In the Grim Dark of the Far Future

There Are Only Cats

If you ever have a few days to spare, ask a fan to tell you about Warhammer 40K.

They’ll describe a galaxy-spanning totalitarian empire, policed by witches and warrior nuns, guarded by zombie super soldiers in giant robots, and maintained by incense swinging mechanic-priests. They’ll also mention sadistic space elves, cybernetic pharaohs, Lovecraftian xenomorphs, and literal demons.

In the 1980s a group of British nerds invented the satirical 40K setting to sell tiny lead toy soldiers. They borrowed from Dune and Star Wars, but mixed in Tolkien, Judge Dredd, and Hitchhiker’s Guide. Then they let it ferment in a generation or two of Thatcherite policy and Reagonomics.

It’s weird.

It’s so weird that it’s avoided the attention of Big Media, which in turn has allowed it to get even weirder. In addition to a ridiculous variety of (now plastic) toy soldiers, it has spawned hundreds of novels, as well as video games, comics books, and cartoons.

It’s also stayed true to its political roots. You will find some fans who don’t get it, but the owners and most fans celebrate the message that power corrupts and that fascism (really any extremism) is the true enemy of humanity.

Oh, we should probably also mention that in this grimdark far future, the only approved style of interior design looks a lot like the interior of Hierophany & Hedge (only with more zombie computers).

That’s why we asked gifted Italian painter Ivana Abbate to help us envision Hierophany & Hedge in the 41st millennium.

Augur is a Rogue Trader searching for exotic goods in the deep void and Coil is a demon-hunting Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, subtype: radical.

Oh, and Baroness is a space cat (probably possessed by some sort of warp entity) while Murderpaws is hiding in her mom’s oversized cape.

We hope you enjoy this as much as we did. We’ll be closed this week (except a couple of hours on Wednesday) as Coil will be away celebrating her grandfather’s nine hundredth birthday.

What? Sorry. We’re saying ninetieth? Right. Ninetieth birthday.