The Unforgiven—the Legio Dark Angels and their successor chapters—hold the secret of Luther’s betrayal of the Lion and Caliban at the heart of their identity as a chapter; even to the point of prosecuting friendly forces for stumbling upon the shameful secret. While this is not unique to the Dark Angels—with the Blood Angels and Space Wolves similarly hiding their “curse”—in the lore it is a significant part of their core identity. While social identities are normally defined through the use of powerful “positive” norms to create positive distinctiveness for their group members, at times these social norms can also reflect negative core identity markers. Within the Warhammer 40,000 universe the Unforgiven social norms are commonly expressed through an unwavering focus on bringing the traitors of their chapter—the Fallen—to justice and judgement. However, this intense policing of internal social norms and group boundaries is not unknown in modern religious groups, commonly finding their expression within sectarian organisations, and even expressed in popular Christianity such as the Purity Ring movement of the late 1990s. However, in the 40K universe the core identity of the Unforgiven is being challenged through the return of the Primarch of the Dark Angels: Lion El Johnson, in the Arks of Omen campaign. With the return of the Lion some of those who have been previously categorised as Fallen are now considered “Risen,” and loyally serve the Lion and the chapter in their prosecution of the Fallen who serve Chaos. The presence of the Risen within the lore, and the redemption offered to them by the Lion, this challenges the broader understanding of the nihilistic 40K “grim dark future” where there is no hope of redemption or salvation. This paper will examine both the social identity of the Unforgiven as centring around their shame based identity, and the challenges of introducing redemption into this setting.
Author bio
Christopher Porter is a Research Fellow at Trinity College, focusing on the intersection of theology and psychology. He has previously worked in personal and social identity research, computational linguistics, and science-informed theology. His current research includes religious enmity, social identity formation in the Fourth Gospel, narrative identity construction, and how fictional worlds can be utilised as a mirror for real world perspectives. He is co-editing a volume on Theology, Religion, and Warhammer 40K.
