#imperium of man

[owenthetokencishet]

Warhammer 40,000 as a universe is trying to do the impossible.

Warhammer 40,000 is, broadly, a grim satire of fascism. It takes the fascist's worldview, all the xenophobia, conspiracism, hypernationalism, and militarism, and amplifies it to a galactically ridiculous scale.

"The Imperium of Man has ruled for 10,000 years, warring endlessly against heretics, traitors, aberrant humans, and aliens galore, all of whom are so wildly different from humanity that peaceful coexistence will simply never be possible. The only emotion stronger than our hatred of them is their hatred of us. So, we war. We war and war and battle and slaughter until the end of days. We throw our sacred human form, untainted by mutation or the hideous sciences of our ancestors, against the barbarian hordes by the millions, most of us dying in the process. We revere and worship the warriors elevated by the hand of our divine god-emperor, the apotheosis of our glorious, eternal state. These warriors, reborn in the Emperor's image with His sacred eugenics, to become the ultimate fighting men. And yes, they are all men. We are never safe, while we must constantly be defending our borders from our enemies, we must also be ever-vigilant within. Anybody, from our comrades on the front lines to our commanders, tech-priests, preachers, or politicians, could be a traitor. Nobody can ever TRULY be trusted, and those who truly are heretics, must not only be destroyed, but erased. They, and all memory of them must be eradicated. One heretic can sign the death warrant of his entire world, and sometimes, for the preservation of the human race, billions must die."

Warhammer 40k presents a world where all of this(asterisk) is true (VERY BIG ASTERISK)

Through this lens, a lot of the more... questionable aspects make sense.

T'au Empire Mind Control: The T'au are how fascists view liberals. They CANNOT understand that an integrated, multicultural society could ever POSSIBLY work. They cannot FATHOM that different communities can just... agree to work together, it HAS TO BE the woke mind virus. "Can you believe these fucking idiots tried to NEGOTIATE with TYRANIDS???? These fucking losers tried to make PEACE WITH ANOTHER RACE??? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT"

Why the chaos gods are what they are: The followers of chaos represent everyone of the 'ingroup' the fascist hates. Because nothing, not even their sacred ingroup, is sacred to the fascist. The followers of chaos are the germans who resisted, the jewish antizionist, the rebel (Khorne), the intellectual (Tzeentch), the sick and disabled (Nurgle), and the queer (Slaanesh). "There is no reason ANYBODY, ESPECIALLY not those of our sacred ingroup, could object to our glorious genocide. And the runts of the litter must be eliminated to not be a drain on the rest"

And EVEN WITHIN 40k, a lot of this is bullshit.

The T'au mind control thing is provably bullshit because the Farsight Enclaves exist. A whole T'au society that exists free from the apparent mid control of the ethereals

The imperium feeds as much into the chaos gods as the traitors do. A stagnant, decaying empire (Nurgle), with an incomprehensibly vast and byzantine bureaucratic structure (Tzeentch), where a select few live appallingly lush and lavish lives of hedonism and pleasure, completely detached from the people they're supposed to govern (Slaanesh), all for the purpose of making ever more destructive and bloody war with everybody else (Khorne)

There is evidence of peaceful human coexistence with xenos empires during the Dark Age of Technology, including one humanity CREATED, and many inquisitors and rogue traders will GLADLY incorporate xenos into their retinues. Trade and coexistence with aliens DOES still happen in the imperium.

Hell, the parody of fascism is in the very MECHANICS OF THE WHOLE LORE. Fascists don't believe in "facts" or "truth", if they did, they wouldn't be fascists. Therefore, in 40k, "Everything is canon, nothing is true". This allows players to EITHER

Think critically and try to connect the dots to form their best guess as to what "canon" is

Or buy wholly into one side or another's propaganda

And one of those groups is going to find a "truth" they can accept and treat as fact a LOT more quickly than the other.

40k lays out in perfectly plain low gothic, all of the bullshit and hypocrisies of the Imperium. They'll let entire sectors die in the interests of preserving human life. The way the imperial guard are lauded as heroes but treated worse than the lasguns in their hands. The way that in order to become a space marine, one of humanity's great guardian angels, you must have everything that makes you human either beaten out of you or surgically removed. The priests who worship science and technology viewing scientific progress as the most abhorrent of heresies. The divine worship of a man who scoured entire worlds for the crime of worshipping him as a god.

Actually hang on lemme derail the flow of this post and talk more about the emperor. The Emperor is the chief hypocrite in an empire of hypocrites. "I AM NOT A GOD" says the 10-foot-tall gleaming golden immortal psychic god-man, "NOW GO FORTH MY ANGELS ON YOUR GLORIOUS CRUSADE TO BRING SCIENCE AND REASON, and by science and reason I mean doing exactly what I say without question and turning a blind eye to fundamental truths of the universe, TO THIS BENIGHTED GALAXY"

The problem is that parodying fascism is impossible. Fascism is already so inherently, fundamentally ridiculous a worldview, for all the reasons explained above, that distinguishing sincerity from irony is nigh impossible.

If you, an antifascist, read The Turner Diaries, you will probably assume it's satire. The book ends with Earth as an irradiated hellsacpe where few can survive and nothing about its resulting culture is explained. But nope! This is fascist propaganda! It was written by actual neo-nazis who committed actual hate crimes! It is an enthusiastic YAAAAAAAAAY APOCALYPTIC WARFARE!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAY GENOCIDE!!!!!!!! At least all the black people are gone! Hell, when Rogue One came out, Lucasfilm got all sort of shit flung at them for portraying the evil space nazis... as the bad guys... which they always were.

This is why both we, the fandom, and Games Workshop as a company, are DIRECTLY pushing SO HARD against the fascists in the space, and must push harder. 40K IS NOT FOR THEM. And no amount of clever writing or obvious parody will ever convince them otherwise. It does not matter how unfathomably stupid you make fascism look to people with functioning brains, fascists will gobble that shit up. You cannot make fascism look worse than it is, and you cannot make it stupid enough to convince fascists its stupid.

The problem isn't that Games Workshop isn't doing a good enough job writing the imperium as bad (although they aren't), the problem is that it will never be an adequate mockery to make the fascists feel unwelcome. It's not a bad parody of fascism, fascism is just beyond parody.

#warhammer 40k #ramblings. musings even #40k #imperium of man

[shythalia]

I wonder if/when Games Workshop will finally give an end to WH40K, will they let the Imperium or humanity as a whole just die to finally end their suffering & misery? That seems like a fitting end with all the grimdarkness.

#warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #thoughts #games workshop #imperium of man #wh40k #wh40000 #and then leave it to the fans to write fanfics of humanity having a happy ending lol

[alphamecha-mkii]

Penitent Engine by Jaime Martínez

#Warhammer #40k #adepta sororitas #Sisters of Battle #Penitent Engine #Imperium #Imperium of Man #Sci-Fi #Mecha #Jaime Martinez #Games Workshop

[ruoyuart]

Been quiet about comics cause I've been busy tackling this :) wanted to do my take on the Emperor's Tarot!

#warhammer #warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #warhammer40k #40k #wh40000 #wh40k #wh 40k #imperium of man #tarot #tarot card

[alex-leweird]

Imperial news

Under the cut the inspiration

Based on

#warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #wh40k #techpriests #admech #adeptus mechanicus #shitpost #Imperium #Imperium of man #40k #meme

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Techpriest by John Blanche

#Warhammer #40k #Imperium #Imperium of Man #Adeptus Mechanicus #Techpriest #Cogboy #John Blanche #Sci-Fi #Games Workshop

[jpbradley]

Which Primarchs committed tax fraud?

Lorgar claimed tax exempt status as a church. Cited a law from the Age of Strife, rejected after lengthy legal proceedings. Definitely did not instigate the Heresy to avoid paying his substantial fines.

Sanguinius filled his form wrong. He managed to charm the investigating officer into allowing him to resubmit, but failed to file on the ground that he was murdered by Horus. A small percentage of Blood Angels are, to this day, afflicted with anxiety over an unfiled return.

Roboute Guilliman 100% knows how to commit tax fraud, and how to get away with it. Of course he does. He's the tax man (Ultramar regional office). Hates Magnus for reasons we'll get to.

Jaghatai Khan neither knows nor cares what taxes are. The Imperial Revenue took years to track down his address, and after several final demands an investigator visited only to find a lone postbox 300 miles from anywhere, half buried in unopened mail.

Perturabo failed to declare assets 'inherited' from Ferrus Manus and is currently awaiting a trial date.

Ferrus Manus has been given dispensation to defer his return for the tax year on the following grounds:

Being dead.

Lion El'Johnson swears he knows how to commit tax fraud but simply never would. He's lying. He has no idea but would rather walk naked into the Warp than admit it.

Vulkan keeps fastidious notes through the year which makes him very popular with his accountants. They try to convince him to expense his Drakeskin cloaks but he refuses as he wears them recreationally (despite the Salamander's 'business logo') and doesn't want to get into trouble.

Fulgrim completed his return, he really did, but it wasn't right. Currently on his cogitator is 'Tax Return 3 FINAL (FINAL!!).tax' unsent.

Leman Russ vaguely understands that tax is a thing. Thus far nobody can decide if the Space Wolves mix of raucous hospitality and space Viking intimidation towards investigators is a concerted effort to avoid paying or if they're just like that.

Magnus has all the documentation to prove that he's paid. It's all right there. It makes absolutely no sense and somehow he's owed money? Guilliman is convinced he's full of it but hasn't been able to prove it and is quietly seething.

Rogal Dorn pays in full and fully hates anyone who doesn't. He grumbles about it to anyone who will listen, usually within earshot of anyone he suspects isn't paying his way. Magnus & Conrad vocally agree with him. Guilliman leaves the room before he says something he'll regret.

Alpharius definitely submitted a return. Nothing about it looks right, all the numbers are estimates, all the assets are in some kind of code but somehow it's already been stamped as accepted.

Konrad Curze also vocally hates anyone who doesn't pay up. Secretly he hasn't paid in years. He is beyond the pretty laws of 'taxes' and with everyone focused on Lorgar, Perturabo and Magnus he's just slipped through the cracks, which he has taken as a silent endorsement.

Corvus Corax wants to pay tax. He’s tried to pay tax. He’s sent several returns to the Imperial Revenue and still they haven’t taken the money. He’s beginning to get worried. He needn’t be. They have quite simply forgotten he exists and it's gone on too long for them to admit their mistake.

Mortarion pays but hates everything about it. He thinks it's a personal slight and is convinced he is paying more than everyone else. He's right. This makes his whining no less annoying.

Angron had taxes explained to him once and ol' Rusty's sacrifice is why Imperial Revenue officers can wear jeans on Fridays. Since then the IR has practiced a bold 'hands off' approach with the World Eaters, proving that violence is sometimes an answer.

Horus absolutely pays his taxes. In Horusbux: A currency of his own devising. Lorgar attempted to trick Horus into a ponzi scheme, now all of his money is in Horusbux and he has no idea how it happened. Horus keeps on promising everyone massive returns, usually from the deck of his waryacht, the Live Forever II.

#horus heresy #warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #primarchs #imperium of man #wh40k #40k #warhammercommunity

[voices-of-favor]

#Warhammer #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40000 #WH40K #wh40000 #wh40k meme #warhammer meme #40k meme #Tau #Tau Empire #warhammer tau #Imperium of Man #Imperium #Imperial Guard #space marine #space marines #tau can definitely melee #but will it work against the infinite caveman tide?

[xmrnothingx]

Lelith Hesperax and Yvraine with a Sister of Silence from Warhammer 40k

Lelith and Yvraine playing "Blank Chicken": whoever runs away from the Sister of Silence first loses. I can see the Eldar being a bunch of tryhards looking for ways to one up each-other. (possibly also wanted an excuse to draw my favorite Warhammer 40k characters)

bonus: the one-upping continues?

#wh40k art #warhammer 40k #Lelith Hesperax #Yvraine #Eldar #Aeldari #Sisters of Silence #Imperium of Man #also a dumb idea for a drawing #but since it has Lelith and Yvraine I put more effort into it #Eldar could use some more fanart

[saudahpop]

I listened to the Adeptus Ridiculous episode about the lion… this was the result. I am not sorry lol.

#warhammer 40k #warhammer meme #adeptus ridiculous #wh40k art #wh40k dark angels #lion el'jonson #primarch #imperium of man #shitpost #warhammer shitpost #artists on tumblr #adhd brain go brrr #dark angels #adeptus astartes #wh40k meme

[aylameridiandrawsstuff]

some noble ladies of the Imperium just for funsies

#imperium of man #warhammer 40k #40k #illustration #practice

[alphamecha-mkii]

Aquila Lander by Jeremy Klein

#Warhammer #40k #Imperium #Imperium of Man #Imperial Navy #Aquila Lander #Shuttlecraft #Sci-Fi #Mecha #Spaceship #Jeremy Klein #Games Workshop

[ruoyuart]

New comic! Sorry for not posting anything lately, I've been on holiday for Chinese New Year and have been focusing on other projects, including my Last Supper piece. I'll still be trying to finish the Last Supper as soon as possible, but I'll try and pop out a comic every couple weeks or so :)

Please, if you want to support me to keep making content like this, consider supporting my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ruoyuart!

#warhammer #warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #warhammer40k #40k #wh40000 #wh40k #wh 40k #imperium of man #astartes #adeptus astartes #iron hands #ultramarines

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Sister of Battle by Garry Wharton

#Warhammer #40k #Imperium #Imperium of Man #Adepta Sororitas #Sister of Battle #Nuns with Guns #Bolter Bitches #Sci-Fi #Garry Wharton #Games Workshop

[haaaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Facing the Horrors of the Warp by forrgust

#Warhammer #40k #Imperium #Imperium of Man #Adeptus Astartes #Imperial Fists #Space Marine #Chaos #Daemon #Sci-Fi #forrgust #Games Workshop

[voices-of-favor]

#warhammer 40k #warhammer #warhammer 40000 #wh40k #astartes #space marines #space marine #primaris #warhammer meme #40k memes #40k meme #meme #imperium of man