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I was having an argument with my friend as he thinks Warhammer is based on a true story. Does anyone have any info on this and can confirm if it is based on a true story or if its not. thanks

what does that even mean?

I mean, the old world was basically earth with (very) slightly different names and then they threw a bunch of tolkien and fritz lieber and michael moorcock and draculas and mayan lizards on it. So I guess there's some truth in there?

Kind of?

No. Your friend needs medication if he thinks any facet of warhammer is factual.

I think a lot of the design elements take inspiration from real historical cultures like:
The Empire = early modern Germany
Lizardmen = Aztecs
Bretonnia = Medieval France
Tomb Kings = Egypt
etc.
Do you think that's what he means?

There could be some vague similarities to some history and some armies are inspired by historical countries (Egypt for TK, HRE for the Empire, etc) plus most fantasy borrows from mythology.

Can't think of any true stories involving the world ending and being reforged by magic though.

It's all true!
Chaos took over in the end, and warped people's minds to blind them of the true nature of the world.
Those aren't rats in the sewers....

 Skinnereal wrote:
It's all true!
Chaos took over in the end, and warped people's minds to blind them of the true nature of the world.
Those aren't rats in the sewers....

Sweet

i can't wait for my mutations!

Michael Moorcock came up with the 'eight arrows' symbol for chaos for one of his stories, when being asked about GW's appropriation of it he gave an anecdotal account of people approaching him, claiming he didn't come up with it at all, but that it was an ancient symbol for chaos that was transmitted to him psychically.

Despite this, he still insists it's just a thing he scribbled on a napkin.

The Empire and Bretonnian crusades to Araby are really just... that. The Crusades of our world.

Thats the only things that comes to my mind.

Hmm, I got two matches...

Realmgate Wars, taking of the first Realmgates (up to Ghal Maraz) = D-Day Landings

Allgates Campaign = Operation Market Garden

champagne_socialist wrote:
I was having an argument with my friend as he thinks Warhammer is based on a true story. Does anyone have any info on this and can confirm if it is based on a true story or if its not. thanks

Yes, its all true your friend is 100% correct. However it is not a historical recount, but rather an adaptation of events that are currently happening...
You see Chaos is already here! In the form of PC culture, social justice, identity politics and this millennial generation who, like yourself, seem to think Socialism has merit as economic policy.

Truly, the End Times are upon us...

Haha, yeah. If chaos invaded Earth they'd find the internet already did 90% of the work in corrupting people.

MongooseMatt wrote:
Hmm, I got two matches...

Realmgate Wars, taking of the first Realmgates (up to Ghal Maraz) = D-Day Landings

Allgates Campaign = Operation Market Garden

Hmm, Archaon's building fortresses all over the realm of Death to control it's hostile population could be linked to William the Conqueror using castles to subdue England.

geez, and I thought the American educational system was bad...

It's not all the education system (though that is a likely reason).
The amount of mistrust in facts, with creationism, anti-vaxers and such, who knows the reason for this...

In before Donald Trump is Archaon?

It's so sad that a even perfectly reasonable and sensible discussion like "is warhammer based on a true story" has to turn political.

Is the toxic internet time we live in. People can't just shut up their political ideas to themselves or at least to apropiate political discussion forums.

Trying to have a nice time reading things about your hobby to encounter political views and comments EVERYWHERE. Urgh.

No, I really don't think this is based on any sort of true story. It's a fantasy game in a fictional setting.

We don't need to shoehorn our politics, social justice issues, or any other real-world garbage into it....

It defeats the point of having a fantasy fiction setting where you can escape the absolute dumpster fire that is our modern world/society.

The OP's friend might have been thinking about this:

The War of the Beard

http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/War_of_the_Beard

Declaring war over an extrajudical shaving might seem a little extreme, however there are two parallels.

War of Jenkin's Ear

The mutilation of an Elgnlish merchantmen captain was used as Cassus Belli for war against Spain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Jenkins'_Ear

The War of the Beard

The original story that GW were copying. From the 2nd Book of Samuel in the Old Testament

10-1 In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 2 David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.
When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites, 3 the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?” 4 So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.
5 When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”
6 When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maakah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.
7 On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. 8 The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maakah were by themselves in the open country.
9 Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 10 He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites. 11 Joab said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you. 12 Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight.”
13 Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. 14 When the Ammonites realized that the Arameans were fleeing, they fled before Abishai and went inside the city. So Joab returned from fighting the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
15 After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they regrouped. 16 Hadadezer had Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates River; they went to Helam, with Shobak the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them.
17 When David was told of this, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan and went to Helam. The Arameans formed their battle lines to meet David and fought against him. 18 But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers.[a] He also struck down Shobak the commander of their army, and he died there. 19 When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with the Israelites and became subject to them.
So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.

Guys?? It was a joke!! We're all making fun of the idea it's based on real life. That's all it was. Calm down, take a deep breath, and go paint something.

I thought everyone was joking! now i'm confused

is this thread based on a true story?

But... parts of Warhammer are based on a true story. (or, at least, history)

Head over to Google Image Search, and take a look at the "30 Years War." The uniforms, the houses, even the way units move around the field, completely defines the look of The Empire, which has since evolved into The Free Peoples.

My understanding is that the Beastmen are based on early Germanic tribes, the Empire on Germans of the 17th century, Orcs originally had a Mongol feel (With a dash of 20th century soccer hooligan), while Spider Riding grotz had/have a Native American vibe... I'm sure you could find a comparison for almost every race.

The only part where the analogue of The Old World fell apart for me, was how Chaos always came from the north. Are the Swedes or the Danish known for worshipping the elder gods of the void? Does anyone know the fictional source that inspired the north as the origin of Chaos invasions?

This is what happens when people are allowed to post in groups, this is a child like pack mentality. "DUh chaos no real duh " you guys responding are an embarrassment at best.

Yes fantasy is based on true events.
Tomb kings where based on Egypt, even roughly the same location.

Orcs : Are the savages of the land that's why there was a tribe of savage orks going towards Africa and boar riders going towards Mogul ruled areas in china ect.

Brets are early french hell they even are french,

Empire is basically roman empire

Choas is related to the northern tribes like norse "norsca in fantasy" scottish and so on.

lizardmen: star worshiping Aztec in a land populated by lizards and such.

beastmen: the beasts that use to live in the forest around usa and Canada ect before the purge of things such as the giant slot and dodo.

Hell even some of the envasions lined up quite well with how real attacks happened.

Then if you look at the monsters and such most are drawn from lores of said countries.

And the Fantasy world is heavily based off of the real world and Estalia, Tilea, Cathay, Araby and Nippon are almost copy-paste civilizations with fantasy bits thrown into them.

We all know that very well and basically said the same things you just did, the OP made it sound like he was asking if Warhammer was an actual thing in our reality though.

The amount of people who mix fantasy with 40k's universe, which is ours, by mistake is very common and that may be what the OP question was alluding to.

A more detailed question would've been very helpful.

@Oggthrok, actually the Viking aesthetic and belief in chaos along with peaceful tribes with Norse beliefs like Yggdrasil were very strong in older editions with some parts surviving into the 8th edition.

Though thinking about it with how AoS is basically Norse mythology + Chaos I guess they were right in the end.

IMPORTANT NOTE - RULE #1 - BE POLITE - IS MANDATORY.

The Joke
^
^
Your Head

This applies to many posters in this thread