Oh, don’t worry… It’s actually quite easy to understand! You see, it all started before written history, when there was this one dude who was created by a bunch of super-powerful shamans…
Nono you can’t start from there, you need to know who the dude is and why he did that to truly grasp the scope of the setting.
It all started several million years ago, when a race of soulless machines commanded by living clouds attacked…
I honestly found it easiest to start from as close to the familiar as possible, which is why I start with Big E: start with the symbolism, quick run-through of human history (I mean really quick), then expand upon the Warp as it relates to Psykers and Big E with an overview of basic concepts and personnages (which is also where I start proselytising Cegorach and his ilk), then explode into everything else, starting from “current day” status, then dipping in history as and when relevant. Otherwise it really does get overwhelming and it’s really easy to slip into “lotsa’ sci-fi words” without having an anchor point in familiarity.
Also a good point, Gothic Armada strikes a really good balance between large scale, yet still granular imo, where the happenings are massive, but the scale is still small enough to develop parasocial relationships with your units:))
In the same vein, as a gist of it all, the Dark Crusade campaign intro cinematic does very well in offering a vertical slice into the main players! Sure, it doesn’t cover the Drukhari or the Sororitas, but it’s leagues ahead of the Soulstorm one…
Oh, don’t worry… It’s actually quite easy to understand! You see, it all started before written history, when there was this one dude who was created by a bunch of super-powerful shamans…
Nono you can’t start from there, you need to know who the dude is and why he did that to truly grasp the scope of the setting. It all started several million years ago, when a race of soulless machines commanded by living clouds attacked…
Earliest we can start is the necrons right? Before they were machines tho
The order i always heard people explaining 40k was:
I honestly found it easiest to start from as close to the familiar as possible, which is why I start with Big E: start with the symbolism, quick run-through of human history (I mean really quick), then expand upon the Warp as it relates to Psykers and Big E with an overview of basic concepts and personnages (which is also where I start proselytising Cegorach and his ilk), then explode into everything else, starting from “current day” status, then dipping in history as and when relevant. Otherwise it really does get overwhelming and it’s really easy to slip into “lotsa’ sci-fi words” without having an anchor point in familiarity.
I always thought Gothic armada short animation did an amazing job of setting up what is going on.
Also a good point, Gothic Armada strikes a really good balance between large scale, yet still granular imo, where the happenings are massive, but the scale is still small enough to develop parasocial relationships with your units:))
In the same vein, as a gist of it all, the Dark Crusade campaign intro cinematic does very well in offering a vertical slice into the main players! Sure, it doesn’t cover the Drukhari or the Sororitas, but it’s leagues ahead of the Soulstorm one…
So you start at the beginning, with Horus Rising. And the first four books are chronological, so that’s easy! But things get interesting when you get to book 5!