This is probably the wrong forum to discuss this but I have just finished reading Atlas Infernal by Rob Sanders, the new BL novel featuring none other than the famed Inquisitor Czevak, he hunted by Ahriman to reveal the location of the Black Library.

I wont give away the story, but its nice to see that a Rogue Trader is one of the characters in the story,though a long suffering one whose fortunes are on the rocks (as usual...)

However the thing that made me blink was this section:

"... He never felt more like a artefact or exibit than when colourfull and unknown and eldritch forms put their tall, tapering helmets and fingertips to the transparent wraithbone and stared inside. He once even saw a human, gun metal grey-haired member of some Illuminati or xeno sect entrusted like the inquisitor had been with the craftworld secrets " p.378

Does this mean that GW and the Ordo Intellectual Property is willing to rehabilitate the Illuminati concept? I though that they killed it off in 40K 3rd edition along with the Sensei knights....

Or is it Rob Saunders being a bit mischievious like those handfull of authors who keep on cryptically inserting easter eggs of Malal in the Canon.. (for those greybeards out there who know what Im talking about)

I think in this case it's more an indicator that the individual is of a secretive organization with ties to powers beyond the common man's knowledge. The Imperium is full of things like that, from rogue inquisitorial factions, to cults that revere orks as the most pure and innocent of all sapient life.

George Labour said:

i agree with you and the part about the orks made me lol but there both true

cults that revere orks as the most pure and innocent of all sapient life.

lol

Hi Harlock,

I would not waste to much thought on this. Some people simply insert "stuff" in their works. It might be that they did not "keep up" with the actual state of retCon or are simply stubborn. And even if this is "official approved" I would not try to wrap my mind around it till it really-really-really gets published in any meaningful way.

Take for example the world "Merov" in DH Calixis Sector. It was mentioned in DotDG and mentioned againg and again. We even got some descriptive elements about it, so we have a general feel about its culture. But I think this is all we will get from it.

Do not get hiped, do not suffer the viral marketing infection, keep your mind clean & busy with things that have more impact and substance.

Greetings
Gregorius

Oddly enough the whole 'ork revering cults' are an actual canon element of the setting. The Digganobs of the old Gorkamorka game are one example, and in Codex Orks for the Warhammer 40,000 tablettop game there's a blurb from an Eldar Farseer where he actually says that orks are in some ways a superior species due to their simple and direct minds.

It's also something I plan to throw at my Rogue Trader crew at some point due to their long associate with orks and kroot.

Gregorius21778 said:

That's the biggest problem I have with FFG tbh, that indeed, maybe, Merov (or whichever other Calixian planet you chose to name) may not be detailed further - however on the other hand it might feature as the detailed setting for the next DH module, and that new detail might well add vital information about the world in question that would destroy any homebrewed detail I might have in the mean time come up with.

It's a pain. If we had a semi-detailed sector sourcebook (coupla pages per planet for maybe 120 Calxian worlds), then at least we'd know the basics. They could also rule in the sourcebook that any world not mentioned in there would NEVER feature in future DH books, thus allowing creative types that also wish to remain within canon to focus on those Calixian worlds with their own ideas, safe in the knowledge they won't be contradicted in a month or two.

It seems common sense to me. It'll never happen though. Setting detail seems very out of favour these days.

Captain Harlock said:

I prefer to think that everything from the novels exists in 40k and any facts that contradict eachother are left there as a challenge for the GM to work through.

The Illuminati were one of the possible antagonists for my rogue trader campaign. The players found a dead zone in their ship's blue prints and were determined to find out what was inside. Carving their way into the unknown areas of the ship they found a psy-relay chamber that the illuminati use to send astropathic messages over great distances in real time. They ended up contacting this area to connect the mysterious individuals on the other side of the galaxy and use them as imformation brokers at certain points in the story.

This is the reason I haven't used a module or setting straight - instead I mine books for stuff to use in my own setting - since ' Keep on the Borderlands '.

Adam France said:

I'm not entirely sure that's a fair criticism, Adam. FFG are damned if they do and damned if they don't if one takes that view: If they produce new background material, they risk upsetting those who've created lovingly detailed homebrew worlds, and if they don't they get criticised for not fleshing out the setting!

That said, I personally agree that I would like to see more setting material for the Calixis Sector. All RPGs are a mixture of crunch and fluff, and I personally prefer a 65/35% ratio favouring fluff, whereas we're seeing from FFG a similar ratio favouring crunch. I've said this before, but that says to me that FFG are more "practical" gamers, who want to get as much ground covered as possible from the existing 40k setting before they start worldbuilding. They're not like, for example, White Wolf during the Old WoD phase, who would churn out dozens of setting books that created a gradually more and more convoluted universe. There are pros and cons to both approaches.

As to the Calixis Sector, I agree that a good way to do it would be for FFG to create the semi-detailed sector sourcebook in the way you suggest. That is a very good idea indeed. Cover maybe two thirds of the worlds in the Calixis Sector in moderate detail...while making it VERY clear that they will produce no further detail on the remaining worlds, so GMs and players can build their own setting material to sit alongside the published fluff without fear of contradiction. I like this idea a lot!