Everything is political, even the My Little Pony fan world. Of course, so is Warhammer, that strategy game with miniatures of war owned by Games Workshop that brings together a community of approximately 175,000 players around the world. Now the company has decided to comment on one of the issues that haunted its subculture for decades. And it was thanks to something that happened in Talavera de la Reina.
GT Talavera and the Austrian Painter
Between October 30 and November 1, the Warhammer 40,000 GT Talavera tournament took place, organized by the specialized store Invasión Talavera and the Madrid club Cobrador del Waaaaagh. The contest, although large (almost 700 people participated by teams) was not official of the British company.
The controversy was caused by one of the players, registered at the event as an Austrian Painter (a veiled reference to Hitler) and who participated dressed in a jacket with Nazi and Falangist imagery patches. Given the symbolism that he carried, one of his rivals, a representative of the Princesos team, refused to fight him if he continued in the tournament or did not remove his clothing. The organizers decided to give the painter the victory by concession and allowed him to continue participating in the tournament.
Although the matter did not cause excessive stir during the appointment, the capture of the painter’s jacket, as well as the action of those responsible, reached the entire international Warhammer community on Twitter in the following days, largely condemning the decision of the of the Waaaaagh Collector not to expel or prevent the participation of the player carrying the symbols. Some Spanish fans also echoed on their pages and blogs, one of the most shared being this from the Rest of the Scribe.
The members of the club, who are dedicated to this for the love of art, gave an answer on their already deleted Twitch channel that, in view of the comments on networks, should not have been very satisfactory. They later gave an international statement published in Spikey Bits. In it they assure that, despite being a situation they did not like and that the club repudiates the Nazi mentality, the painter, upon being questioned, threatened to call the police if he was expelled. “We want to emphasize that in Spain it is not a crime to carry Nazi symbols as long as it is not accompanied by criminal conduct”, so that, if they had kicked him out, “the organization would have committed a crime of ideological discrimination.” They were “bound hand and foot.” They take note of what happened and agree to write clauses for the bases of future tournaments with which to kick these types of individuals out.
According to the legislation of Castilla y La Mancha in relation to the Admission rights and the obligations of the spectators, all those attending a recreational activity have the obligation to refrain from “displaying symbols, garments or objects that incite violence or suppose apology for activities contrary to the fundamental rights recognized in the Constitution and, in particular, that incite racism, xenophobia or discrimination ”, and the organizers have the right to expel them if they do not comply.
In addition, according to the rules of the GT tournament in Talavera this year, “the organization reserves the right of admission to the event, as well as the possibility of changing any of the points of these bases without prior notice. Always trying to cause the least possible damage to the players ”.
Warhammer says no to supremacism
Warhammer has a complex history surrounding the ideological question of its franchise. The saga was originally written at least partially in response to the optimism of 1970s science fiction. The futuristic version of Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, was created in the mid-1980s by Rick Priestly, with the support of Brian Ansell and Ken Rolston.
Originally the plan was to portray a disgraced universe in which races survived in a medieval-minded world where knowledge has been lost and totalitarian oppression is not only the bread and butter, but the only logical course of action, which led the Space Marines, men, to allow themselves to be guided by a cult of death and a defense of a theocratic and hypermilitarized state.
Hate has absolutely no place in our hobby. https://t.co/9ioLfTw8BY #WarhammerCommunity
– WarhammerCommunity (@WarComTeam) November 19, 2021
According to Priestly, some of the sources of inspiration were Dune, the Asimov Foundation, and Starship Troopers. Additionally, many of the Space Marine designs bear a strong aesthetic resemblance to WWII military elements. This, as well as its amorality and plot darkness, was making the Empire of Men, where you have to kill all your enemies for being a direct threat to your survival, was a focus of attraction for people with a love for the supremacist.
While there are Nazis or Philonazis among the Warhammer fan bases, it is difficult to estimate the percentage of them that are, if somewhat more or less widespread or a very noisy minority. What does seem clear is that both the Phil-Nazi faction and the opposite are more and more vocal. On the one hand, YouTube channels with large numbers of visits that criticize that the franchise is becoming more woke every day. On the other, some followers, many of them from minorities, who try to make themselves heard and seek that spaces and lore are increasingly inclusive. The British already took another important step last year by positioning themselves in favor of the Black Lives Matter movement.
But now they have redoubled their pressure against intolerance: as a result of what happened in Talavera, the company has decided to speak out openly on the issue in an open letter published on the community’s website that reads “The Empire is dominated by hatred, but not Warhammer ”.
Its message is clear and blunt: this universe was born as a parody of what a humanity would be if it allowed itself to be carried away by extreme xenophobia, a literature originally intended as a satire. They say that their universe has, in effect, tyrannical and genocidal regimes “elevated to 11”, one of the points of perhaps greater interest for those who flirt with Nazism, since this exaggeration may seem glorification. But the company affirms that this “amplification” has a critical intention: “the Empire is not an aspirational state […] It is a monstrous civilization, and its monstrosity is evident to all ”.
And finally, politics:
Sometimes certain real-world hate groups, as well as adherents of historical ideologies that are best left in the past, seek to claim intellectual property for their own enjoyment and co-opt it for their own agendas. […] We will never accept or tolerate any form of prejudice, hatred or abuse in our company or facilities. […] If you come to a Games Workshop store or event and behave contrary to this idea, including using real-world hate group symbols, you will be asked to leave. We will not let you participate. We don’t want your money. We don’t want you in the Warhammer community. […] For those heroes running their own Warhammer events, we’d love for you to join us in this stance. Make no mistake: Warhammer and other games wargames They are not for the Nazis, politics (like PETA’s astracanadas) or hatred of any kind.
In this way, Games Workshop not only completely distances itself from the supremacist faction of its community and invites them to stop buying its products, but also take away any intellectual alibi to identify with that universe that they love, unless they accept that they do not get what the story is about.