The star child

[jgebi]

Ok I need to know. Is the star child still in play? or what? because I need to know... blah blah blah.... no one cares anyway. So the star child are they going to run with that torch or what?

[Wolfshade]

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Star_Child

We've not really heard much since 3rd ed about it.

[== Warning the following post contains conjecture ==]

My feeling is that it may be retconned.

The 40k verse is stuck, the IoM cannot fall as it will have a negative impact on sales as people will find it harder to engage with, after all most players have some Space Marines floating in their army.

The Emperor cannot be reborn as he is over powered and his resurrection would start a new golden age, new legions could be founded, new primarchs designed and humanity rescued from itself and its opponents.

[Brakkart]

No idea whether it is still regarded as canon or not, but I don't buy the whole "The Emperor is too powerful" bit. For one thing if the Emperor could make new Primarch's he would have done so after the previous lot got scattered through space, he was unable to replicate the feat and had to settle for creating the watered down version of them that is the Space Marines. Given that Forge World are now doing books covering the Heresy era including rules for the Primarch's and presumably the Emperor and other powerful personages of the time too (Malcador, Garro and such characters) then I see no reason why once the Heresy series of books has been finished, the Black Library, GW and FW could not switch to covering the grand story of the end of the 40k era and what follows on afterwards.

They will need something eventually to replace the cash cow that is the Heresy era coverage and it would fit the bill nicely, a vast epic storyline that could go on for a decade or more's worth of books, models and such.

[jgebi]

now anyone got some sort of time line for this? I know it's a long shot and a half

[Mr Mystery]

Remember folks, 40k is not a story. It's a setting in which we tell stories, whether in a single game, a campaign, a Roleplay session or plain old fan fiction.

Settings don't progress. The Starchild should be taken as an item of faith, something you choose to run with or ignore.

But don't expect to setting to change, it's never going to happen!

[Cap'nSmurfs]

The Star Child stuff is so far out of date that it's... well it's really old! I think it's only because Lexicanum have it up on their page that anyone except the Rogue Trader era players even acknowledge it.

It's dead, it's gone, the storyline isn't going to move on so hugely barring a massive shakeup in the 40k game system, and by now I think if they're going to do that, they'll do it in their own way rather than relying on some embarassing dingbat mysticism Priestley and co. wrote in when they were high on bad shrooms and Mountain Dew one night.

For more current theories on the Emperor's nature and plans for his resurrection etc., consult the Inquisitor rulebook and source material. It was all about that.

[Daemonette666]

The Horus Heresy novels and a lot of the old material that has been Ret-Coned mentioned that the Emperor could not build the Primarchs without the help of the Gods of Chaos. He made a deal with them, and they imbued their ancient and arcane knowledge and powers to give his technology and genetic manipulation h=the kick it needed to get it going.

The Chaos Gods only made the deal with the emperor because they were afraid of a mysterious being called the Great Destroyer or Great Devourer, of which not much is mentioned or even written about. They were hoping to use the Primarchs for their own purposes and break their deal with the Emperor, however he broke his deal with them, and they scattered the Prinmarchs across the Galaxy.

The use of the Chaos Gods powers would certainly explain the subtle mutations within the Astartes geneseed. Wolf fangs, Blood Rage, Psychic Flesh Change, etc.

[Denzark]

Hang on D666 - where does it explicitly or even implicitly state that Emp did a deal with Chaos?

I think the Star Child Concept is like any other bit of fluff. Until updated or retconned, it still exists. After all i can't think of any recent fluff which prevents it being extant (a bit like female SMs being impossible...)

[Cap'nSmurfs]

It's not explicitly stated. The time you see this is in a "vision of the past" presented by a, shall we say, partisan character. It's not known for certain that he made a deal with them.

The context of that scene isn't even really making a deal so much as permitting something to happen, anyway.

I'd ignore the Star Child just because it's so knuckle-bitingly awful, but that's me.

[Dalleron]

The First Heretic touches on the creation of the Primarchs and how the Chaos Gods lent a hand. It's not very detailed, moreso a gloss over that The Emperor made a deal with the Chaos gods.

[daboarder]

Ok I need to know. Is the star child still in play? or what? because I need to know... blah blah blah.... no one cares anyway. So the star child are they going to run with that torch or what?

There is a short story at the back of the 3rd ed rulebook takes the starchild and sensie out of play as a plot by a tzeentch deamon prince to pervert the faithful to a different worship

[Denzark]

Hey Daboarder - don't call them dead. that was one cult on one planet - not the whole shebang.

[Rolius1978]

on the point about the heresy era being a cash cow - yes and don't expect them to give it up for quite a few more years yet! If anything I'd say there is more chance of pre-heresy era stuff - you know great crusade etc than there is of the 40k story developing significantly.

[The Last Lamenter]

Mr. Mystery,

40k is most certainly a story, albeit a collaborative one.

[Wolfshade]

Mr. Mystery,

40k is most certainly a story, albeit a collaborative one.

I would disagree quite strenuously. 40k is a universe in which our stories happen.

Flames of war is a story, you would find it very hard to come up with a reason for British v France action for instance.

Whereas in 40k we can create scenrarios where you have Space Marine v Space Marine. We are not limited in that way as to how things happen in the book, yes it is fun to re-create the stories we read about, like the Battle for Armageddon(s) but we are not stymied to it. We do not need to rational why the Cadia 501st are fighting Sisters of Battle on an ice world, they are just doing so, we can in fill with our own thoughts and ideas as to why this is happening.

Hmm, maybe all of our stories are 40k and we are the collaborators and as we share our battles we are increasing the background...

[White Tiger88]

Would this not tie into the whole "where did cypher go" thing?

[The Last Lamenter]

No way. I am starting a new thread on this topic. You had a battle between the sisters and the 501st, but that does not make it canon. Lord of the Rings is a setting for Games Workshop, but Tolkien didn't write his stories for your tabletop dice-rolling to dictate what happens in Middle Earth. Are we really going to be so self-important to think that we are all involved in Abnett's next novel or Blanche's artwork? No, there are guys at the top, calling the shots in the developement of the story, and in case you haven't noticed, what with Thousand Sons making the New York Times bestseller list, The universe has become story centered, at least where the black library is involved. It's moved past fan fiction.