So I guess the first step is to figure out how the Exalted got to W40k in the first place. Well, I do have a tremendously goofy answer, though it will make Your Head Asplode.
Originally, in the oWoD setting, the Exalted setting was going to be the precursor to the oWoD setting. There were hints and even a few storylines built around this idea, but they finally dropped it, which makes me sad.
However! We can run with this to create *The Unified Crapsack World Setting Theory*.
This theory states this:
- The beginning of the Crapsack World of 40k was the Exalted setting.
- Things fucked up. Note "Crapsack" in Crapsack World.
- Old World of Darkness begins.
- Old World of Darkness ends. Note "Crapsack" in Crapsack World.
- In the far future of the combined Exalted/Old World of Darkness setting, there is only GRIMDARK- and Warhammer 40k. Note Crapsack in Crapsack World.
Think about it. The Triat of the Old World of Darkness would be Khorne, Tzeentch, and Nurgle. Slaanesh hadn't been born yet. Khorne would be the Wyrm, Tzeentch the Wild and partially the Weaver as well, and Nurgle would be part of both Weaver and the Wyrm.
The Emperor is merely a Solar Exalted, which is why he's so goddamn tough.
The Emperor was also Caine, first vampire (the vampires are early Space Marine experiments gone wrong, which is why he destroys them with the Antediluvians in Gehenna- the Antediluvians being, naturally, precursors to the more advanced Primarchs).
Werewolves were the genetic basis for Space Wolves.
Mages were, of course, just Psykers, and Paradox was the Warp taking its due. After all, the Warp is affected by belief, and the Mages beliefs were really what drove their poewrs.
The Technocracy was the original version of the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars. They obviously won the original fight against the Traditions, which is why sorcery and psykers are treated with such hatred by the Imperium.
The original Hunters became the Inquisition over time, even keeping some of their old names (Witch Hunters, most prominently).
My God, this setting makes more sense than I thought it did. From Exalted, to Old World of Darkness, to 40k... not only does this make the most Crapsack World that can possibly exist, but it's also AWESOME.
Under this theory, the Exalted of 40k are those rare souls who are able to connect with the power of Awesome left behind, all those millenia ago.
Not here, look elsewhere
Then what about the Sidereals, the Alchemicals, the Dragon-Blooded, and the Green Sun Princes?
Then again, what about the fact that Creation is a flat planet made of atoms of fire, water, earth, air, wood, surrounded by an infinite sea of chaos, everything has a small god, and matter changes because the gods of said matter sing to each other in inaudible songs?
edited 30th Sep '10 8:06:32 AM by krrackknut
An useless name, a forsaken connection.
The small gods are easy- minor daemons in the Warp. Most of the other things could probably be handled with Warp shenanigans too.
All of W40k could take place in the sea of Chaos...
Alchemicals: the Men of Iron, who once served Humanity, then rose up and almost destroyed them. Could be kept alive by a few Tech-Heretics.
A bit of a shame to keep them that rare, because Alchemicals are one of my favourites, but who's to say there isn't an uncharted planet with strange Hives on it...?
Terrestrials? Not sure, but some of the inherited power stuff based on them could go into the Space Marines.
That or the Orks, as suggested in the other thread.
Sidereals and Eldar work together rather well, what with the weave of Fate and all.
Just because Creation used to be flat doesn't mean it always must be. The Exalt-Emperor decreed This world should be spherical and lo, he didst make it spherical.
The Alchemicals turned on humanity, in uneasy alliance between loyalist and apostate. The Loyalists saw the growing obsession of the human warlords and wanted an end, and the apostates sought only destruction. The loyalists lurk somewhere, but the true threat is the remaining apostates, developing new weapons that consume their enemies with pyre flame and floating soulsteel pyramids...
For the record, the Emperor is probably Zenith Caste Solar.
Or, since he's an Emperor Scientist, he could be a Twilight.
His rhetoric kind of feels like a mix. Probably one or the other with a bunch of dots in the other and some in War.
Considering his campaign against religion, I'd hesitate about statting him as a priest-king.
Unless he found some way to chain two or three individual Shards to himself, which honestly I wouldn't rule out.
Actually, his war on religion could be see as the biggest Xanatos Gambit ever; he destroyed all religion to become God.
Wait, are the Alchemicals robots or cyborg? In the second case, I'd rather equate them to either the Adeptus Mechanicus or the Space Marines of the Iron Hands chapter...
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
The only part of an Alchemical that comes from a human is the soul. Their bodies are made of magical materials, rare clays, and similar, morphed into a specific human shape when the soulgem is implanted. They're closer to Magical Data than they are to The Six Million Dollar Man, although their Charms do have a kind of cyborg aesthetic.
Especially the Orichalcum Castes, who have golden skin.
edited 2nd Oct '10 1:31:42 PM by CountDorku
We realised this isn't a really bad idea, it's a stupidly epic idea, so new topic!
Because there's nothing more fun than using A Hood on Death to turn a Hiveful of zombie plague into one spirit of the zombie plague... under your command.