First Edition vs. Modern 40K

[b1soul]

What are the major fluff differences between then and now?

 

Would appreciate it if any of you hobby veterans could list the key differences.

[Noserenda]

When in first Edition? The fluff evolved pretty rapidly throughout 1st from Rogue Trader only being a loose sketch of the Imperium we recognise to basically everything being in place (Bar the Necrons/Tau) by late 1st/2nd ed. 

[The Yncarne]

Off the top of my head with poor memory cells

 

1. The Horus Heresy
2. Death Wing origin
3. Ultramarines origin
4. Eldar moving from pirate raiders to craftworlds
5. Orks being semi-intelligent fungus (that has been dropped, right?)
6. The Old Ones
7. The Emperor and Sensei
8. The possible connection between WFHB and 40K being the same setting
9. The absence of Tau, Dark Eldar, Necrons, Kroot etc.
10. The dating/calendar system and "real world" analogs in WD articles
11. The Imperial Army -> Imperial Guard -> whatever it is today

I'm sure I'm missing tons.

[Karhedron]

Space Marines were basically just killers on steroids. Primarchs did not exist at first, Leman Russ was a normal human (although he was instrumental in founding the Space Wolves).

 

The basic outlines of the setting were familiar but much of the detail was missing or has since been changed.

 

Squats!

[The Yncarne]

I seem to recall the Space Wolves home planet was called Lucan too, not Fenris.

[Valkia the Bloody]

Do yourself a favour and read the novel Space Marine.

It is quite a good book but VERY different to what Space Marines are today.

I am glad I have read it because I really enjoyed myself.

So no spoilers from me. :p

[Cactus]

The fungus orks concept came with Gorkamorka in the late 90s. "Waaagh! The Orks" is the relevant book from 1st edition and, IIRC, described them having marsupial-like pouches. Old orks would leave their tribe and give birth in remote places to wildboyz, technologically unsophisticated but keen bashers of heads. They would gravitate to a nearby tribe where they learned proper orkish kultur and the cycle continues.

[alfred_the_great]

I think, perhaps, the question might be

 

"What's the same?"

[MegaVolt87]

Space Marines were more like the Terran Marines in starcraft in the early days I think. I wish we had new solar auxillia in plastics for 40k to capture that lol. Solar aux version of an invictor style walker for example would be sweet etc.

[Beta galactosidase]

The thing you should be aware of most is that all the chapters, together, were called the Legiones Astartes.  The biggest formation they came in was the 1000 marine chapters we know about now, there weren't any distinct legions, but they were "the emperor's legions" and marines were called legionnaires / treacher legionnaires.  Always chapters, 20 first founding chapters and half of them rebelled, and the collective term for all those loyal and traitor chapters was legions.

 

 

 

 

 

Space Marines were basically just killers on steroids.

 

This isn't true. The space marine organs article that is still being reprinted was published five months after Rogue Trader.  For almost all of the six years before second edition marines were the same as they are today in 2020.  The same biologically, anyway.

 

 

 

 

Space Marines were more like the Terran Marines in starcraft in the early days I think.

 

same answer
 

[b1soul]

@ Noserenda

 

Early First...the one in which primarchs are not primarchs

[Lord_Caerolion]

The Emperor was routinely able to communicate with others. 

[Slave to Darkness]

Do yourself a favour and read the novel Space Marine.

It is quite a good book but VERY different to what Space Marines are today.

I am glad I have read it because I really enjoyed myself.

So no spoilers from me.

^^ This, and the Inquisition omnibus, best books I have ever read imho. 

[Snazzy]

@ Noserenda

 

Early First...the one in which primarchs are not primarchs

 

If limited to just the RT basic rule book, Lion El'Jonson was the "founder Lyyn Elgonsen" of the Dark Angels, and spelled differently (my copy is in the basement).

 

There was no record of the building of the Imperium prior to the Great Crusade.

 

Space Marine religion was similar to that of the larger Imperium.

 

The Rainbow Warriors existing.

 

Lots of differences in Space Marine badges, markings and iconography.  Chaplains didn't have skull masks, just all black paint schemes.  Apothecaries were Field Medics, and Space Marines had Field Police... the Flesh Tearers had an all black with yellow rivets paint scheme.

 

Genestealers were not part of the Tyrannids.

 

The nature of the Eye of Terror was very different.

 

Special shoutout to the Flesh Eaters for existing, then not existing until 5th edition.

[mughi3]

Well considering most of the hard lore wasn't finalized until we got to 3rd edition that's quite a bit of a change. 

 

Especially with how the game morphed from an RPG style conversion from basic warhammer(fantasy) to a skirmish battle game(2nd) to an army TT strategy game(3rd-7th) to now more of a collectible card game. 

 

In fact even some of the set lore from 3rd ed has been retconned to fit the newer editions. 

[Haywire]

No mention of how, back in the day, for extra Heresy, Tigurius was a half-Eldar hybrid?

[Lord_Caerolion]

It wasn't Tigurius exactly, just the Ultramarines chief Librarian.

[Noserenda]

As others have said its just frameworks at that point, most of the Adepts exist for example but have very little fluff or detail, the Xenos are all very specific, like Eldar are Corsairs, Tyranids are Termagaunts and genestealers arent even Tyranids yet :D 

All factions and races share an armoury, though some do favour their later iconic weapons and at this point the Land Raider is the  only vehicle :D 

[snakebyte]

Tyranid Warriors got a bigger head.

[Noserenda]

Seeing as they released a third part today, its probably worth looking up Snipe and Wib on youtube, theyve done a whole series called "Codex compliant" on old books/fluff/models which started with a look at Rogue trader.

[Snazzy]

It wasn't Tigurius exactly, just the Ultramarines chief Librarian.

 

That wasn't as controversial then as it would be today.  Eldar were described as possibly having a common ancestor with Humans.

[MegaVolt87]

Do we still have any half eldar in modern 40k ?

[Lord_Caerolion]

It's implied there are hybrids present in Commorragh, but it's equally implied that they're not naturally occurring, but the result of Haemonculus tinkering. They have triple-helix DNA, they happen to somewhat resemble humans, but they're completely and utterly unrelated to us.

[Volt]

It's implied there are hybrids present in Commorragh, but it's equally implied that they're not naturally occurring, but the result of Haemonculus tinkering. They have triple-helix DNA, they happen to somewhat resemble humans, but they're completely and utterly unrelated to us.

This sounds like a problem that can only be solved by Lord Admiral Iacomus Tiberius Kirk

[Karhedron]

Do we still have any half eldar in modern 40k ?

If you are prepared to consider 30K...

 

Malcador keeps a half-eldar that he calls Ael Winter as a sort of pet in "Buried Dagger". Again he is not a naturally occurring hybrid but a creation. Malcador and the Emperor discovered a dying Eldar in one of the first portions of the Webway they explored when they activated the Golden Throne. The reason is not given but since this was just after The Fall, he may have been suffering from Slaanesh leaching his soul. Malcador struck up a friendship with him as he was one of the few beings he had met he operated on his intellectual level. When it became clear he was dying, Malcador managed to transplant his soul into an artificial hybrid body (although it looked human externally). The process was imperfect as the clone was not physically stable forcing Malcador to re-transplant the soul repeatedly. By the start of the Siege of Terra, the lifespan of each clone body was down to days but Malcador kept him alive as he was only one who could operate a small Webway gate that Malcador had in his collection. Ael activated the gate and Malcador used it to evacuate the proto-Grey Knights from Terra to Titan without the Traitors being aware. The implication is that without Ael, the Webway gate was useless which explains why more use was not made of it.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Karhedron