My opinion is that they base it off of Roman govt., the Spanish inquistion, and WWII armies, then throw in the SM for the hell of it.
Forger of Civilization
Last I heard, none of those institutions controlled interstellar empires.
The roman link is possible, with Marines as Praetorians perhaps, but if they wanted us to make that association they would have given us some hints through architecture, armour design. The only link I can see is that it's militaristic, and has an emperor.
The Spanish Inquisition (there were actually similar inquisitions across much of medieval europe) seems to me a less likely basis for the 40k inquisition than the witch hunters of later protestant England.
The WW2 armies is presumably the Imperial guard, but Cadians remind me more of 'Starship Troopers' grunts. The only guard units which seem to make any historical reference in their appearance are the Death Korps (WW1 German), and the now scrapped Praetorians (19th Century British.)
Lots of the official fluff is unoriginal, yes, but I don't think it's based on any one particular source or historical time period. I'd say its a little more complex than that, since many unoriginal strands have been drawn together to create a somewhat bizarre melding of ideas.
And yeah, that's probably the most original thing we can hope for nowadays.
The roman link is possible, with Marines as Praetorians perhaps, but if they wanted us to make that association they would have given us some hints through architecture, armour design. The only link I can see is that it's militaristic, and has an emperor.
The Spanish Inquisition (there were actually similar inquisitions across much of medieval europe) seems to me a less likely basis for the 40k inquisition than the witch hunters of later protestant England.
The WW2 armies is presumably the Imperial guard, but Cadians remind me more of 'Starship Troopers' grunts. The only guard units which seem to make any historical reference in their appearance are the Death Korps (WW1 German), and the now scrapped Praetorians (19th Century British.)
Lots of the official fluff is unoriginal, yes, but I don't think it's based on any one particular source or historical time period. I'd say its a little more complex than that, since many unoriginal strands have been drawn together to create a somewhat bizarre melding of ideas.
And yeah, that's probably the most original thing we can hope for nowadays.
Vahallens- Russia
Tallerns- Arabs
SW- Vikings
Catachans- Veitnam USA
Blood angels- Aztecs (the blood thing)
Ultra Marines- more like starship troopers
Cadians are more like America WWII
Architecture is Gothic
The Spanish Inquistion thing is to kill or torture anybody who doesn't firmly believe in god
(emperor)
Tallerns- Arabs
SW- Vikings
Catachans- Veitnam USA
Blood angels- Aztecs (the blood thing)
Ultra Marines- more like starship troopers
Cadians are more like America WWII
Architecture is Gothic
The Spanish Inquistion thing is to kill or torture anybody who doesn't firmly believe in god
(emperor)
Actually the space marines in general are parodies of Knightly orders. Some Chapters have there own theme but in general they are like the Knights templar of the medieval period. I think its obvious given the whole praying thing they do alot and the term "chapter" is taken from the term for sects of some kinds of religions which are referred to in that way.
Okay, I disagree with most of those, but since I don't want to post about each one, I'll just make a simple point.
Lets say I made an 'original' sci fi setting, with abseloutely no basis in the real world, or in history. Would it sell? No, it wouldn't, because noone could relate to it. The characters, the storyline and the technology wouldn't make any sense to us whatsoever.
For example, imagine if space marine armour didn't look like updated knights armour. Let's say it looked like.. a large spherical blob. Noone's ever done that before, and besides, in the future changing technology might mean that armour of the future really does look like a giant blob which rolls around the battlefield. But then, would you want to buy the game?
Blending a lot of different setting elements together is not unoriginality, especially not if you can add a few minor points of your own to the mix, and the 40k universe does, very, very occasionally, do that. If I had to read a thousand page book of fluff to discover why the characters even think like they do, let alone why the armour in a setting is shaped like a spherical blob, I wouldn't bother, I'd go and do something else instead.
You were asking if the -Imperium- was original.
No, a lot of the other races are very unoriginal. Two at least are just rips from warhammer fantasy, which is in itself a rip from Tolkien. Tyranids are an expansion on the old genestealers, which were likely based on 'alien,' and Tau are kind of 'typical-greys meets-giant-robot-anime.' Necrons are kind of interesting, they're egyptian robots, but they have a strange lovecraftian horror thing going on as well.
Again though, a lot of the good ideas get reused a lot. I would even be tempted to illustrate the unsellability of an original concept by using the giant blob reference again, but, oops, it's already been done.
Making aliens alien is very, very difficult. Believe me, I've tried to write sci-fi short stories myself. I tend to accept that you can't expect originality, only the same old stuff with a, hopefully, original twist on it. To the credit of GW, they do try to do that. Don't always succeed maybe, but they do try.
Ask GW, they will openly admit to using other sources. To quote from an Inferno writing guide I got about four years ago:
"Behind most GW troop types is a powerful archetype.
For example, the Space Wolves are basically Vikings in space."
They base them around other concepts and add in their own little tweaks to things.
If you want something approaching a definitive list (which is just my own take on them)
Cadians - Starship Troopers
Catachans - American Vietnam
Black Templars - Knights Templar
Blood Angels - Vampires
Space Wolves - Vikings
Ultramarines - Romans
Tyranids - generic aliens
Necrons - Khemri, Egyptian undead
Orks - Orcs
Eldar - Elves
Adeptus Mechanicus - Monks
That's as much as I can think of at the moment. But who cares if it's not original? It works within its own frame of reference.
"Behind most GW troop types is a powerful archetype.
For example, the Space Wolves are basically Vikings in space."
They base them around other concepts and add in their own little tweaks to things.
If you want something approaching a definitive list (which is just my own take on them)
Cadians - Starship Troopers
Catachans - American Vietnam
Black Templars - Knights Templar
Blood Angels - Vampires
Space Wolves - Vikings
Ultramarines - Romans
Tyranids - generic aliens
Necrons - Khemri, Egyptian undead
Orks - Orcs
Eldar - Elves
Adeptus Mechanicus - Monks
That's as much as I can think of at the moment. But who cares if it's not original? It works within its own frame of reference.
Here's what I'd change on that list.
Necrons - Yeah, slightly egyptian. But there's so much stuff mixed in there. The technology is truly alien, kinda like the mysterious slab in 2001, and the C'tan are superficially vampires, but are more like unfathomable alien beings (hence my lovecraft reference.)
Ultramarines - I think they're just a fairly generic example of the space marines in their more 'elite hi-tech warriors' aspect, rather than the pseudo-mystical order thing of the knightly order chapters.
Black Templars - True, but their colour scheme and brutality is more Teutonic Knights.
Adeptus Mechanicus - Bad reference, since they were invented before the Dark Project, but they remind me of Hammerites/Mechanists from the 'Thief' series of games. Religion is part of it, but the scientific/technical side is equally prominent.
Often the imagery of the models is contrasted with the fluff, I think. Therefore, it's dangerous to make assumptions. Here are some examples of that.
Valhalans - Russians, superficially, but where did the Priests come from? At the time those kinds of uniforms were worn, the Russian army wouldn't have allowed priests. If it was based on the Russian army, they shouldn't have the religious element.
Death Korps - I love the look of these guys. The World War 1 German uniforms are so cool, however, the Korps themselves are nothing like World War 1 Germans, they're more like the nasty, gas mask wearing wearing Doctor Who villains whose name I can't remember since I loathe that series. That, and the crazy penitence thing has no place at all if they were going for WW1 Germany.
Catachans - Fluffwise, they're more like the organized vietnamese tribes the Americans fought against. In that they're not just troops trained for jungle fighting, they were born and bred in the jungle.
There are many others.. It's not always as obvious as it looks.
Necrons - Yeah, slightly egyptian. But there's so much stuff mixed in there. The technology is truly alien, kinda like the mysterious slab in 2001, and the C'tan are superficially vampires, but are more like unfathomable alien beings (hence my lovecraft reference.)
Ultramarines - I think they're just a fairly generic example of the space marines in their more 'elite hi-tech warriors' aspect, rather than the pseudo-mystical order thing of the knightly order chapters.
Black Templars - True, but their colour scheme and brutality is more Teutonic Knights.
Adeptus Mechanicus - Bad reference, since they were invented before the Dark Project, but they remind me of Hammerites/Mechanists from the 'Thief' series of games. Religion is part of it, but the scientific/technical side is equally prominent.
Often the imagery of the models is contrasted with the fluff, I think. Therefore, it's dangerous to make assumptions. Here are some examples of that.
Valhalans - Russians, superficially, but where did the Priests come from? At the time those kinds of uniforms were worn, the Russian army wouldn't have allowed priests. If it was based on the Russian army, they shouldn't have the religious element.
Death Korps - I love the look of these guys. The World War 1 German uniforms are so cool, however, the Korps themselves are nothing like World War 1 Germans, they're more like the nasty, gas mask wearing wearing Doctor Who villains whose name I can't remember since I loathe that series. That, and the crazy penitence thing has no place at all if they were going for WW1 Germany.
Catachans - Fluffwise, they're more like the organized vietnamese tribes the Americans fought against. In that they're not just troops trained for jungle fighting, they were born and bred in the jungle.
There are many others.. It's not always as obvious as it looks.
You're not listening. It's really not that simple.
Sly Malbro is clearly based on American action movie heroes, like Rambo.
The appearance of the Catachans is also based on Rambo, and the on US troops in Vietnam.
But Catachans are nothing like either of these things. They are a tribal society who live, not just fight, in the jungle. U.S. troops hated fighting in the jungle, Catachans love it, and not because they've been trained for it (like Rambo), but because it's their home. This brings in completely different ideas.
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