https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/07/17/heretic-traitor-rogue-inquisitor-tv-stargw-homepage-post-2/

I saw this today and I am not sure I believe it's even possible to do live action. Warhammer 40k would require so much CGI that it would be insanely expensive.

For those of you who don't know anything about Warhammer 40k, here is an intro:



In my opinion it's probably the single most problematic sci-fi in existence outside of some of the insane stuff like Gor. Why? Because the Imperium of Man is a tyrannical theocratic fascist regime desperately trying to fight back every single alien species trying to genocide humanity in increasingly horrific ways. The Imperium in turn sacrifices millions of latent psykers (aka humans with psychic powers) to maintain their dying God Emperor who in turn is the last line of defense against Hell consuming the galaxy. The Imperium is basically the Empire from Star Wars ramped up to about a million times larger population wise, bureaucracy wise, and totalitarian wise yet they are still the good guys in comparison to almost everything.

Now just imagine how people will react when they see how humanity is in a tv show about an Inquisitor (aka a guy who fights daemons, cultists, and all manner of societal rot and corruption). I would love to see them be faithful to the source material but I fear they will drastically change the setting and *******ize it to minimize the outcry (over the top grimdark is Warhammer 40k's thing).

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-creator-of-man-in-the-high-castle-is-bring-warhamme-1836457904

So far the creators of "Man in the High Castle" for Amazon have signed on so I remain hopeful. This does tell me they at least know that it will be difficult to adapt and wanted to go with people who have at least done something similar. I really hope they can do it justice.

Project Pluto said:

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https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/07/17/heretic-traitor-rogue-inquisitor-tv-stargw-homepage-post-2/

I saw this today and I am not sure I believe it's even possible to do live action. Warhammer 40k would require so much CGI that it would be insanely expensive.

For those of you who don't know anything about Warhammer 40k, here is an intro:



In my opinion it's probably the single most problematic sci-fi in existence outside of some of the insane stuff like Gor. Why? Because the Imperium of Man is a tyrannical theocratic fascist regime desperately trying to fight back every single alien species trying to genocide humanity in increasingly horrific ways. The Imperium in turn sacrifices millions of latent psykers (aka humans with psychic powers) to maintain their dying God Emperor who in turn is the last line of defense against Hell consuming the galaxy. The Imperium is basically the Empire from Star Wars ramped up to about a million times larger population wise, bureaucracy wise, and totalitarian wise yet they are still the good guys in comparison to almost everything.

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Not to mention how Humanity no longer really understands how most of their advanced technology works, so they feel the need to pray to their hyperdrives to take them into outer space, chant the ritualistic hymns for their computers, or anoint their weaponry with holy oils in order to appease the "Machine Spirits" within.

I think it could be interesting, but I have no idea how they would adapt this setting to the screen. As you said, there are no real good guys. The easiest faction to identify with, humanity, is a love-child between the worst of the excesses of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and the worst of Nazi Germany.

On the other hand, a show about the Orcs could be amusing.

Grimey said:

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Warhammer 40K always seemed like peak teenage edgelord fanfiction to me. Do not want.

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It originally began with a lot of humor and tongue in cheek stuff, so they could go that route and keep the fans happy while bringing in newer people.

Solo Tetherball Champ said:

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Project Pluto said:

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https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/07/17/heretic-traitor-rogue-inquisitor-tv-stargw-homepage-post-2/

I saw this today and I am not sure I believe it's even possible to do live action. Warhammer 40k would require so much CGI that it would be insanely expensive.

For those of you who don't know anything about Warhammer 40k, here is an intro:



In my opinion it's probably the single most problematic sci-fi in existence outside of some of the insane stuff like Gor. Why? Because the Imperium of Man is a tyrannical theocratic fascist regime desperately trying to fight back every single alien species trying to genocide humanity in increasingly horrific ways. The Imperium in turn sacrifices millions of latent psykers (aka humans with psychic powers) to maintain their dying God Emperor who in turn is the last line of defense against Hell consuming the galaxy. The Imperium is basically the Empire from Star Wars ramped up to about a million times larger population wise, bureaucracy wise, and totalitarian wise yet they are still the good guys in comparison to almost everything.

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Not to mention how Humanity no longer really understands how most of their advanced technology works, so they feel the need to pray to their hyperdrives to take them into outer space, chant the ritualistic hymns for their computers, or anoint their weaponry with holy oils in order to appease the "Machine Spirits" within.

I think it could be interesting, but I have no idea how they would adapt this setting to the screen. As you said, there are no real good guys. The easiest faction to identify with, humanity, is a love-child between the worst of the excesses of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and the worst of Nazi Germany.

On the other hand, a show about the Orcs could be amusing.

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Heh love-child between the worst of the Inquisition and the worst of Nazi Germany is actually massively underselling it, they are that bad. There are probably a billion planets and likely close to a quintillion living humans such that losing an army of 20 billion is a rounding error.

Humanity is interesting in that the planets range in technology from medieval on up to extremely advanced sci-fi worlds like Coruscant and everything in between. Wars are fought in almost every location with all technology. The reason there are so many different levels of tech is because when the God Emperor "died", humanity basically scattered to the winds and lost access to vast amounts of technology and faster than light travel became significantly more difficult and dangerous such that people became stranded everywhere. Some worlds are literal death worlds where every living thing is a walking doomsday weapon while others are nearly utopias. It has damn near everything, which makes it both easy and extremely difficult to adapt.

I am not surprised they are making it about an Inquisitor and not a Space Marine though despite the Space Marines (Astartes) being the most popular and recognizable people of the setting. The amount of CGI needed for a Space Marine would be enormous since they are giant 7 to 9 feet tall, 600+ lb genetically and cybernetically modified behemoths who are in armor that makes them walking tanks yet are still above to move so fast normal humans cannot even physically see them move beyond blurs.

Definitely gonna be hard to get right IMO.

The thing about Warhammer 40K is that there are no good guys. Period. (Not even the Tau space commies)

Eisenhorn is a VERY complex character. This is grim sci fi stuff but don't let that fool you into thinking it is quick and shallow storytelling. Quite the opposite. The lore is incredible in its scope and detail. Warhammer has completely killed Star Wars for me. Star Wars to me is like PeeWee Herman writing. Not even kidding.

Anyways, one of the best of the business, Dan Abnett created Eisenhorn and again, the character is incredibly complex. To sum it up, he is a Inquisitor (think of a warrior devoted to ending heresy by any means possible and near unlimited power. These people have the power to end worlds with a single command), that is even more extreme than his colleagues and will go to any length to fight the enemy. In this setting the forces of Chaos. So he does bad things. Very bad things. Heretical things even. But for good. Sometimes.

I am a YUGE Warhammer nerd and have been for over a decade. Quite excited to see the news about this. But also, apprehensive as well... Like I mentioned, this is a difficult setting to play with. For every right way I see of it happening, I can see about five of it going terribly wrong too.

Anyways, I am glad to see someone with the balls to tackle this universe. Not sure if the public at large is ready for it though....

I would like to hear more about this "Gor" the OP mentioned...

bearamedic99 said:

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I would like to hear more about this "Gor" the OP mentioned...

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This sums it up: "all women are sex slaves to all men in a tyrannical society where the women all apparently look like exaggerated sex dolls and the men like He Man." And it's treated seriously where there is actual torture and brutalization, the women of course enjoy it, and it's in a grimdark setting. And no I've not read any of it, I just know about it from sci-fi forums and saw the summary.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor

Nothing in sci-fi/fantasy will ever touch Gor in terms of being hated for social justice reasons.

Project Pluto said:

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bearamedic99 said:

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I would like to hear more about this "Gor" the OP mentioned...

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This sums it up: "all women are sex slaves to all men in a tyrannical society where the women all apparently look like exaggerated sex dolls and the men like He Man." And it's treated seriously where there is actual torture and brutalization, the women of course enjoy it, and it's in a grimdark setting. And no I've not read any of it, I just know about it from sci-fi forums and saw the summary.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor

Nothing in sci-fi/fantasy will ever touch Gor in terms of being hated for social justice reasons.

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Read the first three books years ago. It was fairly meh. The world building was good to great but the character development was pretty bad. Even as a kid I could tell that basically somehow a neckbeard incel got a writing contract and was living out his fantasies.

And that was before the series really got bad apparently...

If that show airs and someone doesn't give the "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Throne of Khorne!" alone, I will be sorely disappointed.

Quote:

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You have no idea how long I've waited to see these words on TA. So much I had to insert a ball gag

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A ballgag, huh? Sounds like heresy.

Quote:

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Which pleases Slanesh.

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This comment right here, commissar!

Quote:

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One question answered will see if we will be best friends forever or nah.

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Death to the alien, the heretic, and the mutant!

Quote:

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Did Magnus do anything wrong????

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Well, other than ruining the future of the human race, nope.

Solo Tetherball Champ said:

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Quote:

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You have no idea how long I've waited to see these words on TA. So much I had to insert a ball gag

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A ballgag, huh? Sounds like heresy.

Quote:

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Which pleases Slanesh.

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This comment right here, commissar!

Quote:

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One question answered will see if we will be best friends forever or nah.

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Death to the alien, the heretic, and the mutant!

Quote:

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Did Magnus do anything wrong????

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Well, other than ruining the future of the human race, nope.

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MAGNUS DID NOTHING WRONG!!

I see. I see where your loyalties lie. The only response I have is Death to your False Emperor! May the blessings of Papa Nurgle soon grace his enfeebled frame.

Ok. nerd switch off for a sec.

Have you read Eisenhorn? What aspects do you think it will cover. Which aspects CAN it really cover for the general populace.

Also, if you had to choose a storyline to feasbily make a show about, would you have gone with this? Lorewise, I think the Horus Heresy would have been awesome but as mentioned above, the production values would have to be insane. Just the Dropsite Massacre at Istvann III alone would make the Long Night and Battle of the *******s combined from GoT look like a 90's home movie budget.

This thread entertains

No, I haven't read Eisenhorn.

All in all, I'm relatively new to 40k. I got into this a two years or so ago when I looked up something about Zerg when Starcraft Remastered was released, read about something called "Tyrannids" and then went down a rabbit hole. From there I discovered the 40k Reddit page, 1d4Chan, as well as TTS. I've read only a few books:

• Watchers of the Throne
• Dark Imperium
• Carrion Throne

So most of my knowledge comes from memes and the like. I figured I'll pick up Plague Wars sometime, but I was also considering a few other books. I wasn't terribly interested in Inquisition related works until I read Carrion Throne.

I think 40k is a far more interesting world. The focus on 30k is Primarchs and Space Marines. Space Marines can already be hard enough to translate, so why would you want to deal with the headache of trying to show the "perfect" 10-foot tall primarchs? 40k has the guard, the inquisition, and all of the other human sub-factions within the imperium, not to mention the general grimdarkness of the setting.

The books by Dan Abnett (Eisenhorn, Gaunt's Ghosts) and Sandy Mitchell (Ciaphas Cain) are probably the best place to start.

as someone that has only been involved in the 40K universe through video games, i find this thread highly entertaining.

Claude! said:

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If that show airs and someone doesn't give the "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Throne of Khorne!" alone, I will be sorely disappointed.

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The Chaos Gods, or more specifically Slaanesh, are where even more big problems will come into play. Slaanesh is the God of hedonism and extreme excess that is androgynous and was created by the Eldar murder****ing it into existence. Yeah, given our tolerance culture where we must accept everything in society no matter how degenerate, I can't see Slaanesh going over well. I can already see the complaints.

Since they are following an Inquisitor, they will probably just pretend Slaanesh doesn't exist and focus on the other 3.

For anyone who may have the slightest interest in this universe. I will freely crown myself as one of the resident experts on Warhammer 40K, 30K, Fantasy, and even Age of Sigmar to an extent. My credentials are double digit years devouring this stuff and WELL into the four digits of cash spent. Closer to five digits than three if I were honest with myself. Video games, plastic miniatures, and the books. Ahhhh....the books. The recent surge of video game coverage is fairly recent. Warhammer is currently at the closest point of being "mainstream" than it ever has been before. As evidenced by this upcoming tv show. But still, I'd say 90+% of this universe comes from the novels and anyone with more than a slight passing interest needs to delve into them at some point.

Games Workshop, the creator of this setting, has it's own publishing arm called the Black Library. I have north of 140 of their publications to date. So if anyone is looking for recommendations on where to start....well that is a very subjective topic TBH. The problem is that their is a couple of "main" story timelines and several factions of equal stature and importance that all intertwine. There is no actual one "timeline" as it were but more of a web of storytelling. If yall are familiar with the Star Wars Expanded Universe....it is like this. Even different universes in a way. I mentioned 40K and 30K. These signify the year. 40000 and 30000 AD. 40K is the classic timeline and where most of the popularity lies. But you can't ignore the setting of the 30K world as it literally sets up the 40K world. There is a reason why the 40K setting is so dark. And that is because of the Horus Heresy. The major focal point of 30K.

Personally I would recommend:

• Gaunt's Ghost series by Dan Abnett - Story of ordinary soldiers fighting and trying to survive while carrying out their missions in an extraordinarily brutal universe. Fantastic series that is the classic "little guys" against the world.
• Eisenhorn - Dan Abnett - A warrior/secret agent fighting against heresy. And true heresy. Not stuff like not believing in the church but actual demoncraft and trying to overthrow/end human civilization. Probably an anti-hero type but even darker somehow.
• Ciaphas Cain series - Sandy Mitchell - A humorous more tongue in cheek approach to Average Joe Human. A commissar afflicted with general cowardice but even more cowardice in appearing to look like a coward. If that makes sense. So he does crazy heroic things because that is the image he has and he has to uphold that image.
• Storm of Iron - Graham McNeil - Older novel of Chaos Space Marines at their best. Brutal, unforgiving story of a warrior of the Iron Warriors Legion. Classic large scale siege warfare. Lots of grim dark stuff obviously. These dudes are NOT the good guys for sure. This is classic Warhammer IMO.
• Night Lords Trilogy - Aaron Dembski-Bowden - Another story of not good guys. Night Lords Legion and their story and ideologies. More of the grim and dark stuff. These dudes are straight murderers and terror specialists. It's not bad guy trope-y though. At all. A very original and fantastic story of dudes who are bad, but are also in a bad situation. One of my favorites.

Man, I realized that I am starting to type out a wall of death here. I can go on and on. Ultramarines, The Eldar Aspects novels....etc. There is just so much out there.

Let me truncate this.

Warhammer 40K: If you are new to this setting and want to dip your toes in on an individual in this setting. I would say Ciaphas Cain series. A little more light hearted series of a dude that is relatable that still introduces the setting of Warhammer 40K. Follow this with the Gaunt's Ghosts series and from there, this world is now your world. Go forth and frolic amongst the mayhem!

Warhammer 30K: No question here. Horus Rising. Book one of the Horus Heresy novels. Honestly, If there is ONE single book where I would say start in this entire Games Workshop creation....it is this. This is the origin story of Warhammer. Incredible series.

Sorry for the wall of text. I like this stuff.

TLDR: Start with Horus Rising

Age of Sigmar? Ewww.

Claude! said:

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Age of Sigmar? Ewww.

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Yuh. Have rather mixed feelings about the End Times. I do agree they needed to progress it. So they gave it the GoT treatment. Let's end literally decades of storyline and characters in three (admittedly huge) books. ****ing Mannfred...

I read through the first ten novels or so and it is just....missing something. I don't know what exactly. Weight, I guess. Speaking of the models though, there honestly has not been a better looking range IMO. The Chaos faction looks fantastic and the Vermin Lord line is hands down my favorite of all time. I am unashamedly a huge fan of the rattys though....

Hell yes on Night Lords Trilogy! Aaron Dembski-Bowden is a great author and I am always happy when he provides another book in the Horus Heresy Series.

Agree on starting with 30K and Horus Rising of the Horus Heresy series. I started with 40K with just 1 book - it was a stand-alone and it provided enough background (I think) to delve into the past which makes 40K that much more valued. My favorite parts of the books are when we get a chance to see the interaction of the primarchs with the God-Emperor. Rare instances but that much more savory!

Gothic Armada I and II are great games - you should try them!

I don't know if this is a good series or not but any humble bundle is worth looking into. I know nothing about anything in the warhammer universe so yall would have to tell me if this is a good buy.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/warhammer-40000-dark-heresy-rpg-books?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=darkheresyrpg_announce

hunter2012 said:

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I don't know if this is a good series or not but any humble bundle is worth looking into. I know nothing about anything in the warhammer universe so yall would have to tell me if this is a good buy.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/warhammer-40000-dark-heresy-rpg-books?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=darkheresyrpg_announce

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This is a damn good buy. No brainer to me. I can only cry as I look at my shelf with all of these I paid retail for. I think the cheapest single was like $23, pre shipping.

It's a fun game system but not something if you are just getting into pen and paper RPGs IMO. It's not a hard system but it is very thematic. Not really meant for the casual player methinks.

Gameplay aside, the books themselves detail a BUNCH of lore that is fascinating and awesome. Not novel format of course but you can still pend days reading and learning. Hell, I've had all of these for years and I still haven't cracked open like half of them and still have been very entertained.

$18 for all this published lore? All day, every day. Fun game to boot too if you can find other involved players.

So, this seems pertinent to this thread…

I have only ever play warhammer video games but I do wonder how well this setting will work with live action. The warhammer universe seems super dark and brutal with no real good guys. Will be interesting to see.

Madmarttigan said:

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I have only ever play warhammer video games but I do wonder how well this setting will work with live action. The warhammer universe seems super dark and brutal with no real good guys. Will be interesting to see.

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The real truth is that the Imperium of Man are the good guys, the universe is just that bad, hopeless, and dangerous. The lifespan of an Imperial Guardsman in a battle is usually measured in minutes, but the Imperium has endless amounts of human capital to throw at enemies so they simply don't care. Their population is in the Quintillions so losing a billion people in a single battle is not even a rounding error.

I hardly think LOTR was a failure. From a money invested standpoint possibly but it was a decent show. House of the Dragon was far more painful for me to watch. I do think HotD will be far better next season though vs LOTR.

WoT was absolutely dog *****