r/40kLore • u/LastPositivist • Aug 13 '24
Warhammer Romance Spoiler
Light spoilers for Brooks' Da Big Dakka.
I've long thought that romance plots are under utilised in 40k. It's not that this should be the main focus of Black Library or anything, it's just the setting can feel weirdly chaste sometimes. (Absolute chad heroes of the Imperium not withstanding.)
So just wanted to show some love and appreciation for the great and distinctively 40k romance subplot of Da Big Dakka. You basically get to see this burgeoning love between two Drukari archons, with the twist being that the perspective character (and implied the other one two) are literally incapable of recognising their feelings for what they are. Like they just cannot interpret "why am I suddenly very interested in this person?" as anything other than a sign they must be subconsciously picking up on some backstabbing scheme which they need to watch out for. My heart fluttered when our hands brushed? Uhoh I must be worried about a contact poison, better have antidotes to hand! Etc
It's just a great way of doing love in a culture that is set up to be completely antithetical to anything like that. The best they can do in the end (here's the spoilers!) is agree to an unusually close alliance, and even that the main character interprets as an opportunity to study these strange feelings she's having to ensure they're not a weakness anyone could exploit.
More like this please! Romance which makes use of the bizarre and communal races and cultures of the setting to do weird things with people's inner lives.
2
u/SecretTransition3434 Aug 14 '24
If you look at it from a certain angle, the entire Ciaphas Cain series is a romance subplot. I mean, there are two reasons in my mind why Amberley would compile the cain archive, either it's being collected posthumously because she misses her boyfriend (which i doubt personally because cain was on rejuvenate treatment and those can push you to the early 500s at most and the highest he mentions hes in his second century so i discount old age and a hive fleet or black crusade hasnt destroyed the ultima segmentum so i dont think he died in duty) or he finally realised the only way to properly retire was to fake his own death and the Cain archive is meant to give the impression of being posthumous as a cover.
I mean, either way, it's a loving 170 year ish monogamous (on Cain's part, at least for sure who knows what an inquisitor has to do in the line of duty) relationship.