Ancient Defender said:

Geraldine Chaplain has made some weird ones though. FSM, btw? :-)

Alex

ak-73 said:

Female Space Marine?

The skulls are the symbol of the Emperor. The SM Chaplains wear them as a "Death Mask" of the emperor, they are used in everything because they represent the Immortal Emperor..... and yes it is grim dark as well!

Ancient Defender said:

Chaplain Geraldine would be one. Perhaps as a reward for an especially heroic and devout Sororita.

Alex

LETE said:

Thus what happens when you're multi-tasking. On the other monitor I was writing about "moments in time" for an archaeological report. Go figure.

Kage

Oh c'mon. The Empire of Man is an Evil Empire to the bone (no pun intended). It's so overwhelmingly evil, it makes Nazi Germany look like Disneyland. Between the fascist, uncaring and oppressive government, equally oppressive, overly fanatical religion, legal system that makes Hammurabi look like Ghandi, the Bureaucratic Hell, and the combat doctrine of throwing billions of people into the meat grinder for strategically idiotic reasons, it is probably the vilest, saddest s***hole human minds could imagine, including various portrayals of Hell.

Now, what symbol could accurately reflect the crapsack nature of the Empire while being quite badass at the same time? Nothing beats a skull in this regard. It's the most classic, most badass symbol of pure evil and genocidal intent. Hence, skulls in Empire. But since Empire is so much more evil than any other empire... loads of skulls, everywhere!

On a related note, I wonder how often conversations like

I think - for the Imperium of Man - how you die is more important than how you live.

Did you die in the service of your fellow man? Toiling away endlessly so the great Imperium could survive another day? Another decade? Another ten thousand years?

Or - did you die a chaos worshipping sumbag - betraying your race and all creation.

Individuality is the enemy of Mankind in 40K - a skull has no individuality. All pure human skulls are created equal.

====

Someone else pointed it out plainly.. these skulls are human. They aren't mutated - they aren't xenos.

They are the "honored dead" - I always imagine that each skull is a loved one - a personal hero - or even an enemy. Momentos to remind a man what he's fighting for...

Servitor skulls are a further example of honoring the dead.

====

Nobody draws pictures of agri-world farmers.. pleasure world prostitutes... or Imperial Worlds having festivals. We know it does happen in the "grimdark" of 40K - but that's not where the war is going on. I bet those people don't carry around skulls all day... sure, maybe old uncle Martius - hero of the Gurndyn Line - is tucked in the closet and brought out on holidays - but I bet not everyone walks around with this form of adornment jangling on their belts.

Just the bad asses.

...um.... actually, IIRC, the most common carriers of heads are the clerks of the Administratum. Hardly the badasses of 40k... more like the people working hard to keep it screwed up and grimdark.

Personally, I like living as a chaos worshipping scumbag while sacrificing my neighbors to the dark gods to make sure I stay that way.

40K was written in the 1980's by people that probably listened to Manowar and Iron Maiden... a lot.

Everything is big, black, spikey, skulls and if it isn't, its probably wearing a spandex bodysuit with big hair.

darkrose50 said:

Bang on! Agreed ++

Our museums must be evil... lots of skulls there. In fact - they have WHOLE SKELETONS. And citizens come and look at the skeletons for entertainment.

Halloween - Dia de los muertos - All Souls Day - The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Funerals - evil - we have dead bodies we stuff with chemicals, put into ornate caskets, and then observe their internment into the ground.

=====

Honestly - the skull imagery really has nothing to do with "evil" or "grimdark" to me.

It has to do with the fact that people in the 40K universe were forced to grow up - death happens. Just because our modern cultures are afflicted with a mass phobia of death won't stop it from happening to everyone.

People who are still afraid of death? Slaves to the Ruinous Powers (funny how when death finds them - the Ruinous Powers devour their souls - so that part of them even dies. Evil is still dumb in the grim dark future.)

So - you have a few skulls around - big deal. They're bone - what's so big about bone? We crack wishbones in some cultures for "luck" - we hand animal heads on our walls - heck, we throw tons (the literal measurement) of bone into the trash yearly.

Our entire existence centers around consuming other previously living matter.

======

I think the Imperium just stopped being so childish about death - about dying - and even about killing. It cannot be said that the "vast majority" of people are sacrificed to the Emperor - whether through war, the Inquisition, or the Astronomican - because the race would die out if it were the majority.

But - humans must die - so humanity can live.

Therefore - the skull symbol is a reminder of our mortality (which is the only reason why we consider it "grim" anyway).

=====

Oh, and Baronlveagh - personally, that's the reason I like putting bolter rounds in between the eyes of "chaos worshipping scumbags".

"We toil for the Emperor, and by extension, all mankind - not ourselves. That way - lies ruin. " - Acolyte Medhia Nox, current campaign.

Medhia Nox said:

Saying that 40k has a few skulls around is like suggesting that Bill Gates has some money or that the Smithsonian has some antiques laying around.

There's a difference between acceptance of mortality and a post-black death level of obsession with it.

Medhia Nox said:

It's one thing to have skulls in the museum, in the funeral house, or at the festival of the dead.

It's completely different thing to have skulls in the symbolism of any existing organization, use them as lucky charms, turn them into servant-droids, and generally do everything so that your random imperial citizen can't live a day of his life without seeing some hundred skulls all around himself.

I agree that our current civilization is hysterical about death and goes out of the way to not think about it. But the Empire of Man, they are obsessed with death, to the level that puts most hardcore Norwegian Black Metal bands to shame. There's nothing mature about that, it's a bizarre orgy of death symbolism, any and every day.

Morangias said:

There's the key though. Warhammer, 40k and Fantasy, were both created

by Metal Heads and Punks way back when. It influenced the imagery a lot,

and the Grimdarkness of it all.

But see - I don't see the Imperium saying: "More skulls for the skull god!" Khorne is the rock'n Death Metal god.

The skulls are just there in the iconography of the culture - nobody walks around commenting on them - Joe Arbitrator doesn't walk down the street saying: "Wow Jane Arbitrator - those are some wicked skulls you got!"

Or - "Behold the awesome power of my rock'n skull servitors!" *cue guitar riff*

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As I mentioned - if I had to explain that aspect of Imperial culture to my players - I would go more with a materalistic spiritualism - a kind of ancestor worship and reminder that humanity is all we're fighting for.

====

And yes - of course it's "grimdark" and sometimes way overdone to the point of silliness... the person who pointed out that the Rogue Trader cover is littered with skulls - no joke. That actually makes them sillier than "grim".

====

But while skulls may be everywhere... it's the Aquila that is the center of Imperial culture.

Balseraph said:

Have to agree with you there.

Story wise the Grimdark obsession of the Imperium is due to the fact that when it was formed Humanity was recovering from near destruction.

Much like those scenes in Terminator where robots are crushing skulls underfoot/track.

The Imperium likes to remind people of that.

An obviously not a heavy handed metaphor.

Still the best sci fi setting in my mind after 25 years of change and ambiguity.

Death is a natural part of life, and in the wake of two major disasters (Age of Strife and Horus Heresy) it's important to make sure that no one is above death, not even the Emperor. Only in death does duty end, and sometimes not even then. Plus it ties in religiously that these poor sods gave their lives for The Imperium, now they've joined with the Emperor, you too can one day be part of this to be remembered by not how you lived by how you died.

"A skull is a common symbol in the iconography of the Imperial Cult that is used to represent the sacrifice of the Emperor in giving up his conscious life so that he might ascend to a new state of spiritual being in the Immaterium through the use of the Golden Throne and protect humanity from the evils of Chaos, xenos and heretics."