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TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 is one of the most JustForFun/TropeOverdosed media pages we have and is currently the highest Administrivia/{{Wick}}ed media page. However most of its tropes can be sourced back to the use of a few parent tropes and its focus as a tabletop game.
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The game of TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} and its futuristic offspring both involve pitting armies against each other, represented by miniatures sold by the intellectual property owners, Games Workshop. Therefore GW has a vested interest in getting lots of different people to play lots of different armies. If one person wants to play the heroic {{Space Marine}}s, they will sell them {{Space Marine}}s, if another person hates the typical Sci-Fi SpaceMarine template perhaps they would like to spend $49.95 on a box of wild, violent, asexual Orks ([[OurOrcsAreDifferent green paint]] not included). However, each race needs background descriptions on which they are sold to each personality, so that one race doesn't become woefully less popular than the other and become unprofitable. They all need their cool moments and those cool moments need to be readily demonstrated to each potential player on a first glance.
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The game of TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and its futuristic offspring both involve pitting armies against each other, represented by miniatures sold by the intellectual property owners, Games Workshop. Therefore GW has a vested interest in getting lots of different people to play lots of different armies. If one person wants to play the heroic {{Space Marine}}s, they will sell them {{Space Marine}}s, if another person hates the typical Sci-Fi SpaceMarine template perhaps they would like to spend $49.95 on a box of wild, violent, asexual Orks ([[OurOrcsAreDifferent green paint]] not included). However, each race needs background descriptions on which they are sold to each personality, so that one race doesn't become woefully less popular than the other and become unprofitable. They all need their cool moments and those cool moments need to be readily demonstrated to each potential player on a first glance.
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One thing Warhammer 40,000 does better than some other sci-fi settings is getting the idea of a big galaxy with lots of things going on across it. It lets the writers say "[[AscendedFanon Sure Why Not]]", since any one depiction of an army's behaviour or organization can be represented on some planet somewhere. Players get to make up their own Space Marine chapters or Eldar craftworlds. They can have nice, noble marines inspired by Aztec rainbow warriors or crusading religious zealots thirsty for the blood of heretics. The Imperial Guard can be the worthless CannonFodder or among the greatest badasses in the setting. A planet can be a [[Franchise/StarWars Coruscant]]-like hiveworld or PlanetOfHats or it can have its own complex class system.
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One thing Warhammer 40,000 ''Warhammer 40,000'' does better than some other sci-fi settings is getting the idea of a big galaxy with lots of things going on across it. It lets the writers say "[[AscendedFanon Sure Why Not]]", since any one depiction of an army's behaviour or organization can be represented on some planet somewhere. Players get to make up their own Space Marine chapters or Eldar craftworlds. They can have nice, noble marines inspired by Aztec rainbow warriors or crusading religious zealots thirsty for the blood of heretics. The Imperial Guard can be the worthless CannonFodder or among the greatest badasses in the setting. A planet can be a [[Franchise/StarWars Coruscant]]-like hiveworld or PlanetOfHats or it can have its own complex class system.
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Yeah, you heard that right. ''Warhammer'' and ''40K'' aren't that original. Lots of things have been taken from Creator/MichaelMoorcock, ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', ''Franchise/StarshipTroopers'' and even the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' movies. Even ''40K'' was originally just TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} '''InSpace'''. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. Since the meat and bones of the fun is meant to be the tabletop wargames, the background can be a chance to engage in some geekery indulgence and ShoutOut references. You'll see things mixed together you normally wouldn't, and even get a chance to act them out in the game. Then things from different sci-fi settings can (sort of) be pitched against each other. [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny Want to know who would win in a fight between the Alien Queen and Cthulhu? Put a Tyranid Hive Tyrant against a Lord of Change.]]
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Yeah, you heard that right. ''Warhammer'' and ''40K'' aren't that original. Lots of things have been taken from Creator/MichaelMoorcock, ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', ''Franchise/StarshipTroopers'' and even the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' movies. Even ''40K'' was originally just TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' '''InSpace'''. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. Since the meat and bones of the fun is meant to be the tabletop wargames, the background can be a chance to engage in some geekery indulgence and ShoutOut references. You'll see things mixed together you normally wouldn't, and even get a chance to act them out in the game. Then things from different sci-fi settings can (sort of) be pitched against each other. [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny Want to know who would win in a fight between the Alien Queen and Cthulhu? Put a Tyranid Hive Tyrant against a Lord of Change.]]
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A large part of the draw of Warhammer 40K is that, perhaps more than any other setting out there, it portrays humanity as a supremely badass race. In Warhammer 40K, humanity is thrown into a world packed full of insanely powerful threats, all of which want to annihilate us. We must deal with omnivourous living weapons more numerous than the stars, invincible omnicidal Franchise/{{Terminator}}s, AxCrazy RealityWarper fungus aliens who grow from the very ground and attack us for literally no reason other than that they're programmed to do so, SpaceElves who are physically required to inflict torment on humans in order to survive, and demon-possessed SuperSoldiers. Only a theocratic paranoia that makes the Spanish Inquisition look like a paragon of tolerance keeps TheLegionsOfHell from breaking through into the real world, and even still there are frequent leaks. To travel between stars one must take a shortcut through Hell itself, guided by a psychic beacon kept alight by the daily sacrifice of a thousand souls.
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A large part of the draw of Warhammer 40K ''Warhammer 40K'' is that, perhaps more than any other setting out there, it portrays humanity as a supremely badass race. In Warhammer 40K, ''Warhammer 40K'', humanity is thrown into a world packed full of insanely powerful threats, all of which want to annihilate us. We must deal with omnivourous living weapons more numerous than the stars, invincible omnicidal Franchise/{{Terminator}}s, AxCrazy RealityWarper fungus aliens who grow from the very ground and attack us for literally no reason other than that they're programmed to do so, SpaceElves who are physically required to inflict torment on humans in order to survive, and demon-possessed SuperSoldiers. Only a theocratic paranoia that makes the Spanish Inquisition look like a paragon of tolerance keeps TheLegionsOfHell from breaking through into the real world, and even still there are frequent leaks. To travel between stars one must take a shortcut through Hell itself, guided by a psychic beacon kept alight by the daily sacrifice of a thousand souls.
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!!Wishy-washy Canon: DeathOfTheAuthor as a component of Warhammer 40,000's universe
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!!Wishy-washy Canon: DeathOfTheAuthor as a component of Warhammer 40,000's ''Warhammer 40,000's'' universe
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For a decent video analysis, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exjtXPPWtL4 Author seems a bit too enamored with the Warhammer universe (CHAINSWORDS!), but overall a good movie.
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For a decent video analysis, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exjtXPPWtL4 Author seems a bit too enamored with the Warhammer ''Warhammer'' universe (CHAINSWORDS!), but overall a good movie.
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The point about 'utilitarianism', as well as the following point about Nineteen Eighty-Four, is a thinly veiled argument in favor of 40k being a safe space for fascism, when it is absolute false that the Imperium is functional and justified. Even besides that argument, the original poster of the analysis seems to believe that this makes 40k a safe space for fascist belief, which is a gigantic problem still plaguing the hobby. It has no place in serious analysis.
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!!Actually has something consistent to say about Utilitarianism
''40K'', especially the Imperium of Man, is a fascinating universe in part because it accomplishes something that can only be done when you play some of these tropes perfectly straight. It constructs an AlternateUniverse where ''fascist'' policies are not just justified, but absolutely required for mere survival. [[http://crookedtimber.org/2004/06/18/by-the-power-of-stipulation-i-have-the-power/ As someone else put it]], "if you let me put my thumb on the utilitarian scales, I can get you to agree that you have an affirmative moral duty to torture a three-year-old child to death." Indeed.
Consider the humans' position against the [[http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=britt_23_2 14 characteristics of fascism]]. Nearly all are justified, because the 40K universe is so damned ''dangerous''. When [[ComicBook/VForVendetta High Chancellor Sutler]] says "I want this country to realize that we stand on the edge of oblivion", when Ernst Röhm says that "the people desire wholesome dread", when fundamentalists invoke the phrase "WithUsOrAgainstUs", ''this'' is the imaginary universe they live in.
* ''Powerful and Continuing Nationalism'': It's not like you can emigrate anywhere. (Well, ''maybe'' the [[DirtyCommies Tau Empire]].)
** Or [[NegativeSpaceWedgie The Eye of Terror]]....
* ''Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights'': They have an Inquisition, and it's actually necessary to prevent chaos demons from appearing everywhere.
* ''Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause'': It's pretty easy when the scapegoats are constantly spitting acid on the front door.
* ''Supremacy of the Military'': War is everywhere, and failure means the deaths of billions. The military is all that stands between humanity and chaotic oblivion. However, unlike with the 14 characteristics, the military is not precisely glorified. With a few exceptions, Imperial Guardsmen are taught that the military is, like everything else in the Imperium, a tool of survival. Unlike most fascist regimes, in which the military is a means to righteous victory over the Supreme Leader's many and sundry enemies, victory is not spoken of in the Imperium, only survival. Because victory is widely perceived to be (and actually is) impossible, a perception common among rank-and-file Guardsmen themselves, [[WarIsGlorious any potential glamour or glory the military might have]] is ground down by [[WarIsHell the reality of constant war.]] Contrast with facist imagery of long struggles but quick and victorious wars over the weak and spineless enemy. Even the grandiose religious and authoritarian imagery woven into the Imperial Guard's equipment (battleships built like cathedrals, tanks built like castles) has a practical purpose: to keep both the Guardsmen and the populations they 'defend' in awe of the might of the Imperium, reducing the likelihood of revolt or mutiny.
* ''Controlled Mass Media'': "Knowledge is power; guard it well." It's nigh-impossible to know what's really happening in the Imperium, since the bureaucracy hides it. The reasons for doing this range from simply keeping the masses loyal and productive (if there is, say, a genestealer cult on the planet, the populace doesn't need to know; if they're panicking in the streets they aren't growing crops or building weapons for the Imperium), to protection against the fact that [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow in this universe, knowledge can LITERALLY be power.]] Power that can make you [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity pants-crappingly insane]] or summon TheLegionsOfHell. Which leads to our next point...
* ''Obsession with National Security'': The whole universe is a thin sheen of normality built atop a gigantic NegativeSpaceWedgie; the obsession with defense and warfare is crucial to the survival of humanity. On a more local scale, constant vigilance against heretic, xeno, mutant, and witch (psyker). Any one of these groups can destroy an entire planet with relative ease and can show up at any time. For example: a Chaos fleet shows up above a random planet, the uncertain nature of FTL travel having thrown them thousands of light years off course. A heretics summon demons. Eldar glass your cities on the off chance it'll save a handful of their people. Psyker's brain explodes in crowded work camp, kills hundreds, attracts notice of Tzeentch. The Imperium's ''sole defense'' against such threats is an obsession with security.
* ''Religion and Government are Intertwined'': The Empire of Man is a straight-up theocracy, because not only is worship of the Emperor justified, it's required for the Astronomican (A huge psychic beacon that guides faster-than-light travel all over the galaxy) to work.
* ''Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts'': Think you're the smartest guy in the room? You're channeling Tzeentch. If your art becomes [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_art too degenerate]], say hi to Slaanesh when he shows up. Of course, if you ask too many questions in the first place, the Inquisition will just get to you first.
* ''Obsession with Crime and Punishment'': When your crimes can summon demons and destroy worlds, the state is justified in being interested in them... and these crimes may not directly involve the accused harming anyone.
* ''Protection of Corporate Power'': Due to the unimaginably vast nature of the Imperium, it is incredibly decentralized. Vast corporations, many of which span whole star clusters, can be enormously powerful (the most powerful of which is the [[MegaCorp Adeptus Mechanicus]], a private entity which has monopoly on the Imperium's advanced technology) and the central government places no restrictions at all upon their behavior. While the individual planetary governments could, in theory, regulate corporations, the sheer size of many corporations makes any kind of practical control unlikely, as the resources of such corporations easily dwarf those of most individual worlds (with the exception of Hive and Forge worlds, most Imperial planets hover developmentally between about AD ~1000-2000). As mentioned, the sheer vastness of the Empire makes such laissez-faire policies almost required.
In other words: In the grim darkness of the far future, [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour War is Peace]].
!!''40k'' allows for a deeper understanding of [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]
The above entry almost contains this one. Any reader of 1984 comes into it knowing exactly what it is: an exploration of the evils of totalitarianism. There might be some surprises, but you never are fooled into thinking that the Party or Big Brother are the good guys. But what is this? You ''LOVE'' the Emperor of Mankind, the eternal savior of humanity, for without his protection mankind would face certain extinction. You know that even heretical ''thoughts'' create windows into the Warp for unimaginable horrors, but your moral sensibilities raised by (insert atrocity X) might cause you to question: Is the Imperium's rule really the last, best hope of humanity? Am I fighting for the good guys? Maybe those Tau, or that cult of freethinkers, really work for the Greater Good or want better lives for the miserable oppressed.
(the paranoid gut-wrenching moral dilemma here is captured by most half-way decent mindfuck spy movies)
Maybe you defect to another side, or are corrupted. But you quickly learn that not only are they as bad, but they are ''worse'' than the Imperium, and that a jackboot on every human's face, forever, is better compared to the alternatives. Hopefully, in the moments before the inquisitorial bullet claims you, you will have the comfort of knowing that YOU LOVE THE GOD-EMPEROR, because HE PROTECTS HUMANITY.
If you've been buying the fluff propaganda as truth, hook, line, and sinker, you now have an idea of what it is like to live in the same world as Winston Smith. Minus the whole actually living in a dystopian future.
''40K'', especially the Imperium of Man, is a fascinating universe in part because it accomplishes something that can only be done when you play some of these tropes perfectly straight. It constructs an AlternateUniverse where ''fascist'' policies are not just justified, but absolutely required for mere survival. [[http://crookedtimber.org/2004/06/18/by-the-power-of-stipulation-i-have-the-power/ As someone else put it]], "if you let me put my thumb on the utilitarian scales, I can get you to agree that you have an affirmative moral duty to torture a three-year-old child to death." Indeed.
Consider the humans' position against the [[http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=britt_23_2 14 characteristics of fascism]]. Nearly all are justified, because the 40K universe is so damned ''dangerous''. When [[ComicBook/VForVendetta High Chancellor Sutler]] says "I want this country to realize that we stand on the edge of oblivion", when Ernst Röhm says that "the people desire wholesome dread", when fundamentalists invoke the phrase "WithUsOrAgainstUs", ''this'' is the imaginary universe they live in.
* ''Powerful and Continuing Nationalism'': It's not like you can emigrate anywhere. (Well, ''maybe'' the [[DirtyCommies Tau Empire]].)
** Or [[NegativeSpaceWedgie The Eye of Terror]]....
* ''Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights'': They have an Inquisition, and it's actually necessary to prevent chaos demons from appearing everywhere.
* ''Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause'': It's pretty easy when the scapegoats are constantly spitting acid on the front door.
* ''Supremacy of the Military'': War is everywhere, and failure means the deaths of billions. The military is all that stands between humanity and chaotic oblivion. However, unlike with the 14 characteristics, the military is not precisely glorified. With a few exceptions, Imperial Guardsmen are taught that the military is, like everything else in the Imperium, a tool of survival. Unlike most fascist regimes, in which the military is a means to righteous victory over the Supreme Leader's many and sundry enemies, victory is not spoken of in the Imperium, only survival. Because victory is widely perceived to be (and actually is) impossible, a perception common among rank-and-file Guardsmen themselves, [[WarIsGlorious any potential glamour or glory the military might have]] is ground down by [[WarIsHell the reality of constant war.]] Contrast with facist imagery of long struggles but quick and victorious wars over the weak and spineless enemy. Even the grandiose religious and authoritarian imagery woven into the Imperial Guard's equipment (battleships built like cathedrals, tanks built like castles) has a practical purpose: to keep both the Guardsmen and the populations they 'defend' in awe of the might of the Imperium, reducing the likelihood of revolt or mutiny.
* ''Controlled Mass Media'': "Knowledge is power; guard it well." It's nigh-impossible to know what's really happening in the Imperium, since the bureaucracy hides it. The reasons for doing this range from simply keeping the masses loyal and productive (if there is, say, a genestealer cult on the planet, the populace doesn't need to know; if they're panicking in the streets they aren't growing crops or building weapons for the Imperium), to protection against the fact that [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow in this universe, knowledge can LITERALLY be power.]] Power that can make you [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity pants-crappingly insane]] or summon TheLegionsOfHell. Which leads to our next point...
* ''Obsession with National Security'': The whole universe is a thin sheen of normality built atop a gigantic NegativeSpaceWedgie; the obsession with defense and warfare is crucial to the survival of humanity. On a more local scale, constant vigilance against heretic, xeno, mutant, and witch (psyker). Any one of these groups can destroy an entire planet with relative ease and can show up at any time. For example: a Chaos fleet shows up above a random planet, the uncertain nature of FTL travel having thrown them thousands of light years off course. A heretics summon demons. Eldar glass your cities on the off chance it'll save a handful of their people. Psyker's brain explodes in crowded work camp, kills hundreds, attracts notice of Tzeentch. The Imperium's ''sole defense'' against such threats is an obsession with security.
* ''Religion and Government are Intertwined'': The Empire of Man is a straight-up theocracy, because not only is worship of the Emperor justified, it's required for the Astronomican (A huge psychic beacon that guides faster-than-light travel all over the galaxy) to work.
* ''Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts'': Think you're the smartest guy in the room? You're channeling Tzeentch. If your art becomes [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_art too degenerate]], say hi to Slaanesh when he shows up. Of course, if you ask too many questions in the first place, the Inquisition will just get to you first.
* ''Obsession with Crime and Punishment'': When your crimes can summon demons and destroy worlds, the state is justified in being interested in them... and these crimes may not directly involve the accused harming anyone.
* ''Protection of Corporate Power'': Due to the unimaginably vast nature of the Imperium, it is incredibly decentralized. Vast corporations, many of which span whole star clusters, can be enormously powerful (the most powerful of which is the [[MegaCorp Adeptus Mechanicus]], a private entity which has monopoly on the Imperium's advanced technology) and the central government places no restrictions at all upon their behavior. While the individual planetary governments could, in theory, regulate corporations, the sheer size of many corporations makes any kind of practical control unlikely, as the resources of such corporations easily dwarf those of most individual worlds (with the exception of Hive and Forge worlds, most Imperial planets hover developmentally between about AD ~1000-2000). As mentioned, the sheer vastness of the Empire makes such laissez-faire policies almost required.
In other words: In the grim darkness of the far future, [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour War is Peace]].
!!''40k'' allows for a deeper understanding of [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]
The above entry almost contains this one. Any reader of 1984 comes into it knowing exactly what it is: an exploration of the evils of totalitarianism. There might be some surprises, but you never are fooled into thinking that the Party or Big Brother are the good guys. But what is this? You ''LOVE'' the Emperor of Mankind, the eternal savior of humanity, for without his protection mankind would face certain extinction. You know that even heretical ''thoughts'' create windows into the Warp for unimaginable horrors, but your moral sensibilities raised by (insert atrocity X) might cause you to question: Is the Imperium's rule really the last, best hope of humanity? Am I fighting for the good guys? Maybe those Tau, or that cult of freethinkers, really work for the Greater Good or want better lives for the miserable oppressed.
(the paranoid gut-wrenching moral dilemma here is captured by most half-way decent mindfuck spy movies)
Maybe you defect to another side, or are corrupted. But you quickly learn that not only are they as bad, but they are ''worse'' than the Imperium, and that a jackboot on every human's face, forever, is better compared to the alternatives. Hopefully, in the moments before the inquisitorial bullet claims you, you will have the comfort of knowing that YOU LOVE THE GOD-EMPEROR, because HE PROTECTS HUMANITY.
If you've been buying the fluff propaganda as truth, hook, line, and sinker, you now have an idea of what it is like to live in the same world as Winston Smith. Minus the whole actually living in a dystopian future.
to:
''40K'', especially the Imperium of Man, is a fascinating universe in part because it accomplishes something that can only be done when you play some of these tropes perfectly straight. It constructs an AlternateUniverse where ''fascist'' policies are not just justified, but absolutely required for mere survival. [[http://crookedtimber.org/2004/06/18/by-the-power-of-stipulation-i-have-the-power/ As someone else put it]], "if you let me put my thumb on the utilitarian scales, I can get you to agree that you have an affirmative moral duty to torture a three-year-old child to death." Indeed.
Consider the humans' position against the [[http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=britt_23_2 14 characteristics of fascism]]. Nearly all are justified, because the 40K universe is so damned ''dangerous''. When [[ComicBook/VForVendetta High Chancellor Sutler]] says "I want this country to realize that we stand on the edge of oblivion", when Ernst Röhm says that "the people desire wholesome dread", when fundamentalists invoke the phrase "WithUsOrAgainstUs", ''this'' is the imaginary universe they live in.
* ''Powerful and Continuing Nationalism'': It's not like you can emigrate anywhere. (Well, ''maybe'' the [[DirtyCommies Tau Empire]].)
** Or [[NegativeSpaceWedgie The Eye of Terror]]....
* ''Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights'': They have an Inquisition, and it's actually necessary to prevent chaos demons from appearing everywhere.
* ''Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause'': It's pretty easy when the scapegoats are constantly spitting acid on the front door.
* ''Supremacy of the Military'': War is everywhere, and failure means the deaths of billions. The military is all that stands between humanity and chaotic oblivion. However, unlike with the 14 characteristics, the military is not precisely glorified. With a few exceptions, Imperial Guardsmen are taught that the military is, like everything else in the Imperium, a tool of survival. Unlike most fascist regimes, in which the military is a means to righteous victory over the Supreme Leader's many and sundry enemies, victory is not spoken of in the Imperium, only survival. Because victory is widely perceived to be (and actually is) impossible, a perception common among rank-and-file Guardsmen themselves, [[WarIsGlorious any potential glamour or glory the military might have]] is ground down by [[WarIsHell the reality of constant war.]] Contrast with facist imagery of long struggles but quick and victorious wars over the weak and spineless enemy. Even the grandiose religious and authoritarian imagery woven into the Imperial Guard's equipment (battleships built like cathedrals, tanks built like castles) has a practical purpose: to keep both the Guardsmen and the populations they 'defend' in awe of the might of the Imperium, reducing the likelihood of revolt or mutiny.
* ''Controlled Mass Media'': "Knowledge is power; guard it well." It's nigh-impossible to know what's really happening in the Imperium, since the bureaucracy hides it. The reasons for doing this range from simply keeping the masses loyal and productive (if there is, say, a genestealer cult on the planet, the populace doesn't need to know; if they're panicking in the streets they aren't growing crops or building weapons for the Imperium), to protection against the fact that [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow in this universe, knowledge can LITERALLY be power.]] Power that can make you [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity pants-crappingly insane]] or summon TheLegionsOfHell. Which leads to our next point...
* ''Obsession with National Security'': The whole universe is a thin sheen of normality built atop a gigantic NegativeSpaceWedgie; the obsession with defense and warfare is crucial to the survival of humanity. On a more local scale, constant vigilance against heretic, xeno, mutant, and witch (psyker). Any one of these groups can destroy an entire planet with relative ease and can show up at any time. For example: a Chaos fleet shows up above a random planet, the uncertain nature of FTL travel having thrown them thousands of light years off course. A heretics summon demons. Eldar glass your cities on the off chance it'll save a handful of their people. Psyker's brain explodes in crowded work camp, kills hundreds, attracts notice of Tzeentch. The Imperium's ''sole defense'' against such threats is an obsession with security.
* ''Religion and Government are Intertwined'': The Empire of Man is a straight-up theocracy, because not only is worship of the Emperor justified, it's required for the Astronomican (A huge psychic beacon that guides faster-than-light travel all over the galaxy) to work.
* ''Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts'': Think you're the smartest guy in the room? You're channeling Tzeentch. If your art becomes [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_art too degenerate]], say hi to Slaanesh when he shows up. Of course, if you ask too many questions in the first place, the Inquisition will just get to you first.
* ''Obsession with Crime and Punishment'': When your crimes can summon demons and destroy worlds, the state is justified in being interested in them... and these crimes may not directly involve the accused harming anyone.
* ''Protection of Corporate Power'': Due to the unimaginably vast nature of the Imperium, it is incredibly decentralized. Vast corporations, many of which span whole star clusters, can be enormously powerful (the most powerful of which is the [[MegaCorp Adeptus Mechanicus]], a private entity which has monopoly on the Imperium's advanced technology) and the central government places no restrictions at all upon their behavior. While the individual planetary governments could, in theory, regulate corporations, the sheer size of many corporations makes any kind of practical control unlikely, as the resources of such corporations easily dwarf those of most individual worlds (with the exception of Hive and Forge worlds, most Imperial planets hover developmentally between about AD ~1000-2000). As mentioned, the sheer vastness of the Empire makes such laissez-faire policies almost required.
In other words: In the grim darkness of the far future, [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour War is Peace]].
!!''40k'' allows for a deeper understanding of [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]
The above entry almost contains this one. Any reader of 1984 comes into it knowing exactly what it is: an exploration of the evils of totalitarianism. There might be some surprises, but you never are fooled into thinking that the Party or Big Brother are the good guys. But what is this? You ''LOVE'' the Emperor of Mankind, the eternal savior of humanity, for without his protection mankind would face certain extinction. You know that even heretical ''thoughts'' create windows into the Warp for unimaginable horrors, but your moral sensibilities raised by (insert atrocity X) might cause you to question: Is the Imperium's rule really the last, best hope of humanity? Am I fighting for the good guys? Maybe those Tau, or that cult of freethinkers, really work for the Greater Good or want better lives for the miserable oppressed.
(the paranoid gut-wrenching moral dilemma here is captured by most half-way decent mindfuck spy movies)
Maybe you defect to another side, or are corrupted. But you quickly learn that not only are they as bad, but they are ''worse'' than the Imperium, and that a jackboot on every human's face, forever, is better compared to the alternatives. Hopefully, in the moments before the inquisitorial bullet claims you, you will have the comfort of knowing that YOU LOVE THE GOD-EMPEROR, because HE PROTECTS HUMANITY.
If you've been buying the fluff propaganda as truth, hook, line, and sinker, you now have an idea of what it is like to live in the same world as Winston Smith. Minus the whole actually living in a dystopian future.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
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One thing Warhammer 40,000 does better than some other sci-fi settings is getting the idea of a big galaxy with lots of things going on across it. It lets the writers say "[[AscendedFanon Sure Why Not]]", since any one depiction of an army's behaviour or organization can be represented on some planet somewhere. Players get to make up their own Space Marine chapters or Eldar craftworlds. They can have nice, noble marines inspired by Aztec rainbow warriors or crusading religious zealots thirsty for the blood of heretics. The Imperial Guard can be the worthless CannonFodder or among the greatest badasses in the setting. A planet can be a [[StarWars Coruscant]]-like hiveworld or PlanetOfHats or it can have its own complex class system.
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One thing Warhammer 40,000 does better than some other sci-fi settings is getting the idea of a big galaxy with lots of things going on across it. It lets the writers say "[[AscendedFanon Sure Why Not]]", since any one depiction of an army's behaviour or organization can be represented on some planet somewhere. Players get to make up their own Space Marine chapters or Eldar craftworlds. They can have nice, noble marines inspired by Aztec rainbow warriors or crusading religious zealots thirsty for the blood of heretics. The Imperial Guard can be the worthless CannonFodder or among the greatest badasses in the setting. A planet can be a [[StarWars [[Franchise/StarWars Coruscant]]-like hiveworld or PlanetOfHats or it can have its own complex class system.
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TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 is one of the most TropeOverdosed media pages we have and is currently the highest Administrivia/{{Wick}}ed media page. However most of its tropes can be sourced back to the use of a few parent tropes and its focus as a tabletop game.
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TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 is one of the most TropeOverdosed JustForFun/TropeOverdosed media pages we have and is currently the highest Administrivia/{{Wick}}ed media page. However most of its tropes can be sourced back to the use of a few parent tropes and its focus as a tabletop game.
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Namespace fix (Main redirect won't be cut as it's used in hard-coded links, but still). Also compressed unneeded formatting.
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TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} is one of the most TropeOverdosed media pages we have and is currently the highest {{Wick}}ed media page. However most of its tropes can be sourced back to the use of a few parent tropes and its focus as a tabletop game.
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!! GRIMDARK
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!! A decent use of an entire galaxy
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!! No Need For Originality / A MegaCrossover FanFic setting
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!! Historical Revisionism
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!! Actually has something consistent to say about Utilitarianism
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!! ''40k'' allows for a deeper understanding of [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]
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!! WorldOfBadass for all humanity
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!! The Tau as an examination of HumansThroughAlienEyes
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!! Video Analysis
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