# POLL: Novels set during the Dark Age of Tech? yea or nay



## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

I was reading up on the Dark Age of Technology on the 40K Wikia and I came across the part about the Men of Stone and the Men of Iron.
Now apparently the Men of Iron were androids/robots, who eventually rebelled (and were defeated by the first galactic empire/federation of humanity).
Well I never knew there was a man vs. machine war in the 40K timeline.

Do you guys think it would be a good idea for Black Library to use that period as a setting for a few novels?

I can think of several cons:
1) novels wouldn't have the 40K feel (no tyranids or tau, no marines, no chaos marines, few to no psykers, Imperium of Man would not be featured at all, etc.)
2) would probably feel more like Star Trek/Terminator
3) if any of you guys are familiar with Dune, you'll know that the prequel novels about the man vs. machine war in that universe were horrendous

on the other hand, a really clever writer might be able to make a lot out of it

EDIT: oh yeah, who the hell were the stone men???


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

Hell no..... That is all.


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## Zooey72 (Mar 25, 2008)

I think the unification wars would be great, or more ancient history (even for us now). The creation of the Emp.

In tales of Heresy they did have a pre-marine story, starring the emp "The Last Church"


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## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

I think the major problem is that the galactic empire during the DAoT probably didn't resemble the IoM at all, the Emperor really ushered in a new age. 
A writer would have to develop a connection between the earlier galactic empire and the IoM. Because so much of what makes 40K 40K was not present during the DAoT, the link between the two periods would have to be more subtle. The job of a skilled writer would be to develop a subtle connection that adds to the reader's understanding of subsequent 30K/40K events.


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

moved to BL Fiction. 

-CP


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## CursedUNTILLDEATH (Apr 25, 2010)

Hmm...could work with a good author behind it. But then again the Dark age of tech is one of those sacred things in 40k you dont mess with out people bitching (see the emporer).


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## World Eater XII (Dec 12, 2008)

I think a few more stories that involve legacies from the dark age would be better.

Because i think i remeber reading a bit of fluff (no idea were or when) that said they had whole fleets of super planet killing ships?

The guants ghosts one was pretty goddam awesome!


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## Brother Subtle (May 24, 2009)

i agree as someone said. unification wars would be much better than dark age of technology. but considering just telling the herey is taking the BL years and years and years... i think its too unimportant to ever get its own series.


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

World Eater is right. Novels about the legacy of the Dark Age would be a lot better, still 40k and feature the Dark Age quite well. Novels actually set in them wouldn't be 40k anymore, it'd be 20k or 10k.


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## deathbringer (Feb 19, 2009)

I'd like to see the rise of the emperor but nothing more

I'm curious about what the emperor is and stories such as the last church interest me greatly but that is my limit


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

More artefacts from the Dark Age would be nice to see, the Men of Iron were awesome even in a brief appearance. And The Castigator, wish we could have seen it fight but alas.

Seeing what else they invented during the Dark Age would be awesome, and how it still affects 40k.


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## deathbringer (Feb 19, 2009)

I'd like to see the rise of the emperor but nothing more

I'm curious about what the emperor is and stories such as the last church interest me greatly but that is my limit


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## Brother Subtle (May 24, 2009)

Lord of the Night said:


> More artefacts from the Dark Age would be nice to see, the Men of Iron were awesome even in a brief appearance. And The Castigator, wish we could have seen it fight but alas.
> 
> Seeing what else they invented during the Dark Age would be awesome, and how it still affects 40k.


I thought the castigator was so uber cool. I was quite miffed when Alaric killed him. In fact, I was kind of rooting for the super titan to stomp there little asses.



deathbringer said:


> I'd like to see the rise of the emperor but nothing more
> 
> I'm curious about what the emperor is and stories such as the last church interest me greatly but that is my limit


the last church was brilliant.


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## Davidicus 40k (Jun 4, 2010)

Brother Subtle said:


> I thought the castigator was so uber cool. I was quite miffed when Alaric killed him. In fact, I was kind of rooting for the super titan to stomp there little asses.


Must have not been so great if one Grey Knight could kill him :grin:. One Grey Knight who was capable of thinking out of the box, anyways. I liked the disembodied tech-priest more.

As for the OP, I think maybe one work that describes the Dark Age of Technology in greater detail would be cool, but not a novel per sé. Unless there's a real storyline to follow, I don't know. Something in the Age of Strife would make more sense, or perhaps a novel about the Great Crusade.


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## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

I like the idea of more stories set in 40k (or even 30k) about the legacy of the Dark Age, I think the problem with 20k or 10k is that it's more Star Trek/Foundation/I, Robot than 40k, the link to 40k is just too weak


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## Cloysterpete (Apr 30, 2010)

MontytheMighty said:


> 3) if any of you guys are familiar with Dune, you'll know that the prequel novels about the man vs. machine war in that universe were horrendous


I enjoyed that trilogy heaps so if they were anything like that I would buy them.


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## Dead.Blue.Clown (Nov 27, 2009)

They wouldn't have anything, at all, to do with the Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property. Just read generic sci-fi. Any of those could be Dark Age of Technology novels.


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## dark angel (Jun 11, 2008)

There wouldn't really be a point of these, would there? We all know roughly the story between the Great Crusade and modern times (As in 40K, not 2010....), so these couldn't really add anything. Like Lord of the Night has said, the legacy thing could be interesting, I know that the Inquisitor in The Founding mentions something like 30 Chapters as using a new, curved Chainsword. But yeah, I say no too the idea.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

No real interest in the DAoT, but, as others said, the Unification Wars would be cool. Terra during the rise of the Emperor would be cool. More info on how Terra was divided, such as the Nordafric bloc and Merica would really flesh out the history of Terra and even the SMs.


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## donskar (Apr 8, 2010)

Lord of the Night said:


> World Eater is right. Novels about the legacy of the Dark Age would be a lot better, still 40k and feature the Dark Age quite well. Novels actually set in them wouldn't be 40k anymore, it'd be 20k or 10k.



I guess the answer is, "It depends." Assuming the Horus Heresy period is 30K (?), why not novels set in the 10K and 20K period? It all depends on whether or not BL wants to paint the complete history. It could be a huge undertaking (like Churchill's History of WW II), or just a gloss (like Churchill's History of the English Speaking People).

To me, 40K is a sort of "you are here." I could see myself interested in "how you got there."


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## donskar (Apr 8, 2010)

double post


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

dark angel said:


> There wouldn't really be a point of these, would there? We all know roughly the story between the Great Crusade and modern times (As in 40K, not 2010....), so these couldn't really add anything. Like Lord of the Night has said, the legacy thing could be interesting, I know that the Inquisitor in The Founding mentions something like 30 Chapters as using a new, curved Chainsword. But yeah, I say no too the idea.


I believe it was a type of ore that once alloyed could provide an extremely fine cutting edge to Astartes blades; which in turn is void, considering how they naturally have monofilament edges by their inbuilt power-fields for their spathas and gladius`s, since the Great Crusade and Heresy onwards...

Ah... Abnett`s Black Library youth...:laugh:

Onto the point of the topic, it would not be pointless, nor boring, but essentially, so far removed from the 30k and 40k Universes, it would be hard to relate it to what we are used to.


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## piotrasdabadman91 (Nov 7, 2009)

Entirely depends on the concept and one's imagination. As long as it is really dark and grimy it could work. I read a StarWars novel from a coldly calculated android's point of view and it was a very entertaining read.


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## warmaster isaan (Sep 18, 2008)

it would be good, but i think it would wreck the wonder and amount of imagination it sparks of with how technology advances so far and then all is lost!


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

donskar said:


> why not novels set in the 10K and 20K period?


Essentially I would say no, because (as a few people have said) it would have almost no relevance whatsoever to 40k, or even 30k really. Theres no Imperium, no Astartes, no Emperor (or at least not publically), next to no Psykers (for most of it), no mass Chaos influence, everything that makes 40k different and unique to other sci-fi settings wouldn't be present. Any other sci-fi setting we are familiar with could well be set in the Dark Age of Technology. Also, I think it would shatter the illusion of the Dark Age of Technology which is present in 40k (which is seen as a mystical golden age, about which next to nothing is known).

For all intents and purposes, as far as humanity in 40k are concerned, human history began with the Unification Wars on Terra.


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Seeing the Dark Age of Technology would dispel too much of the mystery that is the lost past of 40k. Nobody, save the Emperor perhaps, knows what happened during the zenith of technology and thats the way it should be. However the legacy of the Dark Age, lost pieces of technology that could crush entire armies of the most advanced 40k technology on their own would be nice to see more of. The Castigator, the 'Father of Titans', was an awesome idea, and I hope theres more like him.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

There would be one link, and pretty much just that one, to the 40/30k universe and that would be the presence of Eldar and Orks...though of course since Eldar were the dominant race in the Galaxy at that point it wouldn't even be that similar...


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

I think a novel about the Golden Age of the Eldar might not be bad, perhaps even a novel about The War in Heaven. Far-fetched but it could be very cool if written correctly, and by Gav Thorpe.


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## World Eater XII (Dec 12, 2008)

I think a book about the old ones and the necrons wold be quite interesting!


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