Warhammer 40K is a universe rich with lore and fascinating stories. No matter the faction, there is an engaging history and culture to uncover.
Yet in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. This slogan perfectly depicts the grimdark setting 40K presents, but the universe needs to take some massive leaps to make this setting plausible. Even with 40K's extensive lore, the universe is filled with silly details and systems that make absolutely no sense. From soldiers preferring melee weapons to following a military bible, here are 10 things that make no sense in Warhammer 40K. Keep in mind that this list talks about nonsensical things from the universe and not the tabletop game's mechanics!
10 Slaanesh
Slaanesh is one of the four Chaos gods that exist in Warhammer 40K. He is the god of desire, lust, and is one of the most devious gods in the universe.
What is bizarre, however, is how Slaanesh came to be. This god was birthed from the pleasures and desires of the Aeldari race from the earliest parts of 40K lore. Their constant focus on pleasure and loving life birthed the devious god, contributing to the Eldar's near-extinction.
9 Warp Travel
Most science fiction universes depict space travel as a way to slingshot the ship through space through the use of hyperdrives or similar equipment.
Not in 40K. In this universe, ships go through Warp storms that connect the different solar systems together into a cohesive universe. There's a catch with the Warp, however. Chaos gods can influence these storms, meaning your ship could get possessed by daemons, make your crew go completely insane, rip the ship into multiple pieces, or send you so far back in time that you practically cease to exist. Space travel is equally absurd and dangerous in Warhammer 40K.
8 The Emperor Not Foreseeing Horus' Betrayal
The Emperor is practically the one true deity of the human race in Warhammer 40K. He is one of the most intelligent and psychically capable humans that has ever lived.
His brilliance helped lead humanity across the stars in the 30,000s to take over planets in a great crusade. He could foresee the threat Xenos could have to his people, but he somehow couldn't predict that one of his sons would betray him. Horus, considered the greatest heretic to all of humanity, was influenced by the Chaos gods that the destruction of humanity was imminent unless he intervened, unknowingly condemning humanity to the very vision he was shown by eradicating Space Marine chapters and creating the now-infamous Chaos Space Marines. You'd think some of the most mentally gifted members of a race wouldn't be so swayed by astral daemons that they know are devious in nature.
7 Melee Weapons
In the grim darkness of the far future, there are only oversized humans wielding weapons of mass destruction. Except instead of solely wielding powerful firearms, they wield melee weapons with equal measure.
Chainswords, energy swords, and powerful hammers that can detonate entire bodies in a single swing are weapons commonly wielded in the 40K mythos. While ranged weaponry sounds like the rational weapon of choice, melee weapons are equally used in the universe simply because it looks cool. They sure are cool, but it definitely doesn't make sense that they'd use a chainsaw on a blade instead of their fully-automatic bolters that fire explosive penetrating rounds.
6 Orks
These buff humanoids love to kill everything they see, including each other if nothing else is around. That alone makes them rather bizarre.
Weirder yet, Orks reproduce by spreading spores into the air when they're alive that grow into Gretchens and Orks. Additional spores release into the air when they are killed. This means that Orks can never truly be exterminated unless you can funnel them all into one planet and kill all of them at once. Even better, all Orks possess Psychic powers, allowing them to make anything they believe in a reality. Think painting a car red makes it go faster? If the Orks believe it to be true it becomes true!
5 The Adeptus Mechanicus
The Adeptus Mechanicus is responsible for creating the vehicles the Imperium of Man uses. They create these vehicles with various forges that range from Mars to planets way beyond our main system.
Yet they believe in a machine god that is responsible for their machines working. All of the engineers for the Mechanicus are heavily augmented with cybernetics and machinery to please the machine spirits. Since ancient blueprints of vehicles are missing since the Horus Heresy, they believe in the machine spirit to make their vehicles function after creation.
4 Codex Astartes
The Codex Astartes is, for lack of a better term, a space bible. Space Marines live off of this book to guide their actions in combat and to understand what is morally right.
Genocide against alien species is perfectly okay, but using jump packs off of a vehicle is not acceptable. The things this book lays out are bizarre in what they focus on. Every alien that you come across must die and the extermination of potentially chaos-corrupted citizens is alright, so long as it prevents a further invasion from occurring.
3 Population Density
There is a cheeky saying for the Astra Militarum implying that they can drown enemies in the blood of the fallen. This seems like hyperbole until you realize how many people are on a planet at any given moment.
Literal trillions of humans or aliens can inhabit a planet at once, perhaps more during conflict. The Imperium is so large that there is no definite number for how many people live in its regions. It doesn't make sense how planets the size of Earth can support hundreds of billions of people in 40K, at least when compared to reality.
2 Heroes Don't Wear Helmets
If you wear a helmet in this universe, you aren't practical. In fact, you are likely to die if you wear a helmet since you have shown others you are not an important character to the universe.
The real heroes of 40K are too cool for helmets. Their plot armor is so thick that bullets fly by them while their more-armored comrades get killed with a single shot to the neck or eye. If you want to survive in this universe, take off a helmet to show you're an essential character that is too important to die.
1 The Entire Universe
This is somewhat cheating, but there is no other universe that is as over-the-top and unabashedly ludicrous as Warhammer 40K.
Genetically-augmented superhumans serving a corpse-god and battling psychic aliens with space-age chainsaws is pretty out there, to say the least. The mere premise of Warhammer 40K being an eternal war in the grim future against over a dozen factions is crazy in and of itself. There is no peace or compromise in 40K. There is only war.