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 Beaviz81 wrote:

I don't flame. I post the truth. Lets iterate. Prussian style helmets, the iron-cross, black armour. All points to the Imperial Fists. And the Custodes unde NO point had black armour. I have not succeeded in finding a description that talks to them as that, so Custodians are out of the window, so stop making up your own fluff.

Also, not to add fuel to the fire, but the continued claims as Prussians equal imperial fists isn’t really true either. If by Prussian you mean the Prussian style of military organization and tactical warfare implemented under Clausewitz, it would probably be present in all space marine armies, as the structures and organizations are still used in modern militaries today, as it was one of the first military doctrines to incorporate factors outside of the battle field into the stratagems and philosophies of modern western warfare. It was a direct answer to the futility of Napoleonic tactics in the face of the exponential rise of battlefield technology.
As far as the "Prussian" aesthetic, do you mean the Teutonic or Iron Cross motif? That style of cross first originated during the crusades in Knights form the Central Europe area known as the Order of Teutonic Knights. Their trappings were adopted by the Holy Roman Empire and the Teutonic forces in the Middle Ages as a direct link to religious legitimacy and heritage. (Also, that isn’t a crux terminatus as it is too small, it is probably a veteran cross as the Imperium Adopted the Iron Cross to mean Veterancy to lend to 40ks sinister bureaucracy vibe. It was used as such by all inheritors of the Holy Roman Empire and Hapsburg controlled countries like Prussia, Austria, Luxembourg and Germany in the 19th century. It was also heavily used by the Germans in WWI, and in WWII specifically for the purpose of denoting military valor.) Or do you mean the Black and Gold Color scheme, because again this was first implemented by the Holy Roman Empire in central Europe. (The official sigil of the Holy Roman Holy Roman Emperor was a crowned gold eagle on a black background) Or the rounded helm with the spike on it? This was Prussian in design, and later adopted by German forces after the unification of Germany and the adoption of Clausewitz’s military philosophy. Because of the propaganda in American and Britain in WWI this style of helmet became synonymous with the German Empire and its “insatiable craving for Imperial dominance”. Also it was used by Nazi Germany. It’s why the rounded flare helmet is used in “bad guy” depictions in pop culture, such as Star Wars Imperial Troops and Officers? Or do you mean the ubiquitous presence of the eagle? The Eagle was a symbol for Rome and the stylized eagle was adopted by both Russia and the Holy roman Empire, who thought that they were both the inheritors of the legacy of Rome in a way (The Russian Tzar comes from Caesar ). True all of these things are Prussian in a way, but a more apt term would be Gothic. Gothic is indicative of styles that came from the central (read German) part of Europe. It was an original term describing the tribes of Goths or barbarian in roman times and eventually the term evolved to mean anything that came from the central part of Europe that was not distinctly classical or roman in appearance or nature. The entire setting has been termed as gothic because it borrows from elements of classical gothic culture, like the cathedralesque look to most buildings, the clothing and appearance of must human military officers (not rank and file guard), especially commissars (Also the term gothic, from a literary perspective, means a satiation that is unwinnable for the protagonist, and conventional notions of good and evil are thrown out of alignment. In these stories success is measured by continued existence. There is no winning, just survival. Examples of this are Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and other 19th century European Horror fiction). So to say the Prussian appearance of the space marine armor means they have to be black clad Imperial Fists is categorically wrong, because that would be like saying, because they are space marines in the general vicinity of Terra, that automatically makes them IF.