![]() But the universe was truly vast, and there was a great deal of room for “micro-invention” within it. Like many popular and long-running intellectual properties, 40k is a “shared universe”-lots of individuals work within, and contribute creatively to, the whole. ![]() When I was first asked to write for Warhammer 40,000 (as memory serves, this would have been around about 1996), the basics of the “world” I would be working in were already well built. What you’re basically setting out to do is establish a playing field that is logical and stable and doesn’t start suddenly contradicting itself. Sometimes it means literally inventing a world, sometimes it means something more figurative. This happened with the city of Downlode in my 2000AD series Sinister Dexter, and it happened every time I invented a planet setting for a Star Trek or Legion of Super-Heroes story. I’ve personally done it many times, often without even consciously realising I’m doing it, as I create the background for a story or series of my own. There are some singularly achieved examples (Middle Earth, Arrakis, Gormenghast) and there are some spectacularly piecemeal yet inclusive examples too (the continuity of Doctor Who, the Marvel Comics Universe). What’s basically meant by the phrase is the deliberate and artful construction of a consistent fictional background, setting or milieu for your story or stories to operate in. SF, fantasy, horror, comics, a great deal of gaming, etc., etc.), is used to the process. Anyone who works in what’s loosely known as “genre fiction” (i.e. Actually, that comes as no great revelation to me. It seems I can add “world builder” to my CV. Introduction by Dan Abnett Apostle’s Creed by Graham McNeill The Headstone and the Hammerstone Kings by Matthew Farrer Regicide by Aaron Dembski-Bowden The Iron Star by Dan Abnett Cell by Nik Vincent Blueblood by Nick Kyme A Good Man by Sandy Mitchell Of Their Lives in the Ruins of Their Cities by Dan Abnett There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. ![]() It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants-and worse. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the techpriests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor’s will. Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. ![]() He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. Edited by Dan Abnett (An Undead Scan v1.0)
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