Editing MidHammer 40,000 (section)

==Assorted Lore Bits==
===Intro Spiel===
It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries The Emperor has sat on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind by the might of His will, and master of a million worlds by the might of His inexhaustible armies. The Emperor is a fallen hero, his nearly dead body writhes invisibly with power from the Silver Age of Technology as it ever so slowly recovers from the grievous blow dealt to him by his traitorous son. But He is the Lord of the Imperium for whom a million times a million soldiers fight and die, and He knows He will soon lead them once more.

Yet even in his horrendous state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. For all the multitudes of the alien, the mutant, and the heretic, they stand as the indomitable will and bulwark of Mankind - battered, beaten, tarnished and worn, but unbroken, unbowed, and proud.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the hardest and most resolute regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Remember the power of technology and science, for though so much has been forgotten, yet more shall be learned and re-learned. Hold close to your heart the promise of progress and understanding, for in the twinkling dawn of the future there is still hope. There is no true peace amongst the stars, yet it is not all carnage and slaughter. Thirsting gods laugh as they send their minions to work evil, but their laughter is drowned out by the defiant battle cry of the loyal - for the Emperor! His Will be done!

===Chapters, Legions, and the Codex Astartes===
The Codex Astartes still exists in this universe, but, mostly because the Lorgar Letdown wasn't as devastating as the Horus Heresy and there were more primarchs that could oppose Guilliman, it's not universally adopted as in the original 40k.

Basically, after the Lorgar Letdown, a fight breaks out between Horus and Guilliman on how to handle the remaining legions, Guilliman of course stands for his chapters style, Horus instead wants to keep the legions as they were during the Great Crusade. This conflict between the two  primarchs doesn't spark another civil war because Big E, though very weakened by his recent injuries, intervenes to save the day and find a compromise.

Currently in the Imperium Codex Astartes and Legio Astartes coexist with the first ones more suited for planetary scale operations and the second ones for sector-wide offense and defense. Loyalist marines are "split" into these two different ideologies depending on which idea their primarchs supported.

Big question: Legion of the Damned. Does it become the Legion of Martyrs? In this setting, perhaps anyone can get a second chance if you were sufficiently hardy in terms of soul and mind.

===Primarchs===
I would suggest a sort of 'Council of Regents', in which they spend a lot of time on Terra, making sure governance is actually competent. They might be Primarchs, but there are only eight of them, and the Imperium is the size of a galaxy. Sure, on occasion they'll venture out to kick ass or inspect the Imperium, but there are so many threats and only so many Primarchs - even they can't be in multiple places at once.
Alternatively, they could be ruling over Segmentums, taking up about as much time - sure, it's a smaller area of space, but now there's only one Primarch.

Ferrus Manus and Fulgrim are BROS FOR LIFE and go on BRO TRIPS OF PURGING TRAITORS AND HIGH ADVENTURE together.

Fulgrim is A GOOD BOY. Horus is THE BEST BOY.

Sanguinus is fabulous hawk boy. Probably gets hit on by everyone who's brave enough.

===Black Crusades===
I'd say that with Lorgar as Heresiarch and probable Arch-Priest, Black Crusades could be a hella lot more organised to compensate for the increased power of the Imperium?

Yeah. The reason why Black Crusades are kinda disorganized in 40k is cause all the daemon Primarchs fucked off somewhere else and abandoned their Legions, till Abby forcefully knocked some sense into everybody. Lorgar would be a nice catalyst to focus the wrath of the Chaos Legions on a single objective instead of mindlessly tearing each other apart. With the participation of at least one or two other daemon primarchs.

Would the Drop Site Massacre still happen? Would it be that extreme?

Being outnumbered, pulling off something like Isstvan would simultaneously be far more difficult and a practical requirement to even have a chance. Fulgrim obviously doesn't kill Ferrus Manus here, though.
Anyone got any ideas for the Drop Site Massacre?

Maybe they got a shit load of Deamons to help them a bit more. I mean with Lorgar being so devoted to the gods it would be a decent reward for purging the traitor legions of loyalists. Maybe they sacrificed a few planets on the way.

That sounds good! Enough to score a devastating tactical victory, but not enough to put him on par with Horus' tantrum!

The "shitload of Daemons" idea for Isstvan makes sense; having never faced this kind of threat en masse before, Imperials get fucked up.

===Blood Angels===
First, I believe Dante wouldn't suffer half as much, since the "golden warrior" Sanguinius talked about is probably himself, if the prophecy even exists in this version of the story.
Another thing is the black rage wouldn't exist, since the psychic imprint of Sanguinius wouldn't have gotten beaten half to death.
Red thirst would still be a thing, but it wouldn't lead to assholes like the flesh tearers.
Also, no Sanguinalia, so the average imperial worker gets worked to death even on space christmas.
Baal would probably not have been fucked up so badly either so there's that.

Sanguinius' psychic efforts to suppress the Red Thirst  in his Legion has left the Blood Angels Chapter and its successors (Sanguinius having agreed with Roboute) much more stable.

===Space Wolves===
Maybe they are sent to Prospero to arrest Magnus as per Horus Heresy, but the Legion falls to Khorne due to their hatred for psykers and the sheer prominence of psychic energy, with Russ looking on in desperation as his Legion goes berserk and burns everything his Brother built?

The average Space Wolf is somewhere around eight to nine feet tall. The Canis Helix has mutated so extensively that they now resemble upright wolves more than men, with various Chaos-derived scars, body damage, and injured skin, nearly completely coated over by a deep, often heavily manged and matted coat of fur genetically similar to human hair.

Their power armor is fused into their bodies in a varying fashion, having basically grown in (see pic related for a general idea). It is also a living part of them; the canine jaws and lengthy claws of the Space Wolf are lined with ceramite, contributing to their ability to effectively gore enemies to death. Inside, some of their organs- including Astartes implants- have duplicated further, enabling them to sustain lengthy fire from even bolters when combined with their ingrown armor.

The Space Wolf is close to non-sentient. It's lost the ability to speak or otherwise create intelligent vocalization, and is belligerent and hostile in nearly all occasions, but is just intelligent enough to dimly understand and resent how far it has fallen, as well as obey the orders of its dark masters. Their gait is usually quadrupedal, but they may rear up on their human legs much like a bear would.

While the Space Wolves are monstrously powerful, being effectively power armor-lined and Warp-enhanced, they are also rare. Only the original legionaries who fell are left; the Canis Helix, unless somehow integrated into another human, is the key to their specific brand of mutation and corruption, and as such a Lord trying to produce more Wolves will be met with no success. For this reason, the Wolves are highly prized; beaten into compliance, these war-beasts trade hands, only loyal to those they fear or their patron Gods. It is considered quite an accomplishment to have enough to send into battle, but they are well worth it, tearing and ripping through enemy lines while shrugging off ordnance that would bisect a Chaos Marine.

===Eldar===
As for the trader, yes I was thinking Ulthwé... But with a twist. Every trades happen on the neutral ground of Commoragh, after the Dark Eldar had been eradicated/exiled. Such attacks against their kind but before anything make looks the Druchari bad in the eyes of their cousins made Biel'Tan fuckin angry. As such, Vect managed to introduce the way of Commorragh into Craftworld...
Before, Dark Eldar were killing and raiding for fun and necessity. Now, they do for fun and vengeance, seeking to take back their homes and made the humanity crawls at their feet.

Alternatively, about the Dark Eldars:
I feel like a way to make them less edgy would be taking away their need to torture people to survive, make the Dark Eldar just the biggest galactic raiders, smugglers and all-kinds-of-black-market-stuff sellers/buyers.
They raid to steal shit and people just because they're really greedy and selfish fucks.
Some sadist Dark Eldar still exist but they do that shit for fun.

I just pictured grimbright Comorragh as the biggest black market ever with scum from all over the galaxy.

Grimbright Comorragh is a metropolis-sized black market: Radical Inquisitors browsing xenotech to hunt traitors with initiating a market chase scene when they spot some heretek trying to buy archeotech.

What would these "new" dark eldar do to save their souls from Slaanesh? Soulstones also for them is too banal?

They may try to catalyse their thirst to vengeance and the pain they inflict to create a new eldar god like Ynnead ? Grimbright, because, yes, God of pain and vengeance... But also it deprive Slaneesh from a good chunk of his power, ensuring a more of equal fight between the two divinity later ?