Memes / Warhammer 40,000

Heresy? That's a blammin'.

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Please add entries in the following format:

• The meme. [[labelnote:Explanation]]The explanation behind the meme, if necessary.[[/labelnote]]^ExplanationLike this.
  • Further mutations and successor memes, if any.

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See also: If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, which is a source of many of its own memes that have overlapped and even outright flourished within the main Warhammer 40000 fandom.

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General

• In the grimdark future of the grimdark grimdark, there is only grimdark.^ExplanationA parody of the overly dark and over the top nature of the Warhammer 40000 setting, a variation on the most common Tag Line of "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war." The meme is actually referenced by Viktor in Paladins
  • In the Space Marine future of the Space marine, there is only Space Marine.^ExplanationA variation of the above after considering the fact that, in the 5th edition, almost half of the playable "factions" are Space Marines.
  • "Grimdark" managed to escape into common use. As is common in these cases, the irony was lost and it refers to nihilistic ultraviolent stories and crapsack settings with hardly any truly good characters, usually in SF or fantasy, played totally straight instead of deliberately over the top or for Gallows Humor.
  • Grimderp^ExplanationFor when a franchise goes too far into edgy territory and the results become more laughable and headscratching than depressing and horrifying.
• Dawn of War:
  • METAHL BAWKSES!^ExplanationOne of many So Bad, It's Good lines in the Soulstorm expansion. This one is from the Chaos Lord Firaeveous Carron, when attacking the Space Marine stronghold. He'll say the line to highlight the stronghold's scripted use of Rhino transports, apparently forgetting that Chaos uses Rhinos too.
  • "SPESS MEHREENS, TODEH THE ENEMEH IS AT OUR DOAR! WE KNOW OUR DUTEH AND WE WILL DO EET!"^ExplanationAnother Soulstorm example from the same mission, this time showing off the narmful accent of the Space Marine Captain, Indrick Boreale, by typing it down phonetically.
    • WE HAF FEHLED THE EMPRAH^ExplanationWhat Boreale says after being defeated in the Space Marine Stronghold, where his accent somehow gets thicker and even more melodramatic.
    • Boreale is Rebecca Black's father.^ExplanationAfter the release of Rebecca Black's "Friday", /tg/ users ended up noting how similar her voice sounded to that of Boreale's. Those users have naturally joked that there is a parental relationship between the two and that the awful singing voice is hereditary.
  • Vance Motherfucking Stubbs, who "lost" 100 Baneblades and still won the Kaurava campaign.^ExplanationYet another Soulstorm example, this time referencing how the Imperial Guard Commander, Vance Stubbs, made his stronghold into a factory for Baneblade superheavy tanks (note that Baneblades are incredibly rare and hard to make; normally only two forge worlds in the entire Imperium are known to produce them, and one is Mars, the biggest forge world of all; being aware of this makes Stubbs' plot point extremely implausible). Stubbs's problem is that a shipment of 100 new Baneblades was sent to various regiments outside the system right before the battle that could have made good use of them. The meme mutated into Stubbs somehow losing precious Baneblades left and right.
  • SINDRIII!!!^ExplanationLord Bale's narmtastic reaction to being betrayed by Sindri in the original Dawn of War.
  • WE CAPTURED IT FOR KAY-OSS!^ExplanationMore Chaos Narm, this time from the Chaos Cultist unit, notable for having an extremely weird accent and enunciation.
  • Macha, the ever-virgin^ExplanationOnce again from /tg/, this one references the Farseer from the original Dawn of War, Macha, and how she will never, ever, lose her virginity.
  • BLOODY MAGPIES!^ExplanationA reference to the joke that the Blood Ravens loot corpses and steal relics from other Chapters, usually framed as their latest victim discovering their precious whatever is gone. This itself is a fan "explanation" for all the gear available in the first two Dawn Of War game series, which is in actuality the property of other Chapters or Imperial factions; literally none of them would be willing to give up their best equipment to another Chapter, so comparing the Blood Ravens to the magpie bird was a common joke. In fanon, this culminates with the theft of Bjorn the Fell-Handed
    • The Blood Ravens graciously accept this "gift" to the Chapter.^ExplanationBlood Ravens insist that their loot is merely a "gift" for the Chapter. The fact that they often literally pry it from someone's cold, dead hands nonwithstanding. Fans have also taken to bringing up the Blood Ravens and their Kleptomaniac Hero tendencies whenever one faction appears to copy technology from another.
  • The Inquisitor has many... 'questions', to ask.
  • Mister Nailbrain's classic Ork Flash Git accessory, known as the 'gitfinda' has been subject to this.
  • Slowly, but surely, Lord Araghast's badass boast turned into this. From outright parody to him just opening up with 'X, HEAR ME! I AM ARAGHAST THE PILLAGER' while talking about things like the Lord Inquisitor to the new Black Templar codex. Listen for yourself.
  • Diomedes is now the spiritual successor of Boreale due to hammy speech patterns and pronunciations.
  • From Retribution's second campaign mission as the Space Marines: IT IS THE BAAAAAANEBLAAAADE!
  • BROTHER I AM PINNED HERE!^ExplanationAnother oft-quoted hamtastic line, courtesy of Captain Apollo Diomedes in DOW II.
  • Noise Marines Dubstep!^Explanation The Noise Marines in DOW II have an upgrade that gives them a Blastmaster, effectively turning them into the Chaotic equivalent of a Plasma Cannon Devastator. Considering it makes rather bassy electronic noise whenever it fires, the Noise Marines were characterized to like very loud dubstep Techno, and a slew of techno videos with their lines spliced in came into being.
    • '"THIS QUIET OFFENDS SLANEESH! THINGS SHALL GET LOUD NOW!!!"'
  • "X is for the weak!", replacing X with "Sanity", "Subtlety", "Sleep" etc.
  • Witness your doom!^Explanation A line screamed by the Imperial Guard Psyker when using one of his skills, it is fondly remembered by many fans for how unbelievably Hammy it is, and for the fact that it was a pretty decent skill.
  • You have Chaplain Diomedes!^Explanation Back in Retribution, one of Diomedes' 'when selected' lines was "You have Captain Diomedes!", while in Dawn of War III he has become a Chaplain, leading to the pun. Sadly, he doesn't have such a line in the game itself.
  • Jumping Terminators^Explanation Gabriel Angelos being shown jumping with the amount of dexterity as a Assault Marine while wearing a very heavy (even by Space Marine standards) Terminator armor has been one of the most well-known things in Dawn of War III and has been mocked to hell and back.
• Squad Broken!^ExplanationA truly horrible fanfic, both in terms of Canon Defilement and actual writing, that depicts a Space Marine being brutally raped to death by an Ork. Popular with trolls.
• From a more meta standpoint... Thin! Your! PAINTS!^ExplanationThe common response when someone asks for painting tips. So much can go wrong if you forego this piece of advice. All joking aside, "thin your paints!" is one of the more common modelling-related critiques given to a new player and it's very good advice - there's plenty of pictures on any wargaming community of miniatures that didn't have their paints thinned prior to putting a brush to them and look like someone tried using a malfunctioning melta on the poor souls. Games Workshop has an entire channel dedicated to painting tutorials, and MiniWarGaming provides a good paint thinning tutorial.
  • This one is universal to tabletop gaming. "It started out as a halfling..."
  • Two thin coats.^ExplanationDuncan Rhodes, formerly one of the main painters for Citadel, often notes that painting your model with two thin coats of paint is better than one in his tutorial videos. His popularity with the fanbase led this to becoming a meme. Eventually became an Ascended Meme after Citadel advertised the launch of their new Contrast range with the tagline "One Thick Coat". Duncan himself went on to launch a line of paints called Two Thin Coats after leaving GW in 2020.
• Pauldrons.^ExplanationPossibly the most distinctive, but also extremely Awesome, but Impractical piece of Space Marine armour is its massively outsized shoulder guards.
• You must forge a narrative!^ExplanationA parody slogan on the insistence of Games Workshop that you are not actually playing a game, but creating a narrative story.
• I roll to Deny the Holocaust.^ExplanationThe introduction of the 6th edition of the game saw the introduction of a new rule: Deny the Witch. This allows a unit a roll to defend against enemy psychic powers, if a slim one. Such a roll is sometimes abbreviated as "Deny" or "DTW". The 5th edition rulebook for the Grey Knights included a power called "Holocaust", which targets an area around the model using it. The defending player can roll to defend against this attack, but because of the poor wording a player can, before they realize what they are saying, announce that they roll to Deny the Holocaust.
• I put this on the table. I won.^ExplanationThis can be written on pictures of something like the Warlord-class Titan when it's made on the scale of the board game models. These things are considered so powerful compared to the usual units that their deployment alone is an Instant-Win Condition, as it's absolutely pointless to try and fight it.
• How to find the 40K tournament: Listen for the heavy metal music.^ExplanationA certain tournament organiser in the Australian 40K scene liked to play heavy metal during said tournaments. Convention goers could always tell where the 40K players were because of this.
• Jimmy Space^ExplanationIt's been explained that Land Raiders and Land Speeders were actually named after a man named Arkhan Land who had discovered the original vehicle designs. Similarly, the Adeptus Astartes were named after a scientist named Astarte who participated in their development. While things being named after their creators like this is totally realistic, in this instance where the names already made sense for other reasons the silliness stands out a great deal. Combined with Games Workshop frequent overuse of Meaningful Name (Ferrus Manus was the Primarch of the Iron Hands, had hands covered in metal, had a flagship called "The Fist of Iron", and Iron Hands cut off their left hands to replace them with iron hands in honour of Primarch Iron Hands' iron hands), it's been joked that the Space Marines are not named because they are marines in space, but because the Emperor's real name is "Jimmy Space", and they are his Space marines.
• Look forward to Warhammer+^ExplanationA meme lambasting the absolute piss out of the new subsciption service created by Games Workshop. Due to the fact that the lead up to its creation was filled with controversy after controversy, namely them placing a zero-tolerance policy on fan films and animations, after grabbing the creator of Astartes. Which many fans rightfully believe was an attempt to get rid of far superior competition so their own infinitely worse product would be the only one available. So in response fans have commonly made the Tagline below Warhammer Plus mercillesly mocking GW's current practices and it's almost sincere effort to kill off the Warhammer 40k fanbase.
• I am Warhammer 40,000.^ExplanationA meme that has gained traction recently, it is a ham-fisted way of showing Horus' fall to Chaos. Bonus points for Horus wielding a warhammer called Worldbreaker.
• Tactical Rock^ExplanationIn recent years, character models have had a tendency to be posed standing with one foot on a rock, skull, corpse or other piece of battlefield debris. While understandable to make these models stand out from basic troops, the sheer prevalence of the pose led to the joke that every character was standing on their 'tactical rock'
• God-Emperor Cavill^Explanation The news that Henry Cavill would star in and produce a TV series based on the game was welcomed with open arms, given how much of a geek Henry is and a fan of the franchise too.
• The Prigozhin Heresy^Explanation In the aftermath of the Wagner Group's rebellion in June 2023, some fans have jokingly made connections to it and the Horus Hersey, in a form of Crosses the Line Twice form of humour, seeing that just like in 40k, both sides are seen as a bad outcome (given the Wagner Group's reputation and the Russian government's war in Ukraine). People have also made the connection given that just like Horus, Prigozhin (the Wagner Group's leader) is bald.

The Imperium

• "HERESY!" *BLAM*^ExplanationAny anti-Imperial statements may result in a Commissar appearing and summarily executing the offender with this trademark cry. It's also used to denote any of the following: anything totally disgusting, inappropriate or taboo (most infamously in 4chan, any mention of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic or other Internet punching bags); extreme dislike, disagreement, or dissent to the current subject; possible Canon Defilement; or simply as a hammier version of the word "bullshit". It is best used with a picture of a Commissar for full effect. Remember, posting ponies in /tg/ is HERESY!
  • In general, Commissars are well-"loved" by fans as trigger-happy Bad Bosses serving as a perfect shorthand for the Imperial Guard's harshest aspects in some Black Comedy manner.
  • “Oops, sorry sir!”^ExplanationContinuing the whole “jerkass political officer” angle for Commissars, it’s commonly joked that Commissar fatalities consist primarily of them getting killed by stray fire whilst suspiciously far from the battlefield. The name comes from the name of a old (no longer in force, alas) rule for Catachan Imperial Guard forces. They had to roll for each Commissar in the army; there was a one-in-six chance they'd die before the game started. In-universe, this is because Catachans are infamous for not liking Commissars trying to impose "proper discipline" onto them, and them taking steps to remove the problem.
• "DRIVE ME CLOSER! I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD!"^ExplanationNamed for a humorous caption added to a picture◊ of a sword-wielding commissar riding a Leman Russ battle tank. Used either mockingly or affectionately. Oh, and it's become official!
• The Imperial Guard: fighting alien monsters with flashlights and t-shirts.^ExplanationLasguns and Flak Armour are by far the weakest weapons and armour in the setting (which still makes them horribly powerful though), the joke being that Imperial Guard equipment is no better than a t-shirt or a flashlight. Can be used as a good or a bad thing.
  • Standard issue adamantium balls.^ExplanationBeing the Badass Normals of the setting, along with a t-shirt and flashlight every member of the Imperial Guard is issued with a pair of these. Even the women? Especially the women.
• *Happy gas mask noises.*^ExplanationThe Krieg Death Korps, are an Imperial Guard force that take Death Seeker to a whole new level, and are famous for virtually never taking off their gas masks. Whenever they are faced with absolutely suicidal odds, this is assumed to be their response.
  • Kriegers and their shovels.^ExplanationWhile technically just popular fanon with no real actual basis in any sort of official source, due to the Kriegers' distinctly WWI-era aesthetic, fans particularly love to imagine and associate them with using their shovels/entrenching tools as close-combat weapons just as the soldiers on both sides of WWI did. Hilariously enough, as of July 2021 this has also become an Ascended Meme, thanks to Warhammer Community and the new Death Korps kill team kit.
• The Dark Angels loudly insisting they are absolutely and completely loyal to the Emperor and hiding nothing.^ExplanationIt is the Chapter's Dark Secret that a large portion of their ranks went renegade during the Horus Heresy while their Primarch was away fighting the Traitor Legions. These renegades were scattered through the Warp after opening fire on the returning loyalists, who reacted by bombarding their homeworld until it exploded. Ever since then, the Dark Angels have hidden the existence of the renegades from the rest of the Imperium while trying to hunt down and capture all of these "Fallen" to make them repent and restore the Chapter's honor. Ironically, there are indications that the higher-ups of the Imperium are entirely aware of the Fallen but don't really care about them; instead, it's the extreme measures the Dark Angels go to in their search for the Fallen (such as abandoning their allies just before a battle to investigate a lead or exploiting their successor Chapters as a Loophole Abuse to the maximum 1000-Marine number for each Chapter as mandated by the Codex Astartes) that are worrying them.
• The Salamanders getting just about any jokes involving African-American stereotypes applied to them. Or just pyromania.^ExplanationThe Salamanders are an exception for not being white, the trope being something the universe had some trouble with a long while (though their skin color is more technically a utterly and completely pitch black)... and the jokes pretty much flowed out from there. The pyromania is also pretty much only slightly an exaggeration given their rules, motifs and even actual rituals involving things of high temperatures.
• So there I was, editing TV Tropes articles, when I hear this weird noise, like a distant rumbling sound. Glancing around the room, I deduced it was coming from behind my monitor. I stood up, walked around my desk to get a better view, when suddenly a frakking Baneblade roars out from behind the monitor, crushed my chair, and gunned down my entire Tau army on a nearby shelf. How the hell can a 300 ton tank sneak into my room? Must have taken some kind of tactical geni- CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!^ExplanationWith the 5th Edition Imperial Guard Codex, Usarkar E. Creed's special rule "Tactical Genius" allows the army containing Creed to make a scout or outflank move with one unit of their choice before the game, even Baneblades and Scout Titans. The meme inflates this rule to the point that Creed can hide said overpowered superweapons behind a lamppost or outhouse without anyone ever seeing them until they attack. The story has many variations, all ending with some poor schmuck lamenting Creed's tactical genius and releasing a Skyward Scream.
  • The Tyranid Swarmlord is able to outmanoeuvre none other than Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines, with an instinctive cunning that borders on tactical gen-SCREEEEEEEEED!^ExplanationA Tyranid version of the above.
  • So, these Tzeentch cultists were about to perform the ritual sacrifice that would allow a demon prince to enter the world and plunge this planet screaming into the void. But then, a Baneblade emerged from the shadow cast by the main altar and began blowing holes in the walls, while Space Marines began emerging from behind the ornamental candelabra. And when the high priest tried to complete the sacrifice before the Space Marines could stop him, he discovered that a 100 foot tall battle cathedral had been hidden behind him without him realizing. How is this possi- CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!
• TANKRED ENDURES^ExplanationA Black Templar Dreadnought from the comic Damnation Crusade, TANKRED only fights for bitches and booze. His endurance is legendary.
  • TWINS, THEY WERE.^ExplanationThe ending to a short NSFW fanfic. Tankred has some really weird (and wet) dream and this is the first thing he says after being awakened, to confusion of all others. Mutated into a Non Sequitur used when Dreadnoughts are concerned.
• SPESS WOLVES, WE MAKE PLANETFALL IN OUR WOLFPODS AND OUR WOLFSHIPS IN THE NAME OF THE GREAT WOLF AND OUR WOLF LORDS WHAT WIELD WOLF CLAWS. FOR THE WOLFTIME!^ExplanationExaggerating the many instances of wolf being used as a prefix or a suffix in the Space Wolves Codex.
  • WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF WOLF
  • Yo Dawg, I heard you like Wolves, so I put a Wolf on your Wolf so you wolf while you wolf.◊
  • "The best way to defeat a Space Wolf is to wolf his wolf. However, if he wolfs your wolf first, then your wolf is wolfed."
    • Blood Angels spawned a similar snowclone meme thanks to their codex using the word blood as much as Space Wolves codex uses wolf.
  • Leman Russ is often depicted as Holo. The explanation for this is that ten thousand years in the Eye of Terror has caused some interesting transformations.
  • "IF YOU FUCKERS WAKE ME AGAIN, IT BETTER BE TO KILL SOMETHING OR ASK ABOUT ACTUAL HEROES, NOT BITCH-STEALING ASSHOLES".^ExplanationAlternate Character Interpretation of Bjorn the Fell-Handed portrays him as rightfully bored out of his mind due to people awakening him every century or so just to tell stories. Most of the comedy comes from the fact that he's been hardwired into an Imperial Dreadnought, and thus you've got the mental image of a thousand year old giant robot bellowing out profanity-laden insults such as the above.
    • GET OFF MY FUCKING LAWN!^note Bjorn the Fell-Handed defends his property from trespassers. Also mocks the way he is only awakened to kill or negotiate with things when Fenris itself is under threat.
• Once upon a time there was a Black And White Space Marine On A Black And White Bike...^ExplanationA long "Shaggy Dog" Story involving a Black And White Space Marine On A Black And White Bike.
• ANGRY MARINES!!! ALWAYS ANGRY! ALL THE TIME!^ExplanationA Space Marine chapter created by /tg/. In their own words, they are angry for the Emperor.
• ALL HAIL CIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!!^ExplanationThe highly misleading tagline of the Ciaphas Cain series, it is used by fans both ironically, as intended, and as acknowledgement that despite his claims, Cain earned his reputation as a Badass Normal.
• It was then that Hive Fleet Kraken recognized that its true spiritual liege was not the almighty Hive Mind, nor the Hive Tyrants that lorded over them, but Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines.^ExplanationThe 5th Edition Space Marine Codex written by Matt Ward states that most, if not all Space Marines consider the Primarch of the Ultramarines to be their spiritual liege. The joke extends Guilliman's influence to even enemies of the Imperium.
  • YOUR SPIRITUAL LIEGE^ExplanationThe phrase often used instead of "Roboute Guilliman" and "Matt Ward" when talking about them, as a reference to the poorly-received attempt on Ward's part to make the Ultramarines into the "best" Space Marines.
• Rogal Dorn's Colossal Chainblade.^ExplanationA meme◊ of the "Expand Dong"-type, filled to the brim with Double Entendres talking about his Colossal Chainblade. Even better is that the meme was read by none other than Rogal Dorn's voice actor from If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device.
• GIT TO THE CHOPPA!^ExplanationStandard phrase used in reference to the Catachans, a division of the Imperial Guard that is effectively a Planet of Hats - where the hat is Predator.
• CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT^ExplanationReached memetic status on DakkaDakka, originating in this thread where the poster seemed to have just copy-pasted the model's title from Forge World's website. Thanks to the rest of the posters in the thread also typing its name in ALL CAPS, the tank rapidly became a Memetic Badass.
  • PRAETOR ARMOURED ASSAULT LAUNCHERS^ExplanationTo a lesser degree, this also reached memetic status, originating in the same thread.
  • Drive my CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT closer, I want to hit them with my sword!^ExplanationA meme that occurred when someone combined the CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT meme with the "DRIVE ME CLOSER! I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD!" meme. Link◊ to the meme.
• Ultra Smurfs.^ExplanationUsed by Ultramarines haters throughout the fandom to derogatorily refer to the Ultramarines, due to the utter favouritism displayed towards the Ultramarines as of the 5th edition Codex (in particular the favouritism of Promoted Fanboy Matt Ward) and because their colour pattern is blue and white, while the higher ups often incorporate red, drawing obvious comparisons to The Smurfs.
  • Gargamel.^ExplanationA Fan Nickname for the Swarmlord due to him giving a Curb-Stomp Battle to Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar in which he cut off all but one of his limbs.
  • "Soup-cookers"^ExplanationAn even more ridiculous and humiliating nickname originating from the Russian fandom for the Ultramarines, which should be mentioned because of its history. It started from the "Chaos Gate" videogame OST and track "Ultramarines Chant" where every single line suffered from Memetic Mutation and these new lyrics were surprisingly coherent as a whole, somehow turning the entire hymn into an ode to soup ("Agitatis Ultramarini" - "Oh, shikarniy soup navarili" = "Oh, the gorgeous soup has been cooked"). From then on, there was an insane amount of mutation: soup became the Ultramarines' Trademark Favorite Food, gave them the nickname of "Soup-cookers" and then became one of the strongest Russian 40K memes, to the point where everybody knows that "In the grim darkness of the far future, a gorgeous soup has been cooked".
• The PDF tried to respond but were killed to a man.^ExplanationA meme lampooning the general incompetence of the Planetary Defence Forces in most of 40K fiction. The PDF is a sort of "home guard" for Imperial planets, supposedly capable of defending their world until they get reinforcements that can actually drive off an invader. 9 times out of 10, the PDF of whatever planet is being invaded/corrupted/in a rebellion/etc. in a story or campaign will be either completely destroyed or become heretics. These armies are usually mocked by the Imperial Guard or Space Marines in-universe for their constant and infamous ineptitude.
• You scored all the points but the Galactic Partidges won the battle.^ExplanationA fan-made chapter of Space Marines found on /tg/ who steal victories out from under other armies. Meant to parody both the Blood Ravens (known in 40K memes as chronic thieves of relics rather than victories, along with having a similar bird-based name) and the penchant for Games Workshop to have Space Marines show up and be credited with saving the day in canon, regardless of how well other Imperial forces are fighting at the time.
• The 1st Membranes will kill you with mindbullets.^ExplanationAn army of Imperial Guardsmen generated using the tables in the still-in-beta 40k RPG Only War used to represent /tg/ in the setting when the Angry Marines aren't around. Known for the hilariously canon defiling concept (generated by the dice completely fairly, but still absurd) of an entire Guard regiment made up of unstable, weak-willed psykers.
• Yo dawg, I heard you like armor so I put armor in your armor so you can wear armor while you wear armor.^ExplanationOne of the later Space Marine codex to be released featured the Centurion, a Space Marine in full armor wearing a suit of mechanised armor. Fans immediately adapted the "Yo Dawg" meme to lampoon how silly the concept was.
  • A SPACE MARINE INSIDE OF A SPACE MARINE!
  • The Baby Carrier ^ExplanationSimilar to the Centurion, the Grey Knights have a unique unit known as a Nemesis Dreadknight◊ that amounts to a fully-armoured Grey Knight strapped into a Dreadnought-sized suit of armour. However, the... unfortunate design of the cockpit makes it look like a baby carrier, with the appropriate lampooning of the concept.[/labelnote]]
• Space Vampires[[labelnote:Explanation]]Alternative name for Blood Angels Chapter, whose members are all pretty Marines who feel a compulsion to drink blood.
• Team Edward vs. Team Jacob^Explanation Related to the above. The vampiric themes of the Blood Angels and the sheer wolfiness of the Space Wolves inevitably led to jokes comparing them to the male leads of the Twilight franchise.
• The Emperasque approves of this.◊^ExplanationA Crazy Is Cool fanfic Tales of the Emperasque, where the Emperor possesses a Tarrasque from Dungeons & Dragons, made someone draw this picture. It's used as a shorthand for declaring that the thing in question is great.
• Cadia stands!^ExplanationA common catchphrase or slogan among Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum players that serves as a reminder of Cadia's demise, but not the Guard's.
  • The planet broke before the Guard did.^ExplanationAnother common catchphrase or slogan among Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum players that serve as a reminder that despite Cadia's demise, the Imperial Guard units of Cadia, the Cadian Shock Troops, did not lose their morale and fought on up until evacuation (with the Cadian 8th regiment even volunteering to provide a suicidal rear guard for the escape transports, and late evacuating troops reporting seeing fighting going on on the pieces of the planet they could see from their shuttles). It is often used as morale-boosting propaganda.
    • The company broke before the fandom did (or some variation of this).^ExplanationAs a result of Games Workshop's Fanwork Ban, and increasingly stringent enforcement of its IP, many have taken to the line to exclaim that the whole idea behind the series has collapsed and that the fans are desperately holding on even as everything breaks down around them.
• Guilliman's Eldar Girlfriend^ExplanationRoboute Guilliman worked well with Yvraine, the Emissary of Ynnead, and even suggested a military alliance with her people. Considering this is a setting where every faction is furiously trying to kill each other, this is pretty much considered a full-on romance by the fandom.
  • Just like his father.^ExplanationEpisode 12 of If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device contained a joke that the Emperor created the Webway Project in order to gain access to Eldar hookers. This led to many fan depictions of the Emperor having a thing for Eldar in general, and unsurprisingly, following the advent of the "Guilliman x Yvraine" memes, quips that Guilliman has the same taste in women as his dad.
• Guilliman's Ultradepression^ExplanationBased on Guilliman's monologue on the Imperium after being resurrected and seeing a technologically stagnant and socially regressive theocracy that worships the Emperor, fans have taken it to mean that Guilliman has developed a really bad case of depression, one that some would joke is on a suicidal level.
• The Loyal 32.^Explanation Every remotely competitive Imperial army in 8th edition, no matter its composition otherwise, included the same detachment of 32 Imperial Guardsmen (it's a ludicrously cheap source of command points). The meme is that it's literally the same soldiers every time.
• The Codex Astartes does not approve of this.^ExplanationIn Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Leandros constantly complains that Titus' actions aren't in line with the Codex Astartes when he does anything remotely unorthodox, no matter if it's totally necessary to survive. The fans have taken to saying this whenever a Space Marines does anything even remotely distinct.
  • SPACE BOOK SAYS THIS BAD!^ExplanationA simplified parody of the aforementioned Leandros book-bashing.
• Fuck Erebus.^ExplanationErebus was the first Space Marine to fall to Chaos and is directly responsible for the Horus Heresy and the current state of the Imperium. Therefore the fandom treats him as the ultimate Hate Sink and often jokingly blames everything that goes wrong on him.
• Rowboat Girlyman^ExplanationBecause Roboute Guilliman's name is so easy to misspell, intentional misspellings into hilarious word combinations became a meme unto itself.
• Exterminatus^ExplanationIn general, this is like an unofficial Trope Namer for any kind of Earth-Shattering Kaboom. Also, if the HERESY issue cannot be solved by a single "blam", call Exterminatus. Because There Is No Kill Like Overkill. In forums, this also became a synonym for a Permaban.
• Toasters^ExplanationWhile Adeptus Mechanicus worships every kind of technology, fans believe they have some... unorthodox adoration for this particular device from ancient Terra◊.
• Listen to the Custodes.^ExplanationIn the short story Psychic Awakening: Consequences, a Custodes demands a squad of Primaris Marines surrender as their Chapter has been revealed to have turned traitor. The Primaris refuse and demand an explanation, and the Custodes asks them to surrender again, and then immediately guns them down when they don't comply. The sort of instant brutality and completely one-sided nature of the subsequent fight spawned a bunch of memes.
• Castellan Trunchbull.^ExplanationUpon the reveal of Ursula J. Creed, fans immediately began to draw comparisons between her and Miss Trunchbull due to both being stocky authoritative women.
• Zapp Brannigan/Look at My Horse.^ExplanationUpon the reveal of Lord Solar Leontus, fans were drawn towards his robotic horse and how ridiculous he looked on it. The most prevalent jokes surrounding him drew comparisons to Zapp Brannigan riding Felicity in the episode "Brannigan, Begin Again". Other fans joked that he was a misplaced Cities of Sigmar character from Age of Sigmar.
• Tywin El'Jonson^Explanation Lion's current 42nd Millennium model has many fans seeing a resemblance to Charles Dance's Tywin Lannister.
• Flintstones Tank^Explanation After the new Rogal Dorn Battle Tank was released, it became the source of much mockery due to the gaping hole in its undercarriage, leading to jokes about the Imperium regressing to using Flintstone-style propulsion, amongst other things like the tank being immune to land mines. It actually got to the point where a third-party modeller released a Dorn Bottom Panel.
• Tzeentchian Custodes.^Explanation After the rather controversial revelation in April 2024 that The Custodes have always had female members, one artist depicted Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh, the first named female Custodes, as secretly being a very powerful Tzeentchian daemon such as The Changeling or even Tzeentch himself, leading to many other artists also depicting her as such.

Chaos

• "I DO COCAAAAAIIINEE!"^ExplanationThe fan-created Catchphrase of Doomrider, a daemon prince of Slaanesh who's often played as a straight-up Dr. Rockzo send up in fanon.
  • "DOOMRIDER! NA! NA! NA!"
• Lucius the Eternal will penetrate the rear armour of anything with his Rod Lash of Torment. OH YEAH!!^Explanation Lucius the Eternal is Slaanesh's greatest champion, whose followers are frequently stereotyped as sex-obsessed and major hedonists. Cue mountains of euphemism-laden jokes portraying Lucius as a Memetic Molester.
• Magnus did nothing wrong.^ExplanationDue to being entirely loyal to the Emperor and Imperium and having the best of intentions up until his dying moments where he accepted a deal with Tzeentch to save the lives of himself and his legion along with the whole situation leading to it being set up in a way to make it especially tragic, Magnus' fall is highly sympathetic in spite of his flaws having caused it. This statement is used variably-seriously since Magnus clearly acted recklessly but remained rather morally clean as far as the Traitor Primarchs went until Tzeentch took him, so evaluating him is very much up to the individual.
  • Horus/Erebus did nothing wrong.^ExplanationA parody of the above that takes someone universally seen as responsible for the Horus Heresy and insisting they didn't actually do anything wrong. More often than not a joke, especially with Erebus since he is generally agreed to be one of the most despicable characters even by 40K standards.
• Still waiting for Ruinstorm Daemons^ExplanationThe Ruinstorm Daemon army release for Horus Heresy 2.0 was originally slated for summer 2023. For the entirety of the summer, clear out into the autumnal equinox, no news, teasers, or releases were given aside from a few supplementary PDFs.
  • Wait they're actually out^ExplanationOn October 10th, their rules were released a full month after summer had ended
• Kharn is a hell of a guy.^ExplanationA catch-all reference to the joke that under Kharn the Betrayer's Ax-Crazy tendencies and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, he is really a nice, but misunderstood guy.
  • IT'S MY DAY OFF^ExplanationKharn's days off involve murder and bloodshed on par with his work days.
  • I'M THE NEW COMMISSAR NOW^ExplanationKharn steals the hat from a Commissar by chopping off his head.
  • I WAS TRYING TO DRAW A DUCK^ExplanationKharn takes up drawing. He isn't that great.
  • KHARNE LOEV KITTEN◊^ExplanationKharn loves a kitten.
    • KITTEN LOEV KHARNE
  • Get up. ^ExplanationKharn's simple demand towards Erebus while beating the everliving shit out of him during the events of Betrayer after Lorgar reveals to him Erebus' murder of Argel Tal.
• Also from /tg/, we have the Fan Nickname of referring to Fabius Bile as "Fabulous Bill."
• X FOR THE X GOD!! Y FOR THE Y THRONE!!^ExplanationA snowclone based on the Catchphrase of Khornate warriors, "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!". Oh so exploitable.
  • Harriers for the cup!^ExplanationComes from Commissar Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, snarkily responding to a Khornate Space Marine's use of the above catchphrase before decapitating him.
  • PORN FOR THE PORN GOD! SMUT FOR THE SMUT THRONE!^ExplanationSlannesh's version of the catchphrase.
  • BREAD FOR THE BREAD GOD!^ExplanationKhorne Bread.
  • MILK FOR THE KHORNE FLAKES!^ExplanationMocking Khorne's name due to its inherent pun potential for the word Corn. Even has an Urban Dictionaryentry.
• Just as planned!^ExplanationThe fan-created Catchphrase of Tzeentch, Eldrad Ultran and Creed, the greatest Tactical Geniuses in the entire galaxy, with possible exception of Alpharius.
• Failbaddon the Despoiler is an incompetent fuckwit.^ExplanationThe fans' reaction to the fact that, despite being touted as the Imperium's greatest threat and launching 13 massive attacks against the Imperium over the last 10,000 years, he's never actually scored a lasting victory; at the end of every Black Crusade, he's inevitably bested (usually by Creed's Tactical Genius) and flees back into the Eye of Terror without causing much lasting damage to the Imperium. Became a Discredited Meme after the Thirteenth Black Crusade and the reveal that Black Crusade 1-12 actually accomplished all their goals, which were not "attack Cadia".
  • Abaddon has no arms.^ExplanationFrom a photograph of an Abaddon model with no arms (due to how hard they are to glue in place on a metal model and have them stay glued), an extension of the "Abaddon is useless" meme (i.e. "Failbaddon the Armless". Fans usually claim that Eldrad, Trazyn, or Creed are the ones who stole them.
• Everyone is Alpharius.^ExplanationA reference to the Primarch of the Alpha Legion, a Magnificent Bastard and a master of disguise that has never been caught.
  • I'M ALPHARIUS!^ExplanationA reference to the fact that all members of the Alpha Legion refer to themselves as Alpharius to protect their Primarch. It helps that they all look the same.
  • Roll to see if you're not Alpharius.^ExplanationA phrase used every time Alpharius shows up in story or RP, born due to the above two memes.
  • No such Legion exists.^ExplanationBecause Games Workshop releases such little information on the Alpha Legion, such as the fate of their Primarch, their current command structure, their reasons for defecting to Horus, or if they even really betrayed the Imperium, fans respond that the Alpha Legion is simply a myth.
• Cultist-chan.^ExplanationOne person drew an adorable picture of a female Chaos cultist feeding an Ugly Cute Chaos Spawn. Her popularity quickly exploded, her strangely endearing speech patterns (based on the speech patterns of the Chaos Cultist from the Dawn of War games, explained to be caused by a mouth full of irregular, jagged teeth) and endless persistence in worshipping her Dark Gods caused her to become beloved by the majority of /tg/, featuring in numerous subsequent drawings and stories, including from her creator.
  • Lolicron.^ExplanationSimilar to Cultist-chan above if not as popular.
• Chaos Champions have one of two outcomes in life. They may either ascend as a Daemon Prince, to rule unholy armies and worlds for eternity, or to become a Chaos Spawn, a mutated beast that...no, wait, I GHRHADIOSJNSLKDMAPKF!^ExplanationUsed whenever someone mentions a Chaos Spawn, one of the most persistently useless units among Chaos Space Marine armies. Their awfulness is such that just referencing the Spawn will cause a person to devolve into a Chaos Spawn mid-sentence.
• Doombreed is GENGHIS MOTHERFUCKING KHAN and is on fire!^ExplanationLargely attributed to a particularly amusing 1d4chan article, the article repeatedly posits that Doombreed is Genghis Motherfucking Khan and has a fact list that rapidly devolves into everything about him and everything he owns being on fire. The meme portrays Doombreed as a (literally) flaming badass and destroyer of all who oppose him along with much identifying the Mongols with Khorne.
• Thousand Sons Femboys. ^ExplanationA user by the name of Vezimira has taken to depicting Iskandar Khayon, narrator and main character of the Black Legion books, as a feminine and submissive man. The fandom loved it, Vezimira made more art with more Thousand Son characters, and now almost any discussion of the faction on r/Grimdank will have at least a mention of them being femboys.
• Angron didn't skip wing day.^ExplanationAngron's 40k model released in 2022 depicted him having incredible musculature at the base of his wings.
• Peter Turbo ^ExplanationA mispelling of Perturabo's name in a similar vein to Rowboat Girlyman above. It's been used so often that fans have taken to using this Fan Nickname over his actual name.

Xenos

Aeldari

• Eldrad is a dick.^ExplanationCreated on /tg/, this references the belief that Eldrad's master plans are only for his own petty self benefit, such as getting himself a Commissar Cap.
• Fucking Autarchs.
• Who's that Elf girl?^ExplanationFrieren from Frieren: Beyond Journey's End has a tendency to pop up in memes related to the Eldar, much to the confusion of people who don't watch anime

Leagues of Votann

• Squats should be brought ba^ExplanationGames Workshop discourages anyone that mentions the Squats(Space Dwarfs). Shortly after their creation, Games Workshop scrubbed them from existence and went to great lengths to stop people from talking about them. Mentioning the word "squat" on the GW forums was once grounds for an immediate perma-ban on the first offence with the thread where it happened being deleted, with no warnings given. Asking any form of Squat-related question at official GW events would get the questioner removed from the event by security. The extreme crackdown on all things Squat was eventually turned into a meme wherein Games Workshop would send out secret police (or death squads, in later versions) to disappear anyone who mentioned them. Somewhat less relevant with the release of 6th Edition, which while not bringing back playable Squats did deign to mention them in one fluff piece in the rulebook. In 2018, a playable Squat character was released for the Gaiden Game Necromunda.
  • SQUATS LIVE!^ExplanationA companion to the above, players would jokingly post this whenever Games Workshop did anything that might hint at the Squats being canon, such as the playable Squat appearing in Necromunda or a group of dwarf-like space miners cameoing in a book. Then GW posted an April Fools featuring a suspiciously short-looking figure with a gruff voice and heavy accent proclaiming "We're back!", followed by Warhammer Community confirming the return of the Squats (now the "Leagues of Votann") after spending over a decade denying any trace of their existence. Needless to say, this prompted the meme's popularity to explode almost overnight.
  • Reset the Squat-Clock!^ExplanationThe squats have been MIA for so long in the metagame that a popular joke on forums was that there is a clock in Games Workshop's Headquarters counting down to a re-release of Squats- but the clock is reset every time someone asks "When will you re-release Squats?" Even GW got in on the joke for the release of a Necromunda Squat miniature.
• The Kin ripping off StarCraft.^ExplanationThe new Leagues of Votann Powered Armors have reminded many fans of that worn by the Terrans in StarCraft. As such, fans have joked how the referencing/ripping off has come full circle with Games Workshop ripping off Blizzard, given how StarCraft and Warcraft have been viewed as ripoffs of 40k and Fantasy respectively (the latter being a Divorced Installment from Fantasy mid-development not helping matters).
• The Hekaton Party Wagon.^ExplanationThe Hekaton Land Fortress was compared by many to the TMNT Party Wagon when it was first revealed. Naturally, this has led some fans to make jokes comparing the Leagues to the TMNT.
• Mars Mission Squats.^ExplanationGiven how both of the initial Leagues of Votann vehicles - the Sagittaur ATV and Hekaton Land Fortress - are basically upgunned and uparmored lunar rovers, fans have been quick to draw comparisons to the human vehicles from Mars Mission. By extension, it has become popular among the fandom to depict Leagues vehicles in the colors of other Lego sci-fi themes, such as Ice Planet and Rock Raiders.
• Rock and Stone!^ExplanationAny mention of the Leagues of Votann online will often lead to Deep Rock Galactic jokes or comparisons, seeing as that game is not only about space dwarfs, but came out right before the official reveal of the Leagues of Votann and their return to continuity. This became an Ascended Meme of sorts in the first Leagues of Votann codex wherein mention is made of a minor subfaction called the "Deeprock Kindred".

Necrons

• "I move and shoot."^ExplanationMocking the "complicated tactics" of the Necrons, which had no other possible strategy than slowly walk forward and shoot.
  • OH COME ON.
• Tomb Kings IN SPESS!^ExplanationHighlights some similarities between the Necrons and Tomb Kings factions (both are Egypt-inspired skeletons that can get back up when killed). This meme predates the 5th Edition Necron codex, but got new life from it as more similarities were added. As for where the spelling came from, see SPESS MEHREENS above.
• Swolcrons/Pillarcrons.^ExplanationThe trailer for the return of the Silent King shows ancient murals of the Necrontyr before being turned into the Necrons. Said mural depicts them as incredibly muscular. Cue comparisons◊ to the Pillar Men or Fabulous Custodes.
• Trazyn The Pokémon Master^ExplanationDue to Trazyn being a Collector of the Strange and having random stuff he's collected, the community loves to make up random crap that Trazyn has collected and comparing him with a Pokémon Master, saying he has copies of legendary monsters like Orks to battle with.
• Trazyn manspreading.^ExplanationAfter an official image in the Necron codex shows Trazyn in this position photoshopping him into random other scenes has become common.
• Necron Statler and Waldorf^ExplanationUpon the reveal of the miniature for Szarekh the Silent King, the fandom took notice of the two other Necrons by his side and started comparing them to Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show. This comparison has also been applied to Trazyn and Orikan, who in the 2020 Black Library novel The Infinite and the Divine watch a human play and proceed to heckle and insult it like Statler and Waldorf do in their show.

Orks

• DA RED WUNS GO FASTA, YA GITZ!^ExplanationDue to the Orks' psychic power, when an Ork thinks that a red trukk should go faster, it will. Used to summarise Orky "logic" and the belief in the proppa' Orky way things should work, and how it actually affects all the things it shouldn't.
  • "Purple is da sneekyest!"^ExplanationSimilar to the above, this is from a Warboss that wanted to paint his army purple to increase their stealth capabilities, because no-one had ever seen an Ork army painted purple.
  • WAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!^ExplanationBattle Cry of Da Orks, this is frequently yelled by Ork players during battles and fans of Orks in general, especially when describing something awesome they did, or good Ork-related news in the tabletop or other media.
    • 'ERE WE GO, 'ERE WE GO, 'ERE WE GO!^ExplanationAn Orkish pirate song (Displaying their original design as Orcish British football hooligans in space).
  • MORE DAKKA^ExplanationThe desire of every Ork. One can never reach the point of enuff dakka.
• Ghazghkull avenging Yarrick^{Explanation (spoilers)}When it was leaked that Ensemble Dark Horse Commissar Yarrick was not going to be in the 9th Edition Astra Militarum codex due to suffering an unspecified Bus Crash, the fandom was awash with both mourning and outrage over the turn of events. Fans began to joke that Yarrick died when Angron and the World Eaters invaded Armageddon, with some pointing out how one of the skulls in Angron's new miniature had what appeared to be Yarrick's Bale Eye. As such, the fans who didn't view Yarrick's fate as a case of He's Just Hiding have come to blame Angron for Yarrick's death and have joked how Ghazkghull now is out for Angron due to viewing himself as The Only One Allowed to Defeat You when it comes to Yarrick. The controversy got big enough that an official Warhammer Community post was made to address the rumors, with it noting all of them as well as bringing how they Never Found the Body and thus Yarrick's death hasn't actually been confirmed. The post ending with a reminder to buy the new Guard characters has lead some people to view how Games Workshop has been removing the older Guard characters in favor of what they perceive to be Replacement Scrappies such as the aforementioned Ursula J. Creed and Lord Solar Leontus. Other fans have held out hope for Yarrick to eventually return as the Living Saint for the Imperial Guard.

T'au Empire

• "FOR THE GREATER [insert]!"^ExplanationAn exploitable version of the Tau's Catchphrase, "For the Greater Good!".
  • "Yeah, we suck at close combat. It's a shame you'll never get there."^ExplanationA reference to the Tau's combat strategy, which is staying out of melee range and pounding the enemy with superior firepower.
    • Similarly: "If you can see the Tau, they're losing."^Explanation a reference to the Tau's lack of prowess at melee combat, popularized by the Adeptus Ridiculous podcast.
  • Weeaboo Space Communists^ExplanationA mocking reference to the rather transparent attempts to appeal to the Asian market with the Tau and their Greater Good ideology as well... space communists.
  • Space Pope^ExplanationThe leader of the Ethereals, Aun'Va, was called like that due to the fact that he's a religiously followed Ethereal who has the last say in what is the Greater Good.
• THIS IS MY FAPPING ARM^ExplanationIt's... a Tau that masturbates a lot. It's very NSFW, in case you were wondering.

Tyranids

• OMNOMNOMNOM!!!^ExplanationUnlike every other faction, Tyranids don't have any Catchphrases, so they were given one.

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