In 2019, Games Workshop’s fiction publishing arm Black Library began to publish new Warhammer 40,000 novels in genres it had never before explored. Warhammer Crime and Warhammer Horror titles joined the massive catalogue of war stories and pulp adventures set in the Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar universes. But there’s one genre the firm has avoided to this day, leaving mountains of cash on the table: the time is right for Warhammer Romance.
If all you know about Warhammer 40k is the war side of it, this might sound like a total nonstarter. A lot of the setting is specifically designed to have no room for romance or sex. The Space Marines never acknowledge either topic, and are only academically aware of how humans reproduce. The Orks, one of the alien Warhammer 40k factions, are a species of genderless fungus whose nearest concept to love is “grod”, or “favorite enemy”.
But I’m here to tell the Warhammer die-hards why those preconceptions are wrong, and advertise to the BookTok fandom why – if Warhammer Romance ever does happen – you should get in on the ground floor.
First things first: romance does happen in Warhammer 40k, it just never gets centre stage. Off the top of my head, I know that the third Eisenhorn novel features the titular Inquisitor hooking up with an old lover; the Ciaphas Cain stories would be full of tales of his escapades with Amberley Vail if she had not redacted them; there’s a peripheral romance plot in Dan Abnett’s excellent Double Eagle; and so on.
And the right writer could definitely make romance the central theme of a Warhammer 40k book that still feels like Warhammer 40k. Love stories don’t have to end happily – or start happily – or be relaxed, peaceful, or comforting. Romeo and Juliet, the most famous pair of lovers in the English language, come from rival noble households locked in a ongoing turf war, and their story ends with a double suicide.
There’s a popular subgenre of wartime love stories, all about the aching tension of being joyfully in love while the world falls apart and you know you could lose it all. Some of the best Warhammer 40k novels are all about the uneven course of hope and fear through a catastrophe: the much lauded ’15 Hours’ by Michael Scanlon, or ‘Helsreach’ by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, are about disaster after disaster with occasional bright sparks of defiance. Adding a genuine love story to that kind of tale would only heighten the tension.
The Imperium of Man’s nobility mashes-up Medieval, Elizabethan, Regency, and Victorian societies with some sci-fi shenanigans. It’s a world where marriage is a question of power, money, politics, and duty, more than love – a classic set up for romance novels. 40k books that explore high society tend to be excellent – ‘Assassinorum: Execution Force’ is particularly fun – but they interrupt the courtly intrigue with a minimum quota of fight scenes. Replacing the fights with heartfelt confessions, denouncements, smooching, and the occasional duel between rival suitors wouldn’t damage the flow.
For the romance readers asking why they should be interested in the 40k universe, I’ll ask some pertinent questions. What if your protagonist was the pirate captain of a space ship the size of a small town? What if the morally gray love interest had the political authority to blow up a planet? 40k is packed with melodrama, moral complexity, iconic characters, ridiculously cool science-fantasy nonsense, and 18th century fashion. I’m not even going to mention the smut potential, because the fanfiction writers over on AO3 already have that covered…
For the very small group of fans worried about this diluting or ‘polluting’ the brand, 1) this is just some thoughts I had in my head, don’t waste your energy on it, and 2) if Warhammer Romance ever did happen, it wouldn’t impact the core franchise at all. Games Workshop has made a lot of money by tailoring specific products for specific audiences. This would be exactly the same – a way to interest new people in the 40k universe that doesn’t intrude on the business of making toy soldiers.
So go on Games Workshop. This could be bigger than the Horus Heresy books. Make it happen.
If you want to get to romance in the 41st millennium right away, you can actually do it already in the sprawling CRPG Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader. And if you’re lucky enough to be part of a couple that games together, why not check out our guide to the best board games for couples?
Source: Wargamer
