Loremasters of Warhammer! I need your help!

[Dokka]

Can someone describe to me what is Warhammer? What is 40K?

[DavidtheDuke]

You mean the difference between the two? The simplest explanation is "officially" they are two different worlds that are used in tactical tabletop wargames and nearly endless supply of fiction to add to the lore of the universes. One is set in a distant sci-fi future and the other is medieval fantasy based, with some gunpowder added to the mix. Everything else about them is pretty Googleable

[Tyraels]

Classic Warhammer (full name is Warhammer Battle) is a game that occurs in a medieval-fantasy world ..Whereas 40k occurs in a futurist world . Both storylines are about a world recurently destroyed by some fights between different races... Both universes are taking in considerations all aspects that we know in the real life : politic, religion, ethnic groups etc . You can find some things in the lore of Warhammer Battle that are very close with historic facts (black plague etc) which happened by the past . If we could transpose War battle in our traditional history , it could be between middle-age and renaissance . With some races that are clearly inspired with antiquity .

[White Dwarf]

Warhammer and Warhammer 40k are licenses of Games Workshop, a company selling (among other stuff) tabletop miniatures: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/

Warhammer (or, in order to distinguish, Warhammer Fantasy) is concerned with the struggle of humans and various fantastic races, such as elves, dwarves, skaven (ratmen), orks and goblins, over the world they live in. Locations for their battles are for example the Old World, where the human Empire and its allies, the dwarven kingdoms, have to defend themselves against followers of the evil Gods of Chaos, Ork tribes that invade their countries and the vampire county of Sylvania with its undead armies. This is the area that Call of Warhammer deals with.
Another location would be Ulthuan, where the High Elves, powerful wizards and warriors, fight their evil invading cousins, the Dark Elves.
A mod concerned with this battlesite would be The Sundering: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1857
An overall theme distinguishing this fantasy universe of say, Tolkien's, is that there is no clear defined conflict between "Good" and "Evil", even the good guys (Empire, dwarves, elves, and others) are not presented overly positive, but have their cruel traits and customs as well (the Empire for example lets inquisitors and witch hunters of their state religion, the cult of Sigmar, do pretty much what they want in order to keep mutants, sorcerers and other possible threats at bay, even if it costs innocent lives)
An excellent website to read up on the vast universe of Warhammer Fantasy is the lexicanum: http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page

Warhammer 40k startet as a science fiction version of Warhammer Fantasy, but has distinguished itself remarkably since its beginning. Once again, we have various parties, some of them sci-fi versions of Warhammer factions, that fight each other constantly over an entire galaxy.
This takes place in our own remote future, in the 41st millenium, hence the title for the year 40 000. It is in some ways an even darker universe, employing an overall theme of despair, neverending war and exaggerated violence, combined with a complete devaluation of the individual soldier that only lives to fight and die for his faction's cause. As a source of lore material, I would once again recommend the lexicanum, which also has a branch devoted to Warhammer 40k: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page#.UMzSbXf4Ipo

I hope this helped to give some sort of short, basic (though crude) overview. If you are interested in a particular aspect, please feel free to ask. I'm sure some of the other users devoted to WARHAMMER will have some information to add.

EDIT: Which they already did

[Karnil Vark Khaitan]

Can someone describe to me what is Warhammer? What is 40K?

and you need a loremaster??????

its pretty easy warhammer 40k is in our world in year 40000 ac.
and normal warhammer is a fantasy world set in the old and the new world.

[Dokka]

Thanks and +rep to everyone

[GreatSword]

You guys are probibly too young to remember this but..... Warhammer fantasy used to be a world IN the 40k universe, just cut off by warp storms and not technologically advanced. There used to be relic guns and such from outworld that you could use.... and.... wait for it................................ Sigmar was a lost PRIMARCH!

[Hopit]

You guys are probibly too young to remember this but..... Warhammer fantasy used to be a world IN the 40k universe, just cut off by warp storms and not technologically advanced. There used to be relic guns and such from outworld that you could use.... and.... wait for it................................ Sigmar was a lost PRIMARCH!

"too young" hahahaa, age has nothing to do with a lack of lore and history knowledge...