What Truly Matters, and Why: Honor and the Structure of Meaning-Making in Warhammer 40,000
Drawing on existentialist theory and ethics (Sartre 2004, Beauvoir 2015) and theories on emotional responses to fiction (Hatley 2017, Hamby/Jones 2022), the paper explores the concept of honor (Sessions 2010, Olsthoorn 2016) as depicted in Warhammer 40k lore and argues that 40k’s appeal as a Grimdark setting derives from the assuredness with which it asserts …