Editing Grimdark (section)

== Common grimdark themes ==
*[[1984|Massive, imperialist, overbearing, bureaucratic, dystopian dictatorships]]; e.g. [[Imperium of Man|Nazi Germany clones]], [[Tau|Soviet Union/China clones]], or straight out examples of [[Paranoia|"Big Brother is watching you"]].
*Constant, never ever-ending warfare, usually as a horrific combination of outdated tactics and technology (And sometimes overly advanced technology). E.g., sending line infantry armed with single-shot [[Lasgun|Lasguns]] against a [[Bolter|Heavy Bolter]] nest.
*Horrifyingly large death tolls are perfectly normal. Genocide is also perfectly normal, and in many cases encouraged and espoused.
*Slavery is also perfectly normal, and sometimes considered a great necessity. Massive constructs are often built via slave labor.
*Everyone is racist towards non-humans/[[Eldar|elves]]/[[Mutant|mutants]]/[[Orks|fungus]]/[[Rak'gol|lizards]]/[[Slaugth|worms]]/[[Necrons|robots]]/[[Tyranids|aliens]]/[[Chaos|each other]]. Vice versa for literally every race. 
*Speaking of xenophobia towards every species, those who express sympathy for a hated race and/or intermingle with said race, are usually publicly humiliated, tortured, and usually purged.
*Daily dose of [[HFY]]. [[Astral Knights|And]] [[Awesome]]. 
*[[Shadowrun|The vast majority are poor people who literally live in shit, pollution, crime]], and a plethora of [[Nurgle|all kinds of filthy diseases]], except for a [[Monopoly|few greedy upper 1% who own 99.9% of everything. This has become increasingly ironic as 0.1% of our real world population began to own 99.999% of everything.]]
*You, a poor bastard, are being farmed for shits and giggles by said few greedy upper 1%. 
*Most of the poor bastards are being forced to work 23 hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, in factories and/or forced labour camps, until their bodies give out. Forever.
*They're probably making weapons and equipment for [[Imperial Guard|the military]] (which is where the rest of the poor bastards are). 
*[[Age of Strife|Dark, disgraceful and recondite past]] covered with [[Alpha Legion|lies]] [[Imperium|propanganda]], [[Tzeentch|deception]] and [[Eldar|partiality]]. 
*The Higher Powers do indeed give you consideration, they're just malevolent as all fuck.
*Chronic backstabbing. Just like in real life relationships. (''Who hurt you?'')
*[[Ork Snipers|"Frie]][[Marines Malevolent|ndly]] [[Kharn|fire"]]
*[[Space Marines|Child]] [[Imperial Guard|soldiers]]. Just like in real life.
*Your morning alarm clock is the stray bullets you hope don't hit you, from [[Necromunda|the gangsters doing a drive-by on their enemy who happens to be in the same district]] to whom you don't even belong to or like.
*Status quo is god. [[Nurgle|Literally.]] 
*[[Tzeentch|Change is worse]]. 
*[[Cyberpunk|Cybernetics and cyborgs]]; the less human, the better.
*[[Commissar|Daily forecasts reguarly call for a 80% chance or more of *BLAM*]]. 
*[[Judge Dredd|Police]] [[Adeptus Arbites|brutality]].
*Even minor crimes can have major punishments.
*[[Inquisition|Being innocent or even a victim of crime can be counted as a crime]]. All participants in a crime, whether perpetrator or victim, are charged.
*[[Inquisition|Government agencies that are always there to fuck you over]] at the slightest hint of [[heresy]]. 
*Did I mention that the [[Inquisition]] commits planetary genocide 24/7?
*The [[Erebus|cock]][[Dark Eldar|suckers]] responsible for most of the shittiness are not only getting away with it, but are surviving and thriving, without becoming major targets for the [[noblebright]] forces. 
*Torture that makes the CIA look like saints.
*[[Call of Cthulhu|Sanity checks]]. 
*Criminally insane delusional psychotics tortured in filthy mental asylums (in case of no/failed SAN checks). 
*[[H.P. Lovecraft|Disgusting, horrifying, tentacled eldritch abominations]] that are often the cause of aforementioned criminal insanity. 
*Rape. Just like in real life. ([[/d/|And often by said tentacled Eldritch Abominations]].)
*Surgery without anesthesia.
*[[Cannibalism]], in three forms:
# For power (embracing the myth of "you are what you eat").
# For food value; sometimes this is concealed by callous authorities as some other kind of food; sometimes, it's just a biological, cultural or desperation thing.
# For the sheer fun of it.
*Want chemotherapy or some other expensive treatment? Well, you have to eviscerate that old dropout student of yours in order to pay. 
*In fact even surgery without anesthesia is a luxury available only to wealthy or important ones, as are all other forms of medicine. 99% of people are expected to die when they fall sick or get injured. That is when they don't get executed FOR falling sick or getting injured.
*[[Fleshcrafting|Human experiments]]. [[Fabius Bile|Sometimes willingly, but most of the time not]]!
*Zombie plagues.   
*Ritual cult sacrifices. 
*Massive amounts of blood, gore, guts, pain and hatred.
*No personal opinion or choice. Only the illusion of it, in which you probably end up an [[Magnus|unwil]][[Mortarion|ling]] [[Rubric Marines|sla]][[necron|ve]]. Or...[[Chaos spawn|something worse]]. 
*Anti-intellectualism. 
**...and it's justified because even an instant of unprotected thinking risks mass destruction.
*PTSD.
*Nihilism.
*Racism is actually right.
*Gothic and emo aesthetics (with the help of tons of ''"decorative"'' skulls). 
*There are no "good guys". Everyone's a cynical jerk. If you aren't, those who are will exploit that.
* Everyone is evil either because they’re just plain monsters or because they are trying to survive which makes everyone evil to everyone else.
*[[Tau|The guys everyone refer to be "good" or "nice"]] are actually just ''the least'' evil bunch, and would still make your average high fantasy/sci-fi arch-villains look like saints in comparison.
*The REAL good guys are either [[Lamenters|the ones (usually) mostly hated, and are going to get fucked over beyond human recognition usually without any logical reason]] or [[Salamanders|too few to make any difference]].
*Aforementioned "good guys" are only "good" because they do care about their allies and civilians, and generally try to make the place less shitty for those they care for. But they still wouldn't hesitate a second before doing pretty horrible things like [[Shadowrun|terrorist actions against "The Man"]], [[Warhammer 40k|killing a defenseless xeno child]], etc...
*The aforementioned defenseless xeno-child needed to be killed either because it was guaranteed to grow up to be a monster, would grow to compete for resources needed for survival, would be corrupted, was already a monster, or any number of reasonable justifications that would leave a modern man in frustrated tears trying to justify not killing it.  Welcome to Warhammer 40,000.
*Magic is [[Warp|inherently malevolent]] and actively seeks to [[Cenobites|corrupt]] and [[Khorne|destroy]] those unfortunates 'gifted' with magical abilities.  And everything around them at the time.
*You either die a [[Sanguinius|worthy death]] or you live long enough to see yourself becoming something that [[Mortarion|you've]] [[Perturabo|always]] [[Fulgrim|hated]].
*Everyone will most likely die in the end. Especially the ones important to and including the main character.
*Always polluted, never sunny. 
*No ice cream. No lollipops either.
*Death or suicide will only make things much, much worse in [[H.P. Lovecraft|Lovecraftian]] levels, as a hive of disgusting, incomprehensibly evil supernatural daemons are waiting patiently to eternally torment your un-life and roast your soul alive day and night forever and ever, again and again and again and again.
*Tremendous potential for offensive/dark comedy/[[lulz]].
*[[God-Emperor of Mankind|And if you ever, EVER try to change this shitty world or try to help one person just a little, you will probably suffer terrible consequences,]] because altruism is a dying philosophy. (And because your reasoning is flawed.)
*Life sucks. 
*There's only war.
*You're probably going to get eaten by Tyranids.
*no gf
*Good luck and [[Dwarf_Fortress|have fun.]]
*Even using the wrong calendar is [[heresy]].