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So this week I've learned that the Dark Angel codex and their primarch is actual a reference to a poem by you guessed it Lionel Johnson. A there anyone references to book and thing in 40k?

A lot actually, some are obvious (Marbo = Rambo) others not so much.

broodstar wrote:So this week I've learned that the Dark Angel codex and their primarch is actual a reference to a poem by you guessed it Lionel Johnson. A there anyone references to book and thing in 40k?

And his poem Dark Angel was about unrequited love for another man. The DA's old "secret" was that they were gay. Then the GW writers realized that was a horrible joke and just made half of them fall to Chaos instead, retconning out that one bit.

Al'Raheim is Lawrence of Arabia, Ghazgkull Thrakka is Margaret Thatcher, Pedro Kantor is named after Peter Kantor, one of the original GW designers, Sgt. Bastonne is based on a real person but I can't recall who, as is pretty much every special character.

The amount of Dune references, from nomenclature to whole ideas is pretty staggering as well. Lasguns, glowglobes, chapterhouses, and plenty of other terminology comes straight from the books. Navigators are largely the same as they are, Bene Gesserit are psykers, and Sardaukar are similar to Marines in many regards. Marines come more from Starship Troopers than anything else though, while Imperial society and hive cities are straight out of, well, Dune, and Judge Dredd.

All sci fi borrows from everything else, 40k is just a huge melting pot of ideas, concepts, and characters that make it distinctive.

The old Dark Eldar codex has a special character named Kruellagh the Vile...Cruella de Ville, anyone?

The Imperial Guard order "FIrst Rank, FIRE! Second Rank, FIRE!" is a reference to a movie called Zulu, when a group of soldiers are backed up against a wall and let loose a continual stream of fire by only firing with one rank at a time (so while the first reloads, the second fires its guns, and vice versa).

Dante's Inferno Pistol

Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands. Ferrus being latin for Iron.

Prospero, the home planet of the Thousand Sons, is also the name of a wizard from shakespeare's 'The Tempest'

The Black Templars have the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

RaptorsTallon wrote:

Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands. Ferrus being latin for Iron.

Manus meaning "Hand"

I am convinced that Lord General Solar whatsit Macharius is General MacArthur

RaptorsTallon wrote:From the blood angels codex:

Dante's Inferno Pistol

Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands. Ferrus being latin for Iron.

Not to mention Manus is the Latin word for "hand". Ferrus Manus, Latin for "Iron Hand" is the primarch of the Iron Hands.

Also, Sanguinius is the primarch of the Blood Angels. Sanguinis is the Latin word for "blood".

As was said before, Lion El'jonson (primarch of the Dark Angels) is a reference to real-world poet Lionel Johnson, who wrote a poem entitled "Dark Angel".

Jaghatai Khan is the primarch of the White Scars, who extensively use bikes in their army. Genghis Khan (and for that matter, the Great Khan) was the leader of the Mongols, who used cavalry in their armies.

Mortarion is the primarch of the Death Guard. Mortis is the Latin word for "death".

It's worthwhile to look into old codices (as in, 2e or 3e) to find Easter eggs. Though they tend to shy away from it now, GW used to (and still do in some places) create all sorts of characters that were references to real-life people or other fictional characters. And look at the primarchs - at least 3 of them are named after the Latin words for their own Legions.

Brother SRM wrote: Sgt. Bastonne is based on a real person

John Basilone

The Pacific series used him as one of the three main characters.

Land raider Crusader is a reference to one of the WW2 tanks named... wait for it....The Crusader.

1938 Nuffield Mechanisation and Aero A-16 Crusader

Jakka wrote:I am convinced that Lord General Solar whatsit Macharius is General MacArthur

Surely Alexander the Great?

There are loads, less these days but still the odd one or two.

The Rainbow Warriors were a reference to the Greenpeace ship that was protesting French Nuclear testing near New Zealand, and was sunk by French agents during the early 80's. It was in port at the time, but there was a photographer on board who was killed.

The planet 'Birmingham' in the latest 40k book, is a reference to the UK city of the same name, in the original RT book it is listed as a 'dark place whose inhabitants never see the sun'.

Brother SRM has got most of the Primarch ones, the only other that springs to mind is Corax's final words before he disappears, "Nevermore', a reference to the Edgar Allen Poe poem ("Quote the Raven, nevermore")

The reason Orks will forever speak with a London-docker accent is because during the initial playtesting of Rogue Trader, one of the guys (I forget his name) started speaking in an exaggerated London accent when moving the models around, apparently he was quite a character and the idea stuck.

Ghazgkull Thrakka is Margaret Thatcher

Interesting, I didn't know that.

Jakka wrote:

RaptorsTallon wrote:

Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands. Ferrus being latin for Iron.

Manus meaning "Hand"

I am convinced that Lord General Solar whatsit Macharius is General MacArthur

Macharius is Alexander the Great transferred blow by blow into the future.

Everything on the planet Armageddon seems to be a reference to the apocalypse, from Hades Hive to Commander Dante.

Durza wrote:

Jakka wrote:

RaptorsTallon wrote:

Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands. Ferrus being latin for Iron.

Manus meaning "Hand"

I am convinced that Lord General Solar whatsit Macharius is General MacArthur

Macharius is Alexander the Great transferred blow by blow into the future.

Everything on the planet Armageddon seems to be a reference to the apocalypse, from Hades Hive to Commander Dante.

Well, there goes that theory...

The Fall of Imbach.... Refers to the fall of a Franciscan Monk, Josef imbach.

Pacific wrote:
Brother SRM has got most of the Primarch ones, the only other that springs to mind is Corax's final words before he disappears, "Nevermore', a reference to the Edgar Allen Poe poem ("Quote the Raven, nevermore")

The reason Orks will forever speak with a London-docker accent is because during the initial playtesting of Rogue Trader, one of the guys (I forget his name) started speaking in an exaggerated London accent when moving the models around, apparently he was quite a character and the idea stuck.

Ghazgkull Thrakka is Margaret Thatcher

Interesting, I didn't know that.

Corax's final words are probably the single most groan-worthy bit of fluff in all of 40k. It's such a bad joke. Conrad Cruz of the Night Lords is also Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness. In his spare time, he's Batman.

As for Thatcher, his full name is Mag Uruk Thrakka. Pronounce it out loud and you'll hear some similarities. It's at least more subtle than most 40kisms.

There's a planet called Metallica; real subtle GW

Brother SRM wrote:
And his poem Dark Angel was about unrequited love for another man.

I'd be interested as to know the proof of this. I couldn't actually find anything providing real evidence (aside from the poem, which is not exactly concrete evidence) of Lionel Johnson being homosexual on the internet,

broodstar wrote:So this week I've learned that the Dark Angel codex and their primarch is actual a reference to a poem by you guessed it Lionel Johnson. A there anyone references to book and thing in 40k?

I thought it was by Lionel Richie

This is a fairly well-known one, but Konrad Curze was killed by the assassin M'Shen. Kurtz was a character in the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and in Apocalypse Now (based on the plot of the book) the character who kills Kurtz is played by Martin Sheen.

In the 3rd edition rulebook, I found a funny quote. "It is better to have fought and lost than not have fought at all." And I also found this excerpt:

"'There is nothing to fear except fear itself.' The last address of Commander Rasbora, before the final Tyranid assault that destroyed the last human-held fort on Brochis III. Judged beyond reprieve, the planet was virus-bombed four months later."

40k is choked with references to both history and other fictional stuff.

Not only is Solar Macharius just Alexander The Great in 40K, but a 'macharius' was a type of sword used in Alexander's army.

I get the sneaking supision that the Sanguinor is a reference to superman, but that would require that Matt Ward had a clever bone in his body

The Sanguinor is Space Jesus

Brother SRM wrote:Corax's final words are probably the single most groan-worthy bit of fluff in all of 40k. It's such a bad joke.

Indeed, 'Quote the Ravenguard "Never More"'

There is the joke going around about the origin of the Blood Ravens about how Corax and Sanguinious had an illicit affair under the Emperor's nose and the child came to know nothing of his heritage, but went on to be the first Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens.


Then there is the little known fact that the Emperor was, previous to being God Emperor of Mankind, a simple owner of a Condom company. The whole "emperor" angle was simply an advertising campaign that took off wildly. "The Emperor Protects" was later co-opted as the unofficial motto of Imperial Armed forces, the original meaning lost in time.

Luke_Prowler wrote:I get the sneaking supision that the Sanguinor is a reference to superman, but that would require that Matt Ward had a clever bone in his body

NO, Sanguinor means a blood sucker, eluding to the fact that the Blood Angels are Vampires.

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:

Brother SRM wrote:
And his poem Dark Angel was about unrequited love for another man.

I'd be interested as to know the proof of this. I couldn't actually find anything providing real evidence (aside from the poem, which is not exactly concrete evidence) of Lionel Johnson being homosexual on the internet,

Someone who spent far, far more time thinking about it than the person who wrote the Primarch names: http://www.thedarkfortress.co.uk/librarium/lionel_johnson.htm

Corax's final words are probably the single most groan-worthy bit of fluff in all of 40k. It's such a bad joke.

My absolute, worst piece of fluff ever (in that it's not even ever so slightly amusing) is the bit that Forgeworld introduced about someone called 'Arkhan Land' creating the Land Speeder and Land Raider. I'm not sure if it was someone trying to make a 40k-esque joke like some of those listed above, or it's just the product of someone (perhaps the work experience boy) trying to hit a deadline at 4.45 on a Friday.

Thanks for bringing up the 'Konrad Curze/Heart of Darkness' one, I had forgotten about that.

Pacific wrote:
My absolute, worst piece of fluff ever (in that it's not even ever so slightly amusing) is the bit that Forgeworld introduced about someone called 'Arkhan Land' creating the Land Speeder and Land Raider. I'm not sure if it was someone trying to make a 40k-esque joke like some of those listed above, or it's just the product of someone (perhaps the work experience boy) trying to hit a deadline at 4.45 on a Friday.

This was actually in some WD article about the land raider (I think late 90's/early 2000's), with a picture of mr. Land and a whole backstory- canon that FW just brought up again.

I also thought it wasn't a joke, but just a sort of clever ret-con.

Grey Templar wrote:
There is the joke going around about the origin of the Blood Ravens about how Corax and Sanguinious had an illicit affair under the Emperor's nose and the child came to know nothing of his heritage, but went on to be the first Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens.

That is just... plan genius! I won't be able to help myself from thinking this everytime anything related to a Blood Raven comes up!

H.B.M.C. wrote:Not only is Solar Macharius just Alexander The Great in 40K, but a 'macharius' was a type of sword used in Alexander's army.

Macharius is also a Greek spirit of happiness. So of course he had to be killed.

These aren't really easter eggs, so much as they are themes and people 40K based things off..

They're more like Tropes, in this case.

Anyway, here's one for you.
Cpt. Uriel Ventris, of the Ultramarines 4th company.
Uriel is the 4th Archangel of Heaven in some religious teachings.