The world's first academic conference dedicated to all things Warhammer
The Warhammer 40k universe, set roughly 38,000 years in the future, presents an intriguing opportunity to explore the potential trajectory of technological advancement. This abstract proposes a comparative analysis of historical technological development with speculative projections for the next 38 millennia, drawing on the rich technological landscape depicted in Warhammer 40k. Technological progress over the …
Warhammer 40,000 (40K) is the most popular miniature wargame. While gameplay is a large part of engaging with Warhammer 40,000, the miniatures are often bought and painted. These painters spend hours painting the models in deep concentration. Drawing on interviews and journal entries of a participant study of 14 painters over a six-month period, this …
Viewers usually expect long-lasting transmedia worlds and crossovers between various media to be internally harmonious. In contrast, Warhammer 40,000 provides prospective viewers, players and readers with a universe far less concerned with clarity and consistency. To the audiences of Warhammer 40,000, significant variance in the depictions of characters, places and factions depending on the medium, …
Everyone who’s interested in 40K lore knows that the Emperor of Mankind gene-crafted 20 “sons” to be his superhuman generals in the Great Crusade to reunite humanity. Equally well known is that two of these Primarchs – the second and the eleventh – were “lost”: everything about them was intentionally deleted from Imperial records. But …
Customizable analog games, such as miniature games or table top role-playing games (TTRPG), rely on active engagement by consumers. Their value creation is immediately tied to not only an engaged customer base but to prosumers, who make the game “their own”. This means that business models for miniature games and TTRPGs deviate quite strongly from …
Much like the techpriests of the Cult Mechanicus, Western societies in the second millennium are consumed by technological advancement, techno-positivistic ontologies, and the sustainability of mankind. During the mid-1900s, there was a shift in biomedical research and theorization that since has brought us new conceptualization of the body: what it can and cannot do and …
As the setting of Warhammer 40, 000 has matured it has presented the threat from within as its most insidious threat. Cross-media stories have been told about the Inquisitions work against such threats. Given the quasi-religious setting the insurgencies that are featured in the game and lore are primarily based around cults, either ‘chaos’ or …
Julia Kristeva’s poststructuralist concept of intertextuality applies to the creation of all genres and formats of texts, but when it comes to working within an existing universe such as Warhammer, the relationship with what has come before and, challengingly from wider narrative and character arc perspectives, what may come in the future, takes on a …
The name Warhammer 40,000, with its aesthetics and, above all, the incredibly detailed background, is now a fixture in pop culture. This epic, supposedly monolithic narrative is actually a piece of work by different artists, designers and authors. The unifying element of these different media and narrative styles is the depiction of war and all …
Abstract Warhammer 40k shows humanity in a complex, yet simple situation. Surrounded by multiple hostile species, war changed from a project to unite all humanity under the guide of the emperor to a eternal necessity, no matter what the cost of ‘xenos’ or even human lives. This raises questions about legitimate self-defense, imperial conquest, genocide …
The universe of Warhammer 40k seems to have reached the stage in the permanent war for pure survival that Carl Schmitt would understand as a completely political world. Friend and foe can be clearly distinguished as a dichotomy inherent in politics. The distinction is clear, even clearer than in the Middle Ages, armour, weapon and …
Beset on all sides and within, even with a million worlds, humanity fights a long-drawn battle of attrition. If the Imperium of Man wants to stand a chance, technology is its only hope. And even if it lacks behind, compared to the Necron or Eldar, human ingenuity once rules the stars. Technology is so important …
My presentation is a comparative study of the representation of religion in two digital games: Baldur’s Gate III and Warhammer: Rogue Trader. Both are successful titles representing their respective franchises, both were created under at least some level of creative control from the franchise owners (Randall 2023; Templar9999 2024), so their approach to representation of …
Worldbuilding is an integral part of the science fiction and fantasy genres. A major challenge of these genres is introducing the setting to readers in a way that is natural and doesn’t overwhelm them. This can be done through a reader surrogate character, a character that is either new to the setting (such as Neo …
Abstract One well-known piece of lore about Space Marines in Warhammer fiction is that they “know no fear.” Fans of the Horus Heresy series, in particular, will have read that Space Marines are not “built to feel fear,” that they are “immune to fear,” and that they are without “the capacity for fear.” However, fans …