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 Reality-Torrent wrote:

Death Guard - Balkan

Death Guard, as the Dusk Raiders, were British. 100%. There are records of the original Dusk Raiders drinking tea and talking about their "Empire," how Nigel is a great name, and why the Emperor should rather be called the King.

I guess you could think of the BA as Germanic if you followed Hitlers ideal.
BA were always renascence Italian with some mid east influences. Ala Amit and co.
I always pictured Tantooi i mean Tuniasa as Baal, but the art comes from Itialy. So split the dif, call it Malta area.

Thought the Sons of Horus came from the Algers/Lybia area. Also explains Horus' frendship with Sangy. Being next door sort of thing.

I always thought Khan was Mister Miyagi.
Psykik powers on, Psykik powers off.

It always confuses me when people claim the Dark Angels were based on native Americans. Why? Because the feathers? That's not really much to base a claim on.
I've always felt it to be quite obvious the cultural basis for the Dark Angels was Eastern Orthodox Christianity, you know, the Slavic kind, more esoteric than it's western counterpart. Dark Angels as Slavs makes a hell of a lot more sense than native Americans, especially the Ravenwing being analogous with Polish Hussars. The Orthodox angle even supports the Hebrew naming pattern of the Dark Angels.
Life on Caliban even reflects something you're more likely to find in medieval eastern Europe than in North America.

Then there is the split between Jonson and Luthor, representing the split in the Church between the traditional values of Christianity and the new Protestantism. This isn't new stuff that has been ret-conned in, it's been around since 2nd edition, from at least 1996 in Codex: Angels of Death.

The dark angels being american indian originated from the space hulk 1st edition expansion: deathwing. And yes, they were written like indians and drawn like indians. There was an ongoing story/fluffpiece throughout the rulebook that explained why their terminator company came to be known as the deathwing. I can't remember how that jives up with the original dark angels captain with the feathered headdress in terms of timelines, but by second edition the backstory had largely fallen by the wayside and wearing robes started to become their thing.

Technically alot of their culture Comes from the planet the live on. So just they could have their Greman-esc names from their planet. Like when People emmigtrated to the US,they gave their children American names, spoke English, and became American. The same Thing probably happend to space Marines.


And Imperial Fists are southern Alps.


Ember

the death guard 1st troops were pulled from britania
the thousand sons 1st troops were pulled from the persian empire/egypt area

Those are the only 2 I am sure of in the fluff.

The Legions were recruited from all over Terra, not just specific regions. The Dusk Raiders were modelled on Albian organisation and tactics, but whether "Albia" is Britain or not is pure speculation, especially since we also have a place called Albyon. It could equally be Albania, or a completely different region altogether (it bordered a region called Atlan, and fought frequently with the Panpacific Empire). Names of places change as much as languages and cultures, and even the continents and earth itself changes eventually. The earth of the Unification Wars should not even have the slightest hint of recognisability to modern humans.

If we assume GW based the names of regions on Unification Wars-era earth on currently existing regions (which is likely, and in some cases very obvious),
we have the following regions that we know have some particular connection to a certain Legion:

Albia (Britain?) The Dusk Raiders had a lot of Albian influence. Iron Hands and Night Lords are also mentioned as recruiting from Albia.
Achaemenid Empire (Persia) The first Thousand Sons mostly came from here.
Ursh (probably Russia and parts of East Asia) The Tupelov Lancers of Ursh were an important influence for the War Hounds.
Sibran Regions (Siberia) The first Space Marines (Dark Angels) came from here.
Jermani (Germany) Kharn is from here.

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I got the distinct impression that the Emperor resurrected some cultures (or at least aspects of them) that he admired and imprinted them on the Imperium. I particularly got that impression regarding Gothic architecture and the penchant for Roman iconography, titles and the like.

It makes a lot of sense. Rome and Alexandiran Greece were successful Imperial cultures, as were Egypt and Persia. Aggressive nomads are also represented. Interstingly, however, there is no Chinese or Japanese or sub-Saharan or Mesoamerican culture represented in the IOM aesthetic.

I also get the impression that the Space Marine Legions were fairly homogenous before reunions with their Primarchs. Sure, they had pre-dispositions during reunification and the early Crusade, but the cultural differences became sharply defined after the Legions reunified with their Primarchs.

My two cents anyway.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
The Legions were recruited from all over Terra, not just specific regions. The Dusk Raiders were modelled on Albian organisation and tactics, but whether "Albia" is Britain or not is pure speculation, especially since we also have a place called Albyon. It could equally be Albania, or a completely different region altogether (it bordered a region called Atlan, and fought frequently with the Panpacific Empire). Names of places change as much as languages and cultures, and even the continents and earth itself changes eventually. The earth of the Unification Wars should not even have the slightest hint of recognisability to modern humans.

If we assume GW based the names of regions on Unification Wars-era earth on currently existing regions (which is likely, and in some cases very obvious),
we have the following regions that we know have some particular connection to a certain Legion:

Albia (Britain?) The Dusk Raiders had a lot of Albian influence. Iron Hands and Night Lords are also mentioned as recruiting from Albia.
Achaemenid Empire (Persia) The first Thousand Sons mostly came from here.
Ursh (probably Russia and parts of East Asia) The Tupelov Lancers of Ursh were an important influence for the War Hounds.
Sibran Regions (Siberia) The first Space Marines (Dark Angels) came from here.
Jermani (Germany) Kharn is from here.

If Albia borders a place called Altan and frequently fights the PanPacific Empire, then I'd argue that Albia is in fact not Britain after all, but an amalgamation of Alaska and British Columbia. Alaska + British Columbia = Albia. Altan could arguably be Atzlan, which would be accurate considering it borders the Pacific ocean, the waterless expanse likely forming the PanPacific Empire. If that is true, that would make Dusk Raiders/Iron Hands/Night Lords not actually Brits, but Canadians.

Your overcomplicating it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion

Albion/albia is literally Britain before it was called Britain, albia-britania-britain-england/great Britain, now it's known as Britain by European countries and England by Americans, which is odd, as it's like calling the u.s.a Washington, or california, or whatever the richest state is in America.... Actually it's like calling America Canada, yeah they share the same continent and work together a lot, but they have distinct culture... But I digress.

 Formosa wrote:
Your overcomplicating it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion

Albion/albia is literally Britain before it was called Britain, albia-britania-britain-england/great Britain, now it's known as Britain by European countries and England by Americans, which is odd, as it's like calling the u.s.a Washington, or california, or whatever the richest state is in America.... Actually it's like calling America Canada, yeah they share the same continent and work together a lot, but they have distinct culture... But I digress.

Actually, most Americans just say "england" when speaking of the Pacific War (since it was more England we were fighting, not the people of the British Empire as a whole, just their oppressive government). Most of the time it's either "Britain" or "Great Britain". Trust me, I'm an American.

 dusara217 wrote:

 Formosa wrote:
Your overcomplicating it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion

Albion/albia is literally Britain before it was called Britain, albia-britania-britain-england/great Britain, now it's known as Britain by European countries and England by Americans, which is odd, as it's like calling the u.s.a Washington, or california, or whatever the richest state is in America.... Actually it's like calling America Canada, yeah they share the same continent and work together a lot, but they have distinct culture... But I digress.

Actually, most Americans just say "england" when speaking of the Pacific War (since it was more England we were fighting, not the people of the British Empire as a whole, just their oppressive government). Most of the time it's either "Britain" or "Great Britain". Trust me, I'm an American.

All my American mates call it England, maybe it's a location thing, my Canadian mate calls it England too.

Hierophant wrote:
Ok, so after lots of scouring the wiki, it seems I have some answers of where their initial recuritment came from;

If you have access to the FW HH books, they go into a lot of detail on where the recruits of the invidual chapters came from (on Terra). Mostly they don't focus on a certain place but more on a certain "type." It also goes into detail of how the culture from the Primarch's world then changed or fused with the original character of the legion.

For example, Night Lords are said to have been taken from children born in underground cannibal pits, where criminals were thrown in and left in complete darkness for generations (the actual description is pretty hardcore, much more intense than Nostromo. I'll try to dig it up sometime).

I would assume the FW series is new "canon" and so a lot of what is written on the wikis is now obsolete. A lot of legions have been covered already, from Sons of Horus, Death Guard, and the Alpha Legion, to Ultramarines and Salamanders, (though a few like SW, BA, DA, and TS haven't been released yet).

 Formosa wrote:
All my American mates call it England, maybe it's a location thing, my Canadian mate calls it England too.

I hear UK just as often. Either England when referring specifially to England, or the UK. Rarely hear Britain. Guess it's what type of people you hang out with (are they geographically savy? ).

 Formosa wrote:

 dusara217 wrote:

 Formosa wrote:
Your overcomplicating it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion

Albion/albia is literally Britain before it was called Britain, albia-britania-britain-england/great Britain, now it's known as Britain by European countries and England by Americans, which is odd, as it's like calling the u.s.a Washington, or california, or whatever the richest state is in America.... Actually it's like calling America Canada, yeah they share the same continent and work together a lot, but they have distinct culture... But I digress.

Actually, most Americans just say "england" when speaking of the Pacific War (since it was more England we were fighting, not the people of the British Empire as a whole, just their oppressive government). Most of the time it's either "Britain" or "Great Britain". Trust me, I'm an American.

All my American mates call it England, maybe it's a location thing, my Canadian mate calls it England too.

Most Dutch call it England as well, which is fair, because most British call the Netherlands Holland.

Well, this thread is officially derailed...

 dusara217 wrote:
Well, this thread is officially derailed...

Hey, most of my post was on topic! I'll go dig up some FW stuff now if I don't get distracted.

On the Ultramarines, The Horus Heresy Book Five: Tempest, pg 71:
On the Night Lords, The Horus Heresy Book Two: Massacre, pg 93:
As you can see, the books go into a lot of detail, on every chapter that's come up so far.

Edit: Oh dang, the stuff is on the wikia. I actually went ahead and typed all that. But then I don't see the connections to this:

Hierophant wrote:
I know the Death Guard were mainly British, as were elements of the Night Lords and Iron Hands. I also know the Thousand Sons were apparently Persian, but that's about the limit of my knowledge.

Where does it say the Death Guard, or elements of the Night Lords were British? You mean the gangs and murder, reminiscent of Victorian slasher stuff? Not seeing the connection

I thought now that dark angels are based on crusading knights from the dark ages. I could be dead wrong though

 DarkRaven89 wrote:
I thought now that dark angels are based on crusading knights from the dark ages. I could be dead wrong though

The knights on Caliban were based more on the "questing" aspect of knights than the "crusading," with all the beast hunts and stuff. The BT probably embody the crusading aspect better. But the HH series will expand on their background in the near future hopefully (Book 6 or 7).

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Reality-Torrent wrote:

Death Guard - Balkan

Death Guard, as the Dusk Raiders, were British. 100%. There are records of the original Dusk Raiders drinking tea and talking about their "Empire," how Nigel is a great name, and why the Emperor should rather be called the King.

From the wikia (probably copy pasted from the FW Horus Heresy books, will check later):

"The origins of the Dusk Raiders can be found during the Unification Wars. The base human stock for the majority of the first Space Marine Legions to be raised came from Terra, and in the case of the XIVth Legion the main bulk of the gene-recruits used were drawn from the ancient and warlike clans of Old Albia, situated in the area of northwestern Europe, and in ancient times was known as Albion."

I think that settles it. No British Columbia and so on.

Reading through HH1: Betrayal now, and it has some nice additional information.
The earliest Luna Wolves mostly came from the "hunter clans of the Jutigran Bowl" and the "Samsatian sub-plate slums".
The Emperor's Children were originally recruited from the noble families of "Europa", and later from noble dynasties across all of Terra.
World Eaters were not recruited from a specific region.

It does however not say Old Albia is located in northwestern Europe, that is likely just made up by the 40kwiki (most of the stuff on 40kwiki is made up). It says only that Albia "towered amidst the northern Atlan wilderness", and that it consisted of "towering, soot-blackened castram-cities" and "ancient and warlike clans". Albian recruits were found in the VIII and X legions, but most of all in the XIV (Dusk Raiders) which was "Albian by blood and culture".

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Reading through HH1: Betrayal now, and it has some nice additional information.
The earliest Luna Wolves mostly came from the "hunter clans of the Jutigran Bowl" and the "Samsatian sub-plate slums".
The Emperor's Children were originally recruited from the noble families of "Europa", and later from noble dynasties across all of Terra.
World Eaters were not recruited from a specific region.

It does however not say Old Albia is located in northwestern Europe, that is likely just made up by the 40kwiki (most of the stuff on 40kwiki is made up). It says only that Albia "towered amidst the northern Atlan wilderness", and that it consisted of "towering, soot-blackened castram-cities" and "ancient and warlike clans". Albian recruits were found in the VIII and X legions, but most of all in the XIV (Dusk Raiders) which was "Albian by blood and culture".

Damn, you're right! No mention of Northwestern Europe! Are reliable wikis too much to ask for? Almost copy-pasted word for word but just had to add in their own fan speculation

It's also kinda sad that the newest book only introduces a single new legion whereas the first book has four.

Maybe if others with access to the books join in, we can get a reliable list of background info for all the legions so far, straight from the books. That'd be interesting to see.

How you supposed to make money with 4 Legions a book? What is this, a world where companies care about anything but making a quick buck?

On the dark angles

Caliban was a world comprised of many knightly orders

So, DA get their Questing culture from caliban. Not terra. See

Ember

 EmberlordofFire8 wrote:
On the dark angles

Caliban was a world comprised of many knightly orders

So, DA get their Questing culture from caliban. Not terra. See

Ember

Yea, that's already evident from Descent of Angels, though the DA celebrate their similarities with the Order when they first encounter them (not sure whether this refers to using somewhat similar equipment - primitive power armour, bolt pistols, and so on - or to something else). The FW series will expand on that soon enough.

There's some interesting info on Merir Astelan (Terran DA, one of the first):

 dusara217 wrote:
How you supposed to make money with 4 Legions a book? What is this, a world where companies care about anything but making a quick buck?

You'll have to carry around an entire library by the time they finish
All I want is all the legion fluff instead of empty padding.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Reading through HH1: Betrayal now, and it has some nice additional information.
The earliest Luna Wolves mostly came from the "hunter clans of the Jutigran Bowl" and the "Samsatian sub-plate slums".
The Emperor's Children were originally recruited from the noble families of "Europa", and later from noble dynasties across all of Terra.
World Eaters were not recruited from a specific region.

It does however not say Old Albia is located in northwestern Europe, that is likely just made up by the 40kwiki (most of the stuff on 40kwiki is made up). It says only that Albia "towered amidst the northern Atlan wilderness", and that it consisted of "towering, soot-blackened castram-cities" and "ancient and warlike clans". Albian recruits were found in the VIII and X legions, but most of all in the XIV (Dusk Raiders) which was "Albian by blood and culture".

The Atlan wilderness sounds like what was once the Atlantic Ocean to me. I think the link between Albion and Albia is pretty obvious.

Dark Angels are more connected to Hebrews and Old testament, look at the names. The Native American iconography is a more recent addition to their look.

Night Lords are inspired by the writings of Joseph Conrad, so Polish/British colonialism.