Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-96.237.238.119-20131218020230/@comment-4851119-20140111172704

My theory for M42:

Empy Dies - he'll be free from a physical body, so he can fully devote himself to the Warp and give the Chaos Gods a really bad day, while the HLOT and the Inquisition would probably hush up his death and say something really silly like "the Astronomican is closed for renovation, version 2.0 with Tyranid repellent and massage chairs coming soon!" Imperial Warp travel will only be possible as a series of short jumps without the beacon for navigation, which will make it even more time-consuming then ever.

The Imperial Fists, Ultramarines, Iron Hands, White Scars and Dark Angels, along with almost all of their successors, will mass at Cadia and launch the First Crusade of Light. Abbadon launches the 14th Black Crusade as a counter-attack and the Eye is generally fucked up by the shitstorm that ensues.

Meanwhile Lugft Huron gets the return on one of his pacts with a Minor Chaos God of fear, and he ascends to Daemon Princehood, an eternity of insane power, becoming Blackheart the Harvester.

Ghazgkull Thraka is killed during his latest attack, with an Ork horde that makes The Beast's look like a scout party, but is resurrected as Da Prophet of da Waaagh! (closest thing possible to a Daemon Prince of Gork, and/or Mork?)  to lead the Waagh-to-end-all-Waaghs for all eternity.

The Adfeptus Mechanicus is gradually dominated (due to pressure from the Imperial Fists and Sebastian Yarrick) by those who favour actual innovation and trying to re-create technology from the Dark Age rather than just finding it. Meanwhile sveeral Chapters, such as the Ultramarines, Howling Griffons, Black Dragons, Nemesis Chapter, Absolvers, Death Spectres and Raven Guard, are slaughtered to a man by Abbadon's last charge. The last surviving Death Spectre Astartes outside of the Deathwatch, and the only survivor of this massacre, returns to Imperial Space a broken man. He shuns his name, paints his Power Armour grey, and becomes a recluse.

Meanwhile the tau are... well, fucked is probably the word. Farsight's lot are the only survivors, forced into an alliance with the defenders of Ultramar,slowly pushed back  and back by Tyranids for 7 millenia until only the long-extinct Ultramarines' citadel remains. Fortunately this citadel has held out against several Nid invasions since M43 that made Behemoth look tame, so everyone takes heart in that.