... okay I didn't know that bit about Crowley, that's hilarious. I'm just imagining the wizard dual between him and Yeats going like this: "LIGHTNING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT!" "MAGIC MISSILE! I GOT YOU!" "No you didn't, I had Shield up!" "Nuh-uh, you didn't say you cast it so it doesn't count!" And then the fisticuffs begin.
I had wondered if Caliban was a dual pun; Caliban the monster from the Tempest but also Caliburn (and dozens of variations in that vein) is another name for Excalibur which ties in nicely with the 1st legion's Arthurian themes
Nuceria was in fact one of the the cities raided by Spartacus and his slave army, so someone probably had a biography of Spartacus at hand while writing up Angron's backstory...
Never mind the end of Spartacus, when his army of the former slaves and gladiators gets surrounded by the Roman Legions and gets butchered in the last stand.
@@clanpsi Simply not true. "When the legions managed to catch a portion of the rebels separated from the main army, discipline among Spartacus's forces broke down as small groups independently attacked the oncoming legions. Spartacus now turned his forces around and brought his entire strength to bear on the legions in a last stand, in which the rebels were routed completely, with the vast majority of them being killed on the battlefield. The final battle that saw the assumed defeat of Spartacus in 71 BC took place on the present territory of Senerchia on the right bank of the river Sele in the area that includes the border with Oliveto Citra up to those of Calabritto, near the village of Quaglietta, in the High Sele Valley, which at that time was part of Lucania. In this area, since 1899, there have been finds of armour and swords of the Roman era. Plutarch, Appian and Florus all claim that Spartacus died during the battle, but Appian also reports that his body was never found. Six thousand survivors of the revolt captured by the legions of Crassus were crucified, lining the Appian Way from Rome to Capua."
Man imagine an alternate reality where the 4th Legion is the Legion of Sorcerers and instead of the Space Egyptians of the Thousand Sons we get a Legion of Victorian Mystics.
Or a legion of 60s english pshychedelic musicians whose clothing are inspired by victorian mystics; they would be at least as full of chemicals as the Emperor's Children
The name of Mars is one of my favourite references because the planet is named after the Roman God of war and who is also an agriculture god too which is in reference to the land raider being a tractor with guns strapped to it which is produced on mars. very clever from GW
Titan is also very clever, in the greek Mythology Titans were pretty tough and the Grey Knights who live on Titan in 40k are also pretty tough or some shit.
Not sure it's related, but Chogori is one of the names for K2, and literally translates as "Big Mountain". Mundus Planus will be a reference to the Great Eurasian Steppe, where so many of these tribes originated from in real life, such as the Huns, Mongols, Scythians, Alan's etc. So GW may have been having fun and named it both "Big Mountain" and "Flat World"....
@@revenantworkshop175Chogoris does have mountains. Although concentrated in the southern quarter of the planet, they seem to be really high and steep, and that's where the old Palatine Empire resided and where Quan Zhou, the White Scars' fortress-monastery, is located.
@@nobleman9393 I also think it may be a reference to the movie Alien, where the crew is hunted down one by one by a creature from the shadows on a ship called, The Nostromo.
The Colchis reference is probably more a nod to Medea's betrayal than Jason and the fleece. She's abandoned by the gods and kills her brother messes her dads stuff up and flees with Jason.
And also, Medea flees with Jason for a bright new future, but she is betrayed by him as he takes a new wife, so she turns on him and destroys everything he holds dear, killing his new wife, her own children and poisons Jason's legacy so his kingdom collapses, while flying away in Helios' chariot, setting up a cult and eventually founding the nation of Persia, the great enemy of the Greeks. Also, Colchis is pronounced "koll-kiss"
@@ArbitorIan I also would have preferred a more religious reference tho. Maybe something having to do with Thomas Becket. Thomas isn't the best planet name tho.
I think barbarus has a lot more to it than just barbarians as the population were rather supressed farmers rather than barbarians: In realm of german folklore is the tale of King Barbarossa (Emperor Friedrich 1. ; his name coming from his chracteristic red beeard )who lays under the mountains of the Kyffhäuser sleeping for so long his beard has grow so large it wraped 2 times auround the table he is sitting at. Every 100 years he awakes and sends out a dwarf who will check if the crows surrounding the mountain are still there if so he will fall back into his sleep again. His people hope that once he returns he will reinstate a unified nation and will be a wise and fair regent. Fitting in the upcoming feel of nationality which surged after the deafeat of napoleon the tale was adapted to becoming a wider german tale as it empowered the demands of a national state of germany. So yeah Barbarus as a misspell of Barbarossa and the coming paralles of the tale with motarion and the tyrants and people of Barbarus is way mory likely than some scared Barbarians.
Nostromo is also the name of the ship in Alien, which features a really big and scary monster creeping through the shadows and killing people in horrible ways and scaring the shit out of everyone else. That might have been a point of inspiration too.
"Inwit" is an Old English word meaning, roughly, conscience or reason (literally, inner wit), referenced repeatedly in Joyce's Ulysses. Reaching a bit, maybe... but the Fist have been given some Anglo-Saxon elements- Hearthguard, Dorn meaning 'Fortress', and they are one of the more rational and logical of Legions.
I think that's a good explanation. And it's hard to say which way it goes. They could have thought as the IF as being like that, found the word Inwit, liked it, realised it sounds like Inuit and then from that decided it should be an ice planet.
I think you’re 100% right about Ultrmar and it’s links to the blue colour and the Latin meaning “over the sea”. This sea is meant to be the Mediterranean. Ultramar was a reference to the Frankish names for the medieval Christian crusader states in the eastern Med, know as “Outremer”, which while being a Frankish name, comes from the Latin as you pointed out! I think that’s also why the “Roman” Ultramarines have a French/Frankish sounding Primarch in Roboute Guilliman en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusader_states Love these vids! When the next book club ❤?
There's slightly more to this. Ultramarine pigment is called ultramarine because it was imported from locations across the sea; they couldn't get it locally back then. Also there is a reference in the relevant Black Book to Guilliman calling his empire Ultramar because he was inspired by old books that talked about ancient empires that spanned "beyond the sea of night," i.e. interstellar. The whole thing ends up being one big bilingual pun about all the different meanings of the name for the color Ultramarines are painted.
You forgot to mention that Ouroboros, (the spirit of Caliban), whose reall life symbol is a dragon eating itself, is all about destruction and rebirth.
And that happens to also be like Jörmungandur. One of Loki's children mentioned when talking about Fenris. Jörmungandur is a worm reaching around the world biting it's own tail. And ends up killing Þór (Thor) and be killed by Thor in turn in the twilights of the gods (Ragnarök) 🤘
For Colchis... Lorgar is also called 'Aurelian', I think from 'Aurum, the Latin word for gold, and is sometimes described as having golden skin, or maybe the letters on his skin are gold? So... golden skin -> golden fleece -> Colchis? Maybe? It's a bit of a stretch, but it's the best I can come up with.
Maaaaayyybee. I think the Aurelian thing is also because that was the first Christian / monotheistic roman emperor. But also, in 40k Colchis was added before 'Aurelian' was?
@ArbitorIan - one thing I'd love to see if you could put it together, is an overview of the "geopolitical" (astropolitical?) makeup of the Galaxy immediately prior to the Great Crusade. GW has thrown out more and more references to alien and human empires that the Imperium defeated and conquered, some quite large, that it kinda seems like the Galaxy would have been teeming with various polities, not just one-planet ones, but larger interplanetary empires too. I'd love to see if it's possible to make something resembling an overview of them.
I love these reference videos! Its something I have done a lot of research into just for my own nerdy entertainment and its interesting to see your thoughts on them too! I had always though Cthonia was a reference to Cthulhu, the lovecraftian entity.
Love these videos Ian! Great work! You may have said it in a previous videos but something I found interesting about Perturabo and the relation to Aleister Crowley aka Perdurabo is that Perdurabo means "I shall endure until the end" and as a siege master, Perturabo and the Iron Warriors fit this description perfectly, especially when you look at the story of the Iron Cage.
And here I thought GW employed teams of linguists and literary scholars to write the fluff. Turns out it's actually teams of historians that write it. Lol, just kidding. Arbiter Ian, King of 40K lore!👍❤. Great stuff. 😎
The original people behind it (John Blache, Rick Priestley etc) were just people who had studied history or art history. I think Rick's degree was in Archaeology?
For the Ultramarines, if I remember correctly, the name "Ultramar" was the name the Romans gave to what is now roughly modern Afghanistan and this was the source of lapis lazuli, a key ingredient in making blue dye. For the Iron Hands, I was also guessing that the extra, robotic servo-arms they like to attach to themselves can kind-of look like serpents, referencing the snake hair of the gorgons.
I'm kind of amazed how no mention is given to the gorgons' greatest weapon... turning living things into cold stone... I mean, with all that psychological damage the IH are portrayed with (cold logic, the flesh is weak, shedding their compassion, fixating on a perceived solution), they really turn their hearts and minds to stone
@@madmaxizor Damn, this is genius and I'm actually now wondering if the people who wrote the IH planet as being named "Medusa" were thinking about this when they did it.
Not far from Olympia is Queen's Club, and nearby is Comeragh Road. Also, the first GW shop was on Dalling Road in Hammersmith. Not a name I've seen in the lore but I thought it was a neat fact.
I've always really liked the satire in 40k as well as all their little winks, nudges, and gabbed references to real world places, people, and events that they mix into the universe. It's always made a bit of sense to me since 40k is 40,000 years in the future that these names would maybe still be around and be derived from, or reference things, that the people of the time know nothing about. The words have remained, in one form or another, even if their origins have disappeared with the passing eons. I think exploring the origins of the planets, as well as maybe a quick history of some, is a great little series.
It's worth noting that Macragge was first named very very early on, mere months after the release of Rogue Trader. At that point Macragge was described as barely habitable and I think quite different to how it is described now. At that time the Ultra-Marines were considerably less Romanic, with their senior leaders being named in a variety of styles and nary a transverse crest in sight.
Indeed I remember a feature about an enthusiast's Dreadnoughts featured in an early White Dwarf where the interviewer asked 'How did you get such detail, have you ever been a forward observer have you ever been to Macragge?'
About Medusa, there's another reference you missed: you're probably right about the bronze hands of Sthenos being related to Ferrus Manus, since Medusa lies in the Sthenelus system! Also, Ultramar may be a reference to Outremer (it's its Latin form), which means "beyond the sea" and it was used to refer to all the crusader kingdoms in Syria and Palestine, since they were beyond the Mediterranean, from the crusaders' perspective. This is probably a reference to how Ultramar was a far-flung realm of hardy, upstart colonists back in the Dark Age of Technology.
When we read The Tempest in high school, I always imagined Caliban as just a giant fish with arms and legs to go on land and I will not be convinced otherwise
Just a random thought I’ve always found interesting: I’ve found the on the nose naming of primarchs, places, and planets to be quite on the nose and almost immersion breaking. But then I had the realization that with the nonlinearity of the warp and it’s effect on the material plane: it’s not unrealistic to have culturally significant influences echo to either create the modern day reference or fate the 40k naming schema - in a weird, circular way: justifying the ultra obvious naming schema
For the Alpha Legion homeworld - the star Alphard is in the Hydra constellation, and hides a smaller star behind it. Not a planet per say but very possible an origin.
One extra element to the whole Ferrus Manus -- Medusa connection. Medusa was famously decapitated by Perseus, and Ferrus Manus was also, rather famously, decapitated.
I was hoping you could do a video on how Space Marines are *not* outright heroes like a lot of marketing and trailers make them out to be. Like Marines Malevolent are famously hated both in universe and by some of the fandom, the latter seeing them as needlessly murderously cruel to both enemy and Imperial forces, while chapters like the Salamanders are somehow seen as cuddle marines? Never mind that an "average" chapter of Astartes is, to me at least, waaay closer to the Malevolents, and those Malevolents have been doing just as they have been for several thousand years with no sanction in sight. Maybe a look at how marketing is almost in universe propaganda and the difficulty separating that, or just a dozen other long serving, loyal chapters like the Star Phantoms being called "totally unsuitable" to aid Imperial forces by Macharius? Anyway love your videos and the thought and digging that goes into them, thanks!
When I first read Rogue Trader as a 15 year old back in 1987 I pictured the Space Marines as Star Wars stormtroopers with a Nazi undertone...later I realised they where more akin to a combination of the Waffen SS and child soldiers living a hellish life of eternal war and unable to do such simple things as have sex with a woman or even get drunk
@@derekmcmanus8615 Now, after the Force Awakens, it appears that First Order Storm Troopers as also a combination of the Waffen-SS and Child Soldiers; though they may be able to get drunk and indulge in snu-snu.
Chogoris is probably a reference to Chogori or K2, the second highest mountain on earth. Chogori means "tall and majestic peaks" in Tajik. It's located in the Karakoram moutain range bordering china and something something Genghis Khan.
My 2 cents as a Greek: 1. Hesiod was a Greek poet not Roman. 2. I believe that the connection of Colchis with the Word Bearers is not based on religion but on magic/sorcery. Colchis according to the Greek Myth of the Argonauts was the home of Medea, the daughter of Aetes, the King of Colchis, and she was the greatest witch/sorceress of her time. She used her magic to solve all her problems and that (among other things) eventually led to her downfall.
As a kid I always pronounced Macragge as "MacRage" - just a silly Warhammer name, in the vein of WHFB's Tragedy of McDeath. Of course, I also thought Neapolitan ice cream was Napoleon ice cream, so...
Regarding Nuceria, you are close with Spartacus, as there is the region/civitas of Nuceria Paganorum, in which the city of Nuceria Alfaterna resided, which had been sacked by Spartacus during the Third Servile War.
My personal favourite planet name Easter Egg is Camarth, the planet Lion El'Jonson subconsciously Forestwalks to at the start of The Lion: Son of the Forest. Carmarthen is a town in Wales, not only the source of one of the earliest sources for Arthurian mythology (The Black Book of Carmarthen, which as a bonus is the most 40k name ever), but also the mythological birthplace of Merlin (which, it's notable that Zabriel, the Fallen El'Jonson finds here and who basically becomes his second in command, is one of the only Risen to not have an explicitly Arthurian name, but instead an angelic one, and Merlin is said in later sources to be the son of a Fallen Angel)
As a general aside, there's a character in the second Bequin novel (Penitent) who is clearly a 40k version Aleister Crowley: Oztin Crookley, a drunkard and an "I consort with demons and know the secrets of the warp" confabulator.
Great lore video again Ian! I know this comment is a bit more about Primarch names, but have you ever heard about the theory that they are based on Tarot major arcanas, and the idea that we could deduce the missing Primarch's names, or at least their archetypes, by finding which ones are missing?
Great video, as usual! Also, pertaining to the last bit (apologies if someone has already pointed this out): Gilden's Star is not only fully derived from Guildenstern, but "stern" is "star" in German. :)
Potential explanation for Colchis: being related to the finding of the ‘golden fleece’ could be analogous to the golden calf created by the followers of Moses when instructed to await God to deliver the commandments atop Mount Sinai - which Moses then burned and forced them to consume (Emperor burning/forcing to kneel) Could be entirely wrong though 😅
Hey Ian, love the vid. Small thing but the Emperor didn't steal power from the chaos gods during the great crusade, but much much earlier. He did revisit during the great crusade but basically just left some people there. The first visit was prob around M15-M20, and pre navigators. In fact my personal hypothesis is that the power he stole was warp based gene-craft in order to make navigators and astropaths so that FTL travel was possible to allow him to create a galactic empire. I also think this is the reference Erda makes when she claims he did something reckless that lost a lot of support, as it accelerated humanity's ascension as a psychic race, bringing their downfall ever closer.
Another spelling of Genghis is Chinnggis. Genghis Khan had a son called Chagatai. Jubal Khan is derived from Jubulai Khan, Genghis' grandson. It's all Mongolian in origin lol
I think the Emperor sacrificing "something" for power from the Chaos Gods on Molech is inspired by Odin sacrificing an eye to gain wisdom from Mimir's Well
The amount of references to Thelema in 40k is awesome. Taking the unicursal hexagram and calling it the sigil for the 6 wings for the dark angels so you can promulgate the law is a stroke of genius
I read once that a Colchis was a twisted place where Babylonian priests would sacrifice and perform rituals on kids. Babylon was in the Middle East, so I think it’s pretty safe to assume that’s where they were going with it when they named Lorgar’s planet that, but also it being a reference to the Golden Fleece is very interesting and cool.
I'd have thought Barbarus was more a tip to the Barbary Coast, which was a pirate haven in the 16th - 19th centuries and something of a centre for the slave trade. Particularly because the Barbary states were only loosely unified and warred amongst themselves as much as they did other people.
Re: "Macragge", it's more my own headcanon than anything but, with Scottish surnames where the "name" portion starts with a 'K' or 'G' sound the "Mc" patronymic marker is often pronounced more like a "Ma" for clarity and because Gaelic languages love elision(McGregor's a good example), and Cragg is a scots-gaelic word for mountain/cliff(it's also in english as crag of course, and the name Craig), and of course Rouboute is a french version of "Robert"(famously in "Robert the Bruce"), AND Scotland and France had a long history of alliance leading to French names often popping up in Medieval Scotland, so I always figured "Macragge" was supposed to be, like, Space-Scotland, with the Roman feel of the Ultramarines being 1)a reference to Roman influences in north britain ala Hadrian's Wall, and 2)the significant technological and military role of scots in English imperialism. And an interesting addition to THAT, which just occurred to me editing this for probably the tenth time; a minority camp in Arthurian scholarship has long argued for Arthur's inspiration coming from Northern Britain and the Romano-gaelic societies of what would become the northern marches(York, North Umbria, etc), rather than locating him in southern Wales and England. Idk how aware of that very obscure academic debate the GW staff could be, and Guilliman's arthurian references are pretty slim(mostly just the Returning King and Good King/Golden Age motifs), but I figured I'd mention it.
Excellent video, nicely done! I recommend it to be a series, interchagable with other material, in which you will spot the literary origins of Chapter homeworlds, IG regiments homeworlds, Forge worlds etc, and then character names (e.g. we all know that Mag Uruk Thraka is a reference to Margaret Thatcher) etc perhaps a 15. min video once a month. I would definetely watch that!
Another fun note on Nuceria: not only was it a neighbor of Pompeii, but they actually had a… sports rivalry, I guess you’d call it. Basically, during a gladiator fight a riot broke out between citizens of the two cities, which was so violent that the emperor Nero banned them from holding gladiatorial games for a decade. It was also raided by Spartacus, like others said. Spartacus’ uprising started in Capua, which is close to Nuceria, and he and his liberated gladiators actually hid out on Mt. Vesuvius for a time (before its whole bury-everything-in-volcanic-ash phase).
Fun fact molloch is supposedly the figure famous people and world leaders perform theatrical rituals in front of at bohemian grove. Horus and the lodges makes a lot of sense when you consider that angle
With the word-bearers, I'd recommend a deep-dive into Blake's 'Books of Urizen'. For it is no coïncidence that 'The Urizen' has become his title, and - in retrospect - the overall story even mirrors the 40k universe at large: (also note the mention of book, and chains) '(Urizen) believes himself holy and he sets about establishing various sins in a book of brass that serves as a combination of various laws as discovered by Newton, given to Moses, and the general concept of deism, which force uniformity upon mankind. The rest of the Eternals in turn become indignant at Urizen turning against eternity, and they instill these essences of sin within Urizen's creation.' (...) In terms of Blake's Orc cycle, Urizen serves as a Satanic force similar to Milton's Satan. (...) Within the early works, Urizen represents the chains of reason that are imposed on the mind. Urizen, like mankind, is bound by these chains.[6] Additionally, these works describe how Newtonian reason and the enlightenment view of the universe traps the imagination. The poems emphasize an evolutionary development within the universe, and this early version of a "survival of the fittest" universe is connected to a fallen world of tyranny and murder.
You say “obviously” but thanks to you I’m now 45 years old and only now wrestling with this earthshaking and mind blowing reality where magic isn’t really real.
Good video, just FYI Ultramar was the name for the collective crusader states which was in the east. Only other one was to potentially to include Terra.
@@ArbitorIan PS love the good work & keep it up. Just FYI, please feel free to validate this with Dan Abnett but Horus Rising esp the Interex are in the sabbat worlds. Reason why is I was able to ask Dan this question at a Blacklibrary event as I had notice that one of the characters who is a native tribesmen has a crossbow that fires laser bolts & the interex have the same. He said yes it was a clue that they are in the same part of the galaxy. The other is clue he mentioned was the Sangulinary Worlds (though I don't know the connection he was implying here) is this where the blood angels battled (planet of murder). I have also wondered after this conversation whether the planet Murder is Tanitt as both have psychic trees (but that is a guess).
I thought the "Ultramarines" were in part a gag at the idea of them being "the Ultra Marines", sort of the platonic ideal of marines, and then obviously painted blue, because ultramarine is a kind of blue... But then I don't know if that was a backwards definition, as of course they were present right from the start, before they became the poster boys of marines, and they weren't even a first founding chapter when first detailed.
... okay I didn't know that bit about Crowley, that's hilarious.
I'm just imagining the wizard dual between him and Yeats going like this:
"LIGHTNING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT!"
"MAGIC MISSILE! I GOT YOU!"
"No you didn't, I had Shield up!"
"Nuh-uh, you didn't say you cast it so it doesn't count!"
And then the fisticuffs begin.
And Crowley gets Yeated down the stairs 😂
I had wondered if Caliban was a dual pun; Caliban the monster from the Tempest but also Caliburn (and dozens of variations in that vein) is another name for Excalibur which ties in nicely with the 1st legion's Arthurian themes
Nuceria was in fact one of the the cities raided by Spartacus and his slave army, so someone probably had a biography of Spartacus at hand while writing up Angron's backstory...
Never mind the end of Spartacus, when his army of the former slaves and gladiators gets surrounded by the Roman Legions and gets butchered in the last stand.
@@toomaskotkas4467 They don't really get surrounded as much as cornered. They actually escape from being surrounded at Mount Vesuvius.
@@clanpsi Simply not true.
"When the legions managed to catch a portion of the rebels separated from the main army, discipline among Spartacus's forces broke down as small groups independently attacked the oncoming legions. Spartacus now turned his forces around and brought his entire strength to bear on the legions in a last stand, in which the rebels were routed completely, with the vast majority of them being killed on the battlefield.
The final battle that saw the assumed defeat of Spartacus in 71 BC took place on the present territory of Senerchia on the right bank of the river Sele in the area that includes the border with Oliveto Citra up to those of Calabritto, near the village of Quaglietta, in the High Sele Valley, which at that time was part of Lucania. In this area, since 1899, there have been finds of armour and swords of the Roman era.
Plutarch, Appian and Florus all claim that Spartacus died during the battle, but Appian also reports that his body was never found. Six thousand survivors of the revolt captured by the legions of Crassus were crucified, lining the Appian Way from Rome to Capua."
Isn't Angron pretty much just Spartacus on steroids? SPACE STEROIDS AND WARP JUICE
Man imagine an alternate reality where the 4th Legion is the Legion of Sorcerers and instead of the Space Egyptians of the Thousand Sons we get a Legion of Victorian Mystics.
Or a legion of 60s english pshychedelic musicians whose clothing are inspired by victorian mystics;
they would be at least as full of chemicals as the Emperor's Children
The Necrons are already the space Egyptians, so why not?
@@nobleman9393 Space Marines in top hats. I'm just saying.
@@mistformsquirrelthe reasonable marines
@@Nukefandangothe victorians? reasonable??? HA!
The name of Mars is one of my favourite references because the planet is named after the Roman God of war and who is also an agriculture god too which is in reference to the land raider being a tractor with guns strapped to it which is produced on mars. very clever from GW
Damn, it shows that guys from GW are intelectuals.
You forgot to mention that mars is also the smith of the gods and lo and behold we have the weapon smiths of the empire headquartering exactly there.
Titan is also very clever, in the greek Mythology Titans were pretty tough and the Grey Knights who live on Titan in 40k are also pretty tough or some shit.
@@animusnocturnus7131 Vulcan is the god of smiths (Hephaestus in Greek).
@@6dragondaddy913 Damn. Unfortunately you are correct.
Not sure it's related, but Chogori is one of the names for K2, and literally translates as "Big Mountain".
Mundus Planus will be a reference to the Great Eurasian Steppe, where so many of these tribes originated from in real life, such as the Huns, Mongols, Scythians, Alan's etc.
So GW may have been having fun and named it both "Big Mountain" and "Flat World"....
Ah, wish I knew the K2 reference before. That makes total sense!
Was just coming here to mention this. There's a certain irony in them using a derivation of that name for a planet that's completely flat!😂
@@revenantworkshop175Chogoris does have mountains. Although concentrated in the southern quarter of the planet, they seem to be really high and steep, and that's where the old Palatine Empire resided and where Quan Zhou, the White Scars' fortress-monastery, is located.
@@Pizzifrizzo'mundus planus has mountains' = the new 'there are no wolves on fenris' 😂
8:30 I think Nostramo is a reference to Nostradamus and his visions of the future, given that Konrad Curze is haunted by such.
Oh, That's a good point!
@@nobleman9393 I also think it may be a reference to the movie Alien, where the crew is hunted down one by one by a creature from the shadows on a ship called, The Nostromo.
The Colchis reference is probably more a nod to Medea's betrayal than Jason and the fleece. She's abandoned by the gods and kills her brother messes her dads stuff up and flees with Jason.
Oh THATS clever
And also, Medea flees with Jason for a bright new future, but she is betrayed by him as he takes a new wife, so she turns on him and destroys everything he holds dear, killing his new wife, her own children and poisons Jason's legacy so his kingdom collapses, while flying away in Helios' chariot, setting up a cult and eventually founding the nation of Persia, the great enemy of the Greeks.
Also, Colchis is pronounced "koll-kiss"
@@ArbitorIan I also would have preferred a more religious reference tho. Maybe something having to do with Thomas Becket. Thomas isn't the best planet name tho.
@@drinksanddice9528 I really hope someone in the future names a colonised planet Thomas.
@@clanpsi Maybe a forge world which makes a lot of tanks?
When Ian describes Crowley as a "British Occultist and Magician"; I can't help but imagine Crowley speaking like Paul Daniels.
🤣
Grandiose term for a helpless drug addict and sponger like Crowley.
Allister was a real piece of work
Describing Crowley as merely a “British occultist and magician” seems to me a grand understatement..
I like it. Not a lot… but I like it.
I think barbarus has a lot more to it than just barbarians as the population were rather supressed farmers rather than barbarians:
In realm of german folklore is the tale of King Barbarossa (Emperor Friedrich 1. ; his name coming from his chracteristic red beeard )who lays under the mountains of the Kyffhäuser sleeping for so long his beard has grow so large it wraped 2 times auround the table he is sitting at. Every 100 years he awakes and sends out a dwarf who will check if the crows surrounding the mountain are still there if so he will fall back into his sleep again. His people hope that once he returns he will reinstate a unified nation and will be a wise and fair regent. Fitting in the upcoming feel of nationality which surged after the deafeat of napoleon the tale was adapted to becoming a wider german tale as it empowered the demands of a national state of germany.
So yeah Barbarus as a misspell of Barbarossa and the coming paralles of the tale with motarion and the tyrants and people of Barbarus is way mory likely than some scared Barbarians.
That makes me think of Lorgar in his castle waiting for Corax to go away as well 😂
Nostromo is also the name of the ship in Alien, which features a really big and scary monster creeping through the shadows and killing people in horrible ways and scaring the shit out of everyone else. That might have been a point of inspiration too.
Nostromo is named that because of the Konrad book too! The book takes place in the port of Sulaco, which is also the name of an Aliens spaceship!
@@ArbitorIan It's like a Russian doll of references!
It’s worth noting that Blythe Road is also a roughly 2 minute walk from the flat where Citadel/Games Workshop was founded, too!
Ultramar may also be related to Outremer, which was the medieval French term for the Crusader States in the middle East.
"Inwit" is an Old English word meaning, roughly, conscience or reason (literally, inner wit), referenced repeatedly in Joyce's Ulysses. Reaching a bit, maybe... but the Fist have been given some Anglo-Saxon elements- Hearthguard, Dorn meaning 'Fortress', and they are one of the more rational and logical of Legions.
I think that's a good explanation. And it's hard to say which way it goes. They could have thought as the IF as being like that, found the word Inwit, liked it, realised it sounds like Inuit and then from that decided it should be an ice planet.
I think you’re 100% right about Ultrmar and it’s links to the blue colour and the Latin meaning “over the sea”. This sea is meant to be the Mediterranean.
Ultramar was a reference to the Frankish names for the medieval Christian crusader states in the eastern Med, know as “Outremer”, which while being a Frankish name, comes from the Latin as you pointed out!
I think that’s also why the “Roman” Ultramarines have a French/Frankish sounding Primarch in Roboute Guilliman
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusader_states
Love these vids! When the next book club ❤?
The sea is the atlantic
There's slightly more to this. Ultramarine pigment is called ultramarine because it was imported from locations across the sea; they couldn't get it locally back then. Also there is a reference in the relevant Black Book to Guilliman calling his empire Ultramar because he was inspired by old books that talked about ancient empires that spanned "beyond the sea of night," i.e. interstellar. The whole thing ends up being one big bilingual pun about all the different meanings of the name for the color Ultramarines are painted.
Tbh kind of a copout not to cover the Alpha Legion's homeworld. I was looking forward to you explaining what "Terra" means.
Ha!
Dirt.
@@CAP198462It's also orbited by the laziest named moon, the moon.
Hey, give Crowley credit, he may still be making enemies in the occult world even after his death
You forgot to mention that Ouroboros, (the spirit of Caliban), whose reall life symbol is a dragon eating itself, is all about destruction and rebirth.
And that happens to also be like Jörmungandur. One of Loki's children mentioned when talking about Fenris. Jörmungandur is a worm reaching around the world biting it's own tail. And ends up killing Þór (Thor) and be killed by Thor in turn in the twilights of the gods (Ragnarök) 🤘
@@hlynurmagnusson7245 indeed. It is one of those universal images/belief structures..
Ouroboros is also the iconography of Thousand sons
It's a snake not a dragon
I like the theory that molech is the same planet that Farsight got the dawn blade on, which also fits the human sacrifice theme.
And the bad guy in Ravenor
For Colchis... Lorgar is also called 'Aurelian', I think from 'Aurum, the Latin word for gold, and is sometimes described as having golden skin, or maybe the letters on his skin are gold? So... golden skin -> golden fleece -> Colchis? Maybe? It's a bit of a stretch, but it's the best I can come up with.
Maaaaayyybee. I think the Aurelian thing is also because that was the first Christian / monotheistic roman emperor. But also, in 40k Colchis was added before 'Aurelian' was?
@@ArbitorIan You're thinking of Constantine. Aurelian was polytheistic, he just liked Sol Invictus the most.
Ah, Ferrus Manus. Cousin of Biggus Dickus I believe.
Who's married to Saggus Vaggus. 😂
@ArbitorIan - one thing I'd love to see if you could put it together, is an overview of the "geopolitical" (astropolitical?) makeup of the Galaxy immediately prior to the Great Crusade. GW has thrown out more and more references to alien and human empires that the Imperium defeated and conquered, some quite large, that it kinda seems like the Galaxy would have been teeming with various polities, not just one-planet ones, but larger interplanetary empires too. I'd love to see if it's possible to make something resembling an overview of them.
The Iron Hand's homeworld should have been Ferrus Homeus.
Domum Dulce Domum
Something something ferrus planetus, needs to be more literal for the iron hands
I love these reference videos! Its something I have done a lot of research into just for my own nerdy entertainment and its interesting to see your thoughts on them too!
I had always though Cthonia was a reference to Cthulhu, the lovecraftian entity.
Love these videos Ian! Great work! You may have said it in a previous videos but something I found interesting about Perturabo and the relation to Aleister Crowley aka Perdurabo is that Perdurabo means "I shall endure until the end" and as a siege master, Perturabo and the Iron Warriors fit this description perfectly, especially when you look at the story of the Iron Cage.
And here I thought GW employed teams of linguists and literary scholars to write the fluff. Turns out it's actually teams of historians that write it. Lol, just kidding. Arbiter Ian, King of 40K lore!👍❤. Great stuff. 😎
The original people behind it (John Blache, Rick Priestley etc) were just people who had studied history or art history. I think Rick's degree was in Archaeology?
These are my favourite types of 40k videos. And very few are doing them. Banger job.
For the Ultramarines, if I remember correctly, the name "Ultramar" was the name the Romans gave to what is now roughly modern Afghanistan and this was the source of lapis lazuli, a key ingredient in making blue dye.
For the Iron Hands, I was also guessing that the extra, robotic servo-arms they like to attach to themselves can kind-of look like serpents, referencing the snake hair of the gorgons.
I'm kind of amazed how no mention is given to the gorgons' greatest weapon... turning living things into cold stone...
I mean, with all that psychological damage the IH are portrayed with (cold logic, the flesh is weak, shedding their compassion, fixating on a perceived solution), they really turn their hearts and minds to stone
@@madmaxizor Damn, this is genius and I'm actually now wondering if the people who wrote the IH planet as being named "Medusa" were thinking about this when they did it.
Not far from Olympia is Queen's Club, and nearby is Comeragh Road.
Also, the first GW shop was on Dalling Road in Hammersmith. Not a name I've seen in the lore but I thought it was a neat fact.
There is a character in the Gaunt series called Dalin Creed but of a tretch but I can certainly see a link
I've always really liked the satire in 40k as well as all their little winks, nudges, and gabbed references to real world places, people, and events that they mix into the universe. It's always made a bit of sense to me since 40k is 40,000 years in the future that these names would maybe still be around and be derived from, or reference things, that the people of the time know nothing about. The words have remained, in one form or another, even if their origins have disappeared with the passing eons. I think exploring the origins of the planets, as well as maybe a quick history of some, is a great little series.
It was very obvious back in the Rogue Trader days
It's worth noting that Macragge was first named very very early on, mere months after the release of Rogue Trader. At that point Macragge was described as barely habitable and I think quite different to how it is described now. At that time the Ultra-Marines were considerably less Romanic, with their senior leaders being named in a variety of styles and nary a transverse crest in sight.
Indeed I remember a feature about an enthusiast's Dreadnoughts featured in an early White Dwarf where the interviewer asked 'How did you get such detail, have you ever been a forward observer have you ever been to Macragge?'
About Medusa, there's another reference you missed: you're probably right about the bronze hands of Sthenos being related to Ferrus Manus, since Medusa lies in the Sthenelus system!
Also, Ultramar may be a reference to Outremer (it's its Latin form), which means "beyond the sea" and it was used to refer to all the crusader kingdoms in Syria and Palestine, since they were beyond the Mediterranean, from the crusaders' perspective. This is probably a reference to how Ultramar was a far-flung realm of hardy, upstart colonists back in the Dark Age of Technology.
When we read The Tempest in high school, I always imagined Caliban as just a giant fish with arms and legs to go on land and I will not be convinced otherwise
Great interpretation...I always pictured him as a Sasquatch type beast
Very interesting to know about Perturabo and Olympia. He's my Primarch, for good or ill, so I should probably know everything about him.
Just a random thought I’ve always found interesting: I’ve found the on the nose naming of primarchs, places, and planets to be quite on the nose and almost immersion breaking. But then I had the realization that with the nonlinearity of the warp and it’s effect on the material plane: it’s not unrealistic to have culturally significant influences echo to either create the modern day reference or fate the 40k naming schema - in a weird, circular way: justifying the ultra obvious naming schema
Watching @ArbitorIan with the boys! Great video brother!
Please do more of these, these are your best work (and all of your work is great).
For the Alpha Legion homeworld - the star Alphard is in the Hydra constellation, and hides a smaller star behind it. Not a planet per say but very possible an origin.
One extra element to the whole Ferrus Manus -- Medusa connection. Medusa was famously decapitated by Perseus, and Ferrus Manus was also, rather famously, decapitated.
The name Pluto, a dwarf planet on which Alpharius was killed by Dorn is a reference to a Disney Character called Pluto.
yes !!!! lore video, with easter egg !!!!
EGG!
@@ArbitorIan Egg for the Egg God !
Excellent. Ian’s videos keep me sane on long painting commissions! Top lad, cheers! 😁👍
Chogoris an intentional misspelling (cf Kislev - Kiev) of Chinggis, alternate spelling of Genghis, as in Genghis Khan?
I thought that it was a Temujin reference too, seems the most obvious answer anyway lol
I was hoping you could do a video on how Space Marines are *not* outright heroes like a lot of marketing and trailers make them out to be.
Like Marines Malevolent are famously hated both in universe and by some of the fandom, the latter seeing them as needlessly murderously cruel to both enemy and Imperial forces, while chapters like the Salamanders are somehow seen as cuddle marines?
Never mind that an "average" chapter of Astartes is, to me at least, waaay closer to the Malevolents, and those Malevolents have been doing just as they have been for several thousand years with no sanction in sight.
Maybe a look at how marketing is almost in universe propaganda and the difficulty separating that, or just a dozen other long serving, loyal chapters like the Star Phantoms being called "totally unsuitable" to aid Imperial forces by Macharius?
Anyway love your videos and the thought and digging that goes into them, thanks!
Ian has done a video about how everyone in the 40k universe are "baddies". I agree on the "in universe propaganda" idea. That's how I read the fluff.
When I first read Rogue Trader as a 15 year old back in 1987 I pictured the Space Marines as Star Wars stormtroopers with a Nazi undertone...later I realised they where more akin to a combination of the Waffen SS and child soldiers living a hellish life of eternal war and unable to do such simple things as have sex with a woman or even get drunk
@@derekmcmanus8615 Now, after the Force Awakens, it appears that First Order Storm Troopers as also a combination of the Waffen-SS and Child Soldiers; though they may be able to get drunk and indulge in snu-snu.
Chogoris is probably a reference to Chogori or K2, the second highest mountain on earth. Chogori means "tall and majestic peaks" in Tajik. It's located in the Karakoram moutain range bordering china and something something Genghis Khan.
My 2 cents as a Greek: 1. Hesiod was a Greek poet not Roman. 2. I believe that the connection of Colchis with the Word Bearers is not based on religion but on magic/sorcery. Colchis according to the Greek Myth of the Argonauts was the home of Medea, the daughter of Aetes, the King of Colchis, and she was the greatest witch/sorceress of her time. She used her magic to solve all her problems and that (among other things) eventually led to her downfall.
WB Yeats was properly mental. Good poet though.
As a kid I always pronounced Macragge as "MacRage" - just a silly Warhammer name, in the vein of WHFB's Tragedy of McDeath.
Of course, I also thought Neapolitan ice cream was Napoleon ice cream, so...
Regarding Nuceria, you are close with Spartacus, as there is the region/civitas of Nuceria Paganorum, in which the city of Nuceria Alfaterna resided, which had been sacked by Spartacus during the Third Servile War.
My personal favourite planet name Easter Egg is Camarth, the planet Lion El'Jonson subconsciously Forestwalks to at the start of The Lion: Son of the Forest. Carmarthen is a town in Wales, not only the source of one of the earliest sources for Arthurian mythology (The Black Book of Carmarthen, which as a bonus is the most 40k name ever), but also the mythological birthplace of Merlin (which, it's notable that Zabriel, the Fallen El'Jonson finds here and who basically becomes his second in command, is one of the only Risen to not have an explicitly Arthurian name, but instead an angelic one, and Merlin is said in later sources to be the son of a Fallen Angel)
As a general aside, there's a character in the second Bequin novel (Penitent) who is clearly a 40k version Aleister Crowley: Oztin Crookley, a drunkard and an "I consort with demons and know the secrets of the warp" confabulator.
Great lore video again Ian! I know this comment is a bit more about Primarch names, but have you ever heard about the theory that they are based on Tarot major arcanas, and the idea that we could deduce the missing Primarch's names, or at least their archetypes, by finding which ones are missing?
Thank you for making another interesting lore video!!
And Heart of Darkness, as we all know, was turned into a movie, and known as... Ghostbusters!
The sons of Angrboda have been an faction I've been working on for about 5 years; Black legion/world eaters rules for some traitor space wolves.
I'm just waiting for the inevitable and deep investigation into the canonical name of the planet Sodallagain.
Great video, thanks Arbitor Ian!
I think Ultramar is a reference to the "Mare Nostrum", how the romans called the Mediterrean Sea: "Our Sea"
Great video! I would love to see a room tour, you have a lot interesting stuff in the background
Great video, as usual! Also, pertaining to the last bit (apologies if someone has already pointed this out): Gilden's Star is not only fully derived from Guildenstern, but "stern" is "star" in German. :)
Potential explanation for Colchis: being related to the finding of the ‘golden fleece’ could be analogous to the golden calf created by the followers of Moses when instructed to await God to deliver the commandments atop Mount Sinai - which Moses then burned and forced them to consume (Emperor burning/forcing to kneel)
Could be entirely wrong though 😅
Yeah I thought something like that, but there's no real link between the Golden Fleece and the Golden Calf stories? other than the gold!
I wished the Imperial Fists had a more Inuit touch, but that would be too much, I guess.
Best Warhammer Channel on yt
Hey Ian, love the vid. Small thing but the Emperor didn't steal power from the chaos gods during the great crusade, but much much earlier. He did revisit during the great crusade but basically just left some people there. The first visit was prob around M15-M20, and pre navigators. In fact my personal hypothesis is that the power he stole was warp based gene-craft in order to make navigators and astropaths so that FTL travel was possible to allow him to create a galactic empire. I also think this is the reference Erda makes when she claims he did something reckless that lost a lot of support, as it accelerated humanity's ascension as a psychic race, bringing their downfall ever closer.
I really enjoy the literary Easter egg hunts. Looking forward to the forge world video.
The Scouring of Gilden's Star is most likely a Tom Stoppard reference, since after the massacre, Rosencrantz and Gilden's Star are dead.
Another spelling of Genghis is Chinnggis. Genghis Khan had a son called Chagatai. Jubal Khan is derived from Jubulai Khan, Genghis' grandson. It's all Mongolian in origin lol
I think the Emperor sacrificing "something" for power from the Chaos Gods on Molech is inspired by Odin sacrificing an eye to gain wisdom from Mimir's Well
The amount of references to Thelema in 40k is awesome. Taking the unicursal hexagram and calling it the sigil for the 6 wings for the dark angels so you can promulgate the law is a stroke of genius
I read once that a Colchis was a twisted place where Babylonian priests would sacrifice and perform rituals on kids. Babylon was in the Middle East, so I think it’s pretty safe to assume that’s where they were going with it when they named Lorgar’s planet that, but also it being a reference to the Golden Fleece is very interesting and cool.
Now then, "Racist Crow Drink Hole" is the homeworld for a new chapter of Marines I've been working on - they're basically Australian. Fun coincidence!
I'd have thought Barbarus was more a tip to the Barbary Coast, which was a pirate haven in the 16th - 19th centuries and something of a centre for the slave trade. Particularly because the Barbary states were only loosely unified and warred amongst themselves as much as they did other people.
Re: "Macragge", it's more my own headcanon than anything but, with Scottish surnames where the "name" portion starts with a 'K' or 'G' sound the "Mc" patronymic marker is often pronounced more like a "Ma" for clarity and because Gaelic languages love elision(McGregor's a good example), and Cragg is a scots-gaelic word for mountain/cliff(it's also in english as crag of course, and the name Craig), and of course Rouboute is a french version of "Robert"(famously in "Robert the Bruce"), AND Scotland and France had a long history of alliance leading to French names often popping up in Medieval Scotland, so I always figured "Macragge" was supposed to be, like, Space-Scotland, with the Roman feel of the Ultramarines being 1)a reference to Roman influences in north britain ala Hadrian's Wall, and 2)the significant technological and military role of scots in English imperialism.
And an interesting addition to THAT, which just occurred to me editing this for probably the tenth time; a minority camp in Arthurian scholarship has long argued for Arthur's inspiration coming from Northern Britain and the Romano-gaelic societies of what would become the northern marches(York, North Umbria, etc), rather than locating him in southern Wales and England. Idk how aware of that very obscure academic debate the GW staff could be, and Guilliman's arthurian references are pretty slim(mostly just the Returning King and Good King/Golden Age motifs), but I figured I'd mention it.
Excellent video, nicely done! I recommend it to be a series, interchagable with other material, in which you will spot the literary origins of Chapter homeworlds, IG regiments homeworlds, Forge worlds etc, and then character names (e.g. we all know that Mag Uruk Thraka is a reference to Margaret Thatcher) etc perhaps a 15. min video once a month. I would definetely watch that!
I did not know about the Yeats vs Crowley duel. Incredible stuff 10/10
God I love the Yeats Crowley mage battle much.
This channel really is amazing. I love it!
5:56
Lightning bolt!
Lighting bolt!
Lighting bolt!
This was lovely, very interesting to learn about the origin of these planet names.
Maybe necron planets can be talked about in a future video.
"MUNDUS PLANUS!"
"STOP THAT, BAD JOKE!"
The Council of Nicaea is also where St.Nick punched Arius in the face! Whole new meaning to the phrase “deck the halls”
I'm interested to find out if Catachan has some clever story behind it or if it just sounded cool.
Another fun note on Nuceria: not only was it a neighbor of Pompeii, but they actually had a… sports rivalry, I guess you’d call it. Basically, during a gladiator fight a riot broke out between citizens of the two cities, which was so violent that the emperor Nero banned them from holding gladiatorial games for a decade.
It was also raided by Spartacus, like others said. Spartacus’ uprising started in Capua, which is close to Nuceria, and he and his liberated gladiators actually hid out on Mt. Vesuvius for a time (before its whole bury-everything-in-volcanic-ash phase).
Fun fact molloch is supposedly the figure famous people and world leaders perform theatrical rituals in front of at bohemian grove. Horus and the lodges makes a lot of sense when you consider that angle
With the word-bearers, I'd recommend a deep-dive into Blake's 'Books of Urizen'. For it is no coïncidence that 'The Urizen' has become his title, and - in retrospect - the overall story even mirrors the 40k universe at large: (also note the mention of book, and chains)
'(Urizen) believes himself holy and he sets about establishing various sins in a book of brass that serves as a combination of various laws as discovered by Newton, given to Moses, and the general concept of deism, which force uniformity upon mankind. The rest of the Eternals in turn become indignant at Urizen turning against eternity, and they instill these essences of sin within Urizen's creation.' (...) In terms of Blake's Orc cycle, Urizen serves as a Satanic force similar to Milton's Satan. (...) Within the early works, Urizen represents the chains of reason that are imposed on the mind. Urizen, like mankind, is bound by these chains.[6] Additionally, these works describe how Newtonian reason and the enlightenment view of the universe traps the imagination. The poems emphasize an evolutionary development within the universe, and this early version of a "survival of the fittest" universe is connected to a fallen world of tyranny and murder.
You say “obviously” but thanks to you I’m now 45 years old and only now wrestling with this earthshaking and mind blowing reality where magic isn’t really real.
Another well researched and cleverly delivered video. We don't deserve Arbitor Ian
Good video, just FYI Ultramar was the name for the collective crusader states which was in the east. Only other one was to potentially to include Terra.
Outremer! Which is the same thing in old French - beyond the sea.
@@ArbitorIan PS love the good work & keep it up. Just FYI, please feel free to validate this with Dan Abnett but Horus Rising esp the Interex are in the sabbat worlds. Reason why is I was able to ask Dan this question at a Blacklibrary event as I had notice that one of the characters who is a native tribesmen has a crossbow that fires laser bolts & the interex have the same. He said yes it was a clue that they are in the same part of the galaxy. The other is clue he mentioned was the Sangulinary Worlds (though I don't know the connection he was implying here) is this where the blood angels battled (planet of murder). I have also wondered after this conversation whether the planet Murder is Tanitt as both have psychic trees (but that is a guess).
You might consider going through the Ciaphas Cain novels for planet name Easter eggs. They always make me snicker.
Gilden's star is such a dumb pun I love it
THATS WHY ITS MY FAVOURITE! So stupid
Nice video, also Baal was a System Lord from Stargate.
I thought the "Ultramarines" were in part a gag at the idea of them being "the Ultra Marines", sort of the platonic ideal of marines, and then obviously painted blue, because ultramarine is a kind of blue...
But then I don't know if that was a backwards definition, as of course they were present right from the start, before they became the poster boys of marines, and they weren't even a first founding chapter when first detailed.
fantastic research man! well done!
The name Chogori, derived from two Balti words, chhogo ཆོ་གྷའོ་ ("big") and ri རི ' ("mountain") (چھوغوری) has been suggested as a local name for K2
I always figured that Chogoris was basically a joke about the pronunciation of Jaghatai/Chagatai.
Great vid!
Could also look at fortress monasteries.
Another thing about Ultramar is that the Crusader States were sometimes called the Outremer, a French word that is derived from ultra and mare.
I always thought Caliban was a reference to the planet Caladan in Dune.
I thought Nostramo was referencing Nostradamus, who was famous for trying to predict the future
Next video on world names, fancy adding in cadia and istvaan origins if there are any 🤔
There's an Astra Militarum Easter egg video where I cover cadia! Isstvan I couldn't find anything
@@ArbitorIan maybe have to direct a Q&A to black library writers or GW 🤔 see if they can spread the light on their crazy naming for Istvaan