The Origin of Warhammer, Explained
Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 have legions of fans around the world. The tabletop wargaming franchise has expanded into novels, comics, and video games for decades. Whether you're a lore fiend, a tactician, an avid miniature painter, or all three, Games Workshop's famous worlds have something for you.
Related: Total War: Warhammer - Who Is The Advisor?
With the recent knighting of one of Games Workshop's founders, it's a great time to look back on how the company and its flagship franchise got started. This is the origin of the Imperium, the Ruinous Powers, and the other iconic forces of the Warhammer universe.
Much of the early story is detailed in Shannon Appelcline's book Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry. In 1975, British roommates Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone, and John Peake started a company in their garage.
They planned to make handcrafted game sets - chess, backgammon, and the like. As such, they called their company Games Workshop. Livingstone handled the marketing, Jackson created artwork and published a hobby magazine to bring in extra income, and Peake made the products. Jackson's magazine, called Owl & Weasel, was sent to hobbyists, publishers, and retailers, and it encouraged readers to write in with their recommendations for games that could be featured in the publication.
The Steve Jackson in this article is not the same Steve Jackson who founded Steve Jackson Games in the United States.
Early on in their business, the trio got a letter from Brian Blume, a partner in a small American publisher called Tactical Studies Rules (or TSR for short). Blume sent Games Workshop a copy of TSR's new game which had been published the year before - Dungeons & Dragons. Blume just wanted
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