Welcome back! Part 1 of this series is here. If I suggest you start there, if you’re new to the topic, as that will cover what Dark Future is and have more info on its origins. In that article I looked at the fan-theory that the Dark Future game setting was the Warhammer 40,000 setting later in the same timeline (around 38,000 years later!)
(Image - Dark Future graces the cover of White Dwarf 103, July 1988. This shows a gangcult car speeding forward armed with spikes while an armed warrior pokes out of a shooting position on the car.)
In this follow-on article I’m going to look at another fan-theory; that the Dark Future universe and the 40K setting are part of a connected multiverse. Before I dive in this concept regarding Dark Future, the idea of multiverse is a very old concept, possibly going back as far as the 6th century CE. It is also a concept that Games Works has explored before too. It was possibly hinted as with Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. Here’s a quote from the draft text of the book on this point:
[There are] fan-rumors that the settings were much more directly connected than just in theme, that actually Warhammer Fantasy Battle’s hero Sigmar was one of the lost Primarchs from 40K and thus the Warhammer Fantasy world was but one planet into the wider SF universe. (It’s a cool idea but, as I understand it, not canon.) But there are clearly more than just themes shared between SF and fantasy; the four chaos powers are shared beings between games, as developed in the two classic Realm of Chaos books. More than that there’s also times when stories have emerged that seem to connect both settings.
There was one issue of White Dwarf that hinted at, well, something tangible? White Dwarf 108 from 1988 had a WFRP adventure in it, ‘Terror in the Darkness’ which had the player characters descending into a mine to investigate reports that it was haunted by a strange creature. SPOILER from here onwards if you want to play this adventure, stop reading now! For that creature that turns out to be an Ambull! Ambulls are a monster type from 40K Rogue Trader. According to the text of the adventure, the Ambull appeared via a one-way warp gate from a future time and place, that being the death world Lucifer McIntyre IX. This hints at a connection, but also – the warp – by its very nature deceives us!
They also explored the idea via the classic game Talisman (of which you can get the digital version here!) with the ‘Talisman Realm’ where the Fury of Dracula setting appears in the Talisman setting, which is very cool. (Talisman is a topic I’ll explore here more too! So make sure you’re subscribed!)
Which neatly brings us back into the way some theorised that the Dark Future setting was connected to the Warhammer 40,000 setting, not as the same world at different points in time but as a dimensional multiverse co-existing.
(Image - Top to bottom, left to right; A renegade gangcult vehicle, cops and a die-cast car, SWAT team members, a Sanctioned Op Jonny ‘Reb’ Johnson depicting the flag of the loser side of the ACW & three chaos cultists. Source: White Dwarf 105/Fluffenhammer)
Theory 2 - Dark Future is another dimension connected to the 40K universe...
Might the 40K universe be another dimension connected via the warp to the Dark Future world? So all the above is key (sharing warp-space being the most key) to this theory.
In the novel Golgotha run there is a ‘lost’ UFO spaceship buried under the earth;
“In any event, the thing we’re calling the Artefact was discovered some time during our planet’s history by one of these Factions, here in its chamber on Earth. Ever since then it’s been guarded and protected, kept in reserve for some grand strategic move or other a couple of thousand years down the line – so far as here and now we reckon time. But why, and more importantly,how is it here? Is it, as one particular Faction believes, a gift from some ancient alien culture? Or an ancient alien culture in its entirety as another believes? Or is it, in the end, nothing more nor less difficult and complicated than a Ship? The space-going equivalent of an aircraft carrier, from what I’m told, designated by a name that comes out in the translation as Hammer of God or some such.”
The ship is called ‘Hammer of God’ written in a language that is not English (Is it High Gothic?) which might be a mistranslation of Deamonhammer in 40K (and is the name of a forge in Warhammer.) But it could also be a reference to a a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke.
Could the dissolution of time/space within the warp (“Time had no meaning in the Darkness...”) mean this spacecraft was a ship lost in the 40K dimension which has re-materialised, dead, in the Dark Future universe? This could explain why Khorne and Nurgule, are referenced the Dark Future setting.
Who can say?
There’s also a couple of bits from the video game that I’m sure are totally coincidental. One is that the ingame ISP that the player uses to access their data is run by ‘‘Telecom Zurich Holdings’ ISP’ - TZH-ISP (top-left in the image below) Is there an echo of the Tzeentch logo in the TZH logo? Who can say.
(Image - Screenshot from the video game version of Dark Future.)
(Image - Top is a close-up of the top-left of the screenshot from the video game version of Dark Future, below the Tzeentch logo.)
Meanwhile some of the news ticker items in Dark Future video game also seem to hint at a connection? Here’s an example item of news:
Cheap “meat” has hidden cost - vegetarian substitute rumoured to be linked to shocking medical issues!
A manufacturer of animal product alternatives for low-income vegetarians has removed its products from store shelves amidst claims of strange side effects after being eaten.
Lawyers representing a number of citizens have claimed their clients suffered temporary insanity due to chemical poisoning, after committing seemingly random violent acts shortly after eating Khorn® products.
A spokesperson for the manufacturer - Khorn Enterprises®, who produce Khorn Burgers®, Khorn Sausages®, and Khorn Mince® among other foodstuffs - declined to comment when asked by ZBC® if consumption of its products was linked with heightened aggression and violent impulses, and if this was the reason for the removal from sale.
(Image - Top to bottom, left to right; Early GW studio prototype of an Interceptor car, two images of the Spiders from mars renegade paramilitary gangcult, Skull & Crossbones Interreceptor, Wheel flames design, another early studio prototype of an Interceptor car. Source: White Dwarf 105/Fluffenhammer)
Thanks for reading!
(Any future Dark Future themed articles will go here!)
Links of Note:
Remember When Games Workshop Made Mad Max? | Dark Future History
Dark Future: Blood Red States with Graeme Davis & Auroch Digital | Steam Digital Tabletop Fest
Apparently your fandom is about to fall and die. Except it’s not.
Note! There is more about this project here. The direct chat for this project is here. You can comment here or find me on BlueSky.
Also note! This book project is a personal one and not affiliated with any company that, in my day job, I work with or partner with.
That game's UI is so cool.