Things I learned from Eisenhorn about the 40k Universe

[Duke]

++SPOILER ALERT++ EISENHORN BOOKS ++ SPOILER ALERT++



1. Lightsabers are real: Eisenhorn has one, but it shatters all over a deamon host
2. Using a daemon host in a grey knight army would have the whole army declared Heretic diabolus: Eisenhorn is declared a heretic because someone thought he worked with a daemon host.
3. Inquisitors are scared of Space Marines: Eisenhorn runs after seeing one "Emperors Children," Astartes
4. Imperial citizens don't necessarily worship the Emperor, they just say their native gods are aspects of the Emperor: "Their religion is a sun religion," "You mean Sun as the God-Emperor?" "Yes Inquisitor, naturally I meant the sun as the God-Emperor"
5. Cadia actually has times of non-invasion: Though it is always on a 'war stance,' it isn't constantly 24/7 battles... Though there has to be at least one sanguine battle every month or so according to the way the book made it sound.
6. There should never be a Codex: Inquisition: Inquistors like to bring their targets down alone, so they can have all the glory... Sometimes they would work together, but not often enough to be a codex book.
7. There is heresy on Terra: One of Eisenhorns fellow inquisitors actually rooted out a Nurgle sub-cult on holy Terra itself.
8. "In the evening haze of the far future there is an awful lot of war, but also a bunch of peace too." ... Inquisitor Eisenhorn goes to several systems and planets that haven't seen war for generations. Gudrun recruited men to go to the front as an Imperial Guard Regiment, but for the most part the planet reminds me a lot of Naboo from Star Wars.

That is all for now, feel free to comment... I have just been noticing a lot about how the 40k Universe actually works. If you haven't read Eisenhorn yet, it is a great read. If so then good for you!


DUKE

[Just_Me]

Agreed, Eisenhorn is just plain a great series, I convinced my father (who does not play the game and knows nothing about the 40k universe) to read them and he really enjoyed them. The same goes for all of Abnett's books in fact.

Eisenhorn does a great job of depicting the "rest" of the grim dark future, away from the worst of the grimdark the world still has to turn, and functions much as human civilization always has; there are haves and have-nots, people work, play, love, hate, live, and die, and the galaxy keeps spinning and stuff gets done. In my opinion Abnett's works are the best depictions of the 41st millenium out there, I tend to look to them for guidance wherever possible.

[Duke]

Exactley, the codecies always give us this vision of every single planet waging a little war with their cities on fire. While this may be true for the astartes and the imperial guard (as a whole) it isn't true for the rest of the imperium.

Someone once started a thread asking what imperial citizens do in their daily lives... The answer is: th same crap we do, except that when the turn on the evening news they hear about marines in the eye of terror, not marines in afganistan.

[Nabterayl]

As far as "worshiping the Emperor" goes, it's worth noting that Hubris' religion is worshiping the Emperor to Imperial eyes. As long as you're willing to acknowledge that "the Emperor" is the supreme authority over mankind, the Ecclesiarchy's willing to check the "true believer" box. I think that dovetails nicely with the relationship between the Astartes cults and the Imperial cult, too - space marines might not think that the Emperor is a god, as does the Ecclesiarchy, but they do acknowledge the Emperor as the supreme authority over mankind, so the Ecclesiarchy can fellowship with them.

[Duke]

Just like the MAchanicus and their machine god is an "aspect" of the big "E"

Duke

[Nabterayl]

It's really quite sensible. The only way you could hold an empire as big as the Imperium together is to adopt an essentially Achaemenid attitude: pay your taxes when asked, provide your troops when asked, swear fealty to the high king, and otherwise you can do and believe whatever the heck you want.

[Lucidum]

Just like the MAchanicus and their machine god is an "aspect" of the big "E"

Duke

Yes indeed, I believe one of their requirements in re-joining the imperium of man after the age of strife or some such was to bow down to the god-emperor and so they just said that their machine god, the omnissaiah, is an aspect of the emperor as the god of machines and technology.

[Melissia]

Heh, I recall a bit of fan-fluff in a Dark Heresy game where a primitive planet referred to the Emperor as "God of Emperors, Emperor of Gods". They had a ton of other gods in their pantheon, but the Emperor was on top, the ruler. The chaos gods were known as rebel gods who opposed his rule, and weren't spoken of openly (in fact they were often despised).

[Kelbor hal]

3. Inquisitors are scared of Space Marines: Eisenhorn runs after seeing one "Emperors Children," Astartes


I think that this kinda speaks for itself-whilst a 'regular' marine would probably just unnerve an Inqusior, Emperors children would probably scare 'em gackless because they're Slaanesh tainted nasty perverted traitors.

~ Hal

[Melissia]

I think that this kinda speaks for itself-whilst a 'regular' marine would probably just unnerve some Inqusiors, Emperors children would probably scare some of 'em gackless because they're Slaanesh tainted nasty perverted traitors.

~ HalFixed.

For better or worse, some Inquisitors aren't scared of anything (due to insanity or a superiority complex for example). Meanwhile others view Astartes as they view everyone else-- as a means to an end.

[Kelbor hal]

Yeah, that :).