Diving into anything related to Warhammer 40K can be scary, and upon first launching Fatshark’s latest horde shooter you might find yourself coming back to the same questions with no real answers for them. If you find yourself asking questions like: “What is the Astra Militarum?” “Where am I?” Why is everything a church?” “Who are these zombie-like creatures?”, and “Why does everything have a skull on it?” Then this is the article for you. In this overview of Warhammer Lore, we’ll be going over the Who, What, Where, When and Why of Warhammer 40K: Darktide to help you better understand the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium.
Warhammer 40K: Darktide was released by Fatshark in late 2022. Click here for my initial impression after playing the game for the first time!
Who are you?
First off, we need to know who, namely, who are you? No matter what class you play in Darktide, you’ll start off as a convicted criminal in the Imperium of Man. The Imperium is the main human faction in the setting: A fascistic, warmongering, religious government that enforces worship of the Emperor of Mankind . Now, you might be saying, “Hey, those guys sound kind of bad”.
Correct. Throughout playing Darktide, almost every session will probably make you say a variation of this famous line when you’re first starting out. As a convicted criminal, you are on a prison ship waiting to meet the “Emperor’s Justice”, meaning probably a summary execution or forced to work in a labor camp for the rest of your short life. However, fate would not have that. After your ship is boarded by filthy unbelievers, you are drafted into the service of the Inquisition. Imagine the Spanish Inquisition of old’s religious zeal, right? Now mix that with the cold-blooded nature and job of every secret police task force throughout history. Organizations like The SS, the KGB, the CIA, etc. It is now up to you to prove your worth to the Inquisition and become a trusted ally in the fight against the enemies of mankind.
What will you be fighting?
But what will you be fighting while you work to prove yourself? Well, that will be the forces of the Moebian 6th and the Chaos god Nurgle. See, in Warhammer, gods aren’t just real beings. They’re real beings who can influence the minds of lesser beings and even effect the physical realm. In 40k, praying to Satan and talking to ghosts doesn’t just make the Ouija board move. In 40k, he hops in his car, drives over to your place and crashes on your couch. The Moebian 6th have called up Nurgle, the Chaos god of disease, pestilence and rot. In return, Nurgle has “blessed” them with his signature mix of diseases and rot. This results in hordes of undead servants to the plague god running amok throughout the streets.
Where are you?
Your chosen battlefield is the Hive City of Tertium. Located on the planet of Atoma Prime, Hive Tertium is a continent-sized city home to a whopping 96 billion souls. It also happens to be the heart of weapons manufacturing for an entire sector, meaning its strategic importance is not to be underestimated. Supplying the every-hungry Imperial war machine is no easy feat on the best of days, and you’ll be working to restore order to Tertium through clinical strikes at the heart of traitorous operations.
When does this take place?
The answer to this Warhammer Lore question is quite simple. Warhammer 40k takes place in the year 40K, or at least somewhere around then; no one really knows the exact date. After 10,000 years of superstition and technological stagnation following a great civil war known as the Horus Heresy, the Imperium has devolved into what you see before you. A bloated, fascistic, religious institution where lives are expended like bullets and your worth is measured by your raw productivity. Have fun!
Why are we doing this?
This one is also simple: The filthy unbelievers must be purged, as they have strayed from the Holy Emperor’s light. While, admittedly, Chaos worshipping cults such as the Moebian 6th are on the higher tier of threat level, the Imperium obsessively puts down any dissenters, heretics or alien life found within its borders. Adding onto the threat of Chaos is the threat of the Inquisition themselves. All Inquisitors hold the authority to destroy an entire planet if they deem the cost too hefty to retake it. This means that you aren’t only fighting to save Atoma from the forces of Chaos, but also your own organization.
Warhammer lore is a deep rabbit hole of tons of characters, several opposing factions, sub-factions within those factions and nearly 20,000 years of history. However, Darktide’s barebones story and tight focus on only Chaos and the Imperium actually help it in being a good jumping off point for the series. The dialogue, weapons and item descriptions all help new people have an idea of the world they’re in. And, if normal humans end up not striking your fancy, there’s always the other games and books to dive into (I personally recommend the game Mechanicus). Regardless, I hope this article helped you find your footing in the 41st millennium and inspired you to dive even deeper into the depths of 40k with me. So, prime your lasgun, say a prayer to the Emperor, and get out there, soldier.
