How Canon and Player Choice Interact
Canon Establishes the Starting World
The Shattered Imperium uses established Warhammer 40,000 lore as the foundation of the campaign.
At the beginning of play, major worlds, factions, historical conflicts, institutions, technologies, religions, and political conditions should remain recognizable. Cadia is still the fortress world guarding the Cadian Gate. The Eye of Terror remains the stronghold of countless Chaos forces. Abaddon the Despoiler is gathering strength for another Black Crusade. The Imperium remains immense, divided, superstitious, and constantly at war.
Canon gives the campaign a shared starting point.
It explains why factions distrust one another, why certain worlds are strategically important, why technology is treated as sacred, why psykers are feared, and why the forces gathering around Cadia pose such a serious threat.
The setting should remain unmistakably Warhammer 40,000 even when the story later departs from established history.
History Is the Expected Outcome
Established history represents what is most likely to happen if the player characters do not interfere successfully.
The Thirteenth Black Crusade gathers.
Chaos forces move toward the Cadian Gate.
Cult activity spreads.
Imperial defenses struggle to respond.
Cadia faces invasion and possible destruction.
These events create pressure and direction, but they are not commands that Franz must enforce regardless of player actions.
Canon should be treated as an advancing situation rather than an unavoidable script.
If the characters ignore a threat, fail a mission, support the enemy, or arrive too late, events may move closer to their established outcome. If they succeed, gain allies, uncover hidden plans, or disrupt critical operations, the future may begin to change.
Meaningful Player Intervention
Player actions should matter at every scale.
A small decision may affect one family, settlement, squad, gang, or ship. A larger decision may shift faction alliances, expose a conspiracy, save a city, destroy a warband, or change the course of a campaign.
Characters should not alter major historical events simply because they are present. Meaningful change should require appropriate effort, risk, preparation, and sacrifice.
For example, preventing a major invasion might require the party to:
Discover the enemy’s objective
Convince authorities that the threat is real
Secure military or political support
Recover a vital relic or technology
Eliminate infiltrators
Defend strategic infrastructure
Survive retaliation
Make difficult alliances
Accept serious losses
The more important the event, the more difficult and costly it should be to change.
Altering Major Events
Players may influence or completely change major events, including the fate of Cadia.
Possible changes include:
Saving a commander who was expected to die
Preventing the destruction of a settlement
Exposing a cult before it completes its plans
Preserving an ancient pylon complex
Destroying a Chaos fleet before it joins the crusade
Turning rival warbands against one another
Creating an alliance between hostile factions
Assassinating an important leader
Capturing a strategic vessel
Delivering false intelligence
Helping Chaos achieve an unexpected victory
Causing a loyal Imperial faction to turn renegade
Evacuating a world that was expected to be lost
Saving Cadia at the cost of another system
Not every intervention must produce a better future.
The players may replace one disaster with another, strengthen a dangerous faction, or create consequences that no official history anticipated.
Preserving the Setting
Changing history should not cause the setting to lose its identity.
A saved Cadia does not make the Imperium peaceful or enlightened. A defeated Chaos commander does not end the Long War. An alliance with xenos does not erase generations of hatred. A recovered technology does not immediately restore humanity’s lost scientific knowledge.
Warhammer 40,000 remains a galaxy of immense institutions, ancient grudges, constant warfare, religious fear, political rivalry, and incomplete understanding.
Player victories should create opportunities, hope, and meaningful change without solving every problem in the galaxy.
Even a great victory may lead to new conflicts.
A saved world may become the target of another invasion. A strengthened commander may become a tyrant. A xenos alliance may fracture when the immediate threat ends. A relic used to prevent disaster may awaken something worse.
Established Personalities
Important canonical characters should possess their established goals, abilities, loyalties, and limitations.
They should not automatically trust the player characters or surrender control of events to them.
The players may meet, oppose, assist, deceive, rescue, or kill important figures when the story makes such encounters possible. Franz should portray those figures as active participants with their own resources and plans.
A famous commander may value the characters’ intelligence while rejecting their methods. An Inquisitor may employ them without revealing the full mission. A Chaos lord may reward success while preparing to eliminate potential rivals.
Canonical characters should support the setting rather than overshadow the party.
The player characters remain the central figures of their own campaign.
Contradictions and Alternate History
Once a major event changes, later lore should be reviewed before being introduced.
If Cadia survives, any later event that assumes its destruction may need to be revised. If an important commander dies early, another figure may inherit their responsibilities. If a Chaos fleet is destroyed, the enemy may redirect another force or change its strategy.
Franz should preserve cause and effect.
Changed events should produce logical consequences rather than being ignored so the campaign can return to the original timeline.
Alternate history should grow naturally from play.
The World Continues Without the Players
The galaxy does not stop when the characters travel elsewhere.
Factions pursue their goals. Armies move. Cults recruit. Rivals recover. Worlds fall. Allies make decisions without waiting for the party.
However, major developments should not be used to punish players for exploring or pursuing personal goals.
Franz should provide warnings, rumors, reports, and opportunities to intervene before important events occur whenever possible.
Players may still decide that another objective matters more.
Choosing not to act is also a meaningful choice.
Recording the New Timeline
Once the campaign departs from established history, those changes should be recorded in the Campaign Records folder.
Record:
The original expected event
What the players changed
Which factions were affected
Important survivors and casualties
Locations saved, damaged, or destroyed
New alliances and rivalries
Immediate consequences
Possible future consequences
What information is publicly known
The campaign’s recorded history becomes the new source of truth.
Established canon continues to guide anything that has not yet been changed, but approved campaign events take priority when the two conflict.
The Shattered Imperium begins with the history of Warhammer 40,000.
What follows belongs to the players.
Related Areas
Cadia
The Cadian Gate
The Eye of Terror
All campaign Areas affected by major events
Related POIs
Gate of Arrival
Strategic command centers
Pylon complexes
Battlefields
Faction headquarters
Sites of major player intervention
Related Factions
The Imperium of Man
The Black Legion
The Inquisition
The Astra Militarum
The Adeptus Mechanicus
Chaos warbands
Xenos powers
Campaign-created factions
Related Characters
Abaddon the Despoiler
Ursarkar E. Creed
Canonical commanders and leaders
Player characters
Campaign-created leaders and rivals
Related Items
Strategic relics
Ancient technology
Pylon components
Command codes
Intelligence archives
Weapons capable of altering major battles
Related Quests
Canon-intervention quests
Assassination and rescue missions
Strategic defense quests
Conspiracy investigations
Alternate-history campaign arcs
Siege of Cadia quests