Sunday Musings - What’s In A Name?
One of my favourite things in this somewhat silly hobby of ours is the in-jokes and references that hide within the Grimdark settings. A little legivity to balance out the relentless dark tones. After all, Warhammer can be quite funny, and early 40k and Warhammer Fantasy Battle go hard in being quite silly in between the world shattering bleakness. Nothing speaks to this better than some of the names that float around in 40k.
Some are basic references, Kharn is arabic for Betrayer*, whilst Asmodai, Azazel, and Sammael are all fallen angels taken from the Bible. Konrad Curze takes his name from the protagonist in Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', a charcter killed in the movie adaption by Martin Sheen. In 40k, Curze is killed by M'shen. Jaghatai Khan was one of Ghenghis' sons. My favourite and possibly least subtle is the Raven Guard: Corax, Corvane and Korvydae (meaning raven), Shrike (well a shrike), and Corax's final words being 'Nevermore' . But, I digress. Let us look at the puns.
Sly Marbo
Where else would I start? Marbo is the Catachan Jungle Fighter who mugs the names of Sylvetser “Sly” Stallon and one of his first film characters in Rambo. Beyond the joke however, Marbo is described as the broken man who is unable to live anything other than the destructive life he leads, as is his namesake from the First Blood book and film**
Inquisitor Fyodor Karamazov
The Brothers Karamzov was written by Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1880, and treads into themes of faith, free-will and blind loyality. It describes our favourite chair riding Inquisitor perfectly, being a righteous puritanical fire that burns all he judges as unworthy.
Kruellagh The Vile
This one hurts….but in a good way. A Drukhari thrives on the pain of others, so the most groan-worthy painful pun on this list deserves to be part of that dark cabal of aliens. Why a 101 Dalmations refrences needed to exist in 40k is anyone’s guess, but its just so much fun I cannot help but admire it. It helps that Kruellagh is always painted wearing red, much like her puppy skinning namesake.
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
It’s never been completely confirmed, but it’s been hinted at that the biggest, meanest and unkillable Thraka is a play on former Prime Minister and Milk-snatcher Margaret Thatcher. The timelines fit, and knowing as we do the levels of playing around the studio team of that time did***, I put this firmly in the “true” pile.
Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Cloisseau
Sometimes a refrence can be subtle. Sometimes it can be unsubtle. Sometimes we need a third term for things less subtle than that.
Illiyan Natase
throwaway joke in the first Rogue Trader book, and for reasons truly beyond me, a reference to Romanian Tennis World Champion Illie Nastase. Sometimes you may wonder why and how there’s never been a court case.
Sancrus Astrid Xeneca
A more recent entry, Astrid made her only appearance in the 8th ed Genestealer Cults codex, and is something of a on-topic refence given the last few years. It helps not a jot that Astrid is a needle-flinging poisoner.
Trazyn The Infinite
I could have mentioned Imotekh, named from Imhotep obviously, but Trazyn takes the biscuit for a reference that is there because it sounds great*** . Tracing The Infinite is a book of poetry often used as a gateway into the more contemporary genre.
That’s it for this week, is there any others that you enjoy or think I should have mentioned? Please let me know on the various social media platforms, or in the comments below.
As always, I remain,
Adam
From stuff like Trazyn the Infinite ("Tracing the Infinite", a book of poetry) and Imotekh (Imhotep - Tuthankhamun's architect IRL, and more importantly, the titular Mummy from Universal's 1930 film of the same name and the updated Stephen Sommers version), they just seem to be sticking in a whole lot more punny names than they used to; it's a bit like back in 1st ed.
*Betrayer the Betrayer. Lake Lake strikes once more.
**A far better film than it gets credit for nowadays. Less an action movie and more a diary of a broken mind sliding into animalist behaviours
***and political leanings
****this reminds me of the old He Man story where, due to mishearing something, the character Men-E-Faces almost had the bio of being an “Attourney and Actor” rather than an “Eternian Actor”. Very different character there.