The world's first academic conference dedicated to all things Warhammer
The Imperium of Man routinely lobotomises and augments criminals and heretics to create “servitors” who then serve as soldiers, labourers, and even computers. For the Imperium, this is an enhancement and a repurposing of supposed ‘undesirables’ into helpful tools. This talk engages with the figure of the servitor in Warhammer 40,000, and explores how it …
In 1987, Games Workshop needed a backstory to sell miniature wargames. By 2024, that commercial necessity had produced one of the most institutionally coherent fictional polities in science fiction. This paper asks why the Imperium of Man often feels more ‘realistic’ than many science-fiction polities despite deliberate grimdark exaggeration.
The pre-imperial human settlers who colonized the galaxy during the Dark Age of Technology initially spoke a variety of Low Gothic. During the Age of Strife, however, their colonies were cut off from Old Earth for millennia. As a result, the standard version of Low Gothic spoken on Old Earth/Holy Terra and the many local …
The pursuit of cognitive and physical enhancement in humans raises profound ethical and practical questions, particularly as technological advances make such interventions increasingly feasible. This presentation examines the ethical frameworks and feasibility concerns surrounding human enhancement, focusing on issues such as autonomy, justice, authenticity, and societal impact. Special attention is given to emerging neurotechnologies—including both …
In the Horus Heresy series, the Edict of Nikaea looms large as one of the setting’s most pivotal narrative events. With the Edict, the Emperor proscribed the use of Warp-derived psyker powers by the Legiones Astartes and nominally disbanded the psychically-gifted Librarius orders—at great cost both to the individual Astartes of the Librarius and to …
Superficially, the Imperium of Man within Games Workshop’s ‘Warhammer 40,000’ fictional universe is presented as a pastiche theocratic autocracy. Its sprawling territory is ruled by the Lord Commander of the Imperium and the Council of the High Lords of Terra on behalf of the God Emperor of Mankind. At a mundane level, Imperial authority is …
Warhammer 40,000 draws its influences from across history; notably the in-universe history, theology, and iconography of the Imperial Cult and the Adeptus Ministorum are inspired by the medieval and early modern Roman Catholic Church. One instance of the history of the Adeptus Ministorum paralleling the history of Catholicism can be seen in origin of one …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
The Imperium of Man is an explicitly eugenic state, pursing its obsessive campaign of purifying humanity at all costs. Both those with conventional disabilities and the crip-coded psykers and mutants are routinely either purged from the gene pool or are “cured” through super-science that erase disability as an identity category, including via the elimination of …