It’s the festive period, but in the grim darkness of the far future things like hope, joy and good will towards men are long gone.
But one thing that has survived are splendid hymns, now devoted to promoting the dogma and doctrine of the Imperial Cult.
So with that cheery thought in mind, our Christmas gift to all of you in the Warhammer Community is this first-of-its-kind music video – featuring an authentic Imperial hymn. This is also a rare opportunity to hear real Imperial High Gothic spoken (or rather sung) aloud:
The inspiration for this piece lies in the art of Warhammer 40,000 – in particular a couple of thematic pieces depicting the sombre, faithful nature of the Adepta Sororitas: one shows a lone Sister of Battle kneeling in fervent prayer. Another bearing the sacred icon of her faith proudly before her.
The art of Warhammer is one of its greatest strengths – it has the power to pull you in and make you imagine more of the setting. A picture paints a thousand words, and these positively scream a story of faith and worship, even while surrounded by the horrors of a most uncaring galaxy.
To mark the end of the year, we set about writing an authentic Imperial hymn to bring those sentiments to life, fashioning something that fitted the Imperial Creed. It's not performed in English, nor any other fully-recognisable language from our world. That’s because it’s in High Gothic, the formal language of the Imperium, written here for the first time ever.
Here are the lyrics (in case you want to sing along):
Druvata Imperator dux noster;
in eman sua firmissimus.
Sacrificium eius illuminare fecit;
Druvata nostrae puritas
Nos kandu electa eius
Egredere facem mahsemo.
Renuntiatio eius helel;
Per tenebras et pólemos.
Nam qui eius ma’or.
Azar mundans iacet.
Hostes Imperium,
Da veniam irae.
Ora Imperator, praebe nobis tuam fortitudinem
Ut simus tui justi khang.
Omnis ut efches,
Nullus furor sanctum eius effugiat.
One of the most fascinating parts of this whole project has been the chance to codify High Gothic properly. It has appeared in various places ( purity seals, the sides of tanks, quotes in our books and so on), but for the first time there’s a coherent chunk of this unique language.
The Warhammer Studio have painstakingly crafted this language, and rumour has it that deep in the Warhammer HQ datavaults there is a whole bunch more. Maybe one day we’ll get to see a version of the hymn translated into our primitive 21st Century languages?
Putting this all together was a labour worthy of the Primarchs! With the hymn written, we turned to a veteran composer of Warhammer music, Jonathan Hartman, to fashion a suitably grand and evocative accompaniment. Jonathan composes most of the music for Warhammer+ shows – he’s a verifiable Warhammer super fan, and Emmy-nominated composer to boot.
We then travelled to Sofia in Bulgaria and united with the awesome talents of choir director George Elekov and a hand-picked choir. Together they performed and recorded the full-score hymn in High Gothic. It’s just what you’d hear in some vast cathedrum of the Adeptus Ministorum if you turned up for (mandatory) worship on some saint’s day, or at Emperor’s Day or Sanguinala!
To transform this hymn into a vision of the Adeptus Ministorum in all its glory was the duty of the Warhammer animations team. Rather than using more realistic animation and styles, as you might have seen in our animations on Warhammer+ (such as Iron Within), the team leaned really hard into the art that inspired this whole endeavour. The animation style is intended to make the whole piece look as though it has been painted with oil paints to tell a story of piety, adoration, defiance, and, as the hymn reaches its crescendo, martyrdom.
And there we have it… an unusually festive video from us to you! We hope you enjoy it and, more importantly, we hope you and yours have a happy and safe holiday period!
We’ve got one last festive gift for you – in the New Year, there will be a limited supply of glorious art prints of the images that inspired this video arriving in Warhammer stores around the world… and we’re going to give them away for free!
Want to get your hands on one? Sign up to our email right now so you’ll be sent information on how and when to pick up yours in store (while stocks last!)!
