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For all that is without equal about Warhammer 40k lore, there have still been additions questioned by many in the community, accusing them of being sub-par. Regardless of whether or not there have been any truly unworthy additions to such a wildly expansive universe as 40k, I would know to whom we truly have to thank for 40k lore. I would imagine this would include all of the major writers (and perhaps artists of note?) from around 1st edition to 3rd edition, but I am uncertain - and Google has not been helpful.

With that in mind, who are the founding fathers of Warhammer 40k to whom we owe our thanks?

Graham McNeill.

If you think I'm wrong fight me.

Thorpe, McNeil, and Abnett all jump to mind for lore. Visually, Jes Goodwin and John Blanche. Especially Goodwin, who is pretty much the entire reason why Eldar look like they do.

 Void__Dragon wrote:
Graham McNeill.

If you think I'm wrong fight me.

Sure. I'll fight your avatar.

Do we have Jervis Johnson to thank for 40k Orkz?
Or dishes just swoop in with few changes and take credit?

The Emperor is Rick Priestley, the chaos god Andy Chambers, The Eldar God Javis Johnson, to name afew of the first born creators

 Void__Dragon wrote:
Graham McNeill.

If you think I'm wrong fight me.

McNeill is not even the best current writer, let alone the founding father of 40k. Dan Abnett and ADB both leave that hack trailing in their wake.

Obviously Rick Priestley is the FF, because he invented the whole thing in the first place!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ribon Fox wrote:
The Emperor is Rick Priestley, the chaos god Andy Chambers, The Eldar God Javis Johnson, to name afew of the first born creators

I concur.

 mattyrm wrote:

 Void__Dragon wrote:
Graham McNeill.

If you think I'm wrong fight me.

McNeill is not even the best current writer, let alone the founding father of 40k. Dan Abnett and ADB both leave that hack trailing in their wake.

Woah... woah... woah...

The correct answer is Matt Ward.

Did Rick Priestley leave? And why?

 mattyrm wrote:

 Void__Dragon wrote:
Graham McNeill.

If you think I'm wrong fight me.

McNeill is not even the best current writer, let alone the founding father of 40k. Dan Abnett and ADB both leave that hack trailing in their wake.

Obviously Rick Priestley is the FF, because he invented the whole thing in the first place!

Abnett writes the same books with the same tired conventions over and over again and couldn't write an ending to save his life, and ADB is possibly the single most overrated writer in 40k history. The Emperor's Gift is toilet paper, and Betrayer is trash. I'm sorry if you didn't understand McNeill's work but he is objectively the greatest writer to ever touch the ip.

 Netsurfer733 wrote:
I would know to whom we truly have to thank for 40k lore.

Look up the early rule books, and look at the by-lines.

For example: 40k second edition is credited to Rick Priestley and Andy Chambers. Rick Priestley is, if anybody is, the creator of the entire game.

You also have to know what the actual jobs were that people at the company had. The reason that any art got into the publications was that John Blanche was the art director, as well as an illustrator. If there is a picture in a rulebook, it is there because John Blanche found the artist, told the artist what the book needed, and approved the product.

You should read this interview with the owner of the company that first published warhammer, and which later purchased the rival "games workshop." He wrote most of the Ork books, as well.

There is also an interview with Priestley here.


You'd have to notice that Graham McNeil has been around since the beginning, and from a chronological perspective would at least have been in the Continental Army, if not an actual Founding Father. I think that his work is sort of comparable to the un-inked, proportionless cartoons in some of the Rogue Trader books.

Dan Abnett is definitively not a founding father, he wasn't around in the beginning and he writes characters, he doesn't write background. What Dan Abnett is is Abraham Lincoln. He's Roosevelt-Wilson-FDR-Kennedy-Nixon-Reagan.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden, of course, is Gerald Ford.

Priestley or GTFO

Bryan Ansell set up Citadel in partnership with Games Workshop in 1979.

In 1980 he published "Laserburn" which features a degenerate galactic empire where the emporer is a mere pawn of the great lords, with power armoured space marines armed with bolt rifles fighting against a rebellious religious cult. He co-wrote WHFB in 1981.

Bryan Ansell later became managing director of GW and bought it from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

 chochky wrote:
The correct answer is Matt Ward.

Hes right lololol!!

Mellow wrote:
Did Rick Priestley leave? And why?

They gave him a 'pet project' to stop him interfering with 40k (because, quite frankly, they were determined to feth it up on their own).
They called it "warhammer historical".
Then they canned it.
Then they waited for him to leave of his own accord (less PR backlash if someone leaves as opposed to being fired).

Then he went to work for another Notts. wargames company that does historicals (Warlord). Last I heard, he was trying to get another SF game off the ground - the first time was bad due to a combination of relying on "word of my epic greatness" and lack of even models to show (in an age where apparently wargames rules require the company to make their own models too? In my time, wargames rules companies and miniatures companies were often separate entities.)

Rick Priestly more or less designed the original universe.

1st edition did have BY RICK PRIESTLEY in big multicoloured letters, but Bryan Ansell, Jim Bambra, Nick Bibby, John Blanche, Jes Goodwin, Alan Merritt, Aly & Trish Morrison and Bob Naismith were all credit with "Additional Material" with almost all also being credited with "Additional Concepts" along with Tony Ackland, Dave Andrews and Charles Elliot, so just how much of the original book (which covered a LOT of the basics) actually lies at Priestley's feet is anyones bet. He did write an lot of the 1st edition White Dwarf article, but there were articles he wasn't credited on, a lot of the Imperial Guard stuff for example was by Graeme Davis.

If you want the ones who took the original glowing rod of 1st edition and hammered it into modern 40k then you'd be looking at Rick Priestley, Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson, modern 40k really began with Epic* 2nd edition and was mostly set in stone by 2nd edition - almost all of the Epic & 40k 2nd edition books were credited to some combination of these three names, although that doesn't mean they came up with it all: the Warlords (Orks & Squats) suppliment for Epic was credited to all three, yet it clearly reused the existing fluff from the Waaargh the Orks by Bryan Ansell and Nigel Stillman and the extensive 40k Squat article by Ansell, Stillman and Davis.

* example: It was the Armies of the Imperium suppliment for Epic where the Blood Angels Blood Oath space marines were retconned into the Death Company we know and love and where the Ravenwing were retconned from the 7th company and only riding on jetbikes to the 2nd company and riding bikes and speeders.

Once you get to 3rd edition you have a lot of the blanks as well as new races being filled in by the likes of Gav Thorpe, Andy Hoare, Pete Haines and McNeill

pelicaniforce wrote:

You'd have to notice that Graham McNeil has been around since the beginning

You sure about that? Lexicanum says he started in 2000 and I've not seen his name in anything older.

 Void__Dragon wrote:

 mattyrm wrote:

 Void__Dragon wrote:
Graham McNeill.

If you think I'm wrong fight me.

McNeill is not even the best current writer, let alone the founding father of 40k. Dan Abnett and ADB both leave that hack trailing in their wake.

Obviously Rick Priestley is the FF, because he invented the whole thing in the first place!

Abnett writes the same books with the same tired conventions over and over again and couldn't write an ending to save his life, and ADB is possibly the single most overrated writer in 40k history. The Emperor's Gift is toilet paper, and Betrayer is trash. I'm sorry if you didn't understand McNeill's work but he is objectively the greatest writer to ever touch the ip.

There is also the obvious point that Abnett is an actual writer that has wrote movie screenplays and other novels and such, and McNeill is just a bloke who happened to fall into writing because he was designing games.

I did like A Thousand Sons mind, but most of his gak is awful in my book.

 mattyrm wrote:

There is also the obvious point that Abnett is an actual writer that has wrote movie screenplays and other novels and such, and McNeill is just a bloke who happened to fall into writing because he was designing games.

I did like A Thousand Sons mind, but most of his gak is awful in my book.

Yeah? Movie screenplays like what? The Ultramarines movie?

Graham McNeill is also a writer. He's been writing professionally for over a decade. No I'm not saying he's James Joyce, but he's a writer. Asserting he isn't and Abnett is better because he is is just disingenuous and by the way, just dodges actually having to critique the works themselves.

You guys need to drop Abnett. I like him, but he's a fairly recent addition compared to the history of 40k. The OP is asking for "Founding Fathers" not Recent Adoptees, no matter how talented they might be.

I'd say the triumvirate is Ansel, Priestly and Chambers.

McNeil isn't quite up there in my book, but I admit that a case can be made for his inclusion, though the same could be said for Johnson, Blanche and a few others. Maybe not Founding Fathers, but certainly these fellows were members of the first continental congress.

Gotta love all these Yankee metaphors applied to a British company.

 Gashrog wrote:
1st edition did have BY RICK PRIESTLEY in big multicoloured letters, but Bryan Ansell, Jim Bambra, Nick Bibby, John Blanche, Jes Goodwin, Alan Merritt, Aly & Trish Morrison and Bob Naismith were all credit with "Additional Material" with almost all also being credited with "Additional Concepts" along with Tony Ackland, Dave Andrews and Charles Elliot, so just how much of the original book (which covered a LOT of the basics) actually lies at Priestley's feet is anyones bet.

Mostly Priestley, but you have to go back further and look at the pre-40K sci-fi miniatures combat games produced by Rick Priestly and Richard Halliwell. Some info here:
http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.com/2013/03/richard-halliwella-tribute-to-games.html

Definitely Rick Priestly as the originator. Not only is his name the front of Rogue Trader, but I my copy was signed by him, too.

The answers Rick Priestly

Thanks to you all - I did some looking up of Rick Priestly after this. Seems like a cool guy - am I right?

 Void__Dragon wrote:

 mattyrm wrote:

There is also the obvious point that Abnett is an actual writer that has wrote movie screenplays and other novels and such, and McNeill is just a bloke who happened to fall into writing because he was designing games.

I did like A Thousand Sons mind, but most of his gak is awful in my book.

Yeah? Movie screenplays like what? The Ultramarines movie?

Graham McNeill is also a writer. He's been writing professionally for over a decade. No I'm not saying he's James Joyce, but he's a writer. Asserting he isn't and Abnett is better because he is is just disingenuous and by the way, just dodges actually having to critique the works themselves.

At the end of the day, you are arguing that a game designer who has achieved far less, is a better writer than an actual writer that has enjoyed far more success and critical acclaim. Abnett co-created the Guardians of the Galaxy, he wrote for 2000AD, he wrote Doctor Who, he wrote the Thanos Imperative and is now essentially a part of some serious box office muscle. He has wrote his own standalone fiction, he has wrote X-men and Punisher for Marvel. The list goes on.

Now, I dont even think he is a fantastic writer or anything, but he is better than a game designer who fell into writing, and because you don't get big jobs in writing without having a name or some talent, so clearly the masses agree with me too or he wouldn't have had myriad jobs

I agree on the endings bit, he is gak at them, but that's about it.

Essentially I am saying that Floyd Mayweather is a fine boxer, and you are saying that a plumber you know is much better cos he spars a bit on the weekend.

 mattyrm wrote:


At the end of the day, you are arguing that a game designer who has achieved far less, is a better writer than an actual writer that has enjoyed far more success and critical acclaim. Abnett co-created the Guardians of the Galaxy, he wrote for 2000AD, he wrote Doctor Who, he wrote the Thanos Imperative and is now essentially a part of some serious box office muscle. He has wrote his own standalone fiction, he has wrote X-men and Punisher for Marvel. The list goes on.

I can't help but notice that none of those titles are a Warhammer 40,000 title.

Now, I dont even think he is a fantastic writer or anything, but he is better than a game designer who fell into writing, and because you don't get big jobs in writing without having a name or some talent, so clearly the masses agree with me too or he wouldn't have had myriad jobs

While your appeal to popularity fallacy is rather amusing, it should probably be supported by an actual argument.

I agree on the endings bit, he is gak at them, but that's about it.

He's one of the best three writers in BL, alongside ADB and Graham McNeill. But while Abnett can write a fine story, he simply can't compare to the Finnegan's Wake-esque depth (This is hyperbole and also rather non-indicative of my opinion of Finnegan's Wake) of Graham McNeill's writing.

In 40k. I don't care about what Abnett did with other fictional settings. His work for Marvel is pretty good.

Essentially I am saying that Floyd Mayweather is a fine boxer, and you are saying that a plumber you know is much better cos he spars a bit on the weekend.

McNeill hasn't been a game designer in years. Stop trying to discredit Graham McNeill's writing just because it wasn't his first job. It's his only job right now.

No, a more accurate analogy would be if you were saying Muhammad Ali is the best boxer ever, only for me to argue that Sugar Ray Robinson is better despite not having the popular appeal of Ali.

Come on.

Whether you like him or not, Matt Ward is the most influential writer in 40k.

Matt Ward is like Kind Midas' stupid brother. Everything he touches turns to s***.

Again, the question was Founding Fathers. It's not really a hard concept.

Ward was not a Founding anything. Like Abnett, he's a much more recent addition.