Lore YouTube Channels

[roryokane]

So, as someone whose Zen is basically assembling dozens of  Firstborn marines and their accoutrements whilst listening to Youtube and lining them up unpainted on my shelves , I wondered if anyone else had a good lore youtuber they liked. I couldn't find a thread like this when I searched (at least nothing with Youtube in the title), and I thought I'd give it a go.

My two go-tos are Oculus Imperia and Luetin 09. I really, REALLY like Oculus' in universe perspective (he's styling himself as a member of Guilliman's Logos Historica Verita) and Luetin's content is really broad and offers more "out of universe" context.
Anyone else got any go-tos - ideally not AI-generated?

[Lost2Requiem]

Arbiter Ian is pretty good for lore stuff. 
 

(struggling with links on my phone, just search it up on YouTube!)

[Magos Takatus]

I must admit I like the Adeptus Ridiculous podcast. They are pretty meme-y and light hearted and less accurate than some lore channels, but when painting I do prefer to be entertained rather than super-dry deep-dives into the lore.

 

I also like listening to Baldermort's channel as I find his voice soothing. I do listen to more in depth lore channels sometimes but I forget which ones. I think Weshammer crops up in my feed pretty often.

[Kaede45]

I’m quite partial to Weshammer. He’s entertaining & not only does he do a lot of lore deep dives, but he also does readings of 40K horror stories, which I find intriguing. He also does videos about misconceptions & even opinion pieces about certain parts of 40K lore & books.

 

I also watch Majorkill, an Australian YouTuber who is also quite entertaining & does lore deep dives. Fair warning though, he does cuss a lot, but he is also the guy who answers the question of “how do they reproduce” for each race. He’s more bombastic than Weshammer, though I think I prefer Wes over Major in a lot of respects, especially since Wes does his “Grimdark Story Hour” videos with a lot of character.

 

There are others who pop up in my feed of shorts, but I don’t know any of their names.

Edited Friday at 12:25 PM by Kaede45
Name correction

[Sky Potato]

Laying down the Lore is a pretty good podcast. It’s a long term hobbyist explaining 40k to his younger brother and one of his brothers university friends. Also a Warhammer Fantasy version as well.

Originally a podcast, now I believe on YouTube as well. I usually have it on Spotify while commuting.

 

[Evil Eye]

I generally don't bother with lore videos myself (just not my thing, nothing against those that enjoy them) but I seem to recall the almighty DreadAnon (who usually does some very entertaining meme/joke videos) did some collabs with another channel in fluff-discussion sitdown sessions. Alas, I have forgotten who it was.

 

Also, whilst not exactly what you're talking about, Burialgoods has done some readings of snippets of fluff/books and they're fantastic.

[roryokane]

I hadn’t considered podcasts, as they’re not something I really bother with! Anyone else got any recommendations?

[SvenIronhand]

20 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

I generally don't bother with lore videos myself (just not my thing, nothing against those that enjoy them) but I seem to recall the almighty DreadAnon (who usually does some very entertaining meme/joke videos) did some collabs with another channel in fluff-discussion sitdown sessions. Alas, I have forgotten who it was.

 

Probably The Remembrancer, if I had to guess.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

Since I haven’t seen it said yet, wolf lord rho is excellent.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

There's Pio and then there's everyone else.

[roryokane]

8 hours ago, Lord Nord in Gravis Armour said:

There's Pio and then there's everyone else.

I found his outrage at the idea of female custodes a bit disappointing, given that it makes *naff all* difference to the setting (the introductory flavour text was a bit ham fisted, but hey ho). That being said, his other stuff is all right. Been meaning to check out his Badab War video - worth doing in your opinion?

Oculus very much gets my top billing., mind.

[Kenzaburo]

Will also recommend Arbitor Ian - pretty chill guy, a generally good outlook on the hobby and the lore, less "Look at me, I am such a cool youtuber, also here's some lore I've read and misremembered". (sorry, I am just really fed up with the "my time to shine"-cult of personality-culture on youtube nowadays)

[roryokane]

21 hours ago, Kenzaburo said:

Will also recommend Arbitor Ian - pretty chill guy, a generally good outlook on the hobby and the lore, less "Look at me, I am such a cool youtuber, also here's some lore I've read and misremembered". (sorry, I am just really fed up with the "my time to shine"-cult of personality-culture on youtube nowadays)

This is absolutely fair, which is one of the reasons why I like Oculus since his videos are pretty much all delivered from an in-universe perspective (apart from the obligatory patreon message at the end). As someone who consumes a huge amount of left-leaning political content on Youtube, the difference is nice. Plus I can just escape into his playlist on the great crusade, and it's just... great. Pure escapism. His latest video on the Arbites is a bit too close to real life political goings on, so I didn't enjoy that so much (not a bad video, but not escapist enough for me), but other than that he's excellent.

[NovemberIX]

23 hours ago, Kenzaburo said:

..., less "Look at me, I am such a cool youtuber, also here's some lore I've read and misremembered". ...

This is why I won't watch Luetin09, I remember a video on the Imperial Aquila that he did, and had it flipped the whole time, and came up with some nonsense justification why the eye was on the other side. If you can't take 5 minutes to make sure that the logo of the faction you're talking about is right way around, what other nonsense are you gonna get wrong?

[darkhorse0607]

17 minutes ago, NovemberIX said:

This is why I won't watch Luetin09, I remember a video on the Imperial Aquila that he did, and had it flipped the whole time, and came up with some nonsense justification why the eye was on the other side. If you can't take 5 minutes to make sure that the logo of the faction you're talking about is right way around, what other nonsense are you gonna get wrong?

 

I can understand why he has such a massive following but one thing that bugs me is that you can tell when he really doesn't care/like the particular subject he's talking about. Granted that can be said about many, and if you don't like something you don't like something, but his Tau video for example really put me off. I'm not even the biggest Tau fan (they're fine if you can get them away from Phil Kelly) but the amount of times I rolled my eyes during that video at Leutins comments put me off a bit from his channel. Same thing with things like his second Dorn video

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

I can recommend Grimdark Shards (YT channel). Short stories are being read on this one. The one from the Ghoul Stars was pretty good: We Awake.

[Urauloth]

I don't really care for loretube generally, but Ian really knows his stuff and he's a chill guy. Don't think you can go wrong with him.

[Spazmolytic]

I dig Arbitor Ian quite a bit. As other have said his laidback style suites me. I also dig Live! From the Black Library & Inquisitor Romanov. Think they are both relatively new (couple of years) but easy to listen to.  Baldermorts & One Mind Syndicate get the occasional listen as well. 

[Wormwoods]

It's less lore, more... A general history of the game and model lines, but Snipe & Wib are a solid channel. They mix in lore with their breakdowns of armies and codices, and are generally chill. 

[MoriyaSchism]

I don't really watch lore videos. Watching hobby videos saturated my Youtube recommended box with all manner of nonsense that I ended up installing the channel blocker plugin to be free of a lot of this. Stuff like Discourse Miniatures, Arch, Snip & Wib,  Bricky/Adeptus Ridiculous, Arbitrator Ian and so on. That's all blocked from my Youtube front page. I tend to read about the factions I want to learn about. I prefer to watch hobby related videos instead of lore re-hashing so I end up watching stuff like Lich's Laboratory or any channel that does quick and dirty conversion videos. If I had to recommend a lore channel I'd recommend The Pontius/Pio. It's not really lore but Olden Demon is an interesting channel as well. 

 

On 7/14/2025 at 2:34 AM, roryokane said:

That being said, his other stuff is all right. Been meaning to check out his Badab War video - worth doing in your opinion?

It's probably the best Badab War video on the website. The most accurate and concise one in my opinion. His attention to detail is good and I like some of the theory crafting on his channel. 

[roryokane]

1 hour ago, MoriyaSchism said:

I don't really watch lore videos. Watching hobby videos saturated my Youtube recommended box with all manner of nonsense that I ended up installing the channel blocker plugin to be free of a lot of this. Stuff like Discourse Miniatures, Arch, Snip & Wib,  Bricky/Adeptus Ridiculous, Arbitrator Ian and so on. That's all blocked from my Youtube front page. I tend to read about the factions I want to learn about. I prefer to watch hobby related videos instead of lore re-hashing so I end up watching stuff like Lich's Laboratory or any channel that does quick and dirty conversion videos. If I had to recommend a lore channel I'd recommend The Pontius/Pio. It's not really lore but Olden Demon is an interesting channel as well. 

 

It's probably the best Badab War video on the website. The most accurate and concise one in my opinion. His attention to detail is good and I like some of the theory crafting on his channel. 

I’d forgotten about Olden Demon. I watch his stuff for more the meta commentary on the hobby, and the dry humour. His recent Knights video was excellent.

 

I will definitely check out the Badab War video you recommended. I’d heartily recommend Oculus to you again though. If you watch a couple, he has a few stock phrases to describe old night or tech heresy or how bad things are on hive worlds. That can turn into a drinking game if you like! :p