The first edition of tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000 nailed the setting's tone right away. The 1987 book described humanity's future in bleak terms, summing up what it's like to be a citizen of the Imperium with the words, "To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable."
The back cover blurb was no less pessimistic. "There is no time for Peace," it declared. "No respite, No forgiveness. There is only WAR."
