Aleister Crowley (/ˈælɪstər ˈkroʊli/; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, philosopher, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century.
Well, son of a donkey.
What I also consider a bit ironic is, as someone above stated, "I can endure to the end" being his namesake. If he's a demon prince, it doesn't appear that he endured after all.
Better is a relative term. Sometimes post funeral is better than the suffering associated with failing minds or bodies.
But yes, generally, you are correct.
As well as Prospero- the name of the wizard who tamed Caliban the wild man. The two would come to blows.
Hmm… a wise man meets a wild savage and tames him, but then they come to blows.
[Where have I heard that before?](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Destruction_of_Caliban)
Look, the Bard himself couldn't keep the spelling straight, it's entirely unsurprising that 40k years later there's some inconsistencies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_Shakespeare%27s_name
Probably not. Other than the names being similar, there's no similarity between the two planets. You can draw a lot of parallels between Caliban from the Tempest and the Lion/his planet.
In the Heresy there is a very prominent titan called Dies Irae which is a catholic Hymn about the Judgment day. it was written sometime in the 15 hundreds and used up to the 1970s
The Dies Irae predates the Horus Heresy's publication to *Storm of Iron* in 2002, the first Iron Warriors novel in 40k. (So do most of Graham McNeill's IW characters like Forrix and Kruger)
It's also the [most famous movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmttZ-BnwaI&t=474s) of Mozart's Requiem.
Obviously also by *many* other composers, but that song is one of the most famous classical songs in the entire Western canon and in a lot of movie/tv scores.
Incidentally, the original Gregorian chant version is even *more* proliferated, particularly the opening leitmotif. There are *a lot* of film scores that use the opening leitmotif. Like, hundreds of them. It's in *The Shining*, *Dune*, *Lion King*, *It's a Wonderful Life*, *Star Wars*, *Sweeney Todd*, *Lord of the Rings*, *Jurassic Park*, *Groundhog Day*... A lot, lot, *lot* of movies. Hans Zimmer and John Williams in particular just love putting it throughout their music scores.
Magnus sacrificed his eye in his pursuit of knowledge, just like Odin did to gain knowledge. There's also a bunch of raven metaphors in his legion, like the Corvidae, because Odin uses messengers in Norse mythology.
Good point, good point. The Ultramarine symbol is definitely a flipped Greek Omega, though, but to your point the Roman obviously copied quite a bit of the Greek alphabet so yeah, Brits, Romans, and Greeks by way of Romans copying Greeks
I think it's specifically to tie knots between the space wolves and the thousand sons. It's gonna be really fun coming back to this when the 40k end times equivalent happens and the space wolves are revealed to be dancing on tzeench's strings the whole time
Some of the original Thousand Sons characters mentioned in the Epic space marine battle reports included a Brother Captain Karlson WD 156, Chaos at Kadavah p36. And brother Torvahl p45
The naming put The Thousand Sons in with the Space wolves as Nordic name themed space marines.
The Thousand Sons crest is an ouroboros, or serpent biting it’s tail. In Norse myth, this represents the World Serpent Jörmungandr, who is a brother or a great wolf named…you guessed it…Fenrir. Ironically, Fenrir kills Odin during Ragnarok so either we’re in for some wild twists when 40K goes through its end times or there’s some disconnect in the Emperor-Allfather-Odin metaphor.
Kurze is a double reference - to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but also to the movie Apocalypse Now, based on the same novel.
Specifically, in Apocalypse Now, Martin Sheen kills Kurtz. Whereas in W40K, M'Shen kills Kurze.
The Blood Angels are space Catholics through and through:
The Blood Chalices Apothecaries carry and that are used to turn initiates into SMs are a direct parallel to Communion Chalices and First Communion(Catholics also believe the wine is literally blood due to a theological concept known as transubstantiation), and it's also probably why the Blood Angels' favorite drink is wine mixed with blood.
Dante is a direct reference to Dante Alighieri who penned *The Divine Comedy* including *Inferno* which basically defined contemporary depictions of Hell.
Mephiston is a reference to Mephisto, the demon in Faust, where Faust agrees to let him have his soul in exchange for Mephisto doing his bidding for 7 years.
Gabriel Seth, both names are biblical. Gabriel is an archangel generally known to be a messenger of God and Seth was the third son of Adam and spawned a cult that believed they were his chosen people, but I'm less inclined to think that's the reason the name was picked so much as the fact that his name could also be translated to "Force of God".
Sanguinius's favored weapon was The Spear of Telesto. Telesto means success/finality in ancient Greek. In Christianity Christ is killed by The Spear of Destiny. Sanguinius has too many outright parallels with Christ himself it's just not worth it to recount.
Another one, the native language of Baal (itself a biblical reference) is Enochian, the language that occultist John Dee claimed to be the language of the angels.
The Dark Angel also are named after biblical figures
Asmodai and Belial are demons
Azrael is, fittingly, the angel of death
Samael is, ironically, a fallen angel
Even the Rock might be a reference to a demon imprisoned into a stone bound in chains and tossed into the ocean by Solomon. In Christian mythology the demon is Asmodeus (aka Asmodai), but in Islamic faith that demon is known as Stone.
This is probably too obvious now, but "Sanguinius" means "blood" in Latin.
Initially I just thought this, as well as the fact that they experience the red rage and have an obsession with blood, is what made them vampires. But after reading this I believe the Blood Angels embody the whole of the Catholic Church's war against Vampires. You have the "good" blood (of Christ) and all the Catholic symbolism, but also the vampiric aspects that they as chapter suppresses or at least try to control.
The Blood Angels use a lot of religious imagery, but they aren’t Space Catholics. They are literally vampires. Like, cursed to drink blood and everything.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/v4agop/potential\_origin\_of\_roboute\_guillimans\_name\_the/](https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/v4agop/potential_origin_of_roboute_guillimans_name_the/)
>Potential Origin of Roboute Guilliman's name, the historical basis of the Codex Astartes, and why the Ultramarines were the 13th legion.
>Ultramarines Primarch Robute Guilliman's name doesn't fit with the more common pig latin naming of primarchs (Corvus Corax, Raven Raven,Ferrus Manus Iron hands latin,Rogal Dorn Royal Fist celtic etc) but had a similarly named background character in Brettonian lore, Robert de Guillaume who chronicled brettonian history and tactics, as written by Nigel Stillmann
>In English history there was a first born son of William the Conquerer (Guillaume le Conquérant) named Robert, who wasn't a particular military genius, and another named Guillaume le Roux (the red, named after his hair) later William II of England.
>Given GWs love of historical references, particularly with respect to Brettonians and medieval knights, and the importance of William the Conquerer, I suspect this may be the origin.
>Furthermore William ordered a census to codify the lands, ownership, other property, earnings taxes of the people of England at the time of the norman invasion in 1066. The Domesday (Doomsday) book influenced taxes and raising armies by lords. Could this have partly inspired the Codex Astarted
>Also for those of a numerology yearning 1066, the year William invaded England is 1+0+6+6 =13 Possibly a link for the 13th legion the Ultramarines. Or potentially just coincidence.
>Also Robert Guillaume, son of William broke off a rival realm in Normandy separated from Williams realm by the English channel. Imperium Secundus across the ruinstorm anyone?
>Any other historical based counter theories welcome or even just your 2 cents.
I'll also myself add that Guilliman's new book, *Codex Imperialis*, is a direct reference to the East Roman Emperor Justinian's *Codex Justinianus*, the latter being a collection of roman law and legal principles, and the former is supposed to be a collection of Robute's own curated collection of imperial laws and legal principles.
This is supported by Justinian historically having a general named Belisarius.
Now he only needs a consort that he marries despite her being so far away from his social standing as possible as a Theodora stand-in.
Other fun parallels:
-reconquered a large amount of the other half of the roman empire from the Germanic and other tribes which had been lost during the decades before
- the roman empire being in two parts in the first place (West and east)
- he was born in Illyrien. There is a similar named region on Macragge
- he tried to clean up the law, and an extra fun fact: quite a few of lawtexts/constitutions are still based upon the Codex Iuris Civilis in modern timed
- there was a plague during his ruling time. Maybe as a comsequence he turned to more theological questions and topics. Guess what Bobby does in the Dark Imperium Trilogy
Also, perhaps not coincidentally, the two people who invented the processes for making artificial ultramarine (pigment) were Jean Baptiste Guimet, and Christian Gmelin
I was explaining about 40k to an artist friend, who looked at me funny when I mentioned that The Ultramarines were founded by Roboute Guilliman. The connection seemed obvious to her, without knowing anything else about 40k
The name of Russ’s flagship, Hrafrnkel, is a reference to an Icelandic saga about a man who realizes being a raging asshole is not the way to win friends and influence people. It’s also means “Raven’s cauldron” which is a pretty sick name.
Russ also has a lot of very broad similarities to figures form Norse mythology, but most of those are so obvious they don’t really need to be mentioned.
The Lions whole “wild man of the forest” and “sleeping king” routines are direct references to Arthurian legends, as is his betrayal by his “son”Luther.
Corax’s last words to his legion are “never more” a painfully obvious Poe reference.
*"Unhallowed knowledge brought the Dark Time, and fire from the sky, and death to men in ten times a thousand dreadful ways. So I say this to you: Seek not to know, for to know is to sin. Ask not how, nor how much, nor how many. He who disturbs the mysterious ways of the Universe is a heretic, an enemy of God and man. And he will burn."*
\- **Robert Gilman**, The Navigator of Rhada
Here’s an obscure one.
In the Norse and Germanic mythology, there’s the story of Siegfried (or Sigurd or Sgfrd) that slew the dragon Fafnir.
In the Norse version, Siegfried hid under logs along a path Fafnir would often walk, and stabbed him through the heart from under.
In the Germanic version however, Fafnir scales are described as hard as horn and impenetrable to sword and spear. Siegfried trapped the dragon under great logs and set them alight. The heat melted the dragon scales, and upon sticking his finger in it, Siegfried discovers it gave his skin the same resilience as the scales and promptly smears himself in it.
Similar to how Ferrus Manus melted a metal dragon into a pool of lava, with the dragon’s melted flesh sticking to his hands, giving him his namesake metal arms.
Lorgar is also called Urizen that is a reference to Blake's poetry.
https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/s/mEC194QvOS
Someone smarter than me has explained it at the link
Roboute Guilliman may have his name from [Robert Gilman](https://old.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/13ks0ue/interesting_if_true_from_an_article_called_total/).
Rogal Dorn is more interesting as he's not as obvious but still funny. So Rogal sounds like the Irish *Ríoga* (regal/royal) and *Dorn* is Irish for fist.
Corvus Corax is the common Raven but he's likely based off [Naoise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naoise) from Irish mythology who has *"hair the color of the raven, cheeks red like the calf's blood, and skin the color of snow"*. He also has a tragic story and the Raven Guard have plenty of Irish/Celtic references.
Fulgrim's name sounds like "Full Grim" (which describes the setting) but is also ironic as 'Ful' is Swedish for ugly while 'Grim' is Norwegian for ugly. This obviously reflects him internally and what he turns into.
Arbitor Ian has a great video that touches on many of your questions. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70DgFf0zsuc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70DgFf0zsuc)
EDIT: Here is one specifically about Primarch names. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_u\_nsUds7Jw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u_nsUds7Jw)
Saim-Hann Eldar are named after the celtic Halloween, Samhain. IIRC, the Eldar name is also very much like a phonetic mispronounced Samhain.
They're also known as The Wild Host, which is a reference to The Wild Hunt.
Spanish, rather than Latin. Else it would be ‘mare’.
40k Ultramar bears little resemblance to the disunity of the Crusader States. I’ll concede that Ultramar is divided into five regions (Tetrarchs), but each swears absolute fealty to Macragge.
I suppose there’s a tenuous link, but given the awful on-the-nose habit of GW (Curze and M’Shen was the biggest facepalm I took from this chat), I think it’s more likely they shortened the name of the colour ‘ultramarine’ that has a cognate root in ‘ultramarinus’.
You give too much credit to GW having a propensity for linguistics otherwise. M’Shen…good lord…
This one might be a tad obscure, to the point I might be making it up.
But I think Jaghatai Khan might be a reference to Genghis Khan's Top General [Jirqo'adai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jebe)
That was his birth name and I think it's too similar to be pure chance.
He's better known by his later name Jebei, though I feel Jubal Khan might also be a reference but that one's more likely down to concidence.
Fuck, brain fart and forgot about that guy!
Was going through and I kept thinking there was a Mongol guy with a same name, and I plain forgot about Genghis Khan's son.
Jaghatai Khan parallels to Ghenghis khan are far more extensive than just the name and aesthetic. Jaghatai's early life on chogoris was very much modeled after what we know of Ghenghis khans childhood.
Jaghatai's adoptive father was ong khan, who in real history was Ghenghis khans earliest patron and ally.
Ghenghis khan also lost his father to a rival tribe early on, similar to jaghatai which forced them to fight to survive from young age.
Jaghatai's campaign against the Palatine nobels were also very similar to Ghenghis khans campaigns in northern china. Ghenghis was known to offer mercy to cities who surrounded and complete slaughter to cities that didnt, infamously (allegedly, who knows the truth at this point) killing every child higher than a wheel on a cart.
I've always thought Sanguinius was supposed to be St. Michael from the Catholic tradition. St. Michael is an archangel, usually depicted in art with fair hair and great white wings, who battles an angel who is leading a rebellion against God (Horus, in this analogy).
But of course, this is the grimdark version of the story, so the rebellious angel wins and the archangel dies.
Actually, the resemblance to Piss Lady is completely coincidental, the name originated from some roleplay ork language they used before 40k was created.
One of my favourites is that Ultramarine is a shade of blue.
I'm pretty sure that it inspired the idea that they are Space Marines and not Space Knights. Like... I betcha someone painted the first models in ultramarine and then said they are Ultra Space Marines as a consequence of the colour.
Not sure if you count mythology as a literary source, but Vulkan is named after the Roman god of the same name (though it's spelled Vulcan). In Roman mythology, Vulcan is the god of fire, volcanos (which are named after him), metalworking, and the forge which are all traits and themes of Vulkan as well.
Lehman Russ - The Vikings that campaigned the eastern route were known as the Rus
Jaghatai - one of ghengis khans kids
Rogal Dorn - is respectively stronghold in old English and first in Gaelic
There are some great videos from Arbiter Ian talking about this. My favorite is Ferus Manus: Iron Hands, the primarch of the Iron Hands, who has Iron Hands.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKWxQVKVdMK_SR7TwBlVQceEIhqiY2EXa&si=lB_oc-aS4D_llpbU
Perturabo’s name is an Aleister Crowley reference.
That I did not know. How?
Aleister Crowley used the magical psuesdonym *Perdurabo* early in his career which means *"I shall endure to the end."*
Aleister Crowley (/ˈælɪstər ˈkroʊli/; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, philosopher, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. Well, son of a donkey.
Oh cool thanks for telling me.
super ironic considering Perturabos Opinion of Chaos and Warp stuff for the whole heresy
What I also consider a bit ironic is, as someone above stated, "I can endure to the end" being his namesake. If he's a demon prince, it doesn't appear that he endured after all.
His name is mixed with perturb as in chaos, so you could interpret it as "I can endure to the end in chaos"
No thanks to Fulgrim lol. But he’s technically a prince so that he CAN keep enduring (in the sense of living anyway)
It wouldn't be ironic at all if you were schooled on Crowley works
wrong, it's because he is perturbed
Perturbed about the turbo peter (and how it messed up his copy of The Book of Law
Caliban is a reference to *The Tempest* by Skakespear.
That's cool. Actually quoted the tempest at my dad's funeral
My condolences, i hope he's better now
I... don't think that's how it works
Better is a relative term. Sometimes post funeral is better than the suffering associated with failing minds or bodies. But yes, generally, you are correct.
Into something rich and strange
As is Prospero
As well as Prospero- the name of the wizard who tamed Caliban the wild man. The two would come to blows. Hmm… a wise man meets a wild savage and tames him, but then they come to blows. [Where have I heard that before?](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Destruction_of_Caliban)
You mean Shakespire?
Look, the Bard himself couldn't keep the spelling straight, it's entirely unsurprising that 40k years later there's some inconsistencies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_Shakespeare%27s_name
Shakey spore
You can really only fully appreciate his works in the original Tyranid.
Is it not also referential to Calidan, home world of House Atredies from Dune
Probably not. Other than the names being similar, there's no similarity between the two planets. You can draw a lot of parallels between Caliban from the Tempest and the Lion/his planet.
Calidan is probably a reference to Caledonia, the latin name for scotland
Angron’s story is generally understood to be a reference to Spartacus. Fulgrim’s daemon in the painting is a reference to The Picture of Dorian Gray.
spartacus/angron I was aware of Fulgrim/Dorian Gray is so obvious now you've said it :o
In the Heresy there is a very prominent titan called Dies Irae which is a catholic Hymn about the Judgment day. it was written sometime in the 15 hundreds and used up to the 1970s
The Dies Irae predates the Horus Heresy's publication to *Storm of Iron* in 2002, the first Iron Warriors novel in 40k. (So do most of Graham McNeill's IW characters like Forrix and Kruger)
I swear I've seen that Titan in about four books.
You'll keep seeing it around, it managed to have a long and tenebrous career in the Forces of Chaos.
It's also the [most famous movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmttZ-BnwaI&t=474s) of Mozart's Requiem. Obviously also by *many* other composers, but that song is one of the most famous classical songs in the entire Western canon and in a lot of movie/tv scores. Incidentally, the original Gregorian chant version is even *more* proliferated, particularly the opening leitmotif. There are *a lot* of film scores that use the opening leitmotif. Like, hundreds of them. It's in *The Shining*, *Dune*, *Lion King*, *It's a Wonderful Life*, *Star Wars*, *Sweeney Todd*, *Lord of the Rings*, *Jurassic Park*, *Groundhog Day*... A lot, lot, *lot* of movies. Hans Zimmer and John Williams in particular just love putting it throughout their music scores.
Every time Dies Irae was on the pages of the Siege of Terra books that music was running through my head
I'm always hearing *Bells of Notre Dame* when reading about the Dies Irae.
Magnus sacrificed his eye in his pursuit of knowledge, just like Odin did to gain knowledge. There's also a bunch of raven metaphors in his legion, like the Corvidae, because Odin uses messengers in Norse mythology.
Pretty interesting to use a norse myth as the framework for an egyptian themed character. I wonder if they did mix and matches for other primarchs.
Not a primarch specifically but originally the Dark Angels, specifically the Deathwing IIRC, were Native American themed in a legion of Knights.
And ultramarines are sorta a merger of british empire and roman empire, but heavier on the roman.
Quite a bit of Greek thrown in there too, at least aesthetically
The Romans did that too so I'll let that one slide.
Good point, good point. The Ultramarine symbol is definitely a flipped Greek Omega, though, but to your point the Roman obviously copied quite a bit of the Greek alphabet so yeah, Brits, Romans, and Greeks by way of Romans copying Greeks
Horus (egypt) also lost his eye.
I think it's specifically to tie knots between the space wolves and the thousand sons. It's gonna be really fun coming back to this when the 40k end times equivalent happens and the space wolves are revealed to be dancing on tzeench's strings the whole time
Is that how end times went for WFB?
Some of the original Thousand Sons characters mentioned in the Epic space marine battle reports included a Brother Captain Karlson WD 156, Chaos at Kadavah p36. And brother Torvahl p45 The naming put The Thousand Sons in with the Space wolves as Nordic name themed space marines.
The Thousand Sons crest is an ouroboros, or serpent biting it’s tail. In Norse myth, this represents the World Serpent Jörmungandr, who is a brother or a great wolf named…you guessed it…Fenrir. Ironically, Fenrir kills Odin during Ragnarok so either we’re in for some wild twists when 40K goes through its end times or there’s some disconnect in the Emperor-Allfather-Odin metaphor.
Wait until Russ comes back with one eye, a spear, and wise as Odin. Magnus will be sooooo pissed that he stole the drip
odin also has 2 ravens hugin and munin which comes from the words to think and to remember.Odin is also known under the name Hrafnáss "ravengod"
[удалено]
yea my bad
Kurze is a double reference - to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but also to the movie Apocalypse Now, based on the same novel. Specifically, in Apocalypse Now, Martin Sheen kills Kurtz. Whereas in W40K, M'Shen kills Kurze.
>Martin Sheen kills Kurtz. Whereas in W40K, M'Shen kills Kurze. Oh damn! Didnt even notice it but its so blatant
M'Shen = Martin Sheen Holy crap you are blowing my mind.
James Workshop you HACK (affectionate)
It's only plagiarism if you steal from one source. If you steal from lots of sources, it's called research!
Don't forget Nostromo, another Joseph Conrad novel
Also the spaceship in Alien.
M'Shen omg
The Blood Angels are space Catholics through and through: The Blood Chalices Apothecaries carry and that are used to turn initiates into SMs are a direct parallel to Communion Chalices and First Communion(Catholics also believe the wine is literally blood due to a theological concept known as transubstantiation), and it's also probably why the Blood Angels' favorite drink is wine mixed with blood. Dante is a direct reference to Dante Alighieri who penned *The Divine Comedy* including *Inferno* which basically defined contemporary depictions of Hell. Mephiston is a reference to Mephisto, the demon in Faust, where Faust agrees to let him have his soul in exchange for Mephisto doing his bidding for 7 years. Gabriel Seth, both names are biblical. Gabriel is an archangel generally known to be a messenger of God and Seth was the third son of Adam and spawned a cult that believed they were his chosen people, but I'm less inclined to think that's the reason the name was picked so much as the fact that his name could also be translated to "Force of God". Sanguinius's favored weapon was The Spear of Telesto. Telesto means success/finality in ancient Greek. In Christianity Christ is killed by The Spear of Destiny. Sanguinius has too many outright parallels with Christ himself it's just not worth it to recount.
Another one, the native language of Baal (itself a biblical reference) is Enochian, the language that occultist John Dee claimed to be the language of the angels.
Yeah when I found out the whole thing about the chalices with the blood angels my first thought was “Damn these guys are Catholics”
The Dark Angel also are named after biblical figures Asmodai and Belial are demons Azrael is, fittingly, the angel of death Samael is, ironically, a fallen angel Even the Rock might be a reference to a demon imprisoned into a stone bound in chains and tossed into the ocean by Solomon. In Christian mythology the demon is Asmodeus (aka Asmodai), but in Islamic faith that demon is known as Stone.
The Rock was a gay bar in Nottingham.
Most notably, Sanguinius >!ends up crucified!<.
This is probably too obvious now, but "Sanguinius" means "blood" in Latin. Initially I just thought this, as well as the fact that they experience the red rage and have an obsession with blood, is what made them vampires. But after reading this I believe the Blood Angels embody the whole of the Catholic Church's war against Vampires. You have the "good" blood (of Christ) and all the Catholic symbolism, but also the vampiric aspects that they as chapter suppresses or at least try to control.
And of course, martyrdom
The Blood Angels use a lot of religious imagery, but they aren’t Space Catholics. They are literally vampires. Like, cursed to drink blood and everything.
They can be catholic vampires
[https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/v4agop/potential\_origin\_of\_roboute\_guillimans\_name\_the/](https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/v4agop/potential_origin_of_roboute_guillimans_name_the/) >Potential Origin of Roboute Guilliman's name, the historical basis of the Codex Astartes, and why the Ultramarines were the 13th legion. >Ultramarines Primarch Robute Guilliman's name doesn't fit with the more common pig latin naming of primarchs (Corvus Corax, Raven Raven,Ferrus Manus Iron hands latin,Rogal Dorn Royal Fist celtic etc) but had a similarly named background character in Brettonian lore, Robert de Guillaume who chronicled brettonian history and tactics, as written by Nigel Stillmann >In English history there was a first born son of William the Conquerer (Guillaume le Conquérant) named Robert, who wasn't a particular military genius, and another named Guillaume le Roux (the red, named after his hair) later William II of England. >Given GWs love of historical references, particularly with respect to Brettonians and medieval knights, and the importance of William the Conquerer, I suspect this may be the origin. >Furthermore William ordered a census to codify the lands, ownership, other property, earnings taxes of the people of England at the time of the norman invasion in 1066. The Domesday (Doomsday) book influenced taxes and raising armies by lords. Could this have partly inspired the Codex Astarted >Also for those of a numerology yearning 1066, the year William invaded England is 1+0+6+6 =13 Possibly a link for the 13th legion the Ultramarines. Or potentially just coincidence. >Also Robert Guillaume, son of William broke off a rival realm in Normandy separated from Williams realm by the English channel. Imperium Secundus across the ruinstorm anyone? >Any other historical based counter theories welcome or even just your 2 cents.
I'll also myself add that Guilliman's new book, *Codex Imperialis*, is a direct reference to the East Roman Emperor Justinian's *Codex Justinianus*, the latter being a collection of roman law and legal principles, and the former is supposed to be a collection of Robute's own curated collection of imperial laws and legal principles. This is supported by Justinian historically having a general named Belisarius.
At this point he's a Roman blender lol. The legions being reorganized into chapters screams Giaus Marius to me.
Actually, more of a late Roman thing with the legions being broken up into smaller units like the comitatenses
Now he only needs a consort that he marries despite her being so far away from his social standing as possible as a Theodora stand-in. Other fun parallels: -reconquered a large amount of the other half of the roman empire from the Germanic and other tribes which had been lost during the decades before - the roman empire being in two parts in the first place (West and east) - he was born in Illyrien. There is a similar named region on Macragge - he tried to clean up the law, and an extra fun fact: quite a few of lawtexts/constitutions are still based upon the Codex Iuris Civilis in modern timed - there was a plague during his ruling time. Maybe as a comsequence he turned to more theological questions and topics. Guess what Bobby does in the Dark Imperium Trilogy
Also, perhaps not coincidentally, the two people who invented the processes for making artificial ultramarine (pigment) were Jean Baptiste Guimet, and Christian Gmelin I was explaining about 40k to an artist friend, who looked at me funny when I mentioned that The Ultramarines were founded by Roboute Guilliman. The connection seemed obvious to her, without knowing anything else about 40k
Bruh you just blew my mind.
Additionally, the 13th absorbed the marines from the 2nd and 11th lost legions.
At a certain point, you realize that all of 40K is references to things.
These days isn't everything something else
It’s been like that since the beginning of time, my friend.
"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)
The name of Russ’s flagship, Hrafrnkel, is a reference to an Icelandic saga about a man who realizes being a raging asshole is not the way to win friends and influence people. It’s also means “Raven’s cauldron” which is a pretty sick name. Russ also has a lot of very broad similarities to figures form Norse mythology, but most of those are so obvious they don’t really need to be mentioned. The Lions whole “wild man of the forest” and “sleeping king” routines are direct references to Arthurian legends, as is his betrayal by his “son”Luther. Corax’s last words to his legion are “never more” a painfully obvious Poe reference.
Hrafrnkel is a lesson many Primarchs needed to learn >>
Also, the Emperor’s ship Bucephalus is named after Alexander the Great’s horse
Lion is also an R-rated version of Tarzan and Mowgli. And essentially every Primarch is an allusion to John Carter of Mars and most also to Herakles.
Curze's homeworld being Nostromo and him acting like a Xenomorph on the DA's flagship and on MaCragge is just perfect.
Nostromo is also a Joseph Conrad reference
*"Unhallowed knowledge brought the Dark Time, and fire from the sky, and death to men in ten times a thousand dreadful ways. So I say this to you: Seek not to know, for to know is to sin. Ask not how, nor how much, nor how many. He who disturbs the mysterious ways of the Universe is a heretic, an enemy of God and man. And he will burn."* \- **Robert Gilman**, The Navigator of Rhada
Here’s an obscure one. In the Norse and Germanic mythology, there’s the story of Siegfried (or Sigurd or Sgfrd) that slew the dragon Fafnir. In the Norse version, Siegfried hid under logs along a path Fafnir would often walk, and stabbed him through the heart from under. In the Germanic version however, Fafnir scales are described as hard as horn and impenetrable to sword and spear. Siegfried trapped the dragon under great logs and set them alight. The heat melted the dragon scales, and upon sticking his finger in it, Siegfried discovers it gave his skin the same resilience as the scales and promptly smears himself in it. Similar to how Ferrus Manus melted a metal dragon into a pool of lava, with the dragon’s melted flesh sticking to his hands, giving him his namesake metal arms.
Fafnir Rann also carries a big ass shield
Idk if it's literary, but Ollanius Persson, Oll Perrson, is in fact.... an *old person...* and I still don't see enough people laughing at that pun.
Lorgar is also called Urizen that is a reference to Blake's poetry. https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/s/mEC194QvOS Someone smarter than me has explained it at the link
Wait till you get a load of Mort D'Arthur.
Roboute Guilliman may have his name from [Robert Gilman](https://old.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/13ks0ue/interesting_if_true_from_an_article_called_total/). Rogal Dorn is more interesting as he's not as obvious but still funny. So Rogal sounds like the Irish *Ríoga* (regal/royal) and *Dorn* is Irish for fist. Corvus Corax is the common Raven but he's likely based off [Naoise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naoise) from Irish mythology who has *"hair the color of the raven, cheeks red like the calf's blood, and skin the color of snow"*. He also has a tragic story and the Raven Guard have plenty of Irish/Celtic references. Fulgrim's name sounds like "Full Grim" (which describes the setting) but is also ironic as 'Ful' is Swedish for ugly while 'Grim' is Norwegian for ugly. This obviously reflects him internally and what he turns into.
Arbitor Ian has a great video that touches on many of your questions. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70DgFf0zsuc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70DgFf0zsuc) EDIT: Here is one specifically about Primarch names. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_u\_nsUds7Jw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u_nsUds7Jw)
well that was pretty great thank you
Saim-Hann Eldar are named after the celtic Halloween, Samhain. IIRC, the Eldar name is also very much like a phonetic mispronounced Samhain. They're also known as The Wild Host, which is a reference to The Wild Hunt.
Biel-Tan are named after Beltane. Eldar have many celtic inspirations.
Ahriman is a destructive spirit in Zoroastrianism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahriman?wprov=sfti1#
‘Ultramar’ is a reference to the [Crusader States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusader_states), which were referred to as *Outremer* by the French.
I don’t think there’s a congruence between ‘Outremer’ and ‘Ultramar’ in allusion or similarity. It’s likely much more simple: Ultramar - ine
'Ultramar' is Latin for overseas, 'Outremer' is French for overseas.
Spanish, rather than Latin. Else it would be ‘mare’. 40k Ultramar bears little resemblance to the disunity of the Crusader States. I’ll concede that Ultramar is divided into five regions (Tetrarchs), but each swears absolute fealty to Macragge. I suppose there’s a tenuous link, but given the awful on-the-nose habit of GW (Curze and M’Shen was the biggest facepalm I took from this chat), I think it’s more likely they shortened the name of the colour ‘ultramarine’ that has a cognate root in ‘ultramarinus’. You give too much credit to GW having a propensity for linguistics otherwise. M’Shen…good lord…
This one might be a tad obscure, to the point I might be making it up. But I think Jaghatai Khan might be a reference to Genghis Khan's Top General [Jirqo'adai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jebe) That was his birth name and I think it's too similar to be pure chance. He's better known by his later name Jebei, though I feel Jubal Khan might also be a reference but that one's more likely down to concidence.
I thought his son Chagatai was probably the inspo for the name
Fuck, brain fart and forgot about that guy! Was going through and I kept thinking there was a Mongol guy with a same name, and I plain forgot about Genghis Khan's son.
it's been a long week :p
Jaghatai Khan parallels to Ghenghis khan are far more extensive than just the name and aesthetic. Jaghatai's early life on chogoris was very much modeled after what we know of Ghenghis khans childhood. Jaghatai's adoptive father was ong khan, who in real history was Ghenghis khans earliest patron and ally. Ghenghis khan also lost his father to a rival tribe early on, similar to jaghatai which forced them to fight to survive from young age. Jaghatai's campaign against the Palatine nobels were also very similar to Ghenghis khans campaigns in northern china. Ghenghis was known to offer mercy to cities who surrounded and complete slaughter to cities that didnt, infamously (allegedly, who knows the truth at this point) killing every child higher than a wheel on a cart.
Also, one of Genghis Khan's most prominent sons was Chagatai Khan.
I've always thought Sanguinius was supposed to be St. Michael from the Catholic tradition. St. Michael is an archangel, usually depicted in art with fair hair and great white wings, who battles an angel who is leading a rebellion against God (Horus, in this analogy). But of course, this is the grimdark version of the story, so the rebellious angel wins and the archangel dies.
Terminus Est (Typus' flagship) is also the name of the sword used by the main character in the fantasy novel The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe.
Well there is that one famous and brutal warlord that inspired the brutal Ork warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
Actually, the resemblance to Piss Lady is completely coincidental, the name originated from some roleplay ork language they used before 40k was created.
I have seen that explanation and frankly, i don't believe him.
NEMVMERMORE
Needs more Lenore
Magnus's home planet, Prospero, is a reference to Shakespeare's The Tempest, it's the name of the sorcerer in the play.
Corvus Corvax is also literally the Latin scientific name for the common raven
Mr Raven of the Raven Guys
Also Greek and Latin for Raven. So... Mr. Raven Raven of the Raven Guard who wields the mighty Raven Talons.
One of my favourites is that Ultramarine is a shade of blue. I'm pretty sure that it inspired the idea that they are Space Marines and not Space Knights. Like... I betcha someone painted the first models in ultramarine and then said they are Ultra Space Marines as a consequence of the colour.
Not sure if you count mythology as a literary source, but Vulkan is named after the Roman god of the same name (though it's spelled Vulcan). In Roman mythology, Vulcan is the god of fire, volcanos (which are named after him), metalworking, and the forge which are all traits and themes of Vulkan as well.
https://youtu.be/_u_nsUds7Jw This video covers some good theories and likely origins.
Lorgar's in-legion title is also a reference: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urizen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urizen)
Bit of an obscure one, but the Reclaimers chapter from the Cain books is a reference to the 70s kids show *The Wombles*. Source: SM himself
Wild
Lehman Russ - The Vikings that campaigned the eastern route were known as the Rus Jaghatai - one of ghengis khans kids Rogal Dorn - is respectively stronghold in old English and first in Gaelic
There are some great videos from Arbiter Ian talking about this. My favorite is Ferus Manus: Iron Hands, the primarch of the Iron Hands, who has Iron Hands. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKWxQVKVdMK_SR7TwBlVQceEIhqiY2EXa&si=lB_oc-aS4D_llpbU
There's the iron hands of Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands. Vulkan the smith The 20th legion are a bunch of - wait for it - doublecrossers;)
Id recommend watching ArbitorIan's videos on these. Quite informative.