Very interested in WAR40k: DMO despite having no experience w/ any of the games. I've been hoping for a good third person shooter mmo ever since Tabula Rasa went poof.
DMO looks tah be a very active game and with my constantly growing concerns with SWTOR, it's nice tah know that there's something else coming out down the road that catches my eye.
So what would I need tah know about the 40k verse in order tah play it?
1st: Don't call it WAR40k. That reminds me of Warhammer Online. It's generally referred to as W40k.
2nd: Basically, it's the 41st millenium and the Imperium of Man is barely struggling to stay alive. Everyone's under constant threat of attack from aliens and heretics, who do not worship the Immortal Emperor of Mankind (who led the Imperium to battle ten thousand years ago in crusades to reunite it) as the ruler of the universe.
In DMO, it looks like the Imperium's primary enemies (and playable races) are Chaos and Orks.
The Chaos used to be a part of the Imperium, but turned evil, and are generally seen as cultists worshipping one of the four gods of Chaos.
Orks are savage aliens with VERY little thought processing. Dey jus' want ta kill an' loot everyting, cuz green iz best!
The Immaterium, or Warp, is how everyone gets around. Their spaceships enter it, and exit it at a random time, hopefully at their destination. Exposure to the Warp drives people insane, which is the path to Chaos. The gods of Chaos also reside in the Warp. The Warp is pretty much a very unstable source of infinite power.
Likely playable classes (Imperium):
Psykers are similar to jedi with unstable minds, and get "Magical" powers from the Warp. They are very dangerous.
Tech-priests worship the Omnissiah, the machine god, and tend to have many mechanical body parts. They're the mechanics of the Imperium.
The Imperial Guard are pretty much marines with laser guns (or solid projectile guns) in space. They do have strength in numbers though.
The Space Marines are the elite, and are thought of as gods among some guardsmen. They are the Emperor's Chosen, the Angels of Death, and have been heavily genetically modified specifically for war. They wear large suits of power armor, carry big bolters, and are very hard to kill.
...
That's probably more than you need to know, but whatever.