The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

- by Iain Wilson

In science fiction or fantasy wargaming, canon is the collection of stories, background text and artwork that gives the setting life. It tends to evolve as the game does. Early ideas may change into something different as the game expands. New ideas can be added in and third-party material may creep into the mix. Something mentioned in passing might be dropped completely, leading to questions about whether or not it still applies. As time goes on, it can become increasingly difficult to codify exactly what is and isn't still canon.



Some fans take great pleasure in diving deep into this background material, learning as much about the setting as they can. Others take a more casual approach, having a passing familiarity with their faction of choice and not paying much attention to the rest. Many find the background material interesting to read, but without feeling the need to memorise every detail. Some ignore it completely, viewing the game purely through the lens of its ruleset. At the end of the day, it's your hobby, and whichever of these approaches suits you is absolutely fine. The thing to remember is: other hobbyists' view of canon doesn't have to be the same as yours.

For Maelstrom's Edge, we hope that the game's background material will provide inspiration for your hobby. To that end, you should always feel free to take as much or as little from it as you want. Build your force strictly around the published canon, or use it as a launchpad to create a custom background for your force - we love to see hobbyists put their own spin on the universe we have created!

But what happens when your homebrew fiction conflicts with the canon? Maybe you missed some explanation in the official material, or you deliberately chose to ignore a given piece of fiction because you preferred an alternative. Maybe you created something new that doesn't exist in official material. Or, having chosen a force from a colour scheme picture, you created a background for them that turns out to be different from what we publish for them later on. Whatever the reason, your homebrew background material doesn't fit perfectly with 'official' canon, so... now what?

The short answer is - nothing happens.

Your canon is still yours. If it doesn't exactly match what we have published, we're not going to send a SecDef strike team to destroy your miniatures. We would much rather see people enjoying their hobby the way they want to, than feeling the need to change things because they might be considered 'wrong' in some way. How you approach that is up to you. If, for example, your homebrewed Epirian franchise background winds up different to the version we introduce for them, you could change your force to keep up with the evolving canon. However, you could also just treat your force as a splinter group that’s different to the rest of the franchise. There could be multiple franchises going by the same name (It's a big, confusing mess out there with the Maelstrom causing a ruckus!). Your franchise might be from a different point in the timeline, or an alternate timeline altogether. Or, it could just be different because that's what you want it to be. And any of those options is just as valid as any other.

We love the setting we have created for Maelstrom's Edge, and it gives us no end of pleasure to hear from hobbyists who also love it and want to dive deeper into it, whether that's through our fiction or homebrew creations. We want you to enjoy the hobby your way. It's a big universe, full of possibilities, and we're excited to explore it with you!

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When Iain isn’t waxing lyrical about gaming, he’s locked in the basement working on modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, which you can find in the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. And while you're there, grab a copy of the Maelstrom's Edge V2 Beta rules!