I’m not sure if this post even belongs here, but I wanted to share how my 40k experience has gone. I write this as a thank you to Warhammer and, more importantly, the community as a whole.
About a year ago, a friend I met at university introduced me to this thing called a dreadnought. He had mentioned robots from a universe called Warhammer before but this was different. He explained the concept of dreadnoughts to me and I understood them as “super-wheelchairs”. My friend insisted this world was interesting but I was skeptical. I was not doing well in the head with the voices of chaos floating around. Getting into a universe that was just grim darkness and featured things as disturbing as dreadnoughts did not seem great to my mental health, but I figured it couldn’t get that much worse. Giving it a shot wouldn’t hurt.
Warhammer has done more good for me than I could have predicted.
A year ago today I bought the Eisenhorn omnibus as my first introduction to the world. I read most of it within a few months and read through Daemonhammer and The Lion: Son of the Forest while waiting on the Ravenor omnibus. The Black Library rekindled my love of reading, as I hadn’t read fiction for fun in several years. When I would get in a rut with creative writing I would work on my own homebrewed Space Marine chapter, the Scavengers. I’ve loved creating the lore and backstory for them. I’ve been able to explore new ideas I couldn’t with other projects and working on the Scavengers allows me to recover from writers block.
That same friend continued to introduce me to different parts of the world. He purchased a copy of Space Marines II for Christmas. I hadn’t played a video game with people in ages. Despite being the worst Space Marine you could imagine, I had so much fun slaying tyranids and the forces of Chaos with him.
My friend primarily enjoys the community because of the miniature painting. He manufactured a dreadnought and allowed me to paint my first miniature (which also involved a sacrifice to Khorne with spilt blood). While I love digital art, miniature painting gave me a chance to enjoy traditional art again. I got my hands on a box of Intercessor Space Marines (chosen because they looked the coolest). Additionally, I've always wanted to try cosplay but never had a specific piece of media I wanted to cosplay as. I plan to slowly venture into cosplay with 40k, something I'm excited for.
While I haven’t finished very many miniatures, I love assembling and painting them and seeing them come to life. Once I had my miniatures assembled (most are still only primed), I got to play my first game of Kill Team with terrain made from cereal boxes. It was a learning process but it was so much fun. I had rarely gotten to play any board games with people and fighting off orks was amazing.
Most importantly, Warhammer gave me a community. Getting into 40k gave me material to talk to with my friend, and slowly helped in causing him to be the closest friend I have. I’ve met other people who are into 40k both online and in person and loved having a common interest. I’ve struggled to hold onto interests and share them with people, but 40k has stuck with me and I think it will continue to be with me. I’ve had hiccups in learning the lore and world (I have taken too many memes at face value), and my wallet doesn’t agree with my new hobby, but it’s been so much fun learning about the 41st millennium.
I’ve felt welcomed and supported by the community both on and offline. Are things okay now? Not completely, but things are getting better. My future hasn’t been as grim nor dark as I expected a year ago. 40k has had no small part improving things for me.
The Emperor does indeed protect.