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Wouldn't that make Kharn "Betrayer the Betrayer" to Arabic speaking players? That's kinda funny.

Oh, this is supposed to include easter eggs and not just in-jokes?

In that case, let me add the Sororitas' homeworld to the list:
San Leor -> Orleans

Nice, never noticed that bit about San Leor.

Speaking of the Sisterhood, "Ophelia" is a character from Shakespeare's Hamlet, and is the character whom Hamlet tells to "get thee to a nunnery".

And that is something I was unaware of - I've read Henry V and McBeth, but never Hamlet. Cool.

Reading up on Ophelia's character as described in the Wikipedia, it sounds somewhat fitting, even beyond the nunnery reference - in that, due to the play, it has also become associated with peer pressure and young girls trying to reach an unachievable ideal. Heh.

Perhaps ironically, there are theories Hamlet based this character on a girl named Katherine - who, in 40k, happens to be one of the Founding Saints of the Sisterhood. Could be just a coincidence, though ... we probably shouldn't overanalyze. It's still a name originating in the Rogue Trader era, and most references there were pretty much "in your face".

Lucius means 'snake'. Looking at his face, and also what he did on Isstvan, it fits pretty well.

This site has a lot of homages/in jokes/and such: http://web.archive.org/web/20071125132841/http://ca.geocities.com/crazy40kguy/namesandhomages.html

Lightcavalier wrote:
Konrad Curze= Joesph Conrad wrote the Heart of Darkness, which centered on the character of Kurtz

Heart of Darkness was famously retold as Apocalypse Now, in which a military assassin, played by Martin Sheen, hunts down and kills a renegade, insane Colonel Kurtz in Vietnam. The Callidus assassin who killed Konrad Curze was named M'Shen.

There is also, of course, Corax's last words, "Nevermore," which just so happen to be the final line of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" - "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.'"

Yeah, the Corax one was a bit much.

Elector wrote:
The Wolftime is like Ragnarok (the final battle of the Space Wolves, also when Leman Russ is said to return)

There is also Rhana Dandra, the epic battle between Eldar and Chaos which will destroy both realspace and warp.

Coolyo294 wrote:Fyodor Karamazov's name is a pun on Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Brothers Karamazov.

In Dostoevsky's novel, Karamazov brothers' father was called Fyodor.

M'shen, haha, I missed that. That one was good.

Farseer Petriel wrote:

Elector wrote:
The Wolftime is like Ragnarok (the final battle of the Space Wolves, also when Leman Russ is said to return)

There is also Rhana Dandra, the epic battle between Eldar and Chaos which will destroy both realspace and warp.

Ooooh, that's true (I was more thinking of the Wolftime because of the strongly Norse-themed fluff behind the SW)

Which reminds me, Njal Stormcaller is reminiscent of Odin and Thor (the raven for Odin, the lightning powers for Thor)

Lukas the Trickster is Loki (His delights in sowing anarchy, his pranks, the way he is less brawny as other Space Wolves)

Arjac Rockfist has Thor's more martial attributes, such his hammer, Foehammer, whose teleporter returns it to his hand after he throws it (reminds me of Marvel Thor at least)

Ursakar E Creed is George S Patton. It's the ivory handled pistols the model has that clued me in on this one, as Patton always wore a pair himself. Plus, in some circles, Patton is considered a tactical genius (In other cicrles, he is just considered a guy who had more men and materiel than his enemy). Also, the latest IG color scheme is clearly inspired by the uniform colors of the US Army during WWII...

Well Patton did have a penchant for pushing his army through areas where there simply was no enemy, and then claiming massive objective gains. Also regularly resulting in his forces being located on a flank to the enemy....smells tactical genius enough for me.

And I thought it was the cigar that gave it away!

Durza wrote:Lucius means 'snake'. Looking at his face, and also what he did on Isstvan, it fits pretty well.

I thought Lucius is based on the latin word for light.

There is a titan legion named Legio Metalica.

Horus and the Emperor is a play of of the Egyptian myth of Horus and his uncle Seth, who ruled over Egypt at the time.

asimo77 wrote:

Durza wrote:Lucius means 'snake'. Looking at his face, and also what he did on Isstvan, it fits pretty well.

I thought Lucius is based on the latin word for light.

Huh. Apologies, you are correct. It seems more fitting, considering how he wanted to 'shine'. And of course, the Devil being known as Lucifer...

Sneaky one here:


Ctan is very similar to the cyrillic for 'steel' in russian

steel : сталь

Heh, that's very interesting... not sure how accurate it is, but, then, many English writers like to borrow Russian words and phrases, with some alteration, for flavor.

"A Clockwork Orange" is a good example of this.

Elector wrote:

Ferrus (Iron Warrior Primarch) = Ferrum (latin for Iron)

Ferrus Manus means Iron Hands in Latin and i'm pretty certain he was the leader of Iron Hands.

Yes, I'd already been corrected right after I posted that.

Mon-keigh and Gue'la: GW aping around with the primate jokes...

Ascalam wrote:Sneaky one here:


Ctan is very similar to the cyrillic for 'steel' in russian

steel : сталь

I'd never made that connection before, because the pronunciation of the 'n'-looking letter at the back is completely different in Russian than in English, but it makes sense if you consider that someone who couldn't read Cyrillic just looked up a bunch of different translations for 'steel' and went with that one - he'd have no idea how to pronounce it, and it'd seem like the correct transliteration into English.

For those playing along at home, it'd actually be "stal'".

Transliteration does wonderful things

Lord Solar Macharius=Alexander the Great
- Both conquered a huge area in seven years, and were thought unstoppable
- Their armies refused to go any further because of superstition (India, The Halo Stars)
- Both died under mysterious circumstances while on their way home. Both died because of fever
- Their deaths caused their conquests to crumble, and cause their generals to rival each other (Macharian Heresy, The fall of Macedonia)



The whole Imperium is basically middle-ages Europe in space, eg. heresies. alien races=barbarians, knights=Space Marines etc.

Various Space Marine chapters have references to some ancient cultures, eg. Roman, Mongol, Viking etc.

Various movie references in the fluff/weapons, eg. BT Holy Orb of Antioch= Monty Python's holy hand grenade

Cheesecat wrote:Mag Uruk Thraka = Margaret Thatcher.

Beautiful.

If I recall correctly

Ahriman is the name of the Evil being in Zoroastrianism. The pre-Islam faith in Persia.

Lord Solar Macharius got his helmet,from the tomb of the famous explorer and archaelogist Indijona,(Indiana Jones).
Indijonas tomb was on a planet called Persepolis,the Persian captial that Alexander sacked.

Lastly some lesser Chaos Gods are named after some people at GW. Ans'l= Bryan Ansell.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also

Fulgrim. Fulg is latin for shinning and excessive,and grim for his bitter end.

 Psienesis wrote:
Fulgrim predates Final Fantasy by like a decade.

Um False. Warhammer 40k and Final Fantasy were released in the same year 1987....

 kenshin620 wrote:
Cadia sounds quite like Canada, right down to the fact both countries are renown for their shock troopers. I think Cadia is also heavily forested

Death Korps of Krieg, Krieg is the german word for war. These guys though are half german, half french

Teuton Guard, Teuton refers to any group of people who speak German, espeically germans. The Teuton Guard wear Pickelhaubes which are famous from being used by purssians/germans

cadia was the name of one of the first canadian settle ments or somthing to that effect too.


creed is based on churchill I beelieve

Did we really need to bring back a 3 year dead thread?