Warhammer 40K

A galaxy of a million worlds, ruled by a god-emperor who has been dying for ten thousand years. Welcome to the 41st millennium, where the most optimistic thing you can say is that humanity has survived — and that may be the worst part.

A galaxy at total war needs combatants worth fearing. Here is the cast — a dying god-empire, four nightmare powers wearing reality like a glove, and a dozen alien races that all believe they are the protagonists.

In the 41st millennium there are no good guys, no rescue, and no peace treaty waiting at the end. Here is why the galaxy of Warhammer 40,000 is structurally incapable of stopping the war, and why that is the entire point.

From two dead god-races fighting over the galaxy 60 million years ago to a resurrected demigod waging holy war in the present — the full history of the grimdark future, in order, with the dates that lie to you on purpose.

Ten thousand years before the grimdark present, the Emperor of Mankind's favorite son turned a galaxy-spanning crusade into a civil war that has never truly ended. This is the tragedy at the heart of Warhammer 40,000 — and why its wound still bleeds.