There are, to date, close to four hundred books in the Black Library catalogue set in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. The vast majority of these books remain valid canon, as do the bulk of supplemental material, faction codexes, rule books, video games, and the models themselves. Unlike many other fictional settings, Warhammer 40,000 has the element of the “unreliable narrator” baked into virtually every piece of media. An at times under discussed aspect of the “grim darkness” of the far future, is that in the darkness, it is difficult to determine what exactly happened.
As a trained historian, approaching Warhammer 40,000 lore is oftentimes a very similar task to analyzing actual history. Historians, ideally, never take any single source as a definitive authority, but try to cross reference multiple sources to determine what historically happened. Oftentimes, like in Warhammer 40,000, multiple historical sources provide differing or conflicting accounts of what happened. How historians think about historical events shifts over time, either as new sources become available, or as different ideological approaches are taken.
The historiographical process can serve as a useful tool for sorting through the lore and narrative of Warhammer 40,000. In turn, the setting of Warhammer 40,000 can act as a very unique opportunity for historians to engage with the broader public on how to think about actual history. Was the Horus Heresy the result mostly of the actions of a handful of “great men”, or did the Heresy happen due to underlaying class politics? Since none of the events of Warhammer 40,000 are actual history, the implications of misinterpretation the lore are less severe and offer the audience a chance to experiment with new interpretations.
Author bio
Michele Lewis is an American historian and former United States Park Ranger. She graduated Loyola University Chicago with a BA/MA in American history in 2021. Her work has focused on analysis of American political history through a Marxist and feminist lens. Michele has been a Warhammer 40,000 fan for over a decade, and dutifully serves the Emperor of Mankind as an Imperial Guard player.
