I am a big "Warhammer 40,000" fan. I'm also a big worldbuilding fan. I don't play the "40K" tabletop game or videogame, but I read a lot of the novelization books and the worldbuilding in the game manuals. I have written before about what appeals to me in this very elaborate built world: the historical tropes and references to the Later Roman and Byzantine empires, the richness of symbolism, the alchemical and occult themes, and the lavish visual descriptions of battles, armor, spaceships, creatures, and especially cities and other built environments.
This Photoshop doodle (despite its defined look, it is only a sketch) depicts a scene in the industrial complexes of Mars, where the Red Planet is nearly totally covered with mines, factories, transportation, worker cities, etc. As usual with any Warhammer city, it is always destroyed by endless warfare by the end of the book. That's another thing I like about the Warhammer 40K world: its pessimism. Warhammer was originally created by a team of British and Scottish game makers and it is pervaded by the unrelenting theme of an ancient once-glorious Empire disintegrating into apocalyptic destruction. I am told that the tabletop game is popular among our American troops stationed in Afghanistan.
"Industrial Complex of Mars" is Photoshop, 7" x 10", October 2013.
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