MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus is a huge fan of Warhammer. He has now completed Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader, the latest role-playing game in the franchise. The ending was… disillusioning. Because despite all efforts to be “good,” the world is just brutal.
Spoiler Warning: I will discuss the “Iconoclast” ending of Rogue Trader and some secret developments here. You have been warned!
Rogue Trader was released in December 2023, which I have been looking forward to for years. After about 4 weeks, I had completed the game and am… still not quite sure what to make of the ending.
Actually, I love to play evil characters in role-playing games. Even in Baldur’s Gate 3, I immediately chose the worst role at the beginning and was a scourge for the world, even if it was sometimes hard.
This time, however, I didn’t want to be an ass – an exception in the world of Warhammer. Instead, I based my entire playthrough on helping everyone and being as fair as possible.
However, the game apparently thinks such behavior does not deserve a happy ending. And it has a point… it’s just not Warhammer.
May I introduce? Isabell von Valancius: Protector of Mankind and Friend of the Xenos
What makes the game stand out is the morality. There is no classic “good” and “evil,” but only different interpretations of the situation. Rogue Trader can be played in three different ways in this regard:
- Dogmatists blindly follow all the rules of the Imperium: everything inhuman is destroyed, every violation is punished by death.
- Heretics follow Chaos, believe only in their own strength, and engage with demonic powers.
- Iconoclasts are the “good guys,” they help where they can and try to promote peace. True heroes.
On a whim, I decided to play as an Iconoclast and stick to that behavior until the end. Every person I could save, I saved. When in doubt, I resorted to save-scumming.
Even Xenos I took under my wing, made peace with the Aeldari, and helped a Drukhari to embark on a path of righteousness. Someone should try to top that!
A Happy Ending in Warhammer? I can definitely achieve that!
For over 100 hours, I built my own utopia. There was coexistence between Xenos and humans and even something resembling a budding friendship between the races.
I banished the brutal dogma of killing anyone who deviates even slightly from the faith in the Emperor. Chaos was also purged: anyone who worshiped the dark gods was either redeemed – or killed in the worst case. The only slightly “freer” interpretations of property – in other words, piracy – I let slide. After all, I’m not a total police state.
In the very end, I even accidentally unlocked the hidden ending: through a long quest chain, I had my own god by my side. One that I created myself to protect my realm.
But none of that helps when the whole world is against you.
There shall be only one Imperium!
After I fought the final battles, the long-awaited ending finally came. In Owlcat games like Rogue Trader, this means: a long series of book excerpts that narrate what the future looks like. I was absolutely good, so there must be peace, friendship, and flowers.
Not.
Although my subjects celebrated my deeds and eventually even worshipped me, Big E didn’t like that at all. As soon as it became known that I was redeeming heretics, providing refuge for the persecuted, and even sheltering Xenos, the entire Imperium came with a huge fleet.
Directly on the second page of my conclusion story, an army appeared that invaded me and bombed the entire galaxy into oblivion. My god provided protection, but eventually, everything was still lost.
Even this very god eventually went insane and decided to conduct his own cleansing somewhere in another part of the galaxy. Several worlds became his sacrifice.
And that’s not even the worst part. Every single person I helped met a cruel death.
And if they are not dead, they are still dying today
Rogue Trader provides several companions who support me on my journey as well as NPCs with whom I often interact. Important names and factions that I dealt with – much to their regret:
- A pirate faction that I was able to divert from Chaos eventually started marauding because my reputation with them was not high enough. They were annihilated.
- The lord of one of my most important worlds and a former pirate became a bit more righteous and took good care of his people. He was simply shot.
- My Battle Sister was too fanatical in her faith and started to kill everyone she deemed a heretic – which was eventually everyone.
- The family of my steward became the target of several intrigues, and he himself had the head of his youngest granddaughter sent to him in a box – by the Xenos I had helped.
After a few concluding pages, I actually lost the desire to continue reading. It was only towards the end that I realized that this was, of course, what had to happen. After all, this is Warhammer and not Peaceland.
Even though the ending was quite disillusioning and somewhat frustrating: on closer inspection, I got exactly what I should expect from Warhammer. And that is fabulous. You just have to know how to deal with it. That’s why I’m now playing again… as a heretic.
I really can’t be all that evil in Rogue Trader. It is, after all, Warhammer, and of course, I will be destroyed if I want to overturn 40,000-year-old doctrines in a few months. For such absurd and sometimes blunt things I love Warhammer and always wish for more, that we had a real World of Warhammer.
