Grimdark

It's totally the opposite of this.

Inspector Gadget, reimagined with a grimdark feel.

Grimdark versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Grimdark is an adjective derived from the tagline for Warhammer 40k, which states that "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." It is generally used to describe a setting which it would really, REALLY suck to actually live in, exemplified by Warhammer 40k itself (in fairness, this is because the published material primarily focuses on war and cults and other horrible things; there are supposed to be many pleasant and peaceful worlds and sectors in the Imperium, but they are mostly ignored as they are boring from a game perspective). It can also be used to describe artwork that has a grimdark feel, even if the setting itself would not normally be considered grim or dark.

Being grimdark can be taken to extremes; depending on your own personal tolerances for grim darkness, there is a point at which it becomes more ridiculous than anything else because everything is unfeasibly terrible all the time. This is an accusation often levelled at Warhammer itself, and leads some to rail against "Grimdark" as a whole, decrying the concept as ridiculous attempts at edginess (typically by teenagers), and using the expression to refer solely to such over-the-top settings in a pejorative manner. Others embrace this ridiculosity (recall especially that Warhammer 40K was, in early editions, a much more obviously comedic setting) and run with it, embracing the ludicrous nature of extreme grimdark and denying that it is supposed to be taken seriously (as detractors claim is the intention). This schism is mostly visible with races such as the Tau in Warhammer, who are noticeably less grimdark than most of the other races combined, and they are either loved or hated because of this. When grimdark is involved, there isn't a lot of room for middle ground. Meanwhile, another sizable percentage instead postulate that Grimdarkness lends greater moral and ethical complexity to a setting. Such people usually cite the works of Dan Abnett and many other Warhammer 40K writers to lend credence to such suppositions. Needless to say, grimdarkness is a rather polarizing subject.

BUT IT IS FUCKAWESOME EITHER WAY.

The polar opposite of grimdark is Noblebright, a deliberate inversion of grim and dark nature where honour, happiness, and high adventure rule the day, as opposed to dying in a ditch from a supernatural plague as you run out of potable water and can no longer wait for the logistics department to process your dead comrades into something slightly more palatable before you start eating them.

Common grimdark themes include:

• Massive, overbearing, bureaucratic, dystopian empires; e.g. "Big Brother is watching you".
• Constant, never ever-ending warfare.
• Everyone is racist towards non-humans/elves/fungus/lizards/robots. Just like in real life.
• The vast majority lives in poverty and (literal) shit, except for a few greedy elite. Just like in real life.
• You, a poor bastard, are being farmed for shoots and giggles by a few greedy elite.
• There ain't any poverty in fact; the poor had been farmed to extinction aeons ago, and you have to survive the mess you created as a result.
• Short life expectancies due to war, harsh environments, or space-bugs trying to eat your face.
• Horrifyingly large death tolls are perfectly normal.
• Chronic backstabbing.
• Zombie plagues.
• Child Soldiers.
• Cybernetics and cyborgs; the less human, the better.
• Mutants, especially the persecution thereof.
• Spanish Inquisition clones.
• Torture.
• Criminally insane people and shitty asylums to torture them in.
• Disgusting, tentacled eldritch abominations (often the cause of aforementioned insanity).
• Massive amounts of blood, gore, guts, pain and hatred.
• Anti-intellectualism.
• Nihilism.
• Gothic/Emo aesthetics.
• There are no "good guys"; everyone's a jerk, including you. Especially you.
• Everyone important to the main character will most likely die in the end. Especially the only ones who show even the slightest bit of niceness.
• Always polluted, never sunny.
• No ice cream.
• *BLAM*
• Death will only make things much, much worse in Lovecraftian levels as a network of disgusting, incomprehensibly evil supernatural viruses are waiting there to twist your mind, torment your un-life, and digest your soul alive, again and again and again and again.
• Tremendous potential for offensive/dark comedy/lulz.
• And if you ever, EVER try to change this shitty world or try to help one person just a little, you will be the first to be fried alive with radioactive waves and to be an experiment for the Evil Supernatural Viruses' Latest Torment Devices.

Stuff considered Grimdark

A world where the only way to beat grimdark is by introducing something even grimmer and darker

• Warhammer 40,000 (Naturally)
• End of War
• RIFTS
• Blame!
• Grimdark Songwriting
• Don't Rest Your Head
• Paranoia (though used for humor)
• SLA Industries
• Pokemon Tabletop Adventures (though optional)
• World of Darkness
• CthulhuTech (just about anything based on Lovecraft will have some grimdark in it)
• Exalted (If playing mortals).
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Monopoly
• FATAL
• Cupcakes

See also

• Noblebright