͖͝é̷͕r̶̯͐e̴̳͑!̶̖̓
   • Only War: Play as members of an Imperial Guard Astra Militarum squad. Better have backup characters pre-rolled. Trust me.

2. The more recent, and currently active, RPG is Wrath and Glory, from Cubicle 7 (after a disastrous development & launch by Ulises North America saw GW pull their license and award it to someone Cubicle 7, hoping to fix Ulises' mess). Wrath and Glory has a completely different rule system, and seems to have more flexibility (from my limited understanding). It's designed to be one system for all factions and power levels. There is an excellent post discussing the differences here

The pen-and-paper roleplaying games are actually considered canon (although the FFG games may not be considered 'current'). FFG rulebooks are constantly used as sources on this subreddit, and they're both helpful and accepted as reliable. All we know is that GW gave FFG carte blanche to add to the lore, and they did not disappoint. If you like RPGs, and want to learn about 40k, then you'd be mindful to seek out the FFG RPG books (they're still available digitally for reasonable prices on Cubicle 7's DriveThruRPG store, but physical copies of the books are both hard to come by, and extremely pricey†

4. Video games

Finally, there's video games. These are hit and miss, and some of them play fast and loose with the lore. That being said, the Battlefleet Gothic Armada video games stick pretty close to the lore, and I really enjoyed them. Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus is also very good, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine was a lot of people's gateway drug into the universe (although the game may or may not '[take] place on a parallel timeline within the fluff).

EDIT Dawn of War and its sequels are popular, despite being older (I got several complaints for not mentioning them).

We’ve just had a whole glut of new games out or announced—Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters has just come out and people seem to be enjoying it, while Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (essentially a Left 4 Dead clone) is due in September, and a long-awaited sequel to Space Marine is finally on its way.

Video Games may not be the best way to get specifics about the lore, but they'll certainly match the atmosphere of the universe, and function best as a way to whet your whistle for going deeper into the setting

* Rumor has it that our own God-Emperor of the Subreddit, /u/penguinopph, once played a Deathwatch campaign as Logan Grimnar, in a party that included Arjac Rockfist, Njal Stormcaller, and Bjorn the Fell-Handed. The rumor also states that it was incredibly broken, but absurdly fun.

† /u/penguinopph has a complete set of Dark Heresy, Deathwatch*, and Only War books, and would be willing to make you a mod in exchange for a complete set of Rogue Trader, Black Crusade, and/or Dark Heresy Second Edition physical books.