What Is Grimdark Fiction & Where Did It Come From?

This is an introduction to the Grimdark genre. We will discover where Grimdark fiction comes from, what Grimdark fiction is, and just what makes up this obscure niche in fiction writing.

Hello Horror Readers

This was a living nightmare to research. Which is delightful! The world we live in now has come to resemble the dark ages from the Grimdark fantasy genre.

I read official propaganda. I asked old sages. I consulted Abominable Intelligences. All three of these lied to me!

‘Everything is canon, not everything is true.’

This line is from Games Workshop the company that invented the genre. Showing you just how contradictory the genre can be.

So, I have had to seek original sources. I downloaded PDFs of books that had long since crumbled to dust and found that over the years the ‘truth’ had been reworked.

Here we go.

What Is Grimdark Fiction & Where Did It Come From?

Where Did Grimdark Come From?

The word comes from the tagline of the Warhammer 40 000 franchise.

What Is Warhammer?

Warhammer 40 000(40k) is a space war game from the north of England that has spawned hundreds of books. Thousands actually.

I was convinced that Warhammer 40K books always started with the same preamble. A preamble that contained the line: ‘In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war.’ But they don’t. In fact, some versions of them don’t even have the words grim or dark in them.

So, I don’t in fact know where the first instance of this quote comes from. I got close, but it is very unclear.

I think it might be from the third edition Codex but I don’t own one. I did check with my most geeky friend and he was not even sure.

It could also be from the 1980s RPG ‘Rogue Trader’, but what I could find of that original text did not yet have that exact phrasing.

See the image of the page below:

‘There is no peace’ is close, but it was not quite there yet.

That being said I opened up my copy of Hero of the Imperium, by Sandy Mitchell, and painstakingly copied it out just for you:

‘For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind. By the might of His inexhaustible armies a million worlds stand against the dark.
Yet, He is a rotting carcass, the Carrion Lord of the Imperium held in life by marvels from the Dark Age of Technology and the thousand souls sacrificed each day so that His may continue to burn.
To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. …
Forget any notion of common humanity or compassion.
There is no peace amongst the stars, for in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war’

This quote, or one something like it, can be found in most Warhammer 40k books.

But, as far as I can tell it was first printed on box art of the third edition starter kit of Warhammer 40 000.

According to the Black Library, a seller of Warhammer books online, there are over 1380 novels, 145 novellas, 2148 short stories, and 448 comics from this universe and maybe 20-30 of them might be worth reading.

You cannot say that Games Workshop isn’t giving authors work! (GW are the owners of Warhammer 40k)

GW are actually a model making company. Their games and books serve as a means of promotion to sell 30+ year-old men pieces of unpainted plastic that they then have to glue together for $25-$75 per unit. Which made them $500 million last year.

This is an important point. The books do not have to make GW money. That is not their point. They want the books to sell model kits, glue, and paint.

Recently, they have collaborated with Amazon MGM Studios to make a series and movies. Keep an eye out for those. I’m sure it will give GW 100 000 new fans. I’m not sure what Amazon gets for their investment.

It is a huge and secret industry that you probably have never thought about because of how niche it has always been. It mostly relies on introverted dark fantasy nerds to buy their models and books. This has made GW rich but not well known.

However, with the release of a few notable video games like ‘Warhammer Total War’, ‘Space Marine”’ and Owlcat’s ‘Rogue Trader’, the property is now in the public’s eye.

And, with how dark our real world now feels ,Warhammer 40k has never felt so inviting and comforting.

But, What Is Grimdark Fiction?!

1. According to me: ‘Grimdark is any fiction wherein the ending cannot be more hopeful than the beginning.’
2. According to Oxford dictionary: ‘a genre of fiction, especially fantasy fiction, characterized by disturbing, violent, or bleak subject matter and a Dystopian setting.’
3. According to Wikipedia: ‘Grimdark is a sub-genre of speculative fiction with a tone, style, or setting that is particularly Dystopian, amoral, and violent.’

I think it can be any of these things, but the tone needs to right.

The tone needs to be smothering. The book almost needs to break the will of the reader. Only when you know that there is no hope can you relax and begin to enjoy Grimdark novels.

You need to think. ‘Oh boy, this guy is cool! I can’t wait to see how the world is gonna break him!’

It has also been called Anti-Tolkien Fiction. That is to say a rejection of morality. Ethics are hindrances in Grimdark. The orcs would win in Grimdark. And, often do. Although you spell orc with a ‘k’ in Grimdark because the Tolkien Estate is scary.

Grimdark is also usually sexist, fascist, classist, but generally not racist. Why? Well, you are dealing with a genre where might makes right. The strong will rise to the top regardless of how they look. Nobody needs to help a minority suffer in Grimdark. Everyone already is.

Some Examples Of Grimdark

Very few settings actually live up to the requirements of Grimdark. However, often settings start out as Grimdark but progress towards something else as the narrative develops.

That is because Grimdark does not lend itself well to standard storytelling. Why? Because, you can’t have your hero win.

Most of your characters will die. Certainly the good ones! Why? Because, in Grimdark being good means being weak.

1. Game of Thrones – George R R Martin

Game of Thrones shares elements of tone with Grimdark. It is a seemingly hopeless setting that is stuck in a stagnating cycle of war and decay.

Characters die ingloriously, people are treated brutally, and even viewpoint characters don’t always survive.

However, there are heroic characters who can affect and change the world for the better, and they often do.

It’s grim and dark but that does not make something Grimdark. Hope needs to die in the heart of the reader before the work can ultimately be truly Grimdark.

2. Dune – Frank Herbert

Dune is Grimdark for the most part. It’s not quite as violent and chaotic as Warhammer. People are treated with more respect and there are heroes.

However, these heroes can’t ever actually win. In Dune the main heroes are burdened by the ‘Golden Path’. They can see the future. They must follow the path or else there will be no future for humanity.

So, they commit horrific crimes. Genocides, removal of all human rights, torture, and worse.

The only thing that does not make it fit in, is that there is an end goal. This goal takes 4000 years in Dune.

And, that gives the reader hope for the future.

• What War Hammer stole from this:

1. The Emperor of Mankind on ‘the golden throne’. He must stay on the throne forever or humanity will end. He has been stuck in this state for 12000 years so far.
2. An Anti-AI war that leads to humans distrusting computers.
3. A dark path that is the only war for Humanity to live on.

3. Blade Runner and Alien – Philip K Dick/ Ridley Scott

You might not know this but Blade Runner and Alien take place in the same universe.

Blade Runner is a capitalist version of Warhammer’s Grimdark version of Earth.

Corporations have carved out empires on earth and in the stars. They spend human life cheaply to achieve their goals.

This vision of the future gave us the cramped dark cities that resemble insect-like hives where human life has no inherent value.

• What War Hammer stole from this:

1. The alien ‘xenomorph; is where Warhammer took the word ‘Xenos’ from. This word is the Imperium’s common slur for all beings that are not human.
2. The bug-like xenomorph also inspired the Tyranids swarm.
3. Psychics and clones in Warhammer also might come from the Blade Runner universe.
4. And, of course ‘space marines’ come from Alien.

Cyberpunk 2077 and Neuromancer, by William Gibson are also similar, but happen after Warhammer.

4. 1984 – George Orwell

1984 is actually a perfect example of Grimdark.

The world is stuck in a state of war. The powers that be control the minds and souls of the people. Technology is being lost because innovation threatens stability. All that matters is purity of hate towards the enemy.

• What War Hammer stole from this:

1. The zealous inquisitors and devoted, but brutal priests.
2. 1984 shows us war without end, where only complete and irrational devotion to state propaganda can set you ‘free’.

Any who stray from the path can expect death by the hand of the faithful, or a terrible fate at the hands of The Party as they strip the humanity from your very being.

5. Warhammer 40k – Bryan Ansell and Rick Priestley et al.

But, nothing is quite as grim or just as dark as Warhammer 40k.

I think the scale of Warhammer is what allows it to be a true Grimdark setting.

The Imperium does not know how large it is; only that it spans most of the galaxy. Hive cities can have a trillion miserable souls toiling away in them and there are millions of these cities. Billions can die in a battle. Billions more can die every day and this is an acceptable loss.

Starships, called voidships, are miles long. Why void? Because voids are darker than stars. They have crews of tens of thousands of people most of whom are slave labour. You see the Imperium does not value human life and machines are costly. So, human slaves are used for all the work.

They clean the ship. They carry goods. They refuel the engines. Refuelling means carrying fuel into radiation filled cambers. Radiation suits are expensive. Human lives are not, so the enforcers drug-up some poor souls and send them in with the new fuel.

Then they lock the doors behind them.

Should You Be Writing Grimdark?

Probably not. It’s not very popular. And, there are very few publishers for it. But, it has a dedicated audience. Dedicated enough to keep the genre alive for decades. But, well have you ever heard of Sandy Mitchell or Dan Abnett?

I could not find the exact numbers on Grimdark publishing. So, I looked at sales numbers. It seems that Star Trek novels out sell the entire genre. So it is very small. Less than 1% in total.

Outside of Warhammer, there are very few authors able to make a living.

Joe Abercrombie, author of the First Law books: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings, is the most well-known Grimdark author writing today. However, his books are more darkly funny than grimly dark. As I always say, comedy sells.

Where To Start:

1. Read the Ciaphas Caim novellas by Sandy Mitchell. Its fun premise can help inoculate you against the horror of the setting. But, it is still faithful to the tone of the world. It will show you how the propaganda of the Imperium works, and just how hopeless it is to hope in the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium.
2. Also play Owlcat’s ‘Rogue Trader’. It introduces almost all aspects of the Warhammer universe, while still being fun to play. It is secretly just a Warhammer novel in game form.
3. You should of course read 1984. Don’t watch the movie.
4. Do watch the Terminator movie.
5. Then read Dune and watch the Blade Runner movie. In this case the movie is better than the book as far as Grimdark is concerned.
6. Watching Alien is also helpful.
7. Watch the television series’ Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead.

After you have found yourself telling random people that Warhammer is just stealing things from better authors, you know enough to dive into the genre.

Oh, and speaking of things Warhammer stole. Gundam is sometimes Grimdark!

Iron Blooded Orphans might be a good watch to get the Japanese perspective on Grimdark.

I want to say more, but this is already too long.

The Last Word

Grimdark is fun. But, it is the kind of fun that you can only have if you have lost all innocence and naivety.

Nothing is sacred in Grimdark except for all those things that should not be. Hate of outsiders is a virtue in Grimdark. Why? Because, you can’t trust anyone. Love is a vice because it will break the weak.

Virtues in Grimdark are things that make you strong. Cruelty, violence, suspicion… these serve a person in a broken world where only those who can claw their way to the top can survive. Even then there is no rest or peace.

You will merely live on with the relative comfort that the prison guard has over the prisoner. You will never have trust, but you might have food. You won’t have respect, but you might earn fear from those you break.

You will never have peace.

No there is no peace. For in this grim darkness there is only war.

Source for image: Goodreads

Christopher Luke Dean writes and facilitates for Writers Write. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisLukeDean

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