So I picked up Warhammer 40K Inquisitor...

[Ramien Meltides]

About Space Orks:

They are pretty strange, but amusing as a race. They are indeed related to fungus... in fact, spores are what creates the various Orkoid creatures. (More on that later)

Orks themselves are all the same race with different forms. The most common form is that of the Ork: A big, strong, green-skinned humanoid who feels little pain but has an inborn desire to fight and conquer. As Ork's get more authority, they grow bigger. Thus, the biggest ork is always the boss.
Smaller Orks are called Goblins, Gobbos, Snotlings, or Gretchin. They're all the same thing... runty little greenskinned humanoids with big heads and scrawny bodies.
Other Orkoid creatures are commonly called "Squigs" and can be nearly any kind of creature that the orks need... Squigs evolve to fit the needs of the race. Thus, Squigs form themselves into beasts of burden, hounds to control gretchin mobs, even living "hair"!

Orks have some strange psychic abilities as well... they believe something will work, so it does... even if there is no logical reason for it to! Thus, even the most clunky, primitive equipment functions nearly as well (or better) than it should!

Orks have many strange beliefs... anything painted red goes "fasta" and anything painted blue is lucky. Finally, there are many different tribes or factions that have different outlooks, but for the most part, Orks are like a huge nomadic tribe of battle-hungry barbarians prowling space.

 

[Ramien Meltides]

The Imperium of Man has already been discussed somewhat above. The Emporer is a godlike psychic beacon within the Warp that guides the Imperial ships, and he is basically a dying husk encased in a throne made of life-support equipment.

The Imperium is vast and for the most part, unfriendly. Imperial authorities tend to be very unforgiving. Even a small group of heretics or traitors can condemn an entire planet to the dire judgement of Exterminatus... which means the Imperial Fleet scours the planet from orbit with vast amounts of weaponry.

Factions within the Imperium include:
The Inquisition - This group has it's own different factions, but in general the Inquisition exists in order to track down and expose any traitors or heretics within the Imperium. They also find ways to fight the forces of Chaos and Daemons.

The Ecclesiarchy - This group is the church of the Emporer. There are countless subsects, but the Ecclesiarchy's purpose is to guide the people of the Imperium in worship of the Emporer and to avoid the influence of Daemons. The fighting arm of the Ecclesiarchy is known as the Adeptus Sororitas - The Sisters of Battle, which is a group of nuns who suit up in power armor and bring flamers, meltaguns, boltguns and prayers to fight the enemies of the Imperium.

The Imperial Guard - Each world within the Imperium is required to donate a portion of it's population to serve in the Imperial Guard, a vast army that serves as the primary military force (and possibly the largest) in the known galaxy. The Imperial Guard have mostly outdated equipment, but their Tanks are some of the galaxy's finest! Artillery, Armor, and vast numbers of Infantry are the strengths of the Imperial Guard.

(By the way... the best resource I can think of to learn more about the world of Warhammer 40k would be the Gaunt's Ghost's Imperial Guard novels by Dan Abnett. These books are very well written, you can find them at Amazon.com)

The Administratum - Millions and millions of people require a vast and unwieldy government. The Lords of Terra pass on their laws to the Administratum, which tells the planetary governors, and so on. The Adeptus Arbites serves as the enforcers of the law - These "judge dredd" style policemen have military-grade equipment and a completely ruthless code of law. Break it, and you die.

The Adeptus Astartes are probably the most famous and well known military units of the Imperium - also known as the Space Marines. There are many different chapters of space marines, each with their own unique flavor, but in general you can think of the space marines as massive, genetically-enhanced humans who are taught to fight in a monastery. (Thus they refer to each other as Brother Scarus, Brother Excarth, and so forth) The Space Marines are famous for knowing no fear and are equipped with the finest weaponry in the Imperium. They are highly trained elite troops who have almost always managed to succeed against dire odds.

Other games involved with the Imperium:
Battlefleet Gothic - This game lets you play fleets of Capital warships who duel in space with boarding parties, broadsides of naval firepower, bombers and fighters, and torpedoes.

Necromunda - This is a skirmish-level game (you only need ten or so miniatures) which takes place in the depths of a gigantic city known as Hive Primus on the planet of Necromunda. Players take on the identities of Hive Gangs and duel with each other (and the Adeptus Arbites) in order to gain power and prestige.

 

[Dragongirl]

I forget if Skaven are in the old 40,000K book and have not seen the newer books. Are they in there? and if so how are they treated?

 

[Ramien Meltides]

Squats don't exist anymore... the designers are getting tired of being asked about them

The Necron (also known as the Necrontyr) are a group of self-repairing Robots (think of the Terminator) armed with ancient high-tech weaponry. The Necron seek to exterminate all life... they are perhaps the most mysterious of all 40k races. The prevailing thought is that the Necrons were creations of an ancient and powerful race (The C'tan) and programmed to destroy any intelligent life (like Fred Saberhagen's Bezerkers).

The Tau are a human-like race with advanced technology (better than the Imperium), including Battlesuits and stealth gear. They are one of the "good guy" races who tend to oppose Chaos, Daemons, and especially Orks. They tangle with the Imperium off and on. The Tau also employ other races (such as humans and an avian race known as the Kroot) as mercenary forces to augment their own military.

Chaos represents the power of evil. Chaos equals evil, mutation-causing energy that pervades the Warp and touches all psychic creatures in some fashion. Daemons are born in the warp and seek to conquer the entire universe. Traitor legions of Space marines live in the Eye of Terror and serve Chaos, as do many cults within the Imperium.

 

[Ramien Meltides]

No Skaven in warhammer 40,000.

Yet.

Seriously, I've never heard of them being a part of the setting, but there's always the chance that they'll crop up later as another alien race or something.

 

[Eternalknight]

Ah the memories. I haven't played a good game of 40k since the new edition came out a few years ago. Always was a great setting.

 

[Dragongirl]

No Skaven in warhammer 40,000.

Yet.

Seriously, I've never heard of them being a part of the setting, but there's always the chance that they'll crop up later as another alien race or something.

Thanks Ramien. I always liked the Skaven in the fantasy version, and just wondered how they would be handled by the sci-fi one.

 

[Oubliette]

For me, the flavour really changed when the illustrations stooped having bodies in them (it was a while ago).

There just came a point (I'm not exactly sure when) when the gore was completely washed out. The one example I can think of is the original Rogue Trader book had Space Marines making a final stand, surrounded by the bodies of orcs on the cover, with a captain raising the decapitated head of an orc above his head.

A few years later, the same picture was used, but the bodies and head had been edited out. Which rendered the picture somewhat ridiculous IMO.

Now this in and of itself is no big deal, but it reflected a trend at GW where the game was being marketed to younger and younger people, and seemed to have lost anything that may be considered controvertial (and interesting).

However, GW still makes the best minis around, and some of their less mainstream games are still damn cool such as Necromunda, Inquisitor (though too complicated), and especially BLOOD BOWL! which has actually improved over time.

 

[Graf]

Thanks Ramien. It was nice to see a good, concise, explanation

The old WH40K book/world was pretty brilliant. I remember reading it to the point that the pages started falling out. Space Hulk was probably one of their better games. It wasn't crazy on repeatability but it was a lot of fun.

The emperor who is a terrible being who demands ritual sacrifice in massive quantities to extend his unnatural lifespan but who is also effectively the savior of humanity was a brilliant story.
they weren't afraid of mixing religion and evil together in a way that you just don't see.

It was one of the grittiest toughest worlds ever, the genestealer (back before there were Tyranids there were genestealers, still have the minins and inquisitor books were just so good.

The Eldar, with their whole doomed race desperately trying to keep their souls in little rocks so the demons don't get them, were great too.

People who are interested in a D20 world similar to 40K might want to see if you can google Sleeping Imperium (the site went down apparently the fellow who was doing it has moved on but the caches may still be availible). Though there were some remarkable similarites he apparently developed his world independently. It was the best far future guns, spells & power armor D20 game floating around until it went Fudge.

 

[uv23]

Thanks very much for all the info! Its *greatly* appreciated. Sounds like things have shifted around quite a bit. In terms of Inquisitor, it seems as dark and subversive a gaming product as I've ever seen. Oh, and there are plenty of bodies and skulls and such in the pictures too for any that are worried. The main thing I was confused about was whether the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition were the same group or seperate. Seems they're seperate.. sorta like priests and paladins I suppose.