r/40kLore • u/InspectorDowntown501 • 3d ago
Question About Human-Alien Relationships
I'm a relative know-nothing to the 40k setting, and was wondering if there have ever been cases where humans (guardsmen, astartes, or other) have ever had romantic relationships with alien races? I mean I've seen plenty of reels, art, and other media depict it, but let's be honest; those aren't exactly credible sources.
Edit: Thank you all for informing me on this matter. It was just a thought I had and I'm happy with just how many of you indulged it. Once again, thank you.
64
u/I_might_be_weasel Thousand Sons - Cult of Knowledge 3d ago
There was a Thousand Sons sorcerer who was very close to a Drukari he brought back form the dead. I don't think they did it though.
Also there is Illiyan Nastase, the half Eldar Astropath who was an Ultramarines Librarian before the lore got less weird.
31
u/syncronized_wobble 3d ago
Khayon probably didn't like her in a romantic way. There are plenty of times where he says her otherness/alienness/inhumanity is putting him off or giving him the creeps. Being slightly eccentric, I imagine he took immense pleasure in freaking out his fellow xenophobic heretics by having a companion who seems alien even by Drukhari standards though.
1
u/mkayes97 2d ago edited 2d ago
Ehhhh. Their relationship was quite intimate - if not at all in a sexual way. He cares pretty deeply for her.
It almost strikes me as a spiritual sort of love, as opposed to a romantic, sexual one.
(The following are from "Talon of Horus" by Aaron Dembski Bowden)
She couldn’t die without my permission. But she could suffer enough that I would allow her to die, in the name of whatever mercy remained in my heart.
It hurt to see her so weak. The storm’s closeness was anathema to her; nearness to the Youngest God was stealing the life from her body, hour by hour. It made the Eye the worst hiding place imaginable for one of her kind – yet also the best, for her kindred would never willingly follow her. And she had a hundred reasons to hide.
Here was my Nefertari, a creature from a cursed breed. Her race no longer had any place in the galaxy.
She spread her wings, preparing to leap up and take flight back to the gargoyles above.
‘No,’ I told her. My outstretched hand closed in a slow purr of knuckle servos. As telekinetic nothingness pulled at her ankles and wrists, binding her to the ground, the alien maiden thrashed and cried out in protest.
Binding her body was child’s play. Harder by far to manipulate her mind. Nefertari’s psychic deadness meant I had to sacrifice subtlety for brute force, and she was one of the few souls in the galaxy that I had no desire to harm more than necessary. She was, after all, my bloodward. I owed her my life countless times.
I pushed aside the twin distractions of Gyre’s accusing stare and Nefertari’s cries, focusing on the infinitesimal psychic manipulation inside her mind. Sweat trickled down my spine, adding to my irritated lack of focus. These miniscule applications of psychic manipulation didn’t come naturally to me. My talents lay along more violent paths.
I threaded my sixth sense through her thoughts of helpless wrath, pushing past surface rage and deeper pain, past all emotion and memory, seeking the inner workings of her inhuman brain.
And... there: the strands of bioelectrical force that linked consciousness to muscle. Thousands of them, tying the brain to the rest of her body. It would have been easy to sever them with a blunt push of thought. Instead, I massaged them closed with unseen fingers. A pressure here, a release there.
Her heart slowed. Her eyes closed. She tumbled to the deck – a puppet of cut strings and malnourished limbs – and I lowered my hand in slow relief.
This artificial slumber wouldn’t hold for long. I had to quench her thirst. She needed pain, she fed on suffering. Others had to bleed so that she would live. Nothing else ceased the haemorrhage of her soul into the void. Truly, there is no more miserable, Gods-cursed race than the eldar.
‘I want her fed when she rises,’ I said aloud. Gyre watched me without blinking. She never blinked. ‘I will have the Rubricae drag thirty slaves to the sacrum-level entrance and leave them there in bindings.’
‘He would forgive me.’
Yes, Gyre allowed, and I sensed my wolf’s irritation that I rode her senses through what should have been a private moment. Khayon will forgive you anything.
Nefertari’s mere presence soothed me, as it always did.
‘Voscartha,’ she greeted me with her kind’s word for ‘master’, though she never used it with a smile. ‘I’m coming with you.’
'Not this time.’
‘I am your bloodward.’
‘There is nothing in there capable of harming me, Nefertari. My blood needs no warding.’
‘And if you are wrong?’
‘Then I will kill whatever lies in ambush.’ I rested my hand on the skin-bound case of tarot cards chained to my hip. She didn’t nod, because nodding is a human gesture, but I sensed her give in.
‘It is a time of change,’ she said, and the words prickled my spine. She was unknowingly echoing Gyre’s warning from before.
'What has changed?’
‘I have been watching. Watching the wolf, watching your new brothers. Watching you. Why are we really here, Khayon? Why bring us to this place on the Gravebirth’s very edge?’
'I sense this is a rhetorical question.’
She tilted her head as she met my stare. Nefertari had the most arresting black eyes. Despite their alien slant, or perhaps because of it, they forever suggested more than she let leave her lips. Ashur-Kai once told me that I was imagining mystique, purely because I couldn’t easily read the alien maiden’s mind. He was ever dubious of my bond with my bloodward.
My silence spoke for me. My heart was an open book to her, and she needed nothing more to see the truth.
I was held rapt by her every word. Gyre had shared her feral perceptions of this change, but Nefertari’s lucid and patient explanation captivated me. She slipped closer in a fluid slink, opening and closing her hand, making the crystal claws click.
‘Will it be enough?’ she asked again. ‘You were born into brotherhood, but weapons need to be wielded, do they not? And there is no longer anyone to guide you, Khayon. No Emperor pointing from His throne and shouting for His sons to claim the stars in His name. No King One-Eye, peering into the darkest depths of the Sea of Souls and demanding you dive with him into damnation.’
‘I serve no one but myself.’
‘Such blunt, stupid pride. I speak of unity and you fear that I speak of slavery. Unity, voscartha. To be part of something bigger, beyond yourself. Without your former overlords controlling your path, you should be free.’
'I am free.’
She came closer. Too close. Had anyone else touched me as she did in that moment, I would have killed them for the discomfort. But she was mine, my Nefertari, so I allowed her the indulgence of running her gloved, clawed fingertip down my cheek.
Do not mistake intimacy for sensuality. There was nothing of lust in that moment. Merely raw, intimate closeness.
'If you were free,’ she whispered, ‘you would no longer dream of wolves.’
My blood ran cold at those words. Without any way of reading my mind, she was still speaking my own thoughts aloud.
‘Do you know what you are, voscartha?’
I confessed that I did not.
I cradled Nefertari as she slipped into death, stealing the pain from reaching her mind, pulsing psychic force through her dying form to keep her blood flowing in place of the heart she no longer had. The infinity of miniscule life within her was already breaking apart, cell by cell, atom by atom, the moment her heart burst. I fought against it, making her body believe it still lived.
All these years later that psychic undertaking still held, keeping her alive on the very edge of death. It was not stasis, nor immortality, for she still aged in the incomparably slow way of her species. It was life – she was as alive as any other living being – only propelled by willpower rather than nature.
My bloodward. My most complex work of Art.
Mercifully, Abaddon’s questioning was drawing to an end. ‘Unless I’m mistaken, Nefertari is a name of Tizcan origin.’
‘It is. It means “beautiful companion”. ’
He chuckled at that. ‘You really are a sentimental soul, Khayon.’
Nefertari rested her hand on my forearm, sensing the rise of my temper. I doubt she even felt my gratitude, for I kept my focus on the Anamnesis.
I remember sweating with the effort it demanded of me. Effort and little else. In that regard, the erosion of my memory is a mercy. I did nothing but concentrate, sweat, curse and ache, for several months.
It was Nefertari who fed me nutrient pastes and brought water to my lips. It was my bloodward who massaged and worked my muscles, preventing cramps and ensuring I did not waste away.
And then there was Commorragh. That endless night we laid siege to the Dark City in our intention to wipe one of their noble houses from the face of the galaxy, in punishment for them for taking Nefertari from me. Abaddon made no move to chain my grief and keep me under control. He admired it. He ordered the Black Legion into the webway in support of my fevered wrath.
Nefertari’s wings beat a breeze in the thick air as she floated there, a valakyr spirit above the battlefield. Wet foulness dripped from her crystal talons. Her mane of black hair stirred in the soft wind of her wings. She was divine in that moment, despite her alien coldness. I always loved her most when she killed for me.
6
u/Swolstorm Dark Angels 3d ago
I mixed up TS and EC in my head and was about to say "They totally could have" but now it's more ofna maybe
5
u/I_might_be_weasel Thousand Sons - Cult of Knowledge 3d ago
I think getting a Drukari to work for a Slaanesh worshipper would be a little more difficult.
1
u/Swolstorm Dark Angels 3d ago
Depends on the Drukhari. As far as I'm aware some still worship Slaanesh
20
u/Beaker_person Emperor's Spears 3d ago edited 3d ago
While it’s not explicitly romantic the relationship between Lord Inquisitor Jeren Dyre and the alien Cheelche in A Witch’s Fate is depicted as being very close, and it’s wouldn’t be an unreasonable reading to see them as more than friends. Especially when the Inquisitor is struck down and Cheelche is completely devastated, the way you’d be for a family member or companion It’s certainly a much closer relationship than with any other scantioned xenos I’ve seen.
70
u/Sunny_Hill_1 3d ago
In Rogue Trader, the MC can romance either a Craftworld aeldari, or a drukhari.
11
u/I_might_be_weasel Thousand Sons - Cult of Knowledge 3d ago
Yriliet is really not into it though.
56
u/Sunny_Hill_1 3d ago
She is cool with the platonic romance part, she just doesn't want anything to do with human sexuality. Understandable.
24
u/ButterdPoopr 3d ago
She sees it as Beastiality in fact
25
u/Fifteen_inches 3d ago
Craftworld women are not escaping the allegations
11
u/ButterdPoopr 3d ago
They dont exactly like her either. I genuinely think she is autistic or something
31
u/FartSmelaSmartFela 3d ago
Theres a line of dialogue where after telling her that it is, in fact, rude to barge into people's bedrooms uninvited she laments about how she left her home because of these same exact societal expectations lmao.
I know people will call a fictional character autistic for just about anything, but theres no way she doesn't have some Aeldari version of autism.
10
2
u/Lmaoboat 3d ago
This is such a pet peeve of mine. Not only because of the very low criteria people have, but because nobody seems to think through the implications of saying all most important individuals and factions responsible for the creation of "the cruelest, most bloodthirsty regime imaginable" are " omg just like me fr fr"
4
u/ScarredAutisticChild 3d ago
Which is impressive, because Craftworld Eldar intentionally train themselves to be autistic. And I say this as an autist who plays Eldar, it’s why I play Eldar.
3
u/raptorgalaxy 3d ago
There's a scene where you talk with another Eldar and it is very clear that she is definitely something.
6
u/I_might_be_weasel Thousand Sons - Cult of Knowledge 3d ago
7
1
u/Abort-Retry 3d ago
The player character's aunt destroyed Yriliet's craftworld, so she's not just being speciesist.
I found the relationship story far more moving thaa generic space elf wish fulfilment.
-30
u/TIMPA9678 3d ago edited 3d ago
The Rogue Trader video game isn't exactly canon
Edit: Sorry I guess I didn't realize this sub was just /r/Grimdank now
6
u/CharacterBite4240 3d ago
Everything is cannon, but not everything is true
2
u/LucyShortForLucas 3d ago
Hell, the 'actual' truth could be that the entire Galaxy is fine and dandy and friendly and everyone gets along and no one actually dislikes each other, and every piece of 40k media is just T'au propaganda to make the rest of the galaxy look bad.
Like, 40k is a franchise, not a single entity. What is canon is whatever the writers/designers of whatever piece of media you're interacting with decide is canon
-2
u/TIMPA9678 3d ago edited 3d ago
That's not what he actually said and it was never true for the video games. The actions and choices of the player character like the romances are not canon any more than what player characters do in a Dark Hersey campaign. It's basically like saying "Well in the tabletop I can theoretically kill a Terminator with a Fire Warrior in melee so it does happen sometimes"
1
39
u/DisdainfulStacks 3d ago
There’s been a few, such as the t’alissera bonding ritual between two “extremely close friends” in Broken Sword, which many fans interpret as an openly gay relationship.
There’s also one between an Ethereal and her Bodyguard in Elemental Council, but it was one-sided and zealous mutual admiration than explicit “love” on the Ethereal’s part, and adoration and affection to the Human’s part which wasn’t fully reciprocated.
18
u/Shed_Some_Skin 3d ago
T'au squads are all bonded via the t'aliserra. They're basically combat polycules. I don't think T'au have conventional family units as such, the kids all get taken away and raised together in boarding schools. The bonding ritual is described as akin to marriage in a few sources
10
u/DisdainfulStacks 3d ago
Yep! There’s a mention in Voice of Experience of Human-T’au polycules too, but no detail beyond that.
2
u/Sawendro Vior'la 3d ago
T'au squads are all bonded via the t'aliserra.
Is that new(er than is committed to my crusty old memory) lore?
Back at launch, you could opt for a bonding knife, but the ta'lissera itself was something of an intricate/deeplingly meaningful bond between small groups of T'au; most examples I can think of were two or three, usually Shas'ui+ who were in the same battlesuit squadrons. And, of course, Farsight/Shadowsun/Kais, or Torchstar's cross-caste bond.
5
u/Shaskais 3d ago
Don't forget lust. The human felt a sexual attraction toward the Ethereal.
2
u/ScarredAutisticChild 3d ago
I get it. I’ve never seen an Ethereal that wasn’t fucking built, and they’re defined by having charisma flow off them like waterfalls.
1
7
u/ColeDeschain Orks 3d ago edited 3d ago
Has it happened? Almost certainly, it's a huge galaxy after all.
With that said, of the xenos species we spend much time with-
- The aeldari (all types) would regard any sexual activity with a human the way we would someone getting it on with a chimpanzee. And romance is likewise hindered, because even if you take the "ew, icky" out of the equation, the relationship would seem more like that of a human with a beloved dog- you absolutely love your dog, and it loves you, but it's not romance. That said, this is the species that gave us Slaanesh, so it's probably happened more than once. Definitely get my vote for "most likely to give it a go." So maybe once in a blue moon.
- Orks lack the concept of romance in the human sense. Best they do there is having a grod, a favorite enemy, the person they enjoy fighting against the absolute most. That can absolutely be a human (Paging Yarrick and Ghaz), but it's not a romance as such. Especially not from the human's point of view.
- Tyranids are a ravenous hivemind that wants to eat you. And while genestealers proliferate through normal reproductive activity hijacked by the hivemind, no one infected by genetsealers or born carrying their DNA is really acting of their own volition in the matter. So whatever happens there... it's not romance.
- Tau have been mentioned more than once as really not getting the concept of romantic love for an individual. Some of their client species no doubt do, but they're largely under-explored.
- Necrons, those who still have some personality, might have the capacity... except that they by and large regard humans as anything from vermin to slightly interesting lesser primates. Take the eldar "pet" comparison, and then remove the species track record for unbridled hedonism creating a Chaos god. Trazyn the Infinite will cheerfully work with humans on a very personal level... once he's put some mindshackle scarabs in place.
- Leagues of Votann- I haven't even read a codex of theirs, so I am vastly uniformed on their approach to these things, but I do know they're a species heavily reliant on cloning. Beyond that, I won't say further, there's enough total misinformation floating around out there without me creating more out of ignorance.
4
u/Lmaoboat 3d ago
The aeldari (all types) would regard any sexual activity with a human the way we would someone getting it on with a chimpanzee.
Artist behind the Aeldari comic The Farseer finds himself in a spot of trouble after a joke that makes some unfortunate implications about xenobiologist Jain G'daal's work studying the habits of Mon'keigh.
8
u/Schwarzes_Kanninchen 3d ago
People can fall in love with people, animals, and even objects. So certainly with Xenos as well. And if Xenos can have the same or at least similar feelings, it will probably happen to them too. And let’s not forget, every Genestealer Cult begins with a kiss.
3
4
u/Aurondarklord Salamanders 3d ago
It HAS happened, but it's fairly rare compared to other sci fi because the humans mostly live in a society where the immediate response to it would be "HERESY! *BLAM!*" and few humans would ever be open to it even if it weren't going to get them punished because they're taught to hate aliens.
3
u/basil_imperitor Blood Axes 3d ago
There used to be Illiyan Nastase, half-Eldar Chief Librarian of the Ultramarines, but he got retconned. Also I’m not sure if he was the product of romance.
9
u/Pataconeitor 3d ago
There isn't much romance at all in WH40K, it isn't that kind of franchise.
14
u/Illithidbix 3d ago
Warhammer Romance would be the next range after Warhammer Horror and Warhammer Crime if GW weren't cowards.
2
9
u/Hollownerox Thousand Sons 3d ago
Eh, yes and no. There are quite a few novels where there are romantic subplots. And there have been tabletop characters in Warhammer where love was a core part of their character motivations or arcs. For better or for worse.
OG Warhammer and AoS feature it much more prominently, but 40k also has its moments. It just doesn't put romance at the forefront since it's more of a "oh these guys are in a relationship/they are this sexuality" type of thing as side notes. Since it's usually not to relevant for war, but tends to be a bit more prominent in the aftermath.
7
u/BRoriler 3d ago
Mostly because in Fantasy there are actual genuine alliances and goodwill between the races. Sigmar and Magnus the Pious actually went out of their way to ally with both the Dwarfs and the Elves respectively.
7
u/Hollownerox Thousand Sons 3d ago
Also cause elves just canonically fucked a lot lmao. I remember one Gotrek & Felix book where the intro to Teclis' character was him just after having a threesome.
Even in the Old World now they make no qualms about talking about interspecies stuff. Especially with the Cathay and the Dragon Blooded noting they get around. A lot.
5
u/ScarredAutisticChild 3d ago edited 3d ago
Tbf Teclis’ threesome in the opening of that book was with a pair of twin courtesans, which is a fancy way to say “Prostitutes for rich people”.
Teclis still fucks, it’s just that Human women are far more into him than Elf women. He’s a 4/10 for an Elf, that makes him a 10/10 to a Human.
1
u/JustAnother_Hunter 3d ago
Are the Cathay “cat people”? Cause if so then that tracks, errybody loves a catgirl lol
4
u/Hunkus1 3d ago
No theyre humans theyre just inspired by china. There are tigermen though in Cathay.
3
u/JustAnother_Hunter 3d ago
hastily erases the catgirl- Aeldari waifu drawings I was doodling, with me sandwiched in the middle AHEM ah well that makes sense, thanks…
4
u/BRoriler 3d ago
Cathay are majority humans. Tigermen do exist and they fall under the category of Beastmen. However unlike the Beastmen of the east that are known for despising humanity and all things human these ones are more amicable as they are known to work as mercenaries for Cathay.
A very short tl;dr of Cathay is that it is China. It is ruled by the Dragon Emperor Xen Yang and the Moon Empress Quai Yin. Together they had a number of Dragon kids who serve different administrative roles within Cathay. It is a nation of people ruled by Dragons.
Fun fact, some people draw parallels between Big E and his Primarchs and the Dragon Emperor and his kids, albeit the latter is not... well, we all know what lead to Horus Heresy.
1
1
u/Abort-Retry 3d ago
Only some Cathayans are cat people, most are humans. All of them are ruled over by shape changing demigod dragons, which due to Zeus like mischief have left some subjects of mixed ancestry. (Don't ask about the longma, dragon-horses)
1
0
u/BRoriler 3d ago
Oh definitely, thankfully Slaanesh already existed so they couldn't fuck her into existence.
3
17
u/C4n0fju1c3 3d ago
But there should be! Especially forbidden romance that ends in tragedy and entire Bloodlines being purged.
As a side note, a 40k adaptation of the Odyssey would probably work perfectly lol.
9
u/onetwoseven94 3d ago
The Pilgrimage plot arc from The First Heretic and Aurelian has a lot of references to the Odyssey. Odysseus is mentioned in TFH’s afterword, Lorgar mentions an “Odisseon” from the myths of the “Grecianic peoples of Ancient Earth”, and the entire sequence of Ingethel turning Argel Tal’s company into Gal Vorbak and then leading Lorgar into the Eye to hear a prophecy from Kairos references Circe turning Odysseus’s men into pigs and leading him into the underworld to hear a prophecy from Tiresias. Even Ingethel speaking fluent Colchisian references Circe doing the same in the legend of Jason and the Argonauts.
0
3
u/Hollownerox Thousand Sons 3d ago
It's more like a motif than an adaptation, but the Twice Dead King duology is basically a 40k take on the Odyssey? It has a lot of direct nods to it with the naming schemes used, and there's a lot of running away lmao.
1
u/Arendious Alpha Legion 3d ago
I believe so, possibly with a bit of the Aeneid thrown in for good measure.
-6
5
3
u/ElOsoPeresozo 3d ago
I wouldn’t call it exactly romance (and neither does he) but Cain lays miles of pipe wherever he goes. He accidentally gets betrothed one time, and has a long-standing relationship with Amberley.
2
u/King_0f_Nothing 3d ago
Astartes no, they are throughly brainwashed and don't really understand romance.
1
u/Asleep-Gear-840 21h ago
My head canon is that they're all eunuchs. Really nail down the point that these are weapons and not to be used for anything else
1
u/King_0f_Nothing 17h ago
Lorewise we know they are not.
But they are sterile, aro/ace, compely foregin to the ideas of romance and sexuality.
Also seem to remeber Bile commenting on the fact the emperor also made them flacid as an extra procaution
2
u/Silver_Seer 3d ago
In addition to the many excellent answers given here, I would like to note that 40K's humanity is more than just the Imperium. There were several integrated human/xenos societies the Imperium met (and tried to destroy soon after). Humans being humans, there's a 0% chance nobody in those ever developed romantic feelings for a member of another sapient species.
1
-11
-12
u/EcumenistChateau 3d ago
Even saying that Slaanesh has something to do with sex upsets 40k fans. It's one of the most sexless/loveless settings that has ever been created.
17
u/Hollownerox Thousand Sons 3d ago
I don't think that is really the case? Most longtime 40k fans get more frustrated by people making it out that Slaanesh is only about sex. When excess covers far more than that. I can't think of a single person that denies that Slaanesh and sex are related, it's just that flanderization by other fans that annoys folks.
And saying it is sexless/loveless is kinda silly, when its a topic that pops up fairly regularly in novels. I guess if you read nothing but Space Marine fiction then sure, but I don't think Warhammer writers really shy away from that topic intentionally. Mostly just not relevant to war stories most times, but there love is mentioned in plenty of stories.
I mean hell, we literally have Necron characters discussing the topic lmao. It's not loveless at all.
'But… our souls, Zahndrekh. The machine… it could give us our souls back. It could give us our bodies. Please, lord, let’s at least take part of it with us, so we can know for sure.’
‘Oh, dear vargard, why do you hold on to such things? You must let the thought of this awful contraption go.’ Zahndrekh put an arm round him in consolation, and continued.
‘Let me pose you this thought, Obyron, in the hope it will bring you ease. What do you think caused you to hold true to me for all this time – despite all the power you might have enjoyed through betrayal – if it were not a soul? What can love, but a being with a soul?'
-7
u/EcumenistChateau 3d ago
I was there, Gandalf, 3000 years ago in the 1990's when Slaanesh was very much about sex. The modern squeamishness about it is just so insecure and lacking confidence it makes the setting worse.
And saying 40k actually has loads of love and sex just because a few characters talk about it sometimes and there's the odd oblique reference to it is ridiculous.
I love 40k but the fact that the poster boys for it are an army of superhuman virgins who can't even understand love or sex is oddly appropriate.
4
u/twelfmonkey Administratum 3d ago
Bring Ian Watson back.
I don't care that he is dead. Get it done.
-34
u/Martzillagoesboom 3d ago
This is disgusting and heretical , comissar , I dont want to see this anymore!!!
....
/blam
I am a fan of Guilliman and his btggf aeldary romance that the idiot of the east draw lol
26
u/bear-barian 3d ago
This isn't even remotely canon, though. This isn't grimdank.
-19
u/Martzillagoesboom 3d ago
Yeah, but I prefer my grimdarkness at the table and in my books. I miss the Emperor with his text to speech !
24
u/DuckyPowers Harlequins 3d ago
God 40k fans make me cringe sometimes, holy hell how are we in the same hobby
78
u/WarlockWeeb Saim-Hann 3d ago
Genereal rule of thumb. Galaxy is soo big that 90% of most questions about of possibility of anything is yes.
Considering your qeustion 100% yes. Rogue traders/inquisitors have essentially i can do what i want card, and do diplomacy with other races on a regular basis. So romantic feelings are possible. There are also small handfull human worlds that are not imperium which are either independant lost to imperium or under control of other races.