Warhammer 40K: Famous Stories That Belong In The Grimdark – PRIME
Let’s take a look at some famous stories that could have taken place in the past of Warhammer 40K.
Warhammer 40K is a huge sprawling universe and timeline. However much of it remains a blank space of unknown. We have some decent ideas of events that have happened between M30-M41, as this is covered by the game. In addition, we know that real-life events up until at least the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan happened. But between M2-M30 there isn’t much we know other than some major broad strokes. So today just for fun let’s take a look at a few other stories, or settings, that totally could have taken place in Warhammer 40K’s past.
Akira
Akira is a classic anime/manga. Though it is set in 2019 in Neo-Toyko, this is honestly a story that wouldn’t be out of place in any part of 40K timeline. This is a story set in a massive sprawling, decaying hive-like city. A city ruled by harsh law enforcement and secretive military-industrial types. It’s about gangs fighting the police and each other, hoping things will get better. And of course it’s about crazy psychic mutants that are a danger to everyone. I mean… that’s pretty Warhammer right on the nose right? This could be easily have happened in 40K’s past, or simply be retold in current 40K without a whole ton of changes.
BattleTech
BattleTech is its own fully fleshed out and much loved setting. It’s also one that certainly has had some influence on 40K, as we discussed last week. Knights in particular were heavily influenced by “Mechs. Given that it takes place way before the current setting, there’s nothing to particularly say they couldn’t have actually taken place in the same setting. Now Bettletech is missing a couple of big parts of the 40K setting, in particular Psykers and Xenos. This however isn’t all that hard to explain away, it was simply a time when pyskers weren’t common and were hiding. Moreover the BattleTech universe is a relatively small bit of space, centered around Terra, maybe it was just one free of Xenos. Of course BattleTech also has JumpShips, a non-warp based version of FTL. This is something largely absent from 40K and that humanity is lacking (thought the T’au have a sort of non-warp based form of FTL), of course this could just be a relatively short-ranged hyperspace technology that was lost in a collapse, that left just the idea of Knights hanging around.
Greek/Roman Myths
It’s heavily implied in some of the recent Horus Heresy books that the Perpetuals, in particular the Emperor and Erda, are closely associated with mythical figures, in particular, Greek and Roman gods. Indeed the Emperor is directly equated to the Roman god Saturn. One of the implications here is many, if not most, of the ancient mythologies were based on the real exploits of Perpetuals, with their struggles and conflicts. Thus it’s possible that many of these stories, or at versions of them, actually took place and have historical backing in the 40K setting.
Mad Max
Mad Max is another one of those stories, like Akira, that is set pretty early in the timeline, but could take place anytime in it. It’s a crazy story of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, fought over by mutants and cultists in ramshackle vehicles. It’s a world where the seas have dried up and the world is fallen. This could totally be set right before Unification. Indeed many of the times we’ve had descriptions of pre-Unification Terra seem to be pretty highly based on Mad Max. It’s also clear that Angelis (the setting for Gorkamorka) is pretty similar to it. So the events of Mad Max could totally have taken place in the 40K past.
What’s your favorite setting that you think would be right at home in 40K?
