Jun Tan

Philosophy

April 17th 2020

A Problem in a Fantasy World

The most famous Sci-fi World about the universe will be the Star War series.

However, the topic that we are going to discuss is not the lightsaber of Jade Master. The

Sci-fi Friction that this essay is going to talk about is Warhammer 40k.

Warhammer 40k is famous for its unique setting, which is Warp, which is the most

fundamental setting in the story that let to almost all of the conflict. For most of the sci-fi

novels, travel faster than the light speed is the premise since the universe is so large that

without a method that travels faster than the light speed, then each planet will be isolated,

like the earth before the discovery of the new continent(Warhammer p60).

Same as the war-hammer, in order to put his story into the big background of the

universe, Warhammer also introduces the idea of the hyper Light speed. However, in this

friction, the greater introduce a new concept called the warp, a dimension that allows an

object in the material realm to travel fast than the light speed(Warhammer p60).

According to the setting book, the warp is an in-material realm that is constructed by our

mind, so it basically reflects the subconscious of a person. Unfortunately in this story, you

need to time the number of creatures in the galaxy, meaning you need to plus all the

alien. Unfortunately, however, due to some serious event, the warp reflects the negative

part of the galaxy, therefore, its reflections, the demon, make warp become an extremely

dangerous place(Cavatore p40).

So what caused this problem? What is the nature behind this problem? What is the

real-life theory that explains this problem? How can those theory contributions to the

solution of the warp? Finally, what are the attempts in the book and how they related to

the real-life theory?

the nature of the warp:

So, what makes warp such a dangerous place? Or to be more specific, what is the

source of all those dangers in the warp comes from?

warp, which is also called the realm of the soul, it is a place constructed by thought,

emotion and idea, a wonderful land for idealism, but it is the most chaotic place you have

ever seen.

From all the ideas and emotions in this realms, it creates 4 chaos god, Khorne,

Tzeentch, Nurgle, Slanish.

The existence of these four gods is based on the creature’s thought. For example,

if I am really angry than my idea of angry will reflect into the warp, and all of the angry that

exact in the galaxy combine, and become Khorne, the god of anger. So we can say that

all of these four gods actually each represent some certain thought and emotion in the

material world. This show that basic of the warp comes from people’s understanding and

idea(Cavatore p20).

Therefore, this explains why warp is such a dangerous place. According to the

book setting, since universes are constantly fighting, the hatred, the anger, the desire, the

fear and desperation and other many negative emotion that ran into the warp, making all

these four gods become evil, which makes warp become a dangerous and terrible place.

However, this doesn’t mean that warp is completely evil(Cavatore p60).

Because our thought and idea have two sides. Using Slanish as an example, this is the

god of desire and pleasure from a negative perspective, like a lust. However, the pleasure

can also come from the excitement of new knowledge, the pleasure of family union.

For this two sides effect, this further reveals another setting in the book, that warp is

actually a neutral realm, it is completely based on the idea form the galaxy. Therefore, we

can say that warp is actually not” evil” at all. The true evil is in the material realm. Also, If

we put so” light” back into the warp, it is possible to change the attitude of the warp.

In order to solve the problem with the warp, we need to further discuss how the

warp is connected to the material realm, and we need how the energy of the warp,

emotion, and subconscious, function.

From the book setting we know the source of the warp is emotion and thought,

and the first they that came up with the idea of emotion will be the famous Freud. For the

problem of thought, epistemology is a useful subject to examine how people's different

ideas come to form.

Freud idea was new define as not reliable and not scientific, but we are in a game

world, so there is no solid evidence for everything that happened here, so we assume that

everything Freud talks about is true, also we believe that alien brain works the same as

human, and the only difference is the appearance.

Freud believes that The human mind includes conscious and unconscious phenomena

that can be divided into preconscious and subconscious. Preconscious is the experience

that can enter consciousness; The unconscious is an experience that is inaccessible or

difficult to access to consciousness. It includes primal impulses and desires, especially

sexual desires. The relation between consciousness, preconsciousness, and

subconsciousness is: consciousness is only a part of preconsciousness. The pre-

conscious mind is located between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind and

plays the role of "inspector" to prevent the instinctive desire from entering the

consciousness. The subconscious mind is always active, and when the auditor lets down
his guard, he enters the conscious mind in disguise. And, he argued, the unconscious

mind, though unconscious, dominates one's life (Freud) (Myers p176).

So, Under this definition, what reflects in the warp directly comes from people’s

conscious and subconscious.

The idea of epistemology shows that people’s consciousness can be shaped and

twisted.

There is a famous cave analogy to explain the idea that there is a group of

prisoners in a cave, bound hand and foot, unable to turn around, but with their backs to

the hole. There was a white wall in front of them and a fire burning behind them. On the

white wall, they saw the shadow of themselves and the things between them and the fire,

and since they could see nothing else, the prisoners thought the shadow was the real

thing(Velasquez).

what is saw simply shapes the world we see, so if a man is reached to thinks in a different

standard, he will also have a completely different perspective than us.

the memory of the past shape our understanding.

So our understanding is sharped by the environment, the” input”, the very photon that

enters our eyes.

Based on these two theories, things happened in the material realm can affect our

conscious, where our thought and ideas are created. The conscious and subconscious

reflect into the warp, so manipulating the things in the real world, we can shape the status

of the warp.

The attempt in the book:

Kill all living things.

 So the problem now is how do we want to shape the warp? Using the theory and

idea above, we find that the warp is an idealism object, that can be shaped by our own

ideas. So the theory of Subjective idealism seems to be useful.

Subjective idealism sees everything in the external world as the manifestation and

product of one's own subjective spirit. In fact, it is believed that everything in the external

world is determined by the subjective spirit of each self. Without the subjective spirit of

each conscious body, there is nothing in the external world, that is, the objective world is

dependent on the subjective spirit(Velasquez p153)(Chambers p40)(Freud).

Now seems a very clear solution appeared, that is to kill all of the living and thinking

object in the galaxy. Because in the setting book it claimed if the creature in the galaxy

died out, which means there is no extinct of idea and though, which means the base of

the warp is destroyed, and the warp will no longer exact.

Starve the warp.

Bypass the warp, not using it, like being a hyper light shaped ship in the material

world, therefore, reduce the effect of the warp.

According to the book setting, it can cut the connection between people’s minds and

warp. So, theoretically, it works, but failed due to some event happened in the book, it

failed.

Its failure is to guarantee the proceed of the story, so it’s not important to discuss how

exactly it works. Nevertheless, there is a clear trace between this method with a real-life

theory, materialism.

The materialism claim that the world is based on material, for example, the idea of

“atom”. So for this method, people believe that though is also based on material,

meaning the warp is also based on material, so they prefer a materialism method to deal
with this problem. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know their world is a

fantasy(Velasquez p153)(Chambers p32).

cheat the warp:

The warp suck power on people’s subconscious and conscious. so if we can turn

our conscious into good or not evil, like reducing the pain and suffering that exact in the

universe. Then it is possible that the “things” we reflect into the warp will also become

natural, then the damage will be reduced(Chambers p15).

The idea of epistemology shows our world is built around our perspective, meaning it is

possible to control one’s thoughts and ideas by thoughts and ideas form other people,

like brainwash(Velasquez p 160).

Also, modern psychology shows it is possible to manipulate people understanding

and thought by other “material” factors like drug and illusion fabricated by machine.

Which further proves it is possible to trick the human belief in contradicting things.

This method agrees with the idea of materialism that even our though and mind is based

on material things. Despite its moral dilemma and the number of resources it needs, it is a

pretty reasonable plan(Myers p192).

In conclusion, using real-life theory, we examine the nature and the principle

behind the warp, and we further examine the possibility of the different attempts that

mentions in the book. For all three different attempts, they all seem reasonable and

supported by different theories. Unfortunately, all of them face some serious drawbacks.

 Works cited

Chambers Andy, Pete Haines, Andy Hoare, Phil Kelly, Graham McNeill, Codex Chaos

Space Marines,Games Workshop (6 Oct. 2012),ISBN 1-84154-322-5

Cavatore Alessio, Codex Chaos Daemon, Games Workshop (2 Mar. 2013),ISBN-10:

1908872896

Freud Sigmund,The interpretation of Dream, Published September 15th 1994 by Barnes &

Noble (first published 1899),ISBN 1566195764

Myers David G, Myers’ Psychology for AP, BFW/Worth Publishers 41 Madison Ave.


New York, NY 10010, ISBN-10: 1-4641-1307-6

Velasquez Manuel, philosophy A Text with Readings ThiRTeenTh ediTion, 20 Channel

Center Street Boston, MA 02210 USA, Student Edition: ISBN: 978-1-305-41047

Warhammer 40000 8th Edition, © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2017. GW, Games

Workshop, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Rd, Lenton, Nottingham, NG7 2WS,