#grim dark

[art-of-thomas-elliott]

Magna Guards advance! Doing this in the style of oldschool GW ink.

Thomas elliott Artist Illustrator

#art #artist #ink #traditional art #ink painting #painting #illustraiton #illustrator #thomas elliott #warhammer #40k #grim dark #warhammer 40000 #old school gw #magna guards #sci fi #scifi art

[peachypede]

I bet on losing dogs…

___

I wanted to add to the angst that @citruslullabies wrote this morning about @bumblehoneybee’s oc ehehe.

I’m crap at drawing those blank faced self inserts so I’ve decided to just plug in Rawst. I feel like they’re a good oc for this poppy playtime au I am constructing in my brain.

#oc rawst #poppy playtime #dogday #oc peanuts (not mine) #tw: death #tw: blood #grim dark #gore #would you believe me if I said I held my own child to understand where the hand placement would be with Rawst holding Peanuts lol

[magikkbeann]

Nearly forgot to post my warhammer gal I drew here ^^ an ex-battle sister for a campaign I'm in!

#my art #digital art #digital drawing #digital illustration #red hair #warhammer 40k #warhammer art #wh40k #battle sister #adepta sororitas #grim dark #character art #character design

[scifi-fantasy-horror]

Archaon the Everchosen  by  Antonio J. Manzanedo

#Age of Sigmar #Warhammer #Archaon #Grim Dark #Dark Fantasy

[drunkenskunk]

Welcome to another Drunk Skunk™ rant!

It is entirely possible that you have noticed: I love Warhammer 40k. At the same time, I hate Warhammer 40k... okay, hate is probably the wrong word, but let me explain.

40k is one of my favorite sci-fi settings because it is, hilariously, one of the few that actually manages to get the scale of Outer Space right. Most sci-fi writers have no sense of scale, but 40k is somehow able to convey the unimaginable, incomprehensible, terrifying vastness of Outer Space correctly.

Granted, I think it does this entirely on accident, because everything in 40k is exaggerated beyond the point of absurdity. The scale of everything is massive, every number has several zeros tacked onto the end of it, travelling anywhere takes months, years, even decades, and... that's just how Outer Space is. You can't exaggerate on what is already functionally infinite.

As a result, 40k as a setting has an enormous amount of potential. No matter how much we see of the Warhammer galaxy, we will only ever see a bare fraction of it, and there is always going to be more - and stranger - stuff hidden in pockets of the galaxy that has slipped entirely beneath notice for decades, if not centuries. Or even millennia!

But here's the problem I have. All of this potential? It is almost always completely wasted by Games Workshop. Nearly every single time, GW ignores the massive amount of potential in the setting they created, in order to focus on boring shit that nobody cares about like even more fucking space marines. It's infuriating.

As far as I'm concerned, there is no better example of this in the entire setting... than the Tau Empire.

The Tau annoy me, but not for the reasons you think.

The most common complaint I see leveled against the Tau is that they are the "good" guys, and that they don't fit into the Grim Darkness of the Grim Dark far future of Grim Dark. This is untrue. Moreover: it was never true. Even when they were introduced in 2001 with their first codex during 3rd edition, they were not good guys.

I've always held the suspicion that people saw things like their catchphrase "The Greater Good" and they read things like "the Tau are not overtly hostile," and took all of that entirely at face value, because a sizeable chunk of this fucking fandom has no media literacy skills.

It still amazes me that Warhammer 40k - a game physically incapable of subtlety - has fans that miss the blatantly obvious.

Before I get to my main point, let's clear the air on something right now: the Tau are bad guys, just like all the other factions in 40k.

If you were to place the Tau in any other science fiction setting, they would be a terrifyingly evil authoritarian space hegemony, with a firmly held belief of "Manifest Destiny" and constantly expanding the borders of their imperial holdings through the use of dirty tricks, illegitimate treaties, and good old fashioned military adventurism spurred on by their vast military industrial complex.

Yes, the Tau typically engage in diplomacy first, but that's usually only to establish a casus belli to claim the moral high ground in a conflict because the Tau are obsessed with appearances and love to play the Long Game. Yes, the average standard of living in Tau space is higher than the Imperium, but that's not a high bar. The Tau have a rigidly enforced caste system, and you can imagine how they deal with their "client races" who might disagree with that and even other Tau who refuse to fall in line.

Or have we all forgotten about Commander Farsight?

... I feel like I may have gotten a bit off track.

Okay, so: the simple reason the Tau annoy me is because there was a whole lot of potential there, and all of it has been completely wasted because Games Workshop doesn't seem to understand what made them interesting in the first place.

See, when the Tau were introduced in 2001, it was quickly established in the first codex that the only reason they even managed to make it to the "present" of 40k was due to a series of accidents that allowed that particular scrap of nowhere to slip beneath everyone's notice.

But here's the thing: we didn't really need that excuse. Every time we see maps of Tau space, it's always zoomed in to such an extent that it looks much bigger than it is... because, unlike every other faction, you can't have a full map of the galaxy that only focuses on the Tau, because it's always just a pinprick.

My personal favorite of these maps is the one from the 5th edition rulebook, but it's common with all of them.

To put this into better perspective: Tau space is almost always described as a sphere about 300 light years in diameter, which is roughly the same size as "The Bubble," the cluster of human worlds centered around Sol, in Elite Dangerous.

And that, right there, is why the Tau should be interesting, at least to me. They represent what could exist in the hidden parts of the Warhammer galaxy that slips beneath everyone's notice because SPACE IS BIG. The Imperium of Man may technically cover the entire breadth of the Milky Way galaxy, and "hold" a million worlds... but there are 100 BILLION stars, and even more planets besides, in a galaxy that stretches 100 thousand light years from end to end.

That is A LOT of Outer Space that could hold any number of secrets and weird alien species that nobody would know about until somebody accidentally stumbles on them.

The Tau could have - should have - been a jumping off point, allowing Games Workshop to make the setting feel even bigger and far more strange than it already does. The Tau could've been the template for introducing "pocket empires" to the setting: smaller xenos armies that people could use in skirmishes, but without entertaining the illusion that they have the military projection power to stand up to the other factions on an appreciable strategic scale for an extended period of time.

And yet...

It fees like Games Workshop consistently misunderstands what should make the Tau interesting. Every new codex, every new edition, it feels like we get more and more of GW trying to be like "No, no! The Tau can definitely stand toe-to-toe with the Imperium of Man! They build tall rather than wide, and are ABSOLUTELY a threat to the Imperium, we promise!" when in reality the only reason the Tau are even still here is because the Imperium always has bigger problems to deal with.

There was the bit I mentioned earlier, where the Tau were initially saved after they discovered fire due to a mixture of freak warp storms and the Age of Apostasy causing the records to get lost. The Damocles Crusade ended in the Imperium's withdrawal because of the imminent arrival of Hive Fleet Behemoth. The Third Sphere Expansion was only successful because Failbbadon Abbadon launched the 13th Black Crusade at the same time on the other side of the galaxy, blew up Cadia, and split the galaxy in half with the Cicatrix Maledictum. Every single time the Tau do anything, a much bigger threat always shows up, and causes everyone to forget about the Tau until they inevitably go back to poking the monster.

Like, I know it's GW doing this, but sometimes it feels like Tzeentch is secretly pulling strings behind the scenes to specifically ensure the continued survival of the Tau, for no other reason than simply because the Changer of Ways thinks its funny.

And that's not even talking about how they've slowly morphed into The Gundam Faction.

Like, it used to be that the Tau Empire was supposed to be this big conglomeration of many different alien races all working together. And there are token mentions of that in the 9th edition codex, with a big list of names largely devoid of context. But as soon as you see these guys in action on the tabletop, it's immediately clear what they're about. You only ever see Tau, and you only ever see Big Robots.

Which... it's not bad, the model range looks great, don't get me wrong. But it still feels slightly disappointing, when you think about what we could have had.

I love Warhammer 40k.

But I also hate Warhammer 40k.

Because I see all this potential... and, inevitably, I see it squandered.

And it frustrates me to no end.

#Warhammer #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40000 #40k #wh 40k #Tau Empire #T'au #tau #Grim Dark #In the Grim Darkness of the Grim Dark far future of Grim Darkness there is only Grim Dark #Drunk Skunk Rant #wasted potential

[the-first-heretic]

“By bolter shell, flamer burst and melta blast, the mutant, the heretic, and the traitor alike are cleansed of their sin of existence. So has it been for five millennia, so shall it be unto the end of time.”

- Words of Devotion, Verses IV-V, Chapter X, Vol. LII

Adepta Sororitas, Sisters of Battle.

Source: From the book “Dark Heresy: Blood of Martyrs, pg. 23.”

Art: 1. Nicholas Kay, 2 & 3 unknown from Pinterest.

#warhammer 40k #warhammer 40k art #scifi art #scifi #fantasy #sisters of battle #grim dark #warhammer 40000 #warhammer art #dark imperium

[lamemaster]

Feast of Blades

TW: Blood, gore, torture (not much but mentioned)

Pairing: Sauron x Reader

Genre: Grim-dark fantasy

Summary: The world you fought to save, the world promised to both Men and Elves, was being stolen. The Firstborn, once allies, turned into conquerors, rewriting history with the ink of lies.

Chapters: 1/ ?

AN: Very cannon divergent do not read if you don't like that ;) (unreliable narrators are lingering in this fic)

Sweat stung your eyes as your body contorted under the invisible weight. A thousand searing blisters erupted across your skin, each one a tiny scream of pain. Your bones groaned in protest, threatening to shatter under the relentless pressure. 

You could feel the claws of death prying you from the face of the Earth as it had done for all your ancestors. But you held on. You did not deserve to die yet. You will not accept whatever gift your creator held in the world beyond this one. Not until you had your revenge. 

Gritting your teeth, you bowed your head, the unforgiving earth digging into your bloodied palms. "Give me the power," you rasped, your voice hoarse with agony. "One chance. Turn me into whatever they crave the most. Make me desired by their kind and I will be their perfect weapon. I will sow discord within their ranks, bring chaos to their kingdoms. Just… let me live."

A chilling laugh echoed through the cavernous hall.  Though unseen, you felt the presence shift on its obsidian throne. "And why should I grant such a boon?" a voice like silk wrapped around razor blades slithered into the darkness.  A hint of amusement danced around the edges of the question, offering a sliver of hope amidst the despair.

"Because I cannot die," you hissed, channeling your desperation into defiance.  "Their kind fear oblivion, but I crave to destroy everything they hold dear. I need to live to repay the debt owed to my ancestors. I will burn their palaces to the ground, raze their cities to ash. Let them drown in their own fear! I cannot die, my Lord."

Sauron's chortle morphed into a chilling chuckle, the sound echoing through the cavernous hall. He leaned forward, the darkness swirling around him momentarily revealing a single, glowing red eye. The knowing glint in that eye confirmed your worst fears – he remembered you.

“My lord has chosen to side with the firstborn and so have I. What makes you believe that I, will help you human?” The eye narrowed in mirth.

"The Battle of Unnumbered Tears," you spat, your voice shaking with a mixture of defiance and desperation. "A victory for Men, but not without cost. It was your humiliation, wasn't it? For failing to see the treachery in the East. You still burn with that humiliation, Lord Mairon, don't you?"

A flicker of surprise crossed Sauron's face, quickly masked by a sardonic smile. "A clever ploy, mortal," he purred. "You play on old wounds, hoping to stir rebellion in a servant who has long since accepted his place. But tell me, what makes you think I would choose your fleeting rage over the power I wield at my Lord Melkor's side?"

"And you think," he continued, his voice a silken rasp, "that I, who bore the brunt of Melkor's wrath, would stoop to further your pathetic vendetta?"  A flicker of something akin to amusement sparked in his gaze. 

Decades. It had been decades since the world had shifted beneath your feet, leaving you scrambling for purchase on the treacherous slope of survival. 

Back then, your face, unmarred by the lines of time and the etchings of despair, held the youthful confidence of a captain under Lord Ulfang. Hope, naive and bright, had fueled your journey West, following tales of a gleaming Elven prince who promised salvation for the East.

You had fought side-by-side with the Firstborn then, battling orcs, goblins, and the tide of darkness Melkor unleashed upon Middle-earth.

Wide-eyed and awestruck by the ethereal beauty of your allies, you truly believed in the stories of unity and coexistence. It was the only way, your elders had said, to secure a future for your people, to stave off the encroaching famine that gnawed at the very heart of the East.

But victory, fleeting and bittersweet, had turned to ash in your mouth. The celebrations around meager rations, a mockery of their triumph, were soon replaced by a chilling realization.

The world you fought to save, the world promised to both Men and Elves, was being stolen. The Firstborn, once allies, turned into conquerors, rewriting history with the ink of lies. The lie spread like wildfire. Treachery of the Easterlings, they called it, twisting narratives to absolve their own thirst for power. Your people, once allies, became the scapegoats in a matter of days.

The memory of Lord Ulfang's screams still echoed in the desolate chambers of your mind. Skinned alive in the cell that held you and 20 others. His body left in the cell until some in the desperation of hunger nibbled on stiff fingers. 

"They hunted us," you spat, a feral snarl twisting your features.  "Like deer in the twilight, they stalked our fields, their laughter echoing as they cut down our men.  Our women, they did not kill, but worse.  They violated them in the name of their twisted breeding programs, forcing them to bear a generation of half-elven slaves."

Your voice cracked, the memory a searing brand on your soul.  "And now, they lord over the remnants of our people, herding us into gilded cages they call cities. The Children of Eru, they proclaim themselves!  Eru who turned a deaf ear to our pleas, who allowed our homes to be burned and our families to be torn apart!" Fury choked your voice, tears welling in your eyes.

You slammed your fist against the cold stone floor, the sound echoing through the cavernous hall. "I want to burn his world!  This song of creation, this symphony of suffering – I want to silence it all!  Eru who favored the Firstborn and left us to bleed in the dust. He doesn't deserve this world, this song!"

Tears streamed down your face, a mixture of rage and despair. You lurched to your knees before Sauron's unseen throne. "I offer you more than just my mortality, Lord Mairon. I offer you my song, the song of a people wronged, a song fueled by fury. Take my life force, take my flame imperishable, and use it to forge a weapon that will shatter the foundations of Eru's creation! I offer chaos."

The coarse fabric of a cloak brushed against your cheek, the scent of pine needles and lavender filling your nostrils. A low murmur of Elvish, its melody both beautiful and alien, filled your ears. You squeezed your eyelids shut, feigning unconsciousness, as another voice, baritone and familiar, spoke.

"We couldn't just leave her there," it said, a hint of exasperation lacing the words.  "Not with Lady Aeredhel being with us."

A heavy sigh followed, and you felt the soft press of a body settling beside you.  The floor beneath you was cool and smooth, a stark contrast to the rough earth you were used to. "Is she another one of your rescues, Glorfindel?" the newcomer inquired, pronouncing the name with a touch of reverence.

Recognition jolted through you. Gondolin. Sauron had chosen Gondolin as your first target.

A cold certainty settled over you, replacing the flicker of doubt.  His motives – the machinations of a fallen Maia – did not matter.  All that mattered was the delicious sting of vengeance, the promise of seeing the world burn as brightly as the hatred that consumed you. You were a spark, a tiny ember, but fanned by the winds of your suffering, you would become an inferno.

Let Sauron play his games. Let him dangle the promise of power and destruction. You would use him, twist him to your will, until Gondolin lay in ruins and the Elven screams echoed through the halls of Eru himself. In the end, there would be only one victor: you.

Keeping your eyes squeezed shut, you strained to catch every murmur. Turgon's head.  A monstrous image filled your mind's eye, a centerpiece for the feast you would prepare for Sauron. But the feast had to begin somewhere, and a wicked smile played on your lips beneath the mask of unconsciousness.

The House of the Golden Flower. The perfect place to start. Your "magnanimous rescuer," Glorfindel, would soon learn the true cost of his misplaced kindness.

A groan escaped your lips, weak and trembling. You cracked open an eye, feigning disorientation as you met the gaze of a golden-haired Elf, who peered at you with the lingering entitlement of a savior. 

#silmarillion x reader #the silmarillion #sauron x reader #cannon divergence #angst #grim dark #glorfindel x reader #morally grey characters #unreliable narrators

[fuukonomiko]

Let us not forget the OTP of 40K: Rogal Dorn x Imperial Palace ;)

OMG THIS ASK TOOK FOREVER BUT HERE IT IS.

That's a pillar from the Imperial palace. Imagine it is, at least.

Who's up for a fisting....

#Warhammer 30k #Warhammer 40k #Imperium of Man #Chaos #Grim Dark #My Art #Perpetual WIP #I'm trying #OOC #Reblogs are always appreciated #especially if you made an art request #Shitposting #Because Why Not #Brighthammer #rogal dorn #imperial fists

[nathanielmatychuk]

The Way

#corel painter #nathaniel matychuk #digital art #ink #drawing #art #illustration #doodle #artists on tumblr #fantasy art #dark fantasy #grim dark #castle #keyhole #ink drawing #digital inking #my art

[miniobscura]

#drukhari #grim dark #grimdark #painting warhammer #warhammer #warhammer 40k #warhammer art #warhammer miniatures #painting miniatures #mini painting #warhammercommunity

[art-of-thomas-elliott]

Space marine personal painting, just wanted to do something in the old school grimdark style.

#art #artist #ink #ink painting #painting #paint #traditional art #illustration #illustrator #thomas elliott #grim dark #warhammer #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40000 #games workshop #gw #space marine #astartes #bolter #space marine art

[kand1-p1xelz]

More Fanart for @rainbott this time little ms vogue

#MLP #my little pony #g1 my little pony #my little pony g1 #little miss rarity #little miss vogue #creepypasta #grim dark #rainbott

[ghoulish-arts]

WIP old barnhouse for a dark fantasy TTRPG I wanna run, experimented with trying to make thatched roofing by using the wire brush wheel on my Dremel, anxious to see if it takes paint well

#haunted cottage core #warhammer fantasy #grimdark #grim dark #d&d #d&d art #ttrpg #ttrpg art #diorama #wargame terrain #miniature

[scifi-fantasy-horror]

Mechanicus By  Maxim Bazhenov

#Mechanicus #WH40k #Scifi #Science Fiction #Grim Dark

[renegade-chaos-druid]

Rodolphe Bresdin

((Makes me think of WHF))

#warhammer #oldhammer #mordheim #empire #old world #art #Rodolphe Bresdin #grim dark #fantasy #Medieval #1882

[deus-primordialis-eternatus]

𝕾𝖜𝖆𝖒𝖕 - 𝕹𝖊𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖓 𝕯𝖞𝖓𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘

Calder Moore

#swamp #necrontyr #necrons40k #calder moore #magic the gathering #mtg art #digital 2d #fantasy #dark fantasy #environmental concept art and design #board and card game #warhammer #warhamemr 40k #warhamer 40000 #necron #land #monolith #necron dynasty #dynasty #grim dark #dark future #awakening #awakened #dark #robot #scifi #ominous