Podcast Transcript
What if the story I’ve been covering extensively for the past few episodes happened to be playing out right now? Obviously, we don’t have Space Marines taking down huge insects or Orks fighting forces of undead metallic people, but what I mean to say is that Warhammer 40 K is set in our home, the Milky Way galaxy. It may seem insignificant, but I think it’s a fun fact to start the episode off with. I’m Connor, and you’re listening to Shortwave Sci-Fi. Today, I’m going to try to give a rundown of the origins leading up to the Warhammer 40,000 media and board game. It’s a complicated story, so let’s dive right into it.
This week on my desk, I have yet to finish my Redemptor Dreadnought. However, I picked up a Primaris Invader ATV, and I’m working on making it look nice. There’s a picture on my Instagram at “shortwavescifi,” so come check it out! While I was painting it, I couldn’t help but notice that Space Marine weaponry isn’t much more advanced than what we have today. That’s not to say an ATV with a mounted flamethrower would be very practical (or legal) in today’s world, it simply makes me wonder about why they don’t have advanced technology similar to the T’au Empire.
The true story of Warhammer 40K starts in our world, as far back as human history goes. An eternal being simply known as The Emperor manifests himself as many historical figures. An eternal is essentially someone who is immortal. They can be killed, but they just come right back. This is why the Emperor was able to survive from early human history up until the early 31st millennium. He appears to everyone differently, taking the form of an ideal leader in that person’s mind. He continues to help humanity advance each day without revealing himself as the powerful being he is by helping small, gradual advances repeatedly. Unbeknownst to mankind, The Emperor is a godlike warrior that would come to bring both the advancement of life, but also threatens the galaxy as we know it. He is aware of the dark, evil forces of Chaos that reside within a realm called the Warp. The Warp is the center of everything in Warhammer- not just 40K, but the fantasy game, Age of Sigmar as well. Four gods of chaos live within this empty dimension beyond our knowledge of time and space with untapped energy potential, but it comes at a cost. These four gods embody different bad forces, with a god for murder, disease, lust, and sorcery. The Emperor can see into the Warp and simply decides to keep humanity in the dark about Chaos, because acts of war and violence only feed their power. One would think that he should tell them about it so they know NOT to fight each other, but it would take him quite a long time to realize this.
Humanity is informed about the Warp, just not the powers of Chaos. Harnessing this power, people formerly constrained to Earth are now able to travel across the Milky Way easily. Time works strangely in the Warp, because you could take a few seconds to get to your destination or it could take a few weeks. Nevertheless, we start colonizing undiscovered planets and advancing technology even faster. This leads us to the Dark Age of Technology, where AI nearly eradicates humankind. After this, the Emperor outlawed all artificial intelligence and sent the surviving loyalist robots to live on Mars, becoming the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Realistically, there’s no way to cover the entire origin of the Warhammer 40K story in the span of one episode, especially considering the runtime of a typical episode for me. So I’m going to end on that note, but expect a rundown on the Space Marines and their strange origins in the next episode. As always, I want to shout out The 40K Lorecast for all my knowledge on the topic. If it weren’t for someone else’s podcast, this one wouldn’t be where it is today. Thank you all for listening, and I’ll see you soon.
Music: ‘Dark Cyberpunk’ by FreeMusicLab, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Link to Source. (Note: trimmed for length).
