Warhammer 40,000 Recap: The Story So Far & Every Ending Explained (2026)

Updated October 21, 2026 · 4 titles · spoilers for everything below

These Warhammer+ animated shows are separate stories set in the 41st millennium, when the Imperium of Man fights endless wars against aliens, heretics and the forces of Chaos, and the warp rift called the Cicatrix Maledictum has split the galaxy. They follow a squad of Blood Angels on a cult-infested world, a disgraced psychic interrogator in a hive city, a Sister of Battle and a Salamanders Space Marine against the Necrons, and an anthology of short tales from across the setting. None continues another, and the latest, Pariah Nexus, ends with the Space Marine Sa'kan alone and set on revenge.

Recapped: 4
Watch time saved: 12 hours
Latest: 2023

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No. 01 · 2021 · Series

Angels of Death recap

The strike cruiser Sword of Baal, carrying a depleted force of Blood Angels Space Marines, is thrown off course by the warp storms of the Cicatrix Maledictum and takes shelter over Niades, an Imperial world. Captain Orpheo and his advance party vanish on what should have been a simple trip to the surface. Chaplain Rafael and Sergeants Ancaeus and Kazarion lead a rescue mission into a ruined city beneath a docking tower, following the signal of Orpheo's beacon through hordes of cultists. They learn that Niades is overrun by a Genestealer Cult, whose mutated Aberrants and alien-blooded followers serve a Magus preparing for an ascension. Kazarion struggles with the Black Rage, the curse of his bloodline. Above, Ship Mistress Livia Solken and her crew fight to keep the Sword of Baal from being taken by the cult's ships. Orpheo learns his own fate, and a Mechanicus priest, Magos Dominus Castia-Theta-9, guides the warriors through the tunnels toward the cult's heart in the Siren Tower.

How Angels of Death ends

The Blood Angels destroy the cult, but at a heavy cost: Captain Orpheo, the Chaplain, the Apothecary and Sergeant Ancaeus are lost. Castia-Theta-9 offers the survivors a way off Niades, and Kazarion and a few battle-brothers make it back to the Sword of Baal, which survives, with the artefact they were guarding. Kazarion recovers the bodies of the fallen before the ship leaves for Baal. The series ends with "To be continued?", and a later special follows Rafael and Kazarion against the Death Guard.

No. 02 · 2021 · Series

Hammer and Bolter recap

Hammer and Bolter is an anthology of short animated stories, each with its own style and characters, set mostly in Warhammer 40,000 with a few episodes from Age of Sigmar. It began in 2021 and has sixteen episodes. In "Death's Hand", an Inquisitor who learns he is fated to die turns to the alien ways of the Aeldari to escape it. "Old Bale Eye" sends Commissar Yarrick against the Orks. "Fangs" follows Space Wolves veterans playing a game in their fortress while three young aspirants struggle to survive in the frozen wilds. In "Kill Protocol", a lone Tech-priest and her Kastelan robot cross Ork-infested wastes to recover a sacred artefact. "Cadia Stands" shows a sergeant protecting a messenger against Tyranids, and "Artefacts" follows Black Legion Terminators hunting an alien relic for Abaddon inside a space hulk. Later episodes include "Plague Song", about a Death Guard sorcerer's plague, and "Eternal", in which Exorcists question a warrior of the Emperor's Children about Lucius the Eternal.

How Hammer and Bolter ends

There is no overall ending: each episode is a self-contained story, and most end grimly for their heroes. The series has continued in occasional releases, and its most recent episode, "Return to Cadia" in January 2025, follows Cadian soldiers visiting a desecrated shrine to their destroyed home world to hunt down those responsible.

No. 03 · 2022 · Series

Interrogator recap

Jurgen is a former Interrogator, a psyker who can read people's memories by touch, left disgraced after his master, Inquisitor Bellona, was murdered. He now lives in the slums of the hive city Gheisthaven, numbing his memories with drugs, when his dealer's gang comes to collect. In act 1, he and his old teammate Baldur follow a lead on Bellona's killer through the slums and a bar run by an old acquaintance. The killer is Heroth, a former comrade who carries the rare Pariah gene, which makes him invisible to psychic powers. In act 2, Jurgen faces the cost of his addiction, investigates a factory where an old friend may be making a new drug, and is imprisoned beneath the estate of Duke Klore, the city's governor, who makes him an offer. In act 3, Jurgen escapes Klore's cells using his powers and searches for answers about Bellona's death, revisiting his past with Sortha.

How Interrogator ends

Jurgen corners Heroth as Gheisthaven burns and shoots him dead, then learns that Bellona was a radical whose plan would have doomed the city and many other worlds, perhaps to seal the Cicatrix Maledictum, and that she saw Jurgen as one more sacrifice. Heroth's killing of her saved Jurgen's life. Baldur is dead, and the city's noble houses are heading into civil war. A shadowy Inquisitor, Markov, appears at the end, hinting at a story that has not been continued.

No. 04 · 2023 · Series

Pariah Nexus recap

In the Pariah Nexus, a region where the Necrons have woken and are draining the warp, the shrine world Paradyce falls to their attack. In episode 1, a lone Sister of Battle, Danica, moves through a ruined city seeking vengeance, travelling with an Imperial Guardswoman. In episode 2, a Salamanders Space Marine, Brother Sa'kan, the last of his squad, stalks the battlefield while trying to protect a group of civilian survivors. In episode 3, Danica and Sa'kan must put aside their differences to lead the survivors out before a Necron Deathmark, a sniper, hunts them down. The Guardswoman turns out to be a hallucination: she died in an earlier battle, when Danica was shell-shocked. Danica and Sa'kan together crush a Skorpekh Destroyer, but Sa'kan falls and is believed dead.

How Pariah Nexus ends

Danica turns to lead the priest and civilians west and is shot in the back by the Deathmark, and the survivors are killed. As the Deathmark examines the bodies, a wounded, one-handed Sa'kan appears and kills it. He is left alone on Paradyce, set on revenge against the Necrons who destroyed it. The series ended after three episodes.

Common questions

What is the Warhammer 40,000 story so far?

Where did Warhammer 40,000 leave off?

Pariah Nexus (2023) is the latest. Danica turns to lead the priest and civilians west and is shot in the back by the Deathmark, and the survivors are killed. As the Deathmark examines the bodies, a wounded, one-handed Sa'kan appears and kills it. He is left alone on Paradyce, set on revenge against the Necrons who destroyed it. The series ended after three episodes.

Warhammer 40,000 recap: the story so far