Good afternoon,

what would eb the best material to get a good sense of the History/Background of the Warhammer 40,000?

Thanks

http://www.lexicanum.com/

A good wiki that cites information from the table top Codeces (obviously worth getting) and the 40k fluff like the IG and (Chaos) Space Marine novels, Eisenhorn, Ravenor, and The Horus Heresy. Also, even though the DH books focus on the Calixis sector, you can take the info given in it and bend it and shape it to suite any other part of the Emperium since (to me at least) it all works reletivly the same way but varies by culture and other such things.

The novels are the best way to go. Eisenhorn, Ravenor, and the Inquisition War Trilogy are all very relevant to Dark Heresy.

Also Scourge the Heretic, and majority of other "Imperial" novels are useful, from the other sources I could recomend Dark Heresy rulebook itself, materials for specialist game known as Inquisitor: Battle for the Emperor´s Soul (some of them are online for free download), and also backround from 4th and 5th Edition Warhammer 40 000 Rulebooks

- try to get the Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition Codex Imperialis, which details the history of the Imperium, the major races (humans, Eldar, Tyranids, Chaos, Orks) and the diverse organizations of the Imperium. The latest edition of the rulebook for W40K also has a lot of fluff.

- the fluff in the various army Codex books can be very rewarding too. IMHO the generation Codexes before the current one had more and better fluff than what we have now

- I am not a big fan of the novels, as they are often not very good, but they should flesh out the setting more

Greetings,

Along with all the excellent suggestions already given, I would like to remind everyone of the Horus Heresy novels. They explain the core history of the Warhammer 40k universe. The novels are written by different authors and some are not that great while others are. I would also like to include Gaunts Ghosts in to this. Those novels along with Eisenhorn and Ravenor should make your picture of the universe clear as crystal.

Allrab

While it is certainly not the place to start, a good place to answer reference questions is: www.scholaprogenium.com/library.html

I to echo the horus heresy books, in particuliar the first three, horus rising, galexy in flames and false gods provides good background a to the leadup to the horus heresy and foundation of the imperium of man. most of the others I would steer cler from as the mostly focus on individual legions (not that they were bad reads mind you. and Fulgrim in particuliar was a awsome readthru.) also the eisenhorn and ravenor series to get an inside look as to how the inquision operates. if your looking less for mysterious society and intrigue and looking for for gritty combat try the gaunts ghosts series, about the tanish first and only imperial guard regement as they tear thru the sabbat world crusade.

If you are fortunate enough to find the book that started it all I would suggest Rogue Trader. The rulebook that introduces the Imperium, the Inquisition and Rogue Traders. For those of us old enough to remember, it's what started it all. After reading the Cain novels I did not get the same feel- at least to me they didnt feel dark/gothic enough. At all.

I cant speak for the rest of the novels but I second the "older rule sets and codexes". As in real old.

You might also find this Document I posted on the Dark Reign forum (and am currently working into a lovely PDF) useful. You can read it (along with the disclaimer) here: http://darkreign40k.com/forum/index.php?topic=2236.0

Necronis said:

Be careful of that older material though. A lot of that fluff has been changed or edited out of the cannon over the years.

Personally I recommend the Lexicanum listed above and the Eisenhorn/Ravenor novels. Inquisition Wars isn't a very good book IMO. The most complete way to go is to read the fluff section of every codex you can get your hands on.

TVTropes.org has a great article on Warhammer 40,000 that communicates brilliantly some of the atmosphere and concepts that Dark heresy uses. Linking it isn't overly popular here though. *runs and hides*