Codexes: Imperial Propaganda? Black Library books: Truth?

[DogWelder]

A theory regarding the relationship between the official codicies and the lore attained from the Black Library books. In that the Codicies are more or less Imperial Propaganda that sort of gloss over events and give them an Imperial bias, minimizing the Imperium's losses and highlighting their successes. Meanwhile the books give us a more complete and accurate picture of the major events since they are told by multiple perspectives (xenos, chaos, loyalist etc.)

 

Examples:

 

Pandorax Campaign:

 

Codex version: Straightforward but costly Imperial victory. Abaddon and his forces eventually forced to retreat from Pandorax and the Warp Portal contained.

 

Book version: Strategic defeat for the Imperium. Abaddon got what he wanted (he took Epimetheus, one of the founders of the Grey Knights prisoner) and created a drain on Imperial resources close to the heart of the Imperium.

 

Damocles Crusade:

 

Codex version: The Tau were pushed to the brink by the overwhelming Imperial counterattack and would have lost if not for the Tyranid invasion which caused the Crusade to be called off.

 

Book version: The Tau actually had much larger forces inbound to the planet that would have crushed the Imperial force under the weight of numbers. However, an ex-Rogue Trader fed them false information about the Imperial forces being much larger than they actually were which caused them to delay their counterattack. Ultimately she was responsible for the truce by negotiating a settlement between the Ethereal Caste and the Crusade leadership. (The reason she did this was that she wanted to profit from the trade with the Tau in the aftermath of the Crusade).

 

The Ultramarines 8th company under Cato Sicarius and Jorus Numitor also attacked the Tau headquarters on the planet but were ultimately defeated by Farsight who used an EMP pulse to render their power armor useless and surrounded them with Kroot mercenaries. After Farsight threatened to kill their apothecaries and destroy their gene-seed, the Ultramarines quickly agreed to the truce as well.

 

Battle of the Gildar Rift:

 

Codex version: The Gildar Rift was the site of a major campaign between the Silver Skulls Space Marine Chapter and the renegade Red Corsairs, led by Huron Blackheart. When the Red Corsairs captured the Wolf of Fenris from the Space Wolves, the Silver Skulls retaliated swiftly. After the Silver Skulls destroyed a Red Corsairs strike force, consisting of several Executor Grand Cruisers, the Corsairs scattered and hid on several inhabited worlds inside the Rift. The Silver Skulls pursued them ruthlessly, and declared the Rift free of Chaotic taint within a matter of weeks.

 

Book version: Huron Blackheart raided the Gildar Rift in order to procure fuel for his expanding fleet. While the Silver Skulls did put up a spirited defense, the Red Corsairs were, while taking significant losses, ultimately successful in getting most of their stolen fuel supplies off planet as well as killing the Captain of the Silver Skulls 4th Company who was defending the Promethium refineries. 

 

Note: The exception to this is, of course, the Tau codicies which do admittedly favor their faction (understandably).

Edited January 21, 2018 by DogWelder

[Scribe]

There is no truth, loose canon.

[Huggtand]

^^ This

 

Otherwise I think it was some writer on this forum who said that the studio produce the setting and broad picture. The BL writers can then make it come alive in the small details. 

[N1SB]

I really like this Codex: Propaganda observation and the Loose Canon explanation.

 

Even if it wasn't deliberately planned to be this way, just putting myself in a Black Library writer's shoes, I too would expand on a piece of lore with "this is what REALLY happened" approach.  Consider what you have to work with and what you want to deliver: you've got to craft something somewhat familiar to the reader so he'll pick up your book, you can't directly go against the established (or potential future) fluff, but you still want to deliver an "Eureka" moment to reward your reader for reading.

 

The above are practical, real-world considerations.  However, in-universe, the idea that Codices are propaganda actually explain that really well and I totally dig it.

 

I think the best, conscious, self-aware example are the Forgeworld 30k books.  They are Codices, but are written in a historical documentary format, from the perspective of Remembrancers, thus deliberately points out that they are but one account of what really happened, to leave wiggle room for the Horus Heresy novels.

 

+++++

 

In any case, just to add another example...

 

Gehenna Campaign:

 

Codex: Blood Angels (5th or 6th ed) - Blood Angels and Necrons fight over Gehenna until Tyranids show up.  They then team up against the Tyranids and, in a display of nobility, legendary Lord Commander Dante let the Necrons retreat, finding it distasteful to attack someone who allied with them.

 

Book: Crusade + Other Stories (8th ed era novel) - The Necrons manipulated the Blood Angels from the start.  Even their battle over Gehenna was some ploy to deliberately use Blood Angels to lure Tyranids there (as Necrons have no biomass for them to consume).  It's a "just as planned" moment.  By the time the Blood Angels realised what had happened, the Necrons were already long gone i.e. it wasn't an act of nobility on Dante's part.  The narrator of the story, a Blood Angel Sergeant, literally goes up to Dante and says, "I will have the official records amended" so that it did not look like his Lord Commander had slipped up.  To that writer's credit, he didn't have Dante happily agree to it; instead, the Lord Commander was already thinking about other priorities and didn't care what the official record showed.

 

(Btw, for those interested in reading that collection, that wasn't even the biggest surprise in the story.)

[Triszin]

It's a nice theory, if it were all written by one author sure. But when Phil Kelly writes tau, it becomes an imaginary fantasy land

[DogWelder]

It's a nice theory, if it were all written by one author sure. But when Phil Kelly writes tau, it becomes an imaginary fantasy land

 

In favor to or against the Tau?

 

Cause I've seen Tau fans complain about him bashing on the Tau but tbh all of his books make the Tau look great next to the Imperium.

[toaae]

Oh, interesting topic. I've of the opinion that it's actually the opposite; Codices are the more factual truth, while many books, especially those with a sole narrator, are shades of the truth.

That said, I won't argue that the codices skip over details, which when an author fleshes out, can make a codex's account appear to be lacking. But, overall, if it's in a codex, I believe it, while in a book, I take it with a grain of salt.

[Ishagu]

Just different authors playing fast and lose with vague lore.

[Triszin]

 

 

It's a nice theory, if it were all written by one author sure. But when Phil Kelly writes tau, it becomes an imaginary fantasy land

In favor to or against the Tau?

 

Cause I've seen Tau fans complain about him bashing on the Tau but tbh all of his books make the Tau look great next to the Imperium.

In favor of the tau, in general phils writing is bad. Lots of fumbling down of each side

[Lord_Caerolion]

This theory really doesn't hold any water once you start considering the stuff mentioned in the Codexes that the Imperium has no clue about, like the Fallen/Luther/the Lion being inside the Rock, or half the stuff to do with Chaos, or Commorragh, etc. Even most of the Kabalites don't know about things like Khaine's Gate. We know what happened to the Necron'tyr millions of years ago, something that even the Eldar don't fully remember, and the Necrons aren't exactly sane enough to give an accurate retelling.

For this theory to be correct, the Codexes would be incredibly bare-bones, and, let's be honest, the Chaos books would be nothing more than redacted text.

 

Coming next month from Games Workshop, the new Codex for Chaos Daemons! Featuring such new units as [REDACTED], and our personal favourite, the [REDACTED]! Lead your forces of [unholy warp spawn] to [be easily defeated by any true son or daughter of the most Holy God-Emperor!]

 

It's more generally just the case that the Codex shows a simplified version of events, enough to turn it into a blurb. The Black Library books aren't constrained by this, so can go into more details as to what happened.

Edited January 21, 2018 by Lord_Caerolion

[DogWelder]

This theory really doesn't hold any water once you start considering the stuff mentioned in the Codexes that the Imperium has no clue about, like the Fallen/Luther/the Lion being inside the Rock, or half the stuff to do with Chaos, or Commorragh, etc. Even most of the Kabalites don't know about things like Khaine's Gate. We know what happened to the Necron'tyr millions of years ago, something that even the Eldar don't fully remember, and the Necrons aren't exactly sane enough to give an accurate retelling.

For this theory to be correct, the Codexes would be incredibly bare-bones, and, let's be honest, the Chaos books would be nothing more than redacted text.

 

Coming next month from Games Workshop, the new Codex for Chaos Daemons! Featuring such new units as [REDACTED], and our personal favourite, the [REDACTED]! Lead your forces of [unholy warp spawn] to [be easily defeated by any true son or daughter of the most Holy God-Emperor!]

 

It's more generally just the case that the Codex shows a simplified version of events, enough to turn it into a blurb. The Black Library books aren't constrained by this, so can go into more details as to what happened.

 

Could be that the Codexes are repositories of knowledge for the highest levels in the Imperium. Grey Knights/Lord Commander/High Lords/Lord Inquisitor etc.

[Grotsmasha]

Oh, interesting topic. I've of the opinion that it's actually the opposite; Codices are the more factual truth, while many books, especially those with a sole narrator, are shades of the truth.

 

That said, I won't argue that the codices skip over details, which when an author fleshes out, can make a codex's account appear to be lacking. But, overall, if it's in a codex, I believe it, while in a book, I take it with a grain of salt.

 

The best practical example of Codex's = Propaganda, grab yourself the SW and DA codecies, then read each's account of "The Lion and The Wolf".

[Lord_Caerolion]

But again, DogWelder, even amongst the Dark Angels, only the Supreme Grand Master knows about Luther, and none of them, other than us, knows that the Lion is there too. For the theory to hold up, the "author" of the Codex needs to know more about the Hunt for the Fallen than the Dark Angels do. We're explicitly told that nobody, save possibly the Emperor Himself, knows the Lion is there. We're given far more information in the books than what the Inquisition knows. Even Inquisitor Czevak, the Inquisitions resident Eldar expert, knows only general information about the Craftworlds, compared to what we know. The only argument that could be made to have this make sense is that the Codexes show what the Emperor knows, at which point it's more just a case of Occams Razor.

 

What's more likely, that every Codex is secretly written as the inner thoughts of the Emperor, thinking about each army as an attempt to pass the time sitting in the same position for 10,000 years, or that they're simply books written to give us a general overview of each race, so that we've got an idea of their history, tactics, composition, etc, while the Black Library fills in the gaps?

 

In regards to the Lion and the Wolf stuff, sure, the books tend to show a bias towards the army in question, but that's a far different thing than "they're Imperial propaganda!"

[Ezr91aeL]

Well Codexes had always shown their own faction as the most powerful one. If you read the Codex Tyranids it looks like the galaxy is going to been eaten in no time, if you read the C. Chaos Marines it looks like the Chaos has already won, if your read the C. Astra Militarum it looks like the Imperial Guard does all the work and if you read the C. Adeptus Astartes it looks like the Space Marines do all the work and not the Imperial Guard.

[Firepower]

The tricky bit is when codices contradict themselves as new editions come out.  Sometimes it is small, sometimes it's an entirely different faction (Necrons and Black Templars come to mind).  So now, not only are you left choosing between codices and black library, but between codices and codices!

 

So whatever texts I want to be 'true' are true, and the rest is heresy.  Fairly simple.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Firepower

[SpecialIssue]

Unsure as to why codexes are trying to be shoehorned into an 'in-universe' source.

 

They are simply game materials - information you as a player and fan of the 40k universe need to know about a specific faction to understand their themes and ideology.

 

There is no book in-universe with the codex's exact information. The information within is not a reflection of the knowledge of any in-universe person or faction. It is instead a reflection of the faction and its themes as desired by the GW studio author, withholding or telling, being as subjective or as objective as needed to get the point across.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Unsure as to why codexes are trying to be shoehorned into an 'in-universe' source.

 

They're not though, it's just a theory that keeps popping up amongst fans every so often, as a 'cool way to explain the Imperial focus of the books'. They might have parts that are in-universe, but they're very clearly marked as such, they're not the general text.

[Jareddm]

I would say it comes from the view that every codex proclaims its faction and all of its units as the best thing since sliced bread, the most dangerous in the galaxy, and all fear their wrath.

[DogWelder]

I guess you could say the Codicies have an Omniscient Narrator but one who is speaking from an Imperial POV?

[Jareddm]

I guess you could say the Codicies have an Omniscient Narrator but one who is speaking from an Imperial POV?

I guess it's tough to separate omniscient from objective when it comes to criticizing narration.

[Lord_Caerolion]

I guess you could say the Codicies have an Omniscient Narrator but one who is speaking from an Imperial POV?

 

The studio does seem to have a bit of an Imperial bias when it comes towards fluff, to help show off the "good guys". Not really an Imperial POV, just that they tend to like the Marines, so that raises its head every so often, to a greater or lesser extent.

[Moonreaper666]

Eldar Codex is an exception

 

They still lose in their own Codex

 

 

Well Codexes had always shown their own faction as the most powerful one. If you read the Codex Tyranids it looks like the galaxy is going to been eaten in no time, if you read the C. Chaos Marines it looks like the Chaos has already won, if your read the C. Astra Militarum it looks like the Imperial Guard does all the work and if you read the C. Adeptus Astartes it looks like the Space Marines do all the work and not the Imperial Guard.

[MrDarth151]

A theory regarding the relationship between the official codicies and the lore attained from the Black Library books. In that the Codicies are more or less Imperial Propaganda that sort of gloss over events and give them an Imperial bias, minimizing the Imperium's losses and highlighting their successes. Meanwhile the books give us a more complete and accurate picture of the major events since they are told by multiple perspectives (xenos, chaos, loyalist etc.)

 

I would rather say that the studio has pro-imperial bias, and Black Library has anti-imperial bias.

 

Which in the end doesn't matter, because giant pro bias they have towards Chaos outweighs both of those by a significant margin.

[Mellow]

You lot sound like conspiracy theorists.

 

The codexes are merely rules information with a healthy smattering of background to make people have an overview of events.

 

The BL novels flesh those events and many more out.

 

All is well. There is no omnipotent reader in universe producing these pieces of lore.

[Calyptra]

I think a lot of the codices are intended to be a mix of truth and propoganda regarding events, but are always intended to be canonical explanations of who the relevant group is.

 

Like Ishagu said, Black Library writers can play fast and loose with the lore. A long time ago, I read some Black Library novels because the Dark Eldar showed up in them. In addition to being (in my opinion) poorly written, it seemed like the authors had no idea who the True Kin are, and were assuming "Dark Eldar" meant Chaos Eldar.

 

Whereupon I stopped reading Black Library novels, and have regarded them with suspicion ever since.

 

There's a difference between a different interpretation of events and a fundamentally different idea of a faction.

 

Also, Dark Eldar lore is not told from the point of view of the Imperium, and frequently stresses how much the Imperium doesn't know.