I second reading or listening to the Ciaphas Cain books, since they bring that pinch of satire with them.
You also get to explore most races from the 40k universe quite quickly.
ooterness@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You’ve got the important foundational elements. The other big event is the Horus Heresy, where about half of the Emperor’s sons fell to Chaos and started a huge civil war that left the Emperor in his current half-dead state, but the imperial bureaucracy keeps on chugging.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the world of Warhammer 40k has been evolving over decades of novels, tabletop games, and video games made by multiple authors. As a result, the canon is vast and occasionally self-contradictory.
If you want to know more, I highly recommend the Ciaphas Cain books (novels with a comedy streak) and a silly fan series called If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech device.
wissenisstmacht@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Delphia@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Quite quickly?
I would say with almost unseemly haste
wissenisstmacht@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
As always, Cain tends to downplay the situation in his usual manner.
Delphia@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I really enjoyed doing a Cain novel, then a Gaunts Ghosts novel, then a Cain novel and so on.
ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 1 day ago
“Record keeping is shit and we aren’t even sure what year it is any more so don’t take anything at face value " is the new canon, so the canon being a mess is canon now.