The Multiform World of Warhammer

Are you looking for a new hobby to get into? Maybe even an exciting sci-fi/fantasy franchise to read about or play video games on, based on the setting? 

If so, you don’t have to look any farther than the “Warhammer” franchise that began as an exciting fantasy franchise that started in London, England. Warhammer was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien fantasies such as “Lord of the Rings,” then later in 1987 evolved to have a sci-fi spinoff called “40K” that eventually grew into its own thing. 

Both settings coincide today as different tastes for different people who are interested. I started my dive into Warhammer back in 2020 as the pandemic hit, with the miniatures first. Since I had experience at making plastic models I thought it would be fun to make something other than cars, trucks and planes. It was a starting box set for 40K that included the flagship human characters “Space Marines” and alien robots called “Necrons.” 

I’ve been in love ever since, exploring epic stories, art pieces and video games based on the setting. 

The coolest part is that each piece of media does not fit into one genre, as it branches out to horror, military fiction, and small comedic stories, to name a few. There are hundreds of characters of both alien and human characters, with close to 30 factions of different aliens and humans in the setting, with countless different stories within those factions. 

Warhammer has inspired me to draw things from the setting that help me learn to draw sci-fi/fantasy characters, since the designs are so extreme and gaudy.

How I describe this to anyone who hasn’t heard of Warhammer before is that it’s similar to either Lord of the Rings or “Star Wars,” but cranked up to 11.

I recommend this to people who are interested in these types of settings or finding inspiration for their own works – or to the tabletop players who want to play something different that is similar to Dungeons & Dragons.

This goes, too, for bored gamers who aren’t satisfied with the latest releases as the video games are all mostly made on a Double-A budget by smaller developers, or for people who binge read a few books – for the book lovers out there.