It is also wildly impossible for them to remember or have records of it.
Don't you think that is stretching it quite a bit, Rasmus? Improbable given our current understanding of archival/data storage techniques, of course, but not "wildly impossible". (Of course, consider the UK's laser-disc rendition of the Doomsday Book. That says much!)
Even the most meticulous chronicles are worn away by times as long as these. I mean, how much of a detailed note do we have of life and civilisation 38k BC. Or even 8k BC. Or even detailed things about 1k BC.
Well, as long as the advanced civilisations of the ?near future are only using the same kind of recording techniques as in the first millennium BCE. Perhaps that is just as "wildly impossible" or even improbable?
With that said, Rasmus is right that the flavour of the 40k universe is to write from the perspective of the distant, unknowable past regardless of the pedantism. (I use similar approaches when comparing the level of relative technology between the Imperium and the current Craftworld Eldar, where you end up with the Eldar being the equivalent of the first world technologies, and the Imperium being somewhere in the realm of the nineteenth century at
their most advanced! Strictly not correct, but it brings across the right general impression...)
All they want to know about the Dark/Golden Age of Technology is what Superweapons they had back then and how to get them back. For the rest, they are all content to know that the Emperor didn't show up himself to the ignorant masses, and for this, they lived in the Dark Age, where all they had was Technology, but not the Glory and Benevolence of the God-Emperor Immortal sitting on the Golden Throne of Holy Terra.
I've seen this approach before, though most commonly in the most die-hard of wargamers. Then again the same type of wargamer also said (paraphrasing), "What do I care about the history of a world? I just need to know where I can blow stuff up on..."
Actually I think there are some very vague references in some of the Horus Heresy books. The chronicles of Ursh that Loken is given to read are hinted at being from our time or very ancient in the least (from 40k perspective, so they could still be around 10k).
That's true. The typical references to "Oseania" (sp.), or "Onyl" colonies, etc. (Both of the last from
Flight of the Eisenstein.) One has to remember, though, that GW is particularly found of references that might be more correctly termed as 'homages'.
I think Rasmus's "wildly impossible" describes it perfectly.
Each to his own. Beyond the cloying Freudian and Jungian terminology, I find that the premise of the 'monomyth' is particularly appealing. Let's just face it, the continual references to the medieval period etc. are as equally cloying as any references to historical records. Whether you want to extrapolate real world recordation technologies or consider the flavoursome approach of
A Canticle for Leibowitz, one should never underestimate the perversity of the human mind.
We write our own history now just as the future will do when their time comes.
And...? This argues for different emphasis, not necessarily the absence of information. One can truly take the flavour and Imagery of the 40k universe a bit too far. Of course, the polar opposite is also true: one can take an optimistic approach to modern technologies - and those that might be developed in the near or distant future - a bit too far.
If anything, one might question the relevance of this knowledge to Marines more than obscure scholars and philosophers. Of course, that is rarely questioned because of the inherent nature of Marines, more so given their current representation in the
Horus Heresy novels by
Black Library.
if i understand correctly, during the heresy all of the info and data about pre 30th century was lost. i bet somewhere in some old forgetten book or data bank on terra is some scrap of info or the inqusion has it and doesnt want other people to know about how people lived without the Emperor as a God.
Which is as likely as any of the other approaches.
Of course, if you look at the 40k universe and see how many of the 'major races' have little to no understanding of their distant past and must rely upon myths and legends...? I think that is a revealing fact.
Strange, though. If I think about the 40k universe in purely fantasy terms it isn't at all a pig's ear, which it most definitely is from a more sci-fi perspectiv without some horrendously contrived explanations.
Kage