In the 41st Millennium the Emperor of Mankind occupies many archetypal roles – Theos Patēr, Christ, who died to save humanity, Prometheus, beloved father to the Loyalists and hated, rejected father to the Traitors. He’s also a prisoner, caged by the Golden Throne, and by circumstances. Drawing on my research with the children of prisoners, and in particular my application of psychoanalytic theory to their experiences, I will analyse the God-Emperor of mankind as an absent, prisoner-father, to his children Mortarion and Roboute Gulliman, situating their relationships with him in my own research, and using them as lenses to understand the experience of paternal imprisonment.
Author bio
David Shipley is a PhD candidate at the University of Southampton where his research explores the experiences of children with a parent in prison via co-created artistic methods and psychoanalytic theory. He is also a journalist, broadcaster and public speaker on prisons, justice and crime. He plays a lot of The Old World, and has Bretonnian, Dwarf and Tomb King armies.
