Forces of Men:
1.Imperial Guard:The Imperial Guard is the largest fighting force of the Imperium of Man. It is comprised of countless billions of men and women - hundreds of thousands of different regiments, supported by a vast array of light and heavy vehicles. They are usually the first Imperial force to respond to a threat if a planet'sPlanetary Defense Force (PDF) fails to suppress it. They also hold major locations of interest to the Imperium and are often found in defensive roles. The Imperial Guard is often referred to as the "Sledgehammer of the Emperor"; the sheer amount of force that the Imperial Guard can bring to bear on the enemy is devastating, but is not as direct or as precise as their Space Marine allies, who are described as the "Sword of the Emperor." There is no universal uniform or company command heirarchy in the Imperial Guard, although it is compulsory for every regiment to have at least oneCommissar to maintain the discipline and morale of the men while watching for any signs of corruption or taint in the ranks. However, it is worth noting that a number of worlds copy the uniform of the Cadian Regiments, which are viewed as being the most effective of the Imperial Guard's infantry units. The main tactic of the Imperial Guard is to overwhelm the enemy with their endless numbers, while at the same time hammer them into submission with devastating artillery and crush them with powerful main battle tanks.
2.Space Marines:The Space Marines or Adeptus Astartes are foremost amongst the defenders of humanity, the greatest of the Emperor of Mankind's warriors. They are barely human at all, but superhuman; having been made superior in all respects to a normal man by a harsh regime of genetic modification, psycho-conditioning and rigorous training. Space Marines are untouched by plague or any natural disease and can suffer wounds that would kill a lesser being several times over, and live to fight again. Clad in ancient Power Armour and wielding the most potent weapons known to Man, the Space Marines are terrifying foes and their devotion to the Emperor and the Imperium of Man is unyielding. They are the God-Emperor's Angels of Death, and they know no fear.The Astartes are physically stronger, far more resilient and often mentally far removed from the lot of most normal human beings. In the presence of the Astartes, most people feel a combination of awe and fear, and many cultures on the more primitive worlds simply worship them outright as demigods or angels of the God-Emperor made flesh. They should feel so, for many Space Marines feel little compassion for those they have sometimes termed "mortals" in comparison to themselves, seeing the very people they were created to protect as little more than obstacles to a more efficient eradication of the Imperium's enemies. This is an attitude sometimes taken by whole Chapters. They see normal humans as frail, weak creatures given to the follies of temptation, avarice, greed, lust and cowardice -- all emotions they rarely feel, if ever. Yet there are some Astartes who remember why they were created by the Emperor, who avoid the trap of hubris which the Space Marines are so prone to and which has seduced so many of their number to serve the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. They are the final guardians of Mankind, the saviours of last resort. They were intended not to lead humanity, but to defend it, sometimes even from itself. At the heart of that mission lies the limitless compassion the Emperor extended to every man and woman in the galaxy when he willingly chose to condemn himself to more than 10,000 years of imprisonment within a dying prison of flesh for their sake. Some Astartes sneer at compassion, seeing it as one more human weakness that has been purged from their superior bodies and minds. But the wisest of the Space Marines know that in the end compassion is their only salvation, as it is for all men. In that, they have proven themselves to be fully human.Potential Space Marines are usually, but not always, recruited from the worlds where a Chapter has established its Fortress-Monastery, although some Chapters are known to recruit from a collection of different worlds in an area of space that they protect or frequent. Recruiting methods vary from Chapter to Chapter. Some select their Neophytes from feral tribes roaming the surface of inhospitable worlds, while others draw upon eager volunteers who have been groomed from birth to become an Astartes. Still others watch and kidnap potential warriors, turning them into Astartes whether they will it or not. Whatever the method, all Space Marine Chapters will only accept those who successfully pass the grueling initiation trials and prove themselves worthy of becoming a Space Marine.However a man becomes a Space Marine does not matter: once his body has been forged into that of a superhuman Astartes, he must forever stand apart from the people to whom he was once kin and who he is now sworn to protect. Once a man becomes a Space Marine, he is no longer mortal; his genetic heritage is now that of the Emperor himself, and a spark of the same majesty flows in his veins.There are approximately 1,000 Space Marine Chapters active in the Imperium of Man at any one time since theSecond Founding in the 31st Millennium following the Horus Heresy when the First Founding Space Marine Legions were broken up; this number is far from exact and may fluctuate widely.
3.Sisters of Battle:The Adepta Sororitas, also known as the Sisters of Battle and formerly known as theDaughters of the Emperor, are an all-female division of the Imperial Cult's ecclesiastical organization known as the Ecclesiarchy or, more formally, as theAdeptus Ministorum. The Sisterhood's Orders Militant serve as the Ecclesiarchy's fighting arm, mercilessly rooting out corruption and heresy within humanity and every organization of the Adeptus Terra. There is naturally some overlap between the duties of the Sisterhood and the Imperial Inquisition; for this reason, although the Inquisition and the Sisterhood remain entirely separate organizations, the Orders Militant of the Sisterhood also act as the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus. The Adepta Sororitas and the Sisters of Battle are commonly regarded as the same organisation, but the latter title technically refers only to the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, the best-known part of the organization. The Sisterhood serves as the Ministorum's only official military force because theDecree Passive laid down by the reformist Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor held that in the wake of the Age of Apostasy of the 36th Millennium, the Ecclesiarchy cannot maintain any men under arms. This was supposed to limit the power of the Ecclesiarchy. However, the Ministorum were able to circumvent this decree by using the all-female force of the Sisterhood.
2.Chaos:Chaos refers to the universal and usually malign spiritual force represented by the malevolent intelligent entities comprised of psychic energy that live in the Warp. These entities are mostly demons, but the term also encompasses those mortals who have thrown in their lot with Chaos, ranging from simple peasants and/or manufactorum labourers who serve as Chaos Cultists, to Traitor Imperial Guardsmen, planetary militia, Imperial nobles,Planetary Governors, and even the mighty Chaos Space Marinesand Traitor Titan Legions of the Dark Mechanicus. Chaos is also itself the turbulent psychic energy that comprises the Immaterium. Chaos is almost synonymous with the Warp - the two concepts are inseparable, for Chaos is the limitless ocean of spiritual, psychic and emotional energy that defines the Immaterium and underlies the 4-dimensional material universe of space-time. It is a great and raw force of change and power, and is both physically and spiritually corrupting, though it is not in itself necessarily "evil." While its adherents and servants act in ways that are often malevolent, some devotees of Chaos are more dedicated to the service of freedom and change than of the pure selfishness that Mankind and most other intelligent species define as nefarious. However, more often than not, the Chaos Gods reward individual accomplishment in such a way that the ends justify the means, and the absence of hierarchy and emphasis on individual freedom leads to the pursuit of excess and personal aggrandisement that can only be characterised as damnation.The most evolutionarily-advanced mortals, psykers, can utilize this energy, thus making them capable of abilities which transcend the standard physical laws of the material universe as Mankindunderstands them. However, the malevolent power of Chaos can gradually corrupt a psyker, tainting his mind and body and turning him into the slave of the Ruinous Powers. The most powerful entities of Chaos are the four great Chaos Gods, also known as the Ruinous Powers, who each embody one aspect of the greater force of Chaos and can be worshiped individually or as an entire pantheon. The iconic symbol of Chaos is the eight-pointed star, representing the infinite possibilities of Chaos. Ultimately, Chaos and its entities seek nothing less than the complete destruction of the material universe and its hated Order, so that all of Creation is once more consumed by the primordial and uncontained energies of Chaos. In general, Chaos is a malevolent spiritual force that represents the collective negative aspects of the psyches of every sentient being in the Milky Way Galaxy, and most likely in the wider universe. Because Mankind is by far the most populous intelligent species in the galaxy of the late 41st Millennium, the Chaos Gods particularly embody Humanity's myriad and particular flaws as a people.Chaos corrupts Mankind so easily because it speaks to the character flaws inherent in every man and woman and seeks to exploit the weaknesses of their all-too-human natures. It takes an extraordinary individual of truly iron will and selflessness to resist the serial temptations of Chaos. It is also these inherent character flaws that produce the rampant physical and anatomical mutations of individuals exposed to Chaotic energies, as these mutations are driven by the inner flaws of the person's psyche being made manifest in their physical person as Chaos bridges the gap between the Immaterium and realspace.With all the obvious dangers associated with Chaos, such as mutation, daemonic possession, and spiritual damnation, some might wonder why anyone would willingly choose to serve the Ruinous Powers. The answer is actually simple. Chaos judges its servants solely on their abilities and their records of success and failure in promoting the agenda of the individual Chaos Gods and of Chaos Undivided as a whole. Chaos also offers those who serve it the opportunity to perhaps one day wield power and respect far beyond the dreams of most mortals' avarice. For so many people, but particularly in the oppressive, feudal Imperium of Man, where too often family connections and inherited wealth are rewarded rather than ability, and where it is impossible on many worlds for a talented individual to ever better their lot, Chaos actually offers a substantial degree of freedom and the only real meritocracy that they have ever known. But Chaos is not a benevolent force, and for the vast majority of those who fall to Chaos' temptations, they will never no either power or position and will be little more than faceless puppets in the endless schemes of the Dark Gods. While Chaos may reward success with power, even the mightiest Chaotic servant becomes a slave of Chaos, never its master and most Chaotics will fail, eventually ending up as possessed daemonhosts, mindless Chaos Spawn, or simply as just another corpse in the heap, a pawn whose usefulness to the Ruinous Powers has ended.
Forces:1.Demons:A Demon is an intelligent entity of the Warp, and daemons are collectively the greatest servants of the Chaos Gods and of Chaos itself as a universal force. They are created at the whim of a Chaos God from a fraction of the God's own power and act as an extension of his will. A daemon's appearance and intrinsic character reflect the God's own nature. These daemons may be reabsorbed into the God's own psychic signature in the Warp at his whim.Being an intelligent entity of the Warp (a dimension of the Immaterium), a daemon cannot exist for long periods of time in realspace, any more than a mortal can survive unprotected in Warpspace. There are a few ways a daemon can breach the walls separating the Warp from realspace and gain entry into the material universe.
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2.Lost and the Damned:The Lost and the Damned consist of the scum of the galaxy - traitors to the Imperium, heretics,Chaos cultists, mutants and other horrors too numerous to comprehend, such as the insaneChaos Spawn. Often it is the Imperial Guard that turn from the Emperor's divine light to the darkness of the Forces of Chaos and so consequently they make up the bulk of the Lost and the Damned, providing the needed firepower. The Lost and the Damned are led into battle by mighty Aspiring Chaos Champions - Chaos Space Marines who turned Traitor to the Imperium millennia ago during the Horus Heresy. Entire regiments of Imperial Guardsmen also turned to Chaos, and took with them their vehicles, such as the Basilisk and the mightyLeman Russ main battle tank. Mutants often make up the bulk of these armies, with many disturbing and disgusting mutations - "gifts" from the Chaos Gods - adorning their once-human bodies. Chaos Space Marines lead the Lost and the Damned into battle, and accompanied by the monstrousDefiler, the Lost and the Damned are a deadly foe to face. In order to fulfil their own agendas, Champions of Chaos draw lesser Chaos followers to them. They form personal armies that can vary tremendously in size and strength. Often the Champion is a powerful demagogue, Imperial traitor or Arch-Heretic. In some cases it is even an Aspiring Chaos Champion - a mighty Chaos Space Marine who has left his Legion or Chapter with his retinue so that he may start his own warband and carve out his dominion in the galaxy. During a Black Crusade, however, individual Chaos Champions will put aside their petty wars and rivalries for a common cause and the Lost and the Damned form a nigh unstoppable tide that attacks with seemingly inexhaustible numbers.
3.Chaos Space Marines:A Chaos Space Marine, also sometimes called a Traitor Marine, is a former Loyalist Space Marine of the Imperium of Man who has chosen to betray the service of the Emperor of Mankind and dedicate his soul to the service of Chaos and its foul deities. Such corrupt Astartes normally belong to one of the 9 Traitor Legions that betrayed the Emperor during the ancient civil war called the Horus Heresy more than 10,000 standard years ago, while others come from Space Marine Chapters created long after the Heresy ended. Chaos can corrupt Astartes of any time and place just as its siren call leads many lesser men to their damnation. During the Horus Heresy, the terrible Imperial civil war that pitted the Battle-Brothers of the 18 known Space Marine Legions against one another, there were two factions. These were the Loyalist Space Marines who continued to serve the Imperium of Man, and serve the Emperor of Mankind and the Chaos Space Marines of the Traitor Legions who betrayed the Emperor's trust and pledged their souls to the dark service of the 4 Ruinous Powers of Chaos, and who were led by the Warmaster Horus, once a Primarch of the Imperium and the Emperor's most trusted friend, son, and adviser before he was corrupted by the promises and lies of the Ruinous Powers and his own inner flaws. The Traitors Legions were the most powerful component of theForces of Chaos which fought during the Heresy, which also included the myriad daemons of the Warp, human Traitors from the Imperial Army, the Dark Mechanicus andChaos Cultists drawn from across the galaxy. The flesh and Power Armour of Chaos Space Marines often warps and twists into new, darker and inhuman forms under the influence of the Chaos energies they are exposed to as their shapes morph to embody the corrupted Astartes' new allegiance. Chaos Space Marines fight for everything they were once forbidden to indulge in as the ascetic servants of the Emperor and the selfless guardians ofMankind. Pleasure, wealth, but above all else the power to rule their fellow men in the name of the Chaos Gods, is the driving ambition and goal of every Chaos Space Marine.
3.Eldar:The Eldar are a race of Elf or fey-like humanoids, and they are the most ancient and technologically advanced of all the intelligent races of the Milky Way Galaxy, with the exception of the Old Ones, the Necrons and their C'tanmasters. Their armies usually have the advantages of great mobility, potent psychic abilities and technology that is more advanced than that deployed by the human Imperium. In the sense that Warhammer 40,000 races are generally derived from the earlier Warhammer Fantasy universe, the Eldar are derived from the High Elves of the Warhammer World, except for the Eldar faction known as the Exodites who are the equivalent of the Wood Elves.
4.Dark Eldar:The Dark Eldar or Eldarith Ynneas in the Eldar Lexicon are the forsaken and corrupt kindred of the Eldar, an ancient and highly advanced alien race of fey humanoids. Their armies, like their Eldar counterparts, usually have the advantages of mobility and advanced technology, though they are often lacking in resilience and numbers. The Dark Eldar revel in piracy, enslavement and torture, and are sadistic in the extreme. Dark Eldar armies make use of various anti-gravity skimmers such as Raiders and Ravagers to launch high speed attacks. They strike with little or no warning, using an interdimensional labyrinth known as the Webway to traverse the galaxy safely and far more quickly than most advanced races are able to with their Warp jumps. The Dark Eldar are unique amongst the intelligent races of the Milky Way Galaxy because they do not live on a settled world or worlds, but rather the bulk of their population is concentrated in one foul city-state - the Dark City of Commorragh - that lies within the "ordered" Immaterium of the Eldar Webway. The Dark Eldar are mainly pirates and slavers who prey on targets across the galaxy to feed their unholy appetites for other sentient beings' souls, a terrible desire called the Thirst, though they are sometimes used as mercenaries by other species. The Dark Eldar are the living embodiments of all that is wanton and cruel in the Eldar character. Highly intelligent and devious to the point of obsession, this piratical people revel in the physical and emotional pain of others, for feeding upon the psychic residue of suffering is the only way they can stave off the slow consumption by the Chaos God Slaanesh of their own souls. The Dark Eldar, particularly their warrior castes, are tall, lithe, white-skinned humanoids. Their alabaster skin is death-like in its pallor, for there is no sun within their dark realm to provide color. Their athletic bodies are defined by whipcord muscle, shaped and enhanced until they are physically stronger on average than their Craftworld Eldar counterparts, as the Dark Eldar prize physical and martial prowess highly. Yet for all their physical beauty, the Dark Eldar are still repugnant monsters. When viewed with the witch-sight of a psyker, the Dark Eldar's black souls are revealed, for they eternally thirst only for the anguish and torment of other thinking beings in order to fill their own infinite emptiness. Unlike their Craftworld Eldar cousins, the Dark Eldar do not integrate their still powerful latent psychic abilities into their culture, and indeed have a great disdain for psykers of any kind. This is because for the Dark Eldar, the use of psychic abilities would only further draw the attention of She Who Thirsts (Slaanesh) upon them, and their souls are already at risk enough of being devoured by the Prince of Chaos.
5.Necrons:The Necrons are a mysterious race of skeletal warriors that have lain dormant in their stasis-tombs for millions of years and who are the soulless servants of the ancientC'tan, the terrible Star Gods of Eldar myth. They are ancient beyond reckoning, predating even the Eldar. At long last, however, they are beginning to awaken from their Tomb Worlds, for the galaxy is ripe for the greatest harvest of sentient beings to feed the eternal hunger of the C'tan since the demise or disappearance of the Old Ones.The Necrons are a mysterious robot-like race that have lain dormant and unknown by the other intelligent races of the Milky Way Galaxy for millions of years, and are reemerging in the distant future of the 41st Millennium. They are a completely cybernetic humanoid species whose technological prowess is probably unmatched by any of the other intelligent races of the galaxy. Yet out of a desire for vengeance against the more fortunate ancient xenos race called the Old Ones, and the trickery of the godlike intelligences born from the energies of the stars themselves known as the C'tan, they shed their organic forms and lost all forms of compassion and empathy, becoming ruthless killing machines who feed their master's endless appetite for the life energy of organic beings.
6.Orks:Orks are a warlike, green-skinned race of humanoids, spread across the galaxy. They share many features withWarhammer Fantasy Orcs (and were initially calledSpace Orcs to distinguish them). Some Games Workshop designers claim that Ork culture and military tactics are loosely based on that of the ancient Irish Celts. They are seen by their enemies (everyone else in the galaxy) as savage, warlike, and crude, but they are the most successful species in the whole galaxy, outnumbering possibly every other intelligent race, even humanity (with the very plausible exception of theTyranids, who are split between thousands of subspecies genetically engineered for specific purposes). However, this massive population of Orks is split into hundreds of tiny empires, often warring between themselves. It has been speculated that, were the Orks ever to unite, they would undoubtedly crush all opposition that would dare to stand against this sheer tsunami of green muscle.
7.Tau Empire:The Tau are a young, humanoid and highly technologically-advanced intelligent race native to the Eastern Fringes of the Milky Way Galaxy who are fighting to expand their interstellar empire and a philosophical concept they call the Greater Good. The Tau claim to be a peaceful race when possible, asking if others will join their cause voluntarily instead of fighting. However, if their peaceful overtures are refused, the Tau may well decide to conquer a planet and add it to their growing interstellar empire for the greater good, searing the flesh from the bones of anyone who stands against their benign expansions. Tau society is divided into a number of castes, each responsible for managing a specific aspect of their society. The Tau's central motivating ideal is that everyone in their empire will work for the good of everyone else.The Tau are the central figures of the Tau Empire, an interstellar polity which is composed of several different intelligent species, primarily the Kroot of Pech, the Vespid of the world of Vespid and the nomadic Nicassar, though there are now several human Tau Septs derived from conquered Imperial humans or humans who voluntarily joined the Tau Empire because they were impressed by the concept of the Greater Good. The Tau are a relatively young race (it has been only 6,000 years since Imperial Inquisitors first noted that the Tau had only just mastered fire and the wheel), and they have evolved rapidly over the past few millennia. Unlike other young intelligent races of the galaxy, the Tau have made remarkable leaps in technology and now represent a real threat to Imperial domination in their region of the galaxy.
8.Tyranids:The Tyranid "species", is actually a space-faring ecosystem that collectively forms a monstrous superorganism that travels the universe in Hive Fleets, systematically consuming all other biomatter to enable its own rapid evolution and reproduction. All Tyranid organisms are Synaptic (psychically-reactive), and each Tyranid creature within a Hive Fleet shares in a communal Hive Mind, granting the ability for trillions of beings to communicate and organize instantaneously on a staggering scale.The mentality of the Tyranid approach to warfare can be described with the phrase "quantity has a quality all its own". From the "lowly" Ripper, to the deadly Hive Tyrant and beyond, the signature of the Tyranid force is that they overwhelm their foes with sheer numbers, reproducing massive numbers of highly virulent organisms in record time from the biochemical soup that they derive from the biospheres of the worlds that they consume. The components of a Tyranid Hive Fleet travel almost exclusively in large groups known as swarms that possess specialized biomechanical creatures for destroying and consuming a wide variety of prey life forms. Tyranids have evolved sophisticated methods for facilitating genetic transfer across species boundaries. As a result, a significant goal of any Tyranid invasion is acquisition of useful new biological traits from other lifeforms. These are used by the Hive Mind to enhance the Tyranids' effectiveness in consuming new worlds to gain more of the necessary organic raw materials for further reproduction. All Tyranids are reproduced by a single, highly intelligent female bioform known as a Norn-Queen. A Hive Fleet's Norn-Queens are the most important Tyranids within the fleet, for if they are injured or killed the Tyranids cannot reproduce their numbers from the captured bio-mass. As a result, Norn-Queens can be found only at the heart of the largest and most-well defended Tyranid Hive Ships.The Tyranids were initially described in the 1st Edition of Warhammer 40,000 (Rogue Trader), with their basic form not too different from that used today. Their only additional troop type was an enslaved race, the Zoat. At that time they were not an emphasized race in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. In later editions they became a playable race in their own right, and it was revealed that the Genestealers (first popularized in Space Hulk) were in fact part of the advance reconnaissance element of the main Tyranid Hive Fleets. The Tyranids bear many similarities to the xenomorphs from the Aliens movie series, such as their hive mentality and the appearances of some of the creatures.
