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In the far future of the 41st millennium, there is only WAR. The Imperium of Man is beset by threats from all sides, with millions of lives being lost in the battle against the alien, the mutant, and the heretic. Welcome to Warhammer 40,000!

Warhammer 40,000 is a grimdark sci fi franchise (lore, games, and tv shows) set a little bit over 40k years in the future. There are many factions and races in Warhammer 40k, but for now lets group them into three categories; The Imperium of Man, Chaos, and Xenos. The Imperium of man is all of mankind united under the rule of the god emperor of mankind, the most powerful psyker (space wizard) to have ever existed, but currently he’s little more than a decaying corpse on a golden throne, needing the souls of 10,000 psyker’s a day for him to stay alive and his light to reach the worlds of the imperium.

Chaos is a faction made up of three gods: Khorne the blood god, Tzeentch the change bringer, and Nurgle the plague father. Khorne is all about war and fighting up close and personal. Tzeentch is all about learning new things and magic. Nurgle is all about spreading his love (plagues) to everyone, so everybody is equal. Whenever you do something that represents an aspect of them, they get worshiped, which makes them a little more powerful. Most worship of them happens inadvertently. For example, a bar fight will worship Khorne, but a massive battle will worship him much more. One or two people getting sick will worship Nurgle, but a planet dying from the plague will worship him much more. A couple people taking a class will worship Tzeentch but a new piece of information being spread around a whole planet will  worship him much more.

Xenos are those who aren’t of a human race, plain and simple. This includes the war obsessed Orks, the biomass devouring Tyranids, the robotic egyptian themed Necrons, and many more. Let’s go over the three I just mentioned; Orks, Tyranids, and Necrons. 

Orks are giant, green, muscular, and simple minded creatures. They love a proper fight, and all have a latent psychic presence which causes whatever enough of them believe in to be true. For example, they believe that colors give things special characteristics, like red makes things move faster, blue will give them luck, and you will never see a purple ork. They also get visibly stronger when they win a fight, like they will literally grow in size when they win a fight. The largest Orks become the boss, and will initiate large WAAAGHS that are a massive almost spiritual calling to war, that will draw any Orks in the nearby galaxies to fight with the leaders. A final fact about the Orks is that they are actually fungus.

Tyranids are a hive mind of dinosaur/bug looking creatures that devour the biomass of a planet adding it to their ranks, meaning every battle won increases their numbers. They are focused solely on devouring all biomass. They also can adapt to the situation they are in. For example if you kill them with fire, you’ll start encountering Tyranids with fireproof carapaces. They are incredibly dangerous and a very powerful faction. 

Finally we have the Necrons, a race of ancient, but highly advanced, Egyptian themed robots. They weren’t always robots, but it gets really complicated. But they do have rifles that tear apart the target’s atomic bonds, literally stripping apart their body, atom by atom, molecule by molecule.

All in all, Warhammer 40k is an amazing franchise that has a faction or subfaction that satisfies everyone’s tastes. There are many, many books for every faction so you can learn about each much more in depth. 

And remember, in the darkness of the 41st millennium

There

Is

Only

    War…