Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online

[Ghambit]

The Emperor exists only as a psychic entity, exerting his will across the Empire... this includes communication and orders with lesser Lords, who then they themselves psychically command  their forces (if they've got the ability, which since info. travels faster telepathically, is pretty much a requirement).  Ultramarines included.  Of course, the whole religious zealot thing makes them even more succeptible to a lack of free will to begin with...  if the Emperor psychically empowers an ultramarine squad (who look upon him as a God), you can pretty much guarantee they're gonna do what he says assuming he doesnt just take over their minds.

That's really not what the Emperor does or how the Imperium works. We can get into this in another thread if you like but you are pretty much wrong on all counts here.

One only has to peep at all the Marine chapters that fall to chaos to see this.

Were they not "compelled" by the chaos gods to fall as such?  Yet another mind control deal.
I'm not a 40k guru so I'm probably wrong, but I assume the roleplay versions tend to get a bit rambunctious as I just did.  Twist the rules at ye' leisure.

Also, why NOT "get into this" in this thread?  This is a damned 40k thread aint it?  Every other IP thread we've got is a million pages long with superfluous lore debates.

[kildorn]

They worship the emperor, and he's a very major psychic, but he doesn't control anyone. Some of the chapters are practically fallen to chaos as is. But the deal is the Emperor for all intents and purposes is a giant Jesus allegory, and Chaos tempts people into it's service. Or in the case of the eldar, they become such sex addicts that they spawn a chaos god. No, seriously. It's one of the reasons you can't really ruin the 40k IP: they've pretty much openly mocked themselves from the start.

[Ghambit]

I read that Eldar have to DIE to produce a chaos god.  You sure "fucking" is their M.O.?
If so, I foresee a few million boxes to be sold if there is such a game mechanic.   

[Ratman_tf]

Were they not "compelled" by the chaos gods to fall as such?  Yet another mind control deal.
I'm not a 40k guru so I'm probably wrong, but I assume the roleplay versions tend to get a bit rambunctious as I just did.  Twist the rules at ye' leisure.

Not really compelled. The chaos gods certainly corrupted what was already there, which was strife between the marines.

And for all we know, the Emperor may be dead and gone, and the Golden Throne is the thing broadcasting the Astronomicon. The fluff is intenionally vague on the Emperor's status, besides being a dessicated corpse thing.

[Teleku]

Bleh, not liking what I see so far.  Guess I'll have to hold out for the Brighthammer MMO.

[Simond]

Were they not "compelled" by the chaos gods to fall as such?  Yet another mind control deal.
I'm not a 40k guru so I'm probably wrong, but I assume the roleplay versions tend to get a bit rambunctious as I just did.  Twist the rules at ye' leisure.

Not really compelled. The chaos gods certainly corrupted what was already there, which was strife between the marines.

And for all we know, the Emperor may be dead and gone, and the Golden Throne is the thing broadcasting the Astronomicon. The fluff is intenionally vague on the Emperor's status, besides being a dessicated corpse thing.

Dat's why da orks iz da bestest. 'Oo cares if sum humie iz ded or not on 'is golden crappa, it's time for a punchup! Waaaaagh!  

[kildorn]

I read that Eldar have to DIE to produce a chaos god.  You sure "fucking" is their M.O.?
If so, I foresee a few million boxes to be sold if there is such a game mechanic.  

Slaanesh was created long ago by fucking and torturing people all day long. Basically a bunch of eldar didn't like that, left on ships that became the craftworlds. People who stayed spawned a chaos god, and also formed the eye of terror.

There's more lore that when the last eldar dies, there will be a new eldar god created to kill Slaanesh.

edit: really, you can read all eldar lore and stories picturing some elf lover jacking off furiously and have the basics of it right.

[Ghambit]

Mechanic:  Eldar character cybers another Eldar right on the battlefield in front of everyone to spawn some giant endgame superweapon.  Enemy responds by trying to kill them before load is spewed.  Orgies lower the casting time.
2nd Mechanic:  Eldar captures an enemy player and proceeds to torture him/her right on the battlefield (no rape mechanic), to produce a similar effect.
3rd Mechanic:  uber-Eldar does both to spawn the weapon quicker.

[Ratman_tf]

Mechanic:  Eldar character cybers another Eldar right on the battlefield in front of everyone to spawn some giant endgame superweapon.  Enemy responds by trying to kill them before load is spewed.  Orgies lower the casting time.
2nd Mechanic:  Eldar captures an enemy player and proceeds to torture him/her right on the battlefield (no rape mechanic), to produce a similar effect.
3rd Mechanic:  uber-Eldar does both to spawn the weapon quicker.

That concept is pretty much the Dark Eldar, who are the army representing what's left of the decadent Eldar. The Craftworld Eldar have a system of living that keeps them from going batshit.

[Koyasha]

As for the Emperor and the Space Marines, he's most definitely not controlling them.  The Imperium, from what I have read, is really nothing like what he wanted to create, and he'd be kind of pissed at what people have done.  For example he was abolishing religion, and then people took and made him into a religion and force everyone to be super-ultra-religious.  If he was aware and had any means to act, such as directly controlling the space marines, he'd probably be making a lot of changes.

[IainC]

Eldar:

Descended into epic levels of depravity and hedonism. The psychic nature of the Eldar resonated with the debauchery and effectively created a feedback loop within the Warp that gave birth to Slaanesh the god of excess and depravity. When this happened, the Eldar homeworlds were ripped into a vast pocket of unreality that overlapped the material universe. This is the Eye of Terror and the original Crone Worlds that were the centre of the Eldar empire are now daemon worlds that flicker in and out of the Warp. Any Eldar left on those planets when Slaanesh was born died pretty much instantly and their souls fuelled his early growth. The birth of Slaanesh also cleared the Warp storms that had sundered the previous Imperium of Mankind and forced each human world into isolation. As the warp storms lifted, the Emperor led the Great Crusade to reunite the human worlds and this is basically the backdrop and prelude to the Horus Heresy.

Some didn't like the way that Eldar society was going and advocated a return to a simpler lifestyle - these wandered off to the Maiden Worlds (terraformed planets being prepared for eventual colonisation) and became the Exodites. In WFB terms these guys are basically Wood Elves.

Some didn't like the way that Eldar society was going and left on giant ark ships. These are the Craftworld Eldar. They control the baser impulses that led to the Fall by means of an enormously restrictive and ritualised lifestyle phases called The Path. This allows them to externalise a single aspect of the Eldar psyche at a time in a controlled manner.

Some decided that things were just funky and kept on at it. These are mostly dead now. Some of the ones who stayed around fled into the Webway at the last minute and are the Dark Eldar.

Eldar souls are Slaanesh's favourite thing and when Eldar die, Slaanesh claims their souls. Craftworld Eldar avoid this by the use of Soulstones that capture the Eldar's soul on death, these are then implanted in the psychically active Wraithbone core of the Craftworld where they rest in perpetuity. They can also be implanted into the wraith construct fighting machines of the Eldar but this is seen as a last resort because the soul will be lost forever if the Soulstone is destroyed. Harlequins avoid losing their souls to Slaanesh by having the Laughing God steal their soul before Slaanesh can get it. The Dark Eldar get around it by hiding in the Webway and sustaining their lives for as long as possible with the life essence of captured victims.

The Emperor is functionally dead and the Imperium is ruled in his name by the High Lords of Terra - who are normal humans in charge of the major organisations of the Imperium such as the Administratum, the Officio Assassinorum, the Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy. There is some rivalry between these and they are not always entirely aligned with the Imperium as a whole. The Emperor is worshipped as a god and is believed to be powering the Astronomicon, the enormously powerful psychic beacon that allows navigation in the Warp. To keep this going thousands of psykers are brought to the throne room every day from all over the Imperium and drained of their vitality by the Golden Throne. Suppression of psykers is the most important duty of the Inquisition because psychic talents tap into the Warp and an uncontrolled psyker can become a conduit to Chaos. Of all the psykers rounded up and brought to Terra on the Black Ships, only a vanishingly small proportion are judged strong enough to be allowed to develop their gift and to use it in service to the Imperium. The rest are sacrificed to the Golden Throne. Most of the surviving psykers become Astropaths - messengers capable of projecting important communication between worlds instantaneously, only a tiny fraction of that small percentage who survive will become battle-psykers, Inquisitors or other, more valuable citizens of the Imperium.

[Trippy]

Harlequins avoid losing their souls to Slaanesh by having the Laughing God steal their soul before Slaanesh can get it.

Wait, the C'Tan Laughing God takes their souls? I hadn't read that before.

[IainC]

Harlequins avoid losing their souls to Slaanesh by having the Laughing God steal their soul before Slaanesh can get it.

Wait, the C'Tan Laughing God takes their souls? I hadn't read that before.

No, the Laughing God of the Harlequins (Cegorach) does. He's the only surviving Eldar god to be roaming free and is nothing to do with the C'Tan (probably). The only Harlequin he can't protect is the Solitaire who takes the role of Slaanesh in their performances and who's soul is forfeit.

[Jimbo]

It does have some interesting reading, but times it shows how they went from Warhammer in space to it's own version, like how they changed Orks from being humanoids who reproduce by sexual relations into fungus life forms that reproduce by releasing spores.  Since they killed off the Squats, the Orks have been my favorite.  I wonder if they will develop the story of how the Orks & Eldar were made to fight the Necrons.  This was supposed to be way freaking ancient history, but I wonder why the Eldar don't remember it (Orks are Orkie  ).

[Arthur_Parker]

Levels probably wouldn't be the direction I'd go with it, but for it to be an RPG it does need to have some kind of character-based advancement, yes. Levels, skills, the WFRP spend-xp-on-one-thing-at-a-time system, whatever.

I'm more keen on the "whatever" than levels too.  It's been said many times that levels aren't good for pvp, WAR even had to put a special mechanism in place for pvp just to get round the level problem (it was one of the few things that worked correctly).  What's not been said that often is that levels are a bad idea for roleplaying, but that's true as well.  It's accepted practice now that pure crafting characters have to level up through PVE combat, it's accepted that the players are separated by level ranges.  Levels are not right for this, it's not even sensible for an IP like 40k, do they really think most people want to play this for PVE?

[Morfiend]

Harlequins avoid losing their souls to Slaanesh by having the Laughing God steal their soul before Slaanesh can get it.

Wait, the C'Tan Laughing God takes their souls? I hadn't read that before.

No, the Laughing God of the Harlequins (Cegorach) does. He's the only surviving Eldar god to be roaming free and is nothing to do with the C'Tan (probably). The only Harlequin he can't protect is the Solitaire who takes the role of Slaanesh in their performances and who's soul is forfeit.

Hey Iain, can you explain the Necrons and Tau to me. I always follow Warhammer before these and felt they didnt fit with the lore very well and where only there to sell more armies.

[JWIV]

Yeah, I don't want a diku either, but for Marines, Eldar, and Orcs, it's easy enough to see how they could create a progression path from grunt to whatever.  I'm sure the other races have a similar progression, though it'd take some mental acrobatics to buy it.

Me, I just want Sisters of Battle.  I've no really idea why, but the idea is intriguing to me.  Probably something to do with bewbs.

Sisters of Battle are required if there's any chance of getting my wife to play this.  She demands to be pretty, and does not agree with me when I tell her that the Dreadnaught in the trailer is beautiful.

[Trippy]

Yeah, I don't want a diku either, but for Marines, Eldar, and Orcs, it's easy enough to see how they could create a progression path from grunt to whatever.  I'm sure the other races have a similar progression, though it'd take some mental acrobatics to buy it.

Me, I just want Sisters of Battle.  I've no really idea why, but the idea is intriguing to me.  Probably something to do with bewbs.

Sisters of Battle are required if there's any chance of getting my wife to play this.  She demands to be pretty, and does not agree with me when I tell her that the Dreadnaught in the trailer is beautiful.

What's wrong with the Elves I mean Eldar?

[Lantyssa]

If the Eldar have the synthesized voices of the RTS games, that will definitely be the race I pick should I play.

[IainC]

Hey Iain, can you explain the Necrons and Tau to me. I always follow Warhammer before these and felt they didnt fit with the lore very well and where only there to sell more armies.

Necrons are basically Daleks. Their backstory goes right back to the very earliest part of the timeline. Originally there were two very powerful prime species; the C'Tan and the Old Ones. The Old Ones were a very powerful and incredibly advanced race that bio-engineered most of the current races for various tasks. The C'Tan were energy beings that attached themselves to stars to feed. The Necrontyr were a biological race that lived short and unpleasant lives on a heavily irradiated world. Eventually they achieved space-flight and encountered the Old Ones who they immediately hated for reasons that aren't very clear. The war between these two was one-sided and led to the Necrontyr being isolated in a remote corner of the galaxy where their hatred for the Old Ones festered into a burning resentment of all life.

Eventually the Necrontyr discovered the C'Tan and managed to communicate with one. They built a material body for it to inhabit out of living metal and worshipped it as a god. More C'Tan quickly appeared and, clad in their new physical bodies, developed an interest in the material world that had been invisible to them previously. They enslaved the Necrontyr and rekindled the war with the Old Ones. The Necrontyr were reborn by the C'Tan into new immortal bodies for this war and they became the Necrons.

The Old Ones built the Eldar as a psychic race to battle the C'Tan as the Necrons and their masters had no connection to the Warp. Orks were designed as rapidly renewing troops with imprinted and instinctive understanding of battlefield technology. Mekboyz don't learn how to build Orky vehicles and weapons, they just know and they can't teach it to others. Likewise for other Ork specialists like Painboyz and Weirdboyz.

The Old Ones were finally defeated by a plague of psychic parasites and the four remaining C'Tan put themselves into stasis. One of these four is reputed to be the Star Dragon on Mars that forms the centre of the Cult Mechanicus.

The Tau are a newly encountered race from the Eastern fringe of the galaxy. They were first discovered as a primitive but tool-using race about 6000 years before the current 40k setting but were isolated by violent warpstorms preventing further Imperial contact. They were rediscovered recently and it was found that they had developed significant technologies in the intervening period. They had also developed a strong and unified social structure. It's common to describe them as Space Communists but it's more accurate to call them Space Hindus. They have a rigid caste system and a strong sense of social obligation. Their backstory isn't nearly as interesting as the Necrons and doesn't really tie into any other part of the larger 40k timeline.

[Simond]

Apart from the bit where the entire Tau Empire is a Xanatos Gambit by the Eldar to do...something, you mean?

[Ratman_tf]

Apart from the bit where the entire Tau Empire is a Xanatos Gambit by the Eldar to do...something, you mean?

People keep trying to tie the Tau into the existing lore. My personal opinion is that they're a new thing that doesn't have anything to do with the previous races. My fanboy idea is that the Ethereals are from the future of the 40k universe, that came back in time to guide their race. GW will probably keep the Tau backstory vague on that point, since even if they're engineered by another race, it could take millenia for anything to come of it.

The cool thing about the Tau is that they ask questions that everyone else already has answers to. "Why hasn't anyone tried to communicate with the Tyranids?"   

[Soln]

is there a wiki or other someone could recommend to intro me to the backstory?

[Trippy]

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warhammer_40k_Wiki

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page

[DLRiley]

Wow i've bee rereading up on 40k fluff lore and watching some dow2 replays, holy shit they have to be fucking retards to fuck this up. I mean how stupid can you be before someone shoots you in the back of the head for wasting money AND IP....

[JWIV]

Yeah, I don't want a diku either, but for Marines, Eldar, and Orcs, it's easy enough to see how they could create a progression path from grunt to whatever.  I'm sure the other races have a similar progression, though it'd take some mental acrobatics to buy it.

Me, I just want Sisters of Battle.  I've no really idea why, but the idea is intriguing to me.  Probably something to do with bewbs.

Sisters of Battle are required if there's any chance of getting my wife to play this.  She demands to be pretty, and does not agree with me when I tell her that the Dreadnaught in the trailer is beautiful.

What's wrong with the Elves I mean Eldar?

Eldar would work too - I just didn't see any in the trailer. 

[Teleku]

Are Eldar "pretty"?  I don't think I've ever seen an Eldar model that actually showed their face.

[Rishathra]

From the very few Eldar faces I've seen, they tend to lean towards "severe" and "aristocratic" but not so much "pretty."

[Murgos]

Are Eldar "pretty"?  I don't think I've ever seen an Eldar model that actually showed their face.

Because of the forehead thing I think they probably look like Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd.

[Ingmar]

DoW2 Farseer:

[Trippy]

Are Eldar "pretty"?  I don't think I've ever seen an Eldar model that actually showed their face.

Depends on who is drawing/modeling them and there are models that show their bare heads. Given the "dark" nature of both Warhammer and Warhammer 40K GW's character artwork tends to be less "pretty" than some of the other IPs out there. My comment/question, however, was also about the fact that females are a regular part of the Eldar army (Farseers and Banshees in particular).

Are Eldar "pretty"?  I don't think I've ever seen an Eldar model that actually showed their face.

Because of the forehead thing I think they probably look like Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd.

That's just their helmets. Their heads are regular Elf heads (as Ingmar's above pic demonstrates).

[Murgos]

That's just their helmets. Their heads are regular Elf heads (as Ingmar's above pic demonstrates).

I'm just glad someone got the joke. 

[Samprimary]

The tau are the absolute coolest thing about Warhammer because they have absolutely no place there whatsoever.

[Teleku]

DoW2 Farseer:

Ah, yeah, definitely pretty space elves then.  I mean, I always knew from the lore that the Eldar were Space Elves, but I only ever saw the models that made them look like freaky bug things with gigantic foreheads.  Wasn't sure if they were actually suppose to look anything like elves.

The tau are the absolute coolest thing about Warhammer because they have absolutely no place there whatsoever.

I wonder if they can find a way to introduce the tau into Warhammer Fantasy.   

[Speedy Cerviche]

In the grim darkness of the far future things sure look pastel coloured and cartoonishly styled.

Where have I seen that before?