Human society on the planet of 40K isn’t simply the product of a hyper-militarized totalitarian state, and which means it’s not all House Marines and Martian cyborgs. It’s additionally dwelling to a strong theocracy that venerates the Emperor of Mankind as a literal god. Meaning about half of the plastic of us contained in the Blood and Zeal field are livid zealots, totally corrupted by their perception in a false god, and who keep on their shoulders the destiny and well-being of big swathes of the civilian inhabitants within the forty first millennia. The opposite miniatures comply with Chaos.
The Ecclesiarchy, because the theocratic arm of the Empire has come to be identified, is maybe the one most insidious characteristic on the planet of 40K. It worships a person who stated explicitly “please don’t worship me” to a number of individuals, many, many occasions. And but the fiction is obvious in detailing how some individuals on this world realized that there was energy to be gained by creating the Cult of the Emperor — a cult that’s fairly beneficial as a software of management, a bludgeon to beat the frequent people into submission with. The Ecclesiarchy isn’t the supply of humanity’s worst impulses, together with however not restricted to xenophobia, vigilante violence, and mob motion. However it’s completely not working towards it both. The violence and the worry that imbues each nook of the Imperium isn’t a bug, it’s a characteristic. And now we have now some miniatures to place a face to that truth.
These are actually essentially the most servile, most brain-rotted fanatics within the universe. Becoming, then, that they be bundled in a field with the forces of Chaos. Studying via the fiction that comes inside that field, it’s clear that there are billions extra members of the Ecclesiarchy than there are House Marines. There may very well be extra non secular extremists on this explicit sector of the far-future galaxy than there are Imperial Guardsmen. They usually all suck.
On the identical time, they’re characterised because the social glue that actually holds the Imperium of Mankind collectively. With out their blood and zeal, with out their devotion and their hatred, humanity would actually collapse in on itself and fall sufferer to the depredations of Chaos — or the Tyranids, or the Orks, or any variety of different factions which are useless set on deleting humankind from the map of the galaxy. So it’s essential, in a means, that we lastly have some faces to go together with the names.
And but whereas Blood and Zeal fills a sensible area of interest by fleshing out the universe’s storytelling and including content material for Kill Group, it additionally fills out a distinct segment within the bigger interest as properly. These are figures that must be seen in each facet of tabletop 40K — Kill Group, after all, but in addition Necromunda, the full-fat wargame Warhammer 40,000, and in addition tabletop role-playing video games like Imperium Maledictum.
I hate them. And I’m additionally glad that they exist as bodily objects. I like to recommend choosing them up, if solely so you’ll be able to lastly look all of them of their beady little eyes.