The end times...whats ending?

[Levitas]

Get your end is nigh placard ready folks.

5th is filled with 'the end is nigh' mentality. But where is GW taking this with both the game and fluff? Will they kill off the emperor and spin in a whole new direction? Will they end 40k for good and launch a whole new game? Whats the hidden meaning...?

Its even in the new SW dex, lil snippet before the battles section taliking of the wolves being in more and more conflicts.

Will they do a final edition complete with the return of the primarchs? Those not officially dead anyways.

[Grotzooka]

They sure could take this somewhere insane, but I sure hope they don't. Advance the storyline, sure, but PLEASE don't bring the Primarchs back, PLEASE don't kill the Emperor, and PLEASE don't make this whole game a huge plot revolving around the Old Ones, because I think they've done enough, don't you?

[person person]

The13th Black Crusade, Cypher and his Emperor killing sword, Hive Fleet Leviathan making its way to Terra, the Void Dragon, The Throne itself is breaking down. You'd think the Emperor would die.

But I doubt it. I wish they did so the Imperium could just break from the shackles. But some of the new fluff says if the Emperor died all of humanity would die. There's always the "Starchild" theory though.

[eldargal]

Better to drop hints and keep things vague rather than have some kind of galaxy-shattering event which 'changes everything'.

[DarkLink]

Yeah, I doubt GW will ever finish the story. They've strung everyone along for, what, 20+ years so far. How do you play a game when all the armies are either wiped out or everyone becomes friendly with each other?

[Nabterayl]

If anything I've noticed that they're answering less these days. Anybody notice that the updated codices seem increasingly vague on details? Who remembers ork weapons working because the orks believed they did? Anybody notice what that turned into in the ork codex?

[Levitas]

I think they are upto something. The existing material has been around for years, and I got a little bored reading the new rule book and dexes.

Lets look at this way. Say the game original came out and covered 30K. You had primarchs and legions you could actually play. The rule book was all about the great crusade. Then... next edition they drop the bombshell of the heresy, injecting the world with a whole new spin. Imagine finding out your loyal deathguard had gone traitor? It would be cool, give the writers lots of material and the sculptors tons of new minis.

Now we didn't get that, just tales of the heresy and novels to get a closer look. But...

What if GW did something similar? You can just see the rule book having a broken aquilla on it, and artwork of the throne failing. Space marines abandoning the codex to fight desperate battles, squads thrown together etc. It would effect all the books and inject some much needed life and variety. Other wise next SM codex we get.."oh and this sections about the heresy - skip -'

What we are getting is watered down material in all the new dexes. The original Rogue Trader was brimming with imagination. 5th is good system, and the black library is doing a fine job of covering stuff...we already know about.

Bring the 40K apocalypse GW...before I fall asleep.

[entendre_entendre]

i think the problem with "ending" 40k would be that GW would lose it's main source of revenue. 40k is their biggest seller, and if some fans were pissed at the conclusion, they would leave and not return, cutting GW's profit's. i think one of the reasons why GW doesn't end 40k is that to do so would be financial suicide.

also, if times "ended", things would need to die, i.e. certain factions. imagine how pissed a tau player would be if they got eaten by the tyranids. or all the craftworld eldar die, creating Ynnead (sp?) who wants to destroy Slaanesh. in order to fight Ynnead, Slaanesh eats all the Dark Eldar. Slaanesh wins. now you've got no Tau, eldar, or dark eldar. or if Ynnead wins, you've still got no Tau, Eldar, or Dark Eldar, and now no Slaanesh. how do you think players of these factions would respond to their faction being wiped out? they'd probably be really F*ck!ng mad. this another reason the times simply don't "end".

i mean how angry would you be if the Space Wolves were simply written out of 40k b/c Fenris was overrun by a bunch Daemons (or something like this), and the scattered survivors were driven deep into the curse of the Wulfen, leaving them to wander to galaxy as a bunch of feral wolves?

also, if it ends quickly, the more likely the chance that GW will F*ck up the ending by trying to end all the plot points. it'd be like watching the most awesome movie ever, then in the last 3 minutes trying to explain everything, and end with "they all die". basically, that'd be the ending of 40k if they rushed it.
the 40k universe is exactly that, a universe. concluding a universe is no small task. just look how much work went/is going into the horus heresy series. now imagine that x100. basically, that's how much work it'd take to explain the end of 40k if they did a good job.

player backlash and money are two reasons why 40k doesn't end. now they could release a "sequel" game set long after 40k (warhammer 50/60k maybe?), so certain races would have time to die out/evolve, and could take place after the end of 40k, but not end 40k itself (it would take some clever writing, but it could be done). of course, this assumes the tyranids and necrons don't kill and/or eat everything...

[Melissia]

Nowhere. For good or ill, GW won't do what White Wolf did and actually end it.

[Kahoolin]

I gotta go with nowhere as well.

I just kind of assumed it's just a story set in an ominous near apocalypse. It's not actually meant to go anywhere. What some people seem to be reading as a progression of things getting worse for the galaxy over editions I'm just seeing as an exaggeration of what the story already was. The Imperium was always beset on all sides and fighting a losing battle, even in RT. They just have better writers now who make it more emotive and clear.