Culture

Culture (/ˈkʌltʃər/) is, in the words of E.B. Tylor, "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."

Cambridge English Dictionary states that culture is, "the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time."Terror Management Theory posits that culture is a series of activities and worldviews that provide humans with the illusion of being individuals of value in a world meaning—raising themselves above the merely physical aspects of existence, in order to deny the animal insignificance and death that Homo Sapiens became aware of when they acquired a larger brain.

War

War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterized by extreme collective aggression, destruction, and usually high mortality. The set of techniques and actions used to conduct war is known as warfare. An absence of war is usually called "peace". Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant casualties.

While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, others argue that it is only a result of specific socio-cultural or ecological circumstances.

In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths down from 72,000 deaths in 1990. The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, with 60–85 million deaths, followed by the Mongol conquests which was greater than 41 million. Proportionally speaking, the most destructive war in modern history is the War of the Triple Alliance, which took the lives of over 60% of Paraguay's population, according to Steven Pinker. In 2003, Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem, a decrease in social spending, famine, large-scale emigration from the war zone, and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers.

Shadow War

The Shadow Wars are a fictional series of wars involving the Shadows in the television science fiction series Babylon 5. There have actually been many Shadow Wars since ancient times in the galaxy. Roughly every thousand years, the Shadows begin a new Shadow War to promote chaos in the universe in accordance with their ideology of growth through conflict. During the first two seasons, "The Shadow War" typically refers to the previous Shadow War in the cycle, a thousand years earlier. At this point the one that takes place within the series itself is referred to as "the Coming Shadow War", as it is anticipated but not yet begun. This last war is mainly referred to as "the Shadow War" in the fourth and fifth seasons.

First Shadow War

In the "Shadow War" that occurred in the year 1260, the Shadows battled an alliance of races led by the Vorlons and Minbari. The use of Babylon 4, brought back in time from a thousand years in the future, was pivotal in the defeat of the Shadows. It is referred to by the Minbari as "The Great War".

Games Workshop

Games Workshop Group PLC (often abbreviated as GW) is a British miniature wargaming manufacturing company. Games Workshop is best known as developer and publisher of the tabletop wargames Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange with the symbol GAW.L. The company's British operating subsidiary company is Games Workshop Limited.

Overview and history

Founded in 1975 at 15 Bolingbroke Road, London by John Peake, Ian Livingstone, and Steve Jackson (not to be confused with U.S. game designer Steve Jackson), Games Workshop was originally a manufacturer of wooden boards for games such as backgammon, mancala, Nine Men's Morris, and Go. It later became an importer of the U.S. role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and then a publisher of wargames and role-playing games in its own right, expanding from a bedroom mail-order company in the process.

In order to promote their business and postal games, create a games club, and provide an alternative source for games news, the newsletter Owl and Weasel was founded in February 1975. This was superseded in June 1977 by White Dwarf.