You just became the head writer for 40k now, what would be the first 40 things you would change, add...

15 is so-so when humans have been fighting xenos for a good while. Plus the whole dying by the thousands thing is supposed to play up the grim darkness of the far future. I do like the idea though, but it feels like a "buff" that the IG doesn't need when we've got kriegers and catachan jungle fighters.

I would actually have a head writer and demand consistency as opposed to having a bunch of them contradict each other from one edition to the next

As I stated in a previous thread, turn Space Marines fully into Imperial Knights. No not the mecha Knights that have a Codex, the Imperial Knight order of the Holy Roman Empire. Separate Space Marines entirely from the Imperium. Not even the High Lords of Terra can give them orders and the Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy only wield power over them if they have the political ammunition or religious authority (the Inquisition can push the Black Templars around a bit, whereas the Flesh Tearers will murder their asses) for the Astartes only have the God Emperor as their overlord. They are even more autonomous than in their current state, possessing their own baronies or counties of sector space which are run as a self-sufficient state. In exchange they will aid in military affairs when necessary and will ALWAYS answer the Emperor's Tarot, the only real means of communication the Emperor has with his grandsons.

Additionally, fucking ground space marines. While more monastic chapters such as the Dark Angels or Black Templars may forgo relations of the flesh, it is not unusual for space marines to wed and sire families simply to give them close bonds to the people they're supposed to protect by having an investment in their well being. It also ensures that there is direct continuation of the family lines that have gene-seed comparability. While it is not a certainty, it is common for the sons of space marines to also join the chapter as a brother in maturity due to possessing similar genetic makeup to their fathers.

Also, stop Codex compliance nonsense. Not only can chapters vary anywhere in size from 1,000 to 10,000 depending on the location and enemies they are pledged to fight, Chapters also use their serfs as their own private armies. Individual Chapters can have armies of serfs in the hundreds of thousands, all equipped like veteran guardsmen.

1. Remove implications that the Tau are 1984. Instead play up the implication that their policies are naive, by having them get slapped in the fucking face by the cosmos every time they try and act sane. Contrast them with the Imperium to demonstrate their barbarism is necessary.

2. Bring back Oldcrons/mix Oldcrons with Newcrons.

3. Make Chaos more amoral in regards its practitioners and gods, but make the Warp itself more Event Horizon. The gods of Chaos, and Chaos itself should be much less full retard babyfucking. They're supposed to represent the human psyche for fuck's sake.

4. Have some of the "longsleeping" Primarchs, and possibly the Emperor himself, more active. Not in the sense of actually walking around, but say, instead of being just a corpse on a throne, have him be more attentive to the Custodians, attempt to get involved with Imperium politics but just be hopelessly swamped due to having to spend more of his mental effort projecting the Astronomicon, performing the Emperor's Tarot, and constantly psionically healing himself to prevent death. Put him in the awkward position of knowing what the Imperium has become, but having no real way of improving the situation because calling out his own faith would end humanity. Really I just like the idea of the Emperor as a sick dying man trying desperately to keep everything going.

5. More short stories about Gork and Mork. Nothing major, just more tales about them interfering with the other gods, getting into shenanigans, or helping out individual Orks with petty bullshit.

I suppose, but they come from worlds where conflict is life, and life is conflict.

Just less retardation like clearing minefields with human waves, is what I'm angling for here.

>19. Bring back the old Stormtrooper and Commissar recruitment and training methods from before the Militarum Tempestus codex released, play up the differences in numerous Schola Progenium facilities and how they train and religiously educate their students, and then call them Tempestus Scions to get around the Stormtrooper copyright. Problem solved, Tempestus Scions can now be Your Dudes.

>20. Play up differences in variations of the Imperial faith and that the Ecclesiarchy's primary job is to smooth over the inevitable religious conflicts. It's a galaxy-wide faith, and what's heresy in one star system is going to be doctrine in another three subsectors over, but there'd be a few specific ground rules the faithful would adhere to, and everything branches off from there to let the Ecclesiarchy do its job of smoothing shit over when two sects start going at it.

>21. Go into detail about how worlds, subsectors, and sectors would make and sustain an attempt to secede from the Imperium without being retarded about it; provide an example.

>22. Ork hilarity. There must be more of it.

>23. Play up just how bad Chaos can get, but make them less retardedly evil overall. Yes, they will have utterly terrible, shitty people among their ranks, but there's also that one pissed off farmer who swore fealty to Nurgle to save his son and the fall harvest. Play up both sides of the Chaos coin, especially in regards to Chaos Undivided.

>24. Space Marines will generally stay in the sphere of influence their chapter has established; fleet-based chapters will generally roam in a given region of space. No more of this crap with Ultramarines and Iron Hands running around halfway across the galaxy. The sole exceptions should be Crusades.

To Be Continued

Additionally this can be reflected on the TT. Space Marines become elite choices with high toughness, multi-wound models they should have always had, with the standard troop choice instead being militant serfs. If you want to have fun, maybe even include Astartes brides as something like Damsels in a bretonnian army.

Also, apply consistency to space marine fluff with hard limits put into their Codex fluff. They're on the level of 616 Captain America, so able to chuck around weights over twenty tonnes in power armor, run as fast as a car, but can still die to bullets if they're not wearing their armor. Also put detail into the space marine's lifespan, from how long it takes to make one, the success rate of the gene-seed, and the lifespan (what's considered young, mature, aged, and venerable in an Astartes life). Vague fluff is OK, but not when it consists of what something is able to do. Space Marines dying from pointy sticks shoved in their neck and being able to survive a meltagun is not an acceptable disparity.

After the Astartes work is done, I'd completely re-work the Tau. The Tau are an OK idea, but poorly executed, too small, and their grimdarkness too subtle. Retcon the Tau into being an alien conglomerate formed in the fallout of the Horus Heresy from Xenos races that survived the Great Crusade in Segmentum Pacificus. They're big, the size of the Eye of Terror or greater, and the Tau are just one of the many, many, many races in their polity, which includes Interex survivors. Tau and Kroot are just the main foot soldiers, and more attention is paid to the Kroot as well. However the Tau Empire is not a clear cut better state to flee to for either humans or xenos alike, as it is a Brave New World nightmare state to the Imperium's Holy Roman Empire hellhole. Free will is crushed without the occupants ever realizing it "for their own good", and they are brainwashed, drugged, or even genetically engineered to be pacified and serve the Empire.

The first thing on the chopping block is tone down the grey knights Mary suedom.

Just make the grey knights like death watch. A a chapter that's a amalgamation of members of other chapters that Hunt down demons/other warp entity's instead of xenos.

Second thing is that the death watch and grey knights were the missing two legions.

Third would be removing all the factions in the imperium that overlap with each other.

Forth is the same as, make tau a minor race in a huge federation of minor xenos.

>25. More Imperial noble (or the local equivalent) politicking on any given world. Loads of good lore opportunities falls through the cracks when one ignores the fact that 40k can be the backdrop for any story you damn well please. Some Romeo and Juliet shit on a hive world is in order.

>26. Go into EXTENSIVE detail about the makings, scope, inner workings, and origins of Imperial Crusades and the internal power struggles and governmental structures of how a Crusade at large operates. Go look up the First Crusade to retake Jerusalem, and then just picture THAT level of bullshit within the Crusade forces every time a Crusade is launched in 40k.

>27. Roll Oldcrons into Newcrons, ala 's suggestion in that vein.

>28. Add more visible females to all factions that would reasonably have them. Space Marines excepted, because Space Marine augmentation procedures dictate that they only work on the male body and that's all that needs to be said.

>29. Flip the bird at anyone who starts spouting /pol/ shit for Article 28.

>30. Machine Spirits are now a smoke-and-mirrors act by the Mechanicus for the most part; rudimentary/basic AI exists in that computer/cogitator programs will self-direct as-needed in certain situations, but the Mechanicus can't get away with calling it AI, so it's a machine spirit now. Problem with machine spirits is that you need to use that excuse for even the most basic and non-computerized machinery, so the Mechanicus has had to uphold that for thousands of years as a religious/legal loophole.

>31. With the Inquisition firmly made a shadowy group once again without retarded major players trying to purge entire planets in pyres as tall as Titans, renew the philosophical conflicts among the Inquisition with more Radical and Puritan factions, and play up the concept of Radicals Minoris - Radicals who don't cross the line so hard they become an enemy of Man.

Book following the life of a servo skull. Catch is this servo skull is from a famous civil servant and as such is highly saught after as a servo skull. He will go from master to master and will show many of the inner working (or lack off) the imperium

>32. In accordance with Article 30, robots become more prominent and justified with Mechanicus hand-waving, but without the shitty bio-plastic cards used to operate them. Other means are used to operate or direct them from a distance, similar to CATS units. Others are intelligent and functionally autonomous. Follow this up with the introduction of units like pic related, kept in line by Mechanicus Magi by a variety of means.

>33. Clarify and define tech-heresy better.

>34. Detail how the Imperial economy works better. Presumably 'noble houses' run major industries, indenture techpriests, and so on. This would likely be a strictly local matter, but it's worth looking into.

>35. With the Imperial economy detailed, begin adding in local conflicts based on this, including such conflicts that escalate out of control and become proper 40k-style wars. Play up some Shadowrun-esque scenarios in 40k. It's 40k, so nobody's gonna complain about more stuff you can do with it.

>36. Do some smoothing out of the rougher patches in the lore - stuff that's too extreme or doesn't make sense, like an Avatar of Khaine getting punched out by Marneus Calgar or stupid bodycounts or a world being Exterminatus'd for no reason, remove or edit to be less retarded. Clarifications on vaguer elements that generally shouldn't be that way fall under this article.

>37. Don't stagger codex releases - playtest, edit, and release all at once for every army. No, I don't give a shit what the execs say - this has to happen. Do it, fuckers.

>38. Write a lore bible that verifiably details all of these changes, leaving as little room for contention as possible. Let the codices fill in faction or race-specific lore as-needed, but hit the major bullet-points out the starting gate, and make it a free PDF you can download. Include a series of short-stories where every faction gets a moment to shine in their element.

>39. Ensure all major Imperial power groups are prone to internal factionalism and disputes to the best of your ability. Clarify and detail some noteworthy examples.

>40. Flip the haters the bird.

1. Return Oldcrons back and inertialess FTL drives.
2. Rewrite War in Heavens - Necrons won and gone to sleeping, Eldar and Orks repopulated galaxy while they were sleeping and were too afraid to wake them up.
3. Make C'Tan physical equivalent of Chaos Gods - i.e. reality warpers, who are literally unbeatable in realspace without space\time fuckery.
4. Make Tau small xeno empire, which survives only because all main players are busy killing each other.
5. Make Chaperts bigger - up to ten thousand marines each.
6. Make Eldar constantly fighting Chaos, which is trying to tear Webway down.
7. All of Horus Heresy books never happened. Horus wasn't converted because he was stupid, he was converted because he was too prideful.
8. In the end, Gods of Chaos realized that if Horus wins, he will destroy remaining life in Galaxy and Warp is going to calm down. Then Necrons will awaken and Warp going to be shut down permanently. So they betrayed him and allowed Emperor to win. Not before Horus crippled him, of course.
8. Abaddon is the last loyal Space Marine. He is planning to resurrect Horus and give a big finger to Chaos Gods. They know it and plan to betray him before he would have a chance to do it.
9. Cegorach and Deciever are one entity - he just tricked Eldar into believing he is their god. Because of that, Harlequins don't use any Warp powers, but have high-tech. They also use soulless.
10. Pariahs are more and more common, just like psykers.

So basicly 'Necron-wank, the wankening'.

As 'The Chaos Gods backstabbed their own guy to prevent the necrons winning' and 'The Harlequins really work for the C'Tan' are kinda stupid changes that do nothing but make the necrons look better at the cost of other groups.

>So basicly 'Necron-wank, the wankening'.
Yeah, so what? Now all love goes to Chaos, can't see a reason why shouldn't I take some from them.

Two wrongs don't make a right. Every faction should get a reasonable chance to shine instead of 'The Chaos Gods knew they'd lose to the necrons'

>Every faction should get a reasonable chance to shine
Don't see a reason why they should. Eldar is a dying race, Tau are too small, and entire point is who going to get galaxy - Chaos, Necrons, Orks or Tyranids. Out of those, Necrons suffered most in the fluff - first they had almost no fluff at all, and then they were raped by Ward. So no, Chaos should be toned down a bit, Necrons are up, and others fine as they are.

A few things about the background:
1) Vulkan died on Istvaan with Ferrus. No bullshit regeneration.
2) Imply that Jagathai, Russ and Corax are most likely dead and will probably not come back in the Imperium's darkest moment like their chapters believe. Similarly, Gulliman will not wake up.
3) Chaos Undivided is back.
4) Make Chaos less over the top eeeviiiil. Make its corruption subtle and low-key so that joining it doesn't seem too crazy.
5) Imply that the Age of Apostasy was mostly about the Space Marines and the Mechanicus destroying the power of the Administratum so they may effectively rule entire sectors. Vandire's increasing madness was a good excuse for rebelling.
6) More intra-Imperium conflicts.

>1. Some event in the past caused an unknown number of Tau colonizing ships to appear in other parts of the galaxy.
My biggest beef with the blues is that they are currently the only race that cannot be found anywhere in the galaxy, just their tiny empire. One little blurb could fix that, so you could even have Tau at the EoT if you wanted.

>2. Codex: Rogue Trader, a micro codex a la Codex: Inquisition. Emphasis on buying stats and wargear for ur dudes, as well as Commander Tactics. Although the unit selection seems limited (human, space marine, mechanicus, xeno), the highly customizable choices make each army different. Not writing related, but still.

>3. A firm re-emphasis that Grey Knights are immune to chaos by preparation and endless purification rituals, not some notion of "always immune all the time."

>4. Stories about Space Marines take a sharp turn from 1st Founding Chapters and start filling with successors. 1st Founders are regarded generally with myth and legend, and when encountered as units or joint strike-forces, they somehow live up to their legends while also coming across as just as (super)human as the other marines.

>5. Path of the Dark Eldar 2: Electric Boogaloo. The Dark Eldar are more clearly shown as an alternative path that eldar can take, one that embraces their true nature while also restricting them under the Thirst. Like the other paths, show more examples of dark eldar leaving it to rejoin the exodites, craftworlds, or harlequins.
The book series covered that surprisingly well, and I'd like to see it more widespread.

>6. The daily lives of the dark eldar outside of central Commorragh and the Kabals is finally shown.

>7. Cadians make up .0002% of the Imperial Guard. Let's remember that when writing about the IG.

>8. More codex entries of Rogue Trader X used marines from chapter Y (or guardsmen regiment Y) to do Z.

>9. An overall larger emphasis on a universe that players make their own stories in.

I'd probably just make more codexes

hrud, squats, kroot, hereteks, rogue traders, those weird shadow thingys I forget the name of, exodites, etcetcetc.

the thing about 40k lore is that there is so fucking much of it that even if someone has an issue with something there's osmething else they have to like. writing more is the best way to keep this going.

Ran out of words. To finish #9:

>9. An overall larger emphasis on a universe that players make their own stories in, not a universe where they are bottle-necked towards recreating given events and established chapters/factions.
This also includes reprinting pic related and its variants in each codex, reminding players that named characters are meant to offer unique customization, not a limiting factor to your faction. Nork Deddog is just a token name for a way to get an ogryn bodyguard in an IG Company Command Squad. Go ahead and paint, name, and fluff yours however you want!

Have humanity overrun by orks, only to be saved by the dark eldar who have become emo brooding I WILL SAVE YOU antiheroes who sparkle

Unfortunately, before they saved humanity every last one of the spess mahrine chapters were wiped out

When your fandom is in ashes, then you have my permission to die.

Redo a large chunk of the whole Horus Heresy novels. It's gone on so long I fear the sheer mass will spawn a new black hole. The idea going forward would be to focus on making the Horus Heresy a human conflict that actually works, instead of shit like Fulgrim getting eaten by a sword.

The new series would have a hard and fast outline and timeline: a specific number of books, published over a specific number of years. Several writers would be employed, along with several editors, but a strict style and tone guide would be enforced, with a single head editor having to sign off on each book before it shipped.

The scale would be incredibly personal: every primarch should get his moment in the spotlight at least once. This moment in the spotlight doesn't need to be an entire book, but it should give a comprehensive understanding of that primarch's goals, background, and psyche, so that when shit hits the fan later, we understand why, even when we see it from an outside view. A lot of what makes the Horus Heresy so gripping is the near-misses; communication could've solved some things, a drawdown in paranoia could've solved some others. But at the same time, there was no simple solution, because of the ways that each individual primarch turned out, something that readers would be able to get and actually empathize with. That tragedy would be played for maximum pathos.

The idea is grimdark, not grimderp, which means if you want to do the story of Fulgrim getting eaten by a sword, you have to make it work. Show us Fulgrim trying to persuade Horus and failing. Show us Fulgrim taking the sword, and losing to it over time, in a mirror of how he was originally persuaded by Horus. When he loses hope and gives in, ramp the terror up as the sword uses his body to kill Ferrus Manus, and then bring it home so the audience can watch a primarch, supposedly the best of men, fall to despair.

>Don't see a reason why they should.

Because it's a game. You don't go 'Your faction sucks and has nothing going for them' and expect them to sell.

Read the Eldar and admech codexes.

Well, all the factions have something going for them. But Tau, for example, can't do anything in the big picture, and Eldar are dying, even in current fluff. But they sell well, because they are good on the tabletop.

Topics to cover would include but not be limited to:

>Curze trying to deal with his visions, what it’s like to be that paranoid, what it means for Curze of all people to be given command and then ostracized by most of his very few peers. This sets up for Curze making friends with Fulgrim, and gives that weight. Which in turn gives punch to Fulgrim telling Dorn about Curze’s “MY GOD HE’S KILLING US” nightmare just in time for Dorn to punch Curze in the dick. For maximum tragedy, flashback at the end of that novel to Curze’s vision of every one of his brothers’ deaths, just as he meets Big E. He know what future his father intends alright.
> Rowboat and the logistical nightmare of a galactic crusade.
>Perturabo and Dorn. What it means that one brother gets picked to build, and the other does not.
>Horus and an actual elaboration of the shit that a Warmaster does. Talk about the failure that is not delegating correctly. Horus got picked because he’s actively disliked by the least number of people; why can’t he turn around and rely on others or delegate to them? Dig into that one, use it as a base for how and why he inevitably cracks.
>Angron, with an added bonus of figuring out exactly what the Nails do and how, and how much. Mildly angry? Angry marine angry? In excruciating pain unless constantly RIP AND TEAR? Regardless of the answer, impact that out to his opinion of Big E for not even really trying to deal with the Nails. Or, have Big E actually try to deal with the Nails; show that failure, make it hurt.
>Human interest that’s not primarch scale, but also not remembrance shit. Views of soldiers on the ground when space marines drop in. Views from space marines when their primarchs meet their chapters for the first time.

>Moments to pull the scope back. Just because it’s a Shakesperian tragedy with a galactic crusade as a backdrop doesn’t mean you entirely forget the backdrop. Show the audience what it means when the Khan gets sent to retake a world. Show us how that differs from how the Lion would do it. Use that as a place to talk about the differences between those two as people, and not just military leaders. And then for fun blow some shit up because this is still 40k.

>Anything that can be used to drive home the tone of things falling out of people’s grips, slowly and inexorably. Geneseed failure, for one, is a good thematic moment on that topic just off the top of my head.

>Give Horus doubts so that the turn to Chaos seems reasoned. Moreso, give future loyalists doubts. Let Vulkan hear rumors about the Thunder Warriors not all dying at once gloriously in battle, but whispers of how they were hunted down by Big E, not needed in the new age. If we get Mortarion not able to comprehend why Big E doesn’t want to be worshipped, let Sanguinus see the big guy be human, shortsighted, stubborn.

>The idea is, ultimately, that these are flawed heroes with diverse backgrounds and motivations doing what they can in the face of a conflict with a scope so vast it should be hard for the audience to grasp entirely, past the basic ideas of Everywhere and All At Once. The idea is always “when the war is over,” but at the same time, when the fuck is that going to happen? And what would happen to the primarchs, or the people of the Imperium then?

And, finally, grimdark doesn't mean emo, doesn't mean enough edges to wreck a belt sander. Tragedy comes from showing two roads, the better path, and the worse one, and then explaining why things were always going to have gone downhill.

tl;dr -- If I got to be head writer for 40k, I'd bind all the Horus Heresy/Black Library novels together and use them as a gigantic hardbound whip to flagellate the project lead until a singular vision fell out, and that vision wasn't shit.

I like the Grey Knights immunization, I played the idea of hexagrammic wards on the bones and elec-tattoos on the flesh to help purify.
+ other things like knowing WTF chaos is, meditation, yoga/ kegel exercises.

In other words mostly shit that anyone in 40k could be doing, but don't because if the kids new that they could be having druggy sex with slaanesh , where else would they be?

ps... has anyone liked the ultramarine from the new empire arc?

Delete primarchs
Drink tears

>"If a player wants to get the new model of, say, Telion, paint it in his own Chapter colours and change his name, he can happily use the rules for that character in his army. I mentioned heroic archetypes earlier; well, the galaxy is a big place, and with over a thousand Chapters of Space Marines there’s more than enough scope for mighty heroes to emerge from any one of them. Just because you don’t play Ultramarines doesn’t mean you can’t have a Captain as legendary as Cato Sicarius. The archetypes can apply to all of the Codex Chapters."
- Mat Ward

Fulgrim's corruption-by-sword did happen over an extended period of time though. Considerably more so than the older "Horus stop rebelling" "No you should rebel too" "Okay" line of events. Or the party version.

Space marines are warrior monks, but they are not the same model with different colours. The only chapters breaking the model are Space Wolves, and White Scars. The rest may just have have additional +- point. ITT black Templar, they really hate xenos.

monks ranges from Christian, Norse, to Buddhist, to crazy cult members. While the model makes for easy writing, it makes every book essentially the same.

I would create some fucking post cards, PDF file that has the general quirks/ background setting brainstorm of each legion known, every writer will do bloody dissertation level references to that document. Same with lore and plot.

agreed, the stories should be more the Lamenters. bad shit happens but the underdog coach helps you pull through and survive the game without breaking all your limbs.

STOP using alpha legion as goto evil macbadguy, that the black legion. The alpha legion should be more like, world threw a celebrate the emperor day, using new mech design for floats,
suddenly everything is demons and the nothing much really matters.

Make the ultramarine so less op. stop wolfing the space wolfs with wolfs and make the tau an rebelling abhuman race. For the imperial guard I would make it so that all Guardsmen are basically badasses just a millimetre below cadians and and the inquisition aren't fucking retarded. For the orks i would keep them as it is. Oh and make the forces of chaos less muderrapeymindfuckydiseasgiving Oh and malal

Would just make it more grim, and more dark.

>You just became the head writer for 40k now, what would be the first 40 things you would change, add, and remove from and too the lore?+ 0 post omitted.
-Tau now can into FTL again
-Slann are back in
-Passive Psyker power use is explicitly canon and the DEldar use it to feed on pain
-Eldar Infinite Library is expanded upon and has parallels to the Infinite Maze of Tzeentch. Assuming the marketing people approve this allows me to start a skirmish game in the spirit if Necromunda set inside of it
-Put more emphasis on Saints and miracles as a thing that - sometimes - works in-universe, urge rules designers to make it a mechanic
-Newcrons aren't going away so Necrons are now operating from the shadows a lot more
-Increase the number of Sisters of Battle, increase role of the Ecclessiarchy to the point where they're something more than crazies spouting faux medieval space Catholicism memes
-Show instances where the alliance between AdMech and the IoM is fracturing
-Call up Fantasy Flight and work towards harmonizing Codex and RPG fluff
-Re-introduce the Sensei (I'm far from a Japanophobe but come on we need to find something else) and make them relevant without over-elaborating
-Olleanus Pious is an IG now (again)
-Elaborate on the various sects of the Imperial Faith
-Expand on non-Astromomican FTL

Naaww,

Abbadon should finish his black crusades, and kill the emperor allowing CHAOS to win, be the big is reborn and creates his own world singular that has all the races living in peace with no way for chaos to access. Instead of a few Super solder hes just buff , the normal humans to be able to contend with the others, and the ad-mech fall out with him as he isnt the big robot in the sky, they make their own race and take the technology with the, living the empire stranded in some sort of German renaissance fair.

I'd reinforce the fact that grey knights are better than regular marines to piss off marine players.

Transhumanism all across the fucking human race. I mean jesus christ, considering how much sacrifice the imperial guards make everyday and how many threats are facing the Imperium, you think they would start to bio-augment regular humans so they have a higher survivability rate when faced with shitty Xenos.

The augment doesn't even have to be that big. Just increase the strength, speed, agility a little and that's good enough to increase the power of the Imperium. Although I was thinking more along the lines of Methuselah from Trinity Blood, minus the weakness of course. The brave Emperor's Guards deserves better anons.

>The lost primarchs are female
The only thing in that post that didn't give me cancer.

SISSSSTEEEEERRRRRSSSSS

Tau empire erupts in a heresy, ethereal are beings of the warp with relations to Tzeentch, farsight dies, farsight enclaves grows as more tau defect from their corrupt empire. This time the vanilla Tau Empire are a mysterious chaos faction and thus get daemons and csm as battle brothers. No more Mary sue empire

One of the many open ended mystery strings needs to be tugged and the 40k universe ought to advance forward in time. Hell it would be interesting if the imperium found a way to restore the emperor, stirring up the warp as the dark gods try to stop his revival from happening. But at the same time, all forces of the imperium have newfound d strength as they fight for the cure. It could be the Lazarus crisis or some shit.. and draw in all armies in the universe

>40k wat do

300+ fetish posts inbound. Thanks, OP.

Get this man a suit and a job!

1) Relegate the HH series, and everything it introduced, to a Star Wars like Legends continuity

2) Retouch the Schola Progenium fluff so that the meatgrinder ones are only in Highly populated areas, with the rest being British Private Scools in Spess

3) Give the Sisters a more prominent role as the watchers who watch the watchers.

4) Stop pussyfooting around and confirm the Blood Ravens are renegade thousand sons

5) Bring back Undivided princes as self made men, but have them much rarer and much more likely to become fucked up abominations when the rituals go wrong.

6) Introduce a minute number of Psykers that look like they are starting to breach into the human ascendancy, which is the true reason for Abaddon's most recent assaults

I would probably just tweak some numbers here and there (seeing how often 40k seems to have no sense of scale), ad a bit more fluff to factions that suffer from the lack of it (SoB, Dark Eldar, chaos alligned normal humans like lost and the damned, etc.)

I'd also release a codex, and a miniature range titled "Xenos Mercenaries" that would allow the players to field diverse forces of xenos, ranging from major ones like Ork Freebooters and Eldar Corsairs, to smaller ones like Rak'Gol, Kroot, Hrud, Slyth etc, as allies to other armies, or as forces of their own.

I'd also give the adeptus Arbites their own mini dex.

>Retcon the whole 1000 men per Space Marine Chapter into 10000. This way it's more believable for the marines to pull off stunts. Also every Legion during the Horus Heresy was 10x the size they are currently.
>Add some black comedy to everyone where a faction either does something that is black comedy or experiences it itself. Orkz shouldn't be the only ones to bear the mantle of comic relief. DEldar (black hole in a box and similar antics) and Necrons (everything Tranzyn does) are the way to go.
>And on the subject of Orkz, give them more win. Same with Nids and more new fluff that would shed some light on the space lizard bugs.
>Also Sisters. Make them more pragmatic along with being zealous. Also give them more win.
>Retcon the whole wolfing of the Space Wolves as giant translation errors from Ferrisian to Low and High Gothic. Also Space Wolves cringe if someone uses the inaccurate translations.
>Eldar become slightly less arrogant (but still arrogant to a high degree) and try to make alliances against the factions that threat.
>Craftworld Altansar Eldar become Eldar Daemonhunters completely devoid of their emotions, but can use Sanctic Daemonology like Grey Knights. Also they don't fear Slaanesh.
>Chaos Marines are now hardcore and pragmatic to the extreme instead of stupid evil. Some ancient Chaos Marines can actually free themselves from the shackles of the Dark Gods when they had finally enough of this bullshit and go forge their own destiny. Some even work from the shadows to make the Imperium better as a form of atonement, but these are very, very rare.
>Squats are back, but are more serious than they were back then. They are the only abhumans that have a chance to go beyond sergeant rank in a IG regiment. Even becoming commanders of said regiment.
>Tau become completely Orwellian and have a darker side to the Ethereals rule. Certain Tau defect to Farsight to escape the Empire that is becoming more and more oppressive.

>Flesh out the Iron Hands more. Now each clan company has certain quirks and favored ways of warfare that makes them different from one another. Also they have their own sources of recruitment and supplies.
>Have the Emperor actually heal (albeit ridiculously slowly), and at one point having his psyche gain a smaller amount of empowering that causes the Astronomicon to brighten up a little bit more intensively.
>Simply dial down the 11/10 Grimderp to 8/10 or 9/10 Grimdark. At least one small hope spot.

300% more beakie.

First suggestion is something I really like
Tau are way too good at everything because theyre "sciencing the shit out of it"
They really need a hard hit with tremendous losses or just a strategical defeat large enough to play on their naitivity against somethint that is not the Imperium, this also helps with making sense of the radicalism of the Imperium

What is with all the Grey Knight hate in this thread?

Install a Text to Speech device on the Golden Throne.

Also Squats

Keep Space Marines as forces of 1000 but focus more on them being super elite shock troopers who assist the guard performing very specific tasks in a battle, not running around fighting their own wars without any support or fighting on the front line with artillery pounding around them. They should be dropping in the rear and taking out orbital defense systems. Downplay their melee, increase how awesome their guns are and how tacticool they can be in a fight. Not to Raptor levels or anything, though.

Reduce Tau to a draining nuisance on the Imperium rather than the upcoming threat that's going to eclipse all other races stuff they got going on. Remove the crazy huge exosuits they've gotten and have them just be the most technological part of a federation of xenos sick of the Imperiums shit by showing their cultural technology not by giving them the fuckhuge WMDs the Imperium has a fetish for. Humans should not join them and the Tau shouldn't want them. Really play up the other minor xenos. Tau armies should be a huge mix and match of weird looking aliens.

Revert Necrons back to unstoppable murderbots but make them the unwilling forces of much more intelligent and plotting Ctan. The Necrntyr started helping due to bitterness and wanting immortality but realized to late they made a huge mistake before getting biotransferred. Any personality of the lords should be reduced to hickups in their programming. GREATLY reduce their numbers as a result of cascade failures on Tombworlds and Eldar actively hunting form them for a long time. Eldar should have believed them extinct rather then forgetting about them.

>add
Female Custodes

>Remove implications that the Tau are 1984. Instead play up the implication that their policies are naive, by having them get slapped in the fucking face by the cosmos every time they try and act sane
Tau have been around the interstellar politics for half a man millennium now. If they can potentially learn - they ARE largely totalitarian by now, which is reinforced by them gaining more relevance on the large scale via violent militant expansion of the Tau Empire at the cost of Imperium.

>Bring back Oldcrons/mix Oldcrons with Newcrons.
I though it was more or less the case as of now, with batshit insane Dynasties playing the part of Oldcrones.

> Have some of the "longsleeping" Primarchs, and possibly the Emperor himself, more active
God Emperor please no.

>More short stories about Gork and Mork
Fine.

Eeeewww.
>Make C'Tan physical equivalent of Chaos Gods - i.e. reality warpers, who are literally unbeatable in realspace without space\time fuckery.
>Make Chaperts bigger - up to ten thousand marines each.
>In the end, Gods of Chaos realized that if Horus wins, he will destroy remaining life in Galaxy and Warp is going to calm down. Then Necrons will awaken and Warp going to be shut down permanently. So they betrayed him and allowed Emperor to win. Not before Horus crippled him, of course.
>Abaddon is the last loyal Space Marine. He is planning to resurrect Horus and give a big finger to Chaos Gods. They know it and plan to betray him before he would have a chance to do it.
You are literally worse than Ward.

>Redo a large chunk of the whole Horus Heresy novels. It's gone on so long I fear the sheer mass will spawn a new black hole
The only thing that can help HH novels by now is just ending them, HERE AND NOW.

> The idea going forward would be to focus on making the Horus Heresy a human conflict that actually works
The absolute retardation (or rather, inhuman alienation) of the Primarchs is actually one of the few good things in it.

>Eldar become slightly less arrogant (but still arrogant to a high degree) and try to make alliances against the factions that threat.
And here I thought everyone hated that part.

>Chaos Marines are now hardcore and pragmatic to the extreme instead of stupid evil
So, Iron Warriors?

>Some ancient Chaos Marines can actually free themselves from the shackles of the Dark Gods when they had finally enough of this bullshit and go forge their own destiny.
The whole point of falling to Ruinous Powers is that there is no way for turning back. It's not just some anime-style "darky-forbidden techniques" that you can pick up and then drop to become an Edgy Good Guy with a Dark and Mysterious Past - it's something that changes you completely and irreversibly. Trying to become a (trans-)human you once were after being touched by the Chaos Gods is akin to trying to recreate your own reflection in a lake well after all the water has evaporated.

>Some even work from the shadows to make the Imperium better as a form of atonement, but these are very, very rare.
So, Fallen Angels, in one of their interpretations? Daily reminder that there can be no actual ambiguity if WE ourselves are not wondering WTF is going on.

There is this.

>Tau empire erupts in a heresy
So, Farsight enclaves?

> ethereal are beings of the warp with relations to Tzeentch
Ohmygod this is so retarded I just puked in my ass.
>30. Machine Spirits are now a smoke-and-mirrors act by the Mechanicus for the most part; rudimentary/basic AI exists in that computer/cogitator programs will self-direct as-needed in certain situations, but the Mechanicus can't get away with calling it AI, so it's a machine spirit now. Problem with machine spirits is that you need to use that excuse for even the most basic and non-computerized machinery, so the Mechanicus has had to uphold that for thousands of years as a religious/legal loophole.
Machine Spirit is a LOT more than AI/spiritual bullshit, and it should be left that way. Your proposition is lame and dumb.

>33. Clarify and define tech-heresy better.
The whole thing of any actual heresy is how hard it is to define it. Hence the accusations being thrown around constantly.

> In accordance with Article 30, robots become more prominent and justified with Mechanicus hand-waving, but without the shitty bio-plastic cards used to operate them
So, servitors?

>Write a lore bible that verifiably details all of these changes, leaving as little room for contention as possible
FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU!

His ideas are bad, but god damn you're an autist, man.

>make everyone less autistic, especially the primarchs
>remove grimdark for the sake of grimdark
>tone down the scale of most conflicts, not every single conflict should escalate into a sector-wide total war effort
>more power to the Inquisition, also have them act somewhat sensible more often
>remove space wolfs
>higher number of space marines

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Well, his redemption is just suicide, there and then. That is acceptable, as this does not imply any reversal to a comprehensible (for a mortal) state and denial of the Ruinous Powers - only the denial of oneself and his own existence. I.e. - one does not flip the finger at the Four - one flip the finger at the mirror for being such a tool.

Sorry. I haven't had a bit of sleep for the last few weeks, and the ambiguous and up-to-debate nature of 40k lore is my single favorite part about it.

Well, at least I tried with the ideas.

But Altansar as Eldar Daemonhunters would be acceptable? Considering that the Warp changed them and yet they don't seem to be Chaos-worshipping or anything...not to mention Maugan Ra being trigger temper when somebody badmouths his home Craftworld.

>make everyone less autistic, especially the primarchs
Primarchs being too inhuman to be be human is the only clever and cool thing about the HH. If you don't like that you should stick with capeshit comic books.

>remove grimdark for the sake of grimdark
There are quit a few instances of those. Most of grimderp is merely the expected failures of inner workings in the machine of warfare of interstellar scale, which is quite close to reality. Actual IRL warfare has nothing to do with clean and cut SW-style shootouts, and the bigger it gets- the more it fucks up on every level.
>inb4 I have to hijack a thread with IRL military grimderp once again

>tone down the scale of most conflicts, not every single conflict should escalate into a sector-wide total war effort
Conflict that did not escalate into a sector-wide total war effort is not something worthy of our attention. Unless there are named characters involved, ofc.

>more power to the Inquisition
Is this even possible?

>also have them act somewhat sensible more often
What they do IS sensible. It's just that what is sensible for the Imperium is very often not sensible for an imperial citizen. Basic Individual vs Collective conflict of interests. Just dig around the history of IRL totalitarian regimes for more examples.

>But Altansar as Eldar Daemonhunters would be acceptable
Dunno, honestly. To my taste, Eldars already have enough snowflakery about them. Giving them Not!Grey Knights does not do anything other than step again on all the rakes that made Space Marines kinda lame.

Hmmmm. It's only the part where their Farseers cans simply use Sanctic Daemonology like normally, while they themselves have barely any emotions due to what they were through.

They wouldn't have GK tier bullshit. Not even the psychic purity that harms daemons.

No more robots made out of lobotomized people. That just opens the door for some faggoty plot about freeing them or some shit.

Alternatively: Make Psykers less likely to fuck everything up.

>No more robots made out of lobotomized people
How do you suggest us to get robots without treading the subject of Abominable Intelligence?

>That just opens the door for some faggoty plot about freeing them or some shit
Didn't happen so far, which is quite a bit of time.

>Alternatively: Make Psykers less likely to fuck everything up.
Setting is already overloaded with hyper-competent psykers. "Perils? Lol never heard of those!"

Asking to make the rest of them into just D&D mages is pure gayness.

Also forgot one thing about in the examples I listed.

Have realpolitik replace zealotry the farther planets are from Terra.

People would make contacts with aliens, but they'd still be paranoid and cautious of them.

That would show better the medieval feel of the Imperium.

All the loyal Space Marines are now Ultramarines.
All the traitors are Iron Warriors.
All the primarchs except Girlyman, Perty and Sanguinius, Best of Men are shafted.
Alternatively, everyone is an Alpha Legion infiltrator

Remove Orks, make the stagnation of the Imperium far more apparent in a "slowly rotting from the inside" angle, tone down Grey Knights, make Nids more of a galaxy spanning threat, tone down the "Warhammer 40,000 different colored marines" thing going on, make Chaos more relevant and really play up the idea of them pillaving and purating equipment(zero reason they can't have Assault Cannons or other similar weapons at an inflated price).

Then shrink down 40k to a better sized game, trash all these bullshit huge models and bring back Epic.

Remove Astra Militarum entirely, replace with the Emperor's most vaunted Imperial Guard.

Found the CSM

Please be gentle.

>All this "The Imperium is dying pls make it more apparent you guys" posts
>Not wanting to represent the balance and struggle of Order Vs. Chaos
>The Imperium again being the last Bastion of hope that the Galaxy has and everyone wants to see it burn because of "muh grimdark"
>thinking that you could just write that to happen and have it not be bad writing even when Lord Solar Macharius recently fucked shit up so much earlier
>We just need more things that put chaos at a advantage

>point 1
This is already the case. Space Marine Chatpers are autonomous and can tell anyone to fuck off if they really want to; its just that not cooperating with the Mechanicus, Guard, Inquisition, Ecclesiarchy and/or High Lords is a fast way to make you an enemy of the entirety of the Imperium

>points 2 and 3
Stupid and autistic, especially that later note about Astartes brides. SM wank is bad enough as it is.

Ollanius Pius is and always was a lost Guardman.
Then delete fucking everything about the Horus Heresy.

What's in this thread is really nothing compared to how bad it's got in the past (and can still sometimes get). Grey Knight hate has been big since their 5th edition release, for a number of reasons spanning all aspects of the hobby. Or rather, it was their 5th edition release that made Grey Knight hate a thing at all; at least as I recall, before 2011, they never attracted the same kind of loathing that, say, Tau or (codex) Necrons always have. Although lorewise, some of the things people complain about regarding the Grey Knights' "modern" incarnation were already there anyway.

So just how it is now then? Plenty of Imperial worlds, whether they're desperate or just think they can get away with it, trade with or employ the services of aliens, from Kroot to Eldar to Orks, and a whole host of minor species besides. It's even how the Imperium first came to realise that the Tau Empire actually existed.

>So, servitors?

Without the retarded lobotomized cyborg part.

Absolutely keep servitors around but there'd need to be more bona-fide robots.

>The whole thing of any actual heresy is how hard it is to define it. Hence the accusations being thrown around constantly.

The Mechanicus ought to be LESS divided than the Ecclesiarchy on topics like this, especially with how logical they are compared to most of the Imperium.

>Machine Spirit is a LOT more than AI/spiritual bullshit, and it should be left that way. Your proposition is lame and dumb.

If it's got anything to do with 'more than AI or spiritual bullshit', it falls under 'Warp shit and daemons.' That's no bueno. If it can be explained by faith or magical shit, it's the Warp. There is every indicator this is the case, and no indicator to the contrary.

>Without the retarded lobotomized cyborg part.
There are servitors perfectly capable of articulated speech and highly-sophisticated behavior, so your point is mute.

>The Mechanicus ought to be LESS divided than the Ecclesiarchy on topics like this, especially with how logical they are compared to most of the Imperium.
CERTAINLY, seeing as the IRL scientific society has withheld PERFECT CONSENSUS AND UNITY on every pressing scientific theory ever. From the issue of caloric in chemistry, to Lamarkism and Darwinism, to Quantum theory, ether, Relativity and strings, to unorthodox geometries, to the War of the Currents, to applicability of cybernetics, to modern object-oriented programming - scientists just APPLIED LOGIC and all the possible disagreements were just whoooshed away by the power of Scientific Method as Neil deGrasse Tyson tweets about it.

No, wait. It's the exact opposite from that, as application of scientific methodology allows researchers to perfectly see all the holes in every proposed theory (which are perpetually many, scio me nihil scire) and freely call out each other on them, while the religious institutions are free to use flawed logic and demagogy to enforce the dogma. Through their histories of many centuries, all the world religions went through 3 to 6 major heresies/schisms each. Meanwhile 3 scientists are guaranteed to have 6 opinions. Because mandatory adherence to logic does not solve conflict - it does the exact opposite, which is the whole point as otherwise there would be no progress.

>
If it's got anything to do with 'more than AI or spiritual bullshit', it falls under 'Warp shit and daemons.' That's no bueno. If it can be explained by faith or magical shit, it's the Warp. There is every indicator this is the case, and no indicator to the contrary.
Oh boy here we go again...

(cont)

Machine Spirit is (usually) AIs or warp fuckery. Most of the time it's just an application of AdMech philosophy of Sacred Knowledge to functionality of machinery. To an average Techpriest, there is nothing holier than the basic Knowledge withing the core of principles of Universe - the fundamental laws of reality and the like. Machines they employ function as manifestations of said Divine Information in the physical form, as they function via harnessing of said knowledge. And more that that - they function for the benefit of humanity, whose sacred mission is harvesting and comprehending said knowledge. In this way, the technological principles behind any functional machinery (from a lasgun to a starship) performs as physical manifestations of Divinity that exist to guide the flawed Man to the Transcendent Absolute - Omnissiah, the Ur-Knowledge. Like the sacred messengers of God, walking up and down the Jacob's Ladder, helping Gatherer of Knowledge to he obtain more of Divinity through theopany of scientific discovery, allowing him to create even more such sacred manifestations.

If AdMechs ever had to translate this angelic concept from the binary code into human language, I believe they would find the word "Spirit" as most befitting. Like, Spirit of the Machine, that embodies the godly and sacred principles behind it's workings. Machine Spirit, if you wish.

fucking fuck
>Machine Spirit is (usually) NOT AIs or warp fuckery

>This is already the case. Space Marine Chatpers are autonomous and can tell anyone to fuck off if they really want to; its just that not cooperating with the Mechanicus, Guard, Inquisition, Ecclesiarchy and/or High Lords is a fast way to make you an enemy of the entirety of the Imperium
No they aren't, as I stated in the previous thread. Astartes have the Adeptus Administratum/Adeptus Terra as their direct overlord followed by the High Lords of Terra, and both the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Inquisition rank higher. This is not at all similar to the Imperial Knights, who legally were wholly divorced from the rest of the Holy Roman Empire. They were the direct vassals of the Holy Roman Emperor and in return were his immediate military response.

>Stupid and autistic, especially that later note about Astartes brides. SM wank is bad enough as it is.
Only your disagreement is. In their current state space marines are utterly flat, uninteresting, un-grounded, unrelatable characters that need proper reasons to do what they do besides one dimensional excuses such as brainwashing. Space Marines need emotional investment- both for the sake of their characters to justify their loyalty and for higher quality novels. And before you say "muh unknowable unrelatable space marines", no, that does not function. If something is so divorced from humanity that you cannot understand it properly, you cannot write about it properly beyond hack attempts at imitating Lovecraft. Which is why the Black Library is in its current state, with novels on space marines being little more than sub-standard toilet paper.

Something that can at least masquerade as progress every three to five years. And actual undeniable progress every new edition.

The real threat of the Tau isn't their armies it is their diplomats. Have Ethereal Tau cults to the greater good similar to genestealer cults be a threat to the Imperium.

Their shit FTL though

Have sleeper cryosuspension ships sent out centuries ago?

Move the timeline forward. All of the very bad things that have been just on he horizon forever start to happen. Starting with the Emperor finally dying and the Astronomican going out. Warp travel becomes far more dangerous than it already was. The Imperium collapses, breaking up into countless independent states.

The ultimate heresy
-Remove GEOM from existence

I like you.

>37. Don't stagger codex releases - playtest, edit, and release all at once for every army. No, I don't give a shit what the execs say - this has to happen. Do it, fuckers.
This is more important than any lore change.