New Story.
For those of you who don't follow WHFB, there is a new release concerning Nagash and detailing THE END TIMES. I guess this is the first real step forwards since the Storm of Chaos campaign, which really wasn't much of a step forward and pretty much ended with the status quo. I am not the biggest into the lore of Fantasy, but I know a lot of the highlights and why the warhammer world is the way it is. I have been reading alot of spoiler threads on the new Nagash release AND WOW!!!! There is so much new content. Sure there are some new rules and scenarios, but it is really the new fluff progressing the story that seem to be making everyone excited, including me.
What is happening A LOT in 40k is the history is being fleshed out. Whether this be through the Space Marine Battle novels or Horus Heresy, it all has the same effect, it illuminates what HAPPENED and not WHAT IS HAPPENING. When it comes down to it, I know what happens at the end of the Horus Heresy. Horus looses, the Emperor is practically dead and the galaxy sucks for the next 10,000 years. Same with the Macharian Crusade. Lord Solar dies and the worlds he conquered fall into civil war and strife Alexander the Great style. Armageddon the Orks are pushed back. Etc. Etc. Even if they do an Age of Apostasy series (which I would love) I know what happens. Vandire dies and the Brides of the Emperor become the Sisters of Battle. (As well a Duology or Trilogy on The Beheading would be cool).
But my point is none of this is NEW. It is all historical. No matter what develops in the past, 40k is still on the edge of the Abyss. Abaddon is sallying forth from the eye, Necrons, Orks and Tyranids are rampaging across the galaxy, The Tau are about to start a 4th sphere of expansion, etc. etc. It has been like that since 5th edition now. And really since 4th. The last time anything interesting happened was the 13th Black Crusade AND ALL OF THAT HAS BEEN RETCONED OUT OF EXISTENCE.
The only argument I have heard for why the fluff is perpetually stuck on 999.999 M41 is because it would no longer be 40k if they advanced past it. To me this is bull crap. So many of the books and fluff and famous characters exist back in M36-M39, all of which are NOT the year 40000. And even if it went in the year 41000, everyone would understand it is still 40k. The technology of the universe hasn't changed for 10000 years, we aren't expecting it to change any time in the future.
IDEALLY Here is what happens
The final codices are pumped out under 7th ed, establishing a level playing field.
Either 8th Edition or Apocalypse 3rd Ed are released as a capstone, and these progress and detail the events of the 13th Black Crusade and start the Galaxy off on a new chapter of woe and misery. Characters die, factions wax and wane, and True Lords of War (IE Primarch Daemon Princes) reappear in the galaxy at large.
Maybe Ahriman finds the Black Library.
Maybe Guilliman awakes
Maybe Erebus ushers in a new Ruin Storm
Maybe Eldrad stays dead
Maybe a lost loyalist returns (Russ, the Lion, Khan)
Maybe the Void Dragon rises
Maybe the Outsider returns
Maybe Cypher slays the Emperor with the Lion Sword and he is reborn as the Starchild!!!!
ANYTHING, I just want to know WHAT IS NEXT!
