The world's first academic conference dedicated to all things Warhammer
We examine how class issues, domestic terrorism, extremism, and insurrection play out in Warhammer 40,000’s Genestealer Cults, against changing British political paradigms between 1989 and 2021. Genestealer Cults are human-alien hybrid guerilla insurrectionists, concealed among the civilian population. Introduced in 1989 and rebooted in 2016, the Cults are both part of the native population and …
Jaques Derrida is quoted as saying, “The end approaches, but the apocalypse is long lived.” The lore of Warhammer 40K is an apocalyptic myth created explicitly in the image of the Roman Empire. But the obvious connections to Imperium Romanum are only part of the picture. WH40K portrays an extension of the cycle of apocalypse …
The concept of death, as expressed in games and other fictions, is not necessarily negative. It does not play the same role, or pose the same threat, as death for us, in the physical world. But few intellectual properties revel in the exploration of death in the way that the Warhammer 40k setting does. Whether …
The Adepta Sororitas ranks among the most extreme representations of nuns in popular culture. Their habit-like armour and religious accessories make them easily recognizable as women of the cloth. But if they are nuns, what kind exactly? This paper argues that the most important inspiration for the Sororitas is the female branch of the Dominican …
The Imperium of Warhammer 40,000 is constantly at war, waging an endless series of military campaigns, the largest of which are known as crusades. From the Great Crusade ten thousand years earlier, to the Indomitus Crusade of the setting’s ‘present day’, these crusades can be directed against any and all foes across the galaxy. Some …
Within the grimdark future of 41st millennium technology is a relatively occult force, often operating in ways that both pervert physics and subvert expectations. While the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus may have a relatively nuanced understanding of technology when compared to the Imperial laity, the praxis of the red-robed priests goes beyond the quotidian …
Abstract Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40K (WH40K) is widely regarded as the progenitor of the Grimdark genre: a simple tagline in a magazine advertisement that read ‘In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war’ spawned a universe of hopeless, superstitious and terrifying visions of mankind’s future. It was a black mirror that …
As neurodiverse person and anthropologist I observe that Warhammer became more and more common place for neurodiverse people to gather. Using both questionnaires and interviews with neurodiverse people we can see why grimdark became place for them to freely share ideas and thrive. What is so compelling that people, what usually have problems with social …
The Tyranids are a biological species that do not rely on technological or mechanical devices, utilizing biotechnological alternatives instead. Despite the significant amount of available xenobiological information, there are still several areas that require further investigation. A comprehensive examination of the Tyranid race poses certain challenges. Therefore, drawing comparisons with entomological concepts, particularly those related …
The grim darkness of the far future harbors an ontological abyss – the Warhammer 40k universe unfurls as a delirious cosmology of hyperspatial paradoxes and spectral becomings that undermine all conventional spatio-temporality. My contribution plunges into the vertiginous “non-spaces” permeating this dystopian cosmos – rifts, folds, and lines of deterritorialization that deconstruct rigid human constructs …
The Warhammer 40k universe presents a unique and fascinating depiction of faster-than-light travel through the concept of the Warp, a parallel dimension of chaotic energy and psychic phenomena. This abstract explores the theoretical underpinnings of Warp space from the standpoint of modern physics, aiming to bridge the gap between fictional constructs and real scientific principles. …
In his 1984 study Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life—published shortly before the first edition of WH40K—philosopher Albert Borgmann provided an analysis of modern technology centered on the dichotomy between things and devices. For Borgmann, a device is an object that provides a commodity (energy, information, entertainment, etc.) while making the mechanism of that …
This paper investigates the complex assemblage that is the rule system of Warhammer 40k matched play with a focus on participation and materiality based on the auto-ethnographic experiences of a competitive players. Before the first dice are rolled in a game of 40k, a lot of work needs to be done. Armies need to be …
Abstract In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only Warhammer. Games Workshop has waged a constant battle to protect humanity from other miniature games. On the fringes of the Imperium, other games lurk and putter on, unseen by YouTube algorithms and academics. In our present age, the tabletop hobby is dominated by …
This research presentation explores how videogame communities mobilise to save their favourite games from becoming lost to history using the example of The Return of Reckoning (Return of Reckoning, 2014) as a case study. The key aims are to position live-service games in current games preservation theory and then unpack how the ‘fan-developers’ preserved Return …