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I think the phrase "rip off" is a bit harsh but lets see how many sources we can identify for GWs fluff/ideas.

Karandras = The Predator, from the 1987 sci fi action film.

Horus = An Egyptian God.

The worship of Horus was brought from the outside by neighboring tribes who invaded and then settled into Egypt. He was their god of war, but was quickly absorbed into the state religion, first as a son of Ra, then changing to become the son of Osiris. He was the protector and guide to the pharaoh and later pharaohs were believed to be his avatar on earth. Horus was also the patron of young men and the ideal of the dutiful son who grows up to become a just man.

Necron warriors = Most likely inspired by Terminator or the book which Cameron based it on:

The film screenplay was written by director James Cameron, although Cameron admitted that his inspiration for The Terminator were two episodes from the 1960s television science fiction series The Outer Limits: The Outer Limits: Soldier and The Outer Limits: Demon with a Glass Hand.

The sad reality is that most all fantasy and science-fiction work is evolved, rather than created from whole cloth. Writers (since the dawn of time) have written based on the concepts of previous writers, changed, tweaked, re-colored, or just plaguarized whole concepts from those that have come before.

Issac Asimov did not come up with the idea of Robots and Artificial Intelligence, but he was so inspired by the idea that he wrote stories that pushed the worldwide community to consider it in new ways, and of all the Robot and AI writers that have been, his execution on the theme has kept him as the most popular of all of them.

J.R.R. Tolkien did not invent Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, or Treants. He took those things that were already a commonly acccepted part of "Fantasy" settings, and used them liberally as his own. His ability to fully envision these concepts, and then weave them into a story bigger than "elves are pretty, dwarves are dour" is what sets him apart as a master of his art.

These people (and most others) did not create the setting or genre that they eventually revolutionized. The fact that they are now the iconic figures in those genres means that they did well by their fan base and used those pre-existing elements to create unique and wonderful stories that gave the reader a feeling of familiarity by already knowing what a "robot" or an "elf" was.

If you steal from one source, it's plagiarism. If you steal from many sources, it's inspiration.

Starship Troopers (book)

The hero's are pretty much Guard in Power Armour, and the bugs are .. well Nids.

Simpson's did it!

Ultramarines and their background=Romans in space

Black Templars=Knights Templar (duh!)

Edited by the Modquisition for being both inappropriate and, frankly, stupid.

jbunny wrote:Starship Troopers (book)

The hero's are pretty much Guard in Power Armour, and the bugs are .. well Nids.

40k came decades after Starship troopers was written. The film uses fairly generic archtypes.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Dreadnote wrote:If you steal from one source, it's plagiarism. If you steal from many sources, it's inspiration.

Thats pretty much it in a nutshell.

There really is no need to trace all the relevant 'inspiration' that has come to now be known as 40k. Using an idea is not in itself plagiarism. There are strong Religious/Political Ideological overtones throughout GW's work as well as the use of more current media. The thing that makes GW's work unique is how it has been arranged.

GeneralRetreat wrote:
J.R.R. Tolkien did not invent Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, or Treants. He took those things that were already a commonly acccepted part of "Fantasy" settings, and used them liberally as his own. His ability to fully envision these concepts, and then weave them into a story bigger than "elves are pretty, dwarves are dour" is what sets him apart as a master of his art.

Actually all fantasy sprouted from mainly Greek and Norse(dwarves, elves etc.) Mythology. Tolkien graduated with Old Norse as special subject and nearly everything can be pretty simply traced back there. Though the original elves in myth were a bunch of bastards who regarded humans as vermin.

As for how the races came to be...

Nids = Xenomorphs/Starship trooper bugs combined kind of.
Eldar/dark eldar = obviously space elves
Orks = Orcs!
Tau = Japanese tech fandom + communism..?

For the imperium, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and Frank Herbert's Dune series. Very heavy influences from these guys.

Perhaps you should first work through this collection of "inspirations":
http://web.archive.org/web/20071125132841/http://ca.geocities.com/crazy40kguy/namesandhomages.html

Prospero (home world of Magnus the Red), Caliban (home world of the Dark Angels both are from The Tempest by William Shakespeare.

Abaddon is a demon commanding a plague of locusts and angel of the "bottomless pit" in Revelation 9:1-11. He's also called "Apollyon" in Greek.

But yeah, I agree that they didn't "rip-off" the works - on the contrary, they're paying homage to them and these names often have some sort of deeper meaning.

Been there... done that.

See here.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/245525.page


GG

Early Tyranids = Giger Aliens

Later Tyranids = Zergs

GeneralRetreat wrote:
J.R.R. Tolkien did not invent Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, or Treants. He took those things that were already a commonly acccepted part of "Fantasy" settings, and used them liberally as his own. His ability to fully envision these concepts, and then weave them into a story bigger than "elves are pretty, dwarves are dour" is what sets him apart as a master of his art.

While elves, dwarves, and treants were common archetypes, Tolkien did very much make them his own. The "elves" of mythology have very little in common with Tolkien's elves. The dwarves are more similar.

Orcs, however, Tolkien DID very much invent. For that matter, he was the first one in the English-speaking world to use the word in this way; "orc" is a word that means, roughly, "demon" in the original language. It, like "elf", was applicable to an enormous variety of things. Tolkien's orcs were quite distinct and original. They have since, of course, become a staple of fantasy.

Let's look at it the other way! Starcraft 2's Terran Reapers look awfully similar (and work the same way) to 40k's assault marines!

bsohi wrote:Let's look at it the other way! Starcraft 2's Terran Reapers look awfully similar (and work the same way) to 40k's assault marines!

Now GW know how it feels.

LunaHound wrote:

bsohi wrote:Let's look at it the other way! Starcraft 2's Terran Reapers look awfully similar (and work the same way) to 40k's assault marines!

Now GW know how it feels.

That comic never gets old.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/245525.page

*exits thread in a strop*

The original Starship Troopers (book) by Heinlein had the soldiers as much more like SMs. Basically a squad of 10 drops from orbit in huge individually owered suits and is sufficient to cleanse a world from the skies without even landing.

The Eisenhorn trilogy is firstly a perfect examle of literary tragedy. Lots of hubris!! It ends up being close-ish to LOTR too.

Anyway, more or less all sci-fi, fantasy, or anything fictional sicne the 50s has been strongly influenced by Philip K Dick. Almost nothing isn't already written in one of his shrt stories, or indeed his novels.

OP barely scratched the surface of the *air quotes* inspiration *air quotes* of 40k. Disappointed.

Bwahaha I used air quotes in a post.. I should ascend to daemon prince status anytime now.

Knock yourself out:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/245525.page

Janthkin wrote:

LunaHound wrote:

bsohi wrote:Let's look at it the other way! Starcraft 2's Terran Reapers look awfully similar (and work the same way) to 40k's assault marines!

Now GW know how it feels.

Penny Arcade wins!

Everything is influenced by everything, just check out music, fashion, automotive design etc. Stuff is just put together again in interesting and relevant ways.

Perusing a dead thread is like having a hamburger sans meat.. seems pointless. Thanks anyways.

Soladrin wrote:

GeneralRetreat wrote:J.R.R. Tolkien did not invent Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, or Treants. He took those things that were already a commonly acccepted part of "Fantasy" settings, and used them liberally as his own. His ability to fully envision these concepts, and then weave them into a story bigger than "elves are pretty, dwarves are dour" is what sets him apart as a master of his art.

Actually all fantasy sprouted from mainly Greek and Norse(dwarves, elves etc.) Mythology. Tolkien graduated with Old Norse as special subject and nearly everything can be pretty simply traced back there. Though the original elves in myth were a bunch of bastards who regarded humans as vermin.

For people playing a game that is a parody in space of a game that is almost exclusively based on J.R.R. Tolkien, surprisingly few people have taken the time to find out where his inspirations came from (the multiple levels of disconnect were meant to be sarcastic).

J.R.R. Tolkien was actually extremely original, most fantasy today is based off of his works, almost exclusively. Orcs were pretty much an invention of Tolkien, and Elves as they are in his books are extremely different from the, I think, German inspiration. The multiple races of humans were all intended to be original, but with the shear variety of real life cultures, it is impossible to create a realistic fictitious one that doesn't resemble an already existing one. Tolkien was, in fact, trying to create an entire mythological history for the British Isles, which he considered to have nothing in comparison to most other countries (seriously, go to Germany and start asking people about goblins, sprites, elves, mystics, etc.... their country is packed full of these stories).

I fear what this thread could become.

As someone else has mentioned you can find inspiration for 40k in a lot of things. Now this doesn't mean it was the inspiration but just that the there was similarities.

Mr. Burning wrote:

jbunny wrote:Starship Troopers (book)

The hero's are pretty much Guard in Power Armour, and the bugs are .. well Nids.

40k came decades after Starship troopers was written.

And that is my point. GW was "inspired" by Starship Troopers. The description of the suits they were in the book is very similair to Power Armour.