1st Edition Lore Was BONKERS | Warhammer 40K Lore

You know, Horus Heresy takes up too much oxygen in the fandom and lore these days. Bring back focus on the Badab War and Age Of Apostasy. Return to tradition.

The old 40k art had no right to go so hard, but I'm glad it did.

Make the marines malevolent act like 1st ed marines instead of just being boring evil

NGL the idea of Chaos Cultist Genestealers sounds absolutely incredible. Like imagine an Aberrant who worships Khorne and got blessed- it’d be ridiculous

I still remember the Fantasy-40K connection back in the day that you could find warriors of chaos with plasma pistols, dark elves with power fist, and the story that Sigmar came from space and may have been a lost primarch... good times.

Speaking of goofy Space Marines: Back in the era of Space Hulk 1st ed (I think just before WH40K 2nd ed) there was an article in Dragon magazine for a Space Hulk campaign in which your marines wore normal beaky armor and carried a boom box because their objective was to fight their way into a space hulk to literally dance in face of humanity's enemies and terminator armor is too bulky to dance properly.

Hi. Complete Eldar simp stuck in the 80's and former GW employee here. I have a few notes on this video (as I happen to be going through the 1st edition book anyway) 1. Sisters of battle are in the Rogue Trader. Or rather Adepta Sororitas. Page 269 2. Space marines, if anything have gotten FAR more weird since "1980s commandos in sci fi powered armour" Now we have Space vampires with wings? 3. The Eldar were glorious; they were simply better, more expensive, etc. 4. The most important bit is how fair things were, because there was ONE wargear list, one Psionics list, etc. 5. Any and everyone could be in a chaos band, but there were no 'keywords'. there REALLY should be Chaos Everyone now. 6. Rogue Trader was not an RPG 7. ZOATS!!!! (Still in my Corsairs army) Some things you may have missed: a. Jokaero b. Flora and fauna (Gyrinx, Catachan Dev.....everything, etc) c. off board support weapons d. ROBOTS (you had to write a flowchart program for them. they got their own phase. e. Psicannons were tiny pistols with bullets coated in emperor excrement. f. Everyone had dreadnoughts. Dreadnoughts were what we might call Invictor warsuits' today. g. Mentor Legion.

I kinda love the idea that space marines being these "stoic warrior monks" is propaganda and that in reality they're just these knuckle dragging, beer-chugging fratboy asshole space cops Just has that grimark satire edge that is slowly being sanded away from the setting so it can be more "heroic"

"1st Edition Lore Was GLORIOUS" - fixed that for you.

I remember hearing how in Rogue Trader the Genestealers were actually a completely separate race to the Tyranids for a bit before Second Addition

I would love to see Zoats allied with Tau, especially Kroot. A Zoat packing weapons normally found on a crisis suit would be awesome.

The Exodites were in Rogue Trader Eldar Codex. I'd like them back

Honestly, I still recommend Ian Watson's 40k book, because despite some of the gross stuff, they give you that sort of "First Time Experience" akin to watching Apocalypse Now, for the first time. You are descending into this demented world, full of horrors, following demented characters who can only partially comprehend the world around them, being warped by it, both mentally and physically. There's this quite existential, psychedelic horror atmosphere to them. Moreover, Watson made W40k WORK. Like think about it, at the time w40k was, as of yet, a shapeless mass of ideas snatched together from Judge Dredd, Starship Troopers, Elric Of Melnibone, Aliens, DnD, Dune, Lovecraft and probably more. Then, they gave that bag of clustefuck to a writer who drops Acid like it's gummy bear - and yet, it somehow worked. (P.S: I, for one, do wish that GW would bring back the 80's metal vibe, even if only in terms of aesthetics.)

Personally I think we need more books on inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Cluseau, Imagine the adventures he’s been on.

I think Chaos Eldar could actually return (ie the original Crone World people serving any of the Chaos gods except for maaaybe Slannesh).

"Beastmen" as sanctioned abhumans fighting for the Imperium 100% needs to come back.

I love how every faction in rogue trader got to use rhinos and landraiders because landraiders are fucking cool

The goofy vibe and art style speak to my inner 80s kid, love it. In moderation it could offset the grimdark and bring more people into the lore. Caiphas Cain, ect.

Honestly I miss the level of detail and freedom of the old edition. The fact that you learn what certain peoples rations are like and you can have someone in your army pick up an ork gun just makes the world feel more lived in to me. Nowadays every faction has some rigid lore about how they wouldn’t even touch another’s weapons but it just makes each faction feel like it’s in its own universe completely separate from the others

Nercron raiders came out 2nd ed. Scarabs could eat armour on your tanks and there was a chance your weapons would malfunction near any necrons