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quasitsqueeries · 4 months

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The Emperor wasn't 12 feet tall

I see this meme a lot in my Instagram feed and it really grinds my gears:

Not because it seems to be trying to shame a fictional antagonist for being "wrong" (although that really doesn't help), but because whoever made it seems to have missed that depictions of the Emperor as superhuman are meant to be Imperial Propaganda.

Now, I realise I'm going to be fighting an uphill battle here because there seem to be people working for Games Workshop and producing their media who also missed that memo, and for a while now the studio has started producing actual depictions of the Emperor, and some of those depections show him as 12 feet tall and immortal. This might be controversial but I think what this shows is that Games Workshop don't understand Games Workshop's source material.

Here's a picture of the Emperor from the original Rogue Trader rulebook.

Even this is obviously meant to be a propaganda image, but here he looks like just a regular guy in armour, he's about the same size as the people around him. Not a superhuman, just a guy with an excess of hubris.

There's this literary construct called the unreliable narrator. When I studied literature we were given this short story to read called Bartleby the Scrivener. It's told from the point of view of an employer about a clerk who was apparently really difficult to manage. The subtext is that the narrator is trying to manipulate the reader to make themself look good.

For a long time, that's what Warhammer 40,000 did, the Imperium was made out to be an unreliable narrator. Stories about the Imperium's "glorious past" were told through the haze of ten thousand years of unending war, by an ecclesiastical class with a vested interest in keeping Imperial citizens committed to feeding the war machine. To the Imperium, the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy serve the function of myths, more than history. I've gone on before about how important heroic figures like Siegfried and Perseus and Prometheus were to the Nazis. The Imperium, being a fictional state that draws on the aesthetics and ideology of Fascism, uses the figures of the Emperor and Primarchs the same way.

Basically what I'm saying is that when Imperial sources state that these people were twelve feet tall and immortal and could, um, turn a giant ork into a lightbulb on a whim, it's not because they had these powers, but because they've been ascribed these powers by their priesthood, who have total control over the flow of information in this setting.

And I get that this is hard, because most people don't get taught this stuff, and often people are probably looking for escapism from their fiction and why would the book I'm reading lie to me? But I think it really makes the setting more interesting if you look at it this way.

Also, I realise that since 2006 there have been books around that describe the Emperor, and they do show him as superhuman, and I think those depictions are based on the writers misunderstanding the material they're working from. I guess Tolkien wrote the existence of The Hobbit into Middle Earth as the Red Book of Westmarch so I can tell myself that the Horus Heresy novels are meant to be in-universe Imperial propaganda.

ADDENDUM: I need to add this because I've been reading about Perpetuals, which is apparently what the Emperor is since the Horus Heresy series was published. Apparently these individuals are human mutants that are both immortal and invincible. I remember Mechanicum heavily implying that the Emperor and St. George are the same person. Here's the problem with that. There are two themes that I think are really important in Warhammer 40,000. One is the Emperor's hubris, the idea was that he was playing god, genetically engineering monstrosities in the form of the primarchs. In the Greek tragic mould, it's this hubris that leads to his downfall. This kind of loses its sting if he's just trying to recreate what what he already is.

The other theme is the Imperium's superstition. This one is really the core of 40K. The Imperium has taken the corpse of a man who tried to rule the galaxy, told themselves he's not dead, plugged the corpse into a machine that "regenerates" him, and founded an intolerant, violent and expansionist religion around this husk. This theme changes significantly if the Emperor actually was as powerful as the Ecclesiarchy makes him out to be, and actually isn't dead, and has somehow been regenerating for the last 10,000 years. There's a question here about what would make an entity worthy of worship, or being called a god, and I probably shouldn't get into it but this is my blog so I'm going to. It seems like there's an assumption among some writers that if something can be rationally explained then it's not a god, because gods ipso facto don't exist. They've incorporated nonexistence into their definition of gods. This is where you get the idea that the Chaos gods aren't gods, because the setting explains their existince "rationally" with its internal logic (nevermind that there's nothing rational about the warp). If there were gods in a rational sense, then our model of the universe would have to change to accomodate them. I think the upshot of this is basically that if what the Horus Heresy novels claim about the Emperor is true, then the Ecclesiarchy are right and he is a god within the logic of the setting. That doesn't justify the genocide and expansionism, but maybe it does justify the worship, and that's something that I think takes away from the setting.

#warhammer 40000 #horus heresy #emperor of mankind #games workshop #wargaming

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txttletale · 1 year

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There was a dude who showed up to a 40k tournament in nazi shit and GW had to like. “The empire sucks please it’s satire the empire is terrible it’s the entire point we Will ban you for being a nazi here.”

I think *everything* about the lore even stuff they still put out screams that they are fascist and evil and yet people still don’t get it, or actively are drawn to it anyway like yes they are fascist more of this please!

i'm gonna have to disagree with you on this, tbh--i think the fascists who love the empire are 'getting it' just fine.

sure, the stuff that comes out about the empire and space marines is clear that they are cruel and violent. but they are cruel and violent and right. but they're also very very big on the heroism of the space marines, the glorious power of the god-emperor, how real the threat of chaos is. chaos as it exists in warhammer 40k is basically the fantasy of the fascist made reality--a creeping, ever-infiltrating, ontologically evil force that will take root and destroy everything if perfect purity and control are maintained for even a second. like, yes, the empire is very clearly fascist, but they exist in a setting in which fascist propaganda is fundamentally true. fascists are able to see themselves in the empire because empire is, again and again, justified and vindicated by 40k's writing.

and tbh this was barely better in the early days, as much as people like to cry 'well it was meant to be satire', but at least the empire used to be also extremely fucking textually useless and incompetent to the point where they were doing more harm than good. but over the years this has entirely given way to the hypercompetent Tough Men Doing What Needs Doing space marine wank that makes up 99% of 40k output nowadays

#ask #40k

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lumi-klovstad-games · 2 months

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Just a reminder from Games Workshop, our glorious God Emperor:

GW really said "Nazis and Fascists Can Go Fuck Themselves".

And they're right to do so.

Anyone who looks at the Imperium of Man (or any faction in the setting!) and finds them *aspirational* or "clearly" the good guys has something deeply wrong with their world view and beliefs; they are in urgent need of help with a side order of a reality check, and they need to not be in this fandom until they get it.

#games workshop #warhammer #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40000 #wh40k #40k #warhammer fantasy #wh 40k

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trickstarbrave · 8 months

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the biggest problem with skyrim i see people critiquing it not point out isn't just "the writing is shallow"

i mean it is. but a lot of games have overall shallow writing without that being an issue. sometimes you dont need 90 pages of lore for smth. sometimes simple events can spiral out of control into massive problems. the elder scrolls series definitely has a world so complex though that it should have more interesting and detailed writing, but the biggest problem with skyrim isn't that

the problem is video games are not just writing and a setting. there is game play, themes, characters, and often multiple overlapping stories/plot lines in that setting. And all need to work together as cogs in a machine or the whole thing doesn't fucking work right. it's like making a play, and while i almost fucking failed script analysis in college (dont ask), i do understand that, and how different parts of the experience are weighted as a decisions

skyrim is a game that is heavily weighted towards gameplay and exploration of a setting. its primarily a sandbox game. thats all well and good, a lot of my favorite games are. it is a power fantasy that is (supposed to be) about play choice and agency. and almost nothing in the fucking game actually reinforces and works toward it. in fact it often directly contradicts it.

skyrim tries to bring up a number of themes, especially in the main story quest. stuff like morals, power, how to wield power, what actual justice means, and the nature of violence. and it does absolutely fuck all with it. if i as a dragonborn misuse my power at best i will piss off the guards which literally can happen to anyone. most of the time no matter what i do no npc gives a fuck who i am. i can be the thane of every hold in skyrim, most of the population will still be rude assholes to me.

take paarthurnax. we all hate and bemoan the dilemma we are given. either kill dragon grandpa or be locked out of the blades stuff from now on. it seems like such a stupid choice to the point one of the most popular mods is telling delphine "shut up im in charge". but i think, even if its subconscious for most people so they don't even realize it, the reason this choice is so stupid has nothing to do with the fact we like dragon grandpa (or at least not the whole thing), but because the entire empire is built upon horrific war crime after horrific war crime of emperors with dragon souls. tiber septim did absolutely heinous shit on and off the battlefield. he killed innocents. raped. abused. lied. manipulated. and he never really repented, unlike paarthurnax. what does he get? well after a convoluted scheme we learned about back in daggerfall, he gets to be a whole ass fucking god and gets worshipped. there are potentially elves who remember his reign of terror and being ruthlessly slaughtered and removed from their homes, their cities burned and families killed, all out of greed from this motherfucker. and they are the bad guys for opposing his worship. they are portrayed as cartoonishly evil mass murderers, torturers, schemers, etc etc and at no point do we get a genuinely sympathetic take from a thalmor agent where they list out all of his war crimes and horrible shit he did that still effects them to this day, and to top it all off the empire left them to fend for themselves during the fucking oblivion crisis.

so as delphine bemoans all of paarthurnax's war crimes and horrible things he has done, how no amount of repenting can make up for it and he's too dangerous to leave alive and we should kill him Right Now because what if he, even by accident, succumbs to his nature as an Evil Dragon and does horrible things again, she is also actively defending the horrific, much more recent war crimes of other Evil Dragons just in mortal form. if delphine has a point, then so do the thalmor, but they are just cardboard bad guy elf nazis and the empire can do no wrong.

violence is rewarded time and time again, but THESE characters being violent is bad. because. all dragons are evil and able to be corrupted by power, but the player if they decide to be a massive asshole don't really face that much scrutiny besides ultimate gameplay inconvenience. because this is a sandbox power fantasy! you should make your own choices without being punished! but that means the story about power, the cost of violence, justice, and morals, as well as your greater place in the world can have no gameplay weight. and if it has no weight in the most important part of the experience, then it has no fucking weight at all

i could go on and on. like how the dragons are supposedly intelligent creatures with their own language, culture, customs, and morality system but are basically for most of the game about as smart and engaging as the average bear or wolf you encounter on the road outside of 2-3 dragons in heavily scripted, linear conversations during the story, but we'd be here all day.

#skyrim #tesblr

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11queensupreme11 · 6 months

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Come up with 13 fighters from the Gods' side and 13 fighters from the humans. You're only allowed 2 repeated fighters. [This time, add more goddess representation.] ~ ^(ФωФ)^

13 god fighters:

hera (i just wanna see her fight, this bitch is CRAZY, i know she'd totally win her round)

bastet, egyptian goddess of cats (i picked her because i like cats)

hel, norse goddess of helheim (i like her in the thor: ragnarok movie)

cheuksin, korean toilet goddess, yes you heard me right

yal-un eke, mongolian goddess of fire (she just sounds cool)

baba yaga (not actually a goddess, but a slavic folklore character, but if ror can have to ocs, then i can do this!)

manislat, phillipine goddess of broken homes (she's a crazy bitch that thrives on broken homes and gets pissed whenever ppl are happy 💀, probably hates child protective services? or maybe doesn't cuz they kinda suck too)

yudi or jade emperor, the chinese god of heaven

batara sambu, indonesian god of teachers (i would pit him against an american simply because he would be pissed at the low wages teachers have there)

enlil, mesopotamian god of wind, air, earth, and storms

raijin, japanese god of thunder and lightning

maui, hawaiian demigod (picked him cuz of the disney movie moana)

dievas, lithuanian god of light, sky, prosperity, wealth, ruler of gods, creator deity

13 human fighters:

christopher columbus (solely because i know he'd get absolutely wrecked and i would enjoy every second of it)

marilyn monroe (idk who she would fight, but she would win!!!)

cleopatra

elizabeth bathory (yes the psycho)

joan of arc

martin luther king jr (he would make a GREAT speech before beating the shit outta his opponent)

anne boleyn (not only will she win, but henry viii would become public enemy #1!!!)

karl marx (communism 😈)

sigmund freud (lets be honest, the gods are incestuous so he'd have a blast diagnosing them with oedipus complex/electra complex. this is his wet dream come to life!)

freddie oversteen (lured and killed nazis with her big sister!!!)

julius caesar (watch him get stabbed again LMAOOOO)

sappho (she will win by rizzing up her female opponent through the power of romantic poetry and they both will live happily ever after, the end 💖)

king arthur pendragon (he's in shrek, lol)

#👸🏻| asks #👸🏻| arsenic blues

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skaldish · 1 year

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Re: Christian-Norse syncretism: I think Christianity and Asatru were two humanitarian religions that brought out the worst in each other and continue to do so.

Nah. Christianity shat the bed hundreds of year before conversion efforts began in Scandinavia, thanks to Emperor Constantine. As soon as the nobles decided to use Christianity as their tool for political gain and conquest, rather than Religio Romano, that was the nail in the coffin for Christianity as a humanitarian religion.

We have it on record that Christians strategized to get the Norse people acclimated to the new religion; namely, to slowly introduce Christian elements into their worldview in ways that feel familiar. They built churches to look exactly like hofs, peppered Christian motifs into Norse folklore, and adapted mythologies to reflect Christian values. These things grew more Christian and less Heathen as time went on; stave churches had expansions built to give them the cross-shape, Loki had horns slapped on his head, etc. Something something frog in a pot of water.

(Which reminds me: I totally forgot the most obvious examples of syncretism because I was too busy thinking about saints—Loki with the Devil, Baldr with Jesus, Odin with God, Ask and Embla / Líf and Lífþrasir with Adam and Eve, Ragnarok with Armageddon, Valhalla with Heaven, and Helheim with Hell. There are others in there too but they're less overt.)

The funny thing about this is that it didn't take.

Nobody's out there equating Loki with the Devil these days besides Americans. Nearly every Scandinavian I've met has been able to tell me how something was Christianized and what it looked like before ("This originally represented Odin," "This was originally symbolic of Freyr," etc.). Clearly some traditions were lost, but the history of it all isn't mysterious to Scandinavians like it is for Americans.

The thing that made Asatru nasty was the 1890's Germanic Volkisch Movement, which eventually gave rise to Naziism. After Nazi Germany fell, this nasty Heathenry, Odinism, was brought to the US and spread through one of the fastest-moving networks of information in the time before the internet—the US prison system.

Ever since then, it's been used as the right-wing alternative to the various progressive spiritual movements that rose during the 70's. And because many Americans don't know what religion looks like outside of Christianity, they latch onto the old propaganda that was used to convert Scandinavia.

Which is why I have an entire website dedicated to disambiguating literally all of this nonsense.

This shit is wildly complicated, but we have objective facts regarding the relationship of Christianity and Heathenry.

#answered #norse paganism

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imperiuswrecked · 1 year

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How would you describe Invaders era Namor's character? Please and thank you.

In the Invaders Era I think the best way to sum up Namor's character is inexperienced.

Yes, he's headstrong, brash, arrogant, angry, and confident but under all that lies his inexperience with many things. How to navigate his father's world which seems very alien to him, how to fight a prolonged war, how to deal with friendships, questioning where his true loyalty lies, how to deal with trauma that came from his time in WWll, the tortures he endured, the human people he can't protect and loses, and the failure to protect his own people, the Atlanteans. The Marvel's Project #1

He doesn't win every time, and he isn't able to save everyone all of the time. Invaders (2019) #1

WWll left Namor with permanent PTSD even decades later that he never takes the time to process or heal from. Marvel's Snapshot: Sub-Mariner

Fish out of Water is the best trope to describe Namor in any era due to him being a constant outsider but it's especially pronounced during his time with the Invaders because he's never been to war before nor has he spent a lot of time around all different kinds of human people. Namor is the only non American on the original team (I feel Jim thinks of himself as an American even if he isn't a "born" citizen) and often makes it a point that Steve and the rest of the team's patriotism isn't his patriotism. He's very guarded in letting down his emotional walls, "I prefer to keep it (his name) to myself". The Invaders (1975) #1

He's never had true close friends outside of Lady Dorma, Betty Dean, or Namora who are all women, so he hasn't had close male friends. The animosity between Namor and the rest is there early on in the formation of the team. Giant Size Invaders #1

"I don't have much use for any humans." The Invaders (1975) #1

Namor is also stuck at a crossroads, yes the Nazis are terrible but the humans who hurt his ocean home are also terrible. They caused great pain and suffering to his people and his oceans. Even though the Nazis do attack the Atlanteans and the oceans, that doesn't erase the fact that normal surface humans also hurt his people. He knows that stopping the Nazis is important but sometimes he's torn on whether he should leave the humans to their war or what the outcome would be when the war is over.

Sub-Mariner Comics 70th Anniversary Special

"My Emperor. Let them drive themselves to extinction and we're all the better for it."

"After all, some day this insane war of yours will end and then I don't know who my people's enemy will be." Invaders (1975) #1

Although I have issues with the rest of the plot in Invaders (2019) this one page of characterization and introspection is so interesting to me because Namor is basically a demi-god, he is literally descended from Neptune and has god-blood in his veins, he's stronger that any human or atlantean in this era, but he's never faced the fact that his supernatural strength isn't enough. He's never faced being charged to protect people who are so much weaker than him, both humans and Atlanteans. All the destruction that happened to the Atlanteans happened before his birth, so he grew up hearing wild tales about how bad humans were, he was expected to hate them all, not protect any of them. He's conflicted feelings of being loyal to his mother's and grandfather's teachings of despising all the humans and viewing them as the enemy is being challenged during this era and he doesn't know how to process the gray area he finds himself in.

Invaders (2019) #1

Namor's characterization on page is mercurial, changing from a (murder) child like enthusiastic joy at defeating his enemies to serious and brooding royal prince. The switch between his casual and serious demeanor, from using slang talk to speaking like he's a Shakespearean play has to do with the writer, Roy Thomas, wanting to keep both the Golden Age and Silver Age characterizations of Namor. There is a very noticeable way in which Namor was written in both eras and the brooding prince of today's comics was nothing like that in the Golden Age Comics. Roy Thomas is known for his great attention to detail and trying to keep true to the comics that came before. He even tried to write an explanation as to why Namor's speech/mannerisms often changed in this era, citing a "dual heritage" aka because he was human/atlantean. The Invaders (1975) #3

Personally I just believe that Namor used to be a much more optimistic character who had extreme anger and identity issues but the war tore him down mentally and emotionally so much that he became even more guarded and serious than before.

"I've killed 3,000 Axis soldiers for you, Lung Man. I am tired of your Age of Massacre." Marvel Comics Presents (2019) #1

Despite Namor trying to keep a wall up between himself and the rest of the Invaders, he does allow space in his heart for his team, and keeps to the bonds of friendships they formed for the rest of his life, he teaches Bucky how to fly, he cares for Toro, he's close friends with Jim, Steve and the others. He also knows that no matter what happens; No Invader will ever be left behind.

"I should have known I would die alone. On land." "It's all right, Namor. You know me. No one gets left behind."

Avengers/Invaders (2008) #8

#namor #namor mckenzie #namor the sub mariner #the invaders #captain america #human torch #steve rogers #jim hammond #bucky barnes #toro raymond #imp answers

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chronotsr · 20 days

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Pre-G1 Modules, part 4B - The Judge's Guild Roundup Completed

Oh. Oh we're still doing this? It won't end? Gods. At least we made it to 1978. Anyway, happy eclipse to every. Reminder: the people who run Judge's Guild now are full-on nazis, do not buy their books. Go hug your loved ones instead.

The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor (1978)

Maybe I was too hard on the Prince Valiant-ass artstyle. It looks very proud for a bandit fortress, don't you think? The full color version that comes out later is even nicer -- it's the one you find on google images first. Anyway. Fort Badboybaskaur was founded by ''The Emperor of Glorious Doomfire''. It truly was the era of so-bad-its-good naming! The fort was built so that if raiding happened, the many small villages could congregate there for safety. Only, it turns out there was a red dragon underneath. And then that got resealed. And then an evil demigod took over. And then bandits took that over.

I read this section like five times and for the life of me I cannot find a prophesy here. They just kind of say it because it sounds cool. The prose in this hand out is, really really rough, it's a lot of proper nouns and moral history tropes -- empire becoming successful and spawning evil religion yada yada yada. The proper noun addiction is strong with this one, we get quite a few undefined proper nouns here. He's another classic: "Zanaaphic the All-King of the Spirit Universe". I have so many questions! None of which will be answered. "Angall of the Perpetual Void" Wow! Those are some neat nouns! The net effect, however, is there was a really skilled evil wizard who got confronted by a god, beat him, and by defeating him became a four-armed dragon-skinned bat-winged magical null. He does up to 16 pips of damage with his silly flails!

So the cover image is lying a little bit about the fortress. In both of the presented maps, there is no cool rampart that you have to slowly siege, there are mountains both in front and behind the fortress, and there are way more than three turrets. I am actually a little fond of this keep layout-wise, it's less cramped than the Keep on the Borderlands is. Naturally, it sits at the foot of Mount Deception.

It's a nice little fortress, no? I would recommend getting a modern copy of the map if it wasn't for the ownership sucking ass in an extreme way. Plus, having dungeons under your keep on the borderlands seems like a great idea, actually. Or, shit, having a rival keep on a rival borderlands sounds kinda rad. Anyway, the room by room is pretty rote. The exterior rooms are mostly just services you'd give to anyone walking in, but the real juicy stuff is all kept inside the mountain walls. We've got your usual suspects. Guard captain, bossman, bossman's terrible wife (and the wife is legally required to be evil because male writers), pawnbroker, human trafficker, tavernsssssss, gemcutter, blacksmith, et c. Some of the names are okay, "Hole in the Hill Inn" run by ogres was really funny to me, I would change them to hill giants to complete the joke.

The dungeon has an interesting conceit where there are some generic "alternate rooms" in the back of the book that come with a blank room number that you can swap if you dislike the default room contents. I'm really in favor of this mindset. I have thought for a while that it'd be kind of nice for adventure books to be shipped in some sort of editable capacity? Like if I wanna do open heart surgery on a floor of a dungeon, but I like the other 4 floors, it'd be nice to keep it in the original format instead of having the adventure book and then some loose-leaf with the changes penciled in. Tragically, the alt rooms are overwhelmingly just monsters in a room, with the outlier being a wererats with a little kidnapping scheme.

Underneath the fortress there are five levels, one is actually above ground level and in the cliff face behind the keep, and the third level leads to the surface via caves. Neat! I'm kind of imagining Gerudo Fortress here on a lot of levels. Here's a quick skim of the best contents:

There appears to be a little rat treasure hoard where the rats have to pay their dues to their little rat kings? What's going on here is kind of unclear to me, but I can't help but imagine one of the guards trained the rats to hide money in the walls for him and the ten rats with silver formation are a kind of animal-passcode.

A chest trapped with some sort of reverse truth serum -- it removes your ability to speak, see, or hear for a week if you open it without permission. Naturally, the chest is decorated with the three wise monkeys 🙈🙉🙊 (and a mysterious fourth monkey the text implies nothing about, maybe it's Sezaru? Curse of erectile dysfunction!)

The alarm system seems to be gong-based

Oh, I don't like this beholder at all. Ewwww! But also, why is this drawing here? There's no beholders in here? Is this some kind of silly trap for snooping players? In fact, most of the monster illustrations are…kind of just random monsters.

The treasury is booby-trapped to hell and back. We have a standard guillotine trap disarmed with a tile puzzle on the wall, a hell-hound guard dog, and the most prominent magical item is a necklace of strangulation. Rough break! Just go ahead and put all of the treasure on pressure plates with flame jets at that point.

A reverse gravity pit-trap -- you pull a book, you fall through a hole in the ceiling and then it traps you in the ceiling. It's just a pit trap at the end of the day, but way vivid!

A chair made of a dragon's arms and horn that will animate and attack you if you try to pry gems off it or attack anyone

Two wizards are having a battle over who gets to own a trained lizard that can sing and carry heavy loads. I understand guys. That lizard is worth it.

Under a sarcophagus is written "If you can read this, you're too close", as well as some explosive runes

The treasure hoard of a lost king, if you attempt to steal it, will turn into a treasure construct shaped like the king. Awesome!

"A similar cabinet on the north wall is labeled "For Future Imperialists". In the top drawer is a Gem of Brightness, the second is a pair of Bracers of Defenselessness, and in the bottom drawer is a pouch of Dust of Sneezing and Choking." I would fully lean in, make it a Cursed Gem of Brightness that you can't turn off, and put the Bracers in the top drawer if the goal is to prank an evil character into hurting themselves.

A reverse-vampire giant lizardfolk that consumes the unlife from undead. So, Tomb of the Lizard King got beat to the vampire-lizardfolk punch, I guess?

Large swaths of this dungeon genuinely feel randomly generated. The worst parts are about half of floor 2, 3, and about half of floors 4 and 5. It just feels like padding to me. And in true Judge's Guild fashion, there are treasure stores in the temple that are "instantly max your character" amounts of loot. Now I get that shares are a thing and you gotta pay your hirelings, but still, 1.5M gold represents like, even if you're a party of 10 you're still looking at instantly maxing a thief, shooting a fighter to level 8, and shooting a wizard to level 9. And there's no way you were at 0xp when you smuggled that statue out, that's going to be an instant max for just about anyone. The big reveal that I…guess you could conceivably puzzle out? Is that the dragons were nearby because they were minions of a dragon-king entombed under this fortress before it was built. A cool idea, that desperately needs more foreshadowing. The love clearly went into making those tombs cool, so if I was going to rip anything off from this module that'd probably be my second port of call.

Gen Con IX Dungeons (1978)

What a name, right? How come Tsojconth got a name and these dungeons didn't? Blatant favoritism. Well actually one of the two dungeons may as well be called the Halls of Grsk. And, wow, everything about the design notes are ominous. "Simplicity would be the prime requisite". So….does that mean this adventure is boring on purpose, Bob?

The adventure is split into two bits, the player-side info and the gm-side info, which…okay. Sure. The titular dungeon is set in the "Celtic mythos", whatever the fuck that means (Bob, the Celtic cultures covered almost all of Europe and parts of Asia. That phrase is meaningless!). TL;DR the old king's wizard went evil and killed the king, left no one to rule, and then went nuts and much later summoned a bunch of demons to protect his loot now that he's old and dying. The local wizard, Framschamsnaggle (seriously?) bullies you into raiding his tomb to get a staff back. There's a dragon in there and you were handed a teleportation amulet that will zip you out as soon as you get your hands on the staff.

Oh. Oh that's not good. That's a very not good dungeon layout. That's a very bad dungeon layout. And the contents are, as bad. I wonder if it was considered bad at the con itself? I couldn't find a single remarkable thing in this whole dungeon. It is neither weird, nor funny, nor clever, nor interesting. It's 30 random dungeon rooms in a row, with a rare trap that is practically randomized also.

The sole joy I can find in this module is this illustration, which looks like a shitpost.

The second round of the tournament (1st round eliminates) is set in a completely different place, which is more properly called the Halls of Grsk. Almost all of this area is also just, save or suck traps and monsters. There is one trap that's kind of classic and okay -- picking up the giant ruby locks all exits, many red herrings, room starts heating up like an oven. The solution is to smash the ruby, which instantly kills the heating element. It's not amazing (how are you supposed to guess it's a ruby? It behaves like a pressure plate trap but the ruby itself is contact-activated) but it's the least bad thing in here. The portal-that-eats-you prank in particular grinds my gears, the game communicates every possible thing to say it kills you, and by blind faith you go through and is the best solution. Picking up the fake secret item instantly kills you, because fuck you. The fakeout trap's sole hint is "why are there two normal doors on the north wall?" which, it's a points-based dungeon, they're going to assume it's for extra points. Also, the whole dungeon is a massive straight line in disguise. It's a wreck.

Actually, the whole scenario feels like a worse "Tomb of the Lizard King" in a lot of ways, down to the silly rhyme on the last page that gives you a critical clue about how to kill the undead baddie. In a sense it's also like Tomb of Horrors in that way, I guess, but the vibes are a lot more like Tomb of the Lizard King.

Damn it Bob, you made it boring on purpose.

Citadel of Fire (1978)

This is truly one of the dungeon covers of all time.

Is… is that The Golem? I hope Rabbi Loew is available. Or, maybe it's good that he's not in the module, because obviously this construct's creator is going to be evil in this module.

This is the least least imaginative of the Judge's Guild modules in this series. It is, simply a wizard's tower. If you have ever in your life read a wizard's tower module, you've read this one. The JG staples of constant slavery mentions continues with slave girls being in every single damn room of the towers. There's, not really much plot to go on either. There are wizards, the hill is good for magic, they are aligned with the goblins, go chop 'em up.

Sigh. Here's the memorable bits.

Nearly out the gate, we get one of those paragraphs that you would hope would be so obviously bad to the writers that they would second guess the decision. Why the actual hell did you stat out some 200 nearly identical goblins manually?

What is that and when do I get a bestiary entry for them? That's not a joke, the module never mentions what this is and now I want this Weresalazzle in my adventures.

The vague allusion to "Shabast", which are apparently a species of people who are intelligent clouds? But only sometimes.

A variety of pens for animals the wizards are working on, which include an Irish deer, a jackalwere, a baby lammasu, a giant slug named Skippy, some orcs, man-eating apes, an elephant, and a hydra

For…some reason there's a tavern on the 2nd floor of a dungeon. In the lightest defense of the module, at least the 2F has a surface access and no pre-programmed encounters between here and the tavern (random monsters thoooo). The owner sleeps with a new person every night, highly critical detail.

?????????????????????

OK so many rooms later there's a pyrohydra with a toothache. Mystery solved, that's why there's a magical dentist!

I hesitate to complain, but after multiple dungeons with 100k+ gold rewards, this dungeon's treasury having roughly 11,000 gold in it feels like an anticlimax. The fact that it's protected by that pyrohydra and electrified locks adds insult to injury.

This is a joke, right? That's your final floor? Anyway, this is just The Demon Floor. There is more treasure here than upstairs, which is a little strange given that the demon serves the wizard and not the other way around.

So on the whole, deeply shit. In conclusion, Early Judge's Guild leaves a lot to be desired. Next time we will -- wait, am I free? There's no more pre-G1 modules? I get to finally do TSR shit and leave this mire?

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS (edit: I was half-right -- there was one more pre-G1 module, but it was TSR!)

#0e #chronotsr #dnd #dungeons and dragons #tsr #ttrpg

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coco-bean-1218 · 5 months

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Well-Behaved Women Never Make History

Prologue: Part Two: "A State of War"

Chapter Soundtrack

Summary: Claire realizes her future is about to change.

A/N: Hi everyone! Welcome to Prologue: Part Two of Well-Behaved Women Never Make History. Just one more part after this one, and we get to the main story!!!! Just a reminder, Claire and her family are ahead of their time, so her mom is kinda like Polly Shelby, personality-wise if you've ever seen Peaky Blinders. I hope everyone enjoys and please feel free to like, comment, and reblog, but do not repost!

Warnings: Claire's parents being done with the world's shit, swearing, mentions of Nazi Germany, the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor,

Taglist: Please let me know if you'd like to be tagged!

Monday, December 8, 1941

———

The following day, newspapers were filled with headlines about Pearl Harbor. The attack had captured the attention of the entire nation, with local, national, and world news sections all dedicating significant coverage to the event. The newspapers were filled with vivid images and descriptions that left readers feeling a mix of shock and sadness.

Pictures on the front pages and throughout the news sections depicted the aftermath of the attack. There were images of casualties, both military and civilian, lying lifeless on the ground. The smoke from the explosions billowed into the sky, casting an eerie pallor over the scene. The papers showed the destruction caused by the attack, with planes and ships lying in ruins after being struck by bombs and torpedoes.

Claire and her parents all sat at the kitchen table, engrossed in the newspaper articles and pictures spread before them. They shook their heads in disbelief, unable to comprehend the sheer horror of what lay before them. Periodically, they would mutter comments under their breaths, expressing their shock and dismay.

It was all too familiar for Claire's parents. They had lived through a similar experience once before, during The Great War. And now, here they were again, 23 years after its end, facing another conflict that seemed to be just as devastating.

"This is...Oh my God..." Mrs. O'Connor finally spoke up.

"Unbelievable," Claire echoed, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Makes you really think about what will happen next, doesn't it?" her father commented, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room.

"Yeah, that's for sure," her mother agreed, "23 years later, and here we are again. Jesus."

It was as if history was repeating itself, but this time, the consequences were even more dire.

"I just hope they take out that damn nutcase in Germany. He's got to go," Mr. O'Connor remarked.

Mrs. O'Connor shook her head, her voice filled with exasperation. "Oh, don't even get me fucking started on that one," she said, her eyes rolling with a mixture of amusement and frustration.

"Happy freakin' Holidays...," Claire uttered.

---

In the early part of the afternoon, the O'Connors sat in their family room with the radio on. The room was cozy, with a roaring fireplace and adorned with Christmas decorations. According to the paper, President Roosevelt would address the nation that afternoon.

At precisely 12:30 p.m., the radio crackled with static, followed by President Roosevelt's familiar voice. The O'Connors fell silent, listening intently to his words.

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that Nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American Island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armedattack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu."

Claire exchanged glances with her older sister. They shared a look that seemed to convey a shared understanding. As they gazed at their parents, the President continued talking, his voice carrying through the room.

"Yesterday, the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, and Wake Island. And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our Nation.

As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.

But always will our whole Nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us, God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."

The President's speech concluded with a resounding round of applause that echoed through the room.

As the noise dissipated, Claire found herself in a state of contemplation. There was something nagging at her thoughts. It was as if she knew there was something she needed to do, but she wasn't quite sure what that something was. The President's words resonated with her on a deep level, leaving an indelible mark on her soul. She knew that she had to take those words and do something with them.

In addition to encouraging independence and intellectual growth, the O'Connors also emphasized to their daughters the importance of standing up for themselves and never allowing anyone to walk all over them. They taught them to recognize and challenge any form of mistreatment or injustice. By instilling this sense of self-worth, they hoped that their daughters would become assertive and resilient individuals.

Claire, of course, took emphasis on the assertive part. She knew what she needed to do.

#band of brothers #wbwnmh #well behaved women never make history #band of brothers fanfic #band of brothers fic #band of brothers oc #band of brothers ofc #easy company #hbo war #my first oc story #my oc #band of brothers x ofc #eugene roe x ofc #chuck grant x ofc #eugene roe #chuck grant

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uwuthrad · 2 months

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I'm just shooting the shit because it's one am and I can't sleep but sometimes I'm a little bit sad that the Thalmor are written as cartoonishly evil nazi stand-ins because it preemptively de-claws their gripe against Talos worship, which is actually very valid when you think about it in terms of the literal deification of The Guy who was known as a killer of mer.

And it's weird how reoccuring of a theme it is in the Nords' self-mythology, too, because that's something Talos shares with Ysgramor, who went on a bloody genocide spree, ultimately, because the nords claimed a right to Skyrim they felt superseded that of the snow elves, which is just weird, when you think about it, because as far as I know there's nothing to indicate they had even been there before Ysgramor's time.

You find Ysgramor in Sovngarde. There's no reason to believe Talos isn't a real god, in-universe, either. But fuck, man, if I was an elf and I saw a dude who hunted my people for sport and wasn't ever sorry about it ascend to divinity, I would be mad, too. Mad enough to tear the world to ribbons, too, if I could.

In TES lore, belief maketh gods, sorta. And sometimes I wonder if the Thalmor want to stop Talos worship not because of the whole tower theory, but merely because - imagine it - Talos being a god means there is a god above that hates you, not for who you are, but what you are. And that's terrifying.

The Thalmor are not nice. They're not sympathetic. They do horrible thing. But shit, man, who wouldn't, when faced with the threat of divine annihilation? One that you know half the world endorsed with a smile, out of pride, even when it meant deifying your murderer? I would be ugly, too. I would be petty and mean and cruel, because that's how scared people behave. That's what happens to people you tell you don't think they really are people.

Anyway I have a lot of feelings about the god-emperor-conquerer narrative in TES and its narrative perspective. Probably will delete later

#Not to be a Thalmor apologist but actually yeah #Delete later #skyrim #Rambles #tes #Is it a shitpost? You decide #The Stormcloak rethoric to real-life white supremacist pipeline is terrifyingly short #Which puts a lot of other things into perspective #Fascinating how the Thalmor are both the Hugo Boss-wearing golden men of nazi myth and the inhuman Other all at once #Radical idea but hear me out: genocide is bad

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askmalal · 11 months

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Favorite Historical Miniatures Armies:

The Chaos Gods and the Primarchs

(The Emperor, of course, always plays with an Alexandrian Macedonian Army. In every period. And he always wins….)

Hashut:

Ancients - Assyrians, of course.

Khorne:

Colonials - Bavarian Nuns, Wahehe War, German East Africa.

Malal:

I mean, I’ll happily play with any army known as an unreliable ally…

Nuffle:

Does not fully grasp the concept. Routinely brings a “Magnetic Action Football” set. Given he’s the god of random chance, however… he often wins.

Nurgle:

Quite happy to play any army at the height of the Black Plague

Tzeentch:

Ancients - Early Maya. Soooo many feathers!

Lion El’Johnson:

Medievals - Crusader Militant Orders

Fulgrim:

Ancients - Purple, Hellenism, Fancy. Hence, Seleucids

Perturabo:

Ancients - Gee… I wonder. But also, heavy siege tanks. So, Ferdinands, Brummbars, Sturmtigers make him positively turgid.

Khan:

Medievals - Really? You really don’t know?

Leman Russ:

WW2 - Norwegians. Danes from time to time. He despises Nazis, and ordinary Vikings are… boring.

Rogal Dorn:

Ancients - Pretty much anything Roman will do.

Konrad Curze:

Renaissance - Prefers Later Hungarians. Will grimace and accept playing with a Wallachian Army if he must.

Sanguinius:

Ancients - Early Hebrews. Also loves running German Triplanes in WW1 games. Richtofen’s Flying Circus, of course.

Ferrus Manus:

Anything with lots of slow moving disgustingly armored stuff. WW1 tank forces, for instance.

Angron:

WW1 - Portuguese Expeditionary Force. A glutton for punishment.

Roboute Guilliman:

ALSO anything Roman. But there must be shiny eagles involved.

Mortarion:

Not much fun. Always insists on bringing the bio-chem warfare units. Every period.

Magnus:

Not really a fan of Egyptian Armies as such. Surprisingly, likes himself a good group of doughty British colonials, circa 1879. Eh wot?

Horus:

Enjoys selecting the worst possible Army or force for the period in question, and proving that he can beat you with it.

Lorgar:

Lorgar constantly attempts to design his own house rules for armies and periods only he wants to play. Once spent a summer running the other Primarchs through the Great Toledo War.

Vulkan:

Appreciates the entertainment of war games, but prefers the abstracts. Problematically, however, he -can-defeat your elite armored division using just the red side from a set of checkers.

Corvus Corax:

WW2 - Big fan of paratroopers. Refuses on principle to play the bad guys.

Alpharius:

Once defeated a modern British Armored Division equipped with Challenger 2s…

Omegon:

…using a group of English Civil War clubmen and a Japanese Type 97 “Chi Ha” with a broken timing chain.

#malice #askmalal #malal #horus heresy #chaos gods #warhammer40k #ask me questions #the warp

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orthodoxadventure · 6 months

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Martyr Menas of Egypt

Commemorated on November 11

Forsaking an earthly army, O prize-winner, you received a heavenly inheritance, after receiving glory from earthly kings, O wise one, you endured martyrdom and received an unfading crown. Therefore, O Great Martyr Mēnás, intercede with Christ God to save our souls.

The Holy Great Martyr Menas (Mēnás), an Egyptian by birth, was a military officer and served in the Kotyaeion region of Phrygia under the centurion Firmilian during the reign of Emperors Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (305-311). He was praised and admired for his bravery in battle, his patience, and his self-discipline.

In 298, the Emperors published an edict ordering everyone to worship the idols. Those serving in the Legions were ordered to capture and persecute Christians. As soon as Saint Menas heard this impious decree he threw down his soldier’s belt (a sign of military rank) and withdrew to a mountain above Kotyaeion, where he lived an ascetical life of fasting and prayer. He spent a long time in the wilderness, suffering great privation and laboring in feats of prayer, fasting, and nocturnal vigils. Thus, the Saint purified himself of every passion of soul and body.

When his heart was strengthened with godly zeal, and his soul aflame with love for God, divine grace came upon him and he had a vision. He regarded this as a sign that he was to follow the path of martyrdom. Therefore, he left the mountain and went into the city, where the people were celebrating a pagan festival.

At that time, Saint Menas was approximately fifty years old. Standing in the midst of the crowd, he shouted: "There is only one true God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Your "gods" are demons, and your idols have been fashioned by craftsmen. These inanimate objects are nothing but metal, wood, and stone."

Those who heard his voice left their dancing and their games and went to see who had disrupted their idolatrous festival, marveling at his boldness. They seized and beat him, then brought him before Pyrrhus, the City Prefect. When he saw Menas he asked him who he was, and why he was creating a disturbance. The Saint replied, "I am an Egyptian, a servant of Jesus Christ, the Ruler of all things. I was a soldier and I served in the Imperial Army for most of my life. But since the Emperor has chosen to follow the path of idolatry, and to persecute Christians, I chose to dwell with the wild animals in the wilderness rather than obey the impious commands of those who do not know God."

When the Prefect heard this he became enraged and had the Saint thrown into prison.

The next morning, Pyrrhus urged Saint Menas to return to the Army, offering to restore his former rank if he would offer sacrifice to the pagan "gods." Menas refused, and so he was subjected to many cruel tortures. The Prefect urged him to submit to the edict and offer sacrifice to the idols, but the Martyr remained firm in his Faith, saying that he would never deny Christ. Pyrrhus ordered further torments, but seeing that he could not persuade Saint Menas, he ordered that he be taken outside the city and beheaded. As he was being led to the place of execution, he asked his friends (who were secret Christians) to take his body back to Egypt for burial when the persecution had ceased. These friends gathered Martyr’s relics at night and hid them until the persecution was over. Later, they were brought to Egypt and placed in a church dedicated to Saint Menas southwest of Alexandria.

Saint Menas received the crown of martyrdom in the year 304. By God's grace he continues to work miracles for those who entreat him with faith and love. He is known for healing various illnesses, delivering people from demonic possession, and is a protector, especially during times of war.

In 1942, General Erwin Rommel had conquered almost all of North Africa, and was heading toward Alexandria. The Nazis had reached El Alamein, where they camped for the night, intending to attack Alexandria in the morning. Saint Menas, however, did not allow this to happen. At midnight (October 23-24). certain people noticed Saint Menas coming out of his ancient church leading camels into the German camp. Overcome by panic, weakness, and confusion, Rommel's troops fled. The battle ended on November 4th with the enemy in full retreat. It is regarded as a turning point in the whole war. Later, Winston Churchill said: "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat."

The Allies offered that place to Patriarch Christophoros of Alexandria so that the church of Saint Menas could be rebuilt.

We pray to Saint Menas to ask for his help in finding lost objects.

Today the Church honors and glorifies in songs the godly-minded athletes and Martyrs who strove for piety, the prize-winner Mēnás, noble Victor, brave Vincent, and valiant Stephanie, and it lovingly cries out and magnifies Christ, the lover of mankind.

[source]

#Christianity #Orthodox Christianity #Religion #Saints #Iconography

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quasitsqueeries · 10 months

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Kill your Primarchs

When I first heard about this I thought it was a terrible idea. I still do, but I’ve decided to have more complicated feelings about it.

Let’s talk about the idea of heroes, and Rationalism, and maybe New Atheism a bit.

So my gripe with this is to do with what the primarchs represent in Warhammer 40,000. Specifically in the 41st Milennium that is, I’m not talking about the Horus Heresy. I think this image here is an important casting off point to discussing it:

It’s got two heads but only one eye. The head facing to the right, the future, is blinded. The Aquila, and by extension the Imperium, can only look to the past. The Imperium’s whole schtick is that it’s a crumbling beaureaucratic organisation, mired in the past. Everything about the Imperium, from the beatification of genetically enhanced super-soldiers, to the religious observance of what are basically procedural documents in order to keep technology running, is geared towards the glorification of a near-forgotten and mythical past.

Before GW started resurrecting Primarchs, they and the Emperor held the status of ancient Heroes in that mythical past. The early descriptions of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the original Rogue Trader rulebook are really vague, as befits something that’s supposed to have happened ten thousand years before the current setting. It’s an age of myth, its heroes are long gone. This is what the great hero of the Imperium looks like in the 41st Milennium, according to the 1st edition rulebook:

I’m sorry but that’s a corpse.

Maybe you think the Traitor Legions are lying when they call him the Corpse Emperor but I really think the subtext in early Warhammer 40,000 is that the Imperium has managed to hold on to the corpses of some of their ancient heroes and interred them in machines that require an enormous investment of resources (a thousand psykers’ souls a day in the Emperor’s case) to run, in a futile exercise to cling on to the glories of the past. It’s true of the Emperor’s Golden Throne, it’s true of Roboute Guilliman’s stasis machine, and it’s true of the rumours that Lion El’ Jonson was lying somewhere under Caliban convalescing for all that time.

It’s felt like there’s been a drive among 40K fans and Games Workshop themselves to move Space Marines away from the hidebound traditionalism of the Imperium and make them more ‘genuinely’ heroic.The problem is that it’s exactly this heroism that ties them into the Imperium’s traditions. Space Marines are important to the Imperium in the same way Siegfired and other figures from Germanic myths (and Wagner’s operas) were important to the Nazis. Fascist ideology venerates heroic warrior figures to engender a culture that is comfortable with war.

When the Warhammer 40,000 lore didn’t make it clear whether these heroes of the Imperium’s past were dead or alive, but carried the subtext that they were dead, and the Imperium was wasting an enormous amount of resources on keeping them in a sort of un-life, it expressed the futility of this kind of hero-worship. If you start bringing them back, you communicate the idea that it wasn’t futile, and maybe that it was worth slaughtering all those psykers, and maybe that we should revere these bio-engineered sort-of-people as heroes.

And like, no. This is the image that’s always expressed the essence of *Space Marines* to me.

But then I started reading about Roboute Guilliman and apparently he’s the most logical, the most rational of the Primarchs, and I get the sense that in a lot of people’s minds this means he’s the most equipped to save the Imperium, whether from itself or everything outside it is unclear. But I think it’s interesting that according to this new lore he’s supposed to have woken up, seen what the Imperium’s become, and been totally apalled by it. Not by the genocide, of course, but by the fact that they’ve turned the Emperor into a god and the Primarchs into his angels. So he went and had a *conversation* with the Emperor, then turned around and started the genocide all over again, with a whole new crusade.

I’m going to talk about the 11th of September 2001 now, because it’s had consequences we’re only now starting to realise, and I think it definitely had consequences for Warhammer 40,000.

So, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and other reprobates had been doing the rounds before 2001, but their movement really found its feet in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Much of the Anglosphere and the West in general constructed an ideological divide between us and the Islamic world, where the West was civilised, rational and free, while the East was mired in superstition, religiosity and authoritarianism. In this context, a movement that characterised all religion as barbaric and anti-intellectual found itself in very fertile ground. For many people in the West, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon could be dismissed not as retalliation for Western Imperialism, but as the deluded actions of religious fanatics. Rationalism and superstition were set up as ideological opponents, and rationalism was assumed to stand up for other values like liberty, intellectual freedom and human rights.

Horus Rising, the first of the Horus Heresy series, was released in 2006, the same year as Dawkins’ The God Delusion and the year before Hitchens’ God is not Great. Not much had been written about the Great Crusade or the Horus Heresy before this, and the idea that the Crusade had been an attempt by the Emperor to spread the light of reason into the galaxy first appeared in the lore at this point. In hindsight it’s pretty hard not to see this as a response to the post September 11 environment.

So, where the Space Marines of 1st editionhad been a bunch of psychopaths given genetic engineering and combat drugs, by 2006 you had the idea that their original function had been a sort of idealistic rationalism that was to make the galaxy a better place without religion, but that maybe some of them had fallen into superstition since then. Since then there’s maybe been a growing sense that Space Marines don’t really believe that the Emperor is a god and consider all of this a bit embarrassing.

So then you get a guy who’s been brought back to life, who was there with the Emperor during the crusade, he’s the one son who most embodies the Rationalist ideology that Games Workshop decided would drive the Great Crusade when the zeitgeist of the early 2000s taught that that ideology would lead to all good things.

And the reason he’s shocked by what the Imperium’s become isn’t because they sacrifice a thousand psykers a day to feed the Golden Throne, or because of the constant expansionist wars, or the genocide, it’s because they’re a bit religious about it.

And this is why my feelings about it are complicated. We’ve all been a bit concerned about whether Warhammer 40,000 is satire since Games Workshop released that statement, but I think this is good satire, and I don’t think they meant to do it. Christopher Hitchens, the poster boy of rationalism, supported the invasion of Iraq, he supported torturing prisoners until he tried water boarding for himself. In many ways the rationalism of the New Atheist movement was nothing more than a justification for Western Imperialism, and I think it’s interesting what Robout Guilliman’s rationalist genocide in the 41st Milennium has to say about that.

#warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #space marines #adeptus astartes #new atheism

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