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Well 14 year vet of 40k and i admit up until a month ago i knew nothing of pre-heresy, could not name the primarchs and didnt care. But i have now read a few books, listened to a few audio dramas/books. And got the first 2 books from Forgeworld. My personal favorite is Magnus and Thousand sons. With what i know of the rest "Night Lords" being a close second. That aside, each Primarch must resemble some sort of legendary hero, fiction or not, past war general... Please add some input and what you view the Primarchs as.

Heres my list.

Horus = War ( one of the 4 horsemen)
Magnus = any "tragic bound, Hero" of any story ever...
Angron = Sparticus? Sparticus seems to have had morals, a lot of hatred but still morals. Angron from what i have read has only hatred and rage..
Mortarion = Pestilence (one of the 4 horsemen)
Guilliman= i dont know enough about him to comment, superman maybe?
Alpharius= James Bond?
Leman Russ = Beauwolf
Dorn= no idea
Jagatai Khan = Ghengis Khan seems to easy, but i cant think of any else
Konrad Kurze= Vlad the Impaler, Batman from Dark Knight series?
Lorgar = Judas
Ferrus Manus = Leonidas, overwhelming odds, never retreating, head cut off
Sanguinius = Christian Religion angel, Michael?
Lion El Johnson = King Arthur
Fulgrim = Achillies maybe?
Vulkan = Vulkan/Hephaestus
Iron Warriors guy Perturabo? (spelling?) No idea
Corax = ?

Discuss !!!

I've always thought of Magnus as rather Shakespearian due to the complete tragedy of his fall. He risks and sacrifices everything to help the Emperor and warn him of Horus, and is then betrayed by the leader he comes to serve when Horus changes Leman's orders from bringing him in to exterminating the legion. So yeah, the tragedy of Magnus makes me think of him as a 'tragic hero' type character.

I agree, great points and good call! I do however like in Galaxy in Flames, the Deamon was talking to Lokien or maybe it was in prospero burns and he was taking to the skald infiltrator/spy, i dont know of those i think... He says something like "Leman Russ was the only one powerful enough to stop Horus's plans, and Magnus was powerful enough to stop the Deamons interference/corruption of Horus, so we had to get them both out of the way".
I though it was great he didnt want to fight at the end, but for the love of his children he does come out and fight.

My take is




Horus = Mordred
Magnus = any "tragic bound, Hero" of any story ever...
Angron = Grimdark Spartacus
Mortarion = Pestilence
Guilliman= Sun tzu
Alpharius= Ra's Al Ghul
Leman Russ = Beowulf
Dorn= General Patton
Jagatai Khan = Ghengis Khan
Konrad Kurze= Batman
Lorgar = Closer to Judas
Ferrus Manus = Leonidas
Sanguinius = Christian Religion angel, Michael?
Lion El Johnson = Julius Caesar type
Fulgrim = Achillies maybe?
Vulkin = Strangely for whatever reason Merlin comes to mind
Perturabo:
Corax =George Washington

VulKAN, not VulKIN! And... Vulkan doesn't seem to be anyone. Besides, Merlin isn't real. There aren't really any sort of 'smith' historical figures are there? I'd compare him to Hephaestus a bit if we're counting mythology.

 Paradigm wrote:
I've always thought of Magnus as rather Shakespearian due to the complete tragedy of his fall. He risks and sacrifices everything to help the Emperor and warn him of Horus, and is then betrayed by the leader he comes to serve when Horus changes Leman's orders from bringing him in to exterminating the legion. So yeah, the tragedy of Magnus makes me think of him as a 'tragic hero' type character.

How Byronic.

Lion El' Johnson and the dark angels are based on king arthur

Good call Boniface.

As for Vulkan being Hephaestus, you could make that comparison. But he was the Armorer of all the Gods, so dont think it fits. Plus hes not Mythical to all of us, using him is the same as using Micheal, Christianitys Angel.

I think a good one for Vulkan would be, "Balin" Orlando Blooms Character from kingdom of heaven maybe? Blacksmith, who turns out to be someone of great importance, fights a huge battle/siege against over whelming odds.

and i like Lorgar as Judas also, i can see that.

umm.....Vulkan is basically just the Vulcan, the roman god of fire, with power armor. Vulcan (the god) was even regularly depicted as carrying a blacksmiths hammer. He was also responsible for protecting people from danger (particularly from fire, of course).

Are you trying to just compare primarchs with random characters or talk about the literary/historical influences that they were drawn from?

Alpharius = James Bond
And yeah, Lorgar as Judas is a good one.

 Nerobellum wrote:
umm.....Vulkan is basically just the Vulcan, the roman god of fire, with power armor. Vulcan (the god) was even regularly depicted as carrying a blacksmiths hammer. He was also responsible for protecting people from danger (particularly from fire, of course).

Are you trying to just compare primarchs with random characters or talk about the literary/historical influences that they were drawn from?

Either or mate, whatever anyone can come up with. Vulkan as Vulkan/Hephaestus seems to be a popular and well fit.

Lorgar as Judas seems to be a popular fit also.