Futile Defiance

From the Warhammer 40,000 universe, a Space Marine of the Ordo Xenos confronts the Wraithlords of the Eldar, one of the many alien races ranged against the galactic empire of humankind as it struggles to survive in a hostile universe intent upon its destruction.

Set in the far distant future, the human race has colonised countless millions of planets across the Milky Way galaxy. This loose agglomeration of humanity has developed many individual cultures over the millennia and is led more in principle than in substance by the “Emperor of Mankind” a human of god-like powers who once united humanity across the galaxy but was mortally wounded during a civil war known as the Horus Heresy thousands of years before.

Communication and transportation between worlds are only achieved by utilizing the warp, a faster than light process where spaceships can be transported instantly from one point in space to another. The warp is an extremely volatile inter-dimensional void susceptible to “storms” where immaterial forces can waylay, destroy, corrupt or even possess anything that transits through. It is the realm of the supernatural where space and time are meaningless and the darkest desires and emotions of sentient life are given substance. It is also where humanity’s greatest menace dwells, the Chaos Gods who are bent upon its destruction.  Spaceships that enter the void do so at their peril.

In order to maintain its hold in a brutal universe, the empire itself employs brutality in dealing with its myriad of enemies either within or without. Alien threats are everywhere, corruption and rebellion among discontented individuals or entire worlds (often through the manipulations of the Chaos Gods) is a constant problem. Consequently, the imperium’s military forces are perpetually engaged in warfare across the galaxy as they either try to bring order to rebellious worlds, drive out alien hoards or battle the insidious forces of Chaos. Away from the battlefield, an extremely dogmatic devotion to the “emperors light” coupled with acute xenophobia to anything non-human is encouraged within the imperial citizenry. Disobedience to the imperial narrative is intolerable and punishable as such.

The Ordo Xenos is an imperial agency charged with protecting humanity from the threats of alien influence or aggression. It draws its number from veteran space marines, humanity’s super-soldiers, who have expertise in alien warfare and performs its duties with the same xenophobic zeal as would be expected from the imperial cult.

The Eldar (also known as the Aeldari) are an ancient humanoid alien race that achieved technological supremacy millions of years before humans first ventured into space and they roamed the galaxy with an empire of their own. They are almost human in appearance but are slightly taller, slimmer with slightly pointed ears and move with a fluid grace no human could ever achieve. They are blessed with greater intelligence and have much longer lifespans than humans.

The Eldar once considered themselves masters of the stars and arbiters over life and death, but from that point they declined into an amoral and hedonistic society. As a result of such hubris, the Eldar race was almost wiped out by a psychic cataclysm that created a new chaos god, Slaanesh, as the immaterial warp reacted to Eldar excesses. In the present Warhammer 40,000 universe only a rump society of Eldar factions exist, drifting through the galaxy, adapting to whatever ways they can in order to survive. Yet despite their diminished number, Eldar technology is far more sophisticated and advanced than humans.

This scene of futile human defiance against overwhelming alien force is based on Dali’s famous painting “The Temptation of Saint Anthony”, following a similar composition and arrangement of subjects. Like many of Dali’s scenes and in keeping with the quasi-surreal theme, the landscape has been kept intentionally minimal with a strange yellow-orange atmosphere to suggest otherworldliness or perhaps an allegorical setting for the confrontation. The events portrayed could be within a material setting or simply symbolic of the cultural anti-alien prejudices running through the mind of the human.

Title:                                    Futile Defiance
Medium:                             Digital Painting on MacBook Pro using Sketchbook.
Completed:                      1st March 2025.
Artist:                                  Stuart Carrol.