What's a 40K?

Quick orientation to Games Workshop and the Warhammer 40K universe

by Dave McAwesome

What's a 40K? The short answer is: a big ass diamond. Damn you women and your cravings for crushed carbon! The longer answer...oh dear, you don't really want the longer answer do you? No, of course not. Here's a medium answer...

Games Workshop, for all intents and purposes, makes tabletop wargames, that is, you set up an army of models against your opponent's army of models and you go to battle based on a set of rules (and dice rolls). To ensure even matches, each model or squad of models is assigned a point value. Their two main games, Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, are based on fantasy (elves, orcs, magic, etc.) and space fantasy (space elves, space orks, space magic, etc.), respectively. Over the years, the company has created an intricate history and background on each universe. The latter, in particular, is essentially the Roman Empire under siege from various barbarian forces. The Romans are humans sprawled across the vastness of space. They are assaulted on all sides by various alien empires and warlords. The conflict is complicated by the addition of a 'Fall of Lucifer' plot thread that plays out between the god-emperor of humanity, his elite, chosen warriors and the four gods of chaos. The iconography of the artwork is quite striking and the tone of the Warhammer 40,000 (WH40K) history is rather mature (in a "there is only war" kinda way). The background bits are generally sprinkled throughout their rulebooks in snippets of comm chatter, 'official' documents (complete with bastardized latin verbiage), and occasionally longer tales which are big on mythological hyperbole, flawed heroes and military grandeur. It ain't kiddie stuff, although most who play the games are indeed child-sized. Is the stuff sometimes immature? Eh, sometimes. Are the characters sometimes one-dimensional? Yeah, but good god, man, have you seen what passes for entertainment in the cinema these days? Anyway, yeah. I dig the background. I dig the art. The sculpts of the models are the best in the business. And, no, I'm not really into the gaming stuff.

What is 40K? Ah, I see you don't give up. Good fer you. 40K is short for 40,000. Duh. The Warhammer 40K universe is set at the end of the 41st millennium. Why isn't it called Warhammer 41M? No idea. Will the universe advance past the end of the 41st millennium and into the 42nd? No idea. My guess is it will, but the name of the game won't change. Can you imagine the amount of legal and copyright paperwork that would go into such an endeavor? Me neither. Sucks to be a lawyer.

The stuff I've compiled on this site won't cover much of the gaming aspect. I'm more concerned with the 40K universe itself and its iconography.