founded april 1997 country of origin united kingdom headquarters location nottingham publication types books audiobooks fiction genres science fiction fantasy official website www.blacklibrary.com the black library is a division of games workshop formerly a part of bl publishing which is devoted to publishing novels and audiobooks and has previously produced art books background books and graphic novels set in the warhammer fantasy battle and warhammer 40 000 fictional universes . the publishing company took their name from the fictional black library in warhammer 40 000 1 where the eldar race keep their stored knowledge of chaos and the necrons . some of black library s best known titles include the gaunt s ghosts and eisenhorn series of novels by dan abnett and the gotrek and felix series by william king and nathan long . the authors of these novels graphic novels and comics created original storylines and characters that are based on playable armies in the main warhammer 40 000 game and its many spin offs such as inquisitor or epic . 2 3 these works are then promoted with contributions of stories plot synopses and rules in the white dwarf magazine and at the official games workshop website . 4 the result is a fusion of tabletop gaming with science fiction and fantasy writing . contents 1 history 2 background 2.1 gaming with the black library 2.2 fiction of the black library 3 novels and short fiction line 3.1 the inquisition trilogies 3.1.1 plot 3.1.2 warhammer 40 000 gaming 3.2 gaunt s ghosts 3.2.1 plot 3.2.2 warhammer 40 000 gaming 3.3 space wolves 3.3.1 plot 3.3.2 warhammer 40 000 gaming 4 comics and graphic novels line 4.1 bloodquest 4.1.1 plot 4.1.2 warhammer 40 000 gaming 4.2 daemonifuge 4.2.1 plot 4.2.2 warhammer 40 000 gaming 4.3 lone wolves 4.3.1 plot 4.3.2 warhammer 40 000 gaming 5 periodicals 6 references 7 external links history edit the black library was founded in april 1997 to publish inferno magazine a bi monthly digest sized anthology of short stories comic strips and features from the warhammer worlds . black library began as team at games workshop brought together to inferno magazine . 1 inferno s success spawned warhammer monthly comic books and then from september 1999 a lengthy series of fantasy and science fiction novels . their first art book inquis exterminatus was published in may 1999 . black library s catalogue now runs to well over two hundred titles with a warhammer and a warhammer 40 000 novel appearing every month . in october 2003 bl publishing started a sister imprint black flame which applied the same pulp styling to novels featuring new line cinema characters such as freddy krueger and jason voorhees and 2000 ad comics judge dredd and others . in 2006 black flame produced the novel for the new line cinema s feature film snakes on a plane . in the summer of 2005 bl publishing announced another fiction imprint solaris books that will publish original science fiction and fantasy . solaris books has subsequently been sold to rebellion who also own abaddon books . background edit short stories and other pieces of fiction were created for the white dwarf magazine for warhammer 40 000 rulebooks and gaming guides for other publications such as the citadel journal and for each of their official websites . later these evolved into larger novels and other works . a series of warhammer 40 000 comics were first created for the games workshop magazine warhammer monthly as short background filler . in 1999 the first miniature and game tie in was released as a joint project of warhammer monthly and its publisher the black library . 5 this model was the bounty hunter kal jerico of the specialist game necromunda . 6 including rules and a certificate of authenticity the black library created many more limited edition miniatures and expanded the small comics into larger collections while adding many new ones . 7 these novels and graphic novels are accompanied by cross promotional articles that connect the characters from the novels to the warhammer 40 000 miniatures game . while warhammer monthly was discontinued in 2004 although still listed at the black library website 8 there was a short lived continuation under the title warhammer comics . however with the discontinuation of these magazine projects the black library still continues to produce graphic novels and collections that expand upon the fiction behind the tabletop game . 9 gaming with the black library edit the works produced by the black library detail the interactions of the warhammer 40 000 armies chaos space marines daemonhunters dark eldar eldar imperial guard necrons orks space marines tau tyranids and the witch hunters . they are collaborated efforts between the authors of the warhammer 40 000 game rules and the writers of the background . these works expand on the storylines characters armies and organizations discussed in the codexes . combined with contributions to white dwarf magazine of articles stories and rules and miniature lines produced by both games workshop and forge world they expand upon the fictional world of the original warhammer 40 000 game and its other companion games . the column chapter approved of white dwarf is a forum for collaborations between authors model makers and the rulemakers allowing for the characters to have their own place amongst warhammer 40 000 battles . alongside of the warhammer 40 000 game was a short lived game called warhammer warriors . the system was created by rick priestley and based on the playing style of lostworlds . many of the characters released for the miniature game were given rules and a gaming book to be used in playing against others . this series ended before many of the novels were published and production of cross promotional books was discontinued . 10 fiction of the black library edit most of the stories take place thousands of years after the fall of the emperor of mankind at the hands of his favoured son horus once loyal but corrupted by chaos . many millennia has passed since then but the imperium is still at war with the chaos space marines along with many new enemies . the majority of these stories are written in the perspective of humans primarily those of the imperial guard the mechanic scientist mystics of the adeptus mechanicus the female warriors of the sisters of battle the holy inquisition and the superhuman space marines although some have been written from the perspective of corrupt chaos worshipping humans as well as the alien eldar and tau races . they span the complete warhammer 40 000 universe . novels and short fiction line edit see also list of black library novels the inquisition trilogies edit dan abnett began a series of trilogies involving the inquisition beginning in 2001 with the eisenhorn trilogy xenos 11 malleus 12 and hereticus . 13 in the omnibus edition released in 2004 there are two short stories placed between these novels to connect them together . 14 a second trilogy began in 2004 around the time the eisenhorn omnibus came out known as the ravenor trilogy ravenor 15 ravenor returned 16 and ravenor rogue . 17 the ravenor omnibus was released in 2009 also with two connecting short stories . 18 abnett revealed in the foreword to the ravenor omnibus that he was planning a trilogy of trilogies and the third set its title confirmed in an interview with abnett as the bequin trilogy 19 will begin in october 2012 with pariah ravenor versus eisenhorn . 20 plot edit the inquisition the holy orders of the emperor s inquisition is an organisation in the fictional warhammer 40 000 universe . they act as the secret police of the imperium hunting down any and all threats to the stability of the god emperor s realm . in the first trilogy the titular character is inquisitor gregor eisenhorn a member of the ordo xenos a division of the inquisition devoted to hunting aliens though they also uphold the inquisition s creed of prosecuting enemies of the state as he begins his descent into radicalism and association with daemonhosts and dark sorcery . the second trilogy is focused around eisenhorn s former student inquisitor gideon ravenor also of the ordo xenos as he battles a powerful nemesis and seeks to defeat a conspiracy involving high imperial officials . the third trilogy will be centered around alizebeth bequin an untouchable anti psychic or psychic blank who had been a long time trusted member of eisenhorn s inner circle . warhammer 40 000 gaming edit eisenhorn was made as an official model for the inquisitor spin off game . 2 unlike inquisitors for the main warhammer 40 000 game the inquisitor version of eisenhorn is equipped with many beyond the normal standard items he is equipped with a power sword a special rune staff a dueling pistol grenades and flak armour . he also has the ability to use telepathy . 2 while the main warhammer 40 000 games does include two inquisitorial armies daemon hunters and witch hunters official rules for the alien hunters of the ordo xenos to which eisenhorn belongs have not been published . rules for him and daemonhosts are included in the official inquisitor rulebook and generic rules for him and daemonhosts are included in the daemonhunters army codex . 21 gaunt s ghosts edit main article gaunt s ghosts gaunt s ghosts are currently collected into three sequences the founding 22 the saint 23 and the lost . the founding includes the novels first and only 24 ghostmaker 25 and necropolis . 26 the saint includes the novels honour guard 27 the guns of tanith 28 straight silver 29 and sabbat martyr . 30 the lost includes the novels traitor general 31 his last command 32 the armour of contempt 33 and only in death . 34 the planned fourth sequence the victory includes blood pact and salvation s reach . plot edit the gaunt s ghosts series follows colonel commissar ibram gaunt and the army of tanith from the creation of the tanith regiment of the imperial guard and its abandonment of their planet before the destruction of it at the hands of invading chaos legions . the stories follow the many adventures of the tanith first and only regiment as they seek to prove themselves . things are complicated by dissension against their commander gaunt for not letting them die alongside their brethren at the destruction of their planet . warhammer 40 000 gaming edit after the success of gaunt s ghosts lines of gaunt s ghosts based miniatures were produced by games workshop . unlike the previous models these were not limited edition sets . the production covered both the main characters of abnett s works like the title character colonel commissar ibram gaunt and also created a generic imperial guard variant called the tanith first and only . 35 rules were originally published for these miniatures in chapter approved column of white dwarf uk 269 us 268 and later collected in the chapter approved edition for 2003 . 36 with the creation of the 4th edition imperial guard codex the previous rules for the tanith first and only were removed and they were instead a variant army created using doctrine variations to traditional army rules . 37 while colonel commissar was given specific rules in the imperial guard codex 37 the other special characters according to the official games workshop website still use the rules presented in chapter approved and provide additional modeling types and rules to create more characters based on the gaunt s ghost series . 38 space wolves edit space wolf by william king with additions from sons of fenris describes the space wolves and ragnar blackmane in the warhammer 40 000 universe . the space wolf omnibus is a collection composed of space wolf 39 ragnar s claw and grey hunter . 40 space wolf