Monday, January 24, 2011

Characters: Warhammer 4000 part 3

Xeno Races
Do not ask why kill the alien?, rather ask why not?
The alien factions in 40k are treated as... well, alien. Stories are seldom told from their perspective, and they are often treated as incomprehensible by human minds.

Tropes for the lesser alien races or aliens in general include:

Of the countless alien races in Warhammer 40000, only six present enough of a threat to Imperial power to get their own codex. They are:
    Eldar 


The stars themselves once lived and died at our command, yet you still dare to oppose our will?
Eons ago, when humanity was still trying to master fire, the Eldar ruled the galaxy all but unopposed. But at the height of their power, they grew decadent, and began amusing themselves through increasingly depraved pastimes. Their seers warned of disaster, and some began to flee for the hinterlands of their domain, but it was no use — the psychic energy produced by the sheer amount of Squick going on resulted in the creation of the Chaos god(dess) Slaanesh, whose birth gutted the Eldar empire, devoured the souls of most of their race, and left the Eye of Terror as a permanent blight upon the galaxy. Today, the Eldar are all but extinct, their gods dead, and their leaders desperately try to cling to survival at any cost.
The majority of the Eldar who survived the Fall did so in vast, self-sufficient starships known as Craftworlds. These Eldar live strictly regimented and disciplined lives to avoid falling prey to the dark desires that ended their empire, focusing their attentions on one "Path" at a time, be it artisan, scholar, or warrior. The Eldar are guided by prescient Farseers who manipulate galactic events to favor their people. An arrogant race, the Eldar view all other species as inferior, and won't bat an eye at sacrificing millions of human lives to save a few hundred Eldar — indeed, catastrophic conflicts such as the Second War for Armageddon were subtly engineered by Eldar machinations. The Eldar are willing to work with other races against their old enemies the Orks, the Necrons, or Chaos, but they frequently turn on their "comrades" the minute it is advantageous to do so, and won't let a short-term alliance get in the way of their own survival. Because of this, the Eldar are despised as a capricious and fickle species, though this hatred is tempered with fear of their advanced technology and formidable psychic "witchcraft."
If the Space Marines are an army of generalists, the Eldar are an army of extreme specialists — their Aspect Warriors excel at a particular battlefield role, but need to fulfill that role in order to be useful. The Eldar also make extensive use of skimmer units such as jetbikes or grav-tanks, allowing them to swiftly bring devastating firepower to bear and outflank their opponents, while their leaders' psyker abilities can help bolster their allies and swing the battle at pivotal instances. Appropriately for their race, success with the Eldar largely depends on forming a good battle-plan and trying to predict the enemy's own...

Notable Eldar tropes include:


  • Absurdly Sharp Blade — Obviously. Their chainswords (like many others) are described as having monomolecular edges, and their power swords having 'micro-crystalline blades.'
  • Abnormal Ammo — Eldar weapons can fire hundreds of mono-molecular shuriken, strands of monofilament wire, or teleport spheres of enemy matter into the Warp.
  • The Aesthetics Of Technology — Compare the sleek, curved profile of the Falcon grav-tank to the lumbering, smoke-belching war machines of the humans. The grav-tanks even look more like speedboats with weapons on top than they look like tanks.
  • Air Jousting — Shining Spears are jetbike-mounted Aspect Warriors wielding deadly laser lances.
  • Amazon Brigade — ... while the Howling Banshees are a shrieking all-female type of Aspect Warrior.
    • Slightly subverted due to male Howling Banshees, who must 'play the part of a female.' They're even present in Gavin Thorpe's 'Path of the Warrior', to a small extent.
  • Badass — A crapload. Eldrad Ulthran, who defeated Abaddon the Despoiler in single combat, manipulated and caused the rise of an Ork Warlord responsible for the deaths of billions of humans to save a few Eldar, and saved the Imperial World of Cadia by attempting to commandeer a Blackstone Fortress that was under Chaotic control. And he succeeded! At the cost of his life and the death of the other Eldar who attempted to commandeer it, and Eldrad's soul being dragged into the warp as a result.
    • Prince Yriel, a Fleet Admiral of the Craftworld Iyanden who was exiled for being headstrong and brash in the event of a raid by Chaos Space Marines. He ended up annihilating the Chaos fleet but was scolded by his superiors for leaving the Craftworld completely defenseless. So he self-exiled himself and became the most notorious Pirate Prince ever, after assimilating all of the other pirate factions, but made a heroic entry by returning to his Craftworld to save it from a Tyranid invasion, personally slaying the leader of the invasion by wielding a cursed artifact said to drain the wielder's soul. Now the poor guy travels around the galaxy trying to save his Craftworld from extinction. Also, he has a laser-monocle that shoots lasers.
    • Harlequin Solitaires. Perhaps the most badass type of Harlequins, they have no souls as they are doomed to be claimed by Slaanesh at their deaths, unless Cegorach himself intervenes. Despite this, they're incredibly terrifying to Psykers and ridiculously powerful combatants. Tasked with playing the role of Slaanesh in the Harlequin performances, they rarely speak — if ever — and when they do, they are said to curse those they speak to. There's a reason they guard the Black Library, and even managed to repel an attempted incursion by Ahriman of the Thousand Sons.
      • This is magnified tenfold when Cegorach manages to steal a doomed soul of a Solitaire from Slaanesh — the Laughing God places the Solitaire's soul into a Spirit Walker. (think of a Wraithlord.. souped up to the Nth degree as it retains the Solitaire's incredible agility in life, creating a badass Golem-like mecha.)
  • Badass Army — Really.
  • Badass Decay - By 4th or 5th edition. Some of the new codices are just merciless and humiliating for the Eldar.
  • Breast Plate - Most female Eldar warriors seem to sport this, unfortunately. Idranel on the other hand...
  • Berserk Button - Stole some Eldar soulstones? Broke them? Have fun dealing with a crapload of pissed off Eldar. The reason being that the stones contain fallen Eldar within them, and its their only reprieve from the alternative of being consumed by Slaanesh. And soulstones can only be found on Crone Worlds — former Eldar planets that fell to Chaos, which inevitably leads to incredibly suicidal sorties or missions by Eldar forces to claim some of them.
  • BFG — A crapload. Dark Reaper Exarchs are particularly notable, carrying handheld Tempest Launchers that fire clusters of missiles. Most of their heavy weaponry such as D-cannons can be seen as this as well.
  • BFS — The Eldar Wraithlord in the fourth edition has a HUGE sword, not to mention the Avatar of Khaine with his own blade, The Wailing Doom, which is named that because it 'shrieks as it tastes mortal flesh.'
    • Eldar Witchblades in general also count, also able to rip through tanks and heavily armored infantry with ease.
  • Brain Uploading — The Eldar have no afterlife waiting for them, only She Who Thirsts. The best they can do is capture their souls in a Waystone for uploading into their craftworld's Infinity Circuit, which while no paradise is much better than being consumed by Slaanesh.
  • Casual Interstellar Travel - Thanks to the Webway, an interdimensional Portal Network, the Eldar avoid the problems associated with Warp travel.
    • Eldar ships also use Solar Sails to traverse space.
  • Character Alignment — All Eldar are supremely self-interested and happy to sacrifice others to save their own kind, making them more Neutral than good. The Craftworlds' strictly-structured societies would make them Lawful, but the seemingly-contradictory actions they take to follow their agends give them a Chaotic bent, making the Eldar True Neutral.
  • The Chessmaster — Farseers in general and Eldrad Ulthran in particular.
  • Combat Clairvoyance — Eldar psykers can hold their own in close combat, as they literally know your next move.
  • Craftworld Of Hats — The notable Eldar Craftworlds embody aspects of the elf racial archetype. The seers of Ulthwe emphasize the Witch Species role, while the jetbike-riders of Saim-Hann epitomize the elf as a fey barbarian. Militant-minded Biel-Tan showcases the elf as a disciplined and merciless warrior, the rangers of Alaitoc are the elves as woodcrafty snipers, while Iyanden, which fields armies of constructs animated by the souls of the dead, ramps the "ancient race in decline" idea up to eleven.
  • Crippling Overspecialization — The problem with Aspect Warriors.
    • But also their strength!
  • Crystal Spires And Togas — Life on a craftworld.
  • Dance Battler — The Harlequins are an enigmatic faction of Eldar who act as dancing entertainers, horrifyingly lethal shock troops, or both at the same time.
  • Death Is Cheap — even if an eldar dies, so long as the soulstone isn't destroyed they'll be fine, and will often come back in a Wraithguard, a golem esque thing that wields a cannon which operates by opening miniature black holes on the battlefield.
    • Or a Wraithlord.
  • Deflector Shields — Eldar Wave Serpents, their transport-skimmer vehicles, are equipped with energy shielding, making them notoriously difficult to take down.
    • Dire Avengers also qualify, as some of their Exarchs are armed with Shimmershields, energy shields that protect him and his squad from melee attacks.
  • Death Of A Thousand Cuts — Eldar shuriken weaponry — capable of firing a hundred monomolecular-edged discs in the span of a second or two.
    • Dire Avengers take this even further through their ability Bladestorm, which allows them to put even MORE shots out.
  • Dragons Up The Yin Yang — The serpentine dragon is a common Eldar glyph, while the yin-yang has seen less usage in recent editions. The Eldar are also noteworthy for having a yin-yang divided into three sections, though the meaning behind it remains unexplained.
  • Due To The Dead — Not only is it imperative to recover the Waystones of the fallen, there is an entire Path dedicated to expressing the Craftworld's collective grief at its losses; were the others to allow themselves the full weight of sorrow, they would be paralysed in their necessary tasks.
  • Empathic Weapon — Usually because there's an occupied Soulstone on it somewhere containing an Eldar spirit.
    • Played straight by Asurmen, first of the Phoenix Lords and the founder of the Dire Avenger Shrine, whose diresword contains the spirit of his dead brother, Tethesis, who fell to a daemon.
  • The Faceless — the Wraithguard and Wraithlords
  • The Fair Folk — Around 2nd Edition some players mistakenly believed that the Eldar were "good" guys. Since then, Games Workshop has taken pains to show off their callous, manipulative nature.
  • Fantastic Racism — Humanity is referred to as mon-keigh, the upstart, the hairy savage.
    • Apart from possibly the Tau, the Eldar are actually the most benevolent race to the Humans which says more about the other races than anything else.
      • The new 'Battle Missions' book elevates this a bit more; Eldar emissaries aid Imperial scholars in solving an anomaly. More Eldar fleets/forces joining up with or aiding Imperial troops against Dark Eldar raiders, Chaos, Necrons and Orks.
  • A Farseer Did It — If the Eldar do anything which seems, either overtly or on reflection, to be perhaps against their own intrests or just an inefficient way of securing those interests, then it is because a farseer determined through pre-cognition that was the best way to secure their future. They need not explain the complexity of their visions or their gambits to you.
  • Fragile Speedster — Eldar vehicles.
  • Fuuma Shuriken — The triskele is a three-bladed weapon thrown like a discuss, after which it returns to its wielder's hand.
  • Glass Cannon — Eldar units tend to be quick and powerful, but lacking in durability.
  • Golem — Wraithguard and Wraithlords are constructs "piloted" by a dead Eldar spirit housed in a Soulstone.
  • Implacable Man — the Wraithguard and Wraithlords, constructs fueled by the souls of dead Eldar warriors. The latter are HUGE, equipped with a large array of weapons, from giant missile launchers to gigantic Wraithswords. The former are smaller versions, equipped with guns that open a rift to hell. Literally.
  • Kill It With Fire — Eldar Fire Dragon Aspect Warriors and their Storm Guardians — the Exarch of the Fire Dragons can wield 'dragon's breath' flamethrowers, while the standard troops carry fusion guns, capable of melting heavily armored tanks into piles of molten slag. The Avatar of Khaine also counts, being a huge metal giant of war that is also covered in flames. Its sword is also on fire.
  • Generation Ships — Craftworlds, of the "no destination" variant. They're spaceborn metropoli capable of housing entire fleets.
  • The Library Of Babel — The Black Library contains the accumulated Eldar lore on Chaos, and is tucked away deep in the Webway, guarded by the Harlequin elite.
  • Legacy Character — The Phoenix Lords are the epitomes of the Aspect Warriors, and if slain will simply reincarnate into the next person to wear their armor. For this reason, Phoenix Lords contain the souls of untold thousands of Eldar.
  • Memetic Badass — A wiki based off The Image Board That Must Not Be Named has turned Eldrad Ulthran into a dick prescient jackass, who will form complicated schemes just so a commissar's hat gets blown off and lands right on Eldrad's head, or a female warrior's breastplate gets knocked off during a battle.
  • Manipulative Bastard — While strictly speaking the Eldar do not fit the letter of this trope (they manipulate events rather than people's emotions), the phrase describes them very well.
  • No One Gets Left Behind — Each Eldar wears a Soulstone to save their spirit from Slaanesh, and they will go to great lengths to recover them for housing in their Craftworld's Infinity Circuit.
  • Physical God — When war is near and the Craftworld hums with barely-contained battle-lust, an Exarch is chosen for a special duty. This "Young King" is sacrificed in order to awaken the Avatar of Khaela Mensha Khaine, the Eldar's bloody-handed god of murder. Said Avatar is at least twelve feet tall, carrying a burning blade known as the Wailing Doom in one hand, while the other perpetually drips with gore. It's also made out of molten iron and is constantly on fire.
  • Psychic Link — Usually runs through the entire Eldar army.
  • Screw You Elves — The Imperium routinely ignores the Eldar's warnings, and rather than arguing, just shoots the arrogant bastards.
    • The way they insist on wording their warnings doesn't help. That they, at the same time, insult the humans more than the Plan9 aliens also doesn't help.
  • Space Pirates — Not all Eldar pirates are Dark Eldar. Outcasts and simple traders from the Craftworlds are known to turn to piracy, sometimes massing into mighty Corsair Fleets; Prince Yriel above commanded one of the most successful during his exile.
  • Split Personality — Actively cultivated as Eldar travel down a Path, but sometimes they get stuck in one. Exarchs, for example, are Aspect Warriors who are unable to leave the Path of the Warrior, and take up the name of the last to wear their armor.
  • Superior Species — Eldar possess the usual racial advantages of stock fantasy elves, except their claims of superiority are somewhat undermined by the fact that they created Slaanesh.
  • Spock Speak — Eldar who speak Gothic do so in a very elevated, careful register; their own language is often translated the same way. Leads to a Crowning Moment Of Funny in "Path Of The Warrior" when a Striking Scorpion makes a masturbation joke without breaking this tone.
  • Technopath — Due to most Eldar technology being constructed out of psychically-sensitive Wraithbone.
  • Time Abyss — Eldar live a really long time: Eldrad Ulthran reportedly warned the Emperor about Horus' treachery ten thousand years ago. He looked about fifty when he died; lifespan generally correlates with psychic potential and training, though the minimum is around a thousand years.
  • The Woobie —- Eldar Guardians. Eldar civilians sent into battle with weak (for 40k standards) armor and a short-ranged shuriken catapult; they are used pretty much as cannon fodder and heavy weapons support in comparison to the elite Aspect Warriors.
  • Unusual Weapon Mounting -— Striking Scorpion aspect warriors have Mandiblasters, weapons that shoot needles that are superheated to conduct a highly charged laser charge. Out of their heads.
  • Walking the Galaxy — Eldar Rangers are those who have have tired of life on an ultra-disciplined Craftworld and taken up the Path of the Outcast, wandering from world to world. Though when their home Craftworld goes to war, Rangers will return and lend their skill as pathfinders and snipers.
  • Wangst — One of the Eldar paths is called The Path of Grief, its followers refered to as mourners. Their role is to be receptive to the grief of others (possibly literally given the Eldar's psychic nature) and act as a living expression of that grief, so that others do not find the emotions too overwhelming. Given the Eldar's ability to create warp-resonence through strong emotions (such as the creation of Slannesh) this is probably quite necessary. Being wangsty is Serious Business to the Eldar on the Path of Grief with good reason.
    Orks 


Orks are made fo' fightin' and winnin'! For crushin' an killin'! We iz gonna stomp them all flat an' not stop till the 'hole galaxy's green! Say it with me now! WAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!
Genetically-engineered by a long-forgotten precursor race to be the ultimate warriors, Orks exist only for battle, and they are very good at it. Their "Meks" and "Doks" have an innate understanding of mechanics and medicine respectively, while every Ork has an instinctive grasp of combat. Orks are far more numerous than humanity (a feat in and of itself), and the only reason they haven't conquered the galaxy long ago is because they will readily fight each other if no other enemy presents itself. They are tough enough to survive decapitation in time for a "body transplant," strong enough to take a Space Marine's head off, and thick as a brick. Their entire society is built around the concepts of "crude but effective" and "might is right" - though for Orks, might is pretty much all there is. Occasionally a particularly strong or charismatic warlord is able to unite a large force of Orks into a mighty "WAAAGH!", a combination migration, jihad, and barroom brawl that can shake the foundations of the galaxy.
Part of the Orks' success comes from their unique physiology. They have fungal/algal DNA fused with their own, explaining their green skin and robust health. They reproduce via spores, and in particular shed a large number at death, which ensures that once greenskins land on a planet, they're a problem that never goes away. Their entire race is also incredibly, latently psychic, even beyond the dangerously gifted "Weirdboyz."This gestalt psychic field explains how their junk-heap wargear manages to work, and furthermore why vehicles painted red go faster than others - the Orks think they should, so they do. If Orks have a parallel in any historical army, it is of a vast barbarian horde scouring the land in a tide of howling violence... mixed with English football hooligans. Cheerfully psychotic, the Orks are Warhammer 40000's comic relief race, which says a lot about the setting.
Ork tabletop armies are highly diverse, ranging from mechanized swarms of Orks riding warbikes, "trukks," or buggies, to clanking mobs of dreadnoughts and "killa kans", to "shooty" armies with looted vehicles and lots of devastating if inaccurate artillery, to the classic "green tide" of infantry that simply swamps the opposing battle-line with sheer numbers. Standard Ork soldiers are highly-effective in close combat, and so long as their numbers are sufficient, fearless to boot. There's a lot of randomness in the form of "Weirdboyz" psychic powers and the "Meks" more esoteric weapons that can either clinch a victory or make a plan fall flat on its face. Most Ork players quickly develop a sense of humor about their army, laughing when a Mekboy manages to fire himself out of his own gun, the Grot slaves are used for mine clearance, or when the looted vehicle accidentally slams into a wall instead of shooting correctly. Perhaps the best Ork strategy can be summed up in a single word: WAAAGH!!!

Notable Ork tropes include:


  • Asskicking Equals Authority / Authority Equals Asskicking — Wholly justified for the Orks, since their very biology ensures that not only do the biggest ones tend to seize power, but those in power naturally grow bigger. An Ork Warlord can be 12 feet tall, all of it sociopathic muscle.
  • A Team Firing — Orks have the lowest Ballistic Skill in the game, so statistically only one in three shots fired will actually hit the target. This can lead to a lot of friendly fire incidents, as Orks seem to think "If I hit it, it must be an enemy."
  • Attack Attack Attack — The Orks are basically an entire race of Leeroy Jenkins.
    • Except for the Blood Axez, who, having experienced the most human contact of any of the clanz, have successfully grasped the concept that "If we runs for it, it don't count as losing, cuz we can also come back for anuvver go, see?"
  • Axe Crazy — The Orks are famous for their Choppas, which are huge cleavers, axes, or chainsaws capable of carving through even Space Marine armor.
  • Badass Biker — Ork Warbikers in general, and Wazdakka Gutsmek in particular. He once killed a Warlord Titan by driving off a cliff, punching through its void shields, crash-landing in the thing's head, and slaughtering the crew. Did I mention he did this while on fire? He has the crew's (still flaming) skulls as trophies of his CMOA.
  • Bling Of War — The Bad Moon clan in particular is famous for being a bunch of "flash gitz".
  • Blood Knight — To the extent that Orks denied a proppa scrap develop huge paunches and weak muscles.
  • Clan of Hats — The Orks divide themselves into six major Clans (mainly as another excuse to scrap with each other), all Color Coded For Your Convenience. The Goffs (black) are the 'ardest Orks around and no-nonsense about fighting, the Bad Moons (lurid yellow) are all rich and flashy gits, the Evil Sunz (red) are obsessed with speed and racing around on bikes and 'buggies, the Snakebites (brown) are traditionalists who prefer medieval-era weaponry and cavalry charges, the Deathskulls (blue) are expert looters known for practicing their art in the middle of battles, and finally the Blood Axes have been culturally contaminated by the stinkin' 'oomies and wearcamouflage instead of proper clan colors...for a given definition of "camouflage", anyway.
  • Butt Monkey: Grots, played for laughs.
  • Chaotic Neutral — Borderline example. They are simply trying to have fun, and are nowhere near as cruel or evil as the chaos gods, dark eldar or necrons, for example. Their psyche and physical traits making them pretty much unable to feel pain or fear, plus their lack of understanding of other races' differences causes their idea of fun to involve fighting anything that is strong enough to fight back. Warboss Ghazgkhull Thraka was also known to not kill Yarrick, but rather let him go because he was a good enough opponent, and he knew that with him in charge of the forces on Armageddon, the Imperium would definitely put up a good fight during the next invasion of the system.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe — The secret to Ork technology is their racial gestalt psychic field.
  • Colony Drop — Orks combine this with Its Raining Orks: "Roks" are simply asteroids or meteors hollowed out into space-borne fortresses, which are then dropped on planetary targets as a form of simultaneous attack and troop deployment.
  • Crazy Awesome — Standardized Orkish personality.
  • Enemy Civil War — The constant status of Ork society, luckily for the rest of the galaxy.
  • For The Lulz — Orks will slaughter millions because they find it very fun. Although, they aren't really enjoying killing for sadistic reasons, they just want to fight stuff and cause a ruckus for the heck of it.
  • Friendly Enemy — The Orks do not have a concept of "friend," the closest they get is "favorite enemy." Warlord Ghazghkull famously let his nemesis Commissar Yarrick go (after a spot of light torture) just to ensure their next fight would be entertaining.
  • Funetik Aksent — Spelled with X Treme Kool Letterz, and typically including English slang such as "git" or "gob".
  • Funny Money — Orks use Teef as currency, which ensures that a community always has enough "coinage" to keep its economy afloat. The Bad Moons clan is wealthy since their teeth grow faster than other Orks', but this isn't seen as an unfair advantage since any Ork 'ard enough can just bash 'em and steal their teeth.
  • Goddamn Orks — The trope namer.
  • God Is Chaotic Evil — The Orks have two deities, Gork and Mork. One is cunningly brutal, so will bash you when you aren't looking, while the other is brutally cunning, and will bash you really hard even if you are. Which is which is another excuse for the Orks to fight each other.
    • Note that they're not sure which one is which. Yes, another excuse to fight.
    • Interestingly, one fan depiction◊ of Gork can roughly be described as "Kamina, only with green skin".
      • With Mork being depicted as Simon from the same anime as a gretchin. Another popular depiction of Mork is Coop from Megas XLR, who also is pictured beside Kamina in these depictions◊, also with green skin.
  • Harmful Healing — Ork "Doktors" (Otherwise known as "Painboys" or just "Doks") have a delightful tendency to "eksperiment on da subjekts" when they are given their "anastetiks" (IE. knocked out with a hammer). To quote the book "An unfortunate ork who goes to the Dok to have his toothache fixed might wake up with a set of lungs that allows him to breathe water instead!!"
  • Hollywood Tactics — Notable in that they make it work. If you field the right army roster you can actually make it work on the tabletop.
  • Idiot Ball: Being who they are, it's hard to see when they don't pick it up. Often subverted, however, by the Blood Axes, who being contaminated by non-orky tactics, will occasionally retreat to gather intel. This is the primary reason that they are both treated with derision by other Orks and the main source of Warbosses.
  • Improvised Weapon — Anything an Ork builds is basically scrap metal welded and bolted together. And it works.
  • It Runs On Nonsensoleum — Or more specifically, Waaagh! energy.
  • Language Equals Thought — The Orks have no word for "equal," and as previously stated the closest they come to the concept of "friend" is "favorite enemy."
  • Laughably Evil — Let's face it, even though they're homicidal killing machines, Orks are hilarious.
  • Lukk Nounverba — mostly nicknames, but sometimes their first/only name as well.
  • Made A Slave - they routinely enslave humans.
  • Mad Scientist — Ork Painboys and Meks, who also suffer from Science Related Memetic Disorder.
  • Monogender Monsters — Orks sprout from spores, and as such are technically without gender. They're universally referred to as "boyz," though.
  • More Dakka — The trope namers.
  • Nothing But Skulls — Though the real prize for an Ork's "pointy stick" is a collection of Space Marine helmets.
  • Obliviously Evil — Orks don't hate you. They're butchering your family and shelling your home because war is what they're made for, and the only thing they understand. Also, they're bored.
  • Our Orcs Are Different — Starting with the spelling.
  • Our Goblins Are Different — Gretchin are a punier breed commonly used as slave labor, emergency rations, mine clearance, cover, rocket guidance systems, ammunition, and in desperate times, as actual infantry. They are smarter than the Orks, so they need plenty of "encouragement" to fulfill these roles, usually a Runtherd's whip or "Grot-Prod." Snotlings are even smaller, and probably not even sentient. Collectively, they're known as "Grots".
  • Plant Aliens — Some ancient Precursors fused a strand of algal DNA to the Orks' double helix, which is responsible for their genetic memory, powerful physiology, and green skin tone.
  • Plucky Comic Relief — Or the closest the setting has to it, which is not a good sign.
  • Power Incontinence — Wyrdboyz have to be isolated from the rest of the tribe, lest they soak up too much Waaagh! energy and cause a few 'eadbangers.
  • Primal Stance — With arms larger than a man's thighs, a hunched posture, and sloped forehead, Orks resemble hairless green gorillas.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy — They follow the letter of the trope, if not the spirit.
  • Psychopathic Manchild — The life of an Ork is made up of fighting, tearing around at stupidly high speeds on bikes, truks, ramshackle flyers, or unguided rockets, drinking, and more fighting. Why? Because it's fun.
  • Pyro Maniac — Burna Boyz, Skorcha drivers, and especially the Arch-Arsonist of Charadon.
  • Rebellious Spirit — Inverted. Ork "Yoofs" who have yet to find their place in the tribe may get tired of being told to do whatever they want and run off to join the Stormboyz, Orks obsessed with military discipline, uniforms, marching, and flying around on crude Jet Packs. (Naturally, this discipline lasts approximately until they get a good look at the enemy.)
  • Red Eyes Take Warning — And they glow, too.
  • Retcon — Originally the Precursors who created the Orks and Gretchin were supposed to be none other than the Snotlings, who started off as superintelligent, created the Orks as heavy labor, and slowly devolved into semisentience, eventually becoming their creations' slaves. Later, it was Retconned that the Old Ones who had also created the Eldar created the Orks for fight the Necrons.
    • The latest Ork codex mentioned both origins, and basically gave the Shrug Of God over which, if either, was true. Over 60 million years it could be both.
    • There was once a time when older Orks would feel an instinctive urge to "go lookin' for somefing," wander off to a secluded area, develop sexual characteristics, breed, and bring home a young Ork in a pouch. Fortunately the "spore aliens" reproductive strategy was devised before the concept of female Orks caused too much mental trauma.
  • Roar Dakka — In the video games, Orks tend to compete with their guns to see who can make the most noise.
  • Sign Language — A recourse for any gretchin who have spent too long manning Ork Big Gunz, which like all Ork firearms are engineered to make as much noise as possible. Since they don't have access to Hammerspace, it doesn't work very well because they're limited to the few signs they can carry around.
  • Tele Frag — The dread Shokk Attak Gun, which fires Snotlings through the Warp so that they materialize inside the targeted unit.
  • You Kill It You Bought It — Since Orks only respect brute force, the only way to take over a warband is to prove you're the 'ardest guy in it. These contests are occasionally determined through 'eadbutting contests (except the ones settled by snipping off someone's head with a power claw). Which makes Ghazghkull Thraka's adamantium skull all the more useful. A knockout is usually sufficient, but it's a lot funnier when someone dies.
  • Zerg Rush: One of the ways the Orks became so numerous and one of their methods for defeating their enemies, thanks to their method of reproduction.
    Dark Eldar 


Do not offer them riches, they care not for your coin. Do not offer them surrender, they care not for victory. Offer them nothing, for they come only to murder.
While most (surviving) Eldar renounced the perverse lifestyle that destroyed their empire, someunrepentant souls fled into the depths of the inter-dimensional Webway the Eldar use to traverse the galaxy. Founding the nightmare city of Commorragh, these Dark Eldar discovered that while Slaanesh was slowly consuming their souls, if they were able to feed off of other creatures' life energy, they would either slake His/Her thirst or replenish their own drained lives. As a result, the entirety of Dark Eldar "civilization" is focused on gathering souls. They are pirates and raiders beyond compare who delight in the infliction of pain and suffering, slavers who render delicious tortures upon their captives as they savor the very souls of their victims. While the Craftworld Eldar live strict and orderly existences, the Dark Eldar capital is a city of anarchists, organized into Kabals who constantly raid and war with each other for territory and prisoners. The only things a Dark Eldar understands are force, fear, and the constant gnawing hunger that forever reminds them they are but inches away from annihilation.
The Dark Eldar army is best compared to a scalpel - precise and quite dangerous, but fragile. Though their weapons are powerful and often have damaging effects on enemy morale, their soldiers are frail and lightly-armored. To compensate, their army is highly mobile, featuring open-topped skimmer transports to quickly get troops exactly where needed. They are easy to play badly, but if used well, the Dark Eldar are devastating.

Notable Dark Eldar tropes include:


  • Agony Beam - For battlefield and recreational use.
  • Back From The Dead - In an attempt to explain how Dark Eldar maintain their numbers in the face of their Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, the fifth edition codex revealed that the Homonculi have mastered the art of resurrecting their customers as long as any pieces of them can be found. Urien Rakarth, the oldest and looniest Homonculi, has died hundreds of times and grown addicted to dying in new and interesting fashions.
  • Badass Jetbiker - Dark Eldar on Reaver jetbikes are skilled enough to sever specific arteries during drive-by attacks with their bladed vehicles, despite being hopped-up on combat drugs.
  • Better To Die Than Be Killed - Seriously. The Dark Eldar will torture you to death (very slowly), and then eat your soul.
  • BFS - Incubus klaives.
  • Blood Lust - Though followers of Khorne are pretty blood-crazy, the Dark Eldar are the ones who eroticize it.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder - Standard Dark Eldar behavior.
  • Complete Monster - There is nothing at all sympathetic about the Dark Eldar.
  • Cruel And Unusual Death - While each and every race and faction in the game is capable of causing this, the Dark Eldar are particularly (and terrifyingly) good at it.
  • Does Not Like Shoes - Many Dark Eldar take to the battlefields of the 41st Millennium barefoot, for various reasons: the Mandrakes have regressed to a bestial state, the Hellions ride flying skyboards, Urien Rakarth floats above the battlefield on suspensors, and Lelith Hesperax is apparently just that badass.
  • Emotion Eater - Mainly fear and pain.
  • Eviler Than Thou-There is a short comic where a Dark Eldar Ravager ends up possessed by a Daemon. It says that it is going to use him to cause lots and lots of pain and suffering. The Dark Eldar's response? "Good".
  • The Fair Folk - the Dark Eldar's lead re-designer, Phil Kelly, intentionally invoked a fairytale feel with the Dark Eldar's weaponry and appearance, with mirrors that can be shattered to kill the people they reflect, elven wild hunts on night raids, and the witch-like Haemonculi covens taking payment in abstract concepts like your ability to laugh. The Dark Eldar are beautiful, soulless horrors.
  • For The Evulz - Literally, the Dark Eldar's entire existence is based around causing pain and suffering.
    • In the new codex, the Dark Eldar save Iyanden Craftworld from a Chaos attack that would've probably destroyed them. Why? Because the Eldar were so low on troops, they had to use Necromancy, taking the souls of the dead out of the Infinity Circut and putting them into armor, just to survive. The Dark Eldar were so amused by this that they wanted to make sure it continued, so they saved the Eldar.
  • Flechette Storm - The standard Dark Eldar weapon fires a hail of "splinter" rounds, usually coated with toxins and venoms to paralyze their prey for easy capture.
  • Fragile Speedster - To an even greater extent than the Craftworld Eldar.
    • Glass Cannon - but danm can they hit hard, even more so with the new codex.
  • Freud Was Right - And the Dark Eldar would make him wish he wasn't.
  • Gattaca Babies - Most Dark Eldar are grown in People Jars. Having 'trueborn' children is a luxury only afforded to the upper class.
  • Hellhound - Some Dark Eldar warbands are accompanied by packs of Warp Beasts, which are... vaguely hound-like.
  • Horny Devils - A race of sadomasochists including units called Incubi and Succubi, sometimes with whips. The Dark Eldar are about the third most popular Fetish Fuelfaction.
  • Made A Slave - They routinely enslave humans. Who usually don't last long.
    • Go Go Enslavement - Games Workshop produced decorative "slave girl" models that looked like a normal woman and a Sister of Battle in Princess Leia outfits.
  • Magnificent Bastard- the most effective Dark Eldar (those who aren't obnoxious Smug Snakes) fall into this category, especially Asdrubael Vect, who engineered a coup that elevated him from a slave to a gang leader to the High Lord of Commorragh.
  • Memetic Molester.
  • Neutral Evil - With a whole society revolving around being as much of a Smug Snake and a backstabbing serial raping bastard in every single way possible, it's only natural. Bonus points that despite their extremely decadent and hedonistic natures, they are partially doing all their atrocities to avoid being eaten by Slaanesh. Not that they don't enjoy what they do, however.
  • Our Vampires Are Different - The Dark Eldar are soul-eating creatures of the night, rejuvenating themselves on the suffering of others. Their special characters even have an aristocratic flavor.
  • Space Pirates - One of the reason the Eldar race as a whole has a reputation for being capricious brigands is that some Imperial officers can't tell the difference between Dark and Craftworld Eldar.
  • Pragmatic Villainy - Dark Eldar Scourges are used as message carriers between Dark Eldar who want to ensure that the message arrives safe and unread. Because of this vital role they play in Dark Eldar society, the Kabals come down hard on anyone who mess with them.
  • Private Military Contractors - When not operating as piratical raiders, the Dark Eldar have been known to hire themselves out as mercenaries to stupid, stupid clients.
  • Sky Surfing - Hellions are glaive-wielding Dark Eldar on blade-winged flying platforms
  • Smug Snake - Most Dark Eldar fit into this category
  • Spikes Of Villainy - Dark Eldar models have so many blades on them, they can be downright hazardous to handle.
  • The Starscream - Every Dark Eldar, save for Asdrubael Vecht, and only because he's at the absolute top of the power structure.
  • The Syndicate - Dark Eldar society is ruled by competing crime syndicates/pirate fleets known as Kabals. Kabalite Warriors are basically made men and women, protected by their Kabal, and Archons are basically Godfathers. It doesn't hurt that the name Commorragh is a referenced to Gomorrah, the Biblical sister city of Sodom, twisted into a pseudo-Irish homophone for the Camorra clans of Naples.
  • Torture Technician - Dark Eldar Haemonculi. They don't even want information, they just want you to suffer. In one case an unfortunate captive was left as a collection of organs hanging from hooks in the Haemonculus' lab...and still very much alive.
  • The Un Favorite - The Dark Eldar went for over a decade without a new Codex. They're finally getting some love again, with new models and a new codex being released in November 2010.
  • Vapour Wear - Wyches are gladiators who prefer reflexes and skill to actual armor... or actual clothing.
  • Vice City - Commorragh, a Wretched Hive full of slave pens, torture labs, arenas for death sports, and whatever structures are appropriate for the Dark Eldar's other,worse vices.
  • You Kill It You Bought It - The fastest way to commanding a Kabal is to kill the sitting Archon.
    The Tau Empire 


A thousand fibres connect each of us with our fellow Tau and along those fibres our deeds run as causes which come back to us as effects. Everything we must do must be in furtherance of the Greater Good lest we return to the Mont'au, the Terror.
A young, dynamic, and somewhat naive race, the Tau have come a long way very quickly. A few thousand years ago they were a bunch of primitives who had just discovered fire, and were targeted for extermination by the Imperium - but a miraculous warp storm destroyed the fleet sent to their homeworld, and the Imperium lost interest. Within scant centuries, they had discovered firearms, evolved into distinct subraces, and were proceeding to destroy each other, until a cadre of mysterious strangers convinced the various Tau to work together for the benefit of all. Now the warriors of the Fire Caste, pilots of the Air Caste, artisans of the Earth Caste, and diplomats of the Water Caste serve the philosophy of the Greater Good, under the wise and watchful eyes of the Ethereal Caste.
The Tau are known for two things: their advanced technology, and their Greater Good. The Tau have embraced technology in a way the Adeptus Mechanicus deems blasphemous, and even their basic infantry are armed with energy weapons the envy of Imperial soldiers, while their elite warriors wear flying battlesuits that can lay waste to entire squads. But it is the philosophy of the Greater Good that is the Tau's most dangerous creation, as they actively try to recruit other races into their empire. The barbaric Kroot, a species of bird-like aliens that seek evolutionary upgrades by feeding on their enemies, were an early success, while recently the insectoid Vespid have been brought into the fold as well. Many humans also fall prey to the promises of Tau technology and a society less transparently brutal than the Imperium. This leads many to label the Tau the "good guys" of Warhammer 40000, which is true to some extent - the Tau will at least offer you a chance to surrender before dragging you into the fold by force, and will only put you into concentration camps if it's for the Greater Good. Throw in the fact that the Ethereals are suspected ofMind Control as well as the notion of a race rigidly divided into castes, and you have a classic Straw Dystopia.
The tabletop Tau army is perhaps the shootiest in the game - basic Tau firearms are capable of shredding light vehicles, while their heavy weapons make mockeries of enemy armor. Tau battlesuits can also be customized to deal devastating ranged damage to a specific type of unit, and are mobile enough to make hit and run attacks. On the downside, the Tau are simply pathetic in close combat, and have no dedicated assault units besides Kroot kindreds. Success with the Tau means learning how to make the elements of your army work in harmony - using the Kroot to shore up your flanks, drawing the enemy into a killing zone with a unit of Pathfinders, or having your Drones pin down attackers before they can reach your lines. And remember, if you bring along an Ethereal, keep him alive.

Notable Tau tropes include:


  • Action Girl - Commander Shadowsun, the supreme commander of the Fire Caste who led several successful raids on a Tyranid splinter fleet that devastated the so much that the tau were able to destroy it without losing a single ship.
  • Alien Blood - Due to high levels of cobalt, Tau blood is blue, and according to at least one inquisitor, smells awful.
  • The Alliance / The Federation - Still imperialist, but quite a bit less evil than the other factions.
  • Ancient Astronauts - The Tau actually were visited by a spacefaring non-indigenous species when they were living as hunter-gatherers: humanity. Though in defiance of this trope, the Tau seem not to regard them with any particular awe. Considering that humans were planning on "sterilizing" T'au and colonizing the planet for themselves, they might also count as Abusive Precursors. Apparently the Tau's breakthrough into Faster Than Light Travel came about when they discovered the ruins of an alien spaceship on one of the other planets in their home system. It is not recorded if this ship was human or otherwise but given the human visitation of their system, it certainly seems probable.
  • Animesque - The battlesuits are a dead giveaway.
  • Apologetic Attacker - In most cases, though if the Ethereal is dead or the Fire Caste's blood is up, they can be just as fierce as the other races.
  • Attack Drone - Unlike the Imperium, the Tau make extensive use of artificial intelligences as worker or battlefield drones, and have so far avoided the robot rebellionproblem.
  • Beginners Luck - La'Kais, protagonist of the game Fire Warrior manages to take on and defeat both Imperial and Chaos forces by himself, up to taking down a Lord of Change on his first day of live combat, with some help from both Tau and Ultramarine forces with Chaos. Unfortunately after that he was hit with a bad case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was mentally broken by the experience, though it's suggested he'll get better.
  • Benevolent-ish Alien Invasion - Compared to standard Imperial procedure, re-education camps, and status as an underclass of society isn't so bad.
  • BFG - The basic Pulse Rifle can knock a Space Marine on his back, while a Rail Rifle can punch a hole in him.
  • Compelling Voice - Any orders given by an Ethereal are obeyed without question. The Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition are very interested in this ability...
  • Creative Sterility - A characteristic of the Kroot. Though not unintelligent, the Kroot's lack of creativity is what kept their technology at a crude black-powder level for a long period of time, and they were unlikely to go any further than that on their own. That was all changed when Orks invaded their homeworld, and the Kroot's own inate ability to absorb and incorperate genetic information from what (or whom) they eat allowed them to take advantage of the Ork's Genetic Memory and gain spacefaring technology.
  • Crystal Spires And Togas - Tau cities are noticeably cleaner than most Imperial settlements.
  • Dark Messiah - Tau Ethereals.
  • Dark And Troubled Past - As stated in the quotation, a race-wide example: the Mont'au, which does in fact mean "The Terror."
  • Deflector Shields - The Tau possess energy shield technology, which in contrast to the "Void Shields" of the Imperium (which make incoming fire disappear,) are genuine "deflector" shields because that is what they do, deflect incoming fire away from the object being protected. This is represented as an invulnerable save in game mechanics, as the incoming fire is either deflected completely away or manages to get through and score a hit. Also notable is that Tau often put these shields on sacrificial drones which are designed to bodyguard living Tau by throwing themselves into the path of oncoming fire and counting on their shields to protect their assigned Tau.
  • Empire With A Dark Secret - Propaganda aside, there are strong hints that Ethereals use pheromones to demand the unquestioning obedience of the other Tau. They still avert the Straw Hypocrite characterisation that usually comes with this; the Ethereals, like their followers, absolutely believe in the Greater Good of group over self, community over group, planet over community, and race/alliance over planet. Even the renegade Farsight agrees in principle—he just disagrees, sometimes lethally, on how to achieve it.
  • Fantastic Caste System - The four main castes are part Hindu Varnas, part Four Temperament Ensemble and part Elemental Theme Naming: the Earth Caste are manual labourers and artisans, the Air Caste are Ace Pilots, the Water Caste are bureaucrats, politicians and diplomats, and the Fire Caste make up the military - the final, ruling caste are the Ethereals.
  • Faster Than Light Travel - Notable in that they use a different mechanism for achieving it than most other races. Other races tend to have ships fully enter the warp, travel to another system, then exit the warp. The Tau use the "stutter drive" type, entering the warp for only an instant and exiting some distance away. This brief jump is only short range (by interstellar standards) but their drives make many of them very rapidly. This has been likened to holding a boyount ball under water and letting it spring out, or skipping a stone across a surface. The net effect is much slower interstellar travel than other methods, but also much safer and more reliable travel.
  • Feathered Fiend - Though they have evolved past feathers, the Kroot are descended from alien avians, and retain their ancestors' beaks and light bones.
  • Flechette Storm - A minor example. Tau vehicles occasionally mount a proximity defense system that bursts out a brief storm of flechettes when an enemy attempts to strike or climb onto a vechicle at close range. This system is appropriately named "Flechette Launchers".
  • Flat Earth Atheist - The Tau have next to no Warp signature and don't use it for travel, and are therefore doubtful of the existence of "daemons."
  • Four Fingered Hands - And hooves, and unique teeth. Imperial propaganda states that the Tau are descended from grazing bovines.
  • Gatling Good - The burst cannon is a variation of the pulse rifle technology with twice the barrels, set up to rotate as it fires, mounted extensively on Tau vehicles and battlesuits as their standard anti-infantry and point defense weapons.
  • The Greys - Though a bit taller.
  • Happiness In Slavery - Used in two seperate ways:
    • Other species who are absorbed into the Tau Empire are treated magnanimously whether they allow themselves to be subsumed into the empire voluntarily or through conquest. A resistant power will usually have its military partially disarmed so it must rely on the Tau for protection, and will have to prove itself trustworthy before being allowed to build it back up. The Tau help their conquests to rebuild and elevate their standards of living above that they had before. Their existance is generally quite comfortable, but despite that they have still lost their sovereignty to the Tau.
    • The other Tau castes themselves to the Etheral caste. The Etherals have the absolute loyalty of the other castes, and those other castes see the Etherals as being messianic figures who hold wisdom that is unquestionable. With the noteworthy exception of the Farsight Enclaves, they are more than happy to serve.
  • Heroic BSOD - The death of an Ethereal is devastating to Tau morale. If one is killed, the Fire Caste may panic and attempt an organized retreat...
  • Hollywood Atheist - To the point of Scary Dogmatic Aliens.
  • Hot Blooded - The Vior'la sept, which directly translates to "Hot Blooded".
  • Honor Before Reason: Inverted with the Tau (at least compared to some other in-universe examples) in that they consider putting Honor Before Reason to be, well,dishonorable. They regard a Last Stand as the result of an incompotent commander. Any Tau military strategy inevitably involves extensive contingency plans for falling back and rallying. Some of their military philosophies even exploit this to lure enemies into traps when they think to press their advantage.
  • Humongous Mecha - Oddly enough, Tau battlesuits are among the smallest examples in the setting, and they don't have anything the size of Titans... yet.
    • Strictly speaking, Tau Manta destroyers are in the same size category as Titans and mount compariable weaponry. However, the Mantas do not resemble anything we might think of as a Humongous Mecha, being closer to the battlefield equivelant of a mini-Battle Star than a walking battleship like a Titan. The novelization of thePS 2 game Fire Warrior states that the Tau considered such large mecha to be a ridiculously impractical uses of technology, and believed during their earlier contact that tales of Imperial Titans were simply Imperial propoganda, as the only benefit by making such war engines bipedal walkers was sheer intimidation factor.
  • Lawful Good - Or the closest thing to this alignment you can get for a race in the 41st Millenium. The fact that they actually ask you to join them before resorting to killing you puts them in at least somewhat brighter light than most other races.
  • Laser Sight - Tau make extensive use of "markerlights" that improve other units' chances to hit an enemy target, or to guide seeker missiles.
  • Lego Genetics - Kroot are able to instinctively select DNA sequences from the prey they eat and add them to their own, so that a Kroot kindred that fights Orks for a few generation will develop a green coloration and heavy musculature (indeed, the Kroot only managed to leave their homeworld after eating some Orks and gaining the ability to instinctively build spaceships). After a messy past incident, the Tau make sure the Kroot don't eat anything Chaos-related.
    • Kroot leaders also make sure they don't eat any Tyranids, although since apparently Genestealer hybrids taste absolutely vile this is a frivolous law except in emergencies.
  • Macross Missile Massacre - Tau battlesuits and vehicles often have multiple firing missile systems, such as the missile pod or smart missile system, both of which output several small missiles at once. The missile pod tends to be a more simply-guided direct-fire variation, while the smart missile system is capable of navigating its missilesaround blocking terrain.
  • Magnetic Weapons - The Tau mount railguns on their XV88 Broadside Battlesuits and Hammerhead Gunships.
    • This is the Tau's signature for weaponry. Even their pulse rifles are technically coilguns, albeit ones that cause their physical ammunition to break down into an energy state while in transit down the barrel. They are only distinguished from "plasma guns" (when the term is used in the rest of the setting) in that the ammunition being excited to a plasma happens in the weapon itself, rather than in a reactor that "bottles" it for later discharge.
  • Mini Mecha: Any Tau battlesuit with an "8" in the first digit of its designation will classify as this.
  • Naive Newcomer - Though reality is beginning to sink in.
  • Nakama - Fire Warrior squads sometimes undergo a ritualistic blood-mingling ceremony, which translates into improved morale on the tabletop.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: Inverted with the Water Caste. Their role as buracrats is to make the other castes function more comfortably and efficiently. As a rule, they are very good at this job too.
  • Private Military Contractors - The Kroot aren't actually all that interested in the Greater Good, and will hire themselves off as mercenaries on the side.
  • The Quisling - Gue'Vesa, humans who fight for the Tau Empire for various reasons. Anghkor Prok could also count for the Kroot, having sworn them into alliance with the Tau and therefore has enough prestige to command Tau troops.
  • Roboteching - The Tau's seeker missles function like this. A unit somewhere on the battlefield requests a seeker missile launch via a markerlight, the missile launches off its mounting on a nearby vehicle, shoots up into the air (regardless of original orientation) then cruises along until it can fly straight into the target.
  • Scary Dogmatic Aliens - There is a good reason why they are sometimes referred to as "Blue Space Communists."
  • Space Romans- The Tau culture is a pastiche of various Eastern philosophies and civilizations.
  • Stealth Pun - Tau call humans "Gue'la". This is awfully similar to the Cantonese insult "gweilo" for Westerners when pronounced just right, as Dawn Of War players discovered.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist - Unique in the setting in that the "well-intentioned" and "extremist" parts are roughly balanced.
  • The Wesley - There was a bit of a backlash against the Tau for feeling so out of place with their upbeat outlook. Their second Codex has addressed this for the most part, and made it clear that the realities of the setting are beginning to take their toll.
  • Unskilled But Strong - Tau battlesuits range in size from powered armor to mini-mecha and are as strong and tough as you would expect such combat systems to be. However, their operators are very poor at close range fighting, and will often find themselves out maneuvered and taken down by weaker foes.
  • Unstoppable Rage - Any Tau who manages to withstand the Heroic BSOD of the death of their Ethereal becomes a truely terrifying force of plasma-spewing death.
    Necrons 


That we, in our arrogance, believed that Humankind was first among the races of this galaxy will be exposed as folly of the worst kind upon the awakening of these ancient beings. Any hopes, dreams or promises of salvation are naught but dust in the wind.
In the galaxy's distant past, before humanity, before the Eldar, there was a race known as the Necrontyr that clung to life on a bleak world under a hostile sun. Their bodies wracked with sickness, their lifespans shortened by radiation and plasma storms, they developed advanced technology to try and compensate, but to no avail. The Necrontyr eventually encountered the Old Ones, an enlightened and long-lived species, and in a fit of jealousy the Necrontyr declared war. They soon realized they had no hope of success, until they discovered powerful energy beings lurking within their star. A bargain was struck: the Necrontyr would provide these C'Tan with bodies made of the living metal the Necrontyr used for their spacecraft, and in return, the C'Tan would grant the Necrontyr immortality. Unfortunately, the C'Tan used the same living metal to seal the Necrontyr's souls inside skeletal constructs, turning the race into undying slaves that would help the C'Tan harvest all life from the galaxy. Thus the Necrons were born. The C'Tan and Necrons had their terrible revenge on the Old Ones, but were eventually forced back by Warp entities spawned by the violence and destruction of the conflict. For millions of years the Necrons have slumbered, waiting out their old enemies... and now they are waking up into a galaxy teeming with new life forms. They do not like what they see.
The Necrons strike from tomb worlds scattered across the galaxy, each containing complexes of countless inert Necron warriors. Once they awaken, or are disturbed by foolish trespassers, they set about harvesting and cleansing their surroundings of all life, down to the bacteria if necessary. Their grasp of technology surpasses even the Eldar, and the Necrons are able to teleport seemingly at will and move across space faster than lightspeed without resorting to Warp travel. Their weapons are hideously effective, using Gauss technology that strips a target's molecules apart one layer at a time, while the living metal that forms their bodies can regenerate from just about any injury. Worst of all are their leaders, the C'Tan, star gods of incredible power and diabolic intent. A Necron attack occurs without warning, as their units suddenly teleport next to their targets. They attack without pity or joy or battlecry, killing everything around them. And once they're done, they teleport away, leaving no trace of their presence apart from the mutilated corpses of their enemies.
The Necrons are a frightening force on the tabletop. Their basic Warrior units are comparable to Space Marines, but Space Marines that have a 50% chance of standing back up from attacks that ought to kill them. Throw in weaponry capable of blowing holes in a Land Raider, corporeal gods as HQ choices, and elite assault units that ignore even Invulnerable saving throws while reducing nearby enemy units' morale, and you have a formidable foe indeed. The only good news for the Necrons' opponents is that their units are relatively slow and cumbersome in close combat, cost enough points to ensure the Necrons will never outnumber their enemy, and if the Necron army is reduced to 25% of their starting strength, they fade out and withdraw. Whittling them down that much, of course, is easier said than done...

Notable Necron tropes include:


  • Ancient Egypt: In terms of comparison to Warhammer Fantasy armies, Necrons are quite similar to the Tomb Kings, taking a lot of their inspiration from Ancient Egypt, except IN SPACE!
    • Oddly enough, there was already a Tomb Kings expy in 40K, the Thousand Sons Legion of the Chaos Space Marines. So now we have have two armies of mindless pseudo-Egyptian automatons betrayed by a trickster god running around.
  • Armor Is Useless - Gauss weapons have a one in six chance to inflict a glancing hit on anything (although the 5th Edition ruleset makes this ability considerably less useful), while some Necron close combat weapons ignore armor and invulnerable saves.
  • As Long As There Is Evil - The Warp is anathema to the Necrons, but they realize that if they wipe out all other intelligent life, it won't be a problem any more.
  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Even if one of the C'tan is sucessfully killed, anyone within a certain radius will basically be vaporized as the true energy-form of the C'Tan explodes out of its necrodermis shell.
  • Came Back Wrong - Each time a Necron "dies" and is repaired/regenerated, its life essence is damaged in the process. The basic Warriors who have regenerated hundreds of times are mindless constructs, but Necron Lords who manage to stave off death retain their personalities... though the ones that have died a few times tend to suffer from delusions of grandeur and other madness.
  • Cosmic Horror - The C'Tan, particularly the totally mad Outsider.
  • Creepy Monotone - Necron Lords, on the rare occasions they decide to speak.
  • Dem Bones - Thematically the Necrons share much in common with the Undead, only, y'know, robots.
  • Determinator - In one sense, the Necrons are determined to either harvest or purge all life in the galaxy, and will wade through firefights to do so without flinching. In another sense, the standard Necron form is a walking Homage to The Terminator.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu - The C'Tan star gods can be defeated with enough firepower, but all they have to do is get a new necrodermis and they're good as new.
  • Disintegrator Ray - Gauss weaponry, more or less.
  • Dissonant Serenity - The Necrons have no Battle Cry and instead fight with the silence of the grave, which turns out to be a lot more intimidating than any amount of shouting.
  • Emotion Eater - The C'Tan, mainly on gibbering terror.
  • Expy - The entire race is one of a certain Austrian-American Governor's most famous role, right down to his Catch Phrase as their signature racial power.
  • Four Is Death - The Outsider was tricked into consuming most of the other C'Tan, so now only four remain.
  • Generic Doomsday Villain: This is the main problem players have with them; it's really hard to come up with a cool background story when everyone is just a mindless killbot.
  • Giant Spider - Tomb Spyders, floating spider-like robots that perform repairs. Also rounded out with Scarabs, tiny robot spiders that swarm over enemies and take them apart at the molecular level.
  • Glowing Eyes Of Doom: See Sickly Green Glow. It is customary for Necron players to paint their models' eyes with vibrant green paint.
  • Grim Reaper - The C'Tan known as the Nightbringer is obsessed with causing dread and death. In his heyday, he traumatized intelligent life so badly that conceptions of death as a scythe-wielding reaper are the result of racial memory (which leads to a fair bit of Fridge Logic, given that not all human cultures have a concept of a reaper, but oh well), along with all things' fear of death. Well, add "except the Orks!" to the last one.
  • Half Human Hybrid - Pariahs, the result of a eon-long Xanatos Gambit. The Necrons apparently seeded humanity with the Pariah Gene, an extremely rare genetic anomaly that results in "blanks" or "untouchables," people with no Warp presence and nigh-immunity to psychic powers. Any blanks the Necrons encounter are transformed into Pariahs, fusions of human flesh and Necron metal, used as elite shock troops. This is all part of a plan to take care of those Warp creatures once and for all.
  • Healing Factor - The rule that lets Necrons get back up from mortal blows is appropriately enough called "We'll Be Back."
  • Homage - It's clear someone watched The Terminator before coming up with the Necrons, but a particular unit inverts one of the movie's scenes. Instead of a metal form bursting out of flesh, Necrons known as Flayed Ones actually harvest enemy units' skin and drape the bloody strips of flesh on their metal bodies, as an extra intimidation factor.
  • Implacable Man - Necrons narrowly beat out Space Marines, Orks, and Imperial Guard commanders as 40K's embodiment of this trope.
  • Intangible Man - Wraiths are special Necron units resembling flying torsos with extended, serpentine spinal columns, that are able to "phase out" from the physical world in order to avoid incoming fire or glide through terrain.
  • Lawful Evil - As more and more fluff expands around these killing machines, they seem to lean in this direction, with some of the more sentinent ones describing their goal to be absolute order in the galaxy, which of course is achieved by killing off every single organism in the galaxy. All this to give their gods more souls to feast on.
  • Lightning Bruiser - Necron fast attack units, and especially their fleets.
  • Mecha Mooks / Night Of The Living Mooks - You can't even really kill them, they just teleport away for repairs even if you've melted them into silvery puddles.
  • The Monolith - A weaponized variant that helps teleport in more Necrons.
  • Omnicidal Maniac - It's somewhat unclear whether or not the Necrons' goal is to harvest life in the galaxy, or just kill everything.
  • Reality Warper - As Physical Gods, the C'Tan have as much power in the material worlds as daemons do in the Warp.
  • Red Oni Blue Oni: The personalities of the two currently playable C'Tan. The Deciever loves to screw with other beings in several different ways; the Nightbringer just wants to kill lots and lots of people. The Deceiver has actually screwed the Nightbringer over several times, first convincing it to eat other C'tan so that it would have less competition, and then telling the Old Ones where its tomb world was at the end of the War in Heaven.
  • Robot War - Usually brutally short ones, too.
  • Sealed Evil In A Can - Necron tomb worlds. The Adeptus Mechanicus has a notoriously poor record with uncovering them, becoming enamored of all the shiny technology, waking the Necrons up, and dying horribly.
    • Of particular note is the C'Tan known as the Void Dragon, a master of machinery and technology. It is heavily implied that the "Machine God" the Adeptus Mechanicus has been worshiping for millennia is actually the C'Tan, entombed deep within the labyrinths of Mars. Well, sort of. The Emperor massively Out Gambitted him and more or less ensured the actual Cult Of The Dragon will always be a tiny minority.
    • The least-known C'Tan, the Outsider, is currently imprisoned within a Dyson Sphere. The experience, combined with the fact that the other C'Tan it consumed are still awake inside of it, has driven it completely insane.
  • Sickly Green Glow - Gauss-based technology and whatever "embalming" techniques went into making the Necrons are described as emitting a "corpse-light."
  • Skele Bot 9000 - The Necons are Robotic Skeletons.
  • The Slow Walk - The Necrons have been waiting millions of years. They don't need to rush.
  • Stripped To The Bone - Gauss weapons are very, very nasty.
  • Sufficiently Advanced Alien - The C'Tan.
  • This Is Your Brain On Evil: Strictly speaking, Necrons have next to no free will or memories of their past lives. However, Flayed Ones have retained their memories of their organic lives throughout their eons of existence and repair, and have been driven insane as a result.
    • Subverted by the Necron Lords, who still keep some of their own identity and free will, but are still slaves to the C'Tan and are perfctly fine with this.
    • This has also been change in 5th Ed, all Necrons had free will and memories at first (the C'tan are no longer active forces like the Chaos gods), however, every time one "dies" they slowly lose it; after a few thousand times all that's left is basic programing. Lords and other elites don't die as much and have better repair systems.
  • Time Abyss - The Necrons probably predate life on Earth by a fair number of millennia.
  • The Trickster - The C'Tan known as the Deceiver. Hobbies include playing Xanatos Speed Chess and competing with the Eldar and Tzeentch for the title of "most manipulative bastard in Warhammer 40000."
    • A few things being attributed to more than one in the fluff doesn't help. For instance, the Laughing God is credited with the Outsider's cannibalism (and resulting madness), while the Deceiver pulled the exact same trick on the Nightbringer.
  • Touch Of Death - Nothing a C'Tan knocks down is getting back up again.
  • Villain Exit Stage Left: A unique feature and Achilles Heel of the Necrons. When their original numbers are reduced to 25%, the rest of the army will vanish, including corpses. Of course, Necrons see this as the only logical course of action. Everyone else, knowing their nature, will expect them to return at any time.
    Tyranids 


We must scour them from the stars before they do the same to us.
An extragalactic swarm of aliens that doesn't just overrun worlds, but consumes everything on them right down to the bedrock, including the oceans and air. Tyranids are more of a virus than a species, as they instinctively scan the DNA of what they eat and apply useful evolutionary upgrades to their swarms, ensuring that they only grow more deadly with each victory. Everything they use, from ranged weapons to spaceships, are symbiotic organisms, to the extent that it can be hard to tell where a Tyranid "gun" ends and the creature carrying it begins.
Though the individual creatures in the Hive Fleets are little more than beasts, Tyranids are controlled via synapse creatures by the race's hive mind, which is extremely intelligent. While the classic Tyranid strategy is to overwhelm their foes with weight of numbers, the swarms have also been seen to ambush armored columns in narrow passages that turned tanks into helpless sitting targets, employ burrowing organisms to launch surprise attacks behind enemy lines, or use winged creatures to sow discord and confusion. Of particular note are the specialized Tyranids known as Genestealers, who implant their DNA in victims that turns their children into hybrid creatures, who will eventually form a cult on their homeworld that undermine's the planet's defenses while psychically summoning the swarm. Three Hive Fleets have been encountered thus far: Hive Fleet Behemoth nearly overran the Ultramarines' homeworld of Macragge and killed their entire 1st Company, Hive Fleet Kraken all but wiped out the Eldar of craftworld Iyanden, and Hive Fleet Leviathan is currently rampaging through an Ork empire... and these are likely just the vanguard of more Tyranid swarms still en route to the galaxy. The optimistic take on the Tyranids is that they are moving on our galaxy after cleansing one or more other galaxies of life. The pessimistic take is that they are running from something worse.
The tabletop Tyranid army is a mix of swarms of highly-expendable critters able to swamp even Imperial Guard or Ork forces, backed-up by lumbering monstrous creatures capable of tossing tanks around with their tusks or blowing up heads with psychic powers. They also contain units of specialist creatures able to infiltrate or move quickly in order to keep the enemy occupied in close combat while the rest of the army closes in, and the biomorph system allows units to be upgraded to deal with specific targets rather effectively. The Tyranids' two main weaknesses are comparatively few ranged units, as well as the reliance on a few synapse creatures to keep the swarm together. The latter is offset by the fact that the presense of said creatures makes the rest of the army fearless, and the former rarely comes into play as the standard Tyranid strategy is to roll over the enemy like a tsunami.

Notable Tyranid tropes include:


  • Breath Weapon - Some critters can make bio-plasma attack, vomiting up a blast of white-hot energy accompanied by a piercing screech.
  • Bug War - If your Tyranid problem has gotten beyond the Genestealer Cult stage, you're pretty much screwed.
  • Combat Tentacles - Ranging from lash whips and flesh hooks on the battlefield creatures to tentacles on spaceships for boarding actions.
  • Does This Remind You Of Anything - Tyranid ranged weapons feature a lot of sphincters and muscle spasms ejecting spurts of hot liquids.
  • Everythings Better With Dinosaurs - The big ones are often described as dinosaurs.
  • Expy - Though by and large the entire race is one of the Arachnids from Robert A Heilen's novel Starship Troopers, many have argued that the Genestealers are one ofthe Xenomorph designed by Mr H.R Giger.
  • Extreme Omnivore - The Hive Fleets leave nothing but lifeless, airless rocks in their wake.
  • Face Full Of Alien Wing Wong - Genestealers reproduce via the "Genestealer's Kiss", an injection of their genetic material into a target via a long, diamond-hard "tongue." Depending on which bit of fluff you read, this is either via a literal, face-biting parody of a kiss, or a slightly less Squicky injection into the torso, under the ribcage.
  • Healing Factor - Rapid regeneration was introduced by the unique Carnifex named "Old One Eye," and is now a standard upgrade for most Tyranid organisms.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Duh. The fact that they can eat up an entire planet also includes living beings. Also, what they're fleeing from could be also even more scarier.
  • Hive Mind - Chief Librarian Tigurius of the Ultramarines has made psychic contact with it, and could only describe "an immortal hunger."
  • Hive Queen - Synapse creatures, though only the rarely seen Norn Queens are female. Probably.
  • Hollywood Tactics - Averted.
  • Horde Of Alien Locusts - After the invasion, they even "recycle" their own soldiers, living and dead.
  • Large And In Charge - Larger Tyranid organisms are more likely to be the synapse creatures directing the swarm, leading to the Imperium's official policy on combating them: shoot the big ones.
  • Living Ship - The Hive Fleets, complete with disturbingly fleshy interiors.
  • More Teeth Than The Osmond Family - Though some critters mix things up with feeder tendrils.
  • Multi Armed And Dangerous - All the Tyranids are evolutions from a basic six-limbed shape, and most use all of them, except for some like the serpentine Raveners and the winged Gargoyle who have a pair of vestigial legs.
  • Organic Technology - It's interesting looking back over the model range to see how what once were distinct weapons became fused to their wielders.
  • Psychic Static - One of the most dangerous aspects of the Tyranids is how the Hive Mind casts a "shadow in the Warp" ahead of it, which is strong enough to overwhelm any psykers on a planet targeted by the Hive Fleets. This is very bad news, since psykers are required for astropathic communication and navigation, which means when the 'nids are on their way, there's no chance of sending a call for help, and no way for it to arrive.
  • Reincarnation - Hive Tyrants are unique in that they have distinct consciousnesses and personalities, which help them be more effective "generals." As part of the Hive Mind they can never be killed, meaning that if you destroy a Hive Tyrant in one battle, the next time you meet he'll remember your tricks, and he'll be pissed.
  • Spikes Of Villainy / The Spiny - Tyranid creatures are almost universally covered in chitaneous spikes and sharp edges. One Games Workshop player once said in a battle report
    You can talk all you want about strategy and unit choice, but when it comes down to it, all Tyranid tactics end up as "spikey death".
  • True Neutral - Destructive, hungrey swarm of locusts type.
  • Two D Space - Averted with Hive Fleet Leviathan. The Imperium was perplexed by Tyranid attacks taking place far behind the "front line" at the galactic "east," until they realized that the Hive Fleet had flanked the galaxy and was attacking "upward" from "underneath" it.
  • We Have Reserves - ... that outnumber the stars.
  • Zerg Rush - Though 40K fans will point out that the Tyranids as we know them today were introduced in 1993, five years before Star Craft, while the Genestealers' origin goes back to the late 80s. So maybe the trope should be called 'Nid Rush?
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