Odin

[Splog]

I’m starting this topic well aware that I may be very late to the party...

 

Leman Russ is Odin.

 

Wait, let me clarify a little. Yes of course he’s Odin right? Or maybe a bit of a Thory-Odin or something. The Space Wolves are Viking themed, he’s their boss, he’s a bit ‘god-like’ compared to mortals, they’ve got the runes thing going on, and in the biggest wink yet the Emperor gives him a spear called Gungir. When people speculate about a 40k Russ, Odin comes up as a theme for his model fairly often. It’s right there out in the open. His closest warriors are called the Einherjar. Games Workshop, lazy hacks, just said Vikings in Spaaaaaaace and sprinkled on some Odin seasoning on top, right?

 

But wait, I mean Russ IS Odin.

 

In creating the primarchs the Emperor did some kind of deal with warp powers. The result are beings that are in some ways (but clearly not all) like daemons. Or linked in some way. I’ll put the details to one side for now, it’s enough to say there is something different about the primarchs’ relationship to the warp compared to joe mortal. Who were the warp powers the Emperor dealt with for the primarch project?

 

Maybe he turned to a known quantity. Maybe he turned to beings that could reflect and be icons from humanity’s culture and history, reflecting their psych in a more positive way than the big four and their avatars would. Maybe he shaped the physical aspects of the primarchs to match.

 

Humans create/shape/feed gods in the warp. The lore includes many daemons and powers, including those that are more benevolent to their mortals than the big four. Look at the Eldar pantheon.

 

Maybe, for Russ, he found Odin. Or sorta made him in some sense. Or some kind of Aesir conglomerate. Wouldn’t you rather have a bargain with Odin than Khorne?

 

The old gods of humanity that we are familiar with wouldn’t be as powerful as the big four powers, but could still be potent. Potent enough to infuse/support/become a primarch.

 

The Emperor is keeping to theme, teasing, or generally having a bit of fun when he makes a spear for Leman called Gungir. He’s making a magic spear for Odin, what else is he going to call it? Of course the Emperor wants Russ to stay on Planet Norse. Wouldn’t you?

 

The underverse scene in Wolfsbane tells us Leman Russ has a different name, his true name. Why not the open secret, Odin?

 

All the primarchs are godlings in a similar way. I’m not sure about Horus’ origin story, but it looks like somehow he pulled through with his real name. And there are obvious links there with him and the god Horus as well. Sanguinius’ angel wings? Not a mistake / random alteration due the scattering. All the heavy foreshadowing about being set up to die?

 

This isn’t anything earth shattering. We’ve kinda known that primarchs are a bit daemony for a long time. But I think the clues are getting a bit heavy now, Russ is some kind of Norse god in a factual sense in-universe. The Emperor got hold of Odin / some Aesir and made himself a primarch.

 

Who are the others?

[Halandaar]

Well, Lukas the Trickster is very obviously a reference to the Norse god Loki; does that mean he too is a bound warp-entity, despite being born millennia after the Emperor's fall? For a less serious example, Doomrider is an overt reference to the cover of Judas Priest's Painkiller album; does that mean the Doomrider is actually just Rob Halford reincarnated by the Chaos Gods in the 41st millenium?

 

A lot of the lore is what it is because in the olden days, GW liked to source real-world cultures as inspiration for their setting; see the entire Warhammer Fantasy map with it's similarity in layout to present day earth and cultures located in the same places. They also liked to make references to popular culture; see Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau, Sly Marbo, the afore mentioned Doomrider and so on.

 

I think trying to retrofit a "sensible" explanation to how many similarities there are between Russ and Odin is essentially the lore equivalent of a backronym. The lore is what it is because Vikings are cool and there is a lot of easily transferable imagery that GW applied to their Space Wolves. I doubt it is much more serious than that.

[OgreOnAStick]

I actually had a similar thought a while back when (briefly) tinkering with a 40k flavoured Fate-series fanfic.

 

The Primarchs are known to be at least partially warp entities (and by that extent, so is the Allfather), so it wouldn't be too surprising if Allfather had yanked warp entities borne out of certain iconic (both real and fictional, or even emotional) characters and used them to form the souls for the primarchs. Eg. Rather than Jaghatai and Conrad Curze being modeled after Genghis Khan and Batman, they are Genghis Khan and Batman made manifest by humanity as thougthforms (see tulpa as a tibetan buddhist term, which were likely to inspire on how daemons are created for 40k). A curious case would be with Alpharius/Omegon who could be the borne out of the emotional investment to conspiracy theories as a concept rather than any specific future history event or individual.

 

On the subject of true names, most Primarchs received their names from their adoptive parents (eg. Leman of the tribe Russ by Thengir of the tribe Russ) rather than from the Allfather. These original names given by the Allfather also seem to have power over the Primarchs as Mortarion found out the painful way in one of the  Kaldor Drago stories.

 

As for the homeworlds of the Primarchs, its (propably) supposed to be a twisted joke on the part of the Chaos Gods to send the Primarchs on worlds echoing their thematic elements. Or just the writers wanting to create a planet of certain varieties of hats as cultural references and themes (creating believable cultures is hard, exporting a real world historical culture and adding a twist, less so). Alternatively, the Primarchs created these worlds as they arrived rather than them being pre-existing before the Primarch's arrival (similar to how a chaos god being born influences both warp and reality to retroactively treat them as always having been there).

[Splog]

Well, Lukas the Trickster is very obviously a reference to the Norse god Loki; does that mean he too is a bound warp-entity, despite being born millennia after the Emperor's fall?

 

Given we have strong reasons to believe the primarchs have some kind of special warp link, and Lukas doesn’t, no.

[Wispy]

Halaandar has the right of it. Lets not mistake creative touch stones a inspirations used to design the setting as literal blueprints and master plans.

[Kasper_Hawser]

A bit off topic, but regarding Lukas, apparently his "wyrd" or fate is being set up by the Harlequins for something big if his novel indicates anything.

 

.... his novel happens to include how he lost his heart to the Dark Eldar Duke Silicus. And apparently, the harlequins subtly made sure the Duke cut out Lukas secondary heart instead of outright killing him. Apparently, they wanted the "absence of it". Which we all know was later replaced with the stasis bomb which was apparently salvaged from a left behind dark Angel wreckage.

 

Crazy story but very entertaining. I just hope whoever Lukas is planned to have his Last Laugh, it'll be something or someone big and permanent. Not just some random chaos lord or hive tyrant.

 

 

Hopefully we'll all be laughing together with Lukas as he breathes his last.

[Halandaar]

 

Well, Lukas the Trickster is very obviously a reference to the Norse god Loki; does that mean he too is a bound warp-entity, despite being born millennia after the Emperor's fall?

 

Given we have strong reasons to believe the primarchs have some kind of special warp link, and Lukas doesn’t, no.

 

Well obviously it's no, but the point I'm making is that both characters are really just overt references to gods in Norse mythology. If Lukas is just a reference, then surely Russ is as well, he's not exempt from it "because warp reasons"

 

And remember, Russ ended up on Fenris because the Chaos gods scattered him there at random. His upbringing (such as it was) and entire culture is derived from the planet he landed on being Norse influenced beforehand, not because of him. Wouldn't it seem improbable that, while doing their best to ruin the Emperor's grand plan, they managed to deposit Odin-Russ on the one world out of billions in the entire galaxy that "matches" him?

[PeteySödes]

 

 

 

 

Well, Lukas the Trickster is very obviously a reference to the Norse god Loki; does that mean he too is a bound warp-entity, despite being born millennia after the Emperor's fall?

Given we have strong reasons to believe the primarchs have some kind of special warp link, and Lukas doesn’t, no.

Well obviously it's no, but the point I'm making is that both characters are really just overt references to gods in Norse mythology. If Lukas is just a reference, then surely Russ is as well, he's not exempt from it "because warp reasons"

 

And remember, Russ ended up on Fenris because the Chaos gods scattered him there at random. His upbringing (such as it was) and entire culture is derived from the planet he landed on being Norse influenced beforehand, not because of him. Wouldn't it seem improbable that, while doing their best to ruin the Emperor's grand plan, they managed to deposit Odin-Russ on the one world out of billions in the entire galaxy that "matches" him?

This idea is discussed a bit in Wolfsbane. No spoilers but it’s pretty interesting and cool.