Real Life Regime(s) Most Similar to the Imperium of Man

LindyAF

Well-known member
If you’re living in the Eye of Terror, whether or not it’s one of the most abundant resources in the universe or how easy it is to extract from an ore isn’t super relevant.
 

bintananth

behind a desk
If you’re living in the Eye of Terror, whether or not it’s one of the most abundant resources in the universe or how easy it is to extract from an ore isn’t super relevant.
My complaint is more of a critique on SciFi in general. If you need a resource rare enough to be worth fighting over water is one of the dumbest ones an author can select.
 

LindyAF

Well-known member
My complaint is more of a critique on SciFi in general. If you need a resource rare enough to be worth fighting over water is one of the dumbest ones an author can select.

Here though I’m pretty sure the intent isn’t the “water is actually super rare” trope like in V or something. It’s rather that the EoT lacks basic infrastructure and logistics, and what it does have are run by people who have no concern for those under them and for whom one of their underlings’ death is just as valuable as their life.

Chaos fights over water because Chaos has to fight over everything.
 

bintananth

behind a desk
Here though I’m pretty sure the intent isn’t the “water is actually super rare” trope like in V or something. It’s rather that the EoT lacks basic infrastructure and logistics, and what it does have are run by people who have no concern for those under them and for whom one of their underlings’ death is just as valuable as their life.

Chaos fights over water because Chaos has to fight over everything.
Lacks the basic infrastructure and logistics? That's a good one.

We've known how to make dirty water safe to consume for at least 8,000 years. There's archeological evidence we were turning hippopotamuses into hippopotamus soup that long ago.

EDIT: There's also a 5,900 year old beer recipe. It was written on a clay tablet back when writing was still a new thing. "How to make stored water safe to drink" was important enough that a beer recipe was amongst the first things known to have been written down.
 
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Urabrask Revealed

Let them go.
Founder
Lacks the basic infrastructure and logistics? That's a good one.

We've known how to make dirty water safe to consume for at least 8,000 years. There's archeological evidence we were turning hippopotamuses into hippopotamus soup that long ago.
What does eating one of the most dangerous animals as a soup have to do with dirty water? That we already knew that water needs to be boiled?
 

StormEagle

Well-known member
Lacks the basic infrastructure and logistics? That's a good one.

We've known how to make dirty water safe to consume for at least 8,000 years. There's archeological evidence we were turning hippopotamuses into hippopotamus soup that long ago.

EDIT: There's also a 5,900 year old beer recipe. It was written on a clay tablet back when writing was still a new thing. "How to make stored water safe to drink" was important enough that a beer recipe was amongst the first things known to have been written down.

Except the eye of terror is a place where the water has likely turned into either blood/mutagenic slime/pastel colored LSD/whatever disease Nurgle is cooking up at the time.

Oh, and the water purifier suddenly sprouted tongues, a womb, and is now giving birth to the screaming souls of the damned while it’s howling praises to the dark gods instead of doing its job.

Ain’t no amount of boiling that’s going to fix those problems.
 
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Aldarion

Neoreactionary Monarchist
Except the eye of terror is a place where the water has likely turned into either blood/mutagenic slime/pastel colored LSD/whatever disease Nurgle is cooking up at the time.

Oh, and the water purifier suddenly sprouted tongues, a womb, and is now giving birth to the screaming souls of the damned while it’s howling praises to the dark gods instead of doing its job.

Ain’t no amount of boiling that’s going to fix those problems.

On the other hand, Chaos Gods do care for their followers, especially Nurgle. But Papa Nurgle's idea of good child care is to give them a host of hideous diseases...
 

LindyAF

Well-known member
Lacks the basic infrastructure and logistics? That's a good one.

We've known how to make dirty water safe to consume for at least 8,000 years. There's archeological evidence we were turning hippopotamuses into hippopotamus soup that long ago.

EDIT: There's also a 5,900 year old beer recipe. It was written on a clay tablet back when writing was still a new thing. "How to make stored water safe to drink" was important enough that a beer recipe was amongst the first things known to have been written down.

I mean, at this point you’re almost arguing that clean water is easy enough to get that water scarcity isn’t something that can happen period. Which isn’t true because it does happen fairly frequently IRL - even in developed areas, like with the droughts in California. Water scarcity to the point that people might fight over water generally happens only in very undeveloped areas or areas that have suffered a natural disaster - but the EoT is fairly equivalent.

I think this might be down to you not being familiar with the setting. The EoT in 40k is a place where the Warp - which is essentially hell - overlaps with realspace, our dimension. Clean water being rare in hell is not absurd.
 

Urabrask Revealed

Let them go.
Founder
Let's not forget that the chaos gods and their servants have plenty of reasons to ensure that clean water stays rare. Khorne wants people to fight, if a resource needs to be rare for that to happen, then so be it. Slaanesh doesn't care about the fights, it wants the orgasmic joy of drinking clean water and the despair of dying from dehydration. Tzeentch wants his followers to scheme and plot for clean water. Nurgle wants his followers to piss and shit in the water and drink that.
 

ATP

Well-known member
I always facepalm when a SciFi setting with interstellar (or just interplanetary) space travel claims clean water is a rare and precious resource.

Water is literally one of the most abundant chemical compounds in the Universe and one of the easiest to extract from an ore.

Seriously, go grab a random comet from somewhere and warm it up to above 0°C. You'll probably have more than enough to meet your immediate needs.

ST Voyager is guilty of this too. If I'm remembering it right, the Kazon suffered from water shortages. If it wasn't them it some other species with Warp drives and that's about when I stopped watching ST.

ugh

EDIT: The reason it's not abundant near a star is because it has a very low melting point and evaporates very rapidly in a vacuum once it's warmed up enough to melt.

True.But GW must explain why cool dudes fight in melee in shinning armours making them perfect target for any ranged weapon,and could win.
So,IoM,orks,Eldar and others could not innovate.But - it is not only settling with such mistake.
ST is even worst - they had good teleports,and still fight using lasers.When enemies should be simply teleported.
 

LindyAF

Well-known member
Not being able to innovate isn't what makes melee weapons viable in 40k. What makes melee weapons viable is typically zero short engagement distances and relative abundance of armor that can stop a large number of all but extremely rare small arms.

I think you misunderstand what a "mistake" in a setting is, or what isn't "logical." A setting is illogical or has an issue with it if it fails to obey its' own internal logic. Like, consider a setting which has super advanced energy shields that can only be bypassed by slow moving objects which make ranged weapons utterly useless - and as a result everyone uses high-tech melee weapons, monomolecular ceramic swords or something. I'd say this isn't realistic - such a scenario is unlikely to come about IRL, but it isn't a mistake or illogical.
 

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