In fact, Warhammer 40,000 is known for its absolutely absurd scales. Everything is bigger, worse, darker. But the one war machine that is supposed to overshadow everything else is officially much smaller than thought. A new fan complains about this and gets a crash course on: “How does Warhammer actually work?”
What are these units?
- Titans are the largest war machines that the Imperium of Man has to offer. These battle suits are towering walkers that must be operated by several humans simultaneously. Titans sometimes have entire cathedrals as structures on their backs.
- The pilot, or “Princeps”, is connected to the machine via neural links, allowing him and the Titan to form a unit. Conversely, this means: If the Titan is hit, the Princeps feels the pain himself.
- Titans come in various designs. The largest among them are the Imperator-class Titans. The “little brothers” are the Imperial Knights.
How big are they really? There are various reports in the sources about the sizes of the Titans. According to official figures, the largest among them are about 60 meters tall. For comparison: An Imperial Knight is about 9 meters tall, a Space Marine averages 2.50 meters.
On Reddit, a user now complains that this is way too small. He is new to Warhammer, but has always imagined Titans to be much larger. So 100 meters should be possible, maybe even 200. These things should be towering over regular buildings – which in some illustrations is not the case.
In the responses, experienced Warhammer fans chime in and explain: One shouldn’t give too much weight to such numbers. Warhammer 40,000 is a fantasy setting where numbers mean nothing at all.
Titans could very well be larger – or perhaps not. It really doesn’t matter. Because no matter what it’s about, the “Rule of Cool” is always the supreme rule in Warhammer.
“Everything is canon. Not everything is true.”
Users comment: In Warhammer everything is always exactly how it needs to be to be as cool as possible. A Space Marine hits just hard enough so that the opponent dies as impressively as possible. The iconic Bolter has exactly as much ammunition as is necessary – or one bullet too few, if that’s cooler.
And even that shouldn’t be taken too seriously, explain other veterans. Because Warhammer is primarily one thing: propaganda. Almost everything you get from any official sources are not facts set by Games Workshop, but information from the world.
Accordingly, sources can differ because the respective authors have different foundations available or simply have different views. That all belongs to the canon, even if it is not true.
Even things that one might think they know for sure are, depending on perspective, interpreted differently. A user asks, for example, how many Primarchs there are. Sure, each of the 20 original orders has a Primarch. Or perhaps not?
- There were 20 Legions, each of which has a “father” from which the Space Marines were bred.
- However, two Legions have disappeared – or perhaps they never existed, so there are only 18 Primarchs?
- The Alpha Legion, about which no one knows exactly where it stands, is said to be both the first and last Legion – and has two Primarchs. So 21.
- But maybe there are only 9, because the other 9 (or 12?) have betrayed the Imperium and succumbed to Chaos.
The question of how big a Titan really is doesn’t matter at all. What is important is: How big does the Titan need to be to be cool? Size still plays a role again and again, as even Games Workshop itself shows repeatedly: Warhammer 40,000 shows how absurd the world can really become, almost presenting house-high Space Marines
