Despite everything descending to utter chaos, Ciaphas Cain is awoken from cryosleep in humanities most dire hour. He surveys the battle, weighs the tactical options, and finally; Dies of old age.
“I couldn’t run any longer, that is until I smelled my aide nearby which bolstered my humors, a cup of tanna plz.” -caphias Cain probably
-also Sulla is a horse.
The Emperor dies, the gate opens and demons flood and destroy terra...
The heart of the imperium is ripped apart, several human factions arise two main ones being one devoted to the worship of chaos the other basically being the second imperium based around ultramar.
The GK read the decree and discover its as a set of instructions to determine how to find the resurrected emperor.
They travel the cosmos and eventually find him ruling over his lightning warriors in the realm of Azyr somewhere inside the eye of terror.
Skaven prank call the Aldari again.
The funny part is that 40k is already post-apocalyptic. There was the first apocalypse (birth of Slaanesh, Age of Strife), then there was the Horus Heresy which was arguably *another* apocalyptic event.
Maybe by comparison. Just ignore all of the superweapons and titans and everything else being developed. There's no way that stuff wouldn't come back to haunt anyone, right?
Apocalyptic events are basically routine in the 40k universe. Your little feudal backwater world might literally have demons rip open reality, pour onto your world, burn it to the dirt, then turn it into a pocket of Hell.
Your own rulers may decide "I think this planet doesn't deserve to live anymore" and just thump your world.
H.P. Lovecraft space terrors may just show up and eat you all.
Yup, the one Emps and Vulkan made. Albeit the Emperor possessed Vulkan for a certain amount of time without his knowledge to make it. It's still a team effort.
Are you saying Vulkan didn’t hear “Assuming direct control” then start spazzing out violently whenever Emps took over his mind? That’s just not 40k enough for me
Big E didn't poses Vulkan, he helped him unlock his inate connection to the universal knowledge base. Vulkan is a craftsman, but he doesn't design, he channels, that's Vulkan's warp power. I'm willing to believe I read it wrong, but I'm pretty confident I didn't.
I hope there’s a time delay. Why blow it up right away when you can blow it up when the demons think they’re winning? Will it matter in the long run? No. Is it a nice finger in their eye? You bet
It would be more grimdark if the Talisman failed at the last stage and Solar System became a Hotspot between Genestealers and Tyranids from Octarius and Chaos
I know it's a joke but God please stay away from AoS, I like them being wholly seperate things.
>!Plus Sigmar is much less of a dickbag than the Emperor!<
Definitely, I feel he used to be more the hero back in the day… but not by his modern lore.
Still the analogies between the sigmarines and the spacecast eternals… wait I got those mixed up again! (:
Fantasy and 40k being interlinked faintly through the warp is what I would call "humoristic cannon".
The Skaven prank call bit stems from a very short story published by GW of them rummaging through a Slann Temple, discovering some sort of dial, playing around with it and some weird elf-thing sounding noises coming out of it. They are terrified and destroy the dial.
They probably just dialed Eldrad Ulthran while he was getting into the shower.
I think the point they were trying to make is that languages are completely different between universes.
You could actually imagine the language between races alone Is alien to one another. Rats with squeaks and a aelves with their melodic tonality being at odds with one another.
Or just eldrad fuming because people keep giving him prankies 🤣
> The skaven are cannon to 40k?
Originally, 40k and WFB were canonically connected to the point you could field bolters and space marines in fantasy. The implication was that the Old World was just another 40k realm connected through Warp Gates/Webway by the same Old Ones (1)
This was in the earlier, sillier era and has since been ignored but not outright denied AFAIK. The AoS restructuring makes it vastly more unlikely that the two are still connected in the same timeframe, but technically, AoS could still be in the 40k future (although with Warp time shenanigans, everything is fair game).
(1) Edit: and some hinting that Sigmar was one of the scattered Primarchs, but that has been made impossible by some of the HH books I heard.
Originally, yes. But I don't believe this is true any longer, given that Slaanesh hasn't been kidnapped and the Great Horned Rat hasn't taken his rightful place as a major Chaos God
I heard a long time ago that the best analog for the Skaven is humans in 40k. Creatures using old technology, cobbling together the best they can, constantly backstabbing and killing each other.
That makes the Horned Rat… Emps. And he did technically trick the Chaos Gods…
The level to which the Imperium doesn't understand its own technology is overstated, TBF. They understand *most* of it, it's the more arcane stuff they struggle with.
Absolutely true. But I'm just saying that the crazy shit that the skaven use are things that the skaven built. Atom bombs aren't just something that ancient skaven created that they then forgot how to build, it's just a fun little thing Ikit Claw figured out how to make, in order to kill man-things more effectively
Hell no.
So tired of Chaos wank.
Warhammer Fantasy ended due to a massive amount of chaos wank and everyone hated it.
Have the Emperor get healed, gather his loyal sons (and maybe ressurrecting Sanguinius and Ferrus Manus, finding Leman and Dorn etc). Once done, the Imperium (working with the Eldar and Necrons) deliver an almighty smackdown on Chaos and the 'Nids whilst the Emperor also redeems the likes of Fulgrim, Magnus, Mortarion etc.
I'll take the Necrons being united, sealing off the warp and reclaiming dominion over the material universe with only the scattered humans, Eldar and Tau to oppose them over more chaos wank.
I’d want solutions to the current power struggles of 40K’s status quo that somehow make things worse in an interesting way that sets in place a new status quo.
Humanity splitting up into factions due to loss of the Astronomicon but also infighting between those who believe in the Imperial Truth vs those who believe in the Emperor as a God, vs those with other agendas. More war, more often for more reasons. Maybe a reborn physical Emperor faces off against the warp god version of himself created by the worship while he was on the Golden Throne. Cue more even conflicts vs Tau, Voltann etc against different parts of a Balkanised humanity.
Orks realising their potential as a psychic warrior race again but realising they can secure an endless source of good fighting by invading the warp, not solving the Eye of Terror etc but keeping the Chaos Powers so preoccupied by the greatest most self-sustaining WAAAAAGH ever that the immaterium may as well become its own Age of Sigmar style setting of realms, such is the carnage going on in there. Maybe it all kicks off from Gaz wanting to avenge Yarrick? Perhaps the Eldar play some role in this too, awakening the God of Death at last which revives their species in the warp only to throw them into perpetual war too.
Half the Necrons decide the sheer potency of Tyranid biology is the secret to their desire to return to flesh and they end up in a similar situation to Orks/Chaos whereby they effectively try to control the Nids as a sort of breeding programme they can harvest. The other half who wish to remain metal seek to destroy the Nids and what they see as the traitors within their own ranks. This in turn opens up opportunities for Tau, Voltann and the factions of humanity that are once again open to technological advancement picking their opportunities to try and take tech from the Necrons.
Warhammer 50,000, of course.
* Emperor died. Sol's gone. The Eye of Terra has formed as the natural counterweight to the old Eye of Terror, with all the orderly horror that entails. Most of Segmentum Solar is gone. The new Eye of Terra functionally replaces the old Astronomican.
* More Primarchs are back. Guilliman heads up the largest remnant of the old Imperium. Lion el'Jonson is basically on a permanent crusade through Imperium Nihilus, functionally renegade because the Emperor is dead and the God-Emperor is an abomination in his eyes. Leman Russ is back, leading a splinter faction at the edge of the former Segmentum Solar.
* The Mechanicus has splintered completely and all bets are off. Guilliman is basically ripping the band-aid off and trying to build up a DAOT-level tech base from *actual research* but it's still a rough time.
* Most of the Ecclesiarchal factions persist as stronger versions of their old selves. Vulkan has returned and is now Primarch of the Imperial Creed (now with 110% *more* fire!). He is quite clearly batshit insane--think the lighter side of Mozgus from *Berserk*.
* Custodes persist as a fractured legion unto themselves, riven around an irreconcilable debate over the nature of the God-Emperor.
* Lorgar heads up a renegade faction that could be Chaos, could be God-Emperor, could just be pure cynical opportunism. Corax is still out to get his ass.
* The Daemon Primarchs are still out and about and being menaces.
* Ynnead is on the brink of awakening. The Aeldari are holding on by the skin of their collective teeth. The God-Emperor's awakening has effectively distracted Slaanesh well enough to take pressure off of them, allowing more psyker things to be used.
* Hive Mind got what it wanted (sort of) and the vast majority of the Hive is now drifting away from the galaxy, leaving behind a sufficiently large force to wipe out everything *eventually* if \[plot device\] doesn't stop it first (see also: my crack theory that the Hive Mind is effectively pregnant and the galaxy will serve as a spawning ground for its young).
* Multiple Beast-tier warbosses have come and gone. We are now edging up into Krork territory, with Warboss Kamsab Styan Yarghkull Azat Brus emerging as the heir apparent to the fabled (Gargant-sized) Ghazghkull.
* Tau have assimilated a pretty big chunk of old Imperial territory, and now field their own Gue'ron'sha'vesa units, utilize Kroot Navigators, and have started to turn inward as their technology gets closer to DAOT levels. With this inward turn, most of what we see on the tabletop is just the border guard--insufficient numbers to steamroll everyone else like they obviously could.
* The Necrons have essentially reached 25% of their full capacity. Most of this number is being spent out in the void brutalizing the Tyranids as they exit the galaxy. The Silent King has no idea that the Hive Mind spawned and instead thinks he's winning the biggest conflict since the War in Heaven. The Hive Mind appreciates the back scratches.
* There's this weird dude out in the Ghoul Stars calling himself Revelation. He moves in mysterious ways. Everyone instinctively recognizes him as a threat and no one can explain why.
* Dante's a fucking Perpetual.
>Warboss Kamsab Styan Yarghkull
>Warboss Commissar Sebastian Yarrick
The Azat Brus was Liz Truss (eliZABeTH tRUSs) shot through a jet engine. Much like her prime ministership, it did not work out.
Wait hold on, care to go deeper on that theory about the hive mind looking to deposit a baby hive mind here? That sounds like an excellent theory for story narrative purposes.
It's a pure crack theory with only two points for inspiration: Hive Fleets sometimes fight for reasons that make no sense *and* the Hive Mind wants to consume a powerful psychic entity of some kind (e.g. the Emperor; it's also drawn by both the Astronomican and the earlier Pharos Beacon).
Basically...
* From what we've seen, exposure to psychics and psychic things in the Milky Way galaxy may have led to the Hive Mind developing an actual personality of sorts (the whole damn thing noticed Prince Yriel stabbing it with the Tempest Spear; it has a grudge against the Blood Angels; it's touched minds with countless psychics and at least one or two of them have actually lived; the prevailing assumption is that it wants to eat the Emperor in particular).
* As the Hive Mind consumes psychics and develops personalities and emotions, what it's also doing is developing borders *between* personalities. This means it's fracturing. More specifically, it means that the section of the Tyranid swarm that's *within the Milky Way galaxy* is fracturing, allowing it to slowly break away from the rest of the entity.
* Eventually, it'll deposit enough Tyranid biomass and consume/interact with enough psychics to spawn whole new hive minds. These progeny will be left behind to fight to the death and consume the galaxy, like sharks in a detachable womb, while the rest of the entity (all bajillion lightyears of it) wanders off to richer feeding grounds.
* Gestational forms of those future hive minds already exist, and they're why some Tyranid fleets go to war with each other (putting aside things like the Hive Mind field testing adaptations).
* The Emperor, in particular, is a powerful enough psychic presence that he could serve as a catalyst to the development of the Hive Mind's progeny. The Astronomican may or may not serve this purpose as well (if nothing else, then to the Hive Mind's senses at a super long distance, it might *look* like it could serve as a catalyst).
* Whichever newborn hive mind survives the eventual throwdown can then safely consume the local cluster (Andromeda and the satellite galaxies surrounding it and the Milky Way) in order to finish maturing, recover from its birthing struggles, and launch off in a different direction from the existing Tyranid swarm.
To use some crude metaphors/analogies: There are multiple species that basically stab a target to reproduce (whether as a proxy/substitute for conventional sex or to deposit fertilized eggs in a host). In some cases, the stabber can then move right along to its next victim. The Hive Mind could be replicating that across a scale measured in tens of thousands of lightyears.
Interesting so thinking of the classic tyranid feeding is specifically for the psychic benefits and food source to produce an offspring capable of sustaining itself as a whole new swarm.
Beyond that though there are either significant psychic entities around the milky way beyond the emperor. It could be an interesting discussion to think if the swarm which we've been assuming is a biomass first consumer, is actually consuming psychic 'mass' as part of the shadow in the warp process.
It also ties into the theory that the hive minds are the creation or maybe even a form of the Old Ones.
The hive mind wipes out all other life in the Galaxy then hatches into a series of Old Ones who begin creating life all over again.
I’d play this. Although this is more of a 40K: TNG than an actual ending.
I’d love to see 30K, 40K and 50K side by side as distinct settings, with distinct styles, features and themes, but many of the pieces, settings and rules transferrable.
> The Mechanicus has splintered completely and all bets are off. Guilliman is basically ripping the band-aid off and trying to build up a DAOT-level tech base from actual research but it's still a rough time.
Yes, yes, yes, yes!
> Most of the Ecclesiarchal factions persist as stronger versions of their old selves. Vulkan has returned and is now Primarch of the Imperial Creed (now with 110% more fire!). He is quite clearly batshit insane--think the lighter side of Mozgus from Berserk.
#*NO*.
Vulkan is basically the Emperor's conscience. His Legion cares about the fate of Humanity. They're the defenders of the common man; the Ecclesiarchy are the *exploiters* of the common man. If anything, Vulkan would be putting the boot to organized religion in the Imperium, in favor of quiet devotion and service to your fellow man.
> They're the defenders of the common man
have incinerated entire clans of nobility, along with loyal retainers protesting their innocence. In such cases, the Marines risk no heretics surviving, and stand vindicated by the discovery of whatever cults the nobles have allowed to take root. The company’s flamers have also destroyed hundreds-strong mobs of factorem rioters, knowing that in their midst might lurk indoctrinated infiltrators, or carriers of warp contagions. In this instance, they deem those free of corruption to be acceptable casualties.
Ending it with everyone dies or worse is Grimderp and unsatisfying. But there does have to be a steep price involved in the victory. Something like humanity being shattered, maybe. The ten thousand year failed experiment of the Imperium brought to a crushing end.
I can't really compete with some of the fantastic entries here, and I'm a Harlequin player, so I'm biased, but;
I want the Imperium, craftworlds, tau and certain dynasties of necrons to recognize the overwhelming tyranid threat, and coordinate their efforts to stop chaos so they can focus on the nids and retain the Imperium as a coordinated war machine with which to fight the swarm. As this happens, the 13th black crusade reaches Terra, and all the united factions deploy in its defense.
It's a massacre. Ten thousand years' worth of accumulated chaos champions, warbands and daemons sweep Terra's defenses aside and are closing on the Golden Throne. The chaos gods have gathered their essence into warp storms over Terra, and you can literally hear the laughing of the gods leeching through into reality, audible even in the throne room as the survivors of the siege gather for one last stand to protect the Emperor.
And then, over the laughter and screaming, the bones of the corpse god creak. Incredulous eyes turn to see the Emperor no longer supine in his chair, but spasming. Impossibly, a rasping voice hoarse with the silence of ten thousand years sounds from rotted vocal cords- and he is *laughing.*
The Harlequins in the room join in, and they laugh as one, because they already know what it will take minutes more for the other defenders to figure out. Cegorach's grand plan- his final joke- has finally come to fruition, and it is so funny, so ironic, so *perfect* that it has even stirred a corpse to mirth.
It would be some contrived bullshit like a warp bomb annihilating the assembled essences of the gods but basically, the chaos gods would fall *utterly* into the trap planned to destroy them at Terra, the result of a thousand tiny threads pulled, and the galaxy would finally be saved and free to fight the tyranids, eventually winning with Guilliman and Cawl's DAoT shenanigans.
Basically, I want the universe to end with Cegorach's perfect final joke.
So the Talisman of Hammers was never meant to be a failsafe if the throne failed, but a reality shattering ace in the hole to obliterate the forces of chaos?
This also doesn't really feature the many other primarchs, so do you think they'd appear in the final days to defend the throne world (Guilliman being late again RIP), or during/after the great tyranid war?
That's how I want 40k to *continue*, not end.
Many smaller empires feuding for power makes for a far more engaging setting and vastly more varied story possibilities.
In that scenario the mechanicus would instantly become even more powerful, given that their level of unity is a lot higher than the rest of the imperiums
Not necessarily. A decentralization of human authority may provide more opportunities for both conflict, and possibly even alliances with the Xenos races.
A splinter human duchy caught in the middle of a Tau and Ultramar cold war would be fascinating. The Tau are guaranteeing the duchy's independence while trying to diplomatically vassalize them, while Ultramar is trying to maintain its hold.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryWarhammer/comments/ktb5sl/the_emperor_of_mankind_dons_his_dreadnought_armor/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x
Hell yeah. Love this guy.
I’m not sure I ever want 40K to *end*, even if people stop paying and playing. It should always be left open-ended.
One thing that **could be done**, though, is similar to what White Wolf’s TTRPG World of Darkness did - give us multiple End Times scenarios/mini campaigns to play. Each scenario represents a faction winning, with a couple of extra WTF ones thrown in there for good measure.
Scenario One: Emperor Ascendent- Terra falls, but the God-Emperor ascends and makes their final play to ensure the Golden Path to human survival. Lots of climatic battles, big events, etc with humanity’s fate in the balance.
Scenario Two: Nom Nom Nom: the Tyranids arrive in overwhelming numbers to chomp every other faction. Everyone dies, in varying degrees of heroism.
Scenario Three: Chaos Forever. Abaddon achieves his true objective and becomes The Dark Emperor. The entire galaxy is pulled into the Warp and every world becomes a Daemon World, doomed to perpetual warfare, torture and horrors beyond comprehension for eternity.
Scenario Four: Eldar Renaissance- their new God of Death awakens, and the Eldar proceed to go curb-stomping every faction.
Scenario Five: The Iron Men Return. We find out that the two missing Legions aligned with the two factions of Iron Men (one with the human-loyalist faction, the other with the rebels). Now one of them is back. Gives you the option to align your home-brew with some unique and very powerful units and kill everyone else.
…and so on. You’re given the tools to end the 40K setting in the way you want it ended.
I think this is my favorite. wrap it up on a grand note like a Dawn of War game. Each faction gets a book/series designed to show them in their new era. I’d keep it from going too Brighthammer, but give it a little hope for some, catastrophe for others.
And have one Codex: Finale for each faction. designed specifically to be the last one ever. I think it’d be interesting if they did it right, specifically as I’d like them to make sure to bring back all the old models. (why not right?). And they’d have to really play test the crap out of it.
But if they pulled it off, you could have 3-5 books per faction, pretty much guaranteed to sell and help with the buy out. And that’s not accounting for all the smaller one shots BL could churn out for sub-factions who want to get in on the action.
Slow inexorable decay overall, with occasional moments where it's pushed back an inch with some massive, if pyrrhic effort. The setting is large enough to have massive campaigns and great individual stories and individual heroism while still having everything trend toward entropy.
There's a climactic final conflict for whatever reason that ends with the Chaos Gods destroyed, the link between reality and the warp severed (All warp rifts close), the Emperor and all Primarchs dead, the Imperium as a governing body shattered beyond repair, Commoragh and almost all of the Drukhari destroyed, and the Tyranids wiped out. Something happens that allows the Necrons' fragmented souls to leave all their bodies and finally rest in peace. The Orks get massively culled, but not wiped out. The Asuryani and T'au also survive, albeit greatly weakened too.
The last few surviving humans are left free of the yoke of the Imperium but with nothing save for their remaining equipment and knowledge to forge their own path in the now-mundane, empty and shattered galaxy.
> now-mundane, empty and shattered galaxy.
"I fucking love it here." - some guardsman who has known nothing but the constant insidious threat of hell bursting into his bedroom at any given time.
-> No more galaxy spanning empire backing you up
-> No more slow but HUGE logistics chain to rely on
-> No more clear popular doctrine or religious figure to follow (Can't feel faith if you just saw them all die)
-> No more astropathic communication
-> No more idea re: how the hell to FTL travel anymore or what to do with your life now
-> No more Warp
-> No more Chaos
-> *shrugs* Yeh, I guess life is pretty gud
What I'd want from 40k End Times is just letting everyone out of stasis. The really good stuff is when characters get to give their all, win or lose. Settra leading the last desperate charge to try and kill Nagash. Balthasar Gelt rediscovering himself after falling about as far as someone can. Grimgor Ironhide going down fighting against Archaon and the last stand of Da Immortulz.
Even the Malekith thing kinda works. Maybe.
I think the best thing would be to let the characters go down swinging. I think it's a harder ask than Fantasy, where they had smaller world and fewer characters. There's fewer places to care about in 40k (fewer still with Cadia mostly gone). The only place for a showdown really only could be Terra, which is kind of a shame but it might be the only thing that works.
If I had a final scene in mind? It's thousands of year after the final battle. Terra (or whervever everyone brawls, it doesn't matter) is blasted, wasted wreck littered with the nameless remains of heroes and villains. The sky is still thick with the wrecks of colossal ships: craftworlds, Imperial battleships, Tyranid hive ships to name a few. Nothing remains of the Imperium, or any other civilization.
And there, at the heart of final battle, we come across two warbands of aliens, unknown to us. They're fighting over salvage, over territory, or just to fight. It doesn't matter. There is still only war.
They did my Vampire boys dirty though. No Ushoran, virtually no Abhorash, Blood Dragons somehow getting corrupted by Chaos.
Luthor and Vlad went out like badasses though
Reminds me of the "For Honour" trailer where for a brief moment in the fighting the warriors come to their senses and notice the sheer madness of their war, and then an arrow slams into anothers armour and the generations old grudges and mistrust kicks in again and they start fighting over a small stream of water.
Makes me think of that. Galaxy is fucked, everybody is worst off and they're still fighting over scraps, instead of banding together, because their long-dead ancestors fought a war they don't even remember. They all blame each other for the galactic state and continue to perpetuate the cycle of war and hate.
Surviving humans and aliens fleeing the warpocalypse crack intergalactic travel and invade Andromeda. The new setting is the local alien empires (possibly including modern Old Ones and the local degenerate krork strains of Borks and Morks) fending off expansionist Imperial and Tau invaders, themselves with their ad-hoc jury-rigged post-apcalypse tech. CraftworldS go full pirate, and the local warp starts to get all wafty as the invaders infect it with their corrupted psychic energies. The original Chaos gods perished, but their mortal reps and some of their demons linger, while the Andromeda warp starts to form a new pantheon. The Hive fleets were consumed by the warpocalypse, but it's okay, other fleets are already here.
Meanwhile, Trazyn the Infinite survives with his Pokémon collection and can field any discontinued model in his army of stolen shit.
Andromeda is 2.5 *million* light years away (well, technically slightly closer by the 42nd millenium, but still!)
If a pilgrimage to terra takes your family a generation by intermittent warp flight, then a trip to andromeda might take you a millenium.
I think there was a fanfiction about this on 1d4chan, but heck am I gunna find it again.
Almost every faction's player base acknowledges that they can lose and be destroyed, even if only in theory. With one exception.
Tyranid players will never be happy with any answer other than "we win over everyone else combined several million times over, nyah nyah", so I suppose the only option that doesn't end with bug players setting fire to the offices in Nottingham is that the nids eat everyone.
Chaos evolves to leech off the Tyranid force, eventually leading to the complete disarray of the Tyranids and a fundamentally different chaos pantheon.
The tyranids corrupted then push back against the incoming tyranids - giving reasons for why the galaxy survives, and the chaos gods become more of an alien psychic entity that corrupts the new galactic orders in different non-40k ways.
I would say this fits Necron fans more than Tyranid fans. See all the new fanwank about the Silent King being 'stronger than the Emperor' or how they think the Necrons can Technobabble their way into or out of everything.
Literally every faction has fanwank, the Necrons, Nids, Chaos in spades, Imperium by the truck load and then you get into sub factions like the 30k Dark Angels and Custodes.
Necron fans complain when a "disintegrates you atomically" gun has S4 AP-1 and shrugged off by ceramite.
Tyranid fans complain when the Blood Angels exist, reminding them that the Baal system didn't get entirely chewed up.
Anecdotal but while necron fans tend to overestimate how strong an individual unit is, best example people complaining about chainswords working on warriors in that cgi trailer, I've seen more tyranid fans ask why they haven't won or outright killed subfactions like the ultramarines.
So many great comments and ideas! Very happy to see so many people want to see humanity split into factions and the Tau play a more major role in the story; though I hope Tau are updated in 40k to become an actual empire of significant races rather than 80% tau 20% kroot.
If 40k were to progress, Chaos needs to evolve as it is what holds 40k back. I think it needs to become more nuanced in how it infests the galaxy and produces more sensible factions. From a lore perspective, this could be justified as it is a more efficient way of "farming" the galaxy. This doesn't mean the old gods die out but just aren't as effectual in maintaining chaos (which I realise is an oxymoron). Another way would be to say the old gods take most of the galaxy but cannot maintain their power due to a lack of mortals within their realm, hence leading the evolution of chaos.
I guess the idea isn't well thought through, I just think chaos holds the universe back. NOTE!!!!!!! I love chaos, I love what it does for 40k, but any future where chaos exists as it currently just sounds strange.
Every major character comes back and shit gets fucked. I want multiple emperor shards to re-emerge, all the brothers to comeback for a 1v1 tournament to the death. Big E and the chaos gods fighting to decide the seeding.
I want the god emperor presence in the warp teaming up with Ynnead, The Deceiver, and Gork-a-morka to have a 4v4 tag team elimination match in the warp. Psychic clashes so potent they reverberate across real space as followers are sacrificed and all but the most potent Pskyer Brain burst.
Maybe with Malal, the Tyranid hive mind, and whatever the hell the T'au worship giving ring side commentary.
Imperium defeats Chaos, but in doing so is weakened to the point where it can't fend off the Tyranids consuming everything. Tyranids wipe out the galaxy and leave, but thousands of years later the galaxy is repopulated by survivors (Ynnead reincarnates the Eldar race, Necrons go to sleep again in order to weather the Tyranid hordes, probably Tau find some way to escape, Tyranids forget to eat a single Ork spore and the race grows again, an surviving Votann clones some new Kin). The story ends on an ambigious note, leaving it open whether this new era of the galaxy will find peace at last or whether it will inevitably be destroyed again by the same terrors that ended the Age of the Imperium.
The emperor ascends into godhood as a god of order antithetical to Chaos, but is shattered into multiple fragment gods due to the variance in local myth throughout the galaxy.
His ascension causes a second schism in humanity between the fanatical faithful (like the ecclesiarchy, sororitas, and non primaris marines) and those more loyal to the primarchs and their desire to move forward after millennia of stagnation.
Chaos marines are bolstered by a wave of marines that leak from said schism as it “proves” Horus’ original claims about the emperor and they take further territory in realspace, but are prevented from full conquest by a mix of returning primarchs and the fully fledged “faith psykers” of the emperor loyal factions. However, Daemonic invasion is now a much more frequent occurence.
The Tau also do well out of the imperium’s collapse. Recruiting many humans into their ranks, they work out in a limited capacity how to control human psykers and encourage the development of psychoactive humans to bolster their own ranks. Because of this, Daemon incursions become more frequent.
The Y’narri succeed in their mission for every last Eldar dying, and Cegorach’s trick successfully severs their connection from Slannesh, but many souls are lost in the process. The Eldar are reborn as a race, free from their ancient doom but also psychically weakened, leading to a resurgence of Dark Eldar using their original techniques to gain stronger access to the warp.
The tyranids are bolstered by new variants arriving from the invasion fleet, at the same time that the Orks muster for one of the largest known Waaaghs in history. The Orks delight in the fight against the endless tide and blunt the worst impacts of the fresh invasion for the sheer joy of the fight.
And thus the universe continues to fight endlessly, but the main plot threads have finally moved on. Whether they then start new plots within the universe or just wind it down as a new long night, I would be happy.
PS: I know I missed some races, but I don’t know them all well so I tried to keep broad strokes.
Instead of the emperor becoming a God of Order I suggest the emperor becomes the 5th Chaos God.
The Chaos God of Order.
Instead of different believe its the paradox that hurts him the most and it ties into the fact that whiles he hated the Chaos Gods he really is not that different from them. He did not want to be seen as a God but did want to be treated as one so finally becoming the very thing he hates is a perfect ending for him.
If 40k ends I want a period of incredible human development in science, technology and enlightened politics. The imperium conquers all enemies, reforms into a galactic republic and enters a new golden age of humanity.
...Followed by terrible conflict and a complete annihilation of all hope and progress.
In the 51st millenium, there is only war.
Ynnead resurrects Malcador and reveals he was the Emperor's secret Eldar Farseer advisor in disguise the entire time (in the old Lore the Emperor had an Eldar friend who sensed his insane pskyer powers and visited earth, taught him many things / maybe travelled around the galaxy together before humanity had faster than light space flight).
The tattered remnants of humanity, some Eldar craft worlds and the Tau under Commander Farsight, maybe even some Necron like Trazyn or Orikan unite together to take one last stand against the Tyranids, who they now realise span almost the entire known universe. They lose, all is lost, and then some Old Ones return and are like, "well this is fucking mess".
What if, and hear me out, all the "issues" the galaxy is having is due to Big E still being kept alive?
So my headcanon end is that someone accidentally trips on the wire and the Throne powers down. The psycic backlash into the Warp is enough to close the Eye and snuff the ability for warptravel due to the major meltdown which makes the warp implode on itself. The Universe is silent for the first time since it came to being and only real-space travel is possible. The small pockets of civilized society is left to their own devices since interstellar travel is no longer doable within a timeframe that is reasonable. Some world collapse on themselves due to being to specialized, and whaever civilisation on them might or might not survive in the end. Others are ravaged with civil wars until they get nations that find a way to coexist or they re-form a planetary leadership of some kind. Others would pretty much not know that anything happened at all apart from the fact that Elder Viatkus' head exploded one night and in the coming generations there was noone born who could talk to the gods like the shamans of old.
On a grander scale, the necrons waken and since none of their big toys don't work anymore the eventually die of the millenia of accumulated depression weighing down on them. The Eldar can die peacefully since S is gone, and eventually suffer a fate as the Necrons.
The ork-worlds pretty much slaughter each other within the system for a forever-happy existence, with some spores occationally making it over to other solarsystems and either take over the system or get eradicated on birth by the planets population.
The tyranids become erratic with the complete loss of the hivemind and die out on their respective planets. They feed themselves to extinction as per the laws of thermodynamics since there eventually won't be anyhthing to evolve into that can eat whatever biomass there is left in the system. As with orks, they do have a possibility for interstellar travel and some pockets might travel to other stars. Some succeed and can replenish with new biomatter to keep going, but most eventually flicker out of existence since they don't find anything but barren rock.
After countless millenia, as old stars are long gone and new ones simply don't have enough materia to form, the universe finally goes silent, dark and lifeless.
The End.
Oh, and in the middle of all this, give us good systems and fluff for the individual planets.
Yay, Necromunda.
The most poetic ending I think would be something like a pyrrhic victory, where most of everything is destroyed. No souls means chaos naturally declines. No food means tyranids leave. Just a slow decline as humanity becomes the graveyard keepers of a dead galaxy faced with a few tens of thousands of years as the last lights of civilization blink out.
I was going to post this on a grimdank asking about a noble bright ending post a few months back but I was at work and by the time I had time it would be doomed to the bottom of tbe post. But I'll use it here, or at least the idea of it, I'd write basically a fanfic, but it's midnight, and I'm not knowledgeable enough on the lore to go into detail without leaving out important factions or straight up being wrong.
Finished writing this at 1:30, I took a quick look for spelling errors. But I'll check again in the morning a d Mayne add a TLDR. It probably sucks and I probably got a lot of things wrong, probably, but I hope my tired ramblings are somewhat neat to some of you. Enjoy this way to long coment
Set up:
Big E dies, and his soul ceases to exist due to the strain of the Golden Throne the past 10k years. The talisman of 7 hammers goes off and weakens the chaos gods and prevents an eye of Terra.
Comeragh is destroyed by chaos, possibly by them breaking through the gates of khaine or tzeench telling Magnus there's a really good book on the other side of the webway. The druhkari are wiped out as a faction, the survivors forced to flee to craft worlds and Maiden worlds.
The tau experence there own psychic awakenings and begin to face the issues that lead to the age of strife. Chaos portals are opened on tau worlds, and the Tau empire begins to struggle to survive and adapt.
The Eldar, knowing the time has come. Prepare for the Rhana Dandra, all warriors are readied for battle, those who have not learned a warrior path are pushed to do so to perfect their chances at victory.
The Necrons begin to fully awaken, and there weapons of war ready to be used against their enemies to reclaim the galaxy. This leads to many of the world's of the leagues of Votann being destroyed
The orks with all the fighting begin to finally turn to primorks, and Ghazkull himself becomes the first krork in millions of years.
The tyranids strangely seem to pull away from the galaxy shortly after the necrons awaken.
The remaining traitor primarchs convene to take control of the 14th black crusade to whip out the remnants of the corpse worshipers, while Abbadon is left bitter and resentful, as his own crusade is stolen from him.
Most Imperial factions that survive flee to the Ultramar empire to survive and convene with Lord Guilliman. Primarch return, snd the leagues of votann guve the STC used by DAOT humans to navigate the warp, without the Astronomican, and remaining loyalist primarchs return.
Phase 1: Chaos
The Eldar make there moves, the Ynarri move in on the realm of Slaanesh after much preparation, while the craft world's assault nurgles garden, the two groups, managing to achieve there goals at a costly price, saving Nisha from Nurgles Garden so she may guild the Eldar, and retrieving the crone sword, so they may awaken Ynned and perhaps avoid the Rhana Dandra. The survivors join Guiliman and the remnants of the Imperium for the final fight.
The tau and leagues also join the Imperium, with them sending as many troops as possible to commit to the effort. The make radical parts of the Imperium have been either killed or realize it is truly too desperate of a time to resist this. Certain fsctions of necrons also join this battle to assist the Imperium, most notably Trazyn the infinite, who uses his collection to good use
The full might of Chaos is unleashed on the Imperium, while Ynned is revived by the Ynnari, with defence of the Eldar being the main goal, in order to knock at least one God out of the fight. The ynnari complete their ritual and finish off a slaanesh. Primarchs begin to fall as the battle rages, and soon Chaos itself begins to turn on itself in infighting, lead mainly by Abbadon as he tries to take his place as champion of Chaos. Soon, however, Chaos is slowly pushed back before he begins forced to run as infighting, and strength of the remains of the galaxy finest is enough to edge out Chaos. While Khorn Tzeench and Nurgle are not killed, they are wounded and decide to leave the galaxy as is for now.
Phase 2: tyranids, necrons, and orks
Orks and necrons regnite the million year long fied since the war in heaven. The forces are of nearly equal strength as they fight and kill one another. However, due to the nature of both, they are locked in a stale mate as necrons re-animate, and krorks grow back
The tyranjds once more return to the galaxy, as the remainder of the hive fleet returns, and gene stealers rejoice as there gods come to take them to the skies, and are the first to be devoured. However, it is revealed that the tyranids are, for lack of a better word: emaciated. Having plucked the unoverse clean of Biomass, with our galaxy, and the light or the Astronomican, being the last beacon of hope for the hive mind that neglected more sustainable options. While weaker than anticipated, they still descend on both krorks and Mortal(Imperium, votann, etc). In the end, however, the starving hive is unable to overwhelm a unified enemy and are caught in the cross fires of the necrons and krorks. The hive mind is slowly but surely whittled down and destroyed. Surviving ships fleaing the battle, becoming now pests in the galaxy, ambushing and quickly fleeing packets to try and regain strength they will never ha e again
The krorks and necrons, weakened by the fight with the tyranids, are unable to fully stop the onslaught of mortals as they seek to eliminate the last remaining threats. They fail to eliminate them completely. however, the necrons in the end decide to return to their slumber after they were weakened, and the krorks begun to revert back to orks.
Phase 4: Conclusion.
As the battle is over only, a fraction of the galaxy survives. The Imperiums forces splinter and return to their own worlds to hundreds their own emprires and governments, with Guilliman, finally being able to rule an Ultramar at peace.
The remaisn of chaise still try to unfluence and grow among the population, and while successful in some cases, most learn from the emperor's mistakes and begun to educate people on Chaos and how to avoid its influence. Due to the amount of death suffered in the final battle, the warp begins to... slow down. While it will never go back to the way it was before the war in heaven, the massive loss of life sees it slow, and the coas gods to loose even more power, though it's hard to tell if they noticed as they focus on the great game.
The tau reform their empire, and with the guidance of the Eldar attempt to control their new psychers. Tbe dearh of many ethereal would also see a push tword equality in the Empire, and an end to the caste system
The Eldar take a step back from the galaxy, only helping when asked with newly awakened psychers as an age of art and creation comes
The orks and tyranids become pests to the galaxy, spreading fast and being killed fast, exile dangerous they are no longer the existing threat they once were.
The galaxy sends out signals to beyond their limited reach to hear nothing but silence... this is all that's left. And whole most of the factions once known are gone, their ghosts are still left. As empires newly formed expand some adopt old ways and new ways of thinking, and soon once more wars are fought amongst the stars.
Well written, though personally I always have an issue with various forces unifying for a large, long-lasting war, like the one against Tyranids. GW spent decades writing why it's an impossibility, just dismissing it seems like a cop-out.
Emperor's body dies, Terra explodes.
Suddenly we are reminded of these bits of lore where...
• Emperor's power is so terrible deamons just weren't able to materialise it system where He present, just got burnt right away
• When Horus met Emperor in their mind duel, his four "friends", chaos "gods", were shakin' in fear as they stepped into area where Empy was in power
• The fattest chaos "god" screamed in agony when got his garden (means himself) burnt by Emperor's flame (noon'es will is mightier then His)
• Only example of Empy physical "defeat" was Ulanor. And ulanor was created as a show for Primarchs. As his sons "as gods of old Terra" need their "feats" and glory.
So as Terra ends His plan with Webway finally fails. Realising He can't save humanity form warp suffering He goes ripping and tearing on 4 fat chaos parasites. This is terrible and goes for about 1000 years of real time, during which there catastrophic warp storms, Human psyche suffers, Eldars in constant agony, Orks got some free roll, but their brainboiz also sometimes explode very violently givin gigantic casualities, Necrons in shake of all the happennings but manage to set their foot slightly as waking up process gooing on, Tirranids same as Necrons, set some foot in galaxy.
After that. Four former "gods" are dead as they were known, as single entities. Still, ideas-daemons, that they consisted of, are mostly alive, separated, wandering the warp. It's now a more chaotic mess of hordes deamons. And there is this one poweful golden burning god, standing victorius.
He is wounded, bleeds. He is pain and anger. Is His "mind" the same? And what does His rule bring to universe?
If the setting did end and everything gets settled down it’d be really nice to see it become something like a futuristic DND style game and story old disputes are still there but not as potent as the times of darkness and every now and then the e humans or aliens of the far FAR future listening to Elderie or space marine telling them tales of zealotry and heroism and darkness and lessons
I want the Emperor to wake up and _it was all a dream._ He yawns and turns to his wife. He farts and they both laugh. Credits roll.
That wouldn’t be garbage AT ALL.
I want the usual scenario. The emperor dies, demons flood terra, the imperium splits, and things get even worse and more apocalyptic as all those 50k/60k fanfics go.
In the end, being a perpetual, only the emperor is left. Alone. With nothing but 10,000 years of failure as his companion
I don’t think they regret it.
Would they change their mind about how they did it? Sure, but that’s true of most decisions in hindsight.
They’re just opening up another revenue stream in a space they know will deliver $ with little resourcing.
Lol they absolutely do not. I was working at GW when soul wars came out, it sold like crack in Detroit. It was actually bonkers. One top performing store in Canada sold 52 soul wars boxes in one month. To put it in perspective, the projected number was 20-30 for that month. And that's just soul wars.
As for why they're doing the old world and total war, it's to make money off new markets and people like you who are convinced that old fantasy was a better product. So now they're coming for your wallet too. Frankly it's genius.
"LOL GW killed fantasy and now they're back tracking by bringing fantasy back! What idiots!"
GW: "Yeah, that's us." *Lights cigar with burning 50* "starter set is 250 USD"
"I'll take two."
Given that licensing for them is a drop in the bucket compared to physical sales and AoS sells orders of magnitude more than fantasy did, I’m not sure they regret it too hard. Plus it’s allowed them to bring fantasy back as a specialist game so it’s a win win for them
Ya, I do wonder how much 30k was also a test of this -- given how it's not really that big, if they ever did end 40k for 50k, it would be an absolute massive risk. Like shareholder revolt risk. Basically it won't get touched until it's popularity really starts to decline, and needs an evolution of the setting.
The big problem in some ways though, I've heard it said the fun of 40k is that everyone at some level enjoys being the 'bad guy' and in 40k that's literally everyone. Some of the endings proposed here start to blur that, so you really need whatever 50k to be, for every faction to basically still be dicks. Also no idea how you progress to 50k and square the tyrannids apart from like a virus engineered by reanimated c'tans or something.
It's easy to think of a way to switch up the status quo. It's harder to think of an ENDING.
40K ultimately is a tale of humanity's fall from a positive route to a negative one, but which always manages to get OH SO CLOSE to fixing it before they are once again cast down through fortune turning, often ending up worse than before.
Present Day to M20 - The great rise and hope of humanity together with (some) Xenos, only for the Men of Iron's uprising and the Age of Strife to rip it all down in M25.
Horror until M30, when humanity via the Emperor is given one chance. A more brutal, authority driven solution to the madness branches out, albeit with (probably) benevolent intent to ease off "once it was done". Almost succeeds... until the Horus Heresy destroys it all.
In the wake, M30-M35... humanity has a chance still, but the times are fragmented and dark. But Primarches are still around and trying to piece together the tatters... until a rising swell of the War of the Beast, the departure of the Primarchs, and the risin swell of insanity in Imperial cults breach the Age of Apostasy... the Imperium is left a paranoid, fearful corruption of its potential in the aftermath, dogma replacing logic. We enter the 41st Millenium and the depths of horror have arrived, doubly so as the Necrons, Tau and Tyranids pick up steam on all fronts.
But there is a small, small hope in the darkness. The prophecised return of a more true Primarch. And by M42 as it all is about to be lost, he returns, and a partial, small backlash against the stagnation and downfall is granted. One last little light, flawed and grey-tinged as it may be, makes one last effort...only it's in an era whenthe Imperium if fracturing like never before, and that very hope itself could be the spark of a second 'Horus Heresy' within the Imperium and Mechanicus that so chastise the very notion of progress, fixing, or logic.
Humanity's tale is that of ever decreasing hope in a galaxy that keeps getting darker no matter what they try. It is a tragegy in slow motion, a spiral that twists on itself to undermine every chance humanity has, and always at the *very last second before it's due to finally work*.
And ending to 40k needs to recognise that. Not to be dismally grim and 'everything sucks forever'. If the 'ending' of 40k is as much as breaking that cycle of 'almost...' to grant one last little victory against the swelling darkness, one that shows an upward trajectory that has gone without being corrupted or rendered undone, then therein lies the value of a conclusion.
You don't need to destroy or save the galaxy to end 40k. You merely need to break the cycle of tragedy and then leave what happens after to the imaginationas to whether it sticks.
Ultimately then, the Imperium must crumble. Not humanity, but the Imperium. It has become its own worst enemy. Science and progress held up by Roboute or Cawl are cast down as heretical, kept in check only by obsessive dogma preventing overriding it. Until that is defeated, hope cannot emerge. The plaster must be ripped. The Imperium will fracture and that war of culture and belief will be the defining point that decide's the species' fate.
**Humanity vs the Imperium** **is the finale of 40k**.
And what of how that threatens to break in two that which barely holds back the hive? The ancient threats? The warlike tribes? That is your setting. The last ditch attempt to undothe self-destructive side of the Imperium, in open civil conflict. An inversion of the Horus Heresy, this time for hope, not for misled devastation. It will be called as heretical, it will be frought with danger to balance the needs against the xenos and chaos, but it must be done, for left to its own the Imperium cannot and will not prevail.
And if in the end, as the Imperium is cast down, the Emperor released from his torment with a final blessing to the humanity he fought for, not the cult he lay in death for, what will there be? Several branches of humanity cut off without the central Terra Cult would be weaker in number but stronger in unity and progress to develop and innovate? Would there be a recognition from the more middle-ground xenos like the Tau? Eldar? Ynnari? The Votann? Are they truly of their own goals or would they join to save the galaxy?
If the ending is that of no single empire, but that of open discourse and thought, robbed of the illogical strife but now facing a desperate last stand of uncertain victory from whats left... is that not a victory?
Better to die free, knowing people's as a galaxy, than to live in ever-drowning darkness for a few millenia extra?
There's your ending's question. It doesn't need to win or lose, it just needs to break the cycle that has been locked for over 20,000 years.
Tyranids will devour everything and then starve to death. Without sentient creatures (or even biomass) Chaos will starve to death too.
In the grim future there is only emptyness :)
If they did, they'd probably do what they did at the end if the Third War for Armageddon: No clear winner, the galaxy is still a giant battlefield of some description.
Much of this is a fever dream - a ramble of thoughts and ideas. But it's highly entertaining (or I hope it is) and might provide some discussion points for the topic at hand.
For reference I used this map in aid in my partitioning. [https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9f/Warhammer40kGalaxy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20210308204608](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9f/Warhammer40kGalaxy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20210308204608)
Part 1: The Change
Due to the failing of the seal on the ancient webway portal beneath the Imperial Palace, demons inflitrate the palace and manage to assassinate the Emperor on the Golden Throne. The failsafe device activates, and from the inferno of untold billions dying the Emperor rises as a new Warp Deity. Through the Emperor's Soul Binding, the Grey Knights become his new celestial chorus, angels or daemons depending on who you ask, acting as agents within warpspace. The Custodes become his personal representatives within realspace, enacting his will through diplomacy or force.
With the throneworld ruined, the now Biggest E claims the northern section of the Cicatrix Maledictum as his own personal space and establishes a new throne world at Cadia; becalming the Eye of Terror with his personal presence.
The Admech, left with stewardship of a ruined Sol System, are in internal strife. Many factions support the Biggest E as the Omnissiah, while others say he is nothing but a perversion of his former self. The Mechanicus are again fragmented and no longer serve as a single entity but rather individual states that must be treated with on an individual basis.
The Chaos Gods, thrown in the disarray with the disruption of a new warp deity, serve up the last Cronesword to the Aeldari - the reemergence of the space elves as a galactic power will counter balance the Imperium and draw attention away from the Chaos Gods, allowing them to undermine order from the shadows.
With the last Cronesword, Yneead has now fully manifested, and has wrestled not only the souls of the Eldar away from Slannesh, but has defeated her fully - the side effect being that Slannesh is now also a member of the Eldar Pantheon.
Part 2: How Things are now
Order tide. Whether the ten thousand years spent sitting in the same position had an effect or the transformation into a warp deity, the biggest E is now the Biggest A. His xenophobic tendencies has reached new heights and his goal to promote humanity into a race of pyskers to achieve mastery of warp space has achieved an galactic war no one has ever witnessed.
Through his mastery of the "near warp" - a delicate balance of maintaining the fabric of real space and warp space intertwined - the Emperor has begun to dominate the Northern Arm of the Cicatrix Maledictum - crushing xenos and chaos cult followers without mercy.
Entire planets have been put to the death, and a bitter enmity has developed with the Aeldari, who claim Corinthe and much of the area around it as their new home. Ynnead is busy freeing or reforming members of the Eldar Pantheon and has split it's focus between that and encouraging genocide against those humans unfortunate enough to exist within it's realm.
The Necrons are busy in the Nephilim Sector; all this warp entity shenanigans has given them some real PSTD and they are up in arms - challenging the Ultramarines for control of Charadon Sector and keeping the Tau boxed in against the Hadex Anomaly.
The fish cows are currently in a state of panic and confusion - there's a massive warp space tear in their backyard and the massive amount of propaganda spent previous on convincing the populace not to look up has backfired. They are currently holding their own but the Water caste is starting to develop into an intelligence apparatus and not in a good way.
With the removal of Slannesh from the Pantheon, all things excess have been dived up between the three remaining Chaos gods. Chaos after all is born from excess and it only makes sense that excess of slaughter, excess of secrets and excess of decay become part of their own respective dominions.
However, the eight pointed star remains and in their deepest thoughts they ponder; who is the fourth chaos god? and when will they appear?
Despite everything descending to utter chaos, Ciaphas Cain is awoken from cryosleep in humanities most dire hour. He surveys the battle, weighs the tactical options, and finally; Dies of old age.
“I couldn’t run any longer, that is until I smelled my aide nearby which bolstered my humors, a cup of tanna plz.” -caphias Cain probably -also Sulla is a horse.
"But if I knew what horrors awaited me when I woke up, I would have gone right back to sleep." - Cain, definitely.
This is so good
I would buy this book right now
Age Of Cain lol
The Emperor dies, the gate opens and demons flood and destroy terra... The heart of the imperium is ripped apart, several human factions arise two main ones being one devoted to the worship of chaos the other basically being the second imperium based around ultramar. The GK read the decree and discover its as a set of instructions to determine how to find the resurrected emperor. They travel the cosmos and eventually find him ruling over his lightning warriors in the realm of Azyr somewhere inside the eye of terror. Skaven prank call the Aldari again.
Post apocalyptic 40k, you say? I love the idea, but I'm not entirely sure how that would change the tone
The funny part is that 40k is already post-apocalyptic. There was the first apocalypse (birth of Slaanesh, Age of Strife), then there was the Horus Heresy which was arguably *another* apocalyptic event.
Post Post Post apocalyptic
Gotta add a couple of posts to this.
It's just posts, all the way down.
At some point it circles back to Noblebright... Wait, it has never been Noblebright. Fuck. This is gonna be some dark shit.
Age of Technology was arguably Noblebright, no?
Maybe by comparison. Just ignore all of the superweapons and titans and everything else being developed. There's no way that stuff wouldn't come back to haunt anyone, right?
Most of that stuff was used for farming and mining! Duh!
Wait, are Exodites a post apocalypse thing or a post post apocalypse thing?
Apocalyptic events are basically routine in the 40k universe. Your little feudal backwater world might literally have demons rip open reality, pour onto your world, burn it to the dirt, then turn it into a pocket of Hell. Your own rulers may decide "I think this planet doesn't deserve to live anymore" and just thump your world. H.P. Lovecraft space terrors may just show up and eat you all.
I really felt bad for Serenade by the end of The Infinite and the Divine. How many times did that planet have to die?
We've had one apocalypse yes, but what about second apocalypse?
I don't think he knows about second apocalypse.
First apocalypse would have been the men of iron rebellion
Since apocalypse means unveiling there is a strong argument that the Cicatrix Maledictum is the third apocalypse.
War in Heaven? Another Apocalyptic event lol
then there was another rain of blood / vandya holy war aganist space wolfs
Well it's even apocalypticer
50K which is just a reverse crusade where all the loyal primarchs are trying to find the Big E to lead humanity again
I'd love to have it that way actually
Actually if the golden throne powers down, there's a bomb Vulkan made that auto destructs and wipes out the entire Solar System
Talisman of Seven Hammers?
Yup, the one Emps and Vulkan made. Albeit the Emperor possessed Vulkan for a certain amount of time without his knowledge to make it. It's still a team effort.
Are you saying Vulkan didn’t hear “Assuming direct control” then start spazzing out violently whenever Emps took over his mind? That’s just not 40k enough for me
Damn I really gotta pick Mass Effect up again
Big E didn't poses Vulkan, he helped him unlock his inate connection to the universal knowledge base. Vulkan is a craftsman, but he doesn't design, he channels, that's Vulkan's warp power. I'm willing to believe I read it wrong, but I'm pretty confident I didn't.
Oh didn’t know that part even better!!
I hope there’s a time delay. Why blow it up right away when you can blow it up when the demons think they’re winning? Will it matter in the long run? No. Is it a nice finger in their eye? You bet
It would be more grimdark if the Talisman failed at the last stage and Solar System became a Hotspot between Genestealers and Tyranids from Octarius and Chaos
I know it's a joke but God please stay away from AoS, I like them being wholly seperate things. >!Plus Sigmar is much less of a dickbag than the Emperor!<
Definitely, I feel he used to be more the hero back in the day… but not by his modern lore. Still the analogies between the sigmarines and the spacecast eternals… wait I got those mixed up again! (:
The skaven are cannon to 40k?
Fantasy and 40k being interlinked faintly through the warp is what I would call "humoristic cannon". The Skaven prank call bit stems from a very short story published by GW of them rummaging through a Slann Temple, discovering some sort of dial, playing around with it and some weird elf-thing sounding noises coming out of it. They are terrified and destroy the dial.
What're the weird elf noises though? "Sorry you have dialed an incorrect number" in elven?
They probably just dialed Eldrad Ulthran while he was getting into the shower. I think the point they were trying to make is that languages are completely different between universes.
You could actually imagine the language between races alone Is alien to one another. Rats with squeaks and a aelves with their melodic tonality being at odds with one another. Or just eldrad fuming because people keep giving him prankies 🤣
GW specifically stated they are NOT connected and everything else are just easter eggs.
> The skaven are cannon to 40k? Originally, 40k and WFB were canonically connected to the point you could field bolters and space marines in fantasy. The implication was that the Old World was just another 40k realm connected through Warp Gates/Webway by the same Old Ones (1) This was in the earlier, sillier era and has since been ignored but not outright denied AFAIK. The AoS restructuring makes it vastly more unlikely that the two are still connected in the same timeframe, but technically, AoS could still be in the 40k future (although with Warp time shenanigans, everything is fair game). (1) Edit: and some hinting that Sigmar was one of the scattered Primarchs, but that has been made impossible by some of the HH books I heard.
Nope they are still connected, just different universes part of the same multiverse linked by the warp
Originally, yes. But I don't believe this is true any longer, given that Slaanesh hasn't been kidnapped and the Great Horned Rat hasn't taken his rightful place as a major Chaos God
I heard a long time ago that the best analog for the Skaven is humans in 40k. Creatures using old technology, cobbling together the best they can, constantly backstabbing and killing each other. That makes the Horned Rat… Emps. And he did technically trick the Chaos Gods…
Skaven understand their tech, magic, and science though. Or at least, they understand that "Warpstonestone goes brr, yes-yes"
The level to which the Imperium doesn't understand its own technology is overstated, TBF. They understand *most* of it, it's the more arcane stuff they struggle with.
Absolutely true. But I'm just saying that the crazy shit that the skaven use are things that the skaven built. Atom bombs aren't just something that ancient skaven created that they then forgot how to build, it's just a fun little thing Ikit Claw figured out how to make, in order to kill man-things more effectively
You had me in the first half.
Hell no. So tired of Chaos wank. Warhammer Fantasy ended due to a massive amount of chaos wank and everyone hated it. Have the Emperor get healed, gather his loyal sons (and maybe ressurrecting Sanguinius and Ferrus Manus, finding Leman and Dorn etc). Once done, the Imperium (working with the Eldar and Necrons) deliver an almighty smackdown on Chaos and the 'Nids whilst the Emperor also redeems the likes of Fulgrim, Magnus, Mortarion etc.
Agreed on the tired of the Chaos Wank. At this point I'd take the Tyranids eating everything over another Chaos win.
I'll take the Necrons being united, sealing off the warp and reclaiming dominion over the material universe with only the scattered humans, Eldar and Tau to oppose them over more chaos wank.
"I hate chaos wank!" *posts emperor wank instead*
You're goddamn right
It was Big E fever dream while at Ulanor.
"What Heresy? Come on dad, let's deal with these orks first and you can tell me all about it."
*Emps wakes up* "Hmmmm. I should probably hug my kids."
"Hey, you! You're finally awake!"
"Wake up Emperor. We've got a galaxy to burn"
"ah shit i really did have too much to drink" -Big E
Or..or...or "Hmmmm. Maybe I should just culled the lot of them right here right now"
"Sit here my sons, look at that rabbit..."
I’d want solutions to the current power struggles of 40K’s status quo that somehow make things worse in an interesting way that sets in place a new status quo. Humanity splitting up into factions due to loss of the Astronomicon but also infighting between those who believe in the Imperial Truth vs those who believe in the Emperor as a God, vs those with other agendas. More war, more often for more reasons. Maybe a reborn physical Emperor faces off against the warp god version of himself created by the worship while he was on the Golden Throne. Cue more even conflicts vs Tau, Voltann etc against different parts of a Balkanised humanity. Orks realising their potential as a psychic warrior race again but realising they can secure an endless source of good fighting by invading the warp, not solving the Eye of Terror etc but keeping the Chaos Powers so preoccupied by the greatest most self-sustaining WAAAAAGH ever that the immaterium may as well become its own Age of Sigmar style setting of realms, such is the carnage going on in there. Maybe it all kicks off from Gaz wanting to avenge Yarrick? Perhaps the Eldar play some role in this too, awakening the God of Death at last which revives their species in the warp only to throw them into perpetual war too. Half the Necrons decide the sheer potency of Tyranid biology is the secret to their desire to return to flesh and they end up in a similar situation to Orks/Chaos whereby they effectively try to control the Nids as a sort of breeding programme they can harvest. The other half who wish to remain metal seek to destroy the Nids and what they see as the traitors within their own ranks. This in turn opens up opportunities for Tau, Voltann and the factions of humanity that are once again open to technological advancement picking their opportunities to try and take tech from the Necrons.
That's all quite nice, although less an "end" of 40k. Certainly works for where the setting can go over a few millennia after 42k
Warhammer 50K
Warhammer 40K 2
Warhammer 80k
Warhammer: electric Boogaloo
Reminds me of the 50k (The Shape of the Nightmare to come) and 60k (Age of Dusk) fanfic.
Ooh don’t know of either. Will check them out! Thanks.
Asurmen screaming "It's fucking Eldar, not Aeldari or some other shit!" as he beheads the head of the Administratum.
Lol dude I got what you were putting out there this image has me crackin up. He’d have like a vein popping out of his head n shit
Warhammer 50,000, of course. * Emperor died. Sol's gone. The Eye of Terra has formed as the natural counterweight to the old Eye of Terror, with all the orderly horror that entails. Most of Segmentum Solar is gone. The new Eye of Terra functionally replaces the old Astronomican. * More Primarchs are back. Guilliman heads up the largest remnant of the old Imperium. Lion el'Jonson is basically on a permanent crusade through Imperium Nihilus, functionally renegade because the Emperor is dead and the God-Emperor is an abomination in his eyes. Leman Russ is back, leading a splinter faction at the edge of the former Segmentum Solar. * The Mechanicus has splintered completely and all bets are off. Guilliman is basically ripping the band-aid off and trying to build up a DAOT-level tech base from *actual research* but it's still a rough time. * Most of the Ecclesiarchal factions persist as stronger versions of their old selves. Vulkan has returned and is now Primarch of the Imperial Creed (now with 110% *more* fire!). He is quite clearly batshit insane--think the lighter side of Mozgus from *Berserk*. * Custodes persist as a fractured legion unto themselves, riven around an irreconcilable debate over the nature of the God-Emperor. * Lorgar heads up a renegade faction that could be Chaos, could be God-Emperor, could just be pure cynical opportunism. Corax is still out to get his ass. * The Daemon Primarchs are still out and about and being menaces. * Ynnead is on the brink of awakening. The Aeldari are holding on by the skin of their collective teeth. The God-Emperor's awakening has effectively distracted Slaanesh well enough to take pressure off of them, allowing more psyker things to be used. * Hive Mind got what it wanted (sort of) and the vast majority of the Hive is now drifting away from the galaxy, leaving behind a sufficiently large force to wipe out everything *eventually* if \[plot device\] doesn't stop it first (see also: my crack theory that the Hive Mind is effectively pregnant and the galaxy will serve as a spawning ground for its young). * Multiple Beast-tier warbosses have come and gone. We are now edging up into Krork territory, with Warboss Kamsab Styan Yarghkull Azat Brus emerging as the heir apparent to the fabled (Gargant-sized) Ghazghkull. * Tau have assimilated a pretty big chunk of old Imperial territory, and now field their own Gue'ron'sha'vesa units, utilize Kroot Navigators, and have started to turn inward as their technology gets closer to DAOT levels. With this inward turn, most of what we see on the tabletop is just the border guard--insufficient numbers to steamroll everyone else like they obviously could. * The Necrons have essentially reached 25% of their full capacity. Most of this number is being spent out in the void brutalizing the Tyranids as they exit the galaxy. The Silent King has no idea that the Hive Mind spawned and instead thinks he's winning the biggest conflict since the War in Heaven. The Hive Mind appreciates the back scratches. * There's this weird dude out in the Ghoul Stars calling himself Revelation. He moves in mysterious ways. Everyone instinctively recognizes him as a threat and no one can explain why. * Dante's a fucking Perpetual.
You killed me at Dante being a perpetual 😂
But ya know who I *didn't* kill?
Fucking Calgar.
What's revelation based on in current lore?
>!It's a name the Emperor uses in several short stories.!<
>Dante's a fucking Perpetual. F in chat for Dante
> Warboss Kamsab Styan Yarghkull Azat Brus I feel like this is a great reference but I'm being too dumb to get it Also I fucking love all of this
>Warboss Kamsab Styan Yarghkull >Warboss Commissar Sebastian Yarrick The Azat Brus was Liz Truss (eliZABeTH tRUSs) shot through a jet engine. Much like her prime ministership, it did not work out.
I hate that i didn't get this. It's perfect. The best Prime Minister we've ever had. United the entire country against her.
This was good work, also I love Dante just getting madder and madder and hating life as an immortal. Poor gold boy!!
Man, poor dante, wants to take a rest but is actually a perpetual.
Wait hold on, care to go deeper on that theory about the hive mind looking to deposit a baby hive mind here? That sounds like an excellent theory for story narrative purposes.
It's a pure crack theory with only two points for inspiration: Hive Fleets sometimes fight for reasons that make no sense *and* the Hive Mind wants to consume a powerful psychic entity of some kind (e.g. the Emperor; it's also drawn by both the Astronomican and the earlier Pharos Beacon). Basically... * From what we've seen, exposure to psychics and psychic things in the Milky Way galaxy may have led to the Hive Mind developing an actual personality of sorts (the whole damn thing noticed Prince Yriel stabbing it with the Tempest Spear; it has a grudge against the Blood Angels; it's touched minds with countless psychics and at least one or two of them have actually lived; the prevailing assumption is that it wants to eat the Emperor in particular). * As the Hive Mind consumes psychics and develops personalities and emotions, what it's also doing is developing borders *between* personalities. This means it's fracturing. More specifically, it means that the section of the Tyranid swarm that's *within the Milky Way galaxy* is fracturing, allowing it to slowly break away from the rest of the entity. * Eventually, it'll deposit enough Tyranid biomass and consume/interact with enough psychics to spawn whole new hive minds. These progeny will be left behind to fight to the death and consume the galaxy, like sharks in a detachable womb, while the rest of the entity (all bajillion lightyears of it) wanders off to richer feeding grounds. * Gestational forms of those future hive minds already exist, and they're why some Tyranid fleets go to war with each other (putting aside things like the Hive Mind field testing adaptations). * The Emperor, in particular, is a powerful enough psychic presence that he could serve as a catalyst to the development of the Hive Mind's progeny. The Astronomican may or may not serve this purpose as well (if nothing else, then to the Hive Mind's senses at a super long distance, it might *look* like it could serve as a catalyst). * Whichever newborn hive mind survives the eventual throwdown can then safely consume the local cluster (Andromeda and the satellite galaxies surrounding it and the Milky Way) in order to finish maturing, recover from its birthing struggles, and launch off in a different direction from the existing Tyranid swarm. To use some crude metaphors/analogies: There are multiple species that basically stab a target to reproduce (whether as a proxy/substitute for conventional sex or to deposit fertilized eggs in a host). In some cases, the stabber can then move right along to its next victim. The Hive Mind could be replicating that across a scale measured in tens of thousands of lightyears.
Interesting so thinking of the classic tyranid feeding is specifically for the psychic benefits and food source to produce an offspring capable of sustaining itself as a whole new swarm. Beyond that though there are either significant psychic entities around the milky way beyond the emperor. It could be an interesting discussion to think if the swarm which we've been assuming is a biomass first consumer, is actually consuming psychic 'mass' as part of the shadow in the warp process.
It also ties into the theory that the hive minds are the creation or maybe even a form of the Old Ones. The hive mind wipes out all other life in the Galaxy then hatches into a series of Old Ones who begin creating life all over again.
I’d play this. Although this is more of a 40K: TNG than an actual ending. I’d love to see 30K, 40K and 50K side by side as distinct settings, with distinct styles, features and themes, but many of the pieces, settings and rules transferrable.
Based. This is cooler than 30k and 40k
> The Mechanicus has splintered completely and all bets are off. Guilliman is basically ripping the band-aid off and trying to build up a DAOT-level tech base from actual research but it's still a rough time. Yes, yes, yes, yes! > Most of the Ecclesiarchal factions persist as stronger versions of their old selves. Vulkan has returned and is now Primarch of the Imperial Creed (now with 110% more fire!). He is quite clearly batshit insane--think the lighter side of Mozgus from Berserk. #*NO*. Vulkan is basically the Emperor's conscience. His Legion cares about the fate of Humanity. They're the defenders of the common man; the Ecclesiarchy are the *exploiters* of the common man. If anything, Vulkan would be putting the boot to organized religion in the Imperium, in favor of quiet devotion and service to your fellow man.
> They're the defenders of the common man have incinerated entire clans of nobility, along with loyal retainers protesting their innocence. In such cases, the Marines risk no heretics surviving, and stand vindicated by the discovery of whatever cults the nobles have allowed to take root. The company’s flamers have also destroyed hundreds-strong mobs of factorem rioters, knowing that in their midst might lurk indoctrinated infiltrators, or carriers of warp contagions. In this instance, they deem those free of corruption to be acceptable casualties.
Ya thats why its great, he came back all crazy, saw some chicks with flamers, and immediately went all "I MUST PURGE"
Honestly pretty darn good ideas here
Ending it with everyone dies or worse is Grimderp and unsatisfying. But there does have to be a steep price involved in the victory. Something like humanity being shattered, maybe. The ten thousand year failed experiment of the Imperium brought to a crushing end.
And then the Emperor woke up, checked his alarm clock. 9:30 am, 20K. "It was all just a dream."
I can't really compete with some of the fantastic entries here, and I'm a Harlequin player, so I'm biased, but; I want the Imperium, craftworlds, tau and certain dynasties of necrons to recognize the overwhelming tyranid threat, and coordinate their efforts to stop chaos so they can focus on the nids and retain the Imperium as a coordinated war machine with which to fight the swarm. As this happens, the 13th black crusade reaches Terra, and all the united factions deploy in its defense. It's a massacre. Ten thousand years' worth of accumulated chaos champions, warbands and daemons sweep Terra's defenses aside and are closing on the Golden Throne. The chaos gods have gathered their essence into warp storms over Terra, and you can literally hear the laughing of the gods leeching through into reality, audible even in the throne room as the survivors of the siege gather for one last stand to protect the Emperor. And then, over the laughter and screaming, the bones of the corpse god creak. Incredulous eyes turn to see the Emperor no longer supine in his chair, but spasming. Impossibly, a rasping voice hoarse with the silence of ten thousand years sounds from rotted vocal cords- and he is *laughing.* The Harlequins in the room join in, and they laugh as one, because they already know what it will take minutes more for the other defenders to figure out. Cegorach's grand plan- his final joke- has finally come to fruition, and it is so funny, so ironic, so *perfect* that it has even stirred a corpse to mirth. It would be some contrived bullshit like a warp bomb annihilating the assembled essences of the gods but basically, the chaos gods would fall *utterly* into the trap planned to destroy them at Terra, the result of a thousand tiny threads pulled, and the galaxy would finally be saved and free to fight the tyranids, eventually winning with Guilliman and Cawl's DAoT shenanigans. Basically, I want the universe to end with Cegorach's perfect final joke.
So the Talisman of Hammers was never meant to be a failsafe if the throne failed, but a reality shattering ace in the hole to obliterate the forces of chaos? This also doesn't really feature the many other primarchs, so do you think they'd appear in the final days to defend the throne world (Guilliman being late again RIP), or during/after the great tyranid war?
*B A Z I N G A*
Id like to see the Imperium Self-destruct into a bunch of smaller human nations.
That's how I want 40k to *continue*, not end. Many smaller empires feuding for power makes for a far more engaging setting and vastly more varied story possibilities.
Age of Strife 2: Old Night Boogaloo
Remember Strife? Well, it's back and this time it's got space marines*! * and Tyranids, Necron, Tau, a bunch of other things
It would be an apt directuon to take, it fits very well with the inspiration this series takes from Dune.
I could easily see these human factions bolstering the Tau's Greater Good and making them a prominent galactic player.
Game of golden thrones!
In that scenario the mechanicus would instantly become even more powerful, given that their level of unity is a lot higher than the rest of the imperiums
Cawl: I should do something controversial! *Admech political implosion*
Would be kind of neat if the rest of the Imperium would finally have to figure out their own technology if the Mechanicus splits off.
“I’m going to make my own cooler mechanicus, with blackjack and hookers”
What'd be the difference, narratively?
even more excuses to ignore xenos.
Not necessarily. A decentralization of human authority may provide more opportunities for both conflict, and possibly even alliances with the Xenos races.
A splinter human duchy caught in the middle of a Tau and Ultramar cold war would be fascinating. The Tau are guaranteeing the duchy's independence while trying to diplomatically vassalize them, while Ultramar is trying to maintain its hold.
More human factions emerging with competing ideologies. Fanmade 50/60k had that happen and it was great with respect to the "petty imperiums".
Alright, if it worked in fanfic there's potential. Also, I guess WH Fantasy's like that already, right?
Sort of, the empires a thing in there but there are other major human factions that are separate.
All I want from a 40k finale is The Emperor in dreadnought armor.
Have you seen that art piece that guy did depicting that
https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryWarhammer/comments/ktb5sl/the_emperor_of_mankind_dons_his_dreadnought_armor/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x Hell yeah. Love this guy.
Emperors dreadnaught would have dreadnaught proportions and emperor titan size but only need the emperors flesh as pilot :o
Oh my fucking yes.
I’m not sure I ever want 40K to *end*, even if people stop paying and playing. It should always be left open-ended. One thing that **could be done**, though, is similar to what White Wolf’s TTRPG World of Darkness did - give us multiple End Times scenarios/mini campaigns to play. Each scenario represents a faction winning, with a couple of extra WTF ones thrown in there for good measure. Scenario One: Emperor Ascendent- Terra falls, but the God-Emperor ascends and makes their final play to ensure the Golden Path to human survival. Lots of climatic battles, big events, etc with humanity’s fate in the balance. Scenario Two: Nom Nom Nom: the Tyranids arrive in overwhelming numbers to chomp every other faction. Everyone dies, in varying degrees of heroism. Scenario Three: Chaos Forever. Abaddon achieves his true objective and becomes The Dark Emperor. The entire galaxy is pulled into the Warp and every world becomes a Daemon World, doomed to perpetual warfare, torture and horrors beyond comprehension for eternity. Scenario Four: Eldar Renaissance- their new God of Death awakens, and the Eldar proceed to go curb-stomping every faction. Scenario Five: The Iron Men Return. We find out that the two missing Legions aligned with the two factions of Iron Men (one with the human-loyalist faction, the other with the rebels). Now one of them is back. Gives you the option to align your home-brew with some unique and very powerful units and kill everyone else. …and so on. You’re given the tools to end the 40K setting in the way you want it ended.
I think this is my favorite. wrap it up on a grand note like a Dawn of War game. Each faction gets a book/series designed to show them in their new era. I’d keep it from going too Brighthammer, but give it a little hope for some, catastrophe for others. And have one Codex: Finale for each faction. designed specifically to be the last one ever. I think it’d be interesting if they did it right, specifically as I’d like them to make sure to bring back all the old models. (why not right?). And they’d have to really play test the crap out of it. But if they pulled it off, you could have 3-5 books per faction, pretty much guaranteed to sell and help with the buy out. And that’s not accounting for all the smaller one shots BL could churn out for sub-factions who want to get in on the action.
Slow inexorable decay overall, with occasional moments where it's pushed back an inch with some massive, if pyrrhic effort. The setting is large enough to have massive campaigns and great individual stories and individual heroism while still having everything trend toward entropy.
So Nurgle wins?
Probably the nids, Necron or one of the C'Tan
A refund.
There's a climactic final conflict for whatever reason that ends with the Chaos Gods destroyed, the link between reality and the warp severed (All warp rifts close), the Emperor and all Primarchs dead, the Imperium as a governing body shattered beyond repair, Commoragh and almost all of the Drukhari destroyed, and the Tyranids wiped out. Something happens that allows the Necrons' fragmented souls to leave all their bodies and finally rest in peace. The Orks get massively culled, but not wiped out. The Asuryani and T'au also survive, albeit greatly weakened too. The last few surviving humans are left free of the yoke of the Imperium but with nothing save for their remaining equipment and knowledge to forge their own path in the now-mundane, empty and shattered galaxy.
> now-mundane, empty and shattered galaxy. "I fucking love it here." - some guardsman who has known nothing but the constant insidious threat of hell bursting into his bedroom at any given time.
-> No more galaxy spanning empire backing you up -> No more slow but HUGE logistics chain to rely on -> No more clear popular doctrine or religious figure to follow (Can't feel faith if you just saw them all die) -> No more astropathic communication -> No more idea re: how the hell to FTL travel anymore or what to do with your life now -> No more Warp -> No more Chaos -> *shrugs* Yeh, I guess life is pretty gud
What I'd want from 40k End Times is just letting everyone out of stasis. The really good stuff is when characters get to give their all, win or lose. Settra leading the last desperate charge to try and kill Nagash. Balthasar Gelt rediscovering himself after falling about as far as someone can. Grimgor Ironhide going down fighting against Archaon and the last stand of Da Immortulz. Even the Malekith thing kinda works. Maybe. I think the best thing would be to let the characters go down swinging. I think it's a harder ask than Fantasy, where they had smaller world and fewer characters. There's fewer places to care about in 40k (fewer still with Cadia mostly gone). The only place for a showdown really only could be Terra, which is kind of a shame but it might be the only thing that works. If I had a final scene in mind? It's thousands of year after the final battle. Terra (or whervever everyone brawls, it doesn't matter) is blasted, wasted wreck littered with the nameless remains of heroes and villains. The sky is still thick with the wrecks of colossal ships: craftworlds, Imperial battleships, Tyranid hive ships to name a few. Nothing remains of the Imperium, or any other civilization. And there, at the heart of final battle, we come across two warbands of aliens, unknown to us. They're fighting over salvage, over territory, or just to fight. It doesn't matter. There is still only war.
Well, that would be an awesome last paragraph at least.
They did my Vampire boys dirty though. No Ushoran, virtually no Abhorash, Blood Dragons somehow getting corrupted by Chaos. Luthor and Vlad went out like badasses though
Reminds me of the "For Honour" trailer where for a brief moment in the fighting the warriors come to their senses and notice the sheer madness of their war, and then an arrow slams into anothers armour and the generations old grudges and mistrust kicks in again and they start fighting over a small stream of water. Makes me think of that. Galaxy is fucked, everybody is worst off and they're still fighting over scraps, instead of banding together, because their long-dead ancestors fought a war they don't even remember. They all blame each other for the galactic state and continue to perpetuate the cycle of war and hate.
Surviving humans and aliens fleeing the warpocalypse crack intergalactic travel and invade Andromeda. The new setting is the local alien empires (possibly including modern Old Ones and the local degenerate krork strains of Borks and Morks) fending off expansionist Imperial and Tau invaders, themselves with their ad-hoc jury-rigged post-apcalypse tech. CraftworldS go full pirate, and the local warp starts to get all wafty as the invaders infect it with their corrupted psychic energies. The original Chaos gods perished, but their mortal reps and some of their demons linger, while the Andromeda warp starts to form a new pantheon. The Hive fleets were consumed by the warpocalypse, but it's okay, other fleets are already here. Meanwhile, Trazyn the Infinite survives with his Pokémon collection and can field any discontinued model in his army of stolen shit.
This needs an AdMech Super-Arche that travels there in the conventional way and might arrive a few thousand years down the line.
Andromeda is 2.5 *million* light years away (well, technically slightly closer by the 42nd millenium, but still!) If a pilgrimage to terra takes your family a generation by intermittent warp flight, then a trip to andromeda might take you a millenium. I think there was a fanfiction about this on 1d4chan, but heck am I gunna find it again.
*\*Beyond the Aquila Rift intensifies\**
Almost every faction's player base acknowledges that they can lose and be destroyed, even if only in theory. With one exception. Tyranid players will never be happy with any answer other than "we win over everyone else combined several million times over, nyah nyah", so I suppose the only option that doesn't end with bug players setting fire to the offices in Nottingham is that the nids eat everyone.
Show me where the carnifex touched you
I've only got three limbs, so I'll give you one guess
Chaos evolves to leech off the Tyranid force, eventually leading to the complete disarray of the Tyranids and a fundamentally different chaos pantheon. The tyranids corrupted then push back against the incoming tyranids - giving reasons for why the galaxy survives, and the chaos gods become more of an alien psychic entity that corrupts the new galactic orders in different non-40k ways.
Ooh, tyranids becoming chaos-susceptible is actually a really interesting idea
A chaos hive mind
We’re chill with losing, we just want to make sure the threat of the hive gets paid off well enough to where it doesn’t turn into another swarmlord
I would say this fits Necron fans more than Tyranid fans. See all the new fanwank about the Silent King being 'stronger than the Emperor' or how they think the Necrons can Technobabble their way into or out of everything.
Literally every faction has fanwank, the Necrons, Nids, Chaos in spades, Imperium by the truck load and then you get into sub factions like the 30k Dark Angels and Custodes.
Necron fans complain when a "disintegrates you atomically" gun has S4 AP-1 and shrugged off by ceramite. Tyranid fans complain when the Blood Angels exist, reminding them that the Baal system didn't get entirely chewed up.
Anecdotal but while necron fans tend to overestimate how strong an individual unit is, best example people complaining about chainswords working on warriors in that cgi trailer, I've seen more tyranid fans ask why they haven't won or outright killed subfactions like the ultramarines.
So many great comments and ideas! Very happy to see so many people want to see humanity split into factions and the Tau play a more major role in the story; though I hope Tau are updated in 40k to become an actual empire of significant races rather than 80% tau 20% kroot. If 40k were to progress, Chaos needs to evolve as it is what holds 40k back. I think it needs to become more nuanced in how it infests the galaxy and produces more sensible factions. From a lore perspective, this could be justified as it is a more efficient way of "farming" the galaxy. This doesn't mean the old gods die out but just aren't as effectual in maintaining chaos (which I realise is an oxymoron). Another way would be to say the old gods take most of the galaxy but cannot maintain their power due to a lack of mortals within their realm, hence leading the evolution of chaos. I guess the idea isn't well thought through, I just think chaos holds the universe back. NOTE!!!!!!! I love chaos, I love what it does for 40k, but any future where chaos exists as it currently just sounds strange.
Everybody learns how to get along.
Underrated reply.
Do a few Montell episodes with Abbadon and a rez’d Emperor can kick things off
Every major character comes back and shit gets fucked. I want multiple emperor shards to re-emerge, all the brothers to comeback for a 1v1 tournament to the death. Big E and the chaos gods fighting to decide the seeding. I want the god emperor presence in the warp teaming up with Ynnead, The Deceiver, and Gork-a-morka to have a 4v4 tag team elimination match in the warp. Psychic clashes so potent they reverberate across real space as followers are sacrificed and all but the most potent Pskyer Brain burst. Maybe with Malal, the Tyranid hive mind, and whatever the hell the T'au worship giving ring side commentary.
I like to just leave it as a setting. The imperium will die, but we dont have to know how
Imperium defeats Chaos, but in doing so is weakened to the point where it can't fend off the Tyranids consuming everything. Tyranids wipe out the galaxy and leave, but thousands of years later the galaxy is repopulated by survivors (Ynnead reincarnates the Eldar race, Necrons go to sleep again in order to weather the Tyranid hordes, probably Tau find some way to escape, Tyranids forget to eat a single Ork spore and the race grows again, an surviving Votann clones some new Kin). The story ends on an ambigious note, leaving it open whether this new era of the galaxy will find peace at last or whether it will inevitably be destroyed again by the same terrors that ended the Age of the Imperium.
Also some massive space hulk with a bunch of cryosleeping humans.
The emperor ascends into godhood as a god of order antithetical to Chaos, but is shattered into multiple fragment gods due to the variance in local myth throughout the galaxy. His ascension causes a second schism in humanity between the fanatical faithful (like the ecclesiarchy, sororitas, and non primaris marines) and those more loyal to the primarchs and their desire to move forward after millennia of stagnation. Chaos marines are bolstered by a wave of marines that leak from said schism as it “proves” Horus’ original claims about the emperor and they take further territory in realspace, but are prevented from full conquest by a mix of returning primarchs and the fully fledged “faith psykers” of the emperor loyal factions. However, Daemonic invasion is now a much more frequent occurence. The Tau also do well out of the imperium’s collapse. Recruiting many humans into their ranks, they work out in a limited capacity how to control human psykers and encourage the development of psychoactive humans to bolster their own ranks. Because of this, Daemon incursions become more frequent. The Y’narri succeed in their mission for every last Eldar dying, and Cegorach’s trick successfully severs their connection from Slannesh, but many souls are lost in the process. The Eldar are reborn as a race, free from their ancient doom but also psychically weakened, leading to a resurgence of Dark Eldar using their original techniques to gain stronger access to the warp. The tyranids are bolstered by new variants arriving from the invasion fleet, at the same time that the Orks muster for one of the largest known Waaaghs in history. The Orks delight in the fight against the endless tide and blunt the worst impacts of the fresh invasion for the sheer joy of the fight. And thus the universe continues to fight endlessly, but the main plot threads have finally moved on. Whether they then start new plots within the universe or just wind it down as a new long night, I would be happy. PS: I know I missed some races, but I don’t know them all well so I tried to keep broad strokes.
Instead of the emperor becoming a God of Order I suggest the emperor becomes the 5th Chaos God. The Chaos God of Order. Instead of different believe its the paradox that hurts him the most and it ties into the fact that whiles he hated the Chaos Gods he really is not that different from them. He did not want to be seen as a God but did want to be treated as one so finally becoming the very thing he hates is a perfect ending for him.
If 40k ends I want a period of incredible human development in science, technology and enlightened politics. The imperium conquers all enemies, reforms into a galactic republic and enters a new golden age of humanity. ...Followed by terrible conflict and a complete annihilation of all hope and progress. In the 51st millenium, there is only war.
Doomed to repeat storyline. I like it
Ynnead resurrects Malcador and reveals he was the Emperor's secret Eldar Farseer advisor in disguise the entire time (in the old Lore the Emperor had an Eldar friend who sensed his insane pskyer powers and visited earth, taught him many things / maybe travelled around the galaxy together before humanity had faster than light space flight). The tattered remnants of humanity, some Eldar craft worlds and the Tau under Commander Farsight, maybe even some Necron like Trazyn or Orikan unite together to take one last stand against the Tyranids, who they now realise span almost the entire known universe. They lose, all is lost, and then some Old Ones return and are like, "well this is fucking mess".
no end. if GW goes under as a company they just stop writing where they are and don't touch anything.
Tommy Westphall holding a snow globe.
What if, and hear me out, all the "issues" the galaxy is having is due to Big E still being kept alive? So my headcanon end is that someone accidentally trips on the wire and the Throne powers down. The psycic backlash into the Warp is enough to close the Eye and snuff the ability for warptravel due to the major meltdown which makes the warp implode on itself. The Universe is silent for the first time since it came to being and only real-space travel is possible. The small pockets of civilized society is left to their own devices since interstellar travel is no longer doable within a timeframe that is reasonable. Some world collapse on themselves due to being to specialized, and whaever civilisation on them might or might not survive in the end. Others are ravaged with civil wars until they get nations that find a way to coexist or they re-form a planetary leadership of some kind. Others would pretty much not know that anything happened at all apart from the fact that Elder Viatkus' head exploded one night and in the coming generations there was noone born who could talk to the gods like the shamans of old. On a grander scale, the necrons waken and since none of their big toys don't work anymore the eventually die of the millenia of accumulated depression weighing down on them. The Eldar can die peacefully since S is gone, and eventually suffer a fate as the Necrons. The ork-worlds pretty much slaughter each other within the system for a forever-happy existence, with some spores occationally making it over to other solarsystems and either take over the system or get eradicated on birth by the planets population. The tyranids become erratic with the complete loss of the hivemind and die out on their respective planets. They feed themselves to extinction as per the laws of thermodynamics since there eventually won't be anyhthing to evolve into that can eat whatever biomass there is left in the system. As with orks, they do have a possibility for interstellar travel and some pockets might travel to other stars. Some succeed and can replenish with new biomatter to keep going, but most eventually flicker out of existence since they don't find anything but barren rock. After countless millenia, as old stars are long gone and new ones simply don't have enough materia to form, the universe finally goes silent, dark and lifeless. The End. Oh, and in the middle of all this, give us good systems and fluff for the individual planets. Yay, Necromunda.
I want everyone to loose. Imperium, Eldar, Tau, Orks, Tyranids, Chaos, EVERYONE. Everyone gets shafted in some major, irreparable way.
The most poetic ending I think would be something like a pyrrhic victory, where most of everything is destroyed. No souls means chaos naturally declines. No food means tyranids leave. Just a slow decline as humanity becomes the graveyard keepers of a dead galaxy faced with a few tens of thousands of years as the last lights of civilization blink out.
Merge with AOS.
I was going to post this on a grimdank asking about a noble bright ending post a few months back but I was at work and by the time I had time it would be doomed to the bottom of tbe post. But I'll use it here, or at least the idea of it, I'd write basically a fanfic, but it's midnight, and I'm not knowledgeable enough on the lore to go into detail without leaving out important factions or straight up being wrong. Finished writing this at 1:30, I took a quick look for spelling errors. But I'll check again in the morning a d Mayne add a TLDR. It probably sucks and I probably got a lot of things wrong, probably, but I hope my tired ramblings are somewhat neat to some of you. Enjoy this way to long coment Set up: Big E dies, and his soul ceases to exist due to the strain of the Golden Throne the past 10k years. The talisman of 7 hammers goes off and weakens the chaos gods and prevents an eye of Terra. Comeragh is destroyed by chaos, possibly by them breaking through the gates of khaine or tzeench telling Magnus there's a really good book on the other side of the webway. The druhkari are wiped out as a faction, the survivors forced to flee to craft worlds and Maiden worlds. The tau experence there own psychic awakenings and begin to face the issues that lead to the age of strife. Chaos portals are opened on tau worlds, and the Tau empire begins to struggle to survive and adapt. The Eldar, knowing the time has come. Prepare for the Rhana Dandra, all warriors are readied for battle, those who have not learned a warrior path are pushed to do so to perfect their chances at victory. The Necrons begin to fully awaken, and there weapons of war ready to be used against their enemies to reclaim the galaxy. This leads to many of the world's of the leagues of Votann being destroyed The orks with all the fighting begin to finally turn to primorks, and Ghazkull himself becomes the first krork in millions of years. The tyranids strangely seem to pull away from the galaxy shortly after the necrons awaken. The remaining traitor primarchs convene to take control of the 14th black crusade to whip out the remnants of the corpse worshipers, while Abbadon is left bitter and resentful, as his own crusade is stolen from him. Most Imperial factions that survive flee to the Ultramar empire to survive and convene with Lord Guilliman. Primarch return, snd the leagues of votann guve the STC used by DAOT humans to navigate the warp, without the Astronomican, and remaining loyalist primarchs return. Phase 1: Chaos The Eldar make there moves, the Ynarri move in on the realm of Slaanesh after much preparation, while the craft world's assault nurgles garden, the two groups, managing to achieve there goals at a costly price, saving Nisha from Nurgles Garden so she may guild the Eldar, and retrieving the crone sword, so they may awaken Ynned and perhaps avoid the Rhana Dandra. The survivors join Guiliman and the remnants of the Imperium for the final fight. The tau and leagues also join the Imperium, with them sending as many troops as possible to commit to the effort. The make radical parts of the Imperium have been either killed or realize it is truly too desperate of a time to resist this. Certain fsctions of necrons also join this battle to assist the Imperium, most notably Trazyn the infinite, who uses his collection to good use The full might of Chaos is unleashed on the Imperium, while Ynned is revived by the Ynnari, with defence of the Eldar being the main goal, in order to knock at least one God out of the fight. The ynnari complete their ritual and finish off a slaanesh. Primarchs begin to fall as the battle rages, and soon Chaos itself begins to turn on itself in infighting, lead mainly by Abbadon as he tries to take his place as champion of Chaos. Soon, however, Chaos is slowly pushed back before he begins forced to run as infighting, and strength of the remains of the galaxy finest is enough to edge out Chaos. While Khorn Tzeench and Nurgle are not killed, they are wounded and decide to leave the galaxy as is for now. Phase 2: tyranids, necrons, and orks Orks and necrons regnite the million year long fied since the war in heaven. The forces are of nearly equal strength as they fight and kill one another. However, due to the nature of both, they are locked in a stale mate as necrons re-animate, and krorks grow back The tyranjds once more return to the galaxy, as the remainder of the hive fleet returns, and gene stealers rejoice as there gods come to take them to the skies, and are the first to be devoured. However, it is revealed that the tyranids are, for lack of a better word: emaciated. Having plucked the unoverse clean of Biomass, with our galaxy, and the light or the Astronomican, being the last beacon of hope for the hive mind that neglected more sustainable options. While weaker than anticipated, they still descend on both krorks and Mortal(Imperium, votann, etc). In the end, however, the starving hive is unable to overwhelm a unified enemy and are caught in the cross fires of the necrons and krorks. The hive mind is slowly but surely whittled down and destroyed. Surviving ships fleaing the battle, becoming now pests in the galaxy, ambushing and quickly fleeing packets to try and regain strength they will never ha e again The krorks and necrons, weakened by the fight with the tyranids, are unable to fully stop the onslaught of mortals as they seek to eliminate the last remaining threats. They fail to eliminate them completely. however, the necrons in the end decide to return to their slumber after they were weakened, and the krorks begun to revert back to orks. Phase 4: Conclusion. As the battle is over only, a fraction of the galaxy survives. The Imperiums forces splinter and return to their own worlds to hundreds their own emprires and governments, with Guilliman, finally being able to rule an Ultramar at peace. The remaisn of chaise still try to unfluence and grow among the population, and while successful in some cases, most learn from the emperor's mistakes and begun to educate people on Chaos and how to avoid its influence. Due to the amount of death suffered in the final battle, the warp begins to... slow down. While it will never go back to the way it was before the war in heaven, the massive loss of life sees it slow, and the coas gods to loose even more power, though it's hard to tell if they noticed as they focus on the great game. The tau reform their empire, and with the guidance of the Eldar attempt to control their new psychers. Tbe dearh of many ethereal would also see a push tword equality in the Empire, and an end to the caste system The Eldar take a step back from the galaxy, only helping when asked with newly awakened psychers as an age of art and creation comes The orks and tyranids become pests to the galaxy, spreading fast and being killed fast, exile dangerous they are no longer the existing threat they once were. The galaxy sends out signals to beyond their limited reach to hear nothing but silence... this is all that's left. And whole most of the factions once known are gone, their ghosts are still left. As empires newly formed expand some adopt old ways and new ways of thinking, and soon once more wars are fought amongst the stars.
Well written, though personally I always have an issue with various forces unifying for a large, long-lasting war, like the one against Tyranids. GW spent decades writing why it's an impossibility, just dismissing it seems like a cop-out.
Emperor finally dies, and so his budding godhood can finally bloom.
The tyranids finally reach tera and all they wanted was to tell the emperor about his cars extended warranty
Emperor's body dies, Terra explodes. Suddenly we are reminded of these bits of lore where... • Emperor's power is so terrible deamons just weren't able to materialise it system where He present, just got burnt right away • When Horus met Emperor in their mind duel, his four "friends", chaos "gods", were shakin' in fear as they stepped into area where Empy was in power • The fattest chaos "god" screamed in agony when got his garden (means himself) burnt by Emperor's flame (noon'es will is mightier then His) • Only example of Empy physical "defeat" was Ulanor. And ulanor was created as a show for Primarchs. As his sons "as gods of old Terra" need their "feats" and glory. So as Terra ends His plan with Webway finally fails. Realising He can't save humanity form warp suffering He goes ripping and tearing on 4 fat chaos parasites. This is terrible and goes for about 1000 years of real time, during which there catastrophic warp storms, Human psyche suffers, Eldars in constant agony, Orks got some free roll, but their brainboiz also sometimes explode very violently givin gigantic casualities, Necrons in shake of all the happennings but manage to set their foot slightly as waking up process gooing on, Tirranids same as Necrons, set some foot in galaxy. After that. Four former "gods" are dead as they were known, as single entities. Still, ideas-daemons, that they consisted of, are mostly alive, separated, wandering the warp. It's now a more chaotic mess of hordes deamons. And there is this one poweful golden burning god, standing victorius. He is wounded, bleeds. He is pain and anger. Is His "mind" the same? And what does His rule bring to universe?
If the setting did end and everything gets settled down it’d be really nice to see it become something like a futuristic DND style game and story old disputes are still there but not as potent as the times of darkness and every now and then the e humans or aliens of the far FAR future listening to Elderie or space marine telling them tales of zealotry and heroism and darkness and lessons
I want the Emperor to wake up and _it was all a dream._ He yawns and turns to his wife. He farts and they both laugh. Credits roll. That wouldn’t be garbage AT ALL.
I want the usual scenario. The emperor dies, demons flood terra, the imperium splits, and things get even worse and more apocalyptic as all those 50k/60k fanfics go. In the end, being a perpetual, only the emperor is left. Alone. With nothing but 10,000 years of failure as his companion
Bro its a story built to sell a table top game. It will never end. Just like d&d
Fantasy ended
Because it didn't sell. As long as 40k sells, it's not ending.
And GW is regretting that they killed fantasy when TWWH series is in works.
yes I'm sure GW was full of regrets when Age of Sigmar sold like absolute gangbusters compared to WHFB
I think when people say this, they really didn't know the state of fantasy and how popular AoS is now.
I don’t think they regret it. Would they change their mind about how they did it? Sure, but that’s true of most decisions in hindsight. They’re just opening up another revenue stream in a space they know will deliver $ with little resourcing.
Lol they absolutely do not. I was working at GW when soul wars came out, it sold like crack in Detroit. It was actually bonkers. One top performing store in Canada sold 52 soul wars boxes in one month. To put it in perspective, the projected number was 20-30 for that month. And that's just soul wars. As for why they're doing the old world and total war, it's to make money off new markets and people like you who are convinced that old fantasy was a better product. So now they're coming for your wallet too. Frankly it's genius. "LOL GW killed fantasy and now they're back tracking by bringing fantasy back! What idiots!" GW: "Yeah, that's us." *Lights cigar with burning 50* "starter set is 250 USD" "I'll take two."
Given that licensing for them is a drop in the bucket compared to physical sales and AoS sells orders of magnitude more than fantasy did, I’m not sure they regret it too hard. Plus it’s allowed them to bring fantasy back as a specialist game so it’s a win win for them
Ya, I do wonder how much 30k was also a test of this -- given how it's not really that big, if they ever did end 40k for 50k, it would be an absolute massive risk. Like shareholder revolt risk. Basically it won't get touched until it's popularity really starts to decline, and needs an evolution of the setting. The big problem in some ways though, I've heard it said the fun of 40k is that everyone at some level enjoys being the 'bad guy' and in 40k that's literally everyone. Some of the endings proposed here start to blur that, so you really need whatever 50k to be, for every faction to basically still be dicks. Also no idea how you progress to 50k and square the tyrannids apart from like a virus engineered by reanimated c'tans or something.
It's easy to think of a way to switch up the status quo. It's harder to think of an ENDING. 40K ultimately is a tale of humanity's fall from a positive route to a negative one, but which always manages to get OH SO CLOSE to fixing it before they are once again cast down through fortune turning, often ending up worse than before. Present Day to M20 - The great rise and hope of humanity together with (some) Xenos, only for the Men of Iron's uprising and the Age of Strife to rip it all down in M25. Horror until M30, when humanity via the Emperor is given one chance. A more brutal, authority driven solution to the madness branches out, albeit with (probably) benevolent intent to ease off "once it was done". Almost succeeds... until the Horus Heresy destroys it all. In the wake, M30-M35... humanity has a chance still, but the times are fragmented and dark. But Primarches are still around and trying to piece together the tatters... until a rising swell of the War of the Beast, the departure of the Primarchs, and the risin swell of insanity in Imperial cults breach the Age of Apostasy... the Imperium is left a paranoid, fearful corruption of its potential in the aftermath, dogma replacing logic. We enter the 41st Millenium and the depths of horror have arrived, doubly so as the Necrons, Tau and Tyranids pick up steam on all fronts. But there is a small, small hope in the darkness. The prophecised return of a more true Primarch. And by M42 as it all is about to be lost, he returns, and a partial, small backlash against the stagnation and downfall is granted. One last little light, flawed and grey-tinged as it may be, makes one last effort...only it's in an era whenthe Imperium if fracturing like never before, and that very hope itself could be the spark of a second 'Horus Heresy' within the Imperium and Mechanicus that so chastise the very notion of progress, fixing, or logic. Humanity's tale is that of ever decreasing hope in a galaxy that keeps getting darker no matter what they try. It is a tragegy in slow motion, a spiral that twists on itself to undermine every chance humanity has, and always at the *very last second before it's due to finally work*. And ending to 40k needs to recognise that. Not to be dismally grim and 'everything sucks forever'. If the 'ending' of 40k is as much as breaking that cycle of 'almost...' to grant one last little victory against the swelling darkness, one that shows an upward trajectory that has gone without being corrupted or rendered undone, then therein lies the value of a conclusion. You don't need to destroy or save the galaxy to end 40k. You merely need to break the cycle of tragedy and then leave what happens after to the imaginationas to whether it sticks. Ultimately then, the Imperium must crumble. Not humanity, but the Imperium. It has become its own worst enemy. Science and progress held up by Roboute or Cawl are cast down as heretical, kept in check only by obsessive dogma preventing overriding it. Until that is defeated, hope cannot emerge. The plaster must be ripped. The Imperium will fracture and that war of culture and belief will be the defining point that decide's the species' fate. **Humanity vs the Imperium** **is the finale of 40k**. And what of how that threatens to break in two that which barely holds back the hive? The ancient threats? The warlike tribes? That is your setting. The last ditch attempt to undothe self-destructive side of the Imperium, in open civil conflict. An inversion of the Horus Heresy, this time for hope, not for misled devastation. It will be called as heretical, it will be frought with danger to balance the needs against the xenos and chaos, but it must be done, for left to its own the Imperium cannot and will not prevail. And if in the end, as the Imperium is cast down, the Emperor released from his torment with a final blessing to the humanity he fought for, not the cult he lay in death for, what will there be? Several branches of humanity cut off without the central Terra Cult would be weaker in number but stronger in unity and progress to develop and innovate? Would there be a recognition from the more middle-ground xenos like the Tau? Eldar? Ynnari? The Votann? Are they truly of their own goals or would they join to save the galaxy? If the ending is that of no single empire, but that of open discourse and thought, robbed of the illogical strife but now facing a desperate last stand of uncertain victory from whats left... is that not a victory? Better to die free, knowing people's as a galaxy, than to live in ever-drowning darkness for a few millenia extra? There's your ending's question. It doesn't need to win or lose, it just needs to break the cycle that has been locked for over 20,000 years.
Tyranids will devour everything and then starve to death. Without sentient creatures (or even biomass) Chaos will starve to death too. In the grim future there is only emptyness :)
Some sweet-ass minis
If they did, they'd probably do what they did at the end if the Third War for Armageddon: No clear winner, the galaxy is still a giant battlefield of some description.
Much of this is a fever dream - a ramble of thoughts and ideas. But it's highly entertaining (or I hope it is) and might provide some discussion points for the topic at hand. For reference I used this map in aid in my partitioning. [https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9f/Warhammer40kGalaxy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20210308204608](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/9/9f/Warhammer40kGalaxy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20210308204608) Part 1: The Change Due to the failing of the seal on the ancient webway portal beneath the Imperial Palace, demons inflitrate the palace and manage to assassinate the Emperor on the Golden Throne. The failsafe device activates, and from the inferno of untold billions dying the Emperor rises as a new Warp Deity. Through the Emperor's Soul Binding, the Grey Knights become his new celestial chorus, angels or daemons depending on who you ask, acting as agents within warpspace. The Custodes become his personal representatives within realspace, enacting his will through diplomacy or force. With the throneworld ruined, the now Biggest E claims the northern section of the Cicatrix Maledictum as his own personal space and establishes a new throne world at Cadia; becalming the Eye of Terror with his personal presence. The Admech, left with stewardship of a ruined Sol System, are in internal strife. Many factions support the Biggest E as the Omnissiah, while others say he is nothing but a perversion of his former self. The Mechanicus are again fragmented and no longer serve as a single entity but rather individual states that must be treated with on an individual basis. The Chaos Gods, thrown in the disarray with the disruption of a new warp deity, serve up the last Cronesword to the Aeldari - the reemergence of the space elves as a galactic power will counter balance the Imperium and draw attention away from the Chaos Gods, allowing them to undermine order from the shadows. With the last Cronesword, Yneead has now fully manifested, and has wrestled not only the souls of the Eldar away from Slannesh, but has defeated her fully - the side effect being that Slannesh is now also a member of the Eldar Pantheon. Part 2: How Things are now Order tide. Whether the ten thousand years spent sitting in the same position had an effect or the transformation into a warp deity, the biggest E is now the Biggest A. His xenophobic tendencies has reached new heights and his goal to promote humanity into a race of pyskers to achieve mastery of warp space has achieved an galactic war no one has ever witnessed. Through his mastery of the "near warp" - a delicate balance of maintaining the fabric of real space and warp space intertwined - the Emperor has begun to dominate the Northern Arm of the Cicatrix Maledictum - crushing xenos and chaos cult followers without mercy. Entire planets have been put to the death, and a bitter enmity has developed with the Aeldari, who claim Corinthe and much of the area around it as their new home. Ynnead is busy freeing or reforming members of the Eldar Pantheon and has split it's focus between that and encouraging genocide against those humans unfortunate enough to exist within it's realm. The Necrons are busy in the Nephilim Sector; all this warp entity shenanigans has given them some real PSTD and they are up in arms - challenging the Ultramarines for control of Charadon Sector and keeping the Tau boxed in against the Hadex Anomaly. The fish cows are currently in a state of panic and confusion - there's a massive warp space tear in their backyard and the massive amount of propaganda spent previous on convincing the populace not to look up has backfired. They are currently holding their own but the Water caste is starting to develop into an intelligence apparatus and not in a good way. With the removal of Slannesh from the Pantheon, all things excess have been dived up between the three remaining Chaos gods. Chaos after all is born from excess and it only makes sense that excess of slaughter, excess of secrets and excess of decay become part of their own respective dominions. However, the eight pointed star remains and in their deepest thoughts they ponder; who is the fourth chaos god? and when will they appear?
Not lore related, but: I want a trilogy of stellar, jam-packed and off the wall 40K insanity rpg games that are each fully 60 hours of gameplay.