A little birdie brought us some rumors on 6th ed 40K fluff changes.
A friend of ours who knows someone who knows someone (you get the idea) and sometimes gives us juicy rumors related to us today some pretty crazy changes to the fluff. Now we don’t know if these are ture or not (they are rumors after-all) but they were interesting enough that we felt they bore sharing.
Supposedly, Imperial fluff will be changing pretty dramatically (which we’ve been hearing a lot).
- Space Marines will have big changes such as the Ultramarines defending the Tau (which we’ve been hearing a lot) as the Tau were either created by the Emperor or he saw that they would be the key to defeating or fighting Chaos as they have no presence in the Warp.
- And here’s the biggie: The Emperor is going to die!!
Now again, this was something related to us by a friend and it may or may not be true, but as I said, it was interesting enough and the source was good enough that we felt it bore repeating. I personally find this hard to believe as the Emperor is such an intrinsic part of the 40K mythos, however, I would love to see a big change like this so long as it is done right (i.e. Mat Ward doesn’t write it) as it opens up SO many possibilities for advancing the story of 40K.
If the Emperor dies how do humans navigate the warp? Do we see another Age of Strife? That is the stickiest part, IMO as without warp travel, the Imperium would fall into chaos.
However, from a story perspective it opens so many doors. Will the Emperor be revealed to be a Warp entity after-all? Will he reincarnate and lead humanity into a new Golden Age? Will Primarchs return from hiding to help humanity in their darkest hour? Will the balance of power shift in the Grim Dark 41st millennium? It would be a bold move to do this, but how awesome it could be?! On the flip side, it could also be a massive flop and screw 40K for a long while. It would be a big risk, but I love risks! I could see though from a business perspective that it may be too risky.
Only time will tell if this rumor proves to be true, but I for one welcome something like this. My gut tells me though, that this rumor may be a bit too juicy to actually be true.
What do you guys think about this? Too far fetched for reality? And if not, would you like a change of this magnitude in the fluff?