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So obviously 40K is inspired by many real world sources, some quite clear, others more subtle.

So I was wondering if everyone could name some of the sources they think 40K (in general, like the armies, weapons, and general style of the factions) is based off?

Most of the imperium, including the ideas of noble lords in space, navigators, the emperor and even space marines are taken directly from Dune, as are things like Psykers in general I believe, as well as lasguns?

Hive cities and Arbites are directly taken from AD2000 comics (Judge Dredd).

The term flamer and more about space marines are from Starship Troopers.

The greater chaos daemons are stolen directly from D&D (fun fact GW made models for D&D before their own IP was 'developed' off it).


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Oh, Alien is another with genesteelers/xenomorphs.


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Oh, and the original necrons where basically just Terminators.

Dune is a biggie as was mentioned. Some others:

I think that Rogue Trooper (another 2000 AD comic) was some inspiration as well, though I'm not as familiar with much of it.

Obviously the look and feel of Imperium borrows much from the Catholic church, it's inquisition, hierarchy, use of latin, imagery, etc.

Visually, tau are a way to bring Anime Mecha fans into the 40k fold.

Imperial Guard analogues are pretty obvious,
Tanks based on Mark series ww1 tanks
The Cadians are Aliens Colonial Marines (which are themselves Vietnam-era-US army-In space).
Catachans are Rambos.
Death Corp are ww1 germans
Steel Legion are ww2 german-ish
Valhallans and Vostroyans are Russians
etc, etc...

Necrons = basically a bunch of Terminators

The Imperium is more like the Roman Empire.

The Orks are the Huns.

Space Marines are the knights who went on crusades.

Tau are Gundam Wing with Trade federation (Star Wars) element worked in.

Eldar are High elves.

Dark Eldar are a combination of druglord/gangbangers/escaped mental patients.

Tyranids are dragons and army ants

Necrons are Egyptian T1000s

Chaos forces are a mix of deathmetal fans, Biker gangs and soccer fans whose team had lost.

Tyranids ripped off Zerg




*runs away laughing*

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

 mondo80 wrote:
.. and soccer fans whose team had lost.

Actually I believe that is exactly what Space Orcs where when they where first introduced. The Space Marine game did a pretty good job of getting that across too with the voice acting.

Dune
Alien
Starship Troopers
maybe Ender's Game
Terminator
every war
Dark Crystal
the C'thulhu Mythos
Rome
Sparta
Germany
Russia
Japan
the animes
the punk movement
the Spanish Inquisition
the Holy Crusades
so on and so forth

It pulls from lots of stuff. Its the way its presented that makes it so enjoyable. For me at least.

Starcraft.

Somewhere I read that Blanche was inspired by fashion design when he was coming up with Sisters of Battle.

Baroque art is a big source of inspiration - all the skulls, spikes, cherubs, etc.

Many 40k armies were inspired by their Fantasy counterparts.
Eldar are your standard tolkienesque High Elves in space
Dark Eldar are Dark Elves in space.
Orks are based on a combination of traditional Orc and football hooligans.
Necrons are Tomb Kings in space and inspired by ancient Egypt and mummie horror movies.
Blood Angels are inspired by vampires.

The Imperium and it's organisations also all have counterparts in WHFB, as well as taking a lot of ideas from other sci-fi works such as Dune, Starship Troopers and Judge Dredd.
There is also a lot of real world influence here.
Space Wolves are Vikings in space.
Krieg and Armageddon are based on WW1 and WW2 Germany.
Vostroya is inspired by the Cossacks.
Valhalla is inspired by a popular Hollywood perception of the Red Army.
Tallarn is based on Arabic influences.
The White Scars are based on the Mongols
And so on and so on. There is a huge amount of different inspirations for 40k's many different factions.

Interesting...

Anyway, the closest was the 2000AD comics.


The main answer is Nemesis the Warlock, ABC Warriors and Judge Dredd



Enjoy

Wow, Wulfmar,
I'd not seen that artwork before. It looks like the "Brotherhood" faction (another militant religious group with an inquisitorial element) in the Warzone game may have been HEAVILY influenced by that art as well.