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My research has focused on how students attending a weekly Warhammer Club at their secondary school perceive their sense of belonging in school, through a lens of Gee’s (2004) affinity space theory. There is much literature on the topic of belonging in schools, and how a sense of belonging has become recognised as a tool …
For many Warhammer fans, Bob Naismith is one of ‘founding fathers’ of the hobby we love so much, shaping as he did many of the designs that have gone on to become synonymous with the hobby. Working for Citadel in the 1980s, and later Games Workshop, Bob was responsible for the original Space Marine design, …
The British literary critic and author M. John Harrison defines Worldbuilding as an ‘attempt to exhaustively survey a place that isn’t there’. Worldbuilding is one of the most important aspects of genre fiction and is an undeniable factor in the success of the 40K universe, which is appropriately recognised for the scope, depth and detail …
In the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Adeptus Mechanicus worships the Machine Spirit, a divine essence said to inhabit all technology. Though cloaked in ritual and superstition, the Cult Mechanicus enforces a deeply conservative system of knowledge management, system diagnostics, and behavioural control over complex, often poorly understood machinery. This paper argues that such …
This paper discusses the built environment of the Warhammer 40,000 universe through a number of architectural, anthropological, and cinematic theories. The aim is to underline the uniqueness of this setting, grounded firmly in British popular culture to its status as a global phenomenon. In addition to this, the paper examines the hobbyists’ engagement with modelmaking …
The works of the medieval Arabic philosopher Al-Farabi (c. 872-950) reconstruct the thinking of Plato and Aristotle in a world forever changed by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the Attainment of Happiness and The Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, Al-Farabi quietly presents a radical political program. Al-Farabi’s ponderous opening meditation on epistemology turns out to …
Warhammer 40,000 has drawn significant inspiration from American author H.P. Lovecraft and the genre of cosmic horror more broadly. Lovecraft stands as an icon of pulp and horror literature who has inspired countless contemporary works of science fiction and pioneered the genre of Lovecraftian, or cosmic horror. The alien nature and design of the Tyranids …
The Warhammer Fantasy setting is rife with cultural and geographical comparisons. The map of the world roughly follows that of our own planet Earth. The continents roughly line up and the main human races that an enjoyer, reader, or player of the setting should find ‘good’ are roughly based on German, British, and French culture. …
This paper examines the relationship between the Adeptus Mechanicus, a highly tech-zealous faction in the popular Games Workshop IP Warhammer 40K, and contemporary techonarratives concerning the development, operation, and utility of modern technological systems. Through the combined examination of both official Adeptus Mechanicus lore (e.g., Warhammer 40K codex) and community engagement (e.g., posts/memes on sites …
The 41st Millenium is swarming with transhuman imaginings. It is littered with thought experiments pushing the recognisable bounds of The Human into fantastical images. From the cyborged Mechanicus priest to the specifically “transhuman physiology” of the Space Marine 40k is fascinated with methods of expanding human capacity to incredibly limits. But are these representations merely …
As the most contemporary of Games Workshop’s world-building efforts, the Mortal Realms of Age of Sigmar tend to echo themes and anxieties relevant to its own time. Much like Warhammer 40,000 reflected the politics of the 1980s, in the global world of the 2010s and 2020s, Age of Sigmar reflects the polycrisis (Morin, 1993, Lähde, …
Warhammer has become a major UK-born pop-culture phenomena with its soon-to-be Hollywood ascension and millions of plays and fans worldwide. Dr Tomas Rawlings, currently writing a book on the early history of Warhammer 40,000, how it managed to create a world/setting/game that has drawn so many in and what lessons designers/creatives can learn from it …
Since the inception of the modern fantasy genre by J. R. R. Tolkien, fictional languages have been a common element of fantasy and science fiction literature (e.g. Tolkien’s Elvish languages and Klingon). As narrative devices, they facilitate worldbuilding by making fictional settings more believable. Both Warhammer Fantasy (The Old World as of late) and Warhammer 40,000 …
For a game to be successful, it must generate interest in its target group. To be successful for a long time, this interest must also be kept up for a long time. This is usually done by creating new content, for example, new adventures to play or additions to the game. At the same time, …
The Orkish language in Warhammer 40K is a stylized linguistic construct designed to reflect the cultural and social traits of its fictional speakers. While not a fully developed conlang, Orkish is characterized by phonetic distortions, syntactic simplifications, and a lexicon heavily influenced by Cockney speech patterns, particularly those associated with football hooligan subcultures. This study …