"fun" in the 40k universe

[wittdooley]

There's a ton of getting smashed in the Horus Heresy novels. Tons.

[geisthammer]

thanks duke, It did go off the subject quite a bit.

[Valkerie]

Looks like my original comment got moved to another thread. Fair enough, it had a lot of irrelevant bits in it.

The relevant bits: The Sisters of Battle, (along with the witchhunters in general), probably enjoy a good witch burning bonfire.

I imagine that they enjoy showing heretics the error of their ways and guiding them on the path to redemption in the Emperor's Light. (Of course, once they're redeemed, they'll be shot to keep them from backsliding.)

When cleansing a town of heresy, they probably have sing-a-longs of hymnns to the Emperor to keep their spirits up and drown out the curses of the heretics.

And after that, they probably quaff ceremonial wine to soothe their sore throats. After all, destroying heresy is hard work, and promethium fumes are hard on the throat and lungs.

[Grailkeeper]

I should add there is mention in some of the Gaunts ghosts books, and ciaphas cain books of pornography being distributed between guardsmen

[darthrex354]

is that heresy?

[Fellend]

Anything that promotes the creation of more soldiers for the Emperor's Army must be good right?

[JxKxR]

Anything that promotes the creation of more soldiers for the Emperor's Army must be good right?

You can't procreate with a magazine... thank god.

[Fellend]

Well I promote as make commercial for it.
I'm sure that Imperial porn comes with suggestions for the best ways to make twins "Twice as many soldiers, half the wait!" and ...well for eventual childrens sake let's just say that they probably finish in a more "effective" way than in modern porn

[Kawauso]

Well I promote as make commercial for it.
I'm sure that Imperial porn comes with suggestions for the best ways to make twins "Twice as many soldiers, half the wait!" and ...well for eventual childrens sake let's just say that they probably finish in a more "effective" way than in modern porn

You don't need to encourage human beings to reproduce. It's something we're very good at doing. :P
I don't think the Imperium has to worry about campaigning people to start families in the interest of meeting planetary tithes for IG regiments.



Back on topic, though, I'd imagine that Imperial citizens would have access to pretty much any form of recreation we have now. And the vast majority of Imperial society is not at war, remember. The whole "there is only war thing" doesn't mean there is only war everywhere 100% of the time. Like people in this thread have mentioned previously, most Imperial planets are not exposed to conflict at any given time. The Imperium is just so damn big that, yes, there is always a war going on somewhere. It's a whole galaxy (mostly), for crying out loud!

Marines don't have a lot of downtime, it would seem (I think I remember seeing a mock-up of a fortress-monastery's daily schedule); they have about 1 hour of time to themselves per day. The rest of the time they're doing combat drills, prayers, briefings, debriefings, equipment maintenance, etc. Recreational time is viewed as potentially harmful; idle hands are the Dark Gods' workshop, after all. That and, due to their modifications and training, marines can actually afford to forgo leisure. When they do have spare time, as has been suggested, they do typical monk/ascetic things. Usually high art stuff like poetry or sculpting - the Blood Angels are renowned artists, etc. Marines represent, I think, the one example in the Imperium where a group of people are almost always fighting, though. Their whole existence is actually dedicated to war, and when they're not fighting they're usually practicing.

SoB I think would be similar to Marines, but with more downtime. They're only human, after all. Zealous religious militants have to have fun like everyone else.

The Mechanicum is kind of tricky...Most of the non-servitor Mechanicum personnel are probably menials or assistants...so they would more or less be like average people, I suppose. Actual members of the Priesthood...I think that would vary greatly, depending on how much of their humanity they retain. Obviously the more devoted/insanely augmented they are, I think the more time they would spend doing 'research' and prayer and other things that most normal people wouldn't consider 'downtime'.

Tau, I'm not sure really. Never fathom the xenos mind. Nah, I just don't know enough about their background to say. :P I'm sure they have games and whatnot, though. Plus they have a diverse, multi-ethnic empire that includes Kroot, Vespids, Humans and the like - all of whom probably have their own recreational activities. I'm sure Tau cities have very exotic and diverse forms of entertainment available to the masses. Even space communists have to have fun.

Tyranids...I dunno. I guess for the most part, they're like animals, right? I mean, aside from the highly-intelligent synapse creatures... I imagine they would play-fight, eat, sleep, procreate, etc. like any animal. Zoanthropes probably sleep a lot, as it's suggested they're couch potatoes both by their withered bodies and because they have to conserve their psychic energy. Maybe Warriors and Hive Tyrants (and some of the other synapse guys) play some sort of psychic mind-games when they have the chance? Or play tricks on the lesser sub-species for ****s and giggles? Not a lot of downtime though; if you're not swarming a world, you're probably being rendered down into biomass after -having- overwhelmed a planet's defenses. And when they're traveling between planets or systems they're dormant on the hive ships. Downtime is probably only really available to splinter fleet groups that are stranded. They're bred for war, after all.

Orks fight. And build. And probably do stupid stunts their friends talked them into. But mostly fight. Their physiology and psychology revolve around it.

Eldar I would imagine are somewhat like Marines; pretty high-brow for the most part. They obviously take art seriously, and I could see them watching plays or operas and the like; Harlequins put on crazy interpretive dances for everyone wherever they stay, after all. But yeah, I'd imagine Eldar of course have fun, just in a typically reserved fashion.

Dark Eldar...come on. We know what they do: whatever they want. They're the ultimate hedonists. If it feels good, they do it.
That being said, I think a lot of people view them as being a little too insane, cranked-to-11 all the time. :P Of course they do lots of terrible, insane things, but I bet the majority of their downtime is spent doing (relatively) mundane things; drinking/gambling with friends, playing games, watching Wyches do their thing in the arenas, etc. I bet Hellions and the like get up to a lot of vandalism, mugging and other shenanigans (they're street gangs, after all). Archons and their entourage are probably the ones doing most of the crazy perverse nonsense in their spare time most often. They can afford to, after all. Incubi are dedicated warriors, so I bet that they actually spend a lot of time like Marines doing things that focus their warrior spirit etc. etc. Haemonculae no doubt tinker with all manner of mad experiments in their labs most of the time. But yeah...I'm willing to bet the average citizen of Commoragh spends -most- of their downtime doing things that aren't as insane as the Dark Eldar's trademark depravity.

Followers of Chaos I imagine would behave largely like the Dark Eldar in their downtime. They can't be insane all the time; no society functions like that. And yes, though their alliances and organizations are usually mercurial and schizophrenic, they do function as a society most of the time. But yeah...I would imagine mostly like Dark Eldar in terms of it always being 'Do What You Feel Day'.

Necrons: I don't think these guys have much fun.
Most of them have lost their personalities, anyway...I bet the lords are pretty bored/lonely a lot of the time...I could see a number of them being driven insane. I guess we might have to wait for a new codex to see more of what makes these guys tick.

[imperialsavant]

Well just a short list:

Joygirls , Jolliq, Amasac, Iho Sticks, Flecks--if you want to go on the Dark Side! , Regicide--sort of like 3D Chess or the game played in Star Trek.
Carnivals, Gladiator sports etc, Hunting & LOTs of Religious Festivals which often seem to get wildly out of hand.