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If you’ve ever dreamed of weaving grimdark tales of the Imperium and its many foes, or already have a secret folder full of your Fabius Bile x Belisarius Cawl fanfic, your time is now. Black Library—the home of Warhammer novels—has once again flung open its doors and put out an open call for pitches.
All you need to do is send them a scene of a short story you’d like to write (no more than 500 words) and if they like it, they may commission you to do the full thing. From there, anything’s possible—short story writers for Black Library often go on to write full Warhammer novels. No other references or portfolios are required, so it really is open to absolutely anyone who thinks they’ve got the chops to take a crack.
There are some restrictions on your story, however. The theme this year is the meeting of two iconic characters. So your scene has to feature two named figures from either Warhammer 40,000 or Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, both of whom have had a miniature at some point in their history. If that’s not an invitation to make your two favourite Space Marines kiss I don’t know what is, but I guess you could also write about a cool fight or a tense exchange of words or something, if you want to be all prudish about it.
A slightly odder restriction is that the scene has to take place in one of a handful of locations. For 40k it’s Vigilus (an Imperial planet under siege by basically everyone), Commorragh (the nightmarish home city of the Drukhari), or Armageddon (a world known primarily for its endless wars with the Orks). It does feel like that limits your options a bit—Vigilus is fairly generic, but I’m not sure what story you’d write in Commorragh that isn’t “Drukhari being snippy with each other” or “a guy getting tortured”, and similarly Armageddon feels like the ideal backdrop for “man fights Ork” and little else. But I’m sure fans more creative and lore-savvy than me will have ideas bubbling already.
The options are a bit more interesting for Age of Sigmar, at least. The first is Hammerhal Aqsha (one half of a multicultural metropolis that’s stretched across two dimensions), the Eightpoints (the nexus between the realms, currently lorded over by the forces of Chaos and the setting of countless tribal skirmishes in the game Warcry), and Shadespire (the original setting of Warhammer Underworlds—a cursed city full of ghosts, trapped inside a mirror, that lures heroes of every faction into a surreal and deathless battle for magical artifacts). Between those three you can probably put anyone you want together, though Age of Sigmar certainly has less established named characters to draw on.
It probably goes without saying, but Games Workshop felt the need to add it anyway: you can’t do a crossover between the two. No making Sigmar meet the Emperor—Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar are still separate universes.
If all that’s sparked any inspiration for you, it’s time to start prepping your submission now. You’ll only be able to send it in between February 22nd and March 9th (details to come on Warhammer’s official site on the 22nd), so don’t dawdle. Only one entry is allowed per person, too, so make sure it’s good.
I’ll be getting cracking myself on my epic tale of Archaon the Everchosen and Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead, awkwardly bumping into each other in the queue at their local deli. Just as you think they might be ready to bury the hatchet, they discover only one of them can have a BLT because there’s an unexpected shortage of tomatoes. Original idea, please do not steal.
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Kurt Indovina
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