The lore of Warhammer 40K is hard to grasp due to its sheer complexity, with events like the pivotal Horus Heresy having layers upon layers of subtext, secrets, and hints that make fans realize not everything is always as it seemed in a realm as vast as the Milky Way Galaxy. In fact, clues scattered across both the novels and rulebooks imply a number of things across the WH40K universe - some of which fans are debating on, and others fans are just starting to discover.
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Beyond clues as to what truly happened to the Emperor, some hotly debated theories also try to settle arguments with the fates of certain individuals, the identity behind interesting new characters, and the purported "endgame" of the current age of WH40K based on recent events.
Are Female Space Marines Possible?
Genetics Should Not Be This Limited In Scope
Perhaps the most heated debate in the WH40K in recent years revolved around the "Femarines" or female Space Marines. While the idea to kitbash Space Marines to have a female counterpart has never been disallowed in the tabletop game, it's the lore component where it gets tricky. At its core, the debate reignited when 2024's 10th Edition Codex for the Adeptus Custodes introduced the female Custodes Kesh, alongside a confirmatory tweet that there have always been female Custodes since the Emperor's personal bodyguards were introduced. This, in turn, led to the natural next question: where do the Space Marines fit in?
Detractors to the "Femarines" concept point at the current lore as the source of truth. Space Marines are created from the gene seed of Primarchs, of which all are male. It's been gospel at this point that only men could be chosen to be Space Marines due to the fact. Supporters of the theory, however, also point out some contradictions: if the Imperium is close to extinction, why ignore at least half of its potential recruitment pool? Not only that, but Space Marines are still "created" from the ground up with artificial organs, which means the recruit's starting body could likely be made irrelevant to the resulting product. The smoking gun is the reveal of the Primaris Marines - "improved" and stronger versions of Space Marines made by Archmagos Belisarius Cawl. If Cawl can "improve" the Emperor's work, then there should be a way to "fix" this limitation.
Who Is The King In Yellow?
A New Force To Reckon With
One of the biggest current mysteries in the WH40K mythos is the identity, and true endgame, of the figure known only as the King in Yellow. Explored primarily in the Bequin Trilogy of books, the King in Yellow is a figure known only for a few things: that he has ties to the secret order of Chaos-using Cognitae, that he has a lot of enemies in both the Immaterium and realspace, that he has an accessible pocket dimension where he's amassed winged Space Marines and cloned Blanks (psychic-immune individuals), and that he wants to obtain the Emperor's "true name" to hold absolute power over him. No one knows his identity, except for a clue left in a book that supposedly contains his name: Constantin Valdor.
The Valdor reveal was a big deal for WH40K fans, as he's known as the Captain-General of, and the first, Adeptus Custodes - essentially the Emperor's elite bodyguards. The tease was also a shocker to fans aware of Valdor's history with the Imperium. Not only was Valdor a staunch loyalist, but he had been with the Emperor since the Unification Wars - practically the time before the Imperium even existed.
Is The Emperor A Chaos God?
Order Must Have A Chaos God
The Emperor's near-death at the hands of Horus forced him to rely on the Golden Throne as life support, turning him into a "corpse on a throne." While others eagerly await his return, WH40K novels seem to share different perspectives: namely, the Emperor has ties to a fifth Chaos God. The earliest mentions of this are tied to the Rogue Trader era of the 80s and 90s, where a fragment of the Emperor's shattered soul has his compassion - a "Star Child" that will grow as a force to fight Chaos Undivided. However, as all psychic powers have ties to the Warp, would this mean the Star Child's ascension turn it into a Chaos God?
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The Star Child was put on the back burner between the late 90s and the 2010s, with Warhammer lore focusing instead on the Emperor's feats despite his dormancy. This too became fuel for the fire: if the Emperor could summon Living Saints and perhaps even empower the Legion of the Damned (or so fans say), then how different is it from a Chaos God's daemons? Plus, if the Emperor is popularly known as the Anathema, could this possibly pertain to a natural predator, a "God of Order" to fight Chaos itself?
The latter part of The Siege of Terra series in the 2020s paints a darker picture: the Emperor had actually drunk so much of the Warp to match Chaos-empowered Horus that he was at risk of becoming a Chaos God himself. While the Emperor returns to his humanity and casts this power aside, some say it remains in the Warp today, just awaiting the arrival of its Dark King. With the recent Grey Knights codex hinting that their Terminus Decree - their ultimate secret - is to never let the Emperor get resurrected, this Chaos God connection might have some weight after all.
Where Are The Two Lost Primarchs?
The Origins And Whereabouts Of The 2nd And 11th Legions
There are 20 Primarch "sons" of the Emperor of Mankind, of which only 18 were ever fully explored in WH40K lore. No one knows the identity of the two Lost Primarchs in charge of the 2nd and 11th Legions, as all records of them have been expunged. Some say this is where player agency kicks in, so they can create their homebrew Legions. However, Rick Priestley said in a comment that the idea behind the Lost Legions was inspired by "lost" fragments in history. That their erasure from the lore may indeed hint at a "bad" thing being done, but is also a reward for their "redemption," as they were cast aside instead of being branded as traitors entirely.
Despite these comments, the Horus Heresy novels and some codices provided breadcrumbs of what may have happened to them. The most prevailing narrative is that the Emperor himself had ordered the removal of the two Primarchs from all records, with others hinting at "some" participation in the early stages of the Horus Heresy. Interestingly enough, the 2013 Visions of Heresy artbook brand Primarch II as "file not found" but Primarch XI as merely "censored." In the 9th Edition Adeptus Custodes Codex, there's a mysterious "Subject XI" being held in the vaults of the Imperial Palace. Some believe this means Primarch II was the one expunged, but Primarch XI was merely hidden.
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What Is Cypher's Endgame?
The Enigmatic Fallen Angel With An Unknown Agenda
Fans of the Dark Angels will remember the Chapter's tragic history, where the Warp Storm that scattered its members had given rise to the renegade Fallen, the Unforgiven who hunt them, and the Risen who remained loyal to the Imperium. Categorized among the Fallen is a mysterious figure known only as Cypher, who took his name from the title reserved for the archivist in the Chapter's progenitor, The Order. Back then, the Cypher was meant to cast aside his identity and personality in order to be the sole enactor of the Order's laws and tenets. Nowadays, the man known as Cypher remains hooded and cloaked, recognizable only by his dual pistols and the shattered Lion Sword of Lion El'Jonson, the Dark Angels Primarch.
No one knows Cypher's true identity - others say he might be the librarian Zahariel El'Zurias, or the Primarch loyalist Corswain who is on a mission for Lion. No one knows his true mission, as Cypher has fought alongside both the Imperium and the forces of Chaos. The Horus Heresy books shed some light on his agenda, as he helped free Roboute Guilliman in exchange for getting to the Golden Throne - something Cypher was close to doing, had it not been for a guided vision of the Emperor telling him "not yet." It's been said that Cypher wanted to present the Lion Sword to the Emperor and have it repaired, but other fans speculate Cypher may be the catalyst for the Emperor's death and rebirth.
Did Magnus Really Do Nothing Wrong?
The Webway Project Being Destroyed Was Just An Unfortunate Consequence
Among the Emperor's Primarchs, Magnus the Red was an immensely gifted psyker. Such was his gift that it came with an immense desire, and an equally arrogant belief, to "master" the Warp. As such, while the Emperor had outlawed the use of sorcery on everyone but astropaths and Navigators at the Council of Nikaea, Magnus opted to continue his sorcerous studies in secret, believing knowledge is power, and had to be used.
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Things come to a head when Magnus sees a vision of Horus revolting across the galaxy, even failing to dissuade his brother from allying with the Ruinous Powers. As a last resort, Magnus blatantly made contact with the Emperor with a shortcut in the Warp, accidentally destroying the Emperor's Webway Project and unknowingly leading a mass of demons in an attack straight to the Golden Throne. Known nowadays as Magnus' Folly, the Emperor had ordered Magnus's arrest - an event that escalated into the Burning of Prospero, the Primarch's home world. However, it's soon revealed that much of Magnus's actions were unfortunate results of the machinations of the Chaos God Tzeentch - but it's too late, Magnus and his Thousand Sons had seemingly been backed into a corner, led with no choice but to hold the Imperium in contempt and for the Primarch to become Tzeentch's Daemon Prince.
Are The Tyranids Invading Or Running Away?
There Might Be A Scarier Force Outside The Galaxy
Among the factions in WH40K, the Tyranids remain the most mysterious due to the general lack of knowledge regarding their true origins. They were only named as such as they were first discovered having devastated the planet of Tyran, from which the Imperium deduced they had been coming from outside the galaxy. Worse is the fact that the Tyranids seem to only have one goal: to consume all biological life. No one knows if the Tyranids have a "leader," as they share one Hive Mind so powerful that only a mind as powerful as the Emperor's (and a select few) can even have a "sense" of their movements. When a planet has been "flagged" for consumption, a Shadow in the Warp disrupts all connections to Warpspace, signaling the fleet's arrival.
However, while most of the galaxy has been busy stopping what appears to be a persistent invasion, one question remains: what is the Tyranid endgame? More importantly, how sure is it that the Tyranids are not running away from something? Only the 8th Edition Tyranid Codex implied a possibility of the species running from another race or cosmic cataclysm, while various other WH40K editions portray Tyranids as either an external threat that tagged the Milky Way as their next target, or that the Pharos Beacon in the Horus Heresy had actually called them there.
What Role Will Clonegrim Play In The Endgame?
The Perfect Clone Of Fulgrim Remains Hidden
When one's father is the "pinnacle" of what humankind can be, it's unsurprising to want to emulate them - something Fulgrim has done to the extreme by trying to "perfect" himself in order to emulate the Emperor. Unfortunately, this obsession becomes something that Slaanesh, Chaos God of Excess, would latch onto. Through the Silver Blade of Laer, Chaos will slowly corrupt Fulgrim and lead him to believe the Emperor has been holding him back. This will sway Fulgrim into Horus's cause, eventually leading to his transformation into a full-fledged Daemon Prince.
While Fulgrim is said to have been ruling a planet of unlimited pleasure on Slaneesh's behalf, one other interesting event has happened: mad scientist Fabius Bile has created a Perfect Clone of Fulgrim, with no traces of Warp corruption. This version of Fulgrim grew up quickly and, upon learning of his original's actions, has come to regret them on his behalf. Before Fabius could even think of ways to use him, this Perfect Clone was taken by the Necron Overlord Trazyn the Infinite and has been hidden ever since. With this "other Primarch" now technically safe and sound, fans wonder whether Clonegrim will get an opportunity to be reunited with his "brothers" or become another party in this new chapter of WH40K entirely.
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