The Theology Of … is a series in which we tell parents about the overt or subtle spiritual worlds of various popular media. Each article will explain the theological landscape of a relevant series, and when appropriate, we’ll provide ways for parents to use said content as a way to teach their child about Christian theology.
Introduction to the Series
I move my heroic Primaris Intercessors miniatures into position behind a model of a crumbling cobblestone tower—perfect for light cover. You (the leader of a disgusting, heretical army of Necrons) can only watch as I then use my Intercessor squad to fire upon your Necron Warriors, rolling dice to see whether my attack will succeed or fail.
From the outside looking in, Warhammer 40K looks little more than an expensive tabletop war game—and to be fair, it was when it first released in 1987. Since then, however, the franchise’s popularity has exploded with video games, movies and dozens of books—all expanding upon the deeply spiritual and complicated lore now attached to the dice-rolling game.
That lore, while extensive, is filled with near-constant war, death and tragedy. In fact, Warhammer 40K is the origin of the genre “grimdark,” which stems from the game’s tagline, “In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.” In other words, don’t expect a light-hearted experience.
For many, their first dive into Warhammer 40K wasn’t via the tabletop game—it was through Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a hack-and-slash video game released in 2024, which sold more than six million copies. And in that game, as players ripped through countless waves of bug-like Tyranids, they also encountered iconography reminiscent of medieval Catholicism, charges of heresy and strange phrases, such as “the Emperor protects”—all pointing to the game’s lived-in and deeply-rooted religious lore.
In this blog, we’ll dissect the biggest nuggets of theology within Warhammer 40K’s lore. And even though we can’t touch on everything, we’ll give it the ol’ college try.
So, without further ado, let’s rev up our Chainswords and don our Power Armor as we cut through these spiritual themes.
Note: Because Warhammer is a vastly expanded universe, it would take a much longer blog post than this to cover all of the spiritual themes found within. As such, this blog will focus solely on the main spiritual underpinnings of Warhammer’s futuristic setting, 40K. Additionally, it will not touch on Warhammer’s fantasy side of things, Age of Sigmar. However, if you like this blog, let us know, and we may cover Age of Sigmar in the future.
Overarching Spiritual Worldview
The Rise of the Emperor
Around 8,000 B.C., a man who would become known as the Emperor of Mankind was born in what is now Turkey. He was a Perpetual, a rare type of immortal human with powerful psychic abilities. As humanity progressed through time, he influenced its path, acting in the backdrop of history.
About 23,000 years later, humans discovered the existence of the Warp—a psychic realm that parallels real space, allowing for faster-than-light travel across the galaxy. This is the realm from which psychic abilities come, and it is filled with all the emotions of the universe. Over time, these cumulative emotions coalesced into tangible form as the four evil Chaos Gods. These supernatural beings further manipulate the emotions within the Warp to create “daemons” to do their bidding.
As the population of human and alien civilizations grew, so too did the amount of emotion pumped into the Warp, causing the realm to become increasingly chaotic. Warp storms eventually became so dangerous that it became impossible to use the Warp to travel, cutting off human settlements light-years apart from each other. And around the 25th millennium, Earth (called Terra) descended into barbarity for roughly 4,000 years.
It was at this moment that the Emperor of Mankind revealed himself, eventually uniting Terra through conquest. Following this success, he planned to reunify the scattered human colonies throughout the galaxy under a single Imperium in the Great Crusade. This Great Crusade would purge all threats to humanity, including many “xenos” (aliens). It also involved the elimination of religious beliefs and uniting humanity under an atheistic worldview, as the Emperor believed that religion brought forth strong emotions that gave power to the Warp and put humanity at risk for corruption and Chaos possession.
The Great Crusade
To fuel his conquest, the Emperor decided to use genetic engineering and Warp energy to create 20 superhuman “sons” born from his own DNA to help lead the Great Crusade. However, the Chaos Gods chose to intervene, sending his sons, known as Primarchs, to various planets across the galaxy. There, the infants eventually grew into legendary people on their “home” planets.
Sometime around the 30th millennium, the Emperor created the Astronomican, a kind of psychic lighthouse to help Terra’s ships safely navigate the still-dangerous Warp once more.
The Emperor then traveled the galaxy, slowly conquering planets and bringing his Primarch children back into the fold and equipping them with genetically enhanced Space Marine soldiers. Though some human civilizations resisted, all eventually fell in line or were defeated by the Emperor of Mankind and his Primarchs.
The Horus Heresy
The first Primarch the Emperor found was Horus, who became his favorite son. However, early in the Great Crusade, Horus received a mortal wound while stamping out a cult of Chaos God devotees. Convinced that Chaos magic was the only way to save his life, Horus underwent a Warp ritual—one which healed him but also left his mind exposed to the Chaos Gods. The Chaos Gods then deceived Horus: They showed him false visions of the future, where the Emperor and other Primarchs would be worshipped as gods while Horus was forgotten.
Their lies worked: Horus’s allegiance shifted away from his father. He then convinced many of his brothers to join him—those who had also grown discontent with the way the Emperor had treated them and the choices he had made in the Great Crusade.
The dispute devolved into war as Horus and his allies launched a surprise attack on their loyalist brothers. Eventually, the war culminated at the Siege of Terra, where the Emperor slew Horus—but not before Horus landed a mortal blow on the Emperor.
In a last-ditch effort to save their leader, humans placed the Emperor on the Golden Throne, a life-support device meant to keep the Emperor alive (albeit in a glorified coma). It also amplifies his psychic powers, allowing the Astronomican to continue working. Should the Emperor die or be removed from the Throne, humans would no longer be able to navigate the Warp. Likewise, it is implied that the only thing keeping the Chaos Gods from unleashing their daemons onto Terra is the Emperor’s psychic protection.
The “Modern” Day Imperium of Man
10,000 years later, in the 41st millennium, the Imperium of Man still stands, as do its Space Marines. However, stories of the Emperor (still comatose on his throne) have evolved into superstition. Religion has returned, with the Adeptus Ministorum (also called the Ecclesiarchy) at the center. Its priests teach that the Emperor is a god who sacrificed himself for humanity.
Backing up their beliefs are strange miracles that occasionally occur when people call upon the Emperor to protect them. Believers see these miracles as proof that the Emperor is a god. In reality, because of how the Warp tangibly manipulates emotion, their strong belief in the Emperor is actually turning him into a god—thus providing the power for those miracles. Though the Emperor longed for a secular Imperium, he has nevertheless found himself as the central object of human worship.
Meanwhile, humanity continues its fight against the Chaos Gods and various xenos in a never-ending war.
Important Note Regarding Gods in Warhammer
It is important to note that, in the world of Warhammer 40K, there are no gods in the Christian understanding of the word. That is, there is no entity resembling a perfect uncreated Creator who decrees a certain moral standard over His creation (or even, in a polytheistic sense, His portion of creation).
Instead, every “god” in Warhammer has a beginning: They are all created beings. Interestingly enough, many of these gods came into being only as a resultof belief in their divinity. In other words, they are made and exist only because people believe they exist. Thereby, their existence is dependent on those believers. This includes the Chaos Gods, the gods of the xenos Orks and the deified Emperor.
Other entities designated as gods turn out to be the result of misunderstandings—people viewing ancient alien races as gods or mistaking super advanced technology as supernatural, for instance.
Glossary of Important Characters/Topics
The Emperor of Mankind – The Emperor of Mankind is an immortal human and powerful psychic who longed to dominate the galaxy for humanity’s benefit. Due to the danger of the Warp, he hoped to build an atheistic Imperium that would limit the Warp’s emotional power over mankind. He was betrayed by his genetically enhanced son Horus, which left him permanently confined to the Golden Throne. Thousands of years in the future, humanity has largely become a theocratic society and reveres him as a god. These emotional beliefs have boosted his psychic power through the Warp, which feeds further into those religious beliefs.
Horus Lupercal – Horus was one of the Emperor of Mankind’s sons. He was given ultimate command over the Emperor’s armies during the Great Crusade, but he felt abandoned when his father returned to Terra and left Horus to continue the fight. These feelings of abandonment were seized upon by the Chaos Gods, who manipulated Horus into betraying the Emperor. Horus died during the Siege of Terra in a battle against his father.
Roboute Guilliman – Roboute Guilliman is another son of the Emperor of Mankind and the head of the most recognizable legion of Space Marines: the Ultramarines. He remained loyal to the Emperor during the Horus Heresy and is still active in the 41st millennium. Mortally wounded during the Heresy, Roboute survived his injury by remaining in stasis for 10,000 years, only recently returning to lead the Imperium. Roboute is disillusioned with what the Imperium of Man has become, as its religious fanaticism is a far cry from the secular empire his father longed to create.
The Primarchs and Space Marines – The Primarchs are the 20 superhuman sons created by the Emperor of Mankind using his own genes and Warp energy. Each Primarch embodies a different aspect of the Emperor’s being—his wrath, psychic might, leadership, etc. They also each lead a legion of Space Marines. Space Marines are super-soldiers enhanced by their respective Primarch’s “gene-seed,” genetic material implanted within certain organs to transform them into superpowered beings.
The Warp – The Warp (also called the Immaterium) is a parallel dimension filled with pure psychic energy that is governed by emotions and thoughts. It is a chaotic and dangerous place, where raw emotion can coalesce into dangerous entities, such as the Chaos Gods. It is also where “psykers,” people with psychic abilities, derive their power. Ships hoping to travel across the galaxy use the Warp, since it is faster than normal means. The souls of the dead often end up in the Warp, where they can become corrupted or fade away if they aren’t first consumed by the daemons within the realm.
The Chaos Gods – The four Chaos Gods (created via raw emotion in the Warp) are sentient manifestations of powerful emotions: Khorne represents warfare, rage and murder; Tzeentch characterizes change, sorcery and manipulation; Nurgle embodies decay, despair and disease; and Slaanesh symbolizes excess, pleasure and pain. These beings can influence the material world by corrupting minds and bringing forth daemons.
Major Races and their Religions
Humans – Humans largely fall under one of two religious systems. The first (and more popular) is the Adeptus Ministorum, which is based on Terra. It worships the Emperor of Mankind, and its symbols are reminiscent of medieval Catholicism. The Ministorum stands as a centralized religious authority, containing priests, cardinals and the Ecclesiarch (in essence, the Pope). It emphasizes holy relics, sacraments and liturgies, and it venerates saints in the faith.
Meanwhile, the Adeptus Mechanicus, based out of Mars, functions as a technology-based reimagining of the Trinitarian belief system. It follows the Machine God (functioning as God the Father), the “Omnissiah” (the Machine God come in human form via the Emperor of Mankind), and the Motive Force (a reimagining of the Holy Spirit). The Mechanicus believes that to pursue knowledge is to pursue the Machine God (who is all-knowing), and they believe machines have spirits. To grow in holiness, believers will replace parts of their body with mechanical bits.
Orks – The Orks believe in Gork and Mork, the former of whom is “brutal but kunnin’” and the latter of whom is “kunnin’ but brutal.” Though too simple-minded to grasp it, Orks are all uniquely psychic, and they can combine their abilities into a sort of “name it and claim it” power known as the “WAAAGH.” Functionally, if enough Orks believe something to be true, it becomes true. For instance, the Orks believe that painting their vehicles red will cause them to go faster, and so it does.
Eldar – The Eldar are essentially a race of space elves who once held to a religion that mimicked the Greek pantheon. It was made up of Warp entities created through their psychic influence. However, their empire was destroyed when their crude excess also led to the creation of the Chaos God Slaanesh. Now, the Eldar largely follow the “Path,” a collection of work-based disciplines meant to keep their excesses in check.
Tyranids – The Tyranids are a collective of bug-like creatures operating under a single Hive Mind, which exists to consume all organic matter. As such, they don’t have any belief system. However, the Genestealer Cult derives from the Tyranids: The Tyranids implant their genetic material into an alien host to create hybrids. These hybrids then act as psychic beacons for the Tyranid Hive Mind, pointing it to a food source. The hybrids themselves make up the Genestealer Cult, falsely believing the Tyranids are angels of divine judgment—right up until they realize the truth and get consumed.
Necrontyr – The Necrontyr (now the Necrons) are a soulless robotic race. In the past, they were an organic species with a short lifespan. They met an ancient incorporeal race of aliens called the C’tan, and they believed the C’tan to be “star-gods.” Pitying the Necrontyr’s short lives, the C’tan used their advanced technology to transfer the Necrontyr’s consciousnesses into robotic bodies. However, this stripped the Necrontyr of their souls, leaving them as cold, calculating machines.
T’au Empire – The T’au Empire believes in the “Greater Good,” a utilitarian philosophy that teaches self-sacrifice and teamwork for the benefit of T’au society, among other things. The philosophy allows alien races to join them, but a caste system within their society undercuts true equality. More recently within the lore, psychic races within the T’au Empire (mostly humans) have manifested a new Chaos entity called T’au’va, which personifies the T’au’s ideals.
The Old Ones – The Old Ones were an advanced alien species and likely the first sentient race to exist. Though not gods themselves, they created some of the other races (including the Eldar and the Orks) to fight on their behalf when the Necrons and C’tan waged war against them. They were largely wiped out in that war.
Chaos Cults – Some individuals from a variety of races worship the Chaos Gods, drawn to the power the Warp offers. These cults can open the way for daemonic invasions. A few individuals may become powerful chaos entities themselves, though most are seen as expendable pawns by the Chaos Gods.
Connecting, and Contrasting, the Gospel
- The Power of Belief – 40K’s theological lore predominantly stems from the power of belief—that gods and miracles are created simply by enough people having faith that they exist or will happen. This belief somewhat follows a “name it and claim it” style thought. However, Christianity teaches that God is not dependent or contingent on humans for anything. He is God, and God is Truth, whether we believe it or not. Unlike the gods in 40K, the Bible tells us that belief is the right response to the objective, immutable Truth rather than the basis for it (John 8:32 and 17:17, Romans 10:17, 1 John 5:20).
- The Grimdark World – 40K drops us into a future that’s dark, broken and desperate for relief—with a tragic implication that relief will never come. And while our world isn’t filled with Tyranids or Necrons, the spiritual side of our world matches 40K in its grim reality. We, too, live in a broken world, one that is stained with sin and that cries out for salvation (Romans 8:19-23). It is filled with us, humans—sinful people who have caused our own share of evil (Romans 3:23). This is a terrifying thought, as we know that the Lord is just and that He will punish all sin (John 3:36). But He offers us salvation from His just wrath through the death of His Son, Jesus, in our place (Romans 5:9, Revelation 7:10), who washes us with His blood and makes us spotless before God (Isaiah 44:22, Titus 3:5, Hebrews 9:13-14, 1 John 1:7). And it is through the hope provided by Jesus’ subsequent resurrection and conquering of death that we shall see our own grimdark world be made new (2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1).
- Bad Emperor, Good King – 40K poses the Emperor of Mankind as humanity’s greatest help, but it is evident that the Emperor, while powerful, is a severely flawed man. His plans to overcome the powers of Chaos via a secular society left many of his allies dead, lost or ruined, still searching for hope. And ultimately, his schemes were thwarted by one of his own. This contrasts with Jesus, who lived the perfect life. God’s plan included the Lord being killed by one of His own (Psalm 41:8-10, John 17:12, Acts 2:23). And whereas the Emperor clings to life through manmade creations, Jesus rose from the dead, subjugating death and all evil powers. And He shall utterly destroy Satan, death and their allies (Revelation 20), ushering in that which is perfect for His own (Revelation 21).
Conclusion
We hope that this blog serves as a helpful primer for parents looking to understand the spirituality in Warhammer 40K, so that you can be equipped with the knowledge you need to either lead a gospel conversation or to decide whether the franchise is right for you.
And be sure to check out our other Theology Of guides!
