IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
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WARHAMMER 40,000 HISTORY (Simplified):
By SimoTheFinlandized - 2022 CE
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The beginning of the Warhammer 40,000
universe begins with origin of the C’tan,
who are also sometimes referred to as
the Star Gods. The C’tan were beings
of energy who didn’t have physical
forms but instead existed near stars
leaching the power emanating from the
stars for their strength. They were
powerful, but only semi-sentient and
didn’t interact with the world or other
races much.
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Next on the scene
came the civilization of the Old Ones.
Not much is known about the Old
Ones, except that they were an
extremely powerful reptilian race
that was nearly immortal and
highly technologically advanced. The
Old Ones had done one very
important thing, which was to create
(or use; it’s unclear) the Webway.
The Webway is a way to move
through space faster than light
without entering the dangerous
Warp.
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The Warp, which needs to be defined,
is also called the Immaterium, and is a
place of psychic energy where all
emotions felt in the material universe
(the Materium) exist and are expanded
upon. We’ll get into the Warp more in
the future when the Chaos Gods burst
into existence, but for now it’s enough
to say that the Warp is very treacherous
to travel and can drive travelers mad
just in the attempt. Therefore, the ability
of the Old Ones to travel via Webway
was extremely useful and important.
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The Old Ones ruled the Milky Way
Galaxy for eons, but eventually came
into contact with the Necrontyr. The
Necrontyr were a fragile and desperate
race: they were very vulnerable to
the radiation of the stars and lived
short and difficult lives. They sought to
find a better way to live and they envied
the Old Ones’ immortality. They also did
not have access to the Webway or even
the Warp and they traveled slowly
across the galaxy. But they went to war
with the Old Ones. This was all
happening about 60 million years
before present.
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Their war with the Old Ones was not
going well until they became aware
of the existence of the C’tan and the
C’tan’s great power. They wanted to
harness the C’tan’s power for their
own benefit but they didn’t realize
that the C’tan had their own reasons
for wanting to unite with the Necrontyr
–to get physical forms. The Necrontyr
and C’tan came to an agreement
that the C’tan would help in the war
against the Old Ones in exchange
for being given a necrodermis–a
body of living metal. This war would
become referred to as The War in
Heaven.
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The battles in the War in Heaven
lasted for a long time with extreme
power on both sides. The Old Ones,
in their desperation to win, created
races that could benefit them in
the war. Among them was the
Aeldari, or the Eldar, as well as
the Krork (ancestors of the Orks),
as well as the Slann and Jokaero.
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During the war, the C’tan tricked the
Necrontyr into gaining immortality
by implanting their minds in bodies
of metal, effectively stopping being
the Necrontyr and becoming the
Necrons. With this, the C’tan and
Necrons were able to defeat the Old
Ones.
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However, the Necrons realized they
had been betrayed and they found
the C’tan at the end of the War in
Heaven to be tired and powerless,
and the Necrons made their move:
they destroyed the C’tan, breaking
them into shards, and then harnessing
the shards of C’tan as sources of
great power. Even so, the Necrons,
now the last left, recognized they
could be defeated by the rising Aeldari
or Krork and they went into hibernation
until a future time when they could
come back and overpower their
enemies.
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60 MILLION YEARS PASS - THE
POWER OF THE AELDARI AND
THE RISE OF HUMANITY:
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In the absence of these major
groups, the Aeldari rose to prominence
in the galaxy to the point where
they were the most powerful and
reigned nearly uncontested for
millions of years. The Aeldari were
a psychic race and they were able
to make great use of the Webway
allowing them to spread through the
galaxy, to conquer and populate.
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Skipping forward, Humanity rose
to become a power, somewhere
around 40,000 years before present,
in what is know as the Age of Terra.
Humanity was a small race but were
starfaring and had begun to terraform
planets within the Earth’s solar system.
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Among the humans was a man who
would become the Emperor Of Mankind.
He had lived for thousands of years,
being born perhaps 6000 years prior.
But the man who would be Emperor
lived quietly in the shadows.
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The humans entered the Age of
Technology, which is also known as
the “Dark Age of Technology”
somewhere between the 15th and
25tth millenniums. The first known
psykers emerged and became
navigators who could allow the
humans to travel through the Warp.
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Previous to this, the Chaos Gods
began to emerge, the first being
Khorne, the Blood God, who burst
into existence during Earth’s Middle
Ages. Khorne was the embodiment
of all rage and anger, bravery and
ferocity. Other gods would appear,
including Tzeentch, the God of
Change, and Nurgle, the God of
Plague.
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The presence of these gods made
travel through the Warp extremely
difficult and only these psyker
navigators could do it. Still, for ten
thousand years the humans traveled
the Milky Way and began populating
other planets, growing technologically,
and becoming a major power.
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This era of technology would become
the zenith of Human technology, with
all technological knowledge formed
from STCs, or Standard Template
Constructs. But this is where technological
advancement would come to an end
because in the 25th Millennium the
Age of Strife began.
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THE FALL OF THE AELDARI AND AGE
OF STRIFE:
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The Aeldari had become so powerful
that they essentially ran out of places
to conquer. The human civilization was
still nothing compared to the Aeldari.
The Aeldari began to grow decadent
and vile, finding it harder and harder
to get pleasure out of life so they
became hedonistic and found their
joy in excess.
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This continued, growing worse and
worse, in a combination of lust,
gluttony, and greed, until their
mental state impacted the Warp
so much that a new Chaos God
burst into existence: Slaanesh, the
God of Excess.
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This nearly wiped out the Aeldari.
Some had left the larger group of
Aeldari early–the Exodites–or they
sought refuge on Craftworlds,
massive world-sized starships.
The Aeldari would lose their place
as the leading power in the galaxy
and be a broken and disjointed
civilization. While some resisted
Slaanesh (“She Who Thirsts”)
and became the Craftworld Eldar,
others gave into the pleasure of the
God of Excess and became the
Drukhari (also known as the Dark Eldar).
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The presence of this new Chaos God
sent massive ripples through the
Warp and effectively shut down
Warp travel for many thousands of
years, a period that humanity called
The Age of Strife. Most planets
were cut off from the Earth and
Solar System, and they began to
meet fierce opposition from the Orks.
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THE GREAT CRUSADE AND THE
RISE OF THE EMPEROR-OF-MANKIND:
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It was during the Age of Strife that the
man who would be Emperor came to
power. The greatest psyker in human
history and essentially immortal and
godlike in caliber, the Emperor of
Mankind sought to reunite all of
humanity, and he began work on a
Great Crusade to do just that.
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The Emperor created 20 Primarchs,
his “sons” who were superhumans
all having his DNA. He intended the
Primarchs to lead the Great Crusade
but they were accosted by the powers
of Chaos and spread across the galaxy
while still children. The Emperor then
used the DNA of the Primarchs to
create 20 legions of Space Marines,
transhuman warriors of great power.
He also made a treaty with the Cult
Mechanicum, who were based on
Mars, and who led the entire Imperium
of Man in manufacturing and technology.
The Emperor was against the concept
of religion, but in the Treaty of Mars he
allowed the Cult Mechanicum to
continue their worship of the Machine
God.
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Thus the Emperor set out with his
Space Marines to reconquer and
reclaim the worlds of humanity
and to find the Primarchs. One by
one they were found, each altered
and influenced by the world to which
they had been scattered. The first
to be found was Horus, who
became the Emperor’s right hand.
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The Great Crusade lasted for 200
years and all of the Primarchs were
found, and each was given a legion
of Space Marines to lead.
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THE HORUS HERESY:
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However, the reunification of the
Primarchs was not going to bring peace,
even though it did bring all of humanity
together under one banner–the
Imperium Of Man. The Emperor made
Horus the Warmaster and then returned
to Earth to work on a secret project that
he did not divulge to his sons. This was
seen as a betrayal by some. (The project
was to work on creating a Webway so
that the Imperium wouldn’t need to
travel through the Warp.)
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But, worse than this betrayal, Horus
was corrupted by Chaos, wounded
by a Chaos-tainted blade from
Nurgle, a wound that could not heal.
In an effort to save his own life he
fell further into the clutches of Chaos.
One by one, Horus was able to draw
eight other Space Marine Legions
and their Primarchs under his
command.
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Combined, the nine Primarchs turned
on their comrades, beginning at a
planet called Isstvan III where Horus
used virus bombs to wipe out the
Space Marines there who were still
loyal to the Emperor. Before it was
clear what had happened, other
Space Marines were dispatched to
Isstvan, and on Isstvan V four
corrupted legions turned on three
loyalist legions in what is known as
the Drop Site Massacre.
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From there, Horus went on a long
crusade toward Terra to destroy the
Emperor, a campaign that lasted
seven years and ended in the Siege
of Terra. A great many things
happened during the Horus Heresy
(more than fifty books have been
written on the subject) but ultimately
Horus was killed by the Emperor,
but Horus mortally wounded the
Emperor as well.
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The Emperor was placed on his
Golden Throne, where he exists as a
living corpse, using all his psychic
energy to maintain the Astronomican,
the method by which the Imperium
can travel through the Warp.
1000 psykers are sacrificed to the
Emperor every single day to power
his throne and keep him alive.
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The Emperor is now revered as a God.
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From there on, all of the Primarchs who
were still alive after the Horus Heresy
were scattered, some battling each other,
and others gave in to Chaos. Primarch
Robute Guilliman led the Imperium,
establishing the Codex Astartes, the
organization of the Space Marines, and
founding new chapters.
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The Imperium would establish many
groups, including the Imperial Guard or
Astra Militarum, the Sisters of Battle,
the Adeptus Custodes, the Inquisition
and so on. They would fight Xenos
wherever they were encountered,
including massive wars with the Orks.
And, they would battle never-ending
wars against Chaos, including against
the Primarchs who had ascended to
become daemon princes.
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In the 41st Millennium (where Warhammer
40k gets its name) all things began to
come to a head. The Necrons began to
awake from their tomb worlds and to
set out to conquer the galaxy. The
Tyranid Hive Fleets began consuming
entire worlds in an attempt to grow
their biomass. The T’au became a
threat. The Orks would be led by
Ghazghkull Thraka in the wars for
Armageddon.
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Finally, Robute Guilliman would be
brought back from a thousand years
in stasis, and it was revealed that he
had given Archmagus Dominus
Belisarius Cawl the task of creating
an even stronger breed of Space
Marine–the Primaris marines.
Guilliman leads the armies of the
Imperium now, while the entire
galaxy is at war.
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