I mean, the space marines are genetically engineered soldiers who are locked into their roles they inherited from the primearch who’s genetic ancestry they are from, all of which were crafted based on the genetically superior being of the emperor. The eldar and orcs are literally bio-engineered weapons weapons of a race that were basically gods. The Tau have a lot of layers racial hierarchy, bio-engineering, and similar levels of eugenics stuff going on. The tyranids basically just consumer biomass to filter for genes that can benefit their race and incorporate the new genetic data. I mean, unless you didn’t pay any attention to the game lore, I really don’t know how you missed all this. Like, this is the core of the game lore.
Beyond that GW have straight said that each faction is a caricature of some form of extreme ideology. The imperium are basically theocratic space nazis, the orcs are pretty much how the classical empires, or something like that imperium, see less developed human groups, the barbaric hordes. Etc.
The space marines regularly have groups that splinter off from their ideology (soul drinkers) or renounce it entirely (see chaos), last I knew the dark Eldar are the ones who got corrupted by a chaos God but the craft world Eldar weren’t “created by a deity”, the orks are space fungus that have a psychic connection which creates their deities of Gork and Mork.
I can see how it can be interpreted that way and the gene seed is a really good point but I’m having a hard time making all the other connections.
Even the inquisition has tons of characters that either change their ideology or side entirely.
The old ones are who created the eldar, not literal gods, but a race that was so powerful they wielded cosmic power. They disappeared 10s of millions of year ago, and you can still see how deeply their bio-engineered structure is still influencing their creations. However, in their absence, the eldar have replaced them with new gods, and had to adapt to how the galaxy is post war in heaven. The Orks are a fungus, that was created as a bio-weapon race by the Old ones. The war in heaven, which was old ones vs C’tan, cause the psychic/spirit/whatever aspect of the universe to be corrupted into the warp. That taint is what caused most of these splinter groups. However the whole structure of things is based of lineage, everything important is the result of, and/or practices eugenics of some sort. You can even see it in the structure like how Hive cities are organized. Just because there are splinter groups doesn’t mean this stuff isn’t that. If anything it leans into it because the biggest reason things splinter from the groups largely have to do with warp influence, which is what real groups, like the nazis, would call degeneracy. Also, if you look at groups like Nazis there was always infighting, fractional groups, internal rebels, etc. The existence of things resisting the system doesn’t mean that isn’t what the system is, and that it isn’t the preeminent concept at the foundation of everything.
Goddamn, I missed an entire section because I don’t remember the old ones and I’ve been playing for decades. Got any books to recommend so I can catch up?
Warhammer 40k lore is on the level of racism and genetic determinism that resonates with nazibrain.
Every faction is a caricature and parody of some ideological concept where every member is obligated to live and die exactly as they’re supposed to.
That’s not at all what I picked up from it. Could you give an example?
I mean, the space marines are genetically engineered soldiers who are locked into their roles they inherited from the primearch who’s genetic ancestry they are from, all of which were crafted based on the genetically superior being of the emperor. The eldar and orcs are literally bio-engineered weapons weapons of a race that were basically gods. The Tau have a lot of layers racial hierarchy, bio-engineering, and similar levels of eugenics stuff going on. The tyranids basically just consumer biomass to filter for genes that can benefit their race and incorporate the new genetic data. I mean, unless you didn’t pay any attention to the game lore, I really don’t know how you missed all this. Like, this is the core of the game lore.
Beyond that GW have straight said that each faction is a caricature of some form of extreme ideology. The imperium are basically theocratic space nazis, the orcs are pretty much how the classical empires, or something like that imperium, see less developed human groups, the barbaric hordes. Etc.
The space marines regularly have groups that splinter off from their ideology (soul drinkers) or renounce it entirely (see chaos), last I knew the dark Eldar are the ones who got corrupted by a chaos God but the craft world Eldar weren’t “created by a deity”, the orks are space fungus that have a psychic connection which creates their deities of Gork and Mork.
I can see how it can be interpreted that way and the gene seed is a really good point but I’m having a hard time making all the other connections. Even the inquisition has tons of characters that either change their ideology or side entirely.
The old ones are who created the eldar, not literal gods, but a race that was so powerful they wielded cosmic power. They disappeared 10s of millions of year ago, and you can still see how deeply their bio-engineered structure is still influencing their creations. However, in their absence, the eldar have replaced them with new gods, and had to adapt to how the galaxy is post war in heaven. The Orks are a fungus, that was created as a bio-weapon race by the Old ones. The war in heaven, which was old ones vs C’tan, cause the psychic/spirit/whatever aspect of the universe to be corrupted into the warp. That taint is what caused most of these splinter groups. However the whole structure of things is based of lineage, everything important is the result of, and/or practices eugenics of some sort. You can even see it in the structure like how Hive cities are organized. Just because there are splinter groups doesn’t mean this stuff isn’t that. If anything it leans into it because the biggest reason things splinter from the groups largely have to do with warp influence, which is what real groups, like the nazis, would call degeneracy. Also, if you look at groups like Nazis there was always infighting, fractional groups, internal rebels, etc. The existence of things resisting the system doesn’t mean that isn’t what the system is, and that it isn’t the preeminent concept at the foundation of everything.
Goddamn, I missed an entire section because I don’t remember the old ones and I’ve been playing for decades. Got any books to recommend so I can catch up?