horus hearsay com

May 12, 2025

Horus Hearsay: The Fake Rumor Site That Might Be Telling the Truth

Games Workshop just pulled one of their cheekiest stunts yet. They launched The Horus Hearsay—a fake “rumor” site for The Horus Heresy that’s so absurd it almost has to be hiding real info.

What Horus Hearsay Actually Is

Horus Hearsay isn’t a fan blog. It’s an official Games Workshop microsite set up in May 2025. The whole thing reads like someone let the community rumor mill run wild after six espressos.

Instead of dry bulletins, it’s littered with over-the-top “leaks” like:

Invulnerable saves are gone because “no one could make a 4++ anyway.”
The Imperial Aquila is losing one of its heads for “streamlining.”
D20 dice will be “nerfed” into D18s.

It’s satire. But not pointless satire. This is Games Workshop openly mocking the way Warhammer leaks spread while also drip-feeding legit teasers for the next edition of The Horus Heresy.

The Real Clues Hidden in the Jokes

Buried under all the nonsense are real hints.

References to “Saturnine Tactical Dreadnought Armour” and a “Saturnine Praetor blaster” aren’t random. Those terms line up perfectly with leaks about the new Age of Darkness: Saturnine starter box.

From what’s been pieced together through fan sites and sharp-eyed Redditors, that box likely includes:

MkII-armored Legionaries
Saturnine-pattern Terminators
A new Dreadnought design
Salamanders and Iron Warriors as the headline factions

The Hearsay site never outright says, “Here’s the new box.” Instead, it lets fans do the connecting, which is exactly how rumor culture thrives.

Why GW Is Doing This

Normally, big Warhammer releases get spoiled weeks ahead by blurry phone pics from factories or early shipments. Instead of trying to squash leaks this time, GW joined the noise.

It’s like if a band started leaking fake songs alongside their real tracks so bootleggers couldn’t tell which was which. By the time the real information drops, the community is already primed and hyped—because they’ve been part of the game.

This tactic also gives GW more control. The “leaks” come from them, not from a shaky image on Discord. And because they’re funny, they spread far faster than a standard press release.

Community Reaction

The first reaction on Reddit’s r/Warhammer30k was confusion. Some thought the D18 dice rumor was serious. Others hoped it was.

A post on Bolter & Chainsword summed it up: “This is one of the funniest campaigns they’ve done. I almost want some of the absurd stuff to be real.”

Even people who don’t care about The Horus Heresy were sharing screenshots because the humor worked outside the fanbase. It’s meme-friendly marketing without looking desperate.

The Bigger Picture

This is more than a meme site. It’s a dry run for how GW might handle future launches.

A few years ago, The Horus Heresy moved into plastic with its 2.0 ruleset. Now, if hints are correct, 3.0 is coming roughly three years later. That’s a fast turnaround compared to Warhammer 40K’s edition cycle, but it matches the pattern of tightening release schedules to keep interest hot.

If this “controlled chaos” rumor campaign works for Heresy, expect to see similar stunts for 40K, Age of Sigmar, and maybe even smaller games like Necromunda.

What It Means for Players

For veteran players, this means two things:

The new edition is almost certainly real, and it’s coming soon.
You’ll need to read between the jokes to figure out what’s actually changing.

The invulnerable save gag might be a throwaway joke, or it might hint at a bigger core rules tweak. The dice rumor is probably pure nonsense—but changes to dice mechanics have happened before in specialist games.

In other words: don’t dismiss anything outright.

Why the Campaign Works

Horus Hearsay works because it doesn’t just talk at the audience—it plays with them.

Every fake rumor is written like the kind of bad leak post you’d see on a fan forum: half-believable, half ridiculous. That tone pulls in fans, gets them talking, and keeps them checking back.

It also sidesteps one of GW’s biggest PR weaknesses: being seen as overly corporate or secretive. By leaning into the joke, they show they can laugh at themselves—and the fans eat it up.

Possible Real Changes Ahead

While nothing’s confirmed, patterns in the teasers point to:

A visual refresh for the core factions
Expanded Saturnine-pattern wargear
Possible tweaks to armour save mechanics
A new starter set with a more cinematic focus

The model reveals in leaked snippets also show crisper details, hinting that newer CAD design techniques are being used for Heresy plastics. That’s consistent with the higher production quality seen in recent 40K releases.

The Risk Factor

The only real risk with this approach is overshooting the joke. If too much is obviously fake, people might tune out before the actual reveal.

So far, though, the balance is holding. The mix of credible and absurd keeps engagement high without feeling like a waste of time.

FAQs

Is Horus Hearsay an official Games Workshop site?
Yes. It’s part of their official Warhammer marketing.

Are any of the rumors true?
Some almost certainly are. The challenge is spotting which ones.

When will the new edition drop?
GW hasn’t announced, but May 2025 timing suggests a reveal within months.

Will the D18 dice actually happen?
Almost definitely not. But never say never—this is GW.

Final Word

Horus Hearsay is more than a joke site—it’s a clever, calculated move to turn the rumor mill into a hype machine for The Horus Heresy. Whether every rumor is real or fake doesn’t matter. The buzz is real, and GW’s got exactly what they wanted: everyone’s talking.