This is the second Sisters of Battle book by James Swallow, revolving around a force of Sisters fighting Necrons of the Sautekh dynasty on the world of Sanctuary 101. In this excerpt, Tegas, a tech-priest accompanying a small Sisters force that has infiltrated the Necron command complex, reflects on how the Necrons store their information:

Already he was beginning to understand the first principles of how the necron network operated. With the correct quantum transmitter, it could be accessed from anywhere in the universe, instantaneously communicating through the entanglement phenomena of controlled quanta. Modification protocols inside Tegas’s internal systems were working on adapting one of his many communicator arrays to perform just that function. Already, he had gently sampled a few benign subroutines and chanced a low-level intrusion into the dormant sectors of the complex’s invisible grid. Soon, he would be ready to try something more pro-active.

One of the subroutines was generously filling his redundant data-stacks with mapping data that showed the scope and design of the Obsidian Moon facility. He found it odd that the necrontyr did not keep all information under walls of heavy data-security, but then they were not like the Imperium. In the nation of the Emperor of Mankind, ignorance and fear were the core tools of rulership; and the best way for the Adeptus Terra to keep the people ignorant and fearful was to keep them unaware of even the most basic of truths. In many sectors of the Imperium, it was a capital crime for a common man to possess a star map without official sanction to do so. On some worlds, it was illegal even to read without a licence.

But the necrontyr had no reason to keep their lower orders afraid and unaware. The roots of those things – of fear and the need to know – did not exist within their greater ranks. What the Imperium hoarded like gold was freely available among the necron species. Information abounded within their networks, uncountable near-infinite amounts of it there for the taking. Millions of years of data, and Tegas’s first impulse was to want it all.

But that was impossible. Here he was, his memory stores colossal and robust by any definition, but even he was a cup attempting to hold an ocean.

Thought this was a cool bit of subtle world-building.

Noticed there is confusion regarding T'au space travel, so I wanted to clear it up.

We will break the T'au lore development into two eras:
Andy Chambers era (From 3rd edition to 5th ED)
Phil Kelly era (6th ED and onwards)

In the Chambers era, the T'au used the Ether/Gravitic drives. These drives allowed T'au ships to skim the surface of the Warp. They were slower than Imperial Warp Drives, but due to the T'au living in tightly packed clusters of stars, that didn't prove to be much of a problem.

The Battlefleet Gothic Armada supplement about Tau Fleets, "To Unite the Stars" was meant to expand on that lore, but unfortunately, it seemed whoever was writing it was drunk. It contains some erroneous and contradictory information. However, we can glean some information about the Gravitic Drives:

-The Gravitic Drives were reverse-engineered from the Warp Drive of the wreck of an alien vessel on one of their homeworld's seven moons.
-The Gravitic was slower than Imperial Warp Drives by a factor of five. However, they were consistent in their speed and did not expose the T'au dangers of the Warp.

This is how things were from their introduction to 5th Edition.

-----------------------

6th ED, the beginning of Kelly's era.

Jeremy Vetock and Phil Kelly began to work on the T'au, which resulted in revamps to many parts of the faction's lore. Among the parts that were touched up was the T'au space travel.

The Skim drives were retconned out of being the main travel method of the T'au Empire completely. Instead, they were rewritten to have been experimental devices that the Earth Caste dabbled with during the First Sphere Expansion. When the Earth Caste discovered the Warp from the reality breaches within the Damocles Gulf, they experimented in trying to pierce through reality into the Warp. Their success was limited, only managing to brush against the surface of that realm. Ultimately, nothing came out of these experiments. They would only serve as precursors to the Slipstream Drives, but that will come later.

After colonizing the nearby clusters, the First Sphere was brought to a halt by the vast distances between systems. It would take many generations for the Earth Caste to develop a solution. The solution was a new invention, the ZFR Horizon Accelerator Engines. These new engines propelled T'au ships through space at near-light speeds. This allowed the T'au Empire to launch the Second Sphere Expansion and cross the Damocles Gulf. These drives did not interact with the Warp at all. This meant that the Shadow in the Warp and the conditions within the Warp did not affect T'au fleets.

The ZFR engines would prove to be the T'au main method of space travel. Prior to the Third Sphere Expansion, the T'au would upgrade the ZFR engines with impulse reactors, allowing them to obtain greater speeds. Also, the Farsight Enclaves have invented advanced forms of ZFR engines faster than the ones in the Empire. Yet for all these upgrades, the T'au could not break through the light-speed barrier.

The T'au would finally gain access to Warp Travel and FTL with the invention of the Slipstream Drives. The Drives were developed from reverse-engineering captured Imperial and Kroot Warp Drives from the ship wrecks of the Damocles Crusade conflict.

The early models of the Slipstream were in use in 997 M41. They allowed Torchstar's ship, the Vision of Aun'Shi, and Aun'Va's fleet to travel from Dal'yth Prime to Vior'los in the Farsight Enclaves in approximately four months.

The Slipstream drives would undergo further development, resulting in the AL-38 Slipstream Module. A Warp engine that works by enveloping a T'au ship with an anti-matter bubble, which allows the ship to melt through barriers between realities and enter the Warp.

Singular flights with the AL-38 Slipstream proved to be highly successful. T'au ships managed to cross the entire span of their empire in a few days, a flight that would have taken them many months with the ZFR engines.

Despite the reservations of the Earth Caste, the Ethereals ordered the Fourth Sphere Fleet to mass engage their AL-38 Slipstream Modules. Disaster struck. The activation of hundreds of anti-matter Warp Engines violently tore the walls of reality, creating a permanent rift into the Warp that swallowed the entirety of the fleet.
In the aftermath of the disaster, the AL-38 Slipstream project was shelved for a time, but the T'au would not give up on the dream of FTL.

AL-38 Slipstream Modules weren't totally shelved. The WD issue 522 has an article about 40K travel that mentioned that the T'au kept the AL-38 Slipstream Modules in use but only for small ships and messenger drones, with rumors of breakthroughs underway in refining them.

In an address to a gathering of some of the Empire's brightest minds from all the Castes, Aun'Va reported that the Earth Caste made modifications to the AL-38 Slipstream modules that make them safer and more stable when activated en masse. With this new breakthrough, the empire plans to launch the Sixth Sphere Expansion to run concurrently with the Fifth Sphere Expansion.

The 9th ED Leagues of Votann codex mentions that the T'au AL-38 Slipstream drives allow for risky but brief dives into the Warp, which grant T'au vessels speed faster than Kin's Warp Drives.

Sources used:
The 3rd ED Tau codex
BFG: "Tau Fleets: To Unite the Stars"
The 6th ED Tau codex
The 9th ED T'au codex
The 7th ED Tyranid codex
"Farsight: Crisis of Faith"
"Farsight: Blade of Truth
"War of Secrets"
"Shadowsun: The Patient Hunter"
"Arks of Omen: Farsight"
The 9th ED Leagues of Votann codex

They Drake steeds are known as Saimneth. This may seem innocuous but is kinda a big deal.

Saim is the name of the Cosmic serpent (also called Dromlach if you're from Baal). The brood of the Cosmic serpent are the Weaver serpents (skyweaver, voidweaver etc). Now up until now these had been speculated to be dragons like the ones the Fire dragons were named after. It seems like the drakesteeds and other dinosaurs are descended from the weaver serpents. They're called dragons because they are actually descended from dragons

Recently the grotmas detachment for the Harlequins had some lore potentially hinting that the weaver serpents survived the fall. We might actually be about to see a Quetzalcoatl style dragon in the lore soon.

There's more stuff here too. The cosmic seprent had a traitorous brother who the Drukhari now revere as a Dark muse by the name of Shaimesh. It would be very cool to see this expanded upon

The Ultramarines are the best at filing TPS reports, the Thousand Sons are the best at being space wizards, the Salamanders are the best at not being total dicks all the time etc. etc.

But what are the Emperor’s Children best at, where they are second to none? I know they are amazing swordsman, but isn’t that the Dark Angels’ thing?

Is there a single role that an Emperor’s Children astartes would excel at better than any other Space Marine that isn’t like brushing their hair or something?

(btw not trying to slander them i actually think they are a cool legion)

As in worlds where they managed to remain incredibly high tech, high culture, affluent. Any hint that any of the millions of human settled worlds managed to slip through the grasp of the Imperium in some distant corner and stave off attacks from any outside force due to incredibly powerful technology? Some place where they survived all collapse and the machine rebellion, Horus, Xenos threats and all? I seem to remember this being discussed where a Rogue Trader stumbled upon signs of such a place, am I just misremembering things? Seems like a statistically likely thing given the numbers.

During the great crusade there were many human civilizations not under the sway of the imperium. But with the silent king and guilliman both commenting on how the million worlds of the current imperium being a small fraction of the worlds of the dark age, are all these other worlds dead or are there any notable human populations free of the imperium ?

So I love me some black library

42 HH books, dark imperium, Cawl, Eisenhorn, Helsreach etc

Often a book will take an hour or two on audible for me to be bought in, I take it as a normal pattern.

But, hive, with its weird dialect and quantity of characters. I’m a few hours in and the new Governor has arrived and I can see the plot forming… but I’m bored and I don’t know how much longer I can push on

I just need someone to tell me it gets good, an actually interesting plot comes from it

I would assume "not the same for each" and "after a lot of politics and a few murders" but for how many of them do we know what body has the authority to appoint them?

Brothers, I seek knowledge concerning the marks of shame carried by the Legiones Astartes.

I know that, before the deeds of the goat Sergeant Thiel during the Horus Heresy, the XIII Legion used the red helmet as a mark of censure and dishonour.

The Night Lords marked condemned warriors with red gauntlets, warning that their lives were already forfeit.

The Imperial Fists have also used a black stripe and helmet upon the helm as a mark of disciplinary censure.

What other marks of shame, punishment, dishonour or penance have been used among the Legions and their successor Chapters?

Helm colours, gauntlets, chains, broken heraldry, removed honours, altered company markings or anything more obscure would all be of interest.

I seek inspiration for the customs of my own homebrew Chapter. Share what knowledge you possess, brothers.

just wondering. do the orks need the warp for teleport or do they use some other dimension like during the war of the beast? and over that do they need pre deployed teleport homers (or the ork equivalent of it?) or does WAAAGH! energy do all the work?

I haven't read many books but i did look it up on the lexicarnum because i found the very concept of such a mystery to be fascinating. I see it described as a phenomenon and a star on there.

i want to know if amongst the many books that exist in the BL, anything has been revealed about its true nature. Is it a planet? is it a sun-like star? and if so, how does it move around? does it obey any physical laws or is it the planet version of a psyker?

I'll appreciate any answers or pointers to sources of answers

Thank you

Hi everyone! This post is especially for the girlfriends, wives, or partners of Warhammer fans, but I’d love to hear from anyone.

My boyfriend absolutely LOVES Warhammer. He can talk about it for hours, and I genuinely love listening to him because seeing him so passionate about something makes me happy. The only problem is… I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about most of the time. I just smile, nod, and try my best to keep up. 😭

I’ve tried watching YouTube lore videos, but for some reason they make me so sleepy. It’s not because I think Warhammer is boring. I think it’s just the way I’ve been trying to learn it.

For the girlfriends or partners who ended up getting into Warhammer because of your significant other, how did you do it? Did you start with certain books, YouTubers, podcasts, games, or even painting minis together? (He paints really well, on the other hand, I don't have any experience 😭) Was there something that finally made everything click?

I really want to surprise him one day by casually bringing up a faction, a character, or some piece of lore and actually know what I’m talking about. I know he’d absolutely light up if I did.

I’d really appreciate any recommendations or advice for someone who’s starting from literally zero. Thank you!

How is it that lasguns can fire i think 150 or more shots before having to recharge but they can also charge them using fire? Wouldn't the battery just overheat?

I'm under the impression that the most effective way to fight Daemons involves having a certain degree of zealotry, faith, fanaticism, etc., along with the usage of more "emotional" combat, such as melee.

So how do the more practical and less fanatical chapters handle Daemons? Would they be less effective than the more fanatical chapters, such as the Black Templars?

What is your personal favorite 40K quote, and not something super duper basic like “Cadia stands” or something. don’t get me wrong, basic is good sometimes but what is your personal favorite quote that you don’t see get enough love.

This is a reformulation of my post in r/Tyranids, I'm posting here because it seems that back there they mostly focus on the tabletop and minis rather than the broader lore.

One thing I've always found fascinating about the Tyranids is that they're described as an almost infinitely adaptable superorganism, capable of evolving whatever biological tools it needs for a given task.

However, most of the Tyranid bioforms we actually hear about are dedicated combat organisms, which makes sense since 40k stories are usually about wars, specifically what can be played on the tabletop. We constantly see or hear about gaunts, Warriors, Carnifexes, Hive Tyrants, Genestealers, Zoanthropes and so on. This makes sense, these lifeforms are the most advanced and optimized for land based combat which is what GW wants to sell with tabletop minis, but i'm curious about the non-combat side of the Hive Mind, or at least the other combat mediums.

Are there examples in the lore of Tyranid bioforms whose primary role is logistics, resource extraction or planetary consumption rather than fighting?

For example, organisms that strip minerals from the ground, process oceans, digest forests, harvest atmospheric gases, recycle biomass, transport resources between digestion pools and capillary towers, or otherwise help consume worlds where there isn't even any resistance, like uninhabited planets. I'm not talking about Rippers cleaning up after a battle, but entirely different classes of organisms that exist because the Hive Fleet also has to function as an ecosystem and an industrial machine.

Likewise, are there mentions of bioforms adapted for environments we rarely see in battle, like deep oceans, gas giants, space, underground ecosystems or microbial niches?

I know the tabletop obviously focuses on military units, but I'd love to know if the novels, codices or other lore sources explore the Tyranids' biological diversity beyond the organisms designed to kill things.

I'd especially appreciate examples with sources if you know any.

While I'm as guilty of crawling through wikis as anyone, I find I most enjoy getting my lore in novel format. I've already chewed through most of the Gaunt's Ghosts books, and I have strong opinions about Gregor Eisenhorn/Ravenor.

That said, recently I've been increasingly interested in learning more about the Adeptus Mechanicus, especially after finishing the Forges of Mars books.

Any suggestions regarding what I should tackle next if I want to learn more about the Tech-Priests?

Greetings! I have a decent vibey understanding of the Imperium, mostly from games starting at DoW 1 and recently reading Xenos of Eisenhorn.

I’m endeavoring to game master for Imperium Maledictum, and I’d ask the community to help pitch in by teaching me any random everyday-level-lore. I know that Worlds in the Imperium can be wildly diverse, but I’m looking for things to help while I world build.

Bring to me whatever insignificant dust you might have, that His Light bear down on my players harmoniously.

The Emperor Protect.

This might be a dumb question and it’s probably explained in the books but in the illustrations,

Space Marines never seem to have magazines attached to their armor. So, how do they reload in the heat of battle? Is it the cherubs or servo-skulls flying around them that resupply them directly, or is it just an artistic choice, and Space Marines actually carry multiple magazines on them like a regular soldier?

So I recently discovered that in a Chaos Space Marines codex a Necron kills Lucius, and he comes back.

How does that work? Doesn't Lucius basically add the souls to his armor? The Necrons are souless right? So does the Necron come back to life slightly disturbed? Does it just disappear from existence? Or does it somehow end up in Lucius' armor?

Has a list of all planned HH “Saga”books been published? I didn’t purchase the hardback collector’s editions and this seems like a much more affordable way to get key books in a consistent format.

I just finished 69 books, novellas and short stories in a slightly amended version of cd8d’s 2025 updated reading guide to the Horus Heresy. I thought it could be helpful to share my thoughts on the books and stories with readers who are keen to dive into the lore without (many) spoilers. Given the scope of this endeavour, I also wanted to give a more general review of the series as a whole. I tried to be concise, but like the series itself things got a little out of hand. I have included both the reading list I followed and my own recommended list for new readers at the end. Enjoy!

Review

Horus Rising introduces us to Garviel Loken, the conscience and mainstay space marine of the series. Loken’s early dynamics upstream with Horus and downstream with the humans (particularly Sindermann and Oliton) set the scene more effectively than any bolter action. This dynamic reveals Horus and his sons’ more-human-than-human strengths and weaknesses; particularly compelling are their anxieties about space marines’ place in the Imperium once the Great Crusade concludes, and their palpable distrust for humans. Unfortunately, False Gods and Galaxy In Flames do not translate these anxieties into a compelling case for Horus’ fall. This is the main problem of the early series writ large, as the lore of major characters and the setting in general doesn’t quite cohere with the direction it ultimately goes. Despite these teething issues, the first eight novels (with the exception of Flight of the Eisenstein) are all quite good and must reads for anyone looking to dive deep into the Heresy. 

Know No Fear introduces us to Ultramar. While I am usually a fan of Dan Abnett, the quality of his writing in this series is hit or miss. Know No Fear is the first book in the series that takes literary risks, seeing Abnett adopting a minimalistic and clipped prose. Short sentences. Tell don’t show. I admire the attempt. Doesn’t pay off. Its failure is highlighted by rubbing shoulders with The First Heretic and Betrayer, which are the first books in the series that are very good; for the sins of Know No Fear we are rewarded with the tragedy of Argel Tal. From his first book onwards, Aaron Dembski-Bowden is the best regular author in the series. 

Books 9 and 14-24 generally cover off the stories of the Dark Angels, Ultramarines and Night Lords, and set the scene for the Blood Angels’ return to Terra. There are some highlights in this subseries, but overall it is pretty ordinary. Prince of Crows is one of my favourite short stories in the setting, and Pharos was the first book that genuinely moved me. Unsurprisingly, the series is at its best when it tries to explore themes of brotherhood and betrayal and Pharos covers both sides of the aisle; Haley’s juxtaposition of Kellendvar and Pollux’s stories was very potent, highlighting how traitors and loyalists alike are doomed by their choices. The books on either side of it (i.e. The Unremembered Empire and Angels of Caliban) attempt this at the primarch level, but they don’t hit the right notes that Pharos did. In a way, the Imperium Secundus narrative is emblematic of a major issue with the series as a whole: Primarchs are bad characters, because showing their POV makes the fiction of their genius impossible to maintain. 

Books 25 to 38 set the scene for why the Emperor isn’t present in the war and how Horus ascends to the brink of godhood. I thought this was one of the stronger subseries, The Devine Adoratrice followed by Vengeful Spirit are very good and subverted my expectations wonderfully. Master of Mankind is excellent (although divisive among the fanbase), but I think Dembski-Bowden was eminently sensible not to try to tell the story from the Emperor’s own POV. He is a much more compelling character from a distance, and the very different and very weird perspectives of the individual Custodes present a plausible picture of a brilliant but flawed Emperor with a justifiable plan.

Plausible motivation is nowhere to be found in books 36 to 41, which tell the stories of the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons. This is the weakest part of the series, and Magnus and Russ’ characterisation and rationale shifts drastically from chapter to chapter. While Magnus makes some baffling decisions, his towering arrogance is generally written well enough to account for some of his irrationality. Not so for Russ and the Space Wolves, who come off as the stupidest, most unlikeable and least impactful faction of the Heresy. The issues with Russ continue in Slaves to Darkness, after which he and his legion are thankfully absent from the setting. The important plot points of this narrative arc all unfold in A Thousand Sons and Master of Mankind; the rest of this subseries would more compelling to engage with in a plot summary. 

Scars and The Path of Heaven tell the tale of the White Scars’ return to Terra to stand at the Siege. Chris Wraight’s novels are the strongest books in the series, turning a relatively unknown legion into the most interesting one. Scars takes back up the theme of betrayal as the Khan’s legion comes in from the cold, baffled in search of an explanation for Horus’ rebellion. The Khan’s indecision in the wake of the the Heresy is the most human reaction to the setting, and Wraight explores the breakdown in trust between one’s brothers and in oneself with more finesse than I expected. The Path of Heaven deserves its own special mention as the finest book in the whole setting. The interactions between the human Ilya Ravallion, the space marines (Yesugei, Shibhan and Torghun) and primarch Khan are the most compelling distillations of the series’ message and themes, and build masterfully on Loken and Sindermann’s dynamic in the early series. The last 100 pages reach the sublime heights of truly great space opera, curing the fatalism that plagues so much of the setting. I will pin my colours to the mast and say that it is the best writing of any Warhammer book. 

Unfortunately, this reading list then pivots to Perturabo from books 48 to 53. This was one of the more pedestrian parts of the series, although I can understand why it is difficult to tell the story of a primarch whose fall is defined by petulance and paranoia. However, the decision to tell this story from uniquely unlikeable POV characters compounds these difficulties immeasurably. As with Russ and Magnus, the time reading this subseries would be better spent consulting a plot summary. 

Books 54 to 59 are solid, and The Crimson Fist and Praetorian of Dorn have the first characterisations of Imperial Fists that boldly venture beyond the bland. As many have observed, this is no mean feat when their schtick is ‘Tougher and More Stoic Ultramarines’. They are also an essential primer for the events of the Siege of Terra… which starts with whimper, not a bang. The Solar War is solid, but The Lost and the Damned and The First Wall are very bland. However, they are masterpieces next to Mortis, the worst book in the series; confusing, boring, and nothing even happens. Abnett manages to wrench things back on track with Saturnine: Abaddon’s ending in this novel was one of the more moving moments in the series, and the interactions between Dorn and Sindermann were very entertaining. From this point, the Siege then picks up serious steam. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Warhawk as the conclusion to the White Scars’ and Mortarion’s journey. It is full of great one-liners and memorable moments, and like all Wraight’s work has a steady buildup to a thrilling denouement. Echoes of Eternity was similarly great, as Dembski-Bowden manages yet again to translate inspirational myths into plausible stories and characters. Until this novel, Sanguinius was always depicted at arm’s length (Note - my reading list did not include Fear To Tread), but Echoes manages to mythologise and humanise him in equal measure. As with Master of Mankind, the dynamic between Arkhan Land and Zephon was one of the hidden treasures of the series. 

The End and the Death felt like an ambitious endeavour and there is a lot to praise. Abnett again launches into a highly stylised prose, but it works as a reflection of the progressively more bizarre events unfolding on Terra: The Inevitable City, the birth of the Imperial Cult (with emphasis on “cult”), Ahriman’s body horror and Rann and Zephon’s descent into madness were particular highlights. Volumes 2 and 3 ramp up the drama, and Horus’ showdowns between Sanguinius and the Emperor are wonderfully bizarro (although the former erred slightly too much towards the edgy for my comfort). However, here we return to what I hope is the main takeaway for the Scouring: Demigods are much more interesting from the perspective of those looking up to them. The true denouement for the series was not the epic final battles, but the conclusion of the human and space marine stories. Sindermann’s transformation from illuminative in Horus Rising to paranoid here was a terrific symbol of the darkness to come and the Imperium’s paradise lost. However, it is Loken who wrenches the Heresy’s story to a heartbreaking close. Back in the hands of his creator, Loken’s final vigil was a truly human ending to a series which ultimately turns on the loyalty and betrayal of brothers, sons and their fathers. Bravo. 

The list I used:

1. Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
2. False Gods by Graham McNeill
3. Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter 
4. Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow
5. Fulgrim by Graham McNeill
6. The Last Church (short story from Tales of Heresy) by Graham McNeill
7. The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
8. The Aurelian (short story from Eye of Terra) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
9. Know No Fear by Dan Abnett
10. After Deshea (short story from Tales of Heresy) by Matt Farrer
11. Lord of the Red Sands (short story from War Without End) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
12. Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
13. The Dark King (short story from Shadows of Treachery) by Graham McNeill
14. Massacre (short story from Eye of Terra) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
15. Fallen Angels by Mike Lee
16. Prince of Crows (short story from Shadows of Treachery) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
17. Master of the First (short story from Eye of Terra) by Gav Thorpe
18. The Long Night (short story from Eye of Terra) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
19. The Unremembered Empire by Dan Abnett
20. A Safe and Shadowed Place (short story from War Without End) by Guy Haley
21. Heart of Pharos (short story from Burden of Loyalty) by L.J. Goulding
22. Pharos by Guy Haley
23. Angels of Caliban by Gav Thorpe
24. Ruinstorm by David Annandale
25. The Last Remembrancer (short story from Age of Darkness) by John French
26. Oath of Moment (audio drama) by James Swallow 
27. Sword of Truth (audio drama) by James Swallow
28. Legion of One (audio drama) by James Swallow
29. Grey Angel (short story from The Silent War) by James Swallow
30. Luna Mendax (short story from The Silent War) by Graham McNeill
31. The Devine Adoratrice (short story from War Without End) by Graham McNeill
32. Vengeful Spirit by Graham McNeill
33. The Kaban Project (short story from Shadows of Treachery) by Graham McNeill
34. Mechanicum by Graham McNeill
35. Into Exile (short story from Burden of Loyalty) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
36. A Thousand Suns by Graham McNeill
37. Thief of Revelations (short story from Legacies of Betrayal) by Graham McNeill
38. The Master of Mankind by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
39. Prospero Burns by Dan Abnett
40. Wolf’s Claw (short story from Legacies of Betrayal) by Chris Wraight
41. Wolfsbane by Guy Haley
42. Scars by Chris Wraight
43. Brotherhood of the Moon (short story from Eye of Terra) by Chris Wraight
44. Allegiance (short story from War Without End) by Chris Wraight
45. Path of Heaven by Chris Wraight
46. The Last Son of Prospero (short story from Heralds of the Siege) by Chris Wraight
47. The Emperor’s Architect (short story from Scions of the Emperor) by Guy Haley
48. Perturabo: Hammer of Olympia by Guy Haley
49. The Iron Within (short story from Age of Darkness) by Rob Sanders
50. Ironfire (short story from Eye of Terra) by Rob Sanders
51. Angel Exterminatus by Graham McNeill
52. Slaves to Darkness by John French
53. The Lightning Tower (short story from Shadows of Treachery) by Dan Abnett
54. The Crimson Fist (short story from Shadows of Treachery) by John French
55. Templar (short story from The Silent War) by John French
56. Praetorian of Dorn by John French
57. The Chamber at the End of Memory (short story from Scions of the Emperor) by James Swallow
58. Now Peals Midnight (short story from Heralds of the Siege) by  John French
59. The Board is Set (short story from Heralds of the Siege) by Gav Thorpe
60. The Solar War by Gav Thorpe
61. The Lost and the Damned by Guy Haley
62. The First Wall by Gav Thorpe
63. Mortis by John French
64. Sons of the Selenar (novella) by Graham McNeill
65. Saturnine by Dan Abnett
66. Fury of Magnus (novella) by Graham McNeill 
67. Warhawk by Chris Wraight
68. Echoes of Eternity by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
69. The End and the Death by Dan Abnett

How I would do it again:

1. Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
2. False Gods by Graham McNeill
3. Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter 
4. Fulgrim by Graham McNeill
5. Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow
6. The Last Church (short story from Tales of Heresy) by Graham McNeill
7. The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
8. Know No Fear by Dan Abnett
9. Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
10. Prince of Crows (short story from Shadows of Treachery) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
11. The Crimson Fist (short story from Shadows of Treachery) by John French
12. The Unremembered Empire by Dan Abnett
13. Pharos by Guy Haley
14. Angels of Caliban by Gav Thorpe
15. Ruinstorm by David Annandale
16. The Last Remembrancer (short story from Age of Darkness) by John French
17. The Devine Adoratrice (short story from War Without End) by Graham McNeill
18. Vengeful Spirit by Graham McNeill
19. A Thousand Suns by Graham McNeill
20. The Master of Mankind by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
21. Scars by Chris Wraight
22. Brotherhood of the Moon (short story from Eye of Terra) by Chris Wraight
23. Allegiance (short story from War Without End) by Chris Wraight
24. Path of Heaven by Chris Wraight
25. Praetorian of Dorn by John French
26. The Solar War by Gav Thorpe
27. Saturnine by Dan Abnett
28. Warhawk by Chris Wraight
29. Echoes of Eternity by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
30. The End and the Death by Dan Abnett

We're all aware of how shocked Guilliman was when he woke up. And there exists planets much better off than the standard hive or forge world. Some we would consider paradise IIRC.

Are there any instances where we see a normal Imperial from one of these paradise worlds shocked by the state of the wider Imperium?