Knightfall
Nui lover and Slaaneshi
- Location
- New York, New York
Slaanesh would love the Japanese.
The factions of Warhammer 40k discovered modern Earth
- Thread starter Knightfall
- Start date
- What if?
That's mostly a joke meme, it's fairly tame and boring I'd imagine.
Entropy Judge
Recurring Bouts of Misanthropy
Almost certainly not. Despite the general impression that the IoM will Exterminatus at the drop of a Commissar's hat, they really don't like to do it, and usually do so only if the situation actually warrants it, like there are Tyranids on the surface, the planet is actively becoming a Daemon World, and the like.
wertsir
Knower of the Unknown
- Location
- Lost in A Deep Fog
Hahahahaa. you think that we would actually have an impact, that's cute.
Okay, new question: Earth is found after the Ethereal war. human Psionics are Psykers, albeit weaker and more stable than 40k standard issue ones. Mind Shields confer a boost to chaos/warp resistance, which when combined with Earth-Human's base psionic resistance provides near immunity the mind-altering affects of chaos. (No earth tech integrates AI advanced enough to be effected either). all other technology is as presented in the games.
X-Com research time was not exaggerated, they can reverse engineer technology at the same rate shown in the games. do they have a chance?
Okay, new question: Earth is found after the Ethereal war. human Psionics are Psykers, albeit weaker and more stable than 40k standard issue ones. Mind Shields confer a boost to chaos/warp resistance, which when combined with Earth-Human's base psionic resistance provides near immunity the mind-altering affects of chaos. (No earth tech integrates AI advanced enough to be effected either). all other technology is as presented in the games.
X-Com research time was not exaggerated, they can reverse engineer technology at the same rate shown in the games. do they have a chance?
If we're found by the tau elder or a rouge trader I'd say yes the imperium and Necron are a gamble orks, chaos, tyranids, and dark elder kill do other horrible things to us
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hell no. We're screwed. The moment word leaks out regarding the bolded section, the Inquisition drops whatever it's doing and dumps every available asset they have on us, and I mean everything. We get fifteen Astartes chapters, sixty Guard regiments, three Sororitas convents, the Grey Knights, and four Imperial Naval fleets rammed up our asses so hard we learn to speak bolter. The ships encircling Earth will be so thick you'll be able to walk from the equator to the north pole without ever seeing the planet below you. The Inquisition turns Earth into a fortress world and puts the entire place on lockdown, bringing in every piece of intel they can on-site to study what the hell's going on with our psykers. Also they start breeding us as fast as possible.
Seriously this is the Inquisition's holy grail, and they'll move do absolutely anything to proliferate this anti-Chaos ability.
Something similar to this happened in the Gaunt's Ghosts books - a Guard kill-team was trapped on a Chaos occupied world for an extended period of time but managed to escape, making it back to the crusade forces working to retake said worlds. The Inquisitor attached to the tribunal that reviewed whether to execute them or not learned that the planet's native population believed a venom from the local moth species had medicinal powers, and that rubbing it on one's skin warded off corruption. Both the Inquisitor and the commissar that led the kill-team agreed it was superstitious nonsense, and the venom was a placebo at best.
The Inquisitor then proceeded to use his authority to have every local crusade asset dropped on the planet immediately afterwards.
Because even the teeny-tiniest possibility that the story held some amount of truth was enough to justify retaking said planet whole-hog if a real anti-Chaos serum could be developed from this venom. Even though the Inquisitor knew - he knew - it was bullshit, just the chance to follow up the possibility was worth the price in lives and materiel. In the end it doesn't matter how quick we reverse-engineer technology or how tough we are - we're going to get swamped by a crusade fleet that would make a primarch blush.
wertsir
Knower of the Unknown
- Location
- Lost in A Deep Fog
Assume that the IoM does NOT have that knowledge at the onset. (how would they? there are no machine spirits for the Adeptus Mechanicus, and Mind-shield technology is advanced enough that it wouldn't be easily reverse engineered by 40k factions).
The only thing that might tip them off would be the lack of chaos corrupted Psykers on earth. but there are plenty of planets that don't have chaos-corruption. especially ones with as small of a population (relatively) as earth.
They things you say will happen as soon as the anti-warp properties are discovered, but that is unlikely to happen immediately. (X-COM will probably realize it pretty quickly after gaining information from the IoM, but they are unlikely to be willing to reveal that). and you have to keep in mind that the entirety of Enemy unknown takes place in months, not years. (That is progressing from modern-day type 1 completely earth-bound civilization to a force capable of threatening the Ethereal's themselves. (that's basically the equivalent of the Native Americans developing nuclear missiles to fight the pilgrims))
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LoganBert34
Apprentice Clerk
- Location
- Australia
Look at the bolded parts for answers.
- Unlikely. Remember that the "Machine Spirit" is some type of spirit that is said to live within a machine. In all actuality, anything with programming or with mechanical functions can be considered a machine spirit. Only by Mechanicus dogma anything that isn't made/sanctioned by Omnissiah venerating humans do not have machine spirits. In all actuality, whether or not it has a machine spirit is not important if an important enough event/situation arises. The Tech-Priests will simply drop their qualms and reverse engineer our stuff. That said, it would take centuries for them to do so.
- True, but it only requires one "telepath" type of psyker to realise that the psychic potential of Earth-dwellers are... suspiciously low. Once a black ship comes up once or twice and find out we don't have any psykers to speak of at all (While Imperial averages for our population should be 1 per 50,000 [guess]), someone would investigate. If only since Chaos could be involved.
- Nope. 7.125 Billion is actually quite large. Definitely larger then frontier worlds, as well as most Agri, Mining, and Pleasure worlds. Right now Earth is in an inefficient 'global' economy, in that it is forced to provide for all its needs by itself, and it's also overpopulated then what some specialised world types in the Imperium are supposed to be. Remember that there are less then 4k hive worlds in the Imperium (Out of 1000k worlds), so Earth don't need to be one to be eye catching. The simple fact that we are not a chaos/xenos infested world with a moderately high population (and home-brewed technology, i.e, up for grabs by the Mechanicus) would generate some interest at the very least.
- I'd like to point out that even in X-com, there were materials that X-com was never able to reproduce, just capture and to some degree - repurpose. The thing about the IoM is that they have a huge distance between technology they have access to, and technology they usually use. For example, don't expect to get hold of power armour until the crusading fleet comes, same goes for the void shield technology, you won't see that until you shoot down navy ships or until a Titan knocks on your door.
In the gulf crusade, the Tau's average soldier's plasma guns could kill IG tanks with one shot. But so much firepower was bought to bear that the Tau were forced to abandon multiple planets and only make a stand once the IoM's crusade was somewhat speed thin. Even then they needed off-world reinforcement.
Earth is one planet. Even with space capability it would remain a 1 system power without warp-travel ability. We'd be crushed.
The Bird
tEM IS GUD...RITER!
- Location
- In that den of villains and scum, OKLAHOMA
This actually varies by source. Some sources have the mechanicus believing only human technology has machine spirits. Others have them believing that xeno-tech functions by torturing it's machine spirits, which, incidentally, also explains the reason most xeno-technology is forbidden by the mechanicus. Other sources also have them believing that xeno-technology has machine spirits, but said machine spirits are bad and alien machine spirits.
Like a surprising amount of things in 40K, it depends on your source.
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
- Location
- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
In regards to the existence of the Warhammer 40K-franchise in this scenario: It'll be seen as an odd quirk.
The people of this planet had knowledge about the Imperium, as well as many of the Xenos. Worryingly, they also had knowledge of the Dark Powers. However, there was no widespread belief in any of those and only a small part of the population used said knowledge for their entertainment media, believing it to be just stories.
Some care should be taken to screen consumers of such media for possible corruption or Xenos-sympathy. There are also numerous false tales about the founding of the Imperium, the Emperor, the acts of the Holy Inquisiton, the actions of the Adeptus Mechanicus and basically any Imperial Organization. These should be treated as seditious material, though no extreme measures seem to be required as of yet.
Inquisitorial Appendix: Curiously, it appears that there is some knowledge of recent galactic events on this world. We recommend an investigation into this matter. Possible sources include whispers from the ruinous powers, covert visitations by a rogue trader or some xenos species or the interception of stray astropathical signals. Should any of these possibilities be found to be true, appropriate action will be taken.
WARNING: Further investigation reveals that secrets under Inquisitorial Alpha Order were leaked to the natives by unknown means. Further Inquisitorial teams have been stationed on the planet and are authorized to investigate with extreme prejudice.
And I suspect within a generation or two, everyone on Earth would see it that way as well. Even presuming that the Imperium we make contact with and the galaxy out there are exactly like they were described in the source material (which is hard, since the material often disagrees with itself) it'd just be some accurate stories that got leaked here by some means.
So unless some Inquisitor overreacts to finding that there are stories of some really secret things on this world - instead of doing the smart thing and letting them appear as fanciful tales - we'll be just fine if the 40K-franchise exists.
The people of this planet had knowledge about the Imperium, as well as many of the Xenos. Worryingly, they also had knowledge of the Dark Powers. However, there was no widespread belief in any of those and only a small part of the population used said knowledge for their entertainment media, believing it to be just stories.
Some care should be taken to screen consumers of such media for possible corruption or Xenos-sympathy. There are also numerous false tales about the founding of the Imperium, the Emperor, the acts of the Holy Inquisiton, the actions of the Adeptus Mechanicus and basically any Imperial Organization. These should be treated as seditious material, though no extreme measures seem to be required as of yet.
Inquisitorial Appendix: Curiously, it appears that there is some knowledge of recent galactic events on this world. We recommend an investigation into this matter. Possible sources include whispers from the ruinous powers, covert visitations by a rogue trader or some xenos species or the interception of stray astropathical signals. Should any of these possibilities be found to be true, appropriate action will be taken.
WARNING: Further investigation reveals that secrets under Inquisitorial Alpha Order were leaked to the natives by unknown means. Further Inquisitorial teams have been stationed on the planet and are authorized to investigate with extreme prejudice.
And I suspect within a generation or two, everyone on Earth would see it that way as well. Even presuming that the Imperium we make contact with and the galaxy out there are exactly like they were described in the source material (which is hard, since the material often disagrees with itself) it'd just be some accurate stories that got leaked here by some means.
So unless some Inquisitor overreacts to finding that there are stories of some really secret things on this world - instead of doing the smart thing and letting them appear as fanciful tales - we'll be just fine if the 40K-franchise exists.
Entropy Judge
Recurring Bouts of Misanthropy
Earth would probably be a "Civilized World," which seems to be a general catch-all for "Not Feral, Forge, Death, Hive, or Agri." I don't think it's population would be considered "large" for that classification, but it wouldn't be small.
Hm?
3.238 x 10^4 = 32,380
Or are you basing it off a different source?
*record scratch* Huh? Where did this come from?
The Bird
tEM IS GUD...RITER!
- Location
- In that den of villains and scum, OKLAHOMA
The only way Earth would be in any way relevant to the Imperium is if
A: The Imperium recognized it as being Ancient Holy Terra, displaced through time, which would cause it to become a major holy site.
B: The entire populace was 100% immune to chaos, psykery, or major mutation, which would make it the holy grail to the Imperium, because hey, they now have a stable source of individuals immune to the ruinous powers.
A: The Imperium recognized it as being Ancient Holy Terra, displaced through time, which would cause it to become a major holy site.
B: The entire populace was 100% immune to chaos, psykery, or major mutation, which would make it the holy grail to the Imperium, because hey, they now have a stable source of individuals immune to the ruinous powers.
- Location
- Volksstaat Hessen, Deutsches Reich
Indeed. And since hive worlds usually have populations over 100b, "Civilized Worlds" could conceivably have populations up to several dozens of b. In comparison to such worlds, 7b is of course relatively small.
In any case, this only reinforces the "We'll get crushed" conclusion, of course.
LoganBert34
Apprentice Clerk
- Location
- Australia
Earth would probably be a "Civilized World," which seems to be a general catch-all for "Not Feral, Forge, Death, Hive, or Agri." I don't think it's population would be considered "large" for that classification, but it wouldn't be small.
Hm?
3.238 x 10^4 = 32,380
Or are you basing it off a different source?
*record scratch* Huh? Where did this come from?
For the civilised world part, I'd concur. I was just pointing out that while Earth's population wasn't hive-world levels of large, it was still significant and would be considered by the Segmentum command as a good source of military recruits. If the draft ratio is proportional to that of the hive world you put up, that mean Earth's draft would be 50k per year. Which is nothing to scoff at.
As for hive world number, I derped.
Also on that hand-held tank-buster? Yeah, also derped. It was fusion blasters, which could be held by stealth suits.
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In fairness, stealth suits aren't that big. For comparison-
(Remember, the tau soldiers are a little shorter than the average human.)
So, even though a standard plasma gun wouldn't do it, the blaster isn't much bigger, even though it needs to be used with a powersuit.
Also, the tau are pretty close to having actual tankbusting guns as standard-issue:
The rifles held by the tau in the picture above are railguns, and though 40K has its usual fiddling about with mechanics and authorial license, they really are supposed to be full-blown railguns like out of Eraser and whatnot. (In the Cain series we see a broadside battlesuit fire its full-size version - the round blows through a civilian bus and everything that was inside explodes out the back when it exits.) The tau issue them to snipers and have plans to one day make them the standard weapon of the fire caste - they've been held up because thus far energy required to power the gun necessitates changing the power pack every time it fires.
(on the TT, a tau rail rifle is AP1, meaning it's capable of annihilating a space marine terminator with one shot, the same terminators that can be stepped on by a Titan and survive.)
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Entropy Judge
Recurring Bouts of Misanthropy
The point is more that Fusion Blasters are the equivalent of Melta Weapons and are relatively short-ranged. The average soldier's weapon, on the other hand, isn't necessarily going to put down a Guardsman in one hit (at least, as of Damocles Mk. 2, anyway).
I rather doubt the hand-carried Rail Rifles are going to be 'tank-busting' weaponry; they're simply too small. Anti-materiel, sure, but full-up tanks are going to be affected the same way modern tanks are affected by anti-tank rifles.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*We die
*We wish we were dead
bobnik
Memetic Warfare Specialist.
Reactions would of course be greatly varied. If 40k was a thing on our world, there would be some despair as the people in the know realise how utterly fucked we are. Remember, this is a universe where annihilating all life on the planet is often the sane, practical and above all humane answer to the problem. As for dealing with Chaos, the Imperium is actually our best hope.
Knightfall
Nui lover and Slaaneshi
- Location
- New York, New York
Basically everything is the same as our world except Warhammer was never created.
bobnik
Memetic Warfare Specialist.
Then, as others have pointed out, we're boned. Our only hope is that the Imperium doesn't stamp too hard when putting their jackboots on our necks. Best case scenario, one of the Sisters Sabine gets here first, sets up the Imperial Cult, and there's a velvet revolution when the actual forces show up. My point about Chaos remains true.