I Don’t Want to Play Warhammer 40,000–Is There Another Way to Learn the Lore?
If you don’t actually want to play the game itself and just want to learn about the setting, there are plenty of ways to go about that, too. The aforementioned Codex books for each faction all contain some basic lore and details about the society of their respective factions if you want a wiki-style guide to a particular force you’re intrigued by. There’s also Games Workshop’s Black Library fiction imprint, home to all sorts of books, short fiction anthologies, and audio dramas set in the 40K universe, told from different perspectives within and without the Imperium and other factions. It’s also where you’ll find the epic saga of the Horus Heresy, told across dozens of novels and anthologies to lay out the crucial prequel events of Warhammer 40,000’s current status quo.
If you’re a video game fan, there’s also plenty of games to try out to give you a taste of the setting—the beloved strategy game series Dawn of War is a good start for the tactically minded, or the recent Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters. If you prefer something a little more action-oriented, there’s the recently-remastered Space Marine, due to get a sequel next year, or the recent co-operative PC shooter Darktide.
