"Wouldn't it be cool if..." - What's your headcanon?

[Kaldoth]

Was having a convo with a buddy of mine over the lore in 40k and just how many retcons, loose ends, and open avenues exist for the setting. We got into our favourite pieces of headcanon and it made me wonder what everyone else has going on in their brain. Is there an unresolved piece of the story you've got a theory about, or an ending to a loose thread you think would tie it up nicely?  I wanna hear what you've got!

 

I'll start off with my headcanon about The Khan. So the Khan disappears in the Webway chasing Dark Eldar and we never hear from him again, right? He's the only loyalist Primarch that pulls a disappearing act without a final message to his men. Vulkan left his writings, Corax's "Never more," Russ's Wolftime spiel, etc. Why no message from Khan? Well, that's because Khan didn't mean to disappear. His ending was more akin to that of Guilliman and the Lion, and he's absolutely still alive... In the Black Library.

 

Khan gets into the Webway, gets lost, and eventually is surrounded and captured by the very Dark Eldar he was chasing. His men are slaughtered, and he is taken to Commoragh and made to endure existence as a gladiator in the fighting pits. He is the city's greatest but most secretive attraction. Only the highest of Archons receive the privilege of watching him fight. After enduring torture and endless combat for millennia his mind is broken and his body modified with all manner of sadistic scars and combat modifications; The Emperor's most stoic and taciturn son flesh warped into a horrifying force of murder. 

 

As the ages of brutal combat go on and on, his sanity slowly begins to wane, and his thoughts are replaced with laughter... but the laughter isn't his own. Inside his head, there is another voice that grows louder with each combat, both heightening the madness and yet keeping it at bay, but always taunting him. In the most violent combat he is forced to endure, he manages a breakout from the arena and tears through Commoragh, chasing after the voice in his own head. He eventually escapes on a jet bike and launches himself back into the Webway to chase the laughter. That laughter leads him to the Harlequins, who then subdue him and take him to the Black Library. 

 

Upon arriving, the Black Council restrain him and psychically repair the damage to his body and mind. When he wakes, the laughter has finally stopped, but it has been replaced with all of the knowledge of Chaos, the Black Crusades, all that has come to pass within the Imperium, and the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum. Both the Khan and the Council know that Chaos, now more than ever, is trying to break into the Library.

 

There aren't many better guardians for such a place than one of the Emperor's own sons. Once again bound against his will he remains there, guarding the Library until such a time he can return to real space and rejoin his sons in the endless wars plaguing the Imperium of man.

 

Your turn!

Edited yesterday at 06:52 AM by Kaldoth

[Ulfast]

My headcanon is that it exist still a clone of Fulgrim that is loyal and true to the Imperium and one day, he will escape from Bile and help the Imperium against chaos. 

[Lathe Biosas]

I have a feeling that If Khan was in the Black Library, one of the Inquisitors that visited would have noticed him hanging out.

 

Inquisitor Czevak passed all the trials, and was there with the Eldar's permission and pretty much wandered around willy-nilly, while Inquisitor Draco and his team snuck in to the Black Library to see the Book of Fate... Neither mentioned a Khan-like figure... but maybe they had other things on their mind.

 

☆☆☆

 

My favorite bit of headcannon/crazed conspiracy I that appeared at 3 a.m. revolves around the mysterious alien spacecraft that elevated the Tau from primitive to extraordinary. 

 

All of the Tau's technology comes from one crashed starship (see the anime Macross for more information) they discovered by "chance" and apparently wasn't there the last time the Mechanicus rolled through. (Odd that the Mechanicus who is doing detailed scans would miss a giant spaceship sitting on a moon)

 

The "theory" says the Cabal (remember those fun guys from the Horus Heresy who were trying to fix the future to be the way they wanted it to be) planted the ship there (so the Tau could easily find it) in an attempt to manipulate future outcomes, since humanity refused to play along. A young race like the Tau could be more easily lead, they just needed a better technology base to influence the universe around them.

Edited 19 hours ago by Lathe Biosas
John Grammaticus appeared from the Webway to tell me what to write.

[Kaldoth]

4 minutes ago, Lathe Biosas said:

I have a feeling that If Khan was in the Black Library, one of the Inquisitors that visited would have noticed him hanging out.

 

Inquisitor Czevak passed all the trials, and was there with the Eldar's permission and pretty much wandered around willy-nilly, while Inquisitor Draco and his team snuck in to the Black Library to see the Book of Fate... Neither mentioned a Khan-like figure... but maybe they had other things on their mind.

 

☆☆☆

 

My favorite bit of headcannon/crazed cinsoiracy ai read online at 3 a.m. revolve around the Tau.

 

All of their technology comes from one crashed starship (see the anime Macross for more information). 

 

The "theory" says the Cabal planted the ship there in an attempt to manipulate future outcomes, since humanity refused to play along. A young race like the Tau could be more easily lead, they just needed a better technology base to influence the universe around them.

 

Oof... I'm not well read on a lot of Inquisition lore. I did read the Draco books a long time ago. I thought they were considered retconned at this point? Czevak I've never heard of. Well, there goes my headcanon I guess  Or at least the Black Library part of it. He can keep pit fighting in my brain and waiting for a rescue 

 

Also, I'm a huge Macross fan! Happen to have a Glaug on my desk right now. I actually really like the idea of Cabal involvement. What was the motivation for them doing so, if you recall? They do tend to try and influence things on a grand scale. While the Tau are a powerhouse in their own right, against every other major player in the galaxy, IMO they're just a blip on the universal influence vs threat axis.

[Lathe Biosas]

Inquisitor Czevak, was featured in tons of codexes and blurbs spread throughout gw products for years. He only has 1 novel (IIRC) called Atlas Infernal by Rob Sanders.

 

 

Quote

From the Black Library website:

 

Inquisitor Bronislaw Czevak is a hunted man. Escaping from the Black Library of the eldar, Czevak steals the Atlas Infernal - a living map of the Webway. With this fabled artefact and his supreme intellect, Czevak foils the predations of the Harlequins sent to apprehend him and thwarts his enemies within the Inquisition who want to kill him. Czevak's deadliest foe, however, is Ahriman - arch-sorcerer of the Thousand Sons. He desires the knowledge within the Black Library, knowledge that can exalt him to godhood, and is willing to destroy the inquisitor to obtain it. A desperate chase that will bend the fabric of reality ensues, where Czevak's only hope of survival is to outwit the chosen of Tzeentch, Lord of Chaos and Architect of Fate. Failure is unconscionable, the very cost to the Imperium unimaginable.

 

But for fans of a certain age, he was our idea of what an Inquisitor should be like (Gregor Eisenhorn was never as cool).

 

☆☆☆

 

Going back to the Cabal... remember they were a bunch of aliens who were playing the long game, and while we had some idea of what they wanted and how it affected the near future, we knew they had contingency plans.

 

Maybe the Tau was one of them.

[ZeroWolf]

8 hours ago, Ulfast said:

My headcanon is that it exist still a clone of Fulgrim that is loyal and true to the Imperium and one day, he will escape from Bile and help the Imperium against chaos. 

Didn’t clonegrim get handed over to Trazyn though in one of the bile books

[SpecialIssue]

10 hours ago, Lathe Biosas said:

My favorite bit of headcannon/crazed conspiracy I that appeared at 3 a.m. revolves around the mysterious alien spacecraft that elevated the Tau from primitive to extraordinary. 

 

All of the Tau's technology comes from one crashed starship (see the anime Macross for more information) they discovered by "chance" and apparently wasn't there the last time the Mechanicus rolled through. (Odd that the Mechanicus who is doing detailed scans would miss a giant spaceship sitting on a moon)

 

The "theory" says the Cabal (remember those fun guys from the Horus Heresy who were trying to fix the future to be the way they wanted it to be) planted the ship there (so the Tau could easily find it) in an attempt to manipulate future outcomes, since humanity refused to play along. A young race like the Tau could be more easily lead, they just needed a better technology base to influence the universe around them.

 

One of my fav pieces of material is the book Xenology, which presents all its theories and autopsies on xenos from what is revealed to be an extremely unreliable narrator under the thrall / driven mad by Necrons / the C'tan so as to make it extremely deniable; and given it came out in 4th edition, is probably all superseded anyway. 

 

But yes, the remarks in that book on the pheromonal organs of the Ethereal caste and the completely incongruous nature with the rest of their physiology and evolutionary history, the pointing out of very similar (identical) organs in another insectoid alien species, and the sudden both appearance of the Ethereals, their organs, and technology in Tau society all point towards some sort of (Eldar is again intimated) outside influence.

Edited 8 hours ago by SpecialIssue

[Cactus]

I wouldn't worry about inquisitors not mentioning the Khan - never assume that an inquisitor's report contains the whole truth.

 

My own head canon for the Tau dates back to when they were first released. I saw the hooves, and the Elementals' pheromone-based societal control and thought "new Tyranid infiltration species". Nothing yet has proved me wrong!

[Lathe Biosas]

2 hours ago, Cactus said:

I wouldn't worry about inquisitors not mentioning the Khan - never assume that an inquisitor's report contains the whole truth.

 

My own head canon for the Tau dates back to when they were first released. I saw the hooves, and the Elementals' pheromone-based societal control and thought "new Tyranid infiltration species". Nothing yet has proved me wrong!

 

What about Genestealer Cultists trying to murder them? Is it just a case of too much compartmentalization? Where one organization doesn't realise they are actually on the same side.

 

Now that I think of it, that makes a lot of sense in 40k land.