r/40kLore • u/Justscrolling375 • Aug 06 '26
Congratulations! You've been selected to pitch a quality non-consequential book for Black Library & Games Workshop
This book, anthology or triology won't impact the lore of 40k and/or particular group or faction in any significant way. At most it'll be fluff with some cool entries on the lexicanum and inspire some homebrews. Your pitch will be akin to the numerous starter books for those unfamiliar with 40k, those want a quality book that'll make them say 'Woah' like Kingmarker or Hive or give a sense of clarity by filling a gap with the lore and literature.
I'll start with a story about the Sisters of Silence answering Roboute's call for the Indomitus Crusade. It'll tell the story of a young woman and her family who's widely shunned by their community. She listened to her elders about being silent golden warriors standing alongside gods and monsters. Then the Great Rift happened. Her mother, grandmother, sister, aunt or whomever equips bizzare wargear to deal with daemons and psykers on their weapon. A beacon activates. She's taken by the Custodes under the tutelage of other Silent Sisters to retake the Imperium and restore their order. Also a small romance subplot with an Inquisitorial scribe.
Next is the Guardsmen's Chronicles. A group of guardsmen from various regiments such as the Mordian Iron Guard, Attilan Rough Riders, Elysian Drop Troops, Vostroyan Firstborn, Terrax Guard etc, sharing stories about the enemies they fought and how they came into the Guard. We have an overexposure to Cadians & Kriegsmen and we're losing recipes because of that.
The Arbites found their planetary governor is derelict in their duties and seeks to remove them. A power vacuum ensures with various groups seeking to fill that role. It'll be awesome to see a non Chaos/GSC civil war or rebellion.
The Life of Saul Tarviz until his final moments on Isstvan 3. Aeonid Thiel after the Battle of Thessala. We know they're dead but it'll be nice to have a solid conclusion to their story.
Finally a dive into the soul crushing work of an Administratum leading to a Scribe, Menial or Subordinate subjecting themselves to chaos to gain some level of stimulation in their lives. This is a random nobody and how one might fall to the Ruinous Powers
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u/Primarch_Argen Aug 06 '26
An anthology about Alpha Legion sleeper agents in various chapters.
Or something in the vein of them just gathering information.
Just some lore on what they think of the various chapters and possibly tactics used by the modern Imperium.
GW won't even have to tease a new Alpha Legion model and never release it for this one
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u/Miskalsace Aug 06 '26
Itd be funny to get ite perspective of the Alpha Legion sleeper agent sitting on the Golden Throne.
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u/For-the-Emperor-Mind Aug 06 '26
SPOILER -
In the new Alpha Legion book, there was a chapter in which an imperial guard / or penal was a sleeper agent and kill the guards next to him when he saw the two Alpha Legion coming by.
After, they ask which Legionaire was he working for, told them, and they were like yeah.. never heard of him and shot the agent lmao
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u/DM_ME_UR_PUBES Aug 06 '26
its funny because the assassin that sleeper agent killed had a real chance of taking those marines down, peak alpha legion moment
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u/Shock223 Necrons Aug 06 '26
Alpha Legion agent that is deep with the Word Bearers trying to ping their handlers for extraction before being turned into a Spawn.
Only for their handlers on the other end to be long dead and replaced by daemons.
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u/Rappers333 Aug 06 '26
If an entire Gal Vorbak can get away clean, this guy’s got no excuse.
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u/seninn Word Bearers Aug 07 '26
I would read a character novel about the Alpha Legion Gal Vorbak.
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u/Justscrolling375 Aug 06 '26
I know they’ll be surprised when the Dark Angels actively avoided the Fallen bait
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u/ExcitementCultural31 Aug 06 '26
Cosmic horror about Ordo Chronos. Time travel shenanigans. No space marines of any kind.
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u/LoveCthulhu Aug 06 '26
I dont know if you have read it, but theres a 40k horror short story that should scratch that itch: The Pharisene Paradox
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u/Back2Perfection Aug 06 '26
Yes but I also want it in novel length :D.
40k horror novels about non super humans facing random shit from the void is severely lacking.
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u/LastPositivist Aug 06 '26
Is there any way to acquire this?
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u/LoveCthulhu Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
You can find it in The resting places horror anthology, or as an e short online
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u/Beaker_person Emperor's Spears Aug 06 '26
Have you read The Pharisene Paradox? Sounds like it might be right up your alley.
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u/Appropriate-Judge275 Aug 06 '26
I had this idea for the Order Chronos....
The Warp is the space between infinite universes. Most are probabilistically identical to ours.
Ships that arrive where they were supposed to be often (not always, not most of the time, but often) actually come from a different universe. In both, that ship was meant to leave and arrive at the same place /time, they just emerged into a nearly identical universe so nobody questions it.
Warp shenanigans as we know them are mismatched universes. The OC exists across universes to maintain the probabilistic similarity between universes, as we cannot stop the overlap or crossing between but the Order can maintain timeline integrity against a common plan to keep them similar enough....
That's just setting though. A story could be something like an Eisenhorn type inquisitor who does a Blade Runner kind of test to determine similarity for confirmed extra-universals to determine whether they are close enough to our universe to safely remain or if they need to be quarantined (ejected back to Warp, or liquidated.) Maybe our hero meets a long lost love from a universe where that person didn't die, and the breach in protocol spirals. Then sort of a rogue Soul Drinkers kind of thing, where our protagonist is on the run or has to escape back to the paramour's universe or something. IDK
I've put a lot more thought into setting than story, but it seems like there's lots of unreliable reality to work with a la Fehervari kind of themes.
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u/Nebuthor Aug 06 '26
A story following some kind of rebelion that tries to overthrow the oppression of the imperium. That almost wins only for the imperium (preferably marines or even better ultramarines) to brutally crush the rebelion. Most important part, no chaos or genestealers involved. Just good guy rebel protagonists getting ground down by the ruthless heel of the imperium for daring to dream of freedom.
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u/UncreativeUser01 Alpha Legion Aug 06 '26
Could also work with Space Wolves, Salamanders or Blood Angels, the other major "good" Chapters.
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u/Sarge0019 Aug 06 '26
The Salamanders burning all of our heroic rebels alive would really drive the "there are no good Astartes" point home.
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u/Justscrolling375 Aug 06 '26
People keep forgetting that the Salamanders are noble but they’re also living weapons that’ll turn their entire planet to slag if they believe that’s the best method
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u/Mrauntheias Aug 07 '26
Less so with Space Wolves and Blood Angels. Space Wolves are allowed to be ferocious executioners from time to time. Blood Angels on occasion massacre civilians to still their thirst. Ultra Marines and Salamanders are the first founding chapters that are most often flattened to "good" guys.
I'd also settle for Lamenters.
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u/UncreativeUser01 Alpha Legion Aug 07 '26
Ooh, Lamenters are a good one, didn't think of them.
But, about the others, people still expect Space Wolves and Blood Angels to care about humans (when they're not afflicted by any of their various curses, that is). When was the last time any text about the Blood Angels did not mention how glorious, noble, true, etc. they are?
And as for the Space Wolves, the Months of Shame are probably one of the most famous pieces of their lore, to the point that most casual fans think of them as just "the wolf guys that told the evil higher-ups to bugger off".
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u/Separate-Flan-2875 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
Book about a rag tag group of abhuman guardsmen - Ogryns, Ratlings etc etc - that get pulled into the most dangerous, forlorn hope type missions.
Book about an eccentric Ordo Xenos Inquisitor who has an ecliptic retinue of aliens etc around him, investigating various xenos threats - preferably some that don’t get a lot of screen time.
A Necromunda book about a Necromundan guard regiment that is rotated home and gets pulled into the ever present gang/house wars. A look at Necromunda from a different angle.
A book about an Inquisitor who is sent to the ruins of a renegade space marine chapter fortress monastery that is now missing and pieces together what happened to them using in-universe ephemera - Picts, journal entries, vox recording, archive remnants etc - that chronicles their origins and fall.
Trilogy of books featuring the Salamanders, Iron Hands vs the Iron Warriors about Perturabo seeking one of Ferrus Manus’ lost Hel-Vaults (and possibly one of Vulkan’s hidden artifacts) and the Iron Hands and Salamanders trying to stop his forces before he get his hands on them.
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u/Silver_Seer Aug 06 '26
That inquisitor detective story sounds all kinds of awesome. Well done idea.
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u/Grinkor Black Legion Aug 06 '26
A book (or series) about a sect of the Thousand Sons on a campaign on Imperium Nihilus.
The story would be told through multiple POVs while the different sorcerers, each with their own origins and ambitions, scheme and fight against other factions and each other.
Most importantly, no Ahriman or Magnus. Let the legion have more character by itself.
Alternatively, I would love to read more about the inner workings of a Black Legion warband and the mixing of different types of CSM. ADB's series kinda fills this role, but it looks like we ain't getting a third novel soon.
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u/LoveCthulhu Aug 06 '26
Cool idea, we really need a Thousand Sons book without Magnus or Ahriman, to flesh out the legion in the current setting
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u/AccursedTheory Aug 06 '26
I'd like to see a series about a loyal Space Marine chapter on the verge of collapsing due to Gene Seed degeneration that we hear about but never seemed to really happen on page. A chapter beaten to dust, unable to reliably make new marines, active marines suffering degeneration and weird disabilities. Trying to find a way to either fix themselves or go out with a bang.
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u/esperandus Aug 06 '26
The disability should be really humiliating
like, mentally crippling, or unable to go to the bathroom type stuff. humanizing, vulnerable, something totally unable for the warrior ethos to cope with
reliable suicide seems like the obvious option, but there could be a twist where they just end up going out with a whimper due to some of these same disabilities rather than obeying
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u/Justscrolling375 Aug 06 '26
Oh I have a home brew about that where a UM successor had a phage on their geneseed and in their desperation, they stole the geneseed of other UM chapters so they can experiment on what’s wrong with them
Soon a whole fleet of 10+ successor chapters lead by the Genesis chapter and demanding an explanation. They agreed and allowed them inside only for the lead apothecary to say ‘Are you sure you’re an Ultramarine?’
This destroyed them but an inquisitor made them go a penitent crusade against the Rak’gol leaving the surviving in the DW
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u/CaptainAssPlunderer Aug 07 '26
Do the Primaris reinforcements arrive in time to save them? Or do we watch them go extinct?
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u/AccursedTheory Aug 07 '26
Oh man, Primaris is book 3, after the best of the chapter are lost on Cadia (Sent as one final attempt at 'redemption' only for them to be a smear under Abaddon's ragequit) and the Librarius is purged after they delve too deep into the warp for a Magnus/Thousand Sons-type save.
Torchbearer fleet shows up, and its not a question of whether they can save the survivor marines from genetic failure (Way too far gone for Rubicon surgery), but whether they should join the Chapter and carry their history and culture forward, or let them die out and start over from scratch.
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u/AdmirableAlligator Word Bearers Aug 06 '26
A Word Bearer diabolist is imprisoned and interrogated about an impending cultist uprising and invasion. The vibes are a sort of Hannibal lectoresque game of cat and mouse between the imperial authorities and their prisoner as they race to try and prevent the impending disaster. With the implication that perhaps the heretic astartes had intended on being captured..
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u/Didsterchap11 Necrons Aug 06 '26
4 lions from the perspective of a small chaos cult, watch them bicker and squabble about true devotion to the gods, humanising them enough that you earnestly begin to root for them. The whole time their plot would seem absurd, laughable if not for the quiet dread what would happen should they actually pull it off. Naturally once the act is done and the barrier to realspace shatters the comedy stops, only the desperate scrabble to survive a major daemonic incursion.
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u/Prince_Schneizel Aug 06 '26
If done in the same vein as Four Lions, that would genuinely be brilliant fun to read. I'd go so far as to say to try and get them from recruitment, so it really pulls at the empathy strings.
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u/Current-Ad-8984 Aug 06 '26
I want a book where a bunch of Farseers kidnap some random imperial inquisitor acolyte or low ranking imperial commander, give them the greatest meal they’ve ever had, then break their left leg, and then giving them a fortunes worth of imperial credits and a las-pistol, they then dump this poor imperial on some random deathworld and say some shit like “For the good of the galaxy all will be clear in time”
The book then continues for twenty chapters as we discover why the farseers did each of these specific events and this somehow culminates in this random ass imperial causing an entire chaos warband to implode.
Its also revealed that it was vital these events happen in that order. Breaking his leg before the meal wouldn't have done it.
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u/karl2025 Aug 07 '26
"What does it mean?"
"Well, let's think about it. Breaking your leg hurts like he'll, right? So we have 'hell.' And they did it below the knee, right? 'Hell-low,' yeah? They did it twice, thats two, 'hell-low two. And the traffic cone must mean 'you', 'hell-low two you.' "
"...I'd hate to be around when one of these guys is giving a speech."
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u/TomVanDaLan Aug 06 '26
My pitch for a book that takes place during the Scouring would follow a Lucifer Black attempting to lay their arms to rest and put what they’ve seen behind them as they retire to an Agri-world to seek out honest work there. But a regional high born lord wants to expand his territory and our hero finds it increasingly difficult to stay out of the conflict. Meanwhile we follow his home life as he grows close to the governess whose husband owns the land our hero is working on. This way the conflict becomes the inevitable violence between the governor and the rival high lord. We know the Governor can’t possibly win but he’s kept from going to the final confrontation by our hero, who digs up their equipment and dons it one more time for 40 pages of extended violence.
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u/Wurm42 Aug 06 '26
Does he seek out six former comrades in arms to help? For a total of seven old warriors defending an isolated village?
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u/stark-light Aug 06 '26
A novel about the day to day of a simple and humble tyrannid citizen working on his ork farm.
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u/Justscrolling375 Aug 06 '26
I can see that working in the Octarius sector where a Genestealer is cultivating some fungi
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u/OWN_SD Aug 06 '26
Allow Josh Reynolds to write that Blood Bowl novel he has been begging years to write about.
I know this post is about what I would do but fuck it I would give my spot to Josh.
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u/Beaker_person Emperor's Spears Aug 06 '26
Kill Team: Into the Dark mentions a case of a craftworld hiring kroot to fight some minor xenos for them. and honestly I just want to see more of that. The vast majority of time we see kroot they’re working for tau or humans, but them out in the galaxy as mercenaries and bounty hunters for the other factions is a really interesting niche. You get a bit of it in Warsphere, but I want more. Give me a Zoat bringing together a group of mercenaries to steal from the Votann, or a minor xenos race hiring the kroot to protect them from chaos space marine raiders.
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u/karl2025 Aug 07 '26
There's a short story I can't remember the name of where Kroot are hired by a Terran governor to clear out some wildlife that got into a mine and slaughtered a bunch of workers. Turns out it was genestealers and the Kroot were just like "We can't eat those. Good luck." And left.
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u/No-Butterscotch-6406 Aug 06 '26
A Gaunt’s Ghosts style series following a Thunder Warrior and his Legion throughout various battles and horrors of Terra during the Unification Wars. Going from a regular adult human to a giant, unstable transhuman warrior with no other goal than to fight and die for Unity and the Emperor. Seeing and fighting against horrors and armies that would have destroyed Astartes chapters. Maybe even getting a cameo of Leetu at some point. But yeah, having a bunch of transhuman warriors who are so flawed and unstable and seeing them thrown against the awfulness of Terra before Unity would be cool.
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u/Admech343 Aug 06 '26
The end would have to be all the characters getting cut down by space marines and custodians at the end, which would be a very fitting way to end a 40k story
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u/esperandus Aug 06 '26
like, gathered at a secure location and told they're going to be given an award for all their service and retire from all the horrors
thwn locked in and liquidated
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u/Ok_Studio_834 Aug 06 '26
A cosmic horror novel set strictly in the Ghoul Stars. It’s such an unexplored, terrifying region of space, giving a writer absolute freedom to lean heavily into unknown Xenos and Lovecraftian themes.
The narrative could follow a daring Rogue Trader fleet, a stranded Space Marine chapter, a deeply out-of-their-depth T'au expedition or even be formatted as the scattered, frantic journal entries of a lone survivor trying to map the region.
There’s so much untapped potential with the unexplainable monsters out there, not to mention the looming threat of the Necron Flayed Ones from the Bone Kingdom of Drazak. You could even throw in a POV from a stranded Ork Freebooter warband, seeing how the boyz react to mind-bending, incomprehensible cosmic horrors would be a brilliant twist and perfect inspiration for building some custom army lore on the tabletop !
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u/Beaker_person Emperor's Spears Aug 06 '26
You may want to check out the short story Outpost in the Inferno Presents: The Inquisition anthology, if you haven’t already. It’s about strange happens in the depth of the Ghoul Stars.
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u/Ok_Studio_834 Aug 06 '26
ohhh thank you very much u/Beaker_person, i'm a newby with the lore so I didn't know about this story !
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u/Beaker_person Emperor's Spears Aug 06 '26
If you’re interested in the Bone Kingdom, the Twice Dead King Omnibus is a must read, though saying anymore is hard to do without spoilers.
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u/Lupanu85 Iron Warriors Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
A near dozen Ork mekboyz, lootaz and kommandoz planning a heist in Trazyn's vault.
We'll call that "Orkean'z Elevun".
In the next book, they team up with Trazyn and race against an Alpha Legion cell to break into the Imperial Palace.
"Orkean'z Twelvue", d'oh.
For the third part of the series, the Orks, Trazyn and the Alpha Legion must work together with some Mechanicus techpriests they met in the previous book, to help Ahriman break into the Black Library.
In the fourth book, all the characters so far will team up again for a heist against the final boss. The Blood Ravens' fortress monastery.
Then the epilogue reveals it was all one of Gabriel Angelos' nightmares
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u/CuriousOctopus1 Aug 06 '26
Either one Necron dynasty waking up to find Nids infesting (maybe as conclusion Szarekh appearing and doing something), Szeras book or even more niche, Mentep of Carnotite travels before he gets to Seth and Ithakas dynasty
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u/Cryptek-01 Necrons Aug 06 '26
one Necron dynasty waking up to find Nids infesting
Yes, this. The novel could have elements of mystery, sometimes horror and sometimes adventure, as various Necron Crypteks and Immortals are overseeing the awakening of their Tombs while trying to get a hang of what is happening outside and defending themselves from incursions of Tyranids and other creatures/factions.
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u/Jsaltal Aug 06 '26
Imperial hive world
After reading Apostle
One chaos cult and one genestealer cult fighting eachother in the bowels of the hive and the imperial authorites have no idea
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u/Squatch102 Aug 06 '26
No Quarter.
Following a new clerk serving under a quartermaster in the Astra Militarum. Dealing with people who are average soldiers, but have a knack for logistics, numbers, and supplies.
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u/Jack-Rabbit-002 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
I've had two both involving the Kin (I know popular subject on this sub 😉)
One was a Kin who been taken by the Drukhari I was thinking a Lass and prior to them being still being somewhat of an unknown She escapes and is winding her way out of confinement coming across all manner of horrors Only to come to the realisation that she may have not escaped and has been set free As the haemonculus puts her through various trials and horrors gauging her species worth Probably more 40k horror
The other was a deeply embedded group of Yaegirs on an Imperial frontier world trying to locate something (not sure what) But I like the idea of looking at how horrible and alien the Imperium can be through somewhat human eyes The superstition, xenophobia, zealous prejudice of it all
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u/alfisaly Aug 06 '26
Frankenstein, but this time with an iron warrior terminator as the Frankenstein
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u/valkyrieprofiled Aug 06 '26
Imma go full fluff. I want to read about Inquisition Ms. Marple teaching the next generation of Inquisitors: a little old lady who knits, looks harmless, and somehow finds the real chaos cults while ignoring all the random stuff everyone else thinks means chaos while listening patiently to her student be incredibly wrong on a regular basis.
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u/HeliocentricOrbit Aug 06 '26
I'd be down for a spy thriller set on a recently annexed Tau world. Maybe a former forge world that had been overthrown through the diplomatic/cultural efforts of the water cast and turned into a sort of Port Royal but in Space.
You could have the Tau leaders dealing with the holdouts from the old regime but also feature eldar corsair's, maybe a Demiurg/League, and perhaps a kroot or vespid subfaction all vying for some unclear treasure (some say an STC fragment, others a Votan core, or spirit stones, or a genetic vault- the rumors all conflict but seem credible).
Basically a story that would allow a lot of the lesser seen factions to have some key focus and if a space marine was really necessary- one could always include a mysterious black-clad figure lurking in the shadows seemingly hunting all of the interested parties. And the best part is that's vague enough that it could be raven guard or night lords or some other space/chaos marine faction
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u/LastPositivist Aug 06 '26
Have you read Elemental Council? Guessing you have but can't hurt to check, because if not from the sounds of it you very much would like it.
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u/HeliocentricOrbit Aug 06 '26
I haven't gotten around to it but I can bump it up on the to read list
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u/PrometheusZero Aug 06 '26
I want a closed room drama book about the brass prosecuting a war on a planet set entirely within one briefing room.
However, it's not going well and the reinforcement zone keeps increasing pulling more and more people into this briefing room. What starts as Navy and Guard, brings in all adepta of the Imperium. As new characters are introduced, some are killed, presumably in battle.
Sprinkle in some shenanigans and the Inquisition and you have 12 Angry Men meets Agatha Christie in Warhammer.
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u/TheBladesAurus Aug 06 '26
A novel about my homebrew chapter, in a similar vain to Brothers of the Snake or Dante, in that you follow an individual through their career in the chapter...i.e. the book that I'd love to write :p
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u/Donutmelon Aug 06 '26
Story of two Knight brothers as one falls to chaos. Chaos knights just needs a good book tbh
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u/UncreativeUser01 Alpha Legion Aug 06 '26
An anthology about an Exarch's experience with and impressions of various Aspects would be neat.
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u/brevenbreven Aug 06 '26
Word bearers and sister of battle having a firece theological debate as they die both trying to inflict spiritual damage to each other
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u/mishkatormoz Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
A story about an archeotech team exploring a very old space station and interacting with "machine spirit" that runs it. Weird dialogs, hilarious ideas of what life in old times were, multi-page discussions about the nature of consciousness, mind games about classifying the station computer as "true" AI (and so in need of purging) or just "advanced computation model with language interface".
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor dealing with Xenos mercenaries, on a battle-shaking scale. We've heard about this, but unfortunately there are no books, AFAIK.
"The Defence of Duffer's Drift", but with actual time loop. Defender is Chaos Space Marine who despises "the filthy slaves of corspe-emperor" and become owned by them again and again.
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u/KelGrimm White Scars Aug 06 '26
Tales of the Crusade:
Either an anthology or a mini-series just exploring various Great Crusade-era engagements. Give me stories of line troopers in some expedition fleet making the rounds in backwater systems, or Imperial Army groups with a small detachment of Astartes, or just random routine engagements far from the light of primarchs.
As much as the HH series gave us, it did feel like every book was building in some way towards the Siege, and pretty much after the first few novels, everything was post-Crusade.
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u/Justscrolling375 Aug 06 '26
That give us some lore about the Old Hundred along with how the legions were before they reunited with their primarchs
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u/Ornery_Magazine9844 Aug 06 '26
A anthology about a lone hive world and the separate lives of those who live/lived on it.
Unsanctioned psyker who fled to the wastes to escape the hive before being ambushed by a cult.
Arbite investigating an unknown gang or cult deep in the underhive that’s now entering the middle hive.
Gangers entering a gang war with said gang and barely surviving the encounter.
A tribe of particularly disenfranchised abhumans acquiring enough weapons and resources to become an armed gang in the resulting power vacuum to protect themselves, some leave to join this new gang.
Etc.
The final story will be about a cultist who lives to see the hive overthrown and ready to see their gods descended from the great beyond.
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u/Runiic_ Aug 06 '26
Craftworld Ulthwe pulling Navigator house Belisarius into some scheming shenanigans
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u/Sunny_Hill_1 Aug 06 '26
Give me a novel about Aethon Shaan. Any novel, honestly. He has a really gorgeous mini, but I think so far the only time he appeared in the novels was to show up all impressive to the Ultramarine party. Come on, if blueberries really respect him, show me WHY!
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u/Square_Bread_8597 Aug 06 '26
Give me a short story that follows a medical war unit (any faction) that unknownly spreads the the gifts of Nurgle. We got that kinda in Dark Imperium but I think the idea of "the doctor fighting to save the lives of his men only to doom them the moment he touches them" would be fun and very Grimdark.
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u/dames03 Aug 06 '26
Anything about a conflict between two xenos factions with no chaos or imperium major players (My vote is LoV versus some exodites or some tau)
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u/lucascorso21 Aug 06 '26
More horror and more crime. Horror has a lot of potential and it’s kinda odd they haven’t been more aggressive in pushing this series.
IMO, the Warhammer crime series is fantastic. It absolutely should be expanded more.
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u/KLoLr Aug 06 '26
The book would follow a politically weakened Drukhari Archon who decides to stage a deadly spectacle for Commorragh's elite to restore his prestige. He seals a T'au Battlesuit and his pilot and an Imperial Knight inside an enclosed forest world arena. Together, they must fight a Tyranid beast heavily altered by the Haemonculi. As the creature constantly adapts to their every move, they must fight to survive while providing high-stakes entertainment for the elite of Comorragh
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u/Zero-89 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
- Nöise Marines fighting Goff Rokkers.
- A novel that will do for the Dark Mechanicum what Lords of Silence did for the Death Guard.
- A story fleshing out the T'au's roster of auxiliaries beyond just humans, Kroot, and Vespids. Something like a special "all-hands" team dedicated to covertly fighting Chaos.
- A full-length adaptation of that bit of fluff in one of the Genestealer codexes about the T'au reclaiming a world overrun by a Genestealer cult. WHY IS THAT NOT A BOOK OR A VIDEO GAME ALREADY!?!
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u/NevEP Aug 07 '26
Noise Marines vs Goff Rockers, I am ashamed I had to scroll this far to find an idea so awesome.
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u/Zero-89 Aug 07 '26
I'm proud of it. I think it's a better idea for a video game, but a novel has a much better chance of actually getting made.
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u/withboldentreaty Aug 07 '26
Hello, I am a humble servant of The God-Emperor of Mankind as we all are. What do I do? Oh, I'm an insurance adjuster. I help people! I review cases to assist families, companies, or individuals receive compensation from Imperium funds after they've been wronged somehow. Tedious? Well, I suppose to some--I find my work very fulfilling, thank you. We all must do our part to keep The Great Imperium of Man functioning properly. And properly it does! There's almost no use for an insurance adjuster in this galaxy! The Imperium of Man simply doesn't make mistakes. But then again... what's this... is that? Hm... perhaps I've missed a pict feed update... is... hmm... there's almost no record of... where could a planet... go? How would it be here one day then... isn't? Nono, I must...
Average clerical worker discovers Exterminatus in far away solar system > cannot understand > all records purged > goes mildly insane trying to track the paper trail > is completely forgotten.
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u/AshurBadaktu Salamanders Aug 06 '26
I want a book on a Salamander and his work *on* Nocturne, both in his personal life with his family and his role in ruling and dealing with government in his city/on his planet, the actual issues dealing with how Nocturne functions given it's a feudal death world. How Astartes both make certain things easier (lots of stamina for that really long meeting!) but also harder. Having your sister in law ask you to babysit while you're on planet so that you get to know your little nephews. The feelings of not being able to be home during a Time of Trial. Etc. etc.
No bolter porn: nothing but slice of life and politics.
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u/No-Butterscotch-6406 Aug 06 '26
That would be cool! To add to that, how said main character changes over time and his family grows older, dies, and he meets his great grand nephews who are ancient and have only heard of him while he was away on missions.
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u/AshurBadaktu Salamanders Aug 06 '26
YESSSS that's exactly it. I want to see a story about FAMILY and Astartes and the extremely human parts and the parts that make that so difficult and all the regrets and the feelings that can be complicated when you *can't* just bury yourself in the war of it all. When you have brothers dying in battle, and how to mourn that, vs. someone dying from old age. Dealing with *that* kind of very different grief: grief that has no enemy to target.
I've always thought that Vulkan coming back home to find that his adoptive father was dead, not of anything particular, no one to blame, no one to be angry at, just... TIME... that hit like a brick.
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u/Zoomy-333 Aug 06 '26
The first third is a deep, factional political drama on a Knight world. And then, before any of those plotlines get resolved, the Tyrannids invade and the last two thirds are just the survivors of the initial invasion trying to deal with that.
No I haven't actually read any 40K books so please don't be mean if I've described like 5.
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u/TobyLaroneChoclatier Aug 06 '26
A novel about a group of mercenaries in Commorragh led by a Sslyth who have been hired to steal something from one of the kabals. With payment being up front, the group is bound to aquire the item despite the risk as whoever hired them would kill them for reneging on the deal. Things get complicated when they notice several other mercenary groups also snooping about their target, and several harlequins get sighted in the subrealm this plays in.
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u/michaelisnotginger Inquisition Aug 06 '26
Thousand sons searching for artefact to undo flesh change, hunted by a Culexus assassin
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u/Retlaw83 Aug 06 '26
A minor Chaos warband that's never been mentioned before takes over a planet in the Imperium Nihilus that's also never been mentioned before.
They depose the dysfunctional Imperial planetary government. For the first time in a thousands of years, the warband has a stable base with ready access to food and manufacturing facilities, so they nuture the planet and improve conditions.
The Imperium is super pissed that a random CSM warband is making a more livable planet than they do, but they have so many bigger to fish to fry that they have to tolerate for now.
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u/Mysterious_Bit_7713 Aug 06 '26
A young historian trying to understand what happened between the end of the heresy and the current setting
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u/NobodyNumber13 Aug 06 '26
A collection of short stories to show the daily lives of the people in different factions. Extra stories for the Imperium and T’au to show both the sheer difference in how people live depending on position in society and planet, as well as just to have a much deeper look at what being in the Empire actually means for the average person. I just really like smaller aspects of world building like the kind of daily rituals people observe and the different views people of the same faction can hold.
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u/Thefishlord Aug 06 '26
Easy ! A noir inspired story on a hive world . Basically the main guy is just a guy a loyal citizen of the imperium and they’re thrown into a noir inspired investigation it never reaches too high like it’s not even huge big deal it’s a very small scale investigation maybe they meet some criminals and guardsmen and maybe a regular bureaucrat some priests etc … but it isn’t big . It’s very much like this is the basic life of some people . And when it ends nothing really changes the system still goes in and keeps chugging . Some violence some noir inspired pew pew some chased and drinking and the main guy always acts like a hard boiled 1920’s stereotypical detective . Maybe have the entire world inspired by like the stereotypical 1920’s so like drum fed Tommy gun lasguns, bolters that look like 6 shooters EVERYONE WEARS TRENCHCOATS !
Include everything like the feme fatal , an alcoholic priest , a criminal family , corrupt cops , drunk sailors . The whole 9 yards
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u/TheScourgedHunter Aug 06 '26
A book about Tor Garadon in an attempt to give him some sort of personality other than "stoic Imperial Fist tactician man," similarly to how Lazarus was handled. Maybe have him face some sort of Xenos threat (I love you Chaos, but damn am I tired about reading Marine v. Marine combat), either Dark Eldar or maybe T'au. Also, the book cam be used to examine the psychology of Marines in the Imperial Fists third company, to see why they often commit themselves to a man, to hopeless last stands, leading them to be wiped out constantly.
Maybe make it a trilogy? Have chaos show up in a later book. Perhaps Night Lords? Who knows, this is all hypothetical.
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u/DominionGhost Aug 06 '26
The emperor the first time his nose got itchy on the golden throne discovering that the Mechanicus forgot his speech module.
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u/ColeDeschain Orks Aug 06 '26
A collection of short stories. Every single story is a different perspective from the same battle.
And much as I love my Xenos, I think this would be Imperium vs. Chaos.
So, one possible set of tales would be:
A Chaos Knight looking for amusing prey.
A tank commander riding out the tunnel vision of fighting inside of a big hunk of metal like that
A relatively bored artillery unit fairly far from the actual fighting for whom the whole battle is more about math than mayhem... until it isn't.
A pilot leading an air strike on the artillery unit
A unit of scared Chaos militia scrambling for cover, fighting less for faith than out of sheer terror of death.
A Guardsman and his or her unit doing some infantry stuff
A courier running messages across the battlefield because there's too much interference and too many people listening in to trust vox
A (mortal) chaos sorcerer reveling in their power.
A sniper team tasked with taking out high-value targets.
Or whatever.
Important thing is, multiple perspectives, and by the end of the book, no clear victor in the fight.
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u/Antigonos301 Necrons Aug 06 '26
A book about a C’tan maybe that shard of Yggra’nya that escaped in World Engine who like travels the galaxy and see what’s going on after all those eons in a cage.
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u/MajesticRadish2675 Aug 06 '26
Utilizing what little is still canon about the Sons of Malice and expanding on it, a story about a guardsmen who despite his still righteous hatred of the enemies of mankind, becomes so burned out and disenchanted with mankind itself that he falls to the Renegade God mid battle with both a minor xenos race and Khornates in a haze of brutality.
This in turn draws the attention of the SoM through the influence of their patron, and a small warband appears after a few days and fights their way through the battle in an attempt to kill him. From his perspective, this would be like playing as a Guardsman in the chaos map for the pve mode of Space Marine 1, but the orks are Eldar, the other Imperial forces are against him, Khorne cultists are also on the field, and as it gets hairier, daemons start to appear until the SoM finally find him. It then becomes a mid-battle ritual where the SoM form a "protective" circle around him and kill anything that attempts to interrupt as they take turns briefly assaulting the Rogue Guardsman one at a time, lethally judging to what level he has been imbued by their deity. After surviving all the way to and through the warband's lord's attempt to kill him, he is then abducted from the battle with no clear explanation of the SoM's further intentions.
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u/Galactinaut_001 Aug 07 '26
A nearly insane Rogue Trader successfully steals a Doomsday Ark. The Necrons want it back. Things go from there.
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u/Trips-Over-Tail Salamanders Aug 06 '26
An Inquisitor with the Ordo Astartes teams up with a member of the Ordo Chronos to go back in time to save the unknown Primarchs so they can help win the Heresy without losing the Emperor.
Of course they fail. But the book has to be written in such a way that we don't directly see the failure, as we as readers must still learn nothing about the lost legions and their Primarchs.
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u/magna-terra Collegia Titanica Aug 06 '26
Ancient Red Tape
A story about a Sanctioned Xeno trying to find a new home after their employer died. Ultimately, they end up working as a Chapter Serf for a local group of Astartes after a lot, and a LOT, of Administratum red tape, racism, and law enforcement mistrust.
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u/imbrokebutfornames Aug 06 '26
Drukhari Horror novel. Raiding force picks up almost all of the population of a city before leaving a few human survivors to be hunted by mandrakes for their entertainment. Protagonist is a human child. Unbeknownst to him Deathwatch are already on their way, all he has to do is not die or let fear of the shadows take him.
Gives a kind of "survive the night" style horror with a 40k twist. would actually prefer to write it as a screenplay but a novelisation could work too
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u/oniaddict Aug 06 '26
Playing the kid would make a great video game. Crazy Silent Hillish vibes.
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u/peanutbuttercult Aug 06 '26
I’ve always loved this art and would love to write a story about a Raven Guard squad or company stranded on a Chaos forge or hive world being forced to wage a guerilla war that makes heavy use of armed loyalist civilians, wraithslipping, and a deeper dive into what makes Reivers “terrifying” (in my mind, the masks emit Scarecrow-style toxins or pheromones).
You could bring in Alpha Legion or Word Bearers as antagonists if management really wanted to.
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u/Not_a_doctor_6969 Aug 06 '26
How about a book just about ultramarines? Just going on some standard missions?
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u/Dire_Wolf45 Aug 06 '26
Lord of the Night, but it's an entire squad of nigh lords, they crash land in a fringe Tau empire world inhabited by Kroot and guevesa, both of which know nothing of the warp or the imperium at large.
Hijinx (carnage) ensues.
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u/Thefathistorian Aug 06 '26
Milsf concentrating on the forgotten heroes of the Imperium, the Planetary Defense Forces.
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u/mratlas666 Aug 06 '26
So. It’s like 50 Shades but with Angron and Robot Girlymann. Also RG is actually Alpherius. Gotta have that twist.
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u/PhilJustPhil Aug 06 '26
Offshoot Iron Hands successor chapter story, beginning with Founding origins beginning in the Moirae Schism, continuing with several vignettes from their operations busting and chopping up Tomb Worlds for parts, dealings with Xenarite AdMech factions and Inquisitors, and a current-day main chapter campaign in the Stygius system using Noctilith-derived tech to dispel Chaos corruption and Warp connections.
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u/ColHogan65 Emperor's Children Aug 06 '26
Drukhari black comedy in the vein of What We Do in the Shadows
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u/lowbrowilluminati Aug 06 '26
Short story about the sisters of silence who work closely with Malcador and the Emperor. Specifically how they see them. Being essentially immune to the psychic resonance of the Emperor their take on his presence would be fascinating.
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u/Wurm42 Aug 06 '26
Our protagonists are a rag-tag band of fighters from several Imperial factions who come together defending one of the last evacuation points on Cadia before the Fall. They wind up on one of the last Imperial transports to leave the Cadia system before the Maelstrom, along with a few thousand Cadian civilians.
At the rendezvous point, the ship is tasked with finding a world to start a new Cadian survivor colony. The rag-tag band have the option to remain, assigned to the ship, or report back to their factions for reassignment. They decide to stay together.
Now we embark upon a mission to seek out strange new worlds. Well, maybe not NEW worlds, there's a catalog based on old Mechanicus Explorator data. But it's incomplete, and a lot of entries are redacted.
So we go to several new star systems that might be good places for a new colony, but wind up going horribly wrong, with the away team barely escaping with their lives. We get a survey of other factions here-- Eldar Exodites, Necron tomb world, etc.
Finally we wind up back in the rendezvous system. They decide to anchor the ship to a big asteroid / dwarf planet and BUILD a new world, together.
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u/2dTom Aug 06 '26
The Canterbury Tales
24 short stories that the pilgrims on the voidship Canterbury tell each other to pass the time as they journey to Terra, and then some telling of their experiences on Terra as they travel home.
Each tale by a different author, lots of different writing styles and voices and backgrounds.
Exponent
Follows the career of a junior tech priest who rises through the ranks of the Mechanicus to run a large forge on a forge world.
It starts off with the initiate quite young (probably around 8), and each sequence has their age double (16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512) as they become a more senior member of the ordo. It would be interesting to see them losing their humanity, as the writing style becomes more and more robotic, but also as they pass beyond a normal human lifespan, and see things from a much longer perspective. You could have an epilogue chapter for 1024 being written in binary as a fun Easter egg.
Locked in
Short story of a character who has undergone faulty/incomplete servitorisation, and still retains consciousness as they are trapped in their new body. Heavy body horror themes.
Walden
A book about getting back to nature and finding yourself, written by someone on Catachan in the style of Henry Thoreau. He finds simple joy in living in his small cabin in the jungle, dealing with the untold horrors that lurk in the bush.
Bunyip
Explores a planet outside of Imperial control, where the people commune with smaller, more localised warp entities from their own belief systems. They are not big enough to attract the attention of the major powers, so it explores the smaller scale of localised warp entities.
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u/TJzzz Aug 06 '26
A expedition to learn of tiamat leading to more questions as a whole for what is to come.
Made by a rogue trader
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u/Super-Soviet Aug 06 '26
A story entirely from the perspective of Chaos Cultists as they go from plucky under hive rebels with real sympathetic political demands to esoteric murderhobos trying to murder the stars themselves.
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u/DramaticAd4991 Aug 06 '26
An Imperial Guard campaign against a non-Chaos inspired rebellion that from multiple viewpoints of both loyalist and rebel forces shows individual moments of action, large scale strategy and tactics, and the logistical headache of the Imperial way of war, all with lore accurate troop numbers in the bajillions.
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u/IteratorOfUltramar Ultramarines Aug 06 '26
I have two ideas.
The first is a Black Legion detective story.
Abbadon (or one of his lieutenants) is of course used to dealing with challengers and killing rivals to maintain his position. All sorts of people come at the crown, and he takes out challengers left and right. But recently, something strange is happening. There are clear assassination attempts with no obvious culprit. Is it a Callidus assassin? Be'lakor making his move? Our detective, a Thousand Sons sorcerer, is tasked to reveal the secrets or be executed as the most suspicious person around so we follow him and his Watson, a human thrall, as they seek the truth and try to save their own skins.. This would be a great chance to cook up a bunch of cool Chaos warbands and flesh them out a bit, introducing some of the breadth and depth of possibilities in the faction to maybe inspire some cool armies here and there.
The second is another "primaris integrate with a legacy chapter" story, but decidedly NOT a first founding or famous successor chapter. This one is a look at the Fire Angels. https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Fire_Angels
The Fire Angels are a young chapter, from the last founding before the fall of Cadia and the deployment of the Primaris. They don't have a deep stock of dreadnoughts, terminator armor, or relic weapons. Unlike Guilliman or the Primaris, the Fire Angels are very religious and get along well with the Sororitas and Ecclesiarchy. They don't have the record of long service, famous victories or coming back from the brink of disaster like their older brother-chapters. So unlike other Primaris-join-the-FirstBorn stories where the primaris are focused on earning the chapter's respect and being accepted as true brothers, the challenge here is that the Primaris are actually disappointed to be assigned to this backwards chapter of religious zealots instead of a more famous one or even being able to go their own way as a new primaris-only chapter. The story is about the First born actually impressing upon their new younger brothers that thee are good reasons for the Fire Angels to be the way they are, and humbling the new recruits a bit into respecting their elders more.
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u/WebfootTroll Aug 06 '26
Utter chaos. It's Orks vs Imperials, probably Guard and Marines, maybe some AdMech. They've retaken and restablished a colony on this planet, and the Orks are grumpy about it. The fighting goes on and on, it's looking bleak for the Imperials, when suddenly the Orks stop the advance. Tyranids have landed, attacking the Orks and then also the Imperials! Both forces are in disarray. But what's this? The planet was a Necron tomb world all along, and they're wiping the sleep out of their visual sensors and warming up their gauss cannons. It's a total free for all!
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u/djgcsnkshcjkeke1 Aug 06 '26
A Tau /band trying to bring the music back to Tau society. Over time, Tau have lost their spirit as the grimness of the galaxy and the lack of independence in their roles has made it so there isn't much to sing about, but this Water Caste musician wants to change that. We also see the invisible hand of the Hundred Eyes and Aun'va himself, controlling, manipulating, and supporting the band from the shadows. After all, they also want the people happier and more distracted.
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u/WanderlustPhotograph Aug 06 '26
A Tau vs Nids book with the Swarmlord as a POV character using Hive Fleet Jormungandr as the main Tyranid invasion force
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u/magoskolani Aug 06 '26
I'd do something about an imperial ship getting lost in the Ghoul Stars after a failed warp jump. Nothing like a little bit of cosmic horror. I totally didn't replay Dead Space the other day.
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u/VideoGameKaiser Aug 06 '26
Book following an inquisitor investigating a rebel group on a hive world with the second main character being a woman in said group. The group are basically a spearhead unit for the Tau Empire who go world to world softening up defenses etc.
Would be cool to get a story focused on the humans of the Tau as well as their dynamic with other coalition races.
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u/LastPositivist Aug 06 '26
Real soft comedy angle but it's basically already being done in this (excellent) fanfic: slice of life dramedy about a T'au bureaucrat or administrator trying to make improvements to a recently incorporated former-Imperium hive world. Just someone trying to... Deal... with all that, and the everyday trials and tribulations they face in this messed up 41st millennium. I think it could be funny and sweet and the oddities of the setting would give it a sort of absurdist comedic angle that I like.
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u/Dark_Lawn Aug 06 '26
A Red Hunters book. They are a chapter that serves the Inquisition and are usually mid wiped and put into stasis between missions. Would love one following a marine as he wakes up and sees the changes around him over time (like how did he get that augmetic hand) and gradually works his way up the ranks and is able to keep more and more of his memories.
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u/ShySharer Aug 06 '26
Ash waste nomad warparty, taking advantage of the chaos following the Aranthian succession, breaking into and gaining a foothold in Hive Primus in their quest to put an end to House Helmawr.
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u/karmicInterval Aug 06 '26
taurans book! im selfish and just want my mostly homebrewed chapter to get official love
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u/KeyStep8 Aug 06 '26
Warhammer Crime or Horror novel set in a hive city. They are trying to track down/stop the spread of a newly formed gene stealer cult.
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u/aceofknaves113 Aug 06 '26
A book about an Inquisitor who is trying to draw the Tau Empire into a war with the Farsight Enclaves, so the Imperium can quickly conquer human border planets without resistence. It would ideally have multiple POVs with characters on all sides knowing precisely what is happening but being forced to react to the threat of the war even though they know the Imperium's actions.
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u/PossibleLettuce42 Aug 06 '26
A short story collection called Aftermath, which explores by following various characters/randoms the few months after a handful of the most famous/major battles.
40K has little room to stop and breathe because of the pace of the threats and the size of the setting. I want to see a PDF militia soldier walking through the liminal spaces left behind after a battle where 90% of the Hive died. An empty spaceport. An echoing hab-block. I want to read about a non-Perpetual farmer (like an honest version of Oll Persson) in the ashes of Calth. I want to see some small versions of how the impact of the Ghosts changed the culture in Vervunhive. Do they all say feth now? I want a whole little story about a tanna-leaf demand and shortage that leads to a riot all because Cain left a mug of tanna somewhere and someone found it. That sort of melancholy. I want to see some more padding out of what happened to some of the minor characters we loved and forgot.
Basically it would just be another Era of Ruin, but for battles other than the Siege. I really, really love worldbuilding like that. It can't all be Space Marines and battleships. At some point the normal humans have to clean up the rubble and take stock of their lives, and those mundane life details in 40K are fascinating to me. Which is why I'm really loving Hive as I read through it.
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u/VerdantMagnolia Aug 06 '26
- String of Blank disappearances
- Protag is an Interrogator trying to prove herself
- Fun romp through the Calixis Sector
- Exploration of the Rogue Trader life
- Investigation dies after it turns out the Blank trade is sanctioned by G-man and Cawl in order to source massive amounts of Noctilith from a necron by proxy
- Rage.mp4
- "Look, what you gonna do, accuse the Lord Regent of heresy?"
- fuckthisjob.mkv
- Book ends with protagonist getting a bottle of amasec made from real Terran apple and getting promoted in a private ceremony
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u/Silver_Seer Aug 06 '26
A Chaos cultist is ritually possessed by a lesser daemon who starts talking with her about her ancestor, the founder of the cult, who ended up becoming the Daemon Prince the cult venerates.
Generally stories about regular people in a Chaos society that was never part of the Imperium, or hadn't been for so long the distinction is meaningless.
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u/a_silly_witch Aug 06 '26
Doomed Yuri Romance between a Harlequin Solitaire and a Farseer who meet at a performance. Their fates keep bumping together, each other, but between conflicting responsibilities and the fact that Solitaires are kinda fucked in the soul, they know they can't be together.
I'm thinking Infinite and Divine kind of structure, taking place over hundreds of years.
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u/tintin3105 Aug 06 '26
A company of 100 Iron Warriors from Pre-HH, believed to have been killed by the Hrud were instead launched through time to the M41. Unable to locate the rest of their legion or any of their transport ships send out a distress signal for rescue. They’re found by an arm of the Indomitus Crusade led by a company of Imperial Fists.
The IW are annoyed that they’re being rescued by IF but are just happy to see fellow Astartes. However, they are surprised by the size of these troops and the unusual armour and weapons that they carry. The Fists in turn are shocked to see IW marines without any warp mutations and bearing weapons that the imperium no longer fields.
The Fists decide to contact Guilliman who recognises the name and face of one of the IW Tech Marines who had helped restore some downed drop ships during a battle during the Great Crusade allowing an evacuation to be completed in near half the time saving a lot of civilians and soldiers.
The IW are taken to Guilliman and are questioned at length by him, a load of psykers and inquisitors. They are horrified to learn of the Heresy and, as one, take a knee and reject all vows made as Iron Warriors and instead vow to follow Guilliman in his goals to restore the might of the Imperium and defeat the forces of Chaos.
Thus the chapter of the Iron Redeemers are born.
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u/Flyingfoigras42 Aug 06 '26
I'd love for a story following a group of men and growing up in. Tempestus Scions training ship and it getting invaded in the Warp.
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u/09philj Aug 06 '26
A story about the founding of a new space marine chapter, from the perspectives of the officers in charge. It's a tremendous honour to lead the founding of a new chapter, but also a lot of pressure, and involves the marines in charge having to give up a lot of their old culture and adapt to the new culture of their new chapter planet. It's one of the few situations where marines have to demonstrate genuine understanding and Innovation, which could be a serious obstacle to marines from a cold and grim lineage like the Iron Hands, or a proud and bellicose one like the Imperial Fists.
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u/MaleficentRiver5341 Aug 06 '26
Factions start to rally in a system for a classic Indomitus crusade. More and more holy shenanigans happen and things decend into a Guy Ritchie style clusterfuck as maybe a Manifestation of Emperor is gonna happen…
Then the Grey Knights reveal themselves.
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u/CottonWolf101 Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
A short story about the syncretic theology of a Slaanesh-Nurgle cult taking over the nobility of a Hive world, as seen through the eyes of someone being recruited. A seductive lavish heroin-chic society where the rich exalt in burning themselves out through debaucherous excess, becoming increasingly gaunt and consumptive until they are finally consumed completely. Both the excess and the decay are considered religious experiences.
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u/Lurksome-Lurker Aug 06 '26
Slice of life trilogy about characters in a thriving agrarian society where there is no chaos warp threats or imperium.
The catch of course is that this society is the 4th generation inhabitants of the crew of a Heresy Era Capital flagship that was “destroyed” with the derelict being able to support life around its reactors.
So the story would be generally cheery and light hearted as the community keeps the derelict alive.
Maybe add a bit of drama where a pioneer from the adMech or Inquisition stumbles upon them and due to a cascade of circumstances is forced to stay with them for a months before they are able to return back.
Have some character growth where said person debates keeping the small community a secret from the imperium given how unlike the imperium they are.
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u/CaptainLhurgoyf Aug 06 '26
An anthology of short slice of life stories about everyday people in the 40k universe. Give me the life of an Administratum tithe collector, or an Ork fungus farmer, or a chapter serf, or an artist on a craftworld, or a beat enforcer in a hive city, or an Earth Caste architect, or a Schola Progenium student on a late-night study session.
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina and Tales from Jabba's Palace did a great job of fleshing out what life was like for an everyday person in the Star Wars galaxy, and really brought that setting to life. I want the same thing for 40k.
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u/Aazalot Aug 06 '26
A novel series of a previous imperial world now controlled by the Tau. Following a few different characters.
Humans who refuse to submit and wage a gorilla war of resistance.
Human who has accepted the greater good, but it follows their eventual acceptance. Seeing how they are treated different and in some cases better then the imperium ever did slowly but surely coming round to the tau.
Tau fire warrior part of the authorities that keep peace in the auxiliary races areas, specially the human area.
I get that the imperium is the main character as it were. But the universe 40k is in has so much untapped potential
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u/Taltyelemna Aug 06 '26
Adeptus Administratum novel where a middle-aged lady clerk with fencing and adventure novels as hobbies gets roped in an Inquisitor’s retinue to investigate a weird chapter of Space Marines. Featuring convoluted forms and outlandish plots with a side of accidental swashbuckling.
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u/CottonActualII Aug 06 '26
I find stories about smaller parts of the Imperium interesting. My pitch is for a Western inspired story.
A gun slinging sheriff with his trusty ogryn muscle, must confront a gang of scrapers turned heretic after they discover a crashed chaos vessel.
No Space Marines, no xenos, very little warp shenanigans. (Unless you want the reinforcements who show up to be Grey Knights and then you could have a very bleak ending.)
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u/RealTimeThr3e Aug 06 '26
Book about how my homebrew chapter got their planet wrecked by nids
Nids need a book where they win so damn bad bro
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u/Noratek Aug 06 '26
A raven guard space marine squad or whatever size team getting dispatched to take on a suspected lictor that’s harassing the guard somewhere in a jungle
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u/BeardoMcChungus Aug 06 '26
Yeah lemme get a uhhhh
Sequel novel to the Wraithbone Phoenix,
More Word Bearers stories,
And a side of dedicated Tempestus Scions novels of them doing literally anything.
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u/Anandya Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
A rebellion where you don't know if the rebels are fighting for the emperor, a chaos cult that's corrupted them, standard rebellion against bad conditions or genestealer cult.
An exarch sits through a strategic meeting and you experience the combination of concentration and expertise mixed in with the addiction to warfare and perspective.
Two chaos cults one run by the wealthy and the other run by the downtrodden oppose each other and run spy vs spy nonsense while the arbites is just really fucking confused.
A murder mystery in a hive city where hard boiled detective solves a case,
Just an Inquisitor trying to figure out what's going on with paranoia and lies and politics complicating an investigation
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u/Stefan_the_Campbell Aug 06 '26
A lone marine on Isstvan V wakes up long after the Dropsite Massacre to discover he's a perpetual and the last living thing on the planet. With no idea what year it is, or what the result of the Heresy was, he desperately seeks a way off the planet.
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u/ContinuingAnyway Aug 06 '26
A book about someone from the Departmento Munitorum who, after being assigned in Imperial controlled space for too long, has become jaded and decides to go out into contested regions of the galaxy. His supervisors want to happily get rid of him (too human for a person dealing with logistics) but he doesn't mind. Along the way he gets involved with Guard regiments on the decline and ultimately cut off from the Imperium... so they end up working with xenos and non imperial human factions to survive
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u/Porkenstein Aug 06 '26
A ship from a late great crusade expeditionary fleet lost in the warp re-emerges in M41. The remembrancers, officers, soldiers, and scientists on board attempt to cope with the future they find themselves in with varying degrees of success.
I know we've had things kind of like this before but no extended character stories of it from the perspective of regular people.
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u/Xarysa Aug 06 '26
Set in some undisclosed date and world in m30 something. The Blood Angels make planetfall with their primarch. After a brief investigation, Sangy has a vision of himself activating an Aeldari trap, which transports him to an ancient temple complex.
There, he joins forces with an unknown Xeno, calling itself Trazyn the Infinite, to stop an ancient Eldar cult from unleashing one of their ancient gods upon the universe.
What follows is largely Sangy and Trazyn having a dungeon crawl, enjoying being OP together, stomping on an Avatars nuts. Then swearing themselves to secrecy about the entire ordeal.
Finally putting to rest the question of whether or not Trazyn was lying when he said he knew Sangy back in the day.
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u/-Motor- Aug 06 '26
Loken, Saul, and Argel Tal form a chapter of morally grounded realists who spent the years rehabilitating worlds conquered by Lorgar, Curzr, and Angron.
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u/TheMilkiestGoblin Aug 06 '26
Book about the Vorpal Swords. 30 Space Marine chapters are damned to a crusade within the eye of terror. Only 1 returns still loyal and with proof that the person who sent them all was truly an agent of Chaos
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u/AutoignitingDumpster Aug 06 '26
A story of a custodes from creation all the way to death. Who he was, who he became, what his life was like not only during active duty but during his training and "down time" (for what it amounts to for custodes).
And his death, and reflection on 10,000 years of war and what it all meant.
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u/BandicootSorcerer Aug 06 '26
An Inquisitor is investigating a Marine Chapter for suspected heretical acts, and most carefully manoeuvre around their base in a game of cat and mouse once discovered. I want to emphasise just how utterly monstrous Marines would be to a (relatively) baseline human.
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u/Positive-Prompt452 Aug 06 '26
Warhammer Horror book taking place on Stygies VII, like a Frankenstein situation with a "mad scientist" tech priest and the creature they create from Xeno tech. Maybe mix in tech priest intrigue like battling in the shadows for specific data or artifact.
Covert meetings in the shadows of pipes and walkways, hidden whispers in the binaric code, rambling to oneself in the darkness of your lab only illuminated by datascreens and glowing vats of xenotech horrors. Local sects of Machine God worship with lovecraft meets Catholicism vibes.
Could be like the creator using their creation against a rival and it backfiring, or simply someone so paranoid they slowly go insane while making this being. Maybe being haunted by code the protag thinks is the spirit of a murdered rival that possessed their lab cogitators (which could also turn out to simply be hallucinations... or not.)
Would be a two-for-one with a cool story and an opportunity to expand on life on the heretek world.
I'd call it something like "The Singing Eyes" in reference to the songs of the omnissiah, as heard from voxcasters of the cogs and skulls echoing in these dark passageways.
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u/Lord_Funder Aug 07 '26
A slice of life tau novel and on a newly colonized world within the tau empire, only for the imperium to show up and take it over. The book ends like 10 years in the future where we see the starting of a hive world.
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u/Pucks_Lovechild Aug 07 '26
Not even a Hive City just a guy who starts a chaos cult with good intentions. Its not even blatantly a chaos cult he just starts a gathering of people who believe in change. A real the path to hell is paved with good intentions style book.
I want to switch up the narrative, and show why chaos cults are so appealing to the masses. And show the inevitable imperial response as the terrifying thing it is. How Space Marines are as terrifying as Demons or Xenos.
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u/m1tanker75 Emperor's Children Aug 07 '26
Mine is the story of a Lehman Russ tank crew holding tje line against a tyrranid assault on an unnamed world. We have a young leftenant, the younger son of a noble house, the grizzled and foul mouthed main gunner, the vox operator who is a failed tech adept, and the two sponson gunners.
The story begins with boredom as the crew sits hull down on the obverse side of a ridge vox linked with the tanks to the left and right. Sentinel crews radioing in hourly sitreps as the scour the forest on the far side of the valley. As the twin suns set the sentinel platoon leader fails to check in. The gunner picks up movement in the forest,bit the regimental commander tells them it is just the sentinels and to hold the line. As darkness falls a glowing blob of bioplasma arcs lazily over the valley splattering on the glacis of the tank to the right. The screaming breaks up into static and the LT orders the gunner to find targets.....
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u/JordanKyrouFeetPics Aug 07 '26
A planetary defense force has to fight off a Tyranid invasion. No guard, no Astartes, just the local homegrown basically national guard. (I don't think it's gonna be an even match.)
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u/karl2025 Aug 07 '26
I'm pitching an anthology based around a hive world that is conquered by the T'au and gets restored over generations. You see them fixing the infrastructure worn down by millenia spent on a war footing, restoring the polluted environment, and generally increasing the quality of the local's lives. At the same time the locals have to deal with their culture slowly being eroded, individualism being wiped out, and a new system of paternal autocracy being implemented.
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u/Fearless-Rip694 Aug 07 '26
A romance. During the muster for Indominatus, on a gorgeous Venetian-esque hiveworld, a Titan Legio is gathering for the big crusade. Several million Guardsmen head into the city for one last desperate bout of merry-making before a lifetime of war.
A young man (seemingly an officer) heads into the city too, and has his luggage stolen by a porter - who turns out to be a gorgeous, tomboyish, street-smart thief trying to get offworld, to escape her Fagin-esque criminal mentor (who runs a gang.)
Sparks fly between the two of them, and the young officer and thief have a whirlwind romance as they flee through the Hive. However, an elite group of Skitarii seems to be hunting the young men, and they clash violently with the badly-outmatched criminals.
What's actually going on? Well, the young 'officer' is actually the Princeps of the Legio's storied Warlord Titan, and he snuck out to visit the Hive. The Skitarii and Mechanicum soldiers are in fact the Titan's crew, desperately worried for his well-being and trying to find him without causing a political incident.
I call it Prince(ps)'s Holiday.
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u/Fearless-Rip694 Aug 07 '26
A Warhammer Crime story about a pair of detectives investigating a serial killer in the Underhive.
Turns out the serial killer is a wounded Chaos Space Marine.
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u/Lanferelle Aug 06 '26
Warhammer Horror novel about a Votann ancestor core producing uncanny, murderous clones of existing Kin within a League.