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@hatstandblogging
Hello and welcome to Hatstand Blogging. After years of thinking about doing a blog, I’ve finally started one, so we shall see how this goes. I’ll be writing a mix of reviews and general thoughts on the things I like, and I hope you enjoy reading them. Feel free to ask me any questions, too, about any of the stuff I’ve written about. I’m also a big fan of Warhammer, so feel free to ask me about that if you feel so inclined.
modus operandi
John Blanche, from Warhammer Community, 04 June 2026
Me trying not to be haunted by the inherent influence pimarchs have on astartes and how it can make them act
Honestly this is one of the reasons I consider Astartes (and custodes even more so) to not be a power fantasy but more an exploration in powerlessness. Their bodies are not their own, their lives are not their own. There’s ultimately always a theme of depersonalization and of lack of ownership of your own body.
Oh, very much so. Lore is very consistent on this point. 40k is not the satire GW claims it to be, but it still has quite a few subversive elements that it uses to emphasize the horror/dystopia of the setting, and occasionally the humor. From the drug fueled psychopathic goons of Rogue Trader to the stunted, brainwashed transhumans of today, space marines have always fallen in that category.
This is such a great way of describing it, you can’t leave it in the tags. Satire, at least good satire, is specific in its subject and aims. 40k media covers far too wide a range of topics, tones, and genres to really be called a satire, and a lot of its humor is just black comedy. But running through the franchise is this sly, kinda smirking undertone: “Look at these idiots. Can you believe what just came out of their mouths? What a pack of losers!” It feels very British to me in a way that I can’t define—they’re taking the piss. You’ll be presented with situation after situation that is over-the-top to the point of absurdity, but they’re all being played so straight that you just kinda go with it. And then you look back at what you just read or saw and go, “Wait, was I supposed to take that seriously? Or was that a joke?” And the answer is yes.
This touches on something I've always thought about 40k in that it is 'seriously silly'. 40k is deadly serious in how absurd and silly it really is when you get down to the nuts and bolts of things. Worth unpacking some more further in the future.
Yeah, I don't know any other franchise that does it as well as they do.
Last year I lost my mind when I learned about the Lord of Skulls, a Khornate daemon engine. It has a big gun called Skullhurler that shoots a giant skull, which then explodes into smaller flaming skulls, which also explode.
I think I laughed for a minute straight, then I posted on Tumblr about it, and then all of my internet friends laughed about it, because come on. SKULL GUN. It feels like something a five year old would invent.
This daemon engine was played 100% straight in the comic where I found it, and I am certain it is played 100% straight in any other 40k story where it appears. And there's something strangely charming about it. Everyone, including the creators I am sure, knows that this thing is ridiculous, but we all kinda wink at each other and suspend our disbelief because it's fun. It's fun to engage with a world where giant skull guns exist. It's fun to read about very large, very serious supersoldiers bickering like middle school mean girls. It's fun to look at an image of a giant walking gothic cathedral armed with more artillery than a battleship. It, I dunno, it has the pleasure of being a kid banging toys against each other as they act out some wild adventure, but that long-lost pleasure is presented in a format that an adult can enjoy.
100% agree you've pretty much nailed it. Also, if you like the Skullhurler, have you heard of its more venerable cousin, the Skull Cannon.
'Skull Cannons are manned by the same Bloodletters that forged the machine itself. A monstrous fusion of Daemonic spirits and hellforged machinery, its spiked wheels grind across the battlefield and mangle all in their path. Those in its way are fed into the Skull Cannon's gaping maw, there to be roased by daemonic fire and broken up into fragments. These remains are for the most part ejected from the Skull Cannon's rear, for only the skulls of its victims are retained. These are then fused with the Blood God's wrath, set alight, and blasted in a fiery wake from the daemon engines cannon.'
Being on that battlefield and dying from that would have me "they just killed me with some buuuuuullshit"
Seething by my skull obliterated body
Legendary fantasy artist John Blanche has died. He is known mostly for his long association with Games Workshop, where he served as art director and created many of the iconic images that shaped the Warhammer and 40K worlds. He was capable of working in diverse styles, but much of his art and his own creative miniature conversions made his name synonymous with the "grimdark" aesthetic, mixing elements of moody gothic architecture and body horror with a limited color palette.
He also contributed to GW's UK edition of Dungeons & Dragons, Fighting Fantasy and Sorcery! books, and other books and album covers. Wombat Games recently published an authorised biography, Blanche: The Rise of Grimdark. A skirmish game, John Blanche's En Garde, is in development with a setting and visual style based on his art.
The thing is love about kamen rider is how seriously it take itself. Lots of fantasy movies or show constanly makes jokes about itself ,as in "yeah,we know this is dumb as fuck". I don't like it. Kamen rider will be like "this is the best and most damgerous weapon ever created, it canot fall on the wrong hands" and is clearly a toy
I know a scholar of the secret histories when I see one (the Cultist Simulator profile pic, and if I remember correctly, that's the fascination icon), so I wanted to ask if Book of Names is any good? I did enjoy the lore and worldbuilding of Cultist Sim, but I got fed up with the actual gameplay. Truth be told, I more or less got burned after I got a game over just as my Grail ascension had like 20 or so seconds to go. I remember hearing about Book of Names but I had moved on by that point.
You mean Book of Hours? Book of Hours is very good! It's a fairly different experience from CultSim, it’s a lot slower and calmer and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t even have a fail condition, and honestly if I had the time I might just try to play it indefinitely instead of going for a win, which isn’t really something you can do in CultSim. But the tradeoff is you’d better either love the atmosphere a lot (I do) or have an audiobook or something in the background (I do this as well) because it takes a WHILE to get places, especially at first.
All in all I don’t know what exactly burned you out on CultSim but if it was having to wait for optimal conditions or like grinding for Secret Histories lore then maybe skip it. If on the other hand you wouldn’t mind the weather-watching and the season-waiting if there’s no risk of it ending in disaster and it was the stress and the looming threat of collapse at any moment that hurt you more, you’re gonna love managing Hush House, I think.
There’s also a cat. And a dog. And a turtle and several snakes.
Me trying not to be haunted by the inherent influence pimarchs have on astartes and how it can make them act
Honestly this is one of the reasons I consider Astartes (and custodes even more so) to not be a power fantasy but more an exploration in powerlessness. Their bodies are not their own, their lives are not their own. There’s ultimately always a theme of depersonalization and of lack of ownership of your own body.
Oh, very much so. Lore is very consistent on this point. 40k is not the satire GW claims it to be, but it still has quite a few subversive elements that it uses to emphasize the horror/dystopia of the setting, and occasionally the humor. From the drug fueled psychopathic goons of Rogue Trader to the stunted, brainwashed transhumans of today, space marines have always fallen in that category.
This is such a great way of describing it, you can’t leave it in the tags. Satire, at least good satire, is specific in its subject and aims. 40k media covers far too wide a range of topics, tones, and genres to really be called a satire, and a lot of its humor is just black comedy. But running through the franchise is this sly, kinda smirking undertone: “Look at these idiots. Can you believe what just came out of their mouths? What a pack of losers!” It feels very British to me in a way that I can’t define—they’re taking the piss. You’ll be presented with situation after situation that is over-the-top to the point of absurdity, but they’re all being played so straight that you just kinda go with it. And then you look back at what you just read or saw and go, “Wait, was I supposed to take that seriously? Or was that a joke?” And the answer is yes.
This touches on something I've always thought about 40k in that it is 'seriously silly'. 40k is deadly serious in how absurd and silly it really is when you get down to the nuts and bolts of things. Worth unpacking some more further in the future.
Yeah, I don't know any other franchise that does it as well as they do.
Last year I lost my mind when I learned about the Lord of Skulls, a Khornate daemon engine. It has a big gun called Skullhurler that shoots a giant skull, which then explodes into smaller flaming skulls, which also explode.
I think I laughed for a minute straight, then I posted on Tumblr about it, and then all of my internet friends laughed about it, because come on. SKULL GUN. It feels like something a five year old would invent.
This daemon engine was played 100% straight in the comic where I found it, and I am certain it is played 100% straight in any other 40k story where it appears. And there's something strangely charming about it. Everyone, including the creators I am sure, knows that this thing is ridiculous, but we all kinda wink at each other and suspend our disbelief because it's fun. It's fun to engage with a world where giant skull guns exist. It's fun to read about very large, very serious supersoldiers bickering like middle school mean girls. It's fun to look at an image of a giant walking gothic cathedral armed with more artillery than a battleship. It, I dunno, it has the pleasure of being a kid banging toys against each other as they act out some wild adventure, but that long-lost pleasure is presented in a format that an adult can enjoy.
100% agree you've pretty much nailed it. Also, if you like the Skullhurler, have you heard of its more venerable cousin, the Skull Cannon.
'Skull Cannons are manned by the same Bloodletters that forged the machine itself. A monstrous fusion of Daemonic spirits and hellforged machinery, its spiked wheels grind across the battlefield and mangle all in their path. Those in its way are fed into the Skull Cannon's gaping maw, there to be roased by daemonic fire and broken up into fragments. These remains are for the most part ejected from the Skull Cannon's rear, for only the skulls of its victims are retained. These are then fused with the Blood God's wrath, set alight, and blasted in a fiery wake from the daemon engines cannon.'
Isha the Mother of Aeldari.
A goddess of life either emprisioned by death or eaten by greed. The most benevolent being in the world or the biggest fraud. There is nothing a mother can't be.
...
Its not khaines rune that chains her but her own? 👻 wwoohhhhohhho what do I mean by this whhhoooowohhoo
So this is supposed to be in universe mural of Isha from my craftworld Ishina-Lyat. Its a bit of Isha cult cus it was a temple to her that broke free from the empire before The Fall and split into revering her with guilt or rejecting all gods (they all got extreme mommy issues).
Her colours and shapes are soft and almost annoyingly round. The chains rusty and jagged. Lyat would only do the most romantised version of her.
Fucking loved drawing this, I wanna do Lealith or Khaine next... and then do they're actuall designs
best 2 seconds of my life
Me trying not to be haunted by the inherent influence pimarchs have on astartes and how it can make them act
Honestly this is one of the reasons I consider Astartes (and custodes even more so) to not be a power fantasy but more an exploration in powerlessness. Their bodies are not their own, their lives are not their own. There’s ultimately always a theme of depersonalization and of lack of ownership of your own body.
Oh, very much so. Lore is very consistent on this point. 40k is not the satire GW claims it to be, but it still has quite a few subversive elements that it uses to emphasize the horror/dystopia of the setting, and occasionally the humor. From the drug fueled psychopathic goons of Rogue Trader to the stunted, brainwashed transhumans of today, space marines have always fallen in that category.
This is such a great way of describing it, you can’t leave it in the tags. Satire, at least good satire, is specific in its subject and aims. 40k media covers far too wide a range of topics, tones, and genres to really be called a satire, and a lot of its humor is just black comedy. But running through the franchise is this sly, kinda smirking undertone: “Look at these idiots. Can you believe what just came out of their mouths? What a pack of losers!” It feels very British to me in a way that I can’t define—they’re taking the piss. You’ll be presented with situation after situation that is over-the-top to the point of absurdity, but they’re all being played so straight that you just kinda go with it. And then you look back at what you just read or saw and go, “Wait, was I supposed to take that seriously? Or was that a joke?” And the answer is yes.
This touches on something I've always thought about 40k in that it is 'seriously silly'. 40k is deadly serious in how absurd and silly it really is when you get down to the nuts and bolts of things. Worth unpacking some more further in the future.
Blanche passed, Rest Well you legend.His Tau art deserves some shoutout.
The top one is suggested by some as what T'au looked like before the Ethereals, sword-and-pistol of their dark age, The Mont'au.
RIP John Blanche, 1948-2026.
Legendary artist John Blanche, whose illustrations defined Warhammer 40,000, and perhaps a large chunk of modern science fiction, has passed away. Despite his declining health, John was working on his own setting and game 'En Guarde' (a pirate skirmish game), showing that he was active and thinking of his fans until the end. May he rest in peace.
Blanche's Stormcast Eternals.
🖤🖤🖤 RIP John Blanche 💀💀💀
Rest in peace, John Blanche
The father of Warhammer 40k art direction and the man that has inspired me as an artist, down to inspiring my current artstyle (and I am sure will continue to inspire me, even in death). 40k just wouldn't be 40k had it not been for the foundation of grimdark sci-fi that he laid.
Farewell, you absolute legend.
Rest in peace, John Blanche. You had a truly monolithic, formative impact on both Warhammer as an IP, and the lives of countless fans and artists around the world.
