The world's first academic conference dedicated to all things Warhammer
Warhammer 40,000 is by the admission of its creators, a satire of Britain in the 1980s. It is a representation of a squalid, sprawling failed empire, where human life has ceased to matter as anything other than oil for the machinery of a broken state. In this talk I will characterise this satire using the …
The paper explores the complex existential situation of an Astartes Space Marine between humanity and artificiality and the implications of the peculiar type of purpose they follow from an existentialist and technical-philosophical perspective. Astartes are superhuman soldiers, trialed, enhanced, and trained to defend the Imperium of Man from the xenos, the heretic, the daemon. Unlike …
The Imperium of Man is often portrayed as the last bastion against the corrupting influenceof Chaos. Yet, the methods employed by the Imperium are as ruthless as the enemies theyseek to destroy. Governed by the decrees of the God-Emperor, the Imperium enforces abrutal order through fear, repression, and unyielding orthodoxy. It is a society where …
Miniaturing, with its roots in other historically men-dominated spheres such as military history and tabletop role-playing, is largely a men’s pastime in terms of demographics (e.g. Körner & Schütz, 2021), making it an intriguing phenomenon to study from the perspective of men’s studies. This is doubly true with Warhammer 40,000: as a game it features …
Central to Games Workshop’s Intellectual Property (IP) Law policy is its stringent enforcement mechanism. In doing so, the company engages with a proactive approach to engagement and enforcement of IP protection measures across a wide range of unauthorised uses of its IP. The purpose of such a zealous approach is to ensure the integrity and …
My investigation focuses on the wargaming miniature model as a media technology, defined both as experience technology and as technology for media production. For this purpose, I will briefly introduce a multidisciplinary view of technology currently under development in the MIT (Multimodal and Intermedial Technologies) project at the University of Oulu. This perception of technology …
The struggle for power between states to ensure survival and other vital interests is a foundational component of realism, the oldest and most influential theoretical paradigm in the study of international relations (IR). Currently, academics and scholars alike are fiercely debating the merit of realist arguments regarding the role of NATO policy in the onset …
The humans that inhabit the grim future of the 42nd Millennium live under oppression so dire it borders the comical. Indeed, the level of ‘grim dark’ terror and repression that Imperial citizens are subjected to is commonly understood to be satire of existing repressive ideologies. It follows then, that the Imperium is in a nigh …
The Warhammer 40´000 setting is characterised by its proverbial “grim darkness”. Its take on the far future is a highly dystopian one. The most important polity in the setting, the galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man, is described as the worst possible regime. It is a militaristic, xenophobic, highly repressive dictatorship. By contrast, the T’au Empire is …
As I sit down in my scriptorium, the cogitator comes alive with a touch of my finger, its spirit has grown accustomed to in lengthy rituals of familiarization after it was first assigned to me. Eager to work, it presents me with chatter from the noosphere that still my flesh is too weak to perceive …
Within the broader digital humanities field lies the application of mathematical techniques to understand and quantify literature. The use of these approaches can provide a different perspective on a work, can enhance our ability to visualize complex and evolving narratives, and can potentially quantify aspects of the narrative. This last feature is especially relevant for …
Prominent in the annals of grimdark transhumanism is the notion of digital metempsychosis; the virtual reincarnation of the soul into a novel, engineered host body. Nowhere in Warhammer 40K lore is this more prominent than the continued efforts of Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl to fully resurrect his friend and companion, Tech-Priest Friedisch Adum Silip Qvo, …
The world of 40k has forever been at war with the concept of Artificial Intelligence. The Imperium of Man ever wrestles with its fear of Men of Iron whilst simultaneously protecting and pacifying its myriad machine spirits. They preach against the return of ‘Abominable Intelligences’ while they battle the supernatural might of Daemon Engines. Even …
When influential as well as controversial philosopher Martin Heidegger wrote “Die Frage nach der Technik” (1954), he did not have in mind the dark age of technology, but rather the danger of a reduction of human being to a resource (“Bestand”) inherent to the purely technical world-view of our time. Most perfidiously, this “Gefahr” doesn’t …
Abstract Within Warhammer 40,000 (40K), the Emperor of Man sought unity, a single truth, and eradication of alternative beliefs . After his entombment, the Imperial Cult proclaimed him God-Emperor and became increasingly rigid and stagnant over time. Diversity and understanding eroded under a single edict maintained under eternal warfare. Despite the diverse influences evident in …