Welcome to this new addition to TWC.
In HFL, I rant and rave about the hard and unbelievably melodramatic and otherwise veryunimportant world of fantasy fan-fiction, fiction and generally, the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000. As your very own Cynic is very much involved in writing fan-fiction (or fan-fluff) for this genre, it is naturally not all that surprising that I regularly find bits about it that annoy me, from writers I don't like, to attitudes to fluff and a million other things that annoy me. If you read this expecting some moaning from an egotistical writer, you'll see this is exactly what is on the tin, so to speak. Minus the tin.
This here blog is 100% tin free.
So anyway, the background of Warhammer 40,000. For those who don't know it, the universe of Warhammer 40k is the setting of the elaborate and long running saga of the Imperium of Mankind, led by the Emperor, a God-like entity, struck down by one of his own sons - nay, his favourite - 10 millennia ago and has spent the intervening time on a life-support machine just so the Imperium's centre of worship and stability sticks around, fed daily with the souls of countless Psykers.
The Imperium is a decaying and decadent religious schism of Gothic-Roman Catholic styling, protected by the ever-present stoic space knights, the Space Marines, the Imperium's greatest (and reasurringly well armoured) weapon. You know, where Bungie got the idea for a silent and tragic, virtually invincible hero surrounded by evil aliens from. With the help of the Imperial Guard (an amalgam of History's Military of every creed imaginable), the Sisters of Battle (nuns with guns, hell yeah), the everything-phobic Inquisition (bet nobody expected I'd mention them) and some more Space Marines, if you weren't already tired of seeing them.
Together, these warriors fight against the threats of the Imperium, which is everybody else, basically. The Eldar (Space Elves), Dark Eldar (Space Dark Elves), Space Orks (Space Orcs, duh!), Chaos (Chaos), Tyrannids (C'Thulu), Tau (cos Anime is down with the kids), and the Necrons (Tomb Kings, pretty much). Who all want to kill the humans, everyone else, and otherwise destroy the Universe, for no particularly explored reason. It is hard to spot the bad guy, because everyone, even all the human factions, are all pretty unsavoury.
It is a lot better than it sounds from this summary (which is rather annoyingly similar to the last one I did earlier in the year). Try as you might to get so incensed by the huge amounts of cliché material that can be found in 40k, you will end up liking it anyway. Don't be under any illusions, it is pretty much all there. Everything. Everything you have ever read, thought or even vomited up for breakfast - it's there (and if it isn't there are the new Beasts of Chaos from fantasy to represent particularly unpleasant vomit). It seems that when you put every cliché together, it somehow makes it right, and feels fresh. Who would have thought a 30 year old pastiche of cliché, grim-dark Sci-Fi would evolve into the manifestation of both Wargaming's most successful system and its biggest scrappy all at once.
There are people standing in a line longer than the eventual amount of paper you will need to read the entirety of the Black Library's Horus Heresy novels just to spout incessant hate upon 40k and its makers, Games Workshop. Yet despite this, if you're willing to sit down and read some of the fluff (background material), you will quickly realise you are reading some brilliant sci-fi (in places) and otherwise easily the best story background for any Wargame. The background is so epic, you want to take part in it, even if the rules don't quite do it enough justice.
As will become apparent, I love reading about, and writing 40k fluff, especially fluff centred around the Orks, who are quite easily to my mind the most interesting and enjoyable faction in the entire game. I find the Orks fascinating, and well, a lot of my fluff on this blog will feature them. But that's a whole different story, or even section. Here is where I moan about the state of the fluff, old and new of Warhammer 40,000. (and sometimes other fiction mediums) Because when I'm not gaming, I'm still writing fan-fluff, and well, there's plenty of grievances from me just on that...
It's a hard life being a fluffer.
In HFL, I rant and rave about the hard and unbelievably melodramatic and otherwise very
This here blog is 100% tin free.
So anyway, the background of Warhammer 40,000. For those who don't know it, the universe of Warhammer 40k is the setting of the elaborate and long running saga of the Imperium of Mankind, led by the Emperor, a God-like entity, struck down by one of his own sons - nay, his favourite - 10 millennia ago and has spent the intervening time on a life-support machine just so the Imperium's centre of worship and stability sticks around, fed daily with the souls of countless Psykers.
The Imperium is a decaying and decadent religious schism of Gothic-Roman Catholic styling, protected by the ever-present stoic space knights, the Space Marines, the Imperium's greatest (and reasurringly well armoured) weapon. You know, where Bungie got the idea for a silent and tragic, virtually invincible hero surrounded by evil aliens from. With the help of the Imperial Guard (an amalgam of History's Military of every creed imaginable), the Sisters of Battle (nuns with guns, hell yeah), the everything-phobic Inquisition (bet nobody expected I'd mention them) and some more Space Marines, if you weren't already tired of seeing them.
Together, these warriors fight against the threats of the Imperium, which is everybody else, basically. The Eldar (Space Elves), Dark Eldar (Space Dark Elves), Space Orks (Space Orcs, duh!), Chaos (Chaos), Tyrannids (C'Thulu), Tau (cos Anime is down with the kids), and the Necrons (Tomb Kings, pretty much). Who all want to kill the humans, everyone else, and otherwise destroy the Universe, for no particularly explored reason. It is hard to spot the bad guy, because everyone, even all the human factions, are all pretty unsavoury.
It is a lot better than it sounds from this summary (which is rather annoyingly similar to the last one I did earlier in the year). Try as you might to get so incensed by the huge amounts of cliché material that can be found in 40k, you will end up liking it anyway. Don't be under any illusions, it is pretty much all there. Everything. Everything you have ever read, thought or even vomited up for breakfast - it's there (and if it isn't there are the new Beasts of Chaos from fantasy to represent particularly unpleasant vomit). It seems that when you put every cliché together, it somehow makes it right, and feels fresh. Who would have thought a 30 year old pastiche of cliché, grim-dark Sci-Fi would evolve into the manifestation of both Wargaming's most successful system and its biggest scrappy all at once.
There are people standing in a line longer than the eventual amount of paper you will need to read the entirety of the Black Library's Horus Heresy novels just to spout incessant hate upon 40k and its makers, Games Workshop. Yet despite this, if you're willing to sit down and read some of the fluff (background material), you will quickly realise you are reading some brilliant sci-fi (in places) and otherwise easily the best story background for any Wargame. The background is so epic, you want to take part in it, even if the rules don't quite do it enough justice.
As will become apparent, I love reading about, and writing 40k fluff, especially fluff centred around the Orks, who are quite easily to my mind the most interesting and enjoyable faction in the entire game. I find the Orks fascinating, and well, a lot of my fluff on this blog will feature them. But that's a whole different story, or even section. Here is where I moan about the state of the fluff, old and new of Warhammer 40,000. (and sometimes other fiction mediums) Because when I'm not gaming, I'm still writing fan-fluff, and well, there's plenty of grievances from me just on that...
It's a hard life being a fluffer.
No comments:
Post a Comment