Quote:
Originally Posted by jbcohen
The books take place in the far distant future where mankind has established a far reaching empire, ruling the known galaxy. An emperor sat on the thrown of man many centuries ago but has now past away and now no one sits on the thrown. There is no central command to the human empire and each group of marines do their own thing and often do wind up shooting at each other. There is no sense of what a rogue marine is since there is no central command to define what that is.
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Eh...no, that's not really it.
Here's the intro which appears in every book and on every WH40K fan site. Given that it can be found everywhere, there should be no copyright issues (but if I'm wrong, feel free to wipe this post).
IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE THERE IS ONLY WAR
"
It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that he may never truly die.Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat to humanity from aliens, heretics, mutants -- and far, far worse. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods."
And that sums it up pretty well. Carnage and chaos, both created and held at bay by superhuman bio-engineered warriors. Dark heresies, demonic forces, former Space Marines corrupted by evil powers and rabidly violent aliens pushing at the borders of a slowly crumbling, stagnant and decrepit empire, nominally ruled by a long dead and yet still sort of living Emperor of Mankind. Future tech added to a cauldron containing Medieval and Roman culture, attitudes and even dress, with a heavy dose of religious fanaticism mixed into the resultant heady broth. A universe where evil is really evil, good is almost just as evil and where war, blood and brutality are the only universal constants.
Lovely, lovely stuff.