Mutation, Popculture, and Warpstone

The multi-faceted nature of The Nuclear Project, defined as the technoscientific project seeking to advance nuclear energies, nuclear medicines, and nuclear weaponry, has had reaching effects beyond those sectors. ‘Nuclear Phantasmagoria’, defined by Masco (2006) as “the hyperstimulation of the psyche offered by the possibility of annihilation” (p. 16), has subsumed much of pop-culture ranging from fantasy, in the case of Warhammer Fantasy, to Science fiction, in the case of the Fallout series, to Space Operas, in the case of the novel Dune. This fixation on annihilation through the cold war, and in political discussions from the Iran Nuclear Deal to any political talk regarding the Korean peninsula, has clearly influences the creation of pop-culture, but lingering fear of the radiation produced by nuclear energy and weaponry hunts every genre and medium. This ‘Nuclear Uncanny’ (Masco, 2006) lingers, much like nuclear radiation itself, in every context as a result of the global nuclear project.

Warpstone, a fictional resource from the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar settings, can be seen to display both Nuclear Phantasmagoria and Nuclear Uncanny. The resource is often referred to as “fantasy uranium” (Total War 2020) due to the fact that Warpstone is noted to be “highly toxic to all living things; prolonged exposure to the substance will lead to madness, mutation and even death” (Warhammer Wiki 2021), and is used to make dangerous and devastating weaponry (Warhammer Fantasy Battles Lexicanum 2021). Not only is Warpstone weaponized in fictionalized ways, in games set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting being around Warpstone has negative effects on the health of characters. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (Cubicle 7 2018) measures the closeness to mutation, with points being split between body and mind. Warpstone is written to represent a threat to body, both in its refined form (where brief exposure is marked as minor exposure) and in its raw from (where any contact is marked as a moderate exposure and consuming any (gas or crystalline) raw warpstone is marked as major exposure) (Cubicle 7 2018, p. 182-183). This threat of radiation from warpstone shows the presence of a ‘nuclear uncanny’ in the world of Warhammer fantasy, but the threat of mutation and sickness in Warhammer fantasy goes beyond just a singular resource.

Mutation within world of Warhammer fantasy is common, as a result of radiation from warpstone and other invisible ‘corrupting’ influences, though mutation is presented within this context as a dangerous result of unnatural, dangerous, and depraved actions or rituals (Cubicle 7 2018), and it is expected that characters within the world of Warhammer fantasy fear anything that may cause mutation (Warhammer Wiki 2021). Mutation is understood by point of view characters in this setting as something resulting from ‘dark forces’, including those who research and work with warpstone (Cubicle 7 2018). Those who accept their mutation, or those who exist because of it such as the Skaven or Beasts of Chaos, are seen not only as a corrupting influence on the kingdoms of the “grand alliance of order” (Warhammer Age of Sigmar Wiki 2021), but also present a threat to individual characters (Cubicle 7 2018). The text of these opinions within the world of Warhammer fantasy incentivise player behaviour informed by xenophobia, and fear of the nuclear uncanny (Cubicle 7 2018). The combination of the fear and hatred of mutation with the fear of corruption via radiation of warpstone and other materials shows a synthesis of nuclear phantasmagoria, with the destructive power of warpstone technologies (Warhammer wiki 2021), and nuclear uncanny, with the fear of invisible irradiating sources.

These fears manifest themselves in the mechanics of Warhammer Fantasy roleplay (Cubicle 7 2018), as previously mentioned, but the irradiating nature of Warpstone goes beyond just a mechanical threat. There are significant thematic values associated with those who work with warpstone both textually and subtextually: With humans, elves, and dwarves who work with warpstone being cast as villainous or misguided (Cubicle 7 2019), and skaven (humanoid rat-folk) being cast as cannibalistic, monstrous, and destructive (Warhammer Wiki 2021). The Skaven in particular, who have the closest association to warpstone and its radioactive mutating effects, are presented as irredeemably evil; driven by a desire to advance their cruel technologies and expand their “under-empire” (Warhammer Wiki 2021). Perhaps the most blatant reference to The Nuclear Project would be the “Tinker-rats” and “Warlock Engineers” of clan Skryre (Warhammer Wiki 2021), who directly experiment with, and refine, warpstone in the aim of “manufacturing all kinds of War-machines and weaponry” (par. 1). The text presented in the Warhammer fantasy and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar settings is that these warpstone (read “nuclear”) scientists and engineers are driven to invent not by the betterment of their world, but on the destruction of their enemies. Similarly, the social value associated with rats and being “rat-like” gives the impression that they verminous and dangerous pests.

Not only do The Nuclear Project and nuclear material make their appearance through the Skaven faction, but radioactive mutation does as well. In tenuous cooperation with clan Skryre, clan Moulder are masters of forced mutation through melding flesh and bone with warpstone (Warhammer Wiki 2020). Again, the presentation of the use of radioactive material permeates Warhammer fantasy in the “terrifying creations” (Warhammer Wiki 2020) resulting from industrialized, medicalized use of warpstone to create mutation for the benefit of a faction presented to be irredeemably wicked and vile. Unlike clan Skryre, who pursue a technoscientific warmachine through a pseudo-Nuclear Project, clan Moulder is understood as dangerous and terrifying even among the faction presented as negatively as the Skaven (Warhammer Wiki 2020). The presentation of The Nuclear Project, in these two sections of the Skaven faction, in the Warhammer fantasy and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar settings can be understood as at once a fundamental threat to the world and a violation bodily autonomy. In this case, the mutated creatures of clan Moulder fit with a cannon of nuclear media that presents the biological effects of nuclear radiation as “fantastic creatures” (Masco 2006, p. 294). Not only are these negative values associated with the medicalized mutation through radioactive warpstone, they are assigned through clan Moulder’s capitol being called ‘Hell Pit’ and their ‘master mutator’ being named ‘Throt the Unclean’ (Warhammer Wiki 2020), tying this clan to uncleanliness and evil.

Beyond simply reflecting the existence of The Nuclear Project, and nuclear mutation; the Skaven also mimic the extractive nuclear colonialism discussed by (Gusterson 1999), through violent raids on the settlements of other factions (or other skaven settlements) in search of warpstone (Warhammer Wiki 2021). In these settlements, clan Moulder and clan Skryre are written to take slaves; the latter to be forced to work in warpstone mines, quite literally mimicking imperial processes of extractive, settler-colonialism (Gusterson 1999), and the latter to capture people to use as victims of medicalized radioactive mutation, mimicking the medicalized torture conducted by colonial powers (Mosby 2013). These two clans of the Skaven “Under-Empire” represent a fiercely violent, colonial, technoscientific nuclear state, showing every negative aspect of The Nuclear Project presented in Euro-American pop culture, but contemporary uses of nuclear material are also reflected in the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar settings.

Depleted uranium (DU) ammunition is produced with the by-product of the process of enriching uranium ore for nuclear energies (Borrmann 2010). I recognize that this is a very serious topic, that I hope I don’t cheapen by immediately following it up with a discussion on rat people and a unit called ‘ratling guns’. DU ammunition has been used in conflicts ranging from Bosnia to Afghanistan with devastating effects on human health (Borrmann 2010). Dangers from DU material are, as is the case with other radioactive material, invisible and can come from small exposures like dust and shrapnel (Borrmann 2010). This contemporary expansion of the militaristic, technoscientific nuclear project is reflected in the Warhammer fantasy and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar settings with the clan Skryre “Ratling gun” weapons-teams (Warhammer Wiki 2021). “Ratling guns” are operated by a team of two clan Skryre members and shoots radioactive warpstone bullets and were developed by clan Skryre and are sold to other clans within the Skaven under-empire (Warhammer Wiki 2021). Even if these weapons, both DU weaponry and “Ratling guns”, do not kill their target, the ammunition will result in lasting health effects that could result in death (Borrmann 2010; Warhammer Wiki 2021). The technoscientific nuclear war machine that produced this weaponry carry with them the values of the context that in which they were created, in the case of “ratling guns”; the monstrosity and wickedness of the Skaven can be understood as an allegory for a violent system that enables scientists to create weaponry that emits an invisible force of mutation and death.

The maintenance of both clan Skryre and clan Moulder as a nation within the Skaven under-empire is founded on technoscientific and technomedical projects fueled by warpstone. This radioactive nation building (Masco 2006), that is to say the construction of these two clans/nations around the pursuit and use of radioactive warpstone, further reinforce the negative allegories of a technoscientific nuclear state. The understanding of a nuclear state presented by both clan Skryre and clan Moulder is one that suggests The Nuclear project subsumes all elements of a state, where the pursuit of science goes only to advance the project which itself is meant to advance the warlike ambitions of the state. With clan Skryre, this can be seen in the structuring of their society; where slaves are taken to collect warpstone, “clanrats” are considered expendable to benefit the use of techno-nuclear weaponry, and engineers taking the highest ranks of Skryre society (Warhammer Wiki 2021). Nuclear phantasmagoria, in this context, is seen both as the terrifying processes that spread invisible death by the mass mining and refining of radioactive warpstone, as well as the very visible use of techno-nuclear weaponry ranging from analogs of depleted uranium ammunition to nuclear bombs (Warhammer Wiki 2021).

Nuclear phantasmagoria influenced not only the context that created the Warhammer fantasy and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar settings, but also can be seen as reflected in the views other factions have in regards to factions that are clear analogs to techno-nuclear states. The fear of the Skaven is noted in every kingdom of Humans, Elves, and Dwarves (Warhammer Wiki 2021), with video games produced in these settings focusing on the conflict between members of these kingdoms and Skaven attempting further nuclear colonialism (Marks 2018). Characters from fiction set in the Warhammer fantasy setting also reflect the fear and horror of the Skaven:

“Warp energy crackles from the blades that emerge from the flesh of their arms, and their rat-like bodies are covered in all manner of bizarre artifice. Tubes and wires pulse and buzz with unholy life as they connect the Engineer to his harness and its fantastic apparatus. Fearful and horrible, indeed, is Skryre’s technology, if it allows such an unholy alliance of flesh and machine.

-Steffan Paulus Adelhof, Scholar of Wolfenburg.”

(Astleford, Darlington and Schwalb 2006, 68)

The understanding presented by point-of-view characters for players and readers is one of nuclear phantasmagoria, xenophobia, and a view of The Nuclear Project as an unholy and
dangerous project that is an affront to humanity.

A hierarchical binary of (spiritual) cleanliness/corruption is constructed in this setting, where the clans of the Skaven who pursue a technoscientific nuclear projects being presented as corrupted and mutated, where humans who directly fight against these these projects are often understood as heroes of virtue. The “solution” to the spiritual corruption within the text is presented clearly, but not explicitly: because the enemy presents an existential threat to the survival of the species of order, the only way to save their kingdoms is genocide against the Skaven under-empire (Warhammer Wiki 2021). These dualisms, cleanliness/corruption and technoscientific nuclear project/humanity, present a subtextual moral judgement where the pursuit of nuclear technologies are portrayed as a fundamental threat to the survival, spiritually and physically, of humanity and human “civilization”. This is not to say the writers who have contributed to the Warhammer fantasy and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar settings literally think that nuclear scientists and engineers are literally malevolent, cannibalistic, rat-folk, but there is an inherent judgement being made by representing them as such.

Technonuclear projects permeate popular culture, in many genres, but few fantasy settings lay out the project in quite so much detail as the Warhammer fantasy setting. By portraying nuclear projects as being conducted by malicious, warmongering rat-folk like the Skaven (Warhammer Wiki 2021), the writers of such settings are implying a judgement against those that participate in nuclear projects. While it is obvious that the writers are not suggesting that nuclear medicines, like chemotherapy, are of the same value of the medicalized, torturous mutation inflicted on those captured as slaves by Clan Moulder (Warhammer Wiki 2020), the Skaven can be seen as a cautionary tale of unbridled ambitious technoscientific nuclear nation building (Masco 2006) that allows for the creation of nuclear weapons from bombs to DU ammunition. Nuclear phantasmagoria in individual actualities are reflected in fantasy realities, where the horror of nuclear weapons are reflected in game mechanics like “corruption” (Cubicle 7 2018) to character values (Astleford, Darlington and Schwalb 2006).

 

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