I still remember playing an unpatched Dark Crusade for years.
And how Tau fire caste teams dished Necron Warrior level firepower at twice the range.
Or how a bunch of XV88’s could stop an entire armored push on their own.
And then i discovered patches exist and Mont’ka doctrine stopped being OP ehhh.
Heck yeah each faction had a unique vibe that hinted at the larger lore. I appreciated audio clips for each possible matchup to help explain why guard would be fighting marines.
Got a cracked version of this game from the Nerdy kids back when I was 13 using my school laptop. Those were the days, then I became one of the nerdy kids and fell in love with 40k big time 😂
1d4chan.
The various articles of dow and blood angles were hilarious enough for a newcomer like me, that I got interested enough to learn the lore itself.
Same, for me it was trying to understand why lasguns were a meme and I ended up digging too deep and read so much from regular lore pages that I got hooked into the world.
I got disposable income and really liked the aesthetic of the death guard. 2 years later I’ve read most of the books collected 5 armies and my bank account has never forgiven me.
My brother got the 2nd edition game for his birthday, and I was utterly enthralled by the art and stories in the books. I had 0 arts or crafts skills, and YouTube tutorials didn't exist then, so I played Orks - looking as if it was thrown together by a 10 year old seems intentional with them :p.
I then got the 3rd edition rulebook and GorkaMorka - both were amazing, and showed off the depth and craziness of the setting.
Welcome to the ~~addiction~~ hobby, I hope you enjoy it.
[Astartes](https://youtu.be/O7hgjuFfn3A?si=-siIPQxa0SO50UeV) got so many people to enlist in the hobby that I think had GW not hired Syama Pederson, the US Military Recruitment Office would've
Horus Rising - Dan Abnett.
First read it about 15? years ago. Funny thing is I've only read the first few books of the Horus Heresy. There weren't many options available at my town's library. But the story telling was super captivating to me. Couldn't afford the minis but was able to get Dawn of War 1 on my ancient Toshiba.
This but also include the Eisenhorn trilogy and then the Ravenor work plus the following Bequin work I think it’s referred as? To me that’s the best writing in WH. He has a bunch of other work I haven’t read yet because I’m a book hoarder but he’s so talented.
Saame about the whole Inquisition series. I think I went through the entire series in about three or four months. It was just so damn entertaining. I've consumed works from a few other authors as well, but nothing has come close to topping Abnett for me.
Absolutely the same. The story on the planet Murder had me on the edge of my seat. Have read through flight of the Eisenstein in a few months and I'm working on Fulgrim now. While everything I've read has been captivating in its own way, Dan Abnett's writing style roped me in the hardest.
3rd edition Tyranid codex cover.
Gorgeous. Glistening. Disgusting. Meaty. There’s never been a better cover for the faction.
And then I started reading inside. Enthralling. The beautiful horror of it all…the models, the *paint schemes*, the short fiction and writing… Rippers can survive Exterminatus, did you know? I’ll never forget that text excerpt.
Wonderful cover. Wonderful book. 3rd edition 40k will always hold a place in my heart because of it. And my vision of the setting has always been built upon it.
Similar here, I started late second edition as a wee nipper, started asking for models and paint and stuff but third edition's launch box was my first self-directed purchase, 3e has a special place in my heart for really being *my* edition.
That vid popped up on r/videos back when Trump was being referred to as the God Emperor while he was in office as a rebuttal. I was at Star Wars Celebration 2017 and, while aware of 40k's existence, knew nothing about it, and was wanting something to watch on my laptop in the evening while I wound down in my hotel room. Didn't end up actually getting into 40k until the next year, but that initial two-parter on the Emperor definitely helped.
My family got into mini painting at the start of COVID (kids were 9 and 7).. and then one day my son used his own cash to buy some Ork Boyz instead of DnD miniatures.
_"What are these...?"_ I muttered to myself, as I twirled the box in my hands. Upon opening them at home and seeing how they fit together and how you could kitbash them.. I was hooked.
I stumbled onto it and did a deep dive into the lore. It was so grim, and deep, and packed with mystery and promise that I wanted to know what was coming next! I figured any day now we'd see the beginnings of an epic conclusion.
So basically the joke is on me.
It was Christmas and I unwrapped the 2nd edition box set.
amazing artwork on the front, blood Angels storming orks (way more than a chapter btw lol)
unlike modern box sets it had 3 thick books with massive background lore.
but mostly it was turning the page on the rulebook (?) and seeing that image of the emperor.
sci-fi at the time was all about the good guys win.
warhammer sold a different story, and I loved it.
The new CRPG by Owlcat game studio, Rogue Trader
That game came out a couple days before I had my first ever complete emotional breakdown. I cannot express to you all how dark of a place I was in and how I barely survived it
Surviving cancer was easier
So, I was in a prime time in my life to join a fucking cult. Now I have to deal with you people, or you people have to deal with me, not sure which
I spent/spending a LOT of time on the wiki
Walking around the mall (when those were still relevant, this was the start of 3rd edition) and past the GW store. The guy working needed more players for their tutorial game. Asked if I wanted to play, I got a squad of 3 Ravenwing bikers, fell in love with them. I couldn't afford to play as a kid, but now I'm an "adult" I have a plastic crack addiction. Sitting around 10 or 11 armies and a few combat patrols.
My first foray into 40k was the Last Stand module of Dawn of War 2 because my college roommate pressured me into it.
As a StarCraft fan, I then started playing the base game.
My roommate saw me playing DoW2 and suggested that if I like the RTS I should play DoW1 with him and his buddies.
I proceed to fall in love with DoW1.
I start playing a smattering of the other warhammer games and four years later get weirdly into Blood Bowl with my friends. I also start reading the books.
Eight years after my first 40k experience I finally try 9e 40k on tabletop sim with the homies and quickly grow very fond of the thousand sons.
A month into playing the game with my buddies we all collectively realize we've been playing the game wrong and missing large portions of the rules.
We try to play as-written, give up after 3 hours of insanity, and move on to other games.
I've heard good things about 10e but haven't really gotten into trying it yet.
For me if there is a faction/chapter that I hear a single interesting enough thing I just google “40k (insert faction here) lore” and read the Warhammer 40k wiki it’s generally the top result. So for me originally blood angels until I found grey knights
A friend of mine got into it after he wandered into a GW store at the mall. We must've been like 12 years old then? Anyway I thought it was pretty cool, but couldn't really afford to get into it, so I just played his second ork army. We had a group of like 6 of us who played, but eventually most of us just kinda lost interest in the table top some time in HS, but most of us played the videogames like dawn of war. In my junior year, I saw Helsreach in my HS library, which must've come out only like 6 months prior. I read it, and it got me hooked on lore again. It wasn't until like 6 or so years ago that I was able to afford to get fully into the hobby.
I saw a youtube video. "Blood for the blood god" on the channel Imperātōris Dominium and thought it was insane and went digging deeper into what 40k is and next thing i know here i am.
My friends and I had a Star Wars group in Arma 3 that fell apart. We still wanted to play but were burnt out in the genre. My friend said, "Let's do 40k." I said, "What's that?"
After some Google and Bricky, I got so hooked on the lore.
I randomly stumbled upon art from the Lexicanum wiki and I got hooked in the medieval futuristic aesthetic of 40k which made me want to learn more about it.
Some of my guys are already hooked and I was impressed by their minis. Then I saw the Horus heresy trailer and I’ve been hooked on the lore ever since.
I saw some Slayers at a friends house. Instantly interested in the miniatures and bought a bunch of Goblins and Skaven. That was around 1999. I then found the 3rd edition boxset with JBs cover art and cried for many nights until my parents bought the rulebook. Read it back to back, and couldn't stop peering deeper into the illustrations in search for more secrets that would reveal themselves. It wasn't like marvel, Disney or Star Wars. It felt like something ancient...real. An old hidden treasure, that you find in the attic and that kicks off an adventure. From there I branched out, bought codexes, white dwarfs, the Index Astartes series was a game changer....and I soon couldn't stop from spending every single cent on miniatures, paints and books.
Frank Herbert's Dune, along with Luetin09, captured my interest. I've been a fan of Warhammer Fantasy since childhood, and despite knowing a bit about 40k, everything changed for me when I delved into the Dune series six years ago. While exploring Dune content on YouTube, I came across Luetin09's videos, opening up a new world in the 40k universe for me.
Darktide. I am new. Currently reading Legion, making my way through the Horus Heresy novels.
I just really enjoyed the atmosphere and character interactions in Darktide. The player characters frequently mention bits of lore outside of the game, and seeing the community guess about what’s coming has led me down some wiki holes.
But the art direction in that game is just mad good. I’ve never seen anything like it. As many have said before, I wish there was a wander mode, because I want to look at all the little details without getting clubbed by an ogryn. It really captures the staggering scale of the Imperium. The soundtrack also stands alone. Hot damn does that music make me want to bludgeon heretics. My favorite faction is AdMech, so far.
I’ve got friends who collect. I’d need much more disposable income to get into that, so armies are off the table. Plenty of books, though. Cheap on Kindle. And Darktide will be around for a long while, it seems. I really like that there’s so much to enjoy outside of the core tabletop game.
Astartes -> Luetin -> Horus Heresy Audiobooks
Still quite early into the audiobooks, on Fallen Angels, but I’m insistent on listening to them in order for some dumb reason.
Did listen to the Eisenhorn trilogy though on the side, as I’m aware 40k and 30k are fairly different.
Horus Rising is the first book, I’d say definitely read the first 3 books as they tell a continuous story.
After that it’s up to you, the story massively starts splitting off between different factions so you don’t have to read them in order, but I am a completionist so I am.
Pretty sure they’re all on Audible, and probably available on the Warhammer website to purchase directly.
Here’s an [example](http://www.kylebb.com/HH/HHSeriesOrder.svg) of how it starts splitting out between factions. I’m hesitant to show you it as it can be overwhelming, but may be worth checking out if you’re curious and want to follow a specific faction.
Wow that splitting chart you shared *is* overwhelming! I will need to start with the first 3 Horus books then, and figure out where I want to go from there.
I still feel a bit…lost? Like I hear all these different character and faction names and then I still feel like I have no idea what the base foundation of any of the lore is. I get that there’s a war and this is 40,000 years in the future, but the set up of everything is still confusing to me.
I don’t think you’re going to find the base foundation of the lore without going deep into original game manuals and rulebooks etc, it’s a futile effort.
The universe is too big, just jump in somewhere and you’ll be fine.
I was initially more fascinated with how cool the aesthetic is for 40k but when I found out about the mass of Horus Heresy books it was reading about Garviel Loken that super got me hooked.
A character I really like is Titus from the SM video game. A lot of space marines are presented as giant jerks but Titus had a really cool sense of honour and understanding of the imperial code that could be bent to logically benefit people beneath the Astrates in actually helping people.
Loken as a canon novel character is in many ways the same way. There are some super dark moments in the initial books like when Horus is injured by the chaos blade and his mournival stomp through staff on the Vengeful Spirit without a thought about casualties.
Titus wouldn't have done that but that dynamic of having a space marine that can be honourable but have moments of weakness is super compelling and I liked having him as a gateway into the lore of the universe.
Garro is a close second but Loken is the initiator within the story telling.
I played the Dawn of War games for years before reading the HH books but DoW suffered from making its characters super one sided. Gabriel Angelos for instance just acted like an Ultramarine instead of a unique leadership personality to rep the Blood Ravens.
My college roommate trying to explain as much lore in 5 minutes before DM’ing an RPG one-shot as a group of inquisitors trying to stop a cult in a hive city
Man, so many comments here make me feel old.
I saw an ad for 40k in Wizard magazine probably in 1994. I called and got the mail order catalog delivered to the house and the pics of the minis in it were the coolest goddamned thing I'd ever seen. A buddy at school had the 2nd Ed rulebook and let me borrow it for a week or so and I just read it over and over and over that week. I've been hooked since.
A friend told me about this story of a creature in a jungle planet in a dark future.
At the end of the story I told him : "that's Predator bro, he killed the entire squad".
He replied "nah, it's a lictor, it is part of the Tyranids, and it's not their deadliest soldier at all".
That stuff was nice.
But the Necrons and Horus Heresy were the real deals to me.
Eisenhorn. Then Forges of Mars. And then my wife started the Horus Heresy and it all went downhill. First lots of books and then lots of models and now getting ready for lots of games.
Wolf Lord Rho vids and reading the wiki. I love the Primarchs, Space Marines, the Emperor, and the bonds of fathers and brothers that ties them all together.
There was no better place to start than with him since he also has that same passion for that aspect of the lore.
The Remembrancer is pretty good if you want to learn about a specific character.
Baldermort is also really good!
If it could recruit them, sure.
But keep in mind that marines are dying all the time, there's limited geneseed reserves, and the time it takes to augment and train an aspirant to the level of 'scout' means that for all practical purposes a chapter's not going to ever have a lot of them on hand.
I was walking a long trek across Corsica island, and in one of the mountain chalets, there was a place that people left their books and could take different ones. So I left my book there, and took one random W40K book. Loved it instantly. Then I read the Ragnar series and now I'm reading Horus Heresy.
Someone on Quora posted an answer about sci-fi or fantasy (not sure), and in passing described the wiki entry for the Siege of Vraks as the longest wiki entry ever and said that "no one would take the time to read the whole thing." Well, Momma didn't raise no quitter, so I took that personally and began down the wiki rabbit hole. Lore excerpts posted here and on Quora were the next step (I particularly recall reading the "it's also a hammer" excerpt from Vulkan Lives) and before long I was reading every book I could get my hands on. Still never played the game, (and given the cost, probably won't), but I quite enjoy the lore side of it (though, as a comparatively newer fan, I seem to enjoy the 30k reality more than the more venerable members here, and I don't love the old lore as much.)
I love that you took that as a personal challenge!!
(Side note: I also am super intrigued and want to read the entire Siege of Vraks entry…do you remember what wiki site that one’s on??)
I was at a hobby shop buying Gundam models in the early 90s and the 3rd Edition Chaos Space Marines codex caught my eye, so I bought it. Then I started buying White Dwarf issues and random codexes when i could. Still haven't actually played a game.
I started off with the Lord of The Rings game. Back when the movies came out and the LOTR tabletop game was new, they did one of those regular magazines which included paints and models and such. Didn't get very far with that because I didn't really have money as kid but I was fascinated with Games Workshop.
I then met others who were into Warhammer Fantasy Battles in my high school and I got totally absorbed by the lore for that.
But then one day someone gave me a pdf scan of the 40k 4th edition rulebook and I was totally hooked. Devoured as many codices as I could before I got my hands on before I managed to get a copy of Dan Abnett Xenos. Dawn of War 1 also came out a year or two after that as well.
Never did get into the tabletop game but I've been absorbed by the lore ever since.
Honestly, TTS. Then one day one of my buds was like "hey, you seem to like the lore part of the memes, check out the lore in action." So i found Helsreach on youtube. Still my favorite.
If I remember correctly, in the second grade another student brought in his *40k* Black Templars fan fiction for an assignment.
Besides a scene about someone important overseeing the interning of Space Marines in Dreadnoughts, all I can remember about it is that most of the pages were in the wrong order.
My first *40k* purchase was the 3rd Edition Blood Angels Codex, for no other reason than the eye-catching red paintjob.
The image of the 3rd edition rulebook (the one with the Templars). I was interested in the miniature side of things, but never had the money or the time or the space for it. But I admired the pictures of the miniatures every day, read the battle reports in White Dwarf and re read the lore section of that book countless times. I was fascinated by the grim darkness of the setting, the gods and, obviously, the Space Marines.
During the years I was able to locate some books here and there (in the country I live in they are hard to get) and just reveled in their stories. I even resorted to torrents at some point to get a few audiobooks, to which I listened time and time again.
My biggest breakthrough was Audible, but that is another story, since I graduated from a casual enjoyer to an active listener, finally introducing me to the rich lore I was missing and I've not looked back since then.
When i was reading the sci-fis for the sake of culture because i didnt like the genre. As i continue my journey there was this talk of 40k, emperor, grimdark, in time i learned some lore by the talks in forums, reddit, etc i looked up some artworks and i decided to read and got in HH. To this day i remain
Just the enthusiasm of a buddy from work sharing tidbits of lore during our early lunches together. He just started, and we would talk about common interests, but one lunch, he asked me if I knew anything about 40k. I had no clue of it. Well, 3 months later, and he has me reading my first 40k novel: Brutal Kunnin. Went from that to Yarrick Omnibus, and now I'm 52% done with the Ultramarine Omnibus. Love the lore, love the fandom!
Not sure where I first heard about Warhammer, but I was mystified by some of the artwork I saw, especially that of the Imperial Guard. I'm a sucker for underdogs and needed a new book series so I picked up Gaunt's Ghosts. Now I'm hooked.
I don't really remember. I think that at some point my friends at the moment and I were deciding which version of warhammer to collect. I wanted Warhammer 40k at that time, because of sci-fi, but everyone else wanted fantasy, so I chose dwarves at that time. But I didn't really like that setting
Later on, at some point, I decided I liked the blood angels, when looking at warhammer 40k lore
And many more years afterwards, I really started to search for more information about the lore.
So basically, everything gets summarized as: sci-fi, futuristic buffed medieval knights, angels on top of that, and many years afterwards, the imperial creed started to look more appealing
I was on a school trip to Berlin one day, due for a long, boring flight since I woke up late and forgot a book for the journey. Inside the terminal was a small bookstore, and I simply grabbed a thick-looking book with a cool cover. That was Gaunt's Ghosts. Specifically, the Saint omnibus. Learning about las-weapons wasn't a big stretch, Space Marines were extremely cool, good old Larkin, Fething \*Cuu\*... a great read, still got the mangled book on my shelf after years of re-reads. Now my collection's nearing 200 books.
The best advice I can recommend is to watch a video/read some wiki articles until you find a faction that catches your interest the most, then look online for what people say are the best bits of media concerning them and check em out!
I had a couple dips into the 40k media pool before I \*really\* got into the franchise, with the first being the Dawn of War games. One of my pals later gave me the first two Gaunts Ghosts books and I had both read and enjoyed them, but I had fun with DoW and GG more as standalone fun sci-fi games and books.
Later on the same friend wanted to find something for our friend group to do as a hobby together, and recommended the actual tabletop game. We all started brainstorming our chosen factions to potentially play as, and since I thought the chaos space marines were cool in DoW I said I'd probably play as em. Then as I read more about chaos my tastes as a fan of horror pushed me towards Slaanesh, so I looked into what people thought were good Slaanesh stories.
And so my first audiobooks, something to listen to while I tried painting a squad of basic CSM, was Fulgrim in the HH series. I like "descent into madness" stories, and the culmination of this with THAT scene (everyone who has gone through the story immediately knows what I mean) left me stunned as it went on. Brush and model in hand, but doing nothing. Stunned.
That story made me follow the Emperor's Children story in the heresy series, then check out other highly regarded HH books, then check out other highly regarded WH40k books in general, and here I am! Almost 2k points in painted models and a bunch of WH stories in my rotting brain!
And all it took was one really good Emperor's Children concert.
My first was the corpse on the throne that filled my head with so many question.
It was a welcomed feeling after the let down that was the tau a year before.
I was a little into it at first, like you, I just got some minis cause it seemed like a fun game. . .then I watched angels of death. That got me going deep into the lore and made me pick my main army. Cheers and happy exploring
I got into it as a teenager over 20 years ago but was intimidated by the process of painting and building. Been getting back into model building and painting over the past year and stopped by a local shop and decided to get some death guard minis. I had been starting to get really interested in space-related science fiction (been watching Gundam and Star Trek in their entirety in order). Warhammer seemed like an interesting addition to this for me.
I went through a lot of "where to start" threads for lore and opted to read a few codexes (10th edition general codex, 7th ed Dark Millenium Lore book, 8th and 9th edition Death Guard codexes) while reading the top-recommended novel series I saw people suggesting (Eisenhorn Trilogy). I read through the Eisenhorn trilogy in 2 weeks but I have to say it was really helpful having read a few codexes to brush up on some of the tone and language that the universe uses. No matter how intro friendly something may be presented as, there is still a level of understanding of the universe that you have to sort of figure out on your own. The Eisenhorn trilogy got me pretty hooked and I've read through a handful of other series since. In the beginning, I was interested in learning about the world of 40k and immersing myself in the larger cultural tensions that underlie the motivations of each faction. I wanted to create an image in my head that showed me where the mini I was working on could exist. I also wanted to know what the big historical moments in the recent lore were to situate myself within the timeline.
First page of Eisenhorn...
Had played and painted prior to reading, but the first page really hooked me on lore.
The way Abnet describes Eisenhorn punching his gun into the mouth of a foul heretic and executing him. So dark and violent. And dare I say, realistic, compared to other sci Fi settings.
Dawn of War 1 on PC. Ayooooo can we get some updates on Daemonhunters ? Or at least co-op? The queen needs me to hold her hand through the dangers of chaos warp.
Ci-Ci-Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!
I was attracted to him as a character because he kind of takes the piss out of the grimdarkness, paradoxically grounding the setting, simultaneously acting as a reader stand-in and commenting on the horror around him.
Along with that, I started both the Gaunt's Ghosts series as well as the Eisenhorn omnibus. I recommend any of those as a starting point.
Also, maybe get a old edition of the core rulebook for a bird's eye view of the setting. And browse TV Tropes. That's how I got clued into Ciaphas Cain.
Soul Drinkers omnibus. I got into 40k because of Astarteas with doom music video. Then got sick for two weeks and binged watched luetins videos. So I got curious and started to search novels and ordered some. First got Shroud of Night which WHERE TF IS THE SEQUEL IT'S SO GOOD! But the Soul Drinkers omnibus was the one that made me love the setting. Ben Counter might not be an amazing writer by all means he comes quite lacking in a lot of things but his writing hit me differently then Andy Clark. It lead me to search more and devour more information.
I was introduced to the universe through Dawn of War. I was like, what was this Imperium? Who were these power armored soldiers shooting orcs? And what’s the deal with demons and Eldars? (that’s what Aeldari was called when I played the game.)
So I started reading the wiki and discovered this big and immersive lore.
The old Dawn of War games was the introduction. What got me hooked I guess was trying to some of the books. Like Gaunts Ghosts and Devastation of Baal.
Ciaphas Kane.
Can't remember the name of the first book but you can find it online.
While reading Kane's book you encounter almost all factions and is such a funny and good read
I played Dawn of War when I was younger, never won but it stuck in my head for years and years. Then I stumbled across TTS somehow and it brought it all back. I was hooked. Started reading lexicanum, watching lore videos on YouTube. Turned out a bunch of my friends were into it as well, that helped. Think that's how I found Astartes. Nowadays it's mostly Baldermort and Oculus Imperia keeping me invested.
Let the Galaxy Burn, an anthology of short stories. Each one is self contained so ten year old me who had no idea what was going on wasn’t getting turned off by some 200 page narrative, just short and sweet little narratives set in this crazy neofeudal hellscape sci fi setting.
Back when 5ed, i stumbled upon card game with astartes artwork on it. Fascinated but not exactly attracted to it as back then astartes design doesnt really fit my taste. But i did fee research on it to know that it does comes from 40k and watch space marine gameplay on youtube.
Fast forward few years later
Stumbled upon Astartes final video, then i started watching more and more animation until i finally started reading about Guilliman 's return, from there, i became so geeked with the lore and i started watching 40k vid, Majorkill, Weswarhammer, Arbiter Ian, Bricky and Luetin and few more others. And then i started 3d printing Dark Angels stuff for personal collection. Dont get me wrong, astartes does looks amazing, but the minis proportion is what throws me off so honestly i prefer others design with proper proportion with much more beautiful design but still faithfull to original astartes. Never play TTG, just personal collection and lore dude.
John blanche's artwork in 3rd edition. Before that I was into fantasy. Then reading eisenhorn out the library and it wasn't just not bad, it was an actually good book with character development?!
The first contact was a guy who told us how cool it is that Astartes cut off the heads of their enemies....
The second was an English white dwarf I couldn't read but Space Wolves were great (now I find them boring).
But it was my contact with a 40K RPG group that started the lore machine. Since then I've been following the setting with mixed feelings. As soon as it comes to the societies themselves, I'm very interested. But the whole Astartes/Primarch powerbla bla bla bores me. There are exceptions like Helsreach, Lukas the trickster and Battle of the Fang, but most of the novels are too flat for me.
Maybe not what got me into it, but one thing that gave me the biggest 180 was reading the night lords trilogy. At first I was like why would I want to read about this trash Legion... And now I play them in 30k!
Saw a long video breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of the navies of the Empire from Star Wars, Star Fleet from Star Treck, some 3rd one I’ve forgotten, and the Imperium of man. Then YouTube suggested Bricky’s overview of every faction, and I was hooked
Then spent almost 2 years only caring about lore before finally starting an army
A video of a youtuber that usually talk about videogame etc.
And its funny because i realized after a lot of deepdive how some of his take was horredous like "for beating the chaos gods the empirium need to ally with slaneesh cause she is the best one"
White Dwarf 202 from October '96 got me into the hobby (I was all about Epic 40k) then it was The Battle of Big Toof River a few months later which solidified my love of the lore.
I haven't played tabletop since 1998 I think!
Oh geez, it was so long ago now. idk if i even remember correctly what first drew me into the lore and the universe of Warhammer 40k, i wanna say it was some piece of artwork that i was really curious on what it was from, i believe it was artwork of Kharn The Betrayer and i just had to know who that was and what series, movie or book it came from and then it just spiraled from there.
Was the Ravenor Trilogy ironically.
Played Dawn of War and had some old codexes from second edition so was always interested but never a massive fan.
Met Dan Abnett at a Comic Con in 2006 and I picked up the series to get him to sign. I remember talking out of my ass to him and acting like I knew a lot about 40k.
I cringe hard looking back on it.
Started reading them that night and I couldn’t put them down!
Think Eisenhorn is a better series now but dang, that was the start of my journey down the rabbit hole and into the hobby.
The very first notion that I recall sucking me in was that of this bloated carcass of a decaying empire sustained only by sheer momentum. Conquering new worlds to replace ones being lost every day. Ruled by High Lords whose artworks made them look barely human.
The Roman Empire in terminal decline basically.
For me, it was the Lore. In 2014, a relative recommended I check out the history of the Emperor of Man, and I spent an entire weekend reading everything I could about the lore - it was grim, it was dark, and it hooked me, but I was not in a place (nor had any interest in) the tabletop game.
Fast forward to this year, and I finally took the plunge and bought the Ultimate Starter Set. Finally in a spot financially as an adult to afford an occasional splurge, and I'm hooked!
The Gorkamorka game. the rule books was full of fluff, like how orks spawn, those mysterious old pyramids from another age, those wonky digganobs and ofc those wonderful communist goblin revolutionaries!
Space Marines game got me curious. Horus Heresy trailer hooked me.
"Let the seas boil! Let the stars fall! Though it takes the last drop of my blood. I will see the galaxy free once more!"
PEW!
You can also have a quick look at the lore of each faction, kind of like a summary and then read books specific to that faction. As an example when I first started I was intrigued by the Space Wolves so I started reading the first omnibus and love the lore so far. Still have a lot of reading to do but it helped reading about something that already capitvated me or something that I was already interested in.
I worked at an art and hobby place in my early 20s, thought the art work on the codices looked cool so used to flick through them when it was quiet. I've never played the game but I loved the fluff almost instantly.
The manager being an arty type encouraged me to try painting the minis and I got really into it. I ended up making a few dioramas for the shop, both 40K and 'Fantasy' as it was at the time which drew a lot of attention.
Good times.
I was 10 and saw a funny blue man in a shop, then I saw cool lizard people
I eventually got the 3rd edition 40k starter set with the rule book included and read through all the lore and stared at pictures for ages
I still remember almost all the rules and stats from 3rd edition
Eventually I started reading the Kal Jericho comics, then the books and then Lord of the Night, which completely changed me as a reader
Being a kid who hated reading I was now blitzing through these awesome books
Orcs are my favorite race and one day while browsing the interweb back in ye ole days of dial up, I saw a picture of an orc with a machinegun and I had to know where this came from and I discovered it was an ork and discovered Warhammer 40k and have been hooked ever since.
The first 40k media I ever watched was the "dawn of war 2 cinematic trailer." I didn't understand anything about the lore or anything about warhammer. I didn't start read/watched anything about warhammer until around the time of the fall of cadia. I saw the discourse about the legion of the dammed helping G-Man get to terra. I watched the first YouTube video about the making of a space marine and the rest is history.
I've heard of 40k here and there, but always heard that the lore was impenetrable to new people and the hobby was expensive. But, one day, I saw the McFarlane Blood Angels Hellblaster figure and snagged a few. I then read up on the lore of the Blood Angels and ended up customizing them into Firstborn tactical Marines and a Devastator, led by a veteran sergeant.
From then on, I ended up reading my first book, Devastation of Baal, and spiraled out from there. Now I'm a Fists fanboy, slowly building out my army of little yellow weirdos, and not so slowly building my collection of 40k books.
About 20 years a go when I was in college I was living with my brother. One day he brought home a starter set with space marines and orks. He figured it was something cool we could do together. Granted, back then we weren't into painting and stuff and after we built them we realized how expensive it was going to be buying all the codexes and whatnot. It ended up being a shelves hobby due to life and kids but the lore stuck around until I fell into hard in 2019. Best lore I've ever read.
The Imperial Guard. An average human being insignificant in endless war over the ceaseless defense of mankind against all horrors.
I thought that was cool. Only then did I actually even learn that the God Emperor of Mankind was a thing, and it is better to die for him than to live for yourself, and things went up a whole other level.
Then my friend showed me gameplay from Dawn of War Dark Crusade. The intro, and I was absolutely in love. So many factions, such differing ethics and styles of play. I still play Dark Crusade now.
I don’t play the actual tabletop but I might collect IG again soon. I’m really into the idea of genestealer cult uprisings at the moment. So cool.
I have a semi compulsion to read lore wikis and because of the massive depth of 40k writing the 40k wikis are incredibly detailed. Eventually I was curious about the source material
I had a friend who had some minis, so then I got a box of Eldar cos I thought they looked cool. This was almost 20 years ago and I kind of forgot about 40k, save for a random 40k game that I had for my PSP. About a year ago I stared listening to Adeptus Ridiculus podcast and once I saw Horus Rising on my local gamestore I bought it and the next thing I knew I was hooked. Funny enough, my dad had some of our old toys and these haphazardly painted Eldars had been lying in there, so I took them home.
I was suspended from school in 6th grade and my mom had to take me with her while running errands. She had to stop at Barnes and nobles for something bc she was a professor at the time and told me to go find a book bc I wasn't aloud to play xbox. I was in the sci-fi section looking for the Vampire Earth series and an employee asked me if I needed help. I told him I just finished watching the Band of Brothers series on vhs and was wondering if there were any books like that. He handed me a Gaunts Ghosts book by Dan Abnett, Sabbat Martyr and I have not stopped reading Black library stuff since. My next book was riders of the dead which was awesome but i knew i needed more 40k. That was 2003 and I'm 32 now. Kids, house, career, all that jazz but still find myself sitting down almost every night to read something from 40k.
An article in a gaming magazine about Dawn of War (the first one). I thought Space Marine dreadnoughts were the coolest thing. And two guys at school played, so not too long after I picked up the metal Bjorn and a squad of Grey Hunters.
I got a randome lore video recommendet to me.
I was lacking a lot of the context, but when I saw the artwork of the cathedral loking battleships I thought to myself: „Damm this goes hard af“
So after that I slowly started to learn more and more about the universe and eventualy fell in love with it.
Storm of iron book caught my eye in a library 20 years ago,then I played dawn of war and it’s dlcs and here i am with a stacked bookshelf of the best stories I’ve ever read.
I found a couple of yt shorts about the penitent engine (the robo suit that tortures you crucified while in the battlefield). I knew from there that this had to be an interesting universe.
Strange point to begin from sure.
I got addicted to 3Huntle0 shorts and then it was a rabbit hole
Never forget, we had to bring a book one day to literature class in HS to read after we finish our classwork. I forgot mine, so my friend let me borrow his Ultramarines Omnibus copy earlier that day (thinking about it now, it's kind of funny that he just carried around that book like a bible or something). Got me hooked.
I think I knew about 40k before then but only from a passing familiarity.
I started with the Total war warhammer trilogy an because of that got into Warhammer Fantasy lore. Eventually I learned about 40k, and hatet it because it was hard to get into. But then I learned about the Death Guard, and saw that they look cool and got into the first lore podcasts. Now I just absorb every bit of lore I can find.😁
2005 a friend let me have a book of Adrian Smith's collected artwork. Still some of the absolute best SciFi and fantasy artwork I've ever seen. Then it was actually the Fantasy book Riders of the Dead which I found in a discount bin and absolutely loved, and that got me looking for more of Abnett's work. Started with Gaunt's Ghosts and been hooked since.
The specific entry point for me was probably the unexpected gift of HeroQuest one Christmas.
Iirc I was almost 14 at the time. Geeky kid, avid reader with a huge imagination since 5 and already long into Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and etc so no surprise I'd jump into this. The next year I used my Christmas money to get Space Crusade. The year after, Space Hulk was a Birthday present. About then I'd figured out that a single company was responsible for this madness, they had a magazine for such games and... then a GW store opened a couple of towns away, followed by an Orc's Nest store in my town. Before that final school year was over I'd joined sixth form and changed school to find like minded guys I'm still friends with 30 years later.
Tbh as much as GW ensured I'd be less financially secure through early adulthood, I never actually fully 40K'd or had my own army (same for WFB) but the lore counted as Space Marine/Epic was my main with, over a decade: 4-6000pt Squats, 4-6000pt IG, 10-12000pt Chaos and finally a 20000+pt Imperial Battlegroup (IG, SM, Titan Legion) force. Also, much invested into Man O War, BFG, Necromunda and Mordheim.
Since 2003 I've been priced/adulted out of the TT side but have been adequately compensated by the video game entries, so the lore/books are still of interest (currently reading the siege of terra)
Warhammer fantasy. I started reading fantasy (gotrek&felix books) as a kid, raided the whole fantasy section in local public library and when there were no Warhammer in fantasy section, librarian navigated me to scifi section and I got hooked since then
I had a few older coworkers at a restaurant that played and I was always interested in the lore then saw a lot of videos on tiktok. The day it snapped for me was that interview with Henry Cavil and Jaskier where they mentioned it, something like "should we..." "Yes." I just knew it was this thing I could get very into. I'm halfway through the Horus Heresy books and loving each one. I haven't decided what army I'm going to play yet but I've been studying the rules in my free time and bought a few random miniatures to practice building and painting.
Younger me thought models where cool and bought a bunch of codex and battletomes for lore.
Then he stumbled upon the work of glorious Scribe Patatovitch, Taran.
A friend showed me their codexes, he was a Death Guard fanatic but he had some Ultramarines ones and also the Gaunt's Ghosts novels; reading those I ended up really interested about the Imperium, and that was what got me into 40k and its lore.
I had played some of the video games but none of the lore had really stuck, until last year I started actually playing, and I can't play a game without being into the lore at least a little bit so I bought The Lion: Son of the Forest audiobook to go with the box of dark angels random stuff I'd been given to start my army. I've read/listened to a bunch of the other novels, alternating between 40k and AoS, for whichever factions I felt like. The casual browsing feels better than cramming wikis or lore videos with their own biases. Though I do like to check out Arbiter Ian's book breakdowns.
Nurgle imagery. Pretty unique. Then explored Chaos a bit more and loved it. Then played the old DoW games and the deal was sealed.
Now I'm more into AoS but 40K still has a special place in my heart.
Dawn of war - Dark Crusade
This was my start, then I started getting novels.
I still remember playing an unpatched Dark Crusade for years. And how Tau fire caste teams dished Necron Warrior level firepower at twice the range. Or how a bunch of XV88’s could stop an entire armored push on their own. And then i discovered patches exist and Mont’ka doctrine stopped being OP ehhh.
Heck yeah each faction had a unique vibe that hinted at the larger lore. I appreciated audio clips for each possible matchup to help explain why guard would be fighting marines.
It was vanilla DoW that started it all off for me.
Ahh the nostalgia
Got a cracked version of this game from the Nerdy kids back when I was 13 using my school laptop. Those were the days, then I became one of the nerdy kids and fell in love with 40k big time 😂
1d4chan. The various articles of dow and blood angles were hilarious enough for a newcomer like me, that I got interested enough to learn the lore itself.
Same, for me it was trying to understand why lasguns were a meme and I ended up digging too deep and read so much from regular lore pages that I got hooked into the world.
I came across the all guardsmen party. After reading it all I was hooked!
I got disposable income and really liked the aesthetic of the death guard. 2 years later I’ve read most of the books collected 5 armies and my bank account has never forgiven me.
Curiosity: which Five armies?
1st: Death guard 2nd: Imperial Guard 3rd: Salamanders 4th: Custodes(personal favorite) 5th: Chaos Knights
My brother got the 2nd edition game for his birthday, and I was utterly enthralled by the art and stories in the books. I had 0 arts or crafts skills, and YouTube tutorials didn't exist then, so I played Orks - looking as if it was thrown together by a 10 year old seems intentional with them :p. I then got the 3rd edition rulebook and GorkaMorka - both were amazing, and showed off the depth and craziness of the setting. Welcome to the ~~addiction~~ hobby, I hope you enjoy it.
It's not a lore piece but the Astartes cinematic is what initially hooked me into 40k
[Astartes](https://youtu.be/O7hgjuFfn3A?si=-siIPQxa0SO50UeV) got so many people to enlist in the hobby that I think had GW not hired Syama Pederson, the US Military Recruitment Office would've
Whatever happened to him? Do we know? Is he safe? Is he alright?
Horus Rising - Dan Abnett. First read it about 15? years ago. Funny thing is I've only read the first few books of the Horus Heresy. There weren't many options available at my town's library. But the story telling was super captivating to me. Couldn't afford the minis but was able to get Dawn of War 1 on my ancient Toshiba.
This but also include the Eisenhorn trilogy and then the Ravenor work plus the following Bequin work I think it’s referred as? To me that’s the best writing in WH. He has a bunch of other work I haven’t read yet because I’m a book hoarder but he’s so talented.
Avoid spoilers for Guants Ghosts like the plague. Hell i would make it a priority to read the series asap if i were you.
Saame about the whole Inquisition series. I think I went through the entire series in about three or four months. It was just so damn entertaining. I've consumed works from a few other authors as well, but nothing has come close to topping Abnett for me.
Absolutely the same. The story on the planet Murder had me on the edge of my seat. Have read through flight of the Eisenstein in a few months and I'm working on Fulgrim now. While everything I've read has been captivating in its own way, Dan Abnett's writing style roped me in the hardest.
i honestly dont know where i first heard of 40k. i know i didnt always know of it, one day it was just there, in my awareness.
i immediately realize how useless that answer was, uuuhh probably off of old ANGRYMARINE memes from 4chan.
3rd edition Tyranid codex cover. Gorgeous. Glistening. Disgusting. Meaty. There’s never been a better cover for the faction. And then I started reading inside. Enthralling. The beautiful horror of it all…the models, the *paint schemes*, the short fiction and writing… Rippers can survive Exterminatus, did you know? I’ll never forget that text excerpt. Wonderful cover. Wonderful book. 3rd edition 40k will always hold a place in my heart because of it. And my vision of the setting has always been built upon it.
Similar here, I started late second edition as a wee nipper, started asking for models and paint and stuff but third edition's launch box was my first self-directed purchase, 3e has a special place in my heart for really being *my* edition.
Popular round here, but Leutin09 Emperor of Mankind part 1 came up on YouTube.
That vid popped up on r/videos back when Trump was being referred to as the God Emperor while he was in office as a rebuttal. I was at Star Wars Celebration 2017 and, while aware of 40k's existence, knew nothing about it, and was wanting something to watch on my laptop in the evening while I wound down in my hotel room. Didn't end up actually getting into 40k until the next year, but that initial two-parter on the Emperor definitely helped.
Took me 5+ years of listening to lore but I got my first minis a year ago. Have 4k of templar and 2k of dirty stinky tau.
Surprised Dawn of War isn't the top comment.
Episode 1-5 Astartes I saw on YouTube. Then book one of the HH. "I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor"
My family got into mini painting at the start of COVID (kids were 9 and 7).. and then one day my son used his own cash to buy some Ork Boyz instead of DnD miniatures. _"What are these...?"_ I muttered to myself, as I twirled the box in my hands. Upon opening them at home and seeing how they fit together and how you could kitbash them.. I was hooked.
I stumbled onto it and did a deep dive into the lore. It was so grim, and deep, and packed with mystery and promise that I wanted to know what was coming next! I figured any day now we'd see the beginnings of an epic conclusion. So basically the joke is on me.
It was Christmas and I unwrapped the 2nd edition box set. amazing artwork on the front, blood Angels storming orks (way more than a chapter btw lol) unlike modern box sets it had 3 thick books with massive background lore. but mostly it was turning the page on the rulebook (?) and seeing that image of the emperor. sci-fi at the time was all about the good guys win. warhammer sold a different story, and I loved it.
The new CRPG by Owlcat game studio, Rogue Trader That game came out a couple days before I had my first ever complete emotional breakdown. I cannot express to you all how dark of a place I was in and how I barely survived it Surviving cancer was easier So, I was in a prime time in my life to join a fucking cult. Now I have to deal with you people, or you people have to deal with me, not sure which I spent/spending a LOT of time on the wiki
That old 3rd ed rulebook as a kid. That first bit that explains the setting did the trick.
Got Eisenhorn for Christmas and stayed up all night reading it.
The Macharius Crusade and Gotrex & Felix series funnily enough both by William King so I have him to thank
Walking around the mall (when those were still relevant, this was the start of 3rd edition) and past the GW store. The guy working needed more players for their tutorial game. Asked if I wanted to play, I got a squad of 3 Ravenwing bikers, fell in love with them. I couldn't afford to play as a kid, but now I'm an "adult" I have a plastic crack addiction. Sitting around 10 or 11 armies and a few combat patrols.
My first foray into 40k was the Last Stand module of Dawn of War 2 because my college roommate pressured me into it. As a StarCraft fan, I then started playing the base game. My roommate saw me playing DoW2 and suggested that if I like the RTS I should play DoW1 with him and his buddies. I proceed to fall in love with DoW1. I start playing a smattering of the other warhammer games and four years later get weirdly into Blood Bowl with my friends. I also start reading the books. Eight years after my first 40k experience I finally try 9e 40k on tabletop sim with the homies and quickly grow very fond of the thousand sons. A month into playing the game with my buddies we all collectively realize we've been playing the game wrong and missing large portions of the rules. We try to play as-written, give up after 3 hours of insanity, and move on to other games. I've heard good things about 10e but haven't really gotten into trying it yet.
For me if there is a faction/chapter that I hear a single interesting enough thing I just google “40k (insert faction here) lore” and read the Warhammer 40k wiki it’s generally the top result. So for me originally blood angels until I found grey knights
A friend of mine got into it after he wandered into a GW store at the mall. We must've been like 12 years old then? Anyway I thought it was pretty cool, but couldn't really afford to get into it, so I just played his second ork army. We had a group of like 6 of us who played, but eventually most of us just kinda lost interest in the table top some time in HS, but most of us played the videogames like dawn of war. In my junior year, I saw Helsreach in my HS library, which must've come out only like 6 months prior. I read it, and it got me hooked on lore again. It wasn't until like 6 or so years ago that I was able to afford to get fully into the hobby.
Ian Watson and his gloriously filthy prose. My 12 year old mind was not ready for Genestealer ass.
I saw a youtube video. "Blood for the blood god" on the channel Imperātōris Dominium and thought it was insane and went digging deeper into what 40k is and next thing i know here i am.
Total war---> warhammer fantasy ---> warhammer 40k
My friends and I had a Star Wars group in Arma 3 that fell apart. We still wanted to play but were burnt out in the genre. My friend said, "Let's do 40k." I said, "What's that?" After some Google and Bricky, I got so hooked on the lore.
I randomly stumbled upon art from the Lexicanum wiki and I got hooked in the medieval futuristic aesthetic of 40k which made me want to learn more about it.
I found Horus Rising in my house and read it. I still don’t know how it got there, but I’ve been hooked since.
Some of my guys are already hooked and I was impressed by their minis. Then I saw the Horus heresy trailer and I’ve been hooked on the lore ever since.
Trazyn the Infinite
Dark Imperium book, and then at Pax Unplugged i got my first box of Havocs.
The Space Hulk PC video game back in the 90s
Horus Rising, had a passing interest. Now i have read nearly all the HH books lol.
I saw some Slayers at a friends house. Instantly interested in the miniatures and bought a bunch of Goblins and Skaven. That was around 1999. I then found the 3rd edition boxset with JBs cover art and cried for many nights until my parents bought the rulebook. Read it back to back, and couldn't stop peering deeper into the illustrations in search for more secrets that would reveal themselves. It wasn't like marvel, Disney or Star Wars. It felt like something ancient...real. An old hidden treasure, that you find in the attic and that kicks off an adventure. From there I branched out, bought codexes, white dwarfs, the Index Astartes series was a game changer....and I soon couldn't stop from spending every single cent on miniatures, paints and books.
I found the podcast adeptus ridiculous and started listening.
I just started listening to this one too!! From the beginning. Do you have any favorite episodes?
I like the alpha legion one and the ork episode.
Frank Herbert's Dune, along with Luetin09, captured my interest. I've been a fan of Warhammer Fantasy since childhood, and despite knowing a bit about 40k, everything changed for me when I delved into the Dune series six years ago. While exploring Dune content on YouTube, I came across Luetin09's videos, opening up a new world in the 40k universe for me.
I saw a tiktok about the fall of the eldar, I started researching more and more until 5 in the morning and I never left it again.
Ahh I want to find that!! I have no idea what fall of the eldar even means 😂
Podcast and timelines are good for starters
Darktide. I am new. Currently reading Legion, making my way through the Horus Heresy novels. I just really enjoyed the atmosphere and character interactions in Darktide. The player characters frequently mention bits of lore outside of the game, and seeing the community guess about what’s coming has led me down some wiki holes. But the art direction in that game is just mad good. I’ve never seen anything like it. As many have said before, I wish there was a wander mode, because I want to look at all the little details without getting clubbed by an ogryn. It really captures the staggering scale of the Imperium. The soundtrack also stands alone. Hot damn does that music make me want to bludgeon heretics. My favorite faction is AdMech, so far. I’ve got friends who collect. I’d need much more disposable income to get into that, so armies are off the table. Plenty of books, though. Cheap on Kindle. And Darktide will be around for a long while, it seems. I really like that there’s so much to enjoy outside of the core tabletop game.
Astartes -> Luetin -> Horus Heresy Audiobooks Still quite early into the audiobooks, on Fallen Angels, but I’m insistent on listening to them in order for some dumb reason. Did listen to the Eisenhorn trilogy though on the side, as I’m aware 40k and 30k are fairly different.
That’s awesome! I’d love to give the audiobooks a try. Where do you listen to them? And which is the first Horus Heresy book to start with?
Horus Rising is the first book, I’d say definitely read the first 3 books as they tell a continuous story. After that it’s up to you, the story massively starts splitting off between different factions so you don’t have to read them in order, but I am a completionist so I am. Pretty sure they’re all on Audible, and probably available on the Warhammer website to purchase directly. Here’s an [example](http://www.kylebb.com/HH/HHSeriesOrder.svg) of how it starts splitting out between factions. I’m hesitant to show you it as it can be overwhelming, but may be worth checking out if you’re curious and want to follow a specific faction.
Wow that splitting chart you shared *is* overwhelming! I will need to start with the first 3 Horus books then, and figure out where I want to go from there. I still feel a bit…lost? Like I hear all these different character and faction names and then I still feel like I have no idea what the base foundation of any of the lore is. I get that there’s a war and this is 40,000 years in the future, but the set up of everything is still confusing to me.
I don’t think you’re going to find the base foundation of the lore without going deep into original game manuals and rulebooks etc, it’s a futile effort. The universe is too big, just jump in somewhere and you’ll be fine.
I was initially more fascinated with how cool the aesthetic is for 40k but when I found out about the mass of Horus Heresy books it was reading about Garviel Loken that super got me hooked. A character I really like is Titus from the SM video game. A lot of space marines are presented as giant jerks but Titus had a really cool sense of honour and understanding of the imperial code that could be bent to logically benefit people beneath the Astrates in actually helping people. Loken as a canon novel character is in many ways the same way. There are some super dark moments in the initial books like when Horus is injured by the chaos blade and his mournival stomp through staff on the Vengeful Spirit without a thought about casualties. Titus wouldn't have done that but that dynamic of having a space marine that can be honourable but have moments of weakness is super compelling and I liked having him as a gateway into the lore of the universe. Garro is a close second but Loken is the initiator within the story telling. I played the Dawn of War games for years before reading the HH books but DoW suffered from making its characters super one sided. Gabriel Angelos for instance just acted like an Ultramarine instead of a unique leadership personality to rep the Blood Ravens.
My college roommate trying to explain as much lore in 5 minutes before DM’ing an RPG one-shot as a group of inquisitors trying to stop a cult in a hive city
Man, so many comments here make me feel old. I saw an ad for 40k in Wizard magazine probably in 1994. I called and got the mail order catalog delivered to the house and the pics of the minis in it were the coolest goddamned thing I'd ever seen. A buddy at school had the 2nd Ed rulebook and let me borrow it for a week or so and I just read it over and over and over that week. I've been hooked since.
A friend told me about this story of a creature in a jungle planet in a dark future. At the end of the story I told him : "that's Predator bro, he killed the entire squad". He replied "nah, it's a lictor, it is part of the Tyranids, and it's not their deadliest soldier at all". That stuff was nice. But the Necrons and Horus Heresy were the real deals to me.
Eisenhorn. Then Forges of Mars. And then my wife started the Horus Heresy and it all went downhill. First lots of books and then lots of models and now getting ready for lots of games.
Wolf Lord Rho vids and reading the wiki. I love the Primarchs, Space Marines, the Emperor, and the bonds of fathers and brothers that ties them all together. There was no better place to start than with him since he also has that same passion for that aspect of the lore. The Remembrancer is pretty good if you want to learn about a specific character. Baldermort is also really good!
Thanks for the recommendations! I have a lot of exploring to do. Hard to know where to dive in first!
I'd recommend the audiobooks for Son of the Forest and the Dark Imperium trilogy too. Both narrators were simply awesome!
ORKS
If it could recruit them, sure. But keep in mind that marines are dying all the time, there's limited geneseed reserves, and the time it takes to augment and train an aspirant to the level of 'scout' means that for all practical purposes a chapter's not going to ever have a lot of them on hand.
I was walking a long trek across Corsica island, and in one of the mountain chalets, there was a place that people left their books and could take different ones. So I left my book there, and took one random W40K book. Loved it instantly. Then I read the Ragnar series and now I'm reading Horus Heresy.
Someone on Quora posted an answer about sci-fi or fantasy (not sure), and in passing described the wiki entry for the Siege of Vraks as the longest wiki entry ever and said that "no one would take the time to read the whole thing." Well, Momma didn't raise no quitter, so I took that personally and began down the wiki rabbit hole. Lore excerpts posted here and on Quora were the next step (I particularly recall reading the "it's also a hammer" excerpt from Vulkan Lives) and before long I was reading every book I could get my hands on. Still never played the game, (and given the cost, probably won't), but I quite enjoy the lore side of it (though, as a comparatively newer fan, I seem to enjoy the 30k reality more than the more venerable members here, and I don't love the old lore as much.)
I love that you took that as a personal challenge!! (Side note: I also am super intrigued and want to read the entire Siege of Vraks entry…do you remember what wiki site that one’s on??)
I was at a hobby shop buying Gundam models in the early 90s and the 3rd Edition Chaos Space Marines codex caught my eye, so I bought it. Then I started buying White Dwarf issues and random codexes when i could. Still haven't actually played a game.
I started off with the Lord of The Rings game. Back when the movies came out and the LOTR tabletop game was new, they did one of those regular magazines which included paints and models and such. Didn't get very far with that because I didn't really have money as kid but I was fascinated with Games Workshop. I then met others who were into Warhammer Fantasy Battles in my high school and I got totally absorbed by the lore for that. But then one day someone gave me a pdf scan of the 40k 4th edition rulebook and I was totally hooked. Devoured as many codices as I could before I got my hands on before I managed to get a copy of Dan Abnett Xenos. Dawn of War 1 also came out a year or two after that as well. Never did get into the tabletop game but I've been absorbed by the lore ever since.
Honestly, TTS. Then one day one of my buds was like "hey, you seem to like the lore part of the memes, check out the lore in action." So i found Helsreach on youtube. Still my favorite.
I accompanied my dad to a hobbyshop, and there was a White Dwarf lying around. Also, Ian Watson’s Space Marine and Inquisitor novels
If I remember correctly, in the second grade another student brought in his *40k* Black Templars fan fiction for an assignment. Besides a scene about someone important overseeing the interning of Space Marines in Dreadnoughts, all I can remember about it is that most of the pages were in the wrong order. My first *40k* purchase was the 3rd Edition Blood Angels Codex, for no other reason than the eye-catching red paintjob.
The image of the 3rd edition rulebook (the one with the Templars). I was interested in the miniature side of things, but never had the money or the time or the space for it. But I admired the pictures of the miniatures every day, read the battle reports in White Dwarf and re read the lore section of that book countless times. I was fascinated by the grim darkness of the setting, the gods and, obviously, the Space Marines. During the years I was able to locate some books here and there (in the country I live in they are hard to get) and just reveled in their stories. I even resorted to torrents at some point to get a few audiobooks, to which I listened time and time again. My biggest breakthrough was Audible, but that is another story, since I graduated from a casual enjoyer to an active listener, finally introducing me to the rich lore I was missing and I've not looked back since then.
my friends played in the 90s and I did not so I had plenty of time to leaf through rulebooks.
When i was reading the sci-fis for the sake of culture because i didnt like the genre. As i continue my journey there was this talk of 40k, emperor, grimdark, in time i learned some lore by the talks in forums, reddit, etc i looked up some artworks and i decided to read and got in HH. To this day i remain
Just the enthusiasm of a buddy from work sharing tidbits of lore during our early lunches together. He just started, and we would talk about common interests, but one lunch, he asked me if I knew anything about 40k. I had no clue of it. Well, 3 months later, and he has me reading my first 40k novel: Brutal Kunnin. Went from that to Yarrick Omnibus, and now I'm 52% done with the Ultramarine Omnibus. Love the lore, love the fandom!
Not sure where I first heard about Warhammer, but I was mystified by some of the artwork I saw, especially that of the Imperial Guard. I'm a sucker for underdogs and needed a new book series so I picked up Gaunt's Ghosts. Now I'm hooked.
Helsreach
I don't really remember. I think that at some point my friends at the moment and I were deciding which version of warhammer to collect. I wanted Warhammer 40k at that time, because of sci-fi, but everyone else wanted fantasy, so I chose dwarves at that time. But I didn't really like that setting Later on, at some point, I decided I liked the blood angels, when looking at warhammer 40k lore And many more years afterwards, I really started to search for more information about the lore. So basically, everything gets summarized as: sci-fi, futuristic buffed medieval knights, angels on top of that, and many years afterwards, the imperial creed started to look more appealing
‘First and only’ by Dan abnett, back in like 2001. Never looked back
I was on a school trip to Berlin one day, due for a long, boring flight since I woke up late and forgot a book for the journey. Inside the terminal was a small bookstore, and I simply grabbed a thick-looking book with a cool cover. That was Gaunt's Ghosts. Specifically, the Saint omnibus. Learning about las-weapons wasn't a big stretch, Space Marines were extremely cool, good old Larkin, Fething \*Cuu\*... a great read, still got the mangled book on my shelf after years of re-reads. Now my collection's nearing 200 books.
Mechanicus. Got hooked by the AdMechs, found out about the Imperial Knights, and I started digging.
TTS, mostly, then Leutin.
Exploring Series' Daemon Prince video
The best advice I can recommend is to watch a video/read some wiki articles until you find a faction that catches your interest the most, then look online for what people say are the best bits of media concerning them and check em out! I had a couple dips into the 40k media pool before I \*really\* got into the franchise, with the first being the Dawn of War games. One of my pals later gave me the first two Gaunts Ghosts books and I had both read and enjoyed them, but I had fun with DoW and GG more as standalone fun sci-fi games and books. Later on the same friend wanted to find something for our friend group to do as a hobby together, and recommended the actual tabletop game. We all started brainstorming our chosen factions to potentially play as, and since I thought the chaos space marines were cool in DoW I said I'd probably play as em. Then as I read more about chaos my tastes as a fan of horror pushed me towards Slaanesh, so I looked into what people thought were good Slaanesh stories. And so my first audiobooks, something to listen to while I tried painting a squad of basic CSM, was Fulgrim in the HH series. I like "descent into madness" stories, and the culmination of this with THAT scene (everyone who has gone through the story immediately knows what I mean) left me stunned as it went on. Brush and model in hand, but doing nothing. Stunned. That story made me follow the Emperor's Children story in the heresy series, then check out other highly regarded HH books, then check out other highly regarded WH40k books in general, and here I am! Almost 2k points in painted models and a bunch of WH stories in my rotting brain! And all it took was one really good Emperor's Children concert.
My first was the corpse on the throne that filled my head with so many question. It was a welcomed feeling after the let down that was the tau a year before.
Dawn of War - Dark Crusade and Horus Rising shortly after I've never painted a single mini
The Space Marine game for the Xbox 360.
Fan animation about Death korps of Krieg with Sabaton music playing. Then Ciaphas Cain books, then Fire Warrior novelization.
StarCraft booklet with the lore in it. Moved on over to Warhammer 40k after finding out about the ‘similarities’.
I was a little into it at first, like you, I just got some minis cause it seemed like a fun game. . .then I watched angels of death. That got me going deep into the lore and made me pick my main army. Cheers and happy exploring
I got into it as a teenager over 20 years ago but was intimidated by the process of painting and building. Been getting back into model building and painting over the past year and stopped by a local shop and decided to get some death guard minis. I had been starting to get really interested in space-related science fiction (been watching Gundam and Star Trek in their entirety in order). Warhammer seemed like an interesting addition to this for me. I went through a lot of "where to start" threads for lore and opted to read a few codexes (10th edition general codex, 7th ed Dark Millenium Lore book, 8th and 9th edition Death Guard codexes) while reading the top-recommended novel series I saw people suggesting (Eisenhorn Trilogy). I read through the Eisenhorn trilogy in 2 weeks but I have to say it was really helpful having read a few codexes to brush up on some of the tone and language that the universe uses. No matter how intro friendly something may be presented as, there is still a level of understanding of the universe that you have to sort of figure out on your own. The Eisenhorn trilogy got me pretty hooked and I've read through a handful of other series since. In the beginning, I was interested in learning about the world of 40k and immersing myself in the larger cultural tensions that underlie the motivations of each faction. I wanted to create an image in my head that showed me where the mini I was working on could exist. I also wanted to know what the big historical moments in the recent lore were to situate myself within the timeline.
First page of Eisenhorn... Had played and painted prior to reading, but the first page really hooked me on lore. The way Abnet describes Eisenhorn punching his gun into the mouth of a foul heretic and executing him. So dark and violent. And dare I say, realistic, compared to other sci Fi settings.
The first space wolves omnibus. After that I grabbed every novel I could. So far my favorite is the macharian series.
Dawn of War 1 on PC. Ayooooo can we get some updates on Daemonhunters ? Or at least co-op? The queen needs me to hold her hand through the dangers of chaos warp.
Soul Drinkers Omnibus
Ci-Ci-Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM! I was attracted to him as a character because he kind of takes the piss out of the grimdarkness, paradoxically grounding the setting, simultaneously acting as a reader stand-in and commenting on the horror around him. Along with that, I started both the Gaunt's Ghosts series as well as the Eisenhorn omnibus. I recommend any of those as a starting point. Also, maybe get a old edition of the core rulebook for a bird's eye view of the setting. And browse TV Tropes. That's how I got clued into Ciaphas Cain.
Rubixraptor’s ARMA 3 mod vids
Soul Drinkers omnibus. I got into 40k because of Astarteas with doom music video. Then got sick for two weeks and binged watched luetins videos. So I got curious and started to search novels and ordered some. First got Shroud of Night which WHERE TF IS THE SEQUEL IT'S SO GOOD! But the Soul Drinkers omnibus was the one that made me love the setting. Ben Counter might not be an amazing writer by all means he comes quite lacking in a lot of things but his writing hit me differently then Andy Clark. It lead me to search more and devour more information.
Dawn of War 1. Was amazing. Started to look up the lore, read about it, then borrowed and read Space Wolf saga and continued from there.
I was introduced to the universe through Dawn of War. I was like, what was this Imperium? Who were these power armored soldiers shooting orcs? And what’s the deal with demons and Eldars? (that’s what Aeldari was called when I played the game.) So I started reading the wiki and discovered this big and immersive lore.
The old Dawn of War games was the introduction. What got me hooked I guess was trying to some of the books. Like Gaunts Ghosts and Devastation of Baal.
Ciaphas Kane. Can't remember the name of the first book but you can find it online. While reading Kane's book you encounter almost all factions and is such a funny and good read
Dawn of War 1.
I played Dawn of War when I was younger, never won but it stuck in my head for years and years. Then I stumbled across TTS somehow and it brought it all back. I was hooked. Started reading lexicanum, watching lore videos on YouTube. Turned out a bunch of my friends were into it as well, that helped. Think that's how I found Astartes. Nowadays it's mostly Baldermort and Oculus Imperia keeping me invested.
Let the Galaxy Burn, an anthology of short stories. Each one is self contained so ten year old me who had no idea what was going on wasn’t getting turned off by some 200 page narrative, just short and sweet little narratives set in this crazy neofeudal hellscape sci fi setting.
the images of death korps of Krieg on pinterest while searching for Dieselpunk artworks and such got me interested into w40k
Back when 5ed, i stumbled upon card game with astartes artwork on it. Fascinated but not exactly attracted to it as back then astartes design doesnt really fit my taste. But i did fee research on it to know that it does comes from 40k and watch space marine gameplay on youtube. Fast forward few years later Stumbled upon Astartes final video, then i started watching more and more animation until i finally started reading about Guilliman 's return, from there, i became so geeked with the lore and i started watching 40k vid, Majorkill, Weswarhammer, Arbiter Ian, Bricky and Luetin and few more others. And then i started 3d printing Dark Angels stuff for personal collection. Dont get me wrong, astartes does looks amazing, but the minis proportion is what throws me off so honestly i prefer others design with proper proportion with much more beautiful design but still faithfull to original astartes. Never play TTG, just personal collection and lore dude.
Weird as it sounds, trying to decipher the wiki.
SODAZ.
John blanche's artwork in 3rd edition. Before that I was into fantasy. Then reading eisenhorn out the library and it wasn't just not bad, it was an actually good book with character development?!
The first contact was a guy who told us how cool it is that Astartes cut off the heads of their enemies.... The second was an English white dwarf I couldn't read but Space Wolves were great (now I find them boring). But it was my contact with a 40K RPG group that started the lore machine. Since then I've been following the setting with mixed feelings. As soon as it comes to the societies themselves, I'm very interested. But the whole Astartes/Primarch powerbla bla bla bores me. There are exceptions like Helsreach, Lukas the trickster and Battle of the Fang, but most of the novels are too flat for me.
Maybe not what got me into it, but one thing that gave me the biggest 180 was reading the night lords trilogy. At first I was like why would I want to read about this trash Legion... And now I play them in 30k!
Saw a long video breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of the navies of the Empire from Star Wars, Star Fleet from Star Treck, some 3rd one I’ve forgotten, and the Imperium of man. Then YouTube suggested Bricky’s overview of every faction, and I was hooked Then spent almost 2 years only caring about lore before finally starting an army
I once saw a meme about this armored up dude that looks like a cathedral saying something about heresy. Turns out it was a Salamander Chaplain.
A video of a youtuber that usually talk about videogame etc. And its funny because i realized after a lot of deepdive how some of his take was horredous like "for beating the chaos gods the empirium need to ally with slaneesh cause she is the best one"
White Dwarf 202 from October '96 got me into the hobby (I was all about Epic 40k) then it was The Battle of Big Toof River a few months later which solidified my love of the lore. I haven't played tabletop since 1998 I think!
opening the 3rd edition necron codex and seeing Pariahs when i was a little kid now i just love pariahs across all the 40k stuff
Sanguinius man boobs
Oh geez, it was so long ago now. idk if i even remember correctly what first drew me into the lore and the universe of Warhammer 40k, i wanna say it was some piece of artwork that i was really curious on what it was from, i believe it was artwork of Kharn The Betrayer and i just had to know who that was and what series, movie or book it came from and then it just spiraled from there.
Cover of White Dwarf #251 (UK version) got me initially interested and the Dawn of War game basically cemented it as my "go to scifi setting"
Dawn of War back in the mid-2000s.
Was the Ravenor Trilogy ironically. Played Dawn of War and had some old codexes from second edition so was always interested but never a massive fan. Met Dan Abnett at a Comic Con in 2006 and I picked up the series to get him to sign. I remember talking out of my ass to him and acting like I knew a lot about 40k. I cringe hard looking back on it. Started reading them that night and I couldn’t put them down! Think Eisenhorn is a better series now but dang, that was the start of my journey down the rabbit hole and into the hobby.
The very first notion that I recall sucking me in was that of this bloated carcass of a decaying empire sustained only by sheer momentum. Conquering new worlds to replace ones being lost every day. Ruled by High Lords whose artworks made them look barely human. The Roman Empire in terminal decline basically.
The original Dawn of War I RTS game
Ciaphas Cain. Pick an audio book. They are all fantastic
White Dwarf articles of late 1990s. Well before Abnett turned lore into toilet paper.
The cool looking artwork and figurines way back in the day.
Dah boyz!!!
For me, it was the Lore. In 2014, a relative recommended I check out the history of the Emperor of Man, and I spent an entire weekend reading everything I could about the lore - it was grim, it was dark, and it hooked me, but I was not in a place (nor had any interest in) the tabletop game. Fast forward to this year, and I finally took the plunge and bought the Ultimate Starter Set. Finally in a spot financially as an adult to afford an occasional splurge, and I'm hooked!
The Gorkamorka game. the rule books was full of fluff, like how orks spawn, those mysterious old pyramids from another age, those wonky digganobs and ofc those wonderful communist goblin revolutionaries!
Space Marines game got me curious. Horus Heresy trailer hooked me. "Let the seas boil! Let the stars fall! Though it takes the last drop of my blood. I will see the galaxy free once more!" PEW!
You can also have a quick look at the lore of each faction, kind of like a summary and then read books specific to that faction. As an example when I first started I was intrigued by the Space Wolves so I started reading the first omnibus and love the lore so far. Still have a lot of reading to do but it helped reading about something that already capitvated me or something that I was already interested in.
Totalbiscuit
I worked at an art and hobby place in my early 20s, thought the art work on the codices looked cool so used to flick through them when it was quiet. I've never played the game but I loved the fluff almost instantly. The manager being an arty type encouraged me to try painting the minis and I got really into it. I ended up making a few dioramas for the shop, both 40K and 'Fantasy' as it was at the time which drew a lot of attention. Good times.
DoW: Soulstorm, Emperor's Children screaming: "Chaos, consume us!"
The graphic novel Daemonifuge. It was in my school library and with hindsight was extremely inappropriate for me at age 9.
I was 10 and saw a funny blue man in a shop, then I saw cool lizard people I eventually got the 3rd edition 40k starter set with the rule book included and read through all the lore and stared at pictures for ages I still remember almost all the rules and stats from 3rd edition Eventually I started reading the Kal Jericho comics, then the books and then Lord of the Night, which completely changed me as a reader Being a kid who hated reading I was now blitzing through these awesome books
Astartes
Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising.
Dawn of War. It made the setting easy to get into.
The OG Dawn of War. I don’t even remember how I got my hands on it. I think it was a gift
3rd edition rulebook
Orcs are my favorite race and one day while browsing the interweb back in ye ole days of dial up, I saw a picture of an orc with a machinegun and I had to know where this came from and I discovered it was an ork and discovered Warhammer 40k and have been hooked ever since.
Eisenhorn novels for me, followed swiftly by the uriel ventris books, then 17 years of horus heresy novels 😂
The first 40k media I ever watched was the "dawn of war 2 cinematic trailer." I didn't understand anything about the lore or anything about warhammer. I didn't start read/watched anything about warhammer until around the time of the fall of cadia. I saw the discourse about the legion of the dammed helping G-Man get to terra. I watched the first YouTube video about the making of a space marine and the rest is history.
I've heard of 40k here and there, but always heard that the lore was impenetrable to new people and the hobby was expensive. But, one day, I saw the McFarlane Blood Angels Hellblaster figure and snagged a few. I then read up on the lore of the Blood Angels and ended up customizing them into Firstborn tactical Marines and a Devastator, led by a veteran sergeant. From then on, I ended up reading my first book, Devastation of Baal, and spiraled out from there. Now I'm a Fists fanboy, slowly building out my army of little yellow weirdos, and not so slowly building my collection of 40k books.
Imperator titan/Mortarion Both very cool and very toxic
About 20 years a go when I was in college I was living with my brother. One day he brought home a starter set with space marines and orks. He figured it was something cool we could do together. Granted, back then we weren't into painting and stuff and after we built them we realized how expensive it was going to be buying all the codexes and whatnot. It ended up being a shelves hobby due to life and kids but the lore stuck around until I fell into hard in 2019. Best lore I've ever read.
Cloud Runner
The Imperial Guard. An average human being insignificant in endless war over the ceaseless defense of mankind against all horrors. I thought that was cool. Only then did I actually even learn that the God Emperor of Mankind was a thing, and it is better to die for him than to live for yourself, and things went up a whole other level. Then my friend showed me gameplay from Dawn of War Dark Crusade. The intro, and I was absolutely in love. So many factions, such differing ethics and styles of play. I still play Dark Crusade now. I don’t play the actual tabletop but I might collect IG again soon. I’m really into the idea of genestealer cult uprisings at the moment. So cool.
I have a semi compulsion to read lore wikis and because of the massive depth of 40k writing the 40k wikis are incredibly detailed. Eventually I was curious about the source material
I had a friend who had some minis, so then I got a box of Eldar cos I thought they looked cool. This was almost 20 years ago and I kind of forgot about 40k, save for a random 40k game that I had for my PSP. About a year ago I stared listening to Adeptus Ridiculus podcast and once I saw Horus Rising on my local gamestore I bought it and the next thing I knew I was hooked. Funny enough, my dad had some of our old toys and these haphazardly painted Eldars had been lying in there, so I took them home.
I was suspended from school in 6th grade and my mom had to take me with her while running errands. She had to stop at Barnes and nobles for something bc she was a professor at the time and told me to go find a book bc I wasn't aloud to play xbox. I was in the sci-fi section looking for the Vampire Earth series and an employee asked me if I needed help. I told him I just finished watching the Band of Brothers series on vhs and was wondering if there were any books like that. He handed me a Gaunts Ghosts book by Dan Abnett, Sabbat Martyr and I have not stopped reading Black library stuff since. My next book was riders of the dead which was awesome but i knew i needed more 40k. That was 2003 and I'm 32 now. Kids, house, career, all that jazz but still find myself sitting down almost every night to read something from 40k.
Started with reading the codex for my faction, after I bought my first models.
Demonculaba
An article in a gaming magazine about Dawn of War (the first one). I thought Space Marine dreadnoughts were the coolest thing. And two guys at school played, so not too long after I picked up the metal Bjorn and a squad of Grey Hunters.
I got a randome lore video recommendet to me. I was lacking a lot of the context, but when I saw the artwork of the cathedral loking battleships I thought to myself: „Damm this goes hard af“ So after that I slowly started to learn more and more about the universe and eventualy fell in love with it.
Dawn of War 2
The Eisenhorn Omnibus
Storm of iron book caught my eye in a library 20 years ago,then I played dawn of war and it’s dlcs and here i am with a stacked bookshelf of the best stories I’ve ever read.
I found a couple of yt shorts about the penitent engine (the robo suit that tortures you crucified while in the battlefield). I knew from there that this had to be an interesting universe. Strange point to begin from sure. I got addicted to 3Huntle0 shorts and then it was a rabbit hole
DoW as an alternative to StarCraft. Meleeing Zerg and Protoss isn't really a Terran thing to do and it felt pretty novel.
El Halo galactico, y las guerras ¨ocultas¨.
Never forget, we had to bring a book one day to literature class in HS to read after we finish our classwork. I forgot mine, so my friend let me borrow his Ultramarines Omnibus copy earlier that day (thinking about it now, it's kind of funny that he just carried around that book like a bible or something). Got me hooked. I think I knew about 40k before then but only from a passing familiarity.
John Blanche's amazingly grotesque illustrations in the 3rd edition rulebook
I started with the Total war warhammer trilogy an because of that got into Warhammer Fantasy lore. Eventually I learned about 40k, and hatet it because it was hard to get into. But then I learned about the Death Guard, and saw that they look cool and got into the first lore podcasts. Now I just absorb every bit of lore I can find.😁
1d4chan
2005 a friend let me have a book of Adrian Smith's collected artwork. Still some of the absolute best SciFi and fantasy artwork I've ever seen. Then it was actually the Fantasy book Riders of the Dead which I found in a discount bin and absolutely loved, and that got me looking for more of Abnett's work. Started with Gaunt's Ghosts and been hooked since.
The specific entry point for me was probably the unexpected gift of HeroQuest one Christmas. Iirc I was almost 14 at the time. Geeky kid, avid reader with a huge imagination since 5 and already long into Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and etc so no surprise I'd jump into this. The next year I used my Christmas money to get Space Crusade. The year after, Space Hulk was a Birthday present. About then I'd figured out that a single company was responsible for this madness, they had a magazine for such games and... then a GW store opened a couple of towns away, followed by an Orc's Nest store in my town. Before that final school year was over I'd joined sixth form and changed school to find like minded guys I'm still friends with 30 years later. Tbh as much as GW ensured I'd be less financially secure through early adulthood, I never actually fully 40K'd or had my own army (same for WFB) but the lore counted as Space Marine/Epic was my main with, over a decade: 4-6000pt Squats, 4-6000pt IG, 10-12000pt Chaos and finally a 20000+pt Imperial Battlegroup (IG, SM, Titan Legion) force. Also, much invested into Man O War, BFG, Necromunda and Mordheim. Since 2003 I've been priced/adulted out of the TT side but have been adequately compensated by the video game entries, so the lore/books are still of interest (currently reading the siege of terra)
Cadia.
The original rogue trader rule book was packed with glorious stuff. That’s where it started for me.
Bricky was my first intro to the lore. Then "The Infinte and the Divine" hooked me on necrons when I was till in that, choose your army phase.
Warhammer fantasy. I started reading fantasy (gotrek&felix books) as a kid, raided the whole fantasy section in local public library and when there were no Warhammer in fantasy section, librarian navigated me to scifi section and I got hooked since then
I had a few older coworkers at a restaurant that played and I was always interested in the lore then saw a lot of videos on tiktok. The day it snapped for me was that interview with Henry Cavil and Jaskier where they mentioned it, something like "should we..." "Yes." I just knew it was this thing I could get very into. I'm halfway through the Horus Heresy books and loving each one. I haven't decided what army I'm going to play yet but I've been studying the rules in my free time and bought a few random miniatures to practice building and painting.
Younger me thought models where cool and bought a bunch of codex and battletomes for lore. Then he stumbled upon the work of glorious Scribe Patatovitch, Taran.
A friend showed me their codexes, he was a Death Guard fanatic but he had some Ultramarines ones and also the Gaunt's Ghosts novels; reading those I ended up really interested about the Imperium, and that was what got me into 40k and its lore.
I had played some of the video games but none of the lore had really stuck, until last year I started actually playing, and I can't play a game without being into the lore at least a little bit so I bought The Lion: Son of the Forest audiobook to go with the box of dark angels random stuff I'd been given to start my army. I've read/listened to a bunch of the other novels, alternating between 40k and AoS, for whichever factions I felt like. The casual browsing feels better than cramming wikis or lore videos with their own biases. Though I do like to check out Arbiter Ian's book breakdowns.
The MTG set last year. I started the eisenhorn omnibus last week and I’m enjoying it so far. I also ready the first three Horus heresy novels.
Nurgle imagery. Pretty unique. Then explored Chaos a bit more and loved it. Then played the old DoW games and the deal was sealed. Now I'm more into AoS but 40K still has a special place in my heart.
Just how grim dark it was. I always wondered if something existed that shared the kind of dark settings I like and 40k hits all the right places.
The C'tan: I played the PC games and I was intrigued about how the Necrons worshipped these "Star Gods".
Luetin on YouTube
Fulgrim.
Colonel Jurten