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RicBlasko wrote:Ciaphas Cain and his aid, are just coppied characters from an older TV show.

More an homage if you will. Same goes for Kal Jerico and Scabbs according to word of god (i.e. the author).

Leviathan and Behemoth are from the Bible as well. Leviathan is the demon representing envy, which kind of makes sense, Behemoth is a huge and powerful beast and Kraken is... a sea monster.

Gorgon is what Medusa is.

Dheneb wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:

Dheneb wrote:
Baal is a demon

I thought he was a god of storms and destruction?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal: Baal means "master/lord", also a substitute for Hadad, god of rains and thunder.

But he was also a demon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_(demon)

Aaaaah, so dependent on context of use. Neato.

Deadshot wrote:Gorgon is what Medusa is.

There were THREE Gorgons (sisters). Medusa was ONE of them.

Euryale and Sthenno were her sisters. They didn't have the snake hair thing.

Dheneb wrote:Inquisitor Karamazov is from Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov"; it has a long chapter called "The Grand Inquisitor". Coteaz is Cortez.

Coteaz can be seen as Cortez but he has a much more obvious reference if you look at his whole name: Torquemada Coteaz

Tomas de Torquemada was a 15th C Dominican and the first Grand Inquisitor of Spain. Not only is he of historical note but he comes up across a bunch of literature which has informed 40k.
He appears in:
The Brothers Karamazov
The writings of Victor Hugo
Longfellows writings
The Pit and the Pendulum

Lightcavalier wrote:

Dheneb wrote:Inquisitor Karamazov is from Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov"; it has a long chapter called "The Grand Inquisitor". Coteaz is Cortez.

Coteaz can be seen as Cortez but he has a much more obvious reference if you look at his whole name: Torquemada Coteaz

Tomas de Torquemada was a 15th C Dominican and the first Grand Inquisitor of Spain. Not only is he of historical note but he comes up across a bunch of literature which has informed 40k.
He appears in:
The Brothers Karamazov
The writings of Victor Hugo
Longfellows writings
The Pit and the Pendulum

Damn beat me to it! Hehe you win 1 internetz

Lightcavalier wrote:

Dheneb wrote:Inquisitor Karamazov is from Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov"; it has a long chapter called "The Grand Inquisitor". Coteaz is Cortez.

Coteaz can be seen as Cortez but he has a much more obvious reference if you look at his whole name: Torquemada Coteaz

Tomas de Torquemada was a 15th C Dominican and the first Grand Inquisitor of Spain. Not only is he of historical note but he comes up across a bunch of literature which has informed 40k.
He appears in:
The Brothers Karamazov
The writings of Victor Hugo
Longfellows writings
The Pit and the Pendulum
Monty Python

Fixed that for you!



Bet you weren't expecting that...

I'm pretty sure Ursukar E. Creed is George S. Patton, especially given the twin ivory-handled pistols he wears and the current color scheme the Cadians are using (very evocative of WWII US Army uniforms).

Durza wrote:Leviathan and Behemoth are from the Bible as well. Leviathan is the demon representing envy, which kind of makes sense, Behemoth is a huge and powerful beast and Kraken is... a sea monster.

Um, Leviathan is more generally known as sea monster than as demon. In Hebrew, Leviathan allegedly is the word for whale.

Famous "Destruction of Leviathan"

Captain Shrike or Nid Shrikes

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrike

Deadshot wrote:Captain Shrike or Nid Shrikes

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrike

Probably not an Easter Egg if it is just a Bird name. If it's from a 1989 sci fi novel that won many prestigious British sci-fi awards when 40K was in its infancy... perhaps than.

Durza wrote:Leviathan and Behemoth are from the Bible as well. Leviathan is the demon representing envy, which kind of makes sense, Behemoth is a huge and powerful beast and Kraken is... a sea monster.

All the Tyranid Hive Fleet are named after mythically large serpants

Naga: the Hindi word Nagi for the Indian Cobra.
Jörmungandr: the Norse myth of the World Serpant

Kraken: the sea monster
Behemoth: s a mythological beast mentioned in the Book of Job, 40:15-24.

Hydra: an ancient nameless serpent-like chthonic water beast, with reptilian traits, (as its name evinces) that possessed many heads

Leviathan: a sea monster referred to in the Bible. In Demonology, the Leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell and its gatekeeper
Gorgon:The Gorgons were said to be the daughters of the sea god Phorcys and his sister-wife, Ceto the sea monster.


The Eldar call the Tyranids Shai'naid (Endlessly Winding Serpent)

They are serpents and sea monsters, can we stop calling them bugs!

Even where the Tyranids attacked first has symbolism.
"Lordly love is such a tyran fell."- Spenser.
The Tyranids will be the fall of the tyrant, the death of the emperor, the doom of the Imperium.

TL;DR

Captain lysander Shares a name with the spartan commander who led the sea battle near thermople(sp?)


Nom

The Chaos gods are inspired by the Eternal Champion series by Michael Moorcock I believe.
Demon weapons are from Elric of Melinbone.

Surprised no one got this one...

Vulkan is the the Primarch of the Salamanders, who live on a hot planet, right?

Star Trek's Vulcans live on the planet Vulcan which is a very hot planet (although not as inhospitable as Nocturne)

Also, I read that Salamanders begin recruiting as early as 7 years old... A reference to Pon-Far, (?) where a Vulcan's blood burns within him every 7 years...

Vulcan or someone like that was like a roman god who forged ghings or summing.

I'd more call them 'inspirations' rather than easter eggs, but....

Commander Farsight is a Gundam character (Char Aznable), the bomb squigs were used by the Soviets in WW2 (bomb dogs), the Ragnarock tank is a KV-2, the Vindicator is a Sturmtiger, and then there's the more obvious ones like Space Wolves being Norsemen/Werewolves.

Grey Templar wrote:IDK, but the Commissar in DoW2 says "Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword" if you embark him into a Chimera.

One of the developers petitioned long and hard for GW to approve that.

nomsheep wrote:TL;DR

Captain lysander Shares a name with the spartan commander who led the sea battle near thermople(sp?)


Nom

Themistocles was the guy that commanded the naval forces at Thermopylae. Lysander was at Aegospotami.

CthuluIsSpy wrote:The Chaos gods are inspired by the Eternal Champion series by Michael Moorcock I believe.
Demon weapons are from Elric of Melinbone.

That is all.

What does a can of worms have to do with anything?

Let's see here, this easter egg is definitely old school:

In Rogue Trader, where you drew psychic powers from (aka the warp) was also known as "the force". If you were wondering where they got the name of "force sword" from, you now know!

I haven't read this entire thread yet but Obiwan Sherlock Closseau is probably one of the more "obvious" easter eggs hahaha

Sgt Bastonne=John Basilone...A marine who won the medal of honor on Guadalcanal. He rotated back to the world to sell warbonds. He would later reenlist and be killed on Iwo Jima. Actually quite intereseting. He was in the HBO series "The Pacific" . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Basilone

The Ultramarines are the 13th Legion... the Legion Julius Caesar used to stabilize Rome after a bloody civil war.

Everything about the UM is a reference to Grecco Roman culture and martial greatness

Marius Calgar is named after the general who reorganized the legions, Cato Sicarius is a conservative zealot, just like his Roman counter part (Cato), Agemmen is a perfect sub for Agemennon; etc (not so much Easter Eggs, but clearly makes the UM "Romans in space"; which explains both their awesomeness and the hater club that follows them, much like the real Rome).

CthuluIsSpy wrote:What does a can of worms have to do with anything?

Because you've just opened one with the Moorcock=Chaos reference.

The last chancers were the dirty dozen. Most of the spacemarine chapters are riffs on some kind of history or archetype, as alot of people have already pointed out. Konrad Kurze = Joseph Conrad + Colonel Kurtz. He's taken out by the assassin M'Shen (Martin Sheen plays the assassin in Apocalypse Now.) Ratlings are hobbits. Ogryns are, well, ogres. Just about every fantasy race is represented in one way or another.

The entire horus heresy story is basically a retelling of the christian myth of the fall of lucifer from heaven. The emperor is God, Horus is Lucifer, the primarchs and marines are the archangels and angels who have to choose up sides. The Eye of Terror is basically hell.

The necron ghost ark looks suspiciously like a cylon ressurrection ship...

The Esienstein from the HH novels is I think a nod to Sergei Eisenstein who made the film Battleship Potemkin about a ship which revolts against a tsarsit regime who massacre a ton of innocents.

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

I think it's clear he is based on Alexander the Great.

Killian wrote:The entire Heresy and fall of Horus is a direct copy of the fall of Lucifer from Heaven and the war between Heaven and Hell where the Angels are Space Marines, hence them being referred to as Angels of Death.

Yes, specifically John Milton's 'Paradise Lost'. Lucifer's decision to choose free-will, and even live in a hell of ones own choosing if it meant an end to bondage. The famous quote 'better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven". The difference being that at least Lucifer had some kind of philosophy behind wanting to betray God, whereas Horus' change of heart is down to that most basic of plot devices; namely 'A wizard did it' (he was stabbed by a magic sword), then he grew black circles around his eyes, and started throwing bags of kittens into rivers and writing naughty messages to go inside fortune cookies.

I think its amusing that a poem series written almost 400 years ago has got a greater narrative and philosophical depth than a book series of 20-odd books written over the last decade.

Rottooth wrote:Surprised no one got this one...

Vulkan is the the Primarch of the Salamanders, who live on a hot planet, right?

Star Trek's Vulcans live on the planet Vulcan which is a very hot planet (although not as inhospitable as Nocturne)

Also, I read that Salamanders begin recruiting as early as 7 years old... A reference to Pon-Far, (?) where a Vulcan's blood burns within him every 7 years...

Yeah, that's not right at all. He's based on Vulcan, who was a Greek god of handling fire and forges: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(mythology)

Deadshot wrote:Vulcan or someone like that was like a roman god who forged ghings or summing.

vulcan was the roman Smith God who lived in a fiery mountain called Vulcano: where we get the Volcano from: the salamanders were based of this idea