Sixth Edition and You

 So, Sixth Edition is a few months away, and we've got Tau rumored to be coming up soon as well. According to bloodofkittens, we're going to see Tau stepping into a slightly more important role in the grand machinations of the 40k universe*, with them apparently being key to fighting Chaos and Space Marines allying with them far more often. From the article:

"The Imperium is fracturing and the Space Marines are starting to separate themselves from the Lords of Terra. The heretical and xenophobia has gotten to a tipping point causing many chapters to take actions against the "best wishes" of many in the Imperium.
A discovery of galactic importance has happened.
At a time before right before the Horus Heresy the Emperor had intrusted Roboute Guilliman in the protection of one Xenos race that was completely immune the temptations of Chaos and would prove the ultimate key to the destruction of Chaos. The Horus Heresy ended such plans. Fast forward today with discovery of these lost correspondences, it is believed by the Ultramarines and others that the Tau are that lost race. So now instead of being charge with their destruction the Astartes are the Tau protectors."


Furthermore, Games Workshop has released a brand new ally matrix for their upcoming doubles tournament** (visible below), that vastly differs from their previous one that is used in Apocalypse games*** (also visible below). The changes between the two seem to support rather than refute the above rumors, with Space Marines and Tau going from incredibly unwilling to ally to Brothers in Arms.

New

Old

What does this all mean for the 40k universe as a whole? Let's examine the changes in the Ally Matrix as well as the above rumors and see what we can garner, shall we?
The first thing that jumps out at me is what appears to be a huge change in design philosophy. 40k has never had a clear cut good guy faction, with the Imperium xenophobic, dogmatic and territorial, the Eldar caring little for other races or outright killing damaging them as they selfishly scramble to survive, Orks fightan' for fun, Necrons being soulless horrors serving beings of immense, unspeakable power, Tyranids threatening to consume the whole galaxy, Chaos existing solely to mess with sentient life, Dark Eldar giving in to their basest instincts and Tau slowly encroaching on everyone else's territory with an only slightly brighter "join or die" philosophy. No one was a good guy here.
Now it seems that we have changed the scenario quite a bit. When the Space Marines were simply agents of the Imperium, they weren't exactly the good guys, merely the staunchest defenders of that faction. With the apparent change in interests, they seem to be moving away from the Imperium into their own faction, one that is more focused on defeating one of the greatest evil forces in the galaxy, a force that preys on both human and xenos alike. They are very clearly the good guys.
Looking at the ally matrices again, we see that Space Marines are tighter allies with the Tau than they are with the Sisters of Battle or the Grey Knights... the groups are clearly not getting along as well as we would hope. Couple this with the rumors above that the Imperium is splitting and that the xenophobia is reaching higher levels than normal, and you can easily come to the conclusion that the Space Marines are fighting their former allies.
So we have the Space Marines as good guys... who are protecting their population by fighting a force of chaos... and are quite possibly persecuted for their actions and painted as the bad guy by Imperial Forces...
Does this sound familiar at all? To anyone?

Well alright then. Looks like we've got "Dark Knight"-esque Space Marines running around as the good guys. That's kind of awesome.

The idea that Space Marines are going to go around being the Batmen of the 40k universe seems to be furthered by the changes to Chaos and Daemons; they now ally on a "Grudging Allies" basis with the Imperial forces, which might be a subtle indicator that the Imperium is falling to the influence of Chaos. This can be an interesting development if it is chosen to be pursued; the Imperium's need to defend themselves from the threat of Orcs, Tyranids and Necrons make them desperate enough to turn to Chaos for help. This could be a really interesting change for the Imperium and would throw the current game state into an even more complete state of disarray as Imperials defect or simply become more attune to Chaos as a whole, which is implied pretty heavily above.

Another change I see as noteworthy is that the Eldar are now equally friendly with the Tau. While this is not a huge step up, it might mean the Eldar are getting rewritten into the team of "good guys" that solve mysteries and fight crime fight Chaos. That said, they still aren't on the friendliest terms with Marines, being only "Grudging Allies" as opposed to best chums.

All in all, these are pretty interesting changes. They open up a lot cool ground for Chaos to duke it out with the Tau, Marines, and Eldar in some pretty spectacular fights. It is a step to polarizing the forces of good and evil in the 40k universe and gives some interesting progression to the universe, which makes it feel a lot more alive then before, and really excites me for what might be coming next.

* http://bloodofkittens.com/blog/2012/05/05/network-news-the-6th-edition-leak-and/
** http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2290501a_40K_Doubles_Pack_June_2012.pdf
*** http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1180099_Apocalypse_Allies_Chart.pdf

P.S.: If the correspondence that revealed the Tau as the key to defeating Chaos is simply Tzeentch tricking the Marines into weakening their defense of the Imperium so that Chaos can become even more rampant, I called it.