Beginners guide to the Lore

This is a crash course in what someone should know about the Inquisition/40k before playing.

Preface

I decided to give a go at a primer for new people (or people like me who have forgotten a lot) to the Warhammer 40,000 (40k) Universe, and how it applies to this game. It's going to be skimming a LOT of material, and I'm going to be leaving a lot out, because there's a massive amount of lore that's behind the 40k stuff, and that's just including the things that involve humans.

Note: One thing to remember is that 40k is a setting based off of dark humor. Everything is cranked up to 12, exaggerated to the nth degree, excessive, etc. A lot of the fan base forgets either the second part of the 'dark humor' and takes it way too seriously, or they forget the first part and make it too silly. If you don't like the joke “Dark humor is a lot like food, not everyone gets it.”, then 40k isn't for you.

I'm going to be covering two things before diving into the Inquisition. The Warp, and a VERY brief history/overview of the Imperium of Man. Both of these are important to talk about what we're currently playing, and there's some things that just aren't covered in the game that's important.

Another thing to remember is that everything is canon, not everything is true. This is a setting that pretty heavily leans into the unreliable narrator. There's strong biases, 10,000 years of documentation in a war torn galaxy, and organizations that are based around obfuscation. Throw in that there's been over 30 years of lore IRL, and dozens of writers each with their own vision of the universe, and it gets a bit wiggly even discounting the sheer volume of it.

The Warp

So The Warp has always been there. Imagine a place where every thought or emotion of every thing that has ever thought or felt existed. The more things that have had this thought and emotion, the stronger something is in The Warp. That dragon made of dongs that you doodled? Exists there. That horrible Harry Potter fanfic that your friend wrote that you read to be polite? Exists there. But since this is the Grim Dark future, and life sucks, the strongest things in The Warp are the most horrible.

It is Humanity's boon and bane. It allows us to travel at faster than light speeds, communicate across the vastness of space, but all the nightmares that we have ever been afraid of is manifest there. And they sometimes slip through from The Warp into our reality.

Psykers are people who can tap into this space, and bring a piece of it to reality (called realspace). They are the key to allow us all of these benefits, but it also allows those things on the other side to whisper to them.

Speaking of things on the other side, The Warp is pretty much ruled by 4 Chaos Gods. Each one is a embodiment of something, and usually has a positive aspect that they use to gain followers. This clip does a much better job of explaining what the Gods are than I could.

• There's Khorne, the embodiment of conflict. He likes things to be chopped up into pieces, the messier the process, the better. His temptation is strength. Personality wise, he's a lot like the classical Greek God Ares. Dumb and incredibly strong.
  
  
• There's Nurgle, the embodiment of death. He's probably the most 'caring' of all of the Chaos Gods, where he wants you to enjoy your time here, but accept the end will always come. Diseases, tumors, pustules, all the disgusting things like that are what he 'grants' his followers, and sharing is caring. Also most of his followers can't feel pain, because the diseases have killed their nerve endings. No joke, his followers call him (Grand)Papa Nurgle. Multiple temptations here, (but then I like him the most out of the Chaos Gods, so my bias might be showing) with escaping from pain, a sense of belonging, things like that. Imagine a Santa Claus that instead of giving presents, gives diseases that make the Black Plague look like a mild rash.
  
  
• Next up is Tzeentch, the embodiment of change. Plans within plans within plans. If there's something wonky going on, more than likely they're behind it somewhere. His temptation is knowledge. Attracts a lot of psykers because of it (the knowledge to manipulate The Warp in even stronger ways is very attractive to them).
  
  
• And finally, there's Slaanesh. Hard to put into one word, s/he (yes, that's canon) is the embodiment of self-indulgence. Basically the god of Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll to an extreme beyond what any 80's rock band could hope to achieve. Temptation is Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll.
  
  So basically The Warp is ruled by these Gods, and Humanity is constantly tempted by them.

Imperium of Man

So now on to Humanity. This part is going to be a bit long, but I'll try to be brief.

We had a massive, galaxy wide society where humans lived in (relative) peace with themselves, aliens, cyborg AI things. Imagine Star Trek with a lot more tension. Then rifts to The Warp opened up for the very first time and things went Very Bad. The AI revolted, leading to a massive loss to the stabilizing presence of humanity, which led to the aliens throwing off the yoke that humans put there, and genetically altered humans saw it as the perfect time to separate themselves from humanity, because they felt themselves better. Things were bleak, but then a savior comes.

Enter the Emperor. He kicks butt and takes names, stabilizing humanity into one strong central government, and brings about a time of enlightenment. Tries to push science and logic, and to make everyone an atheist to combat The Warp. He's kindof like a jerk Jesus. Has apostles (Primarchs) that he brings into his fold, and using their genetic template, makes the Space Marines. I'll get into the specifics of them later, because they are actually important to the Imperium of Man.

After a bit of the Golden Age, the Chaos Gods get their hooks into some of his Primarchs, and they revolt. Called the Horus Heresy, this is a massive conflict that tears apart the Empire and wounds the Emperor, which they hook up to the best life support that they could get, called The Golden Throne. This could be it's own guide, there's so much stuff that happens in this conflict that affects everything. But the short of it is that the Emperor is now non responsive but alive, and there's no one to direct the Empire because it was held together by his force of personality alone. This was 10,000 years ago.

Sometime between the start of the Horus Heresy and getting tossed into the Throne, the Emperor directs his right hand man, Malcador the Sigillite, to form a group to be a guiding light, to make sure that humanity doesn't lose it's way like some of his Primarchs did.

After this betrayal (and the survivors of the traitors retreating to fall back to The Warp), things get fuzzy. Lots of posturing, rebellions, power brokering, and the Primarchs all disappear. There's no one to lead his empire, so it devolves into worshiping him instead of being all aetheists. Threats on all sides from various aliens (and they are SCARY), threats from The Warp, and destabilizing factions within. So the empire locks it all down and tries to contain as many threats as possible. That's the current state (as far as those in Inquisition: Martyr knows).

The short summary of the current affairs I'll leave to 1d4chan (which is pretty accurate in their description of things, with some humor thrown in): Think of a hideous amalgamation of the Roman Empire, pre-Reformation Catholic Church, Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and George Orwell's 1984 spread out across the stars, under constant attack by aliens and subject to countless disasters everyday. Add in the fanatical worship of a 'dead' dictator.

Space Marines

They shouldn't have that much of a direct impact on this game, but they have a large role in the Imperium. They were originally created by the God Emperor as a fighting force to protect humanity from the many, many horrible things out in space.

Each one of them is at least 8 feet tall, and so genetically modified that they shouldn't be counted as human anymore. Multiple redundant organs, a gland that allows them to eat rocks and get nutrients out of it, lots of crazy things like that. They only live to train, pray to the God Emperor, and fight. Enough cybernetic implants to make any cyberpunk setting question themselves.

After the Horus Heresy (and a huge chunk of them fighting with the traitors), limitations were placed on them by both themselves and the Empire. Some chapters (different groups of Space Marines) follow these rules down to the letter, some disregard most of the rules, while most of them follow as close as practically possible.

There are a LOT of different chapters out there, and most of them are not explored within the 40k lore.

Inquisition

Now that I covered the biggest things affecting the organization, let's get to discussing what we play as and the theme of the story in this game. The Inquisition is here to make sure that citizens stay on the straight and narrow, and any major deviation is dealt with.

Orginzation is very loose, with each Inquisitor pretty much being a force on their own that only answers to the God Emperor, his caretakers on Holy Terra (Earth), and the Inquisition. There are three major groups (Ordo) within the Inquisition, and a bunch of minor ones. I'll give a brief overview of each of the major ones, and who they commonly work with.

• Ordo Malleus: These hunt Daemons (critters from The Warp), the Enemy Beyond. They're whole thing is to find corruption from The Warp and smash the ever loving Emperor out of it. They commonly work with the Grey Knights, a specific Space Marine chapter giving themselves fully to crushing Daemons, instead of like most other chapters who just fight whatever. The Grey Knights are super secretive, so much so that they will mind wipe anyone who has seen them (outside of the Lords of Holy Terra or Inquisitors within this Ordo), or if they're short on time, kill all witnesses to keep the upper hand against the fight against Chaos. The Ordos really only gets involved if there's a Greater Daemon going to be popping into realspace, otherwise it's left to the Ordos Hereticus.
  
  
• Ordo Xenos: These hunt aliens, the Enemy Without. The corrupting temptation of alien tech, the promise of a better life, or the corruption of human flesh from xenos scum. When they can, they'll reindoctrinate Imperial citizens. If they can't, kill them to stop the taint from spreading. They work closely with the Deathwatch, which is basically a special forces Chapter, taking some of the best of every other Chapter of Space Marines, giving them the best toys available, traumatizing them by showing them that Space Marines are not, in fact, the most effective killing things in existence over and over again. The Deathwatch is only really called in when both the Inquisitor can't stop the xenos threat, and normal forces are not strong enough to deal with it.
  
  
• Ordo Hereticus: These hunt the heretic, the mutant, the witch, othewise known as the Enemy Within. They're the closest to the RL Inquisition, and the most numerous. Chaos cults that haven't summoned a daemon, mutations in humanity that strays from the standard form (that isn't sanctioned by the Imperium), and Psykers that haven't submitted to the Imperium are their targets. Also probably the Ordo that our Inquisitor is a part of. They work closely with Sisters of Battle, a group formed of only women (to get around a rule stating that the Ecclesiarchy [the major religious orgization of the Imperium] can't have 'men at arms') that are known in a universe where fanatical beliefs are normal to be fanatics. They don't have any genetic modifications, and they're cybernetic implants are of the normal variety, but they are able to take on enemies that normal Space Marines do by sheer faith in the God Emperor alone.
  
  There's also a score of minor Ordos, but they are even more specialized than these are. For example, there's an Ordos that just looks into when an Inquisitor calls Exterminatus (where they call in a fleet to turn the surface of a planet to glass, and that's not hyperbole) to see if it was justified.
  

In Closing and Further Resources

Hopefully this helped you understand a bit where the game is coming from, and the type of mindset people discussing the lore have. If I got anything wrong, or if this left you with questions unanswered, let me know and I'll edit it (and give credit where it's due).

Also some places to dive into the lore a bit more. For a more straight reading of the lore, The wiki is a good place to start[warhammer40k.wikia.com]. If you want a deeper dive into the lore in general, I'd strongly suggest Luetin09, with this dive into the Grey Knights being awesome. He does some serious dives into the 40k Universe, so if you go there, set aside some time and be prepared to be gorged on knowledge.

If you're in the mood for a more light hearted reading (and some NSFW content) The 1d4chan site is a good romp https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Inquisition. See the comments section to try to get around this ridiculous censoring that Steam feels like it needs to do. If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device is another good source of lore pertaining to the Imperium, just be aware that they either play up the personality flaws beyond what 40k does (which is a lot) or apply strange personalities to characters for comedic effect. When they're talking about the universe though, they're pretty spot on.


For books wise, I'd suggest reading those sights and chasing anything down on there. I don't have a lot of experience with the books, because I'm poor and all things 40k is bloody expensive.

A suggestion by Zankaze, The Eisenhorn Trilogy[www.blacklibrary.com] is a good look not only into how Inquisitors work, but also a decent look into the lives of normal Imperial citizens across different planets. After finally getting around and reading it myself, I fully endorse this trilogy for a deeper dive into how an Inquisitor works.


Edit: Thanks Luzzifus for some questions, helping me to clarify some things. Added in the origins of the Inquisition the temptations of the Chaos Gods, and some starting points for deeper dives into the lore.

Edit 2: Added Luetin09 as an additional resource.

Edit 3: Thanks Dreyk Rayser for pointing out a slight oops in the timeframes of my history of mankind section.

[Atech66]

I'm 56 and a long time scifi gaming lore nut. PC since mid 80's
I never got into WH it seemed daunting there was so much over 30 years.
It will last me till i kick the bucket lol
This was an awesome entry into that world and very well done.
Just to help folks out shows the sense of community

Thank You

[KOOLCOO]

If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcYrTCGKyrU&list=PLyiDf91_bTEgnBN0jAvzNbqzrlMGID5WA&index=3

[Lead Paintchips]

@Lore Keeper

If you're still following this, there's a channel that did a fantastic job of covering the Grey Knights in a 2 part video series. Check out Luetin09 on Youtube (I have a link in my guide for the part one). His passion for 40k in general is evident, and he's even more passionate about Grey Knights. They're not my favorite faction out of 40K (they're Space Marines, but MOAR!), but he made me see what the appeal of them are.

[Lead Paintchips]

@Dreyk Rayser, Ok, looking into it, will modify that section.

[Dreyk Rayser]

"The Fall of the Aeldari in the early 30th Millennium was signalled by the birth-scream of Slaanesh" citate from this
https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Slaanesh
"In the end, the Men of Iron were destroyed by humanity and a galactic alliance that may have included other species in a terrible war fought in the late 23rd Millennium known as the "Cybernetic Revolt."
From this
https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Men_of_Iron

[Lead Paintchips]

@Dreyk Rayser

Three things:

1) From what I can gather, the records of the time before The Emperor united humanity is spotty at best, so those dates are guesses. If you could point out where they state those dates as facts, I'd appreciate it.

2) The Inquisition was officially founded then, but the directive was given during the Horus Heresy.

3) This is a rough guide, so the exact dates and time line is less important than the general ideas (Things were FUBAR when the Emperor showed up, The Inquisition was founded by a direct request from The Emperor, etc.)

[Dreyk Rayser]

You have big mistake. Cybernetck ai revolt start at 23m slaanesh was born between 29-30m
PS inquisitor founding after Horus Heresy in Beast war in 32m

[Lead Paintchips]

@Gearhart

>Personal army is Adepta Sororitas.

*Eye twitch*

Thank you for your input, I'll take it under consideration.

[Gearhart]

@ Lead Paintchips squats were original only put in when 40k was just fantasy in space, however once that changed some of those races were taken out squats being one of them.

and by the way the proper name for sisters of battle is either Nuns with Guns or Bolter Bitchez

[Hermit]

@Lead Paintchips: Thanks for the info. I already checked them and only found RPG books, not story books. Codex and wikis it is, then. I also just found "The Inquisition: An illustrated guide to the secretive protectors of the imperium" Looks nice.

Thanks, again. :)