Ah, the war-torn galaxy of the far future. Where the carcass of the emperor rots away in his Golden Throne, as it too decays, the knowledge needed to create and maintain such things lost thousands of years ago.
Where Chaos lurks around every corner, strengthened as much by the hatreds of the Imperium as by anything else. And yet, the Imperium remains one of the most reliable means of holding it at bay.
It occurs to me that the threat of Chaos may be fought off by any sufficiently powerful *other* warp-entity. Gork and Mork, for example, make Chaos corruption of Orks very difficult. The overly-aggressive lichen's gods are titanic even by the standards of such things, and could probably stuff Khorne's head into a toilet bowl and flush him until he cried Uncle.
If the Imperium breaks apart and fragments, it will fall to the Adeptus Astartes, and to their counterparts in the Sisterhood to stabilize regions. Robbed of Imperium-granted authority and supplies, they will be forced to negotiate with their sister-states, and humanity in the forty-first millenium might actually *benefit* from the seporation into smaller states.
Infect a toe, and the infection might spread through and kill the entire body. Infect a single ant, and while it may get access to infecting the others, the defenses of each individual must be overcome one by one. Chaos will have no easy time of it.
The Tyranids, they're something else entirely. Their battle lines sweep through thousands of system at once, they're nearly unstoppable.
Nearly. The Orks can do it. The Imperium would need to arm and train virtually every one of their citizens, would need to undergo massive industrial buildup on a scale that even they have never considered, but they could do it. Chaos... the power of the Tyranids in the Warp is beyond monstrous. The Shadow that strangles Astropathic communications and drives men mad before the first hive ship even enters the system is a demon. One single demon, in the sense that all of the world's oceans are a single body of water.
The Eldar cannot hope to hold a static battle line against the Tyranids, but they don't need to. They need only to ensure that their other enemies' paths cross those of the Great Devourer, and allow them to strike at the Hive Fleets with precision and grace.
The Dark Eldar have always been completely screwed. As great a nightmare as they are, there are simply not enough of them to cause true harm to something on the scale of the Orks, or the Tyranids.
The Necrons are dead. A twitching corpse, striking those around it, but the C'tan are fewer in number now that they were before, and I do not think that the Necrons have the capacity to grow any more. For all their recycling, each one of their number that is disintegrated, sucked in to the Warp, or consumed from within by enzymatic toxins tailored to their peculiar living metal is irreplaceable.
The Tau have a chance. If they can keep from being overwhelmed by the green tide of the next Wauuuugh and the one that follows it, if they can survive the unreasoning, unflinching hatred of the Imperium of Man, if they can hold off the portion of the Hive Fleets that comes their way, then it is they who shall become the successors to the Imperium.
And this is a race who chooses their leaders because they smell good. That's probably what makes the Etherial Caste. Pheromones.
And the Chaos Demons. The new army on the block. I think we've got a case of Codex Creep here, but as ever, other players will adapt.
I would like to see the setting grow. See things change. Not necessarily with a focus on the Imperium, as they're not the only ones out there. Changes in the Eldar, clawing themselves back from the position of a dying race. They're recovering slowly, I think, having claimed worlds for their own, in addition to their Craftworlds.
They'd recover faster of they weren't so damn emo.
Oh, and hi everyone. This is me posting when low on sleep!
Defenestra
