There are rumours here and there, that W40 End Times already near. Now is 41 M 999 and there somehow must be a massive explotion, death of factions, resurrection of Primarchs and so on. Something drastic. W40 franchise is so popular, we all love it, but currently storyline stuck on 999 and cant evolve. BUT, hey - why so serious!? QUESTION - why cant GW just flip the year from 41 to 42 Millennium and simply proceed? Making some cosmetic shapes, but not removing beloved factions or somehow to ruin the world in other ways (like they wiped out poor fantasy). Im not familiar with TT End Times thing, is it any special unwrittern law to fuck the whole world and recreate it? Or why it must be those "end times" before you can twist the story further?..
Because proceeding with events would require effort. I know that sounds more than a little cruel, but it's the honest truth in some regards. The main focus of codices has been establishing details about the army, its past battles and events and the faction as a whole. By keeping it at a set point they have more flexability to write about armies as they wish and the details behind them, whereas otherwise they would be stuck trying to advance the story at every turn. This is a difficult thing to do and there's only been a few games which have truly pulled off an ongoing narrative, specifically Legend of the Five Rings and Battletech. Games Workshop experimented with this twice in the past, and neither time was a big success, and the only time they truly did push for something entirely new it resulted in Age of Sigmar and enraging half of their fans. Another big problem is the fact that writers keep trying to hype M41.999 as being a big event with multiple swords of Damocles hanging over the galaxy. Between the latest Black Crusade, the Grey Knights' "Press here in case of Chaos" button, the Necron Dynasties' hidden superweapons, the repeated suggestion of the Eldar Pantheon making a grand comeback tour or Ynnead will soon start a brawl in the Warp, and the Orks' own seemingly unstoppable tide of green, there's too many "I Win" buttons to counter. Because every faction has suddenly been given or suggested to have one, the first several books alone would need to focus upon resolving two dozen or so potential apocalypses which would leave one race dominant over all others. Personally, i've argued that the problem isn't that it doesn't go past M41.999 but the fact it's obsessed with that year. There are ten thousand prior years to still examine and explore, most of which have gone untapped for storytelling potential. Several massive events like when the Imperium split into two empires or the Mechanicus and Imperial Church were suggested to merge in future events have never been dealt with. Other big ones such was the infamous War of the False Primarch we only have a name for and little else.
(I'm not angry at you, I just think its appropriate to explain it in this fashion). Do you even REALIZE the state the entire galaxy is in? Abbadon is yucking it up over at cadia. Tau are starting to bite the dust from all the lolnids gangbanging them in the eastern part of the galaxy, and they are making there way even closer to terra. The golden throne is failing, and emperor knows what sort of crazy bullshit thats gonna result in, probably a disaster on eye of terror scale, if not bigger. The imperium itself is well... we all know what their deal is at this point. Necrons are getting out of their pajamas and coming out to play, A LOT more frequently to. Eldar are doing semi-fine I think? Despite losing Eldrad Ulthuan. Dark eldar are the only faction that I can think of who won't end up getting warp-fisted in the whole process, but who knows. Its not that people don't want it to "end" (Some genuinely don't), but its that there's no "proper" way for it to end. At least not without either chaos, the tyranids, or necrons winning, and those are the bad guys! Well, the more bad guys.
Part of the Ciaphas Cain books are seemingly set in M42, according to the Lexicanum timeline. So nothing too important happened in the first 120 years.
I understand its not an easy to proceed, but its easier to proceed with small changes and reshaping everything than recreating from zero after apocalypse (like Age of Sigmar). Just release damn codexes and write down 42 M 005. Its not so hard to slip away from those apocaliptic corners into which GW pushed factions. At least its better than push yourself even deeper there. Due to events of the past in fluff - its interesting, but its the past, we know how it will end. No feeling of unkown. I think for the most people biggest fun is to proceed and have at least theoretical possibility influence future, to evolve along with the whole picture. SWTOR, ESO made mistakes with releasing huge MMO games proceeding in the past. Total War: Warhammer is absolutly wasted opportunity imho, when such a great gameplay built on ruined and extinct world..
I would gladly welcome a rework because it's to big and to power creepy, every army that gets played is cheesy as hell and if you try to build fluff you get your face kicked in. Wrong forum though. Shouldn't this be in like...general tabletop stuff.
I understand it very well, but this apocaliptic ending can come, lets say, 10 years from now (on Earth) and 300 years frow now on W40 universe Its pretty easy to twist scenarios. For now situation is stupid beeing stuck on those 999. And even if this breaking point comes now - is it necessary to condemn whole factions? Like people guessing "tyranids will wipe tau and imperial, orcs - eldars and Necrons, bam, chaos wins, end times". I dont know, maybe for people who plays W40 for 20 years it would be fun. Im just found this universe and its becoming my new religion (seriously, I would like to have Imperial Cult in Europe ), thats why these "end times" borthers me more than I would want.
