Black Library
The Black Library is a division of Games Workshop which is devoted to publishing novels and audiobooks set in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 fictional universes. Some of Black Library's best known titles include the Gaunt's Ghosts and Eisenhorn series of novels by Dan Abnett and the Gotrek and Felix series by William King and Nathan Long.
The authors of these novels, graphic novels, and comics created original storylines and characters that are based on playable armies in the main Warhammer 40,000 game and its many spin-offs. These works are then promoted with contributions of stories, plot synopses, and rules in the White Dwarf magazine and at the official Games Workshop website. The result is a fusion of tabletop gaming with science fiction and fantasy writing.
History
The publishing company takes its name from the fictional Black Library that appears in the setting of Warhammer 40,000. The fictional Black Library is where the Eldar race keeps their collected knowledge of Chaos and the Necrons.The Black Library was founded in April 1997 to publish Inferno! magazine, a bi-monthly digest-sized anthology of short stories, comic strips and features from the Warhammer worlds. Black Library began as team at Games Workshop brought together to INFERNO! magazine. Inferno!'s success spawned Warhammer Monthly comic books, and then from September 1999 a lengthy series of fantasy and science fiction novels. Their first art book, Inquis Exterminatus was published in May, 1999. Black Library's catalogue now runs to well over two hundred titles, with a Warhammer and a Warhammer 40,000 novel appearing every month.
In October 2003 BL Publishing started a sister imprint, Black Flame, which applied the same pulp styling to novels featuring New Line Cinema characters such as Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, and 2000 AD comics' Judge Dredd and others. In 2006, Black Flame produced the novel for the New Line Cinema's feature film Snakes on a Plane. In the summer of 2005 BL Publishing announced another fiction imprint, Solaris Books, that will publish original science fiction and fantasy. Solaris Books has subsequently been sold to Rebellion who also own Abaddon Books.
Background
Short stories and other pieces of fiction were created for the White Dwarf magazine, for Warhammer 40,000 rulebooks and gaming guides, for other publications, such as the Citadel Journal, and for each of their official websites. Later, these evolved into larger novels and other works.A series of Warhammer 40,000 comics were first created for the Games Workshop magazine, Warhammer Monthly as short background filler. In 1999, the first miniature and game tie-in was released as a joint project of Warhammer Monthly and its publisher, the Black Library. This model was the bounty hunter Kal Jerico of the "Specialist Game" Necromunda.
Including rules and a certificate of authenticity, the Black Library created many more limited edition miniatures and expanded the small comics into larger collections while adding many new ones. These novels and graphic novels are accompanied by cross-promotional articles that connect the characters from the novels to the Warhammer 40,000 miniatures game.
While Warhammer Monthly was discontinued in 2004, there was a short lived continuation under the title Warhammer Comics. However, with the discontinuation of these magazine projects, the Black Library still continues to produce graphic novels and collections that expand upon the fiction behind the tabletop game.
Gaming with the ''Black Library''
The works produced by the Black Library detail the interactions of the Warhammer 40,000 armies: Chaos Space Marines, Daemonhunters, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Imperial Guard, Necrons, Orks, Space Marines, Tau, Tyranids, and the Witch Hunters. They are collaborated efforts between the authors of the Warhammer 40,000 game rules and the writers of the background.These works expand on the storylines, characters, armies, and organisations discussed in the Codexes. Combined with contributions to White Dwarf magazine of articles, stories, and rules, and miniature lines produced by both Games Workshop and Forge World, they expand upon the fictional world of the original Warhammer 40,000 game and its other companion games. The column "Chapter Approved" of White Dwarf is a forum for collaborations between authors, model makers, and the rulemakers, allowing for the characters to have their own place amongst Warhammer 40,000 battles.
Alongside of the Warhammer 40,000 game was a short-lived game called Warhammer Warriors. The system was created by Rick Priestley and based on the playing style of LostWorlds. Many of the characters released for the miniature game were given rules and a "gaming book" to be used in playing against others. This series ended before many of the novels were published and production of cross-promotional books was discontinued.
Fiction of the ''Black Library''
Most of the stories take place thousands of years after the fall of the Emperor of Mankind at the hands of his favoured son Horus, once loyal but corrupted by Chaos. Many millennia have passed since then but the Imperium is still at war with the Chaos Space Marines, along with many new enemies.The majority of these stories are written in the perspective of humans, primarily those of the Imperial Guard, the mechanic/scientist-mystics of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the female warriors of the Sisters of Battle, the holy Inquisition, and the superhuman Space Marines, although some have been written from the perspective of corrupt Chaos-worshipping humans, as well as the alien Eldar and Tau races. They span the complete Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Novels and short fiction line
The Inquisition Trilogies
began a series of trilogies involving the Inquisition, beginning in 2001 with the Eisenhorn trilogy: Xenos, Malleus, and Hereticus. In the omnibus edition, released in 2004, there are two short stories placed between these novels to connect them together.A second trilogy began in 2004, around the time the Eisenhorn omnibus came out, known as the Ravenor trilogy: Ravenor, Ravenor Returned and Ravenor Rogue. The Ravenor omnibus was released in 2009, also with two connecting short stories.
Abnett revealed in the foreword to the Ravenor omnibus that he was planning a "trilogy of trilogies", and the third set, its title confirmed in an interview with Abnett as the Bequin trilogy - started in October 2012 with Pariah: Ravenor Versus Eisenhorn.
Plot
The Inquisition is an organisation in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. They act as the secret police of the Imperium, hunting down any and all threats to the stability of the God-Emperor's realm. In the first trilogy, the titular character is Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, a member of the Ordo Xenos, as he begins his descent into radicalism and association with daemonhosts and dark sorcery. The second trilogy is focused around Eisenhorn's former student, Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor, also of the Ordo Xenos, as he battles a powerful nemesis and seeks to defeat a conspiracy involving high Imperial officials. The third trilogy '' centres on Alizebeth Bequin, an "untouchable" who had been a long-time, trusted member of Eisenhorn's inner circle.Warhammer 40,000 gaming
Eisenhorn was made as an official model for the Inquisitor spin-off game. Unlike Inquisitors for the main Warhammer 40,000 game, the Inquisitor version of Eisenhorn is equipped with many beyond the normal standard items: he is equipped with a Power Sword, a special "rune" staff, a "duelling" pistol, grenades and flak armour. He also has the ability to use telepathy.While the main Warhammer 40,000 games does include two inquisitorial armies official rules for the Alien Hunters of the Ordo Xenos to which Eisenhorn belongs have not been published. Rules for him and Daemonhosts are included in the official Inquisitor rulebook, and generic rules for him and Daemonhosts are included in the Daemonhunters army codex.
Gaunt's Ghosts
Gaunt's Ghosts are currently collected into three "sequences": The Founding, The Saint, and The Lost. The Founding includes the novels First and Only, Ghostmaker, and Necropolis. The Saint includes the novels Honour Guard, The Guns of Tanith, Straight Silver,and Sabbat Martyr. The Lost includes the novels Traitor General, His Last Command, The Armour of Contempt, and Only in Death,. The planned fourth sequence "The Victory" includes "Blood Pact" and "Salvation's Reach".