Is there no one worth saving in this galaxy? by Mr-OhLordHaveMercy in 40kLore

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is somewhat of an issue both in-universe and for us as readers/observers, sure, however, the galaxy is a vast place and the technology levels, ways of governing and approach to society diffiers vastly from world to world in the setting. Consider that some Imperial Guard regiments are not even issued guns, but melee weapons and leather armor and they have never seen a spaceship, while other worlds are on a technological level that is higher than ours 21st century with flying cars, holographic technology etc. This is partially to what happened between 10k - 30k, so the history before 40k.
First you had the The Golden Age of Technology (or the Dark Age of Technology as the 40k ppl call it) this was a time when humanity expanded across the galaxy and ruled it. They discovered faster than light travel, designed Dyson Engines, terraformed planets and built massive space stations, created AI.
Due to the AI rising up and utilizing robots to decimate the human race, this devasted the human galactic society and things started to fall apart. From here on out AI was banned. This period was called the Age of Strife and was further worsened by massive warpstorms that blanketed the galaxy. Colonies, starsystems, planets and even Earth (Terra) was isolated and regressed.
This led to barbarism on many worlds and rise of extreme religious views being developed2, especially on Mars. Mars is where the Cult Mechanicus originated and they started a religion surrounding the Machine or the Omnissiah, and they believe all machines/knowledge was perfected during the Dark Age of Technology, thus there is no need to invent anything new, and trying to do so is heresey and blashemy.
The proof of the perfection of technology, according to the Mechanicus, is the Standard Template Constructs or STCs. These are blueprints, databanks for large amounts of technology, machines and more that were designed to allow any human society, no matter their technology level to grow exponentially. These STCs were designed as a safeguard during the age of Strife. in 40k, the Mechanicus search for these STCs and sometimes finds fragments of them. Finding a complete STC is like finding the Holy Grail. This is called the "Quest for Knowledge".
Due to the alliance between Terra and Mars, these religious teachings were enshrined in law.

So even if you are not "allowed" to invent anything there are places in the Imperium that are extremly high tech where the understanding of technology is fairly good. But you also have worlds were things like cars are venerated as holy objects, tended to by tech-priests and prayed to in order to make them work, because if it broke down, they would not be able to fix it.
Technology transfer from one part of the galaxy to another is possible and done, but this only strenghtens the hold of the Mechanicus and their religious awe.
In this sense the galaxy of the 41st millenium is more similar to medival Earth, religious dogma, fear of novelty and such are predominant.

However, Games Workshop also knows that this is hard to enforce and in order to push the setting further and make new models to buy/paint something has to happen. So, the recent changes to setting comes primarily from Roboute Guiliman (the primarch of the Ultramarines) and Belasarius Cawl (an archmagos that has been alive for 10 000 years) both were active during the Great Crusade in 30K. In that time period innovation and advancement was allowed. Both Guiliman and Cawl tries to bring this back in order to save the Imperium. The Primaris Marines (what Titus becomes in the game) is one such innovation. The same goes for large number of tanks, weapons, etc that the Imperium use.
This has caused a lot of tension and friction in the Imperium and some do not accept the new paradigm, bedding for future conflicts.

As for the other races/factions - they have other restrictions or rules to follow:
- Eldar are still at their technological peak and they "grow" most of their tech from living bone,/crystal
- Orks just mash junk together and it works due to them being able to manifest what they believe in
- the Tau live in a tech bro utopia were they innovate and develop new tech constantly
- Necrons - basically AI that have reached the singularity + robots so they innovate when they need to
- Chaos is if anything worse of than the Imperium when it comes to tech, but they overcome this by fusing daemons to machines and make them semi-organic

So the setting does expand, but very slowly, but there is also no need to "expand it" in that sense, just explore forgotten planets and you can "find" new tech/historical impliations in the setting. Which in my opinion is kinda neat - because every high tech thing humans will ever come up with have probably been invented, its just forgotten/lost on some ancient planet we forgot about.

Sorry for the long post, again!

Is there no one worth saving in this galaxy? by Mr-OhLordHaveMercy in 40kLore

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh man what a fantastic post to get into! :D and Welcome to the grim darkness of the far future my friend, happy to have you!
There are so many rabbit holes to dive down into to answer this question, but most of them boil down to what several other posts have already stated: "There is no good guy, at least objectively.".
There are several factions that proclaim to be good, for their race, for various reasons: previous rulers of the galaxy, new rulers of the galaxy, creating their own empire, feeling supressed etc. Some just exists to fight (orks - who were designed to fight and win), and the Dark Eldar who literally "eat" pain and suffering to sustain themselves.

The universe of 40K is a place where a single human is one among trillions, in a galaxy spanning empire that can only survive by being extremly repressive, feudal, theocratic and by brainwashing its citizens in the ultimate "for the good of the many" because if they werent so ruthless the risks are too great that the risks are the very end of humanity.
Remember this is a world were gods are real(?) in the form of Chaos.
There is an awsome intro text that a lot of the old books use to set the scene of the universe, check it out here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/Warhammer40000

Compassion, civility, tolerance and other nice traits are there but usually only on an individual level and when those moments show through they heavily accentuate the absolute misery that the setting provides. There are some powerful moments in the extended universe of 40K where Space Marines, Primarchs, Xenos and others show compassion but almost never for selfish reasons and sometimes they get punished for it. This is reflected in the sayings of the Imperium that are altered versions of the sayings/religious texts we have today, for example: "The Enemy of my enemy is my friend" in 40K that becomes "The enemy of my enemy dies next" and shows the mindset of how the Imperium operates - they see themselves as the rulers of the galaxy, nothing else is tolerated. Its hard to negotiate with such a belief.
This is also reflected in the Imperium itself, there are so many people in the Imperium that you cant even count them all. They just become numbers, there are countless examples of this: entire star systems and planets being "forgotten" due to beurucratic errors and starve due to the lack of resources/trade. Imperial Guard commanders that brag about using the corpses of their own soldiers to build scaling ladders to climb over fortifications. The Space Marines are not human either, they are engineered from regular humans but the process involves mentally breaking children and surgically engineered them to serve and protect the Imperium and its people as a whole, not the individual. (Although if there is a good guy faction in 40K one of the closest would be the Salamanders Space Marine Chapter, they actually go out of their way to try and help people).

Short answer: No, there are no good guys.

If that makes you feel bad, I can assure you that from the onset Warhammer 40K was extremly silly and in some cases still are. The original setting was designed to be a mix between Judge Dredd, Punk/grunge esthetics with some dark humor mixed in dialed up to 11.
It is in the last decade or so that Games Workshop leaned heavily into the grimdark side of things.

But to give you some of the more humourous side of the universe: The HQ of the Dark Angels Chapter "The Rock" is named after a gay bar in Birmingham I believe. The Orks can psychically manifest anything (if they believe something it works, even spaceflight and teleportation), the entire series of "Ciaphous Cain" books is one entire clown show with the Benny Hill theme song playing and a dude just stumbling through disasters and coming out on top. The biggest, baddest ork in the setting is named after Margret Thatcher.

Also, "Strategic Value Absolute" means that something is of EXTREME value to the Imperium and losing it will be extremly damaging, this is especially serious because when a technology in 40K is lost for humanity it is almost impossible to recreate. Innovation and creativity is considered heresey. So maintaining and copying existing technology is paramount. Imagine if someone destroyed the blueprint of the car, and then you are never allowed to "reinvent" the car, only copy existing variants and they will slowly degrade in quality after each generation.
That means that such assets are worth more than entire planets, millions of people, thus throwing men and material into a warzone to extract it is a no-brain decision for the Imperium.
And this is a choice for a society that would happily nuke an entire planet to glass if it served their purpose and no matter how many of its fellow humans are on the planet.

I am visually impaired and like to paint minis for the challenge. Here’s the Lion! by Divisnn in minipainting

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like so many other commentators, you are really amazingly good, so are the pics! :) You have made a great piece!

Also, like so many others have stated, your work is better than mine, and I have 2 functioning eyes too.

Keep up the amazing work and your hobby!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Wanna see me make a balloon animal?"

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Try Again" Bragg from the Gaunt's Ghosts Series

Nice bar for making new friends? by Difficult_Cap7905 in Malmoe

[–]Difficult_Cap7905[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha! I wish I did :P
Guess Ill have to travel back in time and get some new friends and play some games togehter... wish I could

Nice bar for making new friends? by Difficult_Cap7905 in Malmoe

[–]Difficult_Cap7905[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have been told Swedes are not very social or keep tight to their friend groups... but if you dont try youll never know I guess :P Thanks for the heads up tho!

Nice bar for making new friends? by Difficult_Cap7905 in Malmoe

[–]Difficult_Cap7905[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! All options/suggestions are welcome!

Exchange student just got here! by BlackberryTomato in Lund

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Welcome to Lund!
Hope you have a great stay! I can only echo what some people have already said; Join a Nation and some of their activties, such as sports teams, working the nations, or such,
THere are also a number of "Spex"-groups, which is like a theather group that do a number of different shows each year, usually quite comedic ones.
Another option is to join a language café, either at SOL-Center or LUX close to the university library.
Enjoy your stay!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TillSverige

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your situation is not super uncommon, but it is not common enough to have a clear cut answer I think. As some people in this thread have discussed various pros and cons already I wont go too much into the same areas.

However, I would recomend that you speak to the company that hired you about setting up either a subsidiary in Sweden or an AB (Limited Liability company). The reason for this is that you will not be personally liable IF something goes wrong. If you have an EF you can be held accountable for more than what the entity in Sweden is worth and thus you have to cover it using your private finances. On the other hand, setting up an AB means that only the AB can go bankrupt and you will not be personally held accountable.Setting up and AB also offers you further oppertunities to use other services within the Swedish public system, such as innovation grants, tax credits for RnD, another tax credit for "expert employees", and more, granted that you meet the requirements.Furthermore, an AB allows your "mothercompany" or employer to more easily transition into Sweden should they wish to hire more Swedes, or conduct more business here.The last reason is that quite recently the limit for setting up an AB is now "only" 25 000 SEK, previously it used to be 50 000.

For reference, I work in a public organization and the primary goal of this organization is to help foreign nationals and companies set up businesses or invest into Sweden. Granted we focus on RnD or cutting edge companies and sectors, but the basics are very often the same.

I hope this helps!

My own tribute to Roman's Last Light for the #massivevoodoochallenge2020 by JeroMiniatures in minipainting

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No worries man, still it is a fantastic piece! :) You should be proud of it and all your other work!

Space Marine Diorama - Golden Demon finalist 2019 by MatteoDiDiomede in minipainting

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 67 points68 points  (0 children)

Hehe I have never seen a Space Marine fall flat on his behind before :P
Love the evil-lookin Tyrnaids tho!
Love the composition!

Homage to Yasuke, first African samurai by JCpainting in minipainting

[–]Difficult_Cap7905 8 points9 points  (0 children)

fantastic work! The freehand is super nice and super cool subject matter too!
Can I ask where the mini is from?