Re: Warhammer 40K being "brightly colored." You suggest that "brightly colored" has to do with the agency of characters, but even the biggest baddest dudes with immense power have (outside of The God Emperor and similarly distant figures) relatively little ability to take action that will cause meaningful change. Does that make it less "brightly colored?"

So I’ll admit that my connection to the 40K universe is pretty tenuous, and there’s a lot of literature I haven’t read, etc.

But my sense is that, while in fact it’s a super-hypoagentic universe for almost everyone, it doesn’t *feel* that way.  Even if your average Guard grunt or Space Marine has no power to do anything except go where he’s told and die at someone else’s order, the narrative focus isn’t on the constraint, the narrative focus is OORAH!  The action is *presented* in terms of people working effectively to defeat threats.

…some exceptions may apply for the poor Eldar.