God-Emperors and their mankind: power imaginaries in Warhammer 40.000 and Dune narrative universes

This paper examines the god-emperor archetype in science fiction through two prominent incarnations: Leto II from Herbert’s God Emperor of Dune (1981) and the Emperor of Mankind from the narrative universe of Warhammer 40,000, a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. These figures represent reimagined versions of Frazer’s sacred king concept (1915), transformed into posthuman/transhuman rulers. Both preside over totalitarian regimes that relate to contemporary concerns including bureaucratization, religious extremism, and technological ambivalence. The analysis explores the socio-political structures underlying these depictions and their visual representations in canonical texts. Additionally, the paper investigates how American Alt-Right groups have appropriated these figures by depicting Donald Trump as both the God-Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer 40,000 and characters from Dune, demonstrating how these science fiction archetypes influence modern political discourse and function as cultural critiques of power centralization.