Good morning,

I am quite new to the Warhammer 40K universe but I try to educate myself reading the Dark Heresy book as well as the Eisenhorn novels.

One thing that struck me is the lack of new technologies. Everything seems to be old technology that is being repaired and maintained for centuries.

Why is it that way? What happened in the history of Warhammer 40K to justify the lost of technology?

Thanks

PS: One critique about Dark Heresy core book, coming from someone new to the game, is the lack of background info about the history of the Imperium. I only got glimpses now and then...is there a monre complete source of info?

Basically they have lost the knowledge of the science , but still understand how to build or repair the technology.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dark_Age_of_Technology

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Age_of_Strife

For the people of the 41st Millennium it's just plain easier to continually repair a massive machine and deal with it's problems than to build a brand new one. Things like new starships do get built, but it takes the resources of several planets and sometimes as many as a hundred years or more to manufacture all the parts and assemble them into a working ship. Humanity suffered a major technological/economic collapse back in The Dark Age or Technology, and it's never caught up. There is little incentive to find a better way of doing things, and the technological monopoly of the Adeptus Mechanicus has all but halted progress. Their focus is on recovering an understanding machines that have already been invented, not inventing new things that might work better than what they have now. They believe that at some point in the past human technology achieved a divine state, and any attempt at progress is a sin, heresy, and an act of maniacal hubris.

Madmacabre said:

Madmacabre said:

The WH40k universe has some 20 years of collected history and fluff, finding the most relevant is still a huge amount of "fluff".

the Setting is VERY 'used universe', very Medieval with a thin veneer of sci-fi, a very dystopic religious autocracy.

Humanity has already had its Stellar Exodus, as humanity spread across the universe.

This era lead to what will later be called the 'Dark Age of Technology'. DAoT was the technological high water mark of humanity that it never reaches again. It is the Golden age in terms of Technology, however by the Age of Imperium it is considered Soulless and godless. The fluff of this era is that Humanity experiences a surge in the number of psykers on every planet and the increase in Warp storms making travel much more dangerous. that leads to...

The Age of Strife. A true analog to a 'Dark Age'. Planets and systems left to their own devices and warfare on, of, and by planets and systems.

Approx m30 there is the rise of the Emperor on Terra, he unifies the planet then begins his Crusades to reunite the prior terran colonies. This is a grand resurgence for humanity and sets the stage for the current world we play in as during this era we see the Horus Heresy, Age of Apostasy, and the other events that Calcify the Imperium into its current state.

The Mechanicum drive of of the search for Archeotech. In many cases Technology is nearly a Heresy unto itself.

The Lex below seems well sourced and put together.

Ref:

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Warhammer_40,000_universe

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dark_Age_of_Technology

In short

Progress = Heresy

One important thing to keep in mind about why the 40k setting does not have any progress is because of the way the keepers of the teck "the Adeptus Mechanicus" works. The Adeptus Mechanicus has a monopoly on all advanced research and technology. So if its more complicated then a lasgun, then there is a good chance you will need the Adeptus Mechanicus around to fix it and tell you how to make more. Now one thing that stops normal people from taking a idea and improving it is because the Adeptus Mechanicus teaches people to repair and turn on things in a religious way. So you are not taught how chemistry and physics make something work, but instead how to pacify the "Machine spirit" in order for the bit of tech to work. So even if you know the ritual how to repair something, you may still have on idea how it actually works.

Now because the Adeptus Mechanicus sees all teck as religues artifacts, as previosly menchened in ealier posts, they do not like the idea of inventing new things. Instead they see invention as type of arragece, in that the inventer must think they are better then the people who came before them and in some way also the Mechanicuses god the Omnissiah, who as I understand it either invented all tech or waches over it. Along with this, I believe I once read in the Horus Heresy collectors book, that the Mechanicus fears another fall similar to the one at the end of the Dark Age of tecknology, since they see this event as happening when humanity took tecknology to far.

Now the reason some ambishos young teck prests are usaly still not creating anything new or note worthy, is because exactly like the rest of humanity, who understands mashines by rituals rather then science, they just dont fully understand how things work. The way I understand it a good teck prest might learn more and more ritruals, but this is not to say they all understand what these ritruals are actualy doing. So to invent something important like how to help a SM chapter fix their geen problems, they would have to understand how the thing worked in the first place. Instead the best chance of a SM fixing their problems is by finding a book that already says how to do it. Because of this, progress is slow or none existent at best.

There's a handout written for this very problem, and the Dark Reign folks prettied it up beautifully. Take a look:

www.darkreign40k.com/downloads/dark-reign-supplements/imperial-primer-full-version/details.html

There's a few things to remember about the background of the 40K universe to understand the technological stasis.

1) Humanity collapsed from the heights of technological prowess during the Dark Age of Technology to the horrors of the Age of Strife. Out of control technology, particularly rogue AIs and robots, receive a lot of the blame for this.

2) The Golden Age of the Imperium fell into ruin with the Horus Heresy and much knowledge was lost. Particularly devastating was that the progressive and scientific wing of the Adeptus Mechanicus was totally destroyed. The survivors were either heretics or conservative.

3) A lot of technology is dangerous and wisely banned. There's a whole section about this stuff in Disciples of Dark Gods .

4) There is actual scientific progress, albeit slow and uneven. Progress as a concept is rejected and understandibly so. The Age of Strife, the crimes of tech heretics, and the atrocities of the Dark Mechanicum stand as proof that technology for technology's sake can lead down very dark roads. Still, the priests of Mars use the scientific method when encountering new technologies and do introduce improvements and refinements of existing technologies. Magos Burie's burrowing machine in Xenos is a good example, as is the continuous improvement in power armour technology with post Heresy armour being superior to earlier models, culminating in the Mark VII suit.