# Myth-busting 40k



## Rolz (Oct 28, 2014)

Hello, gentlemen. We all know that 40k lore is a complex subject and a lot of people seem to have a lot of opinions that don't have a lot to do with actual background but are spread nonetheless.
So I've decided to list some of those in my blog along with some actual fluff to clear thing up.
Let me know what you think - maybe I'm wrong somewhere, or something need to be added.

*PART 1*


*Myth #1:* In 40k there's literally nothing but war - refutation
*Myth #2:* In the grim darkness of the far future there is no logic - refutation
*Myth #3:* The 40k wargame accurately represents the fluff of the universe - refutation
*Myth #4:* Human worlds divided during the Age of Strife only started to be unified by the Emperor after the beginning of the Great Crusade - refutation
*Myth #5:* During the Horus Heresy each Astartes Legion chose its side as half of them stayed loyal while the other half sided with Horus - refutation
*Myth #6:* After the last duel with Horus and ascension to a Golden Throne, the Emperor never contacted the outside world - refutation
*Myth #7: *Warhammer 40000 timeline ends at 999.M41 - refutation
*Myth #8:* 40k is set in our Milky Way galaxy - refutation
*Myth #9:* Space battles are fought at the distances of kilometers - refutation
*Myth #10:* All 40k spaceships are extremely big - refutation
*Myth #11:* All Space Hulks are inhabited by Genestealers - refutation
*Myth #12:* Warp-travel is the same as hyperdrive - refutation
*Myth #13: *Machine Spirit is the same as AI/Machine Spirit doesn't exist - refutation
*Myth #14:* All technology in the Imperium is based on STC and has its roots in the Dark Age of Technology - refutation
*Myth #15:* Lasgun is an ineffective weapon, unable to inflict real damage - refutation
*Myth #16:* Boltguns use caseless ammunition - refutation
*Myth #17:* Hive-cities only exist on Hive Worlds - refutation
*Myth #18: *Abhuman means Ogryn or Ratling - refutation
*Myth #19:* Squat race was cut from the fluff - refutation
*Myth #20:* Mutant equals Chaos - refutation
*Myth #21:* Humanity is divided to Imperials and followers of Chaos - refutation
*Myth #22: *Canon of Warhammer 40000 universe is set in stone - refutation

*PART 2*


*Myth #23:* Imperium is a united and solid human empire - refutation
*Myth #24: *Imperium controls most of the galaxy - refutation
*Myth #25:* Adeptus Terra are present on each and every one of the imperial worlds, and each totally controls a certain aspect of life in the Imperium - refutation
*Myth #26:* Imperium doesn't colonise new worlds, just loses old ones - refutation
*Myth #27:* Mechanicus are just an Adeptus and forge worlds are just heavily industrialised imperial planets - refutation
*Myth #28:* Adeptus Mechanicus do not understand the tech they produce and can only remake the technology of old - refutation
*Myth #29:* All tech in Imperium is produced on forge worlds and is attended to by Mechanicus - refutation
*Myth #30:* Collegia Titanica only includes Titans - refutation
*Myth #31:* Imperial Guard is the most numerous, but the most ill-trained and equipped military organisation in the Imperium - refutation
*Myth #32:* Astartes Chapters are required to follow the tenets of Codex Astartes - refutation
*Myth #33:* Astartes Chapters wage war like a regular army does - refutation
*Myth #34:* Astartes worship the Emperor like a god - refutation
*Myth #35:* Imperial Creed is a strict religion, and smallest deviations from it's teachings are routinely branded as heresy - refutation
*Myth #36:* All Adepta Sorroritas are Sisters of Battle - refutation
*Myth #37:* Inquisition is a united organisation - refutation
*Myth #38:* Inquisition is divided into three Ordoses - refutation
*Myth #39: *Exterminatus can only be declared by Inquisition - refutation
*Myth #40: *Adeptus Arbites is the primary police of the Imperium - refutation
*Myth #41:* All people in the Imperium live in a horrifying tyranny - refutation
*Myth #42:* 40k-era humans beleve in the ideals of 21st century - refutation
*Myth #43:* Everybody in the Imperium speaks the same language known as Low Gothic - refutation
*Myth #44:* Imperial Adeptus X has more authority then the Adeptus Y - refutation
*Myth #45:* There were never any traitors among Adeptus X - refutation
*Myth #46:* Imperium never holds negotiations with xenos races - refutation

*UPD* So the third part is finished, check it out:

*PART 3*


*Myth #48:* Orks are a race - refutation
*Myth #49:* Orkoids are intellectually and/or technologically inferior to other races - refutation
*Myth #50:* All ork tech and weapons are constructed in mekboys' workshops - refutation
*Myth #51:* Ork tech only works because orks believe it should - refutation
*Myth #52:* All orks prefer red colour to any other - refutation
*Myth #53:* Orks don't use navigation when making Warp-jumps - refutation
*Myth #54:* Orks are immune to the influence of Chaos and genestealer cults - refutation
*Myth #55:* Only tactic Tyranids use is zerg rush - refutation
*Myth #56:* Kroot race is fully integrated into Tau Empire - refutation
*Myth #57:* Tau is one of the major races - refutation
*Myth #58:* Philosophy of Greater Good is analogous to communism - refutation
*Myth #59:* All Tau are pheromone-controlled by Ethereals - refutation
*Myth #60:* Many Aspects and other eldar war formations only consist of members of a single sex - refutation
*Myth #61:* The only reason Imperium can't have peace with tau and eldar it it's own unjustified xenophobia - refutation
*Myth #62:* Dark eldar are a twisted version of Craftworlders - refutation
*Myth #63:* Commoragh is a single city in a specific location in the Webway - refutation
*Myth #64:* All Dark Gods' efforts are devoted to corrupting and destroying mortals - refutation
*Myth #65:* Chaos equals evil - refutation
*Myth #66:* Slaanesh is just a god of lust - refutation
*Myth #67:* Nurgle is just a god of diseases - refutation
*Myth #68:* All Khorne worshipers prefer close combat - refutation
*Myth #69:* All Tzeentch worshipers are sorcerers - refutation
*Myth #70:* First instance of Zombie Plague happened in Time of Ending due to Typhus efforts - refutation
*Myth #71:* All Chaos Space Marines are ten thousand years old - refutation
*Myth #72:* Chaos Astartes Legions still exist unchanged in M41 - refutation
*Myth #73:* Chaos Astartes dominate the Eye of Terror - refutation
*Myth #74:* All Chaos forces are based in Warp-anomalies - refutation
*Myth #75:* Possessed, Daemon Princes and Obliterators are all former Chaos Space Marines - refutation


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## COMPNOR (Apr 21, 2010)

I can't say I follow every WH40K forum, but I don't think I've ever heard any of those things as myths. Like who really thinks Myth 32 is real? And Myth 11, I've never thought that each and every single Space Hulk contains genestealers.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

I'm writing this as I read your list...

Myth #4 is largely correct. The Forge Worlds seeded by the Mechanicus WERE lost during the Age of Strife. The Mechanicus fleets were sent out whenever pockets opened up during the Warp Storm...but contact was inevitably lost when the Warp Storms reemerged. 

The Great Crusade reestablished contact with many lost Forge Worlds. M'Pandex would be an example.

Myth #10 isn't wrong...since not all ships are large. But you have to keep in mind that _large_ is relative. Even a fury fighter is some 70 meters long.

The Rogue Trader Core Rulebook states the Vagabond-class merchant trader is a "common....small, multi-purpose merchant vessel". It's a modest 2000 meters with a crew of 18,000.

The smallest of ships used listed in the book, used by "corsairs and pirates", are at least 1.5 kilometers long with a crew of 22,000.

Are all ships gigantic monstrosities? Of course not, as you have said.

But even WH40k frigates are one and a half times the length of a Star Destroyer.

Myth #13...I haven't seen direct evidence that what the Mechanicus understand as a Machine Spirit is in fact somehow some latent psychic force.

We know that with the aid of a psyker some things can be drawn out of an item...but that's very much different than the Machine Spirit being psychic in nature. Do you have some sources for this?

Myth #22

I'm not sure if there's a real canon policy. I shudder if I think some of Goto's stuff was ever considered canon.

Likewise, somethings happen in books and most of us shrug our shoulders and pretend it didn't happen. (Like a lot of McNeil's stuff.)

We don't have a real canon system. Just stuff we find that gets less contradicted than others. 

On a side note, (at least before its purchase by Disney) there was an easy canon distinction for Star Wars: The movies (which are canon) and everything else (EU books, comics, games, ect. weren't) Lucas has said at least twice, very clearly, that the EU had nothing to do with "his" universe. It was a, to use his own word, parallel universe to his own canon-movie Universe.

Myth #26

Where did you get the information the Imperium conquers more worlds more than it colonizes? I don't have proof either way, but I'd like to see the source that states it one way or another.

Most of the other stuff seemed reasonable enough. Though I'm surprised some of these "myths" are believed at all...

But God knows how many people have died looking for Nessy and Big Foot, so who knows?


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## locustgate (Dec 6, 2009)

hailene said:


> Most of the other stuff seemed reasonable enough. Though I'm surprised some of these "myths" are believed at all...
> 
> But God knows how many people have died looking for Nessy and Big Foot, so who knows?


Well people are.....they.......fuck it people are retarded and belive any damn near brain dead conspiracy theory someone craps out. i.e. recently learned of a myth that medieval weapons were all blunt.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Talking of which what has happened to *voice drops to a whisper* L... *changes mind and mouths out the letters* L... U...X...


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

Seems a pretty pointless list. Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of the 40k background would not think of a lot of those things to be true.


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## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

Yeah, I wound say the vast majority of that list aren't myths that anyone believes, and the ones that are, are misconceptions more than myths or just things you wouldn't know if you only had a passing interest, such as the Inquisition only having three branches.


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

cool stuff. altough i agree that many of those "myths" are just easily removed from a journey trough a wiki and not so widespread


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## locustgate (Dec 6, 2009)

Vaz said:


> Talking of which what has happened to *voice drops to a whisper* L... *changes mind and mouths out the letters* L... U...X...



NOOOOoooooo! You have damned us all! You have called the mad goddess woa unto the forums! Nier llahs ssendam fo sraey dnasouht a!


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## Rolz (Oct 28, 2014)

These refutations are mainly written for people who are not too familiar with the lore, so veterans are unlikely to find something new, really.
But I've heard most of those assumed to be true, so I felt that there is a target audience for this. Oh well.

*2 hailene*

_Myth #4 is largely correct. The Forge Worlds seeded by the Mechanicus WERE lost during the Age of Strife. The Mechanicus fleets were sent out whenever pockets opened up during the Warp Storm...but contact was inevitably lost when the Warp Storms reemerged._
Year, I should probably rephrase this one to make it more clear.

_Myth #10 isn't wrong...since not all ships are large.
The Rogue Trader Core Rulebook states the Vagabond-class merchant trader is a "common....small, multi-purpose merchant vessel". It's a modest 2000 meters with a crew of 18,000._
Small for a warp-capable craft, sure. It's no surprise the book doesn't describe small inter-system craft since there are no great adventures to be had around a single star.
But the same book lists a lot of smaller vessels, even if it doesn't give their measurements:









_Myth #13...I haven't seen direct evidence that what the Mechanicus understand as a Machine Spirit is in fact somehow some latent psychic force.
We know that with the aid of a psyker some things can be drawn out of an item...but that's very much different than the Machine Spirit being psychic in nature. Do you have some sources for this?_
Unfortunately, all I have is too many sources, all of which only leave hints, which I put into a single picture. In other words, this refutation is just an opinion that I got after years of fluff-reading. The matter is never explained in detail, and this is only explanation I find compatible with all canon regarding the topic. Fell free to point out the inconsistencies.

_Myth #22 I'm not sure if there's a real canon policy.
Likewise, somethings happen in books and most of us shrug our shoulders and pretend it didn't happen. (Like a lot of McNeil's stuff.)
We don't have a real canon system. Just stuff we find that gets less contradicted than others. _
Yep, that's pretty much sums up my position too.
SW is much more organised when the canon levels are considered.

_Myth #26 Where did you get the information the Imperium conquers more worlds more than it colonizes? I don't have proof either way, but I'd like to see the source that states it one way or another._
This one is not really lore-supported I'm afraid. Obviously, conquests are described much more ofthen than colonisations, but, admittedly, that doesn't mean much. Maybe I better correct this one.

Overall - thanks, that was helpful.


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Rolz said:


> Small for a warp-capable craft, sure. It's no surprise the book doesn't describe small inter-system craft since there are no great adventures to be had around a single star.
> But the same book lists a lot of smaller vessels, even if it doesn't give their measurements:


Still hard to get a real measure of what an intra-planetary ship's size would be.

I don't think there's enough support either way to refute or support the myth. Much like a couple of the other refutations I brought up...just not enough support to say aye or nay.

You're heading into dangerous territory when you make a myth-busting list on shaky support. Potentially this could create new myths through the fandom.

It's fine to say these are theories (or even theories supported by some of the fluff), but to give them the authority of a "myth-buster" may be a bit premature.

My two credits, anyway.


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## Rolz (Oct 28, 2014)

That's a good point, year. Perhaps I should tread more carefully. k:


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## NT8 (Mar 4, 2015)

> It should be noted that Imperium does exist in the state of technological stagnation, but it is not due to the lack of innovation, but due to the way tech-priests value knowledge they possess, which generates the atmosphere of total secrecy, in which those innovations are jealously guarded from the curious eyes and rarely enter the stage of mass-production.


I'm not sure if that is completely true. The Law of the Divine Complexity for instance claims that alteration of technology to be outright tech-heresy. It's obviously not an inviolate rule, but it does hold sway to the point that innovation from anyone but trusted high-ranking priests is heavily repressed.


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## Rolz (Oct 28, 2014)

*UPD* So the third part is finished, check it out:

*PART 3*


*Myth #48:* Orks are a race - refutation
*Myth #49:* Orkoids are intellectually and/or technologically inferior to other races - refutation
*Myth #50:* All ork tech and weapons are constructed in mekboys' workshops - refutation
*Myth #51:* Ork tech only works because orks believe it should - refutation
*Myth #52:* All orks prefer red colour to any other - refutation
*Myth #53:* Orks don't use navigation when making Warp-jumps - refutation
*Myth #54:* Orks are immune to the influence of Chaos and genestealer cults - refutation
*Myth #55:* Only tactic Tyranids use is zerg rush - refutation
*Myth #56:* Kroot race is fully integrated into Tau Empire - refutation
*Myth #57:* Tau is one of the major races - refutation
*Myth #58:* Philosophy of Greater Good is analogous to communism - refutation
*Myth #59:* All Tau are pheromone-controlled by Ethereals - refutation
*Myth #60:* Many Aspects and other eldar war formations only consist of members of a single sex - refutation
*Myth #61:* The only reason Imperium can't have peace with tau and eldar it it's own unjustified xenophobia - refutation
*Myth #62:* Dark eldar are a twisted version of Craftworlders - refutation
*Myth #63:* Commoragh is a single city in a specific location in the Webway - refutation
*Myth #64:* All Dark Gods' efforts are devoted to corrupting and destroying mortals - refutation
*Myth #65:* Chaos equals evil - refutation
*Myth #66:* Slaanesh is just a god of lust - refutation
*Myth #67:* Nurgle is just a god of diseases - refutation
*Myth #68:* All Khorne worshipers prefer close combat - refutation
*Myth #69:* All Tzeentch worshipers are sorcerers - refutation
*Myth #70:* First instance of Zombie Plague happened in Time of Ending due to Typhus efforts - refutation
*Myth #71:* All Chaos Space Marines are ten thousand years old - refutation
*Myth #72:* Chaos Astartes Legions still exist unchanged in M41 - refutation
*Myth #73:* Chaos Astartes dominate the Eye of Terror - refutation
*Myth #74:* All Chaos forces are based in Warp-anomalies - refutation
*Myth #75:* Possessed, Daemon Princes and Obliterators are all former Chaos Space Marines - refutation


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

Find myself disagreeing with your thoughts on myth 72, that the traitor legions of the present no longer retain the organization and formations of the Heresy era. What about the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion at large?

There are going to be warbands comprising of members from those legions, but by and large each one retains their original structure. (Or in the case of the Alpha Legion their relative lack of a distinct structure.)


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## Rolz (Oct 28, 2014)

I've never said that all of the inner structure was dismantled. Still, the organisation enforced by Chaos Lords seems more prevalent than the Legion structure, thus, for example, the major differences between 30k Legion army list and the one in CSM codex.


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## venomlust (Feb 9, 2010)

> Myth #51: Ork tech only works because orks believe it should
> Lore: This widespread misconception attempting to make greenskins into some form of psychic-only creatures is based on a in-universe (i.e. biased) piece of fluff and has no confirmation from an objective standpoint. Said piece of fluff was only written to show how strange and incomprehensible to the human mind some xenos tech might be, and how even the greatest scholars often find it impossible to understand its workings. It's important to understand that despite often looking like a bunch of crude scrap bolted together, ork tech frequently involves the use of complex technical knowledge that makes it perform way above expectations.


I see and hear people explain Ork tech this way quite often, and always thought it was a pretty dumb explanation. I'm glad there's more to it.


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## Rolz (Oct 28, 2014)

A matter of interpretation, of course, but I've always found this point of view to be under-represented.


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## Gabriel Chase (Dec 7, 2015)

Your pages on myth-busting definitely make for interesting reading, but you don't give any sources to your refutations. I realise that might take up too much time and effort, but I would consider it necessary - otherwise you end up with questions like "What's your source for that?"

Take, for example, the Emperor contacting people after his dying body takes the Throne to sit there for 10,000 years: what books/codices/etc. show him contacting those people you name? I'd really like to know!


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## Rolz (Oct 28, 2014)

Yea, I didn't really think about it from the start and it would take too long now I guess

You can read about contact with the Emperor in the Imperial Armour - Siege of Vraks (Inquisitor Rex lore to be specific) and in the old Inquisition War trilogy


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## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

I think rather than proceeding, going back and linking sources to your statements would be good. Having multiple sources per entry would be ideal as well.

Heck, I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of...shading on some of the points where one source says one thing and another source something totally different. The WH40k universe is complicated and that's why there's so much confusion in the fanbase.

But to repeat myself, having a hyperlink to a source would be great. Otherwise the information isn't as credible...except to those who already know the information but what's the point of myth-busting if it only applies to those who already know it?


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